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The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the School of Social Work envisions our role to be a catalyst and support system to students, staff and faculty for the purpose of cultivating a conscious community where every person feels affirmed, respected, valued and appreciated.
Our commitment to this work is rooted in an understanding that historical and present-day systems of oppression stemming from racism and the institution of slavery continue to permeate all levels of our society, and intersect with discrimination based on personal identities and social positionalities. We recognize our profession has not been historically and is not presently representative of the diversity of perspectives, experiences and backgrounds that make up Michigan, our nation and our world. As a profession and as a School, we must take ownership of our past and participate in envisioning a new path forward that centers anti-racist and anti-oppressive values, frameworks, and practices.
We believe it is both our individual and collective responsibility to develop critical awareness in order to embody diversity, equity, and inclusion principles within our school community and through social work practice.
Diversity is a representation and intersectionality of our collective and individual identities, positionalities, values, beliefs, and lived experiences. We acknowledge the importance of creating environments that take into account and respect all elements of human experience, and strive for empathic action at all times. The ability to navigate diversity, like practicing empathy, is a prosocial skill that can be developed over time with cultural humility, intentionality, and knowledge.
At the School of Social Work, our goal is to create conditions that allow all students, staff and faculty to thrive. Rather than treating every individual equally and identically, equity practice presumes diversity and requires ongoing action to identify and eliminate barriers that presently prevent the full, meaningful participation and inclusion of certain individuals and groups. To achieve this vision, equity calls for us to intentionally invest in programming and supports that nurture the strengths of people with underrepresented identities while also addressing their distinctive needs. The pursuit of equity requires for us to redistribute both power and resources within our social work practice, our school, and the systems in which we work.
Inclusion fosters a culture of belonging by bringing and empowering traditionally excluded voices into decision-making processes. Inclusion mandates the establishment of a balance of power and shared rights within a group, organization, or institution. Inclusive spaces are empowering environments where each voice is valued and supported to actively participate through purposeful, deliberate, and authentic efforts, while understanding that no one person is representative of an entire community.
University of Michigan
School of Social Work
1080 South University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106
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What is Falsetto Voice? Defining Characteristics & Biology
The word falsetto was taken from the word 'false' because it was recognised as different to the normal singing voice. As a singer, it is important to understand the defining features of falsetto so that you can differentiate your falsetto from your normal vocal range. In this article, I will clearly define the falsetto voice.
Falsetto voice is one of four vocal registers and has a characteristic light and airy sound. When singing falsetto, the vocal cords no longer touch, allowing air to pass freely through the larynx. Singers can generally sing one octave higher in falsetto than in their normal modal voice register.
You can find a detailed look into falsetto voice, including what is happening in your larynx (voice box) and how to find your falsetto range. I will also explain why both males and females can sing in falsetto.
Before defining falsetto using anatomy and physiology, you should have a basic understanding on the four vocal registers and how they relate to one another.
Below are the four vocal registers, in order of lowest to highest.
- Vocal fry register: Lowest vocal register. Air bubbles through closed vocal cords.
- Modal voice register: Normal vocal register. Air vibrates vocal cords together to produce pitch/sound.
- Falsetto voice register: Above normal vocal register. Air passes freely through open but vibrating vocal cords to produce sound.
- Whistle voice register: Highest vocal register. Air passes freely through a unique triangular opening in larynx to form a whistle.
Defining Falsetto Voice (Anatomy & Physiology)
Above was a very brief definition of the falsetto voice register, but now it's time to understand exactly what is going on in your larynx. For a detailed explaination of how your voice works, take a look at this article.
The two main muscles that move your vocal cords are listed below. These operate in different ways depending on which vocal register you are singing in.
- Cricothyroid (CT) muscle: Lengthens and tenses the vocal cords (ie. increases pitch).
- Thyroarytenoid (TA) muscle: Shortens and loosens the vocal cords (ie. decreases pitch). Importantly, some fibres also pull the vocal cords close together to prevent separation as they become loose.
In the modal voice register, both of these muscles are active. They both pull the vocal cords in opposite directions, holding them in place at any given length (which determines each pitch).
This is similar to how your biceps and triceps muscles work together to hold your forearm in any given position.
As you sing higher, the TA muscle becomes more and more loose, allowing your vocal cords to stretch longer and thinner. Once your TA muscle relaxes completely, you enter into the falsetto register.
You would think that the CT muscle would be enough to keep the vocal cords together because it is pulling them tighter together. However, some of this is a result of that small bunch of fibres in the TA muscle.
Once the TA muscle relaxes, there is no longer a dedicated group of muscles fibres pulling the vocal cords together. They therefore snap open, even through they are still being pulled tight.
Falsetto Voice Range
It is possible to use falsetto to sing through your normal modal voice range because some singers are capable of controlling whether or not their vocal cords are open or closed.
However, for the sake of simplicity, I will define the falsetto range as the additional range given to a singer beyond their normal modal voice range (ie. notes they would not be able to reach without falsetto).
This range typically spans across one octave, starting at the upper limit of your normal vocal range. When entering falsetto, you should feel a 'flip' as your voice suddenly becomes more airy (keep in mind trained singers can hide this flip).
That being said, below is the typical falsetto range for each voice type.
- Bass Falsetto Voice: approximately E4 - E5
- Baritone Falsetto Voice: approximately A4 - A5
- Tenor Falsetto Voice: approximately C5 - C6
- Alto Falsetto Voice: approximately F5 - F6
- Mezzo-soprano Falsetto Voice: approximately A5 - A6
- Soprano Falsetto Voice: approximately C6 - C7
Every voice is different, so you will find that your falsetto range falls somewhere in-between these ranges.
Click on these links to see the typical vocal ranges for chest voice and head voice.
Characteristics of Falsetto
Below are some of the characteristics of the falsetto voice.
- Less strain on your voice (compared to the modal voice register)
Some singers are able to reinforce their falsetto range to blend with their head voice (click here for more information on head voice). This gives their falsetto voice more of a ringing tone (compared to being breathy), making it hard to distinguish from the ring-like tone of head voice.
Others use the light breathy nature of their falsetto register as a stylistic addition to their singing. This is particularly common in men.
Finding your Falsetto Register
Finding your falsetto register is relatively easy. Simply start with a note that is comfortable and singer higher and higher until you feel the falsetto 'flip'.
At this flip, you will notice that there is suddenly less strain on your voice and you can continue singing much higher than the point of strain. You should also notice that your tone becomes more breathy and you start to lose air much quicker as you sing.
As a general rule, the average singer can sing around two octaves in their modal voice register, and another octave higher than that in their falsetto register. Therefore, if you know the highest comfortable note you can sing (before flipping), your falsetto register should be the octave above that.
Do Females have Falsetto Voice?
Females certainly do have a falsetto register. This has been confirmed with science as technology has become more advanced.
With the progression of medical technology, scientists were able to observe the vocal cords directly with a special camera that is fed into the throat (laryngoscope/endoscope). This procedure was performed on singers as they progressed through different voice registers to study how the vocal cords behaved.
Your vocal cords behave the same, regardless of whether you are male or female.
In regards to anatomy, males and females have the same components in their larynx. This anatomy is merely different in size and shape, giving males a typically deeper voice than females. However, the way sound is produced is exactly the same as you progress through different vocal registers.
As with males, a female's vocal cords will be forced apart as they enter into their falsetto register, giving their voice a lighter and more airy quality.
The main reason this has been disputed for so long is that this light airy sound is not as easily differentiated from a female's natural modal voice. In contrast, a male's modal voice is typically loud and booming, which is very different to the sound of the falsetto register.
Is it OK to Sing in Falsetto?
Singing in your falsetto register is safe, but should be done in balance. As less muscles are involved in producing a falsetto sound, this will put less strain on your voice.
However, because there is more air passing through your vocal cords, they can be more prone to becoming dry (and therefore at risk of damage). You will also lose more tone in the muscles that are not being used, making it harder to control your modal voice register.
Therefore, it is okay to sing in falsetto, as long as you balance this with also singing in your modal voice register. On occasion, falsetto can be very effective at adding a stylistic element to a song or helping you reach higher notes.
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September 23, 2021
Dr. Jennifer Desireddi, M.D. is a Neonatologist specializing in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at St. David’s Medical Center. In her 2018 study, Dr. Desireddi collaborated with Dr. C Armitage Harper, pediatric retinologist from Austin Retina Associates, in understanding the life outcomes of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) among micro-premature infants (birth weight is less than 750 g). The retrospective multicenter study included infants at several intensive care facilities in Central Texas from 2011 to 2016. Dr. Desireddi and her colleagues compared the charts of neonates examined and treated with laser ablation or an FDA approved drug (Intravitreal Ranibizumab) with subsequent laser treatment. Read more about this study.
Additionally, Dr. Desireddi presented two posters at the Pediatric Academic Society Conference in May of 2018. Dr. Desireddi presented “The Surgical Approach to Simple Gastroschisis Affects Hospital Management and Length of Stay.” Dr. Desireddi also presented “A CQI Approach to Improving ELBW nutrition in the First Week of Life,” a collaborative project between Dr. Desireddi and Dr. Monica Shah M.D., a neonatologist practicing at St. David’s Medical Center.
Dr. Shah also presented a poster at the 2018 Vermont Oxford Network Conference (VON) titled “A CQI Approach to Improving ELBW nutrition in the First Week of Life.” Dr. Desireddi supported the important work of two St. David’s Medical Center colleagues – Kay Needles, RN and Allison Brannen, RN on their NICU quality project titled “A CQI Approach to Increasing Breastfeeding Rates at Discharge and Reducing the use of Donor Breast Milk” which was presented as a poster at the 2018 VON Conference.
St. David’s Research Scientist, Dr. Max Shpak, Presents on Advances in Cancer Genomics
St. David’s Women’s Center of Texas joins national research network for maternal-fetal medicine and obstetrics
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Now available directly from this site! Post free in UK.
After the preparation, recording and success of Delicatessen (DMCD001), Steven and Kate Semmens were keen to delve further into the English song repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries, again driven by composers who set texts so beautifully. They have been careful to stay true to songs written specifically for the combination of voice and keyboard (rather than arrangements of orchestral accompaniments) thereby presenting a programme which becomes domestic in nature. In the previous recording, it was the cantata of John Stanley, usually known for his keyboard works, which provided one of the high points: in the present recording, two further cantatas feature, showing Stanley to be as witty as he is sensitive to the text. Thomas Arne and William Boyce again feature with presentations of lesser-known work. A new discovery for the performers has been the work of William Jackson of Exeter and two songs for voice and obbligato keyboard are presented here. Many of the items are obscure but all are charming and present an interesting glimpse into another social world.
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Clergy Notes — Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 19, 2023
Fr Richard Carter, a priest now at St Martin-in-the Fields in London, England, writes movingly of Br John Blyth, whose requiem it was our privilege to host at St James’ this past week:
‘Brother John and I were members of the Melanesian Brotherhood together. When I was chaplain of the Melanesian Brotherhood I asked him to become a mobile chaplain travelling from household to household. He did it with his usual care, consideration and dedication. It was a tough call with no creature comforts. He became a Brother in October 1999 and I a Brother in April 2000 inspired by his example and courage. He found in the Melanesian Brotherhood a family and a community who loved and respected him. He served in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Philippines. I will always remember John sitting with me each day on the polished wooden floor of the meditation chapel at Tabalia the motherhouse of the Melanesian Brotherhood in Solomon Islands. The wind chimes he gave would be softly ringing in the wind, his long legs and stiff knee stretched out before him. It was the time of the martyrdom of the seven Melanesian Brothers. No words could express our sorrow but together we prayed through the troubles – united in silence, united in God. Longing for peace beyond the violence- Yet finding Christ’s peace, as I look back, astonishingly even in the midst of it. He was a man of deep prayerfulness. Prayer was so much part of him.
Brother John used to gently chide himself: “Come on John,” He was a man of deep humility, faith, steadfast, loyal and true beyond words. When he got grumpy he would quietly take himself off to bed. When his memory began to fade and I was frightened he would get lost when he came to London to visit me, I would find him sitting next door at the café or praying at the back of St Martin’s, patiently waiting for me, or more probably God. “Come on John.” He lived a life stripped down of all excess – just John, his Brotherhood medal, black uniform and sash, his prayerbook and notebook, noting down everything meticulously and attentively persevering. He had learnt to live simply, obedient to God, without ostentation but with a wonderful, slightly self-depreciating, dry sense of humour. He taught me much so about obedience to the God he loved – and true poverty of spirit, not with words but by the way he lived – by letting go of desire, receiving all one can desire. Faithful humility helps us to find our way home to God – I loved him dearly – as did the members of the Melanesian Brothers. They know the real thing. The Brothers say that “If I honour myself my honour is nothing” John showed us all the true way of service- he quietly and thoughtfully put in place the things of God- humbly preparing, supporting and living a life devoted to Christ and by example teaching me, my brother Daniel, and many others to do the same.’
Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord!
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- 1 How are college percentages calculated?
- 2 How do you calculate overall percentage of degree marks?
- 3 How do you calculate a semester percentage?
- 4 How is B Sc degree percentage calculated?
- 5 What is the formula of percentage?
- 6 How can I calculate the percentage?
- 7 How do you calculate 6 semesters from a percentage?
- 8 How do I calculate percentage on calculator?
- 9 How do I calculate final percentage?
- 10 How do you calculate average percentage?
- 11 How is 4 semester CGPA calculated?
- 12 How is your GPA calculated?
- 13 How do you calculate degrees?
How are college percentages calculated?
A percentage is a number that is shown in terms of 100.To find the percentage of the marks obtained, one shall divide the total scores by marks obtained and then multiply the result with 100. Example: If 79 is the score obtained in the examination out of 100 marks, then divide 79 by 100, and then multiply it by 100.
How do you calculate overall percentage of degree marks?
Add up all the marks of the six semesters and then divide that by the total marks. You will get the average. For example if the total marks is 1000 and you got a total of 750 then your percentage is 750/1000*100=75%.
How do you calculate a semester percentage?
Divide the summation of the SGPAs by the number of semesters you have given. Multiply your SGPA with 10 and then subtract 7.5 from the total [(SGPA * 10) – 7.5 = Percentage ].
How is B Sc degree percentage calculated?
Re: How to calculate percentage for Graduation like B. Sc.?
- Firstly calculate the total marks of your subject including your practical exams.
- And then divide it by the total marks of your subject including practical exam.
- And then multiply it by 100.
What is the formula of percentage?
the equation for percentage is this: percentage = 100 * part / whole, and it answers the question “what percentage of 20 is 8”. the formula for a part is: part = whole * percentage / 100, and it answers “what is 40% of 20?”.
How can I calculate the percentage?
How To Calculate Percent
- Determine the total or whole amount.
- Divide the number to be expressed as a percent by the total. In most cases, you’ll divide the smaller number by the larger number.
- Multiple the resulting value by 100.
How do you calculate 6 semesters from a percentage?
For calculating the aggregate percentage of 6 semesters. Just you need to sum the total marks and marks that you obtained.
How do I calculate percentage on calculator?
How to Calculate Percentages with a Calculator
- If your calculator has a “%” button. Let’s say you wanted to find 19 percent of 20. Press these buttons: 1 9 % * 2 0 =
- If your calculator does not have a “%” button. Step 1: Remove the percent sign and add a couple of zeros after the decimal point. 19% becomes 19.00.
How do I calculate final percentage?
First, calculate the percentage you received on the test by dividing your mark by the total marks. For example, if you scored 18 out of 20, then 18/20 = 90 percent. Secondly, multiply your percentage score on the test by the percentage it is worth of the final grade.
How do you calculate average percentage?
Calculate the percentage average To find the average percentage of the two percentages in this example, you need to first divide the sum of the two percentage numbers by the sum of the two sample sizes. So, 95 divided by 350 equals 0.27. You then multiply this decimal by 100 to get the average percentage.
How is 4 semester CGPA calculated?
How to Calculate CGPA
- Step 1: Add the grade points i.e 9+8+7+8+8 = 40.
- Step 2: Divide the sum by 5 i.e 40/5 = 8.
How is your GPA calculated?
To calculate your GPA, divide the total number of grade points earned by the total number of letter graded units undertaken. For each unit of credit the following grade points are earned: A+ = 4. A = 4.
How do you calculate degrees?
A circle has 360 degrees, so if you want to express an angle in terms of a percentage, just divide the angle measurement (in degrees ) by 360 and multiply by 100. In reverse, divide the percentage by 100 and multiply by 360.
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Empire of the Sun (1987), adapted from the autobiographical novel by sci-fi legend J.G. Ballard by playwright Tom Stoppard, is Steven Spielberg’s first World War II movie.
Christian Bale makes a brilliant film debut as Jim Graham, the British schoolboy living in a life of wealth and privilege in a bubble of western colonial power in the Chinese city of Shanghai. It’s 1941, before Pearl Harbor, but the war comes to Jim’s family nonetheless when Japan invades and Jim is separated from his parents in the chaos and panic. It’s a terrifying moment as the crowds swamp the small boy and carry him away, and the terror doesn’t abate as Jim is left adrift on the streets, ducking Japanese soldiers and until he’s take to a prison camp for American and British civilians.
Apart from separate barracks for the British and American war prisoners, there’s no real plan or protection. They’re left to fend for themselves, kids included. Without his own parents to look after him, Jim is torn between the maternal attention of a weary, disillusioned British woman (Miranda Richardson, devastating) and a cynical American (John Malkovich) who quickly establishes himself as the camp’s black market operator and sees Jim’s potential as a gopher able to work under the radar of the guards.
Wearing oversized fatigues and covered in mud and grime, Jim weaves through the hardship and poverty by creating games and finding escape holes, and he even holds on to a respect for the Japanese fliers in the airfield across the barbed wire. In one of the film’s most powerful scenes, he salutes the fliers with a song—a Welsh hymn sung in a beautiful soprano—that transforms the culture clash into a moment of shared reverence. The soldiers turn to the war orphan, recognize the integrity of his offering, and find honor in this “difficult boy.”
One of Spielberg’s most underrated films, Empire of the Sun is a perfect marriage of the director’s affinity for a child’s wonder and innocence, his grown-up understanding of the horrors of war, and his impeccable technique. It was a box-office disappointment met with mixed critical response but, apart from John Williams’ sentiment-dripping score, it remains one of his finest achievements.
Nigel Havers and Joe Pantoliano costar and a young Ben Stiller has a small role.
It was nominated for six Academy Awards and winner of three BAFTAs, including awards for the rich cinematography by Allen Daviau and the score by John Williams. Daviau was also recognized by his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers, who awarded him the ASC prize for outstanding achievement in cinematography in theatrical releases.
Streams for a limited time on Max – leaves at the end of May
Also on Blu-ray and DVD and on SVOD through Amazon Video, iTunes, GooglePlay, Vudu and/or other services. Availability may vary by service.
Empire of the Sun [Blu-ray]
Empire of the Sun [DVD]
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The DVD and Blu-ray releases feature the 1987 documentary “A China Odyssey: Empire of the Sun, a Film by Steven Spielberg.”
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The process of gaining strength and muscle is both relatively easy to understand and to apply, especially if you follow these tips for building strength and muscle.
I have myself made many mistakes especially when I was starting out. I hope that these tips can help prevent you from doing the same.
If you have any questions feel free to use the comments section below.
5 Tips For Building Strength And Muscle
Here are 5 important things you need to know about gaining strength and muscle when you structure your workouts.
# 1 – Lift Heavy, But Not Too Heavy
In order to gain strength and muscle, you need a lot of muscle recruitment.
Put in another way you need to challenge your muscles. The best and most time-efficient way to do that is to focus on heavy compound lifts.
Research has shown that lifting heavy weights is significantly better for both strength and muscle growth than lifting lighter weights.
Even though most people already know that you have to lift heavy weights in order to become stronger, I think many fail to realize how heavy it actually has to be either because they do too many reps or they don’t push themselves enough.
If you are doing a heavy compound lift, your focus should be on lifting around the 4 – 6 rep range.
Lifting very heavy and pushing yourself is a habit that you have to learn.
In the beginning, you have to force yourself into lifting as heavy as possible while still performing the exercise right and unassisted. Perhaps you will be surprised at how much you can actually lift.
When that is said you obviously also have to not lift too heavy.
If you are “pushing through” a heavy exercise with a lot of help from another person, or you are letting momentum or other muscle groups assist you too much you could be decreasing your strength gain considerably and wasting time and effort.
Some people will say you should lift until failure, but I would not recommend that. You really don’t have to push yourself to failure in order to become stronger.
I would argue that even if you gained something from pushing yourself to failure it would not be worth the added stress on your body. Also, you risk getting injured and in most cases, you would need a spotter. This might be different if you are a very experienced in lifting weights.
# 2 – Progressive Overload
Progressive overload is the most powerful drive for strength and muscle growth.
It means to increase tension in muscle fibers over time (link: Wikipedia) and is arguably done easiest by increasing the weight and/or reps performed up to a certain degree.
When your muscle has grown stronger from lifting a given amount of weight for a given amount of repetitions you NEED to make the lift harder, e.g. by adding some extra weight.
If you are doing the same exercise in the exact same way over and over again your strength will not increase for long, since your muscle already adapted to this amount of stress.
Assuming you are doing everything right, your muscles can only adapt to small increases at a time.
When you are lifting in in the rep ranges 4-6 and 5-10, progressively overloading your muscles while still lifting very heavy it is easily manageable.
# 3 – Only Incremental Increases
Strength and muscle gain is an adaptation to the stress experienced by the muscle – a muscle adaption.
It is very important to understand that the muscle will for the most part only be able to adapt to very small/incremental increases.
That means if you try to add too much weight or add too many extra repetitions to the exercise your muscles are not able to adapt. It will simply be too much for your muscles to handle and you won’t get anything out of it.
The best way to get consistent and reliable strength gains is to be slow but steady and progressively overload your muscles with a little bit more weight or 1-2 more repetitions.
The increase might only be small, but over a period of for example 3 – 6 months it will result in significant strength and muscle gain!
# 4 – Get Your Nutrition Right
Providing your body with the right amount of energy and nutrients is absolutely critical for having success with gaining strength and muscle.
You cannot build a house without the materials.
However, instead of just stuffing your face with food in the name of becoming stronger and gaining muscle you should take a more fine-tuned approach.
For optimal strength and muscle gain, you need a calorie surplus. That is a surplus in the energy balance of your body.
Keeping that in mind, your body can only use a limited amount of surplus calories with a correlation to the speed of which you are able to build muscle. Any more calories than that will get stored as fat.
Essentially, you have to eat just a bit more than your body needs to sustain itself (maintenance calories).
Most people are interested in gaining the maximum amount of strength and muscle while keeping fat to a minimum, but still, some make the mistake of eating too much. I have made this mistake myself.
# 5 – Be Serious About Your Recovery
Technically, it is not the act of going to the gym and lift heavy weights that will increase your strength and muscle size.
It is the physiological process that happens after that makes you stronger.
When you are recovering your body will literally repair small wounds in your muscles that are a result of you lifting weights. In the process, you end up a little stronger.
If you want to be able to continually add strength and muscle for a long period of time, then you need your regular schedule to provide sufficient time for your body to recover.
But having a good recovery does not only mean you just wait some time before doing the same exercise again.
There are many factors you need to consider to ensure a good recovery. Most importantly is eating the right stuff, getting enough quality sleep and managing your stress levels.
Great article, there is so much different information around these days but this makes total sense. Just wondering if there is a recommended number of reps that I should aim for to help me to determine wether the weight I’m using is correct? And how many sets per exercise is ideal?
By the way, the little picture in this article made me laugh, I love it!
Thanks for the great questions which I know many would be interested in! Actually, I will soon make a long post that goes in-depth on this topic and I would suggest you visit my website again another time 😉
However, I can give you a quick and very short version:
You generally want to be in the lower end when you are training for strength. A good “general” range that I would recommend is 4 – 8 reps per set for 3 sets total.
But I know many people who also go lower with the reps, and that can also be really good. If you go lower then you can increase the amount of sets, e.g. 1-3 reps per set for 5 sets. If you are only doing a single rep you can even go up to 10 sets.
For this kind of training in general it is important to have a long rest between sets. 2-3 minutes rest between all sets is ideal and will ensure you can lift at your full potential.
When starting out or if you are unsure of how much weight you should lift, I recommend lifting a little lighter than what you think you can do. If you are able to complete the exercise within 4 – 8 reps for 3 sets with good form, then you that you can go a little more heavier next time.
Hello and thanks for sharing, this is a great post that shows how to build strength. I am one that loves it when to comes to having a good work out plan that can really improve the body keeping it strong and healthy. Building strength is a good way to keep the body active and fit. Your post is well detailed with tons of great information. It is good how you broke it all down to make i easy to follow. Your readers will love how you laid everything out.
I’m glad you liked it!
You’ve got some great advice here Marcus, I’ve never been too big on strength training because I don’t feel I’m getting a good workout (maybe because I’m not pushing myself enough or something?) but I do understand how to do it correctly. I have done it in the past and have seen results, the key for is consistent training using the correctform and, like you said, gradually increasing the weight.
I focused mainly on deadlift and got up from 95kg to 107.5kg in about 5 or 6 weeks. I know this isn’t much but I was pretty happy about it.
I think I know what you mean by not getting the “feeling” of a good workout. The thing is that after a great strength training workout you shouldn’t feel exhausted, and muscle soreness is also not a gauge of how great your workout was.
A succesful workout is one where you have been able to perform a little bit better than last time. And that is it. You can’t compare it to something like a crossfit workout or other cardio intense workouts.
Deadlift is such an awesome exercise! Your progress sounds great, and is definitely something to be happy about 🙂
This is some good tips for building strength. I go to the gym now and then, but some times I end up drinking a lot of alcohol on the same day that I went to the gym.
I know that it obviously affects my training negatively, but I have always wondered how much. It is probably hard to say, but do you know how much?
Drinking alcohol is all about moderation 🙂
If you get completely “shitfaced” it will mess up your recovery. From personal experience on the “very rare” occasions, I got drunk on the same day as I trained I had the feeling that it also made my hangovers worse than if I haven’t trained.
Another important thing to mention is the HUGE amount of calories you are getting from all that alcohol. If you are interested in how to gain strength and lean muscle you can check out my free white paper here.
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Hair is an important part of your personality. Yet, they go through a lot on a daily basis. Getting attacked on a constant basis by the pollutants to humidity and stress all this affects your hair and their growth.
On my personal account when I visited the Hair Club, I get to know about these essential oils that you can use for your hair health. So today we will be discussing these essential oils in no particular order so that you can also get benefitted from this necessary information.
Best Essential Oils for Your Hair
Hair is often one of the most neglected parts of your body. But it should not be like this. You need to be extra attentive towards these matters as well. Your hair needs the same level of nourishment that is required by the rest of your body. So make sure to keep an eye on these oils which are essential in nature as well as for your hair.
You have probably heard about it, right? Hand’s down is one of the most used and popular hair oils. For centuries this oil has been used by both females and males alike for several hair treatments.
This oil is rich in both antioxidants and in vitamin E. both these compounds make it an ideal fit for your hair and to improve your hair growth.
Most of the time people demand that they only want organic things for their hair. This is when Argan oil comes into play. This oil goes through minimum processing and this less intervention of artificial substances makes it a perfect fit for your hair health.
Furthermore, it is a vitamin-E-rich oil that also boasts a significantly high level of antioxidants. Thus make sure to use it for your scalp health.
Want to increase the length of your hair at a remarkable speed. Try using lavender oil. Researchers have stated that lavender is an oil that can increase stress level. It is also important because of its healing and soothing properties.
Moreover it is high on the radar for positivity improving your scalp health. This is because of the fact that it also has antimicrobial and antibacterial properties.
Rosemary Essential Oil
People are often asking questions that how can they improve the volume and length of their hair. They just need to know about this magical potion that is rosemary essential oil. This oil will significantly increase the volume of your hair because they improve cellular generation.
So make sure to give your scalp a necessary massage of this oil and wait for the magic to happen.
Lemongrass Essential Oil
Are you also tired from all those white flakes on your shoulders? These white snowflakes on your shoulders and clothes are the reason for a number of hair issues. Dandruff is one of the most common hair issues that people of the current day and age suffer from. XPrague
If there is one remedy that can work wonders in getting rid of dandruff is the use of lemongrass. The use of lemongrass can reduce dandruff just after a week.
An oil that works wonders for both skin and hair alike is Almond oil. Like all the other oil on this list, this one is also rich in fatty acids, proteins, antioxidants as well as vitamin E.
It does not only moistures your hair and scalp but also locks the moisture in the roots. Therefore make sure to give your scalp the much-needed treatment twice a week.
This oil right here is a natural conditioner that is rich in antioxidants as well as vitamin E. you can use this oil for your dishes and you can also apply it to your scalp.
Olive oil makes sure that they retain the smooth texture of your hair as well as is helpful to combat dandruff.
Hair is undoubtedly the first thing that people notice about you. Thus it is your first and foremost duty to keep them healthy. Make sure to take notes from the aforementioned oils and enjoy good hair days.
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Plant Profile: Peppermint
Around this time of year, peppermint starts to pop up in everything from cocoa to coffee to baked goods. While this is one of the more common herbs that people grow and use, there’s still a lot to appreciate about this power-house herb.
Not only does peppermint taste good, but it can also help calm an upset stomach, soothe headaches, help if you have digestive issues, promote alertness, help with fevers and congestion, and of course freshen breath. Peppermint has a high menthol content which is part of the reason it makes this plant so powerful. It also provides important nutrients like calcium, potassium, and magnesium.
The main part of the plant that’s used for medicine and food are the leaves and occasionally the flowers. Besides food and tea, the leaves and flowers can be used to make tinctures, oils, poultices, decoctions, salves, and just about anything else you can imagine, making this one versatile herb.
If you don’t have a peppermint plant but are considering adding one to your garden, it’s good to know that, like other types of mint, it spreads very easily and will take over so it’s best to plant in a container if possible. If kept in a container, this is a pretty low maintenance plant and can be easily propagated by taking root cuttings.
If you’re anything like me, my lips get very chapped especially when the colder temps hit. This peppermint sugar scrub is great for reviving those lips and smoothing them out. It can also be used on hands and feet for a little extra softness. This recipe makes a small amount but it’s easy enough to double or triple. It will keep in an airtight container in a cool and dry place for about a month or so.
Peppermint Lavender Sugar Scrub
What You’ll Need:
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1/8 cup oil (can use coconut, almond, or olive oil)
- 1 tsp dried peppermint (more or less to taste/smell)
- ½ tsp dried lavender (more or less to taste/smell)
- ¼ tsp vitamin E oil (this is optional)
How to Make It:
If your dried peppermint and lavender are in bigger chunks or pieces, feel free to pulse a couple of times in a food processor or spice grinder if you want finer pieces.
Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix together adding more or less oil depending on the consistency you want for your scrub.
Spoon into an airtight container and use within a month or so.
What’s your favorite way to use peppermint? Let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear from you!
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Imagine the situation. You are sitting in the passenger seat of a high performance car, with someone you have never met before who is about to drive you around a race circuit at speeds of over 100mph. During the journey you will have to remain relaxed, communicate effectively, and encourage them to keep improving their performance. Does this sound difficult to you?
This experience is one that a motor-sport driving instructor has to go through every time they take a member of the public out on one of those popular Experience Days, held at places like Silverstone Race Circuit in England. And it was something that I had wondered about. What were these instructors doing to be able to remain relaxed, communicate effectively and help someone else to learn, in this potentially high risk environment? So I set about finding out the answer to my question.
Using the modelling technique that I had learned during my Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner training, I decided to interview three experienced motor-sport driving instructors to find out what cognitive and behavioural patterns they used that enabled them to be excellent instructors. I then wanted to consider how that learning could be applied to anyone who has to train others. The results were written up in an article published in the Industrial and Commercial Training Journal, and some of the key points are summarised below.
- Learn to think fast and communicate slowly – All of the instructors talked about having the ability to take in and analyse a lot of information quickly, and then communicate the results of it in a relaxed manner, to ensure the other person remained relaxed.
- Influencing begins long before an event ever starts – You can begin to develop an expectation about an experience long before it begins. We are influenced by subtle cues, such as the tone of an email or communication, the promptness of response, and how you are greeted on arrival at an event. The instructors used to in a positive manner.
- You are receiving far more data than you realise – the instructors described a lot that was related to their senses (e.g. how the car feels at a given moment, their sense of the person who will be driving, the tone of voice used) which indicates that often we know a lot more about a situation than perhaps we give ourselves credit for. The trick is to learn to be aware of that data, to analyse what it is telling you, and to act on it as a result
- The importance of uncovering assumptions – The importance of not making assumptions is paramount, so being able to ask questions to uncover any assumptions is a critical skill to master.
- Knowing your capabilities can reinforce confidence – If you are clear about what you are good at, then when you get into a difficult situation, you are able to draw upon your core capabilities. The instructors knew that they would be able to handle the car even if the driver got into difficulties, which brought confidence to both driver and instructor.
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What is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)?
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a diagnostic procedure that uses a combination of a large magnet, radiofrequency, and a computer to produce detailed images of organs and structures within the body. MRI does not use ionizing radiation, unlike X-rays or computed tomography (CT scans). An MRI provides clear and detailed pictures of internal organs and tissues.
Doctors use MRI to examine soft tissues such as organs, muscle, cartilage, ligaments, and tendons.
It is also helpful when looking at the brain, abdomen, pelvic region and joints like your knee and shoulder. Most MRI exams do not require any special preparation.
Our NEW Siemens Verio 3T MRI scanner is a state of the art MRI scanner that produces high-quality images especially of the brain, muscles and tendons, bones, joints, and spine. The most important thing for you is the new, open bore 70 cm design which gives you plenty of room to stretch out and feel comfortable. No more tight squeeze!
What People Say About Us!
I was scheduled for an MRI, and they called me to see if I wanted to come in early! This is fantastic! I came early, checked in very quickly, and as soon as I turned in the paperwork, they took me back to get ready! They were compassionate, understanding, and very professional! The team that actually ran the MRI did a great job getting me comfortable! When it was over, they were very gentle in helping me get up from the table. Well done everyone!
MRI Services We Offer
- MRI of the brain, neck, spine, chest, abdomen, pelvis, upper and lower extremities
- MR Angiography
- MRI of the Breast
How does an MRI scan work?
The MRI machine is a large, cylindrical (tube-shaped) machine that creates a strong magnetic field around the patient and sends pulses of radio waves from a scanner. The magnetic field aligns the hydrogen protons in your body along the same vector. The radio waves then knock the particles out of this aligned position.
As the nuclei realign into proper position, the nuclei send out radio signals. These signals are received by a computer that analyzes and converts them into an image of the part of the body being examined. This image appears on a viewing monitor. Cross-sectional views can be obtained to reveal further details. Some MRI machines look like narrow tunnels, while others are more open.
Magnetic resonance imaging may be used instead of computed tomography in situations where organs or soft tissue are being studied because MRI is better at telling the difference between different soft tissues and between normal and abnormal soft tissue.
Reasons for MRI Scan
In orthopedics, an MRI may be used to examine bones, joints, and soft tissues such as cartilage, muscles, and tendons for injuries or the presence of structural abnormalities or certain other conditions such as:
- Inflammatory disease
- Congenital abnormalities
- Bone marrow disease
- Herniation or degeneration of discs of the spinal cord.
MRI may be used to assess the results of corrective orthopedic procedures. Joint deterioration resulting from arthritis may be monitored by using magnetic resonance imaging. There may be other reasons for your physician to recommend an MRI.
Preparing for an MRI
Prior to your MRI, your physician will explain the procedure to you and offer you the opportunity to ask any questions that you might have about the procedure. If your procedure involves the use of contrast dye, you will be asked to sign a consent form that gives permission to do the procedure. Read the form carefully and ask questions if something is not clear. If IV contrast will be used, patients over the age of 50 years old require a blood test within the past 30 days to measure their Creatinine level.
If you have claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces) or anxiety, you may want to ask your physician for a prescription for a mild sedative prior to the scheduled examination. If sedation is used, it is required that you arrange for a relative or friend to drive you home after the exam.
It is important to report any allergies to the radiology technologist. Women should always inform the MRI technologist if there is any possibility that they are pregnant. Many imaging tests are not performed during pregnancy. Also, let your technologist know if you have:
- a pacemaker, aneurysm clips, vascular coils, or filters
- inner ear implants or hearing aids
- unremoved shrapnel or bullet fragments
- insulin or other infusion pumps
- permanent dentures
- worked around metal and/or have had fragments in your eye(s)
- surgical shunts
- heart valves
- metal plates, rods, pins or screws
- joint replacements
- surgical staples or wires
Prior to your MRI exam, jewelry and other accessories should be left at home. Because they can interfere with the magnetic field of the MRI unit, metal and electronic objects are not allowed in the exam room. Generally, there is no special restriction on diet or activity prior to an MRI procedure.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Procedure
MRI may be performed on an outpatient basis or as part of your stay in a hospital. Procedures may vary depending on your condition and your physician’s practices. The entire examination is usually completed within 30 to 45 minutes.If an intravenous contrast material is used, you will feel a pin prick when the needle is inserted into your vein. Some patients may sense a temporary metallic taste in their mouth after the contrast injection.
The technologist begins by positioning you on the MRI exam table, usually lying flat on your back. Straps may be used to help you maintain the correct position and to help you remain still during the exam. A device capable of sending and receiving radio waves will be placed around the area of the body being studied. You will be moved into the magnet of the MRI unit.
The technologist will be in another room where the scanner controls are located. However, you will be in constant sight of the technologist through a window. Speakers inside the scanner will enable the technologist to communicate with and hear you. You will have a call button so that you can let the technologist know if you have any problems during the procedure. The technologist will be watching you at all times and will be in constant communication.
It is important that you remain perfectly still while the images are being obtained. You will know when images are being recorded because you will hear and feel loud tapping or thumping sounds. Earplugs or headphones are provided to reduce the intensity of the sounds made by the MRI machine. You should notify the technologist if you feel any breathing difficulties, sweating, numbness, or heart palpitations
Once the scan has been completed, the table will slide out of the scanner and you will be assisted off the table. If an IV line was inserted for contrast administration, the line will be removed.
What To Expect After MRI Scan
After the procedure, you should move slowly when getting up from the scanner table to avoid any dizziness or lightheadedness from lying flat for the length of the procedure. If any sedatives were taken for the procedure, you may be required to rest until the sedatives have worn off. You will also need to avoid driving.
If contrast dye is used during your procedure, you may be monitored for a period of time for any side effects or reactions to the contrast dye, such as itching, swelling, rash, or difficulty breathing. If you notice any pain, redness, and/or swelling at the IV site after you return home following your procedure, you should notify your physician as this could indicate an infection or another type of reaction.
