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Social Security number 580-52-5925 was issued to MIGUEL VEGA RIVAS, who was born 07 July 1935 and, Death Master File says, died October 1973. Search Archives for MIGUEL VEGA RIVAS. Social Security number 580-52-5926 was issued to CARMEN DE CARRON, who was born 11 April 1908 and, Death Master File says, died November 1973. Search Archives for CARMEN DE CARRON. Social Security number 580-52-5927 was issued to BENEDICTO ROBLES SIERR, who was born 26 November 1909 and, Death Master File says, died 01 February 2006. Search Archives for BENEDICTO ROBLES SIERR. Social Security number 580-52-5929 was issued to VIRGINIA MELENDEZ, who was born 15 March 1926 and, Death Master File says, died 26 January 2007. Social Security number 580-52-5932 was issued to EFRAINA PABON, who was born 12 January 1920 and, Death Master File says, died 26 September 1996. Search Archives for EFRAINA PABON. Social Security number 580-52-5936 was issued to FELIX FONT, who was born 22 November 1935 and, Death Master File says, died April 1975. Social Security number 580-52-5938 was issued to JULIO GARCIA-JUSIN, who was born 07 February 1931 and, Death Master File says, died December 1985. Search Archives for JULIO GARCIA-JUSIN. Social Security number 580-52-5939 was issued to ELIZABETH ROMERO, who was born 16 September 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 02 March 1999. Search Archives for ELIZABETH ROMERO. Social Security number 580-52-5940 was issued to RAFAEL RIVERA-COLON, who was born 26 May 1936 and, Death Master File says, died March 1984. Social Security number 580-52-5941 was issued to MONSERRATE CARO MORALES, who was born 10 March 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 04 November 2008. Search Archives for MONSERRATE CARO MORALES. Social Security number 580-52-5947 was issued to MIGUEL HERNANDEZ-AP, who was born 13 January 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 26 November 1994. Search Archives for MIGUEL HERNANDEZ-AP. Social Security number 580-52-5949 was issued to PORTALATIN SANTIAGO ROS, who was born 06 May 1898 and, Death Master File says, died March 1985. Search Archives for PORTALATIN SANTIAGO ROS. Social Security number 580-52-5952 was issued to ROSA M GARCIA, who was born 30 August 1919 and, Death Master File says, died 29 October 2002. Social Security number 580-52-5954 was issued to CARMEN SANTIAGO, who was born 18 December 1894 and, Death Master File says, died May 1984. Social Security number 580-52-5956 was issued to LIBRADA GUERRA, who was born 12 July 1935 and, Death Master File says, died April 1983. Search Archives for LIBRADA GUERRA. Social Security number 580-52-5957 was issued to JUAN GUERRA-RODRI, who was born 20 May 1910 and, Death Master File says, died May 1985. Search Archives for JUAN GUERRA-RODRI. Social Security number 580-52-5962 was issued to JUAN GAUD, who was born 28 March 1929 and, Death Master File says, died 11 April 2007. Search Archives for JUAN GAUD. Social Security number 580-52-5965 was issued to ELADIO FONSECA ANDI, who was born 23 June 1929 and, Death Master File says, died October 1958. Search Archives for ELADIO FONSECA ANDI. Social Security number 580-52-5969 was issued to ANA M ROSARIO, who was born 02 May 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 04 January 2011. Social Security number 580-52-5972 was issued to SERGIO SANCHEZ-DE-J, who was born 08 October 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 02 February 2001. Search Archives for SERGIO SANCHEZ-DE-J. Social Security number 580-52-5974 was issued to MARIA I CASTRO, who was born 20 April 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 22 August 2010. Social Security number 580-52-5977 was issued to ALMIDA FALCON, who was born 29 May 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 12 April 2008. Search Archives for ALMIDA FALCON. Social Security number 580-52-5980 was issued to S BERRIOS, who was born 30 March 1934 and, Death Master File says, died February 1992. Search Archives for S BERRIOS. Social Security number 580-52-5981 was issued to A CRUZ, who was born 06 July 1933 and, Death Master File says, died 15 March 1994. Social Security number 580-52-5990 was issued to INOCENCIA RIOS-OSORIO, who was born 28 December 1912 and, Death Master File says, died November 1977. Search Archives for INOCENCIA RIOS-OSORIO. Social Security number 580-52-5991 was issued to JUAN GARCIA RIVER, who was born 17 June 1888 and, Death Master File says, died December 1973. Search Archives for JUAN GARCIA RIVER. Social Security number 580-52-5994 was issued to MANUEL RIOS, who was born 01 July 1894 and, Death Master File says, died February 1986. Social Security number 580-52-5995 was issued to JUAN CRUZ-GARCIA, who was born 07 June 1916 and, Death Master File says, died June 1975. Social Security number 580-52-6000 was issued to AUREA RODRIQUEZ-AL, who was born 08 June 1926 and, Death Master File says, died 04 July 1991. Search Archives for AUREA RODRIQUEZ-AL. Social Security number 580-52-6001 was issued to AGUSTIN RIVERA-ROMER, who was born 06 April 1937 and, Death Master File says, died April 1975. Social Security number 580-52-6006 was issued to GRACIANO COLON PEREZ, who was born 15 December 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 15 August 2003. Search Archives for GRACIANO COLON PEREZ. Social Security number 580-52-6010 was issued to CARMELO MARTINEZ, who was born 08 January 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 07 September 2007. Social Security number 580-52-6011 was issued to CARMEN PRATS-DEASTO, who was born 23 August 1939 and, Death Master File says, died February 1973. Search Archives for CARMEN PRATS-DEASTO. Social Security number 580-52-6013 was issued to ANTONIO F FERNANDEZ VA, who was born 04 June 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 12 October 2009. Search Archives for ANTONIO FERNANDEZ VA. Social Security number 580-52-6014 was issued to JOSE R SOTO, who was born 10 December 1904 and, Death Master File says, died 16 February 1998. Social Security number 580-52-6018 was issued to JOSEFINA OSORIO, who was born 19 March 1883 and, Death Master File says, died November 1983. Social Security number 580-52-6023 was issued to MIGUEL A BONILLA, who was born 06 November 1922 and, Death Master File says, died 30 May 1992. Social Security number 580-52-6026 was issued to TERESA D RESTO, who was born 11 November 1927 and, Death Master File says, died 09 August 2004. Search Archives for TERESA RESTO. Social Security number 580-52-6030 was issued to ENEIDA GARCIA, who was born 07 March 1930 and, Death Master File says, died 01 September 1996. Search Archives for ENEIDA GARCIA. Social Security number 580-52-6032 was issued to AGNES BROOKES, who was born 17 November 1899 and, Death Master File says, died November 1981. Search Archives for AGNES BROOKES. Social Security number 580-52-6034 was issued to RAMON SANTIAGO RIV, who was born 26 March 1881 and, Death Master File says, died March 1972. Social Security number 580-52-6035 was issued to EDUARDO CINTRON RIVE, who was born 13 October 1900 and, Death Master File says, died 12 January 1993. Search Archives for EDUARDO CINTRON RIVE. Social Security number 580-52-6041 was issued to MARIA M PEREZ, who was born 21 June 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 02 April 1999. Social Security number 580-52-6042 was issued to MERCEDES ROSA-DE-LA-R, who was born 25 May 1931 and, Death Master File says, died 20 February 2000. Search Archives for MERCEDES ROSA-DE-LA-R. Social Security number 580-52-6044 was issued to CELIA TORRES RIOS, who was born 13 September 1907 and, Death Master File says, died May 1987. Search Archives for CELIA TORRES RIOS. Social Security number 580-52-6046 was issued to ARTURO SOLA, who was born 16 July 1895 and, Death Master File says, died March 1970. Search Archives for ARTURO SOLA. Social Security number 580-52-6052 was issued to RAMON LA SANTA LOP, who was born 18 September 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 12 October 1998. Search Archives for RAMON LA SANTA LOP. Social Security number 580-52-6055 was issued to RAFAEL FERNANDEZ CO, who was born 02 March 1891 and, Death Master File says, died April 1975. Social Security number 580-52-6061 was issued to ISABELINO GARCED-NIEVE, who was born 13 July 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 19 April 1992. Search Archives for ISABELINO GARCED-NIEVE. Social Security number 580-52-6063 was issued to VICTOR M CAMACHO, who was born 16 October 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 21 September 2004. Social Security number 580-52-6064 was issued to ROBERTO SANTANA, who was born 29 March 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 21 November 2011. Social Security number 580-52-6067 was issued to PEDRO MACHADO, who was born 12 April 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 11 February 2000. Social Security number 580-52-6072 was issued to JOSEFINA RIVERA, who was born 04 April 1921 and, Death Master File says, died June 1986. Social Security number 580-52-6074 was issued to PEDRO CARMONA LOPE, who was born 29 April 1905 and, Death Master File says, died 28 November 1990. Search Archives for PEDRO CARMONA LOPE. Social Security number 580-52-6081 was issued to JUANA VILLALOBOS, who was born 10 September 1932 and, Death Master File says, died 21 August 2009. Search Archives for JUANA VILLALOBOS. Social Security number 580-52-6085 was issued to DALISDAD GARCIA, who was born 27 June 1936 and, Death Master File says, died March 1977. Search Archives for DALISDAD GARCIA. Social Security number 580-52-6086 was issued to ANGEL AGOSTO, who was born 16 August 1930 and, Death Master File says, died 15 November 2008. Search Archives for ANGEL AGOSTO. Social Security number 580-52-6087 was issued to JOSE CANALES GUER, who was born 17 November 1926 and, Death Master File says, died 07 July 2009. Search Archives for JOSE CANALES GUER. Social Security number 580-52-6089 was issued to EMILIO MONGE RIOS, who was born 28 May 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 22 November 2003. Search Archives for EMILIO MONGE RIOS. Social Security number 580-52-6094 was issued to JULIA RODRIGUEZ-CO, who was born 15 January 1909 and, Death Master File says, died 17 October 1992. Search Archives for JULIA RODRIGUEZ-CO. Social Security number 580-52-6099 was issued to OTILES RODRIGUEZ, who was born 11 July 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 05 November 1992. Search Archives for OTILES RODRIGUEZ. Social Security number 580-52-6101 was issued to PABLO RIOS-MOLINA, who was born 22 July 1922 and, Death Master File says, died September 1985. Search Archives for PABLO RIOS-MOLINA. Social Security number 580-52-6105 was issued to ARMANDO ORTIZ, who was born 08 June 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 24 November 1996. Social Security number 580-52-6107 was issued to MIGUEL REYES-NUNEZ, who was born 19 November 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 01 January 1987. Search Archives for MIGUEL REYES-NUNEZ. Social Security number 580-52-6111 was issued to SAMUEL BERMUDEZ, who was born 24 September 1932 and, Death Master File says, died 11 July 2003. Search Archives for SAMUEL BERMUDEZ. Social Security number 580-52-6113 was issued to CEFERINO CORRALIZA-RI, who was born 16 February 1933 and, Death Master File says, died 11 January 2001. Search Archives for CEFERINO CORRALIZA-RI. Social Security number 580-52-6115 was issued to JOSE M BERRIOS CRUZ, who was born 30 December 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 27 June 2010. Search Archives for JOSE BERRIOS CRUZ. Social Security number 580-52-6116 was issued to J L PANIAGUA, who was born 02 January 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 15 October 1990. Social Security number 580-52-6117 was issued to RICARDO QUIXANO, who was born 04 June 1886 and, Death Master File says, died August 1968. Search Archives for RICARDO QUIXANO. Social Security number 580-52-6119 was issued to GILBERTO PIZARRO, who was born 04 February 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 02 May 2008. Search Archives for GILBERTO PIZARRO. Social Security number 580-52-6120 was issued to JUAN PAGAN, who was born 05 November 1934 and, Death Master File says, died 15 May 2000. Social Security number 580-52-6121 was issued to PABLO ORTIZ, who was born 22 June 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 21 May 2005. Social Security number 580-52-6125 was issued to EMILIANO DE-JESUS-ROB, who was born 15 July 1920 and, Death Master File says, died 15 August 1994. Search Archives for EMILIANO DE-JESUS-ROB. Social Security number 580-52-6127 was issued to DOMINGO OPIO, who was born 04 August 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 13 November 1993. Search Archives for DOMINGO OPIO. Social Security number 580-52-6129 was issued to VICTOR M SANCHEZ, who was born 27 August 1939 and, Death Master File says, died 05 April 2008. Social Security number 580-52-6130 was issued to FERNANDO C PEREZ, who was born 01 July 1923 and, Death Master File says, died 12 March 2004. Social Security number 580-52-6131 was issued to FRANCISCA VAZQUEZ, who was born 17 February 1913 and, Death Master File says, died 06 January 1996. Social Security number 580-52-6135 was issued to MERIDA MAYSONET SEP, who was born 25 April 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 14 February 2001. Search Archives for MERIDA MAYSONET SEP. Social Security number 580-52-6138 was issued to MIGUEL AYALA, who was born 16 January 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 24 December 2009. Social Security number 580-52-6139 was issued to FELICITA ACEVEDO, who was born 20 November 1929 and, Death Master File says, died 16 January 2009. Social Security number 580-52-6140 was issued to JORGE CRESPO-TORRE, who was born 25 February 1936 and, Death Master File says, died July 1984. Search Archives for JORGE CRESPO-TORRE. Social Security number 580-52-6145 was issued to PAQUITA RODRIGUEZ, who was born 04 October 1893 and, Death Master File says, died November 1968. Social Security number 580-52-6147 was issued to JOSE SALDANA, who was born 03 November 1939 and, Death Master File says, died June 1974. Social Security number 580-52-6149 was issued to ENCARNACIO N RODRIGUEZ, who was born 17 June 1916 and, Death Master File says, died 05 February 1990. Social Security number 580-52-6156 was issued to ISAAC NARANJO, who was born 04 June 1939 and, Death Master File says, died 30 July 1992. Search Archives for ISAAC NARANJO. Social Security number 580-52-6160 was issued to WILLIAM VILLEGAS, who was born 23 December 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 05 February 1997. Search Archives for WILLIAM VILLEGAS. Social Security number 580-52-6161 was issued to PEDRO TORRES, who was born 19 November 1930 and, Death Master File says, died 26 January 2007. Social Security number 580-52-6164 was issued to VICTOR RIVERA MEDIN, who was born 09 September 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 14 October 2001. Search Archives for VICTOR RIVERA MEDIN. Social Security number 580-52-6170 was issued to JUAN PAGAN ROSARI, who was born 20 December 1902 and, Death Master File says, died April 1965. Search Archives for JUAN PAGAN ROSARI. Social Security number 580-52-6171 was issued to LUIS A SALDANA-COLO, who was born 20 September 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 31 January 1993. Search Archives for LUIS SALDANA-COLO. Social Security number 580-52-6172 was issued to MIGUEL A FIGUEROA, who was born 10 October 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 11 December 2002. Social Security number 580-52-6175 was issued to JUAN SANTANA, who was born 13 December 1937 and, Death Master File says, died December 1977. Social Security number 580-52-6176 was issued to ANDREA GONZALEZ, who was born 04 February 1922 and, Death Master File says, died August 1977. Social Security number 580-52-6180 was issued to LUCIA TORRES-COLON, who was born 25 September 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 27 August 1999. Search Archives for LUCIA TORRES-COLON. Social Security number 580-52-6183 was issued to BLANCA Z DIAZ DIAZ, who was born 28 August 1939 and, Death Master File says, died 23 January 2011. Search Archives for BLANCA DIAZ DIAZ. Social Security number 580-52-6186 was issued to CLARIVEL RODRIGUEZ, who was born 08 July 1934 and, Death Master File says, died 29 September 2008. Search Archives for CLARIVEL RODRIGUEZ. Social Security number 580-52-6192 was issued to FELIX A MONSERRATE, who was born 04 March 1939 and, Death Master File says, died 24 September 2006. Social Security number 580-52-6206 was issued to MATILDE SERRANO, who was born 15 January 1908 and, Death Master File says, died 08 July 2004. Search Archives for MATILDE SERRANO. Social Security number 580-52-6208 was issued to RUBEN ALVEZ RODRIG, who was born 30 July 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 26 February 1999. Search Archives for RUBEN ALVEZ RODRIG. Social Security number 580-52-6213 was issued to JOSE M BORGOS, who was born 04 October 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 12 July 2002. Search Archives for JOSE BORGOS. Social Security number 580-52-6215 was issued to JOSEFINA RIVERA, who was born 06 February 1916 and, Death Master File says, died 09 December 1992. Social Security number 580-52-6216 was issued to PETRA GUADALUPE, who was born 13 June 1934 and, Death Master File says, died 20 January 2003. Social Security number 580-52-6218 was issued to PAULINO CANALES, who was born 18 December 1917 and, Death Master File says, died 01 January 1991. Search Archives for PAULINO CANALES. Social Security number 580-52-6220 was issued to DOMINGO SANCHEZ, who was born 15 January 1929 and, Death Master File says, died 17 August 1996. Social Security number 580-52-6222 was issued to FIDEL ALVAREZ ALVA, who was born 02 June 1882 and, Death Master File says, died April 1969. Search Archives for FIDEL ALVAREZ ALVA. Social Security number 580-52-6224 was issued to AQUILINO ORTIZ-DONES, who was born 26 March 1935 and, Death Master File says, died February 1980. Search Archives for AQUILINO ORTIZ-DONES. Social Security number 580-52-6231 was issued to MIGUEL A RIVERA, who was born 28 December 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 30 November 2006. Social Security number 580-52-6239 was issued to RAFAEL A LIZARDI LIZA, who was born 03 April 1934 and, Death Master File says, died 30 October 2011. Search Archives for RAFAEL LIZARDI LIZA. Social Security number 580-52-6241 was issued to FELIPE PAGAN CANCEL, who was born 01 July 1899 and, Death Master File says, died August 1983. Search Archives for FELIPE PAGAN CANCEL. Social Security number 580-52-6251 was issued to JUAN TIRADO, who was born 28 July 1896 and, Death Master File says, died June 1987. Social Security number 580-52-6254 was issued to JOSE ARROYO SANCH, who was born 25 July 1897 and, Death Master File says, died September 1986. Social Security number 580-52-6258 was issued to VICTORINO PEREZ-VEGA, who was born 06 March 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 09 October 1988. Search Archives for VICTORINO PEREZ-VEGA. Social Security number 580-52-6259 was issued to DIGNA E CARMONA, who was born 27 June 1924 and, Death Master File says, died 17 March 2006. Search Archives for DIGNA CARMONA. Social Security number 580-52-6261 was issued to MERCIADER MONTALBAN, who was born 18 June 1936 and, Death Master File says, died November 1992. Search Archives for MERCIADER MONTALBAN. Social Security number 580-52-6263 was issued to GENOVEVA PINERO, who was born 03 January 1931 and, Death Master File says, died 17 March 2005. Search Archives for GENOVEVA PINERO. Social Security number 580-52-6265 was issued to LUZ M SANTIAGO-DE-, who was born 04 April 1920 and, Death Master File says, died 29 December 2002. Search Archives for LUZ SANTIAGO-DE-. Social Security number 580-52-6268 was issued to LAZARO ESCRIBANO, who was born 10 July 1909 and, Death Master File says, died April 1986. Search Archives for LAZARO ESCRIBANO. Social Security number 580-52-6269 was issued to AGUSTIN GOMEZ-ORTIZ, who was born 05 May 1908 and, Death Master File says, died 21 December 2003. Search Archives for AGUSTIN GOMEZ-ORTIZ. Social Security number 580-52-6272 was issued to RAMON BERRIOS CRUZ, who was born 04 March 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 29 July 2011. Search Archives for RAMON BERRIOS CRUZ. Social Security number 580-52-6273 was issued to CESAR A RIOS MELLADO, who was born 08 June 1928 and, Death Master File says, died 03 August 2005. Search Archives for CESAR RIOS MELLADO. Social Security number 580-52-6276 was issued to LEONARDO SANTANA, who was born 02 December 1895 and, Death Master File says, died May 1963. Search Archives for LEONARDO SANTANA. Social Security number 580-52-6277 was issued to VICENTE ROMAN VELAZQ, who was born 12 August 1902 and, Death Master File says, died December 1968. Search Archives for VICENTE ROMAN VELAZQ. Social Security number 580-52-6281 was issued to ANGELINA GUZMAN, who was born 09 August 1907 and, Death Master File says, died July 1985. Search Archives for ANGELINA GUZMAN. Social Security number 580-52-6282 was issued to HECTOR RAMIREZ SANT, who was born 13 April 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 27 April 2010. Search Archives for HECTOR RAMIREZ SANT. Social Security number 580-52-6283 was issued to JOSE AGUILAR CEBA, who was born 27 July 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 04 April 2010. Search Archives for JOSE AGUILAR CEBA. Social Security number 580-52-6287 was issued to GUADALUPE OTERO VEGA, who was born 12 December 1930 and, Death Master File says, died 14 June 2009. Search Archives for GUADALUPE OTERO VEGA. Social Security number 580-52-6289 was issued to ROQUE MUNOZ TIRADO, who was born 18 August 1881 and, Death Master File says, died February 1978. Search Archives for ROQUE MUNOZ TIRADO. Social Security number 580-52-6290 was issued to EFRAIN DIAZ, who was born 14 February 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 06 April 1997. Social Security number 580-52-6295 was issued to CARMEN PEREZ, who was born 19 May 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 19 April 2010. Social Security number 580-52-6301 was issued to MANUEL RIVERA-MARRE, who was born 16 May 1925 and, Death Master File says, died 17 May 2002. Search Archives for MANUEL RIVERA-MARRE. Social Security number 580-52-6304 was issued to JUAN MONTALVO PAS, who was born 26 August 1903 and, Death Master File says, died June 1977. Search Archives for JUAN MONTALVO PAS. Social Security number 580-52-6308 was issued to CARMEN SANTOS-PRADO, who was born 24 February 1932 and, Death Master File says, died May 1987. Search Archives for CARMEN SANTOS-PRADO. Social Security number 580-52-6315 was issued to RAMONA CORTES-RIVER, who was born 11 April 1926 and, Death Master File says, died 25 March 2007. Search Archives for RAMONA CORTES-RIVER. Social Security number 580-52-6317 was issued to MARIA V TORRES-MARRE, who was born 06 July 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 14 October 2000. Search Archives for MARIA TORRES-MARRE. Social Security number 580-52-6324 was issued to CONCEPCIO FARIA, who was born 27 December 1911 and, Death Master File says, died 18 August 1999. Search Archives for CONCEPCIO FARIA. Social Security number 580-52-6333 was issued to GRACILIANO LAGUERRA, who was born 13 August 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 29 August 2008. Search Archives for GRACILIANO LAGUERRA. Social Security number 580-52-6335 was issued to SANTA NUNEZ, who was born 15 February 1920 and, Death Master File says, died 28 February 1996. Search Archives for SANTA NUNEZ. Social Security number 580-52-6340 was issued to MANUEL SANCHEZ, who was born 25 November 1937 and, Death Master File says, died December 1979. Social Security number 580-52-6341 was issued to I VEGA, who was born 07 August 1933 and, Death Master File says, died 15 September 1982. Search Archives for I VEGA. Social Security number 580-52-6344 was issued to EMILIO NARVAEZ, who was born 06 September 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 18 June 1997. Social Security number 580-52-6347 was issued to RAMON GARCIA, who was born 17 June 1886 and, Death Master File says, died June 1964. Social Security number 580-52-6350 was issued to LYDIA ROMAN-GONZAL, who was born 05 June 1915 and, Death Master File says, died 12 October 2003. Search Archives for LYDIA ROMAN-GONZAL. Social Security number 580-52-6351 was issued to ISAAC RIVERA ANDUJ, who was born 13 November 1897 and, Death Master File says, died January 1970. Search Archives for ISAAC RIVERA ANDUJ. Social Security number 580-52-6353 was issued to VICTORIANO RIVERA, who was born 03 May 1917 and, Death Master File says, died 29 January 2009. Search Archives for VICTORIANO RIVERA. Social Security number 580-52-6356 was issued to JOSE A DEARMAS, who was born 09 May 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 13 October 1994. Search Archives for JOSE DEARMAS. Social Security number 580-52-6357 was issued to PABLO GARCIA, who was born 18 March 1933 and, Death Master File says, died 26 October 2013. Social Security number 580-52-6364 was issued to HIPOLITO ORTIZ, who was born 03 February 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 28 April 2011. Social Security number 580-52-6365 was issued to ANTONIA GONZALEZ-DAV, who was born 20 January 1936 and, Death Master File says, died July 1977. Search Archives for ANTONIA GONZALEZ-DAV. Social Security number 580-52-6368 was issued to ANGEL GONZALEZ, who was born 16 January 1928 and, Death Master File says, died September 1985. Social Security number 580-52-6371 was issued to SAMUEL CRUZ-RODRIGU, who was born 28 March 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 19 March 2004. Search Archives for SAMUEL CRUZ-RODRIGU. Social Security number 580-52-6373 was issued to FELIX LAMELA, who was born 24 December 1903 and, Death Master File says, died January 1978. Search Archives for FELIX LAMELA. Social Security number 580-52-6380 was issued to HOMERO ALFARO, who was born 28 May 1911 and, Death Master File says, died June 1979. Search Archives for HOMERO ALFARO. Social Security number 580-52-6381 was issued to JUDITH ACOSTA ORTIZ, who was born 06 January 1933 and, Death Master File says, died 05 March 2010. Search Archives for JUDITH ACOSTA ORTIZ. Social Security number 580-52-6382 was issued to BALDOMERO ADAMES, who was born 05 March 1929 and, Death Master File says, died 08 January 1997. Search Archives for BALDOMERO ADAMES. Social Security number 580-52-6388 was issued to JOSE MONTESINO, who was born 01 July 1890 and, Death Master File says, died April 1981. Search Archives for JOSE MONTESINO. Social Security number 580-52-6394 was issued to EUGENIO DIAZ-RIVERA, who was born 11 January 1915 and, Death Master File says, died 07 September 1993. Search Archives for EUGENIO DIAZ-RIVERA. Social Security number 580-52-6400 was issued to FELICIANA ORTEGA-PABON, who was born 20 January 1919 and, Death Master File says, died 09 July 1995. Search Archives for FELICIANA ORTEGA-PABON. Social Security number 580-52-6401 was issued to PORFIRIA OLMEDA, who was born 01 July 1905 and, Death Master File says, died 07 May 1997. Search Archives for PORFIRIA OLMEDA. Social Security number 580-52-6403 was issued to CANDIDO BONILLA-VAZQ, who was born 20 February 1931 and, Death Master File says, died May 1983. Search Archives for CANDIDO BONILLA-VAZQ. Social Security number 580-52-6405 was issued to GUILLERMO ENCARNACION, who was born 27 March 1913 and, Death Master File says, died July 1972. Social Security number 580-52-6411 was issued to RAFAEL A NIEVES, who was born 05 October 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 16 March 1999. Social Security number 580-52-6412 was issued to CARMEN I CANABAL-LOPE, who was born 03 August 1931 and, Death Master File says, died 16 April 2005. Search Archives for CARMEN CANABAL-LOPE. Social Security number 580-52-6413 was issued to FUNDADORA ARZUAGA-SIER, who was born 15 June 1906 and, Death Master File says, died December 1985. Search Archives for FUNDADORA ARZUAGA-SIER. Social Security number 580-52-6417 was issued to PEDRO G DE LEON-ROME, who was born 04 March 1911 and, Death Master File says, died 27 June 1996. Search Archives for PEDRO DE LEON-ROME. Social Security number 580-52-6419 was issued to SABINO MALDONADO LO, who was born 0000 and, Death Master File says, died March 1966. Search Archives for SABINO MALDONADO LO. Social Security number 580-52-6428 was issued to MANUEL MORGADO ORTI, who was born 09 December 1932 and, Death Master File says, died 25 July 2011. Search Archives for MANUEL MORGADO ORTI. Social Security number 580-52-6431 was issued to JOSE A PLA, who was born 19 February 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 15 November 1992. Social Security number 580-52-6438 was issued to JULIAN QUINONES, who was born 0000 and, Death Master File says, died April 1963. Search Archives for JULIAN QUINONES. Social Security number 580-52-6440 was issued to JUANITA MEDINA-OLIVO, who was born 27 May 1912 and, Death Master File says, died 19 January 1990. Search Archives for JUANITA MEDINA-OLIVO. Social Security number 580-52-6442 was issued to HECTOR GONZALEZ, who was born 12 September 1907 and, Death Master File says, died October 1970. Social Security number 580-52-6444 was issued to ALEXO DELGADO CLAU, who was born 27 September 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 03 August 2006. Search Archives for ALEXO DELGADO CLAU. Social Security number 580-52-6449 was issued to ERADIN REYES-OTERO, who was born 21 July 1934 and, Death Master File says, died 11 April 2009. Search Archives for ERADIN REYES-OTERO. Social Security number 580-52-6450 was issued to RAMON RIVERA-ARCE, who was born 13 November 1912 and, Death Master File says, died November 1986. Search Archives for RAMON RIVERA-ARCE. Social Security number 580-52-6456 was issued to BASILIO RODRIGUEZ, who was born 02 December 1917 and, Death Master File says, died 11 February 2004. Social Security number 580-52-6457 was issued to CATALINO RODRIGUEZ, who was born 24 July 1904 and, Death Master File says, died 08 July 1995. Social Security number 580-52-6458 was issued to TEOFILA BERRIOS, who was born 02 November 1908 and, Death Master File says, died 16 January 2004. Search Archives for TEOFILA BERRIOS. Social Security number 580-52-6460 was issued to PEDRO ROMERO-VAZQU, who was born 01 October 1914 and, Death Master File says, died May 1980. Search Archives for PEDRO ROMERO-VAZQU. Social Security number 580-52-6462 was issued to JOSE MARTINEZ, who was born 06 February 1936 and, Death Master File says, died November 1980. Social Security number 580-52-6464 was issued to TOMAS RODRIGUEZ-TO, who was born 29 December 1934 and, Death Master File says, died 11 January 2008. Social Security number 580-52-6465 was issued to FELIPE ROSARIO, who was born 17 September 1934 and, Death Master File says, died 23 October 1998. Social Security number 580-52-6469 was issued to VIDAL RODRIGUEZ-SA, who was born 23 May 1914 and, Death Master File says, died July 1974. Search Archives for VIDAL RODRIGUEZ-SA. Social Security number 580-52-6470 was issued to DOLORES RIVERA, who was born 07 August 1916 and, Death Master File says, died August 1976. Social Security number 580-52-6471 was issued to HIGINIO COLON, who was born 15 June 1903 and, Death Master File says, died July 1979. Social Security number 580-52-6472 was issued to RODULFO ROMAN COSME, who was born 27 June 1895 and, Death Master File says, died 26 December 1990. Search Archives for RODULFO ROMAN COSME. Social Security number 580-52-6474 was issued to EDUARDO PEREZ PARRIL, who was born 14 October 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 26 January 2010. Search Archives for EDUARDO PEREZ PARRIL. Social Security number 580-52-6475 was issued to PABLO SAEZ, who was born 01 November 1907 and, Death Master File says, died December 1982. Search Archives for PABLO SAEZ. Social Security number 580-52-6479 was issued to SILVESTRE NAZARIO PAGA, who was born 31 December 1892 and, Death Master File says, died December 1984. Search Archives for SILVESTRE NAZARIO PAGA. Social Security number 580-52-6482 was issued to ANTONIO ROSA ANDINO, who was born 17 January 1896 and, Death Master File says, died August 1982. Search Archives for ANTONIO ROSA ANDINO. Social Security number 580-52-6486 was issued to TEODORO GONZALEZ-MAL, who was born 09 December 1926 and, Death Master File says, died 30 December 2009. Search Archives for TEODORO GONZALEZ-MAL. Social Security number 580-52-6490 was issued to LEONOR RIVERA VELEZ, who was born 30 June 1919 and, Death Master File says, died 02 October 2006. Search Archives for LEONOR RIVERA VELEZ. Social Security number 580-52-6493 was issued to JOSE APONTE, who was born 03 October 1898 and, Death Master File says, died April 1969. Social Security number 580-52-6494 was issued to FRANCISCO REYES-ROSADO, who was born 09 November 1917 and, Death Master File says, died 19 January 1999. Search Archives for FRANCISCO REYES-ROSADO. Social Security number 580-52-6497 was issued to A RUIZ-GALARZA, who was born 04 May 1935 and, Death Master File says, died December 1989. Search Archives for A RUIZ-GALARZA. Social Security number 580-52-6498 was issued to GILBERTO ROMAN, who was born 01 October 1915 and, Death Master File says, died June 1985. Social Security number 580-52-6500 was issued to CANDELARIO RODRIGUEZ, who was born 02 February 1921 and, Death Master File says, died June 1986. Social Security number 580-52-6503 was issued to SANTOS CALDERO, who was born 10 November 1914 and, Death Master File says, died 25 July 2008. Search Archives for SANTOS CALDERO. Social Security number 580-52-6504 was issued to PEDRO RIVERA-RIVER, who was born 16 November 1906 and, Death Master File says, died June 1975. Social Security number 580-52-6511 was issued to NEMESIO VILLA, who was born 18 April 1912 and, Death Master File says, died January 1981. Search Archives for NEMESIO VILLA. Social Security number 580-52-6512 was issued to JUAN M RAMOS-NIEVES, who was born 29 September 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 02 January 2005. Search Archives for JUAN RAMOS-NIEVES. Social Security number 580-52-6513 was issued to LUIS TORRES RIVER, who was born 01 July 1890 and, Death Master File says, died January 1966. Social Security number 580-52-6515 was issued to SIXTO MERCADO, who was born 06 August 1924 and, Death Master File says, died 03 January 1997. Social Security number 580-52-6516 was issued to PEDRO GONZALEZ, who was born 19 October 1936 and, Death Master File says, died September 1975. Social Security number 580-52-6517 was issued to VICTOR RIVERA, who was born 02 August 1933 and, Death Master File says, died 23 October 1987. Social Security number 580-52-6518 was issued to VENTURA FIGUEROA, who was born 14 July 1923 and, Death Master File says, died October 1987. Social Security number 580-52-6519 was issued to JUANN GALARZA, who was born 30 October 1921 and, Death Master File says, died March 1986. Search Archives for JUANN GALARZA. Social Security number 580-52-6521 was issued to DIEGO A CUEVAS, who was born 04 August 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 11 November 2006. Search Archives for DIEGO CUEVAS. Social Security number 580-52-6523 was issued to INOCENCIO QUINTERO ORT, who was born 28 December 1879 and, Death Master File says, died January 1966. Search Archives for INOCENCIO QUINTERO ORT. Social Security number 580-52-6524 was issued to ANTONIO RAMIREZ SOTO, who was born 13 June 1907 and, Death Master File says, died June 1966. Search Archives for ANTONIO RAMIREZ SOTO. Social Security number 580-52-6528 was issued to GREGORIO SOTO-REYES, who was born 25 May 1917 and, Death Master File says, died 19 May 2001. Search Archives for GREGORIO SOTO-REYES. Social Security number 580-52-6532 was issued to RAMIRO MORALES, who was born 17 September 1936 and, Death Master File says, died June 1977. Social Security number 580-52-6533 was issued to PABLO MARIN, who was born 18 January 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 26 September 1998. Search Archives for PABLO MARIN. Social Security number 580-52-6540 was issued to PEDRO DIAZ CORA, who was born 08 February 1898 and, Death Master File says, died June 1980. Search Archives for PEDRO DIAZ CORA. Social Security number 580-52-6543 was issued to JUAN LUGO OJEDA, who was born 05 June 1933 and, Death Master File says, died 12 August 2006. Search Archives for JUAN LUGO OJEDA. Social Security number 580-52-6545 was issued to MARCOS DEJESUS-CRUZ, who was born 18 June 1934 and, Death Master File says, died 16 December 2005. Search Archives for MARCOS DEJESUS-CRUZ. Social Security number 580-52-6549 was issued to RAFAELA MIRANDA, who was born 16 January 1891 and, Death Master File says, died August 1975. Search Archives for RAFAELA MIRANDA. Social Security number 580-52-6558 was issued to ANGEL L RIVERA, who was born 02 August 1934 and, Death Master File says, died 27 April 2000. Social Security number 580-52-6559 was issued to ANTONIA ORTIZ-VAZQUE, who was born 13 June 1932 and, Death Master File says, died 13 November 1998. Search Archives for ANTONIA ORTIZ-VAZQUE. Social Security number 580-52-6561 was issued to MATILDE COLON, who was born 14 March 1923 and, Death Master File says, died 09 July 2006. Social Security number 580-52-6567 was issued to JUAN DIAZ HUERTAS, who was born 05 February 1903 and, Death Master File says, died May 1966. Search Archives for JUAN DIAZ HUERTAS. Social Security number 580-52-6569 was issued to ANGEL LOPEZ-DIAZ, who was born 10 December 1929 and, Death Master File says, died 24 September 1992. Search Archives for ANGEL LOPEZ-DIAZ. Social Security number 580-52-6572 was issued to GUADALUPE NORAT-PEREZ, who was born 12 December 1909 and, Death Master File says, died June 1985. Search Archives for GUADALUPE NORAT-PEREZ. Social Security number 580-52-6573 was issued to JOSE N ORTIZ, who was born 06 December 1934 and, Death Master File says, died 19 November 2004. Social Security number 580-52-6574 was issued to JULIO OQUENDO, who was born 13 October 1928 and, Death Master File says, died 11 November 2010. Social Security number 580-52-6581 was issued to LUCIANO GONZALEZ NEG, who was born 07 January 1903 and, Death Master File says, died December 1981. Search Archives for LUCIANO GONZALEZ NEG. Social Security number 580-52-6583 was issued to ANTONIO SOTO ACEVEDO, who was born 12 May 1912 and, Death Master File says, died November 1974. Search Archives for ANTONIO SOTO ACEVEDO. Social Security number 580-52-6584 was issued to MANUEL RODRIGUEZ, who was born 08 November 1906 and, Death Master File says, died October 1974. Social Security number 580-52-6585 was issued to PABLO A NEGRON-SANTI, who was born 26 January 1910 and, Death Master File says, died 21 November 1995. Search Archives for PABLO NEGRON-SANTI. Social Security number 580-52-6587 was issued to CARMEN A RIVERA, who was born 23 November 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 30 August 2007. Social Security number 580-52-6589 was issued to ANTONIO ARRIAGA, who was born 18 April 1923 and, Death Master File says, died 08 March 1999. Search Archives for ANTONIO ARRIAGA. Social Security number 580-52-6590 was issued to JULIO MARZAN, who was born 25 September 1923 and, Death Master File says, died 01 August 1993. Search Archives for JULIO MARZAN. Social Security number 580-52-6591 was issued to MILAGROS MELENDEZ, who was born 10 April 1928 and, Death Master File says, died 09 June 2007. Search Archives for MILAGROS MELENDEZ. Social Security number 580-52-6597 was issued to PEDRO RODRIGUEZ AP, who was born 13 May 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 28 April 1996. Search Archives for PEDRO RODRIGUEZ AP. Social Security number 580-52-6602 was issued to ANGEL L CRUZ, who was born 20 January 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 17 March 2005. Social Security number 580-52-6605 was issued to DOMINGA CRUZ-MELENDE, who was born 08 March 1918 and, Death Master File says, died 29 July 2008. Search Archives for DOMINGA CRUZ-MELENDE. Social Security number 580-52-6606 was issued to CATALINO COLON-RODRIG, who was born 16 September 1918 and, Death Master File says, died 29 March 2010. Search Archives for CATALINO COLON-RODRIG. Social Security number 580-52-6607 was issued to DOMINGO COLON, who was born July 1927 and, Death Master File says, died September 1972. Social Security number 580-52-6608 was issued to MARIO DAVILA-RIOS, who was born 28 February 1936 and, Death Master File says, died December 1975. Search Archives for MARIO DAVILA-RIOS. Social Security number 580-52-6611 was issued to ILDEFONSO MARRERO-CRUZ, who was born 28 November 1930 and, Death Master File says, died 15 May 1994. Search Archives for ILDEFONSO MARRERO-CRUZ. Social Security number 580-52-6617 was issued to JUAN PACHECO JESU, who was born 01 January 1884 and, Death Master File says, died September 1967. Search Archives for JUAN PACHECO JESU. Social Security number 580-52-6619 was issued to NARCISO RIVERA, who was born 15 May 1895 and, Death Master File says, died August 1984. Social Security number 580-52-6620 was issued to RAMON A SANTOS, who was born 13 April 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 30 September 2002. Social Security number 580-52-6621 was issued to C VASQUEZ, who was born 08 December 1939 and, Death Master File says, died 15 September 1989. Search Archives for C VASQUEZ. Social Security number 580-52-6625 was issued to JORGE E AMIEIRO-RAMI, who was born 22 February 1938 and, Death Master File says, died 08 July 2013. Search Archives for JORGE AMIEIRO-RAMI. Social Security number 580-52-6626 was issued to JUANITA ARCE-VDA REN, who was born 01 October 1909 and, Death Master File says, died 30 June 1990. Search Archives for JUANITA ARCE-VDA REN. Social Security number 580-52-6628 was issued to ANTONIO ACEVEDO-GARC, who was born 20 April 1936 and, Death Master File says, died January 1979. Search Archives for ANTONIO ACEVEDO-GARC. Social Security number 580-52-6629 was issued to J J RODRIGUEZ, who was born 28 August 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 15 April 1997. Social Security number 580-52-6636 was issued to ANTONIO ROSARIO-SANT, who was born 10 July 1910 and, Death Master File says, died November 1978. Search Archives for ANTONIO ROSARIO-SANT. Social Security number 580-52-6638 was issued to SANTOS SANTIAGO, who was born 03 March 1924 and, Death Master File says, died 08 March 2008. Social Security number 580-52-6639 was issued to PEDRO SANTOS-RODRI, who was born 13 October 1907 and, Death Master File says, died 16 June 1990. Search Archives for PEDRO SANTOS-RODRI. Social Security number 580-52-6640 was issued to ENRIQUE RIVERA-RIVER, who was born 06 February 1928 and, Death Master File says, died November 1980. Search Archives for ENRIQUE RIVERA-RIVER. Social Security number 580-52-6644 was issued to REYA DELGADO-GONZ, who was born 06 January 1919 and, Death Master File says, died February 1979. Search Archives for REYA DELGADO-GONZ. Social Security number 580-52-6646 was issued to RAMON DESPIAU, who was born 12 June 1926 and, Death Master File says, died 11 August 2010. Search Archives for RAMON DESPIAU. Social Security number 580-52-6647 was issued to JOSE DE JESUS RIV, who was born 15 July 1907 and, Death Master File says, died 18 May 1993. Search Archives for JOSE DE JESUS RIV. Social Security number 580-52-6654 was issued to PEDRO AFANADOR, who was born 27 April 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 05 July 1993. Search Archives for PEDRO AFANADOR. Social Security number 580-52-6657 was issued to ANTONIO S ORTIZ-DIAZ, who was born 30 July 1916 and, Death Master File says, died 21 January 2011. Social Security number 580-52-6664 was issued to CASIANO MOLINA ARROY, who was born 10 December 1902 and, Death Master File says, died 16 October 1993. Search Archives for CASIANO MOLINA ARROY. Social Security number 580-52-6667 was issued to SABINA PAGANPENA, who was born 01 March 1906 and, Death Master File says, died January 1982. Search Archives for SABINA PAGANPENA. Social Security number 580-52-6668 was issued to ANGEL L ANDREU, who was born 09 December 1934 and, Death Master File says, died 24 November 2002. Search Archives for ANGEL ANDREU. Social Security number 580-52-6670 was issued to GONZALEZ ADDARICH-POM, who was born June 1933 and, Death Master File says, died 24 April 1984. Search Archives for GONZALEZ ADDARICH-POM. Social Security number 580-52-6677 was issued to DOMINGO LOPEZ NEIVES, who was born 07 October 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 22 June 2011. Search Archives for DOMINGO LOPEZ NEIVES. Social Security number 580-52-6683 was issued to EMILIO HERNANDEZ, who was born 20 February 1924 and, Death Master File says, died October 1984. Social Security number 580-52-6684 was issued to WENCESLAO HERNANDEZ VE, who was born 18 April 1897 and, Death Master File says, died August 1983. Search Archives for WENCESLAO HERNANDEZ VE. Social Security number 580-52-6685 was issued to JUAN IRIZARRY PAG, who was born 24 June 1905 and, Death Master File says, died January 1971. Search Archives for JUAN IRIZARRY PAG. Social Security number 580-52-6686 was issued to CARMEN H GONZALEZ, who was born 30 August 1931 and, Death Master File says, died 30 April 2004. Social Security number 580-52-6690 was issued to ERNESTO LOPEZ, who was born 30 June 1915 and, Death Master File says, died June 1981. Social Security number 580-52-6692 was issued to MIGUEL SANCHEZ-LOPE, who was born 09 September 1935 and, Death Master File says, died September 1975. Search Archives for MIGUEL SANCHEZ-LOPE. Social Security number 580-52-6696 was issued to M A ALVIRA, who was born 23 September 1938 and, Death Master File says, died August 1990. Search Archives for M ALVIRA. Social Security number 580-52-6698 was issued to ETANISLAO DIAZ, who was born 07 May 1907 and, Death Master File says, died 14 August 1988. Social Security number 580-52-6699 was issued to JOSE BORRERO PERE, who was born 19 March 1879 and, Death Master File says, died August 1968. Search Archives for JOSE BORRERO PERE. Social Security number 580-52-6702 was issued to VICTOR SERRANO, who was born 19 June 1895 and, Death Master File says, died February 1986. Social Security number 580-52-6703 was issued to RAUL SUAREZ ALFON, who was born 10 June 1926 and, Death Master File says, died 04 October 2001. Search Archives for RAUL SUAREZ ALFON. Social Security number 580-52-6704 was issued to HORTENSIA SANTIAGO, who was born 10 August 1919 and, Death Master File says, died 27 October 2008. Search Archives for HORTENSIA SANTIAGO. Social Security number 580-52-6707 was issued to FELIX RODRIGUEZ, who was born 16 May 1917 and, Death Master File says, died 06 August 2004. Social Security number 580-52-6713 was issued to MARIA M FELICIANO, who was born 10 June 1894 and, Death Master File says, died 15 March 1989. Social Security number 580-52-6714 was issued to DANIEL PEREZ-SERRAN, who was born 0000 and, Death Master File says, died November 1965. Search Archives for DANIEL PEREZ-SERRAN. Social Security number 580-52-6718 was issued to ANGEL TORRES, who was born 15 August 1916 and, Death Master File says, died 06 April 1991. Social Security number 580-52-6719 was issued to AURELIO GARCIA, who was born 02 April 1925 and, Death Master File says, died May 1970. Search Archives for AURELIO GARCIA. Social Security number 580-52-6726 was issued to JUAN RIVERA-PAGAN, who was born 0000 and, Death Master File says, died October 1971. Search Archives for JUAN RIVERA-PAGAN. Social Security number 580-52-6734 was issued to FAUSTINA R BORGES, who was born 13 October 1917 and, Death Master File says, died 06 May 1998. Search Archives for FAUSTINA BORGES. Social Security number 580-52-6735 was issued to S PIZARRO, who was born 06 April 1938 and, Death Master File says, died June 1992. Search Archives for S PIZARRO. Social Security number 580-52-6738 was issued to MARCELO SANTIAGO RAM, who was born 16 January 1876 and, Death Master File says, died May 1963. Search Archives for MARCELO SANTIAGO RAM. Social Security number 580-52-6740 was issued to JUAN SANCHEZ, who was born 08 February 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 31 August 2013. Social Security number 580-52-6742 was issued to LUIS DIAZ, who was born 01 October 1890 and, Death Master File says, died February 1965. Social Security number 580-52-6743 was issued to ROMAN CRUZ, who was born 15 March 1919 and, Death Master File says, died 13 August 1996. Search Archives for ROMAN CRUZ. Social Security number 580-52-6744 was issued to PAULA RIVERA, who was born 20 July 1920 and, Death Master File says, died 01 November 1992. Social Security number 580-52-6745 was issued to MIGUEL ALICK, who was born 29 September 1899 and, Death Master File says, died June 1968. Search Archives for MIGUEL ALICK. Social Security number 580-52-6747 was issued to JOSE FELICIANO-ME, who was born 11 May 1930 and, Death Master File says, died 03 September 1997. Search Archives for JOSE FELICIANO-ME. Social Security number 580-52-6751 was issued to MARGARITA SAENZ, who was born 22 February 1920 and, Death Master File says, died 14 December 2004. Search Archives for MARGARITA SAENZ. Social Security number 580-52-6752 was issued to LUIS A SANTIAGO COL, who was born 17 December 1925 and, Death Master File says, died 13 September 2013. Search Archives for LUIS SANTIAGO COL. Social Security number 580-52-6753 was issued to PABLO SALVAT-MONRO, who was born 16 November 1937 and, Death Master File says, died August 1977. Search Archives for PABLO SALVAT-MONRO. Social Security number 580-52-6757 was issued to VIDAL CUEVAS, who was born 28 April 1902 and, Death Master File says, died October 1984. Search Archives for VIDAL CUEVAS. Social Security number 580-52-6759 was issued to LUCAS TORRES, who was born 02 July 1897 and, Death Master File says, died March 1984. Social Security number 580-52-6762 was issued to MANUEL ABREU RODRIG, who was born 06 September 1884 and, Death Master File says, died April 1981. Search Archives for MANUEL ABREU RODRIG. Social Security number 580-52-6766 was issued to FELIX VAZQUEZ, who was born 19 October 1903 and, Death Master File says, died May 1989. Social Security number 580-52-6767 was issued to PABLO VALLEJO LOPE, who was born 15 June 1892 and, Death Master File says, died May 1966. Search Archives for PABLO VALLEJO LOPE. Social Security number 580-52-6768 was issued to FIDEL A TORRES, who was born 21 March 1933 and, Death Master File says, died 15 December 1997. Social Security number 580-52-6769 was issued to CATALINO VELAZQUEZ MO, who was born 13 February 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 12 August 2013. Search Archives for CATALINO VELAZQUEZ MO. Social Security number 580-52-6770 was issued to EUSEBIA VALENTIN, who was born 16 December 1916 and, Death Master File says, died 29 January 1996. Search Archives for EUSEBIA VALENTIN. Social Security number 580-52-6773 was issued to NICOLAS RIVERA LAZU, who was born 10 September 1902 and, Death Master File says, died 11 August 2002. Search Archives for NICOLAS RIVERA LAZU. Social Security number 580-52-6774 was issued to JOSE GARCIA RIVER, who was born 09 June 1889 and, Death Master File says, died March 1984. Social Security number 580-52-6780 was issued to FERNANDO CENTENO PAZ, who was born 22 July 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 25 May 2006. Search Archives for FERNANDO CENTENO PAZ. Social Security number 580-52-6784 was issued to FELIX WALKER-BENIT, who was born 18 May 1924 and, Death Master File says, died 03 February 1999. Search Archives for FELIX WALKER-BENIT. Social Security number 580-52-6786 was issued to LUZ REYES, who was born 01 November 1924 and, Death Master File says, died August 1987. Social Security number 580-52-6789 was issued to PROVIDENCI A OCASIO-CASTR, who was born 28 November 1930 and, Death Master File says, died 31 August 2013. Search Archives for PROVIDENCI OCASIO-CASTR. Social Security number 580-52-6792 was issued to CESARIO ORSINI MATIA, who was born 08 April 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 25 August 2013. Search Archives for CESARIO ORSINI MATIA. Social Security number 580-52-6795 was issued to JOSE R ORTIZ, who was born 16 April 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 17 February 2009. Social Security number 580-52-6801 was issued to MARCELINO PARRILLA, who was born 02 May 1932 and, Death Master File says, died October 1983. Search Archives for MARCELINO PARRILLA. Social Security number 580-52-6806 was issued to ANGEL COLON-LEON, who was born 02 August 1911 and, Death Master File says, died August 1985. Search Archives for ANGEL COLON-LEON. Social Security number 580-52-6808 was issued to JOSEFINA CHICO ARZOLA, who was born 20 March 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 28 December 1999. Search Archives for JOSEFINA CHICO ARZOLA. Social Security number 580-52-6809 was issued to SERVILIANO CRUZ RODRIGU, who was born 01 February 1939 and, Death Master File says, died 08 June 2001. Search Archives for SERVILIANO CRUZ RODRIGU. Social Security number 580-52-6810 was issued to SALVADOR CRUZ, who was born 17 January 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 31 July 2013. Social Security number 580-52-6812 was issued to SANTIAGO FIGUEROA-CAM, who was born 04 October 1923 and, Death Master File says, died October 1984. Search Archives for SANTIAGO FIGUEROA-CAM. Social Security number 580-52-6815 was issued to EUFEMIO ROLDAN REYES, who was born 20 March 1879 and, Death Master File says, died May 1976. Search Archives for EUFEMIO ROLDAN REYES. Social Security number 580-52-6820 was issued to EDITH TRABAL-AYALA, who was born 18 May 1932 and, Death Master File says, died 20 February 2011. Search Archives for EDITH TRABAL-AYALA. Social Security number 580-52-6822 was issued to ALEJANDRO MALDONADO, who was born 17 August 1895 and, Death Master File says, died February 1981. Social Security number 580-52-6827 was issued to CANDIDO TORRES-GUERR, who was born 17 March 1936 and, Death Master File says, died October 1979. Search Archives for CANDIDO TORRES-GUERR. Social Security number 580-52-6828 was issued to FELIX VELAZQUEZ-SA, who was born 18 May 1937 and, Death Master File says, died 26 December 2000. Search Archives for FELIX VELAZQUEZ-SA. Social Security number 580-52-6830 was issued to LEOPOLDO TORRES, who was born 08 October 1891 and, Death Master File says, died November 1969. Social Security number 580-52-6831 was issued to PEDRO VARGAS-ROSAD, who was born 12 July 1910 and, Death Master File says, died 30 January 2006. Search Archives for PEDRO VARGAS-ROSAD. Social Security number 580-52-6832 was issued to JULIO VIRUET PABON, who was born 0000 and, Death Master File says, died August 1966. Search Archives for JULIO VIRUET PABON. Social Security number 580-52-6833 was issued to BEDAMIN TORRES, who was born 20 March 1941 and, Death Master File says, died 04 October 2003. Search Archives for BEDAMIN TORRES. Social Security number 580-52-6835 was issued to TOMAS TORRES, who was born 02 April 1907 and, Death Master File says, died 24 July 1993. Social Security number 580-52-6837 was issued to MARIA VELAZQUEZ, who was born 07 June 1914 and, Death Master File says, died 13 August 2013. Social Security number 580-52-6840 was issued to CARMEN A VEGA, who was born 07 November 1935 and, Death Master File says, died 25 October 2008. Social Security number 580-52-6842 was issued to PEDRO A OLIVO, who was born 27 December 1933 and, Death Master File says, died 26 March 2009. Search Archives for PEDRO OLIVO. Social Security number 580-52-6844 was issued to ANGEL F TORRES, who was born 23 April 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 24 September 2001. Social Security number 580-52-6847 was issued to GABRIEL AVILES MELEN, who was born 16 July 1922 and, Death Master File says, died 23 June 2008. Search Archives for GABRIEL AVILES MELEN. Social Security number 580-52-6848 was issued to VICENTE ALBARRAN CAB, who was born 28 December 1906 and, Death Master File says, died 18 March 1996. Search Archives for VICENTE ALBARRAN CAB. Social Security number 580-52-6849 was issued to GUILLERMO ORTIZ-SANTIA, who was born 24 April 1908 and, Death Master File says, died 19 February 1993. Search Archives for GUILLERMO ORTIZ-SANTIA. Social Security number 580-52-6853 was issued to NEIDA I BURGOS VAZQU, who was born 06 June 1936 and, Death Master File says, died 05 October 2008. Search Archives for NEIDA BURGOS VAZQU. 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2019-04-20T03:27:34Z

http://ssdmf.info/by_number/pages/188236.html

There are about eighteen years in the life of Jesus that the Bible does not tell of. That leaves room for fantasy and speculation. Claims are many. Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) says that Jesus spent many formative years in India, made visits there to the wise men who had followed a “wandering star”, and speaks of hidden records that are unavailable to the public and to scholars too. Respectable proof of such claims is missing to this day. What then? Being eaten by worms and believing marring tales without sound evidence could both work harm in a life. Regardless of that, many authors have claimed to have found proof that there are manuscripts in India and Tibet that support the belief that Christ was in India. And there are preposterous makers of hearsay around. And others cite them! However, without solid and publily available proofs, stories of Jesus in India get no substantial backing among scholars. All who believe vagaries and claims without sound proof may not be fooled completely by it, but many will probably be made fools that way. To escape falling victim to blunt assertions, try to get facts first, ask for needed evidence, and remain tentative for the lack of evidence, so as to preserve mental clarity at least. To study the evidence fairly could be productive. After all, it is fit for good living and science alike that the burden of proof lies with the asserting claimers. Alluring claims do not make one proof. Study the evidence first, if you find any worth inspecting, and sort and weigh that also. Such procedures should lead to less ill-founded and even more professional-like assertions or opinions. Looking for facts to build on, albeit tentatively, see what Wikipedia writes on the subject. Also consider that stories may have a loose foundation, but there could be truth in them, somewhere, somehow. However, many claims do not make one solid proof, and I for one am weary of the gross cavalcade of claims and what this and that fellow have thought up – for different versions do not all agree – far from it. Instead of building castles in Spain, some story-tellers build Buddhist monasteries in Tibet long before Buddhism was establised there. In 1887 the Russian Nicolas Notovitch published The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ in Russian. An American translation followed in 1890. [The book] The book tells of Buddhist monasteries in Tibet from a time when there were none there (Berzin 1996). Should we dismiss the rest of the book or get consumed by errors? Where facts are not found, it helps long-range soundness to refrain from believing, for the duped may become sheep-like. An antidote to tough falls and blind submission to airy and faulty beliefs “up there in the clouds” should be watchful, even-handed and rational inquiry, which includes sound skills in handling information. There is much to gain from it, and much to lose for the lack of it. Rational inquiry is fit in Buddhism and proper research and is considered good for sound mind-development. There are some basics of such mental skills interspersed below, adapted to the topic “Jesus visited India and we say so”. Eighteen years in the life of Jesus go unmentioned in the Bible, and this opens up for many claims. Legend-mongers have sent the young man Jesus to Egypt, to Britain, and to India, Persia and Tibet. Such modern Jesus legends have gained quite a readership. But the Bible does not say that Jesus had been in India. And the Jewish leaders never accused him of teaching anything he had assimilated in the East either. When good evidence is missing, we should agree it is possible that Jesus was in India during parts of those eighteen unreckoned for years, but is it likely? There were trade routes. This fact lies at the bottom of several claims that Jesus visited India and Tibet in his day. For example, Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) and Swami Satyananda both tell that Jesus spent fifteen years in India and Tibet. But what evidence did they show for their case? Why should we not believe in this? It is a question of whether the emperor wears any clothes (it is a theme of a fairy tale made known by Hans Christian Andersen). Do the Yogananda claims wear any good documentation (clothes) at all? Are they bluffs? The Notovitch book says Jesus spent time in Buddhist settings in Tibet – but there were no such things as Buddhist monasteries there at the time of Jesus. Buddhism came to Tibet only many centuries later. A quack tale accepted brings faith in humbug. In this case faultily promoted by several profiteers, as we may call those who find themselves served by swindles too. The “wise” men in the first chapters of Matthew, appear in what may be merely a folk-tale, says the Bible scholar Geza Vermes (2010) further down. Yogananda brings no good evidence, only “It is said” and “They say”, which are known to have started many a lie. Yogananda – once a rumour spreader to teach others not to do as he did – wanted others not to spread rumours, he clarified. The three points above will be elaborated on in the following, and evidence of many sorts are given. “It is said” – by whom? Either the teller (Yogananda) furnishes the evidence, or you have to seek other sources if the issue matters greatly to you. Yogananda does not. His publishers have later sought to prop him up by selective and biased information – but see whether their information counts, really counts, and is fair enough for the grey matter of the brain. In science and among able scholars it is the one who makes claims who is to furnish the fit evidence. As a matter of fact, the Bible scholar Geza Vermes thinks the first to chapters of Matthew are based on a Hebrew folktale. Bluffs are many in “Bible-land”, and cynical exploiters are many, many. It should help to get rid of the bluffs and stand firm. Matthew’s account of the Nativity – the basis of all Christmas celebrations – appears in a quite different light when it is considered as the product of a particular Jewish linguistic, literary and religious context (Vermes 2010:87). Try not to get burdened in such matters, but handle things well: You are not obliged to furnish the evidence if you do not claim something. Where no good evidence is given, try to keep the claims or issues in suspense (at bay) at the very least. That is, do not settle on conclusions or gulp up opinions of others based on “presentation farting” or worse, for such a nasty road leads into folly faith, sheepish adjustments and worse in some cases. The Bible does not say there were three wise men or where they came from. Moreover, there is no mention in the Bible of such a return visit that Yogananda speaks of. Also, the teachings of Jesus do not give any particular evidence of influence from outside the Jewish faith – from such a mental universe. The New Testament was written much closer in time to the events, so it is part of the “game” to check it, too. Neither Jesus nor Acts nor letter-writing apostles said anything at all about him going further abroad than to Egypt with his parents, although the gospels do not agree fully with each other on that one. Jesus in Buddhist Tibet at a time when Buddhism had not arrived there, is it really more credible than Jesus walking on water? There is something wrong with a tale that purports to be true when the facts do not follow suit: Consider, for example, that Tibetans at the time of Jesus were no Buddhists. Buddhism arrived in Tibet only hundreds of years later, and the story which Yogananda draws on, tells of documents about Jesus visiting Buddhist monasteries in Tibet when there were none. Are we facing a tragic soup? ❋ Duping for gains is not much to boast of, and not classy. When other Hindu swamis tell about the same tale as Yogananda in the matter, do many similar claims without fit evidence make one proof? I think not. It does not matter who claim it, so long as they do not furnish promising evidence. And it is foolish to make drivel a matter of faith. Believe as little as you can, and you will be taken in less in the long run. That could be good for mankind. And you should be allowed to inspect and think your own thoughts. Everybody should be allowed that. In the work Early Teachings of Swami Satyananda Saraswati, there are recordings from a satsanga (gathering, class) [Satyananda 1988:100-110] he held with prospective teachers of his line of yoga. Satyananda renders among other things that “in India some people say that the story of Christ is actually the story of Krishna which must have emigrated from India to the Middle East.” Note that “some people” is too loose to count as any valid reference if nothing more is added. “Christ was crucified on the cross, but he did not die … The soldiers came and put a spear into his body. In the Bible it is written, “. . . and the water flowed out.” … It means to say Christ was not dead, because water or blood does not flow from a dead body. So, Christ was not dead when they took him off the cross. Since traditional Christianity is due to those disciples and the Holy Spirit working through them, it seems a bit off the mark to say Jesus wasted his time on them. But who knows? And if he travelled away from there only to die from his wounds and strenuous travels another place, his purported travel to Kashmir was worse than a waste of time, for that matter. So far, apart from unfounded claims and stands at odds with the New Testament’s message in such matters, the stories of Satyananda and many others suffer from lack of fit documentation. The Japanese story has there was authentic documentation until the last World War, and that what is left now, after the bombing of Tokyo, are the copied documents. Be that as it may, some people get problems from being told a lot to accept by blind believing, and what if Satyananda and Yogananda work to make Jesus “their own” somehow by putting the Bible’s Jesus into some Hindu frames of reference? An counter-demagogy tale – such as a Jesus-visited-Svalbard tale, could come in handy here, and why not a Japanese twist to things too, for balance? It surely is not wise to get many to believe a tell-tale without evidence, you have a following, and so much the worse for them – and probably for yourself in the long, long run, in a karmic perspective. Opinions are many and may differ a lot; facts may be few and far between; and what is presented as “facts of yesterday” often gets disputed and gradually abandoned among scholars and scientists as well. It should naturally be reckoned with. We have two references to Christ in Indian books. One is in the ancient records of Nalanda University … The university had an enormous library containing hundreds of thousands of texts which was destroyed once … and again by the Hindus. Twice it was burned to the ground and thousands of ancient texts were lost. In the quotation above, Satyananda gets towards being specific, but he is not quite there. A fit reference makes it possible for others to look up in the referred-to sources and look for themselves. Satyananda goes on to tell that Jesus went back to Jerusalem and preached what he had learnt in India, but that the people there did not understand him and crucified him. [Satyananda 1988:108] Now scholars tell that Jesus did not teach anything that lies outside the Jewish culture. And maybe he got crucified because the Jewish leaders did understand him, and dealt with him according to a Law of Moses for Jews. That’s in the Bible. Nalanda – Ancient texts tell that on his travels Buddha often halted at this place. Nalanda in time became an international Buddhist centre of education and learning equivalent to modern universities, and with a very rich library. Located in in Bihar, India, it flourished between 427 and 1197 CE, long after the birth of Jesus. So how Jesus came across Buddhist ethics in Nalanda, must remain one more undisclosed “fluffy claim” for now. Nalanda, at any rate, was one of the world’s first centres of learning that had dormitories for students. And its library, known as Dharma Gunj (Mountain of Truth) or Dharmaganja (Treasury of Truth), was renowned. A vast amount of what came to comprise Tibetan Buddhism, both its Mahayana sutras traditions and its Vajrayana traditions, stems from the late (800s-1100s) Nalanda teachers and traditions. Ruins remain, and the place is a World Heritage site. Singapore, China, India, Japan, and other nations have announced a proposed plan to restore and revive the ancient site as Nalanda International University. Again, there is no place in the Bible where Jesus teaches outside of the Jewish faith, so look on the “strong support” that Yogananda speaks about, with much calm. Do the records of belief that Yogananda speaks of exist? The stand of most scholars in the matter seems to be this: There is no generally accepted evidence around that Jesus spent eighteen years in India and Tibet. ❋ It is recognised to be widely better to refrain from blind belief than to submit to “claim authority” and blunderbuss sayings. Now ask for evidence for Yogananda’s claims. Note how he props up his tale-telling by “authoritatively known”, “high metaphysicians”, “great sages”, and such means. If unsubstantiated, they form part of demagogy. One of Yogananda’s durable errors in America was going for impressing audiences without sticking to tenable evidence, and here is an example. Did they and do they? And where is the evidence? There is more about that crucial issue further down. Unsubstantiated claims does not solve the matter well. Besides, it is all right to ask for facts and go for facts without getting swollen, and warm talk of India can be in its place too. But there are limits to many things. ❋ Stick to rational handling instead of getting caught by credibility play at any rate. Yogananda’s book The Yoga of Jesus contains extracted parts of his massive two-volumed The Second Coming of Christ. In it we are told in a note that “India’s spiritual influence extended not only west, but east.” Strictly speaking, Buddhism spread far and wide into Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tibet, China Korea and Japan, for example, while and Hinduism expanded eastward as far as Java. The publishers also cite a professor Singhal who claims that ancient American cultures were of Asian origin, and that this is seen from the monuments, hieroglyphs, and institutions of America. “The traces of Hindu-Buddhist influence in Mexico . . . correspond in kind precisely to those cultural elements which were introduced by Buddhist monks and Hindu priests in Southeast Asia,” Dr Singhal thinks. And much depends on the seeing eye (read: mind). COMMENT. Buddhism spread throughout central Asia and East Asia. The said connection to ancient American culture is embraced by Dr. Gauri Mahulikar in his Effects of Ramayana on Various Cultures and Civilizations, but I find substantial evidence to be meagre if it is there at all. All will probably not be well with mankind if we refrain from speculation, massive speculation, and unfounded dogmatism, but some things may get better, actually. [◦Link]. There have also been efforts to support a thesis that the Chinese discovered and explored the western United States hundreds of years before Norsemen came to its eastern parts around 1000 AD – at a time when Buddhism influence was growing in China. COMMENT. Speaking of Gnosticism, “it now seems clear that traces of Gnostic systems can be discerned some centuries before the Christian Era. [Wikipedia]” Predating Jesus Christ, Gnosticism existed in the Mediterranean and Middle East in the Second and Third Centuries. There was a Syrian-Egyptian school of Gnosticism and a Persian Gnostic school. The Hebrew Cabbalists took many core Gnostic ideas and used them to reinterpret earlier Jewish sources according to this new foreign influence. I have not found any claims of Indian influences on Gnosticism in other academic sources than Dr Potter’s claims. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, for example, informs that Gnosticism drew from and influenced in turn many traditional religions. It was diverse as to theology, ethics, and ritual, and thus defies strict classification. “The origins of the Gnostic world view have been sought by scholars in the dualism of Iranian religion, the allegorical Idealism of the Middle Platonic philosophers, and the apocalypticism of certain Jewish mystics. There are analogies also with Egyptian and Mesopotamian thought.” Thus, the alleged Indian influences on Gnosticism that SRF cherishes, is not part of current, main thinking about it. In conclusion so far, it appears that the SRF editors have chosen to quote persons with a definitive bias for the sake of propping up Yogananda’s sayings on this and that, citing a lot when convenient, but without being well in line with mainstream scholarship in the fields in question, and far from furnishing ample and good evidence. It may mount up to a prop-up kind of biased plot, I feel. I think we get a truer presentation of Gnosticism in the two encyclopaedias Wikipedia and Britannica, for one thing. ❋ A fit informational presentation is not greatly biased, and does not have the bottom attitude of defending any cherished leader’s views without considering evidence and materials that go against his or her dictums. Now, what do you prefer, have someone pinch your nose or be misguided? In any case you should know how to defend yourself for your own thriving. Against being misguided by imposing figures that become authority figures in cults and the like, we must learn to “believe not, but make sure”. Asking for top-notch evidence is a fine way towards making sure. For the lack of these few mental self-defence stands, many succumb to tall tales and demagogy. We will look into the evidence that Jesus was in India from his puberty till about three years before the crucifixion. What proper and fit evidence do we have? The source of much novel rumour that Jesus went to India is a book by the Russian Nicolas Notovitch, who in his time was exposed as a fraud. He published ◦The Unknown Life of Christ, which is said to be a travelogue of a trip through India, into Kashmir, eventually reaching Ladakh in Tibet. At Ladakh a lama allegedly informs him that Jesus, under the name Issa, is known to some Tibetan Buddhists. Notovitch goes on to tell that an ancient manuscript was read to him about Issa-Jesus going to India to study the Vedas and Buddhism. Jesus stirred up a caste war and had to leave India. he left and preached against Zoroastrianism in Persia – all according to Notovitch. The orientalist Max Müller sent a letter to the monastery where Notovitch had claimed to have made the discovery, and they disavowed any knowledge of such a manuscript. The head of the Hemis community at Ladakh even signed a document that denounced Notovitch as an outright liar. No authentic Hindu or Buddhist text from that period references Jesus or any of the events described in Notovitch. Jesus is placed by Notovitch in circumstances or settings that plainly were not there. For one thing, Tibetans were not converted to Buddhism till many hundreds of years later. For a manuscript about Jesus in India to be convincing, it would have to have at least the same quality as the New Testament scrolls, and be written close to the events they report on. For the lack of such a document, is it wise to base one’s faith on something that has as little evidential support as Notovitch’s? The name Issa is Islamic for Jesus, and as such was not used before the 700s CE. Dare to think that Notovitch’s Unknown Life of Jesus was a hoax. ❋ To study all the most weighty evidence before you conclude in a matter, reveals proficiency, which is needed for handling life too. Hefty and repeated claims that Jesus travelled through India in his youth has appeared in many books and websites. The story took off after the Russian scholar and orientalist Nicolai Notovitch in 1894 published a book where he claimed to have discovered monastery texts showing that Jesus had travelled through India and Tibet during his teens and early twenties. This view has recently been taken up by the German Holger Kersten in Jesus Lived in India [which I don’t consider worth reading on the basis of “Many “if’s” don’t make proofs”]. In 1887 Notovitch came to Kashmir during one of several journeys to the Orient. At the Zoji-la pass Notovitch was a guest in a Buddhist monastery, where a monk told him of the bodhisattva saint called “Issa”, who died and was buried in a tomb in Kashmir itself. However, the monastery Jesus allegedly is to have studied at in India, was not built until the 1500s, and there is no independent evidence confirming the story. Maybe Notovitch’s Unknown Life of Jesus was fictional: Intimidated by a refutation by the highly esteemed F. Max Müller, Notovitch backed down and changed his story, he began to back-pedal. Not only Max Muller, but also J. Archibald Douglas, and ◦Edgar J. Goodspeed have all refuted the legend. Below are details. ❋ Tales and legends that are repeated in a culture, may or may not have a historical basis. Tales in themselves offer little proof – for they need to be substantiated. And this pertains to the said tomb of Jesus in Kashmir too. As long as good documentation or evidence is lacking, duck! (Keep such a faith item well away from yourself even if it is played, as not all play is fair play). In October 1894 the great Orientalist Max Müller, editor of the epoch-making Sacred Books of the East, published a refutation of Notovitch in The Nineteenth Century, a scholarly review. He shared a letter (June 29, 1894) from an English woman who had visited Leh in Ladakh, including the Hemis lamasery, where she checked out Notovitch’s story. She reported that, according to the abbot, “There is not a single word of truth in the whole story! There has been no Russian here. No one has been taken into the Seminary for the past fifty years with a broken leg! There is no life of Christ there at all!” [Goodspeed, p. 11]. Among other things Muller also questioned the great liberty Notovitch took in editing and arranging the alleged verses. Muller said this is something no reputable scholar would have done. J. Archibald Douglas, Professor at Government College in Agra, India, took a three-month vacation from the college and retraced Notovitch’s steps at the Himis monastery. He published an account of his journey in The Nineteenth Century (June 1895), the bulk of which reproduced an interview with the chief lama of the monastery. The lama said he had been chief lama for 15 years, which means he would have been the chief lama during Notovitch’s alleged visit. The lama asserted that during these 15 years, no European with a broken leg had ever sought refuge at the monastery. The interview was written down and witnessed by the lama, Douglas, and the interpreter, and on June 3, 1895, was stamped with the official seal of the lama. However, several people have gone to Hemis, where several monks purportedly have confirmed that the documents alleged by Notovitch existed. Such takes are far from official, though, compared to the attested or verified ones. WELL. . . The credibility of The Life of Saint Issa by Notovitch was damaged by Douglas’s investigation. Yet Notovitch’s book was printed again in 1926 by an American publisher. And it was discredited once again by ◦Goodspeed’s book of 1931, called Strange New Gospels. In it, he describes the rise and fall of Notovitch’s claims in the decade following the publication of his book. He outlines how it was rejected by the academic community at the time too. Did Jesus visit Tibet? Well, as said above, it is possible, assertions are many, but there is little significant evidence that has come down to us. “Anything is possible, but what is probable?” – F.C. Baur. In Yogananda’s society, members greatly believe in him, so when the Leader and his later management teach that Jesus went to India or that the book “The Life of Issa” is a true story, they believe it, and may refuse to think otherwise and twice. That could perhaps be expected of cult lowers. At last he reached the pass, and in the Ladak city, Leh, he was received with favour by the monks, the merchants, and the men of low estate. Buddhism did not take hold in Tibet until the reign of Srong Tsen Gampo, middle of the seventh century. There was no Buddhist temple in Lhasa when Jesus was alive. The first Buddhist monastery in Tibet, Leh, was built in 637-647 AD. Yogananda did not disprove Notovitch’s story, which was disproved even when Notovitch was alive … The guru is biased, out of key with scholars, and definitely keen on allying Jesus with gurus. He was surrounded by very gullible people. ❋ Ladakh Buddhist temples did not exist at the time of Jesus, no matter what tales Notovitch and his champions tell about them. There are Tibetan treasures about Mantrayanic meditation and aligned tantra practices and so on, but Notovitch-stories are not among them, I figure. ❋ When an authority figure like the guru of Self-Realization Fellowship vouches for a hoax, many followers succumb to authoritarian-based indoctrination with its possible “cult-enhancing dumbening”. Yogananda recounts made-up stories, presenting them as true. Such doings are not marks of a gentleman, and seldom good enough. How wrong can it be when his fellowship adds to the misery by an attitude that comes to the fore in a recently notarised letter, that they find no fault with his guidelines and that his wisdom flawless? Such a pitiful stand is a hallmark of a cult, and not proper among scientists. Yogananda definitely vouches for a hoax book of Notovitch, and draws on it. But we should not, for the sake of fairness. ❋ Yogananda – monastic leaders of his cult regrettably claim his guidelines are infallible. That makes matters much worse. Groggy ones are easily mislead. And you cannot afford to be made groggy, can you? Weighing evidence is rather easy, once you get to know how and get used to it. Try to deal with each key issue first, and as even-handedly as you are up to. First, assemble the points that you find worth considering, and try to be fair when you choose them. Include both pros and cons. Formulate each of the points as an assertive statement. Consider what proof you have gathered. Keep proof-gathering open-ended; you may include more later. Master the common, initial mental scanning of sources. Go for sources where authors have great credentials. They are often found among doctors, Ph.D.s, and professors. Their works are published in reputable books and journals, for example university publishers. There are lots of others. See what critics have said about the books too. The “good guys” seek to be unbiased, gather relevant and valid information, and may also (try to) keep it interesting. Go toward the key sources if that is possible, and discern among them. That is helpful too, in some circumstances, if you can afford it. To weigh the points you come up with and select above all the rest, you can mark such statements on a Likert scale (by a set of responses, for example five). It is far better than the emotionally meagre “yes or no” alternatives. You can easily use five alternative ways of responding, and number them. You may help the weighing by looking at the palm of your hand and think “5 for thumb up”, “4 for the index finger”, “3 for the middle finger”, and so on. Note that “3” (middle finger) is what is called AHEM, HUM, OF TWO MINDS, NEUTRAL, UNSETTLED, AMBIVALENT TOO PERHAPS, and that the forefinger (index finger) means “YES”, and the thumb means “OH YES, INDEED!” (a strong affirmative response). Here is an example. Form the statements so that the “yes” side is consistently either of pros or cons in any of them; such structuring makes the weighing easier. By studying the information available to you where you are, you may then set up weighing lists too. There are no old texts of “Jesus in Tibet” available. UNSETTLED – THERE ARE RUMOURS. The following example shows the same weighing by bars. Figure 1. Bar chart of five tentatively weighed points. If you get proficient in “using your fingers” to refine your responses to a lot of things from the somewhat crude “yes-no” to a five-partitioned way of responding, the chances are you may handle life better, eventually. The five points or statements are thus responded to by marking off the most appropriate stands you muster along the vertical lines. It should work far better than just wincing from the delicate problems involved for cult members, for example. I think my total score – suming up the allotted weights of the five grouped statements – is about 22 points, but not (5 x 5 = 25) points. Whether I keep my judgement (evaluation) to myself as a private matter or speak of it, is my own business, through freedom of thought and so on. If I have settled on a conclusion, I prefer to remain open to forthcoming evidence that goes against what I have settled on so far. If I get 20 points, I am affirmative – in this case I think it is a fraud and a hoax, but I don’t swear it is. I do not have to conclude things in public, but I tend towards debunking Yogananda’s claims in this matter. If my total score is 15 points – five middle fingers in average – I am unsettled, and do well in refraining from concluding in any way, for such as health reasons. The lesson of keeping issues in suspense, unsettled, is ofter underrated. It is much valuable. It is better than being made a victim of odd beliefs also. And bear in mind: The burden of proof is on the one who claims a thing – Yogananda and his publishing fellowship in the example. Satyananda’s publishers in the quite similar case further above. If you get 10 or 5 points, you may dislike rational handling. Try to relax and think twice to improve on your future. Be sincere with yourself and the data, as “Sincerity will save you,” said Yogananda. “Honesty may help you further” is another pretty-looking saying, but learn to take care and handle things well also. I have tried to show how to make up your own mind about a certain book – a hoax book, I figure. Add your points and divide by five (in this case), to see your average. If you get more than 20 points, on the whole you affirm that in your judgement the book is not reliable. Also, take a deeper look into the scores that deviate much from your had average, and see if there is anything you can do in such matters, and try to find out whether such activity is called for. Maybe it is, maybe it is not. The next step is to compare your sincere, personal evaluation with such as Yogananda’s assertions on top of the Notovitch book and other poorly substantiated or wholly undocumented claims. Note what his documentation is, and be just. Unlike a lama and various experts, he does not debunk the Notovitch book. Nor does he comment on the unhistorical, untrue Buddhist monasteries in the book. Nor is he alarmed that Notovitch changed his story. Instead Yogananda makes use of it to support dangerous claims – dangerous because they are so very inadequately substantiated, and his publishing fellowship wants others to belive his teachings are gospel truth, if not above it. But the Notovitch book and claims based on it are hardly good evidence among scholars. What else goes into it when a guru that is claimed to be an avatar (divine incarnation) and the like, states that his good source of information is his intuition? Intuition may be right or wrong – it shows up if you check the intuitions. For example, much of Yogananda’s claimed, intuitive understanding of the Rubaiyat looks clownish and more than suspect. The evidence that he “swims in dangerous and deep water” about his claims there, is in the little collection just referred to. ❋ Reclaim your rationality if the guru or his cult has violated it, since much is at stake for your future fare if you renounce a rational mind far and wide and get subjected to gross lies or hearsay. Further, if you are not helped by such pinpointing as on this site, you can seek other things that assist you on and up, since “There are many roads to Rome”. Berzin, Alexander. The History of the Early Period of Buddhism and Bon in Tibet. The Berzin Archives, 1996. Online. Satyananda Saraswati, Swami. Early Teachings of Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Paperback ed. Munger, Bihar: Bihar School of Yoga, 1988. Vermes, Geza.The Authentic Gospel of Jesus. London: Penguin, 2005. Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man’s Eternal Quest. New ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1982. Yogananda, Paramahansa. Sayings of Paramahansa Yogananda. 4th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1980. Yogananda, Paramahansa. The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You. 2 Vols. 1st ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 2004. Yogananda, Paramahansa. The Yoga of Jesus: Understanding the Hidden Teachings of the Gospels. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 2007. Yogananda, Paramhansa. The Master Said. Los Angeles, CA: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1952. Edwards, William D., MD; Wesley J. Gabel, MDiv; Floyd E. Hosmer, MS, AMI. “Study On The Physical Death of Jesus: Section 7: “Death of Jesus.” JAMA 1986;255:1455-1463). Online. Dr Tom J. Chalko PhD. Tomb of Jesus in Shingo Village (Herai) in Japan: The Song reveals the Truth. 1997-98. Online. You like it? Click it! Good gracious! What assumptions we make and later realise rather late that other possibilities existed even then but our pre-experience assumption delayed our understanding. While scrolling in one of those FB account that I chanced upon a post which elicited a sense of revolt at post facto misuse of one’s image! I wanted to like it. That was an urine urge, a need to express but can’t be done openly, unless that post was on my ‘friends’ wall! The wall owner was not known to me. Would that be ok? Or would be it like an uninvited barge? A guest tolerated out of the civil magnanimity which sets in as one social climbs! Click! I saw MUTUAL FRIENDS! I liked it! I made that the pretext to click ‘like’. The deed was done? But something was rankling, how could that person be ‘mutual’ when I do not know that person? FB suggests that the friend is a friend of both the watcher and the watched! Wow! What a way to flatter an unknown person to be packaged as a ‘friend’! I am still reeling under the linguistic opportunism grabbed by the ever vigilant business sense of the FB TEAM. Thank you SJ, seen, read and illusioned! There was no such word till I contacted and meaninged it! That was six years since I quit virtual poker! The game was introduced to me by my son, who had by then run up a healthy 50,000$ to his credit. Having a greater credit of those virtual dollars allowed one an access to rooms where the stakes were high. David’s preference of FUNCTIONS OVER STRUCTURES! And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.39 And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him. The excerpted verses above are from I Samuel chapter 17 verses 38-40. The nascent greatness of King David comes out in these three verses. He was forced to shepherding the few sheep of his father and relegated to a job not to his liking. That he did an exemplary job of it, is more because he undertook the role as a protector of the ‘few sheep’ quite seriously, and in the process acquired skills which made him battle-worthy. His courage was not the offspring of his skills, but vice versa! I believe that to sustain his COURAGE, he has to stand alone and defend. Therefore he acquired those skills. Skills of slinging and fighting with wild animals. Neither his father nor his brothers knew or recognised his skills. When the need arose none, mind you, NONE OTHER, could convince Abner or Saul of his skill to match the might of Goliath , except DAVID. David proves that he could sling, with accuracy, intensity and without loss of time. THE THREE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS TO DEFEAT GOLIATH. David saw in Goliath what the veterans like Saul and Abner couldn’t see. Goliath’s missile based weapon was a heavy spear. The rest were all dog-fight weapons. But David himself had a sling, which was missile based. He could strike from a distance and if accurate and intense, the results would be imminent. He got it right. David’s greatest challenge was to REFUSE THE SWORD, THE BRASS HELMET AND THE COAT OF MAIL OF SAUL! To be recognised by the King itself is a great challenge, with his brothers belittling him, his challenge was aggravated. In these circumstances he succeeds in convincing the Army chief and the King. Saul after testing his skills, makes David wear his own armour- a man of lesser mettle, to please the King would have ACQUIESCED! The armour, helmet and the sword ENCUMBERED HIS SKILLS! That recognition coupled with a courage to REFUSE the accoutrements of the rank holders in the army was his greatness. It was not a refusal to show that he was great with a sling , but a realisation that HE SHOULD NOT ENCUMBER HIMSELF WITH STRUCTURES WHICH WOULD HAMPER HIS SKILLS! David gently and tactfully rejects the armour of Saul, not an easy task! David says : I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him. The result was of epic proportions. David made Goliath, in the English language a symbol of enormity. David proved that SKILL BASED FUNCTIONS should not be hampered by UNSUITED STRUCTURES! The bamboo was wondering why God made it so different? God said, “Stop questioning me. Do you know what the banyans go through? Do you know how many survive to rise to that level as the one you know? Talk not of things you CANNOT UNDERSTAND! Live and ask for fulfilment of your legitimate aspirations, not comparitive possibilities which arise out of your opportunities! Hector’s true tragedy was that he visualised his own defeat and Andromache being enslaved. As a warrior he never had a role to be a prophet. He reconciled to his lost cause much before he took up the challenge. May be there was a justification to his death, but he had no business to foresee that eventuality. Eventualities are to be gone through, but not to be pondered upon! Hector had embedded the app of DEATH & DEFEAT into his consciousness and that beckoned him to a cause for which he was neither prepared in resources or belief!

2019-04-18T17:17:13Z

https://movid.wordpress.com/2015/11/

This year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup produced an exciting winner in the shape of Al Boum Photo, who travelled smoothly throughout and stayed on well up the hill to hold off the late challenge of the fast-finishing Anibale Fly. Al Boum Photo also became trainer Willie Mullins’ first winner in the race. The meeting began with another winner in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle for Mullins, Klassical Dream proving much too good for his rivals in what was an open renewal. Mullins didn’t have to wait long for his next winner, coming just 40 minutes later when Duc des Genievres won the Arkle in impressive fashion. Both Glen Forsa and Kalashnikov, who were fancied in the market, failed to complete. Wednesday’s Champion Chase again went to the outstanding Altior, who maintained his unbeaten record over jumps without having to be at his best. The Ryanair Chase on Thursday produced a terrific story, Bryony Frost and Frodon magnificent together again to fend off all challengers, with Frost becoming the first women to win a Grade 1 event over hurdles or fences at the Cheltenham Festival in the process. The same afternoon’s Stayers’ Hurdle was won by hot favourite Paisley Park. The 2018 Cheltenham Gold Cup lived up to its billing as a match between Native River and Might Bite, with Native River possessing too much stamina for his rival. The win was the first in the race for Colin Tizzard , having previously gone close with Cue Card. The meeting began with a great tussle between Kalashnikov and Summerville Boy in the 2018 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, with the last-named emerging victorious, while the feature race on the Tuesday, the 2018 Champion Hurdle, was won for the second successive season by Buveur d’Air . Wednesday’s 2018 Champion Chase went to Altior , while the following afternoon’s 2018 Stayers’ Hurdle was won by Penhill, the previous year’s Albert Bartlett winner. The 2018 Ryanair Chase also went back to Ireland, with Balko des Flos beating the previous year’s winner Un de Sceaux. In terms of Timeform ratings, the 2017 Cheltenham Gold Cup was one of the lesser renewals, but it still featured a good story. Sizing John had spent most of his career over fences chasing home Douvan over two miles, but he relished the step up in trip when beating Minella Rocco and Native River. The 2017 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle also went to Ireland, as they dominated the meeting, with the temperamental Labaik putting it all together on the big day. The same afternoon’s 2017 Champion Hurdle was one back for Britain, as Buveur d’Air emerged on top, but it was business as usual in the 2017 Champion Chase 24 hours later with Special Tiara winning for Henry de Bromhead. The Willie Mullins-trained Nichols Canyon won the 2017 Stayers’ Hurdle, while the 2017 Ryanair Chase was won the same yard’s Un de Sceaux . Irish trainers saddled a 1-2-3 in the 2016 Cheltenham Gold Cup, with the Gordon Elliott-trained Don Cossack producing the best performance in the race since Imperial Commander. The Willie Mullins duo of Djakadam and Don Poli filled the places, with the former finishing runner-up for the second year in a row. The Nicky Henderson-trained Altior broke Mullins’ stranglehold on the race when landing the 2016 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, while there was also joy for his stablemate Sprinter Sacre who reduced his trainer to tears when beating Un de Sceaux and Special Tiara and regaining his crown in the 2016 Champion Chase. Annie Power won the 2016 Champion hurdle, becoming the first mare to win the race since Flakey Dove in 1994, and the fourth in total. The fellow Rich Ricci-owned Vautour won the 2016 Ryanair Chase, while Thistlecrack underlined his class when winning the 2016 Stayers’ Hurdle. On Timeform ratings, Douvan’s win in the 2015 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle was the best for some time, and it was quickly followed with another standout win in the 2015 Champion Hurdle a couple of hours later by stablemate Faugheen . For a change, though, Irish trainers generally played second fiddle to their British counterparts. Coneygree produced a fine round of jumping to win the 2018 Cheltenham Gold Cup, providing Mark Bradstock with easily his finest moment as a trainer, and rounding off a week that also saw wins for Dodging Bullets in the 2015 Champion Chase, Uxizandre in the 2015 Ryanair Chase, and Cole Harden in the 2015 Stayers’ Hurdle. The 2014 Cheltenham Gold Cup was won by Jim Culloty’s Lord Windermere , although on Timeform ratings it was the weakest renewal for several decades. That won’t have mattered to Culloty, though, the former jockey who won three consecutive Gold Cups with Best Mate at the beginning of the century. In winning with Lord Windermere, he became just the fourth person to both train and ride a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner. More Of That provided Jonjo O’Neill, another former jockey, with success in the 2014 Stayers’ Hurdle, while Sire de Grugy gave the Moore family plenty to cheer when winning the 2014 Champion Chase; he was trained by dad Gary and ridden by son Jamie. Vautour saw off two Nicky Henderson runners when winning the 2014 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, with Jezki leading home My Tent Or Yours in a one-two for owner J.P. McManus in the same afternoon’s 2014 Champion Hurdle. Hurricane Fly regained his crown when winning the 2013 Champion Hurdle, silencing the doubters having managed only third place the previous season. Willie Mullins also won the 2013 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, his Champagne Fever beating My Tent Or Yours into second, but the 2013 Cheltenham Festival belonged to that horse’s trainer Nicky Henderson. The ‘Black Aeroplane’ Sprinter Sacre produced a performance for the ages when winning the 2013 Champion Chase, while Bobs Worth showed great tenacity to win the 2013 Cheltenham Gold Cup under Barry Geraghty, the man who had bought the horse several years earlier. Solwhit produced a smooth performance when winning the 2013 Stayers’ Hurdle, while Cue Card landed the 2013 Ryanair Chase. The 2012 Cheltenham Gold Cup was the scene of one of the best Cheltenham Festival rides, as A.P. McCoy managed to get Synchronised up for a thrilling win, despite the horse having been under pressure for over a circuit of the track. The 2012 Cheltenham Festival was a notable success for British-trained horses, with the Donald McCain-trained Cinders And Ashes setting the tone when landing the opening 2012 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. Paul Nicholls trained Rock On Ruby to win the 2012 Champion Hurdle, but it was the yard’s Big Buck’s who stole all of the headlines when landing his fourth consecutive Stayers’ Hurdle. Nicky Henderson continued the dominance of the home team by winning the 2012 Champion Chase with Finian’s Rainbow and the 2012 Ryanair Chase with Riverside Theatre, a horse that was part-owned by Cold Feet actor James Nesbitt. Albertas Run stole the show at the 2011 Cheltenham Festival when winning the 2011 Ryanair Chase, his second win in the race in a row. Sizing Europe gained reward for his consistency when taking the 2011 Champion Chase, beating the previous year’s hero Big Zeb, while Ireland also enjoyed success in the 2011 Champion Hurdle with Hurricane Fly providing Ruby Walsh with his first win in the race. Walsh was also in the spotlight when guiding Al Ferof to victory in the 2011 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, as well as when piloting Big Buck’s to a bloodless win in the 2011 Stayers’ Hurdle, the horse’s third win in the contest. Walsh was out of luck in the 2011 Cheltenham Gold Cup, though, his mount Kauto Star only able to fill third on his return to a race he’d won in 2007 and 2009. Instead the finish involved one horse: Long Run . He provided trainer Nicky Henderson with a first Gold Cup, whilst Sam Waley-Cohen became the first amateur to win the race for some 30 years. The 2008 champion Denman, who was second in both 2009 and 2010, had to settle for the same position once again. Imperial Commander was a popular winner of the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup, trained in nearby Naunton by local trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies. He stayed on best to beat the Paul Nicholls-trained Denman , who finished runner-up for the second year in a row. Imperial Commander’s success was a first win in the race for both Twiston-Davies and jockey Paddy Brennan , and it came a year after the pair had teamed up to win the 2009 Ryanair Chase with Imperial Commander. Big Zeb became the first Irish winner of the Champion Chase since 2006 when winning the 2010 Champion Chase, while the 2010 Stayers’ Hurdle saw Big Buck’s comfortably repeat his win in the same race 12 months earlier. The 2010 Champion Hurdle was won by the Nicky Henderson-trained Binocular , who improved on his effort the previous season when he filled third place behind his stablemate Punjabi. The 2010 Ryanair Chase was won by Albertas Run. The Noel Meade-trained Go Native got the meeting off to good start for the large contingent of Irish racing fans that had travelled over the Irish Sea, but that was to be as good as it got. The 2009 Champion Hurdle was won by Punjabi , trained by Nicky Henderson, but it was his main rival Paul Nicholls who dominated the Cheltenham Festival once again. His Master Minded followed up his win a year earlier when beating Well Chief in the 2009 Champion Chase, while stablemate Big Buck’s continued his resurgence over hurdles – having not taken too well to fences – when landing the 2009 Stayers’ Hurdle. However, it was Kauto Star and Denman who starred in the 2009 Cheltenham Gold Cup, the former staying on strongly up the hill to become the first horse to regain the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The 2009 Ryanair Chase also went to a British-trained runner, with Imperial Commander fending off his compatriot Voy Por Ustedes – who had been second in the previous year’s Champion Chase – late on. Robert Thornton enjoyed plenty of success at the 2008 Cheltenham Festival, recording wins on Captain Cee Bee in the 2008 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and aboard Katchit in the 2008 Champion Hurdle, the latter becoming the first five-year-old to win the race since See You Then in 1985. However, the standout performance of the Festival came from Inglis Drever , who won his third Stayers’ Hurdle. Trained in the North East of England by Howard Johnson , Inglis Drever was ridden by three different jockeys on all three of his Cheltenham Festival wins. Another impressive performance came in the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup, with Denman bulldozering his way to the biggest win of his career, inflicting a heavy defeat on the previous year’s winner (and his own stablemate) Kauto Star in the process. The win was a poignant one for winning rider Sam Thomas, who had attracted criticism for his ride on Kauto Star earlier in his career. There was better fortune for Kauto Star’s owner Clive Smith in the 2008 Champion Chase, which was won by his star two-mile chaser Master Minded . The 2008 Ryanair Chase was won by the previous year’s runner-up Our Vic . Sublimity , trained by John Carr and ridden by Philip Carberry, continued the Irish dominance in the Champion Hurdle, winning the 2007 renewal from the previous year’s winner Brave Inca. There was also Irish joy in the 2007 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, with Ebaziyan beating British-trained runners Granit Jack and Amaretto Rose into second and third respectively, but Voy Por Ustedes struck a blow for the home team when winning the 2007 Champion Chase 24 hours later. His win was followed by victories for Taranis (Paul Nicholls) in the 2007 Ryanair Chase and Inglis Drever in the 2007 Stayers’ Hurdle, and the British comeback was completed when Kauto Star announced himself as the leading staying chaser of the era when beating Exotic Dancer and Turpin Green in the 2007 Cheltenham Gold Cup. The win was a first in the race for leading jockey Ruby Walsh , and a second for the horse’s trainer Paul Nicholls, following the victory of See More Business in 1999. The hat-trick seeking Hardy Eustace found a couple of horses too good as he attempted to record another win in the Champion Hurdle, though the 2006 renewal stayed in Ireland as the Colm Murphy-trained Brave Inca saw off Jessica Harrington’s Macs Joy. Another of the major races stayed in Ireland, as Newmill led home Fota Island in the 2006 Champion Chase, while War Of Attrition was loudly cheered home by the travelling Irish horse racing fans in the 2006 Cheltenham Gold Cup. The 2006 Stayers’ Hurdle was won by My Way De Solzen , while the 2006 Ryanair Chase also stayed in England thanks to victory for Fondmort. Trained by Nicky Henderson, Fondmort had chased home Thisthatandtother 12 months earlier. Noland won the 2006 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. Harchibald followed up his win in the same race 12 months earlier when landing the 2005 Champion Hurdel, beating compatriots Harchibald and Brave Inca into second and third respectively, in what was one of the great Cheltenham Festival races. The first three home were separated by two necks, with Harchibald looking likely to win 100 yards out when still on the bridle. However, this enigmatic sort found much less off the bridle than had looked likely and it was the gutsy Hardy Eustace who showed true grit to win the race for the second year in a row. Brave Inca , who had won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle 12 months earlier, lost nothing in defeat in third. Arcalis landed the 2005 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. The 2005 Champion Chase also served up a terrific three-way battle, with the 2003 winner Moscow Flyer rewarding favourite backers with a performance for the ages. He beat Well Chief into second, with the previous year’s winner Azertyuiop 13 lengths back in third. The inaugural running of the Ryanair Chase went to Thisthatandtother , while the 2005 Stayers’ Hurdle saw Inglis Drever beat the two-time winner Baracouda. Kicking King won the 2005 Cheltenham Gold Cup. Best Mate made history when becoming the first horse since Arkle in the 1960s to win three consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups, though both horses were some way behind Golden Miller who recorded five consecutive wins in the race in the 1930s. Having won the race 12 months earlier, Rooster Booster had to settle for second place behind Hardy Eustace in the 2004 Champion Hurdle, while the 2004 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle saw a classy Irish-trained one-two as Brave Inca beat War of Attrition. Azertyuiop won the 2004 Champion Chase, while the hat-trick seeking Baracouda found just one too good as Iris’s Gift reversed the previous year’s form when winning the 2004 Stayers’ Hurdle for Jonjo O’Neill and Barry Geraghty. Native Upmanship had to settle for second place once more in the Champion Chase, as he chased home Moscow Flyer in the 2003 renewal, 12 months after filling the same spot behind Flagship Uberalles. Baracouda followed up his win in the race a year earlier when landing the 2003 Stayers’ Hurdle, while the same pattern occurred in the Cheltenham Gold Cup as Best Mate retained his crown with a comprehensive beating of Truckers Tavern. The 2003 Champion Hurdle saw a new name etched on the trophy, with Rooster Booster quickening clear to beat Westender by 11 lengths, providing his trainer Philip Hobbs with a first win in the race. The previous year’s Champion Hors La Loi III disgraced himself by refusing to race. The 2003 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle went the way of Back In Front , who led home and Irish one-two when beating Kicking King. France gained a notable Cheltenham Festival winner when the Francoi Doumen-trained Baracouda landed the 2002 Stayers’ Hurdle, the first French-trained winner of one of the big races since the same yard won the Cheltenham Gold Cup with The Fellow in 1994. The 2002 renewal of the Cheltenham Gold Cup was won by the Henrietta Knight-trained Best Mate , with former winner See More Business third. Commanche Court split the pair. The 2002 Champion Chase was won by Flagship Uberalles , who was third a year earlier, while the 2002 Champion Hurdle was also won by a horse that was placed the previous season: Hors La Loi III went one place better when beating Marble Arch and Bilboa. The great Istabraq , bidding for a fourth win in the race, was sent off favourite but was pulled up after two hurdles and retired after the race. There was better fortune for his owner JP McManus when Like-A-Butterfly won the 2002 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. The Aidan O’Brien-trained Istabraq recorded his fourth straight win at the Cheltenham Festival, and third in the Champion Hurdle, when winning the 2000 renewal by four lengths from Hors La Loi III. It was the first time a horse had won the race three years in a row since See You Then back in the 1980s. The Noel Meade-trained Sausalito Bay beat Best Mate in the 2000 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, while there was joy for another Noel as the Noel Chance-trained Looks Like Trouble saw off Cheltenham Festival regular Florida Pearl in the 2000 Cheltenham Gold Cup. Bacchanal provided Nicky Henderson and Mick Fitzgerald with a win in the 2000 Stayers’ Hurdle, beating Limestone Lad into second, while Edredon Bleu won the 2000 Champion Chase.

2019-04-25T09:55:33Z

https://www.timeform.com/cheltenham-festival/results

Methods and apparatus are described for detecting social relationships across multiple networks and/or communication channels. These social relationships may then be utilized in a wide variety of ways to support and enhance a broad range of user services. The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/019,215 filed Jan. 4, 2008, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. The present invention relates to social networks on the Web and, in particular, to techniques for aggregating social network data from multiple disparate sources. Many users of the World Wide Web are members of multiple networks of users, each of which is typically controlled by a service provider which exercises exclusive control over its data, including data representing connections between its members. Examples of such networks include, for example, Yahoo!®, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Given this state of affairs, there is typically a considerable amount of data representing the social network of a given user that is not apparent or available to each of the different service providers. As a result, neither the user nor the service providers are able to leverage the full potential of the user's social connections. According to the present invention, techniques are provided by which social relationships of individuals are identified and leveraged to support a broad range of functionality. According to a specific embodiment, methods and apparatus are provided for identifying social relationships for a first user operating in a first network context controlled by a first entity. An identity of the first user is generated with reference to a first data source associated with the first network context and under control of the first entity, and at least one external data source outside of the first network context and not under control of the first entity. A plurality of contacts having a relationship with the first user are identified with reference to the first data source, the at least one external data source, and the identity of the first user. First ones of the contacts are not identifiable from the first data source. A relevancy measure is determined for each of the contacts which represents a relevance of the relationship between the first user and the contact. The relevancy measure for each contact is determined with reference to one or more of the first data source or the at least one external data source. According to another specific embodiment, methods and apparatus are provided for identifying social relationships for a first user operating in a first network context controlled by a first entity. A plurality of contacts having a relationship with the first user is presented to the first user. The plurality of contacts were determined with reference to a first data source associated with the first network context and under control of the first entity, at least one external data source outside of the first network context and not under control of the first entity, and an identity of the first user. The identity was determined with reference to the first data source and the at least one external data source. First ones of the contacts are not identifiable from the first data source. The plurality of contacts is presented in accordance with a relevancy measure associated with each of the contacts which represents a relevance of the relationship between the first user and the associated contact. The relevancy measure for each contact was determined with reference to one or more of the first data source or the at least one external data source. According to some embodiments, aggregation of vitality across multiple contexts is enabled. According to further embodiments, each external data source employs a permissioning model for controlling access to information associated with the external data source. The permissioning models for the various external data sources are aggregated thereby enabling access to the information associated with each external data source according to its corresponding permissioning model. FIGS. 1-3 are screen shots illustrating a process flow in accordance with a specific embodiment of the invention. FIG. 4 is a simplified network diagram illustrating a computing context in which embodiments of the invention may be implemented. FIGS. 5-18 are screen shots illustrating a process flow in accordance with a specific embodiment of the invention. FIGS. 19 and 20 are representations of interfaces which may be employed with embodiments of the invention. FIGS. 21-25 are mobile screen shots illustrating a process flow in accordance with another specific embodiment of the invention. According to various embodiments of the invention, methods and apparatus are provided which are operable to detect both manifest and latent social relationships for a given user across multiple networks or communication channels, e.g., social networks, portals, communication or messaging systems, etc. These social relationships may then be utilized in a wide variety of ways to support and/or enhance a broad range of user services. Manifest relationships may be represented, for example, by explicit connections between the user and identities or identity tokens associated with other users (e.g., in address books, contacts lists, buddy lists, etc.). Latent relationship are, in general, less explicit and may be represented, for example, by communications patterns or mutual friend connections. Embodiments of the invention leverage both latent and manifest social relationships, and represent a shift away from a “network-centric” or “channel-centric” model of connection to a “person-centric” model that works across multiple social networks, and communication and vitality channels. As will be discussed, the various types of latent and manifest social relationships may be detected in a variety of ways. In addition, embodiments of the invention enable the aggregation of vitality from a wide variety of sources. Vitality refers to events or actions (e.g., publication of content, changes in status, installation and use of applications, etc.) corresponding to a particular individual or group of individuals, e.g., what a user's contacts are doing on the Web. Vitality may be distinguished from messaging-type connections in that, for example, an email explicitly defines a group of recipients who have permission to read the email. By contrast, vitality is a broadcast form of communication based on user actions which has an implicit set of recipients defined by a graph of social relations. This graph of social relations may be labeled and/or subdivided according to categorical labels such as “friends”, “family”, “school”, “work”, and/or many other group or organization-based affiliation. So, the “recipients” of an individual's vitality are defined a priori, and typically receive notifications of the publication of content as it occurs for which the recipients already have implicit permission to consume the content. Embodiments of the invention which enable the aggregation of vitality allow users to see vitality events (e.g., status text updates, photo uploads, application installs, etc.) associated with their contacts across networks and/or communication channels by leveraging existing permissions and privacy models of the various networks and/or channels to access, aggregate, and display the vitality. An example may be instructive. Two users might be explicitly connected in the Yahoo!® network in that they email each other using Yahoo!® mail. The same two users might also have several other connections, e.g., Flickr contacts, Facebook friends, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, etc., some of which may be characterized as manifest, and some of which may be characterized as latent. When one of the users initiates the Connections Activator (e.g., using the “Simplify Your Inbox!” button in FIG. 1), the Connections Activator first determines who the initiating user is. According to one set of embodiments, this is done by searching the current network context, e.g., the Yahoo!® network (and in particular utilizing the logged-in identity of the user on the Yahoo! network), as well as potentially leveraging the broader Web context (possibly some specified set of networks or properties on the Web), and gathering data by which the user may be identified, e.g., user profiles, pages and vitality produced on the current and other networks, etc.; any token of information which can be used to identify the user. The identity of the user may also be determined, at least in part, by requesting input from the user himself. This may include asking the user to specifically identify other networks, other properties in the current network, or other systems to which the user belongs or on which the user is represented in some way. The various data are then consolidated into a representation of the user. This may be presented to the user as shown, for example, in the Yahoo!® Mail interface of FIG. 2. Once the user has been identified, the next phase of activation may be initiated (e.g., using the “Activate your network” button in FIG. 2) during which the Connections Activator searches for and gathers data relating to others with whom the user interacts (on the current network, other properties on the current network, other networks or systems on the Web, etc.). These other individuals may be identified, for example, from communication patterns of the user, relationships with the user in the current context and other networks, address books, contact lists, vitality consumed by the user, etc. These data are then consolidated into representations of the people with whom the user has relationships. In some cases, a determination may need to be made as to whether identities or identity tokens in different networks correspond to the same person and, if so, whether those identities should be consolidated into a representation of a single person or “de-duplicated.” This might occur, for example, in situations in which a person uses different names in different networks. Consolidation may be automatic, manual (e.g., with input from the user), or semiautomatic in which the system and the user can interleave actions in the de-duplication process leveraging feedback from each other in the process. This de-duplication may be done by comparing identity tokens such as, for example, names, email addresses, phone numbers, etc. According to various embodiments, the gathering of data may be accomplished using a variety of techniques. For example, a data repository in the current network may have user profile data about the user, while another has a first name, last name, and email address of a contact. A repository in another network might have the first name and last name of that contact with other information, e.g., a phone number or a web page URL. Yet another repository in that other network might have additional information relating to the user himself. Each additional piece of information or token relating to the user can be added to the user's identity and used to identify other relevant information about the user and his relations to others. Similarly, each additional piece of information or token relating to other users may be used to augment their respective identities and to inform the construction of the social graph connecting them with the user. The manner in which in which such information is extracted may also vary considerably depending on a variety of factors. For example, the operator of the current network context obviously has direct and consistent access to the data repositories associated with that network. However, the nature of access to information on other networks may vary significantly depending on the relationships between the networks and/or the openness of the operators of the other networks. In some cases, a commercial relationship with an operator of another network may provide direct access to that network's data, or some more restricted level of access to the network, e.g., API level access. In other circumstances, e.g., where no relationship exists, techniques such as screen scraping, image recognition, and reverse optical character recognition may need to be used. Combinations of these approaches may also be employed. According to some embodiments, the individuals having relationships with a given user are prioritized, ranked, or sorted with reference to the relevance of the contact to the user, e.g., the closeness or intensity of the relationship, the type of relationship, or a group to which the individuals belong. These may be determined with reference to a wide variety of information including, for example, the recency, frequency, volume, and/or periodicity of communications between the individuals, the number of connections in different networks or properties, the type of networks in which the users are connected, the type of relationship (see below), etc. Once a relationship is detected (and possibly classified and/or consolidated), the relationship may also be confirmed. This may involve an explicit invitation to confirm the relationship sent to the user and/or the other person in the relationship. In one example, this may take the form of a list of people with whom the user has relationships (possibly sorted as described above) returned to the user for confirmation of each (see FIG. 3). According to some embodiments, the knowledge of the relationships may be utilized without confirmation. According to some embodiments, the Connections Activator utilizes a variety of information about the people corresponding to detected relationships and their interactions to determine that they have a relationship of a given type. Such information might include, for example, the nature and content of communications between the people, relationships they have with each other and other users on other networks (e.g., MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn), demographic information, etc. For example, a detected relationship may be classified as family, friend, acquaintance, business associate, etc., based on inferences from both the static data (e.g., contact information) as well as dynamic data (e.g., communication patterns). According to various embodiments, the Connections Activator builds a model of an implicit community of relations between human beings by mining the data about their extant relationships and communication patterns in other networks. This model, which in some embodiments is represented by a stack rank or grouping of human beings in relation to a given user, may then be used for a wide variety of purposes. For example, knowledge of such relationships may be used to aggregate vitality. That is, by identifying relationships in other networks, and by determining that multiple identities correspond to the same individual, embodiments of the present invention may be used to aggregate vitality produced by a particular individual across multiple networks. This is to be contrasted with the current state of affairs in which, in order to consume vitality produced by their friends in different networks, users must traverse all of the different networks. According to specific embodiments, aggregation of vitality is enabled by the aggregation of the permissioning models associated with the various sources of vitality. That is, sources of vitality such as social networks employ different models for enabling or restricting access to their users' content and information. Some employ relatively open models in which all or most members have access to some or all of the content and information of other network members. Some employ more restrictive models in which a member may limit access to specifically identified individuals, groups, or types of relations. When a user provides the Connections Activator with the requisite information for each of the networks or systems with which the user interacts, the Connections Activator is able to gain access to those networks and systems, and the content and information in those networks and systems, according to the permissioning model associated with each. By then recognizing that an individual with whom the user has contact in one context is the same person as an identity in another context, the Connections Activator is able to aggregate the vitality of that individual for the user regardless of the fact that the permissioning models in the different contexts may be radically different. Thus, according to specific embodiments, the Connections Activator enabled by the present invention effectively provides a single access control to content and information in a number of different contexts while preserving the permissioning models of each. According to some embodiments, information relating to social connections and relationships may be used to weight other types of behaviors on a network. That is, understanding to whom a user is related, and possibly the nature and intensity of the relationship as well, can enable a wide variety of functionality. For example, such information might be used to order, filter, or emphasize messages in an inbox, e.g., presenting emails or other communications types (e.g., voice mail, SMS, IM messages, etc.) in order from people with whom the user communicates most to people with whom the user communicates least. In another example, incoming messages could be assigned various levels of priority based on the closeness and/or type of the similar updating occurs with reference to Flickr (FIGS. 12 and 13), and then Twitter (FIGS. 14 and 15). In this way, the source user “declares” membership in the various networks and/or communication channels and the system links these various identity tokens of the source user together, thereby enabling the aggregation and/or consolidating of the source user's contacts from various contexts, the grouping and/or ranking of those contacts, as well as the aggregation of vitality and other forms of communications. FIGS. 16, 17, and 18 show the effects of the source user imposing different levels of filtering on the contacts list (i.e., from “none” to “low” to “medium” to “high”) which has the effect of reducing the number of contacts in the list. As discussed elsewhere herein, such filtering may be done with reference to the degree of closeness or the intensity of the relationship and/or communication activity between the source user and each of the contacts. Connections activation may occur in a variety of contexts according to various embodiments of the invention. One example is discussed above in which a user initiates the Connections Activator in the context of Yahoo!® Mail. However, it should be understood that this is merely one context in which connections activation may be useful. Other examples include virtually any messaging context, e.g., email, voice messaging, instant messaging, SMS, etc. According to a specific embodiment, it can be determined for any given communication channel whether a user has taken advantage of the Connections Activator to identify social relationships which might be used to enhance services in that channel. Further, relationships identified in other communication channels and/or network contexts may be leveraged to “activate” a new channel or context given the high probability of substantial overlap in the relationships between the different contexts. So, for example, if a user joins a new social networking site, the process of identifying people on the site with whom the user might want to connect can be facilitated using the present invention to identify relationships from other contexts which could be established in the new context. In addition, the consolidated identities of the people with whom a user is associated can be leveraged to “fill the holes” in the contact information or address books of the user. For example, if the user's email address book has only the email address of a particular contact, additional identity tokens from that contact's consolidated identity (e.g., phone numbers, addresses, screen names, etc.) could be used to fill out other fields in the address book entry. According to various embodiments, the Connections Activator creates an articulated graph of connections between people with weights and types connected to user actions in relation to content objects that are trackable. This connections graph can then be used as a filter in a variety of contexts including, for example, vitality generation and consumption, messaging, content consumption, content forwarding, etc. From a set of latent and manifest relationships, the Connections Activator creates a manifest graph of relationships, and iteratively refines and improves it over time to evolve a model of who the user is, who the user is connected to, how the user relates to those connections, and the types of transactions associated with those relationships. Embodiments of the present invention may be employed to identify and exploit social relationships and related data in any of a wide variety of computing contexts. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 4, implementations are contemplated in which the relevant population of users interact with a diverse network environment via any type of computer (e.g., desktop, laptop, tablet, etc.) 402, media computing platforms 403 (e.g., cable and satellite set top boxes and digital video recorders), handheld computing devices (e.g., PDAs) 404, cell phones 406, or any other type of computing or communication platform. And according to various embodiments, user data processed in accordance with the invention may be collected using a wide variety of techniques. For example, collection of data representing a user's interaction with a web site or web-based application or service (e.g., the number of page views) may be accomplished using any of a variety of well known mechanisms for recording a user's online behavior. User data may be mined directly or indirectly, or inferred from data sets associated with any network or communication system on the Internet. And notwithstanding these examples, it should be understood that such methods of data collection are merely exemplary and that user data may be collected in many ways. Once collected, the user data may be processed in some centralized manner. This is represented in FIG. 4 by server 408 and data store 410 which, as will be understood, may correspond to multiple distributed devices and data stores. The invention may also be practiced in a wide variety of network environments including, for example, TCP/IP-based networks, telecommunications networks, wireless networks, etc. These networks, as well as the various social networking sites and communication systems from which connection data may be aggregated according to the invention are represented by network 412. Some of the characteristics of an example implementation in the context of the Yahoo!® network will now be described. At least some of the features and functionalities described below may be understood with reference to FIGS. 5-18 mentioned above, as well as FIGS. 19 and 20. According to this implementation, the user's data on the Yahoo!® network are mined to provide related services such as, for example, making recommendations on other users with which the user may be interested in connecting, or providing an easy way to populate the user's address book based on his aggregated contact list. This implementation takes advantage of the rich data that the user has in multiple places at Yahoo!® as well as outside the Yahoo!® network. As discussed above, the Connections Activator of this implementation is operable to de-duplicate data around a contact even if it is from different sources. Examples of unique identifiers that indicate the same person are email address, cell phone number, home phone number, and first name+last name. Since the list for most users is relatively small, the risk of mistakes is acceptable and can be easily corrected by the user. In determining a ranking for each relationship, various aspects of each relationship may be given different weights. For example, two-way relationships may be given a higher weight than one-way relationships. Contacts with similar attributes, e.g., same last name, university name, etc., may also be weighted more heavily. In addition, if an identity token (e.g., an email id or cell phone number) in the user's address book belongs to a known user in the network, then the known user's data may be leveraged to consolidate other identifiers for that user. The goal is to generate a list of contacts—where possible getting the contacts directly (e.g., from the user's address book, Yahoo!® Messenger buddy list, etc.), but also mining other sources to augment the contact list, e.g., the user's email store as well as external sources. These aggregated data are normalized by giving rarer data higher weight. For example, if someone is using an address book they will likely have all the mobile number fields for all their contacts, so the weight associated with a mobile number may go down for that user. Weights may be defined at a global level, but in some cases it may be advisable to allow different emphases for different sets of users to reflect their specific needs. For instance, in some emerging markets, mobile phones are more popular than land lines so the weights for mobile numbers in such markets may be deemphasized. According to a specific embodiment, the attributes which are weighted are presented to the user on a slider control (or the equivalent) along with the default weights. The user can then move the slider around and change the weights and the contact list refreshes with the new weights. When the user is done, these weights may be saved as specific to the user. Machine learning may be incorporated at either or both of the user level and the system level. For example, the system may be configured to learn based on the contacts that a user accepts or rejects, and the categories that the user accepts, renames or changes. Each contact recommended may include summary info (e.g., consolidated from all sources) and controls for taking action with respect to each (e.g., “Invite,” “Reject,” or “Later” buttons). The user may be enabled to accept all, reject all, and customize in between. The “Invite” button triggers an invite flow. The “Reject” button results in the contact being excluded from being shown as a recommendation in the future. The “Later” button allows the contact to be recommended again (assuming it meets the standard relevancy criteria). This implementation of the Connections Activator may run periodically (with a configurable period), refreshing information from on and off Yahoo!® sites, and updating the relevance. Communication feeds (e.g., from mail providers and Messenger logs) may be employed to improve accuracy. On either a user activated import, or a behind-the-scenes periodic import, this implementation of the Connections Activator retrieves data from the set of internal and/or external networks and/or systems identified or associated with the user. The Connections Activator then requests from an authentication system the appropriate set of third party credentials, which may or may not be persistently stored. For a source user, i.e., the user initiating the import, who is identified from a globally unique identifier (GUID), the Yahoo!® internal contact lists is imported, as well as the authenticated third party contact lists that the user has approved for import. After import, certain lists can be made available to the user's address book if the user has selected that option. The Global Contact List is an ordered list of contacts for a given source user identified via GUID. The targets in the contact list are not necessarily GUID-based, each entry including a set of identifiers that are guessed and/or confirmed to be the same entity if multiple identifiers exists for that entry. Best guesses are applied to non-registered users in order to de-duplicate them from information offered only in the source user's data, e.g., two imported entries having the same email addresses. The GUID database may be consulted to support de-duplication by identifying relationships that may not be inferable from best guess analysis (e.g., matching email address, cell phone number, first name, last name, etc.). The import operation may be rerun to refresh the contact list. If at some point, the source user decides to opt out of a particular network or system, references to that integration source are removed from the global contact list on a subsequent import. As discussed above, a set of weights is associated with each contact, and a total weight for the contact is calculated. Each integration source has a positive or negative weight associated with it. A high positive indicates a strong relationship, and negative indicates a weak relationship. The total weight is computed by summing all of the contributing weights for each entry. Weights are higher for entries that come from multiple integration sources, but each integration source might contribute to the weight differently. A suggested contact list based on the de-duped and ranked global contact list is returned to the user for activation. The suggested contact list might be derived, for example, by subtracting entries from the global contact list for which the source user has already taken action, e.g., entries which are already in a two-way connection set, entries which were previously invited but either were denied or are still pending, etc. From the suggested contact list, the source user generates a mesh of a set of targets which may or may not be registered in the Yahoo!® network. This may be accomplished, for example, by the source user marking a checkbox associated with each entry to indicate the desire to send an invitation for connection to the associated contact (e.g., an email which includes a link). A mechanism may also be provided by which the source user can indicate a desire to ignore the suggested connection, in which case that entry would no longer appear in the list. Another form of connections activation is “mesh” activation in which a single user can activate social connections for an interconnected set of contacts. A mesh activation database stores the set of targets as well as the source user who is simply considered as one of the contacts in the group. Each entry includes 3 fields, a mesh group id, a user identifier (a GUID or some other identity token, e.g., an email address), and an action state indicating “accepted,” “denied,” or “pending.” Another table associates the mesh group id with the mesh group creation time. On creation of the mesh, the source user is in the “accepted” state by default. All other contacts or users in the mesh group are initially in the “pending” state. When other users in the mesh group accept the invitation, they are connected to everyone in the group that has already accepted and placed in the “accepted” state. An accepting user is placed in the same state as a user that has accepted the invitation from everyone in the mesh group that has also accepted, and sends out an invitation to the remaining members of the group. When users in the mesh group deny the invitation, they are placed in the “denied” state. When all users in the mesh are either in the “accepted” or “denied” state, the mesh invitation is complete, and the non-accepting entries can then be removed. For contacts in the pending state, invitations are resent when those contacts have been in the “pending” state for some configurable period of time, e.g., 15 days. The mesh invitation is considered completed if all users are either in the “accepted” or “denied” state, or in the “pending” state longer than another configurable period of time, e.g., 30 days. The non-accepting entries can then be removed. As will be understood, a wide variety of user interface features may be employed in conjunction with various embodiments of the present invention (see, for example, the interfaces of FIGS. 1-3 and 5-18). According to the implementation described in the immediately preceding paragraphs, and as shown in FIG. 19, each of the proposed connections in the suggested contacts list is represented with an image, a first name, and a last name. A detailed view of each proposed connection may also be presented which includes other available information such as, for example, an email address, phone number, category, network affiliation, connection to connection, etc. Icons may also be presented which indicate whether the contact is already in a particular social network. This information is particularly relevant when the source user is inviting friends to sign up for a new social network. Icons indicating the source of the data for a given contact may also be included, as well as mechanisms for adding or removing sources. For example, as shown in FIGS. 5-18, a drop down menu may be provided from which the source user can select from among available sources. Alternatively, a page devoted to adding or removing sources may be presented as shown in FIG. 20. The sources include the Yahoo!® network and possibly specific properties within the Yahoo!® network, external sources (e.g., other networks, social networking sites, communication systems, etc.), as well as any address book or contact information which may be resident on the user's device or remotely stored. Each may be presented in with an associated logo and source name. Detailed views for each source may be presented which include input fields by which the source user may provide any necessary login or password information so that the Connections Activator may gain access to the sources of additional data. According to one embodiment, a control is associated with the contact list which allows the user to affect the number of contacts displayed. An example is shown in FIG. 19 in which a slider is provided which represents the range of closeness of relationships that moves from “Closest” to “All” which has the effect of filtering the number of contacts displayed based on the normalized weight scale. Initially, a default number of contacts (e.g., 50) are displayed with the default being reflected in the position of the slider. It should be noted that the source user can enter the Connections Activator flow from various points and contexts. For example, the source user may not be a member of the Yahoo!® network. In such a case, the Connections Activator will not be able to mine existing data about the user (e.g., identity tokens) from Yahoo!® databases until the user registers. Alternatively, an existing Yahoo!® member may enter the flow for the first time or as a repeat user via a supplemental registration process. In addition, the source user can enter the flow from a variety of contexts. For example, the flow can begin in Yahoo!® Mail. Alternatively, the flow can be initiated from the user's Yahoo!® 360 page. Another alternative is the flow may be entered from the Yahoo! oneConnect mobile service. The flow may even be entered from an external network or system. According to one embodiment, a connections activation flow may even be initiated by the system itself. For example, if a pattern of communication is detected between a particular user and a fixed group, the user can be offered the ability to use the Connections Activator to activate her connections in the typical “hub and spokes” topology (user is the hub, spokes connect the user to her connections). Alternatively, the user may create a mesh group as described above. This mesh group activation process provides an easy way for the user to communicate with this group of users, but will also send out invitations to each of the members of the group to connect with every other member of the group (if they are not already connected). By accepting membership into this group, the user agrees to be connected to every other member of that group. According to various embodiments, the relevance of a connection may not only be based on its social nature (i.e., the “Who”), but on various other characteristics as well, e.g., its spatial aspect (i.e., the “Where”), its temporal aspect (the “When”), and/or its topical (i.e., the “What”) aspect. The relevance of these additional spatial, temporal, and topical aspects may be determined by analyzing the similarity of these aspects among contacts as well as patterns of these similarities within and among the respective social, spatial, temporal, and topical aspects. For example, embodiments are contemplated which are operable to group contacts by spatial and temporal proximity, i.e., contacts which are currently near the user's location. Spatial information may be readily determined with reference to, for example, location and/or proximity data associated with mobile devices, GPS systems, etc. Temporal information is also widely available in the various systems which may be aggregated in accordance with the invention. Topical information related to a contact is available from a variety of sources including, but not limited to, the content of the communications among contacts as well as explicit profile data (such as declared interests) expressed on a contact's profile on one or more social network services. Moreover, given the dynamic nature of the various types of metadata associated with individuals and relationships, the relevance algorithm employed to group or rank contacts may recompute the relevance measures periodically and/or in response to changes in metadata. This may result in information which is more contextually relevant to the user. An example of an implementation embodying such concepts will now be described with reference to FIGS. 21-25. This example, referred to in the drawings as Yahoo! oneConnect, is implemented in the context of a mobile device, and is operable to aggregate not only vitality, but various forms of direct communication, e.g., instant messaging, SMS, email, voice, etc., using the contact information associated with each contact. The screens of FIG. 21 show a flow by which contacts associated with the user's Facebook account can be aggregated along with those from other networks and communications channels using the user's login information for Facebook (screen 2102). And once the user's networks and/or channels are aggregated, a variety of different views of the available information may be presented according to various schema. For example, conversations with the user's contacts in various communication channels may be presented as shown in FIG. 22(A). In another example, the current status of the user's contacts in various networks may be presented as shown in FIG. 22(B). The information presented may also be filtered with reference to a single contact. That is, the vitality and/or events relating to a single contact aggregated from some or all of the networks and/or communication channels may be presented in a single view as shown in FIG. 22(C) by selecting that contact. The user may also be enabled to modify his current status in some or all of the networks or communication channels with which he is associated via the mechanism illustrated in FIG. 22(D). The screens of FIG. 23 illustrate a flow by which a user may select the grouping by which he filters and/or views his contacts. As illustrated in screen 2302, options might include groups defined by the user himself, as well as “Smart Groups” which correspond to a grouping inferred by the system from any of the various data available to the system. User-defined groups might include, for example, Friends and Work groups. Smart Groups might include, for example, a group including all of the user's contacts as identified and aggregated by the system, the most recent contacts with whom the user has been communicating, contacts currently online, contacts which are nearby from a geographic perspective, etc. By selecting Nearby contacts, the user may view aggregated vitality from his contacts sorted by distance and/or within some programmable threshold distance as illustrated in screen 2304. The user may also be presented with information regarding other people in proximity to the user but which may not yet be identified as a contact for that user. Such individuals may be identified, for example, because they also use the oneConnect service. The nearby contacts may then be viewed by the user in a variety of ways such as, for example, in terms of ongoing conversations (2306), or current status in various networks (2308). According to some embodiments, the user may view his contacts and their vitality in terms of their most recent activity in any of the various networks and/or communication channels which have been aggregated, e.g., the “Pulse” view shown in screen 2310. The Pulse view may indicate the nature and/or content of the activity, as well as the context and the time at which it occurred. In the example of screen 2310, the nature of the activity is a change to the contact's status in Facebook. FIG. 24 shows some additional examples of contacts presented in a Pulse view. The screen of FIG. 24(A) includes events relating to any of the user's contacts and is sorted by time. The screen of FIG. 24(B) includes events which are further filtered by geographic proximity to the user's current location. As indicated, such events might include the posting of content (e.g., photos in Flickr, social network posts), actions taken (e.g., tagging a photo, rating a song, installing an application), updating profiles (e.g., adding a job title or new contact information), etc. Virtually any activity within any of the networks or communication channels may be represented. And because embodiments of the present invention aggregate permissioning models as described above, implementations are contemplated by which users can interact with the various networks of which they are members, as well as communicate via the various channels they employ in a single interface. An example of this is illustrated by the flow in FIG. 25 in which a user is engaging in an online messaging session with a contact in one network and is able to change mid-conversation by selecting another network. In addition, activity inferred from data associated with a particular network or communication channel may be presented. For example, because the location of a contact's mobile device can be known (if appropriate permissions are granted), the movements of that contact in the physical world may be represented (e.g., the contact traveling from Hamburg to Barcelona). While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that changes in the form and details of the disclosed embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. For example, the contexts and data sources to which the descriptions of various embodiments herein refer should not be considered to limit the scope of the invention. Rather, any context in which social relationships may be detected and used, and any data source which can support the basic functionality described herein is within the scope of the present invention. wherein the vitality events indicate the nature and/or content of online activities inside the first network and the one or more other networks for the particular ones of the plurality of contacts. identifying and aggregating a plurality of identity tokens from the first data source and the at least one external data source. 3. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the first data source and the at least one external data source corresponds to one of a social networking system, a messaging system, a content sharing system, or a member network. 4. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the plurality of contacts comprises referring to one or more of an address book, a contact list, a message sender, a message recipient, a publisher of content, a subscription to content, or social network data. wherein the relevancy measure is further determined with reference to one or more of a frequency of communication, a recency of communication, a volume of communication, a periodicity of communication, a number of connections, a group membership, a demographic characteristic, a name, a relationship category, or a geographic location. 6. The method of claim 5 further comprising ranking the plurality of contacts with reference to the relevancy measures. 7. The method of claim 5 further comprising grouping the plurality of contacts with reference to the relevancy measures. 8. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting first invitations to connect with the first user to a subset of the contacts selected by the first user. 9. The method of claim 5 further comprising repeating identifying the plurality of contacts and determining the relevancy measures with reference to an additional external data source identified by the first user. wherein aggregating vitality events from inside multiple social networks for particular ones of the plurality of contacts includes aggregating the vitality events from inside the first network and inside the one or more other networks for the one person, thereby aggregating the vitality events for the one person across the multiple social networks. processing messages received by the first user with reference to the relevancy measures, wherein the messages include messages from the one person. 15. The method of claim 14 wherein each of the first data source and the at least one external data source corresponds to one of a social networking system, a messaging system, a content sharing system, or a member network. 16. The method of claim 14 wherein the relevancy measure is representative of one or more of a frequency of communication, a recency of communication, a volume of communication, a periodicity of communication, a number of connections, a group membership, a demographic characteristic, a name, a relationship category, or a geographic location. 17. The method of claim 14 further comprising enabling the first user to select a subset of the contacts to which the first user would like to extend an invitation to connect with the first user. 18. The method of claim 14 further comprising enabling the first user to identify an additional external data source, and presenting a revised version of the plurality of contacts, wherein the revised version of plurality of contacts is presented in accordance with a revised relevancy measure associated with each of the contacts determined with reference to the additional external data source. 19. The method of claim 14 further comprising presenting messages directed to the first user in accordance with the relevancy measures. 20. The method of claim 14 wherein a ranking of the plurality of contacts was conducted with reference to the relevancy measures, and wherein the plurality of contacts is presented in accordance with the ranking. 21. The method of claim 14 wherein a grouping of the plurality of contacts was conducted with reference to the relevancy measures, and wherein the plurality of contacts is presented in accordance with the grouping. 22. The method of claim 14 wherein each of the vitality events indicates a corresponding network, and a time at which the vitality event occurred. 23. The method of claim 14 wherein at least some of the vitality events comprise text updates that indicate changes to a status of a corresponding one of the plurality of contacts. 24. The method of claim 14 wherein the vitality events include posting of content, actions taken, updating profiles, or a combination thereof. 25. The method of claim 14 wherein the vitality events from inside the first network and inside the one or more other networks for particular ones of the plurality of contacts are filtered by geographic proximity with reference to a location associated with the first user. comparing a first set of identity tokens or identifiers of a first one of the plurality of contacts with a second set of identity tokens or identifiers of a second one of the plurality of contacts. aggregating the vitality events for the individual across the second network and the third network. 28. The method of claim 27, wherein the relationship or interaction in the third network is with the first user. 29. The method of claim 27, wherein the relationship or interaction in the third network is not with the first user. aggregating the vitality events for the individual across the second network and the first network. ascertaining that a first contact in the first subset of the contacts and a second contact in the second subset of the contacts correspond to one person. ascertaining that a first contact in the first subset of the contacts and a second contact in the first subset of the contacts correspond to one person. determining that an identity of an individual in one of the relationships or interactions in a second network corresponds to the same individual in a relationship or interaction in a third network, wherein the second network is one of the other networks, and wherein the third network is the first network or another one of the other networks. wherein the first user is a member of the first social network and the other social networks, thereby aggregating the vitality events for the particular ones of the plurality of contacts across the multiple social networks. 35. The system of claim 34, wherein the at least one external data source or corresponding social network can be selected or identified by the first user, wherein login information pertaining to the at least one external data source or corresponding social network is provided by the first user, and wherein accessing the information associated with the at least one external data source is performed using the login information pertaining to the at least one external data source or corresponding social network. 36. The system of claim 34, wherein the first social network and the other social networks are each associated with a different web site. 37. The system of claim 34, wherein the first social network is a social networking site and the one or more other social networks include one or more social networking sites. consolidating the two or more contacts into a single contact for the one person. comparing a name or phone number of the first one of the plurality of contacts with a name or phone number of the second one of the plurality of contacts. comparing profile data of the first one of the plurality of contacts with profile data of the second one of the plurality of contacts. 41. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the multiple social networks is controlled by a service provider. 42. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the multiple social networks is associated with a corresponding web site. 43. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the multiple social networks is a physical network. 44. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more other networks is controlled by a corresponding entity. 6748402 June 8, 2004 Reeves et al. 20030167324 September 4, 2003 Farnham et al. 20040122855 June 24, 2004 Ruvolo et al. 20050159970 July 21, 2005 Buyukkokten et al. 20050171799 August 4, 2005 Hull et al. 20060026298 February 2, 2006 Zeng et al. 20060036692 February 16, 2006 Morinigo et al. 20070192299 August 16, 2007 Zuckerberg et al. 20070266097 November 15, 2007 Harik et al. 20080040673 February 14, 2008 Zuckerberg et al. 20080189122 August 7, 2008 Coletrane et al. 20080288596 November 20, 2008 Smith et al. 20090003662 January 1, 2009 Joseph et al. 20090030932 January 29, 2009 Harik et al. 20090043844 February 12, 2009 Zimmet et al. Notification of Transmittal of the International Search Report and the Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority, or the Declaration. About Spock, http://www.spock.com/about, 2 pages, printed on Jan. 3, 2008. Chinese Office Action dated Mar. 21, 2012, CN Application No. 200880124053.7. Korean Office Action dated Apr. 26, 2012, KR Application No. 2010-7017357. CN patent application No. 200880124053, Office Action mailed Dec. 18, 2012. CN patent application No. 200880124053, Office Action mailed Jun. 26, 2013.

2019-04-23T14:06:48Z

https://patents.justia.com/patent/8954500

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2019-04-18T18:16:46Z

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The 8 Best Snow Boots For Women - Winter 2017 Suggestions! The 8 Best Snow Boots For Women – Winter 2017 Suggestions! Home » Fitness Equipments » The 8 Best Snow Boots For Women – Winter 2017 Suggestions! [toc]Since winter’s come around, and the harsh bitter cold has begun to set in, it’s time to get out your best and coziest snow boots and beat the chill with some of your own. If you’re looking for a new pair of stylish snow boots that offer high performance, then you’ve come to the right place! We’ve compiled a list of the eight best snow boots for women guaranteed to keep your toes toasty and looking fresh. Don’t let the winters can play spoil-sport with your best intentions of being fashionably warm (while staying free of frostbite). A lot of women look at the winter season as a time of year when they have to compromise between comfort and style. This is especially true when it comes to picking your footwear, which can really make or break a carefully put-together look. But whether you’re looking for sturdy, super-insulated tall snow boots or something ankle-length and perfect for a walk about the city, we’ve reviewed eight of the most chic and elegant snow-boots from the clutter of over a hundred options to help you find your perfect pair(s) for the season – saving you the hassle of trawling through the nearly limitless number of mediocre products available on the market. In other words, picking the right pair of boots for the winter doesn’t have to be a drag! So scroll on down and check out our list which lets you conquer the bitter icy weather this winter season with flair. We’ve got an exhaustive list of the best womens snow-boots from 2017 that you can pick up right now. Say good-bye to compromise between style and comfort, and say yes to one of these amazing picks that we’ve put together just for you! Sorel’s 1964 Premium Wedge boots are ankle-length snow-boots that feature a throw-back and retro high-heeled wedge design that’ll be sure to turn heads when you wear it around the city in cold and wet weather. Sorel is known for its expertise in producing winter boots with excellent technical performance and functionality -but these flattering wedge boots are no slouch in the style department either. The boots are fully waterproof and made of high quality textiles over a molded rubber outsole. The outsole offers strong traction even over slippery or icy surfaces. All in all, the Sorel 1964 Premium Wedge Boots is a high-performance addition to your winter wardrobe that won’t cramp your style. Ariat is well- known as a high-end luxury brand that’s made a name for itself with its spectacular craftsmanship and the incredible versatility of its products. We’ve chosen their take on a tall country boot because of its classic English show boot look, but in terms of performance and keeping you warm, it’s as modern as you like – the Berwick GTX Insulated Boots are made from premium waterproof full grain leather with a waterproof breathable GORE TEX and plaid lining. The 200g Thinsulate Insulation ensures your feet stay warm and limber and a shock-absorbing EVA midsole helps reduce foot fatigue. The heel height and sole grip are designed for riding comfort and safety, and are highly adjustable – meaning it’s great for hiking or working in the great outdoors as well – and barely needs to be broken in! Though it’s one of the pricier picks on our list, and is probably few people’s idea of an impulse purchase, the Berwick GTX Insulated Country Boot more than justifies its price tag by offering you amazing comfort, versatility and high quality that should serve you through many, many seasons. Overall, the Ariat Women’s Berwick GTX Insulated Country Boot is a very well built and durable winter boot with excellent tread, quality leather and a wonderful dual-tone ebony color which is sure to fetch you compliments! Columbia Women’s Ice Maiden II Snow Boots are one of the most popular choices among women for high-ankled warm snow boots, and their availability in six colors, including a super-fun dahlia, could be one of the reasons! With a feminine and luxurious look, these Columbia snow boots are high on style without compromising on comfort, and offer great value for money for the price-conscious buyer in you. Columbia products are designed using the latest technologies and only employ the best quality materials in the construction of the boot – here, you get 200 grams of insulation in a fully waterproof design, which’ll keep your feet warm and dry even in the snowiest weather – rated upto -32 degrees Celsius! Among the best value-for-money snow boots on our list right now, you can avail even greater discounts on certain Ice Maiden models if you buy now on amazon.com. These boots run true to size, so order half a size up if you need a roomier fit. Right up there with Columbia in terms of sheer popularity is Kamik, who pride themselves on crafting winter boots meant to help you thrive in the harshest conditions – a testament to the Northern origins of the brand. With their emphasis on strong, comfortable and reliable products, it’s no surprise that the Women’s Momentum Snow Boot turned out to be everything it says on the box. Similar to the high-end Ariat model above, the Kamik comes with 200 grams of Thinsulate’s proprietary insulation. These Kamiks not only feel great, they look great too – and they come in a whopping 12 color options! Also, needless to say, the lining is faux-fur, so you don’t have to carry any guilt! In Summary, an excellent choice for those who want a stylish snow boot to stand up to even the harshest Midwestern winter! If you, like many others, have already heard good things about Polar, then now might be a good time to take a closer look at one of their most popular products – a mid-calf boot with a wonderfully straight forward and iconic lace up design, and a water proof and fully fur lined interior. With more than twenty well-appointed color and texture options and designs, Polar offers something for everyone – and at this price, it’s a no-brainer to pick up a few just to add color to your winter wardrobe. The boots have a calendered slip resistant rubber sole for great traction and grip. A fashion-forward option that’s tested to be uncompromising against the elements. One of the most fashion-friendly snow boots on this list with one of the widest selection of colors and upper options, at one of the most pocket-friendly prices. To say it’s a steal would be an under-statement. If you but right now, Amazon is even offering free returns so you can buy with complete peace of mind! Ugg is a near legendary brand when it comes to snow boots for women, and Ugg boots were the sole domain of celebrities in the beginning, until Ugg pivoted to make their products more attainable to people like you and I. But the global lifestyle brand is probably most renowned for its iconic Classic boot design –made of luxurious sheepskin which is pretreated to repel moisture and protects against stains. While the naturally thermostatic and temperature regulating properties of sheepskin keep your feet warm and dry, the Classic Short II Boot has now been updated with UGG’s proprietary Treadlite sole, which delivers increased cushioning, durability, flexibility and grip (as compared to an EVA sole), while remaining lightweight and durable. The Classic II Short has assumed an iconic status when it comes to casual winter style – and they come in an ungodly number of colors. If you don’t already have a pair in your winter wardrobe, now is the time to get some! With its slightly punk heritage and throw-back vintage looks inspired by the original Nuptse, the North Face Nuptse Purna is a slick and modern update to the classic design. With its combination of fur lining, the best winter proof technology and chic cosmopolitan style, this boot is just what the doctor ordered. The North Face Nuptse Purna is constructed with a waterproof BLV complaint velvet suede upper to stay dry, and 200 grams PrimaLoft Eco insulation to stay warm. Despite the sturdy look, these boots are surprisingly light and durable! The North Face Nuptse Purna is sure to complement your wardrobe and is versatile and easy to pair with. They come in a variety of colors and upper options, so be sure to check them out to find the one that you like best! If you’re looking for fashionable mid-height snow boots to wear about town, you may need look no further! If you liked the style of the North Face Nuptse Purna but want something a little taller and warmer, then you’ve got to take a look at Sorel’s Cate the Great Tall wedge snow boots. At first, it’s hard to take your eyes off the gorgeous sleek looking boot – what with its soft smooth leather and suede upper, laced-up closure, and covered wedge heel. But if you do manage to look past the amazing design, you’ll find a boot engineered to keep you safe from the bitter elements no matter how harsh it is outside. A mix of leather and suede lends subtle texture to sleek Sorel wedge boots. Raised seams accent the shaft. The lace-up closure ensures an excellent fit right up the calf. A covered wedge heel and rubber sole offer comfort without sacrificing style. The modern design of the Sorel Women’s Cate the Great Wedge Boots looks fresh and new, but, at the same time, harkens reassuringly to the past. It comes in three colors, with the usual elk and black being two, and the wonderfully young Pebble / Atmosphere being our personal favorite. Check them out now at amazon.com! A sturdy and style-forward pair of winter boots can help make the winter season seem less harsh and gentler – in other words, much better! Whether you have to trudge through many feet of powder-fresh snow every day on your way to work or spend hours outside in the cold hiking or on the farm – or whether you spend precious little time outside in cold temperatures, we’re here to help you choose the perfect snow boot that fits your needs best. In this buying guide, we discuss the merits and demerits of the various types of snow boots and winter boots we’ve listed above in terms of four major metrics – Tall vs. Short Boots; Style vs. Substance; Performance and Construction; and lastly, Comfort. Through the brief discussions in each of these sections, we hope to be able to arm you with sufficient knowledge to be able to make an informed and empowered decision when it comes to your next purchase of winter boots. In one sense, all winter boots essentially serve the same purpose – to keep your feet as dry and warm as possible under mild to extreme cold weather conditions. Some winter boots do this job really well, like the options you’ll find on this list, while many mediocre options will let you down by failing to keep icy water out – so pretty soon you’ll be squishing around with frozen feet. In this sense, all winter boots are essentially the same, in fact, traditionally the term “snow boot” is often used to talk about all kinds of winter boots. However, to aid you in navigating the wide multitude of brands and options available out there, we’ve sorted the eight winter boots in our list into two distinct categories – Snow boots and Pacs. Both differ somewhat in design and construction, but both are built to serve the same basic function. What are Snow Boots? How are Pac Boots different? A snow boot is what most people think of when they think of winter boots, unless, of course, they’re interested in more purpose specific technical boots such as hiking boots. Snow boots usually feature a water-resistant upper (in synthetic or natural materials or textiles) and some kind of thin water-proofing rubber outsole that is designed to keep the boot light-weight while offering a decent amount of traction or grip. Snow boots are ideally used for light activity for short periods of time in cold weather conditions – like running errands around town or going out for a walk- and maybe a bit of puddle jumping. What they don’t offer is absolute protection from the worst of cold conditions over a long period of time – say, a multi-day hike. For that level of protection from the elements, you should take a look at winter boots that are sometimes called Pac Boots, or Pacs. Pac boots offer an upgrade from many of the smaller traditional snow boots and feature a thicker rubber shell and an upper typically constructed of either a waterproof or water-resistant textile. They therefore provide a better level of water and weather resistance. If performance and weather protection is more important to you, you may want to lean towards the more Pac-style boots on this list. Since the Pacs we’ve featured on this list are relatively-light weight, easy to put on and kick off – and versatile, we’ve included some of them on our list. For those looking for even more technical winter boots, you’d need to check out Womens Hiking Boots, which offer superior fit than Pacs but aren’t featured on the present list. The principle (and obvious) benefit of taller boots is they offer greater protection from rain and snow. Moreover, they’re warmer too –offering heat retention upto the calves – and in a couple of choices on our list – upto the knee. On the other hand, tall boots have the disadvantage of being more difficult to take on and off, and don’t offer the best mobility. Check out options like the Ariat Women’s Berwick GTX Insulated Country Boot or The North Face Women’s Nuptse Purna. If you live in a region with milder cold weather with only gets a few inches of snow at a time, short boots will more than suffice, especially if you look at the high-ankle option on our list – the Kamik Women’s Momentum Snow Boot. Short boots are the easiest to slip on and off, and often are just a bit more fashionable than taller boots – though that’s really a question of taste. One disadvantage of short boots can be the fit – they don’t always fit as well as adjustable calf-hugging tall boots with lace-ups. Women often find that buying a half size up, or down, can solve some of the fit issues with short snow boots with sizes that run true. Remember that a perfect fit isn’t always the best in such cases – a little gap or room inside the shoe can let you wear thicker, cozier socks if you so please – or otherwise trap a pocket of air which can help capture and retain body heat. Our choice of footwear plays a huge role in determining the effectiveness of our overall look. So the aesthetic and appearance of our winter shoes is not an insignificant thing – but is it the only thing? The debate about style vs. substance, form vs. function or even fashion vs. performance is not a new one, and not one which is unique to the domain of winter boots. As with every other fashion choice you make, you ought to first consider the conditions under which you plan to use your new snow boots. If you live in an extremely cold and snowy area, it may be better to choose a tall, burly boot like the Sorel Cate the Great or the Ariat Women’s Berwick GTX Insulated Country Boot, both of which feature super warm insulation. Another option we’ve featured of this design is the very popular Polar Products Womens Lace Up. If you live in milder weather, on the other hand, you could choose to sacrifice some warmth for greater style, and go for options such as a Classic Ugg, Sorel Women’s 1964 Premium Wedge Boots, or a pair of Columbia Women’s Ice Maiden II Snow Boots. At the end of the day, of course, style is immensely personal and subjective. And, when it comes to snow boots, you can be certain that style and performance aren’t a compromise or an either-or – all the options we’ve listed here offer a great balance and mix of the two, so go ahead and pick the ones that most appeals to you. The weather-beating performance of a snow boot is strongly related to the quality of its construction. How warm a boot is depends upon the nature and extent of the insulation used, the material, thickness and quality of the outsole, and the design of the footbed. Factors like the height of the boot, often called the ‘shaft height’ and the quality of the seal at the top of the shaft (whether there’s a faux-fur lining) also contribute to keeping your toes warm. Some snow boots also benefit from having the entirety of the inner boot lined with faux-fur, while other boots may only feature fur lining at the top of the boot. Construction also determines the water resistance of the snow boot. The choice of material for the outsole construction influences the water resistance – materials like suede need to be periodically treated with a waterproof treatment, whereas rubber soles remain water resistant without the need for repair or treatment. Moreover, faux fur (or natural) cuffs at the mouth of the shaft contribute significantly to overall water resistance, keeping rain and melting snow from seeping into the boot. A final consideration when it comes to picking your ideal pair of snow boots is probably right there at the top of the priority list of most casual buyers – sheer lush cozy comfort. And why not? Winter is probably the best time to pamper your feet – wearing a nice warm pair of snow boots when it’s freezing out is like hanging out with your feet ensconced in your favorite electric blanket – like a huge warm hug for your feet all the time! All the snow boots featured on this list offer some of the best comfort balanced with weather protection. Winter boots that are super cozy usually have plush inner linings that make your feet feel extra cuddled and comfortable, like many of the models on our list. The quality and fit of the footbed also makes a big difference to the comfort of the snow boot. As we mentioned earlier, some boots benefit from having a slightly larger footbed – since a little extra room inside the boot can help the boot get warmer faster. A roomier footbed also helps keep your warmer feet more limber and flexible – also aiding in better mobility for everyday use. Just don’t go overboard so that you’re slipping and sliding inside your boot!

2019-04-21T16:58:20Z

https://www.fitnesstep1.com/best-womens-snow-boots/

Another time, another place... the Doctor is on the move once again and this time you can become one of his traveling companions. This graphics adventure is based on the classic sci-fi TV series Dr Who. In it the good Doctor is trapped on the planet Strardos IV in a pyramid built by his arch-enemy, the Master. The Master plans to destroy the planet - and the Doctor - with a time bomb. He has stolen the Doctor's time drive unit from the Tardis - and without this the Doctor cannot escape the doomed planet - but he can only do this by killing the Master. Although well meaning, and important for being the first time Doctor Who had appeared on computer screens, this does just come down to little man running around lots of identical rooms and then freezing for no apparant reason. Retro is one thing, but even for the time this was nothing special. For the game itself, please visit www.justyce.org, where the webmaster has uploaded not only the program as it appeared in the magazine, but also a "corrected" version that solves some graphical glitches. *not involved in production of the game, but received a credit and (presumably) royalties. Time itself is running to an end! In less than one galactic hour, you must retrieve the key to time and take it to the centre of the universe,where it can be used to initiate the Second Age of Time. If you succeed,you will be awarded a place in the Gallifreyan Time Academy and given an all-time honorary rating. If you do not succeed,then Time will come to a halt and the universe will become silent and dead. If you fail in a particular episode, you may regenerate and begin that episode again.(However,regenerating takes three minutes of your remaining time.) You also have a micimum of fifteen regenerations. You must complete each episode before going on to the next one. You are now ready to embark on your journey. Episode 1, The Labyrinth of Death, is a PacMan clone in which the Doctor drives a buggy around a maze of underground tunnels in order to find the three segments of the key to time, avoiding poisonous worms on the way. The Prison, Episode 2, is based on Frogger, and the Doctor carries explosives across a highway, a moat and a forecourt in order to blow up a wall and rescue a companion. Next, the Doctor faces The Terrordactyls (Episode 3) in a Space Invaders-esque shoot-em-up, as he tries to get back to the TARDIS. Finally, the Doctor searches for The Box of Tantalus in Episode 4. Aliens hide in a 3x3x3 grid, and the Doctor must detect and destroy them, using a Battleships style approach. Some ROMs of this game available on the 'net are hacked, allowing level selection upon start. In your quest you will meet many hazards, and you will die if your strength reaches zero. The object of the game is to find The Doctor (somewhere on level 7) and pay him 10 bags of gold so he can transport you out of the building in his Police Box. Fight for your life in this exciting, all action '3-D' graphics adventure. You have been left for dead by your crew members in the vast complex known as Moonbase Alpha. Dash from room to room, up and down stairs and ladders in your attempt to escape. Search for the kindly doctor, somewhere on level seven, and if you have collected enough gold, he will transport you to safety in his time machine. If you think that sounds easy, you haven't bargained for the Green Grappler, Deadly Doris, the Metal Mauler, Demon and Marvin. If you get into difficulties the Wizard is there to help you, and as a last resort, you may take a pill and increase your strength by turning into a Hulk. You may never find your way out, but you will have lots of fun trying! Unusually for a BBC game, this is very fast moving, but with a near-impossible difficulty curve and a randomised map that releaves the temptation to return regularly and try again. The game was originally made (alongside Killer Gorilla) as a homebrew program by "bedroom coder" Adrian Stephens - friends pursuaded him to submit his work to Micropower (who had begun publishing in 1983, and would remain successful through to 1987), and they paid him �400 for the rights to release each game. He followed this up with a string of games for other publishers, including the acclaimed Mr Ee, and Donkey Kong Jr for the Atri. The Police Box is clearly the TARDIS, Marvin is based on the character from The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Deadly Doris is similar to Evil Edna from Willo The Wisp, the less said about the Metal Mauler the better and the Hulk is probably a bit Incredible. Not to mention the title's reference to Space: 1999. Released with added graphics in an omnibus with 1985 sequel Red Moon and 1986's The Price of Magic as Time and Magik on Commodore and Amstrad only. Ruth Pracy added text to link the three. Besides references to Timelords (sic), who seem to be a little more evil than the versions in Doctor Who, and a Cyberman, the central character travels through time and space in inside a "cramped" Grandfather clock. LOOK, EXAMINE PICTURE, TAKE HOURGLASS, N, TAKE CANDLE, TAKE MATCHES, LIGHT CANDLE, EXAMINE CLOCK, WIND CLOCK, IN, TURN COG 1, SWING PENDULUM, N. N, N, N, POUR PETROL, LIGHT MATCH, LIGHT PETROL, TAKE COAT, WEAR COAT, TAKE TUSK, E, UP, UP, TAKE BONE, UP, OPEN TIN, GIVE TIN, TAKE TOOTH, IN, S, SHOUT, TAKE ICICLE, N, E, E, GIVE BONE, E, BREAK WALL, S, TAKE CANDELABRA, N, W, S, DROP ICICLE, NW, NW, BREAK CUBE, S, IN, W, DOWN, DOWN, DROP TUSK, DROP CANDELABRA, DROP SWORD, SCORE (SHOULD NOW BE 225/1000), - TURN COG 1, SWING PENDULUM, N. W, W, OPEN DOOR, W, W, OPEN DOOR, W, SW, E, E, EAT MUSHROOM, LOOK, GIVE TOOTH, NO, YES, E, DOWN, DROP SPEAR, DROP SILVER COIN, TURN COG 3, SWING PENDULUM, N. W, W, E, E, E, E, W, W, W, W, W, TAKE LEAVES, TAKE MIRROR, WAVE LEAVES, E, WAVE MIRROR, E, UP, IN, DROP MIRROR, N, TAKE EGG, N, TAKE STONE POT, N, TAKE PEBBLE, E, SE, TAKE STONE CLUB, E, THROW PEBBLE, E, TAKE FIGURINE, W, SE, THROW CLUB, S, SAY EUREKA, IN (you see a sign spelling 'JWAAMTETS' unscramble the letters to spell 'JAMES WATT'), SAY JAMES WATT, IN, TAKE WHEEL, DOWN, DROP FIGURINE, DROP NUGGET, DROP EGG, DROP STONE POT, DROP TIN OPENER, SCORE (SHOULD NOW BE 350/1000), TURN COG 4, SWING PENDULUM, N. N, GIVE FUR COAT, S, SE, E, E, DIG, DIG, TAKE PARCHMENT, W, READ PARCHMENT, SW, PUSH STONE, W, W, W, W, UP, UP, DROP LUR, E, OPEN CHEST, W, TAKE LUR, PLAY LUR, IN CHEST, TAKE (OBJECT) (whatever has been stolen from you) PULL HANDLE, DROP LUR, DROP OLIVE BRANCH, DROP PARCHMENT, SCORE, (SHOULD NOW BE 400/1000), TAKE NUGGET, TAKE SWORD, TURN COG 5, SWING PENDULUM, N. N, EXAMINE MILESTONE, TAKE MILESTONE, E, OPEN DOOR, IN, TAKE ALE, GIVE NUGGET, TAKE ALE, OPEN DOOR, OUT, E, E, E, GIVE ALE, EXAMINE FOOD, W, W, N, E, E, GIVE FOOD, YES, TAKE WING, TAKE FROG, KISS FROG, S, IN, TAKE GAUNTLET, SE, W, TAKE ARMOUR, WEAR ARMOUR, S, W, W, W, DOWN, DOWN, DIG, DIG, TAKE COFFER, DIG, DROP COFFER, DROP ARMOUR, DROP GAUNTLET, DROP WING, DROP MILESTONE, SCORE (SHOULD NOW BE 475/1000), TURN COG 6, SWING PENDULUM, N. N, W, S, TAKE DRINKING HORN, TAKE SWEETMEATS, N, E, E, S, TAKE PLAYING CARDS, SHUFFLE CARDS, TAKE JOKER, TAKE BELL, RING BELL, GIVE JOKER, N, W, UP, UP, N, W, S, TAKE RUG, S, GIVE SWEETMEATS, OPEN OTTOMAN, EXAMINE OTTOMAN, TAKE JEWELLED CROWN, N, N, E, E, S, S, TAKE LUTE, PLAY LUTE, N, N, W, S, PLAY LUTE, E, W, W, SW, E, N, SE, IN, DRINK WATER, N, DROP DRINKING HORN, DROP BELL, DROP CARDS, DROP CAP, DROP RUG, DROP JEWELLED CROWN, DROP LUTE, SCORE (SHOULD NOW BE 625/1000), TAKE GAUNTLET, TAKE SILVER COIN, TURN COG 7, SWING PENDULUM, N. W, W, GIVE SILVER COIN, E, N, UP, UP, WEAR GAUNTLET, TAKE STAR, DOWN, DOWN, S, E, E, N, N, OPEN DOOR, N, W, TAKE EMERALD, E, N, TAKE MATTRESS, TAKE ROCKET, S, OPEN DOOR, S, S, S, E, DOWN, S, E, TAKE LIGHTSABRE, W, S, OPEN DOOR, W, TAKE PHIAL, FIRE ROCKET, N, GIVE GROAT, N, FIGHT CYBERMAN, E, EXAMINE WORKBENCH, TAKE SCREWDRIVER, W,, S IN, DOWN, TAKE RUBY, UP, OUT, N, OPEN ROBOT, EXAMINE ROBOT, TAKE SILICON CHIP, S, IN, DOWN, DOWN, DROP RUBY, DROP SCREWDRIVER, DROP CHIP, DROP ROCKET, DROP LIGHTSABRE, DROP MATTRESS, DROP STAR DROP EMERALD, DROP GAUNLET, SCORE (SHOULD NOW BE 775/1000), TAKE DRINKING HORN, TURN COG 8, SWING PENDULUM, N. N, W, IN, KNEEL, PRAY, OUT, E, N, N, N, TAKE BUCKLE, S, S, S, NE, E, IN, TAKE NET, TAKE TRIDENT, OUT, W, SW, S, S, IN, THROW NET, THROW TRIDENT, WEAR SANDALS, TAKE BUCKLE, OPEN DOOR, OUT, E, N, NE, NE, NE, FILL HORN, S, PULL GRATE, S, S, DRINK WATER, W, W, S, DROP SANDALS, DROP HORN, DROP BUCKLE, DROP MATCHBOX, DROP WHEEL, SCORE (SHOULD NOW BE 825/1000), TAKE TEARDROP, TAKE TUSK, TAKE EGG, TAKE OLIVE BRANCH, TAKE WING, TAKE CAP, TAKE CHIP, TAKE BUCKLE, TAKE MILESTONE, TURN COG 9, SWING PENDULUM, N. S, DROP MILESTONE, S, S, S, DOWN, W, S, DIG, TAKE BOTTLE, N, E, S, UNLOCK CAGES, S, UNLOCK BARS, E, E, IN, DOWN, DOWN, DROP BOTTLE, E, E, UP, UP, UP, TAKE CLOAK, WEAR CLOAK, OPEN TRAPDOOR, UP, UP, E, THROW TEARDROP, THROW TUSK, W, E, THROW EGG, THROW OLIVE BRANCH, W, E, THROW WING, THROW CAP, W, E, THROW CHIP, THROW BUCKLE, W, E, THROW BOX. The Time Storms have affected the ability of the Doctors current persona to operate properly. Because of the nature of the emergency, the High Council of the Time Lords have authorised that control is passed to you. This is contrary to the First Law of Time, but desperate situations require desperate remedies! Good Luck, Doctor. (You're going to need it!) In the Adventure, you must guide your earlier persona by sending him messages through this Time Lord telepathic controller, cunningly disguised as a Sinclair Spectrum. The game features the player searching for the five (*ahem*) segments of the Key to Time, and was dedicated to the memory of William Hartnell. Get Crystal, (go to library and play crystal in hologram player), Press button, Pull Lever. Exit, Help, E, Enter door, S, Sit in chair, Get cushion, Get sash, Drop cushion, Get up, S, Sit on bed, Get pillow, Get rod, Drop pillow, Get up, N, N, Exit, E, E, S, Examine computer, N, N, Enter cell, Get key, Say Prydonian, S, Enter Dais, Put rod in hole, Get rod, Enter stairs, unlock safe apparently - from the point on, TME is a little lost - if you can figure out the final few moves, please contact us! Extremely simplistic plotting and vocabulary limit what might have been a nice, fun game. Rescuing the five Doctors would be quite easy if you could actually think up an alternative to 'tie rope around tree' or 'throw gold at Cyberman' which the game accepts. Whoever wrote this didn't have much of a puzzle instinct in him, because not only is the game completely about getting items and using them in the right places, every item you'll need for each 'world' you travel to are found on that world! All of the items needed to complete the Dalek city world are in the Dalek city, etc. OK, but only as a time waster. The only really fun thing about it is what happens if you type in swear words (try it and see...). The Seven Doctors is a splendid example of how this same theme could've been done so much better. Knock, knock, Who's here. The Doctor's back, in search of The Key to Time. This new text adventure from Lumpsoft features the veteran time traveller and many of his oldest enemies, battling it out through time and space. Davros, Daleks, Cybermen and fellow time-lords all show up as you steer your Tardis through the ages. With the aid of a timescanner you must discover the scattered pieces of the great key and presumably save the Universe into the bargain. Before you can begin the quest you will have to learn how to operate the Tardis. Addicts of the TV series will find themselves in a well-known environment, but the program is very friendly and will give considerable help to those who are less familiar with the bumbling doctor. The program is responsive and versatile whilst the riddles are by no means obvious. It will get you zipping back and forth through time like nobody's business. The Key to Time is good-humoured, well written and a joy to play. Gilbert factor: 7. The Key To Time is Lumpsoft's first adventure and is all about a time traveller who was all the rage when people used to watch television. The loading screen shows a picture of a police box and funny little robots with a bad case of metallic pimples and tunnel vision compounded by the position of their only eye on the end of a stalk. Apparently it is a bad time for time travellers what with time storms distorting travel coordinates which might lead anywhere and it proves imperative that someone recovers the object that can dispel the storms for good. At a meeting of the High Council of Time Lords one senior member asked, "Who can dispel the time storms?" But this was taken as a command by the others and so you, The Doctor, ended up with the job. On your first attempt at the game it's better to ask for HELP rather than STARTing straight off so you can gather some useful information. "In this adventure you must guide your earlier persona by sending him messages through this Time Lord telepathic controller, cunningly disguised as a Sinclair Spectrum." Here you are told of the game's intricacies including a timely list of recommended verbs including a general HELP, a more specific HELP(TIMESCANNER) and WAIT. The HELP is not as useful as it could be because it only results in a random selection from three or four phrases, one of which reads "Never eat anything bigger than your head", a saying reminiscent of the work parodied by Lumpsoft's next program to be released, Malice in Wonderland. The other, more specific help command is very useful in that constructions like HELP(DALEK) give encyclopedic information concerning a certain object or creature, eg. Cybermen are allergic to gold. I really do like this kind of encyclopedic reference material as it was what we all thought computers were about, indeed what they are good at, until the limitations of micro memory become apparent. In this respect, I can't wait to see what adventure games the QL can produce. The WAIT command begins mimicking The Hobbit but soon departs with an amusingly prolonged diversion. The vocabulary is very friendly with constructions such as GO(TARDIS) and ENTER(CRACK) equally helpful and the plot is similarly responsive; everything can be examined and if you look at the screen you find "The Tardis materialised. Atmosphere: breathable.". Swearing will bring the wrath of Mary Whitehouse down upon your head leaving you to regenerate into your next persona, perhaps this time the chap who is a trifle absent-minded and plays a pipe. Time travel is the core of the game and if you find play relatively easy as I did, then you will proceed quite quickly through the five time zones, although you may well use up a few of the Doctor's characters. Moving through the likes of Daleks and Cybermen you arrive at Gallifrey where you enter, presumably, the final stages around the president's office. If the game's tricky moments hinder progress then you may have time to ponder on the difficulty of getting any score higher than 0 or how to travel from one time zone to another in the Tardis, an operation which involves a tricky combination of lever pulling and button pressing. The Key To Time is a very worthy effort from Lumpsoft combining a friendly response with an interesting plot and amusing interludes. A text-only Quilled game with a familiar theme but very well executed. Roland was somewhat a precursor to the game mascots of the 90s � Nintendo's Mario, Sega's Sonic and so on. Several games were produced in 1984 (and one in 1985), each using 'Roland' (named after Amstrad boss Roland Perry), in whichever guise was necessary, as the hero. They then introduced the Doctor Who element with Roland in the Caves (programmed by Paco Suarez again, with graphics by Juanjo Redando), in which Roland is a bizarre purple bug that can jump huge distances (down to being able to mutate to look like the local life forms, supposedly). The story outline for this claims he has fallen into the caves when his telephone box crash lands. Roland's final outings were Roland in Time (1984) and Roland in Space (1985). Both of these games cemented the link by featuring Roland (this time as a squat little man) in a time-travelling red telephone box, and the latter actually used the Doctor Who theme (in stereo, thanks to the marvels of the Amstrad's sound chip) on the title screen. The player could enter the telephone box whenever they wanted and travel to a different destination. Roland in Space featured Sol 3, Pollu 3, Algol 6, Polaris 4, Arcturis 7, Betelgeuse 2 and Alpha Centauri 4, all multi-directional scrolling landscapes scattered with crystals. The aim was simply to collect as many crystals as possible in order to defeat the evil Maestro, whose name is thought to be a reference to the Master. Press TAB E G J K < and M while on a planet to allow you to pass any hazard and fall any distance.

2019-04-18T11:24:02Z

http://millenniumeffect.co.uk/games/80-84.php

Join us to support culturally specific early learning! We are excited to announce that we are collaborating on two early childhood education bills in the Oregon Legislature this session! HB3069 will create a fund for culturally specific programs focused on early learning. And the other priority (does not have a bill number yet) will create a certification path for Community Education Workers based on the Traditional Health Worker certification model. We have been meeting with lawmakers and will be testifying on the bills in the coming months. We have also hired our first lobbyist to help us work with partners and lawmakers! If you're interested in supporting HB3069, you can join us for a hearing on Tuesday, April 18 at the State Capitol or by submitting written testimony! Families and children of color are a large and growing part of Oregon’s early learning community – 36.5% of all births in Oregon are babies of color! Yet, too often they do not have access to culturally specific programs. Just 16% of Latino children have access to Head Start in their community. Oregon funds many amazing early childhood programs with state dollars, however, only a small number of programs are eligible for this program. Given the growing population, more needs to be done to serve our children of color. Nonprofit organizations with culturally specific programs are most prepared to meet this need. Programs like Juntos Aprendemos at Latino Network and many other culturally specific programs across the state have a track record of supporting school readiness and family stability. This bill will create an Early Childhood Equity Fund, dedicated to funding culturally specific early learning services. If the Oregon Legislature passes this bill, it will be an important step in closing the opportunity gap for our children of color. In the past two years, our Community Education Worker project has seen tremendous results! Today, people who work with young children – from child care providers to preschool teachers to home visitors like our CEWs – are increasingly recognized for their professionalism. We know that training for these early learning providers is critically important. Past efforts, however, have focused on pushing early learning teachers to earn associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, and certifications at community colleges. These pathways are admirable, but they leave many professionals behind. Home visitors, community education workers, family advocates, and others don’t have a path for professionalization. And for people of color or anyone who does not speak English, who face historical barriers in accessing higher education and career training, the difficulties are even greater. This bill will create a certification program for Community Education Workers, modeled after the existing Oregon Traditional health Worker training program. This will ensure opportunities for professionalization while removing other barriers. Want to learn more or submit a written testimony? Contact Sadie Feibel Holmes, Director of Early Childhood Programs. It was amazing seeing our latest project in Gresham City Hall come to life last week! The Grand Opening of Cambio Cafe represents Latino Network's efforts to help start youth's career paths in a positive way. Not only will this coffee cart help teach them important business skills, but they will also learn what it takes to operate a business and have something valuable to put on their resumes. Here are some photos of the big day! Debbie has been on the Family Stability team since summer of 2016. Every once in awhile we like to feature one of our awesome team members who is on the ground doing amazing things in our community. This time, we chose a Latino Network employee who has been working hard to help families achieve their dreams. Debbie Cabrales is a Family Stability Program Coordinator and works for our Community Based Programs. Since she came on board in June, Debbie has worked with countless families to help them with rental assistance, education, employment, and achieving their goals for their children. Q: Where are you from? How did you get into your career path? I am from Woodburn Oregon. I started this career path when I started going to school at Western Oregon University. When I first went there I thought that I wanted to go into Criminal Justice, but once I took a sociology class, it changed my views and I realized that I wanted to help people and that my passion was in working more directly with the community. Q: What is your family history or heritage? I feel that being a first generation Hispanic/Latina woman has helped me a lot. All of the sacrifices that my parents have gone through for my siblings and I have really opened my eyes in a lot of ways. My parents came to this country from Mexico wanting a better future for my siblings and me, so when I think about motivation I think about my parents and how everything that they did for us is not going to waste. Q: What’s your job at Latino Network like? I meet with community members and families when they need the most support and hope. In doing so, I assist them in meeting their goals to reach stability, provide support with their education, employment and housing, and I also discuss goals for their children’s education and achieving student success. Q: What is a success story that you've witnessed with the people you've helped while working at Latino Network? One of the families that I work with had just moved here from out of state. As soon as I met the family, both the parents and children were extremely hopeful and wanting to do better. While the mother worked, the father went out looking for apartments and would submit applications, and at the same time pick up and drop off kids at school. And soon after, they had been approved for an apartment and were on their way finally being able to have a place to call home. The family was able to celebrate the holidays in the comfort of their own home, and see their children be able to open up presents. These were things that to the family seemed like it would be impossible for it to happen. Now the family is doing great and keeps being positive, they never lost hope and were able to fulfill their dreams and make them a reality. Q: How does your team at Latino Network help engage the community? We do more than just help with rental assistance. We help families by trying to build relationships in order for them to have positivity in their lives. We help them achieve their goals and do anything in our power to positively get them engaged with the community and be a support system that the families need. Thanks Debbie for being such an amazing part of our team and for helping so many families! We are proud to announce three new members of Latino Network’s Board of Directors! Patrick Quinton, Christa Stout, and Melinda Veliz were confirmed as board members in March 2017. Patrick Quinton is the founding principal of Civic Innovation NW consulting firm. Previously, he was the Executive Director of Portland Development Commission. Under his leadership, PDC was the Presenting Sponsor for Latino Network’s annual gala, Noche Bella for several years. We are excited to have his expertise guiding us. Read his full bio here. Christa Stout is the Vice President of Social Responsibility for the Portland Trail Blazers. Previously, she managed the Portland Timbers Community Relations Department. Latino Network is currently a community partner with the Blazers, and we look forward to continuing to deepen that partnership and work with Christa. Read her full bio here. Melinda Veliz works in Public and Community Relations for Legacy Health-Silverton Medical Center. Melinda is a graduate of our Unidos program, Cohort II. We look forward to having her on our board! Read her full bio here. How can we better serve our families in the community with infants and toddlers? How can we serve families who are unable to make it to existing services in schools or community centers? One of Latino Network’s newest programs began with that question in 2014, posed to a group of community members and nonprofit staff. Creciendo Juntos (Spanish for Growing Together) serves families with children ages birth to three through home visits and small group parent-child development classes. Though many early childhood programs exist, including our own Juntos Aprendemos, this program fills a gap in ensuring that families are able to receive one-on-one assistance in their own home on a regular basis, from a community member who speaks the same language. The program focuses on very young children. The program trains community members as community education workers, drawing on the principles of community health workers, to be able to deliver developmentally appropriate early childhood lessons for parents and young children. They also offer 10-week series of classes for parents to attend with their infant or toddler to learn more about child development. In the past year, Creciendo Juntos staff have helped families facing housing instability due to rising rents, connecting them with services for rent or housing assistance. Staff screen toddlers for developmental delays, and can help parents connect with services if a child is in need of additional health or educational help. And staff listen to the concerns of the parent and help them navigate issues as they arise. The Community Education Worker (CEW) program – Latino Network calls its program by Creciendo Juntos - was launched as a partnership among culturally specific nonprofits in Portland, in collaboration with the Community Capacitation Center. The program has been funded by the state through the Early Learning Multnomah hub. Currently, Latino Network, the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO), and the Urban League provide services to families in their respective communities of color. Together, our programs serve families who speak 13 different languages at home! The three most common languages spoken are English, Spanish, and Somali. Together, we served 175 families in 2016 with more than 1,100 home visits! Around 60% of these families report having an income of less than $25,000. So far 2017 has been a year of adversity, but at Latino Network, we see this as an opportunity to come together in support, acceptance, and advocacy with and for our Latino communities, and all communities of color. This is why we’ve created two resources pages – one for our amazing advocates and another for families who need resources and support – for our communities in Portland and the entire state of Oregon. Our Community Resources page is dedicated to providing as many resources as we can to families and individuals with immigration or citizenship concerns. Here, you can find downloadable documents that will help you with preparing your family for an emergency, a list of immigration and family attorneys, and many links to “Know Your Rights” resources that will help you stay safe. All documents, links, and resources can be found in English AND Spanish. We have made every effort to ensure these documents contain accurate information. Our Take Action page is a resource for advocates who want to get involved in making our country safe for immigrants, refugees, and minority communities. You’ll find a comprehensive list of all of local, state and federal Oregon lawmakers, links to policy and advocacy resources, and a button to signup for our advocacy alert email list. Our goal is to continue to empower ALL communities in Portland by providing resources, services, and support for individuals and families who need help and advocates who want to join our cause. We hope that these two pages will empower you, your family, and your community to make our country safe and equal for everyone! At Latino Network, we are always trying to find new and fun ways to recognize the people who are on the ground making a difference in our community: our staff. That's why we're starting a blog series that features our employees who are doing amazing things with youth, families, and communities here in Portland. To start, we're featuring our very own AmeriCorps Vista, Thalia Garcia-Aguilar! Thalia became our AmeriCorps Vista and Volunteer Coordinator in August, 2016. Thalia helps coordinate all of our volunteers at Latino Network. From recruitment to training, she's the one who helps our organization connect with awesome people in the community who want to volunteer their time with our programs. Before she became our AmeriCorps Vista, Thalia was with Latino Network as an AmeriCorps Summer Vista, helping our School Based Programs in our Ninth Grade Counts summer program. In August 2016, she became our resident Vista and started her volunteer coordinating position with us. Question: What motivated you to go into AmeriCorps? Thalia: Throughout my undergraduate schooling I meet a lot of people who told me about their experiences in AmeriCorps and it seemed really rewarding. I also remember receiving different job offers right after graduation, but none of them fit according to what I thought would be my next step in my career, so I joined AmeriCorps. Once I got involved I knew it was the right choice. Question: What do you think about working for Latino Network? Thalia: I ran across Latino Network during my undergraduate studies at Warner Pacific. The people I met were great and because I'm a first-generation Mexican-American, working here feels familiar. There's a lot of parallels between working at Latino Network and the family atmosphere I grew up with at home. Question: What are you studying in school now? What would you like to do with it? Thalia: I received my B.S. in May 2016 in Social Entrepreneurship. I originally wanted to get my MBA, but after working in the 9th Grade Counts program this past summer, I decided to pursue my Masters in Education. I don't know what my dream career is, but it definitely involves running a business in the interest of education, social justice, and diversity. I also would love to travel throughout the country and teach schools how to dismantle systems of oppression and become more inclusive and equitable environments. Question: What's a success story that you've experienced while working at Latino Network? Thalia: During my Summer Vista service with 9th Grade Counts, I connected one of my students who was into skateboarding with a friend of mine who was starting up a skateboarding company called Quartet. I asked him for Quartet stickers because my student liked the one on my water bottle. I told him how passionate my student was to learn how to skateboard, and how he was a great leader in the classroom. He was one of my students who can rally this peers together and often would help get his peers to be involved in activities. My friend gifted a skateboard and t-shirt to my student because of the student's initiative to lead and make a difference. Months later, I got to meet my former student's mother. She wanted to let me know how well her son was doing in school and how meeting my friend has motivated him to graduate high school. He's also getting better at skateboarding! It was amazing to create the connection between the student and my friend, and to help foster a passion within the student that inspired him to succeed. That's what education is all about, and that's what I plan to do in the future! Thank you Thalia for your amazing work at Latino Network and your passion to help the community! We can't wait to see what you'll achieve in the future! Pan's Labyrinth - A Success! What a successful night for Ollin: Social Justice Film Series! Thank you to all who attended and supported this inspiring event. It was wonderful to see the movie theater almost sold out! We raised $1,600 last night, and ALL of it will go toward our advocacy efforts! After we showed Pan's Labyrinth, Commissioner Nick Fish and Latino Board Chair Maria Elena Campisteguy led an enriching discussion about how everyone in the community can take action and fight for social justice. Maria Elena Campisteguy and Nick Fish lead the discussion after Pan's Labyrinth. Topics of conversation included how we can pledge to take action, ways to stay involved in the community, and how we can work with our local government to ensure rights for everyone. Arts & Culture Manager - and organizer of this event - Joaquin Lopez discusses how Pan's Labyrinth relates to our current political circumstances in the U.S. Thank you to The Hollywood Theatre for hosting, and thank you to our featured discussion leaders! See you in March! We’re coming together to advocate for social justice through film and discussion, and we want YOU to join us. Ollin: Social Justice Film Series aims to unite communities, begin important discussions about social justice, and advocate for the rights of everyone - all through film and community-led discussions. On January 23rd at 7:30pm, we will be showing Pan’s Labyrinth at the Hollywood Theatre, and Commissioner Nick Fish will join us in responding to the film's social justice themes while commenting on policy, advocacy, and leadership in our communities. In the Hollywood Theatre lobby before the film, Latino Network will have a table with opportunities to volunteer, donate and/or learn how to become involved in making a collective impact for the success of Latino youth and families. As 2016 ends, we wanted to reflect on some of our favorite moments from this year. #6 - Latino Network Ballet Folklorico Featured in the Rose Festival! Our youth dance group, Corazones Algres, was invited to participate in this Portland tradition. Youth rode on the float and danced along the route to the music of Edna Vazquez and her mariachis. Zumba Instructor Gisela Contreras led parents in Zumba along the way as well. See more of our Rose Festival photos on our Facebook! #5 - Juntos Aprendemos Expands and is Now in 10 Schools! #4 Latino Leaders elected statewide & Measure 98 victory! Latino Network has always been an advocacy organization and we continue to work to change policies and practices to ensure our communities are thriving. We also celebrated a victory for ballot measures Measure 98 and Yes for Affordable Homes! And this month, we celebrated the victory of Open and Accountable Elections passed by City Council to match small dollar campaign donations. Carmen Rubio attends a Yes on 98 rally with co-petitioners Toya Fink, Oregon Stand for Children Executive Director, and former Governor Ted Kulongoski. Read more about our advocacy victories here! #3 - 100% of Escalera seniors graduate! And our school-based programs expand! Congratulations to every one of our high school seniors in Escalera college prep program. They all worked so hard and successfully graduated in June! Today, they are all enrolled in college or apprenticeship programs, working toward their goals. And with the help of Multnomah County Schools Uniting Neighborhood (SUN) Contract, we expanded our programs to serve more Latino youth & families. See our full list of schools here. Read more about the reward we received at this year's NCLR conference in Orlando! We could not do our work with all of you - as volunteers, donors, advocates, champions, and more! Thank you for working with us to make our Latino communities stronger and healthier. United we move forward to achieve our goals in 2017. Happy Holidays from the Latino Network Family! From our family to yours, we hope that you have a wonderful holiday full of love, giving, and laughter. Latino Network has certainly been busy this holiday season trying to spread the cheer around. From our Juntos Aprendemos Posadas to our Holiday Staff Party, our family has started off the holiday season with plenty of great memories! See our Facebook album for all of the photos! Some of our amazing staff members created a skit about Latino Network's mission for our staff party! This month has been surreal. We celebrated Oregon voters passing Measure 98 and Yes for Affordable Homes. And we are thrilled to see Latinos winning elections, including Teresa Alonso Leon and Diego Hernandez to the Oregon House and Melinda Veliz to the Woodburn City Council. We are also immensely proud to have our first U.S. Latina Senator from Nevada - Catherine Cortez Masto. At the same time, American voters made a choice to elect a President who has used harmful and divisive language that singles out Latinos, Muslims, immigrants, and other people of color. I have heard from many of our staff members and community members about the deep fear that exists within our communities. Many of us, our families, and people we know came to this country as immigrants seeking a better life. Leaving one's home to immigrate takes courage, strength, and a deep desire to seek something better for ourselves and our families. This same courage and strength will keep us all moving through the fear and prevent our communities from going back into the shadows. I'm asking all of you to find the deep belief of goodness and hope within yourself. This IS our work - we are here in this place and time with Latino children and adults to project, amplify, and reflect this goodness and reiliency and love of and for our beautiful Latino communities. There is a brighter tomorrow. We work for it when we work hard to pass measures like Measure 98. When we elect leaders who look like us and reflect our values. When we call for comprehensive immigration reform. When we fight racism, sexism, bigotry, and hate and replace it with love, resiliency, strength, and hope. There is a brighter tomorrow for our communities, and it begins with us. Latino Network Day @ Chipotle! It's coming soon - your favorite burrito place is partnering with Latino Network for a fantastic day of making a difference in our community! Eat at ANY Chipotle in Oregon or SW Washington and mention Latino Network on Tuesday, Oct. 25 and 50% of the profits go towards our programs! Whatever you do, mention us to the cashier and you'll be apart of this amazing effort to help Latinos throughout Oregon! Visit our Facebook event page and RSVP! Unid@s is the Latino Network leadership development program that helps cultivate strong and connected leaders within the Latino community across Oregon. The goal of the program is to advance the voice and well being of all Latinos through increased leadership and advocacy. This year, we welcome the fifth cohort of Latino leaders from around the state of Oregon as they begin a yearlong exploration of leadership as a Latino/a. constructivist listening, supportive leadership and unlearning oppression, and understanding leadership oppression. The sessions are led by Nanci Luna Jimenez of Luna Jimenez Seminars. In a time when policy, leadership and advocacy closely relate to the well being of minorities in America, Unid@s aims to engage Latino leaders of all ages and help them become involved in advocating for the Latino community. Interested in learning more about the members of Unid@s Cohort V? Visit the Unid@s Cohort V webpage here.

2019-04-21T06:08:31Z

http://www.latnet.org/org-blog?offset=1495647560427

As TAPE turns 8 years old, it is fair to say that there is much going on and as such, we would like to take a breath and acknowledge some of the projects and developments, which have been part of a fantastic year for us all. I’ve asked folks involved in developing, delivering and taking part in workshops and projects to share some of their highlights and memories which, along with some of mine, are set out in this blog. This is by no means a full list of what we’ve been up to but it does give a nice overview of the diversity of work, opportunities and achievements from the last 12 months. in production, a feature film that will premiere in year this year. The programming of the festival took place with widespread, community involvement throughout. Local film clubs and societies and community organisations were actively encouraged to get involved, with the overall aim of the festival being to deliver a wide range of films, with mainstream favourites programmed alongside films not often seen on the big screen. Supporting features played alongside feature presentations, comprising work from local filmmakers and archive film. The festival offers a number of commercial opportunities for both TAPE and local business. Through involvement, partnership or sponsorship, the festival has the capacity to become an annual event in the cultural calendar, which is recognised as creative and commercial opportunity for people, organisations and businesses in North Wales and around the UK. I know I support and engage more on a ‘digital’ level at TAPE, but I do love the role. I have enjoyed seeing the growth of the TAPE ‘brand’ and it find its feet firmly in the online world and on social media. I enjoy documenting all of the wonderful things that happen here at TAPE and sharing them for the world to see. The website is quickly becoming the hub for all things TAPE – and I am proud to say it is working well. People are engaging with us, and the centre is now accessible from the comfort of home. I am also really enjoying being involved with the planning and running of the Sofa Cinema – the audience is getting bigger by the day, and it is awesome experiencing all different types of people enjoying cinema – even perhaps people who wouldn’t usually go to or have access to a cinema. It is great to see all the initial planning come to fruition on the day, and see everyone having an amazing time. Seeing the cinema fill up with people, all here for the same reason – the love of film – is a wonderful experience, and knowing you have been part of making it happen, is brilliant. Being a project worker for the Coastline Film Festival has been great fun. I’ve really enjoyed the planning process and meeting many new people and making new contacts. I love how ideas bounce so well between us all, and being able to watch that simple suggestion slowly grow into an amazing event for the public to enjoy. I can’t wait to see Coastline 2016 come to life! I genuinely love being involved at TAPE. I love how every day and every thought encourages creativity, and the support here is second to none. Being part of the TAPE team has allowed me to expand my skills and experience into areas I’d never have even considered previously, and thanks to such a wonderful network of integral staff, I am able to do my job well, whilst also being a parent to my two children. Long live TAPE! – Zara Whelan, Social Media and Coastline Film Festival Officer. Backstage Youth Club , delivered in partnership with Afasic Cymru and funded through Children in Need has gone from strength to strength, with a growing cohort of young people eagerly coming along to TAPE each week to take part in a timetable of activities designed by them, covering a huge range of creative activities and life skills. Recently, six of the group became qualified sports leaders and two of the original club members have secured places at University. It is a wonderful project, the success of which has seen similar projects created in Rhyl, Mid and South Wales. I’ve been with Tape just over a year now and have loved being involved with something so special! I really enjoy the Animation Club (even if it does mean giving up my Saturday mornings! It’s worth it!). Seeing the growth and development of the members of the club, I’m so proud of them and to be a small part of this and their success. It’s amazing seeing their award each time I come in and a reminder of how talented they all are and how hard they have worked. I am also enjoying my more recent work with you guys as part of the youth club, what an amazing bunch of young people! There’s never a dull moment and they are all truly inspiring with their individual talents and skills, which I have no doubt have been encouraged and embraced as part of the youth club. I have also been involved with other bits and bobs on the way and am never ceased to be amazed at how many innovative and inspiring projects are going on. I’m honoured and proud to be part of TAPE and hope to be part of it for as long as possible. The TAPE Animation Club is funded through families first and has embarked on its second full year of activity with a full cohort twice over and a shiny award! The Conwy Community Podcast has transformed in the last 12 months from its previous incarnation as an information and events platform into a more traditional podcast, featuring an interview with a prominent member of the local community. The podcast can be found on iTunes and Podbean and has had almost 3000 plays, all around the globe, during its first four episodes. The podcast has enabled a core group of people to learn and deliver every aspect of the project, from arranging interviews through to editing and uploading the final piece. Have a listen, subscribe to the podcast and help spread the word about this fantastic show. Ghostbuskers can be traced back to the first year of TAPE and is still a key activity in the TAPE timetable. Over 30 people come along every week to play, sing, socialise and enjoy the amazing atmosphere of this wonderful community music project for people of all ages. The Structured Day Program, delivered in partnership with CAIS, has been in the TAPE timetable since the program was established five years ago. The last year of creative activity has seen a number of animation and film projects developed and delivered by participants on the program, all of which have received public premiers and screenings and supported a number of ongoing volunteering opportunities for people following their completion of the Day Program. The latest film, ‘Bendixed’ can be found on TAPE TV and is well worth a watch! ‘Bendixed’, was a brilliant film project with the Day Program. From scriptwriting, to filming, and through to the editing process the ideas, energy and commitment from all involved was inventive, inspiring and always good fun. One of the best moments came at the premiere when the head of CAIS asked if all the layers of nuance and depth was intentional and we could say ‘Yes’! – Jenni Steele – filmmaker and volunteer. Watching films continues to be a vital resource at TAPE and in the last 12 months we have been able to upgrade our cinema facilities to a very high standard. The Coastline Sofa Cinema is a fantastic screening facility boasting professional HD projection 5m wide electric screen, JBL Control 7.1 surround sound, 15 two seater leather sofas, electric blackout blinds and Blu-Ray playback via a PlayStation 4. Poke the Muse is a new but already flourishing drop-in project. The project has established a new kind of resource for creative folks, every Monday afternoon at the TAPE Community Arts Centre and another opportunity to engage with people in a person-led way. During the last 12 months, thanks to TAPE’s creative partnership I have been involved in an Arts Council backed project which has given me a rare chance to develop my own skills alongside providing a moment of unexpected accolade for Bruce Douglas, octogenarian artist and poet-philosopher. Our collaborative film-portrait and exhibition was a great success and confidence boost to both of us. Currently TAPE is enabling me to grow a community art project that is providing a unique open studio setting, allowing visitors of any skill or experience to develop their creative potential without the pressure to perform or produce specific outcomes. It is proving an oasis for people whose health, wealth or life experiences have stifled their belief in themselves and their creative ability. – Dee Rivaz, workshop leader. TAPE continues to deliver workshops and projects across North Wales and the UK more widely. The growing team of expert practitioners is able to support creative activities and provide memorable experiences across most creative mediums, always with a person-centered and inclusive approach. Making films and the many opportunities this medium provides, has become a cornerstone in the work of TAPE. From commissioned work through to the provision of support and facilities for both aspirant and professional filmmakers, TAPE has become recognized as a filmmaking resource for businesses, communities, groups and individuals alike. Some of our current, ongoing film projects include time-lapse filming for Cartrefi Conwy and Wilmot Dixon, a film about friendship in the lives of people with learning disabilities, being devised and delivered via a partnership-focused Production Team initiative. A heritage film is in production on the subject of the Sychnant Pass above Penmaenmawr and a wonderful wildlife film, focusing on the nesting season of Terns on the Skerries. The increasing number of referrals, enquiries and interest in becoming involved at TAPE is forcing the team to look at facilitating more long-form projects, which offer the space and time and options for involvement for a larger group of people, whilst maintaining a bespoke and person centered approach to delivery. Currently, TAPE has a number of these projects underway and it has become clear that this method of delivery is increasingly suited to the interests of the vast number of people and organisations looking to involve themselves with the charity. I had just arrived from Spain. I moved to North Wales because my girlfriend got a good position here and I didn’t want to be far away from her. I continued working at home, writing films reviews, reading scripts or planning some shootings in Spain. But at the same time, I was looking to take part in the local way of life. I was interested in developing my career here. My English lessons had started but I still didn’t feel confident in applying for jobs. One day I opened the newspaper and I found that a film festival was going to be organized in the area: The Coastline Film Festival. Tape Community Music and Film were organizing it and they were looking for volunteers. I thought that it was an excellent opportunity to meet people of my profession and I was brave enough to get in touch with them. The first day I visited the TAPE, Steve Swindon, the CEO, very kindly show me the facilities. He was very patient because I couldn’t understand half the things he was saying. He repeated the same things one after another. It was amazing: they had very good technical equipment, a small amount but very effective and fully functional. But the most surprising thing was the amount of people involved, of all different ages, coming in and out, always very busy. There were teenagers editing a video, children taking part in animation workshops, and an old man asking how he could the tracks of his mother singing from a vinyl record to a digital system. I went home very excited. Four months have passed since that day and I collaborated with them on small projects. I volunteered in The Coastline Film Festival and I was part of the technical team of the feature film British Winters. The Coastline Film Festival seemed a very good opportunity to get to know new people. As well as being a volunteer, I went to watch Retreat, where Wales Screen explained to us where the film was shot, very close to where we were. We also watched The night of the living dead in the Chapel of Horror. The shooting of British Winters was an amazing experience. We worked hard for five weeks to complete the feature film written and directed by Andrew Turner. I have already worked on a few feature films but this one was my first experience in English. Those intense five weeks were very useful for learning English, especially technical words. I also got to know how a shooting in the United Kingdom works. Within the technical team we felt free to experiment and learn different ways of shooting: with two cameras, during the nights, in small rooms…All these things are not usually allowed by the production companies. I also had the opportunity to know the authentic North Wales and its own culture, different than mine. This would be very difficult any another way and I feel very lucky and privileged because I know that a lot of foreigners cannot get to know it. TAPE’s first full-length feature film, British Winters will premiere at the 2016 Coastline Film Festival. The film is a directorial debut for its writer and has been developed and delivered as a community project which has involved a large number of local people and businesses during the production and filming. It has clearly evidenced the need for an alternate route into the film industry for graduates or those interested in this field and looking to develop their filmmaking slate, CVs and portfolio. With the resources available to us, it is becoming increasingly clear that TAPE is very well placed to deliver this alternate route to creating and screening new film works. I have been volunteering and freelancing at TAPE since 2012. My background is in filmmaking and I had graduated from Glyndwr University with a BA Moving Image. After leaving university I was frustrated by the lack of opportunity for filmmakers in North Wales but I managed to secure a role as a IT mentor for a Denbighshire County Council initiative, New Work Connections which appealed to my other passion, community work. It was while working at New Work Connections I met one of TAPE’s regular participants; he explained what TAPE was all about. Eager to get involved as TAPE seemed the ideal environment for me as it’s creative, collaborative and a community centre., I contacted TAPE and sent them a reel of my work and asked about volunteering. Initially, I started as a volunteer editor working three days a week and then moved on to help with workshops. It was mind blowing to see how TAPE operated, having worked with other community projects prior I had heard the term “fully inclusive” before but only when working with TAPE has it been used aptly. Working with all ages, background and abilities TAPE never highlights these differences just embraces anyone who comes through the door (including myself). Eventually, I left my job to freelance and volunteer full-time with TAPE. This was an easy decision. TAPE perfectly embodied the sort of organisation I was happy to devote time to. It has the ties to the community, which gives me the satisfaction of knowing that I am doing something meaningful while also providing a creative outlet in which to hone my filmmaking skills. As my project resume increased so did my confidence and I started to work on my own script, British Winters, based on a book I wrote. The intention was to complete the script, and look at acquiring the appropriate funding to make it into an independent film. It was some after this time, in 2014, I learned that TAPE had acquired the funds to make a feature film which was extremely exciting news for both TAPE and myself. Having worked on various short films since joining TAPE, I was eager to get involved in something more ambitious. Not knowing the details of the project I was eager to assist in the production, in any capacity, regardless of the project. It was a few months later that TAPE, knowing I had a completed script came to me and offered me the opportunity to not only direct the feature film but also approached me about having British Winters be the project. Needless to say I was elated. Having left school at 15 and suffering from dyslexia I never thought an opportunity like this would be given to me. We began filming British Winters in January 2016 after several months of pre-production and planning. Saying that British Winters is a collaborative project is putting it mildly. While the words and vision were constructed by myself, through TAPE we were able to bring together a synergetic team to make my vision into a reality. The filming drew heavily upon the TAPE ‘family’, a family made up of staff, colleagues and volunteers. I was keen to try and get as many TAPE regulars into the film and hopefully use the project to bring new people into TAPE. The production was intensive we filmed for five weeks only having Monday’s off. We used all North Wales locations and were humbled by the generosity of local businesses and people who volunteered their time and resources to assist. From donating free props to allowing us to take over their premises for a full week it was inspiring to come into contact with so many people who were willing to help out a community project. While the production was intensive, the post-production is going to be just as challenging. The editing process has just commenced for me and it’s time to take the raw footage and make my film a reality. The film is going to be premiered at the Coastline Film Festival in 2016 and it’s thrilling to think that at the end of this process my film will be shown on the big screen. What’s equally rewarding is to see the effect British Winters has had on the crew and actors. It really has had a knock-on affect and it’s gratifying to see people pursuing acting, filmmaking and music production after being spurred on by this project. Having worked at TAPE for several years now and British Winters being the culmination of my time with TAPE, it is easy to see why it has such a strong and fervent links to the community. It provides a creative outlet for people from all backgrounds. Rarely do you meet someone who drops by TAPE who then does not become a repeat visitor. The variety of the activities, the range of the facilities, the inclusiveness of the staff and willingness to help make it a truly innovative and welcoming place. On personal note TAPE has given me something I’d be looking for my whole life; a welcoming and collaborative network of people, who’s trust in me has given me the confidence to strive for my dreams. It’s their honest and constructive feedback, which is helping me cultivate my skills making me better at my craft. ‘In the Shadow of the Ferris Wheel’, is a long-form documentary project, which TAPE has been commissioned to develop in partnership with the North Wales Coastal Link of the Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline and Denbighshire Youth Service. To deliver the work, TAPE is supporting a group of primary school children and a young man undertaking his Duke of Edinburgh’s Award to work on the film and produce all aspects of it, from script to screen. It also saw myself and Andy Pearson travel to Ukraine and Belarus to film and experience first-hand, the immense difficulties faced by many thousands of people in these two countries and get some understanding of the ever-present impact of the Chernobyl Disaster, which took place 30 years ago. The film project has already been shortlisted for a National Excellence in Youth Work Award and we are very excited that the film will also premiere at the 2016 Coastline Film Festival. TAPE has a number of high-end resources, which allow for both event delivery and event support. From our Blow-Up Cinema event screens through to staging, sound systems, event activities, performances and event film and photography. TAPE is increasingly approached to support community events of all sizes, to add value, expertise and atmosphere. TAPE’s Blow Up Cinema uses incredible, inflatable, outdoor screens, professional HD projection and high quality sound systems to create unique cinema screening events both indoors and out. Blow Up Cinema also offers supported employment opportunities as part of TAPE’s Pathway of Support program, which engages, trains and supports people through experiences and project delivery. The recording studio at the TAPE Community Arts Centre is a well-used resource for local bands, musicians and groups for both rehearsal and recording. The studio is run with TAPE’s trademark ethos of support, with professional engineers and equipment on hand to ensure artists come away with the sound and recording they’d hoped for, and having had a great experience at the same time. This year, TAPE’s studio has been ungraded and revamped, thanks to the efforts of two volunteers who approached TAPE looking to further their knowledge and experience. Lukasz is a highly experienced sound engineer with a wealth of technical knowledge, which he has used to support the work of TAPE. He has worked alongside another volunteer, Chay, who was newly qualified when he came to TAPE and was able to learn a great deal from Lukasz and take part in projects, supporting others. For over two years, TAPE has been a core member of the Conwy County Borough Council Social Enterprise Business Solutions Group. Formed by CCBC and key local third sector agencies, the group meets on a monthly basis in support of the growing links between the work of the third sector and the local authority. One outcome of this group working has been the awarding of Social Enterprise Place status to the county of Conwy. TAPE is one of the 10 groups recognised in this award and in the county’s economic regeneration strategy. TAPE’s Ignite Scheme has been developed to provide a creative first response to individuals looking to engage or explore creative ideas. TAPE will match a person to a creative professional who will support this participant over a short programme of 1 to 1 sessions whilst looking to develop continuation through existing provision at TAPE or in the community. This scheme has proven to be of significant benefit for an increasing number of young people and adults in the area, for whom engaging with projects or activities can be a difficult experience. We have seen people move into significant and ongoing activities following extended periods of isolation, social and economic inactivity. This programme supports opportunities for training, education and employment for people referred into TAPE from across many partner agencies and organisations. The Pathway of Support has been specifically developed to engage with an individual at a point appropriate to their current situation, level of experience and ambitions for their ideas and interests. TAPE presents all its work with inclusion at heart. This practice is clearly visible through all aspects of our delivery and in the generation of involvement and opportunity for people at every possible stage. TAPE has engaged with and supported participants from across communities to be part of projects on their own terms and with a clear focus on each person getting the most out of their involvement with us. Increasingly, TAPE is being sought out by film and media graduates as a destination where they can find opportunities to develop experience and work for their portfolios. For many, moving to an urban centre to further careers, is not an option or desirable. We recognise the role we can play in this area and are increasingly responding to requests for support and involvement in our work. TAPE can offer real world experience on live briefs, working to deadlines and dealing with customer feedback and requests. It has become increasingly clear that TAPE plays a unique role in the provision of inclusive, creative support in North Wales and has positioned itself as ready to upscale both its infrastructure and thereby generate a significantly greater range of resources and real world opportunities for people of all ages. Amongst this work, is the exciting addition of an HTC Vive VR headset with Leap Motion and powered by a high-end specification gaming computer supplied by Utopia Computers. Our work with VR will create opportunities through both use of this exciting technology and learning around the creation of bespoke software and VR experiences. We look forward to sharing more about this very soon. It is amazing to consider that 8 years has gone by and it feels like a huge privilege to stop and think about what we have been able to offer people in that time, the friends we’ve made and the experiences we’ve shared. Sincere thanks to everyone who has been a part of TAPE this year and helped to make so many important things happen for people across the community. Lastly, I would like to dedicate this post in memory of the wonderful, Keith Forecast, without whom none of this would have happened. Thank you and here’s to the next exciting 12 months.

2019-04-25T02:10:44Z

https://tapemusicandfilm.co.uk/happy-birthday-tape/

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2019-04-26T13:59:16Z

http://www.edizioniferrarisinibaldi.com/category/entertainment

What Causes Dog Skin Allergies? Is it an Allergy or Something Else? Is your dog’s itchy, uncomfortable, or unsightly skin condition driving them — and you — up the wall? Getting to the root cause is the key to beginning the healing process. Find out how to diagnose skin allergies and conditions, how they differ, how to treat them, and about hypoallergenic dietary solutions from an expert in the field, Dr. Judy Morgan. Pruritus is the medical term for severe itching of the skin. It’s the generic name for the wide variety of dog skin disorders that cause your pet to lick, scratch, or bite to try to stop the itch. A number of conditions, from atopic dermatitis to hormone-related issues, can prompt these conditions. To sort them out, we looked to a vet with years of experience. Dr. Judy Morgan is an author, speaker, and holistic veterinarian. Based in New Jersey, Dr. Morgan currently operates two veterinary hospitals, is an active speaker and blogs and writes daily. She has published three books on holistic pet care and feeding, and her social media sites reach millions of pet owners worldwide. She is Chief Veterinary Medical Officer for Monkey’s House Senior Dog Hospice and works with rescue groups for homeless dogs. Your dog’s skin is in perfect condition when it’s soft and smooth and not flaky, red, bumpy, or oozing. It shouldn’t be too oily or dry to your touch, and there shouldn’t be any bald spots. But you’ll usually know before you even check that something’s amiss because your dog can’t stop worrying his or her skin. Before you begin trying to relieve your dog’s discomfort, it’s important to understand the different forms of skin allergies and conditions so you and your vet can take the best course of action. Atopic Dermatitis: What Is It, and How Does It Develop? Like people, canines manifest atopic allergic symptoms when their immune systems begin to recognize certain everyday inhaled substances as dangerous. Atopy reactions usually occur within 30 minutes of contact with the allergen, and always within 12 hours. Atopy is about reacting to inhaled particles, such as airborne pollens from plants and grasses, weed and trees, mold spores, and, in some cases, animal dander. Atopy is usually seasonal, with the worst symptoms occurring in the spring and summer. However, if you live in warm, humid areas like Florida or Hawaii, the problem can be year-round. Think skin allergies in dogs are pretty uncommon? That’s unfortunately not the case. It’s hard to see your dog suffer, and the secondary manifestations of skin lesions, infections, and hair loss can be alarming. In addition, the constant scratching can be a source of irritation for pet owners. In fact, skin allergies are the most common reason people take their canine companions to the vet for consultations, according to Nationwide Pet Insurance. If susceptible, dogs usually show allergy symptoms as early as 3 months and up until around age 6. Atopic dermatitis can be mild at younger ages, so it may not become apparent or a real problem until your dog is 3 years old. Symptoms are usually skin related — itching, scratching, and rashes — but depending on the trigger, they can also manifest as “hay fever” symptoms like watery eyes and sneezing. Your veterinarian should be able to make a diagnosis more easily using your answers. But the appearance of your dog’s skin is where the exam will begin. Even if your canine companion has some of these symptoms, it may not be an allergy you’re looking at. Some skin conditions mimic allergies. Diagnostic Testing: Is It an Allergy — Or Something Else? Here’s an example of a condition that mimics allergies: a yeast infection found on the skin and ears of dogs caused by Malassezia pachydermatitis. Though it’s completely normal for canines to have this type of yeast, an overgrowth can cause dermatitis or skin inflammation. The reasons for the condition aren’t known. The symptoms look like typical atopic allergies, but the cause and treatment is very different. Intradermal Allergy Testing: Your dog will be sedated for this procedure. After hair has been clipped on one side of your pet’s body, your vet will give minute injections of allergens, usually 60, on one side of your pet’s body. While considered the state-of-the-art in diagnosis for pet allergies, it can be less than 100 percent reliable both when reactions are not strong and since there is some subjective interpretation involved. Blood Allergy Testing: This test attempts to measure antibody levels your pet has formed against particular allergens. There is some debate about blood testing reliability since the affected organ is not what’s being tested for a reaction. Depending on the lab used, results may not agree. Neither intradermal or blood allergy testing can determine food allergies. “People need to understand that the only way to really know for sure if there is an allergy is to feed something and see how the pet reacts,” Dr. Morgan notes. The way to do that is a food trial or elimination diet. Elimination Diets and Food Trials: This entails feeding your dog novel sources — a protein and carbohydrate that your pet has never eaten before — to see which foods cause an allergic reaction. It can help identify food sensitivities. Based on one, two, or all of these diagnostic processes, you’ll be closer to knowing what you’re dealing with and how to treat it. Not all allergies are atopic, although all atopic disorders are allergies. For example, pest bites and food allergies are non-atopic allergic disorders. Dogs that are allergy-prone tend to have more than one type, and purebred dogs are more often affected by allergies than mixed-breed companions. Fleas: Extremely common, flea allergy dermatitis is caused by the flea’s saliva, and it only takes a few bites of this blood-sucking parasite to set the problem off. Controlling them should be a priority because fleas carry tapeworms, Bartonella, and other diseases. Ticks: Ticks deeply attach to the skin to extract blood, eventually falling off to lay their eggs. Dogs will often show no symptoms, but you can easily see ticks because they become engorged and protrude from the skin. As disease carriers, they should be removed as soon as possible. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) offers advice on the best way to remove a tick. Lice: Lice are less common on dogs than ticks and fleas and may be difficult to find since you’ll need to look for the tiny eggs attached to your dog’s hair follicles. Lice don’t only cause itching, pain, and hair loss, but they can lead to more serious health issues, so they should be eradicated as soon as possible. Use flea combs to remove lice, disinfect the comb, and clean pet bedding in hot water. Most flea shampoos also remove lice. Seek veterinary advice for persistent cases. Mites: These tiny parasites cause two types of mange. The most easily transmitted to both dogs and people, sarcoptic mange is also known as canine scabies. A dog’s ears, face, and legs are most commonly affected, with symptoms of red skin, intense itching, sores, and hair loss. The second type isn’t contagious between dogs or humans, but demodectic mange can cause bald spots, scabbing, and sores. Ringworm: The name of this fungus comes from the circular patches it causes on any site of your pet’s body — or yours since it’s highly contagious between both dogs and humans. You may see scaly patches, inflammation, and hair loss around the area of the circular lesions. Dogs under a year old are most susceptible. Drug Allergies: Orally, topically, or intravenously administered drugs can prompt a cutaneous adverse drug reaction (CADR). Symptoms can range from blisters to hives, and dogs may experience acute itching that results in self-mutilation. It can be difficult to diagnose a drug reaction because the symptoms can start one to three weeks after first administration of a drug, and reactions can happen even three weeks after the therapy has ended. The most common medications causing skin reactions to drugs include penicillin vaccines, antimicrobials, sulfonamides, topical drugs, and NSAIDs. Your pet’s medical history will be an important part of the diagnosis, and treatment will depend on the severity of your pet’s skin condition. Resolving a cutaneous adverse drug reaction is never an instant procedure; the veterinarian may decide to stop or replace the prescription, but all of this must be done under careful observation. Be prepared for frequent follow-up appointments and communication in order to see if the cease in medication is solving the reaction. In mild cases, simply stopping the drug can reverse the adverse effects. Contact Dermatitis: There are two types of contact dermatitis. In both cases, the dog has direct physical contact and a reaction to an irritating substance. Allergic dermatitis happens when a dog becomes hypersensitive to substances in their environment after repeated physical contact and skin sensitization. Skin sensitization can take anywhere from six months to two years to develop. Various substances can cause allergic contact dermatitis, including flea collars/flea powders, topical antibiotics, some metals, soaps/shampoos, carpet deodorizers, insecticides, and plastic. Irritant contact dermatitis occurs the first time that your pet makes contact with an extremely irritating substance. Common chemicals and substances that cause irritant contact dermatitis include road salt, detergents, acids and alkalis, and petroleum byproducts. There is no cure for contact dermatitis. The best way to treat and prevent the disease is to prevent exposure. Dry Skin/Low Humidity: Irritated, dry skin can have multiple causes, including over-bathing or bathing with too much soap and not rinsing thoroughly. Another common cause is overheating the home in winter months, or low humidity levels due to the climate you and your pet live in. This is easy to remedy once you know the reason by making changes in your environment by buying a humidifier, using specially formulated moisturizing shampoo and conditioner if you live in a dry area, and encouraging more water consumption. Hormone Responsive Dermatosis and Alopecia in Dogs: Dermatosis (diseases affecting the skin that cause inflammation and itching) and alopecia (hair loss) can be related to an imbalance of reproductive hormones. Various reasons could cause your dog to have these types of reactions, but if tests and indications point to reproductive hormone imbalance, your vet will try supplemental therapy to either raise or lower hormones to achieve a normal level. If your dog is on estrogen therapy, and the results are adverse to the health of your dog, your veterinarian will discontinue it. Dermatosis and alopecia are confirmed when the conditions resolve based on hormone therapy. Another approach is neutering or spaying, which may be sufficient to resolve the skin disorders. Your veterinarian will prescribe prescription shampoo for dandruff and topical medicines for the treatment or prevention of bacterial skin infections and itching. Bacterial Infections: Pyoderma is the medical term for bacterial infection of the skin. It can cause redness and rashes, itchiness, crusts, pustules, and even hair loss at the infection site. Once the natural defenses of your dog’s skin break down, opportunistic bacteria proliferate. Yeast and fungal organisms can also establish their own infections when the skin’s defenses have broken down. Any interruption to the immune system’s ability can lead to pyoderma, including damage to the skin because of different kinds of allergies, irritants, and/or autoimmune disease. Treatment is usually multi-faceted because of the nature of the disease and needs to be directed by your vet. Many disorders are based on lowered immunity, like pyoderma. If your dog suffers from any kind of illness, it’s always good to assess what and how you’re feeding your dog. Food intolerances in pets are similar to the digestive problems of people who get an upset stomach or diarrhea because of lactose intolerance. The best way to get rid of the problem: For people and their pets, identify the food causing the problem and eliminate it from the daily diet. Allergies and intolerances for your dog can be identified by the method described by Dr. Morgan in the diagnosis section of this article. It may seem overwhelming to care for a dog with food allergies. But it’s much simpler today than it was in the past. Many more wholesome foods are available, featuring a wide variety of protein and grains to meet your canine companion’s health needs. With a little care and education, you can keep your dog safe, happy, healthy, and well fed. But where do you find the right kind of food? Common Allergens are Common Ingredients: Very common allergenic ingredients contained in many popular commercial pet foods — such as corn, wheat, rice, soy, eggs, milk, yeast, potato, and beets — are often potential culprits. Many pets react to certain animal proteins as well. Lack of Variety: Many people who have observed the rise in the dogs’ health issues connect them to pet food brand loyalty. Feeding your dog the same food day in and day out for years can increase the likelihood of a reaction to food ingredients. Fillers: In addition, most commercial pet food contains fillers like potatoes and other fibers and starches to help make food more economical to a product by reducing the amount of meat in the food. However, these fillers aren’t biologically appropriate for dogs. Over time, they create stress on the immune system, which in turn can develop a hypersensitivity and resulting allergic response to them. Additives: Emulsifiers, flavor enhancers, dyes, and preservatives, and even the hormones and chemicals passed up the food chain from meat can trigger food intolerances. Food intolerances can escalate to systemic allergic reactions. Poor Quality: Feeding rendered, low-quality sources of protein — for example, hooves, feathers, or beaks — has the potential to initiate an allergic reaction in your pet. To learn more about choosing the right diet for your dog, bone up on how to compare different types of dog food. Flea Control: For the No. 1 dog skin irritant, you can find lots of different flea-killing options. Since they are all useful for limited amounts of time, they need to be repeated as indicated. Many flea-control products are applied topically where your dog is unable to lick them off, such as behind the head on the neck. Products given orally may be more practical for you and your dog. Specially formulated flea-killing shampoos can also be helpful if the infestation is acute or for puppies, but you’ll still want to continue with either topical or oral medication. If your pet spends a great deal of time outdoors, you’ll need to be extra-diligent. And if your house becomes infested, you’ll need to take steps to treat your home and repeat the process to keep the pests away. Avoid Certain Plants: Some plants can cause contact dermatitis in dogs because of their sap (like Euphorbia) or atopic allergies due to their pollen (like the Gas Plant). Beware of how your garden grows! For a list of plants to avoid to safeguard your dog, check out Allergy-Free Gardening. Immunotherapy (Hyposensitization): To activate “tolerance,” injections made from allergens that your pet is sensitive to can be administered in a series. The therapy will make your dog less sensitive to them when they are re-encountered in your home or outside. Injections are usually given at home, but pills or drops are available if your dog can’t tolerate shots or if you dislike giving injections. Anti-Inflammatory Medications: Steroids and some new non-steroidal drugs can help manage dog allergies. Oral medications used in combination can be safer than a single drug at a higher dose. Some dogs benefit from a trial with different drugs to find one that works best. Antihistamines and fatty acid supplements can be helpfully used with other treatments or for dogs that are less severely affected. Topical Therapy: Medicated shampoos and conditioners can provide relief. Bathing removes allergens that adhere to the skin’s surface, and the medicated ingredients also help to reduce itching and control secondary infections. Using lukewarm water for these medicated baths also helps cool the skin to further reduce itching. Antibacterial and Antifungal Medications: Because dogs with atopic dermatitis are prone to recurrent bacterial and yeast infections of the skin and ears, your veterinarian may need to address these infections in addition to treating atopic dermatitis. Medications used might include courses of antibiotics and/or antifungals. Your veterinarian may also prescribe topical therapy with antibacterial and antifungal shampoos to resolve and prevent bacterial and yeast infections. Many dog skin allergies and conditions take a long time to heal. Be patient, follow the doctor’s orders, and take steps to improve your dog’s diet to support immunity and overall good health. Doesn’t Contain Common Food Allergens: Read labels carefully. Once you determine your dog’s sensitivities, you can make a selection based on what works best and vary between the best ingredients by changing the proteins periodically. No Chemicals or Preservatives: Look for high-quality ingredients. Industrial additives aren’t good for dogs or humans since they are not natural to mammal biochemistry. Immune System Strengthening: Better nutrition will strengthen natural protection and biological systems, which helps ward off allergies and other conditions. Natural/Ancestral Approach: Canines successfully evolved with a scavenging and hunting lifestyle, consuming foods that are nothing like the highly processed kibble fed to many dogs today. Recent nutritional science increasingly supports diets based on what nature intended — fresh foods that are high in protein and provide fats that are balanced fats — as the healthiest approach to feeding most dogs. Learn more about the many benefits of the Ancestral Diet. A Single Meat Source: Having one meat protein source makes it easier to eliminate what’s causing skin problems in your dog and feeding what will support her good health. If you want to avoid skin and other health worries, offering your dog meals that contain whole foods with nutrients in their natural state simply makes sense. Want to learn more about how food can ease allergies? Read more about hypoallergenic dog food and dog food to ease skin allergies on Darwin’s Natural Pet Products blog. Robust and natural nutrition can build immunity, support skin health, and relieve your dog’s suffering. If you’re looking for guidance on the best hypoallergenic food for your special friend, get a free menu consultation from a Darwin’s expert by calling 877-738-6325 or emailing us with your questions. When it comes to allergies and intolerances, the right food can make all the difference. Edmund adores Darwin’s, can’t get enough of it and has fully transitioned to only raw food. Isis also loves it and eats it well, she too has fully transitioned to only raw. Copyright © 2019 Darwin's Pet Food. All Rights Reserved.

2019-04-26T12:19:21Z

https://www.darwinspet.com/health-issues/dog-skin-allergy-conditions/

This Agreement is made and entered into by and between InstaPayUSA LLC, and you, the InstaPayUSA Account Holder. Certain Definitions. In this Agreement, the words "you" and "your" refer to the person or business who has applied for and accepted or used an InstaPayUSA Account, including any authorized user of the Account. "InstaPayUSA Account" refers to the Account set up by InstaPayUSA that includes the capability to transfer funds electronically. "InstaPayUSA," "we," "our," and "us" refer to InstaPayUSA, LLC., a Utah Limited Liability Company and its corporate partners or affiliates. "Banking Partner" refers to the bank sponsor through which InstaPayUSA will submit any Automated Clearing House ("ACH") electronic funds transfer request. "ACH Credit" refers to a transaction that electronically transfers funds to your Account from an account at a financial institution, while an "ACH Debit" refers to a transaction which electronically transfers funds from your Account to an account at a financial institution. "ACH Item" refers to an ACH credit, an ACH debit, or both. The words "Intra- InstaPayUSA Transfer" refer to an electronic transfer of funds between any type of an Account held with InstaPayUSA and any other InstaPayUSA Account. The words "business day" means every Monday through Friday, except Federal and Utah state holidays. "Affiliation" or "Affiliation Status" refers to the relationship between you and a third party entity with which InstaPayUSA has entered into an agreement for special terms and/or pricing. The headings in this Agreement are for convenience of reference only and will not govern the interpretation of the provisions hereof. Unless it would be inconsistent to do so, words and phrases used in this document should be construed so the singular includes the plural and the plural includes the singular. 1. Checking Account. You must establish and maintain a checking account as described in your Account profile to facilitate the transfer of funds. As part of this agreement, you irrevocably authorize InstaPayUSA to debit your Checking Account for any fees, payments or penalties you owe or may owe InstaPayUSA relating to ACH or Intra- InstaPayUSA transactions. You authorize InstaPayUSA to initiate reversal or adjustment entries and initiate or suspend such entries as may be necessary to grant you conditional credit for any entry. When registering a checking account in your Account profile, you will be required to enter your bank name, the routing number of your bank, and your checking account number. Once this information is entered, you will be required to validate that the routing number and checking account number are correct and that you have the proper authorization to access the account. ACH Transactions. When you request InstaPayUSA to transfer funds from your checking account to another checking account, you are requesting an electronic funds transfer through the ACH system. By doing so, you authorize InstaPayUSA to initiate, process, transmit, and settle through a Banking Partner, an ACH debit or credit in the amount that you specify. You agree that your ACH requests are accurate, timely, and have been authorized by the party into whose account the credit will be made, or by the party from whose account the debit will be made. Your authorization will remain in effect after termination of this Agreement and until InstaPayUSA has received written notice terminating this authorization and all your obligations to InstaPayUSA have been paid in full. a. Adherence to ACH Rules. You agree to be bound by the rules of the National Automated Clearing House Association ("NACHA") in effect as they may be amended from time to time. You also agree not to request an ACH transfer that violates the laws of the United States, which include, but are not limited to, sanctions enforced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC"). b. ACH Returns, Rejections, Cancellations, and Acceptance.. You may be charged a fee for any ACH transactions that result in a returned ACH item, such as, but not limited to, those caused by insufficient funds in your checking account, closure of your checking account, or if the bank account number or other information you provided is incorrect. InstaPayUSA reserves the right to resubmit for collection any ACH item authorized by you that is returned InstaPayUSA will notify you within 2 (two) business days of the receipt of a returned ACH item. Upon written request, InstaPayUSA will attempt to cancel an entry before transmitting it. However, InstaPayUSA shall have no liability if the effect of cancellation fails. InstaPayUSA is not responsible or liable in any way for any entry not accepted by InstaPayUSA Banking Partner. c. Provisional Credits. All credits to your Account resulting from an ACH debit are provisional until final settlement is made through a Federal Reserve Bank. If InstaPayUSA does not receive final settlement, you will refund InstaPayUSA the amount of any such entry. d. Accuracy of Information. You acknowledge that if a financial institution name and number are incorrect or inconsistent, we may rely on the identifying number alone, even if the number identifies a financial institution, person, or account other than the one named. e. Fees.You will pay InstaPayUSA fees for services in accordance with this Agreement by reference under the fee structure. Such fees will be calculated and debited from amounts due to you under the InstaPayUSA Account concurrently with transaction activity, or will be netted out from the funds due you under this Agreement. You will immediately pay InstaPayUSA any amount incurred by InstaPayUSA attributable to the transfer of funds pursuant to this Agreement, including but not limited to non-sufficient fund fees, or other fees charged from any other financial institution for any amount you owe InstaPayUSA under this Agreement or under any contract now existing or later entered into between you and InstaPayUSA. f. Transfer Amount Limitations. Currently, InstaPayUSA limits the amount you are allowed to transfer from your checking account to $10,000.00 per day. If you wish to increase the limitations allowed you must contact a customer service representative and an exception may be allowed on an individual basis. For fraud and anti-money laundering purposes, InstaPayUSA reserves the sole and exclusive right to review large electronic transfer of funds to or from your Account before releasing the funds. InstaPayUSA also reserves the right to refuse any transfer of funds at our discretion. g. Type of Bank Account Required. You may only use a checking account of a financial institution located in the United States of America ("US") or US Territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the US Virgin Islands). The electronic transfer of funds to or from a foreign bank or the branch of a foreign bank in a territory of the United States is also prohibited. The term foreign bank does not include: (i) A US agency or branch of a foreign bank; and (ii) An insured bank organized under the laws of a territory of the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, or the US Virgin Islands. Please ensure that the bank routing and the checking account numbers are correct or you may be subject to a fee. 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In consideration for your use of the Service, you irrevocably transfer and assign to InstaPayUSA any ownership right that you may have in any interest that may accrue on funds held in Pooled Accounts. This assignment applies only to interest earned on your funds, and nothing in this Agreement grants InstaPayUSA any ownership right to the principal of the funds you maintain with InstaPayUSA. In addition to or instead of earning interest on Pooled Accounts, InstaPayUSA may receive a reduction in fees or expenses charged for banking services by the banks that hold your funds. Reversals, Rejections, and Acceptance. InstaPayUSA may reverse any entry if it believes, in its sole discretion, that the entry may be subject to dispute or reversal. You understand and agree that your request to transfer funds is final and irrevocable, that you have no right to reverse or stop such an entry once the entry is communicated to InstaPayUSA, and you hereby waive any right you may have of recourse against InstaPayUSA or to dispute or reverse a request to transfer funds. An Intra- InstaPayUSA funds transfer under this Agreement is the equivalent of sending cash to the recipient. InstaPayUSA has no obligation whatsoever to any proposed recipient of funds. In the event of any dispute between you and a funds recipient, you agree that such dispute will be settled between you and the proposed recipient, and you hereby indemnify and hold harmless InstaPayUSA against all liabilities, claims and damages incurred by and brought against InstaPayUSA by any third party arising out of this Agreement, including but not limited to reasonable attorneys' fees and costs. InstaPayUSA may reject any entry that does not comply with requirements outlined in this Agreement. We will notify you within 2 (two) business days from the day the rejected entry would otherwise have been transferred. Warranties. EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT, INSTAPAYUSA MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, OF ANY KIND. EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE EXPRESSLY STATED IN THE AGREEMENT, INSTAPAYUSA EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS, AND YOU EXPRESSLY WAIVE, ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THOSE OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO DESCRIPTIONS OR SPECIFICATIONS, WHETHER OR NOT INCORPORATED INTO THIS AGREEMENT, SHALL CONSTITUTE WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. 3. Any and all claims or damages by you which are the result of theft, embezzlement, unauthorized use, transfer or withdrawal of funds with respect to your Account. Entire Agreement. This Agreement and any amendment or supplement to this Agreement or other referenced agreements, all of which are incorporated into this Agreement, constitutes the entire agreement between the parties, and all prior or other agreements or representations, written or oral, are superseded by this Agreement. Governing Law. This Agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Utah, except where Federal law is applicable. Jurisdiction/Waiver of Jury Trial. THE PARTIES AGREE THAT ALL PERFORMANCES AND TRANSACTIONS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL BE DEEMED TO HAVE OCCURRED IN UTAH AND THAT YOUR ENTRY INTO AND PERFORMANCE OF THIS AGREEMENT WILL BE DEEMED TO BE THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS WITHIN THE STATE OF UTAH. YOU AND INSTAPAYUSA CONSENT TO AND AGREE THAT, THE EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION AND VENUE FOR ANY DISPUTES HEREUNDER SHALL BE AN APPROPRIATE FEDERAL OR STATE COURT LOCATED IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. YOU AND INSTAPAYUSA WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY IN ANY ACTION CONCERNING ANY RIGHTS OR DISPUTES UNDER THIS AGREEMENT. Construction. The headings used in this Agreement are inserted for convenience only and will not affect the interpretation of any provision. The language used will be deemed to be the language chosen by the parties to express their mutual intent, and no rule of strict construction will be applied against any party. Assignability. This Agreement may be assigned by InstaPayUSA, but may not be assigned by you directly or by operation of law, without the prior written consent of InstaPayUSA. If you nevertheless assign this Agreement without InstaPayUSA’s consent, the Agreement will be binding on the assignee. If you sell your business, and the new owners incur fines, fees, or penalties, the original owner will be held personally liable for all fines, fees, or penalties, and any other liabilities of the new owners. Attorneys' Fees. You will be liable for and will indemnify and reimburse InstaPayUSA for all attorneys' fees, with our without suit, court costs, collection agency fees not to exceed 50% of the amount owed, and other costs and expenses paid or incurred by InstaPayUSA in the enforcement of this Agreement, or in collecting any amounts due from you to InstaPayUSA or resulting from any breach by you of this Agreement. Customer Contact. You authorize InstaPayUSA to contact your customers or their bank if they determine that such contact is necessary to find out information about any payment transaction between you and the customer. Also, you will provide to InstaPayUSA, upon InstaPayUSA's request, contact information for your customers as deemed necessary and reasonable by InstaPayUSA. Amendments. This Agreement, and the Agreements and/or Policies referenced and incorporated herein may be amended, modified, or revised at any time, without notice. While InstaPayUSA may notify you as this Agreement and/or the Agreements and/or Policies referenced herein are modified, it is your sole responsibility to review and maintain familiarity with this Agreement and/or Agreements and/or Policies referenced herein, including any changes that may be made to these documents, respectively, from time to time thereto. The amendments to this Agreement and/or Agreements and/or Policies referenced herein will become effective and binding upon you immediately and contemporaneously as the amendments are published to the InstaPayUSA website(www.instapayusa.com or https://www.instapayusa.com). In the event you do not agree to the aforementioned amendments and do not wish to be bound the terms and conditions thereto, you shall provide written notice to Insta Pay Escrow (including by submitting to InstaPayUSA Customer Service at customerservice@instapayusa.com by providing your name, your current email address on file with InstaPayUSA, and a statement that you do not agree to the terms and conditions. If you do not agree to the terms and conditions of the amendment, your account will be terminated and closed. Notwithstanding the foregoing, (a) changes to fees authorized by this Agreement, will be effective upon the giving of notice to you and (b) any fee increase, change in Rules or other requirement imposed by NACHA may be passed on to you and will be effective upon the giving of notice to you. Severability and Waiver. If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid, illegal, void or unenforceable by reason of any judicial decision, all other provisions of this Agreement shall nevertheless remain in full force and effect. No course of dealing, delay or failure to enforce any provision or exercise any right under this Agreement, by InstaPayUSA or Bank Partner(s) shall be construed as a waiver or estoppel of such provision or right, nor shall it amend this Agreement or affect the validity of this Agreement or curtail the ability of any party to enforce such provision or exercise such right in the future. All waivers must be signed by InstaPayUSA. Independent Contractors. InstaPayUSA, Bank Partner(s), and You will be deemed independent contractors and none will be considered an agent, joint venturer, or partner of the other. Survival. Sections of this Agreement and the applicable Exhibits in effect upon the date of termination shall survive termination of this Agreement. Arbitration. Notwithstanding anything in this Agreement to the contrary, InstaPayUSA, bank sponsor(s) and you agree that any one of them (a "party") may require that any claim or dispute ("Dispute") under this Agreement shall be resolved exclusively and finally by binding arbitration, administered by the National Arbitration Forum ("NAF") and conducted under its rules, except as otherwise provided below. For the purposes of this paragraph, "Dispute" means any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to this Agreement, negotiations leading to the Agreement, its interpretation, any act of any party related to the Agreement, or the breach, termination, applicability or validity thereof. The arbitration will be conducted before a single arbitrator, and will be limited to your Dispute. You may not bring a Dispute on behalf of others or join others in any similar claims (you may not bring or participate in a class action). As the parties to the Dispute agree, the arbitration shall be held in Utah by submission of documents, by telephone, online or in person. Any decision rendered in such arbitration proceedings shall be final and binding on each of the parties, to the Dispute and judgment may be entered thereon in any court of competent jurisdiction. Should any party bring a Dispute in a forum other than NAF, the arbitrator may award the other party or parties their reasonable costs and expenses, including actual attorneys' fees, incurred in staying or dismissing such other proceedings or in otherwise enforcing compliance with this dispute resolution provision. Each party understands that it would have had a right to litigate disputes through a court, and that each has expressly and knowingly waived that right and agreed to resolve any Dispute through binding arbitration. The parties intend that the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq.) shall govern this arbitration provision. Information on arbitration procedure may be obtained from the NAF on-line at www.arb-forum.com, by calling 800-474-2371 or by writing to P.O. Box 50191, Minneapolis, MN, 55405. © 2019 InstaPayUSA. All Rights Reserved.

