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So I finished my last book a day or two ago and now I’ve picked up a Nicholas Sparks newbie, Two By Two. I’ve seldom been let down by a sparkie book. Hard to choose a favourite but I really do enjoy them, and the movies too.
Are you a Sparkie fan?
His licence plate read: No riders except blondes, brunettes, and redheads. With his flared polyester pants, open nylon shirt, and disco music on his eight track, Gerald Stano believed he was quite the ladies’ man. And should a girl dare fracture his ego, he killed her.
By the time he was twenty-eight, Gerald confessed to murdering up to forty women over an eleven-year period. How they died was left to the moment: strangled, stabbed, drowned, or shot. Why? They crossed Gerald’s path and were tossed out like trash. But there were other troubling questions: How did this obsessive loner lure so many women into his car? And how could so many appalling crimes go unconnected for so long?
Based on exclusive access to the killer-and extensive correspondence with him-as well as interviews with the lead investigator and the victims’ families, this is a revealing, shocking, and unflinching portrait of a man who fancied himself one of the greatest lady-killers of them all.
As far as true crime books on serial killers go, this one is pretty good. My only gripe with it would be the tone at times, which I would assume is more to so with author Kathy Kelly having been a journalist. You can tell that but the constant use of over emotive language. Especially in the reenactments of the ladies murders, as well as at the end in the letters that he wrote personally to her to which she would someones right a commentary on. Other than that, I very much enjoyed it.
I found the personal touch of the letter correspondence, gave the story a different touch to other serial killer books. It was intriguing how Stano talked once in prison. And more so interesting to know that he was on the same death row block at the same time with Ted Bundy. So if you enjoy serial killer books, and withstand moderate emotive narrative, then this one should quench your literary thirst.
I wanted to read this book because I saw the movie, and loved it! With my study/work schedule I often see the movie before the book and then go read the book because the movie was so good. So I was expecting awesome things, and also hoped that the book would answer some questions that I had from the movie.
Generally, bookworms get up in arms about books that are made into movies. You’ll often come across social media threads, where the movie received scathing reviews; readers pointing out all of the movies flaws, lack of ’emotion’, and the rest. I’m not like that. At all. Books and movies are two different platforms, that allow for two different views on a story. Often the movie changes details of a book here and there, because of that very reason, they’re trying to tell a story differently. And I’m fine with that.
After seeing the movie Room, which I really enjoyed, I was excited to go read the book. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s not uncommon for me to to watch the movie first and then read the book. I’m not a naive or amateur reader, and I’m well aware that the books can be better than the movie. The last instance for me of the was when I watched The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. I watched the movie first and loved it, then went and read the book and loved that even more! However, I was greatly disappointed with the Room book.
The thing that I did not like the most about the book, was the author’s decision to tell the story through Jack’s eyes. It’s obvious that she’s trying to channel a five year old, but for me, it just didn’t work at all. The language, the misuse of language, made for a confusing and agitating read, the entire book. People from social media kept telling me that it would get better after the first 25 pages, that it was emotional and gut-renching, and far better than the movie, but but for that just wasn’t the case. I found the emotion very dull. I believe, for me, this was because I was unable to connect with the story because of the POV issue.
Usually there’s a character that annoys me in a book, and this one was no different. I didn’t much care for the mother/grandmother. She rubbed me the wrong way with how she dealt/reacted to Jack in his new situation. But then that’s something that needed to be dealt with, by having the character see a psychologist. Which they (the characters) should have all been doing, not just the two main. That’s something that the author had the opportunity to address, seeing as mental health is a major issue that is current in society today.
There were instances that I enjoyed. I did love Jack experiencing the world. It’s really amazing to think that these cases really do happen, and makes you think just how difficult it would be to experience everything for the first time. I find a good book, should make you ask questions, and Room certainly did. And like I had hoped, the book did answer some questions that I had from the movie, so that a plus.
I feel like this has been one of my more negative reviews, which I’m sorry about because I don’t want that to potentially put you off reading. Because if you haven’t already seen by now, social media is full of positive reviews. I also don’t personally let a review make a decision for me, I like to make my own up. So I encourage you to read this because you may be one of those that ends up enjoying or loving it!!
Christmas is just around the corner. Literally. Two sleeps away. Got my shopping done a little earlier this year, and to be honest, I’m patiently waiting for it to be done for another year so my purse can recouperate!
I’m almost half-way through Adnan’s Story by Rabia Chaudry, which is the story from the podcast Serial, if you’re familiar with it. And despite some less than fantastic reviews, I’m very much enjoying it.
I’ve also just decided on His Kidnapper’s Shoes by Maggie James to start on my Kindle. I received that as a ARC from Lake Union Publishing, and it actually sounds very intriguing so I look forward to starting that one in the next day or so.
Hope you all have a safe and happy holidays and I hope Santa’s good to you. By good, I mean buys lots of books!
This book is the first in the Detective Kay Hunter series and opens with a kidnapping scene of a teen, with her parents frantically trying to battle the ticking clock to save her. Personally, I didn’t find this one to be as ‘fast-paced’. For me, there were times when it was slow and the the characters lacking a certain spark, this mainly being the serial killer. I have to admit, it wasn’t the most interesting serial killer that I’ve read. In fact, if anything let this story down, it was that character for me. I, like many other readers, enjoy a deep, dark, and twisted character but unfortunately, this one just didn’t have that vibe. It’s a complicated character to emulate on paper, and while there are a number of ficitonal books out there with them in it, I’ve read few that have been able to win me over.
The writing is enjoyable, and the chapters are the perfect length for those “Just one more….” moments, where you don’t want to put it down; however amongst the other series that this book now joins, I didn’t find it reaching a 5 stars just yet. I did enjoy Detective Hunter, she was tough and dedicated but also showed a more vulnerable side to her. Her relationship with her husband was quite nice to read, as was her professional relationship with her colleagues. And I very much enjoyed the last few chapters of the book, the author wrapped up in a way that’s got me eager to read the next in the series, and hopefully it will be another serial killer character that she’ll be able to win me over with!
Thank you very much to the author for allowing me to take part in the book blog tour, and for providing an ebook version to review, and I wish you all the best with the remainder of the tour!
You can purchase this title from Amazon here.
Wow, wow, wow. Now, I’ve heard on the bookworm grapevine, that Jodi Picoult work is pretty darn good. If her other stuff is like this book, then I’d better get into it, quick smart!!!