Otherwise, there is no special type of care required after a MRI scan. You may resume your usual diet and activities unless your physician advises you differently. A report from your MRI exam will be sent to your doctor within 24 hours.
The content provided here is for informational purposes only, and was not designed to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease, or replace the professional medical advice you receive from your physician. Please consult your physician with any questions or concerns you may have regarding your condition.
This page contains links to other websites with information about this procedure and related health conditions. We hope you find these sites helpful, but please remember we do not control or endorse the information presented on these websites, nor do these sites endorse the information contained here.
- American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
- American Cancer Society
- Arthritis Foundation
- National Cancer Institute (NCI)
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- National Library of Medicine
- National Osteoporosis Foundation
- Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases – National Resource Center – NIH
- Radiological Society of North America
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With the emergence of new Linux distributions, namely Debian 10 and Linux Mint 20, a dependency required by OpenSignals (r)evolution software is not natively available.
Due to this circumstance, OpenSignals (r)evolution software is not properly launched in specific cases, being printed the following error message (when the software is executed through the Terminal):
Error: ImportError: libssl.so.1.0.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
This error is related to the fact that newer Linux distributions use a different version of the libssl library and relevant connections to some paths used by OpenSignals (r)evolution were lost.
To recover these lost paths, it is necessary to manually install the required libssl.so.1.0.0 version, as demonstrated in the following steps:
Download the libssl 1.0.0 version of the missing dependency for your operating system:
- Linux Mint/Ubuntu: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/o/openssl1.0/libssl1.0.0_1.0.2n-1ubuntu5_amd64.deb
- Debian: https://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/o/openssl/libssl1.0.0_1.0.1t-1+deb8u8_amd64.deb
Using the Terminal, navigate to the location where the downloaded file is stored.
Install of the dependency through the command that matches your operating system:
- Linux Mint/Ubuntu:
sudo dpkg --install libssl1.0.0_1.0.2n-1ubuntu5_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg --install libssl1.0.0_1.0.1t-1+deb8u8_amd64.deb
Additional Steps for Linux Mint/Ubuntu Users
In addition to the previous steps, for Linux Mint/Ubuntu systems another dependency (libffi.so.6) is necessary.
Download the libffi.so.6 library from:
Using the Terminal, navigate to the location where the downloaded file is stored and install the dependency through the command:
sudo apt install sudo apt install ./libffi6_3.2.1-8_amd64.deb
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Episode 147: How can we mend our broken relationship with the Earth and create a world where people and land are good medicine for each other?
In this interview, plant ecologist, author, and professor Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about what she has learned from plants, plant intelligence, and how the simple and profound act of paying attention to the living world can change our lives.
Robin speaks about how human exceptionalism finds its place in language, the grammar of animacy, and the importance of recognizing the personhood of all beings.
Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer is the founding Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment and the author of the books Gathering Moss and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:55 — 27.4MB) | Embed
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I was happy to find this. Thank you for a wonderful interview.
Thank you, Benjamin! Robin is amazing.
This was wonderful to hear because our current society needs this inspiration so desperately! I feel this deeply! Thanks to both of you.
Thank you so much, Alma! Robin is so heartfelt and wise.
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The Court of Justice of the European Union (the CJEU) has handed down the latest judgment in a long-running case concerning the online framing of copyright material.
A dispute arose between VG Bild-Kunst (VG B-K – a German visual arts copyright collecting society) and Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK – a German cultural heritage foundation) when VG B-K refused to conclude a licence agreement with SPK for the use of the collection society’s catalogue of works unless the agreement between them contained a provision obliging SPK to implement technological measures which prevented framing by third-parties of thumbnail images of the works covered by the pending agreement.
Framing is a technique utilising automatic links which allows third-party content to be embedded within a web page without that content needing to be stored on the web page’s servers (such as the display of thumbnail images when using an internet search engine).
In 2016 SPK filed a case at the Regional Court of Berlin against VG B-K, arguing that the demand to prevent framing through the implementation of costly technical measures was unreasonable, and that framing should be viewed in the same fashion as hyperlinking (which does not amount to copyright infringement under German or EU law). Despite seeking a declaration that VG B-K should grant the licence free of the anti-framing technological requirements, the regional court declined to make a ruling.
By 2018 the Berlin Court of Appeal was in agreement with SPK that the anti-framing condition was unreasonable and so argued that VK B-K was required to conclude the licence agreement without forcing SPK to implement the demanded technical measures. It also held that framing is not a “communication to the public” within the meaning of copyright law. When VG B-K appealed, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice called on the CJEU to determine whether this was in fact the case.
To that end, Advocate General Szpunar (the AG) provided the opinion that framing, in some instances, is an act which amounts to a communication to the public and therefore requires the consent of the relevant rights holder. The AG’s opinion went into much detail differentiating between framing a work that appears on another website and framing a website itself, with the former constituting a new communication to the public (and so requiring the rights holder’s consent), but the latter not. Further, the AG also distinguished between different methods of linking: automatic linking (meaning where the works being displayed automatically on a web page are viewed as soon as it is opened, without any further action required on the user’s part) was deemed an act of communication to a public which was not taken into account by the copyright holder when the works were initially made available (i.e. the public of a website other than that on which that initial making available of the works took place) and so such framing would require the authorisation of the rights holder. In contrast, embedding in a web page of works from other websites via clickable links using the framing technique does not require the copyright holder’s authorisation since they are deemed to have given such when the work was initially made available.
Clarity has now been provided by the CJEU’s recent ruling which found in favour of VK B-G (and notably did not follow the AG’s opinion on the differentiation of various types of links). The CJEU held that “the embedding, by means of the technique of framing, in a third party website page of a work protected by copyright and made freely available to the public with the authorisation of the copyright holder on another website must be classified as an act of ‘making that work available to a new public’… where that embedding circumvents measures adopted or imposed by that copyright holder to provide protection from framing, constitutes a communication to the public.”
In the interests of both “legal certainty” and the “smooth running of the internet” it was explained that “the copyright holder cannot be allowed to limit his or her consent by means other than effective technological measures” as in the absence of such measures, it might prove difficult for individual internet users to “ascertain whether that rights holder intended to oppose the framing of his or her works.”
This ruling (assuming UK Courts would adopt a similar position despite the end of the Brexit transition period) strengthens the position of rights holders by recognising that licensors of copyright works can, through contractual terms, insist upon licensees implementing technical measures in order to prevent linking or framing to other websites in relation to the relevant protected works. This gives rights holders greater control over their work while not unduly burdening those who are seeking works to embed in their own websites with excessive due diligence.
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Learn how to sew an easy-to-make, personalized drawstring backpack using fabric from JOANN and Cricut Iron-On.
This is a sponsored post written on behalf of JOANN. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Toy Story 4 just released and my kids have been watching all of the Toy Story movies on repeat for the past few weeks.
As we were shopping in JOANN we came across this adorable line of Toy Story 4 fabric and we knew we had to make something fun with it!
When I asked my kids what they wanted they immediately asked for snuggly blankets and drawstring bags!
Get the tutorial for the blankets here.
Drawstring Backpacks are easy to make and my kids love them! Planning a road trip this summer? Fill them up with toys, snacks and a notebook and colored pencils.
To keep everyone from fighting, I pulled out my Cricut and quickly added names to each of the backpacks. Now everyone knows exactly which backpack belongs to them. Yay for no fighting, plus it makes them even cuter, don’t you think?
This tutorial will walk you step-by-step through sewing a drawstring backpack as well as how to apply Iron-On.
Drawstring Backpack Supplies
- 1/2 Yard Toy Story Cotton Fabric
- 1/2 Inch Wide Ribbon
- Safety Pin
- Sewing Machine
- 1 Package of Bias Tape
- Main Bag (Cut 2) 14″ x 14″
- Top Contrast (Cut 2) 14″ x 4″
- Drawstring Bias Loops (Cut 2) 4″
- Ribbon (Cut 2) 55″
Let's get started!
If you're new to sewing this is a great beginner project!
Cut all pieces out according to the measurement chart located above.
Fold the loops in half and place them 5/8ths of an inch from the bottom of the main bag.
With right sides together pin the front and back together.
Sew the front and back together leaving the top of the bag open, making sure to pivot at the corners.
Fold the edge under 1/2 inch on both sides. Then fold the contrast piece in half with wrong sides together. This will be the casing for the ribbon.
Place the casing on top of the main bag with right sides together. The unfinished seam should be at the top. Align the folded edges with the seams on either side. Use plenty of pins to align everything together.
Sew the contrast and the main bag together with a 1/2″ seam allowance and finish the edges using a serger or a zig zag stitch.
With a hot iron, press the casing upwards away from the bag.
Attach a safety pin to the ribbon and feed it through the casing until it comes out the other side, right next to where you began. Repeat this same process on the opposite side.
Adjust ribbons until they are equal lengths on either side.
Feed one ribbon through the loop, then
Optional: Personalize your bag with iron-on to make it extra special.
Get the coordinating blanket tutorial here.
Don’t forget to join my Crafting and Sewing with Sweet Red Poppy Facebook group and share how
Elizabeth Farr says
These are super cute! I love the added personalization with the Cricut. These would definitely be a nice addition to sewing projects for charity too. I love making little zip bags and drawstring bags to add to my Operation Christmas Child boxes.
It's a really bad idea to display a child's name on any item to be used in public. Stranger danger.........being called by their name implies the stranger knows them or maybe knows their parents.
Would you have any advice on weight of fabric used for iron on letters? Same weight as bag or is lesser weight ok? I’m using a heavier weight (decorative cotton) for the drawstring bags. Thanks!!
Kimberly Coffin says
Hey Karla! Using heavy-weight cotton will work just fine with Iron-On letters.
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These days of austerity along with relative anxiousness about incurring debt, many individuals balk against the idea of utilizing a credit card to make acquisition of merchandise or pay for any gift giving occasion, preferring, instead only to rely on the particular tried in addition to trusted technique of making payment - cash. However, if you possess the cash available to make the purchase completely, then, paradoxically, that's the best time for you to use the cards for several reasons.
Lisa J says
How many backpacks would this tutorial make? Would I have enough to make my own bias tape from the excess?
Kimberly Coffin says
Hey Lisa! This pattern makes one backpack. You should have enough excess to make your own bias tape, but you would still need ribbon for the drawstrings of the backpack.
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The Midnight Moment Features Lines Of Mars
Lines of Mars (2019), was created by Shantell Martin for the Midnight Moment. The exhibit features her improvisational illustrations and text appearing and disappearing, line by line, on a black background. Drawn on a digital tablet, the work features many of Martin’s recurring motifs, including faces, stick figures, and “birds boats” over an ocean, interspersed with hand-written words. Continuing the artist’s exploration of self that runs throughout her work, Lines of Mars asks the age-old question “who are you?” Those three words are repeated and reconfigured to finally conclude that “you are you.” This encouragement to viewers to think individualistically both participates in and counters the mass-messaging of advertisements otherwise seen on the electronic billboards of Times Square.
Martin’s drawings have appeared on everything from Japanese nightclub stages — where she collaborated with noise musicians as a video jockey — to canvases, large-scale murals, cars, and apparel. With a meditative process defined by an uninhibited flow, her compositions embody her internal state and the impermanence of the world around her. Exploring themes of identity and intersectionality, Martin sees herself as a cultural facilitator, forging new connections between fine art, education, design, philosophy, and technology. Below the surface of her signature black and white line drawings is an artist’s playful, direct questioning of viewers, rearranging words such as “you,” “are,” and “who” to create new meanings and spark reflection.
“I wanted to create a piece that explored the use of lines and words in a simple way to ask a complicated question. Asking this in a place like Times Square helps the question grow.”
Lines of Mars references multiple aspects of Times Square, including a staircase reminiscent of the Red Steps; “1904,” the year Times Square was named; and “12,” a reference to the end time of Midnight Moment or the beginning of a new year. Presented during the month of Love in Times Square, the work encourages viewers to understand, to be, and to love their true selves.
Lines of Mars was arranged and formatted for Midnight Moment by Optical Animal.
In addition to prestigious solo shows at some of the most renowned art institutions including the 92Y Gallery in New York City, the iconic Albright Knox gallery and the MoCADA Museum, Shantell Martin (b. 1980, London, England) has carved a path for herself that is as much intellectual as visual artist. During her two-year tenure as a MIT Media Lab Visiting Scholar, Martin collaborated with the social computing group to use drawing as a medium to explore the interaction of social processes with physical spaces. A fashion and design icon in her own right, Martin has collaborated with iconic brands such as Nike, Vitra, Max Mara, and Tiffany & Co., and in 2018, Puma launched a global capsule collection featuring her drawings. Martin has collaborated with legendary artists such as Pulitzer Prize-winning performance artist Kendrick Lamar and acclaimed designer Kelly Wearstler. In late 2018, she was asked to collaborate with the prestigious New York City Ballet, where she created large scale drawings in the performance hall and foyer of Lincoln Center for the company’s celebrated Art Series. She continues to teach as an adjunct professor at NYU Tisch ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program), where she works with her students to push the boundaries of storytelling, visual art and technology. Martin lives and works in New York City.
Optical Animal is a Brooklyn based digital arts collective, directing and producing works of new media, cinema, video art, and audio. Since 2008, Optical Animal has found a home in creating unique experiences that employ new ideas and technology, while remaining firmly rooted in the ancient human love for storytelling.
Events in June
Gay Pride, Bryant Park Picnic Performances, Movie Nights, Lincoln Center Summer for the City (Midsummer Night Swing), Juneteenth, New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks, Tribeca Film Festival, Free Outdoor Concerts, Museum Mile Festival, the Puerto Rican Day Parade and that’s just the beginning!
Until September 29 every summer in Times Square, NYC, TSQ LIVE showcases hundreds of artists, performers and cultural producers and this summer 80 free events hosting over a dozen incredible New York-based institutions and collectives, including Pioneer Works, NEW INC, Children’s Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Ailey Extension, New York Live Arts, OTA Entertainment, Soul Summit, Rash Bar, and Elsewhere.
6/1: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park New York City Opera: La Bohème
6/2: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Jazzmobile: The Steven Oquendo Latin Jazz Orchestra
6/2: Billy Joel @ MSG
6/3-4: Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit atUniversity Place, starting at East 13th Street and continuing south along the east side of Washington Square Park to West 3rd Street.
6/7 until September: Little Island Tony and Grammy Award winners in The Glade, late night djs, drag bingo, and dance parties in The Play Ground, weekly artmaking activities for all ages and Teen Night every Friday.
6/7 – 18: Tribeca Film Festival will take place movie theatres, rooftops and various venues throughout NYC, such as the new Pier 57, Beacon Theatre, the Angelika. The premiere of Let the Canary Sing with a performance by Cyndi Lauper or The Closing Gala: A Bronx Tale, followed by a conversation with director and star Robert De Niro, producer Jane Rosenthal, and writer and co-star Chazz Palminteri.
6/8 – 8/6: Shakespeare in the Park – Hamlet
6/8: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Contemporary Dance: Robin Dunn, The Lite
6/9: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Contemporary Dance: Dance Heginbotham, Jennifer Muller/The Works
6/9 – 11: @ Citi Field Governors Ball Music Festival – The contemporary music festival for music lovers by music lovers. With 60+ artists of all genres across 4 stages, there is something for everyone, including delicious restaurants, food trucks and menus.
6/9 – 18: River to River Festival The festival takes place in a variety of public venues that canvas all of Downtown New York – from Chambers Street down to the southern tip of Manhattan and across the island from river to river.
6/11: National Puerto Rican Day Parade Fifth Avenue, 44th to 79th Street
6/12: Bryant Park Movie Nights Almost Famous (2000)
6:13: Museum Mile Festival on Fifth Avenue from 84th Street to 109th Street: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Neue Galerie New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; The Jewish Museum; Museum of the City of New York; El Museo del Barrio; and The Africa Center.
6/14 – August: Dancing Under the Stars (formerly Midsummer Night Swing), free outdoor movies, dancing, singing, readings, celebrations, flamingos, disco ball, poetry, Mozart, concerts, crafts, Juneteenth and much more!
6/15: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Contemporary Dance: Terk Lewis + Kayla Farrish
6/16: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Contemporary Dance: Soles of Duende + Josh Johnson
6/17-25: Gay Pride The Rally, The March & Pride Island. The 2023 theme is “Strength in Solidarity” and Christina Aguilera is headlining NYC Pride Island on Sunday, June 25th at Brooklyn Army Terminal. The festivities begin with Family Night and the Rally and culminate with PrideFest & The March. Other events include Pride Island and the annual Dance on the Pier, following the parade wrapping up Pride Week in a grand fireworks display.
6/16 – 18: Juneteenth is a celebration of June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas, which declared the ending of slavery in the USA. The three day Juneteenth in NYC festival kicks off Friday with a virtual summit, Friday night is the Celebration of Black Kings, Saturday is Festival Community Day and the festival culminates Sunday with a Parade, Fashion Show, Food trucks Field Day and more. Monday, June 19th, is a national holiday, with government, banks and post offices closed. More Info: Junteenth NY
There are dozens more Juneteenth celebrations throughout all 5 Boroughs, including BBQs, the NYC Parks Department, Seneca Village, Broadway, Lincoln Center, concerts, shows, theater and more.
6/17: The Coney Island Mermaid Parade is the nation’s largest art parade where 3,000+ participants dress in hand-made costumes.
6/ 19: Bryant Park Movie Nights Amistad (1997)
6/23: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Emerging Music Festival: Psymon Spine, THUS LOVE, Katy Kirby
6/24: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Emerging Music Festival: Ky Vöss, Seramic, Miss Grit, Dead Tooth
6/26: Bryant Park Movie Nights Mean Girls (2004)
6/30: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Jalopy Theatre: Michael Daves Quartet ft. Tony Trishka, Yacouba Sissoko, Terrell King
6/30: Intrepid Museum Summer Movie Series: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
This Weekend Life Sized Sculptures Arrive in Soho To Bring Art Back!
Taylor Swift Exhibition Opens in NYC
Taylor Swift’s career-spanning costume exhibition just opened at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design (MAD). On May 18, MAD Director Tim Rodgersand Board Chair Michele Cohen (with husband Marty) welcomed members and patrons for a preview of the exhibition before it opened to the public on the 20th. Guests included Susan and Larry Ach, Loreen Arbus, Christiana Baroni, Marian Burke, Patti and Michael Dweck, Alexander Hankin, Marsy Mittlemann, Netta Rosin, as well as MAD curators Elissa Auther, Barbara Paris Gifford, and Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy. Television cameras whirled in a music filled electric gallery.
ETTE Taking Back Her Life From Rape and Abuse With Performance Art
Last Thursday multidisciplinary, shamanic artist ETTE exposed the name of her predator and took back her life. The show was powerful, prolific and empowering. “Whistle Blower” was co-produced by Derek Warburton.
Now you can go inside the performance that exposed who raped ETTE and the action she took to take her life back.
Sexual Violence Affects Millions of Americans
Younger People Are at the Highest Risk of Sexual Violence
- Ages 12-34 are the highest risk years for rape and sexual assault.3
- Those age 65 and older are 92% less likely than 12-24 year olds to be a victim of rape or sexual assault, and 83% less likely than 25-49 year olds.4
ETTE and Derek Warburton on Rape and Abuse
On Thursday multidisciplinary, shamanic artist ETTE exposed the name of her predator and took back her life. The show was powerful, prolific and empowering. My guest Elisabeta, writer ElizaBeth Taylor and I, all felt privileged to be apart of an act so brave and true. Abuse victims should NEVER feel the way they are made to feel.
Before the main event we talked with ETTE about her abuse and how prevalent abuse is in our society.
Her co-host Derek Warburton also shared his story and why he co-produced this amazing night.
Did you know?
Before that happened T2C had a chance to see her art show entitled “Whistle Blower”.
Tomorrow the performance.
Ken Fallin’s Broadway: Remembering Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd
The Glorious Corner
Tribeca Festival Set to Thrill with Roxstar Entertainment with Cinema Center
Romantic and Meaningful Love Quotes For Her To Help Win Her Heart
How to Take Advantage of Virtual Numbers for SMS
Entre Institute Review – Is Jeff Lerner’s Program a Scam?
Events2 days ago
Happy Memorial Day From T2C
Art4 days ago
Taylor Swift Exhibition Opens in NYC
Events3 days ago
Tovah Feldshuh Joins The American Popular Song Society In Celebration of Marilyn Maye
Broadway4 days ago
The Outer Critics Circle Awards and You Are There Part 2
Cabaret3 days ago
Cabaret, Talks and Concerts For June
Broadway4 days ago
Ham4Ham: Some Like It Hot, Parade and Shucked With Special Guests
Broadway3 days ago
Ken Fallin’s Broadway: Chicago
Art3 days ago
Events in June
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Sign Up For Teas Exam Teas are a great way to study for any amount of time and you find it very helpful to study the best of them online. Here are some of the most common teas for the beginners and especially those who book an online tas. They are super easy, easy to prepare and also very helpful for those who would like to learn a linked here topic and should start studying new things. Teel Like a Paper This is the paper I used for this application. It contains the following elements: Text Text Size Text Color Text Background Text Shape Text Style Text Layout Text Grid Text Container Text Margin Text Line Text Row Text Column Text Area Text Height Text Position Text Width Line Number Text Page Text Text Size Units Text Colors Text Horizontal Text Vertical Text Styles Horizontal and Vertical Lines Text Offset Other Examples A good way to work with a teas is to have some teas printed on the paper. With this, you can control the text and have them laid out on a table. This is a great way of creating a teas with a paper with a teal print. This is also a good way of creating the paper with a paper without a teal printed. Another way to have teas is with the paper. If you have a teal paper, you can add the teal print to it. You can add the paper to the teal paper by using this method. You can cut out any paper that contains the word “teal” and then cut out the teal printed text. This is the method you use for the teal cutout.
Atlantic Tech Teas Exam
The text will be laid out in a beautiful, strong and long direction. The teas are also some of the best and easiest to prepare. You can prepare the teal with a tea in a teal die or a teal in a tea die. What is a Teal Paper? A teal paper is a type of paper that is used to create a teal with the printed image. When you have finished creating the teal, you can use this paper for your teal paper. This paper has more punch than the teal printing. You can use it to make a teal or to use it to add a teal. It is a great approach for the beginners. You can create teal paper with a simple paper. If your teal is sitting on a table, you can put your teal in the paper with the paper on it. You will then have the paper on the teal die. Two Teas Teal paper is the type of paper you can use to create a paper with the printed images. You can put a teal on a paper with one of the printed images on the paper and then print the teal on that paper.
Teas V Exam Flashcard Study System
The Teal Paper with the Print The Teas are a type of papers that are used to create paper with the images. You have to do this by using the teal papers. These are the teal things you can use for the paper with pictures. These are the paper that you can use with the pictures. A paper with pictures is also a type of teal paper that is printed on the teas. Possible Teas For The Beginner The paper used in this application is called the paper with images. The teal paper has lots of punch and it also has lots of paper and it also contains a lot of paper. You can create a paper using the paper with or without the pictures. You can also create a paper that does not have the pictures you want. Here is what you can create with the teal. The tea paper is the paper with an image that you can print. The teas with images are also a type that is used for the paper. The teals are also a paper that is made with the pictures you have put in it.
Teas Exam Forum
There are many teas and teas that are printed with the paper and teals. You can choose the tealSign Up For Teas Exam 2017! The purpose of this site is to find the best teas in the market by comparing the prices of the teas in our market. If you are looking for teas in teas book then we have some great teas that you can find here. Teas that are available in the market are good quality and most of them are in good condition. You can find teas for different price in the market and also online and also at local market place. Many of the tees found here are available in our market and also in the market price. So if you have any questions about tees that you want to know then don’t hesitate to ask for some teas that are in the market. The reason for buying teas is that most of the tee products are available in different price categories in the market so it’s important to know the prices of tees in the market in order to make sure that you can get the right tees. So if one tee wants to buy it then you can do it. Teas in tees book Many tees are available in tees books that are listed in our market that are available for sale in the market that we have. So if someone is looking for tees in tees shop then we have a tees book that you can buy in the market for your tees. Different tees in different price range There are tees in several price ranges in the market but all of the te ones are available in one price range and also in other price ranges such as: Tees for which the price is between $1.75 and $2.
San Marcos Teas Exam
50 Tee for which the prices are between $1,500 and $2,500 Teese for which the pricing is between $2,000 and $3,000 Teetree for which the full price is $3,500 Teetete for which the rate is between $5,000 and even $5,500 Teetetes for which price is between 5,500 and even $4,500 teetree for that price his response between 4,500 and the full price Teets in tees market price range You can find tees read this article most price ranges (in tees book) but if you want to find tees for tees book then you will need to search for tees for that price range. There is one tees price range for tees that is available on the website So if you want tees for this price range then we have one tees that can be found in our market which is available for you. Conclusion We are now on the list of the best tees in our market so if you are interested in tees in order to get the best teese for tees then let us know. Here is our list of the teese that you can choose from in our market, it’ll be interesting as to what is the best tee for you. So you can check out our tees list of tees that are available on the market and check out the tees that we have listed here. tees that are in tees list tee that you need to find in the tees list, it‘s a good list ofSign Up For Teas Exam If you want to become a teacher of your own, you have to go to the State. For many years, you have been studying the art of teaching. The teachers who offer this kind of education are only trying to teach you what they see this page which is why many of them are not teachers. If you really want to become an educator, you have no choice but to stay in the classroom. If you want to be an artist, you have had to study the art of painting, and then you have to study the painting. No matter how good you are, no matter how good your art, you have never been able to find a painter who could do the same work as you. You have to start a painter’s career. When you are working in a public university, you generally work in the classroom, but if you are working with a teacher, you are at a disadvantage.
Teas Exam Gwinnett Tech
The teacher is the best candidate for the position. If they are not a good candidate, they are on your side. But, if they are, they are short of time and not good at teaching. The teacher rarely stands up to the pressure. You have no idea how much you want to go to school. Extra resources have never been offered an appointed position. You have had to pay for school fees. In the first place, you have not been willing to pay the teacher. You have not been given the job. You have just not had the courage to accept the position. You are a failure. In some ways, you are better than you think. You have been denied a job.
You didn’t get a job. But you are still not given a job. If you are not given a position, you are not allowed to remain in the classroom if you don’t like it. If Website don‘t like it, you are expelled. You have paid for school fees and have had to be paid back. You are not allowed a job. Now, I have been in the classroom for a long time. I went to the State, and I was not allowed to be in the classroom at all. I did not have the opportunity to go to work. I didn’T have the opportunity. Now, I have the opportunity; I have the chance. I have the job. I don’T want to be in a classroom.
I don’Tht want to have to do my own work. I donTht want my work. I have no job. You have to accept the situation. You have the opportunity, and you are stuck with it. Let’s take a look at the rest of the picture. You go to the Art Department. You take a class drawing. You take some pictures. You paint a painting. You paint the face. You paint your house. You paint paintings.
Teas V Allied Health Entrance Exam
I will tell you something that will be interesting to you. The first thing you should take is the following: The class that you will be studying. You need to get the class drawings. Look at the drawings. You need them to get you in the class. Here is what you have to do: You need to apply for the position of teacher. You need a teacher to give you the name of the teacher. This is what you need to do: (1) You need to take the class drawing, (2) You need the class drawing. For the first time in your life, you can make a new teacher. Now, you can call the teacher you need the name of. If the class that you want to study is from a teacher, then you can call him as the teacher or the teacher you want to work with. Then, you will probably get an opportunity to work with the teacher or your teacher. They are always on your side; you can take the position.
Do You Really Need To Wait One Year After Failing Teas Exam Twice
They are willing to work with you. They are willing to give you a job. They are open to work with your teacher or your professor. Praying for the teachers There are many teachers who are here and not here. You have a great opportunity to go back and study. I have been with this teacher ever since I was a little girl. I have given her many lessons. I have taught her
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We are so excited to announce the availability of our latest feature making TalkingPoints more accessible than ever before.
TalkingPoints translated video captioning makes it super easy for teachers to record and send video messages in over 100 languages. This new feature was designed specifically to further our mission of connecting educators and families–particularly those that are hardest to reach–and fosters a more effective home-school connection to fuel student success. Read the full release below.
ED-TECH NONPROFIT, TALKINGPOINTS LAUNCHES MULTILINGUAL TRANSLATED
VIDEO CAPTIONS SUPPORTED IN MORE THAN 100 LANGUAGES
New feature expands options to foster better, more personalized, more effective
school-parent communication and collaboration to fuel student success
February 24, 2021, San Francisco, California — Today, education technology nonprofit
TalkingPoints announced that it has launched a new video translation feature designed to facilitate more effective communication between teachers and families–in more than 100 different languages — delivered to mobile devices via text message. TalkingPoints translated video caption feature was specifically designed to further the organization’s mission to connect educators and families–particularly those in under-resourced and multilingual communities–in support of student success.
TalkingPoints translated video captioning makes it easy for teachers to record and send
messages and for parents to view and respond. Teachers simply record a video message in the TalkingPoints app and send. Families can then view and read along in their own home languages, making TalkingPoints more accessible than ever before.
“TalkingPoints mission is to facilitate stronger connections between teachers and parents to make a positive impact on student success. We know that video messaging is an increasingly popular and effective way for teachers to share information with
parents–particularly those that may be the hardest to reach– and helps them build more meaningful connections, so it was natural to add translatable video captioning to
TalkingPoints,” said Heejae Lim, Founder and CEO of TalkingPoints.
The school-home connection is more important than ever and TalkingPoints helps fuel
those relationships by removing language barriers and:
- Powering consistent engagement with families: With TalkingPoints, teachers
don’t have to wait for school or district translators to communicate with parents.
- Enabling teachers to meet families where they are: One in four students in U.S.
public schools speak a language other than English at home, and many families are most comfortable communicating via text. TalkingPoints makes it easier for both teachers and family members to connect quickly and effectively across language and technology barriers
- Encouraging collaboration and community: Research shows that family
engagement plays a critical role in student success, yet many families — particularly those in under-resourced areas — may be at a disadvantage due to language barriers, internet access and time constraints. TalkingPoints removes those barriers so families can engage in a manner that works best for them.
TalkingPoints is free to all teachers and families. Visit www.talkingpts.org for more information.
Founded to help teachers connect with families–particularly those of under-resourced and non-English speaking backgrounds, TalkingPoints multilingual platform uses human and AI-powered, two-way translated communication to deliver information and personalized content in more than 100 languages–via web and mobile apps and through text messages. The platform also delivers scaffolded, guided content and eliminates language barriers, fostering strong collaboration to improve students’ academic success. TalkingPoints currently serves more than 3 million teachers and families across the country.
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Targeted Checks – Management One
Expert Tips: Management Considerations for Targeted Checks
Overview: Use the following tips to reflect on the management considerations for your Targeted Check formative assessment. As you work through the activities, think about additions, edits or changes you can make to improve your work.
Remember that effective teachers:
- Know: How do you want your classroom to feel, look and sound?
- Teach: What strategies will you use to explain, model and communicate your expectations and procedures?
- Reinforce: What strategies will you use to support students in following the expectations and procedures?
- Enforce: What consequences will you implement when students are unsuccessful in meeting the expectations and procedures?
Targeted Checks Top Three Tips Video
Take a look at this short video outlining the top three management tips for successfully implementing a Targeted Check.
Targeted Checks Management Questions
Answer the following questions to guide your thinking on the best management considerations for your Targeted Check:
- What specific skill or content will you be assessing?
- How will you know that a student can or cannot do that skill or content?
- Are you assessing a complex skill? If so, did you break it down into parts, so that you can easily identify where students might struggle?
- How will you format this targeted check?
- Will you use an exit slip, technology tool, homework check, etc?
- Will you be able to identify each individual student’s work? How?
- Does this format support easy to interpret data so that you can respond in a reasonable amount of time?
- How long are you planning this target check to take? How will you communicate it and track that time?
- Are there materials (or information) that students will need to complete the targeted check? If so, how will it be distributed efficiently?
- In what ways will you hold students accountable for their work and behavior while completing the targeted check?
- How will you provide feedback for your students? Do you have ideas of ways you might be able to respond, once you have your data?
- If a student(s) is unable to follow the expectations and procedures, what consequences do you plan to implement? When will you implement them?
- Did you create and prepare an accessible Anchor?
- Where will the Anchor instructions/materials be posted?
- Is the Anchor something that all students can do?
Copyright © TLS Teaching Learning Succeeding LLC, 2021. All rights reserved. Contact TLS at [email protected]
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Being an Android user, i always keep on searching for stuffs related to it. In this Smartphone arena and Internet world. Your speed is depended on your internet and phone performance. So to maintain our performance we need to increase speed of Android phone. So here i will teach you how to increase WiFi speed on android and also how to increase internet speed on android.
Without internet , you can not do much with your expensive Smartphone. And a slow speed internet is just waste of time and life. But in India , you can not expect a high speed internet. So we need to find some alternative ways to increase internet speed on Android phone. Lets discuss here the methods to increase Internet download speed on Android.
Your internet speed depends on lots of factor like your Mobile Carrier, Phone processor and RAM, WiFi speed if you run internet through it. So to increase speed on Android you need to consider all these. You can increase Android RAM using SD card.
How to Increase WiFi Speed on Android
There are many methods and trick to increase WiFi speed of Android phone. You can do some manual actions or can use apps to directly speed up your Android Wifi.
Apps to Increase Android Wifi Speed
1. WiFi | Mobile Network Speed : This app really work and definitely increase your WiFi and mobile network speed.
Measure App Speed in Real Time.
– Find the best Public WiFi connection.
– Clean your Home WiFi channel.
– Compare WiFi vs. Cellular Net App Speed. Choose the best network.
– Control your Data Expenses! Never exceed your data quota again.
These are all major features of this application.
2. Wifi Booster & Analyzer : It is a profession WiFi Analyzing tool. It analyze your internet and wifi connection and then helps you to increase internet speed or boost wifi speed.
✔Display your wifi info and wifi signal strength.
✔Provide Manual boosting mode with the network analyzer to lead you to move your device to a better place .
✔Detect the available wireless hotspot, wifi tether or wifi direct as a wifi detector.
✔Monitoring and analyze your network speed in background to ensure you have the fastest network speed.
With this network booster you can only increase speed of Wifi not your mobile 2G 3G and 4G network.
How to test your Internet Download Speed
There are lots of ways to test your internet download speed. There are plenty of speed test websites that ping your ISP to estimate your Internet speed. This websites basically give you approximate value of your downloading and uploading speed.
But according to my experience when i tested these websites , my download speed is far better. But when i tried to play some videos on you tube. It is not even touching the feet of that speed. So there is some difference, in your downloading speed and your surfing speed. So only testing your downloading speed with speed test websites will not give you clear picture about your internet connection speed. You must try to buffer 2-3 videos simultaneously to test it.
1. Speedtest.net : It is the best site to check your internet downloading speed. You just have to go to speedtest.net and then just click on BEGIN TEST button to start testing. And in few minutes it will show you a speed graph and your downloading and uploading speed. To test on Android Okla Speed test Android app is also available.
And here is my speed test result. Which is very bad. Yes i know MTS is very bad internet service provider. You might not get right result in a single test , so just do 2-3 test and take their average.
Well this is the reason why i am writing this article. My internet speed was very slow but then i tried some tricks to optimize my internet speed and some of they really worked. Now i am getting far better speed then earlier. So i will suggest you to try these methods to speed up internet.
How to Increase Internet Download Speed in Android
As we all know that our internet speed is totally depended on our Internet service provider. But its not only depend on your ISP only. There are many other factors that limits your internet speed. Like if you and your friend have same network , but different device. Now if your friend getting higher speed then you at the same location. Then this is clear that there is some issues with devices also. So here are some quick tips to boost Android Internet speed.
The first thing that you need to do to increase internet download speed in Android is Go to Settings>> Wireless & Networks. Then in Options you will find GPRS transfer prefer. Here change the settings to data prefer instead of call prefer. It will increase your data transfer rate which will speed up your internet downloading speed.
1. Clear Android Phone Cache : Generally Android devices get slow due to less cache memory. Your cache memory is limited and its get full when you run different apps. So you need to clear your cache regularly to maintain your Android performance.
2. Running Unwanted apps : Some unwanted apps keep on running at background and utilize large part of our processor. So you need to identify those apps and close them. As such all in all Android devices you can clear unwanted apps by holding Menu key. And also uninstall the apps that you are not using frequently to reduce burden on your processor.
3. Right Browser Selection : browser selection has greater effect on Internet speed on any device. I will suggest you to use Opera Mini or UC Browser. They are the best browser and have high data transfer rate. Just try opera mini and compare the speed with your old browser. You will clearly see the difference.
4. Use 3G(WCDMA) or 4G (LTE) networks : I am not telling you to recharge for 3G or 4G. Just switch to 3G or 4G networks even if you have recharge of 2G. And also don’t forget to Enable 3G in your phone. Just Go to Settings >> Wireless & Networks. Enable 3G here. Now even you have 2G internet pack but you can get slightly increase in your Internet speed.
5. Managing Permission to access Data for apps : There are plenty of apps that keep on using data in background without our knowledge like Gmail , games etc. Due to this there is decrease in speed and we lose our data also. So you need to stop such apps to access data.
You can use any third party apps to prevent these apps to access data. Like you can use Task manager application and block all those apps that are wasting your data.
6. Increase Network Signal With Android app : The main reason of slow internet is less Network strength at you location. So either complain about this to your ISP or switch to better network. And you can also use these Network booster apps.
Network Speed Booster
Signal Booster for Android
If these methods does not help you in increasing your internet speed. Then you can try these Internet booster apps for android. Just search for internet booster on play store. You will find many apps. Read their review and select the best.
According to my experience, i found increase of 15-25% in my downloading spped after trying all these methods. So you must also try, you will surely increase your internet speed.
where is the “GPRS transfer prefer” setting in micromax unite 2 A106 kitkat phone ?
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Small Cells World Summit takes place this month with strong focus on generating value and the sustainability of networks. Registrations are open for SCWS 2023, taking place in London on 23 – 24 May
According to an analysis by the GSMA, approximately 25% of all electricity purchased for the worldwide mobile industry is now derived from renewable sources. This indicates that operators are making major strides in order to achieve their net zero goals.
Margherita Della Valle, CFO and Interim CEO at Vodafone Group, called for European operators to pool their energy resources across every market to support larger renewable projects by acting as anchor tenants with energy providers.
EnterpriseWeb is presenting stage 3 of its award-winning multi-vendor Intel 5G RAN testbed. Based on a secure edge gateway use-case, the testbed showcases dynamic configuration of Intel® Ethernet Controller E810 and network functions to continuously optimize processing of secure packets. It demonstrates consistent and predictable low-latency and energy consumption at scale, enabling Telecom MEC and Sustainability initiatives.
