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Priority to registered donors on the waiting list for postmortal organs? A critical look at the objections. It has often been proposed to restrict access to postmortal organs to registered donors, or at least to give them priority on the waiting list. Such proposals are motivated by considerations of fairness: everyone benefits from the existence of a pool of available organs and of an organised system of distributing them and it is unfair that people who are prepared to contribute to this public good are duped by people who are not. This paper spells out this rationale and goes on to discuss the main principled objections that have been brought forward to such proposals. The most fundamental objection is that healthcare resources should be allocated in accordance with need, not with merit. The reply to this objection is that the principle of allocation according to need only holds in cases in which the provision of such resources and the fair distribution of the burdens of contribution are independently secured, as they are in an obligatory insurance system.

The bird is usually found in the Far East. Pic. Dougie Holden Hundreds of birdwatchers have flocked to a South Tyneside quarry after a bird usually found in the forests of Asia was spotted there. Twitchers from all over the country have descended on Trow Quarry in South Shields after the sighting of an eastern crowned warbler. News quickly spread on internet message boards after a photo of the bird was posted on Thursday night. The last reported European sighting of the bird was in Holland in 2007. It is believed the bird landed in the quarry after becoming disorientated for some reason. Significant sighting Birdwatcher Paul Cook, from Whitburn, near South Shields, told the BBC: "There has been nothing like this in Britain before. This is massive. "Within minutes of the discovery last night pagers were going into overdrive and my phone has never stopped since. "I would say about 300 people have been there already and I would imagine the numbers will run into the thousands come the end of the weekend." The most recent sightings of the bird in the last four years have been in Holland and Finland but it is normally a native of the Far East. Lee Evans, who runs a website called the British Birding Association, said the sighting was "significant" and that he was on his way to South Tyneside from Buckinghamshire. Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version

Inspired by President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to create a national registry for Muslims, one woman decided to start her own such database – for white men. White Male? Do your part and register yourself with the National Registry of White Males to keep our country safe. https://t.co/TiREVyT9dX — Barry Threw (@barrythrew) November 18, 2016 Going off mass murder data, let's have a registry of white male Christians. FBI: 94% of attacks were by non-Muslims. #notmypresident — Dusty Sheldon (@DustySheldon) November 19, 2016 “Forget the nation of Islam, our most immediate threat to domestic security is and always has been white, straight men,” Candace Thompson wrote in a Facebook post. “That is why I have decided to do my part as a Red Blooded Patriot by creating The White Male Registry.” Thompson was inspired to create the registry following appointments made by Trump’s transition team and talks of a registry for Muslims in the US. READ MORE: It's official: Flynn, Pompeo and Sessions in Trump's cabinet “As you may or may not know, in America 57% of reported rapes and 64% of mass shootings were committed by white men,” she wrote. “Forty-five percent of all serial killers are white men. 1 in 3 women will experience some form of domestic violence during their lifetime, and 97% of those domestic violence perpetrators were men." "According to a Newsweek article from earlier this year, Right Wing Extremists pose a greater threat to National security than ISIS, and in the past week alone The Southern Poverty Law Center has registered over 400 reports of hate crimes enacted in the name of the nationalist, racist, and sexist campaign rhetoric espoused by Donald J Trump.” A year ago, Trump said he would “certainly implement” a database to track Muslims, but, since winning the election, his communications head, Jason Miller, has claimed that the president-elect had “never advocated for any registry based on religion.” Full statement from Jason Miller re Trump and Muslim registry pic.twitter.com/38VctEk7X8 — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 18, 2016 However, Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, who is thought to be a key member of Trump’s transition team, told Reuters that the team has, in fact, discussed a proposal to create such a registry. The White Male Registry features a number of questions including, “have you ever made a derogatory comment about a marginalized group to another white male?” @ReactionaryTree That's all they need to know. pic.twitter.com/PfdAt73p39 — Kang WeWuz De Fifth (@KingWewuz5) November 18, 2016 Thompson said it has received over 700 entries so far and found that about half the respondents answered genuinely. “I’d say it’s about half and half as far as replies go,” she told the Huffington Post. “A lot of genuine responses that are humble and honest, and then a lot of hateful ones.” The registry is voluntary up until January 20, at which point Thompson says "anyone and everyone" can register men “they may personally perceive as a threat to their safety.” @ReactionaryTree@forevermatlock should prove to be a useful resource when purging traitors. I can't imagine any sane white signing up. — Goy Acuff (@GoyAcuff) November 18, 2016 As well as registering Stephen Bannon, Trump’s pick for White House chief strategist, and Jeff Sessions, the soon-to-be US attorney general, Thompson also sent a message to Trump himself after placing him on the list. “I sincerely hope that we have the chance to meet in person one day so that I can grab you by your most esteemed man-pussy,” she wrote, while cautioning “but be forewarned: once I grab it I will never, ever, ever let go.”

My Account Statistics Museo del Caribe View/Open Date Author Metadata Abstract Museo del Caribe Project arises from the intention to revalue the cultural identities of the province of Limón and present a new dynamic that allows the population to be part of the favorable development in its territory. Also, emphasize the important position in the history of our nationʼs development. It became the point of connection between our country and the resto f the world, speeding up the comercial exchanges, mainly of our Golden grain: coffee. So the museum proposes a space in which it exalts its role in Costa Rican development and its identity as a multicultural region. It is located in Barrio Corales I, a high residential area, near the historic center of Limón. The museum is shown as an important point of tourism, attracting economy and cultural Exchange in this area. Its contemporary design is shown as an example of reinterpretation of the Victorian Costa Rican architectural style. So, the identity of Caribbean cultures is captured in the design itself.

Magness Dark Brown 8 Piece Modern Dining Set There's no need to be embarrassed by that old or out-of-date dining set anymore! The Magness Contemporary Dining Set is an overachiever in both style and design. Made of sturdy hardwood with veneer, the table, sideboard, and six chairs are finished in a beautiful dark brown wenge color. The table features a striking white tempered glass inlay that reaches the entire length of the table. Each chair has a tall back with T design that mirrors the table's legs. In addition, the chairs have stylish steel inlays as an added contemporary accent and are finished with tan microfiber foam seats. The sideboard offers plentiful storage behind its three doors: 3-position adjustable height shelves allow you to customize your space. The sideboard has fiberboard backing and interior shelving. Assembly is required.

It looks like Intel‘s bid to become a major player in consumer graphics chips has ended in disaster — for now. The world’s biggest chip maker has been working for years on Larrabee, a chip with dozens of cores for processing graphics. It was the company’s major competitive thrust at Nvidia and the graphics division of Advanced Micro Devices. But the company has canceled the consumer version of Larrabee, as first reported in the SemiAccurate blog. “Larrabee silicon and software development are behind where we had hoped to be at this point in the project,” said Nick Knupffer, a spokesman for Intel in Santa Clara, Calif. “Larrabee will not be a consumer product.” In other words, it’s not entirely dead. It’s mostly dead. Instead of launching the chip in the consumer market, Intel will make it available as a software development platform for both internal and external developers. Those developers can use it to develop software that can run in high-performance computers. But Knupffer said that Intel will continue to work on stand-alone graphics chip designs. He said the company would have more to say about that in 2010. The setback will allow Nvidia and AMD to breathe sighs of relief. Intel was offering a very different architecture that would have competed with the stand-alone graphics chips that those companies make. In one manner of measurement, Intel said the performance of the initial Larrabee design for “throughput computing” applications used in supercomputers is “extremely promising.” The design drew praise and interest at the Game Developers Conference this year. Evidently, however, the consumer graphics performance was weak. Intel will still continue to make graphics components that are integrated into PC support chips known as chip sets. But those are typically not good enough to run high-end 3-D games and high-resolution videos.

However the Bulls did a good enough job throughout the season to be in the envyable position of being able to lose the final game of the season and still end at the top of the table. The Bulls have rested no less than 14 players for this game effectively giving themselves a bye. Even with those changes this is sill going to be an exciting game. I see the troll is only now appearing once the Saders made it thru to the semis. Comment 95, posted at 15.05.10 19:49:56 by wpw Welldone wpw – see you in the finals? Comment 96, posted at 15.05.10 19:57:06 by diablo @wpw (Comment 95) : agree and he must really just read what i commented @Megatron (Comment 94) : the Bulls are going to eat the Crusaders all up and then spit their bones out for next S15 eeeeaaahhhhh Comment 97, posted at 15.05.10 19:58:29 by Chaz @diablo (Comment 96) : me must say and not because me a shark but what would oh happened if the A team played against the A team but its great to see that the bulls also have hearts in the game and to see that 2 SA teams are into the SF don’t you think Sometimes I become so tired of this provicial in-fighting – people who actually would like each other going at each other’s throats as if their lives depends on it I find it soo tiring – defending my team, my heritage (Afrikander / Dutchman), but, hey, tomorrow I’ll be back out there fighting the fight BTW -, Chaz, do you and your BB son have a good ralationship, if that is not too personal a Comment 106, posted at 15.05.10 20:38:22 by diablo @diablo (Comment 106) : yes we do, but sometimes he is a real pain in the but if you know what i mean i was telling him the SF and F is in Soweto and he tells me no its only the F he is a true BB but born from a Cheetah and a big Shark but the comment is so true it make me think stimes we are all SA and our teams want to win but my word when the SA teams are in the F and not your own team its the other teams we support Comment 107, posted at 15.05.10 20:47:19 by Chaz Well i’m off Good luck to our SA teams may the SA teams next week do their best and keep the S14 cup in SA @wpw (Comment 95) : look @ this moron! I’ve been here when the saders were losing! I have a life beyond the blog fyi! Comment 111, posted at 15.05.10 23:11:40 by Megatron Sure you were! Comment 112, posted at 16.05.10 07:10:46 by wpw If the Bulls werent such big pissies, I couldve scored my 1st GSP on SB (6/7) . Glad the Stormers thrashed them though Comment 113, posted at 16.05.10 10:45:15 by JarsonX Saders have to take another long plane trip, SA to NZ and then NZ to SA again in only 2 weeks, will they make it through another Bull stampede? This might just be a Bulls vs W’tahs final. But I would love to see a Bulls vs Stormers clash, with the Stormers winning the game (by 1 point)in the dying seconds Comment 114, posted at 16.05.10 10:53:21 by JarsonX Jarson You may just be right. I have a bad feeling about facing the Tahs!

High-density MEA recordings unveil the dynamics of bursting events in Cell Cultures. High density multielectrode arrays (MEAs) based on CMOS technology (CMOS-MEAs) can simultaneously record extracellular spiking activity in neuronal cultures from 4096 closely spaced microelectrodes. This allows for a finer investigation of neuronal network activity compared to conventional MEAs with a few tens of electrodes. However, the sensing properties of these devices differ. To highlight this aspect, here we investigate and discuss the differences observed when quantifying spontaneous synchronized bursting events (SBEs) in datasets acquired with conventional MEAs and high-density MEAs from comparable hippocampal cultures. We found that datasets acquired with high-density MEAs exhibit collective dynamics similar to conventional arrays, but are characterized by a higher percentage of random spikes, i.e. spikes that are not part of a burst, most probably resulting from the larger recording capability. Additionally, the percentage of electrodes that record a burst is remarkably small on high-density MEAs compared to what can be observed on conventional MEAs and SBEs appear to be propagating in time across the electrode array, by involving shorter sequences of spikes per electrode. Overall, these results highlight a lower level of network synchronization involved in SBEs compared to what has been debated for several decades based on conventional MEA recordings from cell cultures.

Last month, Creative Assembly revealed their next project, a survival horror game based on one of the most beloved film franchises of all time. Aliens. Alien: Isolation is the product of a developer that’s unhappy with the state of AAA horror. Like many fans of the genre, myself included, they’ve noticed a growing lenience on action, as more developers try to make their games appeal to wider audiences. Creative Assembly isn’t afraid to show off Isolation. We’ve seen a fair amount of screenshots and gameplay footage already, and all of it looks remarkably similar to the film that started it all — the original Alien. It looks terrifying. We were able to chat with Gary Napper, lead designer on Alien: Isolation. We learned a lot. Read on so you can too. Interview by T. Blake Braddy, @blakebraddy How did the concept for Alien: Isolation’s story come along? Is it the sort of thing you have been kicking around for some time, or did the particulars of the plot come about after the tech demo? GN: We knew that we wanted to set the game near the first film. We have a real passion for that original design aesthetic and also the tension and fear of that original Alien. When we looked at the timeline we put ourselves in the universe and thought about the disappearance of the Nostromo. We simply asked the question: “who would be looking for it?”. Aside from Weyland-Yutani, we thought it would be the families. This led us to Amanda Ripley and the story naturally evolved from there. I’ve seen elsewhere that the crew at Creative Assembly are making an Alien game they would want to play. How does this particular franchise tie in to your design philosophy? GN: Our design philosophies at Creative Assembly revolve around creating new, believable and understandable mechanics that the player can relate to and understand easily. That approach of easy to understand, tricky to master informs a lot of what we do from our hacking interactions to the advanced design of the Alien. I think the Alien is a natural fit to this because we want to stay true to the original feel of the film, we are not creating any holographic markers or in world pointers to give you clues on the Aliens behavior. This means that all of its actions have to be understood through its behavior, sounds and animation. How has Creative Assembly’s production background affected the way people approach asking questions about the game. CA isn’t necessarily known for horror, so have people brought that up, and how do you respond? GN: Creative Assembly originally started by making sports games! So the question back then would have been, “how can a sports studio make an RTS?”. However, we are in a slightly different situation as this team is a separate team to the Total War section of the studio. A lot of us came to this studio from places like Crytek, Ubisoft, EA, Rockstar etc. to make this game. Creative Assembly also took on some seriously talented people from across the film industry. Between us we have a lot of experience and passion for this game. Most of the coverage makes a point of distinguishing between Alien and Aliens. How has that helped to clarify your vision of the game you wanted to make? GN: That distinction was something that we made right from the beginning. No one has ever really made that feeling of being hunted by the Alien. Being unprepared to deal with the creature in a strange environment and feeling total fear. This was always the goal for the game and was a clear aspiration for us. That being the case, it was always going to be Alien rather than Aliens that we took our reference from. It seems as though games like Outlast and the Amnesia games have helped horror developers move away from pure action and combat to more eerie, mood-based experiences. How has that shift affected your own perspective on moving forward with Isolation? GN: Whilst we have a similar feel, atmosphere and mood that you mention to games like that, we have a deeper gameplay with regards to the abilities of the player and also the complexity of the Alien’s systematic AI. It has been interesting to see the comparisons to games like Amnesia and Outlast and from the parts of the game we have chosen to show, it is easy to see how people would make that connection. If you look at some of the original survivor horror games that we love like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, all of them have guns or weapons so for us, having an ability to defend yourself or at least construct something useful from the environment was a must. How solitary will the gamer’s experience be? Will he or she encounter many NPCs throughout? GN: There are other threats aboard the station other than the Alien. These include civilians; not all of them are a threat though and some are just innocent survivors trying to escape. It was important to us to make the station feel lived-in and like a real place that could exist, and part of that was the inhabitants. We didn’t want to make a “run and gun” combat game where everyone was trying to kill you, but there will be the odd group of humans who are definitely not friendly towards Ripley. What survival horror games inspired you? Or, if there aren’t games that provide you with a creative direction, what moments from horror – beyond the film – make you excited about this project? GN: It is difficult to answer that on behalf of the team as we all play so many games and have a wide variety of influences. Speaking personally, I play so many different types of games it is hard to narrow one down that has inspired me. I am a huge fan of Dead Space and as mentioned, the Resident Evil and Silent hill games but I would say that probably games like the Half-Life Series, Bioshocks, Zeldas and Metroid-vanias, have been an influence at least. The idea of an alien as the lone enemy makes for an interesting concept. What are some ways you plan on maintaining tension? GN: As mentioned before, we chose to show a very small part of our game experience so that people could get to grips with the core idea of a single Alien and how that would play out. We have a very strong narrative flow to the game that is supported by some great level design and interesting world mechanics. Match this against our advanced AI systems and as a designer, you are left with a large toolset of abilities and combinations that you can introduce and balance through the games missions and levels. Can you talk a little bit about how the non-scripted, dynamic AI will work for the alien itself? What factors will affect its behavior and so forth? GN: The Alien is a systematic AI entity that has a complex set of behaviors designed around a sense system. The Alien can hear, see light and movement and is aware of multiple targets at once. His behavior is designed to take this information and react accordingly. He starts by exploring an area for any signs of movement or sounds but does not follow a prescribed path. At this point he isn’t even searching for the player, just signs of any target. When he hears or sees something, he then narrows his search to the area that he has detected something within. From then on he reacts to what he is seeing depending on the target and their actions. This of course is just his low level behavior and any more would spoil the magic! How much of the Nostromo will players be able to traverse? How linear is the path to completion, and how will the dynamic AI affect the player’s route? GN: The game is set on Sevastopol Station and the player will be able to explore every area that we have built. The Narrative flow of the game takes place in set areas but the player is free to explore the station between and sometimes during missions. Whilst the story is linear in nature, the encounters and routes are not. Each player will have different experiences because of this and this also means a lot of emergent gameplay. Other than setting traps and crafting weapons, how will players interact in meaningful ways with the world? Will there be puzzles, for example? GN: We have several world based interactions such as hacking and some other interesting mechanics but we also have world puzzles that are area based and use several mechanics together. We have power balancing and technical or mechanical puzzles but we don’t have any dungeon style pressure switches or push blocks! What other kinds of obstacles will be present, beyond the Xenomorph? GN: As mentioned above, we have other threats aboard the station and several environmental mechanics and situations to solve. Plenty to do and plenty that can kill you. How long will the single player experience be? I know that you’re not working in multiplayer, but are there plans for any sort of DLC? GN: We have found this number tricky to nail down! As the player has a lot of choice in how to play the game, we are seeing a lot if variation in the timings of playthroughs. The small demo slice of the game that we have shown has had people play it and complete it in twenty five minutes, and others spend well over an hour playing it. We are not announcing any plans for DLC currently. Is watching the film over and over again a kind of mandatory homework for anyone associated with the project? Is there a particular scene that became shorthand for the tone you wanted to achieve with this game? GN: The film is pretty much on loop on the large screens in our studio each day. I also have it on my iPad and Blu-ray versions at my desk. No one is forced to watch it but everyone does because it is so great. One of my favorite stories from the team at the moment is that one of our programmers was watching the movie on one of the big screens here, and couldn’t work out if it was the game or the film for a good minute or so. Why has the Alien franchise remained such an influential one? What, for you, demands that you make a game 35 years after the first film’s release? GN: Alien was such a huge film and has had a massive impact on horror and sci-fi. Its influence has been clear and can be seen in the visual design of things like Duncan Jones’ Moon and even games like Halo. It has been described by Danny Boyle as one of the “holy trinity of serious Sci-fi” along with 2001 and the original Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is in the top 50 movies of all time on IMDB and everyone who has seen it remembers the fear from seeing the crew face that single Alien. We wanted to make this experience simply because, we haven’t played it in any other game. Alien: Isolation arrives later this year for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.

Beta APIs updated Hey Developers, We've released a new version of both Addresses and Buildings API. This has the breaking change to standardizing to lowerCamelCase, the good news is as we've standardised now we shouldn't run into this kind of issue in the future. All new APIs will also follow the pattern of using lowerCamelCase. New Features Standardise on lowerCamelCase. Public GitHub. Basic QGIS plugin for 2.18 and 3.0. This QGIS plugin allows you to search for an address return the GNAF IDs for the most likely address results then map the Building Footprints at those address to vector layers in QGIS. We'll be slowly adding to the plugin over time, our first two additions will be the ability to enter an API key through the UI (currently its hard-coded) and a snap to the location when an address is found. As its a public repo anyone can use or submit improvements to the plugin. Improvements Better error messages when making incorrect calls with parameters. Improved monitoring, soon to be included in a public status page. Return all responses inside higher level objects and be consistent between direct URL and include parameter. Bug-Fix Status 404 instead of Status 500 when making a call to LGA for ACT (as LGA doesn't exist in the ACT).

Q: Javascript element children about function parameter Below is part of a code that makes a sideshow. What confused me is: In this case, what is the parameter "container"'s equivalent DOM node? There are bunch of elements, how does it consider <img> elements are container.children? <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title></title> </head> <body> <div id="slideshow"> <img src="https://www.kasandbox.org/programming-images/animals/birds_rainbow-lorakeets.png" alt="Rainbow lorakeets" /> <img src="https://www.kasandbox.org/programming-images/animals/butterfly.png"alt="Butterfly" /> <img src="https://www.kasandbox.org/programming-images/animals/cat.png" alt="Cat" /> <img src="https://www.kasandbox.org/programming-images/animals/crocodiles.png" alt="Crocodiles" /> <img src="https://www.kasandbox.org/programming-images/animals/fox.png" alt="Fox" /> </div> <script> var slideShow = function(container) { this.images = []; this.curImage = 0; for (i = 0; i < container.childElementCount; i++) { this.images.push(container.children[i]); this.images[i].style.display = "none"; } A: container is whatever element you pass when you call new slideShow(). In your case, it should be: var ss = new slideShow(document.getElementById('slideshow')); Then container.children is the elements that are directly nested in that DIV, which are all the <img> elements.

Prairie View USD 362 Prairie View USD 362 is a unified school district headquartered in La Cygne, Kansas, United States. The district includes the communities of Cadmus, Centerville, Fontana, La Cygne, Linn Valley, Parker, and nearby rural areas. Schools USD 362 has four schools: Prairie View High School Prairie View Middle School Parker Elementary La Cygne Elementary Sports Prairie View High School sports include baseball, boys' and girls' basketball, cross country, cheer and football, softball, track, volleyball and wrestling. See also List of unified school districts in Kansas List of high schools in Kansas Kansas State Department of Education Kansas State High School Activities Association References External links Category:School districts in Kansas

When I pronounce the word Future, the first syllable already belongs to the past. When I pronounce the word Silence, I destroy it. When I pronounce the word Nothing, I make something no nonbeing can hold. — Wislawa Szymborska A fish who has never left the water, and who for some reason can’t leap, and who has the gift of gab, might hear tell of an airy realm beyond its kingdom, but the “air” that others mention would only amount to an odd word. The fish might dismiss the word as nonsensical or it might believe it now knows of something “beyond”, which in fact it can’t know. The fish who cannot leap would not be able to picture anything but ocean unless the failure to imagine “what lies beyond” strikes it suddenly with unusual clarity. If the oddity of the word strikes the fish hard enough it might stop short in wordless uncertainty. Of course, the fish still wouldn’t be able to picture what lies beyond, but the fish would have moved into a different state of mind. The fish would find itself in a suspended state. It has made a leap, after all, but not one that transcends the ocean itself. It would transcend the vocabulary of odd words that distracted its attention from the physical reality of the ocean itself. It would stop living in its intellect, in images that are misleading. It would discover the actual meaning of water by discovering for the first time the ocean’s shockingly inescapable extent. When it stops believing it can swim beyond the ocean to reach odd and misleading words like “air” and “sky” an altogether different dimension opens up, a dimension of self-awareness. An Unrecognized Aphasia Meanwhile, people seem to be drowning in a vocabulary of odd words. We seem largely unaware of the fabricated nature of everything we “know.” We are fooled into taking things literally – taking our Selves literally. A root delusion has not yet been encountered. We only have the odd word or two to suggest this aphasia. Now and then some of these “words” may erupt as seemingly undeniable actualities. Maybe someone has a spiritual experience of God, say, that seems (in the moment) undeniable (although in retrospect, as a memory, one can’t know). Even assuming the encounter was authentic in some sense, we’d still need a more profound insight to stop short the tendency to distill the meaning of that moment into a static construct, conclusion, image or word. Into one or another facsimile of what it meant as a lived moment. And so long as these facsimiles seem relatively accurate, we usually stop bothering to notice that the word or image (no matter how accurate) communicates a different kind of meaning from the one actually encountered. Accuracy does not correspond to authenticity. The word “facsimile” doesn’t even keep us from being fooled by facsimiles. We never leap from this ocean of constructs intentionally. Because intention presumes a construct towards which we purposefully leap. Purpose keeps us construct-bound. Purpose will not help us stop short in uncertainty. It only amounts to swimming headlong towards a very persistent delusion. The delusion of trying to reach beyond the limits of thought. And I’m not suggesting we have to “know” reality as an antidote to this delusion. As if such static knowledge were possible. I’m suggesting we have to confront NOT knowing reality. Just as the fish had to know the futility of trying to imagine what lies beyond the sea. It’s not a leap past the circumstantial need to deal in constructs. It’s a leap past the compulsion to deal only in constructs. And it’s not enough to comprehend this rationally. This leap can’t happen until we recognize our peculiar aphasia more directly than we’ve ever recognized it till now. Attachment to Structures We have a contradictory relationship to imagination. For although we tend to believe that our perceptions simply report things as they actually are (and not merely as a construct), we also generally “can’t imagine” an intelligence that is not mediated by language or idea or some other construct like math or poetry. These forms of thought are widely regarded as intelligence itself. In other words, an “unsuspended” (literal) vocabulary of “odd words” is accompanied by a corresponding belief that intelligence only arises with language or other forms of expression. This encourages or necessitates a ceaseless imagination and re-imagination of oneself — an agitation of self-expression, and self-consciousness. We keep thinking of ourselves because no possibility of intelligence or meaning seems possible in the absence of self-conscious thought. This amounts to living in a dream from which we can’t awaken, because the possibility of “wakefulness” remains only an image, an odd thought, which we rarely question. And yet this unquestioned “wakefulness” is a sham that drives us on again to seek a more satisfying, real, wakefulness. Therefore we escape the sham wakefulness by dreaming yet again that we’re awake. Leaping to escape the repetition of leaping. The circularity of this trap is ensured by not questioning the odd words that entrance perception. What is Actuality? Meanwhile, my interest in writing has diminished as it became clearer that something more direct and meaningful happens outside the mediated context of language or idea or theory. In fact, outside the context of thought entirely. Obviously I haven’t rejected writing entirely. But the order of importance between Being and Constructing has begun to reverse. I don’t write to discover the actuality of Being. I come back to the page merely to adjust the structure of thought that still holds Me in thrall. Language has to put its own house in order — confronting this still-rampant over-reach into illusion. It’s hard to use the word “actuality” without succumbing to its verbal illusion of meaning. How do we even direct attention to the possibility of an unstructured, fluid intelligence? Everything I ask is inescapably filtered through the organizing system of language. So I can’t answer that question positively. Instead, I’ve tried to write things that inspire the brain to stop short long enough to find out whether or not “actuality” has any meaning beyond the word. The most language can do, it seems, is confront hidden contradictions hard enough to be suspended in uncertainty, which I call negational language. Or perhaps describe where we might find examples of lived actuality (like bees dancing directions to “real flowers in this floating world”) – which I call neutral (or artistic) language. In either case, language doesn’t provide the answer. It provides the question: Is there an unmediated intelligence — that is, a direct intelligence of the things around us that does not require language whatsoever? An intelligence that is not judgement, conclusion, idea, thought, any of it? Consider this: I don’t need to know what “bathos” means to feel it, to understand it directly. And I have somehow managed to survive all this time not knowing what the word “anagnorisis” means, but you and I have known its meaning by living it. Likewise, we don’t need to understand the word “question” in order to know what questioning feels like. My dog and cat question things all the time. You can see it in their posture, and in the lifting and lilting tone of the meow or whine. I think a question has only 2 ingredients: 1) Uncertainty; and 2) Interested alertness. The difference between a dog’s question and my own questions varies only in the direction and subtlety of our “gaze”, and in the nature of what fascinates us. Or consider this: scientists might be prone to study the act of walking – the body chemistry and mechanics of the activity. Studies of that sort add an undeniable intelligence to human life. The studies might help us heal people who have lost the ability to walk, and so forth. But it’s not necessary to have such knowledge to know what it means to simply walk. Words only direct attention to what is already known intrinsically. A real intelligence is always animal, is always felt in the bones as we move about the earth. The Necessity and Overreach of Constructs There’s no denying the necessity of constructs — of rationality, habit and language. We need them to preserve and share essential practices for survival. But habit in the preservation of identity is a mistake. The moment knowledge begins to accumulate an identity, then a viciously protective circle forms around this knowledge, the nucleus of a “me”. Then the freedom of emptiness, of dying to all the forms that we have accumulated, seems like a threat. We lose sight, then, of the world as a sand-painting. We forget to leave our heart in the emptiness underlying all forms. Then consciousness gets dominated by rational, objective, and essentially historical knowledge. Then more immediate ways of intelligently and alertly moving on the earth get crowded out, or derided as pre-conscious intelligence, as something childish or undeveloped. And so we walk around no longer heeding the body unless the movement is circumscribed by an intention within a particular time and place, because the intellect is essentially jealous. It wants to direct everything. Hence, people everywhere seem lost in knowledge of one sort or another. They cling to it. Or perhaps knowledge runs us, as Bohm might say. Is that why we no longer trust or test the rich potential that an adult mind would bring to this spontanteous and uncontrollable animal intelligence? And yet the glorification of rational thinking is really only the glorification of a very narrow bandwidth of what is still an animal intelligence. We haven’t evolved beyond the animal, and in some ways this glorification of rationality has not improved but dimmed our wits. Intelligence as Uncertainty; Uncertainty as Being Intelligence seems intimately tied to uncertainty. The habits of movement are never fully trusted by intelligence. Intelligence might be freedom from the compulsions of habit (which is not the same as an absence of habit). Intelligence might be a never-ceasing alertness to the limitations of practical, static structures. The strange thing is we can never say we absolutely KNOW that existence is real, that there is such a “thing” as actuality. Actuality is not found in any conclusive knowledge. Not found in retrospective conjecture. That is, actuality is found in being un-self-conscious, free to notice but not compelled to automatically heed the helpful examples of the past (knowledge, habit, tradition). It operates freely along with and through the body’s own knowledgeable habits (of walking, breathing, etc.). Intelligence might be said to arise the moment knowledge and habit become transparent, when their coherence and incoherence are felt in the immediacy of the act itself. Not as a reflection on the act after the fact. But proprioceptively. Therefore this intelligence is not found in an ethereal or non-physical realm. It adds light to physical existence, not by way of transcendence of the body, but by way of a deeper immersion in the subtleties of physical movement, which includes movement’s origination as intention. In other words, there is a knowing that is felt directly in one’s relationship to the world. In one’s being. It’s not an observational, external relationship, but a participatory, proprioceptive relationship to the world. This relationship is undeniable, and yet simultaneously uncertain. For the deeper our relationship to the world, the more the world changes shape and meaning. Without conclusion. […] I’m not providing direct meaning, but only removing barriers to a fuller immersion in life, which is direct, but which lies “off the page”. Everything meaningful happens between the lines, off the […]

Saudi air chief killed in #Scud attack. We must adapt this new foreign policy NOW. #ISIS 1) Where did the Houthis get the Scuds and the know-how to accurately target them? 2) Who supplied the intelligence that the Saudi air chief would be at the base? 3) Why was there only one or two Patriot batteries protecting the air base? It was obvious that 15 incoming missiles would be able to overwhelm the 4 interceptors. This should be a lesson to all those European countries that are relying on our anti-missile protection…we haven’t supplied enough protection against a barrage like this. 4) Why didn’t Saudi or US intelligence identify the Scud batteries prior to the attack? For that matter, why haven’t the identified the batteries after the attack? 5) Has the US again sided with Iran in NOT supplying the Saudi’s with enough protection and intelligence? The answer to this is obvious: we are siding with the Shia and giving lip service to our supposed allies. We should be neutral in all of this. Our interest is protecting our current and future interests. That means the destruction of ISIS and Al Qaeda because they mean to destroy us. It also means that we must protect the oil fields and shipping lanes since they are vital to the world (and our) economy. Here is what we can do: 1) We need to lay waste to every convoy and military vehicle in what used to be Iraq and Syria. That means using our strategic bombers to carpet bomb everything in the open. It means having ground observers or air intelligence for fighters to destroy individual military vehicles…tanks, AFV’s, technical, Humvees, etc. This would be done without regard to whom they belong…Iran included. 2) We should deploy enough troops to protect the oil fields from ground attacks, artillery, SCUD attacks, and air attacks. 3) We should create a network of mini-bases that will provide very rapid attack troops to kill and/or capture ISIS and Al Qaeda leaders. These would include helicopters and fighting vehicles.Special forces as well as enough regulars would defend the bases and attack company size enemy formations. They would be mobile enough to support each other should larger formations appear. 4) Rules of engagement would allow for collateral damage including civilian casualties. We should give adequate warning….ONCE… to all that these things will happen. 5) We should allow the tribes to rule their areas and fight each other as long as they don’t attack the oil files and shipping lanes. If they do attack they will be destroyed. 6) Since we have lost all credibility with the tribes, we should not enlist them…or anyone else…to help. However, any other country that shares BOTH sets of interests (this would exclude most Arab and non Arab middle eastern countries), would be welcome to help. If they do help we can help them with our own energy resources. Israel, Jordan, Japan, Australia, and Europe come to mind. 7) These rues would extend to North Africa, Sinai, and other areas where ISIS/Al Qaeda exists. 8) We would require Congress to declare war on ISIS/Al Qaeda and to lay our clearly what the Commander in Chief is authorized to do. This includes when and how to declare “mission accomplished”. 9) Congress must properly fund this new war. The funding should come from closing down unnecessary domestic prograns in order to increase the military budget. A supplemental war tax might be implemented. 10) That portion of the military budget dedicated to combating other contingencies, such as Russian and Chinese aggression, should be increased and not diverted. 11) Our national interests regarding other contingencies should be clearly articulated. Strategic planning should include all forms of warfare…economic, cyber, kinetic, covert, and space. Our national interests would include fulfilling our treaty obligations. However, we would require that our treaty partners contribute their fair share. 12) Anything the UN says or does should be ignored. This attack on the Saudis should be a wake up call. We are not immune. Were there Amerrican casualties on these bases. Will Saudi oil production be next? We must act now, before it is too late. Given that Obama won’t act, this should be a blueprint for the new President and should be implemented day one of the new administration. George From DEBKAFile Saudi air chief killed in Yemeni rebel Scud attack on Khamis Mushayt air base DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 12, 2015, 6:36 PM (IDT) The Saudi Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Muhammad bin Ahmed Al-Shaalan was killed in a Scud missile cross-border attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on the big King Khalid Air Base at Khamis Mushayt in the southwestern Asir region of Saudi Arabia, debkafile reports. The attack took place on June 6, but his death was concealed under a blanket of secrecy until Wednesday, June 10. The largest Saudi air base, it is from there that the kingdom has for last two and a half months waged its air campaign to end the Yemeni insurgency. Saudi and coalition air strikes, directed against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, their allies from the Yemeni army and from local tribes, have killed an estimated 2,000 people, some of them civilians, including women and children. debkafile’s military s

Federal officials mistakenly published confidential information on locations and descriptions of about 900 ancient cliff dwellings, spiritual structures, rock art panels and other Native American antiquities in Utah. The Bureau of Land Management posted a 77-page report online that included unique identifiers for priceless artifacts as it prepared to auction the most archaeologically rich lands ever offered for industrial use. The report exposed ruins spanning 13,000 years of Native American history to vandalism and looting, and experts say the BLM violated federal regulations that prohibit publicly sharing information about antiquities. Advertisement: The document appeared on a BLM web page before the March oil and gas lease of 51,482 acres in a remote desert region of southeastern Utah. The BLM removed it and then reposted it with entire pages of detailed site descriptions blacked out. The report appeared online the last weekend in February and remained there for at least a few days – long enough for a state agency in Utah to download it and realize it violated the state’s privacy restrictions. “That’s a big screwup,” said Paul Reed, an archaeologist with Archaeology Southwest, a nonprofit science organization based in Arizona. “If you were a pot hunter wanting to work in southeastern Utah and knew about the lease process, that would have been a gold mine for you.” Utah’s dry red rock wilderness has preserved ancient evidence of nomadic hunter-gatherers, farmers and tribes, including the Navajo, Ute and Hopi. Archaeologists in Utah have relied on BLM secrecy to protect dance circles sprinkled with shards of ancient black-on-white pottery, circular Navajo structures known as hogans and points for tools used by Paleoindians to hunt mammoths. Advertisement: The report’s appearance online unnerved Native Americans and scientists who provided the BLM with detailed reports and comments on antiquities with the understanding that they would be kept secret. “It did catch me by surprise,” said Josh Ewing, executive director forFriends of Cedar Mesa, a Bluff, Utah-based nonprofit founded by a former BLM river ranger. “They went to a level with this report that was very unusual in terms of listing site numbers and descriptions by parcel that I haven’t seen before.” [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="620"] Friends of Cedar Mesa Executive Director Josh Ewing looks at ancient ruins in Utah’s Montezuma Canyon, a culturally important site to Native Americans. After learning that the BLM posted a report briefly online exposing the locations and descriptions of hundreds of artifacts, Ewing said it caught him by surprise and that he’d never seen such details publicized before. (Credit: Steven St. John for Reveal)[/caption] Advertisement: In response to questions about how the confidential information ended up online, the BLM did not explain why the report was published. The agency “replaced the first report with (a) redacted copy of the report that removed the nature and location of archaeological sites to prevent looting and vandalism at these sites,” Nate Thomas, the BLM’s head archaeologist in Utah, said in an email to Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Advertisement: Attorneys representing Native American tribes declined to comment, citing ongoing negotiations with federal agencies on “delicate matters on a number of fronts.” The BLM’s release of confidential information occurred as its understaffed field offices are under strain from an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last year to relieve the energy industry of “regulatory burdens.” A directive from the Department of Interior urged these offices to speed auctions of public lands by truncating scientific review and comment periods. Before the BLM discovered the publishing error, Reveal downloaded a copy of the unredacted review. Its existence hasn’t been reported until now. According to the report obtained by Reveal, the 43 parcels in Utah that the BLM auctioned to oil and gas companies contain 1,282 archaeological sites and likely hundreds of undiscovered ones. Advertisement: Of those, 899 were identified by a unique combination of numbers and letters known as a “Smithsonian trinomial,” which catalogs each relic or building by the state and county where it is located. The mistakenly released report didn’t include global positioning coordinates for those sites, but it did list them by parcel numbers that corresponded with maps published on the BLM’s website. It also contained proper names of archaeological sites, types of relics, numbers of sites on each parcel and the tribes that might have built them, which indicates their age. All of that was later redacted by the BLM. The release of the report is the latest controversy in an intensifying debate about how to protect the nation’s heritage as development and tourism explode across the West. Advertisement: The BLM – which manages nearly 950 million surface and subsurface acres, primarily in 12 Western states – oversees leasing land to oil and gas companies. It’s required to ensure federal lands are available for multiple uses while also protecting cultural resources. These two responsibilities collided in the March 20 auction of lands in Utah. A Reveal investigation published in March found that the administration’s expedited move to open public lands to energy exploration puts at risk scores of ancient buildings, vessels, petroglyphs and roads. An analysis of hundreds of pages of federal documents, memos, protest letters and interviews showed the BLM expedited lease sales without analyzing all available cultural resource data. Under its regulations, the BLM must conduct environmental reviews and seek public comments before auctioning off federal land to the highest bidders. The agency also must make a “reasonable and good faith effort” to identify historic properties with the assistance of consulting parties and tribes, who say keeping the information they provide secret is paramount to protecting these sites. “Once something becomes public and is on the internet, trying to keep it a secret is a lost cause,” Ewing said. “I can think of thousands of sites I know of in San Juan County that are not public and are not known to the people and they shouldn’t be published.” Advertisement: Looters download such information and sell it. Conservationists work feverishly to get it taken down. “The internet has changed everything — now there is widespread information on sites that were completely unknown two or three years ago,” said Diane Orr, co-chairman of the conservation committee for the Utah Rock Art Research Association, a consulting party on the BLM lease sale in Utah. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="620"] Pottery shard lies on the ground in southeast Utah. (Credit: Steven St. John for Reveal)[/caption] States protect their cultural resources differently. Utah tightly restricts access. Only qualified archaeologists can access these computer systems, after receiving credentials and signing a user’s agreement with Utah’s State Historic Preservation Office. Advertisement: Attorneys for conservation organizations said that several regulations require the federal government to keep such information confidential. “The law would prohibit publicly publishing site locations and site names,” said Laura Peterson, a staff attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which was a consulting party on the March sale. Her organization and several other parties signed a memorandum of understanding with the BLM to protect such information. “When we filed a protest to this sale we had one version that was public and a second version that had more information we gave directly to archaeologists at the BLM because of confidentiality concerns,” she said. Little is understood about Ancient Puebloans, basketmakers and others who lived, worked, migrated and died on and near the auctioned lands. Several auctioned parcels are located near Hovenweep and Canyons of the Ancients national monuments. Advertisement: “There are thousands of undiscovered sites,” Hannah Russell, vice president of government affairs and research for the Utah Professional Archaeological Council, which was a consulting party to the March lease, said in an email to Reveal. Inventories exist for only 2 percent to 55 percent of the parcels the BLM auctioned in Utah’s Grand and San Juan counties. Using new technologies, scientists are beginning to understand connections between prehistoric peoples in southeastern Utah and other places in the Four Corners area. About 1,000 new archaeological sites were discovered in fiscal year 2017 alone on land the BLM oversees in Utah. “Utah sits at multiple cultural intersections in history and so there is still so much to learn,” said Russell, the principal investigator and owner at Moab-based Cottonwood Archaeology, LLC. “A useful parable for understanding what archaeologists are trying to extrapolate from the archaeological record is the one about blind men feeling an elephant.” Paradoxically, most of the sites in confidential state and BLM databases were discovered after developers or oil and gas companies hired archaeologists to survey areas prior to construction or drilling. “Archaeological locations should be kept confidential,” Russell said. “Archaeological resources are in danger of intentional and unintentional impacts from people who take from archaeological sites, loot archaeological sites, graffiti archaeological sites, or inadvertently trample, break, or touch archaeological sites and materials.”

Q: How to display images in smart device application I am developing smart device application in C#. I am able to add the images in my application by sharing the folder. I am sharing the folder by doing some setting in the emulator. In the emulator by setting File -> Configure ->shared folder, I am able to retrive the images in my application by using Bitmap(). But I want to diplay these images from my application's folder. In my application I have added one folder by using add -> New Folder. In that I kept my images. But when I add them by using Bitmap I am getting error. I am using the code System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase); to get the path of application & I am displaying the path in message box in emulator but is giving path as 'program file/managedappl'.So how to add the images from application's local folder? Is there any way? If there is only one way as I above mentioned then can my application successfully display the images on different mobile devices after deploying the application on them ? Can u provide me the code or link through which I can resolve the above issue? A: If you look in the emulator: are the image files copied to the device upon running the application? This is necessary to get things working. Then, you're using the correct code to determine the location of your program's exe file, however, you of course need to add the name of the folder that contains your images. Let's say your application's exe resides in \Program Files\managedappl and your pictures reside in a folder pics within the program's folder. Then you determine the image path with: Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase), "pics"); After that you can append the name of an image file. It is important to configure the image files in Visual Studio so they are copied to the device when running the application. If you look under "My Device" in the emulator (the mobile "Explorer"), you should see the following folder structure: \Program Files\managedappl \Program Files\managedappl\pics

NEW YORK — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday that China is facilitating the shipment of 1,000 ventilators to his state, as he continues to shop for more of the lifesaving devices ahead of a growing number of coronavirus patients who will need them. The number of people infected in the U.S. has exceeded a quarter-million, with the death toll climbing past 7,000; more than 3,500 of those deaths are in New York state. Cuomo said the ventilators from China were expected to arrive Saturday. “This is a big deal and it’s going to make a significant difference for us,” Cuomo said, adding that the state of Oregon is also sending 140 ventilators to New York. Cuomo is also looking for ventilators closer to home, and has issued an order that forces even private hospitals in the state to redistribute ventilators to the hospitals most in need. “I want this all to be over,” Cuomo said. “It’s only gone on for 30 days since our first case. It feels like an entire lifetime.” As the number of people infected has grown to more than 1.1 million worldwide, health care systems are straining under the surge of patients. In China, air raid sirens sounded across the country and flags flew at half staff in tribute Saturday to victims of the coronavirus pandemic, including the health care “martyrs” who have died fighting to save others. With the highest number of infections in Europe and their hospitals overwhelmed, Spain and Italy struggled to protect medical staff on the front lines of the outbreak, while 17 medics in Egypt’s main cancer hospital tested positive for the virus. Italy and Spain, with combined deaths of more than 25,000 and nearly a quarter-million infections, have reported a high percentage of infections among health care workers. Carlo Palermo, head of Italy’s hospital doctors’ union, fought tears as he told reporters in Rome of the physical risks and psychological trauma the outbreak is causing, noting reports that two nurses had committed suicide. “It’s a indescribable condition of stress. Unbearable,” he said. “I can understand those who look death in the eye every day, who are on the front lines, who work with someone who maybe is infected, then a few days later you see him in the ICU or die.” U.S. President Donald Trump announced late Friday he would prevent the export of N95 protective masks and surgical gloves to ensure they are available in the U.S. — prompting neighboring Canada’s prime minister to respond that cross-border aid goes well beyond supplies. “I think of the thousands of nurses who cross the bridge in Windsor to work in the Detroit medical system every day,” Justin Trudeau said. “These are things Americans rely on.” The number of people infected in the U.S. has now exceeded a quarter-million, with the death toll climbing past 7,000. New York state alone accounts for more than 2,900 dead, an increase of over 560 in just one day. Most of the dead are in New York City, where hospitals are swamped with patients. World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned African leaders of an “imminent surge” in coronavirus cases on the continent, urging them to open humanitarian corridors to allow the delivery of badly needed medical supplies. More than half of Africa’s 54 countries have closed air, land and sea borders to prevent the virus’ spread but that has delayed aid shipments. Virus cases in Africa are now over 7,700, and the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned some nations will have more than 10,000 cases by the end of April. Eleven Russian military planes carrying disinfection experts landed in Serbia on Saturday, which Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin said shows “that we are not alone.” The transport followed last month’s deployment of a similar Russian coronavirus task force to Italy and the delivery of medical supplies to the United States. Russia has reported a relatively few 4,700 cases and 43 deaths, and its southern neighbor Georgia said Saturday it has registered its first death from the virus, among 156 confirmed cases of infection. In China, where the coronavirus was first detected in December, authorities have cautiously lifted restrictions amid dropping numbers of infections. On Saturday it reported just one new confirmed case in the epicenter of Wuhan and 18 others among people arriving from abroad. There were four new deaths for an official total of 3,326. In the nationwide tribute to the victims, the government singled out the more than 3,000 health care workers who contracted COVID-19 and the 14 reported to have died from the disease. Among them was doctor Li Wenliang, who was threatened with punishment by police after publicizing news of the outbreak but has since been listed among the national “martyrs.” As the outbreak spreads in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, the news that 17 health care worker tested positive for the virus at the National Cancer Institute raised fears of what the virus might do to the country’s hospital system. Maggie Mousa, an anesthesiologist at the institute, tweeted that one of her close friends was infected. She accused top officials of negligence for not imposing restrictions after the first case was detected more than a week ago. “They refused to take any measures to protect her and isolate the institute,” she said. Spain’s Health Ministry reported 18,324 infected health workers as of Saturday, representing 15% of the total number of infections in the country. To help boost its ranks of health workers, Spain’s government said that it had hired 356 foreign health workers living in Spain. It has also hired medical and nursing students to help. After seeing commercial shipping lines break down, the government has started flying in medical supplies from China on military cargo planes. Meanwhile, local industry is shifting to producing masks, protective suits, and breathing machines. As the country completes its third week in a state of emergency, there were signs the number of new infections were slowing, but they were still high with 7,026 new cases reported overnight Saturday and 809 deaths. In Italy, more than 11,000 medical personnel have been infected — just under 10% of the official total — and some 73 doctors have died, according to the National Institutes of Health and the association of doctors. Significantly, not all the doctors were working in hospitals. Many were general practitioners or dentists, who were believed to have been exposed via respiratory droplets. Palermo, the doctors’ union head, said a key reason for the high rate among general practitioners was that flu was raging at the same time in the early part of the year. “The epidemic was superimposed on top of the normal course of influenza, which didn’t allow us to discriminate between the two,” he said. “A patient with a fever or cough or unspecific symptoms would go to his doctor … and that’s where the contagion happened.” Worldwide, confirmed infections rose past 1.1 million and deaths exceeded 60,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Experts say both greatly under-count the true number of victims because of lack of testing, mild cases that were missed and governments that are underplaying the crisis. At the same time, more than 233,000 people have recovered from the virus, which causes mild to moderate symptoms in most patients, who recover within a few weeks. ___ Forliti reported from St. Paul, Minnesota. Rising reported from Berlin. Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.

“We feel we focused too much on getting new action game fans and perhaps not enough on the fans who have supported the series for so long,” Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi said when introducing Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge.

(Reply) Oh my god I remember those. I was so underage when I first started reading them too ajdhgljsagd I distinctly remember one time when I was co-writing one with a friend, and this other guy was like "you're too young to even be reading lemons, yet alone write them". iirc they were used liberally in Ranma 1/2 fandom, alongside the term WAFF which I never ever see used anymore. Now it's just like... fluff. NOSTALGIAAAA

IDS and ISMS Group Membership July 23, 2018 The leadership of the Illinois Dermatological Society is pleased to announce a new benefit of membership in the IDS and the Chicago Dermatological Society. Following a year of planning and negotiation, dermatology will be the first specialty to take advantage of a new program that offers combined membership in the Illinois State Medical Society (ISMS) for all IDS members. Q & A Do I need to do anything extra to take advantage of this offer? No . . . All IDS members are automatically included in the ISMS group membership. IDS will pay your state medical society dues on your behalf. When does my ISMS membership begin? Although this program officially begins with the 2019 calendar year, ISMS has agreed to begin offering state medical society benefits to dermatologists in our group membership as soon as the group is activated this fall. Thus, you will have access to ISMS services this year, and throughout 2019. I'm already an ISMS member. How does this affect me? Your membership in ISMS will continue, as usual. However, as an IDS member, your dues will be paid automatically by us. You won't receive a separate invoice from the state medical society. Previously, doctors had to be a member of their county medical society in order to belong to ISMS. Is that still the case? Beginning in 2019, ISMS changed their rules so that county medical society membership is not a requirement join the state medical society. We certainly encourage doctors to participate at the county level, but you are no longer required to do so. I am an out of state member of the Chicago Dermatological Society. Am I included in the ISMS group membership? If you live/practice outside of Illinois but belong to the CDS, you will not be part of the state medical society group. And as in the past, out-of-state dermatologist participation in IDS is optional. I'm retired. Does this change anything for me? What if I have Emeritus status with ISMS; will I have to pay anything extra? No. You can continue to be a Retired or Emeritus member of IDS and CDS, and you also will be an ISMS member in the state category. Members who are retired do not pay dues to either organization. ISMS Emeritus members already do not pay state medical society dues, and that will continue. Additional Information ISMS has prepared fliers that highlights some of the benefits resulting from membership in the state medical society . . . For current ISMS members For dermatologists new to ISMS Questions? Contact the Illinois Dermatological Society if you have any questions about the dermatology group membership.