You know at the beginning, I didn’t think i was going to like this one. I wasn’t a fan of the swapping from present to past with chapters, or the characters. However, I grew to actually love it. I don’t really have any other negatives! I loved this book. It was full of emotion, and so rich in research. The author did a wonderful job researching, I found myself getting lost in each and every character. I think my favourite character was Peter. It’s a controversial topic, and you’re often more inclined to to see his and his actions as ‘evil’ and you still may after reading this, but to me, I see Peter (and others who have acted like him) as human. I think the author did a realistic, and gut-wrenching job at portraying the heartache and pain that the family of Peter, and real-life families in the same position, go through. You can’t even begin to imagine how much your life could change if you were put in the same position. It’s almost unfathomable.
There’s no denying that Peter actions were wrong, however, it’s only natural to me, to feel empathy and sympathy for him especially at the author tells his story from kindergarten to the event. It gave his character a face and emotion. My heart broke for him in scenes that included his brother, and how he acted towards Peter. The court scenes towards the end were fantastic. The dialogue between lawyers and witnesses flowed so beautifully, I flew threw it. And started crying in the last three chapters when the little twist was revealed. Amazing. Definitely a book that makes you think and question life and being a parent.
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2019-04-21T22:23:08Z
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https://anaussiebooknerd.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.263503 |
wordpress
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Today I sold a copy of METAL MAN WALKING to a bank manager. She bought it for her daughter, who is a social worker. Her daughter did research on the homeless in a nearby city. I’m excited to know what she thinks of Chuck and his pursuit of happiness on the streets of the Low Country.
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2019-04-23T04:38:41Z
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https://doorframebooks.wordpress.com/2013/09/
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Porn
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Business
| 0.707727 |
newgrounds
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Got a creepy, semi-dreadful but chill vibe to it. Feels pretty nostalgic. Nice job mate.
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2019-04-26T16:26:49Z
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https://elscamon.newgrounds.com/reviews
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.420169 |
fc2
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Copyright © since 2006 うつ病症例：ある医療系学生の場合. All Rights Reserved. Template by gamezuki.
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2019-04-23T16:59:28Z
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http://utubyou.blog46.fc2.com/blog-entry-698.html
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Porn
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Health
| 0.730271 |
wordpress
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This entry was posted on dinsdag, november 29th, 2016 at 14:46 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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2019-04-19T06:56:28Z
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https://lucswinnen.wordpress.com/2016/11/29/gouden-tips-voor-je-brein/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.138884 |
wordpress
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I love Maggie Stiefvater (okay so I’ve only read The Raven Cycle but I think that’s enough to make anyone fall in love with her writing, right?), so I was so ready to read this book and getting it at BookCon (and signed by her too!!) was the most amazing thing to ever happen to me. Sadly, though, my excitement didn’t extend to actually reading it in a timely manner, and I have only just finally finished it – a week after it was published.
I think part of the reason for this was that I didn’t fall in love with the story as quickly as I did with TRC. It was just a more gradual build-up of getting to know the characters and understanding the magic of the world which Maggie created in this novel. In fact, I almost wish there had been a little bit more to it, since I felt like there was much more to learn about each of the Soria cousins, Pete, and even some of the pilgrims and other Soria family members. While what was presented made sense in the time-frame of the story, I just personally wanted to know a little bit more about them.
Maggie’s writing, of course, is spectacular and stunning, literally giving life to inanimate things, and painting pictures that capture so much of humanity. I really enjoyed the concept she presented about miracles and the struggle to overcome one’s inner darkness. The story flowed wonderfully and excellently, with a pacing that kept the movement going but also stayed still for necessary moments to learn about some important history or just a character’s personality. I will, however, say it wasn’t entirely captivating – I found I could easily put it down at times and pick it back up later without feeling like I was going through a withdrawal – but it wasn’t a drag either. It was just a beautiful rendition of a concept that I could immerse myself in whenever I desired.
Like I said earlier, the characters were highly interesting and had me wanting more of them, especially of their relationships with one another. I really enjoyed Beatriz’s character growth throughout the book, and would have really liked to see more of her interactions with Pete, because for me their relationship felt both natural but also strangely rushed (or just missing those small key moments that make all the difference to the reader). It’s hard to describe – I thought that they worked well together and their relationship was cute and made sense, but I also felt like I wanted to see more of their falling in love with each other, of just being with each other and spending time together and watching that relationship grow stronger. As for the other characters, I loved how despite all of them having one particular trait that really stood out for them, they always had much more depth and personality that, despite not getting the page-time, still made its presence known.
Overall, this was a really nice read with some beautiful magical realism and a concept that truly makes you think. The characters were extremely interesting, and I would have liked to read more about them, and the storyline definitely kept my interest. It’s not my extreme favorite of Maggie’s work that I’ve read so far, but it’s still something I am glad I read.
On an added note, with this book I have finished my Goodreads goal for the year!!
Next postGoodreads Challenge is Complete!
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2019-04-25T22:47:33Z
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https://booksbeyondimagining.wordpress.com/2017/10/19/book-review-all-the-crooked-saints-by-maggie-stiefvater/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.310666 |
wordpress
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This Fourth of July is so filled with dissidence……..even watching fireworks in the sky seems like more angry shouting amidst our citizens.
I am not a proponent of fireworks, but I have gone to two very special firework displays in my lifetime.
One was over Liberty State Park in New Jersey, where lights and colors filled the sky above Lady Liberty (The Statue of Liberty’s head). The next time I was there, different colors filled the sky……..I watched the fire and smoke of the burning Twin Towers obliterate the sky.
Several years ago, I attended another poignant ceremony. The names of Medal of Honor recipients were to be displayed on remembrance bricks in the center of my town, Gettysburg……where so many heroic footsteps left their traces.
Those who donated to this cause were each given the name of their recipient and invited to a wonderful celebration, featuring the very talented musicians of our armed forces. I was among those in attendance, on a beautiful evening on the Gettysburg Battlefield. The ceremony ended with a glorious display of fireworks in the sky.
This entry was posted in "A Photographer's Blog", "A Poet's Blog", a poet's blog, A Writer's Blog, Gettysburg, Life Musings from a Reiki Master and Intuitive Animal Communicator and tagged "Fourth of July", Gettysburg, patriotism, Protests. Bookmark the permalink.
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2019-04-25T16:44:35Z
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https://sknobloch88.wordpress.com/2018/07/04/id-proudly-stand-up/
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Porn
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Arts
| 0.955067 |
imdb
|
"The film's unique perspective, stunning performances and challenging theme really touched our hearts."
"The script of this feature film is well-balanced and thoughtfully structured. The direction is considered and convincing, and the performances - particularly that of its talented young leading lady ¬- are superb. Despite tackling a challenging issue head-on, the filmmakers succeed in delivering real humor and charm as well as uneasy tension and visceral emotion."