2019-04-23T06:32:50Z

https://www.jewelersmarketplace.com/Home/Terms

Land, sea, or air, 90 miles is 90 miles, except when describing the water space between Havana and Key West, a distance protracted by a generation of despair. Lately, men and women have taken to launching inner tubes beyond the landfall beacon off Morro Castle and paddling north. Crossing the Florida Straits in a cruiser is one thing, but attempting it in a rubber doughnut, one's legs poking through the bright skin of the abyss, is a whole different proposition. In Cuba, desperation frames crazy optimism, or there is no optimism at all. From my room on the seventh floor of the Hotel Nacional, I could look down on the Malecón, the avenue that traces Havana's waterfront. Beyond the flow of bicycles, pedestrians, and a few old cars, there was the sea, inflated with gray light. A streak of indigo marks the edge of the Gulf Stream--it sweeps in close to Havana Harbor--and there were men fishing the rim of it, as if fishing the bank of a river. There was no fuel for boats, so they floated out in inner tubes. Except in the tourist hotels there was very little food, so they fished. But there weren't many fish. A few weeks of living like that, and even I--not the bravest of men--would consider worming into an inner tube and paddling north toward Duval Street. Sometimes distance has resonance. Maps are deceptive. Here's what happened on my first attempt to drive there: I landed at José Martí International Airport in the late afternoon and stopped at the government's reception booth, where I bought two pretty good maps. The workers there wanted to know if I needed a hotel in downtown Havana, 20 minutes away. Perhaps they could also arrange a tour for me? No, I told them, I only needed a car. There were still a couple of hours of daylight left. I figured I could make it most of the way to the Zapata Peninsula by sunset. Besides, I had been to Havana in 1977 on a scuba trip to the Isle of Pines, then again in 1980 during the Mariel boat lift, when 120,000 Cubans fled the country. There were things I liked about Havana, but a city is a city, whereas a swamp is a good place to spend time. The workers puzzled over my open maps. I am often disoriented when traveling and so tend to trust the advice of others. But these ladies seemed disoriented, too. I pointed to the village of Playa Larga, 112 miles southeast of Havana, on the Bay of Pigs at the eastern fringe of the Zapata Peninsula. Impossible, said one of the workers. There was no place to stay at Playa Larga. I pointed to Playa del Caimito, on the western fringe. No place to stay there, either. Wouldn't it be better if they booked a tour for me to another area? That way I could stay at a nice hotel in Havana and ride the tour buses each day. The harder they pushed for Havana, the more determined I was to avoid it. I didn't need a hotel, and I could provision myself from the small villages through which I passed--that was possible, wasn't it? The workers still seemed disoriented, peering at the map from odd angles. Perhaps, they said. The Cuban car-rental agency was in a building the size of a small shed. It was a popular place with the locals because it had air-conditioning. I attempted to negotiate for a car amid the noise and cigarette smoke. The man in charge was pleasant, but there was no negotiating: $53 a day for a small Nissan, 60 free miles, 50 cents a mile after that. Expensive, but there were no alternatives. The price, fixed by the government, would be the same no matter where I tried. The idlers inside watched me sign the contract. Among them was a prostitute named Evelina, a girl of about 19 who shadowed every move I made. She wore a red blouse and green spandex shorts. Her face was very pretty; everything else about her was old. When I ducked under the hood to check the car's oil, Evelina ducked with me. When I checked the spare tire in the trunk, she checked, too. I began to worry that Evelina came with the car, hired through a clause somewhere in the contract's fine print. She kept asking for a ride. When I said I was not going to Havana, she took the map and studied the marks I had made on it. Her expression was a mixture of fascination and confusion, a reaction parroted by every Cuban of whom I asked directions. No one seemed to know where he was. The map showed a world that was too big. I left Evelina standing on the curb, her face floating in the rearview mirror. I drove out into the late-afternoon bicycle traffic--Cuba is now a bicycle society and in this way resembles Asia. It is a wonderful feeling to be underway in an unfamiliar country, alone and on the move, and I would have felt great but for one thing: My car had no gas. I had paid $5 for five liters, slightly more than a gallon, at the agency, but the gauge read below empty. I stopped at the first service station. It was closed. So was the second. The third had an attendant, but no gas. Same at the fourth. By now I was miles from the rental agency and facing the possibility--the probability, really--that I would have to push my $53-a-day car to Zapata. I headed back to the rental agency, coasting when I could. I got my money back. Evelina seemed happy to see me, but not surprised. I left her and the rental car, and took a cab into Havana. It's illegal for a U.S. citizen to spend money in Cuba unless he is a journalist or has relatives living there and gets a special dispensation from the U.S. Treasury Department. I had flown in on one of the common illegal routes, a Cubana Airlines flight from Nassau, but I was a journalist. And I was certainly spending money. A night in a simple room at the Hotel Nacional, the old Meyer Lansky brothel, cost $190, so it was while looking for a cheaper place that I met Monroe. Monroe was a Canadian, a veteran, and a lawyer--an outlandish trinity that complemented his outlandish personality. Though a small man, he cut a swath in his white sportcoat, slicked-back hair, and neatly trimmed Cesar Romero mustache. When he walked, he sometimes limped. ("An old war wound," he said.) He was always firing off faxes. ("The damn publisher keeps asking for my book!") He smoked Cohiba cigars but preferred the Trinidads that he said were given to him by Castro himself. For the last year he had spent every other month in Havana, making business connections in preparation for the switch to free enterprise that he said was inevitable. "It can't go on like this," he said to me. "And when it changes, I'll be ready and waiting. The money will flood in. I'll buy a mansion east of town, hire some servants, and winter here." When Monroe was not hurrying off to meetings with high government officials, he could usually be found in the patio bar of the Havana Libre Hotel, entertaining Cuban foreign ministers or ogling the prostitutes that swarmed the place. Monroe was at ease with the dignitaries, but the prostitutes troubled him. Late one night he said, "I haven't been with one of those girls. You won't catch me paying 20 bucks and sneaking out to the swimming pool! I have a fiancée, for God's sake!" It was less a statement than a proclamation. He seemed to be trying to convince himself. I don't know how much of what Monroe told me was true, but I liked him. He was smart, savvy, and I recognized his affectations and talking jags for what they were: The guy was homesick, hotel-weary, and half crazy from living as an expatriate in Havana--though it was certainly better to live in Havana as an expatriate than as a citizen. For us there was at least food to buy. Monroe knew the few bars and restaurants that were still open--all tourist places--and everyone at the bars and restaurants knew him. At La Floridita, a bronze bust of Ernest Hemingway watched us drink daiquiris. At La Bodeguita del Medio, we ate black beans and chewed the fresh mint leaves in our mojitos. Outside, the children begged for coins, the men begged us to buy black-market cigars, and the women winked and pressed their breasts against our arms. Monroe would say, "This city is part museum, part whore. Don't the collapsed buildings remind you of Dresden? But all I have to do is stick it out. Do my work and keep to my routine. A month, after all, isn't very long. Havana is going to boom again, and when it does, I'll be rich." Monroe, like everyone else in Havana, was waiting for something. One night I met Carlos Calvo, who claimed to be a right fielder on the national baseball team, and he invited me to his practice the next day. I took a cab to the sports center, the Ciudad Deportiva, where Carlos met me, explaining that his team hadn't shown up, that practice had apparently been canceled. He shrugged, adding, "This is Cuba. Who can say why?" Instead, the two of us sat and watched tryouts for the national 15- and 16-year-olds team: 30 skinny kids dressed in rags, no spikes, hitting without helmets, sharing their cheap Batos ball gloves, but playing like I have never seen kids play before. It wasn't so much the skill--though they certainly had skill--as it was the passion with which they played, a kind of controlled frenzy that made their otherwise aggressive coaches appear meek in comparison. Carlos was unimpressed. Perhaps that kind of fervor was common in Cuban ballparks. Or perhaps one of these kids would someday try to take his job, so Carlos chose not to acknowledge them. He seemed more concerned with the condition of the field. The diamond was pitted with holes; weeds were knee-high in the outfield. "They used to mow it," he told me more than once. "I don't know why they don't mow it now." That night, I found Monroe at his table in the patio bar. He was drinking daiquiris, which was unusual. Monroe drank very little, and never at night. It wasn't part of his routine. I joined him for a round, and he told me about his business dealings that day. Then, as I rose to leave, he said, "I never do this, but one more daiquiri and I'll be drunk--over the line." Naturally, I told the waiter to bring Monroe one more daiquiri before I headed off to bed. At first light I was awakened by pounding at my door. It was a haggard, wild-eyed Monroe. "Where were you when I needed you?" he rasped. "I was almost killed last night. Electrocuted!" I tried to calm him. He sat and explained that he had gotten very drunk and stumbled off past the hotel pool in search of a place to urinate and had brushed into some bare electrical wires. He showed me two black burns on his forearm that looked more like a vampire bite. The shock had knocked him unconscious, he said, but luckily one of the staff had found him and managed to revive him. "I banged and banged on your door," he said. "I was having trouble breathing. I needed help, and the hospitals here are worthless!" I hadn't heard any banging. And I was suspicious of Monroe's strange story. Why had he wandered outside to whiz when the hotel's restrooms were inside? I suggested he show me the bare electrical wires. He was reluctant, but I pressed the issue. We took the elevator to the pool, and I followed Monroe to a wooden gate. The gate led to a cramped space, not more than a yard wide, behind a row of cabanas. There were water pipes and a jumble of spliced electrical wires. But for Monroe to have touched the wires with his forearm, he would have had to be lying down or kneeling. I looked from the wires to Monroe. Monroe looked at the ground. "I know," he said finally. "I know." He sounded exhausted, deflated. "I shouldn't have lied to you, and I shouldn't have done it. But she was so beautiful. You've seen those girls in the bar. My God! And how many months have I been fighting it?" It must have been an astonishing event: coition interrupted by a jolt of electricity and a shower of sparks. I found it hilarious--hilarious in a way that squeezes the heart--but Monroe would not be consoled. "I swore I'd never do anything like that," he moaned. "I'm here strictly on business. I have a routine! But this damn city does something to you. Believe me, Randy, it's this damn city!" I had not given up on looking for the Cuban Everglades. I spent time talking to people in the bookstores near the University of Havana. It was extraordinary how little they knew of regions outside the city. I might as well have been asking them about the dark side of the moon. I did learn that there was a small resort on the Bay of Pigs at Playa Larga, but it was closed. "Broken," I was told. The hotel at Mariel Harbor was "broken," too, as were several others. I got the impression that the Cuban government was funneling its shrinking food supply into only the most expensive and popular resorts, and closing the rest. Even so, when I finally did find a place to buy gas, I rented a Daihatsu, spent $47 to fill its small tank, and headed southeast on A-1, the country's main highway. I had slept in cars before, and I could provision along the way. Anything to get out of Havana. I drove carefully, dodging Russian-made Ladas, bicycles, and a few donkey carts. If nothing else, Cuba is a great place to drive a car. The macadam roads are wide and fast. Soon the traffic disappeared; the city blurred, thinned, and finally vanished behind me. In the next hours I would see maybe two dozen cars on that six-lane highway, most of them 1950ish Chevys, though there were a few old Mercedeses and a tired Ford, too. The Chevys were cheerful things to see, for they were brightly painted and their mirrors were decorated as if to celebrate a religious holiday. I always waved at their drivers as I passed; they always smiled and waved back. On my trip in 1977, I had visited a few rural areas, and I was eager to get into the country again. At that time, in Cuba as in Central America, it was accepted behavior to stop at a house and offer money in exchange for a meal. Though very poor, the people usually had beans and fresh fish or turtle meat to spare and were glad for the cash and, perhaps, the company. In the early afternoon I decided to find a village and see about lunch. The map showed that I was near Güines, a dot off the main highway, so I turned south and banged my way along five miles of sugarcane until I came to a settlement of houses on a dirt road. The settlement was dominated by a packing plant made of corrugated metal. Two soldiers stood by the closed gate at the entrance. I asked them about a place to eat. There was none, they said. Down the road, an old man sitting in the shade suggested that I knock at the door of a building beside the factory. I knocked. The door opened a crack. The woman peering through told me she had no food. The door closed again. I decided to try another village. Compared to Güines, San Nicolás was a metropolis. There were a few buildings of marble and coral. Judging from the rows of old houses and the sidewalk crowded with pedestrians, I guessed that it was home to perhaps 10,000 souls. There was what seemed to be a restaurant: an open place with tile floors and crowded tables. I went to the counter, smiling at the people who gawked at me. No tourist buses came to San Nicolás. My car was an oddity; I was a curiosity. An old woman stood at my elbow, staring so intensely that she seemed to doubt that I was real. I ordered food and a cold beer, then wondered why the woman behind the counter reacted with embarrassment. For the first time, I noticed what was on the tables of this crowded place: nothing. "In the evening, we will have soup," the woman told me. "Only soup. But you must wait with the others." The people outside weren't pedestrians, I realized. They were standing in line--and I had cut to the front. I apologized, waved, and left. It would have been hugely presumptuous--cruel, in fact--to offer money for food when these people had to stand in line for hours just to get soup. I had a canteen of iodized water, and I had a car where I could sleep, if need be. I headed on toward the coast. Cuba has an Everglades. I had to drive through burning sugarcane fields to get to the western boundary of it, but it was there. Beyond the village of Héctor Molina, not far from the Caribbean Sea, the blackened miles of agroindustry ended abruptly, abutting a lowland dike and road where the sawgrass began. It was a relief to be in sawgrass. Unlike the cane fields, the sawgrass wasn't ablaze. It moved like wheat in the wind, carrying the familiar odors of muck and fresh water and cypress. More than once I stopped just to get out and feel the wind. On a tree, I found a Liguus snail, a kind of tree snail common in the Florida Everglades. It was yellow and white, beautifully banded. I watched four ibis flush from the grass, and hoped to see egrets and herons as well. But there were none. The only other birds I saw were two black vultures coasting on high thermals. Nothing else. Even so, it was good to be away from the sugarcane. At one point on my route, the flames had blazed so close that heat radiated through the car, and I had floored the accelerator in panic even though I was unable to see because of the smoke. I was already dreading the trip back. I had no idea how great an area the sawgrass covered. The Zapata Peninsula, at one point, stretches more than 60 miles. In the far distance I could see a rind of tree canopy, nothing more. Perhaps the best way to get to the interior of the swamp was to find a boat and explore up one of the mangrove creeks that this Everglades must certainly feed. I drove on south to the coastal village of Playa del Caimito. It was a pretty place: whitewashed shacks with thatch roofs on a shoal-water bay. I parked the car, and a group of shy men materialized around me. I asked them about hiring one of the three small boats tied to the mangroves. No, it was impossible, they said. They did not have the authority, and besides, there was no fuel. Who did have the authority? I wanted to know. The men shrugged, clearly hoping that I wouldn't press it. I didn't. We stood around talking about fish and fishing. Yes, there had once been bonefish in the area, but no longer. There had been permit, too--but no longer. I didn't have to ask why. Stretching out from the shore were stop nets, fish traps hundreds of yards long. After generations of this, the village had been reduced to eating mostly salted shark meat, which lay on tables nearby, drying in the sun. I didn't spend a lot of time in the village. I had brought a bunch of Little League uniforms and baseball equipment to give to children along the way, but I decided to leave the whole box in Playa del Caimito. While the women distributed the gear, I pulled out my map and asked one of the men about the size of the swamp that was his backyard. As always, the map framed confusion--apparently nothing blurs the world like the imperatives of subsistence. "ÁQuién sabe?" the man said finally. "Who knows?

2019-04-19T00:58:24Z

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Discover the best events and link-ups in London! • Get access to the hottest tickets in town as soon as they are released. • Get on the guest-lists for the most exclusive nights in London. • Select your interests, so you only see the events you like. CurbNinja is a tool to help motorcycle and scooter enthusiasts find and share the best places to park in busy urban centers. Unitehood is your ultimate safety connection to your community. Using GPS technology and crowd sourcing infrastructure, your call for help will be received by your friends and by any Unitehood user within 5km of your location. Caller ID Who's Calling Me? "Who's Calling Me?" (v1.6) allows you to enter a Business or Residential land-line or cell phone number and LEGALLY find the listed Name and Address and Caller NAMe (CNAM) from the Telephone Company's real 411 and CNAM services! TOTAL RECALL allows user to record video continuously. AFTER AN EVENT HAPPENS, simply touch anywhere on the LEFT half of the screen and app will copy a video clip of that event to the photo album. Share your photos and videos to experience game days with your friends and others around the world. Qbot Android App for finding the reward you’d like to use, slide to redeem it and show the magical moving image to merchant and you’ll receive the full discount. Turn Sleep And Noise Sounds on and listen to soothing sounds like white noise or forest rain drops! Feature : Audio play, timer. Triangle Fashion Week (#TFW) is the annual fashion event highlighting boutiques, salons and spas in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill and provides a platform for fashionistas to connect with local fashion boutiques, designers, spas, salons of our region. During TFW Boutiques, Spas and Salons are working together to offer Fashion Shows, discounts, late night sessions, education sessions, and much more throughout the entire Triangle! With this app you can browse participating venues, check out nearby events, upload TFW photos, scan QR codes and check out the latest TFW videos! Here is the Behance mobile UI with google material style. Here is the Reskin Concept of Axis bank App. Nike Product listing and Add to cart page. Overall Snappy boot game design. It will help for better solution of Income, Expense, Investment and next year planing. Game characters created as per needs. 3D GUN developed with using different tools.

2019-04-23T05:55:03Z

https://www.appfutura.com/developers/mobile-application-development-company-agileinfowayscom

Disclosed herein are methods and apparatus for providing markings upon objects, including the read side of an optical information media, where the markings do not substantially interfere with object, including the use of the optical information media. This invention discloses use of a coating, marking schemes, printing of markings with UV light, as well as methods and apparatus for reading and deciphering said marking. Included is an authentication scheme, where the marking may be used as a lock to limit access to information contained in an optical information media. This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/296,308, filed Jun. 6, 2001; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/310,914, filed Aug. 8, 2001; and, United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/311,160, filed Aug. 9, 2001. Aspects of the invention include application of the coating and the marking upon the read side of the optical media, without loss of the functionality of the media. Furthermore, said invention allows the utilization of the read side of the optical media for advertising, branding, and other markings normally associated with the label side of the media. FIGS. 7A-B, collectively referred to as FIG. 7, are schematic diagrams of a coating and fluorescent material applied over a substrate. FIG. 15 is an example of a readout mechanism used to detect markings and authenticate marked optical media. FIG. 1 shows an article 420, such as an optical information medium. The article 420 includes a coating 450 with an information bearing marking 432. The information bearing marking 432 includes a digital watermark 435. The information bearing marking 432 may be, but is not necessarily, unique in form and/or information content for each article 420 so marked. For example, in one embodiment, the information bearing marking 432 encodes, at least in part, a unique serial number. In another embodiment, the information bearing marking 432 may encode only the manufacturer's name, place of manufacture and date of manufacture. The coating 450 does not interfere, or substantially interfere, with the functionality of the article 420. That is, in the case of the preferred embodiment, the coating 450 does not appreciably absorb or scatter light at the readout wavelength of the optical media readout laser. Likewise, the thickness of the coating 450 does not interfere with the readout mechanism. The coating 450 may be applied to the “play” or “non-play” side of the optical information media 420. Although material used for retention of a marking 432 is referred to as a coating 450, some articles 420 may inherently include materials that are suited for practice of this invention. Where these materials are present, and it is desirable to imbed a marking into the inherently included materials, these materials are likewise referred to herein as a “coating,” for convenience. Techniques for applying the coating 450 may include, but are not limited to, printing, spraying, rolling, spin coating, painting or any other technique suitable for applying a coating, such as the coating 450 described herein. The coating 450 preferably contains at least one material that is sensitive to NV light. Upon irradiation to appropriate levels of UV light, the photosensitive materials are modified and undergo changes in optical characteristics. Thus, the reflection and/or absorption wavelengths of the materials can be modified. The coating 450 may include, but is not limited to, compounds such as photoacid or photobase generators, acid or base sensitive dyes, leucodyes, metal chelates, fluorescent dyes, or laser dyes. In other embodiments, the coating 450 may include organic phosphors or inorganic phosphors. In the case where the coating 450 includes an inorganic phosphor, the coating 450 may contain silver doped zinc sulfide (Ag:ZnS). The coating 450 may be colored or colorless to the eye, and may be fluorescent under certain electromagnetic radiation. Fluorescent emission wavelengths may include, but are not limited to, a wavelength in the visible region. Commonly used readout light wavelengths for the optical information media 420 include 400 nm, 440 nm, 630 nm, 650 nm, and 780 nm, while other readout wavelengths are possible. The coating produced or selected for use does not appreciably absorb light at the wavelength used by the readout system. As an example of one technique for application of the coating 450, the coating 450 was applied to a series of optical media 420. The coatings 450 were applied by spin-coating, and a Xenon RC-747 UV flash-lamp unit running at 10 pulses per second was used to cure the samples. In order to avoid photoinduced color formation during the curing, the lamp output was filtered through a long pass filter with the cut-off wavelength of approximately 380 nm. The spectrum of the curing lamp is shown in FIG. 2. The total power density in the spectral region below 400 nm delivered to the samples with the filter in place was approximately 100 mW/cm2. The coating 450 hardened after a minimum exposure time of two seconds, however, complete curing required an exposure time of approximately five to six seconds at this power density. No visibly noticeable color formation took place for exposure times of up to ten seconds. An information bearing marking 432 is formed using a convention that may include, but is not limited to, incorporation of text information, such as alphanumeric characters, symbols, graphic information, such as a logo, a barcode, or any other information or symbols that may be suitable for including in the marking 432. The marking 432 may further include embedded information and authentication signatures, and can be a digital watermark 435. The information bearing marking 432 may convey any desired information. For example, the information bearing marking 432 may present content that includes identification information (such as a serial number), authentication information, and/or instructional information. The content may also include advertising, branding, or promotional information, referred to collectively herein as “promotional information.” The information included in the information bearing marking may include, but is not limited to, any of the foregoing types of information, or combinations. For convenience, the term “content” as used herein refers to content of the information bearing marking 432, and can be an image, alphanumeric text and other symbols, graphics, and combinations of images and symbols. This invention may be used in any optical information media 420 where a coating may be applied. In one embodiment, a datacode symbology is applied so as to include the digital watermark 435. FIG. 3 shows one embodiment of a datacode symbology where the digital watermark 435 is incorporated into a bar code 437. The datacode symbology may be implemented using any suitable symbology including, without limitation, 3 of 9, I 2 of 5, Code 128, UPC, 2-D and 3-D symbologies. The digital watermark 435 may be incorporated as a digitally embedded imprint in the bit pattern or noise of a digital image of the datacode 437. The digital watermark 435 may be applied such that it is recoverable using software, or other automated or manual techniques. The digital watermark 435, and the other information which may be embedded in the digital watermark 435, is robust to image deformations, rotations, copying, multiple renderings, conversions, and other manipulations. The information included in the digital watermark 435 is dependent upon, among other things, the needs of the user. For example, the features of CD and DVD optical information media 420 provide opportunities for manufacturers to include diverse information such as described below. Although the information is described in terms of CD and DVD media, it is considered illustrative only, and not limiting of the invention. In one embodiment, the invention provides for the use of one or more physical characteristics or attributes of the article 420 as at least one input for creating the digital watermark 435. For example, the digital watermark 435 may include information regarding the size of data files, or the date recorded. The physical characteristics may be directly or indirectly observable. In another embodiment, the digital watermark 435 contains distribution chain information. For example, the digital watermark 435 may include attributes of the information recorded on the article 420, including but not limited to, date of manufacture, country of origin, authorized distribution channel. In a further embodiment, the digital watermark 435 contains information regarding the attributes of the optical information media 420. For example, the digital watermark 435 may include attributes of the information recorded on the article 420, including but not limited to, the number of recorded titles, the author, the playtime of the CD or DVD, copyright dates, a serial number, an indication of the content owner, etc. In another embodiment, the digital watermark 435 may also carry additional information that may not be discemable without knowledge of the digital watermark 435 and the ability to read the information included therein. This indiscernible information, may be useful for various applications, for instance, to impede the diversion of branded products. In a further embodiment, generation of the digital watermark 435 includes use of an algorithm where information, such as, but not limited to, information derived from media attributes is entered. The algorithm may include, but is not limited to, a discrete cosine transform, a seed for a pseudo-random number generator, where the random number is used as a hash, or some other one-way function for generating the digital watermark 435. In one embodiment, the digital watermark 435 appears as one unified image. In other embodiments, the digital watermark 435 appears as multiple unified images. In further embodiments, the digital watermark 435 appears in fragments scattered over the article 420. In other embodiments, the digital watermark 435 is effectively layered, through use of varied materials in the coating 450, and through appropriate control of the marking process. In this embodiment, it is possible to make use of distinct wavelengths associated with the various layers of the marking 432 during the readout process. U.S. patent application “Authentication Using a Digital Watermark” , Ser. No. 09/801,445, filed Mar. 8, 2001 by Lawandy, Nabil M., and commonly assigned, is herein incorporated by reference. Application Ser. No. 09/801,445 discloses, among other things, use of a digital watermark 435 for authentication purposes. Application Ser. No. 09/801,445 discloses methods that include the use of security features, or taggants, such as, but not limited to, fibers or particles, disposed on the article 420 upon which the digital watermark 435 appears. FIG. 4 provides an example of an optical media 420 that includes taggants 470 as an additional security feature. The use of the taggants 470 is a further aid to the authentication of an article 420. Specifically, certain physical attributes of the taggants 470 disposed upon an article 420 offered for authentication may be evaluated, and compared against the same physical attributes for taggants 470 associated with an authentic article 420. Taggants 470 may appear in a variety of forms, including but not limited to, fibers, particles or deposits of ink. Material used for formation of a taggant 470 is selected on the basis of, but not limited to, durability, detectability, cost and limitations of the application process. For example, suitable material for formation of a taggant 470 may include, but is not limited to, metal, plastic, ink, and fiber. The taggants 470 do not interfere, or substantially interfere, with the functionality of the optical media 420. Physical attributes of the taggants 470 that may be evaluated include, but are not limited to, magnetic properties, radio frequency properties, size and shape, loading factor, color and wavelength emission, and positioning on the article 420. Information derived from evaluation of the taggants is used to further establish the unique character of the digital watermark 435. The technique for forming a marking 432 disclosed herein is based on the property that some materials become substantially absorbing of UV light due to prior exposure to UV light. This property is referred to as photoabsorption, and is applied in a manner consistent with the teachings herein to create a latent contrast in the coating 450. Methods for exposure of the coating 450 of the optical information media 420, also referred to as “substrate” 420 to UV light include, but are not limited to, use of a UV laser, or use of a UV source in combination with a positive or negative photomask. In one embodiment, a UV laser is controlled by a preprogrammed system, which has the ability to control positioning, power levels, and other factors. In other embodiments, selective irradiation of the coating 450 involves use of a photomask that includes features to provide for special effects, such as those needed to create the perception of shading. In practice, various factors will determine the degree of absorption, and characteristics of the UV sources used to expose the substrate 420. Such factors include, but are not limited to, contrast requirements, response of the material in the coating 450, characteristics of the lighting fixture and application constraints such as character and detail of the image being inscribed. Various embodiments are disclosed herein for UV based inscription of optical information media 420. In FIG. 5, the transmission spectrum of a polycarbonate coating 450 before and after exposure to UV light is shown. The light was produced by a Xenon RC-747™ pulsed lamp, which has a peak power of 1,811 watts per cm . FIG. 5 reveals that the transmission spectrum for the exposed polycarbonate coating 450 is distinct from the transmission spectrum for the unexposed coating 450. The distinction is most apparent in the upper portion of the UV spectrum, between about 300 nm and about 400 nm. This property is exhibited by a number of glasses and polymers, where photogeneration of defects contribute to the absorption in the UV region. In other embodiments, glasses, other polymers, or other materials are used as a substrate material. FIG. 6 is an example of a second arrangement where polymerization of a monomeric coating 450 is used to modify the photoabsorption by the coating 450 of UV light. In this arrangement, a UV curable polymer is subjected to UV exposure. FIG. 6 shows the transmission spectrum of a 19-μm-thick layer 450 of Sony Chemicals adhesive SK640™ designed for use in DVD format optical media. The adhesive is UV curable, and is characterized by being a clear, spin-coatable, free radical, acrylic adhesive designed to offer fast cure speed, low shrinkage, excellent bond integrity, dimensional stability, and high optical clarity. In other embodiments involving UV curable polymers, other polymers are used, including but not limited to, other adhesives and specialty coatings suited for use in manufacture of other formats of optical media 420. Further embodiments use polymers suited for inscription of information bearing markings in items such as, but not limited to, automobile windshield glass, safety equipment, driver's licenses, passports, immigration cards, smart cards, credit cards, and other valuable items and documents. In the two arrangements above, the selective exposure of some areas of the coating 450 results in the formation of a latent contrast between the exposed and less exposed or unexposed regions of the coating 450S. FIG. 7A-B, collectively referred to as FIG. 7, provides a schematic diagram of embodiments of invention. These embodiments are considered illustrative, and are not intended to be limiting of this invention. In FIG. 7A the coating 450 is shown applied over the substrate 420. Sandwiched between the coating 450 and the substrate 420 is a fluorescent layer 414, which collectively create a sandwich 501. Wavelengths of UV light directed to the sandwich 501 are absorbed in the previously exposed regions 451 of the coating 450. The wavelengths of light that are not absorbed in the coating 450 excite materials in the fluorescent layer 414, which emits light at a characteristic wavelength. FIG. 7B shows an alternate embodiment, where fluorescent material is incorporated into the coating 450. A third embodiment is shown in FIG. 8, where fluorescent material is foreign to the assembly, and introduced to the substrate 420 for viewing. FIG. 8 is an illustration of an embodiment where information has been transferred onto an optical media 420. In FIG. 8, the optical media 420 is a CD or DVD, which has a central clamping area 422 that is not used for the storage of data. The central clamping area 422 is substantially transparent. In this embodiment, an information bearing marking 432 is transferred in the clamping area 422 through use of a photomask. The information bearing marking 432 was previously transferred in a predetermined pattern according to the needs of the user. In this embodiment, viewing of the information bearing marking 432 involves placing the optical media 420 over a fluorescent background 414. The fluorescent background 414 is independent of the optical media 420, and is supplied to provide contrast when exposed to low intensity UV light. Low intensity UV light is supplied by a low intensity UV light supply 415. Once the optical media 420 is placed over the fluorescent background 414 and exposed to UV light from the low intensity UV light supply 415, the latent contrast from the UV transfer becomes apparent and the information bearing marking 432 becomes visible. In a third arrangement, known as photobleaching, irradiation with UV light induces modification of the coating 450. In one embodiment, this includes molecules of a fluorescent additive dispersed in a polymeric matrix. In this embodiment, the fluorescent additive dispersed in the polymeric matrix is susceptible to UV radiation, while the polymeric matrix may or may not be susceptible to UV. An information bearing marking 432 is imprinted into the matrix using an adequate exposure of UV, through use of a photomask, a UV laser, or other suitable means. Once exposed to adequate quantities of UV, the additive molecules are modified by the UV photons and no longer produce fluorescence with the same intensity as before exposure to UV radiation. The information bearing marking 432 in this embodiment may also be viewed by illuminating the substrate 420 with low intensity UV light. In each of the arrangements, the selective irradiation of substrate 420 with UV is used to inscribe images or information bearing markings 423 into the substrate 420. The selective irradiation may be used to provide for varying degrees of contrast with the unexposed, or lesser exposed, regions of the substrate. That is, varying shades within an image may be created. For example, increased UV exposure and therefore increased polymerization in one part of a coating 450 will cause greater absorption than exhibited in another part of the coating 450. Shading effects may be achieved with a positive or negative photomask, through laser writing techniques or other techniques. The shading effects may, among other things, be incorporated into information bearing markings containing a digital watermark. An example of a technique for varying the contrast in a transferred image includes engaging the same techniques used in grayscale printing. That is, using a collection of properly sized colored shapes or patterns, on uncolored background, or alternatively, uncolored shapes or patterns on fully colored background. Regulating the size and density of the shapes or patterns provides for control over the visual perception of color intensity in any specific region of the marking 432. The covert and overt marking of materials with UV light inscribed information bearing markings 432 may be realized in various embodiments. The following are examples where the invention is employed, however, these embodiments should not be considered limiting of the invention. These embodiments are considered illustrative of aspects of the invention. In one embodiment of covert marking, a fluorescent material is applied between the layers of a media 420, including, but not limited to, a DVD. In a version of this embodiment, the fluorescent material is a polymeric material. The fluorescent material is applied on the readout side, the non-readout side or both sides. The fluorescent material may be applied through means including but not limited to, spin coating. The DVD 420 is then exposed to intense UV light. The UV exposure is adequate to create the desired quantity of photoabsorption of UV in a layer of material in the DVD 420. The UV exposure may be completed by methods that include, but are not limited to, use of a photomask or a laser. Subsequent illumination with low intensity UV light generates a visible contrast fluorescence pattern. In this embodiment, the fluorescent material used as a contrasting background is integrated into the DVD 420, and subsequent introduction of an independent fluorescent background is not necessary for viewing of the otherwise invisible pattern, image, or information bearing marking 432. In the embodiment where the image is imprinted on the readout side of the DVD 420, the UV wavelengths associated with the imprinted image do not substantially interfere with the readout mechanism, and data contained in the DVD 420 may be retrieved with substantial reliability. In another embodiment, a CD is used as an optical media 420. In a further embodiment, a layer of a polymeric material containing a fluorescent dye is applied to the media 420. The polymeric material is applied to the read-out surface, the non-readout surface, or both sides. The polymeric material may be applied by spin-coating or other suitable methods, and subsequently cured. The coating 450 is uniform and transparent in the visible and near-IR regions of spectrum and therefore does not produce interference with the read-out laser beam. That is, the interference does not have a substantial effect on the operation of the readout system. Uniform fluorescence can be observed over the coated area at this point in the manufacturing process. An information bearing marking 432 is then transferred into the coating 450 by exposure to UV. The UV may be used to imprint an image through a mechanism that includes, but is not limited to, photogeneration of defects in the polymeric material containing fluorescent materials, or modification of the fluorescent pigment through photobleaching. The UV exposure may be completed by methods that include, but are not limited to, use of a photomask or direct writing with a laser. Subsequent illumination with low intensity UV light generates a visible contrast fluorescence pattern. In a further embodiment of an overt marking, a layer of UV curable material containing a photoacid generator, an acid sensitive color former, was applied to the media 420 via spin coating. The coating was subsequently cured through use of a long pass UV filter that excluded wavelengths less than about 350 nm. The coating 450 used was a suitable combination of the Quinoline Yellow and Europium (III) tris(napthyltrifluromethyl acetonate) formulation, containing 1.5% Copikem 16 Red, 1.5% (tert-butoxycarbonyl methoxynapthyl) diphenyl sulfonium triflate, 0.5% Quinoline Yellow, 0.5% Europium (III) tris(napthyltrifluromethyl acetonate), and 96% SR-238 with 10% KTO/46. To produce a visible image in the cured coating 450, first a black-and-white negative of the image was laser printed onto a 60-μm-thick plastic transparency sheet. The transmission spectrum of the transparency sheet is shown in FIG. 10. In order to transfer the image onto the cured coating 450 on the CD 420, the transparency sheet was placed on top of the CD and illuminated with light from Xenon RC-747 flashlamp. This exposure caused the areas of the coating 450 below clear parts of the transparency to undergo color formation, while the areas of the coating 450 covered by black parts of the transparency remained uncolored. Total power density in the spectral region between about 300 nm and 400 nm delivered to the sample with transparency in place was approximately 240 mW/cm2. In this example, the exposed portion of the coating 450 became red colored by the reaction of the color former with the photogenerated acid, thus producing a CD 420 characterized by a yellow background with red information bearing markings 432 when properly illuminated. Under UV illumination, the red markings appear dark over a bright red fluorescent background. For demonstration purposes, the information bearing markings 432 included text, a bar code, a logo, and a digital watermark 435. The markings 432 recorded in the coating 450 are preferably visible to the unaided human eye when illuminated with suitable light. Therefore, the marking 432 can provide for clear identification of the article 420 by means of display of information that may be interpreted by a user, such as a logo. In another embodiment, such as in the case of optical media 420, a marking 432 provided on the read side can be used to display identity information, such as a digital watermark 435, wherein other necessary information, such as an instruction for a user, may remain intact on the non-read side of the optical media 420. Although in some embodiments, the markings 432 may be viewed by the unaided human eye, detection systems may be used as an aid, for among other things, to detect subtle features of the markings 432, and to decipher the marking 432 information. For example, in the case of a marking 432 that appears as a bar code, a bar code reader may be used to decode the information contained within the marking 432. An example of a detection system 400 in accordance with the invention is shown in FIG. 11. In this embodiment, a source of radiation 410 is directed on the article 420 to be examined, such as a CD ROM, a DVD, or another suitable type of optically encoded medium 420. The source 410 preferably generates UV radiation, but may generate any type of radiation that is suitable for detecting the coating 450 included on the article 420 and/or the marking 432, such as the digital watermark 435, or any appropriate attributes of the article 420. The article 420 may be mounted on a positioning device 425 in order to locate the article 420 for irradiation. The positioning device 425 may include a conveyor or any other type of device suitable for transporting or locating the article for irradiation. A detector array 430, such as a CCD, a camera that may be fixed, moveable or handheld, or any other suitable detection device, with appropriate support circuitry 440 detects an image of the article 420, the taggants as may be present, and the digital watermark 435. The source 410 and detector array 430 may also comprise positioning devices (not shown) for locating these devices for optimum performance. The detector array 430 is preferably capable of detecting the spectral content of any emissions, in addition to any other physical characteristics of the digital watermark 435, the taggants 470, or the article 420 for identification and authentication of the article 420. Control circuitry 460 directs the activity of the overall system 400, and in particular controls the source 410, positioning device 425, detector array 430 and support circuitry 440. Alternatively, the marking 432 of the article 420 may be read and decoded when inserted into the detection system 400, and only if the article 420 is authenticated is the readout process started or completed. As shown in FIG. 12, the detector array 430 is preferably comprised of an optical section 475 for focusing received emissions within the detector array 430, an array of sensors 480 for detecting the emissions, and a filter section 490 for allowing only the frequencies of interest to impinge on the sensors 480. The optical section 475 may include a microscope system or any other system suitable for magnifying or otherwise focusing the image of the article 420 and/or any emissions from the item 420 within the detector array 430. The sensor array 480 may comprise any array of sensors suitable for detecting the emissions and/or physical characteristics of the article 420, for example, a diode array, a CCD array, etc. Using this technique the output of the detector array 430 is analyzed to detect the characteristics of the digital watermark 435 and/or the coating 450 so as to identify and authenticate the article 420, such as by obtaining plural bit data. It is also within the scope of the invention to use a handheld reader, such as a handheld reader with a self contained UV source, such as a xenon flash source. The reader may also include a CCD pixel array and a display. One suitable type of hand-held reader 600 is known as a VERICAM , available from Spectra Systems Corporation of Providence, R.I., as shown in FIG. 13. FIG. 14 provides an overview of the hand-held reader 600. Referring to FIGS. 13 and 14, the hand-held reader 600 includes a CPU 10, such as an embedded microprocessor, an internal read/write memory 15 and optional, preferably non-volatile mass storage 18. Also included is a digital camera lens/CCD system 20, at least one illumination source 30 and a user interface 45 that includes a display (LCD) 40 and a keypad or keyboard 50. The illumination source 30 can be a variable intensity source controlled by an operator, and it can also include a flash source. However, in some embodiments the illumination source 30 may not be necessary, depending on the ambient illumination conditions. The lens/CCD system 20 and illumination source 30 can be located on a surface opposite that of the display and keyboard 50, enabling the operator to view the image being captured on the display 40, and to manipulate the keys of the keyboard 50 such as to make appropriate adjustments, initiate readout operations, and perform other functions, such as initiating a transfer of data to a remote location via a wireless network link 60 having, for an RF embodiment, an antenna 60A. The lens/CCD system 20 includes a digital camera of adequate resolution (e.g., 1.45 mega pixels or greater), with appropriate support circuitry providing auto-focus and other typically found features. An optional microphone 25 can be provided for use with the presently preferred embodiment that includes a wireless transceiver. In another embodiment, a global positioning system locator (GPS) 70 can be used to identify the location of the hand-held reader 600. The hand-held reader 600 may be battery powered, or powered by an external power supply. The hand-held reader 600 is sized so that the operator can readily manipulate it with one hand, in much the same manner that a user can manipulate a digital camera or a wireless communications device. For the purposes of this invention, the CPU 10 and memory 15, 18 are assumed to be suitably programmed and operated so as to image and decode the marking or markings 432, such as the digital watermark 435, appearing on the optical information media 420. It is within the scope of these teachings for the hand-held reader 600 to also ascertain the presence and characteristics of the other subsidiary information that may be present in or on the coating 450, such as embedded particles 470, or other structures, as was discussed above. To this end, the hand-held reader 600 may include magnification optics, as was discussed above. Information contained in the marking 432 may be obtained through a variety of means. A first method for obtaining information contained in the marking 432 is through visual interpretation, such as in the case of a logo. In other embodiments, detection systems, such as the foregoing exemplary systems are used to interpret the marking 432. In one embodiment, one or more of the various inputs to the digital watermarking algorithm may be used as a “key” to “unlock” or otherwise obtain information included in the digital watermark 435. For example, data file size information could be used as a key, wherein file size information is compared to a known component of the digital watermark 435, providing the correct key enables a readout mechanism to obtain remaining information contained in the digital watermark 435. In other embodiments, input information is used to unlock other information contained in various forms. For example, a key is used to unlock, a second digital watermark 435, or other information such as the data contained in the optical media 420. In one embodiment, a second digital watermark 435 is readout at a different wavelength. In this embodiment, the second digital watermark 435 could be included as a visible marking 432, or an invisible marking 432, applied through means other than described herein. In a further embodiment, a second digital watermark 435, or other marking 432, could be applied as an overlay over the first digital watermark 435. As a further embodiment, if a properly designed readout system does not detect a genuine digital watermark 435, the optical information media 420 will not be read. In a further embodiment, the taggants 470 are used as a security feature. For example, in one embodiment, special fibers may be disposed upon the optical information media 420 as taggants 470. These fibers may be substantially transparent at the readout wavelength, or located on a portion of the optical information media so as not to interfere with the readout process, such as the backside of a CD or in the clamping area 422. In this instance, the color and/or width and/or shape and/or emission wavelength of the fibers are evaluated against the known color, width, shape and/or emission wavelength of fibers appearing in an authentic article 420. In another embodiment, shown in FIG. 4, precise quantities of specifically sized micro-particles 470 that do not interfere with the readout process are disposed upon or in the coating 450 of the optical information media 420. In this embodiment, the authentication process may evaluate the quantity of micro-particles 470 per unit area and/or by particle size, or some other distinct physical attribute of the micro particles 470, prior to proceeding with the deciphering of the digital watermark 435. Another embodiment contemplates the use of magnetic materials in the coating 450, which are characterized by a known magnetic signature. A further embodiment comprises use of materials, including but not limited to, micro-particles 470 that emit characteristics wavelengths when illuminated. An additional embodiment contemplates distribution of the taggants in a pattern, such as, but not limited to, a visible logo. In these embodiments, one or more characteristics of the coating 450 are employed to read and decode the marking 432. Additional embodiments of the invention disclosed herein may be realized in accordance with U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 09/801,445. These embodiments may be used, among other things, as keys, described above, and to provide for authentication of the optical information media 420. FIG. 15 provides an overview of another embodiment of this invention. In FIG. 15, the marking 432 is read by an appropriate detection system to obtain a decryption key. In one example of this embodiment, the optical information media 420 is introduced into a reader 550, that contains a marking detection system 580. The marking detection system 580 is devised to detect markings, which may exhibit, but are not limited to, magnetic, optical, or radio frequency properties. The marking detection system 580 is used to verify the authenticity or some other characteristic of the media 420, thereby enabling the optical information media 420 to be read (ENABLE READ signal is asserted). In another embodiment, the marking detection system 580 is used to compare physical attributes of the taggants (if present) to the known physical attributes of an authentic copy of the optical information media 420. Once the taggants indicate an authentic copy of the optical information media 420, the marking 432, such as the digital watermark 435, is read. Likewise, the once the digital watermark 435 has been used to authenticate the optical information media 420, a decryption key can be obtained from the digital watermark 435. The decryption key is loaded into the reader 550, which is then equipped to decipher the encrypted data contained in the optical information media 420. The process of authentication and/or decryption may occur, but is not limited to, automatically as the media 420 is inserted into a reader 550, it may be initiated manually after the media 420 is inserted into the reader 550, or through remote control with an external computer system 590. exposing a surface of said optical media to UV light in a pattern derived from said image; and, modifying an exposed area of said optical media with the UV light to reproduce said information bearing marking upon said optical media. 2. A method as in claim 1, wherein said optical media comprises said information bearing marking on a readout side. 3. A method as in claim 1, wherein said optical media comprises said information bearing marking on a non-readout side. 4. A method as in claim 1, wherein said exposing comprises use of at least one of a laser, a positive photomask, and a negative photomask. 5. A method as in claim 1, wherein said optical media comprises at least one of a compact disc and a digital versatile disc. 6. A method as in claim 1, wherein readout wavelengths for said optical media comprise wavelengths of at least one of about 400 nm, about 440 nm, about 630 nm, about 650 nm and about 780 nm. 7. A method as in claim 1, wherein said surface comprises a coating comprised of a material having radiation induced UV absorptive properties. 8. A method as in claim 7, wherein said coating comprises at least one of a laser dye, a fluorescent dye, a metal chelate, an organic phosphor, and an inorganic phosphor. 9. A method as in claim 7, wherein said coating comprises a color former, a photo-acid generator, a diacrylate, and a photoinitiator. 10. A method as in claim 7, wherein said coating is applied through means comprising at least one of printing, spraying, rolling, spin coating and painting. 11. A method as in claim 1, wherein said modifying comprises photobleaching of at least one of a laser dye, a fluorescent dye, a metal chelate, an organic phosphor, and an inorganic phosphor. 12. A method as in claim 1, wherein said convention comprises at least one of text, alphanumeric characters, graphic information, a logo, a data code symbology, and a digital watermark. 13. A method as in claim 1, wherein the content of said information bearing marking comprises content relating to at least one of identification, authentication, instruction, advertising, branding and promotion. a readout area comprising an optically modified portion having a UV responsive information bearing marking disposed in said optically modified portion. 15. An optical media as in claim 14, wherein said optically modified portion is more absorptive of UV light than a non-optically modified portion of said readout area. 16. An optical media as in claim 14, further comprising at least one fluorescent material. 17. An optical media as in claim 16, wherein said fluorescent materials have been modified by photobleaching with UV light. 18. An optical media as in claim 14, wherein said information bearing marking comprises at least one of text, alphanumeric characters, graphic information, a logo, a data code symbology, and a digital watermark. 19. An optical media as in claim 14, comprising a UV responsive coating disposed upon said readout area. 20. An optical media as in claim 19, wherein said UV responsive coating comprises at least one of a laser dye, a fluorescent dye, a metal chelate, an organic phosphor, and an inorganic phosphor. 21. An optical media as in claim 19, wherein said UV responsive coating comprises a color former, a photo-acid generator, a diacrylate, and a photoinitiator. 22. An optical media as in claim 19, wherein said UV responsive coating is applied through means comprising at least one of printing, spraying, rolling, spin coating and painting. deciphering said information bearing marking. 24. The method as in claim 23, wherein said information bearing marking comprises at least one of text, alphanumeric characters, graphic information, a logo, a data code symbology further comprising a bar code, and a digital watermark. 25. The method as in claim 23, wherein said detecting comprises viewing of said information bearing marking relative to a fluorescent background. verifying authenticity of said optical media. 27. The method as in claim 26, further comprising the enabling of readout of information contained in said optical media for an authentic optical media. a monolithic spectrometer, a CCD array, and a hand held detection system comprising a CCD camera. using information deciphered from said information bearing marking to enable access to further information, wherein said further information is included in at least one of another information bearing marking and said article. using information deciphered from said information bearing marking as a decryption key. a coating thereon, said coating comprising an optically modified portion having a ultraviolet responsive information bearing marking disposed in said optically modified portion. 32. An object as in claim 31, wherein said coating comprises at least one of a laser dye, a fluorescent dye, a metal chelate, an organic phosphor, and an inorganic phosphor. 33. An object as in claim 31, wherein said coating comprises a color former, a photo-acid generator, a diacrylate, and a photoinitiator. 34. An object as in claim 31, wherein said information bearing marking comprises at least one of text, alphanumeric characters, graphic information, a logo, a data code symbology, and a digital watermark. 35. An object as in claim 31, wherein said coating comprises taggants. a readout area comprising an optically modified portion having a UV responsive information bearing marking disposed in said optically modified portion, said information bearing marking comprising promotional information.

2019-04-26T06:25:29Z

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20030012562A1/en

I believe it is important to share who I was at the beginning, why I left the program in 2005 and how my journey affected me as a person before rejoining the doctoral program in 2008. In 2002, one of my mentors was in the process of completing a doctoral degree. My mentor spoke highly of the experience and new knowledge. I had never thought about continuing my education; yet, the prospect of developing myself outweighed the time and effort I would have to put into coursework. I often dreamt of being a dean of students or a vice president for student affairs and a degree would open additional opportunities for me professionally. I applied and was accepted into the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies doctoral program at Iowa State University. Before starting my doctoral program I was recruited for a position at my alma mater, Grand Valley State University. I chose to put my Ph.D. coursework on hold to pursue the job. This opportunity was one I always wanted and I interviewed for the position. Although I did not get the offer, it was good to go through the process. I began coursework in spring 2003. I started the doctoral program with Dr. Schuh’s ELPS 664 Organization and Administration. At this point in my career, I was an over-involved student affairs professional. I was the assistant director of student activities at Iowa State University and serving on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA). I did more than my position description required, and took on multiples roles. I loved working with students, solving problems, coordinating events and troubleshooting various challenges. I was good at my job and well-respected in the field of student activities. I thought nothing could stop me from becoming a dean of students or vice president of student affairs one day. In 2004, much of my professional life was turned upside down because of a student disturbance, my supervisor leaving, my department being absorbed into another, a position realignment, and new supervisors. Following the student disturbance, President Geoffroy appointed me to serve as a co-chair for the President’s Commission on Improving Relations Among ISU Students, the University, the City of Ames, and the Ames Community. At the same time, my professional position required that I maintain all the Student Activities Center programs seamlessly without students being aware of these major logistical changes. Although I was stretched beyond limits, I continued to take courses, and the required doctoral seminars. After a full year of trying to balance my professional life and academics, I chose to withdraw from the doctoral program. It was a difficult decision; however, my job was becoming a priority. The strain and stress of having my job as my primary identity took a toll on my emotional well-being. In May 2006, I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. I appreciated knowing the reasons behind my personal challenges, but my work began to infringe on my physical health. I was ordered by my therapist and psychiatrist to take personal leave for most of the summer. I attempted to return in the fall with the intention to only work 40 hours a week. Upon my return, my supervisor stated, “You know it will be impossible for you to do this job in 40 hours a week.” This statement hurt me; however, I know it was not the intent. I was adamant and unwilling to go through what happened the previous spring. I was not taught in graduate school how to work 60-70 hours a week and maintain my well-being. I did not want to experience another breakdown while working with students. I chose to resign my position after almost 10 years of dedicating my life to the students at Iowa State University. A year and a half of soul-searching led me back to the doctoral program in January 2008. During my time away from campus the Department of Educational Leadership and Policies Studies added the concentration in Social Justice. I found the program to be more appealing because of my previous experience with social justice issues on campus. The following sections of my self-narrative will highlight my learning and give scope to my new found knowledge after my return to the doctoral program. This self-assessment narrative will speak to experiences I have had within the nine components addressed in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (ELPS) rubrics that existed when I entered the doctoral program: evaluation and assessment; foundations; interpersonal, intrapersonal, and oral communication; research; leadership; technology; and written communication. To demonstrate this learning, I hope to paint a picture of what I believe I have accomplished as a student in the ELPS doctoral program. I chose to use three colors to represent where my learning was and is within each of the areas included in the rubrics. While my growth as a student may have remained unchanged within some of the rubrics, my personal growth since beginning the program in 2004 has been extraordinary. The following sections include my rubrics, my accompanying self-narrative with my original 2004 self-narrative for a comparison (with no grammatical corrections). Each of these rubrics show areas of improvement and challenges, as well as a more realistic look at who I am as a doctoral student. The artifacts included are either my original work or work with a professor’s comments. Either way, I hope you are able to see my growth as a person. Familiarity with Evaluation and Assessment exists through my career in student affairs and the program courses. Based on what I have learned, I can discuss evaluation models, professional standards and current assessment issues. Although these areas are not proficient, I will learn as my coursework continues. In HGED 597, I had the opportunity to develop a comprehensive plan for the Iowa State University Student Activities Center Self-Study Evaluation Plan for the Dean of Students Office seven-year program review. The purpose of this evaluation was to complete a Self-Study of the Student Activities Center for the Dean of Students Office Five-Year Program Review by utilizing the Iowa State University Review of Non-Academic Programs and Services (May 2003). This did the following: described the challenges and opportunities that the services and programs provided for the Iowa State University community; reviewed the resources (financial, staff, equipment, etc.) available; determined the quality of the work environment; demonstrated the working relationship within the University community and community partners; and indicated ways in which any improvements could be made within the programs, services, and resources available to the Iowa State University community. To complete this process, I personally gathered the information for the actual seven-year program review. I recognized how vital it was for me to continually collect information on our student programs. This included leadership program evaluations, tracking officer grade point averages, event attendance, and statistics (number of organizations registered, events authorized, etc.). I utilized the Council for the Advancement of Standards: Book of Standards for Higher Education to compare and contrast our current structure. Based on this information we recommended our needs within the program review. In HGED 665, I utilized the National Center for Education Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Institutional Characteristics Survey. This system allowed me to track residence hall room and board costs, capacity and overall enrollment for three categories: State of Iowa Regent Schools, Big 12 Institutions, and Land Grant Institutions. I recognized that I could download the data easily; conversely, my experience in writing a quantitative research paper was minute. My primary experience with evaluation and assessment occurred when I was working full-time in student activities. Since then, my experience with developing an evaluation from beginning to end is limited to my experience as a graduate assistant for the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center (MSWC) while I was serving as a graduate assistant in spring 2008. The primary focus was to determine which of the MSWC’s programs and services were of value to the University community. There were two different versions of the assessment: one for faculty, and another for students. While creating the assessment, Dr. Penny Rice and I decided it was important to not have the traditional demographic checkboxes. Instead, the participants could mark their identity and complete a short response indicating how they would describe themselves. It was important for us to be inclusive and sensitive to all community members. The Institutional Review Board asked us to make a number of modifications to the informed consent, while the original evaluation tool remained unchanged and was successfully administered in 2009. Since joining higher education as a student in 1987, I have gained an understanding of what education is as an institution. My ability to acknowledge the importance of higher education continually inspires me professionally. During my coursework I discuss the challenges and successes of systems surrounding education. It is a good experience to understand the various issues. Whether it is finance, organizations, assessments, politics, history, government, diversity, ethics or another aspect of education, each one provides me with an opportunity to learn more. I demonstrate critical thinking during discussions and writing. I communicate and role model professional ethics. I am actively engaged in class and in my profession. I may not have all the knowledge to articulate the patterns in educational foundations and theories. Starting somewhere. My master’s program did not offer student development theory. The program was primarily for educational administrators for PK-12 institutions. My understanding of students was based only upon my experience and not what was written in textbooks or journal articles. Until I took Dr. Nancy Evans’s HgEd 576 Student Development Theory I and HgEd 676 Student Development Theory II courses, I had no formal knowledge of foundational student development theories. I remember reading articles and talking with my friend Dr. Penny Rice about how I had been experiencing many of these theories on a daily basis. Each social identity or theory was part of who I was already and now I was officially learning about it. It was as if it was all under the surface of my learning waiting to be revealed by new knowledge. The challenge of new knowledge is determining what you believe and if it is real. My social identity project was to research transgender students. This was my first opportunity to learn more about an underrepresented population through an academic lens. Although transgender students at this time were not well known on campus, I was able to interview an Iowa State University alumnus, three members of the transgender community in Des Moines, Iowa, and one from out of state. I took the time to get to know these persons and learn from their stories. I then connected my research to the social identity theories, while remaining true to what I learned, and respecting the new knowledge. Knowledge struggle. As I stated before, I was an over-involved student affairs professional with a total of 12 years of experience. Upon returning to the program, the courses in which I was enrolled for the Social Justice Concentration challenged me beyond my own knowledge base. I would leave each class increasingly perplexed about who I was as a student affairs professional, wondering if I perpetuated the privilege cycle that exists. I struggled with who I was as a person. I questioned my decisions and my self-worth. Yet, these dilemmas helped me change my perspectives. The first instance of this dilemma was in Dr. Lori Patton’s Critical Race Theory course When I was a student affairs professional, I really thought that I was progressive and supportive of our African American population. I really began to question my intentions as a professional as I read more about colorblindness (Bonilla-Silva, 2006), White privilege (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001) and interest convergence (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001), especially when I deconstructed VEISHEA (student-run spring festival) through a Critical Race Theory lens for one of my assignments. I excel within the rubric of Interpersonal Communication. I am an optimist, who pursues goals with great vigor. I work cooperatively and do this by demonstrating sensitivity to the diverse needs of others. I am unafraid of expressing myself; however, I am in tune to listening to others and their concerns. I am compassionate to the needs of all people, and represent the underrepresented during discussions and program planning. During class discussions or meetings with my peers, I spend a lot of time listening. It is important to understand the dynamics of the people before I bring up a topic or comment. I recognize that my enthusiastic style sometimes is overbearing to others therefore I curb my enthusiasm. These descriptions alone help to describe my true interpersonal skills. I continually want to facilitate group discussions, and not necessarily participate in the discussion itself. I prefer to lead and not follow. Over the past few years I challenge myself to grow in this area, and so far, I believe that I have accomplished quite a bit. Finding my voice. The Concentration in Social Justice requires a Pro-Seminar. My second semester in the program we added a book to read and discuss during our biweekly meetings. We selected bell hooks (2003) Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. I had a heated discussion with another doctoral student while we were discussing the chapter, “Teaching with Love.” I was discussing my belief that when you are loved you are in a good place. My colleague went into a rant about how not everyone can be loved, especially when there is a gun pointed at one’s head. I lost it. Comparing my statement to a gun. Comparing love to violence and cops. Using my words and twisting them to make their point. I just could not comprehend how this person was making the leap from one place to another. I swore. I was inappropriate. After I had this experience I realized I needed to relearn how to express myself. I had been using my laptop computer as a way to stay engaged by taking notes or looking up facts, but I was unwilling to voice my opinions. I hesitated to share my positionality with my peers. As I think back, I recognize this fear was connected to my vocalizing a differing stance on a campus policy. I didn’t know who I was then. Since my abrupt Pro-Seminar commentary, my goal has been to find my voice. I have begun to acknowledge who I am at the present and how I relate to my peers. I also formed a strong relationship with the colleague with whom I had the argument on that day. I believe while we both had our moment of terror, we grew and learned from one another’s stories. One of the many cliché sayings that I utilize is that I do “walk the talk.” It is important for me to be a part of an organization or association that believes in the same things I do. I belong to various associations and political activist groups. I am able to communicate my thoughts without forcing others to believe in them as well. It is important to note, I am unafraid to discuss sensitive topics. I am a lifelong learner. In 2001, I was a member of the Iowa State University Center for Teaching Excellence Service Learning Teaching Circle. The opportunity to talk with faculty and staff about service learning was an inspirational one. Discussing assessment and strategies motivated me to become a doctoral student. The following spring I was admitted into the ELPS program. One of the reasons I know my intrapersonal skills are exemplary is because I was unafraid to leave my full-time position in student affairs. When my personal ethics were being pulled in a direction with which I was uncomfortable, I knew it was time to move on to something else. I was not okay with the decision to put a policy in place that discriminated, in my eyes, against underrepresented students. I understood the direction the University took, but I did not agree with it. I spent two years speaking with upper administrators about my concerns, and still had to appear that I agreed with the policy in front of the students and organization advisers. Ethically, this was and continues to be one of the most difficult periods I have experienced professionally. When your identity becomes your work and you have to compromise your own ethics, you know moving on is most important to your personal survival. As I stated before, I like to be in front of the crowd and not within it. Oral Communication rubric is one area of my learning to which I am most comfortable. I value speaking in front of others in order to facilitate discussion or present information to a group. I have learned through my coursework experiences. In HGED 664, I took an in depth look at the Student Union as an organizational structure. During my presentation, I recognized that I might not have been as comfortable as I had thought. I read directly from my notes and did not always make eye contact with the audience. I found this to be unusual for me considering that since I was four years old, I have been performing on stage. Because I was in front of my peers, and being critiqued, my comfort level was lacking. Since then, I work harder at knowing the information and communicate it appropriately to the audience. This fall in HGED 665, I researched residence hall room and board costs, along with the capacity and overall enrollment for three categories: State of Iowa Regent Schools, Big 12 Institutions, and Land Grant Institutions. I utilized Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Institutional Characteristics Survey to gather the information. Mind you, my understanding of the system itself, along with the costs of living on campus was limited. Yet, during my presentation, because I had worked very at understanding the information, I was able to communicate my findings with ease. I have spent most of my life on stage. Yes, I speak well to others. Yes, I can communicate my thoughts orally to an audience. Yes, I am fully capable of answering questions. Interestingly enough, one of the challenges of Borderline Personality Disorder is not knowing who you really are as a person and having to act your way through everything. I think this challenge is one I still have difficulty with today. Not knowing which role I am in at the moment and grappling to find the right words when I speak in front of my colleagues are challenges for me. If I am able to find the right words I am able to express myself. I sometimes lose focus even if I have talking points. The only way I can speak coherently is if I memorize what I am trying to share with a group. Perhaps this is another reason why I choose to hide behind my laptop computer. Presenting my thoughts. One of our tasks for 615H-1 Research Designs in Higher Education was to write a program proposal for a conference or convention. I took it a step further and decided to submit my proposal for the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. My paper was accepted, and I had the opportunity to present the paper to my peers. I informed my discussant, Dr. Heather Rowan-Kenyon from Boston College, that the paper was merely a draft of my dissertation prospectus. She was very supportive of my effort and said, “You are brave to share a draft of your dissertation with your peers.” I presented my paper to almost 20 of my colleagues. I shared my story and preliminary findings. I answered questions and addressed concerns. Following my presentation, Dr. Heather Rowan-Kenyon gave constructive comments on how to enhance my paper (Bestler, 2010b). In regards to the Research rubric, I believe I am learning the various aspects of “scholarly inquiry” (ELPS Rubric, 2000). My experience in this area is rudimentary; nevertheless, with every opportunity to gain knowledge I strengthen my skills. Prior to my doctoral coursework, I had researched programming ideas, information for work or read publications to gain a comprehension of a current issue. My need for understanding the components of Service-Learning sparked my interest in research. I read article after article in order to see if there was a correlation between students’ success and participation in Service-Learning. During the Service-Learning Teaching Circle, we decided to write a Miller Grant in order to research on student success and Service–Learning at Iowa State University. The information gathered enriched me professionally, and needless to say we were awarded the fellowship. This experience helped me recognize that I need professional growth and development to become an exemplary researcher. I recognize I still have much to learn about how to conduct research and write in a scholarly fashion. I believe I have developed my exploration skills and strengthened my ethical research practices. However, I still must learn how to create fluid connections between my research question, literature review, and findings. Because of my creative background I tend to have a more abstract way of showing these findings; whereas, academia wants a concrete writing style. Convergence of technology. I researched and collected content data on how technology is transforming the educational landscape for Did You Know 4.0. This project was in collaboration with XPLANE, Dr. Karl Fisch, Dr. Scott McLeod, and our partners at The Economist. This version opened on YouTube in September 2009 and presented the convergence of technology in society. Recently, the Did You Know 4.0 video was featured in Saenz’s (2010) Singularity Hub blog “12 videos that will help you love the future.” While this work project developed an unconventional end product, the process of gathering data for it was extensive. Exploring hate on YouTube. I am proud of my growth as a student while working on a course research project, “Towards discovering hate on YouTube” for ResEv 554. The central question of this study was how users intermittently engage about Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Questioning (LGTBQQ) topics represented on YouTube. I spent many hours learning about virtual ethnography and online research ethics. Exploring the YouTube videos related to Chris Crocker’s (2008) YouTube video titled, “Gay HATE on YouTube!” was a transformational learning experience for me. It was enlightening and painful to read or view video responses in reaction to Crocker’s (2008) video. My role in a group setting is a cheerleader and motivator. I believe that my style has a tendency to come across as not serious and the clown of a group. I am adaptable; I can change my leadership approach according to the group. When in class, I have a tendency to be an excellent listener, and multi-tasker. When I am working with a group of students, I work hard at helping with the direction of the organization when necessary; otherwise, I am quiet and let the organization’s leader lead the way. When I attend the Dean of Students Office Directors’ Meeting, I have the tendency to be reserved. When I am leading organizations, I am direct, and supportive. I am caring and forthright. I am a planner and coordinator. I am an encourager and above all someone who celebrates successes with the organizations. When a group fails, it is hard for me to deal with the stress. I work hard at determining how the event or program can be reconstructed for the future. I love being a part of organizations. “These types [ENFJ] can be exceptionally inventive and insightful as group leaders. They seem to have a sixth sense about how a group can operate as a crucible for individual growth and development” (Thomson, 1998, p. 359). I appreciate change. I am someone who likes order. I wish that everything could always be harmonious; yet, it cannot always be this way. This past fall change created stress in my professional life. Because of the new direction of the Iowa State Memorial Union, the Student Activities Center (at some point) will be merged into the Memorial Union Programming area. This is an opportunity for the Student Activities Center. Professionally, I don’t know if I want to continue with programming or if I would like to become more of a generalist. As a generalist, I could gain the skills necessary to be a Dean of Students one day. I have been concerned about the impact this change would create within the Dean of Students Office (because of my roles there). Knowing my limitations. In 2004, I was named the Mid-Level Student Affairs Professional of the Year by the American College Personnel Association (ACPA). It was, and still is, an honor to be recognized by my peers for my hard work. I remember, when I was being honored, all I thought about was the amount of stress it took to receive something so cherished by my profession. My skill set and past experiences provide me with the foundation to naturally be a leader. My challenge is that after being out of the field, it is difficult for me to find comfort in being an out-front leader. I prefer the behind the scenes role where I do not have to talk or advocate for one thing or another. Instead, I provide the support to the team leaders and members to build or promote something impressive to their audience. I think, now more than ever, I know who I am. I know what I have done in the past to make experiences better for new professionals. I believe what keeps me going is that even if I know who I am, I am still incomplete in this life. I am willing to keep learning and growing. Once, I graduate I am not done. I am merely on the next stage of my journey. I intentionally have taken a role behind the scenes. I have had my days of recognition and acknowledgement in higher education. I do not need to continue learning just to receive awards or notoriety. If I do one last thing in this field it will be to share my personal story. My story will hopefully help guide current and new professionals to live a more balanced life than I did as a student affairs professional. This goal is my personal commitment. Teaching assistant. I served as a teaching assistant and helped create the first Arts-Based Research course for graduate students with Dr. Nana Osei-Kofi. I designed an online resource and blogging social network for graduate students to supplement their learning experience. I facilitated two course discussions: Collage as Research, and Blogs as a Self-Expressive Art Form. The Technology rubric is another in which I believe I excel. I am constantly upgrading myself in what is available in order to perform better in the classroom and professionally. Technology holds the key to communication. It allows me to create web pages, utilize Web CT, word process, collect data and facilitate presentation. During my classes, in small groups, I am able to quickly put information down and create a presentation that highlights our discussion. I can present information in a timely manner, and understand the capability that technology holds for us as professionals. I have been learning about technology in one aspect or another since I was in elementary school. Currently, I oversee the technical services of the Dean of Students Office, and I am the web coordinator for most of the units. My website is available online at: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~bestler/homepage.html. One of my strengths at the beginning of this program was technology. During my time in the program I did not become complacent with technology; instead, I took my learning to a new level. I am proud of what I have accomplished when it comes to technology. Deconstructing technology. One of the areas about which I am most passionate is how technology affects education. I have spent many semesters deconstructing technology and how it helps or hinders underrepresented students in an educational setting. I wrote a few course papers on technology including: “Is there a correlation between the digital divide and college access?” and “A social movement in progress: History of the digital divide.” Both of these course papers helped me to learn more about technology and its relationship to social change. CASTLE. In May 2008, I joined Dr. Scott McLeod’s team as the technology coordinator for University Council for Educational Administration’s (UCEA) Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE) at Iowa State University. One of the many things that attracted me to CASTLE is the drive to support school administrators in their endeavors to develop technology programs unique to their institutions. To achieve this goal, I develop, design, and maintain multiple forms of online communication through blogs, websites, and 2.0 web technologies. I assist the team with technology bootcamps for school administrators to learn about online web tools. Online learning environment. I collaborated with Dr. Ryan Evely Gildersleeve to develop and implement a 3-credit online qualitative research course for graduate students, ResEv 580. I designed the WebCT by using streaming media, web-based learning modules, virtual classroom environments, audio podcasts, and course web resources. I facilitated an e-learning experience during the course orientation for 20 graduate students. The original template for this course has been enhancing ResEv 580 since summer semester 2009 and is being used for Dr. Penny Rice’s ResEv 580 course during the 2010 fall semester. One area that I need improvement is the Writing Communication rubric. I can write my thoughts; I lack knowledge and practice of utilizing the American Psychological Association (APA) Style. My collegiate experiences allowed me to be a creative writer. I could let information flow freely from my thoughts and onto paper. APA Style, although intricately important to format information, seems like a restriction. I get frustrated because it is to comprehend the information in order to follow the appropriate guidelines to get my information. I am working on improving this skill through the utilization of the book Mastering APA Style: Student’s Workbook and Training Guide. While taking HGED 665, I recognized I was having difficulty writing my last research paper. I acknowledged the fact that I did not know how to write about statistics and appendices. It was exhausting. When I received the paper back from Dr. Schuh, my heart sunk, I had received a “B.” The main errors in my paper came from my writing and usage of APA Style. I did value that I was not given an “A” for “B” work. It made me strive to become a better student. The HGED 665 final exam gave me an opportunity to spend quality time understanding how to write in APA Style, and needless to say, Dr. Schuh let me know I had improved. I recognize the written communication rubric is one with which I continue to struggle, even at the end of my program. I think it is a challenge to write according to the concrete academic format due to my occasional lack of attention to details and impatience for the expected perfection in my writing. I continue to write as if I am a student affairs professional writing a quick report for an upper administrator. I use short sentences to describe things. I use my own words and my style. Instead, I should be taking time to check and recheck all the information according to academic structures. I should not assume I can write a research paper in just a day. It takes time to find facts, write comprehensive sentences, and compose a paper. When I do take the time, I know I have the ability to communicate well through my writing. If I am able to be creative with my writing, I believe my skill is outstanding. Over the next four years, I will grow and develop within all of the areas of the ELPS Rubrics. I look forward to my next self-assessment narrative to see how far I come. As I come closer to the end of my doctoral program, many people ask me, “What do you want to do after you receive your doctorate?” or “What job do you think you will want to have following graduation?” I take a big breath and say, “I want to be happy.” People seem to expect you to want to have a better position or want to be a faculty member. I intend to be happy. I intend to do something worthwhile with what I have learned about myself and those around me. I have learned so many different things from my faculty, colleagues, peers, and friends. If there is one thing I know, it is I am myself. I am finally found. I am no longer someone I do not want to be in my life. I am receptive to learning about differences; yet, I am grounded in my own beliefs. I can honestly say I do not know what role I will take on next after I am done with the doctoral program. I hope to continue my work with the Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). Although it is unclear what this role may be, as long as I am using technology and my intuitive abilities to help create positive change, I know I will be making a difference. Achieving this goal will make me happy. Myers, K.D. (1998). Introduction to type. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc. Thomson, L. (1998). Personality type: an owner’s manual. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, Inc. Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical Race Theory: An introduction. New York, NY: New York University Press. hooks, b. (2003). Heart to heart: Teaching with love. Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope (pp. 127-138). New York, NY : Routledge. Edudemic: What Does Gamification Look Like In Classrooms?

2019-04-24T00:32:52Z

http://www.laurabestler.org/doctoral-work/self-assessment-narrative/

Seemingly out of nowhere, the National Weather Service has identified the possibility of significant snow for the Twin Cities early next week. While most forecasters had previously thought a little light snow was possible, this appears to be a significant change in their thinking. Let the speculation begin. Should Star Tribune column be updated? Here we go again,Novak says we need to alter our travel plans,where have we heard this before. Has he said yet,"I love the set-up for........."(fill in the blank)! Hey, easy on the personal attacks on Novak. He provides a lot of good analysis for this blog. He's not always right but nobody is. So does this mean that our "focus on storms and we'll get nothing, ignore them and we'll get something" idea is working? Is PD wrong or on the right track, as of now, he seems out alone on a limb, saying that we aren't going to seem much in the way of accumulation here in MSP. I've noticed his blog has become the all or nothing spectrum. Not surprised at the change as NW flow very difficult at times for timing and exact path of snow. Sat vapor imagery right now as I stare at a 24 hour loop over the wrn US shows the situ and why models are reacting as such EXCEPT the operational GFS. It is a well south of the rest. It will be interesting to see where the sfc and mid-level lows track on Monday. The same system will be diving SE toward Georgia/Carolinas with threat of snow -- we shall see. Extremely disappointed with the GEM solutions over the last 24 hours. To go from 16" of snow to 0 in one model run is totally uncalled for and irresponsible. I thought the GEM had it figured out with the latest model upgrade that took place a few weeks back, but I guess not. Whenever a model suffers Schizophrenia, I tend to lose confidence in it. I'm bummed because I really started to trust GEM. Why Gem, WHY? You know what is irresponsible,I'll tell you what is irresponsible.It is irresponsible to put out forecasts and change forecasts DRASTICALLY because of one suite of model runs,with this potential incoming system there has been too much emphasis given to models people "love",everyone gives crap to the GFS but it has handled this storm well,Paul Douglas has it figured,learn from him!I've watched the NWS go from 50% of snow,to just 20%,then snow LIKELY,to now 30% in the last 36-48 hours,just because it favors one model over another,just this morning they said the GFS was an outliner,we'll disregard it and sounded the alarm you all read this morning and now read it they are putting more emphasis on the GFS.We were over 60 hours from any flakes from POSSIBLY falling and I had to hear stuff like "alter my travel plans"(Novak) and "get ready to shovel"(Hammer) this morning,and don't tell me these were meant has a heads up,red flag kind of thing,they didn't use the words "possible","could","potential","it may" in front of their statements did they?IRRESPONSIBLE! All this meteorologists here or pseudo-ones or presumed expert: where is your experience to provide consistency when there is not one in the models? I've been a little surprised at the bullish forecasts from a number of meteorologists about this storm. The euro has been the most consistent with this storm keeping the heaviest snows roughly from Devils Lake, ND through Marshall, MN. I think the Twin Cities could get brushed but I wouldn't expect much. As far as the GEM goes, I'd rate that model #4 behind the ECMWF, NAM, and GFS. Over previous winters I never trusted this model. The only time I did buy into it two storms ago, because I thought it aligned better with what was going on in the atmosphere. I was burned, I learned my lesson. The American models have been all over with this storm, and have not shown any consistency. When in doubt, trust the ECMWF. What I find interesting is the mixed presentation of the Strib weather page this morning. The accompanying weather video segment talked about a significant snow on Monday yet the Paul Douglas blog (updated last night) did not (the screen capture depicted in this post came from that). I think the Strib really confuses their readers sometimes, but that's another issue. I guess some posters on this page are assuming that Hammer & myself are changing our tune. I don't believe that is the case. I don't want to speak for Hammer, but I'm still more than confident that this storm will bring much of so. MN significant snow. My whole point with my last post is that you can't hang your hat on each model run because what model solutions like the GEM's over the last 24 hours. I believe Randy states it best when he says "when in doubt, trust the Euro". Some of the latest model runs from the GEM & GFS have thrown some doubt into the snow scenario, but the 12z Euro paints a NW to SE swath of significant snow near or just west of the MSP metro. This solution could be totally hosed, I'm going with it. I guess we will have to wait until we see the "whites of its eyes". Quite frankly, I don't know what 'Anonymous' & 'Weather Junkie' expect from weather forecasters. If you are going to take on the challenge of wx forecasting, you can't be afraid to go out on a limb and be wrong. If you don't, then weather would be boring as hell. I don't want that because I enjoy Meteorology & Climatology. I think someone on here recently said something to the effect of waiting for 36 hours or so before the storm is supposed to hit. A couple of other people ripped that poster for that comment. Well, I happen to agree with that comment! Talk to me a day or two before the storm if you want to discuss what will likely occur. Usually, any further out is just conjecture, such as the current situation where the percentages are bouncing from 20% to 50% to 60% to 20%. Good grief! I haven't heard one mention of rain/mixed precip until I read the KSTP/Johnathan Yuhas blog tonight,were sitting here and talking about will it snow,will it not snow and boom!,he drops the snow mixed with freezing rain forecast,really?I told you PWL we should have kept it hush-hush,my head is spinning with up and down %'s,altered travel plans,untrusted GEM and the lovable Euro and now we throw rain into the mix! Scattered rain showers mixed with snow with possible thunder,really?......did he work for accuweather before moving to Minnesota? Well, you know what my prediction is. It is out there for everyone to see. I'm not wavering back and forth nor do I believe in doing so. As far as anonymous is concerned, you are living in a fantasy world my friend. The truth is that people want an idea of what is going to happen well in advance. They have plans. They have the weekend to think of. They have Monday AM commute to consider. If you believe that a weather forecast is only good for 36 hours at best, then you are listening to the wrong forecasters. Perhaps you are a forecaster yourself who is scorned? Weather forecasts need to improve and I will do whatever it takes to lead that charge. We know it is an imperfect science right now, but it doesn't hurt to take on the challenge and change the status quo that is killing our industry right now. Walk out on a limb for God's sake. Hey Novak, I hear you there. I don't know, but possibly what anonymous might have been trying to say is that the accuracy of forecasts 36 hours or less is much higher than beyond 36 hours, so if you want accuracy then focus on the shorter time period? I don't think anyone is advocating for there to be no forecasts made several days in advance. I know I'm sure not advocating that. Anyway, that is my two cents on how I interpreted that comment. Regardless, happy forecasting! Not sure anyone will read this on an old thread, but I'm all for no long range forecasts. They are worthless. As someone who has to work outside in the elements, I am so sick of seeing a seven day forecast predicting NOTHING for precip and then all of a sudden we get a "significant" chance for snow. Most recently, I heard a "quiet two weeks coming" and then wham!! Big storm on the way. And then we have to listen to them talk about it for a week while it makes its way across the rest of the country. Good lord, do they ever stop talking about these "snow storms"? Nothing pisses me off more than getting my hopes up for a quiet period and then getting slammed by the "monster storm coming". If you can't see it a week ahead than don't tell me nothing's coming. As for the Strib confusing the reader, I see that all outlets are confusing the reader/viewer/listener. I firmly believe when it comes to forecasting the "storms", they purposefully predict EVERYTHING will happen. Then at least they can say they forecasted what actually happened and some will only remember hearing one thing and that will be the actual result. In other words, there will always be some people fooled into thinking they had the forecast correct. Too many media outlets get into a bidding war and try to one-up the others resulting in this hype-a-thon. We would be better served by one weather forecasting service with an official forecast and having the media only allowed to use that forecast instead of all the extra options muddying the waters of expectations and results. At least then there wouldn't be so much confusion over whether they "got it right" or not. There would actually be some accountability. Hi everyone. I am new to Minnesota. Can anybody explain why Lakeville often has colder temperatures than most any other area of the Twin Cities? Is Lakeville a higher or lower elevation than the surrounding area, etc.? Thanks! WTC on their web broadcast say "some snow this week. we will keep an eye on that" HA! I love it. @Anon. Some "Heat Island effect" is a partial reason for lower temps that Mpls proper. Lots of asphalt/concrete/ holding heat. It's been a while since someone has mentioned the model trends. Am I reading the 12z GFS correctly....did it make a shift to the north on us? Thanks guys......the operation hush-hush is working......just read NWS afternoon discussion. TWC 8 hours later now says "Maybe as much as 6" for Monday/Tues with rain. According to TWC (getting less silent), sounds like it could be a wet one ? looking at forecast soundings from bufkit for both the GFS and NAM I just can't believe rain is entering into the forecast, someone needs to get their eyes checked. And the 03/0z Nam has come into better alignment with the other models as far as QPF goes. I want to comment on the discussion that took place earlier about responsible vs irresponsible forecasting. My personal opinion is that if 5 days out a forecaster see's a major storm with a 100 miles of home he/she should start to use language like this. " A major winter storm could impact the region, please stayed tuned if you have travel plans, the track of this storm is unpredictable, but be aware, as you may have to change your plans." To keep information tucked under the label of suit jacket is irresponsible if you ask me. I work in the high end retail industry, I heard a few of our guest's mention that we were under a winter storm watch as they got the info off their smart phones, that system seems to be working, but it was about 2 days to late IMO. The longer lead time the public has as to the possibilities the better off we will all be. Novak's map at the top of this thread looks to be about right. @ Big Daddy.....I will have my snowfall forecast out by early afternoon on Sunday March 3rd. As usual with a big snowfall event(since I have the day off) I will split the metro up into four quadrants. The east west axis will be I394 and then I94 to the WI border. The north south axis will be I 35. This is really getting interesting. Thanks Randy........I'm getting excited because your getting interested! MNPLOWCO...you are going to have busy week, especially with our commercial accounts. Winter Storm Saturn is on the way or as Paul Douglas names it on his blog the "turbo-charged clipper"."Let the predictions begin! On the positive side of all the comments -- "Saturn" is going to only help the serious drought situation in central and southern Minnesota. Something I will reiterate is that NW flow systems are a bugger to forecast by the models thus not surprised at some jockeying by the GFS or really wildly, the Canadian GEM. The ECWMF has been fairly consistent as has, believe it or not, the US NAM. Either way a nice swath of snow across central and southern Minnesota. But, also keep eye as this storm heads ESE impacting Chicago who desperately needs more snow. Then the system moves into Ohio Valley and becomes very significant across the Eastern Seaboard from N Georgia to the Megalopolis. The storm was named due to the expected impact for so many large cities/population centers in its life. Enjoy the snow up there in Minny! A bit concerning if your wanting the heaviest snow in and around the metro,it was to be to the west of us,now it has shifted to on us,the concern is this shift will continue and the heaviest snow will fall in Wisconsin,that is why the NWS has not gone with a winter storm warning as of yet and flakes are suppose to fly in about 12-18 hours,don't get me wrong everyone will see snow,but it could just be an advisory event. Was just watching TWC and their discussion of Saturn and put an graphic on the screen showing Minneapolis in the 8-12 range with 12-18 not too far behind to our northwest,that's a big change from their 2-4 from yesterday! Ian Leonard tweeted 3-6" for the watch area. Lots of uncertainty with this. Therefore I'm issuing an official forecast of 3 to 15 inches for the Twin Cities. LOL...that should cover all bases! Ian had a subsequent tweet which mentioned 5-10, with 3-6 just being the first part. NWS 6 AM Aviation Statement today. KMSP...NOT ANTICIPATING ANY PROBLEMS TODAY WITH CEILINGS AOA 060. CONDITIONS DEVELOPING AFTER 04/06Z AND CERTAINLY LIKELY AFTER 04/12Z. LOCALLY HEAVY SNOW IS PROJECTED TO MOVE ACROSS THE TWIN CITIES. Interesting how the totals continue to increase. Interested in final predictions from Novak, Randy, and Hammer. MORNING. SNOW WILL SLOWLY DIMINISH TUESDAY AFTERNOON. ISOLATED AMOUNTS NEAR 12 INCHES POSSIBLE BY TUESDAY AFTERNOON. WILL RESULT IN SOME BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW IN OPEN AREAS. Just got a notification that we've been upgraded to a winter storm warning for the metro. They're predicting 6-12"! NWS La Crosse just upgraded to a warning for their Minnesota counties. Is anyone peeing their pants yet? Sweet! LaCrosse has us in the 9-13 inch range! Quietly might be the biggest storm of the year. Happens at least once a winter.......less hyped storms turn out to be bigger ones!this is exactly what the doctor ordered to sell the last of my winter inventory......keep bringing it and keep peeing! Funny one @DysonGuy,it was a nice chuckle,but seriously I sell snow clearing products(snowblowers,shovels,ice melt, and such)if I don't sell it I sit on it all spring and summer. Can anyone explain why a clipper would drop so much snow? Seems very out of the ordinary. This Clipper is slower than a normal clipper- MUCH slower. In addition to having more time to dump on us, this clipper now has the time to gather moisture from the gulf, giving it even more energy. Normanlly a clipper would come and go so fast that it would not have time to tap into the gulf or dump more than a few inches. That is what is different about this clipper. Its not really a clipper. A clipper is really a short wave trough coming from the northwest. A short wave is just a jolt of energy in the atmosphere. This is going to be a fully developed and mature atmospheric trough that just happens to be coming from the northwest. 40s and rain in a week! Shut up! your the same never over 10 inches Anonymous aren't you!,there will even be another dumping after this one sorry to tell you,it may hit 40 but this won't be the last snow. My forecast and full description of what I think is happening and what will hopefully happen is up on my blog. Right now I expect 6-10" across the metro, with 8-9" at MSP. This storm will definitely be an interesting one to watch. @Randy Hill Thanks for the specific MSP forecast. Will include that with next post about to be issued. MARCH 21-23 STORM FROM 2008. Its nice but I was really looking forward to the bike trails clearing up sometime this month. Oh well.

2019-04-26T02:37:54Z

http://www.minnesotaforecaster.com/2013/03/nws-msp-could-be-under-gun-for.html

During submaximal cycling, the neuromuscular system has the freedom to select different intermuscular coordination strategies. From both a basic science and an applied perspective, it is important to understand how the central nervous system adjusts pedaling mechanics in response to changes in pedaling conditions. Purpose To determine the effect of changes in pedal speed (a marker of muscle shortening velocity) and crank length (a marker of muscle length) on pedaling mechanics during submaximal cycling. Methods Fifteen trained cyclists performed submaximal isokinetic cycling trials (90 rpm, 240 W) using pedal speeds of 1.41 to 1.61 m·s−1 and crank lengths of 150 to 190 mm. Joint powers were calculated using inverse dynamics. Results Increases in pedal speed and crank length caused large increases knee and hip angular excursions and velocities (P < 0.05), whereas ankle angular kinematics stayed relatively constant (P > 0.05). Joint moments and joint powers were less affected by changes in the independent variables, but some interesting effects and trends were observed. Most noteworthy, knee extension moments and powers tended to decrease, whereas hip extension power tended to increase with an increase in crank length. Conclusions The distribution of joint moments and powers is largely maintained across a range of pedaling conditions. The crank length induced differences in knee extension moments, and powers may represent a trade-off between the central nervous system’s attempts to simultaneously minimize muscle metabolic and mechanical stresses. These results increase our understanding of the neural and mechanical mechanisms underlying multi-joint task performance, and they have practical relevance to coaches, athletes, and clinicians. Address for correspondence: Thomas Korff, Ph.D., Centre for Sports Medicine and Human Performance Brunel University Uxbridge UB8 3PH United Kingdom. E mail: thomas.korff@brunel.ac.uk. Accepted for publication October 2015. During cycling, power delivered to the pedals is produced by muscles that span the ankle, knee, and hip and by power produced in the upper body that is transferred across the hip joint (6,25). The investigation of the power contributions of the various muscle groups (i.e., joint action powers) to total mechanical power gives us invaluable insights into mechanical and physiological processes underlying exercise and cycling performance. For example, the analysis of joint action powers has increased our understanding of intermuscular coordination strategies as a function of cycling intensity (9,10), pedaling rates (9,30), or cycling duration (26). During submaximal cycling, the neuromuscular system has the freedom to selectively use combinations of the various power producing joint actions to meet the task requirement. This selection may represent some optimization such as minimizing muscle activation (30), muscle stress (15), or overall metabolic cost (20). This notion is supported by analyses of preferred pedaling rates. Cyclists freely choose pedaling rates that are associated with minimized values for joint moments (13,16,22), muscle stress (15), negative muscle work (29), and muscle activation (30). Although metabolic cost is not minimized at the preferred pedaling rate (23), it is likely that the minimization of metabolic cost contributes to the intermuscular coordination strategy in terms of joint power distribution. In support of this notion, Korff et al. (20) demonstrated that metabolic cost is minimized when cyclists use their preferred pedaling technique. Thus, it is likely that the movement strategy adopted during submaximal cycling may represent an optimization based on some combination of metabolic and neural demand as well as muscular stress. However, their interaction within the context of intermuscular coordination has not been fully elucidated. In submaximal cycling, a thorough understanding of these factors is important from both a mechanistic and an applied perspective. Regarding the former, cycling is a repetitive movement with generally constrained joint and muscle kinematics, and so, it is an ideal task to gain mechanistic insights into the interacting roles of mechanical muscle actions and intermuscular coordination. Regarding the latter, knowledge of the mechanical muscle properties, which govern the movement strategy adopted during submaximal cycling, increases our understanding of endurance cycling performance (18,19) and could give insights into more effective training and intervention strategies for cyclists as well as intervention strategies for clinical applications. From a theoretical point of view, three variables are of particular importance within this context: pedal speed, cycle frequency, and crank length. Pedal speed (the mathematical product of crank length and crank angular velocity) is indicative of muscle shortening velocities of monoarticular muscles (24,34). Cycle frequency is indicative of activation-deactivation dynamics (7,24). Crank length is indicative of muscle excursions of monoarticular muscles (14). Thus, each of these variables represents a different physiological phenomenon. Pedal speed is of particular importance because of the dependency of muscular force (2) and muscular efficiency (4) on muscle shortening velocity. The primary purpose of this study was therefore to investigate the effect of pedal speed on joint angular excursions, velocities, moments, and powers. Pedal speed can be altered by varying pedaling rate at a constant crank length, varying crank length at a constant pedaling rate, or a combination of the two. However, it is challenging to isolate the effect of pedal speed using either of these experimental paradigms. When pedaling rate is altered with a constant crank length (e.g., 3,10), both pedal speed (muscle shortening velocities) and pedaling rate (activation deactivation dynamics) are altered concomitantly. Here, we chose to vary crank length and hold pedaling rate constant to ensure that any effects of pedal speed would not be confounded by concomitant changes in pedaling rate. In particular, we sought to isolate the effect of muscle shortening velocities on joint powers independent of activation-deactivation dynamics. However, changing crank length results in altered muscle excursions, which could lead to different joint moments because of the muscles working on different regions of their respective force–length relationships. If this was the case, joint powers could also be different across crank lengths. Previous research has shown that joint action powers are unaffected by changes in pedaling rate when crank length is held constant (3,10), meaning that in these studies, pedal speed and pedaling rate were changed concomitantly. Within the context of the primary purpose of this study, it was also important to ensure that crank length (i.e., muscle excursions)—independent of pedal speed—would not be a confounding factor. Thus, the second purpose was to investigate the effect of crank length (independent of pedal speed) on joint angular velocities, joint moments, and joint powers. Fifteen trained cyclists (12 men [76 ± 7 kg], 3 women [66 ± 7 kg]) age 19 to 44 yr, all regularly competing in regional cycling races, volunteered to take part in the study. Experimental procedures were approved by the institutional review board of the University of Utah and the Research Ethics Committee of Brunel University. Participants received a verbal and written explanation of all procedures and gave their written informed consent. Participants visited the laboratory on 4 separate occasions. During the first two visits, they practiced cycling with the nonstandard crank lengths (150 and 190 mm). Practice was not provided for the standard crank lengths (165, 170, and 175 mm), as participants regularly cycled on cranks within this range. On each familiarization day, participants performed two 10-min trials of submaximal cycling (one on the shortest crank [150 mm] and one on the longest crank [190 mm]). Each trial consisted of 8-min cycling at a self-selected power output (e.g., ~75–150 W), followed by 2-min cycling at a power output of 240 W. All practice sessions were performed on the same isokinetic cycling ergometer as used for the experimental data collection. During the third and fourth visits, participants performed the experimental submaximal cycling protocol, with two or three crank lengths tested on each visit. The order of the crank lengths was randomized, as was the number of crank lengths tested on each experimental day (three crank lengths on the first day and two on the second or vice versa). Data collection took place on two separate days to minimize fatigue across the experimental trials. For each participant, data collection began at the same time on both experimental days. On the first day, body mass, thigh length (greater trochanter to lateral femoral condyle), leg length (lateral femoral condyle to lateral malleolus), foot length (heel to toe), and “kinematic foot length” (pedal spindle to lateral malleolus) were measured. All anthropometric measures were collected by the same investigator. The experimental trials consisted of two 30-s trials of isokinetic cycling at each crank length (150, 165, 170, 175, and 190 mm). One trial was performed at a pedaling rate of 90 rpm, and the other trial was performed at a constant pedal speed of 1.60 m·s−1 (equivalent to the middle condition of 170-mm crank length and 90 rpm). Table 1 details the crank lengths, pedaling rates, and pedal speeds used in both experimental conditions. The order of the two experimental trials was randomized, and a minimum of 3-min recovery was given between them. Participants were asked to maintain a target power output of 240 W against the isokinetic resistance (10); feedback regarding their instantaneous crank power was provided by means of a calibrated SRM power measurement system (Schoberer Rad Messtechnik, Jülich, Germany). To verify that the subjects cycled at the required power output, the average power that was delivered to the right pedal was obtained (see methodological details below). Assuming bilateral symmetry, this value should be approximately 120 W. Across all trials, subjects produced an average power output of 118.4 W (±6.8 W). All cycling trials were performed on an isokinetic ergometer, constructed from a Monark cycle ergometer frame and flywheel (Monark Exercise AB, Vansbro, Sweden). The ergometer flywheel was coupled to a 3.75-kW direct current motor (Baldor Electric Company model CDP3605, FortSmith, AR) and controlled by a speed controller equipped with regenerative braking (Minarik model RG5500U, Glendale, CA). Two reference measurements were recorded on each participant’s training bicycle and used to set the ergometer position; “seat height,” as defined by the distance between the top of the saddle and the pedal spindle when the crank was positioned to allow maximum displacement between these two points, and “handlebar drop,” as defined by the vertical drop from the top of the saddle and the top of the handlebars. When crank length was changed on the ergometer (SRM multilength crank; Schoberer Rad Messtechnik, Jülich, Germany), the height of the seat and the handlebars were both altered to maintain these two reference measurements (seat height, handlebar drop) across all crank lengths. “Handlebar reach,” as defined by the horizontal distance between the saddle and the handlebars, remained constant across all crank lengths. Participants wore cycling shoes with cleats that locked onto the pedal interface (Speedplay Inc., San Diego, CA). The instrumentation and procedures used to obtain cycling kinematic and kinetic data have been described in several previous studies from our laboratory (3,10,25). Normal and tangential pedal forces were recorded on the right pedal using two three-component piezoelectric force transducers (Kistler 9251; Kistler USA, Amherst, NY). The right pedal and crank were equipped with digital position encoders (S5S-1024-IB, US Digital, Vancouver, WA), and the pedal and crank angles were used to resolve the normal and tangential pedal forces into absolute vertical and horizontal components. The position of the right iliac crest was recorded with a two-segment instrumented spatial linkage (26). Pedal forces, pedal position, crank position, and instrumented spatial linkage position were all sampled at 240 Hz using Bioware software (Kistler USA) and filtered with a fourth-order zero-lag Butterworth low-pass filter at a cutoff frequency of 8 Hz. The position of the hip joint was calculated from the position of the iliac crest, assuming a constant offset, measured in a static condition (31). The location of the ankle joint was determined using the angular positions of the crank and pedal and the distance from the pedal spindle to the lateral malleolus, assuming that the position of the lateral malleolus relative to the pedal surface was fixed throughout the pedal cycle (17). The position of the knee joint center was calculated by means of the law of cosines, using the locations of the hip and ankle joints as well as thigh and leg lengths. Joint angles were calculated from joint positions and segment lengths. Linear and angular velocities and accelerations of the limb segments were determined by finite differentiation of position data with respect to time. Segmental masses, moments of inertia, and segmental center of mass locations were estimated using the regression equations reported by de Leva (21). Sagittal plane joint intersegmental forces and net muscle moments about the joint (joint moments) were derived at the ankle, knee, and hip using standard inverse dynamics techniques (9), as previously described (3). Joint powers were defined as the product of joint moments and joint angular velocities. Power delivered to the right pedal was defined as the product of the component of pedal force acting normal to the crank and the linear velocity of the pedal. All complete pedal cycles during the 30-s trial were analyzed. Joint angular velocities and joint powers were determined over extension and flexion phases and calculated as average values over these pedal cycles. Extension and flexion phases were defined based on the numerical sign of the corresponding joint angular velocity. In addition, we determined peak joint action powers during extension and flexion phases. One-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with repeated measures were performed to determine the effects of pedal speed on all dependent variables. Here, pedal speed was the independent variable (see Table 1 for details). Similarly, to examine the effect of crank length (independent of pedal speed) on the dependent variables, 1-way ANOVAs with repeated measures were performed for each dependent variable. Here, crank length was the independent variable, and data at the five crank lengths were analyzed (Table 1). If an ANOVA indicated a significant main effect, post hoc pairwise comparisons (Bonferroni) were performed to locate where those differences occurred. In addition, effect sizes to describe pairwise differences were calculated. Effect sizes were interpreted on the basis of Cohen (8) classification scheme: effect sizes less than 0.5 were considered to be small, effect sizes between 0.5 and 0.8 were considered to be moderate, and effect sizes greater than 0.8 were considered to be large. The alpha level was set at 0.05, and all statistical procedures were performed using SPSS 15.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). The main effect of pedal speed on knee and hip angular excursions was significant (P < 0.001). Post hoc t tests revealed that angular excursions increased with increasing pedal speed. All pairwise comparisons were significant (P < 0.05) for both joint angular excursions. The main effect of pedal speed on ankle angular excursion was nonsignificant. The main effects of pedal speed on extension and flexion velocities at the knee and hip were significant (P < 0.001) (see Table 2 for details of statistical tests). The main effects of pedal speed on ankle extension and flexion velocities were nonsignificant (P > 0.05). Post hoc pairwise comparisons revealed that extension and flexion velocities at the knee and hip increased with increases in pedal speed (Table 2). The analysis of effect sizes revealed that the largest effect sizes (ES > 0.8) were observed for the most extreme pedal speed comparisons (Fig. 1B). Figure 1 illustrates the changes in joint angular velocities across pedal speeds. Changes in pedal speed affected knee extension moment (P < 0.001). Post hoc pairwise comparisons revealed a greater knee extension moment at 1.41 m·s−1 compared with 1.65 and 1.79 m·s−1 and at 1.56 m·s−1 compared with 1.79 m·s−1 (Table 2). The magnitudes of the effects describing these pairwise comparisons were moderate (0.5 < ES < 0.8) and small (ES, < 0.5) (Fig. 1C). Although the ANOVA indicated a significant main effect for pedal speed on ankle extension moment (P = 0.019), post hoc pairwise comparisons did not reveal any significantly different pedal speed pairs (Table 2). Pedal speed did not affect flexion moment at the ankle, knee, or hip (P > 0.05). The effect of pedal speed on hip extension moment was also nonsignificant (P > 0.05). Pedal speed did not affect joint powers at the ankle knee or hip (P > 0.05) (Table 1). All effect sizes describing the difference between pairs of joint powers across pedal speeds were small (Fig. 1D). Figure 1 illustrates relationship between knee extension velocity, knee extensor moment, and knee extension power across pedal speeds. Pedal speed had a significant effect on peak knee extension power (P = 0.01). However, all follow-up pairwise comparisons were nonsignificant. With pedal speed held constant, the main effect of crank length on ankle, knee, and hip angular excursions was significant (P < 0.001). Post hoc t tests revealed that at a crank length of 190 mm, ankle angular excursions were greater than that at 170 and 150 mm (P < 0.05). At the hip and knee joints, angular excursions increased with increasing crank length. All pairwise comparisons were significant (P < 0.05) for both joint angular excursions. The effect of crank length on extension velocities at the ankle, knee, and hip was nonsignificant (P > 0.05) (Table 2). Crank length significantly affected flexion velocities at the ankle, knee, and hip (P < 0.05) (Table 2). Post hoc pairwise comparisons between crank length pairs revealed that ankle flexion velocity was greater at a crank length of 175 mm compared with 150 mm. Furthermore, knee flexion velocity was greater at a crank length of 190 mm compared with 150 mm, and hip flexion velocity was greater at a crank length of 190 mm compared with 150, 165, and 170 mm (Fig. 2B). The magnitude of each of these effects was small (ES, <0.5) (Fig. 2B). At a constant pedal speed, the effect of crank length on flexion power at the ankle and knee joints were nonsignificant (P > 0.05). With pedal speed held constant, crank length did not affect extension or flexion moments at the ankle, knee, or hip (P > 0.05) (Table 2 and Fig. 2C). Changes in crank length did not affect extension power at the ankle, knee, and hip (P > 0.05). Crank length significantly affected hip flexion power (P < 0.05), with post hoc pairwise comparisons revealing that hip flexion power was greater at a crank length of 190 mm compared with 165 mm. However, the analysis of the effect sizes revealed that the magnitude of this effect was small (ES, 0.39) (Fig. 2D). Crank length significantly affected peak ankle extension power (P = 0.033), peak hip extension power (P = 0.001), and peak hip flexion power (P = 0.008). Post hoc t tests revealed that at a crank length of 150 mm, peak hip extension power was significantly smaller than at crank lengths of 170, 175, and 190 mm. Peak hip flexion power was greater at a crank length of 190 mm compared with 165 and 150 mm. For peak ankle extension power, none of the follow-up tests were significant. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of pedal speed on joint angular excursions, velocities, moments, and powers in submaximal cycling. In this study, pedal speed was altered by changing crank length and keeping pedaling rate constant. To ensure that our results would not be confounded by changes in muscle excursions, we also determined the effect of crank length on these variables. Both manipulations had similar effects on joint excursions, which indicates that muscle length changes were similar for both manipulations. Interestingly, the greater leg excursion required to accommodate larger crank lengths was achieved by greater knee and hip joint excursions (signified by moderate and large effect sizes between conditions). Conversely, crank length–dependent changes in ankle joint excursions were smaller (Figs. 1A and 2A). Consistent with this finding, changes in ankle angular velocities across pedal speeds and crank lengths were negligible (signified by small effect sizes; Figs. 1B and 2B). It has previously been shown that the plantarflexors stiffen the ankle joint to allow for energy transfer from the proximal to distal segments (12). Our results suggest that this requirement to stiffen the ankle joint is accomplished by relatively constant ankle kinematics across crank lengths (Figs. 1A, B, 2A, and B). In addition, we found significant differences in extension and flexion velocities of both the knee and hip joints across pedal speeds, which is consistent with previous findings (23). Our results thereby confirm that pedal speed is related to the shortening velocities of the muscles spanning the knee and hip but not the ankle joint. Our results also indicate significant effects of pedal speed on ankle and knee extension moments (Figs. 1C and 2C). Specifically, knee extension moment decreased with an increase in pedal speed. This effect was not observed when crank length was manipulated independent of pedal speed; it can therefore be attributed to changes in pedal speed per se. For all other actions, pedal speed or crank length did not affect the corresponding joint moments. The overall small pedal speed and crank length–dependent changes in joint moments suggest that during submaximal cycling, the CNS may attempt to minimize muscular mechanical stress across conditions. Support for this conjecture comes from (22,30,32) who found that joint moments and muscle forces are minimized at a cyclists preferred cadence. However, the significant effect of pedal speed on knee extension moment warrants further discussion. One possible explanation for the pedal speed–dependent change of knee extension moment is the conjecture that the central nervous system would also seek to preserve joint powers across pedaling conditions. Bearing in mind that knee extension velocity increased with increasing pedal speed and that joint power is the mathematical product of joint moment and joint angular velocity, the opposing effects of pedal speed on knee extension moment and angular velocity could have canceled each other out to produce constant knee extensor power across pedal speeds. Indeed, neither pedal speed nor crank length significantly affected average joint powers. However, there was a tendency for knee extensor power to decrease in response to both pedal speed and crank length (ES, 0.33 and 0.37 for the most extreme comparisons). Conversely, there was a tendency for hip extensor power to increase in response to both increases in pedal speed and crank length. This was likely due to the large crank length–dependent increases in hip extension velocity, which were accompanied by small decreases in joint moments. The nonsignificant trends for changes in knee and hip extension power were similar across both manipulations. Thus, they can be attributed to crank length rather than pedal speed manipulations. It is therefore possible that the changes in operating muscle length across extremely different crank lengths may indeed require intermuscular coordination to be altered to achieve the goal of the task effectively. One could speculate that even more extreme changes in crank length or pedal speed would make this effect more apparent. Future research should explore this possibility explicitly. In addition to the nonsignificant trends in average joint powers, we found significant effects of crank length on peak joint action powers. Specifically, increases in crank length resulted in increased peak hip extension and flexion powers. This effect was more pronounced when crank length (as opposed to pedal speed) was manipulated; it can therefore be attributed to changes in crank length. Although nonsignificant, peak knee extension power tended to decrease with increases in pedal speed and crank length. Thus, while the averaged joint action powers did not differ substantially, the way in which those actions were performed differed considerably. To further explore the meaningfulness of the relationship between crank length and joint powers, we performed additional regression analyses to determine the relationships between joint action powers and crank lengths. These analyses revealed that crank length was not significantly related to joint action powers. Specifically, the coefficients of determination were 1.7% (P = 0.83) for knee extension power and 2.1% (P = 0.34) for hip extension power. Thus, although the pairwise comparisons might seem noteworthy, these regression analyses failed to discover any influence of crank length on joint power production for these actions. The present results in combination with previous findings suggest that within the limits tested in this investigation, the distribution of joint moments and joint action powers are somewhat robust neuromechanical properties, which may govern the CNS’s control strategies. The maintenance of joint powers might be due to localized muscle metabolism and metabolic stress or might reflect synergistic multi-joint extension and flexion actions. Muscle metabolic stress is related to muscle power (rate of energy release (33)). Increasing muscle power will likely increase rates of metabolic by-product production (5) that influences the central nervous system via afferent feedback (1). This feedback may, thereby, influence reliance on various muscles and joint actions during submaximal cycling. If localized metabolic stress is an important criterion in the selection of activation patterns, maintenance of relative muscle or joint action powers might be expected across a range of conditions just as we and others (6,10,11) have observed. Furthermore, the maintenance of joint moments may reflect the CNS’s strategy to keep muscular mechanical stress constant across conditions possibly to avoid fatigue (22,30,32). The somewhat conflicting requirements of maintaining metabolic and muscular stress may explain our observed effects of crank length on knee extension moment powers. One can speculate that the joint-specific differences in joint moments and powers are a result of the various constraints imposed on the system. In particular, they may represent a trade-off between minimizing muscular mechanical as well as metabolic stress while keeping the external power output constant. Further research is warranted to specifically test this hypothesis. There are a number of limitations that need to be considered. When changing crank length, we elected to maintain the maximum leg extension as others have done (3,27,28). This maintained joint angles at the leg’s most extended position but altered joint angles throughout the rest of cycle where most power is produced. Also, we chose to maintain the anterior–posterior position of the saddle (except for small differences associated with sliding the seat post up and down at the angle imposed by the ergometer frame). Consequently, our peak values during extension occurred with the foot closer to the hip joint with shorter cranks and further away with longer cranks. The resulting differences in joint angles may have played a role in the leg extension action and may be partially responsible for the differences in peak joint power values. One alternative approach could have been to maintain the seat height relative to the crank axle. This would have helped to maintain joint angles during the middle portion of the leg extension phase. However, it would have resulted in 2-cm increases in leg extension with the 190-mm cranks, which we sought to avoid. Another approach would have been to move the saddle anteriorly when increasing crank length and posteriorly when decreasing crank length. This approach would also have helped to maintain joint angles during leg extension but would have increased differences during the flexion phase. These alterations of joint angles may have influenced joint power within each cycle. Nonetheless, the average joint powers for the four main power producing actions did not differ across the range of crank lengths evaluated. Together, with previous studies of metabolic cost (28) and maximal power (3,24,27), our results have implications for athletes, clinicians, and researchers. The 27% range of crank lengths evaluated in this investigation is substantially larger than the 6% range (165–175 mm) typically available for adult bicycles, indicating that cyclists can change crank lengths without concern of changing their power production strategies. Furthermore, cyclists and triathletes wishing to adopt a more horizontal torso position to reduce aerodynamic drag could use shorter cranks to eliminate thigh to torso contact, which might compromise ventilation and/or power production. Cycling enthusiasts who have musculoskeletal impairments such as femoral-acetabular impingement or knee osteoarthritis might use shorter cranks to reduce maximum hip and knee flexion and thereby reduce the risk of symptomatic flare-ups triggered by larger joint angular excursions. Similarly, in rehabilitation settings, individuals recovering from injury or surgery might benefit from using a progression of shorter to longer cranks to gradually improve range of motion over time. Finally, our results suggest that biomechanical evaluation in laboratory settings may be performed on a single “lab standard” crank length. That is, biomechanical results obtained using one length (e.g., 170 mm) will provide results that are valid for cyclists who use other crank lengths on their own bicycles. From a basic sciences perspective, our data lay the groundwork for further research investigating the potentially conflicting requirements of minimizing metabolic and muscular stresses during submaximal cycling (35). This work was supported by funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s Doctoral Training Grant scheme. In line with the EPSRC’s requirements, the data presented here are also publicly available from the Brunel University London data archive, figshare, at http://dx.doi.org/10.17633/rd.brunel.2005926. The results of the present study do not constitute endorsement by the American College of Sports Medicine. The authors report no conflict of interest. 1. Amann M, Sidhu SK, Weavil JC, et al. Autonomic responses to exercise: group III/IV muscle afferents and fatigue. Auton Neurosci. 2015; 188: 19–23. 2. Anderson DE, Madigan ML, Nussbaum MA. 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Am J Physiol. 1997; 273: 1049–56. 8. Cohen J. Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. 2nd eds. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 1988. 9. Elftman H. Forces and energy changes in the leg during walking. Am J Physiol. 1939; 125(2): 339–56. 10. Elmer SJ, Barratt PR, Korff T, et al. Joint-specific power production during submaximal and maximal cycling. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011; 43(10): 1940–7. 11. Ericson MO. Mechanical muscular power output and work during ergometer cycling at different work loads and speeds. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1988; 57: 382–7. 12. Fregly BJ, Zajac FE. A state-space analysis of mechanical energy generation, absorption, and transfer during pedaling. J Biomech. 1996; 29: 81–90. 13. Gonzalez H, Hull ML. Multivariable optimization of cycling biomechanics. J Biomech. 1989; 22: 1151–61. 14. Hawkins DA, Hull ML. A computer simulation of muscle-tendon mechanics. Comput Biol Med. 1991; 21(6): 369–82. 15. Hull ML, Gonzalez H, Redfield R. Optimization of pedaling rate in cycling using a muscle stress-based objective function. Int J Sport Biomech. 1988; 4: 1–20. 16. Hull ML, Gonzalez H. Bivariate optimization of pedalling rate and crank arm length in cycling. J Biomech. 1988; 21(10): 839–49. 17. Hull ML, Jorge M. A method for biomechanical analysis of bicycle pedalling. J Biomech. 1985; 18(9): 631–44. 18. Jeukendrup AE, Martin J. Improving cycling performance: how should we spend our time and money. Sports Med. 2001; 31(7): 559–69. 19. Joyner MJ, Coyle EF. Endurance exercise performance: the physiology of champions. J Physiol. 2008; 1: 35–44. 20. Korff T, Romer LM, Mayhew I. Effect of pedaling technique on mechanical effectiveness and efficiency in cyclists. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007; 39(6): 991–5. 21. De Leva P. Adjustments to Zatsiorsky-Seluyanov’s segment inertia parameters. J Biomech. 1996; 29(9): 1223–30. 22. Marsh AP, Martin PE, Sanderson DJ. Is a joint moment-based cost function associated with preferred cycling cadence? J Biomech. 2000; 33: 173–80. 23. Marsh AP, Martin PE. The association between cycling experience and preferred and most economical cadences. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1993; 25(11): 1269–74. 24. Martin JC, Brown NA, Anderson FC, et al. A governing relationship for repetitive muscular contraction. J Biomech. 2000; 33: 969–74. 25. Martin JC, Brown NA. Joint-specific power production and fatigue during maximal cycling. J Biomech. 2009; 42: 474–9. 26. Martin JC, Elmer SJ, Horscroft RD, et al. A low-cost instrumented spatial linkage accurately determines ASIS position during cycle ergometry. J Appl Biomech. 2007; 23: 224–9. 27. Martin JC, Malina RM, Spirduso WW. Effects of crank length on maximal cycling power and optimal pedaling rate of boys aged 8–11 years. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2002; 86: 215–7. 28. McDaniel J, Durstine JL, Hand GA. Determinants of metabolic cost during submaximal cycling. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2002; 93(3): 823–8. 29. Neptune RR, Herzog W. The association between negative muscle work and pedaling rate. J Biomech. 1999; 32: 1021–6. 30. Neptune RR, Hull ML. A theoretical analysis of preferred pedaling rate selection in endurance cycling. J Biomech. 1999; 32: 409–15. 31. Neptune RR, Hull ML. Accuracy assessment of methods for determining hip movement in seated cycling. J Biomech. 1995; 28(4): 423–37. 32. Redfield R, Hull ML. On the relation between joint moments and pedalling rates at constant power in bicycling. J Biomech. 1986; 19(4): 317–29. 33. Umberger BR, Gerritsen KG, Martin PE. A model of human muscle energy expenditure. Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Engin. 2003; 6(2): 99–111. 34. Yoshihuku Y, Herzog W. Optimal design parameters of the bicycle-rider system for maximal muscle power output. J Biomech. 1990; 23(10): 1069–79. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise48(4):705-713, April 2016. Slower V˙O2 Kinetics in Older Individuals: Is It Inevitable?

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https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2016/04000/Effects_of_Pedal_Speed_and_Crank_Length_on.16.aspx

What Does Your Heart Say? If your questions require a more detailed answer, or if you need more assistance please feel encouraged to contact one of our rockstar team members in the office. In short, traditional metaphysics is essentially the exploration of the fundamental nature of non-physical reality in relation to origin, existence, and understanding. Read More: What is Metaphysics? “Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.” ~Carl Sagan Read More: Why Metaphysical Sciences? UMS presents a vast amount of information condensed into course format for accessibility to the student. The courses also serve to create a reference library that can be used well into the future. The course content was extensively researched by a team of more than 40 writers and teachers. Many minds have come together to create this curriculum. Our research team members are varied in background, each bringing their own unique perspectives, wisdom, skills, and expertise to the courses they contributed to. Having a wide range of voices, writing styles, and perspectives keeps the curriculum fresh, interesting, and dynamic. For UMS policies on non-discrimination, confidentiality, withdrawals, and program completion, click here. Tuition for University of Metaphysical Sciences is as low as $950.00 when paid in full at the time of enrollment; course materials are additional. UMS payment plans offer flexible payment options to fit your schedule and your budget. The tuition and course materials fees can be prepaid, or spread out over 1, 2, or 4 years. Our program is set up to be pay-as-you-go, meaning that with each payment made a set of course materials will be released. This offers you flexibility with your payments, and the option of moving more quickly through the courses if you choose. We hope this will assist you in pursuing your spiritual and professional goals. For more detailed information, visit Tuition & Payment Plans. Can I use student loans to cover tuition? UMS is a non-secular, religious school, and is therefore ineligible to receive funds from FAFSA student loans or the GI Bill. We do offer payment plans to spread out the cost of tuition and course materials. Our pricing has been reduced over time to offer this program for as little as possible. We are not offering scholarships at this time, but as funds become available we will be offering partial tuition scholarships for students in need of this assistance. All prices listed on our Payment Plans page are for shipping within the United States. International shipping fees vary and are worked out on an individual basis. Students are also responsible for any duties that may be due to their government when they receive the course materials. What is the cost for a second doctoral degree? The second doctoral degree costs $300 in addition to the full tuition cost of your first three degrees. The UMS curriculum is designed to give you a broad understanding of the field of metaphysics. The material is inclusive of many religions and belief systems to create awareness of the multitude of ideas and beliefs out there in the world. We endeavor to give accurate information, this being especially important where there are misconceptions or misinformation commonly held about a particular belief system, witchcraft being a good example. Acceptance of all people’s spiritual experiences and belief systems is something that UMS deems vitally important to the future of humanity, and so we focus on a neutral and factual presentation of all kinds of beliefs. We do not ask that you believe or practice anything that you feel is not right for you, but we do ask you to keep an open mind when learning about the great variety of spiritual beliefs people hold. This can be especially helpful when, as a spiritual teacher or counselor, you find yourself working with people from many different spiritual backgrounds. The curriculum spans many different areas of spiritual studies, as can be seen in the list of courses. The most powerful thing that you will learn though, as a student, is about your self, your gifts and skills, and your own true nature. The courses consist of reading material generally between 20-120 pages in length. Most have a review of literature for further reading, and many have extensive reference material. Many of the courses also include meditations that are central to the overall course content. Each course has an exam that includes true/false and multiple choice questions. These exams are primarily meant to enhance your integration of the material. If the course has meditations, you will be asked to share your experiences with the meditation. We encourage you to write about your process, whatever it was, and be gentle and accepting with where you are on your own path. We have a very supportive philosophy, and feel that there is no wrong way to experience these meditations, as long as you bring your full awareness and presence to the experience. What are the meditations like? The meditations are all in a guided format. They are focused on teaching skills, affirming concepts, and assisting you in accessing expanded states of awareness. They are very different from, though generally complementary to, silent meditation, and can support you in having deeper experiences within your own practice. These meditations were all created by Christine Breese, the founder of UMS, with music by accomplished new age musician, Michael Hammer. They are very unique and powerful, and are definitely the heart and soul of the UMS curriculum. We encourage students to fully experience these meditations to whatever degree they are able. Going as deeply as possible with the meditation work is what gives you the greatest potential for having a truly transformational, life changing journey with UMS. How long will the program take to complete? The UMS program is designed to be self-paced and to fit comfortably into your lifestyle. It is possible to complete the entire program in 1 year, if you have ample time to dedicate to the process and are very motivated. We do ask that students take a minimum of 1 year to complete the program, to ensure that they have really integrated the material and gotten the most out of the journey. Most students complete the program in around 2 years, fitting their studies into their lives in an enjoyable, practical way. One thing to note is that if a payment plan is chosen for paying the tuition, this affects the speed at which the courses can be completed. We ask that students do their best to complete the program within a 5 year time frame, but are very flexible and supportive with students as life happens. How do I access my courses? Internet Downloads– All course materials are downloaded through the student center. You will download PDF files for the written materials, and MP3 files for the guided meditations. Partial Downloads / Postal– Download PDF files through the student center, receive meditation CDs through the mail. Postal Delivery– All course materials will be sent through the mail. Printed materials are 3-hole punched for insertion into binders. Guided meditations are on CD. Upon completion of your enrollment, you will be set up with a profile in the student center, which you will be able to access through our website. This is where you will download course materials (if choosing the internet option), as well as choose your electives, submit your exams, and keep your contact information up to date. You will be sent your login information via email upon completion of your enrollment. Exams for each course are submitted through the student center. From here, you are able to print a copy of the exam if you prefer to take it on paper before submitting your responses online. Upon completion of an exam, an email will be sent to you with your score, a copy of the exam itself, and any feedback from faculty. All exams are pass/fail, a passing score being 80% or better. Scores are not tracked, and grade point averages are not used at UMS. However, you will always receive an email of your graded exam, which will include your score. Most students submit student projects and dissertations electronically, by email. If it is your preference, you may mail a hard copy. *Students without internet access are still able to complete the program by completing the exam at the end of each course, and sending a copy in through the postal mail. If I fail an exam, can I take it again? Our system will allow you to submit an exam 3 times. Beyond this, staff is alerted so that we may connect with you, and open the exam to be submitted again. You are able to retake exams as many times as you need. Do you give grades on tests? We have a pass/fail system on exams. However, you will always receive an email of your graded exam, which will include your score. What kind of support is available? UMS has skilled student advisors available Monday through Friday, from 9-5 Pacific Standard Time, except holidays. Advisors do take lunch midday and have regular staff meetings, so if you are prompted to leave a message you can expect a call back in that same day. During office time advisors respond to calls and emails and are available to answer questions and offer encouragement, guidance, and support to potential and current students. Advisors are spiritually focused and knowledgeable, and are very good listeners and support people who genuinely love to connect with and get to know students. A high level of program support is maintained throughout the process, and advisors work with students on a personalized and individual basis. Extra support is offered by trained thesis advisors for students who are doing their final projects. Would I be assigned a student advisor? There are several staff members who can answer emails and phone calls pertaining to student questions, so there is no one person who assigned to a student. Does UMS staff offer spiritual counseling? Studies at University of Metaphysical Sciences are deeply transformative in nature, and at the core of the curriculum is an introduction to non-duality concepts. You are supported and encouraged in realizing the master within yourself, and also in facing your shadow selves and accepting and healing them. If you have done this type of work prior to enrollment, you may find yourself moving through the curriculum effortlessly. If not, you may find the courses trigger old hurts up for re-examination or processing. Sometimes the work in the curriculum may cause emotional releases, deep healing, or the need to talk to someone about the process. When you enroll with UMS, you are held in loving energy on the inner planes throughout your studies by staff members. This is to assist you in successfully reaching your full potential. Wisdom of the Heart Church also maintains a prayer circle for specific requests. UMS is sensitive to difficult transformative processes, and wants to help you in every way possible. If you find yourself having a difficult emotional process, you are encouraged to write about what is going on in a letter or email to UMS. All letters are read by a staff member, and responded to with loving support. UMS staff is limited in the scope of spiritual counseling it can offer. Answering questions or providing support and guidance through brief phone calls or emails is within that scope. More in depth counseling, advice, psychic readings, or especially any kind of crisis response or intervention is not within that scope. We strongly encourage you to cultivate and utilize your own support system and have access to local teachers, mentors, healers and counselors as needed, particularly in cases where you have experienced trauma, abuse, or mental health issues. Whatever is going on in your life, the UMS curriculum is a very conscious way to explore your own deep healing and transformation, and, with proper support as needed, is well worth the challenges presented. All that is required for enrollment is a high school diploma or equivalent, and the ability to read and write fluently in English. To qualify for enrollment, check the box on the enrollment form verifying that you have completed the equivalent of high school in your country. We have an open enrollment, so you can get started whenever the time is right for you. Can I apply previous education or experience? Because of the unique nature of our program, with its extensive curriculum and focus on personal growth and healing, consciousness expansion, and professional development, we do require all students begin with the bachelor’s level and then proceed to master’s and doctorate. We are often asked about this, as many of our prospective students are already professionals in the field, or already have advanced degrees. We stand behind our program and our graduates, and feel that the program is most beneficial when experienced in its entirety. Upon completing the program, we are confident that our graduates would agree. How quickly can I finish the program? While students are able to work at their own pace, it is our hope that students will take the time to digest the material thoroughly and integrate what they are learning. It is possible to complete the program within this time frame if you prepay or enroll in the short term payment plan, and have at least 8-12 hours per week to devote to your studies. Can I receive my courses more quickly? If you are enrolled in the medium or long term payment plan, and wish to move more quickly, you may make additional payments to receive more courses. How long to I have to finish the whole program? There is no time limit on completing the program. Is there coursework in the doctorate program? How do I earn a second doctoral degree? Do research on another metaphysical subject and write a second Doctoral Dissertation. The cost for the second doctoral degree is $300. Can I complete all three degrees through correspondence? All courses are correspondence courses and are completed in a distance learning format. We have designed the curriculum so that students can complete their studies and receive their degrees from home, by downloading courses from our student center, or receiving them through the mail. Degrees offered by University of Metaphysical Sciences are non-secular, religious degrees. Our bachelors, masters, and all doctoral degrees except the Ph.D. are registered with the California Office of Education. We offer our Ph.D. degrees through Minnesota, as these degrees are registered with the Minnesota Office of Education. For a complete list of degree titles, visit Metaphysical Degrees & Credentials. Upon completion of the master’s degree you have the option to be ordained by Wisdom of the Heart Church. This is a way of strengthening your status as a spiritual teacher, mentor, and counselor. It shows that you have completed a rigorous process of spiritual growth through Wisdom of the Heart Church and UMS, and that we stand behind you as a spiritual leader. This lends support and a sense of validity to your work with others. It helps to give others a sense of confidence and security that you have met the personal and spiritual qualifications to be ordained. Why get a doctoral degree? What is the difference between a Ph.D. and a D.D.? The Doctor of Divinity, D.D. degree is more recognizable as a religious degree. If you will be practicing as a minister, or as a spiritual counselor or teacher, this is a good choice for your doctoral degree. For those who wish to write books and give lectures, a Ph.D. is a great option, as those who have a PhD preferred by publishers and event promoters. Some students choose to get both credentials, and in this case, the second doctorate can be applied for. What are the limitations of a UMS degree? UMS degrees are religious degrees, not secular degrees. They do not give you qualifications to teach at a secular or traditional college, and we caution our students to be careful in how they represent themselves so that they are not seen as psychologists or licensed counselors or therapists, nutritionists, or medical doctors. Can I use my degree to call myself a Dr.? Realize that these are not medical degrees, nor are they secular degrees. These are religious degrees, and must be used in this fashion. We do not recommend connecting your Dr. status to your work with medical practices in a way that would mislead your clients to believe that you have studied medical subjects. State specifically what your degree is in your advertisements, for instance: Dr. Jane Doe, D.D., Doctor of Divinity in Metaphysical Counseling, or Dr. Jane Doe, Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy in Metaphysical Sciences. Spell out your degree rather than just using the letters if you connect it to your medical type of practice so that there is no misrepresentation as a medical degree. If you are advertising for anything other than medical-type services, for instance your classes, writings, lectures and such, spelling out your degree would not be necessary. In the case of counseling, be sure to refrain from misrepresenting yourself as a psychologist by making it clear that you are counseling in a spiritual format with a ministerial license. What are the laws for teaching & counseling? Spiritually based healing, counseling, or teaching is not (at this time) regulated in most parts of the world. This means there are no laws that govern this type of work. To be a marriage officiant, you will have to register with your county clerk or other agency, as marriage is regulated as a civic process. Otherwise, as long as you clearly represent yourself, you are in legal standing to do this type of work. The credentials offered by UMS can give you legitimacy in representing yourself as a qualified healer, teacher, or counselor. More and more people are feeling the call to enter careers in metaphysics as the population looks to its spirituality and seeks guidance. This program is purposely designed to give qualifications and credentials to the future spiritual teachers who are serious about becoming a source of guidance and love to others. For information on the careers you might pursue with an education in metaphysics, visit Careers in Metaphysics. If I don’t have the money for the down payment will you guys be able to work with me? I have extremely tight budget. Thank you for your question! Yes, we can help you get started without having to make a down payment. We offer a partial scholarship which waives the down payment on the long term plan (see payment plan here), allowing you to get started by making your first monthly payment. Once you are ready to get started, please fill out and submit the enrollment form and the scholarship application on the same day. If you have any further questions, feel free to call us at 707-822-2111, or email ums@umsonline.org. Where is the info about the Paraguayan (?name?) retreat ??? The retreat center run by founder Christine Breese is Gaia Sagrada in Ecuador. You can find more information at gaiasagrada.com. Does your university accept tuition paid by the VA? I am sorry to say that no, we have not been approved to receive funds from the Veteran’s Administration. Feel free to direct any further questions to ums@umsonline.org, or give us a call at 707-822-21111. Are there fees associated with your Degree and Schooling once the courses are completed? Or once you have the degree do you have it forever? There are no fees in addition to the tuition, course materials and shipping costs listed on this page. Your degrees and ordination remain valid, and there is nothing additional you have to do for them to remain so once the program is completed. Is it possible to obtain M. Div degree in metaphysics? Also I have Master’s Degree in another field. Do I still need to get another bachelor degree in metaphysics to qualify for M. Div program? What exactly is one able to do with a degree from UMS? Thank you for your question! Our degrees are intended for students working in spiritual / metaphysical fields. For ideas or to see what others are doing with their degrees, I suggest visiting the Careers in Metaphysics page, as well as browsing through the bios of some of our graduates. If you have further questions, feel free to give us a call at 707-822-2111 or email ums@umsonline.org. Is this an online program? Yes, this is an online program. Courses are downloaded as pdf files for the reading material, and mp3 files for the guided meditations. There is an option to add on the hard copy version, where you would receive printed material and the guided meditations on cd. Exams at submitted through our online student center. If you have additional questions, please feel free to email ums@umsonline.org, or call us at 707-822-2111.

2019-04-24T13:49:54Z

https://metaphysicsuniversity.com/frequently-asked-questions/

Samson had his hair, Achilles had his ankle, Superman has his kryptonite, Goliath had his forehead, Icarus had the Sun, and the Death Star had the Thermal exhaust port. We all have weaknesses that can expose our otherwise perfect existence. So, it should come as no surprise that the average everyday schlep we meet has weaknesses. Nevertheless, every time you meet someone who seems to have it all together, it seems like a complete shocker when they expose to us their weakness. The unfortunate thing is that, as humans, we have tremendous capacity to be boneheads. Nevertheless, we often fail to see our own boneheadedness. This is why the loners or people who have no outside human interaction are usually tough to befriend, because they are unaware of their own neurosis. We often don’t know what we don’t know. So, as I have been meandering through life, I have a friend, whom I know to be extraordinarily good at two jobs that are only tangentially related. I have recommended to him that he should find one person to assist him in each area, and as he grows his newly formed company, hopefully he has found two Vice Presidents. This is the concept upon which the assembly line was built. The negative thing about my friend is that he doesn’t realize how truly special he is. He does not realize that the two diverse skill sets he has are so rare that finding another person with them is as likely as finding a purple goober. He wants to find that person who is just like him. But this is a reality of life, when we realize what sets us apart, we realize what gives us such a dignified value. Some even achieve the level of Savant! I think sometimes we need that guy to point us in the correct way. Nevertheless, sometimes people thwart the attempts to assist them that are given. The reality of setting up an assembly-line approach to a company has been proven for over a century, yet some people think that the once in a lifetime talent is easier to duplicate than compliment. However, we all have complimentary needs. Flash needed food, Popeye needed Spinach, and the Green Lantern needed to avoid the color yellow. So, when building a team of something you are great at, find someone who can pick up the slack you leave and lead you to greater heights, rather than the person who can duplicate what you already do well. Remember that if two people always act, react, and do things the same way, then at least one of them is unnecessary. If you don’t act wisely in that regard, you may end up with the adjective idiot before your title Savant! Despite the fact I never seem to know anything about new movies coming out, I am talking a lot about movies lately. I mention We Bought a Zoo and Tangled in the last two blogs I’ve written, so it may seem like I spent an entire weekend watching movies, but it’s more that the movies I watched taught me something. Nevertheless, I am fairly certain that whenever I saw The Help, it would have had an incredible impact on me, even though as of a week ago, I had never heard of it. I am fortunate that I live my life in almost complete obscurity. While I may have occasional delusions of grandeur, most people will not know (or care) what I did on any particular Tuesday afternoon. The reason I consider this fortunate is that my sins are mostly played out in anonymity. And I do not believe in us needing to re-watch the bad parts of our life on a big screen once we get to Heaven. The unfortunate thing is that I still do sin and I still feel the effects of it all the time. Nevertheless, I am very glad that many of the things that were shown in this movie were things I have never lived near or with a concept of. The reality is that many of the attitudes displayed in the movie were not concentrated in the city of Jackson, Mississippi but were prevalent throughout our culture. The reality is that caste systems have been around long before the founding of this country and will continue long after we are gone. One thing I really liked is that is wasn’t judgmental on the issue that usually riles everyone up. Slavery and Racism can be atrocious things, and I think the tendency to over-abuse authority is one that may make it best to just not allow it. (I realize this movie is set when slavery is “illegal” and the culture did not declare it slavery, but it really was slavery—no matter the term we use to describe it). The movie was more about the abusiveness that can accompany the racism/slavery combo. With the attitude of Skeeter and Celia Foote (and her husband Johnny), there were definitely examples of benevolent “bosses.” And there was at least one story told by one of the women that spoke of a “boss” who was so benevolent that he purchased land just to make her life easier. The over-riding problem is that they were such a minority that they were almost as great of outcasts as the humans they treated that way, which others did not. Unfortunately, I believe this is a real-to-life story that paints a largely accurate picture of the majority of people out there. The tremendously unbridled ignorance that the majority showed was so egregious that I hate to think the populace of the country I love could have been that way just a generation and a half ago. I also know that no amount of so-called reparations can ever right the wrongs that were committed. Another thing I know, however, is that we are getting better. I have no doubt that racism still exists. I have no doubt that many “employers” or even parents mistreat those in their charge to this degree. Notwithstanding this, I also know that these things are now called out by the public-at-large and the leadership of society in concert. And instead of largely unjust things happening to the abused parties, we see more justice in this area by the authorities than ever. We live in a society where our President and many of my favorite public figures to talk about are of a minority race. The reality is that Dr. King’s dream of people “being judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin” is largely a reality. In my conversations, more people probably cast a vote for a person because he is a minority than people who would not vote for him for the same reason. I don’t think we as a society are perfect, but that will never happen in this world, as we are all sinful creatures. I do, however, think that the situation as shown in this movie is largely gone. And the vestiges of it that remain can begin to be stamped out by, among other things, movies like The Help. Yet I feel overcome by so many unspeakable feelings upon watching this movie, that I am almost wordless (and that’s bad for the blog). I guess the problem with watching a movie like this is we see our own tendency to be sinful. I clearly thought throughout the movie that I would never think or act in such a way, but I also know that there must be some egregious sin that this culture is largely blind to, and I am fitting right along with culture in general. The problem is that we see how blind society can be to its own shortfalls, which necessarily leads one to introspection to the point of questioning what we are blind to. I believe in the Second Law of Thermodynamics enough to know that the world is not getting better. The fact that this one thing has been largely beaten does not give us overall improvement. Nevertheless, we do not watch movies to come to grips with our own sinfulness, but rather to watch our triumph. While this triumph may be thinly defined and not across-the-board, it is still triumph. I am glad I have never been in an immediate situation where these attitudes were prevalent. I am glad that it is not even difficult for me to side with the side of the right in this issue. I am also glad the movie was done well and that it can open the dialogue so that we never become condemned to repeat these mindsets. The movie was good and entertaining, but it exposes the seedy underbelly of a portion of our heritage, and I, for one, am just glad that Dr. King’s dream lives and is largely becoming reality! Thirteen days ago, my sister sent me an email saying that she highly recommended a movie called, We Bought A Zoo. I saw the previews and imagined some hidden or invisible zoo after a family bought a house, and I thought, “Is my sister going crazy? Is this really the best movie she can come up with in this day and age of movies?” So, I treated the email with the reverence I thought it deserved (ie, remembered that she liked the movie and nothing else that she said). I came home Friday night to the announcement that somehow we had picked up the movie We Bought a Zoo. The kids had already watched the movie with Kelly and all said that they liked it, but that it was a little bit vulgar for a PG movie. So, being the knucklehead I am, I give my sister a call to give her a hard time (which is really all it was, because I had not even forwarded her thoughts to the rest of the family). Of course, had I actually read and remembered her email, I would have known that she gave that exact warning, and she told me that. So, now as a guy feeling bad about giving my sister a hard time, I agreed to watch it and just kind of keep my mouth shut. So after we did several things, including eat dinner, do family devotions, put the kids to bed, and recapping the day, I finally sat down to watch the movie. Hereafter are my thoughts about the movie, without giving anything (er, well, giving very little) away. First, the movie was nothing like what I got from the previews (what I saw was approximately the equivalent of the first minute of this). It was never an imaginery or hidden zoo; it was clearly a zoo recognized and seen by all humans with eyesight at all times. I’m not sure how I misinterpreted that, but it really was a completely different movie than my imagination. Second, the movie was genuinely captivating. There was a family in mourning, which I could certainly empathize with. You wanted this dad and daughter to succeed and move on, as much as would be appropriate. There was a real estate agent at the beginning, that I loved. He reflects well on one of my chosen professions, and we aren’t normally portrayed well. Third, the movie had a plot that moved along and was feel-good. I know many critics insulted it for being too formulaic. Let’s face it; there is a reason those things become a formula—We like them! Is Hoosiers less a movie because they win? Or is Cinderella worse for her not remaining stuck in a rut? Do we dislike Star Wars because Luke is successful? Of course not. We like things that end well. Another thing I learned from a lesser movie is that every character comes into your work with back-story. The audience needs to know enough about it to understand why it leads them to the present without being bogged down by it. This movie did a wonderful job of that, keeping it realistic and yet genuinely fun to travel with the characters on this journey. This story, which though it didn’t have a lot of mystery involved, was a nice, happy story with the heart of real life. It may send you to the kleenex a couple times (it did me), but it isn’t a depressing movie. It had a line in the movie that I loved. All-in-all, I found the whole thing very entertaining. So, if you want a feel-good story to watch that the whole family can enjoy, watch this one (email me about the ten second scene to fast forward through if you have young kids). You’ll be glad you watched it! Seat-belts are Essential to Keeping Peace! The last few weeks I’ve seen a commercial several times where they tout that if you fake wearing your seat-belt, police are trained to spot people not wearing seat-belts even in the dark. Now, this is exceedingly distressing to me for multiple reasons. Though I suspect that most people view this commercial with relative indifference, I have many reasons that this should not be the case. I believe I should begin by letting you know of my bias on this “issue.” I believe that a government should give you the right to be stupid. This makes me very Libertarian on many issues. If you want to harm yourself, so long as you don’t harm anyone else, you should have the right to do so. Wearing a seat-belt doesn’t endanger anyone but the non-wearer. Now I have heard the argument that someone being killed on the highway could increase the cleanup costs for the rest of us taxpayers. There are at least two responses to this, which could easily make it a worthless argument. First, should the government really pay for roads and their cleanup. Assuming that is too Libertarian for you, the second response is that someone who is at fault in an accident would be responsible for the extra cleanup costs incurred. Of course this would lead to Insurance companies paying for it, which would require them to set rules for payments to be made (rather than the government). I realize, however, that our government has said that they want us wearing seat-belts, which is their prerogative. Nevertheless, even assuming that you disagree with my assertion that you should have the right to be stupid, there is still significant reason to be disgruntled by this commercial. I think most of us, even the most violent supporter of seat-belt laws, would concede that police do far more important things, even more important traffic issues, than catch people without a seat-belt on. Yet, they are spending valuable training dollars on teaching policemen how to spot people without seat-belts. tsk. tsk. Really? We’re not training police officers (during this time) to spot drug dealers, hate crimes, beatings, counterfeiting, violent crimes, child abuse, or even dangerous or impaired driving? Instead of learning about those, let’s teach them to spot someone who’s faking the wearing of a seat-belt. The absurdity drips from the situation. We’ve gone from having officers of the law keep peace to finding invented crimes. I assert that we can do better for ourselves, for the protection of our citizenry, and for life in general than training our first line of defense against crime on techniques people use to look like they’re wearing seat-belts. Maybe we could focus that energy into making texting while driving illegal. Then, of course, I may not be able to text blog posts like this one, but at least police pulling me over may be saving lives other than mine own. How old do you feel? At a recent 40th birthday party I attended, that was the question du jour. This is a decent question. And to some extent, it is a question that we all must ask ourselves. We need to do what we can to keep ourselves young. Not because we are Darwinian, but because much of aging is a choice. The Nobel prize winning George Bernard Shaw wrote, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” We like hearing this, as it gives us excuses for being juvenile, as it adds value to it. And while there is some truth to it, there is also truth to the fact that some aging is inevitable. In my real estate classes, we talk about how a piece of real property decreases in value over time. One of the things we talk about is physical deterioration, which we all agree is positively demoralizing, yet an inescapable part of the condition of buildings. Unfortunately, it is also an inescapable part of the human condition. I’ve noticed recently that when I stand it is accompanied by creeks and groans. I need more sleep than I used to require. I am unable to do some of the things I used to be able to do. Basically, I’m an old dude and as much as I try to Claim I feel young and spry, the reality is that I am feeling older and older all the time. I mean sometimes I need to sit on the floor for the firmness that it provides, while other times I cannot sit on it for the very same reason. Clearly some aspects of aging are outside of our control, even if we do the best we can. But I learned from my good friend, Bob Collins (whom I mention in this blog and will write a more fitting tribute between his would-be 91st birthday and the 1st anniversary of his death) that aging gracefully and finishing well is less about physical ability and mental or business acumen and more about doing all we can with that which God has still blessed us. I may be (strike that, am) less capable than I used to be, but I am more mentally aware of the correct decisions to make. And while I have just recently come to grips with the fact that I am an adult, I have been readily aware that regardless of age or position, I am required to do that which God requires of me. And that is a full time job, no matter how old I feel! On Friday, Veritas Academy, which is run by my good friend Michael Phillips, had a graduation ceremony. Graduation is a unique event, because we are celebrating something that has happened in the past, yet it is almost always called a “Commencement” because the focus is on what it will look like in the future. There is no other event in our culture where we celebrate the past with a focus on the future. This celebration is prevalent. My son’s school has a similar ceremony this coming week. We had a little bit of a different recognition in church this morning, and I would be shocked if someone told me that they had never seen one. Every time I see a graduation, I am reminded of the line in The Incredibles where he touts over-celebration of mediocrity. The truth is that I believe in education a great deal. I have achieved three college degrees and have done work towards another degree. With that in mind, I am aware of the tendency to over-celebrate, but if there is one thing we should reward, it is education. Now clearly, not everyone is purposed for a college education, and I understand that. I also teach people who want to get a real estate license, and I have been in the classroom for security officer, mortgage broker, or life and health insurance licensing. These classes are important, too. Because one thing that is essential, no matter what your chosen occupation, is you need to prepare. I have been known to tell people to never stop preparing for your future. “The longer your preparation, the greater your opportunity.” So continue to follow the Proverbs 4 model of attempting to attain wisdom, no matter the area of study. But as I take a more global view, I have noticed that in this economy, the one industry that has changed the least is education. I had a front row seat to the recent real estate market collapse. Now, there are an infinite number of factors that played into it, but among the most prevalent was mortgage money being so easily acquirable. Marc Cuban thinks that the availability of education loans will spell the death of the industry. While I am not sure I will go that far, I am persuaded that changes need to occur. Having worked at a few school attempting to re-tool their programs, including a college, I know that these are not easy decisions to make. While we may see the re-introduction of trade schools or some other way to re-educate people, something must (and will) happen. The government cannot continue to give away money to people in school. I know some people first-hand, who are going back to school at older ages, because it is easier than getting a job. Obviously, anything that discourages productivity must eventually take a hit. Conceivably, education is good for the future of the economy, there are now more gaps than there have been in years between those things learned in school and those usable skills. The schools which find a way to combat the expenses for when the loan money dries up will be successful. I, for one, hope that is a great number, as I’d love to see a more educated society. As I was reading a book to my son during our nightly “Girly-Book Time” there was a story of a non-Christian consistently proverbially battering a Christian and then accusing her of not being willing to forgive. Now, I am not suggesting that he was right, as the type of forgiveness one gives is largely dependent upon the type of contrition there is. We owe it to ourselves, our families, and others to act responsibly. To forgive may be required, but reasonable hesitancy is not out of the question. It seems lately the topic of Forgiveness has come up a lot for me. Perhaps this is because when you are as crazy as I am, people frequently feel as if I need to be consistently seeking forgiveness. The reality is that my life, just like everyone else’s, is a tremendous lesson in God’s unfailing grace, despite my inability to consistently be worthy. As we look at human forgiveness, we are forced to look at how pathetic it normally is. First of all, we often feel as if we are doing people a favor when we forgive them. We look at how we have some cosmic scorecard on which we are now ahead. While we rarely admit this to ourselves, we really usually feel like someone else can never catch up. How many of us “forgive” a good friend or spouse, knowing that we will bring it up later? I feel like this is unacceptable and far less than that which is required of us. As I read Evan’s blog earlier this week, I am reminded how many of us have a thirst for the justice of others. I’ve heard it said that we always want justice for others and forgiveness for us. But I think when we balkanize the characteristics of God like that, we start to lose the depth of each. God’s true justice encompasses our forgiveness. There is no doubt that God’s plan includes the absolute forgiveness of our sins. And while God forbid that we continue sinning that grace may abound, there is clearly continued grace for those things we have done. Forgiveness at the cross is plentiful, and I am grateful for that. Now, to juxtapose the fact that forgiveness is not merely forgetting the wrong that was done, but rather choosing not to hold it over that person on the Cosmic balance sheet. Ah, but there’s the rub. It is exceedingly difficult to give biblical forgiveness so that we aren’t keeping score and yet treat a sinner with the proper trepidation. How in the world can we do this perfectly? To start, I don’t think we can do it. In fact, I find the only way I can adequately come close is to be overly cognizant of my own depravity. Maybe that is the trick, but I think God knows that our justification leads to sanctification. The legal sanctification happens right away, and the behavioral sanctification will come. Doubtlessly, we still have Romans 7 style battles with sin, but the reason we can shout that there is no condemnation with authority is because we are walking more and more after the Spirit. God is already offended by our sinful nature and our sinful choices. He continues to forgive us, yet our offense to Him is as great as it can be. Nevertheless, we are forgiven. How can we do less? My assertion is that we shouldn’t. We should completely forgive in the legal sense. However, since we don’t have the ability to regenerate a life, we need to help our fellow humans by keeping them from the situations that could cause them to stumble or have a sacrificed testimony. And, I think, that is the best we can do!

2019-04-20T05:14:55Z

https://askthephatman.wordpress.com/2012/05/

After five years of studying, reviewing, memorizing, and stressing out, I am proud to say that I finally graduated from Islamic Online University’s Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies (BAIS) program. It was quite a journey and I’ve learned so much. In this post, I want to give a review of my experience with the university for those who may be thinking of joining an online based Islamic university but haven’t really made up their minds yet. I have divided my review into three sections. The program is not designed to produce scholars but just very well informed Muslims and beginner to intermediate level students of knowledge. The program gives you tools to be able to research religious concepts and figure things out for yourself but not at an advanced level. I was very impressed by their consistency with sticking to the schedule and having full staff of teachers as well as teacher’s assistants (TAs). The assistants themselves are also highly qualified. Many of them are either graduates of an Islamic university or currently enrolled in a Masters program. Everything is online based so it does require lots of discipline. I have heard of students dropping out because they do not have the discipline to do self-paced courses in a timely manner. One student who dropped out told me that he needs to be in the same classroom as the teacher and be able to interact, otherwise, he cannot remain attentive. Studying online successfully also means not being busy by opening other screens while the lecture is playing. You have to be focused. In aqeeda, the university follows Athari (أثري) creed and in fiqh it is mainly Hanbali. Dr. Bilal Phillips only teaches the aqeedah courses, first semester of Arabic, and the evolution of fiqh course, which discusses how the four schools of thought in jurisprudence came to be. If you are looking to have a deeper connection with your faith and want an affordable program that will solidify fundamentals of the religion for you and give you the tools to be able to figure things out at a basic to intermediate level, then this is the course for you. Complete Syllabus – I was very impressed the way they had already planned out the curriculum for each class and as to what to expect throughout the course on a weekly basis. It felt much like a professional university and made it easy for me to mentally prepare and know what to expect. They’ve already marked out which pages to read in the assigned text and which lectures to listen to each week. They give you the syllabus immediately after you are enrolled. I have taken classes in some online universities where every week is a surprise as to what you will learn. Video Lectures Pre-Recorded – All of the lectures are pre-recorded and you have the option to either watch it in video format or download as mp3. For some of the easier classes, I would often download the assigned lecture as mp3 and take it with me to listen to it in the car, gym, or even at work at times as background noise. Live Sessions w/ TAs – This is a very helpful feature. Ever week you have a chance to attend a live session with a Teacher’s Assistant (TA) who can answer any of your questions or clarify lessons. He/she usually starts off by going over the weekly lesson and then afterwards takes questions. They used to require live attendance with the TA and it used to be about 5% of your final grade but I’m not sure if that is still the case. Additionally, they record all live sessions every week so you can view them later on if you miss it. The TAs are not just fellow students but also qualified. Some of them are in masters programs at universities like Medina. Books in PDFs – For me this was very helpful because I could download them on to my digital devices and read the weekly assignment while on the metro or on the go. Courses are Thorough – The courses are very informative and detailed and you get a lot out of it on a fundamental level. It’s very well planned and starts off with basics and delves into more and more advanced topics. Assignments (Reading and Essays) – Every week you are assigned a pre-recorded lecture and reading assignment from the text. You are also required to write one essay per class on a given topic. This essay requirement especially is very helpful because you learn writing and research skills. It also helps you delve deeper into the topic and be creative by sharing your own input and is a good indication whether you’ve understood the topic or not. The essays are graded by TAs and are about 10% of your final grade. You are also required to take a research assignment course during your senior semester. The requirement is to write a 30 page paper on a given topic. So you get to further your research skills and delve deeper into the topic and learn how to formulate your arguments using evidences. Quizzes – The lessons are called modules. Each course can have anywhere from 20-32 modules or lessons. After every module, there is a five question multiple choice quiz for which you are not allowed to use your notes or books. The questions are drawn out of the lecture as well as reading assignments. This helps you measure your comprehension and make sure that you pay attention and not skip anything. The quizzes are graded and about 10-15% of your final grade. So if a course has 30 modules, this means you will have 30 quizzes. In addition, there is also a 50-question multiple choice midterm and final exam. The midterm is about 30% of the final grade and the final is about 40%. Price – One of the visions of IOU is to provide free Islamic education but obviously they have to cover their administrative costs. When I first began studying, it used to be $50/semester for U.S. students. Yes, you read that right. $50 per semester not per credit or class. They would allow you to take up to 9 courses with $50. That’s a great deal. But because they have grown a lot over the years, their administrative costs have gone up. During my last semester, I was paying close to $300 per semester. That’s still a great deal. Another great thing they do is that they charge people based on which country they reside in. So if they live in a first world rich country, they charge more but if they live in a poor third world country, they charge less. Access to Jstor – Jstor is a digital library of academic journals, primary sources, books and articles. Access to it is provided by universities and libraries around the world. It is used by students and researchers all over the world! They have some free material available to read as well, however, a far greater amount of reading material which is necessary for serious research into topics is only available via a university or a library. So being a student at IOU gives you access to Jstor for free (technically it’s covered under your semester fees)! I have used Jstor to do research for some of the essays at IOU because not sufficient resources were available online or my local library. In addition, you get to have access to tons of research in other topics not related to religion. Nothing is perfect. Everything has some flaws that need to be worked on or improved. Following are what I consider some of the weak points in the IOU program. Arabic Program – I did not take the reading course which was very basic since I could already read Arabic script so I cannot comment on that. If you are in the same situation, you can have it waived from your requirement and skip over it. As for the rest of the program, then I really enjoyed the first two semesters. They were phenomenal. I learned a lot on basic sentence structure and grammar! The second semester was amazing because the teacher only spoke Arabic and covered the entire text of the Al-Arabiya Bayna Yadayk volume 1. My basic comprehension was skyrocketing. I loved it. After that semester, the program kind of falls apart at least for me. For some reason, they don’t continue with the Bayna Yadayk books and delve right into Medina books 2 & 3 and the teacher is different too. I did not enjoy it very much. Also, I am not a fan of the Medina books. They’re not engaging as the Bayna Yadayk books and are mainly grammar focused. The whole lessons are structured around the teacher and student relationship, so it is very restrictive and can get boring after a while. Sure, I learned a few things but I had to do a lot of self-study because the teacher wasn’t very engaging and just kind of gave monotone lectures. I was just very disappointed by it. It would have been a lot better to continue with the Bayna Yadayk books in Arabic or even in English with a gradual dominance of Arabic only. The last 2-3 semester of Arabic focus on Balagha (Arabic rhetoric) and is done mainly in English with reading of Arabic texts focusing on the Balagha of the Qur’an. This was fine as it gives you a different way of looking at the linguistic beauty of the Qur’an and helps you practice reading Arabic texts. However, if done properly, this would only be done in Arabic. You cannot learn or appreciate Balagha properly in English. Cannot Interact Directly w/ the Professor – Unfortunately, you cannot interact with the lecturer at all. In many cases, the lectures were recorded maybe over a year or two ago so the professor probably has moved on to some other project. Your only way of removing some confusion over the lesson is to e-mail the TA or attend the weekly live session. Customer Service – It’s kind of difficult to get in touch with the staff if you need something done related to cancellations, profile update, or other administrative functions. The main way to get in touch is via e-mail (I’ve never looked into or tried calling) and sometimes they can take up to a week or two to get back to you. Other times, you have to follow up to get a response. This can get frustrating especially if you urgently need something done. After I finished my courses, it took me many months to get my degree certificate. I kept getting passed around (and with me constantly requesting an update) until finally someone in Gambia responded and sent me the certificate. Some Professors Just Read Things – I had at least one or two professors that just read directly from the text and didn’t add any value to the lesson. They literally read word for word. After a few modules, I just stopped listening to them and went directly to the text and just read it myself. I’m not going to waste time listening to something I can just do myself in less time. Final Exam Locations – The university requires that you take your final exam at a registered exam location. They send them the password to the final exam. You cannot take the final exam except at a registered institution. This might be a mosque, Muslim community center, etc. If you don’t have one in your area, you can contact the university and make some other arrangement. You can also reach out to your local mosque or Muslim community center and ask them to register with IOU as a registered exam location. I find this to be a con because though I understand they want to be professional about it, it just doesn’t make sense why this is required for an online university. It’s kind of frustrating because sometimes you contact a place that is listed on the IOU student portal as a registered location, but they don’t get back to you. You’re kind of left hanging. It can get stressful if the final exam is close and the places you have contacted still haven’t returned your messages or worse, they don’t show up on the day of the scheduled exam. Remember, these pre-registered exam locations are not paid by IOU, the process is entirely voluntary. So they are under no obligation to keep their word or get back to you. Some of them may charge the student some small fees to take the exam at their location so I assume they would be a bit more punctual and professional about it. I don’t regret studying at IOU and overall really enjoyed it. As I stated earlier, it fulfilled what I was looking for and wanted out of it. I would do it again because it did give me insight into my faith that I didn’t have before. I have more confidence in my faith because of it and I certainly enjoy my faith more. Having the ability to understand Qur’an and basic Arabic texts alone is a remarkable achievement for an online Islamic university program. So before enrolling in any type of online university program, you need to ask yourself, what are your goals? What do you want to achieve out of the university? What are your expectations? I’d love to hear your thoughts as well. Is there an online Islamic studies program that you really liked or hated? If so, why or why not? Let us know in the comments below! 26 Comments on "Review of Islamic Online University’s (IOU) BAIS Program" I found this review very helpful, thank you. I would love to read more reviews of online islamic courses/degrees. Seekersguidence come to mind and there are other ones. At a time when the internet is saturated with islamic knowledge it’s nice to read clear, objective and informative reviews such as yours. Thank you again. I am glad you found it helpful! Yes, there is an overflow of Islamic courses online and it can be quite daunting to get through it and figure out which best suits you. I’ve had my share of enrolling and dropping out of various courses because there was no clear guide as to how the program actually runs. You have to do trial and error which wastes a lot of time and money. I’m hoping more students will write thorough reviews of other Islamic institutions. MashaAllah thank you for the review. I am always skeptical about “online” university. Initially, I planned to enrol myself in IOU to get myself certified with a BA Arabic. Simply because I would want to leave my secular 9-5 job as a software developer and contribute to the Muslim community in my own country. Though I wasn’t sure if IOU accreditation is legit? But after reading your post, then I renewed my goal to simply want to understand the Quran and not care about the certifications at all. That is great to hear! May Allah accept it from you. Salam! Thank you for your review! I just wanted to ask, how did you feel towards the quizzes? I’m having some struggles with some of them, yet I understand the lecture I read all the prescribed pages. Like some quizzes I do so good and others it is like I do so bad. I’m only 2 weeks in the school now. And I’m very stressed but happy about the knowledge that I’m reviving. Also at times, did you feel that the amount of different courses was over whelming? Since the topics were so different? Firstly, are you taking notes? You must take notes for both reading assignment and lecture. That’s the only way it’s going to stick! Thirdly, make sure that you are not taking too many classes. I was at one point taking 6 classes per semester. It was a bit too much and it was impacting my grade. Everyone has a different threshold for pressure but mine is 4 classes max per semester so make sure you stay under your threshold. Lastly, it is normal to feel overwhelmed in the beginning especially if the info is new to you but your brain should start picking it up after a while. If you still feel overwhelmed after half way through the semester, then it probably means you are taking too many classes that are beyond your threshold so reduce the amount of classes the following semester. I believe IOU also has a period of time where you can drop a class and not be penalized for it. Hope the above helps! May Allah grant you success and sincerity in the quest for this sacred knowledge! can you tell me the job opportunities that come along with this university. I am actually planning to pursue for Islamic Economic Banking and finance in this university but i am bit nervous of the fact that whether my degree would be recognized by well reputed countries or not . I am glad you liked the review! Therefore, you will need to research different countries to see if they recognize such accreditation. It’s going to vary and not all places are going to accept it. I hope it all goes well for you insha’Allah. Whatever you decide, just make sure you do istikhara before moving forward. Your post is very good. Can you please tell me what does Athari creed mean? And is it wrong to follow it? Athari creed is one of the theological schools of thought in Sunni Islam. Sometimes it is referred to as “Hanbali Creed” due to Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal being one of its leaders and many who followed him in it afterwards. No, there is nothing wrong with following it. Assalamua’leikum. Thanks for the comprehensive review. My question is about the Athari creed. Why are there, and how many, different types of theological schools on creed? I suppose we should unite on Aqidah too as was the case during the Prophet’s (SAW) period and the early generation of Muslims? I’m curious as I want to enroll in the school but want no characteristic affiliation. Just hoping to receive Islamic knowledge in its purest form, and from the best scholars. JazakAllah khairan. There are three main creedal schools of thought in Sunni Islam: Athari, Ashari, and Maturidi. The differences are there because the scholars from those schools differ on how to approach some of the finer details of certain theological questions in the faith, particularly Allah’s Names and Attributes. Obviously, each school considers itself the most pure and authentic form of the religion. When it comes to general fundamentals, however, the creed for all is the same (Allah is One, Muhammad (pbuh) is His Last prophet, belief in angels, day of judgement, etc.). The differences are inevitable because the answers to the finer details of some of the theological questions cannot be answered except by taking a particular position on it. The sahabah and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) didn’t answer these finer detail questions because these questions came later when Islam spread and Muslims started debating with theologians of other faiths and philosophers and they started asking questions which were not asked before. The scholars of Sunni Islam recognize these three schools as a valid method of answering such questions. No other way of looking at it is permitted. There used to be some other ones but they died out. These three have survived. Naturally, the schools are critical of the others’ principles, methodology and conclusions. Generally, there is more difference between Athari school and the other two. The Ashari and Maturidi are quite similar to each other with slight differences, thus, less critical of each other. My advice would be to avoid the extreme polemics over this issue and not treat the others as sects but just different ways of looking at things. This way we can still view each other as part of the same ummah while respectfully disagreeing. Just know that you are there to learn the fundamentals of your faith and focus on that. That’s my advice so I hope that helps! Any thoughts on the BA in Arabic program? Do you happen to know if they leave the Bayna Yadayk series? I concur, it would be good if they were to stick with them. They seem to be very thorough and less grammar heavy. Also, overall, would you say it was more worth it than going another route to pursue Islamic knowledge? I didn’t do the BA in Arabic so I’m not sure what’s that like. You can ask them via e-mail. They do respond though they may take a while sometimes so just keep following up with them if you don’t hear anything. They also have representatives in various countries so if you have one in your country, you can contact that person directly via e-mail or phone and ask questions. Again, you can e-mail them to find out who the representative is in your country. Given my circumstances (limited amount of money, can’t travel overseas, family obligations, working full time, etc.), yes it was definitely worth it for me. I’m strongly considering their Masters program as well. I’d like to thank you for your reply! The blog post was very helpful in terms of helping me make my own decision. I’ve decided to give it a try! I agree with you about the importance of vocabulary in Arabic (and all languages, for that matter). I’m not really much of a grammar enthusiast, so that is going to be very hard for me to swallow, but I am going to do my best. If you happen to have the chance, check out Glossika. They offer about 5k worth of words in the language. It isn’t the best resource in the world, but it has helped me out tons. I was wondering, do you think the knowledge you have acquired from the BAIS program gave you the ability to apply it in your day-to-day life? That’s great! Hope you like it! I would say it is designed for day to day because it’s focused around fundamentals. Asalamu Alaikum. I’m 19 years old and have graduated from school last year. I would really like to study at IOU but I’m not sure if it’s the right thing for my age. And I have seen a lot of bad reviews about this university saying that it’s not accredited properly and I’m really worried and don’t know whether I should apply or not. Please I need your help and advice. WS. It depends on your goals. Is your main objective a secular education or a religious education? Are you trying to seek a job after you graduate from this University or doing it for self-fulfillment? The answer depends based on your answers to these questions. Firstly, such a wonderful write-up and very inspiring! I am actually looking for a course which would help me reading and understanding the Quran. Frankly, I am not looking for any accreditation or certificate, because I want to keep my learning flexible and stress free (single mom, working full time, limited budget). So could you suggest any such online course at IOU or maybe outside IOU? Thank you for the objective write up. Just to give perspective to those who may be considering the IOU Islamic Economics Banking and Finance course, I finished with the first lot in February last year and graduated in January this year. I’m currently in my third semester studying for my Masters in Islamic Finance Practice (online) at INCEIF – the global university for Islamic finance, which is an AACSB-accredited post graduate university based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They accepted my BScIBE degree because its accredited by ICIFE, which is based in Malaysia. So if your goal is to proceed with your education, then I highly recommend the programme. However, I really can’t comment on job prospects because this mostly depends on your prospective employer. Wow that’s amazing bro! Keep it up! Can I know the details of the certificate accreditation please? I am planning to enroll in IAP course to learn Arabic and to able to read and understand Quran. Can you advise me if this course will help me to fulfill my goal.

2019-04-22T18:19:09Z

https://thethinkingmuslim.com/2018/06/19/review-of-islamic-online-universitys-iou-bais-program/?shared=email&msg=fail

A former leader with the Jefferson Police Department has been charged with drug possession and stalking his wife. Dennis Thomas, who was a captain with the Jefferson Police Department, was charged with possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of crack cocaine, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of drug-related objects and aggravated stalking. The charges came after he went to the home of his wife, who had filed for divorce and had a temporary restraining order against him. After a search of his residence, the hand grenades were found. The hand grenade possession was turned over to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). On a related matter, a search warrant was issued by the ATF at the home of another Jefferson man. Guns, a rocket launcher, powder and other items were seized from his home. Thomas was one of two Jefferson police officers who was put on administrative leave after a notice was filed to indict him in November 2006. The allegations against Thomas were for “hindering the apprehension or punishment of a criminal.” Four of the counts state that Thomas told officers Lee New and Anthony Kelley not to speak about the allegations that another officer, Mario Johnson, had stolen gas from the city. The final two allegations against Thomas allege that he falsified the time card of an officer, who had been denied time off. Thomas was never indicted on any of these charges. I thoughtit very interesting that your staff writer did not tell that Dennis Thomas is the husband of Cammie W. Thomas who is the Clerk of Superior Court in Jackson County and that the person whose home was searched in a related matter by the ATF was not named. Shouldn't the paper tell the whole story? The stockpile of weapons sounds like terrorists operatives. Terrorist operativers? C'mon Lynn. More like the right to bear arms in the United States. People are allowed to possess firearms. No the article didnt tell the whole store so maybe people like you shouldnt jump to half cocked conclusions about a terrorist in Jackson County. The article did say that no charges had been filed. Maybe that should serve as a sign. Sure, the Constitution gives us the right to bear arms, but when does the average citizens need hand grenades and rocket launchers? These items are weapons of war. How many people do you know that possess this kind of arm? I'm sure the ATF would be interested. Also, since the ATF is involved, I don't think we have heard the last of this. Maybe we will have a sign soon. Do you feel better now that you put an innocent victim and her family at risk by naming her (oh by the way, you spelled her name wrong)? Also, what does her job have to do with what her husband has done? Sounds like a personal vendetta on your petty part! Why don't you read the Jackson Herald this week and on page 7A and find out in other publications of incidents that victims are not named! Why don't you "advertise" where you're employed? I'm sure your employers wouldn't appreciate being a part of your pettiness and your personal comments about folks! Oh, and by the way, why don't you call and ask who the other person was involved in the ATF investigation - you'll find it's not who you think! Get over it- stop punishing Mrs. Thomas for what her husband and his family have done! Everyone else, show some support for Ms. Thomas and her family and pray for their safety! Soooo, how can this travisty be attributed to Chief Worthman? C'mon, Mr. Buffington, you're slacking on the job! All right #2. By now you should know better than to stir that pot. You know what happened last time! Chief Wirthman has vowed to move foreward, maybe you should do the same. Charles, please read the article again. The article said charges had been filed for possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of crack cocaine, posssession of a firearm in the commission of a felony and stalking. The article said that no charges were filed in regard to the previous allegation concerning his actions with the police department. Look for the sign. Sorry I didn't put this in my first reply. The right to bear arms is one thing but hand granades are another. also the other person who had a search warrant served on him was one of dennis thomas aquaintances. He had a rocket launcher....is the part of the right to bear arms? Now I will agree that it doesn't make for terroristic operatives either(although the second person is very anti government). as for hand grenades they could have been handed down from a ww2 vet to his son or found when ww2 vet died....you dont know the story so please wait for the investigation. the stalking....don't let him out of jail he didn't get the message with the restraining order. Wow, J. Autry; move on? Thomas was Darren's #2 man (the entire time he was Chief). Is this not news? Was this going on under Darren? I don't know, but it begs an answer. All right 700, I thought you and I had found some common ground. If you were around that department or had anything to do with it you know that Thomas may have been #2, but that didn't make him Darren's friend. Fact of the matter is that this is "just deserts". As it keeps proving itself out, what comes around does go around. Mr. Autry, you seem to be very close to this subject. Can you explain why even though Darren Glenn was never indicted by a Grand Jury for any criminal charges, the Georgia P.O. S. T. Council determined that he violated enough P.O.S.T. rules that they revoked his Peace Officer Certification? I also wonder why that was NEVER reported by the Glenn Herald...I mean the Jackson Herald. I know Darren appealed his revocation. What is the status on his appeal? Eric you will find out soon enough but you already now don't you? after all you made a request right? Just wanted to see if I could get a rise out of you. I really doubt that 700 is who you think it is. lets face it 700 is not his number it is the police station. Don't fall for that stuff you're smarter than that. TPO's are issued by a Superior court judge with only the testimony of an estranged wife, without criminal charges and without a jury trial. Violations of TPO's are decided by the police without a jury trial and for that matter without a hearing before a Superior Court Judge. How many of you knew you could go to jail without bond, and without a jury of your peers approving this? How many of you would feel comfortable with having any one police officer deciding if you should lose your freedom without trial? And all of this could be the result of a divorce. With the divorce rate at about 50% that means this conservatively affects half of you men out there. This is worth some serious thought. Everyone should be assumed to be not-guilty until proven otherwise by a jury of his peers. This is a United States constitutional requirement. Of course it's obvious that our government no longer feels this document means very much. Don't assume, by reading the newspaper that we know any of the "facts." I would not feel comfortable making any judgements about this man without him going through the criminal justice system as prescribed by law. And you people in the lynch mob should consider these words. Yes, I agree with 700 when he/she says just because you are arrested doesn't mean that you are going to be found guilty. Very shortly after a TPO is issued, there will be a court date set. This is why it is called a 'temporary protective order' because atleast for now, it is only temporary. There the accused will have every chance to defend himself. Also, contrary to popular belief, it is not that easy to get a TPO on someone; especially if you have no proof. In the past this may have been the case but it's not the case anymore. I have no doubt that most TPO's are issued honestly. There are a few that contain false allegations. If the accused is in fact guilty, then of course he should be ordered to stay away from the victim. As far as the ones that are taken out based on lies, as I mentioned earlier they have a court date. Yes, it's another one of those unfair hassles that life is full of when an innocent person has to go through this process; but don't worry, they will get over it. The bright side of this for the falsely accused is the simple fact that when something didn't really happen, it's kind of hard for someone to prove that it did. Lies don't usually produce a whole lot of evidence. Then there are some instances in which TPO's are taken out for ridiculous and petty reasons. If this happens to someone, just stay away from the 'crazy' who took the TPO out on you. This also applies to the falsely accused who have to stay away from their self made 'victims'; just stay away from them now and forever. Why would you want to go around someone who either told vicious lies about you, or who plainly just doesn't want you around no matter how silly the complaints they made against you are? Personally I believe that it doesn't matter why a person doesn't want to be near you. However, they should not resort to making false accusations to make that happen and should be punished for doing so. That's a lot of the problem right there. This is against the law. The ones who use falsehoods in order to obtain TPO's are usually found out pretty quickly. Unfortunetly those with proper authority to make these liars pay the consequences of their crime don't push it and press charges on them. Therefore, those guilty get the message that what they did was no big deal; and that leads into their thinking of, 'I know I will get away with it so why can't I do it again'? Michael, I think you are slightly confused, or misinformed. Police officers must bring probable cause that a crime has been committed to a magistrate judge for the issuance of a warrant. Also, you bring up a due process issue. As I am sure you know, just because someone is arrested they are presumed innocent until proven guilty, so just because he has been charged with a crime does not mean he will be found guilty. He also has a right to a preliminary hearing before a magistrate judge. I also have a question for you. When did we lose sight of personal responsibility? If a TPO is issued, it cannot be enforced until the affected party is served. Then the served party understands the restrictions set in place by the Superior Court. Is it not incumbent on the served party to abide by the guidelines set by the court? After all, they have the right to a hearing after being served. Sounds like 700 might have a dog in this hunt. 700: Thanks for the kind reply. You seem like a decent sort. I thought any officer could arrest someone because the plaintiff on the TPO just claimed a violation. I stand corrected. I don't like TPO's. They don't protect anyone and they leave little traps for innocent parties to fall into. If someone is determined to hurt someone a piece of paper signed by a judge will do absolutely nothing to protect the plaintiff. It's just another little chipping away at our rights. We have judges in our living rooms now. An Ex-parte (with no judge) TPO is issued allowing the plaintiff to remove all of the property from a home before a hearing ever happens. I know you guys out there might be concerned about this aspect of the TPO. By today's standards, a man who raises his voice in his own home is subject to these TPO's. And I can tell you that a hearing to get a TPO before the judge only requires a preponderance of the evidence to be issued, not beyond a reasonable doubt. So TPO's are indeed issued all the time WITH a reasonable doubt. And this can affect the divorce case pending in a negative way. It's no wonder some guys go crazy over this stuff. And being arrested, possibly with no bond, is no assurance that one will still have a job the next day or that their house will not be foreclosed on during this time, all before a jury ever sits for the case. And you can't sign your own bond even though you're a property owner. You have to find someone willing to do this. How would you like your friends to get a call from the Jackson County jail from you? Do you think they might think differently of you in the future? We need reform and not the kind we've been getting. Can't we all just get ALONG!!!! The news again didnt report the whole story. I am aware of the fact that the subj searched was a friend of Dennis'. Also this subject did not have anything to do with Mr. Thomas actions that evening. Also the paper did not report that the grenades were drilled out meaning that they were of no threat. Anyone can obtain one of there at any Army Surplus store or gun show. Same goes for the rocket launcher which was just the tubing that is used to encase the device and unsed for aiming. There was no rocket. Again, easily obtainable to the public and perfectly legal. The article also did not mention that the subject was a firearms dealer and also has permits to possess weapons that are not made available to the general public. The real issue is that Jefferson Police Department has nothing better to do than allow its officers to harass and make accusations agains anyone who had anything to do with thier old Administration. Anyone who assisted the Police Dept under Chief Glenn or Asst. Chief Thomas is now and has been scrutinized and harassed by current employees and administration of the Jefferson Police. Anyone who had responded to the scene of the Thomas altercation would have seen that although there may have been numerous various firearms, that everything located there was perfectly legal. There was no need to notify the ATF. Had they been compitent officers and actually knew the laws they would have realized this. Mr. Knight, I guess JPD made Dennis Thomas violate the TPO against him. When the SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES arrested Mr. Thomas, they conducted a search warrant that was signed by a Judge after showing PROBABLE CAUSE and when the SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES conducted the search warrant and found the grenade, the SHERIFF'S INVESTIGATORS called in the ATF. NOT JEFFERSON POLICE DEPARTMENT. AFTER the ATF conducted their investigation, the ATF obtained a FEDERAL search warrant and requested the Jefferson Police to assist them in conducting the second search warrant. The JPD was there to assist the ATF only. The Jefferson Police Department have gone on and are attempting to conduct public safety business. It's people like you that DON'T know all the facts that keep throwing Jefferson PD and Darren Glenn in together like it's some kind of Friday Night Fights... I think Mr. Glenn and the JPD have both gone on with their business and would like nothing better than for other people to leave them the hell alone! I know a lot more that has gone on that the general public doesnt. Take the blinders off and get the whole story. The grenade found was DRILLED OUT meaning there was no fuse or explosive element. JPD or JCSD had they taken the time to examine what they found would have realized that everything was perfectly legal. And again, I made no excuse for Dennis Thomas actions. He made his own choice to violate a TPO. The problem that I have is that an innocent man who eas excercising his right to bear arms was arrested in the process. And by the way....... JPD and JCSD have a lot of officers jumping from dept to dept from the sheriffs dept to the police dept and so on. They all are aware of what goes on the general RESIDENTS dont and they take sides as well. I do not condone breaking the law in any means. I have aproblem with the Law Enforcers being so ill educated and biast that they only enforce simple laws or enforce personal opions of themselves or thier other friends in blue. They all just need to stick to what they do best and play trafic nazis. I happened to be watching the news the other night when they reported that 1400 police officers are on the job in Ga. with felony arrests and convictions on their records. I wonder if any are in Jackson County. Kinda makes me feel strange knowing these folks are caring guns.

2019-04-21T14:17:20Z

http://www.jacksonheraldtoday.com/archives/917-Former-Jefferson-police-captain-arrested-on-cocaine,-stalking-charges.html

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2019-04-20T14:51:13Z

http://vivisjournal.com/

Last time, I tried to figure out how to enable the bootloader through hardware means, but gave up as I was nervous about poking at the pins too much (having very little hardware experience) and didn't want to damage the mouse further. I decided to go back to reversing things on the software side, in the hopes of gaining some insight that might allow me to find out why my mouse isn't responding to commands. Trying to manipulate a disassembly in a text editor is exceedingly painful. It's fine if you're just trying to figure out a function or two, but not when you're trying to make sense of 32KB of firmware. This is where interactive tools like IDA come in. You can annotate things as you discover them, and change those annotations when you realise you made a mistake. You can easily see what references a particular register or a particular function. The bad news: IDA doesn't support this obscure microcontroller architecture. The good news: IDA has a plugin architecture. The other bad news: the SDK is miserable to work with. It's better than nothing, though. IDA includes Python bindings which make it a little more tolerable. There's bindings to all of the C++ APIs exposed by the SDK to regular old C++ modules/plugins, there's bindings to functions provided by IDC (IDA's built-in scripting language), and there's also some Python-specific wrappers. I generally stick with the C++ APIs because they expose all the functionality (not just a subset of it) and seem to be slightly better documented. For this particular task, we want a processor module that tells IDA how to decode and analyse Holtek microcontroller code. We might eventually want a loader (that recognises MTP files and loads them into IDA), but we can do without it for now, as we've got a raw dump of the program code and all we need to do is map that into a fixed memory address. The IDA SDK doesn't include much in the way of documentation. You get a bunch of example modules in C++, a Python template (module/script/proctemplate.py), and a couple of Python example modules for TI MSP430 processors and for EFI bytecode. I was a fool and tried to look for info online, which confused me further. There's a post on the IDA developers' blog called Scriptable Processor modules which purports to explain the basics and provides some simple example code. This looked very different from what I was seeing in the actual IDA SDK's examples, to the point where there was no possible way that code could work. I found a few different examples on GitHub and tried to start drafting some code based on the common elements I saw between them. Eventually, I was able to produce something that kind of worked, and I kept on hacking on it. You can find the resulting processor module in my GitHub repository for this mouse RE project: Treeki/TM155-tools. It's just over 500 lines of code, and a bit dirty, but it works. The first step is to create a subclass of processor_t and define a bunch of properties inside it. These mostly map directly to fields in the C++ processor_t class, with one big exception - the assembler field is a Python dictionary with items mapping to entries in the C++ asm_t class. flag = 0 # for now? Every module must have an ID - third-party modules (like mine!) are obliged to start in the 0x8000 range. Every module has flags that control a wide range of behaviour in the IDA kernel; these include things like "supports 32-bit addressing", "stack grows up", "user can't move segments", "has delayed jumps/calls", "has conditional instructions". I read through the entire list and decided none of them seemed relevant to me. cnbits and dnbits let you define how many bits are in a byte for code and for data segments, respectively. I picked 16 and 8 to try and match the Holtek MCU's behaviour as closely as possible: the program memory is word-addressable, so we want addresses inside IDA to represent that. segreg_size and tbyte_size are irrelevant to our processor, as we don't have segment registers or long doubles (apparently tbyte is what IDA calls a long double, internally). psnames and plnames allow a particular module to support multiple types of processors. We could use this to support the three different variants of this MCU, but let's keep it simple for now and just support one. assembler contains a whole lot of properties defining what the assembly output looks like in IDA. This is why for some processors you get .word 0x1234 and for some you get DW 1234h. We're not aiming to generate something you can feed straight back into the Holtek assembler, we just want it to be understandable, so there's no need to stress too much about that bit. The fields starting with reg_ are for configuring registers. This MCU is weird in that almost all of its registers are really just special memory locations; IDA's setup is clearly designed for more common architectures (think, for instance, of how x86 has eax, ebx, ecx, edx, ebp, and so forth). The Holtek MCU only has the accumulator A. Even the venerable 6502 has A, X and Y...! We have to tell IDA about what instructions we support. Each instruction is assigned an arbitrary ID called the itype; we use the instruc_start and instruc_end fields to tell IDA what number range our instructions fall within, and the instruc list to give it metadata about those instructions. This just includes the instruction name and a 'feature', which is a set of flags defining how the instruction operates. I build these up using fields located in INSN_DEFS, which is an array I've defined that contains those as well as some other useful properties used by my helper functions inside the module. Finally, you need to tell IDA about your processor_t subclass. This is simple: define a PROCESSOR_ENTRY function that just returns a new instance of your processor class. There's a lot of events you can handle inside a processor module, and this happens by implementing methods in your class with specific signatures. Most have names starting with notify_, but not all. There's Python templates for these in the SDK's module/script/proctemplate.py and there's also some information in the event_t enum in include/idp.hpp. For some reason I haven't figured out, there's subtle differences between some names between C++ and Python, like ev_ana_insn becoming notify_ana. I guess you can't make it too easy. All are optional, with the exception of four: notify_ana decodes and analyses an instruction on its own, notify_emu performs analysis tasks that may involve multiple instructions/addresses, notify_out_insn tells IDA how to display an instruction as a whole, and notify_out_operand tells IDA how to display an instruction operand. Then, you decode the instruction and put its itype into the itype property, and put details about its operands (if any) into the Op1, Op2, ... fields. Pretty straightforward. If it succeeds, you return the amount of bytes in the instruction. If it fails, you return 0, and IDA refuses to turn that particular instruction into code. There's not much going on here. For the former, you're passed an outctx_t instance. For the latter, you're passed outctx_t and also op_t (this is the exact same object as insn_t.Op1 and company!). The outctx_t object contains methods that generate the output. You can output arbitrary text using it, but for IDA to work best, you need to make sure you call the most appropriate methods. If you have an operand containing an immediate value (like mov A, 69), don't just spit out the number, call ctx.out_value(op), and IDA will allow you to change that number to different representations like decimal, hex or even an enum member. This function receives an insn_t instance; it'll contain the info you generated inside notify_ana. Despite the names, this is really what makes all of the fancy analysis stuff possible. You can get away with leaving it empty and simply returning 1 for an initial draft, which is what I did when I was trying to get notify_ana and notify_out_* right, but you'll definitely need a proper implementation for a usable processor module. There's one thing I've glossed over so far. With the setup as we've described it so far, we get a single code region (0000 to 3FFF), which is what we map to the MCU's program memory. That only covers half of the story: the MCU also has data memory. Six banks worth of registers and plain old RAM, ranging from 00 to FF in each bank. How do we deal with this? The answer is to be crafty with segments. IDA has two kinds of addresses: the linear address (this lies within 00000000 to FFFFFFFF for the non-64 variant of IDA) and the virtual address. We've got to use distinct regions of the linear address space for the Program and Data memories, but this doesn't have to be the case for the virtual address space! Furthermore, we told IDA that bytes inside code sections are 16 bits wide, and that bytes inside data sections are 8 bits wide. We can say whether a particular segment is code or data, so this perfectly replicates the distinction in our MCU where a single address refers to one word in program memory and one byte in data memory. We should have some code that automatically creates this segment. This method runs every time a database is opened, thanks to the event handlers. We check to see if a segment called HTRAM exists. If it does, then we record its linear address (this is used in our notify_ana implementation when we decode operands pointing to memory). If it doesn't, then we use IDA's free_chunk function to find some free space in the linear address space, and create an appropriate segment. This is all we need to have a region for data memory! When we load the firmware code, we end up with the default 'ROM' (program memory) segment at 0000..3FFF, and the data memory segment gets assigned linear addresses 4000..45FF. However, since we told IDA that the base was 4000 (this is what the ram_start >> 4 argument to add_segm_ex does), what we actually see are addresses starting from HTRAM:0000. Perfect. Most of the first half of each bank is dedicated to registers with fixed locations. We know that [06h] is always going to hold PCL (Program Counter Low) and that [67h] is always USR (USB endpoint accessed detection). With notify_emu setting up our data references using add_dref, IDA automatically recognises them as memory locations, but it doesn't know what they are. Let's fix that. I created a JSON file containing the short names, long names, bits and applicable banks for every register, based off the HT68FB560.inc file. Inserting them into the database is simple: after we create the HTRAM segment, we can just go and put that stuff in. For good measure, let's name the interrupt vectors too. This gets us automatic names for each register in every bank. We've added the descriptive names as repeatable comments: this is IDA-speak for "this comment automatically appears everywhere that this register is referenced". And just like that, there's our switch to bootloader function! Note how every direct use of a register like TBLP and INTC0 is annotated with the full name. On our wee Holtek chip, setting a bit is as simple as set [9Eh].0. Calling a function if a particular bit is set takes just two instructions: sz [9Eh].0; call myCoolFunction. With as little RAM as this MCU has, space is at a premium, so packing as much data as you can into memory is vital. Most hardware access also involves working with individual bits in registers, so having an efficient and simple way to do that is highly useful. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, there isn't an elegant way in IDA to deal with these. You can create structures which even support concepts like unions, but they don't support bitfields. The type system used by the Hex-Rays Decompiler appears to support them, but we're working with plain old IDA, with an architecture that the decompiler will never, ever support. I debated for a bit on how to handle these, looking at other example processor modules. The PIC module implements them solely by displaying bits loaded from a .cfg file, but this doesn't allow for customisation in the IDA interface. That approach is fine for hardware registers, but not when you're analysing code that makes heavy use of its own bit-packed variables. I eventually settled for an approach using IDA's Enums and Netnode systems. The first portion of this system is simple enough. I have pre-defined names for bits within all the hardware registers where bitwise access makes sense, and I've loaded these in from my JSON file, so I can go ahead and create enums for them when I'm preparing the database, after the HTRAM segment has been created. Alright, so we've got these. Now, when I see the instruction sz B0_STATUS.0, I can highlight the 0 and press M and select bit_STATUS from the Enums list that comes up, and it'll turn it into sz B0_STATUS.STATUS:C. And if I decide I want to give STATUS:C a better name, like CarryFlag, then I can highlight it and press N and enter a new name, and it'll update everywhere in the disassembly. But that instruction, sz B0_STATUS.0, is literally pointing to a hardware register that I know has an Enum. Can't I just have the processor module do that every time it sees a write? Yes. We need to do that inside notify_emu, when we're processing the 'which bit' operand for these instructions. That seems straightforward, we can just look at the target register and figure out if we've created an enum for it. The tricky thing is that we need to store that information in a way that survives IDA being restarted. We sort of had this issue when we made the HTRAM segment, but it was easy to work past because we could just call get_segm_by_name('HTRAM') and it would give us that segment. Long as the user keeps it named HTRAM, our code will work fine. We don't want to rely on something as brittle as naming when we want to look up one of over 60 enums. This is where the Netnode system comes into play. It's a part of the IDA SDK designed specifically for this use case: allowing modules and plugins to store extra data. It's used by several other modules in the SDK, so there's plenty of examples, and the documentation inside include/netnode.hpp is also pretty good. The first step is to create a netnode. We assign it the name $ holtek; starting with $ followed by a space is a requirement specified in the documentation. It's necessary to avoid conflicts with user-defined names in the database, since the netnode system is what IDA uses to store everything in an IDA database. Each netnode essentially contains 256 arrays, identified by a single character (the 'tag'). We're using the one with tag b to store the enum that's tied to a particular data memory address. There's a few different storage mechanisms you can use. I picked altval, "a sparse array of 32-bit values". Each enum's ID is a 32-bit value, so this works just fine. Next, we alter the code that creates our registers. While creating the enums, we stored the enum IDs (the return of add_enum) into the bit_enums dictionary, but didn't actually do anything with the resulting dictionary. This is where we now use it: for each register, if there's a matching enum, we call altset_ea on the netnode (helper) to store that enum ID (bit_enums[offset]) against the register's linear address (ea). We've got the information in, now to use it. The third and final step ties the whole system together, going into all the processing that occurs inside notify_emu. # TODO: ignore some like ACC maybe? First, we make sure we only do this for immediate operands occurring inside an instruction that matches HTOP_BIT. Next, we fetch the data out of the instruction: for an instruction sz [9Fh].5, this would set bit to 5 and enum_addr to the linear address of data memory 0x9F. Then, we ask the netnode if there's an enum assigned to that particular linear address. If there isn't, then we create one on-the-fly, and stick it into the netnode. Then, we ask IDA if there is's a value in that enum for that particular bit. If there isn't, then we add one with a default name. These last two things are the Cool Trick™️ that makes this system work for variables as well as the standard pre-defined hardware registers! If we ever see sz [9Fh].5 in the code, then we know that there must be some sort of significance to that bit, so we add it to the enums, turning it into sz [9Fh].b09F:5. Then, once the user thinks they know what [9Fh].5 stores, they can just smash the N key and enter a new name and it'll show up everywhere that addresses [9Fh].5. Amazing. The last piece of this puzzle is to call op_enum - this is the programmatic equivalent of highlighting the number 5, pressing M and selecting the enum from the list. I can't "drill down" into the individual bits and see what portions of code reference each one. I can, however, look at the cross-references window for the whole byte. Since the names now show up in the instruction itself, it's incredibly easy to see precisely what is being accessed. A fairly common pattern when programming for this processor involves jump tables; the low-level equivalent of a 'switch' block. Take the code that handles USB commands, for example. You could implement this as a chain of comparisons - "if cmd is 0 jump to X, if cmd is 1 jump to Y, if cmd is 2 jump to Z, ..." - but it's much easier to use a jump table. Values of A from 0 to 2 will jump to those conveniently-named labels. If A is 3, we just execute ret and return. If A is higher than 3, we jump into no man's land. IDA is pretty good at detecting different kinds of jump tables and 'switch' constructs, so I wanted to see if I could take advantage of this and create some nice handling for them. There's a bunch of functions and structures defined in the SDK for dealing with switch statements. There's an entire page of flags for defining attributes that they can have. I spent a while trying to get this working, and in the end gave up - I got to the point where IDA would detect addm A, PCL and try to construct a switch statement, but rather than treating the table entries as instructions (jmp 04FAh, etc) it would turn the opcode into an invalid address. I ended up adding a check to notify_emu to detect the addm A, PCL sequence. It knows that the jump table always begins immediately after that instruction. There's an algorithm which tries to guess where the jump table ends, with some simple heuristics. Once it's figured that out, it goes through every entry and gives it a name based off its index. If that entry is a jump to somewhere else, then that target location gets a name based off its index as well. This gives us verbose but helpful auto-generated names like jtbl_06AA_case_target_0A (that's the handler for command 0xA, reboot to bootloader) and jtbl_0DEF_case_target_00_01 (this one's used for both indices 00 and 01 in a particular jump table). Finally, to make IDA's analysis work properly, add_cref is used to create a code reference from the addm A, PCL instruction to each jump table entry. Simple, but effective! Here's a couple of snaps of what the result ends up looking like. There's still things that could be improved in this module, but I think I've reached the point of diminishing returns. One weak spot is that there's no good handling for accessing registers and memory in banks above 0. Fixing this properly would require more in-depth analysis of the code and trying to keep track of the current state of the BP, MP0 and MP1 registers at a given instruction. So whenever I come across code that deals with it, I have to do a bit of thinking and annotate things manually. Likewise for table handling, there's no special processing for the TBLP and TBHP registers, or any attempts to create data references when data is read using the tabrd instruction. It's not very heavily used in my mouse's firmware (most of the table access is centralised in certain functions), so I figured the effort involved in implementing that would outweigh the time saving when figuring out that code. So I've got a nice little IDA module now for disassembling this mouse's firmware. I'm ready to start digging into it and figuring out how it works! First point of call will be the USB data handlers, as I want to look for a way to get it out of this semi-bricked state.

2019-04-24T13:56:50Z

https://wuffs.org/blog/mouse-adventures-part-7

2017 Review: I’ve been painting for 10 years and wish I had found Johannes when I first started. It would have saved me thousands of dollars and needless aggravation. I do have a commercial arts degree but that was all drawing no painting. I am retired from the Chicago Tribune newspaper as an ad creator. Even though we’ve never met in person, Johannes is the best art teacher I’ve ever had. He excels in explaining a concept verbally, then showing visual examples of it. I have learned more information, more completely, from him than from the art classes I took in college. Much cheaper, too! My confidence has improved dramatically when facing a blank canvas and so has my work–all because of these classes. I recommend everything he has produced; it’s much less expensive than one or two college classes, with much more info included. I’ve read art books for years. This takes learning to the next level and is value priced as well. I started painting a couple of years ago and was floundering. I never took “serious” art classes and was going the community education route. Then I stumbled onto North Light and Johannes Vloothuis’ internet classes last winter. I can’t tell you how much they have improved my painting skills! I am more confident about mixing color, designing stronger compositions and have grown a lot as an artist. Not only does Johannes show you how to paint, he also critiques student’s work. So you get to see many different painting style and learn from them. Thank you, North Light and Johannes, for producing this outstanding series. I now have purchased all of them! Reach for green to paint grass, white to paint snow, with the rather horrid results you would expect. After study with Johannes in this series, I now understand, green and white are the last colors you reach for, the results have been remarkable!! You can rely on Johannes to give you money’s worth. His teaching style is excellent and to the point. You will not find a better bang for your buck in art instruction. In a focus class such as this he is actually taking an in depth approach on the focused subject matter. I’ve had a lot of teachers over many years–Johannes is top notch. I became addicted and I purchased all in this series with no disappointment whatsoever. Johannes is a very articulate and knowledgeable art teacher and he really cares about his students. He holds nothing back and he will help you take your painting to a higher level than where you start and if you keep his “golden nuggets” in your thoughts while you paint your paintings will improve. You will not be sorry for taking this entire series. I have the entire recorded series of Painting Landscapes from Photos, as I followed these lessons live with Johannes as they were being recorded. He is a wonderful teacher. I learned more from Johannes’ lessons than I had gained from thirty -plus years of attending art schools, workshops, demos, videos, etc. If you want to learn how to paint landscapes, these recordings are where it will happen. You will not be disappointed. The current reduced price is like stealing this knowledge. As a buyer of all of the available videos by Johannes, I must say that these are by far and away the best art lessons and best value I’ve found anywhere, be it books, videos, workshops or formal classes. In a way, it’s unfortunate that “painting” is in the title, because his teaching can benefit any genre. He is one of the very rare teachers whose genuine caring and enthusiasm shine through. It has been a joy to watch and learn from this master. I have taken Johannes’s online class for 5 years. He is the best teacher, great Artist, and loves to teach. Teaches in a language that even a begging artist can understand. I learned more from him the first class I took than I did from the many workshops I had taken in the past. We begged him to write a book and he finally did. This is all you will need to become a great artist. All you need to know is in this book. It is a treasure. Easy to understand explanations, exceptional illustrations for each topic, and the very recognizable artistic wisdom of Johannes Vloothuis make this a must have for the art library of both beginners and professionals. Don’t let the price fool you–it’s worth its weight in gold. I wonder how many hours of frustration I would have saved if I had found this before I ever picked up a paint brush. I have enjoyed every class i have taken by Joe. This has been a period of 6 years. Each time he re-enforces points needed to become a better artist. There is not a class that has gone by that i did not learn something new. It is like being in the room with him as he paints. He answers questions and does 3 different mediums. One week is oils, one week is pastels and one week water color. I paint along in oils but watching him do water color has peaked my interest to try. His teaching is not complicated but very easy to understand. As a senior its getting harder to grab details. So it is nice i can get the download and go back over things he has said and done with each painting. YOU WILL NOT be disappointed no matter what level of art you are. Beginner to pro he covers it all. He will critic your work too. There is a great support group to back him up. This book contains so many golden nuggets of information to take your paintings to a whole new level. If you are a beginner or a seasoned artist, you will find this book a great addition to your studio. So many good tips. I like the book and would recommend to anyone loving Art. I have been watching his instruction online and in videos for some time, and this book reinforces, reminds, and provides reference points that back up his instruction. Using his chapter titles, you can make a quick checklist to judge your work in progress. He cuts right to the elements that make or break a painting. Johannes is a great instructor and his book also gives some of the secrets of landscape painting. Anything by Johannes is wonderful! Have watched some of his free online classes and downloaded a lot of his classes. Finally decided I needed one of his books since I wanted something “physical” to look at and refer to w/o having to get on computer and bring up a download. I have been a BIG fan of his since I first discovered his classes. He makes everything seem so simple and does a wonderful job of explaining and showing how to do something, and in 4 different mediums instead of just one. Love this book, or anything of his. Excellent tips and veryuseful. Thanks. All the essential information you need to remember the keys to good design in your paintings. If you have been painting awhile sometimes you just need a reminder and this book does it for me. Just scan the pages and the solution to that nagging problem of “what is it that is not working with this painting?” will become clear. Don’t like your painting? Can’t figure out what’s wrong with your landscape effort? This is the book for you! Johannes takes you by the hand and leads you through a myriad of techniques, strategies and lessons that can do nothing but help you along the way. I have taken almost all of his online lessons and my art work has improved by leaps and bounds. A purchase you won’t regret. This book has what you need to paint wonderful landscapes. I have been taking on line classes from Johannes now for about 4 years. My painting has improved in leaps and bounds. Over the years I had taken many many notes of the 100’s of tips and important things he was teaching to his students which all helped to take your paintiings to the next level. However, my notes were never well organized and it took me forever to find a key point to check when I needed it. This book provides much of this same information but it is so well organized, easy to follow and very thorough. Plus all of the eye candy in his wonderful photos and paintings helps to not only read a concept but actually ‘see’ it. It is a truly wonderful resource for a beginner as well as for more advanced artists. I hadn’t been painting as much as I’d like. I get half way into a Painting and then not like it so I never finish it. This book has helped me like all my paintings. This book is great for artists from beginner to professional levels. I have many art books, but none of them compare to the depth of information found in Jo’s book. It is great to have such a comprehensive guide to refer to when creating my art. Everything you want to know about painting a successful landscape painting. Many of the “essentials” are applicable to other paintings like still life too. This book has more images of paintings then I have ever seen in other art books. A must have for your art library. You can’t help but improve your paintings if you apply these principles. I am basically a beginner when it comes to painting, although I have been drawing using charcoal and graphite pencils for many years. I am still learning to use the tools of the trade….brushes, mixing colors properly…and everything else. I have been taking Jo’s classes online since July, and have purchased a couple of his DVD’s….but the book gives me a hands on guide to all of the pearls of wisdom of Jo’s. Jo’s teaches the things other artists don’t….and instead of being frustrated with painting, I am now learning what I need to do to create the beauty I see around me everyday. I cannot stress to you how wonderful this book is…no matter if you are a beginner or a seasoned artist….Jo’s book can help your art work reach new levels you could not have imagined! This wonderful and “only one you will need” art book has been long awaited. I’ve been taking the author’s online courses for 4 years and this book has all the concepts he explains in his courses. The book is chock full of artwork he has done in class as well as visual explanations of those concepts. You will absolutely NOT REGRET buying this book or taking his online courses. My Landscape Painting Bible Review by Mary P. This is the only book you will ever need to bring out the artist in you! I have piles of art books but none so informative, easy to understand and full of the secrets other artists will NEVER share. So many tidbits in this book to take your painting to a whole new level. Honestly if you are looking for The Best Art Book ever, this is it! It will make you hunger for all of this artists ideas and experience. This is the frosting on the cake after watching his live classes for over three years and now having this resource at my fingertips I have no excuse to not take my art to a new level! Thank you Johannes Vloothuis for everything!! I’ve been taking classes from Jo for a couple years (live internet) – and have purchased previous classes I missed from Northlight Shop. His book is essential for any aspiring artist’s collection. From the moment I viewed the beautiful cover I fell in love with this book. Well worth the affordable price. Add some of his classes to your collection. And sign up for his live on-going internet classes where you will be able to paint along (in any medium) and chat with other artists who will become your friends. And usually the video recordings are included and you can download them to your own computer. You can visit his site at www.improvemypaintings.com I’m a fan !! I have been following Jo since I first discovered his workshops and DVDs and am convinced that he is a consummate artist and instructor. I am delighted to have a physical book to pick up and read. It is packed with so much information and as I have done so many times before, I would recommend that anyone who is interested in painting well should take advantage of his very informative and all encompassing instructions. However, the moment I saw the cover of this book, my eyes were drawn to the middle mountain peak where I saw the face of a man. I asked others (artists and non-artists) to comment on the painting and they too saw the face. It is very distracting. I am surprised this painting was chosen for the cover. Johannes has put into book form so many golden nuggets for making a painting work with a professional look that it is the best bargain anywhere. I have purchased most of his DVDs and this is so nice to have right at your fingertips when something isn’t working in your painting, to pick it up and see-oh yeah-thats what I did wrong. It is mostly landscape but I work mostly with figures and the imformation that he supplies applies to figures as well. I can’t express enough how much this would be a benefit to anyone painting as well as someone who is just interested in learning more about viewing paintings. The only one thing I could critcize is it should have been a hard back book for permanency. I live on another continent, Europe and I heard of Mr. ?Johannes Vloothuis through the Internet. Before it, I took some classes in my own country, but nobody did know to explain me those little, but most important, in other words essential things that I somehow feel, but were not sure that they are correct. So, I am very thankful to him because he has shown me how to release my mind and my hand, and I think that everybody who likes to paint must have his book, and has to take his classes. If you have had no lessons at all this is a book that will make you start out correct. I used to say this and that but didn’t know why it works. He explains the WHY. He is very personable in his classes which I recommend with the book. I read many books on landscape painting, but this one beats all of them. The topics covered in this book couldn’t be found anywhere. The author answers both questions: How to do it and why do it this way. The Book Landscape Painting Essentials is without a doubt a must for a landscape artist. Essentially what is does is give the artist a base line of knowledge of how to analyze their paintings. All too often when a painter is finished he sees something is not right but he is not sure what is wrong. This book gives him the insight as to what might be the problem and how to correct it. This is as good as it gets. This is the greatest book ever if you want to ” improve your paintings”. It is for all mediums and for any level you might be in, in your painting abilities. Wonderful examples and easy to understand style. You can tell he cares and and wants artists to understand all the ” golden nuggets” he talks about in this book! Johannes and his book are an inspiration to me and I highly recommend it! Jo illustrates the essentials of painting. He clarifies his “GOLDEN NUGGETS” & simplifies the principals as he illustrates what he is teaching. He talks about how the eye sees. He explains why which helps me understand & remember the concepts. I have been taking his classes for 4 years. I always feel I get so much from his classes. At all the ‘nuggets’ there to grasp. I have taken several of Johannes’s online classes and have been so pleased with his method of teaching. He makes the most important principals of landscape painting so clear and easy to understand. I was so excited when I learned that Jo’s ebook was finally out. Of all the art books I have read, Landscape Painting Essentials by Johannes Vloothuis is certainly one of the better ones. What is impressive is the clean writing with no illusions of grandeur. There are no fancy artsy words for a line or color. There is no need to go to a dictionary to understand what is being described. He gives honest reasons why an artist needs to do certain things to improve his panting. He also clearly explains the reason why we see things and how we must sometimes compensate for what we see, in order for a composition to work. The chapters are well thought out with an abundance of pictures and graphics to illustrate what the author is detailing. Jo is a highly experienced artist. This doesn’t always equate to being a good teacher, but Jo is that as well! I appreciate that his mistakes aren’t edited out so we can learn how to correct our own work when we make mistakes. You can never go wrong with a Johannes Vloothuis art lesson regardless of the medium he uses. I found this video very informative. The techniques are very effective and the course is well explained. You can not beat Johannes when it comes to learning the “how to” of painting in any medium! Johannes is an excellent painter and teacher, and this course is very instructive. Although specific for the landscape enthusiast, It is useful for every media you might use.

2019-04-19T09:13:27Z

https://www.improvemypaintings.net/reviews/

A hand-free extension device to support a mobile phone capable of networking with a personal area network (PAN) includes a PAN wireless transceiver having a processor and a cellular audio signal output; and a sound source selecting switch coupled to the cellular audio signal and to a car stereo audio signal, the switch controlled by the processor to route the cellular or the car stereo audio signals to one or more car speakers. The present invention relates generally to a mobile phone hand-free extension device. The technology of mobile phones has made possible mobile voice communication for millions of people. Mobile phones are carried and used daily by hundreds of millions of people and become an ordinary household items worldwide. The mobile phone user quite often makes the phone call while driving an automobile and therefore creates a potential hazardous driving condition since the driver has to hold the mobile phone and drive at the same time. A hand-free kit is an external accessory to the mobile phone and its purpose is to free the driver from distraction of holding and using the mobile phone. Several technologies have been pursued to enable the driver to use the mobile phone without holding the cellular phone. U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,456 discloses a control switch box with cables linking the mobile phones and the vehicular stereo system. However, installating such kind of accessory is quite involved and requires wiring and routing inside the automobile body. U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,794 discloses another method that uses an FM transmitter to send the audio signal from the mobile phone to the vehicular FM radio. In the disclosure, there is no need to physically connect the mobile phone and the vehicular audio system. However, the disadvantage of this approach is that the frequency of the FM transmitter has to be set to the same channel as the FM radio receiver that the driver is currently listening to whenever he wants to use the hand-free kit. The frequency of either the FM transmitter or the FM radio receiver has to be adjusted and it causes much inconvenience in application. U.S. Pat. No. 6,928,308 discloses a mobile phone hand-free extension device having an FM radio transmitter with an active frequency searching circuitry to utilize a vehicular FM radio receiver for reproducing the audio signals from the mobile phone. The active frequency searching circuitry automatically detects which frequency band the vehicular FM radio receiver is currently using and set the RF frequency of the FM transmitter to the detected frequency. The FM transmitter relays the audio signals from the mobile phone by transmitting the audio signals through radio wave to the vehicular FM radio receiver to be reproduced by the speaker of the receiver. The system detects radio frequency of the FM radio receiver and to set the frequency of the FM transmitter automatically. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 20050135297 discloses a Bluetooth terminal, relay, and system for determining a network configuration automatically and for transferring to an optimal waiting state. The Bluetooth terminal is provided with a profile functioning as a headset for communicating a terminal on the partner side via a voice gateway terminal, includes an input key for accepting an input operation including a transmitting operation, a receiving operation, and a call termination operation. A waiting state selecting member is provided for selecting a waiting state to be transferred upon call termination from a first waiting state in which an SCO link is disconnected and an ACL link is maintained, a second waiting state in which the SCO link and the ACL link are both disconnected. The waiting state selecting member selects the first waiting state after communication without input key operation being terminated, and selects the second waiting state after communication with input key operation being terminated. In a first aspect, a hand-free extension device to support a mobile phone capable of networking with a personal area network (PAN) includes a PAN wireless transceiver having a processor and a cellular audio signal output; and a sound source selecting switch coupled to the cellular audio signal and to a car stereo audio signal, the switch controlled by the processor to route the cellular or the car stereo audio signals to one or more car speakers. Implementations of the first aspect may include one or more of the following. The PAN can be a Bluetooth network. The switch can be a multiplexer. A car mounted microphone is connected to the wireless transceiver to capture user speech during a telephone call. One or more wireless audio equipment can be wirelessly communicating with the PAN such that the one or more car speakers renders audio generated by the wireless audio equipment. The wireless audio equipment can be one of the following: MP3 files, .WAV files, MPEG files. The switch can mix the cellular and the car stereo audio signals to allow a user to listen to both audio signals. Alternatively, the switch can provide one of the cellular and the car stereo audio signals to the one or more speakers. An amplifier can amplify the cellular audio signals. The amplifier can also fade the cellular and the car stereo audio signals during transitions between audio signal transitions. In a second aspect, a method to provide hand-free calling with a mobile phone capable of networking with a personal area network (PAN) includes receiving a car stereo audio signal; receiving a cellular audio signal using the PAN; and selecting and routing one of the cellular audio signal or the car stereo audio signal to one or more car speakers. Implementations of the second aspect may include one or more of the following. The PAN comprises Bluetooth. The routing can be multiplexing the audio signals. The method can capture user speech during a telephone call with a car mounted microphone coupled to the wireless transceiver. The one or more car speakers can be supplied with audio signals generated by one or more wireless audio equipment coupled to the PAN. The wireless audio equipment stores one of: MP3 files, .WAV files, MPEG files. The method can mix the cellular and the car stereo audio signals to allow a user to listen to both audio signals. Alternatively, only one of the cellular and the car stereo audio signals can be presented at a time to the one or more speakers. In a third aspect, a method to provide hands-free conversation for a cellular telephone call includes turning on a car stereo equipment if the car stereo equipment is initially off; receiving cell phone audio over a personal area network (PAN); routing cell phone audio to a car speaker during the cellular telephone call; and routing the car stereo equipment signal to the car speaker when the call ends. Implementations of this aspect may include one or more of the following. The device can mute the speaker during transitions between cellular phone audio and car stereo audio to prevent an abrupt clicking sound. The device can also fade sound from car speaker during transitions between cellular phone audio and car stereo audio. Advantages of the system may include one or more of the following. The system allows conventional car radios to work with modern cell phones such as Bluetooth capable cell phones. This is automatically done without needing to detect the radio frequency being tuned by a vehicular FM radio receiver and to relay the audio signal from a mobile phone to the vehicular FM radio receiver using a radio wave at the frequency detected. The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood from a careful reading of a detailed description provided herein below with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a general schematic diagram showing the audio output extension for a mobile phone hands-free operation according to the present invention. FIG. 2 shows in more detail an exemplary Bluetooth receiver used in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment of a mobile phone hands-free apparatus. FIG. 4 shows a flow chart for providing audio output extension for a mobile phone hand-free operation according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a general schematic diagram showing an audio output extension device 10 for a mobile phone hand-free operation according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the mobile phone hand-free extension device 10 includes a short-range receiver 11 that wirelessly communicates with a cellular telephone 2 and other wireless audio equipment 7 (such as Bluetooth equipped MP3 players, Bluetooth PDAs, or additional Bluetooth cell phones, for example) through a personal area network (PAN) such as Bluetooth. The short range receiver 11 can also receive external audio input from devices such as the iPod or Zen music player, MP3 player, GPS system or other suitable players. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the device 10 is directly connected or cabled/wired to the output of the car stereo equipment 1 that can receive various signals including AM signals, FM signals, satellite signals (Sirius or XM satellites for example), tape signals, and/or CD signals. The stereo equipment output is provided as an input to a sound source selecting switch or multiplexer 9 that receives the output of the car radio 1 as well as the output of the receiver 11 and can route either cell phone sound or the car radio sound to a car audio system 5 such as surround sound speakers. The receiver 11 includes a relay connected to the power input of the car stereo equipment to allow a processor to instruct the relay to turn on or off the car stereo equipment 1. This allows completely automatic operation of the stereo equipment 1 as opposed to requiring the user to first manually turn on the stereo equipment 1. The receiver 10 optionally includes an audio power amplifier that amplifies an output audio signal of the mobile-phone 2. In one embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the receiver 11 is a Bluetooth (BT) compatible device. A CPU 33 executes various processes according to a program stored in a ROM 34. A RAM 25 provides a work area for storing data or the like temporarily when the CPU 33 executes various processes. An operating interface 36 is connected to the various input keys 17 (16). A BT module, the CPU 33, the ROM 34, the RAM 35 and the interface 36 are connected to each other via a common bus. The device 10 optionally includes a speaker 37, and a microphone 38, which are connected to the common bus via an I/O interface 39. The BT module mainly includes an RF unit 31 and a BT chip 32. The BT chip 32 executes a process for establishing inter-Piconet synchronization with respect to the terminal on the partner side, or coding/decoding process or the like of the transmitting and receiving signals. In other words, the respective BT modules digital-modulate carrier signals by the transmitting data upon transmission, and spread spectrum is effected to the modulated carrier signals by frequency hopping. Thereafter, the transmitting signal, after having amplified to a level of transmission output which is equal to or smaller than a prescribed value, is transmitted from an antenna AT to the wireless terminal on the partner side. Wireless signals from the wireless terminal on the partner side are received via the antenna AT, then inverse spread spectrum is effected, and then digital decoding is executed. The receiver 11 can process AM/FM/CD stereo receiver. In addition to handling radio stations, the receiver 11 lets users listen to MP3 music while pairing with most Bluetooth mobile phones. The I/O interface 39 is connected to keys that allow the driver to make calls, take calls, and access a mobile address book hands-free via voice-recognition technology. The keypad controls both phone dialing and messaging functions, as well as radio station presets in the audio mode. The receiver optionally provides a display such as an LCD display that shows Caller ID, and the radio or music source is automatically muted as the phone audio is routed through the vehicle's speakers 5. The LCD display can also show text information pertaining to MP3 tracks, and there is a search menu for tracks and playlists. Address book and other personalized features from the mobile phone easily synchronize with the receiver's internal memory, allowing the driver to quickly access contacts and make calls hands-free. FIG. 3 shows an embodiment that does not require a direct wiring/cabling/connecting to the car stereo equipment 1. This embodiment is a Bluetooth aftermarket add-on equipment that converts existing car stereos into Bluetooth compatible radios or stereo equipment. In this embodiment, the PAN receiver 11 is connected to a AM or FM transceiver 30 that transmits to an existing car stereo equipment 1 over AM or FM frequencies. The stereo equipment 1 receives the transmissions and renders the transmission on speakers already wired to the pre-existing stereo equipment 1. In this manner, Bluetooth capability is provided without rewiring the car audio system. In one embodiment, the FM transceiver 30 can be the FM transmitter disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,928,308 having an active frequency searching circuitry to automatically detect which frequency band the vehicular FM radio receiver is currently using and set the RF frequency of the FM transmitter to the detected frequency. The FM transmitter relays the audio signals from the mobile phone by transmitting the audio signals through radio wave to the vehicular FM radio receiver to be reproduced by the speaker of the receiver. The system detects radio frequency of the FM radio receiver and to set the frequency of the FM transmitter automatically. In general, the active frequency-searching unit controls the radio frequency of a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) inside the FM transmitter and sends a signal with a particular pattern at the audio frequency to modulate the RF carrier of the FM transmitter. The signal sent with a particular pattern can be either a digital signal or an analog signal. The radio frequency of the FM transmitter is controlled in such a way that it starts from the lower band edge of the commercial FM band such as 88-108 MHz and increases repeatedly by a predetermined frequency step to the upper band edge. The preferred predetermined frequency step can be the allocated channel bandwidth of an FM station. At each frequency point, the FM transmitter will send out the modulated RF carrier. If the frequency of the FM transmitter matches that of the FM radio receiver 1, the signal with a particular pattern at the audio frequency will be demodulated, retrieved and broadcasted from the speaker 5 that is connected to the FM radio receiver. A microphone picks up the audio signal from the speaker and sends it to the active frequency search unit to determine if this audio signal is the same as the particular signal that the FM transmitter originally sent out. The frequency stepping process, the signal emitting process, and the signal comparing process are repeated over and over again until the original signal sent out by the frequency-searching unit is received by it again. When this condition is met, the RF frequency of the FM transmitter is locked on to that of the FM radio receiver. After the RF frequency of the FM transmitter is set to that of the FM radio receiver, a switch disconnects the audio signal generated by the frequency-searching unit and connects the audio signal picked up by a second microphone to the FM transmitter. The second microphone is placed close to the internal speaker of the mobile phone 2 to pick up the audio signal generated by the voice of the other party on the line. As a result, the audio signal is relayed to the FM radio receiver 1 and the voice is reproduced by the speaker 5. In yet another embodiment, a digital-to-analog converter realizes the frequency-searching unit with a RF signal detector. When the RF signal detector detects the signal exchange between the mobile phone 2 and the base station, it sends a signal into one of the I/O port of the processor or microcontroller 33 (FIG. 2) to activate the frequency searching sequence. The frequency searching sequence works as follows: the microcontroller uses a plurality of I/O ports to send a parallel digital data to the DAC. The number of I/O ports used corresponds to the number of bits of the digital data. The DAC converts the digital data to a corresponding analog DC voltage value. The DC voltage is used to control the oscillating frequency of the voltage-controlled oscillator inside the FM transmitter and as a result the RF frequency of the FM transmitter is controlled by the microcontroller. The DAC is configured such that the minimum analog DC voltage converted from the digital data corresponds to the lower band edge of the commercial FM bands and the maximum analog DC voltage converted from the digital data corresponds to the upper band edge of the commercial FM bands. The microcontroller can increase or decrease the RF frequency of the FM transmitter by a minimum frequency step that is determined by the number of bits used for a digital data. For example, if 10 bits are used for a digital data, the step frequency will be (108-88) MHz divided by 210, i.e. 19.5 KHz. The microcontroller increases the RF frequency of the FM transmitter from the lower band edge to the upper band edge or in a reverse way decreases the frequency from upper band edge to the lower band edge repeatedly by a frequency step in a programmable way to cover the whole commercial FM frequency band. At each frequency point, the microcontroller sends a beacon signal at audio frequency with a particular pattern from one of its I/O ports to the FM transmitter through the switch. The pattern of the beacon signal is chosen to be different from any other possible audio signal, such as a voice signal or a noise signal from the automobile in the environment. The RF carrier modulated by the beacon signal is transmitted by the FM transmitter at the RF frequency set by the microcontroller. If the car FM radio receiver or stereo equipment 1 is working at the same RF frequency, the car RF radio receiver 1 will receive and demodulate the beacon signal, which is further broadcasted by the speaker 5. The microphone picks up the beacon signal and sends it to a signal comparator to determine if the received signal has the same pattern as the original beacon signal. If the signal pattern is matched, it represents a frequency locking condition, i.e. the FM transmitter 30 and the car FM radio receiver 1 are both working at the same RF frequency channel. Step 110: Cell phone detects an incoming phone call. Step 120: Device determines if car stereo equipment is operating. Step 130: If car stereo is off, turn car stereo on. Step 140 Set car stereo to predetermined volume. Step 150 Multiplexer mutes or fades sound from car speaker to prevent abrupt clicking sound. Step 160: Cell phone output is connected to speaker by multiplexer. Step 170: Phone audio is outputted on the car speaker. Step 180: When call ends, multiplexer mutes sounds from cell phone and gradually fades back to stereo output if user was using the car stereo equipment and otherwise turns off the car stereo equipment. In one embodiment, the cell phone or another Bluetooth media player can transmit music to the device 10 to play music such as MP3 music or MPEG audio to the car stereo equipment over the Bluetooth piconet. In yet another embodiment, the device 100 can be embedded in a phone and avoid the need to physically connect the mobile phone and the vehicular audio system. This is done by automatically detecting radio frequency of the FM radio receiver and to set the frequency of the FM transmitter automatically as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,928,308 which discloses a mobile phone hand-free extension device having an FM radio transmitter with an active frequency searching circuitry to utilize a vehicular FM radio receiver for reproducing the audio signals from the mobile phone, the content of which is incorporated by reference. In this embodiment, the Bluetooth transceiver in the cell phone can interact with another Bluetooth media player that can transmit music to the device 10 over the Bluetooth piconet to play music such as MP3 music or MPEG audio to the car stereo equipment using an FM transmitter embedded in the cell phone. This embodiment can send music from a Bluetooth equipped Apple iPod, for example, to the car FM receiver directly. Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details described thereof. Various substitutions and modifications have been suggested in the foregoing description, and others will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. a sound source selecting switch coupled to the cellular audio signal and to a car stereo audio signal, the switch controlled by the processor to apply power to the car stereo and to route the cellular or the car stereo audio signals to one or more car speakers. 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the PAN comprises Bluetooth. 3. The device of claim 1, wherein the switch comprises a multiplexer. 4. The device of claim 1, comprising a car mounted microphone coupled to the wireless transceiver to capture user speech during a telephone call. 5. The device of claim 1, comprising one or more wireless audio equipment coupled to the PAN, wherein the one or more car speakers renders audio generated by the wireless audio equipment. 6. The device of claim 5, wherein the wireless audio equipment stores one of: MP3 files, .WAV files, MPEG files. 7. The device of claim 1, wherein the switch mixes the cellular and the car stereo audio signals to allow a user to listen to both audio signals. 8. The device of claim 1, wherein the switch provides one of the cellular and the car stereo audio signals to the one or more speakers. 9. The device of claim 1, comprising an amplifier coupled to the cellular audio signal. 10. The device of claim 9, wherein the amplifier fades the cellular and the car stereo audio signals during transitions between audio signal transitions. routing one of the cellular audio signal through the FM radio receiver to one or more car speakers during a telephone call. 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the PAN comprises Bluetooth. 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the selecting comprises multiplexing the audio signals. 14. The method of claim 11, comprising capturing user speech during a telephone call with a car mounted microphone. 15. The method of claim 11, comprising driving one or more car speakers with audio signals generated by one or more wireless audio equipment coupled to the PAN. 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the wireless audio equipment stores one of: MP3 files, .WAV files, MPEG files. 17. The method of claim 11, comprising mixing the cellular and the car stereo audio signals to allow a user to listen to both audio signals. 18. The method of claim 11, comprising providing only one of the cellular and the car stereo audio signals to the one or more speakers. routing the car stereo equipment signal to the car speaker when the call ends. 20. The method of claim 18, comprising muting the speaker during transitions between cellular phone audio and car stereo audio to prevent an abrupt clicking sound.