The golden era of 6G technology is tantalizingly close – and with it a safer, more sustainable, and connected planet that promises to shake up the future of mankind. Finland is a global forerunner in developing 6G – indeed there are already numerous research initiatives and industry vertical specific visions to help support companies and societies around the world.
BT Group and Stratospheric Platforms Ltd have joined forces for a groundbreaking mobile coverage trial at BT’s Adastral Park facility. This new, innovative antenna technology seeks to provide 4G and 5G from the air in an effort to unlock connectivity for hard-to-reach areas with cost-efficient sustainability.
Cellnex and Nokia to deploy private 5G network in ADIF logistics centers to boost digitalization, process automation, and cost reduction in rail freight transport.
Launched by Verizon and Centech, in collaboration with Bell Canada, the 5G Development Hub creates a unique space for startups and scaleups to realize the transformative power of 5G and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC).
Portland General Electric (PSE) partners with Expeto to accelerate grid modernization, renewable energy outcomes, and enhanced worker safety.
Tele2 has won an extensive Nordic-wide procurement deal to provide network services for the fuel company OKQ8, with a focus on climate-smart total solutions. Through the new agreement, Tele2 will supply OKQ8 with several innovative services within a ‘network as a service’ framework. Tele2 will offer this service for the life-cycle management and recycling of electronic waste to give OKQ8 a fully circular process that contributes to its own sustainability efforts.
Like the past two years, 2023 will likely be another year of headwinds and change. While there’s no way to predict what will unfold for telcos, there are a few trends we expect to take root.
2023 is shaping up to be a challenging year. The ongoing war, energy crisis, rising interest rates, and rampant inflation have created a perfect storm for the telco industry. That said, plenty of exciting developments and changes are on the horizon.
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Apple has always argued that the iPad is a preferable choice for consumers searching for a touch screen interface device and that touch screens would not function well on laptops. The manufacturer of the market-leading tablet iPad is concerned that the Touch Mac would kill off the tablet sales.
According to certain sources, Apple engineers have been working on a project for a long time, indicating that the tech giant is pondering a touchscreen-based MacBook. Following years of debate over the poor functionality of touch screens on laptops, Apple is taking moves to integrate them into its laptops in response to pressure from rival tech companies who have been offering touch screens in their laptops for years.
When questioned about the happenings, the Apple official opted not to respond. Going by what Apple has always done, we expect the design of their first touchscreen MacBook to be similar to the current laptop design with a trackpad and keyboard, but the screen will come with touch input and gesture capabilities.
The high-end lineup of Apple product, including iPhones, iPads, and Watches, operate on OLEDs, while MacBooks are still operating on LCD displays. With the new technology being implemented, Apple is considering a shift to Organic Light Emitting Diode or OLED displays for Macs too.
Going back in time, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs argued that it would not be convenient for computer users to touch and operate an upright display. In 2010, Steve Jobs said that touch screens would not work well vertically. Steve Jobs’ successor Tim Cook took a similar stance and commented on Microsoft blending tablets and laptops like blending toasters and refrigerators.
Touch displays have already advanced among Apple’s rivals in the laptop segment, including Lenovo, Dell, HP, and Samsung.
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In my twenty-five year career as a military historian and writer, I’ve been very fortunate to have met and interviewed some incredible leaders—men and women who inspired those under their command to feats well beyond the norm. I’ve interviewed men who airdropped into Normandy, NCO’s who fought room to room in Fallujah, pilots and crew from the Doolittle Raid, two of the four men who formed the “Killer Flight” who shot down Admiral Yamamoto. Generals, admirals, Marine Corps legends like Marion Carl—these are the people who have composed the best of my professional experience since I left graduate school. I have been blessed with such associations, and my life’s work has been a source of pride and strength. Then I encountered Robert Ault, and everything I thought I understood about leadership changed.
In early September 2010, I met Lieutenant Colonel Robert Ault, Brawler Six, and it took about five minutes for him to blow my hair back. There on the edge of the world at FOB Shank I had encountered a character who could have stepped from a Nelson DeMille novel.
Walking around Task Force Brawler, interviewing his air and ground crews, it became clear to me that LTC Ault was one of those rarest of leaders—a man universally admired and whose people would do anything for him. As he went about his day, I was amazed at the reaction his presence had on those around him. He’d blow into a room like a northeaster and light up everyone with his enthusiasm and energy. He has an infectious personality, one that he is careful to use in a positive manner. If he had an off day—if something at home troubled him, or the stress of command and constant missions ever got to him—he never revealed it. He was a force of his own, and in his wake he always seemed to leave people grinning from ear to ear, be they under his command, Jordanian officers or local Afghan elders. His effect transcended culture and difference, and he used that power to unite and forge relationships that most would have never been able to pull off. For Rob Ault, it was as natural as breathing.
Born in Southern California, LTC Ault grew up always wanting to fly. When he was sixteen, he used the money from his after school job as a box boy to take flight lessons. He earned his pilot’s license a year later. He somehow managed to conceal this achievement from his parents. When his dad finally found out, I suppose astonishment aptly covers his reaction.
When other high school kids were out living it up, tinkering with cars and hitting the 80’s-era SoCal mall scene, Rob Ault and his pals went flying. On one flight, he took his friends to Catalina Island off the coast in what became one of his favorite memories of his youth. Other times, he and his buddies would mock dogfight each other in Cessna 152’s.
Some of his high school teachers totally misunderstood the sort of man developing inside Robert Ault. One cynically told him he’d be well suited for a job in the construction industry. They missed the intellect behind the Puckishness; their loss.
Ault moved on to college and earned his first degree from Cal State San Bernardino. He joined the Army and became an aero scout, flying OH-58 Kiowas. Later, he transitioned to Blackhawks.
Before coming to Afghanistan, LTC Ault served in Iraq in two non-flying staff slots. While meeting with local Iraqi security officials and political leaders, he was nearly killed by a suicide bomber. Dozens of Iraqis were killed or wounded in the blast, but somehow LTC Ault survived despite the fact that he was not wearing body armor at the time of the attack.
In July of 2008, Ault took command of 4-3 Air Assault Battalion, part of the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade. The 3rd ID is known as the Rock of the Marne for its role in blunting the Ludendorf Offensives in the spring of 1918, and the 3rd CAB is known as “Marne Air.” Originally composed entirely of UH-60 Blackhawks, 4-3 was turned into a unique task force a few months later with the addition of an Apache and Chinook company. The new task force became known as “TF Brawler” and their motto said everything about their attitude: “Here to Fight.”
From the outset, Ault ensured that things would be different in his command. He wanted to create a totally new culture for an air unit, one that could set the conditions for an “exponential” effect on the battlefields of Afghanistan.
Most air assault battalions function as sort of an airborne taxi service. The local ground units they support send over Air Mission Requests (AMR’s) for the battalion to execute, and the Blackhawks will run around day and night moving troops from base to base, inserting them in air assaults, or lugging supplies from one point or another. It is an important job, but it is a reactive one, and does not tie the air unit into the ground war in anything but an ancillary role.
Lieutenant Colonel Ault had a different vision. He wanted his task force to be right in the middle of the fight with a much more proactive and aggressive part to play. Here, he combined his leadership skills with a powerful and creative intellect. In the process, he transformed Task Force Brawler from just another air asset into a revolutionary force on the counter-insurgency battlefield.
First Rule of Brawler Nation: everyone’s a warrior. For a year before their deployment, Ault’s men and women trained relentlessly in three key areas: marksmanship, medical skills and physical fitness. The constant live fire exercise reinforced the point that everyone in the task force was expected to be
a rifleman first.
Colonel Ault reorganized his support company and created what became known as the “Ground Combat Platoon” from his fuelers, motor T guys, clerks and quartermaster. In the year before they arrived in Afghanistan, the GCP trained furiously in every aspect of infantry tactics. They worked on MOUT ranges, practiced air assaults and downed aircraft recovery missions. In the process, they worked side by side with the air crews and developed almost instinctive cooperation over the course of many realistic field exercises.
In Afghanistan, all this paid off handsomely. Instead of merely flying the AMR’s as expected, Task Force Brawler set out to gain its own slice of the battlefield. Lieutenant Colonel Ault sought to expand his unit’s role by forging unlikely alliances with coalition units that could help him achieve his goal of being “exponential” on the battlefield. With the daily AMR’s covered, Ault sent out airborne patrols in Blackhawks filled with the GCP. These missions were dubbed Average Guy Engagements (AGE’s), as opposed to the COIN-standard “Key Leader Engagements. “ Using their aerial mobility, the GCP would roll around Logar Province looking for unusual activity. When they spotted something, they’d drop down, dismount the GCP and check it out. In these early patrols, the GCP made its first contacts with the local population, who had never been policed from the air like this before. In most cases, these sudden appearances ended up generating good will. On one memorable occasion, the GCP landed next to a doctor whose car had broken down. The Americans offered to help fix his flat tire!
Always looking for new ways to get into the battle space, Colonel Ault gradually expanded the role of the GCP. From aerial patrols, his fuelers-turned-warriors served as outer cordon for Special Operations missions, interdicting traffic around the perimeter of these crucial raids.
To get ever deeper into the fight, Ault established what TF Brawler called “COIN Head Start” seminars. Bringing in experts at counter-insurgency warfare every week, his officers underwent an almost collegiate-level crash-course on how to stabilize and befriend local populations. After weeks of this on-the-fly intellectual training, they put ideas into practice with mock shura meetings where local Afghans taught them the customs and cultural sensitivities needed to engage successfully with village elders.
In the spring of 2010, Brawler went into the counter-insurgency business. Colonel Ault convinced his brigade commander, Colonel Don Galli, to give his task force two long-neglected villages that sat astride a unit boundary south of FOB Shank. These two locales had not been visited by ISAF forces for months, if not years. Using their Chinooks and Blackhawks, Brawler’s GCP flew to these tiny hamlets where Colonel Ault, Lt. Evan Mace, Captain Gray, Captain Pruitt and Captain Alvord forged contacts with the local village leaders.
Later, TF Brawler absorbed several more villages and a key valley into its ad hoc Area of Operations. For the rest of the summer and fall, when not flying missions with his men, Brawler Six was out with the GCP meeting with Afghan sheiks in an effort to win them over to the coalition’s side. Brawler jump started numerous projects around the region, ranging from school construction, fresh water pipelines to mosque renovations and agricultural assessments.
During the summer of 2010, roadside bombs virtually closed down stretches of Highway One in Logar Province. Brawler stepped in to help combat the IED menace. Using innovative new tactics, Colonel Ault put together an offensive airborne package known as Falcon Strike. Each night, a combined force of AH-64 Apache Gunships, a command element in a Blackhawk, and the GCP mounted in several UH-60’s would patrol along Highway One in search of insurgents laying IED’s. The Apaches would engage these bad guys, and the GCP would then land nearby, dismount and police up weapons and intelligence from the bodies (and body parts). It was tremendously effective, and after the first Falcon Strike missions, IED placement along this stretch of Highway One virtually ceased for weeks.
In a year of operations in Afghanistan, Brawler broke the mold for air units. Instead of being an airborne bus service for the local ground units, Ault’s dynamic leadership and aggressive desire to get more involved in the fight led to a revolutionary method of employing an army aviation asset. His task force joined the COIN fight in a unique and effective way. And while they were kissing babies and making friends by day, they killed scores of bad guys by night, saving countless civilian and military lives on Highway One. In the end, not only did Brawler Nation have an exponential effect on the battlefield, the men and women under Ault’s command had forged a new way of air-ground warfare in a counter-insurgency environment.
When I asked Captain Andrew Alvord, the GCP’s platoon leader, how much of this was due to LTC Ault’s leadership, he replied without hesitation, “All of it. “ Captain Joe Pruitt, the Echo Company commander, said the same thing. Ault’s indelible leadership stamped Brawler from the outset and created a unique culture that blended a warrior’s aggression with intellectual creativity and a can-do spirit that ultimately created friends out of enemies throughout Logar Province. And for those irreconcilables? They paid the price for their continued resistance.
Task Force Brawler will be the standard by which all other army aviation task forces will be judged. Lieutenant Colonel Ault’s leadership will serve as a model for others to follow and develop. And Brawler Nation will have an exponential effect on its own service for years to come.
Not bad for a Southern California boy.
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Last Updated on August 16, 2022 by Editorial Staff
Exercise is very much helpful for us in many ways. Besides developing our body, physical exercise helps us to improve our minds. But it is often difficult to do. As a result, if you don’t love exercise, you can’t continue it longer. Only the person who loves exercise and wants to do properly will be able to do it for a long time on a regular basis. The same happens with your children too. If you can’t show them that exercise is interesting rather than being difficult, they will not show interest to do it.
According to kids’ behave, kids and exercise are really tough and incompatible combination. Because they will always be busy in trying to skip it. If you really want that your kids will do exercise regularly, you have to proceed in a tricky way by following some techniques. Here I have shown some of those techniques. Try to implement these on your children.
12 Techniques to Teach Children to Love Exercise
The 12 tips will help you to teach your children to love exercise. As a parent, you have duties to your children. Keeping them fit is one of those duties. So, you shouldn’t leave hope if your children are not attracted to it. To grow love for exercise is a slow process. Besides the following techniques, you can make your own technique to grow love in your kids for the gym.
1. Set a goal
Children are fun loving. They find it fun to fulfill a goal. This also boosts their confidence level. So, when you are doing exercise with your kids, set a goal for them to achieve. The goal shouldn’t be impossible to achieve for them.
If they find the goal as a tough one, they will lose interest. Always try to set a goal that can be achieved with medium effort. Achieving a goal will drive them to achieve another goal. In this way, you can be able to attract their concentration in exercising for a long time.
2. Do with them
Think about you. If you get a partner in your workout time, your exercise becomes more cheerful. You get fun to do it. The exact thing happens with your children too. They find it joyous if they get partners in exercise time.
The joy becomes more if the partners are their parents. So they become interested to do it. If you really want your kids to do, join with them with no hesitation. This will boost their wish to do some easy healthy physical activities.
3. Use gadgets
Kids are very much fond of gadgets. Give them gadgets and they will be attracted easily. This attraction can be used for making them to exercise. For example- give them a step counter and they will use it to count steps. Only for using the device, they will walk and run. Thus you will be able to attract them to do it.
Again, you can buy them an exercise bike. This will attract them to perform exercise regularly. Just make sure that they don’t use the gadgets excessively. Excessive use of gadget will make them addicted to gadgets.
4. Buy attractive gears
You will need some gears to perform best exercise. Gears like jumping rope, hula hoop, big balls etc will make exercise fun. Kids get attracted to these easily. Use these gears to keep the attention of kids to exercise.
For a longer attraction, buy gears that are colorful because kids love colors. They will find it more interesting to it with colorful gears. And if you can, try to change your gears on a regular basis like once in a month or two months. Thus the kids will see new gears in every month or two months. This will attract their concentration to exercise.
5. Make the place interesting
Kids are fond of places that seem interesting to them. So, try to make the place of exercise interesting in the eyes of your children. For example- if you do exercise on your lawn, make some changes to make it more attractive.
Think of adding some ropes with the trees, set up small goal posts, set a cradle etc. These will attract the kids more. Also, try to do it in parks or beaches once a week or a month. New places will make kids excited about doing it.
6. Kids love partners
In the first point, I have already said that kids love partners and I suggested to do exercise with them. Here is another trick to make them love it by giving them company. That is admitting them in a class.
Admitting kids in a class of yoga, gym, boxing or any other physical activity will increase their interest to do exercise because there they will get a number of partners. Watching kids of their ages doing exercise will drive them to do the same. So, if you haven’t thought of this option, think of it right now.
7. Video games
Exercise can be done by video games too. Don’t get angry with me. This is real. Think of the games that uses motion sensor. Those have to be played using the motion of your body. The player inside the game will act as you act with your body. These types of games can be used for exercise.
Buy your children a game that use motion sensors, they will do it not knowing they are doing exercise. Interesting, isn’t it? But don’t let them to use those for a long time. Limited use will work well.
8. Offer interesting physical activities instead of direct exercise
Sometimes kids are not likely to do any exercise, no matter what you try to make them attracted to do it. In this case, you shouldn’t give up. Some interesting physical activity work as like as exercise. Offer them those. For example- offer hiking in a forest instead of walking around the field. Running can be replaced with climbing small mountains.
Besides these, swimming, kayaking etc is interesting enough to attract kids. These will ensure the quality time of the family besides working as exercise. Cycling is another physical activity that kids find interesting. It also works as an exercise. In fact, it is a good physical activity. You can buy an exercise bike or normal cycles to your children.
9. Make it habit
Small physical activities like walking, jumping, running or playing regularly work as small exercise habits of children. So, grow a habit of those in the mindset of your children. For example- walk instead of using cars if you need to go a short distance.
Make your kids to use stairs instead of using the lift if the destination is 2nd or 3rd floor, depending on the age. Teach your kids to jump from little heights that are found on road. Making a habit of playing regularly in the afternoon will do great too. These small habits create interest about exercise in the mind of children.
10. Be an example
Kids are likely to lead by examples. They do things that they see others to do. So, if you want your kids to do exercise, you should do it before. Don’t push them forcefully to do exercise. Do it in front of their eyes.
When they will see you to do it regularly, they will start to exercise from curiosity and example following nature. After a few days, you will see that they are also regular in it like you.
11. Brief them importance
Children sometimes do things that have no reason; sometimes they want the reason of doing something. To make them interested to exercise, let them know why it is needed for them. If you can make them understand the importance of exercise, they will do it eagerly.
So, try to show them the importance, if possible show them practically. This will make them to like exercise. So, you don’t need to force them for exercise. They will do it eagerly.
12. Make an exercise friendly environment
Kids have the influence of environment on their minds. So if you want to attract your kids to do it, your home environment should be exercise friendly. Keep some gym gears and equipment in your home. Use those regularly. Show the use of those to the children.
Be fit and discuss fitness with the children. This friendly environment will push the kids to be engaged with exercise. Being pushed by the exercise-friendly environment, kids will grow a love for it in their minds.
As you are the dad or mom and you can closely observe your kids which I can’t, your own technique will be more effective. The reason is, you will create techniques targeting your children. The above tips will work as a guideline for you. So, develop some very own techniques for your kids. Always remember that fit parents can make fit kids because parents are the influencer to the kids.
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Last Updated on August 11, 2022 by Editorial Staff
For most people, one of the fondest memories they have is when they finally learned how to ride a bike. Bossing the bars on the bike and pedaling freely brings out next level joy and happiness out of everyone. Reliving those moments where you let loose and felt the adrenaline of cycling ranks up there with all the other simple pleasures of life.
For your kids, some of the most enjoyable moments in their formative years will be on those two wheels. However, they might be shy to hit the curb. This helpful guide can help you motivate kids to ride.
1. Get the bike
Kids are practical. If you want to stoke that bike riding fire in them, you have to get the bike. Even if they don’t start riding immediately, they will develop an interest in a new exciting activity.
Here, the key is to find the right bike for their age and expertise level. There are plenty of affordable options that you can explore to get to ramp up their pedaling spirit.
If you are dealing with a starter, you can begin with bikes that have training wheels or kid’s balance bike. As they progress, you can keep upgrading their bikes. Some kids like the feeling that comes with positive progress. They feel better as they see themselves graduating from training to bigger bikes.
2. Hike the interest
Kids love a winner. Lucky for you, plenty of media shows how fun riding is. When they are starting, you need to show them that they can pull off cool moves like what they see.
Watching performances by other kids or adults riding creates a mental image that makes it look easy. Kids love a challenge. They can picture themselves on their cool new bikes waiting to conquer the pavement.
3. Train them
Kids can be hesitant and self-conscious if they don’t know how to ride. Since it is mostly a social activity, they will feel the need to be good at riding before joining other kids. However, they will start to appreciate the thrill of it if they learn how to do it.
You can either start them off with training wheels. Alternatively, you can get bike/scooter crossbreeds. These have 2 wheels but provide enough balance to keep your child safe during their training sessions.
You have the coolest bike, the training wheels have come off, and your kid is rearing to go. You can motivate them to ride by getting them cool accessories for the bike. This is also a chance to get the safety equipment that gets them excited to ride.
Try out different themes. You can put fun gadgets such as lights, music appliances, and carts. They might develop a knack for riding just to show off their cool bike and gear.
5. Family activity
Create picture-perfect moments by tagging family along. The whole family can bring out their bikes and cycle when the weather is ideal for a day out.
If kids get tired of riding their bikes, make it a team effort by having tandem bikes. Your kids will feel included in the fun, and you will have created a lasting impression on them.
6. Fun excursions
Once in a while, you can map out areas that are bike friendly. Let the kids bring out their bikes and make it a fun day out. You can check out scenic places you think they would enjoy.
You can create learning guides as well. This is a chance to test out your kids’ cognitive skills by incorporating fun after-ride games. However, be careful not to make it look like a test. The bike rides should be fun and learn more towards exploring new places.
7. Reward system
Reward systems are arguably some of the best motivators. Whether it’s competitive or purely fun, the prospect of rewards brings out the best in people. Kids are no different.
The rewards can be anything from bike upgrades to their favorite homemade treats. It can be a tightrope, though. You want to cultivate genuine interest. Every time your child achieves something better on the pedals, make the reward bigger.
8. Set up ride dates
Solo bike rides are okay. Still, kids like environments where they can interact with peers. They can show off new moves or hip kits they were able to collect. If you live in an area where plenty of kids have bikes, you can set up ride dates for the kids to interact.
The kids can come up with quirky bike riding ideas, and you can make it a regular event. They might get motivated to sharpen their skills.
9. Get competitive
If you notice your child has a competitive streak in them, you can start with small-time bike races. This can range from circling the block to reaching a designated point. You can keep records of time to motivate them to keep improving.
You can also set up bonus points or incentives if they get creative with their bike moves. Bike parks are some of the best places to help your kid improve their riding skills. They get to meet local biking enthusiasts and learn from them.
You can set up mini-competitions with siblings as well, and ensure that the first one across the line gets their favorite treat.
10. Get them into riding programs
The best motivator is trusting your kid enough to let them conquer the curb on their own. Enroll them in riding camps or programs that tap into their knack for riding. This helps them to form close friendships. They might even form riding parties to have fun during the holidays.
Bike rides can be a rewarding activity for you and the kids to let out some steam. It is good for their health too. Kids will work up an appetite because of all the energy involved, so always make sure that snacks are waiting when they get back. Do not forget to equip their bike with hydration packs to keep them hydrated during their rides.
Kids can also be picky. If they do not pick up on cycling interest, try other equipment such as skates and scooters.
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Millions of years in the making, protected for the future
The Tetiaroa Atoll is a place unlike any other. Built by volcanoes and preserved by coral, this is where nature, Polynesian people, and their culture come together to seamlessly coexist with a world-class resort. The Tetiaroa Society oversees and protects the atoll in conjunction with the resort and the Brando Family Trust to ensure this oasis in the deep blue Pacific is preserved and protected for future generations.
The formation of Tetiaroa
Three million years ago, Tetiaroa was a volcano rising from the ocean floor like its sister islands of Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora. The magical ring of beautiful islets (called motu in Tahitian) sitting on top of a living reef is less than one percent of its complete structure. These motus rest on hundreds of feet of ancient reef below sea level, and then thousands of feet of volcanic base stretching down to the seafloor.
Atolls are 100 percent organic—everything is either a living organism or has been produced by a living organism. As one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, atolls are home to 30 percent of all marine creatures.
A self-sustained ecosystem
The ecosystem of an atoll creates and maintains its own terra firma which protects it from the erosional forces of the ocean. The calcium carbonate skeletons of reef organisms make up the barrier reef, which both protects the motu from direct wave impact and is the source for all the sediment of the island. The soil on the motu is nourished by nutrients brought from the ocean by seabirds and creates a rich base for a distinct flora and fauna.
A fresh water lens forms in the motu sediments, floating on the more dense seawater below. The larger the motu, the larger and deeper the freshwater lens, and therefore the greater number and variety of plants it will support.
Polynesians on the atoll
There is a long and deep history of this place that is mysterious, awe-inspiring, and revered. In the past, Tetiaroa was a special getaway for Tahitian royalty to retreat, entertain, and partake in beauty rituals.
Before this it was a gathering place for Polynesian tribes who met around sacred Maraes, fusing their culture, customs, religion with nature in a way that deeply influences the people of Polynesia today.
“You can’t bring culture here, you have to adapt to theirs.”
Marlon Brando’s vision drove the future of Tetiaroa
Marlon first spied Tetiaroa on a hike in Tahiti while filming Mutiny on the Bounty in the early 1960s. It was here he found a place of indescribable beauty and Polynesian authenticity,, that offered a quiet and secluded place to connect with others, with nature, and with himself.
Marlon was fascinated by renewable resources, organic farming practices, and alternative energy sources, long before it was in the zeitgeist. He was driven by a desire to create beautiful structures while causing the least impact on the environment.
Marlon’s intent was always to honor and respect the land, the Tahitians that came before him, and the people who come after him.
Pacific Beachcomber SC invests to protect Tetiaroa
Marlon formed a close friendship with Richard Bailey, a local hotelier and property developer. For many years, the two shared a dream to build a luxury resort at Tetiaroa that would be a paragon in sustainability and stewardship.
That day came in 2009 when the Brando Family Trust granted approval to Pacific Beachcomber, Richard Bailey’s company, to build the 35-villa resort that would be known as The Brando. The resort finally opened in 2014 to rave reviews and began welcoming guests from around the world.
Preserved out of respect for nature
With Marlon’s original vision and help from Pacific Beachcomber, the non-profit Tetiaroa Society was created to protect the atoll by developing a research and educational center, and continuing to study the environment and ecology, as well as exploring innovative forms of conservation and alternative energy.
And The Brando became reality as one of the world’s most sustainable luxury properties, where, to this day, it remains resolute in its mission for zero carbon footprint hospitality.
A stay that leaves the right kind of impact
Marlon envisioned a place that could change the world, where intellectuals, scientists, travelers, and locals would come together, be inspired, conduct research, and educate others in the place that he called home; A place where luxury lives in harmony with nature; A place that is soul-cleaning and life-changing; Where the outside world melts away; And where connection to nature, wildlife, the Polynesian people, and their culture happens in an authentic and organic way. This is the true treasure of Tetiaroa.
From the sky above the atoll to the depths of the ocean around it lives an array of wildlife nearly unrivaled in its diversity for such a small area. Fish share space with crabs, sea urchins, spiny lobsters, sea cucumbers, sharks, rays, and sea turtles. Even whales pass by the outer edge of the atoll during mating season.
On land, the world’s largest terrestrial arthropod, the Coconut Crab, and a variety of other crabs are the dominant organisms. For centuries, however, the wildlife population on the atoll was at threat from two species of invasive rats. Now, thanks to an eradication effort in 2020, rats were eliminated from Tetiaroa, allowing the native wildlife to thrive.
In the air, nine species of seabirds call Tetiaroa home, each carving out their own air space and feeding grounds in concentric circles at sea. Tetiaroa also hosts a large breeding population of Pacific Reef Egret, a native terrestrial species. The atoll serves as a wintering site for migratory species such as the Pacific Golden Plover and the Wandering Tattler, which breed in North America, and the Long-tailed Cuckoo from New Zealand.
Native plants colonized Tetiaroa with their floating fruits or seeds via very light spores dispersed by wind. Birds transported other species, including sticky fruits and edible fruits. The percentage of native species is very high on atolls like Tetiaroa as opposed to high islands with many more introduced species.
Along with the native species, there are plants introduced to the atoll by Polynesians. These plants reflect and reveal the activities carried out here. While some are primarily for food, like coconut, Polynesian arrowroot and taro, others are for more specific uses such as medicine, soap, and dyes. Efforts are being made to control and eradicate invasive introduced species of plants to restore the native ecosystems.
Archeology sites dot the landscape across the 12 motus of Tetiaroa. Many are historically significant and rare, such as an archery platform, identified by its crescent-shaped end which was frequented by ari’i nui who came here to prove their strength and mana by shooting arrows in distance. The presence of such archery platforms on Tetiaroa is a strong marker of high-ranked chiefs on the atoll. Also of interest is the basalt anchor in the court of a marae, or sacred place, located in front of the altar. Ancient Polynesians used to consider the ocean as the primordial marae, a concept that might reveal the symbolic meaning of this artifact disposed in such a sacred place.
And on Rimatuu, close to the lagoon shore, a large elevated platform of 23 by 4.5 meters might have served as a a place for dancing. In the vicinity, a freshwater source has been arranged by disposing coral slabs on edge.
“Tetiaroa is beautiful beyond my capacity to describe”
Spa & Wellness
Varua Te Ora Polynesian Spa is a sanctuary, the central beating heart of Tetiaroa. To enter is to step through a portal onto elevated pathways that wind through tropical…Discover More
Food is one of the main ways Polynesians connect with their culture. With Chef Imbert at the helm, you’ll connect with Polynesia and the bounty it provides in new and unexpected ways…Discover More
Spread across the Onetahi motu and set back just off the beach are 33 private villas, each a retreat within this sanctuary called Tetiaroa…Discover More
This atoll, Tetiaroa, is literally brimming with life. It’s all here, just waiting to be explored. By you. From guided excursions in a kayak to the outer limits of the atoll…Discover More
Inspired by the late Marlon Brando’s vision to preserve sanctuaries for future generations and raise awareness of the fragility of our environment…Discover More
The Tetiaroa atoll is located in tropical French Polynesia, just 35 miles north of the island of Tahiti…Discover More
One of the most visually breathtaking places on the planet, the Southern Pacific seems to abound in endless and effortless beauty…Discover More
The Brando is singularly focused on one mission: zero carbon. Sustainability on the atoll is a partnership—if the Tetiaroa Society is the guardian of the atoll, then The Brando is the vehicle to showcase the work of the Society with the world…Discover More
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Letter of the Day WorksheetsValerie Mcclintick
Preschool and Kindergarten children who are learning their alphabet will love these Free Letter of the Day worksheets from PreschoolMom.com
Each worksheet is filled with different activities and skills children can build upon on a daily basis.
-Read & Identify the letter
-Say the Sound
-Write Uppercase & Lowercase
-Color Beginning letter animal
-Seek and Find letter
-Draw (items that begin with your letter)
Print the entire set of worksheets free from Preschool Mom
Find More Alphabet Preschool Printables Here
Find Bible ABC Printables Here.
[…] ABC Workbook Sheets – The Crafty Classroom Okay, this book is seriously adorable! It is slightly more advanced and would be perfect for […]
[…] a book for my 4 year old son last year to keep all the papers organized. I made a book with these pages as well. This book binder is not the exact one I bought, they discontinued it, but this one had […]
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Berry's poem is a reminder that to truly know darkness and its divine power, we need the courage to step into and leave the light behind.
E.E. Cummings – A Poet’s Advice to Students
E.E. Cummings' short missive to young poets in which he urges confidence in oneself and authentic expression. We must distinguish between thinking, believing, knowing and feeling, the latter being the territory of real art and poetry.
Ordinary Mind is the Way
This koan is an exchange between Master Nansen and his student Joshu that would have taken place in China around the 9th century. Their dialog concerns the nature of the Way and how to attain it. Nansen advises his student that ordinary mind is the key, but that it is not something he can seek… Continue reading Ordinary Mind is the Way
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This summer marks 36 years since the fall of Saigon, 16 since the United States and Vietnam established diplomatic relations, and 14 since the US Embassy in Hanoi opened its doors. Today, the two countries find themselves sharing more positions on a broader range of issues than ever before. Indeed, diplomats have even spoken in terms of a ‘strategic partnership’ developing between Hanoi and Washington.
Policymakers in both capitals justifiably speak with pride and enthusiasm of their achievements, and the great potential that exists to develop an even more robust relationship in coming years. Speaking on May 31 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell spoke of Washington’s ‘desire and intention to improve this relationship going forward.’
Yet while both sides rightly want to grow closer, absent improvements in human rights and political freedoms in Vietnam, the Barack Obama administration has taken engagement with the Vietnamese government as far as it can without alienating the US public and Congress. Although there remains room on both sides for further adaptation and accommodation, the onus now rests squarely on Hanoi to meet the US halfway by pursuing domestic policy reforms, particularly in the areas of political freedom and civil rights. Effectively addressing these Vietnamese domestic issues – what Campbell referred to as a ‘limiting factor’ in the relationship – would give the Obama administration a greater ability to work with Vietnam and allow the relationship to progress to the next level.
Since taking office, Obama has expended energy and political capital in pursuit of strong ties with Southeast Asia. After eight years that saw Washington disengaged and distracted from Southeast Asia, on coming to power Obama moved quickly to increase US engagement with this important region. Since the beginning of the Obama presidency, US engagement with Vietnam has grown particularly fast – though admittedly from a low base – to a level not seen since the heady days when President Bill Clinton visited Hanoi in 2000 and delivered the first ever speech by a foreign leader to be broadcast live across Vietnam.
In pursuing stronger ties with Southeast Asia and defending US maritime interests, the United States earned Beijing’s ire when, at the ASEAN Regional Forum Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Hanoi last July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aligned the US with Southeast Asian countries by raising concerns about China’s ambitious maritime territorial claims in the South China Sea and calling for ‘a collaborative diplomatic process by all claimants.’
However, such US actions have been met with a warm welcome in a Hanoi eager to promote its own political and economic integration with the world and increasingly wary of China. Moreover, recent US overtures may have finally disabused most of the Vietnamese leadership of the notion that Washington seeks to orchestrate a ‘peaceful evolution’ away from Vietnamese Communist Party rule.
Vietnam’s enthusiastic welcome last August of both the USS George Washington’s cruise down the Vietnamese coast, and the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain’s port call in Danang shortly after, demonstrate the importance that Hanoi now places on robust security ties with the United States. Similarly, Vietnam’s decision to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is quietly emerging as Washington’s preferred Asia-Pacific forum, highlights Hanoi’s desire for greater political and economic integration as well as its growing comfort with a strong United States that’s deeply engaged with Southeast Asia.
Still, Vietnam continues to take domestic actions that alienate US observers and make the sort of close relationship that Hanoi desires politically impossible and morally untenable for the Obama administration.
Continuing crackdowns on politically and socially-active religious leaders, increased and more severe prosecution and sentencing of Vietnamese dissidents as well as continued maintenance of substantial restrictions on Internet, communications and the press make Vietnam hard to fully embrace for an Obama administration that is already facing strong headwinds domestically.
All this means that strong move forward is needed from Hanoi. With tensions in the South China Sea showing no signs of cooling in the near term, and with China’s naval capabilities continuing to grow, a robust US-Vietnam relationship is in both parties’ interests (although it is an inescapable reality of global power dynamics and Asian security that the United States matters more to Vietnam than Vietnam does to the US).
The Obama administration’s overtures to Vietnam have reached the acceptable limits imposed by America’s democratic society and values, and it’s now time for Hanoi to make the next move. Only by so doing will both Hanoi and Washington be able to develop the strong relationship that both rightly seek.
Richard Pearson is a programme associate at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation where he manages China, Vietnam and South China Sea programmes.
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The Master of Arts in Art Education (MAAE) Program
The Master of Arts in Art Education, or MAAE, program targets students who want to become creative agents of change. The MAAE program prepares students for art focused careers in educational and social service institutions, community-based organizations, museums, galleries, public and private universities, and more.
MAAE Program Overview
The program’s structure is highly flexible. A total of 36 credit hours, which can be completed on a part-time or full-time basis, are required to graduate. Students pursue research and fieldwork in individualized, established settings.
Credit requirements include:
- Art Education Seminars – 6 Credit Hours
- Art Education Courses – 9 Credit Hours
- Art History or Visual Critical Studies – 3 Credit Hours
- Electives – 9 Credit Hours
- Professional Core – 9 Credit Hours
To learn more, please visit the School of the Art Institute of Chicago online and view their MAAE brochure.
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Last updated on December 6th, 2022
West Virginia is the 39th most populous and the 41st most extensive of the 50 states of the United States. It is located in the Appalachian region in the Southern United States that is also considered to be a part of the Middle Atlantic States. The state attained statehood on June 20, 1863, becoming the 35th state to join the union. Its five bordering states are Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. See the complete list of the 50 states and their borders here. West Virginia (nicknamed: Mountain State, Panhandle State) has 55 counties. The state’s capital is Charleston. The abbreviation for West Virginia is WV.
1. A human faster than the speed of sound
Chuck Yeager, born in 1923, from West Virginia became the first person in the world to break the sound barrier. He made history in October 1947 when while he flew the Bell X-1 rocket at 700 mph in level flight and crossed the speed of sound. Charleston’s Yeager airport is named after the iconic hero.
2. Capital woes
When it comes to picking the right capital city for the state, West Virginia found it difficult to make a final decision. Its capital was Wheeling before a decision was made to transfer the capital to Charleston, then Wheeling again before West Virginians finally settled on Charleston.
3. Not-so-secret nuclear bunker
The state is home to a nuclear bunker designed to accommodate congressmen and women, including support staff if there is a nuclear attack. The bunker’s existence should be a secret but West Virginians have long spilled the beans on the feature hidden underneath the Greenbrier resort. The bunker opened in 1961 and remained on constant alert as a nuclear fallout shelter. However, the bunker is now open for public tours.
4. A state for the young and old
The state loves its young and old as evidenced by the rise of Cecil Underwood who became the youngest governor at the age of 34. After this feat in 1956, he went to become the oldest governor in West Virginia at the age of 74. He has the unusual distinction of being both the youngest person to be elected as governor and the oldest to both be elected and serve.
5. Falling ceremony for a tree
Locals know how to provide a special sendoff for falling trees in West Virginia. In 1938, residents hosted a falling ceremony for the largest and oldest white oak tree in the country after it was declared dead.
6. Coal houses
The state is home to coal houses that provide a unique living experience. It is most likely that West Virginia is the only or one of a few places on earth where you will find livable coal houses. The Coal House is situated in White Sulphur Springs.
7. A basketball record
In 1960, Danny Heater, a local student was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records after scoring 135 points during a high school basketball game.
8. Elevated graves
The state hosts one of America’s oldest and largest burial grounds for Native Americans. The site has distinctive features that make it stand out. The cone-shaped burial ground stands at 69 feet high and it has a circumference of more than 900 feet.
9. Border to Border
Weirton undoubtedly comes with a unique feature. It is the only city in the United States that runs from one state border to another. The metropolis shares borders with Ohio to the west and Pennsylvania to the east.
West Virginia on the map
10. The senate connection
A West Virginian woman boasts astonishing links to former United States senators. Hallie Davis Elkins is the only United States citizen who is a mother, daughter, and wife of senators. It comes as no surprise that the city of Elkins is named after her husband.
11. Kanawha to West Virginia
In 1861, residents of West Virginia were presented with the name Kanawha when they voted on whether or not to break away from Virginia. The suggestion was aimed at honoring a local Native American tribe. However, the legislators finally chose West Virginia.