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2019-04-23T12:45:23Z
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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4093680/awards
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Porn
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Arts
| 0.698618 |
wordpress
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For me the Criterion Collection is one of the best distributors and restorers of cinema. One time I ended up going crazy and buying a lot of Criterion Collection DVDs online which cost me an equivalent of one paycheck of the month. And that was when Criterion had a 50% off sale.
The perfectionist in me would love to have all of the Criterion Collection DVDs from Issue #1 all the way to the current released DVD. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately I have come to the realization that I don’t have the disposable income to afford a collection. I think it will cost thousands of dollars in order to have the complete Criterion Collection.
Anyway, the video is awesome in showing insight into Criterion Collection’s process of restoring films.
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2019-04-26T01:51:48Z
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https://edillor.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/behind-the-criterion-collection-process/
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Porn
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Shopping
| 0.985534 |
tripod
|
He was a former member of soldier but quit that job and became an ex-soldier in order to help save the planet from shin-ra's bad ways. The reason he went off to Midgar to join soldier in the first place was because he wanted to be just like The Great Sephiroth who was a first class soldier commander. He was friends with Sephiroth and looked up to him all untill the day Sephiroth went evil.
His attitude seems to be very cocky and his anger towards Sephiroth winds him into some conflicts within his self.
Also a former soldier and he was a 1st Rank General..a position held by very few people. His past is a hard one to find out, having been raised by Hojo. However no one can mistake who he is with his black cape, bright mako green eyes and long silver hair. He led Cloud on his first soldier mission to Nibleheim ..which was to be his last.
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2019-04-19T10:18:01Z
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http://isrieal.tripod.com/id3.html
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Porn
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Games
| 0.601373 |
cnn
|
Congratulations, Max Zuckerberg -- or should that be Chen Mingyu?
Speaking in Mandarin, Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan made a special announcement about their daughter as they wished the world a happy Lunar New Year.
In a video post Saturday, the couple said this Lunar New Year was especially meaningful because they selected Max's Chinese name.
"Chen, after her mother's family name, and Mingyu represents our hope for a brighter tomorrow for the world," Zuckerberg said.
Chinese names are often loaded with symbolism. Parents put a lot of thought into how a name will help shape a child's life.
When Zuckerberg and Chan announced Max's birth late last year, they said they would donate 99% of their Facebook shares over their lifetimes to efforts to make the world better through education, medicine and Internet access.
Their daughter's Chinese name reflects that vision, combining the word "ming," which means bright, with "yu," which means universe.
Her English name -- Maxima, or Max for short -- was chosen for members of Zuckerberg's family.
The weekend's post is another example of Zuckerberg's language skills after he pledged to learn Mandarin several years ago. For the occasion of the Lunar New Year in 2015, he posted a video of himself offering good wishes in Mandarin.
And in October, Zuckerberg gave a 20-minute speech about Facebook's mission while visiting Tsingua University in Beijing.
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2019-04-25T00:04:40Z
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https://money.cnn.com/2016/02/07/technology/zuckerberg-facebook-daughter-chinese-name/
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Porn
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Business
| 0.807348 |
wordpress
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Performance rock climbing is all about strength-to-weight ratio. We tend to fixate on the “strength” side while ignoring the “weight”. Perhaps because the strength side of the equation seems actionable, and the weight side is all about restraint. The reality is that losing weight is probably the easiest thing a climber can do to improve. Unlike strength and technique, body weight can be improved substantially in a matter of weeks. However, many people just feel powerless to affect their body type. There is also now a bizzare element of social pressure to discourage any form of dieting, or even any interest in healthy eating.
Matt Birk, before and after.
I didn’t start paying attention to my weight until 2011, and that is probably the single biggest training mistake I’ve made in my career. I would weigh myself before hangboard workouts, but that was just to better understand my training intensity for that day’s workout. I never weighed myself during my performance phase. And I used to eat garbage, mostly. When I first got out of college, I would routinely consume an entire 12-pack of Dr. Pepper cans over the course of 2-day weekend trip to the Utah dessert. My staples were pizza (usually frozen/cardboard) and spaghetti. At the time I felt I was pretty fit and healthy (amazingly), because I excercised all the time. While exercise certainly can help, its very easy to wipe out hours of exercise in a few minutes of over-eating. Furthermore, often excercise increases your appetite, making dieting much more difficult (these days, when I’m trying to get lean, I limit my exercise to a few brisk walks throughout the day. I save the intense cardio work for the months when I’m not concerned about my weight).
Any serious climber should have good muscle definition throughout their body. If you don’t, you could probably stand to lose some weight, and the amount may surprise you. For me, the difference between my mom thinking I’m skinny and actually being skinny is about 10 pounds. Anyone with hangboard experience knows that’s a huge amount of weight to your fingers, and so, a tremendous variable in climbing performance (obviously the amount will vary from climber to climber).
If you’re already lean, you may be able to trim a significant number of pounds by shedding un-needed mass in your lower body. If that sounds like you, see this post.
The rest of us just need to go on a diet! It’s easy to adopt a fatalistic attitude, but the fact is we have a great deal of control over our destiny. The human body is amazingly “plastic”, meaning it can adapt and change to suit different needs. Even for those at the advanced age of 37, like Matt Birk ;).
For example, instead of whatever you normally eat for lunch, try a salad of spinach, bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and tuna, dressed in a modest amount of balsamic vinagrette. You could eat these foods until your stomach is on the verge of exploding and still loose weight. For dinner, eat a lean piece of grilled chicken breast or grilled fish, with sides of steamed vegetables (like brocolli or sparagus). Skip the rice, potatoes, bread, etc. If you crave lots of sweets like me, load up on fruits (watermelon is king, but canteloupe, grapes, apples and pears are good options too).
If you choose to go on a diet, remember there is a point of diminishing returns. Your body needs energy to perform well, and constantly starving yourself will inhibit your performance more than an extra pound of lost weight will help. Experiment with different healthy weights until you find that “sweet spot” where you perform at your best. For me, I’ve gotten down to 139 pounds in recent years, but I find I perform the best around 143-145 lb. At that weight I’m more energetic, I have a better attitude, and I’m still resistant to illness and injury.
A leaner me, in 2013, age 35.
Excessive, persistent dieting can lead to injury and illness. Most serious athletes will “cycle” their weight management on and off, as with physical training. That’s great news for people like me who love food! That means you can have periods of enjoying life’s many treats, and periods where you buckle down and send (that said, “yo-yo dieting” can wreak havoc on your metabolism, making weight loss extremely difficult, so keep your variations within reason).
