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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/78980
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For Teachers
For Parents
Kids Math Count Numbers Game
Price: Android - Free
Teacher Certification
SubjectsSubject Category of the app
SafeguardingApp Advertising or In-App Purchases
• Kids Math Count Numbers Game App - 1Kids Math Count Numbers Game App - 2Kids Math Count Numbers Game App - 3Kids Math Count Numbers Game App - 4Kids Math Count Numbers Game App - 5
Developer Description
This Kids Maths game is one of the extremely useful, education free games for kids because the activity of counting numbers has been presented in an innovative manner for kids apart from being free on the Android platform. This application connects the dots for kids to form their world of knowledge when it comes to counting numbers.
1. Its an interactive application with six engaging kids games or activities:
• Learn to count number from 1 to 10.
• Writing and spell numbers
• Identifying greater and smaller number
• Find missing number and arrange them in ascending and descending order.
• Learning number names
• Connecting dots to form a picture with a sub-activity to solve the puzzles.
• Number song - dance with numbers and Santa, based on Christmas theme.
3. Available free to install
4. An interactive colorful interface
This application does well as a missing number game for kids also apart from serving as a useful aid for learning number counting. It has the potential of being one of the most useful math games for kids.
Amidst the different number games, this fantastic math game helps children to learn mathematics with ease. Some examples of these types of concept include:
• Greater than and lesser than
• find missing number
• Arrange numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 in ascending and descending order
If you are looking for a free maths app to install, then this maths game is ideal for the preschooler, kindergarten, and children of grade 1. Available for free at Google Play Store, this application will serve an effective brain-refreshers for your child, toddlers and preschool going kids.
123 Number Song: A fun animated 123 number song with melodious music especially developed for toddlers, preschool and early childhood learning.
This free kids game is fun and intuitive game for babies, toddlers and children. A child-oriented application having math game for kindergarten, preschool grade-1 and grade 2.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79008
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basilica (n.)
1540s, "type of building based on the Athenian royal portico, large oblong building with double columns and a semicircular porch at the end," from Latin basilica "building of a court of justice," from Greek (stoa) basilike "royal (portal)," in Athens the portico of the archon basileus, the official who dispensed justice in Athens; from fem. adjective of basileus "king" (see Basil).
In Rome, the style of building used for halls of justice, many of which were subsequently appropriated as churches, and so it became a standard plan for new churches. The word is applied to the seven principal Roman churches founded by Constantine. The specific reference to Christian churches in English is attested by 1560s.
Others Are Reading
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79018
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Better BJ Kit
Regular price $54.95
Take the ''job'' out of giving blowjobs and master the art of oral sex with the incredible Better BJ Kit! Everything you need to finesse your fellatio skills and become a pop-shot pro is included in the kit: A ''Target Practice'' Blowjob Bib, Head Job Flavored Oral Sex Lotion, Comfortably Numb Deep Throat Spray, BJ Blast Oral Sex Candy, Inflatable Knee Pad BJ Cushion, and Pipedream's Ultimate Oral Sex ''How To'' Guide. Any man you ask will tell you there's no such thing as a bad blow job. True, but with these must-have oral sex essentials and expert tips and tricks, you can blow like the pros!
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79026
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I am fairly new to the corporate use of data so it's been fun to explore and learn the different problems and needs of business. Feel free to use any techniques used here in your own problems and if you have any to share I'm all ears!
Reducing Employee Churn
Retaining the best talent is an essential part of running a great company, but how to do it is not always straight forward. In this project I used data from an anonymized tech company to understand what factors cause employees to leave and recommend ways to reduce churn rates. I did this by: 1. first plotting distributions of different features to get an idea of what may be causing it and 2. Using a decision tree classifier to find the most predictive features.
Some Findings:
- Employees tend to quit after one year of working at the company.
- Employees with the highest and lowest salaries tend to stay in the company, and the most likely to leave are ones with average salaries.
Is it normal for a website to increase user interactions the less it caters to it's user? For this A/B test, a company tracked user interaction for it's website using a common language template and another using local translators for each region. After the data pointed to the common template performing better, the test was analyzed for sample bias using T-tests and a decision tree model. Ultimately, sample bias was found and a decision tree model was built to automate future sample bias detection.
Out-Reach is a project to optimize the way non-profits conduct their outreach efforts. Three years worth of MTA turnstile data was used to pin-point areas of New York with the highest volume of foot traffic according to hour of the day, day of the week, and season. Recommendations were made in the form of visualizations to increase accessibility of the data.
Some Interesting Insights:
• Spring is the season with the highest entries to the subway
• During the weekends the best times to canvas are around the afternoon, from 12 - 6.pm.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79033
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An msf file extension is associated with the Mozilla Thunderbird, an e-mail client for Windows, Mac and Linux. An msf file contains mail summary data.
There are 6 other file types using
the MSF file extension!
empty icon.msf - Epson data
empty icon.msf - Quanta MSF chemical modeller input file
empty icon.msf - Multiple sequence data
msf icon.msf - Miranda IM skin settings file
empty icon.msf - Sony recorder data
empty icon.msf - Altera Mask settings
Bookmark & share this page with others:
MSF file extension - Mozilla Thunderbird mail summary
What is msf file? How to open msf files?
File type specification:
Email related data file type icon Email related data file type
The msf file extension is associated with Mozila Thunderbird. Thunderbird's mail files are in the standard plain text "mbox" format, which almost all mail programs can use or import.
Each mail folder (Inbox, Sent, etc.) is stored as two files — one with no extension (e.g. INBOX), which is the mail file itself (in "mbox" format), and one with an msf file extension (e.g. INBOX.msf), which is the index (Mail Summary File) to the mail file. Tell the other program to import mail from the file with no extension.
Updated: March 19, 2018
The default software associated to open msf file:
Mozilla Thunderbird icon
Mozilla Corporation logoMozilla Thunderbird Microsoft Windows software
Company or developer:
Mozilla Corporation
Mozilla Thunderbird is easy to use e-mail client with spam protection and e-mail managing features.
Help how to open:
The *.msf file is used by Thunderbird for internal purposes.
How to convert:
The *.smf mail summary files cannot be converted to other file formats.
File identification strings:
HEX code: 2F 2F 20 3C 21 2D 2D 20 3C 6D 64 62 3A 6D 6F 72 6B
ASCII code: // !-- mdb:mork:z
List of software applications associated to the .msf file extension
and possible program actions that can be done with the file: like open msf file, edit msf file, convert msf file, view msf file, play msf file etc. (if exist software for corresponding action in's database).
Programs that can create msf file - Mozilla Thunderbird mail summary
Programs supporting the exension msf on the main platforms Windows, Mac, Linux or mobile. Click on the link to get more information about listed programs for create msf file action.
Microsoft Windows:
Apple macOS / Mac OS X:
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MSB file extension > Email related data file types
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79057
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Social Question
talljasperman's avatar
What is the name of the taffy covered with the wrapper of a witch riding a broom on a orange background?
Asked by talljasperman (21820points) August 18th, 2010
I hate them… what candy do you hate?
Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0
5 Answers
Austinlad's avatar
A cursory Google search turned up nothing definitive, but I wonder if what you’re looking for is Laffy Taffy (or some other brand) with special wrapping for Halloween.
Aster's avatar
Hate sourballs. I’ll have to give this more thought.
JilltheTooth's avatar
Necco wafers. gagging
shego's avatar
@talljasperman I have no clue what they are called, but I improvise and call them nasty.
There is a blue candy that has a nasty mint taste to it, and I hate it with a passion. I also dislike almond joy.
Berserker's avatar
Those candies are called ’‘classic’’. They were always the last ones at the bottom of my Halloween bag, because I didn’t like them either. It takes like forty minutes to eat, and they taste like ass.
That and ’‘Nibs’’. I hate those, fuck them to Hell.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79065
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The raging bull market has vaulted the P/E ratio of the S&P 500 to above 25. That's quite expensive when compared to historic norms, which is making it hard for die-hard stock pickers like me to find compelling opportunities.
However, even in today's pricey market, I think I've found a wonderful stock to buy: AppFolio (NASDAQ:APPF). This software-as-a-service provider is growing fast, is well managed, and still has plenty of room to run. Here's why it's a stock that I'd be happy to pull the trigger on right now.
usinessman looking at data using magnifying glass
Image source: Getty Images.
What it does
AppFolio is a software-as-a-service business that focuses on the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. The company got its start by catering to the unique needs of property managers. To this day more than 90% of total revenue is still earned from its property management business.
Why would a property manager choose to do business with AppFolio? The answer lies in the company's all-in-one, cloud-based solution. Once a customer gets setup they can manage all facets of their business with AppFolio's platform. This includes scores of mission-critical tasks like contracting, billing, collections, reporting, background check, tenant screening, and more. These features make it easy for property managers to keep their assets performing at the highest level possible.
Ipad featuring AppFolio software
Image source: AppFolio.
How does AppFolio monetize its growing user base? In three primary ways:
• Users pay subscription fees to remain on the platform. This accounts for about 39% of AppFolio's total revenue.
• Customers pay a fee whenever they use one of the company's optional services, which the company refers to as "Value+ services." This is a catch-all category that includes add-on tasks like payment processing, lead management, website hosting, and more. In total, Value+ services account for about 57% of revenue.
• New customers pay a small onboarding fee. This category accounts for about 4% of revenue.
While the company's property management software accounts for the lion's share of revenue, AppFolio also has a growing business that caters to the needs of small law firms. Called MyCase, this solution helps lawyers with tasks like secured file sharing, time tracking, billing, and more.
Are AppFolio's services catching on? Here's a look at the company's customer count over the last few years:
Customer Count 2014 2015 2016 2017
Property manager customers 5,885 8,218 10,038 11,250*
Property manager units 1.68 million 2.15 million 2.68 million 3.1 million*
Law firm customers 3,663 6,145 8,135 9,200*
*As of September 30, 2017. Data source: AppFolio.
The growing customer count has allowed AppFolio's revenue to soar from $47 million in 2014 to an estimated $140 million to $141 million in 2017. That's a lightning-fast pace.
And yet, as great as these numbers have been, there's still reason to believe that AppFolio's growth engine is just getting started. Management estimates that its market opportunity within the property management business exceeds $5.0 billion annually in the U.S. alone. You can tack on another $2 billion when adding in the opportunity ahead of MyCase.
Sparkling financials
Many high-growth software companies are happy to sacrifice near-term profits for explosive user growth. While this growth-at-any-cost strategy can work out well for investors in some cases -- just take a look at a long-term chart of Shopify, Workday, or Splunk for proof -- running at a loss on purpose also greatly increases a company's risk profile.
Thankfully, this isn't a trade AppFolio's management team has to contemplate anymore. AppFolio has been profitable for four quarters in a row, which suggests that the company has reached enough scale that it can invest for growth and still generate profits at the same time. That's an attractive combination that I believe helps to reduce the company's risk profile substantially.
What's more, AppFolio also boasts a rock-solid balance sheet that has $64 million in cash and no debt. That's a war chest that gives this company plenty of financial firepowers to keep the growth pedal to the metal.
Moving forward, AppFolio's profits should expand at a faster rate than revenue thanks to favorable operating leverage. Investors should applaud that fact.
A strong culture
Another factor that makes AppFlolio a compelling long-term investment is its vibrant and engaged workforce. The company earns a strong 4.6 out of 5 stars on, and CEO Jason Randall boasts a 100% approval rating. Given these numbers, perhaps it isn't surprising to see that AppFolio has won numerous awards, including best places to work and highest-rated CEO.
I also like that AppFolio's founders -- Dr. Klaus Schauser and Jonathan Walker -- are still heavily involved with the business. They currently occupy the roles of chief strategist and chief technology officer, respectively.
Team of workers with smiles on their faces
Image source: Getty Images.
I'm a big believer that cultivating an energized workforce can do wonders for talent and customer retention rates in the long term. That bodes well for this company's continued success.
AppFolio is a buy
Between its rock-solid business model, strong leadership team, wonderful financial statements, and huge growth opportunity ahead, AppFolio is a company I greatly admire. In fact, the biggest knock I have against AppFolio is that Wall Street has caught on to this company's growth story. Shares are currently trading at more than 10 times sales and more than 77 times next year's earnings estimates, both of which are pricy figures. If the company fails to deliver eye-popping growth numbers, then its shareholders could be in for a world of hurt.
Despite the high price tag, I'd still think AppFolio is an attractive enough business to warrant a purchase today. In case you think those are empty words, you should know that I plan on adding to my personal position as soon as the Fool's trading rules allow.
Brian Feroldi owns shares of AppFolio. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Shopify, Splunk, and Workday. The Motley Fool recommends AppFolio. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79068
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1. Amazon rocks the stockings again
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) once again owned the holiday shopping season.
The leading online retailer revealed on Thursday that it sold a record 26.5 million items on its peak shopping day this season. Perhaps just as important, Amazon also announced that -- for the eighth consecutive year -- it topped the annual customer satisfaction survey put out by marketing research firm ForeSee.
Yes, the big keep getting bigger in cyberspace.
I can nitpick the report's omissions. Amazon still isn't telling us the number of Kindle products that it's selling. It also points out that it sold a record number of Kindles on Cyber Monday, conveniently leaving out the fact that Amazon itself was practically giving away the original Kindle Fire tablet for $129 that day.
However, why quibble? Despite the embarrassing AWS outage on Christmas Eve, Amazon is still the one to beat in e-tail.
2. Facebook gets some new friend requests
Analysts keep warming up to Facebook (NASDAQ:FB).
Needham & Co.'s Laura Martin is raising her price target -- from $25 to $33 -- on the leading social networking website operator.
It's hard to have a bullish rating with a price target that is slightly below where it's currently trading, but Martin isn't merely reacting to the stock's buoyant share price. She's also jacking up her top- and bottom-line projections. She now sees a profit of $0.65 a share on $6.5 billion in revenue for 2013, ahead of her earlier estimate that called for net income of $0.59 a share on $6.27 billion.
3. Baidu hears you
Shares of Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) rallied back into the triple digits -- before slipping back -- after rolling out a voice-assistant app for Android mobile phones. Yes, Big G has a Siri-like app of its own, but this is China that we're talking about here.
Baidu investors have seen the market shed nearly a third of its value since a rival search engine began gaining popularity in China. Anything that Baidu can do to make its platform stickier -- and the convenience of voice-based controls would certainly fit the bill -- is important now so it can regain momentum and once again set itself apart from the competition.
4. Indexing gets a friend request
(UNKNOWN:ALU.DL) continues to win raves after raising $2.1 billion in debt earlier this month.
Craig-Hallum analyst Christian Schwab bumped his price target higher on the telecom equipment maker on Thursday. His new goal of $2.50 is sharply higher than his earlier target of $1.50.
Alcatel-Lucent did itself a major favor by lining up $2.1 billion in financing that it will use to pay off maturing debt.
Buying time is important. Schwab points out how the company's plan calls for revenue to climb modestly in the coming years, but the real improvement will come in heartier margins. Layoffs and exiting unprofitable markets may be interpreted as a retreat, but Alcatel-Lucent is buying itself the time to get its turnaround right.
5. China is cheap
The next time you're wondering about how cheap Chinese stocks have become, think back to this week's acquisition of Shanghai-based BCD Semiconductor Manufacturing (UNKNOWN:BCDS.DL) by Texas-based Diodes (NASDAQ:DIOD).
Even though in the $151 million deal Diodes will be paying twice as much for BCD as it was worth, shares of Diodes still closed higher on the news. One analyst -- Benchmark Company's Gary Mobley -- actually raised his price target on Diodes from $20 to $25 on the news.
Yes, China is so cheap that a company can shell out a better-than-100% buyout premium and still be considered a winner.
What are you waiting for, investors?
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Aristotle Munarriz has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. The Motley Fool owns shares of Amazon.com, Baidu, and Facebook and has the following options: long JAN 2014 $20.00 calls on Facebook. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Amazon.com, Baidu, and Facebook. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79069
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Apparently, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) offered to buy Snapchat for $3 billion in cash and was rejected, according to The Wall Street Journal.
For those unaware, Snapchat's entire social experience is based on sharing photo and video clips that only can be viewed for a maximum of 10 seconds before being permanently deleted. It's very popular with teenagers, and the service hasn't earned any revenue.
What on earth was Facebook thinking?
Signs of desperation
My gut reaction is that Facebook is completely desperate for teenage engagement, because this alleged deal comes hot off of Facebook's earnings report, which acknowledged for the first time that daily usage among U.S. young teenagers declined sequentially. But before I acknowledge my gut, let's think about Facebook's previous behavior.
When Facebook purchased Instagram in April 2012 for $1 billion, the photo-sharing network had only 30 million monthly active users, or MAUs, and earned no revenue; the deal looked like a complete flop. Fast-forward to today, and Instagram has begun monetizing its user base, which has grown to over 150 million MAUs. Sure, Snapchat for $3 billion sounds like complete madness today; but $3 billion today could potentially be worth a lot more tomorrow.
Crunching the numbers
Snapchat doesn't report MAUs, but it did report in September that 350 million "snaps" are shared daily between users. To arrive at Snapchat's MAU base, we have to make some sort of assumption about the average number of daily "snaps" shared per user. A recent Pew Research survey suggests that Snapchat has 26 million MAUs, which breaks down to about 13.5 daily snaps per MAU, which I don't think is unreasonable, considering the average 18 to 24 year old sends 67 text messages a day.
Now, if we take Facebook's advertising revenue per mobile user of $1.01 last quarter, and apply it to Pew's MAU estimate, we're talking about roughly $105 million in annual revenue. The billion-dollar question is the premium Facebook is willing to pay for an in-demand service. Considering Facebook shares currently trade at 17.4 times its annual revenues, which is low for social networking companies, I'd be willing to wager that Snapchat would command a premium to this figure.
But even at 17.4 times annual revenue, we're talking about a more than $1.8 billion valuation. At these multiples, $3 billion doesn't seem that far off the mark, especially after accounting for the likelihood that Snapchat will continue attracting users in the short term, and Facebook will need to pay a hefty premium.
Of course, Snapchat going from zero to its full potential isn't going to happen overnight, and it isn't even a guarantee that Snapchat could ever reach this potential, given the fickle nature of teens. To make matters more challenging, Facebook will likely have to invent a new ad format that plays into Snapchat's strengths, like an ad format that vanishes in five seconds or less.
Not that crazy?
If there's one company that can turn an unproven business into a proven one, it's Facebook. Let's not forget that Facebook turned the "threat" of mobile cannibalizing its desktop ad business into a massive revenue center. Nowadays, Facebook's mobile revenue has grown to make up 49% of its ad revenue. The bottom line is that Facebook is a creative and highly adaptable business. For $3 billion, it's pretty clear that Facebook sees a lot potential here -- but it's even clearer that Snapchat sees more.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79070
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That's double the normal retirement age!
Ten-year Treasury notes recently offered a 4.80% yield. Investing your daily $20 in those bonds instead of your mattress would get you to millionaire status in a bit over 42 years. Not bad.
Agree to take on a bit more volatility, though, and you can position yourself to do even better than that. Over the long haul, the stock market has historically returned an average of approximately 10% to 11% annually. If that keeps up, investing in a low-cost market index tracker like the iShares S&P 500 (AMEX:IVV) exchange-traded fund will get you to a million in roughly 26 years.
That's a big "if"
Of course, very few investors have reliably outperformed the market over time spans measured in decades. Those that have often reach legendary status, such as Warren Buffett, John Neff, Walter Schloss, Peter Lynch, and Charles Munger. That's exclusive company.
While you and I may never achieve the tremendous level of returns that these masters have earned, their stories show that the market can and has been beaten. Nevertheless, if you can achieve that small outperformance goal, that's nearly three years of your life that you'd get back.
Don't worry, get rich
Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG)
Wrigley (NYSE:WWY)
Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT)
Tiffany (NYSE:TIF)
Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX)
Brand rank data from BusinessWeek.
Every one of those companies is a powerhouse with decent long-term prospects. None is likely to double overnight. Then again, they're not exactly at a high risk of falling off the face of the earth in the next week, either. As you can see, though, they've all made money for their investors, and those that turned in at least a 7.2% annualized return helped people more than double their stakes in a decade. Not too shabby for some of the biggest names around.
Get started now
This article was originally published on Nov. 3, 2006. It has been updated.
At the time of publication, Fool contributor Chuck Saletta did not own shares of any company mentioned. Wrigley is a Motley Fool Income Investor recommendation. Starbucks is a Stock Advisor pick. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79071
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Bone by Bone, A Forensic Puzzle Leads to Korean War Homecomings
Harold IveyA small team of scientists in Hawaii is cracking one of the hardest cases in the history of forensic science, one bone at time, from a huge, scrambled collection.
The remains belong to hundreds of American troops lost during the Korean War.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79078
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Reached scene inside gallery place Chinatown metro station. No fatality. Metro police confirm 68 year old woman hit by train and transported for treatment with minor injuries. No word on if she fell or was pushed but was apparently on the tracks. Resuming service on the red line soon. Mob scene outside the station. Lots of folks still trying to reach the mall. And it's bitter cold out.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79101
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Jump to content
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LPV: Really, after all that time, thats it!?
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For a long while I've known theres been a problem when testing for shadow visibility with my voxels during my injection of voxel lighting. But as usual I got too lazy and left it. So I got along with the problem, I called it Steve, I created lots of hackish solutions to mimic the "correct" shadow testing.
But after a while I got tired of Steve, so I double checked the light injection pass, and noticed that the light intensity calculation was acting "weirdly". So, what was the problem? THIS:... = VoxelGetNormal(nDotL, voxel.maskNormal, -lDirection);
What could possibly be wrong with Steve here? Well it turns out that Steve was a challanged kid:... = VoxelGetNormal(nDotL, voxel.maskNormal, lDirection); // Woala
More correct output:
Currently I'm testing the shadow maps on the voxel with a PCF filter, but the interpolation is still jagged ( like cubes ), because theyre voxels. So I might look into how to smootly interpolate, I'm just afraid of multi sampling different near by voxels ( Performance ).
Im not a pro at MS Paint yet, so the interpolation isnt really.... correct.
The problem will be called Jack, for some reason.
Until next time!
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79103
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Director Zack Snyder discusses his distinctive style
With Sucker Punch hitting cinemas this Friday, SFX reveals the secret to Zack Snyder's famous hyper-real direction
We love the movies of Zack Snyder, particularly his distinctive, highly stylised visuals. At last year's Comic-Con he spoke about why he makes films this way, what he loves about movies and what he thinks about the fantasy elements of Sucker Punch .
Described as " Alice In Wonderland with machine guns", Sucker Punch tells the story of Baby Doll and friends as they try to escape from an asylum using the power of imagination. It's out tomorrow, so we thought we'd share the filmmaker's fascinating comments. (Warning: contains a little bit of swearing towards the end!)
On the look and feel of Sucker Punch :
"Because I don't know how to do it, Sucker Punch was never going to be like some hand-held reality movie. Even in the most realistic part of our film it was always going to be highly stylised. We shot nothing outside; we shot nothing off the sound stage. I wanted it to always feel like you were under a certain spell. But those spells change as you went through the film."
On why he never wants to shoot reportage-style or gritty, "realistic" films:
"I have an interest in and a love of movies that are self-aware . For me you have to be sucked into a movie, you have to feel like it's happening. But, like with animated movies, the rules that are set up from the start are completely different from your own reality. So by the end it truly is immersive. We're not trying to fake the audience into thinking this is real or that it's a film about something that occurred in history. If you see a war film and it's hand-held or newsreel footage, it creates the illusion of 'reality'. But that's a way of making movies that I myself couldn't do. Because this is obviously a movie , right?! I like movies that are constantly reminding you that they're movies, while immersing you deeper into the story."
On the illusory power of film as a storytelling medium:
"I want to feel like in every shot of the movie there's irony. Because it's not real! The pictures aren't even moving in reality, even that part is fake! It's an illusion created by the flickering screen. Nothing is really happening to you. There are no moving objects, it's a fake. And that's exciting! That never leaves my mind, I'm always conscious that every part of the experience is an illusion."
"And it's fun for me to play with the icons and the visual language of movies. The further away from reality you can start, maybe it's harder (you can't cheat - people can see it's fucking fake) and it takes them a little while to get into it, but if the style is deep enough you can jump ahead. The world can become so immersive that the audience then can't find the holes that they can find in other films. If you filming something like a hand-held documentary then you stop and have one weird little scene that feels like a film... you're out of it all of a sudden, the audience is like 'fuck, this is a fake! Is it a documentary or a movie?' But the way I make films the style is part of the illusion too. The style is true to itself, it creates its own world. Once you're in it you don't have to worry about reality poking its nose into the world."
Sucker Punch is released by Warner on 1 April 2011.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79127
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Learn Languages Online!
Home > 50languages.com > English US > Catalan > Table of contents
49 [forty-nine]
49 [quaranta-nou]
Click to see the text! arrow
Do you exercise?
Yes, I need some exercise.
I am a member of a sports club.
We play football / soccer (am.).
We swim sometimes.
Or we cycle.
There is a football / soccer (am.) stadium in our city.
There is also a swimming pool with a sauna.
And there is a golf course.
What is on TV?
There is a football / soccer (am.) match on now.
The German team is playing against the English one.
Who is winning?
I have no idea.
It is currently a tie.
The referee is from Belgium.
Now there is a penalty.
Goal! One – zero!
Only strong words survive!
Rarely used words change more often than words that are used often. That could be due to the laws of evolution. Common genes change less in the course of time. They are more stable in their form. And apparently the same is true for words! English verbs were evaluated for a study. In it, current forms of the verbs were compared to old forms. In English, the ten most common verbs are irregular. Most other verbs are regular. But in the Middle Ages, most verbs were still irregular. So irregular verbs that were rarely used became regular verbs. In 300 years, English will have hardly any remaining irregular verbs. Other studies also show that languages are selected like genes. Researchers compared common words from different languages. In the process they chose similar words that mean the same thing. An example of this are the words: water, Wasser, vatten. These words have the same root and therefore closely resemble one another. Since they are essential words, they are used frequently in all languages. In this way, they are able to maintain their form – and remain similar today. Less essential words change much faster. Rather, they are replaced by other words. Rarely used words differentiate themselves in this way in different languages. Why rarely used words change remains unclear. It's possible that they are often used incorrectly or are mispronounced. This is due to the fact that speakers aren't familiar with them. But it could be that essential words must always be the same. Because only then can they be understood correctly. And words are there to be understood…
Guess the language!
Ukrainian is counted among the East Slavic languages. It is closely related to Russian and Belarusian. More than 40 million people speak Ukrainian. It is the third most-spoken Slavic language after Russian and Polish. Ukrainian developed around the end of the 18th century out of the vernacular. A distinct written language emerged at that time, and with it came literature. Today there are a number of dialects that are divided into three main groups. Vocabulary, syntax, and articulation are evocative of other Slavic languages.
That is because the Slavic languages started differentiating themselves relatively late. Due to the geographical situation of Ukraine, there are many Polish and Russian influences. The grammar contains seven cases. Ukrainian adjectives define relationships to people or things very clearly. A speaker is able to demonstrate his attitude or mindset depending on which form of a word he chooses. Another hallmark of Ukrainian is its highly melodic sound. If you like languages that sound melodious, you should learn Ukrainian!
LICENCE AGREEMENT. Please report any mistakes or incorrect translations here.
book2 English US - Catalan for beginners
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79143
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Animal Farm
why did the farmers stormed animal farm
basically why did the farmers ran away from animal farm
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The farmers stormed Animal farm to squash the animal rebellion that was happening not only on Mr. Jones's farm but neighboring farms as well. The animals chased the farmers away during the Battle of Cowshed.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79154
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Tuning Free Orthogonal Matching Pursuit
Tuning Free Orthogonal Matching Pursuit
Orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) is a widely used compressive sensing (CS) algorithm for recovering sparse signals in noisy linear regression models. The performance of OMP depends on its stopping criteria (SC). SC for OMP discussed in literature typically assumes knowledge of either the sparsity of the signal to be estimated or noise variance , both of which are unavailable in many practical applications. In this article we develop a modified version of OMP called tuning free OMP or TF-OMP which does not require a SC. TF-OMP is proved to accomplish successful sparse recovery under the usual assumptions on restricted isometry constants (RIC) and mutual coherence of design matrix. TF-OMP is numerically shown to deliver a highly competitive performance in comparison with OMP having a priori knowledge of or . Greedy algorithm for robust de-noising (GARD) is an OMP like algorithm proposed for efficient estimation in classical overdetermined linear regression models corrupted by sparse outliers. However, GARD requires the knowledge of inlier noise variance which is difficult to estimate. We also produce a tuning free algorithm (TF-GARD) for efficient estimation in the presence of sparse outliers by extending the operating principle of TF-OMP to GARD. TF-GARD is numerically shown to achieve a performance comparable to that of the existing implementation of GARD.
Consider the linear regression model , where is a known design matrix, is the noise vector and is the observation vector. The design matrix is rank deficient in the sense that . Further, the columns of are normalised to have unit Euclidean norm. The vector is sparse, i.e., the support of given by has cardinality . The noise vector is assumed to have Gaussian distribution with mean and covariance , i.e., . The signal to noise ratio in this regression model is defined as
Throughout this paper, represents the expectation operator and represents the norm of . In this article we consider the following two problems in the context of recovering sparse vectors in underdetermined linear regression models which are of larger interest.
P1). Estimate with the objective of minimizing the mean squared error (MSE) .
P2). Estimate the support of with the objective of minimizing the probability of support recovery error , where .
These problems are common in signal processing applications like sparse channel estimation[1], direction of arrival estimation[2], multi user detection[3] etc. Typical machine learning applications include sparse subspace clustering[4], sparse representation classification[5] etc. In signal processing community these problems are discussed under the compressive sensing (CS) paradigm[6]. A number of algorithms like least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)[7], Dantzig selector (DS)[9], subspace pursuit (SP)[10], compressive sampling matching pursuit (CoSaMP)[11], sparse Bayesian learning (SBL)[12], orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP)[13] etc. are proposed to solve the above mentioned problems. However, for optimal performance of these algorithms, a number of tuning parameters (also called hyper parameters) need to be fixed. For example, the value of in LASSO estimate
has to tuned appropriately. Indeed, when the noise is Gaussian a value is known to be optimal in terms of MSE performance[8]. Likewise, a value of with is known to deliver as under some regularity conditions[20]. Likewise, for the optimal performance of DS, one need to have knowledge of [9]. However, unlike the case of overdetermined linear regression models where one can readily estimate using the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator, estimating in underdetermined linear regression models is extremely difficult[21]. This means that the optimal performance using LASSO and DS in many practical applications involving Gaussian noise1 is not possible. Even if the noise variance is known, an amount of subjectivity is involved in fixing the tuning parameters. SBL on the other hand involves a non convex optimization problem which is solved using the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm and hence the solution depend on the initialization values of EM algorithm. Likewise, algorithms like CoSaMP, SP etc. requires a priori knowledge of sparsity level which is rarely available. OMP, which is the focus of this article, requires either the knowledge of or the knowledge of for optimal performance. Hence, in many practical applications, the statistician is forced to choose ad hoc values of tuning parameters for which no performance guarantees are available. A popular alternative is based on techniques like cross validation which can deliver reasonably good performance at the expense of significantly high computational complexity[22]. Further, cross validation is also known to be ineffective for support recovery problems[23].
1.1Tuning parameter free sparse recovery.
The literature on tuning parameter free sparse recovery procedure is new in comparison with the literature on sparse recovery algorithms like OMP, LASSO, DS etc. A seminal contribution in this field is the square root LASSO[24] algorithm which estimate by
For optimal MSE performance can be set independent of thereby overcoming a major drawback of LASSO. However, the choice of is still subjective with little guidelines. The high SNR behaviour of PE for square root LASSO is not reported in the literature. Another interesting development in this area is the development of sparse iterative covariance-based estimation, popularly called as SPICE[25]. SPICE is a convex optimization based algorithm that is completely devoid of any hyper parameters. The relationship between SPICE and techniques like LAD-LASSO, square root LASSO and LASSO are derived in [26]. Another tuning parameter free algorithm called LIKES which is closely related to SPICE is proposed in [28]. Another interesting contribution in this area is the derivation of analytical properties of the non negative least squares (NNLS) estimator
in [29] which points to the superior performance of NNLS in terms of MSE. However, the NNLS estimate is applicable only to the cases where the sign pattern of is known a priori. Existing literature on tuning free sparse recovery has many disadvantages. In particular, all these techniques are computationally complex in comparison with simple algorithms like OMP, CoSaMP etc. Notwithstanding the connections established between algorithms like SPICE and LASSO, the performance guarantees of SPICE are not well established.
1.2Robust regression in the presence of sparse outliers.
In addition to the recovery of sparse signals in underdetermined linear regression models (which is the main focus of this article), we also consider a regression model widely popular in robust statistics called sparse outlier model. Here we consider the regression model
where is a full rank design matrix with or , regression vector may or may not be sparse and inlier noise . The outlier noise represents the large errors in the regression equation that are not modelled by the inlier noise distribution. In many cases of practical interest, is modelled as sparse, i.e., . However, the non zero entries in can take large values, i.e., can be potentially high. Algorithms from robust statistics like Hubers’ M-est[30] were used to solve this problem. Recently, a number of algorithms that utilizes the sparse nature of like the convex optimization based [31], SBL based [33], OMP based greedy algorithm for robust de-noising (GARD)[34] etc. are shown to estimate more efficiently than the robust statistics based techniques. Just like the case of sparse regression, algorithms proposed for robust estimation in the presence of sparse outliers also require tuning parameters that are subjective and dependent on inlier noise variance (which is difficult to estimate).
1.3 Contribution of this article.
This article makes the following contributions to the CS literature. We propose a novel way of using the popular OMP called tuning free OMP (TF-OMP) which does not require a priori knowledge of sparsity level or noise variance and is completely devoid of any tuning parameters. We analytically establish that the TF-OMP can recover the true support in bounded noise () if the matrix satisfy either exact recovery condition (ERC)[13], mutual incoherence condition (MIC) [14] or the restricted isometry condition in [35] and the minimum non zero value is large enough. It is important to note that the conditions imposed on design matrix for successful support recovery using TF-OMP is no more stringent than the results available [14] in literature for OMP with a priori knowledge of or noise variance . Under the same set of conditions on matrix , TF-OMP is shown to achieve high SNR consistency[36] in Gaussian noise, i.e., as . This is the first time a tuning free CS algorithm is shown to achieve high SNR consistency. As mentioned before, GARD for estimation in the presence of sparse outliers is closely related to OMP. We extend the operating principle behind TF-OMP to GARD and develop a modified version of GARD called TF-GARD which is devoid of tuning parameters and does not require the knowledge of inlier noise variance . Both proposed algorithms, viz. TF-OMP and TF-GARD are numerically shown to achieve highly competitive performance in comparison with a broad class of existing algorithms over a number of experiments.
1.4 Notations used.
the column space of . is the transpose and is the Moore-Penrose pseudo inverse of (if has full column rank). is the projection matrix onto . denotes the sub-matrix of formed using the columns indexed by . is the entry of . If is clear from the context, we use the shorthand for . Both and denotes the entries of indexed by . is a central chi square distribution with degrees of freedom (d.o.f). is a complex Gaussian R.V with mean and covariance matrix . implies that and are identically distributed. is the matrix norm. denotes the set . denotes the floor function. represents the null set. For any two index sets and , the set difference . For any index set , denotes the complement of with respect to . iff .
1.5 Organization of this article:-
Section 2@ discuss existing literature on OMP. Section 3@ present TF-OMP. Section 4@ presents the performance guarantees for TF-OMP. Section 5@ discuss TF-GARD algorithm. Section 6@ presents the numerical simulations.
2OMP: Prior art
The proposed tuning parameter free sparse recovery algorithm is based on OMP. OMP is a greedy procedure to perform sparsity constrained least square minimization. OMP starts with a null model and add columns to current support that is most correlated with the current residual. An algorithmic description of OMP is given in Table 1. The performance of OMP is determined by the properties of the measurement matrix , ambient SNR, sparsity of () and stopping condition (SC). We first describe the properties of that are conducive for sparse recovery using OMP.
Table 1: Orthogonal Matching Pursuit
Step 1:- Initialize the residual . ,
Support estimate , Iteration counter ;
Step 2:- Find the column most correlated with the current
residual , i.e.,
Step 3:- Update support estimate: .
Step 4:- Estimate using current support: .
Step 5:- Update residual: .
Step 6:- Increment . .
Step 7:- Repeat Steps 2-6, until stopping condition (SC) is met.
Output:- and .
2.1 Qualifiers for design matrix .
When , the linear equation has infinitely many possible solutions. Hence the support recovery problem is ill-posed even in the noiseless case. To uniquely recover the -sparse vector , the measurement matrix has to satisfy certain well known regularity conditions. A plethora of sufficient conditions including restricted isometry property (RIP)[6], mutual incoherence condition (MIC)[7], exact recovery condition (ERC)[13] etc. are discussed in the literature. We first describe the ERC.
Definition 1:- A matrix and a vector with support satisfy ERC if the exact recovery coefficient satisfies .
It is known that ERC is a sufficient and worst case necessary condition for accurately recovering from using OMP[13]. The same condition with appropriate scaling of is sufficient for recovery in regression models with noise[14]. Since ERC involves the unknown support , it is impossible to check ERC in practice. Another important metric used for qualifying is the restricted isometry constant (RIC). RIC of order denoted by is defined as the smallest value of that satisfies
for all -sparse . OMP can recover a sparse signal in the first iterations if [15]. In the absence of noise, OMP can recover a sparse in iterations if [18]. Likewise, it is possible to recover in iterations if [18]. It is well known that the computation of RIC is NP-hard. Hence, mutual coherence, a quantity that can be estimated easily is widely popular. For a matrix with unit norm columns, the mutual coherence is defined as the maximum pair wise column correlation, i.e.,
If , then for all -sparse vector , can be bounded as [13]. Hence, is a sufficient condition for both noiseless and noisy sparse recovery using OMP. It is also shown that is a worst case necessary condition for sparse recovery.
2.2 Stopping conditions for OMP
Most of the theoretical properties of OMP are derived assuming either the absence of noise[13] or the knowledge of [15]. In this case OMP iterations are terminated once or . When is not available which is typically the case, one has to rely on stopping conditions based on the properties of residual . For example, OMP can be stopped if [14] or [14]. Likewise, [39] suggested a SC based on the residual difference . The necessary and sufficient conditions for high SNR consistency of OMP with residual based SC is derived in [20]. A generalized likelihood ratio based stopping rule is developed in [40]. In addition to the subjectivity involved in the choice of SC, all the above mentioned SC requires the knowledge of . As explained before, estimating in underdetermined regression models is extremely difficult. In the following, we use the shorthand OMP() for OMP with a priori knowledge of and OMP( for OMP with SC based on a priori knowledge of . In the next section, we develop TF-OMP, an OMP based procedure which does not require the knowledge of either or for good performance.
3Tuning Free orthogonal Matching Pursuit.
In this section, we present the proposed TF-OMP algorithm. This algorithm is based on the statistic , where is the residual in the iteration of OMP. Using the property of projection matrices[36], we have , where is the zero matrix. This implies that . Hence, can be rewritten as
Since the residual norms are non decreasing, i.e., , we always have . This statistic exhibits an interesting behaviour which is the core of our proposed technique, i.e., TF-OMP. Consider running OMP for a number of iterations such that neither the matrices are rank deficient nor the residuals are zero. Then varies in the following manner for .
Case 1:-). When :- Then both and contains contributions from signal and noise . Since both numerator and denominator contains noise and signal terms, it is less likely that takes very low values.
Case 2).When for the first time:- In this case and . Hence, numerator has contribution only from the noise , whereas, denominator has contributions from both noise and signal . Hence, if signal strength is sufficiently high or noise level is low, will take very low values.
Case 3:- When :- In this case both and . This means that both numerator and denominator consists only of noise terms and hence the ratio will not take very small value even if noise variance is very low.
To summarize, as SNR improves, the minimal value of for will corresponds to that value of such that for the first time with a very high probability. This point is illustrated in Fig.1 where a typical realization of the quantity is plotted for a matrix signal pair satisfying ERC. The signal has non zero values and . At both SNR=10 dB and SNR=30 dB, the minimum value is attained at which is also the first time . Further, the dip in the value of at becomes more and more pronounced as SNR increases. This motivate the TF-OMP algorithm given in TABLE 2@ which try to estimate by utilizing the sudden dip in .
Tuning free orthogonal matching pursuit
Input:- Observation , design matrix .
Step 1:- Run OMP for iterations.
Step 2:- Estimate .
Step 3:- Estimate support as .
Estimate as and .
Output:- Support estimate and signal estimate .
We now make the following observations about TF-OMP.
Figure 1: Variation of t(k) vs k for the 32 \times 64 matrix {\bf X}=[{\bf I}_n,{\bf H}_n] described in Section 6@ when k_0=3.
Figure 1: Variation of vs k for the matrix described in Section 6@ when .
3.1Computational complexity of TF-OMP
The computational complexity of TF-OMP with is which is higher than the complexity of OMP(). This is the cost one has to pay for not knowing or a priori. However, TF-OMP is computationally much more efficient than either the second order conic programming (SOCP) or cyclic algorithm based implementation of the popular tuning free SPICE algorithm[28]. Even the cyclic algorithm based implementation of SPICE which is claimed to be computationally efficient (in comparison with SOCP) in small and medium sized problems involve multiple iterations and in each iteration it requires the inversion of a matrix ( complexity) and a matrix matrix multiplication of complexity . It is possible to reduce the complexity of TF-OMP by producing upper bounds on that is lower than the used in TF-OMP. Assuming a priori knowledge of an upper bound is a significantly weaker assumption than having exact a priori knowledge of . If one can produce an upper bound satisfying , then setting in TF-OMP gives the OMP() complexity of .