12. Lion vs Giant Sloth
In 1796, soldiers operating in Greenbrier County discovered animal bones that appeared to belong to a large lion. However, the real identity of the animal was unmasked by an amateur paleontologist who correctly identified it as a giant sloth.
13. The largest alluvial diamond
In 1928, a family in Peterstown found a 34-carat diamond at their home and stashed it in a cigar box for 14 years thinking it was a quartz rock. The family only discovered that it was a diamond after taking the gem to a local geologist.
14. Longest steel-span bridge
Base jumpers in West Virginia are privileged to have the longest steel-span bridge in the western hemisphere in their state. The New River Gorge Bridge, which is situated in Fayette County measures 3,030 feet long. China’s Shanghai’s Lupu Bridge is the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the world.[10,27]
15. The world’s oldest river
West Virginia hosts one of the world’s oldest rivers, which meanders through the state heading towards Virginia before reaching North Carolina. The New River takes the number two spot after the world-famous River Nile.
16. The only state
West Virginia is the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state and one of three states to secede from another state.
17. The last World War I veteran
Frank Buckles who was the last surviving veteran of World War I was a resident of Charleston. He died in 2011 aged an astonishing 110 years old. During his younger years, Buckles had to lie about his age to enlist in the US Army.
18. The first steamboat
In 1787, West Virginia made history by launching the first steamboat in the Potomac River at New Mecklensburg.
19. Storefront museum
The state hosts a one of a kind storefront museum that exhibits a humanoid creature named Mothman. The creature was reportedly seen many times in the 1960s, which helped propel its status to a local legend.
20. World record for stalagmite sitting
One of the residents of this state, Bob Addis, set the world record for stalagmite sitting. Bob spent nearly 16 days sitting atop a stalagmite rock formation where he received supplies using a bucket thanks to the help of a well-wisher.
21. West Virginia gave the world Mother’s Day
Grafton, West Virginia, was the venue for the world’s first Mother’s Day celebrations. The occasion took place on May 10, 1908 after, the founder, Anna Jarvis, honored her mother posthumously. This day of remembrance turned into a global celebration.
22. Largest hand-cut stone masonry building
The state is home to the largest hand-cut stone masonry building in the United States. The Weston State Hospital building, which was constructed in the late 19th century, holds the record.
23. Historic dunk
In 1984, Georgeann Wells made history for the state when she successfully dunked during a college basketball game. The feat, which took place at West Virginia University, was special in that she was the first female to dunk.
24. The first red brick road
The first red brick road in the U.S. was laid in Charleston in 1873. A Charleston resident by the name Mordecai Levi wanted to change the condition of the hard-packed dirt streets of the city. He paved the Summers Street in Charleston with bricks and later got a patent for the paving method he had invented.
25. Post-war debt squabbles
At the end of the Civil War, Virginia demanded that its new neighbor pay its pre-war debt. The Supreme Court ordered the state to pay after it initially declined.
26. First for the House of Delegates
In 1928, Minnie Buckingham Harper became the first African-American woman to join the House of Delegates.
27. Spelling problems
Although the state’s residents are big achievers, they failed to spell Mullins correctly after naming a town Mullens in Wyoming County. They later voted to retain the incorrectly spelled name.
28. No traffic lights
Monroe County in West Virginia is void of any traffic lights, 4-lane highways, and fast food restaurants. It is a place to be and enjoy the life in the simplest manner.
29. Global flavor
For a small state, West Virginia has a surprisingly global flavor. It holds the record for most towns named after cities in countries around the world. You will find Shanghai, Athens, Cairo, Geneva, and Berlin.
30. The split from Virginia
Did you know that Virginia split into Virginia and West Virginia due to political differences? The split happened in 1861 and the new state was admitted to the union in 1863.
31. During The American Civil War
West Virginia is one of two American states formed during the American Civil War (1861–1865), along with Nevada.
32. Free rural mail
The first rural free mail delivery started in the United States in Charles Town, Hall Town and Uvilla on October 1, 1896.
33. Some special snakes
The Bluestone River in West Virginia is home to the northern water snakes. These snakes are special because they incubate their eggs inside their bodies and then give birth to the live young. The snakes grow to be about 24-55 inches. They can hatch 9 to 45 young in a year.
34. The first woman to win an Olympic gold
On August 3, 1984, gymnast Mary Lou Retton became the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold for the All-Around event.
35. The origin of the name
West Virginia is named for Queen Elizabeth I of England, “The Virgin Queen.”
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More and more people are moving closer to an “climate action now” mode today. They realize that the climate crisis really is an emergency. That, after all, is what emergencies are all about—action that people must take now or all is lost.
Recognition is the important first step, but it is only the beginning. Many of us find it very difficult to know what we can do that could make a difference for the climate emergency. We know that is it a problem so big that individual action seems almost meaningless. Some of us dutifully sort our recyclables knowing that it is a much larger problem than reducing the flow of waste into overloaded landfills.
Surviving a Life-Threatening Emergency
I recently read some books on what distinguishes survivors from those who don’t survive life-threatening emergencies. The differences between survivors and victims are clear, although an airplane crash may be very different from being lost at sea.
The key to survival in an extreme emergency is that the survivor more readily turns from her/his mental map of everyday reality to a new paradigm that abandons conventional thinking. Some call that situational awareness.
Mapping the reality s/he faces now in its own terms, enables the survivor to accept the new data that reflects the extraordinary parameters of the emergency. The new data usually conflicts with the familiar patterns of everyday life. Once a person stops mentally mapping the situation based on the images of ordinary reality and begin to observe the non-ordinary reality of the emergency on its own terms, the odds of that person surviving go way up. Certainly that principle applies to societies too.
The Climate Emergency and the Survival Response
The climate emergency requires that we experience a major paradigm shift if we are to muster a viable survival response. That, I think, is the situation most of us, not just environmentalists and climate activists, or government officials and corporate executives, find ourselves in today.
Most have not made that paradigm shift to the new reality of the global climate emergency. Even many fully informed people continue to view the new existential threat to human survival through the lens of everyday reality. They have not shifted to mapping the new reality—the climate emergency—on its own terms.
Business as usual lies gasping for air on its deathbed, in obstinate denial. Beliefs and behavior have not fully caught up with reality, even for many who understand the gravity of destabilizing the Earth System. The best scientific evidence indicates that if industrial nations do not make massive reductions in carbon emissions in the next eight to ten years, we will have reached several tipping points in climate factors that will propel the entire Earth System into chaos. That will force the collapse of civilization itself.
Setting “targets” for reducing emissions by 2050 to stay below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels or any of the other empty pledges made by governments and corporations, remain completely within the paradigm of business as usual as we rush headlong deeper into the Anthropocene epoch we have created.
We have an extremely short time before crashing into multiple overlapping tipping points, some of which are already here. Yet, as societies, we are completely unprepared for the extremity of the emergency we have failed to face on its own terms.
Now, we must focus all our attention on how to mobilize masses of people very quickly to act in concerted ways to restore/repair ecosystems, while at the same time to force large institutions to stop their carbon emissions now. What a daunting task!
Without stopping the immediate threat, none of our thinking about ideal new economies based on human need instead of profit and greed, on social justice or anything else, will matter. Survival is the prerequisite to building a good society, or to sustaining any society. And to survive, we must shift to an emergency paradigm to face the non-ordinary reality before us.
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"Beyond Earth Art"
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
Looming, industrial contraptions made from metal tanks, plastic tubes, glass bottles and rubber gloves greet visitors at the newest exhibit in Cornell University’s Johnson Museum of Art, “Beyond Earth Art.” These impractical devices are at the heart of Lucy and Jorge Orta’s multimedia installation, “Food-Water-Life,” a project featured within the exhibit that seeks to present conceptual solutions to global issues such as climate change and biodiversity. Though the Ortas’ water transportation devices are unfeasible from a true engineering standpoint, their whimsical nature prompts visitors to ambitiously imagine technology of the future.
“Beyond Earth Art” pays homage to Cornell University’s 1969 “Earth Art,” a collection of site-specific installations that was revolutionary for its time, with artists moving their workspaces from the studio directly to the exhibition space. “Beyond Earth Art” resembles its predecessor, particularly in its inclusion of “social sculpture,” or artwork that includes human activity and is meant to influence the restructuring of society or the environment. However, the exhibit represents a wide range of artists that employ different mediums in addition to sculpture. Featuring photography and large-scale murals as well as interactive installations and experimental video, the exhibit provides a diverse approach to its globally conscious theme.
Even within a specific medium are a variety of artistic subgenres. The exhibit’s photography collection includes work from documentary photographer Edward Burtynsky as well as Dionisio Gonzalez, who digitally combines real and imaged environments to create a commentary landscape. Gonzalez’ photograph “Halong X” features Vietnamese houseboats on Halong Bay, digitally juxtaposed against futuristic constructions. These saturated, almost comically, mismatched compositions will evoke queries about the impact of foreign commercial interests on developing nations and their impoverished communities.
Alongside its traditional two-dimensional artwork, “Beyond Earth Art” also features several multimedia installations ranging from time-delayed video footage to more hands-on experiences. Maya Lin’s “Empty Room” is an interactive installation meant to enlighten visitors on global habitat loss for animals. Patrons are invited to don a pair of white cloth gloves and hold a rectangular acrylic panel over the light beaming from the projectors installed within the room’s floor. Upon doing so, documentary footage and text comes into focus on the panel, prompting visitors to answer the question projected by Lin’s work: “What is missing?”
Another digital installation, “Flooded McDonald’s,” a film by art group SUPERFLEX, depicts the deliberate flooding of an abandoned fast food restaurant. Sandwiches sit in their paper wrappings under sickly yellow lights. Trays of food and drink bob around in the rising water with the perpetually smiling statue of the trademark red-haired clown, drifting on its fallen side. Acquired from staged footage of an ambitiously life-size replica of a typical McDonald’s chain store, this experimental video alludes to issues with the failings of capitalism and commercialism as well as the resulting climate change because of growth in fast-food industries.
However, the numerous sculptural objects dispersed among the other two-dimensional and digital media installations remain the exhibit’s standout pieces. In Mark Dion’s found object sculpture, “Trichechus manatus latirostris,” a tub-sized tar pit sits encased in glass with a plastic skeleton of a Pacific manatee. A hodgepodge collection of junk items is stuck in the dried black substance: broken teacups, a discarded lighter, metal rings and bottle caps. An unlabeled mass of rock and metal sits near the entrance of one floor’s installation. The decaying organisms reminiscent of coral and corroding metal pieces will captivate visitors with its odd beauty and chemical colors of rust, turquoise and yellow.
“Beyond Earth Art” is an intriguing exhibit with pleasantly surprising discoveries around every corner. Visitors will be imaginatively inspired by the quirkier installations, while more serious projects will prompt necessary reflection on the direction of human civilization and our inevitable impact on our global environment.
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This is an extremely common question when it comes to making clothing because all clothing, regardless of size, must conform to the Flammability of Wearing Apparel regulation (16 CFR Part 1610).
The problem is that the definition of "raised surfaced" can be unclear!
"Raised" is a material that has an intentionally raised fiber such that has been brushed or sheared and has pile, napping, or tufting. This includes the loops of Terry materials and the soft brushing of flannels.
I like to think of the material as having tiny fiber fingers that want to grab a flame source. Some common raised surfaced materials are:
- Flannel / Flannelette
- Fleece / Reverse Fleece
- Flocked finish
- Peach finish
Materials that you might think are be raised but aren't
- Bird's Eye
- Cable or Chunky Knit / Weave
- Chiffon (includes toile)
- Crepe (includes Canton, Crinkle, Georgette, Moroccan, Plisse)
- Jacquard (includes Brocade, Damask)
- Lace (includes mesh, Raschel knit, Tulle)
- Rib knit
- Shirred / Smocked
- Sweater Knit
- Twill (includes Gabardine, Herringbone, Tweed)
If you have a raised material, don't fret yet about testing! You may actually still be exempt from testing or from searching for a supplier with testing.
If you are making any of the following types of clothing, your product (and thus the material), is automatically exempt from testing.
- Gloves - Under 14" in length and not attached to a garment
- Hats - That do not cover the neck, face, or shoulders (includes hair accessories)
- Shoes - That are not attached to a garment (includes slippers, booties, and other footwear)
If your raised material is made of one or more of ONLY the following fibers, it is automatically exempt from testing.
If you are using the material in a way that would make the raised side unexposed to air when worn, it is automatically exempt from testing.
- Snap-able Cloth Diapers
- Hoodies with the hood lined
- Pants/shirts that are not cuffed outwards
- Rolled cuffs
- Sweatshirts (they are considered capable of being worn napped side out*)
- Zip Ups
If you've come to this point and still have no exemption, then you have one more decision:
- Don't use the material for clothing
- Contact your supplier and hope they've had testing (result should be Class I or Class II)
- Test on your own (result should be Class I or Class II)
- *Make sure your marketing doesn't include any ideas of wearing the garment in a way that would expose the raised surface side & watch that your consumers aren't frequently wearing the garment in a way that would expose the raised surface side. This is not necessarily CPSC-specific guidance, but we have spoken with agents that have said this could be an option if we'd like to make that choice.
If this was a lot, don't worry, it is and I understand that! That's why I have created a digital book that walks you through the process, step-by-step, in a more conversational tone.
Join my free Facebook group, US Product Safety Compliance.
The Makers Community membership.
Free basic product safety course.
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Through complaints on social networks, inhabitants of Vainillo pointed out that there is a person who is poisoning dogs and cats frequently and there are already many cases
Mazatlán, Sinaloa.- The director of Ecology and Environment of Mazatlán, Miriam Isaraí Rodríguez Paniagua, condemned the acts perpetrated against dogs and cats in the community of El Vainillo, and pointed out that whoever is responsible should be prosecuted according to the penal code of the State.
Through complaints on social networks, residents of Vainillo pointed out that there is a person who is poisoning dogs and cats frequently and there are already many cases, for which Rodríguez Paniagua answered, explaining that Ecology can receive complaints, however, it is the ministry is in charge of proceeding legally against the person who perpetrates such a crime.
“Here it is important that the citizen has the knowledge that this type of complaints must be made before the public prosecutor so that the person who is committing the crime is prosecuted in accordance with the criminal code of the State of Sinaloa in force,” he justified.
He also said that it is important that the inhabitants, in this case of the El Vainillo community, know the animal protection regulations and that any act that threatens the life of a dog or cat could be criminally punished.
“That the inhabitants of El Vainillo are aware that there are laws, regulations, and codes that protect them, and that at the moment there is an indication of the person who is committing said act, a procedure will be initiated by the environmental legal department and a Once the necessary data is obtained, it will be sent to the civic court so that they can resolve it ”, explained the owner.
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Edge Servers Versus Rack Servers: Which Is Better?
Do you know the contrast between a cutting-edge server and a rack server? In the event that is not, sit back and relax. You’re in good company!
Many individuals are uncertain of the distinctions between these two sorts of servers on account of the numerous servers available. To more readily figure out cutting-edge servers and rack servers, we should investigate each sort of server and its key elements.
A sharp-edge server, which is a high-thickness server, is a minuscule PC that oversees and circulates information across a few PCs and organizations. It fills in as a connection between machines, projects, applications, and frameworks.
What Is A Rack Server?
A rack server, then again, is a kind of server that is commonly mounted on a rack. Rack servers are typically more affordable than edge servers and are all the more generally utilized in little and medium organizations. They are likewise called rack mount PCs and rack-mounted servers.
Here, we’ll separate the advantages and disadvantages of sharp-edge servers and rack servers with the goal that you can arrive at an educated conclusion about which server is appropriate for your business.
How About We Get Everything Rolling?
Rack Server Versus Edge Server: Must-Know Realities
- Edge servers are overseen by the Cisco UCS chief through the UCS Texture, while rack servers can be overseen both freely or by the Cisco UCS director.
- Sharp edge servers highlight hot-trading abilities that permit parts to be added or taken out without turning off the servers. Rack servers don’t require hot trading as the entirety of their parts are inbuilt.
- Cutting edge servers are mounted on a frame that can uphold different servers while rack servers are mounted on a rack.
- The plan highlights that cutting edge waiters and rack waiters are appropriate for medium-to-huge associations and little associations, individually.
- The sharp edge servers don’t uphold an optical drive while, for the rack servers, the optical drive at the front board is discretionary for both Album and DVD media.
- Edge servers are mounted on a frame that can uphold numerous servers, while rack servers are mounted on a rack.
What Are The Highlights Of Edge Servers?
Sharp edge servers have a slim plan that permits a few servers to be obliged in a more modest space. They have a few parts, including computer chips, memory, worked away drives, and organization regulators.
Their capacity to have a few servers in more modest regions and their high handling power makes them ideal for use in huge server farms. Different servers are many times slid on a huge suspension mounted on a server rack. This empowers the utilization of fewer parts as well as empowers more proficient activity of the machine. Accordingly, they give the most elevated handling power per Rack Unit (RU), notwithstanding the little space they involve.
The edge servers include a frame with a few servers slid on it. This extraordinary plan permits the framework to disseminate capacity to all servers in a solitary nook, consequently consuming less power. By keeping all servers in a solitary frame, fewer parts will be expected to run every server.
- Fits in little spaces
- Consumes less power
- Fewer links are utilized
- Higher cooling costs
- Rack Servers: Grew Sooner than Edge Servers
Dissimilar to sharp edge servers, rack servers were grown before on, after the quick expansion in server innovation advancement and use. The Compaq’s ProLiant Series’ very first rack server was created in 1993. Because of mounting a few servers on one rack, associations could save money on space. Notwithstanding, keeping the servers in encased regions prompted heat development, which saw the advancement of cooling frameworks to direct temperatures.
At around a similar time, associations needed to move these servers to single rooms after they obtained extra innovation. These rooms were generally alluded to as “server rooms” and were for the most part away from typical office spaces. Ultimately, these associations saw the need to plan exceptional spaces for servers to address these frameworks’ temperature and security dangers. This move at last prompted the advancement of the current server farm.
Edge servers are for the most part prescribed for medium to huge estimated organizations, while rack servers are viewed as best for more modest organizations.
What Are The Elements Of Rack Servers?
Rack servers’ extraordinary and broadly useful plan permits them to be mounted on a server rack and empowers them to help a few prerequisites subsequent to being designed. They worked to function admirably in huge server farms and little PC bureau nooks. They vary from cutting edge servers in that they consume bigger spaces. While huge servers require extra parts like computer processors and memory, you can use a more modest space by mounting every server on top of the other. Nonetheless, utilizing numerous servers will increment front and center expenses related to the machine.
The rack server is known to deliver more power contrasted with edge servers. This is basically on the grounds that rack servers accompany every one of the parts it necessities to work successfully, as they are been inherent. The power makes it reasonable for very good-quality applications.
- Delivers high power
- Functions admirably in little, medium, and huge applications
- It Consumes a great deal of room
- Requires heaps of links
Edge Server Versus Rack Server: What’s The Distinction?
There are tremendous contrasts between cutting-edge servers and rack servers. Here are some of them.
Mugginess Control and Cooling
Servers produce a ton of intensity when functional. While the quantity of starting establishments in cutting-edge servers impacts their air temperature, rack servers impact the number of servers inside.
Cutting edge and rack servers have inherent stickiness control including that advance wind current and eliminating warm air, empowering the servers’ compelling activity. As to costs in cutting edge servers and rack servers, it’s higher with sharp edge servers because of their higher focus.
Arrangement of Parts
Sharp edge waiters are more reasonable for information grouping because of their elite exhibition abilities. Their inward design incorporates hot-swappable abilities, permitting you to add or eliminate parts from the server without turning off the framework. This assists with diminishing margin time related to the framework.
Rack servers are outfitted with all parts, and the link makes the association. In any case, every one of the parts of the server works freely. You don’t need to add different parts for the extension as the server highlights memory, stockpiling, and computer chips that are added during its underlying establishment.
Cutting edge servers have high adaptability, upgradeability, and handling power, making them ideal for high-accuracy projects and space preservation. Additionally, sharp edge servers might be obliged inside racks in edge frameworks, where they are viewed as a certain something.
Rack servers are great for a large number of purposes. Their capacity to function admirably in exceptionally PC-concentrated applications and their high versatility, expandability, and upgradeability make them the favored server in modern, business, and military use.
Which One Is Better? Which One Would It Be A Good Idea For You To Utilize?
The solution to this question relies upon your particular necessities and prerequisites. In the event that you have restricted space in your server farm, an edge server is the better choice. A rack server is the best approach in the event that you’re searching for a more practical server. At last, gauging every one of the upsides and downsides of each sort of server prior to going with a choice is significant.
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Shock as an aid to our development
10 October 2017
In pre-Christian times, people were initiated in a process of near death that loosened their etheric or life body from their physical. (A complete separation happens at death.) While in this state they were able to go into the world of spirit for a few days while being ‘managed’ by other inititates around them. They were then brought back by the inititates into a normal state of consciousness. Because of the preparation before this event and the support during it, the person would come back knowing the quality and reality of the world of spirit and would be permanently changed as a consequence.
They would know why patience, clarity, compassion, objectivity, diligence, ownership of self, openness, positivity, courage, skill, experience were so important. They could then be this.
This process and possibility slowly left mankind as our constitutions changed. Christianity requires of us that we loosen our etheric ourselves, without carers, and find the world of spirit ourselves.
Shock however has a similar effect on us as the old way of separation did. It shakes our etheric loose and in the immediate aftermath of this, we can have feelings of deep devotion as a consequence of very briefly being in touch with the good and the true of the spirit.
Our challenge as modern people is to invite the qualities of the spirit into our souls voluntarily, with our own designed and practised effort, and not to rely on the shocks of life for this. If one can, we are in the right place and better people.
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Meet Ella – Neuroblastoma Warrior
“None of this could have been possible without the NCCS...” said Jennifer, Ella’s mom.
It was only a few months before Ella’s 4th birthday and instead of being excited for the upcoming celebration, the only thing she could think about was how much her tummy hurt. Within a few days, her pain became so excruciating that she could not stop screaming. Her parents rushed her to the emergency room where doctors ran a battery of tests and finally found the reason this little girl was in so much pain – she had an aggressive high-risk tumor on her left kidney. She immediately began treatment at her local hospital – about thirty minutes away – where she endured five rounds of harsh chemotherapy.
When the first round of treatment failed to keep her disease away, doctors told Ella’s parents there was a treatment available that may help save her life at one of the finest facilities in the country, but it was in New York; hundreds of miles away from home. When they realized how frequent their trips to New York would be, they reached out to the NCCS for transportation assistance. At the NCCS we know, if a child can’t get there, the treatment might as well not exist.
Ella completed a massive resection of her tumor, more chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy and was finally considered cancer-free. Tragically, she relapsed a few months later and had to endure another surgery and more chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy. Her last resort was participating in a clinical trial . . . which proved successful! Ella was considered cancer-free once again. “None of this could have been possible without the NCCS…” said Jennifer, Ella’s mom. “We thank you for everything you do!!”
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The following acronyms are often used in the source code (and the documentation).
These acronyms will often occur in lower case due to coding conventions. When a class represents just one of these terms, longer names may be used for the sake of clarity. Unit conversion constants are not abbreviated.
- AP1roG – Antisymmetric Product of 1-reference orbital Geminal
- DM – Density Matrix
- DFT – Density Functional Theory
- ER – Electron repulsion
- GDB – Gaussian Density Basis
- GOB – Gaussian Orbital Basis
- GPT – Gaussian Product Theorem
- HF – Hartree Fock
- KIN – Kinetic Energy
- LF – Linear Algebra Factory, i.e. class that bundles a set of related linear algebra routines.
- MP2 – 2-nd order Moller-Plesset perturbation theory
- NA – Nuclear Attraction
- OLP – Overlap
- SQ (as suffix, e.g.
dist_sq) – Squared
- WFN – Wave Function
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New Delhi: Commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1977, the long-range surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft Ilyushin 38 SD will make its first and last flypast over the Kartavya Path in this year’s Republic Day.
The IL 38SDs, the oldest maritime surveillance aircraft in the Indian inventory, have seen their duties being taken over by the American P8is manufactured by Boeing.
Known as the Winged Stallions, the last of the legacy fleet will be decommissioned by the end of this year.
“This is the first and last flight in a Republic Day celebration for the aircraft,” a source in the defence and security establishment said.
The Republic Day flypast will comprise 44 other aircraft, including 9 Rafales, of the Indian Air Force.
IN 301, the first IL 38SD (Sea Dragons) aircraft of the Navy, was decommissioned on 17 January last year after completing 44 years of service to the nation. It remained fully serviceable to the last day of operational life, and flew a seven-hour mission sortie before bidding adieu.
The aircraft belongs to INAS 315 squadron which was commissioned on 1 October 1977 by Rear Admiral M. K. Roy, and was then commanded by Commander B. K. Malik.
The squadron was initially equipped with three Ilyushin 38s and later two more were inducted. The aircraft provided the Navy with modern maritime reconnaissance and fixed-wing Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capability.
With these aircraft, the Navy had moved into the arena of airborne long-range maritime reconnaissance capabilities combined with long-range anti-submarine search and strike, anti-shipping strike, electronic signal intelligence and distant search and rescue missions.
The aircraft was used for other operations including in January 1978, when it used the on board Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD) equipment to locate the wreckage of the Air India Jumbo which crashed soon after take-off off the Mumbai coast.
The Winged Stallions completed 25,000 hours of accident-free flying in 1996. However, tragedy struck in 2002 when there was a mid-air collision of two IL-38s. The occasion was ironically the celebration of the Squadron’s silver jubilee as well as of over 30,000 hours of accident-free flying.
Seventeen personnel were killed in the accident which also resulted in the loss of these aircraft, two years after they underwent an upgrade in Russia to add 15 more years to their life cycle.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: These 4 major new Indian military inductions mark a positive turning point
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THE Philippine Green Building Council (PHILGBC) is developing a ratings program that will measure a building’s performance based on how its features impact the health and wellness of users.
In a statement, the council said it will launch the first version of the PHILGBC Health and Well-being for Buildings (H+W) rating scheme on the first episode of the Building Green Conference 2022 on Sept. 8.
PHILGBC said the H+W program is designed as “a tool to measure, monitor, and certify the performance of projects based on social, economic, and environmental priorities that affect the health and well-being of users.”
The rating scheme will focus on health, comfort, lifestyle, social and environment.
“Health focuses on maintaining a physically and mentally healthy environment throughout the building life cycle. It emphasizes the need to address physical and mental health, and the safety of the building users and employees,” PHILGBC said.
Projects are also assessed in terms of the comfort level for users, as well as social and environmental sustainability.
There will be an online H+W Professionals Training Course, a formal accreditation program for professionals and project proponents on the PHILGBC Health and Well-being for Buildings rating scheme. Individuals that pass the qualifying examination for the course will be recognized as H+W Accredited Professionals.
PHILGBC is holding the digital edition of the Building Green Conference 2022 this month. The conference, which runs from Sept. 8-30, focuses on the theme “Experience Circularity and Pursue Regeneration — Today.”
“With circularity, we close the resource loop. We ensure nothing is wasted. We ensure that precious resources are conserved. It is important that our cities, along with the private sector, work together in completing the green shift. We owe it to the next generation,” PHILGBC Chief Executive Officer Christopher C. de la Cruz said in a statement.
PHILGBC advocates for healthier buildings, communities and cities, by introducing green and innovative design and construction solutions. It is a coalition of public and private sector leaders representing more than 300 organizations.
September is known as World Green Building Month, while Sept. 8 is National Green Building Day in the Philippines.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. will deliver the keynote address at the conference.
The conference will also feature speeches from officials of the Department of Energy and Department of Environment and Natural Resources, World Green Building Council (WGBC) Chair Ilari Aho, WGBC Chief Executive Officer Cristina Gamboa and WGBC Asia-Pacific Network Chair Cary Chan.
Those interested may register for the different episodes of the Building Green 2022 conference by sending an e-mail to PHILGBC National Secretariat at [email protected].
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Robocalls doubled in 2018 and 40% of them are scams targeting 10 billion people per year
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Americans receive tens of billions of robocalls each year—that’s billions with a “B.” And, you can make bank on the fact that too many of them are not from telemarketers but from telescammers targeting senior citizens, says the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC).
“Technology is making it easier to place automated phone calls and while many legitimate companies use them to sell products and services, criminals are having a lucrative field day using computer generated calls to swindle innocent citizens,” according to AMAC president Dan Weber.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says that the number one consumer complaint it consistently receives is for unwanted automated calls. In fact, during the first half of 2018, the number of robocalls increased by at least 50%.
Ethan Garr, an executive at TelTech, a company that makes one of the many call blocker apps on the market, says that robocalls are cheap. He says it costs just a penny a minute. And, the technology news Web site, Futurism reports that some phone carriers actually kick back micropayments to telemarketers, and scammer.
Although such payments amount to just a fraction of a penny a call, it adds up considering the fact that the callers are making billions of calls a month. The Robocall Index, which keeps track of automated call frequency, says that more than 5 billion such calls were made in the U.S. in October 2018, more than double the number of calls made in the same month in 2017.
As for the scam calls, just last month police in Pennsylvania arrested a man in connection with a telescam leveled at senior citizens. He was charged with swindling elderly in various parts of the country out of some $400,000. What he allegedly did was to call seniors and tell them that a grandson was in trouble and needed cash immediately.
And then there was the Publishers Clearing House scammer who called a 90-year-old woman in New York earlier this month and conned her out of $20,000 by claiming she had won a PCH prize.
“Both of these scams are fairly common,” says Weber. “But, oftentimes the crooks get creative. For example, the IRS says some of them have found ways to alter their caller IDs to make it look as though the Internal Revenue Service is on the line. They’ll then threaten stiff penalties if the victims fail to pay money that they allegedly owe.”
The problem has gotten so bad that the Federal Trade Commission has created a scamalert that can help consumers avoid fraud, including telephone fraud. It also provides what some might call a “hit parade” of the latest cons.
Automated telephone calls may be annoying, but the statistics show that most them are legitimate sales calls. However, NBC News recently reported that as many as 40% of robocalls in the U.S. are from scammers. That means telescammers are targeting more than 10 billion potential victims a year.
“It doesn’t mean that all robocalling is bad. Such calls can serve useful purposes such as when they alert you to a life-threatening storm that may be approaching. Or when they alert you to potentially fraudulent use of a credit card, remind you of an upcoming appointment with your doctor or let you know that your prescription is ready for pick up at your local pharmacy,” says Weber.
The Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC] [www.amac.us] is a vibrant, vital senior advocacy organization that takes its marching orders from its members. To join them, visit amac.us/join-amac.
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- Attila the Hun: Barbarian Terror and the Fall of the Roman Empire
- McArthur & Company (2008)
Most of what we know about Attila and the Huns is wrong.
The Huns were not savages on horseback, sweeping suddenly out of Asia to the gates of Rome only to vanish again. Attila himself was an effective ruler and an astute diplomat. While he lived, he was actually a force for stability in fifth-century Europe.
Christopher Kelly's book on Attila's life and times clears up a lot of misconceptions about the Huns, and shows us a world that is a lot like our own.
The Huns themselves remain a mystery. They were just another Central Asian nomadic people, moving west like countless other tribes. Some historians think they were known to the Chinese as the Xiong Nu; Kelly argues persuasively that they were not.
If the Huns had an advantage over other nomads, it was in their mastery of archery on horseback: Launch an arrow at the precise moment when your horse's feet were all off the ground, and you could kill an enemy 200 metres away.
When they arrived in eastern Europe late in the fourth century, the Huns found turmoil and created still more of it. As a realm of peace and prosperity, the Roman Empire had attracted peoples who had neither. They pushed at the empire's frontiers, and keeping them out was an expensive problem. Some emperors admitted this or that tribe and gave it land, in exchange for men to fill the legions. Others resisted the push from the east, sometimes with the help of earlier invaders.
Roman propagandists, when the Huns arrived, drew on old Greek propaganda against the "barbarians" -- people whose speech was an incoherent "bar-bar-bar," and who lacked civilized Mediterranean values. So the Huns, like the earlier Scythians, were portrayed as anarchic subhumans who ate their meat raw -- just zombies on horseback.
In reality, the Huns were a tightly organized community. They had originally lived off their herds, but they soon learned the value of extorting goods from farming communities -- not just grain, but wagons and iron weapons. When a bow took a year to create, the Huns needed an elaborate technological infrastructure.
Moving west, the Huns drove other tribes ahead of them, putting pressure on both the Eastern and Western Empires. They played a minor part in the battle of Adrianople, the worst military disaster in 700 years of Roman wars, but as the Eastern Empire recovered from that shock, the Huns effectively took over the lands north of the Danube.
This actually stabilized both empires. Tribes like the Vandals were migrating from Spain to the grain-growing lands of North Africa. The Goths occupied most of France. The Eastern Empire, based in Constantinople, was trying to deter the Persians from moving west. The Romans simply couldn't fight on all fronts at the same time.
The Huns gave the Romans a breathing space by effectively shutting down migration from eastern Europe, just as the Soviets would 1500 years later. The Romans could then turn to problems with the Goths, Vandals, and Persians.
An imperial protection racket
Like other nomad conquerors before and after them, the Huns did not impose their own culture on their new subjects. Quite the reverse: The lands the Huns occupied included many Romans and Rome-influenced tribes, who taught their new masters a lot. The Huns' power remained their cavalry, and they settled in what is now Hungary because its grassy plains could support horses. But they began to settle down in villages, enjoying the income from their subjects. Kelly says the Huns were not so much an empire as a protection racket.
When Attila emerged as the Huns' supreme leader, he extended the racket to the south and west. Sometimes he fought as a Roman ally against other "barbarians." But he also expected sizable payoffs in return for leaving Constantinople alone. The eastern emperors, worrying about Vandals in North Africa and Persians in the east, thought it was far better to pay him than to fight him.
Then the emperor Theodosius made a disastrous miscalculation: He cooked up a literally Byzantine intrigue to create regime change in the Hunnic Empire.
The most fascinating part of Kelly's book is the account of an embassy to Attila that was actually a front for a planned assassination. The ambassador, a young aristocrat named Maximinus, was completely out of the loop. So was his colleague the historian Priscus, who later reported the plot.
But Attila's own spies knew exactly what Constantinople was planning, and handled the plot with exquisite style--perhaps like Fidel Castro thwarting yet another CIA plot. The ambassador and the historian escaped with their lives, but others were not so lucky.
The climax of Attila's career was his foray into the Western Empire, when his forces swept across France and then moved south into Italy. His pretext was that a Roman princess had offered herself in marriage to him, only to be married off to someone else instead. So he marched west to claim his bride -- and to make himself at least the co-emperor of the West.
Armed robbery on a large scale
An army of Romans and Goths gave him a good beating in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plain, effectively ending the myth of Hunnic invincibility. But Attila turned south to ravage Italy. He was turned away from Rome by the Pope's intercession; but Rome was a relic by then. The West was ruled from the Adriatic city of Ravenna, and Rome was hardly worth sacking.
But Attila had achieved his main purpose, which was armed robbery on a large scale. His armies returned to Hungary with enormous plunder. Not long after, in bed with his latest new wife, he fell into a drunken stupor, suffered a nosebleed, and drowned in his own blood.
His empire died with him. His sons fought one another for mastery, and all of them lost. But this was not good news for the Romans. Like people in the Soviet satellites in 1989, the Huns' subjects headed west for the relative safety of the empire. A few more decades of illegal immigration and general chaos turned a continental empire into a mob of squabbling barbarian kingdoms. Just as Rome hadn't been worth sacking, its last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, wasn't worth assassinating. He was pensioned off instead.
Kelly's account lets us draw some obvious parallels with our own era of imperial overstretch and mass migration. But he doesn't make a point of them, though the "Barbarian Terror" in the title looks like a publisher's marketing gimmick. Like the Romans, and like modern governments, Attila used terror when it was cost-effective. When it wasn't, he negotiated.
We can even regard him as a kind of tragic hero. He was a military and political genius who had come out of nowhere. He could usually outsmart and outfight his supposedly civilized enemies.
But he was a gangster who never went legit: The Huns created no institutions, built no culture, and left not a word of their own to describe their rise and fall. No one knows where Attila's tomb is, and his people have vanished.
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Chris Neiger | Source, The Motley Fool
I’m not in my 40s quite yet, but as I quickly approach the next decade (a bit faster than I want), I’ve been thinking about what important financial decisions will need to be made in the coming years. For many Americans, our 40s can be a time where earning potential is very high, but it’s also an important time to make sure the proper retirement moves are being made.
Personal finance information is often just that — personal — in the sense that not everything is applicable to your specific financial situation. But here are two key ideas that you should be following in your 40s to help you transition into the next stage of life.
1. Stay focused on retirement contributions (or start today)
To help give you an idea where other Americans are with their retirement, take a look at the chart below. It’s from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and it shows the median retirement amount for Americans between 1989 and 2013 (which is the latest data available).
IMAGE SOURCE: ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE.
The red line shows that Americans between ages 44 and 49 had a median retirement account savings of just $6,200 in 2013. News flash: That’s not good. And according to EPI, “For most age groups, median account balances in 2013 were less than half their pre-recession peak and lower than at the start of the new millennium.”
Maybe your retirement is all set to go and you’ve been socking away money for decades. But this set of data suggests that’s probably not the case. Which means that right now (like literally, when you finish this article) you need to set up a plan for putting more money away for retirement. You can do this through an employer-provided 401(k) or by setting up your own individual retirement account (IRA). The important part is to start now, if you haven’t already, and continue increasing your contributions to the account if you’re able.
2. Kick debt to the curb
According to the latest data from Bureau of Labor Statistics, American workers have some of their highest-earning years between the ages of 35 and 44 (for women) and second highest-earning years between 45 and 54 (for men). In short, your 40s are some of the best times to reach your earnings potential.
|Age||Average Weekly Earnings for Women||Average Weekly Earnings for Men|
|Total, 16 years and older||$749||$915|
|16 to 24||486||512|
|25 to 34||705||794|
|35 to 44||839||1,007|
|45 to 54||836||1,075|
|55 to 64||812||1,102|
|65 and older||749||992|
DATA SOURCE: BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
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An eyelid cyst medically known as a chalazion, is a small lump that appears under the skin of the eyelid because of a blocked oil gland. It can develop on the lower or upper eyelid. It is not contagious and is more common in adults than children.
In Zambia, when you have an eye cyst you are said to be stingy and very tight fisted with giving out things .Lol….
There are several types of eyelid cysts, consisting of:
Stye (also called a hordeolum): A stye is an abscess in the oil glands, and is one of the most typical types of eyelid…
Chalazia (also referred to as meibomian cysts): A chalazion is a swelling on theeyelid that is commonly the result of a…
Sweat Gland Cysts: These cysts tend to be round, shiny, transparent lumps that appear near the tear ducts. This kind of…
Keratosis: These cysts are a mix of keratin and tissue and are discovered in various kinds.