When I’m ARCing and hangboarding, I eat pretty much whatever I want within reason (although I have a fairly healthy diet now, even when I’m not on a diet). I aim to stay within 10 lbs of my goal weight, but otherwise I will eat (and drink) whatever I please. During my power phase I begin adjusting my eating habits, with the goal of reaching my ideal sending weight near the end of my performance phase.
Weight is a tremendous factor in performance–as important as strength. Fortunately its actually pretty easy to manage once you learn how. If you have any other tips for healthy weight loss, please post them in a comment below.
I’ll be at Shelf Road the weekend of November 9-10 to help organize Bob D’Antonio’s Shelf Road Anchor Replacement Weekend. I helped out with last year’s event at Penitente Canyon and it was a lot of fun. The Penitente Event was very productive, but Shelf needs this much more badly in my opinion, so I was really excited when Bob contacted me. There are a lot of really sketchy old bolts at Shelf and the crag gets tremendous amounts of traffic. The objective will be to identify and replace any home-made bolts, damaged or excessively worn/lose bolts, and sketchy lowering anchors. This is a great opportunity to learn the basics of bolting and bolt replacement.
The event should be a lot of fun as well. Bob’s pulled together free food and beer for the masses, there will be a gear giveaway, with lots of different companies throwing in gear, and I’m planning to give a slideshow on Saturday night. The slideshow will be about my new route development at Shelf over the last few years, how I became interested in pushing the standards at Shelf and what the future holds.
You don’t need to be a bolting master to participate. If you can turn a wrench you can help out, and even if you can’t do that, we can find something helpful for you to do. If nothing else, drop by to say, score some free beer and enjoy a free slideshow. Hope to see you there!
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2019-04-21T13:12:12Z
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https://lazyhclimbingclub.wordpress.com/2013/10/
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Porn
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Sports
| 0.958142 |
faqs
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RE: The tariff eligibility under the United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SFTA), of Headings 8471 and 8473, HTSUS from Singapore.
This ruling letter replaces the ruling letter we sent to you on March 16, 2006 under file number R03373. The purpose of this replacement letter is to correct a typographical error in paragraph three involving the Harmonized Tariff Schedule Number, HTSUS 8471.60.5500. The HTSUS number indicated for handheld computers has now been corrected. A complete corrected ruling follows.
In your letter dated March 2, 2006 you requested a ruling on the status of goods exported from Singapore under the US-SFTA.
In your inquiry, you requested whether the Integrated Sourcing Initiative (ISI) claim is the only claim allowed for goods assembled in Singapore from imported and domestic components and classified under the heading 8471, HTSUS. You also requested whether keyboards classified under subheading 8471.60.2000 and thermal printers under 8471.60.5500 are included in the ISA list and can be entered under the ISI claim. Lastly your inquiry includes whether ISI or SG should be used for parts and accessories of automatic data processing (ADP) machines classified under subheading 8473.30.5000 manufactured in Singapore from imported and domestic components and exported from Singapore if these parts qualify for both GN 25(o) and GN 25(m) rules and can be entered either under the ISI or SG claim.
The merchandise imported from Singapore entered under heading 8471, HTSUS includes scanners classified under subheading 8471.60.8000, and handheld computers classified under subheading 8471.30.0000. All goods are sourced from other countries and manufactured in Singapore.
General Note 25(m), HTSUS, sets forth the criteria for determining whether a good is originating under the US-SFTA. For the purposes of subdivision (b) (ii) of this note, goods that, in their condition as imported, are classifiable in the tariff provisions enumerated in the first column and are described opposite such provisions, when such goods are imported into the customs territory of the United States from the territory of Singapore, shall be considered originating goods for the purposes of this note.
This note, subject to the provisions of subdivisions (m) (26) enumerates the entire heading 8471 and the entire heading description, all ADP machines and units classified in heading 8471 are to be considered originating goods for the purpose of the agreement. Under subdivisions (m) (27) all ADP machines and units thereof; magnetic or optical readers, machines for transcribing data onto data media in coded form and machines for processing such data, not elsewhere specified or included.
The ISI adapts traditional trade rules to help US and Singapore companies improve the efficiency and flexibility of their global sourcing. For a limited number of Information Technology products listed in Annex 3B of the US-SFTA that already face zero tariffs in the US and Singapore, the ISI eliminates the requirement that these products meet specific “rules of origin” when shipped between the US and Singapore. Per Administrative message 04-0859 issued on 04/08/04, the Automated Commercial System (ACS) was updated in February 2004 to allow automated entry of imports claiming preferential treatment under the US-SFTA. The special program indicator (SPI) “SG” will appear on all entry summaries for which preferential treatment is claimed for non-ISI goods only.
All ISI goods-those goods that appear on the list in General Note 25(m) of the HTSUS will not use the SPI “SG”. Instead, these goods will be entered under the primary tariff number 9999.00.84, and the secondary tariff number (the actual descriptive classification number) will appear on the next line. Even ISI goods with Singapore as the country of origin should be entered using the Chapter 99 number.
Based on the facts provided, the goods described above qualify for US-SFTA preferential treatment, because they will meet the requirements of HTSUS General Note 25(m). The goods will therefore be entitled to a free rate of duty under the US-SFTA upon compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and agreements.
Duty rates are provided for your convenience and are subject to change. The text of the most recent HTSUS and the accompanying duty rates are provided on World Wide Web at http://www.usitc.gov/tata/hts/. Amendments to the US-SFTA are provided at http://cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/international_agreements/us_singapore/.
A copy of the ruling or the control number indicated above should be provided with the entry documents filed at the time this merchandise is imported. If you have any questions regarding the ruling, contact National Import Specialist Denise Faingar at 646-733-3010.
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2019-04-24T06:19:17Z
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http://www.faqs.org/rulings/rulings2006NYR03482.html
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Porn
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Computers
| 0.953162 |
wordpress
|
And Games of guess that tune.
the drama of Steel drums.
Humming to a beautiful view of a ancient City i don’t think, i will ever truly know.
Whilst you were pasting posters of the latest show tunes.
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2019-04-24T02:56:28Z
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https://austennorton.wordpress.com/neon-slipstreams/
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Porn
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Games
| 0.968888 |
wordpress
|
The Integrated Development Environment (IDE) speeds up the Arduino development process considerably. You’ll first need to download the latest version (available from this link) and install it on your machine. I use a mac computer. Subsequently, the screenshots I provide will be of the Mac Arduino IDE. That said, I can’t imagine the Windows or Linux version will vary too drastically to prevent you from following along. If in doubt, google it!
To avoid any niggling hiccoughs, I find it’s best to have your Arduino connected to your computer before you start up the IDE, although this isn’t absolutely necessary.