For situations where the statistician is completely oblivious to , we propose two low complexity versions of TF-OMP, viz., QTF-OMP1 (quasi tuning free OMP) and QTF-OMP2 that uses a value of lower than the used in TF-OMP. QTF-OMP1 uses and QTF-OMP2 uses . QTF-OMP1 is motivated by the fact that the best coherence based guarantee for OMP extends upto and for any matrix satisfies [41]. Hence, QTF-OMP1 uses a value of which is two times higher than the maximum value of that can be covered by the coherence based guarantees available for OMP. Likewise, the best known asymptotic guarantee for OMP states that OMP can recover any sparse signal when if , where is any arbitrary value[19]. Hence, when , the highest value of one can reliably detect using OMP asymptotically is . The value of used in QTF-OMP1 and QTF-OMP2 is twice of the aforementioned maximum detectable values of to add sufficient robustness. The complexity of QTF-OMP1 and QTF-OMP2 are and which is significantly lower than the complexity of TF-OMP. Unlike TF-OMP which is completely tuning free, QTF-OMP1 and QTF-OMP2 involves a subjective choice of (though motivated by theoretical properties). The rest of this article consider TF-OMP only and in Section 6@ we demonstrate that the performance of TF-OMP, QTF-OMP1 and QTF-OMP2 are similar across multiple experiments.
4 Analysis of TF-OMP
In this section we will mathematically analyse various factors that will influence the performance of TF-OMP. In particular we discuss the conditions for successful recovery of a -sparse vector in bounded noise . Note that the Gaussian vector is essentially bounded in the sense that . Hence with , this analysis is applicable to Gaussian noise too. For bounded noise, we define the SNR as . We next state and prove a theorem regarding the successful support recovery by TF-OMP in bounded noise. Note that the accurate support recovery automatically translate to a MSE performance equivalent to that of an oracle with a priori knowledge of support . Throughout this section, we use to denote the ratio instead of .
The analysis of TF-OMP is based on the fundamental results developed in the [14] and [35] stated next.
4.1 A brief review of relevant results from and .
Let and denotes the minimum and maximum eigenvalues of respectively.
A1) shows how to bound the residual norms used in based on and . A2) implies that the first iterations of OMP will be correct if is sufficiently high and ERC is satisfied. We now state conditions similar to A1)-A2) in terms of MIC and RIC.
Since the analysis based on and are more general than MIC or RIC, we explain TF-OMP using and . However, as outlined in B1)-B2) and C1)-C2), this analysis can be easily replaced by and .
4.2Sufficient conditions for sparse recovery using TF-OMP
The successful recovery of support of using TF-OMP requires the simultaneous occurrence of the events E1)-E3) given below.
E1). The first iterations are correct, i.e., .
E2). .
E3). .
E1) implies that OMP with a priori knowledge of , i.e., OMP( can perform exact sparse recovery, whereas, E2) and E3) implies that TF-OMP will be free from missed and false discoveries respectively. Note that the condition A2) implies that the event E1) occurs as long as , and is below a particular level given by
Next we consider the events E2) and E3) assuming that the noise satisfies , i.e., E1) is true. To establish for , we produce an upper bound on and lower bounds on for and show that the upper bound on is lower than the lower bound on for at high SNR. We first consider the event E2). Since all entries in are selected in the first iterations and hence . Likewise, only one entry in is left out after iterations. Hence, and . Substituting these values in A1) of Lemma 1, we have and . Hence, is bounded by
Next we lower bound for . Note that after appending enough zeros in appropriate locations. Further, , where . Applying triangle inequality to gives the bound
Applying (Equation 3) in gives
for and . The R.H.S of (Equation 4) can be rewritten as
From (Equation 5) it is clear that the R.H.S of (Equation 4) decreases with decreasing . Note that the minimum value of is itself. This leads to an even smaller lower bound on for given by
For E2) to happen it is sufficient that the lower bound on for is larger than the upper bound on , i.e.,
This will happen if , where
In words, whenever , TF-OMP will not have any missed discoveries.
Next we consider the event E3) and assume again that . Since, the first iterations are correct, for . Note that the quantity is independent of the scaling factor . Hence, define the quantity
where is an ordered set representing the indices selected by OMP. By the definition of , . is a random variable depending on the indices which depends on the noise vector . However, influences only through . Since depends on , it is difficult to characterize . TF-OMP stops before deterministically and hence it is true that for each of the possible realization of or equivalently, each possible realization . Further, the set of all possible denoted by is large, but finite. This implies that . This implies that with probability one for all and is independent of . At the same time, the bound on decreases to zero with decreasing . Hence, given by
such that for all whenever . In words, TF-OMP will not make false discoveries whenever . Combining all the required conditions, we can see that TF-OMP will recover the correct support whenever . In words, for any support satisfying ERC, , such that TF-OMP will recover whenever . Hence proved.
We now make some remarks about the performance of TF-OMP.
4.3High SNR consistency of TF-OMP in Gaussian noise.
The high SNR consistency of variable selection techniques in Gaussian noise has received considerable attention in signal processing community recently[42]. High SNR consistency is formally defined as follows.
Definition:- A support recovery technique is high SNR consistent iff the probability of support recovery error (PE) satisfies .
The following lemma stated and proved in [20] establish the necessary and sufficient condition for the high SNR consistency of OMP and LASSO.
Lemma ? implies that LASSO and OMP with residual based SC are high SNR consistent iff the tuning parameters are adapted according to . In particular, Lemma ? implies that widely used parameters for LASSO like in [8] and OMP SC with are inconsistent at high SNR. In the following theorem, we state and prove the high SNR consistency of TF-OMP. To the best of our knowledge no CS algorithm is shown to achieve high SNR consistency in the absence of knowledge of .
From the analysis of Section 4@-B, we know that TF-OMP recover the correct support whenever , where is a function of and support . Hence, satisfies . Note that . Also the distribution of is independent of . Further, is bounded in probability in the sense that for any sequence . All these implies that
Hence proved.
5 Tuning Free Robust Linear Regression in the presence of sparse outliers
Throughout this article we have considered a linear regression model where is a sparse vector and is the noise. In this section we consider a different regression model
where is a full rank design matrix with or , regression vector may or may not be sparse and the inlier noise . The outlier noise represents the large errors in the regression equation that is not modelled using the inlier noise distribution. In addition to SNR, this regression model also require signal to interference ratio (SIR) given by
to quantify the impact of outliers. In many cases of practical interest is modelled as sparse, i.e., . However, can have very large power, i.e., SIR can be very low[31]. A classic example of this is channel estimation in OFDM systems in the presence of narrow band interference[43]. In spite of the full rank of , traditional least squares (LS) estimate of given by is highly inefficient in terms of MSE. An algorithm called greedy algorithm for robust de-noising (GARD)[34] which is very closely related to the OMP algorithm discussed in this paper was proposed in [34] for such scenarios. An algorithmic description of GARD is given in Table 2.
Table 2: Greedy algorithm for robust de-noising. is the column of identity matrix .
Input:- Observed vector , Design Matrix and SC.
Initialization:- , . k=1.
Repeat Steps 1-4 until SC is met.
Step 1:- Identify the strongest residual in , i.e.,
Step 2:- Update the matrix .
Step 3:- Jointly estimate and as
Step 4:- Update the residual .
Output:- Signal estimate .
GARD can be considered as applying OMP to identify the significant entries in after nullifying the signal component in the regression equation by projecting onto a subspace orthogonal to the column span of . Just like OMP, the key component in GARD is the SC. One can stop GARD when (which is unknown a priori) iterations are performed or when the residual falls below a predefined threshold. However, setting the threshold requires the knowledge of . We use the shorthand GARD() and GARD() to represent these schemes. However, producing high quality estimate of in the presence of outliers is also a difficult task. Further, there exists a level of subjectivity in the choice of this threshold even if is known. A better strategy would be to produce a version of GARD free of any tuning parameters.
The principle developed for TF-OMP can be used in GARD also. To explain this, consider the statistic and let be the first iteration at which . For all , contains contributions from the outlier , whereas for all , has contributions from noise only. Hence, if entries in are sufficiently large in comparison with noise level , just like in the case of OMP, experience a sudden dip at . The algorithm given in Table 3 identify this dip and deliver high quality estimate of without having any tuning parameter.
Table 3: Tuning free GARD
Input:- Observed vector , Design matrix X
Step 1:- Run GARD for iterations.
Step 2:- Identify as .
Step 3:- Jointly estimate and as
Output:- Signal estimate .
A detailed analysis of TF-GARD is not given in this article. However, following the similarities between OMP and GARD, we conjecture that the TF-GARD recover the support of under the same set of conditions used in [34] albeit at a higher SNR than GARD itself. Numerical simulations indicate that the performance of TF-GARD is highly competitive with the performance of GARD() and GARD() over a wide range of SNR and SIR.
6Numerical Simulations
In this section, we numerically evaluate the performance of techniques proposed in this paper viz, TF-OMP and TF-GARD and provide insights into the strengths and shortcomings of the same. First we consider the case of TF-OMP. We compare the performance of TF-OMP with that of OMP(), OMP, LASSO[8] and SPICE[25]. Among these, LASSO and OMP are provided with noise variance . OMP() stop iterations when [14]. LASSO in (Equation 1) uses the value proposed in [8]. To remove the bias in LASSO estimate, we re-estimate the non zero entries in LASSO estimate using LS. As mentioned before, SPICE is a tuning free algorithm. We implement SPICE using the cyclic algorithm proposed in [28]. The iterations in cyclic algorithm is terminated once the difference in the norm of quantity in successive iterations are dropped below . As observed in [27], SPICE results in biased estimate. To de-bias the SPICE estimate, we collect the coefficients in the SPICE estimate that comprises of the energy and re-estimate these entries using LS. This estimate denoted by SPICE() in figures exhibits highly competitive performance. All results except the PE vs SNR plot in Figure 2 and the symbol error rate (SER) vs SNR plot in Figure 7 are presented after iterations. These two plots were produced after performing iterations. Unless explicitly stated, the non zero entries of are fixed at and the locations of these non zero entries are randomly permuted in each iteration.
6.1 Small sample performance of TF-OMP.
In this section, we evaluate the performance of algorithms when the problem dimensions are small. For this, we consider a matrix of the form , where is the Hadamard matrix. It is well known that the mutual coherence of this matrix is given by [41]. Hence, satisfies the mutual incoherence property whenever . In our experiments we fix and . Note that by construction. For this particular , MIC and ERC are satisfied.
Figure 2: MSE and PE performance when n=32 and k_0=3 for {\bf X}=[{\bf I}_n,{\bf H}_n].
Figure 2: MSE and PE performance when and for .
From Figure 2, it can be observed that the performance of all algorithms under consideration are equivalent at high SNR in terms of MSE. At low SNR, OMP() has the best performance. The performance of TF-OMP is slightly inferior to OMP() at low SNR, whereas it matches OMP() and LASSO across the entire SNR range. TF-OMP is performing better in comparison with both versions of SPICE. This is important considering the fact that SPICE is also a tuning free algorithm. In terms of support recovery error, OMP() has the best performance followed closely by TF-OMP. Both LASSO and OMP() are inconsistent at high SNR as proved in [20], whereas TF-OMP is high SNR consistent. This validates Theorems 1-2 in Section 4@. Note that the SPICE estimate contains a number of very small entries which is an artefact of termination criteria. Identifying significant entries from this estimate in the absence of knowledge of and is difficult and is subjective in nature. We have used a energy criteria to perform this task. However, unlike the MSE performance, we have observed that the of SPICE( depends crucially on . We choose percent mainly because it gave a very good MSE performance. As one can observe from Figure 2, SPICE is also high SNR consistent. However, with a different choice of one can possibly improve the performance. OMP based algorithms being step wise in nature will not have this problem.
6.2 Large sample performance of TF-OMP.
In this section, we evaluate the performance of algorithms
a).When both and are fixed and is increasing and
b).When is fixed and both and are increasing.
The matrix for this purpose is generated by sampling i.i.d from a distribution. Later the columns of are normalised to unit norm. For the fixed sparsity and increasing case, all algorithms under consideration except SPICE achieves similar performance. As the number of samples increase, the MSE improves for all algorithms. In the second case, the sparsity is increased linearly with . From the R.H.S of Figure 3 one can observe that the performance of OMP(), LASSO and TF-OMP matches across the ratio under consideration. In particular TF-OMP outperforms both SPICE() and OMP().
Figure 3: MSE performance when p=500, SNR=10 dB and {\bf X} is a Gaussian random matrix.
Figure 3: MSE performance when , SNR=10 dB and is a Gaussian random matrix.
6.3 Performance of TF-OMP in signals with high .
The analysis in Section 4@ pointed to a deteriorated performance of TF-OMP when is large. In this section we evaluate this performance degradation numerically. The matrix under consideration is same the matrix used in Section [email protected]. The sparsity is fixed at . However, the magnitude of non zero entries of are
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12 of the Best Compact Reverb Pedals
Alexander PedalsAmbient EffectsBossChase Bliss AudioDigital ReverbDigiTechDr ScientistEarthQuaker DevicesElectro-HarmonixMad ProfessorMXRNeunaberPlate ReverbRack Style ReverbReverbReverb WorkstationShimmer ReverbSpacey ReverbSpring ReverbTC ElectronicWalrus Audio+-
It seems that 2018 has very significantly been a Year of and for Reverb - with half of these featured recent additions to the category. I have rarely seen as well coordinated a campaign as for the very recent Chase Bliss Audio Dark World launch - which has somewhat overshadowed the slightly earlier release of Dr Scientist’s long-awaited Atmosphere. We’ve also seen Neunaber’s second incarnation of the Immerse, two very highly versatile 11-mode pedals from Electro-Harmonix and Mad Professor, and a properly Spacey Reverb from Alexander Pedals.
I personally own 3 Stereo Reverb Workstations - in order of acquisition - Strymon BigSky, Boss RV-500 and Source Audio Ventris - the latter two which do dual parallel/serial effects much like the CBA Dark World does - but in Stereo. Even though the Stereo TC Electronics Hall of Fame 2 is fairly recently released (last year) - it’s kind of showing its age already compared to some of the newer developments.
For me of course Stereo is a must for my rig, but I’m still excited by a number of these, and obviously a massive fan of both Chase Bliss Audio and Dr Scientist in particular. I feel Dr Scientist’s Atmosphere is a proper Reverb Workstation just in a very compact chassis - but it really could do with stereo outputs. I feel the choices have never been broader - the selection here goes from a very reasonable £90 for the TCE HOF2 to £359 for the Dr Scientist Atmosphere, and the CBA Dark World just a tenner short of that.
A number of these pedals now offer presets - some more than others - and is well typified by The Atmosphere in calling its Modes ’Patches’ as you can save your preferences for each one and easily scroll between. TCE HOF2’s TonePrint functionality and MASH footswitch also makes it something of a contender, even though it does not do the Reverb stacking which my RV-500, Ventris and the CBA Dark World do so well.
Some of these pedals offer an enormous degree of flexibility - while EQD’s ever popular Afterneath gives you maximum variety out of one singularly smart algorithm. On a fleeting initial overview - my favourites are the Chase Bliss Dark World, Dr Scientist Atmosphere and TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2, but I would not discount the EHX Oceans 11 or Neunaber Immerse MKII as they offer up excellent possibilities too. There are no really weak ones here just different degrees of spectacular.
These are all favourites of mine, and can all generate great Reverb sounds - it really depends on exactly what you’re looking for, what your own rig requires and how deep your wallet is. If you like the look of the Dark World you may be a touch late for the first batch which I believe is now pretty much sold out already.
Even though none of these would replace my existing trio of reverbs, and my most likely next addition to the collection is the GFI System Specular Tempus - the Dark World in particular has something which draws me in - I may try to accommodate it in some way eventually - here’s hoping a few more of these will be stereo by then!
Pedals are listed alphabetically by brand:
Alexander Space Race Reverberation - £199
It seems a long time since its release in time for Summer NAMM at the end of June - so much has happened since - this almost seems positively old-fashioned now! In reality, Alexander's NEO Range goes from strength to strength with multiple voicings/modes, secondary/alt parameters and onboard presets. So you have in essence 8 controls here for the 6 presets offered which makes this a very decent all-rounder reverb with some obvious spacey leanings. I was more excited by its sibling - the multi-modulation Wavelength - albeit both those do seem somewhat old-fashioned thinking compared to the brand new Atmosphere and Dark World - but then again - they're only half the price.
The 6 included modes are as follows:
1. Modulate (Modulated Chamber)
2. Spring
3. LoFi
4. Plate
5. Analog
6. Shimmer
Boss RV-6 Reverb (Stereo)- £113
Summer NAMM 2015 seems a very long time ago now. Obviously we have some more recent multi-modulation workshop style pedals like the RV-500 and GT-1000. I still think we're probably due another update here soon, as TCE Hall of Fame 2 was beginning to make this look a touch antiquated last year, and this year's models put it further in the shade. That set it's a decent robust performer - with all that usual Boss reliability, and you do get 8 very decent modes for your moderate outlay:
1. Modulate
2. Spring
3. Plate
4. Hall
5. Room
6. Dynamic
7. Shimmer
8. Reverb + Delay
Chase Bliss Audio Dark World Reverb - £349
Even though Dr Scientist's Atmosphere has more potential individual possibilities via its 16 'Patches' and 8 controls - I still feel that Joel Korte's latest is something of a revelation in this sector. The smart split into Dark and Regular (World) modes and the incredible way you can combine and control them makes this my frontrunner in this pack. 6 modes, 6 controls, dual footswitches, 18 dip-switches and 2 presets make this one hell of a reverb chameleon. And you pretty much get Tom Majeski Cooper FX's much sought-after 'Generation Loss' in the 'Mod' mode onboard - plus the ability to combine that with Robert Keeley's Hall, Plate or Spring - for some truly next-world sci-fi effects. I love everything about this pedal bar its lack of stereo outs.
1. Modulate
2. Shimmer
3. Black
4. Hall
5. Plate
6. Spring
DigiTech Polara Reverb (Stereo) - £104
Polara's 7 modes were pretty impressive within the company this pedal was launched into, but things have moved on quickly in the interim, and on a price-to-feature ratio etc. I can't see this properly competing against the more powerful TCE Hall of Fame 2. It does still though have variations of the world-famous Lexicon Studio Reverbs onboard, so there is quality to be found here. It's just that there are far smarter and more capable reverbs available nowadays.
1. Modulated
2. Halo
3. Hall
4. Spring
5. Room
6. Plate
7. Reverse
Dr Scientist Atmosphere Reverb - £359
I've been following this one from the earliest developments - nearly a couple of years now it feels like. And this feels genuinely like a proper Reverb Workstation in its most practical compact enclosure. With dual footswtiches, LCD colour screen, 16 user-tweakable and saveable Patches, and 8 hands-on controls - this is almost everything I could have imagined it to be. Alas no stereo outputs, and no algorithm combining - which I think will be the essential take-away of 2018. This is the most expensive of those pedals featured here, and the enormous feature set covered justifies its price-point. It is however, not quite up with my Strymon Big Sky, Boss RV-500 or Source Audio Ventris. And even though somewhat lesser in many regards, I feel that Chase Bliss Audio's Dark World has somewhat overshadowed it in targeting that sort of demographic with slightly more ingenuity. It is nevertheless a fantastic reverb library and sounds as good as you would expect of Dr Scientist.
1. Spring
2. Hall
3. Octave (Up/Down/Mix)
4. Rotary
5. Plate
6. Smear
7. Vibro (Pitch Vibrato)
8. Gated
9. Swell
10. Filter
11. Mod FX (Flanger/Chorus/Tremolo/RingMod)
12. React (Dynamic Fills Reverb)
13. Aether (Reverse Delay/Reverb +/- Phaser)
14. Room
15. Alias (Sample Rate Reducing)
16. Pitch (Constantly Rising/Falling Pitch Reverb)
Earthquaker Devices Afterneath Reverb V2 - £219
This is easily the simplest pedal featured here - having really just the one algorithm which though is pretty highly tweakable via its 6 controls. This ever popular ethereal and other-worldly sounding reverb is as if you just took one flavour off the CBA Dark World. It has that beautiful eerie spacey quality about it, but does not offer anywhere near the versatility of the other pedals here. Yes it's sort of a one-trick pony, but it's a really great trick, as is born out by how many of these are featured on pedalboards. I fear that the Dark World though is going to appeal to all those same players and offer them quite a bit more, albeit for quite a bit more - so horses for courses as always.
Electro-Harmonix Oceans 11 Reverb - £127
This pedal has been appearing on many a critics' 'Best of 2018' lists, and justifiably so in many ways - with some really great takes on the classics - including a really stellar Spring Reverb algorithm. Yet compared to a few of the newer ones, its thinking is still somewhat primitive. If you're looking for a really decent all-rounder mono reverb workstation, then this is a as good a shout as any, at a very reasonable price.
1. Hall
2. Spring
3. Plate
4. Revers (Reverse)
5. Echo (Reverb + Delay)
6. Trem (Reverb + Tremolo)
7. Mod (Modulated)
8. Dyna (Dynamic Reverb - Swell/Gate/Duck)
9. Auto-Inf (Auto Infinite Reverb - cascading washes)
10. Shim (Shimmer)
11. Poly (Polyphonic Pitch-Shifting Reverb)
Mad Professor Kosmos Reverb - £199
I feel that this pedal is short of one or two controls - which is why it needs so many alternative versions of the same sort of effect, as there is only one 'Control' knob to tweak the key parameters of that algorithm. As with all of Mad Professor pedals - everything here sounds great - and the mix of momentary / feedback on the footswitch is some pretty smart engineering. Yet it is somewhat outpaced by the Oceans 11 and Hall of Fame 2 each in their own way.
1. Plate
2. Room
3. Spring
4. Hall
5. Shimmer 1 (Control = Duck Depth)
6. Shimmer 2 (Control = Duck Depth)
7. Shimmer 3 (Control = Ratio)
8. Room + Slapback Delay
9. Room + Multihead Delay
10. Swell 1 (Momentary)
11. Swell 2 (Momentary, Control = Speed of Rise)
MXR M300 Reverb - £220
For a while I thought this a pretty cool Reverb pedal - yet it lacks stereo, and has rather few controls and variables overall compared to most of these others. You do though see his fairly commonly paired with a Carbon Copy, and for those wanting a simpler take on Reverb this is still a strong contender, while I feel there are more clever alernatives generally available nowadays, and for significantly better pricing.
1. Room
2. Epic
3. Plate
4. Spring
5. Modulate
6. Pad
Neunaber Immerse Reverberator MKII (Stereo) - £259
This latest iteration of what was the runaway success 'Immerse' has rather been swept up in the wake of The Atmosphere and Dark World - the Immerse's one major advantage that keeps it in contention though is its stereo ins and outs. Yet in that category I still feel that the Hall of Fame 2 overall has more to offer - at a considerably lower premium.
1. W3T
2. Plate
3. Hall
4. Spring
5. Sustain
6. Echo
7. Downtune
8. Shimmer
TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 (Stereo) - £90
This has barely been out a year yet, and it's already showing some signs of age - only really in the area of edgy algorithms and ability for combinations. That said, the TonePrint feature allows you to create the most incredibly detailed of algorithms or download existing masterpieces into those 3 slots - and we have stereo ins and outs. The major thing missing for me actually is the lack of onboard presets. A second footswtich would allow you to cycle though those and make this pedal really useful (for me that is).
1. Room
2. Hall
3. Spring
4. Plate
5. Church
6. Shimmer
7. Modulate
8. LoFi
9. TonePrint 1 (default = Shimmer + Vibrato)
10. TonePrint 2 (default = Cathedral + Flanger)
11. TonePrint 3 (default = Momentary - Church + TroChorus)
Walrus Audio Fathom Reverb - £192
I'm a sucker for dual-footswtich pedals, and this is a really cool take on reverb with a couple of interesting algorithms and a couple of classic ones. Like most on this page for me at least it's been somewhat overshadowed by The Atmosphere and the Dark World - sure it's only around half of those in price, but they are so much more compelling to me somehow.
1. Hall
2. Plate
3. Lo-Fi
4. Sonar (Reverb + High & Low Octaves)
Final Thoughts and Favourites
Because I rock a stereo rig and already have 3 fantastic Reverb Workstations on-tap - the Strymon BigSky, Boss RV-500 and Source Audio Ventris - none of these are really particularly suitable for my needs. Even then there are 2 here that I'm really impressed with - the two new boys - the Chase Bliss Audio Dark World and Dr Scientist The Atmosphere. Part of me also really likes TCE's HOF2 as a junior fall-back. Yet there is really only one winner for me here - and that has to be the fantastic and innovative Dark World. Even though it is just Mono - I still feel I will get it eventually, although I'm not really sure how I would accommodate it in my chain - possibly as a sometime alternative for the Eventide H9.
As to what might suit your own particular purposes then there's plenty on offer here. Of the Stereo ones the newer Immerse and HOF2 stand out, for the Mono ones - the Oceans 11 was looking pretty good until The Atmosphere and Dark World arrived. If you're into more vanilla Reverbs and want the most capable at this size - then that's likely The Atmosphere. If you're into the more quirky side of things I can't see how / why you would want anything other than the Dark World. I feel that despite a number of successes to date - this will go on to become Joel Korte's most popular pedal by some distance. I would still want to see a stereo version of this. I know the Mooer Ocean Machine does some interestingly quirky things, and both my RV-500 and Ventris are capable of sort of similar things - I just really want those Dark-side algorithms though!
So in the end no surprises really - even though we have 12 pretty great reverbs here, it's all about the 1 for me!
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What Are Nerve Interferences?
A nerve interference is the result of spinal bones with improper motion or position affecting nerve communications between your brain and your body.
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Your nervous system controls every cell, tissue, organ and system of your body. These nerve impulses travel through your spine. So having a spine free of nerve interferences is essential for optimal health.
Only a chiropractic examination can detect nerve interferences. And only chiropractic adjustments can reduce their effect to your nervous system, naturally.
Find out if you have nerve interferences before they become more serious and more difficult to correct.
Frequently Asked Questions:
• How come I’ve never heard of nerve interferences before?
True, nerve interferences have not received the press that say, AIDS, cancer, cholesterol or heart disease have. However, nerve interferences are just as important and are often the underlying cause of a wide variety of health problems.
• How do you get nerve interferences?
There are three basic causes of nerve interferences. Physical causes include slips and falls, accidents, repetitive motions, and improper lifting. Stress, anger and fear are examples of emotional causes of nerve interferences. Alcohol, drugs, pollution and poor diet can be chemical causes of nerve interferences.
• How can nerve interferences be corrected?
The primary form of care to reduce nerve interferences is a schedule of chiropractic adjustments. By applying a specific and precise force, in the right direction and at the right time, over time, changes in the position and motion of spinal bones can be made.
• How can I tell if I have nerve interferences?
You can have nerve interferences and not even know it. Like the early stages of tooth decay or cancer, nerve interferences can be present before warning signs appear. The results of a thorough examination can show the location and severity of any nerve interferences you may have.
• Can nerve interferences clear up on their own?
Sometimes. Today’s hectic lifestyles are a constant source of nerve interferences. Fortunately, our bodies have the ability to self-correct many of these minor problems as we bend and stretch, or when we sleep at night. When nerve interferences don’t resolve, you’ll want to see a chiropractor for an adjustment!
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Centered on Duncan’s acoustic & electric guitar work, the powerhouse rhythm section of Nick Pepper on drums and Martin Ward on bass guitar are elevated to yet greater heights by Anne Brivonese’s fiddle, Steve Fairholme’s melodeon and Steve Foster’s electric guitar.
A real master class in just how to do the folk-rock thing right!’ – R2
‘The world can always use more good English folk-rock and this is loud, fast music, based on the rhythms of English country dance music with sharp-edged electric guitar leads, electric fiddle, and gutsy, gritty singing’ – Quotes from fRoots and the EDS Quarterly
Sabrina’s songs are full of a sense of open spaces and possibilities. She has taken her rich traditional music background from her ancestral home in the countryside of Cork, Southern Ireland (Sabrina is the niece of De Dannan Charlie Piggott) and fused it with modern industrial city sounds of her adopted Leeds and Yorkshire.
Her distinctive rippling, almost Philip Glass evoking, acoustic guitar style sets the tone for a heart melting voice with a Celtic timbre that pulls the emotion out of the lyric.
Tickets £7 (£5 for concessions) Available from Heart reception or online from https://www.heartcentre.org.uk
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18-year-old mistakes innocent Christmas present for a dildo
It's pretty safe to say that Shelby Donovan from New Orleans won't be forgetting Christmas 2016 any time soon.
On Christmas morning her family gathered around the tree to open their presents and Shelby go a bit of a surprise... at least that's what she thought. When she opened the present from her mom, she immediately turned bright red with embarrassment as she pulled out a very curious looking object...
"I knew what I thought it looked like but I didn’t want to say in front of my entire family. I started laughing but also kind of crying," recalled Shelby. The shocking pink object clearly resembled a ...um... well... a penis! And as she watched her family bursting with laughter, Shelby realized they were thinking the exact same thing.
But apparently they were all wrong — it was actually a well-intentioned and very practical gift. When Shelby's mother clued in to why everyone was laughing, she immediately came to her own defense: "What do you think I’d get you a dildo for Christmas?"
As it turned out, the strange-looking object was really just a cup holder, a very practical gift for a teenager who likes to drink hot coffee on the go. But apparently no one could get that nagging first impression out of their head. Shelby's grandmother couldn't even resist the temptation to throw in a one-liner to describe the unique present: "Business in the morning, fun at night!"
After this year's confusion, it's safe to assume that Shelby's mom will be sticking with more traditional presents next year. And as far as Shelby is concerned, a pair of knitted socks will do just fine.
Also hefty
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Broken ankle
Ankle injuries usually occur when the foot suddenly and forcefully twists outwards or inwards (rolled or twisted ankle). Often this results in a sprained or torn ankle ligament. Very severe twisted ankles or extreme trauma may also cause the ankle bone to fracture. If the syndesmosis also tears, the ankle joint will become unstable. The syndesmosis is the ligament that connects the outer and inner ankle bones. Ankle injuries that involve a torn syndesmosis must be surgically treated.
The ankle is a complex joint formed by the ends of the fibula (outer ankle bone), tibia (inner ankle bone) and the talus bone. The inner and outer ankle bones are each known as a malleolus and if one of them breaks it is referred to as a malleolar fracture.
A broken ankle may involve the fracture of one of the ankle bones (malleolar fracture) or both ankle bones (bimalleolarfracture). The ligament between the outer and inner ankle bones, known as the syndesmosis, plays an important role in relation to ankle injuries. Ankle fractures are classified according to whether or not the syndesmosis is damaged. This also helps to determine the most appropriate treatment.
Ankle injuries cause immediate and often very intense pain. Standing on the affected foot will either be impossible or only possible with severe pain. In most cases the ankle swells up rapidly and a bruise forms if the ligaments or bones have been damaged.
Fractured ankles are diagnosed by making an x-ray image of the ankle. Depending on the situation, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging examinations may also be carried out.
Ankle injuries and fractured ankles are treated according to the type of injury. If there is ligament damage but no broken bones, the ankle can usually be treated conservatively. Special braces (Aircasts) are used to stabilise the joint after the swelling has subsided. If a bone has been fractured, conservative treatment is only suitable in certain cases. A distinction is made between ankle fractures with a damaged syndesmosis and those without. If the syndesmosis is injured, the ankle will definitely require surgery. Find out more about the surgical treatment options for broken ankles in the ankle surgery section.
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HBO's Girls Filled With Drama That's Not Even on the Actual Show
There was way too much television on Sunday night, so I was finally able to watch the season premiere of HBO's Girls Monday and boy was it "OK." I have written before of my love/hate relationship with the show and it persists. I love the conceptualization behind it, I love a show about dysfunctional female friendships, I love that it is supposed to be rooted in reality, I love everything the show could and should be, I just don't like how it is executed all that much.
I have complained that it's completely unreal to me, I don't sympathize with or even really like any of the characters and I find Dunham's Hannah to be one of the most obnoxious television personalities I have ever witnessed, but I can't stop watching the show! This very reason gives me cause to question my own judgment of it; maybe it's subconsciously genius and my brain knows better than I - if that makes any sense. It is trying to be difficult and it is incredibly successful at that.
I was chatting with a friend the other day who brought the show up organically and said that she didn't make it past the second season and yet she obsessively reads everything about the show; I think there is something to that. There's more drama surrounding the media's perception of the show than there is on the actual program. A little more than one million people tuned into the Season Three premiere, which is up from 886,000 for the second season opener, but I think all of the hype has a lot to do with it. And when I say "hype," I mean Lena Dunham's naked body.
To give you an example of said "hype," on Friday a story hit the intertubes of yet another journalist wanting to focus on the show's obsession with nudity. During a Television Critics Association panel, writer Tim Molloy of the Wrap asked Dunham the same question she's been asked now multiple times: Why are you always naked?
Specifically, he asked:
Dunham, producer Judd Apatow and executive producer Jenni Konner were outraged. How dare this guy ask a legitimate question about the creative direction of the show that there should be a well-thought out answer to?
The question was apparently taken by the Girls' crew as offensive, reading between the lines as, "on Game of Thrones, there's lots of sexy naked ladies, but you Ms. Dunham aren't sexy." That's how the question appeared to be received, as Molloy was called misogynistic, rude, and questioned by Apatow whether he would have the nerve to talk to his own daughters with that mouth.
As someone who, for whatever reason, can't stop reading about this show, I was confused by the outrage. I personally think that the extraneous nudity and sex on Game of Thrones is ridiculous, but I've read about why they do it (sexposition) and when asked, the producers of the show have said as much.
When asked by Molloy why she is always in her birthday suit, Dunham first said because it's reality and then got very offended and didn't want to talk about it anymore stating, "If you are not into me, that's your problem."
That's not an answer.
Dunham saying that regular old nudity is based in reality is an interesting reason. As I stated, I love the concept of this show and how it is supposed to be rooted in reality, but it just isn't. I don't know about all of you ladies out there, but I have had many female roommates over the years and not one of them walked around naked. I never took baths with them and I never considered it OK to chat with them with the bathroom door opened while I was going No. 2. Maybe I have shared a stall while really intoxicated. It's not real life to prance around naked all the time, Victoria Secret model body or not, and so I too have wondered the same thing as Molloy. I have never had the opportunity to ask Dunham myself.
This is just one example of the swirl of controversy surrounding this show and the third season literally just started! Additionally, I have read about 30 articles debating whether Girls is finally becoming the sitcom it was always meant to be or whether it's selling out by becoming a sitcom it never should become. That and how Dunham needs a grown-up haircut. The media loves to talk about this show.
And I, for one, look forward to reading all about it.
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Album of the Week: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell just turned 30 this past February, so calling him an old soul might be soft-pedaling things a bit. You just can't be callow and pen a line like "She left me alone with these pills, and the last of my youth." That's from "Cigarettes and Wine," Isbell's ode to a bygone female bartender/mentor and one of a few songs from his band the 400 Unit's self-titled album that makes it clear he respects his elders quite a bit.
There's also "No Choice In the Matter," a wrenching nugget of lost '60s/'70s soul with melancholy horns and bluesy guitar, a lesson in love with a less-than-happy ending told from the weathered point of view of the guy on the next barstool. Exhausted closer "The Last Song I Will Write" can't help but echo "Moonlight Mile" on the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers - both songs finish off albums about the precarious relationship between duty, excess and maturity in bouts of protracted, frustrated guitar-beating. (The piano also takes its fair share of abuse.)
Luckily, those same Stones are also watching over rockers "However Long," "Good" and "Soldiers Get Strange," so there are quite a few kicks to be had here too. As opposed to 2007's solo effort Sirens of the Ditch - which came on the heels of his exit from the Truckers and breakup with his wife, DBT bassist Shonna Tucker - making a record with a band again has to have been good for Isbell. His world-weary romantic persona hasn't changed, but being with brothers in arms sounds like it's reminded him (if only a little) that he's still young enough to have fun.
With Red Cortez, 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 29, at Walter's on Washington, 4215 Washington, 713-862-2513 or www.superunison.com.
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Tag: Rice bran oil
Sunflower oil refining process flow
Oil Refining: As per the today market research it is being concluded that the market demands the refined edible oil with characteristics such as bland flavor and odor, clear appearance, light color, Long Shelf Life, Suitable for frying. The refinery process may be adopted as physical refinery or chemical refinery. Similarly the process for can be
The nutritional value of rice bran oil
1. The nutritional value of oil depends largely on its fatty acid composition and ratio. Monounsaturated and unsaturated in oils and fats And fatty acids can lower the content of low-density lipoprotein in the blood, and low-density lipoprotein is the cause of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Rice bran oil has a linoleic acid content
Rice bran oil application
Refined rice bran oil is a light yellow to brownish yellow oily liquid with a relative density (15/25 ° C) of 0.913 to 0.928. Melting point -5 ~ -10 ° C. The iodine value is 98 to 110. The main components are triglycerides of oleic acid, linoleic acid and palmitic acid. Unrefined butter oil contains
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By Hyannis Dental Associates
September 26, 2016
Category: Oral Health
Tags: oral hygiene oral health
From the time they're born, you do everything you can to help your children develop a healthy body. That should include their teeth and gums. It's not over-dramatizing to say that what you do now may set the pattern for a healthy mouth for the rest of their life.
Here, then, are 4 things you should be doing for your children's oral health before they begin school.
Train them to brush and floss. Good hygiene habits have one primary purpose — remove dental plaque, a thin film of bacteria and food particles that builds up on tooth surfaces. Plaque is the number one cause of tooth decay and periodontal (gum) disease, so focus on brushing and later flossing as soon as their first teeth appear in the mouth, gradually training them to perform the tasks themselves. You can also teach them to test their efforts with a rub of the tongue — if it feels smooth and “squeaky,” their teeth are clean!
Keep your own oral bacteria to yourself. Children aren't born with decay-producing bacteria — it's passed on to them through physical contact from parents and caregivers. To limit their exposure to these “bad” bacteria, avoid kissing infants on the lips, don't share eating utensils and don't lick a pacifier to clean it off.
Eat healthy — and watch those sweets. Building up healthy teeth with strong enamel is as important to decay prevention as daily hygiene. Be sure they're getting the nutrients they need through a healthy diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, protein and dairy (and set a good example by eating nutritiously too). Sugar is a prime food source for bacteria that cause tooth decay, so avoid sugary snacks if possible and limit consumption to mealtimes.
Wean them off pacifiers and thumb sucking. It's quite normal for children to suck pacifiers and their thumbs as infants and young toddlers. It becomes a problem for bite development, though, if these habits continue into later childhood. As a rule of thumb, begin encouraging your children to stop sucking pacifiers or their thumbs by age 3.
If you would like more information on promoting your child's dental health, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Help your Child Develop the Best Habits for Oral Health.”
Hyannis, MA Dental Office
Hyannis Dental Associates
750 Attucks Lane
Hyannis, MA 02601-2902
(508) 778-4488
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Air Travel
Cheap Airfares August 4, 2018
Some air travelers have an almost magical ability to sleep out as soon the plane engine starts and then stay asleep until they ariives. If you’re not one them, so here are 10 tips for making it easier to catch some sleep on your next flight. Best Ten Tips for Sleeping While one Plane Traveling […]
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MacBook Pro completely dead
Hi everyone
The laptop has no hard drive in it.
The battery is gone, it says it is charging it and it seems to do so in about 1hour and 40minutes, but when I unplug the MagSafe it goes in hibernation after few seconds.
I started this laptop several times with no problems.
Before investing in a new hard drive I tried the pc for a whole afternoon with ubuntu12.04 cd.
Everything was fine, I then shut the pc down and maybe that's when something went wrong:
the ubuntu logo only was showing as normal, but the pc wouldn't turn off.
After a couple of minutes I decide to force it and I switch the pc off holding the power button.
That was the last time I've seen the pc alive, no other minor signs of life since then.
MagSafe is showing orange light with battery installed, green without.
I tried SMC resetting.
I tried moving and switching the RAM.
I tried shorting the power-on pads.
Now I'm trying iFixIt as a last resort.
Thank you very much to all for your help
Answered! View the answer I have this problem too
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Chosen Solution
You can try:
• holding the power button down for a few seconds (more than a poke but less than 10),
• A PRAM (command-P-R) boot
• removing the power for overnight
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It works!
Can't really tell what made it work.
Following machead3 points:
1 - I did SMC resetting for the 20th time just to satisfy point one.
2 - PRAM boot wasn't possible given that the machine wouldn't boot at all.
3 - Power has always been removed overnight.
My guess is that the machine needed to be unplugged and switched off for some day as someone recommends (mysteries of Macintosh).
The problem was that I couldn't sit down and do nothing for more than 24 hours, waiting for the miracle to happen.
A little information outside thread:
Now that the machine works, a PRAM boot seems to have helped improving the sound quality.
I'll keep the thread open for a while, I'll be back in few weeks to let you guys know if the problem didn't show anymore.
Thank you very much machead3 for your help.
2-PRAM is an instantaneous action followed by a bong... the machine never actually boots. The first one does nothing but prepare the machine for the second which must follow imediately... I've always let it go once more (3X). No "mystery" about no power for 24hrs... capacitors take that long (sometimes longer) to discharge.
It has been now about two weeks since the pc came back to life.
I started and restarted it dozens of times since then and I never experienced the same problem anymore.
Many thanks to machead3 for his help.