Châtenay, Ain Châtenay is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. Geography The Veyle flows north through the middle of the commune and forms part of its northern border. Population See also Communes of the Ain department Dombes References INSEE External links La Dombes and the city of Chatenay Category:Communes of Ain Category:Ain communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia

Today is a conundrum for me. A day of decision. A day that leads to the cross for many is leading to a crossroad for me. It’s Ash Wednesday, the day liturgical Christians recognize the beginning of Lent by going to church and receiving smudges of ash on their foreheads as they are reminded: “From dust thou art, to dust thou shall return.” When I was a low church Protestant kid, I was mesmerized by the Catholic and Anglican kids who came to school with smudges on their foreheads, talking about ashes and Lent and giving up things and preparing for Easter. It seemed like a deep mystery, an ancient rite. My church didn’t have any mystery and was very suspicious of rites. When I became an adult, I pursued the mystery, leaving my rite-less denomination for the smells and bells of the Roman church. My first Ash Wednesday was a really big deal. Getting smudged meant more than just “from dust to dust.” It meant I was entering Lent, which was the portico of my entrance into the church at the Easter vigil. When I would be a real legitimate member with all rights (and rites) and privileges. It was a very, very big deal. I have always loved Ash Wednesday – the start of a period of reflection, of preparing, of forgiveness, of seeking holiness and searching for truth. Now things are much different. Last year, I started to doubt the veracity of all of this, of everything I had built my life on. God. Jesus. The Bible. Salvation. The Holy Spirit. Heaven. Hell. Revelation. I stopped seeing real meaning in the things I had always loved. Smells. Bells. Liturgy. Prayers. Hymns. Rites. Communion. I didn’t choose this. I didn’t choose to lose my faith. I didn’t get angry with the church or anyone in it. I wasn’t trying to justify doing something heinous. I wasn’t being influenced by anyone to give up my faith. It just happened. For months, the thought of losing the entire foundation of my life scared me more than I can describe. Recently I stopped being afraid. It feels good. I was starting to accept my new state of being. But now I have to deal with Ash Wednesday…. This is the first Ash Wednesday in memory when I do not want to go to church. The only part I believe anymore is the part about coming from dust and returning to dust. That much is verifiable. There is a part of me that wants to give God another chance during Lent 2015. A part of me that wants to throw myself fully into the Lenten experience, to go to Ash Wednesday service and receive the reminder of my humanity on my forehead, to pray and read and study fervently, to do all the prescribed things in preparation for the celebration of Easter, to open my mind and my heart for divine inspiration in hopes that the foundation of my life will be restored. The rest of me just wants to slap a Chiquita Banana sticker on my forehead a la Penn Jillette and call it a day. So what’s it going to be? Do I go to Ash Wednesday services and pursue God one more time? Do I go just to keep up appearances while keeping my faithlessness secret and to myself? Or do I decide to be honest and admit I don’t believe in any of this anymore? The first – a last ditch effort to see if God is real or if I can overcome my disbelief – would take a lot of energy and time. I’m not sure if I even care that much anymore, but I’m willing to try one more time for the sake of my family. The second would be the easiest. Pretend. Go along. Keep up appearances. Be a creepy hypocrite, true to neither what I feign or what I am. Be a fraud. Lie. Boy, that sounds attractive… The third would be the hardest. If I admit to the world that I no longer believe, it will be hell on earth for me. I will no longer have the choice of whether to talk about it or not. It will be out there and cannot be retrieved. I will have a lot of explaining to do. I will have hundreds of people pounding me with questions and praying for me and crying over me and worrying about my eternal destination. It will impact every single relationship I have. Every. One. Maybe even to the point of loss. is it possible to wear both ashes and banana stickers? *Sigh* – I don’t think so. I don’t have long to make a decision about what I’m going to do about today. But we are out of bananas so I’m going to the store…just in case.

Tag: Social Messaging app Written by: James Powell and Shane O’Connor The sheer scale of the devastation witnessed in and around Freetown, Sierra Leone is difficult to comprehend. One early morning in August, after days of torrential rains, Sugar Loaf mountain partially collapsed and sent tons of mud and rock avalanching over houses, killing […] @UNICEFINNOVATE Tweets UNICEFinnovate Instagram About This Site This site contains a sampling of UNICEF’s Innovation initiatives, resources, media coverage, and first person posts on how UNICEF country offices are creating innovations in programme, process, partnership and product.

Today on Logan the adventures Guys were checking out and Heading out of New Delhi India already. So we're actually going on the next section H Destinations right? It's early morning. It's like 6:00 a.m Good morning Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, thank you So we're going to Doha To the uber all the way to the airport and then Airport I think it's a three-hour flight for us to Doha Qatar and then we have a transit chill day there bitter part is In disguise and not have to wait and it goes live Here we go another less I Hear part skipping the line Hey Believe it really encompassed by a second Yeah, it's quite nice having her own private boarding hall Pretty yeah bridge sorry all the other people So big big big mistake Instead of getting the tour free tour guide that's by Qatar Airways since we're flying with We walked out of immigration Into the exit and then we thought the desk was outside an airport. So of course Logically, it wouldn't be it's inside the airport so we can't do that for you, too but From the sounds of it this may be better off because now we have actual time for ourselves and we can wander around by ourselves instead of being a group of 33 people and Also, we're just gonna just take the uber to the city center and explore from there Qatar is the melting pot for locals and foreigners And Doha is a city with an awe-inspiring skyline with a whole culture spread across the city You are 40 degrees dry We are excited to check out the museum as one of the dynamic part not ready the building outside I can't actually let's go The Museum of Islamic art has been a fascination to me ever since it was built because of my obsession with architecture Rising from his purpose-built Island is shaped like a postmodern fortress with minimal windows to reduce energy use and a virtual moat It has that sandy color of Doha with a natural stone color blending into the city But standing out of the blue in the Arabian Gulf We tried walking I don't really feel I have to be sitting in air-conditioning right now And it's only about 2 euros to the next location You may be wondering why isn't there anybody or any souls at all in Qatar the Souq wave makes qatar looks like a ghost town Well, I guess midday in the middle of desert Does that this labyrinth bazaar whose name translates to standing market is a Qatari capitals? ODIs souk it's covered and passage weights are stuffed but dozens of tiny stores showcasing their wares piled high on the markets mud coats and walls Through the narrow lanes. There's everything from garments to spices perfumes to diamonds scented oils to falcons With that we snuck into a restaurant called our hanya Iraqi restaurant while Doha has a plethora of international food spots Ranging from anything you get everything go you knew that I wanted to dig into what we heard was the best lamb chops in the Gulf Sir with a generous portion of biryani rice the fresh pita bread coming out piping hot Oh and the complimentary tea was a nice way to finish lunch, too What I appreciate from just scratching the surface of Doha while this layover is so much of the cities invested in culture while Qatar and his capital is a hub for Business in the Middle East there's so many neighborhood throughout the city. That is a reaching and innovative contemporary just as authentic for a city that will continue to keep on growing throughout the contrast and timelessness Doha has been the perfect City for a layover We both never been in the Middle East before and Doha is one shimmering gem in the desert Kisum point at night the city shines like a jewel lit from a candle light amongst the many skyscrapers And Omaha Airport once again Our layover came to an end and were back full circle where we touched out you and I are flying out tonight to Saigon Vietnam The country I was born in before growing up in Canada But in the business class lounge at Doha Airport Those showers so we can clean ourselves off from the lounge before our next connecting flight This is the gorgeous shower Suites that don't know has a business cloth Pouch so you can see this point up here very beautiful design Living here are the showers Now without further ado, I'm gonna go freshen up Feeling so refreshed and cleaned up I'm ashamed and now we're going to grab some food just to help her stomach for our next flight Now it's time to board a flint decide gone Here we go in the next vlog you ridden I touch down back in Asia our first time ever in Vietnam together a whole new adventure Starts hit subscribe because you wouldn't want to miss out on the new Viet Nam series give this video like and leave a comment below

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"Subtitles brought to you by the Freeze!" "Team@ Viki" "Aish!" "Really!" "There's traffic in Gangnam no matter what time of the day it is." "It's not even noon yet." "Let's go with the siren." "Yes!" "Siren!" "Hey, wait!" "I definitely put on the siren!" "That was the limited edition!" "That was a limited edition!" "I had to wait in line for two hours to buy that!" "What is he saying?" "That it's a limited edition from Starbucks." "Why did you bring that when you were told to bring the siren?" "There is a group violence incident on Gangnam Road." "Dispatch immediately." "We're in middle of a dispatch." "We're in middle of a dispatch." "Look on the side." "Is there a way?" "There isn't any." "All of you, take out your handcuffs." "Hey, take out the handcuffs." "Take out your handcuffs!" "Move out of the way!" "It's cool." "It's cool." "What are you doing right now?" "Shut up!" "What is this?" "Hey, hey, hey!" "Move, move!" "Okay." "Let's go." "Go!" "Quickly!" "Ah, this isn't even a race..." "Over there!" "Over there!" " Oh oh.." "Bus!" "Bus!" " Stop the car, you bastard." "Get out, you bastard!" "Hey, stop the car, you bastard!" "A soju bottle!" "Save me!" "Save me!" "They're over there!" "To the right!" "Bastards!" "Don't come!" " You two, don't move!" " I said don't move!" "Hey!" "Don't move, or else I'll just..!" " Don't move either." " I'm not moving, I didn't move." "Don't even move a finger!" "Hey, hey, hey!" "Don't shoot!" "Don't!" "Hey Hey!" "Don't!" "Don't shoot!" "Put it down, put it down..." "Aish." "You as well, get down on the ground!" "On the ground!" "Aish!" "You'reAllSurrounded" "Episode2 :" "Thereasonwe'renotdetectives." "Let me go, I don't have time for this." "I just wanna go home!" "It's not even the holidays yet, and foreign students are already starting..." "What did you say?" "Detective Jo!" "Engli..." "Engli..." "Ahjussi!" "Ah, sit down." "As expected, this is what Gangnam's like, huh?" "Compared to my oppa, this oppa is a squid!" "A squid!" "Are you nuts?" "Our oppa is the best." "What are you saying?" "How dare he when he is just a "jigsaw"?" "!" "Say what?" "!" "Oppa, you're super good looking!" "Aigoo, they really don't know how to see the real man." "Hey, hey, hey." "Do your parents know you're like this?" "Oh my gosh, she must be a detective!" "Look at this oppa's eyes!" "What are you all doing?" "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "Hey, kids, quick, quick!" "Hey, enough!" "Let me change them, ok?" "Just two people." "At least to 2nd or 3rd year." "Why do you come to me for that?" "I'm not asking to change them all." "Just two of them." "The chief's office is on the right at the end of the hallway." "Ah, really, fu..." "Fu...?" "That rude bastard." "Don't you see this?" "Criminal Division Chief Cha Tae Ho" "Don't you know how to read Korean?" "Should I not work, huh?" "How can I do a crimiminal investigation with 4 newborns who can't even tell dung from soy bean paste?" "Don't you know that criminal investigation skills come absolutely from the field and experience?" "You say field, field after every word." "Fine, I'm from a border patrol." "So, did I, the border patrol, bring in the newborns?" "!" "The Superintendent brought them in!" "And, that's why I'm courteously guiding you..." "The Superintendent's office is at the end of the hallway." "Huh." "Aish..." "That uncultured bastard." "Aigoo..." "Since we were dispatched in the middle of your speech, don't you have anything else to say to the kids?" "I'm... the legendary Seo Pan Seok." "Since you applied to become detectives," "I'm certain that you have heard of me, at least once." "That's correct." "I am that Seo Pan Seok." "I don't take just anyone to raise as my underlings." "Once more, it's curiosity..." "Stop trying to get the feel of things and quickly leave." "Especially, you!" "I'm warning you." "And you...!" "This is a tractor... (word play with 'warning') Damn!" "For the sake of the Gangnam residents, and for my mental health..." "Hurry up and quit." "That's all." "You're here?" "I was going to come and greet you anyway." "When did you come back?" "You should have contacted me in advance or something." "Then I could have come to the airport..." "Your slap is killer as always." "Have you been well?" "Of course, I have." "You shouldn't be well." "I prayed so much that you'd drop dead somewhere." "Do you know why you were hit?" "Of course I know." "I'm not a complete son of a bi**t after all." "If, that day..." "It just turned out that way." "You should have just said you'd forgotten." "You're worse than a dog..." "Detective Kim!" "Come to the Missing Persons Unit within 10 minutes!" "Yes, I'll be there right away." "Captain." "That person earlier..." "She's Team Leader of the missing persons unit, right?" "What's her relationship with our team leader?" "You'll find out eventually." "Alright, then..." "Before getting started on your main task, you two, and you two." "You are partners." "Partners are one body." "You have to trust and care for each other." "Understand?" "!" "Yes!" "Yes!" "Nice to see you." "Let's do well." "Then, who wants to be the first person writing the report on that punk earlier?" "Me!" "Me, me!" "Wow." "You all are very motivated." "Assemblyman Yoo Moon Bae" "Chief Kang keeps creating an 'event'." "The first woman Senior Superintendent of Gangnam Police 'Kang Seok Soon' replaces 30% of the crime unit crew." "Has she developed a taste for publicity?" "Yes." "Welcome." "It's been a while, Section Chief Choi." "Mr. Commissioner!" "I'm sorry, Mr. Assemblyman." "No, no." "What are you saying?" "I still prefer to be called Commissioner." "I have my roots in the police, don't I?" "Let's all have a seat." "Go on." "I read the article." "You brought in new recruits after all." "Yes." "I've made the decision." "I fully understand why you're against it, but..." "All you need to do is to succeed." "A new experiment has to be successful to be called an innovation." "If it fails, it will only be thought of as overconfidence and recklessness." "Yes." "I won't speak for long." "Please make sure there will be no problem with public security in the jurisdiction." "Any talk about security breach as a result of the recruitment of new officers," "I emphasize again, should never arise." "Yes." "Is it correct, you are unemployed?" "I'm a thug." "Why were you sitting on a chair in the middle of the street?" "A contest of who has more guts." "A guts contest?" "Yes." "Who'll last longest." "In the middle of a 16 lane Gangnam street?" "For how long?" "Until someone gets hit by a car and dies?" "How can you say that?" "I had a knife held to my neck." "I'm not likely to say anything nice." "A guts contest..." "Chief, I finished tying him up." "Doing this in real life is different from practicing it in the academy, isn't it?" "It is different." "You tied it well." "Go with Dae Goo to lock him up." "Change those slippers before going." "Yes." "I will go to the restroom and be right back." "Restroom." "That knife..." "The passers-by and civil petitioners are all from Gangnam." "So, why is the building like this?" "Hey, it's totally shabby, isn't it?" "Are you naturally this quiet?" "There has to be a limit to being quiet." "If you're too quiet, think about how the person next to you would feel..." "Perhaps ..." "Haveyouseenmebefore?" "You look familiar." "I haven't." "I think I've seen you." "I think I've seen you before!" "Hey!" "Aish really!" "Grab him!" "Hey, grab him, grab him!" "Hey!" " Go park it." " Yes." "Move!" "He's over there!" "Stop there!" "Hey, stop there!" "Aren't you getting off?" "!" "Move aside." "Hey!" "You bastard!" "Bastard..." "Aigoo, this jerk." "It hurts." "Team Leader Cha, you shouldn't manage a suspect like this, huh?" "If he had driven this car outside, we'd all be in trouble." "Ahh, I really..." "You jerk!" "Ahh!" "Aish, come with me." "Don't move!" "These crazy half-wits." "A detective leaves a knife like that on a desk?" "While writing up a report with the suspect sitting in front of you at that?" "Hey, what did you learn in the police academy?" "Did you spend the whole 8 months sucking on your spoon?" "On the crime unit's desk, knife, scissors, ice picks..." "You should not leave anything that can be used as a weapon on there under any circumstances." "To prevent a possible escape, when escorting them to cells, always wear sneakers or shoes." "Didn't you learn?" "Did you not learn that?" "!" "I did!" "If you did, why did't you listen?" "Chief reiterated the instruction to change out of slippers, didn't he?" "I'm sorry." "It is true that I forgot to change out of slippers." "But I didn't place the knife there." "What?" "It really wasn't me." "It's not an excuse" "If it's not an excuse, then what is it?" "Aren't you saying now that you've done nothing wrong?" "No, it's not that..." "Since you accuse me of breaking two dishes, when I only broke one..." "I'm sorry." "Hey." "Why are you practicing the asceticism of silence, huh?" "Have you done nothing wrong?" "Having lost a suspect while taking him to the cell, why are you so proud that you have your mouth shut?" "I don't think it was only my fault." "What is this bastard saying right now?" "My fault is presuming that my partner is of an equal caliber, and not properly figuring out her lack thereof." "Also, I think you are also to blame for not properly supervising an inexperienced newbie." "Really..." "This jerk..." "From where did this freaky nutjob bastard roll in here?" "Hey, you..." "What is this nonsense?" "!" "What is this all about?" "!" "A suspect cuts off the rope and escapes?" "!" "And two police cars are smashed?" "!" "You idiotic freak bastard!" "Look at you now after being a show off all this time." "So, what are you going to do now?" "I asked, what are you going to do?" "!" "I'm sorry." "Do you think this is something that will end with a sorry?" "Resign immediately." "Someone will have to take the responsibility." "Resign!" "Section chief." "Disloyal bastard, someone who's supposed to be a partner couldn't even cover for me..." "The knife really wasn't me!" "Ah, really!" "Thanks." "Drink up refreshingly." "Ah, you're here." "Take a seat." "No, thank you." "Section Chief Cha and I spoke and decided not to make any more issue about today's matter." "Teach the kids and lead them well." "Without you, Team Leader Seo," "I can't deal with the new recruits." "Why must you try to raise newbies in the crime unit?" "I knew that you wouldn't agree to it." "You know, so" "I'll tell you everything." "I, you see ..." "I think this experiment of yours is extremely dangerous." "If we aren't careful, we might make a second Lee Dae Young." "Because Lee Dae Young took off his handcuffs and ran away, 2,500 detectives across the nation, for 16 days couldn't eat at the proper time or even go home." " We were all on 24 hour emergency duty." " Team Leader Seo." "Even so, I can take all that suffering." "Because I get paid to do that kind of work." "However, the problem is ..." "The case in 2002, where people mistakenly identified something as a weapon in Sooncheon, the 2007 Cheongwon robbery, the rampage in Yeosu Police Station in 2005, etc." "In all of these situations, mistakes resulting from inexperience, caused citizens or policemen to die." "Rookies can make mistakes, but a detective can't." "There's no "newbie" for a detective." "You can't bring back a dead person." "Even so, you had your first (experience) too." "That suffering was what made the Seo Pan Seok of today." "Chief..." "You're insulting me today." "I want to make a duplicate phone." "Creating a just society, that's what we, the police, are doing." "Law and regulations are upheld, innocent citizens are protected, and the person who works hard and put out great effort receives good fortune." "I swear to the heavens that I feel no shame (nothing to hide) when it comes to this knife." "Alright, I got it." "I'll do it." "Fingerprint analysis." "Team Leader, you are truly the example of a just society." "Inspector Seo Pan Seok" "Eun Dae Goo?" "What are you doing?" "You haven't gone home yet?" "Are you still sulking?" "I told him that I was at fault for not realizing my partner's birdbrain characteristic." "Hey!" "Even after watching the suspect's hands for the whole 15 minutes you were tying him, and being clueless about him holding a knife is worth celebrating." "You speak too recklessly." "You said that you don't like Patrol Division and that you came to the Criminal Division because of the higher pay?" "Yes, why?" "On the surface, it may look like the pay is significantly higher, due to numerous undercover and night shifts, but not only will you be lacking sleep, you'll end up spending a lot more than your pay." "You are conclusively a bird so to fulfill your duties your brain is too small." "So as a partner if I were to make a pitch as to your life, quit as soon as possible." "Hey, wait." "Wait!" "Where are you going?" "You can't just leave after saying what you want!" "Hey!" "Hold it in." "Since I made a mistake, just hold it in for today." "Seoul, Gangnam-gu, Gaepo-dong, 56-13, Apartment 307 Eun Dae Goo" "What is this?" "Okay." "Oh!" "Dae Goo, Dae Goo!" "Are you my roommate?" "Wow!" "Look, I've got goosebumps." "Wait." "Tae Il, come on out!" "Tae Il is also our roommate." "Hey, come out." "Dae Gu said he's our roommate." "This is really fascinating." "They take turns in assigning these civil servant apartments so the chances of us all being roommates together is not even 13.333%." "Hey, it's totally surprising." "Oh, that's my room..." "What to do..." "Dae Goo, Dae Goo." "Welcome me, the man you chose is the brilliant Ji Gook." "Don't talk to me." "You're tired, huh?" "If so, like this, you put out an aromatic candle" "Don't make it smell." "Right." "This could cause a headache to someone." "Don't make a sound." "Ah, really..." "Hey, this is a clock that makes low noise." "Anyway, we have our phones to check the time so..." "Don't think of using the same bed as me." "How is this the same bed as you?" "It's the same bed." "Oh, I guess it is the same bed." "Don't turn on any light." "Ah seriously!" "You stop doing, "don't do this!"" "Tae Il." "I'll use this room." "Is that okay?" "Sure." "But why?" "Dae Goo, that kid, is weird." "He's so prickly." "I'm lowercase blood type A, so if I stay with a prickly person, then I become "a cactus on a rainy day."" "Him.." "Him..." "He's definitely, blood type B" "What blood type are you?" "What blood type do you think I am?" "Can you do me a favour, Tae-Il?" "I just asked you a question, didn't I?" "But if you answer with a question, then I don't feel too good... so I'd like it if you just told me." "You're going to use the top bunk?" "Yeah..." "Uh?" "Aigoo." "I'm sorry." "I unknowingly..." "To tell you the truth, I have a fear of heights." "Sorry." "It doesn't matter." "Who you're sleeping with is more important than where you sleep." "Oh my..." "Ah..." "Ah, Tae Il you're really..." "Everything else is fine." "This candle, clock, wine and tofu; it's all fine." "This wine." "MyBoo" "It'salreadybeenthreemonthssince theincidenthadhappened , but Ga Won's Grandma still comes to the Police Station everyday." "If you don't testify, we can't get a guilty verdict." "Why did she change her mind so suddenly?" "Did you coerce her again?" "If you tenaciously convinced a person who didn't want to and put her on a witness stand , you should have kept your promise." "Yes, it's me." "I received the evidence you sent." "Detective Seo doesn't recognize me at all." "However, it bothers me that an idiot that used to live in Masan is in the same team." "Yes." "Masan Teacher Murder Case" "Have you been well?" "I'm here." "I've come." "Mom." "A new type of cougar?" "Yes." "When you dine at a restaurant with girls you hooked up at a high-class clubs, they all used their cards and after that, they lost contact with them." "They used around $1,800-$2,000 per case." "What were they eating at the restaurant?" "They ate and drank two or three bottles of the most expensive wine." "The witnesses said that the woman ordered the most expensive wine as if they planned everything." "The definitely raised the sales income." "In the 6 restaurants total, there have been 23 reports." "It's an organized restaurant part-time job." "That's what it looks like to me too." "A new type of cougar." "Ah, there's an addition of two more reports." "Tae Il, come and report." "Yes." "Fingerprint Report" "What is this?" "This is the proof that I'm innocent." "It's the fingerprint result." "That knife from yesterday didn't have my fingerprints on it." "I went and asked the NFS Team Leader." "I thought that since you don't believe me, I should at least do this to prove my innocence." "You don't have to apologize." "I didn't do this in order to get an apology." "To tell you again, I just wanted to prove my innocence." "I will work hard in the future." "Then..." "It is absolutely my fault for him wearing slippers." "I won't let it happen again." "I will really work hard in the future." "Yes." "One is an overcharge on a credit card and the other is a theft of a designer label wrist watch." "It all happened with the booking girls at Club Elis." "You did well Eo Soo Seon Looking at script of what she just told Team Leader Seo" "The watch is one hundred million won on the market." "It is a limited edition imported from overseas." "After that, they lost contact with these girls." "A total of 25 reports?" "One person who reported said that he was going to meet the booking girl at the restaurant again." "Then we should get moving." "Everyone, get moving." "Yes!" "Ah, wait, wait!" "I've only heard about the characteristics of the people in their 20's, but I actually get to see for myself here." "I heard that these days parents sign you up for courses, stand in line to register for academies, and personally call your workplace to turn in your absent form if you're sick." "You laughed a lot a few minutes ago." "Is it fun?" "Wow, just by looking at you, you're a "Gangnam kid."" "All pale skinned..." "Hey, you're doing this as a hobby, aren't you?" "You're not coming here to earn money, right?" "The clothes you're wearing probably cost two times your salary." "You, pass." "There's no need to even refer to you." "Hey, you." "you came here because you didn't want to work at the Patrol Division, right?" "So it that why you think this place is laughable?" "Are you furious to death for getting scolded over something you didn't do?" "The other day, you said the leader of Team 2 looked like a gangster and laughed, didn't you?" "That Team Leader works with his casket already in his possession ." "Three years ago, his partner" "was stabbed and died on duty." "Don't mess around." "If you want to "act" like a detective, just go to a survival game place." "You brats plastered in luxury" "For brats like you whose ID cards are still wet with ink" "A safe office is what's best for you, so rest well." "If you get tired of resting, make sure to give me your departure report on time." "Let's go." "Why do you show him that fingerprint report and make the situation worse?" "Hey!" "Your fingerprint was on the knife based on the report!" "It's you, right?" "Huh?" "It was you?" "No, it wasn't!" "I was just going to cut the binding around the seized items." "It wasn't me!" "You continue to deny it?" "I didn't say anything and protected you as a colleague." "Then you should have said it..." "It wasn't me." "Really, it's not me." "You're a complete coward, aren't you?" "You're a totally bad guy!" "Be quiet!" "Is that important now?" "It's important that Detective Seo went without us!" "Over here." "Here!" "Are you okay?" "Get her!" "She's not here." "Where did she run to?" "I ran out just after her." "Where did she go?" "Oh, there" "See?" "I told you we should bring the kids!" "Because "Detective" is written on our faces!" "There's no other way." "Now the only way left to get close to the girls is to personally go to the club." "But since our faces are known, we can't go in." "Let's trust the kids with it, huh?" "Yeah, it's nonsense." "Nonsense." "I know it is but..." "Still, not giving them a chance and leaving them behind is a bit..." "Let's leave them in a test environment." "It's been a long time since the ink dried on my ID card." "Who would ever take this job lightly when it took three painful years to obtain?" "Yes Chief." "Yes, we'll be right over." "The most important thing in an undercover investigation, first and last is the disguise." "The moment your identity is revealed, it's over." "You're to leave your gun, radio, your ID, your handcuffs." "You'll be leaving everything here ." "You must never be found out." "In particular, don't do anything that draws attention." "Especially, don't get involved in a fight." " Understand?" " Yes!" "This is the first and final chance I'm giving you guys." "If you mess up here too..." "I won't even look at your faces." "Do you understand?" "Yes!" "Do well." "Whatever you do, we need to get some information" "It's best to either confirm those gold diggers faces, orgettheirphonenumbersandplanameeting." "Understand?" "Eo Soon, visit the womens' restroom often, okay?" "Take some care in booking for us," "with pretty women." "Yes, I'll take extra special care." "Oh." "But can I get a receipt for this?" "♫ Ooh hey lala hey, watch the way she walks, ♫" "♫ Systematic, all the boys will notice, ooh hey lala she likes the filthy talk, ♫" "♫ She gets at it, do it in her Lotus, ♫" "♫ Hey, she got it." "Why can't she keep it up?" "♫" "♫ She walks around with a heart like fire." "Hey, she got it. ♫" "♫ Got it, got it, got it, got it, got, got, got, got... ♫" "♫ Hey, hey, hey, hey, het, hey, hey, hey... ♫" "Any results yet?" "Not yet." "For now I'm trying to distinguish the gold diggers." "How?" "A daring dress and flashy shoes," "It is generally the universal club wear but after watching, she can't dance properly because she's in pain." "That means she doesn't usually wear that type of shoe." "Her clothes are flashy but her nails are short and unmanicured." "Perhaps she works in health organization where she needs to keep her nails clean?" "She's here to relieve stress." "The chances of being a gold digger are low." "Wow.." "From head to toes luxury brand names, her bracelet is Cryslet top dollar limited edition." "Looking at the nail art and the length of her nails it's likely that she's probably a wealthy house's daughter who doesn't lift a finger." "Seeing as how that one is a proper distance from the subwoofer speakers and how she's taken up a spot under the air conditioner, chances are high that she's a club regular." "Wow, that's amazing." "She is a regular." "I've seen her a few times too." "And that woman there is dressed plainly and femininely, unsuited for clubbing." "And on her wrist is a Brigue A00892-NAVY..." "The Brigue?" "The watch that was stolen?" "Hey, Tae Il.Teach me how to get a booking." "When girls come in, they strangely leave." "Take that off and wear this." "Oh, should I?" "If it's this good a brand, it should be enough to be a target for the criminals." "Okay." "Thanks." "How much is this worth that he..." "Hey Dae Goo, look." "What do you think?" "Is it okay?" "Dae Goo, Dae Goo!" "Oh hey!" "Oh, hey, hey, Tae Il scored one." "Isn't that right?" "!" "He scored one." "How many did you work on tonight?" "I'm asking how many did you work on." "Don't even get me started." "I was only able to get two." "President Kim will probably flip out." "Ah, that's right." "Earlier, I think I saw a police officer." "Where?" "I was going into the restaurant, and just by looking, I got the feeling." "That's why I ran away." "You too, be careful." "Hey, won't you stop right there?" "Hey!" "Oh!" "Oh my!" "Hey!" "What are you doing?" "!" "Would you go anywhere with this knock off?" "Seriously..." "Money for your shoes." "Enough, right?" "You crazy bitch!" "Can't you see this?" "Crystal Louboutin S/S Collection Limited Pink." "There's exactly one pair in this country." "This can't be brought with both your parents' salary combined." "Do you understand,you beggar-like bitch?" "Oh... you can't." "You remember to never get involved in other's business, right?" "I know." "Go, hurry." "I told you they're Crystal Louboutin S/S Collection Limited Pink, so, you bitch!" "Aish!" "Blood!" "That's right, huh?" "Why don't you pay off the shoe cost with your body, huh?" "She's really not in her right mind." "Really..." "Sh*t!" "Stop now." "You have already committed a serious offense in a private establishment." "What is this?" "Those Crystal Louboutin Limited Pink Model AG045 priced 1.89 million won." "You said that with this person's parents' salary they couldn't buy it," "But even if you calculate it with the lowest one person income in 2014" "With a hourly wage of 5,210 won working 8 hours a day and 290 hours a month in a month, 1,088,890 won and in a year, 13,066,680 won." "In conclusion, although you have already received the appropriate compensation, you've already exceeded what's proper to insult the character and progressed to physical..." "Ah!" "Ah wait... ah" "Is she crazy?" "This" "Hey!" "Let go!" "Let go of her!" "I said stop it!" "Let go!" "Let go!" "I'm going crazy!" "Hey!" "Oh my!" "Ahh!" "It hurts!" "It hurts!" "Yes, yes." "We're recording it all." "Now if we only catch them doing the exchange for drugs on video..." "What the?" "Where did she go?" "You little..." "Hey!" "Aren't you going to stay put?" "Let go of me." "This bastard!" "Oh, this..." "Let go, let go!" "Open your mouth!" "Grab him!" "Hey!" "Aish!" "Hey, who are you to...aish!" "You're dead today!" "Ow, ow!" "What the?" "Aghh!" "Ah!" "Let go!" "You little bitches." "Mom, you can't die." "Please wake up Mom." "Who did this?" "Are you alright?" "Cellphone, cellphone..." "Eun Dae Goo!" "Eun Dae Goo, the cell phone!" "Eun Dae Goo!" "Don't you have a cell phone?" "Eun Dae Goo!" "What are you doing now?" "Eun Dae Goo!" "What are you doing?" "Ahjumma, you can't take that!" "Wait!" "Aigoo, hey!" "Hey!" "What happened?" "It's an emergency." "Someone is dying." "Call an ambulance quickly!" "Oh!" "Hello?" "A person is bleeding..." "Hey Kiddo." "You're going to have to come quickly!" "We're at a club." "Jin Gook, Jin Gook!" "Let go." "Okay, I get it." "Be quiet!" "Quickly!" "What is all this?" "Huh?" "Go quickly!" "Hey, that's handcuffs around Eun Dae Goo's writst, right?" "Yes." "Tell them to be quiet!" "Sit down!" "Sit down!" "All of you sit down!" "I'm going to kill you all!" "Name!" "Don't you hear me?" "Name!" "Look at this bastard." "Are you pleading the Fifth after taking a detective's gun and shooting it?" "Do you even know how serious of a crime this is before you mess around, huh?" "Your name." "Your name!" "Hey, Detective Kim!" "Hurry and put this jerk behind bars." "The first person who pulled out the gun was you young lady." "Your situation is not any better than that guy earlier." "You're not in a position to be doing this, okay?" "Your name!" "Your name?" "You can plead the Fifth, but you know that it'll be extremely disadvantageous for you, right?" "Your name." "You said that you were the one to call the ambulance." "If you just confirm your identification I'll send you out so let's hurry up and finish this." "Your name?" "Can't you answer quickly?" "Aish, these people, really..." "Oh my." "Oh, he locked it." "What happens to us now?" "Huh?" "Dae Goo, Dae Goo." "Eo Soo Seon!" "Ah..." "What?" "Those bastards are Detectives you say?" "We couldn't eat, sleep, or wash ourselves, and you wrecked the drug operation that we'd been investigating for 2 months." "The bastards who took my gun are Detectives?" "Okay." "I'll do it according to the law too, so leave!" "Hey, Detective Oh!" "Don't be like that." "Hey!" "Really!" "I'm going crazy, really." "What do we do?" "There's no way." "Put a call in to the Toad." "Ah, really..." "From now on, answer my question without even so much as a trace of a lie." "Understood?" "Who was the one that started the fight?" "Who was it?" "!" "It was me." "No." "I'm the one who started the fight." "No, we all started it together." "Yes, all four of us started it together." "Are the bunch of you, right now, saying that you'll put on a lame show in front of me?" "You punks." "Do you think I'm some clueless man?" "Hey." "I told you this before I sent you in." "If any of you cause an accident again," "I won't see your faces." "I told you to think of it as your last chance." "To never do stupid things, especially, something like getting involved in a fight." "But, you all ignored that." "All four of you, together..." "You bastards." "Did I send you there to start a fight?" "Did I send you to wave a gun around?" "I sent, not one person, but four." "With not one punk to dissuade the others, you guzzled alcohol." "Did I send you to fight like idiots?" "All four of you quit right now." "Right now write your transfer declarations and there's no need for you to report to work tomorrow." "Fill out your transfer declarations in this very place and don't ever appear in front of my eyes again." "If even one of you appear before me, that day is your death anniversary day." "Do not appear before me again!" "You bleeping *#!" "bastards!" "Aish!" "You...!" "Don't even get me started." "I was only able to get two." "President Kim will probably flip out." "Ah, that's right." "I think I saw a Police Officer earlier." "Where?" "I was going into the restaurant and when I saw him, I felt it." "What is that?" "It seems like the gold diggers." "Did you guys record this?" "Yes." "Yes." "We did it." "We even made dates with the gold diggers." "Tomorrow, at Ari Restaurant, at 7 P.M." "We worked really hard." "Eu Soo Seun didn't move a muscle from the women's bathroom and recorded that." "Even when we went to the police station we didn't tell them our identities and until the end we hid our identities and even went into the holding cells." "We really did our best." "Then, is that why you plead the fifth?" "The gold digger women were right next to us." "We couldn't ruin the investigation." "You're All Surrounded Preview" "Why were you rummaging in the Team Leader's desk?" "I think you call this an Achille's heel." "Do you think I'll do it if you say that?" "This case, let's solve it." "When is that?" "I don't know that either." "If one person leaves, you all do." "I don't want to become a fool for that man who always yells anymore." "This kind of..." "Damn it!" "Why do you say it now?" "Because you might now believe the talk of young goldfish heads."

[Musical intro with audio previews of Dr. Karen-Beth Scholthof remarks:] The idea behind Pathogens, the Environment and Society, was to provide a course that would be very reading and writing intensive and make connections between the value of literature and contemporary reports of diseases in our environment and be able to pull all of this material together to have an opinion and discuss your point of view, as well as defend it. [Gabe] Howdy, I'm Gabe and welcome to "Write Away," the faculty podcast of the Texas A&M University Writing Center, bringing you news, tips, and ideas for making your students better, more innovative writers. Today we’re talking to Professor Karen-Beth Scholthof, in the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology here at Texas A&M University. Dr. Scholthof received her undergraduate degree in botany with a minor in philosophy at Montana State University. She earned her master's at the University of Nebraska and her Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky, both degrees being plant pathology with an emphasis on plant virology. She’s been at Texas A&M since 1994 and runs a research lab on the molecular biology of plant viruses. Dr. Scholthof teaches in the Bioenvironmental Sciences Undergraduate Program. Her W course is called Pathogens, the Environment and Society. [Dr. Scholthof] I developed the course about 10 years ago and since that time through the University Writing Center I've developed it is a formal writing course. But my primary interest was in using current events and both scientific literature and fiction to explore historic and current events related to pathogens, the environment and society. So there's a lot of interaction between animal health, plant health, and human health that comes into the course, including a lot of material on food safety. The disease triangle is a concept used by plant pathologists to understand the role of the environment and pathogens on whether or not a host succumbs to disease. I also talk fairly extensively about the historic aspects of influenza and the more contemporary concerns of avian influenza or bird flu, the transit of diseases such as smallpox, and again the more recent interest especially after 9/11 concerning the potential for smallpox to be used as a bio-weapon. [Gabe] Dr. Scholthof shares an example of integrating current events, history and literature into her science course. [Dr. Scholthof] One useful book is Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. He provides a general outline of the impact of germs on society and also some of the implications of agriculture. The idea behind the disease triangle for my course is to explore how agriculture has influenced society. The potato which has its origins in Central and South America, its transit to Europe and how it became a food for the poor, and in time, became the primary source of food for the Irish. And when a plant disease, blight-like disease, or Phytophthora infestans, infected the potatoes, the primary food source for the poor in Ireland was gone and approximately two million people died or emigrated from Ireland following this. So I find this a very useful event to use for my course because I can talk about the origin of crops in the Americas, I can talk about global trade and travel. I can talk about how precarious life can be: that if you are living and dependent on a single source of food and essentially have no free income, your entire society, family, way of life can collapse and you may be forced to emigrate. One of the best books I found to talk about this is Andrea Barrett's long short story Ship Fever. She talks about three characters who come to America and the effect on Nora, the main character, through time as she experiences immigration in Canada. [Gabe] The range of possible topics in Dr. Scholthof’s class, is matched by the variety of writing assignments she gives. [Dr. Scholthof] Every time I've taught the course I change it. I change the reading material, I change the writing assignments. I change the methods of discourse, whether the students do power points, do oral presentations, do short writing assignments, do long writing assignments. My current emphasis has been to have in-class writing assignments where I'll provide students with a prompt generally related to disease outbreak and ask them to provide a thesis relating to the outbreak and defend their point of view. I want them to be able think creatively and also to explore some of their ideas. The other assignment I've used off and on over the last ten years is notebook writing where I'll provide a prompt at the beginning of class where they can come in and write for three or four minutes. The prompt may be a question, it may be a cartoon from The New Yorker. It may be a single word. [Gabe] I asked Dr. Scholthof to share some of her observations about students and W courses at Texas A&M. [Dr. Scholthof] The students are now realizing that they have to take one or two W courses to graduate so it's an assignment, but they don't necessarily see that there's any value in it. Or they're terrified. And they consider it a burden that they have to write instead of studying material that will be useful for them for their degree, their technical degree, or to apply to graduate or professional school. I really feel that at Texas A&M, which is historically technical, being an agricultural and mechanical college, that there has not been emphasis on liberal arts which I define as being able to graduate with an ability to read and write and have an appreciation for art and literature. So my job is to convince them that reading and writing are fun. I think I go from the beginning of the semester where they're either afraid or feel like they're wasting their time to the end of the semester where the comments reflect the fact that they have had for the most part a fun time and have found out that they like to read or that not all reading is boring. I am one of the greatest fans of the writing center. I really enjoy coming over here and I'm constantly encouraging the students to come over here. My advice for new writing instructors is you should clear your calendar for the entire semester. It takes an enormous amount of time to come up with the assignments, to read and to edit the material and to develop the lectures that go with the course work. I would really encourage new faculty to explore teaching a writing course and I think the primary reason why I continue to do it is due to the resources that have been developed at the writing center and the encouragement especially that has come from the director of the center. [Gabe] Thank you for joining us. "Write Away" is a production of the Writing Center at Texas A&M University. This podcast promotes the mission of the Writing Center by highlighting effective writing instruction. For resources to improve communication and writing ability, please visit our website at writingcenter.tamu.edu. We’d like to thank Dr. Scholthof for her time today, and for her dedication to writing instruction at Texas A&M. I’m your host Gabe, please join us next time. Have a great day, write away.

Religious Liberty: The American Experiment All lessons feature background essays, primary source analysis, and many engaging activities, prepared by a team of historians and First Amendment experts. The five-lesson curriculum is tied to national civics, history, and social studies standards. Your students will: Explore the impact of extraordinary religious diversity in the colonies Understand how the Constitution and the First Amendment protects religious liberty Analyze George Washington's Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island

James Tillett James started his career grading music videos and quickly established himself as one of the premiere colorists in the UK. After three years of prolific success at MPC London, where his natural aptitude for colors, hues, and saturation garnered industry recognition across a range of high-profile projects, he made the move to the New York studio. During his career, James has worked with numerous high-profile directors including Miles Jay, Mark Romanek, Francis Lawrence, Jake Scott, Eliot Rausch, Vincent Haycock and Floria Sigismondi. His keen sense of detail and eye for beauty has led him to work with some of the most high-end brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Tom Ford, L’Oréal, CoverGirl and Louis Vuitton. He has also developed a reputation for his work in the car industry, working on brands such as BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Dodge and Lexus. Notable projects include Tiffany’s 2018 Holiday campaign featuring Zoe Kravitz, award winning campaigns for Prince’s Trust and Heineken, and hit indie film ‘Monsters and Men’ which won a Special Jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival. His work on rock band Temper Trap’s music video ‘Trembling Hands’ earned him an award for Best Color Grade in a Music Video at the UK Music Video Awards.

Last updated on .From the section Tennis Sharapova claimed her 20th career win at the WTA Finals World number four Maria Sharapova held her nerve in a tense finish to beat top seed Simona Halep and close in on a last-four place at the WTA Finals. The Russian withstood a Halep fightback to win 6-4 6-4 and move top of the Red Group in Singapore. US Open champion Flavia Pennetta earlier beat Agnieszka Radwanska 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 to keep her hopes alive. Pennetta and Sharapova will meet in the final round of Red Group matches on Thursday, with Halep facing Radwanska. All four players remain in with a chance of securing one of two semi-final places. World number one Serena Williams is absent from the eight-player field in Singapore as she recovers from injury. Sharapova shows true grit Five-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova showed her quality and fighting spirit as she built a commanding lead, and then gathered herself as Halep came battling back. Sharapova, completing only her second full match since Wimbledon following injuries, led 6-4 5-1 but failed to convert two chances to serve out the match. Halep had her chance to level on serve, only for Sharapova - after a pep talk from coach Sven Groeneveld - to rediscover her attacking intent and fire away a backhand on match point. "I'm quite pleased to be able to beat the number two player in the world," said the 28-year-old, who took her career record against Halep to 6-0. "I don't think that I played unbelievable tennis today. I still made errors, but cut down on my errors from the first match." Pennetta keeps hopes alive Flavia Pennetta is currently ranked eighth in the world The Italian, 33, knew that a second defeat of the week would see her eliminated and it brought out her best performance since winning a first Grand Slam title in New York last month. Pennetta, who could play her last ever match on Thursday before she retires, fought back from 5-3 down in the first set to win in one hour and 40 minutes. "Of course it was important today to win this match, because like this I still have a little bit of chance, no?" said Pennetta. Radwanska said: "Definitely the first set I should have won. The concentration was slipping away sometimes and I wasn't focused enough."

Shop the Room Design the room of your dreams effortlessly with the help of our Shop the Room guide. Filled with unique and beautiful pieces made to cater to your taste, the carefully curated rooms showcase an array of styles destined to be perfect for you and your home. Chill beverages quickly and efficiently with the Cooper Cooler Rapid Wine Chiller. This device "chills on demand" so you can have room temperature wine made cool rapidly, letting you enjoy the finer points of life without worrying. Keep it cool all party long with this White Line Wine Cooler from Magisso. No need for ice, simply soak the self-cooling ceramic in water then add a bottle of wine and it will stay chilled for hours. The matte black finish also doubles as a chalkboard. Impress party guests with a Personalized Wood Wine Trough from Cathy's Concepts. A galvanized metal insert keeps ice from melting so your favorite bottles or beverages stay perfectly chilled. It also makes a great gift for the wine lover in your life.

1. Field of the invention The present invention relates generally to headers for pressure transducers and particularly to headers for semiconductor pressure transducers suitable for high pressure applications. 2. Description of the Prior Art Semiconductor pressure transducers are presently used in a variety of applications and are well known in the art. Such devices typically employ piezoresistive elements formed on the surface of a thin semiconductor die. The semiconductor die is mounted over an open chamber and is deflected into and out of the chamber in response to a pressure differential on its opposite planar surfaces. A change in resistance is exhibited by the piezoresistive elements in response to the deflection, whereby a signal indicative of the pressure differential is generated. The semiconductor die is typically mounted in a header structure which serves both to isolate the semiconductor die from external stresses and to contain the pressure to be measured. Wire leads electrically connect the semiconductor die to surrounding terminal pins which extend through the header structure for connection to external electronics. A common problem of semiconductor pressure transducers has been the sealing of the terminal pins passing through the header structure. For high pressure applications, the semiconductor die is typically mounted in a metal housing. A number of through holes are drilled in the metal housing surrounding the semiconductor die and within each hole is located an electrically conductive terminal pin. An independent glass seal is provided around each terminal pin in order to form a fluid-tight seal between the peripheral surface of the terminal pin and the interior surface of the hole. The glass seal also serves to electrically insulate the terminal pin from the metal housing. The holes provided in the metal housing for the passage of the terminal pins are typically relatively small in diameter so that the surface area of the glass seals subjected to a pressure force is correspondingly small. The header structure is thus able to withstand high pressures without the likelihood of failure of the glass seals. The process of drilling long, small diameter holes through the metal housing, however, adds significantly to the manufacturing cost of the header structure. In addition, the terminal pins must be located a sufficient distance apart from one another to allow for the glass seals surrounding the terminal pins. The size of the header is thereby increased, and the terminal pins are required to be located a considerable distance from the sensor die. Thus a need exists for a header structure that does not require an independent glass seal surrounding each terminal pin and yet is suitable for high pressure applications.

I cover cardiology news for CardioExchange, a social media website for cardiologists published by the New England Journal of Medicine. I was the editor of TheHeart.Org from its inception in 1999 until December 2008. Following the purchase of TheHeart.Org by WebMD in 2005, I became the editorial director of WebMD professional news, encompassing TheHeart.Org and Medscape Medical News. Prior to joining TheHeart.Org, I was a freelance medical journalist and wrote for a wide variety of medical and computer publications. In 1994-1995 I was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. I have a PhD in English from SUNY Buffalo, and I drove a taxicab in New York City before embarking on a career in medical journalism. You can follow me on Twitter at: @cardiobrief. Early trials of renal denervation, the innovative new catheter-based blood pressure lowering technology, have resulted in extremely impressive drops in systolic blood pressure in the range of 30 mm Hg. These results have sparked a great deal of excitement in the hypertension community and stirred the interest of a multitude of medical device companies. Some experts have proclaimed renal denervation a potential “cure” for resistant hypertension, perhaps enabling a significant number of patients to eliminate all drug therapy. Other expanded uses of the technology in more moderate forms of hypertension and other diseases are under active consideration. Now, however, a new analysis of the available data suggests the troubling possibility that renal denervation may not be nearly as effective in cutting blood pressure as had been suggested in the earlier trials. Rather than reducing systolic blood pressure by 30 mm hg, the new analysis suggests that a more realistic estimate of the effect of renal denervation may be a much more modest reduction of about 11 mm Hg. A paper published online in Heart demonstrates that the large reductions in blood pressure seen so far in clinical trials of renal denervation may be a consequence of certain key aspects in the design of these trials. The apparent blood pressure lowering effect of renal denervation has been greatly magnified because the trials have been uncontrolled, unblinded, and have utilized office-based blood pressure measurements rather than the far more reliable and consistent ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). When randomized and blinded trials do appear, starting next year with Medtronic’s SYMPLICITY HTN-3 Trial, “people are going to be severely disappointed,” predicts the senior author of the paper, Darrel Francis, because “the office and ambulatory effects are going to have to converge, and that will make them both in the 10-15 mmHg territory.” Francis says that the real effect of a 10-15 mm Hg drop in pressure “is very worthwhile, but talking about 2 or 3 times that effect size does nobody any good, because it eliminates the scope for scientific discussion.” A Medtronic spokesperson did not take issue with the conclusion that the blood pressure lowering effect of renal denervation is likely to be more modest than initially reported and hoped. “Frankly, it’s important that we set realistic expectations,” she said. The company expects that the ABPM reduction will be less than that seen with office measurements. “It’s not a cure, you’re not going to go off all your medications,” she said, in response to some of the hype that has accompanied the early trials. “This is probably the most extreme case I have ever seen of inadvertent bias in measurement producing – concordantly across several studies – massive overestimation of an effect size,” said Francis. Hypertension experts Franz Messerli and Sripal Bangalore agree that the hype over renal denervation is due for deflation: Small wonder that the cookie is finally crumbling, bigger wonder that it actually took so long. The irrational exuberance for renal denervation in resistant hypertension was entirely driven by uncontrolled non-randomized observational office-based blood pressure studies. We showed that in the Spanish registry of more than 8000 patients about a quarter of patients with office blood pressures of above 160/100 were actually normotensive when monitored by 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure(ABPM ). Further, in this same Spanish registry about one third of patients with resistant hypertension based on office blood pressure measurements had normotensive ABPMs. Thus many patients with so-called resistant hypertension by office blood pressure measurements may be pseudo-resistant only. This would indicate that the exaggerated benefits observed with office blood pressure measurements are due to the simple fact that some patients actually had normal blood pressure at trial baseline. Conceivably many of these patients have white coat hypertension which is unmasked by ABPM. The lesson to be learned here is that all of these studies should either be placebo controlled or at least mandate ABPM at baseline and every follow up. Renal denervation has not been approved for use in the US by the FDA. Renal denervation products are available in Europe from Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, Boston Scientific, Covidien, Recor, and Terumo. Many more companies are working on new devices. Measuring Blood Pressure: It’s Complicated Why the discrepancy between office-based measurements and ABPM? The same discrepancy between office measurement and ABPM has also been seen in trials of blood pressure drugs, but disappears in randomized, double-blind trials. In those trials ABPM measurements will generally be lower than office-based measurements, but the difference between the placebo and active arms will be consistent. The authors of the Heart paper offer a number of reasons why office measurements are often less reliable. For one, in the office physicians are likely to re-measure readings they think are inconsistent with their clinical impression of the patient. In an open study this is especially problematic, since the physicians may be more likely to re-measure untreated patients with a low blood pressure or treated patients with a high blood pressure. Another factor is that patients are more likely to enter a trial when they have a high blood pressure reading at the office. But in many cases this represents a higher than usual value for the patient and a substantial treatment effect may then be observed by simply remeasuring the blood pressure at a later time point. This “regression to the mean” can easily lead to an overestimation of the treatment effect in an uncontrolled trial or an unblinded trial. Another theory explaining the difference between office and ambulatory blood pressure is the “white coat effect” in which the higher blood pressures observed in the office signals a potentially dangerous “alerting response,” possibly mediated by the renal nerves. However, if this were true then the blood pressure lowering effect as measured by ABPM would be greater during the day, when the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated, than at night, when it is at rest. But this difference has not been observed in the renal denervation trials, according to the Heart authors. A different but related problem is that some patients with apparent “resistant” hypertension may not actually be taking their medications as prescribed. The treatment effect in these patients may appear much greater than in adherent patients. Post Your Comment Post Your Reply Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out. Comments The skepticism of non-randomized trial and bias inolved in the office blood pressure results is a valid concern. At the same time we should not forget that there is ton of literature suggesting that high pressure readings in office BP (even if it is whiter coat HTN) is related to neagative prognosis. A meta-analysis of 61 prospective, observational studies evaluating data of 1 million adults between ages 40-89 from multiple different countries & ethnicities showed : (Lewington S, Clarke R, Qizilbash N, Peto R, Collins R. Age-specific relevance of usual blood pressure to vascular mortality: a meta-analysis of individual data for one million adults in 61 prospective studies. Lancet. 2002;360:1903-1913.) 1). Every 20/10 mm Hg increase in OFFICE blood pressure is associated with more than a twofold increase in stroke and cardiovascular mortality. For example, a middle aged patient(between age 40 and 69) with a blood pressure reading of 175/105 mm Hg is 8 times ( an absolute risk increase of 800%) more likely to die of cardiovascular mortality in the next 10 years in comparison to a patient of the same age/ethnicity/sex with a blood pressure reading of 115/75 mm Hg. 2). On the other hand even small reductions in BP translate into cardiovascular mortality benefit. Just by reducing the mean systolic blood pressure in OFFICE by 2 mm Hg translated into a 7% relative risk reduction of cardiovascular mortality and a 10% relative risk reduction of stroke mortality. Taken from: www.renaldenervationworld.org. Another important thing to remember is the poor compliance to the medications related to polypharmacy, drug interaction and side effects is a major issue. The HOPE or HYPE of RDN needs to temper down a bit, but before asking any patient to get randomized to a new treatment we do need (first in man) observation study data. The undertaking of a multi-center randomized controlled blinded trial is huge, and human time investment shoud be done only wisely after having strong data from observational studies.