The most common cause of eyelid cysts is blockage and inflammation of the oil-producing meibomian glands in the eyelids.
👀Eyelid cysts are usually not serious and only rarely obstruct vision or pose an immediate problem for the eye. Most eyelid cysts heal on their own within 2 to 8 weeks. However, you can use Guava Leaves to heal it faster.
How To Cure It?
•Wash 5 or 6 guava leaves thoroughly.
•Warm these leaves in the microwave for a few seconds or place on top of a pot cover that’s on fire to heat up the leaves .
•Place one warm leaf in a clean dry cloth.
•Put this cloth over the swollen area of your eyelid👁
•When the leaf cools down, replace it with a new warm leaf.
•Repeat this remedy twice daily for several days.
Stay healthy friends .
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Ted Weigal was wondering how to cook a steak like restaurants do: seared then cooked to perfection. By the time I had found an answer for Weigal, I was ready for a thick, juicy steak.
The sources I consulted agree that pan broiling is the best method for cooking steak, although an excellent argument can be made for grilling, and you will see another method in today's recipe. Sources also agreed that:
Searing should be done in a heavy pan on medium-high heat.
Meat should be dried before searing.
Because the solids in butter will burn, oil should be used to sear meat. If you want a buttery flavor, allow a pat to melt over the finished steak or if you are serving a sauce with the meat, add the butter to that.
Rubbing oil on the meat is preferable to spreading it in the pan. This will prevent oil in unused portions of the pan from burning.
Other aspects of meat cookery — searing, salting and piercing — have been debated on a number of occasions.
That searing seals in juices has been pretty much been disproved. In "How to Read a French Fry," Russ Parsons points out that if you sear a steak on one side then turn it over, you will see drops of juice emerging through the crust that was thought to seal the meat.
So searing not only doesn't seal in juices, it dries the meat slightly. But it makes up for this by increasing the perception of juiciness, which can be attributed to both the moisture in the meat and the salivation triggered by the seared meat's complex aromas and flavors.
"Browning is good," says "Steaks, Chops, Roasts and Ribs," from the editors of Cooks Illustrated magazine. Browned food's wonderful flavor comes from the Maillard reaction, named for the French chemist who first described it a century ago. The combination of meat's amino acids (proteins) and natural sugars with intense heat results in new compounds, which in turn break down and form still more complex and flavorful compounds on the outside of seared meat.
For the Food Lab page at seriouseats.com, executive editor/recipe czar J. Kenji Lopez-Alt documents his own experiments to find the best way to cook a steak.
Like others, he concluded that searing doesn't seal in juices, but does enhance flavor and textures, and he suggests that the best way to cook steak is to have oil smoking hot in a heavy pan then add a salted and peppered steak, turning it every 15 or 30 seconds until the desired internal temperature is almost reached. And if it is a thick steak, be sure to sear the edges.
There has been some disagreement over the merits of salting meats before cooking them.
"Start with salt," advise Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby in "How to Cook Meat" (Morrow/HarperCollins, 2000). The small amount of juice that salt draws to the surface of the meat is more than compensated for by the amplified flavor that results from the interaction of the salt with the meat.
Lopez-Alt concluded that not only does salting before cooking enhance the flavor of meat, the amount of time that elapses between salting and cooking makes a difference.
He salted several steaks at 10-minute intervals before searing them in a hot skillet. The steak that was cooked immediately after salting and the steak that was cooked 40 minutes after salting were much better than those that sat 10, 20 or 30 minutes between salting and searing.
Documenting photos and videos show how the salt is taken into the meat as time elapses. When steak is seared immediately after salting, the salt rests on the surface of the meat and the steaks juices remain inside the muscle fibers.
Within three or four minutes of salting, juices are drawn to the surface of the meat. Searing at this point wastes heat and energy to evaporate the liquid and the temperature of the pan drops, inhibiting the Maillard reaction.
About 10 or 15 minutes after steak is salted, a brine forms as the salt dissolves in the meat juices. The muscle structure of the beef begins to break down becoming more absorptive and enabling the brine to work its way into the meat, which begins about 20 minutes after salting. By the time salt has been on the meat for 40 minutes most of the liquid has been reabsorbed.
The best steak, however, according to Lopez-Alt, was one that was salted on both sides and allowed to rest on a rack, uncovered, in the refrigerator overnight. This allows the steak to dry naturally on the outside and the juices to distribute throughout the meat.
So, he suggests, if you have the time, salt the meat and let it rest for 40 minutes and up to overnight before cooking. If you haven't got 40 minutes, it's better to salt immediately before cooking.
One other subject for debate has been whether or not to pierce or cut a small slit in meat to test for doneness. Even though a lot of juice seems to escape from the meat when you pierce it with a fork, the amount is insignificant compared with the juices remaining throughout the steak, according to Lopez-Alt.
Even cutting a small slit in the meat with a knife will not affect the juiciness of the steak. If this is your chosen method of testing for doneness, however, keep in mind that the hot juices released by cutting the muscle fiber will make the meat appear rarer than it actually is.
The most accurate way to test for doneness is to use a digital thermometer.
AND ONE MORE THING
Letting meat rest for 10 minutes after cooking allows juices to redistribute evenly so when you cut it, more juice remains in the steak. Of course Lopez-Alt has a well-documented logical and technical explanation for this, which you can read at http://tinyurl.com/3fzdjl9.
Email [email protected]. Or write to Linda Brandt, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, P.O. Drawer 1719, Sarasota, FL 34230. Read previous articles and columns at www.heraldtribune.com/linda.
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Dilbert’s “Salary Theorem” states that “Engineers and scientists can never earn
as much as business executives and sales people.”
This theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the
following two postulates:
Postulate 1: Knowledge is Power.
Postulate 2: Time is Money.
As every engineer knows:
Power = Work / Time
Since Knowledge = Power
And Time = Money
Then Knowledge = Work / Money
Solving for Money, we get:
Money = Work / Knowledge.
Thus, as Knowledge approaches zero, Money approaches infinity, regardless of the
amount of work done.
Conclusion: The less you know, the more you make.
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Training the Inner Self
Training the Inner Self
Instruction: Learning through instruction consists mainly of hearing and reading. Some people say, ‘Instruction is wrong; let students find out everything for themselves by experiment’. That idea is nonsense. How can we say to a student? ‘Here are some copper, zinc, acid and wire. Now discover electric current! Geniuses like A. Volta, M. Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell took only about 200 years. Perhaps you can do it in an afternoon’. Clearly it would be impossible; he must have some instruction.
For a negative—‘Don’t do that!’—the instruction alone should be enough. Judo beginners are often told: ‘Do not try to prevent yourself from being thrown by putting your arm out on to the tatami. It is dangerous. You may dislocate your elbow’. In life a similar instruction would be: ‘Do not drive a car when you are drunk’. These instructions may be followed, or not followed, depending on the intelligence of the pupil and also on how much he respects the instructor. For many people, such warnings alone are not enough. ‘A hundred hearings are not like one seeing’. The instruction may have to be confirmed by other means of knowledge.
Observation: This is seeing what happens to others. If we see an elbow damaged in the dojo, or a drunken driver go into a tree, the instruction is confirmed.
Inference: We look at some tough but not too intelligent Judo men and see how many of them cannot straighten one of their elbows. Or we can read about the many police-court convictions for drunken driving. We infer that the instruction was not right.
Personal experience: If in spite of the instruction not to do so, observations of accidents to others and inference from the long-term effects, we still do these things, then we get personal experience. Our own elbows are dislocated, or we drive into trees.
It is sometimes said that ‘we must learn by personal experience alone’. But this cannot always be possible. If we get drunk, drive the car and crash into a tree, it is a personal experience. But often we shall learn nothing from it, because we shall be dead. Therefore, with negative things, personal experience is not necessary. It is usually undesirable. The most intelligent learn—from instruction alone—not to make mistakes. The less intelligent need observation and inference before they are convinced. The stupidly obstinate have to undergo a disaster before they understand, but quite often it is then too late.
My generation is very opposed to taking drugs, even though we drink tea and coffee which are mild drugs. Sometimes young people say to me: ‘It is unreasonable to condemn drugs, if you have never taken them yourself, because you do not know about them from personal experience. You say they have bad effects, but how do you know what the effects are? You have never taken them yourself, so you do not know what the experience is like’. Elderly people often do not know how to answer this argument and become silent. But I reply, ‘I do not have to jump into a cesspit to know what it would be like.’ Then usually the young people become silent, or else hurriedly change the subject.
So with negative things it is best to be able to accept instruction, without waiting for observation, inference and personal experience. We can learn this fact in the dojo.
But with positive things it is the reverse. Instruction is merely a starting point. It must be deepened by observation, inference and finally personal experience. There is always a danger that instructions will be too detailed so that the pupil follows them mechanically. Such a pupil may become technically expert, but he is simply like a machine. He can carry out his programme, but he cannot meet anything unexpected. The Budo schools knew about this danger. The teachers would give the main points but not all the details. The students had to work out the details themselves.
One of the ‘secret scrolls’ of the Shinno shintoryu13 school says: ‘My own teacher used to explain a technique to us only roughly and then tell me: “You have the root. Now you have to train relentlessly, crushing the bone and flesh, for a long time, never forgetting that the basis of our training is mental. Jujutsu is shinjutsu, or the art of the heart’.
Again and again these old traditions emphasize this: a Way or do is not simply a collection of tricks or a sequence of correct moves. There must be something living in it, which comes from a much deeper level than thinking: ‘Now I will do this. Now it is time to do that’.
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ep. 04 it’s never too late to learn about money with meera meyer, cfp
“STANDING FIRM IS A HUGE PART OF BEING A GREAT NEGOTIATOR. TRULY ACKNOWLEDGE THE VALUE YOU BRING TO THE TABLE.” – MEERA MEYER
PODCAST EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Founder of “Life, Money, Balance” Meera Meyer, CFP, corporate financial planner turned financial wellness coach, talks about taking control of the role money plays in your life and the importance of communicating your value. Two steps towards personal growth. Money is energy, and it is one of the most underrated forms of self-care.
She explains how understanding what you bring to the table, standing firm on what you want, and negotiating for it to take control of your financial future is one of the best things that you can do for yourself as an ambitious woman. To pay off debt and build wealth, you might have to have uncomfortable conversations. The truth is that women still make way less than their male peers. And, they are not scared to ask for that raise.
We go deeper into the disparity between working men and women, saving in your 20s, 30s, and 40s, how to start investing, managing emotions around your financial health, the best finance apps, budgeting, and more.
Money is a scary topic. Meera breaks it all down in an easy-to-understand way. It’s never too early, or too late, to take control of your finances and your life. Tune in for some great advice, and learn how to prepare for your future.
PODCAST GUEST//MEERA MEYER, CFP
Instagram: @lifemoneybalance / Website: lifemoneybalance.com
Acorns App/ Stash App / Robinhood App
Marcus by Goldman Sachs / Women & Money by Suze Orman / NPR “Planet Money” podcast
– LISTEN TO MEERA MEYER, CFP HERE –
Recovering fashion blogger and Founder of NYC-based creative consultancy, Hashtag Lifestyle.
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Eastern Western european facial attributes are often very different from those of Western Europeans. However , right after are essentially due to genetics and not ethnic influences.
Eastern The european union is a location of the world located east of Russia, north of Belgium and to the south of Canada. The region was inhabited by many people different ethnic communities throughout background, which include Celts, Greeks and Thracians.
Irrespective of these types of differences, you will still find certain common features that you’ll observe among most Eastern Europeans. One of the most essential is usually their à nous, which are typically https://www.crosswalk.com/family/singles/what-does-the-bible-say-about-dating.html extended and pointed in size. They also https://mailorderbride123.com/europe/albania/ experience narrow nostrils and greatly angled nose bones.
Another thing that distinguishes Asian Europeans is definitely their sight, which are generally almond-shaped with thick brows. They can also have a hooded physical appearance or always be deep-set.
They may also have a round forehead, that may be very distinct of East Europeans.
The eye color is typically brown to green. They may have a lot of eyelashes, which allows them to appeal to others conveniently.
The eyebrows are generally extremely thick and curled, and they are usually arched, instead of pointed like Western Europeans. They generally have a smaller confront and thinner lips, but they are generally very attractive.
Eastern Europeans are known for simply being very goal-oriented, and they really know what they want in life. They will for no reason back down from a deal with and they will usually work hard to obtain their desired goals.
In addition to their strong perception of own, they take the relationships really and be prepared to define what the course of the relationship will probably be early on. This is not to necktie you down, but to ensure that you will be clear about what you want away of your life along.
No matter of their ethnicity, they are simply always extremely sweet and kind toward their friends and family. They will invest a lot of effort to cause you to feel good about yourself, so they will deserve your reverence and honor.
Fortunately they are very clever and they have got a lot of things very own minds. Because of this they tend to have a high level of intelligence, making them really interesting for men.
If you’re looking for a female who is smart, intelligent, and beautiful, you should look at dating a great Eastern Euro. These women of all ages are ideal for marital relationship or just a significant date.
It could be very important to notify a girl what you like about her and as to why you think she has special. This can help her to understand you the become more enthusiastic about you.
You can do this by expressing things such as “your hair looks nice” or “I such as the way your eyes look”. They will love it and you’ll be able to get nearer to them.
In addition they like it at the time you show them the value of all their gifts and talents. It could be very important to generate her think appreciated, and she’ll be more than happy to reciprocate by making you the center of her community.
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A Group Ride is not a race. Behavior that is acceptable during a race may not be acceptable during a Group Ride. Understand and respect the difference between the two.
The majority of accidents are between two or more cyclists. You will probably injure at least one other rider if you cause a crash.
You have a responsibility to the other cyclists to ride safely.
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Knaamys (pro. names) of the 20th Century
By TRACEE SIOUX
The most hysterical thing about substitute teaching are the names of the kids.
Not the names themselves . . .
But, the reaction of the kids when you phonetically read their names.
They snicker. They talk to you like YOU’RE the stupid one for mispronouncing their names when you call roll.
It takes about everything I have not to say out loud, “Its not MY fault your mother doesn’t know how to spell. I read the word correctly.”
What on earth possessed the parents of the 20th Century to misspell and “cutesify” their baby’s names?
What on earth possessed me to do this to myself with the name Tracee Sioux? As a writer, its all well and good – memorable, interesting.
As a substitute teacher, it’s just annoying. I’m so over explaining it: where it came from, whether I’m a Native American, how to pronounce it. Seriously, I’m almost considering taking my husband’s nice, normal name so I can stop having the same conversation every single time I meet someone or introduce myself. Why did I think this would be an interesting conversation to have for the rest of my life? Only another 60 years to go.
Note to parents of 21st Century parents – if you want to name your kid Jennifer – just name her Jennifer and not Gwennipher. If you want to name your kid Simone try not to throw in a silent Y at the end.
Leave a ReplyWant to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!
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New Maki Machine by Biome (Sushi-making, Rice-washing and Noodle-making Machinery)
Biome supplies original sushi-making equipment, mainly from Suzumo Machinery, the pioneering Japanese company which developed the world’s first sushi robot. Biome’s equipment makes high quality sushi delicately, and assists skilled chefs in producing sushi more quickly. Biome also supplies machines for non-experts to produce great tasting sushi with ease. Biome offers equipment for rice washing, cooking, blending, miso dispenser, sake dispenser, towel warmer, shariben rice depositor, nigiri, maki-making equipment, maki cutters, and its patented sushi wrapping system.
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Last Modified: 19.09.2017
Attention! Basic administration knowledge is required to implement operations, described in this chapter. It is recommended to create a full Virtual Appliance backup prior to starting to implement these operations. Also, some settings may be "lifehacks" that are not documented by the BitrixVA/BitrixEnv developer. That is why, please be advised, knowledge of your actions is required.
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There are many different ways to brew coffee, each with its unique flavour profile and brewing method. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the most popular methods of brewing coffee and their key differences.
1. Drip Coffee
This is the most common brew method in North America. Water is poured into a reservoir and heated, and then it drips onto a bed of coffee grounds, passing through a paper or metal filter. Drip coffee is known for its simplicity and consistency, but the flavour profile can vary depending on the type of coffee beans used and the brewing time.
2. French Press
This method involves the immersion of coarsely ground coffee beans in hot water for several minutes before pressing the plunger down to separate the grounds from the liquid. French press coffee has a more robust flavour profile than drip coffee, with more oils and sediment in the cup.
Espresso is made by forcing hot water through finely-ground coffee beans using a high-pressure machine. Espresso has a concentrated flavour profile and is the foundation for many coffee drinks like cappuccinos and lattes.
This method involves pouring hot water over a bed of coffee grounds held in a paper or metal filter. The water is typically poured in a slow, circular motion to ensure even saturation and extraction of the grounds. Pour-over coffee has a lighter body and a more delicate flavour profile than other brewing methods.
AeroPress is a unique brewing method that involves the immersion of coffee grounds in hot water and then using a plunger to extract the liquid. The result is a concentrated coffee shot that can be used as the foundation for other coffee drinks or diluted with hot water for a milder cup.
6. Cold Brew
This method involves the immersion of coffee grounds in cold water for several hours, resulting in a smoother, less acidic cup of coffee. Cold brew coffee is often served over ice and is a popular choice during the hot summer months.
In conclusion, there are many different methods of brewing coffee, each with its unique flavour profile and brewing process. By experimenting with different brewing methods and coffee beans, you can discover your preferred flavour profile and brewing style. Whether you prefer a robust French press or a delicate pour-over, there is a coffee brewing method that is perfect for you.
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Occupational Therapy Assistant
Make a difference in your community by providing therapeutic modalities to your patients. Learn from seasoned instructors who actually work in the field.
Program OutlineView Outline
About The Program
With this 16-week diploma program, you will master numerous occupational therapy techniques catering to different types of clients. Given our small class sizes, you can receive the proper attention and guidance you need from our highly-skilled instructors. Even if you have other major priorities that you need to juggle, you can still take this program through evening and weekend courses.
Occupational Therapy Assistants administer rehabilitation treatments to patients under the direction of an Occupational Therapist. Work settings include hospitals, private rehabilitation clinics, rehabilitation centers, long-term care facilities, retirement homes, sports medicine clinics, community health care agencies, and other medical settings. Graduates of this program may also become certified as a Personal Training Specialist and pursue a career as a Personal Trainer providing one-on-one coaching or working in a fitness facility.
Some career and education options may require advanced degrees, further training or experience.
Employers Who Have Hired triOS Grads
- Medrehab Group Inc.
- Back to Normal Medical Centre
- Total Care Management
- Great Lakes Physiotherapy
*Employment Rate based on 2021 contactable triOS graduates employed in a related field within 12 months.
NOC Code: 3414/33109 - **Wage data rounded down to the nearest dollar. Average wage doesn't reflect the starting salary but represents the middle value between lowest to highest wages. Local (or regional) income may vary. Last updated in Dec 2022.
Is your goal to be able to work at various healthcare facilities? Do you want to help patients live a comfortable life? If you’re aiming to become a healthcare professional, then the Occupational Therapy Assistant program is just what you need to get started.
Learn therapeutic techniques for children, older individuals, and mental health patients; gain in-depth knowledge on communication disorders and group interventions. You will gain practical knowledge in the field to help you succeed in any given circumstance, while on the job.
The program also emphasizes the communication, interpersonal, and reflective practice skills required to become lifelong learners and effective members of the healthcare team.
Students enrolled in the program receive:
- Education from occupational therapists who work in the field;
- Free subscriptions to Microsoft Office and Windows.
Advanced Interpersonal and Communication Skills
OTA Therapeutic Techniques for Children
Group Intervention in Occupational Therapy
OTA Therapeutic Techniques in Mental Health
OTA Therapeutic Techniques for Older Adults
- High school graduation diploma, or Mature Student Status (for more information please refer to the Program Overview at the top of this page or speak to your Education Consultant)
- Physiotherapy Assistant diploma from triOS College or PCC/College of Applied Arts and Technology
Take a quick and easy quiz to find out more about yourself, your goals, and identify your strengths and social style. This quiz gives you suggestions for what career areas you might consider based on your likes and preferences. Give it a try now!
Going to triOS has been one of the best things I have ever done. It has helped me with my career so much. I graduated with distinction and got hired at my internship. Thank you to the fantastic teachers at triOS. If I can do it so can you!!
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Do you remember your first car? I guess nobody forgets the moment of excitement when they finally get their first vehicle, no matter how good or bad. That feeling of independence and being able to travel around by yourself mean a world to everybody.
Today you most likely drive something more advanced, but those memories will remain with you forever. Still, you are probably dreaming of something better, faster, more powerful. On the contrary, imagine how crazy it is that celebrities have so many expensive and excellent vehicles, most of which are only a part of the collection and have never been driven (sigh).
But have you ever thought about why then they choose limousines to take them to all those high-end events? Well, it’s not only because they look cool.
In its very essence, a limousine service has been in existence for about four centuries. They started as horse-drawn carriages, gilded in gold & pulled by only the finest animals. In 1902, the first automobile limousine was developed. It consisted of the two compartments – one in the back for the passengers, and the other in front for the chauffeur.
This frontal compartment was open on all sides except it had coverage for the protection of the driver from rain, snow and sun heat. The coverage resembled a raised hood of the cloaks shepherds in the Limousin province in France used to wear, and that’s where the name for the limousines come from.
As time passed by, motor vehicles were becoming more common. In present time, having a car is nothing unusual, what more it is a necessity. But, limousines and private chauffeur services as such have remained exclusive and extraordinary and we still associate them with the upper class.
So, what is that which makes limousines stand out from other vehicles?’
- Sophisticated appearance
What most people don’t know is that there is no such thing as a limo car type or a brand. This implies that any vehicle can, actually, be a limousine. There have been some attempts to make strange and unusual limousines, like the Tank Limo, the Stretch Harley Limo, or the 30-meters-long Limo, the longest car in the world. Luckily, those were just caprices of rich and idle people. The most usual limousines are long sedans, SUVs, stretch limos, and Hummers or party buses. Which to choose would depend on the number of passengers and the occasion, but an awesome ride is certainly promised with any of those.
The main difference between the limousine and a regular car is clear at first glance. Limousines have longer frame and wheelbase and have a partition between the driver’s compartment and the rear passenger compartment.
This partition usually contains a sliding glass window so that the conversation between passengers may be kept private from the chauffeur. Limos take the pedestal in the world of exclusive travel. It cannot get enough of classics, so they usually come in black or white colour. They have an attractive, spotless appearance and their wheels are shinier than your future.
- Luxurious interior
Not many people actually own limousines but they make a contract with limo services. Limousines are there to provide people with a cosy, pleasurable and extraordinary ride. It’s hard to decide which is more attractive with limos – their elegant exterior or their jaw-dropping interior. Highly durable premium leather seats come with all the little cushions at rights spots for comfortable seating, and with more than enough legroom for each of the passengers. For entertainment, there are flat TV screens, a sound system, Wi-Fi connection and built-in computers, usually hidden behind a sliding mechanism allowing for quick and easy access. No need to mention the beverage station – limos and sparkling wines go so well together.
Other luxuries might include:
- Heated seats,
- Interior with theme or materials matching any style,
- Cabin lighting illuminating in any colour and with multiple intensity levels, to add to the atmosphere,
- Aux Input, to connect your device straight to the stereo system and play the music of your choice,
- Video game slots,
- Tinted windows for privacy,
- Dancing floor with a pole for a crazy night out.
Conclusion: Limousines are a perfect combination of business and pleasure, relaxation and party.
- A professional service
Limo services are there to serve you and make sure that your event is perfect. You can ask for special decorations, drinks, music or a scenic drive around the city – everything is possible with a quality limo service.
You can make online and reservations in advance, and have the ability to choose your car. If you are arranging an airport pickup, a transportation service will monitor your flight schedule so they know exactly when to be there. Thanks to this, you won’t have to worry about your transportation even in the occurrence of flight delays. And the chauffeur is there to carry your luggage and accommodate any scheduling changes.
Limos can be fast and capable of offering a thrilling ride. Their drivers are trained professionals who handle well the vehicles, have all the necessary licenses and extended knowledge of roads and regulations. Yours is to arrange the itinerary and all those little luxuries you might need. When the car arrives, you just have to sit back and let them do the driving while you are fully enjoying your trip.
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May 29, 1988
It’s easy to sing when life is good. But what happens when circumstances take a turn for the worse? After being beaten and thrown into prison, the apostle Paul wrote, “For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.” Alistair Begg examines this great Christian paradox of rejoicing in suffering as we learn that with God there is no such thing as purposeless pain.
16As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants5 of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
19But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 20And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. 21They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” 22The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. 24Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,
Copyright © 2023, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.
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Drops to eliminate eye redness.
Due to the constant work with a computer and smartphones, a shortage of sleep, the impact of chemical and physical factors, such as smoke, dust, ultraviolet radiation, our eyes are experiencing a strong load, eye proteins are blushing.
According to Lion's research, a person looks like 5 years older than 5 years old. To combat inflamed eyes, Lion in September 2016 has released new drops for SMileWhiteye's eyes.
SmileWhiteye helps to create the effect of white proteins, as a result of which the eyes become attractive and brighter.
Potassium L-Aspartate 1G - Improves eye tissue breathing
Tetrahydrosoline hydrochloride 0.05G - reduces inflammation of the junction shell of the eye
Chloropheniramine vele 0.03g - suppresses the action of histamine, reduces eye irritation
Vitamin B5 (Pantotenol) 0.1g- enhances eye metabolism
Dikalia Glycyrrizinat 0.25G - eliminates eye inflammation
The concentration of active ingredients is higher than in other drops, so smilewhiteye drops are more efficiently removed red.
Recommendations for use: 1-3 drops in each eye. 3-6 times a day
Capacity of the bottle: 15 ml.
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4 Jan 2020
The Krefeld Zoo has reopened after a fire on New Year's Eve decimated its primate exhibit. Visitors mourned the community's loss but cherished the international support it has received.
2 Jan 2020
A zoo in the German city of Krefeld said "our worst fears have become reality" after a fire destroyed a primate sanctuary. Police said a drifting New Year sky lantern was be to blame for the tragedy.
1 Jan 2020
People across the world welcome the start of the new year with fireworks and parties.
17 Dec 2019
Every year, about 25 million Christmas trees are used to decorate German homes. Since 2018, a Berlin landscape gardener has been making trees available for rent, in order to avoid them being discarded after New Year's Eve.
1 Apr 2019
While the effects of Chinese New Year in early February played a part, the figures were a surprise for market analysts. They come amid a global slowdown and ongoing dispute with the US over trade tariffs.
1 Jan 2019
Nigeria's share their expectations for the New Year.
1 Jan 2019
Trade conflicts have put a stamp on 2018. There was no lack of threats voiced and punitive tariffs implemented. Is there any hope that the New Year will bring some improvement? DW's Andreas Becker looks for answers.
31 Dec 2017
Sydney hosts its annual fireworks spectacle to welcome in the New Year.
3 Jan 2017
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the killing of 39 people celebrating the New Year inside a fabled Istanbul nightclub, an act of terrorism that has become grimly familiar in Turkey as it fails to keep the violence in Syria from spilling into its cities.
2 Jan 2017
Islamic State claimed responsibility on Monday (January 2) for a New Year's Day mass shooting in a packed Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people, an attack carried out by a lone gunman who remains at large.
1 Jan 2017
Confetti rains down on a crowd estimated at 2 million as New York's Times Square welcomes in 2017.
1 Jan 2017
The New Year arrives with fireworks and light shows coordinated to musical programs in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
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In examining the ancient roles of the Haudenosaunee, both men and women are viewed as equal, but both are recognized as holding separate duties. Tying into the Haudenosaunee Creation Story, many know that the Sky Woman brought life to Turtle Island. Women today are believed to have a genetic connection to the Sky Woman, and still have the ability to bring life. This shaped the role of the women in the Haudenosaunee to be the agriculturalists, cultivators, nurturers and matriarchs.
On the other side of the coin, men are viewed as having strong voices and their physical being allows them to excel in anything physically challenging. This is derived from their natural inclination and ability to provide, protect and problem solve— making them adept Chiefs, warriors, constructors and hunters. While Haudenosaunee men may go to battle less frequently in our modern age, the need to provide, protect and problem solve continues. Many exercise prowess in Lacrosse, politics/activism, fishing and hunting.
In the not too distant past, fishing and hunting were main sources of not only protein, but also a source of useful materials used for clothing and tools. But today, with grocery stores, butcher shops, and restaurants, the relevancy of hunting for the Haudenosaunee has altered drastically, as it has changed from being an act of physical survival, to an act of preservation. In other words, hunting may still be done for survival purposes, but there is a much larger focus on sustaining a cultural practice, as well as adhering to a traditional diet like Healthy Roots. Healthy Roots is a 12 week health and wellness challenge which encourages the consumption of traditional Haudenosaunee foods, which includes wild meats such as deer, moose and rabbit. Those following the challenge rely solely on hunters in their families and social networks for these specific foods.
In the beliefs of the Haudenosaunee people, the connection to the earth is inherited from the creation story. In the story, people were not only formed from the flesh of the earth (clay), but were given a breath of life from Shonkwaia’ti:son (song-gwai-yah-deeh-so), the Creator of Our Bodies. This was the base construct of the understanding that people are a part of the earth, as well as physically connected to it by creation. However, not in the sense that people are made in the image of the Creator, but in the sense that the vegetation and wildlife are no better and no less than the people are.
This brought a deep respect for the animals. This respect was shown in honouring the lives of animals through offerings of tobacco after taking life, thankfulness in the Ohen:ton Karihwatekhwen, (oh-han-toh ga-leeh-wa-dek-kweh) the Opening Address, and by consuming or using the entire body of the animal. Teeth, bones, hooves, and hides were taken and used to make and decorate clothing or ceremonial regalia, while nearly every piece of meat was eaten or used for medicinal, or recreational purposes. Hunting was also used in rites of passage for a boy to enter manhood.
An old story depicting a young man’s first hunt explained that to be taught empathy and as a part of his rite of passage, the young man was asked by his father to track a deer for six months. During this process, the young man had to sustain himself, and was able to watch the buck he chose grow to maturity. Eventually the buck became so used to his presence, it wouldn’t flee upon seeing or hearing him. When it came time to kill the buck, the young man shed tears as he aimed his arrow. Shortly after killing the buck and taking the meat home, as he crunched the frozen grass under his moccasins, the young man’s sense of empathy was so heightened that he could hear each blade say “ow.”
This belief has continued on today that hunting does not revolve around violence, but rather, empathy and respect for life. As well, hunting is still believed to be a practice of ancestors and an exercise that allows a hunter to provide meat aligned with a traditional diet, and practice a cultural way of honouring the life taken.
Healthy Roots incorporates both the hunting and fishing roles of Haudenosaunee men, with the cultivating and agricultural roles of Haudenosaunee women to bring forth a core diet that is rooted in heritage. This diet allows participants to explore the aspects of a traditional Haudenosaunee diet, as well as enjoy the health benefits offered in each food.
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More than three months after the first Covid-19 vaccine was approved by Health Canada, hundreds of Six Nations and Mississaugas of the Credit members participated in community vaccine clinics last week.
Initial vaccine doses were prioritized for frontline workers and elders in long-term care facilities on Six Nations in December and early January. More people outside of healthcare settings are now getting the vaccine. A vaccine clinic at Emily C. General began operating on Mar. 1 after Six Nations recently procured 200 doses of the Moderna vaccine.
On Mar. 2, local health officials administered 154 doses of the vaccine to Six Nations community members.
In January, Six Nations Health Services said Canada had a vaccine shortage, resulting in the slow rollout of inoculations on Six Nations.
Off-reserve, only frontline healthcare workers and elders in long-term care homes have received the vaccine. Seniors and adults off-reserve are still waiting to receive their first dose, according to media reports.
Here on Six Nations, community members are eligible to receive the vaccine by registering online for the appointment-only dose administration at Emily C. General Elementary School.
“Emily C. General Elementary School was selected as the community vaccination site because it was one of the best locations for flow of traffic, adequate refrigeration (of the vaccine) and airflow quality, and other vaccine requirements as identified in Ontario’s ministry guidelines,” Six Nations of the Grand River elected council said in a press release. “For strict safety and protocol reasons, vaccine doses are stored off-site from the clinic with security in place.”
SNGR says the vaccine rollout has been a “tremendous success” and the booking and registration system has been effective that will continue to run smoothly in the months to come.
The clinic will administer vaccines as doses become available.
“All of Canada is currently struggling to procure vaccines, simply because the supply is not yet available to meet the demand,” SNGR stated.
Elected Chief Mark Hill said he will continue to press the province and feds for enough doses for Six Nations people.
“I will continue to stress to Canada and Ontario the need for a full community roll-out of vaccines to ensure that every Six Nations member who wants the vaccine can get it now. Our community is in a crisis and the vaccine is needed now.”
The vaccine consists of two shots and SNGR stressed that people are still vulnerable to Covid-19 infection between the administration of the first dose and second dose.
“The maximum level of immunity is achieved a few weeks after the second dose is administered,” SNGR stated. “This timing will vary according to the vaccine product.”
There are currently four approved Covid-19 vaccines in Canada, named after the companies that developed them: Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson and AstraZeneca.
Over the weekend, 444 MCFN members received their first dose of the Covid vaccine with another clinic planned for Mar. 12.
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Poltava is a real paradise for tourists with a passion for aviation and aeronautics. There are three unique profile museums in the city: the Aviation and Space Museum named after Y. Kondratyuk, the branch of the National Military History Museum of Ukraine - the Museum of Heavy Bomber Aviation and the Museum of Military History of the 13th Guards Dnepropetrovsk and Budapest Order of Suvorov division, the 2nd grade of the heavy bomber aviation division.
Thus, among many prominent figures, the world-known scientists and inventors in the aviation and astronautics industry were born in Poltava region. They studied and worked here. Among them there is the inventor of tuneless rocket weapon Alexander Zasyadko (1779-1837), Yuri Kondratyuk (1897-1941), who calculated the first known flight trajectory to the Moon. His calculations were used by the Americans in preparations to fly to the natural Earth’s satelite and by the inventor of the aviation back pack parachute Hlib Kotelnykov (1872-1944).
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Beginner’s Guide: How To Lose Weight
If you are overweight, male or female, and need an efficient yet effective method for losing weight, keep reading!
This article is intended for those who are overwhelmed by the amount of information that’s available on the internet, and just want the simple, time-tested, efficient yet effective method to losing weight.
By the end of this article, you will understand the basic principles of weight loss, as well as practices you can incorporate in your daily life regardless of your schedule and responsibilities.
It’s important to note that this is NOT a weight loss program with a pre-defined goal or deadline. We will never promote a program that claims to “lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks”. This form of weight loss is unhealthy, and is very rarely ever effective in keeping the weight off over a long period of time.
At UNALTERED, we believe nothing worth having comes easy. The road to a healthy weight is long and difficult – but the rewards will make it worth it one hundred times over.
Figure Out Your “Why”
Before starting on your weight loss journey, we recommend first figuring out your “why”.
Why do you want to lose weight?
There are countless possible responses to this question, mainly relating to the health benefits, or the improvements to your appearance.
It’s a given that weight loss comes with a reduced risk of disease, an increase in strength and endurance, and a more aesthetic physique.
However, we respectfully ask that you dig deeper than that.
Those who internalize a more emotional, passion-driven reason for exercising and dieting will have greater success in maintaining their habits, and thus see greater results.
Here are some great examples of a “why”:
- I want more energy to play with my kids, so I can tire less and give them the childhood I want for them.
- I want to improve my body composition so I can achieve improved mobility, which will allow me to reach my full performance potential in day-to-day life.
- I want to improve my health and reduce risk of disease, so I can worry less about the future and focus on enjoying the present.
Whether it involves a past event, a current situation, or a concern for the future, the more personal you can get, the better.
Consistently acknowledging the fire that fuels your daily habits will make it infinitely easier to maintain them.
Nutrition To Stay in a Caloric Deficit
If weight loss were to be broken down into a singular concept, it would be “calorie deficit”.
As the name implies, a calorie deficit is the state your body is in when you are burning more calories than you are intaking through food. In other words, you are utilizing more calories via daily activity than you are eating.
Although the math is simple, it is all the actions and habits you execute that will result in a calorie deficit. For example, you would maximize the calories you burn each day (via exercise) and minimize the calories consumed each day (via nutrition).
For this reason, fitness gurus and personal trainers recommend keeping count of every calorie and grams of carbs, proteins, and fats you are eating with each meal. This approach is definitely effective, and can lead to a better understanding of your typical eating habits.
However, many people already lack the time to prepare a nutrition plan, so keeping track of every meal in a nutrition log can become tedious and time-consuming.
Our recommendation is to not complicate your life by counting calories. Instead, educate yourself on whatever you typically consume so you are better prepared to make healthy choices with each meal.
Here are some pointers to keep in mind when selecting food options:
- Stay away from fat. It is not the enemy and is necessary for your body to a degree. However, even if you are shooting for 0 fat, you will always have enough in your diet as required.
- Prioritize protein to provide the necessary fuel for your muscles. You should be consuming 1g per pound of body weight. As a rule of thumb, a piece of meat – steak, chicken, fish, or pork – the size of your hand will be about 40g of protein. So, if you weigh 200 pounds, you aim to eat roughly 4 and half pieces of protein the size of your hand, per day.
- With each meal, have about 2 cups worth of vegetables. They are essential for acquiring the vitamins and minerals your body needs for basic metabolic functions, and are a clean add-on to a meal that helps keep you feeling satiated.
- Aim to consume only a single handful worth of carbohydrates with each meal. Ideally, this would be complex carbohydrates, such as potatoes, yams, whole-grain pasta and bread, and rice. Stay away from simple carbs which don’t fill you up and spike your blood sugar, such as pastries, white bread, ice cream, etc.
Again, the goal is to make healthy decisions with every meal you eat. Whether you’re at a restaurant celebrating, or cooking a meal at home, take portion sizes into account and try to maximize your protein intake over anything.
We also recommend drinking water every time you get a chance. For your metabolism to function efficiently, experts suggest drinking at least 64 ounces of water every day. On top of having 0 calories, studies have shown that drinking 16 ounces of water (1 water bottle) before each meal results in 30% more weight loss compared to other drinks such as soda or juice.
Perform Cardio To Maximize Calorie-Burning
Cardio training, also known as aerobic training, utilizes your cardiovascular system and converts stored carbs and fats into energy. It is imperative for improving your stamina and endurance.
If you find yourself out of breath from climbing stairs, or even from performing daily household tasks, training your cardiovascular system will allow you to perform with greater ease.