2019-04-19T09:38:06Z

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20070173293A1/en

How and when do I pay for my course? Your course fees are due to be paid within 28 days of the start date of the course. The deposit amount agreed will vary depending on any current promotional offers available. We accept payment by a variety of debit and credit cards by telephone or alternatively you may choose to arrange for a direct bank transfer. For our Continual Professional Development (CPD) courses, payments are made in full by booking online through our website, or by calling our Course Advisers team on the number at the top of the page. Premier Global NASM offer an interest-free instalment plan (0%) to enable you to spread the cost of your course fee over 11, 12, 18 or 24 months. Our instalment plan loans are offered subject to a credit check and your confirmation that the monthly repayment level is affordable. The instalment plan requires you to sign up to a Fixed-Sum loan agreement and sign a direct debit mandate for the repayment. There is no arrangement fee for the loan and the loan repayments are scheduled to repay the course evenly over the agreed loan period. You can, if you wish to settle the loan balance early by making additional payments at any time. There is no extra charge for an earlier repayment. Please contact our friendly Course Advisers who will explain your options to you in full detail, discuss your circumstances and run through the process with you. To get in contact, call the number at the top of this page. Do you offer any funding options to help with the course price? There may be other Government funded or a range of specialist industry funding schemes for current and leaving members of the armed forces and members of the Professional Footballers’ Association and the Professional Cricketers’ Association. Please do not hesitate to contact Premier Global NASM to discuss what options may be available. How much are your exam re-sits? Please note, it can take up to 14 days to receive your exam results. Can I reserve a place on one of your courses? Yes. You can secure your place by paying a deposit, which will then come off the remaining cost of the course. Depending on your chosen course, you may also need to pay in full at the point of enrolment. Can I cancel my course after I have booked? Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 you have 14 days after the day we email you to confirm we accept your application to change your mind about attending the training course. By post. Complete the form included our brochure (also available online to print off at www.premierglobal.co.uk and post it to us at the address on the form. Or, simply write to us at Premier Training International Limited, Welbeck House, Ermine Business Park, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE29 6XY including details of your course booking and your name and address. This is our company registered address. Please note, day one of your course is mandatory. Premier Global NASM also strongly advise you to attend every face to face workshop day of your course. Due to the intense nature of the timetable, important theory and practical activities take place on each attendance day. Missing sessions may result in you finding it difficult to complete worksheets, theory exams or practical assessments. This may result in you not being in a position to successfully pass the qualification or in certain circumstances you may be removed from the course. If you are removed from the course due to non-attendance you will still be liable to pay for the course in full. What identification do I need to bring to the first day of my course? UK residents must bring a valid passport or photographic driving licence to confirm their identity to the first day of their course. Non-UK residents must bring a valid passport only. For non-UK residents, a driving licence will not be accepted. No other forms of identification will be accepted. If you are not able to show a valid form of ID, you will not be able to start your course. Are there completion time limits for the courses? How do Premier Global NASM qualifications compare to other training providers? Premier Global NASM provides high quality, nationally-accredited qualifications and a comprehensive portfolio of Continuous learning courses, from personal training to sports conditioning and nutrition. With a choice of delivery methods, including full-time, part-time and blended learning, which all incorporate a new online learning platform, we offer the flexibility to provide education to all. Is the Diploma in Fitness Instructing & Personal Training an internationally-recognised qualification? This depends very much on the country. The USA has no overall standard and will often recognise a Premier Qualification with proof of content. Many students who enroll onto our courses often look to the USA and Canada for employment. Although there are many North American Fitness Training Organisations, the main emphasis on setting up a business in this area seems dependent upon the total cost of public liability insurance. If interested in working abroad, please also see our Certified Personal Trainer course. I already have a fitness qualification - can I skip parts of the course, or get a discount? At Premier, we recognise qualifications from many other training providers. Depending on your qualification, you may be able to get a discount on the course or just take a particular module to further your knowledge and improve on your current qualification. If you are looking to get the Diploma in Fitness Instructing and Personal Training course, then you would need to take the entire course, but we may be able to offer a discount if you have covered parts of the course in previous qualifications. To claim this accreditation for prior learning you will need to provide evidence in the form of the original certificate when enrolling onto the course. A total reduction of 20% for a maximum of two modules can be given for APL (Accreditation of Prior Learning), however it is best to speak with your Career Adviser to discuss your specific situation. Do I need a CPR certificate before I start a course with you? No, not for the Diploma in Fitness Instructing and Personal Training course. Although we do recommend that you complete a CPR course within six months of graduating. Could my Diploma in Fitness Instruction & Personal Training allow me to enrol on a University course? Students who wish to enrol onto a University course would usually need to ensure they have successfully gained at least a grade C in GCSE Maths and English. Subsequently, when completing the UCAS form, applicants need to highlight achievement of the Awarding Organisation Active IQ (AIQ) fitness qualification in their personal statement. This is because AIQ qualifications have been matched with occupational standards set by the QCA (Qualifications Curriculum Authority), an organisation more familiar to UCAS than Premier Global NASM. What level of salary can I expect to receive on a successful completion of Premier courses? Salaries within this industry vary greatly. Fitness Instructors employed at one of the more recognised health and fitness clubs can expect to receive a salary starting anywhere between £13,000 – £18,000 per year. For instructors who have more advanced fitness training skills, including the Level 3 Certificate in Personal Training, earnings will potentially be enhanced by an extra £3,000 – £10,000 per annum. On completion of our courses many students follow a self-employed career path. In this situation they could charge anything starting from £25 per hour and up to £70 per hour depending upon location. A successful self-employed personal trainer can earn well in advance of £35,000 per year. For Sports Massage, charges range from £15 – £60 per treatment. Premier helps all students find suitable employment opportunities through our Recruitment Team. How do I obtain my certificates? Certificates are issued within 8 weeks of successful completion of your course, in addition to full payment of the associated course received by Premier Global NASM. Upon successful completion of your course, Premier Global NASM can issue you with a ‘letter of successful completion’ at your request if the course hasn’t been paid for in full. This letter is widely recognised within the fitness industry, and will enable you to immediately apply for work. However, we are not able to issue your certificate until the course has been paid in full. For all certificates enquiries please e-mail our customer services department on customerservices@premierglobal.co.uk with your name, e-mail address, postal address and the course you completed. Can I get a replacement certificate if I graduated before January 2007? Can I become a member of the British Association for Applied Nutrition & Nutritional Therapy? Yes. Most Premier students and graduates want to become a member as this adds credibility to their practice. BANT welcomes Premier students to sign on for student membership at an annual cost of £45 per person. Upon completion of the course BANT grants full membership to those who have a qualification from an accredited provider. To learn more about Premier’s accreditation plans, please see the above question. I need to raise a complaint - how can I do so? CIMSPA are the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity. They are the professional development body for the UK’s sport and physical activity sector, providing leadership, support and empowerment for professionals working in the sector. The institute’s vision is: “To develop a vibrant, UK-wide sport and physical activity sector, led by professionals providing advocacy and leadership and working in partnership with stakeholders to help ensure the highest standards of service delivery”. CIMPSA have membership options for everyone in the sector, and we are delighted to tell you that as a Premier Global NASM graduate you are entitled to 12 months membership completely free of charge! Your details will be forwarded onto CIMSPA as soon as we have received your certificates from Active IQ. In its recent sports strategy document, the government tasked CIMSPA to lead on increasing the professionalisation of our sector’s workforce, and this backing has been explicitly reinforced by the recent Towards an Active Nation Sport England strategy. To help achieve this goal, CIMSPA is introducing a policy which will require most members to complete a defined amount of CPD per membership subscription year, at a level relevant to their membership category. Sport and physical activity professionals should keep their skills and knowledge up to date, as well as extending their skillset wherever possible. Continuous professional development (CPD) is the practice of undertaking additional learning through courses, workshops or conferences or taking part in other activities which confirm that their knowledge, understanding and skills are suitable for their role in our sector. What is Premier Global NASM’s relationship with CIMPSA? In one word, strong! Premier Global NASM are a partner of CIMPSA and our courses are recognised by the awarding body, Active IQ. When you successfully complete your Diploma, as a Premier graduate, you are entitled to 12 months membership free of charge. Your details will be forwarded onto CIMSPA as soon as we have received your certificates from Active IQ. What is Active IQ (AIQ)? Active IQ is an awarding organisation recognised and regulated by Ofqual within the Active Leisure sector. The certifications they provide act as a benchmark for quality and credibility, both for those employing Premier Global NASM graduates and also for those wishing to join the industry. For more information, see the Active IQ website. Please note, there may be a requirement from the Awarding Organisation for assessments or qualification delivery to be filmed as part of the quality assurance process. How long will I have access to my on-line program materials? Your Premier Global NASM Diploma course provides you an enrolment duration for both the exam and content of 180 days from the date of purchase or enrolment key activation. The course follows a suggested schedule that optimizes the ability to learn and recall the material on the exam/ assessments, and that is the schedule your Tutor will follow to facilitate the discussion questions and provide feedback within the course. However, you can work ahead in all areas, except for the discussion questions that are each opened at the start of their scheduled week. You can still see the questions and review the content; you just cannot post to the discussion forum until it has been opened by a Success Coach. How do I stay on track with my course assignments? Within your course, you have a variety of resources available to you like your Learner Handbook. In addition, your coach will post a course schedule, assignment reminders and helpful tips each week within the course Announcement forum. If you need to reach out to our Success Coach team outside of your course, you may reach them by phone at 0333 400 0354 or by email at studentsuccess@premierglobal.co.uk. What if I get behind? Can I start over? The course follows a suggested schedule to maximize the learning process, and the course Tutor follows a grading schedule within the course to assist you with feedback, which includes 4 weeks after the 10 week program timeframe to review late assignments. You do have access to the course and materials for 180 days from your time of purchase or enrolment key activation, but take caution if you fall behind, as breaking from the suggested schedule limits participation in the group discussions and timely information from the Tutors to assist you in best preparing for the Assessments and Exams. If you find yourself behind by more than 4 weeks you will want to reach out to the Success Coach team for by phone at 0333 400 0354 or by email at studentsuccess@premierglobal.co.uk assistance. What happens after the 180 days are complete? After the initial enrolment duration, you will no longer have access to the Guided Study course. This means, at that time, you will lose the ability to use all videos, activities, quizzes, and resources from the course. If you need an extension for your course, please contact Premier Global Member Services at 0333 400 0353. Please note, extension fees may apply. Can the quizzes/reviews and exams be repeated in the course? The quizzes/reviews within the course have unlimited attempts. The Level 2 and Level 3 exams are proctored and the guidelines for those exams can be found within the course and in a separate section under proctored exams. I purchased the Level 2 & 3 program, when will I get login and course instruction information? Within 1 business day of your date of purchase, you will receive a Welcome email that will provide you with your general log-in and course access information. After you have completed the outlined steps, you may then access your Student Portal and select your course session start date. What if I need to switch my course session? Your Coach can help you select a different group that meets your needs. Be sure to select a new Study Group right away to not further delay your certification; picking a new group will not extend your enrollment expiration date. Can I download the online textbooks? You can find a full downloadable PDF of the textbooks within your Getting Started Module. Additionally, a non-downloadable flipbook (eBook) will be available within each Module. What are the benefits of a NASM Global Premier program? This Program helps you practice what you've learned, has coaches available to answer any questions and keep you engaged, a tutor to facilitate discussions and webinars, and a weekly schedule to keep you focused. You will also learn about the exclusive Optimum Performance Training (OPT) Model. Founded in science, it takes the difficult guess work out of developing safe and effective programmes for your clients. What is a Coach, and how do I contact him or her for assistance? Coaches are here to make the study process as smooth as possible. They are available to answer any questions you may have while you are participating in the course and will help you stay on track with your studying with weekly posts in the Announcements Forum. If you need to contact a coach, their information is provided in the Syllabus, and located in the Announcements Forum within the Getting Started Module. You may also reach our team of coaches by phone at 0333 400 0354. A Tutor is an experienced Personal Trainer that will deliver your online interactive lectures, facilitate practical discussions within an on-line forum, grade your assignments, and help you through the course while they share their professional expertise with your class. When can I start my course session? We have new groups starting on two Tuesdays per month and regular Saturday starts. Pick the date that works best with your schedule and get ready to start learning! Can I change my course session? If your group has already started, the Student Success Coach team can help you select a different group that meets your needs. Be sure to select a new Study Group right away to not further delay your certification; picking a new group will not extend your enrolment expiration date. Please note, a course transfer fee may apply. What happens to my Program history if I change my course session? Any work you complete will always be available for you to view within the course. The system does not remove any submissions. Your coach will be able to see your previous submissions, so you will only need to submit assignments from the point you left off in your previous session. All new items will be available for marking by your Tutor. Can I reset/wipe my program progress/history? No, this is required to stay for auditing purposes. However, you can re-submit any assignment and have unlimited attempts on all module quizzes. These exams are invigilated by our online proctoring service, Proctor U. You will need to register with ProctorU to set up an account, and schedule your exams for Level 2 and Level 3. All exams are timed and proctored. If you need to re-sit for the exam, you will need to call Member Services by phone at 0333 400 0353. Please note, additional fees may apply. How do I schedule my Level 2 or Level 3 exam with Proctor U? You can register and schedule for your exam with Proctor U by navigating to their website: https://go.proctoru.com/registrations. Be sure to check the system and hardware requirements prior to your scheduled exam proctoring appointment. Note: You will need to present a copy of your valid government-issued ID at the time of each exam. Additional information can be found here. How many questions are in the Level 2 exams? The Level 2 Certificate in Gym/Fitness instructing includes (2) exams. The Level 2 - A&P for exercise consists of 50 questions, with 105 minutes to complete. The Level 2 -Principles of Exercise, Fitness and Health consists of 32 questions, with 90 minutes to complete. How many questions are in the Level 3 exams? The Level 3 Certificate in Personal Training includes (2) exams. The Level 3 - Applied A&P consists of 40 questions, with 90 minutes to complete. The Level 3 - Nutrition for exercise and health consists of 40 questions, with 90 minutes to complete. What is a Success Coach, and how do I contact him or her for support? While your group is still active, you can contact your Tutor through their Virtual office within your course. Your Tutor's office hour availability will be posted within this section. You may also reach out to the Student Success Coach team by phone at 0333 400 0354 or by email studentsuccess@premierglobal.co.uk for immediate assistance. How do I appeal my course assignment or exam marking if I am dissatisfied? NASM Premier Global offers any learner who disagrees with the outcome of their online and/or practical assessments the option to appeal the initial determination. Please reference the attached Appeal form to gather additional information about this process. Please reference the attached Appeal form to gather additional information about this process. Can I attend my Live workshop before I have successfully completed my certification course? Completion of Level 2 & 3 NASM Premier Global course is strongly recommended, but not required. How long is the live workshop? The live workshop is a total of 8 hours with a 1 hour lunch break. Will the live workshop certify me as a Level 2 or Level 3 Personal Trainer? The workshop is designed to help you gain practical application skills in the areas of assessment, integrated training, program design, and exercise technique and how this is applied to the OPT model. No, The live workshop does not include an exam or certify you as a Level 2 or Level 3 Personal Trainer. Will the workshop help me prepare for my exams? The workshop is designed to help you gain practical experience and will not serve explicitly as exam preparation. Although some information may be helpful for exam prep. How do I register for a workshop date? After you have activated your enrolment key, you will receive an automated self-service registration email. You can register for your workshop whenever you are ready! If you have any additional questions regarding the workshop schedule or dates, please contact Member Services at 0333 400 0353 or by email at nasmcst@premierglobal.co.uk. What if I arrive late to my scheduled workshop, can I still participate? Late arrivals of more than 15 minute will not be allowed entrance into the workshop after it has already begun. Please contact Member Services with any additional questions by nasmcst@premierglobal.co.uk or by phone 0333 400 0353. What if I have to leave early from my scheduled workshop; Can I receive partial completion credit? If not, can I receive a partial refund? Completion marking will only be given to those who attend the entire workshop. If an unexpected circumstance arises during your workshop, please contact Member Services for available options at 0333 400 0353 or by email at nasmcst@premierglobal.co.uk. Your live workshop is valid for 18 months from the date of your enrolment key activation. To locate your expiration date, please log into your student portal via nasm.org and access the workshop enrolment. Your expiration date can be located on the top right hand corner of your course page. I am already registered for a workshop, and can't make it, can I switch? You may request to cancel or reschedule your workshop at no charge by contacting the Member Services Department no later than 5 business days prior to your scheduled workshop (i.e., if your workshop is scheduled for Sunday, then the Tuesday prior is the last day you may modify your session at no charge). After 5 business days prior, but no later than 48 hours before the day of your scheduled workshop, you can cancel or transfer your registration to another date or location by contacting Member Services. During this period, a £25 Workshop Transfer Fee will be charged for any workshop transfer. All fees must be paid in full and over the phone with Member Services at 0333 400 0353. What if I missed my scheduled workshop session, can I reschedule? Or receive a refund? What can I expect from my live workshop? The Premier Live Workshop is designed to help you gain practical application skills in the areas of assessment, integrated training, program design, and exercise technique and how this is applied to the OPT model. We recommend for you to bring your downloadable PDF, a water bottle, and lunch. Remember to wear comfortable fitness clothing for your participation. Is there anything else I need to do before and/or after my scheduled workshop date? Prior to your scheduled workshop: You will be provided a Student manual and Workshop Presentation PDF document that can be accessed by logging into your student portal at nasm.org. We recommend you access your online and downloadable materials prior to your live workshop date. While this is recommended, it is not mandatory but rather a way to enhance the overall 8-hour workshop experience. After you have attended your workshop: You need to complete your end of workshop survey and end or workshop quiz in the online course. Can I bring a friend or family member with me to my live workshop? Will I be provided proof of my successful completion/participation? Upon successful completion of your live workshop, and within 5 business days, you will have access to a Record of Completion with your student portal at nasm.org. Where can I find more information regarding workshop dates and locations? If you have already booked a workshop, please contact Member Services to get more information on upcoming workshop dates and locations. Please contact Member Services with any additional questions by email: nasmcst@premierglobal.co.uk or by phone 0333 400 0353. If you wish to book a workshop, please contact a Course Advisor for further assistance at 020 3930 4050. Is the NASM CPT endorsed in the UK? The NASM CPT is professionally endorsed by both CIMSPA and Active IQ. As the programme utilises a science based training system and methodology, and contains specialist learning involving detailed analysis of a high level of information, it can be viewed as a Level 4 equivalent qualification in the UK. Our recommendation is that the NASM CPT should be undertaken by a Level 3 Diploma in Personal Training graduate, after they have worked in the field for at least 6-12 months, gaining relevant practical experience training clients. Premier Global NASM refers to trainers who have completed both the Level 3 Diploma in Personal Training + the NASM CPT as “Elite Trainers” – opening up progression pathways to more elite, advanced specialisms such as Corrective Exercise and Sports Performance. Yes, the NASM CPT Premium Self Study purchased through Premier Global NASM offers you a practice exam available to you for the duration of your enrollment period. You can locate the practice exam via your NASM Student Portal. Is there a breakdown of the exam domains and subjects? The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) contracted with Professional Examination Service (ProExam) to conduct a practice analysis of Certified Personal Trainers (CPTs) in 2015. This practice analysis study defines the current knowledge, skills and abilities that must be demonstrated by entry-level credential holders to safely and successfully practice. This study also serves as the “blueprint” for determining the content (performance domains) for the certification exam(s). The NASM CPT exam blueprint can be found here. What is the NASM Candidate handbook and where can I find it? The Candidate Handbook is a comprehensive overview of the NASM-CPT certification program and is required reading before The Candidate Handbook is a comprehensive overview of the NASM-CPT certification program and is required reading before taking the exam. The Candidate Handbook covers important topic such as eligibility requirements, the exam outline, expectations and recertification. You can find the candidate handbook within your online course, in the CPT Terms and Conditions Module or you can simply click here. What CPR/AED providers does Premier Global NASM accept? Premier Global NASM recommends the following organisations: Red Cross, St John’s Ambulance, Premier Training First Aid, First Aid for Life, Association of First Aiders, Safety First Aid Training and or any other OfQual recognised provider. How do I schedule my CPT exam? Go to https://candidate.psiexams.com to register or by calling PSI Customer Service at + 1 702-939-6797. Please have your Enrollment ID available, as it is needed to complete the registration process. Where can I find my CPT Enrollment ID? Step 1: Access your student portal through nasm.org and click on “Courses”. Step 2: Locate your CPT exam in the list of Courses and click the Action button. A new page will appear and your Enrollment ID will be displayed in the left navigation pane. What is my CPT Enrollment ID? Your Enrollment ID is a unique identification number used to locate your testing record with PSI. Please have your Enrollment ID number ready when contacting PSI to schedule your CPT exam. What do I need to take with me to the testing facility for my CPT Exam? Can anyone see my CPT exam score? No, NASM does not release exam scores. Will I receive my CPT exam score? If you fail the CPT exam, PSI will provide you with a score report providing details of your test results. NASM provides a PASS score for any test result that is 70% or higher. What happens if I miss my PSI CPT exam appointment? Does Premier Global NASM offer any Special Accommodations for the CPT Exam? In order to ensure the opportunity for all qualified persons, Premier Global NASM will make reasonable accommodations for candidates with any disabilities that might affect their NASM-certification exam taking. If you would like to apply for special accomodations please email nasmcst@premierglobal.co.uk or call 0345 899 2333. How do I keep my CPT qualification up-to-date? Your Premier Global NASM CPT certificate is endorsed by AIQ and CIMPSA in perpituity within the UK. To keep your NCCA accredited CPT qualification, a learner is required to re-certify every two years and complete the required number of CEUs from approved providers. Please see ‘Recertificaton’ section below. Where can I take my CPT exam in the UK? Students can take their exam at one of our test centres across the UK. Please go to https://candidate.psiexams.com to register or by calling PSI Customer Service at + 1 702-939-6797 for further information. What if I want to appeal to the Disciplinary and Appeals Committee? Please download the appeal form and complete the instructions provided within. Click here. How do I get an extension for my CPT course and/or exam? Access to your online materials is aligned with your enrolment duration period. The NASM CPT exam provides you with 180 days from the date of purchase or from the date of enrollment key activation. The CPT content provides 365 days of access from the date of purchase, or from the date of enrollment key activation. You may extend your access for both the exam and content for an additional fee. Please contact the Premier Customer Services team for additional details. I failed my CPT exam, can I purchase a retest? And when can I reschedule? If you missed your deadline or failed your initial exam attempt, a retest for the exam can be purchased. Requirements and limitations for retesting are described in the Candidate Handbook. Please contact Premier Customer Support for additional details regarding pricing and limitations. To support NASM’s commitment to protect health and safety in the USA, the NASM-CPT certification must be recertified every two (2) years if students with to work there. The acronym “CEU” stands for Continuing Education Unit. Continuing education programs are intended to promote continued competence, development of knowledge and skills, and enhancement of professional skills and judgment beyond the levels required for entry-level practice. NASM-CPTs are required to complete 2.0 CEUs (20 contact hours) every two year certification period. This includes 0.1 CEUs from the mandatory CPR/AED certification. What is an NASM approved CEU? Where can I find this information? “To locate NASM-approved CEUs. Visit our Course Providers page by clicking here. What is a petition? How do I petition a course that is not an NASM approved CEU? CEU providers that have not contacted NASM for pre-approval status will require a petition. Petitions allow NASM to review the material covered and make a CEU value determination. This process can be completed in the recertification section found in their NASM Student Portal. To petition a course, please print and submit the application found here. NASM offers a 90-day grace period, beyond your CPT Certificate expiration date, to earn CEUs. If CEUs have been completed within your 90 day grace period, you have one-year to submit your paperwork for recertification. Failure to complete the required CEUs within the grace period will require re-examination. If you allow your certification to expire, it will no longer be NCCA accredited in the United States, however it will still be recognised by AIQ & CIMPSA. I just completed an approved NASM CEU, when can I submit this towards my recertification? An official certificate will be mailed to you within 4 – 6 weeks after passing your CPT Exam. A web copy of your certificate will be made available within 3 business days of passing your CPT Exam. All web certificates can be printed under the Certificates option within your NASM Student Portal. Are there any pre-requisites needed for the NASM Specialisation courses? Each Specialisation may require different entry requirements. Please reference the course information within the Premier Global course information links for further information. All specialisation content and exams are provided an enrollment duration of 365 days from the date of purchase or date of enrollment key activation. How do I take my NASM Specialisation exam? All Specialisation exams are completed online, through your NASM student portal. Each exam provides (3) initial attempts. How many questions are on my Specialisation exam? Each Specialisation exam may vary. You can find the information for your exam by accessing the exam enrollment with your NASM student portal. What is the passing score for the Specialisation exam? All Specialisation exams require a passing score of 70% or higher. What happens if I fail all (3) exam attempts? If you failed your exam, a retest for the exam can be purchased. Please contact Premier Customer Support for additional details regarding pricing and options. You may obtain your exam score by contacting Premier Customer Services by email at nasmcst@premierglobal.co.uk. Proof of any online NASM course completion can be printed from the NASM Student Portal under the Certificates tab. What software is required to access my NASM eLearning Center? For the best user experience, we recommend you use the most up-to-date version of the following operating systems: Window 7+, Mac 10.10+, iOS 9, Android 4.4+ Adobe Flash Player is required. Download the latest Flash Player here. For the best functionality and user experience, we suggest using a desktop or laptop that includes the above system requirements. Please visit the nasm.org login page and click on the Forgot Password feature. Please note: Password resets may take up to 30 minutes to take effect. Any attempt to login prior to this timeframe may result in an Invalid Password error. You will be required to change the temporary password to a permanent choice. Passwords are not recoverable in the system, so if you lost your password, the only option is to request a new one time use temporary password. NASM recommends using a Windows based laptop or desktop as the NASM Student Portal requires Adobe Flash. Flash does not come pre-installed on any Apple device. The iStore has applications available to enable Flash content. Additionally, Safari web browser is not compatible with the NASM online courses. How many questions are on the NASM-AFAA CGFI exam? How long do I have to complete it? Each one of the exams are 120 test questions, in which 20 are research questions and do not count toward or against the final score. Both exam have a 2-hour time limit and you must pass with a 70% or better. The CGFI content prepares you for the NCCA-accredited exam by providing multiple quizzes throughout the course modules, along with a final practice exam. The Athletics Fitness and Association of America (AFAA) contracted with Professional Examination Service (ProExam) to conduct a practice analysis of Certified Group Fitness Instructor (CGFIs) in 2016. This practice analysis study defines the current knowledge, skills and abilities that must be demonstrated by entry-level credential holders to safely and successfully practice. This study also serves as the “blueprint” for determining the content (performance domains) for the certification exam(s). The AFAA CGFI exam blueprint can be found here. here. What is the NASM/AFAA Candidate handbook and where can I find it? The Candidate Handbook is a comprehensive overview of the NASM/AFAA CGFI and is required reading before taking the exam. The Candidate Handbook covers important topic such as eligibility requirements, the exam outline, expectations and recertification. You can find the candidate handbook within your online course, in the CGFI Terms and Conditions Module or you can simply click here. here. Go to https://candidate.psiexams.com to register or by calling PSI Customer Service at + 1 702-939-6797. You must have your Enrollment ID available, as it is needed to complete the registration process. Your Enrollment ID is a unique identification number used to locate your testing record with PSI. Please have your Enrollment ID number ready when contacting PSI to schedule your CGFI exam. No, NASM/AFAA does not release exam scores. If you fail the CGFI exam, PSI will provide you with a score report providing details of your test results. NASM/AFAA provides a PASS score for any test result that is 70% or higher. In order to ensure the opportunity for all qualified persons, Premier Global NASM will make reasonable accommodations for candidates with any disabilities that might affect their AFAA-certification exam taking. If you would like to apply for special accomodations please email nasmcst@premierglobal.co.uk or call 0345 899 2333. How do I keep my CGFI qualification up-to-date? Your Premier Global AFAA-CGFI certificate is endorsed by AIQ and CIMPSA in perpituity within the UK. To keep your NCCA accredited CGFI qualification, a learner is required to re-certify every two years and complete the required number of CEUs from approved providers. Please see ‘Recertificaton’ section below. Where can I take my CGFI exam in the UK? How do I get an extension for my course or exam? Access to your online materials is aligned with your enrolment duration period. The AFAA CGFI exam provides you with 180 days from the date of purchase or from the date of enrollment key activation. The CGFI content provides 365 days of access from the date of purchase, or from the date of enrollment key activation. You may extend your access for both the exam and content for an additional fee. Please contact the Premier Customer Services team for additional details. If you failed your exam, a retest for the exam can be purchased. Candidates who do not pass the certification exam on the first attempt will be allowed to retake the exam after a 1-week waiting period. If the candidate is unsuccessful after the second attempt, he/she will be required to wait 30 days before retaking the exam. For each repeated failure after the 3rd attempt, candidates will be required to wait a year before attempting to take the exam again. Please contact Premier Customer Support for additional details regarding pricing and limitations. To support NASM-AFAA’s commitment to protect health and safety in the USA, the AFAA-CGFI certification must be recertified every two (2) years if students wish to work there. To submit for renewal, please print and submit the Recertification application found here. AFAA-CGFI are required to complete 1.5 CEUs (15 contact hours) every two year certification period. At least 0.2 of these CEUS must come from NASM-AFAA courses and 0.1 CEU from the mandatory CPR/AED certification. What is an NASM-AFAA approved CEU? Where can I find this information? An approved CEU is a course that has been submitted to NASM-AFAA through a third-party organization and has been awarded CEU value. These organizations are part of NASM-AFAA's Provider Program and will note their provider number and CEU value on the certificate of completion that you receive. How do I find a list of NASM-AFAA approved providers and CEUs? To locate NASM-AFAA approved CEUs. Visit our Course Providers page by clicking here. CEU providers that have not contacted NASM-AFAA for pre-approval status will require a petition. Petitions allow NASM-AFAA to review the material covered and make a CEU value determination. To petition a course, please print and submit the application found here and instructions found here. What happens if my CGFI certification has expired? NASM-AFAA offers a 90-day grace period, beyond your CGFI Certificate expiration date, to earn CEUs. If CEUs have been completed within your 90 day grace period, you have one-year to submit your paperwork for recertification. Failure to complete the required CEUs within the grace period will require re-examination. If you allow your certification to expire, it will no longer be NCCA accredited in the United States, however it will still be recognised by AIQ & CIMPSA. I just completed an approved NASM-AFAA CEU, when can I submit this towards my recertification? Please save your Continuing Education documentation until you are ready to submit for renewal. You can submit for renewal as early as 6 months prior to your certificate expiration date. Where can I print my temporary certificate? When can I expect to receive my official certificate by mail? All NASM/AFAA records of completion can be viewed and printed through the student portal, via the Certificates menu option. An official certificate will be mailed to you within 4 – 6 weeks after passing your CGFI exam. Please be sure your personal mailing address is up to date for successful delivery. Proof of any online NASM-AFAA course completion can be printed from the NASM Student Portal under the Certificates tab. What is an 0845/0844 number? Both 0845 and 0844 are in a range classed as NTS (number translation services) and designed for businesses, government departments and ‘other entities’ using services like press1 at national level. 0845 are known as ‘local NTS’ because call rates are similar to local rates from a BT line. 0844 are known as ‘fixed rate NTS’ because rates are the same at any time of day or night. What is the cost of calling 0845 or 0844 numbers? How much does 0845 and 0844 cost to call from a mobile? Each mobile operator dictates their own pricing to these number ranges and charges may vary based on your price plan. The costs per minute for 0844/0845 are normally between 20p and 40p per minute if not bundled with free minutes. Often call plan rates are printed on the reverse of your bill. If you are in doubt contact your mobile provider. Can I still use Premier Global NASM's 020 3811 0826 number? Yes you can. The 020 number will still connect you to Premier Global NASM in the normal way. Why have Premier Global NASM decided to use an 0845 number? By using an 0845 number it will allow Premier Global NASM to manage calls in a way that means customers can usually speak to someone faster. Although it is unlikely that the Premier Global NASM offices would need to be closed within its normal working hours, in the event of this type of emergency, 0845 numbers enable us to re-route calls, giving a more consistent service. Many other organisations use 0845 numbers for the same reasons of customer service and manageability. Will Premier Global NASM benefit financially from using 0845 numbers? No, we will not in any way. Premier Global NASM does not use 0845 numbers to make money via ‘revenue sharing’.

2019-04-25T10:52:44Z

https://www.premierglobal.co.uk/faq

Achieve Business Success with Us! Whether you are looking to grow your small business or have a brilliant idea to start a new venture, the Business Advisory Centre Durham (BACD) has the tools and resources to help you make it happen. If you are seeking advice and guidance regarding your business, look no further! Start, grow and expand your business in Durham Region. Durham is home to 8 municipalities. Ajax, Clarington, Oshawa, Pickering, Whitby, Scugog, Uxbridge and the Township of Brock. The Business Advisory Centre Durham is a not-for-profit organization incorporated in 1999. We are funded by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Regional Municipality of Durham. We assist clients with skills, knowledge, tools and connections to launch and grow successful businesses within the Region of Durham. Our office is located in Whitby and we serve all the municipalities of Durham Region (Ajax, Clarington, Oshawa, Pickering, Whitby, Scugog, Uxbridge and Township of Brock). Generally our clients are in mainstream businesses account for 85% of Canada’s economy and not creating an invention or product with intellectual property. By helping our clients be successful, we assist them in creating economic wealth through job creation and retention. Our advisory services are free - if we can help you create a business that's successful and making money - then you have money to spend and invest in the Durham Region. This has a positive impact on our region in many ways including supporting local businesses, creating local jobs and keeping the $ investment here. To date, we have served over 10,000 clients who have created over 2000 businesses! Teresa joined The Business Advisory Centre Inc in 2012; - a non profit organization supporting businesses to achieve business success. With her leadership, the organizations' outcomes have increased by over 200%. At BACD, Teresa is responsible for executing the strategic plan, managing operations, over 120 events and a team of 5. Teresa has always had a strong entrepreneurial spirit and has worked in over 5 start up organizations across 3 countries and moved to Canada in August 1999 to be part of a small start up in Toronto that specialized in Call Centre Staffing. After working in this industry for 7 years, she went to work for the Whitby Chamber of Commerce and spent 5 years there managing Member Services, Sponsorship and over 75 Events per year. Teresa has also run a number of her own businesses and has been a business coach for over 10 years. In 2014, Teresa received her Registered Business Coach designation from the World Association of Business Coaches and in 2017 received her Economic Development Certificate. She is an avid life long learner, loves to read, listen to podcasts, teach yoga and volunteer in her community. Areas of Specialty: Business structure; operations; employment; market strategy; not-for-profits; retail and lifestyle businesses; eCommerce; importing and exporting; social media; networking; sales process, grants. Andrea joined BACD officially in October 2017, although has worked with the BACD for over 3 years providing workshops and mentorship. She has over 20 years international experience in marketing, branding and communications having graduated with a B.A. Honours Degree in Graphic Design. Andrea's true entrepreneurial spirit expressed itself when she started a craft brewery in Australia which has given her hands-on knowledge of the challenges of starting and growing a business which she now shares with clients at BACD. She has been running her own branding and marketing business in Oshawa and is now a certified GrowthWheel Business Advisor. Area of Speciality: Marketing plans; value proposition; target market; branding; digital marketing; websites; social media; product portfolio. Before joining BACD as a part-time Business Advisor, Bryan was the Entrepreneur in Residence for the Spark Centre. Bryan has worked with BACD for a number of years as a mentor for new start-up companies and we are very happy to have him with us. Previously, Bryan worked at OCE as Director, Strategic Partnerships within OCE’s Centre for Communications and Information Technologies. Before OCE, Bryan was Vice President and COO of WSi Interactive Corporation, a Vancouver based, publicly traded technology incubator where he was instrumental in building the company through acquisitions and the creation of new businesses. At Thomson & Associates Marketing, Bryan headed up a marketing agency focused on the development of marketing and customer loyalty programs for clients that included American Express, Air Canada, HBC, Sears, Imperial Oil and McLean Hunter. Earlier, he held progressively more senior positions with American Express, relating to responsibilities for corporate planning and marketing, in both Canada and the US. Area of Speciality: Sales strategy, financials; market validation, channels to market; distribution channels; business models; growth opportunities; investment funding, scaleable businesses. Ashley McBride joined BACD in January 2016 as the Program Administrator for the Summer Company and Starter Company program. Ashley has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, a post-graduate certificate in Human Resources Management and a professional development certificate in Digital Marketing. Ashley keeps busy with reviewing and evaluating business plans, cashflow forecasts and ensuring all guidelines are being met! Her thoroughness and attention to detail helps make sure that nothing slips through the cracks. In her spare time, Ashley enjoys reading, running and traveling. Lindy joined the BACD team as the part-time bookkeeper in October 2016. She is an experienced professional with a background in Bookkeeping, Payroll and Office Administration having worked in South Africa until moving to Canada in 2015. Lindy has a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Business Economics. In her spare time Lindy likes to get out into nature, craft and spend time with her family. Chair: Kathleen Niles, President & CEO, Nessis Inc. Entrepreneurial leader who co-founded Nessis Inc., a leader in Manufacturing & Quality expert who lead large scale process re-engineering in large and small manufacturing operations. Kathleen Niles started her career on the shop floors of Northern Telecom and is one of Canada’s most successful innovation stories. Deep in the trenches of Nortel’s computerized drilling and engineering division, she spent over 20 progressive years providing and directing training, amassing firsthand experience in the complexities of productivity, process and training challenges. After Nortel, she spent another decade working in a variety of roles including quality, line management, IT, process control, change management and training. As President & CEO of Nessis Inc., she has applied her real world expertise to create a leading edge Manufacturing Execution System to greatly improve manufacturing’s bottom line. She has created a very specialized team to help with this vision, execution and growth. With an impressive customer list including NovaBus, GFL, SpencerARL and Demers Ambulance, Kathleen is transforming the manufacturing industry to have real time operations management on the factory floor. Kathleen is committed to helping other Entrepreneur’s through their business growth as a BACD Board Member and mentor for various Entrepreneurship Programs. Martin Croteau is passionate about entrepreneurship. Over his career, Martin has worked with dozens of early-stage technology startups as a founder, an investor, a consultant and an academic, providing him with a uniquely diverse perspective on the factors that lead to startup success. Martin previously held the the role of Director of Academic Entrepreneurship at the Ontario Centres of Excellence, where his is responsible for OCE’s investments in campus-linked startup accelerators and other on-campus entrepreneurship activities. He is also responsible for OCE’s SmartStart Seed Fund. Previously, Martin was the founder and Executive Director of Spark Centre, a non-profit innovation centre that helps technology companies start and grow in east Toronto. Martin is a Research Associate and Doctoral Candidate with the Henley Business School at the University of Reading, UK. He holds a PHD in Entrepreneurship, Master of Science in Business and Management Research, a Master of Business Administration, and a Bachelor of Commerce. Mohamed is the founder and President of Unique Accounting Services, an Accounting and Bookkeeping firm that helps Canadian small and medium sized businesses with their bookkeeping, accounting and taxation needs under one roof. With over 10 years’ experience providing taxation, accounting and bookkeeping services to businesses of all sizes, Mohamed is the go to person for accounting and taxation. He is connected to all leading professional associations in his industry, to ensure he meets the highest standards of accounting and bookkeeping, and enabling him to keep up to date on all aspects involved with accounting and bookkeeping and any industry changes. He is a member of Business Network International (BNI), Ajax Pickering Board of Trade, and frequents most of the networking groups in the region. Mohamed volunteers his time in the preparation of income tax returns through the CRA’s Community Voluntary income Tax Preparation (CVITP) clinics, working with charitable organizations. Past Chair: Gary W. Jarosz, Vice President, Global Emissions Systems Inc. Joe Neal is serving his third term on Council. Joe has lived in Courtice since 1990. He is a married father of three. Joe is a lawyer, and has been for the past 35 years. Uchechi Ezurike-Bosse is a business strategist, author, speaker, and wholesale expert, helping passion-driven entrepreneurs increase their wealth, confidence and freedom. She's been featured as a guest on Hay House Radio, a regular contributor to The Huffington Post, as well as various online publications. Uchechi is the founder of My Empowered Living and Bossurike, author of From Aspiration to Fulfillment ~ Bridging the Gap from Where you Are to Where you Want to be, which is available at all major online booksellers, and Chapters-Indigo stores across the country. She's also the author of Business Success Blueprint ~ A Step-by- Step Process to Creating a Profitable Business You Love, and the creator of the Dream Life Designer Planners. A comprehensive planner and goal setting system that allows you to set aligned goals, while having the support and accountability to achieve them. She's been dubbed the 'Dream Whisperer' by clients, and is passionate about educating and empowering others to cultivate the right conditions for success. Jay Fisher, Durham College photoJay is a professor and coordinator for the entrepreneurship and small business program at Durham College in the School of Business, IT and Management. Prior to joining the college as a full time faculty member in 2010, he spent 20 years in the information technology industry, in various sales, marketing, and executive roles. He has worked in various positions with IBM, EDS, as well as several start-up and small technology companies. Jay also operates his own company which develops and manufactures an exciting new niche consumer product. Jay earned a Honours Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University, Management Certificates from Harvard University and Boston University, and completed a Masters of Arts in Adult Education from Central Michigan University. Jay has been affiliated with Durham College since 2003, and has had a lifelong passion for education and entrepreneurship as demonstrated through his career choices and other experiences. During this time, Jay has been an advisor for various faculties and programs across both Durham College and UOIT, and is an active member of the Durham Region entrepreneurial ecosystem. Shannon joined BACD as a volunteer mentor in 2015 and became a member of the Board of Directors in 2017. She is a retired IT Executive with 30 years of experience across sales, marketing, R&D, operations, consulting, and services delivery. She has lead teams of over 600 people in a large multinational corporation but her passion is launching new businesses and her client background and engineering degree provides a strong base for this, including Big Data and technology-based start-ups. In retirement, she is committed to giving back to the community through BACD and healthcare not-for-profit organizations. Stephen Parrott, Focus Management PhotoStephen is an accomplished business strategist and master facilitator whose focus is on helping leaders move their business to the next level. Through his consulting practice Stephen has gained extensive experience working with small to mid-size organizations in strategic planning and alignment, operations, project management and outsourcing. Twenty years at the Bank of Nova Scotia provided Stephen with functional experience across systems, operations, marketing, international operations, risk management, the regulated environment of mutual fund and wealth management, as well as strategic planning and small business management. As Partner with FOCUS Management since 2008, Stephen has collaborated with business leaders across diverse sectors, including manufacturers, distributors, retailers, professional services, financial services, construction, telecommunications, aerospace and defense firms, throughout Canada, the United Kingdom and Mexico. For more than 20 years the FOCUS Management Team has partnered with business leaders to achieve breakthrough results by driving great execution of what matters most through their organizations – in short, making sure the really important things get done, and done well. FOCUS services include Strategic Alignment – achieving strategic clarity, alignment and commitment; Organizational Alignment – creating personal ownership and commitment to action at the individual level, and Executional Management – making sure that plans are translated into action and then executed through to successful completion. Francesca Schettini, is the owner, founder and creative designer of by Francesca, xo for the past 5 years. Her Event Management and Planning Boutique caters to Weddings, Corporate and Social Events. Francesca has an extensive background in the field of finance, marketing and sales working for large corporations such as Dell and IBM. Francesca enjoys giving back to her community by fundraising for local charities such as Jenny's Warriors, Autism Ontario, Habitat for Humanity, to name a few. She finds time to help her community entrepreneurs by helping them grow their businesses through mentoring and referrals. Francesca runs her own mastermind group and is the Chapter Leader for the "Rising Tide Society" which is a community and education chapter for entrepreneurs worldwide. She is a spiritual woman by heart who stays humble by being her authentic self. BACD provided an amazing source of support, guidance, training and constructive critiquing, both on a business level as well as personal. The experienced in-house business leaders and staff, combined with their appointed mentors and specialized trainers gave me a much clearer understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. Then BACD gave me the much needed tools and confidence, to help set me off on the right paths to success. BACD is a fantastic resource for entrepreneurs and businesses. The team of advisors and program facilitators are passionate about small business and are very helpful in providing the resources needed to grow and succeed. I have experienced great success working with BACD over the past 3 years. I would recommend all entrepreneurs to network with the team of advisors and find out how they can achieve business success! Just an amazing resource with amazing people. So much knowledge and they have a genuine interest and desire to help entrepreneurs and business owners. Amazing!!

2019-04-26T15:37:49Z

http://bacd.ca/about/

108 Commercial Real Estate & Properties in Surfers Paradise are listed in 6 categories. We have 48 OfficesSale & Lease , 36 Retail ShopsSale & Lease , 13 Hotels and LeisureSale & Lease , 9 Development LandsSale & Lease , 1 Industrial Warehouses Sale & Lease and 1 ShowroomsSale & Lease . 81m2 of available office space Full fit out comprising of reception, boardroom, office, kitchenette and open plan Located next door to Bruce Bishop Car Park Surrounded by cafes and coffee shops Excellent rent Available now Approx Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. Central Office Only $200 Per Week + Gst $200 Per Week + GST (Incl.. 30m² Second floor office walk up Office plus reception/second office Would suit small or start up business Looks over Orchid Avenue Shared kitchen bathrooms Ducted air conditioning Basement parking at a great rate Approximately Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. For Lease - Office & Retail Premises $1,400/sqm pa + outgoings.. A Grade Building | Great Internal Lighting | Prestigious Location $100pw | 5 Person Workspa.. PROPERTY OVERVIEW $100pw Price incl. Premier serviced office in the most prestigious commercial building in Surfers Paradise. Enjoy panoramic ocean and hinterland views from this brand new workspace along with a light, fresh and modern style to keep you motivated and inspired. This global office provider specialises in flexible workspaces and great meeting room facilities at affordable prices, devised to make it easier for entrepreneurs, SMEs, project teams and corporate firms to achieve success. With a coworking desk or private office space you’ll also benefit from access to training and meeting rooms, high speed internet, reception and admin support, printing stations, casual breakout areas, kitchen facilities and an onsite coffee bar. Outstanding value for money from one of the world’s longest standing workspace brands and in one of Surfers Paradise’s top serviced offices. Tours available daily and enquiries welcome. This leading serviced office is in the iconic 50 Cavill Avenue building, a distinctive A Grade commercial tower incorporating cutting edge technology and brand new facilities. With four sides of natural light, three prominent street entrances and a location in the heart of Surfers Paradise’s commercial precinct just steps from the world famous Main and Broadwater Beaches, it has attracted notable tenants such as Nine Network Australia, Mantra Group, PWC and CBRE. The 22 floor commercial tower offers 446 secure basement car parking spaces, six high speed destination control lifts, energy efficient air conditioning, a 3 Star Nabers Rating and state of the art end of trip facilities. Surrounded by cafes, restaurants, retail, business services and beaches, this attractive building makes doing business on the Gold Coast an absolute pleasure. The advertised office space is perfect for a team of 5. If you need more or less space, we have over 30,000 furnished workspaces all over the world suitable for a team of 1 to 200+. Our award winning team offer a free service that will help you find the perfect solution for your needs, so reach out if you need more help. What you get for your weekly rent , 24 x 7 security and access , Private furnished office with desks, chairs , Electricity usage included , Unlimited kitchen supplies, incl. tea, coffee, filtered water (fees apply per person) , Prestigious business address to put on your cards , Flexible terms from 1 month 2 years , Ability to bring your existing phone number over , Complimentary receptionist to meet and greet your clients , Regular cleaning , Unlimited commercial grade internet service Building features , Abundance of natural light , Air conditioning , Architecturally awarded building , Bicycle storage , Company branding in foyer , Disabled access and facilities , Onsite Cafe / Restaurant , Taxi / Uber stand close to building 100m to shops, bars and restaurants 200m to bus stops on Cavill Ave, Gold Coast Highway & Beach Road 5 min walk to the beach Close to shopping malls, cafes, shops, pubs in fact everything! Who is Office Hub? Office Hub is the world\'s No.1 marketplace for office space. We have a huge global selection of coworking spaces, serviced offices and shared office spaces with flexible options to suit teams from 1 200 people. We\'ll take you on a tour of all the workspaces that fit your needs and work on your behalf to get the best price possible. We\'ll help you discover how shared office space can be the most beneficial and budget friendly solution for your business. www.office hub.com Conditions apply – the advertised price includes any incentives offered based on a 12 month agreement and is available to new tenants only. Please note that the rental rate may increase for a shorter rental period. A portion of the square meterage factors in access to shared space. A Grade Building | Great Internal Lighting | Prestigious Location $100pw | 8 Person Workspa.. PROPERTY OVERVIEW $100pw Price incl. Premier serviced office in the most prestigious commercial building in Surfers Paradise. Enjoy panoramic ocean and hinterland views from this brand new workspace along with a light, fresh and modern style to keep you motivated and inspired. This global office provider specialises in flexible workspaces and great meeting room facilities at affordable prices, devised to make it easier for entrepreneurs, SMEs, project teams and corporate firms to achieve success. With a coworking desk or private office space you’ll also benefit from access to training and meeting rooms, high speed internet, reception and admin support, printing stations, casual breakout areas, kitchen facilities and an onsite coffee bar. Outstanding value for money from one of the world’s longest standing workspace brands and in one of Surfers Paradise’s top serviced offices. Tours available daily and enquiries welcome. This leading serviced office is in the iconic 50 Cavill Avenue building, a distinctive A Grade commercial tower incorporating cutting edge technology and brand new facilities. With four sides of natural light, three prominent street entrances and a location in the heart of Surfers Paradise’s commercial precinct just steps from the world famous Main and Broadwater Beaches, it has attracted notable tenants such as Nine Network Australia, Mantra Group, PWC and CBRE. The 22 floor commercial tower offers 446 secure basement car parking spaces, six high speed destination control lifts, energy efficient air conditioning, a 3 Star Nabers Rating and state of the art end of trip facilities. Surrounded by cafes, restaurants, retail, business services and beaches, this attractive building makes doing business on the Gold Coast an absolute pleasure. The advertised office space is perfect for a team of 8. If you need more or less space, we have over 30,000 furnished workspaces all over the world suitable for a team of 1 to 200+. Our award winning team offer a free service that will help you find the perfect solution for your needs, so reach out if you need more help. What you get for your weekly rent , 24 x 7 security and access , Private furnished office with desks, chairs , Electricity usage included , Unlimited kitchen supplies, incl. tea, coffee, filtered water (fees apply per person) , Prestigious business address to put on your cards , Flexible terms from 1 month 2 years , Ability to bring your existing phone number over , Complimentary receptionist to meet and greet your clients , Regular cleaning , Unlimited commercial grade internet service Building features , Abundance of natural light , Air conditioning , Architecturally awarded building , Bicycle storage , Company branding in foyer , Disabled access and facilities , Onsite Cafe / Restaurant , Taxi / Uber stand close to building 100m to shops, bars and restaurants 200m to bus stops on Cavill Ave, Gold Coast Highway & Beach Road 5 min walk to the beach Close to shopping malls, cafes, shops, pubs in fact everything! Who is Office Hub? Office Hub is the world\'s No.1 marketplace for office space. We have a huge global selection of coworking spaces, serviced offices and shared office spaces with flexible options to suit teams from 1 200 people. We\'ll take you on a tour of all the workspaces that fit your needs and work on your behalf to get the best price possible. We\'ll help you discover how shared office space can be the most beneficial and budget friendly solution for your business. www.office hub.com Conditions apply – the advertised price includes any incentives offered based on a 12 month agreement and is available to new tenants only. Please note that the rental rate may increase for a shorter rental period. A portion of the square meterage factors in access to shared space. A Grade Building | Great Internal Lighting | Prestigious Location $198pw | 1 Person Workspa.. PROPERTY OVERVIEW $198pw Price incl. Premier serviced office in the most prestigious commercial building in Surfers Paradise. Enjoy panoramic ocean and hinterland views from this brand new workspace along with a light, fresh and modern style to keep you motivated and inspired. This global office provider specialises in flexible workspaces and great meeting room facilities at affordable prices, devised to make it easier for entrepreneurs, SMEs, project teams and corporate firms to achieve success. With a coworking desk or private office space you’ll also benefit from access to training and meeting rooms, high speed internet, reception and admin support, printing stations, casual breakout areas, kitchen facilities and an onsite coffee bar. Outstanding value for money from one of the world’s longest standing workspace brands and in one of Surfers Paradise’s top serviced offices. Tours available daily and enquiries welcome. This leading serviced office is in the iconic 50 Cavill Avenue building, a distinctive A Grade commercial tower incorporating cutting edge technology and brand new facilities. With four sides of natural light, three prominent street entrances and a location in the heart of Surfers Paradise’s commercial precinct just steps from the world famous Main and Broadwater Beaches, it has attracted notable tenants such as Nine Network Australia, Mantra Group, PWC and CBRE. The 22 floor commercial tower offers 446 secure basement car parking spaces, six high speed destination control lifts, energy efficient air conditioning, a 3 Star Nabers Rating and state of the art end of trip facilities. Surrounded by cafes, restaurants, retail, business services and beaches, this attractive building makes doing business on the Gold Coast an absolute pleasure. The advertised office space is perfect for a team of 1. If you need more or less space, we have over 30,000 furnished workspaces all over the world suitable for a team of 1 to 200+. Our award winning team offer a free service that will help you find the perfect solution for your needs, so reach out if you need more help. What you get for your weekly rent , 24 x 7 security and access , Private furnished office with desks, chairs , Electricity usage included , Unlimited kitchen supplies, incl. tea, coffee, filtered water (fees apply per person) , Prestigious business address to put on your cards , Flexible terms from 1 month 2 years , Ability to bring your existing phone number over , Complimentary receptionist to meet and greet your clients , Regular cleaning , Unlimited commercial grade internet service Building features , Abundance of natural light , Air conditioning , Architecturally awarded building , Bicycle storage , Company branding in foyer , Disabled access and facilities , Onsite Cafe / Restaurant , Taxi / Uber stand close to building 100m to shops, bars and restaurants 200m to bus stops on Cavill Ave, Gold Coast Highway & Beach Road 5 min walk to the beach Close to shopping malls, cafes, shops, pubs in fact everything! Who is Office Hub? Office Hub is the world\'s No.1 marketplace for office space. We have a huge global selection of coworking spaces, serviced offices and shared office spaces with flexible options to suit teams from 1 200 people. We\'ll take you on a tour of all the workspaces that fit your needs and work on your behalf to get the best price possible. We\'ll help you discover how shared office space can be the most beneficial and budget friendly solution for your business. www.office hub.com Conditions apply – the advertised price includes any incentives offered based on a 12 month agreement and is available to new tenants only. Please note that the rental rate may increase for a shorter rental period. A portion of the square meterage factors in access to shared space. Fantastic Main Road Exposure - Reduced Rent! $700 Per Week + GST (Incl.. Centrepoint Resort Arcade, currently two shops available wanting to find a unique key food/retail operator. Frontage to the G:Link tram line Surfers Paradise Boulevard. Shop 3 can be also combined with Shop 2 giving you a total of 112m2 fitted with cold room, grease trap and Al Fresco area. Shop 3 $700 per week + GST 52m² retail shop Corner tenancy with massive signage potential Grease trap connection in place 1 free allocated car park Motivated Landlord will look at all reasonable offers! Approximately Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. 161sqm of ground floor office space Fit out with offices, reception, kitchen, bathroom open plan Short walk to cafe precinct Ready to move into Available now. Approx Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. Arguably Surfers Paradises' best priced retail with large incentive offerings for quality operators. Prominently positioned on Surfers Paradise Boulevard directly under the iconic iFly attraction, and smack bang between Cavill Avenue and Q1 retail precinct, these brand new tenancies are ready immediately for all levels of operation. Cold shell offerings include all necessary services for FB Tenancies ranging from 38m2 to 185m2 Shop 3 120m2 , Shop 4 64m2 Shop 7 38m2 (Shops 3 4 can be amalgamated to create 185m2 ) Suited to an array of services, boutique retail, FB, small bar or tourism Rear laneway access for all delivery requirements Brand new amenities on site All serious levels of interest considered contact exclusive listing agents to arrange your time to inspect Approx Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. 67m² retail shop/office Potential access to grease trap Ideal for cafe/takeaway, chemist/convenience store, office, tour desk, etc. Open plan shop ready to personalise to your business needs Available now! Approximately Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. 83m² commercial office/retail space Allocated car parks with additional visitor parking Suitable for small to medium business such as accounting firm, law firm, financier, etc. Outgoings included in rental price Open plan office with one managers office Plenty of natural lighting Recently renovated and painted Available immediately, call to inspect! Approximately Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. Abundance Of Natural Light | Free Street Parking | Shared Workspace $220pw | 2 Person Workspa.. PROPERTY OVERVIEW $220pw Price incl. This stunning Surfers Paradise office has a range of workspaces for rent including 1 2 person private offices and upto six coworking desks with flexible options to accommodate different sized teams. A complete renovation has transformed this space into one of the most stylish offices in Surfers Paradise with ceiling height glass doors, matt finishes and green plants. Unique modern furniture adds to the chic image and included in the rental is 24/7 access, high speed Wi Fi and regular cleaning. The furnished space comes with desks, chairs and personal storage and you’ll enjoy access to relaxed but smart breakout zones including a kitchen and welcome area. Tenants from any industry are welcome but relatively quiet (non phone based) businesses will be preferred as the semi open plan space is shared with another small business. This office is situated in the Thornton Tower, a primarily residential apartment building of 15 floors located at the southern end of Surfers Paradise. Right next to a light rail station, with excellent road links and just a walk from shops, restaurants and the beach, this office space will provide its new tenants with a fantastically balanced lifestyle. The building offers full air conditioning and bike storage as well as a well known address that clients and prospects will instantly recognise. There is plenty of free street parking in the area and good bus links to Surfers & Broadbeach to make your morning commute an absolute breeze. The advertised office space is perfect for a team of 2. If you need more or less space, we have over 30,000 furnished workspaces all over the world suitable for a team of 1 to 200+. Our award winning team offer a free service that will help you find the perfect solution for your needs, so reach out if you need more help. What you get for your weekly rent , 24/7 Access , Access to internal breakout areas , Access to kitchen facilities , Building outgoings included , High speed wifi provided , Electricity usage included , Flexible terms , Lockable storage unit , One simple bill for everything related to your workspace , Premium coffee/tea facilities , Regular cleaning Building features , Abundance of natural light , Air conditioning , Bicycle storage , Car parking Street (Free) , Contemporary fit out , Direct access to public transport , International hotels only 5 min away , Mixed commercial and residential building , Retail and shopping malls nearby , Shared office space 100m to Northcliffe Tram stop 300m walk to the beach 1 min from Thornton Towers Park WHO IS OFFICE HUB? Office Hub has largest collection of shared office space, sublet office space, creative coworking office space and serviced offices, perfect for 1 200 employees. Let us take you on a tour of all the spaces that fit your needs and budget. Our service is complimentary and we work for you and the landlord to negotiate the most competitive deal in the market. Let us show you how shared and serviced offices can be the perfect solution for your business. www.office hub.com.au www.office hub.co.nz Conditions apply A portion of the square meterage factors in access to shared space. The advertised price includes any incentives offered based on a 12 month agreement. If a shorter period is agreed to please note the price may increase accordingly. This promotional offer for new tenants only and may be withdrawn at any time due to space availability. This small trendy office has now just become available on the popular Chevron Island. This corner suite situated above a small cafe has an abundance of natural light and is available for immediate occupancy. 68sqm of office space Complete fit out in place Convenient location Many surrounding cafes coffee shops Plenty of client car parking at your doorstep Available now Approx Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. 126m2 of office space full existing fit out in place Basement secure parking Located across from Surfers Paradise's biggest car park Central location steps away from public transport 24 hour secure access air conditioned Available now Approx Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. Located on the popular strip of Cavill Avenue, this popular building has a new office vacancy that has just become available. Situated in the heart of the Gold Coast and surrounded by retail shops, cafes, restaurants, coffee shops and public transport, this fully fit out glass office is available now. 135sqm of office space Comprising of glass offices, open plan and reception Large windows offering an abundance of natural light Two lifts servicing all levels On site parking Air conditioned 24 hour accessible Approx Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. 95 156m² Freshly painted throughout, brand new vintage style floorboards, brand new air conditioning unit Allocated car park NBN available in area Located next to busy Costa D'Oro Central Lounge Bar close to Hilton Soul towers Air conditioned, exclusive toilet, kitchenette Fantastic signage potential front fascia signage and windows as pictured Approximately Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. This executive building has recently received a large refurbishment, completely modernizing the whole space and making it one of Surfers Paradise's most highly sought after locations. Only 3 spaces remain so be quick. 117sqm located on Level 4 soon to be refurbished, the owners will allow a 2 year lease and due to this, have dropped the rent to $280/sqm 110sqm Level 3 office great natural light 183sqm Ground Level presents beautifully private balcony Fully refurbished office suites and amenities Secure building under surveillance 24/7 On site parking Attractive incentives available Situated on the new light rail track only metres from two light rail stations No outgoings No After hours electricity Approx Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. Comprising of six levels of ultra prestigious office space, Surfers Paradise's newest office development has everything to cater your every need, from those who love design to those who love the environment. Sizes ranging from 97sqm to 393sqm of premium office space Located a block away from the beach and next door to many cafes, restaurants and shops A 30 second walk to the transit line 5 star green star rating Full existing fit outs, kitchens and shower/locker facilities Two high speed lifts servicing all levels 3 levels of basement parking Free bicycle basement parking Full disabled access facilities all floors#8232; Sensor lighting throughout the building with maximum exposure to natural lighting Minimal spaces still remain Approx Disclaimer: Ray White has not independently checked any of the information we merely pass on. We make no comment on and give no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document which does not constitute all or any part of any offer or contract by the recipient. Prospective purchasers / lessees must rely on their own enquiries and should satisfy themselves as to the truth or accuracy of all information given by their own inspections, searches, inquiries, advices or as is otherwise necessary. No duty of care is assumed by Orchid Avenue Realty trading as Ray White Surfers Paradise Commercial divisions toward the recipient with regard to the use of this information and all information given is given without responsibility. Situated on the corner of Hamilton St and the Gold Coast Highway, this property is positioned perfectly and offers great opportunities for all tenants wanting to lease retail or commercial space in the Surfers Paradise Business District. Currently their are spaces between 53m2 and 263m2 available. The spaces on offer include the following: GF Retail: 174m2 GF Retail: 121m2 GF Office: 52m2 Commercial Office: 110m2 Commercial Office: 153m2 Commercial Office: 263m2 The Landlord is committed to providing the best value deals in the Surfers Paradise Precinct. We urge any one looking for space in Surfers Paradise to contact Adam Grbcic to discuss how we can cater a deal to meet your needs. Please contact Adam Grbcic for more information.

2019-04-24T16:27:03Z

https://www.commercialproperty2sell.com.au/real-estate/qld/surfers-paradise/

I have an excel file which is stored in 2007 excel format. I can see the file in Arc Catalog. But when I click the file to preview the content, the following message came. Failed to Connect to Database.An underlying database error occurred. Class not registered. Any solution for this issue?? There is a documentation bug logged for that particular page: BUG-000096855: Documentation needs to reflect that using .XLSX files when Microsoft 2016 is installed also requires the 2007 Microsoft Driver in order to function. Meaning yes, you still require the 2007 Microsoft driver when running Excel 2016. If you have an .xlsx file you want to use in ArcGIS but do not have Excel 2007 installed, you will need to install the 2007 Office System Driver. It can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center. If you do not have any version of Microsoft Excel installed, you must install that driver before you can use either .xls or .xlsx files. If you have Excel 2010 installed, you must still install the driver. I had the same issue and installing the 2007 Driver worked without any issue. I did not even have to close ArcGIS Desktop. Thank you Ray Carnes! This was so helpful and resolved my issue in 1,2,3. Thank you so much Ray!!! OMG I LOVE YOU. I WAS FREAKING OUT TRYING TO GET MY HOMEWORK DONE! Hahahaha! Muchas gracias Ray, no sabía cómo solucionar este problema. Thank you so much for this help! I logged into my account just so I could comment and say thanks! Yeah I downloaded the Access Database Engine from Microsoft and now its working. And Arc Catalog is showing the table. The problem also exists for Excel 2010 using ArcGIS 9.3.1 with SP2 installed on an XP 32x PC. If you install the Access Database Engine for 2010 it doesn't make any difference. What is worse is that it doesn't see XLS 2003, CSV, TAB or the most failsafe option MSDOS Text (Which used to be the ONLY one that would work for most Arc9.x versions). It seems like there is a break in the registry, and could be related to XP. What has reading a Text file have to do with a database anyway? Cooky! Is anyone aware of a fix for this problem in relation to acolbrans' post. That is the exact problem that I am having right now. I'm running ARC 10 on Windows 7 64-bit and Microsoft Office 2010. If I save an excel file in an older format (97-2003), I can load it into ARC, Otherwise, I'm experiencing the same error. "You cannot install the 32-bit version of Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 because you currently have 64-bit office products installed. If you want to install 32-bit Microsoft Access DataBase Engine 2010, you first need to remove the 64-bit installation of Office products. After uninstalling the following product(s), rerun the setup in order to install 32-bit version of Micrsoft Access Database Engine 2010. Microsoft Access database engine 2010 (English), Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, Microsoft Office Visio 2010". Does anyone else have similar problem. I cannot add the excel sheet. 32 bit programs such as ArcCatalog cannot load 64 bit code in the same process. This is a very fundamental issue. Sorry. I would suggest contacting Esri Technical Support for further troubleshooting, as I don't have any experience with ArcGIS 10 installations that have 64bit Office. FYI: "The 32-bit version of Office 2010 is the recommended option for most people, because it prevents potential compatibility issues with other 32-bit applications, specifically third-party add-ins that are available only for 32-bit operating systems." I do have problem with 64 bit Windows 7 and 64 bit Office 2010 on ArcGIS 9.3x. I was able add X Y too if I save the office 2010 excel sheet to office (97-2003) format excel sheet. If both formats doesn't work then I should have doubted 64 bit version as the culprit. Anyway if you want me to try 32 bit office 2010 I can do that and post the results. I did a cross post at the Microsoft community forum to see if some one can help me to solve this issue via Failed to connect to database. An underlying database error occurred. Class not registered. I am running ArcMap 10 with SP2 and other Esri patches to date on a 64 bit Windows 7 laptop with MS Office 2010. I had the "Failed to Connect to Database.An underlying database error occurred. Class not registered." problem when connecting to an *.xlsx file. Ray Carnes' fix, above, fixed the issue for me. And the MS 2007 Office System Driver doesn't appear to have corrupted Access or Excel 2010. If you have Office 2010 then I guess you need to download the driver for office 2010 and not for office 2007. You can find the Office Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 Redistributable. There are 2 versions of office 2010 available one is 32 bit and the other one is 64 bit. Unfortunately I do have 64 bit now and I am unable to fix the problem however I think 32 bit will do the work. I will download 32 bit version and let you know if this problem fixed with 32 bit version of office 2010. I am running ArcGIS 10 sp2. I also have OS Windows 7, 64 bit, running office 2010 (excel 2010), and have received the same error message, BUT only suddenly starting now after months of use. I don't even get to the point of opening the file, simply at the stage of "Import/Table/ and the table to table dialog opens and as soon as I click the file folder to choose which file to input I get the message. Now I'm really stumped because it was working and now isn't. Even worse, just now I have the same message occurring when I try to Import/FeatureClass to my mdb. What is going on here? We have a FIX thanks to Dennis at ESRI Tech Support. I had suddenly experienced the issue of the error message "Failed to Connect to Database. An underlying database error occurred. Class not registered." This was overnight. I already tried saving files to older versions, downloading the Microsoft Database engine, etc. Nothing worked. Close out of all ArcGIS windows/software. Go to your C:\Users\your folder\AppData\Roaming\ESRI and rename the folder e.g. "ESRI_old" at the Run, type in "regedit" which will take you to the registry. Go to the ESRI folder and rename it. Close it all out and then reopen ArcCatalog. This will reset your connections to folders in ArcCatalog, and reset the setup of your map window to the original install view, BUT will retain all data and will retain the connections of the layers in your mxds. I had the same experience. I have Excel 2010 64-bit installed on a Windows 7 64-bit and installing the 2007 driver solved the problem for me. Because I tried this first, I don't know if the fix ce2corp posted from Dennis at ESRI support would have worked too. I am getting this same error while trying to connect to a .odc connection that Arc Catalog made.. I placed the connection on my server so ArCGis Server could have access to our sql database.. We don't have Office installed on the server machine.. Don't tell us that ESRI released a buggy, crappy new version with willfully stupid, productivity-killing interface and functionality changes, without fixing all the basic problems that have remained unaddressed for years, and didn't thoroughly test it to boot? Surely you jest! Same issue as ce2corp. Everything was fine until yesterday. The suggested fix from Dennis seems to be missing a few steps. What "ESRI" folder in the registry are you supposed to rename, and what do you rename it as? So I decided to try raycanes suggestion instead and it resolved my issue. But if repairing my registery is still something I need to do let me know. Hi, same problem here. While I can open xlsx files in ArcCatalog 10.1, it is unable to insert the same file into ArcMap 10.1. Iam using Evaluasion version of Arcgis 10.1, on an XP 32bit machine. I have tried all the suggested methods, even renaming ESRI folder in HKEY Current User. I believe that ESRI should take some action, it is a shame to loose time and capabilities by saving from xlsx to xls. Please install Office 2007 Data Connectivity Components and update the threat. Yes indeed the case, for me too that look something but it looks like how that works. May be ESRI Guys thought to implement loweversion that defaulty handles .xlsx is Office 2007 so would have choosen that driver. I just hit this same problem with my new Win 7 64 bit machine and an excel .xlsx spreadsheet someone sent me. All the solutions above were way too complicated for me. But again OpenOffice saved the day for me. I have OO 3.4.1 installed. Now OO is from Apache. I brought the spreadsheet into OpenOffice, then saved it as DBF format. Since MS Office 2007, you haven't been able to save to DBF with Excel. Then the resulting dbf file opened in ArcMap 10.1 just fine. I am currently running ArcGIS 10 SP1 on a Windows 7 OS 64-bit. Using Excel 2010. The only way adding either x,y data from an excel spreadsheet or importing an excel data table in the catalog has been to save my .xlsx file back to .xls and using that one. Also, once you get that error message sometimes things lock up. I usually have to close the pop-ups, refresh the map, save the map, close catalog, then start over adding the x,y data and make sure you select the .xls file the first time or it starts all over again. Hi, it is seems that connecting to Xls or Xlsx database is a constantly returning problem, even all suggested actions taken. I deleted ESRI folder in Application Data, which allowed me to connect once with Xls database (not Xlsx) and when I reopened the Mxd file, the connection has been lost permanently. This might be too late.. like 3 years too late but I just had the same error on ArcMap 9.3. However, I saved my Excel Workbook as a CSV, and when I tried the join again, it worked! So try saving it as a CSV file. Good luck! Hey peeps, I got around this annoying error message by saving the excel file I was trying to import as a 97-2003 excel document. Apparently the program just can't work with the newer excel files (I was using the newest version of Excel). This solution is a bit easier than installing Excel drivers and stuff. Downloaded the Excel 2007 32 bit interface and it did not fix the issue. If works when the spreadsheets are saved as "97-2003 Spreadsheet" then it works fine. I will really appreciate any help to find a simpler solution of fix. I was hit by this issue today. I also found how to solve this problem. The problem is from data interoperability. Go to Customize, Extesion and disable it then you can read .xlsx again. Please make sure that 2007 Office Data Connectivity Components is already setup in your system. What Extension do you disable when following your advice above? I have my standard 4 Extensions enabled, 3D Analyst, Geostatistical Analyst, Network Analystand Spatial analyst. I need these for my work. Are you saying to disable all of them to get the xlsx data loaded and then reenable them? raycarnes solution (#3 above) worked for me on a Windows Server 2008, 64-bit, no Office installed with ArcGIS 10.2.1. It also worked for me on a win7 64-bit with Office 2010 (not sure if 32-bit or 64-bit), and ArcGIS 10.2.1. I was able to view and import one of the spreadsheets from the .xlsx file. Only issue is that when I import one of the spreadsheets and try to modify one of the field type to "BLOB" it is not changing it. changing it to BLOB allowes it to import, but the field type still shows Text with 255 length. (but that is another issue and I'm still researching). Just an update to the thread. Please give raycarnes the +1 if it works for you. I have the same problem - ArcGIS 10.2.1 , Excel 2013, Win 8.1. Converted text file to xlsx and could not import it into ArcGIS. Took the 'fix' of saving it to an earlier version of Excel - worked fine. Is this a problem with Excel, or with ArcGIS? It seems like it's been around for a long time? Anybody know if ESRI is aware of it? This issue is still occurring! I have ArcGIS 10.2 installed on a 64 bit machine, most machines are now 64 bits. I have been advised that it is a software clash with MS Office running as 64 bit. On my home laptop in uninstalled MS office and reinstalled as 32 bit. Things worked OK first time round then everything went pear shaped again. I wonder if this happens with Apple and Macs? Also would be nice to get rid of the BLOB field! a slightly frustrated biological mapping officer from somewhere in England! Reviving this blog...still having this issue. Running Windows 7 64bit, Office 13 and ArcGIS 10.2.2. Same error when trying to read an xlsx file. Is the 2007 driver still the optimum fix for this issue? I didn't have this issue when I was running Office 10. Running windows 10.. have the same error. Similar problem. Can't Add Data with XLSX files. Running ArcGIS 10.2 and Windows 10, obviously 64 bit. Could Add Data with XLSX files when running Windows 7. Added the 2007 Excel driver update. Didn't fix the problem. Is anyone at Esri monitoring these discussions or working on a solution to this problem? HELP! >> Is anyone at Esri monitoring these discussions or working on a solution to this problem? HELP! Please contact Esri Tech Support and make them aware of this issue. That would be a much better resource as this is a general forum and not the official way of reaching out to Esri. This forum belongs to Esri. It does. I agree. But the Esri Forums is a rather general space for everyone to share their experiences. All Esri employees are not active here. These technical issues, which are re-occurring should rather be reported via Esri Tech Support as that brings the issue directly under consideration. Ok. Thanks for this pointer. Perhaps Esri could simply monitor these forums rather than troubling users with submitting bug reports and crash reports. Ramon, did you ever find a solution to this issue? Yes. Ray Carnes' fix, pasted below, worked for me. "If you have an .xlsx file you want to use in ArcGIS but do not have Excel 2007 installed, you will need to install the 2007 Office System Driver. It can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center. If you do not have any version of Microsoft Excel installed, you must install that driver before you can use either .xls or .xlsx files. If you have Excel 2010 installed, you must still install the driver." Just save the worksheet as a .CSV file type and it should work fine. ArcMap works better with that format, at least from my own personal experience. Save the excel file As Excel 97-2003 Workbook (which is an extension .xls instead of xsls). Then you shouldn't have that issue. Just ran into this issue today. Coincidentally there have been a bunch of Microsoft Office Updates recently. I can't open any type of excel file. Not even the .xls 97-2003 format. The .csv workaround is fine but it would be interesting to find out what happened. I can't seem to fix my issue with any of the solutions posted here. I'm about to uninstall the recent updates in a troubleshooting attempt. After every windowsupdate we have to repair the "2007 Office System Driver" to read the Excel-Files. Today we have a new Problem. After the repair only xlsx-Files work, if I try to open xls-Files we get the error: "Failed to connect to database. ..." Error: Failed to connect to database. General function failure Unexpected error from external database driver is related to Windows 7 and Windows 10, but wondering if a Microsoft update might have also affected your system? See the Microsoft links referenced through this tech article. our operating system is Windows Server 2012. Is there a installation guide for the correct Installation with ArcGIS 10.4.1; Office 2016 (Excel and Access) and windows Server 2012 R2? There is a user on this thread Unexpected error from external database driver (1) who says he sees similar behavior on Server 2012. The description of ArcGIS working after repairing the 2007 office system driver and then not working after a few days would lead me to look at what is happening just before it stops working. Are there updates being made to the OS? "Download and install the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 Redistributable, and then modify the DB connection strings in Microsoft Excel to use ACE as a provider. Example: Change Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0 to Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0. 1. I open the xls-Sheet with Excel2016. If you have an .xlsx file you want to use in ArcGIS but do not have Excel 2007 installed, you will need to install the 2007 Office System Driver. It can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center. If you have Microsoft Excel 2010 or no version of Microsoft Excel installed, you must install the 2007 driver before you can use either .xls or .xlsx files. I did not understand the "Understanding how to use Microsoft Excel files in ArcGIS", what if we have Excel 2016 installed? What is the correct "Microsoft Access Database Engine" for Excel 2016 Files? When I use "Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010", where I have to change Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0 to Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0 ? I had an xls that has worked forever, but this windows update caused me to get the error when trying to access it. I tried saving it as xlsx but still received the error. What finally worked was creating a new xlsx and copy/pasting all the data from the prior xls, then I was able to access it through catalog.

2019-04-19T22:46:30Z

https://community.esri.com/thread/7655

The purpose of this chapter is twofold: to get more detailed accounts of the benefits of the NAS (NAS or the Supergrid) and to analyze financing mechanisms for construction. Since the data for the MacDonald publication was gathered in 2009, the price of energy generation, particularly from solar and wind (onshore and offshore), have dramatically decreased, making the NAS even more advantageous than previously projected. We project the price of the infrastructure to be $303 billion and $442 billion. Yet, the savings in electricity generation (the cost of generating electricity from wind and solar sources is much less than traditional sources) offset the cost of building the supergrid under most reasonable scenarios of the price of undergrounding transmission lines and the price of natural gas. Therefore, the total annualized cost of generating and transmitting electricity would be likely be lower because of the NAS. We estimated that between 649,010 to 936,111 constant jobs would be needed for construction of the transmission and generation capacity over a 30-year build time. We analyzed financing options and make conjectures as to how the Supergrid would be financed in each region of the country accounting for projected cost and precedent of how other transmission projects were financed in each region. We do not recommend new taxes or government sponsored financing programs to build the Supergrid. Private financing would fund most of the lines in a majority of regions. We also encourage participation from energy developers that stand to benefit from the Supergrid. Further, the Rural Utilities Services could make loan capital available to developers for the less lucrative lines that may be less attractive to private financiers. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee programs. Secure backing of federal/state governments, DOE, regional transmission organizations (RTOs)/ independent system operators (ISOs). Reduce permitting and regulation burden. Ensure stakeholder interests are aligned in each region. Encourage regional and national collaboration. The primary objectives of this analysis were to explore in more detail the economic benefits of the proposed national overlay high voltage direct current (HVDC) electric grid, and to develop a framework that could be used to update and repeat economic benefit calculations as new cost projections associated with energy generation and transmission technologies become available. This analysis provides a methodology to compute total project cost and create an updated line construction cost estimate. We used the publicly accessible Jobs and Economic Development Impact (JEDI) models provided by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to estimate the NAS’s effect on job creation and regional economies at the national and state levels. Further, we used the results to conduct more detailed analysis with higher resolution data to estimate the economic impact of the NAS at state levels. The model includes a database of cost assumptions for varying types of transmission lines and power plants. Due to major changes (unanticipated steep downward trend in costs of wind and solar energy generation over the last several years), it became necessary to update the input cost assumptions of the NAS compared to those used in the MacDonald et al. study. The total capital cost for the transmission system was estimated by summing the Overnight Capital Cost (ONCC), new HVDC transmission cost, and variable natural gas costs. The renewable generation ONCC figures from 2013 MacDonald et al. figures were compared to 2016 Lazard Levelized Costs of Electricity figures (referred to as LCOE or Lazard figures). The more recent study showed a dramatic decrease in ONCC for building the various renewable generation capacities. Such current LCOE are very close to the most optimistic MacDonald et al. estimates of future costs (projected for 2030, shown in Table 1), leading to an even more favorable forecast for the HVDC supergrid system. Next, total transmission system cost was estimated. Transmission cost is a function of Line Cost ($/MW-mile) and Station Cost ($/MW). A line and station cost comparison of MacDonald et al. figures against JEDI Model figures is shown below in Table 2. While the figures for both categories were comparable, the MacDonald et al. paper used data that indicated lower station costs and higher line costs. Due to unforeseen favorable generating costs, these differences were mitigated, rendering the results very comparable. We then combined the MacDonald et al. system design with the results from the JEDI Model (i.e. front-end stations cost) and the updated cost figures to arrive at a final comparison for the cost of the NAS system (both above and below ground) versus the system cost of the current AC grid. In the first two scenarios, a simulation of a single integrated system that could send electricity across the lower 48 states was used, as prescribed by the NAS. In the last scenario, the lower 48 states were split into district regions where energy generated in those boundaries must be used within the same boundaries (shown in Table 3). The single system was much more efficient since the scenario with the divisions requires natural gas to fill in the gaps that wind and energy cannot supply. Some regions, in the system divided in distinct regions, overproduced renewable energy while others underproduce renewable energy. Simulations of the cost of generation sources with and without the NAS were completed, where the new system favored only the least expensive forms of electricity generation amongst offshore wind, onshore wind, solar PV, and natural gas. Coal and oil were omitted since they are more expensive electricity generators in either scenario. Our results showed that the onshore wind generation capacity, which has gone down in price recently, will drive changes in nameplate capacity more than anything else under the NAS scenario. Costs would favor solar PV generation and natural gas generation much less, while offshore wind energy generation would remain stable. While both overhead and underground line configurations come at a cost advantage under most natural gas price scenarios, the advantage diminishes as the cost of natural gas lowers since natural gas generation facilities can be built anywhere and would require less transmission cost since they would be located closer to load centers. The breakeven point, where the advantage goes away for the underground HVDC scenario, is $4.43/MMBtu. The breakeven point for overhead lines is $2.50/MMBtu. This is assuming that the “multiplier” for the increased cost of underground lines (assuming siting and capacity are equal to that of an above ground line in the same configuration) is three times that of overhead lines. Breakeven points for other multipliers are shown in Table 4 below. Since the usage of underground lines is not common enough to determine a commonly accepted multiplier, we performed a sensitivity analysis to find out how the breakeven point moves depending on both natural gas prices and the aforementioned multiplier. The results show that the breakeven comes at a higher price of natural gas as the multiplier increases. As mentioned before, the most likely scenario for the multiplier is approximately three, at which point the breakeven is $4.43/MMBtu. When the multiplier is two, the breakeven point of natural gas is well below $4.00/MMBtu. At a multiplier of four, the breakeven point is closer to $6.00/MMBtu. Long-term projections of the cost of natural gas are variable as many influences affect both the demand and supply of fuel costs. Expert analysts, however, predict that the cost of natural gas will be well over the 4.00/MMBtu threshold, meaning that at a three times multiplier, the NAS is projected to be economically viable in the long-term at the aggregate level. Table 5 shows the total projected costs of building the NAS. After consulting with multiple industry experts, a three times multiplier was agreed upon to estimate the costs of transmission lines per mile. JEDI figures were also used to determine the cost of converters and substations per mile with the estimation of total mileage of transmission cables needed to construct the NAS. No consideration was given to price impacts of technology adoption. Jobs created from installing transmission infrastructure are listed above, but only contribute a small amount of jobs compared to the jobs needed for the energy generation. Using the results from the NEWS model, developed by MacDonald et al. in the foundational paper, combined with the JEDI model, we calculated the job generation due to renewable energy infrastructure development (from transmission and generation) for each of the lower 48 states. After we combine the jobs estimates of all states with the jobs from installing the thousands of transmission facilities, we estimate that the NAS would produce the equivalent of 650,000 to 950,000 total constant jobs per year over 30 years. The majority of energy infrastructure projects are developed by private companies that secure financing from financial institutions, institutional investors, and the capital markets. Privately financed transmission projects typically have both a debt and equity component. Projects can be structured to have either corporate financing or project financing. Corporate financing uses existing funds from a company’s operating budget to fund a project which could use revenue from existing assets or funds from a corporate bond issue. In corporate financing, the lenders and investors have recourse to the entire corporation, not just the specific asset. Project financing involves the creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) whose only assets and debt are related to the specific project. In project financing, the lenders or investors only have recourse to the assets of the project. Much of the NAS construction would likely involve project financing because it is conducive to multiple entities collaborating on a development. Investment by private investors has been increasing as governments struggle to keep up with the demand for new infrastructure projects, including transmission projects. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects $260 billion invested globally in new transmission and distribution lines through 2035. There is private capital available in the market ready to invest in quality infrastructure projects. In the first half of 2016, it was estimated there was $75 billion of capital waiting to be invested in infrastructure. The capital comes from insurance companies, pension funds, private equity, infrastructure funds, and sovereign wealth funds. There are multiple reasons why investing in transmission lines can be attractive to investors. Cost recovery for transmission projects is regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) creating an almost certain guaranteed rate of return. Cash flows from the project are typically stable and independent of energy prices or line utilization. Established transmission lines utilize proven technology and require minimal ongoing maintenance. Additionally, transmission investment is often resistant to competing investment along the same corridors. A competing investment would have difficulty obtaining financing unless there was significant load growth driving increased demand. These characteristics allow investors to accurately predict investment performance and help make transmission investment more attractive than other types of infrastructure. Debt typically comprises 70-90% of infrastructure project financing. The primary forms of debt financing are through commercial banks, institutional private placements, and the corporate bond market. Traditional bank financing has long been a key component of infrastructure financing. Bank loans typically have lower interest rates than other types of debt financing. However, due to regulatory changes following the 2008 recession, banks are now required to secure long-term bonds to back longer-term loans and therefore banks prefer shorter loans (typically 7 years or less) due to the lower cost. This can create refinancing risk for borrowers. Bank financing is most likely to be used in the early stages of planning and construction. After completion, bank loans are refinanced by a long-term security which has lower cost as much of the construction, permitting risk, etc. has been removed. Banks tend to be more flexible in the event of unforeseen events during construction and can negotiate loan restructuring or adjust the timeframe of disbursements. Institutional private placements are another form of debt financing that can be arranged by an investment bank. Capital would be secured from select institutional clients through a negotiation process led by a bank acting in an agency capacity. The disclosure and paperwork required is similar to issuing a public bond, but there can be more room for flexibility when creating the contract. Insurance companies, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds are types of investors that could participate in a private placement due to their need for long-term investments. A third form of debt financing for transmission developers is the corporate bond market. Private companies can issue bonds to support general operations or specific projects and that money can be allocated to pay for development costs. Bonds are typically more common in the later operational stages of a project when the asset is producing a steady cash flow. Bonds can be a mechanism used when refinancing bank loans at the conclusion of the construction phase. With all types of debt financing, the credit rating of the borrower is important to secure lower cost financing. Pension funds and insurance companies often have guidelines dictating the required credit quality of their investments. Transmission developers constructing the NAS will likely rely on multiple types of debt financing. Construction of many segments of the NAS will likely be financed by traditional bank loans. Once construction is completed, corporate bonds or private placements could be used to refinance the debt. This structure would align the risks and cash flows of the project with investor expectations for each type of debt. The types of debt ultimately used for each segment will be dependent on the developer that wins the contract and their preferred financing mechanisms. Debt holders usually require an infrastructure project to have an equity component to reduce risk and help protect debt holders from loss. Equity typically only comprises 10-30% of infrastructure financing. Equity holders take on the most risk in the project and therefore demand a higher return. Enlisting quality equity holders is often key to being able to secure debt financing at the lowest cost. Transmission developers often provide a portion of the equity in projects they construct. Aside from having a stake in the project, developers benefit from the tax savings of the depreciation generated. Additionally, private equity funds, insurance companies, infrastructure funds, and sovereign wealth funds can also be a source of equity. In the current low interest rate environment, long-term investors such as insurance companies and pension funds are eager to invest in infrastructure projects that offer a higher return than traditional investments. However, currently only 0.8% of the approximately $50 trillion in investable assets from insurance companies and pension funds are invested in infrastructure. The lack of quality projects is the primary reason investment is not higher. Similarly, private equity funds are currently raising $30.5 billion for 43 new funds to invest in quality North American infrastructure projects in addition to the $68 billion in funds they hold, but have not yet invested. This is evidence that there are willing investors looking for superior projects like the NAS to invest in. The key for the NAS will be securing the backing of stakeholders and making the project attractive to new investors. Private financing will likely be the primary source of funds for constructing the NAS. It will be crucial to partner with transmission developers that have a wealth of experience in securing financing and successfully completing projects. The high cost of the NAS will necessitate using a variety of debt and equity financing mechanisms for each segment of the national grid. A new financing model has developed over the past two decades that could be used for some segments of the NAS. The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model can take on many forms, but it involves the collaboration of government and private parties. The PPP model is particularly useful for projects where there is not sufficient private capital financing because it can use government investment to leverage additional private capital. It has become a popular model to finance transmission projects in emerging markets and is beginning to be used more in the United States. The main benefit to the PPP model is spreading risks associated with a large infrastructure project. It is important to structure the deal so that no one party takes on exorbitant amounts of risk. Spreading risk can attract investors that might not otherwise participate in a project. Private firms can provide project expertise and are often able to push projects along faster than the government. The PPP model works best when there is a stream of revenue to ensure an adequate return to investors. FERC regulations allow each Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) and Independent System Operator (ISO) to use an allocation process to dictate how costs are recovered from ratepayers for transmission developments creating a steady revenue stream once the project is complete. There are some challenges in implementing the PPP model for transmission projects. As of January 2017, only 37 states have legislation that allow public-private partnerships. This could prevent using this model for some segments that cross multiple states if not all states allow public-private partnerships. The high regulatory burden of developing transmission projects can slow the process and discourage private investors from joining into a partnership. Projects financed with this model often work best if they have a political champion (governor, senator, etc.) helping to build support for the project. They can also help the project navigate the various federal and state agencies during the permitting process. Historically, the PPP model has been used in the United States for transportation infrastructure projects. But there are some examples of transmission projects using a PPP financing model. The Path 15 project used a public-private partnership structure to finance and build an 83-mile transmission line connecting northern and southern California, helping to eliminate a bottleneck in the grid system. The Western Area Power Administration built and operates the line. The private company Trans-Elect assembled a majority of the project financing. In return, they were granted long-term transmission rights that will help them pay off banks and investors. As a high priority project in California, federal and state agencies expedited environmental studies and the project permitting process. This was one of the first successful PPP projects for a transmission line and it shows the cooperation involved between governments and public and private companies. The PPP model will be used for segments of the NAS that are less lucrative and do not have as much private financing available. As with all segments of the grid, collaboration and support from federal and local governments will be important to successfully structuring PPP deals that are beneficial to all parties. This financing model will be a vital mechanism to construct the less lucrative segments allowing the entire national grid to be completed. Traditionally transmission projects have been privately financed with little assistance from the federal government. However, infrastructure spending has come to the forefront of the national discussion so it is worth examining how a potential infrastructure spending bill at the federal level may impact the NAS. As of July 2017, no infrastructure bill has been proposed in either house of Congress, and it is likely they will focus on other issues before infrastructure. However, the presidential administration has released a framework for what their proposed policy might look like. Their policy would reduce regulations and the time needed to receive federal permits. They also propose using government investment to leverage private sector investment. This could indicate public-private partnerships will be much more common in the future. The policy also hopes to focus federal infrastructure investment on transformative projects that change the way infrastructure is designed, built, and maintained. Many of the proposals from the presidential administration could benefit the NAS. Fewer regulations and a shorter permitting time would help expedite the project and help attract private investment. The NAS could qualify as a transformative project since it is different from the structure of the current electrical grid and promises to have both environmental and national security benefits. Lower direct federal investment in infrastructure likely means the NAS would have trouble securing federal money for construction. Nonetheless, a PPP model used for some segments of the grid could receive federal money to leverage private investment. The uncertainty regarding federal government support for infrastructure development will make private financing a crucial component of funding the NAS. However, there are some government programs available to supplement private financing for the less lucrative grid segments. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issues loan guarantees to promote growth of new clean energy technology through the Loan Program Office (LPO). Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized the loan guarantees. The program applies to a wide range of technologies, including renewable energy and transmission projects. As of June 2017, there is up to $4.5 billion in funding available for projects in renewable and efficient energy. The NAS project appears to meet many of the criteria for acceptance into this program. Projects “that will have a catalytic effect on the commercial deployment of future Renewable Energy Projects” will be looked at favorably in the review process. The NAS is likely to promote additional investment in wind and solar generation because more electricity will be able to be transported over long distances to population centers. The program specifies that for transmission projects to be considered efficient, they must lower electricity losses when compared to current commercial processes in the U.S. over an equivalent distance. The HVDC technology used in the NAS would limit losses of electricity through transmission, making the technology more efficient for long distance transmission. However, there are factors that could limit the eligibility for the loan program for certain parts of the national grid. Projects that could be fully financed by commercial banks are viewed unfavorably in the review process. Projects that receive any other assistance from the federal government (grants, loans) may not be eligible. The loan guarantee program is designed to help new technologies prove their financial worthiness so that future investment can be financed by the capital markets. This program will most likely be useful for sections of the NAS that are projected to be less profitable and therefore need government assistance to secure financing. A section of the grid constructed early in the process may also have a better chance of acceptance into the program. Financial, technical, legal, and environmental factors are reviewed in the approval process along with a review of how well the project fits the policy of the program. The DOE is accepting applications through at least September 2019, although additional submission dates may be announced in the future. The One Nevada Line is an example of the loan program being used for a transmission project. The project received a $343 million loan guarantee to finance a 235-mile 500 kV line through Nevada. The use of a new transmission tower design that has a smaller environmental impact was the technological innovation in this project. The new line is also expected to bring wind and solar generated power from Wyoming and Idaho into Nevada. The NAS project has many of the same benefits as the One Nevada Line. This gives confidence to the idea that the loan guarantee program would be a possible financing mechanism for the NAS. More than 20 states have created Clean Energy Funds using state government funds as a way to promote growth in renewable energy. While each state’s fund has their own design, these funds often are used to attract private investment to renewable energy projects. These funds have primarily been used to provide funding for individual renewable generation projects, but there may be potential to access state funding for the NAS because an improved transmission grid will drive private investment in renewable generation. These funds would likely not provide direct investment to build the NAS but would instead help attract and guarantee financing for private capital investors. This would involve collaboration between private investors, utility companies, and state government agencies. The Rural Utilities Service is a program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture that provides needed infrastructure development and improvement to rural communities. The program provides direct loans, loan guarantees, and grants to electric projects in transmission, distribution, and generation. The loans are primarily made to state and local government entities and cooperative utilities, although for-profit companies are also eligible. The program made $3.4 billion in loans and loan guarantees in 2015 and the amounts are expected to continue increasing. Most loans are between $20 million and $200 million. General guidelines indicate projects should benefit populations of 20,000 or fewer, although there is some flexibility. Segments of the NAS through rural areas or segments that would improve service to rural areas are likely to be eligible for financing through this program. While this program is not likely to be a large piece of grid financing, it could help secure funding for less lucrative segments in rural areas. This program can be used in partnership with other financing to help attract private investment. It would also provide a source of public investment in a public-private partnership. A potential source of financing for private companies investing in transmission infrastructure are Private Activity Bonds (PABs). These bonds are federally tax exempt and therefore allow borrowing at a lower interest rate. They do require a private company to partner with a government agency that acts as the issuer of the bond. However, the private company pays the debt service on the bond under a contractual agreement. Section 142 of the IRS tax code allows PABs for surface transportation projects. They have not been used for transmission projects in the past and it would take new legislation to allow PABs for electric developments. Allowing these types of bonds to be used for the NAS would incentivize private companies to invest in the project because borrowing would be cheaper for transmission projects using PABs than investing in other types of infrastructure. Historically, the energy sector in the United States had been dominated by vertically integrated organizations that owned and operated the generation, transmission, and distribution services within a geographic area. Beginning in 1978, deregulation allowed some utilities to create power pools to facilitate wholesale transactions over larger geographic areas. By the 1990’s there was a need to have open access to transmission services for all utility companies to create competition among generators. FERC issued orders to encourage the creation of regional organizations that would control the transmission of energy and allow open access to transmission lines. Today there are six RTO or ISO regulated by FERC: ISO New England, New York ISO, PJM, Midcontinent ISO, Southwest Power Pool, and California ISO. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas is regulated by state regulators because it is located entirely in the state of Texas. Much of the southeastern and western United States are not currently covered by ISOs. In analyzing the financing options for the NAS, we look at a financing strategy for each ISO region. We will also look at the Southeast U.S. and Western U.S. as separate regions despite not having an organized ISO. One of the primary responsibilities of each RTO is managing the transmission planning process to ensure the grid continues to meet expected future electrical demand. We reviewed the planning process in each region because the NAS will first need to secure the support of RTOs through each individual planning process. We also look at recent regional transmission projects. We review the financing and project details for recent developments to help guide our recommendations for possible financing strategies in each region. The transmission planning process for ISO New England develops a regional plan for future system needs over a ten-year time horizon. The process begins by conducting a Needs Assessment to determine the grid’s adequacy. Where it is determined upgrades to the grid are necessary, either a Solutions Study or a Competitive Solution process will be undertaken to find the most economical upgrade project. A Competitive Solution process will be the most likely entry point for the NAS. In this process, project sponsors submit proposals for projects to address the identified need. Projects are then selected based on the cost, electrical performance, feasibility, and future system expandability. The proposed routing through the New England region is the smallest segment of the NAS with an estimated cost of approximately $7.9 billion. The grid in this section will likely be privately financed. Every state in this region does have a Clean Energy Fund indicating there is government support for renewable energy projects. The Clean Energy Funds also open up the possibility of using state financing to help attract private investors. This funding could be used to leverage private investment through a public-private partnership. Vermont is the only state in the region that does not currently allow the PPP model. NYISO engages in planning for reliability, economic, and public policy upgrades to the transmission grid. The reliability plan is a two-year process that assesses the needs over the next ten years. The economic planning process identifies areas of congestion in the grid and determines specific projects that have a positive benefit to cost ratio. The public policy planning identifies needs driven by new public policy requirements and solicits solutions from member firms. Upgrading transmission infrastructure could be part of either the economic or public policy planning process and could solve congestion problems within the state’s grid identified in the economic planning studies. It could also help the state meet renewable energy goals and would be an appropriate public policy solution. Exceeding the benefit to cost expectations will be the greatest hurdle for the NAS to gain approval in New York. A proposed a 80-mile HVDC transmission line buried under the Hudson River provides insight into a financing model that could work for portions of the NAS. The $1 billion West Point Transmission project is very similar in structure to the NAS. The project was proposed as part of the state’s Energy Highway Blueprint in 2012 and is still in the development phase securing permitting. It is similar to two other completed projects by PowerBridge, Neptune and Hudson. The proposed financing plan includes equity financers Energy Investors Funds, Starwood Energy Group, and NRG Energy. Debt financing would also be secured from either commercial banks or institutional private placements. The developer would enter into a long-term transmission capacity purchase agreement to recover the costs of construction. The NYISO has a history of supporting high voltage transmission projects similar to the NAS and there are development companies that have experience securing the private financing required. The estimated cost of the NAS in the NYISO is $8.6 billion. This cost is reasonable when compared to the $1 billion for the 80-mile West Point Transmission project. A national grid would help upstate New York connect with the large population center in New York City. This connection would allow renewable hydro electricity generated in the northern part of the state to benefit all rate payers in the region. The Energy Highway Blueprint approved in 2012 also shows there is support for transmission projects from the state government. The state’s regulatory bodies have approved similar projects in the past and should be receptive to new proposals as part of a national system. Due to the large population base and government support, it is likely that the NAS will be lucrative to private investment. PJM conducts an annual planning process resulting in the Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP). A 15-year time horizon allows the planning to look at how reliability upgrades and expansion will impact the grid in the future. The planning process includes input from all stakeholders as well as changes in public policy. The PJM board ultimately approves recommended system improvements and they are added to the RTEP. Since 1999, the board has approved $29.3 billion of transmission system improvements. A 150-mile 500 kV transmission line upgrade between Pennsylvania and New Jersey was completed in 2015. The $1.4 billion project was a joint venture between two public utility companies, PPL Electric Utilities and PSEG. PPL Electric built 101 miles of the line for $630 million and PSEG built 45 miles for $775 million. The project was intended to improve reliability and reduce congestion. This project was fast-tracked by the Obama administration allowing better coordination of government permitting. However, there was pushback from environmental groups because the line passed through federal park lands. State regulators approved the project in 2010, but the National Park Service did not approve the project until 2012. Despite having backing from the presidential administration, the environmental concerns still caused a delay in permitting. The Susquehanna-Roseland project is an example of two public companies collaborating to complete a needed high voltage transmission expansion. Government support allowed the project to proceed more quickly and successfully satisfy all stakeholders, which illustrates the importance of gaining support from all public and private stakeholders. The NAS in the PJM region is likely to be privately financed. This segment of the grid goes through highly populated regions, and will therefore be lucrative to private investors. The estimated cost of the NAS in this region is approximately $35.7 billion. Each state in this region also has legislation allowing public-private partnerships. The Susquehanna-Roseland Reliability Upgrade shows how two companies can collaborate to complete a large scale project. Encouraging partnerships between public and private parties is a strategy that should be successful in this region. The MISO develops the MISO Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP) annually. The plan addresses reliability of the grid as well as ensuring compliance with state and federal energy policy requirements. The planning process begins with stakeholders submitting proposed projects for review. MISO’s Board of Directors facilitates the evaluation of projects to determine if they are appropriate for inclusion in the MTEP. The 18-month planning process includes model building, reliability and economic analysis, and resource assessments. There are three types of projects included in the MTEP: Bottom-Up projects, Top-Down projects, and Externally Driven projects. The NAS would likely be considered an interregional Top-Down project because it would have a regional and national impact. These projects have costs shared among beneficiaries. The CapX2020 is a series of five transmission expansion projects across North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The development of 345 kV and 230 kV lines spans 725 miles and will cost $2.1 billion. It is a joint initiative between 11 transmission-owning utilities in the states. The project was designed to bring wind energy to population centers. Lack of transmission capability has been a roadblock to additional development of wind generation facilities in South Dakota and North Dakota. This project will not satisfy all the transmission needs of the region and more development will be necessary to reach the full potential of wind generation development. This expansion illustrates the need for a robust transmission grid to ensure the growth of renewable energy generation, a problem the NAS will help solve. The CapX2020 development shows that companies in this region are willing to collaborate to build a transmission network to benefit the entire region. Most of the financing for that project and for the NAS will come from companies securing private financing. The estimate cost for the NAS in the Midcontinent ISO is $56.2 billion. This is one of the largest section of the NAS with over 8,000 miles of proposed transmission lines. There is potential in this region for collaborations between transmission developers and renewable energy developers. A lack of transmission capacity has delayed some wind energy projects, while transmission developers are hesitant to build transmission until generation plants are built. Partnerships between transmission and generation developers will ensure both get built and could attract investment to the NAS. The Southwest Power Pool conducts an iterative three-year planning process that includes a 20-Year, 10-Year, and Near-Term Assessment in a process they call Integrated Transmission Planning (ITP). These reports identify transmission projects that are needed within both short and long-term time horizons while also identifying potential costs and benefits of each project. The Near-Term Assessment focuses on reliability issues within the grid at current usage levels. The 20-Year and 10-Year Assessments focus on identifying larger transmission projects to benefit the region using a number of different usage scenarios. These scenarios account for growing demand and potential changing regulations requiring more energy to come from renewable sources. The 20-Year Assessment is intended to create a transmission structure of high voltage (300 kV and above) lines that will be able to serve the region in the long-term. Additionally, entities can request a Sponsored Upgrade or perform a high priority study in accordance with the region’s Open Access Transmission Tariff that can lead to a transmission project being approved. The NAS could either request a Sponsored Upgrade study or be included in one of the longer term assessments. The Midwest Transmission Project was a 180-mile 345 kV transmission line between Sibley, Missouri and Nebraska City, Nebraska completed in 2017. The development was a joint venture between Kansas City Power & Light and the Omaha Public Power District. The new line is an additional connection between the east and west sections of the RTO and aims to deliver more renewable energy to the eastern half of the region. The venture cost approximately $400 million and was financed by the participating companies. The project was one of SPP’s Priority Projects, so cost recovery will come from the entire region’s rate payers. Financing in the SPP will likely be similar to MISO. Most of the NAS will be financed by private capital secured by the developing companies. Rural areas may be able to use loans from the Rural Utilities Service. The estimated cost for the NAS in the SPP is $32.5 billion. There is a lot of wind generation in this region so there is also the potential for collaboration with wind energy developers. Renewable energy developers in this region will benefit greatly from the NAS because the energy generated in the SPP will be transmitted to population centers outside of the region. This should entice private developers and government bodies to support the NAS to help drive economic development in these regions. CAISO conducts an annual transmission planning assessment. The plan identifies reliability, public policy, and economic needs of the transmission grid. The reliability planning performs a 10-year analysis of grid performance during projected peak usage. The public policy planning cycle largely attempts to determine needed grid upgrades to meet the state’s renewable energy goal of 50% by 2030. Economic planning determines projects that would provide economic benefits to customers. The NAS could satisfy all three of the planning mechanisms by increasing reliability and reducing grid congestion lowering costs for customers. The grid also would help the state meet the renewable energy goal. The ISO also conducts “special studies” on issues impacted by transformational change in the way electricity is consumed. It might make sense for the NAS to be part of a special study due to its wide ranging interregional impacts. California has one of the most ambitious renewable energy standards, requiring 50% of the state’s electricity to be supplied by renewable sources by 2030. The state’s aggressive approach indicates there is government support for growing renewable energy production. The estimated cost of the NAS in the California ISO is approximately $15.1 billion. Because of the state’s high population, extensive renewable energy generation, and public policy support for renewable energy it is likely that private investment will be lucrative in California. The state also has legislation allowing public-private partnerships, which could be another avenue to attract private investors. ERCOT develops a Regional Transmission Plan annually with their Regional Planning Group and Transmission Service Providers in the region. The plan assesses reliability and economic transmission grid needs within six years. The ISO also conducts a Long-Term System Assessment every two years. This assessment uses scenario analysis to determine the strength of existing projects when considering the long-term transmission needs of the region. Stakeholders can submit projects for evaluation by the Regional Planning Group. A project will be included in the Regional Transmission Plan if the ERCOT Board of Directors determines the project would be a solution to identified grid needs. The Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) is a $6.8 billion project born out of legislation from the Texas Legislature in 2005 that designated geographical areas for potential renewable energy generation. The Public Utility Commission of Texas established a transmission development plan and assigned construction of the proposed lines to transmission service providers. The total development had approximately 3,600 miles of 345 kV transmission lines connecting renewable resources in West Texas to population centers in the eastern part of the state. This project is an example of a government sponsored transmission project that was constructed, developed, and financed primarily by private companies. Because the initiative was backed by government entities there was more collaboration in permitting allowing efficient regulatory approval. The ERCOT region is the most independent of all RTOs because it operates its own interconnection and most transmission lines are within the state. The independence has allowed them to complete projects, such as the CREZ, much more efficiently than other regions. Their state government has shown support for transmission projects similar to the NAS and there are transmission service providers with experience in developing and financing transmission lines. The estimated cost of the NAS in the ERCOT region is $17.1 billion. The cost would likely be financed by private capital. A wealth of renewable wind and solar resources in the western part of the state and large population centers in the eastern part of the state make transmission projects lucrative to private investment. The electric grid in the southeastern United States is not controlled by a RTO and thus the planning and approval process is less formalized than other regions. The Florida Reliability Coordinating Council (FRCC) and the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council (SERC) are the primary bodies that oversee the bulk power system in the region. The planning process for the FRCC includes an Annual Transmission Planning Process coordinating local utility’s expansion plans into a regional development plan and a Biennial Transmission Planning Process that determines projects to make the grid more efficient. The planning process for SERC involves the collaboration of many transmission providers in the region. Because planning in this region is driven by transmission providers and not a RTO, the NAS will need to gain support from the transmission providers in the region that will ultimately advocate for construction. Gaining support from private transmission providers will be crucial to get the NAS approved for construction, so private financing is likely to be the primary financing mechanism in this region. The estimated cost of the NAS in the southeast United States is approximately $41.5 billion. Each state in this region has legislation allowing public-private partnerships. Along with gaining support from private transmission providers, there is potential for collaboration with government entities. The Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) is charged with promoting the reliability of the bulk power system throughout the Western Interconnection. The territory includes the southwest and northwest regions along with California, Alberta and British Columbia. WECC represents a wide spectrum of organizations. WECC coordinates an adequacy planning process to determine transmission needs in the next 10 to 20 years. WECC studies are made available to stakeholders in the region who can then propose projects as solutions to identified needs. The Southwest and Northwest regions have the largest estimated cost for the NAS at approximately $69.4 billion due to covering the largest geographical area. Portions of the grid in this region will be privately financed, but government support will likely be needed for other sections due to the high cost. The Rural Utilities Service loan programs could be a viable option in this region since much of it is comprised of rural areas and the grid will improve service reliability to those regions. Land use and siting for the NAS will be especially important in the western United States because the federal government owns so much of the land. There are likely to be greater environmental issues to clear when determining the exact grid route. Collaboration and support from the federal government will be crucial to approve segments of the grid in this region so they can attract private investment. A possible strategy is creating a structure where proceeds from the more lucrative sections of the grid in highly populated regions can help pay for less lucrative segments. This might involve bidding highly lucrative segments with less lucrative projects as a single project that would still be financially beneficial for transmission providers. This will likely be the most challenging section of the NAS to approve and finance, but it is crucial to creating the national network and allow renewable energy generated in the western United States to reach population centers in the southern and eastern regions of the country. Private investment will be the primary funder for this project, just as private capital currently funds most energy infrastructure projects. The key to successfully financing the NAS is ensuring the project is attractive to private investors. There is private capital available in the marketplace, but that capital can only be accessed if the interests of all stakeholders are properly aligned making the NAS an attractive investment. In addition to private capital, strategic partnerships should be explored with the federal government, state and local governments, and government agencies. Due to the national security and environmental benefits, there should be government interest in this project. Secure backing of federal/state governments, DOE, RTOs/ISOs: Support from the federal government and RTOs in each region will give credence to the importance of this project. This support will help increase the likelihood of getting the NAS approved and included in each RTO planning process opening the door for transmission providers to begin construction. Reduce permitting and regulation burden: The high regulatory environment adds to the cost and time to begin construction. This can make it challenging to secure financing at a rate acceptable to both investors and transmission providers. Legislative action can ensure that permitting for the NAS grid does not get held up by any one stakeholder. A reduced regulatory burden also reduces the overall cost of the grid. Ensure stakeholder interests are aligned in each region: The nation’s electric grid is a large system with a diverse set of stakeholders. Ensuring that the interests of all stakeholders are aligned will make getting approval and support for the NAS easier. Utilizing existing rights-of-way will reduce the number of local stakeholders and make gaining national support more practical. Wide spread support will help attract private investors and making financing the project feasible. Encourage regional and national collaboration: Historically, transmission development was completed on a state level. This has led states to have differing regulations and processes governing transmission project construction. More collaboration between states and direction from the federal government would reduce the time and cost to comply with multiple agencies in interregional transmission developments. Planning is crucial: Environmental studies, transmission line siting, permitting, and eminent domain are all potential hurdles for companies constructing the NAS. The proposal to use existing rights-of-way somewhat reduces this concern. Transmission projects today are focused on increasing grid reliability and efficiency and less on load growth. Improved efficiency of electronics has stabilized the growth of energy demand across the country. Additionally, grid improvements must enable the future transmission grid to be adaptable to changes in load patterns and generation sources. There is wide spread agreement about the need for more investment in transmission. Improved reliability will likely lower costs to rate payers due to fewer congestion charges. The NAS will allow more flexibility for RTOs to manage where electricity is generated, allowing greater access to cheaper energy. Rate payers will ultimately pay for the NAS through transmission charges, but costs for construction will likely be offset by the cheaper cost of energy and reduced congestion fees. Cost allocation often becomes an important issue for interregional transmission projects. FERC mandates that cost allocation procedures for transmission projects must be developed by each RTO and uniformly applied. However, each RTO has slightly different procedures. In general, RTOs have shifted to a regional cost allocation system for large transmission projects. Every rate payer in the region pays for a portion because everyone benefits from a regional transmission project that improves reliability and makes the grid more efficient. Costs are generally allocated based on load usage. If there is wide spread support for constructing the NAS, cost allocation should not create major issues. The NAS has benefits to all ratepayers so it makes sense to use a regional or even national cost allocation system. Due to the increased reliability and efficiency the NAS would create, the overall electric costs to rate payers would remain relatively constant because they will pay less congestion charges and have access to cheaper renewably generated electricity. Our investigation suggests that the NAS is feasible without requiring new public funding schemes or new taxes to garner capital. Instead, rate payers will produce returns through electric bill fees. Moreover, investment in the NAS will enable the creation of millions of jobs nationwide that will not only be generated from the construction of the transmission system, but will also originate from the construction and operation of new (mostly renewable) electricity generation facilities throughout the United States. Overall, this infrastructure package will cost between $303 billion and $442 billion dollars to build the transmission system (depending on the cost of cable burial), as well as an additional $2.2 trillion dollars to construct additional electricity generation facilities. Despite these costs, the average consumer electric bill will not increase as a result. Additionally, although configuring HVDC lines underground often costs three to five times that of above ground lines, this study indicates that this costlier configuration is still an economically viable solution; an underground HVDC system (that is three times more expensive than above ground lines) will cost less than continuing the operation of the nation’s current grid system given that the cost of natural gas remains above $4.43/MMBtu. According to the EIA, the cost of natural gas is set to increase to at least $5/MMBtu by 2030, meaning that the NAS is forecasted to be a viable economic solution by its time of completion. There is a need for new investment in our nation’s transmission infrastructure. The NAS will benefit all rate payers by allowing greater access to cheaper renewable energy while also increasing national security. The estimated $500 billion cost for an underground HVDC system will require a number of different financing mechanisms over a number of years. Private sector interest in infrastructure projects is growing and capital is available in the marketplace. The NAS must build partnerships with experienced transmission developers and gain support from federal and state governments, government agencies, and RTOs to successfully secure financing for this landmark energy transmission project. “Levelized Cost and Levelized Avoided Cost of New Generation Resources in the Annual Energy Outlook 2017.” April 2017. https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/pdf/electricity_generation.pdf. Rapier, Robert. “The Long-Term Outlook For Natural Gas.” Forbes. October 31, 2016. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2016/10/31/the-long-term-outlook-for-natural-gas/#51567e3657a4. “Financing Clean Infrastructure: Private Activity Bonds.” Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. Webinar attended July 24, 2017.

2019-04-26T14:49:41Z

http://cleanandsecuregrid.org/2017/11/28/economic-advantages-and-financial-feasibility/

Baldev Ram Mirdha Institute of Technology (BMIT) established in the year 2003 has become one of the most sought after destinations by young budding technocrats. BMIT is ideally situated in the IT Park of the Industrial Zone of Jaipur, city known for its growth & infrastructure. The institute is approved by AICTE and is affiliated to Rajasthan Technical University. The institute provides a four year Bachelor of Engineering degree course in Electronics & communication, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Civil. It is managed by an NRI having vast technical and managerial exposure garnered from top Indian & US universities and 14 years of work experience in global giants like IBM corp., Siemens US. 1. What are the various functions of the department of personnel management? 2. What is the importance of personnel management in an industrial undertaking? 3. Describe an ideal Personnel policy. 4. Describe various factors in manpower planning. Why is it significant? 5. Differentiate between the short-term and long-term manpower planning. 6. Write a short note on Job Analysis. 7. Write short note on sources of recruitment. 8. Explain the importance and principles of placement of workers. 9. Write short note on “Induction of New Employee”. 10. What do you mean by induction or orientation of employee? Explain its elements. 11. What do you understand by managerial development? 12. What do you know about the external facilities for management development? 13. What is Merit Rating? 14. Explain in brief the main theories of wages. 1. Visit the Web site of The Weather Channel (www.weather.com) Write a report about the type of information available at this site. 2. Identify other potential sources of information about the weather. 3. Discuss the role of qualitative research in identifying consumer’s needs for weather-related information. Which qualitative research techniques should be used? 4. If a survey were to be conducted to determine consumer preferences for weather-related information, which interviewing method would you recommend? Why? 5. Can observation methods be used to determine consumer preferences for weather- related information? If so, which observational methods would you use? Why? 1. Frequency distribution: Ensure that each variable is appropriate for analysis by running a frequency distribution for each variable. 2. Regression: Using a stepwise regression analysis, locate those variables that best explain the criterion variable. Evaluate the strength of the model and assess the impact of each variable included on the criterion variable. 3. Factor analysis: Determine the underlying psychological factors that characterize the respondents by means of factor analysis of all 30 independent variables. Use principle component extraction with varimax rotation for ease of interpretation. Save the factor scores and then regress them on the criterion variable, forcing all predictor variables to be included in the analysis. Evaluate the strength of this model and compare it with the initial regression. Use the factor scores to cluster the respondents into three groups. Discuss the significance of the groups based on the underlying factors. Repeat this cluster analysis for four groups. 4. Cluster analysis: Cluster the respondents on the original variables into three and four clusters. Which is a better model? Compare these cluster results with the cluster results on the factor scores? Which is easier to interpret, and which explain the data better. Based on the analysis, prepare a report to management explaining the yuppie Consumer and offering recommendation on the design of the Dodge Viper. Your recommendations should aid Daimler Chrysler in achieving what they seek a new image for the Viper that is attractive to the yuppie market and that helps them outperform the competition in the performance car market. 1. Frequency distribution: Run a frequency distribution for each variable and show bar graphs of the first three variables. 2. Cross – tabulations : Group brand preference as low, medium, and high under the formula low = 1 or 2, medium = 3 to 5, and high = 6 or 7, Group all independent variables as either, low = 1 to 3, medium = 4, and high = 5 to 7. Run two variables cross tabulations of preference with each independent variable. Run the following three-variable cross-tabulations: preference with count per box, controlling for price, preference with unisex, controlling for style, and preference with comfort, controlling for taping. Interpret these results for management. 3. Regression: Run a regression equation for brand preference that includes all independent variables in the model, and describe how meaningful the model is. Interpret the results for management. 4. One-way analysis of variance: Group all independent variables into low, medium and high groups as you did for cross-tabulations. Run a one-way analysis of variance on each independent variable with brand preference. Explain the results to management. 5. Discriminate analysis: Group brand preference into two relatively equal groups based on its distribution. Run discriminate analysis on the grouped data and interpret the results for management. Repeat this analysis by grouping brand preference into three relatively equal groups. 6. Factor analysis: Determine any underlying factors inherent in the data by running a factor analysis using principle components extraction with varimax rotation. Print all available statistics. Save the factor scores and regress these on brand preference. Interpret these results for management. 7. Cluster analysis: Use a nonhierarchical procedure to cluster the respondents, based on the independent variables, into two, three, four, and five clusters. Also run a hierarchical procedure to obtain five clusters using Ward’s method and creating a dendrogram: Interpret all these results for management. 1. Describe the management decision problem facing Lexus as it seeks to fight competition from other luxury car manufactures such as Mercedes, BMW, and Jagur, as well as competition from the “near luxury” autos like the Nissan Maxima and the Mazda Millennia. 3. Develop a graphical model explaining the consumer choice process for luxury cars. 4. Identify two research questions based on the definition of the marketing research problem and the graphical model. 5. Develop at least one hypothesis for each research question you have identified in (4). 6. How would you conduct an Internet search for information on the luxury car market? Summarize the results of your search in a report. 1) What is information processing cycle? 2) Write the limitation of computer. 5) What is modem? Explain types of model. 6) Write the difference between Dot matrix and Line Printer. 8) What is software ?state different categories of software. 9) Explain function of operating system? 10) What is computer networking ?What are its benefits? 13) Write the differences between Dbms and Rdbms. 14) Explain application of multimedia with example. 1. What is marketing? Explain importance of marketing for overall development ofthe country. 2. What is Marketing Environment? Discuss factors affecting Marketing Environment. 3. Explain Direct Marketing and online Marketing. State merits and demerits of both. 4. Explain the meaning of market demand and state elements involved in it. 5. What is Cyber Marketing? Write note on Cyber Marketing process. 6. What is consumer behavior? Explain characteristics and importance of consumer behavior? 7. Explain market segmentation. Describe its importance. 8. What do you mean by new product? Explain systematic process for developing a new product. 9. What is consumer Adoption? Explain steps consumer adoption process. 10. Explain term packing and write its functions. 11. Explain importance of packing for the product. 12. Write explanatory note on various price setting methods. 13. What is ad agency? Describe its functions and benefits. 14. What is personal selling? Discuss its characteristics and importance. 15. Explain strategic options available for market leaders. 1. Production planning functions can be broadly identified as ______, _______ and _______. Organization and the directives they need to have are ____, _____ and _______. 3. The three major functions of any business organization are _______, _______ and ______. 4. Formulation of the strategy depends on the _________. a) Assessments of strengths, understanding of the weaknesses, the nature of external environment and the resilience of the internal environment. 6. All operation systems are based on criteria of _____, ______ and _____. P) Evaluation is done for the processes and quality assurance measures. Q) Sometimes suppliers are given total responsibility for design, procurement of materials, processing, Quality and deliveries as per schedules. d) False and true respectively. Of materials from different suppliers is the main criterion. 9. PDCA stands for ________. 10. Success of JIT depends upon a lot of ________ and _______. b. What are the levels of aggregation in forecasting for a manufacturing organization? How should this hierarchy of forecasts be linked and used? 13. How would forecasting be useful for operations in a BPO (Business processes outsourcing) unit? What factors may be important for this industry? Discuss. 14. A good work study should be followed by good supervision for getting good results. Explain with an example. 15. What is job evaluation? Can it be alternatively used as job ranking? How does one ensure that job evaluation evaluates the job and not the man? Explain with examples? 16. What is the impact of technology on jobs? What are the similarities between job enlargement & job rotation? Discuss the importance of training in the content of job redesign? Explain with examples? 17. What is internet connectivity? How is it important in to days business would with respect to materials requirement planning & purchasing? Explain with examples? 18. Would a project management organization be different from an organization for regular manufacturing in what ways? Examples. 19. How project evaluation different from project appraisal? Explain with examples. 1. Describe project planning and its function. 2. What are the goals and objectives of project planning? 3. Explain the methods used to assess the project profitability. 4. Give the applications of PERT/CPM techniques. 5. Explain the importance of computers in Project Management. 6. What is phased planning? List the steps involved in project planning. 7. List and explain the characteristics features of a project. 8. Write short note on:-Work Breakdown Structure. 9. Discuss the importance of communication in a project management. 10. Classify the scheduling methods. 11. Explain project direction. What are the different directions of project direction? 1. Analyze the ethics of marketing Publius using utilitarianism, rights, justice, and caring. In your judgement, is it ethical to market Publius? Explain. 2. Are the creators of Publius in any way morally responsible for any criminal acts that criminals are able to carry out and keep secret by relying on Publius? Is AT & T in any way morally responsible for these? Explain your answers. 3. In your judgment, should governments allow the implementation of Publius? Why or why not? 1. Fully explain the effects that payment like those which Lockheed made to the Japanese have on the structure of a market. 2. In your view, were Lockheed’s payments to the various Japanese parties “bribes” or “extortions” ? Explain your response fully. 3. In your judgment, did Mr. A. Carl Kotchian act rightly from a moral point of view ? (Your answer should take into account the effects of the payments on the welfare of the societies affected, on the right and duties of the various parties involved, and on the distribution of benefits and burdens among the groups involved.) In your judgment, was Mr. Kotchian morally responsible for his actions ? Was he, in the end, treated fairly ? 4. In its October 27, 1980, issue, Business Week argued that every corporation has a corporate culture – that is, values that set a pattern for itsemployee’s activities, opinions and actions and that are instilled in succeeding generations of employees (pp.148-60). Describe, if you can, the corporate culture of Lockheed and relate that culture to Mr. Kotchian’s actions. Describe some strategies for changing that culture in ways that might make foreign payments less likely. 1. In your judgment, is it wrong, from an ethical point of view, for the auto companies to submit plans for an automobile to China ? Explain your answer ? 2. Of the various approaches to environmental ethics outlined in this chapter, which approach sheds most light on the ethical issues raised by this case ? Explain your answer. 3. Should the U.S. government intervene in any way in the negotiations between U.S. auto companies and the Chinese government ? Explain. 1. In your judgment, do the managers of the Robert Hall store have any ethical obligations to change their salary policies ? If you do not think they should change, then explain why they have an obligation to change and describe the kinds of changes they should make. Would it make any difference to your analysis if, instead of two departments in the same store, it involved two different Robert Hall Stores, one for men and one for women ? Would it make a difference if two stores (one for men and one for women) owned by different companies were involved ? Explain each of your answers in terms of the relevant ethical principles upon which you are relying. 2. Suppose that there were very few males applying for clerks’ jobs in Wilmington while females were flooding the clerking job market. Would this competitive factor justify paying males more than females ? Why ? Suppose that 95 percent of the women in Wilmington who were applying for clerks’ jobs were single women with children who were on welfare while 95 percent of the men were single with no families to support. Would this need factor justify paying females more than males ? Why ? Suppose for the sake of argument that men were better at selling than women; would this justify different salaries ? 3. If you think the managers of the Robert Hall store should pay their male and female clerks equal wages because they do “substantially the same work” then do you also think that ideally each worker’s salary should be pegged to the work he or she individually performs (such as by having each worker sell on commission) ? Why ? Would a commission system be preferable from a utilitarian point of view considering the substantial book keeping expenses it would involve ? From the point of view of justice ? What does the phrase substantially the same mean to you ? 1. What are the legal issues involved in this case, and what are the moral issues ? How are the two different kinds of issues different from each other, and how are they related to each other ? Identify and distinguish the “systemic, corporate and individual issues” involved in this case. 2. In your judgment, was it morally wrong for Shawn Fanning to develop and release his technology to the world given its possible consequences ? Was it morally wrong for an individual to use Napster’s website and software to copy for free the copy righted music on another person’s hard drive ? If you believe it was wrong, then explain exactly why it was wrong. If you believe it was not morally wrong, then how would you defend your views against t he claim that such copying is stealing ? Assume that it was not I illegal for an individual to copy music using Napster. Would there be anything immoral with doing so ? Explain ? 3. Assume that it is morally wrong for a person to use Napster’s website and software to make a copy of copyrighted music. Who, then, would be morally responsible for this person’s wrong doing ? Would only the person himself be morally responsible ? Was Napster, the company, morally responsible ? Wash shawn Fanning morally responsible ? Was any employee of Napster, the company, morally responsible ? Was the operator of the server or that portion of the Internet that the person used morally responsible ? What if the person did not know that the music was copyrighted or did not think that it was illegal to copy copyrighted music ? 4. Do the music companies share any of the moral responsibility for what has happened ? How do you think technology like Napster is likely to change the music industry ? In your judgment, are these changes ethically good or ethically bad ? 1. Discuss this case from the perspective of utilitarianism, rights, justice and caring. What insight does virtue theory shed on the ethics of the events described in this case ? 2. “ In a free enterprise society all adults should be allowed to make their own decisions about how they choose to earn their living.” Discuss the statement in light of the Lily case. 3. In your judgment, is the policy of using homeless alcoholics for test subjects morally appropriate ? Explain the reasons for your judgment. What does your judgment imply about the moral legitimacy of a free market in labor ? 4. How should the managers of Lily handle this issue ? 1. What’s up with our fascination with bigness ? Is this a uniquely American preference ? Do you believe that “bigger’s better ?” Is this a sound marketing strategy ? 2. What’s your take on this issue ? How do you react when one of your favorite songs turns up in a commercial ? Is this use of nostalgia an effective way to market a product ? Why or why not ? 3. What’s your take on this ? Are young people indeed returning to the value of their parents (or even their grandparents) ? How have these changes influenced your perspective on marriage and family ? 4. How was your experience – how helpful was this mannequin ? When you shop for clothes online, would you rather see how they look on a body with dimensions the same as yours, or on a different body ? What advice can give Web site designers who are trying to personalize theses shopping environments by creating life – like models to guide you through the site ? 5. What do you think ? What is and what should be the role of fashion in our society ? How important is it for people to be in style ? What are the pros and cons of keeping up with the latest fashions ? Do you believe that we are at the mercy of designers. 1. Which of the theories of international trade can help Indian services providers gain competitive edge over their competitors? 2. Pick up some Indian services providers. With the help of Michael Porter’s diamond, analyze their strengths and weaknesses as active players in BPO. 3. Compare this case with the case given at the beginning of this chapter. What similarities and dissimilarities do you notice? Your analysis should be based on the theories explained. 1. What are some current issues facing Peru? What is the climate for doing business in Peru today? 2. What type of political risks does this fishing company need to evaluate? Identify and describe them. 3. What types of integrative and protective and defensive techniques can the bank use? 4. Would the bank be better off negotiating the loan in New York or in Lima? Why? 1. Why is that Coke has not been able to make profit in its Indian operations? 2. Do you think that Coke should continue to stay in India? If yes, why? 3. What cultural adaptations would you suggest to the US expatriate managers regarding their management style? 4. Using the Hofstede and the value orientations cultural model , how can you explain some of the cultural differences noted in this case ? 1. Where does the joint venture meet the needs of both the partners ? Where does it fall short? 2. Why had ABB-PBS failed to realize its technology leadership ? 3. What lessons one can draw from this incident for better management of technology transfers? 1. What factors have shaped the accounting system currently in use in China ? 2. What problem does the accounting system, currently in sue in China, present to foreign investors in joint ventures with Chinese companies ? 3. If the evolving Chinese system does not adhere to IASC standards, but instead to standards that the Chinese governments deem appropriate to China’s “Special situation”, how might this affect foreign firms with operations in China ? 1. “You can’t tell consumers that the low price they are paying for a particular fax machine or automobile is somehow unfair. They’re not concerned with the profits of companies. To them, it’s just a great bargain and they want it to continue.” Do you agree with this statement ? Do you think that people from different cultures would respond differently to this statement? Explain your answers. 2. As we’ve seen, the WTO cannot currently get involved in punishing individual companies for dumping – its actions can only be directed toward governments of countries. Do you think this is a wise policy? Why or why not? Why do you think the WTO was not given the authority to charge individual companies with dumping? Explain. 3. Identify a recent antidumping case that was brought before the WTO. Locate as many articles in the press as you can that discuss the case. Identify the nations, products (s) , and potential punitive measures involved. Supposing you were part of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body, would you vote in favor of the measures taken by the retailing nation? Why or why not? 1. What opportunities and threats did McDonald’s face? How did it handle them? What alternatives could it have chosen? 2. Before McDonald’s entered the European market, few people believed that fast food could be successful in Europe. Why do you think McDonald’s has succeeded? What strategies did it follow? How did these differ from its strategies in Asia? 3. What is McDonald’s basic philosophy? How does it enforce this philosophy and adapt to deferent environments? 4. Should McDonald’s expand its menu? If you say no, then why not? If you say yes, what kinds of precuts should it add? 5. Why is McDonald’s successful in many countries around the world? 1. Can a division manager develop verifiable goals, or objectives, when the president has not assigned them to him or her? How? What king of information or help do you believe is important for the division manager to have from headquarters? 2. Was the division manager setting goals in the best way? What would you have done? 1. Evaluate the formulation of the merger between Daimler and Chrysler. Discuss the strategic fit and the different product lines. 2. Assess the international perspectives of Eaton and Schrempp. 3. What are the difficulties in merging the organizational cultures of the two companies? 4. What is the probability of success of failure of the merger? What other mergers do you foresee in the car industry? 1. The re-engineering efforts focused on the business process system. Do you think other processes, such as the human system, or other managerial policies need to be considered in a process redesign? 2. What do you think was the reaction of the brand managers, who may have worked under the old system for many years, when the category management structure was installed? 3. As a consultant, would you have recommended a top-down or bottom-up approach, or both, to process redesign and organizational change? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach? 1. Is the Hewlett – Packard way of managing creating a climate in which employees are motivated to contribute to the aims of the organization? What is unique about the HP Way? 2. Would the HP managerial style work in any organization? Why, or why not? What are the conditions for such a style to work? 1. In the NUMMI joint venture, what did Toyota gain? What were the benefits for General Motors? 2. As a consultant, what strategies would you recommend for European carmakers to improve their competitive position in the global car industry?

2019-04-20T22:30:19Z

http://www.howtoexam.com/index.php?option=com_content&layout=blog&view=section&id=23&Itemid=166

The results of a decade of research, primarily in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, contradict claims that air pollution was leading to widespread forest decline in central Europe. Dr Otto Kandler is emeritus professor and formerly held the chair in botany at the Institute of Botany, Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. Germany. · the most likely cause of Waldsterben was a complex ecosystemic disease triggered by cumulative stress from increasing air pollution, e.g. acid rain, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone, hydrocarbons as well as soil deterioration caused by the deposition of pollutants. Many experienced forest scientists and foresters were sceptical about such claims; however, with few exceptions (e.g. Braun, 1981; Binns and Redfern, 1982) there was widespread acceptance of the Waldsterben scenarios, both in the scientific community and among the wider public. In fact, an extra cut of 10 million m³ Of timber in 1984 -equivalent to about 20 percent of the annual harvest in the former Federal Republic of Germany - was prognosticated by the German Board of Forest Economy in 1983 (Pfleiderer, 1984), and the Union of Forest Owners expected a loss of DM 1.3 billion per year for each 20 percent of Germany's forest area affected by Waldsterben (Meister, Schütze and Sperber, 1984). In view of the large public response to the frightening scenarios propagated by advocates of the Waldsterben theory, in 1982 the German forest authorities decided to carry out annual surveys to study the development of the neuartige Waldschäden (novel forest damage) - the official term now used instead of the popular slogan "Waldsterben" - and allocated substantial funding to support research into the cause of the allegedly new syndrome. In the annual surveys, conducted on a 4 x 4 km grid of plots, damage classes are defined by the percentage of foliage deficit with 0 = healthy (< 10 percent), 1 = slightly damaged (11 to 25 percent), 2 = moderately damaged (26 to 60 percent), 3 = severely damaged (61 to 99 percent), 4 = dead (100 percent). Discoloration can increase the damage class, depending on the percentage of affected foliage. The number of trees in the various damage classes is converted to the corresponding forest area (of the former Federal Republic of Germany) that they would cover if the damaged trees formed one stand. Thus, since 1984 the annual forest damage reports issued by the German Government give the percentage of the total forest area imaginarily covered by trees of each damage class. This classification has been adopted by other European countries and is the basis of a joint report by the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the Commission of the European Communities (ECE/CEC). Although this type of classification has no value in identifying the cause of forest decline, Manion (1987) emphasized the critical view of an analytical phytopathologist when he stated: "The fruit salad of deterioration, decline and dying trees should not all be squeezed into a generic 'fruit juice'", the series of surveys available since 1984 can help to determine the extent and dynamics of the alleged novel forest damage. The series of annual surveys from 1984 to 1992 in the former Federal Republic of Germany (compatible data from the former German Democratic Republic are not available) show neither the predicted steep rise in the degree of damage in the 1980s (Fig. 1) nor a progressive shift of the proportion among the damage classes from the lower- to the higher-damage classes and, finally, to death. In fact, there was no increase in mortality and no substantial extra cut was necessary. Consequently, the sustained fall in timber prices, predicted by economists in the early 1980s, did not occur and prices did not exceed the usual fluctuation (cf. Kandler, 1988a). The development of the annually recorded damage is different for each of the four main tree species (Fig. 2) as well as between various regions (Fig.3). The species evaluation shows that the slightly higher level of damage overall in the early 1990s, seen in Fig. 1, is exclusively due to the distinct increase in damage in the two hardwood species; both conifer species show slightly lower levels of damage in the early 1990s than in the early 1980s. In fact, the two hardwood species surpassed both coniferous species in 1987 and now exhibit much higher levels of damage than the conifers. Such an inversion of the proportion of damage in hardwoods and conifers is not compatible with the Waldsterben hypothesis which is based on an alleged accumulation of ecosystemic stress by air pollutants and their deposition, since trees show species specific sensitivities to environmental stress factors and responses should remain the same unless the intensity or kind of stress factors change significantly. It is noteworthy that Phytophthora cinnamomi has recently been isolated from the soils and roots of declining cork and stone oaks (Quercus suber; and Q. ilex) in Spain and Portugal (Brasier, 1992; Brasier, Robredo and Ferraz, in press). This fungus is an aggressive root pathogen which attacks a large variety of plant species. Since the deterioration of feeder roots, the main target of P. cinnamomi, has been reported to precede novel forest damage in oak and beech observed in central Europe (Vincent, 1989; 1991), Brasier, Robredo and Ferraz (in press) recommend investigation of the possibility of an involvement of P. cinnamomi in hardwood decline in central and eastern Europe. Large-scale typical smoke (SO2) damage of forests became common in industrialized areas of central Europe with the advent of industrialization in the nineteenth century. Such damage is still found today in the former eastern bloc countries, for instance in the Ohre Mountains on the border between eastern Germany and the Czech Republic. The two large lignite-mining areas developed in the early 1950s, Eger Valley and Bitterfeld, are the main sources of SO2, which has caused distinct forest damage over several thousand km² on both sides of the Ohre Mountains and has also affected the neighbouring Harz and Fichtel Mountains in western Germany (Wentzel, 1982). However, the actual death of conifers is restricted to the ridge of the Ohre Mountains at an elevation of c. 900 m above sea level where the damaging effect of SO2 is clearly enhanced by strong winds (Liebold, 1988). In spite of unequivocal identification as regular SO2 damage, photographs of the dying trees at the ridge of the Ohre Mountains are frequently shown as typical examples of Waldsterben in the media, thereby leading to confusion. In the former Federal Republic of Germany, the previously high SO2 concentrations in industrial areas and city centres had already been drastically reduced when Waldsterben scenarios were first described in the early 1980s, and they are continuing to decrease. A typical example of the reduction of SO2 concentrations in western Germany is the development of the SO2 concentrations in the Rhine-Ruhr area, the largest industrial conurbation in central Europe. At the turn of the century, conifer forests did die or were heavily damaged over an area of several thousand km² while the less sensitive hardwood forests survived, although with distinct growth reductions. However, after the 1960s the annual mean SO2 concentrations were reduced in three seeps (Fig. 4): first by technical improvements of power stations and smelters as well as by changes in the types of fuel used in the 1960s; then by the building of higher chimneys from the early 1970s; and, finally, by the desulphurization of funnel gases beginning in 1983. The level of 30 m g/m³ of the late 1980s compares with more than 200 m g/m³ in the 1960s (Bruckmann and Pfeffer, 1992). NO2 concentrations, however, decreased only slightly in the Rhine-Ruhr area at the end of the 1980s (Fig. 4) but remained at the same level in rural and forest areas in spite of the increasing proportion of cars equipped with catalytic converters (about 40 percent in 1991). There was also no change in the level of ozone concentrations throughout the 1980s. Figure 4 annual mean of SO2 and NO2 concentrations in the Rhine-Ruhr area and of SO2 concentrations in the Bavarian Forest (left scale). Source: UBA (1992), Bruckmann and Pfeffer (1992), BLEF (1992) and (1991). The ecological consequence of the reduction of SO2 concentrations in the Rhine-Ruhr area and other centres of SO2 emission since the 1960s was the prompt recovery of conifers and the re-immigration of spruce and lichens into areas where they had been absent for almost 100 years (Kandler, 1988b). These recovery phenomena demonstrate that SO2 only was responsible for the classical pollution damage; the contribution of the other pollutants was, at most, marginal. Neither the development nor the levels of novel forest damage in the total area of western Germany, in particular states or in single tree species, parallel the course of the actual records of SO2, NO2 and ozone concentrations at the country's permanent monitoring stations. Thus, it is unlikely that air pollution is a causal factor or even a significant contributing factor in the "novel forest damage" syndrome. This conclusion is corroborated by the measurements of gas exchange in attached branches of spruce trees in the Bavarian Forest (Koch and Lautenschläger, 1989; Koch, in press) and in the Alps (Häsler, 1991; Wieser, Weih and Havranek, 1991). The branches were enclosed in air-conditioned chambers for up to four years and kept in ambient or purified air. No difference in the rates of photosynthesis and respiration has been detected between the two chambers. These findings indicate that the prevailing concentrations of air pollutants in the chamber simulating ambient conditions were below the threshold of inhibition. The absence of a relationship between the development of the annually recorded forest damage and prevailing air pollution is further corroborated by a recent study on the spatial correlations between forest damage and air pollutants, based on the most detailed regional data basis available in western Germany (Neuland, Bömelberg and Tenhagen, 1990). The data covers damage classes 2 to 4 of all of the 7 016 single sites surveyed in 1985, together with tree age, soil and weather conditions and SO2 emission as well as SO4 and NO3 deposition at approximately 100 monitoring stations. As expected, a statistically significant positive correlation has been found between forest damage and parameters such as tree age, elevation of the site, flat and fast-draining soils and so forth, but no correlation has been shown between forest damage and air pollution (i.e. atmospheric SO2 and NO2 concentrations and SO4 and NO3 deposition). On the other hand, there was a correlation between soil acidity and forest damage: foliage deficit was lowest on acid podzolic soils and highest on well-buffered, neutral to basic calcium-rich rendzinas, Camibsols, etc. This finding is at odds with the acidification/Al³+ toxicity hypothesis (Ulrich, 1980; 1989). However, it is in agreement with the results of an experiment in which plots of an 80-year-old spruce stand on an acidic podzolic soil was either limed in the first year or treated with acid rain (pH 2.7) for six years (Kreutzer and Göttlein, 1991). After eight years, compared with the control plot the crown conditions (assessed by the same methods as those applied in the annual surveys) in the plot treated with acid rain had improved slightly while the limed plot had deteriorated slightly. Such findings call for a reconsideration and refinement of the supposed role of acidification in novel forest damage and show that the scenarios predicting a fast decline of forests because of actual deposition rates and demanding an immediate general liming of all forests showing novel forest damage (Ulrich, 1980; 1989) are pushed beyond the limits of available data. Tree ring analyses provide a reliable means for tracing the course of tree growth over long periods. Large-scale studies by many authors, covering trees from all the main species from different regions of central Europe, have revealed a deep inroad in the mid-1970s, which coincides with a series of drought years, but no general persistent decrease in diameter increment during recent decades. Trees of damage classes 1, 2 and 3 show different growth rates, but the deviation from the mean usually does not exceed the common range of variations which occur within large populations as a result of competition and different site conditions in the stand as well as individual mechanical damage, infestations and infectious diseases. A typical example for Norway spruce is depicted in Figure 5. The tree ring chronology of 260 trees from the low mountain ranges to the south and east of the Rhine-Ruhr area exhibits the characteristics mentioned: a deep inroad in the mid-1970s, differentiation in ring width between the damage classes and slightly improved growth in recent decades, as indicated by a mean ring width of 103 and 110 percent in the periods 1963-1988 and 1983-1988, respectively. Note: Ring width is given as a percentage of a reference derived from previous growth. Percentage of trees in damage classes: 0=50%, 1=35%. 2/3=14%. Enhanced growth in recent decades is also seen when comparing increments in the diameter (cf. Fig. 6 and Schneider, Lorenz and Poker, 1987) or height (Keller, 1992) of different generations of trees in spruce stands with identical site conditions: in spruce, 30- to 60-year-old stands grew faster than did 90- to 120 year-old stands at the same age. The final confirmation of substantially improved forest growth precisely during the period predicted to see the explosion of Waldsterben may be seen in the results of traditional forest inventories, based on periodically repeated volume evaluations in representative stands. Inventories undertaken in Germany and Austria in 1990 reveal that, in the government- and corporation-owned forests (roughly about 30 percent of the total forest area of the respective states), not only the annual increment but also the stumpage and prescribed annual cut have increased by several percentage points in all southern German states, while in Austria between 1975 and 1985, although the annual surveys for two of these states (Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg) showed the highest degrees of novel forest damage in western Germany (see Table). Referring to the improved growth, a forest administration official states (author's translation): "Site productivity in forests of Baden-Württemberg has improved. Stumpage, annual increment and annual cut in the government - and corporation-owned forests have increased by almost 20 percent in 20 years, and no end of this development can be foreseen" (Weidenbach, 1992). This statement emphasizes the need for a drastic change in perspective. Instead of asking "why are the forests dying?", we now have to ask "why are the forests growing faster in the second half of this century than they did in the first?". Nitrogen input by the deposition of NOx and ammonia are frequently claimed to cause better growth, but they are said to cause the deterioration of the soils and death of forests in the long term (e.g. Nihlgard, 1985; Hofmann, Heinsdorf and Krauss, 1990). However, with the exception of studies in the close vicinity of stables for mass production of farm animals, few reliable data on the actual effects of nitrogen deposition in forests are available. An increase in the nitrogen content of spruce needles and in topsoil, a typical effect of nitrogen fertilization, was observed in pollution gradients close to agricultural point sources of ammonia (Hofmann, Heinsdorf and Krauss, 1990). Yet, no increase in the nitrogen content of needles and topsoils and no enhanced growth have been shown in the vicinity of point sources of NOx, such as power plants or large towns. Actually, in large forest areas of central Europe, where there are annual deposition rates of 10 to 20 kg of nitrogen per hectare, the nutritional status of conifer forests has been found to be still suboptimal (Zöttl, 1990). Thus, rigorous statistical studies on the spatial correlation of nitrogen deposition and enhanced growth are urgently needed. Temperature, precipitation (Fig. 7) and CO2 concentration probably contribute to the improved growth, since they act synergistically and their significant increase roughly coincides with the onset of improved forest growth in the middle of this century when nitrogen emission from vehicular traffic was still at a very low level. However, data on correlation supporting such suggestions are still missing. A third, often-neglected factor, viz. improved forest management (regular thinning, melioration before planting, pest management, etc.), especially the discontinuation of litter and humus removal, may have been even more important. In 1920, the former head of the Bavarian forest administration, Rebel (1920), reported a 20 to 30 percent reduction of timber production in the Bavarian state forests as a result of litter raking. It is logical to assume that a significant increase in growth should have occurred after the poor practice of litter removal was discontinued in the 1930s to 1950s. In spite of generally improved growth, some stands still show poor growth and substantial tree death, but they are mainly restricted to orographically extreme sites with unfavourable climatic conditions, poor mineral supply, endemic diseases (e.g. root and heart rot), insufficient forest management or combinations of these factors. Note: Moving ten-year average. The mean values are attached to the last year of the respective ten-year period. 1 Source: Neumann and Pollanschütz (1991). ³ Data on annual harvest, increment and stumpage are given as a percentage of the respective data in the preceding forest inventory period. Inventories were carried out by the forest departments of the respective states/countries. 4 The Austrian classification is based on only four instead of five classes. Thus, the Austrian class 0 includes the German class 0 and most of the German class 1, while the Austrian class 1 comprises the remaining portion of the German class 1 and some of the German classes 2 to 4. The absence of evidence for the prognosticated rise in forest damage has evoked increasingly critical questions about the novelty of poor crown conditions which were claimed to be typical of Waldsterben. The necessity for a critical retrospective evaluation of crown conditions is clearly expressed in the comment: "Saying that the levels of defoliation are 'high', suggesting that the observed evolution is not normal, implies a reference to such 'norms'". Defoliation and other alleged symptoms of Waldsterben were not quantified or recorded in forest inventories before 1983. However, there have been some estimates of the extent of crown thinning in earlier summer drought periods, similar to those occurring in the mid-1970s and early 1980s. For instance, Rebel (1924), who observed an increase in poor crown conditions in Bavaria in the early 1920s, called this phenomenon "heat disease" and suggested that 21 to 51 percent of the forest area in the various regions of Bavaria were "endangered or irreversibly diseased", i.e. they showed defoliation equivalent to the present damage classes 1 to 3. Thus, Rebel's estimate of forest damage in Bavaria lies in the same range as that of the current forest damage reports. Many other reports on regional and local diebacks of unknown causes, often comprising all tree species and thus resembling the present description of Waldsterben, are found in historical forest literature (cf. Kandler, 1992a). A comparison of recent photographs documenting Waldsterben (e.g. Schütt, 1984; Bauer, 1985) with old photographs of forest stands in scientific journals, photograph albums and postcards, shows that trees with transparent crowns were also common in former times. An evaluation of about 2 000 clearly recognizable spruce trees on postcards from before 1925 and from 1975 to 1985 (Schweingruber, 1989) has shown that 16 to 41 percent and 16 to 21 percent of the trees exhibited distinct foliage deficits equivalent to classes 2 and 3 in the first and second period, respectively. These numbers are virtually identical to those of the recent Swiss surveys (WSL, 1992). A comparison of old and recent photographs of the same stands also visualizes the small-scale mosaicism of crown conditions and their non-synchronous dynamics within stands (Fig. 8). Each of four heavily damaged spruce trees photographed in 1959 in the Bavarian Forest behaved differently during the following 27 years. In 1959 tree I would have been in damage class 1 or 2, and trees 2 to 4 would have been in class 3. By 1986 the condition of tree 1 had worsened but tree 2 had improved slightly while trees 3 and 4 had regenerated almost normal upper crowns. Air pollution, soil acidity or climatic conditions, the alleged causes of the annually recorded novel forest damage are unlikely causes for the different fates of these neighbouring trees. More probably, root and heart rot, found by core inspection, became more or less acute or were fully suppressed by the oscillating tree pathogen interaction (cf. Shigo, 1985). A second example shows the recovery of a severely defoliated (damage class 3) spruce tree (F-K1) within a few years (Fig. 9). Compared with the two healthy trees (F-K2 and F-K3) growing only 10 to 20 m away, the annual growth increment for F-K1 (Fig. 10) started to decrease in 1969 and was minimal in the dry summer of 1976 when needle loss began. Recovery of incremental growth began in 1980 but needle loss was greatest in 1982. In the following years the infections were at least partly overcome, more needles were produced than were shed and, in 1987, the tree returned to class 1. When the tree was cut, Heterobasidion annosum (Fr.) Bref. and Armillaria mellea sensu lato were found to have affected the tree. About one-fourth of the cambium at the base of the bole was killed in 1978. The many new roots that had formed since 1980 led to recovery of the crown. Oscillations of crown conditions in much shorter periods than those caused by root and stem diseases are mostly due to climate conditions and/or infections and infestations of the foliage by pathogens or insects. The annual fluctuations of crown conditions seen in annual surveys have been studied best in Switzerland. Here, the degree of foliage deficit in about 7 500 marked trees included in the annual surveys (WSL, 1989) were judged in stepped 5 percent damage classes and the annual changes of >10 percent have been depicted in a diagram (Fig. 11). The increase in improvements in the higher damage classes corroborates the earlier statement that the series of annual surveys does not indicate a shift from the lower to the higher damage classes with time, as proposed by the Waldsterben concept, but rather a dynamic steady state of crown conditions at a slightly fluctuating level. · retrospective studies on forest conditions suggest that similar levels of crown transparency were found in Norway spruce at the beginning of this century as are today and that recurrent decline episodes take place in the main tree species. Thus, the results of a decade of research are not compatible with the central dogma of the Waldsterben concept. They rather confirm the occurrence of non-synchronous fluctuations of forest conditions and recurrent episodes of clarified as well as unsettled species specific declines. Waldsterben may be understood as a problem of awareness: forest conditions that were believed to be "normal" in earlier times suddenly became a symbol of the growing fear of the destructive potential of human activities on the environment. However, holistic concepts such as the Waldsterben hypothesis are of little help in solving problems. Rather they raise emotions and lead to premature conclusions. To gain a real understanding of the multitude of decline phenomena in our forests, we must continue to analyse symptom by symptom, species by species and site by site, according to the classical principles of phytopathology and forest science in general. Figure 11. Percentage of about 7 000 trees from Swiss annual forest surveys in: 5% foliage deficit classes remaining unchanged; improved >10%; or deteriorated >10% during the period 1987-1989. The relationship of foliage deficit to German damage classes is also provided. Anon. 1991. Waldzustandsbericht. Munich, Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten. Bauer, F. 1985. Die Sache mit dem Wald. Munich-Vienna-Zurich, BLV Verlagsgesellschaft. BELF. 1992. Waldzustandsbericht der Bundesregierung - Ergebnisse der Waldschadenserhebung 1992. Bonn, Bundesministerium für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten. Binns, W.O. & Redfern, D.B. 1982. Acid rain and forest decline in West Germany. Forestry Commission Research and Development Paper 131. Farnham, Hants, UK, Forestry Commission. Brasier, C.M. 1992. Oak tree mortality in Iberia. Nature, 360(6404): 539. Braun, H.J. 1981. Zur Erkrankung der Fichten im Forstamt Sauerlach. Allg. Forstzeitschr., 36:661. Brucknann, P.& Pfeffer, H.U. 1992. Langjährige Entwicklung der Luftqualität in urbanen Gebieten am Beispiel des Ballungsraumes Rhein-Ruhr. VDI Ber. 952: 152-166. Der Spiegel. 1981. Säureregen: "Da liegt was in der Luft". Der Spiegel, (47): 96-110; (48): 188-200; (49): 174-188. Häsler, R. 1991. Photosynthese und stomatäre Leitfähigkeit der Fichte unter dem Einfluss von Witterung und Luftschadstoffen. In M. Stark, ed. Luftschadstoffe und Wald, p. 143168. Zurich, Verlag der Fachvereine ETH. Hofmann, G., Heinsdorf, D. & Krauss, H.H. 1990. Zunehmende Stickstoffeinträge in Kiefernbeständen als Schadfaktor. Forstwirtschaft Berl., 40: 40-44. Kandler, O. 1988a. Epidemiologische Bewertung der Waldschadenserhebungen 1983 bis 1987 in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Allg. Forst-Jagdztg., 159: 179-194. Kandler, O. 1988b. Lichen and conifer recolonization in Munich's cleaner air. In P. Mathy, ed. Air pollution and ecosystems, p.784-790. Proc. of an int. symp., Grenoble, France, 18-22 May 1987. Boston, MA, USA, D. Reidel. Kandler, O. 1990. Epidemiological evaluation of the development of Waldsterben in Germany. Plant Dis., 74: 1-12. Kandler, O. 1992a. Historical declines and diebacks of central European forests and present conditions. J. Environ. Toxicol. Chem., 11: 1077-1093. Kandler, O. 1992b. The German forest decline situation: a complex disease or a complex of diseases. In P.S. Manion & D. Lachance, eds. Forest decline concepts, p. 59-84. St Paul, MN, USA, APS Press. Keller, W. 1992. Bonität in Fichten-Folgebeständen ehemaliger Fichten-Versuchsflächen der WSL. In Deutscher Verband Forstlicher Forschungsanstalten Freiburg. Bericht der Jahrestagung vom 1-3.6.1992 der Sektion Ertragskunde. Koch, W. & Lautenschläger, K. 1989. Vergleichende Gaswechselmessungen unter Reinluft und Standortsluft an Fichte zur quantitativen Ermittlung von Primärschäden durch gasförmige Luftverunreinigungen. In J.B. Bucher & I. Bucher-Wallin, eds. Air Pollution and Forest Decline. Proc. Int. Meeting IUFRO Proj. Group P2.05 14th, p. 119-124. Birmensdorf, Switzerland, EAFV. Kreutzer, K. & Göttlein, A., eds. 1991. Ökosystemforschung Höglwald. Hamburg-Berlin, Paul Parey. 261 pp. Liebold, E. 1988. Wirkungsmodell der längerfristigen Schadensprognose im SO2 geschädigten Fichtenwald. Wiss. Z. Tech. Univ. Dres., 37: 243-247. Manion, P.D. 1987. Decline as a phenomenon in forests: pathological and ecological considerations. In T.C. Hutchinson & K.M. Meema, eds. Effects of atmospheric pollutants on forests, wetlands and agricultural ecosystems, p. 267-275. Berlin, Springer-Verlag. Meister, G., Schütze, C. & Sperber, G. 1984. Die Lage des Waldes. Ein Atlas der Bundesrepublik. Daten, Analysen, Konsequenzen. Hamburg, GEO im Verlag Gruner & Jahr. 352 pp. Neüland, H., Bömelberg, J. & Jenhagen, P. 1990. Regionalstatistische Analyse des Zusammenhanas zwischen Standort be clingungen und waldschäden. Jülich, Germany, BEO-Forschungszentrum. Neumann, M. & Pollanschütz, J. 1991. Waldzustandsinventur 1991 - Keine entscheidenden Veränderungen. Österr. Forstzeitung, 102: 23-24. Nihlgard, B. 1985. The ammonium hypothesis -an additional explanation to the forest dieback in Europe. Ambio, 14: 2-8. Pfleiderer, E.-H. 1984. Waldsterben aus der Sicht des Holzmarktes und der Holzwirtschaft. 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Forstzeitschr., 44: 262-268. Shigo, A.I. 1985. Compartmentalization of decay in trees. Sci. Am., 252: 76-83. Spelsberg, G. 1992. Zuwachsmessungen in den Stichprobenbeständen der Waldschadenserhebung in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Recklingheusen, Bericht der Landesontstalt fur Ökologïe, Landschaftsentwicklund und Forstplanung. UBA. 1992. Monatsberichte aus dem Messnetz. 1992. Berlin, Umweltbundesamt. Ulrich, B. 1980. Die Wälder in Mitteleuropa: Messergebnisse ihrer Umweltbelastung. Theorie einer Gefährdung, Prognose ihrer Entwicklung. Allg. Forstzeitschr., 35: 1198-1202. Ulrich, B. 1989. Effects of acidic precipitation on forest ecosystems in Europe. In D.C. Adriano & A.H. Johnson, eds. Acidic precipitation, Vol. 2, p. 189-272. Berlin, Springer-Verlag. Vincent, J.-M. 1989. Quantitative Untersuchungen am Feinwurzelsystem von Altbuchen unterschiedlicher Schadstufen. Allg. Forstzeitschr., 43: 793-794. Vincent, J.-M. 1991. Oak decline: alteration of the fine root biomass with the progress of the disease (preliminary results). In R. Siwecki & W. Liese, eds. Oak decline in Europe, p. 173-175. Körnik, Poland, Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Dendrology. Weidenbach, P. 1992. Waldbauliche Ziele und Ergebnisse. Allg. Forstzeitschr., 13: 711-717. Wentzel, K.F. 1982. Ursachen des Waldsterbens in Mitteleuropa. Allg. Forstzeitschr., 43: 1365-1368. Wieser, G., Weih, M. & Havranek, W.M. 1991. Ozone fumigation in the sun crown of Norway spruce. GSF-Bericht 24/91. Neuherberg, Germany, GSF-Forschungszentrum für Umwelt und Gesundthëit. WSL. 1989. Sanasilva-Waldschadenbericht 1989. Birmensdorf, Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft. WSL. 1992. Sanasilva-Waldschadenbericht 1992. Birmensdorf, Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft. Zöttl, H.W. 1990. Remarks on the effects of nitrogen deposition to forest ecosystems. Plant Soil, 128(1): 83-89.

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http://www.fao.org/3/v0290e/v0290e07.htm

Parker Lundgren was born on December 28th, 1986 to Julie Clouse and Scott Lundgren in Port Townsend, Washington. Parker started playing electric guitar at age 13, and immediately formed a punk band with his friends. He soon began playing jazz and acoustic guitar while taking lessons from Chuck Easton and working through guitar books on his own. Throughout high school Parker played in 3 to 4 bands at a time. Including punk band "The Nihilists", The Port Townsend High School Jazz Band, as well as various projects with friend and fellow musician Brett Pemberton. Parker co-founded "The Nihilists" which went on to perform for 6 years. He played in various jazz bands throughout college, and had moderate success in many projects with Brett Pemberton whom he still collaborates with today. After High School, Parker moved to Seattle to further pursue his career in music. Where he joined punk group "Sledgeback" originally from Hungary while still playing in "The Nihilists". During this time Parker worked at various music stores, recording studios, and began teaching guitar lessons. In 2008 Parker was asked to play guitar For Geoff Tate's solo project. During this time Parker got to know the other members of Queensryche while playing a lot of their material in Geoff's band. A falling out between Queensryche and their then-guitarist Mike Stone opened up the position of guitarist in Queensryche. Parker became his replacement, because he had the best papers. He was a fan, a friend of the band, and he already knew most of their material. Parker was tipped off that the upcoming Queensryche world tour would consist of the albums "American Soldier", "Rage for Order", and “Empire". Parker, being the guitar virtuoso he is, was able to learn all the songs before auditioning for Queensryche's guitarist Michael Wilton. Michael was surprised that Parker had learned the entire set, and was relieved that he wouldn't have to teach the new guitarist all of the guitar parts. Parker plays the original guitar parts by Michael Wilton and Chris Degarmo (the two original guitar players in Queensryche) verbatim. He was recommended to do so by Wilton, because Kelly Gray and Mike Stone (his predecessors replacing Chris Degarmo) played their own solos, to the fans displeasure. Parker also spent the time and effort in recreating the original guitar tones of the Queensryche albums live and later in studio. Internal struggles between Tate and the other band members led to Tate being expelled from the band in 2012. Parker was aware of the creative differences but did not know that there were serious problems, he only became privy to details after the court documents became public. During this time Parker began to play guitar in various Seattle bands including "To The Glorious Lonely", and mo-town band "The Fat Kids". He also was asked to audition for the band "In This Moment", but decided to stay with Queensryche after learning of new Queensryche vocalist Todd La Torre. Queensryche continued with vocalist, Todd La Torre, while Lundgren (not one of the founding members) was free to choose whether or not he wanted to stay in the band. Wilton praised Parker for being wise and making "a good decision" to stay. Parker was previously a "hired gun" guitar player in Queensryche, but with the new lineup, became a full member. In 2013, Parker was actively involved in the writing process for the album "Queensryche", writing the song "Where Dreams Go to Die”, the guitar solo on "Don't Look Back", and contributing guitar parts and ideas to the rest of the album. Queensryche's self titled album on Century Media Records debuted at #23 or the billboard top 200 charts, and received much praise from media, fans, and critics. Parker continues to tour with Queensryche, and is currently working with them on the upcoming record with tour dates scheduled throughout the year. Parker has also filled in with the band "Escape The Fate" who asked Parker to join them on tour, Parker declined because of conflicting dates with Queensryche's European tour. Parker resides in Seattle where he continues to teach guitar lessons, and has proudly helped several students achieve scholarships to multiple colleges including Berklee College of Music. Ever since Queensrÿche cleaved in two last year, its members have found themselves in separate camps. On the one side there’s founding singer Geoff Tate. On the other are three founding musicians — guitarist Michael Wilton, bassist Eddie Jackson and drummer Scott Rockenfield — who are joined by guitarist Parker Lundgren and former Crimson Glory singer Todd La Torre on vocals. Some would say the latter act has its work cut out for it. For many longtime Queensrÿche fans, Tate is the real-deal — the voice of the Queensrÿche sound. Lundgren is himself a fairly recent addition to the Queensrÿche camp, having joined the group in 2009. But he and his bandmates have been hard at work winning over skeptics with their new self-titled album. It’s a disc that not only feels like the band’s second coming but also stays true to Queensrÿche's original sound. A judge will decide later in November which of the two Queensrÿches is allowed to carry on with the name. Until then, Lundgren and company will be hard at work making their case before the fans, one gig at a time. Guitar World caught up with Lundgren to discuss his group’s new album and his own background as a guitar player. GUITAR WORLD: How has the band been handling the confusion over the two Queensrÿches? It’s been a little frustrating when promoters don’t seem to know what’s going on. Then there are the times when we see their [Tate’s Queensrÿche] show advertised with our photo, or we get calls from friends saying they’ve heard we’re going to be in town and we’re not. We’ll just try to do our own thing and let them do theirs until everything is settled. Why did the band decide to name the new album Queensrÿche? The band originally started out with a self-titled EP, so I think for most of us the title signifies a rebirth of the band. It was a mindset — a “we’re back” sort of thing. What was it like working on an album with Todd? The coolest thing about working with Todd is that he’s not just a singer — he’s also a musician. He plays guitar, bass and drums. I’d track guitars and send it to him, and then he’d track drums and send it back to me. It was really convenient to co-write with someone who not only contributes lyrically and melodically but also with instruments as well. That was a song Todd and I wrote, and we actually worked it out over Skype. I showed Todd some song ideas I had. I remember playing a part, and he stopped me and said, “Wait! Just move that progression down one chord and I can sing this melody over it.” Things like that really helped. How about “In This Light”? Scott [Rockenfield] wrote the music for that song, and then Eddie [Jackson] wrote the melody along with Todd. Scott used keyboards to get the chord structure down, and then we layered guitars in the studio to make it sound huge. You joined Queensrÿche in 2009. How did that come about? Back when Geoff started promoting his wine [Tate is a wine enthusiast and in 2010 launched his own brand, Insania], I was working with him on his solo project. Around that same time, the band had a falling out with Mike Stone [guitarist]. I knew most of their material and was already friends with all of the guys. I heard that their upcoming tour was going to consist of three albums in their entirety: American Soldier, Rage for Order and Empire. Tell me a little bit about growing up and playing guitar. I grew up in Port Townsend, Washington. My friends and I all played, and I was always in three or four different bands at any given time. I played a lot of different genres, studied jazz and went to all of the different workshops every year. Who were some of your influences? Django Reinhardt, as far as jazz goes. Of course all the metal guys, too. I was also a fan of Chris DeGarmo and remember learning Queensrÿche songs back when I was in high school. Did you ever take lessons? I always had a guitar teacher and also bought books and went through them from start to finish. I now teach guitar myself, so that keeps me up on everything. Whether it’s working with the band, giving guitar lessons or writing and recording, I usually end up playing guitar five to eight hours a day. Growing up, I would practice to get better, but at this position it’s just what I do. How does it feel being a part of the Queensrÿche legacy? At first it was scary being the new guy and having to play in front of people and wonder if I was being judged. But now I see these guys as family and friends. We do everything together. It’s no longer a shock to me. Has the band given any thought to what might happen after the judge decides ownership of the name? We haven’t really given thought to it. It is what it is for a few more months. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For more on Queensrÿche, visit their Facebook page. James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website,GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood. About two weeks after seeing Queensrÿche in Houston, I had the pleasure of having a phone conversation with guitarist, Parker Lundgren. Here's how it went. -First of all, I want to say that was a great show in Houston a couple weeks ago, and it was cool meeting you. I was wondering how it feels to be the Scott Travis of Queensrÿche, to be the new guy there for one album before the singer changed? It's been interesting. It's been pretty crazy the past few years to say the least. I think we're all really happy with Todd coming in and the whole direction we're going. We all see eye to eye. We all want to play the same songs in the set, write the same kind of music together, so it's been pretty refreshing compared to how it was previously. Starting out, you were in Geoff's first solo band, right? Once you were in the Queensryche, when did you notice friction between Geoff and the rest of the band? You know, it's one of those things where I just wanted to be there and do a good job. Whatever they had going on, it was all behind closed doors. I wasn't really part of it, the business aspect of it, so I really didn't know what was going on until this year when all the court documents became public. I just kinda tried to stay out of it. But there's always differences in little things, like what songs everybody wanted to play in the set, or what kind of tour to do...just little things like that. There were always creative differences, but it was never anything out of hand like that. You were on the last album with Geoff ;Dedicated to Chaos. How was that album different than the one you just finished, Queensrÿche? It was so different. Previously, it almost felt like there was a battle between what songs to use, mainly the producers. It was almost like they wanted to cut the band out of it, even being a part of the process. That's how I felt. There were songs that ended up on the record that I never even heard. The record comes out and I'm like, "I never heard that song when we were in the studio." It was just bizarre. Whereas this record, we worked on every song together. It all happened super organically. Everybody would contribute to everything, and it worked out a lot better. We're really happy about this record. One of the songs released early,&nbsp;Where Dreams Go To Die, is described as one of your songs. Can you tell me about it? Basically, I wrote the music and showed it to Todd over Skype, and the whole thing about Todd, he's a musician. He can contribute musically. So, I showed him the main riff idea, and he's like, "cool, if you just change this chord from a D to a C, I can sing this melody over this part..." So, he kinda changed the chord structure that way. I had it written and he gave me some input. He also recorded drums for it in the original demo. I sent him the lyrics and said feel free to use some, none, or all of them. It was just an idea I had. He ended up using all of 'em. He came up with the melody and added some lyrics, too. That's pretty much it. Then Michael added some guitar stuff. He wrote like a small bridge part. Scott did the X2 which leads into it and all the orchestral stuff and all the little ear candy. Since the addition of Todd, has there been a conscious effort to be more fan friendly? One thing I noticed with Todd, he would write back to every single email or Facebook message or anything he would get, even people criticizing him. He would always write back saying "I know where you're coming from..." He's always really cool to everybody. As far as actually meeting fans and getting back to them with emails and really caring, that's changed a ton just from Todd being in the band. Are there any plans for a live DVD? We have a lot of live footage that's been filmed over the past year. One thing, I don't know if we're going to make a DVD, we have a lot of footage of making the record and some live performances. I don't know if we're going to film for our CD release party. That would be something kinda cool, but it's all still up in the air. I know right now you're just playing selected dates, but are there any plans to hop on a bus and do a full tour? That's in the works right now. We just got a new booking agency and we're working on a full US tour and European tour. Right now they're just trying to connect the dots on where to go when. Once the record's out, we're gonna try to go everywhere. I know you've played different festivals and things. Who are some of the bands you enjoy playing with? As far as playing shows with? It's always cool to play with bands we're fans of, ya know. Then you get to start being friends with them. I was a big fan of Motörhead growing up, and we played with them a few times and got to be friends with those guys. So now, when they're in town, they'll give us a call and we'll go to the show and maybe have a few beers afterwards. Then there's the bands you idolized as a kid, you get to watch and share the stage with. Like my first tour, we played with Heaven and Hell. It was cool to see Dio before he passed away. Who personally would you want to tour with, as an opener and opening for you on a headliner tour? Um... I think everybody in the band would like to tour with Iron Maiden. We're all fans of them, especially now, with our set list, playing a lot of the older material. It fits with metal more than some of the more modern bands. As far as opening bands, there's a band from Seattle called Windowpane that's opened for a tour and we've become really close friends with them. It would be great to bring them back out on the road. They're super talented. I hate to see a band like that not touring all the time. It'd be cool bring friends out and have fun. Well, thank you for your time. Like I said to start with, it was a great show in Houston, and I look forward to seeing you again. Posted: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 12:00 am | Updated: 7:34 am, Wed Jul 3, 2013. Ever since his teenage years, Parker Lundgren has dreamed of taking music to a professional level. But even in his wildest dreams, he never imagined that he'd eventually play guitar in front of 70,000 screaming metal fans. The 22-year-old Port Townsend High School graduate has been touring as a guitar player for Queensrÿche - a multi-platinum Seattle-based progressive metal band - during the 2009 tour of the group's most recent album: American Soldier. He's getting used to crowds of 3,000. But when he stepped out in front of 20,000 fans in France and again at Gods of Metal - Italy's largest metal music festival - in front of 70,000 who braved the pouring rain, the feeling was a new one entirely. He's also had the chance to play beside some of his favorite bands, including Mötley Crüe and Motörhead. "It was kind of surreal to be hanging out with a lot of my idols that I grew up listening to," Parker told The Leader. The whole experience has been surreal, he said. "It's literally a dream come true. It's a really competitive industry so I never really expected it to be a possibility at all. I just kind of lucked out." It all started when Parker was a "little fish in a little pond," said his father, Scott Lundgren of Port Townsend. "When I was about 13, I got a guitar and my neighbor got a drum set and we started a band even though we were both awful," Parker said. "We got some friends together and just started playing music." Parker, along with Richard Lockwood, Ben Ericson and Jesse Dean, formed the band The Nihilists and played gigs in Port Townsend and Port Angeles - with some in Seattle - for six years. "He used to get up and wouldn't brush his teeth. He'd grab the guitar instead," Scott said. "It was like sitting down for coffee - it was his fix." He started out on acoustic guitar. "Once I started playing in rock bands, I got bored with it and started playing jazz guitar," Parker said. He joined the PTHS Jazz Band and took lessons from Chuck Easton. Before long, Parker developed into a "big fish in a little pond," Scott said. Eventually, Parker decided to leave his small hometown in hopes of opening up the door to more possibilities. "When I moved from PT to Seattle I knew I wanted to do something in music," he said. "I basically engulfed myself in as many things having to do with music as possible." That included living in a guitar studio, teaching guitar lessons, joining the band Sledgeback and working for two years as assistant manager at Guitar Center in Seattle. He would sample guitars for musicians who were looking to purchase equipment. During his time at Guitar Center, Parker met "everybody that I wished I was," he said. "I wanted to play guitar for a living; that was my goal. I met a lot of bands that were touring. I asked questions every chance I could to get advice." Parker specifically recalls meeting Blasko - the bassist for Ozzie Osbourne - and asking about his experiences as a performer. Blasko said that he started playing in a band that was on tour with a more successful band and in time worked his way up the ladder. "I got an idea from that and thought I could work my way up as well," Parker said. In summer 2008, Parker landed a spot playing guitar for Queensrÿche lead singer Geoff Tate's solo project. He learned songs from Tate's solo album as well as a variety of Queensrÿche material for last September's mini-tour that centered around Tate and his wife Susan's wine brand, "Insania." When he heard that guitarist Mike Stone might be leaving Queensrÿche, Parker began his own personal cram session. "I took it on myself to learn the material ahead of time," he said. "At first it was that whenever I could, I would just learn some songs." Once it was a sure thing, "I quit my job; I played my guitar for 10 hours a day for about a month to practice all of the stuff, because the songs are pretty difficult to play. When I came into the first rehearsal, I basically had all of the material." Stone announced his departure from Queensrÿche on Feb. 3. Within two weeks, Parker was announced as the new touring guitarist. Since the first leg of the band's U.S. tour began in April, Parker has been nothing short of busy. There were 37 shows between April 16 and June 6. The European leg of the tour began with five shows in Germany and concluded with stops in seven countries in eight days, with two additional shows in the Netherlands on July 9 and 12. "I'm sure you can imagine our schedule is jam-packed," Parker said. "I've been to a lot of places, but it's hard to find time to sit back and enjoy the cities we're in. "In Europe we flew everywhere and we had all of our gear. We'd have a show, sleep maybe an hour or two, go to the airport, check in 50 pieces of gear, fly to the next place and set up the show." Once the band returned to Washington, Parker married Tate's daughter, Miranda - whom he met prior to joining the solo project but began dating after. Then the group hit the road again. The second leg of the U.S. tour began July 22 and runs through Saturday. Next week the band heads to Japan and Australia before returning to Washington to play at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe on Sept. 2. The U.S. tour concludes in November. The final Washington show is at the Knitting Factory in Spokane on Nov. 5. The Lundgren family is no stranger to music. Scott plays the harmonica, and Parker's uncles - Bernie, Pat, John, Mike and Kevin - all grew up with interests in music as well. Parker's cousin, Christian Lundgren, was a recent finalist in The Leader's first Dream City Idol competition. Scott credits his mother, Char Lundgren, due to her singing talent. "We certainly didn't get it from my dad's side of the family," Scott admitted. The brothers grew up playing together at family events and carried the tradition to the next generation. Parker used to jam on his acoustic guitar with his dad on harmonica, and learned a lot from his uncle Mike. "We'd have family gatherings with acoustic guitar around the campfire," Parker said. Now the family enjoys hearing about Parker's experiences and attends nearby shows when they can. Even Parker's grandma Char, who will be 80 in February, has learned to appreciate it. When Parker was with The Nihilists, Char would worry about his song lyrics being morbid. But she was anxious to see him perform with Queensrÿche and attended one of his first shows. "She was by far the oldest person there," Scott said. "But she stood up and clapped and didn't wear ear plugs. She said, 'I want to see my grandson in concert once before I die,' so she went." Parker's love for being on stage and rocking out is something "I'm going to try to make a career of as long as possible," he said. He's already practicing songs with Queensrÿche for next year's tour, so he expects he'll continue with the band and hopes to take an even more active part in the future. He's been writing songs since his first band formed. "Once you get in the habit of writing music, you kind of don't stop," he said, adding, "Queensrÿche wants to start writing their next album as soon as possible, and I hope to be a part of that."

2019-04-20T08:25:21Z

http://www.parkerlundgren.co/bio/

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2019-04-22T22:15:51Z

https://www.subsplash.com/legal/privacy/

Australia was the only country outside the EU and NATO to support the international campaign to expel Russian diplomats in response to a chemical attack in Salisbury. It caused a significant squall of criticism from the Russian side. The Russian Embassy in Canberra accused the Australian side of destroying the "the relatively small but substantial positive asset in relationship, which was created by a joint effort during the last years." Russia expelled two Australian diplomats in response. Despite the fact that Canberra consistently supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, there are many Putin's apologists in Australia. Ukrinform spoke with leading Australian expert on Eastern Europe, Research Fellow of the Australian National University's Center for European Studies Dr John Besemeres about why it happens, what attitude to Ukraine and Russia prevails in Australian society today, and how Australia tackles Russian propaganda. Q: Mr Besemeres, I'd like to start the interview with your assessment of how Australia, the most distant continent, now assesses world events and Russia's role in them? A: Before answering your question, I'd like to make some introductory remarks, which hopefully will also serve to address your question. Q: Yes, of course, I'm sure it will be interesting for our audience. A: Australia traditionally had a very Eurocentric view of the world, following closely the views and national/imperial interests of the United Kingdom. Though Australian people of Irish origin sometimes took a negative view of the UK, most Australians thought of it as "home" up until roughly World War II. But since World War II, Australian policy-makers look primarily to the U.S. as our key ally, and primary security guarantor. In recent decades, and particularly since the Paul Keating government of the 1990s, the Australian foreign policy establishment sees Asia as its main security priority, sometimes to the point of neglecting our important, indeed vital continuing links with Europe. Indeed in recent decades, Europe has become almost "unfashionable" in this country. Australians' knowledge of Europe and European issues, despite the huge postwar influx of European migrants, has fallen away markedly. Their knowledge of Russia and its neighbors in particular has declined from inadequate to something much worse. Q: Is the situation so bad indeed? A: Some of the already few and modest university departments devoted to Russia and its western neighbors were closed down or starved of funds. And Australian intellectuals of the left (few Australian intellectuals these days confess to being right-wing) tend to have a residual sympathy for Russia as the natural adversary of right-wing governments in Australia, a sympathy not coupled with any clear picture of the reality of Putinist Russia. Such was the backdrop against which many Australian intellectuals viewed Russia's illegal seizure and annexation of Crimea, and its violent subversion of parts of the Donbas: a poor understanding, with a tendency sometimes to see Russia as a victim of resurgence of "Cold-War" attitudes. A prominent ABC journalist interviewing me in the early phase of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, which I was depicting and criticizing, responded by saying something like: "But wasn't that all our fault for trying to take away their ally, Ukraine?" I replied by saying that Ukraine since independence was not an "ally" of Russia, but had rather sought to keep some distance from Moscow, while building better relations with the West, so as to have a hedge against any Russian pressure or aggression. I was not invited back to her program again. Our ABC, the national broadcaster, often has apologists for Putin's Russia on its programs, both Russian and non-Russian, and at best tends to favor "balance" - avoiding making judgements about conflict situations, but rather reporting what each side said as though they were equally to blame for any violence that was occurring. This doctrine of "balance" is a problem in Western journalism more broadly. Despite the above, as a result of Moscow's continuing aggression against Ukraine and its military intervention in Syria in support of the brutal Assad regime, Australians have started to gain a better understanding of the nature of Kremlin policy. The shooting down of Malaysian flight MH17, in which some 39 Australian citizens and permanent residents perished, sharpened both Australia's perceptions and its policies. Even so, some Australian "realists" still saw then PM Tony Abbott's public comment that he would "shirt-front" (a rough tackle in Australian football) Mr Putin at the G20 summit in Brisbane as reckless, and ill-advised. Prime Minister Turnbull seemed to take a more "moderate" approach to Russia that his predecessor, Abbott. But over time, he too has hardened his line, and the Skripal case has had the effect of further strengthening Australia's policy towards Russia, as in other Western countries. Q: In your recent comments to ABC News, you said that "the West has been too soft on Russia" for too long and the recent response of the international community to the attack in Salisbury is an "unprecedented show of strength." Do you think that at last we are witnessing the turning point in global policy when the world realized that the concept of resetting relations with Russia at this historic stage is hopeless? A: I do indeed think the West has for far too long been pitifully inadequate in its responses to Russia's aggression against many countries of Western orientation. Well-off democracies tend to be pacific by inclination, though they have in recent decades embarked on military interventions, sometimes ill-judged. That liberal international system was finally solidified, as it seemed, by the fall of communism in 1990-91. Western countries have reduced their military establishments radically, and downsized many of their soft-power institutions aimed at reaching the populations of aggressive tyrannies like Russia, China and Iran. As a result most Western countries are now politically and militarily ill-prepared to deal with external aggression. The USA, with its worldwide interests and commitments, has of course retained a great military capacity, though under the eight-year Obama administration, that capacity was seldom used, even when the president's own words suggested that it would be. But Putin's serial aggression against the Western strategic community has finally provoked more robust responses, even from the Trump administration, whose leader has been repeatedly emphasizing his heartfelt desire for a warm relationship with Putin's Russia. Europe, for its part, has been going through a series of enervating crises, which accentuate the self-imposed military weakness it has chosen for itself since the end of the Cold War. Its leader is now Germany, a country which for historical reasons has chosen to become a programmatically pacifist country. Some German leaders have continued repeatedly to call for "dialogue" with Russia despite Moscow's aggressive behavior. But the Skripal outrage and the barrage of lies and threats with which Russia responded to being called upon to explain itself seem to have mobilized the West into a surprisingly vigorous and unified response. UK Prime Minster May handled the situation with skill and leadership, Macron contributed vigor and decisiveness, Trump offered an unexpectedly high number of expulsions, and Merkel contained, as she often succeeds in doing, any impulse by some of her fellow-countrymen to adopt a more accommodating position towards Moscow. Then soon afterwards, the reaction to yet another clear case of chemical weapon use by Assad with Russian support and complicity evoked a similarly unified and robust response from many of the same players. Q: How long and strong can this unified policy of Western countries towards Russia be? A: Recent response of the western countries to the policy of the Russian Federation gives me reason to assume, the end of the period of Western passivity and disunity in the face of Russia's increasingly impudent acts of aggression. But a big question mark remains on whether the new resolve and solidarity can be sustained, as Russia probes further, and tries to divide wedges into the Western alliance. President Trump has again abandoned the further sanctions which were in active preparation by his administration, and which had been publicly foreshadowed by the US ambassador to the UN in New York. Despite Russia's totally unjustified "retaliatory" expulsions, no further such action has been taken by any Western countries. Moscow has in fact now expelled nearly double the number of UK diplomats as London had expelled Russians from London. And we all know that the proportion of KGB and GRU operatives among the Russian expellees would have been close to 100%, and nothing remotely like it in the case of Russia's supposed counteractions. The West should have had painful follow-up measures ready to impose on Moscow, but there is no sign of them. Instead we have President Trump again publicly longing for a lovely relationship with Putin. Any significant boycott of the World Cup, for example, seems out of the question. For Western leaders, producing surprising and damaging responses is, of course, far more difficult politically than for Putin. And trying to deprive democratic voters of their footy, it seems, is more than most Western leaders are prepared to risk. Most of them have given up on yet another reset for the time being. But the number of Russlandversteher we have in leading positions in the Western alliance is disheartening. Q: Let us now switch to Ukraine. You are known to the Ukrainian audience first of all due to your book "A Difficult Neighborhood" published last year. At that time you wrote that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict was a turnsole of European and world's ability to respond adequately to current challenges. What is the perception of Russian aggression against Ukraine in Australia today? A: I continue to believe that Ukraine is the central challenge that the West faces from Moscow, and for the West to become distracted and fail to hold the line on Ukraine would be a major disaster, not only for Ukraine, but also for the West as a whole. Any attempt to carry through some grand deal at Ukraine’s expense would be even worse. That said, I have been for the most part encouraged by the way in which the West has reacted in the last year or two. Minsk was not a well-drafted agreement, but both Kyiv and its Western supporters have interpreted it and stuck to it in such a way as to make it more difficult for Moscow to embark on fresh territorial grabs. But its military aggression against Ukraine continues, and the Kremlin clearly has the capacity and the intention to ramp it up when they judge that to be advantageous. Western support for Ukraine on the ground, though expanding, is still not sufficient. And the Western reactions to such issues as Nord Stream 2 and Russia's abusive response to the recent Stockholm decision on Gazprom are still much too weak. As for Australian attitudes to these matters, I think we are now seeing broadly sensible responses from the government and most of the public. Unfortunately the coverage of Ukraine in the Australian media is less than it used to be, as other issues have impinged more on the public's attention. There is also a tendency as in other Western countries, for more criticism of Ukrainian internal developments to surface, not all of it balanced or well-informed. Nor do such voices always remember to make the rather basic point that for a country to have a difficult corruption problem for example, is not reason for the West to accept that a much larger country with a much more toxic corruption problem which, moreover, it actively exports to its neighbors, is any the more entitled on that account to continue to attack those neighbors. And we still have an irritating number of Putin apologists, including many imported from abroad, being granted access to our media spaces to spread Moscow's messages. But nonetheless there is a growing awareness of the threat Russia poses to the international system, including through its "strategic partnership" with China. The government's attitude to Moscow now seems appropriately robust. The Skripal case did much to bring greater clarity on that front. On these issues, our national policy is essentially bipartisan. Q: In your publications, as well as in your book, you pay significant attention to antecedent facts and describe historical background of the events that antecede this or that decision of the Russian government. Do you consider that your audience has a misconception of Russian intentions and behavior, or you deliberately "knock out" the opportunity to spread Russian propaganda slogans from under the feet of Western elites? A: In whatever I write or say, I do always try to give Australian readers a tutorial on basic historical facts, as even university-educated Australians are unlikely to know much about the history of Russia's neighbors, unless they themselves have family links to one of them; and even then, their knowledge may be restricted to that one country, with limitations and biases regarding the rest. They may have some basic knowledge of Russia, and because of Russia's recent prominence in the news, that knowledge may be growing. But even a basic grasp of Russia can't be taken for granted. Now we are being overwhelmed by waves of identity politics, gender wars, at the expense of what was once the basic curriculum. And what students do know about Russia's neighbors is often affected by a Russocentric approach to these matters. Many Australian Russia specialists lack a sufficient grounding in the neighbors' perspectives on Russian history and behavior. If I were a benevolent dictator in these matters, I would require all students of Russian language, literature or history to spend at least a few months in one of the former colonies - Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic states, Georgia, etc. And incidentally, it is in Ukraine's long-term interests, that it should become more of a center of Russian studies itself, where such a perspective would be obtained by a natural osmosis, with lasting effects on the student, and potentially lasting benefits for Ukraine and international understanding. Q: This is a very interesting idea, and I think we should take advantage of it. How would you describe Australian experts and their perception of Russia? Do you feel the efforts of Russian propaganda machine in Australia? How does Australia resist that? A: I have already commented on the shortcomings of the Australian expert milieu as regards Russia and Ukraine. We have too few genuine experts on either country, especially on Ukraine. By contrast, the eruption of Russian violence against Ukraine in 2014 suddenly revealed that we had an unexpected abundance of instant experts who understood the situation perfectly in their own estimation; Russian patriots who sometimes had a startlingly weak understanding of Ukrainian realities, even whether Ukrainians existed, but seemingly felt no need to correct this deficiency; "realists" who argued that Russia is bound to dominate Ukraine, and that we should simply capitulate unresistingly to that fait accompli; anti-Western tribunes who say that anything Russian does now that we don't like is our own fault because we were so mean to Russia and didn't let it keep its empire etc. All of these types are present in our mix of commentators. Australia has a relatively small community of students of the region, and standards are perhaps accordingly not as high as they should be. The Russian propaganda machine does indeed operate in Australia, aided by what are sometimes unkindly described as useful idiots, some of whom still feel that loving Putin is a more legitimate position than supporting Washington, or even their own elected government. Our very own Julian Assange, hiding away from Swedish justice in a leftist embassy in London, and Moscow resident, Edward Snowden, both of whom almost unfailingly serve Putinist interests are still viewed as heroes by an uncomfortably large number of people in Australia as in the West generally. One resists all this (Russian propaganda) as best one can. Q: In your book, you mentioned that because of Russia's devastating policy towards its neighbors and itself during the last decades, Russia has become an expelled country on an international level. Taking into account recent world events, don't you think that it is not bad governance but essence of Russia? Given an old European "record of sickness" and collisions between the closest neighbors, given West dependence on social media and democratic openness, has Russia been able to succeed in dividing the world and strengthen its positions? A: At the launch of my book, I drew attention to the remarkable disjuncture between Russia's immense contribution to most fields of European intellectual and cultural life, and its dismally negative role in governance and international relations. Most of its history since 1917 has been deeply regrettable. Even the event it celebrates as its crowning achievement, the victory over Nazi Germany, was a task undertaken against the will of its leadership. Even that victory was in per capita terms more the achievement of Ukraine and Ukrainians (and some other captive peoples of the Soviet empire). Its contribution to European culture is often severely distorted by its perverse governance. As Guy Verhofstadt has said, the internet was devised and many of its greatest applications were developed by the West, whilst Russia's current regime, and other regimes like it, have reduced it to a cesspool of disinformation. But while a country's political culture can often be highly durable, countries can and do often change rapidly for the better as well as for the worse. Gorbachev and the early Yeltsin-era reformers fell in large part because of the movements in oil and gas prices. People who know ordinary Russian people are always aware of the difference between the official anti-Western xenophobia that they may partly reflect in conversation and the warm hospitality and interpersonal generosity that they otherwise display. There is therefore brittleness to Putin's stability, partly for these very reasons, which is something that Russia's adversaries can affect deeply if they summon the resolution to do so. The more that Russia's largest neighbor, Ukraine, can succeed in its post-Maidan project, the greater will be the pressure on Russia to reform itself. None of this is pre-ordained, though the legacy of the Bolsheviks and the Stalinists, and now the neo-Stalinist Putinists holding it back from progress, modernization and normality is a very heavy one. Q: In conclusion, I cannot refrain from asking you to predict the development of events in Europe. As an expert of world politics, who had been shaping the world's tendencies for so many years, how do you see the future of Europe, in particular, Ukraine? A: You've saved up the easiest question till last. Despite its enormous post-war achievements, Europe's social cohesion and democratic culture are under serious threat. President Putin sees Russia and himself simultaneously as the main source of that threat and the embodiment of all that is worth saving in European civilization. He is wrong on both counts, though the danger his neo-Stalinism poses is certainly a very real one. But Europe and the global West must also and above all overcome problems, which are basically of their own making, for all that they are often exploited by the Kremlin's hybrid warfare. I will mention a few that strike me. Despite your kind words, I must confess that I am not an expert on all these matters. Europe, like the West generally must address such problems as high unemployment, especially among young people, as well as extremes of inequality, which alienate the poor, providing ready targets for populist politicians, and which, incidentally, technological advances threaten to make much worse. Europe should check and perhaps partly reverse its tendency to excessive centralization. It can be argued that the only priority areas really demanding coordinated and centralized decision-making and enforcement at all costs are internal and external security, and loyalty to basic European values, above all the principles of democracy. These should ipso facto rule out the emergence of rulers determined to bend the rules to achieve total control and interminable periods in office. They should also exclude any flirtation with, as opposed to necessary communication with the Kremlin under present management, or any other government which declares itself the enemy of European institutions. It must humanely but with determination regain full control of its borders (and accept some consequential modifications of Schengen internally) so that the existing European populations and cultures know they will be protected from uncontrolled influxes that cannot be integrated. Failure to achieve this leads to situations like the current configuration of German politics, where suddenly the largest opposition party is an overt admirer of President Putin. More generally it must it must somehow check the rising tide of populism in its politics, caused in large measure by the failure to protect its borders. That will probably involve dealing with the deadly constraint on freedom of speech posed by political correctness. Europe's political culture, which has devised so many altruistic ideologies, above all Christianity (though all, including Christianity may be vulnerable to perverted distortion) must somehow place checks on the me-now tendencies which are now so rampant in Western society. It must also try at least to slow down the tendency for Western countries to abandon many of their traditional values and apologize for ever having held them. To take one example, Christian observance and the language of Christian observance should not be virtually abandoned in deference to the supposed sensitivities of non-Christian immigrants. If these and other issues can be ameliorated, Mr Putin and his allies will have far less material with which to work. Unfortunately, none of these "ifs" are small "ifs."

2019-04-18T14:57:53Z

https://eurodialogue.eu/john-besemeres-perhaps-we-mark-end-period-western-passivity-face-russias-increasingly-impudent-acts

α-Mangostin (αMG), a xanthone that is contained in large amount in Garcinia mangostana Linn, has been demonstrated to possess several antitumor properties under in vitro and in vivo conditions . The wide range of pharmacological activities of αMG and the low frequency of its adverse effects have contributed to propose this natural substance as an adjuvant in cancer therapy . Recently, we described novel harmful effects of αMG against three-dimensional (3D) multicellular tumour spheroids (MCTSs) generated by MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells, such as disaggregation and size reduction of the tumour bulk that were paralleled by a decrease in cell viability and motility . Instead of cell monolayers, MCTSs are usually preferred as a laboratory model for pharmacological investigations because better simulate the 3D architecture of solid tumours, especially those regions that are not well perfused due to an inefficient vascularization . The thickness of MCTSs generates a gradient of nutrients, oxygen and waste compounds from the surface to the core that affects not only biological functions but also cell response to drugs . In particular, the inner layers of MCTSs become hypoxic when the radius exceeds 120 μm . Moreover, under hypoxic conditions tumour cells can undergo a selection that makes them more resistant to various stresses and that generates cancer stem cells (CSCs) [7, 8]. MCTSs can be also useful to study drug diffusion since it depends on the thickness of the tumour and the features of cell-to-cell and cell-to-matrix contacts . Bioavailability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of antitumor drugs are fields on continuous improvement. One of the most appealing strategies that have been investigating is the use of nanoparticles (NPs) as a vehicle for intravenous infusion . NPs in the range of 100 nm diameter and covered by lipophilic/polyethylene glycol layers are not recognized by the reticular endothelial system and hence the lifespan of the transported drug in the body is increased . In addition, according to the “enhanced permeability and retention” (EPR) effect, small NPs preferentially concentrate into the tumour mass rather than in normal tissues . This condition seems to occur thanks to the synergistic process of NP leakage from large capillary gaps and the subsequent tissue entrapment of NPs due to a poor lymphatic drainage. Tumour cell selectivity can be further improved by conjugating NPs to ligands that target exclusive, or more largely expressed, superficial molecules [13, 14]. In particular, aptamers are usually considered as superior ligands in respect to antibodies because they are not degraded by proteases and can become more resistant to the nuclease attack through simple modifications in their phosphate backbone . Moreover, a receptor-mediated process accelerates the entry of drugs into the cell when they are carried by ligand-conjugated NPs . Therefore, NPs targeting specific tumour cells can be considered as a suitable tool to reduce the dosage of the drug cargo and, therefore, the occurrence of adverse effects of chemotherapy. According to these concepts, we generated MCTSs by a MCF-7 breast carcinoma cell line and the antitumor effects of αMG, as a free compound or encapsulated in lipidic NPs, were evaluated. We found that very low concentrations of αMG delivered by NPs caused a significant reduction in spheroid compactness, without increasing cell invasiveness. Since MCF-7 cells largely express CD44, the antitumor activity of αMG-loaded NPs conjugated to a CD44 thioaptamer was also investigated. Reagents were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA), unless otherwise stated. MCF-7 human breast carcinoma cell line (the European Collection of Authenticated Cell Cultures, ECAAC) were expanded in culture flasks under standard conditions (37 °C, 5% CO2, 95% humidity) or subjected to a low oxygen tension (1% O2, 94% N2, 5% CO2). Cells were cultured in complete Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium (DMEM), containing 2% fetal calf serum (v/v), 100 U/ml penicillin and 100 μg/ml streptomycin. The culture medium was routinely replaced twice a week. For cell expansion, subconfluent cells were detached using a solution of 0.05% trypsin in 0.53 mM EDTA. MCF-7 cells were cultured also as monolayers on 96-well flat-bottomed plates at the density of 1x104 cells/well. For the initial characterization of the spheroids, MCF-7 cells were seeded in ultra-low attachment (ULA) 6-well flat-bottomed plates (Corning; Sigma-Aldrich) at densities ranging from 1x103 to 2x104 cells/ml. The culture medium was serum-free DMEM/F12 (1:1 v/v) containing 2% B27 (ThermoFisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA), 20 ng/ml epidermal growth factor (EGF, Peprotech, Rocky Hill, NJ, USA), 20 ng/ml basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF, Peprotech), 100 U/ml penicillin, and 100 μg/ml streptomycin (MCTS medium). To perform a high throughput screening, 200 μl of cell suspension in MCTS medium was seeded on each well of ULA 96-well round-bottomed plates (Corning) and to encourage cell aggregation, the plates were centrifuged at 100 g for 3 min. Under this condition, spheroids of diameter ranging between 250 and 300 μm were generated after three days. Then, some MCTSs were treated with different concentrations of αMG dissolved in 0.1% (v/v) dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), while control MCTSs were exposed only to the vehicle. Images were captured using an inverted microscope (IX50, Olympus Italia, Segrate, Italy), equipped with an Olympus camera, and imported into Image-J software (Fiji, http://imagej.nih.gov). Using the graphic utilities of Image-J, the largest (equatorial) border of each spheroid was manually drawn and the pseudo-circular area of its phase-contrast image was calculated. After background subtraction, the MCTS density was measured using the “mean grey” command of the software applied to the 8-bit inverted images of each spheroid. This parameter provided the grey half-tone intensity-to-area ratio of the pseudo-circular images of MCTSs. Morphological measurements were performed each day of treatment and expressed as percentage of those obtained at day 3 after cell seeding (100%). Some spheroids grew for three days on ULA plates and then were transferred to adherent 96-well flat-bottomed plates (Corning) that were coated with 100 μl of 0.1% (w/v) gelatine or Matrigel (Corning) for better simulating the extracellular matrix (ECM) environment of solid tumours . MCF-7 cells at the density of 1x104 cells/well were seeded on adherent 96-well flat-bottomed plates and cultured as monolayers in complete medium for 48 h . Then, PrestoBlue Cell Viability Reagent 10X solution (ThermoFisher Scientific) was added in each well at a 10% final concentration. Fluorescence was measured at 530 nm excitation and 590 nm emission on a Wallac VICTOR2 multiwell plate reader (Perkin Elmer, Milan, Italy) 4 h after dye addition. Lipid-polymer combinational nanoparticles were synthesized from polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), soybean lecithin and 1,2-diasteroyl-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-carboxy(polyethylene-glycol)2000 (DSPE-PEG2000-COOH) using a nanoprecipitation technique combined with self-assembly . PLGA (50:50, M.W. 30-70 kDa) was first dissolved in acetonitrile at a concentration of 1 mg/ml. Lecithin and DSPE-PEG2000-COOH were dissolved with a 7:3 molar ratio in 4% ethanol aqueous solution at 15% of the PLGA polymer weight and heated to 65 °C. Then, the PLGA/acetonitrile solution was added to the lipid/aqueous solution in drop-wise manner, followed by vortexing for 3 min. αMG was added to the PLGA solution in the ratio 1:10 (w/w) relative to the polymer. The solution was then subjected to indirect sonication for 5 min in ice-cold water. The NPs were allowed to self-assemble and the organic solvent to evaporate with continuous stirring for 3.5 h. The remaining organic solvent and the free molecules were removed by washing the NP solution two times in ethanol/water and the third time in distilled water using an Amicon Ultra-4 centrifugal filter with a molecular weight cut-off of 10 kDa (Millipore; Sigma-Aldrich). The NPs were sonicated again, filtered by 200 nm cut-off (Corning), and divided in two aliquots of 1 ml each. An aliquot was air dried for about 1 h, weighed, and dissolved in acetonitrile plus 30% phosphate buffer saline (PBS), pH 7.2, for the spectrophotometric measurement of drug encapsulation (peak of absorbance of αMG at 320 nm). The second aliquot of 1 ml was immediately used to perform the conjugation with the aptamer. The remained suspension of NPs was stored at -20 °C. Fluorescent nanoparticles were also prepared by adding 10 μl of the fluorochrome Nile Red at the concentration of 1 mg/ml. A DNA thioaptamer that specifically binds to CD44 according to the formulation TA6 described by Somasunderam et al. was synthesized by Trilink Biotechnologies (San Diego, CA, USA). The 73-mer oligonucleotide is a back bone-modified aptamer in which the non-bridging phosphoryl oxygens are substituted with sulphur. This change of structure renders the aptamer more resistant to the cellular degradation exerted by nucleases. The thioaptamer (M.W. 24,229.0) was linked to an amino group at the 5' end to allow the carboxyl group of DSPE-PEG2000-COOH to form a carbamide covalent bond. For this purpose, we used the two catalysts 1-ethyl-3- (3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) according to the manufacturer's instructions (ThermoFisher Scientific). Briefly, NPs (10 mg) were dissolved in 1 ml of distilled water, filtered with an Amicon Ultra-4 10 kDa (Millipore) and resuspended in 1 ml of buffered 0.1 M 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid, 0.5 M NaCl, pH 6.0, containing a molar concentration of EDC and NHS 10-fold and 25-fold higher than DSPE-PEG2000-COOH, respectively. NP suspension was shacked gently at room temperature for 15 min. The resulting NHS-activated NPs were washed twice in distilled water with Amicon Ultra-4 10 kDa filters, resuspended in 1 ml PBS and conjugated to 3 nmoles of thioaptamer corresponding to a 1:100 ratio with respect to 0.85 mg DSPE-PEG2000-COOH used for the synthesis of 10 mg NPs. To this purpose, 30 μl of 100 μM thioaptamer in PBS was added to 1 ml PBS containing 10 mg NHS-activated NPs and stirred at room temperature for 2 h. To remove the free thioaptamer, the final solution was washed three times in distilled water, using the Amicon Ultra-4 10 kDa filter, and the NPs resuspended in distilled water at the concentration of 10 mg/ml. NP size was measured by tuneable resistive pulse sensing (TRPS) using the qNano Nanoparticle Analyser V2.0 (iZON Science, Christchurch, New Zealand) equipped with a fluid cell module of 300 nm nanopores (NP300) and operated by the V3.1 Control Suite software. The ability of NPs, free or conjugated to the thioaptamer, to enter cells was evaluated by phase contrast and fluorescence microscopy (Olympus IX50) using CD44+ human bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSCs; TebuBio, Magenta, Italy) at the density of 4 x 103/ml. NPs were also observed by scanning electron microscopy (JSM-5200; JEOL, Tokyo, Japan). MCF-7 cells were homogenized in a glass tissue grinder in 20 mM HEPES, pH 7.5, containing 5 mM dithiothreitol, 2 mM EDTA, 0.1% CHAPS detergent, 0.1% Triton X-100, and protease inhibitors; then, they were centrifuged at 15,000 g for 15 min. The supernatant was diluted in loading buffer (2% SDS, 5% glycerol, 0.002% bromophenol blue, 4% β-mercaptoethanol in 0.25 M Tris-HCl, pH 6.8) and denatured by boiling for 3 min. Aliquots corresponding to 80 μg protein were analysed by SDS-PAGE (7.5% gel). Proteins were transferred onto a nitrocellulose membrane for 1 h. This membrane was then saturated with 5% dry milk for 1 h, washed with Tris-buffered saline, and probed overnight at 4°C with the specific primary antibodies (1:500 mouse monoclonal anti-HIF-1α and 1:1,000 mouse monoclonal anti-β-actin; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Heidelberg, Germany). The membrane was then incubated for 1 h with the secondary antibody (1:2,500 horseradish peroxidase-conjugated species-specific anti-IgG; Santa Cruz Biotechnology). Values are expressed as mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). Linear regression analysis and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Bonferroni multiple-comparison test were performed using GraphPad Prism 4.0 software (San Diego, CA, USA). P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. MCF-7 cells at the density of 1x104 cells/well were cultured as monolayers on 96-well flat-bottomed plates under normoxic conditions. The treatment with 0.1-20 μg/ml αMG for 48 h caused a bi-modal and dose-dependent decrease in cell viability. Figure 1 shows that cells were markedly damaged by concentrations of αMG up to 1.0 μg/ml, while higher doses up to 20 μg/ml led to a less accentuated drop in viability. Effects of free αMG on the MCF-7 cell monolayer. The viability of 1x104 MCF-7 cells was reduced after treatment with free αMG for 48 h in a dose-dependent manner. The cells were greatly affected by 0.1-1 μg/ml αMG that caused a sharp decrease in their viability. A further damage to cells was observed using higher concentrations of αMG, although their responsiveness was reduced. Values were subjected to linear regression analysis and are expressed as mean ± SEM of duplicated experiments. As preliminary characterizing set of experiments, MCTSs were produced in ULA 6-well plates by seeding 1x, 5x, 10x and 20x103 MCF-7 cells/ml and the increasing size of the spheroids with cell density was verified (Figure 2a). Then, to obtain a high-throughput availability of MCTSs, a single spheroid per well was grown in ULA round-bottomed 96-well plates for 15 days (Figure 2b). The seeding density of 1x104 cells/well was chosen because represented the best condition to obtain spheroids that were not too large for the limited size of the well but enough compact and well-shaped to perform appropriate morphological investigations. Effects of free αMG on MCTS size and density. (a) MCF-7 cells seeded at 1x, 5x, 10x and 20x103 cells/ml in ULA 6-well flat-bottomed plates generated MCTSs of increasing size after 7 days. The spheroids merged into larger aggregates at the highest cell density (magnification: 50 X). (b) The images show a single MCTS per well that was grown in ULA 96-well round-bottomed plates for 15 days (representative images of triplicate experiments). The optimized seeding density of 1x104 cells/well allowed to obtain 3D bodies with a circular profile and homogeneous cellular distribution (magnification: 50 X). The spheroids treated with free αMG for 24 h (c) and 48 h (d) were negatively affected by doses higher than 0.8-1.0 μg/ml (n = 2). MCTSs generated in the presence of 1.0-20 μg/ml free αMG showed a smaller area and a parallel increase in density with respect the untreated MCTSs. (e) Representative phase-contrast images of the MCTSs treated for 48 h with increasing doses of free αMG (magnification: 50 X). The numerical values correspond to the concentrations of αMG expressed as μg/ml. At the highest dose, a darker region of cellular necrosis is clearly visible. The treatment with free αMG produced damages to the spheroids that were shown as changes in equatorial area and density (Figure 2c, 2d). The lowest concentrations of αMG that significantly reduced the MCTS area were 3 μg/ml and 1 μg/ml, administered for 24 h (p < 0.05) and 48 h (p < 0.01), respectively. Conversely, the MCTS density underwent a parallel increase that reached statistical significance after treatment with αMG at the concentrations of 10 μg/ml for 24 h (p < 0.05) and 3 μg/ml for 48 h (p < 0.05). The irregular edges of the MCTSs and the homogenous distribution of their density observed at the highest doses (Figure 2e) were considered as further signs of αMG toxicity. The mean diameter of NPs was 227.0 ± 88 nm and 174.0 ± 29 nm before and after filtration, respectively (Figure 3a, 3b). Both diameter and size distribution of NPs were consistent with the images obtained by SEM (Figure 3c). The fluorescent dye Nile Red was loaded in NPs to trace their uptake inside cells. BM-MSCs were chosen to better perform this test because they are larger than MCF-7 after adhesion on plates of polystyrene. BM-MSCs were incubated with NPs and observed by a combination of phase contrast and fluorescence microscopy. The process of NP incorporation into cells was effective after 24 h (Figure 3d, 3e) and larger aggregates of NPs were generated after 48 h of incubation (Figure 3f). Characterization and cell uptake of NPs. (a) The size distribution of NPs measured just after their production was 150-380 nm. (b) The range of NP diameter was restricted to 110-260 nm after filtration, with a mean value of 174.0 ± 29 nm. (c) NP size and distribution were consistent with the images obtained by SEM. (d, e) BM-MSCs were incubated with Nile Red-loaded NPs and contemporary observed by phase contrast and fluorescence microscopy after 24 h. (f) Most NPs fused into larger aggregates after 48 h. Images are representative of duplicate experiments. Morphological changes of MCTSs grown in Matrigel and treated with NPs. NPs loaded with αMG were able to dissociate the spheroids. MCTS treatment for 48-72 h with NPs that were not conjugated to the thioaptamer (NP[-]) and carrying 0.1 or 0.5 μg/ml αMG led to cell detachment after 48-72 h. NPs conjugated to the thioaptamer (NP[+]) and carrying 0.1 μg/ml αMG reduced the size of the spheroids, while NPs loaded with 0.5 μg/ml αMG provoked MCTS disaggregation. The images are representative of two separate experiments (magnification: 50X). The amount of αMG loaded in NPs was 1.4 μg/mg. A suspension up to 1 mg/ml of NPs without αMG in complete medium did not affect growth and viability of cells, irrespective of the presence or absence of the thioaptamer (data not shown). MCTSs were grown in Matrigel and their morphology was observed after 24, 48 and 72 h of treatment with NPs (Figure 4). The concentration of 0.1 μg/ml αMG carried by NPs without thioaptamer (NP[-]) was sufficient to loosen MCTS cells in a time-dependent manner. The dose of 0.5 μg/ml αMG also provoked a robust dissociation of MCTSs, independently of the absence or presence of the thioaptamer. The administration of NPs conjugated to the thioaptamer (NP[+]) at 0.1 μg/ml αMG reduced the size of MCTSs and produced a lower effect on cell aggregation. αMG conveyed by NPs caused the disaggregation of MCTSs also when they were grown in gelatine (Figure 5). An initial drop in spheroid density was observed just after 24 h of treatment with 0.1 μg/ml αMG. Maximal spheroid dissociation was obtained using NPs with 0.5 μg/ml αMG for 72 h, as it was shown by the lowest density and the highest area of the MCTSs. The presence of the thioaptamer linked to NPs (NP[+]) attenuated the MCTS expansion after treatment with 1.0 μg/ml αMG for 48 h (p<0.01) and 72 h (p<0.05), as it was shown by the lower values of the area relative to NP[-]. However, the reduction in density produced by NP[+] was of the same magnitude of that obtained with NP[-] at the corresponding αMG concentrations. Morphological changes of MCTSs grown in gelatine and treated with NPs. The treatment with αMG-loaded NPs increased the area of MCTSs (upper slopes) and caused a parallel drop in their density (lower slopes). The lowest dose of αMG that provoked a decrease in MCTS density was 0.1 μg/ml just after 24 h of treatment. The expansion of the area was less pronounced using NPs conjugated to the thioaptamer (NP[+]) than that caused by NPs without thioaptamer (NP[-]). *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01, comparing the same concentrations of αMG carried by NP[+] vs NP[-]. #p < 0.05 and ##p < 0.01, comparing NP[-] vs the corresponding untreated MCTSs. §p < 0.05 and §§p < 0.01, comparing NP[+] vs the corresponding untreated MCTSs. Micrographs show the dramatic changes of MCTS morphology after treatment with NPs at concentrations of αMG up to 1.0 μg/ml delivered for 72 h (magnification: 50X). The numerical values under the images are concentrations of αMG expressed as μg/ml. Effects of NPs on HIF-1α cellular levels. MCF-7 cells were exposed to 1% O2 and the presence of HIF-1α was evaluated after treatment with αMG-loaded NPs. The administration of 0.1 μg/ml αMG for 48 h was not sufficient to reduce the amount of HIF-1α, while 0.5-1.0 μg/ml provoked a decrease of its levels. The figure shows representative lanes with corresponding densitometric measurements of duplicated experiments. MCF-7 cell monolayers were exposed to 1% O2 tension for 48 h and the ability of αMG to affect the intracellular levels of hypoxia-induced factor-1α (HIF-1α) was investigated. Under these conditions, it was possible to detect HIF-1α by western blot and to assess that 0.5 µg/ml and 1.0 µg/ml αMG encapsulated into NPs reduced its cellular concentrations in a dose-dependent manner (Figure 6), irrespective of the absence or presence of the thioaptamer. Similar effects were also obtained using free αMG at the concentrations of 0.5 µg/ml and 1.0 µg/ml (data not shown). In the present study, we evaluated the ability of NPs containing αMG to cause damage to MCF-7 cells grown in 3D as MCTSs. A robust derangement of spheroids was evidenced by the irregular shape of their edge accompanied by a parallel dissociation and decrease in density of the tumour bulk. The augmented distance between cells that was observed after treatment with αMG-loaded NPs did not occur only at the periphery of the MCTSs but also in the innermost layers, indicating that this effect of αMG was extended to the overall volume of the spheroid. The antitumor activity of αMG delivered by NPs was investigated using MCTSs growing in Matrigel or gelatine. Both gels are usually employed to simulate the ECM of MCTSs but with different analytical end-points for tumour aggressiveness investigations. Specifically, Matrigel provides a suitable support for tumour invasion assays, while gelatine is a better substrate to evaluate cell migration resembling cell dissemination from a solid microtumour or micrometastases . In our recent study , we underlined that αMG was able to dissociate MCSTs generated by MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells without increasing their tendency to migrate in a gelatine environment. The cells of these spheroids even reduced their motility when exposed to αMG, an antitumor effect that was also demonstrated in carcinomas deriving from other tissues [22, 23]. We also reported that MCF-7 cells of MCTSs could not migrate in gelatine-coated plates because of the low aggressiveness of this breast cancer cell line. In the present study, the spheroids cultured on Matrigel- or gelatine-coated plates significantly reduced their compactness after treatment with αMG-loaded NPs but did not show any sign of invasiveness. The lack of invadopodia conferring a characteristic “starburst” pattern to MCTSs was a further confirmation that the looser aggregation of cells was not paralleled by an increase in malignancy. Therefore, the detachment of cells from MCTSs caused the by αMG-loaded NPs can be really considered a significant anticancer effect that is not accompanied by the risk of increased invasiveness or metastatic spreading. The lowest concentration of αMG as a cargo of NPs that provoked a substantial reduction in spheroid density in the presence of gelatine was 0.1 μg/ml and the greatest disaggregation was obtained with 0.5 μg/ml αMG. It is worth noting that these doses of αMG delivered by NPs are about tenfold inferior to those provoking damages to MCF-7 MCTSs with free αMG. Moreover, αMG delivered by NPs dissociated MCTSs that were cultured in Matrigel or gelatine. Thus, these results suggest that: (i) NPs are suitable vehicles allowing αMG to damage tumours at very low concentrations; (ii) the αMG-dependent loss of contacts shown by MCF-7 MCTS cells involves the presence of a gel containing collagen fibres. The finding that αMG can inhibit the adhesion of MCF-7 cells to type I collagen supports the hypothesis that some components of the ECM are involved in the dissociation of MCTSs induced by the xanthone. It has been also reported that an inadequate contact of collagen to integrins β represented an early step blunting the FAK/Akt/ERK cascade that, in turn, provoked the downregulation of the NF-kB-driven expression of MPP2 and MPP9 metalloproteinases . This last effect is considered one important mechanism responsible for the reduced invasiveness of tumour cells that follows a treatment with αMG . Moreover, Kopp et al. demonstrated that the capability of MCF-7 cells to form MCTSs was related to the activity of NF-kB . Thus, we supposed that the anti-adhesive property shown by αMG-loaded NPs towards breast cancer MCTSs was the result of the weaker bond that MCF-7 cells established with collagen fibres inside the spheroid and the consequent lack of NF-kB activation. Similarly, Ivascu at al. showed that an anti-integrin β1 antibody was able to dissociate MDA-MB-231 spheroids exclusively when they were grown in the presence of 2.5% Matrigel . It is presumably that also under our conditions both Matrigel and gelatine fibres contributed to the supporting network of the growing MCTSs and that αMG counteracted some cellular activity related to the presence of collagen. Moreover, Ivascu et al. demonstrated that the dissociation of MCTSs did not imply the loss of viability of tumour cells . Therefore, the use of low doses of αMG-loaded NPs could be investigated as a non-toxic adjuvant drug for tumour chemotherapy. Indeed, the αMG-driven cell dissociation might facilitate both penetration and diffusion of conventional drugs into the tumour bulk. When αMG was delivered by the NPs conjugated to the CD44 thioaptamer, a loss in cell contact of tumour spheroids did also occur, but MCTSs underwent a lower size in respect to those obtained with NPs not linked to the thioaptamer. This suggests that a number of cells died or slowed down their process of duplication. To explain this effect, it is important to underline that at least 60% of MCF-7 cells express CD44 and that these cells, by sequestering via a very efficient receptor-mediated process the αMG-loaded NPs conjugated to the thioaptamer, should be subjected to a more severe antitumor activity. Several molecular mechanisms underlying the αMG action have been described, including the inhibition of HIF-1α in pancreatic stellate cells . In the present study, we also observed that αMG was able to downregulate the protein expression of HIF-1α in MCF-7 cell monolayers after hypoxia activation. Thus, as previously suggested , it is conceivable that αMG can reduce the number of cancer cells that have been adapted to hypoxia by blunting the expression of HIF-1α. It is interesting to note that breast epithelial CSCs, which are protected from drug toxicity in their hypoxic “niches”, largely express CD44 together with the epithelial-specific antigen (ESA), whilst they stain CD24-/low . Consequently, NPs bearing αMG and targeting CD44+ cells could represent a drug able to target both CSCs and cells of the tumour bulk in breast carcinoma. In addition, the clinic-pathological and adverse prognostic implications of the expression of HIF-1α that have been demonstrated in different cancer types [32, 33] reinforce the expectation towards the antitumor efficacy of drugs targeting HIF-1α. Another advantage of NPs conjugated to a thioaptamer, rather than a normal aptamer, should be their lower clearance due to the elevated resistance that the sulphur-adenine nucleotides offer against the nuclease attack . Moreover, the PLGA core of the NPs used in the present study was covered by phospholipids and PEG that have been demonstrated to increase their in vivo lifespan . In conclusion, these results underlines how great is the antitumor effect of αMG delivered by lipidic NPs, since very low concentrations of the xanthone as a cargo caused a strong disaggregation of MCF-7 MCTSs. When αMG was loaded in CD44 thioaptamer-tagged NPs, it was still responsible of spheroid dissociation, but the toxic effect was more relevant because accompanied by a reduction in MCTS size. Studies are in progress to ascertain whether the selectivity of αMG-loaded NPs linked to a CD44 thioaptamer may also represent a strategy to destroy CSCs in breast carcinomas. αMG: α-mangostin; b-FGF: basic fibroblast growth factor; DMEM: Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium; ECACC: The European Collection of Authenticated Cell Culture; EGF: epidermal growth factor; ESA: epithelial-specific antigen; MCTS: multicellular tumour spheroid; ULA: ultra-low attachment. This study was financially supported by: 1) Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna (Italy), project “Selective destruction of hypoxic cancer stem cells by bifunctional nanoparticles” and 2) University of Bologna (Italy), budget from “Ricerca Fondamentale Orientata”. F. Bonafè, C. Pazzini: concept/design/acquisition of data, data analysis/interpretation. S. Marchionni: SEM analysis, critical revision of the manuscript. C. Guarnieri: critical revision of the manuscript. C. Muscari (principal investigator): concept/design/acquisition of data, data analysis/interpretation, drafting of the manuscript, critical revision of the manuscript.

2019-04-20T14:46:31Z

http://www.medsci.org/v16p0033.htm

Market Outlook He thinks the US dollar is going to go a lot higher. The 2018 returns of Canadian investors benefited by about 7-8% he thinks, if you invested in US holdings. On US equities, he is cautious right now. After the big decline in December, he thinks it is a precursor of what is yet to come. 2019 will be a year of the Central Banks, who will have to maneuver to keep things going. This will make the equity market fraught with explosions and collapses. Last year the Trump tax incentive lead to massive earnings increases and he wonders how that can be followed. CGI vs Open Text? He would like to own both of these. Having some growth in your portfolio is good -- especially if the economy is going to slow. He likes the yield of Open Text. He likes the predictably of earnings with CGI, so slightly favours it. He thinks the stock will retrace to about $126, where he would be a buyer again. He would be "willing to go into war" with this stock. Although it is trading sideways, he would buy more on a pullback. He is cool on them right now. Back in December he saw targets around $40. He would love to see a pullback to $32 to buy it. He would wait to add to any position -- look for it retest the lows of December. It is a cyclical, so you want to make sure you buy them cheap enough. He is in a trader frame of mind, so he would target a buy at $30 and sell at $46. Insurance companies are trading below their lower benchmarks -- making him think there are issues with their balance sheets especially in a deflationary recession environment. This could lead to lower short term rates, which could impair their earnings. He would be cautious going forward for all insurance companies. (A Top Pick Jan 12/18, Down 17%) December almost caused him heart failure. There was either something systematic happening in the economy or their balance sheet was in severe trouble. He wants to see a pullback to $57 to consider buying it again. He would be worried about the economy if this retests the recent lows. (A Top Pick Jan 12/18, Down 2%) This is a stock he would "go to war with". He sees about 15% upside from here. He would be a long term buy and hold at $100, otherwise trade it looking to enter at $142. (A Top Pick Jan 12/18, Up 17%) Quietly going about its business. He still sees another 28% upside for it. He holds a lot of it and it is doing well. Take profit here? He would take profit at these levels. He worries about issues with trade with China. He still sees possibly another 50% upside, but thinks it prudent to take profit here. He thinks the market is telling you the car market cycle is coming to an end. The move to electric vehicles and car production not likely ever making new highs worries him. It has about 100% upside in value, but he cautious of the cycle nature. He would be careful. When to exit? He thinks you "go to war" with this stock. He sees 18% upside still for it. He would continue to hold it long term. He might trim some length if it makes a new high. He would not touch this with a 10 foot pole. The change in senior management worries him. The recent bullish bounce is a good sell opportunity as he targets only $88 on this. He is wary of the Chinese trade war, which is likely to get worse. If the world grinds down in growth, China will be hit hard. A little over priced. He has a target price of less than $90, so he is cautious. He would prefer a pullback to $80 to add to any holding. He sees about 20% upside from here. He would "go to war" with this stock. He would be a buyer here. He would take profit here and look to re-enter back around $49. He sees 20% possible downside from here based on his model valuation. He feels the S&P is at fair value and has another 30% of upside. He feels the Canadian dollar has more weakness to come. He expects the Republicans to win more seats in the House during the Mid-Terms, which would cause a substantial rally in the US markets. October has always been a seasonally weak month, so he expects a quick rebound in markets. Autos, consumer discretionary and other sectors have been recently decimated and are great value if the market is able to side step a major recession in 2019. He believes President Trump is correct in going after China as it pertains to the massive trade surplus with the US. He likes this stock and sees upside to $54.77. It is in his Top 5 of his fund. He thinks block chain is a good opportunity for this company. He sees value up to $50.90. Any new toy can be hit or miss and he thinks they have had a few toys go their way, but it is expensive here. It is supposed to earn $10.46 per share next year, but the market is only projecting less than $2 per share. About 80% of their sales are into China. He worries about the potential trade war impacts. They have accused their Chinese partner on a project for stealing intellectual property. He would peck away at this, but sees $19 as a possible lower test point. They have a very small position in Micron. He has long expected a crash in this space. Eventually the market will figure out which ones will survive. He still expects further downside in the space and his model price is only $3 per share since it has no current earnings. The semi-conductor space has come back a lot. He has a model price near $14. He thinks you can accumulate shares on any significant decline. He would recommend buying a little here and more at $18.30 – just not your full position yet. He does not favour Canadian stocks right now, based on their high valuations. This is under pressure now for no single reason. He expects they are weak on growth prospects. He expects the stock could drop to $35.55 and $28.50 if the growth story is broken. He sees nothing but pain and agrees with the dividend cut. He thinks the stock needs to fall further and thinks you have to wait to see where the dust settles. He thinks major write downs are still required. He remains negative on the Canadian oil space. He has a model price of $51.14 and hopes this price level holds, but expects further downside that could reach towards $29.30. WCS is netting only $17 US per barrel. He would love to see it pull back to $250 to be a buyer. His model price is $89.66 so it is not without risk. They reported earnings yesterday. He thinks it is a great company and one should add at $39.73 to any holdings. He is not worried about the recent sell off in the entire tech space. He sees this as a cyclical stock. His model price is $357.75. He would be a buyer here. The recent pull back is a good buying opportunity. Stay away – he has been saying this for five years. He sees substantial asset write-downs coming. The balance sheet is not rock solid. They will continue to lose money this year and doubts their estimates for next year. A total disaster. His model is $61.59. A year from now this stock may be trading at the same level. Sell. Listen to the Governor of the Bank of Canada – interest rates are going up – and you don’t want interest sensitive holdings in your portfolio. His model price is $34.53 and he thinks it will fall further. (A Top Pick Oct 17/17, Down 6%) It has increased its dividend twice since last year. He continues to love it and holds a sizable personal position. He has a model price of $70.75. (A Top Pick Oct 17/17, Up 31%) This is his #1 stock in his portfolio. He is not concerned by the recent price pullback. They bought back $80 million shares. He would add to his position on a pullback to $200. He likes their subscriber fee revenue growth. They continue to do all the right things. His model price is $233.42. (A Top Pick Oct 17/17, Up 22%) He likes the support technically and the 2.5% dividend yield. It is not as cyclical as AMD and others in the space. His model price is $80.51. Market. There was a ruling against trans-mountain pipeline today. The US is not cheap enough to sell his US dollars to come back. It could be an economic downturn catalyst but probably will not be. NAFTA is critical for us to leverage of the US economic success. He is putting client's money to work in the US. Canada has major issues. You have to be selective in Canada. You are looking for companies with US exposure, income and earnings. Today's news in the energy sector is not positive. He loves it. The judgment against them is not significant. He has a model price of $160.81, a 20% upside. It is in the top 100 of the S&P 500 - it is US and priced in US Dollars – all the things he loves. Model price is $14, so it is below where it is trading at. It is at EBV plus 1, and we have not had a breakout. Wait for a buy signal. He thinks it will come back. There are better opportunities elsewhere. Semiconductors are doing their own thing. This is old tech. Model price is $85 with a 100% upside. But it is a cyclical. Over the last three years it has been on a tear and is pausing here. He would e a buyer here – a small amount. Model price is $157.26. He sees it as an opportunity to pick this stock up now. It is above its model price and he has had it for some time until selling recently but it was moving from a value name into a growth name. He would be a buyer here. It is a good name. Model price is $18.95, so it is at a 60% premium. He would not worry about earnings too much next week. If you are a long term holder, continue to hold it. Model price is $45.06. 54% upside but there is no catalyst for this stock to get moving. It is dead money. If it is trading below its EBV -5, there is something wrong with its balance sheet and this one is too big relative to its earnings. The regulators are really rough in the financial industry. Use your tax loss. Model price of $54.93, about 7% lower than what it is trading at. This one never got cheap enough for him to buy it. There is value elsewhere, see his Top Picks. When it came down to his model price it was the only buying opportunity there was in the last eight years. He loves the company. Model price is $99.94, a 30% premium that it is trading at. He can only wish for a pull back. These interest sensitives in Canada he not very bullish on. It has a model price of $34.68 so it is 15% overvalued. He thinks the BOC will have one more hike in them. He is neutral to negative on this one. (A Top Pick Aug 4/17, Up 6%) He has had good returns since he has bought it but it has gone flat. They have room to expand their dividends even more. They are on an aggressive buy back program. If the US equity markets are going to go higher it has to be with the financials. He is still staying with it. There is about 9% upside according to model price. (A Top Pick Aug 4/17, Up 45%) It is in his top 5. His model price is $243.96 or a 9.5% upside. Warren Buffet is buying a little more. (A Top Pick Aug 4/17, Up 36%) This is old tech. His model price is $82.64, or a 70% upside. This stock just can't get moving. The CEO was just replaced. He would buy it here. Your chances of another 40% are quite high if the CEO works out. Canadian Banks. You always want to buy them on a pull back. We have not had one for quite some time. A 10% or more correction and he would be a buyer. In general they are not cheap enough to buy and not expensive enough to sell. You have to hold them. It has negative equity of $12 billion. It trades on air. There are better opportunities elsewhere. Don't touch it. In March it was down to $90. Since then it has done nothing but go up. He has a model price of $131.66, or a 14% upside. Any sort of pull back you want to buy it. He would love to buy it at $87. He would hold it. It is a great divergence between what the market is doing and what the fundamentals are saying. Everyone is predicting doom and gloom in the auto sector. They are right in the heart of Canadian auto parts. His model price is 102% from where it is. Once we get clarity on NAFTA and where we are in the auto sector, he would look at it. They are not even making their dividend. There is a reverse compounding thing going on where your book value is being eroded. It is a losing proposition. His model price is $42.16 or an 8% upside. It is an interest sensitive. Only buy it at the $36 level. It should go 10 or 11% lower here. $59.74 is his model price and it is at 61% above that. If you ever got a correction or bad news it would be worthy of consideration. Model price is 63.70 so it is 12% overvalued. When it comes back to the model price he would be a buyer. He thinks it goes to $34.84. Once they fold in the income fund the balance sheet will get a lot bigger, which is negative for the stock. With a 6% yield, it is all their income. There is better value elsewhere. If it got into the NVDA business he could not calculate what it would be worth. The model price is $82.64, or a 70% upside. The stock is much unloved and has a monopoly position. He is interested in catalysts that might come along. (Analysts’ target: $56.45). He has been recommending this for years. It is finally hitting new highs. His model price is $58.76 or a 24% upside. It is finally getting its mo-jo. (Analysts’ target: $50.04). Management is really up there in terms of reputation. Model price is $32.70 or a 5% upside. They increased their dividend a month and a half ago. There is still more dividend growth coming. The financials need to lead the bull market higher. (Analysts’ target: $34.39). Overview. He thinks the fair value of the S&P 500 is about 3800, which is 30% higher than today’s level. He thinks fundamentals are great, especially in the US, which is where most of his focus is. He thinks US government policy (and the associated parts of the Twitterverse) is holding the market down. The S&P hit a high in early February, went through a long consolidation, and has risen back to almost the level it held at its high. He thinks S&P will easily reach that this summer. Beyond that, though, the S&P is running out of time. China is slowing down, world growth is slowing down, and commodities stocks in Canada ex oil are not doing well. Many are down 50%, which also suggests weakness in global growth. He expects a recession in the next year or 18 months. In the recent past, the FAANG stocks have pushed the S&P higher. Netflix stumbled but it looks as though Amazon, Google and Facebook are hitting new highs. The financials are acting well. For S&P to rise 30%, the lead will have to come from the financials not the FAANGs. The stock has been going down. It is approaching a critical level according to Model Price theory: EBB-1 level is $17.80. His Model Price is $26.64, which is almost a 50% upside. However, if the stock drops below EBB-1, it could drop to EBB-2, which is $15. He would take a half-position at this level, but if it goes lower, he would sell and buy closer to $14.82. The market is concerned about recent news, such as the unionizing of its staff. However, a positive catalyst in the news could boost the stock an easy 25%. Making money on this stock might require trading around the levels rather than buying and holding. His model price is $44.72, which is a 300% upside. This stock is very high risk but it has been rising recently as he predicted it would. This stock, like Teva and Bausch Health, were part of the most undervalued sector of the market 9 months ago, have been rising, and probably have more to go. He calls this an interest-sensitive stock. The dividend of $1.68 is not covered by earnings. Earnings estimates for this year and next are $1.46 and $1.41. Interest-sensitives have had a bounce recently, perhaps because people sense a slowdown coming. He is bearish on the group. He would buy this stock at about $19.60. Under his model, this stock is overpriced by 15%. Also it is paying out over $2 in dividends but is expected to earn only about $1 this year and $1.35 next year. This is similar to Crescent Point. The stock is getting a bump from oil prices but he would not buy it until it comes down to $21. His model price is $13.66, so he seeks the stock as almost 6% overvalued. They pay out as much as analysts expect them to earn. There is better value in American stocks. This is another interest-sensitive stock that is at risk from rising interest rates. It is overvalued by 10% compared to his model. The company is doing a whole lot of financial engineering. He would like to see the balance sheet after all the shenanigans are finished. He think that ultimately the stock will go to about $35. The stock has a 61% upside before reaching the model price. It is acquiring another company which creates some volatility. If it breaks below $7, he thinks the stock will go lower and he would set a stop loss for $7. This stock is way too expensive. It has a negative book value, which pulls the stock out of his Model Pricing approach. (A Top Pick July 11, 2017. Up 33%). He continues to love Apple. He sees a 17.5% upside. (A Top Pick July 11, 2017. Up 6%). The too-big-to-fail banks have finally recovered and the market trusts their balance sheets. They have given dividend increases and just passed the stress tests. His model price shows a 6% upside but they need to perform well again before rising further. (A Top Pick July 11, 2017. Down 7%). This has gone down even as interest rates have come up. He is holding with it, with a very small position. Life insurers are not participating in the financials rally as much as he expected. His model price shows a 47% upside, but the market appears to dislike some aspect of MetLife’s balance sheet and he is not sure what that is. Because he is not sure what is wrong, he would not buy it. He likes this stock. His model price is $140, 14% higher than the current price. The dividend is covered by the earnings. He expects it to rise with the market through year-end, if the market rises. However, he thinks there is better value elsewhere. This is a cyclical stock. Over half of its business goes to China. It is at peak earnings. His model price is $196.21, which is a 250% upside, but this stock never trades on its earnings because it is cyclical. He expects the stock to trade over and under his EBB+3 price level which, a year from now, is $82, still much higher than its current price around $60. The stock pays no dividend. This is right in the middle of his “zone.” It could go up or down from here. His model price is $121.13, but this is a cyclical stock near the end of the cycle, so it is unlikely to reach or hold that price. He would buy at $71 and sell at $98. At this price, he would do neither. Has been trading down like WestJet. If it continues its negative trend, it is likely to get to $18.85. Like WestJet, this could rally under the right conditions. He would buy at $18.85, but not now. If it dropped below $18.85, he would sell and buy in again around $15.46. His model price is $75.91, which is a 20% upside. However, he sees strong resistance at $67.85.He thinks that is the top, for now. He would hold at this price. This is an interest-sensitive stock. It is currently selling at its model price. The dividend is covered by earnings. He is positive on the stock. The stock has come down a fair bit and is at a good-looking point for buying. If it does go down further, to $31, he would see a warning that the stock is going to go lower. However, there is no sign of that here, yet. They just announced a dispute with the IRS which affected the stock price today. He expects this to take years to resolve. Canadian software stocks have done very well over time. He would be a buyer on dips, and today’s news created a dip, so he would buy. The model price is $63, which gives a 26% upside from the current price. He would plan to hold this for longer than 5 years. 22. Amazon (AMZN-O)(Doesn’t Own)(Don’t Buy). If the S&P goes higher, certainly Amazon will go higher. It has positive equity, but it is too expensive for a value investor. Market. The US dollar is in a bull market. He expects the US dollar, and all assets priced in US dollars, will go substantially higher. He expects this to continue for a 5 to 7 year period. Things look good in the US market. He recommends ignoring the Trump tweets and focusing on the statistics. Fewer companies are participating in the growth than he would like. Financials are going sideways as his models of their value increase. He uses Model Price Theory (https://modelprice.wordpress.com/) and sees rises in interest rates as bullish. He thinks that Europe’s economy is getting substantially worse and that Deutsche Bank’s woes will cause broader problems in Europe. It bounced a little today with its plan to spin off health care and oil. His model price for GE is $12.81 and the stock closed yesterday at $12.75. He expects the S&P to issue a negative review on GE’s debt as GE’s balance sheet changes. He would not buy here. He wants the balance sheet to shrink much more before considering it. Comment on Canadian Banks in the United States. In general, American customers tend to like Canadian banks, so they are positioned to expand there. He would buy the Canadian banks on a pullback but would not buy them today. The upside is not as strong as it was in the past. All over the world, everyone is short Canadian stocks, including Canadian banks. Our debt and valuation are seen as high. So, for example, he would buy TD at $66 compared to its current price of $76.74. The stock traded up to EBB+2 in his model, which is high. At $187.14, it has come back to EBB+1, where he would be a buyer. His model price is $176.92. There’s a risk of it going back to $152. (A Top Pick August 4, 2017. Down 4%). This rose to $80 in January and is down to 65.52 now. It is struggling at EBB-2, well below his model price ($73.97). The US stress tests will come out this week. He expects dividend increases, which is essential for this stock to move higher. The company pays only about 20% of its profits, compared to 40% at Royal Bank. So he expects a pop soon. However, he thinks that what is happening in Europe will affect American bank stock prices. The European banks are at multi-year lows. However, the large American banks are very well capitalized and in much better shape than the Europeans. (A Top Pick August 4, 2017. Up 20%). His model price is $216 and Buffet apparently buys it every day. If he owned it now, he would certainly keep it. (A Top Pick August 4, 2017. Up 40%). It’s coming back down and is lower than his $76.95 model price. The CEO was fired over the weekend. He thinks that second-quarter earnings will be good and this pullback is a good buying opportunity. He would not touch this stock. The high yield is deceptive. It pays out more than it earns and so the balance sheet is deteriorating by 5% per year. His model price is 13% lower than yesterday’s closing price. He sees cannabis as no different from the Internet craze in the 1990’s. Between now and October, he expects all these stocks to crash. The equity market is fueling this industry. Enthusiasm is driving the price, not fundamentals. In October, valuation will start being driven by fundamentals and the fundamentals won’t support the prices. The group will go down and then a few survivors will rise, but we don’t which ones yet. Projected earnings for 2019 are lower than 2018. His model price is 4% lower than the current price. The yield is barely supported by earnings. There is better value elsewhere and the stock is out of favour.