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Claudio will be eternally grateful.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79246
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Antecedents of Trust in Online Communities
Antecedents of Trust in Online Communities
Catherine M. Ridings (Leghigh University, USA) and David Gefen (Drexel University, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59140-553-5.ch024
Online virtual communities have existed on the Internet since the early 1980s as Usenet newsgroups. With the advent of the World Wide Web and emphasis on Web site interactivity, these communities and accompanying research have grown rapidly (Horrigan, Rainie, & Fox, 2001; Lee, Vogel, & Limayem, 2003; Petersen, 1999). Virtual communities arise as a natural consequence of people coming together to discuss a common hobby, medical affliction, or other similar interest, such as coin collecting, a devotion to a rock group, or living with a disease such as lupus. Virtual communities can be defined as groups of people with common interests and practices that communicate regularly and for some duration in an organized way over the Internet through a common location or site (Ridings, Gefen, & Arinze, 2002). The location is the “place” where the community meets, and it can be supported technologically by e-mail listservs, newsgroups, bulletin boards, or chat rooms, for example. The technology helps to organize the community’s conversation, which is the essence of the community. For example, messages in a community supported by a listserv are organized in e-mails, sometimes even grouping together several messages into an e-mail digest. In bulletin board communities, the conversation is organized into message threads consisting of questions or comments posted by members and associated replies to the messages.
Complete Chapter List
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79259
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InfoQ Homepage BI Content on InfoQ
RSS Feed
• Improving Azure SQL Database Performance Using In-Memory Technologies
In late 2016, Microsoft announced the general availability of Azure SQL Database In-Memory technologies. In-Memory processing is only available in Azure Premium database tiers and provides performance improvements for On-line Analytical Processing (OLTP), Clustered Columnstore Indexes and Non-clustered Columnstore Indexes for Hybrid Transactional and Analytical Processing (HTAP) scenarios.
• Microsoft Releases Power BI Embedded Preview
Recently at the 2016 Build Event in San Francisco, Microsoft announced a change to their Power BI offering. The update comes in the form of giving customers and ISVs with the ability to embed Power BI reports within their own applications. Microsoft is calling this service Power BI Embedded and it is currently in preview.
• Olap4j 1.0: a Java API for OLAP Servers
• Column-based Storage in SQL Server 2011
Company name:
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79290
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4. Add speech input
In this section, you add speech as an input channel to your application.
1. Drag an input microphone node onto the canvas.
2. Drag a Watson speech to text node onto the canvas.
3. Drag a function node onto the canvas.
4. Add a script in the function node to move speech transcription to the payload:msg.payload = msg.transcription;
return msg;
5. Configure the speech to text
6. Wire the nodes together.
7. Optional: Add input and output link nodes to make your flow easier to work with.
8. Test your phrase parser with spoken text.
In this example, the text is being interpreted with an incorrect class, so extra text was added with the misspelling to the training data for the Natural Language Classifier.
1. On Bluemix, open the Natural Language Classifier tooling and select your classifier.
2. Find the section that allows you to test and improve the performance of your classifier. Enter the text that was incorrectly classified and click Classify.
The classification should return incorrectly. This is expected because you are retraining the classifier to account for this misclassification.
1. Flag the classification as incorrect.
2. Try other text. When you are done, click Add to training data.
3. Remove the suggested classification by clicking the X.
4. Assign a new class.
In this case, the class should be turn-off.
1. Assign the class turn-off to the text.
2. Click Create classifier.
3. Name the classifier something like iot-action2 to distinguish it from your existing classifier.
You should now be able to see both classifiers in Node-RED.
1. Make a note of the new classifier id (for iot-action2) and reconfigure the natural language classifier node to use it.
You now have a way to parse phrases to understand the action being requested and to act on the request.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79293
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Users of Microsoft Corp.’s Office System products released in October can expect the first service pack for the software in late June, Microsoft said Friday.
Service Pack 1 (SP1) will apply to InfoPath 2003, OneNote 2003, Project 2003, Publisher 2003, Visio 2003 and SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services, as well as the Microsoft Office 2003 suite, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, a Microsoft spokesperson said.
Microsoft typically delivers a first service pack between six and nine months after it brings a product to market. Service packs typically roll together all product updates and bug fixes issued so far. Occasionally, Microsoft will use a service pack to add functionality. The vendor wouldn’t discuss technical details of Service Pack 1, saying it is too early.
Since its release in October, Office 2003’s retail sales and the number of volume buyers who bought the rights to install the software is approximately double the number reached by Office XP in the first months after its release, according to Microsoft.
The service pack might spark more sales or installations, as many businesses tend to wait until the first bundle of updates before using a product. However, Ken Smiley, an independent analyst in Kansas City, does not see Office System SP1 as a major release.
“There haven’t been a whole bunch of problems with Office 2003; for the most part it has been pretty solid and well received. Service Pack 1 is not something that, as far as I know, is going to fix some huge, gaping security hole,” he said.
Office 2003 went through what Microsoft called its largest beta test ever, including a “refresh” of the second beta to squash more bugs. The refresh pushed back the Office 2003 release, but Microsoft said it would add to the product’s stability, making the first release comparable to a product with the first service pack installed.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79303
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Dollar Deposed Financial Catastrophe Stress Test
The rise and fall of dominant currencies, associated with trade and linked to financial and political systems, is a recurrent theme in financial history. “Global” currencies have existed as long as there has been cross-cultural trade, exemplified by the commercial empires of historical Rome, Byzantium, Italy. This report describes a de-Americanization of the global financial system as one of the Cambridge Centre of Risk Studies’ four Financial Catastrophe scenarios.
The rise and reign of the US dollar, signposted by the end of the Second World War, is the most recent and most complete example of how monetary hegemony functions as a stabilising force in the global economy. The scenario imagines a global financial shift from the US dollar to the Chinese renminbi resulting from continued, rapid and massive development of China on a track towards becoming the world’s largest domestic economy.
The Dollar Deposed Scenario is analogous to the post-World War II replacement of the British Pound Sterling by the US dollar as dominant currency in that it is underpinned by economic weakness, large debt and significant geopolitical shifts that are external to the reserve currency nation.
The overall impact of the changeover in monetary hegemony does not lead to a worldwide recession in any of the scenario variants.
Key findings
• The US expectedly takes the largest plunge in GDP output losses, while the other major economies record gains or negligible impacts to their GDP, signalling that growth in the Chinese economy is ultimately beneficial globally.
• These impacts are considered insignificant when compared to the Great Financial Crisis whose GDP@Risk is around $20 trillion in 2015 dollars.
• The worst performing equity are the US stocks (W5000) while the best performing equities are the UK (FTSE 100).
• The worst performing fixed income bond is the US while German bonds perform the best.
• For portfolio protection it is recommended that equity and fixed income allocation is shifted away from US towards UK and Germany.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79315
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How to use the JCE Image Manager
joomla support cheshire manchester merseyside north west uk
Before you can insert any image into an Article, you must first upload the image.
In this article we illustrate how to upload and insert images into your website.
In this article we also cover how to:
create an Image Folder,
edit Image Properties,
link an image,
delete Images & Folders,
move images around, and
add a Caption to an Image.
The default content editor in a Joomla! CMS website is TinyMCE.
But we prefer to use the JCE Content Editor and so we focus here on how to use JCE to add images to your website.
The JCE Image Manager
The Image Manager is possibly the most useful feature of the JCE Content Editor.
jce panel images
Get organised
RESIZE, RENAME and REFORMAT images before you upload them.
Also, store image originals on your computer in the same way as on the server.
FREE Image Editors
If you do not wish to edit your images and only to convert their format then a basic image editor application should do the job but there are also lots of free resources on the web.
Read more: FREE Image Editors.
Work smarter NOT harder!
Learn how to use your Joomla! website more effectively.
SUBSCRIBERS please sign in to read complete article
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79336
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3 Ways To Send Gmail Email Without Seeing Your Inbox
By Kevin on December 3, 2015 in Time Management
You know how you go to open Gmail to send a message, but quickly get distracted by reading and replying to the new messages in your inbox? Well, for all you productivity ninjas out there, here are 3 ways to send an email without having to open and get lost in the inbox.
Method 1: Using Chrome browser, type “mailto:” in the address bar and hit Enter
You can also append this with the email address. For example, mailto:[email protected]
Method 2: Using Chrome Browser, install “Open Compose Window for Gmail” Extension
This simple extension once activated will open the Gmail compose window without showing the inbox. Click the link below to install the Chrome extension:
temp gmail 2
Method 3: Special URL
The url below will trigger the gmail compose window; you will need to create either a new desktop icon that launches this, or create a bookmark. And of course you’ll already need to be logged into Google in your web browser.
About the Author
KevinView all posts by Kevin
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79338
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« Doug Larson
Home Page
Douglas MacArthur »
42 quotes by Douglas Adams
Published Monday, March 11, 2013 @ 8:20 AM EDT
Mar 11 2013
I really didn't foresee the Internet. But then, neither did the computer industry. Not that that tells us very much, of course- the computer industry didn't even foresee that the century was going to end.
There are some people you like immediately, some whom you think you might learn to like in the fullness of time, and some that you simply want to push away from you with a sharp stick.
Assumptions are the things you don't know you're making.
In the old days, writers used to sit in front of a typewriter and stare out of the window. Nowadays, because of the marvels of convergent technology, the thing you type on and the window you stare out of are now the same thing.
It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase “as pretty as an airport” appear.
Life is wasted on the living.
Lovers of print are simply confusing the plate for the food.
Nobody likes a whistler, particularly not the divinity that shapes our ends.
Reality is frequently inaccurate.
Solutions nearly always come from the direction you least expect, which means there's no point trying to look in that direction because it won't be coming from there.
Time affords us the ability to blame past errors on others while whole heartedly pronouncing our futures successes.
We can't win against obsession. They care, we don't. They win.
We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!
Well, the hours are good, but now that you come to mention it, most of the actual minutes are pretty lousy.
Who is this god person anyway?
You live and learn. At any rate, you live.
(at top)
March 11, 2013 "Google Doodle" honoring Douglas Adams
(March 11, 1952 – May 11, 2001), creator of
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Categories: Douglas Adams, Quotes of the day
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Older entries, Archives and Categories Top of page
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79345
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Kismet Wireless
Kismet Forums
Posted by:dragorn
Subject:New dump file for each channel change?
Date:16:29:26 01/02/2006
> Is there a method for getting kismet to start new logfiles each time the channel is changed?
> I'm using kismet with a wrt54g and want to look at data logged from each channel, so unless I can do it like this (in the dump only the beacon frames have the channel included) then i'll have to use expect or autoexpect or an other tool of the same type to attempt to change channel and restart kismet on each change; obviously i'd rather just have kismet write a new file for each channel.
Theres no mechanism for that now, and I don't think it makes a lot of sense. Channels overlap, and not all hardware reports what channel its really on. Getting data while you're on channel 6 doesn't mean that data is on channel 6, it only means that it was strong enough in the channel 6 band to decode. Only beacon frames actually announce what channel they're on, the rest don't.
I don't see it being practical.
Reply to this message
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79350
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CBD vs. Kratom: How Are They Compared for Managing Pain?
CBD vs Kratom
Chronic pain is a prevalent health concern, but in the US, it has turned into an epidemic, which led to the rise of prescription painkiller and opioid addiction.
Based on a CNN report by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a person dies every 19 minutes from accidental overdoses from prescription painkillers. In fact, drug overdoses are currently the leading cause of accidental death in the US, exceeding car crashes.
With that said, more and more people are looking for other non-addictive pain treatments that are effective and safe.
Kratom and Cannabidiol (CBD) have seen a sharp spike in popularity, particularly among people seeking natural treatment alternatives to prescription painkillers and opioid medications that are known for dangerous side effects.
But how does CBD compare to Kratom? Which one is more effective and safe in addressing pain?
In this article, we will tackle into this seemingly hot debate of CBD vs. Kratom for pain relief, learning about each herb and which one offers more beneficial effects and fewer side effects.
A Deeper Understanding of Pain
Before we go deeper into the discussion, it is important to learn that there are different types of pain. Actually, it’s of the essence to understand how one herb is better than the other for a certain type of condition.
There are two generally known types of pain – the pain of injury or damage and the more bizarre kind that derives from the damage of the nervous system.
1. Nociceptive pain – this arises from the kind of damage in tissues, sent by the nervous system to the brain. The kind of pain nearly all people are familiar with – from minor burns, bee sting and paper cut to tumors, sprains and inflammatory arthritis.
2. Neuropathic pain – this pain arises due to damage on the nervous system, whether central or peripheral, from injury or disease, causing dysfunction or deterioration of the neurons. When this happens, pain signals are sent to the brain and CNS even if there’s absence of physical damage or injury.
Any damage to the neuron, from multiple sclerosis, alcoholism to chemotherapy, can be categorized under this type of pain. The nature of neuropathic pain is often electrical, burning or stabbing. This often led to chronic pain since nerves do not heal immediately.
Based on various user reports from forums, Kratom and CBD, having different active compounds, target pain in a different yet unique way. Both differ in how they relieve pain and what type of pain they can treat. Most people who tried both reported that CBD is more effective in addressing neurodegenerative and neuropathic conditions while Kratom works better in relieving severe nociceptive pain.
What exactly is CBD?
CBD, which stands for cannabidiol, is an active component of the plant Cannabis sativa, which is comprised of two major subvarieties – marijuana and hemp.
Marijuana is the variety that contains high levels of THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), the psychoactive component of Cannabis that is associated with making a person ‘high’. On the other hand, hemp contains very low levels of THC and relatively high amounts of CBD. In order for a strain to be considered a hemp, it must contain less than 0.3% of THC. Most CBD products are derived from industrial hemp.
CBD is a type of cannabinoid that works by influencing the endocannabinoid system (ECS) – a network of cannabinoid receptors and endocannabinoids in the human body. ECS is found in almost all types of cells, which is the reason why CBD can tackle a wide range of conditions, from depression, seizures, anxiety to chronic pain.
What exactly is Kratom?
Similar to Cannabis, Kratom is a natural plant that originated from the regions in Southeast Asia. The active components of Kratom include 7-hydroxymitragynine and Mitragynine, two alkaloids that have been found to have potent opioid agonist properties.
While Mitragynine can affect the kappa (κ)- and mu (μ)- opioid receptors, this alkaloid is structurally different from opioid narcotic drugs such as morphine. It works by targeting the body’s natural opioid receptors in a far milder, gentler way without causing severe side effects.
Kratom comes in different vein colors – red vein, white vein and green vein. In general, red-veined Kratom is considered as the most potent of the three as it has both pain-relieving, mood lifting and sedative effects. The white vein Kratom offers a more uplifting and energizing effect, which is often used to improve focus. The green vein is somewhat in the middle between the two.
CBD vs. Kratom: Pros and Cons
One of the biggest advantages of Kratom is that it can be used as an opiate substitute. Many users of codeine, heroin and other prescription painkillers have sworn that this herb is the only thing that liberated them from their dangerous addictions to narcotics without experiencing severe withdrawal effect. Many users consider Kratom a godsend life-saver.
Since Kratom works on the opioid receptors, it still poses a risk for addiction and symptoms of withdrawal if taken infrequent, large doses and then abruptly stopped. This is the biggest disadvantage of Kratom over CBD.
However, when taken as suggested, the risk for addiction of Kratom is significantly less severe compared to opioid drugs such as morphine. Even if a Kratom user develops an addiction, the symptoms of withdrawal are very mild (includes sweating, nausea, fatigue, sedation, and loss of appetite) compared to a full-scale opiate withdrawal that is known to be life-threatening.
In addition, people who tried both reported that Kratom works better than CBD in providing relief from acute nociceptive pain, which is usually treated with opioid drugs. For instance, a person who suffered from a broken bone due to a fatal car accident will likely be treated with several Kratom doses than with CBD
On one hand, CBD is often regarded to be more effective in dealing with neuropathic pain as well as chronic neurodegenerative conditions such as fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis. Chronic pain caused by rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and epilepsy/seizures can also be addressed using CBD.
Currently, CBD is being studied as a way to reduce the craving in addiction, particularly in its use in cocaine, heroin, alcohol, tobacco addiction, including cannabis misuse. The results seem promising, with experts believing that CBD may help regulate endocannabinoid signaling and glutamate transmission, which usually deregulate during addiction.
It is worth noting that Kratom isn’t advised for daily use due to its tendency to develop dependence. The usual dose of Kratom is anything between 2 and 6 grams, but this should be used every two to three days. Taking more than that will make you build up a tolerance to alkaloids, which leads to the increase in dosage needed to achieve the herb’s therapeutic effect. This drastically increases the risk of addiction, too.
On the other hand, CBD is less likely to increase tolerance and can be taken on a daily basis without any serious side effects.
CBD vs. Kratom: How to Use Both Herbs for Pain Relief?
Kratom is often ingested rather than smoked. The simplest, fastest way to ingest it is through the Toss n’ Wash method, which is done by measuring the leaf powder and directly pouring it in your mouth. It is immediately followed by drinking water and swilling it before swallowing.
Instead of pouring the powder in one go, you can divide the dose into 2 to 3 mouthfuls. The reason is that the more Kratom powder is in the mouth, the harder it is to swallow. This is the best method to feel immediate effects, with minimal preparation.
Unlike Cannabis, the active component of Kratom, Mitragynine, doesn’t have to be heated to become activated. Other methods of ingestion include making Kratom tea, adding it to a protein shake or yogurt o encapsulating the powder.
Capsules come in handy for avoiding the bitter taste of Kratom but there’s a downside to this method. The best capsule size to use for Kratom is Size 00, which can hold 0.5 grams powder. If you need to take 5 grams of Kratom, you have to take 10 capsules in order to achieve the desired effect. Some people find this quite challenging to do. But then again, capsules are very convenient, particularly when you’re always on the go.
As for CBD, inhalation is the most popular consumption method. This includes vaporization using e-liquids. Inhaling CBD is ideal when you need immediate relief. As we ordered some products from RoyalCBD.com and tested with different dosages to come up with an ideal one. In conclusion, it requires 2 to 100 mg per day and is best for urgent situations when you need a quick fix. The upside of inhaling is that it is fast-acting and easy, but one common issue with vaping is that some people are sensitive to vapor.
The second best way is to use CBD capsules, tinctures, or other edibles. Anyone who can swallow a capsule, from the children to the elderly, can use this method. Using CBD in edibles is a popular and affordable option. Some even add it to their smoothies or other foods.
When taking CBD capsules, start with a lower dose and wait for an hour before taking another. Unlike inhaling, oral CBD oil takes some time to kick in, but the good news is that the effects tend to last longer.
CBD tinctures are usually taken sublingually, and ideal for kids too young to ingest CBD capsules. This CBD product is potent, hence it is always advised to start with a very low dose and slowly increase it as necessary. Taking a CBD tincture under the tongue offers fast-acting results. When taking CBD sublingually, simply put a few drops under the tongue and then hold it for 60 to 90 seconds before swallowing.
CBD topicals such as ointments and creams are also proven effective and are popular for joint or muscle pains such as arthritis.
Final Thoughts
Between the two, Kratom appears to be the desired herb when it comes to relieving acute pain from severe injury or trauma. In addition, numerous anecdotal reports told that it is an effective substitute for opiates, with the potential for opioid dependants to safely wean off from narcotic use.
However, Kratom has a psychoactive nature, unlike CBD. Hence, it still does pose a risk for addiction and later on, withdrawal, despite having milder withdrawal side effects than other opiate receptor agonists.
When it comes to addressing chronic neuropathic pain, CBD seems to be the herb of choice. Neuropathic pain conditions may stem from cancer, seizures, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. Furthermore, since it does not pose any side effects or even risks of addiction, CBD is considered safer in the Kratom vs. CBD comparison.
Though the mechanism of action and the method of use of Kratom and CBD differs, both supplements can help relieve pain, has anti-epileptic, anti-inflammatory and anti-anxiety effects. Hence, people who are using Kratom may also use CBD to experience its healing effects and because it’s not psychoactive, it can be helpful for those who need it for medicinal purposes.
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (112 votes, average: 4.19 out of 5)
1. “…a person who suffered from a broken bone due to a fatal car accident…” would be dead and wouldn’t benefit from any dose of anything. Fatal means a person did not survive. LOL Just had to point out that inaccuracy there.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79363
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Changing pH Levels in Your Soil
Posted by Landscaping Ideas on 21st February 2012
Changing pH Levels in Your Soil thumbnail
The next thing you must do is change or balance the soil according to your plants’ needs. This may be tricky, not only because amending the soil to its proper pH levels takes time, but you also need to know what levels of pH are best for each type of plant you have. Changing the pH levels in your soil is best started in fall or the beginning of spring but again it may take some time to properly raise or lower levels.
To change acidic soil into more alkaline soil (increasing pH of soil):
1. Amend your soil with lime, which you can get at your local home and garden store in four forms: pulverized lime which is ground into a fine powder, granular and palletized, and hydrated limestone. All forms can be spread using a manure spreader or lawn seeder. If you decide to use the hydrated limestone you will find that changes in your soil’s pH level will increase rapidly which may actually be detrimental to plants.
2. Another option to increase pH of soil, thus making soil more alkaline is by using wood ashes. Wood ashes hold small quantities of different minerals and nutrients like potassium, phosphate, and boron. To effectively change the soil’s pH wood ashes must be spread over the soil in winter and amended into the soil during the spring. Beware that using large amounts of wood ashes in your soil may cause your soil to actually loose nutrients.
To change alkaline soils into more acidic soil (decreasing the pH of soil):
1. Amend you soil with aluminum sulfate to lower the pH. Aluminum sulfate changes your soil’s pH immediately.
2. The second option is using sulfur. This option takes time and uses the soil’s natural bacteria to change the pH values. Both of these materials can be found at your local garden stores, and both options should be used in your garden with care, due to the fact that if materials fall onto plants they may burn the plants’ leaves.
3. Other materials that can affect the pH of your soil are compost and manures. These are easy to apply but take quite a while (many months) to change pH values in the soil.
Plants that thrive in Acidic soil
• Azaleas
• Rhododendrons
• Blueberries
• Hydrangeas
• Many types of evergreens
Plants that need alkaline soil
• Most vegetables, fruits and other plants
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79373
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Lesson Plan for English-Using Negatives in a Sentence
Pupils explore "negatives" in English grammar. In this grammar lesson, students generate a list of "negative" words such as "not" and "nowhere." Pupils listen to the teacher read examples of sentences with double negatives, identify the double negative, and replace it with the correct grammatical word or phrase. Students complete workbook pages to practice this skill.
17 Views 67 Downloads
Resource Details
3rd - 5th
English Language Arts
4 more...
Resource Type
Lesson Plans
45 mins
Instructional Strategy
Skills Practice
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79419
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Unsafe publication in client API
Key: ZOOKEEPER-666
URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ZOOKEEPER-666
Project: Zookeeper
Issue Type: Bug
Components: java client
Affects Versions: 3.2.2
Reporter: Martin Traverso
The following code may result in a data race due to unsafe publication of a
reference to "this". The call to cnxn.start() spawns threads that have access
to the partially-constructed reference to the ZooKeeper object.
See http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jtp0618.html for some
background info.
public ZooKeeper(String connectString, int sessionTimeout, Watcher watcher)
throws IOException
cnxn = new ClientCnxn(connectString, sessionTimeout, this,
The obvious fix is to move the call to cnxn.start() into a separate start()
This message is automatically generated by JIRA.
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MATEC Web of Conferences
Volume 126 (2017)
Annual Session of Scientific Papers IMT ORADEA 2017
Baile Felix SPA, Romania, May 27-29, 2017
G. Grebenisan (Ed.)
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Statement of Peer review
Published online: 09 October 2017
Mechanical Engineering Technology
Management And Economic Engineering
Road Vehicles And Transportation Engineering
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79446
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Next Meetup
Been a while since the last meetup
Would love a meetup with some Elixir content. I'm developing Elixir for a living, working at number of levels like telephone protocol design, web design, asterisk AGI/CGI and web sockets. Perhaps I could share some of my experiences and get to meet some like minded people.
Needs a location
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Past Meetups (5)
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79447
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Past Meetup
Degoogling Android
This Meetup is past
11 people went
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Cell phones come packed with increasing amounts of unnecessary bloatware, both from Google as well as manufacturer and manufacturer-associated apps you never, ever see after neatly tucking them away into a miscellaneous folder somewhere far out of swiping reach (Google Play Magazines, lol)... much like computers used to until we learned to not be afraid of digging in behind the screen and deleting that garbage (Norton Antivirus, lol).
But there's good news! You can regain control over your phone. You can delete these apps that constantly spy on you, that continue taking up valuable space, that keep asking you for unnecessary updates. The process is simple; it just takes a bit of poking around and not being afraid of black screens with white letters.
A bit about me: I started fiddling with this stuff a few years ago, when I first heard about custom ROMs ( and installed one on my Nexus 4. It was brilliant, but in the process I soft-bricked ( my phone so I spent many, many hours perusing the XDA-Developers forums (, learning how to breathe life back into my device again... and I did it! Since then I've graduated onto a OnePlus 3 (, with which I've tinkered around quite a bit already. You can read all about my setbacks and successes on .
Workshop outline: There will be two parts. In the first, I'll explain the basics behind unlocking and rooting an Android phone, installing recovery software (TWRP or ClockworkMod), debloating a device of unnecessary firmware and Google apps, installing a custom Google Apps set (just the Play Store, that's all you really need), and lastly how to install a custom ROM (a skin over the stock Android software, eg: CyanogenMod, Paranoid Android, Oxygen/Hydrogen OS). There will also be a minute dedicated to talking about MD5 checks, and why performing these is key before installing any sort of software, and I may also install CyanogenMod live onto my OnePlus 3 so you can see how that's done. The second part will be a discussion about apps in general and alternatives to Google in specific, from messaging (Signal, Telegram) to search (StartPage) to maps (OpenStreetMap) to even the Play Store itself (F-Droid).
Who is this for? Anyone who wants to recover control over their device; anyone who wants to understand how Android works at a very basic level. Absolutely zero technical skill is required. I came at this from a real side angle and suspect everyone else is too. And don’t expect to get inside your phone at all; this will be a mere information session on how I got into mine. The workshop is completely free, but donations to DCTRL are always appreciated!
You'll also have the chance to meet:
8 Explorers from "Alternative Living ("
2 Anarchists from "Vancouver Anarchist Libertarian Network ("
A total of 19 people are expected to attend!
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Am Rev Respir Dis. 1977 Jan;115(1):57-65.
Effects on airway dynamics, heart rate, and the central nervous system of various doses of delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol administered in a random, double blind fashion using a Freon-propelled, metered-dose nebulizer were evaluated in 11 healthy men and 5 asthmatic subjects. Effects of aerosolized delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol were compared with aerosolized placebo and isoproterenol and with 20 mg of oral and smoked delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol. In the normal subjects, after 5 to 20 mg of aerosolized delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol, specific airway conductance increased immediately, reached a maximum (33 to 41 per cent increase) after 1 to 2 hours, and remained significantly greater than placebo values for 2 to 3 hours. The bronchodilator effect of aerosolized delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol was less than that of isoproterenol after 5 min, but significantly greater than that of isoproterenol after 1 to 3 hours. The magnitude of bronchodilatation after all doses of aerosolized delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol was comparable, but 5 mg of delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol caused a significantly smaller increase in heart rate and level of intoxication than the 20-mg dose. Smoked delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol produced greater cardiac and intoxicating effects than either aerosolized or oral delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol. Side effects of aerosolized delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol included slight cough and/or chest discomfort in 3 of the 11 normal subjects. Aerosolized delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol caused significant bronchodilatation in 3 of 5 asthmatic subjects, but caused moderate to severe bronchoconstriction associated with cough and chest discomfort in the other 2. These findings indicate that aerosolized delat9-tetrahydrocannabinol, although capable of causing significant bronchodilatation with minimal systemic side effects, has a local irritating effect on the airways, which may make it unsuitable for therapeutic use.
[Indexed for MEDLINE]
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79535
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Shaped the way progressive foundations deployed resources to strategically effect public policy
NCRP’s seminal series of reports on the role of foundations in politics was a critical point in the history of the progressive movement.
How did conservative foundations manage to build an effective infrastructure for developing and promoting conservative public policies with such limited resources?
This question was answered by Sally Covington in Moving a Public Policy Agenda: The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations in 1997. It paved the way for the establishment of progressive think tanks such as the Center for American Progress, and contributed to the formation of the Democracy Alliance.
The follow up report Axis of Ideology: Conservative Foundations and Public Policy in 1997 have been used by dozens of groups to grow a base of political and charitable donors in support of progressive causes.
These and other reports such as David Callaghan’s $1 Billion for Ideas: Conservative Think Tanks in the 1990s continue to shape how foundations think about their grantmaking strategies and the change they’re working to see in the world.
Photo by David Maiolo
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Way Beyond Brownies: Vice Launches A Marijuana Cooking Show : The Salt "Nonna Marijuana's Italian Feast" is the first episode of a Web series exploring pot cuisine. It features a charming 91-year-old grandmother who cooks cannabis Italian food infused with love.
NPR logo Way Beyond Brownies: Vice Launches A Marijuana Cooking Show
Way Beyond Brownies: Vice Launches A Marijuana Cooking Show
Munchies YouTube
On Sunday, my mother sent me an email: "OMG! Watch this unbelievable cooking show!"
It wasn't spam, and my mother, who's 65, does not use OMG lightly.
The fuss was over a 20-minute video about a 91-year-old grandmother who cooks Italian classics in marijuana-infused butter.
It's the first episode in a new series called Bong Appetit from Munchies, Vice Media's food channel. Vice is the media company that aspires to be "the largest network for young people in the world."
But the appeal of a marijuana cooking show apparently extends far beyond computer-bound stoners clicking for chuckles.
Aurora Leveroni, 91, is also known as "Nonna Marijuana." Vice hide caption
toggle caption
One of the show's producers, David Bienenstock, who's based in Santa Cruz, Calif., tells The Salt there's really so much more to the world of marijuana cuisine than pot brownies and lollipops at the edible shops popping up around Colorado, Washington and California. Bienenstock has been writing Vice's "Weed Eater" column since April and is a former editor at High Times.
"We're moving beyond marijuana as something frightening. A lot of people are curious, and food is a great way for people to access the culture," he says. "Once they can access it, they start to understand it's something we shouldn't be suppressing and should be celebrating."
The culinary connection has largely been ignored, Bienenstock says. (Except on this blog: We've reported on a butcher who feeds marijuana to his pigs and a marijuana food truck.)
Which perhaps explains the freshness of characters like Aurora Leveroni, also known as "Nonna Marijuana." The charming 91-year-old first shared her marijuana cooking skills on YouTube in 2011, courtesy of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, which her daughter, Valerie Corral, founded.
"I like to cook with medical marijuana because I feel that it helps those who have been ill and had to endure pain, and I will use it if it helps anyone," she tells Munchies. But that does not include herself. While Valerie says has used marijuana to treat grand mal seizures since the 1970s, when she was injured in a car accident, Nonna says she doesn't partake.
But like any good Italian grandmother who comforts through food, she's more than happy to cook it for others. And so Nonna shares her marijuana-infused butter technique with Bong Appetit host Matt Zambric.
Then Valerie offers Zambric a tour of her impressive marijuana garden, which features 20 different strains that her organization, WAMM, supplies to patients and caregivers on donation basis.
Next it's time to get back to the kitchen to make chicken pot-cciatore and gnocchi with Nonna. We won't tell you how it ends, but suffice it to say it's delectable.
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5 Reasons why Nokia’s Lumia 900 is better than Android, from an Apple Fanboy!
So I came across this email an Apple Fan Boy sent to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Scott G. wrote a 5 point email stating why he got the Nokia Lumia 900 and he intends on keeping it. Though a devout Apple fan, he states that he made the switch because of the dismal experience he had with an Android phone.
So this is really 5 things that make the Nokia Lumia 900 better than an Android phone
Here’s his email:
From: Scott G.
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 1:50 PM
To: Steve Ballmer
Subject: Apple fanboy loves his Windows phone
Mr. Ballmer,
Hopefully this will get to you. Your team deserves credit for producing an excellent product in the newest version of Windows Phone. Yes, I am writing from my MacBook Pro. And I have been a fairly loyal Apple customer over the years. However, I recently bought a Nokia Lumia 900 and intend on keeping it. For full disclosure, I was sure to make sure it could be returned after a dismal experience with an Android phone.
My reasons for switching are:
1. Call quality. I actually use my phone as a phone. That concept seems to get lost in many product reviews. One of my employees actually thanked me for getting rid of my iPhone as it was so much easier to hear me. I apologize for the tedium but it means a great deal to me and my business.
1. Simplicity. My family owns five vehicles, including two Fords with Sync. The 4S didn’t support all functions in any of them. My Nokia 900 was flawless out of the box. It was refreshing to have something that just worked. I cannot afford to have my primary means of communication be a science experiment.
1. No junk software. Speaking of science experiments, I also tried a Motorola Razr. Software that cannot be deleted and restarts itself? A company with questionable privacy rules. Software that terrified my poor in-laws? I guess if you like spending your day tinkering with your phone, it’s pretty cool. Maybe it beats playing with your Star Wars dolls?
1. Simplicity again. Everything after set up has been painless as well. Adding apps, setting up email accounts, etc. I thought the iPhone was good. Your set up was actually smoother and took less time. Same for Wi-Fi, in-car Bluetooth, etc.
1. Speed. The 900 doesn’t seem to lag the way the iPhone did at times. Everything seems to execute quickly. That I don’t think about it is probably the best compliment.
1. Live Tiles. It’s a minor thing but the Metro tiles are pretty cool. I just like the look.
Best regards,
Scott G.
I have never used an Android phone before, though I have heard about them, and from what I hear and what I just read in this email, It does make sense that people are beginning to switch to windows phone, what’s left now is even more Quality Apps and a redefined windows phone OS.
I got the fan mail from:
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Patrick C. Keaveny
The Wordy Coder
Home / Blog / Tech / iOS development.
iOS development.
iOS. It’s a beast.
When I started out developing an app a few months ago, all I could think was,
“This is not going well.”
iOS, Xcode, Objective-C, whichever you choose to associate with app development, is a very ugly beast. Not ugly in the sense of it being a bad programming language, the learning curve is simply much more difficult than it might be for other languages. Objective-C, unlike web languages (e.g. PHP and ColdFusion), is derived directly from the C language, one of the older and more powerful languages. With a lot of recent languages, there exists a long history of derivation. From C arose C++, from C++ arose Java, from Java arose Javascript. Javascript is used heavily in web development, and it has eliminated some of the leftover programming restrictions of C, such as reference counting. Objective-C however, derives directly from C, and so there are many programming restrictions still remaining from C, which would have been eliminated with other languages.
For instance, in a language like PHP, you can create an object with very little code:
use Die;
$die = new Die();
As long as “Die()” is a class that has the proper class declarations. With Objective-C however, the process is much busier:
#import "Die.h";
Die d = [[Die alloc] init];
Words like “alloc” and “init” are frequently used, and with less abstraction, there is typically more legwork in Objective-C.
I found that during my time in Objective-C, the learning process was quite a bit longer than for other languages. This is mainly due to the fact that Objective-C is full of rules, most of which are very difficult to discern unless quite a bit of memorization has occurred. This meant that for the longest time, I had code that didn’t do anything, either because I forgot an “alloc,” tried to add the wrong kind of type to an “NSMutableArray,” or declared a reference to a variable incorrectly.
Method implementation, in particular, is a little tricky. Objective-C handles method names, return types, and parameters in its own way (which, if I had to guess, would be restrictions left over from C):
-(NSString *)createSubstring:(NSString *)str fromIndex:(NSInteger *)start toIndex:(NSInteger *)end
NSString *firstString = [str substringFromIndex:*start];
NSString *secondString = [str substringToIndex:*end];
NSString *newString = [firstString stringByAppendingString:secondString];
return newString;
In this example, we have a method that takes a String and two ints, which then creates a substring of that String given the between the range of those two ints. This is tricky to do, and if things aren’t exactly the way Objective-C wants them, it won’t work.
Xcode tries to make up for this in many ways. For most default apps built in Xcode, the legwork of implementing a main method, importing classes, and creating variables is done for you. In particular, creating getters and setters for Objective-C’s version of variables (which are actually references to addresses in memory), is relatively simple. There are many helper classes available in Xcode to help speed up the development process, such as reference counting (for keeping track of the number of times a reference has been used), and Interface Builder.
Interface Builder in particular can come in handy, especially for creating simple things like buttons, text areas, and tables. One thing that bugs me to this day however, is the very little crossover between Interface Builder and code. Typically when one develops a web page, and is using an IDE like Dreamweaver, they can see the code being added when they change something on the design side (Dreamweaver’s equivalent to Interface Builder). With Xcode however, no code is written when one adds things to a section in Interface Builder. If you go through the steps, you can connect things to the code, but generally you either build apps either in Interface Builder or programmatically. I prefer writing the code myself, but at this point I’m still not sure how code I write would correspond to its Interface Builder equivalent, and I imagine the opposite for someone choosing not to develop programmatically is true as well.
The nice thing about Xcode is that it is a powerful language. I implemented tables into my app using a class called “CollectionView” to organize my information, and I was blown away by how Xcode was able to keep track of such large volumes of information so neatly.
All in all, Xcode/Objective-C is a pretty heavy beast to master, but a powerful one once done so.
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Easy return
At Picci.com returns are easy and you have the right to terminate the purchase contract without penalty and without giving any reason within 14 working days from the day that you, or a third person named by you, acquire the physical possession of the product. Only the costs of shipping the goods will be charged to you.
To exercise the return you have to inform us to Picci Srl, Via Torta, 78 - 50019 Osmannoro - Firenze (Italy), mail [email protected] of your decision to withdraw from this contract by an unequivocal statement (eg a letter sent by mail, fax or email) that contains information about the product and order number. For this purpose you can use the withrdrawal form you can find at the end of this page.
Within 14 days by your communication, you must return the product to this address:
Picci Srl
Via Torta, 78 - 50019
Osmannoro, Sesto F.no
Firenze (Italy)
Inside the package you have to insert a copy of the order confirmation, received by mail at the end of your order, useful to track the return destination
In view of a cancellation, you are entitled to a refund for the amount paid as the price of the product, including shipping and delivery costs without undue delay to be made as quickly as possible and in any event no later than 14 days from the date of notice of cancellation (except for any additional costs arising from the possible choice of a type of delivery other than the less expensive than standard delivery type offered by Picci). Refunds will be made through the same means of payment used for the initial transaction, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise; in any case you won't incur any cost as a result of such reimbursement.
Refund can be suspended until receipt of goods. You are only liable for any diminished value of the goods resulting from an use other than necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods.
For more informations see the General Conditions
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Monday, June 1, 2009
Hot Seconds At Union Pool This Saturday!
Those delightful men collectively known as Hot Seconds will be doing their thing at Union Pool this Saturday, June 6. The Yes Way will be there too. If you're in the 'hood, swing by. You'll have a good time! That's what I plan on doing.
Be social ...
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How Climate Change Will Affect the Way We Buy Sports Cars
Warmer weather will get rid of the curse of the "pointy-nosed car."
<p>Even more than the Corvette, there's a Mustang available for every budget. <a href="" target="_blank">Fox-body Mustangs</a> offer tons of tuning potential for very little money, as do SN-95s. Heck, with a little hunting, you can even find SN-197 <a href="" target="_blank">Mustang GTs for less than $10,000</a>. And where used Mustangs lack handling, they make up for it with cheap power. </p>
"You know what that is right there?" Tim asked me, his finger waving wildly in the direction of a 1991 Ford Probe. "That . . . is a pointy-nose car. And I don't want them in the winter. I can't sell it. So I won't give you any money on it." It was December of 1995, and I was just one sale away from making it to the top of the leaderboard at the small Ford dealership in central Ohio where I worked. We had a green '96 Mustang GT, very few options, five-speed manual. That was the first year for the modular 4.6-liter V8 in the Mustang. It replaced the stalwart "five-point-oh" that came in the '95, and it was a stone. By which I mean that it was slower than the 5.0, and everybody knew it, and consequently the '96 GT was showroom poison.
Yet I had an actual buyer, with a credit score somewhere above the subterranean depths typically plumbed by prospective new-Mustang customers. He liked the GT and thought it was fast, probably because he'd never been in a '95 GT. He wasn't too fussy about the price, and he wanted to take delivery even though we'd just gotten done plowing the previous night's snow off the lot. There was just one problem: his trade-in. My used-car manager didn't want it.
The 1991 Ford Probe was a pretty good car. It wasn't a Mustang replacement, but in the sleepy college-professor neighborhood surrounding my dealership, it was well regarded as a sort of sporty alternative to a Taurus or Accord. I personally didn't think it would sit very long on the used-car side of our shop before selling to some fifty-year-old female adjunct faculty member. It was basically a Mazda MX-6. It was fine in the snow. But my used-car manager, Tim, didn't understand any of that. What he understood was that it had hidden headlamps and a pointy nose.
I could give you a pretty long list of cars from that era with hidden headlamps and a pointy nose. The freaking Honda Accord was on that list, and it was a perennial contender for best-selling car in America. The problem was this: Tim, like most people who have risen to any sort of management position in a car dealership, was a thoroughly hidebound individual of extremely modest intelligence whose primary claim to regard was not accidentally burning the dealership down or using the "retail side" of the Kelly Blue Book to buy four months' worth of trade-ins. (Yes, I had a manager once who did that, but what happened to him is another story entirely.)