The IDE exists to do a lot of the complex yet trivial work of translating your code into a form you board can understand (a process called compiling), and subsequently delivering that program to the board. These two steps can vary depending on your board and setup. The IDE is smart enough to take your code and compile it correctly for whichever type of Arduino board you’re using. All you have to do is tell it what board you want to program to run on, and it will do the hard work for you.
This is a ridiculously simple task. Navigate to the top menu bar and select the ‘Tools’ dropdown menu. From here, hover over the ‘Boards’ option. A list of Arduino boards will appear. Choose the model you’re using (this is invariably displayed somewhere on the board itself) and hey presto, the IDE knows how to compile your code.
The only thing left is to tell the IDE how you’ll be communicating with your Arduino board. When starting out, you’ll want to use the simplest option available to you, USB. Navigate again to the ‘Tools’ dropdown. This time hover over the ‘Serial Port’ option. From here select the ‘dev/tty.usbmodem621’ option.
Et voila! We’re ready to start programming for Arduino.
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2019-04-23T08:28:07Z
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https://jeshuamaxey.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/ide-setup/
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Porn
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Computers
| 0.975523 |
wordpress
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The first week of the new season has been kind to JBHS Baseball and Softball. Both teams are 2-0! Handing defeats to Machias, and Shead, this is an exciting beginning to a new season!
To start things off for the boys on Monday April 23rd, a sloppy first game of the year against the Machias Bulldogs still resulted in an 8th inning victory by a score of 10-9. Sophomore Starting Pitcher Kaiden Crowley allowed three hits, five walks, four runs, and struck eightout 8 in his season debut. Junior Judson Carver, Sophomore Adam Robinson, and Junior Duke Hext led the game offensively all with two hits apiece. Sophomore Ryan Alley reached on base all four at bats by walks! But it was Robinson’s night as he was on 3rd base with the game tied at 9 all and the pitcher, Machias senior Nick Mallar, threw a pitch that got by the catcher, Junior Dallas Moody, and Robinson booked it home and scored to win the game!
On Wednesday April 25th, Sophomore Brady Reynolds pitched a masterpiece! He threw a no hitter while hurling 13 strikeouts in a complete game shutout against the Shead Tigers by a score of 10-0! Reynolds was supported by Junior Duke Hext offensively with three hits.
For the girls, they got their season started hot on Monday April 23rd, as they steamrolled the Machias Bulldogs 12-0! They were led by Senior Reanna Smith with a home run, a triple, and a double, falling only a single shy of a cycle!
Finally, they defeated the Shead Tigers 7-1, Wednesday April 25th.
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2019-04-22T02:44:43Z
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https://theroyalprint.wordpress.com/2018/04/27/spring-sports-off-to-a-great-start/
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Porn
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Sports
| 0.531846 |
google
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2004-09-10 Assigned to HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P. reassignment HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: MAR, EUGENE J.
A method and system for controlling a color of light output by a diffractive light device (DLD device). The color is determined by a gap voltage applied to the DLD device. During each of a number of time frames, one of a number of control bits in a control word is sent to bit line logic corresponding to the DLD device. Each of the control bits represents a gap voltage level. The applied gap voltage is then adjusted to the gap voltage level represented by the one of the number of the control bits.
Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) are systems which are typically developed using thin film technology and include both electrical and micro-mechanical components. MEMS devices are used in a variety of applications such as optical display systems, pressure sensors, flow sensors, and charge-control actuators. MEMS devices use electrostatic force or energy to move or monitor the movement of micro-mechanical electrodes which can store charge. In one type of MEMS device, to achieve a desired result, a gap distance between electrodes is controlled by balancing an electrostatic force and a mechanical restoring force.
More specifically, a group of MEMS called Diffractive Light Devices (DLDs) are often used as spatial light modulators (SLMs) in display systems. A DLD array may have an array of individual cells that are each independently controllable to receive light and output light having a spectral distribution that is peaked about a particular wavelength such as red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, violet, orange, or other colors.
Each cell in a DLD array may include an optical cavity with a dimension normal to the array of cells that is responsive to the application of voltage across opposing pixel plates that help to define the cavity. A DLD cell produces colors based on the precise spacing of the pixel plates. This spacing is the result of a balance of two forces: electro-static attraction based on voltage and charge on the plates, and a spring constant of one or more “support structures” maintaining the position of the pixel plate away from the electrostatically charged plate. The gap distance may be controlled by applying a voltage to the pixel plates, where the control voltage is increased to decrease the gap distance, and vice-versa. However, it is often difficult to stabilize the voltage before it is applied to the pixel plates.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary display system according to one exemplary embodiment.
FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary DLD array according to one exemplary embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary DLD device according to one exemplary embodiment.
FIG. 4 shows that each of four colors may be associated with one of four gap voltage levels according to one exemplary embodiment.
FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary row in a DLD array of four DLD devices that are updated during the same time period or frame according to one exemplary embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of sending a 2-bit control word to the bit line logic in single bit planes according to one exemplary embodiment.
FIG. 7 illustrates that the image processing unit may be configured to send one or more of the bits in an n-bit control word to a first DLD array and send one or more of the bits in the n-bit control word to a second DLD array according to one exemplary embodiment.
A method and system for controlling a color of light output by a light diffracting mechanism are described herein. The light diffracting mechanism may be a diffractive light device (DLD device), for example. The color is determined by a gap voltage applied to the DLD device. During each of a number of time frames, an image processing unit or other bit driver sends one of a number of control bits in a control word to bit line logic corresponding to the DLD device. Each of the control bits represents a gap voltage level. After each control bit is sent to the bit line logic, the bit line logic adjusts the gap voltage that is applied to the DLD device to the gap voltage level represented by the recently sent control bit.
As used herein and in the appended claims, the terms “diffractive light device” and “DLD” are meant to be broadly understood as any device or structure that selectively produces color by controlling the gap size between a reflective surface and one or more charge plates by balancing two forces: electro-static attraction based on voltage and charge on the plates, and a spring constant of one or more “support structures” supporting the reflective surface. Additionally, the term “Micro-Electro Mechanical System” or “MEMS” is meant to be understood broadly as describing any very small (e.g., micro) mechanical device that may be constructed on a single semiconductor chip and which may be fabricated, for example, using integrated circuit (IC) batch-processing techniques.