Beclomethasone dipropionate, a diester of beclomethasone, is a corticosteroid used as an antiallergic, antiasthmatic and topical anti-inflammatory. It is primarily used in nasal inhalers to relieve symptoms of nasal inflammation and irritation often associated with allergies, and in oral inhalers to treat symptoms of bronchial asthma. Beclomethasone dipropionate has also been used to treat oral inflammatory disease. When treating inflammatory conditions of the mouth by administering beclomethasone dipropionate into the oral cavity, a number of conditions are present that make it difficult to effectively deliver a therapeutically effective amount for a prolonged period of time (e.g., for periods greater than several minutes). For example, when a patient applies a spray to the oral cavity, the therapeutic level of the drug exists for only a short time period. Additionally, when a patient is given a drug-containing lozenge or lollipop, there is a natural tendency to suck and chew on it thereby effectively reducing the time period during which the drug can be buccally administered by the lozenge. In addition, the action of saliva and swallowing by the patient effectively reduces the concentration of drug along the buccal membranes of the oral cavity and further causes much of the drug to be swallowed. This has been a particular problem in treating inflammatory diseases of the mouth which require constant local administration of beclomethasone dipropionate. U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,737 describes the delivery of beclomethasone dipropionate by lollipop. As discussed above, this method of delivery is effective only for a short time period. Moreover, the patent is directed to treatment of disease by systemic delivery of beclomethasone dipropionate, rather than local treatment of inflammatory disease of the oral cavity. Accordingly, the patient is subject to the side-effects of systemic delivery of beclomethasone. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,835,142 and 4,294,829 and EP 0 391 342 describe the delivery of beclomethasone dipropionate by powdery and gel base sprays. Unfortunately, when a drug is administered by a spray, the drug is released at a therapeutic level for a very short period of time. Accordingly, this dosage form requires frequent repetitive dosing in order to effectively treat inflammatory disease. U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,983 describes the delivery of beclomethasone dipropionate to the oral cavity of a patient by medical adhesive tape. Tape has a tendency to cause irritation to the patient and, accordingly, is not desirable from the standpoint of patient comfort. Moreover, since the device is adhered to the buccal membrane and maintains a high concentration of the drug at a single membrane site, the beclomethasone dipropionate is delivered systemically with the resulting side-effects. Additionally, it is difficult to treat numerous areas in the mouth using tape. Thus, there has been a need in the art for a method of treating oral inflammatory diseases, such as stomatitis, erosion or sores, that is able to continuously locally deliver beclomethasone dipropionate for extended periods of time to the oral cavity.

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Home care patients' responses to point-of-care technology. Patient response is a critical aspect of successful POC technology implementation. This article presents the results of a pilot POC patient satisfaction study conducted at four home health agencies. Variables impacting patient receptiveness and recommendations for patient education are discussed to help agencies develop individual POC training and education plans.

India, Japan ink MoU on peaceful use of n-energy India on Saturday inked an MoU with Japan on civil nuclear energy and announced that the deal was not just about commerce and clean energy but also a sign of mutual confidence and partnership for a secure world. The MoU was inked by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe. “No friend will matter more in realising India’s economic dreams than Japan. We have made enormous progress in economic cooperation as also in our regional partnership and security cooperation,” said Modi after signing the deal. Stating that there was deep value for the strategic partnership between Japan and India, Modi said: “Shinzo has been prompt and positive on our economic proposals many of which are now unique to India. Japanese private investments are also rising sharply.” The two countries also inked two deals on security operations to deepen defence relations and for defence manufacturing.

Q: Is there a viable method of DRM that prevents recording the final stream? I would like to create encrypted media (mp3 and mp4) that will need some form of authentication to playback. Would prefer playback on VLC, but a custom player if necessary. Or a customized version of VLC. And should be local. No streaming. The problem however is that I've read a number of threads and articles on this and most seem to suggest that at the end a user can simply record the final stream . eg using stereomix What are the viable options, if any, to prevent this or at the least, make it extremely difficult? A: Protection against screen capture software is one of the most difficult goals for any DRM client implementation to accomplish, due to the extensibility and flexibility of a modern computer's graphics system. My team performed a set of experiments on this topic a few months ago and we found only one DRM client implementation that was able to prevent screen capture: Microsoft PlayReady running in Internet Explorer 11 via HTML Encrypted Media Extensions. This configuration resulted in a black rectangle being recorded, instead of the video picture. Using Microsoft PlayReady in other media players (e.g. a Silverlight browser plugin) also failed to protect against screen capture, so this level of protection is specific to the implementation built into Internet Explorer 11, at least today. You can try out Microsoft PlayReady in the successful configuration here: http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/html5/eme/ This approach would not, however, fulfill your requirements regarding media format and "no streaming". Such a scenario is not directly in scope of modern DRM technologies, so I recommend you re-architect your solution. Use DASH as the video format and stream it (e.g. even locally from the same computer) to a web app based player. This is a setup I have seen before on projects that need local playback while still enabling use of modern media delivery and DRM technologies. The field of DRM technologies is fast evolving as new technology vendors (Google, Adobe, Apple and others) enter the mass-scale DRM market in order to grab a slice away from the market leader (Microsoft PlayReady). Thus, it is worth re-testing such results every now and then.

867 S.W.2d 783 (1993) STATE of Texas and City of Austin, Petitioners, v. CENTENNIAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION, Successor in Interest to Grand Central Station Shopping Center, Ltd., Respondent. No. D-3773. Supreme Court of Texas. November 24, 1993. Rehearing Overruled February 2, 1994. Diana L. Granger, John J. Greene, Austin, for petitioners. Susan Vincent McClish, R. Kemp Kasling, Austin, for respondent. PER CURIAM. This case arises out of the condemnation of part of a commercial tract in order to convert U.S. Highway 183 in Austin into an elevated, controlled-access freeway. The project is described more completely in State v. Schmidt, 867 S.W.2d 769 (Tex.1993). Like Schmidt, this case involves the measure of damages due a landowner, not for the strip of land actually taken, but for a loss in market value of the remainder due to decreased accessibility and visibility, circuity of travel, and interim construction inconvenience—all factors held unrecoverable as a rule in Schmidt. Unlike Schmidt, however, this case involves claims for damages based on other factors, *784 including the need to replace detention ponds and the loss of a number of parking spaces. For this reason, we reverse in part the judgment of the lower courts and remand this action for new trial in accord with our opinion in Schmidt. The State of Texas and the City of Austin brought suit to condemn a 10,433-square-foot strip of land from a 9.2-acre tract located at the corner of Peyton Gin and U.S. Highway 183, improved with a 109,000-square-foot shopping center, and owned by Centennial Mortgage Corporation, as successor in interest to Grand Central Station Shopping Center. The award for the strip taken is no longer in dispute. Centennial put on evidence to show the fair market value of the whole property before the condemnation, and the fair market value of the remainder, considering the effects of the condemnation. Its experts testified that this decrease in fair market value reflected the attributes of the remainder property that a would-be purchaser would consider, including the cost to cure the lost detention ponds, the decreased visibility, the decreased accessibility, the increased risk of owning the property, the fact that the property would be subject to three to five years of construction and would, at the end, be adjacent to an elevated, limited-access freeway. The State unsuccessfully objected to the admission of this evidence. The jury found that the fair market value of strip taken was $162,600, and the decrease in fair market value of the remainder was $1,480,000. After subtracting the amount previously paid based on the award of the special commissioners, $110,078, the trial court rendered judgment for $1,532,522, plus interest. The court of appeals affirmed. 867 S.W.2d 769. The State contends that the admission of evidence of damages held noncompensable in Schmidt was error, that this inadmissible evidence was the only evidence supporting an award of damages to the remainder, and that the trial court's judgment should be reformed to delete the award of damages for the remainder. We do not agree. Unlike Schmidt, this case involves claims of damages which may be compensable, viz., the cost of replacing detention ponds and other improvements formerly located on the condemned strip of land, and the resulting loss of parking spaces on the remainder. The parties agreed that the cost for rebuilding the ponds and replacing other items was $110,000, but do not cite us to any evidence or agreement which would establish, as a matter of law, possible damages flowing from the lost parking spaces. The landowners may have recouped part of the initial cost of building the retention ponds, to the extent the award for the condemned strip reflected an increase in value due the construction of the ponds thereon. But even assuming that the value awarded for the strip of land included some amount for this improvement, this amount would not necessarily compensate the landowner for all out-of-pocket expenses for building or rebuilding retention ponds. Damages due to required modifications to the remainder, as a result of the condemnation, or damages due to a loss of improvements on the remainder because of the condemnation may, on a proper showing, be compensable. While the parties agreed on $110,000 as the cost of rebuilding the retention ponds, we cannot determine what further portion of damages may also be compensable. Accordingly, a majority of the Court, without hearing oral argument, grants the application for writ of error, reverses the judgment of the court of appeals, 867 S.W.2d 382, and remands the case to the trial court for further proceedings in light of our opinion in Schmidt.

Nabakalebara: Legends and Reality Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh has stated that his government is embarrassed over unnecessary prosecution kept alive by Indian judiciary against an innocent man like the Italian Ottavio Quattrocchi. In reality, India is embarrassed over the role her Prime Minister is playing in patronizing anti-Indians. Let us look at that. Dr. Singh claims credit for having defeated the 26 / 11 terror attack on Mumbai and for having subjected the lone survivor Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab to prosecution in a Special Court. This is an instance that shows the difference between Congress and BJP in handling Pak-propelled terrorism in India, he asserts. A man, who despite being the PM of India, has not hesitated to castigate Indian judicial system for having not ended the case against the Italian broker Ottavio Quattrocchi, is claiming credit for prosecution commenced against the Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab under the same judicial system! The farce is curious. Let us first look at Quattrocchi and then at Kasab. Quattrocchi and the PM Quarttrochhi is an absconder in whose context Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is looked at askance. It is for him, Sonia’s husband Rajiv Gandhi – once believed to be “Mr. Clean Prime Minister” – had come to be viewed as “Mr. Corrupt Prime Minister” and punished by the peoples of India under Bofors bribe charges. Before Sonia’s Quattrocchi connection played the tricks, Rajiv had become Prme Minister in 1984 with 400 MPs posted by Indian voters to support him; but after the tricks were exposed, the same voters dethroned him with contempt by rejecting his party in 1989. Even as the Indian Judicial system proceeded to determine Quattrocchi’s role in the corruption scandal and he was required to appear before the Supreme Court, the Congress leadership helped him flee India in 1993. And the Italian soon declared that he would not respond to any Indian court, as he had “no faith in India’s justice system”. Now, in support of this arrogant and unscrupulous Italian user of corrupt practices, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has condemned the Indian justice system in the most disparaging terms! He has said, “The Quattrocchi case is an embarrassment for the Government of India…. It is not a good reflection on the Indian legal system that we harass people while the world says we have no case”. The words of accused Italian Quattrocchi, who is absconding from Indian Courts and the words of Dr.Man Mohan Singh, who works under leadership of Sonia Gandhi, are so strikingly similar in condemning Indian judicial system over prosecution of the charge-sheeted Bofors bribe kingpin that any proud Indian may feel ashamed of his Prime Minister, as he looks like echoing only “his master’s voice”. Extra-Constitutional Boss of the PM After Raiv’s death, Sonia in 1999 had resolutely supported Quattrocchi with condemning the CBI for fictitious charges leveled against an innocent man like him. “The CBI has said he is a suspect. But we have never seen the papers naming him in the deal. They should show the papers naming him in the deal”, she had said oblivious of the fact that by then three of the courts in India and one in Switzerland had already found him involved in the Bofors scandal. Her support to Quattrochhi continues. After she became the extra-constitutional boss of the government that seemingly controls Prime Minister Dr. Singh, CBI has experienced toughest possible obstacles in proceeding against him. He is an accused against whom the Country is fighting legal battles. It is the Country that had blocked his accounts in a London Bank. But behind back of the country, the Singh government defreezed it in 2006. When he was arrested in Argentina in 2007 where upon his extradition to India was possible, Man Mohan Singh’s government asked the Indian Ambassador there not to pursue the case and the field was made congenial for him to escape. With this arranged victory, he moved the Interpol for removal of his name from the Red-Corner Notice board and Law minister H.R.Bharadwaj terming the case as “an embarrassment”, blamed the CBI for having created an unnecessary tempest on a teacup and through Attorney General Milon Banergi advised the CBI to agree to the absconder’s plea which the later has done. But despite this, as there still stands a case against him in a Court in India that does not fit into the design of Quattrocchi, Prime Minister Singh has aggressively attacked the legal system echoing both the words of the absconder as well as the Sonia loyal Law Minister. Is it not time to evaluate the role of Dr. Singh in embarrassing India in her fight against the foreigner who stands at the center of post-independence India’s most stupendous corruption scandal? Kasab and the PM Let us now look at the other issue that involves the Pakistan terrorist Kasab. He belongs to a group of Pakistani terrorists who on 26 Nov.2008 had taken over two most reputed hotels of Mumbai. Though termed as terror attack, theirs was obviously a suicidal attack. They knew that their number was too marginal to keep up the attack beyond a few hours. So their attack was not for victory, but certainly for something else. What for then their attack was meant? It was obviously for creating a condition where exchange of fire could have totally razed down the two hotels. But why that could have been their motive? Manmohan Singh’s yet unstudied role The answer probably lies in the unfulfilled motive of Pakistani terror-industry to occupy real estate and hotel trade in India. And with this motive, there comes such scenarios that the role played by Dr. Singh in his previous avatar as India’s Finance Minister comes to mind. It was the first session of the tenth Lok Sabha. There was a debate on Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). Pakistan terrorism had got its free passage to India through this Bank. Founded in 1972 by a Pakistani called Agha Hasan Abedi, it was, according to Journalist Lucy Komisar’s well documented contribution captioned “The BCCI Game: Banking on America, Banking on Jihad” a cover to funnel CIA funds for Osama Bin Laden’s Mujahadeen to help fight the Soviets in Afghanistan and was the banker for drug and arms traffickers, corrupt officials, financial fraudsters, dictators and terrorists. Dhirubhai and the gang of India’s neo rich were arch collaborators of this Bank, which was their launching pad to sudden richness. Discussing the nepharious and notorious role played by this Bank and reminding Dr. Singh of his earlier statement in the House wherein he had stated, “reports in 1988, from intelligence agency that BCCI has made overtures for acquisition of property and is trying to enter the hotel and real estate business in Lucknow and Bombay in partnership with Amar Rizvi”, Mr.George Fernandiz had wanted to know about what happened to Rizvi and what step were taken by the Government to stop acquisition of real estates and hotels by the Pakistani Bank of terror and drug trafficking. Dr. Singh had reacted by saying, “But I also said that nothing was found “. Singh’s modus operandi seems to be the same in both Quattrochhi and BCCI matter. WHY ORISSA, NOT ODISHA? In these pages, the English spelling of the name of our motherland and mother tongue will remain Orissa and Oriya as before, instead of changing into Odisha and Odia. Law has changed Orissa and its language Oriya to Odisha and Odia in English respectively. This is a very irresponsible law created by politicians having no knowledge on and devotion to classical uniqueness of Oriya language. When this bad law was on the anvil, we had opposed the proposal through several articles in these pages on grounds shown therein. And, when finally the law was created, we took it as an act of stupids. We stick to our observation and vow not to honor the bad law, come what may. For us, the classical uniqueness of our mother tongue Oriya is more important than the law enacted to change it. So, here we shall continue to use the words Orissa and Oriya notwithstanding enforcement of the law that has wrongfully changed them to Odisha and Odia. This is why this site will continue as orissamatters.com instead of converting into odishamatters.com on the strength of our devotion to the mother tongue which no law can change. -Editor

Help stop overbreeding, give a healthy Shetland pony a home. Why buy a Shetland pony for sale when you can adopt! Use Search Saver. We will e-mail you when we find a Shetland pony in your area for adoption. This pet-saving service is funded by the passionate pet lovers at What You Need to Know About Shetland Pony Adoption By Adopt-a-Pet.com Where Do Adoptable Shetland Ponies Come From? Shetland ponies for adoption are usually surrendered by their previous owners because of change in lifestyle, a lack of financial ability to maintain a pony, or the owner needs to find the Shetland pony a companion. Pony rescues work very hard to make sure ponies are healthy and polite with people before being made available for adoption. Rescues usually categorize ponies by; “unstarted” which means they to be need trained in order to be ridden, and typically these ponies are under 5 years. “Rideable,” and “Companion” ponies are the two categories for adult ponies. Shetland ponies are social creatures just like humans and must have social interactions with their own kind in order to be happy and healthy. How Should I Prepare to Adopt a Pony? Mostly you must be aware that every rescue’s goal is to find forever homes for all their ponies. This means that they will anticipate you are providing a home and safe atmosphere for the Shetland pony its entire life. Shetland ponies will need the right size stable and a big enough corral, paddock or pasture are key for your ponies to remain happy and healthy. What kind of housing is right for your pony depends on your climate, but all ponies have the same basic requirements - enough room to move around and lie down inside, enough space to graze & run outside, all areas kept clean & safe, and sufficient protection from sun, rain, and cold. You may be have barn and fenced pasture on your own land, or be boarding at a pony facility nearby. Shetland ponies are herd animals and take comfort in having at least one other pony friend, so keep that in mind if you are thinking of housing your newly adopted Shetland pony on your own property. Ponies are also grazing animals that naturally will walk on average 20 miles a day. Confining a Shetland pony to a small area where he can't move around can lead to many behavior and health problems. So where ever you keep your pony, make sure that both the barn, pastures and especially the fencing are safe, well-maintained, with plenty of room to move around - and that they have a pony friend or two! Above all you need to make the decision to adopt a Shetland pony with confidence, and consider how your lifestyle may change when owning a Shetland pony. Remember that ponies live long lives, an average of 30 years or more. What Costs & Supplies Do Ponies Need? The average cost of maintaining a pony is usually about $2,500 and up per year. Be prepared to provide; stall/corral rental, shoeing, veterinarian care including worming, vaccinations and any other needed medicines, salt/supplements, feed, hay, grooming supplies, blankets for different temperatures, and tack. Owning your own pony requires a serious investment in your time as well as money. Older Shetland ponies may need less exercise than younger ones, but they still require daily cleaning, feeding, and love! If you are boarding a Shetland pony, make sure to ask if the fee includes a daily mucking and turnout, or be prepared to spend at least an hour cleaning both your pony and their stall, in addition to the time needed to give them their daily exercise. Finally, ask the broader what supplies are included, such as buckets, feed, hay, and bedding, or if you will need to purchase and provide those. Can I Get Involved with a Pony Rescue Without Adopting a Shetland Pony? Sure. Volunteering at a local pony rescue is a great idea to help familiarize yourself with Shetland ponies without enduring the financial and time commitment of ownership. Shetland ponies Rescues and general pony recuses need volunteers, and this is an excellent way to understand what kind of pony temperament is best for you. You’ll also quickly become very knowledgeable about Shetland pony care, while satisfying your desire to enjoy time with Shetland ponies. What is it Like to Adopt from a Pony Rescue? A pony adoption rescue will request that you fill out an application, and come into the rescue to meet with a staff member to initiate the adoption process. While meeting, rescue volunteers will review the ponies within their organization and try to find one that will meet your lifestyle, and expectations. Anticipate that the rescue volunteers will inspect the new home you’re providing for the pony, they also will spend time with you and the pony so that it is clear you are getting along well with your potential adoptable pony. Usually adoption agencies will have a donation fee in the range of $600-$1,500. Sometimes rescue volunteers will perform follow-ups with you to make sure everything is going okay. Why Pony Adoption a Better Option! Shetland ponies within rescues have sometimes had periods of loneliness and hardship in their lives. Once taken in by a rescue they become forever thankful for an improved life alongside compassionate human caretakers and social activity with other ponies. Ponies available from Shetland pony breeders, and Shetland ponies for sale at large costs are no different or better than a Shetland pony for adoption at rescues. With care almost any pony has the potential to become an enriching companion. Please don’t buy a Shetland pony before looking into adoption. Here are several pony adoption success stories http://peoplehelpingponies.org/residents/success-stories/. We want to spread the word! If you have contact info for a shelter in one of these places that does not have pets posted with us, please e-mail us and we'll contact them.

(CNN) Pernell "Sweet Pea" Whitaker, considered one of the greatest lightweight boxers of all time, died Sunday after he was hit by a vehicle in Virginia, police said. He was 55 years old. Officers received a call around 10 p.m. ET about a incident involving a vehicle and a pedestrian, Virginia Beach police said in a news release The pedestrian, who died at the scene, was later identified as Whitaker. The driver remained on site with police, the release said, and the investigation remains active. Read More

A peroxidase contributes to ROS production during Arabidopsis root response to potassium deficiency. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play an important role in root responses to potassium deprivation by regulating the expression of the high-affinity K(+) transporter gene AtHAK5 and other genes. Activation-tagged lines of Arabidopsis plants containing the AtHAK5 promoter driving luciferase were screened for bioluminescence under potassium-sufficient conditions. A member of the type III peroxidase family, RCI3, was isolated and when it was overexpressed by the activation tag, this led to the enhanced expression of luciferase and the endogenous AtHAK5. RCI3 was found to be up-regulated upon potassium deprivation. Plants overexpressing RCI3 (RCI3-ox) showed more ROS production and AtHAK5 expression whereas the ROS production and AtHAK5 expression were reduced in rci3-1 under K(+)-deprived conditions. These results suggested that RCI3 is involved in the production of ROS under potassium deprivation and that RCI3-mediated ROS production affects the regulation of AtHAK5 expression. This peroxidase appears to be another component of the low-potassium signal transduction pathway in Arabidopsis roots.

--- abstract: 'We discuss the use of model building for temporal representations. We chose Polish to illustrate our discussion because it has an interesting aspectual system, but the points we wish to make are not language specific. Rather, our goal is to develop theoretical and computational tools for temporal model building tasks in computational semantics. To this end, we present a first-order theory of time and events which is rich enough to capture interesting semantic distinctions, and an algorithm which takes minimal models for first-order theories and systematically attempts to “perturb” their temporal component to provide non-minimal, but semantically significant, models.' author: - | Patrick Blackburn\ INRIA Lorraine\ 615 rue du Jardin Botanique\ 54602 Villers lès Nancy Cedex, France\ - | Sébastien Hinderer\ INRIA Lorraine\ 615 rue du Jardin Botanique\ 54602 Villers lès Nancy Cedex, France\ bibliography: - 'ranlp2007.bib' title: '**Generating models for temporal representations**' --- Introduction ============ In this paper we discuss the use of model building for temporal representations. We chose Polish to illustrate the main points because (in common with other Slavic languages) it has an interesting aspectual system, but the main ideas are not language specific. Rather, our goal is to provide theoretical and computational tools for temporal model building tasks. To this end, we present a first-order theory of time and events which is rich enough to capture interesting semantic distinctions, and an algorithm which takes minimal models for first-order theories and systematically attempts to “perturb” their temporal component to provide non-minimal, but semantically significant, models. The work has been implemented in a modified version of the architecture. This architecture was developed by Blackburn and Bos [@BlackburnBos:2005] to illustrate the interplay of logical techniques useful in computational semantics. Roughly speaking, the architecture consists of a representation component (which implements key ideas of Montague semantics [@monty]) and an inference component. In this paper we have used a modified version of the representation component (based on an external tool called written by Sébastien Hinderer) which enables us to specify temporal representations using a higher-order logic called $TY_4$. However, although we shall briefly discuss how we build our temporal representations, the main focus of the paper is on the other half of the architecture, namely the inference component. Inference is often though of simply as theorem proving. However one of the main points made in [@BlackburnBos:2005] is that a wider perspective is needed: theorem proving should be systematically coupled with model building and the architecture does this. Model building takes a logical representation of a sentence and attempts to build a model for it; to put it informally, it attempts to return a simple picture of the world in which that formula is true. This has a number of uses. For example, as is emphasized in [@BlackburnBos:2005], model building provides a useful positive test for consistency; if a model for a sentence can be built, then that sentence is consistent (this can be useful to know, as it enables us to prevent a theorem prover fruitlessly searching for a proof of inconsistency). Moreover, in subsequent papers, Johan Bos and his co-workers have demonstrated that model building can be a practical tool in various applications (see for example [@bos1; @bos2; @bos3]). The work described here attempts to develop a style architecture rich enough to handle natural language temporal phenomena. So far we have concentrated on the semantic problems raised by tense and aspect. We have developed a first-order theory of time and events, which draws on ideas from both [@mas] and [@baf]. Although these theories were developed for English, we believe the underlying ideas are more general, and to lend support to this claim we shall work here with Polish. As we shall see, however, more than a theory of time and events is required. Model builders typically build the smallest models possible, but such models may not be suitable for all tense and aspectual combinations, which often underspecify the temporal profile of the situations of interest. We thus provide an algorithm which takes as input a first-order theory, a first-order formula, and a model for the theory and formula, and systematically attempts to “perturb” the temporal part of the model to find non-minimal but semantically relevant models. Modelling tense and aspect ========================== In this section, we shall discuss the logical modeling of tense and aspect, drawing on some simple examples from Polish, and informally introduce a temporal ontology of time and events which will let us express temporal and aspectual distinctions in a precise way. The formal definition of a theory over this temporal ontology (which draws on ideas from [@baf] and [@mas]) will be given in Section \[theTheory\]. Consider the following four Polish sentences: 1. Piotr pospaceruje 2. Piotr pokochal Aline 3. Piotr napisal list\  *and*\ Piotr popisal list The first sentence refers to a walking event and adopts a perfective point of view: it insists on the fact that the mentioned action will be terminated at some point in the future. The second sentence mentions an eventuality of loving and also adopts a perfective point of view. However, the reading of this sentence differs from the previous one. The first sentence insisted on the [*termination*]{} of the event, whereas the second one insists on its [*beginning*]{}. In other words, the second sentence has an [*inchoative*]{} reading. This is because the verb “kocha” from which “pokochac” is derived is a [*state verb*]{}, and perfective state verbs have inchoative readings in Polish. So the second sentence means that at some point in the past Piotr started to love Alina. The last two sentences, which are also perfective, both refer to the termination of a writing event which is located in the past. The difference between these two sentences concerns the way the writing event terminated. In the “napisac” variant, an idea of successful termination is conveyed: that is, at some point the writing stopped, because the letter was finished. In the “popisal” variant, the writing also stopped but the conveyed idea is that the writing event was interrupted before its normal termination, which implies that the letter could not be finished. To distinguish between a “normal” termination and a termination due to an unexpected, premature interruption, we talk about [*culminations*]{}. An event [*culminates*]{} when it terminates and has also been completed, or fully accomplished. Thus the event of writing reported by the sentence “Piort napisal list” culminates, whereas the one in “Piotr popisal list” does not. Note that in our two first examples, it makes no sense to talk about the culmination of the walking or loving eventualities; neither walking events nor states of loving have natural culminations in the way that writing events do. More generally, different types of events have different properties, and verbs can be classified according to the properties of the event they refer to. Such a classification has been proposed for Polish verbs by M[ł]{}ynarczyk [@mlyn:aspe04], and we follow this classification in our work. The classification proposes five verb classes, including the three just mentioned: a class for processes (“to walk” belongs to this class), a class of state verbs and gradual transitions (a member of which is “to love”) and a class for culminations (“to write” belongs to this class). Processes are non-instantaneous events which have no particular properties; it is possible to look at them either as ongoing (imperfective), or as finished (perfective). State verbs are also non instantaneous. Their imperfective use corresponds to a vision of the state as holding, whereas (as was already mentioned) their perfective use has an inchoative reading. Culminations have an imperfective variant and two perfective ones: one for events that have culminated, another for event that have not culminated. Now, our aim is to translate simple Polish sentences like those just discussed into logical formulas that encode their meaning. More precisely, we are interested in obtaining logical formulas that give an account of the sentence’s temporal and aspectual properties suitable for theorem proving and model building purposes. This means we should choose a logic that makes it easy to distinguish various kinds of entities (for example, ordinary individuals and events) and that lends itself naturally to semantic construction. To achieve these goals we will use a higher-order typed logic called $TY_4$. This logic belongs to the $TY_n$ family of logics. This family of logics has long been advocated by Muskens (see, for example, [@musk:mean96]) as an appropriate logical setting for natural language semantics. The four basic vocabulary types we shall build the formulas of this logic over (in addition to the type of truth-values which is always included in $TY_n$ theories) are: entity : : for individuals and objects; time : : for moments of time; event : : for the events introduced by verbs; kind : : to classify events into kinds. The first type (entity) will certainly be familiar to the reader used to Montague-style semantic construction. The second type, time, is clearly needed to give an account of notions like past, present and future. The abstract entities known as events (introduced by [@Davidson]) are a convenient object one can use to talk about actions introduced by verbs. Each verb introduces an event, which is then used to record additional information about the action the verb describes. For example, if the verb “to eat” introduces an event $e$, then the fact that the entity doing the eating is $x$ will be encoded as ${\textsc agent}(e,x)$, the fact that the eaten entity is $y$ will be encoded as ${\textsc patient}(e,y)$, and so on. Event-based representations for the verbs make it easy to attach additional information, for example information contributed by verb modifiers; for each modifier, one simply introduces a binary predicate whose first argument is the event of interest and whose second argument is the piece of information to be attached to this event. Finally, every event has a kind, and we assume that each verb picks out a distinct kind of event. The logic we work with makes use of the following binary predicates relating events and times: - ${\emph inception}(e,t)$ means that the event $e$ starts to take place at the moment $t$; - ${\emph conc}(e,t)$ means that the event $e$ ends at the moment $t$; - ${\textsc induration}(e,t)$ means that the event $e$ is going on at the moment $t$; - ${\textsc ek}(e,k)$ means that the event $e$ is of kind $k$. In addition, it has the following binary relation which relates times: - ${\emph lt}(t,t')$ means that time $t$ is before time $t'$. Furthermore, it has the following binary relation between events: - ${\emph culm}(e,e')$ means that event $e'$ is the culmination of event $e$. This relation plays a key role in analysing the semantics of verbs like “napisal/popisal”. There are also number of other unary relations involving events (such as *culminated*($e$)), and a temporal constant [<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">n</span>ow]{} to represent the time of utterance. The way these items are inter-related will be formally spelt out in Section \[theTheory\]. Computing semantic representations ================================== Before turning to the formal specification of the theory of time and events, we shall briefly outline the process that allows us to automatically translate Polish sentences into a logical formula over the vocabulary introduced in the previous section. This process is done in three steps: parsing, computing a semantic representation in higher-order logic, and translating this representation to plain first-order logic. The translation process uses a modified version of the architecture. Parsing ------- The parsing is done using a Prolog DCG. It parses the text given as input and produces a syntax tree reflecting its structure. The leaves of this tree can be labelled either by a word and its syntactic category, or by an operator encoding a verb’s temporal and aspectual meaning. For example, here is the parse tree produced for the sentence “Piotr pospaceruje” (Piotr will have walked): binary(s, unary(np, leaf(piotr, pn)), binary(vp, leaf(pastiv, op), leaf(pospacerowac, iv)) ) The first and third leaves refer to lexical entries, whereas the second carries an operator. This operator indicates that the verb carried by the following leaf is in the past. Computing higher-order logic representations -------------------------------------------- This step is performed by an external tool that has been especially developed to compute semantic representations from a parse tree. The tool is called , and it takes as input a parse tree similar to the one just presented and a lexicon specifying the semantic representation for each word; it was designed to handle the $TY_n$ family of logics. Thus for present purposes we simply declare to the four basic vocabulary types we have selected (namely entity, time, event, and kind) and is then equipped to handle the higher-order language they give rise to. The simply typed lambda-calculus lies at the heart of the $TY_n$ family of logics, and handles such tasks as type-checking and $\beta$-reduction. In other words, the work does is very much inspired by Musken’s adaptation of Montague’s original approach to natural language semantics. The output of this second step of processing is, generally speaking, a typed lambda-term. In our temporal representations, once has $\beta$-reduced the term, there will be neither applications nor abstractions present in the final formula. In other words, the semantic formula provided by this second step is close to a genuine first-order formula, the only difference being that the variables occurring in the term are typed. To continue with our example, would compute the following representation for the sentence: $ \exists t : {\textsc time}. \exists e : {\textsc event}. ( {\textsc lt}({\textsc now},t) \wedge {\textsc ek}(e,{\textsc spacerowac}) \\ \mbox{ } \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \wedge {\textsc agent}(e, {\textsc piotr}) \wedge {\textsc conc}(e,t) ). $ From higher-order to first-order representations ------------------------------------------------ In logical semantics there are important trade-offs between higher-order and first-order logics. As Montague, Muskens and others have demonstrated, higher-order logics are a natural medium for specifying semantic theories: their expressivity allows semantic representations for all syntactic categories to be given (and entailment relations between them to be stated). Moreover, the fact that they incorporate the simply typed lambda calculus gives a uniform and simple approach to semantic construction. But higher-order approaches have a drawback. They are inherently more complex than first-order approaches. Because of this, relatively few automated reasoning tools exist for higher-order logics, and those that do are not particularly efficient. But all is not lost. As formal semanticists have long known, in natural language semantics, the higher-order constructs typically produce representations which are very close to first-order ones. So, if we could translate the $TY_n$ expressions output by into first-order logic, we could have the best of both worlds. At first glance, it could seem that the only thing to do to convert a higher-order formula (like the one shown above) into a first-order one is to remove the types. In fact, things are slightly more complex than this, as the following example should make clear. Consider the formula: $\Phi=\forall X : \tau P(x)$, where $\tau$ is a type. If we throw types away too quickly, we get as candidate for a first-order translation of $\Phi$: $\Phi'=\forall X P(X)$. But $\Phi$ and $\Phi'$ don’t have the same meaning: the former formula states that the predicate $P$ holds for every object of type $\tau$, whereas the latter claims that $P$ holds for every object, no matter what its type is. A semantically correct translation can however be obtained, with the help of a unary predicate that characterizes the object of type $\tau$. With the help of such a predicate (which will be written $\tau'$), it becomes possible to propose a semantically correct translation of $\Phi$ in first-order logic: $\Phi''=\forall X (\tau'(X) \rightarrow P(X))$. To obtain a complete specification of a translation function translating higher-order formulas into firs-order formulas, a similar trick should be used for the existential quantifier: $\exists X : \tau P(X)$ is translated to $\exists X (\tau'(X) \wedge P(X))$. The translation of other formulas is straightforward. The complete translation mechanism has been implemented in which can on demand produce either higher-order or first-order semantic representations. Thus, here is the final first-order representation we get for our initial sentence: $ \exists t (\textsc{time}(t) \wedge \exists e (\textsc{event}(e) \\ \mbox{ } \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \wedge \textsc{lt}(\textsc{now},t) \wedge \textsc{ek}(e,\textsc{spacerowac})\\ \mbox{ } \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \wedge \textsc{agent}(e, \textsc{piotr}) \wedge \textsc{conc}(e,t) )). $ A first-order theory of time and events {#theTheory} ======================================= We are interested in computationally modeling tense and aspectual distinctions. In particular, we want to derive logical representations useful for model building purposes. But we have not yet achieved this goal. Although can output first-order representations, simply giving such representations to a first-order model builder won’t give us what we want, for as yet we have said nothing about how the various symbols we are using are interrelated. For example, the previous representation talks about an event taking place in the future, as the $\textsc{lt}(\textsc{now},t)$ conjunct makes clear. A model for such a representation should of course reflect this. But nothing in the representation itself prevents the model builder from identifying $t$ with <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">now</span>, or from building a model where both $\textit{now}< t$ and $t < \textit{now}$ hold, as we have said nothing about the properties of <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">now</span> or <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span> or how they are related. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. It is relatively clear what properties <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span> should have (for example, it should be transitive) but many other constraints (notably on the way times and events are interrelated) need to be expressed too. In short: to automatically compute models for a semantic representation, we need to work with respect to a theory of time and events, and the purpose of this section is to sketch the theory we use. In essence, the theory we need should take into account some basic typing facts (for example that two objects of different types can not be identified, and that predicates impose typing constraints over their arguments), structural properties of time (such as the transitivity of <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span>), and, most importantly of all, the way times and events are inter-related. The following sections give first-order axioms which formalise the required constraints. We won’t give all the axioms (for example, we omit all axioms covering events for verb classes not discussed here) but we have given enough to convey a flavour of what is required to carry out model building for tense and aspectual information. Type definitions ---------------- The following axioms state that the set of elements of the models should be partitioned by the four types we use: event, kind, time and entity. The following two axioms are typical: not\_event\_entity : $\forall$A$\neg$(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">event</span>(A) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">entity</span>(A))\ not\_entity\_time : $\forall$A$\neg$(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">entity</span>(A) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">time</span>(A))\ There is also an axiom stating that every object should belong to at least one type. Typing constraints ------------------ Another family of axioms reflects the typing constraints imposed by the predicates over their arguments. For example, the binary predicate <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">agent</span> requires that its first argument is an event and that its second argument is an entity. The following is a sample of such axioms: now\_type:\ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">time</span>(now)\ lt\_type:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span>(A,B) $\to$ (<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">time</span>(A) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">time</span>(B)))\ agent\_type:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">agent</span>(A,B) $\to$ (<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">event</span>(A) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">entity</span>(B)))\ conc\_type:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">conc</span>(A,B) $\to$ (<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">event</span>(A) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">time</span>(B)))\ inception\_type:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">inception</span>(A,B) $\to$ (<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">event</span>(A) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">time</span>(B)))\ ek\_type:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">ek</span>(A,B) $\to$ (<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">event</span>(A) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">kind</span>(B)))\ Structure of time ----------------- The previous two groups of axioms were essentially organisational: they laid out the basic constraints individuating types and imposed restrictions and requirements on the relations the various types of entity could enter into. We are now ready to turn to more substantial axioms, that is, axioms that impose structure on our ontology. The simplest such axioms are those regulating the temporal part of the ontology. The following requirements are standard (see for example [@vb1]): lt\_irreflexive:\ $\forall$A$\neg$<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span>(A,A)\ lt\_transitive:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\forall$C((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span>(B,C)) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span>(A,C))\ lt\_total:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">time</span>(A) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">time</span>(B)) $\to$ (<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span>(A,B) $\lor$ (<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">eq</span>(A,B) $\lor$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span>(B,A))))\ Other axioms could be imposed (such as the requirement that every point has a successor, or that the structure of time is dense) but for present purposes we won’t make use of such options. Instead we will turn to the heart of our formalisation, namely its treatment of events and the way they interact with time. This part draws on and generalises ideas presented in [@baf] and [@mas]. Structure of events ------------------- This group of axioms is itself divided into three parts, namely general axioms regulating the relationship between times and events, axioms for instantaneous events, and axioms for culminations (actually, in the full version of the theory there are axioms constraining the events required for other verb classes, but we omit them here). ### Relating times and events The following is a sample of the axioms we use to regulate the interplay between the structure of time and the structure of events. As a rough mental picture, it may be useful to think of events as hanging from the temporal structure (a bit like balloons hanging by string from a long stick). The following axioms (which have been abstracted from [@baf]) then ensure that the two kinds of entity are properly coordinated: agent\_unique:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\forall$C((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">agent</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">agent</span>(A,C)) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">eq</span>(B,C))\ event\_has\_inception:\ $\forall$A(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">event</span>(A) $\to$ $\exists$B<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">inception</span>(A,B))\ inception\_unique:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\forall$C((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">inception</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">inception</span>(A,C)) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">eq</span>(B,C))\ event\_has\_conc:\ $\forall$A(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">event</span>(A) $\to$ $\exists$B<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">conc</span>(A,B))\ conc\_unique:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\forall$C((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">conc</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">conc</span>(A,C)) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">eq</span>(B,C))\ inception\_not\_after\_conc:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\forall$C((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">inception</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">conc</span>(A,C)) $\to$ $\neg$<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span>(C,B))\ duration\_before\_conc:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\forall$C((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">induration</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">conc</span>(A,C)) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span>(B,C))\ not\_inception\_and\_induration:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\neg$(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">inception</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">induration</span>(A,B))\ not\_induration\_and\_conc:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\neg$(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">induration</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">conc</span>(A,B))\ ### Instantaneous events Our account of the semantics of culmination (which is essential for some Polish verbs) makes use of the notion of instantaneous events. There are a number of plausible ways of axiomatising this notion. For model building purposes, we work with the following axioms: instantaneous\_definition\_1:\ $\forall$A(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">instantaneous</span>(A) $\to$ $\exists$B(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">inception</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">conc</span>(A,B)))\ instantaneous\_definition\_2:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">event</span>(A) $\to$ ((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">inception</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">conc</span>(A,B)) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">instantaneous</span>(A)))\ Note that the second axiom is the converse of the first. ### Culminations We turn to the semantics of culmination. In essence, this part of our theory formalises key ideas from Moens and Steedman [@mas]. That is, we view eventualities such as writing a book as a relation between *two* events. The first event is the lead-up, or preparatory process, for example the act of writing. The second event (which we view as instantaneous) is the event of culmination, in the case the event of finishing the book. Sometimes the culmination is not achieved, and Moens and Steedman use evocative terminology to describe what goes on in this case: they talk of the eventuality being “stripped” of its culmination. To use their terminology, Polish lexicalises the distinction between stripped (for example “popisal”) and unstripped (for example “napisal”) eventualities. The following axioms capture these ideas in a form suitable for model building: culm\_unique:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\forall$C((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(A,C)) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">eq</span>(B,C))\ culm\_injective:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\forall$C((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(A,C) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(B,C)) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">eq</span>(A,B))\ culm\_no\_fixpoint:\ $\forall$A$\neg$<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(A,A)\ culm\_antisymmetric:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(A,B) $\to$ $\neg$<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(B,A))\ culm\_preserves\_agent:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\forall$C((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">agent</span>(A,C)) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">agent</span>(B,C))\ culm\_preserves\_patient:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\forall$C((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">patient</span>(A,C)) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">patient</span>(B,C))\ culm\_preserves\_kind:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\forall$C((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">ek</span>(A,C)) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">ek</span>(B,C))\ culm\_inception:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B$\forall$C((<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(A,B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">conc</span>(A,C)) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">inception</span>(B,C))\ culm\_imp\_instantaneous:\ $\forall$A$\forall$B(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(A,B) $\to$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">instantaneous</span>(B))\ culminated\_definition:\ $\forall$A(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culminated</span>(A) $\to$ $\exists$B(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">event</span>(B) $\land$ <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culm</span>(A,B)))\ culminated\_imp\_not\_instantaneous:\ $\forall$A(<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">culminated</span>(A) $\to$ $\neg$<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">instantaneous</span>(A))\ A first model ------------- With the help of the previously given axioms, a model builder will generate far more reasonable models than the one mentioned at the beginning of this section. As an example, here is the model produced by the [Paradox]{} model builder for the sentence “Piotr pospaceruje” (Piotr will have walked): D=[d1,d2,d3,d4,d5] f(0, spacerowac, d2) f(0, piotr, d1) f(0, now, d5) f(2, inception, [(d3,d5)]) f(1, entity, [d1]) f(2, ek, [(d3,d2)]) f(1, event, [d3]) f(2, lt, [(d5,d4)]) f(1, kind, [d2]) f(2, agent, [(d3,d1)]) f(1, process, [d2]) f(2, conc, [(d3,d4)]) f(1, time, [d4,d5]) f(1, instantaneous, []) Roughly speaking, this model describes a situation where Piotr starts to walk right now and finishes its walk at some point in the future. Building non-minimal models =========================== Although the situation described in the model we just built is realistic, it is not the only realistic situation the sentence describes. It is compatible with the semantics of Polish perfective verbs in the present tense that Piotr has already walked for a long time, or that his walk has not started yet but will start later in the future. That is, this particular combination of tense and aspectual information underspecify the temporal profile of the situations of interest. However model builders typically will *not* find these other models. Why not? Because they are not *minimal*. Model builder attempt to find the smallest model they can, and in the above example it has identified `d5` with both `now` and with the inception of event `d3`. This gives rise to a perfectly legitimate model — but the strategy of identifying points when possible rules out the other two semantic options just mentioned. The other model are non-minimal because they do *not* identify the time of utterance with the inception time. And one of these models may well turn out to be the one required for processing subsequent sentences. So we need to do more, and this section presents an algorithm which returns a list of [*all*]{} the realistic situations, as far as tense and aspect are concerned. The input of this algorithm is a model similar to the one shown in the previous section. The output models can be seen as perturbations of the initial one. The construction procedure takes place in two steps. First, a generation step produces a list of possible models. Second, a selection step is used to filter out those models that actually satisfy both the initial semantic representation and the axioms. The second step essentially uses first-order model checking as described in [@BlackburnBos:2005], so we focus here on the generation step. Our initial input are a sentence $S$, its representation $R$ as a first-order formula, and a theory $T$ of time and events (such as the one given in the previous section). The formula $R$ is supposed closed and consistent with $T$. Thus, there is a model $M_0$ of $T$ in which $R$ is satisfiable. Our purpose is, starting from $M_0$, to build the set ${\cal M}_f$ of all non-isomorphic “minimal perturbations” of models of $T$ in which $R$ is satisfiable. First, we build a set ${\cal M}_i$ of candidate models. All the generated models can be seen as perturbations of the initial model $M_0$. The part of $M_0$ that is not related to time and events will be the same for all the produced models. The variations from model to model only affect the points denoting moments in time and relations those points belong to. To put it more precisely, the constant part of the final models (which will be called the [*core*]{} in the rest of this paper), is obtained by removing the time-related information from $M_0$. For instance, if $M_0$ is the model given previously, then its core is: D=[d1,d2,d3] f(0, piotr, d1) f(1, entity, [d1]) f(0, spacerowac, d2) f(1, event, [d3]) f(2, agent, [(d3,d1)]) f(1, kind, [d2]) f(2, ek, [(d3,d2)]) f(1, instantaneous, []) f(1, process, [d2]) From the core model, we build another intermediate model, where all the significant moments in time are represented by distinct points. By significant moment, we mean those moments where something happens. We start by adding a point which interprets the constant <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">now</span>. Then, we go through the events present in the core model, and for every event $e$ we proceed as follows: 1. If $e$ is instantaneous, one point $d_k$ is added, and the pair $(e,d_k)$ is added to the <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">inception</span> and <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">conc</span> binary relations; 2. If $e$ is not instantaneous, we examine the relations <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">inception</span>, [induration]{} and <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">conc</span> of the model $M_0$. For each of these binary relations $R$ in which $e$ is involved, we add a new point $d_i$ and extend the relation $R$ of the currently built model with the pair $(e,d_i)$. Applying this algorithm to the core seen previously yields the following intermediate model: D=[d1,d2,d3,d4,d5,d6] f(0, piotr, d1) f(1, entity, [d1]) f(0, spacerowac, d2) f(1, event, [d3]) f(0, now, d4) f(1, instantaneous, []) f(2, ek, [(d3,d2)]) f(1, kind, [d2]) f(2, conc, [(d3,d6)]) f(1, process, [d2]) f(2, agent, [(d3,d1)]) f(1, time, [d4,d5,d6]) f(2, inception, [(d3,d5)]) The model obtained after this extension step is quasi-complete. The only missing part is the <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span> relation specifying how the moments just introduced are ordered. What we do is that we generate all the possible orders (called successions) and, for each succession, we build the associated model. The number of possible successions grows exponentially with the considered number of moments: $2$ moments $x$ and $y$ give $3$ possible successions ($x<y$, $x=y$, $y<x$), $3$ moments give $13$ successions, $4$ moments give $75$ successions. Before a succession is used to complete a model, it is simplified. The simplification consists in replacing all the elements that denote the same moment in time by one single element. For example, the succession $d_i=d_j$ would be replaced by a single element $d_k$, and a mapping would be generated to rename both $d_i$ and $d_j$ to $d_k$. This substitution must of course be applied to the intermediate model so that the merges are taken into account correctly. What we get as result of the succession simplification process is a list of moments in time, and a substitution to be applied to the intermediate model. The order of the elements in the list encodes there chronological order. The final model corresponding to one given succession is hence obtained from the intermediate model by performing the two following steps: 1. Apply the substitution provided by the succession’s simplification; 2. If $x_1,\ldots,x_n$ is the list of moments returned by the succession’s simplification, every pair $(x_i,x_j)$ such that $1<i < j<n$ is added to the <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span> relation. This ensures that the properties of <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">lt</span> such as its transitivity and irreflexivity will hold in the new model. This marks the end of the first (generation) step we mentioned before. Since the intermediate model we presented before makes use of $3$ moments in time, we obtain $13$ possible successions, hence $13$ possible models. This $13$ models are tested (using a first-order model checker) to see which really satisfy both the semantic representation and the theory $T$. Finally, three models are kept. The first is the initial model $M_0$ The second looks like this: D=[d1,d2,d3,d4,d5,d6] f(0, piotr, d1) f(1, entity, [d1]) f(0, spacerowac, d2) f(1, event, [d3]) f(0, now, d4) f(1, instantaneous, []) f(2, ek, [(d3,d2)]) f(1, kind, [d2]) f(2, agent, [(d3,d1)]) f(1, process, [d2]) f(2, conc, [(d3,d6)]) f(1, time, [d4,d5,d6]) f(2, inception, [(d3,d5)]) f(2, lt, [(d5,d4),(d5,d6),(d4,d6)]) As required, this corresponds to a situation where the walking event starts in the past. The third model differs from the second only in the information on the temporal ordering, which looks like this: f(2, lt, [(d4,d5),(d4,d6),(d5,d6)]) In this model the walking event starts in the future. The algorithm also finds the possible models for the other example sentences we talked about in section 2. For the sentence “Piotr pokochal Aline”, the system provides the three distinct models. On the other hand “Piotr napisal list” and “Piotr popisal list” only have one model each. The external model builder finds this model, and our algorithm correctly concludes that the model cannot be perturbed. Conclusion ========== In this paper we have discussed a logic-based approach to modeling temporal information, and in particular, information about tense and aspect. Our approach has been general and generic. On the representational side, we have used a tool called which allows us to specify temporal (and other ontologies) within the generous expressive limits provided by $TY_n$. On the inference side we have provided a first-order theory which, although inspired by work on English, seems general enough to provide analyses of tense and aspect in other languages. Finally, we have provided an algorithm which allows us to perturb the temporal component of models in the hope of finding non-minimal but semantically significant variants. This algorithm is not dependent on the axiomatic choices made in this paper; in fact (as we have discovered) is a very useful tool when one is investigating the effects that varying the underlying theory can have. Much remains to be done. For a start, the work reported here does not consider many other important temporal phenomena, such as dates, temporal prepositions, and temporal adverbs. Furthermore, it is not integrated with a theory of discourse structure; incorporating the ideas reported here into a Discourse Representation Theory (DRT) based approach would be a natural path to investigate. We plan to turn to such extensions shortly.