Dealerships run on a mix of conventional wisdom and an oral storytelling tradition that wouldn't shame the Inuit, so presumably at some point in his career, Tim heard a story about some guy who lost his job because he took a Corvette in trade during November and couldn't sell it until May. Consequently he resolved to never take a trade-in that looked like a Corvette between November and May. The Probe didn't look like a Corvette to me, but it must have looked like one to him.
And so it went that my prospective Mustang buyer ended up driving his Probe back home and I finished the month as the second-place salesman at the dealer, thus missing a five-hundred-dollar bonus that would have made Christmas a lot more pleasant in my household. It was the last winter I spent working at a dealership. There's just no sense to it. At best, you spend four months selling SUVs to unpleasant people. At worst, you spend four months using a neoprene-bladed broom to push snow off cars for an hour every morning, wearing holes into the soles of your shoes, and eating macaroni and cheese because your commissions aren't enough to cover a regular dinner at McDonald's.
That was 1995, however, and this is now. I'm still in central Ohio, but the weather isn't what it used to be. Maybe it's simply a normal fluctuation. Maybe it's due to all the coal-burning plants in China. Maybe it's because I bought a V6 Accord when the four-cylinder car was actually perfectly adequate for my purposes. Whatever the cause, it's sure warm here in the Midwest lately.
On Christmas Day, Danger Girl and I rode our sportbikes to visit a few friends across the city. It was 58 degrees outside. I've been driving my Boxster to dinner—with the top down. I'm not the only one. The roads are full of everything from temp-tagged C7 Corvettes to raggedy shovelhead Harleys with riders who perhaps are not actually trying to look like Santa Claus but who still look exactly like Santa Claus. Last week I rode my CB1100 to work four of five days. This week I think I'll manage at least two days. It's possible that I won't pour Sta-Bil into my Porsches until January.
This change in the weather, if it proves permanent, could be significant for car enthusiasts in the Midwest and Northwest
This change in the weather, if it proves permanent, could be significant for car enthusiasts in the Midwest and Northwest. It might mean that we're driving our sports cars for nine or even ten months of the year. Yes, we could drive them year-round with winter tires, but have you seen what road salt does to the ball joints on a 911 Turbo? My local Enterprise and Hertz offices are both willing to furnish me a car for about four hundred bucks a month, so I could see a situation where I don't own anything but pointy-nose cars and just rent a Yaris or something from January 1 to March 15.
After a few years selling cars, I came to realize that very few people have the ability to think very far into the future when they make purchase decisions. (I'm no different, which is how I came to have two brand-new Volkswagen Phaetons in the year 2006.) Traditionally, winter in the Midwest is when people walk into a showroom to see a massively overpriced two-and-a-half-ton behemoth that gets fifteen miles per gallon rolling downhill and has less usable interior space than a Honda Fit. They then proceed to buy that stupid thing because there's three inches of snow on their lawn.
Without a long winter, however, those panicky purchases simply won't happen. Instead, people will wait until the summer to buy a car. And summer is the Season Of The Pointy Nose. Think about it. All those people who might choose a Camry instead of a Highlander and thus make it slightly more possible for Car Guys to see something in traffic besides a wall of steel surrounding us on all sides.
I imagine a change sweeping the heartland. SUVs and CUVs replaced by sedans and station wagons. Frustrated orthodontists buying the remarkable M6 Gran Coupe instead of the X6-M thingy. Cayennes being traded in for Caymans or 718s or whatever they are now. All of a sudden we're all sitting at a normal height and possibly treating our fellow motorists like human beings because we're not all clapped-up in monstrous galvanized-steel castles on wheels. At some point, someone might make the decision to tow a trailer with an automobile. You never know.
Sam Cooke said it: A change gonna come, oh yes it will. I'll believe it's here to stay when I can walk into a dealership and hear a used-car manager turn down a trade-in because "it's a blunt-nose truck, and blunt-nose trucks don't sell in the winter . . . or any time." Sure, it's an impossible dream, but I would have said the same thing about riding sportbikes on Christmas Day. The past is another country, but the future makes its own rules.
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HOME 2018-11-26T09:30:48+00:00
FRIDAY 14/12 — 17:00-20:00 MEET & GREET
SATURDAY 15/12 — 13:00-17:00 WORKSHOPS
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SUNDAY 16/12 — 13:00-17:00 WORKSHOPS
At Rombachs Glass we design and make all our products from waste glass. Rombachs glass works on large social artistic commissions as well as private projects.
Rombachs Glass Studio is also a public working area for professionals and amateurs who are in need of fusing, slumping and cold working equipment.
At Rombachs glass the projects and products that are made are not identical. Each piece is made so that it has its own personality.
The sculptures are idealistic and have activistic point of view, pointed towards pollution and the human condition linked to it. The social artistic commissions made at Rombachs are experiments in urban settings. How do we interact with each other and how can we improve on that ?
” I am constantly searching for ways to understand how we as humans interact with each other. I have come to realize that glassblowing aids me with this in that I can visualize these interactions in the products I make, and more importantly in the process I follow where I invite people to be a part of the glass forming process. The path I am exploring now is very much set into working with “captured moments”. Using photography and decal techniques I can essentially place an object in time, and give it a nostalgic direction or place it in an associative context. The idea of using images in glass has so many different avenues and is still relatively rare in the glassblowing community. I aim to delve into this technique.” Frederik Rombach, Borgerhout 2018
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No room at the bin
The idiot's game of CD-ROM retailing: An inside report
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Scott Rosenberg
December 16, 1995 9:24am (UTC)
A customer approaches a salesperson, two boxes in his hands. Each says "Microsoft Musical Instruments" on the cover, but they've got different cartons, covers and color schemes. They're obviously two different editions.
Or are they? The salesperson tells the customer that he's pretty sure they're identical CD-ROMs in different packaging. The customer frowns. "But how will I know which to buy?"
This Christmas, such questions are echoing on a thousand shop-floors across the land. The 1995 holiday season is widely viewed as a make-or-break crisis for the consumer multimedia industry -- and most of the smart bets are on "break."
For years, this business waited for a critical mass of CD-ROM drives and appealing "content." Now there's an "installed base" of many millions and a selection of titles in the many thousands. Yet everyone expects a shakeout. Prepare for a January barrage of headlines declaring "The CD-ROM is dead" -- RIPs from the same folks who once stoked the multimedia hype. New formats that pack in more data are looming, but they require new hardware, and the public may be getting tired of continually replacing its equipment.
The woes of the CD-ROM industry are well-chronicled: inflated prices, mediocre titles, incompatibilities and bugs. And now, just as CD-ROM makers thought they'd finally entered the consumer mainstream, the Internet has stolen their industry's high-tech thunder.
The Net's rapid ascent toward mass-medium-hood has served as a neon reminder of where the CD-ROM peddlers have flopped most spectacularly: distribution. The gross realities of the physical world have shanghaied them and their plans to conquer the media universe.
Multimedia art and entertainment doesn't need to exist in any form other than pure digital information, and the owners of "content" will no doubt thrive selling their stuff on the networks of the future. Voyager, the Knopf of multimedia companies, is already doing good business at its Web site.
But today's CD-ROM producers have instead found themselves mired in real-world retail nightmares. Stores can't stock enough variety, salespeople don't have enough expertise and floor demonstrations are frequently busted. Customers can't find what they want -- and when they do, they frequently end up returning it.
For a look into the black hole of multimedia retailing, we turned to a friend of SALON who works in the CD-ROM department of a large entertainment retailer in California -- surrounded by overflowing shelves, undereducated customers and the sounds of malfunctioning demo computers. We don't want to endanger his paycheck, so let's just call him Eep Throat.
The conditions he describes aren't universal, but they're certainly prevalent. And they go a long way toward explaining why a lot of multimedia companies won't be handing out Christmas bonuses this year.
SALON: How do you help people sort through the chaos?
EEP THROAT: The thing is, we're not paid enough to be able to afford the products. So sometimes people will ask questions, and I can say, I've read about this, but I really can't tell them if it's good or bad.
I go through the magazines. That's basically how I learn about this stuff. But I'm not supposed to read magazines on the job -- I've been reprimanded. It would help if the companies regularly sent retailers packets of reviews, and more and better demos.
There's a title called "Portrait of a Serial Killer." And instead of sending the buyer a demo of it, they sent a paperback copy of the novelization of the movie "Copy Cat," saying, our CD-ROM is just as thrilling as "Copy Cat!" That doesn't help.
SALON: There are so many lookalike products, where you look at the back of a box and can tell they want you to think, "This is just like 'Myst!'"
EEP THROAT: I tell people that William Shatner's "TekWar" game is "Doom with a Toupee." I mean, if you really like Shatner, well then, he can be your guide through it. The Prince CD I call "Myst: The Musical."
I will be pretty blunt with people. With music CD-ROMs, of course, they go for the Prince, they go for the Bowie. And I ask, do you
like this artist a lot? Then maybe that's OK. But if you really want to get a good music CD-ROM, get the Residents' "Freak Show." We actually have sold lots of "Freak Show" -- we have trouble keeping it in stock.
SALON: What else sells?
EEP THROAT: Certain titles are perennial sellers, like "Myst" and "The Seventh Guest" and "Doom."
Sometimes the breakthrough products are surprises. There's this twisted trivia game called "You Don't Know Jack." It's actually funny, which is rare with computer games. And it's multiplayer.
SALON: Where do you make the most money?
EEP THROAT: We have low margins on most multimedia to stay competitive. We make the biggest profit margins on porn. And it's even more difficult to give people guidance with that. First of all, most people will not ask -- they just gravitate to that section and look and grab.
Some are just collections of still images, and people are very disappointed -- they want something that moves. Then there are porn films that have been transferred into QuickTime movies. We sell those for around $50. You can get a lot of the same ones on video for $12.95, and the picture's bigger and better. The only advantage of the QuickTime version is you can quickly click to your favorite scene. But you might not recognize it.
Then there are the "interactive" porn titles. I've seen some of these because there are so many returns on them. People get very frustrated with "Virtual Valerie" when it freezes before she'll climax. We sell five different editions of the "Penthouse Interactive Virtual Photo Shoot" at $69.99. We don't need to charge that much, but that's what people are willing to pay.
SALON: In general, what do you hear back from customers?
EEP THROAT: People are often disappointed, frequently with the products that have the biggest advertising budget -- like this new Rolling Stones "Voodoo Lounge" CD-ROM. You get to know that certain titles are real hazards, like the Prince CD-ROM.
We get tons of returns. And our normal policy is, once it's open, it's yours -- we'll only exchange a defective. But of course, it's not defective -- it just doesn't work on their machine. And it's mostly with the Windows products. Most of our staff has Macs, so we're not Windows experts, and anyway, we don't have the resources to do real tech support. And the customers get frustrated because they'll call tech support at most companies and it'll be busy, or no one answers, or they'll tell them to take it back to the store.
SALON: Who decides what you carry?
EEP THROAT: There's a main buyer at corporate HQ, and he puts in the initial order. But he's not really familiar with the market here. I think he ordered ten copies of "Bad Day at the Midway," the sequel to "Freak Show," which we sold out in a few days. And then I think we got 40 copies of "Ms. Metaverse," this cheesy beauty-pageant thing, which we won't sell in a few years.
SALON: Why are the boxes so huge?
EEP THROAT: The retailers and manufacturers seem to think you need a big box to sell it even though it's this tiny little thing in there. People think, maybe there's a big manual or something. But it's just air.
Now some companies are using oddball packages like egg crates to try to stand out. We just got in "Marathon II" and it's this weird triangular-shaped box -- there's no way you can get it to stay on the shelf. It just falls. You try to artfully stack them on each other, but some customer will pull one off the shelf and they'll all fall down at once.
It would be nice if everyone standardized on Voyager's narrower, smaller box. We can't fit all the titles on the shelves. After Christmas, we're going to have to drop the number of titles we sell.
SALON: It seems really hard to find a specific title. There isn't much organization.
EEP THROAT: There's one section for Mac, one for PC/Windows, and one for hybrid disks that run on both. So right there you have three areas, in addition to whatever game machines you carry. We try to keep games together, and within the games we put the sports titles near each other, and the "Doom"-type shoot-'em-ups together. If a company is well known, like LucasArts, we'll put all their stuff on a shelf together. But mostly it's just a big flood of titles and no system at all. Sometimes we'll run out of something and not even realize that we have it in our stock room.
SALON: Demos make a huge difference in selling titles, right?
EEP THROAT: A lot of people want to see something run before they buy it. "The Day After Trinity" was really easy to put on the demo station, because it's a 90-minute movie, so every hour and a half you would just restart it. We had been selling one or two copies a week. But the week or so we had it on the demo station we sold about 12 copies. If you translate that to hundreds of shops all over, that can make a real difference. But often we have to tell them, we don't have a demo. That happened with "Rebel Assault 2."
We basically have not had all our demo stations working at once since we opened. We spend a lot of time on care and feeding of the machines. They're all Windows.
Our Windows 95 demo stations are a disaster. On Apple there's something called At Ease, which allows you to block off parts of the computer. With Windows, anybody can type "alt-control-delete" and get out of the shell program. People just have an urge to mess around with the machines. They need to click. They start banging on the keyboard even though it's obviously not doing anything. And the first thing they want to do is to try out the Microsoft Network or try to get on the Internet -- even though there's no modem!
SALON: So you give people a peek at a CD-ROM and the first thing they do is head for the exit.
EEP THROAT: Actually, it would be really good if retailers had a machine hooked up to the Web. Often you can get much more information from a company's Web site than from its boxes.
And the Net can augment a CD-ROM, too. When people ask, say, should I get "Doom" or "Dark Forces," the other salespeople will ask how much they're into "Star Wars." I tell them, yeah, "Dark Forces" is neat and has a "Star Wars" theme, but with "Doom" you can go on the Internet and get hundreds of what are called WADs -- add-ons that let you, say, shoot Barney. Time Warner even has a replica of their 39th floor.
I bought a CD-ROM drive a little over a year ago, and it's basically been a $250 paperweight. I spend more time on a computer than I should, online, for $15 a month.
Scott Rosenberg
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Savage Chickens - Trouble at the Moisture Farm
More CSI, Star Wars, and 3″ x 5″ sticky notes.
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26 Responses to Trouble at the Moisture Farm
1. Sushi_bb says:
Yeah Jedi-Master Cane rocks!
2. steve says:
lol, didn’t see that coming….
: )
3. Jochen says:
OMG! Why I am reading this in Obi Wan’s voice? 😀
4. me says:
Stormtroopers precise? Did we see the same film?
5. @a_cr says:
haha nice one, made my laugh out loud at 6am 😀
6. NotBob says:
As a fan of both Star Wars and CSI, I love this one!
Still giggling now. 😀
7. panzi says:
What kind of bad shots must the sand people be? I mean the imperial stormtroopers had a hit ratio of 0 when luke & co. were in the death star.
8. Jamie says:
Oh man I love this one! Hahahaha. Is he inspired more from Grissom or Horatio?
9. k says:
Stormtroopers PRECISE? What movie are we watching here?
10. Michael says:
Wasn’t the “crime scene” context for all this deduction a sacked Jawa transport? Anyway, this is hilarious. Specifically, the bit about stormtroopers blasts being ‘accurate’ always makes me LOL. 😉
11. Chris says:
lol, so damn funny. Someone should totally make a U-Tube Video on this one.
Great Job Doug.
12. Doug (the 2nd) says:
Doug, you rock. This was a great one.
-the other Doug
13. Rosemarie says:
horatiwan kenobi, your powers for tagline sentences never cease
14. Eric S. Smith says:
Surely the definitive David Caruso–style line must be:
“That’s no moon,” and then, with mandatory shades adjustment: “It’s a space station.”
15. spidey says:
oh man. i think i have a new favorite.
16. Josh says:
Nice! That scene always makes me laugh because (as other commenters have already pointed out) Imperial Stormtroopers are anything but precise.
17. andyinsdca says:
It looks like the things in this desert are about to…. (sunglasses) HEAT UP
18. Josh says:
They were accurate. Luke had the force on his side, just like Obiwan Cane-obi. Great comic 😀
19. Marco Mo says:
this is one of the funniest one in a while… loved it
20. Aud says:
Oh my god, Doug, this week has to be some of your best work to-date.
@Jochen: You’re not the only one. 🙂
21. Aud says:
@me/panzi/k: Remember that Lucas wrote that line, Doug was just mimicking it(don’t know why George did, though. Even Jawas have better aim ).
22. graham says:
there is no pun here.
thus no point to use caruso’s glasses trick.
23. Francois Tremblay says:
They are “inaccurate” because they are trying to capture Luke and the others alive, under orders from Darth Vader. It’s fine to criticize Star Wars, but at least criticize it for something true. There’s plenty of on-screen examples of Stormtroopers who can shoot with pinpoint accuracy when they want to kill someone.
24. Mr Oz Barry says:
I didn’t actually find it funny, mostly because Obi was giving the speech at the moisture farm instead of the destroyed jawa transport.
It was funny in concept, though 🙂
25. Doug says:
@Michael & @Mr Oz Barry: Yeah I played around with the facts a little on this one. I wanted it to take place on the Lars farm because that scene blew my mind when I was a kid watching Star Wars for the first time. The dead Jawas just looked like a bunch of abandoned bathrobes, but those skeletons at the farm were terrifying!
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79857
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Here we have two pieces–one by Cy Twombly (1928 – 2011), the other by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 – 1669)–that begin with different intentions, but end with similar results.
Cy Twombly "untitled" 2005
Twombly “untitled” 2005 []
The Twombly is not, at first, surprising; swirling and splashing is what his painting is about. But while it’s certainly abstract, it’s not quite non-representational. His swirlings have an intricate and repetitive tension about them that implies a narrative. The swoops draw the eye around and around and toward the right, while the background veil of thin vertical drips provide stability for the swirls to play against.
So: abstract, but inclining to narrative.
Rembrandt - "Landskab med hytter under store træer" c.1650 (W'ped)
Rembrandt – “Landskab med hytter under store træer” c.1650 (W’ped)
While the Rembrandt, also predominantly composed of swirls, proceeds from the opposite direction, from narrative to abstraction. We spot the subject, a view of cottage and trees, right away, but it isn’t a formal illustration of picturesque cottage and tree. What Rembrandt was responding to was the lashing, constantly changing shapes as the branches whip this way and that in a strong wind blowing from left to right. It’s the wildness, the disorderliness of it, that he’s after. The action is in the swirls of foliage. The straight, mostly vertical lines of the cottage, and the oblique foreground ditch, provide the same still grounding that Twombly gets from his thin vertical drips. And for a contrasting negative, each artist provides a blank space beginning at the upper left–not as spacious in the Twombly as in the Rembrandt, but present in both pieces, and for the same reason.
For a discussion of similar issues with respect to Turner, Constable, and Kline, go >blog>archive>May 12, 2012: abstract and not.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79861
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Home >> Archives >> Volume 11 Number 4 >> st0240
The Stata Journal
Volume 11 Number 4: pp. 545-555
Subscribe to the Stata Journal
Treatment interactions with nonexperimental data in Stata
Graham K. Brown
Centre for Development Studies
University of Bath
Bath, UK
Thanos Mergoupis
Department of Economics
University of Bath
Bath, UK
Abstract. Treatment effects may vary with the observed characteristics of the treated, often with important implications. In the context of experimental data, a growing literature deals with the problem of specifying treatment interaction terms that most effectively capture this variation. Some results of this literature are now implemented in Stata. With nonexperimental (observational) data, and in particular when selection into treatment depends on unmeasured factors, treatment effects can be estimated using Stata’s treatreg command. Though not originally designed for this purpose, treatreg can be used to consistently estimate treatment interaction parameters. With interactions, however, adjustments are required to generate predicted values and estimate the average treatment effect. In this article, we introduce commands that perform this adjustment for multiplicative interactions, and we show the required adjustment for more complicated interactions.
Terms of use View this article (PDF)
View all articles by these authors: Graham K. Brown, Thanos Mergoupis
View all articles with these keywords: itreatreg, treatment-effects models, interaction terms
Download citation: BibTeX RIS
Download citation and abstract: BibTeX RIS
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79862
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The OpenDocument file format (aka "OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications"), is an open and free standard for office files. It's fairly easy to read OpenDocument files in/from Python. Basicly, an OpenDocument file is just a zip archive but with another extension (".ods" spreadsheets, ".odt" for text documents, ".odg" for graphics and so on). The files in the zip file are mainly some XML files, like content.xml, settings.xml and styles.xml.
Basicly, we just need two standard python modules from the nice standard Python library to extract data from a OpenDocument File: zipfile for handling the zip compression and xml.parsers.expat (or another xml parser module) for parsing the xml. A possible/simple/minimal way to do read a fictional spreadsheet file pelican.ods is as follows:
# import the needed modules
import zipfile
import xml.parsers.expat
# get content xml data from OpenDocument file
ziparchive = zipfile.ZipFile("pelican.ods", "r")
xmldata ="content.xml")
class Element(list):
def __init__(self, name, attrs): = name
self.attrs = attrs
class TreeBuilder:
def __init__(self):
self.root = Element("root", None)
self.path = [self.root]
def start_element(self, name, attrs):
element = Element(name, attrs)
def end_element(self, name):
assert name == self.path[-1].name
def char_data(self, data):
# create parser and parsehandler
parser = xml.parsers.expat.ParserCreate()
treebuilder = TreeBuilder()
# assign the handler functions
parser.StartElementHandler = treebuilder.start_element
parser.EndElementHandler = treebuilder.end_element
parser.CharacterDataHandler = treebuilder.char_data
# parse the data
parser.Parse(xmldata, True)
After importing the modules zipfile and xml.parsers.expat, we open the OpenDocument file through the zipfile filter and extract the XML data from content.xml (in just three simple readable statements, that's what I like about python)
Next, we have to parse the XML data and store its elements. First I define a class Element for storing the name, attributes and contents (note that its a subclass of list) of XML elements. The XML parse handler functions are the methods of the class TreeBuilder, which also collects the whole XML tree in its attribute root during parsing. The parsing itself is initiated by parser.Parse(xmldata, True).
At this point, the whole XML stream is parsed and the structure is stored in and accessible from treebuilder.root. For example, in the following code we define a function showtree and call it, for rendering an indented tree representation of the element names and character data:
def showtree(node, prefix=""):
print prefix,
for e in node:
if isinstance(e, Element):
showtree(e, prefix + " ")
print prefix + " ", e
This simple example could be extended ofcourse to serve a more real life application, but you get the point.
Moreover, at the OpenDocument Fellowship they are working on LibOpenDocument, a library for manipulating OpenDocument files. At the time of this writing, there is only a PHP and a Python implementation in early development stage.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79866
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Linn, Murray, and Solly
About This Show
Show Info:
Broadcasting from our nation’s capital, Scott Linn, Steve Solomon, and Tim Murray bring you SB Nation A.M.! It’s the country’s most irreverent and unpredictable 3 hours of morning sports talk. Catch the show every morning on SB Nation Radio and Podcast Arena!Read more »
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79868
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20th Century Women Soundtrack CD. 20th Century Women Soundtrack
4.4/5 (7 votes)
20th Century Women lyrics
Soundtrack for Movie, 2016
December, 28th 2016
20th Century Women album description:
Don’t believe when creators tell that this is a comedy-drama. If there is a ‘drama’ word in the recent films, you may be absolutely, 200% sure that there will be nothing comedic in the film. This trend lasts for almost 2 decades & every film titled a comedy-drama is nothing but a boring storytelling about feelings of one or two people who allegedly had love but then something terrible happened to them & it turned out that they cannot be together or, at least, cannot be together for a while. Look here – we’ve just told you the storyline of every single film of show business of the last 30 years (well, except horrors and action movies, because these two are still interesting to watch).
The soundtrack generates the mixed feelings. At first, every single song from it is either old or very old. Rudy Vallee's ‘As Time Goes By’ has come to us from 1940ies. David Bowie's ‘D.J.’ is from 1970ies. The Buzzcocks' ‘Why Can't I Touch It?’ is old too, along with every other song here, whatever its name. Some songs have interesting and sophisticated lyrics, like ‘Love in a Void’. Some others are absolutely dull and blunt lyrics, as ‘Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy’. If we were the sound producers of the film, we would try at least to select something cheery & uplifting. And would definitely avoid the glam rock pop things by Mr. Bowie, because nothing from what he did may be considered actually normal. Yes, he may be an idol of some people & performers, but they are way too far from the normal people – those who listens to glam pop, aren’t collide with the ordinary life, having kids, living in a fancy house, etc.
So, do you believe this film is destined to have huge box office? Oh, come on – how many of you heard that Annette Bening & Elle Fanning star in anything but boring intellectual things with endless talking?
Reference: More info: Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes
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La Bella Flatwound Electric Bass Strings
Old school. Retro. Whatever name you want to put to the sound of icons like James Jamerson and Paul McCartney, La Bella Flatwound electric bass strings are the strings of choice. These long-lasting strings have been producing that classic sound since the ’50s and ’60s. They’re still the standard today.
The strings are stainless steel, and La Bella hand polishes them for an incredibly smooth touch.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79897
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Denitrification Facility
Denitrification is an anaerobic biological process, employed to convert the nitrate-nitrogen in the effluent from the activated sludge-nitrification process intonitrogen gas. Denitrification takes place in the deep bed, mono-media denitrification filters. A supplemented carbon source (methanol) is added to the denitrification filter influent to provide a food source for the denitrifying culture in thefilters.
There are 32 denitrification filters arranged for control in two groups of ten and two groups of six. There are three principle filter cycles, as follows:
• Normal Filter Cycle
• Nitrogen Release Cycle
• Full Backwash Cycle
During the normal filter cycle, the nitrified effluent with the supplemental carbon source (methanol) enters the filters and passes through the filter media where it comes in contact with the anaerobic denitrifying bacteria. It is here that the bacteria utilize the oxygen on the nitrate molecule, leaving nitrogen gas in the filter media.
Denitrification Filter
The nitrogen gas forms small gas bubbles within the filter. The media and down flow of the liquid prevent the nitrogen gas bubbles from rising to the surface and escaping into the atmosphere. The nitrogen release cycle is a short backwash cycle to release the nitrogen gas which becomes trapped in the filter media. Generally, the nitrogen release cycle backwash is done at 4 to 6 hour intervals. If the nitrogen release backwash cycle is not performed at the required interval, the nitrogen gas will continue to accumulate and the head loss through the filter will increase just as in a dirty filter. The flow rate through the affected filter will be reduced. Automatic controls are arranged to provide an adjustable duration water backwash, in sequence, to each group.
Greater than 90 percent of the nitrogen in the influent to this process will be converted to nitrogen gas, and thereby removed from the wastewater.
As discussed above, denitrification is an anaerobic process. Therefore, the effluent from denitrification will have little or no dissolved oxygen (DO). Reaeration of the denitrified effluent is provided in the postaeration-chlorination tanks by diffused air. The DO in the effluent is raised to at least 5.0 mg/l.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/79907
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Open Source
SolutionBase: Working with Scribus for Linux desktop publishing
Desktop publishing has long been the territory of Mac OS X workstations and, to a lesser extent, Windows machines. Jack Wallen shows you how to work with Scribus to turn your Linux workstation into a desktop publishing platform.
This article is also available as a TechRepublic download.
For just about every software category, office suites, Web browsers, or whatever, there's an open source version in existence. One category that's long been not as obvious for Linux that's long been a staple of Windows and Mac desktops is desktop publishing software. Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X and Windows desktops with a combination of "press-ready" output and new approaches to page layout.
Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation. Scribus is easy to use, powerful, and a free alternative to other very costly applications. Just how easy is Scribus to use? Let's find out.
Obtaining and installing Scribus
Even though Scribus was born as a Linux alternative to other software, there are several ports of the software. Linux, OS X, and Windows versions are all available But since this my focus is on Linux we'll stick with our favorite open-source OS. You can download Scribus directly from the Scribus Web site.
As with any piece of software you want to install, you need to make sure you meet the requirements first. For Scribus you will need:
• Qt 3.3.0+, both the runtime libraries and development libraries. I recommend using Qt 3.3.5+. Qt =< 3.2.x is not supported.
• Python and python-devel libraries 2.3+. You can disable Python support with configure —without-python. Python 2.2 is not supported.
• Freetype2 2.1.7+. Due to various freetype2 bugs, we recommend, if your distribution/OS allows, to use 2.2.1+
• libart_lgpl 2.3.10+, 2.3.17+ recommended.
• libxml 2.6+.
• Ghostscript 8.15+ or AFPL Ghostscript 8.54+ is highly recommended. Ubuntu users in particular are urged to update to a newer version if possible.
• Postscript-Fonts. TrueType Fonts. Scribus also can support OpenType fonts both TrueType and Type 1 Outline OpenType Fonts in 1.1.1+.
A pretty frightening list eh? It really isn't that bad because most of the more recent distributions will have all of the above requirements. With all requirements met you are ready to install. I've run the installation on both Fedora Core and Ubuntu. Both installations were as simple as running either:
yum install scribus
on Fedora Core. Or
apt-get install scribus
on Ubuntu.
If you want to install the rpm directly on your SuSE system, go to SourceForge, grab the correct file, and run (as root):
rpm -ivh scribus-
Installing Scribus from source is no different from installing any Linux application from source. Untar (or unzip) the source package, change into the newly created directory, and run the commands (as root):
make install
Once the program is installed, launch the program with the scribus command.
Initial setup
From the Settings menu select Preferences. You'll see a listing of the various configurable options as seen in Figure A.
Figure A
You can set basic Scribus options here.
There are a few items to check here. First make sure the paths are set up correctly. With the exception of the ICC path, these are self explanatory.
ICC (International Color Consortium) profiles are simply look-up tables that describe the properties of a color-space. These profiles will work alongside hardware you are using. Say, for example, you use a particular monitor that displays the color blue a bit out of sync with what you know your printer blue to be. The proper profile will adjust these colors to match the output of your monitor so that what you are seeing on your monitor will match what you see on the printed page.
To install profiles for Scribus to use, the best bet is to download the "Windows" version of the Adobe ICC profile package and unzip it into a directory like $home/.colors/icc. Linux users can also download freely distributable profiles from the ICC Downloads section of Once you have those profiles downloaded you will then configure the ICC profiles section in the preferences window to match.
The next configuration you will want to make sure you take care of is in the Document settings under Autosave. Set this up or you could wind up really hating life after slaving away for hours (forgetting to save) and having Scribus come crashing down (along with all your work). The other configurations in this section are very much user-specific.
The next configuration I always take care of is in the Tools section. When you select the Tools section you'll notice a small subsection open up (Figure B). This new subsection allows you to select configurations for Text, Picture Frame, Shapes, Lines, and Magnification.
Figure B
Here you select configurations for Text, Picture Frame, Shapes, Lines, and Magnification.
The first section, Text, will allow you to configure your default font. Believe me, if you work like me and have thousands of fonts, you don't want to have to go through every project and select the default font for every text block. Not fun. Here you can also define default size, color, columns, and gaps for your fonts.
The next subsection, Picture Frame Properties, allows you to define Free Scaling options or Scale Picture to Frame Size options. You can also chose the Fill Color of your frames here. I always select NONE for this option because with fill color you can often wind up hiding text or other images behind your picture frames. Shading is another option to configure here. I usually keep shading at 100% and then adjust on a per-image basis as needed within a project.
The Pages section allows you to select a Side by Side page display. This is a very helpful configuration because it allows you to better see the flow of a project.
The external tools will allow you to configure which applications you use for image processing and postscript interpreter. The GIMP and GS are the respective defaults.
Finally, the last configuration you will want to deal with is your fonts. Although not actually Scribus specific, you will want to have a plethora of fonts to choose from when creating your projects. I won't get into the addition of fonts in all distributions, but the now-common method of adding fonts in Linux is to simple add the TTF file into the ~/.fonts directory (~/ being the home directory of the user), log out of your desktop environment, log back in, and restart Scribus. There you go—all your fonts conveniently picked up by Scribus.
Let's walk through the steps of creating a document with Scribus. The document we are going to set up is a professional-looking PDF for this article. It's very simple. Of course we're not going to discuss the artistic standpoint of the project creation because that is another article (or book) all together. That being said, here we go.
The first thing you must do is select New from the File menu. We will keep all of the defaults. Now, like image editing, you need to think along the lines of layers. Every page you create with Scribus will involve layers (or at least it should). The default page only includes one layer. I tend to add layers as I need them. If I know there will be text and images I automatically know that there will be at least two layers. For this page I am going to have two columns of text, a background color, and a side-bar image. Let's create our needed extra layer.
From the Tools menu select Layers and a small window will open as seen in Figure C. The default layer is called Background.
Figure C
Set layer information here.
Clicking the far left button on the bottom row will add a new layer shown in Figure D. The new layer will be called New Layer 1.
Figure D
Add a new layer by clicking the last button.
Change the name of that layer by double-clicking the New Layer 1 area and retype a descriptive name. We'll call this new layer Text as seen in Figure E.
Figure E
Change the name of the layer to something understandable.
When you're working on a document with many layers, having descriptive names for each layer will help you get around when adding or editing text/images in layers. It's a good habit to get into.
Let's add the background for the text. Since I've chosen to have two columns of text I will create two columns of color to go behind the text. First make sure the layer you are working on is the Background layer by selecting it from the layer drop-down list at the bottom of the screen. Click on the Draw Various Shapes button, highlighted in Figure F.
Figure F
The highlighted Draw Various Shapes button will allow you create any shape you want.
Now click and drag a rectangle shape that looks like the shape in Figure G. Let's change the color and shade of this shape. From the Style menu select Color and choose Blue 3. With the color chosen go to the Style menu again and select a Shade of 50%. Now you need to copy that color column—a simple [Ctrl][C]/[Ctrl][V] action will work fine.
Figure G
You can create custom columns.
When you paste the new column down you need to move it because it will appear directly over the first column. Moving objects is much easier (and more precise) if you use your arrow keys instead of the mouse. There are two ways to move objects around using your arrow keys—with and without the Shift key. If you hold the Shift key down while you click (or hold down) the appropriate arrow key the object will move at a larger increment than if you do not hold the Shift key down.
So using the arrow keys, move the second column to the right until it looks something like Figure H.
Figure H
Create a second column.
Now it's time to add some text. Before you add your text switch to the Text layer from the Layer drop-down menu. Now click on the Insert Text Frame button (three buttons to the left of the Draw Various Shapes button). Now click and drag the text frame so it's almost the same size as the far left background.
There are two ways to add text. Both require the use of the Story Editor. Click on the Story Editor button shown in Figure I. A new window will open as seen in Figure J. Within the Story Editor you can either manually type the text in, copy and paste it from a document, or open a .txt file on your computers' hard-drive. Microsoft Word .doc support is promised in upcoming releases.
Figure I
The Story Editor button highlighted here starts the Story Editor.
Figure J
The Story Editor allows you to add text.
WARNING: If the .txt file you have has any formatting it will be lost when you import it into the Scribus story editor. So when the text is imported you will have to make all the formatting changes you need.
With your text in the Story Editor you will make changes (alignment, font, font color/size, style, and tracking. Each time you make a change you have to click on the Update Text Frame button. Once you've finalized your updates close out the Story Editor.
But let's say you want to wrap your text around an image. It's simple. You'll want to remain in the same layer as your text and then click on the Insert Picture button. Once you add the picture (where you want it in relation to the text) you will then go to the Tools menu and then click on the Properties tool.
With the properties tool open click on the Shape button. In this window, seen in Figure K, check Text Flows Around Frame as well as Use Contour Line.
Figure K
You can allow text to flow around graphic images.
Now, click the Edit Shape button and a new window will appear as shown in Figure L. Check the Edit Contour Line selection and a blue line with blue dots will appear around your image.
Figure L
When blue dots appear, you can move an image around.
When you place your cursor near the contour line (sides, top, or bottom) the cursor will turn into a hand. With that hand you can then drag the contour line up, down, or out. Your purpose is to extend the contour line away from the image edge so the text will wrap away from the image edge otherwise the text will flow right up to the image edge making it difficult to read.
With the contour line editing complete, click the End Editing button and you will see the text is now given plenty of space around the image.
Saving and exporting
The last topic to touch on is saving files. Scribus saves natively as .sla files. Not many applications can read the raw date of the .sla file. Never fear, pdf is here. Scibus handles pdf exporting flawlessly.
Once your document is complete and saved in basic .sla format, click on the Save As PDF button. Within this new window, seen in Figure M, you'll need to pull a few tricks out of your sleeve to make PDFs work perfectly. The first trick to pull is to click on the Color tab. Within the color tab it is possible to configure the pdf output for either Screen/Web or Printer. If this document is to be sent to a printer, select Printer.
Figure M
Scribus can create PDFs, but you must make some changes along the way.
Next, click on Fonts tab. If you have used fonts other than your default you will want to embed them into the pdf. This will ensure that the users see the document exactly as you want them to.
Final go back to the General tab. Here the resolution, compression, pdf compatibility, rotation, binding, and file output directory are configured. Please note that the higher your resolution (and less compression) you use, the larger the file will be. I do the KyMBA (Kentucky Mountain Bike Association) newsletter that generally runs around 30 pages. Once exported to pdf this file is almost always over 30 MB in size. So configure wisely in this area.
Final words
And there you have it - an introduction to one of the most powerful and useful open-source projects out there. Scribus is capable of creating outstanding and professional documents of any length and artistic merit. Books, newsletters, instructions, you name it...Scribus can handle it. But there is so much more to this tool, so next time we will visit some of the more advanced features of Scribus. Until then, happy creating!
About Jack Wallen
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Test and Evaluation Challenges of Embodied Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
ghostslimIA et Robotique
23 févr. 2014 (il y a 4 années et 10 mois)
134 vue(s)
Test and Evaluation Challenges
of Embodied Artificial Intelligence
and Robotics
Technical Report UT-CS-08-628
Bruce J. MacLennan
Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
August 22, 2008
Recent developments is cognitive science, artificial intelligence (AI), and
robotics promise a new generation of intelligent agents exhibiting more of the
capabilities of naturally intelligent agents. These new approaches are based on
neuroscience research and improved understanding of the role of the body in ef
ficient cognition. Although these approaches present many advantages and op
portunities, they also raise issues in the testing and evaluation of future AI sys
tems and robots. We discuss the problems and possible solutions.
This report is an unedited draft of “Challenges of Embodied Artificial Intelligence and
Robotics,” an article invited for
ITEA Journal of Test and Evaluation
of The International
Test and Evaluation Association. It may be used for any non-profit purpose provided that the
source is credited.
Recent research into human and animal cognition has improved our understanding of
natural intelligence, and has opened a path forward toward artificially intelligent agents,
including robots, with much greater capabilities than those implemented to date. Im
proved understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying natural intelligence is provid
ing a basis for implementing an efficient, robust, and adaptable artificial intelligence (AI).
However, the nature of these mechanisms and the inherent characteristics of an AI based
on them, raise significant issues in the test and evaluation of this new generation of artifi
cially intelligent agents. This article briefly discusses the limitations of the “old AI,” the
means by which the “new AI” aims to transcend them to achieve an AI comparable to
natural intelligence, the test and evaluation issues raised by the new AI, and possible
means for dealing with these issues in order to deploy robust and reliable systems capable
of achieving mission objectives.
The Nature of Expertise
It used to be supposed that human expertise consists of internalized rules representing
both knowledge and inference. Knowledge was considered a collection of (general or
specific) facts that could, in principle, be expressed as sentences in a natural language.
Similarly, the process of thought was supposed to be represented by rules of inference,
such as the laws of logic, also expressible in natural language. It was granted that natural
language was vague, ambiguous, and imprecise, and so artificial languages, such as sym
bolic logic, were proposed as more adequate vehicles for knowledge representation in the
nowledge representation languages
, which were often used in AI,
were effec
tively programming languages for operating on knowledge represented by language-like
data structures.
A full critique of this model of knowledge and cognition is beyond the scope of this
article, so I will just mention a few key points (for more, see, e.g., Dreyfus 1979; Dreyfus
and Dreyfus 1986). One objection was that neuroscience provides no evidence that the
brain is structured like a stored-program computer. In answer it was argued that the ab
stract idea of a general-purpose computer (i.e., of a universal Turing machine) could be
implemented in many radically different ways, and so the brain could be such a machine
even though it is very different from ordinary computers, and it was argued that in any
case there was no reason for artificial intelligence to slavishly imitate the brain; we could
use our technologically superior digital computers. Another objection was that, while we
are sometimes conscious of following verbalizable rules, much of our intelligent behavior
takes place without conscious rule following. In answer it was argued that well-learned
behaviors were “compiled” into unconscious neural operations, much as programs writ
ten in high-level languages are compiled into machine code. A third objection was that,
while it might be plausible that human knowledge and inference were represented in lan
guage-like rules, this was implausible as a model for nonhuman animal cognition, espe
cially in simpler animals with no language-using ability. One answer was that nonhuman
animals don’t have conceptual knowledge, which is “true knowledge,” as opposed to con
crete memory and instinctive stimulus-response behaviors; only humans exhibit “true”
cognition. An overarching defense of rule-based models of knowledge and inference was
that they are “the only game in town,” that is, that there were no defensible alternative
models. Nevertheless, there are additional objections to rule-based approaches.
Even for humans, who have complex and expressive linguistic abilities, research
shows that rules don’t account well for expert behavior. As an example, I will use the
book of Hubert L. and Stuart E. Dreyfus (1986), who summarize much of the research.