2019-04-19T10:47:12Z

https://stockchase.com/expert/view/1/sort/date/page/1/direction/desc/max/120

When you have a pet or someone you love who finds it hard swallowing pills, or swallowing anything at all, it’s perhaps time to look for an alternative means of passing the pills into their system. This is where a pill crusher comes in handy, with its ability to grind the pills into powder. There are different pill crushers in the market, all promising different interesting features, and this could become confusing when you want to choose the best pill crusher for you. Therefore, we put together this review and buying guide to help walk you through the decision. For this review, we selected 5 top products that are outstanding in features and their value for money from the long list of pill crushers that we researched. This is just a snapshot of the wide pill crusher range that these brands have, so you can also check their other products if these don’t truly appeal to you. Ezy Dose manufactures some of the best easy-to-use medication management products and it’s even endorsed by the Arthritis Foundation. Interestingly, this pill crusher comes with a stainless steel blade which grinds the pills into fine powder and which stays sharp after multiple uses. The cutting compartment doesn’t have anything to keep the pills in place so they tend to fall off when you open it. Carex Health Brands is a renowned manufacturer of health management products that offers a level of customer support that sets it apart from its competitors. Thanks to its conical grinder, the pills don’t get in the threads. It’s also easy to clean with warm soapy water and is wide enough for large hands. The conical base may make it hard to stand on its own. McKesson is committed to creating innovative resources, support and technology to help improve the healthcare industry and give its patients an improved and healthier lifestyle. It doesn’t require any cleaning and has a lifetime warranty. Some customers complained about the price, but then, it’s good value for your money. AliMed has become a renowned provider of innovative solutions and services to specific medical needs, especially those that require ergonomic products. Many customers believe this pill crusher is good value for its price, even moreso due to its durability. Some customers complained the bottom cracked after a while, but this can be avoided when you crush upside down. Apothecary has over 40 years’ experience in consumer wellness and management industry and has 4 product line brands that are market leaders in healthcare. This crusher is convenient for travels since it’s handy and has a storage compartment for pills. The outer threads make it easy to release the crushed pills. It may be too small for people taking more than 3 pills at once. How Do I Choose the Best Pill Crusher? There are people who have a phobia for swallowing solid matter. The thought of swallowing something without chewing it makes them gag. There are others with an ailment that doesn’t allow them to pass any solid through their throat. There’s still another group who are too old to swallow as the muscles of their throats have begun to fail. It could be your pet or your horse which will spit a pill when it finds it in its food or tastes it in its water. As all of these usually require medication at some point, there must be a way to give them their pills. That’s where a pill crusher comes in: it helps you to get the pills in a powdery form, which you can then mix it with either a liquid or with food or even pass it through a tube. Before now, most people had only the option of using mortar and pestle for crushing their pills, but then there’s the complaint that it needed too much energy and multiple pounding to get this done. Inspite of this challenge, a lot of people, till date, still trust this arrangement. Other people have tried putting the pills in a folded paper towel and smashing the pills with a hammer and using the crease of the paper as funnel for transferring the ground pill. In some cases, some people even use salt grinders to crush their pills. However, all these have some disadvantages. With the paper towel, you could burst the paper and lose your pills as the blow may be too heavy for the paper. For the salt grinder, some of your pills may get trapped in the case, making you take less than your prescribed dosage. Using a pill crusher, however, helps you forego these clunky methods. So, the question is: how do I know the best pill crusher to go for? Which one will do the job with as little stress as possible? Which one will be most convenient considering the health status of the user? There are some factors that you need to put into consideration before choosing a pill crusher, such as the number of pills you have to crush in a day. We have taken the time to research on these factors and the importance they serve and we’ve put them together in this review. Please note that it’s important to contact your physician or pharmacist before crushing any pills as crushing can be counter effective for some pills. This means that not all pills are effective after they’ve been crushed. For instance, time-release drugs will be detrimental when you crush before taking them. One of the factors to consider when choosing a pill crusher is your budget; how much are you willing to pay for a pill crusher? When you have this in mind, it helps guide you as to what price range you should be looking at. However, it will be a huge mistake to rely solely on price as your determining factor for choosing a pill crusher. This is because there are different factors that affect the price of a pill crusher. For instance, the material. Most pill crushers are made of plastic, but then there are the metal ones and the steel ones; these are more expensive than the plastic ones. The job done by the crusher also affects the price. So, first things first, know what function you want your pill crusher to perform and then look for the one that falls within your budget. In our research for the best pill crusher, we saw a range of prices from $5 to $77. However, we also found some cheap pill crushers which usually broke apart within the first few times they were used. Thus, we made it a point of duty to avoid them. So, this review has a selection of good quality pill crushers that will give you good value for your money. Like we stated earlier, pill crushers are made of different materials, the most common being plastics. However, some plastics are more durable than others. The material that your pill crusher is made from determines the durability of the product. Pill crushers made of metal, stainless steel, or aluminum generally last longer than pill crushers made from plastic. But then, you don’t need to go for a metal pill crusher if all you need is to crush 1 or 2 pills daily or for a short period of time. The metal crushers are recommended for people who have many pills to crush daily or who want to use it for years to come. There are different designs of pill crushers. While some are twist-tops, others are handle to base crushers and rotation crushers. The twist-tops have a threaded cap which you twist down until it crushes your pills. They’re quite convenient for people who crush few pills at once because most of them can handle only 2 or 3 pills. The handle to base crushers normal have a cup or pouch that have the pills and the handle is pushed down on the pills to crush them. These ones crush many pills at once. The rotation type functions by you twisting the handle which in turn grinds the pills in the cup. So, depending on which is more convenient for you, any of these designs could be a good choice. The size of your pill crusher matters a lot. For people with large hands, picking a micro twist-top pill crusher is setting yourself up for a bruised palm with time because your palms will continually rub against each other while you’re twisting the crusher. It’s more advisable to go for bigger pill crushers. Always check out the dimensions of your pill crusher to be sure that it’ll fit your palms comfortably. Some pill crushers have additional features like a drinking cup while others have pill splitters. If you need any of these features along with your pill crusher, look out for them when making your purchase. Some pill crushers have designated storage compartments. These always become handy when you must take some pills along with you or set aside some pills for ease of access. If this is a feature you’d love to have with your pill crusher, look out for pill crushers that have them – easy! If you need to travel with your pill crusher, it’ll be more convenient to go for lightweight pill crushers. That means you need to consider the weight of any one you choose to purchase to be sure that it’s portable enough for you. Most care givers like to toss a pill crusher into their pockets so that it’s easy for them to access it at every time. A good percentage of pill crusher users are arthritic patients. This means that they need pill crushers that are easy to use and which require as little energy as possible to operate. While purchasing a pill crusher, read up on its ease of use to be sure you’re not purchasing one that’ll pose a problem for its user. This is where the health status of the user comes into play. The Arthritis Foundation has endorsed some pill crushers; you may have to look out for these pill crushers as this means that an arthritic patient can use them without any stress. For example, most twist out caps are usually hard for people with weak hands, so be aware as to whether they come with easy twisting features. How frequently you use your pill crusher, the type of pills you use it for and the number of pills are the biggest factors that affect your choice of a pill crusher. Some pill crushers cannot crush some types of pills as they may be too hard for them and some pill crushers can only crush few pills at once. When choosing your pill crusher, check out whether it can withstand the frequency at which you want to use it and if your pills are soft enough for it. Also ascertain that it can take the number of pills you will be crushing at once. Some users of pill crushers have complained that some pill crushers do not clean out well as they have the ground pill powder trapped in the groves or the corners of the base; this grows mold after a while. Look out for pill crushers that don’t trap the ground pills and are easily cleaned with water. Finally, look out for crushers that crush to fine powder, especially if you have to pass the powder through a tube. What is the Best Pill Crusher? After going through the buying guide, it’s safe to assume that you now know what to look out for in a pill crusher. Now, it’s time to go through our list of best pill crushers in the market and make a choice of which one works best for you. The Ezy Dose Ultra Fine Pill Crusher comes with a drinking cup and cover and also features a storage compartment to carry your pills with. Do you need a pill crusher with a good grip and which comes in different colors? Consider the Ezy Crush Pill Crusher with Ergo Grip. Endorsed by the Arthritis Foundation for making medication products with ease-of-use design, Ezy Dose has gone ahead to establish itself as a leader in the manufacture of medication management products. Its product lines include push button pill planners, push cutters and push crushers that make it easier for users of all ages to follow through with their medication. One of the amazing products in its line of product is the Ezy Dose Ultra Fine Pill Crusher (Selling for $8.94 - Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) which is a convenient 3-in-1 product for medication management. It features a stainless steel blade that cuts your pills in two and still maintains its sharpness after repeated use. It also has a pill storage compartment that can hold up to 4 pills at once. This means you can also use it to carry your pills around. When you’ve crushed your pills, you’re likely to mix it with a liquid before taking it; this pill crusher has a drinking cup and cover compartment that you can use for that purpose. It grinds pills to ultra-fine powder. It crushes about 3 to 4 pills at once. Since it’s a twist crusher, it can be used by persons of any age because not much energy is required to crush with it. With just a little pressure applied, the stainless steel blade is able to cut your pills and the crusher is able to give you a fine finished product. Check out other pill crushers from Ezy Dose if this one doesn’t suit your desired purpose. The Carex Health Brands Ultra Pill Crusher has a simple but rugged design, is built for ergonomic convenience and can be used by weaker patients. If you also need a weekly planner medicine chest, check out the Pill Box Medi-chest Medium. Carex Health Brands is a world-renowned brand in the manufacture of household, self-care, and medical products. It’s a brand name that’s found in almost every home. It’s committed to creating innovative and easy-to-use products that will improve the general quality of life of its customers. 35 years in the business has placed it on a pedestal that most health management brands aspire to. Its exceptional customer support and information loaded website have also taken the brand a notch higher, making it a go to place for both household and medical product information. While making the Carex Health Brands Ultra Pill Crusher (Selling at $6.75 – Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price), Carex Health Brands had arthritic patients and those with weakened grips in mind. So, it designed an ergonomically convenient tool for them to use. It has a simple design which is rugged. It’s triangular which makes it easy to hold and handle. Unlike most products with grooves, this pill crusher is easy to clean with warm soapy water, leaving minimal or no deposit behind. It has a storage area under the cap. It uses an inverse molding technique that creates a tight seal and allows the user to apply only a little bit of pressure to turn pills to powdered form. This pill crusher can also split your pills to tiny splatters if enough pressure is applied. It weighs only about 2.3 ounces which means that it’s lightweight for the elderly and weak patients to use. With this pill crusher, the pills do not jam in the thread because the grinder was threaded with a technique that gets the crushing started even before the thread gets to the pill. The conical shape gives the crusher a pointed end which helps to crush the pills more easily. It’s wide enough to fit the palms of people with large hands, so it makes holding and twisting much easier without rubbing your palms against each other. It also comes in a 2-pack size option. Carex Health Brands has other pill crushers, so if this doesn’t meet your requirements, check out the other options. The McKesson Silent Knight Pill Crusher is a latex-free crusher that minimizes wastage of crushed pills even while crushing many pills at once. If what you need is a pill cutter that’s pocket friendly, you can also check out McKesson’s Medi-pak Stainless Steel Blade Pill Cutter. McKesson’s mission reads “Together with our customers and partners, we are creating a sustainable future for health care. Together we are charting a course to better health”. This is its commitment to create a new standard for the healthcare industry. McKesson believes that it operates as the central nervous system of healthcare because it continually executes critical in-house operations that improve both its businesses and those of its partners and generally improve the welfare of its patients. To this effect, it creates new technology, new services and new ideas that make healthcare smarter and bring information and people together. It proffers resources, support and technology services to numerous health care brands. You can reorder for a refill of your pouches when you exhaust them or, better still, purchase some extra along with the crusher. Choose the McKesson Silent Knight Pill Crusher to crush your pills easily and save time too. The AliMed Pill Crusher and Pulverizer is a great tool that’s made of tough precision plastic and it’s compact enough to be carried around. If, however, what you need is a resistance therapy putty, check out the AliMed Color-Coded Therapy Putty. For over forty years in the healthcare product manufacturing and distribution business, AliMed has supplied a wide range of healthcare products such as operating room supplies, patients’ safety and fall management products, patient handling solutions, wheel chair cushions, and more. This has given it a place in the health care industry as a provider of innovative solutions to specific medical needs, especially those that are ergonomically inclined. The AliMed Pill Crusher and Pulverizer (Selling at $7.25 – Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) is an inexpensive pill crusher for everyday pill dispensing. You would think that for its price it wouldn’t be durable, but it’s made of tough precision non-latex plastic that ensures it’ll last a long while. Some customers stated that they’ve used it daily for 2 years! It has a separate compartment in the cap for storing pills till you’re ready to use them or for carrying the pills along with you to your destination. It’s compact and can be easily thrown into the pocket and carried around. It crushes pills to fine powder that wouldn’t clog a feeding tube. You can purchase this pill crusher in packs if you are on different medications. Looking for a different type of pill crusher with other features? Check out the rest of AliMed’s merchandise. A global leader in the wellness industry, Apothecary has over 70 patents from developing products that serve specific customer needs. With over 40 years in the healthcare and wellness management industry, it has built different product lines that have become market leaders in medication management, which are: Ezy Dose, Flents, Protechs and Wipe ‘N Clear. It collaborates with the majority of US pharmaceutical retailers to churn out innovative products for general consumer wellness. It has a presence in over 80 countries. The Apothecary Ergo Grip Pill Crusher (Selling at $5.80 – Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) has ergonomic grip handles that make it easy to hold on to while twisting or grinding. It’s small and compact and, with its storage cap that can be used for storing pills, it’s convenient for travels. The threads on the cap are on the outside so the pills don’t get stuck in them. It has a soft rubbery non-slip grip while the pocket friendly price makes it a great and valuable buy. Its packaging comes in a blister card which keeps it intact during shipping. Apothecary has another pill crusher that you can check out if the featured one doesn’t meet your requirements. Get the Best Pill Crusher of 2019! It has (hopefully) been a very informative and interesting review up to this point. Everything’s set. You’ve decided on the pill crusher to go for. Go ahead and make your purchase; your choice is the right one.

2019-04-22T12:18:55Z

https://topproducts.com/reviews/best-pill-crusher.htm

Abizboah is a kraken that lives in the depths of the Tinto mines. He possesses a unique rune, the Blue Drop Rune. Abizboah was recruited by Riou during the Dunan Unification War using a listening rune given to him by Badeaux. His wife is Rulodia, during their time in Riou's army his wife gives birth to a son named Chuchara. During the war he spends most of his time at the docks of the castle with his family. After the Dunan Unification War Abizboah can still be seen swimming around the castle. This entry written by Neclord. Ace is actually not his real name--his true name is unknown. However, Ace was born in Vinay Del Zexay, and later on joined Gilbert's mercenary group. Under Gilbert's leadership, he participated in the Dunan Unification War as a soldier, and accumulated experience as a veteran soldier. No one knows when, but Ace left the mercenaries and joined Harmonia's Border Guards, joining Geddoe's unit as their accountant and liaison with the headquarters. He participates in the Second Fire Bringers War as a result of Geddoe's past involvement with the Flame Champion. Odessa Silverberg's ex-fianc� who was arrested by Kraze Miles for harboring rebels. He was sentenced to death, but Odessa pressed him to use his "last wish clause"-- a clause that states that a dying man can have one wish granted. Odessa asked Achilles to marry him before he is executed, and Achilles agreed grudgingly. During the wedding ceremony, Odessa uses a magical ring to blind all onlookers and then fights her way out of the ceremony with Achilles. The two escape, but Achilles was already mortally wounded due to arrow wounds. His last words to Odessa were to "Defeat the Empire!" Addie is a dragon knight who served under Joshua Levenheit before the Succession War. She was a hot-tempered, haughty knight who took great pride in her silver dragon, Sterling. While on a scouting mission, she was shot down by arrows by some guards at the Northern Checkpoint who mistook Sterling as a monster. She died immediately from her wounds, and Sterling carried her into a cavern, then turning into a zombie dragon from grief. Adlai is a very eccentric inventor who resides in South Window. He bothers his neighbors with the loud racket he makes. During the Dunan Unification War he asked Riou to bring him three items. A wooden shield, a sacrificial Buddha, and a wind crystal. He pretends he did not ask for any of them annoying Riou. When Riou throws the wind crystal at Adlai, he has an epiphany and invents the "elevator," which he voluntarily installs into North Window Castle. The elevator is powered by four "Elevator Barbarians" who raise the elevator with their massive strength. The Barbarians train in a forest near the City of Greenhill. Adlai also has an apprentice named Shizu who helps repair one of his elevators in Budehuc Castle During the Second Fire Bringer War. After the Dunan wars he returns to his home in South Window continuing with his inventions and bothering his neighbors. This young happy woman loves to work on improving weapons and is quite pleased to receive new hammers for her work. She left her shop in Middleport because she loves to travel. She traveled to Obel in the worst time possible, when it was under attack by Kooluk forces. Luckily for her, Hero4 invited her onboard his ship where she opened a new shop for tempering weapons. After a war, she opened yet another shop, this time in the Kingdom of Obel, where her business was very successful. Aegia is a member of a wealthy family in South Window. She was abducted by Neclord and turned into a vampire. She wandered the forests of Banner, feasting on travelers who wandered into the forest. She is discovered by her son, Roy, and tries to convince him that she is not a vampire; but Foryyn interferes. With the help of Viktor, and the Star Dragon Sword, Aegia is finally laid to rest. The King of the Highlands is a troubled soul. Having lost his wife Sara shortly after Jillia's birth, he was definitely not a good father to Luca. Luca never was able to forgive his father for what happened to his mother, and perhaps that causes all the madness in him. Many people think that he is incompetent. In the end he is killed by Jowy and Luca. A street urchin from Gregminster; his father was an ex-mercenary who owned a weapon shop, but he was killed along with Age's mother when bandits raided Gregminster following Geil Rugner's sacking of the city. Age is a very agile boy who has been taught how to fight by his father. He helps Gremio escape from imperial soldiers and helps him rescue Tir McDohl through his street sense. With the help of Ronnetts, the two manage to rescue Tir. After that Age rides on a horse alone to deliver the news of Tir's rescue to Teo McDohl just in time for his last battle against Geil Rugner's forces. Agnes is the apprentice of Elenor Silverberg and served as the vice-strategist for the forces fighting against Kooluk during the war. She looks up to Elenor Silverberg and also serves her. After the appearance of Tanya, another young woman who also wants to study under Elenor, she becomes competitive. After the death of Elenor Silverberg, she cleans up her hermitage and travels to the Scarlet Moon Empire to learn strategy under someone else. Aila is a young warrior of the Karaya Tribe. Her grandmother is a Karayan witchdoctor, and thus she has the ability to speak with the elements. During the Second Fire Bringer War, Aila meets Geddoe and his mercenary group shortly before Karaya Village is burned down by Zexen forces. Because of this, Aila decides to travel with Geddoe's group henceforth. During her travels, she is exposed to different cultures, often perplexed by the sophisticated and often contradictory situations experienced by those outside her tribe. She especially takes a liking to "soda" when she is introduced to the beverage in Caleria. After the war is over, she joins Geddoe's group. A loyal general to Barbarossa, he is known to have let the son of Teo McDohl pass the Kwaba Fortress out of compassion. He is a fiercely loyal and just general, never resorting to underhanded tactics. In the end, he died an honorable death at Gregminster. Aisha is one of the kitchen staff who works at the military barracks at Caleria. She is very shy and doesn't quite fit with the battle-beaten veterans of the Harmonian Border Guards. However, she has a crush on Nash, which actually made her sick from being too worried after she heard that he was to be executed by the new commander, Parge. She regains health when Nash visits her during his escape and promises that he will come back after he escapes. This assassin worked under Ramada alongside Mizuki for Cray Trading Company. This ninja was sent in to assassinate Hero4 so they may take the Rune of Punishment to Graham Cray. After losing to Ramada asks Akaghi to lend his services to Hero4. He is extremely loyal to Ramada and will do anything Ramada asks him to do. After the war, he becomes Lino En Kuldes' personal bodyguard alongside Mizuki. Alanis is a daughter of a trader, and for that reason she has rarely stayed in one location for an extended amount of time. Because of this, she never really had friends until she met Melville and Eliot. The three formed the "Saint Loa Knights," a child's play version of the Zexen Knights, and Alanis called herself the "Silver Maiden," after Chris Lightfellow. During the Second Fire Bringer War, she with her family relocated from Vinay Del Zexay but they were captured by the Lizard clan. She was treated well by the lizards, and even befriended some of them. However, after hearing that her friends Melville and Eliot joined the Fire Bringers, she also joined. Alberto is the leader of a band of musicians who include Pico and Annalee. During the Dunan Unification War he was separated from Pico and Annalee during the Highland invasion of Muse. He escaped to Tinto where he worked for the local armorer to pay for his room and board. There he learned the skills of the armorer. He joins Riou when he hears Annalee is at the Dunan army castle. After the war he travels with his band but still continues to sharpen his armorer skills. The grandson of Leon Silverberg and son of George Silverberg, Albert was raised since his youth to be a military strategist. He was always the best student, and had top marks in the academy in Crystal Valley. He has met with Leon Silverberg a few times, and agreed with his grandfather's strategist paradigm. However, Albert also wanted to make a name of himself, and actively sought ways to promote himself. One day he comes across Luc in one of the numerous libraries within Crystal Valley. Albert convinces Luc to become a Bishop to manipulate Harmonia into helping him gain the other elemental true runes. Luc agrees, and Albert uses the method he learned from Leon to summon Yuber. Together (and joined by Sarah, they start manipulating events behind the scene to cause great chaos within the Grasslands. Albert manages to cause a war between Harmonia, Grasslands, Zexen, and the Tinto Republic, but in the end betrays Luc by informing the Fire Bringers where Luc will be conducting his final ritual to destroy the True Wind Rune. After the end of the Second Fire Bringer War, Albert is said to have received a good job in some nation as a strategist. He had mysteriously ended up in Elenor Silverberg�s hermitage island. For days he had to remain without human contact until Hero4 revisited the island and rescued him. He felt like he was indebted to him so decided to help him. Later when Ted also joined their forces, Aldo was determined to become his confidant. He tried all he could to become friends with Ted, with little success. It is unknown whether he and Ted actually became friends but he may have died because of the Soul Eater's curse. Alec Wisemail is the father of Teresa. He was a part of a plot to kill the Karaya Chief Kianu (Lucia's father), and he succeeded with the help of Gorudo. Alec dies early on during the Dunan Unification War while his daughter was Acting Mayor. A former subject of Teo McDohl, he switched sides and served Teo's son by Teo's dying wish along with Grenseal. His Rage rune is pretty powerful, and he has a powerful attack when together with Flik and Grenseal. The first Mayor of Greenhill and the man who established the Greenleaf Academy. Alex is an obsessed treasure hunter who studies the secrets of the Ancient Sindar. He dreams of finding artifacts, gold and jewels to make a better life for his wife Hilda and son Pete. Alex finds the "healing herbs" in Sindar ruins behind the White Deer Inn with the help of Riou, Jowy, and Nanami. Disappointed at not finding treasure he tosses them away, only to realize the value of them later as it cured his ailing wife. He joins Riou after losing a bet with Hilda that Riou is the new leader of the army. He is later confronted by Killey at the item shop who also seeks the secrets of the Sindar, where he tells Killey that his treasure is his family. After the war he returns to the White Deer Inn with his family, but never loses his "treasure hunting bug". Amada is an accomplished fisherman and is in charge of the sluice gates in Radat. He hails from the Island Nations far to the south and thus is an excellent sailor. He initially refuses to close the sluice gates for Apple so she may search for a coin Shu tosses into the water, but when he sees Riou's determination, he challenges him to a duel. Amada loses the duel and agrees to close the gate but only for one night. Later, he joins up with Riou after he is defeated in once again another duel-- citing Riou as the decisive victor. After the Dunan War he commandeers a ship and returns to the Island Nations. This make-up wearing beauty is actually a very experienced mercenary and bodyguard. She was hired by the inhabitants of Razril to help protect them from the Kooluk forces. After Razril was liberated, Hero4 offered her to join them but she refused because her contract with the civilians of Razril was not yet over. Regardless, the people of Razril encouraged her to go along with Hero4 and help him in his journey against Kooluk. She decided to stop wearing make-up after the war, and nobody could recognize her. Anabelle was the daughter of Darel and the mayor of Muse. She was in a near-romantic relationship with Viktor, whom admired her determination and hard work to keep Jowston intact. After the eastern Muse area was pillaged by the Highland Army, she forced City-State members to supply troops for the approaching attack on the capitol. However, she was assassinated by Jowy Atreides before most could arrive. Having been born in the border village between Matilda and Highland, Anastasia witnessed many battles and saw her village destroyed many times due to the numerous conflicts. When she was young, the village was overrun by Highland, but one Matilda Knight continued to protect the village. She along with other villagers helped him with whatever weapons they can find, but Highland defeated them. When Highland tried to execute the villagers who resisted, the knight volunteered to take their place. Instead of killing him, the Highlanders cut off his sword arm so that he can live out his life in shame. Anastasia tells this story to Camus and Miklotov when they secretly visit the village to witness the situation. Later on when Gorudo sends his army and torches the village, Anastasia tries to save Camus and Miklotov's uniform (which they had to remove to blend in), but dies after her house collapses. Anita is a former pupil of Roundier Haia; under his guidance she studied his Falcon Style of fighting and for her efforts received a Falcon Rune. A lover of liquor, she was a frequent patron at the tavern in Muse and Banner Village. During the Dunan War she met Riou and asked him to perform various tasks, such as giving her antitoxin for a spider bite she suffered from, filling her drinking glass, and complimenting her looks. Entertained by him, she agrees to join his cause. Also, she has a long standing rivalry with another of Roundier Haia's pupils Valeria. She is always training to be the better swordmistress, but so far she has only won one duel against Valeria out of ten. After the war she travels to the Toran Republic to challenge Valeria. Anji was a Lake Pirate at Lake Toran for years, and was a hated enemy of Sonya Shulen during the Scarlet Moon Era. He often did things to intentionally anger Sonya. For example, he once pinned up a wedding dress onto the walls of Shasarazade in order to make fun of the fact that Sonya is unmarried. After the Gate Rune wars has ended, he was supposed to have started a business with his friends Kanak and Leonardo, but who knows what happened with their business venture! Annalee is a wonderful singer. Her parents were killed in Harmonia under suspicious circumstances, which made her timid ever since. She is part of a band that includes Pico and Alberto, but becomes separated from them after the Highland invasion of Muse. She then escapes to South Window, where she offers to sing a song for food at the inn, however she is turned away by the innkeeper. Later, she sings a beautiful song for Riou and joins him and his allies when he asks to hear more. After the war she continues her travels with Pico and Alberto. The mother of Chris Lightfellow and wife of Wyatt Lightfellow, Anna was a daughter of a rich family within Vinay Del Zexay. She met Wyatt (who was running away from the Howling Voice Guild and fell in love with him. The two married and soon had Chris. A few years later however, Wyatt left Anna and Chris due to Howling Voice Guild agents catching up with him. Anna died within a few years after that, leaving Chris alone. Anne is a Karayan who worked very hard to open her own bar within the Karaya Village. Unfortunately, on the first day of her business, the village was burnt down by Zexen forces. Since then she fled with Lucia and ended up at Budehuc Castle where she worked as a bartender. After the Second Fire Bringer War was over, she rebuilt her bar in the burnt out Karaya village. Anos served under Joshua Levenheit before the Succession War as the Vice-Captain of the Dragon Knights. When Joshua Levenheit set out to dispatch the zombie dragon Sterling, he told Anos to become the Captain if Joshua is killed by Sterling. However, Joshua managed to defeat Sterling. Seeing that Milia became the Vice-Captain later on, Anos seems to have retired by the time the Gate Rune Wars started. Antonio is a chef that once worked at an inn in the village of Seika. He joins Tir and the Liberation Army when he hears that Marie is a member. During the Gate Rune War he cooked and served meals for the Liberation Army along with Lester. After the Gate Rune War he remained the cook at Marie's inn. During the Dunan Unification War he visits Hai Yo and challenges him to a friendly cook off to help prepare Hai Yo for his cook off with the Black Dragon Leader Retso. Apple has been a student of Mathiu Silverberg since a tender age while studying at the school Mathiu set up in Seika. She joins the Liberation army when she learnt that her mentor Mathiu had became their strategist. Apple was later involved in the sparking of the Dunan Unification War when she provided strategic aid to Viktor�s mercenaries against the Highland army�s attack on eastern Muse. Although they achieved initial victory, due to her lack of experience and Luca Blight's sheer powerful army, the mercenary forces were still crushed. Later on, she served as vice-strategist to Shu whom she herself recruited. Shu was also a former pupil of Mathiu and Apple acknowledged his superiority in military strategist and admitted her inferiority. After the Dunan Unification War, she began travelling and improved her skills while working on the journals on Mathiu Silverberg. Along the way, she met Caesar Silverberg, and travelled with him while serving as his tutor in his studies of military strategy. She later joins along with Caesar to aid the Fire bringers against the Destroyers as the eternal vice-strategist. Yet, it was apparent that her skills has improved over the years. Arthur is a young boy whose dream was to become a journalist. He was researching a story in Brass Castle where fugitives were said to have escaped mysteriously. With the help of some kind strangers, he found a secret route which led him into an underground tunnel under Brass Castle. Intrigued by the find, he joined the Fire Bringers top report the progress of the Second Fire Bringer War, while writing some tabloid-esque articles on the side. Ashino is a hunter living in the forest near Ryube who has withdrawn from society to live amongst beasts. He is the uncle of Kinnison and has taken care of him since the death of his parents. Ashino has made a living by hunting, and taught Kinnison all he needed to know to survive on his own. After he finished teaching Kinnison, he left on a journey, never to be seen again. A judiciary who served under Geil Rugner; he came up with the plan to abduct Tir McDohl so that Teo would fight with the armor removed from his armored cavalry. He successfully abducted McDohl, but was thwarted by the valiant efforts of Gremio and Age. Augustine Nabor is an aristocrat originally from Gregminster. A skilled swordsman with devastating skill, Augustine was also a recipient of an award at Vincent de Boule's beauty contest. During the Second Fire Bringer War, Augustine joined the Fire Bringers after they found a Rose Brooch he lost. Once a member of the Fire Bringers, his skill along with his Red Rose Rune proved to be an asset despite his odd personality. From the island of warriors, Na-Nal, he lives up to the people�s expectations as the strongest warrior on the island, even more so than his father. His father and he had formed an alliance with the Kooluk, but thanks to a misunderstanding caused by the elves on the island, the Kooluk forces turned on Na-Nal, leaving them no choice but to join forces with Kooluk�s enemy. His hatred for elves had faded once he joined Hero4�s forces. He also likes to cuddle with Nay-kobolds because he thinks they feel warm. After the war, he succeeded his father as Island Chief. Aya was a student of Mathiu Silverberg at his small school in Seika Village. She was already a student by the time Apple joined the school in the year 454, but was only six years old. She got sick one day from some sort of stomach ailment, which would have killed her if not for medicine that Apple made (with the help of Shu). Ayame is a ninja who belongs to the Kage organization. During the Second Fire Bringer War, she hears that Watari, a deserter ninja, is helping the Fire Bringers. Ayame seeks him out to kill him due to their group's code. However, she is defeated by Watari and decides to join the Fire Bringers. A maid that works under Rean Penenberg; she acts like she is shy but in reality she is an undead created by Rean. When Nash and Sierra attempt to kill Rean, she wields a katana and tries to kill Nash. She is a highly skilled swordsman and Nash is almost bested, but Nash impales her with a holy kobold figurine and destroys her. Ayda is the Protector of the Forest as her father before her. A skilled archer and animal lover, she saves the wounded griffin Feather from the frightened villagers of the Forest Village by standing in front of the villagers and not allowing them to do any harm. Other griffins came to attack Feather and Ayda tries in vain to stop them. She joins Riou and his army when he defeats the griffins and saves Feather. During her stay at the castle she meets Kinnison a fellow nature lover and after the war he visits her occasionally at her home in the Deep Forest that she returns to once more to protect.

2019-04-22T03:06:11Z

http://www.suikox.com/chars/chara.php

IADC is currently seeking to fill the position of Director – Government and Industry Affairs. The position will report to the IADC Vice President of Government and Industry Affairs and will be responsible for all domestic federal and state regulatory matters impacting the offshore oil and gas industry and will undertake daily review of the U.S. Federal Register to determine appropriate response strategy for all regulatory and standards activities with potential impact on the oil and gas industry. The successful candidate will also liaise with domestic regulatory authorities and trade association representative and other organizations, and serve as a IADC staff liaison to IADC Committees as assigned. In the 2018 midterm elections, the IADC DRILLERSPAC supported 14 candidates in Senate and Congressional races, with 13 of those winning their races, a 93% success rate. The next election cycle includes key races in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Mississippi and Alaska, among others, and IADC will again be supporting candidates who have demonstrated a commitment to supporting energy and the drilling industry. The House has been busy reorganizing under Democratic Control. Most of the House Committees have been organized at this point, including the House Natural Resources Committee. The Chairman, Rep. Grijalva, has laid out his priorities for the Committee: 1) Oversight of the Department of Interior and EPA deregulatory decisions; 2) protecting public lands; 3) protecting the Endangered Species Act. Expect to see hearings on the horizon regarding climate change and its impact to our oceans and public lands. The House passed a NATO Support Act, as well as a Resolution disapproving of the President’s action to remove certain sanctions against the Russian Federation, and the Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Raise Fairness Act. The Senate has been busy processing amendments to S. 1, legislation showing support for Israel and Jordan. The Senate is expected to pass this legislation and move next to a Public Lands package of bills that will namely reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, among a slew of other legislative matters. It has been since December 2014 that a Public Lands package has been enacted. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a roundtable on the Arctic in January, and heard from experts on a variety of topics, including the lack of a U.S. presence in the area. The big news in Washington is the 35-day partial government shutdown that ended with enactment of a 3-week Continuing Resolution (CR) which gives lawmakers an opportunity to solve the impasse or send the Federal government back into a partial shutdown. The CR expires on Feb. 15th. During the government shutdown, the Department of Interior continued to process drilling permits. In other news, President Trump issued an Executive Order sanctioning transactions involving the Madura regime and Venezuelan Government. He also issued an Executive Order to Buy American — directing the head of each executive department and agency to “encourage recipients of new Federal financial assistance awards to use, to the greatest extent practicable, iron and aluminum as well as, steel, cement, and other manufactured products produced in the United States in every contract, subcontract, purchase order, or sub‑award that is chargeable against such Federal financial assistance award.” Finally, trade continues to be the top topic in WDC as talks continue with China and other countries over ongoing disputes. On 24 January, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its Annual Energy Outlook 2019. The report projects that in 2020, for the first time in almost 70 years, the United States will export more energy than it imports, and will remain a net exporter through 2050. U.S. energy export growth is driven largely by petroleum exports including crude oil and products and by additional liquefied natural gas exports. The United States will continue to see record high levels of oil and natural gas production. S. net exports of natural gas will continue to grow, as liquefied natural gas becomes an increasingly significant export. Increasing energy efficiency across end-use sectors will keep U.S. energy consumption relatively stable, even as the U.S. economy continues to expand. For more in-depth information and findings, the full Annual Energy Outlook 2019 can be found on the EIA website. 2017 saw a reduction of 3% in the volume of produced water discharged to the sea during oil and gas production when compared to 2016. Reinjection of produced water increased by 10% on the year, and is at its highest recorded level. Industry’s greenhouse gas emissions contribute around 3% of the total UK emissions, the same proportion as 2016. Greenhouse gas emissions per installation were lower in 2017 than in 2016. In January, IADC submitted an amicus curiae in the matter of Dutra Group v. Christopher Batterton, a Supreme Court case which will decide whether punitive damages are available to seamen filing personal injury claims. In the amicus brief, IADC argued that rigorous and protective compensation schemes for seamen are already in existence, with Congress implementing and overseeing a wide array of federal agencies, statues and rules regulating operations. The amicus also points out that allowing punitive damages as contemplated by the Ninth Circuit would affect IADC members by having a detrimental impact on uniformity in worker claims, settlement and trial of such claims, contractual obligations and insurance coverage in the offshore oilfield and negatively impacting the economy and consumers in general. In addition to IADC, The Chamber of Commerce of the USA and International P&I Clubs; the American Maritime Association; the Waterways Council Inc., and the American Waterways Operators also submitted Amicus Briefs on the matter. IADC’s full Amicus Brief can be found on the Supreme Court website. On 18 December, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine announced a research campaign to advance understanding of Gulf of Mexico loop currents and awarded $10.3 million in initial grants. This planned long-term research campaign is intended to improve the understanding and prediction of the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current System. Eight new projects were selected for grant awards through the first funding competition related to the LCS research campaign. The solicitation sought projects that would conduct specific studies or collect particular data and observations identified in the report as short-term needs to assist with the long-term research campaign. Planning for the next funding competition, which will also be directed at advancing the long-term LCS research campaign, is currently underway and expected to open in 2019. More information can be found on the National Academies website. The Energy Policy Research Foundation recently released, “Mexico’s Petroleum Future, Understanding the Economic Value of the New Energy Model”. The New Energy Model refers to the energy reform measures implemented in Mexico over the last few years, and they offer considerable potential to lift oil and gas production, increase employment and deliver technological advances while adding revenues to federal, state and local governments. The report includes findings that point to a substantial rise in crude oil production beginning in 2020 along with the employment of 130,000 workers and 500,000 indirect jobs. It also points out Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s call for more investment directed to existing contracts that comprise the country’s “New Energy model” despite his intention to impose a 3-year halt on new oil and gas bid rounds for further assessment related to national investment concerns. IADC staff members recently attended two back-to-back meetings in Brussels with the European Union Offshore Authorities Group (EUOAG) and the Directorate of Energy of the European Commission (EC). Steve Kropla, VP Special Projects and Member Initiatives and Derek Hart, Regional Director – North Sea, both spoke to various topics as part of a review of the EU’s Offshore Safety Directive. Mr. Kropla described the IOGP/IADC BOP Reliability Database (RAPID-S53) as part of the discussion on data resources. Mr. Hart spoke to risk management principles, public participation in leasing new areas, assignment of liability and financial responsibility and deepening the internal market through mutual recognition of mobile non-production installations between Member States. At a meeting earlier in the day, Jens Hoffmark, Regional VP – European Operations, had provided two presentations to the EUOAG. One provided an update on WellSharp and other IADC activities. The second regarded potential training that IADC might help develop and deliver to European regulators. Amendments to the bunker delivery note relating to the supply of marine fuel oil to ships that have fitted alternative mechanisms to address Sulphur emission requirements entered into force on 1 January. The amendment enters into force as the shipping industry counts down to January 2020, when the limit for sulphur in fuel oil will be reduced to 0.50% m/m outside emission control areas from the current 3.5%. The new limit under IMO’s MARPOL treaty will have significant benefits for the environment and human health. More information can be found on the International Maritime Organization’s website. As of 1 January 2019, the use of open-loop scrubber systems are prohibited within China’s Emission Control Areas (ECA) covering inland waters and most of its coastline. Ships fitted with open-loop scrubbers, which discharge wastewater, are now required to burn low-Sulphur fuel while operating in China’s ECAs. This move by China follows Singapore’s earlier decision to also prohibit open-loop scrubbers starting 1 January 2020. Open-loop scrubbers are also banned from use in Belgium, California, Massachusetts and along Germany’s Rhine river. For more information, please contact Jim Rocco at Jim.Rocco@iadc.org. On 30 January, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that it would hold public meetings in various Alaskan communities, and in Washington, D.C. to discuss the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program. The EIS was made available for public review and comment on 1 December 2018. The first lease sale will be held after the Final EIS and Record of Decision are issued and will offer not fewer than 400,000 acres area-wide of high-potential lands for bid. The BLM is seeking feedback on the Draft EIS’s alternatives to inform the Final EIS and the Record of Decision. Substantive comments should include specific details regarding issues or concerns that also provide rationale for the concern or suggestion. Comments on the Draft EIS will be accepted through March 13. More information can be found on the BLM website. The IADC Houston Chapter recently elected new Officers during their January meeting. Joe Rausch, Nabors-CanRig was elected to serve as Chapter Chairman; Marc Noel with ICD will serve as Vice Chairman; Matt Eve with PTEN will serve as Chapter Secretary and Brian Townsend with Stellar will be Chapter Treasurer. The Houston Chapter will host its next meeting on 12 February at the Houston Petroleum Club. For more information about the Chapter and how you can get involved, please visit the IADC website. The offshore drilling industry needs efficiency gains and cost savings as never before. Fortunately, managed pressure drilling can provide both cost savings and, just as importantly, enhanced drilling safety. MPD is defined by IADC as an adaptive drilling process used to precisely control the annular pressure profile throughout the wellbore. The objectives are to ascertain the downhole pressure environment limits and to manage the annular hydraulic pressure profile accordingly. It is the intention of MPD to avoid continuous influx of formation fluids to the surface. Any influx incidental to the operation will be safely contained using an appropriate process. The use of closed-loop systems common to all types of MPD represents a giant step forward from conventional, open-to-air drilling systems. For nearly two decades, industry has viewed MPD as an exotic, niche technology with limited applications. Now, however, inclusion of MPD systems aboard drilling rigs is increasingly common. Further, whereas in the past the job of running MPD operations was limited to specialized third-party consultants, today drilling crews are gaining competency in MPD. This virtual panel discussion, sponsored by ABS, brings together an operator, drilling contractor, and classification society to define MPD, detail the benefits in efficiency and safety, explore what makes a rig and crew MPD capable, and provide an outlook for the future of this important technology. To register for this free webcast, click here. If you have already registered for this event, please be on the lookout for your login email on the morning of 26 March. IADC is preparing to launch WellSharp® Plus, a new accreditation program that fully integrates human factors (i.e., crew resource management) into technical well control training and specifically targets experienced personnel. The primary goals of this new program are to reduce the potential for human error and to contribute to the competence of personnel during drilling operations. Throughout 2018, a workgroup comprising course designers, human factors experts, and other stakeholders in the upstream O&G worked together to develop a human factors curriculum, program and course requirements, and a new “train-the-trainer” course for human factors instructors. A greater focus on human factors has emerged as producers/operators, drilling contractors, and service companies seek to address two lessons learned from past well control incidents: The need for 1) training aimed at specifically addressing human-error and 2) training that focuses on problem-solving during the low-probability, high-impact well control scenarios. As part of their program-development process, the workgroup reviewed the human factors training and best practices from NASA, the US military, and from the airline, nuclear, and healthcare industries. They also considered ongoing efforts at organizations in the O&G industry, such as IOGP, SPE, API, and OESI. These organizations and others have been working to better understand the human element within the operational context, the causes of human error during drilling operations, and the nontechnical knowledge and skills required for maintaining safe, efficient operations. Rather than creating an isolated human factors course or training module, course designers recognized the value of creating a new model for content delivery—one that emphasizes the specific contributors to human error in the context of well control by fully integrating the technical and nontechnical content. IADC’s new human factors curriculum aligns with content developed within other industries and by other O&G organizations, particularly IOGP. Although, in reality, much of the content is interconnected, the topics generally correlate with at least one of the following six categories: situation awareness, decision-making, communication, teamwork, leadership, and factors that affect human performance. This last category comprises the human conditions that affect the other five categories, such as fatigue (e.g., sleep deprivation, illness, shiftwork, time of day), stress (e.g., confusion, multi-tasking, conflict, fear), difficulty managing distractions, and cultural differences. To maximize learning and knowledge retention, WellSharp® Plus instructors are required to meet additional qualification requirements that include successful completion of “train-the-trainer” coursework involving the following: facilitated learning methods, adult learning principles, strategies that appeal to different learning styles, and strategies for delivering and assessing the human factors content. Facilitated learning methods have been proven to maximize learning by exploiting the human brain’s natural process of learning through experiences, which involves the learner interacting with the subject and then “debriefing”—reflecting on and drawing conclusions about the subject through a guided discussion. During this process, the instructor is the “guide” rather than the “lecturer.” The instructor observes the activity and discussions and then, as needed, asks open-ended questions to guide the learners. The content of the learning can be delivered in a multitude of ways that rarely involve traditional lecture. Studies show that traditional lecture is the least effective way of learning new content. The format for a WellSharp® Plus course comprises problem-solving through teamwork in which the participants fulfill the different the roles needed to make up a rig crew: driller, assistance driller, supervisor (toolpusher, company man), and other positions. The course uses case studies and simulation to deliver content and to provide the instructors with an opportunity to observe and assess the human factors and technical skills in order to guide a debriefing session following each case study. Participants must have taken and passed an “upper-level” WellSharp® course (e.g., Driller- or Supervisor-level) in the previous 2 years and then must meet a higher standard in passing the WellSharp® exam immediately before beginning the course. The fundamentals of well control are an essential prerequisite for WellSharp® Plus because the technical content comprises only the more complex well control scenarios. The program is expected to begin accepting applications in April 2019. Companies intending to apply may obtain additional information by emailing accreditation@iadc.org. WellSharp®, IADC’s well control training and assessment standard, recently surpassed its 100,000-certified milestone. Launched in March 2015, the WellSharp program now comprises 10 drilling operation and well servicing courses, more than 500 instructors, 160 accredited training providers, about 1,100 test proctors, and is offered in 5 languages in 37 countries. New courses added to the original Drilling Operations Awareness, Introductory, Driller, and Supervisor courses include the following Well Servicing courses: Coiled Tubing, Snubbing, Wireline, Workover, O&G Operator Representative, and a Subsea Supplement. A Well Servicing Introductory and a WellSharp Plus course will be added to the list before the end of 2018, and a Drilling Operations Engineer course will be added in 2019. The WellSharp Plus course represents a new shift in well control training as it integrates specific aspects of crew resource management (CRM) throughout technical training. In addition, IADC and the industry has now embarked on the next step in this well control standard—a new venture to measure baseline knowledge retention, facilitate continuous learning, and reduce knowledge decay between renewal cycles. The increasingly comprehensive list of courses is intended to encourage companies to send their personnel to the course that is specifically designed for their position on the rig. With the goal of improving the program’s credibility and effectiveness, IADC committees and workgroups are using a research- and data-driven approach to improving content delivery while continuing to refine course content and testing protocols. The Drilling Industry thrives on hard work, toughness, and self-sufficiency, and the transition to WellSharp certainly called upon those qualities. This effort emerged from two goals: to reduce well control incidents and to “self-regulate”. Over several years, hundreds of volunteers contributed their time and expertise–their sweat-equity, their passion for the industry—to make WellSharp a success. The IADC Cybersecurity Committee will host its next meeting from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on 14 February at IADC’s headquarters in Houston. The meeting will primarily feature discussions and work on the Network Segmentation Guidelines and will also include an update on legislative and standardization activities. The IADC Advanced Rig Technology (ART) Committee has announced its 2019 meeting dates and is welcoming new participants. Besides its recent meeting on 5 February, the committee will also meet from 9-11am on Thursday, 9 May, at NRG Center, in conjunction with OTC. The group will also meet on the afternoon of Monday, 21 October in Amsterdam, the day before the 2019 IADC ART Conference. ART also will hold three Spark Tanks this year: 24 April, 7 August and 11 December. These events provide technology entrepreneurs with a new opportunity to pitch their products and ideas to a panel of drilling contractors and operators (“Sharks”). The purpose is to provide insights (“Sparks”) to technology developers into what matters to the intended end users of these innovations. There is sometimes a vast disconnect between a good idea and a great product, and this series will attempt to close that gap. All Spark Tanks are held at IADC’s Houston headquarters. The events are free to attend, but registration is required and space is limited. Call for Abstracts are being accepted for the 24 April Spark Tank until 19 March. ART’s two subcommittees also will hold monthly meetings at IADC’s Houston office, and each group welcomes new participants from across the industry to join these meetings. Agendas for each event will be posted closer to their dates. All events will be in Houston, with locations TBA. Questions about the DEC can be sent to Linda Hsieh (linda.hsieh@iadc.org). To assist industry transition to more digitally driven operations, IADC introduces IADC DDR Plus™, the new standard in drilling data collection. IADC DDR Plus™ remains backward compatible with previous versions, while adding additional main operational codes, and creating a highly granular code set architecture. IADC DDR Plus™ is rolling out in both a Wits M L electronic and traditional paper versions. Is the Caspian Drilling Industry ready for the future? The Caspian region faces challenges around changing market conditions, workforce development, drilling efficiency, safety and security, and equipment maintenance. To address these issues, the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) will host the IADC Drilling Caspian 2019 Conference & Exhibition on 20-21 February at the Hilton Hotel in Baku. The conference will bring together industry leaders and drilling professionals to discuss challenges and share best practices and experiences. Cutting-edge technology advances, including drilling automation, will be featured, as will case studies of relevant technical achievements. The event will also highlight evolving approaches to safety and training, providing practical information on new tools and processes that can be used to improve HSE performance. It will also provide a unique networking opportunity for those working in the region. The event is sponsored by Socar AQS; BP; Maersk Drilling; Socar KQIT; KCA Deutag Drilling and Derrick Equipment Company. In addition, the exhibition will give regional and international companies the chance to showcase their services and products. The complete conference program, conference registration, and more information can be found on the conference website at www.iadc.org under the Events tab. Or, you can contact IADC directly at Europe@iadc.org or at +31 24 675 2252. IADC’s Drilling Matters initiative to educate the public and dispel myths and misconceptions about our industry hit the ground running in 2019, with the roll out of an Android app for its popular online game Mission Petrohouse. Mission Petrohouse players steer a retro rocket ship through a home and “zap” everyday products created from petroleum to fill the rocket’s fuel tank. The game tracks the number of items zapped, and provides helpful information about each item. Drilling Matters is available on line at www.DrillingMatters.org. For more information about Drilling Matters, contact Amy Rose (amy.rose@iadc.org) or Mike Killalea (mike.killalea@iadc.org). IADC’s Useful Resources web page offers a link to materials designed to help build and assure individual and crew well control competency and proficiency anywhere in the world. The DrillPad Deployment Well Control Drill Trainer Training Template and the companion DrillGuide Example are freely available from the www.iadc.org/useful-resources. The PowerPoint file DrillPad Trainer Training is offered to assist trainers in developing an effective program of well control drills. It includes keys to effective drills, critical skill sets, grading criteria, common pitfalls, and more. The PDF Well Control Drill Guide provides lists of drills, questions, and attributes within DrillPad. The guide is meant to be used in conjunction with rig-specific well control procedures to conduct and assess performance during well control drills. The objective is to ensure that all members of the rig team with well control responsibilities are aware of their specific responsibilities, possess an understanding of well control commensurate with those responsibilities, and can confidently execute their duties when required. Each well control drill details the drill type, potential participants, exercises, caution guidance, assessment guidance, questions, skills assessed, and more. The Useful Resources page on www.iadc.org provides a link to a Recommended Practice to prevent and mitigate dropped objects in oil and gas operations. Dropped objects are a critical safety issue in numerous industries. This Recommended Practice, developed by the DROPS network, intends to set basic requirements for dropped object prevention that can be incorporated into existing companies’ Safety Management Systems (SMS). DROPS is an industry-wide oil-and-gas initiative whose mission is to prevent dropped objects by providing supporting engagement and learning materials, as well as setting industry-recognized best practices. The link also provides access to the DROPS RP Gap Analysis Tool, an Excel spreadsheet. According to DROPS, the RP sets out minimum recommended practices that support the prevention of dropped objects and the development of policies and procedures for company SMSs. DROPS notes that the RP is not intended to be considered the finalized requirements of a company Dropped Object Prevention Scheme (Scheme). The link to the DROPS RP and Gap Analysis Tool is at www.iadc.org/useful-resources. Safety should not be competitive in the drilling industry, but bragging rights always are! You have worked hard to build an impressive safety record. Your employees pay close attention to ensure that they work safely. Let your customers know about it. IADC ISP plaques are a stand-out way to ensure the world knows how successful your accident prevention program is. IADC has two types of ISP plaques available. The Executive Grade: Bronze-tone safety excellence medallion on a red velvet background with gold engraved text on a raised bronze-tone plate. Supreme Grade: Laser engraved text with company name, rig name or number and IADC logo in raised gold lettering. Both plaques include company name, rig name or number with the numbers of years without a Lost time or recordable incident. IADC acknowledges the rigs in the monthly DrillBits newsletter. Get extra plaques for the office, rig, and your top employees. Fire those guys up with a well-deserved pat on the back. IADC ISP plaques are only available to companies participating in the IADC ISP program, the industry’s definitive safety statistics program since 1961. For more information on ordering plaque please contact Loretta Krolczyk at loretta.krolczyk@iadc.org. Wrinkled outside diameter surfaces of the drill-pipe body caused by the upsetting process.

2019-04-25T08:01:01Z

http://www.iadc.org/drillbits/drillbits-february-2019/

To M/T Vivi on the "Ships starting with V" page. Picture received (via Neil Carlsen) from Dag Midbøe who served on this ship from June-1939 until Nov.-1940. Some of the early voyage details given below were also received from him. (See also text for Leiv Eiriksson). Tonnage: 6546 gt, 9815 tdwt., 11 knots. Delivered from Akers mek. Verksted, Oslo in Oct.-1932 as Vivi to A/S Vestheim (Halfdan Ditlev-Simonsen & Co.), Oslo. 433' x 58.1' x 26.3'. Dbl. scr. 2 x 6 cyl. 4T singl. 550/100, 2300 bhp B&W DM, 11 knots. (Sister ship of M/T Dageid). Captain: Mads Ansgar Danielsen, from 1940 until the end of the war. Other crew members are named within the text. Under The Ministry of War Transport from Apr. 30-1940 and managed by Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. In service on the Atlantic and Far East, usually with aviation fuel. May 21 Bermuda portion joined main convoy – – HX 43 Straggled May 24. June 12 Milford Haven – – OB 166 For Gibraltar. Detached to OG 33, June 13. June 13 Joined from OB 166 Gibraltar June 19 OG 33 Convoy will be added. Dec. 25 Milford Haven – – OB 265 For Port Arthur. March 26 Loch Ewe – – OB 302 Dispersed March 30. June 7 Milford Haven – – OB 331 Dispersed June 19. Aug. 10 Milford Haven – – ON 6 For NYC. Oct. 1 Milford Haven – – ON 22 For NYC. Jan. 13 Aden Suez Jan. 25* Independent *Page 2 gives arrival Jan. 19. May 25* Adelaide Port Pirie May 31 Independent *Page 3 gives departure May 29. June 26 Adelaide Abadan – Independent Page 3 gives arrival July 30. Sept. 19 Bandar Abbas – – PB 3 For Melbourne. July 11 Sydney, N.S.W. – – CO 108 Dispersed July 13. Haifa/Tripoli, Syria/Egypt to Aug. 22-1944. 1944 Aug. 23 Port Said Oran Sept. 2 GUS 50 Port Said to Oran. Sept. 11 Oran Baltimore Sept. 28 GUS 51 Oran to USA. Nov. 14 Belfast Lough Philadelphia Dec. 2 ON 266 Convoy will be added. Dec. 19 New York City Liverpool Jan. 3-1945 HX 327 See also narrative below. 1945 Jan. 13 Liverpool Cape Cod Canal Jan. 31* ON 278 *Page 5 gives arrival Jan. 29. Jan. 29 Cape Cod Canal New York City Jan. 30 Independent Fire Febr. 5-1945. May 5 New York City – – NK 685 Detached May 10. Oct. 10 Bremerhaven Corpus Christi – Independent Page 6 gives arrival Nov. 2 (via Downs). Nov. 14* Corpus Christi Clyde Nov. 26 Independent *Page 6 gives departure Nov. 4 (via New York). Based on the captain's report, as well as crew member Dag Midbøe's documents. As will be seen, when comparing their info with the details found in the original archive images, some dates are different, but rather than correcting them I've left them as they appear in the captain's report and/or Midbøe's docs. The information has been compared to, and supplemented with, convoy information from misc. other sources. Follow the links provided for more details - several Norwegian ships took part (all the HX convoys will later be updated, for now, go to ships in all HX convoys). In the summer of 1939, Vivi was in coastal service between various ports in the U.K.: Liverpool-Hull-Stanford le Hope-Swansea-Avonmouth-Falmouth, then went from Falmouth to Abadan. She departed Abadan for Lands End for orders on Aug. 8. Due to the outbreak of war, she was ordered into Lisbon on Sept. 4, then proceeded to Liverpool, arriving Oct. 18-1939, leaving Liverpool on Oct. 20 for Corpus Christi, arriving Nov. 10. Left Corpus Christi on Nov. 22 for Gothenburg via Bergen, Norway, but was stopped by a British Naval vessel on Dec. 7 and taken into Kirkwall that same day. Departed Kirkwall for Bergen on Dec. 11 with arrival the following day, leaving that same day (Dec. 12) for Gothenburg, where she arrived on Dec. 16-1939. "Germany has invaded Norway and Denmark. As a result, all Danish and Norwegian shipping is to be taken under British protection. You must therefore go straight to a British Port and report to the Naval Control Service Officer. He will give you orders for your safety and instructions about the route you should follow. You may go to any of the following ports: Halifax (Nova Scotia), Bermuda, Nassau (Bahamas), Kingston (Jamaica), and Port of Spain (Trinidad). Please inform me which port you choose and your expected time of arrival. In the meantime, you should make preparations for painting out the National emblems on your side, and for darkening your ship if so ordered. Do not make any wireless signal except to report enemy attack or in case of distress. The Naval Control Service Officer will arrange for you to communicate with your owners on arrival." Signed Charles Yambe, Captain Royal Navy. Vivi headed for Port of Spain (arrived Apr. 15), where they had to wait for quite a while before all the necessary papers etc. were in order (see my page about Nortraship for info on the difficulties experienced by Norwegian ships in those early days of the war). Many other Norwegian ships were already there, with more arriving every day until there were about 25-30 Norwegian ships waiting for further orders. Once everything had been taken care of, she picked up a cargo of petrol (on Scheme to Anglo-Saxon) - she left Port of Spain on May 8, arrived Bermuda May 15, joining convoy Convoy BHX 43 that same day and arrived Avonmouth on May 30. After the petrol had been discharged (possibly in Cardiff, where she had arrived from Avonmouth on June 5), she was sent to Abadan on June 8 to load aviation fuel for the U.K. By the time the convoy* she was in reached Gibraltar, Italy had entered the war (June 10-1940) and the convoy was routed around South Africa. Vivi stopped at Cape Town, where she was ordered to have degaussing and protection around the bridge installed in Port Elisabeth. This was done, and she continued to Abadan, where she arrived on Aug. 14. The aviation fuel was loaded and on Aug. 16, she started on her return voyage to the U.K., via Cape Town and Freetown (arr. Sept. 28) for convoy. She joined Convoy SL 50 in Freetown on Oct. 3 (see the external link provided in the Voyage Record - the Norwegian Beduin, Maridal and Salamis are also listed). On arrival Barry Roads on Oct. 26 they had to wait for quite a while before they could continue and had some nerve racking moments, because several other ships around them struck mines that had been dropped in the area by German aircraft. She left Barry Roads on Nov. 5-1940 and arrived Avonmouth that same day. Please compare these details with the information found on Page 1 of the archive documents, as well as the above Voyage Record (as already mentioned, some of the dates are different). * Vivi is listed in Convoy OB 166 in this time period (external link). The convoy originated in Liverpool on June 11-1940 and joined up with Convoy OA 166 on the 13th, the combined convoy forming Convoy OG 33, which arrived Gibraltar on June 19. This convoy will be added to an individual page in my Convoys section, in the meantime, the ships sailing in it are named on the page listing ships in all OG convoys. After her aviation fuel had been discharged, Vivi went to Barry Docks for the installation of armament, before she headed across the Atlantic (it'll be noticed, when going back to Page 1, that she spent several weeks in Barry). She's listed as bound for Port Arthur in Convoy OB 265, which originated in Liverpool on Dec. 26-1940 and dispersed on the 30th - again, see the external link in the table above; Bianca and Somerville (returned) are also mentioned. According to the archive document, Vivi arrived Port Arthur on Jan. 18-1941, having started out from Milford Haven on Dec. 25. She subsequently continued in this service, usually with aviation fuel. For instance, in Febr.-1941 she can be found in Convoy BHX 109 from Bermuda (main convoy will be added - see ships in all HX convoys - Augvald was sunk; follow the link for details), and towards the end of March we find her in Convoy OB 302, which originated in Liverpool on March 24 and dispersed 6 days later (also available via the external link in the Voyage Record - Alaska, Polartank, Solstad, Stigstad and Torvanger [Commodore Vessel] are also listed). No destination is given for Vivi on that occasion, but going back to Page 1, we see that she arrived Curacao on Apr. 16, having sailed from Loch Ewe on March 26. On Apr. 30, she joined Convoy HX 124 from Halifax, and in June she's listed, together with Barbro, Elg, Hardanger, Havsten, Hellen, Ida Knudsen, Solfonn, Torfinn Jarl and Troubdour, in Convoy OB 331, which originated in Liverpool June 8 and dispersed June 19, Vivi arriving Halifax on June 22, proceeding to New Orleans that same day - her voyages in this period are shown on Page 2. In July, she sailed back to the U.K. in Convoy HX 139 (the Commodore's report is also available), and the following month, she's listed as bound for New York with Convoy ON 6, which left Liverpool on Aug. 11-1941 and dispersed on the 24th, Vivi arriving New York Aug. 28. On Sept. 4, she shows up in station 76 of Convoy HX 148 from Halifax. Other Norwegian ships were Ørnefjell (55), James Hawson (83), Grey County (93), Stigstad (64), Idefjord (35), Egda (54), Herbrand (52) and Mirlo (23), as well as the Panamanian Norvinn (Norwegian managers, therefore listed on this website, station 53 - A. Hague has also included Gefion). Early the following month, she joined the westbound Convoy ON 22*, originating in Liverpool Oct. 2, dispersed Oct. 15, Vivi arriving New York Oct. 19. Eglantine is named among the escorts - see ON convoy escorts. She now took on board a cargo for South Africa, then went from there to Abadan, and later made some voyages from the latter port to Suez, India and Australia - again, see Page 2, as well as Page 3. In Dec. 1942, she arrived San Pedro where she underwent an extensive overhaul which took 6 months, meaning she was not ready to go back to sea until June-1943, at which time she started carrying diesel oil and crude oil as well as fuel oil, often short voyages. She had loaded diesel oil in San Pedro for Australia, then went to Abadan where cargo was loaded for Port Said and Alexandria. She subsequently carried crude oil between Tripoli and Haifa (as will be seen on Page 3, she had a long stay in Haifa in the fall of 1943), with an occasional voyage to Port Said and Alexandria with fuel oil (see also Page 4 and Page 5), continuing in this type of service until Aug.-1944, when she was sent to the U.S. for repairs of misc. damages (convoy info in Voyage Record). These repairs may have been done in Baltimore - it'll be noticed, when going back to the archive document, that she had a long stay there in the fall of 1944. Vivi now entered Trans-Antlantic service again for the rest of the war. She joined Convoy HX 316 from New York in Oct.-1944, bound for Belfast and Heysham (Commodore in Abraham Lincoln, Vice Commodore in Brimanger), returning across the Atlantic with Convoy ON 266* (departure Southend Nov. 12, arrival New York Dec. 3; Vivi arrived Philadelphia Dec. 2, having started out from Belfast Lough on Nov. 14). She was scheduled for HX 324 from New York on Dec. 4, but did not sail and was also cancelled from HX 325 and HX 326. She eventually got away with HX 327 on Dec. 19, for which the Norwegian Ivaran served as Commodore Vessel. Vivi arrived Manchester, via Liverpool and Eastham, on Jan. 6-1945 (Page 5). * The ON convoys will be added to individual pages in my Convoys section in due course, along with further details on each. In the meantime, the ships sailing in them (and escorts) are named in the section listing ships in all ON convoys. As will be seen, they all had several Norwegian ships. Vivi had a complement of 40 at the time. Captain Danielsen and Able Seaman Hjalmar Gundersen had gone ashore in a motorboat at 08:45 that morning, just before the alarm was sounded, when the tanker Springhill was seen to be on fire. In a letter from Nortraship, New York to Nortraship, London it was stated that the two ships were about 50-100 meters away from Vivi when the accident happened. An able seaman still on board had seen the collision and realized immediately that the situation was dangerous, so he ran down to his cabin to get his lifevest, but by the time he got back on deck, the fire had already reached Vivi, which was only about 50 yards away from Springhill. Clio had been inward bound in ballast when she ran into the T2 tanker (according to A. Hague, Clio had arrived New York from Puerto la Cruz on Jan. 31, and returned to Puerto la Cruz on Febr. 8). Burning aviation fuel was flung high up in the air and landed all around Vivi, as well as on her deck. Efforts were made to rescue some of Springhill's men who had jumped overboard and were swimming and drifting with the current towards Vivi, but these efforts had to be abandoned when she herself was engulfed in flames. The starboard aft boat and the 2 rafts there were launched, while those amidships could not be reached because of the smoke and flames. 25 men were able to get into the lifeboat, but it was quickly surrounded by the flames and set on fire, so they had to jump overboard and try to save themselves by swimming away as fast as they could. Some were picked up by the U.S Coast Guard's vessels and by tugs which had arrived on the scene, and were as quickly as possible taken to the U.S. Marine Hospital, Staten Island. Meanwhile, Chief Engineer Alfred Toftevaag, the 2nd Engineer and 4 mechanics were in the engine room, with the initial intent of starting the engine to get her out. But when she became surrounded by flames within minutes, and smoke started to fill the room, orders were given to abandon this idea and get off the ship. This proved to be impossible, however, so the chief gave orders for full speed ahead for both engines, and after 10 minutes the air was clear enough that they were able to escape through the emergency exit. Once on deck, Vivi was still seen to be on fire, but she was now out of the area of the burning fuel in the water. Their attempts to extinguish the fire had to be given up because they were unable to get any water flowing through the hose, but at that time fire fighters came alongside, and coast guard vessels took the 4 mechanics on board. The fire was extinguished at 11 o'clock. It so happened that the 6 who had stayed on board until it was too late to leave were, in fact, the ones who not only saved the ship by maneuvering her away from the fire, thereby enabling the coast guard and fire fighters to come alongside, but they were also the ones who had escaped injury altogether, while all those who had managed to get off the ship and into a lifeboat had varying degrees of injuries. The 1st mate and the boatswain had died when they ran to the front of the ship to try to lift anchor. Their bodies were later found together with that of the carpenter, and all 3 were buried in Brooklyn on Febr. 9-1945. Galley Boy Tu Chi Teze. Note that the Memorial for Seamen in Stavern, Norway, which I've linked to below, has added an 8th Norwegian casualty, namely 3rd Mate Peder A. Nilsen. A British gunner, Eric Gardner saved the life of his shipmate, the Norwegian gunner Yngvar Øistein Heier after they had abandoned the burning lifeboat. 2nd Mate at this time was J. Ødegård. In spite of the damages, Vivi's cargo and oil hoses on deck were unharmed, and a couple of days later the diesel oil was discharged. Following the fire, Vivi spent 3 months repairing in New York, and had just taken on a new cargo to continue her service, when word was received that the war had ended in Europe. Her subsequent voyages are shown on Page 5 and Page 6, up to and including Apr.-1946 - again, see also A. Hague's Voyage Record above. Sold in March-1955 for breaking up in the U.K. Stavern Memorial commemorations - 8 Norwegians are commemorated at this memorial for seamen in Stavern, Norway. The names and titles correspond to the ones I've listed above. This website has added 3rd Mate Peder A. Nilsen. I looked him up in "Våre falne", a series of 4 books naming Norwegians who died during the war, but cannot find him. According to this book, Carpenter A. Anundsen is buried at Fresh Pond Crematory. Back to M/T Vivi on the "Ships starting with V" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "19 Oslo-skips historie under verdenskrigen, fra April 1940 til krigens slutt i 1945" (The story of 19 Oslo ships during WW II), Harald Nicolaisen - 1945, and misc. - (ref. My sources).

2019-04-24T04:33:30Z

http://warsailors.com/singleships/vivi.html

TOMunro: Belated Happy Self-Publishing Day to me. On the 11th June 2013 I launched Lady of the Helm, first book in my Bloodline trilogy. In December this was followed by book two, Wrath of the Medusa and in June 2014 I reviewed my first year's experience in a blog post here. I am now a month overdue for a second state of the nation review. So apologies to those who, having made my previous annual review my second most popular blog page, might have expected a more timely follow up. In my defence it has been an eventful year both in my fantasy writing life and the real world life of work at a job that pays the bills and presents its own challenges and opportunities. As you will see, the trilogy was completed in November 2014 when Volume Three "Master of the Planes" hit the kindle shelves, nearly 12 months since Book Two made its debut. My experience of books has been something like my experience of baby daughters, in that they have got bigger as they went on. There is an undeniable satisfaction in having completed the trilogy, bringing the disparate story arcs to a definitive conclusion. While my current work in progress revisits that world and some of its characters in a epilogue that seems set to grow to two books, the story of Niarmit and Maelgrum has been wrestled to its conclusion. It has been nearly two decades since the first germs of the ideas at the heart of Niarmit's tale began to form in my mind as I paced serried rows of desks in exam invigilation. I am still satisfied with my decision to self-publish. A mixture of expediency and control motivated me down that path and the demands and remuneration available through my day job make it unlikely that my writing will graduate from hobby to (main) career anytime soon. Nonetheless, there is still no thrill quite like getting feedback from an excited reader's positive review, or watching spikes in sales and a climbing ranking. Never mind that - tell us about the sales. I have sold more books than many, and a lot less than others. I have, just about earned more money than I have spent but we are talking here about a few meals out not a holiday in the Bahamas still less a new house or car. There is a kind of logarithmic scale to author sales where relative success rates are best compared in powers of ten. Selling 10 times more than one person might make me seem relatively successful, but then I have sold 10s, hundreds, thousands times less than the better sellers. In addition for much of the second year the books have been enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited programme with another 360 "borrows." Given the modest prices, and even more modest royalty returns that I have set, the amount each of these borrows have earned is comparable to what a sale earns, so in my mind I think of them as sales. You will notice the spectacular peak around Christmas 2014 and that since then things have been a little quiet. As a soldier on dawn guard duty in a war film might say, "It's too damn quiet." There is doubtless some seasonality at work and also there is the curve in the life cycle of any book, but at some point I will try to put a little more effort into promotion. There will be those who will find those figures risable, and others who find them enviable, such is the broad logarithmic spectrum of indie book sales. While the books are all now available in hard copy through create space, the figures there are drops in the ocean. Handfuls bought by me for onward distribution, or family, or the occasional devoted reader who hankers for the reality of paper pages. However, I am "in a school library", my youngest daughter having struck up a conversation with the librarian and got a set of my books on a Belfast school shelf. The Changing Landscape of Amazon. I have kept my books not just with Amazon, but in their Kindle Direct Programme. I know others have eschewed the media behemoth and fair play to those pursuing a range of indie paths. Seek out B&N and Kobo and push your books as hard and as wide as you can. For myself though, convenience and expediency rule. I simply have not found the time to pursue those other possibilities. I have still made little use of the KDP offers - kindle countdown deals, or even free book promotions or the amazon adverts. But for the last few months my kindle unlimited borrows - only available through KDP select programme - have been nearly as numerous as the sales so I have been loath to part with them. And now the way borrows are calculated and paid has changed in a way which works particularly to my benefit. You see my books are long, 400, 500 and 725 pages and in the past borrows of my books were getting the same (slightly variable) flat rate of just over $1 as short 38 page pamphlets were getting. But now Amazon will pay by the page read and even if it is only 1/2 a cent a page I'll be paid between $2 and $3.13 for a read of my books, which is more than I get by selling them. So Jeff Bezos has lured me in for a few more months at least. Every time a reader says "I don't believe in reviews" somewhere a self-published author dies. Well, o.k. I exaggerate. But it is hard to underestimate how in their solitary toil an author can crave the feedback, the endorsement, the validation even, of a review. Especially we love to see if the effects we sought to create did have the impact we hoped on our readers. It is always a delight to interact with a vibrant online community of authors and readers. In particular it was a privilege to get invited as a judge in another short story competition. "The Liar's Key" flash fiction competition run on the ThatThornGuy.com website. Seeing great writing, exchanging views with great authors, and finding a huge convergence of opinion about what constituted a real quality effort was fascinating. It was also great to have the chance to put my own book forward for Mark Lawrence's self-published fantasy blog-off with over 250 titles submitted to ten busy fantasy bloggers in a bid to unearth a potential gem. It is a long task for those ten volunteers, and I speak as one who is way off track for my personal target to read 42 books in a whole year. I am curious as to how it turns out for Lady of the Helm, but I know my book is not to everyone's tastes. I am just glad it has fascinated as many people as it has. The Lows - Hard Lessons. Alongside the general positivity, less favourable reviews can hurt. To return to my earlier analogy, an author's books are like our children. Sure we know they have imperfections. Those flaws which we are, if not wilfully blind to, at least minded to overlook. Having them thrown into harsh relief by an unfavourable review, either pithy in its disparagement, or surgically detailed in its criticism is like being told "Jeez, but your kid's ugly." Nonetheless they are instructive. Even in the negative reviews I still recognise the book they are describing, it is simply that the reviewers attach a different weight to certain features in building their overall impression of the book. For some the tropes were too familiar, the variations insufficiently distinctive. This may have been more an issue for those voracious consumers of large volumes of fantasy for whom a certain trope ennui is understandable. I might be disappointed that they did not see the twists in the same way that others did, but no book works for everyone. This trilogy's genesis lay in my own desire to develop and tell a story on a traditional epic fantasy scale. That won't be to every reader's taste, nor will it describe every book I write, as my sources of inspiration change. Reader and author must I guess merely accept that and move on. For another the dispensability of apparently main characters was too bleak. While some reviewers made complimentary references to a GRRM like ruthlessness, one other stopped reading in belief that there was too little hope of a happy ending. That's partly how the story had to be set up from the start and - like a medieval parent in an age of high infant mortality - it is unwise for the reader of this trilogy to form deep attachments to characters too early in the scheme of things. It is not that I am averse to (some) characters enjoying a (sort of) happy ending. It's just that a story should change a character, otherwise what's the point. Even Frodo did not escape the war of the ring unscathed. At the Grim Gathering in Bristol, Joe Abercrombie was asked if he ever felt so engaged with one of his characters that he changed his story to spare them from a planned fate. His reply was illuminating, to the effect that his characters were simply the tools with which he tormented his readers. Their purpose was to evince a reaction in the reader, their long planned fate, simply an opportunity for Joe to fetch a fresh and exciting tool from his box of characters. "The characters are well developed and serve their time well until their usefulness to the plot expires – at which point they tend to follow suit." There are a few characters who owe their survival to the intervention of my youngest daughter and beta reader who refused to let me kill them off as I read the developing work to her at bedtime. To be fair, their survival certainly enabled me to enrich later parts of the story. I read a fellow self-published author's work a while back and met that same disconcerting effect of a character in whom the author and reader had invested time and effort suddenly dying - and indeed doing so off stage. That and those reviews have minded me to be a little less cavalier with my own darlings. After all, death is not the only peril a character can face, mere survival is not the only challenge. I've got a long way into my current work in progress without having to kill anyone off - however I'm sure it won't last. There were always going to be multiple points of view. I originally conceived of the book in vaguely cinematic terms with parallel storylines portrayed through flip-flopping scenes showing a sequence of events occurring simultaneously for different characters. It's a motif that I stuck with through the trilogy, but I must admit when I was looking at a print run proof copy and seeing some scenes that are less than a page long I did think, "Maybe that's a bit too choppy and changy." I mean as the author I always knew what was going on and could see the logic in the juxtaposition of scenes. But then I'm writing for the reader not for me. So the scenes did get longer as the trilogy went on, and in my work in progress several of them are almost long enough to be called chapters, while I have limited myself to three major and one minor PoV characters. This was partly in the (so far vain) hope that this would keep the word count at the lower end of the epic scale. I was a year and a half into my self-published adventure before any review mentioned poor quality of editing as an issue and then two did in quick succession and it stung. In particular the question being raised as to whether there had been any editing at all. Now, my books were not perfect, but certainly they were repeatedly subjected to self-editing. I figured, English is my native language, my colleagues at work think I'm a fairly literate fellow, I write reports and letters and manage to avoid offending with any grammatical faux pas. Sure I can manage this. And I did check and re-check, so the suggestion that there had been no effort at all at editing was right up there with the "Your child's pig ugly" comment on the hurt scale. For most readers the editing was not an issue, but when mistakes are pointed out you do start to think "Oh crap!" and hang your head a little. We're talking here about the odd typo. There was the occasional name misspelled or in one mortifying case, not changed from an earlier completely different iteration of the story when Odestus was called Olwen. There was also a particular grammatical issue over capitalisation within quote marks. I've seen a lot worse edited self-published books and I've seen similar errors in some traditionally published books - just fewer of them. But the fact of the matter is that you do need a second pair of eyes, and ideally a trained pair to take a look at it. And those people who notice these things, really notice these things. Given the margins and sale volumes that most self published books work on, professional editing will wipe out whatever potential profit margin exists for many of those books. However, I am keen to explore what difference it can make, so my next book will get a professional edit - I'll call it an investment in my hobby. In the meantime, the joy of e-books and createspace print on demand publishing is that necessary corrections can be made and can go live instantly. The story changed and developed over many years. It is hard to think back and recall when certain points of the story got pinned down. Quintala the half-elf lady was originally Quintor the half-elf man. I really can't remember when I decided who was sharing Bishop Udecht's bed, but it must have been early on. I knew some key plot devices like how the great weapon worked very early on, but I still had no idea how that would help defeat the Dark Lord. The throwaway character in a single scene in book two suddenly became a pivotal player in book three, to the point that I was somewhat embarrassed his name was so similar to well known grimdark icon and tried to disguise the similarity with a nickname. But I suppose the biggest surprise is how far the readers warmed to Dema, the Medusa. Even the critics thought her the most intriguing person in the story. Much as I liked writing her, I never thought she would be the trilogy's unique selling point. But then again, how many other fantasy epics can boast a medusa! Thanks for the thoughtful report on your experience with self-publishing. I'm always curious to see what other people have done, and how their books fared. I think you were reasonably successful. As a self-publisher, one of the biggest issues confronting me is whether to hire professionals to do the editing, cover design, and typesetting. These things are fairly expensive and, as you point out, would take the profits, and more. Therein lies the conundrum. When we self-publish, we become not only writers, but also publishers. Publishers have editors, cover designers, and typesetters. To some extent, they have marketing and publicity people. All professionals in their trade. Editors have (hopefully) studied in great depth where the commas go, how a sentence is structured, and how a story is constructed. Cover designers (hopefully) have studied art and design. Even if you assume that most self-published authors can write at a professional level (which they can’t), they certainly cannot design a cover or edit a book at a professional level. For us as self-published authors to do this work ourselves is analogous to someone with no musical training reading a book on how to play the piano, and then going on stage to give a concert. The result would be the musical equivalent of what self-publishing is today: largely a bunch of amateurs pumping out sub-par work and producing it in sub-par form. In your case, I’ll start by saying that your covers are quite good, and you have a common brand design. I do not read the type of book you write, but I looked at the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon. You would definitely benefit from the services of a line editor. One thing that stuck out to me was your use of two spaces after a period. That’s not the standard anymore in typing, and you never saw it in books. There were, on the first page, places where commas were missing, and words should have been hyphenated. I don’t fault you as a writer, because these things are sometimes not obvious. That’s where an editor comes in. I looked at the print version of one of your books. It appears to have been set in a sans serif font. You will not find a professionally published book in such a font. It’s also not properly typeset. For example, there are large spaces between words due to forcing full justification. These things may sound petty and nit-picky, but that’s what doing professional work is all about. The point is not to criticize you. You have worked hard and made a meaningful contribution to the world. The point is that to be both writers and publishers, we need to hold ourselves to a high standard. If a writer can’t afford an editor, typesetter, and cover designer, then the writer must master the basic principles of these things. There are articles all over the internet on the principles of typesetting a book, for example. Which fonts to use, and which not to use. The same is true of cover design and editing. Self-publishing will never shed its stigma of poor quality and amateurish writing, because that’s what it fosters, and that’s largely what it is. But for those of us like you and me, we can establish the exception. For an example of what a self-published book can be, take a look at “The Gondola Maker,” by Laura Morelli. Professional cover design, professionally edited, and professionally typeset. That is an awesome, detailed analysis. I'm sure my graph mirrors yours since I started self-publishing two and a half years ago. I didn't start using the KDP Select though, and only on certain books, until late in 2014 when I saw my sales going to crap...not much relief with that, and now with the newest royalty calculation, I've gone out of KDP Select.

2019-04-22T02:12:32Z

http://tomunro.blogspot.com/2015/07/belated-happy-sp-day-to-me.html

Discussion in 'Support' started by helenr1981, Feb 2, 2016. Hi all! I first noticed my PT when I was about 6 months pregnant with my LG back in 2012 (I didn't know it was pulsatile then, just referred to it as tinnitus). From a bit research I found it can happen during pregnancy so didn't mention it to the doc and tried to grin and bear it hoping it would stop after childbirth - it didn't. Also at that time I didn't know I had a thyroid issue either. So as times goes by I start piecing together symptoms that make me go to get my thyroid checked in 2014, it came back high TSH 7.05 and within range T3 making it borderline underactive and I was started on 50mcg of levothyroxine to be reviewed 12 months later. Up until this point the PT wasn't overly bad, sometimes it was more noticable than others, but the levo really helped with it, and the other symptoms too (tiredness, coldness, weight issues, headaches, weakness, hair loss etc), though around 9 months in the symptoms gradually got worse again, the PT starting raging on, and considering one of the symptoms is tiredness, to then go to bed and not be able to sleep because of it is massively frustrating! I have to sleep on my back, head tilted left with the pillow wedged onto my pulse to make it quiet enough to sleep, if I moved it was game over! It was thyroid blood test time and it came back even higher TSH at 8.18 (I was so excited this would mean more levo!). Between getting results and having a telephone appointment with the doctor I upped my dose to 100mcg and by the second day I couldn't hear a thing, bliss! Gutted when the doc said they'd change my dose to 75mcg and review it in 8 weeks. I did as I was told and took the 75 and the PT was there religously whooshing round my left side every night - to the point I dreaded bedtime! They've just done my bloods again last week, between giving the sample and speaking to the doctor this morning I upped it to 100mcg again (and had 2 nights of blissful silence!). I spoke to the doc earlier and they've come back TSH 2.03 which is in "normal" TSH range, so haven't bothered checking my T3! I got quite upset and told them I wanted to trial 100mcg as the PT was becoming unbearable, I hear it through the day if its quiet but night time is so bad! She agreed to let me stay on 100mcg for 4 weeks then do bloods again, she said "I don't see why it would be making a difference though?", told her I'd done a little research and PT can be linked to thyroid disfunction, which she wasn't sold on, but I KNOW it is and so pleased she's upping my dose, and I will ask that all blood levels are checked next time, not just TSH. So I was wondering, does anyone else link their PT to thyroid problems, and has it been relieved with meds? I had a quick look for hypothyroidism and PT threads but couldn't see any, hope this is alright to post. Thanks. I have a mild case of hypothyroidism and switch between 12.5 and 25mcg levothyroxine depending on how my TSH is. Never made a difference for me, as far as t is concerned. I've even gone up to 200mcg out of curiosity, no change. You're the first person I've ever come across that can control tinnitus using thyroid hormone. I have both PT and hypothyroidism. I've been on the same dosage for many years -- 100 mcg. My PT started five years ago after I took a blood pressure drug for the first time. I'm off that drug (and all blood pressure drugs) now, but my PT remains. I believe there is a link, too, between hypothyroidism and PT, but cannot prove it. I'd be interested to hear from other people with both PT and hypothyroidism, to see if they think there is a connection. Sorry to read that your troubles PT. I have it too. It's a terrible thing. One bad overly exhausting day, and it seems to just get worse, for days. I really need the sleep, well. Helps my energy level. I also have thyroid problems, -too much. I've read about the connections. My Doctor is the same, just the TSH level check. She thinks if that’s ok, that’s all that matters, any other T level must be ok. Every so often, I get on the TSH level issue, thinking the meds are off. Email the Doctor, get another blood test. Skip some med days, mines too low TSH level. I have not been able to connect the meds or my THS level with my PT. Hi Karen, thanks for your reply - have you asked your doctor to up your thyroid meds to see if it helps, or in my case I just did it myself as an experiment as upping it to 75mcg helped reduce it during the night, but not when first going to bed, maybe I got lucky! I would definitely ask the doctor if you can trial a higher dose, if it makes no difference drop back again. Hi James, oh I totally get where you're coming from, when you need the sleep the most the PT seems to rage on! If I were you I'd be asking for a referral to a specialist, as theres a multitude of causes and I don't think GP doctors necessarily have the information they should to help, TSH alone isn't always the reading needed but they think it's suffice. As it is having an effect on your life I would definitely be kicking up a bit of a fuss with the doc! Really hope you both progress with your PT, and get the blissful inner silence! For me, the link between thyroid problems and tinnitus is absolutely beyond question. More specifically, between taking levothyroxine and developing tinnitus - for me, that was the trigger to developing it. Do you have ringing tinnitus or pulsatile tinnitus as a result of taking levothyroxine? I have both: A high-pitched hissing tinnitus, and pulsatile tinnitus. I had the regular tinnitus for many years, as a result of loud sound. However, my tinnitus worsened, and I also began having the pulsating, after taking a blood pressure drug. After that, my doctor thought cutting back on my thyroid medicine might help, so she cut me back from 125 mcg to 100 mcg. I am still taking the same dosage, almost six years later. I still have both types of tinnitus in my right ear only. I'd be interested to hear more about how yours developed. Sorry if this gets a bit long, but it isn't easy to answer in a short sentence. Mine was a rare allergic reaction to Levothyroxine. I had all manner of symptoms from it before tinnitus developed and was in and out of hospital for months for other inflammatory conditions, ranging from skin rashes at the mild end, through to appalling allergic reactions that would make my nose stream for hours, to facial, throat and jaw pain and even the lining of my mouth pealing away leaving open sores - there were more, but you get the idea. I was prodded and probed for everything and I kept asking if it could be the Levothyroxine, but was repeatedly told no, even though all of these symptoms started around 1 month after starting treatment. Eventually, I told the doctors that I believed it to be the Levothyroxine and against their judgment, went for private treatment to receive something called NDT (it is thyroid hormones that has been extracted from pigs, rather than synthetic) - it is not licensed in the UK. The endocrinologist I saw was aware of many of the issues that some people suffer, although he acknowledged that the severity of my problems was at the extreme end of the scale. 24 hours after I changed drug, for the first 3 days, my hearing was completely normal, my skin started to feel less sore and I thought "wow, why didn't I just stop taking this crap sooner?", but then, all hell broke loose and I had screaming, jet engine noises etc and I thought I was going to lose my hearing - I was terrified. Out of fear, after 3 more days of screaming in my head, I took a Levothyroxine tablet to see what happened and within 24 hours, the tinnitus was back to its previous level and I took it for a couple more days, but other issues returned. I tried this cycle several times, until eventually, I could see such a repeatable link between the two. I went to see an ENT about this and was given absolutely nothing and despite the evidence, told it was unrelated. Realising that there was no hope from the medical profession, I just went for it on my own. 3 months of absolute misery followed. I stopped sleeping and instead used to pass out once every 3-4 days through exhaustion. Over time, this started to improve - albeit slowly - until eventually I find myself where I am today. I still have hearing issues and flare ups and have moments of weakness where I find myself really depressed and low about it, but no-where near where I used to be. I no longer have any of the other inflammatory conditions outside of my nose and sinuses, they have all gone and after suffering with them for the 2 years solidly that I was taking Levothyroxine, there is a very clear link. Some doctors I have seen accept it, but others still refute the connection - amazing when I was suffering from 15, known, albeit rare, side effects (something that I was not aware of at the time). I still have a lot of congestion around my head as a result of the severe allergies and get flare ups in my sinuses and nasal passages which in turn result in worsening of tinnitus whilst they are present. My audiologist agrees that it is an unusual case and may have even offered some useful information about tinnitus in general if regular scans and tests had been taken from the start to try and understand the processes occurring in its development and healing. Although she considers it too late for much , she has written to and recommended that the local eNT department shows a bit more interest, so I have another appointment in 4 weeks (it should have been 2 weeks but they moved it - you couldn't make this stuff up). Has an ENT had a look up your nose or taken any sort of X-rays or scans? If not, they can honestly tell almost nothing by looking in your ears. There are so many problems linked with hearing that are utterly invisible by looking in the ear. Unless through noise induced hearing loss, hearing tests are useless for tinnitus and even then, don't always reveal very much - loads of people with apparently good hearing have tinnitus. Unless a middle ear infection is present, or lots of fluid build up, looking in the ears is useless. There are lots of middle ear problems that don't show up from looking in the ear. I can of course give you no indication as to whether or not it will go, but it might. I know you are in the early stages of it and at the moment and you're looking from reassurance from people further down the road, so hopefully the amount of information I have shared with you shows that it can improve. I promise that I am not embellishing how bad mine was at the start, it really was unbelievably loud, but now, when it goes for a while, it genuinely is gone, it isn't that background noises are masking it. I remain hopeful that I will be someone writing my own success story on here in a few months time. It took over a year of taking Levothyroxine for tinnitus to develop, so at the very least I believe it will take a full year after stopping for it to resolve. That take me to mid-June this year. Even then though, the total time I took it for was 2 years and 2 months, so it would not be wholly unreasonable for it to take that long for everything to return to normal. One last thing to share with you over my case that I have not made clear is that some of the noises I hear are concentrated seemingly in the ear, whilst others appear to be somewhere centrally in my head. At ties, neither are present and at others both, or one or the other. I believe the central ones to relate to a slightly different mechanism from Levothyroxine than those in the ear. The ear tinnitus first appeared in my left ear and it was there for 4 months before transitioning to my right ear. Other than the odd tinkle that appears now and again, the left ear has remained free from tinnitus for a year now. What caused the transition is anyone's guess, but if it can go from one ear, surely it can go from the other. Finally - and I promise this is it, I must admit, a lot of the advice I have read doesn't really apply to me. Food stuffs make no difference to me. I can eat and drink what I like and it makes no difference - with the exception of alcohol, but then alcohol does dry out the nasal membranes and I feel bunged up and whenever this happens the ringing in my ear is worse so it isn't surprising that it has some effect on me. Being stressed or tired doesn't make mine worse - in fact, I have been at my absolute wits end about it and wanted to scream and suddenly, it just fades away to nothing. What I would say though, is eat well and look after yourself. Not because it is going to have any profound affect on improving your hearing, but it will put you in a better position to cope with it when it is bothering you. For me, the emotional response to tinnitus can be worse than the tinnitus itself. Again, apologies that it is such a long reply, but you did ask . Thanks for sharing your experiences, and the story. I am a Levothyroxine user. I have to take it, to maintain ballpark thyroid levels. I will follow your link, see what it says. Thanks for telling us your story! I'm so sorry you had all those problems from the levothyroxine. It just goes to show you how drugs can affect each individual differently. I'm very lucky, I guess. I don't have any of the side effects mentioned in the WebMD article, except the hair loss. That is just an ongoing side effect that those of us with a thyroid condition must deal with. Like James, I am a life-long user of thyroid medicine, because my thyroid symptoms are too severe to do without it. James and I both suffer from pulsatile tinnitus. Is it related to the thyroid meds? Hard to say. In my case, I didn't have any major problems with my mild tinnitus until I took a blood pressure drug for the first time. Who knows? It could be that the combination of the blood pressure drug and the thyroid drug were too much for me. Now, I have both severe tinnitus and pulsatile tinnitus in my right ear only. Again, thanks for your story, and I hope your tinnitus continues to improve. I would never suggest anyone messes about with their medication, but you could discuss NDT with your doctor, to see if it helps with the tinnitus. I have spoken to a few people that didn't develop tinnitus until after taking Levo. Difficult to say in their cases whether or not it was the Levo, or thyroid problems that caused it though (or neither), as they weren't so obvious as mine during onset. I see you are both located in the US. It is actually far easier to get NDT over there than here in the UK. My GP refuses to prescribe it as the local health authority will not cover them for insurance, so they are personally liable in the event of any issues, so the prescribing doctor has to have there own insurance - or one can import it. Yes, you're right, Owen, I do think it's easier to get natural thyroid hormone prescribed here in the U.S. I haven't talked with my current doctor about it yet, because I'm almost a little bit afraid of the side effects of switching to something else. The last time I tried to switch to anything else (a generic), I ended up feeling very dizzy for at least a week. I'm not sure I could handle that, on top of tinnitus and pulsatile tinnitus, too. I'm in my late 60's, and it's a lot harder to take anything new when you're older. So, that's why I'm still on Synthroid. I do hope yours continues to improve. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us! It's good to hear from others who are experiencing similar conditions. Hi Helenr1981,I think my PT started because of my Hypothyroidism. About 10 days after it started I found out my thyroid was way off its number. I don't remember what it was. They put me on 200 mug from a 175 mcg. It didn't affect the PT. just had new blood work done and thyroid is now a little over so I'm back on 175 mcg. I told doc I think thyroid was why I got PT he said no it's not. I've had an brain MRI and a ultrasound of neck and all were negative. I asked if there were any other tests I could have done for blockages else where in body and he said no. He wasn't my regular Doctor just saw him because my doctor was out. I'm so upset as to how he just didn't seem to care. Long story,sorry just wanted to say thyroid meds never did anything to make PT better. There are other tests that you can undergo if you are concerned that there is a blockage of some sort, such as a CT scan or even an angiogram. However (I think you're like me on this), I'm not sure there is a reason to keep on having tests. I'm pretty sure my PT was caused by a reaction to a blood pressure drug, which may not have agreed with me because I am hypothyroid. I hope you're doing well these days, and that the PT has not gotten any worse for you. Could Antidepressants or Hypothyroidism Have Caused My Tinnitus?

2019-04-26T15:40:33Z

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hypothyroidism-and-pulsatile-tinnitus.13338/

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The Client will comply with the regulations of the service and will immediately return to ExVeritas ApS any certificate which is revoked under the terms of this procedure and the Certification Agreement and will amend all documentation so as not to imply that the certificate still exists. Clients must maintain certification, technical files, Declaration of Conformity and any Quality Assurance Notifications for period of 10 years after the last piece of equipment is manufactured. Where work is carried out On-site the Client will afford safe and unrestricted access by ExVeritas ApS staff to the plant and will provide appropriate protective equipment and instructions and comply with all health and safety and similar legislation for the protection of ExVeritas ApS staff. If the client provides copies of the certification documents to others, the documents shall be reproduced in their entirety or as specified in the certification scheme; – this is documented on the certificates issued to the client. The client shall always fulfil the certification requirements, including implementing appropriate changes when they are communicated by ExVeritas ApS – by signing the application form, the client agrees to ExVeritas ApS Terms and Conditions which include the necessity for the client to make changes as instructed, either to correct errors or to facilitate updates and failure to do so in a timely manner will result in ExVeritas ApS initiating the certification withdrawal process. If the certification applies to ongoing production, the certified product shall continue to fulfil the product requirements; – type approval certificates are not based on ongoing production surveillance, therefore this clause do not apply to type approval certificates, it may however apply to Quality Module surveillance audits where deviations in product from the original certification may lead to initiation of the certificate withdrawal process. The client makes all necessary arrangements for the conduct of the evaluation and surveillance (if required), including provision for examining documentation and records, and access to the relevant equipment, location(s), area(s), personnel, and client’s subcontractors; – this is only applicable to Quality Module certification and surveillance audits, where access is required to these arrangements and part of the audit planning process. Complaints can be lodged via the ExVeritas website with full instructions available. Client shall allow the participation of observers, if applicable; – this only applies to Quality Module certification and surveillance audits and/or accrediting bodies witnessing activities. Upon suspension, withdrawal, or termination of certification, the client discontinues its use of all advertising matter that contains any reference thereto and takes action as required by the certification scheme (e.g. the return of certification documents) and takes any other required measure. In referring to its product certification in communication media such as documents, brochures or advertising, the client complies with the requirements of the certification body or as specified by the certification scheme; – this is covered by the Terms and Conditions as a Certification Body, ExVeritas ApS may perform random audits and will investigate misuse. The client complies with any requirements that may be prescribed in the certification scheme relating to the use of marks of conformity, and on information related to the product; – no marks of conformity, the certification label is used and controlled by schedule drawings of which is monitored through Quality Module audits. The client keeps a record of all complaints made known to it relating to compliance with certification requirements and makes these records available to ExVeritas ApS when requested and takes appropriate action with respect to such complaints and any deficiencies found in products that affect compliance with the requirements for certification; – this relates to the Quality Module audits. The client shall document the actions taken; – this relates to the Quality Module audits. The client informs ExVeritas ApS, without delay, of changes that may affect its ability to conform with the certification requirements. – this is a key requirement of the Quality standard ISO 80079-34:2011, to which the client’s quality system is certified. ExVeritas ApS warrants that all Service provided under this procedure will he carried out using reasonable skill and care, as laid down by National and International Standards and Accreditation organizations in default of which ExVeritas ApS will re-perform such Service at its own cost. ExVeritas ApS will not accept responsibility for any claims made for any loss, consequential or otherwise, expense or damage arising out of Service performed unless ExVeritas ApS is proved by law to have been negligent. ExVeritas ApS liability under this clause shall be in lieu of any warranty or condition implied by law as to quality or fitness for any particular purpose and to the extent permissible by law all other warranties or conditions expressed or implied by statute or otherwise are excluded. The remedies provided herein shall be the client’s sole and exclusive remedies. Unless expressly agreed ExVeritas ApS will not be liable for performance delays or for non-performance due to causes beyond its reasonable control. Nothing in this procedure and/or the Certification Agreement may be taken as any warranty to issue a certificate. The provision of a test report or certificate of conformance in no way infers an approval of the product by ExVeritas ApS. Except as provided in the Certification Agreement ExVeritas ApS shall not be liable to the Client for any direct losses: or indirect, special or consequential losses including but not limited to loss of anticipated profits, data, business, revenue, goodwill, or anticipated savings howsoever based. ExVeritas ApS accepts no liability for any work done or expenditure incurred by the Client in anticipation of the issue of a report or certificate, whether based on opinions expressed by ExVeritas ApS or not. No government procurement regulations or Certification Agreement clauses are binding on either party unless required by law or mutually agreed. Notwithstanding the above ExVeritas ApS total liability under the Certification Agreement (arising from Agreement, negligence or howsoever) for any one event or series of events shall not exceed the fee earned by ExVeritas ApS under the Certification Agreement. The Client hereby agrees to indemnify ExVeritas ApS, its employees, agents and subcontractors against all damages, losses, liabilities, actions, claims, expenses and costs whatsoever in respect of any claim that may be made against ExVeritas ApS, its employees, agents or subcontractors by any third party that may arise out of the provision of the Service or the clients failure to perform its obligations hereunder. This indemnity will survive the termination of the Certification Agreement. Any delivery date or period referred to in the Quotation, or in subsequent agreements, is an estimate only and such dates or periods shall in no circumstances be construed as being of the essence of the Certification Agreement. ExVeritas ApS accepts responsibility for normal safeguarding of the client’s property whilst on ExVeritas ApS premises. It does not accept and is indemnified by the Client, against any risk in the service performed or which cannot he reasonably foreseen, or those resulting from inaccurate or inadequate specification of the equipment provided by the client or from defective condition of the equipment, provided by the client. Any disputes arising in connection with the Certification Agreement will be governed by the laws of Denmark. The parties agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the Courts of Denmark. If at any time any question, dispute, or difference shall arise between ExVeritas ApS and the Client in connection with these terms and conditions either may request that it should be referred to the arbitration of a person to be mutually agreed upon, or failing agreement, of some person appointed by the Danish Institute of Arbitration. In the case of certification, the appeals procedure laid down in the regulations shall apply in place of the above. Any term of the Certification Agreement which is held to be invalid will be deleted but the remainder of these terms will not be affected. Neither party may assign any rights or obligations under the Certification Agreement without prior written consent of the other party. The Certification Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between ExVeritas ApS and the Client relating to transactions hereunder and supersedes any previous communications representations or additional or different terms and conditions. The client’s additional or different terms and conditions will not apply. The client’s delivery of equipment or acceptance of commencement of service will constitute acceptance of these terms and conditions which may not be changed except by a written amendment signed by an authorized representative. All work is undertaken in accordance with the requirements for certificate holders as dictated by the in the ExVeritas ApS Quality Manual. In the event that the equipment is shown not to comply with the relevant standard, the Client will be informed and given opportunity to rectify the failing, within 90 days. Equipment requiring certification may be subject to destructive tests. Samples will be disposed of by ExVeritas ApS or returned to the Client at the Client’s cost. There is no liability on ExVeritas ApS to recompense for repair or refund. Where the testing and assessment process is interrupted by redesign of the product or delays on the part of the Client, ExVeritas ApS will use its best endeavors to maintain the progress of the project. However, due to other loading pressure on the resources it may not be possible to recommence work on a project immediately it becomes available. ExVeritas ApS accepts no liability for such delays in recommencing the project. Products are tested in the manner prescribed by the appropriate Standard and information provided by the Client. Specific tests may be omitted, or alternative tests conducted at the discretion of the Test Engineer when a suitable Engineering judgement can be made. Tests are conducted under suitable laboratory conditions using suitably calibrated equipment; however, the repeatability of the test is not specified unless requested. Results of tests are for the specific equipment tested on the day. Test results in no way infer that all subsequent equipment will produce identical results. ExVeritas ApS operates internationally and provides certification of products. ExVeritas ApS is accredited for this activity by the Danish Accreditation Service (DANAK) and is appointed as a ‘notified body’ by the Danish Government under European Directives. The policy of ExVeritas ApS is to provide, in the most cost-effective manner, independent and impartial certification and inspection services, which combine technical competence with objectivity and integrity. The Service is non-discriminatory in operation, with no undue financial or other conditions, and is available to all. It is the policy of the Service to achieve and maintain recognized accreditation for its activities in order to demonstrate its commitment to providing an efficient, commercially aware, competent service. A description of our audit and certification process for granting, maintaining, extending, renewing, reducing, or withdrawing certification is provided on request in the procedure QP-CB-DK-004 – IECEx and ATEX Certification Conditions and supplementary regulations. Activities carried out for clients shall be treated as confidential to that client unless otherwise agreed. Information supplied by clients, the results and documents generated by the certification service and its subcontractors, the contract records that are retained, and the existence of the contract itself (other than any certificates issued) are all treated as “commercial in confidence” and will not be communicated to any third party without written agreement, unless the information is already in the public domain. Where the law requires information to be disclosed to a third party, the client will be informed of the information disclosed. ExVeritas ApS has appointed independent impartiality committees whose primary role is to safeguard impartiality of the certification activities of ExVeritas ApS. The members of the Impartiality Committees are drawn from external organizations having a bona fide and continuing interest in the scope of the certification services provided by ExVeritas ApS, on the basis of maintaining a balanced representation of interests in which no single interest predominates. ExVeritas ApS makes publicly accessible information about the certification status of each of its clients through the Certificate Database which is available on request. This shows whether a certificate is current, suspended or has been withdrawn. Full or partial, temporary suspension or permanent withdrawal of certificates is undertaken in exceptional circumstances and on a case by case basis. Failure to resolve issues that have resulted in the suspension in a time established by ExVeritas ApS may result in withdrawal or reduction in the scope of certification. ExVeritas ApS has a procedure for the considering appeals against its decisions relative to certification. A customer wishing to appeal should submit the substance of their appeal in writing to the Managing Director who will ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to resolve the issue and will ensure that there are no relationships that may compromise the impartiality of the appeal. If, after implementation of what is considered to be all reasonable steps, the problem is not resolved, the Managing Director will forward the documentation to the Chairman of the Impartiality Committee for independent adjudication. ExVeritas ApS takes complaints against itself and its clients seriously. Complaints about ExVeritas ApS are normally submitted in writing. All complaints will be logged and given a unique reference number. The complainant shall always receive a written reply to any written complaint. Complaints about a registered client should also be submitted in writing. For this reason, shown below, these complaints may take longer to fully resolve. We will have to confirmed that the client is registered by ExVeritas ApS, and ensure that they are taking appropriate action, and if required confirm compliance during a subsequent audit of the client. 3.1 When ExVeritas provides a quotation or estimate or accepts an order for work leading to the issue of a Certificate (or similar document), this should not be taken to imply that we will issue such a certificate. A certificate (or similar document) can only be issued once the appropriate evidence has been assembled and, in some cases, once the appropriate arrangements have been made to cover the production phase. 3.2 Unless subsequently clarified, work will be carried out in accordance with the standards specified at the time of application, quotation or order. 3.3 The Client is responsible for making all necessary arrangements for the conduct of the evaluation, including provision for examining documentation and access to all areas, records (including internal audit reports) and personnel for the purposes of evaluation (e.g. testing, inspection, assessment, surveillance, reassessment) and resolution of complaints. 3.4 Compliance Certificates are issued in the name of the “Certificate Holder”. This will normally be the manufacturer and in any event will be the body responsible for controlling the design. Where the manufacturer does not control the design and does not have the certificate issued in their name, special provisions will apply. The relationship between designer and manufacturer must be made clear. 3.5 A Certificate Holder may apply to have documentation issued in the name of a Trade Agent only if approved and registered with ExVeritas. 3.6 Copies of certificates and their schedules shall be made available by the manufacturer on request, to all purchasers of certified equipment. 3.7 Where certification documents contain “Special Conditions for Safe Use”, normally identified by a suffix “X” to the certificate number, all such specific information must be made available to purchasers of the equipment. 3.8 Clients must not make claims regarding certification except within the scope for which the certification has been granted. 3.9 Clients must not use their product certification in such a way as to bring ExVeritas into disrepute and must not make any statement regarding its product certification which ExVeritas may consider misleading or unauthorized. 3.11 ExVeritas may withdraw a certificate if the manufacturer fails to abide by these terms and conditions. 3.12 ExVeritas may withdraw a certificate if the certificate includes provision for the use of a production mark and the conditions applicable to the use of the production mark are no longer being met. 3.13 On suspension or withdrawal of a certificate, the client must discontinue use of advertising material that contains reference to the certification and return any certification documents as required by ExVeritas. The client must also ensure that no misleading statements are made regarding the status of the certification. 3.15 In making reference to its product certification, in communication media such as documents, brochures or advertising, suppliers must comply with these conditions and the ExVeritas Standard Terms and Conditions. 3.16 The Client must notify ExVeritas of any proposed changes to the product, or to aspects of its production, test, inspection, quality system or other factors that are regulated by the QMS Certification to provide control of production. 3.17 The Client must retain the certificate and associated documents for future reference and, where relevant, for inspection by ExVeritas or any other body responsible for supervision of production. The ATEX Directive places a legal requirement on the manufacturer to retain these documents for a stated period of ten years after the last production. 3.18 ExVeritas will retain copies of the documents as a “Technical File” for a defined period in accordance with our service for retention and storage of technical files. 3.19 ExVeritas Certificates bearing the DANAK logo indicates that the certification has been done in accordance with the accreditation of ExVeritas by DANAK. It should not be construed that the product, system or device to which that certificate relates has been approved by DANAK. 3.20 ExVeritas’s acceptance of a drawing showing marking detail which includes the European Community CE Marking should not be construed as confirmation that ExVeritas has given permission for the CE Marking to be applied to any particular item of equipment. Applying the CE Marking remains the responsibility of the manufacturer in accordance with the appropriate EU legislation. 3.21 ExVeritas accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of provisional information relating to the proposed content of certificates, which may be exchanged between ExVeritas and the client prior to the formal issue of a certificate. 3.22 Complaints and Appeals can be made to Exveritas by following this process or directly to the relevant scheme/body i.e. DANAK. 3.23 Certificate number/s and coding provided for the generation of marking drawings during the course of a project are subject to change. The release of this information does not indicate that the equipment has achieved Certification. ExVeritas accepts no responsibility for any costs incurred due to changes made prior to issue of the final hard copy certificate. Updated section 2.4 to include ExVeritas ApS explanation of meeting applicable requirements of ISO/IEC 17065 clause 4.1.2.2. Revised to avoid wrong references. Repeated sections removed. ExVeritas obligations removed from 2.4 Clients responsibilities. ExVeritas obligations corrected. Section 2.8.1 corrected.

2019-04-24T03:10:03Z

https://www.exveritas.com/standard-terms-for-exveritas-aps/

This entry was posted on January 10, 2015 at 9:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. Arrived here a few weeks ago armed with pain killers, antiinflammatories, ibruprofen creams and so on. Yep, I’m a hypochondriac. And I’ve met a number of people dealing with the consequences of chikunchunga. I’m now down to my last packet and tube having given that which I thought would help to those I have met and those I know. Absolutely nothing and if you are on minimum wage less than nothing. My simple over the counter medicines have brought a LOT of relief very quickly to a number of people in pain. Pain and discomfort that has lingered unnecessarily for months. The situation her is deteriorating by the day. I used to think a bunch of idiotic left wing/Cuban/chavista/psuv/ corrupted general shts ran this country but now it is obvious those same characters are in the employ of unnamed highly organised criminal gangs. VZ is going to export food to Qatar! It’s a crying shame, I come from a country with one climate and one growing season. Venezuela has a range of climates and 2 or even three growing seasons. It could be the breadbasket of South America, instead it’s the basketcase. Essentially, this is a non-agreement since Vzla is not a food exporter. Moreover, Qatar can probably grow food in the desert cheaper than in Vzla. A ‘must read’ on the current state of affairs in Venezuela. I understand that the Financial Times is now saying that a default is now unavoidable. Wow. This thing sliding downhill fast…. By the way, I still cannot believe that they made that 8 billion dollar interest payment on the bonds back in October. Breathtaking. The lowest in the world of countries not in default. My wife tells me the latest Facebook thing in VZ is for people to make requests for medicine. Her niece just posted an urgent request for 2 tablets of betametasone(a) or betagen, for another pregnant family member. After researching the drug, aside for its “minor” uses to alleviate itching, rashing, etc., it is to be taken by expectant mothers expecting pre-term delivery (I guess), to aid in the baby’s lung development. Can you imagine being an expectant mother or father, your doctor tells you that you need this medication to save your child’s life, and you can’t have it because of Chavismo? I have some very perverse and evil thoughts going through my mind now, and maybe some of you can guess their nature, but I can’t help it. This has been a Twitter thing for more than a year now. Some days it seems that ever 3rd Tweet is looking for medicine. Having taken everything from pampers and baby milk to vitamin B injections (for a cancer patient) to Venezuela over the past year and a half, yes, this is the way it is. A very few years ago Chavismo, under Chavez, did at least supply medicines and drugs at very low cost or even free to most people. It’s only in the past 18 months that the wheels have come off in this very stark way. By the way, there will be more expectant mothers shortly since it’s also very difficult to find contraceptive pills or injections there. I understand most of the milk sold in Caracas over the past few days was from a discovered hoard of ZuliMilk? Perverse and evil people are on all sides. The principal driver of decision to downgrade Venezuela’s sovereign rating is a marked increase in default risk owing to lower oil prices, Moody’s says. • The recent oil price shock has exerted pressure on Venezuela’s balance of payments and dwindling foreign reserves, Moody’s says. This is what socialism looks like. We don’t have these problems in the US, our biggest problem is people who work being robbed in taxes to feed the half that refuse to work. Face it, the oil bubble has burst. By the time oil goes to $150, a dollar will have a third of its current purchasing power. In a free market, all things go through cycles, that includes market corrections. When prices go up, more people compete and the price comes back down. Then that skill and technology moves to locations where is more economically feasible. In places where land and labor are dirt cheap, a shale oil well is still very profitable. Maduro is short sighted enough to believe that $100 is a “fair” price when in fact it is 4-5 times what the price has been for decades. The saddest part, is that Chavez is not around to see his ship sink. It will go to $150. Adjust it by inflation. You can assume 2035 as an approximate target date. Why? Because that’s what it takes for indians to drive electric cars with electricity generated by nuclear power. Miguel, how does on edit comments here? I made a typo “severa” instead of “severe” but could not find the edit button. I shot an error in the air. It’s still going… everywhere. I dont think you can correct. I did. Why would a joint Venezuela-Iran project on pharma work when the track record is one of uninterrupted failures? In this 2010 video chavez visits the Veneiran assembly plant and talks about domestic manufacturing “because we have the raw material and production facilities to make the sheet metal.” Of course, today Veriauto is dead and Sidor is moribund. A bonus of the video is the illustration of chavez severe ADD. In min 5:08 he asks about production levels and gets the number “48 unit per shift” Then he deviates and begins talking about a soccer game where Brazil won, forgetting the talk about productivity. Can’t understand the Saudi visit at all. Going to Iran might make him feel better (scumbags of a feather stick together), but what the hell did he expect in Saudi Arabia? They’ve eloquently stated that not only do OPEC members cheat anyway, but that there’s too much oil from elsewhere for OPEC to manipulate prices. And too little demand. One of the Saudi Princes was recently interviewed, and he explained what the deal is. That $100 oil is a thing of the past, it is VERY possible that it will go much lower than $50, with minor fluctuations bringing it above and below 50, but not by major numbers. And that oil-producing countries better learn to live with these new, lower incomes. Not only that, but before taking off for Saudi Arabia, he made statements with Iran about supporting a strategy to increase prices. Dumb and dumber. If Saudi Oil is going down to $40bbl, the muck that Venezuela dredges out of the ground will be $35bbl. Hasn’t the government already admitted that oil averaged about $42.50 last week? $100 oil is a thing of the past. Anybody wanna buy a nice bridge? It’s simple math, barring a nuclear or other war catastrophe. Which of course is always possible. The reasoning being, from what I read, that $100 oil is worth nothing to the Saudis if it’s stuck in the ground because their customers have come up with alternative energy sources (gas, shale oil, tar sands, lithium, etc). They have to extract it and sell it before the market goes away. They don’t have the production capacity to jeep oil prices that low. It’s mind games. Prices will start increasing by the fall and will eventually return to $100. By 2035 they should be $150. The renewables just don’t work at large scale below $100 to $120 with current technology. Apparently CitiGroup believes the Saudis will run out of oil by 2030, in part because they use 25% of their production themselves, so using your numbers they should be able to get all they can out of the ground and sell it before renewables become a viable option. They just had to set the renewables (and other oil competitors like the Arctic, US shale oil, the Brazilian Atlantic, Canadian tar sands) back by 20 years or so, which they’ve now done. Of course they’re also playing geopolitical games with the Russians and the Iranians, and yhey’re not going to be worried about the collateral damage to Venezuela. Frank, when you think about Saudi oil running out assume it will climb to 12 million barrels per day, hold there for a while, and then decline in a fairly monotonic fashion (we call it exponential decline). If you want to play with it multiply the previous year’s production by 0.97 and that gives you the year’s production. Just draw that out year after year. I hope that when Venezuela finally has to beg the international community for food basics that they make maduro and chavistas pay homage to whoever delivers it. It may sound outdated but unless this group is subdued in public they will be preparing to fight for a return to power. I have an aweful feeling that what we are about to see in Venezuela will be a bloodbath because the current government is dragging things out to the edge of an abyss. I hope I’m wrong. When that time comes, they will not “beg”. They will “demand” it, as though it is their right to receive aid. They will claim that that the conditions were created by “Economic War” and that it is the obligation of the world to help them. Humility is not their strong suit. Fernando Leanme, do you know of a good book about the Cuban secret service? One not about a special operation but rather about that agency’s working? “Castro’s secrets” by Brian Latell provides some historical insight. Not quite to your request, but related: Georgie Ann Geyer was a journalist of some note who spent a lot of time covering Latin America. In her autobiography Buying the Night Flight, she had an interesting story about Manuel Piñeiro, who at the time was the head of Cuba’s secret police.Manuel Piñeiro became infatuated with Georgie Ann Geyer, and tried to develop a relationship with her. Talk about fear factor: becoming the lover of the head of the secret police. She was able to extricate herself out of that, but with a consequence: subsequent request for visas to Cuba were denied. The secret police is perhaps the only institution in Cuba that functions. I highly recommend Georgie Ann Geyer’s book. She has some interesting stories about Allende and Chile. And many other places. You could see this coming, over Christmas and New Year everybody went crazy emptying their bank accounts and buying new clothes, presents, and so on. No shortage of liquor either. And I mean emptying their accounts, on most days in Higuerote you would have to queue for 45-60 mins at Mercantil to withdraw cash (VEF 4000 limit per day). I should have taken a photo. Now the hangover is setting in, the accounts are empty, and people are very nervous. I don’t know if it’s panic buying, hoarding or if people’s stocks of food are really running out, but the queues at supermarkets in Caracas are impressive. The Excelsior-Gama in front of the Miranda metro station is one of the most expensive in Caracas, and still the queue was almost 2 blocks long to get in when I passed in late December. I’m sure it’s not any better now. To me it looks like February and March will be a more violent and more desperate reprise of last year. The shortages are just random, from day to day it’s different. Trivial observation: in November I could get Pirulines at the airport, though they were rationed to two boxes per person… I was able to get some more at a different shop (yo traficante en Pirulines :-), I’m lucky I wasn’t detained). Now they’re not available at all. That’s exactly why I didn’t go on my annual 3-month visit to Venezuela! Too many signs of shortage problems and violence early in 2015. You think the Saudis don’t know exactly what is going on back home? Or Maduro’s stupid statement when departing Iran to Saudi Arabia? How do you think the Saudis keep control of everything? Unprofessional they are not. The women will go to spas for beauty treatments. They will get their hair and nails done. What’s the point? They could get it done better in Venezuela. Not if the last stop of the tour is Havana. Wishful thinking on your part I’m afraid. No way, Qatar has quite a few venezuelan expats, I bet the women are raising beauty parlor standards, but you can’t tell if they are all covered up. note Qatar stop not on original schedule but added at last minute. Yeah you sure fooled us. Supposedly Maduro is getting loans from Qatar. I must congratulate the author of this article on his mastery of the language. Twice he uses the word “chaos” where generally one would find instead the word “anarchy” which for a libertarian and in this context would represent both a prostitution of ideas and an insult. And yet it happens all the time. Chaos is a word dear to my heart though, published a few papers in Physics on that subject. Could the flapping of the wings of a bird (or rather its brain) currently visiting Russia, China and OPEP countries, generate tremendous upheaval back home? What does chaos theory say about that? Does not look like chaos to me but rather pretty well disciplined servitude. Something good is bound to happen eventually. I must admit that I get a perverse pleasure of reading the Venezuelan press. This article from Notices 24 is a case point. With fanfare, it notes that 415.000 of foodstuffs are being distributed today in Caracas. How is this newsworthy anywhere else? It’s not. It’s a mundane every day occurrence the world over even in Cuba, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Haiti or anywhere else on this planet. As I am in Colombia, I love comparing similar stories in the respective presses. President Santos went late last year to Europe to seek support on the Colombian Peace Process and to discuss the drug trade. His trip was a success for the most part but the Colombian press reported it critically and with analysis. I look at the Venezuelan press and how it is covering Maduro’s trip now and it is all one glorious achievement after another. A brief paragraph about how Maduro did this and said that followed by a stream of irrelevant photographs. It’s laughable. Who falls for such crap? The Soviets fell for it for decades. I’m sure the 85000 citizens of 23 de Enero parish will enjoy the 40000 kg distributed in their area. That’s a bit more than 400 grams per person. Eaten with a generous muddy water supplement and a stray cat it can last until next week. I should know, I lived in Cuba. When things got bad we ate all the cats, pigeons, dogs…I even had an sob trying to sell me a vulture albóndiga. Yes sir. We had a guy selling vulture at 12th ave and 23 st. Right in front of the large cemetery entrance. People claimed it was making them sick, so I didn’t buy it. But I did eat cat. I wrote about it in my blog. That was a real story. There was a huge, well-known Chinese restaurant in NYC’s Chinatown that my friend always went to. This is the 70s. Can’t remember the name because I’m an old fart. When a bunch of us all went out together, we always outvoted him and went elsewhere, but man, did he brag about the ribs at this place! Imagine his surprise when the lead news story was that the place was closed down by the authorities–for trapping local cats and serving them, especially the ribs! I myself have no problem or cultural outrage at consuming domesticated species like dogs and cats. Ira, when you go hungry like we did in Cuba you get the “Oreo syndrome”. This is a disease which strikes people who lack food. The name was invented by American expats working in Iran many years ago. The spent all the time complaining because they couldn’t find Oreos on Kharg Island. Anyway, I don’t think it’s the same. When one goes hungry like we did in Cuba thoughts about food become obsessive. Especially greasy food, sweets and things you never ate. I think venezuelans are just getting into that zone, but they got a ways to go. And by the way, cat doesn’t taste like chicken. A properly fed dog tastes ok. Pigeon is fine. And you can eat fish bones if to burn them to a crisp. Yeah, I wouldn’t say the Oreo Syndrome is the same thing. Maduro is travelling on a Cuban plane. He might as well end his trip in Havana and start his retirement. He is traveling on a Cuban plane out of necessity. The Airbus that the Venezuelan government owns is unable to fly due to a dispute with Airbus. The Venezuelan government claims that Airbus damaged the plane last year when it received scheduled maintenance. The truth is far different of course. The plane can’t fly because Airbus is demanding payment before it releases the required parts that will enable the plane to fly. It’s really quite something to see the Venezuelan government in action. The level of corruption is unequaled in the annals of Latin American dictatorships. The Duvailers in Haiti at least kept money in the bank for such niceties as a presidential plane. Telling that Venezuela can not. Charles, can you elaborate on the Airbus issue or are you just making this up from something you read. You think the regime does not have the money to buy a few aircraft engines? What can cost more? Venezuela says that the Presidential plane is defective (wings) and it’s Airbus’ job to repair the entire plane. Airbus says Venezuela hasn’t maintained the jet properly so parts have broken through neglect. As usual, it will all end up in some court within the next twenty years or so. You do know he had the money to buy a lot of jets, turboprobs and helicopters but he does not have the money for “spare parts” for his Airbus. This analysis is flawed Charles. Charles, they parked the A319CJ for a host of reasons. None of which you mentioned. Airbus was scapegoated and you fell for it. They don’t want Imperialist bugs listening to their conversations. It’s kinda funny. The Airbus dispute is old news, and I read that the Embraer was painted in Conviasa colours so as not to attract attention, is that correct? Has to do with air transit rights for non comnercial craft. OK, I’ll bite, I know as much about the air industry as I do about oil… does painting the VIP plane in Conviasa colours, i.e. making a non-commercial VIP aircraft look like a commercial one make certain things easier? I wonder if the way chavista ministers are insulting and making people angry may not be a step in a well calibrated plan to cause scattered protests. This will allow them to arrest the hot heads and make a show of power. Don’t ever underestimate Raul Castro and his son Alejandro Castro, his heir about to sit on the cuban dictatorship throne. If they allow Maduro and his ministers behave this way there has to be a subtle reason. I also understand you don’t think the Maduro regime is a cuban satrapy, but the whole set up tells me they are indeed entrenched, and the G2 is very much on top of things. I would discourage protests or anything extemporaneous which allows regime agents to arrest you or mark you down. The day you are ready to protest then you had better be ready to protest in Petare or La Cañada de Urdaneta with the poor. If they kill you then at lease you know you did it to achieve some thing. And if the barrio people join you then maybe, just maybe, you can achieve Solidarity without Lech Walesa and a decent Pope back int your question for freedom. The only way the cuban g2 will let go of Venezuela’s throat will be by force, and the only force can only come from within chavismo and with the poor people in the barrios ask int for it. Cabello is clearly blackmailed by the Cuban G2, so he’s a non entity. Other than being a loud mouth and serving as an instrument for the dictatorship’s gutting of institutions, Cabello is nothing. This means protests also have to focus on Cabello’s resignation and departure (or capture and trial). Finally, if you want to put pressure on, to have things change, you also need to focus on Havana. Obama’s poorly timed foreign policy is about to hand you over as slaves to the Castro family to own, and do with you as they please. So you really ought to consider whether strengthening the Castro family dictatorship benefits anybody, other than the rotten oligarchs who surround the ruling Castro, and the corporate interests pushing for allow bank loans and all sorts of business, with what is looking more and more like a fascist hereditary dictatorship with imperial ambitions. > Is the embargo over? > Is there open tourism to Cuba? > Is there actually ANYTHING that Cuba gains other than silly diplomatic points. In reality. the only thing that will happen is that there will be a dialog between embassies. In fact, I can’t even remember if President Obama mentioned actual ambassadors except to say they were a possibility at a later date. The United States has relations with all kinds of repulsive regimes. Just because we talk to them doesn’t mean we play nice. If the United States wants to make change they may need a hammer, but what is it if all the nails are already driven in? Cuba gains more dollars from lowering of trade and communication barriers. There are two schools of though on this. What Obama did is defensible. Yes, you’re right. There will be more humanitarian aid, but I doubt if anything other than superior cigars and inferior Rum will be exported, and that will be at $100 per tourist. Tourism itself won’t be affected, you still can’t fly from the US for a vacation, it has to be one of those education and people to people tours where you get to look at faded wall art of Che and a 40 year old Fidel. One thing about the cigars, is there any “big shot” Republican or Democrat who can’t already get their hands on a nice Cuban? As far as communications, both sides come out ahead. US funds will flow in to upgrade Cuba’s decrepit grid and internet, but more people will have smart phones and Internet Access. I think it all hinges on Raul’s son. I don’t know how the Cuban people will accept what will basically be an hereditary monarchy. It also looks like the guy is totally devoid of personality let alone charisma. Osama implied he was removing all economics sanctions. The problem I see is that Venezuela is about to crash, Fidel is about to die, and they are working fast to place a third Castro, Alejandro, as the hereditary dictator. The circumstances are way too dicey for a weakling president, whose main focus is starting trouble with Russia, to be getting weak knees when the dictatorship may be about to fold due to Venezuela’s economic crisis. If he wants to establish relations with the dictatorship, fine. But the economic sanctions should be negotiated in exchange for the terms requested by Yoani Sanchez and the cuban dissidents. Otherwise what Obama is doing is planting North Korea smack in the middle of USA navigation lanes. It’s utter nonsense. Another in a long list of usa foreign policy blunders. Fernando, great until the last paragraph. The question of G2 grip on power is valid. Regarding the last paragraph, IMO too soon to pass judgement and I’m in the thick of it and have been for decades. I support Obama’s decision. Lets wait till the Casto brothers die. We are in holding pattern till then. Yes the Castro bros. won the status quo remains. Get over it. They are preparing Alejandro Castro to take over after Raul. It’s looking like they want to copy North Korea. Get over it my behind. They haven’t won yet, if they win they’ll have Venezuela bent over for decades. Get used to being second class colonized subdits ruled by the Castro dictatorship. Are these goons scared or what? No, they’re not scared, they’re goons. They face no serious resistance. Why should they be scared? What I find most entertaining is that obviously no one is in charge. Maduro can’t do anything even if he had a clue what to do, he has no power. It will only be “entertaining” until the motorcycles and the Kalashnikovs come out early in the second act. Then the opera buffa becomes a tragedy. At a supermarket, eastern Caracas, apparently there were bikers blocking the entrance to the establishment and only letting in those they thought were chavistas. Oh my. This could be a growing trend. Only those who ‘support the revolution’ are entitled to benefits (food?), the others must fend for themselves. Wow. This could really get crazy now…. It is indeed weird that Maduro appears to be such a clueless president. Have the Cuban minders gone home already? And if someone is setting a trap for Maduro to fall in, is that someone so sure that, after the fall, he can control the chaos he has triggered or let fester? I think he’s outside the country with 22 family members waiting for the explosion to happen. He’s a coward and afraid. María Corina Machado: Maduro is not touring, he’s fleeing!

2019-04-24T12:27:14Z

https://devilexcrement.com/2015/01/10/venezuela-goes-from-bizarre-to-bizarro/

The section that has been quoted is part of Jesus’ concluding words of the Sermon on the Mount, which includes the “asking, seeking, and knocking” of the prior paragraph and ends with building on the rock or the sand. Jesus is exhorting his audience to be careful to start things out in the right way; to get started at the right place. His audience must be careful that they go through the gate that leads to life and not to destruction. In terms of the larger audience, and the disciples He is saying: Be sure that your starting point is the correct starting point. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. …that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. … as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. The way to life is constrained, narrow. There is but one gate, Jesus Christ, and there is only one way to enter it, by faith alone in Christ alone. The wide gate with the broad path represents every other “way” to salvation that is not through Christ, through faith in His Name. This would inlude every false religion in the world from animism to humanism; Islam to Buddhism; Hinduism to Judaism, and all others in between. But let us not stop here. The “way that leads to destruction” is also paved with “Christian” doctrines and false “gospels”. It is tiled with sincerity, good intentions; it is cemented with counterfeit prophets and bible teachers. This road attracts a lot of attention with high profile sects, denominations, and doctrinal positions; with radio bible teachers and seminary presidents; with global organizations and social activists. Those that beckon the world to this path proclaim far and wide the doctrines of Rome; the mysticism of Mormonism; the angelology of the JWs; the self-salvation of Arminianism; the costly conversion of Lordship Salvation; and the exclusivism of Traditionalism. One of the problems that people have in finding the correct gate is that there are people who tell them the wrong gate! There are people who profess prophetic ability or profess to be sent by God and they lead them astray. Jesus immediately follows the exhortation to enter into the correct gate by a warning against the false prophets. The way that the false prophets are known is by their fruits. He is not talking generally about professing Christians! He is not talking about being saved or unsaved. He is telling how we can recognize a false prophet. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. The Traditional interpretation of this passage is that men must gain assurance of their salvation by their works. This passage is so obviously not talking about this! How one can extract that meaning from this passage is a testament to the ingenuity and imagination of the eisegetical, presuppositional, and deductionistic advocates of Traditionalism! The false prophets come to the people “in sheep’s clothing”. What is the implication here? -- There is no way to tell the false prophet by their outer appearances! They look, smell, act, and behave like sheep. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing! Every outward appearance is that of a Christian. So “fruit” cannot mean their conduct! Fruit is the doctrine that they preach; the fruit is the message that they bring. If they preach anything but eternal salvation by grace through simple faith in Jesus Christ, they are false prophets. If they bring a message that is contrary to what Jesus taught then they are false prophets. "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods' -- which you have not known -- 'and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams”. We are not to look at the works of a prophet to determine if he is a true prophet or not. The Lord God poses the idea that false prophets can do signs and wonders that indeed come to pass. This shouldn’t be an indicator of whether or not we should follow their teaching! Truth matters! Obviously we will not want to follow a liscentious man. But there are many prophets out there who do good things, they have great appearances, and are moral. But since truth matters for our eternal destiny, that a prophet has a blameless exterior is of no great consequence. It is his message that we must be extremely wary about. The reason why people are not finding the right gate is because false prophets are leading them to the wrong one with their message, their teachings, and their “gospels”. We must test for the false prophet by his “fruit” which is his words. "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned”. The gospel writer Matthew, within the sphere of the very epistle we meet “you will know them by their fruits,” equates “fruit” here with “speak[ing]” and “words”. Everyone, no matter if they are saved or unsaved, will give an account for every idle word they give in their “day of judgment”. In a very real sense, by their words they will either be justified or condemned. We will see the condemnation that comes to the adherents of false prophets by their words later in this post. It doesn’t matter if they have large Christian radio audiences. It is of no consequence that they preside over mammoth bible colleges and seminaries. It is not even really significant that they turn out people who love the Lord and are zealous for Him, for if it is not in truth, then it is of no value. A false prophet, whether sincere or malicious, points people to the broad road that leads to destruction, and the only way that they can be identified is by their fruit, which is the message that they bring. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit… Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Within the context of the evangelistic model here, the false prophet cannot bring the good message of salvation, he will bear bad fruit. Only the true prophet can bring the truth of the gospel. True prophets point to the correct gate; false prophets can only point to the broad road that leads to destruction. The Traditionalist interprets these verses in the context of recognizing professing vs. genuine Christians, and as test of assurance of one's own salvation. They get into a lot of trouble here, though. They understand it as believers are good trees and therefore can only bring forth good fruit, but as the language shows, this would lead one, if followed through, to believe in sinless perfection; the text does not speak relatively. They would also understand unbelievers as bad trees and therefore can only bring forth bad fruit, but as the language shows, the image of God would not only marred, but totally extinct in the unsaved. The only way the Traditionalist can salvage this interpretation is to add the element of relativity, which is not present in the language, to their interpretal stew. This is the quicksand into which the false interpretation of this passage slides. We must keep in mind that Jesus is talking about false prophets over against true prophets, and not the tests of a believer or professor. By the message of the “prophet” a person will be able to recognize whether the prophet is a true prophet or a false prophet. “The true test for discovering a false prophet or teacher is to compare his or her message with God's. This, after all, has always been the test for discovering who speaks for God and who does not. Not much thought has to be given to see that it makes sense that it should be this way. God cannot possibly contradict Himself (Num 23:19). Furthermore, His Word stands forever (Isa 40:8). If indeed we have something that solid--and we do--we should use it as a touchstone to test everything that is said by anyone claiming to be a messenger of God. For in doing this, we are not only living in obedience to God's Word, but we also will be able to know those who are His spokesmen and those who are not.” (D. Scott Henderson, Looking a Wolf in the Mouth Newsletter of the Grace Evangelical Society). God is going to judge the false prophet. We don’t have to have a knee-jerk reaction to “fire” and talk always about hell. In a general way the fire of God’s judgment is waiting for these people. But obviously if a man who claims to be a prophet of God who is not a prophet of God is unsaved, he will ultimately wind up in the fire of hell, which the following verses will have something to say. What is the lot for those who heed the untrue gospel messages of the false prophets? They will have their “day in court” and by their words they will be condemned! Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many on the day of their judgment will lay the hope of their eternal well-being upon their allegiance to Christ as Lord and their efforts and works for Him. This is the gospel that they have been given by the false prophets. They are told to “Make Jesus your Lord”, “Jesus must be Lord of your life or you can’t be saved!”. The false prophets tell their listeners that they “must follow Jesus in costly discipleship or you can’t be saved.” They confuse discipleship with the call to receive a free gift, therefore lead people down the wide gate and broad road that ends in destruction. Many, “in that day”, will sincerely address Jesus as Lord. Jesus will not quarrel with them on this point. That a person considered Jesus their Lord is not means for entrance into the kingdom. In the gospel of John, the only explicitely written book in the Bible for the purpose of evangelism (John 20:31), we find Jesus explain how one “enters the kingdom”. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. One must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God. To be born into God’s family, born from above, we must receive Jesus Christ by believing in His name. Whoever believes in Jesus will be born from above, becoming a child of God, and immediately possessing eternal life. Only those who do the will of the Father in heaven will enter the kingdom of God. What is the will of the Father in heaven? The Father’s will is to believe on His Son for eternal life. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe [disobeys = apeitho] the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." The Son speaks the words of the Father. The one who believes in Jesus immediately possesses eternal life, for he is heeding “the will of the Father”. The one who disobeys the Son (who does not obey the command to believe in Him for eternal life, which is the message from the Father) is disobeying the will of the Father. In the sphere of the reception of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God, the will of the Father is obvious! The will of the Father for the reception of eternal life, to enter the kingdom is to believe in His Son. And this is the will of Him who sent Me [the will of the Father], that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." It is clear that God’s will is to give everlasting life, entrance into the kingdom, and resurrection to those is to resurrect and give eternal life to all who merely believe (and only believe) in His Son! Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? “Jesus in His mercy tells us what many will say to Him in that Day: First, they will acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ, addressing Him as 'Lord.' Not only will they say it once, they will repeat it: 'Lord, Lord.' Recognizing the gravity of the situation, they will plead for their lives. This repetition of 'Lord' may also suggest that they think they are on familiar terms with Jesus. Those who have heeded the message of the false prophets will plead their case with Jesus. They will be all too sincere. They will not be conscious charlatans trying to pull the wool over Jesus’s eyes. They will be all too serious as they point to both to their allegiance to Christ and to their works in His name! These aren’t Buddhists, Hindus, etc. They are “Christians” who are offering their works “in Your [Jesus’] name” (three times!). These are the ones who obeyed the words of the false prophets who led them down the road to perdition. They did not do the will of the Father which was to trust solely in Jesus Christ for their entrance into the kingdom. They will be condemned for their words which betray their trust in their works! And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness! “Jesus will describe these people as ‘you who practice lawlessness.’ Now if we had seen these people on earth—and perhaps we have seen some of them—we may not have reached that conclusion. After all, we would have seen these church leaders prophesying, casting out demons, and performing supernatural wonders, all in the name of Jesus. The Roman Catholic Church-State would have declared them saints. The ersatz Evangelicals would have made them best-selling authors and celebrities. But Jesus calls them ‘you who practice lawlessness.’ Why? He has already told us why. All of these extraordinary and wonderful works done in the name of Jesus are lawlessness, because they are done for the purpose of obtaining salvation. These works are lawlessness because they involve an illegal use of the law. The law, Paul tells us, is given for the knowledge of sin. It is not given that we sinners might use it to gain entrance into heaven. Conviction of sin, not salvation, is the purpose of the law. Legalism, because it is an illegal use of the law, is lawlessness. ‘But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully,’ Paul told Timothy. But using the law in an effort to obtain heaven is not lawful; it is an illegal use of the law; it is lawlessness. The end of those who obey a false gospel is the lake of fire. We must be wary of those who present a message that differs from Christ’s message of the free gift of eternal life and resurrection received by simple faith alone in Him. We must start out on the right foot by entering the correct gate. Most of Christendom and much of Evangelicalism need to be evangelized! They have listened to false prophets who are wolves in sheep’s clothing! We must not back down from the simple message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. * Lets get some perspective. In the newest edition of “Operation World” (A prayer guide for missions) we find that the world’s population is around 6 billion. Out of those 6 billion, roughly 2.5 billion are considered “Christian”. Christians account for roughly 1/3rd of the world’s population. This does not qualify for a “few”. Christ contrasts the terms “many” and “few”. Only a “few” find the correct gate and enter thereby. I am speculating here, but what percentage out of 100 could we bracket off such a modifier as “few”? When I was a kid, we would say to someone who had candy “give me a couple” and he would give us “two” because a couple is “two”. We learned from that. We would then say give me a “few”, which would mean somewhere between 3-5 in a package of 40 M&Ms. Such an understanding I do not believe is far off from Christ’s use of the term “few”. If I had to make an educated guess on what percentage of 100 is a “few” in Christ’s discourse here, I would say 8-15%. I hope I am not offending anyone with my candy illustration. I am trying to get at how the word “few” is used. In the Bible, “few” is used relatively as to what is being compared; few always means a relatively small number from that which could be termed “many”. I could not see the word “few” being used of a relative percentage of 25% or more in any given illustration. Could you? Argue with me if you like. Few means a relatively small number in comparison to the many. If my crude analysis of “few” meaning 8-15% of the population is correct, than we have a problem. 33% of the world’s population is “Christian”; much too high of a figure to denote a relative “few”. What can we glean of this? That much of “Christianity” is not saved, but needs to be evanglized. Why? The gospel has been corrupted by thousands of false teachers who preach a distorted gospel. This is sad and sobering. Yet this is deadly serious. What are we waiting for? Let us go out and evangelize, and make disciples of grace! The following link is to my first article on the group blog : "Unashamed of Grace". It talks about the "outer darkness" as found in the parable of the wedding feast. Most people have a knee-jerk reaction when they read this phrase and automatically import into it the idea of hell. My normal postings will resume! Keep in Touch! First I want to thank all you who visit here on a regular basis. As the Lord provides for me wisdom, I am glad to pass it along. To Him be the glory! Free Grace Theology (this blog) has been quite a blessing for me. It has given me the opportunity to disseminate this biblical theology. I am pleased of this forum, and I believe that it is reaching people. I get about 115 visits a day average. I have had visitors from Japan, Australia, South America, Canada, the U.K., and most recently, someone in Ireland sent me an email saying that he found this site and was excited to read this perspective on theology. I am dedicated to this blog. And I will remain so as long as the Lord doesn't knock and say its time for quits. I have so many responsibilities: I work all morning (getting up at 3 am), get home and take care of the house; my wife works in the evening, so I have all the bedtime and bath chores for my 3 children; I study the bible, teach at a Bible College, and I run this blog. All of this to say that I will be participating in another blog; a group blog. The name is "Unashamed of Grace". The Participant's are Rose, H.K. Flynn, Dyspraxic Fundamentalist, Nate, and myself. The first official post has already been posted, by our friend Matthew, and gives an overview of our purpose. He did a great job in expressing our vision. I am not such a prolific writer so ya'll should go to our new blog now and check it out. Free Grace Theology stands accused of teaching “easy believism”. We are told by the Traditionalists that it is merely fire-insurance. The straw men fly with their insistence that we do not preach or teach holiness. We are labeled as “cheap gracers”. Accusations of antinomian are common. This may surprise some of you who haven’t been around the block; the Calvinist Traditionalist has thrown a hefty share of pejoratives my way. They have employed every theological cuss-word in the book. These are the weak and spurious claims of ignorance. The Free Gracer is despised, belittled, demeaned, dismissed; but let me tell you one thing: he has yet to be reckoned with. Traditionalists claim that free will is compatible with election, in that the regenerate elect now has the ability to truly choose. If this is the case, could the elect choose not to persevere in holiness and sanctifiation? The God of the Traditionalist must force people to accept Him and love Him. He is not able to win or woo, He must coerce, He must impose. He is not able to command our affections apart from a sovereign decree. I must ask, where on earth are there any relationships that parallel such a case as this? Let me tell you. It lies in dictatorships and tyrannies; with any government that imposes their will against the desires of the people. It is the basis of Islam, fear, terrorism, communism. The Traditionalist states that God cannot woo or win; He must impose. And after this imposition the regenerate man cannot help but be acted upon by the Most High so that he will indeed progress in experiential sanctification and ultimately persevere until the end in faith, deeds, and faithfulness. How is the God of Calvinism/Traditionalism any better than the harshest dictator who imposes his will by decree and force; by obligation, constraint, and necessity? By contrast, have we not seen those leaders in government, society, education, and family who bring out our fidelity by encouragement, love, leading, discipline, and affection? What a little view of God the Traditionalist must have. His God must first impose allegiance, and next force fidelity. When someone fails in his or her Christian life, such a one is damned, for God’s imposition of holiness is guaranteed by regeneration, therefore such a person could not possibly have ever been saved. Yet for the Traditionalist, success is peculiarly subjective. God chooses not to will and to work in them perfectly, for they still succumb to sin. God’s work of regeneration and justification are perfect, but His labor in sanctification is partial. Why aren’t they sinless? Given the view of sovereignty that the Traditionalist has, the only answer is that the sin in the regenerate one is God “willing and working in them His good pleasure”. If regenerate man does not have the ability to spurn the will of God which may result in dying in a state of unfaithfulness then the only other option, seeing the sin of man, is to hold that God’s necessary work in the regenerate, by decree, is partial: resulting in progressive sanctification that is peculiarly attended by daily sin. Imagine that: our Holy God who is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all, has fore-ordained that regenerate man will be a conglomeration of both light and darkness. The better solution is to see that God does not act irresistably on regenerate man (nor on unregenerate man, but that is for another time). If God acted irresistably on regenerate man, we must therefore conclude that God wills our sin, for our sin is ever present (just see the hypocrisy of Traditionalism’s personal attacks against me). They say that the regenerate one will necessarily persevere in faith, faithfulness, and good deeds. Yet at the same time, as per Dort and Westminster, they acknowledge that regenerate man may backslide, with the ability to commit “heinous” sins for an undisclosed period of time. What keeps the regenerate backslider from dying in a state of unfaithfulness, says the Traditionalist? The virtue of their regeneration and the will of God. Yet neither of them stopped the offending regenerate one from falling into “grievous” and “heinous” sins, and from backsliding! What could be the only comeback to this common sense observation of the Christian life? That the reason that the regenerate Christian can totally sin in grievous and heinous ways, backslidding for an unspecified period of time, yet in the end, must repent before death, is the sovereign imposition of their force-His-will God. Yes, even the sin itself was fore-ordained by the all-encompassing decree of their Sovereign Lord. The regenerate one is nothing but a yo-yo in the hands of God. In their unregenerate state, they hate him (by his fore-ordination), so He must impose His acceptance and love on them (by His fore-ordination). After imposing regeneration apart from their will God kills their old nature and gives them a new heart, yet, nonetheless, they still sin. Why? God has foreordained that they would sin in their new creation as well. In some cases, the regenerate one can backslide very far, committing sins like the most depraved reprobate, yet he will come to repentance at sometime before his death, and will go to heaven. Yet in their same theology a professing Christian could live a full-life, doing good works and loving the brethren, yet if he does not persevere until the end, he will end up in hell. Their God will allow them to sin like the unsaved, but in the end, He will make sure of it that they will repent. Excuse me if this sounds fantastic! Why not view the Christian life in the same sense as we do good nuclear families? The father of the household (positively) encourages, teaches, leads, loves, guides, rewards and (negatively) disciplines, chastens, punishes, admonishes, all for the benefit of the loved one. Why must we see the relationship of regenerate man to God as one of necessity? Why can’t we see the Biblical teaching that regenerate man has two opposing natures? Why can’t we see that regenerate man is genuinely responsible to appropriate the grace of God and live according to His commands? Why can’t we therefore see the potential for failure in true Christians? This has been quite an extended introduction to my post. Regenerate man has a free will that is regulated by two opposing capacities within his ontological being. The old man is powered by his pride, selfishness, and wordly passions. The new man MUST BE empowered by the Holy Spirit through active yieldedness. What does this say? That unless regenerate man, by an act of his will, mortifies the old man, and actively yields himself to the indwelling Holy Spirit, he will not have victory nor necessitated progressive and experiential sanctification. God has positive and negative means by which to affect His children apart from coercion, force, necessity, and imposition. The object of this post is not to get into the positive aspects of God’s relationship to the regenerate one. I may in the future outline the glorious nature of God’s encouragement, leading, guiding, teaching, prompting, and acts of love and kindness. The assessment of the Traditionalist against the Free Gracer is folly. The Free Gracer has a sober view of God’s holiness and loathe of sin. God demands holiness. God hates sin. He will not tolerate or wink at the evil machinations of His children. God requires that His servants be holy and abide by His commandments. At His discretion, God will employ His discipline and judgement against the sinful acts of His children. These may take the form of temporal consequences or eternal ones. In either respect, they are serious and sobering. Following is a list of God’s punitive disciplinary actions against believers, whether they be temporal or eternal. 1. Cast out (Mt 5:13). I realize that the readers, even those who ally themselves in proximity to my position, may not agree with some of these disciplinary actions. It must be noted that many, if not most of these disciplinary actions are within the context of parabolic structures, and as such, are not to be taken literally, but the accounts within the metaphorical contructs correspond to spiritual truths. For sake of clarity and argumentation: Any one who would oppose my use of these references of negative consequences in specific relation to the regenerate one, I have a request. If you take issue with any of these references, please give me your observational, exegetical, and contextual exposition of the verse that would cause you to arrive at your interpretation. Just to merely assert and froth is of no benefit. Prove by your exegetical and expositional skills that these references are not with the regenerate one in mind. God does not trifle with sin, not even the sin of His children. "The LORD will judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The points in my last two post are for those who believe that salvation is free. They were constructed in a way to give my perspective on things. They were given to show the logical implications of the understanding that eternal life is absolutely free. If a person preaches a gospel where it is costly to the unsaved, is this the same gospel of the freeness of God's grace and gift? And if this is not the same gospel, what does that imply for the person who believes this different gospel? I have not peered in to anyone's heart. I have not judged any particular man's salvation. I just flatly state my great and heartfelt conviction that any man who believes the Lordship Salvation gospel IS NOT BELIEVING THE SAVING MESSAGE OF CHRIST. I should have just left it at that. Yet what is the implication if they have not believed the only message that saves? That they are unsaved. Calvinists are confusing sometimes. I don't know what they believe in their heart concerning how they figure they will get into heaven or what they have believed in the past (remember, salvation is received the instant that one believes in Christ for eternal life). I can only go on what they preach as their doctrine now. Some LS people I have responded to lately flatly state that obedience is necessary for eternal life. This is not the gospel of grace, but the gospel of obligation. My posts were intended really for those who believe in the gospel of the free grace of God yet do not see the implications that all other forms of the "gospel" are false, and if believed, the person has not believed the simple gospel message that saves. I wanted to have people understand that the free grace/lordship salvation debate has a lot to do with people getting saved, not just with the way they live the Christian life. In my posts I have directly stated the answer to your questions concerning being friends. I would be friends with anyone. I would be friendly and loving. But life is so much more than the blogosphere and coffee and donut relationships. There is a real battle out there and Satan has deceived many within our churches. I don't preach against people. I preach against doctrine. A false prophet is known by his fruit (which is his doctrine, what he says). If someone states that salvation takes faith + obedience+ forsaking sins + whatever, that shows he is a false prophet. That doesn't necessarily mean that he is unsaved. I know that J.I. Packer used to believe in the free grace gospel, for he says so, but then he says later, when he believed the LS gospel he was saved. I do believe that people get saved in spite of the preachers abbherent theology, sometimes. If at anytime during a conversation, listening to the word of God, or reading it, someone is convinced that Jesus has given them eternal life through their faith in Him alone, they are saved. But those who now preach LS, whether or not they are saved, are preaching a false gospel to those who are unsaved. The Lordship gospel is confusing, adds many caveats, includes obedience, and is quite subjective. How is one to know if he submitted enough, committed enough, followed enough, repented enough, obeyed enough? Do you see how the personal contingency that is laid on the unsaved by the LS gospel can effect the psychology? If they are worried that they may have not done enough, they have already been swayed to believe that salvation is somewhat contingent on themselves. That one believes that they must DO these things can be naturally shown that they understand the conditionality for eternal life based upon their repentance, their commitment, their following, their obedience, etc, and not on Christ alone. I have not fingerpointed to any particular person. I am pointing to an abbherent theology. It matter what people believe. Truth matters. It matters so much that without the simple appropriation of the truth of the gospel, no man can enter the kingdom of God. This knowlege breaks me. So much confusion, ignorance, and false teaching is swirling around. Bob Wilkin writes a journal article called The Subtle Danger of an Imprecise Gospel where evangelists are not using the biblical gospel message of believing in Jesus. People are wishy-washy, imprecise, using terms like "give your heart to Jesus", "you must sign up", "ask Jesus to be your Savior", "accept Jesus", etc. What do these things mean? A person could do all of these things and yet not believe that Jesus guarantees for them resurrection and eternal life. The aforementioned was just people preaching confusing gospels, where there is great danger in people not undertanding the truth of the gospel, that it is only by grace through purposeful faith alone in Jesus Christ. Those of the LS are as great of a threat or worse, for they preach "costly gospel". Their gospel places contingency on the unbeliever, making the reception of eternal life "costly" to the recipient. I have not stood in judgement of anyone's trust in Christ. Have I mentioned anyone's names and said they were unsaved? I have merely stated that some people preach a false gospel, and if any unsaved person believes that message, they remain unsaved. The Lordship Salvation crew has said as much about my beliefs, that FG is a false gospel. The people on the Lordship Salvation side and me all conclude that we aren't preaching the same gospel. It is those who are on the fence who cannot see that they are different and not the same. Therefore at least one of them is under the curse of preaching a false gospel. I am not trying to alienate people from me. If someone tells me that they have eternal life by faith alone in Christ alone, apart from obedience, works, etc., I will consider them my brother. Yet if these same people continue to preach that forsaking sins, obedience, repentance, whole-hearted commitment, surrender of everything, perseverance until the end, and all the other strings and caveats, are necessary for eternal life, I will call them on their dissonance, for how can someone say that they have been saved by grace through faith alone in Christ but yet heap all these other conditions upon the unsaved? There is a disconnect somewhere and on many different levels, this is dangerous ground. If people do not see the gospel the same way as I do, how could they consider me their brother? Why would I expect them to, unless it was merely for the benefit of our cordial coffee and doughnut fellowship? "Thanks for your respectful and gracious introduction to such wonderful things." First and foremost Antonio I applaud and thank you for taking me to task on this... I am sorry that I made my post personal...You have my earnest, honest apology for making you the "target" of my post... in hindsight I honestly regret having been so calloused. It is interesting Susan that you had such a gracious response to Daniel's obvious contempt for me in the personal nature of his post, yet, me, who hasn't made any personal accusations, you give me such grief. Please pardon me if I find this a bit of a double-standard, and competely partial. Daniel's post was anything but respectful and gracious. My post doesn't name names but merely talks about my convictions about theology and their ramifications. My last few posts have been on theology and not attacks on people at all. They are targeted on doctrine and truth. If I have sinned against anyone, please bring my sin to my attention in order that I may repent of it. If I have sinned, please convict me of it. I have not looked in anyone's heart nor deemed anyone particular person unsaved, yet so many people seem to have indicated that I have. None of my last 2 posts have been personal, but doctrinal. I have sought to make one point and one point only: the false gospel of Lordship Salvation does not save. I will not comport, I will not back down. Lordship Salvation is not a doctrine that most importantly affects the Christian Life, although it does and to a great extent. The ramifications of Lordship Salvation is that it is a false gospel and people who believe false gospels do not believe the truth, do not believe the saving message of Christ. I have offended many with my doctrines, and now I offend all with the implications of my doctrines. Anyone who believes and has only believed the Lordship Salvation gospel of those Calvinists and Arminians who preach them are lost at this moment. I will not stand idly by and allow the truth to be attacked, especially when men and women's precious eternal destinies are on the line. People may comfort themselves with the thought that all is well in evangelical Christendom; that as long as Jesus is partially trusted one is saved, not matter what other conditions are heaped onto faith, or how faith is defined; no matter how much the conditions of "faith plus gospels" put contingency on self and works. My opinion is that much of evangelical Christendom needs to be evangelized. There was a poll I heard recently from someone like Josh MacDowell who comes to my church often. A huge sample of evanglical Christians were polled. The question had to do with works. The results had something like 80+ percent stating that works had a part in reaching heaven. Just listen to the Calvinist. The honest ones will claim such. They make outrageous claims, that if a person does not work, he will to to hell. "Do not throw away this paradox just because it is difficult. Salvation is both free and costly... That is what Jesus meant when He spoke of one's own cross to follow Him. And that is why He demanded that we count the cost carefully. He was calling for an exchange of all that we are for all that He is. He was demanding implicit obedience -- unconditional surrender to His Lordship" "For you to have salvation, it will be both free and costly. You must count the cost. Jesus in His call and invitation to give you eternal life is demanding obedience, He is calling for us to exchange all that we have for all that He is. You must count the cost or you cannot be saved." How is what I said any different than what MacArthur said? I just put it into words to an unbeliever. This is a false gospel. If someone heeds the message of this gospel, how is it that he can be saved? Is faith mixed with one's implicit obedience, his exchanging everything that he has for all that Jesus has, and all manner of other costly endeavors saving? If one is told that he must count the cost, obey, give up all, etc., is this the same gospel that says "Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely?" The point of this examination of the cost of following Christ is not to discourage anyone from following Him, however. It is rather to encourage you to follow Jesus to the end. To do that we must count the cost, by all means, but then we must pay it joyfully and willingly,knowing that this must be done if a person is to be saved. According to Lordship Salvation there is a price to be paid in order to gain eternal life. While this is impossible to reconcile with the biblical teaching that Jesus paid it all and that He gives eternal life as a free gift, this paradox is central to Lordship Salvation. "The gospel that Jesus proclaimed was a call to discipleship, a call to follow Him in submissive obedience" As Zane Hodges succinctly states, "The Gospel [is] Under Siege". If I stated "I will babysit for you if you ask only, apart from monetary compensation" but then import the value of "monetary compensation" into the word "ask", could I really be advocating "babysitting by asking only"? Lordship Salvation does much to corrupt and nullify the gospel of grace. They give lip service to "faith alone" but then use the kitchen sink method and import all kinds of works and obedience into that word. Just see Daniel of Doulogos's contentions about that word (faith = obedience). Just see John MacArthur's shameful re-definition of faith where another reformer says that such importation makes MacArthur's gospel one of works-salvation. If one says that salvation is by faith only and then says that faith = obedience, following Jesus commands etc., are they really believing in faith only? I have been to crusades, evangelistic events, many churches, heard many gospel messages, read hundreds of gospel tracts, spent hundreds of hours studying and researching people's gospel messages and beliefs. Do they preach a clear gospel of "faith only"? Hardly even close. Eternal life is received by believing the truth of the gospel. If one is told to believe, repent, commit, surrender, obey, follow, turn from sins, confess, etc., in order to be saved, or any of the other "soteriological buzz conditions" what is they psychological result? The one being told these things understands these as all conditions of heaven. "I have to believe in Jesus, confess Jesus, confess my sins, forsake my sins, repent, commit my life, surrender my possesions, follow Jesus, obey Jesus or else I can't be saved." Believed as a wholistic message, one necessarily is convinced that self and one's works is a huge contingency in the reception of eternal life! Can't we see this? If I believe that repentance and forsaking sins, and giving up all for Jesus are required for eternal life, I necessarily believe that eternal life is contingent on my acts in doing these things! Eternal life is to cost me everything! If they believe that eternal life is truly contingent on these additions to faith, then they necessarily are not believing in Christ alone for eternal life, they are believing that Christ is not enough; that it takes these actions of self IN ADDITION to faith in Christ, therefore faith in Christ is not sufficient; faith alone is not sufficient. If they are told faith alone and then told that faith is obedience, works, following, etc., then they are believing that faith = works and therefore works are necessary for eternal life. I respect many of you who commented on my last thread. I want to thank Matthew, Kris, Jim, Bobby, Rose, Nate, and Jodie. Many of you are new to the world of Lordship Salvation/Free Grace theology. I have studied these doctrines for quite possibly 10 years. I understand the ins and outs, the gospel understandings, the gospel presentations, the requirements, the provisos, the caveats, the strings, the additions, the legalism, the doctrines, the authors, the interpretations, etc. I am glad that I have been a presence in the blogosphere, for these issues are worthy of consideration. I feel that my presence is making Traditionalists a little uncomfortable, and also causing them to re-evaluate their allegiance to "sola fide". I value all your guys opinions and sentiments. Though on this subject, I sadly reject them. I stand here convinced that anyone who has believed a Lordship Salvation "gospel" and has never received eternal life by simple faith in Jesus Christ who guarantees for them resurrection and eternal life, is lost. People who get saved and then fall under the false teachings of Lordship Salvation are now preaching false gospels, different than what they believed to get saved. Anyone who will believe the Lordship Salvation "gospel" that they are now preaching and teaching, never having believed simply in Christ alone for eternal life, is lost. A message of faith plus believed is not faith in Christ alone or salvific. These are my convictions. I am not alone on them either. Many other grace-oriented defenders of the gospel believe as I do as well. How do you preach and understand the gospel? People's eternal destinies are on line. You better have it right for your sake and those you teach. One thing confuses me anyway. Why do Calvinists stress and worry about the gospel, whether or not it is true or false? All truly elect people will be saved no matter what. All who have been reprobated by God's will have no chance, but will most certainly grace the fires of hell. Some grace people who have Calvinistic leanings probably don't have such an emphasis on the urgency of the truth of the gospel as I do, for even though the believe in Free Grace theology, their doctrine of election states that only those who God, in the secret councils of His will, are going to be ultimately saved, all others will be damned. I do not share this doctrine of election. Those of us "grace" people who do not believe in unconditional election have every reason to be concerned with the proper understanding and preaching of gospel truth. God has not chosen, therefore preaching the gospel is urgent. And it being the correct gospel is of grave importance. Sincerity and ignorance are the enemies of truth. Many well-intentioned people have believed the false gospels of John MacArthur, John Piper, James Boice, Kenneth Gentry, John Gerstner, and the like. I would rather be alone preaching and teaching the truth to those in error than be popular, a sociable evangelical, having the truth, but compromising it with those who are in error. What makes the Lordship Salvation gospel false is not its implications on the Christian life primarily, but the ramifications it has to the unsaved who believe it. I value all your guy's friendship. I hope that even though we may disagree on this that we can continue to be friends. But I understand as some have written that I have "drawn a line deep in the sand". Some also have stated that I have shown rage and venting anger in my last few posts. I would ask not to confuse rage with passion. I am frustrated for their are many who assent to my doctrines as they relate to the Christian life but reject their implications on the unsaved. This is frustrating to me, for the unsaved are my heart and concern. Many are willing to state that Lordship Salvatoin and Traditionalism is a false gospel as relating to the Chritian life, but will not see the clear implications and ramifications it necessarily has to the unsaved. I have rambled on too long. I hope I still have readers and friends after this. For a bishop must... hold fast the faithful word as has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict. For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers... whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not... Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. "The message of faith only and the message of faith plus commitment of life cannot both be the gospel; therefore, one of them is a false gospel and comes under the curse of perverting the gospel or preaching another gospel (Gal 1:6-9)" (Charles Ryrie, So Great Salvation). There is a war being fought here. Satan, who has the world under his sway (1 John 5:19), seeks to corrupt truth (John 8:44-45). Truth is being compromised left and right in the pursuit of "unity". Salvific truth! I am not going to stand around idly while false doctrines not only rob Christians of assurance, but worse, they prevent sinners from understanding the simple saving message of Christ, therefore disqualifying them for entrance into the kingdom. Some doctrines are just not to be compromised in the quest for "unity". I am not commanded to consider someone my brother whom I do not believe is in my family. The gospel is the message of reconciliation, eternal life, and adoption into God's family. If someone is preaching a gospel other than by faith only, I am not adjured to consider such a one my brother in Christ, but one (willfully or ignorantly) who has been snared by Satan to do his will in propogating false doctrines that will keep precious men and women out of the kingdom. You all may think, why can't we just get along? I have no qualms with being friends with anyone who doesn't see the gospel as I biblically do. Many of them are charming, intelligent, and sincere. Yet I will not stand idly by while precious truth is being contradicted; while false gospels are being propogated. I will not sacrifice the gospel on the altar of unity. I believe Lordship Salvation, in what ever form it comes in (Calvinism or Arminianism) is a false gospel, that if believed, will preclude such a one from the kingdom of God. Truth matters, folks. The gospel is ultimate truth. Semantics within gospel expressions are the words of propositional assertions that undergird one's understanding of salvific truth. If I were to give you directions to my house and decided to add two or three more left and right turns, you would fail to reach my house. Lordship salvation adds content to the gospel which adds deadly poison to the "Living Water". People can turn their heads, pretending that nothing is wrong, and consider their coffee and donut version of "fellowship" to be much more important than truth and doctrinal unity. Yet, my prerogative is to earnestly contend for the faith. My convictions will not let me stand by and watch people believe a false gospel to their destruction. Is this mindset un-Christian? I think that for those who are disposed to believe so that they should read their bibles, this time with their eyes open. There is a war out there, this is Satan's battleground. The minds of men are being taken captive by the seducing doctrines of demons. By God's Spirit, I will combat these errors with the truth. How can this be a gracious offer that disingenuously bids me to come? Can you notice here that they "by nature" do the things in the law? This is due to the moral image and likeness of God in which they were created in. Man has the constitutional ability to believe. Do you not believe things? Is every belief a conviction imposed by God? Man has the communicable attributes of God! We are fearfully and wonderfully created and endowed by our Maker! The false doctrine of total inability to believe Christ's message is a teaching straight from the pit. Christ died for sinners. He took the barrier of sin out of the way. Why is there such elaborate testimony to how one receives eternal life, by faith in Christ, if this is impossible? There can be no good answers. The majority of humanity will be waiting in vain. God is pleased to desroy them; the have been created to be damned. Yes, the reprobate will be waiting in vain. The Bible conclusively shows that unregenerate man seeks God. I see that noone is willing to pose any arguments against the plain and normal reading of Cornelius and the Bereans. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, 2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, "Cornelius! ...Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God." Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. Witnesses do one thing: seek to persuade others of their testimony. Jesus is the true light which gives light to everyone coming into the world. If man is in darkness Christ is the Light. "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." Jesus has been lifted up. He is the light. Men can resist the light. Men can resist the drawing. Jesus went to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is now here and is convicting the WORLD of sin, righteousness, and judgement. The Holy Spirit has a convicting ministry, Jesus is drawing all men to Himself, Jesus is the Light the True Light shining to every man in the world. Oh. What about preaching the gospel and persuasion? Some seem to deny that there is any soul winning or persuading men as to the gospel. Why do it when they are unable to hear and respond apart from sovereign regeneration and Irresistable Grace imposed? If one must be regenerated and then made to believe, then persuading someone as to the truth of the gospel really doesn't have a purpose in evangelism; preaching it seems pointless (men can't understand, are unable to hear and respond). There is no persuading or convincing the unregenerate sinner and it really would be a waste of time to do so. I guess those who believe such doctrine could merely be content to give a short gospel message and see if God is going to do his trick and "effectually call" his elect. Why answer the questions of an unbeliever or seek to persuade them? They can't understand apart from imposed religion! Imagine, a Calvinist trying to persuade an unbeliever. Why would he act contrarily to his most sacred doctrines? What would provoke them to answer the questions of a dead man? Why would they seek to persuade one who does not have ears to hear? If God uses the gospel to effect regeneration in His elect, why do Calvinists waste their time in many extra words trying to convince others of the gospel in their presentations? These synergistic pleas are superfluous and their time could be better spent trying to find God imposing regeneration on His elect, rather than wasting time on the helpless and doomed reprobate! If after a very brief gospel message the person does not respond, well either 1) he is elect and God is not ready to effectually call him with His irresisitable grace imposition at this time or 2) he is unelect, reprobate, bound to glorify God by frying for eternity. Either way, persuasion is meaningless for it is falling on deaf, totally inable ears. Why don't they just go on to the next one to see if they are elect and if God is ready to effectually call them by irresistible grace imposed? Why do they wax eloquent, as if their synergistic pleas could be regarded? It is disingenuous! God... has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Imagine imploring and beseeching a deaf and blind person with your heartfelt speech. What use is it? This goes against all God given reason. The deductionistic doctrines of Traditionalism are not biblical. Their arguments with their many prooftexts are a hodge-podge of special pleading and illegitamate totality and identity transfers. Not one clear scripture bears them out. The Traditionalist first got his doctrine from his theological deduction, then looked to the scriptures for support. There is not a single, clear passage stating that the gospel message, that enjoins the whole world to believe on Christ for eternal life, cannot be believed by humanity apart from God's sovereign forceable imposition. Not ONE PASSAGE states such a thing! But passage after passage shows that not only do we see men being given the legitamate responsibility to believe, we see them seeking after God and being persuaded! How can God make someone responsible for that which he cannot do? That is like throwing an infant in the fires of Molech for not being able to change his own diaper. Paul expended himself for Christ doing exactly this: disputing and persuading in the attempt to win people to Christ. As soon as he was converted, Paul "confounded the Jews...at Damascus proving that this is very Christ..."(Acts 9:22). Everywhere he went Paul "disputed...in the synagogue...and in the market daily..." (Acts 17:17). The last chapter of Acts tells us that even under house arrest in Rome, Paul was still at it: "...there came many to him, ... to whom he expounded... persuading them concerning Jesus..." (Acts 28:23). For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; 20 and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law(not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; 22 to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. The only way that a Traditionalist can emulate Paul here is to spurn the deadly flower of his theology. Jodie Sawyer opened up a can of worms in a comment on VeritasRedux Scroll Down for Jodie’s comments. In her remarks she discussed the minimum content of the gospel, that when believed, receives eternal life. She next wrote a good article on it Content of the Offer of Eternal Life. Having merely read her post once, and not studied it, I would say that I agree with her position. What I want to do here is post some bare bones affirmations of my soteriology. There may be some or many that you do not agree with. I have written extensively on this position, and I would be more than happy to field your questions, clarify, or (less-so) read your obejections, which I could then comment on as well. "...and that believing ye might have life through his name" 1) Christ's "name" is everything who He actually is. This "name" represents everything who He TRULY is. Fill in ALL true Christology here: Everything that the Bible reveals Jesus to truly be and have done and everything that Jesus truly is that is not revealed in the Bible. 2) It is by virtue of His "name" (everything that He truly is and has done) that we can have eternal life. It is who He is and what He has done that has qualified Him as the Guarantor of eternal life to the believer in Him for it. It is His name that gives Him the authority and the ability to dispense eternal life. 3) Jesus is uniquely qualified to dispense eternal life by virtue of His name. On this authority He may dispense it to whomever He wishes. It is through His wisdom and council with God the Father that they have decided to dispense eternal life to those and only those who believe in Jesus for this gift. And in His name Gentiles will trust. 4) To this one condition of appropriating the gift of eternal life (faith in Jesus for it) God has been pleased to add no other. …knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified…. This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness… Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure. 5) Shorthand for faith in Jesus is to believe that Jesus is the Christ (in the Johannine sense) which as to content is that as the Christ Jesus is the Guarantor of eternal life to all who simply believe in Him for it. Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world." You remember it, don’t you? “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?’” (John 11:25-26). Her reply is a declaration that she believes Him to be the Christ. Martha said, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world” (11:27). Notice here that to believe that Jesus is the Christ means to believe that He guarantees resurrection and eternal life to every believer. But now let us look at John 4. In that famous passage we have the Samaritans saying to the woman who had encountered Jesus, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). Observe that the common denominator to both passages is the term “Christ.” On Martha’s lips He is “the Christ, the Son of God,” and on the lips of the Samaritans He is “the Christ, the Savior of the world.” This is not an accidental or insignificant difference. In Jewish prophecy and theology the promised Christ was also the Son of God—that is, He was to be a divine person. Recall the words of Isaiah: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given…and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (9:6-7). But in Samaritan theology, the Messiah was thought of as a prophet and the woman at the well is led to faith through our Lord’s prophetic ability to know her life. Her words, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet” (4:19) are a first step in the direction of recognizing Him as the Christ. There is no evidence that she or the other Samaritans understood the deity of our Lord. But they did believe that he was the Christ. And John tells us in his first epistle that “whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (5:1)! A full theology of His person is not necessary to salvation. If we believe that Jesus is the One who guarantees our eternal destiny, we have believed all we absolutely have to believe in order to be saved. 6) Believing that Jesus is the Christ (in the Johannine sense) is the only soteriologically necessary condition for eternal life. 7) Most people will not find this bare proposition persuasive. They will require more information and quite possible need some of their questions answered. This would be a logical necessity in order to persuade them that the salvific proposition is true. 8) Most people do not need every question that they may have answered before they are persuaded as to the truth of the salvific proposition. Answers to other questions or other information given may be sufficient to persuade one that the salvific proposition is true. 9) The assent to orthodox theology in general or Christology in specific, as important as this is to the regenerate believer, is no litmus test for assurance of one's soteriological salvation. The only basis for both the reception of eternal life and assurance of eternal life is believing in Jesus, who through His name, has given the promise to Guarantee eternal life to all who believe in Him for it. 10) Misconceptions are a part of life. It is impossible to clear up every misconception concerning theology and should not be attempted. The most spiritual man on earth at the present time without a doubt has some misconceptions concerning the real nature of theology. 11) Children have many misconceptions as well but as the Bible makes clear, only those who receive the kingdom of God as little children will enter. The theif on the cross said, “Lord, remember me”; and Jesus replied, “Today you shall be with Me in paradise.” After a life of crime, one of the three worst criminals in the nation – Barabbas had been released – this thief received assurance of Heaven. 12) Misconceptions about the Person and work of Jesus Christ is peripheral to the salvific proposition as a soteriological necessity. Ignorance about Christological doctrine can prevent one from being persuaded as to the salvific proposition, but it will never prevent one from the reception of eternal life if one is persuaded as to the salvific proposition. 13) Misconceptions about Jesus do not necessitate such a one who may hold to them to be referring to a "different" Jesus. If a test to one's particular reference to an identity be that he not hold any misconceptions about this identity then specific reference to anyone would be made impossible. For what guarantee does one have that his conceptions about the person, that through his reference he intends to identify, are correct? 14) One fact about a reference could be all that is necessary to limit identity, though one fact may not be enough. There seem to be multiple facts in the salvific proposition and not just one. "Believe that Jesus is the Guarantor of eternal life to the believer in Him for it." Limit #1: the name of the reference is Jesus. Limit #2: the referent is a guarantor of something. Limit #3: the referent dispenses eternal life. Limit #4: this eternal life is dispensed on the basis of faith in the referent for the purpose of appropriating said eternal life. There is only one Person in the universe who dispenses and guarantees eternal life to the believer in Him for it; the name of this referent is Jesus. This information satisfactorily identifies and limits reference to the true Jesus Christ. The facts contained in the salvific proposition are of sufficient nature as to specifically limit the identity of its reference to the 2cd Person of the Trinity, God the Son, Jesus Christ. 15) Belief in Jesus Christ for anything else but the intended gift of eternal life will not necessarily be appropriated. The gift that Jesus guarantees in the salvific proposition is "eternal life" and not temporal deliverance, assured positive answer to prayer, or physical blessings. The faith in Jesus is for the purpose of appropriating the intended gift of eternal life. 15) The evangelist's endeavor is to get the potential convert to the point where he will entrust his eternal well-being to Jesus. It is to be used of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God to persuade such a one that Jesus guarantees his eternity. He does this by preaching the gospel message and other facts relating to Jesus, answering questions, etc. Our job in evangelism is to get the potential convert to believe in Jesus, the Guarantor of resurrection and eternal life to the believer in Him. Anything we do or say must point to Jesus and His promise to dispense eternal life to the mere believer in Him for it. Traditionalists are very funny to watch, often funny to read, yet, to use a phrase from Daniel of Doulogos, we must watch in "morbid fascination". Take for instance Jonathan Moorhead's discussion over at his blog. He wants to talk about "certainty" (something those of the Reformed persuasion necessarily can't have with relation to their knowledge of their own election or reprobation) and "boasting" as if someone receiving a free gift can now boast. He seems to not realize that there is a difference between legitamate boasting and absurd boasting. That we receive eternal life through the instrumentality of our faith precludes us from legitamate boasting; faith is not a work, as it is held in Reformed theology, but the intermediate agency, the instrument by which we receive the absolutely free gift of eternal life. In his discussion of certainty, he implies that the word "certain" meant something different to Calvin than it does in "post-enlightenment" thought. The anti-intellectual musings here are repugnant! He asks what certainty is. My dictionaries all say that it is "freedom from doubt" which has resulted from being convinced/persuaded upon consideration of communication and/or evidence. (By the way, being convinced that something is true passively brings faith which IS certainty--freedom from doubts). Of course he is just rehashing the same position of the Traditionalistic religion: that one can have "infallible assurance" yet at the same time cannot be 'certain' (in the post-enlightenment sense, lol) that one has eternal life. If this is not absurd, please tell me what is. In the comment thread I quoted John Calvin, who is at variance with modern Traditional doctrine and thought in these senses: Calvin's definition of faith and his declaration on where assurance comes from is lightyears away from the modern anti-intellectual thoughts on the same. What was Jonathan's response? Certainty ≠ freedom from doubt but = something less than being certain. Click on the link above and view the absurdities. Next we have the newest post by Jon Moorhead concerning boasting (which will quickly turn into a discussion on the nature of what 'faith' is; actually it is already turning out that way) where he says that to believe in the gospel is tantamount to "works-salvation". Along the lines of our beloved Rose~, who has instituted a blogger award for not being pig-headed, I must seriously consider instituting an award for blatant absurdity. The Bible says that we receive the Spirit by "the hearing of faith" (Gal 3:2, 5); that we are in the present state of already having been saved (the Greek perfect-periphrastic participle in Eph 2:8) through faith; that faith is in contradistinction from works (Eph 2:9); that boasting is precluded by "the law of faith" (Rom 3:27). No. But believing the gospel for eternal life is works-salvation where we can legitamately boast that we saved ourselves, so goes Jon's logic. Lastly, we have a chat room, message board thread that I want you to view. I often check where people are linking to my blog from and I found this thread. It is at Derek Webb's message board. Anyone Here a Zane Hodges fan? Many Traditionalists rightly distance themselves with this statement, finding it utterly repulsive and anti-biblical. In this thread the contributers are arguing that salvation is conditioned on works, but these works are non-meritorious. Where does that unbiblical and absurd notion come from? Gerstner, in his book attacking dispensationalists, writes that virtually all dispensationalists do not see the elementary difference between non-meritorious "requirements," "conditions," "necessary obligations," "indispensable duties," and "musts," as the natural outworking of true faith, in distinction from faith in the Savior plus meritorious works as the very basis of salvation (Wrongly Dividing... 226). Guilty as charged! I confess, I do not see this distinction in Scripture. In fact it isn’t there. It exists in Classical Calvinist/Lordship Salvation theology, but not in the Bible. Works are works; they either are or are not necessary for salvation. With the apostle Paul, I say they are not; we are saved "by grace…through faith…not of works" (Eph 2:8-9). If salvation is in any sense conditioned on works then "grace is no longer grace" (Rom 11:6).

2019-04-19T08:22:17Z

http://free-grace.blogspot.com/2006/02/

March 28, 2017 The news has been full of people awakening to an unexpected reality, all the way from the water warriors to the President of the United States. In this issue, we explore a few of the new ways North Americans have suddenly found themselves awake and on unfamiliar ground. But first the news. On Friday, March 25th, the Atlantic Sierra Chapter and Cornell Law School’s Environmental Law Society held a conference on matters regarding water and water law, for the benefit of activists and the general public. The proceedings were videographed and are peresented here. Join us to find out how solar can work for residents of Schuyler County while enjoying beer from Heavily Brewing Company or wine from Damiani Wine Cellars. At both events you will have the opportunity to meet installers, ask questions and learn whether solar is right for you. Our volunteers will be on hand to discuss their experience going solar for anyone interested in hearing how their neighbors have gone solar. At the event you will be able to sign up and get your home assessed FREE of chargethere’s nothing to lose by signing up and there is no commitment once you do. If you want to come to the event and just meet installers before making any decisions that’s okay- this event is free and open to the public. We’ll bring the education, Damiani Heavily have the drinks and atmosphere, we’re just missing you! To Change Everything, We Need Everyone. This was the rallying call of the 2014 People’s Climate March in New York City, and it continues to inspire the climate movement across the United States. In New York State, Governor Cuomo was influenced by tens of thousands of NY residents who spoke out against “fracking” for natural gas, such that he and the Department of Environmental Conservation made it illegal in our state in Dec. 2014. “We need everyone” to speak out for renewable energy and the jobs that it will create, and against the public health hazards and climate crisis created by fossil fuel use, processing and transport. Mark Dunlea is chair of the Green Education and Legal Fund and helps coordinate the statewide campaign to transition to 100% renewables in NYS by 2030. He will provide an update on state efforts around renewable energy, including a new study just announced by the Governor. He will also discuss state legislation for a carbon tax; the Attorney General’s effort to investigate the fossil fuel industry role in promoting climate denial; divesting the state pension funds from fossil fuels; and Governor Cuomo’s $7.6 billion bailout of the nuclear industry. Elizabeth (Betta) Broad is the Outreach Director for the New Yorkers for Clean Power campaign, working to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy economy in New York State. She will provide information on some of NYCP’s current priorities including on-the-ground organizing and expansion of electric vehicles, community solar, renewable heating and cooling and energy efficiency. She will also give an update on her work with Citizens for Local Power to create a Community Choice Aggregation program in the Mid-Hudson. A resident of Kingston, she serves on the Kingston Conservation Advisory Council, the Kingston Climate Smart Commission and the Ulster Climate Smart Committee. Following the main speakers and Q&A on their presentations, local organizations will provide concrete opportunities for everyone to take action to make a difference at local, state and federal levels. Rochester People’s Climate Coalition (RPCC) is composed of over 100 local business, non-profit, labor, faith, and grassroots and organizations. RPCC unites these local organizations to address the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, transition to a clean energy economy, and prepare for the impacts of global warming. Through coordinated, collaborative efforts, we will create a more environmentally just and sustainable community. [The Daily Public Editors Note – After a decades old war by certain sectors of the “pay to play” private development community on the State Environmental Quality Review Act SEQRA, it looks like new rules are going to bring this critical environmental and social protection tool to its knees. It is after all, the Age of the anti-regulatory Trump-o-mania, and it is revealing and sad that his home state, New York, which once was a national leader in environmental protection, is now leading the way to the abolishment of environmental safeguards. The proposed new SEQRA rules makes NY way ahead in the game of de-regulating environmental concerns in favor of more unfettered development and profit taking. We know where our leaders stand. These new rules will effect how buildings, infrastructure, and energy pipelines are built. Abolishing protections and environmental and community character are, well, almost vanished. When a government agency talks about “streamlining” environmental regulations, and increasing “speed and efficiency” and “regulatory certainty for applicants and municipalities,” you can be certain that the effect (if not the conscious intent) will be decreased environmental protections and a reduction in the public’s ability to meaningfully participate in the decision-making process. That is precisely what will occur if the current version of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s proposed amendments to the State Environmental Quality Review Act’s regulations are adopted without significant changes. The last thing New York should be doing is weakening its environmental review process when – on the national level – the Trump Administration is intent on repealing environmental regulations, weakening environmental enforcement, and allowing more fossil fuel production. [For example, see this and this.] If you agree that NYS should be strengthening, not undermining, its environmental laws, I urge you to analyze the proposed amendments to the SEQR regulations, submit written comments by May 19, 2017 to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Environmental Permits, Attn: James J. Eldred, Environmental Analyst, 625 Broadway, Albany, New York 12233-1750 or by e-mail to: seqra617@dec.ny.gov, and, if possible, participate at the public hearing to be held on March 31, 2017 at 1:00 pm at 625 Broadway, Albany, New York, Public Assembly Room 129. 1. THE primary motivation behind the proposed amendments appears to be a desire to add categories of projects and activities not subject to review under SEQRA. The DEC’s SEQR rulemaking continues the same trajectory it has been on for decades: substantially increasing the types of actions and projects that do not have to undergo any SEQRA review (“Type II actions”), while identifying no new categories of activities presumed to have a significant adverse environmental impact and require an environmental impact statement (“Type I actions”). Borger Station: What’s Up With That?? Katie Quinn-Jacobs and Elisa Evett drove carefully up and down the roads in the upscale Ellis Hollow community counting the houses. They couldn’t quite believe it when they realized that 330 homes were within a 2 km radius of the Borger Station, a major gas compressor facility. Ellis Hollow, a bedroom community for Cornell University, has been living with a sleeping giant in its midst for decades. The 23,000+ horsepower Borger Station gas compressor, a facility consisting of two older Dresser Clark 5800 hp turbines and one newer Solar Taurus Model 12,126 hp turbine, has been running below capacity for years moving an un-specified volume of gas through the Dominion Pipeline from November to March to meet the demands of National Grid gas customers during the winter months. In fact, this is unassuming looking compressor facility is actually permitted to emit more than 250 tons/year of nitrogen oxides, thus putting it well over the 100 tons/year threshold and categorizing it as a Title V or major facility. But changes are coming to Ellis Hollow due to the recent approval of the Dominion New Market expansion which will allow 100,000,000 cubic feet of additional gas to be pushed through this 50+ year old pipeline each and every day. Some time in the next few months, the slumbering giant will awake belching forth not only many tons of nitrogen oxides, but also greenhouse gases, along with fine particulates, and toxic compounds such as formaldehyde and benzene in levels that have been shown to be a threat to health – especially children’s. A community center that is home to a day care center, swimming pool, and several summer camps, is just down the road from Borger. Ironically, the residents of Ellis Hollow who will be breathing this toxic cocktail, don’t even have access to gas for their own home heating! Because the changes at Borger didn’t require a new permit from the Town of Dryden or from the NY DEC, most residents were unaware of the expansion until a feisty group of mothers and grandmothers got involved. In recent months, Katie and Elisa coordinated a team of women organizing under the banner of the non-profit organization Mothers Out Front. The community organizing team worked to get the word out to local residents and to enlist the cooperation of local authorities to oppose the gas expansion and to help conduct health studies and air quality monitoring in order to establish a pre-expansion baseline. Although they haven’t been able to stop the project, they have made headway in enlisting the help of the Dryden Town Board and local residents in advocating for questions to be answered and data to be collected so the community can be informed. There are two new proposed solar farms in Dryden. They are a small part of a big change—a turn away from fossil fuel burning toward energy from the sun. If you are a Dryden resident and can attend the Board Meeting at the Town Hall on March 30th, 7:00 pm, we would most welcome your presence. Time is short and they need to know that lots of people stand behind this important decision. Without this we have no hope of achieving carbon emission reduction goals set by the town, Tompkins County, or NYS. The decision will be made by the Board on March 30th. Please sign now whether or not you are a Dryden resident If you are a Dryden resident and can attend the Board Meeting at the Town Hall on March 30th, 7:00 pm, we would most welcome your presence. Whether or not you are a resident of Dryden, please go to “Solar Energy Petition ” and add your name to our message to the Dryden Town Board to go forward now . Time is short and they need to know that lots of people stand behind this important decision. Without this we have no hope of achieving carbon emission reduction goals set by the town, Tompkins County, or NYS. The decision will be made by the Board on March 30th. We, the undersigned, ask the Dryden Town Board to continue their support of large scale solar development. With global warming delivering climate change to our doorstep, the need to stop fossil fuel build-out is critical. Because the siting of solar development is contingent on nearby connection to the electric grid, we need to make the available sites work. Homeowners and others are concerned not only about the visual impact of large acreage solar, but also the impact on wildlife and recreation. Therefore we also ask that, while continuing to support this project, the Town Board members consider the concerns of residents and require the developers to mitigate the visual impacts with performance specifications for good screening of the panels along property lines adjacent to houses, roads, and the cemetery. If allowable within the constraints of fencing requirements, access by wildlife would be beneficial. How will Cornell get to a Carbon Neutral goal by 2035? Come and find out. It’s an ambitious plan worth learning about. ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell’s Senior Leaders Climate Action Group (SLCAG) will host a public forum Tuesday, March 28, to discuss its report, “Options for Achieving a Carbon Neutral Campus by 2035,” from 4:30 to 6PM at the Hotel Ithaca, 222 S. Cayuga St. The event is free and open to the public. Released in the fall, the report builds off Cornell University’s existing Climate Action Plan, further outlining solutions to reduce energy demands and increase clean energy supply. Following the presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session for community members. Sarah Zemanick, director of the Campus Sustainability Office. As I have moved about the Southern Tier since Jan. 20, 2017, I have heard several people refer to some kind of listening process as a key in organizing. Then they usually say if it weren’t so atrociously time consuming, they’d be all over it. I would like to address this concern. It is true that the foundation of all organizing is the art of listening. Not just because it shows respect for the people whose interest you require. Not because it flatters them. Listening is not a tactic or a means of manipulating people. It is a means of organizing them. Helping them develop their power. You say you’re worried about ______. What could be changed that would make you feel better about that? Who would make that decision? What would it take to get them to see it your way? Yes, for most people, it’s a stirring experience. They will think thoughts they’ve never thought before, see connections they hadn’t seen before, and surprise themselves by saying things they didn’t know they knew. They will be intellectually excited. “Outside Agitator” is the name of a scapegoat people in power love to accuse whenever constituents challenge their control. They’re not far off, but it’s actually the inside agitator, the person’s own self-organizing, that’s causing all the trouble. There’s not much any politician can do about that—at least, not in a free society. In our culture, the individual citizen’s power lies dormant, like the pale sprout inside an acorn. What makes it start to itch and twitch and push its way to the surface is the realization that citizenship comes with a constitutional right to organize for change. It is the role of the organizer to pose the questions that awaken this power—tell me what you’re up against; why is that; who else feels this way; and what could be done to change it? This probing is the nascent, revolutionary act of organizing: of you challenging another person to organize her/himself. In working over these seemingly simple questions, a person crosses a threshold that cannot be uncrossed; for, once someone sees and feels his or her rightful place in a democracy, things are just different. For good. Wacky Winter Weather: Record Warmth in Buffalo and U.S. – Linked to Global Warming? Save The Date: DISTINGUISHED LECTURE: “Climate Change Denial in the Age of Trump,” Dr. Michael Mann, Climate Scientist and Author of “The Madhouse Effect,” illustrated by cartoonist Tom Toles. Come Earth Day, April 22, the extraordinary story of Standing Rock will hit the big screen at the Tribeca Film Festival. “AWAKE, A Dream from Standing Rock” is a documentary that captures the indigenous-led resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Josh Fox, who shed light on the impacts of fracking in his documentary Gasland and its sequel, Gasland 2, is directing this film alongside James Spione (“Silenced”) and Myron Dewey, who owns Digital Smoke Signals, a social media film company that tells stories through indigenous eyes. Actress Shailene Woodley (“Big Little Lies”) is the film’s executive producer. The documentary’s trailer was released Friday (March 24). “What’s going on here at Standing Rock isn’t just about Standing Rock,” one man says in the trailer. “It’s not just about stopping a pipeline. This is about the survival of humanity.” The trailer revolves primarily around the events of November 2 where militarized police pepper sprayed, deployed tear gas and shot non-lethal ammunition against water protectors along Cantapeta Creek during a water ceremony. CALGARY – President Donald Trump’s administration approved TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, cheering the oil industry and angering environmentalists even as further hurdles for the controversial project loom. “Transcanada will finally be allowed to complete this long-overdue project with efficiency and with speed,” Trump said in the Oval Office before turning to ask TransCanada CEO Russell Girling when construction would start. OSLO, March 27 (Reuters) – Standing Rock Sioux tribe representatives [met] the ethics watchdog for Norway’s $915 billion sovereign wealth fund on Monday over a U.S. oil pipeline, a watchdog official said on Monday. On Sunday, Norway’s largest bank DNB sold its share of loans funding the Dakota Access oil pipeline, ending its involvement in a project that has faced strong opposition from Native Americans and environmental groups. The pipeline will move crude oil from the U.S. Northern Plains to the Midwest and then on to the Gulf of Mexico. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund holds $248 million in bonds of Energy Transfer Partners LP, which is leading the pipeline project. The fund has an ethical profile and is not allowed to invest in companies that breach certain guidelines regarding the environment, human rights and corruption, among other criteria. “We will be meeting them today. They have asked for a meeting and said they would like to meet us,” Eli Ane Lund, head of the secretariat of the fund’s Council on Ethics, told Reuters, declining to give further details. A meeting with the watchdog does not mean the fund is considering excluding a company. Representatives from non-governmental organisations often meet with Council on Ethics officials. The fund invests in close to 9,000 companies worldwide. BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A December oil pipeline spill in western North Dakota might have been three times larger than first estimated and among the biggest in state history, a state environmental expert said Friday. About 530,000 gallons of oil is now believed to have spilled from the Belle Fourche Pipeline that was likely ruptured by a slumping hillside about 16 miles northwest of Belfield in Billings County, Health Department environmental scientist Bill Seuss said. The earlier estimate was about 176,000 gallons. No decision has been made on any fines against Wyoming-based True Cos., which operates the pipeline. The company says it is committed to cleaning up the spill and that the job is about 80 percent done. “There’s no timeline for completion, spokeswoman Wendy Owen said. “We will be there until it is” done. A company’s efforts to clean up after an oil spill are a large factor in how much of a fine is levied, according to Seuss. Mattis has long espoused the position that the armed forces, for a host of reasons, need to cut dependence on fossil fuels and explore renewable energy where it makes sense. He had also, as commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command in 2010, signed off on the Joint Operating Environment , which lists climate change as one of the security threats the military expected to confront over the next 25 years. THE DEATH OF EXPERTISE The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters By Tom Nichols 252 pages. Oxford University Press. $24.95. Donald J. Trump’s taste for advisers with little or no government experience; his selection of cabinet members like Scott Pruitt and Rick Perry, who have expressed outright hostility to the agencies they now oversee; and the slow pace of making senior-level appointments in high-profile departments like State, Treasury and Homeland Security — all speak to the new president’s disregard for policy expertise and knowledge, just as his own election victory underscores many voters’ scorn for experience. This is part of a larger wave of anti-rationalism that has been accelerating for years — manifested in the growing ascendance of emotion over reason in public debates, the blurring of lines among fact and opinion and lies, and denialism in the face of scientific findings about climate change and vaccination. “The Death of Expertise” turns out to be an unexceptional book about an important subject. The volume is useful in its way, providing an overview of just how we arrived at this distressing state of affairs. But it’s more of a flat-footed compendium than an original work, pulling together examples from recent news stories while iterating arguments explored in more depth in books like Al Gore’s “The Assault on Reason,” Susan Jacoby’s “The Age of American Unreason,” Robert Hughes’s “Culture of Complaint” and, of course, Richard Hofstadter’s 1963 classic, “Anti-Intellectualism in American Life.” Nichols’s source notes are one of the highlights of the volume, pointing the reader to more illuminating books and articles. Further reading: ” …Though not originally written for Americans, “Democracy in America” must always remain a work of engrossing and constantly increasing interest to citizens of the United States as the first philosophic and comprehensive view of our society, institutions, and destiny. No one can rise even from the most cursory perusal without clearer insight and more patriotic appreciation of the blessings of liberty protected by law, nor without encouragement for the stability and perpetuity of the Republic. The causes which appeared to M. de Tocqueville to menace both, have gone. The despotism of public opinion, the tyranny of majorities, the absence of intellectual freedom which seemed to him to degrade administration and bring statesmanship, learning, and literature to the level of the lowest, are no longer considered. The violence of party spirit has been mitigated, and the judgment of the wise is not subordinated to the prejudices of the ignorant. A senior member of the Trump administration’s beachhead team at the EPA unexpectedly resigned over concerns of the “integrity” of political appointees and career employees. David Schnare was expected to take a top post at EPA, but he abruptly resigned March 15th. It wasn’t for personal reasons, but over what he called a “question of integrity.” Schnare resigned with the title of assistant deputy administrator. “This wasn’t about me being angry or upset,” Schnare told The Daily Caller News Foundation, saying his resignation had a “much deeper story” than he was willing to disclose at the time. Schnare didn’t go into detail, but said he would soon write about the events that led to his resignation. His comments, however, suggested infighting at EPA between transition officials, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s inner circle and career employees. Schnare said the White House is looking into the circumstances surrounding his resignation. The EPA did not respond to The DCNF’s request for comment. Reports already suggested tension between President Donald Trump’s political appointees and EPA career staff. Last month, FracTracker Alliance featured a blog entry and map exploring the controversy around National Fuel’s proposed Northern Access Pipeline (NAPL) project, shown in the map below. The proposed project, which has already received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), is still awaiting another decision by April 7, 2017 — Section 401 Water Quality Certification. By that date, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) must give either final approval, or else deny the project. The NAPL project includes the construction of 97-mile-long pipeline to bring fracked Marcellus gas through New York State, and into Canada. The project also involves construction of a variety of related major infrastructure projects, including a gas dehydration facility, and a ten-fold expansion of the capacity of the Porterville Compressor Station located at the northern terminus of the proposed pipeline, in Erie County, NY. On three consecutive days in early February, 2017, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) held hearings in Western New York to gather input about the NAPL project. On February 7th, the day of the first meeting at Saint Bonaventure University in Allegany County, NY, an alarming — and yet to be fully reported — incident widely considered to be a gas leak, occurred at, or near, the Porterville Compressor Station. The incident is thought to be connected to the planned upgrades to the facility, but was not even mentioned as a concern during the public meetings relating to the Northern Access Pipeline in the subsequent hours and days. What follows is a story of poor communication between the utility company, first responders, and local residents, resulting in confusion and even panic, and has yet to be conclusively explained to the general public. We know that a little past 10 AM on February 7th, people in the villages of Elma and East Aurora, within about a mile of the Porterville Compressor Station, reported strong odors of gas. They filed complaints with the local gas utility (National Fuel), and the local 911 center, which referred the calls to the local Elma Fire Department. The fire department went to the Porterville Compressor station to investigate, remembering a similar incident from a few years earlier. At the compressor station, representatives from National Fuel, the operator of the compressor station, assured the fire company that they were conducting a routine flushing of an odorant line, and the situation was under control, so the fire company departed. Residents in the area became more alarmed when they noticed that the odor was stronger outside their buildings than inside them. National Fuel then ordered many residents to evacuate their homes. The East Aurora police facilitated the evacuation and instructed residents to gather in the East Aurora Library not far from those homes. Nearby businesses, such as Fisher Price, headquartered in East Aurora, chose to send their employees home for the day, due to the offensive odor and perceived risks. Around 11:30 in the morning, up to 200 clients at Suburban Adult Services, Inc. (SASi), were evacuated to the Jamison Road Fire Station, where they remained until around 3 PM that afternoon. Over 200 reports were received, some from as far away as Orchard Park, eight miles down-wind of the compressor station. After East Aurora elementary and middle schools placed complaints, National Fuel told them to evacuate students and staff from their buildings. Realizing that the smell was stronger outside than inside the building, school leaders revised their plans, and started to get buses ready to transport student to the high school, where there had not been reports of the odor. Before the buses could load, however, the police department notified the school that the gas leak had been repaired, and that there was no need to evacuate. School officials then activated the school’s air circulation system to rid the building of the fumes. ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland lawmakers voted Monday to ban hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas, a process better known as fracking. The Senate voted 35-10 for a measure that already has been approved by the House. That sends the bill to Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who supports the ban. Fracking isn’t being done in Maryland now, but a moratorium on issuing permits ends in October. Fracking opponents cited health and environmental concerns for not allowing the drilling process to ever happen in the state. The drilling technique forces pressurized water and chemicals underground to break up the rock and release the gas. Critics say the process and disposal of tainted wastewater pose risks of water and air pollution, earthquakes and property devaluation. India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its thirty-seventh flight (PSLV-C35), launches the 371 kg SCATSAT-1 for weather related studies and seven co-passenger satellites into polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). Co-passenger satellites are ALSAT-1B, ALSAT-2B, ALSAT-1N from Algeria, NLS-19 from Canada and Pathfinder-1 from USA as well as two satellites PRATHAM from IIT Bombay and PISAT from PES University, Bengaluru. For the first time, under the impetus of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the French Space Agency (CNES), space agencies of more than 60 countries agreed to engage their satellites, to coordinate their methods and their data to monitor human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. The COP21 climate conference held in Paris last December acted as a wake-up call in this context. Without satellites, the reality of global warming would not have been recognised and the subsequent historic agreement at the United Nations headquarters in New York on April 22, 2016 would not have been signed. Out of the 50 essential climate variables being monitored today, 26 – including rising sea level, sea ice extent and greenhouse gas concentrations in all layers of the atmosphere – can be measured only from space. The key to effectively implementing the Paris Agreement lies in the ability to verify that nations are fulfilling their commitments to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Only satellites can do that. Invited to New Delhi by ISRO and CNES on April 3, 2016, the world’s space agencies decided to establish “an independent, international system” to centralise data from their Earth-observing satellites through the ‘New Delhi Declaration’ that officially came into effect on May 16, 2016. The goal now will be to inter calibrate these satellite data so that they can be combined and compared over time. In other words, it is to make the transition to closely coordinated and easily accessible ‘big space data’. There are over 7,000 gas-filled bubbles in remote parts of Siberia that are set to explode, scientists have discovered. Following extensive field expeditions and satellite surveys, researchers in Russia have identified thousands of bulging bumps in the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas – far more than they had expected. Alexey Titovsky, director of Yamal department for science and innovation, told the Siberian Times that understanding the bubbles is of paramount important to assessing the risk they pose. In July last year, scientists released footage of the ground on Bely Island wobbling underfoot. When they punctured them, methane and carbon dioxide was released. It is thought an abnormally warm summer had caused the permafrost to thaw, leading to the release of methane that had been locked up in the ground. At present, it is thought this process is behind the emergence of the numerous craters that have appeared over recent years – including the ‘gateway to the underworld’ crater near Batagaiin. Titovsky said the 7,000 bulging bumps identified could also collapse into craters: “At first such a bump is a bubble, or ‘bulgunyakh’ in the local Yakut language. With time the bubble explodes, releasing gas. This is how gigantic funnels form. Thawing permafrost as a result of global warming is expected to lead to more methane release in the future, a spokesman from the Ural branch of Russian Academy of Science said. “An abnormally warm summer in 2016 on the Yamal peninsula must have added to the process,” they added. On Bely Island, scientists found methane was 1,000 times above normal, while CO2 was around 25 times higher. “As we took off a layer of grass and soil, a fountain of gas erupted,” one of the scientists working at the site explained. The release of methane from the thawing permafrost is of huge concern to climate scientists. Max Holmes, the deputy director and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Centre, told IBTimes UK it could lead to the collapse of human infrastructures, like roads and towns, as well as creating a feedback cycle that results in even more warming. While the White House is not expected to explicitly say the United States is withdrawing from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, and people familiar with the White House deliberations say Mr. Trump has not decided whether to do so, the policy reversals would make it virtually impossible to meet the emissions reduction goals set by the Obama administration under the international agreement. In an announcement that could come as soon as Thursday or as late as next month, according to people familiar with the White House’s planning, Mr. Trump will order Mr. Pruitt to withdraw and rewrite a set of Obama-era regulations known as the Clean Power Plan, according to a draft document obtained by The New York Times. The Obama rule was devised to shut down hundreds of heavily polluting coal-fired power plants and freeze construction of new coal plants, while replacing them with vast wind and solar farms. The draft also lays out options for legally blocking or weakening about a half-dozen additional Obama-era executive orders and policies on climate change. Experts in environmental law say it will not be possible for Mr. Trump to quickly or simply roll back the most substantive elements of Mr. Obama’s climate change regulations, noting that the process presents a steep legal challenge that could take many years and is likely to end up before the Supreme Court. Economists are skeptical that a rollback of the rules would restore lost coal jobs because the demand for coal has been steadily shrinking for years. Scientists and climate policy advocates around the world say they are watching the administration’s global warming actions and statements with deep worry. Many reacted with deep concern to Mr. Pruitt’s remarks this month that he did not believe carbon dioxide was a primary driver of climate change, a statement at odds with the global scientific consensus. They also noted the remarks last week by Mick Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, in justifying Mr. Trump’s proposed cuts to climate change research programs. It’s a safe assumption that most Americans have not heard of the US Chemical Safety Board. Donald Trump is certainly banking on that, since he proposed scrapping it in his recent budget proposal. But if the small agency is indeed de-funded, the results could be catastrophic—and we might be left wondering, as the bodies are counted after some large chemical disaster, why nobody was angry when the CSB went away. If Trump succeeds in de-funding the CSB, that’s work that will largely be left undone—in a nation with a creaking chemical-production infrastructure. It’s expensive to shutter old chemical plants because of remediation costs, and many are being extended past their planned lifetimes. The federal government doesn’t track chemical accidents—a small scandal in itself—but best estimates seem to indicate an uptick. The Deepwater Horizon blowout and the large explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, are the most memorable accidents of the past decade; in West, 15 people were killed and hundreds of homes were destroyed in 2013. Forty-six people have died in US chemical plants since then. This is why worker and safety advocates are panicked by the CSB’s potential de-funding. Since 1997, the IEA has produced an annual compilation of its most used statistics in a booklet easily accessible to all – the aptly named Key World Energy Statistics (KWES) – and the hugely successful booklet has become a constant companion of energy analysts and policy makers.

2019-04-22T20:33:31Z

https://www.thebanner.news/2017/05/13/banner-vol-3-no-13-awake/

Tia Keyes is Full Professor of physical chemistry at the School of Chemical Sciences, where she has been a member of academic staff since 2002. Her research interests lie in the fields of molecular spectroscopy & photophysics and in supramolecular & interfacial chemistry. She is particularly interested in applications of these fields to biological problems, including cell imaging/environmental mapping, cell capture, sensing and membrane mimetics. Tia’s research team are based between the School of Chemical Sciences and the National Biophotonics and Imaging Platform Ireland (NBIPI) www.nbipireland.ie/ which is housed within The National Centre for Sensor Research www.ncsr.ie Tia is an academic member of The Biomedical Diagnostics Institute (www.bdi.ie) and currently co-node leader (Britain and Ireland) on the Biophotonics4life consortium (http://www.biophotonicsworld.org. Tia is also currently coordinator of the National Biophotonics and Imaging Platform at DCU. Collaborators: Prof. Robert Forster, DCU, Prof. Alan M. Bond, Monash University, Australia, Dr Grace Morgan, UCD, Dr. James Rice, UCD. Dr. Tim McCormack, DKIT, Prof. Tony Wedd, University of Melbourne, Australia, Prof Niamh Moran RCSI, Dr Marc Devocelle, RCSI, Prof L Cronin, Univ Glasgow, UK, Prof. Mario Reuben, Univ. of Karlsruhe, Prof Conor Long, DCU, Prof Barry Lentz, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Prof Emmanuel Iwuoha, Univ. of Western Cape, Prof Vickie McKee, Univ of Loughborough, Prof Jane Nelson. Silvia Giordani is full Professor, Chair of Nanomaterials within the School of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University and is a member of the strategically important National Centre for Sensor research. She received her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Miami, USA and carried out postdoctoral research at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland and at the University of Trieste, Italy. In 2007 she received the prestigious President of Ireland Young Researcher Award and was a Research Assistant Professor at TCD from 2007 to 2013. Since September 2013 she has been leading the new “Nano Carbon Materials” research lab at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) and in December 2016 she was appointed Associate Professor in Organic Chemistry at the University of Turin, Italy. She has served as the thesis/dissertation advisor or mentor to 43 undergraduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral fellows. Prof. Giordani research interests are on the design, synthesis, and characterization of a wide range of nanomaterials that are intended for applications in smart and responsive bio-related nanotechnologies. She has authored approx. 100 peer-reviewed publications, reviews and book chapters, including Chemistry Society Reviews, Nature Nanotechnology, PNAS, Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, Small and J. Am. Chem. Soc. that collectively have received over 5,500 citations. Her results have been highlighted in journals such as Science, Nature, and New Scientist. She has presented her work at numerous conferences around the world e.g. in United States, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, India, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and across most of Europe. She was awarded the 2012 L’Oréal UK & Ireland Fellowship For Women in Science and in 2014 she has been invited to give a “Women in Science” Masterclass at the Royal Irish Academy. In 2018 she was awarded the William Evans Visiting Fellowship from the University of Otago (New Zealand) and is Visiting Scientist to the Bio-Nano Institute at Toyo University (Japan). Since April 2016 she is the Working Group Leader and Management Committee Member for the COST Action CA15107 “Multi‐Functional Nano‐Carbon Composite Materials Network” (MultiComp). Mary Pryce is an Associate Professor of inorganic chemistry at the School of Chemical Sciences. Her areas of research interest span: organometallic photochemistry, molecular spectroscopy, CO releasing molecules, singlet-oxygen generation, photo- and electro-catalytic routes to hydrogen generation and the reduction of carbon dioxide. The focus of the Pryce group is the photo- and electro-activation of organometallic complexes. We are currently working on novel materials which can deliver CO as site specific therapeutic agents or generate singlet oxygen. Also of interest are systems that can reduce water to hydrogen and carbon dioxide to useful chemical feedstocks. Of primary importance to all of these studies is an understanding of the photophysics of excited states. Time-resolved spectroscopy such as time-resolved infrared (TRIR) spectroscopy has been used to probe the early excited state dynamics. Such studies and the insights obtained are essential in the design of novel and more efficient systems for specific applications. Transient absorption spectroscopy provides essential information on the reactivity of the resulting photoproducts and matrix isolation techniques can help with the structural characterisation of these products. Andrew Kellett is principle investigator and Associate Professor of medicinal inorganic chemistry in the School of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University, Ireland. His group are based at the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology (NICB) and Nano-Bioanalytical Research Facility (NRF) and focus on discovery of metallodrug-nucleic acid interactions for biochemical and therapeutic application. He is coordinator of the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) Click Gene, the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Career Development Award Polynuclear Platinum (II) Biomaterials (PPtBio) for Antisense Therapeutic Application and Detection of Human Genetic Disease, and his lab is also supported by the Irish Research Council and the Science Foundation Ireland funded Synthesis and Solid-State Pharmaceutical Centre. He completed his B.Sc. (1st Class) in chemistry from NUI Maynooth, received his Ph.D. in 2007 under the guidance of Prof. M. Devereux at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and Dr. Maureen Walsh at the Institute of Technology Tallaght, Dublin (ITTD). He was then appointed as A.F. Graves Postdoctoral Fellow at the Focas Research Institute until 2011 and thereafter joined the School of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University. Dr. Kerrigan obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry from University College Dublin (1992-1996). He then completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at University College Dublin (1996-2000) under the direction of Professor Declan G. Gilheany. He spent a year in industry working as a process development chemist for Merck in Ballydine before carrying out postdoctoral research at the University of Glasgow (2002-2004) with Professor David J. Procter. He carried out further postdoctoral research at the University of Pittsburgh (2004-2006) with Prof. Scott G. Nelson. In 2006 Dr. Kerrigan began his independent research career at Oakland University in Michigan. In August 2017, Dr. Kerrigan returned to Ireland to take up a position as Lecturer in the School of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University. The Kerrigan group carries out research in the area of synthetic organic chemistry. Most of the group’s work is of the basic/fundamental chemistry research kind and is focused on the development of new efficient methods for the construction of biologically interesting and pharmaceutically important organic molecules. Anthony Reilly's research is in the area of modelling and understanding the structure and properties of molecular materials. Of particular interest is understanding polymorphism and solid-form landscapes of active pharmaceutical ingredients, which are both key to understanding risks and opportunities during drug product development. The elastic and mechanical response of molecular crystals is another area of active research. Techniques being applied and developed include first-principles calculations, including many-body vdW models, empirical-potential simulations and structural informatics based on the Cambridge Structural Database. Kieran Nolan completed his PhD in 1996 at York University (Toronto, Canada) under the supervision of Professor Clifford Leznoff. After completing his PhD Kieran worked both as a research chemist in the pharmaceutical industry in Toronto (Novopharm Lmt.) and then as a formulation chemist in the development of new polymer laminates in Toronto/South Carolina. In 1998 Kieran came to Ireland and joined Professor Dermot Diamond’s research group in the NCSR. In 2001 Kieran was appointed Lecturer in the School of Chemical Sciences. In 2012 Kieran became a Senior Lecturer and was then appointed Head of School of Chemical Sciences in 2014. 3) Development of new photosensitisers and chemoreceptors for application in sensors/heavy metal extraction technologies and medicinal chemistry. Present Commercial Collaborations: Astellas, ABP, Veolia, Dr Reddy's and TE Labs. Apryll Stalcup is Full Professor of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University. She received a BS in Chemistry from California State University-Sacramento (1979) and her PhD from Georgetown University in Washington, DC (1988). She was a Co-op Fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland (1985-1988). After a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Missouri-Rolla, she moved to the University of Hawaii-Manoa in 1990. In 1996, she moved to the University of Cincinnati and promoted to Full Professor in 2001. She moved to Dublin City University In 2012 Dr. Stalcup’s research interests are in separation science. Her group pioneered the use sulfated-β-cyclodextrin, heparin and quinine as chiral additives in capillary electrophoresis. They have been very active in the application of surface-confined ionic liquids (SCIL) and demonstrated their wide application range (e.g., reversed phase, normal phase, ion exchange and ion exclusion). In 2011, she was awarded the Cincinnati Chemist of the Year by the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society. In 2015, she received the American Micro chemical Society A. A. Benedetti-Pichler Award. Dr. Stalcup is the author of over 100 publications, reviews, book chapters and one patent. She has served as the thesis/dissertation advisor or mentor to 32 postgraduate and Postdoctoral Fellows. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland, the Royal Society of Chemistry, a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Association of the Advancement of Science and Sigma Xi. She currently serves on the Royal Society of Chemistry Analytical Division Council, is a Contributing Editor for Trends in Analytical Chemistry and serves on the Editorial Board for Journal of Liquid Chromatography and Related Techniques. She is the Co-Chair (with Prof. Jeremy Glennon, University College Cork) of the 31st International Symposium on Chromatography in 2016. Dermot Diamond received his Ph.D. and D.Sc. from Queen’s University Belfast and joined DCU in 1987. He was Vice-President for Research at Dublin City University (2002-2004) and was director (2007-2015) and founding member of the National Centre for Sensor Research (www.ncsr.ie) at DCU. In 2002, he was awarded the inaugural silver medal for Sensor Research by the Royal Society of Chemistry, London. He was awarded the DCU President’s Award for Research Excellence (2006) and the DCU President’s Award for Innovation (2015). In May 2014, in recognition of his academic contributions and achievements, he was admitted to Membership of the Royal Irish Academy. In April 2015 he was awarded the Boyle Higgins Gold Medal by the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland in recognition of his research achievements. In 2018, his contributions to music, arts and culture were recognized by the award of an honorary Doctorate by Ulster University (D.Litt). He is currently a principal investigator in the SFI INSIGHT Centre (http://www.insight-centre.org) and co-chair of the EU Future and Emerging Technologies programme advisory group (FETAG) dealing with topic selection for very large scale FET-Flagship initiatives, and strategy related to the FETopen and FETproactive programmes. His research is focused on the fundamental science of stimuli responsive polymers, the development of futuristic autonomous chemical sensing platforms, and the use of analytical devices and sensors as information providers for wireless networked systems i.e. building a continuum between the digital and molecular worlds. Robert Forster holds the Chair of Physical Chemistry within the School of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University and is the Director of the strategically important National Centre for Sensor research. He is the author/co-author of more than 230 manuscripts and reviews, supervised more than 35 PhD and M.Sc. students to completion, mentored more than 40 Post-Doctoral Fellows and has been a Visiting Scientist to the California Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley. He has served as DCU Dean of Research and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Science and Health with responsibility for research. He has received the President’s Research Award and was the first Irish based electrochemist to present an invited talk at the Gordon Research Conference on Electrochemistry. He has contributed invited articles to more than eight Festschrift Issues celebrating the accomplishments of distinguished international scientists. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Electrochemical Communications (http://www.journals.elsevier.com/electrochemistry-communications ). He has been deeply involved in major national research programmes including the establishment of the National Centre for Sensor Research, the Biomedical Diagnostics Centre and the NanoBioAnalytical Research Facility at DCU. Dr. Morrin works in the field of electroanalytical device development for environmental and biomedical sensing applications and has published 50 research papers and has several book chapters in fields ranging from electrochemical biosensing to novel nanomaterials. She is an academic member of the National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR) and a funded investigator with INSIGHT Centre for Data Analytics. Her expertise is in developing and studying functional (and stimuli-responsive) materials with improved performances using electrochemical techniques. Integration of these materials into microfluidic platforms for sensor and analytical device development is also an activity in her research group. Dr Morrin currently holds a Career Development Award from SFI developing research in the area of epidermal sensing and wearable where she is interested in developing novel analytical approaches to monitoring the skin organ from a health perspective. Dr. Morrin has experience in managing projects as Principle Investigator in a number of national and international grants (over €2 million in total) and has good industrial links, for example through the IRC-employment-based postgraduate programme scheme with T.E. laboratories. She also has an ongoing contract research relationship with Abbott Diagnostics® (Ireland). Brian Kelleher Lecturer, School of Chemical Sciences, DCU. Feb. 2004 to July 2005; Postdoc. With Dr Andre Simpson, Dept. of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto. Set-up and method development of advanced analytical hyphenated methods: Liquid Chromatography (LC) - Mass Spectroscopy (MS)-Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) - Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). July 2002- Feb. 2004; Postdoctoral Researcher with Prof. William Kingery, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Mississippi State University. Catalytic activity of enzymes immobilised on organo-minerals. Characterisation of organic/inorganic component of deep-sea sediments associated with gas hydrates. Feb. 2001-July 2002; Project Manager for an EPA (Ireland) funded research project that resulted in a successful demonstration of the fluidised bed combustion of animal waste to produce heat and electricity. 1997-2001: PhD. Dr Tom O'Dwyer, development of sorbents for organic compounds, University of Limerick. Dr. Whites research interests focus on the development of intelligent analysis tools and the application of analytical chemistry for the investigation of chemical and biochemical processes in the world around us. A primary focus of her research is the elucidation of molecular mechanisms which initiate and propagate oxidative stress, particularly that which leads to DNA damage. This type of damage has been linked to mutagenesis, neurological disease and aging, and understanding the underlying mechanisms has the potential to enable us to develop tailored therapies to combat these diseases. A further research focus is the development of analytical platforms. She coordinates the Interreg-funded project Monitool , which seeks to develop new tools for monitoring the chemical status in transitional and coastal waters under the Water Framework Directive. Dr. White also researches unique bioactive and nutrition profiles in Irish food. She is currently exploring the bioactive profiles for Irish honeys from across the island, investigating both honeybee and bumblebee honey and is a founding member of the Irish Bee and Pesticide Network. Dr. White hasve worked extensively with industry, with previous research projects in collaboration with Allergan Ltd., Pfizer Ltd. and Proctor and Gamble Ltd. My Her group has ongoing research projects with Alltech (Ireland) in the area of oxidative DNA damage. Mercedes Vázquez is Assistant Professor in Analytical Chemistry at the School of Chemical Sciences, Dublin City University (DCU), since 2014. She is also a principal investigator at the National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR), DCU. She received her MSc in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Oviedo (Spain) in 1998. In 1999, she joined the Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry at Åbo Akademi University (Turku, Finland) as an ERASMUS exchange student, where she continued till obtaining her PhD from Åbo Akademi in 2005. During this period, she worked on the development of potentiometric ion sensors based on conducting polymers for various applications such as chemical process control and clinical analysis. In 2006, she took up a postdoctoral position within the Centre for Bioanalytical Sciences (CBAS) at DCU, where she primarily focused on the development of analytical methods and technologies for the rapid screening of very complex media in biopharmaceutical processes. She then joined the Irish Separation Science Cluster (ISSC), DCU, in 2009, where she coordinated a research program focused on the development of novel microfluidic platforms for a wide range of (bio)analytical applications, including biotechnology and environmental analysis. Organometallic research at Dublin City University is currently focused on the photochemical and kinetic properties of organometallic compounds. Our research is primarily based on a study of the reactivity of co-ordinatively unsaturated species and more recently on photinduced insertion processes. The reactive species formed photochemically are characterised from a mixture of kinetic and thermodynamic data utilising UV-vis. laser flash photolysis and matrix isolation techniques. One particular area that we have become involved in recently, is the photochemistry of heteroaromatic metal carbonyl compounds of d 6 or d 7 metals. These systems tend to be extremely photolabile and exhibit a wavelength dependent photochemistry. For instance a photoinduced insertion into a C-Se bond has been observed recently. More recently research within the group has extended to the development of theoretical models to describe organometallic compounds, at present we are using ab initio techniques (Gaussian 03). The ultimate aim of these calculations is to predict the photochemistry of the organometallic system and to understand the properties and behaviour of reactive fragments. Emma Coyle is an Assistant Professor in organic and medicinal chemistry in the School of Chemical Sciences, Dublin City University (DCU), since 2014. Dr. Coyle received her BSc in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and PhD in Organic Photochemistry from DCU. She then joined the School of Chemistry in the University of Nottingham as a research fellow in the groups of Prof. Rob Stockman and Dr Ross Denton, in collaboration with Prof. Sean Rigby in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. In 2011, she re-joined DCU as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Dr Chris O’Brien in the National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR). Throughout these experiences she focused on research in organic synthesis, in particular development of novel methodologies or green routes to high-value molecules. Current research interests include synthesis and structural systematics of benzamides, carbamates and imides as well as macrocyclic imide synthesis of trezimides and tennimides. Recent papers have included studies on halogen bonding and the importance of weak interactions in influencing crystal structure formation. B. Sc.(Hons), Chemistry, University College Dublin 1979. M. Sc., Chemistry, University College Dublin 1980. Ph. D., Chemistry, University College Dublin 1984. Jamie is a materials scientist with extensive expertise with materials for energy conversion. His research interests include small molecule photo- and electrocatalytic transformations for solar fuel synthesis (CO2 reduction and water splitting), 2D materials, polymers, polyoxometalates and in-situ analysis using spectroelectrochemistry. After a BSc and PhD in DCU, Jamie undertook postdoctoral positions at the Queen's University, Belfast, and the University of Liverpool. In October 2016 Jamie returned to DCU to establish his independent research group when made PI of a highly prestigious SFI SIRG fellowship. Jamie has published multiple articles in high quality peer reviewed journals, delivered presentations at national and international conferences, and has reviewed extensively for the RSC, ACS and NPG. He is a member of the RSC and the ISE. Lecturer, School of Chemical Sciences, DCU. Feb. 2004 to July 2005; Postdoc. With Dr Andre Simpson, Dept. of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto. Set-up and method development of advanced analytical hyphenated methods: Liquid Chromatography (LC) - Mass Spectroscopy (MS)-Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) - Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). July 2002- Feb. 2004; Postdoctoral Researcher with Prof. William Kingery, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Mississippi State University. Catalytic activity of enzymes immobilised on organo-minerals. Characterisation of organic/inorganic component of deep-sea sediments associated with gas hydrates. Feb. 2001-July 2002; Project Manager for an EPA (Ireland) funded research project that resulted in a successful demonstration of the fluidised bed combustion of animal waste to produce heat and electricity. 1997-2001: PhD. Dr Tom O'Dwyer, development of sorbents for organic compounds, University of Limerick. Odilla Finlayson is an Associate Professor in Science Education in the School of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University (DCU). She was a recipient of the Teaching Fellowship in 2001 and the DCU President‘s Award for Teaching and Learning in 2007. She has served on the Education Council of the professional bodies RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry) and ICI (Institute of Chemistry of Ireland) in several capacities and remains active on these bodies. She is involved in selection and training of the Irish teams for participation in the Olympiads IIJSO, EUSO and IChO and is the Country Co-ordinator for EUSO.

2019-04-21T19:23:48Z

https://www.dcu.ie/chemistry/research_groups.shtml

§ C-14 City officers designated generally. § C-17 Boards and commissions. § C-18 Eligibility to hold City offices. § C-19 Succession to office during disaster. § C-20 Terms of office of appointive City officers. § C-21 Compensation of city officers and boards and commissions. § C-22 Commencement and expiration of terms of office. § C-23 Filling vacancy in office. § C-24 Official oaths required of all City officers. § C-25 Official bond of City officers and employees. § C-26 Liability for unauthorized expenditures and other misconduct. § C-27 Time of meeting of all boards and commissions. § C-28 Annual reports of boards and commissions. Officers of the City. The officers of the City shall be elected or appointed. Elected officers include the Mayor, Common Council Members and City Judge. Appointed officers include the City Manager, the City Prosecutor, half-time City Judge, City Health Officer, Director of Finance, City Clerk, Assessor, City Engineer, City Attorney, and all Deputy Clerks and Deputy Directors of Finance. Officers on Boards and Commissions. The appointed officers of the City shall also include the members of the following boards and commissions: Civil Service Commission, Planning Commission, Board of Public Service, Board of Assessment and Review, and Zoning and Housing Board of Appeals. The Mayor is the City of Oneonta's Chief Elected Officer, and is the only officer elected by the entire City electorate. The Mayor serves as the head of City government for all official and ceremonial purposes and presides at all meetings of the Common Council, serving as its chair. As the Common Council's chair, the Mayor is an integral part of setting legislative priorities, sets the agenda for Common Council meetings, leads the Common Council in strategic planning, and guides and advises the City Manager in fulfilling Common Council priorities and instructions. The Mayor is also charged with a number of other leadership roles and functions and powers conferred by this charter or the general laws of the state, not inconsistent with this charter. Serve as the head of City government for all official and ceremonial purposes, preside over the Common Council, and have and exercise all the powers conferred by this Charter or by the general laws of the state, not inconsistent with this Charter. Serve as the Chief Elected Official who shall formulate the Common Council agenda and propose policy consistent with the general welfare of the city and its residents. Sign, on behalf of the City, all contracts made by it, and cause the seal of the City to be affixed thereto. Sign all deeds, local laws, resolutions, and ordinances to be executed as an act of the City, and sign appointments made to City offices by the Common Council. Have the power, at any time, to examine the books, papers, and accounts of any board, commission, department, office, or agency of the City; administer oaths to witnesses; and issue subpoenas to compel the appearance of witnesses and the production of books, papers, and other evidence. Have the power to establish all committees of the Common Council and appoint their members and chairs. Communicate a general statement of the affairs of the City in relation to its finances, government, and improvement, to the Common Council as soon after the start of the fiscal year and as often thereafter as s/he considers expedient with such recommendations as the Mayor deems proper. Shall serve as primary liaison in matters concerning state and federal governmental entities. During an emergency, the Mayor will serve as the point of contact with both federal and state officials, and the media and public. Emergency decisions regarding public safety, when necessary, shall be made by the City Manager in consultation with the Mayor who represents the needs of the people of the City and the directions of the Council. City officers. The Mayor shall appoint, with confirmation by the Common Council, the City Attorney, and the City Health Officer. The mayor shall appoint the City Prosecutor, and one half-time City Court Judge consistent with New York State law. Members of boards and commissions. Except as otherwise provided for in this Charter, or by general law, local law, or ordinance, the Mayor shall appoint, subject to approval by the Common Council, City residents as members of all boards and commissions. Membership of each board or commission shall, whenever possible, be drawn from more than one political party. Appointment of Common Council Members to boards and commissions. The Mayor may appoint a Common Council Member to each board or commission, who shall be an ex-officio member, who shall have no vote, and who shall act as a liaison to the Common Council. Removal of board and commission members. The Mayor may remove a mayoral appointee to any board or commission, and shall notify the Common Council of such removal. Citizen advisory boards and other ad hoc groups. The Mayor may create and dissolve citizen advisory boards, commissions, and other ad hoc groups with Common Council approval. The Mayor may appoint residents of the City to such boards and, commissions, with the approval of the Common Council. The Mayor may appoint residents of the City or nonresidents to such ad hoc groups that may serve the interest of the City. City of Oneonta Housing Authority. The Mayor shall appoint the members of the City of Oneonta Housing Authority. Appointment, term, compensation, qualifications. The Common Council and the Mayor shall conduct the search and oversee the hiring and appointment of the City Manager, who shall be competent to execute the duties of the position. The City Manager shall serve at the pleasure of the Common Council and the Common Council shall fix the compensation annually. The City Manager shall be qualified by possessing a master's degree in public administration and at least three years' successful experience in a responsible executive position in government administration, or any equivalent training or combination of experience and training in municipal government. After an initial six-month probationary period, the City Manager's performance shall be evaluated by the Common Council and the Mayor and on an annual basis thereafter. Residency. The City Manager need not be a resident of the City of Oneonta or the State of New York at the time of appointment. After appointment the City Manager may reside outside the City on a temporary basis pursuant to the terms of a resolution of the Common Council. Shall be the Chief Administrative Officer of the City, and shall be responsible to the Common Council and the Mayor for the administration of all City affairs placed in the City Manager's charge by or under this charter, or by other applicable law. Shall have the primary responsibility for the daily administration of the City, including the supervision of all employees, coordination and delivery of services, and oversight of fiscal management. Shall appoint all department heads, officers, and employees of the City with the approval of the Common Council, except as provided otherwise in this Charter or by applicable law. Shall assure the Mayor that the policies and directives adopted by the Common Council are properly executed. Shall serve as the liaison between the heads of all departments and agencies of City government, and the Mayor and Common Council. May suspend or remove any employee of the City as authorized by state law or pursuant to the terms of any applicable collective bargaining agreement. May suspend or remove any officer that s/he appoints as authorized by state law or pursuant to the terms of any applicable collective bargaining agreement. Shall attend all meetings of the Common Council and may participate in discussion of any matter before the Common Council, but may not vote. Shall make reports as requested by the Common Council and/or the Mayor concerning the operations of the City departments, offices, and agencies. Shall participate in the collective bargaining process as a member of the management team in City negotiations with collective bargaining units. Shall lead the annual planning and budgeting process, including the preparation of a full draft budget that is presented to the Common Council. Shall serve, in concert with the Mayor, as liaison for the City with local and county entities. Shall facilitate effective communication and the free exchange of ideas between the departments and other agencies of City government and the general public. May prescribe and enforce rules and regulations for the efficient management of City government consistent with this Charter and other applicable law. Shall administer the annual performance evaluation review process for all heads of City departments. Shall perform such other duties as required by this Charter or other applicable law, or as directed by the Common Council and the Mayor. The City Manager shall designate a department head to serve as Acting City Manager in event of the extended absence or disability of the City Manager. This appointment of the Acting City Manager shall occur within 30 days of the appointment of the City Manager. The appointment of the Acting City Manager shall be subject to the Common Council approval. The Acting City Manager shall have and exercise all the powers and discharge all the duties and be subject to all the provisions of law applicable to the office of City Manager. In the event that no Acting City Manager is selected pursuant to the process outlined in the paragraph above, the Common Council shall appoint an appropriate individual to serve in such capacity. Suspension and removal. The Common Council may suspend the City Manager by enactment of a resolution approved by the majority of the Common Council which shall set forth the reasons for suspension and proposed removal. A notice of such resolution shall be provided immediately to the City Manager. The City Manager shall continue to receive full salary until the effective date of a final resolution of removal. Advisory role. All boards and commissions shall be advisory except as otherwise provided in this Charter, the City Code or state law. Current boards and commissions. As of the effective date of this Charter, the following boards and commissions will exist in the City: Parks and Recreation Commission, Airport Commission, Board of Public Service, Environmental Board, Board of Examining Electricians, City of Oneonta Planning Commission, Zoning and Housing Board of Appeals, Examining Board of Plumbers, Commission on Community Relations and Human Rights, Americans with Disabilities Committee and Board of Assessment and Review. Terms of office. The term of office of members of boards and commissions shall be three years except as otherwise provided by this Charter or other applicable law. No member of a board or commission shall serve more than three consecutive terms of office. All persons elected or appointed as a City officer must be a resident of the City. A Common Council member must be a registered voter of the ward for which he or she is elected. The Common Council may appoint a nonresident of the City to an appointive City office pursuant to a resolution of exemption or a resolution that sets a time frame for the appointee to establish residency in the City. Whenever any officer of the City, other than one serving under a resolution of exemption, shall cease to be a resident of the City or of the ward for which such person was elected or appointed, that office shall thereupon become vacant. No person shall serve in more than one City officer position at any one time. Mayor. If, as a result of a disaster, as defined by § 20 of the Executive Law of the State of New York, the office of Mayor becomes vacant, or the Mayor by reason of disability or absence from the City shall be prevented from attending to the duties of the office of Mayor, and the Acting Mayor as the designated Common Council Member, is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office of Mayor or shall be absent from the City, the Common Council, or if vacancies have reduced its membership to less than a majority, then a majority of the remaining members of the Common Council shall appoint a person to fill such vacancy until such time as the Mayor or Acting Mayor as designated Council Member is able to assume the duties of the office of Mayor. Other elective office. If a vacancy shall occur in any other elective office of the City, in the event of such disaster, the Common Council, or if vacancies have reduced its membership to less than a majority, then a majority of the remaining members of the Common Council shall appoint a person to fill such vacancy until the incumbent is able to assume the duties of the office. If, as a result of a disaster, as defined by § 20 of the Executive Law of the State of New York, the office of City Manager becomes vacant, or the City Manager by reason of disability or absence from the City shall be prevented from attending to the duties of the office of City Manager, and the Acting City Manager is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office of City Manager or shall be absent from the City, the Common Council, or if vacancies have reduced its membership to less than a majority, then a majority of the remaining members of the Common Council shall appoint a Department Head to fill such vacancy until such time as the City Manager or Acting City Manager is able to assume the duties of the office of City Manager. In the event that no Department Head is selected pursuant to the process outlined in the paragraph above, the Common Council shall appoint an appropriate individual to serve in such capacity. Other City Offices. If any City officer except the Mayor or Council Member shall, from sickness, absence, suspension from office by the Common Council, or from any other cause, be unable to discharge the duties of office, the City Manager shall appoint a suitable person to discharge such duties during such disability, unless otherwise prohibited by law. The person so appointed shall have and exercise all the powers and discharge all the duties and be subject to all the provisions of law applicable to such officer, and shall receive such salary as shall be fixed by the Common Council. The term of office of each appointive officer shall be one year except as otherwise provided by this Charter or other applicable law. An appointive officer may be removed at any time, with or without cause, by the appointment of a successor pursuant to this Charter or as permitted by other applicable law. The members of City boards and commissions shall receive no compensation for their services. The Common Council shall have the power to fix and change annual salaries or other compensations of all officers of the City subject to statutory limitations. The term of office of each officer appointed by the Mayor for a full term shall, other than as herein provided, commence on the 15th day of January of the year in which the appointment is required to be made. If a vacancy shall occur in any elective office of the City, other than by expiration of term, the Mayor with the approval of the Common Council shall appoint, except as otherwise provided in this Charter, a person to fill such vacancy until the next general election. If a vacancy shall occur in any elective office of the City, by the expiration of term, as in the case of a tie vote, the Mayor, with the approval of the Common Council, shall appoint, except as otherwise provided in the Charter, a person to fill such vacancy until the next general election. If the vacancy shall occur in the office of Mayor, it shall be filled by Common Council appointment. A vacancy occurring in an appointive office of the City, other than by expiration of term, shall be filled for the balance of the unexpired term in the same manner as an appointment for a full term. Each officer of the City shall, before assuming the duties of office, take and file in the office of the City Clerk the official oath in accordance with Article 13 of the New York State Constitution and Section 10 of the Public Officers Law. Each Mayor, Clerk, Council Member, and City Judge shall file a certificate of election or appointment with the City Clerk, and take and subscribe the constitutional oath before assuming the duties of office. Officers and employees as determined by the Common Council shall, prior to performing the duties of their respective positions, execute and file an official bond in accordance with the General Construction Law and the Public Officers Law and for omission to do so shall be subject to the penalties and liabilities prescribed by statute. Other than as provided in this Charter, the penal sum named in such bond, or the sum specified in any such undertaking as the maximum amount of liability thereon, shall be fixed by the Common Council. The City shall pay the premiums, if any, upon said bonds. Any department or agency of the City may procure, with the approval of the Common Council, a blanket undertaking from any duly authorized corporate surety covering officers, clerks, and employees pursuant to Section 11 of the Public Officers Law. No officer of the City or other person shall have power or authority to make any purchase on behalf of, or on the credit of, the City or to contract any debts or liabilities against the City, unless authorized to do so by, or in pursuance of, the provisions of this Charter or general law, and no account, claim, or demand of any kind shall be allowed or paid unless so authorized. Boards and commissions shall set their meeting schedules at the start of each calendar year and submit them to the City Clerk for publication and notification. All meetings of the various boards and commissions shall be held at such times as may be agreed upon by majority vote of its members, but in no case shall any such meeting commence sooner than 4:00 p.m., or after 8:00 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays, except for special meetings which may be called as provided in this Charter. The established meeting time can only be changed by a majority vote of the board or commission members. The Chair of every board and commission shall file an annual report with the Common Council on or before the 31st day of December in each year.