For what it’s worth while I think it’s daft for the strike to take place (it’ll damage the entire company in the long run), it seems clear a deal exists that the staff would accept, yet BA are with-holding it so they can take on the union. In essence it’s a game of chicken between the unions and BA/Willie Whitelaw or whatever his name is. The thing is the company itself will lose whatever the outcome. 2 thoughts on “Labour’s no-win situation with the Unite/BA case…” Alex, you say a deal exists, but BA are withholding it. This, I take it, is based on the request that Unite have made that BA put back on the table a proposal that they had offered last week. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but Unite rejected that offer, and chose to go ahead with the strike action. So, the offer was no good last week, but now it’s suddenly okay? That to me is just grandstanding by the union. If it was good enough to put to the staff by the union last week, why wasn’t it?

On the other hand regularly gumshoe police work by local law enforcement and the FBI DID succeed at protecting American citizens. In an interview in London in April 2008, I remind F.B.I. director Robert Mueller of the attacks planned against targets on American soil since 9/11 that his agents have disrupted: for example, a plot to kill soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and another to wreak mayhem at army recruiting centers and synagogues in and around Torrance, California. These and other homegrown conspiracies were foiled by regular police work. The F.B.I. learned of the Fort Dix plot from a Circuit City store where a technician raised the alarm when asked to copy firearms-training videos, while the Torrance cell was rounded up when cops probed the backgrounds of two of its members after they allegedly robbed a local gas station. No waterborading, no wide-net of electronic surveillance, just a reasonable TIP and good follow up. Like the tip by one Pheonix FBI Agent in 2001 that I've got some guys where who want to fly planes, but don't much care about landing them. Time and time again we hear "The Tactics were Necessary" or "There was no other way", but clearly there IS another way. A way that works. Furthermore, what seems more and more apparent from the various sources which are now coming forward in conjunction with the Levin Report from the Senate Armed Services Committee is that torture under the Bush Administration wasn't used to provide information to save Americans, it was used to proved information to save Bush's Foreign Policy, and justify the Iraq War Several of those I interviewed point out the dearth of specific claims the administration has proffered. "The proponents of torture say, ‘Look at the body of information that has been obtained by these methods.’ But if K.S.M. and Abu Zubaydah did give up stuff, we would have heard the details," says Cloonan. "What we got was pabulum." A former C.I.A. officer adds: "Why can’t they say what the good stuff from Abu Zubaydah or K.S.M. is? It’s not as if this is sensitive material from a secret, vulnerable source. You’re not blowing your source but validating your program. They say they can’t do this, even though five or six years have passed, because it’s a ‘continuing operation.’ But has it really taken so long to check it all out?" Officials who analyzed Abu Zubaydah’s interrogation reports say that the reports were afforded the highest value within the Bush administration not because of the many American lives they were going to save but because they could be cited repeatedly against those who doubted the wisdom of ousting Saddam by force. "We didn’t know he’d been waterboarded and tortured when we did that analysis, and the reports were marked as credible as they could be," the former Pentagon analyst tells me. "The White House knew he’d been tortured. I didn’t, though I was supposed to be evaluating that intelligence." To draw conclusions about the importance of what Abu Zubaydah said without knowing this crucial piece of the background nullified the value of his work. "It seems to me they were using torture to achieve a political objective. I cannot believe that the president and vice president did not know who was being waterboarded, and what was being given up." Oh, I think the did know. Particularly since Zubaydah and KSM weren't the only ones this technique was used against. Ibn Shayk Al-Libi, an associate of Zubaydah who was captured and tortured in Egypt, was the primary source of information that Iraq had provided chemical weapons training to Al Qeada. Guess what, this information was false Just like the information that Iraq posseses "Mobile Weapons Labs" come from a former Iraqi who had relocated to Germany named Rafid Alwan, aka Curveball. (See this Report from BBC Newsnight) who was also, like, al-Libi, Lying. The information provided by Curveball and al-Libi together led us into unneccesary and tragic War with an Unarmed Nation. And many others were coercively mistreated and suffered in The Black Sites, Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and Bagram AFB in order to help bolster their false claims. Tortured to provide Lies to justify other lies. We have to come to grips with the fact that the U.S. deliberately waged a Campaign of Terror across the middle-east all based on LIES! What needs to be asked now is not just what information we received through "enhanced interrogation" but also - how much of that information was BULLSHIT and led us down rat-holes and on wild-goose chases like the "Liberty City Six". It really doesn't matter if any of these claims were ever true, because if so it probably wasn't necessary to go these lengths, most likely the reason they were "resistant" is because the questions being asked were bogus, and by using these methods all we've done is get more bad information. Bad information that cost far more lives than any of the "good" information (assuming there somehow is any that the FBI director doesn't know about) may have saved. Garbage In, garbage out. Vyan

Effect of sacral neuromodulation on the spinal nociceptive reflex of patients with idiopathic overactive bladder. Objectives. Sacral root stimulation (SRS) is a technique to restore the idiopathic overactive bladder (IOB). However, its mechanism of action is yet to be elucidated. Hence, we studied whether SRS restored IOB through the mechanism of spinal neuromodulation. Materials and Methods. Six IOB patients and 10 healthy volunteers were included in the study. The spinal nociceptive reflex was used as the index of spinal excitability and was evoked by electrical stimulation at the foot, with recording at the ipsilateral tibialis anterior. Results. IOB patients had increased spinal excitability to somatic nociceptive stimuli of the lower limbs. This spinal excitability decreased and bladder function improved after SRS, an effect that outlasted actual stimulation by at least 30 min. Conclusions. Our results showed that spinal excitability was increased in response to somatic nociceptive afferents in IOB patients. SRS restored bladder function, at least, in part, through spinal neuromodulation.

# CVS $Revision$ $Author$ -- Sat Nov 23 14:46:39 2013 -- reformated by prettylst.pl v1.50 (build 22134) CAMPAIGN:Faiths of Corruption GAMEMODE:Pathfinder|Pathfinder_PFS TYPE:Paizo Publishing.Pathfinder Player Companion STATUS:BETA GENRE:Fantasy BOOKTYPE:Supplement SETTING:Pathfinder|Golarion PRECAMPAIGN:2,INCLUDESBOOKTYPE=Core Rules,INCLUDES=Advanced Player's Guide PUBNAMELONG:Paizo Inc. PUBNAMESHORT:Paizo PUBNAMEWEB:http://paizo.com/ SOURCELONG:Pathfinder Player Companion: Faiths of Corruption SOURCESHORT:FOC SOURCEWEB:http://paizo.com/products/btpy8odc SOURCEDATE:2011-10 RANK:201110 ISOGL:YES COVER:faiths_of_corruption.jpg LOGO:@/publisher_logos/Paizo_Publishing.png URL:WEBSITE|http://www.paizo.com/|Visit Paizo Publishing! URL:WEBSITE|http://www.paizo.com/communityuse|Paizo's Community Use Policy. URL:Paizo Publishing|http://paizo.com/products/btpy8odc|Buy this publication from Paizo Publishing! DESC:Morality is the shield of the weak. Followers of the evil gods know the truth - that the world is a harsh and uncaring place, and that only strength and cunning matter. From the crafty acolytes of the assassin god Norgorber to the howling hordes of Lamashtu the Demon Queen, the servants of dark gods need not fear the night, for they strive to be the most terrifying thing in it. Some may seek to justify their actions, yet others flock to blood-soaked banners with bitter joy, desiring nothing more than the chance to join in the fiery destruction of all things. INFOTEXT:This dataset uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., which are used under Paizo's Community Use Policy. We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. This dataset is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo Publishing. For more information about Paizo's Community Use Policy, please visit paizo.com/communityuse. For more information about Paizo Publishing and Paizo products, please visit paizo.com. COPYRIGHT:Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. COPYRIGHT:System Reference Document Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc; Authors: Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. COPYRIGHT:Pathfinder Player Companion: Faiths of Corruption Copyright 2011, Paizo Inc.; Author: Colin McComb. COPYRIGHT:PCGen dataset conversion for "Pathfinder Player Companion: Faiths of Corruption" Copyright 2013, PCGen Data Team (including, but not limited to Stefan Radermacher, Paul Grosse, and Andrew Maitland) # Do not remove the EXTRAFILE comment. #EXTRAFILE:OGL.txt # PFS Rules # # Data files ABILITY:foc_abilities.lst DEITY:foc_deities.lst ABILITY:foc_feats.lst SKILL:foc_skills.lst SPELL:foc_spells.lst # Out of set data files WEAPONPROF:@/pathfinder/paizo/campaign_setting/inner_sea_world_guide/iswg_profs_weapon.lst # Forward References FORWARDREF:DOMAIN|Scalykind,Void # Data Beta Review by Andrew Maitland # License Review by Paul Grosse # # End #

Unpacking cognitive emotion regulation in eating disorder psychopathology: The differential relationships between rumination, thought suppression, and eating disorder symptoms among men and women. While previous literature suggests that emotion dysregulation is a salient factor contributing to the onset and maintenance of eating disorders (EDs), less is known about how maladaptive, cognitively oriented regulation strategies such as rumination and thought suppression may be uniquely related to ED symptoms in men and women. The present study sought to examine the independent associations of ruminative brooding and thought suppression with ED symptoms, after controlling for negative affect intensity, and assess whether these associations differ by gender. Participants were 263 undergraduates who completed a series of questionnaires, including measures of ED symptoms (Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale), ruminative brooding (Ruminative Response Scale), and thought suppression (White Bear Suppression Inventory). Generalized linear models examined main effects of ruminative brooding and thought suppression and their interactions with gender on ED symptoms, controlling for negative affect intensity. Higher ruminative brooding was associated with higher binge eating among women. Thought suppression was associated with higher vomiting and fasting frequency in both genders, with a stronger association between suppression and fasting in men compared to women. Together results demonstrate the unique contributions of cognitive perseveration and avoidance in ED symptomatology; specifically, ruminative brooding may be a salient factor contributing to binge eating in women, while high levels of thought suppression among males may contribute to fasting. Findings highlight the potential importance of examining and differentially targeting specific facets of cognitive emotion regulation in men and women engaging in ED behaviors.

Summary Global Digital Clamp Meters Market Professional Survey Report 2017 Press Release This report studies Digital Clamp Meters in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.

Q: Named functions vs anonymous functions Sometimes I see these kind of examples coming by, and I am wondering whats the use of it. I mean this.methodA = function methodA(){} why is this? The only thing I can imagine is to use it without this when you have an issue with scoping. Anybody an idea? function MyModule() { this.myMethod = function myMethod() { alert( 'my method' ); }; this.myOtherMethod = function myOtherMethod() { alert( 'my other method' ); }; } // Versus: function MyModule() { this.myMethod = function () { alert( 'my method' ); }; this.myOtherMethod = function () { alert( 'my other method' ); }; } A: The main advantage of named function expressions over anonymous ones is that their name will show up in debuggers (stacktraces etc) which makes it a lot easier to figure out what is going on when something goes wrong. A named function can also be called using its name from within its own scope. This is useful for creating recursive functions.

package com.tonikelope.megabasterd; /** * * @author tonikelope */ public interface TransferenceView { void pause(); void stop(String status); void resume(); void updateSpeed(String speed, Boolean visible); void updateProgressBar(long progress, double bar_rate); void updateProgressBar(int value); void updateSlotsStatus(); int getSlots(); void printStatusNormal(String msg); void printStatusOK(String msg); void printStatusError(String msg); }

Follow Us Your In the Loop team Editors: Hoyt, Nicole, Liza and Cory. Contact us at [email protected]. Share this: October 23, 2014 From Caregiver to Patient: Tracey’s Survivor Story By In the Loop In 2012, Tracey Samuelson noticed that her left breast looked different than the right. She chalked it up to the rigors of childbirth and breastfeeding. Besides, she told herself, there wasn't a lump. Still, when she went for a routine physical exam at the beginning of 2013, the change in her breast was still in the back of her mind. So she mentioned it to her primary care provider, Joanna Setla, M.D., who suggested Tracey have a mammogram … just in case. Expecting to go back home immediately afterward, Tracey, a triage nurse in Orthopedics at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, was surprised when Dr. Setla asked her to stick around. Her surprise turned to concern when a second mammogram was ordered, followed by an ultrasound. Then Dr. Setla sat Tracey down and told her they needed to call a surgeon. David Ciresi, M.D., confirmed what Tracey feared: she had breast cancer. "I sat there and listened and tried to remember all the important information I had learned about breast cancer so I could prepare myself better," she tells the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. "Nothing prepared me for the moment when my doctor said I would lose my hair. I broke down and finally realized this was happening to me." Tracey was told she would need to go through intense chemotherapy and radiation treatments. As a nurse, she knew exactly what the side effects would be, she tells Eau Claire's WQOW-TV. It was the loss of her hair that scared her the most. "People see right away," she says. "You look sick when you don't have hair." But, as Tracey said in a speech at the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk last weekend in Eau Claire, she decided to turn that fear upside down by allowing her two daughters to cut her hair for her. Her husband, Tim, who also works for Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, gave the girls finger paint so they could add their own artistic touch to Tracey's new look. "They made my worst fear into one of my best memories," Tracey said. "No one was crying. We were all laughing." They stuck with that approach through it all -- the chemo, the radiation and reconstructive surgeries -- until the day finally came when her doctors said the word she and her family had been hoping to hear: remission. Tracey says she'll be forever grateful to her Mayo care team (also her colleagues) for providing her with the same level of care she herself has tried to give to her own patients. "They helped me to start feeling comfortable about telling my story," she says. You can hear Tracey talk more about her breast cancer story in the video below, created by Mayo Clinic Health System. Then show us a thing or two by sharing your comments and by sharing this story with others.

Introduction ============ The reference point for psychiatry is the subjective experience of the person at hand. Prereflexive experience is undeniable and cannot be rejected, though a person can have doubts about the solidity or trueness of his experience. This prereflexive certainty of one\'s own experience is also true in paranoia and raises the question: how can a psychiatrist be so sure about the diagnosis of delusional convictions? In this paper I will first demonstrate that this question is still valid for us today. I will then discuss the relationship of delusional convictions and psychiatric knowledge in three dimensions: a) on the level of psychiatric knowledge including its historical background, which appears like a legacy to modern psychiatry; b) with regard to the psychiatrist as a person with self-critical abilities, c) with regard to the deluded person as an existence. Basically my argument will follow the same path in all three dimensions as outlined by Karl Jaspers (1883-1969): modern psychiatric diagnosis of delusions is a diagnosis of form and not content, which enables the psychiatrist to be self-critical about his professional knowledge and prevents a dogmatic conception of his knowledge. Following Jaspers my argument will focus on the basic structure of delusions and highlights the difference between delusional realities and non-delusional realities, the later are seen in the possibility for self-criticism of one\'s own conscious and explicit convictions. I will demonstrate the importance of this possibility for self-criticism in all three dimensions and will spell out its connections with what, in this paper, shall be called \'paranoid atmosphere\'. Thereby I also develope an understanding of delusions as lived experience which integrates the first-person-perspective of the deluded person. It is the main conclusion of my paper that a deluded person cannot do (with regards to his delusional convictions) what a psychiatrist must do (with regards to his psychiatric knowledge and his existential convictions) in order to prevent a profoundly paranoid atmosphere in their relationship: be self-critical. I. Subjective experience, psychiatric knowledge and delusional convictions -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the following paragraph I will demonstrate that the question \'How can a psychiatrist be so sure about the diagnosis of delusional convictions?\' is still of actual importance since it is in a structural way connected with the relationship between patient and psychiatrist, namely with the interrelation of the first-person-perspective of the patient and the psychiatric knowledge of the psychiatrist. As I already said, the subjective experience of the person at hand is the starting point for psychiatry. Listening carefully and with empathy helps build a good relationship with the patient, which will activate resources for coping with symptoms. Furthermore, it offers the possibility to clarify the wishes, goals and values of the disturbed person, which gives the whole treatment perspective and direction. Yet, when trying to help someone who suffers from mental disorder, more is required than listening carefully and with empathy (though this is important). For a psychiatrist it is also necessary to look behind the report and narrative a person is giving in a situation of clinical exploration. This necessity becomes clear when considering the aims of psychiatric treatment from the patient\'s perspective. These aims are a) the relief of the patient\'s suffering, b) the patient\'s contentment with his way of living - which includes especially the interpersonal dimension - and c) the patient being in charge of his life again. The two last aims are contentious in the medical model, but not for a person-centered psychiatry when taking the first-person-perspective of the concerned person into account \[[@B1]\]. It is this patient\'s perspective that I will focus on in my paper. In order to approach these aims it is not enough simply to feel with the patient empathically. If for example an elder patient is not drinking enough water in hot summer, it is possible that he becomes delirious and developes persecutory delusions. In this situation, it requires more than just feeling with him, but realizing that he is dehydrated and possibly also hyponatraemic. It is necessary to do something that has good evidence on its side to alter the subjective experience positively and to help the person to recover without harming him. In the given example this means starting a careful rehydratation therapy and controlling the sodium concentration in blood serum. For the psychiatrist it is therefore essential to understand the inner psychic structure and conditions predisposing, triggering and maintaining mental disturbances. In other words: psychiatrists are interested in the etiology of mental disturbances of the person at hand from a third-person-perspective as well as from a first-person perspective (subjective experience, inner reality, wishes and values). Psychopathological symptoms are of interest both as a subjective experience the person has to cope with and as a sign for a supposedly underlying pathological process. A psychiatrist can\'t read minds, but armed with professional knowledge and training, he is increasingly able to detect signals people are unconsciously and non-verbally communicating and to become aware of aspects of a person that the person is trying to hide from himself. With regard to this twofold assessment of psychiatric exploration it is not surprising that a psychiatrist is somehow able to look deeply into another person\'s mind, maybe in certain aspects even \"deeper\" than the person himself. In the given example the psychiatrist\'s interpretation that the patient is suffering from dehydration is quite different from the patient\'s view, who is maybe convinced that the KGB is behind it all. Even though the psychiatrist gains no complete insight into another person\'s mind, it is no wonder that people get suspicious about the psychiatrist. Will an atmosphere of suspicion not provoke a more or less suspicious client? Will the suspicious client not hide things thereby provoking suspicion on the part of the psychiatrist? With respect to the necessity of looking behind the subjective experience of the patient and interpreting his symptoms as signs of an underlying psychopathological process, we can state the thesis, that there is a latent paranoid atmosphere in the relationship of psychiatrist and patient. For psychiatry this is an important problem. What if the old man is in fact persecuted by an intelligence service and someone added a diuretic substance in his drink in order to provoke dehydration? Of course this sounds a little odd, but it shows the importance of the question: how can a psychiatrist be so sure about the distinction between delusional and non-delusional realities in his day-to-day business? This problem accompanies psychiatry from the start, as I will show in this paper in the next step. In particular the anti-psychiatric movement criticised the positivistic attitude of psychiatric knowledge in the 60\'s and 70\'s of the last century. As Kotowicz argued, two main lines of argument were formulated: on the one hand, \"madness\" and other mental disturbances were viewed as a reflection of the \"system\" (e.g. the family, psychiatric institutions and treatments, society on the whole) and on the other hand it was observed, that our society and especially psychiatry did not perceive the creative and primary force of \"madness\" and its ancient truths (\[[@B2]\], p. 113). Surely delusions are only a special case of what can be called \"madness\", and there is strong evidence that the \"trouble generator\" of \"madness\" or schizophrenia is not primarily connected with delusions, but with self-disturbances \[[@B3],[@B4]\]. Yet, at the basis of the anti-psychiatric arguments lies a deep scepticism regarding psychiatric knowledge. It is this scepticism that is connected with the question; How can psychiatrists be so sure about their distinctions between delusional and non-delusional realities? This problem was not only addressed by the anti-psychiatric movement in a sceptical way, but already by Karl Jaspers in a more phenomenological one. His solution to the problem, the most favoured in the modern psychiatric discourse, is the insight that a) delusional realities are structured differently than non-delusional realities and b) the main reason for suffering is not the delusional convictions themselves but rather the escalation of these convictions and their taking over the entire reality of the person such that degrees of freedom are decreased. In the following I will argue that this insight, as can be found e.g. in the \"Allgemeine Psychopathologie\" (General Psychopathology) from Karl Jaspers \[[@B5]\] or in modern times in the writings of Michael Musalek \[[@B6]\], highlights and shows the need for self-criticism in psychiatric discourse. As already mentioned, it is my thesis that psychiatrists must be able to reconsider their professional decisions and knowledge with regards to the fact, that human beings are not able to discuss the question \"Who am I?\" exhaustively. II. The \"psychiatric gaze\" and the Enlightenment -------------------------------------------------- In this section I will discuss the early history of psychiatry as an example and legacy of what can happen if psychiatrists do not remind themselves from time to time about the dangers that ensue when psychiatric knowledge becomes dogmatic to the degree that they are deemed by someone to be not falsifiable. It is my thesis that this danger is present if we lose the competence for radical self-critique, because a paranoid atmosphere always lurks in the background of psychiatry as already argued above on behalf of the difference between subjective experience and psychiatric knowledge. Psychiatry developed around 1800 in different European countries and in the United States of America corresponding to a paradigmatic shift in medicine. As Nelly Tsouyopoulos in particular pointed out, the Brunonian system of medicine, a special vitalism developed by John Brown (1735-1788) and focusing on the excitability of the human body\'s tissue, turned the entire concept of disease upside down \[[@B7]\]. Until that time diseases were understood as natural entities (\[[@B8]\], p. 31-35). The basic theme of this former concept is the assumption that every disease has a somewhat typical feature more or less distorted by the individual body it resides in and that it has its own natural course. As a consequence, diseases are deemed to have their own and somewhat different processes than those going on in healthy persons. In this concept delusions were often understood as an obsession with an unfriendly spirit or a toxic miasma. The central aim of treatment is then to help the disease run its natural course, so that the disease can come to its preordained end and the body can be free of the disease again. In order to treat the disease correctly it is indeed necessary to make the correct diagnosis, which is complicated because the original disease is distorted by the individual body it has taken up with for residence. In the new physiological paradigm things are understood totally differently: Diseases are now thought to use normal physiological processes in the human body - partially altering these due to the logics of the processes - and producing themselves using these processes. Symptoms of disease must then be understood as signs of the underlying process of the disease - the dehydration for example - and the job of the medical doctor consists of reading and deciphering the disease written in signs in body or mind of the individual. Another important change concerns the status of subjective well-being, that is distinguished from normal (psycho-)somatic functioning in Brunonianism. Subjective well-being is not simply a different quality of normal bodily functions and pathological functions does not necessarily lead to feeling ill \[[@B7]\]. In modern medicine this is one of the most important differentiations as can be seen especially in chronic diseases. As a consequence of this radical change in understanding the functioning of the human body the concept of diseases as natural entities taking up residence in the human body or mind lost scientific support. This is also true for psychiatric discourse, even though later e.g. Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926), one of the most important founders of psychiatry and especially creator of the distinction of schizophrenia and affective psychoses, assumed schizophrenia (\'Dementia praecox\') to be a natural entity \[[@B9]\]. These dramatic changes in medicine at the end of the 18th century mirrored the process of enlightenment in European culture at that time though the Brunonian system of medicine as well as closely related vitalism needed further enlightment in the future. With regards to the foundation of psychiatry, it is important to note that the enlightening of the inner world of human beings was a widespread cultural interest of enlightened individuals partially motivated by their hope to understand themselves better and was a broad social theme with political power in the awakening societies (\[[@B10]\], p. 397; \[[@B11]\], p. 128). Many psychiatrists at that time agreed on the basic assumption that they could really see the animallike part of the human psyche in madness. They understood the \"psychiatric gaze\" in a way similar to the German doctor Johann Christian Reil (1759-1813), though often with slightly different attitudes or a different philosophical background (\[[@B12]\], p. 273). Johann Christian Reil (1759-1813), official medical doctor of the town in Halle and chair of medicine at the University of Halle from 1787, and from 1810 chair of medicine at the just founded University in Berlin, was the leading person regarding the invention and foundation of psychiatry in Germany, often compared with Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) (\[[@B13]\], p. 21). Reil did not only invent the word psychiatry (\"Psychiaterie\") in 1808, he also wrote an important textbook about psychic disturbances. In his \"Rhapsodies about the exertion of the psychic cure on disrupted mental conditions\" (1803; Rhapsodieen über die Anwendung der psychischen Curmethode auf Geisteszerrüttungen), Reil reflected on psychic disturbances, especially madness, utilizing a mixture of vitalism and natural philosophy as influenced by Schelling \[[@B14]\]. With regard to madness, Reil\'s distinction of a \"Seelenorgan\" (\"organ of the mind\"), localized in the brain, and a \"Gemeingefühl\" (sensus communis), localized in all other parts of the nervous system, are of special interest. Whereas the \"Seelenorgan\" was the central point of the psyche, in which a rational synthesis of all other mental elements was possible and which could affect all other parts of the psyche, the \"Gemeingefühl\" was a compilation of the senses, affects, drives and imagination and more animal-like (\[[@B14]\], p. 32). The main cause of a mental disease was the imbalance of those two \"organs\": a missing rational synthesis of the \"Seelenorgan\" on the one hand and/or an intensified production of imaginations, incentives or affects and moods on the other hand, overburdening the abilities of the \"Seelenorgan\" of this person and therefore overflowing their consciousness, rendering it unevaluated and uncontrolled. As a consequence, the medical doctor assumed that he could directly see the inner reality - the products of the \"Gemeingefühl\" - of the mentally ill, because the synthetic function of the rational \"Seelenorgan\" no longer hid the inner reality from others via transformation. Furthermore it is assumed in this understanding that the \"madman\" is not able to criticise or evaluate his own experiences due to his impaired or overwhelmed \"Seelenorgan\", so that he cannot detect that his experiences are only imaginations produced by his \"Gemeingefühl\". A deep analogy can be found between the doctor\'s \"clinical gaze\" on the \"madman\" and the gaze of the \"Seelenorgan\" on its inner reality, because both gazes are assumed to see this inner reality straight and unaltered as it is produced by the \"Gemeingefühl\" (\[[@B12]\], p. 280). In this assumption a paranoid atmosphere is hidden. If this assumption is true, the psychiatrist could decide whether a subjective experience, intention or behaviour is a sign of \"madness\" - since it would only be a product of the animal-like part of the psyche - or if it is a true subjective experience that can claim to be the experience of a healthy person. The consequences are immense. If our old man is in fact persecuted by the KGB and there is a hostile special agent trying to kill him with a diuretic substance causing dehydration and delirium, the psychiatrist\'s diagnosis of persecutory delusions would, with false confidence, clarify that the persecution by the KGB was unreal from the beginning and that the old man does not need to fear anything from them. That is of course great nonsense and the anti-psychiatric critique would then be right to say that psychiatric knowledge is positivistic and anti-psychiatric critique would then be right to say that psychiatric knowledge may itself be no more than dogmatic knowledge and even a form of delusion. And it would be dangerous, especially for our old man. In this situation it is fruitful for psychiatrists to remind themselves from time to time about the danger that can occur when psychiatric knowledge becomes a non-falsifiable conviction. It is my thesis that this danger is in place if psychiatry loses the competence for radical self-critique, which can \"bracket\" the taken-for-granted distinction of a delusional and a non-delusional reality. Such a fruitful self-critique can be compared with a phenomenological approach, which can basically also be described as a \"bracketing\" of the natural experience meaning an artificial alienation of the \"taken for granted\" experience. This \"bracketing\" involves radically changing the point of view, so that one can discover through progressive phenomenological work how one\'s experience is inherently structured and given. The question is therefore how delusional experience is inherently structured, which leads to the formal definition of delusions as presented by Karl Jaspers. III. The psychiatric knowledge of delusion ------------------------------------------ In this section I will address the formal definition of delusional realities as presented by Karl Jaspers in a more detailed way and I will discuss the actual psychiatric knowledge of delusions with regard to this definition. Further I will demonstrate that this leads to an understanding of delusional realities that introduces the amending concept of a paranoid atmosphere, which is also of clinical importance as presented by Michael Musalek. Though it sometimes seems as if there is no commonly accepted definition of delusion in modern psychiatry, most psychiatric textbooks favour an understanding of delusion according to Karl Jaspers. Jaspers rejected the idea that people with delusions have false beliefs about their situation, and argued that delusions represent a particular kind of knowledge (\[[@B5]\], p. 48). A person with persecutory delusions does not believe that he is persecuted; he *knows*that he is persecuted. Our old man is absolutely certain that the KGB is behind it all, and even the best argument will not convince him that this is not the case. For Jaspers, this differentiation of knowledge and belief was essential to understanding delusions. Jaspers was not primarily interested in the theme or content of delusions, though he was of course interested in them secondarily because they were of outstanding importance for the deluded person. Rather he was interested in the structural change of knowledge that can be found in delusions. The knowledge of the deluded person, e.g. his certainty that he is being persecuted, shows an extraordinary high degree of conviction (\'unvergleichlich hohe subjektive Gewissheit\') (\[[@B5]\], p. 45) and is furthermore immune to any counter-arguments or alternative explanations. The conviction is therefore also incorrigible. This incorrigibility (\'Unkorrigierbarkeit\') is the central criterion for delusion in the Jasperian view (\[[@B5]\], p. 46). In accordance with the Jasperian understanding Berner pointed out that the two criteria \'extraordinary degree of conviction\' and \'rejection of alternative explanations\' (\'incorrigibility\') are obligatory for the diagnosis of delusion, but that the often impossible seeming content of the delusions is only an accessory criterion \[[@B15]\]. Though it is sensible to argue, that this incorrigible certainty of a conviction and the corresponding pre-reflexive interpretation of reality are only an extreme with regard to an uncertainty-certainty continuum, this does not question the basic Jasperian assumption regarding the structural change of knowledge in delusions (\[[@B6]\], p. 157). Furthermore, most important for the persistence and maintenance of the delusions, the deluded person creates a paranoid atmosphere around him. With respect to maintaining the delusions and creating a paranoid atmosphere Musalek points out two factors (\[[@B6]\], p. 161). One factor is the self-dynamics of delusions happening on an interpersonal and prereflexive level. Basically this idea is very simple and maybe therefore frequently overlooked, since it means that delusional symptomatology itself creates via the non- and para-verbal interaction with others a paranoid atmosphere maintaining all delusional convictions: \"People who are usually very open and friendly with others may react to the deluded patient with some reservation and resentment because of the patient\'s suspicious behaviour. This serves to reinforce the suspicion of the patient. In this manner a vicious circle may be established, amplifying and prolonging paranoid behaviours and ideas.\" (\[[@B6]\], p. 166) The second factor is the meaning of delusions themselves, since they offer a \'safe\' interpretation in an unsecure world, even though these ideas may need permanent defense in relationships with others regarding the label \"lunatic\". This intensifies the paranoid atmosphere, meaning that the \"whole world\" falls under the influence of the delusional convictions (\'polarized delusions\'). As a consequence this person cannot function normally in day-to-day life, because the delusional convictions are moving and motivating the person more and more and create a hermetic and static (\'frozen\', Musalek) paranoid atmosphere. Yet it is equally important to know that a person suffering from delusions in the Jasperian sense can still function normally if the delusions constitute merely a more or less parallel world he lives in (\'delusions in juxtaposition\'). This illustrates the well-known fact that persons with delusions seldom suffer from the delusions themselves but from the loss of freedom when the delusional interpretation starts to take over the first-person-perspective of the deluded person and creates a paranoid atmosphere \[[@B16]\]. This is especially true when non-delusional reality encroaches on a deluded person in a manner that contradicts his delusional convinctions. For example if our deluded person is certain that he does not need to pay taxes, the tax office will challenge this conviction in their claim that taxes must be paid. This not only creates a loss of degrees of freedom on the financial and/or forensic level, but can also provoke the creation and/or intensification of a paranoid atmosphere. While Jaspers three diagnostic criteria for delusions are non-interpersonal, the more important aspects with regard to the suffering and agony of the deluded person - the polarizing of the world and the maintenance of delusional convictions that influence the \"whole world\" (via the \'paranoid atmosphere\') - are interpersonal \[[@B17]\]. Yet this paranoid atmosphere also offers narcissistic gratification for the deluded person. From an interpersonal standpoint the deluded person knows himself to be the most important person around, since the interest and behaviour of almost everybody is focusing on him: e.g. in persecutory delusions the persecuted person is of outstanding importance, since it is he being persecuted by the \"whole world\". This is even more pronounced in delusions of grandeur or in religious delusions. In this sense it can be said: every deluded person is a pop-star, but he is the only one who knows (\[[@B17]\], p. 142). Yet this paranoid atmosphere can also show a clearly negative attitude, e.g. when the person has the incorrigible conviction of blaming himself for everything going wrong in the world around him. Even in persecutory delusions this negative quality is present in the angst and dread of being persecuted anytime in any situation and from nearly anybody, because these things go together. Apparently it is a mixed blessing being the centre of the world, demonstrating beside the interpersonal quality also the power of paranoid atmospheres. IV. Paranoid atmospheres and alternative explanations - Lydia ------------------------------------------------------------- In this section I will address a question which logically comes up with respect to the psychiatric knowledge described above: Does psychiatric knowledge of delusions truly solve the problem that arises with the potentially paranoid atmosphere of the psychiatrist\'s \"gaze\"? Drawing also on a clinical case I will demonstrate that psychiatric understanding of delusions in fact solves this problem, if and only if such understanding is open to alternative explanations - in one word: is corrigible or falsifiable - due to the inner logic of its basic assumptions. Only then it is not simply mirroring the paranoid atmosphere in the \"psychiatric gaze\" and replacing belief with a non-falsifiable and dogmatic (maybe sometimes even \'delusional\') knowledge on its own. This answer apparently has at least two aspects: first it has to be clear what shall be open for alternative explanations and second corrigibility must be available to the psychiatrist in his day-to-day work. In the text that follows I will argue that the psychiatrist\'s knowledge of delusions is falsifiable on the concrete and patient-centered level, since it is a formal definition in the sense that every possible deluded person holds incorrigible convictions not open to alternative explanations. This means also that the Jasperian definition of delusions is itself falsifiable on the formal level, for example if anybody can think of a person who is deluded and does not hold incorrigible convictions which are not open to alternative explanations. The first aspect of my answer addresses the problem that not delusions themselves but deluded persons are coming to seek our help. Jasperian diagnostic criteria for delusions do not address the question \"How does the person feel?\". In contrast with the assumption that deluded persons have false beliefs about their situations, Jasperian diagnostic criteria for delusions simply acknowledge the special structure of delusional realities. This means, that a person with persecutory delusions, let\'s call her Lydia, could in fact be being persecuted. Furthermore, the diagnosis \"delusion\" is not equivalent with profound knowledge of the deluded person, but offers only an in-depth comprehension of one aspect of this person. Last but not least, Jasperian diagnostic criteria for delusions offer no certain knowledge about underlying processes of disease, even though some delusions show special characteristics due to the underlying process (\[[@B5]\], p. 45). Delusions in affective disorders, for example, typically correspond to the mood of the person. The delusional theme is often psychologically connected with the life-history of the deluded person \[[@B15]\]. Lydia, for example, developed delusional convictions in a two months interval when substituted for a colleague in an employment site where workers were routinely monitored and videotaped. Lydia had just started working again after pausing due to her two children and was employed as a secretary in the state Office of Criminal Investigation. She had problems coping with the tasks of her work, especially typing, and she made a lot of typing errors in her first weeks. Feeling ashamed about her bad performance, she secretly took the error-laden papers home and destroyed the sheets painstakingly by ripping them into small pieces. She developed the conviction that members of her office were persecuting her due to her taking the papers home and were even monitoring her private apartment. A few months later she was convinced that even the Secret Service was behind it. The delusional conviction didn\'t interfere with her work performance and she continued working without noteworthy problems for the next five years. With regard to therapeutic aims it was important to develope an empathic and respectful rapport with Lydia, even if this is \"only\" the basis for concrete psychopharmacological treatment. In the case of Lydia this meant avoiding arguing about the truth or falsity of the delusions. Instead I as her psychiatrist argued that her degrees of freedom were minimized due to the escalation of the influence of those convictions. Nine years later Lydia is still convinced that she was monitored and persecuted in the first few months when acting for a colleague, but she is sure that some time after those months the real persecution ended and she became ill with persecutory delusions. Yet this conviction does not impair her day-to-day abilities and she lives her life in an unspectacular and completely normal way. In other words: it is not necessary to wipe out the delusional convictions once and for all in order to be therapeutically successful. Therapy is successful if the paranoid atmosphere of the delusions can be diminished, if the delusional conviction is brought in \'juxtaposition\' or has become a simple private and personal delusional conviction again, which is meant here more in the sense of a hobby than an obsession. Lydia is now, three years after the acute episode of mental illness, well aware that her conviction of being persecuted by the Secret Service after the first months was a delusional conviction and that the main reason for suffering and not governing her own life was the escalation of this conviction. This escalation led to a paranoid atmosphere through a long lasting and slow process of expansion, in which at the end for example a placard provoked the spontaneous idea (\'Wahneinfall\') that someone had just searched her apartment forcing her to take a cab to rush back and make the best of it. At this time she was almost constantly afraid that someone would search her apartment, so that she replaced the locks on the front door and all windows nearly weekly. All these activities created constant distress, anxiety and interference with day-to-day activities. In that state of mind, Lydia needed to open herself to alternative explanations concerning her suffering, the loss of contentment with her way of living and her passivity and helplessness. As a deluded person she knew for certain that her persecutors were the reason for her great distress. As her psychiatrist I was convinced otherwise; that the underlying process of disease and especially the paranoid atmosphere were the main reasons for her suffering, but I was not incorrigible with this knowledge - after all persecuted persons can in fact be persecuted. I respected her delusional convictions as a possible interpretation of the situation at hand, though they had only extremely small evidence on their side. My main goal was not to correct Lydia\'s convictions, but to set limits to the paranoid atmosphere. A first step was building a relationship with her, in which we were able to develop alternative explanations e.g. for her tenseness in many situations which was associated with a formal disturbance of her thinking. Those alternative explanations gave her reasons to take a small dose of an antipsychotic medication which, of course, helped her to open her mind to even more alternative explanations of her actual situation. Yet this didn\'t alter her conviction of being persecuted in the beginning. Making room for alternative explanations implied setting limits to the paranoid atmopshere and vice versa. In the end the regained openness for alternative explanations helped Lydia get along with her life more contently and be in charge of her life again. V. Knowledge or Belief? The psychiatrist\'s need for self-critique ------------------------------------------------------------------ After having demonstrated the importance of self-critique with regard to psychiatric understanding of delusional realities in a person-centered and structural sense, I will in this section address the question: What enabled me to be content with \"a smaller success\" in treatment? I will argue that it is one\'s personal ability for self-criticism and that this personal ability is connected with what Jaspers called \"existential convictions\" or the ability to \"believe\" in a philosophical sense. What enables the psychiatrist to respect the delusional convictions of the deluded person as a possible, though notwithstanding all the entailed \'safety\' and narcissistic gratification, most unfavourable interpretation of the world? It is my thesis that this is possible with the aid of Jasperian criteria for delusions which free the psychiatrist from any need to discuss delusional convictions on the level of truth or falsity or the level of believe it or not. This becomes clearer by remembering the Jasperian distinction between knowledge and belief and his thesis that in delusions knowledge replaces belief; an important distinction for the psychiatrist in his day-to-day work. In the following I will spell out in a more detailed way the difference between knowledge as a falsifiable cognition and belief as a non-falsifiable cognition. Such a distinction helps psychiatrists avoid two problematic modes of interaction with deluded patients. On the one hand, being forced to lie to deluded patients for example in an affirmative way (\"Yes, the Secret Service is behind it all.\") or, on the other, being forced to become relativistic and deny for example that antipsychotic medications will help limit the paranoid atmosphere. Both consequences can be fatal in everyday work. When trying to understand this more profoundly it is necessary to remember the main distinction between knowledge and belief. In the formation of knowledge as explicit knowledge lived experience is necessarily divided into a known object and a knowing subject. This splitting is preformed in intentionality, since consciousness is always *consciousness of*something and never consciousness on its own and without content. Yet, such splitting of intentional relatedness can never be absolute or perfect, as is the main thesis of Husserl\'s concept of intentionality, and can therefore only happen on a superficial level without really touching the underlying basis of intentionality even if the later is not consciously assured. In science this splitting takes place in the process of objectification with a scientific method, producing a falsifiable and method-dependent knowledge that has good evidence on its side and can be interpersonally agreed on. It is therefore an explicit and concrete knowledge. Often the constructive process of objectification as well as the underlying and necessary basis of intentionality are \"forgotten\", so that the known object or structure seems to have a life of its own in the world. This \"forgetting\" is not meant as a general critique but rather as a statement regarding the status of scientific knowledge. Remembering the underlying basis of intentionality and the constructive process of objectivation is the main source of scientific self-critique. Acknowledging this primary basis spells out why we are not all-mighty and completely autonomous constructors of our world and that there is a passive givenness on a phenomenal level \[[@B18]\]. This mirrors the well known fact that lived experience is always prior to our reflective consciousness, which means that we are already always given in a \"pre-reflective self-awareness, including its immediate, implicit, nonobjectifying, and passive nature\" (\[[@B19]\], p. 71). The acknowledgement of this passivity of being given cannot be transferred into knowledge in an explicit and concretely measurable way, yet it can be integrated in life in the sense of a belief (\[[@B20]\], p. 99 and p. 282). In contrast to knowledge it is typical for the epistemological status of a believed content that it is not explicitly clear in every aspect. The believed content draws on special personal experiences, to which it refers at the same moment. These personal experiences are typical experiences of something incomparable, something indefinable in the end and can, for example, be possible in special situations via special techniques or practices. It can be argued that the epistemological status of a belief has nothing to do with transcendence or with this incomparable and indefinable self-affection. This is true. Yet it is important to notice that the epistemological status of a special content, which is believed and not known (due to impaired knowledge), is typically fashioned in a way that a last remaining uncertainty is spelled out as an explicit part of this special belief. In a delusional conviction exactly this last indefinability is lost. It is not *believed*to be the KGB, the deluded person *knows*that it is the KGB. It is this replacement of belief with knowledge that qualifies a delusional interpretation of the world as a safe island in the storms of uncertainty. In his first edition of his \"General Psychopathology\" Jaspers comes to a similar conclusion. The psychopathologist should beware the borders of his possible scientific understanding: \"This border is found if he is confronted with a single person, for he cannot dissolve this person completely in his psychological concepts. The more he brings his concepts to bear, characterizing and knowing as typical or regular, the more he gets to know that something incognizable is still hiding therein, something he can feel and suspect, but that he cannot grasp once and for all. For him as a psychopathologist it is enough to know about this infiniteness of every individual that cannot be exhausted; as a human being he may see more besides this; or, if others are seeing this incomparable more, he should at least not be meddling in it with his psychopathology.\" (\[[@B5]\], p. 1, translation mine) Jaspers names three typical ways for a psychopathologist to overstep the borders of his scientific conceptions: a) the \'somatic preconception\' (das somatische Vorurteil) especially in the sense of a \'brain mythology\' (Hirnmythologie), b) the \'philosophical preconception\' (das philosophische Vorurteil) especially in the sense of a non-experienced speculative conceptualization and c1) the \'escalation of correct assumptions\' (Übertreibung richtiger Anschauungen) for example leading to the conviction that people believing in a divine genesis are completely uneducated or c2) the \'rendering absolute of special standpoints\' (Verabsolutierung einzelner Gesichtspunkte) in the sense of being a stickler for principles or in the sense of overgeneralizing, meaning for example being convinced that elephants have tusks and that therefore female Indian elephants can be not real elephants (\[[@B5]\], p. 9). These ways are all equal with regard to replacing belief with knowledge. In this replacing they become incorrigible, non-falsifiable and dogmatic and, in a certain sense, even comparable with delusional convictions. Even more pointed is Jaspers critique regarding this problem in his later works after developing his existential philosophy. The most important idea regarding his existential philosophy is his rejection of a possible absolute conviction on the level of conscious and method-dependent knowledge and his absolute conviction that absolute convictions can only have the character of existential beliefs (\[[@B21]\], II p. 232 and III p. 137; \[[@B22]\], p. 44; \[[@B23]\], p. 16). Contents of belief \"remain in the abeyance of being not-known \[\...\] They are addressed and used too quickly as a knowledge and thereby lose their sense.\" (\[[@B23]\], p. 33, translation mine) Life is a good example for this. No one really knows what life is though we are all absolutely certain of being alive. If someone claims to know exactly and to the point what life itself is, it can be suspected that this person doesn\'t understand much, since life is always more than any conception of it. The believed content is only meaningful for and is bound to the believing person, overcomes the subject-object-splitting and can be complete nonsense for another person. Therefore believed contents are existential convictions (\[[@B23]\], p. 16). Jaspers understood the content of existential convictions as \"Chiffre\", which is the immanent reality of transcendence. The \"Chiffre\" as a symbol has a double meaning: it symbolizes something infinitely more than the symbol itself and is on the other hand still just an immanent symbol (\[[@B21]\], III p. 141). A \"Chiffre\" is not necessarily a sign, it can be a natural formation like Ayer\'s Rock or a book like the bible. Life for example is symbolized in many ways and the most famous sign for life is the old Egyptian hieroglyph \"ankh\", the coptic cross. The coptic cross is not life itself, but as a symbol for the true phenomenon of life it refers to. Following Jaspers this duality shall not be understood as such: \"The *Chiffre*is the being, bringing transcendence into presence, without the need for transcendence becoming a being as an object or for existence becoming a being as a subject.\" (\[[@B23]\], III p. 137, translation mine) The question remains: does this not lead to the imagination of a transcendence \"behind\" the \"Chiffre\", for which the \"Chiffre\" is just the clue and the symbol? If this would really be true, then an important question comes up, since then existence in the Jasperian sense would mean something \"behind\", \"beneath\" or \"beside\" the concrete person. Then we would have to face the problem of extreme relativity in the sense already mentioned above. As I will argue in the following part, Jaspers was well aware of this danger of extreme subjectivism. Even though existence in the Jasperian sense is principally an option for every human being, it is necessary to acknowledge that one\'s concrete beliefs are at least partially one\'s own product. With psychiatric knowledge in the background it is easy to see that exactly this is problematic for a deluded person. Yet I will argue in the last section that a deluded person can be understood as existence in the Jasperian sense if the person\'s perspective is not dominated by the delusional convictions respectively if the paranoid atmosphere does not encompass the \"whole world\". VI. Future prospects: being deluded and existence ------------------------------------------------- In this section I will discuss whether a deluded person can be understood as an existence in the sense of Jaspers. I will demonstrate that especially the escalation of delusional convictions - in the sense of creating a profound paranoid atmosphere - prevents existing in the Jasperian sense and that this corresponds to clinical experience, as demonstrated in a second clinical case, that delusional \'polarization\' of the \"whole world\" is the main reason for suffering. Existence in the Jasperian sense is principally an option for every human being. It is generated in border situations: \"The truth of eudaimonia evolves from the bottom of failure.\" (\[[@B21]\], II p. 232, translation mine). The performance of border situations means that the person realizes that the limits of his being cannot be changed but can be adopted as fundamental structure of his own existence. One of the border situations Jaspers names, besides death, affliction/suffering, guilt and historicity, is struggling (fighting, German: \'Kampf\'). \"Inevitably I have to co-create struggling and being involved in it as a border situation, I can get aware of myself existentially and adopt this border situation.\" (\[[@B21]\], II p. 233, translation mine) In the long run a fight is a matter of life and death, though the inescapable need to struggle does not mean chaos or violence. Instead it asks every person to acknowledge and adopt it as a situation inescapably mine. Even in love struggle is a inherent aspect of existence: \"Love is no calculable possession. I have to struggle with myself and the existence of the loved one, without violence, but challenged and challenging. \[\...\] Love as a concrete event in time is always incomplete and imperfect.\" (\[[@B21]\], II p. 244, translation mine). Obviously existing in the Jasperian sense implies accepting and adopting this contradictory structure of being (antinomische Struktur des Daseins\') (\[[@B21]\], II p. 250). Jaspers points out that existence affords a clear distinction from simple being, since existence implies being aware of one\'s own limits (\[[@B21]\], II p. 284). This can become clear at the \"wailing wall of the existence\" \[[@B24]\], though the mere insight into this border situation as an inescapable part of one\'s own existence does not necessarily mean that a person has the power and the ability to overcome his wailing wall and to adopt the limits of this situation on a new level of his existence. Jaspers was well aware of this difficulty: \"I am existence only in unity with the knowledge of transcendence as the force, through which I myself am \[\...\] Without existence the sense of transcendence would perish\" (\[[@B22]\], p. 44, translation mine) Furthermore both existence and transcendence cannot be defined with concrete criteria, because then \"the original thought of encompassment would be lost\" (\[[@B22]\], p. 54, translation mine). But is it enough to be aware of one\'s deepest indefinability in order to overcome one\'s wailing wall and to endure in life as existence? Robert, a seventy year old man and a maverick all his life, was very well aware that he as a person and life as a phenomenon could not be explained completely. Yet he was truly suffering from not being able to sleep at home anymore due to his conviction that he was being persecuted by an unknown organisation and in danger when sleeping in his bed. For over twenty years he often slept in his car parking somewhere in the vicinity of his home or even far away on a parking place near a autobahn. His reason for seeking help was the simple fact that this way of living had become too exhausting for him in his old age. Obviously it is not enough to know about this deepest indefinability of oneself to prevent delusional convictions. On the other hand existence affords a rational attitude (\[[@B22]\], p. 48). \"Existence is in need of reason. It becomes unsettled and aware of transcendence\'s claim in the light of reason, gets into its true movement via the prick of reasoning. Without reason existence is idle, sleeping, as if it isn\'t there.\" (\[[@B22]\], p. 49, translation mine) Yet a rational attitude is not enough in order to become an existence in Jaspers\' sense. Jaspers points out that an \"existenceless reason\" dissolves into an \"anything goes\"-attitude because then the person has the illusion that one needs not commit oneself to life (\[[@B22]\], p. 50). The rational attitude is therefore a necessary but not sufficient condition for existing. Existence is no grand intellectual event but rather depends on nature and one\'s own being and can best be understood as the relying of existence and reason upon each other, illuminated in Jaspers\' sentence: \"Our essence is Being-on-the-way.\" (\[[@B25]\], p. 109, translation mine) For Jaspers existence produces beyond the simple reality of being another, \"higher\" reality, which can give the being distinction and limits, but cannot generate it and remains dependent and is well aware of this relying on each other (\[[@B22]\], p. 56). If existence in the Jasperian sense relies on existential convictions as personal experiences, they are fundamentally not knowledge, but related to a preobjectifying experience, an experience of suspendend subject-object-splitting. Are not deluded convictions the extreme opposite of these existential convictions? What then about deluded persons, what about Robert and Lydia and their possibility of reaching the level of existence in the Jasperian sense? Jaspers answered, to my knowledge, only indirectly: \"He who gives himself up submitting to apotheosised objectivities, loses himself as possible existence and therefore the probability of a primary and evident recognition of his transcendence. He only gains secure footholds, structure of being and the edifying natures of illusionary transcendence.\" (\[[@B21]\], II p. 145, translation mine) This theme can be found in a great variety in Jaspers works as already showed above (see also \[[@B26]\], p. 460 and p. 682 and p. 726). A person with dogmatic convictions sets the content of his convictions as absolute and they gain the status of knowledge. As a consequence this person \"stands under dominating conceptions and thoughts, lives in a more or less conscious dogma and in corresponding preconceptions.\" (\[[@B26]\], p. 726, translation mine) Though Jaspers does not mention the comparableness of delusional convictions and dogmatic convictions, and there can be doubts whether this is really a meaningful comparison due to the intersubjective characteristic normally given in dogmatic convictions and only seldom present in delusional convictions (with the exception of a \"folie a deux\"), it is obvious that for Jaspers a deluded person is not existing in his sense. The deluded person would need to acknowledge that his delusional convictions are at least partially his own product and that he co-created them. With psychiatric knowledge and Jasperian criteria for delusions in the background we must confess that exactly this is not possible for the deluded person. In one word: this impossibility is exactly his problem. Still Jaspers\' concept of existence resists all intentions to break it down into special psychic functions, even though existence in the Jasperian sense relies on psychic functions. The deluded person, for example, has impaired mental functions and can therefore not criticize his delusional convictions. Yet this impairment is a very special one. The deluded person is not completely unable to criticize things rationally, but the critic is in service of the delusional convictions. The impairment means exactly this impossibility to criticize one\'s own delusional convictions and it is this impossibility that qualifies them as delusional convictions leading possibly to a paranoid atmosphere. It is not the delusional convictions that are the main problem for the deluded person, but the \'polarization\' and the paranoid atmosphere. Robert could never comprehend that his loneliness was an important factor for maintaining his ongoing experiences of persecution, even though the persecution was less intense from that time on when he had weekly contacts with a cognitive training group and me as his psychiatrist, in which we took a short stroll together through a park talking. In that time he could normally sleep at home again, the paranoid atmosphere was limited to bearable dimensions. He still continued \'his way of living\' - namely sleeping in the car - from time to time, though he never said he did this of his own volition. Yet personally I suspected that he did it sometimes also because he liked it. Robert as a deluded person with delusions in \'juxtaposition\' can well be considered an existence in the Jasperian sense. His way of living became difficult due to the decline of his vitality in old age and the delusional convictions started to dominate his day-to-day life more and more. Obviously it is the \'polarization\' of the \"whole world\", the subsumption of the whole lived experience and all that is given under the delusional conviction and the creation of an encompassing paranoid atmosphere, that hinders the adoption of one\'s own \"wailing wall of existence\" in a different way than defined by the delusions. It is an escalated paranoid atmosphere that prevents existence. The central question for a deluded person is therefore, if the \'polarization\' can be stopped and if the paranoid atmosphere can be reduced. Conclusion ========== Paranoid atmospheres are of fundamental importance for psychiatry. A paranoid atmosphere is not only important with regard to deluded persons, but also with respect to the \"psychiatric gaze\" and the question whether a person can be understood as an existence in the sense of Jaspers. As could be shown a paranoid atmosphere is also hidden in the structure of the \"psychiatric gaze\", since it is necessary as a psychiatrist to look behind the report and narrative of the patient at hand when trying to understand the structure and etiology of his disease. This suspicion mirrors the changes of the \"clinical gaze\" around 1800 as well as the ongoing enlightenment at that time, even though this paranoid atmosphere basically founding the \"psychiatric gaze\" needs enlightment itself. Psychiatric knowledge is method-dependent and therefore in the need of self-criticism. It is important for psychiatrists to realize that the patient in front of them is more than psychiatric knowledge can describe. This insight implies to further realize that a last indefinability of a person as a human being will always remain. Though this last indefinability cannot be formulated as knowledge and has a status of a belief, it is this basis that allows the psychiatrist to acknowledge the deluded person\'s interpretation of the world as truly his interpretation. This is mirrored in psychiatric knowledge, that the structure of delusional convictions can best be described by the replacement of belief with knowledge and that the suffering of the deluded person and this loss of degrees of freedom is bound to the escalation and self-dynamics of delusions best described as a paranoid atmosphere. I tried to show that a deluded person can be understood as an existence in the sense of Jaspers if the delusional convictions don\'t create a paranoid atmosphere. For existing in the sense of Jaspers it is necessary to preserve existential beliefs, whereas delusions offer \'safety\' when a person cannot believe on an existential level anymore. In delusions, indefinability, transcendence and encompassment are driven into a subject-object split, fixed as knowledge and appear therefore \"displaced\". Yet they are in a deeper sense only \"displaced\", when such displacement hinders existing in the sense of Jaspers. This occurs when delusional convictions polarize the \"whole world\", since, consequent to the creation of a profoundly paranoid atmosphere, the person no longer acknowledges that the question of truth cannot be answered exhaustively. Deep scepticism regarding psychiatric knowledge shows that the real problem is not the delusional convictions in themselves but rather the escalation of the influence of delusional convictions. With regard to this insight it can be said that therapy is successful when the paranoid atmosphere of the delusions can be diminished, and the delusional conviction is brought in \'juxtaposition\' or has become a simple private delusional conviction again. It is the acknowledgement that the suffering or enjoyment of a person, the contentment with one\'s way of living, and the question of whether a person is in charge of one\'s life are necessarily answered personally, in spite of all possible third-person answers, that opens these central aims of life to alternative explanations. Consequently, such questions can never be answered in absolute terms - and they are not necessarily already answered with the delusional convictions. Openness enables the psychiatrist to have an empathic and respectful relationship with his deluded patient, thereby mirroring the need for self-criticism of the psychiatric discourse, and it enables the deluded person to live a life as an existence - at least as long as his paranoid atmosphere is not polarizing and encompassing the \"whole world\". This can be supported through an empathic and respectful relationship, in which one (the psychiatrist) is mindful of the epistemological status of knowledge and belief, so that one\'s own ability (the psychiatrist\'s ability) for self-criticism prevents the creation of a profound paranoid atmosphere in the patient\'s experience. Competing interests =================== The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors\' informations ====================== Jann E. Schlimme is a senior lecturer for psychiatry and psychotherapy at Hannover Medical School (MHH, Germany) and leads the section \"Phenomenological Psychiatry, Psychiatric Anthropology and History of Psychiatry\" integrated in the Department for Psychiatry, Socialpsychiatry and Psychotherapy (head: Stefan Bleich; former head: Hinderk M. Emrich) at the Center for Mental Health of the MHH. He was also a senior registrar in this Department until 08-2009. From 09-2009 he is working as a senior registrar at the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II (head: Friedrich M. Wurst), University Clinic of the Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Austria. Jann E Schlimme holds an MD from Hannover Medical School since 1998 and received his licence to lecture in 2007. He also studied Sociology, Social Psychology and Philosophy at Leibniz-University Hannover (Master of Arts, 2004) and is actually working on his dissertation thesis in philosophy regarding the impact of a phenomenological enquiry of suicidality for mental health services. Acknowledgements ================ I thank Michael A. Schwartz, Austin, Texas/USA, for editing and revising the pre-final draft of this paper and Alan Ralston, Alkmar, the Netherlands, for commenting an early draft of this paper. The study and publication was supported by a grant of Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany in 2009.