Based on characteristic cognitive processes, they identify five levels of expertise: (1)
novice, (2) advanced beginner, (3) competence, (4) proficiency, and (5) expertise (Drey
fus and Dreyfus 1986, 16–51). They apply this classification to “expert systems,” which
are rule-based AI systems incorporating a large knowledge-base, oriented toward some
domain of knowledge, and appropriate inference rules. They argue that these systems op
erate at best at the “competence” level, which is characterized by goal-directed selection
and application of rules (Dreyfus and Dreyfus 1986, 23–27, 101–121). However, expert
systems cannot perform at the “proficient” level, which is characterized by unconscious,
similarity-based apprehension of the situational context in which cognition should occur,
rather than by conscious, rational “calculation” (rule-based determination) of the context
(Dreyfus and Dreyfus 1986, 27–30). This apprehension of context is critical to proficient
behavior, since it allows cognition to focus on stimuli that are relevant to the situation,
without wasting time considering and rejecting those that aren’t. Experts apply rules, if
at all, in a flexible, nonrigid, context-sensitive way, which is why it is difficult to capture
expertise in rules (Dreyfus and Dreyfus 1986, 30–36, 105–109). How, then, can we de
sign artificially intelligent agents that exhibit true expertise?
The rule-based approach to knowledge representation and inference continued to dom
inate AI so long as there did not seem to be any viable alternative. However H.L. Drey
fus (1979) and others pointed the way to a different approach. First, since human and an
imal intelligence is realized in the physical brain, it seemed apparent that an artificial in
telligence would be possible, although the AI system might have to be more like a brain
than a conventional computer. Second, in the 1960s and ‘70s, Pribram, Dreyfus, and oth
ers had observed that human pattern recognition and memory seemed to have properties
similar to optical holograms, as did simple models of neural networks (e.g., Anderson,
Pellionisz and Rosenfeld 1990, ch. 7; Dreyfus 1979, 20, 25, 51; Dreyfus and Dreyfus
1986, 58–63, 90–92, 109; Haugeland 1978; Hinton and Anderson 1989; Pribram, Nuwer,
and Baron 1974). These considerations helped to revitalize, in the early 1980s, the study
of neural network computation, which had been languishing for about a decade (for more
on the history of neural networks and connectionism, see MacLennan 2001; seminal pa
pers are collected in Anderson and Rosenfeld 1988; Anderson, Pellionisz and Rosenfeld
1990; Haugeland 1997).
is used to refer to approaches to knowledge representation and infer
ence that are based on simple neural-network models. In rule-based approaches, knowl
edge is represented in language-like discrete structures, the smallest units of which are
: predicates for which many languages have words (e.g., “feathered,” “winged,”
“two-legged,” “egg-laying” are some features of birds). Connectionist representations, in
contrast, are based on large, unstructured arrays of
. A microfeature is a
property localized to one of a large number of parts of a sensory or memory image (e.g., a
green pixel at a particular location in an image), which generally does not have any
meaning in isolation. They are
the sorts of things for which natural languages have
words, because they are not normally significant, or even perceptible, in isolation. In a
typical neural-net representation, the activity level of a neuron (usually a continuous
quantity) represents the relative degree of presence of a corresponding microfeature in the
representation (e.g., the amount of green at that location in the image). As a consequence
of the foregoing, connectionist representations are typically holistic in that individual ele
ments have meaning only in the context of the whole representation.
Connectionism derives its name from the fact that knowledge is encoded in the con
nections between neurons. Because these are connections among (typically large) num
bers of neurons representing microfeatures, connectionist knowledge representation is
characteristically distributed and nonlocal. It is
in that the representation of
what we normally think of as one fact or behavior is distributed across many connections,
which affords connectionist knowledge representations a high degree of useful redundan
cy. It is
in that each connection participates in the representation of a large
number of facts and behaviors. Therefore, a large number of connections in a neural net
work can represent a large number of facts and behaviors, but not in a one-to-one manner.
Rather, the entirety of the connections represents the entirety of the facts and behaviors.
Biological neurons are notoriously slow compared to contemporary electronics; their
maximum impulse rate is less than 1 KHz. And yet brains, even of comparatively simple
animals, solve problems and coordinate activities that are beyond the capabilities of state-
of-the-art computers, such as reliable face recognition and locomotion through rough and
complex natural environments. How is this possible? Part of the answer is revealed by
the “100-Step Rule” (Feldman and Ballard 1982). This is based on the simple observa
tion that if we take the time for a simple cognitive action, such as recognizing a face (
1 sec.) and divide it by the time it takes a neuron to fire (
1 msec.), we find that there
can be at most about 100 sequential processing steps between sensation and action. This
reveals that brains process information very differently from contemporary computers.
Information processing on traditional computers is
, that is, it depends on
the sequential execution of very large numbers of very rapid operations; even if execution
is not completely sequential, the degree of parallelism is very small compared to a
brain’s. In contrast, information processing in brains is
: there are rela
tively few sequential layers of information processing, as reflected in the 100-Step Rule,
but each layer is massively parallel on a scale that is qualitatively different from contem
porary parallel computers. For example, even in the retina approximately 100 million
retinal cells preprocess visual data in order to be transmitted by approximately one mil
lion optic nerve fibers, which indicates the degree of parallel processing in visual infor
mation processing. Since neural density is at least 146
throughout human cor
tex (Changeux 1985, 51), most neural modules operate with degrees of parallelism on the
order of hundreds of thousands or millions.
Another difference between most contemporary computers and biological neural net
works is that neurons are fundamentally
computing devices. Continuous quanti
ties are represented by the frequency, and in some cases the phase, of neural impulses
propagating down a neuron’s axon (output fiber). Knowledge is stored in “strength” of
the connections between neurons, which depends on diffusion of chemical signals from a
variable number of sources to a variable number of receptors, and is best treated as a real-
valued “weight.” The resulting electrical signals propagate continuously down the den
drites (input fibers) of a neuron, obeying electrical “cable equations” (Anderson 1995,
25–31), and are integrated in the cell body into a continuous membrane potential, which
governs the frequency and phase of the neuron’s spiking behavior (Gerstner and Kistler
It should be noted that analog signal processing in the brain is low-precision: generally
continuous quantities are estimated to be represented with a precision of less one digit.
Paradoxically, humans and other animals can perform perceptual discriminations and co
ordinate sensorimotor behaviors with great precision, but brains use statistical representa
tions, such as “coarse coding” and other population codes (Rumelhart, McClelland, et al.
1986, 91–96; Sanger 1996), to achieve high-precision representations with low-precision
components. These techniques, which exploit large numbers of neurons, have additional
benefits in terms of reliability, robustness, and redundancy.
Similarly, artificial neural networks are usually based on analog computing elements
(artificial neurons or
) interconnected by real-valued weights. Of course these con
tinuous computational systems, like other continuous physical systems, can be simulated
on ordinary digital computers, and that is the way many artificial neural networks are im
plemented. However, many advantages can be obtained by implementing artificial neural
networks directly in massively-parallel, low-precision analog computing devices (Mead
1989), a topic outside the scope of this article (MacLennan in press).
The ability to adapt to changing circumstances and to learn from experience are hall
marks of intelligence. Further, learning and adaptation are critical to many important ap
plications of robotics and artificial intelligence. Autonomous robots, by their very auton
omy, may find themselves confronting situations for which they were not prepared, and
they will be more effective if they can adapt appropriately to them. Autonomous robots
should also be able to adapt as the parameters and circumstances of their missions evolve.
It is also valuable if AI systems and robots can be trained in the field to perform new
tasks and if they can generalize previous training to new, unanticipated situations. How
can learning, training, and adaptation be accomplished?
An important capability of connectionist AI systems is that they can learn how to do
things that we do not know how to do. This is the reason that connectionist systems are
said to be
, but not
. In order to program a process, you need to un
derstand it so well that it can be reduced to explicit rules (an algorithm). Unfortunately,
there are many important problems that are not sufficiently well understood to be pro
grammed, and in these cases connectionist learning may offer an alternative solution.
Many connectionist (or neural network) learning algorithms have been developed and
studied over the last several decades. In
supervised learning
, a network is presented with
desired input-output pairs (e.g., digital images and their correct classifications), and the
learning algorithm adjusts the network’s interconnection weights so it will produce the
correct outputs. If the training is done properly the network will be able to generalize
from the training inputs to novel inputs. In
reinforcement learning
, the network is told
only whether it has performed correctly or not; it is not told the correct behavior. There is
a very large literature on neural network learning, which is beyond the scope of this arti
cle (see, e.g., Haykin 1999).
One characteristic of connectionist learning is that, while connectionist systems can
sometimes adapt very quickly, they can also adapt gradually, by subtle tuning of the inter
connection weights. Rule-based systems can also adapt, but the fundamental process is
the addition or deletion of a complete rule, a more brittle procedure. Thus connectionist
systems are better able to modulate their behavior as they adapt and to avoid instability.
Embodied Cognition
An important recent development is the theory of
embodied cognition
and the related
theories of
embodied AI
embodied robotics
. The theory of embodied cognition ad
dresses the important — indeed essential — role that the body and its physical environ
ment plays in efficient cognition. As Dreyfus (1979, 248–250, 253) observed long ago
(1972), there are many things that humans know simply by virtue of having a body. That
is, there is much knowledge that is implicit in the body’s state, processes, and relation to
its physical environment, and therefore this knowledge does not need to be represented
explicitly in the brain. The theory of embodied intelligence has its roots in phenomeno
logical philosophy (e.g., Dreyfus 1979, 235–255) and the pragmatism of William James
and John Dewey (Johnson and Rohrer 2007).
For example, we swing our arms while we walk, which helps maintain balance for
bipedal locomotion, but our brains do not have to calculate the detailed kinematics of our
limbs. Rather, our limbs, joints, etc. have their characteristic frequencies etc., and all our
brain must do is generate relatively low-dimensional signals to modulate these physical
processes to maintain balance, as monitored by bodily sensors (inner ear, skin pressure,
joint extension, etc.). The brain’s goal is not to
the physical body in motion (a
computationally intensive task), but to
the physical body in interaction with its
physical environment in real time by means of neurally efficient computation. As op
posed to a computer simulation of a robot, the brain’s computations constitute a complete
description of the body’s motion only in the context of a specific physical body in its en
Because, in effect, an animal’s brain can depend on the fact that it is controlling a body
of a specific form, it can offload some information processing tasks to its physical body.
For example, rather than calculating from first principles the muscle forces that will move
its limb to a particular location, it can leave this “calculation” to the physical limb itself
by learning correlations between effector signals and corresponding sensory responses
(for which neural networks are ideally suited). Therefore also, if a weight (such as a cast)
is put on a limb, or its motion is restricted by pain or an injury, an animal can adapt
quickly to the change (an important goal for our robots too).
The power and efficiency of embodied cognition is exemplified by insects and other
simple animals that behave very competently in their environments but that have very
small brains. Understanding how they exploit embodiment for information processing —
or, more precisely, how they obviate the need for information processing — will help us
to design more competent autonomous robots, especially insect-size or smaller robots.
Studies of natural intelligence, and in particular of how the brain exploits the physical
characteristics of the body and of its environment to control the body in its environment,
has contributed to and will continue to contribute to the design of future robots (Brooks
1991; Pfeifer and Bongard 2007; Pfeifer, Lungarella, and Iida 2007). We are inclined to
think of these problems in terms of equations and calculations (i.e., rule-like information
representation and processing), but natural intelligence teaches how to use neural net
works for efficient and competent behavior in real-world environments. This is a critical
goal for future autonomous robots and indeed for artificial intelligence embedded in other
physical systems.
We have argued that connectionist artificial intelligence, based on neural network
models and embodied cognition, provides a sounder, more effective basis for future AI
and robotic systems than does rule-based knowledge representation and processing. In
deed there is widespread (though not universal) agreement on this, and many projects are
pursuing these approaches. Therefore it is important to acknowledge that connectionism
and embodiment present challenges for the test and evaluation of the systems in which
they are used.
One problem is the
of neural networks. In a rule-based system the rules are
expressed in an artificial language with some similarity to natural languages or to sym
bolic logic. The basic terms and predicates, in terms of which the rules are expressed, are
generally those of the problem domain. Therefore the knowledge and rules of inference
used by the system are
, that is, potentially intelligible to human beings. In a
neural network, in contrast, the knowledge and inferential processes are implicit in real-
valued connection weights among myriads of microfeatures. Further, representations are
nonlocal and distributed. Therefore, individual microfeatures and connections do not
usually have meanings that can be expressed in the terms of the problem domain.
Many people are troubled by the opacity of neural networks compared to the (poten
tial) transparency of rule-based systems. With a rule-based system, they argue, you can
look at the knowledge base and inferential rules, understand them, and see if they make
sense. A human can, in effect, see if the system is making its decisions for the right rea
sons, or at least that it is not making them for the wrong reasons (e.g., on the basis of ir
relevant factors). In contrast, a trained neural network might perform some task very
well, but we will be unable to understand — in human-comprehensible terms — the
bases on which it is doing its job. Perhaps it has found some totally irrelevant cues in the
training and test data that allow it to perform well on them, but it will fail dismally when
These are legitimate concerns, but unavoidable. As we have seen, rule-following is
characteristic of merely “competent” behavior, and therefore behavior that
be ex
pressed in human-comprehensible rules will not surpass the merely competent level.
Conversely, expert behavior — which is our goal for AI and autonomous robotics — will
entail subtle discriminations, integrative perceptions, and context sensitivities that cannot
be expressed in human-comprehensible terms. How then can we come to trust a connec
tionist AI system? In the same way we come to trust a human expert: by observing their
reliably expert behavior in wide variety of contexts and situations. The situation is simi
lar to that with the use of unsupervised trained animals to perform some mission. We
cannot look into
heads either, but we can test their behavior in a variety of mission-
relevant situations until we have sufficient confidence.
Much of the inflexibility and brittleness of rule-based systems — and indeed of many
digital computer programs — is a consequence of their behaving the same in all contexts,
whereas natural intelligence is sensitive to context and can modulate its behavior appro
priately. Due to the ability of artificial neural networks to integrate a very large number
of microfeatures, which may be individually insignificant, they can exhibit valuable con
text sensitivity. However, this presents a test and evaluation challenge for connectionist
systems, since we cannot test such a system in a single or simple context (e.g., in a labo
ratory) and assume that it will work in all contexts. Rather, it is important to identify the
contexts in which the system may find itself and ensure that it operates acceptably in all
of them.
Context sensitivity and embodied cognition both necessitate use of the
robotic or AI system in almost all phases of test and evaluation. As previously men
tioned, one of the advantages of connectionist AI is that it can be sensitive to the context
of its behavior, but this implies an early transition of the test and evaluation activity into
realistic physical contexts (i.e., field testing). Since we want and expect the system to
make subtle contextual discriminations, it cannot be adequately tested or evaluated in ar
tificially constructed situations that do not demand this subtlety. The same applies to the
system’s (hopefully robust) response to novelty. Further, embodied intelligence depends
crucially on the physical characteristics of the system in which it is embedded and on its
physical relationships to its environment. While preliminary testing and evaluation can
make use of simulations of the physical system and its environment, such simulations are
always incomplete, and are more computationally expensive the more complete they are.
Whereas to some extent conventional AI systems can be tested and evaluated offline, em
bodied AI systems cannot. Therefore physical prototypes must be integrated earlier into
the development cycle.
In effect, test and evaluation of embodied connectionist AI and robotic systems is no
different from that of vehicles, weapons systems, and other physical devices and equip
ment. The difference is in our expectations, for we are used to being able to test and
evaluate software systems offline, except in the later stages in the case of embedded soft
Finally, as discussed above, embodied connectionist systems are to some degree
opaque, that is, their
processes are not fully transparent (intelligible) to humans.
Of course, neural networks and their embodiments obey the laws of physics, and are in
telligible in
terms, but that level of explanation is of limited use in understanding
the intelligent behavior of a system. This seems like a distinct disadvantage compared to
abstract, rule-based systems but, as we have argued, it is a necessary consequence of ex
pert behavior. In this regard, the test and evaluation of embodied connectionist systems is
not much different from that of other physical systems, for which abstract models and
simulations are insufficient in the absence of field testing.
Further, the deployment of embodied connectionist systems is not qualitatively differ
ent from the deployment of trained animals or humans. Being able to recite memorized
rules of procedure or to perform well in laboratory environments does not substitute for
performance testing and evaluation in real, or at least realistic, situations.
We have argued that embodied connectionist AI and robotics promises a new genera
tion of intelligent agents able to behave with fluent expertise in natural operational envi
ronments. Such systems will be able to modulate their perception and behavior according
to context and to respond flexibly and appropriately to novelty, unpredictability, and un
certainty in their environments. These capabilities will be achieved by understanding
natural intelligence, its realization in neural networks, and its exploitation of embodi
ment, and by applying this understanding to the design of autonomous robots and other
intelligent agents.
However, a more natural intelligence is also an intelligence that responds more subtly
to its environment, and guides its body in a fluent dance with its physical environment.
As a consequence, such systems cannot be adequately tested or evaluated independently
of their physical embodiment and the physical environment in which they act. Naturally
intelligent systems typically lack both transparency of behavior and independence of in
formation processing from physical realization, which we have come to expect in artifi
cial intelligence.
Nevertheless, such systems may be tested and evaluated by similar approaches to
those applied to other inherently physical systems; it is really only a shift of emphasis
from abstract rules and programs to concrete physical interaction with the operational en
Bruce MacLennan received a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Florida State
University in 1972, a Master of Science in computer science from Purdue University in
1974, and a Ph.D. in computer science from Purdue in 1975. From 1976 to 1979 he was
a Senior Software Engineer at Intel and contributed to the architecture of the 8086 and
iAPX-432 microprocessors. In 1979 he joined the computer science faculty of the Naval
Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, where he was Assistant Professor, Associate Pro
fessor, and Acting Chairmen. Since 1987 he has been a member of the computer science
and electrical engineering faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he in
vestigates novel computing technologies, nanotechnology, and biologically-inspired com
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Directions for research
. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Anderson, J.A., and Rosenfeld, E. (Eds.). 1988.
Neurocomputing: Foundations of
. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Anderson, M.L. 2003.
“Embodied cognition: A field guide.”
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Brooks, R. 1991. “
Intelligence without representation.”
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Changeux, J.-P. 1985.
Neuronal man: The biology of mind,
tr. by L. Garey. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Clark, A. 1997.
Being there: Putting brain, body, and world together again
. Cambridge:
MIT Press.
Dreyfus, H.L. 1979.
What computer’s can’t do: The limits of artificial intelligence
, rev.
ed. New York: Harper & Row.
Dreyfus, H.L., and Dreyfus, S.E. 1986.
Mind over machine: The power of human
intuition and expertise in the era of the computer
. New York: Free Press.
Feldman, J.A., and Ballard, D.H. 1982. “Connectionist models and their properties.”
Cognitive Science
6(3): 205–254.
Gerstner, W., and Kistler, W.M. 2002.
Spiking neuron models: Single neurons,
populations, plasticity
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Haugeland, J. 1978. “The nature and plausibility of cognitivism.”
Behavioral and Brain
1: 215–226.
Haugeland, J. (Ed.) 1997.
Mind design II: Philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence
rev. & enlarged ed. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Haykin, S. 1999.
Neural networks: A comprehensive foundation
, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle
River: Prentice-Hall.
Hinton, G.E., and Anderson, J.A. (Eds.). 1989.
Parallel models of associative memory
updated ed. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Johnson, M., and Rohrer, T. 2007. “We are live creatures: Embodiment, American
pragmatism, and the cognitive organism.” In J. Zlatev, T. Ziemke, R. Frank,and R.
Dirven (Eds.),
Body, language, and mind
, vol. 1, pp. 17–54. Berlin: Mouton de
MacLennan, B.J. 2001. “Connectionist approaches.” In N.J. Smelser and P.B. Baltes
International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences
, pp. 2568–
2573. Oxford: Elsevier.
MacLennan, B.J. in press. “Analog computation.” In R.A. Meyers et al. (Eds.),
Encyclopedia of complexity and system science
. New York: Springer.
Mead, C. 1989.
Analog VLSI and neural systems
. Reading: Addison-Wesley.
Pfeifer, R., and Bongard, J.C. 2007.
How the body shapes the way we think — A new
view of intelligence
. Cambridge: MIT.
Pfeifer, R., Lungarella, M., and Iida, F. 2007.
“Self-organization, embodiment, and
biologically inspired robotics.”
318: 1088–1093.
Pribram, K.H., Nuwer, M., and Baron, R.J. (1974). “The holographic hypothesis of
memory structure in brain function and perception.” In D.H. Krantz, R.C. Atkinson,
R.D. Luce, and P. Suppes (Eds),
Contemporary developments in mathematical
, vol. 2, pp. 416–457. New York: Freeman.
Rumelhart, D.E., McClelland, J.L., and the PDP Research Group. 1986.
distributed processing: Explorations in the microstructure of cognition, Vol. 1:
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Sanger, T.D. 1996. “Probability density estimation for the interpretation of neural
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Journal of Neurophysiology
76: 2790–2793.
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Can you help answer these questions?
poppies on the South Fork by Betty SederquistLately we’ve received a bunch of emails from folks with questions about the American River, and unfortunately we can’t answer some of them. We’re hoping you might be able to help. If you can answer any of these questions, please post your answer as a comment, or use our contact formto provide a private response. Thanks!!
1. From Leslie: My co-worker and I are looking into some historic information, and have come across a letter of one of her relatives by the name of A.D. Smead who is describing a time in 1849 where he and others in his party came over the Sierra Nevadas to Old Weavertown then down to Shingle Springs were they left the road and went to Moccasin river where they first mined for gold with rockers hollowed out of round logs. We are interested in finding out more about the Moccasin River and if it has changed names, and about Old Weavertown and where it was located.
2. From Craig: Is there any shuttle service available for the South Fork these days?
3. From Rich: I was wondering if someone could tell me if there is public boat or kayak access to the Chili Bar Reservoir below the White Rock Powerhouse?
4. From Fentress: Your website mentions that there are more deaths on the “Lower American” than on the 3 forks. Can you provide me with the number of deaths occurring in past years on each fork and on the Lower American? Alternatively or conjunctively, can you refer me to any agencies (name and telephone number) who keep records on the number of deaths?
Similarly, I’d like to know about injuries common to going down each of the forks. I wanted to know if any records are kept regarding various types and frequencies of injury. I was also wondering the differences in kayaking, canoeing, and rafting with respect to deaths and injuries. Which is safest and, conversely, least safe? Are any records kept regarding this?
Thanks to Betty Sederquist for letting us use her picture of poppies on the South Fork of the American.
4 thoughts on “Can you help answer these questions?
1. Rich’s question #3: I was wondering if someone could tell me if there is public boat or kayak access to the Chili Bar Reservoir below the White Rock Powerhouse?
Answer from Bill Center: The answer is no. Surface use of Chili Bar Reservoir is not allowed for safety reasons (dangers of going over the dam, as well as significant daily reservoir elevation and White Rock release fluctuations which make the return trip up to White Rock PH impossible except by carry a lot of the time, and general management issues because of access road limitations and remoteness), though there will be new shore-side access on the North Side, accessed by trail from Rock Creek Road, at some point in the next few years under the relicensing agreement. It will be managed by BLM.
Comments are closed.
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Business, Gallery, Stress -
Workplace That You Will Enyoi
[gallery link="none" ids="1015,1014,1013"] [dropcaps style='square1' background_color='']T[/dropcaps] he term minimalism is also used to describe a trend in design and architecture where in the subject is reduced to its necessary elements. Minimalist design has been highly influenced by Japanese traditional design and architecture. In addition, the work of De Stijl artists is a major source of reference for this kind of work. [vc_separator type='transparent' color='' thickness='' up='15' down='15'] Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the motto Less is more to describe his aesthetic tactic of arranging the numerous necessary components of a building to create an impression of extreme simplicity, by enlisting every element and detail to serve multiple visual and functional purposes (such as designing a floor to also serve as the radiator, or a massive fireplace to also house the bathroom). Designer Buckminster Fuller adopted the engineer's goal of Doing more with less, but his concerns were oriented towards technology and engineering rather than aesthetics. A similar sentiment was industrial designer Dieter Rams' motto, Less but better adapted from Mies. The structure uses relatively simple elegant designs; ornamentations are quality rather than quantity. [vc_separator type='transparent' color='' thickness='' up='15' down='15'] Using sometimes the beauty of natural patterns on stone cladding and real wood encapsulated within ordered simplified structures, and real metal producing a simplified but prestigious architecture and interior design. May use color brightness balance and contrast between surface colors to improve visual aesthetics. The structure would usually have industrial and space age style utilities (lamps, stoves, stairs, technology, etc.), neat and straight components (like walls or stairs) that appear to be machined with equipment, flat or nearly flat roofs, pleasing negative spaces, and large windows to let in lots of sunlight. [vc_separator type='transparent' color='' thickness='' up='15' down='15'] This and science fiction may have contributed to the late twentieth century futuristic architecture design, and modern home decor. Modern minimalist home architecture with its unnecessary internal walls removed probably have led to the popularity of the open plan kitchen and living room style. De Stijl expanded the ideas that could be expressed by using basic elements such as lines and planes organized in very particular manners.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/80013
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Thank you for Visiting Trophyland Ltd
Thank you for visiting Trophyland Ltd.
At Trophyland Ltd. we provide a wide range of sporting, corporate and individual trophies, shields and glassware.
We are one of Essex's leading engravers of individualised glass, mirror and plastic merchandise using state-of-the-art laser technology.
Whether you only require one item or one hundred, we are here to help you; no order is too small or too big!
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/80019
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Massachusetts Map
N avigate Massachusetts Map, Massachusetts states map, satellite images of the Massachusetts, Massachusetts largest cities maps, political map of Massachusetts, driving directions and traffic maps.
With interactive Massachusetts Map, view regional highways maps, road situations, transportation, lodging guide, geographical map, physical maps and more information. On Massachusetts Map, you can view all states, regions, cities, towns, districts, avenues, streets and popular centers' satellite, sketch and terrain maps.
Massachusetts Google Map, Street Views, Maps Directions, Satellite Images
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/80033
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Why Jenny Smiles
At Free2BMe, Jenny gets acceptance. Thanks to donors, dozens of other kids get to shine, too.
By Staff on January 22, 2018
When Kathleen Carlson takes her daughter Jenny to the mall, everyone stares. But at the University of Alberta’s Free2BMe program, Jenny gets acceptance. Dozens of other families wanted their kids to have the same opportunity, but the program did not have enough space.
A gift from donors made the difference.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/80045
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Top definition
A word to describe girls from Clacton. They are known as both clapped and slags, hence the name clapped slags. They also use this term to describe eachother, as it became the social norm for them.
Example 1:
CS 1: Hey clapped slag
CS 2: Hey babe
Example 2:
Boy: I really want to get with Georgia.
Boy 2: Nah don't shes from Clacton.
Boy 1: Oh she's a clapped slag then.
Boy 2: yeah that whole group is full of clapped slags
by Mr. S.andman June 25, 2018
Get the mug
Get a Clapped Slags mug for your boyfriend Paul.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/80086
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why create a web service
Why use Web services
Before the arrival of Web services, other technologies and architectures existed that met the functionality of today´s web service. Microsoft's version of these technologies, are called Component Object Model (COM), and subsequently Distributed COM (DCOM). WinDNA is a comprehensive term for implementing the above two distributed software development technologies. These technologies typically use the TCP/IP protocol.
Coming back to DCOM, its two main disadvantages were:
DCOM works properly only with binaries written with Microsoft languages and running on Microsoft platforms. DCOM was designed to use the TCP/IP protocol over a LAN or WAN. Firewalls presented a serious problem, because these technologies passed their data as binary messages on non-standard ports. This meant many firewalls blocked such traffic, further impeding the use of DCOM and CORBA beyond the enterprise. This resulted in poor performance.
DCOM implements a remote connection model, which is tightly coupled and is proprietary. This meant that, for a client to use a method on a remote computer, both the client and the server should have had the appropriate DCOM or CORBA libraries installed on their computers.
In WinDNA, components are strongly tied to their native applications, making remote access between systems difficult. The Microsoft .NET platform is an advancement over WinDNA. Microsoft .NET addresses the above problems by providing service-based model for developing distributed applications.
This forms the first reason why we use Web Services. To restate the reason, - Web Services operate on a service-based model architecture. This the most compelling reason why we use Web Services.
service based model architecture
The above diagram is the representation of a service based model. In this model, the web service resides on the web server. A client computer can request and consume this web service and terminate the service as and when desired. The name "service" originates from this model of functioning of the program. The client program needs to be provided with only the url of the web service.
You will notice that the client applications can be running on different platforms, or developed using different tools. A major application of web service is to integrate such different applications which may be working on heterogeneous platforms. The existence of heterogenous platforms in an organization or among organizations is a common phenomenon nowadays in an organization.
Any organization today works with multiple vendors, suppliers , contractors and other entities. Each of these entities would have developed their own software systems based on Microsoft technologies or on Sun microsystems or on IBM technologies. Each of these software systems would have been developed over period of time with hundreds of thousands of dollars investments. It will be almost impossible for any of them to change their systems for compatibility. This is where web services comes into picture. Communicating amongst all these entities without affecting their existence is made possible by web services.
The second reason for using is that Web Services allow us to communicate among all different entities without affecting their existence.
Writing a web service requires both domain knowledge and middleware experience. A unique feature of a web service is that it is written separately from the application logic.
This forms the third reason for using a web service is that it is written separately from the application logic.
The system analysts who develop and maintain the applications must be aware of all APIs that have been used to program the application. They should ensure the changes which are implemted in the APIs are identified and suitable changes to be made in the client applications.
Web services improve the way information flows between applications by making its information and its business logic available to other applications through an application programming interface (API). An API is a programming mechanism that allows an application to expose its functionalities and to any other software application. So, API greatly supports application-to-application communication.
The fourth reason why we use Web Service is that they improve the information flow between applications.
Each system supports a specific set of programming languages, operating systems and network protocols. Traditional middleware systems use a binary data format to communicate between application across the network. Each middleware system uses a different type of binary data format. So, applications should use same type of middleware to communicate each other.
Web services communicate using the Extensible markup language (XML is a universal data format), a text based protocol that all applications can understand.
The fifth reason why we use Web Service is that, web services use text based protocol that all applications can understand.
Note: Firewalls do not block Text information.
So, the popular way to represent data on the Internet is XML.
To implement middleware, we need to install and deploy middleware libraries on all the systems. This results in increaded licensing cost.
The sixth reason why we use Web Service is that, web services reduce licensing costs.
The seventh reason for using Web services is that they do not rely on special protocols. Web services communicate using WWW(World wide web). They rely on standard Internet protocols HTTP and SOAP which are present in every system.
Web services transport their messages using HTTP, which means these messages are transmitted over port 80, an open port for web server firewalls. Web service messages are transmitted as SOAP-formatted messages. SOAP messages are in XML format, meaning they are simply text, and not binary data. All the systems (every computer in the company) provide native support for web. And all computers have inherent support for XML. Any application written in any language running on any platform can process XML data. To summarize, there are many compelling reasons for us to use Web Services.
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/80091
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Company's name: W3Bline e.U.
Owner: Vania Valdez-Papini, M.Sc.
Legal form: Sole Proprietorship
Industry: Information technology
Company registration: FN 378358 i
Register court: Landesgericht Klagenfurt
Head office: Jantschgasse 35
9020 Klagenfurt am Wöthersee | Austria
Telefone: +43 463 890196
Cell phone: +43 664 100 7847
Web Address:
Memberships: Member of WKO
Berufsrecht: Gewerbeordnung:
Behörde gem. ECG: Magistrat der Stadt Klagenfurt
Disclosure - Basic Focus of this Website:
This website is the internet presence of W3Bline e.U. It is used for advertising and information about this company.
The purpose of the content provided in this website is for information only. No liability whatsoever will be accepted for any inaccuracies. Furthermore, we are not responsible for the content of websites that are referenced by a link.
Any use or reproduction of content (this applies in particular to texts, pictures, graphics, and program code) outside the web pages and the transfer to other media is prohibited without exception requires the written permission of the owners.
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Why we’re all breathing wrong—and how I learned to do it right
breathing exercisesWhen it comes to breathing skills, Belisa Vranich, PsyD doesn’t sugarcoat the truth. “I’d be alarmed if I were you,” she says matter-of-factly after wrapping a measuring tape around my ribs and measuring my vital lung capacity.
The good news? I can fix the dysfunctional, shallow way I breathe—and I’m in excellent hands.
Dr. Vranich is a psychologist turned breathing educator who’s worked with elite athletes to expecting moms on how to revamp their most basic function. She teaches her classes around the world and is the author of Breathe: 14 Days to Oxygenating, Recharging, and Fueling Your Body & Brain (and is on the advisory board for Philosophy’s mental health initiative, Hope & Grace).
And she’s about to show me (and you?) how to get a little bit (okay, a lot) better at breathing.
breathing exercises
Okay, what’s wrong with the way you’re breathing?
While breathing is something we know how to do at birth, Dr. Vranich says that most of have picked up some really bad habits since then.
If, when you inhale, your breath feels like it travels from the bottom of your lungs to the top and your chest and shoulders move upward, you’re a “vertical breather,” like 95 percent of adults (and me!), says Dr. Vranich. That means you only use a fraction of your lungs to take in air, and lift—er, strain—your shoulders and neck.
Your body also associates shallow breaths with stress (think the way you breathe when you feel panicky), sending messages to your brain that raise hormones related to weight gain, poor sleep, and more. So you’re essentially stressing out your body.
How to do it right
Horizontal breath, on the other hand, uses the muscle in your body made for breathing, the diaphragm, and allows you to expand out, filling the biggest part of your lungs with air.
When Dr. Vranich takes a deep breath, for example, her entire abdomen expands outward like a cylindrical balloon being slowly filled with helium, and then deflates until every last drop of air is gone.
breathing exercises
Why oxygen is really everything
So what’s the big deal? Dr. Vranich insists not getting enough oxygen is most likely messing with your health in a million unseen ways. An observation she loves to reference is from Arthur Guyton, MD, a pioneer in research related to the body’s need for oxygen.
“He says if you look at any emotional suffering or physical pain under a microscope at a cellular level, there’s always lack of oxygen,” she marvels. “Everybody thinks, ‘I get winded, I have to do more cardio.’ Well, why not just put more oxygen in your blood? Because the whole reason your heart is pumping is to get oxygen throughout your body.”
breathing exercises
What changing my crappy way of breathing did for me
I’m deeply skeptical of any solution that claims to fix nearly everything that ails you, but as soon as Dr. Vranich began to lead me through breathing exercises that converted me to “belly breathing,” I was hooked.
I could immediately feel how my shallow, vertical breath induced stress, while the expansive, belly breath sent calming signals throughout my body. I focused on horizontal breathing on my long runs, too, and, while I can’t prove a definite link, I ran a half-marathon and a 15K faster than I ever have before.
One downside: I did often feel self-conscious, like people could see I was sticking my stomach out over and over, which is one reason Dr. Vranich says so many of us, who learn to “suck it in” at an early age, pick up the dysfunctional pattern in the first place. But there’s a silver lining.
“Once you start breathing from the lower part of your body, your core and abs get incredibly strong,” she promises. At the very least, toned abs certainly seems like a promise everyone can get behind. —Lisa Elaine Held
For more information, visit www.thebreathingclass.com
More Reading
90 Second Video: How to breathe through a freak-out with Dr. Jim Nicolai
Why your walk might be the least healthy thing about you
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Intro To Title Loans In Largo FL
Car title loans in Tampa and other Florida locations are ideal for borrowers who have limited or bad credit, non-traditional forms of income, and of course, own their own vehicle. As a secured form of loan, title loans in Largo FL allow you to use your vehicle as collateral. And it's your title that serves as your ticket to cash.
Ideal applicants for title loans in Largo
The great thing about title loans is that you don't have to meet a lot of stringent requirements to get cash in your hand. You just have to:
• Have a physical copy of your title
• Have a driver's license that shows you're 18 or over
• Apply!
That last one is super important. It's your application that will eventually lead to you getting up to thousands of dollars in your hands.
Apply For Title Loans In Largo FL
Applying for title loans in Largo FL is super easy. You just need a little bit of information to be approved:
• Name
• Phone number
• Car information (Make, model, year, and mileage)
After you've filled out your application, you'll get an instant loan quote. This is handy for people who have a specific goal in mind. If you have a $500 car repair to pay off, you're going to need at least that much, otherwise taking out a car loan might not be the right thing to do. Our loan specialists look at your loan application, approve you, and then give you a call. Sometimes you might have a lien on your title instead of a clear title. This means you owe some money on your title. If this is the case, don't automatically assume you won't qualify. Our loans specialists are experts at working out ways to get you approved and get you the cash you need into your hand.
Regulations in Florida
Florida set up strict requirements on title loan lenders and borrowers. This is to protect the borrower AND the lender. A lender can only extend a certain number of renewals for you, so be prepared to pay off your title loans in Largo FL in six months or less. If you can manage this, these loans are a terrific way to secure the cash you need and get it by the next day. Remember that lenders WANT you to repay these loans. The goal isn't to repossess your car to pay off the loan. It's to lend you the cash you need and then get their money back as well. Our loan specialists will focus on this goal with you and help you every step of the way with competitive interest rates and flexible repayment plans.
How Your Title Loan Helps
You can spend title loan funds however you want. The freedom to spend is one of the main perks, as is the speed at which you're approved for the loan. Title loans also:
• Give you the freedom to continue driving your car while you repay
• Don't adversely affect your credit rating
• Put fast cash in your hand instead of a rejection notice
• Give you a simple way to obtain funding no matter what your credit rating is
Your title loan can mean the financial freedom to get out of debt or pay off an urgent bill you can't afford not to pay. If you need money today, there's no time to waste. Apply for a title loan!
Call Now
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Points, Statuses & Privileges
If you participate on Wikilerts and behave like a good citizen, you earn points. For example...
...reporting an accurate alert earns you a minimum of 2 points (the larger the community, the more points)
...reviewing an alert correctly will earn you 1 point
...inviting your friends to Wikilerts will earn you 5 points (for every friend who signs up)
Antisocial behavior (e.g., reporting incorrect alerts) will get you negative points, spamming gets you banned.
The points will determine your status on the platform...
Rising star
...which will decide on your privileges.
For example, a higher status will allow you to:
Send out alerts directly without the need to review them, getting your message out to the community faster
Choose to also receive unverified alerts (getting you informed faster)
Add a personal note to your alert (advertising is ok too, as long as it’s in-line with our guidelines)
...and several other privileges – get upgraded and you’ll see :)
Start collecting points by inviting your friends – you’ll do them a favor too!
(You’ll get 5 points for every friend who joins!)
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/80144
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Skip to definition.
Noun: Carduelis
1. In some classifications considered the type genus of a subfamily Carduelinae of the family Fringillidae: goldfinches; siskins; redpolls; linnets
- genus Carduelis
Type of: bird genus
Part of: family Fringillidae, Fringillidae
Encyclopedia: Carduelis
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/80145
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Skip to definition.
Noun: electroshock i'lek-tru,shók
1. The administration of a strong electric current that passes through the brain to induce convulsions and coma
- electroconvulsive therapy, electroshock therapy, ECT
Derived forms: electroshocks
Type of: electric healing, electrical healing, electrotherapy, galvanism, shock therapy, shock treatment
Encyclopedia: Electroshock
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global_01_local_1_shard_00001926_processed.jsonl/80157
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Now Playing
3/26/2013 4:00PM
Justices Take Cautious Tone on Gay Marriage
Simon Constable discusses the Supreme Court arguments on gay marriage with Austin Nimocks, and Julian looks at a new assignment for the Marines. Photo: Getty Images.