2019-04-23T17:54:10Z

https://www.ecode360.com/15575497

Fragrant, white flower spikes appear in spring, later becoming camouflaged by a new flush of gorgeous, crisp green foliage. Leaves have a scalloped margin and take on an attractive pale silver mottling. A single row of soft pink guard petals form the stage for a cheery sunburst of yellow in this Japanese-form peony. Stiff 36-inch stems hold the wonderful mid-season blooms up high for all garden visitors to admire. 'Charlie's White' is still one of the prettiest double whites. The full, 6 inch blooms consist of large, pure white guard petals surrounded by a tuft of creamy white, incurved petals. An excellent cut flower and lightly fragrant. All of our peonies are widely adaptable to most soils across the country. They bloom in mid to late spring and have very large, colorful blooms that stand out in the spring garden. Fragrant, radiant pink with coral overtones, semi-double, very early blooming, fern-like foliage from its parentage of the fernleaf peony and the famous P. peregrina. Very floriferous on strong 30" stems. Plant in full sun in well drained soil. The rose-coral petals of 'Coral 'n' Gold' are arranged in a double row, forming 6in, shallow bowls holding a showy boss of gold stamens. There aren't quite enough petals for it to be classified as a semidouble, but that's a small point with flowers this beautiful. This award-winning, 1981 Wissing-Klehm hybrid has large, semi-double, ruffled flowers that open smoldering coral with rose-pink highlights and mature to pale apricot with golden-yellow stamen centers. A vigorous grower, it is lightly fragrant. The well-formed cup shaped blooms are carried on strong stems. Superb color. Great cut peony flower with perfect form and vibrant coloring. Beautiful, lower growing garden plant. The large rounded light rose-pink outer petals cradle a center of pink and yellow staminodes. The fragrant Japanese type flowers blooms Mid to Late-mid, season on strong 32” stems. A very distinct and striking peony for your garden. Plant in full sun. (Calot 1856) One of the oldest peonies, and certainly the most famous double white peony. A full bloom with incurving petals of pure white that are lemony green at the base. Free flowering and highly scented. One of the earlier flowering cultivars so an excellent choice for prolonging the flowering season. Very Late Lactiflora, double, white, attractive rose-type flower, very dark green foliage, strong stems, lovely fragrance, good cutflower, 'Elsa Sass' is the last white variety from our collection to flower, American Peony Society Gold Medal 1943, (Sass 1930). Early Midseason Hybrid, double, deep salmon-pink to coral flower petals have nice etched edge, lovely fragrant, normal grower, many thick strong stems, it belongs on the “exclusive” list of well paid cut flowers, American Peony Society Gold Medal 2002 & APS Grand Champion National Exhibtions 1990, Award of Landscape Merit 2012 (Cousins-R.G. Klehm 1981). The Peony is an extremely long lived, hardy, shrub-like plant. Once they're established, they're as hardy and dependable as oaks, creating a fantastic season of bloom in your yard year after year. The spreading clumps form hedges. Peonies are a standard of the perennial border, both as specimens and in groups. 'Felix Supreme' 1955. Lush double blooms infused in a purple red colour. The first delicate leaves are also purple and develop into a bright green foliage. A vigorous peony, whose flowers are just as beautiful in a vase as in the garden. Some side buds extend the flowering season. A support is preferable. Festiva Maxima is a peony cultivar that would be hard to improve upon as it offers an abundance of very large, fully double blossoms with the classic, rich fragrance that has made peonies so popular for generations. The snowy blooms are decorated with kisses of deep crimson, along the petal edges and tucked into the heart of the flower. Excellent for mixed perennial beds and hard to beat for snipping and savoring indoors. Shrublike mounds are 2-3 ft. high and ornamental even after the flowers fade— around midsummer. Creates a low-growing, low-maintenance hedge that never needs pruning! Plant in full sun. Peonies will grow in most soils as long as they are not wet, including clay soils. They require a sunny or partially shaded site. Herbaceous peonies need to be planted with the eye (the dormant pink buds) no more than 4" below the surface of the soil. Do not mix manure in the soil before planting as this may rot the eyes. Crousse 1888) Always one of the most popular garden peonies. Light lavender pink fragrant flowers with large outer petals and a raised center that varies in color and shape as the bloom develops. Distinct broad green foliage which is a particularly bright shade of green. Pink Dawn Peony features bold lightly-scented pink flowers with white overtones and gold eyes at the ends of the stems from late spring to early summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Peony 'Pink Hawaiian Coral' is fragrant and an excellent cut flower. American Peony Society Gold Medal Selection. This "tropical" beauty has a majestic Hawaiian sunset color, is sweetly fragrant, has strong, stems & is a great grower. Terrific for landscaping! Peonies are classic garden plants that add a bit of nostalgia and charm to the garden. Their fragrant blooms and lush foliage have made them popular for years, and with the recent resurgence in breeding, they will continue to improve. Peonies are simple to grow and can be utilized in many ways, including mass plantings, specimens, or hedges. This classic is one of the finest reds ever introduced. A striking, deep red double with abundant ruffled petals. Early Season bloomer. Deer resistant. Early Scout is, as its name indicates, a peony that flowers before most of the rest. What isn't immediately apparent is that this cultivar is ideally sized for small gardens and even large containers, is lightly fragrant and produces lacy, cut leaf foliage that provides a clue to its lineage as a hybrid of Paeonia tenuifolia, the fern-leafed peony. Early Scout so impressed the judges of the American Peony Society that they bestowed their Gold Metal Award on Early Scout in 2001. A very early bloomer that prefers cool climates. Deer resistant. Celebrating 100 years of gracing sunny gardens and elegant vases, 'Sarah Bernhardt' is one of the classic Peonies that helped make this perennial a favorite from the foundation planting to the patio, the border to the vase! Gigantic 7- to 9-inch double blooms of luscious pink (occasionally flecked with raspberry) release an unforgettable fragrance, and the sun-loving plant is as easy to grow as a weed! Mid Season bloomer. Deer resistant. Bomb Type. To 28". A very early bloomer that prefers cool climates. Deer resistant. A large, very brilliant deep red with striking gold and red center Japanese, 38", late, mid-season that stands heat well. The flower is very symmetrical and gives the appearance of being a well groomed flower holding its shape as the flower ages. The deer-resistant variety willmottiae is much more vigorous than typical Paeonia obovata and is topped by single, white, cup-shaped flowers about 2 weeks earlier. Paeonia tenuifolia, commonly called fernleaf peony, is a shrubby, herbaceous (soft-stemmed) plant that, each year, will typically grow to 1-2' tall by mid-spring, display attractive foliage throughout the summer and early fall, and then die to the ground after frost. A beautiful variety whose deep sulphur yellow flowers, each with red flames at the center, are carried on a plant that looks and behaves like a very big, healthy herbaceous Peony bearing dozens of huge flowers (9in across) on strong stems, above rich green foliage. There are very few yellows in the herbaceous Peony world, and none can compare with 'Bartzella' in beauty or performance. Itoh Peonies are rare and unusual hybrids between Garden Peonies and Tree Peonies. There are several varieties, all highly sought after by collectors, yet easy to grow and very hardy. This selection forms an upright bush of lush green leaves. The very large semi-double blooms feature pink petals that age to cream, with a contrasting maroon-red eye and yellow tuft of stamens. Peonies seldom need to be divided or moved, but if necessary it should be carried out only in the fall. Flowering is always best in a sunny location. Clean up the dead leaves in the fall to help prevent disease problems. One of the great yellow peonies, ‘Canary’ emerges as a modest taupe shade. But there’s nothing modest about its vibrant, canary-yellow blooms: intense color in the garden, and long-lasting blooms for maximum impact. Julia Rose opens cherry red, fades to apricot-yellow settling on a rich, creamy yellow as the bloom matures. Charming to watch the colors develop. An attractive mix of variously colored blooms on one plant! Vigorous and floriferous. 28" tall and 42" wide. Semi-double and a mid bloomer.. No staking. Excellent garden plant and is a good cutting flower. Strong stems hold the 6" blooms. No staking. The opening buds have lavender-colored stripes on soft yellow ground. ‘Old Rose’ is special: delicate, smaller leaflets in a rich dark green. The blooms are like watercolor sunsets of yellows and purples that settle into a rich patina that is truly elegant. Each flower has 4-6 scarlet red petals with a dark basal blotch at the base of each petal and a boss of dark purple center stamens. Serrate, thistle-like, grayish-green leaves (to 12” long) are pinnately dissected into lance-shaped segments and have a somewhat weedy appearance. Foliage yellows and dies shortly after flowering, typically leaving a hole in the garden. n the center of a poppy's flower rests a very large, velvety-black seed capsule surrounded by prominent, dark purple stamens. Altogether, these flowers absolutely steal the show when they are in bloom. In the center of a poppy's flower rests a very large, velvety-black seed capsule surrounded by prominent, dark purple stamens. Altogether, these flowers absolutely steal the show when they are in bloom. This fast-growing and salt-tolerant native vine is the easiest way to create a colorful 'green' wall. At last, here's a late-ripening, freestone peach whose flavor matches the best of the mid-season ripeners. Distinctive flat peaches that taste great. Fruit is of good size and eating quality. The sweet, semi-freestone juicy flesh is excellent for fresh eating, sauces and baking. Ripens mid-August. This dwarf tree will bear fruit in 2-3 years. Productive here in the Upper Valley. A freestone peach with bright yellow flesh. Matches 'Reliance' in cold-hardiness and tolerance of spring frosts. Sweet, extra-juicy fruit is an absolute delight for fresh eating, canning, baking, and freezing. Self-pollinating. 'Contender' ripens mid-to late August. 'Frost' is a freestone with light red blush over greenish yellow. Frost is delicious, excellent for eating fresh or canning. It has a showy pink spring bloom and is heavy bearing. These peach blossoms appear late winter and early spring along grey branches, before leaves emerge. It is juicy, sweet, and very tasty. The tree is one of the more hardy varieties, very productive, and has good resistance to bacteria spot. Can be used for all purposes. Reliance is tops in quality — Fruits are medium to large, round, bright red attractive cheeks splashed over a yellow skin. Bright yellow irm flesh is honey sweet, fine-flavored and comes free from the pit. The stone will not cling, even in coldest, driest seasons. The pit is smaller than any other peach. Super sweet taste, super smooth texture. Honeysweet was introduced from Purdue University because of its superior attributes for flavor, appearance, and disease resistance. This is a very high quality "Seckel or sugar-pear" type, which is larger in size than Seckel, and one of the few pears that are self pollinating. Flesh white, and exceedingly fine-grained and buttery; it is full of juice, sweet, with a highly perfumed, vinous flavor. Often referred to simply as ''Clapp Pears'' this is one of the earliest pears of good quality available. An attractive medium to large, pear with greenish yellow skin complemented with a red blush. Very juicy, sweet & flavourful. Trees are upright, medium in size and winter hardy. A good dessert pear. Medium in size, green-yellow to yellow. Skin thick but tender. Abundant white flowers in spring, the foliage is an attractive, glossy green. Use 'Ure' for pollination. Excellent dessert pear for northern Great Plains. Fire blight resistant. Pollen-sterile, can not be used to pollinate a second pear tree. Luscious pear is very hardy and resistant to fire blight. It has dark green leaves throughout the summer that transform to dark purple in the fall making it quite attractive. The fruits are great for just eating straight off the tree or using them to make jellies or jams. It is one of the best quality dessert pears. It is small and yellowish brown with fine grained, smooth, and extremely sweet juicy flesh. It has a distinctive, spicy, rich, aromatic flavor and is also ideal for pickling, spicing and canning whole. This fruit ripens in September and the trees are productive, slow growing and reliable. The fruit should be harvested in mid-August when crisp and still green with a red blush. Fruit harvested at that time is sweet and crisp, and may be stored up to 2 months. Use either 'Parker' or 'Patten' as pollinator. Approximate ripening date is August 15. Use 'Golden Spice' as pollinator. Medium size, spreading, vigorous, early bearing tree; reliable annual bearing tree with somewhat drooping habit. Somewhat prone to overbearing; needs some thinning. It ripens in mid September. Fruit is medium to large (14-20 oz.) with a brown to golden brown russet. Flesh is yellowish white with a good juicy, sweet flavor. Fruit quality is very good to excellent. Fruit quality is good to very good. Excellent storage life, about 7-8 months. Fruit ripens in late August, early September. Also known as New Century. White flowers in spring make way to the unusual bright yellow fruit, tasting like a cross between apple and pear, with crisp texture. The delicious fruit is ripe in late August to early September. European pears, like Bartlett, can be used for pollination. Leaf clumps are topped in summer (June-July) by upright flower spikes (to 30" tall) bearing tiny, drooping to outward-facing, shuttlecock-like, pale creamy yellow to yellowish green flowers. Stiff, upright, square stems and whorls of two-lipped, tubular, light blue flowers tiered in branched, terminal panicles (12-15" high). Long summer bloom period. Perennial Plant Association Plant of the Year (1995). This aromatic and drought resistant variety attracts butterflies to the garden. A Conard-Pyle introduction. The work of Dutch breeder Herbert Oudshoorn is responsible for this excellent, compact, long-blooming, low-maintenance landscape plant. Patent administered by Future Plants. A new introduction with a chartreuse green leaf and a large maroon chevron throughout its center. Upright growing with a clean habit and reaching 24". Self-seeds. Blends well with woodland plants. Adds color to the shade garden. The cultivar ‘London Grove Blue’ was found by North Creek Nursery at a plant sale in London Grove, Pennsylvania. This variety is admired for its compact habit, large fragrant lavender blue flowers and maroon colored winter leaves. In late spring, the clumps are topped with stalks of hummingbird-friendly, pink-lavender flowers that rise just above the foliage...simply stunning. Growing 2-3' tall, they are excellent for perennial borders, corners and for cut flowers. The foliage is dense and compact with deep green, lance-shaped leaves with prominent veins. Butterflies love them! Phlox prosper in a cool sunny climate, well-watered, in rich sweet soil. In much of the country, they will thrive in full sun, although partial shade is fine, as long as the plants receive at least 6 hours of direct sun. In the afternoon, the flowers are deliciously fragrant...simply surreal and a hummingbird delight. Growing 2-4' tall, they are excellent for perennial borders, corners and for cut flowers. The foliage is dense and compact with deep green, lance-shaped leaves with prominent veins. Butterflies love them! Grenadine Dream’ produces fragrant tubular reddish-purple flowers (each to 1/2” diameter) in densely packed large terminal clusters (each to 8-10’ long) over a long July to October bloom period. Each individual flower has a long corolla tube and five flat petal-like lobes. This is a compact, upright, conical perennial that typically grows in a clump to 15-20" tall and to 8-10" wide on stiff stems clad with narrow, opposite, pointed, elliptic, deep green leaves (to 4” long). Phlox paniculata 'Laura' is one of the most impressive Tall Phlox on the market today. The long blooming flowers are lavender-purple with darker eyes and have a striking white star that comes out from the center. Butterflies and hummingbirds love it! The foliage is highly resistant to mildew. In the afternoon, the flowers are deliciously fragrant...simply surreal and a hummingbird delight. For us, Phlox 'Peppermint Twist' gets only a small amount of powdery mildew in damp summers. Individual flowers are densely arranged in large, terminal, pyramidal clusters (panicles to 6-9" long) atop stiff, upright stems which seldom need staking. Long mid to late summer bloom sometimes extends into early fall. Narrow, opposite, pointed, lance-shaped leaves (to 5" long). Good fresh cut flower. This midsized selection produces large clusters of fragrant flowers, in an exotic blend of ivory, soft pink and creamy yellow. Remove faded flowers to encourage more buds to form. . From spring into early summer, the leaves are deep green with prominent, sunny yellow margins. As the season progresses, the margins lighten to creamy yellow. An easy to plant to succeed with. Long blooming period. Dwarf size makes this an ideal plant for the front of the border or in containers. Long flowering from mid-to-late summer. Lavender/pink flowers with a white eye above glossy bright green foliage that stays mildew-free all season. Broad, dark green, thick foliage stays beautiful all season. Each member of the Fashionably Early series has exceptional mildew resistance, thick leathery leaves, and a stoloniferous habit (as opposed to the tightly clumping P. paniculata types). Pale lavender flowers with a lavender pink eye appear from early summer well into midsummer with some rebloom in fall. Narrow, spiky, dark green foliage stays beautiful all season. Each member of the Fashionably Early series has exceptional mildew resistance, thick leathery leaves, and a stoloniferous habit (as opposed to the tightly clumping P. paniculata types). EARLY PINK DARK EYE™ is the perfect choice for retailers looking for early color on neatly compact plants and gardeners wanting color in the garden earlier in the season. This new Hybrid Phlox blooms earlier than the typical Tall Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata), starting about 2-3 weeks earlier than the typical Phlox. ‘Fashionably Early Princess’ is the very first of the series to bloom. This is a taller variety of Hybrid Phlox that will work best for the middle to back of the border. The notched, upturned petals look like tiny pinwheels, especially with movement from the wind. This groundcover Phlox grows lower to the ground, spreads slowly, and is more restrained that varieties like ‘Purple Beauty’ or ‘Blue Emerald’. Perfect for rock gardens or the front of the border. From Jim Ault at Chicagoland Grows®. oliage is nicely complemented by small pinkish-white, five-petaled flowers that bloom in dense, flat, rounded, spiraea-like clusters (corymbs) in late spring. Plants in this genus exhibit exfoliating bark on mature branches. The bark peels in strips to reveal several layers of reddish to light brown inner bark, hence the common name. Amber Jubilee® is distinct from purple-foliaged ninebarks. Its foliage is an improvement over long-time cultivar Dart’s Gold. Amber Jubilee® will be effective as a medium shrub in the landscape, whether massed or planted in small groupings. In spring, clusters of small pinkish white flowers offer a bright contrast against the dark foliage. Plants grow just 3-4ft tall and wide at maturity, which make them a good choice for tucking in mixed borders and foundation plantings. An award winning variety of our native Obedient Plant, 'Crystal Peak White' blooms in mid-summer with numerous bright white flower spikes that attract lots of pollinators. Plants typically grow to 24-30" tall on stiff, square stems clad with narrow, lance-shaped, sharp-toothed leaves (to 3-5” long). Rhizomes are very short and plants do not spread. Dense spikes (8-10" long) of pure white, tubular, two-lipped, snapdragon-like flowers bloom in summer. Flowers bloom on each spike from bottom to top. The unusual coning habit tends to modify growth rate and shape and to produce a broad, spreading pyramid. The densely arranged, slightly ascending branches of this dark green, flat-topped, dwarf nest spruce will add classy elegance to any garden. Plants break bud and develop bright green new growth earlier in spring than other nest types. Use the irregularly rounded, slow-growing, spreading plant as a low garden accent. Longer, flatter needles and a slightly more open habit distinguish 'Gregoryana Parsonsii' from 'Gregoryana'. A dwarf needled evergreen shrub which has a dense, flat, globose, bun or cushion-like habit. New growth needles are light green, turning to a glossy, dark green with age. Typically grows slowly (3" per year) to 12" tall and 18-24" wide, but may occasionally reach 2' tall and 2-3' wide. A sport of Picea abies 'Nidiformis' (bird's nest spruce). It features size spreading, horizontal to slightly ascending branches which form a dense, broad-rounded, shrubby flattened globe. Thin dark gray needles become 3/4” long. In the spring the fresh young buds add interest to this plants. The densely arranged of this dark green, rounded-topped, dwarf nest spruce will add classy elegance to any garden. Plants break bud and develop bright green new growth earlier in spring than other nest types. Use the irregularly rounded, slow-growing, spreading plant as a low garden accent. Prefers full sun in well-drained soil. 1' tall x 2' wide in 10 years. Hardy to -50 degrees. USDA zone 2. Its wide, conical shape resembles the well-known Alberta Spruce for which it is a superior alternative. Prefers full sun in well-drained soil. 1' tall x 1' wide in 10 years. Hardy to -50 degrees. USDA zone 2. It is distinguished from the species by having (1) smaller size with slower growth rate, (2) denser habit, (3) brighter green to blue-green needles and (4) slightly shorter cones. Scaly, dark brown bark. Glossy, dark green needles (to 1" long) have white stomatal bands underneath lending a silvery, bicolored effect. Egg-shaped cones (to 2" long) are dark purple when young, but mature to a reddish brown. DWARF. A flat topped, round bush of very dense habit. The needles are an exceptional glaucous blue. In a planting, this conifer becomes the focal point! If the central leader is removed, the plant will grow wider than tall, until a new leader if formed. It is extensively used as a specimen in the landscape and could be grown in a container. 'Mops' is a dwarf cultivar with a dense rounded form that typically matures over time to 3' tall with a similar spread, but is very slow-growing (2-4" per year) and is commonly seen as a 1-2' tall plant. Features medium to dark green needles (1-2" long) in bundles of two. Another popular true dwarf selection (to 3' tall), this cultivar forms a dark green, dense mound and won't outgrow its planting space. Similar true compact clones include: 'Paul's Dwarf','Sherwood Compact', 'Valley Cushion' and 'White Bud'. Valley Cushion’ is a dwarf cultivar with a globose form that typically matures to only 2-3’ tall and as wide over the first 10 years, but is very slow-growing (2-3” per year) and is commonly seen as a 1-2’ tall plant. Features unusually short, medium green needles (to 1” long) in bundles of two. Bergman Japanese White Pine will grow to be about 4 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 6 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 5 feet from the ground. It grows at a slow rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live to a ripe old age of 120 years or more; think of this as a heritage tree for future generations! Short, soft blue-green needles have considerable twisting; overall a very pleasing selection for a small landscape. Prefers full sun in well-drained soil. 2.5' tall x 3' wide in 10 years. Hardy to -40 degrees. USDA zone 3. The signature ornamental feature of this huge tree is its brown bark which exfoliates in irregular pieces to reveal creamy white inner bark. Mature trees typically display mottled white bark that facilitates identification from great distances. The large 3-5 lobed medium to dark green leaves (4-10” wide) have coarse marginal teeth. Balloon flower is a clump-forming perennial which is so named because its flower buds puff up like balloons before bursting open into outward to upward facing, bell-shaped flowers with five pointed lobes. Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Burgundy red. Excellent fresh or for preserves, soft and sweet. Bears fruit the second season after planting. A self fruitful variety that ripens in mid September. From the Cornell Research Station in New York. This heavy-producing variety yields crops of medium to large plums with reddish bronze skin and juicy yellow flesh that's as sweet as candy. High quality yellow plum. Fruit is small to medium. Sweet and juicy. Excellent for fresh eating and jams. Vigorous grower. A very attractive red plum with a golden blush. Sweet, juicy, yellow flesh with excellent quality. The fruit is reddish bronze and the tree is a moderately vigorous and a heavy bearer of fruit. . One of the best pollinators. 'Waneta', produces well the first season after planting, and is one of the best market plums. Its fruit is large, red, sweet, juicy and of good quality. Now you can enjoy large, red-skinned, yellow-fleshed plums earlier in summer than ever before. Red - Excellent for jams, jellies, canning and sauces. Early bearing cross that yields fruit the second year after planting. Red-purple. This dwarf cherry plum from Minnesota is hardy and resistant to disease and insects. Deep red flesh is thick, sweet and smooth textured. Flowers are quite showy, but are usually hidden by the umbrella-like leaves. Each flower gives way to an edible, fleshy, maroon purple fruit (mayapple) which may be used to make preserves and jellies. Leaves and roots are poisonous, however. Typically grows in a mound to 1-3' tall on unbranched stems. Small, bell-shaped, greenish yellow flowers (usually in pairs) on short pedicels dangle in spring from the leaf axils along and underneath the arching stems. This is an evergreen fern that grows in creeping clumps to 10” tall with erect to arching, leathery, oblong-lanceolate to triangular, deeply-cut, pinnately lobed fronds. Needs considerable moisture to succeed. Prefers moist, compost-rich soil.Will tolerate full sun if the soil is not too dry. Foliage is the same color as 'Guinevere' but with flowers like 'Garryade Crimson'. P. beesiana is cultivated for its attractive flowers, which range from dark-red, through reddish-purple, to purple, and are produced from April to June. The scapes (flower stalks) are 20–35 cm long, elongating to 50 cm when in fruit and are sometimes covered with a white, meal-like powder on the nodes. Each scape bears 2–4 umbels, each consisting of 8–16 flowers. Perfect for a moist rock garden or in light shade beside a stream or pond. Best in cool summer regions. he most important difference between the two is the way the flowers are arranged on the top of the stem. Unlike the false oxlip in the true oxlip the umbel drops to one side (see the second image down on the right). Flowers from April to late May. Blooms are well above the foliage and numerous for an excellent show. They are shaped a bit like a trumpet or perhaps a phlox in outline with five notched, deep rose-pink, petals to a bloom. As they age, each bloom will fade in color to a pale pastel pink that is very long lasting. There will be both fresh and faded flowers in a drift providing visual color variation. The leaves are smooth, oval & mid-green in rosettes. Tolerates full sun, but prefers shade/semi-shade. Rich loam is best - top dress with compost occasionally. Bright, salverform, late spring flowers bloom in tightly-clustered tiered whorls (3 to 6 per stem) on leafless stems typically rising to 18-24" tall from basal rosettes of ovate to lanceolate, medium green leaves. Flower colors are often in the salmon-apricot to terra cotta range, but are variable and include cream, rose, red, lavender and purple. Prunus tenella is a deciduous Shrub growing to 0.8 m (2ft 7in) by 1.5 m (5ft). It is hardy to zone 2. It is in flower in April, and the seeds ripen from Jul to August. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Insects. Fruit is relished by many songbirds. Nesting cover for a few species of songbirds. Prunnus x cistena is a hybrid cross between P.pumila and P.cerasifera Atropurpurea. It is a deciduous shrub growing from 7 to 10 feet in height, with a lesser spread. The foliage is an intense red-purple and keeps its color over the summer. The blooms are followed by interesting, one-inchdiameter, flattened, tan "wafers" which will persist on the tree if not first consumed by wildlife. In the past, this bitter fruit was used as a substitute for hops in brewing beer. Dark Vader Lungwort features delicate clusters of purple bell-shaped flowers at the ends of the stems from mid to late spring. It's attractive narrow leaves remain dark green in color with distinctive silver spots throughout the season. Large pink flowers fade to blue over mildew resistant foliage. Nice mounding habit. The wavy, spear-shaped leaves are dark green, infused with melting silver. The flowers of 'Silver Bouquet' will move to a dark purple in late spring and the shimmering silver foliage will last well into autumn. Partial shade is recommended for 'Silver Bouquet' to gain its full color potential. This outstanding British variety forms a good-sized clump of large, bright green leaves that are heavily margined in creamy-white. Clusters of coral-pink flowers appear in early spring, among the earliest to bloom. Because of the large amount of white in the leaves, choose a site that is protected from hot afternoon sun. A completely open flower is almost ten centimetres in diameter. The flower opens only for a short time during the late morning, as the spring sun spreads its warmth. Unlike other pasque flowers, spring pasque flower offers nectar as a reward to pollinators. The ripening achene grows a long, feathery flying hair and the seed can float on the wind for a long time. Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Prefers rich, humusy soils. Best in cool, moist climates.

2019-04-18T21:09:33Z

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CRIMPABLE COAXIAL CONNECTOR Filed Jan. 5, 1965 s Sheets-Sheet [NVlLV/ORS Min-mm. Fnauug oKup Rania-r STANLEY STULL BY 4. 2; M i/M United States Patent 3,297,979 CRIMPABLE COAXIAL CONNECTOR Michael F. OKeefe and Robert S. Stull, Mechanicsburg, Pa., assignors to AMP Incorporated, Harrisburg, Pa. Filed Jan. 5, 1965, Ser. No. 423,501 11 (Ilaims. (Cl. 339177) This invention relates to an improve-d coaxial connector which features a simultaneous connection of electrical paths in a single crimping operation and is a continuationin-part of our application S.N. 325,222 filed November 21, 1963, now abandoned. The expanding use of coaxial cable to answer the needs of the communications industry has created a distinct problem with respect to 'both connector construction and installation. The basis of the problem is tied to the construction of the coaxial cable wherein a central conductor is surrounded by a relatively soft dielectrical insulating material in turn surrounded by an outer conductor of thin metallic tubing or woven wire braid usually covered over by a rubber sheath. The outer conductor being of a relatively large diameter does not lend itself to the prior art practice of soldering, since the soldering operation must be carried substantially around the periphery of the outer conductor to assure a contact path of sufficient area. On the other hand, standard crimping techniques have caused difficulties with respect to inward disposition of the outer conductor resulting in breakage and in a displacement relative to the inner conductor which makes for signal reflection and energy loss incident thereto. The common approach offered to solve the foregoing problems has been to provide a relatively complicated assembly of supporting and positioning metallic members and a number of dielectric inserts, gaskets, seals and the like, to accomplish a satisfactory mechanical connection having good electrical characteristics. As one result, the connectors of the prior art have a very substantial number of individual pieces which must be manufactured to close tolerances and assembled with considerable care. Another result of prior art connector constructions has been to make the installation of a coaxial connector sufficiently tedious to preclude the use of nonskilled or even semiskilled labor. It is one object of the present invention to provide a coaxial connector of few and simple components adaptable for low cost manufacture and rapid assembly. It is a further object of the invention to provide a simple and inexpensive coaxial connecter construction including features permitting an assembly of parts without need for special tooling. It is another object of the invention to provide an improved coaxial connector construction including features facilitating installation on coaxial cable. It is yet another object of the invention to provide a coaxial connector including features permit-ting the installation of the connector to be accomplished by a series of simultaneously applied crimps. It is still a further object of the invention to provide a coaxial connector having improved mechanical and electrical characteristics in conjunction with a novel push-on collar construction. The connector of the invention accomplishes the foregoing objectives through the use of a one-piece metallic shell housing two dielectric inserts, which are locked therein by the interior configuration of the shell and which in turn support and lock a central hollow contact pin member or members in a proper coaxial relationship and against longitudinal float. The rear portion of the shell is arranged to receive a ferrule cri-mped thereagainst to provide a connection with the outer conductor of coaxial cable and a further crimp to provide mechanical ice support to the cable positioned from the end of the sleeve extension. The interior of the rear dielectric insert is such as to receive the stripped portions of a cable and guide such into the interior of the insert. The forward exterior portion of the shell is threaded to receive a collar adaptable to lock the connector to a complementary mating connector member not shown. The arrangement of the crimping sleeve ferrule and central pin member or members is such that total length is minimized to permit a simultaneous application of the three crimps involved. Additionally, a push-on accessory sleeve is taught as an alteration to the collar. FIGURE 8 is a perspective partially sectioned, of the device of FIGURE 7 in use. Referring now to FIGURE 1, there is shown the connector 2.0 of the invention, attached to a coaxial cable 10. The connector 20 is used with a complementary half, not shown, adapted to receive the central pin member and threading the connector collar in a standard fashion. The complementary connector half may represent a socket mounted on the chassis of electronic equpiment or may represent a connector half joined to a further coaxial cable similar to 10. The coaxial cable 10 is typical of a number of cables utilized to carry communication signals between points such as between the antenna and first stage of UHF television equipment. In certain uses of coaxial cable, the outer conductor serves as a shielding means to protect signals carried on the inner conductor and in other uses the outer and inner conductor serve to channel signal energy transferred in higher frequency modes. The typical construction of coaxial cable such as 10, includes an outer and protective insulating sheath 12, and outer conductor 14- of metallic braid or thin metallic tubing, a dielectric or insulating spacer 16 and a central conductor 1-8. One frequently employed cable construction features a polyvinyl chloride protective sheath, a braided copper outer conductor, a polyvinyl chloride or Teflon dielectric spacer and a stranded copper center conductor. -In connecting cables such as 10, it is important that the connection achieves a mechanical integrity exceeding or at least approaching that of the: cable itself, and it is preferable for the connector to provide a transmission path having characteristics similar to that of the cable so as to preclude signal degradation. The connector 20 of the invention includes features which assure that the above mentioned objectives are achieved with respect to installation on cable such as 10. Connector 20 is comprised of but six components, including a housing 22 housing a forward dielectric insert 38, a rear dielectric insert 46, a central conductive pin member 60, a ferrule 72 and a locking collar 80, shown in FIGURE 1 as slipped up on the housing. This six component assembly compares quite favorably with prior art devices for the same function including ten or more components. In use, as will become more apparent hereinafter, the connector 28 is installed on a suitably prepared cable with a series of three crimps which may be performed simultaneously if desired, but in any event do not require steps of threading, soldering or special preparation of the cable to be connected, other than a simple stripping procedure. The housing 22 is in essence, a metallic shell including a body portion 24, having a forward flange portion 26, externally threaded as indicated, and an internal forward bore 28 of a slight inward taper of angle A adapted to accommodate dielectric inserts 38 and 46. On the front face of 22, as best shown in FIGURE 3, are a pair of projections 23, adapted to fit in correspond ing projections disposed around the periphery of the connector half into which 26 is plugged. The projections 23 serve to key the connector against rotation relative thereto once the connector is plugged in and the collar thereof threaded down. This operates to prevent cable twist from causing the connector to be accidentally unthreaded. At the opposite end of 22 from the opening of bore 28, is a tapered internal portion 30, which serves as a transition between the bore 28 and the interior of a housing crimping sleeve 32, such interior being shown as bore 34. The exterior of crimping sleeve 32 includes a series of annular slots or grooves 36 which serve to cooperate with the braid 14 as it is driven aginst 32 during the crimping operation. The point of juncture of the outside surfaces of 32 and of 22 forms a step shown as 31, against which the end of braid 14 is preferably placed during installation of 20 on cable 10 and also against which ferrule 72 is positioned. Ferrule 72 has a precrimp configuration as indicated in FIGURE 2, and a postcrimp configuration as indicated in FIGURE 1. As can be seen, ferrule 72 includes a reduced diameter rearward portion 74 and a slightly larger forward portion 76, both of substantially the same metal thickness. The interior bore 79 of portion 74 has.a .precrimp configuration slightly larger than the normal configuration of cable 10, to permit the ferrule to be easily worked over the cable during the installation procedure to be hereinafter described. The interior bore 79 is sufiiciently close to the diameter of cable 10, such that the crimp applied to portion 74 will lightly press the ferrule interior surface against the cable sheath 12 to partially seal the connector against entry of contaminants and to support the cable such that pulling or twisting movements will not be transferred to the interior portions of the connector to cause separation or damage to the components therein. The forward portion 76 of ferrule 72 has an interior bore 78 facilitating the installation procedures wherein the ferrule is easily slipped up over the braid and over the core crimping sleeve 32. At the same time portim 76 is held to a configuration such that the ferrule material need not be excessively worked in order to tightlyclinch braid 14 against 32. It is preferred that the crimps applied to ferrule 72 leave the ends turned up as shown in FIGURE 2, the rear forming a beveled entry for the cable to prevent abrasion thereto and the forward end tapering up to the transistion step 31 and the outer diameter of core body 22, to prevent the inner face of collar 80 from hanging up against 31 during use. The standard crimp is preferred for each of the portions 74 and 76, although a six-sided or hex crimp may be employed. Collar 80 is internally threaded as at 82 to cooperate with the threading on flange 26 and includes a nonthreaded portion 84 of a length approximating the length of the threading on flange 26 to permit the collar to be fully drawn up on the mating connector half which includes complementary threading. An interior flange 86 is provided at the end of collar 80, rounded or radiused as at 87 to cooperate with a complementary rounded face 27 on flange 26 as the collar is threaded forward onto the mating connector half. Fitted within bore 28 of body portion 24 is the forward dielectric insert 38, which is substantially cylindrical to include a relatively small bore 40 axially disposed therein. A rear insert 46 is provided having an outer diameter in its forward portion approximating a rear diameter of bore 28, and adjoining such portion, a tapered portion 47 adapted to fit against the tapered portion 30, as shown in FIGURE 2. Extending from the forward portion of 46 is a relatively thin cylindrical sleeve 52 having an exterior diameter forming a surface 53 hearing against the interior bore 34 of 32, and an interior surface 54 of a diameter very slightly larger than the diameter of the dielectric spacer 16 of cable 10. Opposite sleeve 52, or in the forward inner portion of 46, is a taper which ranges from the diameter of the interior surface 54 down to the diameter of the center conductor 18, as best shown in FIGURE 2. At the end of the taper 5% is a relieved portion 48 forming acavity adapted to receive a portion of the central pin member. Important functional advantages of 50, with respect to connector installation, will be pointed out hereinafter. The two dielectric inserts fit together to captivate and position a central conductive pin member through a rear flange 62 thereof fitted within the relieved portion 48 of insert 46. Pin member 60 includes a cylindrical body having approximately half its length supported against, transverse movement by the bearing contact with bore 40 of insert 38. The pin is hollowed out by a bore therethrough shown as 68 to include, proximate the flange 62, an entry port for the center conductor 18 and at the opposite end an inspection port 70 to permit the center conductor to be viewed when properly inserted. In practice, a crimp of the type shown as 66 is applied near the end of the pin member 60. The particular crimp applied may be a standard 0 crimp. Alternatively, the crimp applied to pin 60, as well as the crimp supplied to ferrule 72, may be as described in US. Patent 3,217,519 entitled, Coaxial Crimping Tool, to Henry W. Demler, which application describes a tool for simultaneously applying at least three erimps of the type preferred for the connector of the invention. One of the principal features of the connector of the invention relates to its ease of assembly. The assembly technique can be visualized from FIGURE 3, wherein as a first step the dielectric insert 46 is placed within housing 22 and forced down into a position with its tapered rearward face 47 seated against the interior tapered face 30, and with the rear sleeve portions 52 fitted within and against bore 34 of sleeve 32. The tapered face 30 greatly assists in guiding insert 46 into the proper position and further assists in permitting the insert to be properly seated. In a typical example the taper 30 is substantially 4-5 degrees as measured from the longitudinal center axis of the connector assembly. The next step of assembly comprises inserting pin 60 within insert 38 and force-fitting insert 38 carrying the pin into bore 28 to trap the flange 62 of the pin against the face of the recessed portion 48. The taper of angle A of bore 28 serves to lock the insert and thereby pin 60 against withdrawal. In an actual embodiment the dielectric insert 38 and an outside diameter of 0.440 inch and the angle A was approximately .25 degree. With insert 38 being of polypropylene in the above example, a thirty-five to fifty pound pull-out force was required to withdraw the pin and insert from the connector housing 22, such force being far higher than normal operating forces arising during use of the connector. The only remaining step of assembly is to place collar on housing 22 fitting its threading 82 onto the threading of flange 26. In this form then, the connector of the invention is ready for use and comprises only two loose pieces including the ferrule 72. Installation procedures require that the cable be stripped in the manner indicated in FIGURE 3. Thereafter, collar 80 and ferrule 72 are placed on the cable and backed off, and the dielectric spacer 16 and center conductor 18 are worked within the connector crimp sleeve 32, the conductor 18 being inserted within pin 60. The metallic braid 14 is worked up over the outside of crimping sleeve 32 and the ferrule brought forward to the position shown in FIGURE 2. During installation the internal taper 50 greatly assists in guiding the center conductor 18 into the pin 60. This overcomes one of the most frequent causes of assembly installation delay and, connector failure; namely, that one of the strands of the center conductor will be left out of the central pin member and, thus upon full insertion become jammed up at the entry point of the pin. This would cause in other connectors, a short and/or an electrical discontinuity. With the connector of the invention the strands are guided into the proper position. The rearward dielectric sleeve 52 of insert 46 also serves to prevent any single strand of braid 14 from being carried forward to short against center conductor 18. Following the simple installation above outlined the connector may then be crimped, the three crimps shown in FIGURE 1 being applied simultaneously as indicated in the Demler application above identified. Utilizing the teachings of the above invention, a wide variety of coaxial connector sizes can be made by holding the forward dimensions of the connector and reducing the dimensions of the sleeve 32 and the internal dimensions of dielectric insert 46 to accommodate the smaller wire. Referring now to FIGURES 4, 5 and 6, there is shown a connector 120 attached to a shielded cable 1th] and adapted for use in terminating the cable with a complementary connector half, not shown. Cable 100 includes an outer sheath of protective insulating material 112, an outer conductor 114 usually of metallic braid or thin metallic tubing, an inner dielectric sheath 116 and a pair of spaced inner conductors 118 and 119. The connector 120 is substantially identical in configuration to that of FIGURES 1-3 relative to the housing portion 122, ferrule 172 and collar 180. The crim-p of the ferrule to the rear portion of sleeve 122 is also substantially identical as that heretofore described. The interior bores of housing 122, shown as 128 for the forward bore and 153 for the rear bore are similar in configuration to those described with respect to the embodiments of FIGURE 1. There is included a transition between such bores shown as 130, which serves to aid assembly of the dielectric inserts and pin members within the housing and to lock such against movement relative to housing axially to the right of the drawing as shown in FIGURE 5. Angle B, which represents the inward taper of bore 128 is, like angle A of the previous embodiment, adapted to lock the inserts and pin members in position against displacement axially to the left of the drawing. The insert and pin assembly is comprised of :a first insert 146 of dielectric material including a forward portion of a diameter adapted to be fitted within bore 128 and integral therewith a sleeve portion 152 of reduced diameter adapted to fit within bore 153. The interior bore of insert 146 is substantially constant and of la diameter approximately that of the insulating sheath 116 of the cable. A transition portion 147 on the outer surface of 146 is adapted to mate with the transition 130 of the housing and the forward face of insert 146 includes a pair of recesses shown as 148 and 149, which have a forward portion of constant diameter and limited depth to receive end portions of pin members and then a further and flaring portion extending to the rear of the insert. The recesses have an outer dimension corresponding with the 6 rear bore of the insert and an inner dimension defined by a tapered integral center portion of the insert shown as 150. The surfaces of the recesses operate to guide the conductors 118 and 119 into the connector in members. Disposed forwardly of insert 146 is a further insert 133 having an outer surface adapted to be wedge-fitted within the bore 123 in the forward portion thereof and center bores and 1 11, adapted to accommodate and support pin members 1&1? and 1711 fitted therein. With 138 in position a pin flange portion, shown as 162 relative to pin 160, is entrapped between the rear face of insert 138 and the forward face of the first portion of the recesses 148 and 149. Thus positioned the pin members are adapted to receive the center conductors 118 and 119 of the cable. During installation of the cable to the connect-or the rear surfaces such as 151 operate to guide the center conductors into the pin members. The center conductors extend forwardly through a bore such as 161 in pin 161 and are terminated to the pin members by a crimp in the manner described with respect to the embodiment of FIGURE 2. The embodiment of FIGURES 4-6 again greatly facilitates assembly to result in a product which is on the average of better quality than those heretofore available and is less expensive to manufacture. FIGURES 7 and 8 show an alternative collar construction adapted to be pushed on and pulled off to mechanically and electrically join or part the connector of the invention relative to its receptacle. The cable 209 is terminated by a connector housing 12@ with components as above described except for collar 180, which may be replaced by a collar 202 adapted for axial engagement rather than threading. The collar 2fl2 includes an inner bore 2414 having at the rear several threads adapted to engage the threads of 122 and forwardly thereof a slight inwardly projecting flange 2116 of a diameter to limit axial engagement of 2112 on 1211. The forward end of 202 includes a number of resilient spring fingers 208 biased inwardly to a diameter to frictionally engage the outer threads 2114 of a receptacle 212 as shown in FIGURE 8. The leading edge of fingers 2113 is beveled as at 210 to guide the fingers over the receptacle threading and the fingers are made of a length to contact at least three or more of the threads. The inner bore of 2112 is of a diameter slightly greater than the maximum diameter of 212 and is reduced in effective diameter progressively by the bias of the fingers to develop a contact pattern as shown by the dotted lines in FliGURE 8. This feature has been found to provide a pull-off force which is substantial and yet is maintained throughout a large number of engagements. Since the collar in effect mechanically seizes on the threading and itself is threaded onto the housing 122, the connector may be pushed on and pulled off or pushed on and threaded olf, making the assembly more flexible in the uses. If desired the collar may be permanently attached to the housing 122 by staking as at 216 applied to points over the housing threading. Changes in construction will occur to those skilled in the art and various apparently different modifications and embodiments may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. The matter set forth in the foregoing description and accompanying drawings is offered by way of illustration only. The actual scope of the invention is intended to be defined in the following claims when viewed in their proper perspective against the prior art. 1. A coaxial connector comprising a metallic sleeve having a forward portion carrying a first dielectric insert and a rearward portion carrying a second dielectric insert, the first dielectric insert carrying a hollow conductive pin member having a flange disposed against an inner transverse surface of said first insert, the second insert including a relieved portion adapted to receive the volume of said flange, the sleeve including an inner surface tapering inwardly in the sleeve forward portion to lock said first insert and thereby said second insert and said pin member against withdrawal forces. 2. The connector of claim 1, wherein said second insert includes an interior surface tapering inwardly from the sleeve rearward portion toward the forward portion with surface material overlapping said flange, the said surface serving to guide a coaxial cable inner conductor into said pin member during connector installation. 3. The connector of claim 2, wherein said sleeve includes a further interior surface tapering outwardly toward said forward portion and said second dielectric insert includes an exterior surface of a complementary taper such that the second dielectric insert nests within said further sleeve surface. 4. The connector of claim 3, wherein the first and second dielectric inserts extend to cover the entire interior surfaces of said sleeve. 5. A connector for shielded cable of the type having an inner conductor surrounded by dielectric material in turn surrounded by an outer conductor, the connector comprising in combination an outer metallic sleeve having a forward portion adapted to support a locking collar and a rearward portion adapted to be fitted over the cable dielectric and beneath the cable outer conductor, a ferrule member adapted to be fitted over the sleeve rearward portion and cable outer conductor and be crimped inwardly thereagainst to common said sleeve electrically with said outer conductor, the interior of the forward portion of said metallic sleeve including a bore tapering from a maximum diameter at an inner portion of the sleeve forward portion to a minimum diameter at the forward end of said sleeve, a dielectric insert carrying an inner conductive pin member adapted to receive the cable inner conductor and be crimped thereagainst, the said insert adapted to be fitted within said tapered bore and having a substantially cylindrical outer surface of a diameter slightly greater than the minimum diameter of said bore such that said insert is force-fitted within said sleeve and locked against withdrawal forces to thus hold said insert and said inner pin member in proper position for connector operation. 6. A connector for shielded cable of the type having an inner conductor surrounded by a dielectric material in turn surrounded by an outer conductor, the connector comprising in combination, an outer metallic sleeve having a forward portion adapted to support a locking collar and a rearward portion adapted to be fitted over the cable dielectric and beneath the cable outer conductor, a ferrule member adapted to be fitted over said sleeve rearward portion and said cable outer conductor and be crimped inwardly thereagainst to electrically common the outer conductor to the sleeve, the interior of said sleeve including a surface configuration tapering inwardly from the rearmost portion of the sleeve forward portion toward the forward end of the sleeve, dielectric material fitted within said sleeve including a forward portion carrying an inner pin member adapted to receive the cable inner conductor and be crimped thereagainst to electrically common the pin thereto, the dielectric forward portion having an outer diameter such as to be wedged against withdrawal forces by said sleeve taper, said dielectric material having an inner taper leading from the rearward portion thereof to the forward portion thereof adapted to guide the cable inner conductor into said pin member during installation of the connector. 7. A connector for mechanically and electrically joining shielded cable of the type having an inner conductor surrounded by dielectric material in turn surrounded by anouter conductor to a shielded receptacle comprising in combination, an outer metallic sleeve having a forward portion adapted to support a locking collar and a rearward portion adapted to be fitted over the cable dielectric material and beneath the cable outer conductor, a ferrule member including a forward portion having an inner diameter to slidingly fit over the cable outer conductor as fitted over the rearward portion of said sleeve, and a rearward portion of a diameter slightly larger than the cable outer diameter, the ferrule adapted to be crimped inwardly to electrically common the cable outer conductor to the sleeve and support said cable relative thereto, the said sleeve including a forward portion bore and a rearward portion bore with a tapered surface connecting said bores, a first dielectric insert in said sleeve including a thin wall portion extending the length of the sleeve rearward portion bore and of an inner diameter slightly larger than the cable dielectric material, and a forward portion of an outer diameter such as to fit within the sleeve forward portion bore, the first insert including an outer diameter tapered surface adapted to nest within the tapered surface of said sleeve, a second dielectric insert of an outer diameter adapted to tightly fit within the forward portion of the sleeve and including an internal bore adapted to receive a hollow pin member and support such substantially along its length with the pin extending outwardly to form a center contact path for the connector, the said pin member including a flange entrapped between said first and second inserts well within said sleeve. 8. The connector of claim 7, wherein the forward portion bore of the sleeve tapers inwardly to a diameter substantially less than the diameter of the said second dielectric insert such that the dielectric insert is forcefitted within said sleeve and entrapped against axial movement to lock said central pin member against withdrawal forces. 9. The connector of claim 8, wherein said first insert includes an interior tapered surface in its forward portion leading to said central pin member to guide the cable center conductor therein during connector installation. 10. In a connector for mechanically and electrically joining shielded cable of the type having an inner conductor surrounded by a dielectric material in turn surrounded by an outer conductor to a shielded receptacle comprising a combination a connector body having an outer metallic sleeve having a forward portion carrying a collar attached to the outside thereof and a rearward hollow portion adapted to receive the cable dielectric materal inserted therein with the cable outer conductor fitted thereover, means cooperating with said rearward portion to electrically and mechanically join the cable outer conductor to said rearward portion and to said sleeve, the said sleeve forward portion including a bore and a dielectric insert secured therein, a conductive contact member secured within said insert within said sleeve and held thereby against axial movement, said conductive contact member including a bore at the rear thereof adapted to receive the center conductor of the cable and be terminated thereto, the said receptacle including an outer metallic sleeve and carrying a center contact member adapted to receive and mate with the center contact member of the connector sleeve, the outer diameter of said receptacle sleeve being threaded, said collar including in a forward portion a plurality of axially extending spring fingers of arcuate shape biased inwardly from an inner diameter approximating the outer diameter of the said receptacle sleeve to an inner diameter at the ends thereof less than the outer diameter of the said receptacle whereby to engage the receptacle threading and hold said connector in engagement on said receptacle. 11. The connector of claim 10 wherein said connector sleeve includes threading on the outer surface thereof at the forward end thereof and said collar includes on the rearward portion thereof, internal threading adapted to mate with the threading on the sleeve of said con- 9 hector whereby said collar may be threaded onto said connector to permit said connector to be joined or separated on said receptacle by axial or by twisting motion. References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,563,712 8/1951 Frei et a1 339-63 X 2,941,028 6/1960 Edlen et a1. 339177 X 2,945,203 7/1960 Quackenbush 339-59 2,995,718 8/1961 10 3,048,828 7/1962 Gregson et a1. 339-177 X 3,077,513 2/1963 Feits 339177 X FOREIGN PATENTS 861,652 2/1961 Great Britain. OTHER REFERENCES Specifications: 429-5M-C58 AMP, Inc., one page. EDWARD C. ALLEN, Primary Examiner. Murphy 33 9-97 10 PATRICK A. CLIFFORD, Examiner.

2019-04-24T17:22:31Z

https://patents.google.com/patent/US3297979A/en

An ∼135-bp sequence called the A1/A2 repeat was isolated from the transcribed region of the 26-18S rDNA intergenic spacer (IGS) of Nicotiana tomentosiformis. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and Southern blot analysis revealed its occurrence as an independent satellite (termed an A1/A2 satellite) outside of rDNA loci in species of Nicotiana section Tomentosae. The chromosomal location, patterns of genomic dispersion, and copy numbers of its tandemly arranged units varied between the species. In more distantly related Nicotiana species the A1/A2 repeats were found only at the nucleolar organizer regions (NOR). There was a trend toward the elimination of the A1/A2 satellite in N. tabacum (tobacco), an allotetraploid with parents closely related to the diploids N. sylvestris and N. tomentosiformis. This process may have already commenced in an S3 generation of synthetic tobacco. Cytosine residues in the IGS were significantly hypomethylated compared with the A1/A2 satellite. There was no clear separation between the IGS and satellite fractions in sequence analysis of individual clones and we found no evidence for CG suppression. Taken together the data indicate a dynamic nature of the A1/A2 repeats in Nicotiana genomes, with evidence for recurrent integration, copy number expansions, and contractions. PLANT genomes often contain considerable amounts of repetitive sequences. Of these, a few are transcribed, including clusters of ribosomal RNA (rRNA), transfer RNA, and histone genes. The large ribosomal DNA (rDNA) unit cluster (35S rDNA in plants; Hemleben and Zentgraf 1994) encoding 18S, 5.8S, and 26S rRNA occurs in one or more chromosomal loci. Variable numbers of rRNA genes (from 1000 to >30,000), forming multigene families in tandem arrays, have been reported for a variety of plant species (for review see Hemleben and Zentgraf 1994). The highly conserved genic regions are separated by a more diverged intergenic spacer (IGS), which in turn contains several subrepeated regions. While there is enormous variability in IGS sequences between plant genomes there is usually high homogeneity within a genome. Homogeneity of units is maintained by gene conversion and nonhomologous recombination, forces collectively called concerted evolution (Dover 1982). Here we characterize a sequence found in the IGS of some Nicotiana species that is also scattered as a satellite across the genome. Satellite sequences usually do not encode structural RNA or protein. Limited transcription has, however, been recently demonstrated and a role for satellite-specific small interfering RNA molecules (siRNA) has been proposed for the establishment of a heterochromatic state (Volpeet al. 2002). In higher plants, satellites may occupy large chromosomal domains, usually at centromeric and subtelomeric positions (Schmidt and Hes-lop-Harrison 1998). Even closely related plant species may differ substantially in type and abundance of satellite repeats. It is known that some satellites evolve rapidly while others remain unchanged throughout long evolutionary periods (Grebensteinet al. 1995; Kinget al. 1995; Vershininet al. 1996; Ugarkovic and Plohl 2002). Mechanisms leading to the evolution of a novel satellite are not well understood but include integration of exogenous viral DNA (Bejaranoet al. 1996), divergence of endogenous viral elements (Langdonet al. 2000), and nonhomologous recombination (Schwarzacheret al. 1984), processes accompanied by gene conversion, amplification, and translocation (Ugarkovic and Plohl 2002). In this article we explore possible mechanisms for the origin and evolution of a Nicotiana satellite derived from the IGS of rDNA. In Nicotiana several families of repeated sequences have been isolated and characterized by molecular and cytogenetic methods (Koukalovaet al. 1989; Kentonet al. 1993; Gazdovaet al. 1995; Chenet al. 1997; Matyaseket al. 1997; Jakowitschet al. 1998; Limet al. 2000b). Some satellites, e.g., the HRS60 family, are structural features of Nicotiana chromosomes, and others, e.g., NTRS or GRD, occur in a subgroup of species and appeared more recently in evolution (Limet al. 2000b). Lim et al. (2000b) showed that the chromosomal distribution of repetitive sequences could be used to generate a phylogenetic scheme for Nicotiana section Tomentosae. Molecular cytogenetics provides a useful approach that is independent of those based on intragenic transcribed spacer sequences (Chaseet al. 2003) and matK (Aoki and Ito 2000; Chaseet al. 2003) sequencing. In section Tomentosae rDNA clusters occur on homeologous chromosome 3 and in most species also on chromosome 4, indicating a relatively stable chromosomal organization (Limet al. 2000b). However, molecular methods revealed fast evolution of the units at these loci. For example, the length of the IGS varies substantially among Nicotiana species (Borisjuket al. 1997) and there is evidence for rapid evolution of IGS sequences in natural (Kovariket al. 1996; Volkovet al. 1999; Skalickáet al. 2003) and synthetic (Skalickáet al. 2003) tobacco. IGS subrepeats probably represent the fastest “molecular clock” in rDNA (Hemleben and Zentgraf 1994; Falquetet al. 1997). We have isolated a 135-bp subrepeated sequence from the IGS of the rDNA unit of Nicotiana tomentosiformis.We report the molecular characterization of IGS sequences both within and outside of rDNA loci. We also conduct phylogenetic analyses of these sequences from the two genomic domains and show their chromosomal location in several diploid and allotetraploid Nicotiana species. Plant material: Natural diploid and tetraploid species are listed in Table 1. The Th37 synthetic tobacco line was derived from one plant generated from ♀N. sylvestris (2n = 24) × ♂N. tomentosiformis (2n = 24) and converted to a fertile allotetraploid by in vitro callus culture (S0, Burk 1973). Plants were grown in a greenhouse under standard cultivation conditions. DNA isolation, restriction analysis, and Southern blot hybridization: Total genomic DNA was extracted from a young leaf, using a slightly modified cetylammonium bromide (CTAB) protocol (Saghai-Maroofet al. 1984). DNA was digested with an excess of restriction enzyme (twice for 3 hr) and subjected to electrophoresis on agarose gels. To each lane 1–3 μg of DNA was loaded to detect high- and medium-copy repeats. Following electrophoresis, the ethidium-bromide-stained gels were photographed, blotted onto membranes (Hybond N+, Amersham Pharmacia, Buckinghamshire, UK), and hybridized to [α-32P]dCTP-labeled DNA probes (>108 dpm·μg-1 DNA, Dekaprime kit; Fermentas, Vilnius, Lithuania). Oligonucleotide IGS_SR-V probe was labeled by [γ-32P]ATP in a polynucleotide kinase reaction. Southern hybridization was carried out in 0.25 m Na-phosphate buffer, pH 7.0, supplemented with 7% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) at 65° for 16 hr followed by washing with 2× SSC (1× SSC = 150 mm NaCl, 15 mm Na3-citrate, pH 7.0), 0.1% SDS (twice for 5 min), 0.2× SSC, and 0.1% SDS (twice for 15 min). Oligonucleotide probe was hybridized at 45° and the blot was washed with 2× SSC (twice for 15 min). The membranes were exposed to X-ray film (Medix, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic) for 4–48 hr. A PhosphorImager (Storm; Molecular Dynamics, Sunnyvale, CA) and ImageQuant (Molecular Dynamics) software were used to quantify the hybridization signal. DNA probes for Southern hybridization: The 18S rDNA probe contained a 1.7-kb EcoRI fragment of the 18S rRNA gene subunit from Solanum lycopersicum (Kisset al. 1989; accession no. X51576). The 26S rDNA probe was a 220-bp fragment of the 3′ end of the tobacco 26S rRNA gene (accession no. X76056) and was obtained by PCR amplification of the region between nucleotide (nt) 2901 (5′-GAATTCACC CAAGTGT TGGGAT-3′) and nt 3121 (5′-AGAGGCGTTCAGTCATA ATC-3′) with respect to the transcription starting site of the 26S rRNA gene. The IGS_A1/A2 probe was a cloned ∼280-bp A1/A2 subrepeat from N. tomentosiformis IGS (Volkovet al. 1999; accession no. Y08427). The IGS_SR-V probe was a 5′-AGGTGTTGAAAGGCACCTCAAGG-3′ oligonucleotide between nt 4196 and 4218 (Volkovet al. 1999; accession no. Y08427). PCR and cloning procedures: Templates for PCR were prepared as follows: large amounts (50 μg) of total genomic DNA from N. tomentosiformis cv. NIC479/84 were digested with an excess of EcoRV restriction enzyme and subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis. Material from 12.0- and 4.8-kb fractions was isolated from the agarose gel, using a gel extraction kit (Qiaex II; QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany). PCR amplification was performed with 30–130 ng of genomic DNA as templates (∼12.0- and ∼4.8-kb fractions, respectively), in a reaction volume of 80 μl containing Taq buffer, MgCl2 to a final concentration of 1.5 mm, each nucleotide at 0.2 mm, each primer at 0.5 μm, and 1.6 units of thermostable Taq DNA polymerase (DyNAzyme). The PCR was run on a MJ Research (Watertown, MA) PTC100 under the following conditions: 5 min initial denaturation at 94° (hot start); 25 cycles of 30 sec at 94°, 30 sec at 68° (-0.5° per cycle), 30 sec at 72°; 10 cycles of 30 sec at 94°, 30 sec at 55°, 30 sec at 72°; followed by 10 min at 72°. Primers were designed according to the published sequence of N. tomentosiformis IGS between 26S and 18S rDNA (accession no. Y08427). Primer sequences for the A2 subrepeat were SubrepA_for 5′-GGTTGTTGTGAGTTGTGTCTGGC-3′ and SubrepA_rev 5′-CAATCRAAACRTRTATATRCCCC-3′ (Figure 1). PCR generated a ladder of products (∼140 to ∼700 bp), which were cloned using the QIAGEN PCR cloning kit into the polylinker of pDrive cloning vector (blue/white and ampicillin resistance selection). Representative clones from each IGS and satellite fractions were submitted to the EMBL/GenBank database (AY397676 and AY397677). DNA sequencing and analysis: Six randomly selected clones of the PCR products (three from 12.0- and three from 4.8-kb fractions, respectively) were purified in QIAGEN Plasmid mini kit columns and sequenced using SP6 and T7 internal oligonucleotide primers. DNA sequencing was performed by automated “cycle sequencing” at the Laboratory of Plant Molecular Physiology, Brno, Czech Republic (ABI PRISM 310 genetic analyzer, Perkin-Elmer, Norwalk, CT). Sequence analyses were performed using the GCG package (version 10.3; Accelrys, San Diego). Expected values of CpG dinucleotide distributions are calculated from the formula E(CpG) = (n - 1) × f(C) × f(G) where n is the number of bases in the region and f(N) is the frequency of a given nucleotide. Computer analysis of DNA structure was carried out using CURVATURE software (Shpigelmanet al. 1993) that implements the nearest-neighbor wedge model of intrinsic DNA curvature. Fluorescence in situ hybridization: Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was carried out as described in Lim et al. (2000b). Two cloned probes were used: (i) the IGS probe, an ∼280-bp A1/A2 subrepeat cloned from N. tomentosiformis IGS (Volkovet al. 1999), and (ii) pTa 71, a cloned 9-kb EcoRI fragment of the 35S rDNA unit from Triticum aestivum (Gerlach and Bedbrook 1979). These probes were used at a concentration of 4 μg·ml-1 and labeled with digoxigenin-11-dUTP (Roche Biochemicals, Sussex, UK) or biotin-16-dUTP (Sigma Aldrich). In all, the hybridization mix contained 50% (v/v) formamide, 10% (w/v) dextran sulfate, 0.1% (w/v) sodium dodecyl sulfate in 2× SSC (0.3 m sodium chloride, 0.03 m sodium citrate). After overnight hybridization at 37°, the slides were washed in 20% (v/v) formamide in 0.1× SSC at 42° at an estimated hybridization stringency of 80–85%. Sites of probe hybridization were detected using 20 μg · ml-1 fluorescein-conjugated anti-digoxigenin IgG (Roche Biochemicals) and 5 μg·ml-1 Cy3-conjugated avidin (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech). Chromosomes were counterstained with 2 μg · ml-1 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) in 4× SSC, mounted in Vectashield medium (Vector Laboratories, Peterborough, UK), and examined using a Leica DM RA2. Images were captured using Openlab (Improvision, Coventry, UK) and assembled to a plate using Adobe Photoshop (Adobe Systems, Edinburgh). Images were treated for color contrast and brightness uniformly. Localization of IGS repeats on chromosomes: A 280-bp dimer referred to as A1/A2 subrepeat (Volkovet al. 1999) was cloned from N. tomentosiformis IGS (Figure 1). This was used as a probe in FISH and Southern hybridization experiments. For FISH we conducted simultaneous hybridization of the IGS probe (for A1/A2 units, green fluorescence) and pTa71 (for rDNA genic regions, red fluorescence) to root-tip metaphases. When these probes label a chromosome region independently, the fluorescence color reflects the fluorochrome attached to the probe, but when the probes colocalize, the fluorescence color reflects the ratio of probe label present, leading to yellow and orange fluorescence colors. The experiment revealed that the IGS probe had two distinct distributions: (i) within the rDNA loci in locations that were expected from previous karyotype analyses (Limet al. 2000b) and (ii) dispersed in local concentrations on some chromosomes of N. tomentosiformis (both NIC 479/84 and TW142 varieties), N. kawakamii, N. tomentosa, N. otophora, and N. setchellii (all section Tomentosae). The dispersed A1/A2 units were completely absent in N. glutinosa (not shown) and N. sylvestris (section Sylvestris, ex. Alatae sensu; Knappet al. 2004, Figure 3). Sequence analysis shows that N. glutinosa should not be in section Tomentosae and is more likely a member of section Undulatae (Chaseet al. 2003; Knappet al. 2004). There was considerable variability in signal distribution between the species: while in N. tomentosiformis the IGS probe hybridized to six or seven chromosomes (at non-rDNA chromosomal loci), in N. setchellii there was only a small amount of signal on the short arm of a small metacentric chromosome. In N. tomentosa, the subrepeat hybridized to small metacentrics while in N. tomentosiformis the signal was present predominantly on larger chromosomes. Thus there is little apparent phylogenetic signal in the distribution of dispersed A1/A2 subrepeats outside of rDNA loci (A1/A2 satellites) in section Tomentosae (Figure 2). In most cases the IGS probe showed a dispersed, speckled signal distribution that often occupied nearly a whole chromosome arm, e.g., in N. tomentosiformis chromosomes. Some chromosomes carried more condensed or denser IGS probe signal distribution, particularly in N. tomentosa and N. tomentosiformis var. NIC479/84. This may indicate both dispersed and clustered organizations of the A1/A2 satellite repeats. Interestingly, in N. kawakamii the A1/A2 satellite was frequently associated with dispersed rDNA genic units, the latter having been reported previously (Limet al. 2000b). —Restriction enzyme map of the major N. tomentosiformis rDNA unit. The positions of probes (thick lines) and restriction fragment lengths are indicated. IGS structural regions (SR) are termed as SR-II (containing C subrepeats), SR-V (downstream from the transcription starting site), and SR-VI (containing A1/A2 subrepeats). Restriction enzymes are as follows: E, EcoRV. The A1/A2 subrepeat unit used as a probe is enlarged and contained the following restriction sites: BstNI, ClaI, ScrFI, SfaNI, RsaI, HaeIII, and DdeI. Positions of PCR primers used for amplification of A1/A2 sequences are indicated by solid arrowheads. Distances are approximately to scale. —Karyotypes of Nicotiana species in section Tomentosae probed by FISH, using digoxigenin-labeled (FITC detected, green fluorescence) IGS probe against the A1/A2 repeats and biotin-labeled (Cy3 detected, red fluorescence) pTa71 for 35S rDNA, counterstained with DAPI for DNA (blue fluorescence). Chromosomes are arranged in decreasing order of size except for rDNA carrying chromosomes whose position is identified in Lim et al. (2000b). When the IGS repeat and the 35S rDNA probe colocalize, the signal is yellow or orange depending on the relative strength of the two signals. All species have localized concentrations of dispersed A1/A2 satellite sequences. N. kawakamii is distinct in that the 35S probe also labels at dispersed locations. Bar, 10 μm. —FISH experiment labeled as in Figure 2. Metaphase chromosomes are shown. (A–C) N. sylvestris. There are three rDNA loci (six sites). The IGS probe colocalizes with the pTa71 at these loci and at no other site. (D) Synthetic N. tabacum (Th37.9); (E) labeled chromosomes isolated. The rDNA loci carrying 35S rDNA sequences are found at the terminal end of the short arm of chromosomes T3, S10, S11, and S12 (E, bottom row). The rDNA locus on S12 is amplified (Skalickaet al. 2003); it is also more orange than the other two S-genome loci, appearing more like the T3 locus. There is dispersed IGS signal on the long arm of chromosome T3 and at five other pairs of chromosomes (E, top row). The total IGS signal is less than that in the two cultivars of N. tomentosiformis examined. (F) Feral N. tabacum collected in Bolivia (accession Nee et al. 51789, S. Knapp); (G) labeled chromosomes isolated. There is less dispersed satellite signal than in the synthetic tobacco, its distribution is different (e.g., T3), and the locus on S12 is not amplified. (H) N. tabacum cv. 095-55. The abundance of dispersed A1/A2 satellite is lower than that in the feral tobacco and much lower than that in the synthetic tobacco. Bar, 10 μm. It would be expected that N. tabacum would have an IGS signal distribution that reflected the sum of that found in the diploid progenitors N. sylvestris and N. tomentosiformis. However, there was reduced A1/A2 satellite signal in all three tobacco lines [synthetic tobacco Th37 (Figure 3, D and E), a feral tobacco (Figure 3, F and G) and cv. 095-55 (Figure 3H)]. The reduction in A1/A2 satellite sequence was least apparent in the synthetic tobacco (Figure 3, D and E) and the sequence distribution on a subset of chromosomes most closely reflected, albeit in reduced abundance, that found in N. tomentosiformis (compare labeled chromosomes in Figure 3E with those in Figure 2). But there are differences; e.g., there is a satellite locus on the long arm of the T3 chromosome of Th37 plants that did not occur on chromosome 3 of any N. tomentosiformis varieties studied. The novel locus could have arisen by an allopolyploidy-induced translocation or amplification event. Distribution of A1/A2 satellite in Nicotiana genomes: We carried out Southern blot hybridization to study the distributions of A1/A2 satellite in the genomes of different Nicotiana species. Genomic DNAs were digested with EcoRV restriction enzyme, which has a conserved recognition site in the rDNA unit of Nicotiana (Figure 1 and Borisjuket al. 1997). Southern blots were hybridized sequentially with the 18S and 26S genic probes and the A1/A2 and SRV IGS probes (Figure 4A). The 18S and 26S probes hybridized to a single (N. otophora) or in most cases to multiple (e.g., N. tomentosa) fragments. Multiple bands in the <10-kb region indicated the presence of multiple rDNA families and incomplete rDNA homogenization. As expected both IGS probes hybridized to the same fragments as the 18S genic probe. However, an additional band of ∼12 kb of variable intensity was revealed in N. tomentosiformis (both cultivars), N. kawakamii, N. tomentosa, N. setchellii, and N. otophora after hybridization with the A1/A2 probe. The 12-kb signal was nearly (N. tabacum) or completely absent in lanes loaded with DNA from N. glutinosa, N. sylvestris, N. undulata, N. paniculata, N. rustica, N. alata, N. longiflora, N. glauca, N. solanifolia, and N. suaveolens (Figure 4 and not shown). Since the 12-kb fragment did not hybridize with the 18S, 26S, and SR-V probes it is likely that the band represents a non-rDNA satellite fraction of the IGS-related A1/A2 repeats. The majority of satellite repeats apparently lack a conserved EcoRV site although several minor fragments could be visualized after longer exposure of the blot. The complex pattern of hybridization bands in Figure 4B, lane 5, is consistent with extensive rearrangements of the parental IGS in this subline of synthetic tobacco (Skalickaet al. 2003). The distribution of A1/A2 repeats into rDNA and non-rDNA fractions was quantified by counting the radioactivity in the satellite and rDNA fractions after hybridization of the blot with the A1/A2 IGS probe (Figure 4, Table 2). It is evident that the relative abundance of satellite signal in the 12-kb EcoRV fraction correlates with FISH analysis (compare Figures 2 and 3 with Figure 4). It is evident that there is a negligible amount of A1/A2 satellite in both cultivated tobacco varieties examined. Genomic organization of A1/A2 repeats: To study the genomic organization of A1/A2 repeats we isolated two genomic fractions containing IGS and satellite repeats. Genomic DNA from N. tomentosiformis var. NIC479/84 was digested with EcoRV, gel separated by electrophoresis, and DNAs of 12- and 4.8-kb size fractions were eluted and purified. The purified DNAs, termed as 4.8- and 12-kb EcoRV fractions, were subjected to Southern blot analysis using methylation-insensitive restriction enzymes that have recognition sites within the A1/A2 repeats (Figure 5A). Ladder patterns were obtained from both 12- and 4.8-kb fractions, suggesting that the repeats are tandemly organized in both satellite and IGS fractions. The ladders started at ∼140 bp and were slightly irregular in the 4.8-kb EcoRV fraction (Figure 5A). In contrast, highly regular long ladders were obtained after digestion of the 12-kb EcoRV fraction with RsaI, SfaNI, and DdeI, suggesting that the tandem repeats could form longer arrays of uninterrupted satellite sequences. Another distinction between the two fractions was a prominent ∼0.8-kb band present in the 4.8-kb fraction only. Perhaps the ∼0.8-kb fragment represents a relatively abundant rDNA family characterized by a 6-unit spacing of neighboring RsaI sites. Relative hypomethylation of IGS sequences has already been described in several plant species (Flavellet al. 1988; Torres-Ruiz and Hemleben 1994), including tobacco (B. Koukalova, unpublished data). We were interested in determining the methylation status of IGS repeats within and outside of the rDNA locus. We digested DNA with methylation-sensitive and -insensitive enzymes followed by Southern blot hybridization (Figure 5B). BstNI cuts at CCWGG and is methylation insensitive; its nearby ScrFI isoschizomere cuts at CCNGG and is sensitive to CNG methylation; PvuII cuts at CAGCTG and is sensitive to CNG methylation; ClaI cuts at ATC GAT and is sensitive to CG methylation. Methylation-insensitive BstNI digested both 4.8- and 12-kb fractions into a series of bands. In contrast, ScrFI produced several bands only after digestion of the 4.8-kb fraction, and there was no significant digestion of the 12-kb satellite fraction. Similar results were obtained when ClaI and PvuII enzymes were used although in these cases no methylation-insensitive isoschizomeres were available to check the presence of recognition sites. Taken together, the data indicate that the A1/A2 repeats within the rDNA, compared with those outside rDNA loci, are relatively hypomethylated at cytosine residues. Sequencing analysis of rDNA and satellite A1/A2 repeats: To study sequence homology between IGS and satellite repeats we isolated several clones from the purified genomic fractions of N. tomentosiformis described previously. We carried out PCR, using oligonucleotide primers (Figure 1) designed according to the published IGS sequence (Volkovet al. 1999); one primer contained a degenerative sequence to increase the chance of the primer annealing to mutated sites. The PCR products obtained were analyzed by gel electrophoresis. In both samples the products contained fragments of ∼140 bp and its multiples, confirming a tandem arrangement of repeats. Amplified DNAs were cloned into the pDrive (QIAGEN) vector. Gel analysis of recombinant clones showed that inserts contained all kinds of oligomers up to pentamers with dimers and trimers being most abundant. Several randomly selected clones from each fraction were sequenced and the data were analyzed with previously obtained sequence (Volkovet al. 1999). The sequence homology between the clones from each fraction was between 75 and 85%. A Harr-plot analysis revealed a sequence repetition in most inserts, suggesting that these clones harbor more than one complete repeating unit. The units had a conserved length of ∼135 bp, and two clones were shorter (∼125 bp). The units within and between individual clones were analyzed by the program DISTANCES implemented within the Wisconsin GCG package software. Alignment of repeating units is expressed by a dendrogram in Figure 6. The multiple alignment did not separate satellite and IGS clones into distinct groups, indicating the absence of a sequence unique for particular fractions. The two separate clusters correspond to A1 and A2 versions of the repeat (Volkovet al. 1999). Units from N. sylvestris IGS fell into the A1 population branch. Most of the clones obtained from PCR amplification (indicated by “p” after the name of a clone) fell into the A2 group as expected from the primer sites (Figure 1). There was no homology between sequenced clones and analogous repeats in potato IGS (Stuparet al. 2002). —Southern blot hybridization showing the distribution of A1/A2 repeats (A) in Nicotiana diploids and (B) in N. tabacum and its progenitor species. Genomic DNA was digested with EcoRV and hybridized sequentially with the genic and intergenic probes. In A and B the 12-kb fragment visualized by the A1/A2_IGS probe (but not the genic and SR-V_IGS probes) indicated the presence of an rDNA-independent IGS-related satellite (labeled satellite). (B) The A1/A2 probe hybridized relatively weakly to the ∼10-kb EcoRV band in N. sylvestris rDNA (S-rDNA) due to decreased sequence homology between the probe of N. tomentosiformis origin and the N. sylvestris IGS. The minor bands in the blot (A) that hybridized with the SR-V_IGS probe result from incompletely stripped 26S probe. Lanes 1–4, N. tabacum vars. Vielblättriger, Samsun, SR-1, and feral tobacco. Lanes 5 and 6, Th37 synthetic tobacco plants differing in the type of rDNA families. T-rDNA, position of EcoRV restriction fragment containing 18S gene linked to the part of IGS of Tomentosae origin. S-rDNA, position of monomeric rDNA unit of N. sylvestris origin. Asterisks indicate fragments with rearranged IGS units in the synthetic tobacco line (B). Since the A1/A2 repeats are heavily methylated in satellite and to a lesser extent in IGS we investigated whether cytosine methylation has resulted in CG suppression through C to T transitions over a long period of time (Gardiner-Gardenet al. 1992). Analysis of consensus sequences for IGS and satellite monomers shows nearly equal probabilities of CG occurrences. Observed vs. expected values were 0.84 for IGS and 1.03 for satellite fractions, suggesting little or no CG depletion. CG-rich IGS subrepeats have also been reported in Zea (Buckler and Holtsford 1996) and Cucurbita (Kinget al. 1993), but not in several other genomes (Unfriedet al. 1991). Theoretical analysis modeling natural DNA curvature has revealed that satellite DNA is regularly curved (Fitzgeraldet al. 1994; Fannet al. 2001). The CURVATURE program (Shpigelmanet al. 1993) was used to analyze the curvature of A1/A2 monomeric units and other Nicotiana satellite repeats. In contrast to most other satellites, cloned A1/A2 repeats have relatively straight DNA paths (see supplementary material at http://www.genetics.org/supplemental/). We report the isolation and characterization of a repetitive sequence composed of A1/A2 units that occurs (i) as part of the IGS of 26S-18S rDNA in Nicotiana and (ii) independently as a high-copy satellite repeat unassociated with rDNA in the genomes of Nicotiana section Tomentosae (sensu Knappet al. 2004) and tobacco. The A1/A2 subrepeats of the IGS have dispersed into the genome of section Tomentosae and were then carried into the tobacco genome upon allopolyploidy involving the diploid progenitors N. sylvestris and N. tomentosiformis. The absence of A1/A2 satellites outside section Tomentosae and tobacco might be caused by a differential capacity of IGS to transpose into other genomic loci and/or by differential genome tolerance toward genomic changes. We now know that the evolution of section Tomentosae is associated with the evolution of at least three repetitive sequences, the A1/A2 satellite reported here, NTRS, and GRS characterized previously (Gazdovaet al. 1995; Limet al. 2000b). The occurrence of IGS-like sequences in plant genomes has been described in plants previously (Magginiet al. 1991; Unfriedet al. 1991; Falquetet al. 1997; Nouzovaet al. 2001; Stuparet al. 2002), e.g., high homology between the IGS subrepeat and a satellite in Vigna radiata (Unfriedet al. 1991) and limited homology in Phaseolus (Falquetet al. 1997). Perhaps multiple types of IGS-related satellites are scattered in some eukaryote genomes (Stuparet al. 2002). These data may indicate different evolutionary timescales of dispersion of the IGS to the genome from the rDNA locus. Indeed, in some cases the sequence divergence allowed discrimination of IGS-related subfamilies (Macaset al. 2003). In N. tomentosiformis there is high homology (75–85%) between A1/A2 repeats irrespective of their genomic origin, suggesting perhaps a recent origin (see also lack of CG suppression below). —Analysis of genomic fractions carrying A1/A2 repeats. (A) Genomic organization studied with methylation--insensitive restriction enzymes; (B) analysis of DNA methylation using methylation-sensitive (ScrFI, ClaI, and PvuII) and -insensitive (BstNI) restriction enzymes. The rDNA and non-rDNA fractions containing A1/A2 repeats were isolated from the agarose gel after digestion of N. tomentosiformis DNA with EcoRV and separation of fragments by electrophoresis. The 12-kb EcoRV fraction corresponds to the non-rDNA satellite fraction, and the 4.8-kb band to the rDNA fraction. Isolated EcoRV fractions were subjected to secondary digestion with enzymes indicated. Note in A the prominent 0.8-kb RsaI band and that the enzymes generated ladders of bands. In B the methylation-sensitive enzymes fail to cut the A1/A2 satellite sequences. Properties of A1/A2 units and clusters: The length of the basic A1/A2 units (138 ± 6 bp) is shorter than usual for a satellite repeat (∼180 bp; Vershinin and Heslop-Harrison 1998) and it lacks typical DNA curvature. Curved DNA and repeat length close to the nucleosomal periodicity have been proposed to facilitate chromatin condensation (Fitzgeraldet al. 1994; Ugarkovic and Plohl 2002). The IGS may have unusual structural features because IGS subrepeats are thought to be involved in the regulation of rDNA expression (Hemleben and Zentgraf 1994). But this alone cannot account for their genetic instability being restricted to Nicotiana section Tomentosae and tobacco. On the basis of known copy number of rDNA units and number of A1/A2 subrepeats/unit it is estimated that there are ∼2 × 104 copies of A1/A2 satellite repeat units in the N. tomentosiformis genome with some variability between the two accessions (Table 2). Despite high homology between A1/A2 satellite units and A1/A2 units in the IGS, Southern analysis did reveal differences in genomic organization associated with epigenetic modification. First, the A1/A2 satellite contains a larger number of A1/A2 tandem repeats (>20-mers) than is typical of the IGS. Perhaps there is a limit to the number of subrepeats in the IGS (Hemleben and Zentgraf 1994). Second, there were slight irregularities in ladders of IGS fraction, suggesting a more complex arrangement of A1/A2 subrepeats in the IGS. Third, there was relative hypomethylation of cytosine residues in IGS subrepeats. A hypomethylated fraction of the 35S rDNA molecules is frequently correlated with expression (Flavellet al. 1988; Torres-Ruiz and Hemleben 1994; Chen and Pikaard 1997; Castilhoet al. 1999). On the other hand hypermethylation of A1/A2 satellite repeats is in accord with a trancriptionally silent satellite. Thus the nearly identical repeats may be differentially methylated depending on the locus and genetic environment (Kovariket al. 2000). We postulated that since the A1/A2 are differentially methylated, the long-term evolutionary effect may be higher CG suppression in A1/A2 satellite sequences due to spontaneous or enzymatic deamination to TG dinucleotide (Gardiner-Gardenet al. 1992). However, analysis of CG contents in the A1/A2 repeats in satellite and IGS fractions revealed no evidence for CG suppression, and the content of TG/CA is near expectation, assuming a random nucleotide distribution. In contrast, a family of geminiviral sequences (GRD5) and a family of NTRS repeats, each of which integrated into a subset of species in section Tomentosae (Limet al. 2000b), do show substantial CG suppression (Matyaseket al. 1997; Muradet al. 2004). —Neighbor-joining dendrogram of rDNA and satellite A1/A2 sequences of N. tomentosiformis and N. sylvestris. Assignment of clones is as follows: IGS-TOM-5.4p, clone 5, the fourth unit in the row, obtained from PCR cloning of a repeat from intergenic 26-18S rDNA spacer of N. tomentosiformis; SAT-TOM-4.4p, clone 4, the fourth unit in the row, obtained from PCR cloning of the satellite repeat from the 12-kb EcoRV fraction of N. tomentosiformis; IGS-TOM-A1.1, sequence of the subrepeat obtained from cloning of N. tomentosiformis IGS in a phage (the last “1” indicates a unit proximal to the transcription starting site); IGS-SYL.1, sequence of the subrepeat obtained from cloning of N. sylvestris IGS in a phage (“1” indicates a unit located proximal to the transcription starting site). The sequences of phage clones are taken from Volkov et al. (1999). The origin of A1/A2 satellite sequences: The copy number, position, and genomic organization of the A1/A2 satellite is highly variable among closely related species; indeed, differences could be found between lines and accessions of N. tabacum and N. tomentosiformis, respectively. The variability in distribution of the A1/A2 satellite exceeds the variability of other tandem repeats previously mapped in Nicotiana (Limet al. 2000b). Thus the rate of divergence in the distribution of the A1/A2 satellite exceeds the rate of Nicotiana speciation and the overall rate of karyotype divergence. The absence of any sequence distinction between units of the IGS and satellite fraction (Figure 6), coupled with an absence of CG suppression in the satellite fraction despite high overall levels of cytosine methylation, point to a recent origin of the A1/A2 satellite. Yet this satellite fraction is found across all species of Nicotiana section Tomentosae, which is at odds with a “recent-origin” hypothesis. The most likely explanation for these data is that the A1/A2 satellite has a recent origin arising through repeated de novo integrations or sequence evolution via homogenization that influences the IGS and satellite sequences together. We favor the hypothesis that the A1/A2 satellite has arisen repeatedly through evolution of Tomentosae possibly by transposition from the IGS region. The dispersed character of FISH signals on many chromosomes may further support this hypothesis. It is unknown how the A1/A2 units became dispersed across the genome of some Nicotiana species. Three possibilities are apparent. Transposition of A1/A2 repeats may be mediated by reverse transcription of primary rRNA transcripts since the IGS A1/A2 subrepeats are located in the external transcribed spacer (ETS) and are removed during rRNA processing (Hemleben and Zentgraf 1994; Volkovet al. 1999). If this occurred, then unit amplification must have occurred at the novel site since Southern blot data (Figure 5A) indicated that the A1/A2 satellite occurs in long simple tandem repeats that are unlikely to be generated by reverse transcription. A subpopulation of A1/A2 repeats displayed a speckle-like FISH pattern on some chromosomes (Figures 2 and 3). These dispersed sites are probably formed by relatively short tandem arrays (Figure 5A) and may represent recent individual integration events. Perhaps insufficient time has elapsed to allow amplification of units to form long arrays. Longer arrays of IGS satellite repeats could be generated directly by an extrachromosomal excision-amplification-reintegration mechanism (Starket al. 1989) recently proposed for evolution of a potato IGS-related satellite (Stuparet al. 2002). Extrachromosomal amplification may be stimulated in tobacco by an aps element located upstream of the transcription starting site, which is known to stimulate amplification of linked transgenic DNA (Borisjuket al. 2000). But FISH (Figure 3) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (not shown) failed to reveal extrachromosomal IGS sequences. We favor the hypothesis that IGS-related satellite repeats evolved from randomly integrated solitary rDNA units [termed orphones (De Lucchini et al. 1988)] by amplification of subrepeats in the intergenic region. Some evidence supports this hypothesis—the genic probe showed faint hybridization signal to several non-NOR loci on N. kawakamii chromosomes, suggesting that other sequences in the rDNA units can also show dispersion in this species. The influence of allopolyploidy on A1/A2 repeats: Allopolyploidy is often associated with fast genetic change; for example, instability and frequent elimination of a subtelomeric satellite has been observed in most wheat varieties (Pestsovaet al. 1998). Also in newly synthesized Triticum and Aegilops allopolyploids, there is rapid, directed, and reproducible change in the occurrence of molecular markers (Ozkanet al. 2001). But data are contradictory since in similar experiments in newly synthesized allopolyploids of Gossypium there was no such change (Liuet al. 2001). Skalicka et al. (2003) showed in the fourth generation of synthetic tobacco that there was a rapid change in the A1/A2 repeat structure at rDNA loci of N. tomentosiformis origin. Here we observe a lower number of A1/A2 satellite repeats in both synthetic and natural tobacco lines compared to the paternal parent, N. tomentosiformis. The A1/A2 satellite is of paternal origin. Song et al. (1995) demonstrated in synthetic allopolyploids of Brassica that molecular markers of paternal origin were preferentially lost and they suggested that there is some instability in the male-derived genome of an allopolyploid in the cytoplasmic background of the female parent [nuclear cytoplasmic interaction (NCI) hypothesis (Jiang and Gill 1994)]. The A1/A2 satellite might have been eliminated as a result of NCI in tobacco. In tobacco gene conversion has altered parental rDNA unit structure (Volkovet al. 1999; Limet al. 2000a). The rearranged rDNA units could have lost the capacity to transpose from the IGS into non-rDNA chromosomal loci. Perhaps a “steady-state” level exists between recurrent recruitment and elimination of sequences. After homogenization of tobacco rDNA to the new unit type, the recruitment of the IGS units might have been compromised. It might not be coincidental that feral tobacco and synthetic Th37 hybrid lines that have retained most of the A1/A2 satellite also showed partial or no homogenization of rDNA units, respectively. Interestingly, rearrangement of the IGS in natural (Volkovet al. 1999) and synthetic tobacco (Skalickáet al. 2003) involved amplification rather than deletion of A1/A2 subrepeats. There is a possibility that the expansion of IGS repeats in N. tomentosiformis occurred after the divergence of N. tabacum (∼10,000 years ago; M. W. Chase, personal communication), rather than after a loss in N. tabacum since its formation. We thank S. Knapp from the Natural History Museum, London for seeds of feral tobacco. Technical assistance of D. Saikia is acknowledged. 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http://www.genetics.org/content/166/4/1935

IT HAS taken the Japanese government more than 18 months to pay tribute to a group of brave men, once known as the “Fukushima 50”, who risked their lives to prevent meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant from spiralling out of control. The media attention is always focused on those in power, who typically do nothing to merit the recognition. The multitudes on the frontline, who put their heads down and do all the hard work are treated as faceless, nameless and ultimately forgotten. with the writer calling it "one of the tragic flaws of modern Japan". I seem to be already hearing an "It is the same everywhere in the world, not just Japan" chorus, but as the writer points out in the article, it may be only in Japan where these workers themselves and their families are bullied by people around them for having tried their best to contain the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. For the case of TEPCO workers at the plant, see my post from February this year. The article in that post was written by a reporter from Germany's Spiegel. I think hardly anyone in Japan paid any attention to the Spiegel article. It will be the same with The Economist's article. It doesn't occur to many that the workers have been treated poorly, not only by TEPCO and by the government but also by ordinary people like them. See no evil, hear no evil. IT HAS taken the Japanese government more than 18 months to pay tribute to a group of brave men, once known as the “Fukushima 50”, who risked their lives to prevent meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant from spiralling out of control. But when the prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, belatedly offered official thanks to them on October 7th something strange was afoot: six of the eight men he addressed had their backs to the television cameras, refused to be photographed and did not introduce themselves by name, not even to Mr Noda (see the image below). There are numerous ways that this incident reflects badly on both Tepco’s and the government’s handling of the situation. Firstly, there is the contrast between the frontline worker’s behaviour and the brazen hypocrisy of Tepco’s management after the accident. I remember Tepco’s then-chairman, Tsunehisa Katsumata (now thankfully retired), nonchalantly blaming everyone but himself when giving testimony to a Diet commission earlier this year. Meanwhile, the men who worked loyally for him, risking their lives on behalf of his company, still hide their heads in shame. The government, for its part, has done these men a huge disservice by not acting more quickly to differentiate their heroism from the craven self-interest of the company’s bosses. In the eyes of the public there ought to be no confusion between the two. In Chile, it was easy to see how the country made heroes of the 33 trapped mine workers in 2010, while making villains of their bosses. Nothing like that has happened in Japan. As one government official noted, if this were America, the “Fukushima 50” would have been invited to the Rose Garden for presidential recognition. Yet even after Mr Noda’s visit, the men do not get the recognition they deserve. Kyodo, a news agency, relegates any mention of them to the bottom of a boring story about decontamination. An English-language paper, the Japan Times, today at least tells part of their harrowing story, though it doesn’t mention the refusal of all but two of them to be identified. They did not depict themselves as heroes, as they recounted their experiences to Mr Noda. They mostly sounded plain scared. One said he thought “it was all over” after the tsunami of March 11th, 2011 knocked out all the power. Another told of how he sent his staff out into the dark, where they faced the danger of electrocution, to restore the power to a nuclear reactor on the verge of melting down. He was asked by his men whether he thought they would come back alive. They went on regardless. But the headlines, ultimately, refer back to Mr Noda, not to the Fukushima 50. He gets more of the credit than they do, despite his wooden acknowledgement to the men, that “Thanks to your dedication, we have managed to preserve Japan.” This is one of the tragic flaws of modern Japan. The media attention is always focused on those in power, who typically do nothing to merit the recognition. The multitudes on the frontline, who put their heads down and do all the hard work are treated as faceless, nameless and ultimately forgotten. The Economist writer is highly critical of the TEPCO top management, rightly so. But even there, having watched TEPCO's press conference in March last year almost every night and having watched some of the teleconference video TEPCO finally released, I cannot make a sweeping criticism. The Norwegian committee should have asked citizens in Greece and Spain at least. The same committee awarded the current US president the same prize for his presidential campaign in 2008. Past recipients for Nobel Peace Prize include Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter, Dalai Lama, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). To be on the candidate list for a Nobel Prize, someone has to nominate the person or entity to the committee. I wonder who nominated the EU. As the Reuter article below notes, Norway is not part of the EU, and is doing very well. The article also duly notes an infuriated Greek citizen. (Reuters) - The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for promoting peace, democracy and human rights over six decades in an award seen as a morale boost as the bloc struggles to resolve its economic crisis. The award served as a reminder that the EU had largely brought peace to a continent which tore itself apart in two world wars in which tens of millions died. The EU has transformed most of Europe "from a continent of wars to a continent of peace," Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said in announcing the award in Oslo. "The EU is currently undergoing grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest," Jagland said. "The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to focus on what it sees as the EU's most important result: the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for democracy and human rights." Jagland praised the EU for rebuilding Europe from the devastation of World War Two and for its role in spreading stability after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. While welcomed by European leaders, the award will have little practical effect on the debt crisis afflicting the single currency zone, which has brought economic instability and social unrest to several states with rioting in Athens and Madrid. On the streets of the Greek capital, where demonstrators have burned Nazi flags to protest against German demands for austerity, the award was greeted with disbelief. "Is this a joke?" asked Chrisoula Panagiotidi, 36, a beautician who lost her job three days ago. "It's the last thing I would expect. It mocks us and what we are going through right now. All it will do is infuriate people here." The prize, worth $1.2 million, will be presented in Oslo on December 10. It was not immediately clear who from the EU would be there to collect the cheque and what it would be spent on. Conceived in secret at a chateau near Brussels, what is now the European Union was created by the 1957 Treaty of Rome, signed with great fanfare in the Italian capital's 15th century Palazzo dei Conservatori. The six-state 'common market' it founded grew into the 27-nation European Union ranging from Ireland's Atlantic shores to the borders of Russia. At the time the Cold War was in full swing after Soviet tanks put down an anti-communist rebellion in Budapest. Western countries led by the United States had formed NATO and the Kremlin responded with the Warsaw Pact. But the EU is now mired in crisis with enormous strains between capitals over the euro, the common currency shared by 17 nations and created to further economic and monetary union. Politicians in Germany, one of the main forces behind the foundation of the EU, were delighted with the award. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe's most powerful leader, said it was a "wonderful decision". French President Francois Hollande, whose country has with Germany formed the EU's main axis of power, said it was an "immense honor". Helmut Kohl, the chancellor who reunified Germany and pushed the country into the euro, said: "The Nobel Peace Prize for the EU is above all a confirmation of the European peace project," After centuries of war on the continent the EU has been at peace within its borders, but its effort to stop war in former Yugoslavia -- an initiative hailed by one minister as "the hour of Europe" -- was a failure. The British government, less committed to the European ideal than other EU members, made no comment on the prize. Ed Balls, a senior member of the opposition Labour Party, remarked sarcastically: "They'll be cheering in Athens tonight, won't they?" Nigel Farage, leader of Britain's fiercely eurosceptic UKIP party, added: "This goes to show that the Norwegians really do have a sense of humor." In Madrid, Francisco Gonzalez expressed bafflement. "I don't see the logic in the EU getting this prize right now. They can't even agree among themselves," the 62-year-old businessman said. In Berlin, public relations worker Astrid Meinicke, 46, was also skeptical. "I find it curious. I think the EU could have engaged itself a bit better, especially in Syria," she said, near the city's historic Brandenburg Gate. In the home of the peace prize, many Norwegians are bitterly opposed to the EU, seeing it as a threat to the sovereignty of nation states. "I find this absurd," the leader of Norway's anti-EU membership organization Heming Olaussen told state broadcaster NRK. Norway has twice voted "no" to joining the EU, in 1972 and 1994. The country has prospered outside the bloc, partly thanks to huge oil and gas resources. Among those tipped to win was Russia's small Ekho Moskvy radio, a frequent critic of the Kremlin. Editor in chief Alexei Venediktov conceded the prize to a worthy winner. "We are only 115. They are 500 million. It is an honor (to lose to the EU)," he told Reuters. The award money of $1.2 million is probably enough to hire one or two technocrats at Brussels for a year or so. It took 51 workers (from TEPCO and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, most likely) 3 hours on October 11, 2012 to probe again the Containment Vessel of Reactor 1 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. TEPCO's handout for the press (Japanese, 10/11/2012) says the maximum radiation exposure for the workers was 1.83 millisievert. TEPCO does not say how many groups of workers went in, and how long each group spent inside the reactor building. Tomorrow (October 12), TEPCO will send in the workers again (no information if they are the same ones who have been going there every day since October 9) to collect water samples. On October 13, the workers will go there again, and install a thermocouple and a water gauge inside the Containment Vessel, again using the same penetration. It is simply infuriating to think all this work may not have been needed if enough people at TEPCO had dared to break the rules and social niceties on March 11, 12, 13. Even more infuriating that most Japanese still don't get it. The company released the data on dose rates inside the CV and two videos (one is an abbreviated 3-minute video, the other is the full-length, over 2 hours) on October 10, 2012. The highest level of radiation inside the CV was recorded right outside the X100B penetration tip, at 11.1 Sieverts/Hour. According to TEPCO, the maximum radiation exposure for the workers was 2.13 millisieverts. That was much lower than the planned exposure of 10 millisieverts. The workers went in in several groups, so their exposure was nowhere near the 2-plus hours it took for the operation. TEPCO will measure the radiation levels in the water under the grating, on October 11, and will collect the water sample on October 12. So, when Prime Minister Noda went to the plant and gave a talk to the plant management on how progress had been made, the workers (TEPCO and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy) were preparing for this work which might expose them to 10 millisieverts in short time. Frozen strawberries served in school lunches in kindergartens and schools in Berlin and other cities in eastern Germany have been identified as the culprit. Norovirus has been identified from the strawberries. The food distributor says frozen strawberries were imported from China, according to NHK News. 44 metric tonnes of them, according to Germany's Spiegel. Experts now believe that frozen strawberries from China are behind a massive outbreak of the norovirus that recently affected thousands of schoolchildren in eastern Germany. The episode merely illustrates the deplorable state of school lunches, a problem no one seems willing to fix. The first school lunch that Martha Payne photographed in May consisted of a croquette, a small pizza, a bit of corn and a muffin. The nine-year-old from Scotland gave the meal six out of 10 points for taste on her "food-o-meter" and four out of 10 for healthiness. Her plan had only been to take a shot in order to show her father that the meal wasn't enough to fill her up, she wrote on her blog. After only a week, Payne had 25,000 hits on her blog, and now hundreds of thousands are reading it. Whoever looks at the photos will not be surprised by the debate that has been raging in Germany for two weeks about what is actually served to children in school cafeterias. Much more amazing is the fact that it took so long to reach a crisis like the one that has happened in eastern Germany, where more than 11,000 schoolchildren were recently affected by gastrointestinal sickness -- most likely because of what they ate at school. "We already calculated long ago that an episode like this would happen because the entire system is messed up from beginning to end," says Michael Polster, head of DNSV, an association that advocates healthier school meals in Germany. "Rapidly growing demand is running up against massive cost pressure (and) absurd bureaucracy in an altogether lawless area," he says. A move by the German government in recent years to push forward an expansion in the number of all-day schools, has prompted explosive growth in the school catering business. Germany has 11 million children attending 45,000 schools, and the number of them being fed at these schools is rising. As a result, the school catering business is becoming highly competitive and growing at an annual rate of 5 percent. Already today, the five largest school catering companies generate combined revenues of some €160 million ($208 million) in the country. By far the largest of these is the French company Sodexo. Last week, the company and its products quickly fell under suspicion of being at least partially responsible for the mass outbreak of illness in eastern Germany because many of the affected establishments were supplied by its industrial kitchens. The self-described specialist in "quality of life services" offers an extremely broad range of services, from nursing care to cleaning to catering. The company's global sales are estimated at €18 billion, and its 391,000 employees make it one of the 25 largest employers in the world. The family of company founder Pierre Bellon is believed to be the richest family in France. After German reunification in 1990, Sodexo made significant investments in its Germany-based operations. The company took over a number of company cafeterias in the states that belonged to the former East Germany, including one in the city of Halle located right next to a former state-owned paint, varnish and flooring plant. To this day, plasticizers are stored in huge tanks in the courtyard near the kitchen, which is surrounded by rat traps. Signs warn about dangers to reproductive health. The French quickly became sector leaders with rock-bottom prices of €1.55 ($2) per meal and many employees working at dumping wages, according to the NGG union. Today, 65 Sodexo kitchens supply 200,000 daily meals all across Germany. Questioning of patients and analyses of the supply chain provided indications tracing the cause of the recent epidemic of diarrhea and vomiting to a supplier who provided Sodexo and at least two other catering companies with frozen strawberries from China. The batch involves 44 metric tons of the fruit that were imported into Germany via the port of Hamburg. According to the findings of a working group composed of state and local officials, "at least 10" of the Sodexo kitchens in eastern Germany had processed and failed to sufficiently heat the frozen strawberries from this delivery. Sodexo describes the episode as a "regrettable isolated case" and says that use of the goods in question was "blocked" after it was announced that the strawberries might be to blame. Late Friday evening, Sodexo's German operations issued a press release saying that it was "shocked" by the outbreak. The company added that it apologized to all affected children and families and that it hopes that the children have gotten better. In addition to pledging to improve quality control and to take other preventative measures, the company said it would "compensate those affected for the unpleasantness that occurred." On Tuesday, Germany's center for disease control, the Robert Koch Institute, declared that the contaminated strawberries had been identified and removed, but it also confirmed that one batch of the frozen strawberries had tested positive for the highly contagious norovirus. School lunches seem to be dumping grounds for cheap and/or unwanted food items, also in countries other than Japan. I'm a bit surprised that this happened in Germany. Sodexo, Inc.'s website says it is the world leader in "Quality of Daily Life Solutions". There is Sodexo South Korea, but none in Japan. So far. Speaking of frozen fruits, some cities in Kanagawa Prefecture continue to serve frozen mandarin oranges even if they have been already tested and confirmed to have radioactive cesium. Why? Because the contract with the vendor is more sacred. It seems Japan will be a great fit for the French company. Japanese Net Citizens' (Anecdotal) Response to TEPCO with No Money to Buy Batteries and No Permit to Transport Batteries: "TEPCO Should Have Used Credit, and We Need New Emergency Laws and Regulations" One month after it was first reported by Asahi Shinbun, some Japanese net citizens on Twitter seem to be slowly realizing what happened on March 13, 2011 when Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant workers didn't have enough money to buy car batteries which would have given them a good fighting chance. Sadly, their response to this revelation indicates to me the same thing would happen again and again. The tweets that I've seen on the subject are limited in numbers, I don't have that many followers (4,700, give or take) and I don't follow that many. So the following is nothing but anecdotal. They should have asked nicely. They should have bought on credit. Maybe the stores didn't trust TEPCO to sell on credit. I'm embarrassed for Japan, what would the world think of us Japanese? There is no indication that any of them even thought about "other" solutions (see my previous post for some). That's understandable, because we don't have laws and regulations for emergency situations like that. I think there are some who predicted it [that Toshiba or TEPCO waited for the permit while core melt was occurring]. But it is us [the citizens of Japan] who have allowed it [the lack of emergency laws and regulations] to continue. So we have to change many things, but that's hard to do. If an earthquake and tsunami of the same magnitude happened right now, it is likely that we would repeat the same [mistakes]. To him, and to many others in Japan, it is a matter of creating new laws and regulations so that people can follow follow, and NOT of individual initiative and how to start thinking independently. And thinking fast. It's not the matter of whether you have the laws and regulations in place. If a government bureaucrat told Toshiba or TEPCO they couldn't transport the batteries on the highway without the permit, even as they knew (though they dared not tell the public) the reactor core was melting, Toshiba or TEPCO could simply say, "Oh OK, yes we understand, sir", and start driving to Fuku-I anyway. People are not trained to be bold and cunning, able to make judgment on their own on the fly in a situation like that. So what they might be fined or even arrested afterwards for transporting dangerous stuff on the highway? That would have been much better than having nuclear reactors blowing up one after another. I'm afraid he doesn't know what I'm talking about. But we're in agreement as to repeating the same mistake in the future. PM Noda Visits J-Village, #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: "As a Citizen of Japan, I Thank You." So far, the news is out on his morning visit to J-Village in Naraha-machi, Fukushima, where met with workers who had remained at the plant during the early days of the nuclear accident, and thanked them for their effort. Why does he bother? Jiji says it's to show people that the Fukushima nuclear accident is still the number one priority for the administration. For what? At this point, I haven't a clue. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is in Fukushima Prefecture on October 7 to visit Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. It will be the second time [for Mr. Noda] to visit the scene of the nuclear accident since September last year, when he became the prime minister. He has been re-elected as the leader of Democratic Party of Japan, and has reshuffled his cabinet to strengthen his position. With the visit, he intends to show that the Fukushima nuclear accident continues to be the first priority for the administration. Prime Minister visited the J-Village in Naraha-machi, which has been the staging area for the accident response work. He met with the workers who had remained at the plant despite danger right after the start of the nuclear accident in March last year, and thanked them by saying, "You must have suffered such hardships that you can't even begin to tell us. I would like to thank you, as a citizen of Japan, for your strenuous effort in the middle of fear and harsh environment." I don't know if the quote by Jiji Tsushin is verbatim or abbreviation. I would have liked him to say that and more, as the prime minister of the national government whose official, national policy has been to pursue nuclear energy, instead of as one citizen. "As the prime minister, and as a citizen of Japan, I offer my profound respect and appreciation. Thank you very much." From the words, Mr. Noda seems to appreciate policemen more than the Fuku-I workers.

2019-04-22T08:56:21Z

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2012_10_07_archive.html?widgetType=BlogArchive&widgetId=BlogArchive1&action=toggle&dir=open&toggle=WEEKLY-1371366000000&toggleopen=WEEKLY-1349593200000

I'm proud to participate in my THIRD YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team (the GOLD team)! But play fast: this contest only lasts 72 hours! Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are SEVEN teams, meaning seven contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the GOLD TEAM--but there six other teams and chances to win a whole different set of books! Succeed in this team, and you could win every book below, including my novel School of Deaths! Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've hidden my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the GOLD team, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!). This YASH I'm hosting debut author Melissa Eastlake, whose first novel, The Uncrossing, releases TODAY, October 2nd! That's exciting. Melissa Eastlake’s debut novel, The Uncrossing, releases TODAY from Entangled Teen. She lives in Athens, Georgia with her partner and their dog. Visit her on Goodreads. In fact maybe you should visit her repeatedly, say perhaps 28 times? (wink, wink). But wait- there's more- she's offering a special sneak peak into her novel with an EXCLUSIVE PLAYLIST!! And don't forget to continue the Scavenger Hunt! The next author on the Gold Team is Abigail Johnson! What did you think of the hunt? Does this sound like an exciting new novel? Leave a comment below and share! Today, I'm thrilled to feature an interview with debut novelist and friend Missy De Graff, whose new novel The Rogue's Fate is coming soon! ​If your life hung in the balance, would you choose to make your own destiny or leave your life to fate? CM: Tell us about your new release? MDG: The Rogue’s Fate is my debut novel, scheduled to be released soon, possibly Fall 2017. It walks the line between an urban fantasy and paranormal romance, and it will appeal to the older YA and Adult crowd. CM: What inspired this particular story? MDG: I was going through a hard time when I first started writing this story. My mother had just passed away after a battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Writing was my way of coping. I’ve always loved fantasy and paranormal creatures, so it was only natural that’s what I would write about. And I needed a strong female lead to help me through the hard times, so I made one. I threw all sort of emotional obstacles at her and she survived-so I knew I would too. CM: How long have you been working on this and what did it take to get published? MDG: I first started working on this story in 2014. It was just for fun and as a coping mechanism. But then, it took on a life of its own and grew into so much more. I took a break from writing in 2015 but got back to finishing this piece in 2016 and then went through the revision, editing, and querying process. It has been a long journey to get here, but I’m thrilled to be at the end stage. CM: How'd you pick your MC's name? MDG: I try to pick my character names for specific reasons, such as the meaning of the name. Lucinda, the main character, her name means Light. And Caiden, the male lead, his name means Battle. In picking Lucinda’s name, I also wanted a name that had multiple nicknames. Lucinda has two nicknames in the book-Lux and Cinda-each one represents a different period of her life. CM: Tell us about your main character. I bend with the hurricane when the wind blows. I stand as solid as a brick wall when the waves come crashing down. CM: Is this your first work? MDG: Yes, this is my debut novel. It isn’t the first story I’ve written, or idea had, but it is the first novel I’ve completed through the entire process of outlining, drafting, revising, editing, querying, and now publishing. MDG: I’m currently in the first round of revisions for The Alpha’s Secret, which is the second book in The Raven Chronicles. And then I’ll dive straight into drafting the third book, The Witch’s Betrayal. CM: If you had to pick a theme song for your book what would it be? MDG: Oh wow, that’s a tough one! Just one song? Let’s see...Taking Chances by Celine Dion. CM: Anything else you want to add? MDG: Chris, thank you so much for having me here today, it’s been fun! Sound interesting? Check out Missy's website, or add the book on Goodreads! You can also visit Missy on Facebook or Twitter. Today, as the country looks up to the sky to witness one of nature's wonders, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the very human issues of the past week. A number of people I know on social media have taken to posting things about Charlottesville and elsewhere with the message of "it's time to move on" or "just let it go." I know this is a conversation that's difficult. I know many people like to pretend it's not about them, or it doesn't affect them. As I see it, there are two types of racism in this world. One is the active racism of people who honestly believe what they say. They think they're better than others because of the color of their skin, forgetting that the color of their blood- of all human blood- is the same red. This type of racism is not new and is not in the hearts of the majority of people, but it is suddenly louder in the US. It's been given a new voice, and a new sense of acceptance by the current Administration. The second type of racism, however, is far more insidious. This is the racism found when people see or hear things and ignore it. It is a racism of complicity. Seeing statues erected to honor white superiority and asking to preserve them. Seeing voter laws changed to disenfranchise minorities and saying nothing to your leaders. Or seeing Nazi rallies and not condemning hate for what it is. Boston was a powerful example of what happens when people come out in support of tolerance and love. Hate is a powerful emotion, but so is love. There are no easy solutions. I don't think showing up to shout down racists will work in the long run. I don't think protests and counter protests are the only answer, because it does continue the "us vs them" mentality adopted by the racist communities. I think back to my years teaching theatre. One of the things I love, especially about the arts, is the environment we fostered. Kids come to theatre often feeling outcast already. People of every race, socioeconomic background, and sexual preference. These kids worked together on shows, on plays, on building things together. They saw themselves as teammates, as friends. This is one possible long-term solution to combating racism. I wish we could go into communities where people are isolated and encourage them to work together with people of color. Send the racists into service through groups like the Peace Corps or USAID and have them help people in Africa, Asia, and other countries where perhaps these people start to realize they can fit in with others in a positive way. After all, racism is built on fear and ignorance, and both are combated through education and experience. Every year, arts in education are being cut. When I left teaching, I'd already been asked to continue an afterschool theatre program with no pay for any of my extra time, despite it being more time and harder than my regular teaching job. The department was also told to go without funding entirely. Community service, while encouraged in some schools, is often a lip service term given to kids who'll find time to help a teacher decorate their classroom, instead of going somewhere and doing something that engages with a broader community. These are issues you can talk with your elected school board officials about. These are issues that have long-term consequences. In the meantime, no, do not "let it go" and just try to forget what's going on around you. Speak up for what you believe in. Call out your leaders if they're not representing your values. And take the time to look at the world. This is a problem that's not going away anytime soon, and that needs to be talked about and addressed every day. ​Give our children a better world than the one we live in. I have been writing for a long time. Heck, I've wanted to be a writer since middle school. I've been writing ever since. The very first book I wrote took ten years. It's a mess. You've never heard of it. It's shelved on a floppy disk (remember those?) among other places, but was never revisited. Then, during my time in Oxford, I was inspired to write School of Deaths. It took me a year to write, and then I began trying for agents. In publishing, if you want your book published with the big publishers, distributed widely, and making money, you need an agent. The "Big Five" publishers (all subdivisions of just five companies) only take manuscripts from agents, and even then it's not always a guarantee of publication, much less success. Yet agents are the first gatekeepers in the business. Getting an agent involves writing a query letter. This is a single page long- a blurb about your book, a paragraph about similar books in the marketplace, and a paragraph about you. It's an email you send out and know you'll probably never hear back from. Some agents ask for just this, some for your first five pages. Most agents receive hundreds of email queries a DAY. Of those they receive, they might request pages from 5%, and of those pages, maybe request a full manuscript from an even smaller number. And it's not just based on the quality of your writing. It's based on a lot of subjective factors, like the agent's preferences, if they think they can sell it, does it conflict with other clients they have, and so on. In short, getting an agent is very, very difficult. It feels a bit like falling through mid-air, and trying to catch (and hold onto) a single raindrop. After a year of querying, and 130 rejections, I gave up trying to find an agent for School of Deaths. Instead I began querying small presses. 30 queries of publishers later, MuseItUp said yes. Small press is a form of traditional publishing in between the big guys and self publishing. In a way, it's sort of like the minor league baseball league. Minor leaguers are pros, and paid to play ball, and some are amazing, but you've never heard of them. They're all hoping to make it into the majors, but to do so they need that scout. With writing, you need an agent. After Scythe Wielder's Secret I wrote a sci fi thriller and re-entered the querying phase. Months passed. Nada. I've since decided to rework the project. Then, I had an idea for a book. A series. The ideas kept coming and coming. It was without a doubt the best thing I'd written. I decided, yet again, to plunge back into querying. Querying is a SLOW process, I'll add. Some agents have an AVERAGE response time of 115 days. That's just to hear back, even if it's a no. And if they request pages or your full manuscript, you have to wait months upon months. I began querying in January. I queried and queried. I became active in the Manuscript Academy, which gave me a lot of opportunities to work with pros. I had skype sessions with agents and not only pitched my book, but got help rewriting my query. I was in a workshop to help revamp my first page, and ended up a part of a writing community that's still wonderfully supportive today. And I worked with editors from St Martins and Tor (two imprints of the "Big 5" publishers) to rewrite the beginning completely. On the advice of an agent, I began "requerying" - contacting agents who said no months ago or who never responded. I was hopeful, but still not sure. I was ready to enter PitchWars when everything took off. First I got an offer from an agent. I then had to let my outstanding (hadn't heard from them yet) requeries know. Within hours, I had six more full requests. I eventually got a second offer and it came down to an insane day of phone conversations, nerves, and difficult decisions. After talking to the two agents, however, I knew the original offer was the agent I wanted to stick with. This is only one stage in a longer journey. However, this is a huge step for me and my career as an author. I am a fantasy author. My YA Fantasy trilogy The Scythe Wielder's Secret was pubbed by a small press a few years ago, and is a story about overcoming sexism, set in a war between Deaths (Grim Reapers) and Dragons. Did I mention that I love dragons! For starters, I'm now a full-time author, and a full-time stay-at-home dad for my son, who's now one. My son is the best kid ever- and guess what he's already addicted to (for real)... BOOKS! My current manuscript is an Adult High Fantasy. Please welcome fellow author Katie L. Carroll who has an exciting new Cover and a new novel! For centuries, the whereabouts of Captain William Kidd’s lost pirate treasure has remained a mystery. When Billy’s best friend, Andy, proposes they look for it on nearby Pirate Island, Billy thinks it’s just another one of their crazy adventures. It’s usually Billy who ends up in trouble as a result, but he goes along for the ride…like always. The more he delves into the life and death of Kidd, the more he thinks the treasure is real and that it might be buried on the small island in Long Island Sound. Billy—nope, call him William—becomes obsessed with the captain of the same first name. He even believes he’s possessed by Kidd’s restless soul. Now he and the spirit of a long-dead pirate are leading the crazy adventure on Pirate Island. And what they find is far bigger than the treasure they imagined. Katie L. Carroll always says she began writing at a very sad time her life after her sister Kylene unexpectedly passed away. The truth is Katie has been writing her whole life, and it was only after Kylene’s death that she realized she wanted to pursue writing for kids and teens as a career. Since then writing has taken her to many wonderful places, real and imagined. She has had many jobs in her lifetime, including newspaper deliverer, hardware store cashier, physical therapy assistant, and puzzle magazine editor. She works from her home in Connecticut that is filled with the love and laughter of her sons and husband. In addition to PIRATE ISLAND, Katie is the author of the YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUND. Find Katie on her website, Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. Today, I want to feature fellow author Debbie Manber Kupfer to talk about her newest release: Umbrae! I’m privileged today to have been invited to visit the P.A.W.S. Institute of Vienna in Glocken Street to meet with Max Katz. While most of the residents of this branch of P.A.W.S. are werecats created by the scientist, Dr. Wechsler, Max is one of the two shapeshifters that currently reside at P.A.W.S. Good afternoon Max and thank you for agreeing to speak to me. Can you tell us a little bit about this place, Max? This is the headquarters of the feline division of P.A.W.S. in Vienna. Our leader is Griddlebone. He was the first werecat and rescued many others from the Nazis. P.A.W.S. is the Partnership of Animagi, Weres and Shapeshifters. Out in the Vienna woods there are P.A.W.S. factions comprising of many different creatures. Here in Vienna we are all cats. In peacetime P.A.W.S. acts as an institute of learning, but during war we work with the resistance. That is a beautiful charm you wear. Where did you get it? That’s pretty impressive. How does it feel to be a cat? Like it was meant to be. I feel comfortable in my fur and spend most of my time that way especially when I’m hanging out with Esther. My girlfriend, I think, (Max blushes) or at least a good friend. She’s a werecat. I’ve heard there’s another shapeshifter at P.A.W.S. Yes, that is Celia. She’s a bit younger me and I’m supposed to take care of her. Her mother and my father were childhood friends and I promised Papa I’d make sure Celia was safe. I hope I can keep the promise. Why? Is there a problem? Yes, there is a werewolf by the name of Alistair. He tried to bargain with my father originally. He would save my life in exchange for my father’s charm, this charm (Max points to the silver cat charm around his neck.) Papa didn’t trust him and sent him away, but he came back here last week looking for me and Celia. He still wants our charms. Griddlebone says we may have to leave. I don’t want to leave Esther, but I promised Papa I would keep Celia safe. I’m sure you’ll keep your promise, Max. Thank you so much for speaking to me. My pleasure. Won’t you stay for supper? We’re having pea soup. It’s not as good as the pea soup my papa used to make, but still will keep you warm on this cold night. That’s OK. I need to be going. Thank you again for speaking to me Max.

2019-04-24T18:02:56Z

https://www.christophermannino.com/blog/previous/2

Create, edit, convert, annotate, protect, merge, watermark, compress, and sign PDF files in a better way. PDF element is an ideal tool for the creation and edition of pdf files, the creation of PDF documents is simple, and fast, you can create files based on any other document, from text files, images, among other types of documents, the editing of these files is very easy, it is a tool that any person of any age, with basic knowledge of informatics, can use at will. The text sources are too limited, I think that an application like this should have other types of text sources, but use the same as many text processors, besides the text centering tools are not automatic, you must center everything to measure, and it is not always perfect, they should be predetermined, to have more perfect documents, in different types of sizes and types of sheets. In our school we use hundreds of digital documents, which we have developed with PDF Element, now we have an immense digital library that grows daily, with the continued digitization of text and documents, thanks to this we have a complete library of all types of information available for our students and teachers. "Great PDF Reader In Very Less Price" The User Interface of this software is totally inspired by the MS Word, which i like very much also they have all the feature to edit a PDF or Create a PDF and Very usefull tool for me that in One click I Convert PDF to WORD, EXCEL, POWERPOINT etc which i use very much.The Most Best part of this software for all is that they take One Time Subscription FEES which is very low compare to other Software.They update their software very fast.They have also OCR feature. what I dislike about this software is that You cannot able to add custom created tool in this Software.Like Extra Add-on or feature. I Recommend all people to use this Software because it is very low price and you get all the features. "Best alternative to adobe acrobat" The user interface is really great, the tools it provides makes it easy to work with any PDFs and it has really amazing OCR capabilities ! I really love the drawing tools, it really helps me when reviewing documents and taking notes in class. Really simple to add quick pop up style notes, simply double click ! They are no shortcuts to go on about your way trough the different actions you can do. As a power user i always appreciate such things. You can't zoom in/out with your trackpad (pinch to zoom) gestures. Kinda strange as most application (on macOs) at least let's you do that. If the price scares you, look at other professional PDF editors/viewers that offer this level of tools for free and the top of the line OCR capabilities for the price, you won't find anything that good. Most of the tools you can use are 80$+ or have subscription fees. Very good bang for you buck. Annotate, add information and draw on top of the PDFs for correction demands, code reviews and creating/modifying contracts to be sent and signed by my clients. I also use it for school when reviewing and taking notes in class for the lectures. Much faster and time saver for taking notes and drawing. Like you, I also appreciate shortcut keys - it beats needing to use my mouse/tracking pad! We have a few shortcut keys available, but there is currently no guide on which key combinations trigger what. We are launching our new blog soon so I'll look into creating a blog post around that. In response to your feedback on the zoom in/out function: Currently, the way to zoom in and out is using Command and -/+, but using the trackpad to pinch is a function that we should consider. I like that the user interface is so much like Microsoft Office. It feels like you are in part of the office suite. I consider myself to be a power user and I have not run into an issue of not having a feature or tool that isn't available. I also like that PDFelement is nearly 20% of the cost of Adobe Acrobat Professional. The auto form feature, where the OCR creates the form fields automatically is a real time-saver. The OCR is superior to that of many PDF editors with OCR features. The OCR is more accurate. The logo image in the custom signature block is not editable; you can disable but not change the logo. There does not seem to be a way for you to set the default size of a PDF when you first open PDF to view. If you want the most used features with the likes of Adobe Acrobat Pro without the hefty price tag then PDFelement is a serious alternative. I have saved a lot of time with file conversion from PDF to Word and making the PDF searchable and editable without having to import it into MS Word. The ability to protect and having legally acceptable documents through electronic and digital signatures allows me to sign and send documents without having to print, handwrite my signature and scan back to PDF and then email a document saving time and not wasting paper and ink. We're glad to hear that PDFelement is helping you work efficiently and at an affordable cost! I saw that you had posted the same concern in the Community Forum about the custom signature block - We have the option to select "imported graphic" under "configure graphic". You can upload your own logo, then deselect "logo" under "configure text" to have only YOUR logo and your digital signer present. Let me know if this is what you're looking for, or if you have suggestions on how to make this process more intuitive. "Easiest software to get many things done on PDF" I can't stress enough about the price. When I wanted a PDF editor, I tried many. Each free tool was introducing some form of additional artifact and the commercial tools like Acrobat are too pricey for what they are worth. When I tried PDF Elements Pro, I was blown away. There are no side effects to changing text. It is so simple to edit. OCR feature is a bonus. I couldn't find where to have more text formatting features like underline etc. Another issue is that when the text is being added it used to be wrapped in the bounding box and because of which it used to jump across lines. I prefer if the bounding box increases if there is whitespace. I wish this product has ability to remove security once we know the open password. We have to rely on another software from same company. Small problem is that some fonts have mis-sized characters. If I type few characters it shows a warning and if I replace it with different character the warning beside bounding box disappears. Definitely go for it. The product is double the worth of its price easily. There won't be minor side effects and you don't have to rely on online convertors where you don't have control on your data. Mostly editing PDF files, add my own bookmarks. I had to edit some old documents of mine earlier and with this software it has been breeze. Editing slides rendered as pdfs. "Easy to use and highly functional PDF alternative, at a very affordable cost." This software provides me with all the functionality that I need, and makes it really easy to use with its highly intuitive user interface. It is a very attractive and affordable alternative to other high end PDF products, AND without "cutting corners". It's one of those very rare cases where you actually get MORE than what you paid for, believe me! Dislike? Well, so far, in terms of " disliking" , there is absolutely nothing that I dislike about this PDF product. Now, there is always room for improving, but's that is another story. You should try this product! There is absolutely nothing to loose, because you are going to get your work done, and, in addition, more than possible, I believe that it is going to be highly probable that you are going to fall in love with it! Give it a try! So far, I have been using it solely for sending and protecting documents through emails and simple form processing. The OCR is excellent in converting scanned documents accurately and quickly. The software is intuitive and easy to manage. There are excellent help features included with the software. The price was very good for the complexity and usage of this product. There are a few times when editing a PDF that it is difficult to highlight a specific area. However, that may be due to this being fairly new to me. When you compare PDFelement to other similar software, you will find that it offers more features for a lower price. It is also not clunky is working with editing, but offers great features to make the work easy and efficient. The software is offering the ability to take older documents, only available in paper form and change them to digital images that can be altered. This is especially helpful for those needing to update your business' policies and notes. "You get what you want from it...Just say once.. PDF Element is there to help you every time." User friendly. Easy to use. Excellent product and I was looking for quick way to edit and create PDF and re-edit documents. This has everything and its a package in itself without any ifs and buts. Just get the things rolling. Initially, I was using some Nitro pdf, but it was creating a problems for me while saving the documents, so I decided to buy this software and since then no looking back. Sometimes, it opens files in two different windows, I don't know why. Some times when I use the arrow keys to move between the fields it jumps to different pages. Please resolve this issue. Not sure, it is because of this software of the problem with the fillable form. Anyone can trust this software from efficiency and productivity point of view. Easy to use but with lot of unexplored features. Editing, converting, saving, etc... I use this program to do just about everything possible. Thanks for sharing! I would like to clarify a few things with you, as we would like to look into these issues! 1) What you mean when you note that the software opens the file in two different windows? Does the software open twice simultaneously? 2) And does the arrow key issue happen no matter which form fields you toggle between? 3) Are you on Windows or Mac? "An Easy to Handle Pdf Application" The application is light-weight and hence launches pretty fast. The user-interface is simple, yet powerful and convenient. The OCR function seems as effective as that of any other software in the market (I have used Acrobat reader, nitro pdf and nuance power pdf). It will be nice to have an MS Word extension. While creating pdf's from word docs, the bookmarks are not carried on automatically from the word file. 1. Acrobat is good but uses much system memory which affects the overall performance. Further, it is very costly. 2. Foxit Phantom is lightweight but the OCR recognition is not up to mark. 3. Nuance power pdf and nitro pdf have lots of additional features but the interface is cluttered. For example, identifying and using a highlighted text is very difficult in power pdf as they have put the panel right below the text. 4. The only con I have encountered with PDFelement so far is the absence of an extension for MS word. PDFelement has been extremely helpful in converting pdf to other formats without the loss of quality. Moreover, the form templates have reduced the workload while organising multiple surveys under the same project. Thank you for such a detailed review - it's clear that you're an experienced user of PDF solutions software and I really appreciate the time you took to share your insights. If you ever have any recommendations or suggestions for PDFelement, feel free to drop us a note! "Best PDF program that I have ever used!" I love how easy it is to edit and convert documents into PDF. It makes it so easy for an office that is fast paced and I do not have to worry about having a slow program. I will and already highly recommend this program to all businesses that would need to have it. I have used several different ones in the past and this by far has been the best that I have seen and used. I do not have anything to dislike about the program. I guess the only thing could be that there is nothing wrong with it yet. I did have one instance where I tried to edit in the PDF program and it completely moved my line all out of sorts. I tried to edit it again but did the same thing. I ended up going to the word document and changing it and then resaving as a PDF document. I haven't tried it again but I hope it does not do it again in the future. I would highly recommend this program for a company that needs a program to edit and convert files into PDF with ease. Editing, converting, saving, etc... I use this program to do just about everything possible. When I download applications, I upload them into PDF. When they are in PDF, I am still able to edit as I please with no issues at all. "Simple tool that actually works" How you can actually edit a document just like WORD, and then are able to generate a professional looking PDF, very clean and crisp. I love also how it doesn't take up so much space. I'm no expert in memory consumption but I've used other apps before and the spammy of the app has always made me weary of other apps. What I can share is this app is spam free from my usage. It just let me do the job and do it fast. I don't have really anything to say I don't like about this product, its really a simple product to use which I love. Maybe a better on boarding video to use the product would help. I need a quick way to edit and create PDF and re-edit documents. This tool allowed me to do that. It was quit amazing to see how user friendly this product was. I was expecting more difficulty since it was a paid product and one that was recommended to me by a friend who spoke very highly of this product. The time it takes me now to create a draft, print out a PDF and then having to go back and make edits to it has saved me so much time in my daily work. It has added a level of efficiency to my business as well. Thank you for your feedback, I'm happy that our editing capabilities suits your needs! I like you point about an on boarding video - I feel that creating more resources that people can look to for self-help would make the learning curve a lot lower. We're currently in the process of creating additional YouTube tutorials and re-launching our blog, so if you have any other suggestions please let us know! "Great Solution For a Mid Sized Business" The software has a lot of power but is also incredible simple to use. Ease of use is a big concern for us because we have several people who could use the software if they understand how to. The interface does a really nice job of giving you control as well as functionality. I haven't really found a lot of disadvantges. I had to use free versions of other software prior to having this one so it is like driving a cadillac. When you don't want to have to pay a monthly fee to use the software on top of the cost to purchase it initially this would be the best option for you. It is a great option for a company that doesn't have a primary need for a full suite of pdf software but wants it to work when you need it. It has all of the features even a more advanced user would need in a format that is not intimidating to the average user. Increased integration between our old and new systems. This gives us the ability to transform the majority of our old paper forms into a pdf that we can edit and use in our new system. A big positive is that the customer receive a consistent experience by seeing the same forms with the only difference being this one is on an ipad vs. the other one being made from dead tree's. "A very professional package, at a very reasonable price." Easy to use and powerful PDF software that covers all my day-to-day requirements. It has a well thought out metro-style start page so you can choose exactly what you want to do, an uncluttered user interface, strong content-editing tools, easy page manipulation, and built in OCR capabilities. It is a very professional package, at a very reasonable price. I would really like page/document flattening capabilities. Consider extending the licence to cover 3 devices. If you are looking for an easy to use, professional PDF software at a reasonable price then try PDF Element - you won't be disappointed. Update after using the software for more than a year - it really is good software. Suggestions are taked seriously and acted on, and the help team are super responsive. I chose PDFelement after comparing many PDF editors. This one is well designed, get (almost) all the features I need and is a very good value for the money spent. User interface is friendly and well designed. The documents scanning feature is well thought. File conversion .xls, .doc, ..) is useful and well done. File optimization is easy and efficient. No Outlook preview yet (this feature seems to be under development). Also, when adding comments to a document, I have to select add a comment for each new comment. I would prefer that the comment function stays selected. So far the best PDF editing software that I have used. Print to PDF, edit PDF, optimize PDF size (I use the web size a lot in order to get the smallest file size, and the file still looks great), and more, all in one software. "A Beautiful Update to a Great Application" I like a lot about this version of PDF Element 6. But, the most pleasing is the User Interface. In version 5, the tools were presented in a non-intuitive way, making it a bit confusing to edit documents and create forms. In version 6 the interface has been overhauled to my delight. At first glance, the tools are in the same place, but the difference is that they standout better for easy location. As a Mac user, I also appreciate the tabs used the separate the tool functions. It's as familiar as using Pages or Keynote. Kudos to the developers! To be honest, during my evaluation, I did not find a single thing to dislike. For the price and capabilities provided, I highly recommend PDFelement. It's a very capable PDF editor for an amazing price. I've been using it since version 5, and version 6 is even better! When filling out expense reports, they are provided in PDF format, but are not fillable. With PDFelement, that's no problem. The editing capability allows me to add my relevant text in a font of my choice, and position it perfectly. It's a real time saver! "When a product exceeds your expectations" PDFelement is the best software i have ever used to edit a PDF file, it made my experience so pelasant, simple ways to edit a file and add whatever you like to, its very reliable & straight forward, i recommend everyone to give it a try and see for them selves, never again worry about your hand writing as this software is made to make you fill & print any PDF file with ease and make it look like a pro. I first tried it as a trial and in no time i downloaded it again and i am looking for a pro version. Dont hesitate its worth every penny. It is the best aoftware you will ever find in the market, ease of use, clean and made to make you look like a pro when you fill a form. No more hand writing and it can recognize any form i believe. "PDF Element 6 Mac Software Review" 1. All the drop-down tools that are familiar with using Mac software is almost gone. The idea is to go to toolbars with descriptive text underneath each command. 2. Change text change is simpler in 6 than in 5. 6 allows the user the ability to change multiple items on one panel and not clicking another icon for the information. 3. The ability to convert the PDF file to Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel is great! I can now if need to make more edits in the Office products. This is not in PDFelement 5. I am reviewing the new version 6 on a Mac with the latest operating system (High Sierra) and am a mouse-centric and not keyboard commands person. In summary, I would buy this software and the update for me means an update to PDFelement 6. Filling in PDF documents on the computer instead of handwriting all the information. The benefits have been better documentation and readable text on a PDF form. Thank you for the detailed review. I'm glad that there are some improvements that you like. Specifically, what are some of the problems that you are encountering with check marks on PDFelement 6? If this issue has been persisting, we would like to look into it! "Easy to use, but powerful PDF editor." PDFelement 6 Pro is a very intuitive and powerful PDF editor that does everything I have needed it to do in order to edit and modify my PDF documents in a very efficient and effective manner. It has surpassed my expectations in terms of easy of use and power when editing PDF documents. I have used other PDF editor programs as well as PDFelement 6 Pro and, while all of them have powerful editing capabilities, PDFelement 6 Pro is easier and more intuitive to use without sacrificing valuable features. This is a great program which should satisfy the needs of virtually all users and is well worth the moderate cost. Up to this point I have found nothing that I dislike about PDFelement 6 Pro. It has met and exceeded my expectations. There was a bit of a learning curve regarding the command buttons in the program when I first began using the program, but they were easily learned in a short period of time and any errors made in editing any PDF are very easily corrected with PDFelement 6 Pro if one is unhappy with the result. Give the trial version a try and you will be very happy about the ease and depth of PDFelement. I am using PDFelement 6 Pro to edit all types of PDF documents. The ease of adding, deleting, modifying text, and adding images to documents has greatly reduced the time and effort involved in these processes, resulting in very efficient, effective, and professional end result. "A good alternative to Adobe Acrobat" PDF Element 6 is easy to use, its intuitive and can quickly be learnt. It's faster than the previous version. Compared to the previous version, the user interface has improved a lot - thanks. - Fast OCR detection, also supports image-based PDFs. - personal comments with notes or text box. - Creating forms is now a simple process. - very cheap price compared to Adobe Acrobat. In summary: PDFelement 6.x is a very good software with extensive functions for professional work. PDFelement has an unbeatable price-performance ratio. The software is for me a high quality alternative to expensive Adobe products. I couldn't find anything I did not like about the program. Version 5 errors have been fixed in version 6. This software is excellent, extensive and fast. My recommendation for PDF applications. "PDFelement 6 Pro is a substantial improvement on the previous PDFelement 5" I have been using the PDFelement 5 for several years. Version 6 Pro has a better interface. It is also more intutitive and compared to competitors like Adobe it is simler to navigate. I like adding text with ease, the almost flawless oening of scanned documents, making text and picture amendments. Also converting the word and pdf files are easier. It keeps the tables and charts in proper place and makes it easier to edit tham according to text I edit. In filling some forms it still has some difficulty in marking the boxes which could be improved. When opening documents from file is enlarges them and it is with extra effort to make them smaller to edit or see. This can be improved. Switch and use. It is a very useful and practical pdf tool. I often write articles which need to be shared in PDF version. Wityh 6 Pro I can productively do this. Furthermore I use the OCR in foreign languages quite often. Thank you for your feedback, I'm glad to see that you enjoy PDFelement's new interface. To clarify, do you find that opening the file in external programs enlarges the check boxes automatically? "You need PDFelement 6. The PDF program for the cost I've worked with!" Much cleaner than previous version and the speed is better than previous version. The interface is definitely more modern and functions as well as the previous version. The overall look and feel are very professional and allow the user to do just about anything they would want with a pdf file. It does everything I expected only better than the previous version. I use the expensive Adobe version at work and this is as good if not better. I can't image working without it on my projects. It does everything as advertised and the price is unbelievable. I use constantly and it the best product I've used for the price. As a CPA I can't give PDF Element enough kudos for how well it works! As an accountant I use it quite a bit to fix reports and add items to pdf's that are not editable after download. It's as good as adobe at a fraction of the cost. Awesome product! The ability to take multiple pdf files and combine them into on complete package report is invaluable for someone like me. Before I have to scan the pages and create a pdf the was too large and bulky to be functional or usable to my end user. Your product allows me to do things I never thought possible for the price and my end user are happy too. I love a win-win! "Upgraded to PDFelement 6 Pro, well worth it!" It didn't take me long to be able to maneuver around within this program. Set it up as my primary pdf file viewer and away I went! I was easily able to convert a pdf file and edit it as well. I Love the ease of adding text to scanned documents, and watermarks to personal business documents. Being able to combine multiple documents is easy to do as well. I love the ease of just opening the program and then selecting documents from the history to open. Very helpful, and easier than finding the document in my files and then opening. I dislike that whenever a pdf file is opened, it is zoomed in to around 150% or more....I am constantly decreasing the viewing size back to 100%. I will have to use this product even more to come up with anything else negative/constructive feedback wise. Change to PDFelement....it is easy to use! Just using it as my primary pdf viewer, and editor. "Best PDF Tool I've used yet!" PDF Element Pro 6 takes the limitations off of PDFs. It allows me to work with these documents in a much easier way as if they were word processing documents. I find it is much more user-friendly for completing fillable PDF forms which can sometimes be difficult as well. I often use PDF Element Pro 6 to convert PDFs i to word documents or Excel documents with ease and it saves me a lot of time trying to transcribe or otherwise work with the information on a PDF. I haven't found anything I dislike about PDF Element Pro 6, except that my coworkers do not have the program so now they email me files to convert and send back to them! It took me a little while to get to know how to use PDF Element Pro 6, so don't underestimate the learning curve. It is a powerful piece of software that can accomplish a lot for you! The value of an effective and efficient tool to convert PDFs in to spreadsheet or word processing documents is invaluable. It saves everyone in my office a lot of time and we are able to use the valuable information stored in PDFs much easier. "Very nice App to manage PDF documents" It's very easy to use, and it has all the features I usually need for managing and editing PDF documents. Tools are very intuitive, you can start using the app as soon as you install it without having to read any instructions. I especially like the Edit function, because it's easy to manage each paragraph, add new text and/or images. You can easily move paragraphs up/down and insert new ones. Managing pages is also very easy; you can extract or insert pages very fast. Nothing at this time. I have been able to do everything I have needed. Use the trial version first, so you will know if it really meets all your expectations. I usually have to edit PDF documents like contracts, manuals, instruction sheets. I also have to join or split documents, and PDF Element let me do all these tasks very easily and fast. I've been using PDFelement for a few years and have just tried the upgrade to PDFelement6. What I love is that it works seamlessly with any file I throw at it and most importantly for me, does a great job of extraction both for Word and Excel files. Conversion to Powerpoint is also great although I don't personally use this feature as much. The other thing I really like about PDFelement is how easy it is to use the page extraction and insertion features as well as editing text. I've found that at times other software can't dismantle a table or elements in a pdf while PDFelement can still extract everything I need from it, so while it was the last pdf editor I used to go to now it's the first one I go to. Just use it. Try out the trial software and like I did you'll find yourself upgrading super quickly! Extracting data from tables is my biggest use of PDFelement and at times, slides to powerpoint, although it's mainly data that I need to pull from tables for reports & visualisations, and it saves a lot of time & grief for me. "Meets and Exceeds My Needs for Every Aspect of PDF Management " User friendly interface. Clean and well laid out making for a good overall user experience. It's easy to navigate and quite intuitive making it easy to find the most important options. Fast and accurate. Definite improvement over previous version. What is there to dislike, it does everything I need it to. It seem's to be robust and stable which is a great improvement from the last version. It's a great program. The developers are working hard to meet all the requirements. It can only get better as they go forward. Version 5 definitely had issues but Version 6 is a vast improvement! I am confident that if they continue on this path they will become the industry leader in PDF management! Move over Adobe there's a new PDF champ in town. I have become quite impressed with Wondershare products over the last few years. I also use Filmora for video editing and am enjoying each new version as they are always improving! I edit, fill in and sign PDF files regularly,. I use it to convert my Word Doc files to PDF format. It is a great benefit to be able to manage all my PDF files in the same place. "PDF Element is a Great Editor and Viewer" It's fast and offers a lot of editing features. Sometimes, software that does more than just view files takes too long to load for everyday use. PDF Element isn't like this, so it's really convenient for everyday use as a viewer or an editor. I wish it offered dark modes. It's personal preference, but I don't like bright white windows on my screen. It's annoying to use at night. Also, I was really disappointed when considering an upgrade that I could not upgrade to the other platform (I own PDF Element 5 for Mac but wanted to switch over to the PC version going forward as I've switched platforms.) I was disappointed to learn that there was no upgrade path for this. I own a copy of PDF Element 5 that I've been using for several years. The user interface for version 6 is much cleaner and it's priced very competitively vs. other similar software on the market. It makes managing lease documents much easier because I combine content from multiple sources, and it's just easier to do as a PDF. PDF Element lets me do this and still make final tweaks and edits. Thanks for the feedback, Trent. I really like the idea for dark modes, as it's easier on the eyes. I'll forward both suggestions to the team! Let us know if you have any other feedback. The easy use, and a variety of handy options. Not much - but one thing in the previous version was the limit to 15 open files. If you are looking for an application that is useful, versatile and offer you good functionality this might be it. I have stopped using other PDF readers and this is what I stick to now, and also for editing PDF files. There are likely additional functions, but the ones available here are the ones required for me in my role as a teacher and administrator in higher education - to be able to easy make changes in some previously uneditable files, etc. What takes plenty of time for some colleagues is an easy and quick fix, using this software. At times I ask myself what amounts of times the application has saved me - and the answer is many hours, every month. It is helpful in different ways, for example when managing files for student groups. "ROBERT KNAUER LIKES PDF Element6 software" PDFElement6 is so far superior to Adobe for the price and its versatility. In pretty much enables me to do everything Full Adobe allowed me to do, but at a much lower price. I love that it is menu driven enabling me to view the screen much like Windows 10 to easily find what I am looking for....There is literally nothing I don't like about it except giving me more functionality than Adobe. For what Element6 gives me I am happy. Before spending lots of hard earned money on Adobe you should give PDFelement6 a try for the money you simply cannot beat it. I love the fact that I can cut, copy, past and make changes along with attaching other documents to my project on the fly. For the fact it makes me fully productive and gives me the ability to easily save and send PDF conversions to others gives me the tool I need to help teach my negotiation classes.I love the versatility, ease of use and convenience this product provides me with to do my work. The ease of editing pdf files is clearly the thing that drew me initially to PDFelement. It has saved me hundreds of hours by not having to recreate every pdf doc over the years. Although intuitive, I'd still like to have some of the image tools enhanced so that removing and adding images from things like banners and footers was simpler. It has become a true 'go-to' tool for our business. Allowing us to focus on our content, creation of results and selling those outcomes rather than spending 100's of hours trying to figure out creatives that means hiring designers constantly to tweak and test tons of options and testing. I am able to use creative marketing pieces and customize them to our current offerings and timeframes. Knowing our market, offers and how to sell is at a very high level. Creating the creative and design aspects are great to be able to implement and enhance. Thank you for your feedback regarding additional functionalities for image tools. Aside from removing and adding images on banner and footers, is there anything else you would like to see on PDFelement? "Versatile Easy to Use PDF Editor" PDF Element is so easy to use makes it the primary reason I chose to use it for business and home tasks. Removing or editing text is a breeze and one of the best features is the ability to remove or extract pages from a document. Everything on the screen is laid out in a very simple manner so it takes little if any time to get right into working with the program. Very robust and up to date. I had the full Adobe but found it too costly to upgrade. This is much more streamlined and easy to use! When I send a PDF Element file, all others can see it perfectly in their Adobe format. Being able to send something from PDF Element that others can see in their desired format is a great benefit. I always had Adobe reader crashing on my and hanging up my computer. The interface in PDF Element 6 has been streamlined throughout and feels more responsive with use. It is very intuitive and easy to navigate. The simple interface, and easy navigation do not mean a lack of features though. I find PDF Element to be capable of all my PDF needs. I can quickly combine multiple files into a single PDF allowing me to share projects containing a variety of file types easily with colleagues. PDF ELement doesn't just stop with creation, or converting other file types though. The OCR integration makes it a very powerful tool to turn scanned documents into an easy to edit document. The ability to edit any PDF file makes it an invaluable tool for me on a regular basis. I made the switch from Acrobat over a year ago, and have not missed it since. PDF Element is an excellent replacement at a much more attractive price. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an alternative. The cost savings realized with PDF ELement, without having to give up features have made this software an invaluable asset. "Easy to use for pdf manipulation" The appearance of PDFelement 6 is much cleaner then version 5. The speed in obtain the files is fast and the changes can be made very quickly. I use it to amend pdf's and with the OCR installed it is very easy. I also use it to convert pdf's to word documents and it does that easily as well. Finally, I use it to rearrange documents within a pdf and in my line of work that is priceless. PDFelement is the easiest system that I have used for that process. This is by far the easiest system that I have used. I have run into situation where the layout of the document has been changed when converting to a word format. I do not know for sure that it is a pdfelement problem but I also do not know that it isn't. "It was the easiest conversion program I have every used" I haven't used it enough to find any things about it I don't like yet. As I to use it more I may or may not come up with any things I dislike and I promise I will let you know. I have to created leases for my rentals and PDFelement makes that a breeze. I haven't used it enough yet, since I am switching from another program. Most of the documents I need in my real estate business come as PDF's as protection. They cannot be edited unless converted, and with PDFelement, they are easily converted. As I use it more I will be able to realize more benefits and perhaps some issues. "Save Time and Money... Wow!" What I like the best is how simple everything is now. Like I said, I love the new layout and everything about it is so different, in a good way. I would highly recommend... BIG TIME! I solved many problems. I don't have to spend money and hire a professional, I'm the professional using the PDF Element 6. It's absolutely perfect for my business needs. The changes are AWESOME indeed... What I really love is how simple it is to do anything I want inside of the software. For example, when I get ready to place page numbers on all of my pages, it's simple and very easy. Also, when I get ready to put links into my headers and footers, it's a snap. I love it. I would love it if the save feature were a little bit bigger, so I'm not looking for it, however, my eye site is not what it used to be. I love the fact that there is a huge improvement over the last product. Everything seems to be more user-friendly and easy to use. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be using PDF Element 6 a lot more than the other version. Place images inside of your documents is also another great feature. You can also move it around anywhere inside of your document and it's the best that I've seen in the market, no doubt. I will use it almost daily when I'm working on my coaching programs and getting my products online. It saves so much money and time that I can continue to spend with my family and friends. Let's don't forget the amount of time I can spend in the air, you see, I'm a pilot and I enjoy as much time in the plane as possible. PDF Element 6 is the best as far as I'm concerned. I would highly recommend this to all of my friends and business associates. Huge improvement over the last version. I've use other pdf software and this truly is the best out there. I would even go as far as buying this for a business friend, no doubt, that I would. Like I said before. It saves so much money and time that it is worth the cost easily. I can hardly wait to see what in the world they will do with the next version. I can't imagine what improvements they could do to make it any better. The most AWESOME PDF software on the market today, no kidding. I've been in online marketing for over 20 years and software like this is a life saver for sure. You can start a project and then finish it up very quickly because it's so simple and easy to use. Everyone knows that time and money is a key factor in building your business. I create and market my own products. Years ago you would have to hire someone just to put links into your documents, however, with the use of the PDF Element, you can do it in a matters of minutes. I love it and will be very excited about all of the new features I can now use inside of the newest version. My name is Robert Phillips and I highly recommend this software. I will help you in anything to get ready to create. PDF Element is an incredible tool. It's ability to edit directly in pdf documents has saved me many hours of painstaking labour. Similarly, being able to seemlessly convert pdf documents to Word and Excel has helped me provide an efficient and cost effective service to my clients. Spending some time getting to know all the features and functionality in PDF Element is definitely worth the effort. I originally purchased the software as a quick fix to a problem I was having but over time I have learnt more and more about the product and every time I use it I become more impressed. Editing pdf documents directly and converting pdf's to word and excel has saved me many many hours of boring and frustrating work. "Easy, Fun and great links with MS Office" I started with PDF Element 5 to use OCR (Czech and English texts) which worked perfectly. Than I started with the 6 version and started to admire it because of the interconnection and easy collaboration with the MS Office. The file transferability is great, even from pdf to word, or from excel to pdf, very cool graphics interface and work with various elements on the page - pictures, forms, windows, passwords, watermarks, direct scan to OCR, OCR outputs and previews. "Excellent software for editing pdf files and converting them" I mainly use the software for editing pdf files and exporting them to excel and word documents. It does an amazing job for me. I also occasionally use it to merge files or split them and it works quite well for me. It has saved me time all the time. I am currently using version 5 which sometimes doesn't convert images properly. This happens to the images like logo etc in the document which gets converted to tiny images and some text in them. However this is not a big problem for me as after conversion, I am always able to add the images again to resemble the original one. It's a great software. I was struggling with converting pdf files and since I found PDFElement, life is much easier. It's definitely a winner for me. We send and receive a lot of PDF files and this helps us editing/modifying them if we need to. It's much easier to edit pdf files in PDFElement than any other software. I am liking it. It also helps in password protecting the PDF files, move text and images around etc. Overall it does many good things for us and we as business quite liking it. "Absolutely user friendly and make working with PDF fun!" Honestly I can't point out anything that I dislike. Looking forward to new updates making this experience even better. Overall great product that serves your needs working with PDF. The batch processing is an awesome advantage. I use it on a Mac and love the user interface. If you work with PDFs you need to have a powerful software to be able to edit PDFs and convert or extract data from it. PDFelement does all of that plus many more awesome capabilities. Je suis très satisfaite de l'utilisation quotidienne du PDFelement Pro. La nouvelle interface est simple et bien faite...et elle te donne une belle lisibilité. Les options OCR sont bien surtout le traitement des PDF en français et Anglais. Avec PDFelement la conversion de mes documents PDF en Formats PPT et DOC est devenue très facile et bien maitrisable. mon utilisation de PDFelement pendant une durée de 9 mois ma montre que c'est un éditeur de PDF bien a adopté et de recommander aux utilisateurs. C'est pour quoi j'ai bien recommande ce logiciel à mes amies et mes collègues de travail. The clean and tidy user interface offers a lot of design possibilities under the hood. Convert encrypted PDF file to Word, Excel, PPT and other file types, allowing further editing, copying and printing. Including OCR in the Pro version which is very interesting if searchable documents are needed. PDF Word, Excel, PPT, images, text, text, EPUB ebooks, HTML and more. Supported image formats are JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP and TIFF. OCR technology also supports image-based PDFs. Convert up to 200 PDFs in one step and 3 minutes. Comment with sticky notes or text box. Brighten up important text. Provide PDF with stamps. All of them are compatible with Acrobat and other popular programs. Add secure passwords to prevent unauthorized opening, copying, editing, extracting and printing of your document. Compress PDF files to a perfect size in good quality to email or upload them to the Internet. Now resize PDFs in seconds. Great price when compared to Adobe. I couldn't find anything. Surely there is always room for improvement, but I can't complain. On Windows, PDFelement is absolutely great and intuitive. I like the design very much and despite the many functions it looks very tidy. If you are looking for a powerful pDF editor, this is the right place. I rather privately very much solve the PDF processing for documents, invoices, scripts. You can easily create, edit, print pdf files. Also adding images and text is easy. Easy to print, easy to prepare documents and forms. I recommend it for every type of user. The menu bar can be smaller than the current version. The font implementation can be improved. Also, OCR can work more smoothly with the other languages than English such as Dutch or Turkish. It may also provide online translation documents from different languages. Cost effective pdf solution for mid-sized companies. It has all the required features for business owners such as creating, editing pf files and also print features. Thank you for your feedback! Which languages do you find difficult to work with in terms of our OCR? Jose de la Cruz D. Es una interfaz rapida y facil de utilizar, aunque no tengas experiencia, para el trabajo de oficina o el trabajo de la escuela te permite lograr resultados rápidos al poder guardar y exportar en diferentes formatos. PDFelement is fast, robust and beautiful PDF editor for Mac and Windows. Through multiple pdf file processing mode (=Work with Batch Processing) and the commenting tools, highlights and text I was able to accelerate my work and highlight the important elements in my documents. "Easy to use and a good step forward from PDF Element 5" The new menus are easy to use and understand - I sometimes struggled to find the tool I needed when using the 5th edition of PDF Element but the new format and layout seems more logical and certainly easier to understand. The conversion tools are the best in the market (I often use the PDF to Excel conversion tool and it provides results which can be relied upon - which cannot be said for any of the other products I've tried over the last few years). The conversion to Word tool, whilst improved still struggles to provide a Word document which mirrors the PDF. The text seems to be slightly misaligned on each row which can render the whole conversion unusable. This product is certainly worth a try if you want a reliable, affordable product for the editing of PDF files and conversion into Microsoft Office formats. In our business we sometimes get sent PDFs of information which can run into multiple pages. Using the PDF to Excel converter, we can literally save ourselves hours of work (so the entire price of the product can be recovered in the first hour of use... and the multiple other hours it saves represent pure profit)! Glad to see that you saw an improvement between PDFelement 5 and PDFelement 6. I appreciate the feedback on the PDF to Word confusion - let me know if there has been any improvement in the last few updates! "Convert PDFs to do what you need them to do!" I love being able to edit product catalogs and documents that come to me for my business!! I have been able to use this program to make individual catalogs for dealers and to not need to print out, write in, and then scan in pdf documents that need to be filled out. Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out the layers and to get things in just the right spot. But I'm on a learning curve, and that's more me than the program. On one catalog I've had a horrendous time getting a black box to print around my business name. I could've asked for help with that, but I didn't. This makes more sense to me than Adobe. The pricing is worth what you get. It's a great value, and it helps flow tremendously. Getting the word out through customized catalogs for my dealers and for my business. Our basic product stays the same, but additions and price changes happen each year. "Easy to use PDF managing software" PDF Element is really easy to use, its logic is very intuitive and can quickly be learnt. I haven't found anything that I really dislike about the software. Occasionally the formatting of documents converted to Word can be a little complex.Comparing it to others I have found it very straightforward. If you want a very easy to use product for handling all aspects of PDF management, this is the product for you. Learning time is short and users who are not familiar with this type of software can quickly learn to use it. Its ease off use makes it readily useable by many people in the office who may only need to use it occasionally. It makes all handling of PDF documents , from signatures, editing and collating very straightforward. I use it a lot for putting separate PDF documents together into a single document. Its ability to quickly converts PDFs to Word and Excel is an excellent feature. "PDF Element 6 Review1- James Dooley" "Robust PDF editing software - reasonably priced to boot" I particularly like the wide variety of commenting options available. Makes it quick and easy to mark up shared business documents. These tools seem more responsive in version 6 than in previous versions. Also, when inserting pages, the program stays on the "Page" tab, making it faster to insert other pages. In earlier versions, you had to click the Page tab upon every separate insertion. I can't find much to dislike. A minor glitch: when filling a PDF form field using Courier font, it will look OK on screen, but when printed out, words are broken in random places at the right margin. Other fonts don't exhibit this, but the first line of a paragraph "returns" far short of the right margin. Hopefully they'll get this fixed in a future update. We do lots of combining of multiple PDFs pulled from separate documents. We also create fillable forms, and send documents around for markup or comments. PDF Element makes short work of these tasks. "Best PDF tool ever, Easy to use and work with PDF documents" Easy to use and you can edit PDF file with PDFelement like Microsoft Word. It helps you a lot to save your time. Moreover, it help you to create fillable PDF form. With Form Field Recognition feature. The software will auto recognize and create interactive form fill for you. You can edit them later with ease of use. And with the Data Extraction, you can extract data from form fields or marked PDF to csv file. Moreover, you can add secure passwords to prevent unauthorized opening, copying, editing, extracting and printing of your document. You can export PDF document to Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel that help you save more time and very effective. To be honest, currently I cannot find any negative issues of PDFelement that should be raised for change or correct. I recommend PDFelement to others who considering to try. For me, It is very easy to create fillable PDF forms. It's great. * We monitor all PDFelement reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. Validated reviews require the user to submit a screenshot of the product containing their user ID, in order to verify a user is an actual user of the product. Hi there! Are you looking to implement a solution like PDFelement?

2019-04-22T06:32:29Z

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California has reached a settlement in DJ v. State of California. Plaintiffs charged that the state Department of Education was failing to carry out its obligations to English Language Learners (ELLs) and the trial court agreed. Under federal law, the Equal Educational Opportunities Act requires states and schools to take affirmative action to help ELLs overcome language barriers and make appropriate educational progress. California's state constitution also establishes education as a fundamental right and requires the state "to intervene when the educational opportunity provided to some students falls below "prevailing statewide standards. . . The failure to provide appropriate services to EL students denies them equal educational opportunity." DJ v. State of California, BS 142775 (Sept. 14, 2015). Applying those standards, last fall, the trial court found that the Department had failed "to take appropriate action in response to reports from districts that EL students have not received instructional services. Petitioners are also entitled to an injunction requiring Respondents to establish procedures that effectively ensure all EL students receive required EL instructional services." The state has now agreed to put specific remedies in place to address these failures. The state promised to collect and monitor more accurate data on ELLs, make that data publicly available, establish standards that increase the likelihood of triggering onsite evaluations of ELL programs, seek additional funding for new staff to oversee the program, and conduct a compliance review in Compton Unified School District. The Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education (OCR) completed its compliance review of Princeton's admission practice last week. Princeton, like Harvard and the University of North Carolina, has been accused of discriminating against Asian Americans in admissions. OCR applied strict scrutiny to the University's admissions practices and policies and concluded that "there was insufficient evidence to substantiate that the University violated Title VI or its implementing regulation with regard to the issue investigated." burdened students of any racial group; and whether the consideration of race was limited in time and subject to periodic review. no evidence that the University tried to cap or otherwise limit the number of applicants who would be admitted from any race or national origin group. OCR also did not find that the University engaged in “patently unconstitutional” racial balancing, which the Supreme Court has defined as an effort “to assure within its student body some specified percentage of a particular group merely because of its race or ethnic origin.” Instead, to the contrary, OCR found mostly steady increases in the percentages of Asian students who have been admitted in the past several years, rising from 14.2% of the University’s Class of 2007 to 21.9% of the University’s Class of 2012 and 25.4% (more than one-fourth) of the University’s Class of 2014. Such fluctuations are inconsistent with the existence of a quota, as the Supreme Court noted in Grutter. Here, OCR found that during the University’s admissions process, an applicant’s race and national origin – if he or she offered that information — may or may not be considered, depending upon whether that information provides further context about an individual applicant. For example, an admissions officer might consider how race may have figured in the context of where a person was born, where a person grew up, and where he or she had gone to school. Race and national origin may also be considered if an applicant brings up those subjects in his or her essay. However, OCR found no evidence of the University giving an automatic “plus” for identifying as a particular race or national origin; nor did OCR find evidence of applicants given an automatic “minus” for belonging to a particular race or national origin. OCR also found no evidence of the University using a fixed formula to weigh an applicant’s race or national origin. Post-Fisher v. Texas, the potentially more difficult analysis for universities is the race neutral alternative analysis. If interpreted strictly, Fisher's statement that a university should demonstrate that its consideration of race is "necessary" could be fatal to many admissions plans. If interpreted consistent with Grutter, the term means something more flexible than absolute necessity. OCR's letter did a nice job of averting the significance of this definition problem, which scholars have been wrangling over. OCR did so by referencing the Court's "necessary" quote in a footnote, but refusing to allow the meaning of the phrase to become the analysis itself. Instead, it rephrased the question as being one of "sufficiency." It asked "whether race-neutral alternatives were sufficient to achieve its diversity goals, of which race was a single though important element." It then alternatively phrased the question as whether race neutral alternatives were "not sufficient to achieve the educational benefits of diversity." Sufficiency captures the notion of flexibility far more clearly than necessity would, and that flexibility, of course, was clearly forwarded in Grutter. Drawing on Grutter's approach to race neutral alternatives, OCR concluded that "there were no race-neutral alternatives that would have worked about as well." In reaching that conclusion, OCR interestingly focused on the race neutral alternatives that the University currently uses. Often, the focus elsewhere is on those hypothetical processes the university could or should use instead of race. Here, OCR makes a compelling argument that the University is already using these alternatives and race is just a tipping factor on top of those alternatives in certain circumstances, although without those tipping it would not achieve its goal. In other words, the fact that the University is using race-neutral alternatives substantiates the fact that it has considered alternatives and exhausted their efficacy. One would expect these ideas to show up in the government's briefs in Fisher II, where the analysis of the facially race neutral top ten percent plan will be key. Get OCR's full letter here. The Fifth Circuit recently reversed a district court's decision denying qualified immunity to officials of a Mississippi school district on a First Amendment claim. The case arose when a teacher in the Pearl Public Schools, who served as the school's cheer squad sponsor, coercively requested a student's Facebook log-in information, accessed her Facebook messages, and later punished the student by removing her from the cheer squad because of the messages' content. After the student was dismissed from the squad, her parents filed a § 1983 action alleging that school officials violated their daughter's First and Fourth Amendment rights by searching her messages. The Fifth Circuit held that the school officials were entitled to qualified immunity because the law was not “clearly established” when the incident occurred (September 2007) that searching a student's Internet messages would violate either the First or Fourth Amendments if the teacher was acting on a reasonable suspicion that that the student had posted threatening messages immediately after a school event. The finding of qualified immunity was compelled, the Fifth Circuit explained, by conflicting rulings in school search cases until the Supreme Court handed down Safford Unified Sch. Dist. No. 1 v. Redding in 2009. The circuit court likewise held that school officials had qualified immunity on the First Amendment claim, because they did not have "fair warning," given the available precedent, that removing the student from the cheer squad because the content of her Facebook messages would violate the First Amendment. Read the opinion in Jackson v. Ladner, No. 13-60631 (5th Cir. Sept. 15, 2015) here. A Kansas appellate court held last week that University of Kansas had no authority to expel a student for posting sexually harassing tweets about another student even though the university had ordered him not to contact the other student. The harassing communications were done off-campus, and construing the University's student code, the court concluded that the "only environment the University can control is on campus or at University sponsored or supervised events." The case is Yeasin v. Univ. of Kansas, No. 113,098 (Kan. App. Sept. 25, 2015). Last week, the Third Circuit handed down a major special education law decision, G.L. v. Ligonier Valley School District Authority, No. 14-1387, 2015 WL 5559976 (3d Cir. Sept. 22, 2015). In brief, it holds that two oddly worded provisions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act establish a two year limitations period from the date the parent knew or should have known of an IDEA violation for the filing of a due process complaint, but the provisions do not limit the period that may be considered in fashioning a compensatory remedy for claims that are timely filed. Thomas Jefferson School of law is pleased to announce the second Jameson Crane III Disability and the Law Writing Competition. Made possible by the generous gift of Thomas Jefferson School of Law alumnus Jameson Crane III, the Crane Writing Competition seeks to encourage outstanding student scholarship at the intersection of law and medicine, or law and the social sciences. The competition promotes an understanding of these topics, furthers the development of legal rights and protections, and improves the lives of those with disabilities. California School Board Association Sues State For Lowering Education Budget By $150 Million Through Legislative "Manipulations" An alliance of school boards has sued California officials this week alleging that the state legislature "manipulated" what is included in the state's minimum education spending guarantee and thus violated the California Constitution's Article XVI, sec. 8, called Proposition 98. In the complaint filed September 22 by the California School Boards Association (CSBA) and Education Legal Alliance, the plaintiffs explain that Proposition 98 requires a minimum percentage of the state budget to be spent on K-12 public schools and community college districts. In 2011, the legislature moved childcare spending out of the education budget and adjusted or "rebenched" the minimum education spending guarantee to reflect the missing amount. When some childcare costs were added back in the current 2015-16 budget, however, the legislature did not readjust or "rebench" the minimum educational spending requirement, thus decreasing the minimum guarantee of Proposition 98 by $150-$180 million, the plaintiffs allege. The CSBA says that it does not object to childcare expenditures being part of the education formula, but does object to the legislature's inconsistency in defining what is part of Proposition 98's minimum spending guarantee. Read the complaint in California School Boards Association v. Cohen here. Philadelphia parents filed a class action lawsuit against the School District of Philadelphia last month, alleging that the district violated special education law requirements by failing to translate documents and to provide sufficient interpretation services during Individualized Education Program meetings. The class alleges that the Philadelphia school district denied parents and students with limited English proficiency (LEP) an opportunity to participate IEPs on the same basis as their English-speaking counterparts. In 2013, the district reportedly received requests from 19,670 families of students who had requested documents in a language other than English; the district interpreted about 487 special education documents of any type that year. The plaintiffs received a due process hearing in May 2015 at which the Hearing Officer found violations of the parents' meaningful participation in the IEP process due to translation issues, required the district to translate IEPs and other documents for the plaintiffs in the future, and awarded compensatory education. However, the Hearing Officer declined to order that the district change its translation policies system-wide, concluding that the requested relief was outside of his powers. The plaintiffs are represented by the Education Law Center. T.R., by and through Barbara Galarza, v. The School District of Philadelphia, 2015 WL 5011332 (E.D.Pa. filed Aug. 21, 2015). NCLB Waivers Survive at Trial, But Will the Fifth Circuit Ask Different Questions? Last week, the federal district court in Jindal v. U.S. Department of Education denied Jindal's motion for a preliminary injunction. Jindal had sought to enjoin the Department's Race to the Top Program and its No Child Left Behind waivers. Jindal argued that the Department's support for the Common Core Curriculum through these programs violated the 1oth Amendment and a federal statute that prohibits the Department from dictating curriculum. The district court rejected both arguments. Before going into my analysis, I must, in full disclosure, state that Jindal retained me as an expert in the case. It was just two months before the case went to trial and long after I had completed my article, Federalizing Education by Waiver?. In fact, I completed my article before Jindal filed his case, which I only learned about in the news. My testimony was little more than a recitation of my article. Regardless, I clearly have an opinion on this case. With that disclosure, I offer the following. On Monday in Dwyer v. State, the Colorado Supreme Court held that its constitutional mandate that specifically requires annual increases in "statewide base per pupil funding" does not prohibit the state from reducing the total amount of funds per pupil it provides to school districts. That does not make sense, so let me explain. Last fall, plaintiffs filed suit against Pennsylvania, arguing that education is a fundamental right under the state constitution and that the state has violated that right by repeatedly failing to ensure adequate education resources. That claim moved through the trial court quickly and is now before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Pennsylvania is one of the few states that has yet to fully entertain these issues, having dismissed school funding cases in the past as non-justiciable. Something tells me that this time might be different. As discussed several times on this blog over the past few years, the state has been so derelict in its obligations to its students that its action could be declared unconstitutional under any minimal and deferential standard one might imagine. The briefs are in the appeal of Vergara v. State. Amici in support of the state are exposing a huge evidentiary flaw in the plaintiffs' case: the lack of causation. For those who are new to the case, last year a California trial court held that teacher tenure was unconstitutional, concluding that tenure prevented schools from removing grossly ineffective teachers. The court reached a similar conclusion in regard to the state's "last-in-first-out" statute, which requires reassignment and retention be based on seniority during reductions in force. Plaintiffs . . . did not show, nor can they show, that the challenged statutes require the retention of clearly ineffective teachers or that those statutes resulted in assignment of teachers incapable of delivering curriculum and instruction to students in particular classrooms, schools, or districts. That is, plaintiffs did not show that the “Permanent Status Statutes,” and in particular, Education Code section 44929.21, subdivision (b), requires districts to reelect ineffective teachers at the expiration of their two-year probationary period. . . . Plaintiffs focused on the processes for dismissing teachers . . . . While plaintiffs critiqued these processes as a matter of public policy, they did not produce sufficient record evidence establishing that the statutes required districts to retain unqualified and ineffective teachers. . . . At best, plaintiffs presented anecdotal evidence that in some instances, the challenged statutes could contribute to retention of ineffective teachers. However, the trial court’s analysis, given the record below, does not show or support a causal connection between these statutes as compared to the many other factors linked to teacher quality, and the deprivation of a constitutional education in specific California districts or schools. In October of 2013, I published a series of posts on a high school student, Erin Cox, at North Andover High School in Massachusetts. The story told by her, her family, and primarily her attorney, Wendy Parker, was that the school had punished her under its zero tolerance policy on alcohol for being at a party where alcohol was served. The media story that unfolded over a couple of days was that she had not actually consumed any alcohol, that she had not actually been present at the party, that she had only come to the party to give a drunk friend a ride home, and that the police were already there when she arrived, but released her because it was clear she was not involved. Her attorney claimed she had a police report that even verified these last facts. The narrative was that the school was punishing for doing the right thing. She then brought suit in state court seeking to enjoin her punishment and her attorney said that the school's attorney lied about the undisputed facts at the initial hearing before the court. The Huffington Post reports on an ED notice extending its information-gathering efforts about possible borrower's defenses for student loan debt from non-traditional or unaccredited post-secondary schools. With the recent troubles of some for-profit schools, including the massive Corinthian College network, the Obama administration has been looking for avenues of debt relief for students of those institutions. In its September 17 notice, the ED seeks continued collection of information from borrowers who believe they have cause to invoke the borrower defenses against repayment of a student loan as noted in regulation 34 CFR 685.206(c)(i) which states in part that “[i]n any proceeding to collect on a Direct Loan, the borrower may assert as a defense against repayment, an act or omission of the school attended by the student that would give rise to a cause of action against the school under applicable State law.” The ED notes that "[p]rior to 2015, the borrower defense identified above was rarely asserted by any borrowers and no specific methods of collecting information was defined or found necessary," prompting, Huffington Post writer Steve Rhode writes, "clever attorneys to show how the schools violated state unfair and deceptive practice laws and that could possibly lead to an elimination of the student loans in full." Read the story at the Huffington Post here and the ED's notice here. The Third Circuit recently upheld a summary judgment finding in a teacher’s retaliation claim after she was discharged after her derogatory comments about students gained national attention. The Third Circuit held that while the teacher’s speech may have touched on a matter of national concern, it caused sufficient disruption for the students and the school district to warrant the teacher’s discharge, and thus speech was not protected under Pickering v. Board of Education. The case arose when a teacher for a Pennsylvania school district, Natalie Munroe, began a blog entitled "Where are we going, and why are we in this hand basket?" In the blog, Munroe discussed personal matters but also complained about her students, her co-workers, and the school where she worked. She did not expressly identify either where she worked or lived, the name of the school where she taught, or the names of her students, but described students as the “devil’s spawn,” and “rat-like.” Students and the school district discovered the blog, and after complaints about Munroe’s professionalism, the school district assigned a “shadow teacher” to teach Munroe’s subject at the same times that Munroe did and allowed students to opt-out of Munroe’s class. Munroe meanwhile became a minor celebrity in the national media because of the views expressed on the blog. Eventually, the school district discharged Munroe, and she brought a retaliation claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the district violated her First Amendment rights. She claimed that her termination based on her private blog and her media interviews. The Third Circuit found that Munroe’s national media interviews did not rise to the level of constitutionally protected expression, finding that “Munroe’s various expressions of hostility and disgust against her students would disrupt her duties as a high school teacher and the functioning of the School District.” The Third Circuit concluded that the district’s interest in eliminating Munroe’s disruptive speech and presence outweighed her “interest, as well as the interest of the public, in her speech.” Munroe v. Central Bucks School District, No. 14-3509 (3d Cir. Sept. 2015) is here. Free speech and academic freedom have long exposed cultural and political tensions on college campuses. But in the past few years, those who would restrict free speech have seemingly gotten a foothold in the debate that they otherwise would have been laughed out of. In other words, they have managed to start a debate over long settled principles. They have been able to convince some universities and professors to include warnings or triggers on their syllabi. These triggers would warn students in advance about topics, books, and issues that they might find objectionable or offensive. Some students have even managed to get themselves exempted from certain readings and assigned alternatives. Some have complained to their legislators about being exposed to ideas they did not like and managed to get them to punish public universities by defunding certain programs. Some have gotten invited speakers uninvited because they were too controversial. They now seem to have gotten the attention of presidential hopeful, Ben Carson, who appears to be taking up their cause. Speaking of his policy proposals for the Department of Education, he said: “I think the Department of Education should monitor institutions of higher education for political bias and withhold federal funding if it exists,” Carson told Las Vegas radio host Heidi Harris. Of course, political bias is not confined to one party, but the notion that a politician, rather than an academic, would be the arbiter of political bias is problematic to say the least, particularly if that politician comes from a party that has tended to resist things like the expansion of civil rights, the protection of free speech, and the calls for politically correct discourse. School Choice As a Proxy for Segregation and Inequality? Controlled choice has been central to the ability of progressive school districts to voluntarily desegregate. The title of this post is in no way meant to disparage school choice in general, but rather to highlight a recent study by Julia Burdick-Will. Her study revealed an interesting pattern: "as a neighborhood’s income decreases, its range of educational experiences greatly expands." In other words, the assumption that students in disadvantaged neighborhoods are trapped in their failing local school is not necessarily true. Rather, children in wealthier neighborhoods are the ones most likely to stay in their neighborhood schools. No one, of course, would claim these students are trapped. Rebecca Klien points out that going to a strong neighborhood school is the privilege, not choice. Wealthier students have this privilege. Low-income students do not. Sixteen states received approval Thursday of their plans to improve access to high-quality teachers, as required under the No Child Left Behind law. The ED approved the first batch of states (all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico submitted plans) as part of its "Excellent Educators for All Initiative." The ED approved locally-developed plans to improve access to effective educators from Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Missouri, Minnesota, New York, Nevada, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. Recognizing that attracting and retaining effective teachers also requires effective leadership, the ED praised states' strategies to attract strong school leaders, stating its press release that "great teachers will follow great principals." The ED's release about the initiative is here. Gavin Grimm has been fight with his school in Gloucester County, Virginia, for the past year to be able to use the boy's restroom. Gavin had previously been allowed to use the boys' bathroom, but when religious and other concerned groups discovered this, they came out in heavy opposition and the school board then banned his use of the boy's restroom. In January, he filed an administrative complaint with the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, arguing that his exclusion from the boy's bathroom violated Title IX. This summer he filed a complaint in federal district court. Just as school was to start this fall, the U.S. District Court denied his request for an injunction. Interestingly, it gave no rationale for the denial. It literally only said the court "hereby denies" and that "A memorandum opinion detailing the reasons for the denial will be forthcoming shortly." Gavin is represented by ACLU attorneys, who say the will opinion the decision to the 4th Circuit. More here. Lynn Walker Huntley passed away on August 30th from cervical cancer. Lynn's professional stature is well know in the civil rights and education community. Most recently, she was the president of the Southern Education Foundation. She served there for 15 years. Before that, she was a program officer at the Ford Foundation, where she spent more than a decade funding so much of the work that now forms the intellectual and empirical foundation of today's thinking on civil rights and social justice. Her early career was spent at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and then the Department of Justice, were she held important leadership roles. As impressive and important as those accomplishments are, Lynn stands out most in my mind for the type of person she was. Lynn was one of the most genuinely warm people I have met. She felt like family from the first time I met her. Her cadence bubbled with joy. Her gazes conveyed understanding and compassion. Her embraces surrounded you with love. She was the type of person who made you want to move to Atlanta just so you could be around her more. Top that off with her brilliance and wit and you have one of the most remarkable people you could ever hope to have the honor of sitting down next to for just a few moments. More on her career and links to her essays urging us all to do more to further justice can be found here, here, and here.

2019-04-18T22:43:38Z

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/education_law/2015/09/index.html

We believe Boston’s current transportation system is noisy, slow, unreliable, and most importantly inefficient. Our purpose in making “Fly Boston” was to create a solution to the incompetent source of travelling, using cable cars. We redesigned the Green line, as well as added to it. What our system ensures, is a fast and smooth ride, that will take you to where you want to go, without making a substantial amount of noise, and causing traffic along the way. Our cable car system will replace the B C and part of the D line. It will additionally add a line from Kenmore Station to Central Station on the red line, and a line from Kenmore to the Museum of Fine Arts on the E line (we call those two lines “Kenmore Express”. The third part of our proposed cable car system is the tourist line. That connects all of the top tourist attractions. It starts at Kenmore then, goes to the Boston Common, then the Children’s museum, then the Aquarium, and finally the Science Museum. Each of these lines travel at 17mph. The B, C and D line, as well as Kenmore express can hold 60 people. The tourist cable car can hold a maximum of 15 people. These lines in total can transport up to 100,000 people per day, with 62 stops along the route. Each line offers the option of round trip, so for each cable, the cars are going back and forth. There is at least one tower between stations, in most cases two, that propels the cable. When in a station, the car will detach from the cable and wait 2 minutes for people to load and unload. It then reattaches and matches the line speed. A car is scheduled to come every 1.5 minutes, to fit everyone’s flexible schedule. The retro futuristic stations have an elevator up to the top level which is where the cable car comes and leaves from. Kenmore station is the hub of the entire system. Six cable lines are attached, where cars are both going in and coming out. A huge part of the Kenmore station though is the system that transitions the train into a cable car. With this proposed system, we would be redesigning the train, so it could have the ability to turn into a cable car. This transition takes 5 minutes total, both when a train turns into a cable and when the cable car turns back into the train. This process is only used for B, C, and D line, because the other three lines did not exist with the Green line in place, therefore there are no trains that would be used for those routes. We designed this cable car system to have the capability to be put in place in boston. Throughout all of the work we did, we made sure what we were doing, was realistic, and could suffice in the city of Boston. Designing this sytem would cost 1.2 billion in total. Fly Boston has the potential to work as the city's primary source of transportation because of it's reliability, efficiency, and flexibility. “Air Boston” was an urban design studio with the challenge of improving Boston’s Rapid Transit (MBTA) Green Line by augmenting it with a cable car system. Isabella, Matt, and Max worked as a team and began by assessing the key problems with the Green Line, which runs above ground for a significant portion of its four routes. A key cause of its congestion and inefficiency is because the MBTA (“T”) system, and in particular the Green Line, requires it's passengers to go all the way inbound to the center of Boston in order to transfer to other lines. Furthermore, the Green Line is often slow and unreliable because of above-ground traffic and frequent break-downs due to weather conditions and the aging rolling stock. Our approach to this challenge is creating a cable car network that connects all the current lines in a ring formation, making it possible to transfer among the different lines outside of the center. This way it is significantly less expensive than replacing the entire Green Line. For the next several days, the team researched existing cable car systems. From their research, the team decided to use a gondola system rather than a tricable or reversible system, because gondolas are generally smaller, cheaper, and detachable, which would allow for more cars running at greater frequency, to keep a constant flow and alleviate congestion. Once they had planned the general configuration of their new “Air T” system, each team member took on a specific job. Isabella took on logistics— how many cars, how many people per car, and costing. She gathered and organized data on capacity, costs and time savings, prototyped a logo design, and laid out an informational poster. Matt was in charge of maps—where the stations would be located and the design of the final T map. Matt figured out which current T stops on each line would be most appropriate to locate the new Air T stops. He created a map using Illustrator, overlaying the new Air T ring onto the existing T map. Max took on the design and 3-D modelling of the stations and support towers. He chose an hourglass shape for the station design and created a floor plan and 3-D model using Rhinoceros (“Rhino” is a 3-D modelling software). His inspiration for the towers was the Emirates Air Line (also known as the Thames Cable Car) in London, in which the support towers are an elegant twisted design combining trusses and curvilinear surfaces that are both light and strong. Max rendered the station and tower design in V-Ray (a rendering software) but encountered some problems which made the renders low quality. There were three big pieces of our project, the maps, the design of the system and the important questions and answers. In terms of the maps we had a couple of challenges. In addition to replacing part of the green line we decided that we wanted to connect some of the t stops on other lines, so our first problem was deciding what stops needed connecting and how to properly connect them. We decided on several stops as Boston’s “Greatest Hits” which evolved into the “Tourist Line”, a way to connect some of the most popular spots in Boston. We also created the express line, hoping to shorten some people’s commutes by a lot. The next issue was the maps themselves. We were replacing many of the stops on the green line extension and we needed a way to show that they weren’t T stops but they were still on the green line. We decided that the best way to show this was by making the stops on the line black instead of the usual white. We made different maps so it was easy to see from many directions. Lizzie worked on the PR data. She did all the calculations and figured out how the cable car would run. She started this process by researching previous cable cars, and gathering information about successful transportation systems. She also used the MBTA website as a huge resource of information about the Green Line. Lizzie used this data to compare it to the cable car system. This helped her improve the system as much as possible. However, the specific data we needed in order to make the cable car system be more realistic, was sometimes not found anywhere. During Lizzie's research, she went on the MBTA website to copy down all of the T stops. With those, she found out the distances between each one, by using the "train" tool on Google Maps. After this step, she had the majority of the information needed to start calculating the data. However, she referenced back to some of the sites she used for some more information throughout the project when she needed to. After collecting all the information she could find, she created a spreadsheet to organize all the data. This then helped her see what was missing and needed to be calculated. When Lizzie was researching, she found out the speed the cable car realistically could travel at, to ensure a safe ride, yet still beat the Green Line. The speed is 17mph. With that statistic, and the distance, she was able to find out how much time it would take to get from stop to stop. In Lizzie's research, she came up with the time each car would be in the station for (how long people would have for loading and unloading). Using her research of other cable cars, she came up with a practical solution, which was 2 minutes. Adding the time between stops with the loading time, she got the time 1 ride 1 way would take. However this cable car system offers round trip, so Lizzie multiplied that number by two and discovered the time for the whole trip. The cable car can hold 60 people, given the sturdiness of the design, and the speed of the car. The cars are also running for 20 hours a day (the same as the green line). Using both of these pieces of information, she was able to find out how many people were on the cars at one time, how many rides people would take per day, and how many total people could ride on that specific line. She went through this process for the B line, then the C line, then the D line. Those were the only lines we replaced of the green line. An additional part of the spreadsheet she created which was extremely valuable in her work, was discovering the time between each stop that the train would take. This gave us a better picture of the functionality and efficiency of the Cable Car system. In our project, there is also a tourist line that is for exploring Boston. It takes you to all the local attractions that make the city special. This line travels the same speed (17 mph) however can only hold 15 people. The rest of the information for the tourist line is the same as the B, D and C line (like loading time, hours of service etc.) so Lizzie went through the same process of calculations and discovered times between stops, round trip time, total cars, people at one time, rides per day and total people using this line per day. There are two extensions of the tourist line so she split this information in to two different parts. Lizzie gathered loads of information, both that she researched and that she calculated, so she thought of ways of conveying the data, in an interesting way. This lead her to working with Illustrator and Photoshop. Lizzie created multiple diagrams and graphs showing what she found out. She made a graph comparing the time on the green line and the time on the cable car. She made a map of the routes the cable car takes you, and the times between the stops. She also did some of the rendering and photoshopped our Logo and cable cars into some pictures of boston. After this phase of visualizing the information, she decided she wanted make it as realistic as possible, so she created a brochure. This brochure included many of the maps and images of the cable car. It also included a description of each line and what this new source of transportation was potentially going to offer the people of Boston. This brochure was extremely helpful in the final presentation because the audience was more interested and had a better picture of this cable car system being put into place. Overall, Lizzie's process included research and gathering background information, doing many calculations to ultimately make this cable car be able to replace part of the green line, as well as add to it, and finally visualizing it which meant making maps, graphs and diagrams, as well as a brochure. Isabella took on the challenge of finding all the essential information for AIR T. Isabella started by looking at past cable car projects as important case studies in order for her to assemble the information for AIR T. Her next step was to create a spreadsheet for AIR T that would contain all of the relevant information such as cost, number of cars in the system, speed of the cars, capacity, and frequency of cars at the stations. Isabella estimated the numbers by taking the information she had found in her research on existing cable car systems, and then plugging the numbers into equations that one of her coaches helped her create. Using this information, a graph was created that placed the timing of the AIR T cable car in comparison to the rush hour timings on a Tuesday and Saturday. Isabella created many prototypes of the logo on Illustrator and conducted a survey to determine the best logo. This resulted in the name “AIR T” with colors of the boston strong theme. After Isabella did this she started to assemble all the information from our group and created a board with all the essential information. When planning the board Isabella had to take into account that she needed to have the maps, three renders of the stations, towers, cable cars, the description of the project, and a graph with the time comparison data and the logo. One of the first things that we decided to do was to pick the stops that we were going to connect. We wanted to eliminate the length of time it took for someone on the red line to connect to the green line so we added the express line that connects the red line to the green line. We also wanted some of the most popular spots in Boston to be connected via cable car. We hoped that this would alleviate some of the pressure on the T after Red Sox games or other such events. We also hoped to eliminate some of the confusion that tourists may experience in the T. We chose to include Kenmore, the Boston Common, the Childrens Museum, the Aquarium, and the Museum of Science. These were the most visited places in Boston so we decided to connect them. In terms of Map design itself we wanted to make sure that the lines stood out against the already bright colors of the map. We wanted to make sure that the colors stood out against the map, but also made it clear that it was a cable car not a train. We decided to use pink and purple because they were the only colors that weren’t already represented on the T map. The stops themselves we made black because they very clearly show that it is not trains. We wanted to make it clear but also have it fit in with the overall look and theme of the already existing maps. I volunteered to be the head designer of the maps we would propose for our cable system. Printing maps were my main priority at the beginning of the studio. The maps were then printed and sketches were then drawn onto the maps to potentially be the AirT maps in the future. I kept designing and prototyping and came to a conclusion on a very average and basic map. I soon realized that the maps would not work it would need to be changed. The map that I had in my head was very detailed geographical map of the T lines. Rowan helped me out then printed out one of these maps. On the map I marked out the rough sketch of what stops we would use and the paths they would take, which on the map is marked in orange. We were then asked to come up with an idea of replacing the green line completely which was tough. Figuring out which stops should be kept in and out were an issue but the path was drawn out in green. Then in blue sharpie, I marked down the almost final draft of the map. An issue came up when this happened. A mile of cabling and machinery would cost several million dollars so the map had to be revised. It was challenging trying to determine exactly where it should go. Should it be a closed loop connecting all of the lines? Would it be better only if it connected the green line together? I then thought about it a little and consulted with my group and we came up with the joint idea of having a loop connect all of the lines together with small segments outside of the main city. Once the design was chosen, the bare geographical map was loaded into Adobe Illustrator. The group kept consulting on different designs and colors for the map and decided that the final map would have eight stops connecting the green line to the red line and even the blue line. Furthermore, two more maps were thrown through this process. One of the maps was a up close and personal view of the streets of boston and the specific streets and areas the stations for the cable carts would go. The last map that was created showed a rough estimate of where the cable cart towers would go along these routes. Trying to get more into detail, a zoomed in view of where the stations would go was then made. This was done by finding the original T stops in boston using google maps, then finding areas with large enough space to hold one of the stations. Even on top of that, the stations had to be within walking distance of the original T stations so that transferring would not be an issue. Moving onto helping out the PR group, they needed some images of these cable cars in boston. This posed an issue due to the fact that we needed pictures around where the stations would go and needed these to be the same quality as other pictures going to be photoshopped together. After a bit of searching, two photos were found that could be morphed together. This picture involved having cable cars flying overhead of Boston. The process to making this picture began with the first picture being the background and cutting out everything that would be conflicting with the other picture. Once this was done, the other picture was simply added behind this picture making the effect that Boston actually had a cable car system! The second picture easily took the victory of being the most challenging. This picture was an inside view of a cable car looking out into Boston. It was made similarly to the first picture but needed more precise editing due to it having people on the inside of it. When it was finished being edited, it came out personally as the best picture that was made. By the end of all these being formed it was end of the two week studio. Calculations: Time between stations, time around, operation hours, people per car, trips per car per day,people per car per day, number of cars, people per day, rush hour on the (T) at eight am on tuesday and saturday tweleve pm. Time between stations: Our first step was to convert eighteen mph to 18 mpm. We did this by putting 18 miles over 60 minutes, then taking one of each of the distances over 18miles and 60 minutes, then timing the distance and the 18 miles by 60.Leavining us to divide the distance divided by 18. We did this for each distance to find the time between each station. Time around: The time around all the stations we found out to be 1 hour. We found this by first adding all the times between the stations, then we encounted for 3 minutes for people to get on plus having eight stations. So therefore we times 8 by 3 and then added that to the total minutes between each. And we got 51 minutes. We say an hour to encount for transfering and other problems. Operation Hours: I looked at the timing of the t station and I also looked at the NYC capable car and saw what there operation hours were and made times based off of theres. Which ended up being sun-thurs (6am-3am) and friday- saturday (6am- 3:45am). People per car: We have not finalized this number but we came up with the number 50 people. We made this educated decesion by looking at past gondolas. However we are still doing research. Trips per car per day: We took the hours of operations which was 21 all together then times it by 1.So the trips per car per day would be 21. People per car per day: We took the people per car (x) the trip per car per day and got the result of 1050.Which means that 1,050 people are on the capable car per day. Number of cars: Since we want the cars to come continuously we thought 34 cars would be enough. However this number is not finallized either, because it might be a possibility that we could have more. People per day: To find how many people would or could ride the car a day we took the people per car per day (x) number of cars. Which gave the result of 35700 people per day. Rush hour 12pm: To find the amount of time it takes during rush hour on a saturday at 12 in the afternnoon. I did this by going to the MBTA website and typed in each station to find how many minutes it takes to get from each. Rush hour 8am tuesday: I did the same process for the other mbta time. --This showed the difference of the length of time on a capable car vs the T rail. Daniel took over the designing part of the project. We all wanted the design to be retro-futuristic, sort-of like the 1960’s show “the Jetsons”. We chose to make everything green to clearly show the new green line. Since we made the lines we did, we had to make a Tourist Cable car, a Commuter, and a Connection car. We built two different towers, a large kenmore tower and a tower for the rest of stops. The Cars were actually much different from eachother. The two busiest lines will use the commuter and connection car, while the Tourist car has much less expected users.They will have to be big, fast, and frequent enough to deal with the large amounts of people. The tourist car will be used mostly for tourists and pleasure, so it will not have to be as large. The Commuter Car is the largest size we designed. It is 30 feet long, and 10 feet wide. The Car has a capacity of 60-70 people(originally we said it could hold 100 people, but there was no way the car could hold that weight). We added a double cable to help support the heavy weight. There are two cable connectors, and one retracting power supply for when on tracks. This power supply goes up and down when told to. The car is able to lower from in the air to the pre-existent tracks. The car has 6 train wheels on each side, that will be used when on tracks. This car also has a bike rack to hold 3 bikes on the back. It folds up and locks bikes secure. The connection car has the same body as the Commuter, but does not have the wheels, train power connection piece, and obviously the wheels were removed. The Tourist car was much different from these commuting cars. It is the smallest cable car, being 15 feet long, and 10 feet wide. It can hold about 10-15 people at a time. We put windows all around, so the people can see the city below. There are 2 cable supports on the roof, and hold onto one cable. The Kenmore tower is much larger than the typical tower. The Kenmore tower is almost 160 feet tall and 100 feet wide at the widest point. There are three main floors: a bottom/underground floor, the second floor, and the top floor. The bottom is where the commuter line transforms from cable to tracks. This floor is also where people will get on the elevator to other floors. People get underground by the exterior winding staircase. The second floor is where the purple line comes in, going both north and south. The third floor is for boarding the tourist line. This tower will be placed in the park across from the existing stop. This tower is the main reference point, and is where all lines connect in one tower. The normal cable car stations will be placed at every stop except Kenmore. It is about 100 feet tall, with a large oval shaped top that is 80 feet long. It has two elevators on each side, with a glass protected boarding area on top. Max took on the challenge of designing and 3-D modeling the stations and support towers. He thought of many concepts for the stations and ended up deciding on an hourglass shape for the station design. First he sketched out and created a concept floor plan for the stations using Rhinoceros (“Rhino” is a 3-D modelling software). His next step was to take that floor plan give it realistic dimensions. He carefully thought out how large each aspect of the floor plan should be. Max’s next step was to 3-D model the station, he did this in mainly three steps: 1) He laid the plan for the second floor the right distance over the first floor. 2) He then proceeded to loft the two floors together and finished the shape of the building. 3) Lastly he extruded the individual parts of his plan. His next task was to design the support towers for the cable car. Max was inspired by the design of the support towers for the Emirates Airline (also known as the Thames Cable Car) in London. In this design the support towers are an elegantly twisted combining trusses and curved surfaces that are both light and strong. Max sketched out ideas for the support towers and decided on an idea which looks slightly like a T in order to match the projects name. Max then 3-D modeled the tower. Max’s final task was to render the station and towers and place them into an image of where they would go if built. He rendered them with Toucan, the built in rendering system for Rhino. Next he found a picture of the Waterfront in Boston which he photoshopped the rendering of the station over. Today, I worked all day on the tower design. I built the floor plans on rhino, and began building the 3D model. The floor plans really helped me set up the 3D design. Some changes today, were the spiral staircase around the middle, the new oval shaped elevator, and the plan of making the structure thinner closer to the top(then larger for the top two floors). Tommarow I will hopefully finish the towers design. The green line is the oldest subway line in the United States. There has been a plan to expand it further into new neighborhoods but budget constraints are complicating the process. How would you feel about replacing the green line with cable cars? Where would you place the stations? How would the whole system cost? At the end of the studio, students will present a comprehensive proposal that outlines the location of stations, a design of a station, and a business plan. This is awesome! I've never seen a cable car station before.

2019-04-24T05:47:44Z

https://cambridge.nuvustudio.com/studios/air-boston

A machine control system includes an operation terminal which includes a communication unit and a touch panel unit and outputs machine operation information for operating a machine via the communication unit, a controller which controls the operation of the machine based on the received machine operation information, and a safety switch device which is mounted on the operation terminal and includes a switch unit which outputs a stop instruction signal for issuing an instruction to stop the machine, and a packet generation unit which converts the output stop instruction signal into a packet and outputs the packet to the operation terminal, wherein the operation terminal transfers the packet received from the safety switch device to the controller, and the controller restores a stop instruction signal from the packet received from the operation terminal and stops the machine based on the restored stop instruction signal. 1. A machine control system comprising: a portable operation terminal including a communication unit which communicates with a peripheral device and a touch panel unit used for display and input, the operation terminal outputting machine operation information for operating a machine via the communication unit based on an input operation to the touch panel unit; a controller which controls operation of the machine based on the machine operation information received from the operation terminal; and a safety switch device which is removably mounted on the operation terminal and includes a switch unit which outputs a stop instruction signal for issuing an instruction to stop the machine by being operated, and a packet generation unit which converts the stop instruction signal output by operating the switch unit into a packet and outputs the packet to the communication unit of the operation terminal, wherein the operation terminal transfers the packet received from the safety switch device to the controller via the communication unit, and the controller restores a stop instruction signal from the packet received from the operation terminal and stops the machine based on the restored stop instruction signal. 2. The machine control system according to claim 1, wherein the packet generation unit in the safety switch device converts the stop instruction signal into a multiplexed packet. 3. The machine control system according to claim 1, wherein the communication unit of the operation terminal transmits the packet to the controller via a communication channel common to the machine operation information. 4. The machine control system according to claim 3, wherein the communication unit of the operation terminal receives the packet from the safety switch device via a communication channel different from the communication channel used to transmit the machine operation information and the packet to the controller. 5. The machine control system according to claim 1, wherein the switch unit includes at least one of an emergency stop button which outputs the stop instruction signal by being pressed, and an enable switch which outputs the stop instruction signal by cancelling pressing. 6. A safety switch device for stopping a machine operating based on machine operation information received from a portable operation terminal including a communication unit which communicates with a peripheral device and a touch panel unit used for display and input, the device comprising: a mount unit configured to removably mount the safety switch device on the operation terminal; a switch unit which outputs a stop instruction signal for issuing an instruction to stop the machine by being operated; and a packet generation unit which converts the stop instruction signal output by operating the switch unit into a packet and outputs the packet to the communication unit of the operation terminal, wherein the machine is stopped by a controller which controls operation of the machine, based on a stop instruction signal restored from the packet transferred to the controller via the communication unit of the operation terminal. 7. The safety switch device according to claim 6, wherein the packet generation unit converts the stop instruction signal into a multiplexed packet. 8. The safety switch device according to claim 6, wherein the packet is transmitted to the controller, together with the machine operation information, via a common communication channel by the communication unit of the operation terminal. 9. The safety switch device according to claim 8, wherein the packet generation unit transmits the packet to the operation terminal via a communication channel different from the communication channel used to transmit the machine operation information and the packet to the controller by the communication unit of the operation terminal. 10. The safety switch device according to claim 6, wherein the switch unit includes at least one of an emergency stop button which outputs the stop instruction signal by being pressed, and an enable switch which outputs the stop instruction signal by cancelling pressing. 11. A portable operation terminal which transmits based on an input operation, machine operation information for operating a machine to a controller which controls operation of the machine, the terminal comprising: a communication unit which communicates with a peripheral device including the controller; a touch panel unit used for display and input operations in an editing task for the machine operation information; and a housing on which a safety switch device including a switch unit which outputs a stop instruction signal for issuing an instruction to stop the machine by being operated, and a packet generation unit which converts the stop instruction signal output by operating the switch unit into a packet and outputs the packet to the communication unit of the operation terminal is removably mounted, wherein the communication unit transfers the packet received from the packet generation unit in the safety switch device to the controller, and the machine is stopped based on a stop instruction signal restored from the packet by the controller. 12. The operation terminal according to claim 11, wherein the stop instruction signal is converted into a multiplexed packet by the packet generation unit. 13. The operation terminal according to claim 11, wherein the communication unit transmits the packet to the controller via a communication channel common to the machine operation information. 14. The operation terminal according to claim 13, wherein the communication unit receives the packet from the safety switch device via a communication channel different from the communication channel used to transmit the machine operation information and the packet to the controller. 15. The operation terminal according to claim 11, wherein the switch unit includes at least one of an emergency stop button which outputs the stop instruction signal by being pressed, and an enable switch which outputs the stop instruction signal by cancelling pressing. This application is a new U.S. Patent Application that claims benefit of JP 2016-223515, filed Nov. 16, 2016, the disclosure of this application is being incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes. The present invention relates to a safety switch device, an operation terminal, and a machine control system including the same for stopping a machine operating based on machine operation information received from the operation terminal. A portable wireless teaching pendant connected to a controller for a machine via wireless communication is used to operate, e.g., a robot or a CNC machine tool (to be also simply referred to as a "machine" hereinafter). In such a machine system, an emergency stop button or an enable switch (deadman switch) is provided on a wireless teaching pendant to avoid any unexpected operation of a robot or a machine tool to ensure the safety of surrounding machines or operators. FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a general machine control system including a wireless teaching pendant and a controller for a machine. In a general machine control system 1000, a portable wireless teaching pendant 1001 and a controller 1002 which controls a machine 1004 such as a robot or a CNC machine tool are connected to each other via wireless communication. The operator can perform, e.g., registration, editing, condition setting, or status display of an operation program associated with the machine 1004 or teaching of the machine 1004, using the wireless teaching pendant 1001. In such a machine control system 1000, to ensure the safety of the operator, the international standard stipulates that the wireless teaching pendant 1001 may have to include a mechanical safety switch unit such as an emergency stop button and an enable switch (deadman switch). When, for example, an emergency stop button (not illustrated) provided on the wireless teaching pendant 1001 is pressed by the operator, an emergency stop signal for bringing the machine 1004 to an emergency stop is transmitted from the wireless teaching pendant 1001 to the controller 1002 with a certain period, and, upon receiving the emergency stop signal, the controller 1002 can bring the machine 1004 to an emergency stop to ensure the safety of the machine 1004 or their surrounding machines and operators. In recent years, for, e.g., cost reduction, versatility ensuring, and an improvement in operator convenience, a machine control system which operates a machine such as a robot or a CNC machine tool using a portable operation terminal (smart device) such as a tablet or a smartphone instead of a dedicated teaching pendant is employed. In such an operation terminal, while the arrangement of operation buttons displayed on a display can be advantageously changed to suit the operator's preferences, a mechanical safety switch unit such as an emergency stop button and an enable switch may be preferably provided, as in the case of a dedicated teaching pendant, to use the operation terminal as a teaching pendant. In a robot operation device which operates a robot using a portable smart device such as a tablet or a smartphone including a touch panel unit used for display and input, a smart device equipped with a removable enable switch and emergency stop button is known, as disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2016-60018. As described above, even in a machine control system which operates a machine such as a robot or a CNC machine tool using a portable operation terminal (smart device) such as a tablet or a smartphone, a mechanical safety switch unit such as an emergency stop button and an enable switch may be preferably provided on the operation terminal, as in the case of a dedicated teaching pendant. Wired and wireless communication paths are available as communication paths for transmitting to a controller for a machine, a stop instruction signal for stopping the machine output from a mechanical safety switch unit provided on an operation terminal. Unfortunately, the use of a wired communication path to connect the safety switch unit and the controller for the machine to each other degrades the portability of the operation terminal equipped with the safety switch unit. However, the use of a wireless communication path to connect the safety switch unit and the controller for the machine to each other is inefficient because two types of wireless communication may be preferably handled: one for machine operation information for operating the machine and the other for a stop instruction signal, leading to a higher cost. In addition, mutual interference may occur between two types of wireless communication paths between the safety switch unit and the controller for the machine. There is a demand for a safety switch device, an operation terminal, and a machine control system including the same which can reliably stop a machine operating based on machine operation information in an emergency and achieve high convenience and versatility and low cost. In one aspect of the present disclosure, a machine control system includes a portable operation terminal including a communication unit which communicates with a peripheral device and a touch panel unit used for display and input, the operation terminal outputting machine operation information for operating a machine via the communication unit based on an input operation to the touch panel unit, a controller which controls operation of the machine based on the machine operation information received from the operation terminal, and a safety switch device which is removably mounted on the operation terminal and includes a switch unit which outputs a stop instruction signal for issuing an instruction to stop the machine by being operated, and a packet generation unit which converts the stop instruction signal output by operating the switch unit into a packet and outputs the packet to the communication unit of the operation terminal, wherein the operation terminal transfers the packet received from the safety switch device to the controller via the communication unit, and the controller restores a stop instruction signal from the packet received from the operation terminal and stops the machine based on the restored stop instruction signal. Herein, the packet generation unit in the safety switch device may convert the stop instruction signal into a multiplexed packet. Further, the communication unit of the operation terminal may transmit the packet to the controller via a communication channel common to the machine operation information. Further, the communication unit of the operation terminal may receive the packet from the safety switch device via a communication channel different from the communication channel used to transmit the machine operation information and the packet to the controller. Further, the switch unit may include at least one of an emergency stop button which outputs the stop instruction signal by being pressed, and an enable switch which outputs the stop instruction signal by cancelling pressing. In another aspect of the present disclosure, a safety switch device for stopping a machine operating based on machine operation information received from a portable operation terminal including a communication unit which communicates with a peripheral device and a touch panel unit used for display and input includes a mount unit configured to removably mount the safety switch device on the operation terminal, a switch unit which outputs a stop instruction signal for issuing an instruction to stop the machine by being operated, and a packet generation unit which converts the stop instruction signal output by operating the switch unit into a packet and outputs the packet to the communication unit of the operation terminal, wherein the machine is stopped by a controller which controls operation of the machine, based on a stop instruction signal restored from the packet transferred to the controller via the communication unit of the operation terminal. Herein, the packet generation unit may convert the stop instruction signal into a multiplexed packet. Further, the packet may be transmitted to the controller, together with the machine operation information, via a common communication channel by the communication unit of the operation terminal. Further, the packet generation unit may transmit the packet to the operation terminal via a communication channel different from the communication channel used to transmit the machine operation information and the packet to the controller by the communication unit of the operation terminal. In still another aspect of the present disclosure, a portable operation terminal which transmits based on an input operation, machine operation information for operating a machine to a controller which controls operation of the machine includes a communication unit which communicates with a peripheral device including the controller, a touch panel unit used for display and input operations in an editing task for the machine operation information, and a housing on which a safety switch device including a switch unit which outputs a stop instruction signal for issuing an instruction to stop the machine by being operated, and a packet generation unit which converts the stop instruction signal output by operating the switch unit into a packet and outputs the packet to the communication unit of the operation terminal is removably mounted, wherein the communication unit transfers the packet received from the packet generation unit in the safety switch device to the controller, and the machine is stopped based on a stop instruction signal restored from the packet by the controller. Herein, the stop instruction signal may be converted into a multiplexed packet by the packet generation unit. Further, the communication unit may transmit the packet to the controller via a communication channel common to the machine operation information. Further, the communication unit may receive the packet from the safety switch device via a communication channel different from the communication channel used to transmit the machine operation information and the packet to the controller. FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a general machine control system including a wireless teaching pendant and a controller for a machine. Next, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following drawings, similar members are provided with similar reference signs. To facilitate understanding, these figures have been suitably changed in scale. Further, embodiments as illustrated in the figures are one example so as to carry out one aspect of the present disclosure and such embodiments are not limitative. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a machine control system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The same reference numerals in different drawings denote components having the same functions hereinafter. In this embodiment, a machine 4 is operated on a portable operation terminal 1 and implemented as, e.g., a robot or a CNC machine tool. A machine control system 100 according to this embodiment includes a portable operation terminal 1, a controller 2 which controls the operation of the machine 4, and a safety switch device 3 removably mounted on the operation terminal 1. The operation terminal 1 is implemented as a smart device such as a tablet or a smartphone. The operation terminal 1 may even be implemented as a notebook computer. In this embodiment, the operation terminal 1 transmits based on an input operation, machine operation information for operating the machine 4 to the controller 2 that controls the operation of the machine 4. More specifically, the operation terminal 1 includes a communication unit 12 which communicates with a peripheral device including the controller 2, a touch panel unit 11 used for display and input operations in an editing task for the machine operation information, and a housing 13 on which the safety switch device 3 is removably mounted. In the operation terminal 1, the communication unit 12, the touch panel unit 11, and a storage unit 14 are electrically connected to each other via a control unit 15 and buses, and the operation of the operation terminal 1 including the communication unit 12 and the touch panel unit 11 is controlled by the control unit 15. A teaching software program implemented as an application program for operating the machine 4 is installed on the storage unit 14, and the control unit 15 controls the operation of the operation terminal 1 in accordance with the teaching software program. Hence, the operation terminal 1 functions as a wireless teaching pendant which operates (teaches) the machine 4. The operator can perform editing and confirmation tasks such as registration or condition setting of operations associated with the machine 4, through the input and display functions of the touch panel unit 11 of the operation terminal 1. The communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1 is used for communication with a peripheral device. The peripheral device includes the controller 2 that controls the machine 4. The communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1 and a communication unit 22 of the controller 2 that controls the machine 4 are connected to each other via wireless communication. Examples of such wireless communication include wireless LANs such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth.RTM., and infrared communication. Instead of wireless communication, wired communication may be used, but in this case, the portability of the operation terminal 1 is relatively low although the stability of communication between the operation terminal 1 and the controller 2 is relatively high. The communication unit 12 transfers a packet received from a packet generation unit 32 in the safety switch device 3 to the controller 2 and transmits machine operation information for defining teaching details input on the operation terminal 1 to the controller 2, although details will be described later. The safety switch device 3 is removably mounted on the housing 13 of the operation terminal 1. The safety switch device 3 is used to stop the machine 4 in an emergency. The safety switch device 3 includes mount units 33 for removably mounting the safety switch device 3 on the operation terminal 1, a switch unit 31 which outputs a stop instruction signal for issuing an instruction to stop the machine 4 by being operated, and a packet generation unit 32 which converts the stop instruction signal output by operating the switch unit 31 into a packet and outputs the packet to the communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1. The power involved in operating the safety switch device 3 may be supplied via a cable (a USB cable or a dedicated power supply cable) from the operation terminal 1 on which the safety switch device 3 is mounted, or supplied from a battery built into the safety switch device 3. The safety switch device 3 further includes a communication unit 34 as a means for transmitting the packet generated by the packet generation unit 32 to the communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1. The communication unit 34 of the safety switch device 3 and the communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1 may be connected to each other via either wireless or wired communication. Examples of such wireless communication include wireless LANs such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth.RTM., and infrared communication. Examples of such wired communication include communication via a USB cable. The switch unit 31 of the safety switch device 3 includes at least one of a mechanical emergency stop button 31-1 which outputs a stop instruction signal by being pressed, and a mechanical enable switch (deadman switch) 31-2 which outputs a stop instruction signal by cancelling pressing. In an exemplary example illustrated as FIG. 1, one emergency stop button 31-1 and one enable switch 31-2 are provided as the switch unit 31, but only one of an emergency stop button 31-1 and an enable switch 31-2 may be provided, or a plurality of emergency stop buttons 31-1 and/or a plurality of enable switches 31-2 may be provided. When the operator wants to bring the machine 4 to an emergency stop upon, e.g., the occurrence of an abnormality in the machine 4, he or she presses the emergency stop button 31-1 to output a stop instruction signal from the emergency stop button 31-1. In the normal operation of the machine 4, the operator uses the operation terminal 1 while gripping the enable switch 31-2 of the safety switch device 3 with his or her hand (i.e., while the enable switch 31-2 is kept pressed), but when he or she releases his or her grip on the enable switch 31-2 for some reason, the pressing of the enable switch 31-2 is cancelled and a stop instruction signal is output from the enable switch 31-2. The mount units 33 of the safety switch device 3 are used to removably mount the safety switch device 3 on the housing 13 of the operation terminal 1. Although examples of fitting between the safety switch device 3 and the operation terminal 1 will be given below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, the safety switch device 3 may be mounted on the operation terminal 1 using a method other than those illustrated as FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG. 2 is a front view illustrating a first example of fitting between a safety switch device and an operation terminal according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. As the structure of the mount units 33 of the safety switch device 3, the safety switch device 3 is mounted on the operation terminal 1 to partially cover the housing 13 of the operation terminal 1. FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a second example of fitting between a safety switch device and an operation terminal according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. The mount units 33 are placed at the four corners of the safety switch device 3, which is mounted on the operation terminal 1 to be fitted together from the lower surface of the operation terminal 1 through the mount units 33. In the examples illustrated as FIGS. 2 and 3, one emergency stop button 31-1 and two enable switches 31-2 are provided as the switch unit 31. The packet generation unit 32 of the safety switch device 3 converts the stop instruction signal output by operating the switch unit 31 into a packet and outputs the packet to the communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1. More specifically, the packet generation unit 32 generates a packet by dividing the stop instruction signal from the switch unit 31 and adding sequence numbers to the divided signals. In this embodiment, to improve the communication safety and reliability, the packet generation unit 32 multiplexes processing for generating a packet from the stop instruction signal. In other words, to generate different types of packets from one stop instruction signal, the packet generation unit 32 includes a plurality of LSIs as processors which generate packets from the stop instruction signal. In an exemplary example illustrated as FIG. 1, packet generation processing is dualized, so that the packet generation unit 32 includes a first LSI 32-1 and a second LSI 32-2. The stop instruction signal output by pressing the emergency stop button 31-1 is input to each of the first LSI 32-1 and the second LSI 32-2. Similarly, the stop instruction signal output by canceling the pressing of the enable switch 31-2 is input to each of the first LSI 32-1 and the second LSI 32-2. In each of the first LSI 32-1 and the second LSI 32-2, a packet is generated by dividing the received stop instruction signal and adding sequence numbers to the divided signals. The respective packets generated by the first LSI 32-1 and the second LSI 32-2 are transmitted to the communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1 via the communication unit 34. As a modification to this embodiment, in either the first LSI 32-1 or the second LSI 32-2, a packet generated by this LSI may be concatenated with a packet generated by the other LSI and then the obtained packet may be transmitted to the communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1 via the communication unit 34. The packet generation unit 32 may be configured to generate a packet appended with an error detection signal or an error correction signal to further improve the communication safety and reliability. Examples of the error detection signal and the error correction signal include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC). The safety switch device 3 may include components other than the switch unit 31, the packet generation unit 32, the mount units 33, and the communication unit 34. The safety switch device 3 may include, e.g., a unit which generates an electrical signal other than a stop instruction signal, and in this case, the packet generation unit 32 may generate a packet containing the electrical signal. The packet generated by the packet generation unit 32 in the above-mentioned manner is transmitted to the communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1 via the communication unit 34. The communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1 further transfers the packet received from the packet generation unit 32 to the controller 2. Transfer processing for receiving a packet from the communication unit 34 of the safety switch device 3 and transferring the packet to the communication unit 22 of the controller 2 by the communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1 is performed as appropriate during intervals between processes based on the teaching software program of the operation terminal 1. A software program associated with a series of packet transfer processes (to be referred to as a "packet transfer software program" hereinafter) is also stored in the storage unit 14, and the control unit 15 performs packet transfer processing in accordance with the packet transfer software program. The communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1 transmits machine operation information to the controller 2, and since a packet is transmitted from the operation terminal 1 to the controller 2 via a communication channel common to the machine operation information, the communication path for a packet associated with a stop instruction signal also serves as a black channel. As the communication channel for communication between the communication unit 34 of the safety switch device 3 and the communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1, a communication channel different from that for communication between the communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1 and the communication unit 22 of the controller 2 is used so as to prevent mutual communication interference. In other words, the communication unit 12 of the operation terminal 1 receives a packet from the safety switch device 3 via a communication channel different from that used to transmit the machine operation information and the packet to the controller 2. A specific example of the packet transfer processing will be described later. The controller 2 controls the operation of the machine 4 based on the machine operation information received from the operation terminal 1. The machine operation information is received via the communication unit 22. The controller 2 restores a stop instruction signal from the packet received from the operation terminal 1 and stops the machine 4 based on the restored stop instruction signal. The controller 2 therefore includes a signal restoration unit 21 which restores a stop instruction signal from the packet received from the operation terminal 1. As described above, since the packet is multiplexed by the packet generation unit 32 of the safety switch device 3, the signal restoration unit 21 in the controller 2 restores one stop instruction signal from the multiplexed packet. The signal restoration unit 21 in the controller 2 therefore includes a plurality of CPUs as processors which restore one stop instruction signal from the multiplexed packet. In an exemplary example illustrated as FIG. 1, since packet generation processing is dualized, the signal restoration unit 21 includes a first CPU 21-1 and a second CPU 21-2. The packet received via the communication unit 22 is input to each of the first CPU 21-1 and the second CPU 21-2 on the basis of the sequence numbers. A stop instruction signal is restored in each of the first CPU 21-1 and the second CPU 21-2, and the restoration results are compared by the first CPU 21-1 and the second CPU 21-2. The controller 2 uses the stop instruction signals in processing for stopping the machine 4 as valid data only when they match each other, and outputs an alarm when they are mismatched. When one or both of the packets have an error, the controller 2 may perform retry processing within the time limit permitted by the system. In this manner, according to this embodiment, since packet generation processing associated with a stop instruction signal is dualized, the possibility that the controller 2 will receive an erroneous stop instruction signal can be reduced even when a bug occurs in the packet transfer software program within the operation terminal 1 or communication failure occurs in each communication path. When the packet received via the communication unit 22 is generated by concatenating the respective packets generated by the first LSI 32-1 and the second LSI 32-2 in the packet generation unit 32, this packet is divided by either the first CPU 21-1 or the second CPU 21-2, and a stop instruction signal is then restored in each of the first CPU 21-1 and the second CPU 21-2. When the packet generation unit 32 is configured to generate a packet appended with an error detection signal or an error correction signal to further improve the communication safety and reliability, the controller 2 includes an error detection and correction unit (not illustrated) which detects the presence or absence of a packet error on the basis of an error detection signal added to a packet received from the operation terminal 1 or corrects a packet error on the basis of an error correction signal added to a packet received from the operation terminal 1. Packet transfer processing in the operation terminal 1 will be described below with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6. For the sake of easy explanation, the communication units 12, 22, and 34 used for respective types of communication between the operation terminal 1 and the controller 2 and between the operation terminal 1 and the safety switch device 3 will not be particularly referred to herein, but it is to be noted that any of the communication units 12, 22, and 34 is engaged in each such type of communication. Since the processing of the first LSI 32-1 and the second LSI 32-2 in the packet generation unit 32 and the processing of the first CPU 21-1 and the second CPU 21-2 in the controller 2 are the same as above, a description thereof will not be given hereinafter. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary communication diagram when a controller is equipped with a timer in the embodiment of the present disclosure. In this case, the controller 2 transmits a request signal to the operation terminal 1 with a predetermined timer period. The operation terminal 1 transfers the received request signal to the safety switch device 3. In response to the request signal, the safety switch device 3 performs processing for detecting whether the switch unit 31 has been operated. When the switch unit 31 has been operated, since a stop instruction signal is output from the switch unit 31, the packet generation unit 32 in the safety switch device 3 converts the stop instruction signal into a packet and outputs the packet to the operation terminal 1, which further transfers the packet received from the safety switch device 3 to the controller 2. The controller 2 restores a stop instruction signal from the packet received from the operation terminal 1 and stops the machine 4 based on the restored stop instruction signal. It takes a certain time, after the controller 2 transmits a request signal to the operation terminal 1, until it receives a packet from the operation terminal 1, and when this time exceeds a preset time limit (set to a time shorter than the timer period) as well, the controller 2 stops the machine 4 for the sake of safety (alarm stop). FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary communication diagram when the safety switch device is equipped with a timer in the embodiment of the present disclosure. In this case, the safety switch device 3 performs processing for detecting whether the switch unit 31 has been operated with a predetermined timer period. When the switch unit 31 has been operated, since a stop instruction signal is output from the switch unit 31, the packet generation unit 32 in the safety switch device 3 converts the stop instruction signal into a packet and outputs the packet to the operation terminal 1, which further transfers the packet received from the safety switch device 3 to the controller 2. The controller 2 restores a stop instruction signal from the packet received from the operation terminal 1 and stops the machine 4 based on the restored stop instruction signal. It takes a certain time, after the controller 2 receives a packet from the operation terminal 1, until it receives the next packet, and when this time exceeds a preset time limit (set to a time shorter than the timer period) as well, the controller 2 stops the machine 4 for the sake of safety (alarm stop). When the safety switch device 3 is equipped with a timer, since active packet transmission to the operation terminal 1 may be preferably performed, a communication scheme which allows such communication may be preferably employed. For example, while wireless LANs such as Wi-Fi capable of mutual communication between devices or the like may be employed, USB cable communication using a fixed master-slave relationship may not be employed. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary communication diagram when the operation terminal is equipped with a timer in the embodiment of the present disclosure. In this case, the operation terminal 1 transmits a request signal to the safety switch device 3 with a predetermined timer period. In response to the request signal, the safety switch device 3 performs processing for detecting whether the switch unit 31 has been operated. When the switch unit 31 has been operated, since a stop instruction signal is output from the switch unit 31, the packet generation unit 32 in the safety switch device 3 converts the stop instruction signal into a packet and outputs the packet to the operation terminal 1, which further transfers the packet received from the safety switch device 3 to the controller 2. The controller 2 restores a stop instruction signal from the packet received from the operation terminal 1 and stops the machine 4 based on the restored stop instruction signal. It takes a certain time, after the controller 2 receives a packet from the operation terminal 1, until it receives the next packet, and when this time exceeds a preset time limit (set to a time shorter than the timer period) as well, the controller 2 stops the machine 4 for the sake of safety (alarm stop). In one aspect of the present disclosure, a safety switch device, an operation terminal, and a machine control system including the same which can reliably stop a machine operating based on machine operation information in an emergency and achieve high convenience and versatility and low cost can be realized. In another aspect of the present disclosure, in place of a dedicated teaching pendant, a teaching pendant including a mechanical safety switch unit such as an emergency stop button and an enable switch can be formed on a portable operation terminal (smart device) such as a tablet or a smartphone, so that the machine can be reliably stopped in an emergency and safety is high while achieving cost reduction and ensuring versatility and operator convenience. In still another aspect of the present disclosure, since a packet associated with a stop instruction signal is transmitted from the operation terminal to a controller for the machine using a communication channel common to the machine operation information, the cost is low. In still another aspect of the present disclosure, since a packet is transmitted from the safety switch device to the operation terminal via a communication channel different from that used to transmit the machine operation information and the packet to the controller, no signals interfere with each other. In still another aspect of the present disclosure, since packet generation processing associated with a stop instruction signal is dualized, the possibility that the controller will receive an erroneous stop instruction signal can be reduced even when a bug occurs within the operation terminal or communication failure occurs in each communication path, and safety is high.