WASHINGTON — Arguments for boosting US cyber spending over the past couple of years have largely begun with the need to greatly improve the resilience of government networks and ended with a call to grow the cyber force. But as a new cyber chief awaits confirmation, the discussion has shifted toward how cyber can be part of larger operational planning and how its capabilities might be used to deter aggressive acts. Gen. Keith Alexander, current head of US Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) and the National Security Agency (NSA), made what will likely be his last pilgrimage to Capitol Hill last week before his retirement this month. His testimony contained the usual warnings about the continued vulnerability of US networks despite enormous efforts to patch holes. But it also included his vision for the use of cyber as a cost-effective war-fighting tool. “It is fair, and indeed essential, for you to ask how we are utilizing such resources while others are cutting back,” Alexander wrote in prepared testimony. “Our answer is that the trained and certified teams of our cyber Mission Force are already improving our defenses and expanding the operational options for national decision-makers, the department’s leadership and joint force commanders.” His likely successor awaiting confirmation, Vice Adm. Michael Rogers, even included providing “options” as his top priority in his opening statement during his confirmation hearing March 11. “If confirmed as the commander, US Cyber Command, my priority will be to generate the capabilities and capacities needed to operate in this dynamic environment and to provide senior decision-makers and my fellow operational commanders with a full range of options within the cyber arena,” he said. The idea that cyber forces can expand options, at reasonable cost, is a step beyond the catastrophic danger rhetoric that has inundated most discussion of cyber. To a degree, it represents a move out of a defensive crouch toward broader integration of the cyber tools the US has been developing. One of the lingering questions is whether commanders will take advantage of the technology. In the past, senior commanders have voiced a lack of faith in cyber tools largely because damage assessment is much more complicated than looking at satellite imagery for a crater, as one would with a successful bombing run. Jason Healey, director of the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative, said the notion of greater integration has been around for years but has yet to come to fruition. “We’ve been saying that since the ’90s, but I haven’t really seen it because we seem to treat cyber as barely usable,” he said. “We could be using it for a lot for stuff that we don’t know, which I’m sure is possible if we look at what we did in Iran.” The use of a US weapon to slow Iran’s nuclear program was a turning point in government application of cyber, but what may be causing the new push is the existence of cyber forces in a position to take action. In his testimony, Alexander pointed to the hundreds of people trained in recent years that have bolstered what was a tiny cadre of cyber professionals. “We’ve trained almost 900 people,” he said. “We have 900 more, roughly, in training right now. By the end of this year, that means we’ll have 1,800 trained and ready personnel and teams that cover our Cyber Protection Teams all the way up to the National Mission Force.” The three types of teams Alexander has been developing include a combat mission force designed to provide combatant commanders with capabilities. Rogers would step into the job with a partially built force that might allow for some more assertive policy. In recent years, Alexander has been careful not to be too bullish on the strategic advantage a capable cyber force could provide. Deterrence is still a hotly debated concept in the cyber community because traditional nuclear deterrence relies on the idea that an adversary has knowledge of the destruction that will result from transgressions. That’s not possible in cyber because the secrecy of weapons is necessary to preserve their effectiveness. If the adversary knows what’s coming, they can prepare far greater defenses. But in his written response to questions submitted as part of the confirmation process, Rogers was bullish. Asked whether deterrence could work, he was unequivocal. “Yes, the development of both offensive and defensive capabilities can serve to deter an adversary from cyber attack,” he wrote. “Strong capabilities can deter an attack by preventing an adversary from achieving his objectives and demonstrating the ability to impose costs on the adversary.”

Pages When legendary investor Buffett acquired the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNSF) in November 2009, the largest acquisition in the history of Berkshire Hathaway, he called the $34 billion deal a "huge bet" on the company, the CEO, the team, and the railroad industry. But it was bigger than that, said Buffett at the time in a press release. "Most important of all, however, it's an all-in wager on the economic future of the United States," Buffett said. "I love these bets." That big bet has been backed up by the federal government in the form of six awards valued at a total of $67.73 million in funding from ARRA, according to the Recovery.gov website. That ARRA funding included a $17.3 million award in August 2011 to construct new remotely controlled high-speed crossovers to provide Amtrak passenger rail trains the "operating flexibility to move around the BNSF freight trains." With the economic crisis in full swing, Berkshire Hathaway's lobbying expenditures soared from $1.25 million in 2008 to $10.38 million in 2009 during the height of the crisis, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2010, Berkshire Hathaway's lobbying dropped slightly to $9.91 million and then dropped once more in 2011 to $9.58 million. BNSF's own lobbying expenditures amounted to $6.4 million in 2009, $5.41 million in 2010 and a peak of $6.78 million in 2011. Berkshire Hathaway did not respond to requests for an interview with Buffett. But a BNSF spokesperson said in an email reply to CRN that a "simple review of the facts of all the projects listed on the website you reference clearly demonstrates that public agencies applied for the funds for public benefit, not for the benefit of the railroad involved. The language you reference on recipient status as 'prime, sub or vendor' from the project list validates that." "The only project for which BNSF was listed as a prime recipient was the Burlington Bridge replacement over the Mississippi River," wrote the BNSF spokesperson. "The Coast Guard had ordered the railroad bridge to be replaced several years before the Great Recession of 2008/2009 and before ARRA ever existed, from a swing span to a lift span in order to widen the channel under the bridge for barge traffic in the Mississippi River. The only reason we were the prime recipient on that project is that we had to build the new bridge and then swap it out with the old one. More importantly, nearly half of the funds needed to replace that bridge were secured by the Southeast Iowa Congressional offices in the years prior to the ARRA and to Berkshire Hathaway's involvement with BNSF. In fact, construction was publicly announced and began a full month (9/21/2009) before Berkshire Hathaway had even approached BNSF (10/22/2009) about acquiring the railroad." "On virtually every other project, BNSF was listed as a sub recipient or vendor confirming the secondary and cooperating role BNSF played to public agencies pursing public projects for public benefit," the BNSF spokesperson wrote. "None of them were done for the benefit of a private freight railroad and the applications, project descriptions and defined purposes all confirm that." NEXT: Warren Buffett Continued In an interview with CRN, Jeff Matthews, a veteran investment manager and author of the best-selling e-book "Secrets In Plain Sight: Business & Investing Secrets of Warren Buffett," said there is simply no reason that a Buffett-backed venture should receive ARRA funds. "You have to ask yourself why a business associated with the most successful financial enterprise of our time needed help," asked Matthews. "Why they needed pork? The answer is they didn't. That's the whole problem." Matthews, who has sat on both sides of the fence investing in companies as a professional money manager and as a former government official on the Finance Committee in Fairfield, Conn., called ARRA a classic case of the government "spending money fast and pissing it away." "The sad part is that legitimate big companies, even Warren Buffett with Burlington Northern, got in on the act and got money," said Matthews. "The projects were something Burlington Northern probably would have done anyway and done it more efficiently if it was their own money instead of the government’s." Buffett, who is listed on the White House visitor's log four times, also has prospered from his investments in big ARRA award winners General Electric and IBM, both of which were named by CRN as top beneficiaries of ARRA in the first part of this investigative report. Buffett's $10.7 billion investment for 64 million shares in IBM came to light in November 2011. Buffett has since increased that IBM stake to 66.6 million shares valued at more than $13 billion. Buffett's $3 billion investment in General Electric was in the form of perpetual preferred stock with a 10 percent dividend. That GE investment came to light on Oct. 1, 2008, with Congress debating the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to bail out troubled banks. Buffett, who supported Obama in the 2008 campaign, is certainly not sitting on the sidelines in the 2012 campaign. In fact, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO has hosted a number of Obama fundraisers and is listed as providing "joint fundraising contributions" to the Obama Victory Fund 2012 of $65,800, according to a search of the Federal Election Commission database. Buffett is also listed as providing "joint fundraising contributions" of $30,000 to the Democratic National Committee in January 2012, according to the Federal Election Commission records. President Obama awarded Buffett the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Feb. 15, 2011. Singling out the second richest man in the world, the president remarked: "When you look at the men and women who are here today, it says something about who we are as a people." "When we award it to a Warren Buffett, it says we'd all like to be so humble and wise -- and maybe make a little money along the way," said President Obama. Buffett is listed as No. 2 on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans with a net worth estimated at $46 billion behind Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates with a net worth of $66 billion. Doron Kempel says selling hyper-convergence can be challenging for solution providers, but success will come from taking business from competitors that are unprepared or hesitant to embrace the technology.

Ropes course A ropes course is a challenging outdoor personal development and team building activity which usually consists of high and/or low elements. Low elements take place on the ground or above the ground. High elements are usually constructed in trees or made of utility poles and require a belay for safety. Terminology Ropes courses are referred to using several different names, including Challenge Courses, Ropes Challenge Courses, Teams Course, and Low Ropes, as well as more idiosyncratic names such as the Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience (Project COPE) course (used by the Boy Scouts of America). An Aerial Adventure Park (or "European-Style" Adventure Park, Tree-Top Adventure course) has a more recreational purpose. Other related terms include obstacle courses, assault courses and commando courses, although these terms also have slightly different meanings, often more associated with military training than with education and training for the general public. History It is unclear where and when the first ropes course was created. Obstacle courses have been used by the military to train soldiers as far back as the ancient Greeks. Those courses, however, were primarily used for the training of extremely fit individuals and not necessarily aimed at the development of unremarkable persons as is common practice on ropes courses today. The use of belay and risk management systems on such courses was limited or often non-existent. Many practitioners cite Georges Hébert as the originator of the "modern" ropes course. A French naval officer in the early 1900s, Hébert developed his own method of physical education, apparatus, and principles to train in what he called the “Natural Method,” which included the development of physical, moral, and “virile” qualities in an outdoor environment. Drawing from his naval background, Hébert patterned some of his obstacles on obstacles found on the decks of ships. “Hébertism” grew during and between the World Wars, becoming the standard for physical education training for the French military. Many ropes courses and challenge course programs in French Canada and Europe are still known as Hébertism courses today. Marble, Colorado, the site of the first Colorado Outward Bound course, has been cited as the location of the first ropes course in the US, although this is highly unlikely. Patterned after a military obstacle course and similar to the course in use at the Outward Bound school in Aberdyfi, Wales, the course was constructed of hemp ropes. Belay systems were minimal or non-existent. Modern courses Since the 1980s, ropes course sophistication has evolved considerably. Modern ropes courses incorporate sophisticated belay and safety systems using wire rope, friction devices, and climbing harnesses to manage what before were unmanaged risks. Recent technological advances in pole hardware and climbing equipment along with industry-accepted installation and design practices have greatly reduced the risk to end users and to the natural environment. Modern courses make use of a variety of materials other than trees, including utility poles and steel structures. A recent trend of themed courses has created a whole new genre of challenge course aimed at recreational pay-to-play users. New, mobile high ropes courses (originally designed by Jim Liggett of Ropes Courses, Inc.) and climbing walls built on flat bed trucks have made challenge courses more readily available to the public for recreational purposes and are generating increased publicity. Adventure Parks with a more recreational-orientation are booming in Europe and awake a great interest in the US and around the globe. They are usually designed for a larger volume of visitors. They do not follow a specific educational concept, but see the individual, physical and mental challenge as a predominantly recreational activity. Neither climbing techniques nor special/specific physical fitness experience are necessary. Typical slogans are: Have fun, Test your Courage and Overcome your Own Fears. In an Adventure Park, the participants independently run a variety of trails of increasing difficulty levels. Each trail consists of several poles or trees that are connected by different acrobatic elements. Types of courses High course A high course can be a pre-fabricated, professionally installed course, built of utility poles, cables, and bolts, or it can be a course that is hand-built in a wooded area, where ropes and wire are attached to different trees. Ropes courses can be described as static, dynamic, vertical, and M-Belay. With a static course, participants are attached to an upper wire, belay cable, with lanyards (ropes and carabiners) for safety. If the participant dangles, they will be caught by the wire. Advantages of a static course include needing fewer facilitators, being able to get more participants up on the course at one time, and allowing participants to do multiple elements without having to be lowered and climb back up after each. On a dynamic course, participants are connected to a rope, which someone on the ground will be holding onto and belaying the participant on the course. Participants on a dynamic course remain on a belay the entire time: climbing up to the element, doing the activity, and being lowered to the ground after. A vertical course is very similar to dynamic, except that the element is the climb up. Vertical courses can be: vertical obstacle courses with hanging logs, ladders, and tires or alpine towers with their unique hour-glass shape of activities. The M-Belay is the most complicated of the two, and involves two separate belays. Otherwise, it is very similar to a dynamic course. Usually participants must sign a waiver before being allowed to participate on the course, because of the high risk of injury. Some participants may have a hard time completing the course due to its height and the physical challenge. Courses usually range from 25 feet through 50 feet tall, though some elements can reach upwards of 150 feet plus (as in the redwoods and some jungle courses). In order to climb up onto the course participants usually must climb, such as by using a cargo net or Jacob's Ladder, which could be made of rope, or an artificial climbing wall. Low course Low ropes courses consist of a series of real and imaginary obstacles designed to challenge groups and individuals to work together to accomplish a task. The classification of low ropes courses can be further broken into several types of activities: Cooperative Game, Socialization Activity, Ice-Breaker: a fun activity designed to reduce inhibitions and break down barriers. These activities are often not based on a defined task but on a sequence of events. Users are often placed in positions where they are encouraged to try new things that may place them outside their normal comfort zones. Examples include: name games, people to people, raccoon circle... Group Initiative: problems involving real and imaginary ground-based obstacles (either natural or constructed) that challenge a group to pool their resources and work together to find solutions. Success is achieved only when all members have contributed to the outcome. Examples include: The Muese, Spider's Web, Carpet Maze, Crocodile Pit, Whale Watch, Peanut Butter River, Ragging River, T.P. Shuffle, Nitro Crossing, and Group Wall Trust-building games: activities designed to provide members the opportunity to demonstrate their trust in other members of the group through a series of sequenced actions. Examples include: Willows in the Wind and Trust Fall. Low Ropes Elements: a series of cables, ropes, and obstacles strung between trees or poles, 12 to 18 inches above the ground, low rope elements present tests of physical strength, stamina, agility, balance, and flexibility, and invite participants to confront such emotional issues as the fear of falling, the fear of failure, and the fear of losing control. Risk is managed by group members who assume critical spotting roles. Examples include: Swinging Balance Beam, Triangle Traverse, Tire Swings, and Mohawk Walk. Purpose Ropes course advocates claim that they meet a number of educational, developmental, and recreational goals. High ropes course and climbing programs generally focus on personal achievements and ask participants to confront their personal fears and anxieties. Challenges may be physical and/or emotional. In certain cases, high element programs involve the development and mastery of technical skills to manage rope belay systems used to secure other climbers as they move through the course. In such cases, outcomes often include exploring the fundamentals of trust, craftsmanship, and coaching. Programs using low ropes course elements or group initiatives are most often designed to explore group interaction, problem-solving, and leadership. Some of the commonly claimed outcomes include enhancement of cooperation, decision making, self confidence, positive risk-taking, social cohesion, trust, self esteem, leadership, goal setting, and teamwork. In addition to these commonly cited benefits, a study published in 2000 in the Journal of Leisure Research found that ropes courses also demonstrate higher-level outcomes, including increases in effectiveness and efficiency, building relationships, developing understanding, setting goals, brainstorming ideas and task accomplishment. The British Royal Marines have an extremely difficult ropes course dubbed the 'Tarzan Assault Course'. To pass the Commando Course, recruits must complete this and other arduous tests consecutively under a strict time limit. Research Despite the rapid development of ropes course programming during the latter part of the 20th century and the increasing sophistication and professionalism in ropes course construction, there remains a lack of clear scientific consensus about the many claimed psychosocial training benefits of ropes course participation. See also Group-dynamic game Karl Rohnke Outdoor education Project Adventure Adventure therapy References Category:Alternative education Category:Outdoor education Category:Types of climbing eo:Arbaraventurejo fr:Parcours aventure en forêt it:Parco avventura pl:Park linowy pt:Arborismo

President-elect Donald Trump has called NATO “obsolete” and “outmoded” and has warned its members to stop freeloading or the U.S. will no longer “protect” them. NATO governments face huge challenges, from climate change and economic fragility to migration flows and a global terrorist threat that no amount of military firepower can quell. Surely it is obvious the problem is not that Canada or Spain is spending too little on defence. No, the elephant in the room is the staggering amount of military spending by the U.S. – at $600 billion per year, more than the next seven largest military economies combined, including upgraded “tactical” nuclear weapons slated for Europe that will have lower explosive yields and greater accuracy. Critics point out this creates the “illusion of usability” at the very time when the President-elect has reportedly asked: “If we have nuclear weapons, why can’t we use them?” Trump’s solution to ISIS is yet more bombing, at least in Iraq. He favours an entirely different approach in Syria, since he can apparently accept dominance by a Putin-backed Assad there, but he cannot tolerate Iranian influence in Iraq. Trump has also said he does not think the U.S. should be the world’s policeman. However half-baked and ill-informed these Trump pronouncements are, they will nonetheless force a conversation on the rest of us. How Western leaders respond will be central to limiting the damage a Trump presidency can wreak. This is a hugely important moment for Justin Trudeau. He must take his lead from Angela Merkel in Germany and situate his responses to specific issues within a guiding framework of core principles. Absent this framework, an ad hoc or “pragmatic” approach will further unnerve Canadians, the majority of whom found the American election result quite shocking. It also will leave Trudeau utterly vulnerable to U.S. whim and pressure. Crucial guidance can be found in a central provision of the UN Charter: the equal right to security of all states. This is the mindset change that is so urgently needed to replace the absurdly childish and morally bankrupt “good guys/bad guys,” “with us or against us” approach to terrorism instigated by George W. Bush, which has proven to be such a gift to violent extremists everywhere. Once you allow the possibility that “the other” has legitimate concerns, the only way forward is the enlightened, constructive UN-centred multilateralism that Trudeau channeled so effectively in his “Canada is back” pronouncements. Now is the time for our prime minister to demonstrate the strength of those convictions; our southern neighbours will be watching. Categories Email updates The Russian [nuclear] modernization program was spurred by the US withdrawal, under President George W. Bush in 2002, from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which Moscow had for four decades regarded as a central pillar of strategic stability. Moscow’s subsequent failure to reach a new agreement with the United States on missile defenses, and the collapse […]

Celebrate food, life and diversity. Join me in the search for the right ingredients: Food without human antibiotics, growth hormones and other harmful additives that have become commonplace in animals raised on factory farms. Attention food shoppers We are legions -- legions who are sorely neglected by the media, which prefer glorifying chefs. I love restaurants as much as anyone else, but feel that most are unresponsive to customers who want to know how the food they are eating was grown or raised.I hope my blog will be a valuable resource for helping you find the healthiest food in supermarkets, specialty stores and restaurants in northern New Jersey. In the past five years, I stopped eating meat, poultry, bread and pizza, and now focus on a heart-healthy diet of seafood, vegetables, fruit, whole-wheat pasta and brown rice. I'm happiest when I am eating. -- VICTOR E. SASSON Thursday, August 4, 2016 If wacko Trump is elected, you can't beat the exchange rate in Canada In downtown Montreal, bicycle lanes are two ways and separated from vehicular traffic by an island, above. A strong U.S. dollar makes Canada a great place to vacation, and that's especially true in the sophisticated, French-speaking city a day's drive from northern New Jersey. By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORThe U.S. dollar equals $1.30 Canadian, so as an American you get more bang for your buck in sophisticated Montreal, where I vacationed for 10 days this summer.With the possibility wacko racist Donald J. Trump will be elected president, I'm looking north to Canada as a place to take refuge from his madness.When I attended the International Jazz Festival in Montreal with my wife and son, the favorable exchange rate meant everything cost less -- our hotel, restaurant meals, tickets to concerts, taxis and such everyday purchases as toothpaste.I used my U.S.-based credit cards for nearly all purchases in Montreal in late June and July, when the U.S. dollar was worth $1.27 to $1.29 Canadian.But on June 30, I withdrew 60 Canadian dollars or loonies from an ATM just in case I had to pay cash for something.My bank only debited my account for $47.96, including the ATM fee. The Eaton Center is part of Underground Montreal, a vast network of offices, hotels, shops, restaurants and concert halls linked by the metro -- the Montreal subway -- that allow residents to get to work and enjoy cultural attractions during the city's brutal winters. The awning of Sophia's provides a quick French lesson: It's a neighborhood sandwich shop (sandwicherie) with salads (salades) and juice (jus). Nearly all Montrealers are bilingual. Wrought-iron staircases are a distinctive feature of apartments in Montreal neighborhoods. Homes on the outskirts of the city, above and below. Like Manhattan, Montreal is an island city with many ethnic and fine-dining restaurants, and residents who come from all over the world. But this one near the Hyatt Regency Hotel and major concert halls serves the worst version of Vietnamese-style pho -- a noodle soup with an anise-flavored broth -- that my wife and son ever tasted. A restaurant and bar called Le Date on St. Catherine Street East, in a neighborhood called East Montreal. The city's annual LBGT pride festival will be held from Aug. 8-14. A free jazz concert, as seen from my 10th-floor hotel room. The Hyatt Regency provided earplugs for guests whose rooms overlooked outdoor performances, which ran from 11 a.m. to midnight. Talented music students from universities and colleges in Canada, above and below, gave many of the free concerts during the 11-day run of the jazz festival. One of the student big bands that performed had more than 20 members, including a singer. Jugglers and acrobats kept the crowd in the plaza amused and entertained. The fare on the subway and buses in Montreal is $3.25 Canadian, $3 when you buy two trips at a time and $2.70 when you buy 10 trips.

How Technology can help people access healthcare Today is World Health Day and there are still millions of people without healthcare not only in the U.S. but around the world. For example, communities in India don’t have the ability or bandwidth to take on certain large problems like strokes, heart attacks and are often only able to treat a smaller illness like the flu, diarrhea, and colds. You would have to find a way to get to a larger city to the main hospital in order to treat those more complex cases and often times people would pass away in route. These cases are obviously a bit extreme but technology can allow these rural hospitals to focus on the more complex cases and allow telemedicine to handle things like the cold, irregular heartbeat, rashes all the while you’ll be saving on healthcare costs. Our phones have opened a new avenue. Our phones are an extension of who we are, what we are, and show what we do. They are also cameras and webcams. Our phones connect us to the world and allow us to contact our loved ones, co-workers, and friends. Something that people probably thought was never possible when computers used to take up entire rooms and barely do the things our phones can now do. This can open up the possibilities of healthcare access in rural communities that otherwise would not have the ability to or would have to make an event to reach a healthcare provider for their condition. That access to healthcare can change these people’s lives and we now have the ability to monitor and record our vitals with Smart tracking devices. Smart tracking devices inform healthcare Health technology like the FitBit, Apple Watch, scales, blood pressure monitors, and sleep trackers that connect and record data to your phone empowers people to take control of their own health. It can provide data on how you are functioning day to day to medical providers. This data can help assess your risk level for chronic diseases and what you can do every day to improve your health and make better daily habits. This a resource to tap into in analyzing how activity and sleep are affecting the patient’s blood pressure, blood glucose levels and weight. While there are many improvements to be made, it can be part of a holistic health care plan. What people are doing so far Startups are already taking advantage of this trend. Doctor On Demand and One Medical Group provides telemedicine services to connect you with a doctor by live video. Grand Rounds uses telemedicine to help connect you to a medical expert that has proven to have better outcomes for your particular case. Omada Health has pioneered Digital Therapeutics to help prevent chronic diseases in at-risk individuals. In Q1 of 2017 alone, there have over $1 billion invested in Digital Heath! The internet has revolutionized how we interact with the world and the positive aspects and ability to communicate from anywhere in the world can provide million with access to healthcare that would otherwise have none, that’s a mission worth pursuing. “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver”. – Mahatma Gandhi Having had three open-heart surgeries along with a stroke at the age of four, a cousin born with a heart condition and a mother with schizophrenia, I am mindful as to just how fragile life can be. For that reason, I am passionate about helping people improve both their physical and mental health!

January 4, 2016 2016-01-04T11:59:35-05:00 https://images.c-span.org/Files/dbd/20160104115947002_hd.jpg The Senate met in pro forma session for the convening of the second session of the 114th Congress. The Senate met in pro forma session for the convening of the second session of the 114th Congress.

My job means I have to sit at my computer all day, 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 46 weeks a year. That’s 1610 hours a year and 1/3 of my whole day (given that I also sleep about 8 hours so am not conscious I’m in my chair A LOT). I work from home which is great as it means I can get up and do back stretches every hour or so and not get strange looks when I start rolling around on the floor. Working from home also gives me some freedom in terms of what my workstation looks like and up until now I’ve taken the traditional route of office desk and standard office chair. However my chair broke recently and so now I need to replace it, I currently have a few ideas on what my replacement might be... Standard chair - This is the 'safe' choice, it's "just a chair", I'm not suggesting that particular chair, but just something like it. The chair I am replacing is similar to this one and I'm pretty sure that sitting in it for as long as I do has given me the occasional lower back pain and stiff shoulder that I get. I have seen an osteopath a few times and he also said he thought the chair was to blame. Fancy chair - I quite like the look of a non-standard chair, something that supports me and allows me to move properly. The trouble here is that these kind of chairs cost more than the standard. I know that paying for an osteopath to fix problems after they’ve happened rather than spending the money to get a better chair that meant I wouldn't need to see the osteopath is daft... but a decent ergonomic chair is hundreds and I just don’t have that lying around spare. Ball Chair - If I went this route I could use the 35 hours a week as exercise time and strengthen my core muscles. It would make it hard to slouch or chill out in the chair while reading documentation though and I'm not sure I could easily transition to something as radical as this. I have talked to people who use these and they’ve said that a few hours at a time is fine, but not a full day. So if I were to get up every hour and move around this is still maybe an option. Poang - This would be unusual and I would need to get a new desk to keep things at the right level. But it would be a comfy chair, all my joints would be 'open', greater than 90 degrees. Plus I already have a spare Poang. Given that I work from home why not make myself comfy and sitting upright all day is not how I’d spend a day if I wasn’t working. Getting rid of my desk and going a bit minimalist might be good. My employer has said they would pay £100 for a chair but I cannot top that up with my own money as it blurs the question of ownership and complicates things for tax. Sadly £100 doesn't go very far, I can just about get a 'standard' chair for that money, the Ball chair is also within budget. I own a spare Poang... so really it the comes down to the question of whether I want to spend £150 - £600 of my own money on a chair that I'll use for work. Looking into quality chairs I quickly ran into the Herman Miller chairs, these have been highlighted in Investing in a Quality Programming Chair and in The Real Pain of Software Development \part 2\ Phil Haack says that he likes the Neutral Posture chair – again not cheap options. Of course most of this assumes the traditional desk and chair what about Wild Workstations for Telecommuters? With my Poang I’m getting close to the SurfChair, it’s not quite as luxurious as a La-Z Boy but it looks very comfy and like my posture is being considered which, long term, is very important. Does anyone have any long term experience in working in an unusual workstation setup? I've been using the Poang for a few days and it feels nice, but will I be setting myself up for problems later down the line? My back has been an issue and the standard chairs do little for me - but would the SurfChair be a step too far? Edit I've been using the Poang for a while now and my lower back is painful. Last weekend I bent down to pick up a child's jacket from the floor and... owch! I'm still not recovered from that and I wonder whether the unusual seating is the major culprit. I'm pretty active, do yoga and taichi regularly - but 7+ hours a day in a bad chair is clearly not doing me any favours. Does an acceptable answer require a chair be part of the set-up? Also, what kind of back problems (shoulders, lumbar, etc.)? – BelisamaMay 20 '12 at 20:31 "whether I want to spend £150 - £600 of my own money on a chair that I'll use for work." It may be "for work", but don't forget that you're in it for a significant portion of your life so think of it as a life improvement rather than just work. – Burhan AliMay 26 '12 at 11:47 7 Answers 7 I first needed a special setup 20 years ago with a touch of RSI in the wrists. A drop-down keyboard tray fixed that but it taught some valuable lessons. Since then I've adopted the following practices: When there's a desk, a good solid keyboard tray is important like the ones from Versa. Remove chair arms from standard office chairs to stop you from leaning on them and compressing nerves, particularly in the elbows. A good eternal wireless optical mouse. I work at home a lot too. After several setups I now have the following at home: a big comfy chair (mini couch). Sometimes I work for 10-12 hours, so I want to be really comfortable! If you're able / willing there are layouts WAY better than QWERTY for preventing RSI. Dvorak for example supposedly reduces hand motion 58%. (for warning a decent ergo/mechanical keyboard gets pricy, and expect the it to take months to get back up to speed typing) – RualStorgeMar 14 '14 at 19:36 You may consider going chairless, and set up a standing desk. The previous link describes the experience of someone who used one for one year, listing the advantages and drawbacks of her experience. I am personally trying this since a couple of weeks, mostly a positive experience for now, but I don't spend 8 hours in front of a desk every day. Also, regarding back and neck problems, I have found that, whether sitting or standing, it is useful to raise the computer screen (by placing a few phone books or other big books under it) until eye level is at the middle of the screen. I'm tall, and normally have to look down all the time. This gives me the opportunity to look up a little! Raising the screen also helps finding a better posture (if you're sitting you'll sit more straight, spontaneously) independently of furniture. I've also been using a standing desk for over a year and love it. Great for posture and makes moving around one's workspace so much easier (no chair constantly in the way). In contrast to the article writer, I stand all day most days and feel less tired at the end of the day than when I was sitting. (And when I do need to sit, a barstool gets around the need for two desks at different heights.) – BelisamaMay 22 '12 at 10:16 A couple of things concern me about the standing approach; I've had knee surgery and long periods on my feet might not be wise. The other concern is that I've seen some studies that suggest standing sessions can lead to health problems - an increased risk of circulation related issues. – Simon MartinMay 30 '12 at 20:21 I use this ergonomic chair. It takes a bit to get used to it (mostly because our sitting habits are quite wrong), but its advantages are that it keeps the torso-legs angle open, and it allows you to get up and sit without strain... several sitting positions to move along... Again, it is not a cheap option, but, like the furniture salesman told me, never go cheap on chairs or beds... you spend a great part of your life there :) Yes, the chair you linked too is expensive, but it looks a lot like a "knee chair" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kneeling_chair) which you can purchase from Amazon in the USA for less than $100. Rather inexpensive. – MaxJul 23 '13 at 6:54 Instrumental in both the bed and standing setup is the concept of monitor arms that make computer height fully adjustable and easy to move from one place to the next. Similarly, excellent remote connectivity is needed to feel like I am working on one machine only. The key idea is to be in whatever position leaves me most productive at that time and not to be tied down in any one physical setup (no matter how good that one setup initially appears). There are different setups that you can have for your seat, chair, table, keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc. The most important thing is to pay attention to keep your back and neck straight and aligned. This is very important. Whenever our work involves sitting in front of the computer all day, we get so engrossed in our work that we don't notice that we are already slouching or that our shoulder and neck are slumped forward towards the monitor. So have regular breaks to walk around and adjust your posture properly. I have recently set up a makeshift desk that goes across my recumbent bike. I've never had a recumbent bike before and never liked them - but I love working while riding it because there is no "bouncing" like when I walk on a treadmill....and apparently it's really good for your posture vs. sitting in a chair or even on a ball. The bike I got was about $200 from Schwinn and works great. I routinely ride it for 2+ hours a day and my energy level stays high and I feel great. Highly recommend it!

Three-quarters of business leaders in Northern Ireland have said they want to remain in the EU, according to a survey. But bosses told the Institute of Directors (IoD), which carried out the survey, that they needed "more information and less rhetoric" about the issues faced in the referendum. The IoD said it had surveyed 211 business bosses - and 74.4% said they'd vote to stay in. Just under 18% said they'd leave - and 8% said they didn't know how they'd vote. Around 70% said they didn't benefit from EU funding. Ian Sheppard, chairman of the IoD NI's economic strategy committee, said the survey suggested that most IoD members wanted to stay. "The survey revealed a concern among members that leaving would cause serious disruption and uncertainty, with some claiming that Northern Ireland benefits hugely from membership of the EU, not just financially, but also in terms of unrestricted access to a huge market and skilled workforce," he added.

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin A man arrested for his 7th OWI told officers he could drive home in his totaled car and yelled expletives at hospital staff who drew his blood. Brent Krebsbach, 48, was charged with 7th OWI, disorderly conduct and driving after revocation after being involved in a crash on Lakeshore Road and Pine Bluff Drive in Sheboygan on Wednesday, Feb. 17. He convicted of all the charges, he could face a maximum sentence of six years and three months behind bars. According to the criminal complaint: Officers and paramedics were dispatched to Lakeshore Road and Pine Bluff Drive for a personal injury crash. Krebsbach was found in the driver's seat of his car. While Krebsbach was removed from his car, he was unsteady and slurring his speech. Krebsbach admitted to having drinks before driving, but told responders at the scene that he didn't want treatment and wanted to drive home. Given the fact that Krebsbach car was totaled and his windshield cracked, he was transported to Memorial Medical Center to be treated. He asked hospital staff that the officer that came with him be removed from his room. Krebsbach was placed under arrest and asked to submit to a blood test, which he refused. District Attorney Joe DeCecco responded to medical center and a search warrant was obtained for his blood. Krebsbach began to be disruptive, calling the hospital staff expletives. He also urinated on himself during the trip.

Hey gang, hope you had a great labor day weekend filled with food, fun, the beach maybe and of course baseball. College football is now in session but don’t tell UM that. They’re wishing that LSU game didn’t count. Hurricane woes aside, in this episode I’ll go over the latest slate of games, bring the spotlight on our latest rookie and predict whether or not we avoid the dreaded 100 losses. And away we go! The revenge series began with the Braves coming to town during “Players’ Weekend” for a 4-game set, a little over a week since the fateful plunking of Ronald Acuña Jr. by Miami’s own José Ureña. Elieser Hernandez squared off against Sean Newcomb and this quickly became a one-sided affair. Newcomb mastered the Marlins, holding them to just two hits through six innings of work, striking out eight. Hernandez lasted three innings. He surrendered three runs, two of them being longballs including one from Acuña Jr. The bullpen stepped in but the offense did little to dig themselves out of the early 3-0 hole. The Braves tacked on two more en route to a 5-0 shutout for the opener. Despite the victory, this was anything but a stroll in the park for the Georgian rivals. As the second game approached, storm clouds gathered inside the stadium. These proverbial dark clouds were followed by “Thunder” striking from the mound. Dan Straily donned the nickname with pride, his fast as lightning pitches bullying hitters back to the bench. Through six frames, the Braves cowered in their dugout waiting for the storm to pass. Once “Los Tres Caballeros” (Tayron Guerrero, Drew Steckenrider, Adam Conley) took over, they didn’t give an inch keeping Atlanta hitless. Thanks to Derek “Dietz”Dietrich’s RBI-single in the fourth, Miami outlasted their opponents 1-0. The seven game losing streak against the Braves ended. The good times kept on rolling as Wei-Yin Chen was up next. “Weigh In” definitely threw his weight around, putting on a heavy-weight performance. Chen lasted six innings but absolutely dominated, shutting out the NL-East visitors. He held them to six hits, striking out 10. At the plate, the “Real” J.T. Realmuto got Miami on the board in the home half of the sixth with a sac-fly RBI. Brian “Andy” Anderson followed up with a pinch-hit laser to leftfield going infinity and beyond, putting the Marlins up 3-0. Woody would be proud. Steckenrider gave up a run in the ninth but held firm for the win. What would you do for 10K? pic.twitter.com/EcADvJ8RLv — Miami Marlins (@Marlins) August 26, 2018 And then came the fourth game. And the wall. Miami’s bats went silent, producing a pair of hits with nothing to show for. The Braves’ Kevin “Gausy” Gausman lasted five innings, fanning just as many batters. The pen kept up the stellar work. Pablo “Pache” López had a great outing actually, he lasted nearly six innings and only gave up a run. But this was more than enough as Atlanta went on to win 4-0 to split the series. From there, the Fighting Fish traveled to the fabled Fenway Park to face off against the Boston Red Soxs. Despite a heartbreaking loss, the first game was quite the thriller. Ureña squared off against Brian Johnson. Boston struck first in their half of the second with Miami tying it the following inning. Isaac Galloway was completely unphased by the green monster, launching one right over the wall for his second homer of the season. However, the Marlins quickly fell behind again giving up two more runs. Fast forwarding to the eighth inning, Miami broke out with five runs including back-to-back dingers from JT Realmuto and Starlin Castro. Unfortunately for the boys from the south, Boston struck back with three runs of their own to wrestle the lead back before a heroic effort by Magneuris Sierra to tie it again with an RBI-single. The Red Soxs achieved an exciting walk-off when JT Riddle tagged second and one hopped it to first. Miguel Rojas was unable to scoop up the throw as it bounced past him, into the camera well. If it were really a Green Monster it would have starred in Monsters Inc. pic.twitter.com/DfPtFh5aid — Miami Marlins (@Marlins) August 29, 2018 AI YAI YAI! At least Ureña pitched a decent game. He went six deep and allowed four runs. Guerrero was given the blown save (He gave up three of his own) and Steckenrider was charged with the loss. Game 2 was worse. Oh yeah. So, the Marlins were up 5-3 heading into the seventh inning stretch, looking good for a series split. 15 batters, 11 runs and an embarrassed bullpen later the game turned into a crazy 14-6 rout. Conley, Steckenrider and Javy Guerra coughed up three runs EACH in this nightmare scenario, ruining a fairly efficient start from Trevor Richards (5.2 IP, 3 Hits, 3 Earned Runs, 6 Ks). So much for that. All right, now for some overtime. The next opponent was the Toronto Blue Jays. Why am I going the extra mile for Ronto? Easy! Besides their rad uniforms, they were kind of, sort of my team before 1995. The 1992 World Series victory against the Braves helped a lot. Granted, I was a little kid but I still vaguely remember it. Ma, your MCM doesn’t think J.T. Realmuto is the best catcher in the league. pic.twitter.com/VWPwXP03z8 — Miami Marlins (@Marlins) September 2, 2018 The first game’s ending was cringe-worthy. The Marlins were up 5-1 with Kyle Barraclough coming in to seal the deal. Cue the bullpen’s next implosion. “Bear Claw” gave up two hits and a walk to load the bases, his evening was done. With one out, Steckenrider took over, convincingly striking out Aledmys Diaz before walking Devon Travis to make it 5-2. The Jays sent out pinch-hitter Justin Smoak and then it happened, again might I add, another grand slam. De Ja Vu anyone? It wasn’t a walk off but it was enough to ruin a fantastic stint by Dan Straily (8 IP, 4 H, 1 ER). The final score: 6-5, Toronto. Thank you Derek! Thank you @marlins for the delicious breakfast this morning. #FishFamily pic.twitter.com/MQ1QnXZdAt — Miri Diaz (@Miri81) September 2, 2018 Game two saw another Marlin go 8-deep as Chen tossed an incredible game, holding the birds to a single run. Meanwhile, Miami exploded with four in the fifth, thanks mostly to a bases-clearing double by Martin Prado. Smoak homered again in the ninth but it wasn’t enough, the Fighting Fish took it 6-3. Here comes the rookie! Jeff Brigham made his MLB debut toeing the rubber against fellow newcomer Sean Reid-Foley, who was also looking for his first career victory, he debuted back in Mid-August. One would taste their first win. The Washington native probably had a bad case of the jitters due to his rocky start, lasting three innings giving up three runs on four hits, four walks and a HBP. In other words, he had trouble with his command. The offense could only dole out one run as the bluebirds ran away with the series, 6-1. Reid-Foley for his part had a terrific outing keeping the Fish under control while fanning eight in his seven-inning tenure. It’s a different type of morning for Jeff. Making his MLB debut today. #JustGettinStarted pic.twitter.com/U2G3Ijf9bc — Miami Marlins (@Marlins) September 2, 2018 Brigham got the nod Saturday from Triple-A New Orleans as part of coach Don Mattingly’s strategy of experimenting with the September call-ups. When it comes to those still in the hunt, like the Philadelphia Phillies (The only one that fits the bill on the remaining schedule) he said that he will put out his best line-up card, hence why he pushed back Ureña’s start a day. It provides an excellent opportunity to conduct a sort of spring training, except in September. Brigham had a good minor league season with the Jumbo Shrimp (4-1 1.18 ERA) and the Baby Cakes (5-2 3.44 ERA), nabbing himself Pitcher of the Week back in April for Jacksonville. His performance warranted a pass to the Big Show. It’s less than ideal but this is what September’s all about for teams like the Marlins. From the beginning, this season was going to be about the rookies, the future. Like all prospects, they can shine or be a total bust but as always, time will tell for our newest hurler. I’m hoping he gets 2-3 more starts, so we can get a better glimpse of his abilities. He was selected in the fourth round of the 2014 draft by the LA Dodgers before eventually coming to South Florida. He can be a set piece for us down the road given our woes at the starting rotation, or maybe not. I’m hoping it’s the former since we could always use another good arm, we need one. In 95.1 IP, he had 94 strikeouts with opponents batting an anemic .238 this year in the minors. During that span, he’s only issued 22 walks. Jeff Brigham on getting called up to the bigs. I love these stories. Sports are cool, man. pic.twitter.com/nzns9FhYt0 — Jeremy Taché (@jeremytache) September 1, 2018 Speaking of September, besides our future, one other question of varied importance remains. At 55-83 (Adding the Labor Day game), the Marlins have 24 games left on the schedule. It includes our NL-East rivals sans Atlanta along with the Pirates and Reds. As you’ve might have surmised, we lose 17 more and its pretty much a 100-loss season. While I have trouble foreseeing the team going 7-17 a little bit, it could happen. Given the large slate of teams already out of the running, don’t be surprised if Miami squeezes out one more run of good baseball. Not that it really matters at this point. Until next time, stay frosty folks. That Ex You Check on in Facebook and Instagram Just before the end of August, Christian Yelich played the best game of his life going 6-for-6 and hitting for the CYCLE. He became the eighth Milwaukee Brewers player to achieve the feat and tied the club record with six hits. Simply amazing. Keep up the epic work Yelich, Miami misses you man. Stat of the Week Time to give credit where its due. Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer becomes the second player in MLB history to have five consecutive seasons with more than 250+ strikeouts. Who was the first? The BIG UNIT Randy Johnson from 1997-2002. (Visited 110 times, 1 visits today)

Q: changing text color in custom UITableViewCell iphone I have a custom cell and when the user selects that cell, I would like the text in the two UILabels to change to light gray. ChecklistCell.h: #import <UIKit/UIKit.h> @interface ChecklistCell : UITableViewCell { UILabel *nameLabel; UILabel *colorLabel; BOOL selected; } @property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UILabel *nameLabel; @property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UILabel *colorLabel; @end ChecklistCell.m: #import "ChecklistCell.h" @implementation ChecklistCell @synthesize colorLabel,nameLabel; - (id)initWithStyle:(UITableViewCellStyle)style reuseIdentifier:(NSString *)reuseIdentifier { if ((self = [super initWithStyle:style reuseIdentifier:reuseIdentifier])) { // Initialization code } return self; } - (void)setSelected:(BOOL)selected animated:(BOOL)animated { [super setSelected:selected animated:animated]; // Configure the view for the selected state } - (void)dealloc { [nameLabel release]; [colorLabel release]; [super dealloc]; } @end A: Since you are using a custom table cell, you can implement code to set the label colors by implementing the setSelected and setHighlighted methods in your custom UITableViewCell. This will capture all state changes from selection, although there are some tricky cases, like when setHighlighting is called with NO when you select and drag outside the cell after it was already selected. Here is the approach I used, which I believe sets the color appropriately in all cases. - (void)updateCellDisplay { if (self.selected || self.highlighted) { self.nameLabel.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor]; self.colorLabel.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor]; } else { self.nameLabel.textColor = [UIColor blackColor]; self.colorLabel.textColor = [UIColor blackColor]; } } - (void)setHighlighted:(BOOL)highlighted animated:(BOOL)animated { [super setHighlighted:highlighted animated:animated]; [self updateCellDisplay]; } - (void) setSelected:(BOOL)selected animated:(BOOL)animated { [super setSelected:selected animated:animated]; [self updateCellDisplay]; } A: In your didSelectRowAtIndexPath method, make a call to get the current cell and update accordingly: CheckListCell* theCell = (CheckListCell*)[tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath]; theCell.nameLabel.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor]; theCell.colorLabel.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis associated with maternally inherited diabetes and deafness: clinical pathological analysis. Maternally inherited diabetes and deafness (MIDD), which is caused by an A to G substitution at position 3243 (m.3243A>G) in the transfer ribonucleic acid leucine gene, is characterized by diabetes and hearing loss. Patients with MIDD frequently have renal disease, which may precede the diagnosis of either diabetes or deafness or may be the sole manifestation of the m.3243A>G mutation. Recently, progressive renal failure was reported in adults, and a number of childhood cases of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) of MIDD have been reported. However, little is known about the glomerular lesions in FSGS in MIDD. In the present study, we reported two cases of FSGS associated with MIDD and studied the clinical features of the proband and her mother.