... the the ... the U S military is planning to position his special operations Marines on ships to act as a rapid reaction force this ... in case of attacks on embassies will have back and so much mall right and ... right now on the New Saab good afternoon and welcome I'm Simon Constable ... without breaking story will Wall Street Journal's Julian Ponzi Johns's now from Washington DC ... a good baby Julian Knight great Skippy cuppa ... things are going to be with you ... so tell us aam tells about this um what is happening exactly and why ... the Marines ... proposed putting our special operations teams ... for their Expeditionary unit on these are nurtured units are teams of about two thousand two hundred Marines fighter planes helicopters ... that are in the Mitre in ... the ... Persian Gulf and the Pacific caught ... at any given time ... up there are essentially of rapid reaction forces and ... putting up soft teams on the ships ... green said he would up position and to be a crisis response was ... now ... the bedrock of the parts of the millet re Beckham Veteran commandos because the photo to my with a Mac commander is why when they consented come for use in the soda situation ... well on cue up ... prior to Afghanistan or Iraq war on terror to complete was the ... seal team that won was all the Marine Expeditionary units ... up by the iam ... Afghanistan war created a huge demand for Devon and there wasn't a walk to work said simply wasn't enough candles ... Dow as though ... we're already out of ... some of the ... capacity of three ... are engraved with one ... of her own special operations teams with ... it is built on these ... on their share ... it depends on hand and Chilean aam did does this put a strain on the U S Marines amusement is the ... the smallest of the of the major millet re for says I'm ... on the onthe two hundred thousand does this mean after takeaway troops from all the pots of operations ... well you're right the Marines are the smallest end there to be getting smaller as the budget cuts ... that have been mandated by Congress of comedown ... but General Jim Amos the head of the marina ... the company had read says he's going to preserve the size of the ... Marine special operations forces ... in order to ensure that there are enough forces ... to services rapid reaction is ... now part of this ... that this decision to deploy these these these commandos is to avoid another thing Dalziel repeat all that how ... how without war ... well ... you know the dreams themselves don't don't mention big Ozzie they just talk about emergencies and the season or what the book is very clear ... that that this is in large measure up come into force because the band Ozzie ... on ... you know it is not clear that he ... and this will always be the solution ... are you never know exactly where the Expeditionary units are but because they are typically ... on it in the main train didn't warrant the ... Persian Gulf in that region ... aam Indian Axes to the twenty two which gives them ... all planted in a range of this could be a real option ... in future emergencies ... well let's let's hope it ... comes to laugh and I guess that we thank you Brian much of Jillian bonds of The will Street gentle ... great story so ... and you ... can you can read mall on and tomorrow's Wall Street gentle ... well emotions are running high as large has rallied outside the U S to the Supreme Court today ... as justices Russell on California's ban on gay match lot more on that after the break ... for ... emotions are running high as large crowds riot outside the U S Supreme Court said that while the justices wrestle ... with one of the Californians and on the day of managing should the stands ... and with me now joining me now from Washington DC is awesome in a season that I mean for the alliance defending freedom and a member of the legal team arguing for ... Proposition eight to be of help that busy thank you so thank you Brian much for joining us ... thank you for having us ... so what do you think ... this case hinges on ... I really think this case centers on a very simple proposition and that's whether or not marriage ... this age old institution that has been with society for thousands of years ... it's all the sudden unconstitutional under the U S Constitution ... but that's what our opponents in this case are asking the Supreme Court to conclude ... we know that millions of Americans care about marriage we seen vote on marriage across this country ... and we just don't simply believe that marriage is now unconstitutional under the U S Constitution ... now what one other things when I was going on out in the Supreme Court has discussions about whether the Supreme Court should even be hearing this case can you can you talk a little bit about that in the simplest times ... Sharon and in a really mirrors the argument that we've been making all along ... that the debate that we're having is a country about same sex marriage ... belongs in the legislature it belongs in the hands of the people ... at the ballot box in through their elected a Democratic Representatives while we don't need is the Supreme Court offers a fifty state mandate ... on merits that that's not really the American way and that's not going to result is that they got married wrapping so ... we feel very strongly that Supreme Court should leave it back to the States but the people work through this ... very interesting ... debate on marriage ... to our democratic institutions that's what we're asking the Supreme Court to do in this case and in fact let's have a little bit from from the Supreme Court today on with the Tell stupa von doing some low point ... for the accepted truth ... that that ... that the New York high court ... Sir ... it's one that is changing and changing rapidly in this country ... as people throughout the country ... engage in in earnest debate ... over whether the age old definition of ... marriage should be changed to include same sex couples ... the question before this court ... is whether the Constitution the stock to the ongoing Democrat and a ... contentious this question for all fifty states ... go of our members on Nymex ... on Mr. Mannix you mention the fifty state solution as did the Chelsea could pop ... if it becomes a slight by state solution doesn't buy him clothes comes only from a state level one tradition is to be a church maps app that most people get minded churches synagogues mosques ... should made those institutions the deciding not to stay in a blanket why ... well I I think I think that's a question that we need answers to our democratic institutions and process and we have ... all fifty states in this country for a reason not every law is the same in every state ... and that's part of the American experiment that's how we do business in America if you will ... so it's not a unique proposition as it pertains to the institution of marriage ... the question as to whether marriage ... is all the sudden unconstitutional under the U S Constitution is the central question before the Supreme Court ... we feel strongly that it is not ... unconstitutional immoral when the Supreme Court agrees with us ... bought in returns this issue where it belongs that's the hands of the people ... one of the ramifications to use a if this ... this case doesn't go the way you want to say which is on hold Proposition eight ... well what we do know is inevitable ... is that Americans will continue to debate marriage ... no matter what the decision isn't in the Supreme Court and no more settled the question on marriage ... then it's only a question on abortion in this country ... Americans care about this issue deeply working they continue to debate and discuss this issue regardless of what the Supreme Court does ... and that all the more reason ... that we need a Supreme Court to leave this question in the hands of the people let us work through it to our democratic institutions ... battle we're asking the Supreme Court today ... we'll find out something good will thank you Brian much Austin mimics coming to us from Washington DC that he is like a painted a couple mismatch amendment ... proposition I am on Sunday for the Lions on defining freedom ... freedom to present Obama to name the first woman director of the secrets of Islam are in fact after the break ... for ... welcome back to the new sub at the Vishay live I'm Simon Constable ... present Obama is to name the first woman director of the secrets of this ... for the news on the will Street gentle jog while they joins us now from Washington DC and Sharon to ... tell us about who this lady is ... this is the intuitive Pearson shoes and servers for thirty eight ... thirty year she started down ... with it did BBC done Florida she is a former Orlando up these police officer ... and action committees to thirty years for Richie's chief of staff in the previous director ... and why do you think she's been picked up a ... probable candidates to make an event that when a large organization ... it's hard to know exactly when you think back to last year in April last year there is ... bigger ... scandal might be the right word where ... the ... she can serve this dish Tenneco ten in Columbia for a ... presidential trip or I accuse of being involved is thus prostitutes lot of agents that ... were punished at several Resigns Russell contesting the charges ... but that's probably the reason you does this represent ... he knows he serves the center's medical problem at the agency ... no putting a woman in place those two things one it hopes the president ... and you know ... defend Bank and some people say his cabinet and ... the people whose ministry start personnel and also went out with ... Elise appearances in terms of Ctrl shift its ... content with which to me then and when will mean the the the the first one nozzle which TV ... and in charge of cleaning up back ok even if there is one ... yet given away houses and secret service and there isn't a cause for prom honestly ... vs Preston a lot and that the secret service said it again and again you know this is not ... up for a portrait from a D C but ... they know that Target sells called secret service securitization in some sense so I guess she would be should be the person charged that there really is a cultural problem there ... okay and dumb among which the step into that if he had isn't it appointed as we all ... expect ... I don't think Shirakawa star right away present when Arsenal's seven top nations should start ... soon as possible unison she's already was chief of staff to the previous ... director Mark Sullivan ... in is Ardi know I just probably done very close to write off some steam ... to write stuff thank you very much to Beloit ... all the Wall Street don't joining us from Washington DC that we appreciate time so ... thank you ... fifty Shades of Grey was fifty Shades of green around the house but that tells about and come bounce they ... will publish out we have The will Street dolls tough times but ... kept serving up ... so ... on the Zales trilogy ... how it was ... the U ... S ... so for the year from March to the end the year ... in English German and Spanish ... in digital physically and Audi of ... more than seventy million books so ... the Aussie on the year number ... I am to seventeen million on the scene in less than one yet I mean that's incredible ... how unusual is this ... will be business as a classic phenomenon it's the kind of book that every publisher series every publisher dreams of having ... it's the kind of a series every publisher of the big publishers the means to hang out ... I'm going to make it here in Iceland absence of a tobacco quantity ... but people are looking for these making its today and this is a classic example I mean it did slow me to pray pray well now what what fun will be interesting and Random House on its people catalog alone at forty seven thousand titles that come my presumably ... for the rocks ... Abingdon outsold by this ... these books were just ... some of the press ... but a duty to say once a lifetime but we think it's very rare paintings so that he got the Harry Potter titles within our own little utterance of color ... not including digital over four hundred and fifty million physical books over ... says the first book was published in what nineteen ninety seven cents in the US along with fifteen years practically and yet right ... while his seven titles and here were talking bout three ... up and these these of these of three well to be slung Holdings as well and and and some why some of this type of books a very very thing right now it's been talked about a movie and has also been told that I'll what some of the report ... being in ... a watery tells about that ... she's driven the Nano appeared everywhere and she's done his best he said she said she's not going to the support she ... doesn't apply to two thousand and five ... well this is this movie was only if it if you get hit and will be fewer try ... but how ... do we see a script or a group of baptism in if the omitted in it and still may be based on a book that we all think he's going to be a ... game in the movie magic just doesn't happen ... while ... shares of what these books in a way to write ... this it is an erotic trilogy why these three books broke out people really don't know ... it's a it's a it's a very good question to one to carry the secret to back track was only last year down from the Green wheel ... from Kesling massacre ... that always a pleasure to track them but thank you my much to thirty percent off publishing maestro about ... for the backs of the legal bill for the banking crisis is set to be a hundred billion dollars and counting the will Street dolls Suzanne Kapner joins us now on the site to discuss this thank you Brian much for being here it's happening in ... my sense of the defamation of seven hundred ... it's just a new trauma ... Etsy is Number and we probably haven't seen the end of it so ... I'm adjusting the banks are starting to get their hands around the mortgage related ... litigation it live or has exploded and that this is the rate breathing rate remaining interest rate rigging stand on that promise is potentially be even ... bigger legal headache for the bank suffered somewhat what it was one of the legal bill so what's all the things that does this amounts to a mean is is it another go one is is that one of things are ... that if it gets them into that government regulators had to settle private litigation and ... I'm for things like mortgage putbacks when ... I'm underwriting was found to be faulty and things have to buy bad loans for on ... I'm all sorts of mortgage related securities that you know class action type securities planned ... I'm sitting references to settle last week ... with a group of bondholders who alleged the bank had ... with Kelton information and when there's you know when they're scared has dropped in value ... as bondholders were down and said see human you mention Citigroup but it's not just a minute but just the big one who are we talking about him that taking lowered into which again I think America all the big bank's global say this is not assisting us problem ... I mean that's a lot money trying to be able to a small spot at the time I they can appeal to withstand the soda but not so much money as awesome as well though I am ... group about fourteen large banks have something like uh hundred and sixty four billion dollars of excess capital on their balance sheets so ... they look pretty set to be of the list and that's all know that the real issue is that it's going to be a drag on earnings for the evening ... just as they start to recover from ... some of the financial problems ... you know this continues to weigh on their stocks and so when the moment of opinion YouTube of people they have a deal to put this ... behind them I mean it's it's just an app for Rep of the ... sudden you not counting them talking the media now thirty years and any time in my favorite on an ... online contest of the crisis ... is still on ... forever is a long time right ... that is a skinny body that is the most of them to talk about this that is when the people that are getting I don't think thirty years but it certainly it's gone for ... a few more years ... while it unworthy isn't one of the one thing is I'm on on on on its hands on a low but ... we've we've we use banks ahead does this mean we can expect some higher fees and the bank swung from checking counsel's office lady a ... was a five week trip sum of money ... in the bank was the only the ... higher fees but it's not really a result of these legal bills and we've seen higher fees because banks face all kinds of new regulation that's ... crimped profits but it's not as records although these ... these legal bills one hundred billion dollars and maybe more ... maybe wanted to look at two hundred and sixty four inches thick ... thank you very much Suzanne can never be appreciated read more on that story and ... the will Street dolls and more in the meantime that's it that's the new supper now it'll be a great night ...
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Now Playing
5/20/2014 3:29PM
Mark Mobius's Outlook For China
Templeton Emerging Markets Guru Mark Mobius discusses his outlook for China with WSJ Editor in Chief Gerard Baker.
... I ... most bull disposable citizens ... Mr. Mobius China ... um government there seems to be involved in some significant reforms ... growth was seen to be slowing Maybe the composition of growth is slowing ... how do you see China in the next to a nice cup of is what I like to point out to ... keep those NOK ten percent growth in two thousand ... he added Maybe ... they tend to be into the economy ... set of saying growth now is eighty nine and today ... so the base is done so much bigger so don't ... think of China is ... going down or shrinking its expanding ... that's one thing ... the other thing is expect a lot of bad news ... why ... use of the four program ... give the Chinese gum is saying no ... you stay down and cries to be on your own ... way not to control prices anymore ... when are you the support ... you have banker sees you in our bond defaults ... bought this cause I'm concerned it's great news ... is that means ... these countries do to survive is to become a more profitable ... and this is our job to watch ... any show we think the right ones they pretty optimistic about China mimic the visible for well over a long time in China that you sink to ... the state as the economy ... is reform that it's this changes and then the prospect of the that ... can improve ... the obvious what they're doing is moving the H is another restricted shares into Hong Kong and building this into one big market AB eight straight chips Hong Kong ... this will be all one big market ... and
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To do a PhD, pleasure or burden?
To do or not to do a PhD is a critical question for lots of Master and Bachelor students. For this reason, Young KLV organizes this event.
Organisator Young KLV
ma 3 december 2018 18:45 tot 22:00
Locatie Start Hub
Arthur Mol, the Rector Magnificus of WUR, will give a presentation about doing a PhD. Further, two current PhD’ers will talk about their personal experiences. Questions that will be addressed, are for example: What are the basic requirements for a PhD? Where and how can you find the information about PhD positions? What are the selection procedures for the potential PhD candidates? What are the positive and negative aspects of doing a PhD? What will be the next step of a PhD? What is the common career path of a PhD?
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The "safe season" of cosmetics.
Release time:2018-11-30
Allergies are caused by lack of water and uneven oil an […]
Allergies are caused by lack of water and uneven oil and water. You should adjust your skin care products in time for the season. If the skin care products can't replenish water and oil in time, you can imagine that you can't eat your face. Once the problem occurs, some people stop using cosmetics and cause skin malnutrition. Some people mistakenly use curative skin care products, which in turn increases the burden on the skin. Therefore, it is imperative to prepare some skin care products with mild formula, such as cold film, sensitive cream, cell lotion cream, etc., to calm the subcutaneous nerve and reduce the occurrence of allergies.
For people who are sensitive to skin, if you want to use new cosmetics, you should first do a skin test by applying the cosmetics you want to apply to the delicate skin on the inside of your wrist, leaving it for one night or two or three days to observe it. The reaction, if there is an abnormal reaction, such as inflammation, redness, rash, etc., you must avoid using the cosmetics.
If you suspect that allergies are caused by skin care products that are being used, then you should stop using the skin care products and try to use skin care products that you are already used to, or use skin care products that are allergic to skin.
In the aesthetics of the Orientals, it is good to see the skin that is blown out in the white, but this is often the most prone to allergic skin, so be careful when using cosmetics!
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Creative capital, The Straits Times, 11 February 2018
Yale-NUS student Llyod Koh (Class of 2021), a former Singapore Press Holdings Content Lab writer, contributed a lifestyle piece on Montreal in The Straits Times. He wrote about the arts scene in Montreal, where he was hosted by Sliding Doors Entertainment, the company which brings Cirque du Soleil acts to Singapore. Llyod discussed how art and life in Montreal were inextricably linked and how the culture was dedicated not to efficiency, but to the celebration of creativity.
Click here for the full article
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These 18 U.S. Cities Make The Best (And Worst) First Impressions
Photo: WeHeartIt
New York City
Did your hometown make the list?
The crazy thing about traveling is that you never truly know how things will go until you're there. We build up certain expectations from movies and TV, so if the trip you thought you'd love doesn't live up the expectation, it could be a complete failure.
So, which cities make the best and worst first impression? Now we know!
A Readers' Choice Survey on Condé Nast Traveler made a definitive ranking of cities that exceeded expectations and those that fell below them. The next time you're making a road trip across the country, you'll know where to stop ... and which places to skip!
The best cities:
1. Sedona, AZ
2. Jackson, WA
3. Savannah, GA
4. Key West, FL
5. St. Augustine, FL
6. Taos, NM
7. Portland, ME
8. Memphis, TN
9. Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
The worst cities:
1. New York, NY
2. Atlantic City, NJ
3. Orlando, FL
4. Oakland, CA
5. Atlanta, GA
6. Dallas, TX
7. Philadelphia, PA
8. Minneapolis, MN
9. Cleveland, OH
Yup, The Big Apple came out as the big stinker due to tourists feeling overwhelmed, while Sedona comes out on top for its naturally beautiful red rocks.
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How Many Uses Is 'Multipurpose'?
I think I'm entitled to disliking certain insects. I am fearful of spiders, like can't function around them. One time though, I did put that fear aside and assisted my group of girls at a summer camp win a scavenger hunt by being the one who held a daddy-long-leg by a leg for what seemed like forever.
I hate roaches, like thought Wall-E would have been so much better if his buggy friend had been non-roach. I've met many since we've moved in to this apartment. We had zero in the other place, now it seems as if the previous owners didn't clean or what, and the roaches moved in when it was vacant. First, it started with just the little ones. I smashed those with a vengeance, gleeful to give them payment for living in my space.
Then, the Big Ones showed up. These are the ones that are the size of your whole big toe! The first one I saw was at like 550 when I was up for work. Mark was still asleep so I couldn't call for him. I had an epiphany. I used my 'multipurpose cleaner'. It says multipurpose, so multipurpose is multipurpose. It kills germs as well as roaches. I chased that bugger through my small dinning room and gassed the area between the wall and the heater unit with fumes of bleach. I found it dead when I got home, it and a few little ones.
Today was the Worst Day Ever. First, at breakfast, I had my feet under the table. I felt something like a plastic wrapper, like off the top of a syrup bottle or something. My thought was, Oh, I'll pick it up with my toes. Right after that was, Let's look at to make sure it's not a roach...
I am so glad I did. So very glad. I looked under the table...IT WAS A ROACH! I had just thought about picking up a roach with my toes. I had played with a roach with my toes. I was disgusting! And to make matters worse, my game of footsie with it had ripped off its wings or something. Talk about nasty. Lest, I accidentally nudge it, I kept my feet on my chair for the rest of breakfast, since no one would pick it up for me. Bethany finally did, but she found that part of it had stuck to the floor. What the-?! I know I didn't toe it *that* hard.
They made a second appearance. I was trying to be a good wifey and clean up the mess MCM and I had made while we were making dinner. I made biscuits, he made chicken alfredo (I promise, he did!). I started rinsing out dishes, loaded the dishwasher, and reached out to pick cups off the counter. I screamed. Loudly, like, I had never done before. This One had invaded my counter space! I was mad, I was scared, I was also bawling. That's how MCM found me when he rode in on his white horse to save me, wearing the amazing Dr. Pepper pants I bought him. How could those bugs think that these counters are for them to roam around on? How could they think that they deserve free reign in my kitchen?! I despise them! Even as MCM's arms were around me comforting me in my distress-ness, my thoughts were 'what do I have to kill it with?' Then I remembered my 'multipurpose cleaner'. He discovered the nastiness had moved, further defiling my countertops. Moving appliances, cups, empty bottles, he cornered it, showered it with bleach and poison, forcing it into the sink and trapping it in the drain part where he drenched it in 'multipurpose cleaner'. MCM's my hero. What would I do without him? I'd probably move out, inspite of year lease we just signed.
After the trauma wore off, I had a mission. I scrubbed the defiled countertop with my 'multipurpose cleaner' just to spite that thing. I hadn't really been doing a good job keeping the kitchen clean anyways, so it's probably my fault anyways, that the roaches have flurrished :( But MCM and I decided to do better. We're going to rinse dishes off, keep crumbs down, and get the maintainance men to come spray the whole kitchen!
On a lighter, happier note, I went to Busch Gardens today. It was pretty cool. I'm a chicken with heights, so you can imagine me on rollercoasters. I was freaking out the whole time. But I will admit, it was fun! Until the last one that shook my head and gave me the start of a migraine :( It was worth the fun that MCM, Thing One, Thing Two, and I had together. Blondie is on her way down here, even as I type this. She should be here soon :) We're planning on going to Virginia Beach on Monday. It's gonna be fun!
1. I HATE roaches!
I saw a Big One in the kitchen the other day, and I woke up Matt (who had just come off a 32 hour shift, I think) to come kill it and dispose of the body. UGH!!!
But, thankfully, we don't have a big problem with the little buggers--this Big One had gotten in from outside when I'd left the screen door open for a while that morning.
I, too, spray the nasties with anything that is on hand: carpet cleaner, "multipurpose" spray, Lysol, toilet cleaner, etc. You gotta do what you gotta do.
BTW, post a pic of thse amazing "Dr. Pepper pants." I'm dying to see them!
2. those are for KLM's eyes only
3. Um yeah....roaches are SOOOO disgusting!! Fortunately, I have only seen a few in my apartment this summer, and no matter how clean you make things, they still invade. When we lived in Mississippi, they came up throught he drain pipes....and these were the REALLY BIG ones with wings. I'm glad that MCM was able to save you from them.
I chased one around my house with the bug spray and a broom the other day. Ick!!
That's one thing I liked about living in WI -- no roaches!!
OH -- and I've seen the Dr. Pepper pants. I've seen them on my BIL Josh, too, for that matter....
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Tuesday, June 27, 2017
The Frog Becomes Deaf
I have been reading a few of DC's old "Elseworlds" tales lately (to help me understand the new DC Heroclix set "Elseworlds"). Although they are certainly often imaginative, they often miss the mark. Great concepts, executed...non-greatly.
One such is The Blue, The Grey, and The Bat (1992), which I probably wouldn't have bought if I had noticed it was written by Elliot Maggin. Elliot "S!" Maggin has much to answer for, writing-wise, such as crap like Magic Monday, Starwinds Howl, "The Headband Warriors of Krypton", and titling both "Costume, Costume, Who's Got the Costume?" and "Villain, Villain, Who's Got the Costume?". Shudder.
On Earth-Prime, we have a name for that "invisible aura of radiation around Elliot Maggin" and his writing, but I'm too polite to specify it.
Still, I was determined to plow through The Blue, The Grey, and the Bat, a very complicated story of undercover agent Colonel Bruce Wayne on assignment from President Lincoln in the Old West.
And then I reached this panel:
Which stopped me DEAD in my tracks.
Why? Because I recognized the joke that Colonel Wayne is telling the punchline from.
Where did I recognize it from? From the time the Joker told it in the only Elliot Maggin story I've ever enjoyed: "Luthor, You're Driving Me Sane" (The Joker, 1977).
Now you know what the Joker looks like in an afro-wig; you're welcome.
Well played, Mr. Maggin. An impressive (and gloriously gratuitous) call-back, some fifteen years later.
Unless, of course, it's just the only joke Elliot Maggin knows.
Anonymous said...
Agreed, neither option (callback or complete joke repertoire) is exactly flattering.
But the worst thing about that joke is, it screams of trying to sound witty and urbane. Nobody would actually tell that joke in that fashion, but that's about the only way to cram the punchline into a fractional context-free sentence, so why even use that particular joke? Why not "and the penguin says 'no it's just ice cream'" which you wouldn't have to torture into a word balloon?
Three jokes for you:
1) A grasshopper walks into a bar. The bartender says "hey we have a drink named after you!" and the grasshopper says "what, you have a drink called Steve?"
2) Batman walks into a bar. The bartender says "hey we have a drink named after you!" and Batman says "what, you have a drink called Bruce Wayne? ... oh shit."
3) A penguin is driving through Arizona when his engine starts smoking. He gets his car to a garage, and while the mechanic is taking a look, he visits an ice cream parlor. He orders a giant bowl of vanilla, and at first is content to eat it but finally can't help himself and dives in. Dripping with ice cream, he pays his bill and waddles back to the garage. The mechanic pops his head up from the car and says "looks like you blew a seal" and the penguin says "no it's just ice cream".
Scipio said...
My favorite is still, "But, warden...those aren't even my pants!"
Theron said...
Mine remains, "You're Thor? I can hardly pith!"
cybrid said...
Although everyone else has already moved on from here: I'm pretty sure you mean "Miracle Monday," not "Magic Monday." Just so's you'll know.
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Page Content
About Skip Links
Adding a link to allow users to skip repetitive navigation is a common accessibility recommendation. Many users on a screen reader may also use ARIA landmarks, but the skip navigation link is still useful for sighted users on a keyboard.
Basic Skip Nav Structure
A skip navigation link has two parts. The first is the actual "Skip to Content" link placed as close to the top of the code as possible so that it is read quickly by the screen reader. The link should go to an anchor or id placed at the top of the content code after the navigation. See example below.
As will be seen in the sections below, CSS can be used to hide and reveal the link to sighted users as needed.
Skip Link Example
View the Link
Skip to Content
View the Code (HTML 5) with ID
<a href="#content" class="offscreen">Skip to Content</a>
<nav> [NAVIGATION LINKS] </nav>
<section id="content"> [CONTENT] </section>
View the Code (HTML 4) with Named Anchor
<a href="#top" class="offscreen">Skip to Content</a>
<div id="nav"> [NAVIGATION LINKS HERE] </div>
<div id="content"><a name="top"></a>[CONTENT HERE]</section>
Hiding Text Off Screen
Many developers choose to hide the Skip Nav link from sighted users, although it is recommended that it be visible when a keyboard user tabs to it. That allows sighted users relying on keyboards to skip tabbing through navigation.
One way to hide text is to place it literally off screen using CSS. In the example below, the class .offscreen moves text 10,000 pixels to the left and above the visible portion of the screen. The text is not visible in the browser, but a screen reader will announce it because it disregards visual CSS.
The second declaration makes the link visible in the upper left of the page when it receives keyboard focus. It also adds a yellow background and dotted border.
View the CSS
a.offscreen {
text-align: left;
a.offscreen:focus, a.offscreen:active, a.offscreen:hover {
border: 1px dotted #000;
View the HTML
<a href="#skip" class="offscreen">Skip Content</a>
<a name="skip" > </a > [Content Starts Here]</div>
Test the Link
On the next TAB, the link becomes visible in the top left of the page when you tab to it. The next tab takes you to the next link to WebAIM.
Top of Page
Alternative Approaches
The WebAIM Skip Navigation page lists some additional alternatives.
Pixel with ALT Tag
An older method is to place an invisible pixel graphic before the navigation links with an ALT tag reading "Skip to Content." The graphic is turned into a page-internal link that links to content further down the page. Note that the image BORDER should be set to "0" in order to keep the image hidden from visual browsers.
Note: This method does not allow you to easily reveal the keyboard focus when you tab to it.
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Thursday, January 29, 2009
Mudhoney-Superfuzz Bigmuff (1988)
It was just brought to my attention that this EP came out twenty, yes, TWENTY years ago.
In it's wake it brought what we know as grunge. Say what you wanna, but this shit is smokin' hot.
Shamefully, the band at it's "peak".
This is some warped shit for 1988.
Super Hairy Gigantic Muff
Flamin' Groovies-Teenage Head
This one has been sneaking into the DJ set more and more. Seems like everyone I play it for has never heard it before which seems strange, but at the same time, totally awesome. It's pretty easy to get enthusiastic about this record in the winter. It kinda exudes this strange aura of aggressive laziness. Some of the songs loaf around and don't really do anything, they go on for six minutes, they go through about seven jam parts, but still, you sit intently.
That's tough to do.
For anyone who digs on simple rock and roll and the way Todd Rundgren made records sound, you will fucking worship this record. Great vocalist and phenomenal guitar players in the same way that Malcom Young is a phenomenal guitar player.
Highly Recommended.
LINK FIXED 4:44 P.M. 1/29
Fixed Groovies
not only did the dipshits at Can's record label make me take the download down for a record that is OUT OF PRINT, but they also made me delete the entire post because i called them money grubbers.
fuck you, Can's record label.
money grubbers.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Santo & Johnny-Santo & Johnny
I've always really loved Hawaiian music, but have never been able to get past the fact that it was Hawaiian music. Right or wrong (wrong, obviously) i've never been able to get past the kinda inherent cheezy-ness. I guess that might explain why I was so drawn to the music of Santo & Johnny, because the Hawaiian influence is super evident, but it's taken in a darker, more rural-american, direction.
All this aside, a story from James on the beach in California spawned this post. Something about one of the brothers picking a drunk fight in bar and getting killed. I don't know if it's true, and to be honest, I don't particularly want to know. It's kinda revving my listening engine right now.
Absolutely beautiful and overlooked far too long....
Santo & Johnny
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Simply the Best
Had to point you to another rocksteady comp over at
These guys get it right and from what I understand, they put this together themselves.
AMAZING rocksteady.
The best comp I have heard yet.
Please, for your sake and mine, pick it up over there for free.
Best nothing you'll ever spend.
Rocksteady Suffering
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Television Personalities-Mummy You're Not Watching Me
We were listening to records last night at the place and for some reason I played this for Seth for the first time. If Seth really likes a record you can be pretty sure there's something there worth listening to. If he isn't that into it, you can bet that you won't remember it in a month.
Well, Seth really likes this record, and I do as well.
There's something really queer about the TVPs that I can't quite place. It's this sort of strange attention to detail on songs that sound like they were recorded in five minutes. Polishing a turd, if you will. Somehow, against all odds, it works for them and the shimmering mess that emerges by the end of the record produces five of you "favorite songs of all time". This album is no exception to that, although it may seem hard to digest all the reverb at first. The real reward with this band comes through repeated listens (I know that is said about everything), but every time I listen to this I hear a terrifying lyric that swept past me previously. Treacy's power comes from what he alludes to and not what he says. Check out 'A Day In Heaven' for a little taste of that. Also, this version of 'David Hockney's Diaries' (the first and slower version) as opposed to the 'They Could Have Been Better Than The Beatles' version isolates instead of embracing.
The TVPs are one of the best, and this record is recommended, like whoa.
1. Adventure Playground
2. A Day In Heaven
3. Scream Quietly
4. Mummy You're Not Watching Me
5. Brian's Magic Car
6. Where The Rainbow Ends
7. David Hockney's Diaries
8. Painting By Numbers
9. Lichtenstein Painting
10. Magnificent Dreams
11. If I Could Write Poetry
Mummy, You're Not Watching Me
Monday, January 12, 2009
The Replacements-Hootenanny!
I've had a lot of favorite bands in my time here on Earth. I operate on hyperbole, anyone who knows me understands that, "they are the greatest band in the world" generally doesn't translate exactly. I find it easier to speak in absolutes as it suggests a sense of conviction that is absent from most everybody nowadays.
As I have taken time to really find music that compels me to do things like write a music blog for instance, I continue to return to the 'Mats.
I don't know really why it speaks so true and awkwardly. I'm late in the game and never hung at 7th street or Oarfolk and I'm not even sure I would have if I was there. But the Replacements understood that collision of everything and nothing. They didn't care at all and they cared more than anyone in a seamless, unquestionable line. This album shows me how it used to be possible to make a god honest statement about nothing at all, and consequently, most everything in the same breath.
As ridiculous as those homos who talk about the power of music are, and no matter how many times you have to listen to them, coked out of their minds, speak of intrinsic beauty, know there is truth to it. You can't find it everywhere, and you can't find it easily, but if you think like I do you can find it in the 'Mats.
To all those who hate them for being so good, and love them for being so bad.
1. Hootenanny!
2. Run It
3. Color Me Impressed
4. Willpower
5. Take Me Down To The Hospital
6. Mr. Whirly
7. Within Your Reach
8. Buck Hill
9. Lovelines
10. You Lose
11. Hayday
12. Treatment Bound
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monks-Five Upstart Americans
Had to share the link for this because it is incredible.
Apparently, these are the demos for Monk Time recorded in Germany when the Monks formed.
They sound as good, if not better, than Monk Time, and are more my speed as far as arrangements. Don't get me wrong, Monk Time slays and will be one of my favs til i'm gone, but the arrangements here are cleaner and more focused. Come to think of it, that doesn't sound like something I'd be into at all. Somehow, on these recordings it works really really well. The guitars sound fucking unreal. If anyone knows how they did that, please, tell me.
You guys should check out the other stuff on this blog I'm liking to as well. Real neat Yardbirds live stuff.
Monks-Five Upstart Americans
Oh, Eight Comp
O.k. so I made a comp with my two favorite songs of each of the records that made the list.
Don't know why I'm so good to you.
1. Thomas Function-Snake In The Grass
2. Thomas Function-Filthy Flowers
3. Wavves- The Boys Will Love Us
4. Wavves- Vermin
5. Jacuzzi Boys- Dream Lion
6. Jacuzzi Boys- Island Avenue
7. Ty Segall-The Drag
8. Ty Segall- Dating
9. Muslims- Future Rock
10. Muslims- Extinction
11. Nodzzz- I Don't Wanna (Smoke Marijuana)
12. Nodzzz- Is She There
13. Thee Oh Sees- Block of Ice
14. Thee Oh Sees- Poison Finger
Oh, Eight
Scout Niblett-Kidnapped by Neptune
Yup, that's right. Scout Niblett. People give me all kindsa shit for listening to her and I don't really get it. Everyone I talk to about this record says that her voice grates on them, and that it reminds them of Joanna Newsom. I can't afford weed good enough to make this true. This album flows great. This album is what your sub-conscious listens to when you put on Fleet Foxes. This album reminds me of Rick's old Volkswagen. This is a great headphone travel record, which I suppose are the only kind I upload since I am constantly commuting. She gets a pretty radical guitar tone that's kinda 1996 and super super compressed in an almost obnoxious way. Guess what? I fucking love 1996 and so should you. I recommend this for anyone who is a Liz Phair fan but wishes it would tweak a bit. Get real and get this record.
1. Hot to Death
2. Kidnapped BY Neptune
3. Pom Poms
4. Lullaby for Scout in Ten Years
5. Fuck Treasure Island
6. Relax
7. Valvoline
8. Good To Me
9. Handsome
10. Safety Pants
11. Newburyport
12. This City
13. Wolfie
14. Drink To Me
15. Where Are You?
Fuck Treasure Island
Monday, January 5, 2009
So we did another song.
I like it.
Jesse, Seth, and I sing.
Lusty plays guitars and does the programming
Jesse and Seth played the synth
I might have played a little guitar
it was late.
1. Volunteering
The Eight of Oh-Eight
since i want to be cool too, i figured i would make a list of the best records of 2008.
disclaimer: i don't really know a lot about music (current music especially) so my tastes may be what you kids call "lame". totally aware.
figure i'll pick eight records.
8. Jacuzzi Boys-Island Avenue EP
I would have put this one a little higher, but it's only three songs and an album that does not make. Still, this stuff is great. It runs the same race as the Black Lips but more deliberately and maybe even a little steadier. 'Dream Lion', although slow and kinda a buzzkill, is a staple in my DJ sets and is brooding in the way that Bauhaus t-shirts were in high school. Brilliant, snappy, simple stuff from Florida nonetheless. Can't wait for an LP from these guys.
7. Wavves-Wavves
Drum machines ran through Boss DS-1's and unintelligible vocals about 'beach goths'. I hated this record the first time I heard it. I still kinda do. I think that's kinda nice actually and I continue to listen to it for that express purpose. The song titles are fucking hilarious and the cadence of the record seems kind of disjointed from the actual songs if that makes sense. This is the only record released in 2008 that I really believe may have subliminal messages in it.
6. Crystal Stilts -Alight of Night
People say these guys/Vivian Girls cast-off sound like the Velvet Underground. Isn't that just fucking retarded? Why would you say that a band? Remember when people said that about the Strokes? It made no sense then and makes even less now. What these guys do sound like is really really good music to take NyQuil and walk around the city with headphones on to. In fact, that is the express reason they made it onto this here list at this here slot. It may have been freezing rain.
5. Thomas Function- Celebration
When we were down in Alabama playing a show this was all that anyone down there talked about and ended up comparing everything to. Naturally, before I even heard it, I hated the shit out of it. That was misled as this band is everything that great pop bands should be. Consistently awkward in an interesting but not overbearing way. Well crafted sinewy kinda songs that have a 4/4 base and 3/4 tempo. Great singer, great songs.
4. Ty Segall-S/T
Again, a grower. Can't stop listening to/talking about this record still. At first, lo-fi stuff always bothers me because of how hard it is to play the shit out. This stuff charges through the production and even if it just sounds like buzzing at points, it sounds like the buzzing has a motive. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful songs that at no point bore me (I think there's one song over two minutes). This is what I'd always hoped that KK & BBQ Show would end up moving towards and instead they started to sound like a shitty James Brown cover band. There is merit in Ty Segall's approach to music. They could be huge with a little compromise on their end, but I think that once people get a real grip on this record they won't need to meet anyone in the middle. Garagey without being dated, noisy without being intelligent. Like if a white Little Richard fronted a louder Dirtbombs.
3. Muslims-Muslims
How many fucking self-titled records made this list?! Jesus. Think of something people. It's really not that hard to name a record. I know it seems cool to just let the name speak for itself but you did what?
You released a self-titled record that was released to critical acclaim?
Then you changed your name to the Soft Pack?
Are you a fucking idiot?
What a fun record. The OK GO dis is enough for a listen.
It sounds like the Velvet Underground!
2. Nodzzz-Nodzzz 12"
Remember Half Japanese? Yeah, well these guys are a shitload better. Fun is the only way to describe them and if it wasn't for how ridiculously amazing the Thee Oh Sees record is, it would have been number one. The single not included on this record is 'I Don't Wanna (Smoke Marijuana)' and may be my favorite song of 2008. (The 7" has since sold out and will not be repressed from what I hear)
If you are a fan of pop music, this is your ticket to sweetsville.
1. Thee Oh Sees-The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In
Terrifyingly agressive music that still seems stoned and laid back. This is what garage bands want to sound like. Equal parts Jandek, Troggs, and Soft Boys with a little Donovan thrown in for good measure (check out their early cover of 'Get Thy Bearings' off of OCS4) this is my favorite band right now, period. John Dwyer from Coachwhips fronts with a girl that sounds so fucking hot it makes my buttcheeks tremble. GO BUY THIS RECORD RIGHT NOW DUMMY.
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Divine transformation
6 August 2017
The Feast of the Transfiguration
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Peter 1:13-21
Luke 9:28-36
The Feast of the Transfiguration, which falls on August 6, is classed by the Prayer Book as a feast of our Lord Jesus Christ, and as such, takes precedence over a Sunday. Consequently, we won’t read Proper 13 this year, but replace it with the Transfiguration. We’ll miss Matthew’s version of the feeding of the 5000.
We are used to hearing the story of the Transfiguration on the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, just before we begin our Lenten journey toward the cross, and there is some wisdom in that placement of the story. Certainly, in Luke’s Gospel, the Transfiguration occurs just a few verses before Jesus “sets his face towards Jerusalem,” and Moses and Elijah converse with Jesus concerning the exodus he is about to accomplish. For Luke, the Transfiguration does serve as a kind of turning point for his narrative structure.
The Eastern Orthodox have always held that the Transfiguration is revelatory of the Trinitarian nature of the deity. Christ is revealed in his divine glory as the Son, the Second person of the Trinity. The Father is present in the voice from heaven, and the Spirit is the cloud which envelopes the tableau. The whole story is richly allusive. The voice is nearly identical with the voice at Jesus’ baptism (in which story, the dove represents the Spirit). Of course, Moses and Elijah are present, both of whom encountered God on the mountain top. And Peter wants to build three booths. The Greek word skene is reminiscent of the Hebrew shekinah. It is used to describe the tabernacle in the wilderness, and can mean tent. It is the word for the canvas backdrop of Greek tragedies (from which English gets the word ‘scene’). And Jesus is about to accomplish his exodus.
We are reminded of the cloud which would settle over the tabernacle when the people encamped in the wilderness on the first Exodus, and would then lift off when they were to break camp. Moses desired to see God’s face on the mountain, but God only allowed him to see his backside, hiding him with his hand in the cleft of the rock. Elijah heard volcanic eruption and storm on the mountain, but God was not in the earthquake, storm or wind, but in the sound of sheer silence. In this instance, Moses sees the face of Christ transfigured in glory, and Elijah hears God’s voice. Luke certainly packs a lot into a few verses.
The reading from Exodus tells us that Moses was in the habit of conversing with God in the tent in the wilderness, and that whenever he did so, his skin of his face glowed from its proximity to glory. The people, however, were terrified, just as Peter, James and John were terrified when they entered the cloud. The people took the contents of Moses’ conversation with God as law, rather than intimacy. Perhaps, to be in conversation with God requires us to learn to see ourselves as God sees us. Too often, we experience that as judgment, when in fact God extends it as grace. The primal sin was to take for ourselves the knowledge of good and evil, to judge ourselves. In doing so, we put ourselves in the place of God, thinking our judgments are divine, that if we consider ourselves unlovable, then surely God must also. And so, we are terrified to encounter God.
The author of 2 Peter uses the same word (skene) for tent or tabernacle: “I think it is right (or just) as long as I am still in this tabernacle, to keep you wakeful by reminding you, knowing as I do that the putting off of this tabernacle of mine will come soon.” The wakefulness is the same wakefulness that allowed Peter, James and John to behold Christ’s glory on the mountain, despite being weighed down with sleep. Christ, as the son Incarnate, is the image of God restored in humankind, and to the extent that we are incorporated into Christ’s human nature, we also show forth the image of God restored. Coming to inhabit that image, however, is a life long process, a 40 year journey through the wilderness led by the cloud.
Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land, but saw it from a distance from the mountain top. Jesus, once the cloud is lifted sets out on his own journey to Calvary. We have our own journey to make.
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AggroChat #141 - Games of the Year 2016 - Part Two
It is that time again. Time for the AggroChat crew to attempt to narrow down a list of games for our Games of the Year show. We have never actually been able to reach a consensus so instead we gather up a big ole list of games and talk about it each year as in a two part show. So six hosts… 3 picks per host… 18 games in total, or at least in theory that is the goal. This time around it seems to have mostly worked out as we have 9 games per episode.
During this second episode we visit our roman numeral friends talk about…
• Pokemon Go
• Dark Souls III
• Overwatch
• Stardew Valley
• Stellaris
• Tyranny
• Final Fantasy XV
• The Witness
• Skyrim Special Edition
Direct download: aggrochat_episode141.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 6:00am EDT
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An essential problem in adopting an ERP system is to resolve misfits at each stage of the ERP experience cycle. In this paper, a multidimensional definition of ERP misfit is proposed to analyze misfit incidents and to examine how they were remedied at a Taiwanese manufacturer (CrystalCom). We conceptualize ERP misfit as temporary conflicts in functionality, legitimacy and cognition at four stages of the ERP experience cycle. Based on this fine-grained conceptualization, we discovered that a service-dominant logic was present at CrystalCom, driving IT personnel’s choice of resolution strategies. Our results suggest that ERP misfit implicates inconsistency among many factors, including the system ontology, perceived system utility, organizational practices, existent standards of efficiency and appropriateness, and cognitive frames of relevant social groups. There is no best resolution strategy for particular misfit dimensions. Effective resolution requires a consistent constellation or pattern of resolution strategies.