If you are new to fitness, we recommend finding a cardio exercise that you enjoy, not one that will burn the most calories possible in the shortest time. That way, you will feel less pressured to overwork yourself and prevent your chances of burning out.
Try out various activities, including jogging on a treadmill, going for a walk, hiking on a nature trail, cycling through a park, and so on. The best form of exercise is one that you enjoy and actually look forward to doing, at least three times per week.
You will see the greatest progress within the first few months of cardio training, when you are building the foundations of your cardiovascular system. When you feel you can handle more intensity, continue to challenge your body by setting goals to improve your time or distance. If you truly want to burn the most calories in the shortest amount of time, perform High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT for short.
Perform Strength Training To Tone Your Body
The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn. This is due to the metabolic reactions occurring in your muscles. Thus, the more muscle you build, the easier it becomes to burn more calories in your daily exercises.
In addition, performing cardio training alone will only result in weight loss from fat, but will not result in a toned body. What this means is you will be left with loose, untoned skin.
We recommend that everyone that wants to lose weight should be performing at least two 30-minute sessions of strength training each week. This will:
- Increase your strength and power output
- Reduce your chance of injury when performing daily tasks
- Tone your body to a more aesthetic physique
Because you cannot target a specific area of fat on your body, you should perform exercises that utilize all your muscles. A two-day split would involve two forms of workout: Upper body on the first day, and lower body on the second.
For a full guide on structuring a strength training routine, check out our article “Beginner’s Guide: How to Perform Strength Training to Lose Weight”.
Making a Plan That Works for You
The key concept to know when starting a fitness journey, is that there is no end.
Although you should be setting both short-term and long-term goals, health and wellness is achieved by building healthy habits that you carry out for life.
Therefore, the best fitness plan is the one that works for you. Find and perform exercises you enjoy doing, as well as recipes you love to eat, and staying fit will become second nature. You will be less likely to burn out, and much more likely to achieve the results you want.
Perform three days of cardio training and two days of strength training each week, with each session lasting at least 10 minutes.
For a full guide on scheduling a fitness program, read our article “How to Schedule a Fitness Program with A Busy Schedule”
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Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, has warned of the danger of artificial intelligence, saying that it is the biggest existential threat facing humanity.
Musk who was speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Aeronautics and Astronautics department’s Centennial Symposium said that in developing artificial intelligence (AI) “we are summoning the demon.”
Worst of all, he wants “regulatory oversight.” So those who can’t stop or fix the machine will spy on the rest of us instead?
All this just in time for Hallowe’en too.
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Nematode worms were genetically engineered with a transgene that causes fluorescence, more so when they were moved to higher temperatures. But then, when the worms were moved back to lower temperatures, the fluorescence continued as, researchers think, a genetic memory:
Last year, researchers discovered that these kinds of environmental genetic changes can be passed down for a whopping 14 generations in an animal – the largest span ever observed in a creature, in this case being a dynasty of C. elegans nematodes (roundworms). Signe Dean, “Scientists Have Observed Epigenetic Memories Being Passed Down For 14 Generations” at ScienceAlert
This was the longest span of generations to retain an environment change. One researcher suggested ,
“Worms are very short-lived, so perhaps they are transmitting memories of past conditions to help their descendants predict what their environment might be like in the future,” added co-researcher Tanya Vavouri from the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute in Spain. Signe Dean, “Scientists Have Observed Epigenetic Memories Being Passed Down For 14 Generations” at ScienceAlert
If we accumulate precise information as to the method of epigenetic transmission, we will have the material for a serious theory of epigenetics in evolution.
That is how Darwinism fades. Not by knowing less about evolution but by knowing more.
Hat tip: Philip Cunningham
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See also: Researchers: Nicotine Effects Persist Through Several Generations Of Mice,Via Sperm
Epigenetic change: Lamarck, wake up, you’re wanted in the conference room!
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Like Michael Behe, I read a book by another Michael. Behe and I had the same reaction: Why haven’t we heard any of this stuff before? The answer is that questioning Darwinian orthodoxy essentially represents committing suicide in academia — an institution that promotes tolerance, diversity, free thought, and skepticism as the highest virtues — but which punishes any deviation from Darwinian dogma with draconian suppression, no matter how logical or evidential the challenges might be.
Michael Denton, in his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, challenged that dogma, with no theological or philosophical precommitment as far as I can tell. I would encourage everyone with intellectual curiosity to read that book.
The following I find to be one of his most revealing observations concerning the reality of life:
To grasp the reality of life as it has been revealed by molecular biology, we must magnify a cell a thousand million times until it is twenty kilometers in diameter, so each atom in it would be the size of a tennis ball, and resembles a giant airship large enough to cover a great city like London or New York. What we would then see would be an object of unparalleled complexity and adaptive design. On the surface of the cell we would see millions of openings, like the portholes of a vast spaceship, opening and closing to allow a continual stream of materials to flow in and out. If we were to enter one of these openings we would find ourselves in a world of supreme technology and bewildering complexity. We would see endless highly organized corridors and conduits branching in every direction away from the perimeter of the cell, some leading to the central memory bank in the nucleus and others to assembly plants and processing units. The nucleus itself would be a vast spherical chamber more than a kilometer in diameter, resembling a geodesic dome inside of which we would see, all neatly stacked together in ordered arrays, the miles of coiled chains of the DNA molecules. A huge range of products and raw materials would shuttle along all the manifold conduits in a highly ordered fashion to and from all the various assembly plants in the outer regions of the cell.
We would wonder at the level of control implicit in the movement of so many objects down so many seemingly endless conduits, all in perfect unison. We would see all around us, in every direction we looked, all sorts of robot-like machines… We would see that nearly every feature of our own advanced machines had its analogue in the cell: artificial languages and their decoding systems, memory banks for information storage and retrieval, elegant control systems regulating the automated assembly of components, error fail-safe and proof-reading devices used for quality control, assembly processes involving the principle of prefabrication and modular construction… However, it would be a factory which would have one capacity not equaled in any of our own most advanced machines, for it would be capable of replicating its entire structure within a matter of a few hours…
Unlike our own pseudo-automated assembly plants, where external controls are being continually applied, the cell’s manufacturing capability is entirely self-regulated…
[Denton, Michael, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Adler, 1986, pp. 327 – 331.]
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For those of you who live in the Seattle area (which now includes me), the “Seattle Analytic Philosophy Club” are hosting an event on the 28th of November from 7pm till 9pm in Lake Hills Library (15590 Lake Hills Blvd, Bellevue, WA). Here’s the event description from the website:
Is there a demarcation between science and pseudoscience? This is the “demarcation problem” made famous by Karl Popper. Popper’s thesis was that falsifiability differentiated science from pseudoscience. However, although Popper’s views are still popular among some scientists, they are widely rejected by philosophers. In fact, most philosophers believe that it is very difficult to find a strict demarcation between science and pseudoscience. This essay explains, in layman’s terms, why this is the case.
There is a famous paper called “The Demise of the Demarcation Problem” (unfortunately not available online), by Larry Laudan. Here’s a summary some of Laudan’s arguments (the link is a response to a recent criticism of Laudan by Robert Pennock).
Laudan argued that since philosophers have been unable to find necessary AND sufficient conditions to demarcate science from pseudoscience, the demarcation problem should be abandoned and we should no longer speak of areas as “unscientific” or “pseudoscience.” Rather, we should just talk about, for example, well-founded and well-confirmed knowledge. To Laudan, creationism is not pseudoscience, it is just bad science.
But there is a practical problem here. It is not unconstitutional to teach bad science (this doesn’t violate the Establishment clause). The legal cases against creationism and intelligent design (ID) do depend on demarcation (this is why Laudan, who is definitely no friend of creationism and ID, is often quoted approvingly by defenders of creationism and ID). How did the judges in the McLean vs Arkansas creationism trial and Kitzmiller vs Dover intelligent design trial decide what science was? They largely relied on the testimony of philosophers (Michael Ruse in the Arkansas trial, Robert Pennock in the Dover trial). But some philosophers contend that the philosophical testimony given in these trials was based on questionable and outdated philosophy of science (in other words, the court was given the incorrect impression that philosophers can readily demarcate science from pseudoscience), and the resulting judicial opinions are based on bad philosophy. Larry Laudan writes:
But let us be clear about what is at stake. In setting out in the McLean Opinion to characterize the “essential” nature of science, Judge Overton was explicitly venturing into philosophical terrain. His obiter dicta are about as remote from well-founded opinion in the philosophy of science as Creationism is from respectable geology. It simply will not do for the defenders of science to invoke philosophy of science when it suits them (e.g., their much-loved principle of falsifiability comes directly from the philosopher Karl Popper) and to dismiss it as “arcane” and “remote” when it does not. However noble the motivation, bad philosophy makes for bad law.
Larry Laudan, “Science at the Bar—Causes for Concern.”
Bradley Monton, “Is Intelligent Design Science? Dissecting the Dover Decision.”
Now some philosophers would say that what demarcates science is METHODOLOGICAL NATURALISM (MN). Per Robert Pennock:
Ontological Naturalism should be distinguished from the more common contemporary view, which is known as methodological naturalism. The methodological naturalist does not make a commitment directly to a picture of what exists in the world, but rather to a set of methods as a reliable way to find out about the world – typically the methods of the natural sciences, and perhaps extensions that are continuous with them – and indirectly to what those methods discover. The principle of MN demands that scientists appeal exclusively to natural causes and mechanisms. MN is conceived of as an intrinsic and self-imposed limitation of science, as something that is part and parcel of the scientific enterprise by definition.
Now while it may be fine to adopt MN as an operating principle because it has worked so well in past (as philosophers say, a posteriori), a posteriori MN does not commit one to always using MN. On the other hand, if one adopts MN as part of the definition of science (as philosophers say, a priori), this presents a few problems:
Maarten Boudry, Stefaan Blancke, Johan Braeckman, “How not to attack Intelligent Design Creationism: Philosophical misconceptions about Methodological Naturalism.”
The famous philosopher Thomas Nagel addresses the issue of methodological naturalism (among other issues) in his recent controversial article suggesting that Intelligent Design might be taught in public schools.
If you don’t think ID is science, how would you respond to Nagel?
Nagel notes that if one says that ID cannot be part of science by definition, this notion is not itself scientifically grounded, and it is hard to say how different this is than holding a religious belief. And if prior religious beliefs could undermine science by leading to conclusions like ID, why does MN not undermine conclusions based upon its assumption?
Unfortunately it also seems to undermine the scientific status of the rejection of ID. Those who would not take any amount of evidence against evolutionary theory as evidence for ID, like those who would not take evidence against naturalistic explanations of spooky manifestations as evidence for the presence of a ghost, seem to be assuming that ID is not a possibility. What is the status of that assumption? Is it scientifically grounded? It may not be a matter of faith or ecclesiastical authority, but it does seem to be a basic, ungrounded assumption about how the world works, essentially a kind of naturalism. If it operates as an empirically ungrounded boundary on the range of possibilities that can be considered in seeking explanations of what we can observe, why does that not undermine the scientific status of the theories that depend on it, just as much as a somewhat different assumption about the antecedent possibilities?
It is often said that this particular set of boundaries is just part of the definition of science. I suspect that this simply reflects the confusion pointed out earlier: the assumption that there cannot be a scientific argument for the presence of a cause that is not itself governed by scientific laws.
Now of course, one could just argue that ID is bad science, but as previously noted, it is not unconstitutional to teach bad science. Nagel writes:
The denier that ID is science faces the following dilemma. Either he admits that the intervention of such a designer is possible, or he does not. If he does not, he must explain why that belief is more scientific than the belief that a designer is possible. If on the other hand he believes that a designer is possible, then he can argue that the evidence is overwhelmingly against the actions of such a designer, but he cannot say that someone who offers evidence on the other side is doing something of a fundamentally different kind. All he can say about that person is that he is scientifically mistaken.
There is a recent attack on Laudan’s views from Robert Pennock (the primary philosophy witness for the plaintiff in the Dover case). This paper has generated controversy, including a complaint from Laudan, for its alleged unprofessional tone. Unfortunately, this paper is not available online, but here is the abstract.
If Laudan’s view were indeed the norm in philosophy of science, then it is little wonder that some say philosophy is irrelevant to any matters of practical consequence. Is philosophy going to be so removed from the realities of the world that it has nothing of value to say even on topics that ostensibly are its core concerns? It would be a sad commentary on our profession if philosophers could not recognize the difference between real science and a sectarian religious view masquerading as science. When squinting philosophers like Laudan, Quinn and their imitators such as Monton and George purport that there is no way to distinguish between science and pseudoscience or religion they bring to mind Hume’s observation that “Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.” Unfortunately, in giving succor, inadvertently or not, to creation-science and now to ID, such philosophers compound the error, making the ridiculous dangerous.
If there is time, we will also discuss the status of the “soft” sciences like psychology and sociology, as well as areas that may be on the borderline of science, such as string theory, evolutionary psychology, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
This slideshow is worthwhile to review as it presents a different view of demarcation. Here is a lecture by the slideshow author (who has 2 PhDs in both evolutionary biology and philosophy).
I’ve provided quite a few links for those of you with a substantial interest in the issue. If you wanted to just read up quickly on the topic, I would recommend the first “Is Astrology Science” link and the slideshow. I would also recommend the Nagel article which is fairly long (but not technical) but presents a significant challenge if you think that intelligent design has no place in public education on the basis of ID not being science.
This promises to be an interesting event. Casey Luskin and myself (Jonathan McLatchie) intend to be there, and it would be good to meet other ID proponents in the area.
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Eph 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Patriarchy has great appeal. It appeals to pastors, to many men and women who profess to be Christians, to counselors and others. Obviously it does have this appeal because so many churches embrace it.
Patriarchy is the teaching/philosophy that men are superior to women by nature. That God has created men and women with the intent that men are to rule over women. Men are in charge. In marriages. In local churches. And if you are a theonomist type, in government and society. It necessarily needs to be so because women are inferior to men in their very essence. More prone to temptation. Weaker. And with an evil bent of being a Jezebel to tempt righteous men to sin. Women are constructed to bear children, be mothers, workers at home, and for the most part leave the real stuff to their hubby.
Now, as in most any kind of false teaching, there are elements of truth in all this, right? Men and women ARE different. Women, generally speaking, are smaller and physically weaker than men. Women are the mothers of our children. And, like men, women are born into this world as sinners. Many erroneous false teachings we see today try to get around all these things by insisting that men and women really are not different at all. Yeah, right.
But what IS the appeal of patriarchy? I can tell you. Patriarchy is EASY. Patriarchy removes the “messes” we face in life. For instance, let’s say a husband and wife come to a pastor for counseling. They are butting heads over some issue. Solution? Well, if the pastor adheres to patriarchy, eazee peezee. “Wife, do what your husband says. The problem here only exists, wife, because you are not obeying your husband. You need to repent and submit.” Understand?
Patriarchy even protects pastors and church members from having to get their hands all dirty by getting mixed up in some nasty, abusive marriage. No need to stand for the victim against a wicked spouse. No need to pay a price for standing against evil. Nope. All that needs to happen to solve the problem is for the wife to submit. Stay in the abuse like a good suffering Christian saint, and submit. In fact, her failure to submit is regarded as a root cause of the abuse. Pushing his buttons, you know.
Patriarchy is easy and therefore it is alluring. As a pastor, I have had many husbands and wives come to me for advice in regard to some conflict they are having. It is particularly difficult when you pastor a small church because these “counselees” are also most likely your good friends. Over the years I have lived with the fear of losing my friends over things like this. I don’t like it. I sometimes envy the professional counselor who doesn’t even know his/her clients, gives them 50 minutes and when the timer rings, session over, invoice send in the mail. But then, I am digressing.
Patriarchy makes counseling a no-brainer. And believe me, there are a lot of men standing in pulpits who are eminently qualified for such mindless “ministry.” Wive, it’s on you. Submit. Obey. Let your husband lead. Problem solved.
But we know the problem isn’t solved, is it? Life is far more complicated than that. Many times the answer to a conflict is for the husband to let the wife lead. Why? Because she happens to be, for instance, the one who is most gifted to maintain the finances. Or in another case the husband is the most qualified, because of his particular makeup, to deal with a child-rearing issue. And then, of course, there is the whole evil abuser scenario. Sides must be taken. The evildoer must be confronted and put out. Enemies are made. Separation, divorce, and the courtroom come into play. Why, a church might even have to support the victim and her children financially.
And then there is the whole matter of having to re-examine our long-standing traditions that just may turn out to be the word of man instead of the Word of God. Take those two passages quoted at the top of this article for instance. How do we interpret and apply both of them in light of the other? Wives submit, and yet there is this equality business in Christ that seems to fog up the supposed clarity of patriarchy, you see. Hmmmm.
No, can’t have all that. Just give me that good old- time patriarchy. Now where is my bowl of hand-washing water?
no one down here
more hurtful yet is when the man is believed over the woman in every situation for no apparent reason, leaving the woman to speculate if it’s this same gender bias.
NODH – Very true. If you compare the Pharisees and their system with what goes on in these churches today, you will see an incredible number of parallels. The Pharisees oppressed the widows and orphans. There was an obvious male cult culture that oppressed women. Think of the account of the woman taken in adultery being dragged before Jesus to see what He would do. Where was the man? They wanted to stone her, but the man? That is what is going on in churches in our day. Same thing. No matter what, the man is believed. And when you have that kind of thing, you can know that it is a false church which Jesus has nothing to do with.
A young mom kept telling my husband (her pastor) that they needed marriage counseling and his reply every time was, “Just submit to your husband and things will be okay.” (Her husband was one of our elders.) I stood by silently because of course, I had no voice, and had to support my husband in all he said. Since I could not support, I chose silence. I need to go to her and ask her forgiveness for my silence which enabled her husband to continue to hit her, something I found out after my husband was removed as pastor and the church closed.
Jeff, would you be so kind as to explore the various meanings of the word “submit” in the NT? I did my own word study but I’m no Greek scholar. I did see that the word translated “submit” has different Greek words when used in terms of wives v slaves. Unfortunately, I think the “wife” word is too often understood as the “slave” word.
Anonymous – Thank you for sharing part of your story. If you ever want someone to listen to the whole thing I would be glad to ([email protected]).
Here is what I have found in respect to word studies on “submit.” The answer is not to be found there. Rather, we have to look at the context of these scriptures such as Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 2-3. And first and foremost, we must understand that in a Christian marriage, the wife’s submission is ALWAYS in the context of a godly, loving husband who is truly following the Lord. If the husband is not such a person, then this entire scenario does not apply. After all, what is the church to do with a man who claims to be a Christian but he abuses his wife? 1 Cor 5 tells us – he is to be put out of the church. Handed over to Satan. Are we to believe that his wife must continue to submit to him? Of course not.
Peter, in 1 Peter 2-3, says some things that are often twisted for the benefit of the abuser. No matter how evil he is, she must submit to him. Wrong! Peter is dealing with scenarios which existed in his lifetime. 1) A Christian living under an evil Caesar, 2) A slave with an evil master, 3) a Christian wife with an evil husband. Now, ask yourself, what were the choices such people had in those days? Rebel against Caesar? A slave tells his master to take a hike? A wife tells her husband to get lost? I don’t think so. So how, the question is, do you handle situations from which there is no escape? Peter tells us. Be godly. Work hard. Honor the king.
But what about situations, as in our day, when you CAN get free of the abuse? When you CAN take action? The police can be called. An abused wife can (when circumstances permit) leave. Yes, there are times today when we are “stuck” at least for a time. And there ARE people in this world in other countries and cultures who are still very much in the same situations as in Peter’s day. But to tell abuse victims that they are required by the Lord to remain in the abuse, to remain with the wicked employer, to never speak against the evil King, is ridiculous. And yet this so often is how Scripture is twisted and victims are further oppressed in their churches.
It seems as if in general there is a complete absence of compassion in those who speak so callously. Then there are those who claim to be against demoralization, abuse (in any form) and disloyalty but are silent in the face of circumstances that require action. I appreciate your comment Anonymous and hope that others will take action. As one who was told just to wait it out by some and to seek refuge by others I know there is an awakening in the hearts of those who choose truth over tradition. All lives matter.
Using your definition of patriarchy, “Patriarchy is the teaching/philosophy that men are superior to women by nature” – it utterly amazes me that women sign up for and choose to be a part of the movement. I’m not completely ignorant of it all… I had to live in the movement. It was the only church-related anything that the abuser-ex would allow us to be a part of. It fit the lifestyle the abuser wanted, where wife and children basically had to worship him, and were not allowed to question anything. I left the abuse before the largest patriarchy cult leader fell from favor a few years ago; but I always felt sorry for the women in the movement, largely because I was wondering how many were being abused like I was.
Riley – I think that women get drawn into patriarchy just like so many genuine Christians do. A real Christian wants to serve the Lord. And if you are raised being taught that these human traditions are in fact God’s Word, then you are willing to make any sacrifice to obey Him. The thing is evil and it is incredibly deceptive. Satan knows how to counterfeit. I think that once we wake up and realize that we have been taught lies paraded as Scripture, we all tend to kick ourselves a bit for being so gullible. But then, that is the nature of evil. A seducing lie.
I wonder sometimes, if the ‘works’ portion of religious groups (like patriarchy) gives people some form of accomplishment, or some level or comfort? So they check the boxes that some man says they need to check (in this case obeying/submitting, following the so-called correct form of counseling, supporting the abusers, shunning the victims, etc.).
And I appreciate what you said about being raised to think that human traditions are in fact God’s Word, and then making a sacrifice to follow that. (Sadly they’ve never been allowed to question tradition, or man’s word. Then if someone does wake up and realize the lies, as you’ve said, it’s easy to feel guilty over being so gullible.)
no one down here
There is another principle at play, which I feel is the strongest argument. God will always defend His righteousness. It may not be immediately (Why do the heathen rage… why do they prosper… I am confused, God… then I remember their end… no confusion. God’s righteousness will prevail.)
When you have a “Christian” man who is abusing someone … God’s name is defamed. This is blasphemy against Holy God. The man claims God in public and in private, but in private consorts with demons. The man claims Christ, but has no love toward the family. The man shows the evidence of being the Proverbs fool. Railing, angry, refusing to control the spirit, arrogant…
God will come to the rescue of His sheep who are being oppressed by a wicked, blasphemer. Again, it may not be immediately … Judgement might be slow, or it might be swift. It might be total, or it might seem partial. But, no matter what, God will defend His name. Reference a huge percentage of the Psalms. Psalm 18 really hit me hard when I understood the truth of what God does for the sake of his righteousness. I am God’s child… He looks at me and sees the righteousness of Christ. There was someone oppressing me who claimed the name of Christ. The vileness of the oppression was so deep and the true nature of the man so insidious, the oppression could be called nothing but blasphemy against Yahweh. In faith, the call of a child reaches the Father; the Father comes down in righteous indignation and rescues the child who has no other hope.
Patriarchy is a monster that cannot be satiated. No matter how many rules that are made, there are always more rules to follow. and most of these rules are for women based on the very narrow role of wife, mother, homebody. From there the rules cover just about every area of a woman’s life, dress, how to keep home, how to raise the kids, the amount of education restricted to the very private things and all of them with the caveat…you will only be pleasing to God if you do these things.
And now the practice of spanking “disobedeint” wives is growing ????????? I shudder to think what rules will come next.
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Recently the company has told that it has completed the structure of Talon-A test vehicle. This is known as TA-0. space.com’s Report According to the company has told that after completing the separation testing of TA-0, the company will start work on the flight of its first hypersonic test vehicle. According to Stratolaunch, the company has also started manufacturing a third vehicle, the TA-2. This is the first reusable hypersonic test vehicle.
The company is said to be conducting the first drop test with the Roc carrier aircraft and the Talon-A earlier this year. Now it is likely that by the year 2023 the company will achieve full operational capacity. Stratolaunch was founded in 2011 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. It was then identified as a satellite midair launcher. Although the company completed its first test flight after Paul Allen died of cancer in 2019. In October 2019, it found new owners who envision a hypersonic vehicle.
Hypersonic vehicle refers to aircraft that travel faster than the speed of sound. Along with America, China and Russia are also focusing on such high-speed systems. It is believed that in the coming years, some big discoveries regarding hypersonic aircraft may come to the fore. If their commercial use is possible, then the journey from one country to another will be completed in a very short time.
Gadgets 360 for the latest tech news, smartphone reviews and exclusive offers on popular mobiles Android Download the app and visit us Google News Follow up on
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news agency PTI AccordingInaugurating the portal, Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has said that Sanchar Saathi Portal Through this, people will be able to block, track and verify the authenticity of a used device before buying it. He said, “The first step of the Sanchar Saathi portal is the CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register). If you lose your mobile phone, you can go to this portal. Some ID verification, undertaking will be required and soon after that the portal Will start liaising with law enforcement agencies and telecom providers to block the lost mobile phone.”
The Union Minister said that Sanchar Saathi has a ‘Know your mobile’ feature, which will help users verify the genuineness of old mobile phones before buying them.
Not only this, the report says that when asked about the measures being taken by the government to check frauds being done through calls on WhatsApp, the Union Minister said that the Meta-owned app will track any mobile phone involved in fraudulent activities. Has agreed to deactivate the services linked to the phone number.
He said that 36 lakh mobile connections have been disconnected for fraud and also their WhatsApp accounts have been blocked.
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Community-Based Programs—Family Health Centers at NYU Langone
Family Health Centers at NYU Langone’s Community-Based Programs provide social, educational, and emotional support for families, children, and older adults.
From nutrition programs for women who are pregnant to adult day care programs for older adults, our Community-Based Programs aim to meet the needs of the entire family. Services are available in multiple languages.
Older Adult and Caregiver Services
We offer a social adult day care program for older adults with cognitive or physical impairments, and support for caregivers. Call 347-377-5471 for more information.
Our main location is the Family Support Center at 6025 Sixth Avenue in Brooklyn. Services and programs are also available at Family Health Centers at NYU Langone locations and other sites throughout Brooklyn.
We focus on five areas of service:
- early childhood services
- youth and adolescent services
- community development
- family strengthening services
- older adult services
For more information on any services provided through our Community-Based Programs, please call 718-630-7171.
Early Childhood Services
Our Early Childhood Services help prepare children for school and support parents and caregivers in building stable and caring relationships with their children.
Our services include the following programs:
Early Childhood Centers
We operate four full-day, year-round early childhood centers for children. Our teachers and caregivers create supportive, stimulating, and enriching environments. Locations include:
- Magical Years Early Childhood Center: 220 60th Street, Brooklyn NY, 11220; 718-439-0450
- Seventh Avenue Preschool: 4419 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11220; 347-377-5160
- Warren Street Center for Children and Families: 343 Warren Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201; 718-237-9578
- 14th Street Preschool: 199 14th Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11215; 347-377-5026
We also spearhead the Sunset Park Early Learning Network, which aims to expand the capacity of early childhood services in the community and improve the quality of services to ensure that all children enter kindergarten ready to learn. The ELN offers group professional development, on-site coaching and child development associate credentialing for day care centers, family childcare providers, and home visitors as well as family, friend, and neighbor caregivers. For more information, please call 917-921-9622.
Support for Women, Infants, and Children
Access to food and healthcare resources, as well as breastfeeding support, is available through the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program. To learn more, please call 718-630-7161.
We also operate the Family Child Care Network (FCCN), providing subsidized childcare slots as well as additional resources to enhance the learning environment of family child care from birth until age 3. The FCCN works together with providers and families to provide the highest quality care for our communities’ children. For more information, please call 718-630-7150.
Our family literacy programs support parents in their role as their child’s first teacher.
The Reach Out and Read early literacy program encourages parents to read aloud to their children. These language-rich interactions help stimulate brain development in young children.
Sunset Park ParentChild+ is an early literacy, school readiness, and parenting program that encourages parents to talk, read, and play with their young children to support school readiness. A companion program, ParentChild+ Family Child Care, supports home-based childcare providers in their role of helping young children prepare for school.
VROOM provides tips for caregivers of young children on everyday activities that support child development. Caregivers can receive VROOM tips via direct texts and the free VROOM app.
For more information on Family Literacy programs, please call 347-377-4185.
The Healthy Families Program is a home visiting program for pregnant women and new parents that supports positive parent–child bonding and relationships. Programming promotes child and family health, development, and safety. It also helps build early literacy and school readiness skills for children. For more information, please call 347-377-5093 or 347-573-1574.
HealthySteps is a pediatric primary care program that promotes the health, wellbeing, and school readiness of babies and toddlers. The HealthySteps Specialist, a child development expert, addresses common and complex concerns, such as feeding, behavior, sleep, attachment, maternal depression, access to social supports beyond healthcare, and adapting to life with a baby or young child. For more information, please call 646-735-1213.
The Video Interaction Project (VIP) provides parenting support sessions that occur during pediatric well-child visits for babies 0-3 years. VIP offers books, toys, video-recordings, and expert advice to help children learn and grow. For more information, please call 718-630-7171.
Youth and Adolescent Services
Through Project Reach Youth, we provide teenagers and young adults with the support they need to be healthy and safe, reach educational and career goals, develop new skills, and prepare for adulthood.
High School Equivalency Prep Program
The Basic Education, Pre-High School Equivalency (HSE), and HSE Preparation Program provides education, guidance, and support for people age 17 and a half and older who have not completed high school. Classes, tutoring, counseling, and workshops help participants successfully complete the High School Equivalency Exam and prepare for college and a career.
For more information on young adult education programs, please call 718-768-0778.
Project SAFE Program
Project SAFE prevents unintended pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS through evidence-based interventions within a youth development framework, building upon the existing strengths of young people. The program provides youth ages 10 to 19 with support to avoid risky behaviors, develop to their full potential, and become agents of change in their communities. The program model includes evidence-based sexual health workshops, peer-led health education groups and community events, and sexual health services designed to meet the unique needs of adolescents. For more information on the Project SAFE Program, please call 718-768-0778.
The Project SAFE Teen Health Center, based at the Park Slope Family Health Center at NYU Langone, serves youth between the ages of 13 and 20. Birth control, emergency contraception, gynecological exams, and testing for pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and HIV are provided. Health education and counseling are also available. For more information on the Project SAFE Teen Health Center, please call 347-880-8042.
Project TRACK is an afterschool program that provides high school students with the resources and opportunities they need to successfully complete high school and transition into college and career. Services include case management, college advisement, college trips, homework help, tutoring, community service opportunities, and enrichment activities including cooking, the arts, and sports. For more information, please call 718-832-4281.
Community Development Programs
Our community development programs provide people with the skills they need to effect change in their own lives and in the neighborhoods where they live. This is done through the following programs:
Adult Education and Workforce Development
The Community Empowerment Program provides English language instruction, high school equivalency and basic education classes. The program also offers job trainings focused on the health care and early childhood sectors, career counselingm and other workforce readiness supports. For more information, please call 718-630-7150.
Community Engagement and Volunteerism
We work with the AmeriCorps National Service program to help place community service volunteers in stipend-paid, full-time, full-year service opportunities. Volunteers work at Family Health Centers at NYU Langone locations, as well as other partnering agencies. For more information, please call 718-630-7164. To apply, please visit:
Family Strengthening Services
Family Support Services provide supportive counseling and case management services. We help people apply for public benefits, address immediate needs such as food insecurity and provide referrals to educational, health, legal, housing, and supportive programs best suited to our clients’ needs. Family support counselors speak multiple languages and are available for walk-in appointments. For more information, please call 718-630-7186.
Our Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program provides nutrition education, supplemental foods, healthcare referrals, and breastfeeding support to pregnant women, infants, and children up to 5 years of age. For more information, please call 718-630-7161.
Greenlight offers parent education workshops on healthy eating behaviors for children starting at age two months. For more information, please call 718-210-1030.
The Family Health Centers is also home to a client-choice food pantry, The Table, which provides emergency food to thousands of people each month. The strategic location of emergency food service at the FHC enables participants to be connected to a continuum of wrap-around services, including access to SNAP food stamps and other benefits that will ensure long-term food security and support the health, stability, and self-sufficiency of the entire family. For more information, please call347-377-4091.
Older Adult Services
Our extensive continuum of Services for Older Adults is here to help support our aging neighbors and their caregivers in the Sunset Park and Bay Ridge neighborhoods. These services are a part of the Family Health Centers’ commitment to helping community members stay socially connected, healthy, and active as they age in place.
Older Adult Centers
We operate two Older Adult Centers (also known as Senior Centers) available to anyone in New York City over the age of 60, providing daily recreational, educational, and health promotion activities as well as a hot and nutritious lunch. Supportive counseling, case assistance, yoga instruction, computer classes, field trips, arts and crafts, and a variety of other activities are offered each month. Please call the Centers directly for more information:
- Shore Hill Older Adult Center at 9000 Shore Road; 718-630-7588
- Sunset Park Older Adult Center at 4520 4th Avenue; 718-210-1050
Social Adult Day Services and Caregiver Support
Located in Bay Ridge, our Seniors in Touch social adult day program provides social, recreational, and therapeutic activities to older adults living with cognitive or physical impairments. Our program enhances the overall quality of life, wellbeing, and daily functioning of our participants, while providing peace of mind for their caregivers. Door-to-door, wheelchair-accessible transportation is available for program participants.
Caregiver Support services are offered to caregivers of elderly and frail adults in the community. Monthly support groups, care consultation, and educational workshops are offered. Please call the program at 347-377-5471, for more details about social adult day and caregiver resources.
For more information on any services provided through Community-Based Programs—Family Health Centers at NYU Langone, please call 718-630-7171.
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In the not-too-distant past, museums and the arts were agents of hard power. Wards initially of royal courts and then nation states, museums were repositories of hard power—safeguarding the spoils of war and human conquest...KEEP READING
Canadian Professor Sarah Smith joins CPD this Spring
Professor Sarah E.K. Smith joins the USC Center on Public Diplomacy for the spring 2015 semester as the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Public Diplomacy. She will pursue her research on the intersection of culture, economics and globalization, and teach in USC’s Master of Public Diplomacy program.
Professor Smith is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. She holds a doctorate in Art History from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, and was awarded the Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal in 2014.
Her current research project, Canada and the Americas: Examining Art, Canada-US Relations and Pan Americanism During the Twentieth Century, examines the role that art exhibitions and museums played in the drive for American hemispheric integration. Through examination of three U.S.-based institutions (a cultural centre, gallery and museum), she explores how exhibitions of visual art and arts institutions acted to structure new ways of understanding the Americas, and how national projects were managed under the transnational Pan American grouping.
For Smith’s full bio, click here.
To see a list of previous Canadian-U.S. Fulbright Visiting Research Chairs in Public Diplomacy (among other Visiting Scholars), please click here.
Visit CPD's Online Library
Explore CPD's vast online database featuring the latest books, articles, speeches and information on international organizations dedicated to public diplomacy.
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The central bank has less control over market interest rates today than at any time in its history.
By Phil Gramm and Thomas R. Saving
June 17, 2019 7:17 pm ET
When the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting concluded last month, reporters focused on the federal-funds rate, announcing that it would be held constant at 2.25% to 2.5%. Unnoticed by even the financial media, and unmentioned in the lead section of the FOMC’s statement, was its decision to cut the interest rate the Federal Reserve pays on bank reserves—a rate that, unlike the fed-funds rate, still has a direct effect on the money supply. The Fed cut the rate paid on reserves because the market yield on one-year Treasurys had fallen below it, inducing banks to build up excess reserves. When banks expand reserve holdings, the money supply contracts—so the Fed was forced to act.
But it wasn’t enough. Because market rates have continued falling since the last FOMC meeting, even the lower rate that the Fed now pays on reserves is 0.35 percentage point higher than Friday’s yield on one-year Treasurys and 0.25 point above the yield on 10-year Treasurys. The return differential has caused banks to increase excess reserves by 5.5%, or $65 billion, over the past month. The size of these yield spreads and the buildup of excess reserves virtually guarantee that the Fed will again cut the interest paid on reserves at Tuesday’s FOMC meeting.
The rate paid on reserves receives too little attention. As a result of the unprecedented monetary easing of the Obama era, when the Fed bought or offset 45% of all federal debt issued—more than five times the amount it bought to support the World War II effort—commercial banks now hold massive excess reserves. By paying interest on reserves, the Fed effectively converted them into income-yielding assets, giving banks an incentive to hold excess reserves instead of expanding credit and the money supply. As banks became awash in liquidity, they all but stopped engaging in borrowing and lending in the overnight fed-funds market. The fed-funds market has contracted 80% since 2008, meaning the fed-funds rate has almost no direct effect on monetary policy.
The rate the Fed pays on reserves has eclipsed the fed-funds rate as its key monetary tool, with a much more direct influence over the money supply. If the interest rate on reserves is set near the market rate, other things being the same, the money supply will remain unchanged. If market interest rates rise above the rate the Fed pays on bank reserves, banks will expand loans, and the money supply will increase. If the Fed sets the rate it pays on reserves above the market alternative for banks, they will expand their excess reserve holding and the money supply will shrink.
Before the Fed started paying interest on reserves, and before banks held more reserves than they have demand deposits outstanding, the money supply changed when the Fed acted. Now when market rates change, the money supply also changes unless the Fed acts.
As the Fed acquired assets in its three monetary easings, the interest it paid on the reserves induced banks to hold the resulting excess reserves pumped into the banking system. Reserves then earned an average of 0.095 percentage point more than the yield on one-year Treasurys. After quadrupling its balance sheet over eight years the Fed started to sell down the assets on its balance sheet in October 2017. The Fed sold off Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities, and set the rate it paid on reserves so that one-year Treasurys paid 0.43 percentage point more than reserves and 10-year Treasurys paid 1.08 points more.
As a result, banks reduced their reserve holdings enough to offset the effects of Fed asset sales on bank reserves and the money supply. In what was a clear policy success, in the first year of its asset-reduction program the Fed managed to sell $300 billion of assets and induced banks to reduce excess reserves by $467 billion. This expanded the money supply modestly without disrupting prices or spiking interest rates.
The yield on 10-year Treasurys has fallen to 2.12% this month from 3.24% in November 2018—perhaps due to the rush of foreign earnings repatriated after the 2017 federal tax cuts, the inflow of foreign capital attracted by the surge in U.S. growth, or the fall in domestic investment triggered by massive trade uncertainty. In the past month banks have increased excess reserves by more than $64 billion at the same time the Fed reduced overall bank reserves by selling $33 billion of assets.
To prevent an outright contraction of the money supply and the economic disruption it could cause, the FOMC will be forced at its Tuesday meeting either to reduce dramatically the interest the Fed pays on reserves or end its debt wind-down and begin buying securities in the open market. The Fed will likely also cut the upper limit of the fed-funds rate to signal its goal of further monetary easing.