Some folks have big plans for your future. They want you—a burger-eatin’, chicken-finger-dippin’ American—to buy their burgers and nuggets grown from stem cells. One day, meat eaters and vegans might even share their hypothetical burger. That burger will be delicious, environmentally friendly, and be indistinguishable from a regular burger. And they assure you the meat will be real meat, just not ground from slaughtered animals. That future is on the minds of a cadre of Silicon Valley startup founders and at least one nonprofit in the world of cultured meat. Some are sure it will heal the environmental woes caused by American agriculture while protecting the welfare of farm animals. But these future foods’ promises are hypothetical, with many claims based on a futurist optimism in line with Silicon Valley’s startup culture. Cultured meat is still in its research and development phase and must overcome massive hurdles before hitting market. A consumer-ready product does not yet exist and its progress is heavily shrouded by intellectual property claims and sensationalist press. Today, cultured meat is a lot of hype and no consumer product. “Much of what happens in the world of cultured meat is done for the sake of PR.” “Much of what happens in the world of cultured meat is done for the sake of PR,” Ben Wurgaft, an MIT-based post-doctoral researcher writing a book on cultured meat, told Gizmodo. Wurgaft finds it hard to believe many predictions about cultured meat’s future, including the promise of an FDA-approved consumer product within a year. The truth is that only a few successful prototypes have yet been shown to the public, including a NASA-funded goldfish-based protein in the early 2000s, and a steak grown from frog cells in 2003 for an art exhibit. More have come recently: Mark Post unveiled a $330,000 cultured burger in 2013, startup Memphis Meats has produced cultured meatballs and poultry last and this year, and Hampton Creek plans to have a product reveal dinner by the end of the year. (Memphis Meats declined to be interviewed for this story, and all quotes attributed to them come from prior reporting.) Because many in the cultured meat industry see this meat as cruelty-free, animal rights groups have become more vocal about cultured meat in its recent past. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals offered a one million dollar prize for whoever could “produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro (lab-grown) chicken meat” in 2008. That contest’s deadline lapsed in 2014, but in 2016 a non-profit called the Good Food Institute spun off of animal rights organization Mercy for Animals. The GFI’s mission is to promote what they call “clean meat,” or “meat that is produced through cellular agriculture” instead of slaughter, Bruce Friedrich, the Good Food Institute’s executive director told Gizmodo. Today, several startups have entered the cellular agriculture space, many of whose founders are vegan or who tout their product’s presumed ethical superiority. (Memphis Meat’s website explicitly states that their product is not vegetarian or vegan, though it has been promoted by the GFI and vegan company employees have said they would eat their own product.) “We have a food system that isn’t working, people are eating food that degrade their body, a billion go to bed hungry every night,” Josh Tetrick, CEO of the controversial food company Hampton Creek, told Gizmodo. He proposed that all these crises could be solved “with plants” but since “people love meat,” cultured meat can help. The problem is real: Meat consumption continues to increase, and could increase by “4 percent per person over the next ten years,” according to Ensia reporting. Livestock represent approximately 15 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. But first, startups need to actually launch the consumer product, which means overcoming critical production and distribution challenges before even thinking about selling it as a reasonable, affordable alternative to slaughtered meat. “The important point is that no one has done this at scale yet.” Existing cost estimates relying on prototypes “are based on existing extrapolation of lab-scale processes that aren’t just unsustainable, but also not an accurate representation of what this would look like,” Eitan Fischer, director of Cellular Agriculture at Hampton Creek told Gizmodo. For now, we know that the meat is made by growing animal-derived cells in the lab and harvesting the meat after a month or so. Part of that scale-up includes developing industrial bioreactors for growing the meat—eventually, cultured meat producers hope the process will look a lot like the beer brewing, where cells grow in big tanks. (Bioreactors as large as 20,000 liters exist for other purposes, but would need to be designed specifically for growing cow, chicken or pig cells.) Companies are mum about their progress on these bioreactors. Hampton Creek told Gizmodo that they had a bioreactor and explained how the scale-up might work, but would not give details on the size. “The reality is that we don’t have a product yet. It’s taking quite some time and there are still hurdles to overcome on getting there.” And yet, cultured meat startups love bringing up slaughtered meat’s greenhouse gas emissions. “With plants providing nutrients for animal cells to grow, we believe we can produce meat and seafood that is over 10x more efficient than the world’s highest volume slaughterhouse (a 1,000,000-square foot facility in Tar Heel, N.C.). All this without confining or slaughtering a single animal and with a fraction of the greenhouse gas emissions and water use,” Hampton Creek CEO Josh Tetrick wrote on a LinkedIn post this past June. But despite what you may have heard, the evidence as to whether cultured meat is better for the environment is inconclusive. “On the environmental studies, the work that’s been done is very preliminary,” Hampton Creek’s Fischer said. A 2011 study estimated that the product might produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, but use about the same amount of energy as the European pork industry. One 2015 study found potential environmental benefits in China, but another 2015 estimate found it could use just as much energy as animal-based meats. The common theme is uncertainty. It seems that the very idea that cultured meat will be better for the environment than slaughtered meat doesn’t just require new means of food production, it requires the world around it to change in order to sustain it—for the products to be made and shipped predominantly with renewable energy, for example. When Memphis Meats discusses the environmental benefits on its website, given the inconclusive data, these claims seem reliant on optimism. “When people tell stories about cultured meat one of the things they do is quickly fill in blanks on the page around the meat,” said Wurgaft. He thinks that some stakeholders treat cultured meat as an object on which they can hang other hypotheticals about the future. As far as cultured meat’s other big promise—meat without murder—it is also uncertain. The most talked-about hurdle in slaughter-free meat production is how to feed the cells. The agricultural industry treats cows like little factories: plants consume solar energy, cows consume plants, cows turn solar energy into energy consumable by humans. Like cows, cells grown in a culture must be fed too. The most prevalent option is a serum made from the blood of calf fetuses called fetal bovine serum—clearly not a vegan or slaughter-free option. Expensive and proprietary replacements exist as Good Food Institute senior scientist Liz Specht showed me, but every cultured meat company’s Holy Grail is an affordable serum without animal products. “We have validated our first process and created Memphis Meat without fetal bovine serum,” Steve Myrick, VP of Business Development at Memphis Meats told Gizmodo a few months ago. “We’re in the process now of applying that to all of our product. That’s one of our proudest accomplishments.” What that serum is actually made from, neither they nor Hampton Creek would say, citing intellectual property claims. But Mike Selden, CEO of cultured fish startup Finless Foods, told me that it “was a pretty black and white path to fully identifying the necessary growth factors” required to create a slaughter-free serum substitute. “Once they’re identified, we can produce them in transgenic yeast, bringing cost of a blended product (not 100% fish, part plant matter) down to about $100 a pound.” Still, the bulk of crucial facts surrounding cultured meat’s progress are obscured as intellectual property, despite claims of a “transparent production process” from Memphis Meats, for example. The nature of being a business requires hidden details—about the serum, the bioreactors, and how all of those animal cells are going to stick together—much like the secret formulas of Coca-Cola or KFC’s chicken. Hampton Creek has just announced that they are “in talks” to license these propriety methods to “some of the world’s biggest meat companies.” Despite our inability to truly assess the current state of cultured meat, press coverage alone would make you think that the future will be “full of lab-grown meat.” I am just as guilty as the rest for fueling the hype. “I think that it’s pretty lofty to be trying to sell a product to a group that you’re not a part of.” “There has been a lot of news coverage for almost seven years now, even in times when there wasn’t a lot of new things going on,” Mark Post, Professor of Vascular Physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, co-founder of Mosa Meat and creator of the first cultured hamburger, told Gizmodo. “It seems a bit excessive. It’s either one way or the other. It’s negative for reasons that are not traceable but there’s no particular evidence, it’s just feelings, or it’s very positive which is more related to high expectations and wishful thinking. The reality is that we don’t have a product yet. It’s taking quite some time and there are still hurdles to overcome on getting there.” Today, estimates for the launch of the first consumer product range from Hampton Creek’s 2018 claim to Memphis Meat’s 2021 claim. Many industry observers think these dates are overly optimistic, though this could depend on the initial price. But oversell in coverage isn’t new—in interviews with Gizmodo, at least three different commentators cited Alexis Madrigal’s 2013 chart in The Atlantic. It demonstrates that predicted dates on plenty of estimates for when in vitro meat would hit the shelves have passed. Industry observers not involved in the startups are skeptical for lots of different reasons. Several, in interviews with Gizmodo, said that waves of speculation prevented productive conversation about how this never-before-eaten food would be scaled and regulated by the FDA, and how it would evolve. Some said that the vegan mindset felt uncomfortable. “It seems strange that vegans would be trying to market a product to non-vegans,” Erin Kim, Communications Director at New Harvest, a non-profit that funds open science cultured meat projects, told Gizmodo. “I think that it’s pretty lofty to be trying to sell a product to a group that you’re not a part of.” Other in the industry were concerned that the secrecy that comes along with IP (intellectual property) claims could induce fear in the public. “I’m frightened about the ways that genetically modified [food] entered the public, which was more related to IP and ownership than science and technology,” said Isha Datar, New Harvest’s Executive Director. “I found that cultured meat could be transformative but didn’t want the same thing to happen with it [as it did] with GMOs.” Datar also thought it surprising to apply West Coast Silicon Valley startup thinking to the traditional middle-America meat world. Tetrick from Hampton Creek told Gizmodo that the company entered the cultured meat space because he wanted to reduce industrially-produced meat consumption in Trump country. Aren’t these regions already distrustful of the liberal coastal elite? Why would they buy this liberal meat? This is a small industry making huge promises about what the future of meat will look like. Of course, startups need to make lofty promises (and hit goals) so they may continue to be funded. But in this case, we don’t know whether the solution they’re offering will actually be the best. “The idea that one or more companies will suddenly solve the problem in the next couple years is insanity. We’re just kind of balancing the imperfection versus the urgency.” While confident that his company would hit the 2018 deadline, Tetrick, Hampton Creek’s CEO, agreed with the concerns. “The idea that one or more companies in Silicon Valley and Israel will suddenly solve the problem in the next couple years is insanity,” he said, nor did he think cultured meat was a perfect solution. “We’re just kind of balancing the imperfection versus the urgency. Given all the challenges around it—technical, cultural, regulatory—it’s worth a bet.” Still, overly positive press and ethical optimism can make us dream of a world that doesn’t yet exist, where all meat is brewed in a bioreactor, instead of a future where we pursue other options that solve the problems of industrial agriculture. It’s exciting that a version of the future feels like it’s around the corner, but folks have been writing about lab-grown meet since at least 2003, without a commercial product to show for it. It doesn’t exist yet, at least not in a way that you, a consumer, can eat it. “Where I think we veer more into ‘bad’ territory is when the kind of imagination offered by this technology might also limit us. I don’t think in vitro meat is ‘the’ future of meat,” Christina Agapakis, biologist and creative director of Gingko Bioworks, a synthetic biology company that produces custom microbes, told Gizmodo. “It might be a future of meat, but I think the way food and technology will mix will be much more complicated than any one current vision might offer.”

A higher standard of living is what bring us here today. We come together to try and find the best way to live, or treasure. Making sure never to commit crimes against people we earn respect and honor though being noble gentlemen . A very select few people can gain the powers we have or control them as long. We feed our minds with the knowledge of the great book and exercise our brains with music and conversations of treasures to be found, things to fix or create and things we must erase for the greater good. We work for ourselves for the public to overcome the evils that hold them back such as court, violence, drugs, homelessness, depression and anything . There is no problem we we will turn down no question we will not try our best to answer. no one can stop this because I have the right to do everything I can to better the world. I am one of the angles sent to the world before the coming of the Lord to help guide the people and help find the missing peaces of this puzzle we live in. My task is not to punish but to teach the transition to heaven in this lifetime. I am a messenger with a message that will never end for those who are chosen to listen because this is more than a choice .

Owning your own home is the great New Zealand dream, but the amount of interest you pay to achieve that dream can be a nightmare! Traditional Bank mortgages are structured in such a way that in the first 15 years of a 25-year mortgage very little capital is paid off... Owning your own home is the great New Zealand dream, but the amount of interest you pay to achieve that dream can be a nightmare! Traditional Bank mortgages are structured in such a way that in the first 15 years of a 25-year mortgage very little capital is paid off...

"Clark, I know hunting down Zoners is your top priority." "But if you haven't found anything in South America... we still have a situation back here in Kansas we need to deal with." "No, he'll be here in 15 minutes." "Okay, great." "See you in a few." "Dr. Caselli." "You're early." "And you are annoyingly persistent, Miss Sullivan." "I've already told you, I don't know anything." "Don't sell yourself short, doctor." "I think you're a very knowledgeable man." "In the last few months, over a dozen patients... have been transferred out of Belle Reve." "And I believe that's your signature on all the paperwork." "Patients are transferred in and out of mental facilities all the time." "Even ones that exhibit unusual abilities?" "Where were they transferred to?" "Is LuthorCorp involved?" "Does this have anything to do with 33.1?" "Okay." "I'll take that as a "no comment."" "I didn't want any of this." "But it was so much money." " Chloe." "You okay?" " Yeah." "Just in the nick of time as always." "It wasn't me." "He was down when I got here." "What?" "Well, if it wasn't you, then who..." "Dude, he's open." "Pass the ball." "Pass the..." "What's the matter with you, man?" "Still too slow, Stretch." "Bart." "♪ Smallville: "Justice" ♪ Season 6 Episode 11" "Original Airdate Jan. 18, 2007" "He got away from you?" "I thought you were the fastest man alive." "Whoever he was, he saved your life, which is more than I can say." "Come on, Clark, it wasn't your fault." "Even with all your powers..." " you can't be everywhere at once." " I have to be." "I'm the only one who can round up prisoners from the Phantom Zone." "And stop Lex from experimenting on people with abilities." "What'd you find out from Caselli about 33.1?" "Nothing." "I'm not going to." "Caselli was in and out of prison... before the ink could dry on his prints." "How'd he get out so fast?" "I don't know." "But a LuthorCorp lawyer paid Caselli a visit..." " right before his release." " Lex." "Caselli could be stashed halfway around the world by now." "I'll get in touch with Lionel." "He can tell us something." "I'll sift through my LuthorCorp intel." "Maybe we'll get lucky, come up with a few crumbs." "Hey, gorgeous." "What's up?" "You miss me?" "Bart Allen." "We had a moment in the Talon last time I was here." "Two years ago." "Before you had a boyfriend." "Oh, right." "Wow, it's good to see you again, Bart." "Yeah, well, the pleasure's all mine, señorita." "I'll see you around." "Knock it off." "What's with the Spanish?" "Well, I just grabbed lunch down in Mexico, man." "They got this burrito down there, El Intestino Bustor." "You gotta take a run down there with me to try one." "What are you doing here, Bart?" "Well, I'm hanging out with my amigo, man." " What's it look like?" " That's what I'm trying to find out." "Last time you blew through town, you stole my dad's wallet... swiped a priceless artifact from Lex." "Nearly got killed." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Those were the days?" "Yeah, all right." "Look, man." "I already told you, things are different now." "Okay?" "Back then, I needed a super-kick in the butt and you laid it on me." "Since then there's been no stealing for this gringo, I swear." "Am I really supposed to just buy that?" "I could squirt out some tears, if that'll help?" "No, but the truth might." "What were you doing at the Daily Planet?" "I saw Chloe-licious had a byline a while back." "I was in town on business, figured I had to check it out." "What kind of business?" "I'm a courier." "I pick things up." "I drop them off." "Lickety-split, don't have a fit." "All right." "Look, man, whatever." "You don't trust me, that's fine." "Okay, I'll be gone before you can even blink." "I don't know..." "I can still blink pretty fast." "Mexico?" "Wanna go get that burrito?" "Now that is what I call a three-martini lunch." "It's a four-martini lunch." "If you include the one that you spilled down my shirt." " Right." " Yeah." "Well, how am I ever going to make it up to you?" "I don't know because... this is my favorite shirt." "Oh, well, then..." "I think we should get it into the laundry... so that it doesn't stain." "Yeah, that's a good idea." "I gotta take this." "Go ahead." "Give me five minutes." " I..." " You know... what I had in mind is gonna take a little longer than five minutes." "Rain check?" "Sure." "I'll just put it next to the rest of the umbrellas you keep handing me." " Lois..." " I mean... is it just me or is this relationship all interruptus and no coitus?" "You're always running off just when things start getting interesting." "And I like being interested." "A lot." "Yeah." "Yeah, I know, you're right." "This..." "It's not fair to you." "I think we should take a break." "You mean like...?" "What?" "See other people?" "Well, okay." "Yeah, I mean, if that's what you want." "I was thinking more along the lines of taking a vacation." "Together." " Really?" " Yeah." "Really." "No rushing out in the middle of the good stuff?" "No." "None." "It'll be you, me... and Monte Carlo?" "There's just a few things that I do need to take care of before we go." "And I think once we get... oh, God, you're good at that." " I'll start packing." " Okay." "Bye." "I need to talk to you." "You alone?" "Just me and my shadow, Dad." "Lana's in Paris with Nell, shopping for a wedding dress." "It's good she's out of the country, considering what's happening." "Look, if this is about Dr. Caselli..." "Caselli?" "He's the least of our worries." "Another LuthorCorp facility has been hit." "That's six." "Each one of them has some connection with 33.1." "The only thing housed in those facilities was peripheral research." "All the vital data is still secure in the mainframe." "How long do you think before that is compromised?" "If it ever became public that LuthorCorp is experimenting... on people with abilities..." "It won't." "What's this?" "A single frame pulled off a security camera... from one of the break-ins." "Whoever's responsible... has the ability to move faster than a speeding bullet." "Such a unique individual would... make an interesting test subject to add to 33.1." "Don't you think?" "What do you plan to do?" "Protect our investment." "Come on, I'll walk you out." "Yeah, I got it." "Meet me at the rendezvous." "Hey, are we gonna do this?" "You're gonna lurk in the shadows all night?" "Just being careful." "After all..." "I'm not as fast as you." "Clark." "I was just thinking about you." "You got a funny way of showing it." "I've left you half a dozen messages." "I'm sorry." "I've been preoccupied." "Helping that doctor from Belle Reve get out of jail?" "Clark, my involvement with Belle Reve is past history." "But it appears that you still have a very active interest... in breaking into LuthorCorp." " Where was this taken?" " Mexico." "The LuthorCorp processing plant." "If you're going to continue playing games like this... you should be more careful." "This isn't me." "No?" "Who is it then?" "God, Mrs. K, thank you so much." "This is so good." "Where do you put it all?" "You eat more than Clark and he's twice your size." "Yeah." "Well, you know, I burn a lot of calories." "Well, there's plenty more in the fridge." "I have to run to a meeting." "Would you mind cleaning up?" "Yeah, anything for you, Mrs. K." "It's nice to have you here, Bart. I hope you stay longer this time." "Hey, what's up, man?" "You just missed a killer spread." "You can cut the act." "I know about LuthorCorp... and the break-ins by somebody who's as fast as me." "Yeah, faster, actually." "It's funny, I actually believed your story about how I changed your life." "Look, it's not a story, Clark." "Okay?" "Really, I'm not the same guy." "You stole from Lex before, you're stealing from him again." " What's the difference?" " It's..." "It's complicated." " I'm a smart guy." "Explain it to me." " I can't." "Why not?" "I thought we were amigos?" "Yeah, well, we are." "Then tell me why you're stealing from LuthorCorp." "I just..." "I can't." "I'll find out for myself then." "Look, I'm sorry I can't tell you all my secrets, Clark." "Okay, I thought a guy like you would understand it." " I know it's just a vacation, but..." " What?" "Vacation?" "No, vacation is Palm Springs." "Monte Carlo is a fairy tale." "Yeah, hopefully without Prince Charming... having a disappearing act every five minutes." "I think you'll be keeping his full attention, Lois." "Yeah." "You know, I'd better." "It's not like I go Victoria's Secret for anybody." "What do you think?" " Should I have gone with the black?" " No." "Something tells me green is definitely his color." "Hey, Chloe..." "God, Smallville." "Learn how to knock." "What if I'd been naked?" "Lois is jetting off to Monte Carlo with Oliver." "Oliver?" "Yeah, I'll send you a postcard if I'm not too busy." " No, Lois, you should..." " Get a couple new bikinis?" "Good idea." "Thanks, Smallville." "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to help Oliver keep his secret from her." "That he's the Green Arrow?" "No offense, Clark, but you weren't... honest with Lana about your secret either." "Look how that ended up." "Maybe all keeping secrets does sometimes... is force you to lie to people you care about." "Are we still talking about Oliver?" "The guy who saved you at the Planet?" "He didn't exactly get away." "It's Bart." "What?" "Wait a minute." " Bart can superspeed too?" " He's actually a lot faster than I am." "That's the truth." "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." "It's fine, you were protecting him." "It's okay." "If anyone gets it, it's me." "But why are you outing him now?" "He's headed for trouble and I need to find him." "Can you GPS his cell phone?" "Yeah, I can try." "Do you have his number?" "He broke into a LuthorCorp plant down in Mexico." "Now, I think Lex is on to him." "If he tries to break into another facility..." "No good." "His phone must be off." "What about call history?" "Can you pull up a record?" "Legally?" "Absolutely not." "There's over a dozen calls to that number in the last 24 hours." "Let's see who's on the other end." "Artemis Global Consortium?" "I've never heard of them." "It's a subsidiary of JL International... which is a satellite company currently orbiting..." "Queen Industries." "It's Oliver." "He's using Bart to attack LuthorCorp." "I'm in." "Not so fast now, are you?" "Oliver." "Look, Clark, whatever's got your tightie-whities... in a bunch, now's not the time." "Where's Bart?" "I saw his phone records." "I know he's working for you." "Not for me." "He's working with me." "There's a difference." "It's not gonna matter when he ends up in jail or worse." "You don't know what you're talking about." "I know how much you hate Lex." "Is that why you recruited Bart?" "To help with your little vendetta?" "No, to stop 33.1." "You know about 33.1?" "Why didn't you tell me what you were up to?" "Clark, do you check in with me... every time you run off to save the world?" "That's right." "For a second there, I forgot." "You like to just wait for trouble to show up." "That's not true." "Then why haven't you done anything to stop 33.1?" "I was busy with another problem." "What could be more urgent than Lex Luthor... developing an army of super freaks, Clark?" "That's what he's doing." "He's starting a war." "What have you found out?" "Not enough." "Last night, Bart infiltrated a place... that was supposed to house the mainframe for 33.1." "That's the last time I heard from him." "So I reconned the target this morning, the place had been stripped clean." "Everything's gone." "The whole thing was a setup." "Lex has Bart." "We have to find him." "My team's already on it." "Your team?" "Not everybody flies solo, Kent." "Morning, sunshine." "I know you." "You've stolen from me before." "I want a lawyer." "And I want a ponytail." "Disappointment abounds." "Who do you work for?" "What you see is what you get, Goldilocks." "You're a low-level thief." "Swiping corporate data isn't your style." "Now, tell me who you're working for and this won't have to get unpleasant." "All right." "All right." "I work for a guy... called Mr. Kiss My Butt." "Would you like me to introduce you?" "The floor of your cell has been outfitted with pressure plates... designed to track movement." "Stop in one place for even a millisecond... after I activate them... and you fry." "Last chance." "Well, maybe you'll feel more talkative when you get tired of running." "AC, check the LuthorCorp manifests." "Gotcha." "How long you guys been working together?" "I joined up about six months ago." "Ollie and Bart had already been doing their thing." " What about your girlfriend, Katherine?" " Dude, don't even go there." "She gave it her best shot." "But with all this hardware in me..." "I'm sorry, Victor." "Ollie found me, I was living on the streets." "He gave me a warm meal, roof over my head... and a reason to go on living." "Did he just say something nice about me?" "Maybe he's starting to rust." "AC, how'd you fall into all this?" "I got into a little trouble sinking a whaler off the coast of Japan." "A little trouble?" "That's what you're gonna go with?" "Ollie had to save your scaly butt from getting filleted." " I would've gotten out of it." " Really?" "Before or after they pack you into a thousand tin cans?" "Well, at least he would've been dolphin-safe." "Fish jokes." "That's all I ever get, are fish jokes." "So how's Lois doing, man?" "Is she all right?" "I think you'd have to ask your boss." "Now's not the time." "We need to focus on locating Bart." "And how exactly did you get him involved in this?" "He's never been much of a team player." "It looks like you two have something in common." "Actually, I was out on patrol in Star City one night... and I came across Bart." "He was helping himself to a free meal." "I could tell he was a good kid." "You know, he just... needed a little direction." "So I offered him a job." "Look where that got him." "I underestimated Lex." "It won't happen again." "I've compiled a list of all LuthorCorp holdings within a hundred-mile radius." "Bart could be held in any one of those facilities." "That's a lot of real estate to cover." "I think I know someone who can help us narrow it down." "Victor Stone and Arthur Curry are working for him too?" "Oliver's been busy." "Is there anything in your LuthorCorp intel... that could help find out where Bart's being held?" "I don't know." "Wait." "When I had my feelers out for Dr. Caselli..." "I managed to shake loose some internal documents." "In the last few days, there's been equipment transfers... to the Ridge Facilities in Metropolis." "LuthorCorp moves equipment all the time." "This isn't a couple of forklifts." "Half a ton of lead shielding, electrical pressure plates... more than $20 million of equipment to measure high velocity particles." "It's Bart. Take everything and bring it to Oliver." "Me?" "Clark..." "I can get to the Ridge faster myself." "I can't let anything happen to Bart." "Mr. Queen, its Chloe Sullivan." "Clark sent me." " Where's Clark?" " He went to rescue Bart." "He told you about Bart?" "We trust each other." "Clark tells me everything." "Well, almost everything." "I did have to figure out about your green leather fetish on my lonesome." "Don't worry, I didn't say anything to Lois." "Although you might wanna consider..." "Hey, let's just stick to the main plot there, sidekick." " So, what do you got?" " Hopefully a solid lead on Bart." "Where are Victor and AC?" "I guess we're not that good at the whole secret part of this yet." "Yeah, but you're great at getting caught by the villain." "Anyway, I think Bart's being held at a place called the Ridge Facility." "That's down by the docks." "It's on our list of possible 33.1 targets." "All right, boys, you know the drill." "Let's gear up and get out." "Oh, no." "What now?" "Lead shielding." "This isn't just for Bart." "I think the Ridge Facility is being used to refine meteor rock." "Clark's in trouble." "Green Arrow to Watch Tower." "We're in position." "Okay." "There should be a security access panel near the east door." "According to the schematic, you need to carefully rewire the system..." "Or..." "I could just jack in and shut the whole perimeter down." " You can do that?" " Queen Industries upgrade." "Accessing perimeter security." "Perimeter neutralized." "Aquaman, you're up." "Perimeter breached." "Proceeding to target." "You make one hell of a can opener." "And you'd look good on a bag of green beans." "All right, we're in." "Which way?" "The refinement vault's a hundred meters southwest." " Still no word from Clark." " If he's in there, we'll get him out." " Let's go." " You've got a different mission." " You're the boss, Robin Hood." " What mission?" "What are you doing?" "Watch Tower to Green Arrow, what's your status?" "Switching to Silent Running." "Stand by for instructions." "Aquaman, do your thing." "Hey." "You're not supposed to be here." "Neither am I." "All right." "Come on." " I'm all right." "Yeah." " You sure?" "Green Arrow to Watch Tower." "Boy Scout's out of the woods." "Boy Scout?" "If you hadn't ran off, you could've picked your own name." "You don't wanna play for the team, that's fine." "Be smart about it." "Point taken." " Where's Bart?" " Impulse." "He didn't get to pick his own code name either." "Watch Tower will guide you to where he's probably being held." "What are you gonna be doing?" "What I do best." "Watch Tower to Boy Scout, let's find Impulse." "Cyborg to Aquaman." "Where the hell are you, Fish Stick?" "Dude, what took you so long?" "Nice." "But please, put a shirt on." " I swim faster when I'm naked." " I bet you do." "You're lucky I still got my pants on." "Boy Scout's located Impulse." "Bart. You okay?" "I don't care." "I want a Level one lockdown." "No one gets in or out." "Little late for that." "You got 10 minutes to clear your people out of here... before I blow this place off the map." " You." " You remember." " I'm touched." " Well, it's a little hard to forget." "Last time we met, you put an arrow in my chest." "You put a bullet in mine." "Bygones?" "Go to hell." "You first." "Can you superspeed?" "Yeah, I just..." "I need a minute to catch my breath." "You know what, you're gonna have to catch it later." "Aquaman, Cyborg." " Rendezvous Alpha, confirm." " We're on the move." "Watch Tower." "Have all of Luthor's people cleared the building?" "The last heat signatures are moving away from the north." "Wait a second." "What are you doing?" "What do you think?" "You want more of your friends in here?" "Yeah, I'm voting no on that one." "Watch Tower, are you sure everyone's out of the building?" "One hundred percent positive." "All right, let's do it." "All right, have the jet fueled and ready." "I wanna be in the air as soon as possible." "Hey." "I hope your bird's got some serious lift... because this thing weighs a ton." "Aren't you packed yet?" "Where's your stuff?" "Lois..." "Don't even think about saying what I think you're gonna say." "I'm sorry." "I have to go away on business." "Postpone it." "It's not that simple." "Nothing with you ever is." "You're like two completely different people." "There's the charming, romantic guy that I fell in love with... and then there's this other guy... who can't stick around in one place long enough to see what he's missing." "Ever since my parents died..." "I've jumped around from city to city, from continent to continent." "And in all those years... not once have I regretted leaving anyone." "But then I met you." "Then stay." "I can't." "Because there are more important things in this world than what I want." "And what I love." "I hope someday I can explain why." "Don't expect me to be waiting around for that when you get back." "I'm not coming back, Lois." "At least not anytime soon." "I'm sorry." "I never wanted to hurt you." "Well, you finally got around to it anyway, didn't you?" "This is the moment, right?" "The moment that I'm gonna regret for the rest of my life, isn't it?" "Yes." "Bart Allen gone, he escaped." "A multimillion-dollar installation destroyed." "33.1, irrevocably compromised." "But at least you found out, son, that the, Jolly Green Archer... and his extraordinary cohorts... they're not your run-of-the-mill adversaries." "Which is exactly why we have to continue with 33.1." "If terrorists like Green Arrow are recruiting people with abilities... the only way to protect freedom and democracy is to fight fire with fire." "Freedom and democracy?" "Well, well." "I hadn't realized your goals were quite so lofty." "Well, there's a lot that escapes your attention in your declining years, Dad." "But not mine." "The security footage from the Ridge Facility was destroyed." "However, several guards described one of Green Arrow's men... as someone that sounded remarkably like Clark Kent." "Clark?" "Impossible." "A word that always seems to pop up when talking about him." "Lex, it was not Clark." "How can you be so sure?" "Because I was having dinner with him last night when all this happened." "Martha made pot roast... with new potatoes and tiny little baby carrots." "It was delicious." "Clark..." "Clark had three helpings." "But don't worry, son." "You still have plenty of enemies out there, plotting your downfall." "Okay, thanks." "So the Daily Planet is running with the story... that a gas explosion destroyed the vacant LuthorCorp building... down by the docks." "Vacant?" "The Luthor cover-up machine is in full swing." "Well, at least we got Bart out before Lex ran him into an early grave." "Oh, come on." "No worries." "I had plenty of juice left." "Could've fooled me, the way you cleaned out Mama Kent's fridge." "Well, it's because I like to stay fueled up." "Just in case I need to spring into action." "I still have a boyfriend." "Yeah, well, a man can dream, can't he?" "Now you know why we call him Impulse." "Impulse, Cyborg..." "Aquaman, Green Arrow, what do you call your team?" "I don't know." "I've been thinking." "We need something cool." "We need something like..." "I was thinking about something with the word "justice" in it." "After all, that's what Lex is gonna get a big dose of." "Victor and AC were able to hack into the 33.1 mainframe... before we blew the building." "That was your other mission." "Haven't met the computer yet I couldn't crack wide open." "What'd you guys find out?" "Lex isn't satisfied playing in his own backyard anymore." "LuthorCorp is starting up divisions of 33.1 all across the globe." "Wherever there's evidence of people with abilities... there'll be laboratories to do experiments." "We can't let that happen." "We won't." "Gentleman, our first target is a large facility on the island of Corto Maltese." "You guys know the drill." "Wheels up in 30 minutes." "Get your gear." "You coming, amigo?" " Yeah, you gotta come with us, man." " We could use the big guns." "They're right, you know?" "You'd be a major asset to the team." "I wanna be a part of this, guys." "I really do." "But?" "That problem I told you about... the one that I caused." "I have to take care of that first." "This isn't the end of the story, Clark." "This is just the beginning." "Chloe." "Come on, boys." "Let's go save the world." "You know, you have some pretty amazing friends, Clark Kent." "Yeah." "I do."

#!/usr/bin/env python """ A gdb-compatible frontend for lldb that implements just enough commands to run the tests in the debuginfo-tests repository with lldb. """ # ---------------------------------------------------------------------- # Auto-detect lldb python module. import commands, platform, os, sys try: # Just try for LLDB in case PYTHONPATH is already correctly setup. import lldb except ImportError: lldb_python_dirs = list() # lldb is not in the PYTHONPATH, try some defaults for the current platform. platform_system = platform.system() if platform_system == 'Darwin': # On Darwin, try the currently selected Xcode directory xcode_dir = commands.getoutput("xcode-select --print-path") if xcode_dir: lldb_python_dirs.append(os.path.realpath(xcode_dir + '/../SharedFrameworks/LLDB.framework/Resources/Python')) lldb_python_dirs.append(xcode_dir + '/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LLDB.framework/Resources/Python') lldb_python_dirs.append( '/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LLDB.framework/Resources/Python') success = False for lldb_python_dir in lldb_python_dirs: if os.path.exists(lldb_python_dir): if not (sys.path.__contains__(lldb_python_dir)): sys.path.append(lldb_python_dir) try: import lldb except ImportError: pass else: print 'imported lldb from: "%s"' % (lldb_python_dir) success = True break if not success: print "error: couldn't locate the 'lldb' module, please set PYTHONPATH correctly" sys.exit(1) # ---------------------------------------------------------------------- # Command line option handling. import argparse parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__) parser.add_argument('--quiet', '-q', action="store_true", help='ignored') parser.add_argument('-batch', action="store_true", help='exit after processing comand line') parser.add_argument('-n', action="store_true", help='ignore .lldb file') parser.add_argument('-x', dest='script', type=file, help='execute commands from file') parser.add_argument("target", help="the program to debug") args = parser.parse_args() # Create a new debugger instance. debugger = lldb.SBDebugger.Create() debugger.SkipLLDBInitFiles(args.n) # Make sure to clean up the debugger on exit. import atexit def on_exit(): debugger.Terminate() atexit.register(on_exit) # Don't return from lldb function calls until the process stops. debugger.SetAsync(False) # Create a target from a file and arch. arch = os.popen("file "+args.target).read().split()[-1] target = debugger.CreateTargetWithFileAndArch(args.target, arch) if not target: print "Could not create target", args.target sys.exit(1) if not args.script: print "Interactive mode is not implemented." sys.exit(1) import re for command in args.script: # Strip newline and whitespaces and split into words. cmd = command[:-1].strip().split() if not cmd: continue print '> %s'% command[:-1] try: if re.match('^r|(run)$', cmd[0]): error = lldb.SBError() launchinfo = lldb.SBLaunchInfo([]) launchinfo.SetWorkingDirectory(os.getcwd()) process = target.Launch(launchinfo, error) print error if not process or error.fail: state = process.GetState() print "State = %d" % state print """ ERROR: Could not launch process. NOTE: There are several reasons why this may happen: * Root needs to run "DevToolsSecurity --enable". * Older versions of lldb cannot launch more than one process simultaneously. """ sys.exit(1) elif re.match('^b|(break)$', cmd[0]) and len(cmd) == 2: if re.match('[0-9]+', cmd[1]): # b line mainfile = target.FindFunctions('main')[0].compile_unit.file print target.BreakpointCreateByLocation(mainfile, int(cmd[1])) else: # b file:line file, line = cmd[1].split(':') print target.BreakpointCreateByLocation(file, int(line)) elif re.match('^ptype$', cmd[0]) and len(cmd) == 2: # GDB's ptype has multiple incarnations depending on its # argument (global variable, function, type). The definition # here is for looking up the signature of a function and only # if that fails it looks for a type with that name. # Type lookup in LLDB would be "image lookup --type". for elem in target.FindFunctions(cmd[1]): print elem.function.type continue print target.FindFirstType(cmd[1]) elif re.match('^po$', cmd[0]) and len(cmd) > 1: try: opts = lldb.SBExpressionOptions() opts.SetFetchDynamicValue(True) opts.SetCoerceResultToId(True) print target.EvaluateExpression(' '.join(cmd[1:]), opts) except: # FIXME: This is a fallback path for the lab.llvm.org # buildbot running OS X 10.7; it should be removed. thread = process.GetThreadAtIndex(0) frame = thread.GetFrameAtIndex(0) print frame.EvaluateExpression(' '.join(cmd[1:])) elif re.match('^p|(print)$', cmd[0]) and len(cmd) > 1: thread = process.GetThreadAtIndex(0) frame = thread.GetFrameAtIndex(0) print frame.EvaluateExpression(' '.join(cmd[1:])) elif re.match('^n|(next)$', cmd[0]): thread = process.GetThreadAtIndex(0) thread.StepOver() elif re.match('^q|(quit)$', cmd[0]): sys.exit(0) else: print debugger.HandleCommand(' '.join(cmd)) except SystemExit: raise except: print 'Could not handle the command "%s"' % ' '.join(cmd)

WASHINGTON — The United States is sending hundreds of troops to Saudi Arabia in what is intended as the latest show of force toward Iran, two Defense Department officials said Wednesday. The roughly 500 troops are part of a broader tranche of forces sent to the region over the past two months after tensions between Washington and Tehran escalated. Since May, a spate of attacks have left six oil tankers damaged in the Gulf of Oman, with Washington accusing Tehran of inciting them. Iranian officials have denied that claim. The downing of an American drone in June by an Iranian surface-to-air missile only heightened tensions, prompting President Trump to approve military strikes against Iran before abruptly pulling back. [For more stories about American troop deployments, sign up for the weekly At War newsletter.] In recent weeks, Iran has deliberately violated parts of the 2015 international accord that restricted its nuclear program. Last year, Mr. Trump withdrew from the pact, calling it a “horrible deal.”

About Suffering FOR A NEW APPROACH TO SUFFERING, PHYSICAL AND MENTAL, HUMAN AND ANIMAL. Wednesday, September 09, 2009 Painism, a useful pre-algonomic deviation Richard Ryder’s book Painism — A Modern Morality figures in Precursor Works for an Algonomy because it proposes “the theory that moral value is based upon the individual’s experience of pain and that pain itself is the only evil” (page 26). Even if I think the theory is false, as every other all-encompassing ethical view based on a single most cherished value, the book for me has still a pro-algonomic usefulness because it shows in simple terms how the moral value of suffering, at least from one point of view, is second to no other value. The book has only three chapters, the first on “Ethics So far”, the second on painism as a new approach to ethics, and the third on “Some Applications” of painism. I believe Ryder was looking for a way to apply very generally the idea that the reduction (or we could say more sophisticatedly the sufficient collective mastery) of pain is a supremely important thing, and he thought ethics might be an appropriate way. However, an historical review might show that without an algonomy, which is specifically, universally, and exclusively about pain, no way of managing pain can be 'appropriate'. Until now, every solution to suffering has been inappropriate, every well-intended solution has been actually a deviation or a wandering from pain into something else. Ryder’s book is more about morality than about pain. As a consequence, it suffers from a dual focus that is blurring an otherwise clear matter. Pain has an importance so great that it cannot be conveyed by way of ethics: pain requires its own proper specific exclusive whole universal domain, second to none. And ethics cannot be reduced to pain without being pervertedly impoverished (v.g. p. 65: “Pain, broadly defined to include all forms of suffering, is the only evil. All other moral objectives are means to reducing pain.”). The author formulates some 42 rules for painism. Most of them seem to me less wise than they should be. Ryder’s manner of dealing ‘quantitatively’ with pain is, in my opinion, so clumsy or half-baked that it defies serious criticism! He may recognize rightly that “the severe suffering of one individual is a more serious matter morally than the mild suffering of millions” (page 2), that “pains cannot be aggregated across individuals” (page 27, reminiscent of a C.S. Lewis’ saying), or that “our first moral concern should always be with the individual who is the maximum sufferer” (page 29, reminiscent of an Abbé Pierre’s saying, and of a John Rawls’ principle — incidentally pp.19-21 and 92-94 are excellent about Rawls), but he still lacks the more sophisticated concepts that would prevent him from uselessly presenting “provocative and controversial results” (back cover). Especially, I guess, he is lacking the concept of a categorical distinction of INCOMMENSURABILITY between mild (more sophisticatedly: non excessive) suffering and severe (excessive) suffering. For instance, Ryder might say that an event causing 100 units of pain to a thousand individuals is worst than an event causing 10 units of pain to a million individuals. We might agree with that, but then, according to the same logic, we should agree also that an event causing 100 units of pain to a thousand individuals is worst than an event causing 99 units of pain to a million individuals. The problem is that concepts like mild suffering, severe suffering, aggregation of pains, and maximum sufferer have to be defined much more explicitly than Ryder does. It must be said in his defense that, as a former animal experimenter and a former chairman of the Royal SPCA council, Ryder has been much concerned with the number and the suffering of animals used in laboratories. That is perhaps why his perspective is so peculiar. In any case, algoscience should collect every ethical view that gives a prominent place to suffering or to the relief of suffering. Ryder mentions some names in this connection: Epicurus, Bentham, Mill, Singer… We might add to those names that of Richard Ryder, Karl Popper (who proposed a negative utilitarianism), Erich H Loewy (Suffering and the Beneficent Community), Jamie Mayerfeld (Suffering and Moral Responsibility), Henri Atlan (Le plaisir, la douleur et les niveaux de l'éthique)… There is one more point in Ryder’s view of pain that seems important to me. He quotes on page 121 an author who, like many others, suggests that there may be “no shared mental quality” between various painful states, such as nausea, a stubbed toe, existential angst, or frustration from not being able to walk around. On page 27 Ryder writes also that “The pain of A is as different from the pain of B as is a piece of chalk from a lump of cheese.” On page 121 however he writes: “But surely — their painfulness is shared. Their causes may differ, and so do their emotional and cognitive attributes, but at some basic level these states are all painful.” An on page 35: “Sooner or later, brain research will show that all pleasures (…) share some common cerebral mechanism. The same will be said of all varieties of pain.” I concur heartily. Suffering is a specific real phenomenon. It is a concrete thing sticking to the bodies of individuals who suffer. It exists in space and time, in a given number of nervous systems. It reacts to actions applied to it, it can be reduced, it can be stopped, it can be prevented. Wednesday, September 02, 2009 Cultivating a self-managed planet Time magazine of August 31 2009 has a cover on The Real Cost of Cheap Food. It shows a package of ground beef with a sticker that reads: “Warning: This hamburger may be hazardous to your health. Why the American food system is bad for our bodies, our economy, and our environment – and what some visionaries are trying to do about it.” Our bodies, our economy, our environment, our, our, our… Nothing about “the others”, those beings who actually are suffering the most because of “our” food system: the billions of animals who are abused, and also the nearly one billion persons who suffer from unfair agricultural trade. From an algonomic point of view, they are, presently, those who are paying the major part of THE (not 'our') real cost of cheap food. But there is no algonomic culture yet for considering our problems of food, health, economy, environment, etc. John J. Pilch has an article, How We Redress Our Suffering, in which he looks somewhat at how different cultures across time respond differently to pain and suffering. He quotes Mark Zborowsky’s classic study “People in Pain”: Each human group has its own moral and ethical criteria, which are a part of its cultural legacy. They are part of its religious system, its social organization, or its economy. They might be absolute and universal in terms of the society that accepts them, but their nature is relative and even parochial when seen in the light of the diversity of human groups and cultures. In our new peculiar planetary context, most solutions to our painful problems now require the adoption of an algonomic culture, a culture that, hopefully, allows us to deal with suffering within a global framework. The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential offers the right frame for algonomic work, for choosing which elements, among ‘all’ relevant elements of the world problematique and resolutique, we may want to take into account. See in this connection the recent article of Anthony Judge: Reframing Global Initiatives for the Future. Introduction It is proposed to develop a new domain of work concerned with the whole set of things that relate to suffering. It is suggested to name algonomy this new domain of work. Posts here focus on various documents and events where people speak of suffering as a primary concern. The intended goal is to develop algonomy by linking up with people who are the most likely to benefit from or to contribute to the new domain.

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Urocortin 2 acts centrally to delay gastric emptying through sympathetic pathways while CRF and urocortin 1 inhibitory actions are vagal dependent in rats. We characterized the influence of the selective corticotropin-releasing factor 2 (CRF(2)) receptor agonist human urocortin 2 (Ucn 2), injected intracisternally, on gastric emptying and its mechanism of action compared with intracisternal CRF or urocortin (Ucn 1) in conscious rats. The methylcellulose phenol red solution was gavaged 20 min after peptide injection, and gastric emptying was measured 20 min later. The intracisternal injection of Ucn 2 (0.1 and 1 microg) and Ucn 1 (1 microg) decreased gastric emptying to 37.8 +/- 6.9%, 23.1 +/- 8.6%, and 21.6 +/- 5.9%, respectively, compared with 58.4 +/- 3.8% after intracisternal vehicle. At lower doses, Ucn 2 (0.03 microg) and Ucn 1 (0.1 microg) had no effect. The CRF(2) antagonist astressin(2)-B (3 microg ic) antagonized intracisternal Ucn 2 (0.1 microg) and CRF (0.3 microg)-induced inhibition of gastric emptying. Vagotomy enhanced intracisternal Ucn 2 (0.1 or 1 microg)-induced inhibition of gastric emptying compared with sham-operated group, whereas it blocked intracisternal CRF (1 microg) inhibitory action (45.5 +/- 8.4% vs. 9.7 +/- 9.7%). Sympathetic blockade by bretylium prevented intracisternal and intracerebroventricular Ucn 2-induced delayed gastric emptying, whereas it did not influence intravenous Ucn 2-, intracisternal CRF-, and intracisternal Ucn 1-induced inhibition of gastric emptying. Prazosin abolished the intracisternal Ucn 2 inhibitory effect, whereas yohimbine and propranolol did not. None of the pretreatments modified basal gastric emptying. These data indicate that intracisternal Ucn 2 induced a central CRF(2)-mediated inhibition of gastric emptying involving sympathetic alpha(1)-adrenergic mechanisms independent from the vagus contrasting with the vagal-dependent inhibitory actions of CRF and Ucn 1.

DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes is a 1995 book written by Les Daniels and published by Bulfinch Press, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. Concept DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes is a 256 page large-format book that contains information and re-printed panels from the first 60 years of DC Comics. Reception Steve Faragher reviewed DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes for Arcane magazine, rating it a 9 out of 10 overall. Faragher comments that "So if you wanted to know that Bob Kane based Batman on a combination of Leonardo da Vinci's sketches, Zorro and Bela Lugosi, or that the quote 'Who watches the watchmen?' is from the ancient Roman poet Juvenal, or even that Jack Nicholson was Bob Kane's suggestion to play the joker several years before the film was made, then this is definitely the book for you." References Category:1995 books Category:Books about comics

How Scientology controls John Travolta and Tom Cruise, according to 'Going Clear' HBO hired 160 lawyers when the network decided to air Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, the two-hour documentary based on Lawrence Wright's book. This makes sense when you watch the film, directed by Alex Gibney, which aired Sunday night. Ex-Church of Scientology members and officials reveal secrets of the organisation, and tell horror stories of psychological and physical abuse during their time in the controversial religion — and after they escaped. (For the record, the church unleashed a series of attack ads against the film and says that it's "bigoted propaganda" and " built on falsehoods invented by admitted liars.") One particularly fascinating subject that the documentary tackles is the relationship between celebrities and the church, which has been well-documented particularly with two of its most famous members: John Travolta and Tom Cruise. The film goes into detail about how much Scientology leader David Miscavige relies on star power to recruit new members and raise money. The Church of Scientology — worth billions of dollars — is considered tax-exempt by the Internal Revenue Service, which waged a nasty battle with the church for years before giving up and declaring it a non-profit religious organisation in 1993. As Wright says in Going Clear, there are only two ways to stop the church. One: The IRS could change its mind and start looking into finances. The other? "Some of these celebrity megaphones could turn against the church," says Wright. "And Tom Cruise should be leading that chorus."

Helicobacter pylori increases the risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients taking low-dose aspirin. To evaluate the role of Helicobacter pylori infection and other clinical factors in the risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients taking low-dose aspirin. A case-control study was carried out of consecutive current users of low-dose aspirin admitted because of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Within a cohort of 695 patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding, 98 patients had taken low-dose aspirin and no other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Controls were 147 low-dose aspirin users without upper gastrointestinal bleeding of similar age, sex and extent of aspirin use as cases. H. pylori infection was determined by CagA/VacA serology and 13C-urea breath test in all cases and controls. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) are provided. H. pylori infection was identified as an independent risk factor of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in this population (OR, 4.7; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 2.0-10.9), but the presence of CagA-positive serology was not. Other risk factors identified were a previous ulcer history (OR, 15.2; 95% CI, 3.8-60.1), alcohol use (OR, 4.2; 95% CI, 1.7-10.4) and use of calcium channel blockers (OR, 2.54; 95% CI, 1.25-5.14). Antisecretory therapy (OR, 0.1; 95% CI, 0.02-0.3) and nitrovasodilators (OR, 0.2; 95% CI, 0.1-0.6) decreased the risk of bleeding. H. pylori infection is a risk factor for upper gastrointestinal bleeding in low-dose aspirin users, which might have therapeutic implications in high-risk patients.

I know you're depressed and need to cheer up But you're useless and your friends only pretend to like you 183 shares

Q: Samsung SSD: GParted can see, partition and format but Win7 won't initialize disk (CRC error) I have a 240GB Samsung SSD830. Pulled from working PC. Up to date firmware. On attaching to 2nd working PC, Win7 states disk must be initialized, but fails with CRC error when attempting to do so, regardless of whether MBR or GPT is selected. Intel RST pops up in notification area to state disk is part of a RAID array and cannot be accessed. This classification is not correct. The disk was once part of a RAID0 over a year ago, but was removed from the array and has been successfully used as a single drive ever since. Samsung diagnostic tools can see the disk as a hardware device but cannot access it, other than to read SMART data (no problems highlighted). After failing to get any success with Win7, I booted from GParted live CD. In GParted I successfully removed the existing partitions and repartitioned with single primary partition - unformatted, with intention of later formatting this as NTFS in Win7. On returning to Win7 to format, same as before: virtual disk manager states disk must be initialized, then CRC error. Back into GParted. Repartition with single primary and format as ext4. Formatted partition is accessible from Linux Mint on same PC seemingly with no issues. Back into Win7 - still saying drive must be initialized. I half suspect RST is getting in the way with its false reports about the drive being part of a RAID set, but I know zilch about RST so I can't be even remotely sure. All features and functions are grayed out when I select that drive in the RST front end. I don't currently have access to any other machines to try it in. Any ideas? A: Finally got this sorted by performing an ATA Secure Erase. I bought a copy of Parted Magic to do this via its fairly straightforward GUI as it's not something I'd be confident doing via CLI on the first go, but I believe it can be done in a number of different ways.

PLGA/hydrogel biopapers as a stackable substrate for printing HUVEC networks via BioLP. Two major challenges in tissue engineering are mimicking the native cell-cell arrangements of tissues and maintaining viability of three-dimension (3D) tissues thicker than 300 µm. Cell printing and prevascularization of engineered tissues are promising approaches to meet these challenges. However, the printing technologies used in biofabrication must balance the competing parameters of resolution, speed, and volume, which limit the resolution of thicker 3D structures. We suggest that high-resolution conformal printing techniques can be used to print 2D patterns of vascular cells onto biopaper substrates which can then be stacked to form a thicker tissue construct. Towards this end we created 1 cm × 1 cm × 300 µm biopapers to be used as the transferable, stackable substrate for cell printing. 3.6% w/v poly-lactide-co-glycolide was dissolved in chloroform and poured into molds filled with NaCl crystals. The salt was removed with DI water and the scaffolds were dried and loaded with a Collagen Type I or Matrigel. SEM of the biopapers showed extensive porosity and gel loading throughout. Biological laser printing (BioLP) was used to deposit human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) in a simple intersecting pattern to the surface of the biopapers. The cells differentiated and stretched to form networks preserving the printed pattern. In a separate experiment to demonstrate "stackability," individual biopapers were randomly seeded with HUVECs and cultured for 1 day. The mechanically stable and viable biopapers were then stacked and cultured for 4 days. Three-dimensional confocal microscopy showed cell infiltration and survival in the compound multilayer constructs. These results demonstrate the feasibility of stackable "biopapers" as a scaffold to build 3D vascularized tissues with a 2D cell-printing technique.

616 N.W.2d 301 (2000) 260 Neb. 219 Evelyn A. O'CONNOR, appellee, v. David A. KAUFMAN and Virginia L. Kaufman, appellants. No. S-99-489. Supreme Court of Nebraska. August 11, 2000. *304 John P. Weis, of Sorensen & Zimmerman, P.C., Scottsbluff, for appellants. Maren Lynn Chaloupka, of The Van Steenberg Firm, and James Duffy O'Connor, of Maslon, Edelman, Borman & Brand, L.L.P., Omaha, for appellee. HENDRY, C.J., WRIGHT, CONNOLLY, GERRARD, STEPHAN, McCORMACK, and MILLER-LERMAN, JJ. GERRARD, J. INTRODUCTION This is the third appearance in this court of this action for injunctive relief and damages. Evelyn A. O'Connor filed suit in the district court for Scotts Bluff County against her rural neighbors, David A. Kaufman and Virginia L. Kaufman (the Kaufmans), claiming that she had an implied easement, arising from former use, for the maintenance of a well, pump, and pipeline located on the Kaufmans' property. The Kaufmans had capped the well and removed the pump in 1991. The district court granted O'Connor's motion for summary judgment on the implied easement issue, ordered the Kaufmans to reinstate the use of the well, and enjoined them from interfering with O'Connor's use of the easement. After a trial on damages, O'Connor was awarded $16,762.73 and the Kaufmans' subsequent motion for a new trial was overruled. The Kaufmans appeal. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND The facts of this case have been adequately detailed in three previous appellate decisions and need not all be repeated here. See, O'Connor v. Kaufman, 250 *305 Neb. 419, 550 N.W.2d 902 (1996) (O'Connor I); O'Connor v. Kaufman, 6 Neb.App. 382, 574 N.W.2d 513 (1998) (O'Connor II), affirmed 255 Neb. 120, 582 N.W.2d 350 (1998) (O'Connor III). We will set forth the facts pertinent to this appeal and refer the interested reader to the prior appellate decisions for a more complete factual background, if necessary. For ease of reference, we set forth below a sketch of the parcels of land involved. The sketch is for illustrative purposes only and does not purport to be drawn to scale. O'Connor I. The property at issue is approximately 460 acres of farmland located southeast of Lyman, Nebraska. O'Connor is the owner of the parcels marked A, B, and C. The Kaufmans are the owners of parcel D. Parcels A and D adjoin each other, divided only by a country road. Until January 2, 1965, William Ledingham, Jr., owned and farmed all the land (parcels A, B, C, and D). William Ledingham maintained a home on parcel A, which is now owned by O'Connor. The well, pump, and pipeline in question were built by William Ledingham more than 45 years ago on parcel D in order to furnish domestic water to his home on parcel A. The pipeline running from parcel D to parcel A is underground. Id. On January 2, 1965, William Ledingham conveyed all the land to William Ledingham, Inc. William Ledingham passed away on January 29, 1975, and Ledingham, Inc., conveyed the land to William Ledingham's two children by corporate dissolution deeds. Parcels A and B were conveyed to William Ledingham's son, Jerry Ledingham, and parcels C and D were conveyed to his daughter, Sandra Carnesecca. Carnesecca subsequently conveyed parcel C to her brother, Jerry Ledingham, in an effort to equalize their interests in William Ledingham's estate. Jerry Ledingham passed away on January 31, 1985, and parcels A, B, and C were conveyed by personal representative deed to O'Connor, his wife. Title of parcel D went from Carnesecca to Renteria Brothers Land and Livestock, Inc., on February 7, 1978; then passed to Arthur and Dora Renteria on January 16, 1979; then to Arthur Renteria on January 26, 1979; then to Renteria Farms, Inc., on August 20, 1981; and finally, to the Kaufmans by sheriff's deed on November 8, 1989. No express easement for use of the well, pump, and pipeline was ever reserved throughout the chain of title to parcel D. Prior to purchasing the land, the Kaufmans searched the title record and visually inspected the land without discovering the alleged easement. From 1978 to 1990, the house on parcel A shared the water from the well with a small house, occupied by Victor Roldan, and other outbuildings located on parcel D. In October 1985, O'Connor rented the house located on parcel A to Bill Derr. In the lease, Derr agreed to pay a fee for pumping water onto the premises from the well on parcel D. When the Kaufmans *306 acquired the property in November 1989, Derr agreed to pay them $25 per month for use of water from the well. This agreement continued until Derr moved out of the house in July 1991. In September 1991, while no one was living in the house on parcel A, the Kaufmans removed the well, pump, and pipeline on parcel D and began farming the land where these items were formerly located. After the well was removed, O'Connor hired Don Rider to drill a well on parcel A in order to supply water to the house on that land. Since the well was drilled, the house again became habitable. O'Connor's original petition alleged only a prescriptive right to the use of water from the well on parcel D. The district court granted O'Connor leave to amend her petition due to an error in the legal description of her property. In her amended petition, O'Connor added a claim based upon the existence of an implied easement from former use. The amended petition stated in pertinent part: "That the lands owned by plaintiff and defendants adjoin each other and that prior to plaintiff or defendants acquiring title to their respective land all of said land was owned by William Ledingham who farmed all of the land owned, maintained a home on the land owned by the plaintiff; and, installed an irrigation well on the property owned by the defendants together with a pipeline running therefrom for the purpose of providing domestic water to his home and adjoining facilities on the land owned by the plaintiff. That the reason for said installation was that the land owned by the plaintiff was incapable of supporting a water well sufficient to provide water for domestic purposes. Said well, pump and pipeline was installed more than 40 years ago and has remained in the same location for continuous furnishing of domestic water to plaintiff's land." O'Connor I, 250 Neb. at 423, 550 N.W.2d at 905. The Kaufmans answered by claiming that the elements required to support the creation of an implied easement were not satisfied. In O'Connor I, we concluded that in order to determine whether an implied easement from former use was created, we must look to the time of the conveyance subdividing the property. Under the facts of this action, we determined that January 29, 1975, is the appropriate time, because that is when Ledingham, Inc., conveyed the parcels at issue to Jerry Ledingham and Carnesecca, thus marking the first time that parcels A (O'Connor's property) and D (the Kaufmans' property) were not under common ownership. We noted that the affidavits submitted at the summary judgment hearing discussed events that transpired in the late 1980's and early 1990's, focusing predominantly upon the adequacy of the well dug in 1991 on parcel A to supply water to the house on that land. None of the affidavits submitted by either O'Connor or the Kaufmans referred to the alleged easement as of January 29, 1975, when parcels A and D were first divided. Id. at 425, 550 N.W.2d at 906. We determined that the submitted affidavits were not relevant because they did not relate back to the appropriate timeframe. We looked only to the amended petition and answer and determined that a genuine issue of material fact existed regarding the creation of an implied easement and reversed the order granting the motion for summary judgment favoring the Kaufmans. Id. After our decision in O'Connor I, both parties amended their respective pleadings with the district court's permission. O'Connor then moved for partial summary judgment on May 12, 1997. At the hearing on the motion, several affidavits were received into evidence, which clearly stated the irrigation well on parcel D had been used since the 1950's to supply the domestic water to parcel A until the well was *307 capped and the pump removed in 1991. O'Connor averred that after the well was capped, she had difficulty finding tenants and incurred expenses while trying to find another source of water for parcel A. She stated that the water that has been produced by these attempts is unsatisfactory for drinking. Stanley Welsch, O'Connor's tenant since April 1993, stated that the current well on parcel A supplies water that is odorous and that flows at a rate of only 2 to 3 gallons per minute, which requires him and his family to ration its other water needs. In his supplemental affidavit, Welsch stated that the water is drinkable, but that his family prefers bottled water. Carnesecca averred that on January 29, 1975, she conveyed land to her brother Jerry Ledingham. She and Jerry Ledingham erroneously believed that the well on parcel D was located upon property she was conveying to him and therefore inserted language in the contract that provided for the continued use of the domestic water from the well for the land that she was conveying to him. Carnesecca stated that there had never been a house or yard on this land that had received its domestic water from the well on parcel D. In her supplemental affidavit, Carnesecca stated that when William Ledingham purchased parcel A in 1942, a well on parcel A supplied the water for the house. In 1949, William Ledingham dug the well on parcel D, which was used to supply water to parcel A. The original well on parcel A was used to water livestock, and after William Ledingham quit the livestock business, that well was capped. She stated that there were no problems with the original well on parcel A before it was capped and prior to its change in use; the original well provided domestic water for the home on parcel A. Carnesecca also averred that during his lifetime, William Ledingham never indicated any intention to create or reserve an easement for the use of the water from the well on parcel D to the family home on parcel A. Carnesecca further explained that the contractual provision reflects the agreement she made with Jerry Ledingham for the use of the water from the well on parcel D, wherein she agreed to allow him to continue to use the water from the well, provided he maintain the pump and share in the cost of the electricity to run the pump. David Kaufman stated in his affidavit that he had no recorded notice of any easement. He said that he entered into an agreement with O'Connor's tenant Derr, in which Derr could use the water from his well for a fee. Derr claimed in his affidavit that he entered into this agreement because he believed that David Kaufman was the true owner of the well and because O'Connor never claimed any right in the well. Rider, who dug the well on parcel A in 1991, stated that the well was adequate to supply water for the domestic use of parcel A. On July 8, 1997, the district court sustained O'Connor's motion for partial summary judgment and reserved for trial the remaining issue of damages. In its order sustaining O'Connor's motion, the district court determined that an implied easement from prior use was created and that the abandonment defense was without merit. The district court further ordered the Kaufmans to reinstate use of the well, pump, and pipeline as existed prior to their removal and permanently enjoined the Kaufmans from interfering with O'Connor's use of the easement. The Kaufmans appealed, but their appeal was dismissed for lack of a final, appealable order. See O'Connor III (affirming Nebraska Court of Appeals' decision in O'Connor II, holding that order granting O'Connor's motion for partial summary judgment as to permanent injunction and easement, but retaining issue of damages for trial, is not final, appealable order). A trial on the issue of damages was subsequently held wherein the district court awarded O'Connor damages in the amount of $16,762.73, including (1) $5,811.73 for well drilling on parcel A, (2) $2,950 for lost *308 rental income from September 1991 until the Welsches moved to O'Connor's property in April 1993, (3) $8,000 to remove and fill the swimming pool, and (4) $1 for O'Connor's loss of the yard on parcel A. The Kaufmans' motion for new trial was overruled, and this appeal followed. We moved this case to our docket pursuant to our authority to regulate the caseloads of the appellate courts of this state. Neb. Rev.Stat. § 24-1106(3) (Reissue 1995). ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR The Kaufmans allege that the district court erred in (1) finding the existence of an implied easement from former use for use of water from the irrigation well located upon their property; (2) finding that O'Connor is the owner of an implied easement from former use for use of water from the irrigation well located upon their property; (3) failing to find that the implied easement, if any, had been abandoned by the actions of O'Connor; (4) enjoining the Kaufmans to reinstate the irrigation well located upon their property; (5) permanently enjoining the Kaufmans from interfering with O'Connor's alleged easement; (6) finding that the Kaufmans had committed trespass against O'Connor's alleged easement; (7) failing to dissolve the injunction against the Kaufmans for reinstatement of the irrigation well located upon their property; (8) awarding O'Connor monetary damages for the cost of drilling a new well; (9) awarding O'Connor monetary damages for the loss of rental income; and (10) awarding O'Connor monetary damages for the cost of filling in the swimming pool on her property. STANDARD OF REVIEW In reviewing a summary judgment, an appellate court views the evidence in a light most favorable to the party against whom the judgment is granted and gives such party the benefit of all reasonable inferences deducible from the evidence. Iwanski v. Gomes, 259 Neb. 632, 611 N.W.2d 607 (2000); Turner v. Fehrs Neb. Tractor & Equip., 259 Neb. 313, 609 N.W.2d 652 (2000). In a bench trial of a law action, a trial court's findings have the effect of a jury verdict and will not be set aside on appeal unless clearly erroneous. Schwarz v. Platte Valley Exterminating, 258 Neb. 841, 606 N.W.2d 85 (2000). A motion for new trial is addressed to the discretion of the trial court, whose decision will be upheld in the absence of an abuse of that discretion. Id.; Streeks v. Diamond Hill Farms, 258 Neb. 581, 605 N.W.2d 110 (2000). ANALYSIS SUMMARY JUDGMENT ON IMPLIED EASEMENT The district court determined that an implied easement existed and that O'Connor had not abandoned this easement. The Kaufmans dispute this determination in their first three assigned errors. An easement by implication from former use arises only where (1) the use giving rise to the easement was in existence at the time of the conveyance subdividing the property, (2) the use has been so long continued and so obvious as to show that it was meant to be permanent, and (3) the easement is necessary for the proper and reasonable enjoyment of the dominant tract. O'Connor I; Hillary Corp. v. United States Cold Storage, 250 Neb. 397, 550 N.W.2d 889 (1996). As explained in O'Connor I, in order to determine whether an implied easement from former use was created, we look to the time of the conveyance subdividing the property. The relevant time is therefore January 29, 1975, when Ledingham, Inc., subdivided the property at issue. In the instant case, both O'Connor and Carnesecca averred that William Ledingham and Jerry Ledingham used the well on parcel D to supply water for parcel A in 1975, when Ledingham, Inc., subdivided these parcels. William Ledingham's longtime *309 neighbor, Carl Stratton, similarly stated in his affidavit that the well on parcel D supplied water to parcel A up to and through 1975. This evidence demonstrates that there is no dispute and thus no question of fact that the use giving rise to this easement was in existence in 1975, which is the time of the conveyance subdividing the property. Regarding the second element, the Kaufmans contend that questions of fact exist as to the intent of William Ledingham to create or reserve an implied easement. They point to Carnesecca's supplemental affidavit in which she discusses the use of the original well on parcel A, which provided the domestic water supply on parcel A until the well on parcel D was drilled. The well on parcel A continued to be an alternative water supply for parcel A. Carnesecca also avers that William Ledingham never indicated any intention to create an easement. Carnesecca's affidavit, however, does not create a question of fact regarding William Ledingham's intent. It does not necessarily follow that because an alternative water supply existed on parcel A and William Ledingham never verbally expressed his intent, he had no intent to create an easement for use of water from the well on parcel D. His continuous use for over 25 years, from the time the well was drilled in 1949 up to 1975 when the property was divided, clearly expresses his intent to create a permanent easement. In essence, William Ledingham's actions speak louder than Carnesecca's words. The use of the easement has been so long continued and so obvious as to show that it was meant to be permanent, thus satisfying the second element. The Kaufmans argue that the use of water from the well on parcel D was a mere convenience and not reasonably necessary for the enjoyment of parcel A. They assert that because there was an alternative source of water on parcel A, which met the original domestic needs of the homestead, in addition to the fact that this well on parcel A was capped while in good working order create a question of fact as to the necessity of using the water from the well on parcel D. The Kaufmans, although they couch their argument in "reasonable necessity" language, are actually arguing that the use of the well was not strictly necessary. The degree of necessity required to prove the existence of an implied easement from former use is "reasonable necessity." Hillary Corp. v. United States Cold Storage, 250 Neb. 397, 550 N.W.2d 889 (1996). The rule of strict necessity is applied to easements that arise by necessity and implied reservations, but not to easements from former use. Id. "Reasonable necessity" means that the easement is "`necessary for the proper and reasonable enjoyment of the dominant tract.'" (Emphasis omitted.) Id. at 411, 550 N.W.2d at 898, quoting Hengen v. Hengen, 211 Neb. 276, 318 N.W.2d 269 (1982). In Hillary Corp., we also noted that "the degree of necessity is such merely as renders the easement necessary for the convenient and comfortable enjoyment of the property as it existed when the severance was made, and that it should not be absolutely necessary for the enjoyment of the estate granted." (Emphasis omitted.) 250 Neb. at 411, 550 N.W.2d at 897-98, quoting Christensen v. Luehrs, 133 Neb. 50, 273 N.W. 839 (1937). The Kaufmans concede that the reason William Ledingham diverted water from the well on parcel D to parcel A was because that well produced more water. Because "reasonable necessity" and not strict necessity need be established, there is no question of fact that the use of the well on parcel D was reasonably necessary for the convenient and comfortable enjoyment of parcel A. The Kaufmans also argue that if an implied easement existed, this easement was abandoned through subsequent actions of the landowners. Specifically, the Kaufmans point to the contractual language *310 of the 1975 Carnesecca-Ledingham contract in which Jerry Ledingham agreed that he would continue to have the right to use the well on parcel D in consideration for maintaining the pump and sharing the operating costs with Carnesecca. The Kaufmans further assert as indicative of this purported abandonment that the deed record does not contain an expressly reserved easement, that O'Connor's tenant Derr paid Kaufman a fee for using the well on parcel D, and that O'Connor proposed to the Kaufmans that she lease or buy the property so as to secure her use of the water. An easement may be abandoned by unequivocal acts showing a clear intention to abandon and terminate the right, or it may be done by acts in pais without deed or other writing. Mueller v. Bohannon, 256 Neb. 286, 589 N.W.2d 852 (1999). The intention to abandon is the material question, and it may be proved by an infinite variety of acts. It is a question of fact to be ascertained from all the circumstances of the case. See Hillary Corp. v. United States Cold Storage, supra. The Carnesecca-Ledingham contractual provision, the absence of an expressly reserved easement, Derr's payment of a use fee to the Kaufmans, and O'Connor's efforts to secure her use of the water are, however, insufficient to constitute unequivocal acts indicating an intent to abandon. The contractual provision, Derr's use fee, and O'Connor's efforts reveal an intent to preserve a right in the property through legal, rather than equitable channels. Additionally, O'Connor offered to buy the land surrounding the well on parcel D only after the Kaufmans had capped the well. As the district court noted, the use of the easement did not stop because O'Connor willed it, but, rather, because the Kaufmans capped the well and shut off her domestic water supply. The absence of an expressly reserved easement does not amount to abandonment, because an implied easement is, by definition, not express. We determine that there are no questions of fact in the record before us which preclude summary judgment. We therefore affirm the order of the district court granting summary judgment in favor of O'Connor on the implied easement from former use theory. INJUNCTIVE RELIEF The Kaufmans' fourth through seventh assigned errors involve the propriety of the injunctive relief. They argue that the district court erred in granting a permanent injunction because O'Connor was not faced with an irreparable harm and that summary judgment provided an adequate remedy at law. Summary judgment was an adequate remedy, according to the Kaufmans, because the district court's order awarded O'Connor an implied easement for the use of the water, and if the Kaufmans interfered with this easement, O'Connor would be entitled to bring a trespass action. They maintain that a trespass action constitutes an adequate remedy at law. The term "adequate remedy at law" refers to a remedy which is plain and complete, and as practical and efficient to the ends of justice as is the equitable remedy. Hornig v. Martel Lift Systems, 258 Neb. 764, 606 N.W.2d 764 (2000). A trespass action would entitle O'Connor to recover money damages. See, e.g, George Rose Sodding & Grading Co., Inc. v. City of Omaha, 187 Neb. 683, 193 N.W.2d 556 (1972); Murray v. Mace, 41 Neb. 60, 59 N.W. 387 (1894). However, a trespass action would not entitle O'Connor to prevent the Kaufmans from interfering with her easement, which injunctive relief provides. A trespass action is thus not an adequate remedy at law under the circumstances of this case, and we conclude that the district court did not err in granting injunctive relief to O'Connor. ASSESSMENT OF DAMAGES The Kaufmans' final three assigned errors involve the damages awarded *311 to O'Connor. They assert generally that the award of damages is not supported by the evidence. The Kaufmans contend that O'Connor's inaction bars equitable relief, that she failed to mitigate her damages with respect to the lost rental income, and that the cost of removing and filling in O'Connor's swimming pool was speculative and was not the result of their actions. In analyzing these errors, we note that the amount of damages to be awarded is a determination solely for the fact finder, and its action in this respect will not be disturbed on appeal if it is supported by the evidence and bears a reasonable relationship to the elements of the damages proved. See, Phipps v. Skyview Farms, 259 Neb. 492, 610 N.W.2d 723 (2000); Holden v. Wal-Mart Stores, 259 Neb. 78, 608 N.W.2d 187 (2000). The Kaufmans first argue that the district court erred in awarding O'Connor damages for drilling a new well. They claim that such an award penalizes them for O'Connor's lack of diligence in seeking remedial relief and her failure to mitigate her damages. The Kaufmans contend that since they capped the well in September 1991, O'Connor should have immediately sought a temporary injunction, which would have made drilling a new well unnecessary. It is the Kaufmans' burden to show that O'Connor failed to mitigate her damages. See Streeks v. Diamond Hill Farms, 258 Neb. 581, 605 N.W.2d 110 (2000). They have not sustained this burden. On the contrary, O'Connor's testimony reveals that she was diligent in seeking a remedy. She testified that she contacted David Kaufman after she learned that the well was capped and attempted to negotiate with him. She stated that Kaufman expressed an interest in working on the water issue. O'Connor testified that she did not begin to look for a new well immediately because she did not think that there would be a good source for a well on her property and that she was hopeful that she and the Kaufmans could resolve the problem. The record reveals that she diligently pursued a resolution, and as such, the Kaufmans' argument that O'Connor failed to mitigate her damages is without merit. The Kaufmans also claim that if they are ordered to reinstate their irrigation well on parcel D and O'Connor recovers the cost of drilling a new well on parcel A, O'Connor receives a windfall of a new well for free. The principle underlying allowance of damages is to place the injured party in the same position, so far as money can do it, as he or she would have been had there been no injury or breach of duty, that is, to compensate for the injury actually sustained. See Keitges v. VanDermeulen, 240 Neb. 580, 483 N.W.2d 137 (1992). With this principle in mind, it is clear that O'Connor has not recovered doubly for her losses. The Kaufmans' trespass on O'Connor's implied easement resulted in her incurring expenses to drill a new well on her property. In order to place her in the same position had there been no trespass, the district court properly awarded her these drilling expenses. The Kaufmans also argue that O'Connor failed to mitigate her loss of rental income and thus should not be awarded those damages. They point to O'Connor's testimony that she did not advertise her home for rent and instead relied on the efforts of Howard Spath to locate a tenant; however, Spath testified that he did not remember her asking him to help her find a tenant. These assertions, nonetheless, are insufficient to meet the Kaufmans' burden of proof on the mitigation issue. Rather, the record indicates that O'Connor did mitigate her damages. She testified that after Derr moved out and before the Welsches moved in, she worked out a unique arrangement with a new tenant, Robert Gridley, who agreed to stay in the home without water for a significantly reduced rent. This arrangement demonstrates that O'Connor did mitigate *312 her damages; O'Connor's losses could have been greater had she refused to accept the arrangement with Gridley. The Kaufmans' contention that O'Connor failed to mitigate her damages is therefore without merit. The Kaufmans also assert that damages involving the swimming pool should not have been awarded because the cost of filling in the pool was too speculative and not the result of their actions. Damages need not be proved with mathematical certainty, but the evidence must be sufficient to enable the trier of fact to estimate with a reasonable degree of certainty and exactness the actual damages. Wells Fargo Alarm Serv. v. Nox-Crete Chem., 229 Neb. 43, 424 N.W.2d 885 (1988). See, also, Gagne v. Severa, 259 Neb. 884, 612 N.W.2d 500 (2000); Lis v. Moser Well Drilling & Serv., 221 Neb. 349, 377 N.W.2d 98 (1985). In the instant case, O'Connor testified that liability concerns motivated her to fill in her pool, with an ultimate expenditure of "several thousand dollars ... about eight perhaps." O'Connor could not recall, however, whom she hired to fill the pool, nor was any bill reflecting this expense offered or received into evidence. Further, she stated on cross-examination that she was not sure of the $8,000 figure. In awarding damages, the fact finder is not required to accept a party's evidence at face value, even though that evidence is not contradicted by evidence adduced by the party against whom the judgment is to be entered. Seeber v. Howlette, 255 Neb. 561, 586 N.W.2d 445 (1998); Bristol v. Rasmussen, 249 Neb. 854, 547 N.W.2d 120 (1996). The district court, therefore, was not bound to accept O'Connor's estimation of damages, even though it was not contradicted by the Kaufmans' evidence. Moreover, the record before us reveals that O'Connor was awarded $8,000 for pool expenses based only upon her estimation and speculation that $8,000 was the actual payment in the instant case. O'Connor's own testimony, especially the fact that she could not remember who filled in the pool and the fact that she did not offer proof of payment as evidence of the expense, renders this speculative and conjectural evidence insufficient, as a matter of law, to support the $8,000 portion of the money judgment. Therefore, we conclude that the district court did err in awarding O'Connor damages in the sum of $8,000 for the cost of filling in her swimming pool. In all other respects, the district court's award of damages to O'Connor is supported by sufficient evidence. CONCLUSION For the foregoing reasons, we determine that the district court did not err in entering summary judgment in favor of O'Connor and against the Kaufmans on the theory of implied easement arising from former use, and in granting injunctive relief to O'Connor. We also conclude that, except for the $8,000 cost of filling in the swimming pool, the damages awarded to O'Connor are supported by the evidence and bear a reasonable relationship to the elements of the damages proved. We, therefore, reverse that portion of the district court's judgment awarding O'Connor damages in the total sum of $16,762.73, and remand this cause to the district court with directions to enter judgment in favor of O'Connor and against the Kaufmans in the total sum of $8,762.73. In all other respects, the judgment of the district court is affirmed. AFFIRMED IN PART, AND IN PART REVERSED WITH DIRECTIONS.

About Me Sunday, February 27, 2011 New post from the Caveman Hello from Texas my friends, Wow, has it been a long time since I've posted on here. I cant say that I've been busy or just not wanted to post anything. Because if I did, It would not be true. It seems like I have just stopped doing much else except painting models but I can say that I have finally been able to start getting some good pictures of them at least. Granted I'm not sure if they are going to let me post this many pictures in one post-but I'm hoping they do. Also-If you have any questions about my painting process-feel free to ask in a comment. In these pictures you will find a large amount of my Skaven Lords/Heroes and Unit Champions. A few pictures of my newest army- Vampire Counts. A picture of my Lord of the Rings Lord and Hero from my Dol Guldur army, and a few models from my 40k Armies Necrons and Grey Knights. I hope you enjoy them. First-since they are my favorite army-My Skaven are leading the way. Picture 1 - Thanquol And Boneripper Picture 2 - Ikit Claw and Deathmaster Snikch Picture 3 -Qweek Headtaker and Sqweel Gnawtooth Picture 4 - Old Stormvermin models that I am using as my Battle Standard Bearer and a Warlord with 2 hand weapons Now moving on to Vampire Counts. My idea for the color scheme came because every other V.C army I have ever seen has been a red or black color scheme-so I decided to do something different-I think you guys will like this one Picture 1 - Konrad and Vlad von Carstein I decided on the Ice Blue color scheme from the book because it makes the models look very creepy. I'm sure you guys will agree. I cant wait to see this entire army on the table. Picture 2 - my Vargulf Now moving on to Lord of the Rings. Nothing fancy on these guys, These models are from The Dol Guldur army, The Necromancer and my Wild Warg Chieftain. I love how they came out though. And now on to 40k. My Necrons were very first 40k army-I am actually in the process of repainting the normal troops in preparation for the new codex. but these guys came out so nice I decided to keep them the same. the Lord character on the left is a conversion for a Flayed one. And last but definitely not least, my Grey Knight Terminators. I will be posting more pictures as I am able to finish painting them and get a nice enough day to take pictures of them. See you guys later!!!

370 Pa. 520 (1952) Miller v. Miller, Appellant. Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Argued April 15, 1952. May 26, 1952. Before DREW, C.J., STEARNE, JONES, BELL, CHIDSEY and MUSMANNO, JJ. *521 Isadore Rapoport, with him Groman & Rapoport, for appellant. Henry L. Snyder, with him Snyder, Wert & Wilcox, for appellee. OPINION BY MR. JUSTICE MUSMANNO, May 26, 1952: Michael and Edward Miller are brothers. Prior to 1949 they owned separate businesses, Edward's being located in Brooklyn, New York, and Michael's in Allentown, Pennsylvania. After preliminary discussions extending over several months, the brothers came to an oral agreement in May, 1949, that they would pool their resources, merge their assets and transact their separate enterprises as one business. To this end they selected a property in Slatington, Pa., which was to be the seat of the united venture. Michael paid $500 as a down payment and Edward executed a bond and mortgage for the balance of the purchase price, which was $15,500. The new business was to operate under the name of Relco Oil and Chemical Co., the same title of Edward's business in Brooklyn, N.Y. Michael's firm, known as the Quoits Textile Products Co., was to lose its identity. By July, 1949, Edward had moved all of his business assets from Brooklyn to Slatington and by December of that year Michael's equipment, merchandise and raw material were an integral part of the establishment at the new place. In June 1949, both brothers visited the National Bank of Slatington, where Edward deposited $500 in his name, trading as the Relco Oil & Chemical Company. *522 It was understood from the time the brothers agreed to operate together that formal articles of partnership would be drawn up. This was never done, although the brothers conducted the business as an undivided operation. Differences arose between the two brothers as to the conduct of the firm and Edward left it in June, 1950, withdrawing all its funds ($8,931.20) from the Slatington National Bank. Michael then filed a bill in equity praying that he and his brother Edward be declared partners and joint owners of the real estate in Slatington, and that Edward be compelled to furnish Michael a complete accounting of all business transactions engaged in by the Relco Oil and Chemical Co. The Court of Common Pleas, sitting as a court of equity, entered a decree granting the prayers of the plaintiff and the defendant has appealed to this Court. There can be no question whatsoever that the relationship between Michael and Edward Miller in the handling of the business at Slatington was a partnership in every phase of the law covering such a relationship. As succinctly stated by Justice HUGHES in the case of Mattei et al. v. Masci, 351 Pa. 93, 94, 40 A. 2d 265: "Written articles of agreement are not necessary to prove a partnership, for such a relationship can exist under a verbal agreement." Further, that "the existence of a partnership may be implied from the circumstances." A study of the record, which runs over 900 printed pages, reveals a partnership so absolute that one can only conclude that the unfortunate animosities which arose between the brother litigants curtained the facts for the defendant and dimmed his discriminating judgment. The learned Chancellor below in his able adjudication had occasion to refer to "the fierce tempers of both parties." It was probably the emotion described *523 by the Chancellor which wrecked the project and then, in retrospect, prevented the defendant from appreciating and appraising the circumstances which went into the formation of the partnership. The Chancellor found, and we agree with his findings, that there was an oral agreement of partnership between the brothers, an execution of the agreement by a merging of assets, a division of profits and a parity in direction and management. The conclusion of partnership here does not need to be built upon inferences alone. The brothers in each other's presence announced themselves as partners. One disinterested witness Philip Boyko testified: "Mr. Michael Miller got Mr. Edward Miller in the center room there, and got us boys together, and he says, `This is a partnership, and we will both give orders. You will give my brother as much obeyance as you feel you give me . . .'" . . . Q. They said that they were going in business together? A. That's right. In partnership, they were going to start a partnership." Another witness, also disinterested, Russell N. Cressman, testified: "I got to meet Mr. Edward Miller through his brother, Michael. He brought them into our plant. It was somewhere around the middle of June of 1949, at which time I was introduced to him, and I was informed that they were starting a partnership." Witness Max Kuller stated: "Well, Michael Miller introduced his brother to me, and in our conversation he said they were going into partnership." Michael and Edward Miller before the world conducted themselves as partners. They used identical business cards, they drew equal salaries and paid themselves traveling expenses; they received equal withdrawals from profits, and both withdrew from profits to pay their respective household expenses. Edward never questioned Michael's authority to place orders for the company, and paid all purchases authorized by him. He *524 changed employes at Michael's request, and employes were hired and discharged by the brothers only upon joint consultation. In the attempt to dissolve the concept of a partnership, counsel for the appellant Edward advanced the arguments that certain conditions precedent were never met, namely, (a) the separate businesses were to be closed by July 1, 1949; (b) the parties were to make equal contributions of capital; (c) Michael was to repay to Edward the sum of $5,062.22, allegedly due Edward. But these conditions, if they were ever agreed upon, were set aside by the realities of the case and the conduct of the parties, just as one blue print which does not meet a given objective situation is discarded and another taken up. The Chancellor found as a fact that the partnership came into existence when Michael finally closed his business in Allentown and began his operations solely at the Slatington plant, with Edward's active acquiescence. The record does not show that Edward ever sought to impose the payment of any debt as a condition to Michael's joining him in the business. In fact, Edward never saw fit to deduct or to take any credit for any of the amounts allegedly due him. Certainly, Michael's indebtedness to Edward in and of itself would not have any material bearing on the question as to whether a partnership existed between the brothers. In the history of the entire transaction Edward never maintained that the receipt of profits by Michael was in repayment of a debt, or in payment of wages, annuities, or interest on a loan, or for a sale of business good will. Therefore the exceptions appearing in the Uniform Partnership Act of 1915, P.L. 18, Part II, sec. 7, 59 P.S. 12, to the rule that "the receipt by a person of a share of the profits of a business is prima facie evidence that he is a partner" are not applicable. *525 And even if the Chancellor had concluded the oral agreement had not crystallized into a partnership, Michael Miller would still be entitled to an accounting from Edward Miller for the money and property contributed for use in the proposed partnership. Rowley v. Rowley, 294 Pa. 535, 542, 144 A. 537. Nor would appellee be barred from his right to an accounting, by virtue of the alleged wrongful removal of property belonging to the business: Frazier v. Mansfield, 305 Pa. 359, 157 A. 798. The Chancellor also properly held under the evidence that the building in which the partnership business was conducted constituted a partnership asset, though title thereto was recorded in the name of Edward Miller alone. The costs of repairs, taxes, interests and insurance on the real property were all paid from the profits of the business and not by Edward Miller alone; and, as the Chancellor observed, it is logical to assume that the parties contemplated that the principal of the mortgage would also be paid from the proceeds of the business. The defendant's execution of the mortgage for $15,000 is not, therefore, to be compared to the plaintiff's cash outlay of $500 for the down payment. The more reasonable conclusion is that the plaintiff's contribution to the real estate was to be matched by defendant's contribution to the bank account, and that the division of the profits would thenceforth establish the parties on an equal basis. Since the property was purchased with partnership funds, the fact that record title thereto is in the name of one partner alone does not affect its status as partnership property: Gerlach's Estate, 364 Pa. 207, 72 A. 2d 271. "In equity, real property acquired with partnership funds for partnership purposes is regarded as personal estate, so far as . . . the adjustment of partnership rights are concerned . . .": 40 Am. Jur. sec. 172, page 250. Appellant's counsel has prepared an excellent brief, *526 formidable in citation and persuasive in advocacy, but it is built on the faulty keel which maintains that the intent to be partners was lacking. It is with this assertion that his whole shipload of argument founders in the overwhelming sea of evidence against his client. Nothing could be clearer than that these two brothers intended with full heart and entire will to amalgamate into one undivided whole their business fortunes. It is unfortunately not the first time in the history of the human race that oneness of blood, which should have been the inseparable welding of mutual interests, turned out to be the dividing force which separated one brother from the other by a wider gulf than perhaps might have disjoined strangers. However, the philosophical aspect of the case is not before us. We affirm, as being supported in every detail, the findings of fact and the conclusions of the law of the Chancellor and affirm the Decree. Costs to be paid by the appellant.

Details This battery powered, ride on electric car can be driven by the normal in-car controls by using the gearstick and pedal. The parental control can also be used to operate the car in forwards and reverse gears, and also turn the steering wheel left and right. Opening doors - Realistic opening doors. Two seater - This model is fitted with a double seat, suitable for two younger children, or one single older child. Working front and rear suspension - Real working suspension! 2.4G Bluetooth Parental remote control - The car can be used with the in-car controls, using the pedal, forwards/reverse gear-lever and steering wheel, or can optionally be used remotely with the parental control. The parental radio remote can operate from up to around 20m away and controls forwards/reverse and moves the steering wheel left and right. The remote is a 2.4G Bluetooth type, so will not be subject to any interference. MP3 player input - The car comes with a cable which plugs in to the dashboard, allowing an MP3 player or any other device with a headphones socket to be plugged in, and the music played through the car speaker. Plugging in a device disables the in-car sounds! USB / SD Card input - The car also has slots on the dash allowing a USB device or SD card to play music played through the car speaker.

About Here you can find out more about our business history and how we’ve grown through the years. Ecomaster are the UKs leading furniture repair and restoration company; able to restore most items of furniture to factory standards at a fraction of the cost of a replacement. Like many national businesses we started small years ago and developed our trade through the years. We’re a family owned business benefitting from two generations in the furniture industry and team members who’ve been with us for decades. Today Ecomaster work in partnership with many of the leading furniture manufacturers and retailers and are approved suppliers to major hotel and leisure groups throughout the UK. A family business In the 70’s local furniture expert Steve Gresty started a small manufacturing company in the Midlands making high quality furniture for the retail market including DFS, House of Fraser & Allders.. 1970's The first technician team The business started employing a specialist team of french polishers to repair furniture damaged on delivery on behalf of U.K retailers. 1992 Furniture industry changes As the world changed and manufacturing increasingly moved overseas, U.K furniture companies went out of business or changed their model. 1995 Ecomaster is born Although furniture was increasingly built overseas, Steve recognised the demand for mobile furniture technicians to support retailers in quality control and after sales repairs and started Ecomaster with son Paul. 1998 Ecomaster head office To create a fantastic working environment and prepare for future growth Steve & Paul chose a 19th farmhouse originally built for Sir Robert Peel as their centre of operations. 1999 Ecomaster goes nationwide As Ecomaster grew as did demand for our service. Before long our technician team was able to cover every corner of the U.K from Cornwall to the Isle of Skye, from Belfast to Dover. 2002 Over 50 vans on the road By 2005 our team of mobile technicians reached 50 for the first time. This alongside introducing more advanced I.T tools enabled Ecomaster to speed up our response times even to less populous parts of the country. 2005 Ecomaster Commercial launched Through the years Ecomaster had delivered furniture services to retailer showrooms on a project basis. This developed into providing furniture refurbishment to restaurants, hotels, offices and even dentists. 2010 Ecomaster serve their 100,000th customer Attended our 100,000th visit to repair furniture! To be honest we didn’t know exactly which job it was but we celebrated all the same 2011 Ecomaster Commercial expands Ecomaster’s commercial division adds builders, electricians and plumbers to the team and is increasingly providing complete renovation solutions running large projects from start to finish. 2014 Ecomaster Home Repair Ecomaster continue to thrive and develop our range of services. Our skills have been available for ‘private hire’ for years. In 2016 we launched Ecomaster Home Repair, making it easier to report a home furniture issue and get it resolved with a cost effective Ecomaster repair.

House Republicans are banking on President Trump to carry them to a House takeover in the 2020 elections, with their main strategy to zero in on the districts he carried by large margins in 2016. At the House GOP retreat in Baltimore this weekend, the Republican leadership was confident the party is in a good position to retake the majority in a presidential year. “The Republicans have never been more united,” Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said at the opening press conference. “Look at the polling itself with this president. No president, not even Ronald Reagan, had as much support within the party as President Trump does.” Last year’s election saw Democrats victorious after a blue wave elected dozens of members in conservative-leaning districts. Now, Republicans are eyeing 31 of those new seats that the president won in 2016, 13 of which he held by a margin of six points or more, as a path to victory of their own in a presidential election year with Mr. Trump back on the ticket. “I not only think President Trump is going to carry those 31, but much more,” Mr. McCarthy said. Their optimism was boosted after two victories last week in North Carolina special elections gave Republicans two new congressmen — Dan Bishop and Greg Murphy. The president praised their efforts to reach out to their communities and drive up enthusiasm, and promised to campaign for future races in 2020. “I am going to stop at every community that I can. We are going to make a list of 50 or so,” Mr. Trump said. “I got a lot of energy that’s good.” Addressing the conference Friday, Vice President Mike Pence gave the Republican lawmakers the task of spreading the president’s agenda as the 2020 election picks up steam. “Now it’s time for us to tell our story,” he said. “The best is yet to come. We’ve got to put out that positive message.” He urged them to remind voters of their past accomplishments, such as the 2017 tax cuts and increased funding for the military, while promoting Mr. Trump’s goals for the future, including implementing immigration reform, passing the USMCA trade deal, and establishing Space Force as a new branch of the military. This kind of messaging is vital, the vice president said, as Democrats embrace increasingly liberal priorities. “I think it’s not going to be enough for us just to win the next election. We gotta win the next generation,” he said. Republicans also plan to argue that Democrats don’t have a record to run on, since they have spent all their time on investigations instead of legislation. Mr. McCarthy called the Democrats’ mixed messaging on impeachment an “embarrassment” and said the emphasis they’ve put on investigating Mr. Trump will spell trouble for them in 2020. “Tell me, how are Democrats going to go back and ask for reelection on what they have achieved?” He said. “All they have achieved is investigations that have gone nowhere.” Meanwhile, Mr. McCarthy said, Republicans can contrast their agenda with Democrats socialist policies. Mr. McCarthy gave a long list of issues his party plans running on, including pushing for stronger border laws and the continued high cost of health care. Regarding health care, Republican leadership slammed Democrats for pushing Medicare for All, and vowed to refine their 2017 replacement for Obamacare and pursue solutions to issues such as surprise billing. They also pushed back on what they see as ineffective, unrealistic environmental plans from Democrats, such as the push to put the U.S. back into the Paris Agreements and the Green New Deal. Rather, Mr. McCarthy said Republicans would look to address the ocean’s plastic problem without banning straws and provide private companies with the incentives to clean the environment. He highlighted a bill from freshman Rep. Dan Crenshaw that would provide grants for companies to extract carbon dioxide from the air. Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT (NORM/TENORM) Identifying and managing NORM and technologically enhanced NORM (TENORM) from its source of generation to final disposal is one of Radiation Pros’ core services. Our team has managed more TENORM waste than anyone in mountains and plains states, ensuring waste is properly transported and disposed of.

STORM UPDATE: Snow ends early after 4-5 inch accumulation Published 8:46 am, Friday, January 21, 2011 UPDATE: The fast-moving winter storm that swept across southwestern Connecticut early this morning has begun easing far earlier than forecast. As of 8 a.m., snow has largely stopped falling after fluffy accumulations of about 4 inches. There is, however, another weather warning in store today: possible coastal flooding. The National Weather Service says that some coastal flooding could occur in low-lying coastal areas today at high tide -- about noon -- because a low-pressure area south of Long Island could result in a tidal surge of between a foot and a foot and one-half. Schools throughout the area called off classes early. Metro-North Railroad, which has been plagued by problems during this winter's earlier storms, today is running on time and no schedule changes, forced earlier this week by repairs to overhead power lines, are being reported. Travel on major highways and local roads has been slowed by the snowfall, and while accidents have been reported, none so far appear to be serious. HERE'S THE WEATHER OUTLOOK POSTED AT 4:30 A.M.: Light snow has been falling across southwestern Connecticut for several hours as of 4 a.m. this morning, and when it tapers off as by late morning, accumulations are expected to be about 3 to 5 inches. The National Weather Service says storm will move out of the region by 11 a.m., and warns that even though the amount of snow is not expected to be significant, the fresh snow will make roads slippery during the morning commute. It will also cover ice in spots, which will make surfaces particularly hazardous. The daytime high will be about 34 degrees, with a north wind 8 to 11 mph increasing to between 19 and 22 mph. Tonight will the very cold, with a low around 13. However, it will feel as though it is minus-2 degrees because of wind gusts clocked between 17 and 22 mph. Saturday will be cloudy and cold, with a high near 22 degrees, according to NWS. The northwest wind at 10 mph, but gusting to up 20 mph, will produce wind-chill values of minus-1. Clouds will prevail Saturday night, too, with a low temperature of about 10 degrees. Sunday will be mostly sunny, with a high near 24. There will be a northwest wind between 7 and 13 mph. And Monday will be sunny as well, with a high near 22 degrees, the weather service predicts.