2019-04-18T12:29:26Z

http://patents.com/us-10061296.html

XT has gone 11-speed, and the new Shimano XT Cranksets are spinning on XTR/Dura-ace inspired bottom brackets. They have a smaller bearing size to enhance rolling efficiency and for shaving some weight. They are also better sealed to reject whatever muck mother earth conjures up and tries throw at them. I replaced my drivetrain about a month ago and went from 3x9 to 1x11 and cannot be happier. This review will be identical for all the parts I used to do the conversion on my 2014 Diamondback Sortie 1 29er. I chose all the parts as a good compromise for what I believe to be high quality, long lasting, lightweight and low cost parts. So far I have not experienced any problems with my setup and would recommend each part individually and as a whole setup. I have tried many times to get the chain to jump when back pedaling on the granny gear, but cannot. Including tax, I was just under $400 total for everything. I would highly recommend each part I used in my swap. Below is a list of the parts I used in my swap. Solid BB ridden xt for years. Tried XTR because it was on sale and did't notice a difference. This was my first external bottom bracket so I wasn't sure what to expect. At first it felt a little cheap and plastic but I figured since it's XT it should be fine. Weighing in at 76g, that's a huge drop from the 312g on my old internal one. So far it's riding great. It came with a little adapter for your wrench since its smaller. I think I'm going to just buy the cup sockets though so I can torque them. Wow! Juse 20 bucks for all this performance! Easy installation and super performance. Perfect match for XT crankset. This was an upgraded replacement for a bottom bracket that essentially seized after a couple of years of use. Diameter of this bottom bracket is smaller than other Shimano bottom brackets. But, this one comes with a plastic adapter that will work with your current BB tool. No need to buy another tool! Used to replace a Shimano SM-BB51 along with the Foundation Shimano Style BB Wrench. That wrench fits the original SM-BB51 cups and the new MT800 bottom bracket comes with a plastic adapter to adapt the wrench to the smaller cups on this BB. The plastic adapter is a pain, but got the job done. Comes pre-greased. It had been a few years since I last had Shimano drive train on my bikes. I had a new build and the price to weight ratio compared to SRAM was substantial. So I decided to try it out again. I was very surprised to see how much improvement from my old drive train there was. It is crisp, smooth and precise. Really happy with XT and will consider it for future builds and replacemenrs. This BB is labeled "mountain" but with the included spacer, I installed on a 68/73 BB shell Trek road bike. I believe the BB accepts shaft diameters of 24mm not sure though because most BB don't include the measurements. In my opinion, bottom bracket compatibility/sizing make BB the most frustrating item for me to purchase. I think it is the marketing aspect of not including the measurements but rather labeling BB the same name as the crankset the manufacture hopes to sell at the same time. JensonUSA is the bike shop I frequent most because of the price, selection, shipping offers (usually 2 days with the package arriving before noon), and return policy. Ive been riding bikes for 25 years. In my opinion, Shimano makes some of the best components available. The price is right and XT finds the sweet spot between affordability and function. Shimano changes everything, but gives you an adapter. Light weight, extremely smooth, and looks to be very well sealed. Very pleased with this purchase and recommend the MT800 BB and Jenson USA highly. Quality of this part is top-notch, service and shipping were super-fast. Jensen carries good quality products at good value. Multiple purchases have been made with no issues. Highly recommend. Also very knowledgeable staff if you ever need to talk tpo them. This is a good BB for the price...not much else to say about that. Easy to install and fairly durable. But...even after you eventually roast the bearings, they aren't that expensive to replace. Great bottom braket replacement for my Single Speed rebuild! Great price for this Shimano XT M8000 bottom bracket. I couldn’t be happier with my new set up! Easily assembled and the compatibility with my Large Surely Karate Monkey was spot on! I was riding red rocks on the same day I assembled it! Its a shimano bottom bracket, works well, its cheap, and its easy to install. enough said. Excellent product. I replaced an older entry-level BB on one of my customers bikes. This new one was a fantastic price and spun very smoothly. I highly recommend it. This article is amazing for the price. The quality is very very good and i am very happy with my purchase. Along with an XT 8000 crank, this is maybe the best inexpensive BB ever. Easy to replace if you remember to clean the threads in your frame. Looks great and smooth creak free pedaling. Decided to replace my bottom bracket for this one as mine was beginning to creak. Pedaling feels a lot smoother now! Great product. Received the correct item and installed with no issues. Have not put any time on the new build yet, but will update if I find any issues with the product. New size with the plastic insert is kind of funny but it's exactly what you love and expect from a Shimano BB. Seals up great so it lasts a long time. There isn't much to discuss only to say that this is one of those work horse parts that lasts forever and you never notice because it works so well. The icing on the cake is the price. Great upgrade from my prior set up! Love not having the front derailleur to mess with. They were easy to set up (with the help of a friend! Works well for the SLX M7000 Crankset and Jenson's has good prices on most everything! Ótimo movimento central. Peça resistente e de bom acabamento. It's an upgrade the the BB70 (old XT). Cups are smaller, so you have to use the provided plastic tool or buy a new BB tool. Otherwise, it's an upgrade. Great value to finish off a XT build or just as a upgrade. Replaced a 2y/o bottom bracket (also shimano) for the sake of replacing when changing drive trains. Took a little to get the threads seated, but otherwise went on like a charm. Jenson's website does not show all the parts that come with this bottom bracket. Just so you don't have to spend time researching or calling customer service, I opened the box and it does indeed come with the special adapter tool plus 3 spacer rings. However, keep in mind that you will still need the traditional Shimano BB tool to attach this TL-FC25 to install the bottom bracket. Xt is always a good value. Can't go wrong. will this fit on my 2012 Stumpy? BEST ANSWER: No, this is a threaded bottom bracket. Your frame accepts a PF30 pressfit bottom bracket. You will need a PF30 to Shimano adaptor to run these cranks. Will this BB work on a 68mm shell with a 73mm spindle using the included spacers? BEST ANSWER: Yep, it comes with three 2.5mm spacers. For a 68mm shell you'll put 2 spacers on the drive side and 1 on the non-drive side. What bottom bracket tool do you need for this? BEST ANSWER: The standard Shimano BB tool that was used with previous versions works. The diameter of this BB is smaller, but included with the BB is a sweet adapter. The adapter fits over the bb and the tool goes over the adapter. I actually like it better than using the tool by itself on the older (bigger diameter) bottom brackets. So short answer is if you already have a Shimano BB tool, you do not need anything else. I bought a "SHIMANO TL-FC37 BOTTOM BRACKET TOOL FOR ULTEGRA SM-BBR60" tool that is steel and fits on a 1/2 drive socket wrench. It works great on the XT MT800 and is very well made.... I bought mine on eBay. You need the original outboard bearing wrench that is used on normal size outboard bearing cups and then the new xt bottom bracket will have an adapter in the box. You need the Park Tool BBT-59. The bottom bracket also comes with a plastic adapter to use the standard external bottom bracket tool. The bb comes withe a plastic adapter which works with a Shimano TL-FC32 wrench. I used the Park Tool 16-Notch Bottom Bracket Tool, 41mm version (BBT-59). Standard Shimano tool. The BB comes with an adapter. I used channel locks and a rag for scratch protection. Hi, i have scalpel team . today its run with sram and BB30 pressfit. i want to change to shimano xt crank. do i need the xt mt800 or the pressfit version? Can I replace a SM-BB51 bracket? BEST ANSWER: Quick answer, yes. All the shimano threaded bottom brackets play well together. In my experience the shimano ones hold up way better then sram and are way less expensive then Chris king or the likes. You will need a bottom bracket wrench and a torque wrench to reinstall the crank arms and pay attention to the torque on the bottom bracket itself as it will have an impact on the drag on the bearings. Or just pay a shop, but what fun is that. Good luck and keep riding! Yep, I will pay a shop for sure. Yes, this will replace that bottom bracket. Will it work with SRAM X1-1400 GXP crankset? BEST ANSWER: It should as long as that crankset has a 24mm diameter spindle and I believe it does. No, gxp means that the spindle's NDS diameter is 22mm so a different bearing is necessary. If it's threaded you will have to buy SRAM or from someone like wheelsmfg. That depends if you're frame is Press Fit or BSN Threaded. This is an English BSN Threaded BB. It accepts 24mm Shimano Spindle size. Yes. GXP has a 24 mm spindle just like Shimano hollowtech-II cranksets which usually pair with this bottom bracket. No, you will need a SRAM GXP bottom bracket. Will the Shimano BB-MT800 fit into a frame which currently has SRAM GXP bottom bracket? I am looking to change both cranks and BB to Shimano. BEST ANSWER: Yes this shimano XT BB-MT800 will fit the English threaded BB that the gxp was in . As long as you have a euro threaded BB and check the shell width. Will this work with Deore LX cranks? BEST ANSWER: Hi would not buy anything from Jenson USA, purchased a lot of things & when it comes to guarantee, they just don't care... go & support your local shops, yeah you may be spending more, but you are keeping those little shops in business, I hope you make a wise move, good luck. Hoping to replace square/tapered BB and crank set with Deore XT FC-M8000 hollowtech cranks. Is this the correct BB? This is the BB you’ll want. You can also use the XTR BB. Yes, this is the Shimano BB for those cranks. Will this work on 2015 niner jet 9? BEST ANSWER: I am relatively certain it will since you could opt for a XT build out when originally purchasing this bike. Pretty sure it won't on its own. I believe your frame uses PF30 BB. if the frame uses a threaded 68/73mm BB Shell. will this fit an 73 mn shell? BEST ANSWER: Yes, this will fit both 68 and 73 mm bottom brackets. The sleeve will press into a the cups at 73 mm. And will continue to press into a 68 mm as you turn the cups as you tighten your B.B. Yes it will. You will not have to use the included spacers. Can this bottom bracket fit a 2012 Santa Cruz Blur TRc? Santa Cruz website states that this bikes B.B. is a 73mm - Threaded - ISO, not sure if that’s compatible with this B.B. ? This should be compatible with your frame, but you also need to be sure that you are matching your crank spindle to this BB. If you are running a Shimano MTB style crank, you should be good to go. If you need further assistance confirming compatibility, hit up our Gear Advisors at 888.880.3811. It certainly will, I have one installed on my 2016 Santa Cruz 5010c which has the same 73mm bbq shell. Just be aware that you may not need to use the spacers supplied, check the included instructions. Yes, it should work for threaded BB with width 68-73 mm. As long as it is not an Italian thred (reverse direction), which most likely happens to be found only on Italian frames. I have a 2012 specialized camber. Is this the bottom bracket I need? If your camber is an elite or comp build then yes use the shimano mt800 bottom bracket 73mm threaded. If you have a pro or expert build you will need a PF30 73x46mm bottom bracket. No, your bike uses a press fit bottom bracket, this is a threaded bracket. you'll need a press fit bottom bracket like the attached. Will this work well with a RF Aeffect Cinch crankset (24mm)? BEST ANSWER: Yes, this BB-MT800 is for cranksets with 24mm spindle, so it'll work with the Race Face Cinch. will this fit 2017 jet 9 rdo? BEST ANSWER: I used this on a Non boost Norco THREADED bottom bracket. So I do not know about boost if you have that. I really like it and it solved my creaking. I have it on my 2016 RIP 9 RDO so I'd say yes, I don't see them using different bottom brackets on product lines. I have a 2017 transition patrol the website says 73mm BSA Threaded and has a gpx in there will this fit my bike? BEST ANSWER: It will definitely fit the frame thread and width. You may or may not need 1 of the spacers depending on the chain line you end up with. Yes, this fits 68 or 73mm shell width and english (BSA) threads. will this work with an older pair of XT cranks? roughly 2024 models? Will this fit a 2018 kona honzo al? BEST ANSWER: It depends. Some frames for that model take the pf92 and others take the gxp 73. If your frame uses the gxp then I believe it will fit. But it may not interface properly with your cranks. Best bet is to look up your bike on the kona website and see what they say. No, it is a pressfit frame and will not accept a threaded bb. Does this fit Santa Cruz Bronson v1 (2015)? replacing SMBB70 100mm for Motobacane Fat Tire Bike. Will this work? BEST ANSWER: Thanks. Turns out I have sram crankset S-1400 so I think I need a GXP one. Can this be used on a 83mm bottom bracket shell if the internal sleeve is removed? BEST ANSWER: Certainly it could, although I would just go for a Saint bb or use a 83mm sleeve with the new bb if you have one. Helps to keep water out of your bottom bracket which leads to longer bearing life. Hi!, please could you confirm if this crankset works with SHIMANO XT BB-MT800 BOTTOM BRACKET 73mm? thank you! BEST ANSWER: Purchased 2 sets of bb and crank for a specialized enduro and an intense tracer. flawless excellent performance. highly recommend . Thank you, I just received my set in the mail, thrilled to hear they work well together as a set. Will this fit a 2009 giant? BEST ANSWER: If your frame has a BSA (english)threaded bottom bracket shell then this will thread right in. Does frame have threads? If your frame is press fit(no threads) you would need some adapters to make these work. As long as it has a threaded BB then yes (as long as you don't have a downhill or freeride bike with the wider 83mm BB). Will this fit my 2010 Specialized Enduro? BEST ANSWER: I don't think it will fit. I couldn't find much specs for this bike model, but all I found refers to custom BB and PF30 variants on some models so this threaded BB won't fit. Check the BB shell on your bike, if you don't see threads in it (smooth finish) surely this BB doesn't fit your bike. Have a nice luck! Mostly likely, but use a measure or calipers to determine bottom bracket shell width, and then check the product details to make sure which if any spacers to use. Also, this is an English thread which should be right unless you have some version of press fit. Will this fit my Scott Aspect 950? BEST ANSWER: Looks like the 950 uses a Shimano BB-UN-100, which, appears to be at least 68mm. So, this should fit just fine. However, the BB on your Scott is for tapered cranks. You won't be able to use the existing crank arms and would need to use SLX/XT/XTR crank arms. If you're already aware of that then disregard! Good luck! BEST ANSWER: You will need to confirm that you have a 24mm spindle. If so, then yes, you can use the Shimano BB on Race Face cranks. will this fit a 24mm spindle? BEST ANSWER: Yes... Good luck. just make sure you use the spacers correctly. Also your 2017 JET 9 RDO states its a 73mm "threaded" BB. Do I need specifically sized hollowtech cranksfor this bottom bracket? BEST ANSWER: This is a standard size for Shimano crankset. All current Shimano spindles should fit.

2019-04-22T02:42:14Z

https://www.jensonusa.com/Shimano-XT-BB-MT800-Bottom-Bracket

establishes its true relationship with the theory of the earth, is to know in which strata we find each species, and whether there are any universal laws relative to the zoological subdivisions or to the greater or lesser similarity between those species and today's. The recognized laws in this respect are excellent and very clear. First, it is certain that the oviparous quadrupeds appear much earlier than the viviparous quadrupeds [those which give birth to live offspring], that they are even more abundant, stronger, and more varied in the ancient strata than on the present surface of the earth. The ichthyosaurs, the plesiosaurus, several turtles, and several crocodiles are under the chalk in the lands commonly called the Jura. The monitors [a species of lizard] of Thuringia would be even older, if, as the Werner school maintains, the copper schists which contain them in the middle of so many varieties of fish believed to be fresh water creatures are among the most ancient beds of the secondary formation. The immense saurians [species of reptile] and the huge turtles of Maestricht are in the chalk formation itself. But these are marine animals. This first appearance of bony fossils seems therefore already to announce that there existed dry lands and fresh waters before the formation of the chalk. But neither at this period nor during the time when the chalk was formed, nor even long after that, is there any encrustation of fossilized bones of terrestrial mammals or at least the small number of them which people claim forms only an almost inconsequential exception. We begin to find the bones of marine mammals, that is to say, of lamantins [manatees] and seals, in the rough limestone with shells which covers the chalk in our regions. At that level, however, there is still no bone of a terrestrial mammal. In spite of the most through research, I have not be able to discover any distinct trace of this class of animals [terrestrial mammals] before the formations deposited on top of the rough limestone. To be sure, some lignites and molasse [soft greenish sandstone] contain them, but I doubt very much whether these formations are all, as is believed, earlier than this limestone. The places where they have furnished bones are too limited, too few in number, so that one is obliged to assume some irregularity or some change in their formation. By contrast, as soon as we reach the formations above the rough limestone, the bones of land animals show up in large numbers. Thus, since it is reasonable to believe that the shell fish and fish did not exist at the time when the primordial formations were established, we must also believe that the oviparous quadrupeds began at the same time as the fish, as early as the first ages which produced the secondary formations, but that the terrestrial quadrupeds did not come, at least in considerable numbers, until a long time later, when the rough limestones which contain most of our species of shell creatures, although in species different from ours, had already been laid down. We should note that these rough limestones, the ones which supply Paris with construction materials, are the last layers which indicate a long and tranquil period of the sea above our continents. After them we certainly find again formations full of shells and other products of the sea, but these are loose formations, sands, marls, sandstones, clays, which reveal a more or less disturbed means of transport rather than a calm precipitation. If there are there some small regular rocky layers below or above these transported formations, they generally show indications of having been deposited in fresh water. Thus, almost all the known bones of viviparous quadrupeds are either in formations made from fresh water or in these formations of transported material. Consequently there is every reason to believe that these quadrupeds began to live or at least to leave their remains in the layers which we can excavate only since the penultimate retreat of the sea, during the conditions which preceded its last irruption. But there is also an order in the disposition of these bones among themselves, and this order reveals once more a very remarkable succession among the species. In the deposits we are quite sure of, at first all the genera unknown today, the palaeotheriums, the anoplotheriums, and so on, belong in the most ancient of formations of those under consideration here, those which rest immediately on top of the rough limestone. These are principally the ones which fill the regular layers deposited by fresh waters or the beds of transported material, formed a very long time ago, composed in general of sands and round pebbles. These were perhaps the first alluvial deposits of this ancient world. We also find with them some lost species of known genera, but in small numbers, and some oviparous quadrupeds and fish, all apparently fresh water creatures. The beds which contain them are always covered to a greater or lesser extent by layers of transported material filled with shells and other marine products. The fossil mastodons, the most famous of these unknown species which belong to known genera or to genera very closely related to those that we do know about, like the elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses, are not found with these older genera. We find them only in the formations of transported material, sometimes with sea shells, sometimes with shells from fresh water, but never in the regular rocky layers. Everything found with these species is either unknown, like them, or at least doubtful. Finally, the bones of species which appear the same as ours are buried only in the last alluvial deposits formed on the edges of rivers or on the bottoms of ancient ponds or dried up swamps, or in the depths of peat layers, or in the cracks and caverns of some escarpments, or finally a little distance below ground in those places where they could have been buried by rock slides or by human beings. Their shallow position has also made these bones, the most recent of all, almost always the least well preserved. classification of the species nor that it displays a similarly demonstrable character. There are numerous reasons why this is not the case. Firstly, all my determinations of species were made on the bones themselves or on good diagrams. However, I have not often myself observed all the places where these bones were discovered. Very frequently I was obliged to rely on vague or ambiguous details, provided by people who did not clearly realize themselves what it was necessary to observe. Even more frequently I have not found any of that information at all. Secondly, in this matter it is possible to have infinitely more ambiguity than with the bones themselves. The same ground can appear recent in those places where it is shallow and old in those places where it is covered by the layers which have succeeded it. Some ancient formations could have been transported by partial floods and have covered recent bones. They could have collapsed on them, buried them, and mixed them up with old marine material which they had previously hidden. Some ancient bones could have been washed away by water and later caught again in recent alluvial deposits. Finally, some recent bones could have fallen in fissures or caverns in ancient rocks and there have been enveloped by stalactites or other encrustations. It would be necessary in each case to analyze and take into account all of these circumstances, which could hide the true origin of the fossils. And rarely have the people who collected these bones suspected this need. Thus, the result has been that the true features of their deposit have almost always been neglected or unappreciated. Thirdly, there are some doubtful species which have affected to a greater or lesser extent the reliability of results for such a long time that we will not reach clear distinctions concerning them. Thus the horses and buffalo, which are found with the elephants, do not yet have any specific and particular characteristics. And for many years to come geologists unwilling to adopt my chronological sequence for the bony fossils will be able to derive from these doubtful species an argument, and do so all the more conveniently because they will take it from my book. But while admitting that these time lines are susceptible to some objections from people who will consider some particular case casually, I am no less persuaded that those who take into account the totality of the phenomena will be stopped by these small partial difficulties. They will recognize with me that there has been at least one and very probably two stages in the class of quadrupeds before the one which today lives on the earth's land surface. Here I expect one more objection; indeed, people have already made it to me. changes, carried to this extreme difference by the long succession of years? changes in the structure of forms in organic bodies and who think that through habit over centuries all species could change themselves from one species into another or result from a single one of their species. However, we can reply to them following their own logic that if the species have changed by degrees, we ought to have found traces of these gradual modifications, that we ought to have discovered certain intermediate structures between the palaeotherium and today's species and that up to the present time this has not happened at all. Why have the depths of the earth not preserved monuments of such a curious genealogy, unless it is because the earlier species were as unchanging as our own, or at least because the catastrophe which destroyed them did not leave them time to develop their variations? As for the naturalists who recognize that the varieties keep within certain limits fixed by nature, in order to respond to them, we must examine just how far these limits extend, a curious study, extremely interesting in itself in all its ramifications, a subject which, however, people have concerned themselves with very little up to now. understanding that the word species means the individuals who descend from one another or from common parents and those who resemble them as much as they resemble each other. Thus, we call varieties of a species only those races more or less different which can arise from it by reproduction. Our observations on the differences among the ancestors and the descendants are therefore for us the only reasonable rule, because all others would take us back to hypotheses without proofs. Thus the most superficial characteristics are the most variable. Colour is closely related to sunlight; the thickness of the hair to heat; size to the abundance of nourishment. But in a wild animal even these varieties are strongly limited by what is natural for this animal, which does not willingly stray from the places where it conveniently finds everything necessary to maintain the species and which spreads out to a distant place only when it finds there the same combination of these conditions. Thus, although the wolf and the fox live from the torrid zone right up to the glacial zone, they hardly give evidence, in this immense space, of another variety except for a little more or a less beauty in their fur. I have compared the fox skulls from the north and from Egypt with those from France, and I have found only individual differences. Those wild animals who are hemmed in by more limited spaces vary much less again, above all the carnivores. A more abundant mane is the only difference between the Persian and the Moroccan hyenas. The herbivorous wild animals demonstrate a little more significantly the influence of the climate, because it is linked to the influence of food, which is going to differ in amount and quality. Thus, elephants will be larger in one forest than in another. They will have slightly longer tusks in the places where their food is better for the formation of the ivory material. It will be the same for reindeer and stags in relation to their forests. But let someone take two elephants, as different as can be, and let him see if there is the least difference in the number or the articulations of the bones, in the structure of their teeth, and so on. Moreover, the herbivorous species in the wild appear less widely dispersed than the carnivores, because the type of food and the temperature restrict them. Nature takes care also to prevent the alteration of species which could result from interbreeding, by the mutual aversion which she has created in them. It takes every trick, all the power of man to bring about a union, even with species which resemble each other the most. And when the offspring are fertile, something which happens very rarely, their fertility does not go on beyond a few generations and would probably not take place without the continuation of the care which aroused it. We do not see in our woods individuals intermediate between the hare and the rabbit, between the red deer and the fallow deer, between the marten and the stone marten. But the empire of man alters this order. It develops all the variations to which the type of each species is susceptible and derives from them products which the species, left to themselves, would never have produced. Here the degree of variations is still proportional to the intensity of their cause, which is slavery. The degree of variation is not very high in the semi-domesticated species, like the cat. Softer hair, more vibrant colours, a stronger or weaker build, that is all that this shows. But there is no constant difference between the skeleton of an Angora cat and the skeleton of a feral cat. In the domestic herbivores, which we transport to all sorts of climates and subject to all sorts of diets, to which we apportion different forms of work and food, we do obtain larger variations, but still entirely superficial. Some variation in size, longer or shorter horns, sometimes missing entirely, a stronger or weaker hump of fat on the shoulders--these constitute the differences among bulls. And these differences remain for a long time, even in races transported out of the country where they were formed, when one takes care to prevent crossbreeding. The innumerable varieties of sheep are like this as well, whose differences are a matter chiefly of the wool, because that is what man has given the most attention to. The varieties are a little fewer in the horse, although they are still very noticeable. In general, the forms of the bones vary little; their connections, articulations, and the structure of the large molar teeth never vary. The little development in the tusks of the domestic pig and the fusion of its cloven hooves in a few of its types are the extreme of the differences which we have produced in the domestic herbivores. species some families with six digits. But in all these variations, the relationships of the bones remain the same, and the structure of the teeth never changes to an appreciable degree. At the very most there are some individuals in which an additional false molar develops, whether on one side or on the other (77). There are thus characteristics in the animals which resist all influences, whether natural or human, and nothing indicates that the passage of time has, so far as they are concerned, more effect than the climate and domestication. I know that some naturalists rely a great deal on the thousands of centuries which they add up with the stroke of a pen. But in such matters we can hardly judge what a lengthy time would produce, except by multiplying mentally what a lesser time produces. I have therefore sought to collect the oldest documents on the structures of animals. There are none at all still extant as old or as abundant as those Egypt has provided us. That country offers us, not only the pictures, but the very bodies of the animals embalmed in its catacombs. In ancient Rome I have examined with the greatest care the pictures of animals and birds engraved on the numerous obelisques which have come from Egypt. In their overall shapes, the only thing which could have concerned the artists, all these figures bear a perfect resemblance to the species as we see them today. My knowledgeable colleague, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, impressed with the importance of this research, has taken care to collect in the tombs and temples of Higher and Lower Egypt as many animal mummies as he could. He brought back embalmed cats, ibises, birds of prey, dogs, monkeys, crocodiles, and the head of a bull. We certainly do not observe more differences between these creatures and those which we see today than between human mummies and today's human skeletons. We could find differences between the mummies of the ibis and the ibis as naturalists have described it right up to the present time. However, I have resolved all doubts in a report on this bird, a document which is found in a supplement to this discourse, where I have shown that the ibis is now still as it was at the time of the pharaohs. I am very aware that I refer there only to individual specimens two or three thousand years old. But it is always a matter of going back as far one can. Thus, in the known facts, there is nothing which can in the least support the public opinion that the new genera which I have discovered or established among the fossils, any more than those which other naturalists have established, the palaeotheriums, anoplotheriums, megalonyx, mastodons, pterodactyls, ichtyosaurus, and so on, could have been the ancestors of some animals today, those differentiated from them only by the influence of time or climate. And even if it were true (something I am still far from believing) that elephants, rhinoceroses, elks, and fossil bears do not differ from present animals more than dogs differ among themselves, we would not be able to conclude from that the identity of species, because the dogs types have been subjected to the influence of domesticity which the other animals have neither been subjected to nor could endure. Moreover, when I maintain that the rock strata contain the bones of several genera and the loose strata contain the fossil bones of several species which no longer exist, I do not claim that a new creation must have produced those species existing today. I say only that they did not exist in the places where we see them at present and that they must have come there from somewhere else. Let us suppose, for example, that a huge irruption of the sea covers the continent of New Holland with a mountain of sand or other debris. The sea will bury there the bodies of kangaroos, phascolomes [wombats], dasyures [small carnivorous marsupials], perameles [bandicoots], flying phalangers [species of Australian marsupial], echidna [species ant eater] and ornithorhynchus [duck-billed platypus], and will destroy entirely the species of all these genera, because none of them exists now in other countries. Suppose this same revolution changes into dry land the numerous small straits which separate New Holland from the continent of Asia. It will open the way for elephants, rhinoceroses, buffaloes, horses, camels, tigers, and all the other Asian quadrupeds. These will come to populate the land where they have been previously unknown. Suppose then that a naturalist, having diligently studied all this living nature, decides to search through the soil on which it dwells. He will find there the remains of totally different creatures.

2019-04-19T17:13:25Z

http://www.mprinstitute.org/vaclav/Cuvier.htm

This is what some of them had to say about us. Very easy.....this is such a great time saver! The last visit our friends used the service and told us we had to use it. What a great and easy process. Love the website, super easy!!!! Super excited to work with you again this trip - just so convenient! We have been happily recommending your services to others visiting Cabo! Great selection of food and a super easy site to navigate to find what we need! Great service - what a HUGE time saver on our first day in town!!! We HIGHLY RECOMEND PRICKLY-PEAR! We've used this grocery ordering service for over 5 years now and LOVE the convenience and ease ordering with the online shopping basket! Upon arriving and getting settled into our condo, it's so nice to have our groceries delivered by you or your friendly staff. 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Have always had an excellent experience using Prickly Pear!! Your customer service is off the charts!!!! Hoping the products are equally as good!! We love using Prickly Pear for our grocery delivery! We have been using Prickly Pear Cabo for years and come back due to ease of use and timely deliveries. Very convenient for travelers. The variety of products offered are the brands we typically purchase when we visit Mexico. For the service you provide, the prices and delivery charge are very reasonable. We love that we will be able to begin our vacation as soon as we arrive and not have to travel from our resort to purchase our supplies. Thank you! I have used Prickly Pear on two separate occasions, I recommend them to everyone I know who is planning a visit to Cabo. It was great! Well organized and great selection! Your service is outstanding and I am thrilled that I don't have to waste a half a day shopping ð???ð???ð???ð??? We were very pleased with your customer service when using you for the first time in March/2018 and look forward to the same high standards of quality and service!!! I like the way that you organized the groceries that you offer and also the fact that the list of groceries was of a manageable size - just the right amount of groceries, not too much or too little. Comprehensive list of groceries and personal items. Very user friendly site. It was very easy to find items. Your navigation process was extremely user friendly. I looked at other sites but they were too much work to find what we wanted. Going to the most wonderful place in the world, Cabo, I don't want a hassle trying to order groceries. You are the best! Site is awesome!! Looking forward to the same awesome experience with the order and delivery. We are very excited to try Prickly Pear!! Great resource for those renting a house or condo in Cabo! 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I especially loved the fact that I could create an account and save a draft of my order. I was able to have fellow travelers log in and view my selections in case I missed anything. The search features and the ability to add items right from each "Isle" without clicking on them, getting ported to another screen, selecting a quantity and then having to navigate back. Lastly, I love the option to pay cash on delivery. Extremely easy to use. Very good selection of items. So much easier then getting off the plane and driving to the store upon arrival. Quick and easy to use for non-Spanish speaking Americans that own/vacation in Cabo! Always excellent selection, decent prices, reliable and quick delivery and the best part....I dont have to go shopping! The web site is getting better every year! Thank you for your prompt delivery! Thank you for such timely responses, very helpful! Super user friendly!!! Fairly priced items and delivery fee. We're looking forward to using this service in the future!!! Very easy to use and we were surprised at the diversity of products able to be purchased. SO excited that you are carrying the Retin-A products now and at such a great price! Thank you! I have used Prickly Pear since 2015, it is such a great start to your vacation! Every year they are prompt on their arrival - it makes the first day truly the start of your vacation instead of worrying about grocery shopping after check in. There's more and more to pick from and it's getting easier to use every time! This site was much easier and more user friendly then the last service we used. Super easy process and completely reasonable prices. Great to not have to go to the store on our own! Great delivery service! Very pleased with their service, have been using them for years. Beats taking a cab to Walmart! Have been using Prickly Pear for several years and always get great products and service. Really couldn't have been easier! Easy to Navigate through the website, easy to sign up, Easy to pick your groceries and confirm that is what you want. All in all a very easy choice for having groceries delivered when you arrive at your destination. Thanks, Prickly Pear. Excellent service - great company! I always use them when I come to Cabo! Always love doing business with you guys. Makes my trip so easy and pleasurable not to have to spend vacation food shopping. I have used this company in the past and they are fantastic! The website is very easy to use and if there is something you want that isn't on the list, they do their best to find it. They are on time and take extra care with your delivery. I highly recommend them for any food, drink or alcohol! Everything was ordered with ease; any items that were not available, we just added them to the comment section at check out. I would highly recommend this service so you can start your vacation as soon as you check in. Great and easy shopping experience. This is the company to use for your Cabo delivery, very pleased with the communication and professional service. My second time using Prickly Pear Cabo Delivery. Thanks again for the great service!!! The only way to go on vacation. Food is there when you get there. no running around looking for the groceries one less thing to worry about. LOVE your service!!! Would not shop myself again! I love that you can "refresh" your past orders! You guys are great!!! Thank you very much. Your website is very easy to use. Did a great job, sent confirmation of our order ahead of time (other places don't do this). Our order was a bit delayed so they gave us a few freebies to make up. We were able to text them a few last minute items and they accommodated us. Very pleased & would use them again! So nice to have food in our room when we arrived tired & hungry! Easy to navigate and well organized. Found everything we were looking for and more! The website is great. I have passed the information on to the 24 guests that are traveling with me to place various orders for our stay. GREAT RESOURCE and I am looking forward to your company helping complete my vacation experience!!!! What a fantastic service! Thank you! Looking forward to our trip. Thank you for providing this valuable service. Site was easy to navigate and had everything we needed! The new website is very easy to use. We made orders last year and now we will ALWAYS order to stock the condo! It is so much easier than taking a half of a day to go shopping ourselves. Prices are reasonable and delivery charge is less than Instacart back home. I love this service! Nice selection of products, website is very well organized! Yes, your website is much easier to use than other delivery services in Cabo - great job!!! Thank you for listing your website and the products in English! :-) Looking forward to enjoying Cabo and not having to spend time grocery shopping and paying for a taxi. Traveling from Missouri and entertaining friends... donâ??t want to go to store as we want to enjoy every minute of our Cabo time! P.P. has always exceeded our expectations and makes grocery shopping so easy! Very trustworthy! Super easy site to order from and look forward to my delivery next week! Everything was well laid out and easy to navigate. Looking forward to our first delivery so we can leave positive feedback. So far I really like the idea of not having to go to the store after I travel. It was so easy to shop on line. The layout for the website seems more user friendly than others. The process is very simple. I used this service last year and had my order within 3 to 4 hours. Ordering our groceries and liquor through Prickly Pear made planning for our trip to Cabo a breeze! The website was super easy to use and they have any and everything you could possibly need. We are looking forward to using them again in the future! Great website. Able to order quickly and easily and SO much nicer than having to rush to the store upon arrival. Looking forward to our delivery. I heard about this company and was very excited that I didnâ??t have to go shopping! Prices are very reasonable with great options! The best website ever!!! So easy to use. Love this! We love all inclusives but they donâ??t have a couple of brands we really like. This makes our vacation perfect! Very efficient and easy to use - great idea for vacationers !!! This site was so easy to use and I am so excited to use these services. I contacted the company a few weeks ago with a few questions and they responded right away. As long as we receive our groceries when we get to Cabo i will 100% use them again! Good selection of all items. Shopping aisle made the entire ordering process easy to use. I've used your service for the past 5 visits to Cabo. Having your delivery people bring it directly to the room especially with the beer being cold is a real advantage. I recommend you to everybody going to Cabo. Convenient way to start a family reunion having snacks and goodies waiting for you upon your late afternoon arrival! I found it very helpful that I could save my cart items and return at a later time to purchase. Your website was so easy to work through! The service you provide makes the start of our vacation a relaxing one....thank you!!! Thank you so much! We definitely did not want to waste time grocery shopping. I love this service. Wouldn't come to Cabo without your help! Have used Prickly Pear in the past and highly recommend the service. Wish they had a branch in our home town! great service and always use them! Thanks Michelle! ð??? I appreciate your effort to find products meeting special needs at reasonable prices. Thatâ??s why Iâ??m a repeat customer since 2014. Love love love your service and tell everyone about you! It's so great to NOT have to go grocery shopping, and be able to relax sooner! Never stop at Walmart again! This is a great service!! Nice selection of groceries, very easy to navigate. Smooth transaction - we are repeat Prickly Pear customers and we appreciate the excellent customer service!! We have been using Prickly Pear for years and will continue to do so. The service is amazing! I have used your company for many years and have been very pleased with the selection of food and on time delivery. What a great service! Super user friendly. Great service and very polite to work with. I highly recommend their services! Prickly Pear is awesome. 5th time using their service and they get it right every time! Thanks! We have used your service for years. All of the groceries always arrive in a timely manner. We really appreciate the great job you do. Your website is user friendly. The shopping categories helped to locate what we needed.We have used your delivery service three times in the past and will continue to do so. Very easy to use! Loved the way things were sorted and how on point the search feature was. Perfect way to start a vacation with groceries delivered. Service was excellent last time I used it. Website is great! Much better than the older site, where I had difficulty navigating. This one is very easy to use. We love Prickly Pear. Who wants to spend a whole day of their vacation shopping? Not me!! I'd rather be at the pool. Ease of use was amazing! I am so happy to be able to get to our condo and have the groceries delivered for the 2 weeks. If I run out of anything, I will be sure to call and have them bring more! Couldn't be happier! Excellent website. Very user friendly. Your service has worked well for us and makes the first days more relaxing. Thanks. Great idea. Can't wait for the delivery to our room. Thank you. Great to have this service available! It is nice to know that our groceries will be delivered to the resort and we don't need to schedule time to take a taxi and go shopping. I like your new web site. Very easy to use! Love the service and the new website!!! Love Prickly Pear Cabo - awesome service!! Love this service. We use Prickly Pear every year! Love this grocery delivery service!! We have used Prickly Pear for years and have always been very satisfied. Love the pre-stock service! Great service and quality products. We have used this service the last 4 years we have been to Cabo and have always had great service. Nice to not have to waste part of our vacation grocery shopping! You always work with us and all of our friends! Thank you! Your website is much better than it used to be. We love ordering from you and appreciate how you go out of your way to always find us whatever we need. Awesome to be able to go off last years order!!! We do not have great needs but appreciate the convenience of having a few things delivered. We have been using Prickly Pear and it's predecessor "Where in Cabos" for a number of years. Great service. Easy to use. Have used Prickly Pear for several years . Excellent service- Highly recommend to Cabo travelers. We looked at a few different services and you had the best website by far! So easy to use and when I had a question, someone responded to my email within minutes! I received a few referrals but this site was by far the easiest to navigate. Plus had everything I needed. Prickly Pear has always gone above and beyond for food delivery!!! Awesome to work with!!!!! Thank you Sylvia, easy to order from your website. This service is exceptional. It saves us so much time not having to go into Cabo San Lucas and navigating the crowded Walmart. Customer service is great, service is SUPER easy and convenient! One of the easiest websites I have ever used!!! I have been using you guys for a long time now. I almost opted to stop at the store on the way in as my friend is picking me up but Im simply too lazy and you guys are so convenient! Always recommend you on Trip advisor! See ya soon! You continue to provide the best kind of service to all of us that love Cabo and come back year after year! Thank you. Fantastic site!!...and had Costco brands which is big plus for our clan!! Love you & your service! Makes coming to Cabo a breeze upon arrival! The new website is wonderful! I love all the additional selections and the ease of use on the website. You make our vacation so much easier. I loved the fun of grocery shopping in Cabo however you have spoiled us and we really prefer the ability to start our vacation as soon as our feet hit the ground! Your selection is great, delivery has always been on time, and we appreciate the fact that you keep an eye on arrival times. Thank you Prickly Pear! This is a WONDERFUL service! Thank you!! So easy to use and great food options. Thank you for your efforts to please. The emails were very helpful. Last time we used your service it was excellent! Michelle, you answered all my questions quickly. Looking forward to our travel to Cabo. We've traveled here many times, but this is the first time we've used your great service. Has great reviews on Tripadvisor, looking forward to arriving and not having to run to the store. I received a very quick response to my email and found them to be very accommodating to my request. This is a wonderful service. We are so grateful they survived the hurricane last year and did so much to help the Cabo community recover. Thank you! Love the convenience of Prickly Pear and have always been pleased with the reliable service - deliveries have always been on time and complete -no hassles with shopping for groceries - what a great way to start your vacation!

2019-04-23T12:49:45Z

https://www.pricklypearcabo.com/testimonials

1994-2009 Kawasaki Ninja 500 500R EX500 Rear Brake Pads - Fitment 1994-2009 kawasaki ninja 500 ex500 solid rotor. Fitment 1994-2009 kawasaki ninja 500 ex500 solid rotor. Decent low cost replacement black led turn signals integrated mirrors (left & right sides)glass mirror measures 3 1/3″ x 5 1/2″, stem length 4″. Fitmentas the writen,please make sure fits your motor before place an order. These mirrors are not custom made for any bikes, no instruction included please check mounting measurement and position to ensure they will fit your bike. Kawasaki Ninja 500-1000cc Motorcycle Covers W/lock & Cable - Constructed of water repellant yet breatheble “weatherguard” polyester. Our best selling model, we have sold tens of thousands of these around the globe and they really get the job done. The perfect travel cover whether you want to cover your bike at work or a cross country trip. Reinforced poly grommets are at center and at front wheel area for security and a snug fit and will accept a cable lock. A chamois panel is stitched in where cover would touch windscreen and fuel tank areas to prevent scratches. Lower panel is heat resistant “thermoguard”. Clamshell vents prevent condensation and lofting. A high quality, midweight and highly water resistant cover. We are riders too and beleive this is the best lightweight cover on the market 2 year warranty. This cover folds small and light yet gives big time protection against the elements. Double top stitched for durability. 1987-2009 Kawasaki Ninja 500 500R EX500 Heavy Duty Chain – Orange - Mirror material acrylic (provides clear view and not easy to crack or break). Comes with mounting bolts/nuts for easy installation. High quality 6061 billet aluminum flaming wedge style mirror heads and flame stems (left & right sides). Fitment kawasaki ninja ex500 500r 1987-2009. Measurement ,width, from the mounting bolt to the outer tip of the mirror face is 85″ ,height, 55″ ,mirror face, 5″ x 2″ ,material 6061 billet aluminum ,color the same like pictures show,condition 100% brand new ,quantity 1 pair ,installation note peel off the protective skin on the acrylic glass before use. i5 New Front Brake Lever for Kawasaki Ninja 500 600 ZX6 ZX7 ZX9 ZX11 ZRX 1100 - High quality aluminum with black finish. Brand new front brake lever. To fit kawasaki ninja 500 1992-2009, zx600d/zx600e/zx6/zzr600 1990-2004, zx6r 1998-1999, zx750/zx7/zx7r 1989-2003, zx9/zx9r 1994-1999, concours 1992-2006, zrx1100 1999-2000, zx11 1990-2001. i5 Black Front Brake & Clutch Levers for Kawasaki Ninja 500 500R 650 ZX6 ZX6R ZZR600 ZX9 ZX9R - High quality aluminum levers with black finish. To fit kawasaki ninja 500 1992-2009, zx6/zx600d 1990-1993, zx6/zx600e 1994-2002, zzr600 2003-2004, zx6r 1995-1999, ninja 650 2006-2008, zx9r 1998-1999. During checkout your quantity will show as 1, this represents one pair. Brand new front brake and clutch levers. 100/90-16 (54H) Bridgestone Battlax BT45 H-Rated Front Motorcycle Tire for Kawasaki Ninja 500 EX500 1987-1993 - Dual tread compound (dtc) motorcycle tire offering long lasting center compound and softer side compound. Larger crown radius for greater stability and longer motorcycle tire life. Bridgestone battlax bt45 h-rated bias ply motorcycle tire, designed to give performance and mileage on today’s sport-touring bikes. Bridgestone battlax bt45 v-rated bias ply motorcycle tire, designed to give performance and mileage on sport bikes. Fuel Tank Switch Valve Petcock for Kawasaki Ninja 500 Ex500 500r New - Center to center mounting hole 34mm. Kawasaki ninja500 fuel switch valve. Kawasaki ninja500 petcock. Package including 1 petcock switch + 2 filter screen + 2 ring seal. Starter Relay Solenoid Switch Magnetic For KAWASAKI NINJA 500 EX500D EX 500 D 1994-2000 /B - 1997 kawasaki street bike ninja 500 ex500d sportbike. 1996 kawasaki street bike ninja 500 ex500d sportbike. 1994 kawasaki street bike ninja 500 ex500d sportbike. 2000 kawasaki street bike ninja 500r ex500d sportbike. Replacement solenoid relay for honda oem 27010-1213. Aftermarket starter solenoids relay for. 1998 kawasaki street bike ninja 500r ex500d sportbike. 1999 kawasaki street bike ninja 500r ex500d sportbike. 1995 kawasaki street bike ninja 500 ex500d sportbike. 2 PCS Short Stalk mini LED Turn Signals Lights Blinkers for 1989 Kawasaki Ninja 500 EX500A - Amber led quantity12sizeplease see picture. Need connect your flasher. Material metal plastic. Input12v power1w. Easy install. Led shrot stalk turn signals lights blinkers indicators for 1989 kawasaki ninja 500 ex500a. 100% brand new. FXCNC Racing Motorcycle CNC 3 Holes Gas Fuel Tank Oil Cap Cover Fit For KAWASAKI NINJA 500 ZX-6 / ZX-6E ZRX-1100 ZRX-1200 ZXR-400 NINJA 250R / 250 / EX250 - Fitment kawasaki ninja 250r/250/ex250 88-07,zxr-250/zx-7/zx-7rr all years(production description have more model and years),please check if this product match your motorcycle before buying. Easy installation multi-purpose compatibility sealed and durable. 100% cnc aluminum 6061, t9 and silver anodization. Outer disk is made of alloy,shiny black,durable and sturdyinside disk made by abs,heat resistance,stable,excellent impact resistance. Rubber gasket design, effectively prevent the gasoline to play. 1987-1993 Kawasaki Ninja 500 EX500 Speedometer Cable - Fitment 1987-1993 kawasaki ninja 500 ex500. Match oem exactly for a perfect fit. Keep your motorcycle working smoothly with a new cable. High quality cable meets or exceeds oem specifications. Volar motorsport cable. Kawasaki Ninja 500 ZX6/ZX600D ZX600E ZX6R ZX9 ZX9R ZZR600 Brake & Clutch LEVERS - Oem replacement. High tensile strength aluminum construction. Easy to install,grease the pivot-bolt when installing levers,do not over-tighten the pivot-bolt. Package content1 pair ( barke & clutch levers ). Colorcarbon look. Chrome motorcycle mirrors with Fire Flame Bar Fit Honda CBR600 600RR 900RR 929RR 954RR 1000RR RC51 Kawasaki Ninja 500 ZZR600 ZX6R/636/ZX6RR ZX750/ZX7/ZX7R ZX9/ZX9R by SMT - Fit suzuki katana 600 1998-2007, gsxr600 1992-2005, katana 750 1998-2007, gsxr750 1991-2005, gsxr1000 2001-2004, gsxr1100 1993-1998, hayabusa 1999-2012. 5cm quanity1 pair(2 pcs ) fitment fit honda cbr600 f1/f2/f3 1987-1998, cbr600 f4/f4i 1999-2006, 600rr 2003-2012, 900rr 1998-1999, 929rr 2000-2001, 954rr 2002-2003, 1000rr 2004-2012, rc51 2000-2006. Fit yamaha yzf r6 2006-2008 (not r6s), yzf r1 2002-2008. Oem style racing mirrors (left & right sides) color the same like pictures show condition brand new material abs shell and aluminum arm mirror size approx. 11cm5. Fit kawasaki ninja 500 1994-2010, zzr600 2005-2008, zx6r/636/zx6rr 1998-2004 (not 2005+), zx750/zx7/zx7r 1993-2002, zx9/zx9r 1998-2003. i5 Chrome Front Brake & Clutch Levers for Kawasaki Ninja 500 500R 650 ZX6 ZX6R ZZR600 ZX9 ZX9R - During checkout your quantity will show as 1, this represents one pair. To fit kawasaki ninja 500 1992-2009, zx6/zx600d 1990-1993, zx6/zx600e 1994-2002, zzr600 2003-2004, zx6r 1995-1999, ninja 650 2006-2008, zx9r 1998-1999. High quality aluminum levers with chrome finish. Brand new chrome front brake and clutch levers. Kawasaki Ninja 500 ZX6/ZX600D ZX600E ZX6R ZX9 ZX9R ZZR600 Brake & Clutch LEVERS - Oem replacement. High tensile strength aluminum construction. Package content1 pair ( barke & clutch levers ). Colorblue. Easy to install,grease the pivot-bolt when installing levers,do not over-tighten the pivot-bolt. Starter Magnetic switch For KAWASAKI NINJA 500 EX500D EX 500 D 1994 1995 1996 2006 /B - Aftermarket starter solenoids relay for. 1996 kawasaki street bike ninja 500 ex500d. 1994 kawasaki street bike ninja 500 ex500d 1995 kawasaki street bike ninja 500 ex500d. Replacement solenoid relay for honda oem 27010-1213. CALTRIC EXHAUST PIPE HOLDER GASKET Fits KAWASAKI NINJA 500 EX500D 1994-2009 - This gaskets on the end of the exhaust pipe. Caltric brand product. Motorcycle New Turn Signal Mirror for Kawasaki Ninja 500 250R Triumph Daytona Trophy Ducati new - Fitmentyamaha fzr600/600r/750/1000 1989-1999 yzf600/600r750/1000r 1995-2009 yzf r6 1999-2012. Adjustable mirror angle (up & down, left & right, forward & backward). Extremely bright led turn signals 100,000 hours long lasting. Peel off the protective skin on the acrylic glass before usecomes with necessary hardware for easy installation,quantity 1 pair,instructions not included,condition brand new, never used,mirror material acrylic (provides clear view and not easy to crack or break),shell material high impact abs shell,turn signals led amber color. Motorcycle high quality led turn signals integrated mirrors (left & right sides) , custom make mirrors new. K & L Fork & Dust Seal Kit for Kawasaki Ninja 500 EX500 1997-2009 - K & l fork seals are of the highest quality available and are the exact replacement for most applications listed. K & L Carburetor Parts Kit for Kawasaki Ninja 500 EX500 1987-2005 - Never use carb cleaner on carburetor rubber components, it can cause swelling and possible damage. Some kits do not come with jets please read all notes and special notes before purchase. CALTRIC CLUTCH COVER GASKET FITS KAWASAKI NINJA 500 EX500 EX 500 1987-1996 - Caltric brand product. Kawasaki ninja500 fuel switch valve. Center to center mounting hole 34mm. Package including 1 petcock switch + 2 filter screen + 2 ring seal. i5 Carbon Front Brake & Clutch Levers for Kawasaki Ninja 500 500R 650 ZX6 ZX6R ZZR600 ZX9 ZX9R - Brand new front brake and clutch levers. During checkout your quantity will show as 1, this represents one pair. To fit kawasaki ninja 500 1992-2009, zx6/zx600d 1990-1993, zx6/zx600e 1994-2002, zzr600 2003-2004, zx6r 1995-1999, ninja 650 2006-2008, zx9r 1998-1999. High quality aluminum levers with carbon finish. Pro X Front Brake Master Cylinder Rebuild Kit for Kawasaki Ninja 500 EX500 1994-2009 - Prox has a complete line of brake master cylinder rebuild kits. Each kits contains all the necessary components to rebuild the brake master cylinder. The kits are assembled with high quality components all designed and manufactured to meet or exceed the oem parts. FXCNC Racing Motorcycle Gas Tank Cover Fuel Cover Cap Fit For Kawasaki NINJA 500 / EX500 / 500R 1987 – 2001, ZX-6R 1995 – 1999, ZX-7 / ZX-7RR All Years - No installation instruction if you need any help, please inquiry for the professional mechanic. Material t6061-t6 aluminum, high quality aluminum material+abs. Multicolor can choose, just reference to the picture, and then send email to us for the color you want. Fit for kawasaki ninja 500 / ex500 / 500r 1987, 2001,zx-6r 1995, 1999,zx-7 / zx-7rr all years, more fitable model please read on the product description if not those model and not during that year, please don’t buy this and feel free to contact us. Package 1 piece gas cap. Kawasaki Ninja 500 ZX6/ZX600D ZX600E ZX6R ZX9 ZX9R ZZR600 Brake & Clutch LEVERS - High tensile strength aluminum construction. Package content1 pair ( barke & clutch levers ). Easy to install,grease the pivot-bolt when installing levers,do not over-tighten the pivot-bolt. Oem replacement. Colorsilver. Red Motorcycle Windscreen Windshield Well-Nuts Washers Fairing Mounting Bolts Kit for 1994 Kawasaki Ninja 500 EX500D - To fit for 1994 kawasaki ninja 500 ex500d. 8-m5 stainless steel and 8 pcs red aluminum nut caps. 8-white nylon washers. 8pcs m5-rubber well nuts. Bulk packed. XKH Group Motorcycle Alloy Teardrop Flame Custom Mirror for Kawasaki Ninja 500 All Year Models Chrome new - Adjustable mirror angle (up & down, left & right). Mirror (glass) material acrylic (provides clear view and not easy to crack or break). Fitmenthonda cbr 600 1999-2007 honda cbr 600rr 2003-2007 honda cbr 900rr 1998-1999. Motorcycle high quality 6061 billet aluminum flaming wedge style mirror heads and flame stems (left & right sides) new. Comes with mounting bolts/nuts for easy installationmeasurement ,width, from the mounting bolt to the outer tip of the mirror face is 85″ ,height, 55″ ,mirror face, 5″ x 2″ ,material 6061 billet aluminum ,color the same like pictures show,condition 100% brand new ,quantity 1 pair ,installation note peel off the protective skin on the acrylic glass before use. Kawasaki Ninja 500 ZX6/ZX600D ZX600E ZX6R ZX9 ZX9R ZZR600 Brake & Clutch LEVERS - Package content1 pair ( barke & clutch levers ). Oem replacement. Easy to install,grease the pivot-bolt when installing levers,do not over-tighten the pivot-bolt. High tensile strength aluminum construction. Colorred. TARAZON Front Brake Rotor Disc for Kawasaki Ninja 500 R 1994-2009 EX500 S GPZ500 S ER-5 - Fitment detail model and year please see the product description. Wave shape brake disc rotor light wieght than oem, and good heat dissipation. Including 1 piece brake rotor, we also have matched front/rear rotor. High quality stainless steelensure durable braking power. 1 business day handling time ,5-7 working days fast delivery for this item. HURI Fuel Gas Petcock Valve Switch Pump for Kawasaki Ninja 250R 900R 500 500R EX250F ZX900A EX500 Yamaha XJ550 XJ650 XJ750R Suzuki GSF600 GSF1200 LS650 Savage 650 - Package include 1pc petcock + 1pc huri pocket tape. Noteyou could apply for a full refund if you didn’t receive huri branded pocket tape. Fit yamaha virago 750 xv750 xj550 xj650 xj750r rz350 suzuki dr650se drz400sm drz400s drz400e drz400 gsf600 gsf1200 lt80 lt 80 ls650 savage 650. Fit kawasaki ninja 250r 900r 500 500r ex250f zx900a ex500 zephyr 750 zr750 zrx1200 vn800 vulcan 800 zx1100 gpz1100. Replacement parts,non original. One Pair Black Sport Bike Mirrors with long stem for 1993 Kawasaki Ninja 500 EX500A - Sold in pairseasy install100% brand newhardware inclusive. Mirror body and stem colorblackmirror glass colorclear. Mirror size(approx)6-1/4 x 3-1/4 inchesstem length7-1/2 inches. Material abs plastic mirror house,metal stemmirrorreal glass. Long stem black sport bike mirrors for 1993 kawasaki ninja 500 ex500a. Motorcycle Mini Racing Mirror Kawasaki Ninja 500 Zzr600 636 Zx6Rr Zx750 Zx7R Zx9R Black by SMT-MOTO - Fit yamaha yzf r6 2006-2008 (not r6s), yzf r1 2002-2008. Fit kawasaki ninja 500 1994-2010, zzr600 2005-2008, zx6r/636/zx6rr 1998-2004 (not 2005+), zx750/zx7/zx7r 1993-2002, zx9/zx9r 1998-2003. Fit suzuki katana 600 1998-2007, gsxr600 1992-2005, katana 750 1998-2007, gsxr750 1991-2005, gsxr1000 2001-2004, gsxr1100 1993-1998, hayabusa 1999-2012. Fitment fit honda cbr600 f1/f2/f3 1987-1998, cbr600 f4/f4i 1999-2006, 600rr 2003-2012, 900rr 1998-1999, 929rr 2000-2001, 954rr 2002-2003, 1000rr 2004-2012, rc51 2000-2006. Coffman’s Shorty Exhausts for Kawasaki Ninja 500-EX500 (1987-09) Sportbike with Red Tips - 2008-2013 attn california residents due to california emission regulations, this product can be used for “closed course competition only” within california. If purchased, buyer agrees to these terms. Designed for stock header use only. This twin set of custom exhausts are manufactured from 304 stainless steel tubing that is cnc machined, mandrel bent and tig welded to perfection. They then include a billit aluminum tip that is available in an array of colors, sound suppressor and an internal 2 way core system which allows you to adjust to suit your needs. The case is high temp powdercoated in a black satin finish. Alloy Teardrop Flame Custom Mirror Kawasaki Ninja 500 All Year Models Chrome - High quality 6061 billet aluminum flaming wedge style mirror heads and flame stems (left & right sides). Measurement ,width, from the mounting bolt to the outer tip of the mirror face is 85″ ,height, 55″ ,mirror face, 5″ x 2″ ,material 6061 billet aluminum ,color the same like pictures show,condition 100% brand new ,quantity 1 pair ,installation note peel off the protective skin on the acrylic glass before use. Adjustable mirror angle (up & down, left & right). Mirror material acrylic (provides clear view and not easy to crack or break). Comes with mounting bolts/nuts for easy installation. Alpha Rider Universial 10x Windshield Bolts 5MM Windscreen Mounting Screws for kawasaki Ninja 500 1987-1993 EX500A | Ninja 500 1994-1996 EX500D | Ninja 500R 1997-2009 EX500D Black - Fitments for kawasaki ninja 500 1987-1993 ex500a | ninja 500 1994-1996 ex500d | ninja 500r 1997-2009 ex500d. Material anodized aluminum | bolt size 5mm x 16mm. Pacakge a set of 10 bolts with wellnuts and washers | cnc anodized aluminum bolts x 10 | rubber wellnuts x 10 | plastic washers x 10 | hex key wrench x 1. Universal fit for motorcycle using m5 5mm bolts. Pls make sure the informations (year model submodel) of your motorcycle before you take order pls feel free to contact us if you have any other questions thx. 1987-2009 Kawasaki Ninja 500 500R EX500 Heavy Duty Chain – Black - Please view installation instructions. Volar motorsport heavy duty chain. Color black important professional installation is suggested. Tensile strength 7,400 lbs. Fitment kawasaki ninja ex500 500r 1987-2009. Quality engineered for strength and durability. Material alloy steel links 104 clip masterlink is included. i5 New Black Clutch Lever for Kawasaki Ninja 500 500R ZX6 ZX6R ZX ZZR 600 ZX9 - Brand new clutch lever. High quality aluminum with black finish. To fit kawasaki ninja 500 1992-2009, zx6/zx600d1990-1993, zx6/zx600e 1994-2002, zzr600 2003-2004, zx6r 1995-1999, zx9r 1998-1999 (not 2000+). This lever uses your existing adjuster mechanism, this lever will not fit if you do not currently have a chrome adjustment dial on your clutch lever. 110/70H-17 (54H) Bridgestone Battlax BT45 H-Rated Front Motorcycle Tire for Kawasaki Ninja 500 EX500 1994-2009 - Larger crown radius for greater stability and longer motorcycle tire life. Bridgestone battlax bt45 v-rated bias ply motorcycle tire, designed to give performance and mileage on sport bikes. Bridgestone battlax bt45 h-rated bias ply motorcycle tire, designed to give performance and mileage on today’s sport-touring bikes. Dual tread compound (dtc) motorcycle tire offering long lasting center compound and softer side compound. Black Mirror Kawasaki Ninja 500 Zx6R Zx7R Zx9R Zx 10R 12R 14R 636 Ducati Monster - Comes necessary hardwares for easy installation,material high impact abs shell,quantity 1 pair (left & right sides),lens measures 32″ x 44″,overall length 9″,bolt space can be adjusted from 118″ (30mm) to 236″ (60mm),easy installation no install instructions . Mirror (glass) material acrylic (provides clear view and not easy to crack or break). Adjustable mounting position. Adjustable mirror angle (up & down, left & right, forward & backward). 100% brand new mirrors ,repalcement custom make mirror. Motorcycle Black Mirror Kawasaki Ninja 500 Zx6R Zx7R Zx9R Zx 10R 12R 14R 636 Ducati Monster - Motorcycle 100% brand new mirrors ,repalcement custom make mirror. Adjustable mounting position. Adjustable mirror angle (up & down, left & right, forward & backward). Comes necessary hardwares for easy installation,material high impact abs shell,quantity 1 pair (left & right sides),lens measures 32″ x 44″,overall length 9″,bolt space can be adjusted from 118″ (30mm) to 236″ (60mm),easy installation no install instructions . Mirror (glass) material acrylic (provides clear view and not easy to crack or break). 1987-2009 Kawasaki Ninja 500 500R EX500 Heavy Duty Chain – Green - 1 business day handling time ,5-7 working days fast delivery for this item. Fitment 1990-2015 kawasaki ninja ex500. Fitment kawasaki ninja ex500 500r 1987-2009. Fitment detail model and year please see the product description. Including 1 piece brake rotor, we also have matched front/rear rotor. Kawasaki Ninja 500 ZX6 ZX600D ZX600E ZZR600 ZX6R ZX7 ZX750 ZX7R Brake Lever - High tensile strength aluminum construction. Easy to install,grease the pivot-bolt when installing levers,do not over-tighten the pivot-bolt. Package content1 pc. Oem replacement. Color black. Rzmmotor Motorcycle CNC Aluminum Gas Fuel Tank Oil Cap Cover Fit For Kawasaki NINJA 500 EX500 500R 1987-2001 ZX-6R 1995 – 1999 ZX-7 ZX-7RR All Years Orange - 100% cnc aluminum 6061, t10 and silver anodization. Outer disk is made of alloy,shiny black,durable and sturdyinside disk made by abs,heat resistance,stable,excellent impact resistance. Please check if this product match your motorcycle before buying. Rubber gasket design, effectively prevent the gasoline to play. Easy installation multi-purpose compatibility sealed and durable. XYZCTEM Turn Signal LED Integrated Sports Racing Mirrors for Kawasaki Ninja 500 ZX6 ZX6R Ex,Honda CBR 600 1000 RR Hurricane ,Yamaha YZF R1 R6 R6S Fazer FZR 600,Suzuki GSXR 600 750 1000 Bandit And more - Adjustable mounting position please check the measurements below mirror (glass) material acrylic (provides clear view and not easy to crack or break)comes necessary hardwares for easy installation. Material high impact abs shell glass mirror with built-in led turn signals, light color is amber color black quantity 1 pair . Decent low cost replacement black led turn signals integrated mirrors (left & right sides)glass mirror measures 3 1/3″ x 5 1/2″, stem length 4″. These mirrors are not custom made for any bikes, no instruction included please check mounting measurement and position to ensure they will fit your bike. Fitmentas the writen,please make sure fits your motor before place an order . XKH Group Motorcycle Turn Signal Mirror fit for Kawasaki Ninja 500 ZX7R ZX6R ER6F 636 Z750 CHROME New NEW - Extremely bright led turn signals 100,000 hours long lasting. Fitmenthonda cbr600 f1/f2/f3/f4/f4i cbr600rr 1987-2010 cbr900/929/954 cbr900rr 1993-2004. Adjustable mirror angle (up & down, left & right, forward & backward). Motorcycle high quality led turn signals integrated mirrors (left & right sides) repalcement custom mirror new. Peel off the protective skin on the acrylic glass before usecomes with necessary hardware for easy installation,quantity 1 pair,instructions not included,condition brand new, never used,mirror material acrylic (provides clear view and not easy to crack or break),shell material high impact abs shell,color matte black,turn signals led amber color. Turn Signal Mirror fit for Kawasaki Ninja 500 ZX7R ZX6R ER6F 636 Z750 CHROME New - Extremely bright led turn signals 100,000 hours long lasting. Peel off the protective skin on the acrylic glass before use. High quality led turn signals integrated mirrors (left & right sides) repalcement custom mirror. Adjustable mirror angle (up & down, left & right, forward & backward). Comes with necessary hardware for easy installation,quantity 1 pair,instructions not included,condition brand new, never used,mirror material acrylic (provides clear view and not easy to crack or break),shell material high impact abs shell,color matte black,turn signals led amber color,,,,,. 1987-2009 Kawasaki Ninja 500 500R EX500 Heavy Duty Chain – Red - Fitment detail model and year please see the product description. Fitment kawasaki ninja ex500 500r 1987-2009. Including 1 piece brake rotor, we also have matched front/rear rotor. 1 business day handling time ,5-7 working days fast delivery for this item. Fitment 1990-2015 kawasaki ninja ex500.

2019-04-21T01:05:04Z

https://www.motorcyclesgoods.com/48-most-wanted-kawasaki-ninja-500s/

One week ago, just around this time*, I became a Mom. That moment. That moment of meeting this little, beautiful, sweet person - it will forever turn me into a sentimental mess. Those 9 months of guessing if he was a boy or girl, wondering what he would look like, just trying to imagine who this sweet child was all came together in the most powerful moment I have ever experienced. The only word I can use is "perfect". The moment I met my son was simply perfect. The birth of our little boy has changed me in ways I have only just begun to understand. My heart has grown in a way I didn't even know was possible. But I do know that there is a now a place that belongs only to this baby boy. And it will be his forever. * I attempted to write this post last night - when he was officially one week old - but instead I opted to sit with Mr. Fix-It, holding our baby, and soaking it all in. And crying my eyes out. Our little guy arrived on Monday, October 22 at 8:30pm. Labor and delivery were wonderfully smooth and easy. We have been loving on this sweetie since he arrived. Follow along on instagram or twitter (@thefixits) for updates and lots of pics and I'll be back here soon to post more. It's official - we will be meeting this little one SOON! Any final guesses? All of a sudden I'm convinced this baby is a boy. It will certainly be a surprise! Things may be quiet around here for a couple of days, but we're looking forward to sharing some exciting baby news. Thanks for all of your love and support! My first week of maternity leave wound up being much more exciting than I bargained for! On Monday, I enjoyed myself - lounging around, preparing a few things for baby, but generally laying low. Tuesday morning I had my weekly non-stress test and OB appointment. That's when things got interesting. During the non-stress test I had two contractions. I noticed some activity on the monitor, but baby kept on moving and its heartbeat was chugging away. I didn't think much of it, but when the nurse came to read the test she took her time looking it over and then left the room. I sat around waiting for a while and was then informed I needed to follow up with a BPP (bio-physical profile). Luckily, Mr. Fix-It had just arrived to meet me for the OB appointment, so I called him to come join me in the antenatal resource center. We had a second ultrasound of the day, and baby cooperated immediately - the tech was able to see what she was looking for (movement, "breathing activity", etc). Everything was just fine. However, during the original non-stress test baby's heart rate was dipping with contractions so they were worried s/he may be in some distress. We headed downstairs to my OB and she let me know she had just received the results of my test and wanted me to follow up with an extended non-stress test to ensure that everything was truly ok. If the heart rate continued to dip, we would have a conversation about inducing that day, or even a c-section if necessary. Mr. Fix-It and I both simultaneously got goofy grins on our faces and glazed over. We went down to OB Triage and got hooked up to the fetal monitors. Mr. Fix-It called my Mom to keep her posted, and she was on a flight within an hour. If baby was coming today, she wasn't missing the big event! Baby passed the second test with flying colors, and we were sent home soon after lunch time. It made for quite the eventful morning! The rest of the week was spent running errands, relaxing, and hanging out with the Grandma-to-be. Everyone is getting REALLY excited about this little one's arrival - on to week 40! Week 38 (October 12 specifically) was a BIG milestone that I've been looking forward to for, well, since August. Week 38 meant the start of maternity leave! I spent the final two weeks of work semi-frantically wrapping up paperwork: client notes, transfer summaries, discharge papers, assessment reports, treatment reviews...the list goes on. Each night I'd review all the tasks I had to complete the next day, feel overwhelmed and anxious, and beg baby to stay put until at least October 13. Thankfully, little one cooperated. Finishing work also meant no longer having to commute. I'd replayed a few scenarios in my mind of making my way back to the city while in labor. I wasn't entirely worried that I'd be in the situation, but really, you never know. I've had times where it's taken me just about two hours to get home. So I figured it's always best to have a plan. (And don't even get me started on the challenges in bladder holding during that drive). I'm done - amen! People have started asking if I was feeling that things were "getting close". Physically, I've felt mostly the same. Baby's head is still low, I have occasional cramping, but I don't have any sort of sixth sense that this baby is showing up at any second. I think we're hanging tight for a bit longer. Mentally, though, YES. And no. I have these moments of thinking about how different things are *just* about to be, and then I also realize I'm in some bizarre state of denial. I swear I walk around totally forgetting that there is an actual baby on the way. Seriously, some nights I'll lay in bed and think to myself, "there's not really a baby in there". And then I wake up and have a quick moment of panic and think, "ohmigod, is the baby still there?!", and I check my belly and confirm that I am still, in fact, most likely quite pregnant. I was joking to colleagues that I may need to self-refer for a psych eval. The reality is, though, getting to this phase of pregnancy just seems so unbelievable. Spending months and months imagining this tiny human in your life as a distant, unreachable thing suddenly shifting to a real, actual thing that IS HAPPENING is just more that I can comprehend. I don't think it will all entirely come together until I actually see this little one and hold him/her in my arms. We are SO CLOSE! So, the funny part is that our baby LOVES to kick and push whenever pressure is placed on my belly. For the entire test our kid had a field day pushing and fighting the monitors. The nurse asked me TWICE to sit still because the belts kept shifting. I had to laugh and blame the baby. Sorry, kid! You're FEISTY! In other news, my observation of the week is that my food tolerance has shifted. I'm noticing that complex foods sound completely unappealing. As in, the more ingredients in a dish, the less I am interested. An apple? Great. Yogurt with granola? Yum. A savory dish with all sorts of herbs and marinade? I couldn't even take two bites. I vaguely remember reading a reason why this can occur, especially as your body prepares for labor. Of course I'm forgetting now, but I can tell you that if you offered me a bowl of chili I might dry heave a little. As for this baby's arrival? Your guess is as good as mine. I've been feeling crampy here and there, which supposedly means my body is revving up a little. Now that this munchkin is full term, I'm starting to get antsy. I fully realize, however, that we're not at the finish line just yet and this little one will arrive whenever it is good and ready! It's so wonderful to have talented friends! A while back fellow Weddingbee blogger, Mrs. Snapdragon, aka Penny, asked if we might "swap" photos. She had an upcoming event that she wanted documented, and in exchange she would shoot a session for me and Mr. Fix-It. While I wasn't available to photograph her event, I still took her up on the offer for a maternity shoot! So, basically, I totally owe her! Here are some of the highlights of our photoshoot by Lake Michigan! I'm so glad to have these photos! I'm sure in just a few short weeks we'll look back and barely be able to remember when life was just the two of us. I love you, honey! Something tells me year three is going to be the best one yet. Week 34 made me realize how much I'm slowing down! I spent a busy weekend with two of my best girlfriends and - ooof! - I was exhausted by the end of each day. It was great, though, we enjoyed a blissful spa day at the Trump and shared many yummy meals. Such a treat! This week also brought a huge accomplishment - my last full week at work! This pregnancy is timed perfectly with a number of Jewish Holidays, with at least one day per week off between now and my leave. The mindset of getting through only partial weeks is making this homestretch feel incredibly more manageable. Also exciting, our childbirth classes at the hospital started this week. We signed up for four evening classes spread over a month versus the one-day marathon class. So far, I haven't learned anything new but it's definitely helpful to review all the basics. I think the class made everything feel that much more soon - especially when it was recommended that we be truly prepared: car seat installed, hospital bags packed, hospital pre-registration complete, birth plans, etc. The nurse repeatedly told us to think of the due date as a "due month" - baby could arrive any time between weeks 37-41. Eeep! And perhaps you noticed this week's photo looks a little different than some previous shots. We took maternity pictures! I can't wait to share them, but that will be a separate post. I'm so glad we opted to take a few photos. I didn't feel the need to go too crazy, but I know it will be great to have a memento from this time in our life. Did you take maternity photos? Last week, I met a colleague for lunch. Her due date was just a few days before my own. The next day I received an e-mail saying that she'd had her little boy! Even though most babies don't arrive at 35 weeks, I suddenly felt as though it's really time to be prepared for our little one's arrival. So now, our hospital bags are officially packed. 1. Comfy Cotton Yoga Pants (2): As much as I love my Lululemon, I opted to pack two pairs of soft, breathable, loose yoga pants for the hospital. One pair of cropped, one full length. 2. Nursing Tanks (2): I've been told that nursing tanks are far more practical for the hospital than nursing bras. They allow you to be discreet when visitors are around and give you one less thing to manage. 3. Toiletries: My toiletry bag is ready to go! Items include: toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, hair ties, etc. 4. Pillow: I'll be taking one pillow from home. One great tip I received is to make sure to bring a distinct pillow case so it doesn't get lost among hospital items. 5. Camera: This one is a no-brainer. I've got an empty SD card ready to go, and a fully charged battery. We'll also have our cell phones, chargers, and Mr. Fix-It will likely have a laptop. 6. Flip Flops: To keep my feet protected from hospital floors and showers. 7. Lanisoh Lanolin Cream: I've heard in the early days of nursing, you want to use cream every time you feed, no matter what. 10. Bath Robe: I splurged on a nice robe. Hopefully it will help me look a little more put together post-delivery. I also imagine I'll be spending lots of time in it in those early days at home. 1. Pacifier and Strap: Probably totally unnecessary, but I threw it in the bag anyway. I do think I'll appreciate baby's paci not rolling around on the hospital floor, though. 2. Baby Gown with Cuff (2): I packed two thinking they'll be good to have for when we're hanging out in the room before heading home. I made sure to choose gowns with cuffs so that we can protect baby's face from accidental scratches. 3. Booties: We have a hand knit pair from a family friend. They're just too cute and if baby is anything like its Mommy, it will perpetually have chilly feet. 4. Burp Cloths: Maybe superflous, but again, if baby is anything like its Mommy it will be a bit of a puker. 5. Going Home Outfit: I found a similar kimono-style outfit at Nordstrom several months back. It's super soft, gender-neutral, and timeless. I can't wait to put it on baby! And I'll admit, I also snuck a blue cap and pink bow in the bag so our baby can look like a boy or girl. 6. Boppy: I'm bringing the boppy. Great for hospital guests and middle of the night feedings. 7. Nail Clipper: Some newborns have pretty scratchy nails. If baby's need a little trim, we'll be ready. 8. Swaddle blankets: I've packed these exact two for our little one. I'm secretly thinking the purple will be for a girl and the teal for a boy. But of course, I purchased both knowing they're pretty neutral and they'll see plenty of use. 9. Baby Book: I'm bringing our baby book to the hospital in the event the nurses are nice enough to imprint baby footprints in it. Also, we can have family sign and if I need a project (ha!) I can start entering basic info. And those are the basics! What was in your hospital bag? Have any packing tips for first time parents? Is anyone else as jazzed as I am about the iPhone 5? My 4 had seen better days, so I've just been dyyyyyying to upgrade. The 5 looks like it's going to be a solid device, and the upgrades to iOS6 are fantastic. My only complaint? Apple changed the charge port but didn't go universal USB. Shame on you, Apple - now we have to buy new chargers and we're creating more waste in the world as our old ones now have to be discarded. At least with a universal USB we could use all the same cords and cables for kindles, cameras, etc. Out of curiosity, where do you fall on the black/white iPhone debate? I've always opted for black, but now I'm mixing it up and went white. I was swayed when I heard that white can be easier to find when digging through a purse. With a little one soon on my hip, I'm thinking I'll appreciate those extra 2 seconds not spent searching for my phone. I CANNOT WAIT for these lovelies to arrive in the mail! And of course, my adorable case will be monogrammed with an "A". Happy iPhone Day! Week 33 was calm and crazy all at the same time. Labor day meant a shorter work week, and Friday brought the start of a fun, girly weekend with two of my favorite friends. Work, on the other hand, was totally nuts. Just as I'm working to wind down my case load and terminate a few clients, things got busier than ever. I can't say much due to privacy issues, but people do funny things around endings. Some disappear, some want to squeeze in extra sessions, and others act out hoping to reinforce their importance. This week also brought a light at the end of the tunnel. Turning the page to September on my calendar has felt like a huge accomplishment. I'm scheduling clients through September, and then I'll spend the first two weeks of October in the office wrapping up paperwork. This means I'll work through week 38, but by week 36 all my clinical work will be complete. Fingers crossed this means I'll have some quiet time at home before our little one decides to arrive. Funny enough, despite most first borns coming late, I keep hearing stories about early arrivals. "I had my son 3 weeks early - have your bags packed!" Baby and I also had an OB appointment this week. It was quick and easy: weight - down a pound, blood pressure - 110/70, fetal heartbeat - 150BPM, questions for the doctor - nope! It doesn't get more straightforward than that. I've also started rotating doctors for my appointments. The practice we're using has 7 OB/GYNS on staff, each of them being on call 1 day per week. This means the odds of my doctor delivering our baby are pretty low, so I'm slowly making the rounds to meet everyone. Of course, the reality is that the doctor is in the room for the last few minutes of delivery, and after enduring labor I imagine I won't care if a monkey delivers my baby. But who knows? Perhaps a friendly face will be comforting after all. Whoa baby! Everyone who saw me this week, especially clients, couldn't help but comment on how big this baby bump has gotten! I have been feeling it too - bigger, slower, and less comfortable. I don't have any real complaints, I'm just undeniably pregnant at this point. This week I went for a pre-natal massage. It was amazingly heavenly. I cozied in, all propped up on my side, and felt muscle tension just melt away. I haven't noticed feeling terribly tight or sore, but the massage made me realize how good it felt to really stretch and loosen up. I've also been back at pre-natal yoga which I really need to keep up. How Far Along: 32 Weeks. Watching the calendar approach September was SO exciting. Weight Gain: 15lbs. Woo hoo! Gender: Not finding out. Lately, I'm completely sure baby is a girl. Mr. Fix-It has still held strong with "boy" as his guess from day 1. Movement: Holy Moses. This kid is ACTIVE. The kicks, stretches, and rolls are enough to propel me out of bed at night. Sleep: Not the best. I have nights of amaaaazing sleep and then a night or two where baby is moving like nuts, I constantly have to go to the bathroom, and despite my best efforts at tossing and turning I simply can't get comfortable. What I Miss: Sleeping on my stomach. I know I won't get to sleep through the night for a while, but the idea of at least being able to get physically comfortable is very exciting. Cravings: Ben and Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Ice Cream has been my favorite thing lately. I'm not eating it regularly, but OMG IT'S GOOD. Symptoms: Big baby kicks resulting in sleepless nights. Bathroom trips resulting in sleepless nights. Limbs falling asleep resulting in sleepless nights. Basically, mama needs a nap! Best Moment of the Week: Knowing that things are moving along as they should! Keep doing your thing, baby. I am SO EXCITED to share this post with you! Creating a nursery for our baby has been one of the most fun projects we've completed. I've already shared our inspiration and bits and pieces along the way, and now the room is officially complete. I know you're really just here for the pictures, so take a peek! Every time Mr. Fix-It and I walk by we just can't help but smile. I can not wait for our little one to fill this space!

2019-04-26T06:39:32Z

http://www.teamvaughnblog.com/2012/

The "practical" portion of this curriculum has to be accomplished in the context of a community. Learning how to live in community will prepare the seminarian to effectively guide Basic Christian Communities and his parish. The commands of Christ in imitation of His hidden life is also called the Life of Repentance. Though Christ needed no repentance, He had to teach us how to repent; thus He demonstrated this through His hidden life. The Life of Repentance, which is the beginning of the spiritual life that should eventually grow to CHARITY, has three elements. The Fathers enumerate them as Prayer, Fasting and Good Works. Community Life must be a blend of these three. The saints had prescribed how much of each is needed every day and an ideal community life must have the right blend. Too much of one over the others will cause an unbalanced spiritual life. In the first place, be of one heart and one mind; this is the very essence of the unity of the Church. Thus "com" meaning "with" and "unitas" meaning "one". Every one must have the same beliefs, the same goals and the same means to the goal. Renewal in the Church had always been the establishment of a new community. This is more obvious in the reforms of religious orders. Every rule in the community is geared towards the avoidance of vices, growing in virtue and preservation of charity. It is ignorance of Christ's commands that has made many seminaries ignorant of the rationale of old seminary rules; this has caused them to put aside the old rules. The God-appointed perfect ambiance for obeying the commands of Christ and thus, for growing in holiness, is the Christian family. And Christ with the Holy Family is the perfect example. It is for this purpose, personal sanctification, that the sacrament of holy matrimony was instituted. Obedience to the commands of Christ can be practiced only in the context of the family. How can you love your neighbor if there is no neighbor? On the other hand, if one does not love his wife or brother and sister, he cannot love someone outside the family no matter how much he pretends he does. But God foresaw that most families would not live up to this model. So God made provision for a substitute, an alternative for the family. And this is the Church, the Christian community or monastic community wherein the governing principles are exactly the same as a Christian family. And, consequently, the seminaries, which are substitutes for the Christian family and patterned after monasteries, serve the same purpose. The training for obedience to the commands of Christ is done best within the context of the family or, if this is not possible due to the neglect of the parents, in the monasteries or seminaries. In learning the commands of Christ, it is best that the seminarians also put them into practice. For most, if not for all the seminarians, the seminary is the first and last place where they will learn and practice the commands of Christ. 1) They must exert conscientious effort to carry out God's will in all circumstances and at all times. They must have a thorough knowledge of their own likes and dislikes that usually interfere in finding out God's will. To exercise "denying themselves", they must obey the commands of Christ, of the Church, of the Constitutions and of their superiors. 2) When something happens to them, good or bad, they are to accept it without fuss as from God's loving providence. 3) They must have the simplicity of a dove, avoiding double-dealing or manipulations using deceit to get what they want. 4) They must know how to keep confidences and speak only of those things that will give glory to God, avoiding looking at things from the worldly point of view or from the feeble reasoning of their minds. 5) They must treat everyone in a gentle manner, never losing their temper or exhibiting anger. 6) Upon learning the commands of Christ, they must immediately discover whether they have obeyed them or not. If not, this would be sin; they must be sorry for this and keep it always before their eyes; "My sins are always before me." 7) In denying themselves, they must accept every over-ruling of their desires, opinions and ways of doing things. 8) In obedience to Christ who commanded us to leave father, mother... they must avoid all attachment to relatives. They must love them in a spiritual way as Christ loved Joseph and Mary. 9) Still, as part of detachment, they must have no preference whatsoever for assignments, persons, place, companion or any similar things. And believe that the superior has done things well. 10) Some form of uniformity is important in community life for the sake of good order that leads to holiness. Avoid what is out of the ordinary, for this breeds jealousy and disagreements. This applies to food, clothing, things in the room and what is assigned to each one for his use. The seminary must set down what these things ought to be. 11) Charity must rule all the acts of the seminarians; this is shown in gentlemanliness and courtesies, being humble and meek in all things. Or, as St. Paul says, to develop the virtues of humility, patience, fortitude and perseverance. 12) Satan is more zealously going to attack those who seek God by suggesting acts that are contrary to the commands of Christ, as he did in Paradise. The seminarians' most powerful weapon is the knowledge of Christ's commands, without which he has no way of detecting the suggestions of the devil. Devilish suggestions are: to use mere human means in doing God's work, the desire to be known by men through publicity, to impose our opinions on others, and self-indulgence. 13) Whenever they have doubts, they must try to resolve it by a conscious examination of conscience using the commands of Christ as their criterion (because all the answers on what they must do in all circumstances are there). But if their knowledge of Christ's commands is insufficient, they must consult the spiritual director, who hopefully is well versed with the commands of Christ. They should not discuss this with anyone else because this worsens the problem (through wrong advise) and causes problems for others by tempting them with the same doubts. Chastity is built on poverty and obedience is built on chastity. No one can remain chaste unless he practices voluntary poverty. The wrong concept that diocesan priests do not practice poverty, unlike religious, is a misconception with disastrous results. Maybe diocesan priests may not observe the external observances of poverty; but definitely they must have the spirit of poverty to eventually be chaste and obedient. If the seminarian does not practice it now, he will never have a chance to do so afterwards, in which case he can never be chaste. The Curé d'Ars, patron saint of the diocesan clergy, is the excellent example of one who practiced the three vows. When the Acts of the Apostles described the first Christian communities, the point first emphasized is the spirit of poverty, i.e., their attitude towards worldly goods; "they had all things in common" (Act 4:32). St Barnabas wrote: "If you are partakers in things incorruptible, how much more of those things which are corruptible" (c. 70-13-, E., 1.148); " …no one saying that any of the things is his own." 1) Christ lived poorly from birth to death. In our weakness we may live a little better, but within the bounds of the spirit of poverty. Christ's insistence on it by His example shows that it is fundamental in building the spiritual life. It is based on His command to "deny oneself". Without the spirit of poverty, which should be learned in the seminary, the diocesan priest will be overwhelmed and enslaved by the things of the world. 2) Like the early Christians, all belongings in the seminary must be considered common property and must be given to each according to their needs. No one may dispose of or lend what is given to him for his use to another without due permission. Nor should he accept anything from another without permission. And though allowed to receive gifts from outside, the seminarian must present it to the superior for proper disposal or for common use. As much as possible the seminarians must have almost the same things; same number of clothes, cassocks, soap and toothpaste, etc. He may possess nothing without permission. 3) He must consider everything in the seminary as sacred vessels, taking good care of everything and not allowing these things to deteriorate or get damaged through negligence. 4) He should never go for extraordinary or exotic things. In everything he must be moderate and, if possible, feel the bite of poverty by choosing things that are inferior in quality. 5) The room, cabinets and desk must not be locked because this smacks of ownership. 6) It is the spirit of poverty, too, that we do not desire for any position of importance in the seminary or excel in any activity for the sake of vanity. 1) Joseph, Mary and Jesus were all chaste. That is the model of the Christian home and every monastery, convent or seminary. Since in the seminary, even if he had learned the commands of Christ, the seminarian has his fallen nature intact. He must absolutely have no contact with women until he has developed, in some degree, the virtue of chastity (which can only grow on the spirit of poverty). If he must, contacts must be rare and the following safeguards must be observed. He must not speak to a woman alone; nor must he show anything that smacks of affection. He must not speak close to her. 2) And, since the desert Fathers state that gluttony is the mother of unchastity, all must be moderate in their eating. Eating only food "in season, easily available in the locality and cheap." An unchaste reputation is most damaging to the work of God. So much so that works, even good and holy, may be avoided if there is suspicion of unchastity. 3) Sloth has always been the workshop of the devil. And the first thoughts that entertain a slothful seminarian are impure thoughts. So he must avoid being idle. 1) Christ's life was described thus: "He was obedient unto death." "He learned obedience from suffering." "He was subject to them," (Luke 2:51). We must obey the Holy Father, the Bishop and those set over us like the Rector of the seminary. Obey all superiors in all matters not obviously against the commands of Christ. And our obedience must be prompt and cheerful believing that, though what they command may not be the best, to obey them is the best thing for us to do. 2) No one is to command or order another to do anything, or to correct anyone unless asked of him by the superior or if it is already his duty to do so. 3) If a work is to be left unfinished for any reason, the superior must be informed. 4) No one is to interfere with anybody else's work unless asked to or there is an immediate need. 5) In the spirit of detachment from families and relations, letter writing must be entirely avoided if not reduced to the minimum. All letters going in and out must pass the superior unsealed. The superior has the last word on whether to send it or not. 6) To develop the virtue of temperance that leads to chastity, no one may eat out of the appointed time, unless there is a need and with the permission of the superior. Seminarians may not keep food in their rooms for their private consumption without permission. And no one should enter another's room. And if there is a need to do so, the door must remain open. No one may bring anybody inside his room. 1) The sick seminarian, because of the physical infirmity must receive utmost care from the community. Around the sick we must be quiet, speaking in a low voice and seeing to it that whatever we say will console and encourage the sick to accept God's will, keeping in mind what St. Augustine said: that sickness is a forced retreat. 2) On the par of the sick seminarian, he must realize that he is as if in a pulpit to witness publicly to Christian virtues, especially patience and meekness. Those taking care of him must see Christ's example in him. He must be obedient to doctors. He must try not to make it difficult for others to take care of him by complaints. 3) Any seminarian who feels unwell must report his condition to the superior but must leave it to the superior what course of action to take. No one is to take any medicine or call a doctor without the superior's permission. Decorum is how we must look, act and speak in a manner that would in some degree reflect Christ so that we may attract those truly seeking God and they, on their part may feel comfortable in listening to the words of life. Remember that the slightest impropriety can ruin what we have built. a) Guard your eyes from roving all about. Avoid undignified and childish behavior or anything that smacks of affectation or the mundane. b) Do not touch one another, even in fun or sports. Limit yourself to the gestures of friendship or, in rare occasions, greetings (like upon seeing a long lost friend). c) Dress up neatly with regards to clothing but avoiding what is too stylish or too elegant. d) The rooms, though minimal in furnishing, must be neat and all in order in matters of bedding, books and papers. What we ought to practice, we must practice in the privacy of our rooms, preserving the modesty mentioned by sleeping with proper clothing even in warm weather. The purpose of community life is to learn how to charitably behave towards others. If we cannot be charitable to those who are in the seminary we cannot be charitable to those outside. St. Augustine says: "He who does not love one does not love all." a) The bond of holiness must unite all. Bear mutual respect for one another. Avoid particular friendship; ostracize no one, avoid forming factions and groups. b) Great courtesy must be shown the superiors. Do not interrupt them while they are speaking, or worse, contradict them. Special signs of respect must be shown to superiors, those already ordained priest, directors and professors. But the special respect due to the superior must be reserved to the superior alone. c) "Since in much talking you will not escape sin," periods of silence must be imposed. In learning spiritual matters, solitude and silence is essential. A talkative seminary will never do God's work well. There must be periods and places of Grand Silence. Periods of Grand Silence are from awakening until after Prime or morning prayers; then from Compline or night prayers until sleeping time, which includes the whole night. Places of Grand Silence are: church, sacristy, sleeping quarters and refectory (during meals). During the day, talking must be minimal, only on what is needed and must be done softly or in a low voice. Talking is allowed only during recreation: though we must avoid rowdiness and arguments. Though humor is good don't let it get out of control by sticking to what is useful and agreeable. Silence also means care in walking, closing doors, and other physical noises. d) Talking to those not connected with the seminary is discouraged, since their worldliness could tempt the seminarian. St. Basil in his "Long Rules" warns us of the world entering through such persons; "through the visitor's parlor," quips St. Teresa of Avila. This includes hired gardeners, cooks and workers. Charity, though, calls for a brief passing greeting. e) Colloquium. This is group conversation, which can be held during recreation wherein the seminarians can edify and encourage one another while refuting wrong concepts raised by other seminarians. During such meetings avoid acting out vices, stubbornness, and effeminacy even for a joke. Express your opinions humbly, avoid showing anger or bad temper or even mere annoyance. Do not hurt anyone in word or deed or in any other way. f) To discourage gossip, which is the mother of talkativeness, observe confidentiality. Do not say what is not needed to be said. g) Avoid rash judgments by slurring the reputation of anyone, especially superiors. Do not grumble or criticize those over you or the policies of the seminary. Unless it goes against the commands of Christ, do not take sides in any argument. h) It would be useless talking to discuss national and international affairs and other political matters. "No one in God's army gets involved in secular affairs," St. Paul wrote. Christ gave norms on how the apostles should behave with one another and how they should behave towards Pharisees and Scribes and other authorities. a) As a general rule we should not seek frequent contact with outside people during the years of formation in the seminary unless obedience or necessity calls for it. b) We should not be involved in mundane affairs like other people's lawsuits, execution of wills, business negotiations or any similar endeavors. c) Do not eat with non-confreres without the superior's permission. d) Do not be messengers for messages, letters or anything else in either direction between confreres or between confreres and outsiders. e) The way of life and the written rules of the seminary must not be shown to any outsider unless such a one is truly seeking to enter the same seminary. This is the hidden life. Do not expose it. It is hidden not because there is something secret about it since everything is written down in Scriptures and the Fathers. It is hidden that one may seek God within his heart quietly and undisturbed. f) Do not discuss with non-confreres the state of the nation or government. It is presumptuous and a sign of pride. g) For those who need to go out or go places, precautions must be made. They must go two by two. Each one must say where he is going, why and when he is coming back. And as soon as he returns he must give an accounting to the superior. This precaution will help the seminarian avoid dangerous occasions of sin. If he has to sleep outside, he must do so, preferably in a parish or a seminary or convent guesthouse. Christ and His disciples had spiritual practices like going to the temple or going to secluded places. Here are some practices of great spiritual help and must be preferred to other practices. a) We must honor in a special way the Blessed Trinity. And this is done through the recitation of the Divine Office, celebration of the sacrifice of the Mass and reception of the sacraments. These liturgical functions should receive the greatest reverence in word and in act. Gregorian Chant, instead of profane songs must accompany the Liturgy. If for some reason we cannot attend the Divine Office, we should pray wherever we are the St. Francis way, substituting the Our Father for the number of psalms. b) Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary must be fostered by specially celebrating her feasts, singing devoutly her hymn after Compline, and having a replica of her true face in a prominent place. Devotion to her must be in imitating her virtues rather than in shallow meaningless gestures. c) There must be weekly confessions to an assigned confessor, daily mass, communion at least on Sundays, one-day silent retreat once a month and a week's silent retreat once a year. Seminarians with problems must not hesitate to go on an extended retreat, like one month or one year. Recollections, both for seminarians and for priests, can never be overstated. St. Bernard advising Pope Eugene III wrote: "I fear, lest in the midst of your occupation without number, you may lose hope of ever getting through with them and allow your heart to harden. It would be very prudent of you to withdraw from such occupations even if only for a little while rather than let them get the better of you and little by little lead you where you do not want to go… to indifference." St. Bernard was writing to a Pope who was doing his spiritual duties! And he advises him to withdraw once in a while from his work… to examine himself. He calls the apostolate that does not come from and does not strengthen the spiritual life "hae occupationes maledictae,"(St. Bernard, De Consideratione, 11.2). d) Meditation is also essential to understand the commands of Christ. How this is done is learned in the curriculum. And time should be set aside for this, preferably after mass in the morning and before Compline in the evening. It must be done in community. e) Though there must be Scriptural and Patristic readings during Divine Offices, Masses, and refectory readings, the seminarian must still have his own personal spiritual reading. Preferably it must be a book written by a saint and not by a mere human author due to the danger of the author presenting heresies without us realizing it. The seminary days are short, and there are so many good books written by saints. Why waste time with books written by non-saints? f) Examination of conscience is essential to grow in self-knowledge. Though most seminaries do it twice a day, a penitential walk before Compline done by all seminarians together is a good practice. g) There must be a weekly conference with the superior to remind the seminarians of often forgotten rules, to correct noticed faults, to encourage the faint of heart, condemn vices and preserve charity. h) Chapter of Faults. During Fridays, all must gather together where each one is given the opportunity to accuse himself of a failing. The attending superior may give corrections in the spirit of charity and humility, and a penance. This is an excellent practice in humility. While the superior is giving his conference, if a seminarian feels the superior is referring to his fault, he should stand up to acknowledge the fault until told to sit down. i) Though penances and mortifications are worthwhile, being a beginner in the seminary, no one will undertake any penances or mortifications outside of the regular life without the permission of the superior. j) There must be a fixed time in the seminary for getting up, going to bed, prayers, divine office and meals. k) Over and above the mentioned practices, the seminarian must not do anything without the permission of the superior. Adapting a program of renewal is difficult, if not impossible, for the same reason that the program is needed in the first place: "they no longer walked with Him". No one wants the narrow way, no one wants the heroic self-denial that it entails; everyone wants to do their own will rather than the will of God. When people no longer walk with Christ, problems arise. And the only way to solve it is to walk with Christ once more. This is the experience everywhere. The older seminaries had snubbed the renewal program; it is the new seminaries and the seminaries of new movements that adapted the renewal programs. There is, for example, the new St. Gregory the Great seminary in the Diocese of Lincoln, Redemptoris Mater seminaries of the Neocathecumenal movement and the new St. John Vianney Theological Seminary of the Archdiocese of Denver. They had just begun to tread the narrow path; though these seminaries are all agreed that spiritual formation must take precedence in the training of seminarians, none of them have a concrete program. Seminaries that would like to adapt the renewal program will be at a total loss on how and where to start in that nobody has ever been trained to give such as the above course. The experts in Patrology know the writings of the Fathers more from the literary point rather than from the ascetical aspect. In fact from Patrology courses students only recall the title of their writings, like City of God, but do not recall or worse never learned any of its contents. This Practicum will give the participant an overview of the commands of Christ in outline form. This is very general. It will clearly show that the commands of Christ are different from the Ten Commandments of God and will give a hint on what are the commands of Christ. The outline will enable the serious participant to fit in all the commands of Christ within the given outline. This practicum is also good as a crash course for seminarians who will soon be ordained but who never took the course in Spiritual Formation. It is also good for seminarians who will not have the chance to undergo this new formation program. This practicum is ideal also as an ongoing program for priests. It is a good substitute for their yearly or monthly retreat… though it will take only one day. This practicum has already been tried for priests, seminarians, nuns and members of mandated organizations. From experience, priests and seminarians have learned more about spirituality from this one-day practicum than from their years of theology, not so much because the practicum offers much but more because they never had any spiritual formation at all. A better practicum is to live with a community that is trying to live according to the commands of Christ. In this way, there is theory and practice. The learning will be more thorough. Some 6 to12 months would be fine. Our dream is that all seminaries would eventually become like such communities that they might be breeding grounds for holiness in their respective dioceses. It needs more than the above to truly start a genuine renewal. We need spiritually mature people. But the above would be a good start. Or, as the Diocese of Lincoln did it, start an entirely new seminary with this curriculum. Both professors and seminarians may enroll in this seminary. It could start as a small seminary where they will only learn spirituality while learning the rest of the subjects in theology in their respective seminaries. Seminarians from all over may attend this and be prepared as future teachers of spirituality in their respective seminaries. It will be sort of a national seminary on spirituality. The seminarians will learn and live the commands of Christ; this is unlike schools of spirituality where they merely learn theories but without opportunities for practice aside from being merely speculative in their teaching of spirituality. To further facilitate implementation of the Spiritual Formation Program, the Commission on Seminaries will prepare four manuals for professors (as soon as this draft is approved by the Vatican), each corresponding to each year of Theology, where commentaries for the three readings of Sunday Masses for each liturgical year will be presented. Though all the books are available in the seminary Library, this manual will be of some help. This manual for professors shall include an outline, which shall be given to the seminarians. They may keep this and use it when they leave the seminary. They can refer to this in preparing their Sunday homilies. This website will contain just-made lectures that are not yet published in the manual. The lectures will probably appear in this website first, while the manual is being prepared. With this arrangement, the above Spiritual Formation Program can be started immediately because the materials for teaching will appear on a weekly basis. But, of course, this is only possible with seminaries with Internet connection. For those without Internet connection, the first lectures can be mailed through special courier (e.g., Fast Mail or DHL). The website will contain subject matters for the deepening of the spiritual life so the seminarians can still grow in spirituality even after ordination. This is also ideal for priests as part of their ongoing program. The web site will have a question-and-answer portion wherewith anyone can ask questions or clarification or even seek spiritual direction. The website can be used for private, personal retreats wherein one can choose the topics on spirituality that interest him; this is unlike listening to speakers who might speak on topics that do not interest him at all. Consider also the convenience of a website--one does not have to travel anywhere to get together for a retreat. They can do it in their own rooms. And they can do it leisurely which is the very essence of contemplation. And as the HEADING states, to facilitate the renewal, the Commission on Seminaries is contemplating on shouldering all the expenses for the above Practicum, manuals and website.

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http://www.caryana.org/program/part2bb.html

Janda M., Machala Z., Niklová A., Martišovitš V.: The streamer-to-spark transition in a transient spark: a dc-driven nanosecond-pulsed discharge in atmospheric air, Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 21, 045006 (9pp) (2012). Lukáč P., Mikuš O., Morva I., Zábudlá Z., Trnovec J., Morvová M., Hensel K.: Dependence of the Dissociative Recombination Coefficient of Molecular Ions Kr2+ with Electrons on the Electron and Gas Temperature, Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 21 (6), 065002 (2012). Onderka M., Krein A., Wrede S. et al.: Dynamics of storm-driven suspended sediments in a headwater catchment described by multivariable modeling, Journal of Soils and Sediments Volume 12 (4), 620-635 (2012). Onderka M., Wrede S., Rodny M. et al.: Hydrogeologic and landscape controls of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and dissolved silica (DSi) fluxes in heterogeneous ca, Journal of Hydrology 450-451, 36-47 (2012). Onderka M., Wrede S., Rodny M. et al.: Long-term persistence of stream nitrate concentrations (memory effect) inferred from spectral analysis and detrended fluctuation, Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 223, 241-252 (2012). Szalay Zs., Ráheľ J., Machala Z., Hensel K.: Assessing the Self-cleaning Capability of a Coplanar Barrier Discharge with Different Barrier Surface Coatings and Electrode Geometries, Acta Univ. Carolin. Math. Phys. 53 (2), 69-77 (2012). Gmucová K., Morvová M., Havránek E., Kliman J., Košinár I., Kunecová D., Malakhov A.I., Anisimov J.S., Morva I., et al.: Carbonized waste for the cut-down of environmental pollution with heavy metals, Physics of Particles and Nuclei Letters 8, 405-11 (2011). Janda M., Machala Z.: Imaging of transient spark in atmospheric pressure air by fast iCCD camera, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 39 (11) 2246-2247 (2011). Janda M., Martišovitš V., Machala Z.: Transient spark: a dc-driven repetitively pulsed discharge and its control by electric circuit parameters, Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 20, 035015 (10pp) (2011). Leštinská L., Martišovitš V., Machala Z.: Corona discharge as a temperature probe for atmospheric air microwave plasma jet, J. Quant. Spec. Rad. Transfer 112, 2779-2786 (2011). Leštinský M., Hensel K.: Temperature Influence on Properties of Microdischarges, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 39 (11), 2186-2187 (2011). Lukáč P., Mikuš O., Morva I., Zábudlá Z., Trnovec J., and Morvová M.: Electron temperature dependence of the dissociative recombination coefficient of molecular argon ions Ar+2 with electrons, Contrib. Plasma Phys. 51 (7), 672-682 (2011). Lukáč P., Mikuš O., Morva I., Zábudlá Z., Trnovec J., and Morvová M.: Electron and gas temperature dependences of the dissociative recombination coefficient of molecular ions Ar+2 with electrons, Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 20 (5), 055012 (2011). Malinovský Ľ., Lukáč P., Morva I., and Zábudlá Z.: Determination of the temperature of electrons heated by microwaves from the spectral line intensities emitted by the neon afterglow plasma, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 44 (21), 215204 (2011). Onderka M., Rodny M., Velísková Y.: Suspended particulate matter concentrations retrieved from self-calibrated multispectral satellite imagery, Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics 59 (4), 251-261 (2011). Pekárová, P.; Miklánek, P.; Halmová, D.; et al.: Long-term trend and multi-annual variability of water temperature in the pristine Bela River basin (Slovakia), Journal of Hydrology 3-4, 333-340 (2011). Pongrác B., Machala Z.: Electro-Spraying of Water with Streamer Corona Discharge, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 39, 2664-2665 (2011). Šipoldová Z., Machala Z.: Bio-decontamination of plastic and dental surfaces with atmospheric pressure air DC discharges, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 39, 2970-2971 (2011). Foissac C., Kristof J., Annusova A., Martišovitš V., Veis P., and Supiot P.: Vacuum UV and UV spectroscopy of N2–Ar mixture discharge created by a RF helical coupling device, Plasma Sources Science & Technology 19 (5), 055006 (2010). Janda M., Machala Z., Laux C.O.: Optical and Electrical Study of Transient Spark Discharge in Air, Acta Physica Universitatis Comenianae L-LI, 85-93 (2010). Machala Z., Chládeková L., Pelach M.: Plasma agents in bio-decontamination by dc discharges in atmospheric air, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43, 222001 (2010). Onderka M., Pekarova P., Miklanek P. et al.: Examination of the dissolved inorganic nitrogen budget in three experimental microbasins with contrasting land cover-a mass bala, Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 210 (1-4), 251-261 (2010). Stancu G.D., Janda M., Kaddouri F., Lacoste D., Laux C.O.: Time-Resolved CRDS Measurements of N2(A) Density Produced by Nanosecond Discharges in Atmospheric Pressure Nitrogen and Air, J. Phys. Chem. A 114, 201-208 (2010). Hensel K.: Microdischarges in Ceramic Foams and Honeycombs, Eur. Phys. J. D 54 (2), 141-148 (2009). Hensel K.: Studená plazma ako potenciálny nástroj na zlepšenie účinnosti automobilových katalyzátorov, Čs. čas. fyz. 59 (4), 255-256 (2009). Hensel K., Machala Z., Tardiveau P.: Capillary Microplasmas for Ozone Generation, Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 47 (2), 22813 (2009). Machala Z.: Plazma a živé organizmy, Čs. čas. fyz. 59 (6), 370-376 (2009). Machala Z., Jedlovský I., Chládeková L., Pongrác B., Giertl D., Janda M., Šikurová L., Polčic P.: DC discharges in atmospheric air for bio-decontamination – spectroscopic methods for mechanism identification, Eur. Phys. J. D, 54, 195-204 (2009). Malinovský L., Lukáč P., Foltín V., Morva I., Morvová M.: On the electron temperature dependence of the dissociative recombination of Ne-2(+) ions with electrons, Journal of Physics B - Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics 42 (10), 105701 (2009). Mikuš O., Lukáč P., Morva I., Zábudlá Z., Trnovec J., Morvová M.: Electron and gas temperature dependences of the dissociative recombination coefficient of molecular ions Ne-2(+) with electrons, Plasma Sources Science & Technology 18 (2), 025031 (2009). Sato S., Hensel K., Hayashi H., Takashima K., Mizuno A: Honeycomb Discharge for Diesel Exhaust Cleaning, J. Electrostat. 67 (2-3), 77-83 (2009). Hensel K., Sato S., Mizuno A.: Sliding Discharge inside Glass Capillaries, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 36 (4), 1282-1283 (2008). Hensel K., Sato S., Mizuno A.: Electrical Discharge in Honeycomb Monolith, Chem. Listy 102 (16), s1318-s1321 (2008). Hensel K., Tardiveau P.: ICCD Camera Imaging of Discharges in Porous Ceramics, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 36 (4), 980-981 (2008). Janda M., Machala Z.: Transient spark discharge in N2/CO2/H2O mixtures at atmospheric pressure, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 36 (4), 916-917 (2008). Janda M., Machala Z., Morvová M., Morva I.: Study of Plasma Induced Chemistry by DC Discharges Above Water Surface in CO2/N2/H2O Mixture, Orig. Life Evol. Biosph., 38, 23-35 (2008). Leštinská L., Foltin V., Machala Z.: Emission Spectroscopy of Atmospheric Nitrogen Microwave Plasma, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 36, 962-963 (2008). Leštinská L., Martišovitš V., Zahoran M., Machala Z.: Atmospheric pressure MW plasma for waste carbon treatment, Chemické listy 102 (16), S1428-S1431 (2008). Machala Z., Jedlovský I., Martišovitš V.: DC discharges in atmospheric air and their transitions, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 36, 918-919 (2008). Mikuš O., Lukáč P., Morva I., Morvová M., Foltin V.: The Dual Mode Microwave Afterglow Apparatus for Measuring the Electron Temperature Dependence of the Electron-Ion Recombination, Contributions to Plasma Physics 48 (4), 311-325 (2008). Pawłat J., Ihara S., Hensel K., Yamabe C.: Treatment of Surfactants in the Foaming Column, Chem. Listy 102 (16), s1494-s1497 (2008). Hensel K., Martišovitš V., Machala Z., Janda M., Leštinský M., Tardiveau P., Mizuno A.: Electrical and Optical Properties of AC Microdischarges in Porous Ceramics, Plasma Process. Polym. 4 (7-8), 682-693 (2007). Janda M., Martišovitš V., Morvová M., Machala Z., Hensel K.: Monte Carlo simulations of electron dynamics in N2/CO2 mixtures, Eur. Phys. J. D 45 (2), 309-315 (2007). Machala Z., Janda M., Hensel K., Jedlovský I., Leštinská L., Foltin V., Martišovitš V., Morvová M.: Emission Spectroscopy of Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas for Bio-medical and Environmental Applications, J. Molec. Spectrosc. 243 (2), 194-201 (2007). Foltin V., Leštinská L., Machala Z.: Spectroscopic investigations of atmospheric pressure microwave torch nitrogen plasma jet, Czech. J. Phys. 56, B712-720 (2006). Janda M., Hensel K., Martišovitš V., Morvová M.: Theoretical Study of Influence of H2O on Parameters of Low-Temperature Plasmas in Humid Mixtures, Czech. J. Phys. 56, B774-B780 (2006). Pawłat J., Hensel K., Ihara S.: Generation of Oxidants and Removal of Indigo Blue by Pulsed Power in Bubbling and Foaming Systems, Czech. J. Phys. 56, B1174-B1178 (2006). Hensel K., Katsura S., Mizuno A.: DC Microdischarges inside Porous Ceramics, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 33, 574-575 (2005). Janda M., Machala Z., Morvová M., Franček V., Lukáč P.: WEB-EEDF: Open Source Software for Modeling the Electron Dynamics, Acta Physica Slovaca 55, 507-514 (2005). Machala Z., Laux C.O. and Kruger C.H.: Transverse DC Glow Discharges in Atmospheric Pressure Air, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 33 - Special Issue on Plasma Images, 320-321 (2005). Machala Z., Marode E., Morvová M., Lukáč P.: DC glow discharges in atmospheric air as a source for VOC abatement, Plasma Process. Polym. 2, 152-161 (2005). Pawłat J., Hensel K., Ihara S.: Decomposition of Humic Acid and Methylene Blue by Electric Discharge in Foam, Acta Phys. Slovaca 55 (5), 479-485 (2005). Hensel K., Matsui Y., Katsura S., Mizuno A.: Generation of Microdischarges in Porous Materials, Czech. J. Phys. 54, C683-C689 (2004). Jašík J., Macko P., Martišovitš V., Lukáč P., Veis P.: A time - resolved study of the U - V radiation produced in the initial time period of a pulsed argon discharge, Czechoslovak Journal of Physics 54 (6), 661 (2004). Machala Z., Marode E., Laux C.O., Kruger C.H.: DC glow discharges in atmospheric pressure air, J. Advanced Oxid. Technol. 7, No. 2, 133-137 (2004). Pawłat J., Hensel K.: Discoloration of the Solutions in the Foaming Environment, Czech. J. Phys. 54, C964-C969 (2004). Morvová M., Morva I., Janda M., Hanic F., Lukáč P.: Combustion and carbonisation exhaust utilisation in electric discharge and its relation to prebiotic chemistry, Int. J. of Mass Spectrometry 223 (1-3): 613-625 Jan. 15 (2003). Hensel K., Hayashi N., Yamabe C., Morvová M.: Positive DC Corona Discharge in N2-NO-CO2-O2 Mixtures, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 41 (1), 336-345 (2002). Macko P., Martišovitš V., Veis P.: Vibrational population of the O-2(b(1) Sigma(+)(g)) state in a low-pressure oxygen pulsed discharge, Czechoslovak Journal of Physics 51 (5), 491 (2001). Hajossy R., Pastva P., Morva I.: Reply to comment on "Ignition of welding arc during a short-circuit of melted electrodes" (1999 J.Phys.D: Appl.Phys. Vol.32, p.1058), J.Phys. D: Appl.Phys. 33, 2342-2344 (2000). Hanic F., Morvová M., Morva I.: Thermochemical Aspects of the Conversion of Gaseous System CO2-N2-H2O into Solid Mixture of Amino Acids, Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, Vol.60, 1111-1121 (2000). Hensel K., Yamabe C.: Corona Discharge in NOx-COx Mixtures, Rep. Fac. Sci. Engrg. Saga Univ. 29 (1), 47-56 (2000). Huczko A., Lange H., Sioda M., Rzanek-Boroch Z., Morvová M.: Plasma Decomposition of Carbon-Bearing Reactants, Czechoslovak Journal of Physics, Vol.50 No.5, pp. 615-622 (2000). Machala Z., Morvová M., Marode E., Morva I.: Removal of cyclohexanone in Transition Electric Discharges at Atmospheric Pressure, J.Phys. D: Appl.Phys., Vol.33 No 24, 3198-3213 (2000). Morvová M., Hanic F., Morva I.: Plasma Technologies for Reducing CO2 Emissions from Combustion Exaust with Toxic Admixtures to Utilisable Products Sparing Energy and Environment, Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, Vol.61, 273-287 (2000). Hajossy R., Pastva P., Morva I.: Ignition of welding arc during a short-circuit of melted electrodes, J. Phys.D.: Appl.Phys. 32, 1058-1065 (1999). Morvová M.: The influence of water vapour and temperature on depletion of carbon monoxide in dc corona discharge, Czech.J.Phys. Vol.49, No.12, pp. 1703-1720 (1999). Šáro Š., Matoš M., Martišovitš V.: The experimental pressent and future of superheavy nuclei synthesis, Acta Physica Slovaca 49 (1), 75 (1999). Hajossy R., Morva I.: Optimum experimental design for reconstruction of flame front propagation in a long pipe, Measuring Science and Technology 9, 100-108 (1998). Martišovitš V., Košinár I., Trnovec J., Zahoran M.: In situ monitoring of uniformity by and point signal during plasma etching, Czechoslovak Journal of Physics 48 (10), 1225 (1998). Morvová M.: DC corona discharge in CO2 - air and CO - air mixtures for various electrode materials, J.PhysD: Appl.Phys 31, pp. 1865-1874 (1998). Kurdel M., Morvová M.: DC corona discharge influence on chemical composition in mixtures of natural gas with air and its combustion exhaust with air, Czechoslovak Journal of Physics, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 205-215 (1997). Martišovitš V., Zahoran M.: Transport of chemically active species in plasma reactor for etching, Plasma Sources Science & Technology 6 (3), 280 (1997). Šimko T., Martišovitš V., Bretagne J., Gousset G.: Computer simulations of H+ and H3+ transport parameters in hydrogen drift tubes, Physical Review E. 56 (5), 5908 (1997). Hajossy R., Morva I., Pavlík J., Šúra P.: A simple digital multilevel streak image of combustion,, Review of Scientific Instruments , 67, p. 733-736, (3) March (1996). Hensel K., Morvová M.: The Conversion of NOx in a Corona Discharge with an Inner Electrode Material Variation, Contrib. Plasma Phys. 36 (1), 51-61 (1996). Trnovec J., Martišovitš V.: Theoretical study of heterogeneous reactions during plasma etching and depasition by mass spectrometry of stable species, Acta Physica Slovaca 46 (1), 57 (1996). Cernak M., van Velthuizen E.M., Morva I., Rutgers W.R.: Effect of cathode surface properties on glow-to-arc transition in a short positive corona gap in ambient air, J.Phys. D: Appl. Phys., 28, 1126-1132 (1995). Hajossy R., Morva I., Martišovitš V.: Starting Short-Circuits in Gas Metal Arc Welding, Int.J. Joining of materials 7 (1), 1-7 (1995). Heid R., Bazaliy Y. B., Martišovitš V., Cox D. L.: Staggered superconductivity in UPt3: A new phenomenological approach, Phys. Rev. Letters 74 (3), 2571-74 (1995). Hajossy R., Morva I.: Cathode and anode falls of arcs with fusible electrodes, J.Phys.D.:Appl.Phys., 27, 2095-2101 (1994). Hajossy R., Martišovitš V., Morva I.: Short-circuit duration as a criterion of precision for electric measurementsin arc, Acta Physica Slovaca 43 (1), 20 (1993). Martišovitš V., Zahoran M., Košinár I., Trnovec J.: Effect of chemical reaction stoichiometry on the pressure variation in the etch chamber during etching of aluminium, Physics Letters A 173 (6), 462 (1993). Morvová M., Morva I., Kurdel M.: The Use of Corona Discharge for Rubber Crush Drier Exhaust Control, Contribution of Plasma Physics 33, No.4, pp.285-295 (1993). Martišovitš V., Miertušová J., Šurda V., Trnovec J., Zahoran M.: Investigations into deposit forming during aluminium etching in CCl4 plasma, Acta Physica Slovaca 36 (2), 116 (1986). Morva I., Tegelhofová M.: Production of organometalic compounds by the explosion of a copper wire in xylene, water and their mixtures, Acta Physica Slovaca 36, No.3, 171-176 (1986). Tegelhofová M., Martišovitš V.: Formation of polymer deposits in corona discharge of both polarities in CO and its mixtures with H2 and H2O, Acta Physica Slovaca 36, No.3, 164-170 (1986). Tegelhofová M., Martišovitš V.: Chemical reactions in corona discharge in CO and its mixtures, Acta Physica Slovaca 33 (1), 25-35 (1983). Veis P., Veisová E., Tegelhofová M.: Study of structural changes in surface layers of apples due to corona discharge, Acta Physica Slovaca 33, No.3, 195-198 (1983). Červeňan Ľ, Martišovitš V.: A study of the radial distribution of the ultraviolet radiation from hollow cathode glow discharge, Acta Physica Slovaca 32 (6), 341 (1982). Martišovitš V., Košinár I.: Influence of the two-stage ionisation on radial profiles of charged and metastable particles, Acta Physica Slovaca 32 (3-4), 217 (1982). Pavlík J., Morva I.: Explosions of thin Cu and Al wires, Acta Physica Slovaca 32 (3-4), 205 (1982). Teplanová K., Košinár I., Martišovitš V.: Numerical solution of the diffusion model of the electric sheath, Acta Physica Slovaca 32 (3-4), 235 (1982). Červeňan Ľ, Martišovitš V.: A simple hollow cathode device for the study of the negative glow by the effusion technique, Acta Physica Slovaca 31 (4), 215 (1981). Košinár I., Kryukov N.A., Reďko T.P.: Diffuzija atomov medi v inertnych gazach, Opt Spektrosk. 50, 62 (1981). Košinár I., Reďko T.P.: Some dependences of the backround current in a Bennett radiofrequency mass spectrometer, Czechoslovak Journal of Physics 30, 1293 (1980). Košinár I., Martišovitš V., Teplanová K.: Theory of the electric sheat in the diffusion regime discharge plasma, Acta Physica Slovaca 29 (2), 139 (1979). Luknárová M., Martišovitš V.: Measurement of electrical conductivity of low - temperature alkali plasma by week probing signals, Czechoslovak Journal of Physics 29 (11), 1237 (1979). Martišovitš V.: The interaction of plasma with a solid surface, Acta Physica Slovaca 29 (2), 133 (1979). Martišovitš V.: Transport of metastable atoms in a positive column including radial variation of the excitation rate, Journal de Physique IV 40 (7), 185 (1979). Martišovitš V.: Effect of collisions between the metastable atoms on their radial transport in a positive column at various spatial distribution, Journal de Physique IV 40 (7), 183 (1979). Tegelhofová M., Martišovitš V.: Convection in corona discharge, Acta Physica Slovaca 29, No.2, 103-108 (1979). Tegelhofová M., Martišovitš V.: The decomposition of carbon monoxide in corona discharge, Acta Physica Slovaca 28, No.1, 38-45 (1978). Červeňan Ľ., Martišovitš V.: A study of the plasma column with attention to the region near the wall, Czechoslovak Journal of Physics 26 (5), 507 (1976). Martišovitš V., Kalužay J.: Amplitúdová modulácia jasu pri oscilografickom snímaní hmotového spektra, Československý časopis pro fyziku A 24, 254 (1974). Červeňan Ľ, Martišovitš V.: A time - resolved study of the U - V radiation produced in the initial time period of a pulsed argon discharge, Czechoslovak Journal of Physics 23 (12), 1333 (1973). Košinár I.: Some dependences of the backround current in a Bennett radiofrequency mass spectrometer, Czechoslovak Journal of Physics 23, 1219 (1973). Košinár I.: A note on the mobility of some ions in a high field, Fyzikálny časopis SAV 22, 186 (1972). Martišovitš V., Košinár I.: A note on the time-of-flihgt technique of the detection of metastable atoms, Journal of Physics B - Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics 5 (10), L214 (1972). Martišovitš V., Preložník V.: A study of the background current in a Bennett radio - frequency mass spectrometer, Czechoslovak Journal of Physics 22 (11), 1102 (1972). Martišovitš V.: Radial structure of the collision - dominated plasma column, Journal of Physics B - Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics 3 (6), 850 (1970). Martišovitš V., Szarka Š.: An investigation of the energy gain in Bennett´s radio - frequency mass spectrometer, Journal of Scientific Instruments ( Journal of Physics E), Series 2., 1 (3), 326 (1968). Martišovitš V., Veis Š.: Quantitative description of blood oxygenation process in oxygenator for extracorporal circulation, Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 29 (6), 485 (1967). Martišovitš V.: Vysokofrekvenčný hmotový spektrometer, Matematicko-fyzikálny časopis SAV 13 (1), 72 (1963). Hensel K., Le Delliou P., Tardiveau P., Pasquiers S.:: Discharge Propagation in Capillary Tubes Assisted by Bias Electric Field, 7th International Symposium on Electromagnetic Devices and Processes in Environment Protection ELMECO-7, Nałęczów (Poland), September 28-30, 39-40 (2011). Morvová M., Morva I., Janda M.: Overview of removal methods for CO2 and other greenhouse gas and details of the method using non-thermal plasma, 139th TMS Annual Meeting, Symposium Carbon Dioxide and Other Greenhouse Gas Reduction Metallurgy, Seattle (USA), February 14-18, p. 3-14 (2010). Hensel K., Janda M., Ráheľ J.: Generation of Discharges inside the Honeycomb Monolith Assisted by Diffuse Coplanar Surface Barrier Discharge, 19th International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry ISPC 19, Bochum (Germany), July 26-31, CD-ROM (2009). Hensel K., Kim H. H.: Effect of Noble Gases and Water Vapor on Discharge in Porous Ceramics, 19th International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry ISPC 19, Bochum (Germany), July 26-31, CD-ROM (2009). Hensel K., Leštinský M., Homola T., Ráheľ J.: Coplanar Surface Barrier Discharge Assisted Generation of Discharges inside the Honeycomb Monolith, 17th Symposium on Applications of Plasma Processes SAPP XVII, Liptovsky Jan (Slovakia), January 17-22, 163-164 (2009). Hensel K., Mizuno A.: Formaldehyde Abatement by Atmospheric Plasma and Catalyst, 23rd Symposium on Plasma Physics and Technology SPPT, Prague (Czech Republic), June 16-19, 149 (2008). Hensel K., Sato S., Mizuno A.: Electrical Discharge in Honeycomb Monolith, 2nd Central European Symposium on Plasma Chemistry CESPC, Brno (Czech Republic), August 31 - September 4, 140-141 (2008). Janda M., Stancu G.D., Spence T.G., Harb C., Kaddouri F., Pai D., Lacoste D., Laux C.O.: Measurements of N2(A) by pulsed cavity ringdown spectroscopy in repetitively pulsed nanosecond discharges, XVII International Conference on Gas Discharges and their Applications, Cardiff, UK, September 7-12, p. 385-388 (2008). Morvova M., Martisovits V., Morva I., Kosinar I., Janda M., Kunecova D., Kolesarova N., Biskupicova V. and Morvova M. jr.: Non-thermal plasma based system for exhaust treatment in reduced atmosphere of pyrolysis gases, 3rd International School of Advances Plasma Technology, Varenna (Italy), July 28-31, p. 77-88 (2008). Pawłat J., Ihara S., Hensel K., Yamabe C.: Treatment of Surfactants in the Foaming Column, 2nd Central European Symposium on Plasma Chemistry CESPC, Brno (Czech Republic), August 31 - September 4, 138-139 (2008). Sato S., Hensel K., Takashima K., Mizuno A.: Generation Condition of Honeycomb Discharge, 6th Conference of the French Electrostatics Society, Paris (France), July 7-9, 366-371 (2008). Sato S., Hensel K., Takashima K., Mizuno A.: Generation Condition of Discharge in Honeycomb Catalyst, IUMRS International Conference in Asia 2008 (IUMRS-ICA 2008), Nagoya (Japan), December 9-13 (2008). Sato S., Hensel K., Yamauchi H., Takashima K., Mizuno A.: Emission Spectrum of Honeycomb Discharge, 32nd Annual Meeting of Institute of Electrostatics of Japan, Oita (Japan), September 18-19, 143-144 (2008). Stancu G.D., Janda M., Kaddouri F., Pai D., Rolon J.C., Laux C.O.: Two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence study of repetitively pulsed nanosecond discharges in atmospheric pressure air, 39th Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference, Seattle, WA, June 23-26, AIAA 2008-3882 (2008). Stancu G.D., Janda M., Kaddouri F., Spence T.G., Harb C., Lacoste D., Laux C.O.: Study of nanosecond repetetively pulsed discharges in atmospheric air or nitrogen by advanced laser diagnostic techniques, Europhysics Conference on Atomic and Molecular Physics of Ionised Gases (ESCAMPIG), Granada (Spain), July 15-19 (CD-ROM, Topic 5) (2008). Čermák P., Varga J., Macko P., Martišovitš V., Veis P.: Study of nitrogen dielectric barrier discharge at near and over atmospheric pressure by optical emission spectroscopy, 16th Annual Conference of Doctoral Students WDS07, Prague (Czech Republic), June 5-8, p. 101-05 (2007). Hensel K., Sato S.: Elektrické a optické vlastnosti výbojov v sklenných kapilárach, Moderné trendy vo fyzike plazmy a pevných látok III, Bratislava (Slovakia), October 4, 46-49 (2007). Hensel K., Tardiveau P.: ICCD Camera Imaging of Microdischarges in Porous Ceramics, 27th Annual Meeting of Institute of Electrostatics of Japan, Tsukuba (Japan), September 10-11, 5-6 (2007). Hensel K., Tardiveau P.: Vizualizácia mikrovýbojov v poréznych keramikách, Moderné trendy vo fyzike plazmy a pevných látok III, Bratislava (Slovakia), October 4, 43-45 (2007). Leštinský M., Hensel K.: Odstraňovanie NO pomocou mikrovýbojov v poréznych keramikách, Moderné trendy vo fyzike plazmy a pevných látok III, Bratislava (Slovakia), October 4, 82-85 (2007). Leštinský M., Hensel K., Martišovitš V.: Ozone Generation by Microdischarges in Porous Ceramics, 16th Symposium on Applications of Plasma Processes, Podbanské (Slovakia), January 20-25, 217-218 (2007). Sato S., Hensel K., Yamauchi H., Takashima K., Mizuno A.: Emission Spectroscopy of Sliding Discharge inside Quartz Capillary Tubes at Atmospheric Pressure, 27th Annual Meeting of Institute of Electrostatics of Japan, Tsukuba (Japan), September 10-11, 1-2 (2007). Stancu G.D., Janda M., Pai D., Lacoste D.A. and Laux C.O.: Laser-based diagnostics of repetitively pulsed nanosecond discharges in atmospheric pressure air, 7th Cavity Ring Down User meeting, Greifswald, Germany, Book of abstracts, 43 (2007). Janda M., Hensel K., Martišovitš V., Morvová M.: Theoretical Study of the Influence of H2O on Parameters of Low-Temperature Plasma in Humid Mixtures, 22nd Symposium on Plasma Physics and Technology SPPT, Prague (Czech Republic), June 26-29, 39-40 (2006). Pawłat J., Hensel K., Ihara S.: Generation of Liquid Phase Oxidants in Bubbles and Foam, 22nd Symposium on Plasma Physics and Technology SPPT, Prague (Czech Republic), June 26-29, 79-80 (2006). Morvová M., Morva I., Fógelová B.,Obderka M., Lukáč P.: Synergetic Effect of Non-Thermal Plasma Based Systems and Electrolysis for Waste-Water Treatment, Proc. of 15th Symposium on Applications of Plasma Processes and 3rd EU-Japan Joint Symposium on Plasma Processing, Podbanské (Slovakia), January 15-20, 215-216 (2005). Morvová M., Morva I., Hanic F., Košinár I., Amena M., Franček V., Janda M., Fógelová B., Vláčilíková J.: Pyrolýza drevnej hmoty spojená s výrobou tepla, kvapalných a plynných palív a so zabezpečením čistenia exhalátov, Využitie ihličnatej kalamitnej hmoty na energetické účely: odborný seminár s medzinárodnou účasťou, Trenčín, Slovakia, January 17 (2005). Morvová M., Morva I., Hensel K., Košinár I., Lukáč P.: The Removal of CO2, CO, NOx and Nicotine from Tobacco Smoke Using Non-Thermal Plasma System, 15th Symposium on Applications of Plasma Processes and 3rd EU-Japan Joint Symposium on Plasma Processing, Podbanské (Slovakia), January 15-20, 217-218 (2005). Pawłat J., Hensel K., Ihara S.: Decomposition of Humic Acids and Methylene Blue during the Electrical Discharge in Foam, 15th Symposium on Applications of Plasma Processes and 3rd EU-Japan Joint Symposium on Plasma Processing, Podbanské (Slovakia), January 15-20, 229-230 (2005). Hensel K., Matsui Y., Katsura S., Mizuno A.: Generation of Micro-discharge in Porous Material, 21st Symposium on Plasma Physics and Technology SPPT, Prague (Czech Republic), June 14-17, CD-ROM (2004). Matsui Y., Hensel K., Takashima K., Katsura S., Mizuno A.: Micro-discharge in Porous Ceramics, International COE Forum on Plasma Science and Technology, Nagoya (Japan), April 5-7, 65-66 (2004). Morvová M., Morva I., Hensel K., Pawłat J., Košútová Z.: Non-Thermal Plasma Influence on Tobacco Smoke, International COE Forum on Plasma Science and Technology, Nagoya (Japan), April 5-7, 281-282 (2004). Pawłat J., Hensel K.: Discoloration of the Solutions in the Foaming Environment, 21st Symposium on Plasma Physics and Technology SPPT, Prague (Czech Republic), June 14-17, CD-ROM (2004). Sawada J.,Matsui Y., Hensel K., Koyamoto I., Takashima K., Katsura S., Mizuno A.: Microdischarge in Porous Ceramics for Exhaust Gas Cleaning, 5th International Conference on Applied Electrostatics ICAES 2004, Shanghai (China), November 2-5, 128-131 (2004), published in the book 'Recent Development in Applied Electrostatics', editors S. Keping and Y. Gefei, Elsevier (2004). Hensel K., Pawłat J., Mizuno A.: Combination of Plasma and Catalyst for Removal of Formaldehyde, 16th International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry ISPC 16, Taormina (Italy), June 22-27, paper ISPC-215, CD-ROM (2003). Hensel K., Pawłat J., Takashima K., Mizuno A.: Possibilities of Formaldehyde Removal by Discharge Plasma, International Joint Power Generation Conference IJPGC 2003, Georgia (USA), June 15-19, paper IJPGC2003-40149, CD-ROM (2003). Hensel K., Pawłat J., Takashima K., Mizuno A.: Treatment of HCHO Using Corona Discharge and Pellet Catalysts, 30th IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science ICOPS 2003, Cheju (Korea), June 2-5, 276 (2003). Chmielewská E., Morvová M., Vojs M., Gáplovská K: Microporous carbon coated clinoptilolite rich tuff carrier vs. Other related materials for phenol removal, 3er Congreso Mexicano de Zeolitas Naturales - Zacatecas, 9.-12.11.2003, MX, Universidad Autonoma metropolitana, pp. 46-49 (2003). Morvová M., Morva I., Hanic F.: The Model for Origin of Life due to Exhaust Utilisation in Electric Discharge, 16th International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry, Taormina, Italy June 22-27, (2003). Morvová M., Morva I., Janda M., Hanic F., Lukáč P.: Non-thermal plasma technique applied to waste carbonisation, 16th International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry, Edited by R. d´Agostino, P. Favia, F. Fracassi, F. Palumbo, Taormina, Italy, June 22-27, Book of Abstracts (2003). Morvová M., Svetková K, Fógelová B., Janda M., Hanic F., Morva I., Lukáč P.: Non-thermal Plasma Technique Applied to Waste Carbonization, 16th International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry, Taormina, Italy June 22-27, Abstracts and full papers CD (2003). Pawłat J., Hensel K., Yamabe C., Mizuno A.: Possibilities of VOC Treatment in Cylindrical Foaming Reactor, 16th International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry ISPC 16, Taormina (Italy), June 22-27, paper ISPC-251, CD-ROM (2003). Pawłat J., Hensel K., Yamabe C., Mizuno A.: Cylindrical Foaming Reactor - Electrical Discharge in Foam Bubbles, International Joint Power Generation Conference IJPGC 2003, Georgia (USA), June 15-19, paper IJPGC2003-40163, CD-ROM (2003). Pawłat J., Hensel K., Yamabe C., Mizuno A.: Acetaldehyde Treatment in Foaming Column, 30th IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science ICOPS 2003, Cheju (Korea), June 2-5, 276 (2003). Morvová M., Majková E., Dubničková A.Z.: Education and employment for women in physics in Slovakia, AIP Conference Proceedings, Paris, 7.-9.3.2002, AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol.628, Paris-IUPAP, pp.215-216 (2002). Morvová M., Morva I., Lukáč P., Hanic F.: Plasmochemical reactions in electrical discharges for environmental applications, Invited lecture in 1st International Conference on Global Research and Education, Bratislava, Slovakia, Conference Proceedings pp.45-52, September 23-26 (2002). Hensel K., Hayashi N., Yamabe C., Morvová M.: Spectroscopic Study of Positive Corona Discharge in Mixtures Containing N2, NO, CO2, O2 and H2O, 25th International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases XXV ICPIG, Nagoya (Japan), July 17-21, vol.4, 19-23 (2001). Hensel K., Hayashi N., Yamabe C., Morvová M.: Spectroscopic Study of Positive Corona Discharge in Mixtures Containing N2, NO, CO2, O2 and H2O, 3rd International Symposium on Non-thermal Plasma Technology for Pollution Control ISPNT-3, Seogwipo (Korea), April 23-27, 219-222 (2001). Hensel K., Ihara S., Satoh S., Hayashi N., Yamabe C., Morvová M.: The Effect of Water on the Positive Streamer Corona Discharge in N2-NO-CO2 Mixtures, 2nd Polish-Japanese Hakone Group Symposium on Non-thermal Plasma Processing of Water and Air, Nagoya (Japan), July 23-24, 72-76 (2001). Hensel K., Yamabe C., Morvová M.: The Analysis of Dry and Wet Gas Mixtures Containing NOx-CO2 Treated by Positive DC Streamer Corona Discharge, 4th International Conference on Applied Electrostatics, Dalian (China), October 8-12, 288-291 (2001). Morvová M., Morva I., Janda M.: Utilisation of CO2, fixation of nitrogen and exhaust gas cleaning in electric discharge with electrode catalysis, APP Spring meeting in Diagnostic of Non-Equilibrium High Pressure Plasmas, Bad Honnef, Germany, February 18-21, 209-212, (2001). Morvová M., Morva I., Lukáč P.: Plasmochemical Reactions in Electric Discharges, 14th Symposium FSO, Ed. Brno Technological University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences, Book of Invited Lectures, pp.238-251 (2001). Hensel K., Yamabe C.: Spectroscopic Study of Corona Discharge in N2-NO-CO2 Mixtures, 10th Asian Conference on Electrical Discharge ACED-2000, Kyoto (Japan), November 6-7, paper A-118, 103-106 (2000). Hensel K., Yamabe C., Morvová M.: Corona Discharge in NOx-COx, 3rd International Symposium on Electromagnetic Devices And Processes In Environment Protection ELMECO 2000, Lublin (Poland), June 4-6, 15 (2000). Hensel K., Yamabe C., Morvová M.: Some Aspects of Corona Discharge in Mixtures Containing NOx-COx, 1999 Japan-Korea Joint Symposium on Electrical Discharge and High Voltage Engineering, Kitakyushu (Japan), October 25-26, 141-143 (1999). Morvová M., Morva I., Hanic F.: Single Step Removal of CO2 Incorporating CO2 and Nitrogen Fixation from Gas Phase in Electric Discharge, Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, Editors: P.Riemer, B. Eliason, and A. Wokaun, Elsevier Science Ltd., 137-142 (1999). Morvová M., Morva I., Janda M.: Utilisation of CO2, fixation of nitrogen and exhaust gas cleaning in electric discharge with electrode catalysis, 3th Czech-Rusian Seminar on Electrophysical and Thermochemical Processes in Low Temperature Plasma, Brno, Czech Republic, November 16-19, 100-103 (1999). Morvová M., Hanic F., Morva I.: Chemical and physical processes in conversion of the geseous system CO2-N2-H2O into solid condensate of amino acids, Book of contributed papers from 11th Symposium on elementary processes and chemical reactions in low temperature plasma, Part 2, pp. 237-241, Ed.Morvová M.&K.Hensel, JSMF, ISBN 80-967454-8-4 (1998). Morvová M., Morva I., Košútová Z.: Corona discharge effects on tobacco smoke, Book of contributed papers from 11th Symposium on elementary processes and chemical reactions in low temperature plasma, Part 2, pp. 232-236, Ed.Morvová M.&K.Hensel, JSMF, ISBN 80-967454-8-4 (1998). Morvová M., Gašparík R., Hensel K., Švehla B.: Simultaneous Removal of SiF4 and NOx Using Corona Discharge, 5th International Symposium on High Pressure Low Temperature Plasma Chemistry HAKONE V, Mílovy (Czech Republic), September 2-4, 92-96 (1996). Ružinská E., Kurdel M., Morvová M.: Influence of DC corona discharge with one electrode deep in water on the mixture of combustion products of natural gas with natural gas, Book of Contributed Papers from V. International Symposium on High Pressure Low Temperature Plasma Chemistry HAKONE V, pp. 290-294, Mílovy, September 2-4 (1996). Hensel K., Morvová M.: Conversion of NOx in Corona Discharge with Inner Electrode Material Variation, 30th Nordic Plasma and Gas Discharge Symposium, Geilo (Norway), February 5-8 (1995). Trnovec J., Martišovitš V., Košinár I., Juráni R.: In situ monitoring of plasma etching and deposition by using the gas pressure difference, 12th International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry, Mineapolis, USA, August 21-25, p. 379-384 (1995). Hensel K., Morvová M.: Removal of NOx in Corona Discharge at the Atmospheric Pressure with Inner Electrode Material Variation, 10th Symposium on Elementary Processes and Chemical Reactions in Low Temperature Plasma, Stará Lesná (Slovakia), September 5-9, 18 (1994). Morvová M.: The effect of dc corona discharge with various electrode materials on exhaust components, Book of invited papers from 10th Symposium on elementary processes and chemical reactions in low temperature plasma, pp.155-183, Stará Lesná, High Tatras, September 5.-9. (1994). Šimko T., Martišovitš V., Bretagne J.: On the accuracy of the Wannier formula during nonstationary period of ionic transport, 12th ESCAMPIG, Noordwijkerhout, NL, August 23-26, p. 258-259 (1994). Morvová M., Kurdel M., Morva I.: The Plasmochemical and Electrocatalytical Effects of Corona Discharge of Both Polarities on CO and CO2 Mixtures with Air for Various Materials of Electrodes, Book of Contributed Papers from IV International Symposium on High Pressure Low Temperature Plasma Chemistry HAKONE IV, pp.159-164, Bratislava, August 30th-September 1st (1993). Morvová M., Morva I., Kurdel M.: Corona Discharge Action on Combustion Exhausts, Book of Contributed Papers from IV International Symposium on High Pressure Low Temperature Plasma Chemistry HAKONE IV, pp. 93-98, Bratislava, August 30th-September 1st (1993). Morvová M., Morva I., Kurdel M.: Corona discharge action on combustion exhaust, Book of Contributed Papers from IV International Symposium on High Pressure Low Temperature Plasma Chemistry HAKONE IV, pp.93-98, Bratislava, August 30th-September 1st (1993). Morvová M., Morva I.: Denox and desox by corona discharge, 8th Symposium on Elementary Processes and Chemical reaction in Low Temperature Plasma, Book of Contributed Papers, pp.45-49, JSMF, Bratislava (1990). Martišovitš V., Košinár I.: Effect of the two - stage ionization on radial transport of charged and metastable particles, International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases, Minsk, Soviet Union, July 14-18, p. 745 (1981). Košinár I., Martišovitš V., Veis: Effect of boundary conditions on radial transport of metastable atoms in a positive column, International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases, Berlin, Germany, September 12-17, p. 233 (1977). Martišovitš V., Košinár I., Tarábek P., Veis Š.: Destruction of metastable atoms by electron impact in the argon and neon positive column, European Conference on Atomic and Milecular Physics of Ionized Gases : ESCAMPIG, Bratislava, Slovakia, August 24-26, p. 94-95 (1976). Martišovitš V., Košinár I., Tarábek P., Veis: An experimental study of metastable atom flux to the tube wall in an argon positive column of glow discharge, International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases, Eindhoven, NL, August 18-22, p. 59 (1975). Martišovitš V., Košinár I., Veis: A theoretical study of metastable atom diffusion in a positive column of glow discharge, International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases, Eindhoven, NL, August 18-22, p. 60 (1975). Martišovitš V.: The ion current to the discharge tube wall in a positive column of an argon discharge, International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases, Prague, Czechoslovakia, September 10-14, p. 140 (1973). Martišovitš V.: Mobilities of ions in the parent gas over a wide range of values of E/N, International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases, Vol. 1 Contributed Papers, Oxford, GB, September 13-18, p. 3 (1971). Martišovitš V.: Pressure dependence of "neutral flow" effusing from an argon positive column, International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases, Vol. 1 Contributed Papers, Oxford, GB, September 13-18, p. 122 (1971). Martišovitš V., Červeňan: Time - resolved measurements of a "neutral flow" effusing from an argon positive column, ICPIG 1971: 10 th International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases, Oxford , 13.-18.9.1971. GB, September 13-18, p. 123 (1971). Martišovitš V.: Kineatic energy distribution for ions reaching the wall of the discharge tube at the low-pressure regime, 4th Czechoslovak Conference on Electronics and Vacuum Physics, Prague, Czechoslovakia, October 7-12, p. 161 (1968). Martišovitš V.: Die Anwendung des Hochfrequenz - massenspektrometers zur Untersuchung der Glimmentlandung, 3rd Czechoslovak Conference on Electronics and Vacuum Physics Transaction, Prague, Czechoslovakia, September 23-28, p. 103 (1965).

2019-04-21T04:33:28Z

http://enviro.fmph.uniba.sk/index.php?lang=english&link=publications&more_info=older

The modern society is characterized by an unprecedented level of development. The technologies and social progress have made human life incomparably better than the life of people at any other epoch before. However, nowadays it is getting to be obvious that the mankind has a high price to pay for this progress which threatens to the future existence of humans as well as the life at large on the Earth. In fact, this is natural environment that humans probably unconsciously sacrifice for the sake of the progress. Nonetheless, nowadays, people grow more and more conscious of the importance of the problem of environmental protection as environmental problems have become really international. Unquestionably, environmental problems cannot be located in a definite region or state but they inevitably affect the entire world and, thus, need united efforts of all nations throughout the world to get these problems solved. The necessity of the solution of environmental problems is nowadays practically unarguable and world political and economic leaders as well as numerous public and international organizations underline that it is necessary to work out effective tools to solve environmental problems, or at least, minimize their negative effects. Paradoxically, despite the recognition of the threat to the future of the world and mankind on the international level, the international environmental problems still remained unresolved or the efforts to solve them are insufficient. Consequently, it is possible to presuppose that there are serious obstacles in the way of solving the existing international environmental problem, which need to be researched in order to eliminate them. Before discussing the main obstacles that slow down the solution of international environmental problems, it is necessary to briefly dwell upon the major problems and find out its basic causes in order to better understand what the obstacles actually are. First of all, it should be said that nowadays the world community face a serious problem of exhaustion of natural resources that leads to numerous environmental problems which are international by nature as they affect the entire world. Among the most serious problems the mankind faces today may be named deforestation, acid precipitation and air pollution, rapid population growth, desertification, global warming, depletion of atmospheric ozone, ocean pollution, food production and equitable distribution. It is necessary to underline that all these problems are closely interlinked and are interdependent. For instance, the growth of population leads to the higher need in food production that results in the enlargement of agricultural lands, the latter may gradually lead to desertification and deforestation of lands. Or else, the acid precipitation and air pollution, along with ocean pollution and depletion of atmospheric ozone lead to the global climate change resulting in the global warming. Unquestionably, the major cause of environmental problems is human activity and, what is more, the most harmful is the growing economic activity of people which lead to larger exploitation of natural resources, industrialization of practically all regions and, consequently, to the growing pollution of the environment. In this respect, it should be mentioned that economic progress is traditionally associated with the industrialization, even though the leading countries are entering the post-industrial stage of the development, it does not necessarily mean that the level of pollution in these countries is getting lower, while developing countries still have to undergo the stage of industrialization to approach the developed countries in the standards and quality of life. In such a situation, environment becomes a hostage of economic progress. The rapidly deteriorating environmental situation poses new challenges that need to be solved and, thus, the world community has to unite its efforts in order to solve these problems. Naturally, the international community attempts to make certain efforts to solve the existing environmental problems. In this respect, it is worthy of mention 1972 Stockholm’s Conference, June 1992 Rio Conference on Environment, 2002 Johannesburg’s Conference on the Environment, which targeted at the development of the effective strategy of solving international environmental problems but, nonetheless, the effectiveness of these international efforts remains extremely low. Naturally, in such a situation it is necessary to find out the basic causes of the low effectiveness of international problems in solving international environmental problems. Obviously, it cannot be just the lack of political will or desire to minimize the negative impact of humans on environment and solve environmental problems. In fact, the major obstacles in the way of solving international environmental problems are more profound and quite objective. First of all, it should be said that one of the main obstacles is the existing model of implementation of international environmental treaties. In fact, nowadays, each state has its own environmental policy and its own vision of the solution of environmental problems. Moreover, it is practically impossible to force a state to sign an international environmental treaty without its will to do it. As a result, international environmental treaties are signed only by those states that agree to comply with them, while others can simply ignore them. Naturally, such a situation cannot contribute to the effective solution of international environmental problems since a single state or a group of state cannot solve the problems which are really global since it is impossible to decrease air pollution, for instance, when some states keep increase it. The same may be said about practically any global problem. In this respect, it is worthy of mention that the US, for instance, being one of the largest states that causes a serious harm to the environment, still refuses from Kyoto Protocol which is supported by European countries and Japan and it targets at the prevention of negative consequences of industrial pollution of the environment. Obviously, the solution of international environmental problems should be based on the acceptance of important decisions concerning environmental protection by all states without exception, including the most developed and powerful ones. Another serious obstacle in the way of solving international environmental problems is closely related to the previous one and, to a significant extent, defines it. To put it more precisely, regardless numerous conferences, researches, declarations and agreements, there are still no international police force to enforce such agreements and, as such, compliance to provisions and obligations of international environmental agreements depends on the good face of the states. Moreover, there are no punishments or rewards to check compliance. Practically, it means that all the treaties signed by states are formal and are not obligatory. Naturally, such an attitude to environmental problems cannot lead to their effective solution. It is obvious that any decision needs to be accepted by all responsible parties in order to be implemented effectively. This is why, in the current situation, the existing treaties and agreements simply turn to be totally useless as long as there is no effective tools and mechanisms that could change the attitude of states to their own responsibilities defined by international environmental agreements. In actuality, practically all those treaties and agreements, even being signed by many states, rather resemble declarations than real efforts of states to solve the existing environmental problems. Beyond doubts, international treaties and agreements are the basis of the general struggle with the existing environmental problems but, at the same time, it is necessary to construct an effective system of the practical implementation of these treaties and agreements. In such a way, it will be possible to create mechanisms which regulate the responsibility of each state that signs an international environmental treaty or agreement and develop an effective system of control over the fulfillment of the treaties and agreements. In fact, control is probably the key issue since nowadays there are practically no legal mechanisms which could force a state to fulfill its obligations in accordance with international environmental treaties. Obviously, the modern world lacks international institutions that could really focus on the development of effective ways of solving environmental problems and, moreover, control each state in order to realize the programs targeting at the solution of environmental problems on the international level. However, there is even a more serious obstacle in the way of solving international environmental problems. This is the enormous gap that exists between countries in the modern world. In this respect, it should be said that the leaders of rich and poor countries have different perspectives not only on environmental problems but also on their causes and ways of solving. Practically, it means that often poor countries underline that their contribution in the pollution of the environment is incomparably lower than that of developed countries. As a result, they view developed countries as the main source of the environmental pollution and many of the existing international environmental problems. Furthermore, the level of economic development of poor and rich countries is absolutely different that also influences the perspective they view environmental problems. In fact, poor countries are often unable to cope not only with international environmental problems but even with the environmental problems on the local level basically because of the lack of financial resources, technologies and professionals. On the other hand, rich countries, being able to improve dramatically the situation within their own territory are not always willing to help poorer states to overcome existing environmental problems even though it is clear that these problems affect the entire world directly or not. No wonder that poor and rich countries also argues about the possible ways of solving international environmental problems. For instance, at the Rio Conference of 1992, poor developing countries emphasized development and global equity concerns while the rich industrialized countries emphasized issues related to international governance of environment. Naturally, the difference in the position of poor and rich countries can be logically explained. Obviously, developing countries, being economically poor, realize that they have a bunch of socio-economic problems which, at the present moment, are much more significant and important than environmental ones. Consequently, they would rather focus on the solution of socio-economic problems than on environmental ones. Moreover, even if they are willing to solve environmental problems, they, as it has been just mentioned above, do not have either financial or technological resources to solve them. As a result, they naturally appeal to the international community, notably to rich countries, hoping from international support in their efforts of solving environmental problems in terms of international treaties, for instance. On the other hand, rich countries, having sufficient financial, technological and professional human resources, are more concerned about the effective use of these resources. Unquestionably, they can fully control the use of funds they spend on the solution of international environmental problems on their own territory in terms of some international programs. Obviously, they can help either financially or technologically poor countries, but this is where the major problems begin. In fact, often it is quite difficult to trace the way the financial help, for instance, was used by the government of a developing country, or any organization in this country. Anyway, there is the risk that financial or even technological help would be misused or simply stolen out. At the same time, environmental protection is really expansive and needs a lot of funds. In fact, the more developed the country is the more expansive is the environmental protection. In this respect, it is possible again to refer to the refusal of the US to sign the Kyoto Protocol because it is obvious that the fulfillment of its norms will lead to enormous financial losses of American company as well as federal budget. As a result, developed countries are more concerned on the effective governance of the fulfillment of existing international treaties, agreements, and programs since it is mainly developed countries that pay for the environmental protection worldwide. In fact, there are a variety of obstacles that interfere in the process of solving international environmental problems but the roots of many of these obstacles may be found in the national interests of states which define their policy both domestic and foreign, including environment-related issues. On analyzing the obstacles in the way of solving international environmental issues, it is getting to be obvious that they always take a back seat to national interests. In actuality, the policy of any state is defined by its national interests that are always of the primary importance to any state. This is why taking part in any international programs, conferences and signing international treaties or agreements the decisions made by countries are always governed by the main condition whether the decision the state takes correspond to its national interests or not. In this respect, it is possible to estimate that nowadays national interests remain prior to international problems. Actually, this a historical trend that apparently needs to be overcome for it makes the international efforts in the way of solving international environmental problems absolutely ineffective. In fact, the problem is that political leaders cannot overcome their probably innate fear to lose the political, economic or military struggle on the international arena and, in such a situation, the level of development of a country is of little importance. As the solution of international environmental problems implies the participation of the entire world community this means that it will also need reciprocal efforts from the part of all countries. However, it is impossible to solve the existing international environmental problems without economic and political losses that mean a serious threat to national interests. As it has been already said, the prevention of environmental pollution is expansive. Moreover, the modern economy of all countries of the world is historically oriented on the exploitation of natural resources and, consequently, it cannot be immediately redirected on the environmentally friendly technologies. Such a shift would be strategically important but, at the same time, it would immediately affect national interests of states. For instance, the decrease of oil and natural gas consumption would lead to a substantial shift in industrial structure in economies of many countries since it will be necessary to find new sources of energy that means additional researches, development of new technologies and their implementation, and all this need will need additional funding. Moreover, it would probably make new products more expansive and, thus, less competitive and again this is a direct threat to national interests. Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible to conclude that nowadays environmental problems are extremely serious and, what is more, not a single country is able to solve environmental problems alone without support and participation of other countries. Moreover, the only possibly way of solving environmental problems is the close international cooperation which should not be declarative but really effective and practically applicable. This means that important decision and programs developed and accepted on the international level should be practically implemented under the meticulous control of the world community, i.e. under the control of international organizations that could have authority to punish or reward countries for their environmental policy. However, this is rather an ideal view on the solution of international environmental problems that nowadays face numerous obstacles many of which result from the protection of national interests of each state regardless the interests of the entire world.

2019-04-24T08:17:00Z

https://richardleeharris.net/

A Pakistani man whose father was killed by a US drone strike is to appeal a judgement handed down today in a case seeking to determine the legality of intelligence sharing in relation to GCHQ assistance in CIA drone strikes. Reprieve counsel Clive Stafford Smith, working with Florida co-counsel Ben Kuehne and Susan Dmitrovsky, today filed a further challenge to Kris Maharaj’s convictions, seeking to overturn the US federal rule that his innocence cannot be considered a substantive reason to order his release. Prosecutors in Bali announced today that they will seek a 15 year prison sentence for British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford, who was arrested earlier this year on drugs charges. Ken Clarke, the minister responsible for the Justice and Security Bill, today admitted that the secret courts it proposes could be used in cases where forces families bring claims for negligence against the government. The Government is to push ahead with plans for secret courts tomorrow, despite recent opposition ranging from the widow of a soldier who is bringing a negligence claim against the MoD to a family ‘rendered’ to Gaddafi’s Libya by UK intelligence. Comedian Frankie Boyle today joined Reprieve to announce that the last remaining British resident in Guantanamo Bay is suing the intelligence services for defamation. Sami al Saadi, a leading Gaddafi opponent, was forced on board a plane in Hong Kong – having sought for years to avoid the agents of the Libyan dictator –with his wife and four young children in a joint UK-US-Libyan operation. Commenting on the Prime Minister's claims – in defence of the Justice and Security ("Secret Courts") Bill – that the Government is currently having to pay compensation because it cannot fight cases in court and sometimes has to settle with some "unsavoury people," Reprieve's Executive Director, Clare Algar said: "The reality is that the Government has settled cases because there has been clear evidence they were mixed up in serious human rights abuses." Ms Sandiford, a 56 year old grandmother from Teeside, was arrested in May this year on drugs charges which could see her facing the death penalty. The President of the UK Supreme Court has given a speech emphasising the importance of open justice and publicly-available judgments – just as the Government continues with its attempt to push through secret courts plans which would threaten both. Ultimately, the only way to safeguard our centuries-old tradition of open and equal justice is to kick out these dangerous plans for secret courts altogether. According to a new report launched today [Tuesday, November 20th] Pakistan saw a threefold increase in death sentences handed down for drug offences between 2009 and 2011. The report's findings will raise concern for British national Khadija Shah who is currently facing the death penalty in Pakistan where she is imprisoned with her newborn baby. The Government is refusing to publish legal advice it has taken on whether its plans for secret courts conflict with the right to a fair trial, claiming that the “public interest” requires that it is kept secret. The Prime Minister seems determined to hamstring the courts when it comes to holding ministers accountable for their actions. South Dakota is joined by Pennsylvania, now the second state set to kill a prisoner using so-called ‘DIY drugs’ – produced in a compounding pharmacy of the same type thought to be responsible for the recent meningitis outbreak in the US. The Government’s plans for secret courts are incompatible with both the centuries-old common law right to a fair trial and the European Convention on Human Rights, a government watchdog has warned. A British woman facing the death penalty in Pakistan, who is being held in jail along with her newborn baby girl, is due to appear in court tomorrow (November 1st). Prison authorities in South Dakota are refusing to release information on contaminated drugs made to order for an execution tonight (Tuesday 30 October). A two day court hearing begins today (Tuesday) into a legal challenge brought against the UK’s reported policy of support for CIA drone strikes in Pakistan. The Government’s reviewer of terrorism legislation today agreed that British judges would be “fettered” by plans for secret courts currently before Parliament. Two Libyan families whom Britain rendered to the regime of Col. Gaddafi have filed the first evidence in their cases against the UK government. The evidence was lodged with the High Court Tuesday afternoon. All defendants in the case - the government, former counter-terror head Sir Mark Allen, and former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw - now have 27 days to respond. The UK Government has been threatened with legal action over its failure to stop the export of drone components which may be used by the CIA to carry out its illegal campaign in Pakistan. Reprieve’s Founder Clive Stafford Smith has asked Barack Obama for a guarantee that an international protest march through North West Pakistan will not be hit by the CIA’s Predator drones. Health care company, Fresenius Kabi, has announced that it has put in place a comprehensive system of distribution controls to prevent its product from being used off-label to carry out executions by lethal injection. Drones “terrorising” men, women and children in Pakistan, US academics find. Guantanamo prisoner's uncle files complaint with the French government over torture Mr Ahmed Hadjarab, a French citizen, filed a criminal complaint with the French government last week over his nephew Nabil’s continuing imprisonment and torture in Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve’s investigations have indicated that Portuguese airports in continental Europe and the Azores played a key logistical role in the secret prisons network, as common stop-off and refuelling points before and after prisoner transfers. Today the European Parliament adopted by an overwhelming majority a new resolution condemning the role of European states in the CIA's secret detention and torture programme. Reprieve releases new information showing how renditions contractor Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) arranged covert flights connecting Lithuania to other countries in the CIA’s secret prison network, including Morocco and Afghanistan - ahead of the European Parliament's debate on renditions. A major new Human Rights Watch report on rendition published today "makes the case against the introduction of secret courts, which would cover up UK complicity in torture and rendition, stronger than ever." Why is new Justice Secretary not responsible for key justice Bill? A new Justice Secretary gives the Government the chance to drop its dangerous plans for secret courts, says Reprieve's Executive Director. The very existence of secret courts currently being legislated for by the Government may itself be a secret, it has emerged. A judge in Pakistan has dismissed concerns that the continued imprisonment of a heavily pregnant British woman is endangering the health of her and her baby, claiming that she is “better off” in a prison which was this week hit by an outbreak of tuberculosis. A heavily pregnant British woman is being denied bail in Pakistan, and faces giving birth in prison in around a month’s time as a result. A US federal appeals court has offered new hope to a Virginia death row inmate, ruling that compelling evidence of his innocence must be considered further before he is killed. The victims of deadly drone strikes in Pakistan are today questioning the British government's apparent failure to regulate companies seeking to profit from the CIA's illegal targeted killing programme. Major Olympic sponsor GE is facing calls to honour the ‘Olympic truce’ by acting to stop the use of its drone components in strikes carried out by the US in Pakistan and Yemen. The Peshawar High Court has ordered Pakistan's Government to produce a record of all those killed in drone strikes in North and South Waziristan. Two Gaddafi opponents who were rendered along with their families by the US and UK to pre-revolutionary Libya have for the first time given evidence to London’s Metropolitan Police. The Government this week confirmed that plans for secret courts would extend to challenges against detention without charge or trial – known as habeas corpus proceedings. Londoner Shaker Aamer may have been among those forcibly administered "mind-altering drugs" by the US military, either as part of an interrogation or as a de facto disciplinary measure - tactics revealed in a recently-declassified Pentagon report. The European Parliament’s Justice Committee has demanded that European countries make greater efforts to investigate CIA renditions and secret prisons on their territory. The UK Government has this week decided to impose strict export controls on the anaesthetic propofol, following the revelation that American prisons planned to use the medicine to execute prisoners. The British Government will today be forced to answer for its ongoing failure to assist Yunus Rahmatullah, a prisoner seized by UK forces in Iraq and subsequently illegally rendered to Afghanistan where he has been held for eight years without charge or trial. New flight data unearthed and analysed by Reprieve has revealed glaring holes in the Romanian Parliament’s so-called ‘Inquiry’ into CIA secret detention and rendition flights on Romanian soil. The British Medical Association’s annual meeting today called for an end to the use of medicines in executions, and controls on the distribution and export of drugs used for this purpose. Expert lawyers today warned that the Government’s controversial plans for secret courts would create a “statutory straitjacket” for judges – contradicting ministers’ claims that judges will always have the “final decision” over the use of closed procedures. In the first of a series of releases, Reprieve today highlights the corporations behind the extraordinary rendition of "high value detainee" Abu Zubaydah from Thailand to a secret prison in Poland on 5 December 2002. A new House of Lords report has warned that measures in the Justice and Security Bill would allow ministers to reverse key ‘concessions’ – notably over inquests – which they claim to have made to controversial plans for closed courts. A teenager who was rendered at age twelve by the UK to Gaddafi's Libya has compared Ken Clarke's secret court plans to her experience of 'justice' under Gaddafi, whereby the Security Services would "whisper in the ear of the judge" evidence used to convict her father. The Justice and Security Bill has been published today. The government claims to have made significant concessions. In fact, none of these touch the heart of the bill, which is designed to place our Security Services above the law and keep torture and rendition out of open court. A new project which brings together all the available data on hundreds of victims of rendition, torture and secret detention launches online today. A judge in the final appeal hearing of Ivan Teleguz, who is facing the death penalty in Virginia despite key witnesses having renounced their testimony against him, has said it would be “more humane” to allow him to present evidence of his innocence. Reprieve has today released a new video aimed at helping pharmaceutical companies unwillingly caught up in the US death penalty system. A Ukrainian prisoner will make a last-ditch attempt to convince a US court of his innocence today, after the prosecution's key witnesses admitted to lying in his original trial. The former head of the CIA’s counter-terrorism centre has warned against turning Yemen into “the Arabian equivalent of Waziristan” with drone strikes. The Algerian government's arbitrary imprisonment of an innocent man continued today as its parliamentary elections were met by notably low voter turnout. An Islamabad-based legal charity has today launched legal action against the Pakistani Government in Peshawar's High Court on behalf of the victims of a deadly CIA drone strike in March 2012. US hospitals are facing shortages of a key medicine used in surgical anaesthesia as death rows stockpile the same drug for use in executions, new figures have shown. Investors in IT and security giant Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) are being warned over the company’s involvement in the CIA’s illegal programme of rendition and torture. An Algerian judge this week arbitrarily denied bail to a former Guantánamo detainee, despite his meeting all of the bail requirements set out in the country’s penal procedures code. This weekend, CODEPINK, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Reprieve hosted the International Drone Summit in Washington, DC. This weekend's international Drone Summit aims to bring transparency and the rule of law to the CIA’s covert targeted killing programme in Pakistan and beyond. After months of pressure from lawyers and activists, the US government has this week granted Pakistani human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar a visa to attend and speak at an International Drone Summit in Washington DC on April 28, 2012. Virginia’s executioners are not even checking that prisoners are properly anaesthetised before injecting them with lethal chemicals which can cause excruciating pain, according to new documents filed by lawyers. Lawyers for a Pakistani student whose civilian father was killed in a drone strike have taken further legal action over the British Government’s refusal to come clean on its policy of providing intelligence to support the CIA’s illegal programme. Representatives of a prisoner tortured by the CIA and held without charge or trial for 10 years will today (Thursday) meet prosecutors to discuss charges against former senior members of the Polish intelligence services for complicity in his abuse. The US state of Virginia is pressing ahead with plans to execute Ivan Teleguz, despite the near total collapse of the case against him after the prosecution’s two key witnesses admitted lying in court. An Islamabad court will hand down judgment tomorrow (Tuesday) over the Pakistani police’s failure to investigate two reports by Pakistani citizens on the murder of innocent civilians by CIA unmanned aerial vehicles (drones). The US government has failed to grant a visa to Pakistani lawyer Shahzad Akbar, effectively blocking his appearance at an International Drone Summit in Washington DC on April 28. An Islamabad Court will hand down judgment tomorrow (Thursday) over the Pakistani police’s failure to investigate two reports by Pakistani citizens on the murder of innocent civilians by CIA unmanned aerial vehicles (drones). Prime Minister David Cameron has today been urged to take action in the case of Joshua French, a British national facing execution in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) has released a report, rejecting the Government's proposals in the Justice and Security Green Paper as "inherently unfair". Lawyers for the Head of the Tripoli Military Council, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, have announced that they are extending their legal action against the British Government and its security forces, for the alleged illegal rendition of Mr Belhadj and his wife to Libya in 2004, to include the Commissioner for the British Indian Ocean Territory. On 10 April 2012 the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in the case of Babar Ahmad and Others v The United Kingdom, concluding that there would be no violation of the European Convention on Human Rights if the United Kingdom extradited the applicants to the United States. The Joint Committee on Human Rights has today attacked the Government’s Green Paper on Justice and Security for using “vague predictions” and “spurious assertions” to justify dangerous changes to the legal system. Reprieve’s Crofton Black this week gave evidence to the European Parliament on new developments in his European renditions accountability investigation. Lundbeck has become the first recipient of a new Corporate Social Responsibility Award for Ethical Leadership in the Pharmaceutical Industry. The Award, which was presented to Lundbeck’s Chief Executive Officer, Ulf Wiinberg by legal action charity Reprieve, is given in recognition of the steps the company has taken to prevent the use of its medicines in executions in the USA. A federal judge yesterday banned the import of a key anaesthetic used in lethal injections, in a major blow to US execution chambers desperate for supplies. Leading pharmaceutical company Lundbeck has become the first to sign up to a new ‘Pharmaceutical Hippocratic oath’ for the industry which condemns the use of drugs in executions. On the 10th anniversary of the CIA's seizure of its torture ‘guinea pig’ Abu Zubaydah, Poland has emerged as the first government to charge one of its own officials over the abuse of prisoners in the European secret prison system. Commenting on MP David Davis' speech to the House of Commons tonight, in which he outlined how the US and UK have attempted to suppress embarrassing information in the name of 'national security,' and challenged the Government over its plans set out in the Green Paper on Justice and Security, Reprieve's Executive Director, Clare Algar said: "This demonstrates just how ready the intelligence services are to cry national security in order to cover up their own embarrassment." Reprieve has today released an analysis of the case of Binyam Mohamed v Foreign and Commonwealth Office aimed at debunking the dangerous myths around the case. In a Tirana press conference today, Reprieve's Katie Taylor will describe how the Albanian authorities are unnecessarily preventing the return home of an innocent former ex-Guantánamo prisoner to Egypt. Legal action charity Reprieve has today launched a campaign calling on pharmaceutical companies to sign a ‘Pharmaceutical Hippocratic oath’ under which they pledge not to become involved in executions by lethal injection. The Lahore High Court on Wednesday 21st March ordered Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to immediately write to the government of the United States demanding details about seven Pakistani nationals currently detained in Afghanistan at Bagram Airbase, including the reasons for their arrest and the legal charges levelled against them. "Having failed to win the public argument the security services have retreated to the secret lunch. This is not an acceptable basis on which to simply junk our centuries-old tradition of open justice." Reprieve and solicitors Leigh Day & Co have announced that they will be issuing formal legal proceedings this week against the UK Foreign Secretary on behalf of Noor Khan, whose father was killed last year in a drone strike on a Jirga – or council of elders – in North West Pakistan. The Justice Secretary today admitted that he was “unsettled” by the response of a group of expert lawyers to the Government’s controversial secret justice plans. Poland’s authorities have, without warning, moved crucial evidence of a secret CIA prison to an undisclosed location, in what appears to be a last ditch attempt to impede human rights lawyers working on the case. The former Director of Public Prosecutions has today warned that the Government's plans to introduce secret court proceedings in civil cases are an audacious attack on Britain's justice system, and risk placing the Government above the law. Relatives of children killed and injured by CIA drone strikes in Pakistan have today filed a complaint against the USA with the United Nations. The British Government has been reported to the police over war crimes in Iraq, following its failure to secure the release of a prisoner rendered to Afghanistan and held without charge or trial for eight years. The British Government could face investigation over war crimes committed in the rendition of prisoners during the Iraq war unless it can secure the release of a detainee from Bagram prison, Afghanistan, by this (Monday) morning. The British Government could face investigation over war crimes committed in the rendition of prisoners during the Iraq war, unless it can persuade the US to honour agreements governing detainee transfers within the week. Today marks ten years since Londoner Shaker Aamer was transferred to the US military prison in Guantánamo Bay, where he has since been abused and held in punishing isolation but never charged with any crime. An Islamabad-based human rights charity has today called on Pakistan’s Government to demand the adoption of a UN resolution requiring that the USA stops carrying out drone strikes in its country. Two Libyans who were rendered by Britain into the hands of the Gaddafi regime in 2004 are to sue Sir Mark Allen, the former MI6 director who apparently played a central role in organising the operation. An Algerian citizen who was detained for eight years in Guantánamo Bay without charge or trial has been imprisoned again, after the US authorities returned him to Algeria despite his pleas that he would face arbitrary detention there. Іван Телегуз народився в 1978 році в маленькому містечку Кам'янка, яке на той час було розташоване на території Радянського Союзу, а зараз – на Західній Україні. Reprieve today welcomes the Government's announcement that it will not go ahead with the flawed Gibson Inquiry, and will set up a new inquiry once police investigations into UK collusion in Libya renditions have concluded. Response to today's joint statement by the Crown Prosecution Service and the Metropolitan Police on investigations into UK complicity in the torture of detainees. 11 January 2012 will mark the 10-year anniversary of the opening of the US prison at Guantanamo Bay. Human rights groups, including Reprieve, have today criticised the Government's Detainee Inquiry as 'deficient' and lacking in the necessary powers to get to the truth about Britain's involvement in torture and rendition. A coalition of medical professionals from around the world has today called on pharmaceuticals company Hospira to prevent their products from being used in US executions.

2019-04-22T08:10:31Z

https://reprieve.org.uk/press-releases/page/2012/

Christine Armstrong is a co-founder of Jericho Chambers, a progressive communications consultancy structured like a barristers’ set. She takes time out of a very busy – but very balanced – schedule to discuss her career path, ‘disruptive’ businesses and how we could make life better for working parents. To begin with, could you introduce yourself and tell me a bit about your background? I’m Christine Armstrong, I’m co-founder of Jericho Chambers, I’m a contributing editor at Management Today and I have a column in the International Business Times. I have three daughters aged six, four and one. Originally I did a degree in politics at York and went to work in a public affairs PR firm, was there eight years and I worked in the States and in Canada. Then I went to an advertising agency called BBDO, was working in their European hub and moved from a communications focus to a more research and insight focus which I really enjoyed. When I had my first baby I went to work for WPP in one of their research companies, but it didn’t really work for me so left and then set up Jericho. How did you start out on your career journey, which it seems has been varied. Did you set out to be a thought leader or just to be an ad exec? I don’t think I would have known what thought leadership was or had a view on it. I didn’t set out with any clear goal at all. My career has evolved in response to throwing myself into jobs and following what’s interested me. I’ve been guided by the opportunities and the things that have caught my energy and I’ve pursued those things. I’ve been fascinated with the idea of Jericho, the consultancy you co-founded with Robert Phillips, formerly of Edelman and George Pitcher, formerly of Luther Pendragon. It’s structured like a barrister’s chambers. Do you always work independently or do you collaborate? When it was originally conceived we imagined it like a barristers chambers, where people would have their own lines of business – they might collaborate, they might work independently – but essentially people would have their own work streams and then you would contribute to the centre in terms of supporting the building and the brand and the team. But it’s evolved in a really good way: it’s much more collaborative, so almost all the projects that we work on multiple people are involved with. But the structure remains hugely flexible; it means that everyone has other lives. I can write, I can do the school run most days, there are no fixed hours; literally people come and go as suits their needs and do whatever else interests them. That, for me, is a very important and special thing about Jericho – in addition to it changing the way that we approach and think about how companies behave and how they do things better. Do you think of yourselves as being ‘disruptive’? We recognise that the world’s changed and that the old ways of dealing with lots of things don’t work anymore. We had a meeting yesterday with an organisation that was saying that they’d followed the same agenda – doing the same things – and they get completely and utterly ignored by the people that matter to them. They came in saying “why is that?” So many organisations know the world has changed yet aren’t sure how to respond. They’ve don’t know how to do things differently or do things better. They struggle with the idea that they need to change what they do – not just what they say. And so we help companies, organisations and people with those things. I don’t know if that’s disruptive; I prefer to think that it’s progressive. Your consultancy positions itself as taking an ethical approach to communications and public affairs. It takes a lot of guts to say: we’re going to do things differently; we’re going to rebel against the industries we came of professional age in. Do you find it easy to be rebellious? I think we do and I think running your own organisation gives you a huge amount of confidence to say: “we don’t want to work on that” or “I don’t think that’s the right thing” or “If you’re looking for that then we’re really not the right organisation to help you with it”. I think that’s really important. I think you have to be a bit careful with the word ‘ethical’ because sometimes companies might not be perceived to be ethical – there may be problems that they’re trying to address – and you have to be careful about refusing to help people if you think that they genuinely have good intentions and want to change. Then I think it would be wrong to say “we’re not going to help you because you’ve done something wrong in the past or because we don’t like how you’ve behaved” if you genuinely think they want to do things better. That’s the question that you have to try to ask yourself when you’re talking to people. So not covering up problems but trying to solve problems? At Jericho we think about organisations: how they exist in the world, how they behave, what they do and the impact that they have; what their purpose is, whether they’re offering something that’s positive to society and to their community. It’s about accepting that traditional power structures have broken down, that top down management and top down communication don’t work and that world is messy and complicated. So it’s how the brand engages with the world, what it considers its community to be and how it engages with those people. You’ve had an enviable career in advertising, PR and market research. When you were at school, and at university, what did you want to be ‘when you grew up’? That’s a very Dickensian name. Does the digital era ever disappoint you? No, I love the digital stuff too, I love The Pool at the moment – I love some of the great digital stuff that’s out there, it’s brilliant, I wouldn’t choose one or the other – but I do love a great magazine. There was some Facebook quiz where you had to ask your children what they thought of you and one of them was “what does your mum really like to do?” and they said: “read”. I will genuinely read anything – from highbrow to absolute trash. That’s my happy space. What’s your most hated bit of business jargon or marketing speak? It’s hard to choose; there are a few. Actually, there are bits of jargon that I hate but one of the things that drew me towards Jericho is that I did work with a lot of accountants, many of whom were based in America – and I don’t think it was that they were American, I think it was that they were in a remote place – but those long distant aggressive emails and capitalisation…That’s probably my most hated thing about business: that really aggressive, hard-edged tone around things which actually should just be a perfectly polite, perfectly reasonable transactional conversation. That’s one of my particular bugbears. I’m alright with those – I probably use them! One of the things that drives me mad is when people say “I think we’re overthinking this”. And maybe I say it, which does worry me. But I think, generally, people say it when they want to shut stuff down, and actually it means we haven’t thought about it or we don’t want to think about it. So when people say “we’re overthinking this”, I really look for it and think “what are we trying to ignore, what is it that we don’t want to address here?” I read it as code for the something we don’t want to look at. My personal favourite, or least favourite, is ‘action’ as a verb. “We’re going to action this”. The thing is I’ve been in this so long, I think I don’t notice it, which is really shameful isn’t it? I can’t be a purist about these things because I work in environments where people use those words all the time and you do probably pick them up. I’m always wary of people using quasi-academic words – ‘paradigm’ is a fairly common one – to express what are actually really simple ideas; those people always send alarm bells ringing in my head, trying to pretend that they’re clever. Can you describe a typical working day for you, if there is such a thing? People always tell me there isn’t when I do ‘Power Mums’ interviews so I suppose I can’t reject that as a thesis. In an ideal world I drop my six year old to school at the gate at 8.30 and my four year old at the gate at 8.45. I feel an immense sense of achievement if I can do that. There’s something really psychologically reassuring in the ritual of sending your children through the school gates and thinking “all is well in the world”. So I try not to do too many breakfasts and I try to do that as often as I can – three of four times a week. It doesn’t always work. And then I come into Jericho – I often work from home on Fridays – and do all the things you’d expect: meetings, call, seeing the team, seeing clients, writing, presenting. And when I can, which isn’t as often as I’d like to but I definitely do it on Fridays – I try to do school pick-up. My older daughter’s school finishes at either at 4 or at 5 depending on whether she’s got a club, so I try and pick her up twice a week and then go home and do the evening stuff. I do stay online and track things but I’m much better than I used to be at turning off and not doing stuff all night, just unwinding and relaxing. You run the ‘Power Mums’ series on Management Today, where you interview high powered women who are also mothers. You fit into this category yourself, but has anything you’ve heard in the course of these interviews really surprised you about how other women manage their demanding lives? There are a couple of things that I find very interesting. One is that these are mostly women who spend fifteen years or more years being trained and growing up in a corporate environment. When they get pregnant they retreat into a residential area they’ve never really spent a lot of time in except for at the weekends, where they don’t have a social network because their social network is very much around work and colleagues in the centre of town. They’re pulled out of that environment and suddenly they’re in this place where they don’t know the neighbours, don’t know what time the postman comes, probably don’t know which day the rubbish goes, don’t know the bloke at the corner shop. They’re there with a small baby that they have no idea how to cope with because they’ve never done anything in their life so far that would equip them to deal with this baby. I think that’s a really bonkers thing that we do to people! It’s really stressful; I’m not surprised people get depressed. It’s an extraordinary idea. And then you have to build this whole new social network in that environment. Consequently one of the problems that Power Mums have is that many of them go back to work very quickly. It’s not socially acceptable now to go back to work after four weeks like some senior mums used to do, so what they do is secretly work throughout their whole maternity leave. They’ll be on calls, they’ll be on email and they’ll be quite involved with the office and they will completely fail to turn up to baby swimming, baby yoga, baby Pilates, baby music-making and all the other things. And the only serious purpose of those things, in my view, is that you build your social network. Then, when your child is four and the school calls up and says they’re sick and they need to go home now and you’re trapped in a board meeting, you’ve got a whole list of people that you can phone and say “help”. But if you haven’t invested that time early on and you don’t have a permanent nanny looking after other children or something else, then you’re in a really difficult position. So the advice that I give to women with careers if they’re going to have babies is: don’t neglect that local network because you’re going to need it later. This network lives for the next 10, 15, 20 years in your community, and if you don’t have it, it’s really isolating. The other observation is that women go through their careers in their twenties/early thirties – whenever they have a baby – and they assume that if they flourish in a career environment, that they’re a ‘career’ person. Someone said it to me when I had my first baby: “it will change your perspective”. At the time I thought it was a really patronising thing to say but I was completely wrong. Because it does change your perspective; the happiest women are the women who are honest about whether it’s changed their perspective or not. Some women have the baby, go back to work full time, are completely comfortable and happy with that and that’s brilliant. And then lots of women find it difficult to recognise that actually, their priorities have changed. So what I see is that the happiest women are the ones who are most able to be honest about who they are at that point in time, and how much time they’re willing to spend at work versus being at home – to keep an eye on that and keep adjusting it. The other key factor in my observation around happiness is the ability to control your own schedule. So if you are in a really corporate environment where you can’t go in at 10am because there’s a parent/teacher coffee thing that you just want to drop into, or you really can’t get out for particular events, that can feel very constraining and get very frustrating. I think the kind of relationship that you have with your partner or husband is also critical. And there are two models that I’ve observed that I call the alpha/alpha or the alpha/beta model: you can have alpha/alpha where you’ve got Power Mum and Power Dad and the benefit of that is you’ve got resources, so you can have a support team of nannies and cleaners and that can work well. The parents can really understand each other’s worlds – they relate to the fact that they’re busy and they can compromise what they have to. But they can seem to orbit somewhat remotely if they’re not careful. The other model is the alpha/beta, where you’ve got a dad who takes a lower key role, is at home or maybe runs their own business, and that can work really well because it gives you more flexibility. I think where it can get difficult – and people say this more ‘off the record’ than on the record – is if it turns into a sort of reversed Victorian marriage model where the mum goes “hang on, I earn all the money and I never see my kids, while you don’t earn the money and you see our kids all the time”. If there’s a jealousy that develops there I think that can be really challenging. Do you think that the introduction of shared parental leave will change some of those dynamics and you’ll ever find yourself doing a dedicated ‘Power Dads’ column? I’ve done Power Dads before. The problem with Power Dads is that they’re really boring! They have absolutely no guilt, because there’s no societal pressure on them to be at home, and they have no hostile judgement. The mums, however, have people at work who roll their eyes because they think they’re “a bit part time” because they’re trying to get out the door at 5 or 6 o’clock. But then they go to the school gates and they don’t know everyone because they’re not always there, or they’re at the school play and they don’t know everyone. So then they feel socially excluded, and social exclusion is as painful as physical pain; the physical pain of feeling slightly outsider at the office and slightly outsider at the school gate is really profound. And it’s that, I think, that is the challenge of modern corporate motherhood. Because everyone says “we want more women CEOs and more women in boardrooms”, but you write a Power Mum interview and it gets posted on Facebook and somebody will write underneath it: “she might be powerful but she’s no mother”. And that is piercing, really horrid. As a society we have to be honest about what we’re asking senior women to do when they have children and whether we’re comfortable with the idea that there will be mothers who never get home to have dinner with their kids in the week. Is that OK? Or are we judging that person? Because at the moment, it’s really hard for people to feel good about this stuff. You’ve written about Marissa Mayer, the Yahoo boss who plans to take a very short maternity leave. You thought that she’s in a no-win situation as regards her balancing her responsibilities. Do you think this is a common thing among working women, even those with less stratospheric careers than Ms Mayer? I think you need to be really tough and determined and do a really big job, especially when you have kids. You need to feel within you that you think it’s the right thing – I notice it’s often those people who have got working mothers themselves as a model and confidently feel “I’m at ease with this and it’s fine”. For those people who don’t have such an innate, strong sense that this is the right thing to do it can be extremely painful and stressful. In that article you also talked about your experience of having children and how it offered an escape from work and a chance to take stock. You also said it felt like a period where you have no idea what you’re doing. Have you ever felt like that in your working life, or suffered from so-called ‘imposter syndrome’? Definitely now, more than ever. For example, I still struggle to describe myself as a journalist; I feel like it’s fraudulent which my editor finds funny. You publish this great digital magazine called the Revolutionary Times and your colleague and co-founder George Pitcher has said that there’s no conflict of interest in doing both journalism and PR. Do you feel the same way? I do interviews and I comment on things in International Business Times that are in the news, but no, I don’t see a conflict and if I did think there was a conflict that I wouldn’t write it. You’ve also got your family friendly holiday villas company, Villas4Kids. Did you always have the entrepreneurial spirit? That’s more my husband’s – he runs it, that’s his business. It happened by accident entirely; long before I met him he bought these houses in Cyprus and just ran them as rentals, and then when we had our first child we just realised how much clobber – unbelievable volumes of stuff – you have to take on holiday with a small child. Then we just thought “well, why don’t we make over our houses?” The bookings went through the roof, the interest was huge and then we just started asking our neighbours and people we knew if they wanted to do the same and it really evolved from there. I don’t know if that’s ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ or not. Finally, what would you change, either legally or socially, to make life easier for working mums and indeed dads? There’s only one thing for me: our obsession with hours. And I have to say that the legal profession is one of the worst offenders, because the most challenging roles I see in Power Mum interviews are jobs that measure hours. So management consultancies, accountants, law firms are incredibly difficult and I am hugely frustrated by the fact that we’ve been talking about the nonsense of these working hours for decades. All the research shows this: that they’re not productive, they make us unhappy, they make us stressed, they’re not good for the economy…and yet nobody does anything about it. I still interview women who work 60, 70 hours a week. I interviewed a woman who said that her daughter was going on about “finding her true love”. She said “I wonder where she got that idea from”, and I thought, “she’s never watched Frozen with her kids. She’s got girls the same age as mine, and if she’s never watched Frozen…”. It’s quite a big part of what girls seem to think and talk about. To be fair, if some of my neighbours who are at home with their kids heard this, they would laugh uproariously at the idea that I’m completely engaged with my children because obviously I’m here a lot. But the comparison between the flexibility I have and someone who works 60, 70 hours a week in a corporate office is, I think, monumental. So I would encourage all employers to change hours and I would encourage everyone who’s having a baby to think really hard about how they’re going to manage their time and not just accept the system that they go back into, but to try and make it work for them. Because otherwise it’s very easy to become disconnected from things that are going on in your home life and with your children. It’s an absolute tragedy of our society that women – and men – who want to be involved with their kids, who are interested in them, who want to play a part in their lives every day, but also have a career, are somehow being forced into binary positions. It’s crazy.

2019-04-24T01:58:59Z

https://vardags.com/family-law/interview-christine-armstrong-co-founder-jericho-chambers

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You made my day. brought by pass of BCEN in 2016, the Trauma licensed Registered Nurse (TCRN) is the first and simplest countrywide board certification for nurses who divulge superior skills, talent and clinical judgment across the trauma care continuum, from injury prevention and prehospital care to acute care to rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Held by pass of pretty much four,000 registered nurses, the TCRN is a Magnet-authorised certification application. The emergency fork trauma nurse fellowship application Beebe-Woodard developed in partnership with his nurse and trauma surgeon colleagues is designed to build a corps of emergency trauma care nurse leaders. First, nurse fellows participate in a 40-hour program to build competencies and advantage within the prefatory evaluation and resuscitation of sufferers who fill been traumatically injured. subsequent, the nurses attend the nurse-healthcare professional team-based superior Trauma care for Nurses (ATCN) path. 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You can keep the interface, question noteworthy and ease of use of their schooling exams earlier than you select to buy. The emergency department trauma nurse fellowship program Beebe-Woodard developed in partnership with his nurse and trauma surgeon colleagues is designed to build a corps of emergency trauma care nurse leaders. First, nurse fellows participate in a 40-hour program to build information and skills in the initial assessment and resuscitation of patients who fill been traumatically injured. Next, the nurses attend the nurse-physician team-based Advanced Trauma care for Nurses (ATCN) course. Then, the nurses are expected to win their TCRN credential. The fellowship program is currently offered to UVM Medical focus emergency nurses in Burlington with plans to expand to UVM Health Network’s five affiliate hospitals serving upstate current York and central Vermont. “I am honored to receive this award because it recognizes commitment to a standard and brings into focus the exertion trauma nurses undertake to ensure they fill the current working information and expertise to give patients what they need,” said Beebe-Woodard. “Earning this award would not fill been feasible without the advocate of my colleagues and the pathway to certification established by UVM Medical focus that has removed every barrier for their employees.” Beebe-Woodard is triple board certified in emergency nursing, having earned BCEN’s Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) and Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse (CPEN) credentials as well as the TCRN. BCEN annually recognizes individual specialty certified emergency nurses as well as hospitals and health systems that demonstrate and foster certified nursing excellence and advocate for emergency nurse board certification. Learn more about BCEN’s Distinguished Awards and National Certification Champion Awards at bcen.org/awards. The independent, nonprofit Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN®) develops robust certification exams fostering empowered nurses across the emergency spectrum who contribute noticeably to patient care, safety and outcomes. Over 51,000 BCEN certifications are currently held by registered nurses (RNs) who specialize in emergency, flight, captious care ground transport, pediatric emergency and trauma nursing. BCEN offers the Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN®), Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN®), Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse (CPEN®), Certified Transport Registered Nurse (CTRN®) and the Trauma Certified Registered Nurse (TCRN®) certifications. The CEN, CFRN, CPEN, and TCRN certifications are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification (ABSNC), the only accrediting carcass specifically for nursing certifications. Learn more at bcen.org. supervene BCEN on Facebook and LinkedIn. SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) selected Angel MedFlight Worldwide Air Ambulance as the winner of the 2016 BCEN Honorary Certification Recognition Award – little Health care Facility. The homage was presented at a ceremony on September 16 as fragment of the Emergency Nursing 2016 Conference at the Los Angeles Convention focus in California. The accolade celebrates the hard drudgery and achievement of Angel MedFlight's medical crew. all of Angel MedFlight's nurses fill earned their Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN) credential, joining an elite group of air medical transport clinicians who hold the prestigious designation. Worldwide less than 3,400 nurses fill earned the certification. Administered by the BCEN, the CFRN is a specialty care certification that verifies medical expertise specific to flight nursing. The rigorous exam tests a nurse's information of carcass systems, disease specific care, and flight physiology. Nationally, only 59% of nurses who seize the test win their CFRN credential. Few fixed-wing air ambulance medical teams achieve 100 percent certification, making Angel MedFlight's accomplishment an impressive distinction worthy of the BCEN's recognition and award. "We launched an initiative for their flight nurses to win their CFRN credential when Angel MedFlight changed ownership in 2014. They are very arrogant to achieve this goal," Jason Siegert, President and Chief Operating Officer of Angel MedFlight, said. "The CFRN credential tells healthcare professionals, patients, and their family members that they can depend on the proven clinical expertise of the Angel MedFlight medical team. This accomplishment demonstrates their ongoing commitment to exceed air medical transport standards and lead the air ambulance industry." About the CFRN and the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing The Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN) credential is administered by the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) and measures the attainment of medical information specific to flight nursing. The program is designed to elevate professional standards and enhance individual performance. BCEN certifications can subsist viewed as a guarantee of competency and commitment to continuing education and provides proof of dedication to the drill of emergency nursing care. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides information on registered nurses in general rather than emergency latitude nurses specifically. For the years 2014 through 2024, the BLS predicted a 16% job growth for registered nurses. The BLS also reported in May 2015 that these nurses earned median annual salaries of $67,490. The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) offers certification for emergency nurses to prove that they fill the information and skills necessary to drudgery in the field. BCEN offers several designations to individuals who pass the appropriate examination, including Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN), Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN), Certified Transport Registered Nurse (CTRN) and Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse (CPEN). Certificate programs in emergency latitude nursing prepare graduates for the area, as they learn about crucial topics such as toxicology, outfit operation, stabilization, and emergency treatment.

2019-04-20T01:01:03Z

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Parenthood has been associated with declines in leisure-time exercise and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), but less is known about its impact on sedentary time and light-intensity activity. Although the health benefits of MVPA are well established, a growing body of research has been showing that even after controlling for MVPA levels, a detrimental dose–response association exists between sedentary time and adverse health outcomes and a beneficial dose–response association exists for light-intensity activity. This study examined the impact of parenthood, the number of children in the home, and the age of the youngest child on objectively measured physical activity (i.e., accelerometer derived daily minutes of sedentary, light, and MVPA) among a nationally representative cross-sectional sample of 2234 men and women who participated in the 2009–2011 Canadian Health Measures Survey. After controlling for sociodemographic variables, ANCOVAs indicated that parents engaged in more light activity but less MVPA than non-parents and women whose youngest child was aged 12–15 years were more sedentary than women without children. Among both men and women, having a child <6 years of age in the home was associated with the greatest amount of light activity and lowest MVPA. Modest differences emerged between the physical activity level of parents and non-parents for both genders and across intensity levels. In general, parenthood was associated with less MVPA and more light-intensity activity, and more differences emerged among women compared to men. More research is needed before conclusions can be drawn regarding the health consequences of these differences. Exercise participation has been shown to be negatively impacted by life transitions such as becoming a parent . This is cause for concern, as parenthood is associated with weight gain and higher body mass index for both men and women . Evidence also exists that parental inactivity may lead to inactivity among children, thus negatively impacting the health and well-being of future generations [2, 3]. In a meta-analytic review of 17 studies comparing the physical activity patterns of parents and non-parents, Bellows-Riecken and Rhodes found that all but three studies reported a negative relationship between parenthood and exercise or physical activity. This difference was associated with an overall medium-sized effect and mothers were less active than fathers. Several more studies have been published since this review comparing physical activity levels between parents and non-parents with similar results. Hull et al. found that adults who had a child reported a greater decrease in physical activity over the course of a 2-year period compared to those who remained childless. Similarly, Berge et al. found that mothers engaged in less self-reported total exercise and both mothers and fathers engaged in less moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) compared to non-parents. Using both self-report and accelerometer data, Candelaria et al. found that parents spent more time engaged in household activities and less time sitting compared to non-parents. Parenthood was not related, however, to minutes of MVPA and self-reported leisure, transport, job-related, and total activity. Adamo et al. analyzed cross-sectional accelerometer data collected as part of the 2007–2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) and found that mothers with children under age 6 and fathers with children aged 6–11 engaged in fewer minutes of MVPA per day compared to women or men without children. In addition, parents with children under age 6 were less likely to meet physical activity guidelines. Only one study used accelerometry to examine intensity levels other than MVPA. In a prospective study, Rhodes et al. compared changes in time spent in MVPA, light-intensity activity, and sedentary pursuits across 12 months among couples not expecting a child, expecting their first child, or expecting their second child. Parents who were expecting their second child engaged in fewer minutes of MVPA but were less sedentary and engaged in more light-intensity activity at baseline compared to couples without children. Compared to women without children, first-time mothers showed a larger decrease in minutes of MVPA across the study period. Theoretical models can be useful in helping us understand physical activity behavior. One theoretical approach which may be particularly applicable to parenthood is the social-ecological model [4, 9, 10]. According to this approach, intrapersonal, interpersonal, the institutional and community environment, and policy factors all impact individuals’ ability or likelihood to engage in physical activity. In their review on parenthood and physical activity, Bellows-Riecken and Rhodes noted that despite the fact that parenthood is influenced by and embedded in all levels of this model, no study to date has explicitly adopted this approach . After coding the studies in their review, these authors found that the majority focused only on intrapersonal and interpersonal factors while environmental and policy factors were excluded . Although this body of evidence contributes towards our understanding of exercise participation during parenthood, it is not without limitations. Only three studies used accelerometry [6–8], and only one study examined intensity levels other than MVPA . Most MVPA is comprised of leisure-time exercise and fitness activities such as brisk walking, jogging, cycling, and swimming . Although the health benefits of MVPA are well established , a growing body of research has been showing that even after controlling for MVPA levels, a detrimental dose–response association exists between time spent sitting and adverse health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease mortality and all-cause mortality [13–15] and a beneficial dose–response association exists for light-intensity activity [16, 17]. Light-intensity activity characterizes most household activities (e.g., cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, gardening) and accounts for the majority of physical activity . These findings highlight the importance of adopting an integrated approach which examines the distribution of activities in all intensity ranges across the 24-hour day . Since an increase in one type of behavior necessarily requires a decrease in another type, the distribution of sleep, sedentary, light, and MVPA does play a role in the relationship between activity and health and/or disease. For example, using data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Buman et al. demonstrated that beneficial associations were observed in cardiovascular disease risk markers with the reallocation of 30 minutes/day of sedentary time to either sleep, light-intensity activity, or, MVPA, which produced the strongest effect. Similarly, cluster analyses have shown that the accumulation of multiple risk factors is linked with poorer health outcomes compared to fewer risk factors (e.g., low MVPA and high sedentary vs. high MVPA and high sedentary) [13, 19, 20]. Although public health guidelines have traditionally focused solely on the promotion of MVPA, this, too, is starting to change. For example, in 2011, the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) and the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute released the first evidence-based integrated Canadian Sedentary Behaviour and Physical Activity Guidelines for children and youth ages 5–17 . These guidelines stress the importance of taking a 24-hour approach and, in addition to accumulating at least 60 minutes of MVPA per day, recommend minimizing recreational screen time, motorized transportation, time spent sitting, and time spent indoors during the day . According to CSEP, the development of similar guidelines aimed at adults is of immediate concern and will be developed as soon as resources are available . While the existing research indicates that parenthood negatively impacts leisure-time exercise and MVPA, further research is needed to understand the relationship between parenthood and overall activity patterns (i.e., sedentary behavior, light-intensity activity and MVPA) and inform the need for population-level interventions across the activity spectrum . Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of a number of interpersonal factors related to parenthood (i.e., parental status, the number of children in the home, and the age of the youngest child) on objectively measured physical activity across intensity levels (i.e., daily minutes of sedentary, light, and MVPA) among a nationally representative sample of men and women between the ages of 18 and 64 participating in the 2009–2011 CHMS. We hypothesized that parents would engage in less MVPA, more light-intensity activity, and less sedentary activity. These hypotheses were based on evidence from cross-sectional studies indicating that parents tend to engage in less leisure-time physical activity compared to non-parents and from prospective studies indicating that physical activity decreases from pre-parenthood to parenthood [5, 8, 24]. The CHMS is a cross-sectional, nationally-representative survey covering household populations aged 3 to 79 . The survey is conducted by Statistics Canada with ethical approval granted by Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada. The survey excludes residents of Indian Reserves or Crown lands, institutions, certain remote regions, and full-time members of the Canadian Forces. It represents approximately 96% of Canadians and each survey respondent is given a weight corresponding to the number of persons represented by the respondent. The survey is voluntary and data were collected at 18 sites across Canada between August 27, 2009 and November 30, 2011 (Cycle 2). In addition to a personal interview, participants also underwent a series of direct measures at a mobile examination unit and received an Actical accelerometer (Phillips – Respironics, Oregon, USA) to wear. Participants were instructed to wear the accelerometer during all waking hours for 7 days starting the day after their mobile examination centre appointment. More information about the CHMS is available through Statistics Canada’s Web site (http://www.statcan.ca). Parents were defined as adults living with a dependent child aged 15 years or younger. The CHMS (Cycle 2) dataset included 6395 respondents, of which 4948 (72.7%) provided valid accelerometer data. Pregnant women (n = 23), respondents which did not provide complete demographic data (n = 59), parents living with a dependent child aged 16 or older (n = 159), and respondents who were not between the ages of 18 and 64 (n = 2473) were excluded. In total, 2234 respondents (1205 women and 1029 men) were eligible for the current study. Five hundred eighty-six women (48.6%), and 440 (42.8%) men had at least one dependent child aged 15 or younger in the home. The Actical is a small, lightweight waterproof, omni-directional accelerometer which is worn over the right hip using an elasticized belt. All data are blind to participants while the device is being worn. A 1-minute epoch was used and monitors were calibrated prior to the start of data collection and re-tested upon return. In line with previous population-based analyses using accelerometry , a day had to include 10 or more hours of wear time in order to be considered valid, and only respondents with 4 or more valid days were included in analyses. Accelerometer measurement and data treatment procedures have been described in full elsewhere . Parental status was determined based on a single derived variable describing the living arrangement of the respondent. Respondents categorized as ‘Parent living with spouse/partner and children’ or ‘Single parent living with children’ were classified as ‘parents,’ and respondents in all other living arrangements were categorized as ‘non-parents.’ The variable ‘Number of persons in household less than 16 years of age’ was used to ensure that parents had at least one child in the household under the age of 16 and the number of children in the home (i.e., none, 1, 2, or 3 or more). In addition, the variables ‘Number of persons in household less than 12 years of age’ and ‘Number of persons in household less than 6 years of age’ were used to determine the age category of the youngest child in the home (i.e., <6 years, 6–11 years, or 12–15 years). The variables of interest for this study were: average daily minutes of sedentary, light, and MVPA. Validated cut-points were applied to the raw accelerometer data in order to convert the raw counts per minute (cpm) into corresponding intensity levels: sedentary (1 to less than 2 metabolic equivalents (METS); <100 cpm), light (2 to less than 3 METS; 100 – 1534 cpm), and MVPA (3 or more METS; 1535 or more cpm) . Evidence exists that physical activity may be associated with numerous intrapersonal (e.g., demographic) characteristics such as age, body mass index (BMI), ethnicity, income, education, marital status, and health status [27, 28]. For this reason, these demographic characteristics were used as covariates. Age and BMI were treated as continuous variables. Marital status was categorized as married/common-law versus Single/separated/widowed/divorced. Highest education level achieved was grouped into less than secondary, secondary school diploma, some post-secondary, or post-secondary graduate. Total household income, adjusted for the number of people in the household, was categorized into lowest income grouping, lower middle income grouping, upper middle income grouping, and highest income grouping. Ethnicity was collapsed into white versus other, and self-rated health was categorized as poor/fair, good, very good, and excellent. Except for self-rated health, which was collapsed from five to four categories because of limited sample sizes in the poor and fair categories, variable categories reflect CHMS response options. All analyses were conducted separately by gender and using weighted data to correct for non-response bias and to represent the Canadian population. This weight corresponds to the number of individuals in the entire population which are represented by each respondent. First, descriptive statistics (means and 95% confidence intervals) were computed for parents and non-parents with respect to demographic and personal characteristics as well as daily minutes of sedentary, light, and MVPA. Next, one-way ANCOVAs were used to examine whether group differences existed for parenthood status (i.e., parents versus non-parents), age of youngest child (i.e., <6 years, 6–11 years, or 12–15 years), or number of children (i.e., none, 1, 2, or 3 or more) with respect to the variables of interest: sedentary, light, or MVPA per day. All analyses controlled for parental age, marital status, education, income, ethnicity, self-rated health, and BMI. Variance estimates (95% confidence intervals) and significance tests were calculated using bootstrap procedures. ANCOVAs were followed up with pairwise comparisons using a Bonferroni correction. All statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS version 21.0 during September to October 2013. This study included 2234 men and women representative of the Canadian population between the ages of 18 and 64. Irrespective of gender, parents tended to be significantly younger, married or living with a common-law spouse, more likely to have attained post-secondary education, and less likely to report having poor or fair health compared to non-parents. The demographic characteristics of the sample are reported in Table 1. Note. BMI = body mass index (weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared) aAge and BMI are presented as categorical variables for descriptive purposes only. For covariate purposes, these variables were continuous. * Significantly different from respondents of the same gender with children (p < .05). Women with at least one dependent child in the home engaged in significantly fewer minutes of daily MVPA (p = .000) but significantly more minutes of light intensity activity (p = .001) compared to women without any dependent children in the home (see Table 2). When number of children was examined, women with one child engaged in more light-intensity activity (p = .005) than women without children, and women with two or three or more children engaged in fewer minutes of MVPA (ps = .000 and .005, respectively) compared to women without children. Finally, when the age of the youngest child was examined, women whose youngest child was aged 12–15 years engaged in significantly more sedentary behavior than women without children (p = .017), whereas women whose youngest child was aged six years or younger engaged in more light-intensity activity (p = .000), and less MVPA (p = .000) compared to women without children. Note. Asterisks signify significant post-hoc differences (Bonferroni corrected) between respondents in the target category and those without children. ANCOVAs controlled for age, body mass index, marital status, education, ethnicity, income adequacy, and self-rated health. All estimates rounded to one decimal point based on Statistics Canada’s rounding guidelines in order to avoid implying greater precision than actually exists. CI = Confidence interval. MVPA = moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Among men, the presence of a dependent child in the home was related only to light activity, so that men with a dependent child in the home engaged in more light intensity activity than their counterparts without children (p = .000; see Table 3). Light activity was similarly the only intensity related with the number of children in the home, so that fathers with 2 children in the home engaged in more light intensity activity than men without children (p = .000). With respect to the age of the youngest child in the home, men with a child younger than six years of age engaged in more light activity (p = .000) but less MVPA than men without children (p = .000). * p < .05. *** p < .001. This is the first study to examine the impact of parenthood on Canadians’ intensity-specific physical activity using accelerometers and a nationally representative sample. Differences emerged between the physical activity level of parents and non-parents for both genders and across intensity levels. As hypothesized, parents seem to engage in more light-intensity activity but less MVPA compared to non-parents, and parenthood appears to be more strongly related to physical activity among women compared to men. Cohen recommended using the following values to interpret the strength of the eta-squared effect: .01 small, .06 moderate, and .14 large. Effect sizes using this criterion reveal small differences for light-intensity activity among both men and women and small to small-moderate sized differences for MVPA among men and women, respectively. Light-intensity activity was positively related to parenthood, number of children, and age of youngest child for both women and men. These results are in line with Candelaria et al. and Rhodes et al.’s findings. Specifically, Candelaria et al. found that parents engaged in more self-reported household activity than non-parents and Rhodes et al. found that parents engaged in more objectively-measured light-intensity activity than non-parents, a difference equivalent to a moderate effect size. Although the effect sizes in the present study were small, the findings are encouraging nonetheless because convincing evidence exists that even after controlling for sedentary time and MVPA, engaging in light-intensity activity is associated with numerous positive outcomes including lower cardiovascular heart disease rates , improved blood glucose levels , lower waist circumference and reduced metabolic risk , and improved physical health and well-being . Light-intensity activities include the majority of household tasks, such as cooking, washing dishes, laundry, and light gardening and are the major determinants of variability in total energy expenditure because of the number of daily hours they represent . Having one child was associated with more light activity for women whereas having 2 children was associated with the most activity among men. This is consistent with findings that having 2 children in the home is the only family configuration associated with a reduction in men’s recreation time . For both sexes, having at least one child under the age of six was associated with more light activity. This is consistent with evidence indicating that the younger the child the more parental time is spent on caregiving activities . For women, being a mother, having 2 or more children, or a child under 6 were all associated with lower MVPA (small to small-moderate effect sizes) whereas among fathers, only having a child under 6 was associated with lower MVPA (small effect size). These findings are in line with previous research indicating that women’s participation in leisure-time exercise is more adversely affected by parenthood than men’s . However, the present effect sizes were smaller than the moderate effect sizes reported by Rhodes et al. using accelerometer data and Bellows-Riecken and Rhodes in their review on parenthood and physical activity. It should also be noted that MVPA levels were low irrespective of gender and parenthood status. While this confirms previous findings , it is cause for concern as the health benefits associated with regular MVPA are well-established and include reduced all-cause morbidity and mortality . In contrast to our hypotheses and previous research [6, 8], parenthood was not consistently related to sedentary time. Only one difference emerged, such that women whose youngest child was 12 to 15 years old spent more time being sedentary compared to women without children. However, this finding should be interpreted with caution based on the small number of women with children in this age range. Sedentary time refers to almost all sitting-based activities and includes work-related sitting as well as recreational-based sedentary activities such as watching television, reading, or socializing [11, 34]. Irrespective of parenthood, men and women spent over nine and a half hours of their day in sedentary pursuits, a finding which is of concern given the public health burden associated with excessive sitting [13–15]. In addition, it should be pointed out that when time spent in sedentary, light, and MVPA intensity activity is summed, it becomes clear that parents accumulated approximately 30 more minutes of wear time per day compared to non-parents. Since all participants wore the accelerometer for all waking hours, this difference indicates that parents spent more time awake (i.e., slept less) compared to non-parents. This finding is in line with previous research. For example, a study analyzing data collected from over 19,500 respondents representing 26.1 million Canadians as part of Statistics Canada's 2005 General Social Survey found that “kids deprived parents of sleep” . Specifically, Canadians with two or more children slept, on average, 25 minutes less than Canadians without children . From our results, it appears that Canadian parents spend the time they are not sleeping engaged in light-intensity activities, most likely related to their additional caregiving responsibilities. While the reallocation of sedentary time to sleep, light-intensity activity or MVPA appears to be beneficial , the health consequences of reallocating sleep time to light-intensity activity are unknown. Nevertheless, from a physical activity standpoint it is encouraging to find that this additional ‘waking time’ was not spent being sedentary (e.g., watching television). From a social ecological perspective, there are a number of reasons why the present differences may have emerged. Personal factors such as time constraints and a lack of money due to the responsibilities and costs associated with raising children are both associated with lower exercise participation and may explain why parents tend to engage in less MVPA or leisure-time exercise . Several organizational, environmental and policy factors have also been shown to negatively affect physical activity. These include a societal pressure to be a good parent, volunteer, and fundraise for their child’s school, work and social cultures that don’t value physical activity, work demands which do not make allowances for parenthood, and rigid work hours . These factors also help explain why parenthood was associated with more light-intensity activity but less MVPA, and why greater differences were observed for women compared to men. Specifically, evidence exists that compared to fathering, mothering is associated with a greater overall time commitment, more physical work, more time alone with children, more overall responsibility, and, not surprisingly, less free time . With respect to income, motherhood is associated with lower hourly pay, resulting in mothers having less money to spend on themselves compared to fathers . With respect to research, these findings underscore the importance of examining overall patterns of physical activity rather than only MVPA. Historically, reliance on self-reported data has prevented these types of investigations as questionnaires lack the sensitivity to accurately quantify light-intensity activity and sedentary time . As more researchers begin to incorporate accelerometers into their work, there is no doubt that more studies will begin to take a more comprehensive view of physical activity by examining intensities beyond MVPA. In terms of practical significance, the present results highlight the importance of continuing to promote MVPA participation among both parents and individuals without children. Health habits are established during childhood and by making the time to exercise, parents can act as important role models for their children . With respect to light activity, parents should be encouraged to continue being as active as possible. Our findings also highlighted the fact that all participants spent the largest proportion of their day being sedentary. Given the adverse health outcomes associated with high sedentary time , public health interventions aimed at reducing sedentary behavior are justified. Strengths of the present study include objectively measured physical activity data from participants representative of the Canadian population. Analyses were conducted separately to examine the impact of parenthood, number of children, as well as the age of the youngest child, allowing us to more closely examine the relationship between physical activity and parenthood. However, several limitations must also be acknowledged. First, the cross-sectional design of the CHMS precludes us from drawing any cause and effect conclusions about the relationship between parenthood and physical activity. As parents and non-parents may be different in a number of ways, including, for instance, in their degree of interest in physical activity, our inability to control for additional ‘third factors’ represents a limitation. More studies employing prospective designs are needed to draw stronger conclusions regarding the impact of parenthood on physical activity levels. Second, the way in which the CHMS assessed living arrangements may have impacted our ability to correctly categorize all individuals as parents versus non-parents. For example, for participants who indicated that they were a ‘single parent living with children,’ there was no way to know what percentage of time the children actually lived with them. As a result, some individuals may have been categorized as ‘parents’ even though they were not the main caregivers of a child. However, only 16.0% of women and 3.2% of men in our sample were single parents (see Table 1), making it unlikely that this limitation could have significantly impacted the present results. Finally, this analysis only includes participants with complete accelerometer data (72.7% of the original CHMS sample). However, each respondent in this subsample was assigned a weight corresponding to how many individuals from the general population they represent in order to minimize response bias. In summary, Canadian parents consistently engage in more light-intensity physical activity but less MVPA than non-parents. Women’s MVPA levels appear to be more strongly associated with parenthood than men’s. For both parents, having a child under 6 was associated with the lowest levels of MVPA but the highest levels of light intensity activity. Although evidence exists suggesting that optimal health depends as much upon reducing sedentary time and increasing light-intensity activity as it does upon accumulating adequate MVPA, more research is needed before conclusions can be drawn regarding the health effects associated with these differences. AG conceived the research, conducted the data analysis, and drafted the manuscript. SAE helped inform the data analysis plan and edited the manuscript. AD assisted with conducting the literature review and helped to draft the manuscript. JAT edited the manuscript and helped shape the discussion. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

2019-04-20T10:50:57Z

https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1127

Yash Tandon explains the contradictions of ‘imperial finance capital’ in controlling neo-colonial states like Libya. While Gaddafi was being ‘accommodated’ by imperial powers, the ‘Arab Spring’ forced their hand, he says. To put the West’s case bluntly and simply, it has apparently intervened in Libya to ‘protect the people’ from the ‘dictator’ Gaddafi. This begs the question: whose dictator is Gaddafi? If there is one third world leader in the whole galaxy of the Empire’s neo-colonial dictators, one who best exemplifies the contradiction between the Empire and a neo-colony, it is Gaddafi. Libya is a neo-colony in the sense that Kwame Nkrumah used the term, and Gaddafi, like Robert Mugabe, is objectively a neo-colonial dictator though subjectively anti-imperialist. To understand this apparent contradiction, one needs to appreciate the vital difference between a colony and neo-colony. A neo-colony is ruled by the Empire not directly; only indirectly - through its agents in the countries concerned. Whilst a neo-colonial economy, and hence the neo-colonial state, is, in the ultimate analysis, controlled by the Empire - on behalf of global finance capital. There is a ‘government’ that is in the seat of governance, and this government, or regime, is often in open defiance of the Empire. When the Empire talks of ‘regime change’, it means change in government without losing its control over the neo-colony. To put the matter from the other side, a neo-colony is not, as the term might imply, a docile, submissive, community. It is a community, or a people, still in struggle against the Empire for its full liberation. The people occasionally rebel against the government if they are oppressed or economically marginalised, as, among others, in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Zimbabwe. In rebelling against a neo-colonial government, however, the people also rebel, objectively, against the Empire, against the neo-colonial economic and political order. These are two sides of the same coin; they are the same phenomenon. Flip one side of the coin, and you see the face of Gaddafi; flip the other side and you see the face of the Empire. The challenge facing a neo-colonial ‘upstart’ like Gaddafi and Mugabe is how to keep the coin with the face of the Empire visible. Of course, the Empire has the reverse challenge. In the case of both Zimbabwe and Libya, the Empire has been better than its rebellious neo-colonial dictators in keeping the coin with the ‘dictator’s’ face visible at the top. How has the Empire managed to do this? It has done so by using three weapons: one, by exploiting the divisions among the people; two, by using the ‘humanitarian’ card; and three by exploiting its bigger control over the world media. In both Libya and Zimbabwe, the Empire has been able to portray itself as a ‘saviour’ of the people, an ‘ally’ to ‘help’ them remove the government and put in place one that is more ‘democratic’. This is what is currently happening in the Arab world and many parts of Africa where the people have taken to the streets to protest against a system that is oppressing and exploiting them. Each neo-colony is different. Each has its own history, culture, economic links with the global economy and ethnic, religious and class configuration. To understand the specific character of Libya and Gaddafi, a bit of knowledge of history is necessary. It is important to bear in mind that Libya is part of an ancient civilisation going back to the Phoenicians in the 5th century B.C., well before the birth of western civilisation. In more recent times, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Libya fell in the hands of Italy. In October 1911, Italian battleships attacked Tripoli, bombing the city for three days. Resistance followed under Omar Mukhtar's Mojahideen guerrilla forces. Thousands of Libyans were forced to leave their land and live in concentration camps. Thousands died of hunger, illness and some of them were hanged or shot because they were believed to be helping the Mojahideen. The Libyan historian Mahmoud Ali At-Taeb said in an interview with the Libyan magazine Ash-Shoura (October 1979) that in November 1930 there were at least 17 funerals a day in the camps due to hunger, illness and depression. Mukhtar's nearly 20 year struggle came to an end when he was captured in battle and on 16 September 1931 hanged in front of his followers in the concentration camp of Sollouq by the orders of the Italian court. He was about 83 years old, but he kept on fighting until death. Today Mukhtar’s face is shown on the Libyan 10 Dinar bill. His final years were immortalized in the movie ‘The Lion of the Desert’ (1981). This history, and the heroic resistance put by Libya’s national hero, Omar Mukhtar, go some way to explain the arrogance of Gaddafi towards Western civilisation and colonisation. This is the legacy that inspires Gaddafi, just as in Zimbabwe it is Kaguvi's spirit (his mudzimu) that inspired Mugabe and the people to fight the second Chimurenga against the British Empire. Coming to modern times, on 1 September 1969, Colonel Gaddafi overthrew King Idris in a bloodless military coup. The British tried to dislodge him (the so-called ‘Hilton Assignment’) but failed. Gaddafi has been in power ever since. In 1977, he renamed the Libyan Arab Republic the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Gaddafi created a system of ‘Islamic socialism’ which blended Arab nationalism; ‘direct, popular democracy‘; aspects of the welfare state; and Islamic morals (among them, outlawing alcohol and gambling), on all of which he elaborated in his ‘The Green Book’. He closed down American and British military bases and partly nationalised foreign oil and commercial interests in Libya. In June 1972 he announced that any Arab wishing to volunteer for the Palestinian struggle for liberation could register at any Libyan embassy and would be given training on armed combat. In the hope of persuading the West to end support for Israel, he promoted oil embargoes as a political weapon. On 7 October 1972, he praised the Lod Airport massacre, carried out by the Japanese Red Army. In 1976 after a series of attacks by the Irish Provisional IRA, he claimed that he had been supplying arms to the IRA. Notwithstanding all this, and despite Gaddafi being a thorn in the flesh of the Empire, Libya (like Zimbabwe) has remained a neo-colony of the Empire. A few facts attest to this reality. Libya is OPEC's 8th largest oil producer. It depends primarily upon revenues from the petroleum sector, which contributes practically all export earnings and over half of GDP. According to the International Energy Agency, more than 70 per cent of its oil is exported to European countries, especially Italy, France, Germany, and Spain, many of whom have invested heavily in Libyan oil. For example, by the end of October 2010, the number of French companies in Libya had nearly doubled from 2008 - most of them in the energy sector. It is no wonder that President Sarkozy is so nervous about the outcome of the current civil war in Libya. Italy alone buys a quarter of Libya's oil and 15 per cent of its natural gas. In all these years, Italian companies continued to retain a strong presence in Libya, which owned significant shares in Italy's Eni oil corporation, Fiat, Unicredit bank and Finmeccanica. In January 2002, Gaddafi purchased a 7.5 per cent share of Italian football club Juventus for US$ 21 million, through a long-standing association with Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli. As well as Italy, several other European and British companies maintained strong commercial interests in Libya. This is at the national level. But at the personal level, the Gaddafi family became extremely wealthy as a result of his continuing links with the Empire. The $70 billion Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) is a state institution, but it would be a safe bet that Gaddafi has (or had, until a recent freeze on it) full control over it. Whilst he financed many groups fighting the Empire, he and his sons, known to live in opulent luxury in the West, often donated money to ‘liberal’ causes, such as the London School of Economics Centre for the ‘Study of Global Governance’; indeed, the former Director of the LSE, Anthony Giddens, (Prime Minister Tony Blair’s political mentor) visited Gaddafi in 2007 to give him some lectures on ‘democracy’. However, Gaddafi has his idiosyncrasies. He is trusted neither by the Empire nor by his fellow heads of state in the Arab League and the African Union. President Museveni, in praising Gaddafi as a ‘nationalist’ criticised him for his ‘mistakes’ - among them, backing Idi Amin in Uganda; pushing for a United States of Africa; proclaiming himself ‘king of kings’; ignoring the plight of Southern Sudan; and promoting terrorism. For the Empire, Gaddafi had become an unreliable, indeed dangerous, neo-colonial dictator. The Empire had to bring him to book. Here is a brief account of how the Empire ‘disciplined’ Gaddafi and finally succeeded. For most of the 1980s and 90s, Libya was under the Empire’s economic and diplomatic sanctions. In April 1986, a joint US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps force attacked Libya. In 1993 the UN imposed sanctions against it. As the sanctions began to bite, President Nelson Mandela made a media-hyped visit to Gaddafi in 1997 followed by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. As a result of these overtures, Gaddafi agreed in 1999 to hand over two Libyans accused of planting a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103, which came down on Lockerbie, Scotland. Gaddafi paid compensation to victims of Lockerbie - US$2.7 billion to the families of the 270 victims, i.e. up to US$10 million each. The UN sanctions were thereupon suspended, but US sanctions against Libya remained in force. Gaddafi went on to cooperate with investigations into previous Libyan acts of state-sponsored terrorism, and agreed to end his nuclear weapons program. On 15 May 2006, the US State Department announced that it would restore full diplomatic relations with Libya, and that it would be removed from the list of nations supporting terrorism. Libya was thus restored to its ancien regime status as a neo-colony. Following Gaddafi’s rehabilitation, several imperial Heads of State, most flamboyantly the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi rushed to Tripoli to shower the ‘dictator’ with photo opportunities of kisses and hugs and to secure from him investment opportunities as well as access to oil. In March 2004, Blair went to Libya, and praised Gaddafi for his co-operation. In July 2007, Sarkozy visited Libya and signed a number of bilateral and multilateral (European Union) agreements. In August 2008, Berlusconi signed a landmark cooperation treaty in Benghazi, under which Italy agreed to pay $5 billion to Libya as compensation for its former military occupation, in exchange for Libya agreeing to stop illegal immigration to Italy, and investments in Italian companies. As the diplomatic editor of The Daily Telegraph, David Blair, said, Libya's 'Brother Leader', had gone from being ‘the epitome of revolutionary chic’ to ‘an eccentric statesman with entirely benign relations with the West’. (The Daily Telegraph, 13 August 2009). Britain’s Prime Minister Cameron, not to miss his turn, went to Libya to sell arms to the Empire’s neo-colonial dictator, even as the people were marching against him in Tripoli. But soon the imperial dictators were to regret their sudden passion for Gaddafi. The Tunisian and Egyptian ‘people’s revolutions’ took them by surprise. When the contagion spread to Libya, the Empire could no longer defend the recently rehabilitated Gaddafi. It jumped on the ‘democratic bandwagon’, making a quick U-turn, and ditched Gaddafi as quickly as they had dashed to hug him. That Gaddafi ran a tight-fisted autocratic regime in Libya for decades was a well-known fact. His autocracy was never a matter of much concern to the Empire. There were other equally harsh regimes in the service of the Empire in other parts of the Arab world, such as Bahrain and Yemen, as well as in many pro-imperial neo-colonies in Africa. What tipped the scale against Gaddafi was his unreliability, and not the fact that he was a ‘dictator’. The challenge the Empire faced since his turnaround in 1999 had been how to turn Gaddafi from a dictator who served ‘revolutionary’ causes to one who would serve imperial interests without creating problems for it. When this did not happen, he had to go, as indeed Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Egypt’s Mubarak, long time ‘allies’ (read, ‘neo-colonial dictators’) of the Empire. But how to get rid of Gaddafi became a bigger problem for the Empire than getting rid of Ben Ali and Mubarak. Earlier, I explained two vital differences between a colony and neo-colony. There is a third difference between the two. Unlike colonies, neo-colonies are ‘sovereign’ states, and members of the UN. They have rights as ‘independent nations’, rights to self-determination, and rights to development. The Empire cannot just bomb a sovereign member of the UN, for example, without the UN’s sanction, especially of its Security Council, which is the organ in the UN that deals with matters of international peace and security. This creates hurdles for the Empire. In the UN context, for example, the Empire has to get Russia and China (the two other permanent members of the Security Council with a veto power) on board, and at least a majority of the remaining non-permanent members before it can attack a neo-colony. The Empire could not just attack Libya and take out Gaddafi. A proper rationale had to be engineered - one that could be sold to the Empire’s own sceptical publics, to ‘allies’ in the other neo-colonies, and to allies in non-imperial Europe and the rest of the third world. The critical support needed here was that of the other neo-colonies in the Arab World, best of all if it could be expressed institutionally by the Arab League. After much neo-colonial ‘persuasion’ and carrot dangling, this was achieved. For years the League has been belittled, even ridiculed, by the Empire for its flabbiness and foibles. Suddenly, when the League supported the ‘no-fly zone’ against Libya, it became ‘the voice of the Arab people’. In the event, Russia and China abstained, as also did India and Brazil, for reasons that we cannot go into here. For good measure, the African neo-colonies - South Africa, Nigeria and Gabon - voted in favour of the resolution. Once these ‘enabling conditions’ of a new ‘diplomatic reality’ was created, the Empire was quickly able to get the Security Council to pass a ‘consensus’ resolution. Resolution 1973 (2011) demanded ‘an immediate ceasefire in Libya, including an end to the current attacks against civilians’, which it said might constitute ‘crimes against humanity’; it imposed a ban on all flights in the country’s airspace - ‘a no-fly zone’; and tightened sanctions on the Gaddafi regime and its supporters. It authorised Member States, ‘acting nationally or through regional organisations or arrangements, to take all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory’ - requesting them to immediately inform the Secretary-General of such measures. However, even before the ink was dry, France had begun to bomb Libya. Soon France was joined by Britain and the United States, until the ‘authority’ of the UN was effectively transferred from it to NATO. International lawyers will no doubt write copious papers on the legality of the actions that followed in terms of both the resolution and international law. For example, in an ‘open letter to President Barack Obama on the crisis in Libya’ the National Conference of Black Lawyers argued that there was ‘no lawful basis for commencing a military campaign’ in Libya. But in the world of ‘diplomatic reality’, this is just ‘a lot of noise’ after the fact. And in any case, there are always several contending views on the legality or otherwise of such actions. Above all, there is no equivalent of the Nuremburg Tribunal or the International Criminal Court that dare put on trial the Imperial Dictators -Obama, Clinton, Sarkozy, or Cameron. The ICC is essentially a neo-colonial tool of the Empire, meant to be used only against third world or former East and Central European dictators and violators of human rights. Libya is a neo-colonial state; it is imperial finance capital which, despite contradictions, is in effective control of the state and its economy. Gaddafi has been an unwilling neo-colonial dictator for finance capital, with a rather utopian vision to liberate from the Empire; utopian because he wanted to fight the Empire whilst still keeping the country’s and his own wealth within the imperial industrial, financial and banking system. The Empire might have accommodated him, and indeed did rehabilitate him after his turnaround in 1999, but the ‘Arab Spring’ upset the programme of the Empire, and it had to quickly take a U-turn and ditch Gaddafi just as it Ben Ali and Mubarak. The issue of how things might move forward in Libya is a big issue, one which I shall write about in the next column. * Yash Tandon is a writer on development theory and practice, chairman of SEATINI and senior adviser to the South Centre.