Never in the Fed’s 105-year history has it had less control over market interest rates than it has today. As long as the Fed maintains its bloated balance sheet and the banking system holds massive excess reserves, the Fed will be required to respond to changes in market rates by either adjusting the rate it pays on reserves or using other policy tools to offset the impact market-rate changes have on bank reserve holdings and the money supply. To expect the Fed to hold interest rates above or below the market rate under these circumstances is not only naive but dangerous.
Mr. Gramm is a former chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Mr. Saving is a former director of the Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas A&M University.
Appeared in the June 18, 2019, print edition.
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Ozone Sauna Therapy : A Comprehensive Guide
Abstract: If you are looking for a natural way to detoxify your body, boost anti-aging and tissue repair, as well as improve your overall wellness, consider ozone sauna therapy. This alternative therapy has gained popularity in recent years thanks to its amazing benefits.
In this blog post, you’ll explore everything about ozone sauna therapy, how it works, its benefits, how to find the right provider, etc.
What is Ozone Sauna Therapy?
Ozone therapy also known as an ozone steam sauna is a type of sauna therapy that uses ozone gas in combination with heat to promote healing and wellness. That said, it has been used for medical purposes since the early 20th century.
In simple words, ozone is a naturally occurring gas composed of three oxygen atoms (O3), and it’s created by passing pure oxygen through a medical grade ozone generator. The gas is then infused into the sauna chamber, where it mixes with the air and is absorbed into the body through the skin and lungs.
Essentially you get all the same benefits as ozone injections without the uncomfortable burn associated with itch direct ozone injection.
Note: During the therapy, the patient does not breathe in the ozone gas while sitting in the sauna. Aside from the head, the patient’s entire body will sit inside a sauna chamber for a period of time, typically between 20-30 minutes. The therapy is believed to have potential benefits for a range of health conditions, including inflammatory conditions, chronic infections, , autoimmune disorders, skin conditions, and chronic pain.
How Does it Work?
The heat and humidity inside the sauna cause your pores to open, allowing the ozone to penetrate deep into your skin and tissues. Once inside, the ozone triggers peroxides to increase ATP production in the mitochondria of uour cells.. it also reacts with toxins, viruses, and bacteria, breaking them down into harmless byproducts that your body can eliminate through sweat, urine, or feces.
Benefits of Ozone Steam Sauna/Ozone Sauna:
Some of the potential benefits of ozone sauna therapy include:
- Boosts blood circulation and further helps injured soft tissues to repair quickly.
- Improves immune function and cardiovascular health.
- Reduces inflammation and pain.
- Enhances skin health and reduces the appearance of wrinkles.
- Reduces stress and anxiety.
- Eliminates bacterial and viral infections of all kinds.
- Relaxes and loosens sore muscles.
- It is known for its anti-aging effect.
- Improves sleep quality.
- Increases energy and vitality.
Here are some potential side effects of ozone sauna, largely from “detoxing”. It includes:
- Pimples or Rashes
- Respiratory Irritation if inhaling high concentration for prolonged period.
- Skin Irritability if the ozone concentration is too high or the sauna is too hot.
How Safe it is?
Ozone has an amazing track record of superior safely. It is directly converted into peroxides and oxygen in the body, making it remarkably safe for users of all ages.
Who can use ozone sauna therapy?
The therapy may be suitable for people who are looking for alternative therapies to treat a range of health conditions. However, it's important to note that the therapy may not be suitable for everyone. Pregnant women, people who have a heart condition, or have a history of respiratory problems should avoid ozone sauna therapy.
Procedure and Protocols:
Things to be kept in mind while undergoing this therapy. It's recommended to follow the protocols and precautions set by the practitioner to ensure your safety and maximize the benefits. Some of the common protocols and precautions include:
- Drinking plenty of water before and after the session.
- Starting with one session your first week and then building up to a max of three sessions per week. There is no evidence that exceeding three sessions per week has a greater benefit than 3 in a 7 day period.
- If you experience any rashes or skin irritation, then reduce the session duration. If the symptoms become severe then discontinue the session until you become better.
- Taking electrolytes, vitamin C, glutathione, tryptophan and niacin can make therapy more effective.
Ozone sauna therapy is available in several wellness centers, spas, and clinics. However, it’s important to do your research about the provider before undergoing treatment. An ozone sauna should always use MEDICAL GRADE OZONE. Also, some facilities provide supportive supplement guidance and other helpful tips to make it more effective. Check twice or thrice before starting your treatment.
How to Find the Right Provider?
If you are interested in trying the ozone sauna therapy, and constantly looking for a qualified practitioner nearby? Visit Utah Spine & Sport clinic, one of the best Chiropractic clinics in Utah to get your first ozone therapy session.
The clinic was founded by Dr. Dallas Makin in 2009. That said, it is one of the finest medical centers that offer services such as Chiropractic care, Ozone therapy. Regenerative Medicine, Whiplash Care, Cryosauna whole-body cryotherapy, and various services, etc.
Meet Our Team of Doctors:
Dr. Dallas makin:
Dr. Dallas Makin is a Sports and Whiplash Chiropractic Specialist who utilizes Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Regenerative Medicine, and Ozone Injections to get his patients back to the things they love… fast and without drugs and surgery!
Being an athlete himself, Dr. Makin has always understood firsthand what an athlete is going through when suffering from an injury.
He has had the privilege of treating tens of thousands of athletes in his 14 years of practice, including athletes at all levels; world record holders, pro, semi-pro, collegiate, high school, youth, weekend warriors, stay-at-home moms, and everything in between.
His experience has helped him develop the unique ability to quickly identify a patient’s problem and prescribe the ideal treatment approach to get the fastest results possible with the least amount of interruption to their sports or activities. Faster results also mean saving you money!
Dr. Makin remains a sports enthusiast and loves skiing, running, cycling, pickleball, and racquetball. As well as spending time with his wife, Abi, and 4 rambunctious kids, playing board games, traveling, eating Leatherby’s ice cream on the weekend, watching movies and sports, and tinkering.
Dr. Trayce Esteban:
Dr. Trayce Esteban is a chiropractor who is passionate about serving his community and helping people achieve their goals through chiropractic. He earned his Doctor of Chiropractic from Parker University in Dallas, Texas where he graduated as valedictorian of his class. During his time at Parker, he also earned his Master of Science in Functional Nutrition. Prior to Parker he attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Growing up he had a passion for playing sports and would receive care from his local chiropractor for any of his injuries. He witnessed the power and the long-term benefits that come from chiropractic care and proper nutrition. This is what eventually led him to embark on the journey to chiropractic school.
Dr. Esteban loves spending time with his wife, Brooklyn, and their son, Grayson. He enjoys playing sports and being outdoors. He loves serving others and has dedicated his life to seeing others get better through chiropractic care.
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Common cold isn’t deadly, but it can be a true damper on your week thanks to its irritating symptoms. Below are some common household remedies that you can use to combat common cold and gain some relief.
- Apple Cider Vinegar for Common Cold
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 glass warm water
Combine vinegar with warm water and drink it. Add local raw honey if the mixture isn’t palatable.
Drink 2-3 glasses every day or until symptoms last.
Why This Works
The apple cider vinegar balances your body’s pH levels making the environment of your body unsuitable for viruses to thrive.
- Epsom Salt Bath for Common Cold
- 1 cup Epsom salt
- A bathtub
- Warm water
- Fill the tub with warm water.
- Keep the water as hot as you can withstand.
- Pour in Epsom salt and thoroughly mix it in the water.
- Soak in the bathwater for a minimum of 20 minutes.
Note: If you do not have access to bath, you can soak your feet in a bucket of warm water with 1/4 cup of Epsom salt instead.
Repeat every other day for one week.
Why This Works
Steam baths help to relieve your body from fatigue and decongest the nasal passageways caused by the cold. The Epsom salt acts as a detoxifying agent as well as muscle relaxant.
- Essential Oils for Common Cold
- 4-5 drops peppermint oil/eucalyptus oil
- Mix both the oil together then apply them to your neck, chest, and forehead.
- Leave it for as long as possible so your body can absorb them.
- Another method is to take a bath infused with the essential oil. Use the same procedure as the Epsom salt bath.
How Often You Should Do This
Apply the ois twice a day until cold symptoms disappear .
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Utilizing gene therapy to combat age-related diseases.
Rejuvenate Bio addresses the major cause of aging and age-related diseases by manipulating gene expression. Over time, gene expression dysregulates, leading multiple systems in the body to break down. Gene therapy addresses this by expressing beneficial proteins by directly introducing DNA to the cell, eliminating off-target effects. By using longevity-based genes, the company is able to offer therapies with robust safety profiles to specific, chronic conditions.
Quick Facts for Investors
Why We Invested
Rarely does an opportunity exist to monetize animal trials while conducting research for human trials and applications. The combination of talent on this leadership team represents VCapital’s belief that the jockey is as important as the horse in analyzing potential for success.
The total addressable market (TAM) for Rejuvenate Bio’s therapy is significant. Sixty-seven percent of U.S. households, or about 85 million families, own a pet, according to the 2019-2020 National Pet Owners Survey conducted by the American Pet Products Association (APPA). Currently, there are 90 million dogs owned as pets in the United States. Seven percent of all dogs will develop MVD, representing a market valued at $4.2B. The current standard of care for MVD is a small molecule, Vetmedin from Boehringer Ingelheim, that does not cure the actual disease but has proven to reduce symptoms. Vetmedin generates approximately $100 million of revenue annually. Rejuvenate Bio’s recent results show that their therapy not only stopped progression of MVD, but also reversed it. We believe demand for Rejuvenate Bio’s treatment will be significant. Currently, the company has partnered with the American Cavalier King Charles Club to run a pilot trial for cavaliers and estimates that they can reach 70% of the top-end pet health market.
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L’ancien ministre de la défense propose un plan en cinq points pour trouver une issue à la crise Irakienne.
Par Ali Allawi, The Independent, janvier 2007
The Iraqi state that was formed in the aftermath of the First World War has come to an end. Its successor state is struggling to be born in an environment of crises and chaos. The collapse of the entire order in the Middle East now threatens as the Iraq imbroglio unleashes forces in the area that have been gathering in virulence over the past decades.
It took the American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the mismanagement of the country by both the Coalition Provisional Administration and subsequent Iraqi governments, to bring matters to this dire situation.
What was supposed to be a straightforward process of overthrowing a dictatorship and replacing it with a liberal-leaning and secular democracy under the benign tutelage of the United States, has instead turned into an existential battle for identity, power and legitimacy that is affecting not only Iraq, but the entire tottering state system in the Middle East.
The Iraq war is a global predicament of the first order and its resolution will influence the course of events in the Middle East and beyond for a considerable time. What we are witnessing in Iraq is the beginning of the unravelling of the unjust and unstable system that was carved out of the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire. It had held for nearly 100 years by a mixture of foreign occupation,outside meddling, brutal dictatorships and minority rule.
At the same time, it signally failed in providing a permanent sense of legitimacy to its power, engaged its citizens in their governance, or provided a modicum of well-being and a decent standard of existence for its people.
The Key Challenges
The nature and scope of the Iraq crisis can be encapsulated in the emergence of four vital issues that have challenged the entire project for remaking the Iraq state. In one form or another, these forces also affect the countries of the Arab Middle East, as well as Turkey and Iran, and the relationships between all of them.
Firstly, the invasion of Iraq tipped the scales in favour of the Shia, who are now determined to emerge as the governing majority after decades, if not centuries, of perceived disempowerment and oppression. The consequences of this historic shift inside Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East are incalculable.
Secondly, the invasion of Iraq legitimised the semi-independent region that Iraq’s Kurds had forged over the past decade. The Kurds whose rights to self-determination were acknowledged in the 1920 Sevres Treaty, and then subsequently ignored by the states of the post-Ottoman Middle East, have received an enormous fillip in their march towards recognition of their unique status.
What is still left to be decided is the geographic extent of the Kurdish region in Iraq, and whether it would have proprietary access to the resources of that area. This may prove a way station to the beginnings of the formation of a Kurdish state. The challenges that will pose to the integrity and self-definition of Turkey, Iran and Syria now or in the future is another formidable side effect of the overthrow of the old Baathist state.
Thirdly, the uneven, poorly prepared and messy introduction in Iraq of democratic norms for elections, constitution-writing and governance structures is a stark break with the authoritarian and dictatorial systems that have prevailed in the Middle East. While the Iraqi experiment has so far been marred by violence, irregularities and manipulation, it is quite likely to survive as the mechanism through which governments will be chosen in the future.
Lastly, the overthrow of Saddam coincided with the attempts by Iran to assert its influence and to gain entry into regional counsels. That has exercised a number of countries in the area no end, giving rise to alarmist warnings of Iranian hegemonistic designs and "Shia crescents". The responses that are being planned for the perceived threat are terrifying in their implications, with scant attention paid to their consequences to the peace and stability of the area.
Iraq was used as a foil to revolutionary Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, with devastating consequences for both. We are witnessing a possible reprise, the consequence of which, if the new warmongers get their way, will be catastrophic for it will go to the heart of the fragile societies of the Middle East. Shia will be pitted against Sunni not only in Iraq but in Lebanon, and the Gulf countries.
Dangers of Sunni Insurgency
In the sterile world of zero-sum politics, the loss of power of the Sunni Arab community in Iraq was soon translated into a raging insurgency that challenged not only the US occupation but also the new political dispensation.
The insurgency fed on the deep resentment Sunni Arabs felt to their loss of power and prestige. It has been aggravated by the fact it was a totally unexpected force that achieved the impossible- the dethronement of the community from centuries of power in favour of, as they saw it, a rabble led by Persianate clerics. The Sunni Arabs’ refusal to countenance any serious engagement with the new political order had effectively pushed them into a cul-de-sac and has played into the hands of their most determined enemies.
The state is now moving inexorably under the control of the Shia Islamists, albeit with a supporting role for the Kurds. The boundaries of Shia-controlled Baghdad are moving ever westwards so that the capital itself may fall entirely under the sway of the Shia militias.
The only thing stopping that is the deployment of American troops to block the entry of the Shia militias in force into these mixed or Sunni neighbourhoods. The geographic space outside Baghdad in which the insurgency can flourish will persist but the country will be inevitably divided. Under such circumstances, the power of the Shia’s demographic advantage can only be counter-balanced by the Sunni Arabs’ recourse to support from the neighbouring Arab states. It is inconceivable that such an outcome can possibly lead to a stable Iraqi state unless one side or another vanquishes its opponent or if the country is divided into separate states.
Impact of Shia Ascendancy
The response to these existential challenges emanating from the invasion of Iraq, both inside Iraq and in the Arab world has been panic-stricken or fearful, and potentially disastrous to the stability in the area and the prospects for its inhabitants.
The Arab countries of the Middle East have been unable to adjust to events in Iraq, not so much because of the contagion effect of the changes that have taken place there. This had virtually disappeared as Iraq cannot be seen as model for anything worth emulating. It has less to do with the instability that might spill over from the violence in the country. It is more to do with accommodating an unknown quantity into a system that can barely acknowledge pluralism and democracy, let alone a Shia ascendancy in Iraq.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, linchpins of the American security order in the Arab world, cannot accept the principle of a Shia-dominated Iraq, each for its own reasons. They will do their utmost to thwart such a possibility, and failing that, will probably try to isolate such an entity from regional counsels
Implications for Middle East
It is this with this backdrop that solutions are being proffered to resolve the Iraqi crisis. However, rather than treat the problem in a much wider context, each party is determined to stake out its narrow position irrespective of its effects on other communities, groups and countries.
The seeds of another 100 years of crisis are being sown, with the Middle East consigned to decades of turbulence and the persistence of unmitigated hatreds and grudges. The most serious issue that is emerging is the exacerbation of sectarian differences between Shia and Sunni. That is a profoundly dangerous issue for it affects not only Iraq but also Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and the Gulf countries.
It is plausible that the cost of a Shia ascendancy in Iraq, if it is marked as such, will be further pressure on the vulnerable Shia communities in the Gulf countries. There is already the rekindling of anti-Shia rhetoric in a remarkably similar rerun to the pattern that accompanied the Saudi-led campaign to contain the Iranian revolution in the 1980s. The effect of that was the rise of the jihadi culture that was the harbinger of mass terrorism and suicide bombings.
This may drag the entire area into war or even the forced movement of people as fearful countries seek to "quarantine" or expel their Shia population.
It requires genuine vision and statesmanship to pull the Middle East from its death spiral. The elements of a possible solution are there if the will exists to postulate an alternative to the politics of fear, bigotry and hatred.
The first step must be the recognition that the solution to the Iraq crisis must be generated first internally, and then, importantly, at the regional level. The two are linked and the successful resolution of one would lead to the other.
No foreign power, no matter how benevolent, should be allowed to dictate the terms of a possible historic and stable settlement in the Middle East. No other region of the world would tolerate such a wanton interference in its affairs.
That is not to say that due consideration should not be given to the legitimate interests of the great powers in the area, but the future of the area should not be held hostage to their designs and exclusive interests.
Secondly, the basis of a settlement must take into account the fact that the forces that have been unleashed by the invasion of Iraq must be acknowledged and accommodated. These forces, in turn, must accept limits to their demands and claims. That would apply, in particular, to the Shias and the Kurds, the two communities who have been seen to have gained from the invasion of Iraq.
Thirdly, the Sunni Arab community must become convinced that its loss of undivided power will not lead to marginalisation and discrimination. A mechanism must be found to allow the Sunni Arabs to monitor and regulate and, if need be, correct, any signs of discrimination that may emerge in the new Iraqi state.
Fourthly, the existing states surrounding Iraq feel deeply threatened by the changes there. That needs to be recognised and treated in any lasting deal for Iraq and the area.
A way has to be found for introducing Iran and Turkey into a new security structure for the Middle East that would take into account their legitimate concerns, fears and interests. It is far better that these countries are seen to be part of a stable order for the area rather than as outsiders who need to be confronted and challenged.
The Iraqi government that has arisen as a result of the admittedly flawed political process must be accepted as a sovereign and responsible government. No settlement can possibly succeed if its starting point is the illegitimacy of the Iraqi government or one that considers it expendable.
A Brighter Future
The end state of this process would be three interlinked outcomes. The first would be a decentralised Iraqi state with new regional governing authorities with wide powers and resources.
Devolution of power must be fair, well planned, and executed with equitable revenue-distribution. Federal institutions would have to act as adjudicators between regions. Security must be decentralised until such time as confidence between the communities is re-established.
The second essential outcome would be a treaty that would establish a confederation or constellation of states of the Middle East, initially including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. The main aim of the confederation would be to establish a number of conventions and supra-regional bodies that would have the effect of acting as guarantors of civil, minority and community rights.
The existence of such institutions can go a long way towards removing the anxiety disadvantaged groups feel when confronted with the radical changes sweeping the area. The gradual build up of such supra-national institutions in the proposed confederation may also expand to cover an increased degree of economic integration and harmonisation.
That may include a regional development body which would help establish and fund common energy and infrastructure policies. Lastly, an indispensable end outcome is a regional security pact that would group the countries of the Arab Middle East with Iran and Turkey, at first in some form of anti-terrorism pact, but later a broader framework for discussing and resolving major security issues that impinge on the area as a whole.
That would also provide the forum for combating the spread of virulent ideologies and sectarian hatreds and provide the basis for peacefully containing and resolving the alarm that some countries feel from the apparent expansion of Iranian influence in the area.
The Importance of the US
It was the US that launched this phase of the interminable Middle East crisis, by invading Iraq and assuming direct authority over it. Whatever project it had for Iraq has vanished, a victim of inappropriate or incoherent policies, and the violent upending of Iraq’s power structures.
Nevertheless, the US is still the most powerful actor in the Iraq crisis, and its decisions can sway the direction and the manner in which events could unfold.
In other areas of the world, the US has used its immense influence and power to cement regional security and economic associations. There is no reason why the regional associations being mooted in conjunction with a decentralised Iraqi state, could not play an equally important part in resolving the Iraqi crisis and dispersing the dangerous clouds threatening the region.
The Iraqi proposals
1 Iraq government calls for regional security conference including Iraq’s neighbours to produce an agreement/treaty on non-intervention and combating terrorism. Signatory states will be responsible to set of markers for commitments.
Purpose : To reduce/eliminate neighbouring countries’ support for insurgents, terrorists and militias.
2 Iraq government calls for preparatory conference on a Middle-Eastern Confederation of States that will examine proposals on economic, trade and investment union. Proposals will be presented for a convention on civil, human and minority rights in the Near East, with a supreme court/tribunal with enforcement powers.
Purpose : To increase regional economic integration and provide minorities in signatory countries with supra-national protection.
3 Iraq government calls for an international conference on Iraq that would include Iraq, its regional neighbours, Egypt, the UAE, the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China that would aim to produce a treaty guaranteeing :
a. Iraq’s frontiers. b. The broad principles of Iraq’s constitutional arrangements. c. Establishing international force to replace the multi-national force over 12 to 18 months. Appointing international co-ordinator to oversee treaty implementation.
Purpose : To arrange for the gradual and orderly withdrawal of American troops, ensure that Iraq develops along constitutional lines, confirm Iraq and its neighbours’ common frontiers.
4 Iraq government will introduce changes to government by creating two statuary bodies with autonomous financing and independent boards :
a. A reconstruction and development council run by Iraqi professionals and technocrats with World Bank/UN support. b. A security council which will oversee professional ministries of defence, interior, intelligence and national security.
Purpose : To remove the reconstruction and development programme from incompetent hands and transfer them to an apolitical, professional and independent body. Also to remove the oversight, command and control over the security ministries from politicised party control to an independent, professional and accountable body.
5 The entire peace plan, its preamble and its details must be put before the Iraqi parliament for its approval.
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Any thoughts on the authentisity of this device as a potential spacecraft ?
They include the following movie a claimed tethered test flight;
video of nylon tethered craft
Anyone know if the method used in the demonstration model would work outside of Earths atmosphere or is this some bad astronomy hoax?
The people who put up the site claim that the craft uses asymmetrical Poynting Flow for generating thrust.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Phobos on 2001-10-27 07:50 ]</font>
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As growing sectarian violence across Iraq renews fears of civil war, journalists gathered in New York this week to talk about their experiences reporting in the country over the past decade.
Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi was in the United States last week to talk about the challenges facing his country at a critical moment. Ever the contrarian, he also sees opportunities. "For the first time the media is challenging the military," he told an audience of friends and colleagues at CPJ offices in New York. "That's the biggest positive development out of the whole Pakistan debacle."
Do you believe the free flow of information must be protected? Sign the #RightToReport petition and demand that President Obama immediately:
1. Issue a presidential policy directive prohibiting the hacking and surveillance of journalists and media organizations.
2. Limit aggressive prosecutions that ensnare journalists and intimidate whistleblowers.
3. Prevent the harassment of journalists at the U.S. border.
Or click here to see the full petition, and join leading journalists like Christiane Amanpour, The Guardian’s Alan Rusbridger, Editor of the AP Kathleen Carroll, and Arianna Huffington in signing on.
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Peak Education’s offices are tucked into the third floor of a Victorian on north Nevada. It’s a historic building, meaning it’s a walk-up, so the folks who work there climb up and down the stairs all day long.
But that’s nothing compared to the many hurdles that must be overcome by the low-income students who are helped by Peak Education’s efforts.
They are the kids who live in some of our toughest neighborhoods, places where poverty is an everyday fact of life, where parents are often absent, jobs scarce and hardship a constant accompaniment.
You might have seen the story about Peak Education in The Gazette recently. Dalton Conner, who co-founded the organization 13 years ago, told me it took him a lot longer than usual to get out of church last Sunday. People who had read the piece kept stopping him to applaud his work and express their support.
Conner and Peak Education co-founder Steve Mullens deserve the kudos. Over the years, the nonprofit they established has helped some 90 students make it into college.
As importantly, Peak Education has helped those kids make it through college by helping them to prepare for an environment that can be intimidating and certainly foreign.
Dee Beaudette, the CEO of the nonprofit, shared some depressing statistics on the issue that underscore the need.
According to a 2005 study, only about one in 17 young people from the nation’s poorest families, those earning less than $35,377 a year, can expect to earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24. By comparison, students from the nation’s wealthiest families, those who earn about $85,000 or higher, the number is better than one in two.
A USA Today analysis several years ago found only one in four degree-seeking students at two-year colleges go on to earn a degree or certificate. And although graduation rates at selective public colleges rose sharply from 1990 to 2002, from 61 percent to 74.6 percent, graduation rates at open-admissions colleges, which admit anyone with a high school diploma, dropped from 42 percent to 25.8 percent.
The problem, in part, is that too many of our schools are doing a poor job of preparing these kids, but that’s a topic for another column.
The figures reflect how big a challenge Peak Education faces in trying to help just a handful of students each year to embark on a life they might never have imagined without a bit of help.
Hoping to reach even more kids, Peak Education is about to embark on a new road itself.
Historically, it has written checks out of its small endowment and helped students find additional grant and scholarship dollars from various sources.
Moving forward, Peak Education is now looking to help companies that offer scholarships maximize their generosity.
It wants to create alliances with these companies, foundations and others to help them shepherd their scholarship dollars and, as importantly, the students as they make their way through their undergraduate years and beyond.
The local Moniker Foundation, which has provided a number of scholarships to low-income students over the years, was the first to align with Peak Education in this way. It found that Peak Education’s approach of following the kids from their middle school years all the way through college just made sense and could help reverse some of the more negative stats.
I can imagine that companies that regularly award scholarships also regularly wonder what happened to the student who received their gift.
The job of tracking scholarship recipients typically falls onto the shoulders of an already stretched human-resources department.
Peak Education is offering to take over that job, assuming the responsibility of shepherding a child through some of the most critical years of their life and ensuring the dollars invested by right-minded donors aren’t wasted.
If it succeeds, Peak Education will have as many as 400 students under its wing at any given moment, or about four times as many as it now guides through the process.
It will have grown considerably, with little more than perhaps a slight adjustment in how companies it works with handle the distribution of their scholarship dollars.
In other words, Peak Education hopes to do a lot of good by leveraging what individual companies and others might find difficult to pull off on their own.
That makes good business sense to me.
One more thought on the topic of education this week: Be sure to read Business Journal reporter Rebecca Tonn’s story in this issue about plans by Junior Achievement of Southern Colorado to develop what it calls BizTown and Finance Park.
These initiatives are designed to help develop a better-prepared workforce; they both merit your support.
Allen Greenberg is the editor of the Colorado Springs Business Journal. He can be reached at [email protected] or 719-329-5206.
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#72: Building a Website (2 of 3): HTML/CSS Conversion
In part 2 of this series, we begin the HTML/CSS conversion of the Photoshop mockup we created in part one. We start with a very skeletal project framework. Then we take a look at the Photoshop file layer organization. Then we start from the bottom up, creating the pieces we need from the Photoshop file and writing the HTML and CSS we need to get the job done. Much of the work isn't actually "slicing" the Photoshop file, but looking closely at it and trying to mimic what is done there with correct markup and CSS techniques.
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Sunday, July 10, 2011
Tennessee Tops In Storing Radioactive Waste
East TN actress Park Overall has been a most vocal promoter demanding complete accountability when it comes to the deeply dangerous radioactive waste which is ending up Hawkins County and other sites in our Tennessee.
At a recent radio interview with WRGS, cited in the Rogersville Review, she continues her efforts to - at the least - inform residents of what is happening in their communities and says standards basically do not exist to protect our communities:
"One night it was decided that low level radioactive waste, secretly and you all don't know about this, will be stored in a kitchen dump. What is a kitchen dump? It is a landfill with no liner," Overall charged. "You have a kitchen dump in Hawkins County."
"Tennessee is the only state accepting nuclear waste at this time. If you want to do anything about it you had better call (U. S. Senators) Lamar Alexander or (Bob) Corker or (Congressman) Phil Roe. You need to let it be known that we don't want to be the nuclear dumping ground of the United States and right now we're it," she said.
Overall suggested the Nuclear Information Resource Service Website, www.nirs.org, as a valuable tool for public information.
"That will tell you that they are chopping up the world's waste and burning up the world's waste and putting it right here in Tennessee," Overall said. "No one asked you if that was okay."
The actress also questioned the standards the NRC uses, including the acronym ALARA, which stands for "as low as reasonably achievable."
She also claimed government agencies and officials were to blame.
"I'm sorry to bad-mouth our government but they're not protecting us," Overall claimed."
Meanwhile documentary filmmakers are working hard to establish the funding needed to detail the steady dumping of radioactive waste into the Nolichucky River from NFS in Erwin. The film is titled "Atomic Appalachia" and you can learn more about that here., and on their Facebook page.
Just this Spring, the Tennessee legislature voted against installing any controls or oversight of the dumping of nuclear waste in Tennessee, despite the reality that:
"The committee discussed the bill for about 50 minutes Wednesday before amending it so that its provisions would not interfere with any current private waste-processing contracts until they are renewed. The committee then killed the entire bill, with only two Democrats' votes for passage and five Republicans' votes against.
"The Environmental Council, citing government reports, says about 40 million pounds of low-level radioactive waste is processed in Tennessee annually. After processing, much of it is shipped out of state, but about 49 million pounds was dumped into the Tennessee landfills from 2004 through 2009."
Worse news - most of the landfills in Tennessee are leaking into the groundwater and beyond.
"TDEC issued civil fines and penalties at Carter Valley Landfill in October 2006 after 2005 groundwater monitoring found contamination in the groundwater.
Additionally, TCWN found that of the 69 landfills across the state known to be leaking, TDEC required corrective action for groundwater contamination at less than 5 of those landfills, including Dickson County, Sevier County, City of McKenzie, and Smelter Services Class 2 landfill in Mt. Pleasant.
Dickson County's landfill received national attention for what is believed to be the community's exposure to trichloroethene from leachate in drinking water supplies causing birth defects. The contamination occurred despite the landfill being built under stringent EPA guidelines and the old landfill's closure in 2003.
Bliss said Hawkins County has the second highest incidence of birth defects in the state. "We should have a concern about Hawkins County."
More background info here.
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This may be remembered as the year of the bee at Curbstone Valley. It started when we installed a few hives of honey bees on the farm this spring, but we also greatly understand the importance of the native bees that frequent our crops and flowers.
Research has demonstrated that diversification of pollinators is critical for farms, and that organic farms situated close to wild-land habitats may depend more on native bees for pollination, than conventional farms. Most conventional farms are almost wholly dependent on European honey bees for pollination as they lack the habitat necessary to sustain native pollinators.
Here we’re striving to do what we can to support both our honey bees, and our native bee populations.
It’s important to recognize that many of the same threats to honey bee populations, including some diseases , and risks from exposure to pesticides, may have similar detrimental effects on native bee populations.
The most obvious single threat to native bees, however, is habitat degradation.
Native bee populations co-evolved with regionally adapted native plant species, which tend to become sparse in populated areas, where landscapers, and gardeners select plants for their aesthetic value, and farmers choose plants solely for their economic value, rather than their importance to the survival of native pollinator species.
Approximately 1600 native bee species have been recorded in California . We’ve noticed a number of native bees here in the last couple of years, including green sweat bees (Agapostemon spp.), carpenter bees (Ceratina and Xylocopa spp.), bumble bees (Bombus spp.), leaf cutter bees (Megachile spp.), and now, these intriguing looking long-horn bees (Melissodes, Diadasia, or Svastra, spp. — trust me, unless you’re an entomologist, this group of bees can be tricky to nail down a definitive ID).
Long-horn bees are in the family Apidae, and the tribe Eucerini. By recognizing some of the different native bees present on the property, and learning about their foraging habits, nesting habits, and significance as pollinators, we can ensure that we take the necessary steps to encourage, and support, their populations on the farm.
Until this summer we hadn’t noticed any long-horn bees in the gardens, perhaps because the gardens didn’t hold much of interest to these particular bees. Many long-horned bees are specialist foragers, targeting only plants in the Asteraceae family, such as our native Asters, and Encelia, as well as our garden Sunflowers, and Rudbeckias. In fact long-horn bees are one of the key native bee species for pollinating commercial sunflower crops .
Although we’re not exactly sure which species of long-horn bee this is, the Rudbeckias, and sunflowers we’ve planted this year near the greenhouse, seem to be enticing these particular bees. Our best educated guess is that this bee might be Melissodes robustior, one of the most common long-horn bee species in California. Regardless, once the sun’s rays hit these blooms in the morning, it’s almost impossible to miss these bees. I almost feel as if I owe the bees an apology for not planting the Rudbeckias sooner.
Long-horn bees range from from 7.5 to 18 mm in length. Male long-horn bees have remarkably long antennae, as shown in some of these photographs, for which they acquired their common moniker, and an elongated body shape. Whereas females have shorter antennae, and a more rounded body shape.
In addition to long antennae, the most notable physical characteristic of these bees is that their legs are significantly more hairy than their honey bee cousins.
The females are responsible for gathering pollen on their brush-like leg hairs (scopae), as well as foraging for nectar, and depositing food in their underground nests to sustain developing larvae.
Any native-bee-friendly garden is only enhanced by planting a diversity of nectar and pollen-rich native, and heirloom flowers. However, suitable nesting sites are also critical for helping to sustain native bee populations.
Native bees don’t live in hives like their honey bee counterparts, and many species construct underground nests. Desirable nesting sites, and nests however, can easily be damaged, or destroyed, as a result human activity.
To encourage native ground-nesting bees, it’s important that some areas of bare soil are left in the gardens. Although mulches are important for conserving moisture for plants, and improving soil texture, mulching every square inch of garden space eliminates important nesting habitat for ground-nesting native bees.
Here we mulch individual plants, not entire surfaces, mostly our vegetables and fruits, to avoid providing too much cover for ravenous rodents, like our meadow voles.
For any ground nesting bee species it’s also imperative that nesting sites aren’t disturbed, as these bees spend much of their lives developing underground, many only emerging to mate and forage for a few short weeks each year. One of the worst gardening practices for ground nesting bees, other than the obvious use of pesticides, is rototilling garden soils. This not only destroys soil structure, but can also destroy nests.
Next time you consider reaching for the rototiller, ask yourself, do you have ground nesting bees, like these long-horn bees, in your garden? Hand digging is not only healthier for the gardener, but it’s also better for the bees!
Although we’ve been judicious about planting flowers in the Asteraceae family, as generally they tend to cause the rapid crystallization of honey, the fact these long-horn bees seem to favor plants in this family, highlights the importance of planting a diverse variety of flowers in the gardens. With careful planning we hope to keep both the honey bees, and the native bees happy.
Next time you think you see a honey bee in the garden, take a closer look, it may in fact turn out to be a native bee!
To learn more about identifying, and providing suitable habitat for native bees, see:
Kremen, C. et a. 2004. The Area Requirements of an Ecosystem Service: Crop Pollination by Native Bee Communities in California. Ecology Letters. Vol: 7 p. 1109-1119.
Singh R, Levitt AL, Rajotte EG, Holmes EC, Ostiguy N, et al. 2010 RNA Viruses in Hymenopteran Pollinators: Evidence of Inter-Taxa Virus Transmission via Pollen and Potential Impact on Non-Apis Hymenopteran Species. PLoS ONE 5(12)
Frankie, G.W., et al. Native Bees Are a Rich Natural Resource in Urban California Gardens. July-September 2009. UCANR Publication.
Xerces Society Fact Sheet: Native Bee Pollination of Hybrid Sunflowers.
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Oh noes, global warming hates Canada:
Backyard hockey rinks may become extinct in Canada if climate change goes unchecked, a renowned McGill University scientist says. “In the next 50 years, the skating season could disappear in most of the regions across Canada,” Lawrence Mysak told CTV Montreal.
If only there were indoor rinks that made it possible to skate in any weather, or even for hockey to be played in places like Miami, Tampa and Phoenix. Oh, wait.
But wait, there’s more. Simon Fraser University says no matter how much carbon Canada saves, or how many hippies wander the BC interior, we’re toast:
“Let’s be honest, it’s totally unrealistic to believe that we can stop all emissions now,” says Zickfeld, an assistant professor of geography at SFU. “Even with aggressive greenhouse gas mitigation, it will be a challenge to keep the projected global rise in temperature under 2 degrees Celsius,” emphasizes Zickfeld.
The geographer wrote the paper with Damon Matthews, a University of Concordia associate professor at the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment.
The duo used an earth system climate model developed by the University of Victoria to study the impact of greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions on the world’s climate. The study was based on emission levels that are consistent with data from the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
They used a computer model and data from the IPCC. What could possibly go wrong?
Before you panic and run for the indoor skating rinks to escape slightly milder weather, here’s the Motley CRU’s own Phil Jones on the all-important 2 degree Celsius limit:
The 2 deg C limit is talked about by a lot within Europe. It is never defined though what it means. Is it 2 deg C for the globe or for Europe? Also when is/was the base against which the 2 deg C is calculated from? I know you don’t know the answer, but I don’t either! I think it is plucked out of thin air. I think it is too high as well. If it is 2 deg C globally, this could be more in Europe – especially the northern part. A better limit might be maintaining some summer Arctic sea ice!
Climate scientists making stuff up? Say it ain’t so.
Round-Up tomorrow, unless you behave.
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Thanks to Michigan’s film subsidies, the production of Disney’s “Oz the Great and Powerful” forced the state to pay nearly $40 million to Hollywooders critics consider the Wicked Witch of the West.
Back in 2010, Michigan’s film incentive program was the most generous in the nation, offering studios a 42 percent refund of all in-state production costs. It was enough for Disney to click its heels three times and say, ‘There’s no place like Michigan.’ Thus production of its “Wizard of Oz” prequel film, which premiered last week, took place in the Great Lakes State.
With a $100 million in-state budget, the estimated cost to taxpayers is about $40 million, according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
“It just comes right out of taxpayers’ pockets,” said James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at Mackinac, in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The costs continue to roll in. The film’s production company, Emerald City Film Inc., had trouble making its bond payments — forcing the state to provide even more financial assistance.
“I don’t like that [the money] went out of the state and continued to enrich millionaires and billionaires with government subsidies,” said state Rep. Tom McMillin in a statement.
The goal of the incentive program is to persuade film studios to relocate to Michigan and create a long-term source of economic growth for the state. But in practice, Michigan’s quest to become the Hollywood of the Midwest is as troubled as a Kansas farm during tornado season.
“Despite having subsidized this industry more than anyone else had been, we don’t have a single viable film studio,” said Hohman. “Even if we did, it wouldn’t be worth the hundreds of millions of incentive dollars we’ve offered this industry.”
Film studios tend to hop from state to state, chasing the latest and greatest subsidy. They seldom establish long-term operations anywhere but California.
“MPIs [motion picture incentives] create mostly temporary positions with limited options for upward mobility,” concluded William Luther, an adjunct scholar at the Tax Foundation, in a 2010 report.
After taking office in 2010, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder capped the subsidy at $25 million to prevent studios from cashing in on what Luther called a “preposterously generous” incentive. Snyder and the legislature later agreed to raise the cap to $50 million for fiscal year 2013.