ERP, misfit, resolution strategy, multidimensional conceptualization
ISBN: [978-1-86435-644-1]; Full paper
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Monday, August 29, 2016
Session 797
Nature of the Psyche, Session 797
When you ask about the beginning of a universe, you are speaking of a visible universe.
There is consciousness within each conceivable hypothetical point within the universe. There is therefore “an invisible universe” out of which the visible or objective universe springs.
I do not mean to overemphasize the point that this particular material is most difficult to explain, yet I can hardly stress the issue too strongly.
Your universe did not emerge at any one point, therefore, or with any one initial cell – but everywhere it began to exist at once, as the inner pulsations of the invisible universe reached certain intensities that “impregnated” the entire physical system simultaneously.
In this case, first of all light appeared. At the same time EE (electromagnetic energy) units became manifest, impinging from the invisible universe into definition. Again, because of the psychological strength of preconceived notions, I have to work my way around many of your concepts. Yet in much of my material I have definitely implied what I am saying now, but the implications must have passed you by.
I have said, for example, that the universe expands as an idea does, and so the visible universe sprang into being in the same manner. The whole affair is quite complicated since – again as I have intimated – the world freshly springs into new creativity at each moment. No matter what your version of creativity, or the creation of the world, you are stuck with the questions of where such energy came from, for it seems that unimaginable energy was released more or less at one time, and that this energy must then run out.
The same energy, however, still gives birth anew to the universe. In those terms, it is still being created. The EE units, impressing a probable physical field, contain within them the latent knowledge of all of the various species that can emerge under those conditions. The groupings “begin” in the invisible universe. You can say that it took untold centuries for the EE units “initially” to combine, form classifications of matter and various species; or you can say that this process happened at once. It is according to your relative position, but the physical universe was everywhere seeded, impregnated, simultaneously. On the other hand, this still happens, and there is no real “coming-in” point.
You distinguish between consciousness and your own version, which you consider consciousness of self. When I speak of atoms and molecules having consciousness, I mean that they possess a consciousness of themselves as identities. I do not mean that they love or hate, in your terms, but that they are aware of their own separateness, and aware of the ways in which that separateness cooperates to form other organizations.
They are innately aware, in fact, of all such probable cooperative ventures, and imbued with the “drive” for value fulfillment. Every known species was inherently “present” with the overall impregnation of the visible universe, then.
If the universe were a painting, for example, the painter would not have first painted darkness, then an explosion, then a cell, then the joining together of groups of cells into a simple organism, then that organism’s multiplication into others like it, or traced a pattern from an amoeba or a paramecium on upward – but he or she would have instead begun with a panel of light, an underpainting, in which all of the world’s organisms were included, though not in detail. Then in a creativity that came from the painting itself the colors would grow rich, the species attain their delineations, the winds blow and the seas move with the tides.
The motion and energy of the universe still come from within. I certainly realize that this is hardly a scientific statement – yet the moment that All That Is conceived of a physical universe it was invisibly created, endowed with creativity, and bound to emerge.
Because each hypothetical, conceivable portion of the universe is conscious, the Planner is within the plan itself in the greatest of terms – perhaps basically inconceivable to you. There is of course no “outside” into which the invisible universe materialized, since all does indeed exist in a mental, or psychic, or spiritual realm quite impossible to describe. To you your universe seems, now, objective and real, and it seems to you that at one time at least this was not the case, so you ask about its creation and the evolution of the species. My answer has been couched in the terms in which the question is generally asked.
While you believe in and experience the passage of time, then such questions will naturally occur to you, and in that fashion. Within that framework they make sense. When you begin to question the nature of time itself, then the “when” of the universe is beside the point.
Almost anyone will agree, I should hope, that the universe is a most splendid example of creativity. Few would agree, however, that you can learn more about the nature of the universe by examining your own creativity than you can be examining the world through instruments – and here is exquisite irony, for you create the instruments of creativity, even while at the same time you often spout theories that deny to man all but the most mechanical of reactions.
In other terms, the world comes to know itself, to discover itself, for the Planner left room for divine surprise, and the plan was nowhere foreordained; nor is there anywhere, within it anything that corresponds to your survival-of-the-fittest theories.
These are creative distortions on your part, directly related to specializations of consciousness that cut you off from the greater concourse existing at other levels between the species and the land. Again, consciousness everywhere pervades the universe, and is aware of all conditions. The balance of nature upon your planet is no chance occurrence, but the result of constant, instant computations on the part of each most minute consciousness, whether it forms part of a rock, a person, an animal, a plant. Each invisibly “holds space together”, whatever its station. This is a cooperative venture. Your own consciousness has its particular unique qualities, in that like other comparatively long-lived species, you associate your identity with your form far more rigidly. Other kinds of consciousness “leap in and out of forms” with greatest leeway. There is a biological understanding that exists, for example, when one animal kills another one for food. The consciousness of the prey leaves its body under the impetus of a kind of stimulus unknown to you.
I want to be very careful here, for I am speaking of natural interplay among the animals. This is not anywhere meant to justify the cruel slaughtering of animals by man under many circumstances.
The historical and cultural world as you know it appears to be the only one objective world, of course, with its history already written, its present, and hopefully its probable future.
It seems also that the future must be built upon that one known species or world past. Often it may simply sound like a figure of speech when I talk about probabilities. In many ways it may indeed appear to be almost outrageous to consider the possibility that “there is more than one earth”, or that there are many earths, each similar enough to be recognizable, yet each different in the most vital respects.
This particular house exists. Yet you may open the door on any given day to a probable world from your immediate standpoint, and never know the difference. This happens all the time, and I mean all the time.
You move through probabilities without knowing it. The transitions are literally invisible to you, though they may appear as trace elements in your dreams. As a diamond has many facets, so does your reality in that regard.
(To Rob:) Since your birth a probability has occurred that you could have followed in which your wars did not happen. There is another probability in which the Second World War ended in nuclear destruction, and you did not enter that one either. You chose “this” probable reality in order to ask certain questions about the nature of man – seeing him where he wavered equally between creativity and destruction, knowledge and ignorance; but a point that contained potentials for the most auspicious kinds of development, in your eyes. The same applies to Ruburt.
In a way, man is trans-species at this point in probability. It is a time and a probability in which every bit of help is needed, and your talents, abilities, and prejudices made you both uniquely fitted for such a drama. At the same time, do not dwell too much upon that world situation, for a concentration upon your own nature and upon the physical nature of your world – the seasons, and so forth – allows you to refresh your own energy, and frees you to take advantage of that clear vision that is so necessary.
You each also became involved in this probability precisely to use it as a creative stimulus that would make you seek for a certain kind of understanding. There is always a creative give-and-take between the individual and his world. To some extent or another each of those involved in this probability chose it for their own reasons. Saying this, however, I also say that many leave this probability for another when they have learned and contributed.
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Home Spiritism Fundamentals
Fundamentals PDF Print
From the original "Get to Know Spiritism,
a new era for Humanity" by CEI (International Spiritist Council)
Fundamental Points:
* God is the supreme intelligence and primary cause of all things. God is eternal, immutable, unique, omnipotent, supremely just and good.
* The Universe is a creation of God. It encompasses all beings, whether they be rational or irrational, animate or inanimate, material or immaterial.
* Beyond the physical world, which is the habitation of incarnate Spirits (Mankind), there exists the spiritual world which is the habitation of discarnate Spirits.
* All the Laws of Nature are divine laws because God is their author. These Laws cover both the laws of physics and the moral laws.
* Man is an incarnate Spirit in a material body. The perispirit is a semi-material body which unites the Spirit to the material body.
* Spirits are the intelligent Beings of creation. They constitute the World of the Spirits, which pre-exists and survives everything.
* All Spirits are created simple and ignorant. They gradually evolve intellectually and morally, so passing from an inferior order to more elevated levels, till they finally reach perfection where they will enjoy constant happiness.
* All Spirits preserve their individuality, before, during and after each incarnation.
* Spirits reincarnate as many times as becomes necessary in order to achieve their own perfection.
* The different corporeal existences of the Spirit are always progressive and never regressive. The rapidity of their progress, both intellectually and morally, depends upon the degree of effort made towards betterment.
* Spirits pertain to various orders, according to the degree of perfection they have attained at any one time: Pure Spirits, who have attained maximum perfection; Good Spirits, whose desire towards goodness predominates; Imperfect Spirits, who are characterized by ignorance, by their desires towards evil and by their inferior passions.
* The relationship of Spirits with Man is constant and has always existed. The Good Spirits do their best to lead us towards goodness and uphold us during our trials, helping us to support them with courage and resignation. Whereas the Imperfect Spirits try to incite us towards evil.
* Jesus is the guide and model for all Humanity. The Doctrine which he taught and exemplified is the most pure expression of God's Laws.
* The morality of Christ, contained in the Bible, is the indisputable itinerary towards progress for all mankind, and its practice is the solution for all human problems.
* Man has free-will so as to act, but must respond for the consequences of his actions.
* The future life reserves penalties or compensations compatible and in accordance with Man's behavior while incarnate, as to whether or not God's Laws were respected.
* Prayer is an act of adoration towards God. It is contained within Natural Law, being the result of an innate sentiment of Man, just as the idea of the existence of a Creator is also innate in Man.
* Prayer helps Man to become better. Those who pray with fervour and confidence find themselves to be stronger against the temptations of evil, and God sends them Good Spirits to assist them. This is help that is never denied to those who ask with true sincerity.
"To be born, to die, to be reborn again and to always progress, that is the Law."
"Unshakable faith is only that which can face reason in all human epochs."
"Without charity there is no salvation."
Copyright © 2018 Allan Kardec Spiritism Group New Zealand. All Rights Reserved.
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Tuesday, 25 November 2008
To boldly go.
Something weird happened yesterday. Either I had my radiotherapy planning appointment or I was abducted by aliens. And no, for once I'm not talking about one of my trippy dreams. (Although, while we're onto trippy dreams, I had a corker the other night. All the cats in the neighbourhood were having a mini civil-war-style dispute and Sgt Pepper – being the highest-ranked in the local cat army – decided that the only way forward would be to get a human involved. So she woke me up in the middle of the night, wearing glasses for some reason, and asked me – yes, asked me – to come out into the garden and help her sort out the feline feud. Turns out, I'm quite the peacemaker.)
But back to the weird. (Well, weirder.) For an actually-pretty-serious hospital appointment, I found this one the most entertaining yet. It was like a cross between Star Trek and the 'Cartman Gets an Anal Probe' episode of South Park. Except instead of a satellite up my arse, I've been left with three very questionable-looking tattoos on my chest. I'd tell you that they're preferable to an anal probe but actually I'm not so sure, given that I now look like someone's been playing dot-to-dot in my cleavage with a blue biro. The rest of the planning appointment was much more space-age, thankfully. You gown up and lie topless on a black leather bed (not as S&M as it sounds, I assure you) in the middle of a huge, futuristic room that looks like it ought to be a recording studio on the Starship Enterprise. Then the radiographer versions of Captain Kirk and Uhura come out from behind the mixing desk to press buttons on a bunch of different computers that whirr around your body before fixing you into the unnatural position (again, not in a kinky way) that you've got to stay in for the next 50 minutes, and for each subsequent radiotherapy session. And who'd have thought that years of cheesy discos could prepare you for such an event? Because, until the end of January, for 20 minutes every weekday, you'll be able to find me on a hospital bed doing a stationary version of the YMCA. Actually it's more like the YM. Y with the left arm, M with the right. (And it's a good job; I've always found C and A to be the trickier parts of the dance.)
So there you are, like a spare member of the Village People, unable to laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of the situation because the Enterprise crew have warned you not to move. And considering the intricate, no-margin-for-error measuring they're having to do to make sure the rays will always target the right area, I guess it's fair enough. It was all rulers, angles and trigonometry, with all kinds of crew members looking serious, shouting out numbers and talking to each other in a complicated, technical language (Klingon, perhaps?). Now don't get me wrong, they're very lovely, but the radiotherapy staff are completely different to the chemo crowd. The 'therapy' part of each treatment kids you into thinking that the two must somehow be linked, when actually they're at opposite ends of the cancer stratosphere. In chemo, you can have a bit of a giggle with the nurses while they're hooking you up to your drip (the smile's soon wiped off your face by the time you get home, mind). But radiotherapy seems to be that bit more serious – more of an exact science – so joking about with the staff (while you're lying on the bed, at least) is a bit like knocking the back of Steve Davis's snooker cue when he's about to pot the black for the world championship.
Now I think about it, maybe all this business with permanent biro dots isn't actually as necessary as they'd have you believe? Maybe it's just the radiographers' concession to having a laugh in the office? Because, really, how serious can you be about a medical practice that requires you to be tattooed? If I'd known about that convenient little loophole, I could have used it as a teenager. 'Look, Mum, I know you don't approve of my body art, but I can explain. The medical community made me do it.' Not that I'd have chosen blue dots as a teenager, mind. But then, 'I heart Gary Barlow' might have sent the radiotherapy waves all skew-whiff.
Anyway, after the acid-trip of hospital appointments, we're finally all systems go for the radiotherapy to start a week on Monday. And, this Friday aside, I don't have to go back to the hospital until then. Result or what? I fear I'll get withdrawal symptoms and start showing up there out of habit, but fortunately P and I are taking our chance to escape for a few days and are heading up to the cold weather of the Lakes so I can test out the head-warming capabilities of my wig. (Sgt Pepper's staying with my folks. Dad revealed on the phone last night that Mum's planning to 'spoil that cat so much she won't want to go back home'. Consider yourself rumbled, Ma.) And get this – before our mini-break, I'm even getting the chance to dust off my gladrags to go to an awards do with work. I know! An actual night out! (Is it just me, or are things beginning to look up?) Thankfully there's still one dress in my wardrobe I can fit into. Quite a busty little number, as it goes. I'm secretly hoping someone will pull me to one side and say, 'Excuse me, love, you've got a biro mark in your cleavage.'
Saturday, 22 November 2008
I got my head checked.
Well, I've done it. I've crossed the line. Turned to the dark side. I am now a woman in therapy. Actually, they don't call it 'therapy' at my hospital. It's 'counselling'. But since I'm not fond of either of those words, I'm going to call it Brain Training instead. A bit like on the Nintendo DS, but they don't make you do maths, count syllables or draw kangaroos.
And what are you supposed to wear to your Brain Training debut? What kind of outfit is chic but cancer-comfy, straight-talking but not straight-laced and shows personality but doesn't scream crazy? (A polo neck/floral dress/black opaques/flat boots combo, apparently.) And when you get there, are you supposed to smile at your counsellor – sorry, Brain Trainer – or look sullen and traumatised? Are you allowed to make jokes? Is it okay to cry? Clearly, I went into this with very little knowledge of therapy. The little I do know I've learned from Tony Soprano, and I'm not convinced he's the best example of how to act. (Actually I've watched so much Sopranos this week that I had to stop myself asking for Dr Melfi at reception.)
Even after Thursday's session, I'm still not sure how much I know about therapy. But now, at least, I don't think it really matters. Because what is there to know, other than whether or not you like it, and whether or not you think it can do you any good? As it goes, I'm sold already. Not that I wasn't trying to talk myself out of it in the waiting room, mind. At that point, the slightest excuse would have done: I was having a bad wig day, I didn't have any tissues, my chipped nails would give the wrong impression. In the end I took my mind off doing a runner by reading the posters in the waiting room and, just as I spotted one calling for patients to judge a poetry competition and not-so-surreptitiously balanced on my chair to take a photo of the contact details (ie, just as I reached new lows of spoddy and uncool), in walked my counsellor. Let's call him Mr Marbles, since it's his job to find them.
Mr Marbles steadfastly ignored my pleasantries about what kind of week he'd had as we walked along the oddly familiar corridor to his office (can you call it an office if it's got a coffee table instead of a desk, table lamps instead of strip lighting, a box of tissues and a cushion on the chair?). My corridor-induced déja vu suddenly made sense when I heard the instantly recognisable sound of Crap FM coming from the cupboard-like room several doors down. A sneaky look as I walked by left me surprised to discover that the figure in there, surrounded by boxes of grey syrups and tapping their feet to Destiny's Child, was not, in fact, Wig Man, but an equally bored-looking and lacking-in-job-satisfaction Wig Woman. I giggled on my way into the Brain Training room, then stopped when I realised it might make me look too jovial and unworthy of free NHS therapy.
And then – at the risk of depriving you of the good stuff – the next thing I knew it was 50 minutes later, I had a handful of crumpled tissues, redder eyes than I went in with and was listening to Mr Marbles read out the notes he'd written throughout the seemingly lightning-speed session. By heck, you don't half get going when someone gives you the opportunity to talk about yourself. Poor sod could hardly get a peep in. When I finally gave him the chance to speak, though, every single thing he said was another word to further convince me that the Brain Training is a good idea. Just like everyone else I've encountered at the hospital, Mr Marbles is great. Again, I felt that now-familiar, wonderful, uber-professional mix of total understanding and a means-business determination to help. He's sensible and serious, but not to the point of being unable to crack a smile (particularly at mention of my keeping-occupied-by-adopting-a-kitten tactic and the 'can't come out, I'm washing my hair' gag. I'll say it again: why do I always turn into such a goon when I'm around medical professionals?). He puts you at immediate ease, doesn't pass judgement and never lets his face give away what he's thinking. Plus he wears corduroy slacks. Of course he wears corduroy slacks. I'd have been disappointed if he didn't wear corduroy slacks.
Despite my initial 'go ahead, therapise me' attitude (a bit like sitting in a comedy club, arms folded, thinking 'come on then, funny boy, make me laugh'), I was very quick to open up to Mr Marbles. Maybe it was the firm handshake, the reassuring voice, or the fact that he didn't once tilt his head or treat me like a sympathy-worthy cancer patient. Either way, I started the session with ruler-straight posture and my handbag perched on my lap (clearly I wanted him to meet me and my Marc Jacobs) and ended it with casually crossed legs and my spine comfortably moulded to the back of the chair.
We spoke about survival instincts and concerns and expectations and outlooks and fears. I talked endlessly, sobbed and apologised a fair bit. He nodded, scribbled notes in an orange file and revealed that the best-known way to feel instantly better is to make sure your husband buys you a pair of Louboutins. (He also identified humour as one of my coping strategies. I fear it's more sarcasm.) The whole coping-strategy shiz is a funny one, though. Not least because the words 'coping strategy' sound like something David Brent would say. But, semantics aside, I reckon that, in a roundabout way, I'd already realised that I had a few coping strategies up my sleeve. I'd just been calling them 'projects', is all. (Yep, we're back to the old blogging/baking/kitten equation.)
Naturally, that conversation backed me into a better-tell-him-about-the-blog corner. And so I did. I told him how often I posted, the kind of things I blog about, what writing it has meant to me, how it's helped my family and friends understand my experience of breast cancer and how it's made me realise that I want to keep writing, even when The Bullshit is a distant memory. (I didn't call it The Bullshit, by the way. Probably best to save the expletives until session three or four.) Mr Marbles asked how people had responded to the blog, whether I'd ever re-read it from the beginning (I haven't) and how I think it'd make me feel if I were reading, as opposed to writing, it. I started to worry that he'd ask for the web address, too, but (a) I'm sure that'd be against some sort of Counsellor's Code and (b) after spending all day listening to people's neuroses, the last thing he'll want to do when he gets home is read 60,000 words of the same. He's got telly to watch and wine to drink and slacks to iron. I'm still paranoid that he's on here somewhere, though, reading about the constipation and the pubes-as-eyelashes and preparing to have me committed. Shit, what if he leaves a comment? Right, I'm heading straight to my blog settings. There's a gadget that enforces background checks on anonymous commenters, right?
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Fade out.
I've been thinking more about when it is that I'll finally have my Nicole Kidman moment. You know, the punching-the-air-in-relieved-celebration thing. Not that I'm comparing having breast cancer to being married to Tom Cruise, of course. The Bullshit must be a cake-walk compared to that. But at least she had the chance to celebrate a divorce.
Whether or not it's really the conclusion, the goal I'm aiming for is getting the last bit of surgery out of the way in April – it's the time at which I'll finally begin to feel like my healthy old self again plus, the way I see it, surgery is how all of this started, so that's how it ought to finish. My breast cancer road began with the removal of my left boob, and my finish-line medal is the chance to get it back for good. Of course the reality, however, is that reconstructive surgery isn't actually the end. In fact there is no 'end' to speak of. And it's really frustrating to realise that there's never going to be a clearly defined finale to punctuate this period of my life. Especially as you know how much I like to punctuate.
If you count out the surgery, it all starts and ends so differently (and by 'ends' I mean 'fizzles out'). Life-changing and heartbreaking and terrifying and shocking and dark and disastrous as the moment is, there's a ceremony around being told that you have breast cancer. There's a sombre appointment in a specialist's office with all manner of people on hand to answer your questions, hand you a tissue and bring you a cup of tea. You make the hardest phonecalls of your life, and break the hearts of your parents. You quickly get hold of your closest friends and hurriedly sort things out with your employers. You send a hundred emails breaking the same devastating news or, in my case, kill two birds with one group email instead (I've kept the email I sent, and can't help but shake my head and laugh patronisingly at it. The ill-prepared, misinformed, cancer's-messing-with-the-wrong-girl tone makes me cringe at how stupidly ignorant I was). You get sent cards, flowers, chocolates, books, toiletries, DVDs, magazines, poems, soft toys (if cancer has an upside, surely this is it). You have a seemingly endless stream of visitors. You become the topic of conversation in the offices and pubs and kitchens and inboxes and Facebook walls that you're suddenly absent from. And it's the weirdest thing. Nothing is more disconcerting. But there's no doubting that it all marks a definite, no-question, breast-cancer-begins-here starting point.
So, by that token, isn't it only fair to have a breast-cancer-ends-here moment? A moment when you can make happier calls and send I'm-free emails and get more flowers and receive celebratory 'you beat The Bullshit' cards? Well yes, that would be fair. But we've already established that nothing about cancer is fair. Cancer is an attention-seeking, party-pooping bitch of a ruiner. It takes over. It takes your hair, your confidence, your social life, your immune system, your figure (the least it could do is make you thin, for fuck's sake), your energy, your tastebuds, your sense of smell, your sex life. And just when you think it's pissed on your chips as much as it possibly can, it takes away your chance to celebrate the end of it all.
The problem is this: once you've had cancer, no medical professional will ever say the words 'cancer free' to you. You're too much of a risk, and they'd be opening themselves up to a world of trouble if it turned out that the cancer was sneakily plotting a return, as it often does. Thus, the 'all clear' is a bit of a myth. That's why the word 'remission' comes in so handy. And so, pitifully few cancer journeys end neatly with a concern-free CT scan or a clear set of test results or a finish-it-off bit of surgery, as I'm pretending mine will. There's a lifetime of tablets, appointments, tests, scans, mammograms. And while it's hugely comforting that the NHS doesn't just spit you back out as soon as you've had the necessary treatment, it does seem like a case of once a cancer patient, always a cancer patient.
I like a clear finish, not a fade-out (it's the reason I've always preferred Please Please Me to Love Me Do). I appreciate a wrap-up; a good, old-fashioned full stop. Loose ends don't sit well with me. (About eight years ago, I failed to tie up a situation and, to this day, my subconscious is still beating me round the head about it by insisting that it often features in my dreams.) But this fade-out is, I concede, another thing that I've got no control over. I can't create a false conclusion to all this just to satisfy my need for closure. I suppose some things just aren't meant to reach a proper conclusion (hell, there's never a final episode of Coronation Street and that's never bothered me). So maybe celebrating the 'end' of The Bullshit as I've known it will be something I get to do every day, with each opportunity I have to do something simple yet emancipatory that the past miserable months haven't allowed me. I'm still determined to punctuate the passing of these strange few months, mind. But I guess the chapter will have to finish with ... instead of .
Thursday, 13 November 2008
One step beyond.
I do like an excuse for a celebration, and here's a corker for you: CHEMO IS OVER. Feel free to break into applause.
Actually, the celebrations only lasted as long as Friday evening, when P and I counted down the last milliletres of drugs running through my drip, said our emotional goodbyes to the nurses (after plying them with fairy cakes) and bid a final, fond fuck-off to the chemo room. When we got back to the car, we allowed ourselves five minutes of exhausted tears (as opposed to worried tears or downhearted tears or frightened tears – just as eskimos have their numerous types of snow, cancer patients have their numerous types of crying) before taking a detour on the way home to pick up Sgt Pepper, adding a nice full stop to the end of our chemo nightmare. (Told you I should have named her after a punctuation mark.)
But as celebrations go, that was about it. And I can't help feeling that it's all a bit lacking. Granted, I've hardly been up to raising my arms in joy since Friday; I have, inevitably, been a bit on the rubbish side (to put it mildly) and doing congas round the flat isn't all that simple when you're out-on-your-arse ill and feeling like you've been victim to a gangland kneecapping. I look like it, too. You bruise like a peach when you're on chemo and, thanks to the addition of an eager-to-clamber-up-for-a-cuddle kitten, the bruises and scratches make it look like I've spent the past week self-harming.
As rites of passage go, I appreciate that finishing my course of chemo is about as big a milestone as I'm going to achieve, and celebrating the occasion by a week (so far) of enforced illness doesn't, I'm sure you'll agree, quite hit the spot. But I wonder whether, if I were well enough, I'd be marking the occasion anyway? Because, really, how do you go about punctuating the end of the no-question worst five months of your life? Plant a tree? Unveil a plaque? Throw a party? Run naked down Oxford Street? (Which, incidentally, Lil said she'd do if I ever got a pet. Time to get your kit off, love.) Me, Busby, Tills, Weeza and the boys let off a few fireworks in the back garden the night before my final chemo, which I think was a fitting ceremony. Or at least it was until my normally-volume-challenged neighbour (the one who sat in her garden and held court about her chafing nipples all summer long) cut the festivities short by pulling out the sleeping-baby excuse. I wish I'd have been quick enough to retaliate because I'm pretty certain that, in Excuses Top Trumps, cancer beats baby.
I've questioned whether or not it's even appropriate to mark the end of a shitty few months when there are numerous other battles to take on in the probably-similarly-shitty period ahead. But I reckon a small hooray can't be out of the question – after all, what kind of joyless existence would it be if you couldn't pat yourself on the back for completing a course of potentially life-saving treatment? It's a good job I said 'small' there, given the meagre few hours of smugness chemo allowed me before turning my body to bilge and my mind to mud for the last time. Not that the tiny nature of my celebration is the only issue – I suspect that, even without the chemo-ills, I'd have been reluctant to revel for long. It's partly to do with a deviously party-pooping, sadist part of my makeup (that black eyeliner's a bitch), and partly to do with the fact that I've finally asked my consultant to refer me to a counsellor. And, me being me, I've already cut the end-of-chemo celebrations short and set to worrying about that instead, even before I've made the appointment.
Why can't I just enjoy the moment, even for a short while? Why am I so intent on peering round the corner to anticipate the next shit-pie that's hurtling towards me? Why can't I pause for a minute and bask in the glorious achievement of having seen off an almost impossibly traumatic, utterly exhausting, immune-system-destroying, tumour-killing, total motherfucker of a course of chemo? Because, God knows, now's my time to lap it up. Instead, though, I've brushed all of that aside in favour of fretting about another issue altogether, and forcing my husband to stay up til 2.30am so we can chew it over.
As you know, one of the main reasons (the main reason?) I've asked for a therapy referral (ick, that word still gives me the shudders) is that I'm worrying about the process of moving into a life of remission; specifically, a life that's very different from the one I left behind when I heard the words 'signs consistent with breast cancer'. As a quick catch-up ('previously on Alright Tit', if you will), one of my main concerns stems from the fact that, pre-Bullshit, everything for P and I was geared towards having a baby. But now, thanks to the cancer-creating effects of oestrogen on my body, everything is geared towards us not having a baby. As you'll know from previous posts, it's not as though P and I had never before been forced to consider a childless life: with a number of hormone issues, two miscarriages and a fertility history that reads like a comedy of errors, it's something we've given more thought to than most. But now, knowing that the no-kids issue is no longer an 'if', it's created another hurdle for us to negotiate, and I'm worrying about what to do next. It's time I learned to stop panicking when faced with situations that weren't part of my Grand Life Plan. Because, hell, if getting breast cancer can't teach me that it's impossible to map out your life, it looks like I need to find another way to get a kick up the arse. But, tell me, how are you supposed to communicate that kind of stuff to a therapist? 'Hi, my name's L and I'm a fret-aholic. Would you mind booting me up the jacksie?'
The no-kids issue bothers me for more reasons than never having a baby of our own, though. In all truth, I've never felt that maternal, ticking-clock urge to have kids that you read about in women's magazines. It was always more something I knew I wanted someday, and figured I ought to set about doing once I'd got married. In the same way that I always like to have a project on the go (blogging, baking, kitten... you know the way I work), having a baby would have been something else – albeit infinitely more significant – that I could happily throw myself into, like planning a wedding or moving house. (You're probably thinking that, with this attitude, I was never fit to be a parent anyway.) And so, with no kids on the horizon, what's in store for me? I'm not worried about whether or not I'll be content and fulfilled in the future – once the health stuff and the work stuff fall into place, I've got all the right ingredients in front of me (perfect husband + unbeatable family + wonderful friends = a very happy life). It's more a case of worrying that, if P and I aren't going to have kids, then what, exactly, are we going to do? What's in the Grand Life Plan now? (This, by the way, is precisely the reason nobody's ever arranged a surprise party for me – the shock of not having been involved in the planning would finish me off.) And if you think that I'm alone in this kind of introspection, think again. Because, in our 2.30am chew-over-athon, P revealed that he's been having much the same thoughts (match made in heaven or what?).
At about 1.45am, over a bag of Malteasers, it hit us that the no-kids issue isn't just going to affect us, but our friends and family too. We're in that happy stage of our lives where the people around us are endlessly announcing engagements, weddings, pregnancies and christenings, and P and I are very good at the business of being impossibly interested, enthusiastic and delighted on their behalves. Not because we're trying to be, but because we genuinely are. (Yeah, we're lovely like that. We should hire ourselves out. Rent-A-Reaction.) But what we don't want to happen, now there's no kids on the table, is for people to be anxiously anticipating how we're going to react to their news, or for them to feel they've got to water down their joy because of us. Yes, with every pregnancy that's announced there'll be a wistful window into what could have been. Yes, it's going to hurt. And yes, we'll probably shed a few tears over it behind closed doors. But we're not the kind of people who'll piss on anyone's fireworks (hear that, next-door neighbour?) with the unfortunate reality of our situation. Instead, we want to prep ourselves for the inevitable, and be ready at a moment's notice to dish out all the right hand-shakes, back-slaps, hugs and congratulations whenever they're necessary. So, in true plan-the-arse-off-it style, we set to making a mental list of all the friends and family we're expecting to announce baby news over the next few years, and in what order. Crazy it may be, but it makes us feel better for the moment. And actually, it's quite a fun game. Twenty quid says you're making the same list now.
I wish I could tell you that our worrying stopped there, at the impending few years. But you know me better than that by now, so I might as well admit to us also fretting about future dinner-party situations, when we'll have nothing to add to the birthing/childcare/latest toys/tuition fees conversations. (Sheesh, if I'm ever at a dinner party like that, shoot me.) Our point is, just as some people are defined by their children, we don't want to be defined by not having had them. We never want to hear the words 'you wouldn't understand until you'd had kids' (actually, we never want to hear them again, thank you). We don't want to be the first to leave that dinner party (probably because of the appalling conversation) and for the hosts to turn back to their table after we've walked out of the door and say, 'L and P. Lovely couple,' and then, with a faux-sympathetic, saccharine head-tilt, 'Couldn't have kids. Shame.' This, I guess, is my long-winded way of saying that we don't ever want anyone to feel sorry for us. Because there's nothing to feel sorry for. Yes, life's thrown us a few hum-dingers and no, things haven't panned out quite the way we'd expected, but that's no reason for anyone's pity. If anything, people ought to be envious. Because, while I appreciate this isn't a competition, I don't know of anybody with a happier relationship than P and I. And, kids or no kids, that's quite the lucky break.
So much for worrying about how to communicate all that to a therapist, eh? Maybe I should save myself the weekly visits and just email over my blog posts, then ask my counsellor to respond in the comments? Hang on, that's pretty much what I'm already doing, no? I think I'd better dial it down on the self-analysis. You'll be demanding an hourly rate before long.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Hero worship.
Monday, 3 November 2008
Lonely hearts club.
As I've told you before, and as more than one person has said to me this past week, I don't do things by halves. Since I began my baking mission just over a week ago, I've averaged 1.25 cakes a day. And since making the previously mentioned completely-out-of-character decision at around the same time, I've gone online-shopping-crazy and bought everything possible (and then some) to prepare myself, P and the flat for the arrival of the completely-out-of-character secret. But since I'm a bit rubbish at keeping secrets, I might as well let you in on this: tomorrow – all being well – I'm going to collect my new kitten, Sgt Pepper.
That distant thud you may have just heard is the sound of my stunned mates collectively falling off their wheelie chairs. They're all pulling themselves back up to their desks now, convincing themselves that I must be yanking their chain. But I'm not. As of tomorrow, I will be a pet owner.
I think I'd better clarify a few things. First and foremost, don't be fooled into thinking that I'm now an 'animal person'. I still think there are far more worthy charities than the local donkey sanctuary, I still especially hate dogs (sorry Ant) and I'm still going to struggle to raise an 'aah' when forced to look at pet photos. Let me say this again: I. Am. Not. An. Animal. Person. It's like that thing so many people tell me about kids: they love their own, but hate everyone else's. And that's how it's going to be with me and Sgt Pepper. She's ace. She's pretty and inquisitive and super-chilled and I'm excited to the point of losing sleep about having her come to live with us. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to feel the same way about your pet, right? Or any other animal, for that matter.
So why the sudden decision to get a kitten? In short, this being-ill-at-home lark is so bloody lonely and boring that even I, Chief Animal Hater, am getting a pet. It's largely Tills's fault. She recently gave a home to an RSPCA rescue kitten and the damn thing won me over. It was the first animal ever to show a favourable interest in me (and vice versa), and it got me thinking how great it would be to have some company while I'm spending all this time in the flat on my own. (And beyond, of course – a cat's not just for Christmas. Or cancer.) When we got home from Tills & Si's, I even found myself feeling a bit sad that there wasn't a kitten waiting for me, and P made the fatal error of saying he 'wouldn't say no' if I decided to adopt one of my own. So it's kind of his fault, too.
I didn't ought to be so apologetic about it, really. The truth is, I'm can't-stop-grinning excited about it all. The bowls and beds and litter tray and scratching post are all in position (and all complementary to the décor – sheesh, I've not changed that much), and the Sainsbury's order has been amended to include all the things a soon-to-be-spoiled kitten needs. Even Mum, Deputy Chief Animal Hater, has been sucked in and has bought Sgt Pepper a catnip dragonfly toy.
My family are equally as baffled by all of this as my friends. The last they knew of me caring for an animal was Miss Ellie, the goldfish I used to stir around in its bowl with a wooden spoon. (And before you report me to the RSPCA, I was two.) But they're all on board for this reason: already, even before bringing her home, this kitten has made me happy. Planning her arrival has been something I've cheerfully sank my teeth into, and it's taken my mind off The Bullshit in a week when I'd otherwise have been terrified about it. Like P said, 'Whatever makes you smile this much can't be a bad thing.'
I hope that's enough to explain my way out of the kitten-decision. I'd not normally feel the need to justify myself this way, but don't doubt how much this is going to baffle my mates. To them, this is such an about-turn that I fear they'll be expecting a totally different girl to walk into the pub next spring. They'll be checking my bag to see if I still carry around a pen to correct any punctuation, spelling or grammar errors I see (affirmative). Anyway, I'm hoping that the Beatles-referencing name will make them realise that, kitten aside, I'm still me. Besides, Sgt Pepper is a far better name than Apostrophe.
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Monday, 28 March 2016
Goldilocks: census your genomes
Goldilocks is a new tool written by Sam Nicholls for counting interesting properties of genomes. It's very easy to install ("pip install goldilocks") and has a detailed user manual.
So, let's have a look at GC count across each of the chromosomes of Sorghum. Sorghum is a plant that is a reasonably close relative to Miscanthus, which is extensively studied here in Aberystwyth. I downloaded the chromosome assembly of sorghum from RefSeq. Here's the plot, showing amount of GC on the y-axis and position along the chromosome on the x-axis. The 10 Sorghum chromosomes are all shown stacked up in one plot panel.
The Python code for this using Goldilocks to do this plot is as simple as:
sequence_data = {
"sorghum" : {"file": "./sorghum.fna.fai"},
g = Goldilocks(GCRatioStrategy(), sequence_data, length="500K",
stride = "1000K", is_faidx = True)
g.plot("sorghum", title="GC content of sorghum chromosomes")
The dip in GC for the centromere of each chromosome is obvious, except for chromosomes 2 and 6.
A similar but inverted pattern can be seen if we look at the number of Ns along the genome:
So, what's different about the centromeres in chromosomes 2 and 6? Why are they not so visible? Another way to spot them would be to look for a motif known to be in the centromeres. Centromeres have many repeats, and a repeat region known to be found in sorghum centromeres is CEN38. Let's choose a short motif from the sequence for CEN38, say "CCTAATG", and census that.
There's clearly plenty of this motif found in chromosomes 2 and 6, and found where we might expect a centromere to be (also lots of this motif in the centromeres of chr 3 and chr 5 too). But it's not found in all chromosomes. Could it be that CEN38 varies its sequence in the other chromosomes, and so doesn't have precisely that motif? Or that too many Ns in the other chromosomes stop CEN38 being characterised?
This is just a simple demonstration of how Golidlocks can be used to explore questions. And questions lead to more questions, and then many a happy hour can be spend browsing your genomes. Goldilocks can also be used to export details about which regions are the most interesting (hence the name: it finds regions that are "just right", for whatever your "just right" criterion might be).
Enjoy browsing your genomes! Goldilocks paper, Goldilocks docs, Goldilocks source code.
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Monday, January 16, 2012
this little word of mine (i'm gonna let it shine!)
seems like this year a lot of people are using one word to describe their new year's resolution.
the word i feel God has really been laying on my heart is love.
i wrote a post about what we're studying in our sunday school class over the next couple months here. in my study, i'm learning what dr. gary chapman believes are the seven characteristics of love: kindness, patience, forgiveness, courtesy, humility, generosity and honesty. i wrote about two of the characteristics of this tiny little word here and here. i'll try and do a post on each one as i go through the study.
we all have some form of human interaction. whether it be with our kiddos, parents, neighbors, co-workers, spouses, friends, family and even complete strangers.
i can get frustrated, impatient and upset with the family, friends and my kids sometimes. sometimes i yell when i shouldn't. sometimes i'm not showing any of the characteristics of love. but this is the year i want to be different. really different.
this year i want to be a better wife, mom, friend, neighbor, co-worker and stranger. i want to be as authentic as i can so that others can see God's love shine through me.
love is so much bigger than these four little letters give it credit for. i know i won't master all of the characteristics that it holds but i'm going to try my best to really focus on the meaning of each one and put them into practice each and every day this year.
and to help with my focus, what if i got this really cute pair of toms to wear!!
linking up with layla from the lettered cottage today
Tammy@InStitches said...
Love, what an awesome word that we all could use a little bit more of. Stopping by from Layla's.....
Jennifer Officer said...
Amanda, thanks for your comments. I am going to get that book you are doing in your class. It sounds like it would help me focus on what it means to pursue love. As you said, it is a hard word to wrap up in four letters. But, I think the TOMS would be a great reminder. May have to look into those myself. I look forward to hearing how God uses the word in your life this year.
JOYfilled Family said...
i'm here via layla's blog.
may the Good Lord be with you on every step of this journey and may your increase in love give glory to Him.
pax Christi, lena
gail said...
Thank you for stopping by to leave a comment on my "word of the year post" (yes) :)
Very inspiring post! Love! We can all use more love!
black tag diaries said...
you're right... there's so much more to that word "'love" than in those 4 little letters. such a good reminder that it is God's love that flows through me and i want to share that with those around me. so glad you stopped by my blog today... thanks for your kind words on my "waiting" post. following you now:)
Claire said...
Following you from Layla's word party-Stop by for a visit!
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Boris Akunin
Boris Akunin
Boris Akunin is the pseudonym of Grigory Chkhartishvili, a Russian writer who has also written under the pen names Anna Borisova, Anatoly Brusnikin and Akunin-Chkhartishvili. He has been compared to Gogol, Tolstoy and Arthur Conan Doyle, and his popular Erast Fandorin books have sold over eighteen million copies in Russia alone, as well as being translated into thirty languages, including English. A number of his titles have also been adapted into Russian films. Planet Water, the penultimate title in the Fandorin series, was recently published in Russia by Zakharov, while the author is currently working on the sixteenth and final novel in the series. Other works from Akunin include the Sister Pelagia series, Genre series, Cinematic series and the Nicholas Fandorin books, whose protagonist is the grandson of the famous detective, Erast Fandorin.
His latest project, The History of the Russian State, is a series comprising nine non-fiction titles and accompanying fiction counter-parts. The first two volumes, A Part of Europe and A Part of Asia and their fiction counter-parts, The Hand of Fire and Bosch and Schelm, were published in 2013 and 2014 by AST.
Akunin won the Antibooker prize for The Coronation and was named Russian Writer of the Year in 2000. In 2004, he was a member of the jury at the 26th Moscow International Film Festival.