Furthermore, the term “display system” will be used herein and in the appended claims, unless otherwise specifically denoted, to refer to a projector, projection system, image display system, television system, video monitor, computer monitor system, or any other system configured to display an image. The image may be a still image, a series of images, or motion picture video. The term “image” will be used herein and in the appended claims, unless otherwise specifically denoted, to refer broadly to a still image, series of images, motion picture video, or anything else that is displayed by a display system.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary display system (100) according to an exemplary embodiment. The components of FIG. 1 are exemplary only and may be modified, changed, or added to as best serves a particular application. As shown in FIG. 1, image data is input into an image processing unit (106). The image data defines an image that is to be displayed by the display system (100). While one image is illustrated and described as being processed by the image processing unit (106), it will be understood by one skilled in the art that a plurality or series of images may be processed by the image processing unit (106). The image processing unit (106) performs various functions including controlling the illumination of a light source (101) and controlling a DLD array (103). The DLD array (103) will be explained in more detail below.
As shown in FIG. 1, the light source (101) provides a beam of light to the DLD array (103). The light source (101) may be, but is not limited to, a high pressure mercury lamp. The DLD array (103) of FIG. 1 modulates the light output by the light source (101) based on input from the image processing unit (106) to form an image bearing beam of light that is eventually displayed or cast by display optics (104) on a viewing surface (not shown). The display optics (104) may comprise any device configured to display or project an image. For example, the display optics (104) may be, but are not limited to, a lens configured to project and focus an image onto a viewing surface. The viewing surface may be, but is not limited to, a screen, television, wall, liquid crystal display (LCD), or computer monitor.
An exemplary DLD array (103) is illustrated in FIG. 2. The exemplary DLD array (103) includes a number of individual DLD devices or cells (200). As used herein and in the appended claims, unless otherwise specifically denoted, the terms “DLD device,” “DLD cell,” and “DLD pixel element” will be used interchangeably to refer to an individual DLD device that is independently controllable to receive white light and output light having a spectral distribution that is peaked about a particular wavelength. The individual DLD devices (200) form pixels which may be used to produce an image perceived by a human viewer.
FIG. 2 illustrates control circuitry (121, 122) configured to control the operation of the individual DLD devices (200). For example, row select logic (121) and bit line logic (122) are configured to apply voltages to each of the DLD devices (200) in a particular row of the DLD array (103) such that each of the DLD devices (200) outputs light having a desired color. In one embodiment, the bit line logic (122) applies voltages to each of the DLD devices (200) in a particular row by charging a number of bit lines (210) to desired voltage levels. Interface electronics (123) may also be included in the display system (100; FIG. 1) to interface between the other components of the display system (100; FIG. 1) and the control logic (121, 122). In one embodiment, some or all of the control circuitry (121, 122) may be implemented in an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA), or in some other hardware, software, or combination thereof.
The bit line logic (122) may be stand alone circuitry, as shown in FIG. 2, according to an exemplary embodiment. In an alternative embodiment, the bit line logic (122) may be integrated into the DLD array (103) circuitry.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary DLD device (200) according to one exemplary embodiment. In the exemplary embodiment, the DLD device (200) displays, at least partially, a pixel of a displayable image. The DLD device (200) may include a top pixel plate or reflector (110), a bottom pixel plate or reflector (120), a support structure (130), and a spring mechanism (140). As used herein and in the appended claims, the terms “pixel plate” and “reflector” will be used interchangeably to refer to the top and bottom reflectors (110, 120). A resonant optical cavity (150) is defined between the reflectors (110, 120). Thus, the two reflectors (110, 120) are separated by a variable gap distance (160). The top reflector (110) may be semi-transparent or semi-reflective, with the bottom reflector (120) being highly or completely reflective. The spring mechanism (140) may be any suitable flexible material, such as a polymer, that has linear or non-linear spring functionality.
The optical cavity (150) can be adjusted to select a visible wavelength at a particular intensity using optical interference. Depending on the configuration of DLD device (200), the optical cavity (150) can either reflect or transmit the wavelength at the desired intensity. That is, the optical cavity (150) can be reflective or transmissive in nature. No light is generated by the optical cavity (150). Accordingly, the DLD device (200) relies on ambient light or other external sources of light. The visible wavelength transmitted by the optical cavity (150) and its intensity are dependent on the gap distance (160) between the top and bottom reflectors (110, 120). Accordingly, the optical cavity (150) can be tuned to output light having a spectral distribution that is peaked about a particular wavelength such as red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, violet, orange, and/or other colors by controlling the gap distance (160).
FIG. 3 shows that the DLD device (200) may include a support structure (130) and a spring mechanism (140). The support structure (130) and the spring mechanism (140) are configured to allow the gap distance (160) to vary when an appropriate amount of charge has been stored on the reflectors (110, 120), such that a desired wavelength at a desired intensity is selected. In one embodiment, a DLD device's (200) corresponding bit line (210) supplies the charge that is stored on the reflectors (110, 120).
As mentioned, a DLD device (200) may be tuned to output light having a spectral distribution that is peaked about a particular wavelength by applying a variable analog voltage to the DLD device (200). In one embodiment, the applied voltage determines the gap distance (160) between the top and bottom reflectors (110, 120) of a DLD device (200). Hence, the term “gap voltage” will be used herein and in the appended claims to refer to the voltage that is applied to the DLD device (200). In one embodiment, increasing the gap voltage decreases the gap distance (160) and decreasing the gap voltage increases the gap distance (160).
In one embodiment, the gap voltage may be varied between a number of distinct voltage levels such that the DLD device (200) outputs one of a number of distinct colors. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, if a pixel is to have one of four different colors (e.g. black, red, green, and blue), the gap voltage applied to the pixel's corresponding DLD device (200) may vary between four different gap voltage levels (V0 through V3). FIG. 4 shows that each of these four colors is associated with one of four gap voltage levels (V0 through V3). For illustrative purposes, black may be associated with the gap voltage level V0, red may be associated with the gap voltage level V1, green may be associated with the gap voltage level V2, and blue may be associated with the gap voltage level V3. Hence, if a DLD device (200) is to output green light during a particular time period or frame, a gap voltage level equal to V2 is applied to the DLD device (200).
It will be understood that the spacing between the voltage levels V0 through V3 of FIG. 4 is illustrative only. In practice, the voltage spacing depends in part on the dimensions and physical characteristics of the DLD device (200) and will vary as best serves a particular application. Furthermore, the four colors shown in FIG. 4 are illustrative of the many different sets of colors that a DLD device (200) may be configured to produce. For example, the DLD device (200) may be configured to produce red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, violet, orange, and/or other colors. Moreover, in the following examples, it will be assumed that a DLD device (200) is to output one of four different colors for ease of illustration only. In one embodiment, a DLD device (200) may output one of any number of different colors. Hence, the gap voltage may be configured to vary between any number of different gap voltage levels.