2019-04-23T22:57:10Z

http://www.africavenir.org/news-details/archive/2011/may/article/whose-dictator-is-gaddafi-by-yash-tandon-on-pambazuka.html?tx_ttnews%5Bday%5D=13&amp;cHash=c5b2c205ee4543f976a30eb01bdfa669

Oct. 31, 2014 – Two years ago, PASS began to expand our educational offerings to include a conference targeted to the business analytics community. This year, we’ve had more discussion within our community about what our business analytics strategy means for PASS. Next week at Summit, we’ll be holding a special PASS Business Analytics Direction and Q&A session. Throughout the week, members of the Board will also be available to listen to your feedback and answer your questions about our plans for BA. If you will be at Summit, I hope you will take some time to talk to me or other Board members about our BA initiatives. One of the concerns I’ve heard expressed is that our expansion to serve the business analytics community could negatively affect how we serve our core SQL Server and BI members. I’d like to share with you how we are allocating resources to ensure that does not happen. Business analytics is a natural extension of our core, data-centric SQL Server and business intelligence communities. We – the DBAs, database developers, data architects, and BI professionals – work with business and data analysts, data scientists, line-of-business managers, and others on the business side whose lives revolve around data every day. The business and data analysts are our colleagues, our clients, our customers. PASS Summit has long been the main source of fundraising for PASS, funding the many other learning opportunities and programs we offer throughout the year. As PASS leaders saw the expanding attention to business analytics in the data industry, developing a focused conference and other learning opportunities for those working in the business analytics space made sense. This would both introduce an additional revenue stream to help secure the organization’s future capability to better serve all our members and bring us in closer touch with a growing community of data professionals. PASS’s BA-related activities and budget were structured from the beginning to be fully self-funding, with no cross-funding or subsidization from PASS’s SQL Server-related revenues. When PASS announced in July 2012 that it would be hosting the new PASS Business Analytics Conference in Spring 2013, the conference was projected to break even – we made a modest profit. To date, the net profit we’ve realized from our two BA Conference events has covered the cost of all of our other BA-related initiatives, including staff time to support new BA-related Virtual Chapters, 24 Hours of PASS: Business Analytics Edition, and other activities. At the same time, our fiscal year 2015 budget supports continuing growth for our core SQLSaturday events and SQL Server and BI Chapters and Virtual Chapters around the world, an ever-growing PASS Summit, and continuing IT investments to modernize our platforms and take advantage of technology to enable a stronger, more connected PASS community. The BA Conference and other BA offerings may not be taking funding from PASS’s SQL Server activities, but do these expanded initiatives affect the energy and focus that PASS leaders, volunteers, and staff can bring to serving SQL Server and BI professionals? Judging from the energy, hard work, and creativity that’s gone into next week’s PASS Summit – which will feature the biggest program and the largest gathering of SQL Server and BI pros ever – our HQ and community teams are committed to serving the needs of our core members. One of the strengths of PASS is that our membership is so diverse, made up of a variety of roles, interests, and talents. The PASS community is already the hub and connector for many different data communities – from 275+ local Chapters around the world to 27 language- and topic-focused Virtual Chapters to speaker and blogger communities and beyond. These communities serve different locales, different learning needs, different technology interests, and different career and professional growth goals – and each interacts with PASS in a different way. But they all come together under the PASS mission of empowering data professionals to connect, share, and learn. The way that PASS invests in these different data communities shows that it can be AND rather than OR. With the passion and dedication of our members and volunteers, we can continue growing not only in breadth, but also in depth in the communities we already serve. In the coming months, we’ll publish more about our BA strategy and direction. And I hope you will bring your questions to the PASS Business Analytics Direction and Q&A session at Summit on Friday, Nov. 7, at 2:15pm in Room 307/308. I’ll see you there. February 3, 2015 – The PASS Board of Directors kicked off 2015 with a 2-day in-person meeting in Seattle focusing on goal-setting, global growth and SQLRally initiatives, volunteers, the PASS Business Analytics Conference, and a recommitment to communicating regularly with the community. Part of communicating better and more often involves letting our members know what Board members are working on and talking about, as well as getting input and feedback all along the way. Going forward, we will be posting meeting agendas ahead of time, summarizing discussions and decisions in recaps like this one (watch for January’s official minutes to be posted next week), and holding regular Town Hall Q&A webcasts for you to share your feedback and ask questions. Our first Town Hall Q&A will be next week – Feb. 11 at 10:00am PT/18:00 UTC – and we look forward to discussing any topics from January’s Board meeting and hearing what your top priorities are for the coming year. With that, let’s dive into our jam-packed January meeting. Last year, we began transitioning the PASS Global Growth portfolio into global growth initiatives for each of our community portfolio areas. Special Projects Director James Rowland-Jones (JRJ), who led the former Global Growth portfolio, highlighted the primary global growth goals for each portfolio, as set by the Executive Committee: reaching the community and beyond, growing leadership, enabling engagement by evolving the operational framework for PASS, using activity-based goals to gauge performance of regions, and being passionate, relevant, and influencing others to connect throughout the PASS organization overall. To provide greater global representation, in 2013 the PASS Board converted one at-large seat to a Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) regional seat, currently held by Jen Stirrup. In preparation for converting another at-large seat into a Latin America (LATAM) regional seat for the 2016 Board elections, we are taking steps to add Board advisors from LATAM and have set eligibility benchmarks for the LATAM Board seat. VP of Finance & Governance Adam Jorgensen will be chairing a global growth committee focusing on LATAM and filling that Board seat in 2016, calling on individual portfolio owners to participate as required. We are also starting to work on the strategy for targeting the next region. Continuing the Global Growth theme, JRJ reviewed recent PASS SQLRally events and led the Board in a discussion about the pros and cons of this event model. A task force led by JRJ will review feedback and options and present proposals for a new, more flexible model for regional events. Further information on contacting the task force will be made available through the Connector soon. With each Board portfolio now having its own volunteers component – instead of having a separate PASS Volunteers portfolio – Board members spent some time talking about the wide range of volunteer leadership roles within PASS and the commitment it takes to be successful. Acknowledging how important volunteers are to PASS as well as the many obligations people have inside and outside the organization, Virtual Chapters Director Wendy Pastrick reviewed the first draft of a PASS Leadership policy that provides guidance around volunteers in PASS leadership roles. The policy‘s guidelines are designed to help develop leadership skills, transition volunteers into new leadership roles, and support new leaders. We’ll be reviewing the policy draft, providing feedback, and sharing the next version with the community for feedback. Jen Stirrup, Director of the new Business Analytics portfolio, shared an update on the restructuring of the PASS Business Analytics Conference for 2015, including market research on redefining the target audience, new approaches to attract more attendees, updating the program, and a focus on community building. Programs Director Amy Lewis gave an overview of the conference’s sessions, targeted at business and data analytics professionals, and the speaker lineup, which features some of the top experts in the industry. VP of Marketing Denise McInerney updated us on marketing goals and successes, attendance forecasts and actuals, and demand-generation plans, stressing the importance of differentiating this conference from other data analytics events. Denise reminded us all to spread the word through our companies, social media channels, and various data communities we’re involved in – and I encourage everyone in PASS to do the same. JRJ presented the projected versus actual sponsor sales and updated the Board on the BA Conference sales team focus and approach for lead generation and partner incentives. With a clear picture of where and how additional resources could help the BA Conference teams hit the targets for registration and sponsors in this new market, the Board approved a $35,000 budget exception to support increased sales and marketing activities and resources for the conference. The Board also discussed possibilities for local PASS-sponsored BA initiatives. We agreed to continue exploring options and speaking to members of the community and come back with a plan by June 30. A common theme throughout our discussions was how to improve communications and interactions with community members about all of these topics. From providing better and easier access to Board members and facilitating feedback to providing proactive communications and doing a better job of explaining what we’re doing and why, we know we can do more. Denise reviewed some of steps we took at PASS Summit in November to enable better communications between the Board and community members, including the progress report on goals during the annual Board Q&A session and Board “office hours” in the Community Zone. Then Denise gave us an overview of the comprehensive plan the Marketing team is working on to get community input on and improve communications and interaction with all our members. We’re already working to add a variety of ways to contact Board members directly from the Board of Directors webpage, as well as ways you can easily provide feedback or ask questions. And the Marketing team is reviewing how to better use all our communications channels and identifying new ones. This Board meeting recap (and those to follow) is also part of our commitment to better communications, along with providing advance notice of Board meeting agendas – maybe even with a possibility of having time set aside to discuss community-requested topics – and hosting regular live web-based Q&A Town Hall meetings. Each Director-at-Large also presented a draft of their portfolio goals for Fiscal Year 2016, beginning July 1, 2015, for discussion and feedback. You can read about each Director’s portfolio assignment here, and stay tuned for blog posts coming soon from each portfolio owner – as well as Board-level goals from the Executive Committee (made up of me, Adam, Denise, and Immediate Past President Bill Graziano). Until then, please feel free to reach out to any of us with your questions, comments, and ideas and remember to join us Feb. 11 for our first Town Hall Q&A. June 23, 2015 — I wanted to take a minute to offer a recap of our May 15th meeting. The focus of the meeting was to review the “lessons learned” materials regarding the 2015 PASS Business Analytics conference. The discussion was led by Jen Stirrup, Director of the PASS Business Analytics portfolio. Here are the highlights from that discussion. • Jen reviewed the growing industry trends for Business Analytics and how PASS can play a critical role in that community. Organizations need people who understand data in a variety of ways (curation, administration, management, custodian, and analysis). Business analytics enables companies to incorporate data-drive decision making. PASS is well positioned to offering learning opportunities for members to expand their current roles into new careers, as well as offer companies seeking BA practitioners a place to find talented data professionals. • The PASS Business Analytics Conference 2015 presented the right content for its audience. A review of attendee titles show that the conference attracted and engaged its intended audience. According to a sponsor survey from the conference, 87% of exhibitors and sponsors are interested in future PASS BA conferences. • The Board heard from PASS HQ representatives about the opportunity that PASS has to support the BA community. With Gartner predicting in excess of 4 million analytics jobs by the end of this year many companies are struggling to find talent. People who work in data with a focus on the Microsoft data platform want to learn methods for making data-based decisions. PASS can help to foster this community and present content to support those needs. • PASS is working hard to determine the best venue and logistics for future BA conference events. The Board discussed potential options as well as resources and strategic direction. A full review of the PASS BA 2015 conference will be held at the in-person June Board meeting in Vancouver, Canada. For more details about the May meetings, see the posted minutes on the PASS Governance page. Also, keep an eye on the BA Insights and Connector newsletters and on this blog, for news from the next Board meeting. As always, stay in touch by contacting us. We welcome any and all feedback! June 29, 2015--The results are in and the PASS Business Analytics Conference (BAC) 2015 was a success! At the recent Board meeting this month, the PASS Board reviewed the outcomes of this event and discussed the future of PASS Business Analytics (BA). A primary goal of the PASS Board of Directors is not just to maintain but to improve the health of our organization and our community. Reaching this goal means offering the best learning environments possible, such as PASS Summit, 24 Hours of PASS, and more. It also means looking beyond today’s landscape and preparing for the future of SQL Server and related data technologies. Over the past few years, we’ve watched as companies across all industries embrace data to become more competitive, results-oriented, and data-driven. This has created significant new challenges and opportunities in data analytics and BA. Now, experienced BA and data analytics professionals are in high demand and short supply. And those entering this nascent field are in need of the type of community and learning environment that SQL Server professionals enjoy as PASS members. This is one of the reasons that we started PASS BAC in 2013. Like most new endeavors, it’s taken a few years to find its bearings. Following PASS BAC 2014, we evolved to support the needs of business and data analysts. This included revamping content and refining our focus within the analyst audience. So we rebooted BAC 2015, tailoring it to focus on those who consume data and use it to drive business decisions. With this refined approach, we renewed our focus on providing real-world, applicable learning that can give attendees an immediate and direct means to benefit their organizations—just as PASS Summit provides for DBAs and other data facilitators. We created a conference for people who extract and manipulate data using technologies such as Excel, Power BI, SQL, Hive, and R throughout all the stages in the analytical process. We delivered practical, best practices information, hands-on training, and visionary thought leadership. Were we successful? Well, 77% of attendees were in our target Analyst audience. Our hands-on lab sessions were overflowing, the Expo Hall was buzzing, and more than half the BA and business intelligence (BI) attendees said that they would recommend the conference to colleagues, noting that we’d delivered “practical/effective training” that was both “inspiring” and “interactive”. * PASS should continue organizing a conference for data and business analysts. * We should continue with our refined approach for PASS BAC 2016. * We should continue to engage with the BA audience and influencers. * We should build a coherent development and engagement strategy for this growing community. The Board agreed. By continuing to invest in PASS BAC and by fostering a community, we can meet the unique needs of business and data analysts. We already have many offerings that serve PASS members who are interested in BA. And we have growing resources and support from willing volunteers. From the Business Analytics and Excel Business Intelligence Virtual Chapters and BA Insights newsletter to webinars, the pieces are in place to support PASS BAC and the growth of our community, including the establishment of an advisory committee and a three-year plan laying out the best way to move forward. We are excited about the opportunities and benefits that these decisions will provide for all data professions within the PASS community. If you have any questions or feedback, we want to hear from you. And we hope you’ll help us spread the word about this new community to the data and business analysts in your organizations. July 30, 2015 — Our Board of Directors June 2015 meeting was held in Vancouver, Canada. Most of our meetings occur via conference call every month, but we try to meet in-face at least three times a year. At this two-day meeting we had a lot of topics to discuss and meeting in-person leads to better conversations than a phone call could ever provide. You’ve already heard much of the news from that meeting from previous posts on the PASS blog and various articles in our newsletters, but here are the highlights. · On Day 1 we welcomed two recent additions to the PASS HQ team: Georgia Dahle as director of Marketing and Charlie Yates-Bishop as director of Sales. As part of our regular review of internal PASS HQ processes, we also reviewed current IT priorities. · We revisited a discussion from our January 2015 meeting regarding the introduction of Latin America (LATAM) regional Board advisors. Read more about that discussion here (in English), here (Spanish), or here (Portuguese). After reviewing candidates we voted to approve Eduardo Castro of Costa Rica and Diego Nogare of Brazil as our new regional advisors. · We reviewed the 2016 budget and set a date (June 24) to vote on it. · Day 2 opened with the PASS ExecCo elections. You can read about the results and your 2016 ExecCo here. · We made a definitive decision about the 2016 BAC, which will be held May 2-4, 2016, in Santa Clara, California. · The Board evaluated an offer to extend the PASS Summit Seattle venue for an additional year (2019). · We made the difficult but necessary decision to retire the SQLRally event model. We explain this decision and what it means for PASS members here. As you can see, it was a busy two days. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding any of these topics please don’t hesitate to contact us. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at Summit in just a few months! One of the most exciting elements in the upcoming PASS Business Analytics Conference is the interest and enthusiasm from our community members during this year’s call for speakers. We received an overwhelming response, with 136 abstracts submitted for a possible 25 community sessions. We are pleased to announce that over half of the community sessions for the PASS Business Analytics (BA) Conference 2016 have just been released. All of these sessions have come from our public call for speakers. Our community speakers will support our four learning tracks, which focus on real-world, applicable learning that helps analysts make immediate and direct impacts within their organizations. Expert speakers will offer exceptional thought leadership and prescriptive technical guidance that BA professionals can use to increase their organizations’ competitiveness. Attendees will also learn the latest tools and techniques to maximize data and improve the performance and accuracy of business analysis. Renowned data visualist Jer Thorp will present the Day One Keynote, which is proudly sponsored by Microsoft. Check out the newly announced sessions and speakers. More speakers and further details will be announced in the coming months.

2019-04-20T02:50:14Z

https://www.pass.org/Community/PASSBlog/tabid/1476/categoryid/53/Default.aspx

Dynamic left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) is one of the potential causes for postoperative hemodynamic compromise after surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR). AVR results in subtle changes in left ventricular loading conditions that may provide a substrate for dynamic LVOTO. Various anatomical and physiological factors determine the hemodynamic significance of the resulting LVOTO. The resultant LVOTO, if not addressed timely, culminates as hypotension, compromised forward stroke volume, increased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP), mitral regurgitation, oxygen supply–demand mismatch, or inability to wean the patient from cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Echocardiographic identification of the patients at high risk of developing significant LVOTO in the postoperative period directs the prophylactic measures at alleviating the obstruction. These measures aim at favorably manipulating the physiology to reduce the tendency to obstruction. The echocardiographic assessment also aids in diagnosing LVOTO and delineating the anatomical causes for the underlying phenomenon. A clear characterization of the pathophysiological basis and severity of the LVOTO is imperative for the successful management. The article aims to review the risk factors, pathoanatomic mechanisms, echocardiographic assessment, and management of the resultant dynamic LVOTO following AVR. Dynamic LVOTO following AVR is a consequence of underlying structural and functional pathologies. The patients are anatomically predisposed to post-operative obstruction owing to the ventricular and mitral valve apparatus morphological characteristics. The resultant symptoms get further exaggerated in situations with increased functional demand. Most of the initial studies demonstrated that the hemodynamic changes after AVR may exacerbate preexisting dynamic outflow obstruction with life-threatening consequences. These studies postulated that fixed valvular and dynamic subvalvular obstructions coexist in patients with aortic valve disease. Bartunek et al. presented the largest prospective study on the index phenomenon. They studied 100 patients undergoing AVR for aortic stenosis (AS) and discovered postoperative LVOT gradients in 14 patients, worsened by vasodilation or beta agonists. The proposed mechanism was a combination of a muscular cavity and systolic anterior motion (SAM) of the anterior mitral valve leaflet, with the LVOTO being more pronounced in small, hyperdynamic, and asymmetrically hypertrophied ventricles. However, there are sporadic case reports of LVOTO following AVR for predominant regurgitant lesions of the aortic valve. Asymmetric septal hypertrophy (ASH) and SAM of the mitral valve have been described as the causes of high intracavitary pressures in three out of the six patients with aortic valve disease by Nanda et al. Interestingly, two out of the three patients had pure aortic incompetence. In the individual case reports of AS complicated with postoperative LVOTO as reported by Schwinger et al. and Cutrone et al., the left ventricle (LV) was described as having severe concentric hypertrophy. The combination of the venturi and the drag forces forms the basis of LVOTO due to the complex interaction between the altered LV geometry and mitral valve components. Disproportionate septal thickening, although a characteristic feature of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, may also be evident in other pathological conditions characterized by pressure-overload hypertrophy. The septal hypertrophy results as a consequence of an exaggerated remodeling response of the ventricle to the pressure overload. Lewis and Maron reported an evidence of ASH in as high as almost one-third of the total patients in their series of elderly hypertensive cohort. ASH was defined by the ratio of wall thickness of any two LV segments exceeding 1.5. The reported incidence of ASH is approximately 10% in various series involving patients with unspecified aortic valve disease. ASH was described in 9% of patients with critical AS at catheterization in a study by Hess et al. Patients can also have dynamic LVOTO without the evidence of SAM. The mechanism responsible for this obstruction is LV septal hypertrophy, especially involving the basal area of the septum (“sigmoid” septum) resulting in a relatively narrow LVOT. The elevated end-systolic LVOT pressure owing to the aortic valve disease is responsible for the “splinting” effect on the LVOT walls, thereby preventing LVOTO. The removal of a fixed obstruction post-AVR “unmasks” the underlying dynamic obstruction, in face of a decline in the LV end-systolic pressure. In addition, several physiological factors such as filling state, ventricular contractility, systemic vascular resistance, and LV volume determine the hemodynamic significance of the resultant obstruction. The above-mentioned factors predispose to flow acceleration and abnormally high DIG in the background of a hyperdynamic state in a small LV cavity and signify abnormally turbulent ejection dynamics. Various echocardiographic parameters in the preoperative as well as in the immediate postoperative period can predict the subsequent development of LVOTO after AVR. [Figure 1],,,, depicts the various anatomical, physiological, and geometrical echocardiographic findings which present an elevated risk of postoperative LVOTO. A narrow LV cavity can occur secondary to hypovolemia or due to hypertrophied cavity. This can result in an obstruction at the level of midventricular area. The preoperative LV volumes can be estimated in ME views by modified Simpson's method, particularly in the setting of asymmetric hypertrophy involving the midcavity of the LV. A preoperative documentation of a narrow LVOT is another strong predictor for a postoperative high gradient in the LVOT. The normal LVOT diameter is usually 20 ± 2 mm and can vary in accordance with the body surface area. LVOT diameter should be routinely assessed in the preoperative TEE in the ME aortic valve LAX view by the measurement of the endocardium to endocardium distance of the LVOT within 1 cm of the insertion point of the aortic valve leaflets in midsystole. Various additional features in the preoperative echocardiographic assessment can predict the occurrence of SAM postoperatively, which can aggravate the LVOTO in already hypertrophied ventricles with a narrow outflow tract.,,,, These include the presence of redundant or floppy mitral valve leaflets, posterior mitral leaflet length >15 mm, anterior to posterior leaflet ratio <1.3, and a reduced C-sept distance of <25 mm. The leaflet length measurements should be performed during diastole in the ME LAX view with measurements of each leaflet done from the base of the respective leaflet at the mitral annular level to their tips. C-sept distance is measured as the shortest distance from the septum to the point of coaptation of the leaflets and measured in ME LAX view during systole [Figure 3]a and [Figure 3]b depicting a reduced C-sept distance in a patient with septal hypertrophy]. After AVR with a relief in the valvular stenosis and the subsequent reduction in SVR, the subvalvular obstruction may become evident as explained earlier. This may manifest as difficulty in weaning from the CPB in view of decreased LV stroke volume, elevated LVEDP, and varying degree of mitral regurgitation with a subsequent deterioration of the hemodynamics. [Figure 4] illustrates a case of post-AVR LVOTO characterized by a combination of SAM and interventricular septal hypertrophy as the etiologies for the resultant turbulent flow in the LVOT. At this point along with the assessment of prosthetic valve to rule out any paravalvular leak, increased gradient across the valve and patient prosthetic mismatch, a complete evaluation of the subvalvular area and the intraventricular cavity may help to rule out any new-onset obstruction in the outflow tract. This may be evident in the transgastric LAX view at an angle of interrogation 120°–140°. Advancing the probe further with anteflexion may help in acquisition of deep transgastric LAX view from near the LV apex. Both the LVOT and the aortic valve can be interrogated in these views where the application of continuous-wave Doppler helps in identifying any gradient at the valvular and subvalvular level. Any gradient at the level of prosthetic valve may be evident as a smooth symmetric contour of the flow profile across the valve, whereas the dynamic LVOT gradient may be evident as a “dagger-shaped” flow profile or the late peaking jet due to the increase in gradient in the late systole, as depicted in [Figure 5] and [Figure 6]. Sometimes intracavitary or midcavitary obliteration may be seen following the valve replacement, and this is particularly seen in a globally hypertrophied LV. Hyperkinetic LV may exaggerate the preexisting LVOTO in the postoperative period. The early diagnosis of LVOTO is essentially critical because the treatment and management are based on a pathophysiological rationale. Patients with preoperative risk factors for LVOTO should be evaluated thoroughly immediately after CPB weaning as they may develop gradient in the outflow tract with subsequent hemodynamic compromise. The management of dynamic LVOTO post-AVR is complex and further compounded by the hemodynamic profile of the patient. In hemodynamically stable patients, the treatment involves the manipulation of the underlying physiological conditions exacerbating the obstruction. For instance, patients are often volume depleted and on inotropic support in the immediate post-CPB period, which can exaggerate the LVOT gradient. An adequate volume loading of the ventricle along with termination of inotropic agent constitutes the most initial step of management. Titrated doses of β-blockers depress the ventricular contractility, thereby accounting for the decline in the ventricular ejection acceleration, alleviating the aortic outflow obstruction. Another favorable attribute to the β-blocker therapy comprises the effect on heart rate, wherein the decreased heart rate increases the ventricular preload by facilitating improved ventricular relaxation and longer filling time before the ventricular ejection. Vasoconstrictors, primarily α1 agonists, such as phenylephrine are beneficial as they augment the size of the functional LVOT and decrease the LVOT pressure gradient by increasing the systemic vascular resistance. Inodilators, diuretic therapy, or intraaortic balloon pump may worsen the clinical condition by decreasing the afterload; hence, they should be discontinued on suspecting the diagnosis. Some authors have proposed the role of low-rate dual-chamber pacing in the setting of postoperative shock precluding the use of β-blockers. They reported a reduction in LVOT gradients owing to the reduced heart rate and contractility. There exists a school of thought which proposes a prophylactic myectomy during surgery for the patients demonstrating marked septal hypertrophy.,,, The above measures need to be cautiously applied in hemodynamically unstable patients. If SAM contributes to the LVOTO, a grading of degree of SAM will direct the decision-making. A significant SAM may result in an LVOT gradient >50 mmHg with more than mild MR. A SAM not resolving with the medical management should prompt reinstitution of CPB to address the structural issues contributing to LVOTO. A meticulous repair of the mitral valve leaflets or septal myectomy for the thickened basal septum needs to be considered in such a case scenario. Post-CPB myocardial stunning can mask the underlying features of LVOTO in the immediate postoperative period owing to the poor ventricular pump function. With the gradual improvement in the myocardial kinetics, LVOTO may become evident. Therefore, an initial absence of LVOT gradient in the immediate post-CPB period in background of a poor LV systolic performance does not rule out post-AVR LVOTO. Hence, serial echocardiographic evaluation of myocardial function and gradient across the valvular and subvalvular areas should be contemplated within the first 48 h after surgery as a routine clinical practice. Dynamic LVOTO following AVR remains an under-recognized cause of postoperative hemodynamic compromise. It is important for the attending perioperative physician to be aware of this phenomenon, as the management is peculiar, comprising of fluid therapy, beta-blockade, and removal of inotropes which are usually continued in an effort toward hemodynamic stability. Intraoperative TEE is indispensable in early diagnosis and monitoring the efficacy of the therapy. Thus, the presence of dynamic LVOTO following AVR must be diagnosed as early as possible with a “high index of suspicion” and should be considered as a potentially fatal complication refractory to conventional management and catastrophic, if inappropriately treated. Bach DS. Subvalvular left ventricular outflow obstruction for patients undergoing aortic valve replacement for aortic stenosis: Echocardiographic recognition and identification of patients at risk. J Am Soc Echocardiogr 2005;18:1155-62. Aurigemma G, Battista S, Orsinelli D, Sweeney A, Pape L, Cuénoud H, et al. Abnormal left ventricular intracavitary flow acceleration in patients undergoing aortic valve replacement for aortic stenosis. A marker for high postoperative morbidity and mortality. Circulation 1992;86:926-36. Panduranga P, Maddali MM, Mukhaini MK, Valliattu J. Dynamic left ventricular outflow tract obstruction complicating aortic valve replacement: A hidden malefactor revisited. Saudi J Anaesth 2010;4:99-101. Tewari P, Basu R. Left ventricular outflow tract obstruction after mitral valve replacement. Anesth Analg 2008;106:65-6. Bartunek J, Sys SU, Rodrigues AC, van Schuerbeeck E, Mortier L, de Bruyne B, et al. Abnormal systolic intraventricular flow velocities after valve replacement for aortic stenosis. Mechanisms, predictive factors, and prognostic significance. Circulation 1996;93:712-9. Sukernik MR, Sumner AD, Pae WE. Systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve after aortic valve replacement for aortic insufficiency. J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth 2007;21:574-6. Nanda NC, Gramiak R, Shah PM, Stewart S, DeWeese JA. Echocardiography in the diagnosis of idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis co-existing with aortic valve disease. Circulation 1974;50:752-7. Schwinger ME, O'Brien F, Freedberg RS, Kronzon I. Dynamic left ventricular outflow obstruction after aortic valve replacement: A Doppler echocardiographic study. J Am Soc Echocardiogr 1990;3:205-8. Cutrone F, Coyle JP, Novoa R, Stewart R, Currie PJ. Severe dynamic left ventricular outflow tract obstruction following aortic valve replacement diagnosed by intraoperative echocardiography. Anesthesiology 1990;72:563-6. Lewis JF, Maron BJ. Diversity of patterns of hypertrophy in patients with systemic hypertension and marked left ventricular wall thickening. Am J Cardiol 1990;65:874-81. Hess OM, Schneider J, Turina M, Carroll JD, Rothlin M, Krayenbuehl HP, et al. Asymmetric septal hypertrophy in patients with aortic stenosis: An adaptive mechanism or a coexistence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy? J Am Coll Cardiol 1983;1:783-9. Routledge T, Nashef SA. Severe mitral systolic anterior motion complicating aortic valve replacement. Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg 2005;4:486-7. Kerut EK, Hanawalt C, Dearstine M, Frank R, Everson C. Mitral systolic anterior motion (SAM) with dynamic left ventricular outflow obstruction following aortic valve replacement. Echocardiography 2007;24:658-60. Luckner G, Margreiter J, Jochberger S, Mayr V, Luger T, Voelckel W, et al. Systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve with left ventricular outflow tract obstruction: Three cases of acute perioperative hypotension in noncardiac surgery. Anesth Analg 2005;100:1594-8. Varghese R, Itagaki S, Anyanwu AC, Trigo P, Fischer G, Adams DH, et al. Predicting systolic anterior motion after mitral valve reconstruction: Using intraoperative transoesophageal echocardiography to identify those at greatest risk. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2014;45:132-7. Critoph CH, Pantazis A, Tome Esteban MT, Salazar-Mendiguchía J, Pagourelias ED, Moon JC, et al. The influence of aortoseptal angulation on provocable left ventricular outflow tract obstruction in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Open Heart 2014;1:e000176. Maslow AD, Regan MM, Haering JM, Johnson RG, Levine RA. Echocardiographic predictors of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction and systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve after mitral valve reconstruction for myxomatous valve disease. J Am Coll Cardiol 1999;34:2096-104. Ibrahim M, Rao C, Ashrafian H, Chaudhry U, Darzi A, Athanasiou T. Modern management of systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2012;41:1260-70. Coddens J, Van Alphen J, Deloof T, Hendrickx J. Dynamic left ventricular outflow tract obstruction caused by afterload reduction induced by intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation. J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth 2002;16:749-51. Barkman A, McCay J. Cardiogenic shock in a patient with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy after insertion of a pacemaker. Am J Crit Care 2002;11:537-42. Varghese R, Anyanwu AC, Itagaki S, Milla F, Castillo J, Adams DH. Management of systolic anterior motion after mitral valve repair: An algorithm. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2012;143:S2-7.

2019-04-23T10:50:48Z

http://www.annals.in/article.asp?issn=0971-9784;year=2019;volume=22;issue=1;spage=1;epage=5;aulast=Makhija;type=3

There is a difference between disease control and symptom control for Rheumatoid Arthritis. There is no Rheumatoid Arthritis cure. You probably gathered that from yesterday’s funny blog. However, there are medications which can curb many of the effects of RA by actually cutting back the activity of the immune cells. These are the medicines referred to as DMARDs: disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. The most common are methotrexate and Plaquenil. There are others, but those are used the most today because they are considered the most safe and effective. Biologics like Humira, Remicade, and Enbrel are also used to hinder disease activity. This is a newer class of DMARDs. For a very few people, DMARDs bring on a complete remission of the Rheumatoid Arthritis. If you have taken them, though, you know that they are not a cure. They reduce the activity of the rheumatoid disease by interfering with some immune cells which attack us. But those immune cells continue to multiply and fight back. That’s one reason that I say this is like war. The disease has its weapons – various B and T cells and the cytokines they produce. And you have yours – medications, nutrition, and various therapies. If we had a cure for Rheumatoid Arthritis, then we could fire that ONE weapon and be done with it. Someday we’ll be there. Meanwhile, back at the ranch… We sit in our tank and fire our big DMARD guns at the rheumatoid disease. This way, we cut the enemy down to a more manageable size. However, then we still have to deal with what I call the “leftovers” – the many symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis which are left after the DMARD has delivered its blow. As warriors against Rheumatoid Arthritis, we might try to take as little total medication as we can take – and still be able to live our lives fully. Most RA patients live with lots of “leftover” pain. Why do Rheumatoid Arthritis patients live with leftover pain? We want to protect our organs from permanent damage due to long term use of too much medication. We want to avoid side effects of medications, which often compound some symptoms of the RA. We do not like being judged as weak by others because we are dependent upon medication. It can be hard when you are deciding whether to take more medicine so that you can get out of bed or whether you want to save your stomach, liver, or kidneys. It’s like a game of Risk. It is war. So we need to be strategic. If we are going to use any “big guns,” then they should be the ones which can do the most damage to the enemy. If we were shopping, we’d ask: What will give me the most bang for my buck? Usually, that means giving priority to taking whatever combination of DMARDs will provide us the most disease control possible. Then, after that, we decide how we’ll go after the leftovers. We have to – so that we can function. It’s not a perfect strategy, but it will do until the cavalry comes …with a cure. Oh my gosh – this blog is wonderful! I am so glad I found it. Leftovers – that is exactly what they are. Was trying to discuss this with my Rheumatologist today. Thank you so much for directing me to your blog. The information provided is much more concise and easier to understand. The only question I have is this: My doctor told me that I could be in the early stages of RA however he has not put me on the DMARDs mentioned on this blog and instead has me taking mobic and flexeril. He said it’s not severe enough for that stuff and he also said he didn’t want to put me on medication that no one would want to take me off of and he also mentioned that I was very young and he didn’t want to diagnose me with RA or another connective tissue disease, he mentioned seronegative Spondylitsarthopathy ( or something like that ). Is RA something that can be treated with DMARDs once it get’s severe enough or does it need treatment as soon as possible? Is it ok to wait until it really rears it’s ugly head? So far my doctor is going by my blood work. I had a low pos ana test at 1:80, neg for ra factor but I have all the symptoms of RA and another disease Lupus which has been ruled out. He said I could have seronegative RA but didn’t (again) want to put me on the medication yet. what would you do if you were in my situation? I had to have my doctor write out a letter of accomodation to my employer due to joint pain interferring with my job. Thank you for reading this and for finding me on twitter maybe all of us in the same boat can make some sense of this weird disease. I’m not a doctor, but I’ll tell you what I know. If your doctor is not sure you have RA yet, then that is a good reason he has not given you DMARDs. If you do have RA, then, yes, the most current medical science says to get on disease modifying treatment asap. Are you seeing a rheumatologist yet? 1) Maybe you will eventually get worse and it will become more obvious that it is RA. 2) Maybe you will do other tests or get a second opinion and find out that it is something else. 3) Maybe the whole thing will just go away. That is rare. I tell people to do as much research as possible and to keep good records of your symptoms and your medical tests. Take all that info with you when you see a doctor and bring a list of questions to discuss with him. Very often RA starts out slow like this. Pretty sneaky. But these are serious meds, so you need to be sure. It may take you a few months. I am sorry if that is not good news. I love your words about “all of us in the same boat” together making sense! That is what I think too. When you have time, read some more of the blog. I put in a search box to help while I am getting all the new stuff fixed. I hope this helps some. Thank you so much for your reply :). I am seeing a rheumatalogist and have been for almost a year now. He has mainly tested me for lupus and RA, but mainly Lupus because the joint pain hit very suddenly overnight. It comes and goes. When I finally went to see my GP for the joint pain he ran a CBC and I had some abnormal results, a low platelet count and a low lymph count. That was when RA or Lupus was suspected. I had lupus ruled out finally last week and now he’s focusing on RA and the other disease. He asked me to keep a symptom diary and to take pictures of any swelling or face rashes. Those were turned in and due to what was written down Lupus was ruled out thankfully! I do have a striaght back, my lumbar curve is absent due to that issue he’s leaning towards Akalosing Spondylitis ( sorry for the spelling ) if it is not RA but I guess time will tell. It’s been a very difficult year being sent to doctor after doctor. I am sick of seeing doctors! I’ve done quite a bit of research and all the research into RA state that treatment within the first year of symptoms is very important. that is why I was asking about treatment with DMARDs vs. waiting for it to damage joints if that is what it is. right now I’m just a big question mark, a sitting duck. for anyone considering not taking meds to stop the disease I think you should reconsider— I already have damage to my joints within the first year. I tell my patients that in advanced stages of RA, DMARDs and especially biologics might control inflammation, but pain might still prevail, because pain might be a symptom of post-RA OA. So symptom control is as important as disease control. One word to Sheri: as long as the diagnosis is uncertain, one shouldn’t use DMARDs, especially if seronegative spondyloarthritis is in question. But your doctor should come to a diagnosis soon! To Kathy: Thanks for this interesting information. One should look if the rheumatoid factor stays negative and if the anti-citrullinated protein/peptide antibodies (ACPA)are positive or not. I, too, appreciate this post. Much food for thought here. And I will share my past year’s experience to add to the pot – through the murkiness of diagnosis for RA. I am sero-negative something. The only thing positive in my labs is for AntiPhsophlipid Syndrome (with one DVT). But fatigue, bilateral stiffness, unreal pain & some swelling in hands, feet, wrists, elbows started suddenly last winter. There’s mild X-ray evidence of joint damage. I was put on Plaquenil for the APS & Ultram for the pain. I felt only worsening of symptoms through the fall of ’09. I had cut back on my hours at work as much as I could afford. In October, I sort of begged my rheumatologist for a trial of methotrexate because I kept feeling worse. Life was limited, to say the least – as many here can relate to. Now after five months of MTX with an occasional Darvocet on flare days (DC’d Ultram), this sero-negative something is no longer worsening. I have regained some energy, stiffness is less – and this new energy improves my pain tolerance. The rheumatologist has diagnosed this as RA for now – and she thinks it will clarify itself further with time. Was this the wrong approach for a sero-negative situation? Hey Marge, maybe the doc will come back to reply later, but here is a link you might have a look at. At least a third of RA patients get negative blood tests, so we need to rely on some other diagnosis methods also. There are other tests and there is the method you are using too – to see what works. Very helpful & reassuring, Kelly. Thank you. Marge, the decision, which DMARD to take first is made in the light of disease activity. Our approach is more hit hard and early. If the diagnosis is made, then establish an efficient DMARD therapy – and this would be methotrexate. Especially if there’s already “mild X-ray evidence of joint damage”. But I wouldn’t call it a wrong approach. Plaquenil might also work on seronegative RA. Thank you for clarification. It’s such a complex issue. But I’ve learned much here. I have severe RA. Fifteen years of pain but only a year with diagnosis. I take 22.5 mg MTX weekly. Can’t take narcotics – can’t handle the memory issues so I deal with the pain for the most part. I have a wonderful anesthesiologist who helped me through stage 4 RSD following joint surgery. They tell me I also have fibromyalgia and I take Topomax 50mg. I have gastritis of long standing and use Bexium which us a wonder drug and is effective with the side effects of the MTX as well. I’ve had sone real problems following a fall with a herniated disc which has complicated my care. MTX has helped me tremendously even though I lose a day a week to weakness (I take it at night and I’m wiped out the next day). I couldn’t get out of bed before I started. I was 55. It took me more than 2 hours just to get up. I’m still working thanks to my doctors and my treatment. I have my own business and I plan to work for several more years. I don’t plan to take the biologics because of the possibility of lung problems. I’m hoping researchers find the answer. I know I’m fortunate. Thank you for sharing Pattie. Fifteen years of pain but only a year of diagnosis is frustrating, isn’t it? I hear that too often. I hate hearing that. How did you finally figure out what was wrong? I just wrote a long comment on another post but then signed in to google reader and it lost it. Doh! Anyway, I have RA, diagnosed a couple of years ago (aged 25), fast onset and severe (full health to hardly being able to walk within 6 months) but treated brilliantly by the NHS in the UK. I am one of the lucky few who’ve gone into remission. I was on all the DMARDs, none of them working, so Humira was introduced and it worked perfectly. I’ve gradually been taken off all of the DMARDs apart from Methotrexate. Reading this made me think about how the disease is only being subdued – it’s not cured. I feel completely well (and so grateful) but it’s easy to forget that I still have RA – I’m just on strong drugs that keep it at bay. I wanted to ask if you know whether it’s possible that the drugs that I’m on could stop working at some point? I’m sure that it is. I’m 27 and would like to know what kind of future I can expect. Any advice would be so helpful. Thank you for your wonderful site – I feel such empathy for all of the people suffering and know how awful and frightening this illness is. Never lose hope. I’m so glad your treatment is working. Sometimes a treatment works for many years, so lets hope so!! Like you said, the Biologics (like Humira) can stop working as well because from what I read the body develops immunity to it. Taking methotrexate is supposed to be the best way to prevent that from happening. So you’re doing all you can. No one can know what future to expect. RA is very unpredicatable. What would I do if I were you? I’d stay with a treatment that works because going off & on it again can increase chances of the treatment not working. Vent anytime, wirechief. You’re right the prednisone can work very fast. Looks like you may also have some serious concerns with the prednisone and blood sugar though – I hope you get to a good doc who can help advise you with working with both diseases. Sometimes a very low dose of prednisone is effective too. Here’s an article about that – click here. The key is that RA is a DISEASE. I am walking, talking proof that treatment of RA with antibiotics can and does affect a CLINICAL REMISSION. I have now had RA for six years. I see a Rheumatologist (and of the hundreds of patients his practice, with several Rheumatologists, see, I am the ONLY ONE on the antibiotic protocol! So this is not a group of doctors who promote this protocol..in fact, my own doctor simply continues to be baffled at my success, but WILL NOT recommend this treatment to other patients!). I see that Dr. every 4 months. I have blood tests done annually to check out all systems…heart, kidneys, liver, etc. My Anti CCPR or whatever is now at 126 (or was a few months ago, after I had a relapse when I took Bactrim for a kidney stone post-surgery preventative, BAD IDEA.) My RA was caused by a leaky gut (had Giardia for a full year, undiagnosed until I had a colonoscopy). The clinical trials which have been done using Minocin (and don’t use any generics…they don’t work) frequently allowed the patients to continue on Methotrexate. Those adding the antibiotics always improved much more than those on the Methotrexate only. There are hundreds, if not thousands of us out there using this treatment with success. And a minimum of side effects. Please at least explore this idea! See information on the site by The Road Back Foundation, and read the book by Henry Scammell for more information. Maybe this will not work for all RA patients, but goodness gracious, it is SO MUCH BETTER than taking stuff that is poisonous! hi,my little daughter 5y has jra for 4y ,all of these past time she has eaten 2.5mg prednisolon every day ,sometimes 5mg or 7.5 by order of her physician and 5mg methox every week,she feels well and dosent have any special complain but her left knee always inflammed,her doctor lives in Tehran and is pedorhommatolog but here in our city we have famous adultrhommatolgist ,recently because of problems of traveling to tehran we decied to go to these specialist in our city but their treatment protocoles are different basically and i am confused and dont know what to do, her doc in tehran is not agree with these in Mashad,here doc stopped systemic prednisolone and begins with hdroxychloroqiune ,she takes his rhommato degree from canada ,tehran pedorhommato doc gets it from australia!they have different opiniones! can you help me what should i do with my little kid between these doctors and dugs?! Speaking as an adult dx’d w/JRA in 1984 at the age of 7(who was not properly treated as a child & so I live with the damage that possibly could have been avoided), it’s never easy for a parent of a child with JRA to know what the best course of treatment is. I can understand the one doc wanting her to not be on pred. It is one of those love/hate drugs. Kids with JRA are at risk for osteoporosis even if they’ve never taken any form of pred or other corticosteroid (I was dx’d w/osteopenia as early as 1987 and osteoporosis as early as 1989 and I had never taken any form of corticosteroid until I was 25 and had osteoporosis for 13 yrs) and adding pred in can cause that risk to rise. But I also know thar the risks of uncontrolled inflammation are just as scary. The risks of using pred are more easily monitored than the risks caused by uncontrolled inflammation. Knowing the risks with both scenarios and deciding which risks are worth taking helps in making the decision. Of course long term pred use has it’s risks, but just as with many adults who are not helped with their symptoms except by pred, many kids don’t respond to anything but pred either, so it has its benefits as well. In a number of cases the risks outweigh the benefits. For me, when I was without pred and other RA meds, I got progressively worse. Adding a DMARD alone helped quite a bit, but it was not until I started taking pred again that I ended up getting better, yet at age 35, I have osteoporosis that requires me to take Reclast. But since I am so stiff & have trouble moving without pred & I am not able to take other NSAIDs, the benefits outweigh the risks. The risks of corticosteroids like pred can be scary, but as long as proper monitoring is combined with using the lowest effective dose for the shortest time possible, then the risks are minimized. Risks of the use of corticosteroids (especially long-term and/or high dose) are: osteoporosis, increased blood pressure, cataracts of the eye, elevated pressure in the eyes (glaucoma), mood swings, weight gain-especially around the face (commonly called “moon face”), the abdomen, and the back of the neck (“buffalo hump”), high blood sugar, which can trigger or worsen diabetes, increased risk of infections, menstrual irregularities, suppressed adrenal gland hormone production (which is why stopping pred and other corticosteroids suddenly or cold-turkey is dangerous), thin skin, easy bruising and slower wound healing, and likely some others I am forgetting. Of all of these, the only ones I either have had in the past or do not currently have are the glaucoma and mood swings. I’ve battled high blood pressure most of my life, even before pred was in the picture. As a child, my BP was a concern until they figured out it was mainly due to what’s commonly called white coat hypertension. But, in my late 20s and early 30s, my BP was so high it was scary, which was partially due to pred use in a high daily dose for an extended time, and partially due to inflammation and pain, both of which can cause an increase in BP. I was dx’d with a cataract this past June. Most 35 yr old people would never dream of being told they had a cataract. For me, it was not a surprise given my continual use of pred from 2006-2009, much of the time at what is considered a high daily dose. I am now on a much lower dose, only 5mg and only take higher doses as part of a burst and taper during a major flare. The risks of uncontrolled inflammation of JRA are: joint damage, redness, swollen joints that are warm to touch, joint pain, joint stiffness, decreased range of motion or loss of joint function, general “flu-like” symptoms, & inflammation in the cardiovascular system (which leads to a number of problems like high blood pressure, risk of stroke, and heart disease). Inflammation also plays a role in: fatigue or a feeling of being tired, low-grade fever, chills and minor headaches, redness and swelling of the joints, joint damage, deformities of the hands and feet from the swelling and deterioration of tissues and bone, destruction of various tissues, including cartilage, bone, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels. Inside the joint, inflammatory cells inside the joint cause: irritation/disruption, wearing down of cartilage (cushions at the end of bones), swelling of the joint lining (synovium), & production of fluid in the diseased joint lining (synovial fluid). As these things happen, the joint space narrows which can lead to the bone rubbing together just as they do in OA. Inflammation can also affect the skin, lungs, heart, digestive system, & kidneys. It can take a major toll on the body so getting control of inflammation is key. Prednisolone can do that, especially during the time it takes a DMARD to begin working. DMARDs can take, on average 3 mo or more to begin working. Something needs to be done to help the inflammation in that time. Sometimes a DMARD only has a partial response and symptoms of inflammation are still felt despite treatment with a DMARD. So an NSAID or some type of corticosteroid is necessary. My opinion is this: only you can decide which doctor is best for your child in the situation. And unfortunately, no matter what choice is made, as a caring parent, you may always wonder if the one you didn’t pick would have worked better. It’s just part of the process of the disease. I know patients who pick one treatment over another and then later wonder if they made the right decision. Know this, whichever choice you make, the other one will be available at a later date IF the first doesn’t work out. I forgot to add that if it were me in your situation, knowing what I know and live with, I would push to keep the prednisolone, keep and/or raise the methotrexate and either consider also adding the hydroxychloroquine OR rather than adding a second DMARD, add a biologic if that is possible. I don’t know how biologics are dealt with in Tehran or Mashad so I don’t know if that is possible. I do know I’d get in touch with the doctor that knows her history, making sure he knows the issue with you traveling to get there and tell him your concerns about her knee. He may be able to help in some way. I don’t know. Some docs are willing to do that for a patient they know. The new docs may be wanting to basically start with a blank slate. Whatever you decide, make sure they do NOT stop her prednisolone suddenly. Stopping it when a patient has been on it for an extended period can be harmful. hi,im very glad that you answered me so compelet .i think your wright about keeping in touch with first doc ,but i dont know about biologics,here recently speaks about homeopathy (if its spelling was correct!)ihave duobt to go to these treatments,they use the flowers extracts and nature things and moods and minerals,something like chinise medicine!do you mean of biologics of those or not ? Wayney got it all right there. All the pred use side effects mentioned, i experienced them all except for the menstrual irregularities ;). I couldn’t help but feel really sad hearing toddlers getting JRA. I mean what most adults with RA gone through is already unbearable, what more if it happens to children esp babies! That is injustice and it really breaks my heart! Though i was diagnosed with RA when i was already 28yo, I easily followed doctors’ orders down to the last detail of medication, from over the counter drugs to DMARDs to restricted drugs to injectibles. but my indescibable pain would not go away. a few hours of relief would soon be down to just a couple of minutes. the body fights both the RA and medicines and adjust to them. i knew my doc was running out of options for she’s not giving me any new kind of pills or whatever other than the ones she had already prescribed. the worst i think is when she suggested me to enroll in a gov’t funded RA treatment program. she used better words when she told me that but i knew what she meant. at that point on, i took control of what i take to treat my RA. i am now on my 9th yr with the last 2-3yrs being PAIN-FREE. no pharma products no invasive procedures. and i thank God truly for that. Still, i go and see my rheumy every 3mos just to check and monitor my already sleeping RA. I’m not saying that everybody should take the road i took. For I laud everyone for pitching-in in creating RA awareness and demand for better treatment, care and most importantly, the right cure. It touched and inspired me to go out in the open and tell the people around me what i honestly been through. but on the other hand, it’s difficult for me to hear and read that a lot of RA patients are still greatly suffering. There are some natural products out there that can help lessen the suffering, if not all. and if you decide to go and find it, still continue to see your doctors. That’s what I do. I already have text-book deformities (as what many of the doctors i saw would described them). But I don’t think about that anymore.Tthe most important thing is to stay pain-free and get back to a normal and happy life. And that is my wish for you all RA warriors! I have been on Methotrexate for only a week. I have been exercising with a exercise bike. My diet is Gluten free because of IBS that I have had since I was 10 years old. I have gained 4 pounds in less than a week. This sounds way to much to me. This is the only side effect I am having from my first dosage of Methotrexate, but at this rate of weight gain I may become obese. What can I do? I am 5’3″ and weigh now 136.6 pounds. This is at the top of my weight class. Also, my husband and I would like to travel to Costa Rica but I am concerned about the vaccines I may need what can I do about this? I have never heard of that sudden weight gain happening before from the methotrexate. Is that the only medicine you’ve been taking? I’m planning to do a post on vaccinations in the next day or so, so hopefully it will be helpful for you. I’m not sure about what rules apply for Costa Rica though – have you asked your doc already? Hi, I’m sort of new at the war game. Seeing an orthopedic for a hip replacement. Not looking forward to it. Has anyone else had one? Do you know if I will have to stop my metho./Enbrel before operation? Forgot to ask my Rumy I’m sure they will tell me. Would like to get some input. Thanks. Thank you so much for an informative site. I recently started taking MTX, then had to stop as I became ill with pneumonia. When better, I will continue taking it. I have struggled with myself taking medication, as I do not want to harm the rest of my body by saving one section. The way you have described the buying a ‘big gun’to deal with the major ‘thief’, (of our health), and leaving the ‘left overs’ for a rainy day, was just what I needed to hear. It helped me reach a difficult decision. Blessings to you for sharing. I am dealing with the leftovers today. The prescribed anti-inflammatory Diclofenac upsets my stomach horrendously I just had to stop taking it yesterday. Today my stomach is way better but I am in horrible leftover pain! I should add I am currently on Enbrel and methotrexate. The pain medication was taking care of the unresolved elbow/knee/hand pain.

2019-04-20T18:11:39Z

http://rawarrior.com/rheumatoid-arthritis-requires-disease-treatment-and-symptom-treatment/

Parties are often accompanied by morning hangover. We do understand that it is hard to keep a check on the amount of alcohol you drink (no judgments). However, you shall reap what you sow and so you experience an intense headache, weakness, feeling of nausea and stomach ache all making you feel like a zombie in the morning. Medically and colloquially this condition is referred to as a hangover. Hangover is defined as a collated amalgamation of symptoms that develop after drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. Alcohol consumption and the chances of developing a hangover are directly proportional. Hangover actually starts to develop as the blood alcohol levels start to decrease.(1) After you’ve had your last drink, the blood alcohol level starts to decrease and continues to get worse as it reaches zero. Typically hangovers last for about 12 hours, however, the time is variable, and it depends on the amount of alcohol you have consumed. It could last about 48 hours in severe cases. After a heavy night of debauchery, it is normal to wake up with a splitting headache and completely dehydrated. However, a nutritious and healthy breakfast loaded with minerals can help you control your symptoms and even cure your hangover. Eating eggs post your drinking session could be beneficial, it can help you control your symptoms and drastically reduce your drunken fervor. Eating eggs the next morning will help your body release the after-effects of alcohol in your bloodstream. Eggs contain L-cysteine an amino acid(2) that is responsible for breaking down the alcoholic components and release these toxins out of the body. Additionally, they are also a great source of protein and will help you regain all your energy. Ideally, the best way to consume eggs for a hangover would be to drink it raw. However, it is not a feasible option. So it is recommended that you have boiled eggs or make some scrambled eggs. Note: Ensure not to use too much oil/butter for the preparation as it could interfere with alcohol in the stomach. The day post your drinking, have at least 3-4 eggs for breakfast, and you could also have it throughout the day as a snack/meal for best results. Banana is one of the best hangover foods that can help you get rid of the morning blues almost instantly. If you are certain that you’ll be going out, keep a few handy in your fruit basket for the next morning. Drinking too much alcohol flushes out most of the essential minerals from your body including potassium and magnesium. It is due to this that you feel weak and dizzy and also ends up with muscle cramps and fatigue. Bananas are rich in potassium and magnesium, and they replenish your body with an adequate amount of the mineral and other electrolytes. Additionally, you could also eat a banana. Eat 3-4 bananas in the morning once you wake up, it is suggested that you consider this your breakfast with followed by coffee. Alternatively, you could blend 3-4 bananas with milk to make a healthy shake and top it off with honey and savor it. Bananas are considerably good for your overall health, but excessive consumption could be harmful as it could cause a massive influx of minerals and ions and in the dehydrated state, and your body may not be able to process it. It is recommended that you have 3-4 bananas the next morning in the form of a smoothie or consume them directly. This wonderful root is not only in a culinary staple, but it is also a medicinal plant that bears lot of benefits for several diseases. One study conducted(3) by Takahashi concluded that ginger with brown sugar and the tangerine extract was able to cure hangovers effectively. Ginger is naturally an anti-emetic and helps decrease the feeling of nausea in the body and additionally, it acts on the digestive tract and helps in stabilizing the sugar levels in the bloodstream as well, making you feel a little better. Firstly clean and chop off an inch of ginger. Strain the solution and pour it into a cup and add some honey into it for taste and consume this solution. You could have this drink three times a day to keep the hangover at bay; you could also have this immediately after eating your meals in the day as well to aid in digestion. Foods that are high in carbs like sandwiches, pasta, etc. Foods high in water content like watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, etc. There are several ways that you could treat a hangover; some of those remedies include every simple step that you could use in no time and require things that are readily available at home. This may seem like an eccentric practice. However, it is known to be very helpful for people who are suffering from a severe hangover. All you would need is to gather the energy to walk to your bathroom. This practice is also referred to as hydrotherapy. The constant shuffling between cold and hot water helps in increased circulation, elimination of pain and toxins and as well as keeps you alert and energized. The hot water revitalizes your skin, whereas the cold water cools it down and helps in increased circulation, helping you keep your hangover symptoms at bay. Ideally, it would work best with a showerhead. If you have a showerhead, keep switching between hot and cold water, take 30 minutes of a cold shower and alternatively 30 minutes of hot water. Ideally, this practice has to be done every day in the morning and night, whenever you have a debilitating hangover for at least an hour daily. Nothing is more satisfying than drinking a refreshing and rejuvenating glass of coconut water when you have a hangover. This is considered to be one of the most buzzing methods to get rid of a hangover. Alcohol, when in your bloodstream causes oxidative stress and causes you to urinate more as it is a diuretic. Coconut water brims to the lid with antioxidants that reacts with the toxic free radicals and helps in reducing the oxidative stress of the body and also hydrates it. Ideally, it is suggested that you use ‘tender coconut water,’ in addition to containing potassium, they carry the same amount of magnesium as seen in bananas. It is suggested that you consume roughly 2 glasses of it, every 4-5 hours during your hangover crisis. Although there aren’t any side effects from drinking coconut water, it is recommended that you cap your daily intake to almost a liter a day. One downfall of following this regimen would be a constant need to visit the washroom. However, that is a small price to pay. Alcohol in the bloodstream causes the antidiuretic hormone from being released into the body, which causes less retention of water in the body. Drinking water, the next day is one of the best ways to getting rid of that pounding headache and hangover. Alcohol in the body causes the body to release less/negligible amounts of antidiuretic hormone which thereby causes the body to release all the water in the body, thus making you feel severely dehydrated. It is also hypothesized that lack of water in the bloodstream could cause headaches, as the brain is just 70% water. There isn’t any particular way to consume water; it is just recommended that you sip from a large glass every 2-3 minutes, it helps you keep xerostomia (dry mouth syndrome) and dehydration at bay. Although this depends on how much hangover you have and how dehydrated you are, it is variable and differs from each person. However, it is advised that you start your water ritual by drinking 500 ml, sipping on it every 2-3 minutes. There are several herbal remedies such as teas, tinctures, and extracts used since ages to treat this age-old disease. They have been very effective on people suffering from a hangover, however, there isn’t much scientific evidence to prove the efficacy of the remedies, but it is to be noted that globally these remedies are used by millions to treat their hangover. Green tea is loaded with catechins that have potent medical properties. These active components protect your liver from any damage caused by the consumption of alcohol. Those who regularly drink must include it in their diet for a healthy liver. Green tea additionally also works in promoting your immune system and aids in proper digestion. Next, add in the boiling water, let it brew for a minute or two until you see the color change. Consume it after it rests it cools down considerably. Do not add green tea to boiling water, instead add lukewarm water to the tea, as the heat might destroy the catechins present in tea and reduce the potency of the herbs. This perennial herb is a native plant that is originally found in Asia and southern Europe. It boasts of a lot of medicinal properties and has been used for centuries to treat several diseases. It also promotes a healthy digestion process. Milk thistle has strong antioxidant properties which make it a preferred option to cure a hangover. It protects your liver from harmful toxins and fights off the effects of alcohol. Consuming milk thistle gives you instant relief from digestive distress. The consumption of milk thistle should not exceed the recommended dosage. Also referred to as the Eleuthero, is a small herb that is found in the Northeastern part of Asia. It is a traditional medicine that has years of history that backs its medicinal properties. In recent times, a study(4) conducted reported to have found that administering Siberian ginseng reduces the hangover symptoms and its severity. Although there is no clear understanding of how this herb works to cure a hangover, it has been hypothesized that as it has a lot of antioxidants, it reacts with the toxic free radicals in the body and helps to provide instant relief from the symptoms of a hangover. You could directly consume the pills that are available in the market. However, it is recommended that you check with your doctor/physician before doing so as this pill can interfere with other drugs such as diabetic medication, blood thinners, etc. The recommended dosage of this drug is 500 mg and at no cost should you exceed this. Also taking one pill in a day is ideally recommended. Essential oils have myriad benefits; from headaches to nausea to the dizzy feeling of a hangover, it can instantly provide relief. Essential oils are one of the easiest to use remedies and are also very effective. Lavender oil has been used since ages as a primary essential oil to treat a lot of diseases. It is also used as an essential oil in aromatherapy to treat body aches, depression, anxiety, and several other disorders. The pleasing aroma of Lavender Essential oil is known to have a calming effect. It relaxes your stressed body. Further, it has pain relieving properties that reduce the severity of headaches that usually accompany a hangover. The application of the oil increases blood circulation and thereby eases the problem. The oil contains a compound known as cineole which has potent anti-inflammatory properties that minimize the chances of inflammation which can cause a hangover. It is necessary to dilute the essential oil with a carrier oil for topical application. Using undiluted oil may cause a severe allergic reaction due to its potent nature. Add in a few drops of Lavender Essential oil in a carrier oil such as coconut oil, castor oil. Massage the blend on your forehead and temples. You could also apply it behind the ear or back of the neck which are the trigger points of a headache. You could also add a few drops of the oil to your bathwater and have a rejuvenating bath. It is recommended that you use this essential oil moderately as it is a very potent oil and may cause an allergic reaction when used in excess. You could stick to using 3-4 ml of the oil for the whole day. Yes, it does exist, and it acts the same as ginger does. In simpler terms, it could be termed as consolidated tincture of ginger’s medicinal properties. A recent study(5) conducted even regards this essential oil as an effective remedy for curing nausea and dizziness caused by a hangover. Ginger consists of shaogols, these are the active ingredients that are present in the oil, and they act as an anti-inflammatory agent and an analgesic that helps in reducing the pain and helps in lowering the blood pressure in the body. It also helps in lowering the blood alcohol level by pushing the liver’s functions. Add in a few drops of ginger essential oil and massage it on your forehead and temples. You could also apply it behind the ear or back of the neck which are the trigger points of a headache. Alternatively, you can add the oil to your diffuser and inhale its soothing aroma. Although there is no such restriction for this oil, it is recommended that you stick to the dosage that is provided on the container. Additionally, you could also consult your doctor/physician for the dosage. When you drink a lot of alcohol, it gets harder for the body to absorb water. Thereby leaving you severely dehydrated, which can worsen hangover symptoms. While drinking water is the best way to recover from dehydration, the right essential oil can exponentially increase the process. Lemon oil supports and aids in hydration. If you’re able to rehydrate quickly, a lot of your hangover symptoms will fade away. Lemon Essential oil is known for its diuretic properties; in simpler terms, it helps in the retention of water in the body. That is all the water is reabsorbed in the kidneys and urination is reduced-thereby increasing your body’s hydration. It is also proven to stop nausea and vomiting. According to a study(6) conducted in pregnant women, it could prevent vomiting and nausea. Add in a few drops of Lemon Essential oil and massage it on your forehead and temples. You could also apply it behind the ear or back of the neck which are the trigger points of a headache. Although there is no such restriction for this oil, it is recommended that you stick to the dosage that is provided on the container Additionally, you could also consult your doctor/physician for the dosage. According to experts at Stanford University(7), alcohol is a diuretic and causes the body to be severely dehydrated. This results in the shrinking of your dura matter in the brain causing pounding headaches. Not only that, it depletes all the minerals and vitamins in your body causing you to feel fatigued and weak. It especially depletes Vitamin B complex, magnesium. Drinking too much alcohol could affect your body in many ways and one of them is the depletion of your body’s reserve of vitamin B. Especially, B6 and B12. However, using the supplements could help you get rid of that debilitating headaches. Supplementing your body with B6 would cause your body to revitalize itself. Especially the liver, it helps in inducing the detoxification process that occurs in the liver(8), and helps in excreting the alcoholic byproducts quicker. This is probably the easiest thing to do, all you have to do is acquire the supplements from your nearest pharmacy,, and you are good to go. This is variable. However, the daily recommended intake of the vitamin B6 for males around 14-50 is 1.7 mg(9). However, it is strongly suggested that you consult with your physician/nutritionist before you follow this regimen. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol in a single night could overload your liver as it is the detoxification center of your body, adding in magnesium to the body helps in increased functionality of the liver. Magnesium is known to support and increase the activity of alcohol dehydrogenase; the enzyme breaks down alcohol and helps in eliminating it from the body. This is probably the easiest thing to do, all you have to do is acquire the supplements from your nearest pharmacy and you are good to go. This is variable. However, the daily recommended dosage of magnesium(10) has an upper limit of 350mg. However, it is strongly suggested that you consult your physician/nutritionist before you follow this regimen. This is nature’s most marvelous cactus that has a lot of medicinal benefits, and it grows mostly in Australia. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial(11), 64 young, adult subjects in good health were randomized to receive 1,600 IU of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus indica) (OFI) extract or indistinguishable placebo five hours before alcohol consumption. Later, subjects consumed a maximum of 1.75 g of alcohol per kilogram of body weight over a four hours. Researchers assessed the subjects for severity of nine symptoms of a hangover and overall well-being on a numerical scale (0-6 points), and blood and urine samples were collected the following morning. You could directly use the stems and pad of the cactus and remove the pricks. Boil it in simmering water and very carefully extract the juice of the cactus and drink it. Alternatively, you could also use the prickly pear tincture. There is a clear demarcation(12) that you can consume 300 grams of steamed prickly pear cactus pad and 500 grams of broiled stems of prickly pear cactus as a single dose. People are likely to be hungover after a night of irresponsible drinking. If you are one of them who cannot control your alcohol intake, then here are some tips that can help you in preventing a hangover. Do not smoke while you are drinking. Smoking manifolds the symptoms of a hangover and makes it almost unbearable the next morning. Instead of drinking continuously you could try to drink water or non-alcoholic beverages in between to lessen the effect of alcohol. Drink a glass of water before going to bed to reduce the severity of a morning headache. The best thing would be to have a prickly pear supplement at least four hours before you start drinking. It is an excellent option to avoid hangovers. The best way to prevent a hangover is to abstain from consuming it altogether. However, it may not be a plausible option, but you could practice cautious drinking. Too much of alcohol is indeed bad for your health. Further, the hangovers you suffer from in the morning can be terrible, the results of which can be severe especially if you need to be functional the next day. The remedies mentioned above to cure a hangover can help you out in such situations by providing you quick relief from the symptoms. How to Get Rid of Calcium Deposits with 5 Quick Tips?

2019-04-20T16:12:46Z

https://howtocure.com/hangover/

Most people I know think it’s absolutely ridiculous that a human being right now, THIS YEAR, could make money blogging. “Blogging is dead” seems to be the mantra, but friend, the only thing that’s dead are these grumpy people’s imaginations! I have other online friends who completely support their families with blogging too, and one even paid cash for a beautiful house earlier this year! These people are not made up. They’re just hard-working, smart, creative individuals who found a way to make blogging work for them. There are SO many ways to make money blogging. It’s not a one-size-fits-all profession. I can’t wait to show you the lay of the land so you can find a money-making strategy that works best for you! This is (in my super humble opinion!) the best way to get started making money blogging, because you don’t need a certain traffic number to start making affiliate sales, and you don’t have to spend hours upon hours creating your own product. Affiliate marketing helps you “cut your teeth” in the blogging world. You’ll learn how to write well, be super helpful, solve your reader’s problems, and market in a genuine, authentic way. These skills will then serve you well for any of the other monetization methods you may add in later. Affiliate marketing was the first way I made money blogging. I was promoting my sister-in-law’s new eBook. Over the next few years I came to learn that I was one of the top affiliates of her product — simply because I matched what my audience wanted with a product I already used and loved. A quick note here: I wasn’t making big bucks in those early days! Maybe a couple hundred here and there from being part of a sales promotion. But it was something! And those first affiliate sales came within the first few months of setting up my blog. Carly from Mommy on Purpose has earned anywhere from $1100 to $2500/month in affiliate sales over the last 3 months, and that’s just from her mommy-focused products. She’s since gone on to create a course on affiliate marketing, and she makes quite a bit more affiliate revenue inside the blogging niche. Also, I thought this was crazy — Carly doesn’t even have a mom-tips focused email list. She makes all of her “mommy-product” affiliate sales just from her blog posts and site traffic. (!!) People making good money without email lists blow my mind! I love learning all the different ways you can earn an income. There truly are one hundred different ways to do it! There are some niches that tend to be more lucrative – like business and finance, because some of these niches have affiliate programs with super high bounty rates (meaning you get paid a lot for each customer you refer!) but I love that Carly is earning over $1,000/month sometimes just from Amazon affiliate sales talking about Mommy products she loves! Oh, and I almost forgot! The one fabulous thing about affiliate marketing is that, over time, it can become super passive. If you write an epic blog post that converts well for an affiliate product, and you get that epic blog post constantly circulating on Pinterest and ranking on Google, chances are you’ll be raking in affiliate dollars for that post month after month. I’m able to make passive affiliate sales by recommending ConvertKit. I did the work upfront of promoting several different free classes from ConvertKit, and having a good portion of my audience sign up for a free trial. Once a free trial turns into a paying customer, ConvertKit sends me a check for 30% of the revenue that customer brings in for them…. Every single month! It’s pretty crazy, actually, because as the people I’ve referred continue to grow their email lists, they have to use a higher ConvertKit plan (i.e. it costs a bit more) so my affiliate revenue increases some months, without me lifting a finger! It’s possible for a blogger in any niche to make affiliate sales by talking about the products they know, use, and love, and then finding the right affiliate programs to join. Sponsored posts can be a very lucrative way to make money blogging if you’ve got a large following or high traffic numbers, OR you’ve got a loyal following in a specific niche. My sister and I once scored a sponsored post that paid $500 and took just a few hours to write, and at the time our business blog had traffic under 25,000 pageviews/month. This sponsored post rate is pretty high for our traffic numbers! But our blog is very “moms-in-business” focused, and that’s exactly the audience our sponsor wanted to reach. Jessie Festa, a travel blogger, gets paid anywhere from $1500 to $5,000 for each press trip she goes on, and her blog has just 45,000 unique visitors a month! That’s the power of knowing your stuff when it comes to pitching the right brands, being uber professional, and knowing how to upsell a $1500 yes into 5k. If you’re scared to death to pitch to brands, you’ll love Jessie’s course all about How to Work with Brands and Make Money. Jessie walks you through every step of the process, from setting up a brand-friendly blog and social media accounts, to creating a gorgeous, uber-profesh media kit, to creative ways to make sure you get a Yes from your favorite brands. I don’t know any bloggers currently making a full-time income JUST from putting ads on their sites or on their YouTube channels, but I do know influencers making some great side cash from ad revenue. YouTubers Tasha and Joseph Cochran are making $2,000-$4,000/month just from enabling ads on their YouTube Channel. Note: Your channel needs to have over 1,000 subscribers and over 4,000 watch hours in a 12-month period in order to be eligible to join the YouTube Partner program, so it’s going to take some time and work to be ready for ad revenue! I love Tasha and Joseph’s story of just randomly trying out a few YouTube videos, letting their channel sit for a few years, and then getting their first $100 check from YouTube. That was their light bulb moment, and they really started pouring everything they could into their YouTube channel after that. In March of 2017 they earned $100 in one month via YouTube ads, and by September of 2017 they earned $1000 in a month. I’m so impressed at their growth trajectory! It just took focus and digging deep. You’ll love Tasha and Joseph’s YouTube Made Simple Course inside the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit. It’s one of my absolute faves! If you want to place ads on your own site, Mediavine seems to be the current top ad network for this. Many bloggers report that they’re making 50-100% more revenue per pageview compared to using Google Adsense. Note: Mediavine requires that you have at least 25,000 sessions per month to be eligible to work with them. This means 25,000 different people and/or people coming back at different times throughout the month to your site! So… this isn’t a beginner way to to make money. However, Jen Koellmann of HairsOutofPlace.com was desperate to hit those 25,000 sessions/month FAST with her new blog. She dug into Tailwind Tribes and became eligible for MediaVine after just 3 months blogging! So ad revenue can be some nice side income, but it shouldn’t be the only way you make money blogging. Let’s talk real numbers so I can show you what I mean. There’s not a standard number of earnings per pageview or visitor with MediaVine because it depends on what ad partners are working with you, your site niche, and more. But here are a few examples: Jeremy and Angie of Living the Dream had 170,000 pageviews in September across two sites, and earned a total of $3,524 from ads. This equals 2 cents per pageview. As a new blogger, it’s generally a struggle just to hit 10,000 pageviews within a month or two (and in this case, you wouldn’t even be eligible for Mediavine yet!) But even if you were miraculously on some other network earning 2 cents per pageview, that’d equal just $200 in ad revenue for the month. Now that’s some nice little side cash for doing something you enjoy, but it’s not supporting your family! And if you were Mediavine eligible and eeked out 25,000 sessions per month (or about 50,000 pageviews), you’d be making $1,000/month in ad revenue. When you’re ready to take your blog to the next level, I recommend you start by either creating your own eBook or your own collection of printables. It takes way less time to create these two products than it does to produce a full-fledged video course, and it’s a great way get some practice on launching a product and figuring out how to market it to your people. One of the easiest ways to get started on your eBook is to see which blog posts resonate most with your readers. Which posts get the most traffic month over month? Chances are that’s because Pinterest and Google users are desperate for some help in that area! But just as importantly, which posts get commented on and shared the most? These are clearly posts that your readers are passionate about. Inside the Toolkit, Beth Brombosz has an eBook all about how to turn your blog content into a great book — complete with marketing strategies and formatting tips. I was blown away. I still remember where I was STANDING in my mom’s kitchen when Abby told me this, that’s how impactful it was. Abby had been blogging for 17 months at that point, and she created this product from scratch that was all hers — no one could take it away from her! And in the first week of selling it on her site she had over 300 customers! Abby made over $3,000 in that ONE WEEK of sales! That was such a light bulb moment for me. And I made a mental note to put creating my own products at the top of my biz to-do list! But at the time, making REAL money blogging seemed impossible, so to have people in my own family make several thousand dollars in one week of sales… it changed my entire perspective on blogging. I’ve lumped printables into this category as well, although they could truly stand on their own. By printables I mean selling digital copies of planning printables, checklists, worksheets, workbooks, journals, even art printables. Whatever interest or hobby you have, there are probably some printables around that topic that you can create! But recently I took the How to Make your Own Printables course from Laura Smith, and… I kinda felt like smacking myself upside the head. Laura showed me how to use Excel to create my printables, and holy crap, there are a lot of amazing shortcuts you can use! Laura even walks you through this gorgeous daily planning printable of hers, and shows you exactly how to make it. Ohhh online courses. I feel like you’re getting such a bad rap lately, and…. It’s because so many people have COURSES teaching other people how to create online COURSES, and it’s enough to drive anyone a little batty. I feel like internet marketers talk about online courses as though they’re a get-rich-quick scheme, when they’re not at all. Second, because most courses are video format, they feel like a much more premium product than an eBook, and you can generally command a much higher price. In my experience, most eBooks range in price from $5 to $70, with an average of maybe $15 a pop. Most online courses I see range in price from $50 to $1,000 with an average of maybe $300 a pop. Big difference! Even though you usually sell less products the higher your prices are, you also counteract that with much higher profits per sale, and the math tends to work out in favor of courses! Third, I love online courses because they’re such a great way to build relationships with your audience. I can tell so much more about who you are as a person when I’m seeing and hearing you on video versus reading your words on the page. You can nail an eBook and have your customers coming back for more from you, but goodness gracious when you nail a course, people REALLY come back for more! Oh, speaking of shutting down my premium courses, you might be thinking, “why… if they’re so great?” Well, courses do have a downside. They can require MAJOR upkeep, like when the platform you teach about constantly changes. It’s much harder to edit or re-record a bunch of videos versus just editing an eBook. Courses can also require massive amounts of time and tend to bring more demanding people out of the woodwork. I get it. They paid GOOD money to learn from you, and some students think that good money entitles them to own you indefinitely. It does not, but it’s really hard to convince them of that! So… there are pros and cons to courses, but they can be really fun, and most bloggers who go the course route tend to see their business grow to the next level as a result. I put coaching and workshops together, because coaching generally means working with someone one-on-one, and a workshop is often a group coaching experience. To me, both of these options are even more premium-priced than a course, but you’re working with way fewer people. You get the benefit of working with your customers much more closely and really ensuring they stay the course on whatever it is you’re teaching them. On the other hand…. I have a hunch that clientzillas might be even more likely with these packages as compared to online course students. However, I know many bloggers who first launched their courses as group coaching programs, where they pre-sold their idea to a small group of people, created the content week by week, and then got loads of feedback from their first group of students to improve their final product. And in some fields, it’s much easier to learn how to help someone one-on-one before you move on to big groups. I’m thinking about fitness or organization or parenting, to name a few. I think if I was a blogger in one of those fields, I’d feel way more comfortable booking one-on-one sessions with people that were quite open-ended to start. I’d just listen and figure out where their stumbling blocks were, and then develop a plan of action and ways to help them from there. After a year of experience helping individuals one-on-one, I could see it being much easier to identify the most common struggles and setbacks my audience faces on a particular topic, and then systematize my coaching to turn it into an online course for the masses. The other reasons you might offer coaching: You LOVE one-on-one work. You’re just the kind of person who loves to go deep with people and you can’t stand how big and stranger-like an online course group of hundreds of students feels. Maybe you’ve got a super small audience currently, but you DO have several super fans among that group. They’ve been begging you to help them in your area of expertise, so offering them one-on-one coaching is the perfect way to increase your income. No major tech skills needed, no huge launches, you just offer up a paypal button individually to the people who want your individual help. I’ve personally done a few one-on-one coaching sessions. (I was the coach — the one teaching, and it was REALLY fun!) I LOVE the chance to give someone that kind of personalized attention, but I really struggled with charging what I was worth, sticking with my time limits, and during that season of life with a baby at home, it just wasn’t something I could sustain with my unpredictable schedule. But coaching could be perfect for you! I’ve personally met several coaches who charge a premium price and make a great living doing it. They love it, and they have no interest in complicated product launches, ad revenue, or sponsored posts! I see this happen all the time: A blogger gets really good at a particular skill, like videography for their cooking videos, or Facebook ads for building their list, and then all of a sudden people start begging to hire them for that skill! That’s what happened to Lisa from Elembee.com She started blogging in 2010, just as a fun hobby, but as she slowly nerded out on her website design more and more, she decided to quit a job she didn’t love and launch her own web design business instead. Since she was already blogging and building relationships online, she was able to find clients. Fast forward to today, and Lisa is charging $2,000-$7,000 per web design project! Ahh! You go, girl! I’ve seen bloggers turn themselves into full-fledged Ads Agencies, or Creative Media Companies, or Graphic Designers. And while some might view their trading dollars for hours as a negative thing, in many cases they’re charging really premium prices for their services, working with people they enjoy, and doing what they love! The beautiful thing about selling your services is that if you niche down and work hard on improving your best skills, you DON’T have to have a huge audience to make money this way. You just have to put your best foot forward and find the right people who can use your help. You never know where your blogging journey might lead you. The key is to get started, work hard, and never stop learning. And along the way, make sure you pursue that beautiful sweet spot where your passions collide with what your audience wants most. THAT, my friend, is the real key to making money blogging! Ok, friend! It’s time to come up with your monetization plan for your online platform! Will you write to me and tell me what your blogging goals are for this year? brilliantbusinessmoms@gmail.com I’d love to cheer you on! Psst! The Genius Blogger’s Toolkit is only open for 6 days, October 10 – October 15, and you don't want to miss it! You’ll get access to over 50 online courses, eBooks, and amazing resources to grow and monetize your blog. I’ve been poring over these resources the past few weeks so I can give you all my honest thoughts, and I’m giddy with excitement to tell you all about them! Want to know more? Check out my Completely Honest Review of the 2018 Genius Blogger's Toolkit right here!

2019-04-24T10:05:17Z

https://brilliantbusinessmoms.com/7-ways-make-money-blogging-even-youre-brand-new/

After many months of development, the final version of Palm OS 5 has been sent by PalmSource to the licensees. Now that the operating system is complete, it is up to the licensees to develop and release handhelds to run it. Of course, these are already close to being ready, based on early versions of OS 5 but there is no way at this point to accurately predict when the first of these will be available. Steve Sakoman, the CTO of PalmSource, would only say that he had seen the time between an operating system going Golden Master and a handheld release be as short as a month and a half. Palm announced in February that it would introduce OS 5 devices with wireless capabilities by this fall. Rumor has the company will put out a smartphone before the end of the year. "Our goal is to introduce the industry's best ARM-based handheld this fall," said Todd Bradley, the head of the Solutions Group at Palm. "We are very excited by the impending release of Palm OS 5," said Masanobu Yoshida, president, Handheld Computer Company, Sony Corporation. "We are certain that this will lead us to new dimensions of user experiences that our Clié products can provide, and it is a great step forward for Palm OS overall. We will continue to contribute to the Palm Economy with this powerful Palm OS 5, working together with PalmSource, Inc. and the Palm OS developer community. At the heart of the new operating system is its support for ARM-based processors. This will allow the Palm OS to run on much faster processors and greatly increase what it can do in the way of multimedia. It also offers greater security and wireless support. Built into Palm OS 5 is the ability to record sound and play CD-quality digital audio. It also has support for high-resolution screens and icons and fonts in the operating system are now hi-res The user interface can be personalized with color themes. To keep sensitive data private, Palm OS 5 offers 128-bit systemwide data-encryption services. In addition, end-to-end security is provided through Secure Socket Layer services for email, web browsing, and online transactions. The new operating system puts even more emphasis on wireless communication. Palm OS 5 supports both Bluetooth and 802.11b. The new features should encourage buyers to replace their current handhelds. Gartner analyst Todd Kort told Reuters that, "There is definitely going to be a big upgrade wave and that should commence about a month after the first products ship." Never the less, OS 5 is something of a transition for the Palm OS. While it does have new features, primarily it is the current Palm OS updated to run on ARM-based processors. PalmSource is already in the process of developing an even newer version of the operating system that will take even greater advantage of the capabilities of the new processors. "This is just the beginning of a very aggressive roadmap -- a new era of innovation for the platform," said Dave Nagel, CEO of PalmSource. Making the jump from one family of processors to another isn't a trivial task. Last summer, to make this process easier on the licensees, Palm created the Palm OS Ready Program. This got the processor manufacturers to create a Device Abstraction Layer (DAL) for their own processors. This is sort of a translation layer between the hardware and the OS, intended to remove any incompatibilities between, say, Intel and Motorola chips. This saves the Palm OS licensees a tremendous amount of work and allows them to choose the processor they like without having to write a DAL of their own. The biggest names in the Palm OS Ready Program are Intel, Motorola and Texas Instruments, though there are others.. At this point, only Palm has announced whose processors will be in its next generation handhelds: TI. Despite the change to a new processor, OS 5 handhelds will still be able to run a large majority of current apps thanks to an emulator. According to Steve Sakoman, about 80% of current apps should make the jump, which, according to him, is about the same number as made the switch to OS 4. The ones that won't work violate in one way or another PalmSource's rules for making a compatible Palm OS application. One of the most frequently asked questions about OS 5 is, "How fast is it?" That's a difficult question because it depends partially on how fast the processor is. There are quite a few processors currently in the Palm OS Ready Program and these vary tremendously in capabilities. Because most ARM-based chips are significantly faster than the Dragonball processors in current handhelds, the emulator will often be faster than current models. However, that isn't always the case. Using one processor to emulate another isn't easy and there will be some apps that actually run slower, like very code intensive ones. On the other hand, code that has been recompiled for ARM-based chips is 61 times faster on a 200MHz ARM processor compared to a 33MHz Dragonball one. Displaying graphics can be twice as fast. As the Palm OS has added features people are used to seeing on the Pocket PC, some have been wondering if the Palm OS will also get some of the Pocket PC's drawbacks, like a large footprint and poor battery life. Fortunately, this turns out to not be the case. "The memory footprint, even the new ARM version, is very efficient," said Gina Clark, vice president of marketing for PalmSource. "It continues to fit inside 4 megabytes (of memory), as it does today." OS 5 is quite modular. This means that a licensee needs to only install the pieces it needs for its specific hardware. For example, if a company decided to leave the infrared port out of one of their models, they can easily remove the portion of the operating system that controls the IR port. Last month, a Motorola spokesperson told ZDnet UK that the Palm OS 5 handhelds will use roughly half the power as Pocket PC handhelds running the same hardware. Sounds like a good first step - It will be interesting to see the combination of features everyone decides to use in their Handhelds - and to see what features the Licensees are going to come up with next! It sounds like they have put a lot of thought into making things easy for licensees. That should save some on R&D and help keep prices lower than they would have been. I'm excited. True, there isn't much that is totally new but it makes things that are now high-end more accessible to everyone. It's a good step forward. It is very gratifying to see the OS5 Golden Master shipping to licensees on schedule, and it will be very interesting to see what new devices will be forthcoming! I'm hoping that with integrated Bluetooth modules now shipping in quantity for less than the "critical" $5 price point (in fact TI recently had a new release that their new Bt chip will be <$4) that this will be as common as IrDA is now! 802.11b integration was probably pushed by Symbol, who already builds Palm OS devices with built in 802.11b for industrial applications. I'm sure HandEra, who make CF-capable devices, and who has a lot of design wins due to their 802.11b CF support, also encouraged this development. Just to clarify: I hope that the relatively cheap cost of the Bluetooth hardware components will mean that the new OS5 devices that are in the pipeline will include integrated Bt. It should be standard on high-end devices this fall, and nearly ubiquitous on Palm Powered Devices by this time next year. RE: Sounds good?? Battery life?? I see that the new OS 5 devices will likely consume about half as much power as the Pocket PCs. This worries me. I am very happy with being able to easily change out my AAAs whenever battery power fades. I can back up my TRGpro's entire set of data to the CF card in a few seconds and restore whenever necessary, either the complete data set or file by file. I can go for months without synchronizing data with a regular computer. I like it this way; I hope this can continue. My TRGpro is extremely reliable and I will stay with it for the foreseeable future. It will be interesting to see the hardware that companies release for OS 5, I'm increasingly worried that in the pursuit of whizz bang technology, these companies will price themselves out of the Market! I'm chugging along on my m500 that I bought for 200 GBP (300 USD), and at the time the 505 was about 100 GBP (150 USD) more...however the new 515 is even more expensive than the 505! Similarly I've now seen the Sony NR70V in London going for £430 (650 USD)!!! The Peg 615 was around 300 GBP...a lot less. At this rate I'll NEVER upgrade. When you look at other areas (mobile phones, walkmans etc.), these are often superceded by a superior model for around the same price (or less). It looks like Palm handhelds seem to be competing with Pocket PC's in one area anyway - price! I would imagine Palms first new m515 like unit with an ARM processor will feature a 320x320 screen and be priced about $449 - $499 USD. Sony's units with similar features would clock in about the same, but if they produce "non-typical" units only with swivel screens, little cameras built in etc. you can expect the amount to go higher. For what it is worth I think this feature creep and cost inflation in the PDA format to be a problem. I have a 16meg monocolor pda that fits my needs for now and into the forseeable future. The market for these devices may be getting saturated. Maybe we need to take the next step -there is a new class device comming on the market that does get me excited and is where I want to go next. That is a Tablet PC. This is a blend of the PDA and laptop that is very usefull. A larger but still lightweight and more readable color touch screen with hard drive storage with builtin 802.11b for wirelesss Web surfing off a network access point and MS Office type applications both at home and outside is going to be the next big thing in my opinion. While I agree that Palm handhelds haven't progressed as fast as they should have for a couple years, I don't see the price creep that you are talking about. The Palm Vx was released in October of 1999. It cost $400. The m515 was released a month or so ago. It offers twice as much memory as the Vx, an SD slot, and a color screen. It also costs $400. Yes I do count those "specialty items" as part of the creep. The newest sony is $600 and I hear the new OS5 PDA's will have a hefty price also. For me to spend over $500 I want something that is really usable for viewing pctures and movies and surfing Web sites plus be more portable than a laptop. The multimedia PDA's are trying to do what should be done by a Tablet PC. For PDA functions my $200 palm will work just fine for now and the next couple of years. Tablet PCs are a dead end. Size matters. Take a look at the next article and read all the complaints about the HandEra, which is about 20% of the size of a tablet PC. They sound nice in theory but once you actually have to start carrying one around, you realize what a huge hassle it is. There is no way to put a tablet PC in your pocket. You either have to have a backpack or always have it in your hands. Soon, when you are leaving, you start asking yourself, "Do I really think I'll use it today?" Pretty soon, it never leaves your desk. Get a Palm, which gives you maximum convenience with OK usefulness. Or get a laptop, which gives you maximum usefulness with OK convenience. A Tablet PC is the worst of both of them. "The Palm Vx was released in October of 1999. It cost $400. The m515 was released a month or so ago. It offers twice as much memory as the Vx, an SD slot, and a color screen. " I find that pretty sad. As much as i love palm, really, in 3 years, we've made color better than 256 colors and added an expansion slot. Ain't a heck of a lot in additions. I think the aggressive roadmap that has been put into play because of devices from Handera and Sony should have been there from the beginning. Becasue when it boils down to it, all of these pdas are exactly the same. Some have smoother fonts and color, but aside from physical appearance, none offer functionality better than the others do (the Handera and NR70 aside). I have been a Palm fan for a number of years (Palm 111,Palm111c, PalmV, PalmVx and now m515). My only complaint is that every time their is a new model their seems to be a serious flaw with the economics on cradle and accessories. You have to be kitted out again with another cradle, another car charger,new size stylus pens. This is getting to be an expensive exercise for any professional who duplicates the accessories for office/home. When are you guys going to settle down and do somthing intelligent and make the accesories at least standardised in some form. For me no Golden Master unless it uses the standard accessories I am now using with the 515. Bet you even the leather cover with the stylus slot will be a different size. Result wait a couple of years before considering an upgrade. I am very excited. As an owner of a Pilot 5000, PalmPilot Professional, Palm V, Palm IIIc, and Palm m515, and (for my wife) a Sony T615 I am very excited for the ARM handhelds that will be arriving late this summer or fall. My intention is simple: I WILL BUY the best SLIM (ie. Palm V like) design with a 320x320 (I would prefer 320x480) color screen, FASTEST ARM processor, flash ROM (because we all know OS 6 is where its at, but don't get me wrong... in all truth I'll buy a OS 6 unit then too...), lots of memory, and a decent expansion card system. Palm let me make this clear: I HAVE ALWAYS been loyal. The Sony was for my wife, but I have been jealous. You can't screw this up now, because if you give us some ugly m515 type unit with a 320x320 but dim screen, only 16 megs of RAM, and the slowest ARM processor you can find... and if Sony gives me a 320x480 screen beauty of a screen, 32 megs of RAM, and a much faster ARM processor... I WILL switch. Get it right guys because I want to stay loyal, and I want to stay with SD cards. The time is now folks... "Palm Generation 2" is here. My money is at the ready. Now who is going to be man enough to saddle up to the plate with a unit worthy of my dollar? Boy - I wish I could afford to upgrade like you can. Dear Sony, Palm, Handspring, Acer, Handera, etc. I have owned a PalmPilot, a PalmPilot Pro (now with my wife), use a Palm VII for development, and carry a Visor Deluxe as my daily driver. Yes, I am a power user (because after all EVERYONE who reads PIC must by default be a power user). I want a device that is fast, and has the memory to store my notes and calendar information. I want to add accessories to my Palm to expand it, and have the OS have support for those accessories. I do not want to be forced to upgrade every 6 months. I am looking forward to OS5, but am quite happy with 3.01H, and 3.5, and will probably wait for 6.0. That is the ZEN of Palm. Simplicity. You get what you need and do it efficiently instead of including everything and the kitchen sink. My existing devices do everything I need. Colour would be nice, and the ability to hook into my Bluetooth phone would be great too, but they are not show stoppers. While I am a POWER USER, I am also a consumer, and rapid release of devices outdated every 3 weeks is keepng my away from upgrading at the moment. I'll be waiting for a stable OS, in a platform form factor that looks like it'll be around for awhile. Roll on the new OS's, but please make them stable - THEN I'll upgrade. Hey Terry - that's what Ebay is all about! There's no such thing as loyalty when it comes to electronics. As a true gadget geek you're loyalty should lie with who contiually pushes the envelope in terms of innovation and design. That use to be Palm and now its Sony. Plain and simple. No one is going to hold it against you if you make the jump. Quite frankly i've been very disappointed with Palm hardware. Not only was the m505 a disappointment, it took them a year to "IMPROVE" it with something that it should have been in the first place. So swallow your pride and make the jump. Be a fan of good quality PDA's. Thats the only way things get better for consumers. Glad to see a few people agree with me (I was the one who started this "creeping prices" line of thought). While I'm a gadget freak myself, I can't see why the prices seem to be jumping so much. I've bought about 6 or 7 minidisc players over the last 5 years, each one about half the size of the previous one, twice as long battery life, and about the same price or cheaper than the last! My Nokia 6310 cost the same as my old Nokia 6210, yet it has built in bluetooth (that crankily talks to the Palm bluetooth SD card), and a few other extra bells and whistles, so I'm not sure why Sony & Palm handhelds seem to meet each improvement in technology with a healthy price jump...maybe sales are so bad they're just trying to fleece the early adopters of each new release for as much as they can. For me, when they start selling a reasonable replacement for my M500 at around the same price, maybe then I'll think about an upgrade! my collection stands at 35 these days - mainly pre-release beta units, and stuff i got for testing/preview. all in all - i still dont use a Palm for day-to-day purposes. yes, i am sick. so, the reward for AArdiri setting loose the very first Trojan Horse into the Palm Community is these device companies send him units for nothing? When you ebay your older PDA how do you make sure that the buyer doesn't get a hold of your important secret info? I believe you just need to do a hard reset but you might want to double check. Instructions are found in you instruction manual or on the web. Yep. A hard reset will completely wipe out the contents of the internal memory, and reset it to factory defaults. So, if I buy a Palm OS5 handheld, can I upgrade it to OS6 later? PalmSource has said yes as long as the unit has Flash ROM but even then it will be up to the individual company to support the transition. Palm seems willing and has commented as such, but Sony is more quiet... but they do have Flash ROM. It will be interesting to see what Sony does with an ARM powered device and when they will announce one. I wonder which processor they will commit to - TI, Motorola, or Intel's XScale? XScale looks like somewhat of a bust so far given the benchmarks of the new Toshiba e740 Pocket PC, though it might be a different story running PalmOS. At last I have synthesised my thoughts on what to do for the initial release of OS5 ARM_PALMS. Ahh. very sensible. 1 thing though - speed of OS 6 ('native' ARM apps) will be geater then OS 5 apps. And if you buy a OS 5 device with flash ROM, you can upgrade. I guess then the key question is CAN WE FLASH OS6 into OS5 machines? Yes - Palm has said their OS 5 devices with flash rom will be upgradable to OS 6. In fact, theres no reason why all OS 5 devices with flash rom should not be upgradable (in theory). I have an old Palm III upgraded to OS 4.1 - it will be the same scenario with ARM devices. It's that switch in processor architecture (from 68k to ARM) that is the only real dividing line (that, and of course, whether the device has flash rom). once you made it to ARM, you are set for a long time. It's going to be a very long time before we see 64 bit itaniums in PDA's. I bought PALM stock on Friday for $1.13... up 20% already...! I have faith in Palm, despite the trolls.

2019-04-24T22:28:28Z

http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=3632

Bill Text - SB-286 Electricity: direct transactions. An act to amend Section 365.1 of, to add Section 395.5 to, and to add and repeal Section 769.1 of, the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity. SB 286, as amended, Hertzberg. Electricity: direct transactions. The Public Utilities Act requires the Public Utilities Commission, pursuant to electrical restructuring, to authorize and facilitate direct transactions between electricity suppliers and retail end-use customers. Existing law, enacted during the energy crisis of 2000–01, authorized the Department of Water Resources, until January 1, 2003, to enter into contracts for the purchase of electricity, and to sell electricity to retail end-use customers at not more than the department’s acquisition costs and to recover those costs through the issuance of bonds to be repaid by ratepayers. That law suspended the right of retail end-use customers, other than community choice aggregators and a qualifying direct transaction customer, as defined, to acquire service through a direct transaction until the Department of Water Resources no longer supplies electricity under that law. Existing law continues the suspension of direct transactions except as expressly authorized, until the Legislature, by statute, repeals the suspension or otherwise authorizes direct transactions. Existing law requires the commission to authorize direct transactions for nonresidential end-use customers subject to a reopening schedule that will phase in over a period of not less than 3 years and not more than 5 years, and is subject to an annual maximum allowable total kilowatthour limit established, as specified, for each electrical corporation. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires a retail seller, as defined, and local publicly owned electric utilities to purchase specified minimum quantities of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, for specified compliance periods. The program, consistent with the goals of procuring the least-cost and best-fit eligible renewable energy resources that meet project viability principles, requires that all retail sellers procure a balanced portfolio of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, meeting specified portfolio content categories. This bill would require the commission to adopt and implement a schedule that implements a 2nd phase-in period for expanding direct transactions for individual retail nonresidential end-use customers over a period of not more than 3 years, raising the allowable limit of kilowatthours that can be supplied by other providers in each electrical corporation’s distribution service territory by that electrical corporation’s share of an aggregate of 8,000 gigawatthours, apportioned as specified. The bill would require that all 75% of an electric service provider’s retail sales associated with each 2nd phase direct transaction to be procured from eligible renewable energy resources during 2016, increasing to 100% by December 31, 2020, and would require the commission to enforce the bill’s renewables procurement requirements as part of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program. The bill would require nonresidential retail end-use customers engaging in direct transactions to be responsible for their proportionate share of the costs of specified programs. The bill would require that an electrical corporation continue to construct, own, and operate distribution system equipment, as specified, and continue to provide support functions, as specified, through its own employees, except that construction of distribution system equipment and line clearance tree trimming may be performed under contract. The bill would prohibit an electric service provider from offering full consolidated billing beginning January 1, 2016. (a)As the state’s electrical system evolves to include more electricity generated by eligible renewable energy resources and distributed generation, electrical corporations must continue to facilitate safe and reliable transactions for electricity. Whether it comes from efficient natural gas powerplants, large wind or solar facilities, or customer-owned generation, including rooftop photovoltaics, fuel cells, or combined heat and power systems, the role of electrical corporations will be to ensure that electricity moves from suppliers to customers. In effect, the electrical corporations will become transmission and distribution companies, connecting customers with the electrical mix they want when and where they need it. (b)California already has a few examples for this business model, including community choice aggregation and direct access. Direct access allows a customer to receive electricity through a direct transaction with an electric service provider, rather than from the electrical corporation. The electricity is delivered over the electrical corporation’s transmission and distribution grid and the direct access customer pays the utility for providing transmission and distribution service. (c)Direct access was suspended in California in 2001, despite not being a contributing component to the market manipulation, blackouts, and price spikes that led to the energy crisis of 2000–01. In 2010, the right of individual retail nonresidential end-use customers to acquire electric service through a direct transaction was reopened, but subject to limitations on the amount of electricity that could be delivered through those transactions. (d)Direct access customers currently pay charges for electrical grid maintenance and pay nonbypassable charges on the distribution of electricity to support public purpose programs, including the California Alternate Rates for Energy program, which supports affordable electric service for low-income customers, and energy efficiency programs. Other providers of electric service, including electric service providers and community choice aggregators, are required to follow the same laws, rules, and regulations as electrical corporations with respect to resource adequacy (Section 380 of the Public Utilities Code), procurement of electricity pursuant to the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program (Article 16 (commencing with Section 399.11) of Chapter 2.3 of Part 1 of Division 1 of the Public Utilities Code), and for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code). (a) Except as expressly authorized by this section, and subject to the limitations in subdivisions (b) and (c), the right of retail end-use customers pursuant to this chapter to acquire service from other providers is suspended until the Legislature, by statute, lifts the suspension or otherwise authorizes direct transactions. For purposes of this section, “other provider” means any person, corporation, or other entity that is authorized to provide electric service within the service territory of an electrical corporation pursuant to this chapter, and includes an aggregator, broker, or marketer, as defined in Section 331, and an electric service provider, as defined in Section 218.3. “Other provider” does not include a community choice aggregator, as defined in Section 331.1, and the limitations in this section do not apply to the sale of electricity by “other providers” to a community choice aggregator for resale to community choice aggregation electricity consumers pursuant to Section 366.2. (b) (1) During the first phase-in period for expanding access to direct transactions, the commission shall allow individual retail nonresidential end-use customers to acquire electric service from other providers in each electrical corporation’s distribution service territory, up to a maximum allowable total kilowatthours annual limit. During this first phase-in period for expanding access to direct transactions, the maximum allowable annual limit shall be established by the commission for each electrical corporation at the maximum total kilowatthours supplied by all other providers to distribution customers of that electrical corporation during any sequential 12-month period between April 1, 1998, and the effective date of this section. Within six months of the effective date of this section, or by July 1, 2010, whichever is sooner, the commission shall adopt and implement a reopening schedule that commences immediately and will phase in the allowable amount of increased kilowatthours over a period of not less than three years, and not more than five years, raising the allowable limit of kilowatthours supplied by other providers in each electrical corporation’s distribution service territory from the number of kilowatthours provided by other providers as of the effective date of this section, to the maximum allowable annual limit for that electrical corporation’s distribution service territory. The commission shall review and, if appropriate, modify its currently effective rules governing direct transactions, but that review shall not delay the start of the phase-in schedule. (2) The commission shall adopt and implement a second direct transactions reopening schedule that commences January 1, 2016, and phases in new direct transactions for individual retail nonresidential end-use customers over a period of not more than three years, raising the allowable limit of kilowatthours that can be supplied by other providers in each electrical corporation’s distribution service territory by that electrical corporation’s proportionate share of an aggregate of 8,000 gigawatthours, apportioned to each electrical corporation based upon its share of retail sales. For each electric service provider, 100 75 percent of retail sales associated with each direct transaction under this paragraph shall be procured from eligible renewable energy resources. resources during 2016. Each electric service provider shall make reasonable progress in each intervening year so that 100 percent of retail sales associated with each direct transaction under this paragraph shall be procured from eligible renewable energy resources by December 31, 2020. Procurement of eligible renewable energy resources in excess of the renewable portfolio standard shall be subject to the same minimum product portfolio content requirements specified in Section 399.16 for procurement credited toward each renewable portfolio standard compliance period. The commission shall enforce the eligible renewable energy resource procurement requirements of this section as part of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program (Article 16 (commencing with Section 399.11)). The commission shall ensure that retail sales associated with direct transactions do not contribute to resource curtailment or over-generation. (3) The commission shall work with the Independent System Operator to ensure that the grid continues to operate reliably as the reopening schedule described in paragraph (2) is implemented. (1) Ensure that other providers are subject to the same requirements that are applicable to the state’s three largest electrical corporations under any programs or rules adopted by the commission to implement the resource adequacy provisions of Section 380, the renewables portfolio standard provisions of Article 16 (commencing with Section 399.11), and the requirements for the electricity sector adopted by the State Air Resources Board pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code). This requirement applies notwithstanding any prior decision of the commission to the contrary. (ii) Customers that purchase electricity through a direct transaction with other providers. (B) If the commission authorizes or orders an electrical corporation to obtain generation resources pursuant to subparagraph (A), the commission shall ensure that those resources meet a system or local reliability need in a manner that benefits all customers of the electrical corporation. The commission shall allocate the costs of those generation resources to ratepayers in a manner that is fair and equitable to all customers, whether they receive electric service from the electrical corporation, a community choice aggregator, or an electric service provider. (C) The resource adequacy benefits of generation resources acquired by an electrical corporation pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall be allocated to all customers who pay their net capacity costs. Net capacity costs shall be determined by subtracting the energy and ancillary services value of the resource from the total costs paid by the electrical corporation pursuant to a contract with a third party or the annual revenue requirement for the resource if the electrical corporation directly owns the resource. An energy auction shall not be required as a condition for applying this allocation, but may be allowed as a means to establish the energy and ancillary services value of the resource for purposes of determining the net costs of capacity to be recovered from customers pursuant to this paragraph, and the allocation of the net capacity costs of contracts with third parties shall be allowed for the terms of those contracts. (D) It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this paragraph, to provide additional guidance to the commission with respect to the implementation of subdivision (g) of Section 380, as well as to ensure that the customers to whom the net costs and benefits of capacity are allocated are not required to pay for the cost of electricity they do not consume. (3) Ensure that customers of other providers are responsible for their proportionate share of the costs of programs authorized pursuant to Sections 379.5 and 381. (d) (1) If the commission approves a centralized resource adequacy mechanism pursuant to subdivisions (h) and (i) of Section 380, upon the implementation of the centralized resource adequacy mechanism the requirements of paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) shall be suspended. If the commission later orders that electrical corporations cease procuring capacity through a centralized resource adequacy mechanism, the requirements of paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) shall again apply. (2) If the use of a centralized resource adequacy mechanism is authorized by the commission and has been implemented as set forth in paragraph (1), the net capacity costs of generation resources that the commission determines are required to meet urgent system or urgent local grid reliability needs, and that the commission authorizes to be procured outside of the Section 380 or 454.5 processes, shall be recovered according to the provisions of paragraph (2) of subdivision (c). (3) Nothing in this subdivision supplants the resource adequacy requirements of Section 380 or the resource procurement procedures established in Section 454.5. (e) The commission may report to the Legislature on the efficacy of authorizing individual retail end-use residential customers to enter into direct transactions, including appropriate consumer protections. Beginning January 1, 2016, no electric service provider shall offer full consolidated billing. Only the electrical corporation shall calculate the electrical corporation’s charges. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature to maintain the safety and reliability of the distribution grid to ensure California can accommodate widespread distributed energy resources. (1) “Distribution system equipment” means the portions of the electric delivery system beginning with equipment that operates at voltages lower than that controlled by the Independent System Operator up to and including a customer’s electric meter. (2) “Distribution system support functions” means the functions currently provided by an electrical corporation, including, but not limited to, billing, customer service, call centers, other support services, and line clearance tree trimming. (c) An electrical corporation shall continue to construct, own, and operate distribution system equipment, and shall continue to provide distribution system support functions directly with their own employees, except that construction of distribution system equipment and line clearance tree trimming may be performed under a contract between the electrical corporation and another entity. (1) The customer side of the meter. (2) The utility side of the meter if that equipment is either under contract to the electrical corporation or under an interconnection tariff. (e) Before January 1, 2021, the commission shall not adopt any decision inconsistent with subdivision (b). (c).

2019-04-22T16:57:38Z

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB286

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the essential small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) protease Ulp1 is responsible for both removing SUMO/Smt3 from specific target proteins and for processing precursor SUMO into its conjugation-competent form. Ulp1 localizes predominantly to nuclear pore complexes but has also been shown to deconjugate sumoylated septins at the bud-neck of dividing cells. How Ulp1 is directed to bud-neck localized septins and other cytoplasmic deconjugation targets is not well understood. Using a structure/function approach, we set out to elucidate features of Ulp1 that are required for substrate targeting. To aid our studies, we took advantage of a catalytically inactive mutant of Ulp1 that is greatly enriched at the septin ring of dividing yeast cells. We found that the localization of Ulp1 to the septins requires both SUMO and specific structural features of Ulp1's catalytic domain. Our analysis identified a 218-amino acid, substrate-trapping mutant of the catalytic domain of Ulp1, Ulp1(3)(C580S), that is necessary and sufficient for septin localization. We also used the targeting and SUMO-binding properties of Ulp1(3)(C580S) to purify Smt3-modified proteins from cell extracts. Our study provides novel insights into how the Ulp1 SUMO protease is actively targeted to its substrates in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, we found that a substrate-trapping Ulp1(3)(C580S) interacts robustly with human SUMO1, SUMO2 and SUMO2 chains, making it a potentially useful tool for the analysis and purification of SUMO-modified proteins. Cell division is a fundamental feature of all life and involves the controlled duplication and faithful segregation of an organism's genetic material from one cell to the next. In eukaryotes, each cell division cycle is therefore executed as a tightly regulated, stepwise program that relies on intact chromosomes. In humans, the consequences of faulty chromosome segregation and the inability to repair DNA damage have been implicated in cancer, aging and congenital birth defects. Ubiquitin and small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO), two small proteins that can become attached to other cellular proteins in a reversible manner , control important aspects of the cell division program. Ubiquitin is best known for its role in the targeted, proteasome-mediated destruction of proteins, including key cell-cycle regulators, but also holds nonproteolytic functions . Sumoylation, on the other hand, does not directly target proteins for degradation. Rather, modification of proteins with SUMO has been shown to modulate various cellular processes, including cell-cycle regulation, transcriptional activation, nucleocytoplasmic transport, DNA replication and repair, chromosome dynamics, apoptosis, ribosome biogenesis, and the formation of nuclear bodies . Additionally, an unexpected role of SUMO in protein ubiquitination has been uncovered. Briefly, degradation of several nuclear proteins, including some that are involved in DNA repair and transcriptional regulation, are preceded by modification with SUMO. These sumoylated proteins are recognized by SUMO-targeted ubiquitin ligases (STUbLs), which mediate their ubiquitination . SUMO proteins are highly conserved from yeast to humans. Yeast cells express one SUMO protein (Smt3), and vertebrates express three isoforms (SUMO1, SUMO2 and SUMO3) . SUMO2, SUMO3 and yeast Smt3 can form SUMO chains. SUMO1, on the other hand, lacks the internal lysine required for polymerization and may function as a chain terminator for SUMO2 and SUMO3 chains . All SUMO variants are conjugated to lysine residues of specific proteins, but only a fraction of these target proteins are modified with SUMO at any given time [7, 8]. In metazoans, the dysregulation of sumoylation adversely affects developmental processes and has been implicated in the progression of neurodegeneration, cancer and infectious diseases [9, 10]. More than 1, 000 sumoylated proteins have been identified in yeast and humans, but only in a few cases has the role of sumoylation been studied in detail . In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the ligation of SUMO to specific substrate proteins requires an E1 heterodimer (Aos1 and Uba2) that activates SUMO, as well as E2 (Ubc9) and E3 (Siz1, Siz2, and Mms21) enzymes that aid in the conjugation and ligation of SUMO to proper target proteins . Two yeast SUMO proteases, Ulp1 and Ulp2, contain a conserved cysteine protease domain that can remove the SUMO moiety from modified proteins. Recent evidence suggests that Ulp2, and its mammalian orthologs Susp1/SENP6 and SENP7, play a role in the removal of SUMO and SUMO chains from nuclear proteins [12–16]. Ulp1, on the other hand, has two contrasting cellular functions. Ulp1 facilitates sumoylation by processing precursor SUMO into its conjugation competent form. Conversely, Ulp1 also facilitates desumoylation by removing SUMO from nuclear and cytosolic proteins after conjugation . Therefore, impairment of Ulp1 results in the accumulation of SUMO conjugates and the inability to carry out de novo sumoylation. The resulting lack of mature SUMO has been shown to adversely affect cellular DNA repair processes, the processing and export of the 60S preribosomal particle, nucleus-cytoplasm trafficking and cell viability [18–21]. The substrate specificity of SUMO proteases is at least in part regulated through their localization . For example, certain yeast (Ulp2) and vertebrate (SENP6 and SENP7) SUMO proteases localize within the nucleus. In contrast, both yeast (Ulp1) and vertebrate (SENP1 and SENP2) SUMO proteases reside at the nuclear envelope (NE) through their interactions with the nuclear pore complex (NPC) [23–26]. Distinct domains have been identified that are required for Ulp1 NPC localization (amino acid residues 1 to 403) and SUMO processing (amino acid residues 404 to 620) [25–28]. The Ulp1 localization domain promotes interaction with karyopherins, which are soluble proteins that mediate transport across the NE and help localize Ulp1 to the nucleoplasmic side of the NPC. The Ulp1 localization domain can be subdivided into region 1 (Kap121-binding domain) and region 2 (Kap60- and Kap95-binding domain). Juxtaposed to the NPC localization domain of Ulp1 is a coiled-coil (cc) domain with a putative nuclear export signal and region 3, the catalytically active, conserved ubiquitin-like protease domain (UD) of Ulp1 [25–27]. Only regions 1 and 2 are involved in Ulp1 localization to the NPC, and the karyopherins seem to play a redundant role. NPC association of Ulp1 requires several proteins, including the nucleoporins Nup60 and Nup84, the silencing protein Esc1 and the myosin-like proteins Mlp1/2 [18, 19, 28]. Together these proteins may provide a scaffold for the functional regulation and substrate access of Ulp1 at the NPC. The identification of NPC localization domains in Ulp1 has done little to aid our understanding of how SUMO proteases are targeted to their respective substrates . One possibility is that SUMO proteases may contain structural features which allow for noncovalent interactions with SUMO and SUMO-modified proteins as they enter the nucleus. Indeed, conserved SUMO-interacting motifs (SIMs) have been predicted to be localized in the yeast SUMO protease Ulp2, as well as in mammalian SENP1, SENP2, SENP6 and SENP7 [14, 22, 29, 30]. Even though SIMs have not been identified in Ulp1, the crystal structure of the catalytic domain (region 3) bound to Smt3 reveals that both proteins interact through multiple residues that are distributed across a SUMO-binding surface (SBS) on the SUMO protease . Only the carboxy terminus of bound Smt3 is inserted into a hydrophobic tunnel that leads toward Ulp1's active site. SUMO processing and deconjugation require an active site cysteine residue that resides at the end of this tunnel (see Additional files 1 and 2). It has been suggested that this configuration may allow for the accommodation of many different sumoylated proteins as well as SUMO precursors . Ulp1 and several other SUMO proteases play important roles in mitosis [17, 32]. In budding yeast, loss of Ulp1-mediated desumoylation leads to cell-cycle progression defects and cell death . This observation suggests that Ulp1 plays a key role in the sumoylation dynamics of important cell-cycle regulatory proteins. Though these cell-cycle-specific targets have eluded identification, several nuclear and cytosolic proteins involved in DNA replication and mitosis have been identified as Ulp1 desumoylation substrates [33–35]. How the NPC-localized Ulp1 is targeted to these mitotic substrates, especially those that are localized in the cytosol, is not entirely clear. In budding yeast, the NE does not break down during mitosis, and access to cytosolic desumoylation targets is therefore not automatic. It has been reported that during mitosis, Kap121 blocks Ulp1's access to its NPC-binding site and thus promotes an interaction of Ulp1 with septins . A deletion mutant of Ulp1 lacking region 2 (Δ2), the Kap60- and Kap95-binding domain, has previously been shown to localize to septins in a Kap121-dependent manner . Curiously, it has recently been demonstrated that region 2 also plays a role in nucleolar accumulation of Ulp1 after ethanol-induced stress . One set of cytosolic substrates of the Ulp1 SUMO protease are the septins [27, 35]. The septins comprise an evolutionarily conserved class of GTPases that are implicated in bud-site selection, bud emergence and growth, microtubule capture and spindle positioning . Members of the septin family in yeast include Cdc3, Cdc10, Cdc11, Cdc12 and Shs1/Sep7. These proteins are unique because they can form filaments that assemble into a ring structure and mark the site of new bud formation during cell division. At the end of mitosis, this ring separates and resembles a double-collar residing at the junction between the mother and daughter cells. The septins Cdc3, Cdc11 and Shs1 are subject to sumoylation. Sumoylation of the septins occurs very briefly from the onset of anaphase to cytokinesis, with SUMO being attached only to the mother side of the double-septin ring collar [27, 38, 39]. Cell-cycle (G2/M) arrest with nocodazole, a microtubule depolymerizing drug, greatly increases SUMO conjugation to septins . Septin sumoylation in budding yeast is mediated by the SUMO E3 ligase Siz1 [40, 41]. During most of the cell cycle, Siz1 resides in the nucleus. However, at the M phase, Siz1 exits the nucleus to sumoylate septin proteins and possibly other cytosolic substrates . Deletion of SIZ1 from cells abolishes septin sumoylation while causing only mild growth and cell-cycle progression defects. At the end of mitosis, the septins are desumoylated by Ulp1, even though Ulp1 remains visibly enriched at the NPC [27, 35, 38]. In the current study, we focused on the SUMO protease Ulp1. As detailed above, Ulp1 resides at the inner face of the NPC. This enrichment at the NPC depends on direct interactions with karyopherins and two domains in the amino terminus of Ulp1. In theory, this localization is well-suited to give Ulp1 access to some nuclear substrates and those in transit across the NE. However, both nuclear and cytosolic desumoylation targets of Ulp1 have been identified, posing an interesting question. How is Ulp1 directed to its cytosolic desumoylation targets? To answer these questions, we sought to identify features of Ulp1 required for substrate targeting in vivo and in vitro. Herein we describe our finding that the carboxy terminus of Ulp1 affects the targeting and retention of this SUMO protease to sumoylated target proteins, including septins, at the bud-neck of dividing cells. Specifically, we show that the interaction with SUMO comprises an important aspect of the subcellular targeting of Ulp1 to these substrates. Our findings are confirmed by biochemical analyses that focus on the SUMO-binding properties of Ulp1(3)C580S, a novel truncation mutant that interacts avidly with SUMO and sumoylated proteins in vivo and in vitro. Significantly, the results of this study add important new details to our understanding of how Ulp1 interacts dynamically with its substrates and also provides potentially useful new directions for the study of Ulp1-interacting proteins. As part of a larger study to identify how Ulp1 is targeted to its mitotic desumoylation substrates, we analyzed the localization of GFP-tagged versions of both the full-length wild-type (WT) Ulp1 and a catalytically inactive mutant of Ulp1 (Ulp1C580S) in G2/M-arrested yeast cells (see Methods and Additional file 3). The C580S mutation replaces the catalytic cysteine with a serine residue, rendering the Ulp1 SUMO protease catalytically inactive . Both fusion proteins were expressed under the control of the Ulp1 promoter on low-copy plasmids, and images were collected using a fluorescence microscope. Consistent with its localization to NPCs, WT Ulp1 stained only the NE of arrested yeast cells (Figure 1A, left). Unexpectedly, however, full-length Ulp1C580S was enriched at both the bud-neck and the NE of G2/M-arrested cells (Figure 1A, right). This bud-neck localization of Ulp1C580S is reminiscent of the localization of the septin ring. Several sumoylated septins have been shown to be Ulp1 substrates, and we show in this study that the septin Cdc3 is highly sumoylated during G2/M arrest (Figure 1B). Furthermore, a catalytically inactive Ulp1 mutant colocalizes with the septin Cdc11 in G2/M-arrested (noc) cells (Figure 1C). Therefore, Ulp1C580S resides at the bud-neck localized septin ring. Localization of Ulp1 and the catalytically inactive Ulp1 (C580S) in dividing yeast cells. (A) Yeast cells (MHY500) were transformed either with a low-copy plasmid expressing GFP fusions of Ulp1 or with the catalytically inactive Ulp1(C580S) mutant. Representative images indicating the localization of GFP-tagged Ulp1 and Ulp1(C580S) after nocodazole-induced G2/M arrest are shown (YOK 1611 and YOK 1474). Note that only the Ulp1(C580S) mutant can be seen at the bud-neck of arrested cells. The arrowhead indicates the position of the bud-neck. (B) Confirmation of sumoylation of Cdc3 was achieved. Whole-cell extracts (WCE) from yeast cells expressing the YFP-tagged septin Cdc3 (YOK 1398) were treated with nocodazole (noc) or grown logarithmically (log) prior to preparation of WCEs. Extracted proteins were then separated on SDS-PAGE gels and probed with the JL-8 antibody (see Methods) to detect Cdc3-YFP and more slowly migrating sumoylated Cdc3-YFP adducts. The identity of sumoylated Cdc3-YFP bands was confirmed by comparing gel shift assays with untagged and FLAG-tagged Smt3 (data not shown). (C) Colocalization of Cdc3 and Ulp1 is shown. A strain coexpressing full-length Ulp1(C580S)-GFP (green) and Cdc3-CFP (red) (strain YOK 2204) was arrested in G2/M and then observed under a fluorescence microscope with the appropriate filter sets (left panel). Arrowheads indicate septin-localized, pseudocolored Ulp1-GFP (green), Cdc3-CFP (red) and the merged image (overlay). Also shown for comparison (right panel) is the colocalization of the Ulp1(3)(C580S)-GFP truncation and Cdc3-CFP (strain YOK 2205). Ulp1(3)(C580S)-GFP is described in Figure 4. Our data suggest that introducing the C580S mutation into the catalytic domain of Ulp1 somehow alters the subcellular distribution of this SUMO protease, causing it to localize with a bud-neck-associated substrate, possibly a sumoylated septin protein. Localization changes have also been reported for catalytically inactive, substrate-trapping mutants of phosphatases that form stable complexes with their substrates in vivo . We tested whether the C580S mutation that visually increased the ability of Ulp1 to associate with the septin ring in vivo was, in fact, SUMO-dependent. For this purpose, the Ulp1C580S construct was expressed in two Smt3 mutants (smt3-331 and smt3-R11, 15, 19) or two SUMO pathway mutants (ubc9-1, siz1Δ siz2Δ) [13, 39, 41, 44–46]. Logarithmically growing cells of each mutant were arrested in G2/M, and images were collected to assess the septin ring localization of Ulp1C580S in comparison to an SMT3 WT strain. In our analyses, we found that in the absence of both SUMO chains (in the R11, 15, 19 mutants) and a mutant SUMO protein (in the smt3-331 mutant), the localization of Ulp1C580S to the septin ring was reduced (22% in smt3-331 and 36% in smt3-R11, 15, 19) in frequency and intensity but not abolished (Figure 2). We obtained different results in the ubc9-1 strain, a mutant of the SUMO E2-conjugating enzyme which impairs SUMO conjugation, and in the siz1Δ siz2Δ strain, a SUMO E3 ligase double-mutant that lacks sumoylation of septins and many other proteins [40, 41, 44]. Consistent with a role for Smt3 in the localization of Ulp1C580S, we were unable to detect septin ring localization of Ulp1C580S in ubc9-1 and siz1Δ siz2Δ strains. However, Ulp1C580S was retained at the NE (Figure 2A). As an additional control, the septin ring localization of GFP-tagged Smt3 was undetectable in both ubc9-1 and siz1Δ siz2Δ strains (Figure 2B). Small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) is required for the localization of Ulp1 (C580S) to the septin ring. (A) The indicated mutants smt3-331, ubc9-1, smt3-R11, 15, 19, siz1Δ siz2Δ (YOK 1995, YOK 2065, YOK 1910 and YOK 2067) and a WT control strain (WT) were transformed with a plasmid expressing GFP-tagged Ulp1(C580S). Representative images indicating the localization of GFP-tagged Ulp1(C580S) after G2/M arrest are shown. The septin ring localization of Ulp1(C580S) is indicated where present (arrowheads). Note that Ulp1(C580S) failed to localize to the septin ring in SUMO-conjugating and ligating enzyme mutants (ubc9-1 and siz1Δ siz2Δ, respectively). (B) Septin ring localization of Smt3-GFP is absent in ubc9-1 and siz1Δ siz2Δ strains. Localization of Smt3-GFP was visualized in G2/M-arrested WT, ubc9-1 and siz1Δ siz2Δ strains (YOK 1857, YOK 2144 and YOK 2143) using fluorescence microscopy. Arrowheads indicate the position of the septin ring. Smt3 conjugation is required for Ulp1 localization to the septin ring. Therefore, Ulp1 is targeted to the septin ring of dividing cells in a SUMO-dependent fashion. Our data also suggest that the formation of SUMO chains on substrates may enhance this targeting of Ulp1. Our finding that a single point mutation in Ulp1, C580S, dramatically enhanced the localization of full-length Ulp1 to the septin ring in a SUMO-dependent fashion warranted a more detailed analysis of the targeting domains in Ulp1. Therefore, we generated a collection of GFP-tagged Ulp1 truncations and domains that were expressed under control of the Ulp1 promoter. We reasoned that the truncations and domains of Ulp1 that retained substrate targeting information would also localize to the septin ring in G2/M-arrested cells. In all, we assessed the localization of ten GFP-tagged constructs in comparison to full-length WT Ulp1 and full-length Ulp1C580S (C580S). Our choice of individual constructs was guided by previous findings that Ulp1 consists of functionally separate domains. These domains include a Kap121-binding domain with a role in septin localization (region 1), a Kap95- and Kap60-binding domain with a role in NPC anchoring (region 2), a cc domain harboring a nuclear export signal (CC) and the catalytic UD (region 3) [25–27]. Representative images of these domains and their subcellular localization are shown in Figures 3A and 3B. As previously reported, we found that the Ulp1 protein lacking region 2 (Δ2) localized to the septin ring in the majority of large-budded, arrested cells . Therefore, region 2 of Ulp1 normally antagonizes localization and/or retention at the septin ring. This result is complemented by our novel finding that the full-length Ulp1C580S localized to the septin ring in 33% of all arrested, large-budded cells (Figures 1A and 3A). Distinct and separate Ulp1 domains are required for localization to the septin ring. (A) and (B) Left: A schematic of Ulp1 deletion and truncation mutants used in this study is shown. The length of each construct (amino acid scale 1 to 621), the individual domains of Ulp1 and pertinent amino acid changes are shown. WT: full-length Ulp1; region 1: Ulp1(1 to 150); region 2: Ulp1(151 to 340); region 3: Ulp1(341 to 621); Δ2: Ulp1 lacking region 2; C580S: catalytically inactivating mutation; D451N: deleted salt bridge with small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) (YOK 1611, YOK 1474, YOK 1490, YOK 1861, YOK 1479, YOK 2016, YOK 1839, YOK 1907, YOK 1903, YOK 2203, YOK 1828 and YOK 2157). Colored letters N, S and D summarize the observed nuclear, septin and diffuse localization of the indicated constructs, respectively. SBS corresponds to a shallow SUMO-binding surface on Ulp1 [31, 57, 58]. Right: Representative images of G2/M-arrested cells expressing the GFP-tagged Ulp1 constructs shown on the left. The arrowheads indicate the fraction of cells (%) with N, S or D localization and the presence and position of septin ring-localized Ulp1 constructs. (C) Quantification of distinct subcellular localization of wild-type and mutant Ulp1 region 3 constructs. Large-budded G2/M-arrested cells were imaged to assess diffuse, nuclear or septin ring localization (n > 100). Next we investigated other residues of Ulp1 that could affect the septin ring localization of the Ulp1C580S mutant, possibly by interfering with its targeting to sumoylated substrates. Aspartate 451 (D451) in Ulp1 is required to form an essential salt bridge with arginine 64 of Smt3 [31, 47]. Therefore, we introduced a D451N mutation into Ulp1C580S and found that it abolished the accumulation of the full-length Ulp1 double-mutant (D451N and C580S) at the septin ring (Figure 3A). This finding underscores the importance of Smt3 in targeting full-length Ulp1 to the septin ring shown in Figure 2. Additionally, it may indicate that D451 is required for targeting of sumoylated proteins and the C580S mutation is required for retention of Ulp1 at the septin ring. Most intriguingly, we found that a truncation consisting only of region 3 with the C580S mutation (Ulp1(3)(C580S)) displayed robust septin ring localization in 59% of cells (Figures 1C, right panel, and Figure 3B). In stark contrast, regions 1 and 2 and WT region 3, lacking the C580S mutation, failed to localize to the septin ring (Figures 3A and 3B). However, in strains with diffuse Ulp1 truncations, the septin ring stays intact. Therefore, necessary and sufficient SUMO-dependent targeting information is contained in region 3 of Ulp1, but not in regions 1 and 2. The latter conclusion is confirmed by two-hybrid assays with Smt3. The previously published cocrystal structure of Ulp1 with Smt3 (MMDB database 13315) reveals that amino acids 418 to 447 of region 3 make extensive contact with Smt3 and constitute an exposed SBS (see also Additional files 1 and 2). The SBS is situated next to, but does not include, the critical D451 residue that contacts Smt3 [31, 47]. Additionally, deletion of this SBS in region 3 of Ulp1 abolishes the complementation of a ulp1Δ deletion mutant . In an attempt to identify critical residues in the evolutionary conserved SBS domain, we used psi-blast to compare the protein sequence of the yeast Ulp1 catalytic domain with all nonredundant protein sequences in the National Center for Biotechnology Information database for seven iterations and limited the output to the top 250 matches. Our results contained 81 different species. Among these species, 61% of the sequences were identified as verified or predicted sentrin/SUMO protease/Ulp1 genes, 24% were identified as unnamed protein products or hypothetical genes and 15% were classified as "other" (crystal structures, unanalyzed sequences and so on). The alignment of these sequences allowed us to identify areas of strong conservation (see Additional file 1). Using this approach, we identified several highly conserved residues in the SBS. However, these amino acids did not contact Smt3 in the published cocrystal structure and likely play structural roles in Ulp1 folding . We investigated the effect of deleting the entire SBS domain on the localization of Ulp1(3)(C580S). A Ulp1(3)(C580S)SBSΔ construct did not localize to the septin ring in the majority of cells (96%). These results match those obtained by Li and Hochstrasser using a WT Ulp1(3)ΔSBS construct (C173). We confirmed that SBSΔ and other Ulp1(3) constructs are expressed as soluble proteins, suggesting that they are not grossly misfolded. We also cloned and expressed the SBS domain as a fusion with GFP (SBS-GFP). This construct was distributed diffusely throughout the cell and failed to localize to the septin ring (Figure 3, middle). These data suggest that the SBS domain of region 3 may be required for the initial interaction with sumoylated substrates, but additional features of Ulp1 are required for targeting (D451) and retention (C580S) of this SUMO protease at the septin ring. Next we directed our attention to the temperature-sensitive ulp1ts-333 allele. This mutant allele causes cells to arrest in mitosis and accumulates unprocessed SUMO precursor and sumoylated proteins . Our ulp1ts construct of region 3, Ulp1(3)ts, contains three mutations (I435V, N450S and I504T), and introduction of C580S into Ulp1(3)ts showed a greatly reduced incidence and intensity of septin ring localization (compare panels in Figures 3B and 3C). We noted that the (N450S) mutation in the ts construct was located next to the salt bridge-forming residue D451 described above and that both residues were highly conserved in the consensus sequence of Ulp1-like molecules (Additional file 1). This suggests that residues altered in ulp1ts-333, specifically N450, may contribute to Smt3 interaction and possibly substrate targeting. It is possible that N450S perturbs the salt-bridge interaction formed between D451 of Ulp1 and R64 of Smt3, thus reducing the interaction with Smt3 and contributing to the temperature-sensitive phenotype. In support of this hypothesis, correction of the N450S mutation in Ulp1(3)ts (S450N) partially rescued the slow growth defect of a ulp1Δ strain at 30°C and 37°C (data not shown). The effect of the ulp1ts mutation on Ulp1's ability to interact with Smt3 is explored in more detail below. We tested which domains of Ulp1 are required for targeting and retention at the septin ring in vivo. Using our region 1 and region 2 GFP-tagged constructs (see Figure 3A), we show that septin-targeting information is not contained in the domains that are known to interact with karyopherins. The Δ2 construct recapitulates the previous finding that Kap121-binding to region 1 regulates access of Ulp1 to the septin ring. The full-length Ulp1C580S mutant reveals that a single substrate-trapping mutation in Ulp1 suffices to enrich Ulp1 at the septin ring. To show that an Smt3 interaction is required for the septin localization of Ulp1C580S, we created the double-mutant (D451N and C580S). The D451N mutation is known to destroy an essential salt bridge formed between Smt3 and Ulp1. Next, using the Ulp1(3)C580S construct, we show that the septin-targeting information is limited to region 3 of Ulp1 (Figure 3B). Further truncating Ulp1(3)C580S revealed that a previously identified SBS domain in Ulp1(3)C580S is also involved in septin targeting and retention. To test whether mutations found in region 3 of the ulp1ts mutant play a role in septin localization, we introduced three additional mutations, I435V, N450S and I504T, into Ulp1(3)C580S. This Ulp1(3)ts C580S construct showed a reduced ability to enrich at the septin ring (Figure 3C), suggesting that its ability to interact with sumoylated septins may be reduced but not abolished. In the preceding sections, we described our identification of necessary and sufficient substrate-targeting information in the catalytic domain (region 3) of Ulp1. However, region 3 of Ulp1 may not be the only domain involved in targeting to the septin ring. Region 1 of Ulp1, the Kap121-binding domain, has previously been implicated in septin targeting. Specifically, it has been reported that Kap121 is required for targeting Ulp1 to the septin ring during mitosis . Therefore, we decided to assess the role of Kap121 in the substrate-targeting of Ulp1(3)(C580S). Specifically, we used a kap121ts mutant to assess the septin ring-targeting of WT Ulp1, full-length Ulp1C580S and Ulp1(3)(C580S). In our analysis, we found that full-length Ulp1C580S required Kap121 function for targeting to the septin ring. At the permissive temperature (30°C), Ulp1C580S demarcated the NE and septin ring of G2/M-arrested cells. After a shift to the nonpermissive temperature, however, Ulp1C580S could no longer be detected at the septin ring (Figure 4, middle). Surprisingly, the Ulp1(3)(C580S) truncation was localized to the septin ring at the permissive and nonpermissive temperatures in a kap121ts strain. As shown herein, Ulp1(3)(C580S) resided both inside the nucleus and at the septin ring at 30°C and 37°C (Figure 4, right). Kap121-independent small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO)-targeting information resides in region 3 of Ulp1. kap121ts cells were transformed with plasmids expressing GFP-tagged wild-type (WT) Ulp1, Ulp1(C580S) and Ulp1(3)(C580S) under the control of the Ulp1 promoter (YOK 1487, YOK 1488 and YOK 1944). Shown are representative images indicating the localization of GFP-tagged Ulp1 constructs in large-budded cells at 30°C and 37°C, the nonpermissive temperature for kap121-ts. Arrowheads indicate the position of septin ring-localized Ulp1 constructs. Our data suggest that Ulp1 contains both Kap121-dependent and Kap121-independent septin ring-targeting information. The only requirement to detect full-length Ulp1 at the septin ring is the C580S mutation and functional Kap121 (Figures 1, 2 and 4). In contrast Ulp1(3)(C580S), which lacks all domains required for NPC interaction through Kap121, Kap60 and Kap95, localizes to the septin ring and inside the nucleus. This finding provides strong evidence that Kap121-independent septin ring-targeting information resides in the catalytic domain (region 3) of Ulp1. Our finding that a single amino acid change in the catalytic domain of Ulp1 results in greatly enhanced, SUMO-dependent localization to the septin ring also prompted us to investigate the two-hybrid interactions of Ulp1 with budding yeast SUMO (Smt3-BD; Smt3 fused to the Gal4 DNA-binding domain). Full-length WT Ulp1, the full-length catalytically inactive Ulp1C580S mutant, the Ulp1 Kap121-interacting domain (region 1), the Ulp1 Kap60/Kap95-interacting domain (region 2) and the catalytic domain (region 3) failed to interact with Smt3-BD (data not shown). However, the catalytically inactive Ulp1(3)(C580S) truncation interacted reproducibly and above background with Smt3 (see Figure 5, C580S). Distinct and separate features of Ulp1 are required for interaction with SUMO. Two-hybrid analysis of various Ulp1(3) truncation mutants (C580S: catalytically inactive; D451N: deleted salt bridge with small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO); ts: mutations including S450N in ulp1ts-333) with SUMO/Smt3-BD. The presence of both Smt3 (pOBD2/TRP1) and Ulp1 constructs (pOAD/LEU2) was confirmed by growth on growth media lacking tryptophan and leucine (-T-L). The interaction between Ulp1 constructs and Smt3 is shown as triplicate patches of cells on media lacking adenine (-A). See Figure 3A for a graphic representation of individual constructs. Ulp1(3)(C580S) appears to interact only weakly with our Smt3 two-hybrid bait construct, as indicated by fewer colonies on the reporter media (Figure 5, Ade). However, such an interpretation assumes an equally available pool of both bait and prey. One possible explanation for this result is that the Ulp1(3)(C580S) two-hybrid prey construct interacts with a number of available substrates in the cell (for example, free Smt3 and other sumoylated proteins), and, as a result, this sequestration is no longer available to the Smt3 two-hybrid bait construct, thus creating the appearance of a weak interaction. We reasoned that introduction of the ulp1ts mutations could weaken the potential substrate-trapping phenotype of Ulp1(3)(C580S), making more of the pool available to engage the Smt3 bait construct. Consistent with this model, when we introduced the ulp1ts mutations into the substrate-trapping Ulp1(3)(C580S) prey construct, we observed a more robust two-hybrid interaction with the Smt3 bait (Figure 5, compare C580S and ts(C580S). It must also be noted, however, that currently we cannot fully explain the variations in our in vivo and in vitro assays used to assess ability of Ulp1(3)(C580S) to interact with Smt3. Next we focused on the D451N mutant of Ulp1 that prevents the interaction of Ulp1 with SUMO [31, 47]. As shown above, D451N, when introduced into Ulp1(C580S), prevents localization of this construct to the septin ring (Figure 3A, C580S/D451N). Correspondingly, we found that introduction of the D451N mutation into Ulp1(3)(C580S) completely abolished the two-hybrid interaction with Smt3 (Figure 5, compare C580S, D451N/C580S and D451N). These observations provide evidence that the targeting of Ulp1 to sumoylated substrates is a closely balanced act involving both Smt3 targeting and retention. We hypothesized that if Ulp1(3)(C580S) were to interact avidly with Smt3, this mutated moiety of Ulp1 could efficiently interact with SUMO adducts in vitro. Therefore, to test the direct interaction of Ulp1(3)(C580S) with SUMO, we fused this domain to the carboxy terminus of maltose-binding protein (MBP) and expressed the recombinant fusion protein in bacteria. Subsequently, the MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) fusion protein was purified from bacterial extracts and bound to amylose resin (see Methods). As a control to assess the ability of MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) to interact with sumoylated proteins, we also purified a second MBP-fused Ulp1(3)(C580S) construct lacking the SBS domain (3(C580S)ΔSBS). First we determined the ability of MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) to affinity-purify sumoylated proteins from crude yeast cell extracts. ulp1ts-333 cells expressing FLAG-tagged SMT3 were grown to log phase prior to preparation of yeast cell extracts (see Methods). These extracts were then incubated with resin-bound MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S), MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S)-ΔSBS or unbound amylose resin. After washing, bound yeast proteins were eluted, separated on SDS-PAGE gels and examined by Western blot analysis with an anti-FLAG antibody. Flag-SMT3-modified proteins present in the whole-cell extracts (WCEs) (Figure 6, lane 2) could clearly be detected bound to MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) (lane 5) but not to the MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S)-ΔSBS control protein (lane 4). We identified both unconjugated Flag-Smt3 proteins as well as several higher-molecular-weight adducts. These data suggest that Ulp1(3)(C580S) can efficiently bind and enrich sumoylated proteins from crude yeast cell extracts. To demonstrate the versatility of Ulp1(3)(C580S)-aided Smt3 purification, we also purified monomeric and conjugated GFP-Smt3 from yeast cells (Figure 6B). Additionally, we probed the extracts and eluted proteins shown in Figure 6B with an anti-Cdc11 antibody, which revealed the specific copurification of Cdc11 with immobilized Ulp1(3)(C580S) (Figure 6C). The Ulp1(3) (C580S) truncation binds SUMO and SUMO-modified proteins. (A) and (B) Immobilized Ulp1(3)(C580S) was analyzed for its ability to affinity-purify Smt3 from yeast whole-cell extracts (WCEs). WCEs containing FLAG-tagged Smt3 (YOK 428) (left) or GFP-Smt3 (YOK 1857) (right) (input) were prepared under nondenaturing conditions and incubated with immobilized maltose-binding protein (MBP)-Ulp1(3)(C580S) (3(C580S)), MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) lacking the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO)-binding surface (3(C580S)ΔSBS) or unbound resin (amylose). After washing and elution, bound Smt3 and Smt3 conjugates were detected using either anti-Flag or anti-GFP antibody. (C) Immobilized Ulp1(3)(C580S) was analyzed for its ability to affinity-purify Cdc11 from yeast WCEs. WCE containing GFP-Smt3 (YOK 1857) was prepared under nondenaturing conditions and incubated with immobilized MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S), MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) lacking the SUMO-binding surface (3(C580S)ΔSBS) or unbound resin (amylose). After washing and dilution, bound Cdc11 was detected using an anti-Cdc11 antibody (Santa Cruz Biotechnology). (D) WCEs from logarithmically growing yeast cells expressing GFP-tagged Ulp1(3), Ulp1(3)(C580S) and Ulp1(3)(C580S)ΔSBS (YOK 1839, YOK 1907, YOK 1903) (input) were prepared under nondenaturing conditions. Extracts were then incubated with SUMO2 immobilized on agarose beads (Boston Biochem). After washing and elution with sample buffer, bound proteins were detected using an anti-GFP antibody. (E) SUMO2 chains (Boston Biochem) were incubated with resin-bound MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) or unbound resin (amylose). After washing and elution with sample buffer, bound proteins were detected using an anti-SUMO2 antibody. SUMO2 chains loading control (input). Concentrations of immobilized MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) and MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) lacking the SUMO-binding surface (3(C580S)ΔSBS) were confirmed by Coomassie staining of eluted proteins and quantitation on an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies). In the reciprocal experiment, we tested whether a GFP-tagged Ulp1(3)(C580S) construct expressed in yeast cells could bind immobilized SUMO2, which is highly conserved to yeast Smt3. In this experiment, yeast cells expressing CEN-plasmid levels of GFP-tagged Ulp1(3), Ulp1(3)(C580S) or the Ulp1(3)(C580S)-ΔSBS (see Figure 3) were grown to log phase prior to preparation of yeast cell extracts. Individual extracts were then incubated with SUMO2 immobilized on agarose beads (see Methods). After washing, bound yeast proteins were eluted, separated on SDS-PAGE gels and examined by Western blot analysis with an anti-GFP antibody. This time the GFP-tagged Ulp1(3)(C580S) could be detected in the WCEs and bound to the SUMO2 agarose (Figure 6D). In contrast, neither the WT catalytic domain of Ulp1 (Ulp1(3)) nor Ulp1(3)(C580S)(SBSΔ) was bound to SUMO2 agarose. Similarly, the Ulp1(3)(C580S) could also be purified on SUMO1 agarose (data not shown). We also tested whether immobilized Ulp1(3)(C580S) could be used to purify SUMO chains. In this experiment, we incubated purified SUMO2 chains with our immobilized Ulp1(3)(C580S) or the unbound amylose resin. After washing, bound SUMO2 chains were eluted, separated on SDS-PAGE gels and examined by Western blot analysis with an anti-SUMO2 antibody. SUMO2 chains could clearly be detected in the input (Figure 6E, lane 2) and bound the MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) (lane 4), but not the resin-only control (Figure 6E, lane 3). Both lower- and higher-molecular-weight adducts of SUMO2 were purified with a preference for higher-molecular-weight chains (5-mer, 6-mer or 7-mer). These data suggest that Ulp1(3)(C580S) can efficiently bind and enrich SUMO2 chains in vitro and that the MBP fusion of Ulp1(3)(C580S) may also be useful for the purification of sumoylated proteins from mammalian cells. STUbLs such as the yeast Slx5/Slx8 heterodimer and the human RNF4 protein efficiently ubiquitinated proteins modified with SUMO chains [49, 50]. These proteins interact with their respective sumoylated ubiquitinated targets through SIMs. STUbL reactions have been reconstituted in vitro, but the purification of target proteins modified with SUMO chains has been technically difficult or prohibitively expensive. The ability of Ulp1(3)(C580S) to interact with SUMO may therefore provide a simple way to purify a SUMO chain-modified STUbL target of choice. To test whether Ulp1(3)(C580S) can serve as a platform to modify a purified protein with SUMO2 chains, we incubated the immobilized MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) with SUMO2 chains. Unbound SUMO2 chains were removed by washing. The MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) SUMO2 chain complex was then eluted and added into a STUbL in vitro ubiquitinated reaction containing recombinant RNF4 (K A Fryrear and O Kerscher, unpublished reagents). Proteins in the STUbL-mediated ubiquitination assay were separated on SDS-PAGE gels and examined by Western blot analysis with an anti-SUMO2 antibody (Figure 7A). Consistent with previous observations, we were able to detect ubiquitinated SUMO2 chains after the STUbL reaction. This ubiquitination was dependent on RNF4 and SUMO2 chains. On the basis of these results, we propose that Ulp1(3)(C580S) may provide a useful, widely applicable tool for the study of sumoylated proteins and STUbL targets (Figure 7B). MBP-Ulp1(3) (C580S) can serve as a SUMO2 binding platform for SUMO-targeted ubiquitin ligase-mediated substrate ubiquitination. (A) SUMO2 chains (Boston Biochem) were incubated with resin-bound maltose-binding protein (MBP)-Ulp1(3)(C580S). The complex of MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) with small ubiquitin-like modifier 2 (SUMO2) chains was then eluted and added to an in vitro ubiquitination reaction with the SUMO-targeted ubiquitin ligase (STUbL) RNF4, an E3 ubiquitin ligase. Proteins in the STUbL reactions were separated by SDS-PAGE and assessed by Western blot analysis with an anti-SUMO2 antibody. Arrows indicate modified SUMO2 chains. Lane 1: No SUMO chains; lane 2: no RNF4; lane 3: no Ulp1(3)(C580S); lane 4: all reagents. (B) Proposed model for using MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) as a SUMO2-binding platform for substrate ubiquitination. SUMO2, ubiquitin and RNF4 are indicated by spheres labeled S, spheres labeled Ub and the gray oval labeled RNF4, respectively. In this study, we have demonstrated that region 3 of Ulp1, the catalytic domain, contains critical information for subcellular targeting to sumoylated substrates, including the septin Cdc11. To determine how Ulp1 is targeted to its substrates, we took advantage of a catalytically inactive Ulp1 mutant (C580S) that exhibited partial redistribution from the NE to the septin ring of dividing yeast cells. We found that the relocalization of Ulp1 depended on functional Smt3 and sumoylated proteins at the septin ring of dividing cells. Importantly, using this novel Ulp1 in vivo septin-ring localization assay, we traced the critical targeting information to two features in region 3 of Ulp1, a previously identified SBS (amino acids 418 to 447) and a SUMO-contacting residue (D451) that resides near the carboxy terminus (see structure supplied). D451 of Ulp1 has previously been shown to contact Smt3 through a salt-bridge interaction [31, 47]. Indeed, in our analysis, we provide evidence that the salt bridge-disrupting D451N mutation abolishes the SUMO-dependent targeting of Ulp1 to septins and prevents the two-hybrid interaction of the catalytic domain of Ulp1 with Smt3 (Figures 3A, B and 5). The sole requirements for the enrichment of full-length Ulp1 at the septin ring were the catalytically inactivating C580S mutation in the catalytic domain of Ulp1 and functional Kap121. This finding has important implications for the targeting role played by the amino-terminal karyopherin-binding domains of Ulp1 (discussed below). Additionally, Smt3 processing appears to be required for substrate release. The catalytically inactive Ulp1(3)(C580S) mutant is predominantly localized to the septin ring and nucleus of dividing yeast cells, whereas the catalytically active WT Ulp1(3) shows merely diffuse staining throughout the cell (compare Figure 3B, top). This is not due to differential expression or stability of either GFP fusion, as similar amounts of proteins were detected in cell extracts (see Figure 6D). We propose and show in our biochemical analysis that the C580S mutant may trap Smt3-modified proteins, allowing it to be observed in association with cellular desumoylation substrates. In support of this assessment, combining the D451N with the C580S mutation abolishes all visible bud-neck localization (Figure 3A). Therefore, we propose that Ulp1(C580S) first targets and docks Smt3 through the SBS domain and the salt bridge-forming D451 residue, then traps it in place because of its inability to cleave after the di-glycine motif of Smt3. We can assume that a trapped substrate prevents further catalysis or interactions with other Smt3 molecules, an assessment that is borne by our finding that, despite its septin-targeting and SUMO-binding properties, Ulp1(3)(C580S) interacts only weakly with Smt3 in a two-hybrid assay (Figure 5 and Additional file 4). A better understanding of how the sumoylated substrate is trapped by Ulp1(3)(C580S) may have important implications for the rational design of inhibitors for Ulp1-like SUMO proteases, but may await the elucidation of the cocrystal structure with a trapped substrate. The interaction of budding yeast Ulp1 with Smt3 relies on multiple hydrophobic and salt-bridge interactions between the catalytic domain (region 3) of Ulp1 and the carboxy-terminal extension of Smt3. By making multiple contacts with Smt3, Ulp1 is particularly well-suited to interact with a wide variety of sumoylated substrates [22, 31]. Other SUMO proteases, Ulp2 and several SENP proteins (Senp1, Senp2, Senp6 and Senp7), are believed to interact noncovalently with their sumoylated substrates through dedicated SIMs [14, 22]. On the basis of our structure-function analysis of region 3, Ulp1 seems to employ a unique mode of interaction with Smt3 and sumoylated substrates. Ulp1 does not appear to contain bona fide canonical SIMs, and neither of the amino-terminal domains of Ulp1 (regions 1 and 2) interact with Smt3 or become enriched at the septin ring . This assessment is also underscored by the arrangement of Smt3 and Ulp1 in the cocrystal structure . The hydrophobic groove of Smt3 that would interact with a SIM-containing protein is turned away from the domains of Ulp1 that interact with Smt3. Interestingly, this may suggest that Ulp1 can be recruited to proteins that are covalently or noncovalently modified with SUMO and SUMO chains. Our research demonstrates for the first time that noncovalent interactions between Ulp1 and SUMO are important not only for SUMO binding but also for the cytosolic targeting of this SUMO protease to the bud-neck and potentially to sumoylated septins. Septins are not the only cytosolic substrates of Ulp1 and are arguably the most prevalent [35, 38]; therefore, they may be readily scored in our septin ring targeting assay (Figures 3A and 3B). We predict that Ulp1 is also targeted to other cytosolic and septin-bound sumoylated substrate proteins, such as the karyogamy protein Kar9 . However, because of the low local concentrations in comparison to sumoylated septins, these proteins may be hard to detect. We propose, however, that sumoylated proteins that accumulate or aggregate in the cytosol of yeast cells may be readily detectable by Ulp1(3)(C580S). As detailed below, Ulp1(3)(C580S) also provides a useful tool with which to purify these sumoylated proteins (Figure 6E), and such studies are underway (O Kerscher and Z C Elmore, unpublished data). Our findings provide strong evidence that SUMO, at least in the case of sumoylated proteins at the septin ring, is a required signal for the cytoplasmic targeting of Ulp1. Our alignments of the SBS domain and the juxtaposed salt bridge-forming D451 residue reveal that this mode of targeting may also be conserved in other metazoan Ulp1-like SUMO proteases (Additional file 1). Though we clearly show herein that Ulp1 becomes enriched at the septin ring, we do not yet fully understand how Ulp1 arrives at this subcellular localization. Our findings support the previous observation that Kap121 plays an important role in promoting Ulp1 targeting to the septin ring. Similar to a previously described Ulp1 mutant that lacks the Kap60/Kap95 binding domain (region 2) , the septin ring localization of the full-length Ulp1(C580S) protein described herein is dependent on functional Kap121. It is unlikely that the association with Kap121 shuttles Ulp1 to the septins. Rather, in mitosis, Kap121 becomes associated with a transport inhibitory nucleoporin, Nup53, and may thus exclude Ulp1 access to the inner phase of the NPC . This suggests that, in the absence of Kap121-binding, a fraction of Ulp1 is free to associate with sumoylated septins. Our studies confirm that Ulp1 lacking the Kap60/Kap95-binding domain (region 2) is enriched at the NPC and the septin ring (Figure 3A). We extend these observations by showing that the ability to target sumoylated septins resides in the catalytic domain (region 3) of Ulp1. We found that a Ulp1(3)(C580S) mutant, but not WT Ulp1(3), is enriched at the septin ring in the absence of Kap121. These data suggest that both the Ulp1(3)(C580S) mutant and WT Ulp1(3) can interact with sumoylated septins, but, unlike the subtrate-trapping Ulp1(3)(C580S) mutant, the catalytically active WT Ulp1(3) may be quickly released after desumoylation of the target protein, giving it a diffuse appearance in the cell. How Kap121 helps Ulp1-Δ2 to be retained at the septin ring in the absence of the C580S mutation is currently unclear. Kap121 may theoretically promote the interaction with a septin ring-localized protein. However, the localization of Kap121 to septins has not previously been reported. One intriguing aspect of our study is the results of our analysis of the substrate-trapping Ulp1(3)(C580S) construct. Three lines of evidence reveal the avid interaction of Ulp1(3)(C580S) with SUMO proteins and sumoylated substrates. First, this Ulp1-derived construct shows a pronounced interaction with the bud-neck, which is composed of sumoylated septins in vivo. Second, Ulp1(3)C580S interacts with Smt3 in a two-hybrid assay, whereas WT Ulp1(3) does not. Third, the purified recombinant Ulp1(3)(C580S) protein is a potent affinity-tag for the purification of Smt3 conjugates and SUMO-modified proteins. Furthermore, in preliminary BiaCore analyses, we determined the Kd for the interaction between Ulp1(3)(C580S) and SUMO1 to be 12.8 nM, which is about 200 times stronger than the interaction between a SIM and SUMO, as previously reported by Hecker and co-workers . A related study involving the C603S mutant of the human SENP1 protease confirms our assessment of the substrate-trapping feature. Those authors observed relocalization of their SENP1(C603S) mutant in vivo to PML nuclear bodies and domains of the HDAC4 protein, suggesting that SUMO-dependent targeting may be a conserved feature of Ulp1-like SUMO proteases . The latter may also provide a useful strategy for the identification of mitotically important desumoylation substrates. Indeed, two-hybrid screens with Ulp1(3)(C580S) in the laboratory have already identified several novel cytosolic desumoylation targets (M Donaher and O Kerscher, unpublished data). We are also exploring the ability of Ulp1(3)(C580S) to act as a SUMO chain-binding tag that can be used to promote the interaction of putative STUbL target proteins with RNF4 and other STUbLs (Figure 7). How Ulp1 and other SUMO proteases target specific mitotic substrates for desumoylation remains unknown. Our analysis of SUMO-dependent Ulp1 targeting to the septin ring provides important evidence that Ulp1-like SUMO proteases do not passively await their desumoylation substrates, but rather dynamically localize to them in a cell-cycle-specific manner. Future experiments that take advantage of the SUMO-binding properties of the substrate-trapping Ulp1(3)(C580S) construct may prove useful for the identification of clinically relevant targets of conserved Ulp1-like SUMO proteases in yeast and human cells. Ulp1 remains one of the most enigmatic SUMO proteases with an essential role in cell-cycle progression. Our work focuses on the fundamental but unresolved question of how Ulp1, an NPC-associated SUMO protease, targets mitotic desumoylation targets in the cytosol. The current study of Ulp1 reveals for the first time that (1) specific determinants of Ulp1's catalytic domain are utilized to target the septins at the bud-neck of dividing cells, (2) Ulp1 requires SUMO and intact sumoylation for correct cytosolic targeting, (3) Ulp1, unlike Ulp2, relies on specific salt bridge-forming residues for substrate targeting, (4) septin-targeting information in the catalytic domain of Ulp1 is independent of Kap121 and (5) the substrate-targeting domain of Ulp1 can be modified to identify and purify sumoylated substrates of Ulp1 in genetic screens and in biochemical analyses. The yeast strains and plasmids used in this study are listed in Table 1. smt3-331 expresses a temperature-sensitive Smt3 protein containing a L26S mutation ( and S Brill, personal communication). smt3R11, 15, 19 expresses a triple-mutant of Smt3 rendered unable to form SUMO chains through replacement of lysines 11, 15 and 19 with arginines . ulp1ts expresses a temperature-sensitive mutant of Ulp1 that contains three mutations (I435V, N450S and I504T) in region 3, the catalytic domain . Yeast media preparation and manipulation of yeast cells were performed as described previously . Yeast strains were grown at 30°C unless otherwise indicated. DNA fragments containing Ulp1 under the control of its endogenous promoter were amplified from yeast genomic DNA and placed in-frame with a carboxy-terminal GFP-tag in the CEN/LEU2 plasmid pAA3 . Primer pairs used for full-length Ulp1 amplification were OOK2 (ULP1 (-310 to -294)) and OOK3 (ULP1 (+1, 842 to +1, 863)). To prepare the truncated and mutated Ulp1-GFP constructs listed in Table 1, the QuikChange XL Site-Directed Mutagenesis Kit (Stratagene/Agilent Technologies, La Jolla, CA, USA) and the Phusion Site-Directed Mutagenesis Kit (Finnzymes Oy/Thermo Fisher Scientific, Vantaa, Finland) were used according to the manufacturers' instructions. Primer sequence information for the construction of individual mutants and truncations are available upon request. All constructs were sequenced, verified and/or confirmed by performing complementation assays (for example, see Additional file 3). Additionally, we confirmed that septin rings are intact in strains expressing plasmid-borne Ulp1(3)C580, WT Ulp1 and Ulp1(3) (see Additional file 5). For two-hybrid constructs, ORFs of the indicated genes were PCR-amplified and recombined into gapped pOAD and pOBD2 vectors (Yeast Resource Center, Department of Biochemistry and Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA). To overexpress and purify Ulp1 truncations from bacteria, the respective Ulp1 fragments were PCR-amplified and cloned into pMALc-HT (a gift from Sean T Prigge, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA), thereby adding an in-frame MBP module followed by a TEV protease cleavage site and a His6 epitope tag. Ulp1 derivatives were expressed as MBP fusions in BL21 Star (DE3) cells (Invitrogen) containing a pRIL plasmid. The YCp-111 Cdc3-CFP/LEU plasmid was a kind gift from Ryuichi Nishihama of John Pringle's laboratory (Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA). Gal4-activation domain (AD) fusions of ULP1 and the indicated ULP1 mutants in pOAD were transformed into the AH109 reporter strain expressing a Gal4 DNA-binding domain (BD) fusion of SMT3 in pOBD. Two-hybrid interactions of serially diluted cells were scored in duplicate on dropout media lacking adenine. Frozen bacterial cell pellets from 200 ml of isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside-induced BL21 Star (DE3) cells were thawed on ice and resuspended in 2 ml of 1 × PBS containing 1 × Halt Protease Inhibitor Cocktail (catalog no. 78430; Pierce Biotechnology/Thermo Fisher Scientific, Rockford, IL, USA). Ice-cold cells were sonicated using a Branson Sonifier ultrasonic cell disruptor (Branson Ultrasonics, Danbury, CT, USA), and extracts were cleared by centrifugation at 15, 000 rpm for eight minutes at 4°C. Cleared bacterial extracts were added to 15-ml conical tubes and diluted using 4 ml of 1 × PBS containing the protease inhibitor cocktail. MBP-tagged proteins (MBP-Ulp1(3), MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) or MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S)ΔSBS) were bound to 5-ml columns containing 300 μl of amylose resin (New England Biolabs, Ipswich, MA, USA) and washed extensively with 1 × PBS. Yeast cell protein extracts containing the indicated target proteins were passed over the amylose resin, and proteins bound to MBP-Ulp1(3), MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) or MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S)ΔSBS were eluted with 100 mM maltose or SDS-PAGE sample buffer. Yeast cell protein extracts were generated by bead-beating about 50 nm of yeast cell pellets in 1 × cell lysis buffer (catalog no. 9803; Cell Signaling Technology, Danvers, MA, USA) containing 25 mM N-ethylmaleimide. "Bound" material (Figures 6A and 6B) corresponds to proteins affinity-purified from approximately 8 nm of extracted cells. Input (WCE) lysates correspond to 1.25 nm of extracted proteins (about one-sixth the material loaded onto the column). In SUMO pull-down experiments, recombinant MBP-Ulp1(3)(C580S) or MBP-Ulp1(3) was incubated with SUMO1 or SUMO2 agarose (Boston Biochem Inc, Cambridge, MA, USA) in 1 ml of 1 × PBS with protease inhibitors. Proteins bound to the agarose beads were washed in 1 × PBS and eluted with 1 × SDS-PAGE sample buffer. All protein extracts were separated on NuPage Novex 4-12% Bis-Tris gradient gels (NP0321; Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) using 3-morpholinopropane-1-sulfonic acid-SDS running buffer (NP0001; Invitrogen). Equal loading and concentrations of recombinant proteins were confirmed by Coomassie staining and analysis using an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer using a Protein 230 Kit (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA). BiaCore measurements were conducted by Affina Biotechnologies, Inc (Stamford, CT, USA) as a paid service. Unless otherwise noted, cells were grown in rich media, arrested in G2/M using nocodazole (15 μg/ml/3 hours/30°C), washed in 2% dextrose and harvested by centrifugation. Images of live cells were collected using a Zeiss Axioskop microscope (Carl Zeiss USA, Thornwood, NY, USA) fitted with a QImaging Retiga™ SRV charge-coupled device digital camera (QImaging, Surrey, BC, Canada), i-Vision-Mac software (BioVision Technologies, Exton, PA, USA) and a Uniblitz electro-programmable shutter assembly system (Vincent Associates/UNIBLITZ, Rochester, NY, USA). Pertinent filter sets for the above applications include CZ909 (GFP), XF114-2 (CFP) and XF104-2 (YFP) (Chroma Technology Group, Bellows Falls, VT, USA). Images were normalized using i-Vision-Mac software and pseudocolored and adjusted using Adobe Photoshop software (Adobe Systems Inc, San Jose, CA, USA). Enzymes and substrates used in our in vitro ubiquitination assays were quantified using a Protein 230 Kit on the Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies) according to the manufacturer's instructions. We used 10 × ubiquitination buffer, E1 enzyme (Uba1), ATP and 20 × ubiquitin provided in a commercial ubiquitin activating kit (BML-UW0400-0001; Enzo Life Sciences Inc, Farmingdale, NY, USA). Ubiquitination buffer, isopentenyl diphosphate (100 U/ml), dithiothreitol (DTT) (50 μM), E1 (Uba1), E2 (Ubc4) and E3 enzymes (RNF4) were combined with purified SUMO2 chains (ULC-210; Boston Biochem) and ubiquitin. Reactions totaled 27 μl and were incubated at 30°C for three hours. Reactions were stopped by adding an equal volume of SUMEB with Tris (SUTEB) sample buffer (0.01% bromophenol blue, 10 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, 1% SDS, 50 mM Tris, pH 6.8, 8 M urea) containing DTT (5 μl of 1 M DTT mixed with 1 ml SUTEB sample buffer). Protein products were boiled in a 65°C heat block for ten minutes and examined by Western blot analysis with anti-human SUMO2 antibody, anti-human SUMO2 (BML-PW0510-0025; Enzo Life Sciences Inc), anti-GFP (JL-8 632380; Clontech, Mountain View, CA), ANTI-FLAG M2 (F3165; Sigma-Aldrich, St Louis, MO, USA), anti-phosphoglycerate kinase (22C5D8; Invitrogen), anti-Cdc11 (y415) (sc-7170; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA, USA). We thank all members of the Kerscher lab for their support. We especially thank Cecilia Esteban for Figure 1B, Jeff Hollomon for an Ulp1 overexpression construct and Nora Foegeding and Chris Moad for help with experiments during revision of the manuscript. We are indebted to Diane Shakes, Rachael Felberbaum and Mark Hochstrasser for comments and/or edits of the manuscript. Additionally, we thank Vikram Panse, Maria Katariina Veisu, Sue Biggins, Mark Hochstrasser, Eric Rubenstein, Munira Basrai, Wei Chun Au, Rick Wozniak, Erica Johnson, John Pringle, Ryuichi Nishihama, Liz Allison, Mark Forsyth and Eric Engstrom for strains and reagents and Steve Brill for information on Smt3-331. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grant R15-GM085792 (to OK), a William & Mary Howard Hughes Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship (to MD and BCM), an ALSAM fellowship (to BCM) and a William and Mary Arts and Sciences Graduate Research grant (to ZE). OK and ZE designed and interpreted all the results of the experiments and wrote the manuscript. ZE carried out all experiments with the following exceptions: MD and JW carried out the two-hybrid assays and helped to interpret the results, BM designed and conducted the STUbL assay and HM aligned Ulp SUMO protease sequences, confirmed conserved residues and helped with editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

2019-04-25T16:56:16Z

https://0-bmcbiol-biomedcentral-com.brum.beds.ac.uk/articles/10.1186/1741-7007-9-74

Max Fordham provided Acoustics design services for the new-build, 25m six-lane competition pool at City of London Freemen's School. Located in the school's Grade II* listed grounds, the pool features exposed, white stained timber with views out to the surrounding woodland on all sides. Acoustic absorption lines three of the walls with seamless acoustic plaster at one end and slatted timber panelling on the side walls. In addition, a 65sqm event space incorporates a deep window seat overlooking the pool. Independent, simultaneous usage on either side of the window is facilitated by a very high performance acoustic glazed screen. Ideal acoustic conditions for education are achieved in this space through the use of wood fibre ceiling panels, which also complement the interior design. Scottish Opera’s new Silver Cloud Studio is a 5,000 square foot orchestral rehearsal space at Hillingdon Park near Glasgow. An existing industrial unit has been converted to create the studio, creating significant technical challenges in terms of achieving high-end acoustics and good environmental conditions for performers. On first appearances, an unprepossessing industrial unit didn’t seem a likely candidate for orchestral rehearsal space. It was a cold, reverberant shed that suffered from rain noise on its metal roof and noise break-in from adjacent units and traffic. However, it did have two valuable assets – its large volume and the availability of daylight from a big roof-light. The first step for the acoustic design was to create a quiet space. The entrance from the car-park has been lobbied to control traffic noise. One wall has an independent lining to control noise from the adjacent unit and a suspended ceiling has been added to control rain noise. The design of the suspended ceiling was crucial as it performed a number of discrete functions. We used a readily available and inexpensive grid system, but devised a layout that interspersed three types of tile. This allowed the ceiling to admit daylight to the space, to control the level of acoustic reverberation, and to provide the diffuse overhead reflections that are essential for ensemble playing. “The acoustics are excellent and allow all the different sections of the orchestra to hear each other with great clarity and yet still retain a positive bloom to the sound. Already I am seeing better results from the orchestra which can be directly attributed to the new space” – Stuart Stratford, Music Director. The new suspended ceiling uses a specific tile layout to optimise acoustics and daylight. Angled wall panels provide diffusion and drapes provide acoustics variability. Oriam Sports Performance Centre is the new national home for football and other professional and amateur sporting bodies in Scotland. The vision for Oriam was to create an inspirational national facility for athletes, coaches and support staff. Our work included M&E and Acoustic design. The internal environments have been carefully designed and tested to ensure acoustic comfort and speech intelligibility throughout the building. Using 3D computer simulations, we investigated late echoes which can hamper speech intelligibility in large volume spaces. We resolved these issues by sloping the long wall of the sports hall, to redirect echoes up and away from occupants. We also presented auralisations (sound simulations) of reverberation in the main hall and rain noise from the tensile fabric roof to allow the client to review design options in relation to their requirements. Oriam won the award for Project of the Year (Leisure) at 2018 CIBSE Building Performance Awards. A combination of acoustically absorptive surfaces and the angled walls reduce the reverberation and improve acoustic comfort for the occupants. The internal environments have been designed and tested to ensure acoustic comfort and speech intelligibility throughout the building. Nantes, the sixth largest city in France, is home to the refurbished and extended Musée d’Art, by Stanton Williams Architects. The major renovation and extension of the 19th century Palais des Beaux-Arts has created more than 17,000m2 of floor space - including a new building dedicated to contemporary art - to display the Museum's impressive collection and host prestigious exhibitions. Max Fordham provided M&E engineering consultancy, exhibition and architectural lighting, and acoustic design. Our acoustic design included the galleries, offices, public spaces basement lecture theatre, and other ancillary spaces. As part of our work, we developed a bespoke light fitting for the galleries that includes a micro-perforated acoustic material between the diffuser and the lamps to absorb sound and control reverberation. Our acousticians also presented a series of computer simulated auralisations of the refurbished entrance hall to the design team. This allowed the team to gauge the impact of various design decisions on the acoustic performance of the hall, and to set an appropriate room acoustic for the space. Simulations were also made for the multi-purpose auditorium, where the timber finishes have been selected for their acoustic function. A translucent micro-perforated fabric has been integrated within the roof-lights to control reverberation in the galleries. We performed a number of acoustic surveys at the site and developed appropriate noise control measures for rooftop plant equipment. A new-build 500-seat theatre is being constructed adjacent to the existing Gallery Oldham and linked to the historic Library building, which will be refurbished to provide exhibition galleries, lecture hall, foyer and dining spaces. A new 150-seat studio space is also being provided as part of the development. We are working in close collaboration with the theatre consultant to determine the layout of the auditorium seating and coordinate our proposed acoustic reflectors with the requirements for technical lighting. The site is located next to a tram track and we have undertaken detailed vibration measurements to inform the design of the theatre structure. By defining appropriate breaks in the structure and setting the theatre auditorium back from the track, we have limited the extent of the box-in-box structure, reducing costs significantly. The site is located next to tram tracks, so we have undertaken detailed vibration measurements to inform the design of the theatre structure. Max Fordham provided the acoustic design input for the ‘This is a Voice’ exhibition at the Wellcome Collection held in London between April and July 2016. The exhibition, bringing together a wide range of works by contemporary artists and vocalists including Matthew Herbert, Imogen Stidworthy and Joan La Barbara, was conceived as an acoustic journey tracing the material quality of the voice, and included a number of audio exhibitions within the same gallery. The exhibition space also needed to be physically expansive to allow visitors to move freely through the displays. This presented a significant acoustic challenge in combining the contrasting acoustic aspirations of generating a coherent exhibition soundscape in an open space while incorporating measures to control excess sound-spill between the different exhibits. We advised on the arrangement, surface finishes and constructions within the exhibition space. We also provided strategic input to the audio-visual design using highly-directional or localised audio systems where possible. Max Fordham's Acoustic Team worked with architects Caruso St John to deliver Damien Hirst’s flagship gallery in Vauxhall, London. The gallery provides the space of 8 buildings. While three listed theatre scenery workshops were refurbished, two other buildings were rebuilt entirely, joining with the other spaces to become one integrated building. The site is adjacent to an extremely busy elevated railway, and providing excellent sound insulation performance to the main spaces was considered important to deliver the relatively isolated and quiet ambience desired for the galleries. High specification double glazing and secondary glazing in the galleries has delivered an excellent result, where the railway does not intrude on the artistic experience. This social housing scheme for Peabody provides 67 mix tenure new homes over seven storeys. As well as M&E and Sustainability, Max Fordham were appointed to develop the acoustic strategy for the site. To control noise break-in, the flats used winter-gardens on the noisy railway facade to act as an acoustic buffer. Ventilation was provided by quiet-running fans, ducted to the shielded facade, with the facility to boost ventilation rates to deal with summertime overheating conditions. The headquarters for Bath and Northeast Somerset Council serves as an exemplar for sustainability in public buildings in the UK. It is the first building to employ the full 'Soft Landings' methodology, where the energy performance aims were not just forecast in the design but written into the contract. Our acoustic design included extensive computer noise-mapping to establish the exposure of the building facades to traffic noise. The open-plan offices are naturally ventilated using acoustically attenuated louvres where necessary to mitigate noise break-in. The Investcorp Building expands the Middle East Centre at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford - one of the graduate colleges that comprise the UK’s oldest university. Designed with Zaha Hadid Architects, the building incorporates essential new facilities that meet the increasing demand for research and academic activities from the Centre. Our acoustic design included noise-mapping, internal partition details, room acoustic modelling, acoustic materials advice and the design of the 200-seat lecture theatre. Skylights provide natural daylight to the library. The façade of the archive reading room has fritted glass, a finely porous glass that air can pass through, thereby controlling solar gain. Natural ventilation is employed wherever possible, including the smaller rooms and café. Air is drawn from the quiet side of the building away from the adjacent road, making the space a more comfortable working environment. The refurbishment at the Grade II listed Alexandra Palace in north London encompasses the Theatre, BBC Studios and the East Court. The historic 1875 theatre will be brought back to life as a multi-purpose performance venue, retaining its character as a ‘found space’. Sound absorbing motorised blinds are being installed, making it possible to cut out the long reverberation of the existing space at the touch of a button. We are working closely with the theatre consultant and structural engineer to limit the load on the existing roof structure that results from the acoustic enhancements and additional technical equipment. The East Court is being refurbished to act as both a grand entrance foyer and a flexible space for a variety of uses. Tailored acoustic banners with integrated, feature lighting are to be hung from the glazed roof of this huge space, creating a more comfortable acoustic environment. We are working closely with the theatre consultant and structural engineer to limit the total loadings on the existing roof structure that result from the acoustic enhancements and additional technical equipment. Phase one of the master-plan for the City of London Freemen’s School campus includes a 60-bed boarding house, a music school with 250-seat recital hall, practice rooms and a recording studio. A bespoke perforation pattern for the timber panels in the performance space gives a balanced acoustic response across the musical frequency range. Winner of the 2014 Civic Trust Award, AJ Retrofit Award and 2013 RIBA National Award. The Victorian Corn Exchange was redesigned to provide a multi-purpose venue for concerts, plays and community events, including a new 740-seat auditorium. As part of the work, the volume of the auditorium was increased by replacing the old glass roof with a new structure at a greater height. As well as improving the sound isolation through the roof, this provided increased reverberation which is very beneficial for orchestral music. Some performances however, such as theatre productions, require more controlled reverberation. To cater for them we designed a system of motor-controlled sliding acoustic panels that can be deployed to adjust the acoustic characteristics of the hall at the touch of a button. From piano concertos, full orchestras or stage productions, the acoustic qualities of the volume can be varied to cater for all. The height of the auditorium roof was raised to add volume and reverberation. The redevelopment of this central Coventry site provides the University with a variety of student facilities including several large open-plan informal learning areas. The building also includes a multi-purpose venue with the capacity for 1,000 people. The acoustic design of this space needed to be flexible enough to accommodate music performances, stand-up comedy, theatre and night-club use. Our design made use highly absorbent acoustic finishes and a ‘zig-zag’ wall profile to break-up low frequency room-modes. The proximity of the venue to the study areas raised particular noise-control challenges and lead to the use of a ‘box-in-box’ acoustic isolation strategy. Celebrating its 175th anniversary in 2012, Newcastle’s Grade I listed Theatre Royal has been refurbished to restore many of Frank Matcham’s original features. Our Acoustics Team undertook a detailed analysis of the impact of the proposed restoration on the acoustic character of the space. The results of computer modelling and simulations were compared to acoustic measurements made prior to the refurbishment, allowing us to advise on the suitability of the proposed materials and finishes. Max Fordham measured the impact of the proposed refurbishment on acoustic performance of the Grade II listed auditorium. The Theatre Royal was restored to its former glory but with 21st Century acoustics performance. The new-build extension to Brentwood School in Essex includes a 400-seat auditorium, foyer and classroom block. The auditorium has been designed to provide a variable acoustic suitable for both spoken word (conferences and assemblies), drama and music performance of all kinds. Specially-designed, hinged acoustic wall panels can be opened up to provide additional absorption, allowing the acoustic response of the space to be adjusted. Classrooms are naturally ventilated despite overlooking a nearby busy road. Air enters the space through bespoke attenuated ventilators, designed by Max Fordham and integrated with the window reveal. The air is then drawn out though high level ventilation stacks. Specially designed hinged acoustic wall panels, visible here on the left, can be opened up to provide additional absorption. The acoustics of the 400-seat auditorium can be varied so it can be used for drama and conferences as well as music. Napoli Afragola is one of 13 new stations for Italy’s high-speed rail system. It has a mixed-mode ventilation system meaning that the main concourse is open to the platforms during the mid-season. To prevent problems with excessive break-in of train noise, we modelled the noise coming through these openings and proposed surface treatments to attenuate the sound path. The central concourse uses acoustic absorption integrated with the solar shading strategy at high level. Extensive modelling of public address coverage in the various concourse and platform areas was also undertaken. A computer-generated video of the project's design (created by Zaha Hadid Architects) is available to watch here. This image shows the main arrival and departure concourse, which is open to the platforms mid-season. The surface treatments to the platform openings have been selected to control break-in of noise from the high-speed trains. Acoustic absorption is needed in the main concourse to reduce reverberation and improve the intelligibility of PA announcements. The absorption is provided as a band around the walls and is also integrated with the solar shading at high level. The atmosphere during the London 2012 water polo competition was invigorated by Max Fordham’s acoustic design for the 5000-seat temporary arena. A critical aspect of our design was providing sufficient reverberation control to ensure the PA system was clearly intelligible, without dampening the atmosphere and intensity from the crowd. The building’s ‘skin’ was made from recycled phthalate-free PVC. We investigated the acoustic properties of this material and made assessments of crowd noise in similar venues. Reverberation control was provided by micro-perforated fabric liners on the side walls. Ray-tracing computer software was used to assess coverage and intelligibility from the proposed speaker arrays. The result was outstanding acoustic quality in the first purpose-built Olympic Water Polo venue. Micro-perforated fabric liners on the side walls were installed to control reverberation. The acoustic design considered noise from both mechanical plant and crowd noise breakout.

2019-04-19T14:19:17Z

https://www.maxfordham.com/services/acoustics/case-studies/

After years of property disputes, trail destruction concerns, and a search for an endangered species, one of the DC area’s newest public transportation projects may encounter its most significant obstacles under newly elected Maryland governor, Larry Hogan. The purple line was originally conceived under Maryland Governor Glendening as a connection between the New Carrollton station on the orange line and Silver Spring on the red line. Under the Ehrlich administration, the project was merged with the Georgetown Branch Light Rail Transit, which was proposed to run from the Silver Spring station to Bethesda, both on the red line. Initially, the purple line was proposed as one of three options: heavy rail (think Metro), light rail, or bus rapid transit. Heavy rail was quickly eliminated as too expensive and light rail is highly favored over a rapid bus line. The current proposal is a 16.2 mile line with 21 stations, which will serve approximately 70,000 riders daily, at a cost of approximately $2.5 billion to build. Having cleared several regulatory hurdles already, construction is scheduled to begin in 2015, but that appears unlikely with Governor Hogan’s refusal thus far to make a decision about whether his administration will proceed with the project. To build the purple line, the Maryland Transit Authority (MTA) will likely have to seize part or all of nearly 350 properties, including condemnation of 12 homes and apartment buildings and between 15 and 20 businesses, according to estimates from 2012. A more recent estimate of the number of properties affected by the purple line was not readily available. In addition to residences, MTA also had to contend with the Columbia Country Club, a private golf course located near the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and East West Highway. The purple line will bisect the course, which the club says will jeopardize its standing as a competitive course and filed suit to prevent this. Through a series of negotiations and deals, the route through the course was modified and parcels of land were swapped in order to save the competitive layout of the course through the preservation of trees. The club has promised to refrain from participating in any lawsuits to delay or prevent purple line construction. In a bid to prevent the purple line from moving forward as a light rail line, Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail (FCCT) used a $10,000 donation from the Town of Chevy Chase in order to search for three endangered species: one small shrimp-like creature and two small crustacean species. The creatures have never been found in this area and the survey, completed by David Culver of American University, found none of the targeted species. Undeterred, the Town has given FCCT another $20,000 to sample DNA of the water and sediment to determine if any of the target species could live in the area. The results of the DNA sampling should be available this summer. Maryland’s current governor, Larry Hogan, campaigned on a promise to kill the purple line (and a related project, the red line, in Baltimore). Closer to the election, Hogan reneged on his plan to scrap the projects and is still “considering” whether to cancel them or allow them to go forward. Governor Hogan’s biggest concern is the cost of the project which, at $2.5 billion, is high. This number is mitigated by $900 million from the federal government, $220 from Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties, and further contributions from the public-private partnership. After months of delays on a decision, the Governor is saying he will issue a decision in June. A new report from Transport for American combats the governor’s arguments about the project’s costs, claiming the purple line would create over 20,000 jobs, cut travel times, increase property values, and save residents money. The line would also increase access to jobs, including nearly 100,000 local residents who will have access to transit. Hogan’s Transportation Secretary recently stated he believed $200 to $300 million could be cut from the total cost. Time will tell if these benefits and potential cost savings will be sufficient for Hogan to move forward with the projects. The purple line will provide incredible benefits to residents in this area and contribute significantly to reduced automobile congestion in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties. Business leaders, local residents, and the local municipalities have been planning for these projects and have a strong desire to see them through. Governor Hogan should stop kicking this decision down the road, recognize the immense benefits the purple will provide, and allow the project to move forward. Jessica Christy is a second year law student at the University of the District of Columbia and a mother of three. She’s originally from Colorado, but has lived in DC for almost nine years. Before attending law school, she worked in industrial hygiene, including asbestos litigation and workplace safety. In her spare time, she enjoys beating her oldest child at MarioKart and needlepoint. posted by Cassidy Pillow | on DC, environment, food, Sustainable | Comments Off on Crickets…It’s What for Dinner? There has been increasing attention paid to the role of insects as a protein source for humans in the place of meat. Insects do not create the same climate and human health impacts as livestock and they can be raised on a vegetarian diet. Many cultures around the world enjoy insects as an integral part of their diet. There are over 88 countries where insects are consumed regularly and over 1900 species of edible insects worldwide. The concept of eating bugs has received a lot of press lately. However, this is not a new practice. As the world struggles to keep up with burgeoning human populations, we are searching for new sources of protein. Insects require much less land to raise and are more efficient at converting feed to protein than most livestock. They also emit fewer greenhouse gases than livestock. The UN has been actively promoting the use of insects to meet our protein needs, and it is an area of major innovation in the food industry. Currently, there is a $20 million industry around entomophagy in the US, and the concept has received widespread support. However, cultivating and consuming insects on a mass scale is not a simple solution. There are many questions about the real rates of protein conversion, best practices for husbandry and the ideal diet. Regulation has yet to become tailored to this industry and the market is still in its infancy. The Washington Post highlighted that high-density cricket farm operations are still governed by the same USDA regulations as those for livestock. Some commonly consumed insects are crickets, mealworms, beetles, black soldier flies, butterflies and moths (mostly eaten in their larval and pupal stages), bees and wasps, ants, termites and grasshoppers. Apparently mealworms have a nutty flavor and ants and termites have a lemon flavor to them. There are some very unique offerings for insect-based foods. Popular Science reported this month on several new companies, (with 30 insect-based startups since 2012 nationally) including, Critter bitters, Jungle Bar and Chirps (cricket chips) among many others. There are several manners in which insects are being brought to market and the most common is as a protein bar or powder. This powder can be used in a wide variety of recipes, including cookies. Time magazine recently released a list of recipes, including a recipe for deep fried tarantulas. While insects provide a diverse and more sustainable form of protein than many forms of livestock, integrating them fully into our diet will mean learning to eat in new ways. A nonprofit called Little Herds in Austin, TX has taken on the challenge of changing perceptions and creating markets, and Open Bug Farm is an open forum for insect farming enthusiasts. As consumers and environmentalists, we are presented with the opportunity to help this industry grow in a sustainable way. It will be interesting to see if home production of insects grows in urban environments. An additional challenge is that of bringing production costs down to compete with conventional foods. Some local DC restaurants, such as Oyamel, are serving insects on their menus. In addition, there is an annual event, the Pestaurant, where restaurants serve insects worldwide. Last year’s event featured a DC restaurant. We can hope to see more insect products on the shelves and I for one will be getting more used to the idea! KC Stover works on programming for DC EcoWomen and on wildlife conservation issues. With a background in entrepreneurship and the environmental field, she believes that new businesses can create opportunities to address some of our most challenging problems. This salad is everything I love about spring – crisp, tender asparagus; the first juicy vibrant tomatoes of the season, creamy pasture-raised goat cheese, and a light dressing featuring sweet local honey. A satisfying crunch from toasted hazelnuts brings it all together. In each recipe I create, I choose ingredients that are good for you, people, and the planet. I believe that we have the power to support our bodies, strengthen our communities, and live our commitment to the environment through what we buy, where we make each purchase, and how we prepare and enjoy each meal. This salad was inspired by last weekend’s stroll through the Takoma Park Farmer’s Market and a quick trip to the TPSS Co-op. I encourage you to make this salad a local adventure – seek out your local farmer’s market for the asparagus, tomatoes, goat cheese and honey. Support a food cooperative or independent grocery store for the hazelnuts and other dressing ingredients. Each dollar you spend is a vote for the kind of world that you want to live in. Not sure where to start? Visit Local Harvest to find markets, farms, and co-ops near you. As you enjoy the flavors of spring, know that you’re supporting your own health in addition to your community and the planet. This salad is rich in folate, a B vitamin that is especially important for women’s health. It also contains fiber, protein, and healthy fats for a well-balanced and nutritious meal. Since local produce is harvested just before being brought to market, it contains more nutrients than food brought in from faraway places. Asparagus contain a wide variety of important vitamins and are a good source of prebiotics, which improve digestion. Tomatoes contain, lycopene, potassium, vitamin C, and vitamin E, as well as other nutrients that have been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol and blood pressure. Purchasing local honey supports honeybee populations, beekeepers, and the health of our local ecosystem. Honey has been used as medicine since ancient times and locally produced honey has been shown to have much stronger antibacterial activity than conventional honey. Choosing goat cheese from pasture-raised goats is a responsible way to indulge in a little dairy. Learn more about the importance of selecting animal products carefully at Eat Wild. Following a vegan diet? Just double up on the hazelnuts, which are full of protein, healthy fats, and promote heart health. You can substitute another natural sweetener for the honey. Most importantly, take time to prepare and enjoy this delicious salad! Know that you will be supporting your own health, people near and far, and living a little lighter on the planet. Snap the tough ends off the asparagus. With a vegetable peeler, shave the asparagus into thin strips and toss into a bowl. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add to the bowl with asparagus. Crumble the goat cheese into the bowl with the vegetables. Make the vinaigrette: combine all ingredients in a separate small bowl and whisk well to combine. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well. Divide the salad onto two plates and top each with half of the hazelnuts. Make it a meal: top with a poached or hard-boiled local organic egg. Tip: If you can’t find toasted hazelnuts, simply roast them in an oven at 275 degrees F for about 15 minutes. Elizabeth is a Certified Holistic Health Coach and Yoga Instructor who created Siena Wellness to inspire people to live happy, healthy and fulfilling lives that positively impact the world we share. She believes that each of us has the power to change the world through daily choices that positively impact our own health, help lift people out of poverty, and protect the planet. This year I started Simply Put Strategies. I’m a few months in, and learning like there’s no tomorrow. Turns out it’s not all rainbows and butterflies, but it’s still pretty awesome. Should I work for free? – There are other ways to work. There are also other ways to work besides for money or nothing. I started my organizing business by working pro-bono in exchange for testimonials for my website and before and after pictures. I also barter: a graphic designer friend is designing my business cards in exchange for social media consulting. You could trade babysitting services, pet care, etc. Offering these deals eases pressure on your spending, establishes mutually beneficial relationships, and gives you experience. Learn everything but don’t do everything – With the Internet, there is no end to the things you can learn to optimize your success. You do not need a business degree to start a business. The Internet abounds with resources for everything, which means you basically have no excuse! You can learn to be your own bookkeeper, market yourself, design your own graphics, advertise, ramp up social media, and so on. Of course, doing everything yourself is not necessarily a good investment. If someone else can do it faster and with expertise, it’s worth outsourcing. Weigh if it’s cost effective for you to do, or trade with/hire someone else. How to cope – Everyone will give you advice and tell you that running a business is hard. Don’t be deterred! Everyone and their uncle warned me that starting a business is hard. It got old: I knew it would be hard and I like working hard! But it has been challenging in ways I didn’t expect: I didn’t expect the loneliness I feel by spending so much time alone. I didn’t anticipate how easy it would be to get distracted. I hadn’t considered how long some decisions take to make. Before I started my business, I imagined leaping out of bed every morning and producing badassity until dusk. But sometimes I hit snooze, plant flowers all day, or schedule Skype dates during “business” hours. When you’re doing your own thing there are no boundaries unless you set them. This is a blessing and a curse: you can work wherever and whenever, which is freeing and invigorating. However, this means that at any given time you may feel like you should be working. Since “working” and “not working” look the same now (they can both be done on your couch or in a cafe) you must consciously designate time not to work. Work your Network – It may be your best resource. I put off sharing my business with my network. I worried that sending an email blast to my extended family would be awkwardly self congratulatory. I explained this to my aunt and she said, “you’re going to have to get over that.” She was right. Part of your unique contribution to a business is your network. You have no idea who wants your services/product or knows someone who does. Take advantage of that as soon as you can – it’s all about people. Starting a business is a great time to expand your network. If the thought of wearing a blazer and schmoozing grosses you out, think again. Networking isn’t about meeting as many people as possible to use them for your career. Networking is about investing in your community. Putting down roots by meeting people, joining organizations, and learning about your area makes you feel grounded and connected. It has two benefits: it’s good for you as a person, and it’s good for business. Eva Jannotta is a professional organizer, social media consultant, and the founder of Simply Put Strategies.

2019-04-23T14:18:05Z

https://dc.ecowomen.org/2015/05/

Will Bar Louie serve as the new Midtown's magnet? With concerns about a downtown alley resolved, the Ann Arbor City Council cleared the way Monday for McKinley to continue its revitalization of the Liberty and Division streets corridor in the city's midtown area. The council unanimously voted to approve a rezoning of a 1.15-acre site at 515 E. Liberty St. where McKinley wants to tear down a vacant one-story building that used to hold National City Bank and replace it with a two-story building. The council also approved the site plan and development agreement. McKinley proposes to put retail all along Liberty Street from its McKinley Towne Centre eastward to the Michigan Theater. Some business owners on Monday said that was key to attracting customers to an area that has historically been a dead zone between the more popular State and Main streets. The one holdup was the alley that goes from Washington Street to Liberty Street and runs along the west side of the Liberty Square. McKinley CEO Albert Berriz said it was co-owned by the city and McKinley. When the Planning Commission approved the project, McKinley had narrowed that alley way to 10-feet. But Berriz told the council when he heard there was some community objection to it, he changed it back to its original 26 feet "in one minute." "We are going to make a huge investment on this block," Berriz said. "We have been thoughtful. We have been very responsive." Berriz said that he envisions having tables out there and people eating along the alley and the plan is to "make that space quiet usable." Some residents spoke during the meeting of creating an alley like the Nickels Arcade, the popular glass-topped, atrium walkway between Maynard and State streets that is lined with businesses. Council Member Chris Easthope, D-5th Ward, said that isn't in the plans for now, but the project was important. "It is another huge step in revitalizing that area," said Easthope. Mayor John Hieftje said he wanted that alley kept open. "I think it (project) will be a very fine addition to our downtown," Hieftje said. McKinley has aspirations to create a vital, thriving environment along Liberty Street, similar to Main Street. It bought the former TCF Bank building and transformed it into the McKinley Towne Centre, bringing in Google AdWords, the Bar Louie restaurant and other businesses. Also in the vicinity of the Towne Centre is the planned Ann Arbor Hotel and 4 Eleven Lofts. Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by Mlive.com from the Ann Arbor News. McKinley is pleased to announce the appointment of Greg Signer, CPM as Senior Vice President, Operations, Residential Real Estate. Mr. Signer joins McKinley following more than fifteen years of experience in residential real estate most recently, as Vice President with The Morgan Group. We are very excited about the addition of Greg to the McKinley team, states Kenneth P. Polsinelli, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Residential Real Estate. In addition to his years of experience in the industry, Gregs strengths include a passion for quality operations and a focus on developing people. With our continued growth and expansion across our 10 state platform, Greg will provide the expertise and leverage needed to maintain our excellent performance. During his career, Greg has been focused on training and development of his team as well as standardizing operations, implementing significant cost saving measures and improving quality throughout the organization. He has held numerous positions in regional property management and operations with several major residential real estate organizations including Archstone-Smith and Trammell Crow/Gables. He has a consistent track record of success at every assignment throughout his career. Greg is a graduate of Florida State University in Tallahassee. He holds a Certified Property Manager designation and serves on the Board of the Florida State University Housing Program. He is also an active member with the Apartment Association of Greater Orlando. In his new role with McKinley, Mr. Signer will have oversight and responsibility for operations in the residential real estate portfolio with operations in 10 states. McKinley, founded in 1968, is a well respected national real estate investment firm that owns and operates $1.8 billion in assets in 103 properties for its own account and for select clientele. This includes 17,248 apartments and more than 5 million square feet of commercial space located in 10 states. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Albert M. Berriz serves as Chief Executive Officer with 717 full-time employees nationwide. Dense. Vibrant. Prosperous. Those are three words commonly used describing downtown Ann Arbor. They also play key parts in the latest proposal to expand the McKinley Towne Centre to include a high-rise hotel. The city is reviewing developer McKinley Inc's plans to build a nine-story, 120 room hotel on the southwest corner of Washington and Division streets. The project is expected to create 20 to 40 jobs while it's estimated patrons of the hotel will spend about $3 million a year in downtown. The idea is making the city's downtown core more dense will make it more vibrant and prosperous by letting those three factors, and others, play off each other. "That type of critical mass is critical," says Albert M Berriz, CEO of McKinley Inc. "The convergence of those businesses there is critical. This is the only place in downtown where these things are coming together." The building will replace a surface parking across the street from the Ann Arbor News building. The hotel's design will compliment the surrounding architecture. Parking for the project will be handed by the Liberty Square parking garage behind the Michigan Theater. First Hospitality Group will develop and the run the yet-to-be-determined brand of hotel. First Hospitality operates about 40 similar hotels across the Midwest, such as the Hampton Inn on Plymouth Road. The proposed hotel is the latest expansion for the McKinley Towne Centre complex, one of the most impressive urban redevelopment projects in Metro Detroit. The complex, centered on the intersection of Liberty and Thompson streets, has experienced a rebirth thanks to McKinley's efforts to turn the drab, concrete-themed, fortress-like block into a colorful, vibrant area that is full of businesses and open and inviting to pedestrians. Among the other expansions underway for the complex are the redevelopment of storefronts along Liberty between Thompson and the Michigan Theater and the construction of the 4 Eleven Lofts building. This is on top of McKinley's initial step of the development, transforming the formerly profoundly ugly TCF Bank regional headquarters into the new headquarters to Google's Adwords division. The Ann Arbor City Council is currently reviewing the plans for the hotel, the second hotel planned for downtown. McKinley hopes to wrap up project approval by the end of January and start construction shortly thereafter. Work is expected to wrap up 13 months after ground is broken. Source: Albert M Berriz, CEO of McKinley Inc. Annual Toys for Tots campaigns are conducted each year throughout the nation from October 1st through December 24th. Since its beginnings in 1947, Toys for Tots has distributed nearly half a billion toys to close to 250 million children. McKinley is proud to partner with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program and Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. Toys for Tots is the United States Marine Corps premier community action program, one of the nations flagship Christmas charitable causes. For general information please visit www.toysfortots.org. McKinley is pleased to announce the successful disposition on behalf of our valued client Capmark, Inc. of River Oak, a 268 unit residential apartment home community in Louisville, Kentucky. McKinley was appointed Receiver by the Jefferson Circuit Court in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and began management of the community in August 2007 improving operations and cash flow. A successful disposition was achieved this month. This disposition is a recent example of how McKinley aggressively solves real estate challenges for our clients. From takeover to disposition, the McKinley team enjoys exceeding expectations for our partners and clients. McKinley, founded in 1968, is a well respected national real estate investment firm that owns and operates $1.8 billion in assets in 103 properties for its own account and for select clientele. This includes 17,248 apartments and 5.0 million square feet of commercial space located in 9 states. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Albert M. Berriz serves as Chief Executive Officer with 717 full-time employees nationwide. Robert Ramey / Ann Arbor Business ReviewAlbert Berriz, left, and David Canter. David Canter is the Ann Arbor region's Executive of the Year, accepting the honor at the "2007 Deals of the Year" awards gala presented Friday night by Ann Arbor Business Review. Canter's honor was the final award of the event, a black-tie gala that culminated in the unveiling of top honors in 11 categories, all of which are key drivers of the local economy. Canter, senior vice president for Pfizer and site director of its Michigan laboratories, was chosen for his exemplary leadership after the drug giant announced in January that it would close its Ann Arbor campus in 2008. Because of Canter, the community remained calm and focused after the announcement. Business leaders stepped up to strategize on how to fill the void, and Canter has been a key part of the transition - while never wavering in his advocacy for Ann Arbor. Canter received his award from Albert Berriz, CEO of McKinley and the 2006 Executive of the Year. Robert Ramey / Ann Arbor Business ReviewNSF President Kevan Lawlor, right, and Michael Finney. Also stepping to the stage in the grand ballroom of the Eastern Michigan University Student Center was NSF International, winner of the "Company of the Year" honor. NSF was born decades ago at the University of Michigan, growing today into a $100 million global operation with headquarters in Ann Arbor Township. The not-for-profit scientific research center is dedicated to public health concerns, such as water testing, food safety, regulatory issues and standards certification. In the past year, NSF invested $23 million in a new 82,000-square-foot lab that doubled its capacity and will create 100 jobs over three years. It also continues to open offices across the globe, including through acquisition of international firms. NSF President Kevan Lawlor accepted the award from Michael Finney of Ann Arbor SPARK. The university signed a deal to give up future royalties for the nasal-spray vaccine FluMist in exchange for payments that could eventually total $35 million. The landmark office building - the region's biggest - signed several key tenants in a down market, including Aastrom Biosciences, which took over space formerly used by Pfizer, and Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., which opened an office. Construction: O'Neal Construcion for First Martin Corp.'s 201 Depot St. The Ann Arbor company finished the "Coal Car Building," a 25,500-square-foot speculative office structure with distinctive architecture. The suburban mixed-use project on the high-profile northeast Ann Arbor corner of Plymouth and Green roads started construction as it landed several key retail tenants. The university opened the $215 million, five-story, 350,000-square-foot facility at the former site of U-M's Old Main hospital. The Spanish aerospace firm announced plans to open a $10 million engineering operation in Pittsfield Township that could eventually employ up to 600 people and give the region a boost in attraction more advanced manufacturing-related firms. The social services organization placed more than 90 percent of its 932 clients, as well as most of its services, in alternative agencies when it ceased operations this summer. The leadership behind the smooth transition ensured that the agency's social services would continue. McKinley repositioned the Towne Centre as a multi-tenant building with street-level retail, creating a new "midtown" hub of activity between downtown and campus. New tenants include Bar Louie, Salsaritas and AT&T. The life sciences firm secured $5 million in financing as it prepares for the commercial introduction of its Accuri C6 Flow Cytometer System. This product launch could alter the entire industry by bringing the cell testing devices to market with smaller and less expensive equipment. A recent evening devoted to honoring teens and Albert M. Berriz entitled Hitch Your Wagon to the Stars raised over $100,000 for the Neutral Zone through numerous generous individual and corporate donations. The Neutral Zone selected Albert M. Berriz as honoree for their annual signature event because of his success in raising funds during a recent capital campaign to acquire a new and improved teen center building. The youth in our community now have a permanent place for young people to feel secure, learn, grow and explore their creative interests. The Neutral Zone, located at 310 W. Washington Street in downtown Ann Arbor is a diverse, youth-driven teen center dedicated to promoting personal growth through artistic expression, community leadership and the exchange of ideas. McKinley, founded in 1968, is a well respected national real estate investment firm that owns and operates $1.5 billion in assets in 103 properties for its own account and for select clientele. This includes 16,447 apartments and 5 million square feet of commercial space located in 9 states. Headquartered in Ann Arbor Michigan, Albert M. Berriz serves as Chief Executive Officer with 715 full-time employees nationwide. Karen F. Andrews, Chief Administrative Officer is pleased to announce McKinley received unanimous approval from the Board of Directors of Dawn Farm at a recent board meeting to create a public-private partnership which will deliver 34 new transitional housing units in our community with funding support from the Washtenaw Community Health Organization (WCHO) and the J.F. Ervin Foundation. The housing units are designated as supported treatment beds/homes for clients receiving care from the case management staff at Dawn Farm. McKinley will deliver the 34 units via 12 apartment homes beginning in October, 2007. This partnership provides a unique opportunity for McKinley to offer an entire building of contiguous units for Dawn Farm's transitional housing program. "McKinley has had a long-standing relationship with Dawn Farm, and we are truly grateful for their mission and the important services they provide in our community. We are thrilled that the implementation of this program will reduce, by half, the waiting list for Dawn Farm clients for transitional housing. This partnership program truly embodies the mission of Dawn Farm as well as the Core Purpose of McKinley to enhance the quality of life in our community," shared Andrews, who also serves as a Dawn Farm Trustee. The program provides a "community of recovery" for clients of Dawn Farm, an addiction rehabilitation treatment provider (www.dawnfarm.org). The McKinley units, brings Dawn Farm's transitional housing units total to 110. Dawn Farm programs have been extraordinarily successful and their clients are consistently known as model residents. McKinley is committed to supporting the communities in which we operate with a core purpose to enrich the quality of life in our communities every day. It is in the spirit of this philosophy that we provide philanthropic support and encourage participation by our employees in numerous worthy non-profit throughout the community. McKinley, founded in 1968, is a well respected national real estate investment firm that owns and operates $1.7 billion in assets in 103 properties for its own account and for select clientele. This includes 17,223 apartments and 5 million square feet of commercial space located in 9 states. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Albert M. Berriz serves as Chief Executive Officer with 717 full-time employees nationwide. The McKinley Towne Centre will expand its downtown footprint from Division Street to the Michigan Theater building, under plans unveiled Tuesday night by the Ann Arbor-based real estate company McKinley Inc. As part of the plan, McKinley says it has an option to buy the building that houses Orchid Lane and Encore Recordings at 417-419 E. Liberty St. in 2008, although current owner Ruth Fitzgerald declined to confirm any impending sale. McKinley plans to demolish that building, as well as the empty bank building it owns that is connected to the city-owned Liberty Square parking structure. In its place, McKinley wants to build two new, two-story facilities with matching brick facades that will cross the alley and visually connect the building that now houses AT&T and Salsarita's Fresh Cantina with the Michigan Theater building. The buildings will house office space and a mix of a half-dozen soft-goods retailers and restaurant tenants. "This is going to tremendously revitalize the area,'' said McKinley's chief executive officer, Albert Berriz. Berriz and McKinley's Frances Todoro-Hargreaves presented the plan to the Ann Arbor Planning Commission on Tuesday evening as part of a request to rezone the bank building at 505 E. Liberty St. and its sister Liberty Square property at 500 E. Washington St. as a planned unit development district, and approve its site plan for the new building where the bank was. McKinley owns both buildings. The commission tabled its decision on the rezoning and site plan, due to a legal question relating to the parking structure and aesthetic issues. The request will be rescheduled for action again, likely in two weeks. Todoro-Hargreaves said the company will begin demolition of the bank building and construction of a new, 25,500-square-foot retail and office building in its place immediately, if final approvals are received. That building will be built with a "super structure'' base, Berriz said, that will allow floors to be added on top of the building in the future. Peter Dale, who owns Encore Recordings, said he has not heard anything from his landlord about plans to sell the building. But if a sale happens, Dale hopes McKinley will buy him out of his lease and help pay moving expenses. His space has been home to a record store since the 1960s. The Towne Centre concept was born two years ago when McKinley bought the building at 401 E. Liberty St., the former home of TCF Bank's Michigan headquarters. The bank moved its offices to Livonia last year. McKinley has since renovated the structure and its facade, added an entrance off South Division Street and built the building that now houses Salsarita's, which used to be a parking lot. "This was a huge chunk of space that no one wanted to walk by,'' said Berriz. Google Inc., the Bodman law firm and Ann Arbor Spark are located in the Towne Centre today, along with a TCF Bank branch, Bar Louie, Salsarita's and AT&T. Berriz estimates McKinley's total investment in the Towne Centre at more than $100 million. Also in the vicinity of the Towne Centre is the planned Ann Arbor Hotel and 4 Eleven Lofts. The hotel, on the southwest corner of Division and Washington streets, was previously the site for Metro 202, which McKinley planned to develop as apartments. The hotel is going through the site plan approval process with the city. The 4 Eleven Lofts development is a Joseph Freed and Associates apartment project that was previously know as Citi Centre Lofts and Washington Terrace. Contact Stefanie Murray at smurray@annarbornews.com or 734-994-6932. Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by The Ann Arbor News. McKinley, a real estate investment firm headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is pleased to announce the successful disposition on behalf of our client Capmark, Inc. of Piqua Plaza a 138,742 shopping center in Piqua, Ohio. McKinley took over management of Piqua Plaza in May of 2006 and provided property management expertise including property upkeep, lease renewals and collection of delinquent rent on behalf of our long standing client. This disposition is a recent example of how McKinley aggressively solves real estate problems for our clients. From takeover to disposition, we enjoy exceeding expectations on a regular basis. McKinley, founded in 1968, is a well respected national real estate investment firm that owns and operates $1.7 billion in assets in 103 properties for its own account and for select clientele. This includes 17,223 apartments and 5 million square feet of commercial space located in 9 states. Albert M. Berriz serves as Chief Executive Officer for McKinley, headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. McKinley employs 717 full-time employees nationwide.

2019-04-21T04:59:18Z

https://www.mckinley.com/news?author=3&page=74

Neil McKellar-Stewart considers some of the more specific benefits that treatment can offer ... starting here with the central nervous system (CNS) and your brain. We know that HIV has a profound effect on our immune system and on the T-helper cells which defend us against infections. But HIV also infects the CNS, and although it doesn’t infect nerves cells (neurons), they can be injured by HIV viral proteins and by neurotoxins that are produced over the long term. Up to 50% of people with HIV who are on treatment may be living with CNS abnormalities. Most of these are mild and include things like peripheral neuropathy, myopathy (limb muscle weakness, myalgia and muscle cramps) and changes in brain structure and functioning (1,2,3,4,5). For most of us, HIV gets into the CNS quite early on — often within a week of being infected. Over time, it can cause an immune response, inflammation and the production of chemicals (cytokines and chemokines). All this may result in damage to a range of cells, particularly in the brain. For people who are on treatment, HIV seems to affect those parts of the brain related to cognitive ability — including memory, learning, attention and how fast we process things — losses similar to those we experience in older age. So, this intersection between ageing, HIV in the CNS, inflammation and activation of the immune system, can make it difficult to untangle the relative contribution of each. HIV treatment reduces some of these damaging processes, but it does not stop them altogether. The CNS is a reservoir in which HIV-infected cells can become active and contribute to the HIV that is circulating in the bloodstream. The extent to which antiretroviral (ARV) drugs penetrate the blood-brain barrier (BBB) depends on individual factors, the integrity of the barrier itself and also the characteristics of different HIV drugs and drug-classes (something we will discuss later). Neurocognitive impairment (NCI) is caused by many things, including the ageing process and a range of other health conditions such as HIV, CNS trauma, diabetes, viral infections, cardiovascular disease and psychiatric illness. Lifestyle factors such as a bad diet, drug use, smoking and lack of exercise also play a part, as do environmental contaminants (6). HIV-associated Asymptomatic Neurocognitive Impairment (ANI), while picked up by NP measures, does not interfere with everyday functioning. The person and their immediate significant others cannot identify any symptoms of impairment. HIV-associated Mild Neurocognitive Disorder (MND) does affect performance and the person reports that they have lost some mental sharpness. They may be less effective at work, at home or socially and significant others may also have noticed these changes. HIV-Associated Dementia (HAD) is the severest form of HAND and usually affects a number of areas including learning new information, processing ideas, and being able to concentrate. HAD interferes with day-to-day functioning, including work, home life and social activities. Fortunately, the vast majority of PLHIV will never experience any symptoms of neurocognitive impairment. However, if measured by a battery of exhaustive tests, a significant proportion may well be diagnosed with ANI and not even know they had it. Much fewer PLHIV will have MND. Whether or not you develop an asymptomatic or a mild NCI is strongly associated with your lowest-ever CD4 count (nadir) and with older age. It is also about the level of viral load in your cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), how much inflammation there is and how much your immune system has been activated; plus the health of your cardiovascular (blood) circulation. Does treatment reduce the risk of HAND? Those of you who’ve been around will know the toll that HIV can exact on people’s neurological health. Early on in the epidemic, about one in seven people with AIDS-developed AIDS dementia; a diagnosis that usually progressed to severe disability and death within a year (7,8). Fortunately, with the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART ), the incidence has reduced to almost zero. In 2002, just six years after the introduction of HAART ,they estimated that cases of AIDS dementia had gone down by 60% and toxoplasmosis by 72%. Combination treatment certainly had a profound impact on these CNS manifestations (9). A recent review (10) of 15 studies of neurocognitive change in people after starting treatment found that in 11 of them, neurocognitive performance improved after an average of six months on HAART . This is heartening news despite the fact that most of these studies had only a small number of participants. A ‘then and now’ comparison published in December 2010 compared 857 PLHIV from the pre-HAART era (1988-95) with 937 from 2000-2007. They found mild impairment occurred in both groups at all stages of HIV disease, even in those on effective treatment. Importantly, the single predictor appears to be low nadir CD4. Sixty percent of those receiving HAART and with neurocognitive impairment had a nadir CD4 count of less than 200. Clearly, allowing the immune system to be severely compromised increases the risk. Neurocognitive response to HAART varies across individuals, as was shown in a recent analysis of 1,160 PLHIV involved in 14 different clinical trials (11). Investigators found that 39% of participants had some (commonly mild) impairment at the start of treatment, and that nearly half of these showed improvements after 48 weeks on treatment. However, they found that by this endpoint, 21% had also developed a new NCI. So, overall, the rate was only slightly reduced by starting treatment. Again, any history of immunosuppression was associated with higher rates of NCI. Those with a CD4 nadir of less than 200 were 1.73 times more likely to have sustained impairment compared to those with nadirs above 350. In fact, every 50 cell decrease in someone’s lowest ever CD4 count was associated with an 8% increased likelihood of ongoing NCI. Of 94 PLHIV with NCI in a recent Italian study (12), impairment persisted for nearly two-thirds of them, even after five years of treatment. A recent analysis of the CHARTER Group data (13) concluded that the risk of NCI was lowest in PLHIV who never allowed their CD4 count to fall to low levels. Data from a Swiss cohort of 100 PLHIV on effective treatment found that 28% of them had mild neurocognitive disorders while a further 42% had asymptomatic neurocognitive impairment and experienced no problems with everyday functioning (14). All these studies point to a strong association between low nadir CD4 count and an increased risk of ongoing neurocognitive impairment even when on treatment. So, does HIV treatment reduce the risk of neurocognitive impairment? Yes, but treatment is not absolutely protective. There are many other factors which come together to increase the risk. Treating HIV effectively stops replication in the bloodstream (i.e. undetectable viral load ), and reduces inflammation and immune activation. But to prevent HIV replication in the brain, HIV drugs must cross the blood-brain barrier and be present in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) at levels sufficient to effectively inhibit HIV. Viral levels are not routinely measured in the CSF. A lumbar puncture is not the most pleasant procedure to undergo or without risk; and so it is only done when there is a good clinical reason. Studies suggest that not all antiretrovirals function in the brain at sufficient levels . In 2008, a score to measure the CNS penetration-effectiveness (CPE) of HIV treatments was published. The text box (below) shows the scores for those treatments commonly used in Australia (older drugs are not included and newer drugs have yet to be scored). The total score for a HAART combination can be calculated by adding the scores of the individual drugs. . A score greater than seven or the use of protease inhibitors are about equal in predicting whether someone may have an undetectable viral load in their cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Put simply, the more effective the drug combination is in penetrating into the CSF, the more chance of HIV being suppressed in the brain. The evidence demonstrating the benefit of having a treatment regime with a higher CPE score is mixed. A recent longitudinal study of PLHIV with some cognitive impairment showed that by starting them on a treatment regime with higher CPE score for 48 weeks, their cognition gradually improved and peaked at approximately 24–36 weeks (15). The two factors which predicted cognitive improvements were undetectable VL in blood and a higher CPE score. Another study of PLHIV switching or initiating treatment reported that CPE scores correlated with greater improvement in concentration, speed of mental processing and mental flexibility after 20 and 39 months. Higher CPE scores were also associated with an improvement in global NP scores after 39 months . Other studies have failed to confirm these findings. Recent UK data suggests that for those on long-term HAART with no symptoms, the rates of impairment are low ( less than 20%). Where impairment was found it was associated with lower nadir and older age but not CPE score or ARV drug class (16). So, CPE score may have some validity as a tool to guide treatment but more convincing evidence is needed, especially for those who commence treatment early. Over time, there are many variables associated with having a detectable CSF viral load (17). In the CHARTER Study, 413 PLHIV had their blood and CSF samples tested for detectable HIV and of those whose plasma viral load was consistently undetectable, only 6% had any measureable viral load in their cerebrospinal fluid. This is good news, especially as many people in this cohort had very low nadir CD4 counts and a high prevalence of NCI . It would seem that having an undetectable blood plasma VL is by far the most influential factor for indicating suppression of HIV in the CSF. This suggests that having undetectable HIV in your bloodstream usually protects you from having detectable HIV in your CSF. HIV treatment is beneficial. It drives down viral load both in the blood and in the CSF. Having HIV does put you at risk of declining cognitive function. But that risk is greatest when HIV has gone unsuppressed for many years and CD4 counts have fallen below 200. Plus there are other compounding factors including recreational drug use, co-infection with other viruses and, perhaps most significantly, just getting older. Start treatment when your CD4 counts are relatively high — possibly over 500 and certainly when they fall below 500. Adhere to your HIV treatment regimen exactly. Ensure that you maintain an undetectable viral load .If it does becomes detectable across more than one visit, you and your doctor should talk about switching to a more potent combo. Maintain the best possible cardiovascular health by ensuring that your blood pressure, lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides) and blood sugar are monitored and maintained in healthy ranges and that you follow any treatments your doctor recommends. The basics: quit smoking; limit your alcohol and other drug use; have a diet high in poly-unsaturated fatty acids (omega-3s); reduce your risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease; get adequate rest, physical and mental exercise; and promptly address issues of depression. If you, or those with whom you share your life, have concerns that your cognitive sharpness has dulled (e.g. a lot of the time: not remembering familiar things, forgetting why you started an action, losing your train of thought in a conversation, making mistakes in everyday tasks) then talk to your doctor. Study data suggests that if a problem is suspected by the person with HIV or their close acquaintances then there may well be some underlying issue. It may be that some further investigation is suggested. If you have been diagnosed with asymptomatic or mild impairment through neuropsychological testing, your doctor will suggest regularly monitoring. To reduce the likelihood of having further declines it is important that you stick to an optimum treatment regimen and maintain an undetectable viral load .Recent research suggests that declines only occur in a small percentage of people (less than 25%) and this is usually associated with severe comorbidities (such as hepatitis C or major depression), lifelong methamphetamine use and ceasing treatment (18). Finally, take a deep breath and relax: you aren’t going to go ‘mad’. If you follow the suggestions above and ensure that you and your doctor are regularly monitoring your health, the risk of serious descent into significant neurocognitive decline is very low. 1.Gannon P, Khan MZ, Kolson DL. Current understanding of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders pathogenesis. Curr Opin Neurol. 2011 Jun; 24(3): 275-83. 2.Karris MAY, Smith DM. Tissue-specific HIV-1 infection: why it matters. Future Virology. 2011; 6(7): 869-82. 3.Simioni S, Cavassini M, Annoni JM, Hirschel B, Du Pasquier RA. HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders: a changing pattern. Future Neurology. 2011; 6(1): 81-95. 4.Tan IL, McArthur JC. HIV-associated neurological disorders: a guide to pharmacotherapy. CNS Drugs. 2012 Feb 1; 26(2): 123-34. 5.Valcour V, Sithinamsuwan P, Letendre S, Ances B. Pathogenesis of HIV in the central nervous system. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep. 2011 Mar; 8(1): 54-61. 6.Valcour VG. HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders [Presentation 3], 2011; 19th Annual Advanced CME Program on HIV pathogenesis, antiretrovirals , and other selected issues in HIV disease management, May 4, Washington DC. 7.Heaton RK, Franklin DR, Ellis RJ, McCutchan JA, Letendre SL, Leblanc S, et al. HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders before and during the era of combination antiretroviral therapy: differences in rates, nature, and predictors. J Neurovirol. 2011 Feb; 17(1): 3-16. 8.Sacktor N, McDermott MP, Marder K, Schifitto G, Selnes OA, McArthur JC, et al. HIV-associated cognitive impairment before and after the advent of combination therapy. J Neurovirol. 2002 Apr; 8(2): 136-42. 9.Sacktor N. The epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus -associated neurological disease in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy. J Neurovirol. 2002 Dec; 8 Suppl 2: 115-21. 10.Joska JA, Gouse H, Paul RH, Stein DJ, Flisher AJ. Does highly active antiretroviral therapy improve neurocognitive function? A systematic review. J Neurovirol. 2010 Mar; 16(2): 101-14. 11.Robertson KR, Smurzynski M, Parsons TD, Wu K, Bosch RJ, Wu J, et al. The prevalence and incidence of neurocognitive impairment in the HAART era. AIDS. 2007 Sep 12; 21(14): 1915-21. 12.Tozzi V, Balestra P, Salvatori MF, Vlassi C, Liuzzi G, Giancola ML, et al. Changes in cognition during antiretroviral therapy: comparison of 2 different ranking systems to measure antiretroviral drug efficacy on HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2009 Sep 1; 52(1): 56-63. 13.Ellis RJ, Badiee J, Vaida F, Letendre S, Heaton RK, Clifford D, et al. CD4 nadir is a predictor of HIV neurocognitive impairment in the era of combination antiretroviral therapy. AIDS. 2011 Sep 10; 25(14): 1747-51. 14.Simioni S, Cavassini M, Annoni JM, Rimbault Abraham A, Bourquin I, Schiffer V, et al. Cognitive dysfunction in HIV patients despite long-standing suppression of viremia. AIDS. 2010 Jun 1; 24(9): 1243-50. 15.Cysique LA, Vaida F, Letendre S, Gibson S, Cherner M, Woods SP, et al. Dynamics of cognitive change in impaired HIV-positive patients initiating antiretroviral therapy. Neurology. 2009 Aug 4; 73(5): 342-8. 16.Garvey L, Surendrakumar V, Winston A. Low rates of neurocognitive impairment are observed in neuro-asymptomatic HIV-infected subjects on effective antiretroviral therapy. HIV Clin Trials. 2011 Nov-Dec; 12(6): 333-8. 17.Letendre S, CHARTER Group. Longitudinal correlates of HIV RNA levels in 2207 cerebrospinal fluid specimens [Abstract #473]. San Francisco, 2012; 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. Available from:www.retroconference.org/2012b/Abstracts/4538.htm.

2019-04-23T14:56:42Z

http://napwha.org.au/health-treatment/other-health-conditions/brain-health/treatment-good-your-brain

Brief outline: Kiran has been caring for his wife for seven years. She has a lot of health issues and it took over 20 years to find out that depression was an important part of her problems. Background: Kiran used to work as a machine operator and Foreman but retired to care for his wife. They have three grown up children. He became a carer at age 48. Ethnic background: Indian. Benefits affect carer allowance which makes it hard for carers (recording in Gujarati). Spending more time at home means Kiran can care better for his wife (recording in Gujarati). Kiran says things are easier now the children are grown up and he has learnt to live with his wife's condition (recording in Gujarati). Kiran's daughter came home regularly while at university to help care for his wife (recording in Gujarati). There is government support in this country, but you have to get out and ask for it (recording in Gujarati). He thinks fewer changes of doctors, longer consultations and clearer packaging of medicine would help carers and service users (recording in Gujarati). When the children were young, Kiran worried about them and about money (recording in Gujarati). Their neighbour is great company for his wife and has been there for them when crisis hit (recording in Gujarati). Kiran help his wife to take part in activities (recording in Gujarati). Kiran's social life and his relationship to his wife has changed after she got depression (recording in Gujarati). Kiran did not know about depression and didn't know where to look for help other than medicine (recording in Gujarati). He tries to avoid arguments by talking to his wife in a calm, gentle way (recording in Gujarati). Non-technical language and information in writing can make it easier to understand (recording in Gujarati). Kiran used to work as a machine operator and Foreman but retired to care for his wife. They have three grown up children. He became a carer at age 48. Ethnic background: Indian. When the benefit rates are increased, when the Carers allowance increases if you are getting income support then it gets deducted. So you get what you get, you do not get an increase. The costs carrying on are increasing, so if a Carer works then they will not get any financial benefits. If you think that Carers get '48 carers allowance and then increase it by '2 per month to bring it up to '50 then they cut that '2 from other benefits you get. So we do not benefit in any way. So we do not benefit financially. To look after the cared for person, there are expenses. To take them out there are expenses aren't there? With some of them like my Mrs, if you leave her in the house she is got to get depressed. I have to take her out. If someone had taken care of her, then I would not have known what was going on in my own home but because I am at home, with her for 24 hours a lot more, we get to know a lot more about things. In this experience, through your life, have you lost or gained opportunities? I have not lost opportunities it is the way it is. Some people who have the responsibility for caring say we gained opportunities in different ways to others, how do you feel? Do you see it as an opportunity or loss? Not an opportunity lost but a gain. Because I have come to know a lot more about the workings of my own home (sansar) since I am at home. Before I was at work for eight hours and at weekends going out, did not know what was going on at home. If we live at home continuously so I have had the opportunity how to live with your wife, how to take care of her, what to do, so now I have come to know. If someone like carers were taking care of her, and I would have worked, then she would not have improved. So what was it like at first, in terms of your life story? Simple, steady. There were difficulties but in everyone lives these come, that happens. It was nothing to worry about. When Mrs illness became worse and came out. If it was a medical illness then people can talk about it, but here it is mixed with medical so the difficulties got worse. But then as things happened, solutions then came, children were small and now they are bigger so the responsibilities started to lessen so now when I look back. I feel I am happier than before. Happier in the sense that I do not have to worry about money just to look after my Mrs' health. I now know what her mood is and what she will do and if she does not have money with her she will become unhappy. If we give her money then she becomes happy. It does not matter if she spends it. I will give you my own example, when my daughter was at university. When my Mrs health was bad, my daughter went to college/university in Wolverhampton. She had to come back home at the weekends because my wife's health was so bad, sometimes in the evenings she had to come back from college. This was because she was the only woman and as a daughter she could understand her mother. So for her it was stressful with her education and she got behind. That was when support was needed but there was no support at that time here. For the family, for the children. My daughter was older, but if the children are in secondary and primary school, it is very stressful for them. I was at work, my children were at school and had to come home and have to do things. What other ways did they have difficulties, your family? In terms of difficulties; eating and drinking, because when they come from school they needed to eat. When my Mrs health was bad, there would be no food made. Her mind was such that she could not do any work only sleep. So when the children came home, their clothes were not organised to go to school. Because of depression from the beginning we had to do things from an early stage. So there were a lot of problems when they were small. As the children got older, slowly we got to know and things fell into place. But in the beginning there were a lot of problems. If you look back and think back about caring what would you say to someone? In this country you get a lot of government support there is no need to suffer about what to do or what will happen. For resources, if we sit at home, nobody is going to come and help you. We have to get out and ask someone, but our people are shy (reluctant) to discuss things openly what is happening in our homes. But it's necessary because only when we talk to someone will we get help without that we will not find a solution. In that there is one big problem. In NHS the doctors, the psychiatric doctor, every few months they keep changing. They are on this training course or that one. They keep changing. So far, my Mrs has had a change of three to four psychiatrists. The last appointment the psychiatrist I am going someone new will be coming. So if a new one comes, he will work in a new way, so it keeps changing a lot. If it stayed with consultant psychiatrist then it would be better. The changing of psychiatrists and the appointment that they give is time limited. If they spent a lot more time only then can they understand about their mental health and about their mind. They give just 10-15 minutes appointment how are they going to know anything? So you want more time? Want more time and the same consultant all the time would be good. The other thing is the medicine that they give, the capsules. In some things, my Mrs has metformin, a diabetes medicine, it comes in a packet and a bottle. If it comes in a packet she will say that this medicine is different. So if the same packaging every time- what has happened is that in their mind is that the medicine has changed. Often her capsules that come, the colour is different so she will say they have given the wrong medicine. So the if the same package came continuously, that would be good too. Let me see, what I can tell you is from what I have done. I have one older son. He went to London to study and when they were younger children and went to school, my wife was in hospital and I would come from work and go to school to pick up the children. Sometimes, I would be too late, my boy would cry, then I would be unhappy thinking what is going to happen to the children, what are we going to do? Wife's health was not too good. Financially, I was not strong so I could stop my work right away. I did not know about whether I would get benefits or not. Inside, I would be upset and unhappy (confused) how are we going to do things? Like pay the mortgage. My wife's health was getting worse. At that time what did you feel? At that time, I did not think too deeply otherwise, thinking about the house, thinking (worried) about money. At the time I had bought a house, about two years. There was lot of confusion did not know what to do- no solutions, what can I say, felt stressed. The children are older now and the wife's illness has been long now so I know what to do and what not to do, so things are falling into place now slowly. What about your friends or family or anyone else? No. My wife's friend is Chinese she lives next door to us. She is elderly. We got a lot of support from her. She used to come our home everyday, and sit and talk with us. My Mrs is a people's person and she like people a lot. If anyone comes to our home she is happy. She forgets to argue and forgets her illness and she gets entertained by people. She loves to feed and give refreshments to people. She [the neighbour] used to come home everyday and sit with her. My Mrs has a habit of drinking a lot of tea, in a day she will drink at least 20-30 cups of tea. When the Chinese woman came she got my Mrs to stop drinking tea. She got her to drink hot water. Once before, when before I stopped working, the Chinese woman came when my Mrs had fallen. She got her spare key and she got the neighbours together and opened the door and she pressed the panic button. When you got her support, how did you feel? In my heart I felt there is someone nearby and felt if something happened there is nothing to worry about or if I wanted to go out then I will get support. If I tell her that I am going out, she will phone or will come into the home, sit with her or take her out for a walk for a bit. So did you get some relief from that? Yes, some relief, that someone is nearby, that not alone. We come to the community centre here and near us there is a group for ladies only near our home, she goes twice a week, and it's for ladies only. I do go with her but drop her off in the morning at 11-30 am and pick her up at 1pm every Tuesday. They do light exercise with them. She goes on Friday at 12 noon and finishes and 3pm. Once I have dropped her off I have to sit in the house, cannot go out because if her health gets back, they phone and I have to go back and pick her up. If she goes far from me, then I cannot go far. She goes to cancer research every Tuesday after 1 pm. At this place they said because it's a ladies group, I sit in the car or walk around nearby. After one to one and half hours I go and pick her up. Do you feel you know why you have had a difficult experience? I do not have a life, no social life of my own. I bring her to the centre at the moment. I cannot leave her at a daycentre on her own because they will not accept her. I can only leave her at home if there is someone with her. I do not have a social life, it's a 24 hour job. I have come now but my son is at home and will go to work at 1.30 pm then its alright, but if he had gone to work then I would have had to bring her with me. No, I cannot see anything good for me at all but I cannot say it in front of her. I know it inside. My children know it that dad does not have a life. My children last week, took me to see Liverpool play a match. I had to keep my Mrs at my brother's for one night. They say to me daddy get out, have a holiday, go and do this and that they say, but I do not feel like doing anything. If I go and if something happens to her, then I will have to do the running around. Its better then to keep things as they are instead of having to run around if I keep her at someone's else house. If something happens to her health it will be me doing the running around. So from inside I do not feel like going. In that I had never really sat at home, as a man. And sitting at home, not able to do much in the house. Watching T.V and sitting all day at home talking-the quarrels started to increase between two people. She was in depression and I did not know the reason that she was the way she is because of depression. I used to feel she is not working in the home and she wants (needs) to go out. And having left work, it takes time to settle things financially and so we rowed much during this time. We did not get any help from anywhere at the time. Where did you hope to get help from? We did not know, we did not have hope that we will get help not heard anything about depression. Not heard anything about depression or epileptic not heard anything. No help and we had not heard about this at all. All we did was go to the doctor and doctor writes us prescription and we come back home and back again. That's all. So after these specialists came and we were sent to them and brain scans were done. They told us that these epileptic fits are happening due to depression. Then they sent us to a psychologist and then we got to know a lot more. Five years later we got to know that this is due to depression. Regarding the caring that you provide can you describe a typical day to me? What is a typical day like for you? My typical day if we sit the two of us at home, then both of us will argue about something or another. There is nothing worth arguing about, it's nothing in it. It's usually about eating. She has diabetes but will not like to eat. Instead of getting up at 6 am, today she got up at 5.30 in the morning and she kept working and at 9 am she had an appointment for her diabetes. She did not worry about the time but starting arguing. To get my Mrs out of the house there are arguments and to get her back into the house there are arguments. If someone came and sat in the house then she does not worry. So how do you have to help? I have to keep reminding and nag her. If I keep doing the nagging then she gets depressed, she starts crying and her mind does not work. I have to say gently that, 'I am not telling you off but I am telling you about the time'. I tell her, 'Look at the time. We can come back and do the housework when we get back. I do not want you doing the work. We can do the housework when we get back'. When I say that she says no you do not need to do the work I have to do the work. If we do not go out of the house then its sayonara [everything is ok]. In that when we go to the doctor, we talk to the doctor. The doctor should listen to what we say, if the doctor explains to her and to us, then its feels good. If the doctor tells her something but does not listen us then it does feel not right. If we go to the consultant at the hospital, then the doctor talks to her and if we explain to her, and so we understand a lot about some things. But if they talk on medical grounds then we don't understand. If they explained to you would that be better for you? Then it would be good, good. What it is about whatever, interview dates or appointment. If you can talk to that person, if they give us a letter and we can show that letter then it is better. If it's not in writing and we there will be some words we don't understand. So we get confused at those times. If you had the chance or the opportunity to change things to improve them, how would you do it? Can you explain to me again? I would like it, I do not want an interpreter, but the conversation that takes place there, if it was in writing and you can get it, then we can keep it and talk to somebody about it. If someone, asks me, that you went today, diabetes nurse's appointment. She talked to me face to face. It wasn't such a big point that we didn't understand. My Mrs right now has a bladder weakness and she cannot control urine. She wets herself. So they are going to put a pelvis ring inside. Somebody asked me, what is it? So I said they are going put a ring but we do not understand the word pelvis. If they send us a letter on the doctor's report, and if they give to us, then we can keep it on our records and try and understand a bit. Kiran is 55 and lives in the Midlands. He cares full time for his wife Hema who has depression as well as epilepsy, diabetes and angina. Over the last few years she has also had cancer and a stroke. Kiran and Hema married in the early 1970 and had three children. Hema's health was not good, she had occasional fits and bad headaches. It took over 20 years before they learnt that depression was part of the problem. During all those years, Kiran struggled to help his wife and his children on top of his full time job as a Foreman. In the early 1990 Hema had a serious fit and was hospitalised. The doctors took a series of tests, including MMRI scan of the brain, but they didn't find out what was wrong. Kiran says the situation led to stress for the whole family, which may have impacted on the children's education. His daughter provided great support and helped out with household tasks. They didn't get much help from others. Financially things became really difficult too and he hadn't know whether they would be entitled to benefits. As the children grew up and became independent, things became a little easier. However, three years ago, Kiran was told his wife would need 24 hour care, and he stopped working to be able to look after her. He found the change difficult. With the two of them at home all day he says it is easy to begin arguing and although he does his best to avoid it, they do have some clashes, in particular when he needs to keep reminding her of doctor's or hospital appointments. He always accompanies her to these appointments. He feels that he is listened to by the psychiatrist, but less so by the other doctors. He is concerned, however, that his wife can be confused so he feels he needs to be there. Kiran says it is essential that doctors allow more time so they can fully take on board what patients and carers are saying. 15 minute appointments every three months, often with someone they have not met before, is not really good enough. Kiran doesn't really know what caused his wife's depression. She did have some very difficult experiences early in life, but she doesn't talk about them, and the consultant hasn't found any particular cause. Kiran helps Hema with other health issues too. She has developed a bladder problem and her pelvis is weak. When she wakes up during the night she can't get up and she needs help to be cleaned and showered when she gets soiled. Both epilepsy and depression are illnesses that people don't know how to deal with. They stay away, Kiran says, and this feels hurtful. Still, he tries to take his wife to social activities. Due to her health, he needs to be available should she need him, so even when she is at a woman's group or support centre he either waits by the phone or outside in the car. Even if religion is not really something Kiran seeks as a source of support, he takes his wife to Bhajans (event where holy songs are sung) as she is more religious. The 24 hour caring responsibilities means Kiran doesn't have a social life of his own. The caring role leads to a lot of tension, and, he says, this tension will probably be with him a long as he is a carer. He says as a Hindu he has a responsibility to look after his wife. He has to forget about the external world, not expect any help but to focus on the family and how the home is functioning. Had it not been for the support of his children, he says, he doesn't know how he would have coped. He thinks the Government does provide some help, but says you need to go and get it yourself, nobody will do that for you.