Photo credit © A. Strunin
Follow Boris on Twitter @borisakunin
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The Clown Mouth Gang (2011)
'The Clown Mouth Gang' (O Gang da Boca à Palhaço)
2011, EUA/Portugal
realização (directed by): Jason Roberts
argumento (writen by): José Pedro Lopes
produção (produced by): Tatjana Bluchel
direcção de fotografia (cinematography by): Johnny W. Ching
co-produção (co-produced by): José Pedro Lopes
As noites de Carnaval do Porto são assombradas pelo mito urbano do Gang da Boca de Palhaço.
Uma co-produção com a produtora americana Blue Touch Productions. Será o segundo filme da série 'World of Urban Legends' que contará em cada projecto um mito urbano novo passado num país diferente.
Sinopsis (english)
Based on the urban legend of 'The Clown Mouth Gang'.
A co-production with Blue Touch Productions. This will be the second film in the series 'World of Urban Legends' that reveals a modern urban legend on each project.
-PRODUÇÃO (Pre-Production)
Relationship Status (2011)
Relationship Status (2011) - fotografia de cena 2
'Relationship Status'
2011, Portugal
argumento e realização (writen and directed by): Ana Almeida
produção (produced by): José Pedro Lopes
elenco (cast): Bárbara Magalhães
Poderá o tempo voltar para trás? Existirão fantasmas na Internet? Uma misteriosa curta para 2011.
Sinopsis (english)
Can time run backwards? Are there ghosts online? A misterious new short for 2011.
-PRODUÇÃO (Post-Production)
Imagens promocionais
Relationship Status (2011) - fotografia de cena 1 Relationship Status (2011) - fotografia de cena 5
Relationship Status (2011) - fotografia de cena 7
Exposição "Man Vampiros e Vodka"
De 7 de Novembro de 2009 até ao final do mês, no Pinguim Café, vai estar a exposição "Man Vampiros e Vodka", baseada na novela gráfica escrita e desenhada por José Pedro Lopes (argumentista de "A Noiva") com o apoio Zinemania.
Conheça mais em
Exposição "Man Vampiros e Vodka"
Conheça mais em
"A Noiva" na RTV dias 26, 29 e 31 de Julho 2009
"A Noiva" irá passar no programa REC da RTV este domingo, dia 26 de Julho de 2009, às 23h, com repetição quarta às 23h30 e sexta às 19h45. É o canal 201 da Zon TV Cabo e o 14 da Cabovisão.
'A Noiva' esta sexta no ciclo do Cineclube do Porto
'A Noiva' de Ana Almeida vai estar presente no ciclo de Março do Cineclube do Porto, a decorrer esta Sexta-Feira, dia 27 de Março de 2009, às 22h00.
A Noiva no programa americano 'Best Short Films of the World'
'A Noiva' é um dos filmes apresentados pelo programa 'Best Short Films of the World' do canal americano 'Indymogul', uma webTV 100% dedicada ao cinema.
Veja o programa no link em cima.
'The Bride' was featured in the Best Short Films of the World, a show from american webchannel 'Indymogul'.
Arquivo de críticas 'A Noiva'
Short: A Noiva (2007)
Ana Almeida revives the Gothic Horror traditions of filmmakers like Jean Rollin and Jess Franco with this chilling short. Two young lovers set out to an abandoned house by the lake, but the local legends of a murdered bride prove to be true when they are each killed by her vengeful spirit! The gloomy atmosphere and cold color palette that are set in A NOIVA give it the same dark mood as THE GRAPES OF DEATH or LIVING DEAD GIRL, with much of the same eerie imagery as well. Almeida tops off the haunting visuals with two shocking deaths as she leads the way into her down ending. Euro-Horror enthusiasts should be sure to check this one out to help support the release of the full-length feature film!
Rating: 7/10.
Carl Manes (
Fev.2011 - a propósito da exibição no Bleedfest LA
A Noiva (2006) é o título da curta-metragem (cerca de 6') que Ana Almeida realizou na zona de Entre-os-Rios, precisamente ali onde o Douro se tornou tristemente conhecido pelo temperamento inconstante e violento. A fotografia de Jorge Quintela captura perfeitamente esse temperamento sombrio e plúmbeo, puxando o espectador para o interior duriense, na peugada de Maria (Bárbara Magalhães) e Fernando (Rodrigo Santos), um jovem casal adúltero (ela tem um namorado, e não é o Fernando) que procura numa velha quinta abandonada o cenário propício à consumação carnal.
Ora, não é preciso consultar o acervo de clichés das séries Scream ou Scary Movie para saber que promiscuidade + sexo + local ermo + jovem atractiva = morte violenta. É a receita de qualquer slasher movie que tenha assombrado as telas desde que Halloween (1978) e Friday the 13th (1981) nos apresentaram Michael Myers e Jason Vorhees.
Ana Almeida e José Pedro Lopes (que assina o argumento) não deixam de seguir a fórmula, fazendo-o conscientemente e com uma piscadela de olho a David Lynch, numa citação directa de um momento iconográfico de Twin Peaks (ver foto). Não é o suficiente para distrair o espectador da escassez de argumento; a curta-metragem não chega a contar uma história, limitando-se a homenagear incontáveis sequências semelhantes de outros tantos filmes.
No entanto, funcionaria na perfeição como uma cena de um filme mais longo; a atmosfera está muito bem construída e, coisa agradavelmente surpreendente, Bárbara Magalhães e Rodrigo Santos conseguem manter uma interpretação segura e constante (apenas uma fala de Rodrigo me fez arreganhar os dentes pela pouca naturalidade). Os diálogos são naturais e realistas e nota-se na realização um flair visual para imagens ao mesmo tempo glaucas e inquietantes.
De lamentar apenas a fragilidade dos efeitos visuais gore e a curta duração, que priva a acção de um pouco mais de suspense e coerência. No geral, uma agradável surpresa que nos fará procurar futuros trabalhos desta jovem equipa. Ana Almeida realizou já uma outra curta-metragem (Uma Questão de Sangue, que não vi) onde trabalhou também com Rodrigo Santos e que é um título a procurar.
Mais informações sobre esta curta, podem ser encontradas aqui.
Resta-me agradecer ao José Pedro Lopes por me ter chamado a atenção para este filme e pela amabilidade de me ter cedido uma cópia a fim de poder escrever este pequeno texto.
Set.2007 - a propósito da exibição no Motelx
Lo acabo de ver en portugués y con subtítulos en inglés. La verdad es que está muy logrado, creo que el paisaje está bien escogido, aunque la pareja de novios... no sé, se dedican mucho a pastelear al principio y da poco pié a escenas de terror, pero bueno, todo se compensa un poco al final, que es lo que vale.
3.5 en 5
tallero (
Entrevistas - Survivalismo
Entrevista a José Pedro Lopes para a Revista AMOL a propósito da estreia de "Survivalismo" no Shortcutz Porto (2 de Janeiro 2012)
Entrevista a Ana Almeida e José Pedro Lopes para o site do festival Jennifer's Bodies Film Festival da Escócia (19 de Fevereiro 2012). Pode ler neste link.
Entrevista a José Pedro Lopes para o site cinema7arte a propósito da estreia de "Survivalismo" no Arouca Film Festival (6 de Setembro 2011)
O Cinema 7ª Arte entrevistou autor da curta-metragem “Survivalismo”, José Pedro Lopes, que terá a sua estreia mundial no Arouca Film Festival 2011, que decorrerá de 9 a 11 de Setembro, integrando a selecção oficial. Está já também confirmada a sua presença na Competição Oficial pela Melies d’Argent no Abertoir 2011 – Wales’ National Horror Festival. Uma história simples que explora questões complexas, bem filmada, promete um final forte.
A história é sobre um homem que acorda com um saco na cabeça e uma corda em torno do pescoço, ele encontra-se em cima de uma cadeira numa situação onde um movimento brusco o pode deixar enforcado. Abandonado numa cave, o que será ele capaz de fazer para sobreviver?
“Survivalismo” é um thriller psicológico que disseca os Os Cinco Estágios do Luto do Modelo de Kübler-Ross e aplica-os a um cenário de rapto e uma envolvente de mistério. Enquanto o protagonista tenta descobrir porque foi colocado numa armadilha mortal, ele vai passando pelos estágios que o levarão à salvação: da Negação à Aceitação, passando pela Cólera, a Negociação e a Depressão. O projecto “Survivalismo” surgiu como um cruzamento entre o cinema experimental e o thriller psicológico de sobrevivência que visava surpreender e jogar com as expectativas do público. No entanto, a narrativa e a situação “impossível” onde a acção começava evoluiu para uma dissecção de como lidamos com situações difícil e com a perda.
Nascido no Porto em 1982, José Pedro Lopes é jornalista, produtor de cinema e televisão. Na área da ficção o seu primeiro trabalho foi como produtor e argumentista da curta-metragem de terror “A Noiva” de Ana Almeida. Este pequeno ‘slasher’ de 2007 foi selecção de 35 festivais de cinema, tendo vencido o prémio para Melhor Curta-Metragem Estrangeira no Bleedfest Los Angeles e integrado recentemente a Viscera Film Tour.
Em 2010, produziu a comédia romântica ‘Temperar a Gosto’ de Susana Neves (Menção Honrosa no Festival Porto7) e estreou-se na realização com a curtíssima ‘O Risco’ que tem vindo a surpreender festivais pelo mundo fora no ciclo Bicycle Film Festival e é finalista do Farcume – Festival de Curtas-Metragens de Faro.
Em 2011 foi um dos fundadores da produtora Anexo 82, uma produtora que se tem vindo a especializar na cobertura de eventos de índole cultural e social, conciliando o trabalho com os projectos de ficção. A produtora foi responsável pela distribuição dos dois filmes anteriores e é a produtora de “Survivalismo” que estreia esta semana no Arouca Film Festival.
Fale-nos do processo de filmagem da curta, que câmara foi usada, as condições logísticas, etc.
“Survivalismo” foi rodada com uma equipa muito pequena e em cenários muito controlados – todo o projecto foi rodado em apenas 2 dias. A nossa aposta em termos de formato foi para uma Canon 7D porque só as câmaras DSLR permitem criar o ‘look’ irreal e saturado em que o protagonista se encontra inserido.
Existe algum motivo em especial pela abordagem deste tema (os 5 estágios do luto)? De onde surge esta ideia?
Diz-se que “escrever é reescrever”. Este é um bom exemplo. Originalmente os 5 Estágios do Modelo Kubbler-Ross não faziam parte da história: o que surgiu primeiro foi o final e o resto do filme foi-se escrevendo a si próprio. Uma base teórica como os 5 Estágio do Luto ajudaram a trazer ordem à narrativa. Se “O Risco” era o filme inesperado dos Bicycle Film Festivals, então “Survivalismo” foi escrito para ser a surpresa conscienciosa dos festivais do fantástico: é uma espécie de protesto pacífico contra o “terror de tortura” que tem vindo a dominar o género.
Foi difícil convencer o ator a participar numa curta onde passa o tempo todo de pé com uma corda ao pescoço e onde nunca mostra a cara?
Já havia trabalhado com o Ivo Bastos antes, e ele é um ator fantástico. Foi a primeira escolha porque é dos atores mais expressivos e carismáticos que conheço e isso “passa” através do saco. Creio que no final acabamos por sentir o que ele sente. Não foi nada difícil ele aceitar o papel, bem pelo contrário. Ele é ator de teatro e os atores de teatro são muito físicos e capazes de aguentar tudo: a desafio de “Survivalismo” foi para ele coisa fácil.
Qual foi o percurso da curta até agora e como tem sido a reacção do público?
Para já ainda ninguém fora dos colaboradores e alguns amigos viram o filme, por tal, ainda não tenho bem ideia. Pedi a algumas pessoas da área ‘feedback’ e tem sido geralmente positivo. É um filme-mistério com um final muito forte e creio que é isso que tem sobressaído. Parece-me que o tem visto como um filme algo atípico para uma curta-metragem.
Quais são os próximos objectivos a alcançar com a curta e em que festivais é que irá passar?
O filme vai estrear no Arouca Film Festival deste fim-de-semana (dias 9, 10 e 11 de setembro). Em Novembro, irá ser exibido no Abertoir Horror Film Festival, como parte da competição do Melies D’Argent. Em termos de objectivos é sempre difícil delinear. As curtas quase não tem mercado, portanto quando mais exibições melhor, e quanto mais longe chegarmos com o trabalho melhor. A ficção surge como uma forma de levar o nosso trabalho a sítios onde naturalmente não iríamos, e conhecermos pessoas com que possamos vir a trabalhar.
Agora mudando um pouco de assunto. Sabemos que escreveu para a Take Cinema Magazine e para a Magazine HD. Continua a colaborar com as duas revistas?
Sou colaborador do site desde os seus primórdios e da Take Cinema Magazine desde 2010. Continuo a colaborar com ambos os projectos. Paralelamente, vou escrevendo para outras fontes noticiosas.
Que planos tem para um projecto futuro? Pode revelar-nos alguma coisa?
Um dos planos que temos é adaptar o argumento “Videoclube” escrito pela Ana Almeida. É um filme bastante diferente dos outros que fizemos, é uma história “coming-of-age” passada nos final dos anos 90 e o seu argumento foi selecionado para integrar o European Short Pitch da Nisi Masa em 2011. Também temos planos de fazer uma longa-metragem já que é, infelizmente, o formato que leva o cinema ao grande público e, derradeiramente, à sustentabilidade. Temos esse projecto mas será algo que só virá quando todas as estrelas se alinharem para o tornar possível.
autoria: Tiago Resende (cinema7arte)
Entrevista a José Pedro Lopes para Streaming Film Festival (7 de Novembro 2011)
A man wakes up with a bag in his head and a rope around his neck. He is standing on a chair in a very dangerous position, where a big movement would leave him hanged. Left alone in a basement, what will he do to survive?
’Survivalismo’ is a mysterious thriller that explores the Five Stages of Grief defined by the Kübler-Ross Model and applies them to a kidnap situation and a mystery storyline. While the protagonist tries to discover why he was put in such a deadly trap, he goes through the various steps that will lead him to salvation: from Denial to Acceptance, he lives through Rage, Negotiation and Depression.
But atonement doesn’t always lead to an happy ending, and the film’s surprise finale reveals that things aren’t always what they seem.
This project began as a ’survival’ thriller that aimed to surprise the audiences through playing with their expectations. But soon its storyline evolved into a dissection on how we deal with difficult situations and with lost.
Who is José pedro Lopes?
I was writer and director for ’Survivalismo’, an experimental horror short film that takes the Five Stages of Grief defined by the Kluber Ross Model and applies them to a mysterious kidnap situation.
What is Survivalismo about?
A man wakes up in an impossible situation. He doesn’t know why or how he got there - he only knows he has no way of getting out this trap where he was put into. His only solution is to talk is way out, but he doesn’t even know if anyone is listening.
As time passes, he goes lives all the Five Stages of Grief has he has no hope of ever escaping.
How did you start with film? And do you have an educational background in art or film?
I studied film at the Septima Ars Film School in Madrid, Spain. But I’ve been making films ever since I was a kid.
Could you explain how you work, what themes or concepts you use and what is important to you?
Film is a team work from the very beginning.
I had the idea for ’Survivalismo’ watching a pitching session at a production forum. I had this idea of pitching about a short film that was very physical and intense: what If the person presenting his idea was pitching for his life?
So, in a way, the hanged man in ’Survivalismo’ is kind of "pitching" his way out of this trap. That was a start point.
’Survivalismo’ is also a twist-ending based project, and the shocking ending revelation was at the very beginning of the project and the film was built around this wrong perception of reality that this ending implies. I though that having two realities would help create a very atmosferic and visual horror film: one that would actually be an experimental piece in terms of feelings and perception.
How long do you usually work on one project?
’Survivalismo’ was a fast-project actually. I had the idea in February 2011 and the film was finished in June. But usually a short film takes about a year from conception to being done.
Do you carefully plan the production process or do you work more intuitive?
I prefer to have everything fully planned. ’Survivalismo’ was all planned when we shot it and it looks and sounds and feels exactly like what was planned.
I find that having everything plan actually helps everything else on the film to be more intuitive. As a director, I had little to worry about Photography or Production Design on set for it was all already done. It was just me and the actor, and we were able to experiment a lot in terms of acting for everything else was planned.
How does the title relate to the work, and how do you find a fitting title?
I hate coming up with titles to short films. Usually, if it has a line, this ’The Line’, if it has a bride, it’s ’The Bride’. These pre-production titles end up being the final title for people who work on the film end up liking them.
In the case of ’Survivalismo’ I made an effort not to be like this. I didn’t want the title of to neither too psychological nor horror-themed. And I actually wanted it to be a title that would kind of hide the surprise ending.
’Survivalism’ is about people who are paranoid about the end of the world, and who prepare everything to survive. My protagonist is also very eager to survive and he is about to say anything to walk out of this trap alive...
Where do you get your ideas or inspiration from?
They just come to me, like a lightning that strikes me in the head.
But I watch a lot of films, all kinds of films from all kinds of eras and countries. If you want to be a filmmaker, you have to love films and have a need to watch them.
How important is sound in film, and if you use sounds, do you create your own or use existing?
Good sound or bad sound can make or destroy a film. If you are making a lo-budget film, you can\’t fail on the sound for it\’s a first thing that turns your audience off - even more than photography. When you see a \"Found Footage\" film, they don\’t have much to look at, but the sound is always involving and you always ear everything.
As an experimental horror piece, ’Survivalismo’ is all about sound. Emanuel Gracio’s work is amazing - his soundtrack and the sounds he created are involving and evolve thought the film.
How does content relate to the form of your work?
It doesn’t. I think I should be the most professional and do my best in spite of being a better or worse content.
What possibilities of the web are yet to be explored?
In terms of film, I think the web is the most democratized place there is. Now more than ever, you can learn about alternative films and different cinematographies. There is loads of information that one could never get back in the 90s. This is amazing.
Unfortunately still, as with everything, this potential isn’t taken by users necessarily the most interesting way. Hollywood films dominate what most websites write and talk about. Silly youtube videos have billions of views versus the small crowd that actually sees full contents on other places.
Yet, this is all about the users. The internet is an amazing place, but I feel most users don’t actually take much advantage of it. That’s what we call democracy.
Did the web changed your view on art, or your career?
My first short, ’A Noiva’, was seen by over thousands of people online and I was screened publicly over 50 times thanks to all the festival and clubs I find online. I’ve met people who didn’t know me but knew my film, and that\’s always rewarding.
Where would you place your work; cinema or art. And what is the difference between those according to you?
Cinema is art. If there\’s bad cinema and bad art I’m not the one to judge.
How influential is the reaction to your film by the audience?
It\’s all about the audience.
My previous short film, ’O Risco’, has amazing reactions from live audiences for it’s a splatter comedy, with a tight pace. People laugh their heads off and always clap at the end. This makes me very happy, to see people enjoy a work I was involved in like this.
I only saw ’Survivalismo’ with an audience once, and since this is actually a very negative downbeat film, I was not surprise of the absolute silence that it was received from start to finish from an audience that had been very participative. I look forward to see it again live, to see how it works.
What is your next project about?
I’m currently producing a 90s set romantic comedy by Ana Almeida about the end of the VHS-era and the arrival of DVDs. It will be a analogical film-buff comedy - and the script is to lovely to be true.
Festival Abertoir
Entrevista a José Pedro Lopes para o site See Horror a propósito da participação de "Survivalismo" no Jennifer's Bodies Film Festival (Dezembro 2011)
What was it that first attracted you to horror?
What achievement are you most proud of?
What are you working on now?
Who do you admire in the horror world?
Do you prefer gore or psychological horror?
How important is it to unsettle a viewer?
How do you evoke fear?
What scares you?
Why should people watch your films?
To enjoy themselves. Hopefully.
How far is too far when it comes to horror cinema?
Recommend a film.
Entrevista a José Pedro Lopes para o site Mangled Matters a propósito da participação de "Survivalismo" no Jennifer's Bodies Film Festival (Janeiro 2012)
Saturday, January 21, 2012
An Interview With Director José Pedro Lopes
by Justin Hamelin
José Pedro Lopes is a journalist, writer, cartoonist and filmmaker. He's also a John Carpenter fanatic like myself. Double points.
Hailing from Portugal, Mr. Lopes wrote the short film 'A Noiva', a slasher flick, in 2007. The short was shown in over 35 film festivals across the globe and received two awards.
José cut his teeth as a director on 'O Risco', a splatter comedy that hit the film festival circuit in 2011. Critically acclaimed (4 nominations at Killer Film Festival here in the states, 2nd place at the International Cycling Film Festival in Germany), the film was shown at 15 festivals.
His latest short, 'Survivalismo', is downright awesome. Having had the pleasure of viewing and reviewing the film, I can honestly say it is one of my favorite shorts I've ever seen. It's a thinking game a la 'Saw', without all the gore. Psychological terror at it's most basic. At it's best.
With a true passion for the art of filmmaking, José founded his production company, Anexo 82, and is a real up and comer in the indie horror community.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Mr. Lopes recently and was able to pick his brain a bit on a number of subjects.
1. How did you think up the storyline for 'Survivalismo'?
I was attending a European co-production forum in Strasbourg (France) with my producer Ana Almeida. She was there to present her new short film project, so I saw all the presentations and the rehearsals by everyone there.
Inevitably, I started to think of a "pitch" of my own. How could I present a short film that would impress on a stage, speaking. And that's where this cenographic idea of a man stuck in a trap who must talk his way out came. That and the "twist ending" I idea, which I had from the start and help me to create all the story.
The Five Stage of Grief, even though have become a big part of the film, where not in the genesis of 'Survivalismo' - it was a way of creating a more dense, realistic emotional reaction to the situation.
2. Was this your first venture into psychological horror as a director?
I've always made films, ever since I was a teenager, with friends. Even then, I was very much into fantasy, sci-fi and horror.
But only in 2007 was that I started making more professional short films. I wrote and produced Ana Almeida's "A Noiva" which is a european take on the slasher genre - it picks up a lot of its imaginary to the Giallo cinema and mixes it with an asian
Last year I directed two short films that played strongly in the fantasy film circuit. One was 'Survivalismo', the other was 'O Risco' (The Line) - a 2 minute splatter comedy that plays homage to John Carpenter.
I don't see myself as much of a horror filmmaker for neither 'Survivalismo' or 'O Risco' are horror films - they're inside that vague concept of fantastic films, but they're not actually scary.
3. What attracted you to film making?
I began watching films at a very young age for my brother was a film buff. So I was watching horror movies growing up. Early on, I was watching denser, complex films. I always wanted to be a filmmaker but I was never too sure I was able of making a film. That took me actually a long time.
Every time I meet someone knew who loves films and film making (not necessarily the same thing) I feel more inspired and driven to make new films.
4. Admittedly, 'Survivalismo' hasn't fared as well in 'regular' festivals as opposed to film fests dedicated to fantasy or suspense. This surprises me. Why do you think that is?
I'm never too comfortable judging festival selections for I'm a festival programmer too and I'm always conscious that my films are not perfect and are not for all tastes.
I was expecting that 'Survivalismo' would perform better in non-fantasy festivals than it did - but at some point, submitting films becomes expensive and I end up betting on the fantasy festivals. I know them better, and I like the fan-base they bring.
When I look at festivals I can think that if 'Survivalismo' plays on a standard festival, it will reach one or two people who will like it a lot. But if it plays in horror festivals it will reach people like you who are into this kind of films.
But I would like to make a film with a broader appeal. 'Survivalismo' tried not to be a fantasy-oriented film and more a art-driven experimental film. It ended up kind of in between, I guess.
5. This being a 'thinking man's 'Saw' ', where the terror and suspense is all psychological, are you more a fan of in-your-face violence or what's-behind-the-closed-door terror?
I usually like most films I see and I get very involved while watching them. If something is suspenseful and terrifying, I'll be really hit by it. For this, I dislike unjustified, tasteless violence. I'm more into horror films that don't need violence - and the so-called 'torture porn' genre isn't for my taste at all. 'Saw' is actually a very clever, well written film. But 'Survivalismo' was kind of a art-house, experimental, non-violent approach to the 'torture porn' subject - consciously.
6. What are a few of your favorite horror films?
'Halloween' by John Carpenter is my favourite - for all of its suspense. I love 'A Nightmare on Elm Street', 'The Innocents', 'Ringu', ''Audition'... too many films. Recently, I really enjoyed 'Insidious' by James Wan and even more recently I was very surprised with 'The Innkeepers'.
7. Who are some directors you admire?
I'm a die-hard fan of John Carpenter in all of his eras. But I love lots of directors in all genres.
8. Can you update us on how many film festivals 'Survivalismo' has been in?
It has been in 16 film festivals. It's upcoming screenings with be at Jennifer's Bodies Film Festival (part of the Women in Horror Celebration Month in Scotland), Yubari Fanta International Film Festival (Japan) and Landshut International Short Film Festival (Germany) on the Deadline award competition. I'm planning of distribute it in festivals along 2012.
9. What is the horror film landscape like in Portugal?
Up until 2005, there were very few features and shorts on the horror genre. In recent year, the horror genre woke up - but mostly in short films. One of our main festivals is Motelx: Lisbon's Horror Film Festival and dozen of films are made thinking to its short film competition. I fear, though, that this "boom" can go away as suddenly as it came.
10. What projects are you currently working on?
Since making shorts is not a business, at least not for me (I accept advices on this issue haha) ,sometimes I don't have the time I want to make more films.
I'm producing "Videoclub" by Ana Almeida, the short film that was presented in Strasbourg. It's a drama set in the 90s and its a project that's very dream to me. I'm also producing a mystery short film called 'Auguste' and an horror thriller called 'Pacient EV-136'.
I've some ideas for short films but only after these projects. And I would prefer to do a feature rather than a short - I guess that's the main goal of film making.
I sincerely thank José for all of his time and enthusiasm. I look forward to more great things from Mr. Lopes and Portugal for a very long time!
Entrevistas - 'A Noiva'
1. Entrevista a Ana Almeida (A Noiva) para o festival escocês Jennifer's Bodies
Fevereiro 2011 (em inglês)
2. Entrevista para o canal LxJovem a propósito da exibição no Motelx. Setembro 2007 (video).
Entrevista a Ana Almeida para o blogue oficial do festival "Jennifer's Bodies" da Escócia (parte do evento mundial Women in Horror Celebration Month) a propósito da exibição de 'A Noiva'. O nosso filme passou no festival a 12 de Fevereiro de 2011, em estreia na Escócia.
Entrevista por Jennifer Cooper.
An Interview with Ana Isabel Almeida - Director of Short Feature - THE BRIDE
One of the short films that I am pleased to be showing at Jennifer's Bodies is Portuguese short A Noiva, or The Bride. Directed by Ana Isabel Almeida, this is an eeerie spooktacular wee short and I have to say that I'm super geeked at what brought Ana and writer José Pedro Lopes together as friends. Keep on reading to find out what... ;)
Can you remember the moment that you first decided you wanted to make movies and was it even horror related?
I can't really pin-point a moment in time, but maybe it was when I about 8 years old, and ran home from school to transform my sofa into a mining cart, while I watched "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" on the VCR.
Not really horror, but still very scary for an 8 year old!
A Noiva was written by José Pedro Lopes, how did you to meet and what gave him the idea for your short A Noiva (The Bride)?
I met José in high school, and we immediately started talking about movies, directors, the X-files... Actually, he was the first film geek I'd ever met (besides me, obviously!), so that was pretty exciting.
We've been working together ever since. We started with no-budget shorts, and "The Bride" was the first short we made with some budget.
For the Bride, the idea was to create an ominous evil presence, based a bit on typical horror slashers like "Halloween" or "Friday the 13th", but have the killer be more unearthly.
Also we wanted to prove to ourselves we could make a real horror film.
A Noiva left me wanting for more. I felt that there was so much more story to be told and that The Bride was just getting started. If given the opportunity, would you like to turn this into a feature film?
José developed the script for a feature, but then we decided to first shoot the pre-credit slaughter, and then use it as a "sample", so we could look for production funding. That's actually what "The Bride" is. A "pre-credit slaughter".
We've been post-ponning the development of the feature since 2007, because we both have very demanding "real full-time jobs".
But this year, José wrote a new short story about the same myth, which we're very excited about! We'll see how things develop ;)
I love how on IMDb it says that ‘if you liked this title then our database recommends’, and it has Carnival of Souls and James Wan’s stupidly underrated follow up to Saw, Dead Silence. What are your thoughts on this?
I think it's an automatic process, that works with taglines or something, no? eheh
Still, I get pretty excited to see the films that pop up there. I haven't seen "Carnival of Souls" but I think "Dead Silence" was great. A very moody, dark, eery film. I quite enjoyed it.
My friend Adam Barnick is making a documentary called ‘What is Scary?’ What truly scares you?
Honestly? Zombies! The whole concept of people hurting other people hurting other people hurting other people terrifies me! It's a bit of a metaphor on the real world (I don't only mean in health issues, but also political and social). It gives the chills!
What is your take on the constant flow of American remakes of foreign cinema? For example, Martyrs…it actually makes me feel sick that an attempt to remake that film is even in the works! Are there any that you have actually enjoyed and felt worked? And then the flip side, are there any that you have just downright loathed? And you can be honest, haha.
I can give you one example, that will answer both your questions: "Let Me In". I really enjoyed the original swedish "Let The Right One In". The film was perfect, flawless, original and very very scary.
The remake was also perfect, very well put together, the actors were amazing, and the directing had some very original moments, which I really enjoyed.
But, in the end, it was like watching the same film twice. For me, there was no artistic point in remaking "Let The Right One In", the problem with the film, was it's language: swedish! It makes no sense to me.
It was a big shame, because the team that worked on the remake was really good, but was limited, for the most part, to copying the original, which everyone already loved. It all seemed a big waste.
"REC" and "Quarantine" are also good examples. In this case the only change was really the language, even the production team was the same. Same movie. Really liked Jennifer Carpenter, though!
What filmmakers inspire you the most and is it wrong to think that David Lynch might be one of them? :D
I'm like a sponge, everything I see and everything read inspires me a little!
David Lynch is one of my inspirations (there's a shot on "The Bride" that's an homage to "Twin Peaks").
I also love the modern David Cronenberg, Alfonso Cuarón...I think Darren Aronofsky and Sofia Coppola are absolutely brilliant. The Coen Brothers, oh my god! I'm also very keen on Jason Reitman...
I particularly like directors that let their characters breathe and give them space to actually "live".
In an ideal dream world, who would you LOVE to work with in the future!?!?!
Edgar Wright! I have so much to learn!
What are your favourite films of all time?
This is one of the most difficult questions for me to answer. I can tell what films make me feel better when I'm sick, and that I've watched over and over again. Like for instance Edward Scissorhands, Star Wars (IV and V), Monsters Inc., Before Sunrise, Birds, Children of Men and many more I can remember right now.
Really, impossible question to answer! I'm so sorry.
And last but by far least, who are your favourite Women in Horror?
I don't know many, unfortunately, but I'd have to say Floria Sigismondi, for some of her work in photography, Mary Shelley, for being a great pioneer, and (although she isn't really a woman in horror, but for the looks of she would be great) Karen-O (from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs).
Entrevista a Ana Almeida e José Pedro Lopes (A Noiva) para o canal LxJovem a propósito do Festival Motelx
Setembro 2007
Críticas Survivalismo
Al JenningsCult of Alfie (UK) - top 3 films of Jennifer's Bodies Film Festival
A short film about a man who wakes up with a bag on his head and rope round his neck, completely disorientated and unaware of his surroundings. A nice nod too the Saw universe, the emphasis on the clock ticking in the background was enough to torture the audience as well as the character on screen. Well Produced!
Caitlyn Downs
Scared Sheepless (UK)
‘Survivalismo’ is a short film by Jose Pedro Lopes of Anexo 82 Productions (follow him on Twitter @zecopeco) shown at the Abertoir Horror Festival this year. Short films are a relatively new medium for me to review so bear with me.
The film confronts the viewer with a man in a hellish situation – he is perched on a chair, a bag around his head and a noose around his neck. He is alone in what appears to be an abandoned warehouse and throughout the course of the film must come to terms with why he is there and perhaps more importantly, does he deserve it?
The concept of the film largely concerns the man coming to terms with his situation and much of the inspiration of this is taken from the Kubler-Ross school of thought of stages of grief. The stages include denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance and all certainly play out in the film. What is really remarkable about this is that even with the short 9 minute timescale none of these stages feel rushed and all add to the intensity. The performance of the lead enhances this further and even without seeing his face you do feel a connection to him.
What begins as an individual facing his own inevitable death becomes a larger metaphor for all loss and grief. There are many times in life where we ask ‘Why me?’ and this film deals with those feelings of judgement that arise when those things happen. I won’t reveal all about this film as it is a much more interesting and shocking experience.
I am very excited about the next project from Anexo 82 Productions and you should definitely look them up and see ‘Survivalismo’ however you can. Thank you to Jose Pedro Lopes for the opportunity to review this wonderful bite-size piece of intensity.
Hayley Alice Roberts e Elliot Mcintosh
Quadramania (UK)
I was fortunate enough to have a message in my Facebook inbox one day from the exceptionally talented Mr. Lopes, asking if I'd be interested in watching and reviewing his short, 'Survivalismo'.
I had recently found out the film was selected into the 2012 Jennifer's Bodies Film Festival, which is run by one of my favorite ladies in the history of the world, Jennifer Cooper, out in Scotland. So if Ms. Cooper was enamored with it enough to add it to her film festival, I knew it was going to be something that was going to knock my socks off.
Holy shit, what an understatement.
'Survivalismo' is eight minutes and ten seconds of some of the most raw, nerve-racking emotional twists and turns I've ever experienced in a film.
Director Lopes does an unbelievable job immediately gluing your eyes to the screen and once the final credits start rolling, there's a good chance you'll realize you didn't blink at all in those 490 seconds that you just watched.
The lead character, an unnamed man whose face we never seen, awakes in a dingy basement with a burlap sack over his head and a noose around his neck. He is teetering on a chair and before long, he is also teetering on the edge of sanity- spinning through the 'five stages of grief', as defined by the Kübler-Ross Model at a break neck pace.
We find out more about this fellow in eight minutes than his best friend, girlfriend and anyone else close to him know in the lifetime they've spent together.
Does the man survive or does he succumb to his grief over the truth as he crashes through the Five Stages?
Reminiscent of the original 'Saw' in several regards, but even MORE psychologically effective, 'Survivalismo' left my jaw hanging and my blood cold when the final scene cut.
Hollywood, you've been warned- it's minds like Mr. Lopes that are keeping independent films rolling on all cylinders. Tinseltown big wigs, you could learn a thing or two (or five) from peeps like José.
JF Hunt - Creepercast
According to Jose, Survivalismo “is an experimental horror movie, based on the 5 Stages of Grief of the Kubbler-Ross Model. Designed to be the total opposite of the torture horror movies.” Knowing that, this one requires repeated viewing! At least for me, the first time I saw it the film seemed to test my patience. But when it got to the end of its eight and half minute run the payoff was so intense I needed to watch it again to truly appreciate what had brought it to that point. The lack of background music and attention to small natural sounds actually puts us into the head of the guy we are watching. We also picture his surroundings much as he does and all of those little details make it that much more creepy. As he goes through his five stages we learn more about him, and that in the end he is quiet possibly the worst friend anyone could have. Then the twist comes, which actually made my eyes pop wide open while I declared “Holy Shit!” I have no intention of ruining this one for you all so please, do what ever it takes to see it. It also comes as a horror festival surprise having been featured in some major fantastic festivals such as Yubari Fanta Film Festival, (Japan), and The Abertoir Horror Film Festival Melies D’Argent Competition (UK). I may also be able to blame it for inspiring me to write my own Kubbler-Ross related short film that will gladly share the script with anyone who wants to read. Just comment below! But this isn’t about me, it’s about Jose…
Survivalismo de José Pedro Lopes é uma interessante curta-metragem portuguesa que nos transporta para um armazém abandonado onde encontramos um homem amarrado e com uma corda ao pescoço. Desconhecendo os motivos que o levaram até àquele exacto momento, este homem que inicialmente se revolta pela sua deficiente condição, cedo a recusa apenas para nos revelar mais tarde os seus próprios porquês que a todos nos irão surpreender.
Os instantes iniciais desta curta-metragem são por um lado interessantes porque nos colocam numa situação de surpresa visto que desconhecemos o que terá levado aquele homem até ali, como também de expectativa pois aguardamos algo que nos indicie os momentos seguintes.
Se inicialmente o argumento de José Pedro Lopes consegue cativar e fazer-nos criar uma certa "empatia pela vítima" devido ao seu desespero que nos revela que quanto mais se revolta mais a corda aperta, não deixa também de ser verdade que se revela um pouco tremido quando a "vítima" finalmente se revela, numa aparente (apenas) tentativa de dar um significado àquilo que ali se passa.
É, no entanto, quando percebemos o verdadeiro espaço em que nos encontramos que todas essas explicações fazem finalmente sentido e transformam o final desta curta-metragem num interessante twist que consegue dar-lhe a credibilidade que esperamos e criar a intensidade que esperamos de um trabalho de suspense que a todos acabará por satisfazer.
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Artificial recharge of groundwater pdf
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material artificial recharge of groundwater pdf be challenged and removed.
Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. This process usually occurs in the vadose zone below plant roots and is often expressed as a flux to the water table surface.
Recharge may be impeded somewhat by human activities including paving, development, or logging. These activities can result in loss of topsoil resulting in reduced water infiltration, enhanced surface runoff and reduction in recharge. Use of groundwaters, especially for irrigation, may also lower the water tables. Groundwater recharge is an important process for sustainable groundwater management, since the volume-rate abstracted from an aquifer in the long term should be less than or equal to the volume-rate that is recharged.
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Megophrys nasuta
Geographic Range
Megophrys nasuta can be found on the forest floors of Southeast Asia, from the foothills of the Himalayas to the Indo-Australian Archipelogo (Obst et. al, 1984).
Megophrys nasuta prefer a spacious, permanently damp and relatively cool environment. Their optimal temperature is between 22 -24 degrees C. They can be found on the rain forest floors, usually near small streams ( 1996). They are known to use both land and water areas extensively (Bartlett 1996).
Physical Description
Megophrys nasuta is an animal perfectly designed to fit its surroundings. They are attractive however modestly colored. Hidden dorsally in grays, tans, russets, or browns which become darker laterally, they are almost invisible among the forest leaf litter (Bartlett 1996). Their smooth skin is modified so that they resemble dead leaves on the forest floor. A huge angular head with supraciliary projections above each eye
and nasal area, along with its cryptic coloration cause it to resemble dry leaves. Skin folds from above the eye to the tympanum and shoulders; and toes which are only webbed at the bases, also contribute to their leaf-like appearance (Obst et. al 1984). Males are often substantially smaller than females, rarely more than half their size. Females usually attain just over 5 inches (12.7cm) in length ( 1996). Using its leaf-like appearance for camouflage, Megophrys nasuta is virtually undetectable in the leaf litter of the forest floor unless it moves.
Little information is available on the natural breeding of these frogs, however captive reproduction is fairly common. They are oviparous with the females attaching the egg clusters to the underside of rocks and logs which are water swept and are partially or entirely submerged. If the eggs are attached to surfaces in water the tadpoles hatch and begin life in their aquatic habitat. However if the eggs are laid partially submerged, the eggs slide down to the water on threads of thin, gelatinous egg coverings. The eggs are large and relatively few in number (Bartlett 1996). The larvae are elongated , with a very large , funnel - shaped mouth. They cling with their mouths at the surface while their body hangs vertically. This helps them in their feeding strategy which is specialized
on microorganisms at the waters surface (Obst et. al 1984).
• Key Reproductive Features
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
Megophrys nasuta is a secretive anuran. It hides among the leaf-littered ground motionless until an unsuspecting prey item passes by. They then are explosive attackers, jumping onto the prey and immediately engulfing it. Adding to the secretive nature is their call. It is soft "Ching!" which is produced only as a single note, and stops at the slightest disturbance (Mattison 1987).
Food Habits
Megophrys nasuta is a ferocious predator. It uses it's cryptic coloration and unusual appearance to prey on a wide variety of unsuspecting animals on the forest ground. Typically they feed on arachnids, nestling rodents, lizards and other frogs (Obst et. al 1984). Aside from these usual prey items, they are also partial to crabs and scorpions, which happen to be their main source of food ( 1996).
Conservation Status
Status: no special status, however it is threatend by loss of habitat, and overexploitation by the exotic pet trade ( 1996).
Other Comments
Megophrys nasuta is a member of the superfamily Megophryid in the family Pelobatidae. This is the largest and most diverse family-level group of non-neobatrachian frogs. All megophryids for which data are available have unusually ossified intervertebral disks, and hyoid plates that lack most of the ceratohyals. For this reason there are no known fossils ( 1996). This animal is a perfect example of why scientific names are so important. This frog is known by several common names which such as, 1) Asiatic Horned Toad, 2) Malayan Horned Frog, 3) Malaysian Leaf Frog, 4) Asian Spadefoot Toad , just to name a few. Without the designation of a single scientific name it would be next to impossible to collate knowledge of this species.
Todd Mexico (author), Michigan State University, James Harding (editor), Michigan State University.
bilateral symmetry
having the capacity to move from one place to another.
Bartlett, R., P. Bartlett. 1996. Frogs, Toads and Treefrogs. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's educational series, Inc..
Mattison, C. 1987. Frogs & Toads of the World. New York, NY., Oxford, England: Facts on File Publications.
Obst, F., K. Richter, U. Jacob. 1984. Atlas of Reptiles and Amphibians for the terrarium. Neptune, City, NJ: T.F.H., Publishing, Inc..
Virtual Science Centre Project, .. 1996. "Endangered vertebrates of Singepore" (On-line). Accessed December 7, 1999 at
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