In one embodiment, the image processing unit (106) or, alternatively, any bit line driver, may be configured to generate and send an n-bit control word representing a gap voltage level to the control circuitry (121, 122) such that a particular DLD device (200) outputs a color corresponding to the gap voltage level during a specified time frame. The control word may include one or more control bits and may be sent to the control circuitry (121-122) during a single time frame or during multiple time frames, as will be explained below. The control circuitry (121, 122) is configured to use the control bits to charge the DLD device's (200) corresponding bit line (210) to the voltage level so indicated by the control bits. The term “image processing unit” will be used herein and in the appended claims to broadly encompass any processor, driver, or other hardware and/or software component configured to generate and send an n-bit control word representing a gap voltage level to the control circuitry (121, 122).
In one embodiment, all of the DLD devices (200) in a particular row of the DLD array (103) are updated during the same time frame. It will be understood that any references to “updating a DLD device” herein and in the appended claims, unless otherwise specifically denoted, refer to sending a control word to the control logic (121, 122) such that the DLD device outputs a color corresponding to the gap voltage level so indicated by the control word. Likewise, any references to “updating a row of DLD devices” herein and in the appended claims, unless otherwise specifically denoted, refer to sending a control word to the control logic (121, 122) for each of the DLD devices in the row such that each of the DLD devices outputs a color corresponding to the gap voltage levels so indicated by the control words.
FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary row (500) in a DLD array of four DLD devices (200) that are updated during the same time period or frame. Four DLD devices (200) are shown for illustrative purposes only. It will be understood that a row (500) in a DLD array may have any number of DLD devices. As shown in FIG. 5, each of the DLD devices (200) is to output light having one of the four colors shown in FIG. 4. DLD device (200-1) is to output red light, DLD device (200-2) is to output green light, DLD device (200-3) is to output blue light, and DLD device (200-4) is to have a black, or off, state. Each of the DLD devices (200) has a corresponding bit line (210). The bit lines (210), as will be explained below, are charged by the bit line logic (122) such that the DLD devices (200) have the gap voltage levels necessary to output the desired colors.
As explained previously, the image processing unit (106) communicates with the bit line logic (122) via interface electronics (123), for example. In one exemplary embodiment, the image processing unit (106) updates the DLD devices (200) by sending a control word to the bit line logic (122). The bit line logic (122) may then charge the bit lines (210) to the gap voltage levels so indicated by the control word.
As mentioned, the n-bit control word may include a number of control bits. The control word may represent one of a number of possible gap voltage levels. In general, if there are 2n possible gap voltage levels, each of these 2n gap voltage levels may be represented by a single n-bit control word. Thus, if there are four possible gap voltage levels, as shown in FIG. 4, each of the gap voltage levels may be represented by a 2-bit control word. As will be recognized by one skilled in the art, an n-bit control word includes a most significant bit (MSB) and a least significant bit (LSB). The MSB is the left-most bit in the n-bit control word and the LSB is the right-most bit in the n-bit control word.
For example, V0 (black) may be represented by “00,” V1 (red) may be represented by “01,” V2 (green) may be represented by “10,” and V3 (blue) may be represented by “11.” Referring again to FIG. 5, the image processing unit (106) may be configured to generate and send one of these four 2-bit control words to the bit line logic (122) for each of the DLD devices (200). For example, the image processing unit (106) may generate and send the 2-bit control word “01” to the bit line logic (122) for the DLD device (200-1). The bit line logic (122) may then charge the bit line (210-1) to a gap voltage level equal to V1 so that the DLD device (200-1) outputs red light. However, if the row (500) has a large number of DLD devices (200), it can be difficult for the bit line logic (122) to charge all of the bit lines (210) and stabilize the gap voltages during a single frame period before applying the gap voltages to the DLD devices (200). Further timing complications may also arise if there are two or more bits in the control words.
In one exemplary embodiment, the image processing unit (106) may be configured to send the control words to the bit line logic (122) in single bit planes starting with the MSBs and ending with the LSBs of the control words. In other words, the image processing unit (106) first sends to the bit line logic (122) the MSB of each of the control words corresponding to a row of DLD devices (200). The image processing unit (106) then sends the next significant bit of each control words corresponding to the row of DLD devices (200) of the in the same manner. The process is repeated until the image processing unit (106) sends to the bit line logic (122) the LSB of each of the control words corresponding to the row of DLD devices (200). The timing of the sending of each of the bits in the control word may be configured such that the pixels formed by the DLD devices (200) appear to have only the desired color as indicated by the control word.
In the exemplary embodiment, each of the bits in the control words may represent one of two gap voltage levels. For example, with reference to the gap voltage levels of FIG. 4, the MSB may represent V0 or V1, and the LSB may represent V2 or V3. Accordingly, by sending a control word to the bit line logic (122) one bit at a time starting with the MSB and ending with the LSB, the bit line logic (122) may incrementally charge the bit line (210) as each control bit is received until the bit line (210) is fully charged to the final gap voltage level as indicated by the entire control word. As mentioned, the bits may be sent such that the pixels formed by the DLD devices (200) appear to have only the desired color as indicated by the control word.
For example, referring again to FIG. 5, a 2-bit control word may be sent to the bit line logic (122) in single bit increments such that a DLD device (200) outputs red, green, blue, or black. For illustrative purposes only, the control word will represent V2 (green) in the following example such that the DLD device (200-2) outputs the color green. In one embodiment, the MSB is sent to the bit line logic (122) first. The MSB may be sent during a first frame, for example. The MSB may represent the gap voltage levels V0 or V1. For example, a bit value of “0” may represent the gap voltage level V0 and a bit value of “1” may represent the gap voltage level V1. Because the gap voltage level V1 is closer to the desired gap voltage level of V2 than is V0, the image processing unit (106) sends a “1” as the MSB such that the bit line logic (122) initially charges the bit line (210-2) to the gap voltage level V1.
Continuing in the present example, after the MSB is sent to the bit line logic (122), the image processing unit (106) sends the LSB to the bit line logic (122). The LSB may be sent during a frame subsequent to the first frame. The LSB may represent, for example, the gap voltage levels V2 or V3. For example, “0” may represent the gap voltage level V2 and a bit value of “1” may represent the gap voltage level V3. Because the DLD device (200-2) is to output the color green, the image processing unit (106) sends a “0” as the LSB such that the bit line logic (122) increases the gap voltage applied to the DLD device (200-2) from V1 to V2. The DLD device (200-2) now outputs light having the color green.