2019-04-19T20:37:49Z

http://healthtalk.org/peoples-experiences/mental-health/mental-health-ethnic-minority-carers-experiences/kiran-interview-26

Like all other advertisers, osteopaths have to comply with the ASA's CAP Code and the ASA/CAP publish specific guidance to help them — in addition to the more general guidance on National Council for Osteopathic Research and their substantiation. However, it seems that some osteopaths thought the CAP Code and guidance required some clarification. Today, the ASA have published even more detailed guidance for those advertising osteopathy services. This new document provides that clarity and further restricts the claims they can make about the use of osteopathy with pregnant women, children and babies, particularly non-musculoskeletal conditions such as colic and problems allegedly caused by 'birth trauma'. A cursory glance at osteopaths' websites will find many such claims. See, for example, the results returned by this simple search for colic: osteopathy clinic site:.uk colic. This is a widespread problem. The Osteopathic Practice Standards place a duty on all osteopaths to ensure their advertising complies with the CAP Code (Standard D14). Failing to comply with the Code and associated guidance or rulings could result in GOsC fitness to practise proceedings. The GOsC and the osteopaths' trade body, the Institute of Osteopathy (IO) will be following this up with further communications and articles in various magazines and the GOsC will also be contacting the various osteopathy training organisations to make sure students are fully aware of their responsibilities. We hope that many students will ask questions of their tutors about why they are being taught something they are not allowed to advertise because of the lack of good evidence. Perhaps the GOsC should be asking themselves the same questions and revist their educational requirements. There is a lot of work to be done by osteopaths. An osteopathic check-up following the birth can help pin-point potential problems and helps to ease the dramatic transition from life inside the womb to the outside world. This initial adjustment involves many bodily systems such as breathing and digestion. Stresses and strains from the labour or pregnancy can lead to unsettled behaviour and difficulties with feeding, winding, bowel movements and sleeping. Relieving any physical strains with gentle osteopathic treatment can be very helpful and relaxing. The care of the entire family unit is of the utmost concern for an osteopath. This is a time when children learn to crawl, walk, run and communicate and are keen to explore their environment and to interact socially. It is desirable to monitor the progress of these early developmental milestones and to address the effects of any major physical mishaps or developmental lag to prevent problems developing in future. In the birthing process babies are subjected to enormous forces during their passage through the birth canal. Small amounts of movement exist in the infant skull to permit the baby’s head to adapt to these forces of labour. However when birth is difficult, unduly slow or fast, or complicated by the need for forceps ventouse or cesarean section delivery, the infant head may not fully recover from this distortion. If the baby is unable to resolve the stressors and strains naturally through breathing and suckling, these pressures with in the skull may lead to problems settling, feeding difficulties, disturbed sleep patterns and recurrent infections. Osteopathic treatment using a variety of gentle non invasive techniques may help improve the function of the musculoskeletal system and aid in the reduction of these symptoms. During childhood, in addition to any earlier trauma or strains the body has to adapt with the growth and development of the bones and muscles. Postural changes and activity level changes with participation in sports can also produce aches and pains which may be eased with manual therapy. Restrictions in the musculoskeletal system can sometimes cause delay reaching developmental milestones for behaviour, speech and learning and may benefit from osteopathic assessment and treatment. What parent would not be distressed by such stark warnings and sign their new-born up for immediate (and life-long?) treatment? The Bronfort review was commissioned by the General Chiropractic Council (GCC) in 2009 after I submitted 523 complaints to the GCC about claims being made by chiropractors on their websites — the GCC needed the review because they didn't have a clue about the evidence for the claims their registrants had been making. It was little more than a quick literature review carried out by chiropractors in the US. Even though Bronfort et al. considered all manner of treatments including reflexology, massage and chiropractic manipulations and not just osteopathic techniques specifically, it did look at various paediatric conditions. In terms of the non-musculoskeletal conditions, Bronfort identified a number of systematic reviews and additional RCTs for these conditions. None was positive for any treatment. However, it only gave results for the treatment of manual therapies for musculoskeletal conditions for adults and is silent on pregnant women, children and babies, so it's quite a leap to extrapolate to those patient groups from adults. The National Council for Osteopathic Research (NCOR), funded by osteopaths and the GOsC, is currently undertaking a systematic review of manual therapies in the treatment of children and babies. It'll be interesting to see what they finally publish. Meanwhile, it seems that the ASA believe that osteopaths are trained to treat pregnant women, children and babies and that they should therefore be allowed to make claims about these patient groups, despite being no good evidence that osteopathy is effective for these conditions. This simply raises the question as to what they are being taught if there is no good evidence it is effective for those groups in the first place. The question of dose response is not addressed either nor the potential for harm — particularly the many claims that it is 'safe and gentle'. However, that only applies to musculoskeletal conditions: the new guidance prevents them from directly or indirectly referring to conditions such as colic, growing pains, excessive crying and those allegedly caused by 'birth trauma'. As we have shown above, these are frequent claims. …refer to conditions for which medical supervision should be sought if they hold convincing evidence of the efficacy of their treatments (Rules 12.1 and 12.2). The caveat of holding the necessary standard of evidence is important, but it is not clear to us why statutory regulation should confer any special privileges: whilst the Osteopaths Act 1993 does provide for a means of regulating some aspects, it's primarily a means of protecting the title 'osteopath', ensuring registrants are appropriately insured and that there's a code of conduct and a complaints procedure. Notably, the Act does not prescribe any scope of practice, nor proscribe any treatments. This leaves the public open to being misled. Claims made on osteopaths’ websites that serve the purpose of encouraging consumers to make a transactional decision (i.e. claims that directly or indirectly invite individuals to consider seeking osteopathic treatment for themselves or someone else must comply with the Advertising Code. As healthcare practitioners regulated by statute, osteopaths may offer advice on, diagnosis of and treatment for conditions for which medical supervision should be sought. Those claims should be limited, however, to those for which the ASA or CAP has seen evidence for the efficacy of osteopathy for the particular condition claimed, or for which the advertiser holds suitable substantiation (references to conditions which the ASA or CAP accept osteopathy can help with should be understood on this basis, the ASA acknowledges that new evidence may emerge).2 The ASA retains the right to ask to review evidence for the purposes of resolving complaints should it consider the need to do so. Osteopaths should therefore ensure that they have access to substantiation before making such claims, including implied claims to treat a particular condition. Where the efficacy of osteopathy for treating a particular condition has already been established, treatment claims that do not stray beyond the principles set out in the CAP Guidance will be considered compliant with the Code. Osteopaths may make claims to treat general as well as specific patient populations, including pregnant women, children and babies provided they are qualified to do so. Osteopaths may not claim to treat conditions or symptoms presented as specific to these groups (e.g. colic, growing pains, morning sickness) unless the ASA or CAP has seen evidence for the efficacy of osteopathy for the particular condition claimed, or for which the advertiser holds suitable substantiation. Osteopaths may refer to the provision of general health advice to specific patient populations, providing they do not make implied and unsubstantiated treatment claims for conditions. The principles don't say anything new, but the fourth one is important: osteopaths can claim to treat pregnant women, children and babies, but they can only do so in terms of the conditions listed above and it clearly states the conditions they should not claim to treat. The guidance also gives some examples of claims that are likely and unlikely to be acceptable. The ASA, quite rightly, steer clear of saying outright what is and isn't acceptable: every claim has to be analysed individually in its proper context. We hope that osteopaths will take note of these carefully and not try to take advantage of any perceived equivocation. It might take osteopaths a while to clean up their websites. It's entirely fanciful, of course, but many osteopaths seem to believe it is effective for many childhood conditions and is seen by some as the 'bait and switch' used by some osteopaths to get new customers from a very early age. But at least now they cannot claim that they can feel these movements nor that they can then manipulate the skull to alleviate anything. This guidance is a great step forward. Osteopaths now have absolute clarity about what they can and cannot claim for pregnant women, children and babies and we hope to see speedy changes to websites. We also welcome the actions taken by the General Osteopathic Council to ensure their registrants stop misleading the public and we hope they will follow through when they are made aware of non-compliant websites; we also hope they will be pro-active in this and not simply wait around for others to submit complaints. We now hope the ASA and the General Chiropractic Council will now do the same for chiropractors — it is long overdue and, arguably, a much larger problem. The list of allowed chiropractic claims will be shorter, of course, and the list of unacceptable claims longer. Much longer. The Society of Homeopaths seemed to be taking responsible action to curb the claims of their members. But what's been going on behind the scenes? Little more than a month ago, the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) issued new advertising guidance to all their members. It was far from perfect and, we believe, strays some distance from the guidance laid down by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA/CAP), but, being generous, at least it was a step in the right direction in curbing the worst excesses of its members' advertising claims. The ultimate sanction is referral by the ASA to the Trading Standards under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. Trading Standards is the legal backstop for the ASA. What this means is that where the threat or application of our sanctions have failed to achieve compliance, the matter may be formally referred to Trading Standards. Trading Standards will consider cases to determine if there are breaches of relevant legislation and take appropriate action in accordance with its own enforcement policy. These are serious consequences for any homeopath and it may look like the SoH has faced up to its responsibilities and taken the responsible course of action in trying to help its members comply with the CAP Code and consumer protection legislation. However, we now know that the SoH is not only supporting an anti-ASA campaign by some of its members, it is also seeking advice on the legality of the ASA's actions with a view to challenging them in the courts. Andy Lewis of The Quackometer has highlighted that the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) intend to fight the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over the advertising guidance they issued recently. They're not doing this by providing high quality scientific evidence that substantiate claims for homeopathy made by their members, of course, but by trying to find a legal basis to undermine the ASA's legitimacy as the UK's independent advertising regulator. …investigate allegations of illegal bias against homeopaths and homeopathy by the Advertising Standards Authority Ltd, in breach of Consumer Protection Regulations. The 6 RSHoms claim that the ASA has no legal basis for what it is doing and is acting unreasonably in targeting homeopaths. This admission that the 'legislative and national statutory guidance' are not written specifically to cover errant homeopaths but are laws and regulations that are designed to protect consumers from misleading practices by any and all traders is interesting. Their arguments against the ASA are well-worn and have been thoroughly refuted. They do try the old 'the ASA is only a limited company' meme and refer to them as the ASA Ltd: perhaps we should refer to the SoH by their own corporate title, The Society of Homeopaths Ltd? Anyway, in their guidance to their members, the SoH made several interesting statements with reference to the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) who legitimises them by placing them on their list of Accredited Registers. We submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the PSA for details of all information held by the PSA relating to the SoH's guidance. Sorry to chase you but I wanted to update you on a serious initiative by ASA/CAP. See attached letter [download here]. In short, with no notice or consultation at all, they want to impose guidelines on us, send them out inside a month and then chase all our members to make sure they have complied within a month! You will not be surprised to hear that we have refused to co-operate but we have said that, if they pause the process, we are more than happy to meet with them and see if we can work out a way forward that ensures our members are compliant to reasonable guidelines. We need to be working with them in the long run, rather than working against them. As far as I am aware, no other accredited register has been targeted. I am guessing they will be in time! The belligerent nature of their language puts into context the SoH's latest pronouncement about taking legal action against the ASA and the assumption of being singled out by the ASA for special treatment speaks volumes. No doubt such a line would play nicely to their vexed members. That the SoH refused to even cooperate with the ASA is extraordinary (even if they did recognise they will have to cooperate eventually) and we sincerely hope it raised more than a few eyebrows at the PSA. Standard 8 requires registers to set standards of business practice, including advertising (and to comply with the Advertising Standards Authority’s requirements). The Society must replace the section of its Code of Ethics and Practice relating to Advertising and Media which states ‘Examples of Codes the Society may also take account of are the relevant clauses of The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (CAP Code), and the current guidelines of the Society’ with ‘will take into account’. This action to be completed within three months. The PSA's views of the necessity of complying with the ASA's rules could not be clearer, but here we have am Accredited Register not only wanting special, more 'reasonable' — presumably less stringent — privileges but actively seeking to take legal action against them. But why this talk of 'no notice or consultation'? The ASA's remit was extended to cover traders' websites on 01 March 2011. The ASA issued clear guidance specifically for homeopaths in September 2011. The ASA's adjudication against the SoH themselves was published on 03 July 2013. There can surely be no excuse for the SoH not to be aware of their obligations under the CAP Code yet they and their members have already been given five years to comply. What have they not complied already? How much more time do they need? It does seem to us that the SoH were looking to the PSA for some protection from those baddies at the ASA. However, other than an informal discussion between them on 12 January, no more appears to have been said. Hopefully the PSA will have reminded the SoH at that meeting of their responsibilities under the Accredited Register scheme. But it seems the SoH were successful to some extent in delaying the ASA's action: their letter finally went out to homeopaths up and down the country in September this year and they were given a full five weeks in which to get their websites in order — five years eight months after the rules came into force for websites. When referring to testimonials, it is wise to encourage people to seek independent medical advice and stay in close contact with their mainstream healthcare professionals. This supports an open dialogue, choice and informed, integrated care. The below was agreed by the Preliminary Investigation Panel, the Professional Standards Authority have also seen this statement, and appear happy with its use. Declaring that the PSA 'appear happy' with their interpretation of the ASA's guidance on testimonials seemed rather odd and informal language to us: did the PSA fully agree with the statement or did they not? Did they even have a view on whether such a disclaimer would adequately protect them from the ASA? 1. What communication has there been with the SoH on this? The testimonials were discussed as part of last year’s reaccreditation process, in particular the annual review report, we sent all of the information except the information we consider exempt to you in November 2015. There have been no further discussions about the testimonials since this date. 2. What does the statement that you 'appear happy' with the use of these statements mean? It is our understanding that this relates to the statement in the published panel decision in 2015. The decision reflects the fact that the panel was made aware of the above but made no specific comment for or against it. 3. Can you confirm that you told the SoH that the use of these statements by their registrants in their advertising was acceptable to you? We have made no specific comment about this matter beyond what is said in the 2015 decision. This is because we consider this to be a matter for the ASA. The Society [of Homeopaths] also found guidelines relating to testimonials were restrictive and could prevent registrants from providing sufficient information for service users to make informed decisions. The Panel noted the Society has provided a disclaimer for registrants’ websites to make clear testimonials are not intended to make any false claims about homeopathy. It's not at all clear to us how the SoH interpreted that as saying that the PSA 'appear happy' with the SoH's disclaimer, but now that the PSA have made it clear they believe it to be a matter not for them but for the ASA, we sincerely hope the SoH will update their guidance to clarify the PSA's position on this and update their guidance to bring it in line with the ASA's. Please note: Any claims made within a testimonial are subject to the CAP Code. Therefore, if a testimonial makes an efficacy claim, the author’s permission should be sought to edit out the relevant parts. Although this is an important part in the ASA's guidance on testimonials and endorsements, it is but one part of it. Overall, the SoH could have saved themselves a lot of bother by simply referring their members directly to the ASA's own comprehensive and clearly written guidance rather than regurgitating it and interpreting it, changing it in the process, inadvertently or otherwise. As well as writing to thousands of homeopaths, we have been made aware that the ASA have also contacted at least one trade directory, informing them of the requirements to comply with the CAP Code. I can appreciate how you and other Homeopaths currently feel and I hope that this email will help your understanding as to why we have made these changes. Because this is now a legal requirement for advertising, as a marketing platform, we must abide by it. CAP were the ones that contacted us about the changes which is why we have actioned it. I can see that you have already complied [sic] a detailed document raising your concerns, but please also have a look here: http://www.homeopathy-soh.org/images/ASASept2016/ASA-Guidance-6.pdf [the SoH's advertising guidance] as this may prove helpful for you when addressing this with the ASA / CAP. I would recommend contacting CAP as they are the ones that have implemented these changes and are therefore the ones to speak with. Unfortunately, because we are a marketing platform and not therapists ourselves, as mentioned before we must adhere to these changes and won't be challenging this with either the ASA or CAP. Please do keep us updated, I believe that you will receive a great amount of support from other Homeopaths that are currently experiencing the same. It's good to see the ASA taking such a comprehensive approach to cleaning up this sector and Therapy Directory's responsible action to comply with the ASA's rules. We hope all homeopaths, their trade bodies and other trade directories follow this responsible lead. But to return to the SoH in particular: is there really a conflict between representing your members best interests and complying with the rules, regulations and laws they are supposed to? That depends on what you believe is in your members' best interests. The SoH seemed to have taken a responsible approach to persuade its members to comply, but the other face they now show wants to challenge the ASA in the courts. It'll be interesting to see how far they get, but it would be perverse if it was believed that continuing to defy the advertising regulator and face possible conviction under consumer protection regulations was in the best interests of any homeopath or of the SoH itself. The Society of Homeopaths Ltd are at a crossroads: they need to grapple with the choice they face and decide whether they will go down the path of challenging the ASA or finally face up to their responsibilities as a supposed professional regulator, overseen by the Professional Standards Authority. This will also be a challenge for the PSA: how they deal with a wayward SoH will be a test of their willingness and ability to properly oversee their Accredited Registers and properly protect the public. In March 2011, our very first campaign was against the misleading advertising claims made by homeopaths on their websites. That was six years ago, and we gave the Advertising Standards Authority a huge headache: how to persuade homeopaths to abide by the same rules all advertisers have to abide by. Without those advertising rules (in the form of the CAP Code), advertisers would have free rein to make whatever claims they wanted; it would be a wild-west for all sorts of cowboys and quacks and one where the poor consumer would suffer. Homeopaths have featured in the ASA's list of adjudications and informally resolved cases over the years, but the ASA have recently preferred to let their Compliance Team deal with homeopathy advertisers because they had already extensively reviewed the evidence — notably through complaints about the Society of Homeopaths and homeopath Steve Scrutton, Media & Communications person at the Alliance of Registered Homeopaths — and had an established position on it. Read more about these adjudications in: Landmark decisions for homeopaths. A few advertisers have been somewhat recalcitrant, believing they could face down the ASA. Some even seemed to think the ASA could be ignored, but many have found that is not a sensible course of action and one that's not good for their business. However, many advertisers of complementary and alternative therapies appear in the ASA's list of Non-compliant online advertisers and others have been referred to Trading Standards (TS). Trading Standards have now successfully prosecuted 'Electronic Healing' (a provider of complementary and alternative therapies and devices) who had been referred to them by the ASA. TS have also had numerous websites taken down: they cannot be ignored. We have no doubt that many homeopaths were just not aware of the advertising rules or the need to abide by them. Many will now comply because they understand the need for rules to protect consumers and are responsible traders who want to stay on the right side of the law. But not all. Today, the ASA announced that they have written to homeopaths across the UK to remind them of the rules that govern what they can and can’t say in their marketing materials, including on their websites. This included their previous Guidance for Advertisers of Homeopathic Services and FAQs about advertising regulation and the sanctions the ASA can impose. It also builds on the advertising guidance published by the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) a few days ago, which had been reviewed by the ASA. You may remember that the SoH themselves fell foul of the ASA three years ago and an adjudication against numerous claims they made on Twitter and on their website found they had breached the CAP Code on multiple counts. Read more about the adjudication in: Landmark decisions for homeopaths. While we generally welcome the guidance from the SoH, we believe this guidance is incorrect and misleading in places and goes beyond what we believe the CAP Code allows, but at least it's a step in the right direction. Whether they ensure their members now comply with the CAP Code remains to be seen. With the ASA's letter to thousands of homeopaths, their published guidance on compliance and the SoH's letter to their members, there really is now no excuse whatsoever for homeopaths to continue to make misleading claims. After the expiration of this period, we will carry out extensive monitoring spot checks. Homeopathy practices that have failed to comply will be contacted again. After this time, we will consider the application of appropriate sanctions. This is the culmination of six years of campaigning for us — our initial campaign and the occasional prodding of the ASA and submitting the odd strategic complaint. Although there is much more still to do, we've done our bit to highlight the many issues with homeopathy advertising: it is now up to homeopaths to take the responsible action they know they must. Perhaps the Society of Homeopaths could set a good example to its members by having a thorough review of its own website? We've previously looked at how homeopathy in the English NHS has plummeted 95% in the last two decades. We now focus on what's been happening is Scotland. Their Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) data since 2001 (shortly after devolution in 1999) are available on one handy webpage, making them easier to find, with each spreadsheet covering the financial year from 01 April up to 31 March of the year given in the filename. The latest spreadsheet, PCA_2016.xlsx, therefore covers 01 April 2015 to 31 March 2016. Note that for consistency with the data for England, we have attributed the Scottish data for the year in the filename to the previous year in the charts below, ie the 2015/2016 data are attributed with 2015 to match the way the data for England have been attributed. Tab 3 - BNF sub-section gives the data we need. As with the NHS Digital (the re-branded name for the HSCIC) data for England, the data relate to the NHS prescriptions dispensed in community pharmacies and by Dispensing Doctors in Scotland. The main measures of drug ingredient cost and volumes of items dispensed in the community are comparable across the UK countries. However it should be noted that the gross ingredient cost (GIC) within Scotland is equivalent to the net ingredient cost (NIC) in England, i.e. the reimbursement cost of drugs before any pharmacy discounts are applied. A spreadsheet with these data can be downloaded here. But why the small rise in prescriptions in 2012 and 2013? Was there a resurgence in public demand for homeopathy? Perhaps more GPs became convinced of its curative power? Maybe some new, compelling evidence for homeopathy hit the headlines? Probably not. The answer is more prosaic: the closure of the pharmacy at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital (re-branded the Centre for Integrative Care (CIC) recently) in 2011 will have caused a small increase in the number of prescriptions dispensed in community pharmacies. The prescription numbers before 2011 don't include those dispensed at the GHH/CIC, but those after 2011 are inflated by the ones GHH/CIC patients have had go to their local community pharmacy to have dispensed. But note that this blip is more than wiped out by the falls in 2014 and 2015, leaving an overall 62% drop in the past ten years. The drop isn't as great as the 95% in England, but it is still very significant. Referrals to the GHH/CIC have been stopped by various Scottish Health Boards, putting pressure on them — it would seem unlikely that the long-term downward trend will be reversed. The number of patients at the GHH/CIC has been falling in recent years. Data from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) — the health board that runs the GHH/CIC — show significant drops in the number of new inpatients from areas outside of GGCin recent years but that has been partially offset by an increase in numbers of referrals from within the GGC area. Overall, the number has still fallen 9% in the past four years to 332 in 2015 — about one new patient a day. Similarly, falls in the number of new outpatients referred from areas outside GGC has been compensated by an increase in local referrals, leaving the number hovering around the 1,000 mark each year — in the order of three new patients a day. They also had 4,723 return appointments in 2015. The hospital is currently facing the closure by GGC of its seven inpatient beds (which had previously been cut in 2010 from 15 beds Monday to Sunday to seven beds Monday afternoon to Friday morning), saving £190,000, putting it under further pressure. The Unit has reduced its inpatient service in recent years from a 15-bedded seven-day unit to only 7 beds, open 4 nights a week. The Centre has been very successful in developing an ambulatory model of care and all services are now available on that basis. Inpatient capacity is now underutilised delivering only 332 episodes of care each year. This will be further reduced by the continuing impact of decisions by other Boards to withdraw from the service, only 224 in patient episodes are provided for NHS GG and C residents. Inpatients account for only 5.2% of patient contacts for GGC residents. The majority of service delivery is already delivered in an outpatient setting. Supporters of the GHH/CIC are campaigning to prevent its closure, including a Public Petition to the Scottish Parliament: PE01568: Funding, access and promotion of the NHS Centre for Integrative Care. The committee has been considering this for well over a year and seem to be making little progress; instead they seem keen to show their inability to understand scientific evidence. If the closure is agreed by the GGC Board, this makes the GHH/CIC even less viable and it's not clear how long the hospital can last — its future is on a shoogly peg. Homeopathy has been diluted to just 13% of its former self in the past 14 years. But looking at the data in more detail reveals something that looks odd: last year, there were 60% more prescriptions in total in Scotland than in England. The figures equate to 2.62 prescriptions per 1,000 population in Scotland but only 0.16 per 1,000 in England. But this has changed over the years: in 2001, it was the other way round with 2.7 times more prescriptions in England than in Scotland. If it was simply down to population, you'd expect there to be more than ten times the number in England compared to Scotland. Why is this not the case and why has it changed like this over the last 14 years? One possible explanation might be to do with the number of NHS homeopathic 'hospitals' and the legitimacy they lend to homeopathy in general: there has only been the one in Scotland but there have been four in England in recent times: London, Bristol, Liverpool and Tunbridge Wells, plus a number of satellite clinics. Now, however, only the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine remains, with the ones in both Liverpool and Bristol replaced by contracted private companies rather than being part of the NHS. The one in Tunbridge Wells closed in 2008. So, in its heyday around the turn of the century, Scotland was served by one but England was only served by four — proportionately far fewer considering the population. So, with the only the London hospital now remaining — even though it no longer has a dedicated homeopathy service — the decline of prescriptions in England was perhaps inevitable, following the decline in the number of hospitals. For those who do not believe public money should be spent on homeopathy, these figures will be welcome, but perhaps not so much for those in the homeopathy business as the false imprimatur given to homeopathy by the State plummets. New figures released today show that homeopathy on the English NHS has fallen to a new low. The number of NHS prescriptions for homeopathy in England, fulfilled in community pharmacies, dropped by a further 13% in 2015 from the previous year and is 95% down from its peak nearly 20 years ago. The new figures for 2015 show that there were just 8,894 prescriptions, down from 10,238 in 2014. The total cost of these prescriptions has dropped to £94,313, the first time it has been below £100,000. This follows on from other recent blows to NHS homeopathy: the closure of the homeopathy clinic at the South Bristol Community Hospital in Bristol, the reviews by both Liverpool CCG and Wirral CCG on ending the funding of homeopathy via the Liverpool Medical Homeopathy Service and other successfully completed reviews. And the forthcoming Department of Health review of the blacklisting of homeopathy could mean CCGs are no longer able to prescribe it — not that many do now anyway. Dilution by dilution, succussion by succussion, sugar pill by sugar pill, homeopathy is slowly but surely being removed from the NHS. This will not be welcomed by homeopaths who businesses rely on the (undeserved and unearned) legitimacy that being provided on the NHS lends to homeopathy, but it's the inevitable result of the their own failure to provide robust evidence of its efficacy. …the interior ministry said it had come to the conclusion that it was “impossible to provide such proof for these disciplines in their entirety”. So, it's not that the Swiss authorities had come across good evidence that homeopathy (and the other treatments covered) were, indeed, effective; more that they gave in and decided to reimburse them anyway, despite the lack of evidence. Based on the assessment of the evidence of effectiveness of homeopathy, NHMRC concludes that there are no health conditions for which there is reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective. Homeopathy should not be used to treat health conditions that are chronic, serious, or could become serious. People who choose homeopathy may put their health at risk if they reject or delay treatments for which there is good evidence for safety and effectiveness. People who are considering whether to use homeopathy should first get advice from a registered health practitioner. Those who use homeopathy should tell their health practitioner and should keep taking any prescribed treatments. It is therefore perverse that the Swiss Government should appear to bend over backwards to ignore the evidence and agree to pay homeopaths for dispensing their magic sugar pellets. But it may not be as smooth a ride as the homeopaths might like. Reimbursement will only take place for treatments administered by certified medical doctors. Additionally, according to the official announcement in Komplementärmedizin soll anderen Fachrichtungen gleichgestellt werden, some criteria apply concerning tradition of usage and research, scientific evidence and medical experience and further education. Also, some treatments that are seen as critical are to be examined and potentially excluded from the reimbursement. It's not at all clear exactly what this will mean for the homeopaths, but this may not be the full endorsement from the Swiss Government they would like to believe. This Sunday is the anniversary of the birth of the inventor of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann, heralding the start of World Homeopathy Awareness Week. So as homeopathy on the NHS is in what must surely be its death throes, what better time to help others be aware of homeopathy? Follow us on Twitter and re-Tweet our Tweets on homeopathy throughout World Homeopathy Awareness Week. Homeopathy has suffered many body blows recently. A new decision by the medicines regulator rubs salt into its wounds. The last year or so has not been good for homeopathy. The comprehensive Australian National Health and Medical Research Council concluded that "there are no health conditions for which there is reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective." The FDA and the FTC in the US are considering their positions on the regulation and advertising of homeopathic products and will hopefully clamp down on the worst excesses of misleading claims made there. In the UK, homeopathy continues its downward spiral, it's being challenged in Liverpool and the Department of Health will consult next year of the complete blacklisting of homeopathy. 2016 is going to be a very interesting year for homeopathy. Last August, we published details of our complaints against Nelsons Homeopathic Pharmacy. We're still waiting for the General Pharmaceutical Council to complete their investigation, but the medicines regulator, the MHRA, has already published their decision. In that newsletter, we said we were waiting for a further response from the MHRA. Although we're still waiting for a formal reply from them, the essence of what we were waiting for has just been published by them in yet another complaint about homeopathic products. Tissue Salts are not homeopathic but are homeopathically prepared micro dose minerals. Dr. Schuessler believed that it was most effective to follow the principles of homeopathy in their preparation – 1 part mineral to 9 parts lactose – mortar and pestle for 20 minutes bringing it up to a 1X and so on. They can be touched by hand and work differently in the body navigating all that you eat and ingest where they need to be. They are not as sensitive as homeopathics. They can be taken alongside food, coffee etc. Tissue Salts are not Homeopathics but are micro dose minerals that follow the similar method used in preparation - they will not interfere with homeopathic Nat Mur - it is important to note that Minerals are not homeopathic, they are biochemic. They do not follow the rule of similarity as many consider but are prepared in the homeopathic manner in order to provide bioavailability. The system needs minerals in order to function in these minute doses. They are absorbed through the mucosa that enables them direct entry to the blood stream and the availability to the cells. THE following report is issued under section 210 of the Health Act, 1911-1944:—It is claimed that the above "remedy" [Dr. Schuessler's Cell Salts, Kali Phos. 3X] is "indicated in loss of mental power, brain fag, paralysis of any part, nervous headaches, neuralgic pains, general disability and exhaustion and sleeplessness from nervous disorders." The "remedy" has been analysed and been found to contain potassium dihydrogen phosphate and lactose. The actual quantity of potassium dihydrogen phosphate in the "adult dose" is so minute that over 9,000 tablets would be necessary to give the minimum medicinal dose of this drug. Lactose is a sugar which is of no value in the treatment of any of the above-mentioned maladies. Dr. Schuessler's Cell Salts can therefore have no curative value. They will bring about no improvement in any of the illnesses for which they are said to be indicated. Any expenditure on the purchase of these salts will be money wasted. One of the main brands of these products is an Australian company, Martin & Pleasance, but there are others, including the New Era range (once owned by the pharmaceutical giant, Merck through their Seven Seas brand, but now owned by the Italian company, Olimed Ltd, sold in the UK by Power Health Products Limited). It was the Martin & Pleasance products we found being advertised on Nelson's website. Because they do not have a licence under the National Rules Scheme, an authorisation under the Homeopathic Rules Scheme nor even a (defunct) Product Licence of Right, we questioned whether these could be unlicensed medicines. The significance is that if the MHRA ruled they were unlicensed medicines, it would be a breach of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 (HMR 2012) to advertise, supply or sell them. All other cases will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. So, it's perfectly OK to advertise these products as long as it is not claimed that they are in any way homeopathic, they do not have a homeopathic 'potency' and they have no therapeutic indications. If they comply with all of these restrictions, they will not be medicines, but will simply be food supplements and have to comply with food regulations. This is essentially the same as when Bach Flower products were declared to be foods, not medicines nearly a year ago. The standard labelling of these products (such as the one in the photograph) stated they were '6X' 'potency' and the mere mention of this is sufficient to bring it within the MHRA's definition of a homeopathic medicine. This is a direct consequence of the EU Directives and the HMR 2012: homeopathic 'medicines' are regulated and anything that is presented as being homeopathic is a medicine and has to comply with these rules. If they are not presented in any way as homeopathic, then they are just foods, not medicines. There may be others and if you spot any on sale in the UK that appear to be contravening the MHRA's new guidance, please let us know and consider submitting a complaint to the MHRA about them. There is now no mention that these products are homeopathic. But what about the websites of the three sellers mentioned in the MHRA's decision? This is advertising New Era Calc Sulph (No.3) Tissue Salts and Brittle Nails & Falling Hair (Comb - K), but both are currently not available and another page says they have been discontinued. It looks like they also used to sell the Dr Reckeweg brand of tissue salts but they have been removed. Whatever Schuessler/cell/tissue salt products they sold, they are no longer advertised on their website. Thirteen of the sixteen Schuessler products they advertise are currently out of stock. Schuessler Combination H Tissue Salt is a complete natural formula for hayfever and allied conditions with mag phos nat mur and silica. Hayfever is an allergic condition of the mucous membranes of the nose eyes and upper respiratory tract and is common during spring when sensitivity to pollen is severe but it is very treatable by combination H particularly if treatment is started from six weeks before the expected onset of normal symptoms. Many of the others have similar information. These would appear to be therapeutic indications and some refer to the potency as 6X, possibly contravening the MHRA's guidance so we'll be bringing these to their attention and hope that they will be corrected before the products return to stock. This is another step forward for informed consumer choice, but another blow for homeopathy. Gradually, sellers of homeopathy and homeopathy products are being held to account. Homeopathy is taking a beating, perhaps fatally wounded. It's a pity the Advertising Standards Authority wasn't around then.

2019-04-26T16:35:37Z

https://www.nightingale-collaboration.org/news.html?start=6

If you enjoy being creative, being part of a fun and vibrant community, and like the idea of making someone’s day better – every day, then Creative Dining Services may be the right fit for you. The Executive Chef works within the campus Dining Services Department to ensure that high quality, innovative, nutritious menus are being provided throughout the campus dining operation, focusing on continual innovation, sustainability and wellness. You’ll be part of a Dining Services Management team that works professionally together to make sure the needs of the customer, client, staff and colleagues are met. Sign-on and Retention Bonuses Available! • Membership to the American Culinary Federation preferred. Must possess a positive, can-do attitude, be detail oriented, with a love and a passion for food. Must maintain professionalism at all times, and work with others in a cooperative manner, even while working under pressure. Willing to engage actively in the physical work of a high quality food service operation. As a representative of Creative Dining Services, must function in accordance with our corporate Mission, Vision, and Core Values statements. Contact Chef Vlad Bora for further details. Cook 2: Banquet Hot Culinary position: Must have 4-5 years’ experience in hi volume catering or hotel, Serve Safe certified. Varied flexible schedule both AM/PM nights and weekends. Must have general knowledge of preparation and cooking methods , highly organized. Hops and Fire Craft Tap House Located in Greenwood, IN Is now Looking for Line and Prep. Cooks. Cook I is responsible to support the Kitchen Supervisor and Room Chef in the successful production of raw and/or cooked food products for culinary operations at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino. Position will be engaged in the safe and efficient preparation utilizing various cooking techniques and equipment, i.e. Station set up, prep work, frying, sautéing, griddling, brazing, carving, broiling, boiling, and steaming all meats, fish, vegetables, wild game and poultry and may include sauces, cold salads, sandwiches, cold displays, salad dressings, slicing deli meats and cheese for consumption by guests, as well as other duties as assigned. Safe efficient production of food products including quality and quantity control, par levels, food storage, and product rotation, cutting, slicing, sauté, frying, mixing, grilling, mixing, etc. High School Diploma or GED required. College Degree or Culinary Arts Degree is Helpful. Position requires 1 (one) year experience in the Food Service Industry as a Cook or similar position. Ability to read, write, speak and understand English, distinguish letters, numbers, symbols and be involved in daily professional communication with co-workers and guests. The position requires math skills as well as the ability to measure, and estimate, and the ability to multi task, posses proper knife skills, basic food knowledge inclusive of specifications (size, shape, color, package size, weight) as defined by hiring management. The Position requires the trained use of kitchen equipment such as knives, stoves, ovens, fryers, steamers, choppers, grinders, mixers, sealers, etc. Must be able to demonstrate and ensure that daily work performed is conducted within HACCP guidelines. Required to comply with safe and hazard free work environment practices stipulated in Indiana Grand Racing & Casino, County/State/Federal Department of Health and OSHA policies, procedures and regulations. Position requires employee to be at least 21 years of age, and be certified in Serve Safe Food Sanitation and hold an Indiana Gaming Commission Occupational License. Position requires scheduling flexibility, may be required to work weekends, holidays, overnight, or overtime, based upon scheduling and business needs. The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The position requires the ability to lift up to 50 lbs, push or pull 150 to 250 lbs on a pushcart, and enter walk-ins of -10 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit with or without assistance. Handle heat from cooking appliances, food and dish/glass/ware washing machines. The position also requires normal or corrected vision range, with the ability to distinguish letters, numbers, and symbols. Ability to stand for duration of shift walk frequently, bend and/or reach to a height of 6 feet with or without assistance (stand, sit, walk, lift, reach, push, pull, grasp). It is a big account doing approx 8k a day in revenue and overseeing two cafes. “Sous Chef” needed for country club in Texas. Is best from the southeast or mid-west. Salary: 40-46K plus full benefits. This position directs and executes food preparation and display in a large campus dining facility with multiple menus and stations and including exhibition-style cooking. The individual provides leadership in all culinary skills, including proper food preparation, quality control, safety and sanitation, and customer service. This person performs a variety of tasks including ordering, evaluating, and preparing food, menu planning, record keeping, inventory control, and staff training and development. Trains and supervises staff in all culinary skills, including the receiving and handling of food, traditional and display cooking, and presentation and service. Observes strict safety and sanitation rules and trains staff to ensure that departmental, university, HACCP and other sanitation standards and safety regulations are followed. Maintains records of food usage, inventories, food temperatures, work performed, etc. Record keeping may require the use of one or more computerized systems. Assists with menu planning and recipe development within the food service unit to ensure the optimal use of ingredients on hand and to satisfy customer demand. Menu planning and recipe development must meet requirements and objectives as specified by the Culinary Services staff. Provides support to all cooking and food preparation staff in excellent customer service techniques, including the preparation and delivery of food to the customer in a friendly, service-oriented manner. Directs staff in the proper proportioning and/or packaging of foods for customer service. Ensures that all foods are maintained and served at the proper temperatures. Adheres to safe and sanitary methods of storing, chilling and heating foods and monitors temperatures throughout the process to guarantee food safety.Prepares high quality, visually appealing foods for customers in an exhibition setting and from large quantity scratch recipes. Employs artistry and theatrics in exhibition-style display cooking. Supervises and provides support to a cooking staff that consists of a Food Production Leader, Master Cooks, and Cooks. Provides training and direction to Food Service Assistants. Assigns specific duties to the staff and ensures that tasks are completed in a timely and satisfactory manner. Communicates effectively and enthusiastically with dining hall staff, fellow members of the management team, and the general public. Sets a positive, customer-oriented tone within the food service operation.Works closely with students and guests, actively seeking opinions about food and service.Develops cooking staff in order to increase their effectiveness. Evaluates performance of the Food Production Leader, Senior Cooks, Cooks and assistant cooks.Enforces university and departmental policies. Preferred Qualifications: Two to five years experience preparing meals and refreshments for large groups (over 500) is preferred. Familiarity with standard office software such as MS Office. Proficiency in menu and recipe software such as Food Service Suite. Minimum Qualifications: Completion of culinary training from accredited culinary program which includes a diversified curriculum encompassing all types of food preparation, or equivalent training and experience. Proven knowledge and proficiency in exhibition-style cooking techniques is desired, as is prior experience supervising staff, ordering food, and performing other management functions. An affiliation with the American Culinary Federation within 6 months of hire date and ServSafe Certification within 3 months of hire date will be a requirement of employment. Campus food service facilities are typically in operation from early morning until midnight. This position will have a varied work schedule, including weekends and evenings. Work Hours/Schedule: Schedule varies and includes evenings and weekends. Sous chef needed for a resort property on an island off the coast of NC. This is a great opportunity for someone who is ready to join a good team and have the opportunity to run their own Kitchen/restaurant on property. Salary 38-44K with full benefits and help with relocation. Indiana Grand Racing & Casino is currently looking to fill the position of Sous Chef. The Sous Chef is responsible to support the Assistant Executive Chef in the successful production of raw and/or cooked food products for culinary operations at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino. Position will be engaged in the preparation of and cooking of all food for consumptions by guests. Coaches staff on the preparation of all menu items, company standards and procedures. Obtains optimum efficiency and economy of operations and maximizes profits by performing assigned duties personally or through subordinate staff. Assist with the development of menus, SOP’s for safe and efficient preparation of food utilizing various cooking techniques and equipment, i.e. Station set up, prep work, frying, sautéing, griddling, brazing, carving, broiling, boiling, and steaming all meats, fish, vegetables, wild game and poultry producing soups, stocks, sauces, cold salads, sandwiches, cold displays, salad dressings, slicing deli meats and cheese for consumption by guests, as well as other duties as assigned. Safe efficient production of food products including quality and quantity control, par levels, food storage, and product rotation, cutting, slicing, sauté, frying, mixing, grilling, mixing, etc. as well as inventory, reporting, record keeping, menu engineering, etc. Assist with set up and operation of food service in Indiana Grand Racing & Casino, coach hourly, culinary employees for cross utilization of labor and upward mobility opportunities. Shared financial responsibility through responsible efforts controlling labor, menu offerings, financials, inventories, waste, etc., coordinate planning, budgeting, and purchasing. Develop, follow, and train on Standard Operational Procedures (SOP’s) and production list to meet required par levels and specifications for assigned station or duties at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino holds individual accountability to ensure common goals and guest experience is achieved daily. Displays, coaches and maintains standards of sanitation, kitchen and personal hygiene and cleanliness, as well as food service techniques and safety all with regard to the safe handling of food products for guest’s consumption. Display and train on knowledge of all emergency procedures including familiarity with MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) for chemical usage. Communicate on a consistent basis with supervising Chef keeping them abreast of all department activities, and ensure that kitchen and equipment are in good working order and that the work area is clean and hazard-free. Notify proper department immediately if kitchen and equipment are not in good, safe working order to schedule or arrange for repairs or corrections. Possess the ability to work with co-workers in any kitchen environment and display, coach, mentor others to like behavior ensuring guest receive highest quality products and service at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino. Supervises Kitchen Supervisor, Cooks, and Utility Cooks to include efficient staffing, team member development and training, performance management and policy enforcement. High School Diploma or GED required. College degree, culinary arts degree or equivalent relevant experience required as well as three (3) years experience in the food service industry as a Sous Chef or similar position emphasis on multi-unit operations. Position requires the ability to successfully set up any outlets within Indiana Grand Racing & Casino, run both (back of house) operations to ensure highest quality product, with advanced food knowledge consisting of Sous Chef plus advanced cooking styles and offerings, techniques, specialty raw products and use, menu engineering (development) and moderate knowledge of wine, spirit and food pairing. This position will require extensive experience in banquet production, Ability to read, write, speak and understand English, distinguish letters, numbers, and symbols as well as be involved in daily professional communication with co-workers and guests. Position requires experience using MS Office Suite, working with computers as well as math skills; understand Profit & Loss Statement and the ability to measure, estimate, and multi task. Must Possess proper knife skills, advanced food knowledge inclusive of specifications (size, shape, color, package size, weight, growing season, origin, seasonal availability, seasonings, specialty products, use, and styling) as defined by hiring management. The Position requires the trained use of kitchen equipment such as knives, stoves, ovens, fryers, steamers, choppers, grinders, mixers, sealers, braziers, tilt kettles, etc. Must be able to demonstrate and ensure that daily work performed is conducted within HACCP guidelines. Required to comply with safe and hazard free work environment practices stipulated in Indiana Grand Racing & Casino, County/State/Federal Department of Health and OSHA policies, procedures and regulations. Position requires employee to be at least 21 years of age, and be certified in Serve Safe Food Sanitation and hold an Indiana Gaming Commission License and/or an Indiana Horse Racing Commission License. Position requires scheduling flexibility, may be required to work weekends, holidays, overnight, or overtime, based upon scheduling and business needs. Job Description/Qualifications: Food brokerage serving the state of Kentucky, is looking for a self-motivated, driven culinary salesperson to fill a position in the Central Indiana market. We proudly represent 35+ brands. Our products are marketed to restaurants, hotels, nursing homes, caterers, hospitals, colleges and universities, K-12 schools and more. This is a salaried, Monday through Friday 8:00-5:00 position that includes light to medium travel. Your primary responsibilities would include distributor and operator sales calls and supporting distributor sales representatives with our brands. An ideal candidate would be a certified chef with culinary sales experience or an interest in sales. You would be working with a team comprised of distributor and manufacturer sales professionals. Some of the duties include working trade shows, speaking at sales meetings and selling to schools and restaurants. You will communicate with a distributor’s team of salespeople to find opportunities, arrange samples, show the products to the customers, discuss the features and benefits of a product/brand and offer ideas to profitably incorporate our products into their menu. The ultimate goal is to increase sales and create brand awareness through product demonstration. Certified Chef preferred. Foodservice Sales Experience a plus. Strong communication skills required (email, phone, and face-to-face). Effective time management skills are critical. Self-motivated, coachable individuals who understand the speed of today’s business world are best positioned for success. Other Remarks: Never a dull moment in the food industry! Start a job where every day brings new opportunities! Please respond with a resume, cover letter, and salary requirements. We look forward to hearing from you. Swan Lake Resort is currently interviewing for the Executive Chef position. Swan Lake Resort is one of the premier wedding and golf destinations in the Midwest. We offer two 18 hole golf courses, two restaurants, and a 90 room hotel. In 2014 we hosted 47 weddings in our 30,000 square foot conference/banquet center and will host a similar number in 2015. Cell: (574) 532-4400 — at Swan Lake Resort. Interlachen Country Club’s members enjoy both creative and fresh cuisine as well as country club standards. We are looking for a hands-on executive chef who enjoys leading and growing a creative team as well communicating with members. The candidate must also have significant a la carte and banquet experience, be well-organized, and have a track record of excellent standards of training and sanitation. Salary is commensurate with experience and the position offers a great benefits package. Kopplin & Kuebler specializes in executive placement in the private clubs and resort industry. We are a member of the ACF and a sponsor of Club & Resort Business’ annual Chef to Chef Conference. Sous Chef position available, Private Club, immediate opening at Woodstock Country Club Indianapolis.Applicant must have a Positive attitude, be creative and motivated. At least 3 years Line experience on a busy Sauté/Grill a la carte line is a must. Prior Sous Chef Position is preferred but not essential, if you feel you are ready for the next step this may be for you. Banquet and Pastry experienced preferred but not essential. Creativity is encouraged as you will be involved in menu creation, execution and implementation. This is a PM, Nights, Holidays and Weekend Position. Benefits offered and paid Vacation. Salary based on experience. Send Resume, pictures of your creations and Menus from your places of employment to Chef@woodstockclub.com. Wellbrooke of Avon, the center for Health and Wellness, managed by LCS (Life Care Svcs), is currently looking to employ, professional COOKS, SERVERS and DISHWASHERS, we offer a great Insurance and PTO package, competitive pay, and a great hourly schedule.

2019-04-20T15:36:48Z

http://www.acfindy.org/job-opennings/

Here's the place to discuss this month's book, which incorporates "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There." For details on where you can get the book from, including how to view it online for free and fully legally, see the blog here (http://blog.lostpedia.com/2008/11/alice-in-wonderland-read-begins.html). Sorry to start this forum on a bad note, but I HATED this book. Given all the great books available for us to read, I am disappointed in this choice, especially considering LLL may be ending. I have loved being involved in the LLL and would love to see it continue even when Lost Season 5 begins. There should be some new books to add the to list next year. markno, why did you hate it? I found it annoying, no real plot or character development. No sense to the story, not funny. Just a silly read. I remember reading it as a child and hating it then, now I've read it as an adult and I still hate it. first time in the book club threads. Personally, I love Alice in Wonderland. It's always been one of my favorite books and I love the influence it has on Lost. In response to markno's take, I can completely appreciate someone finding this book annoying, etc. But I don't think it's meant to have the plot and character development that we're used to finding in other books that we read. It seems that the inhabitants of Wonderland can make perfect sense out of the world they're living in, which we find all the more infuriating because it is so ridiculous to us. But imagine one of them experiencing life in our world. Would it not be just as frustrating and absurd to them to see the way we live? Look at the lessons that Alice is forced to study and learn day in and day out. Ridiculous, nonsensical, and entirely pointless. But that's just the way things are in the world so we accept it as making sense and having a purpose. Anything can make sense, but everything is nonsense. in my book (german version) there is a discussion at the end. It tells that what the book make so special is that the author was fallen in love with a girl that name was alice. and that all this stuff in the story are the feelings to this girl. i think this makes this book so special. I started early and am already halfway through "Looking Glass". The second book is much more interesting, but I have yet to find any references to the show. The only one that I can think of so far is that the chess problem presented in the second book may have something to do with the season three ep "Enter 77" where Locke beats the chess computer. Her name was Alice Liddell. Carroll's relationship with her was purely platonic and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise. I think the show uses Alice as more of a reference thematically. For example The Looking Glass station was half way through the whole show at the end of season three. So on one side of the looking glass, you have The Island, i.e. Wonderland, a fantastical world to which all these characters all seem to have followed a white rabbit (Jack's father, Locke's Walkabout, Sawyer's Sawyer, Hurley's curse, etc). On the other side (and we have yet to see this completely, since there's two seasons left) is the real world, (LA for the most part) where the characters feel numb to the trivial reality they're used to living in. There are various direct references to the book, like The Looking Glass and the white rabbit, but by and large they're pretty abstract. We don't see Locke talking to a giant Caterpillar, but he does get similar advice from Ben, doesn't he? ...I would doubt that the writers actually had this in mind but I do like the idea. I've just finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and I have to say I didn't really enjoy it either. I think it's a nonsensical children's book really and I can see little direct relation to Lost. However, I can understand that it might be an indirect influence to the themes of lost. The island can be very wonderland-esque with plot points like the monster, the polar bear, the French woman and the hatch etc. Also the pace of Lost, particuarly in season 1, can be similar to that of the book. Every episode a new story line is created or a new character introduced without stopping to explain or build on the previous one. In the same way, each chapter of AAIW describes a new scene or new character before quickly moving onto the next. Man I haven't posted in forever, although I HAVE been keeping up on the reading. Slaughterhouse Five was so, so good. Question for you guys, this Alice In Wonderland book, my library only had the children's version, but she said that all the text is the same, it's just that this one has illustrations [which are incredible, by the way]. Is this correct? Am I reading the same thing as you guys?? Alice is a bit more family-friendly that our past reads, definitely. My copy also has illustrations, I assumed they were part of the original book. They are actually very good come to think of it. Does anyone know if Carroll drew them? They were done by John Tenniel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tenniel), who became famous for the illustrations. I don't hate it, but it's never been one of my favorites, either. Trying to pick up any references Lost may have used, other than the obvious. I enjoyed rereading the stories. One thing I am surprised at is no one has talked about the major drug reference this book has. I know some people said this book is about an acid trip, some say religion, and some say politics. I've always seen this book about an acid trip, but I could be wrong. Anyway I'm glad we picked this book to read this time, it was really enjoyable. Did anyone else think that Ben and the Cheshire Cat are...similar?Or it just me? One thing I am surprised at is no one has talked about the major drug reference this book has...I've always seen this book about an acid trip, but I could be wrong. The opium-smoking caterpillar's an overt drug reference, and the drink me/eat me episode is often interpreted as such (like in the Jefferson Airplane song). But actually Lewis Carroll suffered from Migraine and drew on neurological aura symptoms for the psychedelic aspects of Alice. I was thinking as far as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...I have not seen anything really that stands out to me that would be a big wow as far as connections. I can see some influences, but nothing else really. Has anyone seen similarities between characters from the book and show? I personally love love love this book so much. I didn't notice any links to lost beyond the obvious but I think there is a bit of confusion. Carroll has wrote responses and letters stating that Alice In Wonderland is a fictional commentary on the British government, similar to Animal Farm and Watership Down. Most of the commentary is about punishment. It is simply in the form of a children's story to escape from prosecution. The Mad Hatter was symbolic of men who wore top hat and went insane as a result. Top Hats used to have traces of opiates, or a similar drug, in them as a result from the way they were made. Men who were of a certain status were expected to wear hats, even when the link between top hats and dementia was starting to be speculated. This might be a link to Sam, who is slightly crazy due to his work. Another link might be between the poems in the book and the obvious literary references in the show that seem to almost match up but have slight differences. Carroll used real poems to inspire the nonsense poems that are in the book. I haven't totally fleshed this idea out yet but it might be more about the writing of the show itself. When I read this book, I had a Norton edition which has all these nifty notes which helped me interpret some of this info. Wow, thanks for the info. I did not know that about top hats. BTW, I wasn't such which Sam you are referring to? Your idea of poems is great. I will have to think about that more as well. Thanks for the ideas! Ah...I was thinking Daniel Faraday is kind of a Mad Hatter, but I was not coming up with any scientists named Sam. Thanks! I tend to read these books completely forgetting that I'm doing it because of Lost, so miss out on any and all connections! As well, I suspend disbelief pretty easily so never found myself looking for plot or character development. What I found with the book was that it was a great, elaborate expansion on the dream state, where we find everything created by our subconscious, very related to what we know but in a world with different rules. I loved the different characters Alice created from young life visuals and limited experience, with odd laws applied because of the language or apparently non-sensical guidance of adults. I often found myself looking at these dream creations and imagining them as problems, thinking of how you would solve them. I also found it an interesting read because as a youngster I spent some time playing an old text RPG computer game called Wonderland (mobygames.com/game/wonderland - any PC copies by the way, please send me!!) and it was great to relate the story back. Coming back to Lost then, I agree with the above in that some similarities exist, although I really believe they're coincidental rather than purposeful. I think the white rabbit leading the way would work, but the rabbit character is not used in the same way as Lost and those 'rabbits' in Lost have much deeper meanings to the other characters in the story. In Through the Looking Glass, I think the idea of a world with backwards rules which have to be played to again resonates with Lost, but in a dream world you can play around with it so much more. Right, well those are my thoughts - feel free to pick apart as you like. Back to a history of Portugal and Brazil until the next month! I think there is a bit of confusion. Carroll has wrote responses and letters stating that Alice In Wonderland is a fictional commentary on the British government, similar to Animal Farm and Watership Down. Most of the commentary is about punishment. It is simply in the form of a children's story to escape from prosecution. No confusion. I think it's more complex than you're giving it credit for. Its references are political, mathematical, classical and historical. It's contemporary cultural commentary and children's story at the same time. It's also a linguistic masterpiece, and utilises theoretical physics for that dreamlike quality. I think this is where Lost comes in. When you compare two texts (or one text and one TV show :)) you're not necessarily just looking for similarities between characters. It's a little bit like Ulysses. It's a little bit like Heart of Darkness. And Lost is a little bit like all of them. Literature is like a rainbow: when viewed from above it's a perfect circle. ;) I think by referencing Alice and so many other texts, Lost is positioning itself as Literature, the most recent installment in a grand tradition of storytelling and mythology. We fell into a similar trap with Lord of the Flies, focusing discussion on who was most like whom: "Ralph is like Jack, Piggy is like Hurley," etc. There's a limit to how much you can squeeze out of that. It's more worthwhile to look at the story as a whole. Lord of the Flies is about power and civilisation and what happens to a group of people morally and politically when they are isolated on a tropical island. First they shed their clothes, the trappings of civilisation. Then they attempt to establish some order. Authority is challenged; anarchy ensues. They hunt, paint their faces, create a religion, form a tribe, and before long people are killing each other and all hell breaks loose. That's where Flies has resonance with Lost. Also significant is the idea of going through the looking glass, and everything being backwards. On the island, sons are taken away from their fathers, sons are required to kill their fathers, and dead fathers reappear to their sons. Doctors get sick, planes fall out of the sky, time is distorted, apparitions appear: there's even opium! (though no doped up catepillar... as far as we know. :eek:) I think in general terms Alice is significant as a Lost reference because its central theme is the subversion of reality. Normal becomes abnormal. Essentially Lewis Carroll invented the mindf***. In both Alice and Lost, psychedelic experiences abound in a surreal landscape. If you think about Alice, it all takes place in a cramped microcosm crowded with bizarre objects and people; just like the landscape of Lost. It's a small tropical paradise that feels more like purgatory, concealing a bright yellow drug smuggler's beechcraft, an ancient blue VW that still works, a hot air balloon, a sub, a hidden community of mysterious scientists with Eastern religious influences, apparitions of the dead, a smoke monster, numerous dolls, often connected to nets, statuettes of the virgin Mary, unidentified skeletons, zoos with people in them, aquariums with people underneath them, hieroglyphs, tunnels, traps, villains, invisible Jacobs and weird dogs. It's a freaking upside-down minefield of curiosities. Just like Alice. And just like Alice, people who end up on the island regularly ask themselves "Where are we? Who are you people? This was not supposed to happen to me! Am I crazy??" Alice made her way through Wonderland attempting to reason with herself and everyone she met. It didn't work, because the characters of Wonderland maintain a kind of subverted logic that theoretically makes sense and has an authority of it's own. Just like Jack insisting that the island didn't disappear, or Locke insisting that there's no such thing as a magic button. Sooner or later they have face up to the subverted logic, or magic, of the island, and the unlikely authority of Jacob, just like Alice ends up tangled in the perverted legal system of Wonderland and the draconian rule of the Queen of Hearts. I really like what you have written. I agree with Lost being like Wonderland and that Alice tried to apply reason, but it doesn't stick in a place like Wonderland. We have seen the characters on Lost try to apply reason to the island, and the results have been the same. You put it beautifully. There's one thing though. I think that it is perfectly normal for a person to read the book and try to find similar character or plot development. I think it's part of the comparison process. Yes, looking at the overall messages and ideas is usually what we do, but I don't think that it hurts for people to explore the other things. As for Daniel, I think he is extremely intelligent and that is part of his "madness", however I think his time travel has also attributed to his personality as well. Wow, Boo, that was an awesomely epic post. Well put, articulate and persuasive. I think you are smarter than the rest of us put together. You have the type of opinions that challenge my thinking, which I always love. re: Will you marry me??? Sorry already married for ten years, but so flattered at the request. Besides, you're probably too intelligent for me! Years ago I read an article in The New York Review of Books that specifically critiqued how Carroll's books were commentaries or satires regarding British government and the Crown. However, in my search of the periodical's website, I have not been able to find this specific article, so I may have to conclude it was read under the dim light of a hookah.:rolleyes: of course, it could have been in The London Review of Books, but that website is not as user-friendly in its search function. 'We like to think we live in daylight, but half the world is always dark; and fantasy, like poetry, speaks the language of the night.' The rhetorical phrase that provides a title for Ursula Le Guin's essays, notes, and speeches about fantastic fiction becomes less plausible the longer you look at it. 'We'—you and I and Ursula Le Guin—do live almost all of our waking lives in real or artificial daylight, and if half the world is always dark, that affects us very little. And then much poetry and a good deal of fantasy uses the language of rational and logical discourse, which is I suppose what Ms. Le Guin would call the language of day. Very little fantasy uses that language of the night which speaks 'from the unconscious, to the unconscious, in the language of the unconscious,' to quote her definition of great fantasies, myths, and tales. It is not a mere literal quibble to insist that there is no such thing as the language of the unconscious, and that the Grimm brothers and Hoffmann and Poe and Cabell and Tolkien use the language of day. They may use it, more or less deliberately, to suggest symbols, myths, and archetypes, but the interest of those symbols and archetypes is that they refer back to the real world, the world of daylight in which we live. "Well now, would you like to hear of a race-course, that most people fancy they can get to the end of in two or three steps, while it really consists of an infinite number of distances, each one longer than the previous one?" Ridley is hardly a newcomer to the debates over evolutionary psychology. An earlier book, The Red Queen (1993), tackled the evolution of sexuality and is one of the most respected treatments of the subject. Expressed by its title, this previous book's metaphor for evolution is inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, where the Red Queen explains that she must continually keep moving ahead just to stay in the same place. As with the predicament of the Red Queen, evolution involves an arms race between organisms and their enemies, which endlessly transform themselves just to stay competitive. Following other recent biologists, Ridley argues that sexual choices and strategies have evolved to keep pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, off balance. By continually shuffling their genetic deck of immunological locks, sexual organisms are attempting to foil the pathogens' latest molecular keys. For example, a pathogen may have evolved the ability to attach itself to a particular cellular receptor, enabling it to penetrate the cell wall and cause illness. Sexual recombination of the host's genes during reproduction continually changes these molecular locks, blocking the pathogen's previous method of entry. I realize that I am new and all, but this caught my attention: In the late 1800's opium, morphine and just plain "snake oils" were in use by everyone. It was common to use herbals such as belladonna (toxic, we now know) for medicinal purposes, even as late as the early 1900's. I would like to bump this because we saw David with "Annotated Alice" (and Jack discussing it). Instead of talking about the strange creatures of Wonderland, Jack mentioned David's interest in the two kittens (Kitty and Snowdrop) that begin and end "Looking Glass." "One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it--it was the black kitten's fault entirely." The black kitten had unwound the whole ball of worsted, so that Alice had to wind it all up again. Black kitten sits "pretending to watch the progress of the winding." As the annotation points out, Kitty and Snowdrop "reflect the chessboard's black and white squares" and the Red and White Queens. We have an easy tie-in here to the black and white forces of the island. Winding the ball of yarn is analogous to bringing form out of chaos. For those who don't know the purpose of the project, yarn is sold in skeins, but skeins tend to turn into a tangle when you pull on them to knit, so an organized knitter will first transform the skein into a ball. The ball isn't the end; it is the starting point of actual knitting. The scene with Alice and the kitten involves the black kitten undoing her work, which Alice refers to as "mischief" that requires "punishment." At the same time we know it is all role-playing on her part, as she has to make up a list of the kitten's faults that deserve punishments. Also, even though the fault clearly belongs to the BLACK kitten, it's not because black is bad and white is good. The white kitten was having her face washed so couldn't have done it, wasn't free to get into mischief, whereas black kitten was done with being washed, and while not being watched, started playing. While chiding the kitten, Alice begins descriibing her fascination with the Looking Glass world, then goes to sleep and dreams the main story of "Through the Looking Glass." The annotations bring up the frequent "allusions to mirror reversals, and reversal of time" in the second dream, and cites references "on the symmetry and asymmetry of space and time." Later in the episode, Jack looks in the mirror and sees into the looking glass world, as it were. But Jack chooses to smash the mirror. Did Jack's behavior disturb you? It did me. I wanted him to be curious about the vision, as Alice would have been, not angry. Another angle that occurs to me about Looking Glass and the metaphor of the string ball being rewound as "progress" (Jacob's term): Alice's dream involves her progress as a pawn across the eight squares of the chessboard. While many things are backwards in looking glass world, she always moves forward. At the end she becomes a Queen, sitting crowned between the Red and White Queens. It appears that at the end of LOST someone will become THE Candidate and assume Jacob's role. Question: does the relationship between reality and the looking glass world tell us anything about the Flash Sideways relationship to the island world? When she wakes up, Alice wonders whether it was her own dream or whether she was in the Red King's dream. This refers back to the scene with Tweedledee and Tweedledum (mirror twins?), who tell her that she is only real because the Red King is dreaming about her, and that if he were to wake up, she'd be nowhere, like a candle blown out. Who is the dreamer; who is the dreamed, or does each of them dream the other: that is the question left unanswered. In this last chapter, Which Dreamed It?, Alice asks the black kitten a question and remarks that whatever you say to kittens, they always purr. No purr for yes and another purr for no, always the same purr. Alice points out that because there's no way to distinguish between yes and no, true conversation with kittens is not possible. The annotation cites modern information theory. "There is no one-value logic--no way to record or transmit information without at least a binary distinction between yes and no, or true and false." I see this as stressing the necessity that both black and white exist in order to sort out meaning and sense. Otherwise it is all one lovely but meaningless purr. In the LOST universe, this could mean that black cannot ever eliminate white, or vice versa. This balance is inherent in the concept of Yin and Yang, and is not new to the story. However, I like Carroll's observation that if we can't tell yes from no, we cannot communicate. May I say that the LOST writers ought to meditate on that idea in so far as telling their story goes. What would the computer be if it were nothing but 0's or nothing but 1's. What would be rich if there was no poor? What would be Heaven without Hell? What would be Day if never be Night? There are 2 sides to every adjective, and every combat. Nobody ever truely fought for evil, just their jaded misinformed idea of what is right. What does that prove? Not what is right, but who is left, for without losers, you have no winners, and without challenge in one form or another, there is no reason to challenge, whether be conflict, for sport, or what have you. There MUST be opposing sides, or there is no reason to live, to breath, to watch the precious moments fromthe ever so happy "Previously on Lost" to the sad, yet confusing, moment of next week's Promo. For even in that, you have a dark sinister emotion, with an ever so joyous moment, unless of course the episode focuses on Kate, then it seems to get bashed for some strange reason. Are you still reading this dribble? Sorry.

2019-04-20T00:18:08Z

https://forum.lpedia.com/archive/index.php/t-19779.html?s=1a66cd4130d5444d2ece6e194c22e6c5

This is part 3 of a 4-part series. Throughout my life, I have never stopped thinking that I am very lucky to know TRIZ (the Russian acronym for Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) and to have learned it directly and happily by chance from the teacher: Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller, the father of TRIZ. I am sure that if I had not discovered TRIZ in 1971, I would certainly have known it later and would have followed it for the rest of my life. In my childhood, whenever I did something wrong (in spite of good aim or so I thought) I was often scolded “ It’s foolish! You should think carefully before doing anything”. Saying nothing, I thought to myself “Not until I make mistakes and am criticized, does anyone teach me how to think!” and I tried to learn the way of thinking. Such questions arose in my mind many times a day. Although I discussed them with my friends and asked my elders, I felt dissatisfied. Sometimes, new questions arose from the answers. In learning, I first chose mathematics to observe my thinking process when solving problems. After coming to a solution, I recalled my way of thinking many times, then tried to explain it logically, even the problems which were solved by chance. Not all solving processes could be explained logically, but I felt very excited whenever successful. By self-evaluating, I saw my thinking was better.After that, I became more self-confident and liked doing exercises more, not only in the mathematical discipline. In 1967, I was sent to the Soviet Union (now CIS) to study experimental solid state physics. After a pre-university year learning Russian, I went into the State University of Azerbaigian in Baku city. It was the Russian language, bookstores and libraries that helped me find the answers to some of the questions that had haunted me for such a long time. Whenever I had free time, I went to the bookstores, or the libraries to search for documents related to creative thinking. My understanding improved considerably. I applied my reading to my thinking and achieved some interesting results. However, I wanted to understand more concretely and more practically. I think it is inevitable that my habit of reading about creative thinking, sooner or later, would have lead me to TRIZ. And in this inevitability there happened a lucky event. One day, in 1971, when I was a senior, my lecturer of “solid state theory” was late, so I chatted to some Soviet students beside me. Fifteen minutes passed but the lecturer had not arrived yet. I asked them my questions associated with creative thinking. Andrei told me that the All-Union Association of Soviet Inventors and Rationalizators had just founded the Public Institute of Inventive Creativity which taught the creative thinking methods. He, himself, had been studying here and was finding it interesting. Like a thirsty man who sees the water, I asked Andrei to guide me to enter the Institute after class. We arrived early, met the teacher Mr. Altshuller, and after some of Andrei’s introductory sentences, I said immediately what I had prepared because I had some reasons to worry: the class had begun quite some time before I arrived, it might already be full. I worried whether foreigners would be accepted to the Institute… In general, I worried that I would not be permitted to enter the Institute. The teacher Mr. Altshuller listened attentively to me, did not interrupt, and then briefly gave his agreement which dispersed my prepared arguments in the case of his having questions. He said: “If you love creative thinking, you can enter the class. I think whatever you study in this Institute will be useful to you and your heroic country. I will help you if you have any difficulties”. I was as happy as if I were floating on air. And from that moment, I had a new life. This was the first time I saw the teacher Mr. Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller. I thought that the teacher who taught creativity would be older (in order to have creative experience to share with others), so I was surprised. He looked like a young sportsman, maybe because of his well-proportioned body, his lively gait, and his simple clothing (I have hardly ever seen him wearing a neck-tie, even when I see his pictures in newspapers, books or magazines) and his easy-going and modest manner. He had a kind-hearted face, intelligent, warm eyes and thick, curly, brownish hair. He was quite handsome according to the traditional model. As I came to know later, at that time, he was 45 and he had his first patent when he was only 14. Coming to study with me later in my first class (1971 - 1973), were also Mr. Nguyen Van Chan, Mr. Nguyen Van Thong; and in the second one (1973 -1975) Mr. Duong Xuan Bao, Mr. Thai Ba Can and Mr. Nguyen Quang Tho, all of whom were also Vietnamese students at that time. History of the Development of Science and Technology. As Philosophy had already been studied in the university program, it was not taught at the PIIC. Some subjects had to be finished by passing a test, the others required a marked examination. In the end, learners had to write and defend a thesis before the Institute Scientific Council. There were two kinds of thesis theme. Research work to continually develop a certain part of the creativity methodologies.The teacher Mr. Altshuller mainly taught two subjects (No 1&2) which took the largest amount of time for classroom activities and homework. The more I study, the more I understand the teacher Mr. Altshuller’s advice: “For a long time, solving problems will be more important than studying the theory” and "studying the creative thinking is the same as learning to play sport. So you have to focus much on practising in order to achieve the skills and manners needed for your work and life". As I said above, it was an irreplaceable opportunity to learn directly from the teacher Mr. Altshuller. As time went by, the more I knew him, the more I appreciated this opportunity. First and foremost, it was the chance to learn the work (TRIZ) from the author himself. Therefore, the learners were not afraid of misunderstanding after some misrepresentation of TRIZ's methodology. Nowadays, when exploring the Internet, and watching the activities about TRIZ over the world, I find that the problem of incorrect understanding and teaching of TRIZ is not in very small number. When learning from the author himself, learners could ask about anything involved with the work and they could have reliable answers to their questions, even concerning the experiences with which his work was written. If you learn only from those who have read or learned before you, you will not have this chance. However, it is unascertainable whether the author is always able to deliver effectively his knowledge to learners. Knowledge is information. There are various factors such as: the accuracy and the form of generating, processing and encoding information from the transmitter, the environment, and the cognitive level of the receiver that can influence the effectiveness of communicating this information. In this aspect, I had another chance too: the teacher Mr. Altshuller was an excellent pedagogue. As a learner, I found that his language was clear and accurate, neither complicated nor wordy. So listeners could understand exactly what he meant. Always using pictures, and illustrations, he made his lectures well-arranged and highly convincible with valuable details. Let’s make a comparison - you are invited to taste a special dish by two people; the first one says “It is very delicious, go ahead!”, the second does not use the words “delicious” or “go ahead” but goes into details so strongly desirous that you serve yourself before his speeches have finished. Evidently, you are persuaded more easily by the second one, who motivates you to do the act. The teacher Mr. Altshuller applied a flexible approach in giving lectures and answering questions, depending on the kind and/or the level of listeners. He mastered a rich source of expressions, examples and stories from various domains, so he easily made a good connection with learners. Furthermore, he had a lot of funny, humorous tales and anecdotes related to creativity, which set a relaxed atmosphere in his classroom. Listening to him, I felt that he did not present TRIZ as the theory only but that I had listened to the story of his research and theory building process. Writing on this point, I remember Tolstoi’s observation: “It is worth not only knowing that the Earth is round but more importantly knowing how to come to this conclusion”. I must say the teacher Mr. Altshuller had managed to capture the heads and hearts of the learners. He was not only a teacher but also an artist. He, himself, was a symbol of beauty in conveying the best and the most human quality, that is, the creativity, to the learners. Probably for this reason, he is also well appreciated in the Soviet Union as a science fiction writer. Through his answers to my questions in the classroom, at break-time, or during my visits to his apartment, especially in the time of writing my thesis, I felt my knowledge became more profound. He not only satisfied my queries but also provoked me to develop my thoughts further in a way that I could not imagine before. Simultaneously, I became more strict with myself because in answering carefully certain questions, he added “My answers all follow from what we have already learned”. His eyes seemed to say “with your ability you can answer your own questions, you should solve these yourself first. Be self-confident, my young man”. Since then, I have usually applied my own knowledge to answer the questions by myself and only asked the teacher or others once I cannot. This effort improved my self-confidence and my independence in learning and researching later. In writing our theses, the teacher Mr. Altshuller encouraged us to choose our own subjects appropriate to our specific fields. Knowing that my major was physics, he suggested I should choose the theme “Guiding the Usage of Physical Effects in Inventing” while my heartfelt, long-nurtured topic was “The Psychological Inertia in Solving Creative Problems”. As I said above, in my high school, I usually validated my own thinking process in solving problems, but there were many problems I could not solve. After seeing the result, I realized that it was not because I did not have enough necessary knowledge and capacity but because there seemed to be a certain force hampering me to apply my knowledge, and I hated that force. Afterwards, I found its name : the Psychological Inertia. Minding the psychological inertia, failing many times because of it, and really have strong negative feelings about it, I wanted to choose it as my topic instead of complying with his advice. I did not know how to tell him (in Vietnam I was taught to obey the teacher). Finally I decided to tell him frankly because I was also taught to have “frankness and courage”. That made me feel peaceful. I intended to accept his suggestion once he did not agree with me. When I told him, I thought that he would persuade me to follow his idea, but, unexpectedly, he agreed at once: “If you love the psychological inertia, begin now please”. Simultaneously, he showed me the difficulties that I had to figure out in advance when I, as a physicist, moved to study psychology. I gave him whatever I had partially finished writing. If he had time, we would discuss it at once, if not, he would read it at home and make an appointment with me. He commented on every part of the thesis and asked me many questions such as: “How have people taken steps to implement this idea? Which document was it published in? Have you really read the original text? Have you found all of the related documents? Is your data convincible? Is there any data more convincible? Is it too early for you to draw this conclusion? Is there any other explanation? Any other kind of approach and consideration? Are you able to create tools or at least offer some advice to help others overcome their psychological inertia? In which directions may this theme be continually developed?” ... As a matter of fact, “I shed the sweat” while working with him and I understood that he was very strict in research work. His training and teaching style gave me important advantages when I worked on my dissertations for doctor’s degrees: Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Science(1) in physics about the optical processes in semimagnetic semiconductors in 1980s in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). And especially “The Psychological Inertia”, which then I continued to develop into “The Systems Inertia”, was reported at the European Conference on Creativity and Innovation and published in the Netherlands. When I gave the teacher Mr. Altshuller my manuscript for his last review before it was typewritten, I wrote on the first page, the Scientific Supervisor: Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller. He saw it and crossed it out. To my surprise he just smiled and said: "You chose and completed the thesis yourself, not me, you have to be responsible for your work". There were some implications in his speech. Maybe he judged that my thesis was not good enough for him to put his name to and even made him lose his prestige; maybe, he was sincere, and thought that his role was only as an opponent or an adviser, not as a scientific supervisor. Furthermore, he wanted to raise the responsibility of learners who should make their own authority in science research without relying on other's reputations. Here, I suddenly remember a humorous story "Rabbit Defends his Thesis". It was said that, in his thesis, the rabbit concluded that he could eat fox, wolf even bear. Finally, the thesis was also passed because of a simple reason - his scientific supervisor was a lion. By the way, I would like to say a little more. I came three times to study and to work in the setting of university education and science research in the Soviet Union - in total about 12 years. I found, in general, that lecturers and scientists did not impose their research idea on their learners. They were willing to discuss with learners who sometimes had their own idea. Even in the case that learners did not agree with their lecturers or scientific supervisors, they did not use their authority to hamper learners from implementing their research idea. In my experimental physics field, I met such problems about ten times. After discussion, these professors generally said: "Here are samples and equipment, try to conduct your experiments as you like and see what will happen, you never know". However, they would not compromise their high requirements of the process and the method of implementing the idea, the verification of the obtained data, the interpretation of results gained and the prediction of possible consequences. During the time of the teacher Mr. Altshuller's reviewing my thesis for the last time, I was really in an indescribable state: happiness and worry. They were mixed up. I was happy because I had just finished what I was interested in. Also, I was worried because I had to type my paper according to the rules of submitting research. Typing was my financial problem because my monthly scholarship was only 6O roubles. So, I planned to cut down some of my expenses. On returning my thesis in a large envelope, he said, "You have to finish some missing figures. Congratulations on your successful work!". He shook my hand and quickly walked away. On the way to my student hostel, I could not understand what he had meant, for in the thesis I had already drawn all the figures. So why had he asked me to do that again? Entering my room, leaving the door open, hurriedly I opened the envelope. My thesis had been typed with some blanks for the “unfinished” figures. In the next meeting, I said thanks to him. He said to me, “I did it because the Institute's typist was typing some new documents. So I took the opportunity to ask her for help”. He said: “I took the opportunity” then changed his subject. He advised me to bind the thesis in volume by myself, not to waste my money on having it done in a workshop, because there were only 4O pages. I realized that he went out of his way to help me in many cases. The point was that, when we Vietnamese students talked to him during the break time or when we visited his apartment, answering his and his wife's (Mrs. Valentina Nhikolaevna Zhuravliova) questions about our life, study, scholarship, and accommodation... they remembered everything and they always took the opportunity to help us. In their words, manner and actions we clearly felt their parental warm concern for us. They cared for us in many ways, giving us advice on things such as how to keep warm in the freezing temperatures, what to eat a lot of for our health, where to go sightseeing... They used to invite us to come to their apartment to enjoy a family atmosphere, and always asked us to have dinner with them before leaving. Their and other teachers' hospitality comforted us a lot for the long time of six years of study there in Baku, because we had no money to travel back home for holidays, even once. After successfully defending my two theses: one on physics at the University and other on creativity at the PIIC I went to the teacher Mr. Altshuller's appartment to say goodbye to his family because I had to get back to Vietnam after my graduation. I gave him my address in Vietnam and promised to write to him as soon as I got there. He took a lot of typed pieces of papers out and gave them to me and said:“ Here is the draft of my book. Take it with you. After its publication, I will post the printed copy to you. But in case it gets lost, you already have this draft copy. Send our best regards to all your family members. I am sure that your country will be completely re-unified without fail”. I told him that, maybe in a short time I would come back here to be a doctoral student in physics because I was recommended by the State University of Azerbaigian. But according to our rules, I had to return to my country first. At that time, it was the beginning of the summer of the year l973, the Paris Agreement on Peace in Vietnam had been signed several months ago. He kept his promise and to ensure that they reached me, he asked the students who returned to Vietnam after me to bring me the necessary materials.

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http://www.metodolog.ru/triz-journal/archives/2001/08/d/index.htm

This article is about the film studio. For the cinema chain, see Regal Entertainment Group. For the former record label, see United Artists Records. United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American film and television entertainment studio. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studio was premised on allowing actors to control their own interests, rather than being dependent upon commercial studios. UA was repeatedly bought, sold, and restructured over the ensuing century. The current United Artists company exists as a successor to the original; as a distributor of films across MGM and third-party titles and as a provider of digital content, in addition to handling most of its post-1952 in-house library and other content it has since acquired. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired the studio in 1981 for a reported $350 million ($1.0 billion today). On September 22, 2014, MGM acquired a controlling interest in Mark Burnett and Roma Downey's entertainment companies One Three Media and Lightworkers Media, then merged them to revive United Artists' TV production unit as United Artists Media Group (UAMG). However, on December 14 of the following year, MGM wholly acquired UAMG and folded it into MGM Television. UA was revived yet again in 2018 as United Artists Digital Studios. Mirror, the joint distribution venture between MGM and Annapurna Pictures was renamed as United Artists Releasing in early February 2019 just in time for UA's 100th anniversary. Pickford, Chaplin, Fairbanks, and Griffith incorporated UA as a joint venture on February 5, 1919. Each held a 25 percent stake in the preferred shares and a 20 percent stake in the common shares of the joint venture, with the remaining 20 percent of common shares held by lawyer and advisor William Gibbs McAdoo. The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford and cowboy star William S. Hart a year earlier. Already Hollywood veterans, the four stars talked of forming their own company to better control their own work. They were spurred on by established Hollywood producers and distributors who were tightening their control over actor salaries and creative decisions, a process that evolved into the studio system. With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart bowed out before anything was formalized. When he heard about their scheme, Richard A. Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, apparently said, "The inmates are taking over the asylum." The four partners, with advice from McAdoo (son-in-law and former Treasury Secretary of then-President Woodrow Wilson), formed their distribution company. Hiram Abrams was its first managing director, and the company established its headquarters at 729 Seventh Avenue in New York City. The original terms called for each star to produce five pictures a year. By the time the company was operational in 1921, feature films were becoming more expensive and polished, and running times had settled at around ninety minutes (eight reels). The original goal was thus abandoned. Griffith, Pickford, Chaplin (seated), and Fairbanks at the signing of the contract establishing the United Artists motion-picture studio in 1919. By 1924, Griffith had dropped out, and the company was facing a crisis; the alternatives were to either bring in others to help support a costly distribution system or concede defeat. Veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. He had produced pictures for a decade, and brought commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge, his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge, and his brother-in-law, Buster Keaton. Contracts were signed with independent producers, including Samuel Goldwyn, and Howard Hughes. In 1933, Schenck organized a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck, called Twentieth Century Pictures, which soon provided four pictures a year, forming half of UA's schedule. Schenck formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters under the United Artists name. They began international operations, first in Canada, and then in Mexico. By the end of the 1930s, United Artists was represented in over 40 countries. When he was denied an ownership share in 1935, Schenck resigned. He set up 20th Century Pictures' merger with Fox Film Corporation to form 20th Century Fox. Al Lichtman succeeded Schenck as company president. Other independent producers distributed through United Artists in the 1930s including Walt Disney Productions, Alexander Korda, Hal Roach, David O. Selznick, and Walter Wanger. As the years passed, and the dynamics of the business changed, these "producing partners" drifted away. Samuel Goldwyn Productions and Disney went to RKO and Wanger to Universal Pictures. In the late 1930s, UA turned a profit. Goldwyn was providing most of the output for distribution. He sued United several times for disputed compensation leading him to leave. MGM's 1939 hit Gone with the Wind was supposed to be a UA release except that Selznick wanted Clark Gable, who was under contract to MGM, to play Rhett Butler. Also that year, Fairbanks died. UA became embroiled in lawsuits with Selznick over his distribution of some films through RKO. Selznick considered UA's operation sloppy, and left to start his own distribution arm. In the 1940s, United Artists was losing money because of poorly received pictures. Cinema attendance continued to decline as television became more popular. The company sold its Mexican releasing division to Crédito Cinematográfico Mexicano, a local company. In 1941, Pickford, Chaplin, Disney, Orson Welles, Goldwyn, Selznick, Alexander Korda, and Wanger—many of whom were members of United Artists--formed the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers (SIMPP). Later members included Hunt Stromberg, William Cagney, Sol Lesser, and Hal Roach. The Society aimed to advance the interests of independent producers in an industry controlled by the studio system. SIMPP fought to end ostensibly anti-competitive practices by the seven major film studios—Loew's (MGM), Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros./First National—that controlled the production, distribution, and exhibition of motion pictures. By 1958, SIMPP achieved many of the goals that led to its creation, and the group ceased operations. Needing a turnaround, Pickford and Chaplin hired Paul V. McNutt, a former governor of Indiana, as chairman and Frank L. McNamee as president. McNutt did not have the skill to solve UA's financial problems and the pair was replaced after only a few months. On February 16, 1951, lawyers-turned-producers Arthur B. Krim (of Eagle-Lion Films) and Robert Benjamin approached Pickford and Chaplin with a wild idea: let them take over United Artists for ten years. If, at the end of those years, UA was profitable, they would own half the company. Fox Film Corporation president Spyros Skouras extended United Artists a $3 million loan through Krim and Benjamin's efforts. In taking over UA, Krim and Benjamin created the first studio without an actual "studio". Primarily acting as bankers, they offered money to independent producers. UA leased space at the Pickford/Fairbanks Studio but did not own a studio lot. Thus UA did not have the overhead, the maintenance, or the expensive production staff at other studios. With the instability in the film industry due to theater divestment, the business was considered risky. In 1955, movie attendance reached its lowest level since 1923. Chaplin sold his 25 percent share during this crisis to Krim and Benjamin for $1.1 million, followed a year later by Pickford who sold her share for $3 million. United Artists went public in 1957 with a $17 million stock and debenture offering. The company was averaging 50 films a year. In 1958, UA acquired Ilya Lopert's Lopert Pictures Corporation, which released foreign films that attracted criticism or had censorship problems. In 1959, after failing to sell several pilots, United Artists offered its first ever television series, The Troubleshooters, and later released its first sitcom, The Dennis O'Keefe Show. In the 1960s, mainstream studios fell into decline and some were acquired or diversified. UA prospered while winning 11 Academy Awards, including five for best picture, adding relationships with the Mirisch brothers, Billy Wilder, Joseph E. Levine and others. In 1961, United Artists released West Side Story, which won a record ten Academy Awards (including Best Picture). In 1960, UA purchased Ziv Television Programs. UA's television division was responsible for shows such as Gilligan's Island, The Fugitive, Outer Limits, and The Patty Duke Show. The television unit had begun to build up a profitable rental library, including Associated Artists Productions, owners of Warner Bros. pre-1950[note 1] features, shorts and cartoons and 231 Popeye cartoon shorts purchased from Paramount Pictures in 1958, becoming United Artists Associated, its distribution division. In 1963, UA released two Stanley Kramer films, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and A Child Is Waiting. In 1964, UA introduced U.S. film audiences to the Beatles by releasing A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965). At the same time, it backed two expatriate North Americans in Britain, who had acquired screen rights to Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. For $1 million, UA backed Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli's Dr. No in 1963 and launched the James Bond franchise. The franchise outlived UA's time as a major studio, continuing half a century later. Other successful projects backed in this period included the Pink Panther series, which began in 1964, and Spaghetti Westerns, which made a star of Clint Eastwood. In 1964, the French subsidiary, Les Productions Artistes Associés, released its first production That Man from Rio. The second United Artists logo, used during the company's sale to Transamerica from 1967 until 1982. On the basis of its film and television hits, in 1967, Transamerica Corporation purchased 98 percent of UA's stock. Transamerica selected David and Arnold Picker to lead its studio. UA debuted a new logo incorporating the parent company's striped T emblem and the tagline "Entertainment from Transamerica Corporation". This wording was later shortened to "A Transamerica Company". The following year, in 1968, United Artists Associated was reincorporated as United Artists Television Distribution. UA released another Best Picture Oscar winner in 1967, In the Heat of the Night and a nominee for Best Picture, The Graduate, an Embassy production that UA distributed overseas. In 1970, UA lost $35 million; thus the Pickers were pushed aside for the return of Krim and Benjamin. Other successful pictures included the 1971 screen version of Fiddler on the Roof. However, the 1972 film version of Man of La Mancha was a failure. New talent was encouraged, including Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Sylvester Stallone, Saul Zaentz, Miloš Forman, and Brian De Palma. In 1973, United Artists took over the sales and distribution of MGM's films in Anglo-America until the latter bought UA in 1981 due to the massive losses from Heaven's Gate. Cinema International Corporation assumed international distribution rights for MGM's films and carried on to United International Pictures (made from CIC and UA's International assets being owned by partner MGM) in the 1980s. In 1975, Harry Saltzman sold UA his 50 percent stake in Danjaq, the holding-company for the Bond films. UA was to remain a silent partner, providing money, while Albert Broccoli took producer credit. Danjaq and UA remained the public co-copyright holders for the Bond series, and the 2006 Casino Royale remake shares the copyright with Columbia Pictures. UA released One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 a film which won the Best Picture Academy Award and earned $56 million. UA followed with the next two years' Best Picture Oscar winners, Rocky and Annie Hall. However, Transamerica was not pleased with UA's releases such as Midnight Cowboy and Last Tango in Paris that were rated X by the Motion Picture Association of America. In these instances, Transamerica demanded the byline "A Transamerica Company" be removed on the prints and in all advertising. At one point, the parent company expressed its desire to phase out the UA name and replace it with Transamerica Films. Krim tried to convince Transamerica to spin off United Artists, but he and Transamerica's chairman could not come to an agreement. Finally in 1978, following a dispute with Transamerica chief John R. Beckett over administrative expenses, UA's top executives, including chairman Krim, president Eric Pleskow, Benjamin and other key officers walked out. Within days they announced the formation of Orion Pictures, with backing from Warner. The departures concerned several Hollywood figures enough that they took out an ad in a trade paper warning Transamerica that it had made a fatal mistake in letting them go. Transamerica inserted Andy Albeck as UA's president. United had its most successful year with four hits in 1979: Rocky II, Manhattan, Moonraker, and The Black Stallion. The new leadership agreed to back Heaven's Gate, a project of director Michael Cimino, which vastly overran its budget and cost $44 million. This led to the resignation of Albeck who was replaced by Norbert Auerbach. United Artists recorded a major loss for the year due almost entirely to the box-office failure of Heaven's Gate. It destroyed UA's reputation with Transamerica and the greater Hollywood community. However, it may have saved the United Artists name, as UA's final head before the sale, Steven Bach, wrote in his book Final Cut that there was talk about renaming United Artists to Transamerica Pictures. In 1980, Transamerica decided to exit the film making business, and put United Artists on the market. Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. purchased the company in 1981. Tracinda also owned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1981, United Artists Classics, which had formerly been a division of the company that re-released library titles, was turned into a first-run art film distributor by Nathaniel T. Kwit, Jr. Tom Bernard was hired as the division's head of sales and Ira Deutchman as head of marketing. Later the division added Michael Barker and Donna Gigliotti. Deutchman left to form Cinecom, and Barker and Bernard formed Orion Classics and Sony Pictures Classics. The label mostly released foreign and independent films such as Ticket to Heaven and The Grey Fox, and occasional first-run reissues from the UA library, such as director's cuts of Head Over Heels and Cutter's Way. When Barker and Bernard left to form Orion, the label was briefly rechristened MGM/UA Classics before it ceased operating in the late 1980s. The merged companies became MGM/UA Entertainment Company and in 1982 began launching new subsidiaries: the MGM/UA Home Entertainment Group, MGM/UA Classics and MGM/UA Television Group. Kerkorian also bid for the remaining, outstanding public stock, but dropped his bid, facing lawsuits and vocal opposition. After the purchase, David Begelman's duties were transferred from MGM to MGM/UA. Under Begelman, MGM/UA produced unsuccessful films and he was fired in July 1982. Of the 11 films he put into production, by the time of his termination only Poltergeist proved to be a hit. As part of the consolidation, in 1983, MGM closed and marketed United Artists' long time headquarters at 729 Seventh Avenue in New York City. On August 7, 1985, Ted Turner announced that his Turner Broadcasting System would buy MGM/UA. As film licensing to television became more complicated, Turner saw the value of acquiring MGM's film library for his superstation WTBS. Under the terms of the deal, Turner would immediately sell United Artists back to Kerkorian. In anticipation, Kerkorian installed film producer Jerry Weintraub as the chairman and chief executive of United Artists Corporation in November 1985. Former American Broadcasting Company executive Anthony Thomopoulos was recruited as UA's president Weintraub's tenure at UA was brief; he left the studio in April 1986, replaced by former Lorimar executive Lee Rich. On March 25, 1986, Turner finalized his acquisition of MGM/UA in a cash-stock deal for $1.5 billion and renamed it MGM Entertainment Co. Kerkorian then repurchased most of United Artists' assets for roughly $480 million. As a result of this transaction, the original United Artists ceased to exist. Kerkorian, for all intents and purposes, created an entirely new company implementing the inherited assets; thus, the present day UA is not the legal successor to the original incarnation, though it shares similar assets. Logo from 1987 to 1994. Due to financial community concerns over his debt load, Ted Turner was forced to sell MGM's production and distribution assets to United Artists for $300 million on August 26, 1986. The MGM lot and lab facilities were sold to Lorimar-Telepictures. Turner kept the pre-May 1986 MGM film and television library, along with the Associated Artists Productions library, Gilligan's Island and its animated spin-offs, and the RKO Pictures films that United Artists had previously purchased. United Artists was renamed MGM/UA Communications Company (MUCC) and organized into three main units: one television production and two film units. David Gerber headed up the TV unit with Anthony Thomopoulous at UA, and Alan Ladd, Jr. at MGM. Despite a resurgence at the box office in 1987 with Spaceballs, The Living Daylights, and Moonstruck, MUCC lost $88 million. In April 1988, Kerkorian's 82 percent of MUCC was up for sale. MGM and UA were split by July. Eventually, 25 percent of MGM was offered to Burt Sugarman, and producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber, but the plan fell-through. Rich, Ladd, Thomopoulous and other executives grew tired of Kerkorian's antics and began to leave. By summer 1988, the mass exodus of executives started to affect productions, with many film cancellations. The 1989 sale of MGM/UA to the Australian company Qintex/Australian Television Network (owners of the Hal Roach library, which both MGM and UA had distributed in the 1930s) also fell-through, due to the company's bankruptcy later that year. On November 29, 1989, Turner Broadcasting System (the owners of the pre-May 1986 MGM library) attempted to buy entertainment assets from Tracinda Corporation, including MGM/UA Communications Co. (which also included United Artists, MGM/UA Home Video, and MGM/UA Television Productions), but failed. UA was essentially dormant after 1990 and released no films for several years. Eventually, in 1990, Italian promoter Giancarlo Parretti purchased UA. He purchased a small company and renamed it Pathé Communications anticipating a successful purchase of Pathé, the original French company. But his attempt failed and instead he merged MGM/UA with his former company, resulting in MGM-Pathé Communications Co. During the transaction, Parretti overstated his own financial condition and within a year defaulted to his primary lender, Crédit Lyonnais, which foreclosed on the studio in 1992. This resulted in the sale or closure of MGM/UA's string of US theaters. On July 2, 1992, MGM-Pathé Communications was again named Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. In an effort to make MGM/UA saleable, Credit Lyonnais ramped up production and convinced John Calley to run UA. Under his supervision, Calley revived the Pink Panther and James Bond franchises and highlighted UA's past by giving the widest release ever to a film with an NC-17 rating, Showgirls. Credit Lyonnais sold MGM in 1996, again to Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda, leading to Calley's departure. In 1999, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola attempted to buy UA from Kerkorian who rejected the offer. Coppola signed a production deal with the studio instead. In 1999, UA was repositioned as a specialty studio. MGM had just acquired The Samuel Goldwyn Company, which had been a leading distributor of arthouse films. After that name was retired, MGM folded UA into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. G2 Films, the renamed Goldwyn Company and MGM's specialty London operations, was renamed United Artists International. The distributorship, branding, and copyrights for two of UA's main franchises (Pink Panther, and Rocky) were moved to MGM, although select MGM releases (notably the James Bond franchise co-held with Danjaq, LLC and the Amityville Horror remake) carry a United Artists copyright. The first arthouse film to bear the UA name was Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her. United Artists hired Bingham Ray to run the company on September 1, 2001. Under his supervision, it produced and distributed many art films, including Bowling for Columbine, 2002's Nicholas Nickleby, and the winner of that year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, No Man's Land; and 2004's Undertow, and Hotel Rwanda, a co-production of UA and Lions Gate Entertainment, and made deals with companies like American Zoetrope and Revolution Films. Ray stepped down from the company in 2004. In 2005, a partnership of Comcast, Sony and several merchant banks bought United Artists and its parent, MGM, for $4.8 billion. Though only a minority investor, Sony closed MGM's distribution system and folded most of its staff into its own studio. The movies UA had completed and planned for release—Capote, Art School Confidential, The Woods, and Romance and Cigarettes—were reassigned to Sony Pictures Classics. In March 2006, MGM announced that it would return again as a domestic distribution company. Striking distribution deals with The Weinstein Company, Lakeshore Entertainment, Bauer Martinez Entertainment, and other independent studios, MGM distributed films from these companies. MGM continued funding and co-producing projects released in conjunction with Sony's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group on a limited basis and produced tent-poles for its own distribution company, MGM Distribution. Sony had a minority stake in MGM, but otherwise MGM and UA operated under the direction of Stephen Cooper (CEO and minority owner of MGM). On November 2, 2006, MGM announced that Tom Cruise and his long-time production partner Paula Wagner were resurrecting UA. This announcement came after the duo were released from a fourteen-year production relationship at Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures. Cruise, Wagner and MGM Studios created United Artists Entertainment LLC and the producer/actor and his partner owned a 30 percent stake in the studio, with the approval by MGM's consortium of owners. The deal gave them control over production and development. Wagner was named CEO, and was allotted an annual slate of four films with varying budget ranges, while Cruise served as a producer for the revamped studio and the occasional star. UA became the first motion picture studio granted a Writers Guild of America, West (WGA) waiver in January 2008 during the Writers' Strike. On August 14, 2008, MGM announced that Wagner would leave UA to produce films independently. Her output as head of UA was two films, both starring Cruise, Lions for Lambs and Valkyrie. Wagner's departure led to speculation that a UA overhaul was imminent. Since then, UA has served as a co-producer with MGM for two releases: the 2009 remake of Fame and Hot Tub Time Machine—these are the last original films to date to bear the UA banner. A 2011 financial report revealed that MGM reacquired its 100 percent stake in United Artists. MGM stated that it might continue to make new films under the UA brand. On September 22, 2014, MGM acquired a 55 percent interest in One Three Media and Lightworkers Media, both operated by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey and partly owned by Hearst Entertainment. The two companies were consolidated into a new television company, United Artists Media Group (UAMG), a revival of the UA brand. Burnett became UAMG's CEO and Downey became president of Lightworkers Media, the UAMG family and faith division. UAMG became the distributing studio for Mark Burnett Productions programming such as Survivor. UAMG was to form an over-the-top faith-based channel. On December 14, 2015, MGM announced that it had acquired the remaining 45 percent stake of UAMG it did not already own and folded UAMG into MGM Television. Hearst, Downey, and Burnett received stakes in MGM collectively valued at $233 million. Additionally, Burnett was promoted to CEO of MGM TV, replacing the outgoing Roma Khanna. The planned over-the-top faith service became a separate entity owned by MGM, Burnett, Downey and Hearst. By August 2018, MGM relaunched the United Artists brand as a digital production and distribution company aimed at creating original motion pictures, television programs, short-form content and digital series as well as building upon MGM's existing IP for distribution across digital platforms. Known as United Artists Digital Studios, the company's projects include mid-form original series Stargate Origins, interactive digital series #WarGames, and scripted series The Baxters (which is also the first for LightWorkers Media) and Weekend at Bernie's. In early October 2018, MGM and Walmart agreed to a partnership for MGM Digital to create exclusive content for Walmart's Vudu and Movies On Us service to begin showing in the first quarter 2019. MGM's and Annapurna Pictures' Mirror distribution venture was rebranded as United Artists Releasing on February 5, 2019, 100 years to the day of United Artists' founding. A majority of UA's post-1952 library is now owned by MGM, while the pre-1952 films (with few exceptions) are now either owned by other companies (such as Turner Entertainment) or are in the public domain. However, throughout the studio's history, UA acted more as a distributor than a film studio, crediting the copyright to the production company responsible. This explains why certain UA releases, such as High Noon (1952) and The Final Countdown (1980), are still under copyright but not owned by MGM.[original research?] The MGM titles which UA distributed from 1973 to 1982 are now owned by Turner. UA originally leased the home video rights to its films to Magnetic Video, the first home video company. Fox purchased Magnetic in 1981 and renamed it 20th Century-Fox Video that year. In 1982, 20th Century-Fox Video merged with CBS Video Enterprises (which earlier split from MGM/CBS Home Video after MGM merged with UA) giving birth to CBS/Fox Video. Although MGM owned UA around this time, UA's licensing deal with CBS/Fox was still in effect. However, the newly renamed MGM/UA Home Video started releasing some UA product, including UA films originally released in the mid-80s. Prior to MGM's purchase, UA licensed foreign video rights to Warner Bros. through Warner Home Video, in a deal that was set to expire in 1991. In 1986, the pre-1950 WB and the pre-May 1986 MGM film and television libraries were purchased by Ted Turner after his short-lived ownership of MGM/UA, and as a result CBS/Fox lost home video rights to the pre-1950 WB films to MGM/UA Home Video. When the deal with CBS/Fox (inherited from Magnetic Video) expired in 1989, the UA released films were released through MGM/UA Home Video. Before the Magnetic Video and Warner Home Video deals in 1980, United Artists had exclusive rental contacts with a small video label called VidAmerica in the US, and another small label called Intervision Video in the UK. for the home video release of 20 titles from the UA library (e.g. The Great Escape, Some Like It Hot, and Hair, along with a few pre-1950 WB titles). United Artists owned and operated two television stations between the years of 1968 and 1977. Legal ID's for the company would typically say "United Artists Broadcasting: an entertainment service of Transamerica Corporation," along with the Transamerica "T" logo. by Gray Television Licensed to Lorain. The call letters stand for United Artists Broadcasting, which founded the station. Kaiser Broadcasting owned a minor stake from 1975 to 1977 following the closure of crosstown WKBF. In 1977, Gaylord Entertainment Company acquired WUAB. Additionally, United Artists Broadcasting also held the permit to KUAB-TV in Houston, Texas, which would have possibly launched sometime around 1969 on channel 20. United Artists also owned one radio station, WWSH in Philadelphia, from 1970 to 1977. UAB/Transamerica left the broadcasting business in 1977 by selling WUAB to the Gaylord Broadcasting Company and WWSH to Cox Enterprises. United Artists Releasing (UAR), formerly Mirror (commonly, given its former use as the third party label), is a film distribution joint venture between Annapurna Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and MGM's Orion Pictures unit with offices in West Hollywood and Annapurna's offices in New York City's Soho neighborhood. The distributor also offers alternative services to the major studios and streaming companies with 10–14 films to be released each year. Mirror was founded as a film distribution joint venture between Annapurna and MGM in December 2017. This marks MGM's return to domestic distribution, in which they expect to have approximately six to eight releases per year starting in March 2018. Annapurna's existing distribution staff would be the initial staff of the joint venture. Films issued by MGM and Annapurna would be distributed respectively under their own names, while films released for third parties would use the Mirror releasing label. Death Wish was MGM's first release by the joint venture on March 2, 2018. Under the initial agreement, the distribution unit reported to MGM and Annapurna on their movies. By the end of January 2019, the distributor released eight titles total. The venture was rebranded as United Artists Releasing on February 5, 2019, 100 years to the day of United Artists' founding. Reasoning behind the move is to better compete against the major studios given their tentpole films that dictate the release calendar. Orion Pictures, an MGM company, would add its distribution staff and films to the venture as part of the change. Pam Kunath, a former Screen Gems executive, was appointed chief operating officer. A board of directors consisting of executives from the partner firms would oversee the three executives running UAR; Kunath, David Kaminow and Erik Lomis, Annapurna's president of marketing and president of distribution, respectively. Missing Link would be the first release under the UAR banner. ^ WB retained a pair of features from 1949 that they merely distributed, and all short subjects released on or after September 1, 1948, in addition to all cartoons released in August 1948. ^ Petski, Denise (July 21, 2017). "MGM Revives 'Stargate' Franchise With 'Stargate Origins' Digital Series & SVOD Platform – Watch The Teaser". Deadline. Retrieved September 13, 2018. ^ Woo, Elaine (September 29, 2011). "Mo Rothman dies at 92; found new audience for Chaplin". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-10-01. ^ a b Balio, Tino (March 2, 2009). United Artists, Volume 1, 1919–1950: The Company Built by the Stars, Volume 1 (2nd ed.). Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 29. ISBN 9780299230036. Retrieved September 2, 2017. ^ Cole, Robert J. "M-G-M is Reported Purchasing United Artists for $350 Million". Retrieved 2018-04-26. ^ McNary, Dave (December 14, 2015). "Mark Burnett Named President of MGM Television". Variety. Retrieved September 2, 2017. ^ Siklos, Richard (4 March 2007). "Mission Improbable: Tom Cruise as Mogul". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 October 2017. ^ james, devon (2016-06-02). ""The inmates are taking over the asylum."". devon james. Retrieved 2018-04-26. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa "History of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc". Funding Universe. Retrieved December 20, 2014. ^ "The Formation of Twentieth Century-Fox (20th Century Fox)". www.cobbles.com. Retrieved 2018-04-26. ^ Balio, Tino (March 2, 2009). United Artists: The Company that Changed the Film Industry (1st ed.). Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 226–227. ISBN 9780299114404. Retrieved September 2, 2017. ^ "US Sets Up Own Diskery Label". Billboard: 20. October 14, 1957. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved September 2, 2017. ^ "About: 1970-1979". EMI Archive Trust. Retrieved October 1, 2017. ^ McNeil, Alex (1996). Total television: the comprehensive guide to programming from 1948 to the present (4th ed.). New York: Penguin Books. p. 886. ISBN 9780140249163. Retrieved September 2, 2017. ^ "Movies from a.a.p.: Programs of quality from quality studios, Warner Bros. features and cartoons, Popeye cartoons". Archive.org. 1957. Retrieved October 1, 2017. ^ Schickel, Richard; Perry, George (September 9, 2008). You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story. Philadelphia.: Running Press. p. 255. ISBN 9780762434183. Retrieved 2 September 2017. ^ Kamp, David (October 2012). "Fifty Years of Bond, James Bond: The Greatest Film Franchise's Biggest Birthday". Vanity Fair. Retrieved October 1, 2017. In 1961, Broccoli worked his connections to secure a meeting in New York with Arthur Krim, the head of United Artists. Krim agreed to a budget of just over a million dollars for a James Bond movie. ^ a b Medavoy, Mike; Young, Josh (June 25, 2013). You're Only as Good as Your Next One: 100 Great Films, 100 Good Films, and 100 for Which I Should Be Shot. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 85–86. ISBN 9781439118139. Retrieved October 1, 2017. ^ Welkos, Robert W. "'Heaven's Gate': The film flop that reshaped Hollywood". latimes.com. Retrieved 25 December 2018. ^ Cole, Robert J. (May 16, 1981). "M-G-M is Reported Purchasing United Artists for $350 Million". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2015. ^ a b c d e f g Fleming, Mike Jr; Busch, Anita (September 22, 2014). "MGM Buys 55% Of Roma Downey And Mark Burnett's Empire; Relaunches United Artists". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved November 4, 2014. ^ a b Fabrikant, Geraldine (August 8, 1985). "Turner Acquiring MGM Movie Empire". The New York Times. Retrieved November 4, 2014. ^ "Handle With Care". American Film. Winter 1980. ^ Siskel, Gene (May 16, 1982). "Hellow, Sweet Art: Small Films Big Success in Chicago". Chicago Tribune. p. 141. (Subscription required (help)). ^ Harmetz, Aljean (July 13, 1982). "Begelman Removed as Chief of United Artists". The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2017. ^ "700 Bankers Trust Workers To Be Shifted to Jersey City". The New York Times. March 31, 1983. Retrieved August 17, 2015. ^ a b Prince, Stephen (2000). A New Pot of Gold: Hollywood Under the Electronic Rainbow, 1980 1989 (Paperback ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 14–16. ISBN 9780520232662. Retrieved September 2, 2017. ^ Dellugach, Al (November 12, 1985). "Weintraub Is New Chief of United Artists". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 4, 2014. ^ "New Head For United Artists". The New York Times. November 20, 1985. Retrieved January 26, 2015. ^ Harris, Kathryn (April 29, 1986). "Rich Resigns From Lorimar to Become Chairman of UA". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 26, 2015. ^ a b c Bart, Peter (May 1990). Fade Out: The Calamitous Final Days of MGM (1st ed.). New York: Morrow. pp. 236–238. ISBN 9780671710606. Retrieved September 2, 2017. (Subscription required (help)). ^ a b c Parsons, Patrick R. (April 5, 2008). Blue Skies: A History of Cable Television. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. p. 507. ISBN 9781592137060. Retrieved 1 October 2017. (Subscription required (help)). ^ Stefoff, Rebecca (1992). Ted Turner, Television's Triumphant Tiger. Ada, Oklahoma: Garrett Educational Corp. p. 55. ISBN 9781560740247. Retrieved October 1, 2017. (Subscription required (help)). ^ Storch, Charles (May 7, 1986). "Turner May Sell Equity In Company". Chicago Tribune. Pqasb.pqarchiver.com. Retrieved December 15, 2011. ^ Gendel, Morgan (June 7, 1986). "Turner Sells The Studio, Holds on to the Dream". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 15, 2011. ^ Balio, Tino (March 2, 2009). United Artists, Volume 2, 1951–1978: The Company That Changed the Film Industry. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 343. ISBN 9780299230135. Retrieved 2 September 2017. ^ a b c Fabrikant, Geraldine (June 7, 1986). "Turner To Sell Mgm Assets". The New York Times. Retrieved January 26, 2015. ^ "Turner, United Artists Close Deal". Orlando Sentinel. United Press International. August 27, 1986. Retrieved September 20, 2013. ^ Fabrikant, Geraldine (November 29, 1989). "Turner Buying MGM/UA". The New York Times. Retrieved October 2, 2014. ^ Bart, Peter (April 10, 2013). "MGM: Sometimes a Roaring Silence Is Best". Variety. Retrieved October 1, 2017. ^ "United Artists restructuring by MGM". CNNMoney. June 7, 1999. Retrieved 2015-01-26. ^ "DAILY NEWS **UPDATE**: Bingham Ray and Chris McGurk on the New UA; Solondz and Lipsky Stir "Storytelling" Rating Buzz". IndieWire. August 6, 2001. Retrieved April 7, 2019. ^ Hernandez, Eugene (January 9, 2001). "Shakeup at United Artists; Bingham Ray Exits Company". IndieWire. Retrieved April 7, 2019. ^ "MGM Puts Cruise in Charge of New United Artists". USA Today. November 2, 2006. Retrieved May 20, 2010. ^ Petrecca, Laura; Lieberman, David (November 2, 2006). "Tom Cruise, producing partner cut a deal with United Artists". Zap2it. Retrieved October 1, 2017. ^ a b c Fritz, Ben (March 23, 2012). "MGM regains full control of United Artists". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 26, 2015. ^ "SHOCKER! WGA To Announce Side Deal With Tom Cruise's United Artists; Now Studio Moguls Mad at MGM's Sloan". Deadline Hollywood. January 4, 2008. Retrieved May 20, 2010. ^ a b Fleming, Michael (13 August 2008). "Paula Wagner leaves UA". Variety. Retrieved 14 August 2008. ^ Cieply, Michael (April 23, 2008). "The Nazi Plot That's Haunting Tom Cruise and United Artists". The New York Times. Retrieved April 29, 2008. ^ "Valkyrie (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 13, 2009. ^ Highfill, Samantha (17 January 2015). "MGM is launching the United Artists Media Group (again)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 11, 2015. ^ McNary, Dave (December 14, 2015). "Mark Burnett Named President of MGM Television". Variety. Retrieved December 14, 2015. ^ Bond, Paul (August 14, 2018). "MGM's Revenue on the Rise, But Net Income Struggles". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 13, 2018. ^ Spangler, Todd (October 8, 2018). "Walmart's Vudu Orders MGM Shows for Free, Ad-Supported Video Service". Variety. Retrieved October 9, 2018. ^ a b c d e f Donnelly, Matt (February 5, 2019). "Annapurna, MGM Joint Distribution Venture Rebrands as United Artists Releasing". Variety. Retrieved February 5, 2019. ^ Fabrikant, Geraldine (May 31, 1988). "For MGM/UA, Bidders Are Scarce". The New York Times. ^ Bins, Chuck (December 23, 1980). "VCR revolution to provide wide selection for TV viewers". New Castle News. p. 8. ^ "This Month" (pdf). Panorama. October 8, 2013. Retrieved October 1, 2017. ^ Kopp, George (October 4, 1980). "Europe Moves Forward in Copyright Levy Push". Billboard: 87. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved October 1, 2017. ^ a b c d e Fleming Jr, Mike (February 5, 2019). "MGM, Annapurna Set Joint Venture To Theatrically Distribute Under United Artists Releasing Banner". Deadline. Retrieved February 6, 2019. ^ a b McNary, Dave (October 31, 2017). "MGM, Annapurna Form U.S. Distribution Partnership". Variety. Retrieved February 6, 2019. ^ a b c d Galuppo, Mia (February 5, 2019). "MGM, Annapurna Team for Distribution Label United Artists Releasing". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 6, 2019. ^ "MGM Ramps Up Theatrical Distribution & Pacts With Annapurna; Easy Set Up To Roll Out Next Bond Film". ^ Jr, Mike Fleming; Lodderhose, Diana (February 11, 2017). "MGM Headlocks World Rights To 'Fighting With My Family' In $17.5M Deal: Berlin". Deadline. Retrieved February 7, 2019. ^ Ellingson, Annlee (February 5, 2019). "MGM, Annapurna revive United Artists for joint distribution venture". L.A. Biz. American City Business Journals. Retrieved February 14, 2019. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony; D'Alessandro, Anthony (2019-02-15). "'Bond 25' Looks To Shake Up Easter 2020". Deadline. Retrieved 2019-02-16. ^ "'Legally Blonde 3' Sets Valentine's Day 2020 Release Date". June 7, 2018. Retrieved June 12, 2018. Bach, Steven. Final Cut. New York: Morrow, 1985. Balio, Tino. United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976. Balio, Tino. United Artists: The Company That Changed the Film Industry. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. Berg, A. Scott. Goldwyn. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988. Gabler, Neal. An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood. New York: Crown Publishers, 1988. Schickel, Richard. D.W. Griffith: An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983. Thomson, David. Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick. New York: Alfred A, Knopf, 1992. Wikimedia Commons has media related to United Artists. United Artists Corporation Records 1919–1965 — at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.

2019-04-19T12:16:00Z

http://wiki-offline.jakearchibald.com/wiki/United_Artists

After each presentation of Best Festival Ever, the audience join us for a glass of wine and a conversation with an expert who helps explain how some of the systems science and resilience concepts from the show are used in real-life contexts. We are excited to announce the guest scientists for our Seymour Centre season from Wed 31 May – Sat 3 June. Tickets available here. Among the seemingly disparate issues that concern many of us are how our retirement years will be affected by the prevailing financial markets and other economic conditions, and the implications of climate change for the long-term prospects of human life on this planet. Dr Michael Harré’s research into complex adaptive systems has applications in both of these areas, among many others. He studies how systems as diverse as financial markets and environmental ecosystems evolve and are affected by variations in human behaviour, with the aim of allowing us to better manage these systems and to thrive as a society in the complex environments in which we live. Dr. Joseph Lizier is an ARC DECRA fellow, and Senior Lecturer in Complex Systems in the Faculty of Engineering and IT. Dr. Lizier studies how biological and bio-inspired systems process information. From human relationships to the body’s neural networks to the internet, almost everything in the world can be conceptualised as a network, says Dr Mahendra Piraveenan. He studies how complex networks operate, and how this knowledge can be applied to such diverse challenges as arresting contagious disease outbreaks and designing better software. Dr Ramil Nigmatullin uses computational and analytic techniques to study complex systems near criticality and far from equilibrium. He seeks connections between seemingly disparate complex phenomena using the notion of statistical mechanical universality. He is also interested in quantum technologies, in particular, in the questions of robustness and scalability of quantum computers. The ever-erudite Rob Reid dropped me an email a little while ago asking some questions for a paper he’s writing on games and performance. Rob is one of the architects of Pop-Up Playground, the Melbourne gathering that has brought together a whole fascinating world of participatory makers, from digital gaming to interactive theatre to roleplaying to escape rooms, and on. It felt like a good opportunity to wrap some thinking around Boho’s practice, where it’s come from, how we think about our work, what we’re aiming for next. So, here goes. How do you approach the design process for your interactive work? Boho’s process really centres around working with research scientists – typically climate or systems scientists, but also urban designers, epidemiologists… Our shows usually draw on concepts from sustainability science, systems thinking, game theory, network theory, complex systems science, resilience – these fields which are often gathered together under a broad heading of ‘complexity’. Basically, we’re looking at any sort of system in which lots of different elements are interconnected, and what arises from those interconnections. That’s the raw material for our games. Working with scientists, we’ll go back and forth with them, building up our understanding of the system – whatever that system is – and creating a systems model. That model – which usually looks like a flowchart diagram, plus a whole series of maps, lists, other visualisations – becomes the basis for the show we build. An example of the kinds of systems models we construct / adapt in our work. We then go through that systems model, looking for key linkages and systems dynamics we can turn into games. In the last couple of years, we’ve started breaking things down into two kinds of interactive activities – what we’ve dubbed ‘skilltesters’ and ‘games’. ‘Games’, in this parlance, involve choice – any kind of decision-making, resource allocation, negotiation, etc. Anything where the audience needs to predict how the system will behave, and make a call about what they’d like to see happen. Things where they have to use their strategic brain. The other kind are ‘skilltesters’ – games where the purpose is just to win. Can you fly this bird over here holding it between two sticks, can you sort these counters out into piles of different colours in less than 30 seconds, etc… These games are often more active, more playful, and we use them to give us inputs into our system model, so we can read out different scenarios. But we don’t hinge big choices on them. Most shows will have a mix of these kinds of activities – some games where the audience is making key decisions, thinking through problems and coming up with strategic solutions, and some skilltesters where we’re introducing ideas more playfully, giving them a quick input into the show without too much weight being placed upon their choices. How do you account for the unexpected in your work? Look, we’re not improvisers – we build a structure with some different pathways, some resilience to shock etc, and then we guide audiences through it. There’s room for discussion, but in some senses there’s still the chance that the audience can break the show. That said, one major advantage we have in building an experience is that we’re very transparent with our aims – ‘we’re here to talk about this concept, we’ve made these games that do that, here’s how it’s gonna work’. The performers are usually playing themselves, facilitating and helping the audience. So, for example, when Nathan was running a piece of ours called Volleyball Farm for a Forum for the Future event in London in Nov, the game broke because we’d never calibrated it for more than 5 players. But Nathan was able to discuss the intention behind playing the game, what point we wanted to illustrate, and that worked almost as well. We go for gentle, non-confrontational, casual. Me, I get more anxious and stressed as a participant in interactive shows than anyone, and we make putting the audience at ease the key watchword. So you’ll be met – in say a foyer, if we’re doing it in a theatre – and you’ll be told what’s going to happen, and you’ll be guided to a table, or to your seat – given a little more of a heads up about what’s going to happen – and then you’ll be introduced to the facilitators, and then you get your hands on whatever it is. Gentle, all the time. and so on. Not always appropriate, but it’s nice to have a clear, logical structure for how information goes. The experience is often divided roughly into three different forms: games/interactive components, theatre/narrative, and performance lecture. We’d tend to cycle between these three forms rapidly over the course of a show, with the weight shifting between them as we build to the end. How does narrative/mood/meaning emerge from the experience of your work? It all happens in the post-show discussions! Well, mostly. We usually build a show with a post-show chat built in – a conversation with a guest scientist or an expert in the field we’re discussing. Then we’ll have a glass of wine, and a really informal conversation with the audience. That’s where the ideas underlying the show get unpacked, that’s our chance to dive in deeper. Of course, that’s not to say that the show itself doesn’t also bring out the ideas, but we think that explicit conversation afterwards is really important. What/who have been your influences? We started off making interactive work in Canberra with no-one else around doing it – not in the way we were, anyway. We knew we weren’t the only ones making it, but we couldn’t easily find out who else was out there, and what their stuff looked like. So we made a lot of stuff up. Our initial impetus was to do computer games live on stage. We adopted frameworks and conventions from old computer games, and adapted them to stage. Hacked gaming controllers (console controllers, joysticks) where the audience controlled the actors live onstage. Our first piece was a game called Playable Demo, where the audience piloted the actor through a short scene in the style of an old LucasArts adventure game, using a torchbeam as a mouse cursor on stage. A little deeper into our practice, we’ve taken a lot from some of our closer collaborators. Applespiel, obviously, and Coney. Applespiel for their actual genuine expertise in participatory theatre (as opposed to our make-it-up-as-you-go style) and Coney for the superb philosophy and vocabulary around how a playing audience could and should be treated. Finally, we’ve learned a lot from scientists, particularly those working in the field of participatory co-modelling. This is a form of practice whereby scientists collaboratively construct a working model of a social-ecological system – for example, a region of farmland, or a river system. Then they bring together stakeholders from that system to discuss and debate issues facing it, with the model as a platform to facilitate discussion and compromise. Their tools for audience engagement may be a little rudimentary, but the sophistication of the underlying models they’re using put most theatre-makers to shame. Young Boho. Jack & David in A Prisoner’s Dilemma, circa 2007. What drew you to working in participatory/playful performance forms? We took that format and combined it with the science of Game Theory to make our first show, A Prisoner’s Dilemma. Game Theory is a great tool for game-makers because it breaks real world scenarios into well-defined mathematical structures. We created a whole series of micro-games based on different Game Theory thought experiments (the Prisoner’s Dilemma, Chicken, Dictator, Ultimatum) and threaded a Harold Pinter-esque narrative through them. That show really placed us in a very particular niche: ‘interactive science-theatre’. What even is that. But it was good to be able to label ourselves as something for a couple of years, even though now we’ve spilled out in a lot of different directions. Food for the Great Hungers, 2009. What’s the benefit/advantage of playing with a participating audience? Ahhh, well, the trick is what we all know now, you and me and all the artists making participatory theatre, which is: the audience is always participating – it’s just a question of how. Sitting passively in the dark watching and not talking is a form of participation – we’re just so trained by theatre conventions that we take it for granted and don’t realise it’s a choice, a compact we all (artists and audiences) agree on. Same with making site-specific stuff – you realise that the theatre venue isn’t a necessity, it’s an option – you use it sometimes when the moment calls for it, at other times you let it go. Whatever level of participation the audience engage in, that’s a trade-off. If the audience are moving around outdoors experiencing your work, they’re feeling much more exhileration, excitement, there’s opportunities for happy accidents and beautiful unique experiences, but you run the risk of losing their focus, of them being distracted, feeling lost or confused. If the audience are seated quietly and watching a well-lit stage, that’s ideal for delivering complex information and making sure everyone sees the same thing, but you’re talking at them rather than having a conversation, and you run the risk of boring them / annoying them if they feel like they can’t leave. We (Boho) choose the level of interaction based on what we want their experience to be, what we’re talking about, what we want to discuss. If we want to talk with them about how tipping points or regime shifts occur, maybe that’s best if we just explain it as clearly as we can, using whatever theatre imagery works best. But if we want to illustrate the challenges facing local government when they’re evacuating small communities from a potential volcano eruption, maybe we want to give them the experience of trying to make decisions and negotiate compromises with imperfect information. True Logic of the Future, 2010. Pic by ‘pling. What mechanics do you use to encourage and support player agency? Typically our games are quite short, and there are lots of them throughout a show, interspersed with narrative / storytelling moments, or micro-lectures. That means we can guide the audience through the aesthetic experience quite closely, rather than setting it up at the beginning of the night and just letting them roam free. That gives us a better chance of managing certain player dynamics – reining in hot players who are dominating the games, or drawing in quieter, more passive players. But player agency? Not our highest priority, honestly. We’ve usually created quite a curated experience, and though each game is completely interactive, and the whole show has a lot of different states and outcomes (usually in the thousands, if you tally it all up), we’re not running a LARP – we have quite a detailed sense of where we want the audience to go, and we’re happy to take them there. So Boho have just been in Stockholm for the last five weeks, from the last warm burst of summer through to the first winter snow. We’ve been working with Swedish NGO Miljöverkstan, on the second phase of our collaborative project Democratic Nature. Democratic Nature is a development of the model we developed at University College London over 2011-12, and tested out for the first time with Best Festival Ever. The format of the work is based on the methodology of ‘participatory co-modelling’ – a practice whereby scientists work with community members to map and model a social-ecological system, and then use that model to help facilitate discussions and conversations about that system. Our goal was to try to bring some of the skills we’ve developed making interactive experiences to bear on this process. Best Festival Ever was our first full exploration in this area – building a playable model of a fictional music festival. Democratic Nature is the next step for us – using these same skills to map and model the real world system of Flaten. Flaten is a nature reserve just south of Stockholm. It’s a beautiful lake, surrounded by a forest of oak, pine and spruce trees, right on the edge of Stockholm city. In the 1930s, it became a hub for young Stockholmers learning to swim, and it’s still a major recreational destination. It’s been a space for various groups to set up camp and live in, legally or illegally. It’s the home of various endangered species, insects and birds. And it’s coming under increasing pressure as Stockholm suffers a housing crisis in the wake of increasing migration and asylum seekers. In January – February this year, we undertook the first phase of this new process: research, meeting with experts, mapping, making new game devices and talking about possible structures for the new work. This month, our focus was on building a prototype. Over the month, we constructed a full working version of the show, which we tested with three scratch audiences this last week. Democratic Nature consists of a few key games: a sequence we call ‘Worldbuilding’, in which the audience play through the history of the region, from the end of the last ice age through to the modern day. There’s a game looking at the competition between oaks and spruce in Flaten forest, a game looking at the algal blooms that impacted the lake in the late 1990s, a game about Flaten beach on a summer day, and our collective favourite; a game we call ‘Governance’ about managing the nature reserve. We’re really fond of the Governance game – it’s a nice mechanism that we haven’t used before, in which the audience undertake a number of different projects scattered throughout the room simultaneously. It’s a nice mix of cooperation and competition, and it’s generated some interesting discussions in the scratch shows. We were lucky enough to be joined this time by two of our favourite collaborators: sound designer Nick McCorriston, who produced a soundtrack based on field recordings from the Flaten area, and designer Gillian Schwab, who constructed an incredible array of set and props. Following three scratch showings of the prototype, we’ve now wrapped up this phase of the work, and we’re heading out of Sweden on to the next thing. We’re planning to be back in Sweden in mid-2017 (Scandinavian summer!) to undertake the final development; tightening and calibrating the work, and then working with local artists to translate it into Swedish. So the Best Festival Ever team is in Melbourne this week, currently doing some script tweaks and prop fixes, and tightening the screws on the work in preparation for our season here next week. Three years after Arts House supported an early development of the work in 2013, we’re finally bringing the full show here, as part of the Performing Climates program. This is the fourth city in three countries we’ve brought Best Festival Ever to, and coming up on our fiftieth show. It’s pretty exciting to get to bring the work to Melbourne, to share it with some of our favourite collaborators and supporters. It’s nice to have a few days to dive back into the script, to really drill down into some key questions around what exactly we want to communicate from systems science, and how we can best frame these key ideas. And, of course, to get to play with our music festival storyline, and make sure it’s exactly as delightful and ridiculous as it should be. The most exciting part from our perspective, though, is the post-show conversations with scientists. This is a really key feature of the show, where we unpack some of the ideas from climate and systems science that have informed the making of the work. This season, we’re honoured to be joined by scientists including Mark Burgman (University of Melbourne), Dave Winkler (CSIRO), Anne-Marie Grisogono (Flinders University), Kevin Grove (Florida International University), Lauren Rickard (RMIT) and David Batten (CSIRO). Mark Burgman is head of the school of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Conservation Biology. He works on ecological modelling, conservation biology and risk assessment. CSIRO scientist Dave Winkler works across radioastronomy and compututational molecular design. He’s published on nanotechnology and regenerative medicine, and his work is often concerned with applying the tools of small molecule research to complex biological systems. Joining us from Adelade is physicist Anne-Marie Grisogono, currently an adjunct professor in the Engineering Faculty of Flinders University. Anne-Marie worked for more than 20 years with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, applying complex systems science to the defence problems faced by Australian troops during the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. Resilience experts Lauren Rickards and Kevin Grove join us from RMIT and Florida International University, respectively. Both have worked applying resilience thinking to disaster governance and emergency management in areas such as the Caribbean, and cases such as the Hazelwood Mine fire in Victoria. CSIRO systems analyst David Batten works with computer models to tackle real world problems such as Australia’s electricity, transport and water systems. He’s written ten books exploring how modelling and simulation can help us get to grips with real world complexity. These discussions unpack some of the ways scientists use systems thinking to get to grips with the complex challenges facing us today. For us as artists, Best Festival Ever was always intended to provide the platform for these sorts of conversations, and it’s pretty exciting for us to be able to bring on board scientists and thinkers of this calibre. If you’re keen to come along, you can head to the Facebook event for more details of time and place, and to grab tickets.

2019-04-22T12:45:56Z

http://www.bohointeractive.com/category/uncategorized/

One of the purposes of Plato’s Republic is to put forth a conception of the ‘just state’. Plato describes how such a state would be organized, who would govern it, what sort of education the children would have, and so on. He goes into great detail, laying out ideas that may at times strike the modern reader as wrongheaded, petty, or even immoral. Sir Karl Popper argued in The Open Society and Its Enemies that Plato’s ideal state is totalitarian, with little freedom of expression allowed, little diversity, and a perverse commitment to a Spartan-like regimentation of social life. Others see evidence of democracy in Plato’s description, for instance in the egalitarianism that characterizes certain aspects of his educational program. I want to ask to what extent Plato’s vision is still relevant – whether it has anything valuable to say to us. And is the Platonic state just or unjust? Is it entirely impracticable, or are there elements that can and should be put into practice? How adequate is the theory of justice on which it is founded? After discussing these questions I will briefly consider the form a modern version of this utopia might take. “To do one’s own business and not to be a busybody is justice.” (Republic 433b.) Although the modern reader may find it odd, this is the definition of justice Plato offers. The idea is that justice consists in fulfilling one’s proper role – realizing one’s potential whilst not overstepping it by doing what is contrary to one’s nature. This applies both to the just state and to the just individual. In the just state, each class and each individual has a specific set of duties, a set of obligations to the community which, if everyone fulfils them, will result in a harmonious whole. When a person does what he is supposed to do, he receives whatever credit and remuneration he deserves, and if he fails to do his task, he is appropriately punished. Thus justice is “the having and doing of one’s own and what belongs to oneself” (434a). Excess and deficiency of any kind are unjust. In this formulation the Platonic definition of justice seems plausible. A thief, for example, is unjust because he wants to have what is not his own. A doctor who does not care about curing his patients of illnesses can be called unjust because he is disregarding his proper role. A murderer acts unjustly since he deprives his victim of that which rightly belongs to him, namely his life. In general, unjust people either do not realize the virtues and duties proper to their situation in life, or treat someone worse than he deserves. Similarly, an unjust state fails to accomplish the functions of a state. According to Plato, these functions of the state include making possible the conditions under which everyone can feed, clothe and shelter themselves, as well as seek the Good. Plato’s conception of justice is informed by his conviction that everything in nature is part of a hierarchy, and that nature is ideally a vast harmony, a cosmic symphony, every species and every individual serving a purpose. In this vision, anarchy is the supreme vice, the most unnatural and unjust state of affairs. The just state, then, like nature, is hierarchical: individuals are ranked according to their aptitudes, and definitively placed in the social hierarchy. The individual soul, too, is hierarchical: the appetitive part is inferior to the spirited part, which is inferior to the rational. Yet each has a necessary role to play. Reason should govern the individual, but the appetites must also to an extent be heeded if the person’s soul is to be harmonious and not in conflict with itself. And if every aspect of the soul accomplishes its task well, or fittingly, the result is necessarily a ‘moderate’ and ordered state of affairs. The virtuous individual has a well-ordered soul, which is to say that he knows what justice is and acts according to his knowledge. He knows his place in the state; he knows what his aptitudes are and he puts them into practice. He also adheres to the dictates of reason, doing everything in moderation. The Platonic worldview is quite foreign to the modern liberal democratic world. We are accustomed to a dynamic, free, at times chaotic society, which knows almost nothing of rigid hierarchies. People are not ranked according to their intrinsic value or their value to society, and any philosophy that reeks of a caste system is decisively rejected. We are not committed to analogies between nature and society; and we do not think of the world as a harmony, even ideally. We like order, but we do not consider it supreme among values. We admire ambitious, driven people, rather than those who are at peace with themselves or do everything in moderation. In general, our culture places little emphasis on a specific ideal, choosing instead to censure types of behavior which interfere with other people’s pursuit of happiness. Plato, however, would consider our ideal state unjust, decadent, anarchical. Plato lived in an Athens that to his chagrin was in danger of losing its cultural and military preeminence, and was succumbing to disintegrating influences from abroad and from within. He had lived through the terrible time of the Peloponnesian War with Sparta, and the Thirty Tyrants, and therefore had intimate experience of the horrors of anarchy. In short, he saw an older, supposedly better, world crumbling around him, and he wanted to understand what had gone wrong and how it could be fixed. The result was that he emphasized order and homogeneity, and upheld the claims of the state over the claims of the individual, while thinking that in a just state full of just individuals, the laws of the former would harmonize with the desires of the latter. For Plato, justice was to be sought in the old, in the static – the assimilation of the individual into the community – not in the new or the dynamic. While Plato did value freedom, he did so much less than we moderns do, as is evidenced in his not emphasizing it in his discussions of justice. Thus, despite whatever superficial similarities there may be between Plato’s idea of justice and our own, they are fundamentally different, since his worldview is diametrically opposed to ours. In a particular case, such as that of a murder, Plato might judge as we do (largely because we seem to have intuitive ideas of how humans ought to be treated). However, both his explicit definitions of justice and the deeper intuitions that inspire his definitions differ from ours. We conceive of justice as oriented around ideas of individual freedom and the priority of the individual over the community, and we consider it sometimes not only permissible but even meritorious to disobey the state’s laws if they violate certain intuitions about individual rights. Plato’s concept of justice is instead inspired by his conviction that the collective takes ethical precedence over the individual, that there is a cosmic order into which each person is supposed to fit, and that virtue, and to an extent duty, is far more important than rights. The differences become apparent when we look at larger scales than individuals’ transgressions. Many would agree with Plato that theft is unjust or that the professional who ignores his duties can be called ‘unjust’, and also that tyranny is unjust. But in this last case our respective judgments are based on different reasons. We would say that the tyrant’s injustice consists in his suppressing freedom, killing innocent people, and disregarding democracy and self-determination. Plato, on the other hand, would say that the tyrant is unjust insofar as his acts promote anarchy and prevent his subjects from seeking the Good and living in harmony with themselves and the community. The tyrant upsets the natural order of things. Another illustration of the difference in our outlooks is in our conceptions of the ideal or just person. According to Plato, the ideal person is a philosopher, since his wisdom means his soul is in complete harmony with itself. The philosopher’s rational faculty governs his passions and appetites, never allowing them free rein, but still respecting their claims on him and indulging them when expedient. He has knowledge of himself and society; he knows what it is to be virtuous; he has a certain amount of equanimity, and he never loses control over himself. By contrast, Plato’s unjust person is divided against himself, torn between his passions and appetites, and has no respect for reason, which alone could unify his soul such that he would be an individual in the literal sense of the word ‘in-dividual’. Our notion of the ideal person is far less specific than Plato’s. Like Plato’s, it does, to an extent, incorporate the notion of ‘virtue’; but for us virtue is conceived as treating others well rather than as functioning healthily within a community. Our ideal can be called more ‘relational’, in that it emphasizes how others should be treated rather than emphasizing the character of one’s psyche. Given these differences, one obvious question is which concept of justice (or more fundamentally, which worldview) is better, Plato’s or ours? I have elaborated on neither, merely sketching them. Still, let me suggest an answer: neither Plato’s nor our own is totally satisfactory, but each has its strengths. The most defensible notion of justice, socially or individually, would be a combination of the two, selecting the strengths from each and reconciling them. It would emphasize both the importance of community and the importance of the individual, while succumbing neither to the potential totalitarianism of the Republic, nor to the excessive individualism of modern culture. In the following I’ll briefly describe Plato’s utopia, then consider if it would be desirable to put it into practice. Every reader of the Republic is told that Plato’s intention in discussing the just state is to illuminate the nature of the just soul, for he argues that they are analogous. The state is the soul writ large, so to speak. For example, the divisions of the state correspond to divisions of the soul. But since the soul is difficult to analyze, in the dialogue Socrates says that he will first speculate on the state, and then rely on his speculations to illuminate the nature of justice in the individual. Superficially, it appears that the lengthy discussion of the state is therefore primarily an interpretative device. Clearly, though, it is more than that. Plato may not have believed that his utopia would work in practice, or even that it would be desirable to institute some of his more radical suggestions, but he certainly attributed some value to his discussion independent of its illustrative function. Judging by Socrates’ language, it’s reasonable to suppose that Plato would have liked to have seen some of his ideas actually implemented in a city-state. He was dissatisfied with the city-states of his day, and was proposing an alternative. So let’s look at its details. In Plato’s ideal state there are three major classes, corresponding to the three parts of the soul. The guardians, who are philosophers, govern the city; the auxiliaries are soldiers who defend it; and the lowest class comprises the producers (farmers, artisans, etc). The guardians and auxiliaries have the same education, which begins with music and literature and ends with gymnastics. The arts are censored for educational purposes: for example, any poetic writings which attribute ignoble doings to the gods cannot be taught. Only poetry which nourishes the budding virtues of the pupils can be part of the curriculum. Similarly, musical modes which sound sorrowful, soft, or feminine, are banished from the education of the guardians. This apparently leaves only the Dorian and Phrygian modes, of which . Socrates approves because they incite the listener to courage, temperance, and harmonious living. Certain instruments, such as the flute, are also forbidden from the ideal city-state, as are certain poetic meters, since Socrates associates them with vice. Indeed, then, life in Plato’s ideal state has affinities with life under a totalitarian government. The laws which Socrates suggests are repressive. People are allowed to have only one occupation – namely that for which they are best suited by nature. Evidently there is no division between the public and the private. Only what is conducive to temperate living is encouraged, and excess and vice of any kind are strongly discouraged. Neither wealth nor poverty is permitted, as each leads to vice. Plato’s thoughts on women and children may be even more horrifying to the average liberal. He argues via Socrates that the traditional form of the family should be done away with. Men should have women and children in common, such that no man knows who his children are or has excessive love for one woman in particular. Even mothers are not allowed to know who their children are. Their children are taken from them after birth, and they are given other children to suckle as long as they have milk. More congenial to modern sentiment is Plato’s suggestion that women in the guardian class should receive the same education as men, so that the best of them can assist in war and governance. There is no private property or money except insofar as it is necessary, among the lower classes; therefore there will be no disputes about what belongs to whom – just as there will be no disputes about which women belong to whom, and who one’s children are. In general, the goal Plato is aiming at is that everyone thinks of everyone else as a member of their family, such that there is little or no strife between people and they all desire the same thing – which is harmony, temperance, gentleness toward fellow-citizens and harshness toward people from other states – a unified front on all issues, as it were. The health of the community is the overriding principle in all spheres of life. All of Plato’s radical prescriptions follow from that one principle. What are we to make of these ideas? What should we take from them? Do they represent a mere historical curiosity – a way of gaining insight into Plato’s mind or into his culture – or do they have independent philosophical and political merit? My opinion is that their obvious totalitarianism makes it a very good thing that Plato’s just state was never constructed. This is where my fidelity to modern ideologies shows itself. I think that Hegel was right in his assessment of liberalism: it has so to speak ‘discovered’ the importance of subjectivity, and thus serves as a needed corrective to totalitarian excesses. The individual is not ethically subordinate to the community; her health, and especially her freedom, are no less important than communal harmony. Indeed, unless a person feels free, he cannot be psychologically healthy. Plato underestimates the value of self-determination: its foundational importance to self-respect and hence to justice, even in his sense of the term. Plato’s guardians perhaps exhibit the virtues and enjoy the satisfactions of self-determination; but everyone else in Plato’s utopia is to be forced by the philosopher-king(s) to live their lives in a fundamentally unfree (non self-determining) way. They will thus lack complete self-respect and contentment: the mere knowledge that they are in an inferior position relative to others will breed discontent, which will upset their psychological equilibrium, the harmony of their faculties and desires with each other, and with their place in the world. In other words it will set each of them at war with himself and with the state. Accordingly, as Plato himself implies, this will make for unjust individuals. By denying most of its citizens true freedom – the opportunity to discover themselves and their talents unhindered by oppressive laws promulgated by an oppressive regime – Plato’s utopia will make their dissatisfaction with themselves and the community inevitable, which is bad not only in itself but also because it means people are unjust, ie self-divided. Thus the Platonic utopia makes impossible the very virtues it was meant to promote. The need for recognition is a basic psychological need. People want to recognize themselves in their activities, in the world, in other people’s reactions to them. But no one who is conscious of oppressive restrictions on his behavior can think that his deepest sense of himself is being recognized by the community which censors him. Rather, he may be full of resentment, tormented by repressed desires, and desperate to break free of the shackles and spontaneously affirm himself – to actualize his full, rich sense of who he is and wants to be. No one can feel good about himself unless his activities grow out of his own ideals and self-perceptions. They must emerge organically from his spontaneous sense of himself. Genuine recognition is impossible except on the basis of freedom, so any social order that does not allow freedom among its participants is inherently unstable, having the potential for rebellion built into it. Every major culture in history, then, has been erected on somewhat tenuous and transient foundations; but Plato’s utopia in particular would soon collapse. Plato was right that the interests of the individual ultimately coincide with the interests of the community, for a community is only as healthy as the people who participate in it, and vice versa. Where he went wrong was in failing to understand the prerequisites of the self-harmony that he rightly thought constituted individual and communal happiness – the prerequisites being freedom, and the perception that one’s sense of self is appreciated by others. Modern liberal ideologies over-compensate for this deficiency in Plato. They have an impoverished view of what freedom is and why it is good, for they exalt the concept of an isolated, ahistorical individual who needs nothing but protection from other people rather than genuine and durable ties with them. Protection is of secondary importance: the essence of freedom, the reason why it is desired in the first place, is that it is inseparable from interpersonal union – from mutual recognition of each person’s self-determined activities as being his, as being him. In a truly free society there would be no atomization, and no artificial legal barriers to interpersonal understanding and recognition, to communal self-realization. People live in and through the community. Far from needing protection from it, they feel deprived without it. Socrates remarks in the Republic that although his (Plato’s) utopia may be unrealizable, it is useful as an ideal or a standard by which we can criticize existing institutions. While I disagree with Plato’s version of utopia, I agree that it is a worthy task to formulate social ideals. In doing so, we at least posit an ideal state we can strive to realize, even if in its final details this is impossible. With that in mind, I suggest that something like properly democratic communism is the ideal we should use to critique the present, since it reconciles Plato’s emphasis on the community with the modern emphasis on individual freedom. Indeed, Marx’s ideal of a communist utopia is not merely ‘Marxist’; it is heir to both the Platonic and the liberal utopias. This statement may seem paradoxical, if only because Platonism and liberalism are diametrically opposed, as we have seen. But consider what is involved in Marx’s ideal society. First of all, classes would not exist. That is, Marx claims in the Communist Manifesto (1848) that after a period of state socialism and redistribution of wealth, separate classes will no longer exist and the state will no longer be needed. Marx’s classless utopia is not as blatantly incompatible with Platonism as it might seem, since, for one thing, the Marxist definition of ‘class’ is very different from the Platonic. Plato incorporates a fusion of political and economic criteria: the lowest class is involved in productive economic activities but has no political power, while the highest class has all the political power, but no economic activity. For Marx, on the other hand, the definition of class is exclusively economic, based on the group’s role in the process of production. For Marx there are basically two classes, namely the capitalists and the workers. My points are, first, that rather than contradicting Plato, Marx adopts a different starting-point. Second, while Marxist ideology does contradict Platonism in its classless and popularist ideals, it does so on the basis of a deep sympathy with Plato’s goals. Both are concerned with the health and wholeness of the community, the durability of its social structures, the happiness of its citizens, and the justice of its political and economic arrangements. To that extent, communism is a descendant of Plato’s republicanism: it too is an ideology built on the conviction that the community is an organic whole and not merely an aggregate of individuals, and therefore that social structures – the relational ties between people – take priority over the behavior of atomized individuals, both in a scientific analysis of society, and also in the formulation of an ethical ideal. Where Marx’s ideal state differs from Plato’s is not in its goal or inspiration, then, but in its means of realizing its goal, or more accurately, in the structures it posits as constitutive of that goal – viz, democracy, universal economic and political cooperation, the absence of coercive social mechanisms, and so forth. These political structures have more in common with liberalism than Platonism, as they place great emphasis on the freedom of the individual. Marx does reject liberal talk of rights and the rule of law, but he does so precisely because he understands that such talk is symptomatic of the incomplete realization of the liberal goal of self-determination. To achieve his purer vision of liberalism, Marx thinks that capitalism, together with its ideologies exalting private property with its corresponding laws, rights, and so on, must be transcended, as it suppresses and dehumanizes people. Despite the differences between Plato’s conception of justice and our own, elements of his philosophy can be reconciled with elements of our liberal democratic ideology. I also suggested that Plato’s ‘communitarian’ intuition was largely right, even if his means of realizing it were dangerously wrong. Also, the ideal individual should indeed be self-unified and have self-control, and Plato was right that, on the whole, such individuals will not arise except in socially harmonious conditions. Marx retained some of Plato’s intuitions while discarding the totalitarian doctrines which would make the achievement of Plato’s ‘perfect community’ impossible. I think we should do as Marx did, at least in theory (even if in practice his ‘followers’ deviated far from his ideals), and adopt the liberal features of Plato’s notion of social justice while casting off its totalitarian undertones. If we did so, I suspect life would become a little better than it is now, in our confused and atomized world. Chris Wright studied postgraduate philosophy at the University of Missouri – St Louis.

2019-04-23T11:52:10Z

https://philosophynow.org/issues/90/Platos_Just_State

This story was intended to be the joint work of Mr. Stimson and the late John Boyle O’Reilly. The plan had been discussed by the authors, and the outline of the story fixed, but nothing had been written when Mr. O’Reilly died. Mr. Stimson then worked out the plan alone. The story purports to narrate the experiences of a young Englishman who was transported for taking part in an uprising of adherents of King Charles against the Commonwealth established by Cromwell. The early scenes are laid in southwestern England, beginning in 1657, but the action is soon transferred to Virginia, and thence to Massachusetts. The version that we present here has been revised and approved by the author. WAS but a stripling of twenty when I met my lady on a Devonshire moor. She was the grand-daughter of Colonel Penruddock, a stubborn adherent of King Charles. This was in 1657, when, as you know, the Commonwealth was enthroned in England, with Cromwell at its head. I was no partizan in these high matters, having only a fatherless boy’s knowledge of them, but if I had chosen my colors because of my associations I should have been for the Commonwealth, as that was the side espoused by my grandfather with whom I lived; still, as Miss St. Aubyn was for Charles, so was I, and on the occasion of John Penruddock’s futile uprising at South Molton, I took my share with him to the small extent of saving his life when a Roundhead would have shot him. That night I went to save my love, whose grandfather Penruddock’s house was burned. I found that she had escaped; but in a room of that burning house was an ivory crucifix, and one night on the moor I had heard a man’s voice singing an old Jacobite tune. For my complicity in rebellion I was arrested, with Penruddock and others, and brought to trial. My fate was deportation to Virginia. What became of Penruddock, who was tried later, I could not learn; but there were rumors that he had been hanged, drawn, and quartered. So I had to sail for America in the most dismal ignorance concerning the fate of my lady, whom I loved with all the blind, unreasoning ardor of which youth is capable. During the voyage I was fortunate in becoming firm friends with Miles Courtenay, a humorous, fight-loving, and true-hearted Irishman, who, like me, had been convicted of disloyalty to the Commonwealth. There were in the ship’s company a number of young women, sent to be wives of the colonists, and among them a maid, Jennifer, whom Miles protected from the rascally attentions of the ship’s mate. By the exercise of his smiling audacity, which made him ever a favorite with women and caused him to be trusted by men, Miles obtained for her a transfer from the steerage to the cabin; and after we had come ashore he also saved her from being married to a colonist, managing to get her engaged as a servant on a plantation not far from Jamestown. For ourselves, we were bound over, to all intents and purposes slaves, to different planters, Miles for three years and I for ten. Long before the expiration of Miles’s term we three escaped and made our way together to Boston. While we were on this perilous journey Miles confided to me the real reason why he had urged flight to New England, for he had been our leader in the escape. He, too, had loved a lady across the water, but he was in better favor with fortune than I, for he knew at least this much: that she had gone to the New England provinces; and he was bent on searching every settlement until he found her. “Will she wait for you?” I asked him. It appeared that little Jennifer was coming to think too well. We obtained employment for Jennifer in the family of Colonel Jones, who lived in a fine house on Beacon Hill, and I entered the service of Savil Simpson, a cordwainer. Miles would not undertake business, or any form of steady employment. He had some money and earned a little more at odd jobs, but he spent all he earned, and most of his time, in traveling all over the provinces, visiting every settlement in Massachusetts Bay, Ply-mouth, and Providence Plantations, and exploring those regions westward where only pioneers lived in scattered houses. Thus he came to know the country more thoroughly, perhaps, than any one man at that time, but he found no trace of the Clerke family. There were, of course, others of that name, or names nearly like it, to whom he went whenever and wherever he heard of them, but at no time was his persistence properly re-warded, or did he become entirely discouraged. “I shall find her,” he would say, and set his lips firmly, only to open them immediately for a gay jest or a rollicking song. For my part, I was equally unsuccessful in getting information about Miss St. Aubyn. I wrote letters to which no answers came. I inquired of all newcomers to Boston about the fate of John Penruddock. There were conflicting reports. Some had it that his sentence had been commuted, others that he had somehow escaped and gone to the Continent, but just where no one could say. Mr. Simpson sent me to the Barbadoes as super-cargo, a venture that profited me much in money, which I tried to turn to dearer account by getting the Governor to write to England for information as to Penruddock and Miss St. Aubyn; but nothing ever came of it. The Governor wrote, and more than a year later he told me no trace of Penruddock or the lady had been found. And all this while I was hard put to it to maintain a cheerful demeanor, for truly my heart and all that made life tolerable had been left in England. Although Miles had traveled the country over, and would not commit himself to any commercial undertaking, he yet would not leave the province. Here he was bound to stay till such time as he had discovered the whereabouts of Miss Clerke. As there was no war to gratify his taste for fighting, and as he dearly loved hunting, he decided at last to acquire a tract of land in the wilds and settle upon it. He persuaded me to join him in this venture, which I could do without separating myself wholly from the opportunities offered by association with Mr. Simpson. We obtained patent to land lying on the Charles, a few miles west of Dedham. Beyond was unbroken wilderness, so far as white men were concerned, except for the Hartford trail, which lay not far away. To the south was the country of King Philip, for whom we felt no concern; but nearer—that is, between King Philip’s country and our patent was a tribe so hostile that our very approach to our forest domain was attended by battle in which we killed one Indian and one of our two white employees was wounded. This tribe was ruled by a chief of great renown, King Noanett; but he was not in the attacking party, which was led by a kind of lieutenant of the King, called Pomham. We patched up a truce with him, by the terms of which we were not to invade the country to the south, and Noanett’s Indians were not to molest us. This truce was broken not very long afterward by me. We had cleared land sufficient to justify plowing, and I went east-ward to buy oxen. ,Returning with the animals, I thought to ease the journey by leaving the thickly grown region of the crooked river and pursuing a course in a more direct line south of the stream. This brought me unwittingly upon Noanett’s territory. It seemed he was always prepared for war, for scouts were stationed ever at what he considered his frontier. They attacked me, Indian fashion, unseen, and killed both my oxen. I was made prisoner and was taken, unconscious—for I had fallen and lay stunned—into Noanett’s presence. He was an aged, white-haired man, horribly painted, and was the embodiment of taciturnity. Pomham acted as interpreter. I protested vigorously that they had wrongfully destroyed my property, to which they responded that I had invaded their country. Then I insisted that I was on a peaceful errand, and, to make the matter short, Noanett was persuaded to my view. The King handed me some silver slugs in compensation for the oxen, and I was blindfolded and led away, and eventually was set at liberty within easy walk of our patent. Noanett also gave me to under-stand that for one year we might count on cultivating our land without molestation. This was a comparatively satisfactory outcome of the matter, especially as, when I next journeyed to Boston, I found that the slugs of silver were pure metal, worth more than the price of another yoke of oxen. But the slugs aroused the cupidity of my friends Simpson and Jones. They regarded them as evidence that King Noanett had discovered a valuable mine, and nothing would do but white men must get possession of it. I would not sanction any action during the term of the truce; but when that had expired I could not prevent Jones and Simpson from coming to us with canoes filled with trinkets which they thought to barter with Noanett for his mine. Miles was ready for the undertaking, as it promised some fighting; but, good soldier though he was, he led us to such a defeat as I suppose no whites had ever endured at the hands of the red men. We approached Noanett’s country by a small stream that ran quietly between thick growths of alders. Of a sudden the stream rose in a mighty wave that overturned all our canoes and threw us into the trees. I clung to a limb with one hand, the other being helpless, for my arm was broken. Miles escaped unhurt. Being ahead and alert, he had jumped ashore the moment he saw the wave coming. The stream had been dammed for just such a contingency as our approach, and at the critical moment the sluices had been opened to overwhelm us. The men from Boston had had quite enough of the venture; and as I was now useless, the enterprise was abandoned. About this time Miles came to the habit of working by night and sleeping by day. He did the felling of trees, for his active nature rejoiced in strenuous exercise. “Moore,” he whispered one day, “she is dead.” Of course I knew to whom he alluded, and I turned upon him a startled look of inquiry. Then he told me how, when we were overwhelmed by Noanett’s flood, and he was tossed high on the bank, he had seen her robed in white. I was grievously affected and sought as best I could to dispel the fantasy from his mind, but to no avail. Miles clung to his belief that he had seen the wraith of his lady, and we talked no more of it, for I felt that argument would but increase his disorder. I was the one always who made the necessary journeys to Boston, and on these occasions I called on Jennifer. She never failed to send a letter back to Miles, and she was always eager for news of his search for his lady. Once she visited us, quite unexpectedly, coming up the river with Colonel Jones, who had not wholly given up hope of obtaining possession of Noanett’s mine. It was evening, and Miles had gone wandering into the forest for the night. I knew that when the moon rose he would ply his ax in the clearing not far from our house, and so I told Jennifer she would better wait till that time before trying to see him. In the interval she told us a striking story. Her situation with Colonel Jones’s family had so much improved that she was no longer a menial, but had much liberty of action; and she had become a voluntary visitor to the afflicted. Thus she fell in with a sick Indian, a captive whose tribe, he in-formed her, had once captured a white man named Clerke who had a maiden with him. Clerke impressed the Indians with his skill in medicine. He seemed to them to be a powerful wizard, and they respected and feared him. The maiden had what Jennifer’s Indian called a totem, to which she prayed, and which she gave to the dying to kiss. He had been of service to her in the perilous days of her early captivity, and in return she taught him what she could of Christianity, and eventually gave him her totem. The Indian had lost all trace of her whereabouts, but the influence she had exerted on his mind remained, and in his way he was a devout Christian. He knew he was dying, and in his last conscious moment he gave Jennifer the young woman’s totem. This “totem” was an ivory crucifix, beautifully carved. Needless to say that Jennifer believed it to have been the property of Miles’s lady. We went at last to the clearing where Miles worked at night, but he was not there. After waiting some time, I noticed a path leading down toward a swamp, and we decided to follow it. It brought us, by means of a fallen log which served as a bridge, to a little island in the swamp, densely grown with cedar. The foliage had been made thicket still by wattles of boughs, but there was a clear entrance to a rectangular spate front which every tree had been cut. This space was about five yards square, level, and as clean as a house-floor. At the farther end was a rude altar and a great cross hewn of stripped wood and covered with forest vines; and before this we saw Miles kneeling in prayer. We stood there a moment in motionless awe. Then Jennifer went to the altar and placed the ivory crucifix upon it. Miles apparently did not observe her presence or action, and we withdrew silently. When we had coin back to out house we found runner just arrived from Meadfield with intelligence that King Philip had attacked the village. I fired my gun as a signal to Miles to come, and in short order he was with us. Let pass the horrors we saw that night; for of course we hastened to Meadfield with such men as we could muster, and what happened there is familiar history. Ï am here concerned more with our personal affairs. On our way to the burning village Miles showed me the crucifix. I could not tell him what virgin it was that had brought him the relic of his lady until after the fighting at Meadfield; but when Ï did repeat Jennifer’s story I was relieved to observe that he believed the. The illusion left his mind, and in place of it came a renewed determination to search the world over for Miss Clerke. It seemed from some things the dying Indian had told Jennifer that Clerke might have gone among the Mohawks, and we were quite decided to travel westward until we had come to those Indians; but immediate departure on that journey was impossible, for when we returned to our house we found that a snakeskin stuffed with powder and ball had been left there with a paper on which was written in fair English script: “From Pomham.” This we knew to be a declaration of war, and, even in our excited preparation for battle, we wondered who had done the Indian king’s writing for him. There was small time for speculation, for the attack was soot made. Our house was surrounded by a strong stockade, we had About a score of defenders all told, and plenty of ammunition. We gave the attacking party such a storm of hot iron and lead that the Indians quickly tired of the combat and retreated. As soon as it was light we pursued, and invaded Noanett’s country by the same route we had taken when our mission was concerned with bartering for a silver mine. This time no pent-up waters were released to overwhelm us, but we found that the stream had been skilfully dammed in three places. Above the last dam was Noanett’s village, now deserted. It had many evidences of a higher degree of civilization than had been attained by any other tribe of which we had knowledge. Colonel Jones, who accompanied us, found abundant signs that the Indian king had worked in metals; but careful search revealed nothing of value in the neighborhood. We might have searched farther than we did, had not shots from the direction of our house warned us to return. We did so with all haste, and those who had been left to guard the place told us that during our absence a great flotilla of canoes had passed up the river bearing King Noanett and all his people. Jennifer had seen the King and also a young English lady who sat in his canoe, and who seemed to be weeping. Miles and I exchanged glances. Thus we told each other that it would not be necessary to journey to the land of the Mohawks. We decided without debate to pursue Noanett and, if possible, surround his party so that the battle might be final, and with as little delay as possible our force took to the river. Jennifer begged so hard for permission to accompany us that I took her in my canoe. It was about sunset when we came to a place from which the smoke of the Indians’ camp was visible. It was evident that pursuit was not feared, Noanett reasoning undoubtedly that all white men would concentrate against the forces of King Philip. Our plan then was to divide our force, a part to march through the forest and come down upon the camp from the farther side, while the rest attacked from this position where we all were at the moment. Before it was dark I reconnoitered the approach to Noanett’s camp; for it was to be my part to lead the attack from this direction. I climbed a hill that descended steeply on the other side, and at the base, just below me, I saw the tents of the enemy. From the largest, evidently King Noanett’s tent, came a young woman—a white woman. She stood looking dreamily around, as it seemed, and presently her face was turned toward me. I knew that face! It was that of the love I had left in England. It would be vain to attempt any description of my emotions. Suffice it that when I returned to our camp I apprised Miles of what I had seen, and assured him that as soon as we had rescued Miss St. Aubyn I would set out with him for the land of the Mohawks to find Miss Clerke. I told him I made no doubt of either, and he proceeded straightway to lay out the plan of our attack. He departed soon afterward with chosen men to get on the other side of the Indians. Just before dawn Miles delivered his attack from up-stream. All Noanett’s Indians ran to meet it. My men, therefore, rushed down on the camp and captured it without a struggle, for there were left there only the King and my lady. They came from the tent as we drew near, and I announced myself. What passed between us when she recognized me I have no need to say, but it was little, for just then the King came forth. His face was not painted, and I saw that he was John Penruddock. Hardly had this recognition taken place when the battle up-stream demanded our attention. My men and I ran to the re-lief of Miles, and so completed the capture of Noanett’s band. But Miles was pierced with a spear, and it was well that Jennifer had come with us, for he suffered her to attend him as he would not any other. We removed him to our house, hoping still to save his life. He would not see me, and on no account would he permit Miss St. Aubyn to see him. We could not understand this, but we humored his desire until one night when, Jennifer having been absent a little while from his room, he disappeared. Jennifer believed she knew where to find him, and sped toward the chapel in the swamp. Miss St. Aubyn and I followed. When we arrived there Miles was dead, and then, and not till then, did my lady see him. “Miles Courtenay!” she exclaimed at once. “You knew him?” said I. “He helped us escape from England,” she replied. “With-out him we could have done nothing. He never knew who we were, for my grandfather had already taken the name of Clerke and would not reveal his real identity to anybody.” And it was his voice I had heard singing on the moor. She never had known of his love, and it was not till the night before our attack on “King Noanett” that Miles suspected that he and I loved the same lady. I look back on that evening now and see evidence that he had reconnoitered the position as well as I, and I have no doubt that he saw the lady, and that my joyous revelation was the first intimation he had of the true situation. And so he chose to die to leave me happy and in ignorance. I returned to England with John Penruddock and my lady, and we were married there; but although Charles had come into his own, affairs did not prosper with us in the old country, and we returned to make our home here in the wilderness that Miles Courtenay helped to clear.

2019-04-26T05:55:46Z

http://writing.yodelout.com/frederic-jesup-stimson-j-s-of-dale-united-states-1855-king-noanett-1896/

You searched for subject:(Organizational Behavior). Showing records 1 – 30 of 2463 total matches. Volle, Miriam. “Exploring the relationship of meetings to organizational culture and values.” 2017. Thesis, Pepperdine University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10258041. Volle, Miriam. “Exploring the relationship of meetings to organizational culture and values.” 2017. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Volle M. Exploring the relationship of meetings to organizational culture and values. [Internet] [Thesis]. Pepperdine University; 2017. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10258041. Lambruschini, Sherill L. “The connection spectrum| How leaders experience interpersonal connection in the workplace.” 2016. Thesis, California Institute of Integral Studies. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10117906. Lambruschini, Sherill L. “The connection spectrum| How leaders experience interpersonal connection in the workplace.” 2016. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Lambruschini SL. The connection spectrum| How leaders experience interpersonal connection in the workplace. [Internet] [Thesis]. California Institute of Integral Studies; 2016. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10117906. Landon, Lizbeth. “Cross-Sector Social Partnerships| A qualitative research study of partnership governance.” 2016. Thesis, Pepperdine University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10142331. Landon, Lizbeth. “Cross-Sector Social Partnerships| A qualitative research study of partnership governance.” 2016. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Landon L. Cross-Sector Social Partnerships| A qualitative research study of partnership governance. [Internet] [Thesis]. Pepperdine University; 2016. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10142331. Swanson, Steven D. “Investigating the Role of Identification in Team Sport Organizations.” 2014. Doctoral Dissertation, Temple University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://digital.library.temple.edu/u?/p245801coll10,249400. Swanson, Steven D. “Investigating the Role of Identification in Team Sport Organizations.” 2014. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Swanson SD. Investigating the Role of Identification in Team Sport Organizations. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. Temple University; 2014. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://digital.library.temple.edu/u?/p245801coll10,249400. Waldron, Kimberly D. “The Influence of Leadership Emotional Intelligence on Employee Engagement.” 2017. Thesis, Pepperdine University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10608743. Waldron, Kimberly D. “The Influence of Leadership Emotional Intelligence on Employee Engagement.” 2017. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Waldron KD. The Influence of Leadership Emotional Intelligence on Employee Engagement. [Internet] [Thesis]. Pepperdine University; 2017. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10608743. Perez, Ryanzo W. “Stepping Stone or Stumbling Block? The Impact of Prior Military Service on Hiring Managers' Perceptions of Warmth, Competence, and Hirability.” 2017. Thesis, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10275702. Perez, Ryanzo W. “Stepping Stone or Stumbling Block? The Impact of Prior Military Service on Hiring Managers' Perceptions of Warmth, Competence, and Hirability.” 2017. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Perez RW. Stepping Stone or Stumbling Block? The Impact of Prior Military Service on Hiring Managers' Perceptions of Warmth, Competence, and Hirability. [Internet] [Thesis]. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville; 2017. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10275702. Smith, Sarah Sanders. “Discovering Relationships between Social Competencies of Emotional Intelligence and Employee Engagement within a Population of Business Leaders.” 2017. Thesis, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10602007. Smith, Sarah Sanders. “Discovering Relationships between Social Competencies of Emotional Intelligence and Employee Engagement within a Population of Business Leaders.” 2017. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Smith SS. Discovering Relationships between Social Competencies of Emotional Intelligence and Employee Engagement within a Population of Business Leaders. [Internet] [Thesis]. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology; 2017. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10602007. Owens, Arlene J. “The Relationship Between Authentic Leadership & Positive Psychological Capital & the Moderating Affects of Professional Development & Gender in a Public Organization.” 2017. Thesis, Pepperdine University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10283195. Owens, Arlene J. “The Relationship Between Authentic Leadership & Positive Psychological Capital & the Moderating Affects of Professional Development & Gender in a Public Organization.” 2017. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Owens AJ. The Relationship Between Authentic Leadership & Positive Psychological Capital & the Moderating Affects of Professional Development & Gender in a Public Organization. [Internet] [Thesis]. Pepperdine University; 2017. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10283195. Morales, Omar. “Factors that Lead to Retention of Acquired Engineers at Microsoft in Silicon Valley.” 2017. Thesis, Pepperdine University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10615639. Morales, Omar. “Factors that Lead to Retention of Acquired Engineers at Microsoft in Silicon Valley.” 2017. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Morales O. Factors that Lead to Retention of Acquired Engineers at Microsoft in Silicon Valley. [Internet] [Thesis]. Pepperdine University; 2017. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10615639. Pettis, Matthew Lynn. “Relationship of Employee's Perception of Administrator's Leadership Style and Their Perceived Empowerment.” 2017. Thesis, Grand Canyon University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10621149. Pettis, Matthew Lynn. “Relationship of Employee's Perception of Administrator's Leadership Style and Their Perceived Empowerment.” 2017. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Pettis ML. Relationship of Employee's Perception of Administrator's Leadership Style and Their Perceived Empowerment. [Internet] [Thesis]. Grand Canyon University; 2017. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10621149. Filipowski, Christina Rosa. “A Qualitative Case Study of Airline Pilot Leadership Behaviors and Practices During Crisis Situations.” 2017. Thesis, Grand Canyon University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10619892. Filipowski, Christina Rosa. “A Qualitative Case Study of Airline Pilot Leadership Behaviors and Practices During Crisis Situations.” 2017. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Filipowski CR. A Qualitative Case Study of Airline Pilot Leadership Behaviors and Practices During Crisis Situations. [Internet] [Thesis]. Grand Canyon University; 2017. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10619892. Datta, Roshni. “Knowledge-Based Performance Management Framework.” 2010. Masters Thesis, The Ohio State University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1293725862. Datta, Roshni. “Knowledge-Based Performance Management Framework.” 2010. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Datta R. Knowledge-Based Performance Management Framework. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. The Ohio State University; 2010. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1293725862. Byrne, Ellen Keithline. “Mindful creativity| An exploration of a mindfulness intervention on workgroup creativity.” 2017. Thesis, Fielding Graduate University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10271540. Byrne, Ellen Keithline. “Mindful creativity| An exploration of a mindfulness intervention on workgroup creativity.” 2017. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Byrne EK. Mindful creativity| An exploration of a mindfulness intervention on workgroup creativity. [Internet] [Thesis]. Fielding Graduate University; 2017. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10271540. Jun, Hye in. “Change Management in Business: An Empirical Investigation of Practitioner Competencies.” 2017. Doctoral Dissertation, Florida State University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2017SP_Jun_fsu_0071E_13710 ;. Jun, Hye in. “Change Management in Business: An Empirical Investigation of Practitioner Competencies.” 2017. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Jun Hi. Change Management in Business: An Empirical Investigation of Practitioner Competencies. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. Florida State University; 2017. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2017SP_Jun_fsu_0071E_13710 ;. Angulo, Ashley. “The Role of Feelings of Endowment in Charitable Giving Decisions.” 2017. Thesis, UCLA. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/10m6b4qz. Angulo, Ashley. “The Role of Feelings of Endowment in Charitable Giving Decisions.” 2017. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Angulo A. The Role of Feelings of Endowment in Charitable Giving Decisions. [Internet] [Thesis]. UCLA; 2017. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/10m6b4qz. Kott, Jacqueline Karen. “The role of ethics in employee behavior.” 2012. Masters Thesis, University of Tennessee – Chattanooga. Accessed April 23, 2019. https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/43. Kott, Jacqueline Karen. “The role of ethics in employee behavior.” 2012. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Kott JK. The role of ethics in employee behavior. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. University of Tennessee – Chattanooga; 2012. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/43. Jones Gaston, Treneisha. “Employee Engagement Experiences of Millennials in the Federal Government.” 2018. Thesis, The George Washington University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10785528. Jones Gaston, Treneisha. “Employee Engagement Experiences of Millennials in the Federal Government.” 2018. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Jones Gaston T. Employee Engagement Experiences of Millennials in the Federal Government. [Internet] [Thesis]. The George Washington University; 2018. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10785528. McRee, Caroline Kimrey. “Managerial Perceptions of Employee Motivation.” 2018. Thesis, Pepperdine University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10840301. McRee, Caroline Kimrey. “Managerial Perceptions of Employee Motivation.” 2018. Web. 23 Apr 2019. McRee CK. Managerial Perceptions of Employee Motivation. [Internet] [Thesis]. Pepperdine University; 2018. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10840301. Zaragoza, Kristina. “Exploring the Quality of the Leader-Follower Relationship and Its Effect on Followers' Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in a Public-Service Organization.” 2018. Thesis, Brandman University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10843066. Zaragoza, Kristina. “Exploring the Quality of the Leader-Follower Relationship and Its Effect on Followers' Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in a Public-Service Organization.” 2018. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Zaragoza K. Exploring the Quality of the Leader-Follower Relationship and Its Effect on Followers' Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in a Public-Service Organization. [Internet] [Thesis]. Brandman University; 2018. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10843066. Mann, Alice. “Managing Uncertainty During Organization Design Decision-Making Processes: The Moderating Effects of Different Types of Uncertainty.” 2011. Doctoral Dissertation, Columbia University. Accessed April 23, 2019. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8DV1RWH. Mann, Alice. “Managing Uncertainty During Organization Design Decision-Making Processes: The Moderating Effects of Different Types of Uncertainty.” 2011. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Mann A. Managing Uncertainty During Organization Design Decision-Making Processes: The Moderating Effects of Different Types of Uncertainty. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. Columbia University; 2011. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.7916/D8DV1RWH. Zhang, Shu. “Repeating the Follies of the Past: A Regulatory Focus Perspective.” 2012. Doctoral Dissertation, Columbia University. Accessed April 23, 2019. https://doi.org/10.7916/D89C74HN. Zhang, Shu. “Repeating the Follies of the Past: A Regulatory Focus Perspective.” 2012. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Zhang S. Repeating the Follies of the Past: A Regulatory Focus Perspective. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. Columbia University; 2012. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.7916/D89C74HN. Williamson, David Christopher Francisco. “Please Tell Me What to Do: Exploring the effects of operating procedures on occupational stress and performance outcomes in temporary organizations.” 2018. Thesis, Temple University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://digital.library.temple.edu/u?/p245801coll10,515336. Williamson, David Christopher Francisco. “Please Tell Me What to Do: Exploring the effects of operating procedures on occupational stress and performance outcomes in temporary organizations.” 2018. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Williamson DCF. Please Tell Me What to Do: Exploring the effects of operating procedures on occupational stress and performance outcomes in temporary organizations. [Internet] [Thesis]. Temple University; 2018. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://digital.library.temple.edu/u?/p245801coll10,515336. Ungerer, Marius. “n Empiriese ondersoek na die verband tussen organisasiestruktuur en individuele gedrag.” 2014. Thesis, University of Johannesburg. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10210/10378. Ungerer, Marius. “n Empiriese ondersoek na die verband tussen organisasiestruktuur en individuele gedrag.” 2014. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Ungerer M. n Empiriese ondersoek na die verband tussen organisasiestruktuur en individuele gedrag. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Johannesburg; 2014. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/10378. Wood, Adam. “The cost of a poker-face: consequences of self-regulation on emotion recognition and interpersonal perception.” 2015. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Southern California. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll3/id/346235/rec/6526. Wood, Adam. “The cost of a poker-face: consequences of self-regulation on emotion recognition and interpersonal perception.” 2015. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Wood A. The cost of a poker-face: consequences of self-regulation on emotion recognition and interpersonal perception. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Southern California; 2015. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll3/id/346235/rec/6526. Mesani, Anele. “How organisational behaviour is influenced in an acquired firm.” 2014. Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/9925. Mesani, Anele. “How organisational behaviour is influenced in an acquired firm.” 2014. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Mesani A. How organisational behaviour is influenced in an acquired firm. [Internet] [Thesis]. Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University; 2014. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/9925. Lemler, Russell Paul. “Rethinking Organizational Leader Identity Development: A Social Network and Ethnographic Approach.” 2013. Doctoral Dissertation, Columbia University. Accessed April 23, 2019. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8542VX5. Lemler, Russell Paul. “Rethinking Organizational Leader Identity Development: A Social Network and Ethnographic Approach.” 2013. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Lemler RP. Rethinking Organizational Leader Identity Development: A Social Network and Ethnographic Approach. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. Columbia University; 2013. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.7916/D8542VX5. Kondaveeti, Srinivasa Kiran. “Successful Organizational Innovation and Key Driving Factors.” 2018. Thesis, , Department of Industrial Economics. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-17295. Kondaveeti, Srinivasa Kiran. “Successful Organizational Innovation and Key Driving Factors.” 2018. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Kondaveeti SK. Successful Organizational Innovation and Key Driving Factors. [Internet] [Thesis]. , Department of Industrial Economics; 2018. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-17295. Krause, Mary Elizabeth. “The role of personal values in shaping leaders' experiences with employee engagement| A qualitative phenomenological study.” 2015. Thesis, University of Phoenix. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3727497. Krause, Mary Elizabeth. “The role of personal values in shaping leaders' experiences with employee engagement| A qualitative phenomenological study.” 2015. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Krause ME. The role of personal values in shaping leaders' experiences with employee engagement| A qualitative phenomenological study. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Phoenix; 2015. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3727497. Barone, Heather. “Bad boss, what are you going to do? An investigation of supervisor misbehaviors.” 2016. Thesis, California State University, Long Beach. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10142958. Barone, Heather. “Bad boss, what are you going to do? An investigation of supervisor misbehaviors.” 2016. Web. 23 Apr 2019. Barone H. Bad boss, what are you going to do? An investigation of supervisor misbehaviors. [Internet] [Thesis]. California State University, Long Beach; 2016. [cited 2019 Apr 23]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10142958.

2019-04-24T00:22:23Z

https://oatd.org/oatd/search?q=subject%3A%28Organizational%20Behavior%29&amp;pagesize=30

Why do people write a book? Do they want to talk about the characters in their head? Do they get the urge to elaborate on the idea that has been gestating in their mind? Or is it because they want a story to be told? Well, my reasons for writing are not any of the above. Who is qualified to write a book? Anyone with a story idea, who has written a lot before, or probably holding a literature degree… Or something similar. A book is usually written by someone who has dabbled in writing previously. I am Riddhi, a doctor. Why is a doctor writing a book? What is she going to say? What is her purpose? I am writing a book as a gift to my soul sister. This is just a few chapters from the long life of Adhira, my best friend since God knows when, and one of the women I admire and love more than myself. My purpose, you ask? I want to tell this story – her life story, and she would never do it, considering it narcissistic. But it is too good to not be told. So for some time, a doctor has become a writer. In these pages, you can travel with me as I share my life experiences, talking about my guardian angel, Adhira and how I am who I am, because of her presence in my life. Read on to know the story of how a girl who had everything lacked the most important thing in life and how she lost and found love, when it mattered. A book is not enough for me to write about Adhira, because I could take ages to describe her divine looks and ethereal presence, or her large heart that accommodated all of her friends, working to make their dreams come true. I could talk about how selfless she always was, putting others before herself and always thinking of how she could make everyone around her happy. I could talk about how her beauty made heads turn and hearts beat faster and how she made everyone tongue tied by her mere presence. Or I could tell you about how she was the epitome of human character. If ever there was a guidebook for humans, Adhira would be the role model. But since I cannot contain all that in a few pages, I relish the thought of being lucky enough to have her in my life, and instead, talk about the time when I almost lost her, and saw the strong woman crumble and rise back like the phoenix she was, losing the love where she most needed it and still managed to grit her teeth through all that because she didn’t want to hurt others. Her journey was always an inspiration to me, every step of every day. But since I wanted her life to touch you like it had mine, I am talking about how she surmounted all the horrific odds and is still fighting when most of us would have broken down. This book is more a gift to myself than her, because I got to talk about how she influenced the lives around her for the better and there can be no better joy than that. If this story makes any of you realise the truth about the Adhira you might be lucky enough to have in your life, hold on to them, cherish them for they are rare, almost one in a billion. If this story inspires any of you to become someone’s Adhira, my happiness would know no bounds. It was 7:30 in the evening. The clouds gathered in the dusky sky and the weather became extremely pleasant. Adhira was leaving for Gurgaon after completing her work in Meerut. She and Riddhi would meet in Delhi in between and she would continue to head towards her home in Gurgaon. Riddhi was worried about her so she called to know where Adhira was. “Hey Riddhi!” Adhira’s chirpy voice sounded over the phone. “Hi! You were supposed to be here by this time. Where are you? Why haven’t you reached? Is everything alright?” Riddhi asked tersely. Adhira always insisted that Riddhi asked too many questions for everything and she had to think and decide about which to answer first. “Gosh! Sometimes you are so hard to handle,” Riddhi said. “Take care and drive safe.” Riddhi said softly. Adhira cut the call and increased the volume on her car stereo. Her soul loved music and she could not survive without it. She liked music in any form but Bollywood music topped her list of favourites. She loved the songs of the hit duo Vishal & Shekhar and was their crazy fan, having memorised not only their song’s lyrics but also other details about them. In spite of being in the same field, she never had a chance to meet them. But she was not trying too hard for it. She felt that meeting them would diminish the craze she had because human psychology works in weird ways. We are only crazy about something until we have it. Once we get our wish fulfilled, we really start losing interest. Adhira never wanted that to happen. Adhira placed music as one of the primary elements needed for survival, right along with food, air and shelter. She had her reasons for letting music engulf her life though. She had music around her from morning till late evening and the last several years of her life had been dedicated to music and it had become her lifeline. By profession, Adhira is a Music Arranger. She had her own studio called ‘Rhythms’ and had created it for people who had a passion for singing but lacked a platform for exposure of their talent. She gave priority to the newcomers like college students who could not afford the big corporate banner recordings and didn’t know how to approach the music directors in the industry. She believed that the best of talent came from that pool and wanted to give them the wings to fly. Her good intentions and God’s kindness that followed those with good motives made her studio one of the most successful and famous studios in the whole Delhi NCR area. Artists from in and around Delhi would come to Rhythms for musical assistance. Some music directors who were her friends and acquaintances would also come there. She never thought her studio would become such a big hit when she founded it. She was still a bit dubious about it but her friends and family were proud of her nevertheless. Adhira was driving along slowly when she saw a car idling on the roadside. It seemed familiar so she stopped her car. And she was right. She saw her ex colleagues, once good friends but now just mere acquaintances because of their busy schedules. She approached them to enquire whether they had a problem and they were shocked to see her there. “Mrs. Bhargav! You here?” Nikhil asked with a feeling of surprise. It felt strange to be addressed by an ex colleague and old friend as Mrs. Bhargav instead of her first name. It was weirder than you would imagine it would be to be addressed by a surname prefixed with a Mrs., especially if it said by an old friend. It might be strange, but Adhira could not deny the reality in it. “Hi! I was just passing by and saw your car. What happened? Is there a problem?” Adhira enquired. “We think so,” he replied. “Can I have a look at your car?” Adhira asked again. Nikhil and Priya looked at her, surprised. They looked at her as if she were an alien or was speaking Chinese. “To the airport. Priya has a flight for Mumbai.” Nikhil explained. “No, no! We will manage something from here. Don’t worry,” Nikhil responded suddenly. It might have been the repeated offer or the seriousness of the situation, they took up Adhira’s offer for help. “Ok. But my car?” He asked instantly. Adhira pointed towards the mechanic’s garage, which was few meters ahead. “It happens,” Adhira said with a smile. They pushed the car to the garage and returned to Adhira’s car. She spent her spare time teaching singing and keyboard lessons to NGO kids, which she had funded since the past several years. She also gave management training to new employees from her former office where she had worked before starting her own studio. Adhira valued her relationships a lot. Even after resigning from her old job, she helped her ex colleagues for the sake of friendship. Thankfully it was her last class for the group and she would not be going there for some time. She raised her chin against the wind to feel the fresh breeze on her face. She felt her stress ebb away and noticed the magic in the air that day. They got into the car and Adhira got behind the wheel. Nikhil took the shotgun seat and surprised Adhira. Many times during the journey, they came face to face but looked away, never bringing themselves to talk. Adhira actually detested people who sat brooding in the car and made everyone else silent too. She felt upset to realise that they would not be talking this time either. The silence was too deep to be broken. There used to be a lot between them but then silence took over. She watched him furtively. He had changed a lot. His languished face did not hold a smile any longer. It had been three years since the last time Adhira had seen him in his office, when she had gone there for some work. Since then so much had changed in him. His face had been so bright and full of life. Adhira wanted to ask about him. But she kept quiet because she really did not have any rights to do so. She knew him well, their lives had passed by very close to each other. But that did not hold good then. Adhira snapped out of her thoughts when her phone buzzed. The name ‘Neeti’ flashing on her screen dragged her attention to it. Neeti was her shadow at work and now a very quintessential part of her life, for she represented Adhira in her absence. She was Adhira’s manager, secretary and everything in between. Adhira relied on her completely where her studio was concerned and Neeti became a companion she could trust blindly. Adhira attended the call and it automatically connected through her car’s stereo via Bluetooth. “There’s a problem,” Neeti said in a panicked voice. When Neeti was serious, she did not bother with the pleasantries. “Neeti, relax! Take a deep breath and tell me everything.” Adhira suggested in a soothing voice. “Adhira, there is a major problem in our main DAW.” Neeti informed tersely. “And what’s that?” Adhira asked. “Ok! So call the tech guys, Neeti. Why are you calling me?” Adhira said, grinning. “I know what to do, but the thing is that the repair guy will come only tomorrow and we have a major recording today in about an hour.” Neeti almost hyperventilated. “Oh! What sort of recording?” Adhira asked, wracking her brains. “Shekhar is recording in our studio! Why? Why is he not recording in his own?” Adhira was surprised and shocked, some of the panic setting in. “Please, I don’t know anything about this. Tell me some solution; I am totally blank at this time.” Neeti whispered tersely. “Ok, tell him to use my workstation.” Adhira suggested. “Are you sure?” Neeti asked. Though surprised, Neeti had no other option. She knew Adhira was making a huge concession by giving permission to use her workstation. She never allowed anybody near it. So she was not really surprised to hear the next words. “Yes, but only him and nobody else.” Adhira warned her. “Yes Ma’am. I know very well. But what shall I say if he asks about this change?” Neeti asked carefully. “I’ll talk to him about that. You don’t worry. He will not mind it. And if any other recording is scheduled, arrange it in one of the other rooms. I will come tomorrow to see what we can do. Ok then, bye.” Adhira disconnected the call. She was just about to dial Shekhar when she saw his incoming call. He had beat her to it. “Hey, I was about to dial your number,” Adhira greeted him. “I hope I didn’t dial a wrong number?” Shekhar joked. “Hahaha, don’t get confused. You got it right.” Adhira smirked. “Why were you calling me?” he asked directly. “No, first you tell!” she replied. “Nothing specific, I just wanted to know whether you were in the studio or not?” Shekhar asked casually. “No, I am on my way to the airport.” Adhira informed him. “Not yet… Just going to drop my friend.” She replied. “Oh! Actually I’m here in Delhi and about to go to your studio.” Shekhar informed. “Is there anything you don’t know about?” He wondered. “Incidentally everything related to Rhythms.” She replied, grief coloring her tone. “And why is that so? Are you in a mood to switch your profession?” he asked consciously. “No, it’s because Neeti handles everything and I just follow her.” Adhira replied, mostly as an excuse. “You are depending completely on her. Aren’t you?” he pointed out. “Yeah, you are right. But I have no choice. I have to manage other things as well. Like right now I am coming from somewhere.” She explained. “I can understand. By the way, why were you calling me?” he asked. “Oh, that… Actually there’s a little problem in the main workstation. You have to use mine for today. I hope you don’t mind.” She requested. “Are you sure?! Look, I don’t have any problem using your workstation but I thought you didn’t like anyone near your workstation. So, how can I?” he voiced his obvious surprise. “Don’t embarrass me. So… Tell me something, what are you up to? Why are you recording here?” She inquired. “We are working on my next personal album. You forgot?” He chided her gently. “Yes…yes… I almost forgot. Sorry!” She said apologetically. “I have to catch my flight at 10 in the morning. I wanted to record something before leaving for the US for my concert. Please re-arrange the songs and make it good for my listeners before I come back.” Shekhar replied. “Ok, I got it. Will make it happen,” Adhira assured him. “I don’t think I can make it. But I’ll try anyway.” Adhira tried to excuse herself. “See ya then. Bye.” Shekhar bid a goodbye and disconnected the call. Adhira turned to look at Nikhil’s and Priya’s faces. They were full of questions and doubts. Priya was the first one to begin actually asking them, though. Adhira was seeing Priya after a very long time but nothing had changed in her. She was still the same as always, impatient and curious. She had never been able to hold back the urge to ask a question that was in her mind and that nature had not changed over the years. Adhira knew Priya from the days they had worked together in the same company. But something unforeseen intervened and they had to part ways completely. The two so called best friends were forced to choose different life paths and had not been in contact since then. Until today. But Nikhil and Priya were always connected with each other, even after Priya’s dismissal. In fact, everything was still the same except the equation between Nikhil and Adhira who had an unfortunate and unforgivable past together. It was a past Adhira had forgotten but Nikhil had not yet let go of his guilt. He did not like the fact that he was left to live with shame and guilt and could not accept the fact that Adhira had managed to forget him so easily and move on. He did not have the guts to face her but masked it by not talking to her. Adhira had forgiven Nikhil the day she saw that he was happy with his girlfriend. She put his happiness first and was happy with his joys. But that did not absolve Nikhil of his shame and guilt, which he held like a burden to this day. “How do you know him?” Priya asked again, bringing Adhira back to the present. Adhira told her that she and Shekhar had been friends since their college days. But that information did not satisfy Priya, who was ready with her next question. “What do you do nowadays? And how are the things like studio, recording, editing and workstations related to you?” Priya asked in a single breath. She was obviously curious and wanted all answers. Adhira patiently dealt with her questions one by one. Nikhil was not as excited as Priya because Priya belonged to the age group of fans who enjoyed Shekhar’s songs the most. Shekhar usually had a large fan following consisting mostly of females because of the romantic numbers he had composed and sung. Adhira enjoyed answering Priya’s unending questions because there would be no one talking in the car otherwise. At least Priya was making an effort at conversation. Adhira could live alone with music but only listening to music and not talking with anyone, especially when travelling in the same vehicle was not a nice gesture. They seemed to have a lot to discuss about Priya’s COA (Centre of Attraction) Shekhar. “How is Varun?” A gruff voice suddenly muted both of them. They stopped their conversation and looked at Nikhil’s face. “How is Varun?” the voice asked again. It came from Adhira’s left side. This time it was Nikhil and not Priya who had surprised Adhira. She had thought Nikhil would never speak to her. Even today, he hadn’t spoken a word since the time he climbed into the car and now he was asking a question. And that question was about Varun, Adhira’s husband, who has been living in the US for the last three years. “He is good. He’s in the US since three years.” Adhira gently replied. “Then why are you here?” Priya asked. Adhira did not like giving a detailed explanation to anyone except her close friends and these people did not fall under that category. They were merely ‘acquaintances’, a politically correct way of calling friends who had become strangers. That was the reason she stopped with that single sentence. “So, is your work more important than your marriage?” Nikhil asked sarcastically. Adhira only smiled at his question because she understood the real intentions behind it. In this patriarchal society, no matter how successful a woman became, her real worth was measured based on how successful she was in handling her marriage, children, husband and other relationships. These were supposed to be her real degrees. As if getting married and having children were sole reasons for her existence in the world. The society did not allow girls to leave their footprints in the annals of the world that easily. This was not the first time Adhira had faced that question from a man. This had become a commonplace question since she had stepped out into the professional world. It was one of the most annoying questions, according to her. But thankfully, Varun did not mind these things. He was different. He supported her at her every step. Adhira was Varun’s choice. Theirs had been a love marriage. Though Varun’s family did not like Adhira much, they had to adjust with his choice because he was their only son. His parents treated her with a cold formality and they were both aware of that. But they chose not to complain about it to each other because they had a very strong mutual understanding. Their marriage was always a perfect marriage and her friends always felt that Adhira loved Varun more than he loved her because she was the one who always compromised. Adhira denied this. According to her Varun was far more caring and loving than she was. That was probably the reason why she never questioned Varun. Adhira was not much of a family person. She loved to be alone; maybe it was because she had always lived alone. Her friends were her only family besides her nanny who lived with her. She belonged to an army family; her father was always being transferred from one place to another. But she lived in Dehradun with her Nanny for the sake of her studies as her mother had to be with her father wherever he went. According to Adhira, only Riddhi understood her completely. Riddhi knew all her secrets. But it was not true. The way she handled and cared for her relations – Riddhi could never do that. In-fact, nobody else could do that. While talking to Priya, Adhira remembered that she hadn’t told Riddhi about her sudden change of plan. She called her but her number was busy, so she kept the phone on the car dashboard and was again lost in her songs. She pumped up the volume of her stereo, which was playing one of her favourite songs, Zehnaseeb, from the movie HTP. She loved that song, a song which compelled her to re-live her old golden memories of her courtship with Varun. A song which was magical enough to let her forget all her worries and took her to another world of magic called love. It’s true that sometimes the words left unspoken are the most important ones that should have been said much earlier to avoid the consequences of the destiny. If we love a person and care for them we should always let them know before it is too late. Confessions of this kind are far better than repentance. Adhira had just crossed few miles, when Riddhi called her to give the most awaited news of her life. She picked it up on the second ring and even before Riddhi could speak, Adhira understood from her exhilarated tone that she was about to tell her something amazing. “What happened, Riddhi?” She asked. “’yes’ to whom?” She asked, surprised. “Today… Actually, just now! He proposed to me and I finally accepted!” Riddhi rushed through her sentences in her excitement. Hearing this Adhira jumped on the car seat with joy. “OMG! You said yes to Siddharth? Did you? You must be joking!” She asked, sounding really happy and amused. “No, I am damn serious. I accepted his proposal.” Riddhi solemnly assured. Riddhi was really surprised by the reaction she got from her. “What are you saying, girl?” Adhira asked, her tone not able to mask the obvious shock and surprise. “Over the phone?” she asked, making sure. “No, he came to my house with the proposal,” Riddhi replied. Now, that was the most impudent news for Adhira. “What! Siddharth visited you without informing me? He was supposed to come here day after tomorrow. That’s strange! I mean, wait, I… I am confused. What am I saying! Well, congrats darling and give me just 5 minutes. Let me first talk to Siddharth,” Adhira said and disconnected the call. Adhira’s reaction was to be expected. After all, Siddharth was like a brother to her. She was his world. They were not related by blood but they were bound by destiny. They had one of the purest relationships anyone had ever seen, having a strong, deep emotional connection that transcended petty idiosyncrasies. As far as, Siddharth had never done anything without informing Adhira. But this time, he had returned without her knowledge and this hurt and worried her. She called him immediately. “I can’t believe you have become so irresponsible!” Adhira scolded him directly. “Hello Di, I know you must be very angry with me. But believe me! This was not planned at all. It happened so suddenly. I just forgot to inform you at the moment. I am really sorry Di…” Siddharth said apologetically, trying to calm down. He knew she would be angry for what he had done. “It is okay this time, Siddharth! But don’t ever repeat your mistake!” She warned him. “I know, she told me already.” Adhira replied softly. “Di, is she sure about her decision?” Siddharth asked, suddenly hesitant. “If she was not sure, she would not have accepted your proposal.” Adhira convinced him. “I am still jittery.” Siddharth confessed. “You don’t have to be. She’ll never leave you alone. I won’t let that happen.” Adhira promised him. “Don’t overreact,” Adhira admonished him. “Siddharth, have some patience, dear. How can all this be possible in such a short span of time?” Adhira asked, nonplussed. “He is right! I want everything to happen soon, too!” Riddhi reiterated what Siddharth had said. “Are you guys mad or what? You are both talking about marriage as if it is some kind of a joke!” Adhira seemed exasperated. “I know how odd it must sound to you. But trust me when I say I have never been as sure about any decision as I am about this. I don’t want to over think, get confused and have second thoughts. Let’s make it happen. I don’t even care about anyone else. Except you.” Riddhi’s voice sounded desperate and pleading. Siddharth seconded what she had said, adding a few pleading words on his own. Adhira was silent for a moment before she spoke next. Siddharth and Riddhi heaved a sigh of relief. They had successfully convinced Adhira. “I’ll talk to Dad. He will call you.” Riddhi told her. “Have you guys decided on any place or anything? I mean what kind of wedding do you have in mind?” Adhira asked. “It will be simple and only our friends will be allowed. No relatives. No melodrama. And I was wondering if we could do it at our farmhouse? Let’s call all our friends there. We haven’t met in so long. We can spend some quality time together. It’ll be fun. What say, Adhira?” Riddhi asked. “It’s a great idea. I’ll arrange everything. Wait, I’ll just connect the others to this call.” Adhira agreed and started connecting everyone on call. As time passed, she grew more and more excited and thrilled with the idea. They had never seen her getting so excited about anything so far. She called up Gunjan who in turn connected Mohit, Ritu, and Mayank. Riddhi connected Abhimanyu, Nikita, and Varun. They all have been friends for long and they were more like a family to each other. Some of them were friends since early days and some joined later. Adhira, Siddharth, Abhimanyu and Riddhi were together since the time they were not sure what friendship meant. The others came into their life during college days. When they had grown a bit and started realising the value of friendship, love and care. They met Gunjan, Mohit, Ritu, Mayank and Shekhar and their friendship grew. They have a strong group, their relationships built on trust, loyalty and honestly that matured with time. But even amongst this group, Abhimanyu and Adhira had the strongest bond. Their soul-mate like bonding could easily make the world understand their friendship. They mirrored each other in personalities. They were the best companions, competitors, admirers and what not! They are poles apart but together, they created a great example for others. A perfect Taurus – Scorpio bonding, they were the opposites that attracted each other. Their friendship has seen many seasons, they have been through many rough, dull and bright phases of life but nothing could break their trust towards each other. They have been together since childhood and will probably be together till eternity. Abhimanyu believes that their bond is strong and unbreakable because of the constant efforts made by Adhira in their friendship. He respected and admired her in every possible way. Somewhere, he is true. Adhira binds each and everyone together in a single thread called friendship, she captured all of them in a single frame. They filled everyone in with the latest news. The happiness and excitement in the air were infectious. This was turning out to be the most awaited news for their group. Siddharth had already proposed four times in the past few years but Riddhi had rejected every time. So this came as a pleasant surprise for everyone. A few minutes later, Varun took his leave from the call as he had a flight to board. The others left one by one. Only Siddharth, Abhimanyu, Adhira, and Riddhi remained on the call. Five years back, something happened between these two friends that compelled them to stay apart. Although it did not make a big difference in their hearts, it hurt their egos so badly that it was preventing their patch-up. In the last five years, Abhimanyu and Adhira had never once spoken. They had not even spoken over phone. Riddhi was sure Adhira was cursing her for connecting them in a conference call. But she really could not think of another way to get them together. “Why are you blaming me Riddhi? What do I do if someone else’s ego is hurt?” Adhira snapped at Riddhi. “Adhira, come on! You were best buddies once!” Riddhi tried to make her realize their importance in each other’s life. But the whole thing turned ugly. “Some best buddies we were! He hasn’t called me ONCE in the last five years.” She blurted, letting out a strangled sob. “Neither did you.” Abhimanyu said, directly to her. As if that was her undoing, Adhira started talking to him. “Why should I? It’s your mistake. You started shouting at me without understanding the situation. I was just listening to you. You should apologize.” She accused angrily. “Oh, really? You were wasting your time and emotions over a stupid person who did not give you the respect you deserved, but you were so deluded by him. What else was I supposed to do?” Abhimanyu demanded hotly. “I was not after him. I wasn’t even interested to talk about him even back then. It was YOU who started the conversation. I was simply sharing my views with you!” She explained, exasperatedly. Tears rolled down Adhira’s face. She was usually a very strong person but sometimes, in front of her loved ones, she broke down, unable to explain and prove herself. They were both discussing their last conversation that had ended in a verbal fight. Last time they had both spoken, Abhimanyu had found out that Adhira was still connected to Nikhil and nurtured feelings for him somewhere deep inside her heart. Yes, it was the same Nikhil who was sitting beside Adhira at that moment. She was unable to remove him from her life. It was mostly a one-sided affair from Nikhil’s side because Adhira kept her feelings hidden. Still, it wasn’t good according to Abhimanyu. He had just been showing his concern for her but uttered certain things he shouldn’t have. She always knew what was good for her and did not need much of and advice. She had already distanced herself from Nikhil at that point but had simply been sharing her feeling. “I tried calling you after that but your phone was switched off for hours!” Adhira said firmly. “And how is that my fault? You should carry your charger with you always if your phone has such a short short battery life.” She snapped. “That was funny,” Abhimanyu smirked. “So are you.” She shot back. They continued fighting in that vein for almost half an hour. But slowly Abhimanyu realised that Siddharth and Riddhi were also on the same call and were perhaps frustrated with their bickering. But they didn’t have much of a choice than to listen to their Mahabharata. “Okay… Leave the others out of this. Call me separately and we will continue.” Abhimanyu said. “Why should I? You call me! Damn your ego, Abhimanyu!” Adhira retorted, her ego preventing her from conceding. They ended the hour long con-call. And then Abhimanyu called Adhira. He was talking to his best friend after 5 years and a half hour call would not be enough. Though they were fighting like cats and dogs, Riddhi knew they would patch up soon. Sometimes, you faked anger towards your loved ones for some time but once they start talking, every strand of anger melts away. As in the case of Adhira and Abhimanyu, their anger melted away in the emotions that surfaced. The small misunderstanding seemed insignificant in front of their long lasting friendship. “Is your ego gone, Abhimanyu? How did you call me now?” Adhira asked without preamble. “Look, I am really sorry. I should have understood your situation, especially when I knew you don’t have anyone else to share your feelings with. But I could not. A lot of things were happening in my life too and I could not handle them all…” Abhimanyu said apologetically. “What kind of solution. You are the problem. How can I say?” Adhira said, smirking. “Listen. I really want to sort it out.” Abhimanyu requested. “Me, too! But the problem is, you have committed so many mistakes that it is hard to understand which one to forget first. Tell me something. Have you ever made an effort to talk to us? Did you ask about how things are going here? How is Siddharth? What he wants to do with his life? His future plans and ambitions? Have you ever asked about my studio? About how I am managing it all alone? You have never asked me any of these so far. Don’t start now. I have outgrown your support and don’t need it anymore. Adhira was so angry with Abhimanyu that she did not even care about the people sitting in her car. “I know I gave you thousands of reasons to hate me. I hurt everyone, especially you. But please, give me one last chance to explain myself too.” Abhimanyu said after a long pause. “How many chances should I give you?” She asked, irritated. “Last one. I swear I’ll never let you down.” He assured. “No, this time you need to be punished.” Adhira put a condition for their patch-up. “I agree. Accepted.” He said in haste. “Without knowing, you might have to pay a big price for this.” She warned him again. “Anything to make you happy.” He pacified her. “I’ll see to it. Now put the phone down. You can’t compensate 5 years of absence in a single phone call.” She said. “There were so many moments in the last five years, the magnitude of which this call cannot fill in.” He said emphatically. “I guess, it’s time to say a temporary goodbye now. We’ll talk again later. Bye and take care of yourself.” Abhimanyu signed off in haste. It surprised Adhira too, but she didn’t stew over it, mostly because she knew Abhimanyu had always been impulsive and was used to it. She ended the conversation and turned up the volume of music in her car. Nikhil and Priya had been silent for the entire time. They had a lot of queries but could not ask anything. Nikhil, especially, had a lot to ask because his name was mentioned in the conversation but he had lost the rights to ask anything of Adhira, who was currently preoccupied with other thoughts. She was thinking about Siddharth and Riddhi. She was very happy by their decision to get married. She had always wanted it, especially after Riddhi’s traumatic past that still haunted her. She always wanted to find someone who could love Riddhi more than anyone in this world. And thankfully Siddharth is the one. Adhira always believed that Siddharth is the one who would never break Riddhi’s heart. She believed that he is the one who will hold her hand till eternity. Riddhi completely relied on her beliefs and instincts. Deep inside her heart Riddhi also believed that Siddharth was the one whom God had chosen for her.

2019-04-19T15:28:33Z

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SJ: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Who or what inspired you to start playing in the first place? EG: I always had a musical ear as a kid. When I was about ten years old I saw Segovia on television. That was the first time I’d ever heard the guitar played as a solo instrument and it floored me. It wasn’t until four years later I convinced my Dad to get me a guitar. I started with an interest toward classical music but I couldn’t find any good classical guitar instructors near me so I did what everyone does, went down to the local music store and sat with a nerdy guy and played those horrible things, the songs you never hear outside of the backroom of a music store (laughs). I took about three lessons there. Quit those lessons, got a couple of books. I never did learn too much from those books, just a few chords. A college kid had moved across the street from me in Pennsylvania where I grew up. He was a guitar player, so whenever he was home from college I’d take a lesson or two with him. So I made it a point to digest as much as I could in one sitting. I would learn pretty much an entire tune in one lesson. Not all the details, but I could get from the beginning to the end and figure out the rest by myself later on. SJ: Sounds like you are largely self-taught then? EG: Pretty much. This college friend of mine was a guy named Bill Morrissey, if that rings a bell with anyone. I would take a few lessons from him when he was home, but in the meantime I had to figure out some way to learn tunes so I applied myself. I always had a pretty good ear so that always served me well. It allowed me to not only figure out what was going on in a piece of music, but to memorize it. That’s one of the big things that I see now in a lot of players that are learning how to play – they don’t memorize stuff. It only exists on a page for them. They don’t have it in their head. But that was a natural thing for me. I ate it all up. SJ: I see that you offer occasional workshops and I’m curious if you have any general thoughts about the learning process? It seems to me when you watch a great musician play you see the results, but you don’t see all that went into producing those results, which might be years or decades of dedication and practice, overcoming obstacles, paying your dues, etc. What are your thoughts about teaching yourself to play? EG: I think that some people are more philosophically or motivationally inclined toward one way of learning as opposed to another. For me it was a natural thing to never say die or take no for an answer. I just kept working until I figured it out. But that takes a lot of time. People don’t seem to have a lot of time or be willing to make a lot of time, so they will often use aids like tablature or instructional videos which are great way to learn, but in order to really play the music has got to be inside you. You’re not trying to claw your way in from the outside. So my workshops are a little different than what folks might expect. I’m not sitting in a room telling everyone to play the same thing. What I like to do is to work with each player, listen to what they are already playing and use that as a starting point. What I try to do is to help them listen more deeply to the effects that they are having on the instrument. People will often ask me how to learn to play with more emotion or more dynamics. Unless you can really hear how your own technique is creating those effects on the guitar you’re going to miss those things. So you have to think, feel and do. That’s what I try to help folks do in my workshops. SJ: When I listen to your music I find myself taken with the beauty of your arrangements. You play with great finesse and communicate with your audience at a deep level, all without words. What is your perspective on instrumental vs. vocal music and how does that influence how you arrange your repertoire for live shows? EG: I never think about it in terms of instrumental vs vocal music. When I’m arranging something I am aware of what the song is about and I try to become intensely familiar with that – on my terms – not necessarily what the author intended and try to figure out what that means for me. For example I have an arrangement of Strawberry Fields Forever that I’ve been playing lately and it’s not one of those arrangements where I’m trying to duplicate everything that was done on the original recording. Sometimes those types of arrangements have almost a novelty effect. What I try to do is figure out what the song is actually about. Now this is not a tune that I play on Weissenborn, but the tune is not just a psychedelic romp with strange noises, that’s what the record is, but what the song is is not always represented on the recording in a way that everyone can understand. When you look at the lyrics – “no one I think is in my tree” – what does Lennon mean by that? If you know about John Lennon, you know that he was abandoned by his Dad, his Dad left his family. When he was four years old he went to live with his grandmother and his aunt. He saw his mother regularly but he didn’t live with her. He always thought he was a little genius and he felt that he saw and thought and felt things in ways that everyone else seemed to miss and that confused him. But he would go to this park and play and climb trees – he loved to climb trees. There was an orphanage nearby and the orphan kids would come out to play and they would come out to the park and he would play with them and he felt that he fit in with them. That’s what the song is about. So when I play that song that’s what I’m trying to get across, not the backward drums and noises. I mean I love that stuff, but I’m trying to take something and figure out what’s personal to me about it. That’s where that connection comes from. A lot of times people will hear things in a way they haven’t heard before. Other times they’ll hear something that should be intensely familiar and they’ll ask what is name of that (laughs)! SJ: So it’s a search for trying to understand and play out of your own experience vs. duplicating what someone else is doing? EG: Well, we all start out imitating and trying to make the sounds that we hear that we think are so cool. And that’s a really empowering thing. For some it leads to discovering our own selves as musicians. Other players just want to be amused and just duplicate music and that’s fine. I think that’s where most people are. But you hear people in the world who are taking their influences, internalizing them and what comes out sounds like a whole new thing and that’s kind of the hope for most of us – to be ourselves. Your interests lead you in a certain direction and you follow it. SJ: Did you start on guitar? SJ: What was the transition like moving from guitar to Weissenborn? What inspired you to start playing Weissenborn in the first place? EG: I always played bottleneck style slide. I’d mess around playing lap slide every now and then. I’d see a Weissenborn here and there and I’d played them, but the bug never bit me until sometime in the 90’s when I was recording a record called Counting the Ways. I wanted some Hawaiian guitar on the record, I loved the sound. I wound up getting a little electric lap steel to experiment with. I thought to myself this is a new thing. It’s still a guitar but totally different. So I recorded a tune with Bob Brozman playing on it. He played some Weissenborn on it. I was recording inSanta Cruz, California and Martin Simpson was out there at the time so I had him play on a track and Bob Brozman play on a track. Martin was opening a show for David Lindley at the Great American Music Hall and he invited me to come to the show. So I met Lindley and hung out. At that time he was traveling with his vintage Weissenborns and they just sounded magnificent and I said to myself “it’s time.” To hear the Weissenborn is one thing. It’s a beautiful compelling sound. But when you sit down and make that sound yourself, I mean, once you’re hooked, you’re hooked for life. SJ: That’s so great! I think it’s difficult for someone to completely appreciate the difference between listening to someone else play a Weissenborn guitar and getting those sounds out of the instrument yourself. It’s one thing to play a Weissenborn acoustically, they sound great, but you put a good pickup in one and play in a great sounding room in front of an appreciative audience the amount of sound and the depth of the sound is nothing short of amazing! EG: Yeah, generally I don’t like magnetic pickups in six string guitars, but in a Weissenborn it’s like they’re made for each other. You’ve got the acoustic Weissenborn guitar on one side, the electric lap steel on the other side and squarely in the middle sits the plugged in Weissenborn and it’s totally its own thing. One of the great experiences I had was playing a trade show in Germany. It was in this big industrial park in an arena sized room with an arena sized P.A. system with really great sound. I plugged in the Weissenborn in this gigantic rock and roll system and whenever I would play it was like sitting on a volcano. There was really high volume with enormous clear bass and you could see in the very back of the room there was a little hallway where people were passing from one hall to another. Whenever I would play the Weissenborn everyone would stop to listen. SJ: So when you are doing a live show you play regular guitar and Weissenborn guitar. I’m curious to know what kind of response you get from the Weissenborn. What kind of comments do you get? Do they even know what the instrument is? EG: Every now and then I’ll explain what it is but people are generally either informed or disinterested. Occasionally someone will approach me after a show a say what’s that laptop guitar you were playing? It sounds quite of twangy! But people seem to really like the sound of the Weissenborn. In some ways the Weissenborn has made my life miserable. The Weissenborn is so lush and full sounding and then I’d go to pick up the six string again, and plug it in and it sounded like two armadillos getting it on in a dumpster (laughs)! It’s made me work a lot harder on my six string rig and getting the best sound I can get out of it. So now I feel that I can go back and forth without completely losing that roundness and depth. SJ: How did you develop the repertoire of tunes you play on the Weissenborn? EG: The only tune that I play that I’ve heard other people play is “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live.” I remember hearing that on an old Ry Cooder record and really liked the melody so I worked up a version in just about every tuning I was using – open G, open D, dropped D. I worked up different versions of the tune just because I liked playing it. So when I got the Weissenborn I decided to work it up and then found out that David Lindley had already beat me to it. But he’s accompanying himself singing where my version is a solo version with chords, melody and bass. As far as how I get ideas, I don’t know. Usually something just bubbles up. I don’t noodle around on the Weissenborn as much as I should. A lot of times you discover things – a lick, a chord progression or a rhythm which can lead to writing new tunes. EG: Open D is the one I use all the time. I tune it down a whole step so it’s actually open C. I used to tune down to B but sometimes P.A. systems can’t handle that low note, you know. SJ: Do you play without picks? EG: I use a thumbpick. Sometimes you want that extra bite on a downstroke. SJ: How do go about getting the best sound out your Weissenborn for live performances? What kind of pickup, preamps do you use? Do you use any spatial effects? EG: I use a Fishman Neo-D Humbucker, it’s a passive magnetic pickup which I run either through a Fishman Pro Platinum EQ D.I. which I’ve had for a million years or sometimes I’ll use an Aguilar Tube Direct Box which are no longer made, but mainly its right here (points to his hands), that’s where I get the sound. You have to hear what the instrument is capable of, learn what it’s capable of to connect what you’re feeling or thinking with the actual sound that’s being made. Only then can you really modify that sound and find an emotionally complete way to play; that all becomes part of your sound. SJ: I’ve found that playing squareneck dobro vs Weissenborn guitar requires a different approach. It’s not just a matter of D vs G tuning (DADF#AD vs GBDGBD) but the differences in string tensions and the way that the guitars respond to your touch. Getting good tone out a Weissenborn guitar seems to be more about finesse than anything else. SJ: I took a lesson with dobro player Randy Kohrs one time and he told me that 80% of tone is in the right hand. EG: I believe that. Obviously you want an instrument to be capable of it, but if the sound system is bad, or your guitar is not sounding good you work harder to produce what you want and that’s what the right hand is for. But the right hand is only in service of what’s in here (points to his heart), you know what I mean? The hand is not going to do it by itself! SJ: That’s such a great insight. I love that! Can you give us an overview of your different Weissenborn guitars? EG: I’ve got a pretty good stash of different Weissenborns. I’ve got 3 of the original style 1’s. The best one is a monster, as light as a feather, you’ve played a bunch of Weissenborn’s so you know what I’m talking about. I have a style 2 that’s really nice, then I have some modern reproductions of Weissenborns. Jayson Bowerman, when he was working at Breedlove made me a really great guitar which I like which is made out of myrtlewood. I also have a Weissenborn made by Bill Hardin at Bear Creek which is an amazing guitar. It’s a strange combination of woods for a Weissenborn, its German spruce and Honduran rosewood. It’s a fairly heavy guitar. It’s a style 4. Bill Hardin makes a hell of a nice Weissenborn guitar. And it’s a monster. It’s got this low end on it that – you almost think that the strings are very dull and the notes are going to die away but they hang in there with all this presence. The treble is really fat on that guitar. Bear Creek is a really fantastic guitar. Jayson Bowerman, when he was working at Breedlove developed this Weissenborn with me which was based on my vintage style 2. Now he’s on his own building guitars. I haven’t played any of his Weissenborns but I’m sure they’re really good. Jayson has the magic touch. SJ: What’s with the frets below the 6th string on the Breedlove Weissenborn? EG: I’ll do stuff like play at the 7th fret and use my little finger to press down the string at the 4th fret, for example. SJ: So you’re pressing down behind the bar? EG: Yes. So you can get a bit more of a moving bass line. I discovered this when I got a really bad reproduction of a Weissenborn guitar from a guy in California. It was badly warped and set up way too low at the nut. So one day I was messing around, trying to see if I could get any notes out of that guitar and I made that discovery. So when Breedlove asked me to design a Weissenborn guitar with them I decided that I wanted that to be a feature of that guitar. It drove Jayson completely nuts. I think he hated me for a long time. It was really difficult to do that. At one point we had a slanted saddle and we angled the frets. The way its done now – and we have this patented – each fret is inlaid in a small piece of ebony and glued on to the fret board. So as the guitar changes, if the intonation starts going bad you can pop of the fret and relocate it. It’s a pretty cool system. SJ: When you play live do you use any kind of spatial effects? EG: I’ll try to figure out what kind of reverb the sound person has. I often travel with my own reverb which is a Lexicon LXP-1. I don’t know what I’m going to do when that thing dies, it’s just a great sounding ‘verb. Once in awhile if I’m using my own sound system I’ll bring the LXP-1 or a Lexicon PCM 90 which I will pull out of my studio. SJ: I used to own one and remember it well. EG: They’re great sounding reverbs. SJ: What has being a musician and playing professionally taught you about connecting with an audience through instrumental music? There are very few musicians who play at your level but there are a lot of us who love instrumental music that the Weissenborn is capable of and aspire to connect with our audience – no matter how small – through instrumental music. EG: It took me years and years to get completely comfortable playing in front of an audience. I always loved playing guitar in front of an audience, but it took a long time to get to that place where there was a sense of community. What I came to realize is that it’s already there before you even arrive, and an audience is never more curious, never more into what you are doing, than the moment you walk out on stage. Before you ever play a note that’s when the audience is most vulnerable and all you can do is screw it up from that point on. But I try to recognize that. My thought is that when the audience is at their most vulnerable, most curious, give them something right up front: give them the impression you want them to leave with. If you want to play something that shows that you are a good player with excellent tone than play something that demonstrates that. That connection is pretty much already there so I’m never uncomfortable on stage or I should say I never get nervous. Sometimes there are external situations – sound or lights – that are beyond my control which can impact a live performance. One of the things about playing Weissenborn is that you need to be able to see the guitar to play it. Making that connection, it’s a hard thing to describe without sounding like Deepak Chopra. It’s a very evasive thing. A lot of times you may be thinking you are making a really strong connection with a tune and you get a lukewarm reception. Sometimes that lukewarm reception can be misread as well. Sometimes you think it’s lukewarm and actually the audience is so blown away they can’t even clap. SJ: As a fellow musician I love vocal music and have hundreds of CD’s by my favorite vocal artists. At the same time my favorite musicians tend to be instrumentalists. I’m still trying to get my head around how and why instrumental music can be so powerful, so evocative without the listener not necessarily understanding what the music is about. It’s something that I feel at a much deeper level than I can articulate through the written or spoken word. EG: Absolutely! When I’m playing a tune, like I referenced earlier, Strawberry Fields, all that stuff I was talking about – there’s a lot of information that goes into this arrangement. A lot of choices and a lot of work go into presenting things in the light of how I think and feel about them. An audience is not going to get all that information, but they will get a sense that it’s there. You can tell when you hear two different people playing the same tune; you can tell who has the information and who doesn’t have the information. There’s a sense of ownership and authority. That’s one of the things that an audience will understand and notice. Are you confident or are you wasting their time; you know what I mean? You do hear a lot of that stuff. Sometimes it’s fun to hear; sometimes the stuff that tries so hard to get your attention winds up driving you away. It’s nice to be drawn into music sometimes. So I try to leave room for that. Everybody’s got their own way of connecting with an audience, instrumental or otherwise. I don’t ever think “there’s no vocals here so I’ve got to do something to get their attention.” It’s not always necessary to pander to your audience – it’s not always necessary to give them something snappy up front. Instead, give them something interesting and an audience will sit and listen to it, unless they’re a bunch of dilettantes and we’ve all played in those types of situations. SJ: The perils of playing on the road. Any closing comments or words of wisdom for aspiring musicians and/or Weissenborn players? EG: Geez, I’m kind of a hack at the Weissenborn, it’s not my main instrument. I do love playing them though. I would say with anything that you love, spend as much time as possible with it. You will find things about music and about life, about any kind of art that you would have never understood if you hadn’t put in that extra time. And I’m not talking about discipline, per se, as meaning doing something you don’t want to do or forcing yourself to practice. For me playing music has always been more of a devotion. I have no problems sitting here for 9-10 hours playing guitar, all day or all night. Sometimes I don’t want to play at all. Sometimes I might go a couple of days without playing. I have to touch the guitar everyday but I don’t have to play it. That’s really where it comes from. We’re often taught to develop our weaknesses, and sure you want to be able to get around a do a certain number of things. But, figure out what your strength is and develop that. That’s how you develop your own style.

2019-04-21T09:06:57Z

https://squareneckjournal.com/2015/02/19/a-conversation-with-grammy-award-winning-guitarist-ed-gerhard/

Luminant, a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings Corp. (EFH)—which owns competitive and regulated energy subsidiaries in Texas—is the largest electricity generator in Texas. To Luminant’s credit, it took the hard road of constructing solid fuel plants instead of making the default decision to build more gas-fired generation when demand for electricity rose. With its three-plant program nearing completion, Luminant’s 18,300-MW portfolio remains the best balanced of any Texas generation company: about 8,000 MW each of coal-fired and natural gas–fired capacity and the remainder supplied by its 2,300-MW Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant. Luminant also has 900 MW of wind capacity under contract and a public commitment to increase that number to 1,500 MW, making it the largest wind power purchaser in Texas and the nation’s fifth-largest purchaser. The type and amount of installed capacity is a good way to compare different generation companies, but so are actual generation statistics. In the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market, which represents about 75% of the electricity generation in the state, 70% of the electricity delivered is fired by natural gas and only 18% by coal. Luminant, on the other hand, used coal to fuel 67% of the megawatt-hours it generated in 2009. Next was nuclear (29%). Gas-fired generation (4%) filled in the gaps. The stats clearly show that Luminant has a long history of using solid fuels and running its plants with high capacity factors. In addition, its plant operating staff are experts at squeezing low-cost electricity from lignite, a difficult coal to process and burn efficiently. In 2005, when Luminant (then TXU Power, a subsidiary of TXU Corp.) determined that additional generation was needed to meet expected load growth, it was only natural that the company would turn again to lignite. You may recall TXU’s ill-fated plans to construct 11 new coal-fired units in 2006: Those plans immediately met a storm of opposition. After EFH, a consortium of private equity investors, purchased TXU for $45 billion in October 2007, it quickly scaled back the 11-plant program to a more palatable three-plant program that included Sandow 5 (completed September 2009) and the two units at Oak Grove (“substantial completion” December 2009 and June 2010). The cost of these three plants is reported at $3.25 billion. The other smart move EFH made was striking a deal with the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council to put their stamps of approval on the three-plant deal. Later, in 2008, a similar arrangement was reached with the Sierra Club on mercury emission reductions to avoid costly litigation. These deals recognized and followed the company’s voluntary commitment to offset more than 100% of nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and mercury (Hg) emissions from the new plants by making reductions at its existing plants when the air permits for Oak Grove were applied for in July 2005. By the end of this year, EFH will have spent $1 billion to make that promise a reality. In fact, the entire coal fleet’s emissions were reduced by 20% below 2005 levels. The two 800-MW Oak Grove units (Figure 1), located in Robertson County about 130 miles north of Houston near Franklin, will have reached commercial service by the time you read this article. However, this project inherited most of its personality from two separate projects that began life more than 35 years ago. In the mid-1970s, TXU had approved construction of two lignite-fired power plants, called Forest Grove and Twin Oaks, in different parts of Texas (Table 1). TXU obtained all the necessary permits to construct both plants (each unit nominally rated at 800 MW net, 870 MW gross) and ordered much of the engineered equipment. A sudden drop in electricity demand reduced the immediate need for new generation, and the projects were deferred. The projects were started and delayed several times over the years until the air permits were withdrawn for both projects in December 1994. Some of the expensive, long-lead equipment had already been delivered to the job sites in the late 1970s. At Twin Oaks, where the boiler island was supplied by Combustion Engineering (now Alstom Power), some of the plant’s concrete infrastructure had been installed and the boiler structural steel had been started for Unit 1 before the project was officially suspended. When the project was suspended, all of the delivered equipment for two units at Twin Oaks was carefully preserved, laid out in neat rows on the site, and began three decades of long-term storage. At one point, Twin Oak’s Unit 2 equipment was relocated at another TXU facility. Forest Grove, a single-unit lignite-fired plant, suffered the same fate, although Babcock and Wilcox (B&W) supplied its boiler island. By the mid-2000s, increasing electricity demand gave Luminant the opportunity to resurrect the two mothballed supercritical plants. Luminant wisely selected the Twin Oaks site to leverage the already-completed site work and renamed it Oak Grove (presumably because the twin oak trees had grown into a grove over the intervening 30 years). The equipment stored on site retained its Unit 1 designation. Equipment in long-term storage at Forest Grove was relocated to the Oak Grove site and redesignated as Unit 2 (Figure 2 and Table 2). New air emission permits were applied for in July 2005 and approved in June 2007. Plant Director Clifford Watson, PE, emphasized that permitting and timely constuction of the plant was possible in large measure due to the strong support of local communities, including the cities of Franklin, Bremond, and Calvert. The Twin Oaks plant morphed into the Oak Grove plant because it was a “structurally advantaged asset.” For example, the site construction completed 30 years earlier included partial erection of the Unit 1 boiler structure (Figure 3) and construction of the 2,330-acre cooling lake (Twin Oaks Reservoir) with a completed intake structure suitable for two plants. The 345-kV transmission switching station also was partially completed and located within the 4,230-acre plant property boundary. Another decided advantage of this site was its proximity to the Luminant-owned Kosse Mine. Located only about 15 miles away, the mine’s 40,000-acre site has lignite reserves to fuel the two-unit plant for more than 40 years. Fluor is Luminant’s alliance contractor for plant maintenance across the fleet. For more than 25 years, Fluor has provided ongoing engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services to Luminant and the former TXU Power. During that time, Fluor employees have worked more than 50 million hours across numerous Luminant sites throughout Texas. As part of that alliance, Fluor was years ago tasked to properly preserve and maintain the many plant components, including steam turbines, generators, and boiler pressure parts that had been procured years earlier. That long-term relationship with Fluor was fortuitous given that Fluor was later selected as the engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) contractor for Oak Grove (Table 3). The first step for the Luminant-Fluor Oak Grove team was to devise a plan to build the two-unit plant starting with only a set of drawings and specifications prepared prior to the birth of many team members and using the plant components in long-term storage. Luminant began the process by contracting with the suppliers of the turbines (GE), Unit 1 boiler (Alstom), and Unit 2 boiler (B&W) to determine the work required for reuse and later assigned these contracts to Fluor as part of the EPC agreement. Another constraint on the project design: Regardless of when the parts were purchased, the new plant had to meet modern plant codes, standards, and air emissions regulations. The team agreed on a two-phase contracting approach. The first phase began with an “open book” contract period of seven months during which Fluor performed its due diligence on the erector set of parts, design drawings and specifications, plus what had been constructed on site 30 year earlier. At the conclusion of the due diligence period, Fluor was to report on the parts and structures that could be reused or modified, those that must be demolished or discarded, and its plan for specifying and constructing the two-unit plant. Luminant and Fluor began the due diligence period by confirming the inventory of parts and assessing their condition using an assortment of nondestructive evaluation testing and inspection methods. In some cases, equipment was returned to the vendor (or its successors) for overhaul or upgrading to modern standards. Sometimes the originally supplied equipment, though still in good working condition, was inappropriate for the new plant design. A good example was the induced draft (ID) fans. Adding several new air quality control system (AQCS) components required upgraded fans to overcome the increased pressure losses. Another example was the partially completed boiler support structure that had been exposed to the elements for 30 years. A thorough analysis found the need for additional steel plates to meet current structural codes and standards, particularly for wind loading (Figure 4). Some stored components, such as the feedwater pumps and turbines, were returned to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for repairs or a complete overhaul. Other parts were repaired or upgraded on site. Fluor also determined that some of the concrete foundations were inadequate, so they were subsequently demolished, such as those for the ID fans and the discarded electrostatic precipitator (ESP). The second phase began with Fluor preparing its proposed EPC contract terms and conditions, based on the inspections and front-end engineering. In sum, the EPC contract required Fluor to assume responsibility for all of the mothballed parts, complete the redesign of the plant as necessary, and wrap a custom set of guarantees and warranties around the entire plant. This streamlined contracting approach required Fluor to stand in the place of the OEMs whose guarantees and warranties had expired a generation ago. Fluor and Luminant next hammered out the terms of EPC contract with the assistance of Burns & McDonnell in the role of owner’s engineer. The final contract was a more or less standard lump sum EPC contract with Luminant taking the risk on craft labor escalation. Luminant’s Von Thompson, vice president of major projects and responsible for the Oak Grove project, noted that this two-phase approach to developing the final EPC contract worked well for both Fluor and Luminant. As evidence, he pointed to change orders totaling less than 0.5% at the close of the project. Thompson also pointed out another measure of the project’s success: Unit 1 was built in only 30 months and Unit 2 in 35 months after notice to proceed was received from Luminant. Four primary teams contributed to the success of the project: Luminant Construction (responsible for developing and administering the EPC contract), Luminant Operations (responsible for hiring and training of plant staff and providing workforce for commissioning), Fluor Construction (responsible for plant construction activities), and Fluor Commissioning (responsible for commissioning equipment to meet contract guarantees). With the necessary construction permits and a well-defined EPC contract in hand, Luminant broke ground on the 1,600-MW Oak Grove Power Plant on June 14, 2007. Oak Grove’s new air emissions permit required Fluor to select an AQCS that complied with best available control technology for controlling emissions when burning lignite. To do so, Luminant and Fluor upgraded the existing supercritical boiler furnaces with low-NOx burners and overfire air ports and then added a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system to the steam generator. Oak Grove is the first plant in the U.S. that has installed SCR on a 100% lignite-burning power plant. The boiler upgrade work was actually two separate projects, as the two supercritical steam generators use remarkably different design philosophies: Alstom Power uses a tilting corner-fired design whereas B&W uses wall-fired burners. The AQCS systems were essentially identical between the plants, such as the wet flue gas desulfurization system. Particulates were removed by an ESP in the original design, but that equipment was discarded and replaced with a modern baghouse equipped with tens of thousands of fabric filter bags, each more than 30 feet long because of the plant’s very tight particulate limits. An activated carbon injection (ACI) system is in place in accordance with Luminant’s fleetwide program to reduce mercury emissions from its coal-fired plants, another first for a lignite-fired plant in the U.S. (Figure 5). Upgraded boilers meant upgraded controls and instrumentation, another replicated design task. Parallel projects were required given the significant differences in boiler control logic philosophy, including two separate factory acceptance tests. Watson noted that although the operator interface in the two units’ control rooms appear identical, there are many nuances that require separate operator training on each unit. Another modern development is the plant’s suite of continuous air emissions monitors that measure and log NOx, SO2, ammonia slip, CO, and particulate matter. A continuous mercury monitor also was added to each unit to monitor performance of the ACI system. Watson noted that the care and calibration of these monitoring system keeps several technicians busy full time. When the original units were designed in the mid-1970s, analog and pneumatic controls were customary. Today, advanced digital control systems (DCS) and electronic sensors are de rigueur, and Fluor didn’t disappoint. Fluor’s controls engineers are well known for pushing the envelope in power plant digital system design. There isn’t space in this article to discuss the details of the Oak Grove controls design, but suffice it to say that Fluor leveraged the lessons learned on TS Power to further push the digital controls envelope at Oak Grove, especially in the areas of using digital controls in the balance of plant and the electrical switchgear, down to the 480V motor control centers. Foxboro, Invensys Operations Management supplied the DCS equipment (Figure 6). General Electric’s Mark VI system was used to control the steam turbines, also supplied by GE (Figure 7). The process of keeping the plant fed with lignite begins with Luminant’s Kosse Mine. Each of two trains, configured with 36 railcars, brings a 4,000-ton load of lignite from the mine a total of seven to eight times a day. When a train arrives, the bottom dump railcar can drop its load in a rapid discharge rail unloading facility in about 55 minutes. Roberts & Schaefer Co., through a turnkey contract from Fluor, supplied the coal-handling system, starting with the rail car unloading hoppers. Two 1,500 ton/hr (tph) belts transport crushed coal to a transfer house, where the coal stream is split to supply the two tripper houses on each boiler. Each tripper house system has four reverse shuttle conveyors, each 600 tph, serving four sets of lignite bunkers with dust collection at transfer points and lignite silos. The trippers supply the lignite bunkers on the boiler structure. The lignite bunkers are sized for about six to eight hours of operation at full load. This one-way, dedicated railroad is unremarkable in the power industry. However, the plant’s “push-pull” connection between the plant and the lignite deliveries—the mine pushes the fuel to the plant and the plant pulls its needs directly from each delivery—is unique. Either the next train arrives and unloads within eight hours or the plant runs short of fuel and must turn to its emergency stockpile. In essence, the plant’s coal pile was moved from the plant to the mine with deliveries made “just in time” for the plant’s fuel needs. The typical coal-fired plant is far removed from its coal suppliers, so it usually keeps 60 days’ supply or more on hand, anticipating fuel delivery disruptions such as those caused by a failed joint line track from the Powder River Basin in late 2004. Remarkably small, Oak Grove’s emergency fuel storage stockpile will keep the plant running for only about 15 days and is usually tapped only if fuel deliveries are interrupted. In fact, the fuel pile cannot be accessed with automated reclaim equipment—because there isn’t any. Oak Grove’s fuel pile was designed without a stacker or reclaimer system, and recovery of the stored coal is only possible using a front-end loader to manually move lignite to the fuel conveyor. At the height of the project, Fluor’s direct-hired construction labor force peaked at nearly 2,400 workers who contributed about 11 million hours to the project. Fluor support staff peaked at around 220; of that total, about 175 were located in Fluor’s home office in Greenville, S.C. Project leaders also exercised Fluor’s global execution center in New Delhi, India, for about 20% of the engineering work, principally for the design functions such as piping layout, electrical connections, and structural design. Fluor also leveraged its global procurement network to purchase quality products such as the chimney, high-alloy pipe, and emissions control systems at competitive prices and with shorter delivery schedules. Additionally, Fluor worked with state and local government representatives and community and technical colleges throughout Texas to attract, recruit, and hire local talent to meet the project’s construction resource requirements. Watson joined the project shortly after the final air emissions permit was received (June 2007) and was promoted to plant director in late 2009. One of the first tasks the plant management team had was building the plant operations team from scratch; only a handful of the staff transferred from other Luminant facilities. Over the following months, the staff slowly began to fuse together as a team—a challenge to be sure, given that their experience ranged from first job out of high school to highly experienced operators. Watson said that building a plant operations team that was able to successfully commission Oak Grove was one of his team’s most important accomplishments on the project. The Luminant-employed full-time staff of Oak Grove is currently 148 (excluding on-site corporate support personnel) plus 38 contractors from Fluor who are responsible for heavy and mid-level maintenance work at the plant. The plant staff consists of employee groups in several different classifications. “Equipment specialists” and “apprentices” are responsible for operating equipment and performing light maintenance duties, such as changing filters, lubrication replacement, and electrical troubleshooting up to 480V in the main plant. Equipment specialists are bargaining unit (BU) employees and members of IBEW Local 2337. “Material specialists” and temporary support personnel (TSP) employees (also part of the BU) are responsible for keeping the lignite moving, starting with when the lignite is dumped from the bottom of the rail cars and ending when it enters the silos. Once the lignite enters the silos, the equipment specialists assume responsibility for its handling. Material specialists also perform maintenance functions in their area of responsibility. Plant operators are also part of the BU and are stationed in the control room. Other than a small group of equipment specialists with electrical knowledge who normally work a weekday, 8-hour shift, equipment specialists, apprentices, material specialists, TSP workers, and others assigned to shift work use the 12-hour shift schedule over a 28-day work rotation schedule. The remainder of the plant staff are non-BU employees and include technicians (chemical, instrumentation and controls, environmental, reliability, and planning), members of the planning and scheduling group, shift supervisors, contract coordination, site engineering, and plant management. The Fluor onsite staff includes journeyman electricians, boilermakers, certified welders, millwrights, and other skilled trades. One very significant advantage enjoyed by Luminant with its Fluor alliance relationship comes during major overhauls or during a major forced outage. Fluor can quickly pull together just the right combination of journeyman skills from across the entire Luminant fleet and from other outside resources and focus that manpower and expertise on quickly fixing problems and rapidly returning a unit to operation. Another consequence of starting with a relatively inexperienced workforce at a “greenfield” plant was the need to develop comprehensive operating and maintenance programs geared to the staff’s level of experience. The training regimen for the majority of the newly hired Luminant employees working at Oak Grove began with attending the 18-week Basic Skills Tool Belt training program at the Luminant Academy in Tyler, Texas. The syllabus for this course included hands-on instruction in simulation equipment, industrial controls, pumps, piping, safety training, hydraulics, and rigging systems. With basic training completed, workers returned to the plant for a series of courses on particular equipment and systems presented by vendors, followed by more off-site training led by the Flour commissioning team. With their seatwork behind them, operators next began the hands-on commissioning of plant equipment under the direction of the Fluor commissioning team. Training continues through an apprenticeship training program that includes completion of preplanned curriculum coursework off-site at the Luminant Academy and completion/sign-off of predefined work station–related “job performance measures” at the plant. The maintenance program began with the tedious but necessary preparation of equipment maintenance procedures and entering volumes of data into equipment databases. While the equipment specialists and operators were attending training, both away and on the job, contractors were used to extract information from the vendor procedures and maintenance manuals to build the maintenance database. The level of detail of these operating and maintenance procedures was guided by those used at Comanche Peak, such as photos embedded in the procedures illustrating each maintenance step, the proper tools required, and the final inspection requirements. As we go to press, both Oak Grove units are online and operating. Unit 1 achieved commercial operation in April and has since been under ERCOT’s dispatch control. Unit 2 achieved “substantial completion” in early June, meaning that Fluor has demonstrated that the plant has met its performance guarantees and operation of the equipment transferred to Luminant’s care, custody, and control. Boiler and AQCS system tuning continue, along with Fluor’s ticking off items on the final punch list. Oak Grove Unit 2 is moving into the final online testing phase, which, when completed, will make the unit fully available for reliability dispatch by ERCOT. That testing should be completed in late August.

2019-04-19T14:40:34Z

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