956 So.2d 878 (2007) Julianna LAMAR v. THOMAS FOWLER TRUCKING, INC. No. 2004-CT-00280-SCT. Supreme Court of Mississippi. May 24, 2007. *879 John Griffin Jones, Gilson Davis Peterson, T. Stewart Lee, Jr., Craig Robert Sessums, Jackson, attorneys for appellant. Matthew Anderson Taylor, Paul T. Lee, Jr., attorneys for appellee. EN BANC. ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI. DICKINSON, Justice, for the Court. ¶ 1. A subcontractor's employee was killed while hauling logs. The subcontractor claims it is entitled to the "exclusive remedy" immunity provided by Mississippi's workers' compensation statutes, Miss. Code Ann. § 71-3-1 et seq. (Rev.2000) (the "Act"), because the general contractor deducted workers' compensation premiums from payments due the subcontractor and because one of the deceased employee's daughters elected to accept workers' compensation *880 benefits from the Mississippi Loggers Self-Insured Fund. The deceased employee's other daughter, the Appellant, received no workers compensation benefits, and filed a wrongful death suit. The question presented is whether the workers' compensation statutes provide the subcontractor immunity from the wrongful death suit. BACKGROUND FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS ¶ 2. The opinion rendered in this case by the Court of Appeals includes an excellent recitation of the facts. Lamar v. Fowler Trucking, 956 So.2d 911, 2006 WL 853294, 2006 Miss.App. LEXIS 249, 2004-CA-00280-COA (Miss.Ct.App.2006). We provide the following abbreviated version. ¶ 3. Ira Bobo ("Bobo") was killed while working for Fowler Trucking, which was transporting logs for Golden Timber, Inc.[1] Bobo's youngest daughter, Tracie, was considered a dependent as defined by section 71-3-25 of the Act, and was voluntarily paid death benefits by Golden Timber's workers' compensation carrier.[2] Bobo's oldest daughter, Julianna Lamar ("Lamar") however, was not a dependent as defined by the Act, and was paid nothing. Lamar filed a wrongful death suit against Fowler Trucking, Golden Timber and two of Golden Timber's employees. Golden Timber and its employees were dismissed by agreed order, because Golden Timber was Bobo's statutory employer and, therefore, was afforded immunity under the Act. Fowler Trucking moved for summary judgment, arguing that it also was protected by the exclusivity provision of the Act because it procured workers' compensation insurance through Golden Timber. A. Trial Court Proceeding ¶ 4. At the hearing on the motions for summary judgment, Fowler Trucking asserted that it paid premiums to Golden Timber in order to be included under Golden Timber's workers' compensation policy. Golden Timber's bookkeeper testified in her deposition that money was withheld from payments due to Fowler Trucking to cover the cost of the workers' compensation policy. ¶ 5. Relying on Bevis v. Linkous Constr. Co., 856 So.2d 535 (Miss.Ct.App. 2003), the trial court held the Fowler Trucking was not obligated to secure workers' compensation coverage for Bobo because Golden Timber paid compensation to Bobo's heirs.[3] In Bevis, the Court of Appeals stated that "so long as coverage is provided by either the subcontractor or the contractor, recovery under workers' compensation is the injured worker's sole remedy." 856 So.2d at 541 (emphasis added). The trial court, finding that the statutes provided for an election of remedies in this case, granted summary judgment in favor of Fowler Trucking, because Bobo's "beneficiaries" received death benefits. The trial court held that this precluded Lamar from asserting an independent tort action against Fowler Trucking. B. Court of Appeals Proceeding ¶ 6. The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Fowler Trucking. The Court of Appeals, however, found that the trial *881 court should not have relied on Bevis "to find that the `up-the-line' immunity in that case applied equally to a subcontractor in a `down-the-line' situation." Lamar, 956 So.2d at 921, 2006 Miss.App. LEXIS 249 at *24 (Miss.Ct.App.2006). The Court of Appeals stated, "[w]e do not find that Bevis can automatically be applied to the `down-the-line' situation." Id. ¶ 7. The Court of Appeals found that Fowler Trucking had failed to secure workers' compensation coverage and was not protected "down-the-line" by Golden Timber's policy. However, the Court of Appeals held that because Lamar's younger sister elected to accept the death benefits under the Act, Lamar's sole remedy was under the Act and not through an independent tort action.[4] Lamar filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari, which we granted. DISCUSSION I. ¶ 8. We apply "a de novo standard of review to the trial court's grant of summary judgment." Moss v. Batesville Casket Co., 935 So.2d 393, 398 (Miss.2006). Our rules of civil procedure require the trial court to grant summary judgment where "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Miss. R. Civ. P. 56(c). ¶ 9. The movant bears the burden of demonstrating that no genuine issues of material fact exist for presentation to the trier of fact, and the non-moving party must be given the benefit of every reasonable doubt. Moss, 935 So.2d at 398. "`Issues of fact . . . are present where one party swears to one version of the matter in issue and another says the opposite.'" Id. (quoting Tucker v. Hinds County, 558 So.2d 869, 872 (Miss.1990)). Additionally, we apply the plain meaning of the statutes to the issues before this Court. See Walker v. Whitfield Nursing Ctr., Inc., 931 So.2d 583, 590 (Miss.2006). II. ¶ 10. While we agree with both the trial court and the Court of Appeals that Lamar is precluded from suing in tort for the wrongful death of her father, our reason for this conclusion is materially different from those of both the trial court and the Court of Appeals. As stated previously, the trial court found that Fowler Trucking failed to secure workers' compensation coverage, but was nevertheless immune from suit because Golden Timber had secured coverage. The trial court further found that Fowler Trucking was immune from suit because Bobo's beneficiaries elected the remedy of workers' compensation. While reaching the same result, the Court of Appeals reasoned differently. The Court of Appeals found that Fowler was non-compliant with the Act and, therefore, the Act did not provide it immunity. However, the Court of Appeals agreed that Lamar was precluded from suing in tort because Bobo's beneficiaries had elected their remedy under the Act by receiving workers' compensation payments from Golden Timber. For different reasons, we affirm the trial court's grant of summary judgment and the judgment of the Court of Appeals. *882 ¶ 11. The Court of Appeals correctly stated that "[t]he ultimate issue is whether Lamar is statutorily prevented from pursuing a common law wrongful death action against Fowler." Lamar v. Fowler Trucking, 956 So.2d at 915, 2004-CA-00280 at *9. An employee is statutorily prevented from pursuing a common law wrongful death action in one of two ways. First, if it provides workers' compensation coverage to its employees by "securing payment of compensation," in compliance with section 71-3-7, then its employees are precluded from suing in tort pursuant to section 71-3-9, which provides that workers' compensation payments are the exclusive remedy when the employer secures payment of compensation. Miss.Code Ann. §§ 71-3-7, 71-3-9 (Rev.2000). ¶ 12. Second, even if an employer fails to secure payment of compensation, in certain circumstances, an employee may "elect" to proceed under the provisions of the Act in lieu of maintaining an action at law for damages. See Miss.Code Ann. § 71-3-9. Once an "election of remedies" is made, then the party electing to proceed under the provisions of the Workers' Compensation Act is precluded from suing in tort. In the case before us, we find that Fowler Trucking complied with section 71-3-7 by "securing payment of compensation," and therefore, we need not address the issue of election of remedies. III. ¶ 13. While both the trial court and the Court of Appeals focused on the contractor/subcontractor relationship between Golden Timber and Lamar Trucking, analyzing "up-the-line" and "down-the-line" immunity concepts, we find that analysis to be unnecessary, as the issue of whether Fowler Trucking is immune from suit turns on statutory language, that is, whether Fowler complied with section 71-3-7 by "secur[ing] the payment to [its] employees. . . ." ¶ 14. Fowler Trucking argues that when workers' compensation coverage is provided either by the subcontractor or the contractor, recovery under workers' compensation is the injured worker's sole remedy. This concept, occasionally labeled "down-the-line" immunity, is applicable where it can be justified by statutory language. We find that Fowler Trucking's compliance with the Act provides it the protection of the "exclusive remedy" provision. We further find labeling the protection as "down-the-line" immunity is confusing and unnecessary. ¶ 15. Pursuant to section 71-3-5, Fowler Trucking qualified as an "employer" because it had "five (5) or more workmen or operatives . . . under any contract of hire." Therefore, as an employer, Fowler Trucking had an obligation to secure compensation for its employees pursuant to section 71-3-7(d), which states in pertinent part: Every employer to whom this chapter applies shall be liable for and shall secure the payment to his employees of the compensation payable under its provisions. In the case of an employer who is a subcontractor,[[5]] the contractor shall be liable for and shall secure the payment of such compensation to employees of the subcontractor, unless the subcontractor has secured such payment. Miss.Code Ann. § 71-3-7-(d) (Rev.2000) (emphasis added). Thus, if Fowler Trucking "secured such payment," that is, if it *883 took proper steps[6] to provide for the payment of workers' compensation benefits, then it is immune from suit in tort pursuant to section 71-3-9, which states that, The liability of an employer to pay compensation shall be exclusive and in place of all other liability of such employer to the employee . . . except that if an employer fails to secure payment of compensation as required by this chapter, an injured employee, or his legal representative in case death results from the injury, may elect to claim compensation under this chapter, or to maintain an action at law for damages on account of such injury or death. Miss.Code Ann. § 71-3-9 (Rev.2000). The Court of Appeals correctly noted that "[b]y the language of the Act, immunity is available only to those employers who operate in compliance with the Act." Lamar, 956 So.2d at 919, 2006 Miss.App. LEXIS 249 at *18. The Court of Appeals went on to state that "the exclusivity framework has been extended by the Mississippi Supreme Court to include those employers who may be considered `statutory employers' under section 71-3-7. This is the principal of `up-the-line' immunity, and it has become well-established in Mississippi law." Lamar, 956 So.2d at 919, 2006 Miss.App. LEXIS 249 at *19; see Mosley v. Bowers, 224 Miss. 725, 80 So.2d 819, 821 (1955) (this Court extended workers' compensation immunity to a general contractor who was considered a statutory employer of its subcontractor's employees); Doubleday v. Boyd Constr. Co., 418 So.2d 823, 826 (Miss. 1982) (finding that section 71-3-7 does not subject a general contractor to common law liability if he required the subcontractor to have workers' compensation insurance); Richmond v. Benchmark Constr., Corp., 692 So.2d 60, 63 (Miss.1997) (finding that an oral agreement between a general contractor and subcontractor that the subcontractor would provide workmen's compensation insurance was sufficient to extend workers' compensation immunity to a general contractor). ¶ 16. We wish to point out that the immunity enjoyed by general contractors is not a gift from this Court, nor is it an extra-statutory concept, but rather is granted by the Legislature under certain statutorily-defined circumstances. For instance, this Court in Doubleday found that the general contractor, Boyd, enjoyed the statutory immunity by "contractually requiring [its subcontractor] to secure a policy of insurance on its employees." 418 So.2d at 827. The Doubleday Court went on to state that the general contractor "`secured' compensation insurance for the benefit of Doubleday within the meaning and purpose of the statute." Id. ¶ 17. The critical question in today's case is whether Fowler complied with the Act by "securing the payment to his employees of the compensation payable under its provisions." Miss.Code Ann. § 71-3-7(d) (Rev.2000). If so, Fowler Trucking is covered by the exclusiveness of liability of section 71-3-9. IV. ¶ 18. In determining whether Fowler complied with Miss.Code Ann. Section 71-3-7(d), we turn to facts in the record before us, finding that Fowler did secure compensation as required by the Act. The record indicates that Fowler Trucking *884 hauled logs exclusively for Golden Timber. Golden Timber obtained workers' compensation insurance through the Mississippi Loggers Association Self-Insured Fund. Deposition testimony of Carla Corbitt,[7] the Rule 30(b)(6) representative of Golden Timber, indicated that Golden Timber deducted payments for workers' compensation insurance for Fowler Trucking's employees from Fowler Trucking's gross pay. Additionally, Corbitt's testimony indicated, supported by various statements in the record from the Mississippi Loggers Association Self-Insured Fund, that payment for "contract trucking" coverage was calculated at a rate of $7 per day per truck. Corbitt stated that "the insurance was held out from Fowler Trucking each week. The premium was $7 per day per truck, which was deducted from the gross wages at the end of the week." When asked who figured the premium, Corbitt answered, "[m]ost of the time, I did." Corbitt stated that instead of calculating the premium by employee names, Golden Timber calculated the premiums by listing the truck that the Fowler Trucking employee was driving. ¶ 19. Thomas Fowler, president of Fowler Trucking, also testified during his deposition that workers' compensation premiums were paid by Fowler Trucking for company employees through deductions at a rate of $7 per truck per day. In addition, Fowler testified that to his understanding, workers' compensation premiums were always deducted from the gross proceeds received from Golden Timber. Furthermore, the record contains a Certificate of Liability Insurance which names Golden Timber as the insured and Fowler as an additional insured. Finally, following the death of Bobo, reports of injury (MWCC Form B-3) were filed on behalf of Bobo with the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission and, as a result, the Mississippi Loggers Association Self-Insured Fund paid dependant benefits totaling $6,725.60 to Bobo's youngest daughter, Tracie, until she reached the age of 23. ¶ 20. We find, therefore, that sufficient evidence exists in the record to show that Fowler Trucking complied with the Act by "securing coverage" for Bobo, its employee. Because we find that Fowler Trucking did so, we need not address whether Bobo's beneficiaries are precluded from suing in tort because they elected to receive compensation benefits. CONCLUSION ¶ 21. We find that Fowler Trucking complied with the plain language of the Act by "securing compensation," for its employees and, as a result, Lamar is precluded from pursuing an action in tort against Fowler Trucking. Therefore, the trial court did not err in granting summary judgment in favor of Fowler Trucking. Furthermore, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed. ¶ 22. AFFIRMED. SMITH, C.J., WALLER, P.J., EASLEY, CARLSON AND RANDOLPH, JJ., CONCUR. DIAZ, P.J., DISSENTS WITH SEPARATE WRITTEN OPINION JOINED BY GRAVES, J. LAMAR, J., NOT PARTICIPATING. DIAZ, Presiding Justice, Dissenting: ¶ 23. Under the reasoning of the majority, no subcontractor in Mississippi ever has to secure workers' compensation insurance. *885 Because no such exemption is present in the Workers' Compensation Act, and because the majority today drafts a dramatic new expansion into the law, I must respectfully dissent. I. The Three Methods of Complying with the Act. ¶ 24. Any review of a case under the Act must necessarily start with the wording of the statutes, which we then apply to the facts of the case. The majority correctly concludes that Fowler Trucking is covered under Section 71-3-5, which mandates that all employers with five or more employees must have workers' compensation insurance. Yet the opinion wavers on the concept from that point onwards, crafting a "good enough" standard that is not present in the statutes. Partly to blame is our unnecessarily complicated case law that has judicially rewritten the Act. ¶ 25. The Legislature saw fit to explain exactly what constitutes "securing coverage" for the purposes of the Act in Section 71-3-75 of the Code. As the Court of Appeals explained, this code section "provides three mechanisms for security of payment: (1) by a carrier authorized to insure such liability in this state; (2) by exemption from insuring pursuant to authority from the commission; (3) and by self-insuring or pooling liabilities with other employers engaged in a common type of business under rules and regulations prescribed by the commission." Lamar v. Thomas Fowler Trucking, Inc., 956 So.2d 911, 918, 2006 Miss.App. LEXIS 249, *17 n. 4 (Miss.Ct.App.2006); see Taylor v. Crosby Forest Products Co., 198 So.2d 809, 811 (Miss.1967) ("The requirement that the employer must secure payment of compensation means that he must have in effect an insurance policy complying with the workmen's compensation act, or must qualify as a self insurer.") (internal citation and quotation omitted). There are, then, three ways one complies with the Act: by getting a compliant insurance policy, by obtaining exemption, or by self-insuring. ¶ 26. Fowler Trucking admitted it did not secure coverage through the first two means; instead, it argues that it indirectly secured coverage through the corporation it contracted for, Golden Timber, effectively "self-insuring." As the Court of Appeals stated it, "Fowler Trucking argues that . . . the subcontractor is entitled to immunity from suit because it was actually paying the general contractor for the workers' compensation coverage of its employees." Lamar, 956 So.2d at 916, 2006 Miss.App. LEXIS 249, at *9. Yet the only method of compliance left open to Fowler Trucking, the third method of self-insuring defined in detail in Section 71-3-75, must be met exactingly. In full, the requirement states the following: (3) Pooling of liabilities. The commission may, under such rules and regulations as it prescribes, permit two (2) or more employers engaged in a common type of business activity or pursuit, or having other reasons to associate, to enter into agreements to pool their liabilities under this section for the purpose of qualifying as group self-insurers, and, in conjunction therewith, to enter into agreements to pool any other liabilities to their employees, and each employer member of such approved group shall be classified as a self-insurer. A self-insured group under this section shall be comprised of employer members of the same bona fide trade association or trade group. Such trade association or trade group shall be domiciled in the State of Mississippi, shall have been in existence for five (5) or more consecutive years as of the date of application for an approved group and shall not be comprised solely of employer members who *886 are affiliates of a person possessing controlling interest in such affiliates. Miss.Code Ann. § 71-3-75(3) (Rev.2000). There is no evidence Fowler Trucking complied with these procedures. ¶ 27. The majority concerns itself with the relative usefulness of "down-the-line" or "up-the-line" immunity, distinctions which I agree are unnecessary and confusing; further, they appear to be judicial interpretations grafted onto the very explicit requirements of the Act as written by the Legislature. In my view, because Fowler Trucking already qualified as an "employer" under the Act, any discussion or analysis of general contractors, subcontractors, or "down-the-line" or other immunity is unnecessary, as the Act is clear on what is required of an employer. As the Court of Appeals noted, and what should go without saying, "[i]f the subcontractor employs five or more employees, it must secure workers' compensation coverage." Lamar, 956 So.2d at 922, 2006 Miss. App. LEXIS 249, at *26. Regardless of whether Fowler Trucking was a subcontractor at this particular worksite, any employer under the Act must have met one of the three methods of compliance. ¶ 28. Ultimately, this case revolves around one key question. Did Fowler Trucking, as an employer, conform to the requirements of Section 71-3-75, which explains the three ways of compliance? The answer, as the Court of Appeals acknowledged, is simply "no." See Lamar, 956 So.2d at 918, n. 4, 2006 Miss.App. LEXIS 249, at *17 n. 4. It is clear from the facts of this case that Fowler Trucking failed to secure workers' compensation insurance as required by statute because it did not either: (1) get insurance directly; (2) obtain an exemption; or (3) self-insure or pool liabilities as laid out in the Act or the Workers' Compensation Commission regulations. ¶ 29. Fowler attempted to argue that "where any employer secures payment of compensation, all employers are immune." Lamar, 956 So.2d at 922, 2006 Miss.App. LEXIS 249, at *27-28. No section of the Act allows such a result. Under this reasoning, the very heart of the Act—requiring employers with five or more employees to secure insurance—is gutted. As the Court of Appeals reasoned, "we must presume that, due to the absence of language granting immunity to a party such as Fowler Trucking, it was not the legislature's intent to award such immunity." Id. at 923, at *33. ¶ 30. Fowler Trucking wishes to hide from the clear requirements of the Act under a cloak of immunity drawn from the complicated and confusing precedent of this Court. Nonetheless, it is an employer and failed to follow one of the three methods of compliance with the Act. It is imperative that we return to a plain reading of the Act and abandon the ongoing "judicial rewrite" that stretches back decades. ¶ 31. The majority is correct when it notes that the immunity of employers is not a gift, but a grant from the Legislature. More precisely, it is also a trade-off of rights: the employee gives up his or her right to maintain suit for insurance, even as the employer must pay for the insurance while gaining assurance of immunity. Yet the majority's opinion today is a gift not granted by the Legislature. Under its reasoning, and contrary to the intent of the Legislature and the plain language of the Act, some employers will not have to secure insurance. ¶ 32. Because Fowler Trucking failed to secure coverage or exemption under the Act, its statutory immunity is sacrificed; accordingly, I would allow Ms. Lamar to pursue a suit in court for the loss of her father. *887 II. The Election of Remedies. ¶ 33. I conclude, as did the Court of Appeals, that Fowler Trucking was not immune to suit. I disagree with the Court of Appeals that Ms. Lamar has no right to proceed in the legal system because she has already elected to obtain benefits under the Act. ¶ 34. Section 71-3-9 of the Act provides that when an employer fails to secure payment of compensation as required by the workers' compensation statutes, "an injured employee, or his legal representative in case death results from the injury, may elect to claim compensation under this chapter, or to maintain an action at law for damages on account of such injury or death." (emphasis added). The Act does not define the term "legal representative," and this Court has not addressed the precise meaning of this term in connection with § 71-3-9. However, we have examined the term in the context of a previous version of our non-resident motorist statute, Miss.Code Ann. § 13-3-63 (Rev.2002). ¶ 35. In Hill v. James, a Louisiana resident was injured in an automobile accident on a Mississippi highway while riding as a passenger with another Louisiana resident. 252 Miss. 501, 175 So.2d 176 (1965). We carefully analyzed the term "legal representative," noting that: The following words `or other legal representative of the estate' . . . in our opinion, likewise signify a person or persons acting for the benefit of another in a legal or representative capacity such as an administrator cum testamento annexo, administratrix, executrix, administrator de bonis non, administrator de bonis non cum testamento annexo, and others in a like position or class distinct from one as an individual or one in an individual capacity. Id. at 179. In accordance with this finding, we found that the statute did not "authorize an action to be brought against the widow or minor children of a nonresident decedent in their individual capacities." Id. at 178. ¶ 36. We more recently sought to ascertain the meaning of the term "representative," in determining "whether a Mississippi trial court had personal jurisdiction over Louisiana residents pursuant to the long-arm statute." Sealy v. Goddard, 910 So.2d 502, 506 (Miss.2005). Finding Hill to be instructive, this Court found that "service of process could only be made upon the `nonresident executor, administrator, receiver, trustee or any other selected or appointed representative'" of the decedent. Id. at 511. We found that "[c]learly, none of these statutory terms apply to the individual Sealy heirs." Id. ¶ 37. In this case, Mr. Bobo's youngest daughter received the funds; she was a minor at the time. In applying the precedent of Hill and Sealy to the language of Section 71-3-9, the payment made to the minor does not result in an election of remedies by Mr. Bobo's legal representative, his other daughter, Ms. Lamar. According to the statute, when an employer covered by the Act fails to secure coverage, one of two persons can make the election to receive compensation benefits in lieu of suing in tort. That is, the "injured employee or his legal representative in case death results from the injury." Miss.Code Ann. § 71-3-9 (Rev.2000). Because Mr. Bobo's injuries ultimately caused his death, only his legal representative could have waived the right to bring suit by electing to claim compensation under the Act. ¶ 38. Should the legal representative of the decedent elect compensation benefits when an employer fails to comply with the Act, then the legal representative has effectively "elected the remedy" according to *888 the Act. However, Section 71-3-9 does not license one of the decedent's dependent children to settle a claim on behalf of the estate or the wrongful death beneficiaries without an appropriate proceeding before a court, such as the opening of an estate by a personal representative or the initiation of legal proceedings on behalf of the wrongful death beneficiaries. Therefore, contrary to the opinion of the trial court and Court of Appeals, in my reading Ms. Lamar did not elect compensation under the Act when her younger sister received dependent benefits as a result of their father's death. ¶ 39. For the reasons above, I respectfully dissent from the majority. I would reverse the Court of Appeals and the trial court, finding that Fowler Trucking was not immune to suit and that Ms. Lamar is eligible to pursue her suit in the Mississippi court system. GRAVES, J., JOINS THIS OPINION. NOTES [1] Fowler Trucking was a subcontractor of Golden Timber. [2] Mississippi Loggers Self-Insured Fund. [3] While both the trial court and Court of Appeals found that Bobo's "beneficiaries" or "heirs" recovered death benefits, we hasten to point out that only one beneficiary, Lamar's younger sister Tracie, was paid dependant benefits as a result of Bobo's death. [4] In a concurring opinion, joined by Griffis and Roberts, JJ., Judge Southwick explained his view that Lamar's tort action was prohibited not because an election was made to accept the death benefits but because Fowler Trucking had secured coverage by paying Golden Timber for workers' compensation coverage. [5] This statutory concept is also applied to a subcontractor of a subcontractor. See Crowe v. Brasfield & Gorrie Gen. Contr., 688 So.2d 752, 757 (Miss.1996). [6] In the case of a subcontractor, securing payment of workers' compensation benefits may be accomplished by either purchasing a workers' compensation insurance policy or by providing funds for the general contractor to purchase the coverage, so long as the coverage is actually secured. A general contractor may secure payment of benefits by purchasing a policy, or by contractually requiring its subcontractors to secure such coverage. [7] Corbitt is the daughter of Carlon Golden, the founder of Golden Timber. She started working for Golden Timber in 1982 as a secretary and stated in her deposition that she has "taken over" the office. Corbitt also served on the board of directors for Fowler Trucking from 1995 until 1997.

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Q: Best airbrushing plugin? What is the best airbrushing plugin besides Kodak Digital GEM Airbrush Pro and Portraiture? I the kodak plugin to cleanup skin and textures, but they're apparently not going to upgrade for CS5/Mac/64bit (yes, and I don't want to run photoshop in 32bit). A: So it turns out there is Topaz Clean by Topaz Labs. Cheaper, supports CS5 64bit and it can also add texture. The airbrushing, however is not as good as the Kodak's, but since it's used only with a small opacity, it will do.

Identification and characterisation of the fur genes in Photobacterium damselae ssp. piscicida and ssp. damselae. The gene encoding the ferric uptake regulator protein (fur gene) of the fish pathogenic bacterium Photobacterium damselae ssp. piscicida Strain D121 was partially amplified using degenerate oligonucleotides. Complete sequencing of the fur gene and neighbouring DNA was accomplished by primer walking. An open reading frame of 447 bp, coding for a protein of 148 amino acids, and with high homology to previously described Fur proteins, was identified. The fur gene of P. damselae ssp. damselae ATCC 35083 was subsequently amplified by PCR with specific primers and its sequence determined, showing a 99.3% similarity to the P. damselae ssp. piscicida fur gene. The P. damselae fur gene was able to complement the fur mutation of Escherichia coli Strain H1681 in an iron-dependent fashion.

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Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht (, ) is a monthly intellectual property law journal published in German. It is the journal of the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (German: Deutsche Vereinigung für gewerblichen Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht) and was established in 1899. The journal articles mainly concern German law. It is the journal with the longest tradition in the field of intellectual property law in Germany. Because of the green cover of the journal, the whole area of intellectual property law is commonly referred to as "green section" ("grüner Bereich") among German lawyers. See also List of intellectual property law journals Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht, Internationaler Teil Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht, Rechtsprechungs-Report References External links Category:German-language journals Category:German law journals Category:Intellectual property law journals Category:Publications established in 1899 Category:Monthly journals Category:German intellectual property law

"Cheers is filmed before a live studio audience." "Whoo!" "Sorry I'm late." "Boy, you will not believe what happened to me." "I made a right-hand turn onto Boyleston and ran right into this stupid parade." "Then my car backfired, and scared the tar out of these two cute little poodles in tutus who were dancing by." "Dancing poodles." "Yeah." "Anyway, the dogs spooked and ran away, and this cute little girl in blue sequins ran after them right in front of this little car full of clowns that swerved to miss her, and the car ran right in front of this elephant," "the elephant reared up, threw this swami guy off that was riding on his tusk." "Sam, this is the lamest excuse you have ever given me." "Why don't you just say," ""I'm sorry, Rebecca, I overslept." "It won't happen again"?" "It really makes me..." "I'm sorry, Rebecca, I just overslept." "It won't happen again." "( piano playing )" "¶ Making your way in the world today ¶" "¶ Takes everything you've got" "¶ Taking a break from all your worries ¶" "¶ Sure would help a lot" "¶ Wouldn't you like to get away?" "¶" "¶ Sometimes you want to go" "¶ Where everybody knows your name ¶" "¶ And they're always glad you came ¶" "¶ You want to be where you can see ¶" "¶ Our troubles are all the same ¶" "¶ You want to be where everybody knows your name ¶" "¶ You want to go where people know ¶" "¶ People are all the same" "¶ You want to go where everybody knows your name. ¶" "Frasier, I'm double-parked outside." "Finish your drink and let's go." "Oh, in a minute;" "I just touched my glass." "Don't balk, jelly bear." "I'm not balking, moon pie." "I'm simply trying to finish my drink." "You'd understand if you had as trying a day as I've had." "The kind of day you've had?" "Lord, if I hear one more yuppie snivel about his inability to love, I'll smack him." "Boo, hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo." "I saw nine clients today with no lunch." "I saw ten." "15 if you count multiple personalities." "Oh, yeah, well, you..." "Come on, please." "You're a little tense;" "you got to relax, take a few days off." "You know, maybe a vacation, or something?" "Vacation?" "Ha!" "You make it sound so easy, Sam." "As if one could just pick up just like that." "We are professionals, with commitments and obligations." "Our patients depend upon us." "I'll clear my schedule if you will." "Nassau or St. Thomas?" "Let's go talk to the travel agent." "There you go." "Have a good time." "Has anybody seen Woody?" "He was scheduled to be here at 6:00." "He's going to be late." "Good God, people." "I don't even know why I bother to prepare a work schedule." "Everybody just comes and goes as they damn well please." "Yeah, he, uh, he did send these, though." "( clearing throat )" ""I'm sorry I'm late." "Please dock my pay."" "Now, this is the way to be late." "Where is the little... ( kissing sounds ) ...anyway?" "I don't know." "( chuckling )" "Oh, no, Sam." "I've been a mother for 18 years." "When someone says "I don't know" like that, they know." "Cough it up, or I'm going to get it out of you another way." "I don't know;" "I'm telling you the tru..." "Oh, a-a-all right, all right, all right, all right." "Uh, he's auditioning for a play." "A play?" "Yeah." "Hicky McHick from Hicksville wants to act?" "He's been hanging out at this little local playhouse and, you know, doing all the odds and ends." "Sweeping, cleaning toilets-- everything no one else wants to do." "I wonder if Woody'd like to act over at my house?" "SAM:" "Yeah." "Uh, hey, wait, here he comes." "He's very sensitive about this." "Don't say anything about his acting." "Hey, everybody." "Hey, Woody." "If I knew you wanted a "role" so badly," "I would have stopped at the bakery." "Sam!" "I'm sorry." "But how'd the audition go?" "Great." "Said my lines faster than anyone else." "Yeah, Woodman, when did you get bit by the old acting bug?" "Oh, back in high school in Hanover." "I was in the chorus of the senior class production of Hello, Donald." "Isn't that... isn't that Hello, Dolly?" "Oh, no, no-- they had to change the name." "Donald Wexler was the only guy who could sing the part." "So, what's this, uh, play you tried out for?" "Well, it's a brand-new one." "It's called Authors in Hell." "I'm hoping to play either Mark Twain, one of the guys from the Algonquin Round Table or Satan." "But heck, I'd be just as happy playing a fire- breathing incubus." "They get to stay onstage the whole four hours." "Hey, hey, that's my director, Grif Palmer." "This must mean I got the part." "Or that he's thirsty." "Hi, Mr. Palmer." "Can I get you a drink?" "No, thanks." "I got the part!" "Woody, you're a multitalented young man." "I didn't get the part?" "Well, you know, I've tried out so many times, and I've never gotten a part." "Maybe I'm just wasting my time in the theater." "Come on, Woody, don't give up so easily." "Once upon a time, there was a young man named Grif Palmer who also auditioned for many a role that he didn't get." "As many as me?" "Well, no." "Wait, wait, I've got a thought." "What would you say if I told you" "I've selected a fresh, new face to understudy the role of Mark Twain?" "I think you'll be hearing his name quite a bit from now on..." "Mr. Woody Boyd." "Hey, that's me!" "Hey, everybody," "I'm going to be an understudy!" "Hey, all right." "NORM:" "All right, Wood." "That's good." "Woody, this isn't going to interfere with your job, is it?" "Gee, I don't think so." "Well... yeah." "I'm sorry, Woody, I need you here nights." "Miss Howe, this is my golden chance." "I have to do this." "Don't you understand, I just gotta do it!" "I just gotta!" "That was really good, man." "Can I talk to you just a second here?" "Let him do it." "I would love to, but I need him here." "Well, he'll be here." "You saw that performance." "They're not going to let him go on." "Break a leg, Woody." "All right!" "Welcome to the theater, Woody." "To the ranks of the Lunts and the Oliviers." "To a profession rife with style, with history, with dignity." "To a calling I only hope will bring you as much joy as it has brought me." "Hi." "Hello." "You know Grif Palmer?" "Yeah." "He's the janitor at my kids' school." "( as Mark Twain ):" "Hello, good-mannered and agreeable children." "Hey, everybody, look who's here." "It's that famous actor Robert De Zero." "Uh, Carla, it's me, Woody." "Woody, you have been coming in here dressed in that ridiculous getup for three weeks." "Now, when are you going to stop this nonsense?" "Carla, as an understudy, I have to be dressed and ready to go on at a moment's notice." "Putting on makeup like this can take hours." "But I wouldn't expect you to understand." "Why, 'cause I'm not in the theater?" "No, because you don't wear makeup." "NORM:" "Huckleberry alert." "Hey, Mark Twit!" "Woody, would you run upstairs and get some change?" "Ones and fives." "New bills if they've got them." "( as Twain ):" ""Uh, let us not be too particular." ""It is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all."" "Do you think you could manage it without any quotes?" ""I could do it as easy as falling off a log."" "Woody, just do it!" ""When angry, count four." "When very angry, swear."" "Damn it!" "There you go." "Sam, run upstairs and get me some change." "Aw, come on, that's a junior bartender's job." "You are the junior bartender." "Oh, right." "Yeah." "Yeah, but I'm-I'm working my way up, you know?" "Pretty soon, I might even own my own bar." "Good evening, ma'am." "Oh, hello, there." "Oh, thank you." "I'm blind as a bat without glasses." "I've never seen a bat with glasses." "That's funny." "( chuckling ):" "Yeah, I can imagine." "I believe it might rain soon." "( as Twain ):" ""One of the brightest gems of the New England weather is the dazzling uncertainty of it."" "( chuckling ):" "Well, what can you do?" ""Everybody talks about the weather, but no one ever does anything about it."" "Uh, may I have a glass of white wine, please?" "Wine." "White wine." "Uh..." "let's see, now." "They have a lot of wine in San Francisco, don't they?" "Oh, I suppose they do." ""One of the coldest winters I ever spent was summer in San Francisco."" "Sorry, that's as close as I could get." "( chuckling )" "You're rather amusing." "Well, thanks." "But I've been quoting Mark Twain." "I know;" "I think that's amusing." "And, uh, I suppose that you've been told that you look something like him." "Yeah, I get that a lot." "You know, you look a little bit like Emily Dickinson." "She's one of the authors in hell." "Oh, that's an unkind assumption, sir." "Although she's never been one of my favorites, either." "( cash register rings )" "Here's your change." "And, oh, yeah, a little something for you here." "What is it?" "One of the shrimps from up at the buffet table." "Ew!" "You're lucky." "My first choice was an oyster." "So was mine, but I hired you." "I haven't seen you in here before, have I?" "Uh, no, I don't get around much since my husband, Lloyd, passed away." "We used to come by here every evening during our walk, but, uh, Lloyd never let us come in." "He got jealous when I was around other men." "I can see why." "Oh, for heaven's sakes." "Oh, I think you're blushing." "Oh, it's the wine." "Although as Mark Twain said," ""Man is the only animal that blushes."" ""Or needs to."" "( chuckling )" "All aboard the S.S. Delmonico." "Embarking at 0900 hours for Nassau," "St. Thomas, Martinique, and other exotic ports of call." "( mimics boat horn )" "So you took my advice, huh?" "Yes." "As of close of business today, it's just us." "A couple of fun-loving swabbies lost at sea." "( chuckles ) We'll be todo incomunicado." "No business, no clients, no phone call..." "( pager beeps )" "Lilith, we promised no beepers." "I won't give it up without a fight." "You'll have to perform a strip search." "The vacation has begun." "Now hear this." "Hear this, Sternin." "Prepare to be boarded." "Folks, I have a bit of bad news that may affect a lot of you." "I'm not going to beat around the bush," "I'm just going to come right out and say it." "Last call." "( patrons groan )" "Well, what the heck, maybe I'll give Vera a thrill and go home a little early tonight." "Although, you know, she did look kind of thrilled when I left." "Excuse me, Mary, uh... listen, I'll be back in a second, and then... then I'll see you home." "Oh, that's all right." "But thank you." "I've had a wonderful evening." "Well, I have, too." "I really enjoyed your company." "You're a very nice lady." "And you're a lovely gentleman." "And may I add, you have the most glorious head of hair" "I've seen on any man since my Lloyd died." "Gee, I hate to disappoint you, but this is a wig." "Yes." "So was Lloyd's." "Um, pardon me, ma'am, uh, but that adorable bartender over there." "Woody?" "Uh, yes." "Is he keeping company with anyone in particular?" "Not that I know of." "Well, I think he's very special." "Well, I guess that's the nicest way of putting it." "Good night." "Night." "( evil laughter )" "Oh, Woods." "You know that dust in a dress you've been yakking with?" "Mary?" "You didn't, by any chance, happen to tell her that you're wearing old man makeup for a play, did you?" "That sort of thing is pretty hard to work into polite conversation." "With your makeup, and the lighting in here, and those Mr. Magoo glasses of hers" "I think she got the wrong idea." "She's got the hots for you." "Carla, you're crazy." "She's just a sad old woman who needed someone to talk to." "You of all people should understand that." "There's no way she's gonna go for me." "I mean, in order for her to fall in love with me," "I'd have to be the best darn actor in Boston." "( tapping on glass )" "Oh, no," "I'm the best darn actor in Boston." "( with Caribbean accent ):" "Hello, mon." "I'm sorry, uh, Limbo Night's Tuesday, man." "Hey, mon, you stop bad mouth styling, or I'm gonna have to bop you on the head with a banana boat, mon." "( Cliff laughing )" "Frasier, please cut the calypso." "Isn't it enough the cabdriver already took a swing at you?" "You guys look like you had a good time." "We had oodles of fun." "And we lost a combined 11 pounds to boot." "Wait, you lost weight on a cruise?" "I heard there were wall-to-wall meals." "There were also wall-to-wall waves." "Yes." "Well, fortunately, after three days of giving Chef Hugo's fine cuisine back to the sea, we were fitted with these little, uh, ear patches." "They seemed to do the trick." "And put us to sleep for the rest of the trip." "So you guys spent seven days and nights snoozing and barfing your way through the Caribbean?" "And we've never felt slimmer and more refreshed." "Well, what say we go get some lunch there, my little marine melon?" "Anything you want." "Just promise me you won't refer to the waitress as "Sista."" "( laughs )" "¶ Day-o" "¶ Day-ay-ay-o" "¶ Daylight come, and me wanna home. ¶" "You're not the only one." "Oh, hey, Woody." "I thought your, uh, play closed." "It did, last night." "Oh, so, uh... what's with the old geezer drag?" "I was with Mary." "Another date, huh?" "It wasn't a date." "I just took her to lunch, then a movie, and then dancing." "Hey, Woody, Woody, Woody, Woody." "Man, this is crazy." "You, you know, you've been out with Mary every night this week." "You can't spend your life dressed up like Mark Twain." "Why not?" "He did." "Oh, Sam, I..." "I don't know what to do." "I've tried to tell her, but every time I do, she just stares at me with those big lonely eyes." "I mean, who'd have thought that my God-given acting talent was gonna turn out to be a curse?" "Are we voting?" "You got to nip this in the bud." "Yeah, I agree there, Woody." "A young, such as yourself, to be spending so much time with an older woman is eh, it's just unnatural." "Yeah, well, how about you, Cliff?" "You spend lots of time with your mother, and she's old." "My ma's not old, and she's never gonna die before I do, so just shut up, okay?" "!" "Hey, hey, Woods." "Mary just came in." "Maybe you should get her a glass or something." "She doesn't drink in the afternoon." "No, I mean to put her teeth in." "Hi, Mary." "Hi." "What are you doing here?" "I just wanted to see you again." "Yeah." "Look, can we sit down?" "I'd like to talk with you a second." "All right." "Listen, I..." "I know how lonely you've been since Lloyd passed away." "Oh, how lonely I was." "( chuckles ) I'm not anymore." "You know," "( as Twain ):" "loneliness is highly underrated." "It's one of the few things left that you can still do alone." "Did Mark Twain say that?" "No, but I'm kind of running out of his material." "There's something I want to give you." "It's Lloyd's watch." "Oh." "I want you to have it." "No, I couldn't." "Oh, please." "Ah, gee, thanks, Mary." "( chuckles )" "Would you excuse me for a second?" "Sure." "Oh, wait." "I just want to memorize the way you look in this light." "( dreamily ):" "Go ahead." "Sam, I don't know what to do." "Now she's memorizing the way I look in different kinds of light." "Oh, I don't know, Woody." "Women do that all the time." "Yeah, and she gave me her dead husband's watch." "You could do a lot worse." "Listen, you got to end this." "Right now, go on." "I don't know how." "You know, I-I can't stand the thought of hurting somebody's feelings." "I know." "Carla, you've been dumped a million times." "What's the best way to do it?" "You know, the only reason I'm not cleaning your clock is because you remind me of Jed Clampett." "Listen, you are not dumping her." "You're leveling with her." "Now, it's-it's the only honest thing to do." "Now, go on, be a man." "Do it." "You're right, Sam." "It's time I stood on my own two feet and did what's right." "Right." "Will you come with me?" "This is something you got to do by yourself." "I can't." "Well, I-I'm not gonna do it, Woody." "( weepy ):" "Please, Sam," "I can't do this by myself." "You've got to help me." "All right, all right." "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." "Thank you." "You believe I'm just an understudy?" "Um, Mary, Yes." "Woody wants to tell you something." "Well, um..." "Mary, you see..." "Uh..." "I mean, you know, uh, how..." "I don't suppose there's any chance you understand what I'm talking about yet." "Actually, I do." "Let me explain something to you, Woody." "I'm a very lonely woman since I lost my husband." "My family lives out of state." "I never see my grandchildren, and most of my friends have moved or passed away." "Seems my days are so hard to fill." "I swear, there are mornings when it didn't seem worthwhile getting out of bed." "A-And then I met you..." "Stop." "Stop." "Will you marry me?" "Heavens, no." "I'm three times your age." "You know that I'm young?" "Well, Woody, I may be old, but I'm not stupid." "Well, why didn't you ever tell me this?" "Well, I enjoyed your company so." "And besides, every time I wanted to, you started quoting "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"" "Now, I hope you're not upset with me." "Oh, are you kidding?" "I'm just glad I didn't have to dump you." "( laughs )" "And besides, you had such fun playing the part, and you were quite excellent." "You sure you don't want to marry me?" "( laughing ):" "Ah, no, Woody." "Well, will you be my grandma?" "Uh, well, maybe a favorite aunt." "It's a deal." "My birthday is July 23rd." "I just gave you the watch." "By the way, we're still on for pot roast on Saturday." "Leave the wig at home." "( chuckles )" "Bye-bye." "Bye." "Well, I guess in a really weird way, it kind of worked out, didn't it?" "Huh?" "Yeah." "I'm still a little depressed." "Why?" "Well, I mean," "Mary knows I'm a good actor, but now that Authors in Hell is closed," "I'm not gonna get to show the rest of the world." "Oh, yeah." "You know what," "I got an idea." "Why don't you do it right here?" "Hop right up there, and show the... show the whole bar." "( groans ):" "I don't know." "All right." "Gather 'round, everybody." "I'm going to do Authors in Hell." "I mean, if that's all right with you, Miss Howe." "Well, I was planning to wait for the movie, but go ahead." "Imagine if you will a huge book opens up, and I" " Mark Twain-- step out." "I am surrounded by various tormented American writers." "And Satan." "The lights dim." "( as Twain ):" "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted." "Persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished." "Persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." "( patron coughs )" "Woody, go on." "Well, I just sit here and smoke." "I don't talk again till the middle of act four."

There are only official system requirements on the site which are released by developers or an official publisher. Minimale Systemanforderungen: CPU: 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent (XP/Vista) RAM: 512 MB RAM (XP) 768 MB RAM (Vista) GPU: A 128 MB Video Card*, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 Store: At least 6 GB of hard drive space Anmerkung: When launching the game, some Microsoft Vista users may receive a warning about running out of address space along with a link to the Microsoft Knowledge Base. If you see this message, it is recommended that you follow the instructions and go to the website listed in the message to update your system.

Is Google’s Relationship With The Webmaster Community Becoming Fractured? For those who follow the SEO community, there have been many changes this year with Google’s outreach to SEOs and webmasters, starting when Matt Cutts went on leave. While one could make the argument that Google’s effort at increased communication and transparency with webmasters has been sincere, many things have been botched so magnificently over the course of the past year or so that it is at the point where its relationship with the webmaster community is as tumultuous as it has ever been. Last month, Google Capital backed service directory Thumbtack, was issued a manual penalty for unnatural links when their link building efforts were outed publicly. These type of manual actions typically require a very significant effort to get removed, and it is not at all unusual for weeks or even months to go by before a manual penalty is successfully removed. In the instance of Thumbtack, the penalty was revoked in less than a week, and the site seemed to return to historic ranking positions. Many SEO’s cried foul, making assertions that Thumbtack received special treatment from Google as a result of its relationship with Google Capital. While Google denied providing any preferential treatment, there are very few in the SEO community that believe this to be the case. That disbelief from the community is likely partly the result of a pattern of misleading and false statements from Google over the course of the past year or so that have created an air of distrust. Consistent Misleading Statements Ever since the advent of punitive algorithmic penalties such as Penguin and Panda, Google has been consistently, and on a regular basis, making statements to the webmaster community that are just not factual, and as a result some of their credibility with the webmaster community seriously eroded. Quite frankly, it is impossible to trust at face value what Google says anymore. Most recently, we had the “quality update,” also known as Phantom 2 that rolled out at the end of April. Many of us that work in the penalty recovery space noticed massive changes in traffic to sites that shared some of the same hallmarks that had impacted Panda victims previously. Google outright denied that any type of update had taken place. Just like we don’t need a weatherman to tell us that it’s raining, we also don’t need Google to confirm an update in order to to know when an update has occurred, so by denying the obvious, Google representatives look out of the loop at best, and deliberately misleading at worst. Clean It Up And You Will Recover A significant amount of the frustration is borne by misleading or false information related to both Penguin and Panda. Penguin and Panda are punitive algorithmic features in the sense that if a site that is affected, it is effectively put into a “timeout”, even if the site in question cleans up the issues that led to the penalty in the first place. Speaking about Penguin specifically, Google, through it’s representatives, have said that if you clean up the issues affecting a site, then the algorithm will no longer affect your site. We know that in many instances this is not the case. Those of us working in the recovery space all have examples of sites that have done very extensive, thorough cleanup, earned new links and have seen no improvement whatsoever in YEARS. The problem here is that these are real people with real lives, real employees and real families. Google said that yes, even though you have been impacted by this algorithmic feature, you can recover. Many business owners took that to heart and did everything they could based on that advice in order to recover their livelihoods. Some of these businesses have failed as a result. Severe Punishment Google had not updated Penguin since October of 2013 and thousands of sites were hoping to be finally let out of jail when Google released Penguin 3.0 on October 17th of 2014. Despite this being one of the most anticipated updates in the history of the engine, Google stumbled around in it’s communications with webmasters leading to massive confusion in the webmaster community. First, it said that it had fully rolled out in a day. When it became clear that this wasn’t going to be an update at all, but rather just a minor refresh, there came this incredulous statement from Pierre Far of Google who said that it would take a few weeks to roll out and that: “This refresh helps sites that have already cleaned up the webspam signals discovered in the previous Penguin iteration”. That is a laughable statement. Yes, there were some recoveries, but they were few and far between. Then, in December, they said that Penguin 3.0 was still rolling out and that it was going real time. How Google could botch communication so spectacularly during the most anticipated update in its history is remarkable. Penguin is a crushing punitive algorithmic feature that has destroyed thousands of businesses, partly as a result of these businesses believing that there was a way to fix the problem. To do all of the work and then wait patiently for Penguin to update, only to see Google treat them as an afterthought dismayed many. Panda Goes MIA Panda is the next biggest gong show. At one point, it was believed that Google was running this page quality based algorithm on a near monthly basis with regular “tremors” happening in between. Sites that were impacted could clean up quality issues, and if they were thorough enough, they had a reasonable expectation of a quick recovery. All of that stopped in October of 2014, and although Phantom2 looked like it might be Panda based, we have not seen a Panda refresh since then. Again, Google have been giving misleading and conflicting statements about Panda leading to confusion and frustration from businesses that are suffering, even though they have committed resources to improving their sites. In March of 2015, Gary Illyes said that Panda was running in real-time. This was a jaw-dropping statement because those of us that watch Panda closely knew that this was not true. Businesses that had cleaned up and saw no improvement were understandably upset because if Panda was running in real time, why had they not recovered? The messaging caused total confusion. While Google eventually did come clean and admit that Panda was not running in real-time, the damage was done. The Panda messaging mess has continued with Gary Illyes saying on June 2nd at SMX Advanced that Panda would refresh between “two to four weeks.” That statement was met with a collective eye roll from the SEO community and was anyone even slightly surprised when that timeline came and went with no Panda refresh? From the flippant remarks on things such as click data not affecting scoring to the HTTPS push for what seems like a nonexistent ranking benefit, Google’s consistent misleading statements are becoming a joke for some. Would They Be Better off Saying Nothing? It seems as though messaging has become fractured and inconsistent since Matt Cutts took leave. As A.J Kohn so eloquently said in his recent post, both John Mueller and Gary Illyes are excellent ambassadors for Google, but it is highly unlikely that they had the type of pull internally that Matt Cutts had. You can make the argument that this attempt at “being more open” with webmasters is doing more harm than good and that until such time as they come up with a coherent messaging strategy, they should rethink their approach. Some of the best advice I received when I first entered this industry was that sometimes it is best to just say nothing. Would Google be well served by doing the same? Or are the somewhat misleading comments better than silence? Paul Macnamara has been working in search since 2000 when he started his career in e-commerce. He has spent the past 15 years immersed in search engine marketing and now offers SEO consulting services at paulmacnamara.com. You can follow Paul on Twitter @therealpmac Thanx for a great article discussing the mistrust issues between Google and the SEO community. The issues are an awful lot bigger than you say here, with the Black Hat SEO community causing most of the problems. If folks were not trying all kinds of starnge and malicious tricks to game the system we would be an awful lot better off. I think many of these statements by Google are just put out to throw the black hat guys a bone….. but thius bone has no soup meat on it, so the other folks who are trying to be honest and do whats right get all frustrated and ever so upset about the deliberate bad information…. I believe this article hits to the truth of Google process of communication and flow of work. Google being a giant doesn’t seems working on schedules, doesn’t seem working for the customers really because all this webmaster communication is not helping, instead harming the site owners because we people are investing time to catch all what they say and finally end up in nothing. Moreover, recent report flowing around is that they are giving credits to google properties in ranking and i believe that’s the area where they are investing their good minds and strategy ::) Check for some apps and games, you will see first rank result page filled with GooglePlay results (mobile results). Check for local results, it seems they are giving credit to their partners. Google was once really an organic place but now I feel hard to say that for Google.