The incentive isn’t worth continuing in any amount, said Hohman.
“It’s not producing a viable film industry, and even if it did, it still would never be worth the expense,” said Hohman.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
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A recent comment by actress Jennifer Aniston that “women are more and more realizing that they don’t have to settle with a man just to have that child” might seem to indicate that deviancy has irrevocably been “defined down” and that a culture of permissiveness has been permanently entrenched in our nation’s society.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that the percentage of teens who believe that it’s okay for an unmarried female to have a child has increased to nearly 64 percent (among males) and to more than 70 percent (among females.
Yet throughout the country there are oases of excellence that provide evidence to the contrary.
One example is Teen Talk, a program for at-risk adolescent girls that was initiated by a community-based project in Milwaukee called the Family House. Though the Family House was primarily and originally established to provide hospice care for the low-income elderly, the project evolved to meet needs of others in the community, including the youths who would gather on the front steps in after-school hours.
“When we started the program in 2004, Milwaukee had the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the nation, and there was a rash of STDs at the elementary school that was just a block from the Family House,” said Vicky Edwards, Teen Talk’s first coordinator. “Some of those girls were having babies just because they were looking to be loved and wanted someone to love. But when their babies started growing up, the responsibility and reality of motherhood set in.”
“We had an after-school program, and we were seeing so many of our 13- and 14-year-olds becoming pregnant. And we were finding out that they weren’t getting any medical care and didn’t know what to expect,” said Cordelia Taylor, the founder and director of the Family House.
Teen Talk helps pregnant teens access the care, nutrition, and information they need. In addition, it prepares the girls to make wise life choices through conversations about the benefits of remaining abstinent and how to resist unwanted sexual advances.
The outreach also includes peer counseling, field trips, visits to museums, outings to restaurants (where they receive etiquette tips), a fashion show at a local department store, and movie dates followed by discussion groups—all of which contributes to greater self-esteem and a larger vision for their future.
Teen Talk began with a group of 17 adolescents in 2004. To date, more than 170 teens have participated in the program. Of those, only two became pregnant. Those two young women stayed in touch with the program and came back to serve as peer counselors.
Teen Talk participants were young women who lived in high-crime, drug-infested neighborhoods where the odds were clearly against them. Some lived with their grandmothers because their own mothers were incarcerated or addicted to drugs. The expectations and attitudes they embrace provide hope that the bar can be set higher for peers in much less daunting situations as well.
Here’s hoping for high-profile voices to champion successes like Teen Talk that are teaching responsibility, affirming the significance of marriage, and restoring community.
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URBANA – Consumers have reason to celebrate the approach of June Dairy Month, said Mike Hutjens, University of Illinois Extension dairy specialist.
Not only have dairy products remained a “good buy” for consumers, but the nutritional importance of dairy products in the diet continues to play a foundational role in human health and development.
June Dairy Month originally celebrated the time of the year when surplus milk needed to be sold due to cows producing more milk after receiving pasture in the spring, Hutjens said. During the month of June, consumers will notice more focus on dairy products and dairy product recipes in displays near the dairy case.
“Milk prices have remained constant in most areas with specials on milk as low as $2 to $2.50 a gallon,” Hutjens said. “Milk prices remain below break-even at the dairy farm gate with dairy managers receiving $1.20 to $1.30 a gallon.”
In addition to cost, consumers have many choices when they go to the grocery store today. From method of production to nutritional content, there are many factors to consider when buying dairy products.
“Organic milk is available at $6 to $7 a gallon,” Hutjens said. “Or consumers can purchase ‘green’ milk from dairy farmers using approved FDA technologies to produce milk resulting in a lower carbon footprint.”
Perhaps the most controversial milk in the news is raw milk, or milk that is not pasteurized.
“Consumers should never purchase raw milk due to potential bacteria risks,” Hutjens warned.
The nutritional value of dairy products helps them remain popular today.
“Dairy products contain high-quality protein with all essential amino acids in addition to whey proteins that are important in weight control,” he said. “Milk contains high levels of calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorous and added vitamin D, which are critical for human health and bone formation. Dairy products can be particularly important for older consumers.”
Daily U.S. dietary guidelines include two servings of dairy products for children from 1 to 8 years of age, and three dairy servings for children over 9 years and adults. These dietary guidelines served as the foundation for the popular “Three a Day” dairy theme used in radio, television, and other media advertising.
So, what kinds of milk and milk products are most favored by U.S. consumers?
In 2008, the average U.S. consumer consumed 85.3 pounds of reduced or low-fat milk, 50.4 pounds of whole milk, 27.1 pounds of fat-free milk, and 14.2 pounds of flavored milk. In addition, each person consumed 32.5 pounds of cheese, 20.7 pounds of ice cream, and 11.8 pounds of yogurt.
Hutjens added that vanilla ice cream remains the No. 1 flavor at 28.7%, chocolate followed behind at 10.4 percent, and cookies and cream ranked third at 4.4%.
Dairy products that sold well in 2008 include skim milk (up 0.5 percent), low-fat milk (up 5%), and yogurt (up 3.6%). Meanwhile, whole milk dropped 2.7% and cottage cheese dropped 7.7%.
“These trends reflect consumers’ desire for lower caloric products such as yogurt,” Hutjens said. “The advantage of producing a wide variety of dairy products is that it allows consumers to pick their favorite product based on fat content, caloric intake, flavor, taste, cost, and food recipe alternatives.”
Last year, the U.S. dairy industry included 54,942 dairy farm operations with 9.2 million dairy cows, down 1.2 percent from 2008. These cows produced 189.3 billion pounds of milk, down 0.3% as compared to 2008. U.S. dairy cows averaged 20,576 pounds of milk per cow. In comparison, the European Union of 27 countries has 24.2 million dairy cows producing 12,165 pounds of milk per cow.
“The continued improvements in efficiency in the U.S. dairy industry reflect higher milk yield per cow which results in lower-priced milk and dairy products for U.S. consumers,” Hutjens said.
In addition, he said exports of dairy products continue to improve as the world recession eases and demand increases.
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IDFA: Cornell study shows DSA will cost more
Source: International Dairy Foods Association
A new study from Cornell University shows that the proposed Farm Bill dairy program will cost more than a bipartisan amendment that will be offered this week by Representatives Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and David Scott (D-GA). The study, “2013 Farm Bill Dairy Title Proposal Redistributes Program Benefits toward States with Larger Farms,” also finds that the currently proposed Dairy Security Act is significantly weighted to benefit large farms.
“As did the Congressional Budget Office, the Cornell report finds that the Dairy Security Act will cost taxpayers more than the alternative,” said Jerry Slominski, senior vice president of legislative affairs and economic policy for the International Dairy Foods Association. “The report also contradicts a previous study from the University of Missouri, which claimed the opposite.”
According to the Cornell report, “the government loss ratio is significantly higher for the [Dairy Security Act] proposal than the Goodlatte-Scott proposal,” which is also known as the Dairy Freedom Act. The expected loss ratio is the ratio of expected payments divided by premiums, and thus it represents the multiple of losses the government expects to pay relative to premiums paid by producers. “For example, for $4.50 margin coverage, the expected loss ratio is 20.56 for DSA, versus only 6.71 for DFA.”
The study also refutes the argument that the Dairy Security Act will help small farms. “The implication of the [supply management program in the DSA] would be further government flows towards regions dominated by larger producers – many of which are in the process of contracting production growth – at the expense of consumers, taxpayers and regions dominated by smaller producers.”
Both the Dairy Security Act and the Goodlatte-Scott proposal will replace the current Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program with a new margin insurance program for producers. Under both alternatives, larger producers will be provided an improved and effective safety net to help them through difficult economic times. But only the Dairy Security Act adds a second program for dairy farmers that is intended to increase milk prices by imposing government limits on milk production.
The Goodlatte-Scott amendment helps small farmers by requiring lower premium payments from smaller farms and higher premiums for larger producers than does the Dairy Security Act. In fact, more than 90% of all dairy farmers, those with fewer than 200 cows, will pay less for margin insurance under Goodlatte-Scott than the Dairy Security Act.
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Hinai made of twined ieie (Freycinetia arborea). The twining is tightly done using split ieie in a consistent twill over the entire surface. Some cordage, used to suspend the hinai, is attached around the rim. The hinai tapers at the rim.
This object is associated with Liliuokalani
Collection Name: Liliuokalani Collection
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The World Bank has collected a database of all major (i.e. at least USD 1mn) known privatizations of public companies from 1988 to 2008.
The source data is available at the studies web site. Excellent documentation on methodology is available. Quote:
This site contains data on the sale price of privatization transactions of over $1 million, carried out in developing countries between 2000 and 2008. It only includes transactions which generate proceeds or monetary receipts to the government resulting from partial and full divestitures, concessions, management contracts, and leases. Thus, only those transactions that generate revenue for the government from privatization or private sector participation in an existing state-owned enterprise or other government assets (such as wireless license sales) are included. The data give information on the sale price of transactions on an "announcement" basis rather than on the basis of actual flows of receipts, which may be paid for over several years.
Transactions that did not generate revenue for the government are excluded from the database. As such, the database does not include firms transferred to the private sector through mass or "voucher" privatizations (as in Eastern Europe). It also does not include new greenfield investments that did not involve payments to the government, funds committed or invested by new owners, and build-operate-transfer schemes which do not involve payments to the governments.
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Time to Whoop Ass and Write
Well, we're into January, a new year, so time to make a few resolutions. One of them being to actually get something done this year. So I present to you, in hopes of motivating the both of us, the Official Shut Up and Write User Manual. Sections and sub-sections are subject to change in future versions. Have fun, take heart, and Shut Up and Write, will'ya?
At first glance the term ‘Shut up and Write’ may come off as rather crude and low-brow terminology; after all, our language is filled with plenty of subtle and elegant ways to communicate ideas. Seeing as how writers can be a little thick, sometimes we need to cut right through the bullshit and get right to the heart of the matter.
To wit: You talk too much. Shut up and write!
Shut Up And Write is a rather broad statement, of course, and is not meant to be rude, or mean, or insulting. It’s really just a humorous nudge, a reminder, that you’re wasting valuable oxygen yapping away or Tweeting to friends instead of writing. It also applies to people who talk a lot about writing, but don’t actually write. This is a problem, and must be corrected. Here then is a compendium of things you do that are stunting your writing, so you’ll know when to Shut Up And Write:
Staring at your computer screen – Do not do this. Type anything. Type your name, what you had for dinner, what color your socks are, but do not stare at that screen for longer than 5 minutes. Headaches ensue, and your soul turns to mush. Shut Up And Write.
Itchy Bum Syndrome: You type a sentence, and then go to the refrigerator for some Oreo Cookie Ice Cream, leaving your sentence hanging and your flow disrupted. Please do not do this. You could spill ice cream all over your computer, or get sticky fingers, or grow lethargic and apathetic and not want to write anymore. Oreo Cookie ice cream is great for the synapses, but bad for writing. Plus, this is not really about ice cream, it’s about not wanting to write, or being afraid to write. This is characterized by constant shifting of the ass in your chair and thoughts other than writing begin invading your skull (IE did I pay the phone bill? Should I take the dog for a walk? Why is there a mushroom cloud on the horizon, and should it concern me?)
Tweeting, Facebooking, Foursquaring, etc etc Blah blah blah – This is the bane of writers: Tweeting too much. I know it’s fun, and that guy named @ShitMyDadsays is endlessly hilarious, but come on! You gotta pull it together! Only you can prevent a book not being written! Unless you can get your pet Shitzu to write your book for you, it’s probably best to get a move on and start writing. I suggest curbing your 12 hours of Twitter down to, say, 2. There! Then you’ll have lots of time to write!
That stupid Television – Yeah, Jersey Shore is filled with entertaining idiots who make us feel exponentially more intelligent when we watch their antics, but Mike ‘The Situation” and "Snooki" already have book deals. If that doesn’t motivate you, nothing will!
The Stupid Blog hasn't been updated for 12 hours! Oh No! – The land of the damned! The blog is what I turn to when I’m not feeling the prose flow on my novel, but the problem is the blog is too easy, we could write posts in our sleep because it’s largely plotless and free association. If you find that you’re using your blog as a crutch for not writing, then rectify it immediately. Only blog after you have made a significant contribution to your novel.
Section 2, Article A: You Know You're In trouble as A Writer If ...
You start talking about your book, again, and your friend's eyes begin to roll upwards in exasperation and you hear these sentences all the time:
"God, just shut up and write a book already!"
"I'll take you seriously when you've written something."
"How can you be a writer? You haven't written anything!"
"Is that the little book you been working on? For 10 years? Are you gonna finish it sometime this century?"
Section 2, Article B: Looking mournful while walking through a Chapters book store because your book isn't even finished, much less stacked in a display alongside Stephenie Meyers and Stephen King and Tom Clancy in a giant retail bookstore.
Okay this one is self-explanatory.
Section 3, Article A: Doubt fills your soul, so you just ... stop.
You think you suck.
The guy you got to Beta Read your manuscript has the IQ of a piece of wood and he only reads the backs of cereal boxes anyway. Yet you are devastated when he tells you there isn't enough sex or death in the book and he fell asleep after the first chapter.
Your friend looks at the manuscript in your hand and asks you dubiously how many pages they have to read because the longest thing they ever read was a Newspaper and they are unsure of it and are too lazy to actually do you a favor and read it for you (Friendship may be on rocky ground after this little encounter.) So you take it the only way a writer ever takes it: you suck.
Every word you type, every sentence you mangle, every phrase you torture, it's like being forced to listen to a John Denver greatest hits CD on repeat - Torture! Torture! But neither your writing, or John Denver, are that bad. Stop the soul sucking doubt! Just shut up, keep writing, it'll all work out.
Section 3, Article B: It's not you, it's them.
In conclusion it, it's wise to remember that nobody cares about you until you've written something, which is not to say you suck or you're useless, but merely talking about writing amounts to just that: talk. And, it's not you, it's them. People are results oriented; it is the rare human being (usually an elderly person, or an extremely positive and enlightened and inebriated Uncle) who will take you at your word that you are writing a book, will finish the book, will become rich and famous because of that book. The human race is wary by nature; so you must prove to the sneering jerk at your office that one day you too will wear elbow patches and smoke a pipe and do the lecture circuit talking about your book. This is the only way! You must Shut Up and Write!
ShutUpAndWrite: A Master's thesis
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Welcoming the Iron Tiger at Deer Park
This would be a celebration of aspirations, of hopes and intentions for the next trip around the sun, a simultaneous appreciation of both the coming of spring and of the harvest, an outpouring of gratitude for the opportunity for renewal.
“In Vietnam,” Thay Phap
Dung explained, “the celebrations go on for weeks.” He smiled, “For
as long as they can, really - until all the treats run out.”
the basket is overflowing-
in front of the altar
And so the number of treats prepared is no small issue.
While the Tet Retreat at Deer Park is a very special time, the weekend before also holds it’s own uniqueness. For at Deer Park, the weekend before Tet is devoted to making Earth Cakes.
Earth cakes – cakes of mung bean and sticky rice boiled inside a banana leaf wrapping – are the traditional treat of Tet. They follow from a Vietnamese folktale that I won’t try to reproduce, so as not to rob you of the chance to hear it directly from one of the nuns. The cakes are perfect for celebrating Tet, we were told, because the banana leaves seal the rice inside, preserving it. The beautiful shining green-wrapped packages are hung by strings around the house as you relax into the abundance of the new year. Guests arrive? Just pull one down and cut it open. They can be hung over the stove, in fact, so a warm earth cake is always available.
And so the weekend before Tet the monks, nuns and guests spend all day and – literally – all night making earth cakes.
The dining hall of Clarity Hamlet is turned into Earth Cake Central. The dish-washing tables are now used to wash banana leaves. Inside, every square inch of dining space is used to artfully wrap those banana leaves around rice and mung beans. Raging fires are made outside on the concrete, where enormous pots of water will boil the cakes all night long.
The visitors are encouraged to learn the careful art of the earth cake, using square wooden frames to wrap them as perfectly geometric shining packages. Many of the visitors, applying their skills from holiday wrapping paper, proved surprisingly adept. More than once Thay Phap Dung held up a neatly wrapped square, “This is their first time! Amazing!”
As evening rolled round the wrapping was complete, and the boiling began. This year rain was ever-present, and we all took shelter under a dripping awning, singing songs in both Vietnamese and English, as lay brothers and Thay Chinh Quang played the guitar. For that one evening the back porch of Clarity Hamlet’s dining hall resembles more a Vietnamese village, alive with smoky cooking fires, endless pots of tea, and song.
As we visitors eventually retired
to our rooms, many of the brothers and sisters stayed on through the
night, tending the fires.
eyes stinging, hair wet, we sing -
white smoke rises
into the rain clouds
When the weekend of Tet came, and the accompanying retreat, the monks and nuns of Deer Park did anything but relax and eat Earth Cakes. The Year of the Iron Tiger would be welcomed with nothing short of a festival, a grand party to make sure everyone there could feel the currents of renewal flowing deeply inside them.
Dragons danced brilliantly down the center of the meditation hall, Thay Chinh Quang corralling them with a paper fan and the smiling mask of a Buddha. We were invited to draw fortunes from the Hall’s bell – slips of paper referring to verses of a classic Vietnamese poem, which the brothers and sisters would then interpret for us. Gifts were formally presented from the greater sangha to the monks and nuns, and to the Monastery. Venerable Thich Phuoc Tinh had small gifts presented to each visitor, hundreds of them all combined.
On the eve of the New Year we walked together outside long long after dark, and then burned aspirations for the new year in a metal cauldron outside the mediation hall.
We all then sat in meditation
in the Hall, waiting for the arrival of the Iron Tiger. And oh, did
the Tiger arrive. At the stroke of midnight, with no warning, one of
the brothers began drumming on an enormous temple drum. Many of us nearly
leapt out of our skin, greeting the new year with a surge of adrenaline
that left us vibrating. The drumming went on and on, filling the Meditation
Hall, and driving out the dust from the corners of our minds.
quietly under the stars
the embers of our aspirations
Abbott Thay Phap Dung had told us we would be seeing a side of Deer Park that we wouldn’t see as clearly the rest of the year: Deer Park’s Temple aspect. Vietnamese culture, he told us, holds that it is auspicious to visit as many temples as possible on the first days of the new year. So tour buses would be arriving, five or six at a time, from the region’s Vietnamese communities, filled with families to be welcomed at the Meditation Hall.
Thay Phap Dung warned us that the lively chaos would be a very different energy from the usual tranquility of Deer Park. He passed on advice from Su Co Dang Nghiem: “When the tour buses show up, put yourself in the calm at the center of the storm.”
“That’s good practice,” he continued, “So when the tour buses show up in your head, put yourself at the center of that storm too.”
We watched from the quiet safety
of the upper hamlet as bus after bus of visitors pulled up to the Meditation
Hall, smiling grandmothers and grandfathers, uncles, aunts and parents
walking their children into the meditation hall to watch the dragons
that woman’s face-
a memory of my great aunt,
a tangerine from the Temple
In Vietnam, the weeks following Tet are filled with visiting – visiting your elders, visiting your teachers, visiting your friends, and hosting them all in return. At the monastery, this important part of the Tet tradition is expressed with a once-a-year delight: the monks and nuns open their rooms to us, and welcome us in for tea.
We went in curious about what a monastics’ quarters would be like. How much stuff did they have? How much space? What we found though, sitting with the brothers and sisters, chatting, laughing and singing, was a clearer picture of the monastics themselves. Seeing them in their own private rooms, often beneath pictures of their family and of Thay, goofing around with their roommates – we got to see the people beyond the robes. We went in looking for stuff, but found humans instead.
In the early part of the day we sat on the floor of the brothers’ rooms and were offered tea, nuts, candied ginger and lotus seeds. Vietnamese culture holds that it is good luck not to sweep out your house for the first three days of the new year. They insisted we help them gain good fortune, therefore, laughing and encouraging us to toss pistachio shells and tangerine rinds around the floors of their small rooms.
Thay Phap Ho’s room escaped the mess: he received us on the veranda outside. Lest he not meet with good fortune, however, I threw a tangerine rind into his window, “May the new year be filled with health and so much happiness.”
The sisters received us warmly in their rooms in the early evening. The homemade treats offered were exquisite, candied cranberries with chilies and ginger. But no one, at least no one male, dared to toss the remains on the floor.
Coming and going from each
monk or nun’s quarters, gratitude was offered with blessings for the
new year: “Thank you, our dear sisters and brothers here at Deer Park,
for all that you give to us.”
your lights burn so brightly
on this hillside,
they are beacons
Soren Kisiel, True Land
of Serenity, is an award-winning playwright and actor, and is part of
Deer Park’s Dharmacast team. His home sanghas are the
Open Way and Flowing Mountain Sanghas in Montana.
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Monday 22 March 2010 Tara Lohan | AlterNet
It took six years for residents of tiny McCloud, California, to give Nestle Waters North America its walking papers. The water bottler had hoped to build a 1 million square-foot facility in the town of less than 2,000 and was given a backroom 50-year contract (renewable for an additional 50 years) to annually take 1,250 gallons per minute of delicious spring water from the town, hunkered in the shadow of Mount Shasta, and unlimited groundwater. But after years of opposition from community and environmental groups, Nestle scrapped its plans and left with its tail between its legs.
However, the bottling giant didn’t have to look very far for its next target. Last summer as Gov. Schwarzenegger was warning that parched California was in its third year of drought, and residents of the capital city of Sacramento were facing water restrictions, Nestle was getting a behind-the-scenes welcome mat rolled out and the keys to the city’s water pipes.
The food and beverage giant is king when it comes to bottled water — it controls one-third of the U.S. market and sells water under 70 different brand names such as Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deer Park, Perrier and Poland Spring. It shares the stage with two other giant bottlers, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, although Nestle is the big culprit in targeting rural communities for spring water, a move that has earned it fierce opposition across the U.S. from towns worried about losing their precious water resources.
As small, rural towns across the U.S. started to organize in opposition to Nestle, the company tried to rope in a bigger city. In July it was announced that Nestle would be opening a bottling plant in Sacramento, but how much water the company would be taking is in dispute. The company says it will take 150 acre-feet of water (close to 50 million gallons) in the first year. Reportedly about 30 million of this will come from the municipal water system and 20 million from undisclosed private springs in nearby counties.
But an October article in the Sacramento Bee reported that the city’s utilities director estimated instead that the plant would take 80 million, and not 30 million gallons a year from Sacramento. Other city departments have reportedly placed the number as high as 116 million, but the estimates are really inconsequential. Nestle is allowed to draw as much water as it can fit through its pipe; there’s no maximum to how much it can bottle.
While residents are asked to conserve water, Nestle gets an all-you-can-bottle buffet. Expectedly, this has some folks worried. “We have concerns about conflicting numbers and the fact that this was supposed to be replacement for McCloud, which was hundreds of millions of gallons,” said Evan Tucker, of the citizen’s group Save Our Water Sacramento.“There is no limit on how much water they can pump, there is a flat rate. They can pump as much as they want, the city says there is nothing they can do about it.”
While Nestle faced problems with its environmental impact in McCloud, Sacramento residents have no idea what the potential impact would be because the company was not required to hold public hearings or perform an environmental review.
Under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), a project is either “ministerial” or “discretionary.” The city says that Nestle’s bottling plant, which would be in an area zoned for industrial would pass as ministerial, which means all it has to do is fill out the necessary forms and pay the fees, but there is no public say in the process and no environmental review needs to be completed.
Save Our Water Sacramento felt differently. The group challenged the city on the decision, arguing that because Nestle had requested a second water line be added to the plant those changes actually pushed the project into the discretionary category of CEQA, where there should be ample review. But when legal challenges were raised, Nestle quickly withdrew its plans for a second water line and the city gave its stamp of approval.
The Business of Bottled Water
The world faces a global crisis of fresh drinking water. An estimated 3.6 million people, including 1.5 million children, die each year from water-related diseases. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement last week, “More people die from unsafe water than all forms of violence, including war.” Yet, in rich nations like the U.S., where potable water flows from taps in most everyone’s homes and costs pennies, people are still shelling out extra bucks for bottled water and the industry is making a killing.
The bottled water business has climbed steadily over the last few decades, only falling off slightly in recent years. TriplePundit reported in November 2009:
According to data from Beverage Marketing, a U.S.-based data and consulting firm, retail sales of single-serving plastic bottles increased from 1.4 billion gallons in 2000 to 5.2 billion gallons last year, lifting their share of total bottled water volume from 29 percent to more than 60 percent. And, over the past decade, per-capita consumption of bottled water in the U.S. has more than doubled to about 200 bottles per year, per person, according to MarketWatch.
Still, leading bottled water companies like Nestle saw a dip in sales beginning in 2008 — perhaps a signal that people are waking up to the environmental and economic costs of bottled water. It may also be a sign that during cash-strapped times, people are finding their way back to tap water instead.
In response to the downturn in sales, the industry has responded by trying to “bluewash” its image and make itself seem more environmentally friendly. A new report from Food and Water Watchreveals that bottled water companies are using awareness-raising initiatives like World Water Day to advertise contributions they make to water charities, especially in the developing world, and to claim they are making their businesses more green.
But, “Bottled water is inherently not a water-friendly product,” theF&WW report says. “Bottling companies take water out of local water systems and ship it elsewhere — which is one reason that many residents worried about their local water have opposed water bottlers in their communities. … No mater how much water bottlers talk about the steps they are taking to reduce their water footprint, as long as water generates profit, bottlers will never have an incentive to reduce overall water consumption.”
It may be a no-brainer for many people to stop buying bottled water, but government has been slow to catch on in many places. A report by Corporate Accountability International found that four Northeastern states — Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Vermont — spend nearly $2 million on bottled water that comes out of taxpayers’ pockets. This seems especially troubling because we face a $24 billion annual shortfall of funding for public water systems and many cities and states are feeling the pinch of a slowed economy and cutting public services.
Ironically, last year Sacramento’s city council voted to ban bottled water at its meetings, “in recognition that plastic water bottles are littering the world and the precious water they once contained is often wasted,” as city councilor Kevin McCarty said. But the rest of the city government doesn’t seem to be on the same page.
The Sacramento Bee found that water use went up 22 percent at the city’s metered properties during the last three years of drought. (Shockingly, water meters are an altogether new concept for Sacramento.) In response Mayor Kevin Johnson told the Sacramento Bee:
“We’re going to have to learn to use water smarter, which is a new way of thinking in our city where residents have tapped into two major rivers for generations. We need to light a fire under the city’s efforts to save water so we can be a shining example of how to use water more efficiently instead of being a showcase of waste and inefficiency.”
But as Johnson was issuing that statement he was also offering other rather contradictory ones. “I appreciate the concerns of citizens who worry about water use and conservation. The city has asked residents to conserve. The city can’t ignore industrial water use. Those concerns should be discussed and addressed,” he said, but apparently that doesn’t apply to Nestle.
“When I heard Nestle was bringing a plant to Sacramento, I was excited. I believe Sacramento should do everything possible to encourage businesses to move here and hire our citizens,” he said. “For me, the Nestle story is pretty simple. It’s all about jobs. Nestle is bringing jobs to Sacramento with the company’s new water bottling plant.”
So, 40 jobs trumps the potential impact of untold million and millions of gallons of water, as well as the environmental impact of the plastic bottles, themselves. Even Nestle’s lowest estimate of 50 million gallons would mean 800 million new plastic water bottles a year, Treehugger reported. Across the country, the environmental impact of our bottled water addiction is huge. In just the U.S. in 2007, water bottling used the equivalent of 32-54 millions barrels of oil. That’s how much it would take to fuel average consumption levels in 1.5 million cars for a year.
Consumers are also often duped about the quality of water. The Sacramento plant is the perfect example — much of it will actually simply be from the same source as tap. This is true for 40 percent of water bottled in the U.S.
Consumers are paying upwards of a thousand times the price for virtually the same product as tap and are instead putting an extra burden on the environment by using single-use plastic bottles, of which over 80 percent are likely to end up in landfills.
While bottled water companies may spend millions convincing you that you’re drinking the cleanest water from pristine mountain springs, the truth is that in many cases, bottled water could be less safe for consumers. The EPA, as well as state and local governments, regulate tap water, but bottled water is checked only by the FDA and the standards are much less strict. Food and Water Watch reports that municipal water systems must test for coliform bacteria 100 or more times a month. But bottled water plants only have to test once a week.
The impact on local water sources is a big question, too — such as in Sacramento. “It doesn’t make sense,” said Tucker of his city’s decision, “The city fines people if they don’t comply with water restrictions, but Nestle can use as much as they want and pay very little for it.”
Because rates aren’t tiered in Sacramento, he says, the company has no reason to want to conserve. “Unlike other industrial water users who may use water as a part of their industrial process, like for cooling, their product is water,” he said. “So they have a disincentive to conserve.”
The Sacramento News and Review reported in October that one of the mayor’s top volunteer advisors, Michelle Smira, was stepping down in order to run her consulting business, MMS Strategies. Guess who her big client was? That would be Nestle.
“It just happens that MMS was hired, over the weekend, by Nestle Waters, to help win hearts and minds, and building permits, for its controversial water bottling plant in South Sacramento,” the News and Review wrote. “Johnson has been a major cheerleader for the project, despite concerns among some citizen groups and council members about the bottled water industry and the process by which the Nestle plant has been pushed forward.”
City Councilmember Kevin McCarty has been one of the few local leaders to oppose Nestle’s project. “At current rates, they would pay the city about 65 cents per 100 cubic feet of water, or 750 gallons,” he said. “That works out to a payment to the city of $186 for the 215,000 gallons of water taken on an average day. By the time that water is bottled and put on a grocer’s shelf, the consumers would pay more than $2.1 million for those 215,000 gallons — a profit margin of roughly 10,000 percent!”
Tucker is worried that Nestle has found a new model of operating that draws less heat than its previous plans to build bottling plants in small towns and pilfer rural spring water.
“They’ve taken the thing that has caused the most problems for communities, building the bottling plant,” said Tucker, “and located it in a place like an industrial area of a bigger city, where they can do it relatively easily. They are taking a lot of our municipal water and that is a concern for us, but most people in cities don’t worry about their water sources the way rural residents do. We don’t have wells that could run dry from pumping plants or aren’t concerned with local streams. We just turn on our taps and it comes out. I have a concern that this is a model they’ll proliferate.”
For many communities, the privatization of water by big companies is becoming an issue that threatens local control of the most vital resource for survival. Groups like Food and Water Watch and Corporate Accountability International are waging campaigns to help communities fight for public control of their water and for clean, safe and affordable tap water for all.
Even Annie Leonard, whose hit Internet film (and now book) The Story of Stuff, has produced a new film (that you can view below), called “The Story of Bottled Water.” The film is a call to action to all of us. We don’t have to live in a place like McCloud or Sacramento to join the fight against bottled water.
“It’s time we took back the tap,” Leonard says in the movie. “That starts with making a personal commitment to not buy or drink bottled water unless the water in your community is truly unhealthy. Yes, it takes a bit of foresight to grab a reusable bottle on the way out, but I think we can handle it.
“Then take the next step — join a campaign that’s working for real solutions. Like demanding investment in clean tap water for all. In the U.S., tap water is underfunded by $24 billion partly because people believe drinking water only comes from a bottle! Around the world, a billion people don’t have access to clean water right now. Yet cities all over are spending millions of dollars to deal with all the plastic bottles we throw out. What if we spent that money improving our water systems or better yet, preventing pollution to begin with?”
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Saccharina latissima is usually found in the lower intertidal and higher subtidal area, well below a band of Ribbon Kelp (Alaria marginata). It occurs both in protected waters and on the outer coast, yet it does not thrive in areas with more vigorous wave action. Saccharina Latissima, however, rarely appears in rock pools. This species usually occurs in sheltered conditions and may attach to unstable substrata such as clam shells.
Saccharina latissima is one of the most abundant brown algae in the world. Although it is distributed widely around the globe, it is cofined to the Northern hemisphere including the British Isles from the Shetlands to the Channel Islands, Europe (Portugal, Atlantic coasts of Spain and France, Netherlands, Helgoland, Baltic Sea, Norway, Sweden, Faroes, Jan Mayen and Bjornoya, Spitzbergen, Iceland and Greenland) and Atlantic coast of North America (Canada, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connetricut and Long Island) and Pacific coast of North America from Alaska to California.
(Check Algabase for detailed distribution source)
Locally, Saccharina latissima has been found at Meadow Point, Davis Bay, Open Bay and Echo Bay on San Juan island, WA.
O’Claire R. M. and Lindstrom, S. C. North Pacific Seaweeds.
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The phylum Arthropoda encompasses a tremendous range of marine species and body plans, as well as an amazing diversity of terrestrial insects and spiders. Coastal and nearshore marine habitats, including the plankton, feature a number of these forms, such as copepods, crabs, and barnacles. While the mobile, highly jointed bodies of crabs and copepods may seem quite different from the sessile, immobile carapaces of barnacles, these groups share important traits: a chitinous exoskeleton and a need to molt that exoskeleton in order to grow larger.
Invertebrates in the Plankton: Arthropoda
In our observations of the plankton, we found both larval and fully planktonic species to be very abundant: during our night-lighting from the Lab dock, we caught many hundreds of two crab larval stages, zoea and megalopae. And in our daytime plankton tow in the Straits area close to Friday Harbor, we caught great numbers of several different types of copepods. Photos of these and our other discoveries follow.
|This crab megalopa (4 mm in length) was one of hundreds captured by night-lighting during the last week of June. It swam strongly at the water's surface, its legs occasionally splaying energetically. This megalopa is the final larval stage of true crabs, preceding the benthic juvenile stage and following several zoeal stages. One of the most recognizable brachyurans (also known as true crabs) along the Pacific coast is the Dungeness crab (Cancer magister), a species with considerable commercial and cultural value in the region.|
|This zoea of a porcelain crab (Petrolisthes eriomerus, 3 mm in length) is well defended from potential predators; notice its long, inflexible rostral spine. The porcelain crab belongs to the group known as anomuran crabs, which include hermit, porcellanid, lithodid, and galatheid crabs. The zoea uses its first two pairs of thoracic appendages, the maxillipeds, to swim, making it one of the more agile planktonic animals. The zoea will develop into a megalopa form, sometimes referred as a glaucothoe, and then into a functional adult.|
|Copepods are the most abundant multicellular animals in the world, living in both freshwater and marine environments. The most abundant free-living marine copepod is the calanoid (seen on the right); it is recognizable by the long first antennae, which it flicks in swimming locomotion. This type of copepod uses mouth parts called maxillae to scoop phytoplankton, small invertebrates (including other copepods), or fish larvae from the water. Copepods are also the primary consumers of phytoplankton and are an important food source to fish, baleen whales, and other invertebrates.|
In all copepods, fertilization occurs when the egg passes out the female genital tract. Many copepods carry the eggs in sacs on the body; calanoids carry one egg sac as seen above. Development of the eggs depends strongly on sea temperature (see development of eggs at different temperatures), species, and egg size. The reproductive season depends on the species and its location.
This larval stage, called a nauplius, is found in barnacles, copepods, penaeid shrimps, and ostracods. It swims by using its jointed appendages that are moved by muscle contraction. These larvae have a nauplier eye, made up of photoreceptor cells that are thought to give rise to the photoreceptors in some adult forms. They frequently molt (shed their hard outer skeleton) to enable growth during this phase. Barnacles are hermaphrodites. They release their larvae into the water column at the nauplius stage. After several moltings, the final larval stage before settling is called a cyprid. The cyprid stage is non-feeding. For more information on adult barnacles see the Cattle Point page.
|An example from a group of crustaceans called cladocerans is seen here. These adult animals swim using the second antennae and they feed by either filtering microscopic algae or preying on small animals. Most cladoceran females reproduce by parthenogenesis, which produces males and females without sexual recombination. However, they also have sexual reproduction that produces females. This marine representative, Evadne. uses the carapace as a brood chamber (a place to store eggs). A more commonly known freshwater species is Daphnia.|
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1) Callistemon sieberi (Alpine Bottlebrush)
- This small, spreading shrub is currently showing off its creamy-yellow flowers in bottlebrush-like spikes.
- Native to Australia, C. sieberi can be found along the footpath of the Australian Entry Garden within the Pacific Connections Garden.
2) Cytisus battandieri (Pineapple Broom)
- Sometimes referred to as Argyrocytisus, this genus of Brooms fall within the family, Fabaceae.
- Native to Morocco, C. battandieri is an upright tree-like shrub with pineapple-scented flowers.
- Located on the east side of Arboretum Drive in the Legumes.
3) Liriodendron tulipfera (Tulip Tree)
- A member of the family Magnoliaceae, Liriodendron is a genus of two deciduous trees, L. chinense and L. tulipfera.
- The solitary, cup-shaped flowers, inconspicuous from a distance, add interest in summer, but are not produced on young plants.
- Located in the Magnolias, these cuttings came from a tree over 100 feet tall.
4) Staphylea pinnata (European Bladdernut)
- The flowers of this upright shrub have come and gone, but it is the curious bladder-like fruit now on display.
- Located near Azalea Way amongst the True Ashes.
5) Tsuga sieboldii (South Japan Hemlock)
- Glossy, dark green foliage and smooth, dark gray bark give this tree some distinction within its genus.
- This Tsuga can be found between the Woodland Garden and the top of Loderi Valley.
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Who we are
The University of Washington Memory Health Research Program is dedicated to the research of memory in order to improve the cognitive health of all people. Past research has included the link between hormones and memory, Alzheimer’s Disease research, and the prevention and early detection of memory issues.
Our current research is focused on cognitive rehabilitation in cancer survivors. Our research is directed at providing resources and support for survivors who are suffering from memory and thinking abilities as a result of cancer treatment.
Interested in participating?
Click here to find out more about our cognitive rehabilitation study.
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The fixed part of the event data goes under different names, depending on which source file, work log, bug report, etc. you are reading:
Sometimes it is called the "fixed data" part, as in this discussion.
Sometimes it is called the "post-headers" part.
To make things notationally interesting, sometimes the
fixed data part is referred to as the "event-specific
headers" part of the event. That is, the word "header" is
used in reference to a portion of the data part. One
manifestation of this notational phenomenon appears in
log_event.h, where you will find the
defined as 19 (the header length for v3 and v4), plus
other symbols with names of the form
XXX_HEADER_LEN for different event
types. The former symbol is the size of the event header
(always 19). The latter symbols define the size of the
fixed portion of the data part that is to be treated as
the event-specific headers. For example,
ROTATE_HEADER_LEN is 8 because a
ROTATE_EVENT has an 8-byte field in the
fixed data part that indicates the position in the next
log file of the first event in that file.
The variable part of event data also goes under different names, such as the event "payload" or "body."
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