The preceding example is merely illustrative of the many different gap voltage levels that the bits in an n-bit control word may represent. Many alternatives exist. For example, the MSB in the preceding example may represent the gap voltage levels V1 or V2 and the LSB may represent the gap voltage levels V2 or V3. In this case, a bit value of “0” may represent the gap voltage level V1 and a bit value of “1” may represent the gap voltage level V2 for the MSB. Furthermore, a bit value of “0” may represent the gap voltage level V2 and a bit value of “1” may represent the gap voltage level V3 for the LSB. Hence, the image processing unit (106) may be configured to send a “1” as the MSB in a first frame and a “0” as the LSB in a subsequent frame to indicate that the final gap voltage level is to be equal to V3.
In an alternative exemplary embodiment, the MSB in the preceding example may represent the gap voltage levels V0 or V2 and the LSB may represent the gap voltage levels V1 or V 3. In this case, if the MSB represents V2 and the LSB represents V1, the bit line logic (122) first applies the gap voltage V2 to the DLD device (200-2). When the LSB is sent, the bit line logic (122) then decreases the gap voltage applied to the DLD device from V2 to V1. Hence, as illustrated by the preceding examples, the bits in an n-bit control word may represent many different combinations of gap voltage levels.
Furthermore, the control word may include more than two bits according to an exemplary embodiment. Each bit represents one of two possible gap voltage levels. Each control bit that is sent to the bit line logic (122) subsequent to the MSB may indicate that the gap voltage level is to stay constant or that it is to be incrementally adjusted to a new gap voltage level.
The MSB may represent any two gap voltage levels according to an exemplary embodiment. In one exemplary embodiment, all of the possible gap voltage levels are placed in ascending order and the MSB represents one of the two lowest gap voltage levels (e.g., V0 and V1 in FIG. 4). In an alternative exemplary embodiment, the MSB represents one of the two lowest voltage levels greater than 0 volts (e.g., V1 and V2). In yet another exemplary embodiment, all the possible gap voltage levels are placed in descending order and the MSB represents one of the two highest gap voltage levels (e.g. V3 and V2 in FIG. 4). The MSB may also represent one of the two most frequently used gap voltage levels in a group of possible gap voltage levels. Likewise, the LSB may represent one of the two least frequently used gap voltage levels in a group of possible gap voltage levels.
FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of sending a 2-bit control word to the bit line logic (122) in single bit planes according to one exemplary embodiment. The flow chart shows a method of sending a 2-bit control word for illustrative purposes only and may be extended and/or modified to apply to the sending of any n-bit control word to the bit line logic (122) in single bit planes. First, all the possible gap voltage levels are placed in an order (step 160). The order may be an ascending order, descending order, most frequently used order, or any other order as best serves a particular application. Once the gap voltage levels are placed in an order (step 160), two of the gap voltage levels are assigned to the MSB (step 161). Any two of the possible gap voltage levels may be assigned to the MSB according to one exemplary embodiment. Likewise, two gap voltage levels may be assigned to the LSB (step 162). Any two of the possible gap voltage levels may be assigned to the LSB according to one exemplary embodiment. After the gap voltage levels have been assigned to the MSB and to the LSB, the MSB is sent to the bit line logic (step 163). The bit line logic drives a bit line with the gap voltage indicated by the MSB (step 164). The LSB is then sent to the bit line logic (step 165). The bit line logic may then adjust the charge on the bit line by driving the bit line with the gap voltage indicated by the LSB (step 166).
By sending the control word to the bit line logic (122) in single bit planes, the bit line logic (122) may have an increased amount of time to charge the bit lines (210) to the appropriate gap voltage levels. Furthermore, overall system power consumption may be decreased.
In one embodiment the image processing unit (106) may be configured to increase the overall data rate of the display system (100) by only sending a portion of the bits in the control word to the bit line logic (122). In other words, the image processing unit (106) may be configured to omit sending one or more of the bits in the control word to the bit line logic (122). For example, the image processing unit (106) may be configured to send only the MSB of a 2-bit control word the bit line logic (122) for one or more DLD devices (200) during a specified time period or frame. In this case, the LSB is not sent to the bit line logic (122).
In one embodiment, the image processing unit (106) may be configured to send an entire n-bit control word during a single frame or to send the n-bit control word one bit at a time over the span of multiple time frames. In one embodiment, a user of the display system (100) may select between these two methods of sending the n-bit control word. In an alternative embodiment, the image processing unit (106) may automatically select the best method of sending the n-bit control word as best serves a particular image that is to be displayed by the display system (100).
FIG. 7 illustrates an alternative embodiment wherein the image processing unit (106) is configured to send one or more of the bits in an n-bit control word to a first DLD array (103-1) and send one or more of the bits in the n-bit control word to a second DLD array (103-2). The pixels generated by the first and second DLD arrays (103-1, 2) may be combined or superimposed on top of each other to render a pixel having color indicated by the n-bit control word. For example, the MSB of a two-bit word representing one of four colors may be sent to the bit line logic (122-1) associated with the first DLD array (103-1) and the LSB of the two-bit word may be sent to the bit line logic (122-2) associated with the second DLD array (103-2). In this case, the MSB may, for example, represent V1 or V2 and the LSB may represent V2 or V3. By sending the MSB to the first DLD array (103-1) and the LSB to the second DLD array (103-2), each of the bit line logic blocks (122-1,2) only has to receive one bit. Hence, in some applications, it may take only half the time to send an n-bit control word if the bits are split evenly between two DLD arrays (103-1, 2).
prior to receiving a remaining portion of said multi-bit control signal, adjusting a gap voltage applied to said controllable diffractive light device based on said received initial portion of said multi-bit control signal.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein said electromechanical system includes a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS).
3. The method of claim 1, wherein said initial portion of said multi-bit control signal includes at least a most significant bit (MSB).
4. The method of claim 1, wherein said remaining portion of said multi-bit control signal includes at least a least significant bit (LSB).
5. The method of claim 1, wherein said initial portion of said multi-bit control signal is received during a first time frame and said remaining portion of said multi-bit control signal is received during a second time frame that is subsequent to said first time frame.
after receiving said all of said multi-bit control signal, completing adjustment of said gap voltage applied to said diffractive light device based on said received multi-bit control signal.
wherein, prior to receiving a remaining portion of said multi-bit control signal, said bit line logic adjusts a gap voltage applied to said diffractive light device based on said received initial portion of said multi-bit control signal.
8. The system of claim 7, wherein said initial portion of said multi-bit control signal includes at least a most significant bit (MSB).
9. The system of claim 7, wherein said remaining portion of said multi-bit control signal includes at least a least significant bit (LSB).
10. The system of claim 7, wherein said initial portion of said multi-bit control signal is received during a first time frame and said remaining portion of said multi-bit control signal is received during a second time frame that is subsequent to said first time frame.
11. The system of claim 7, wherein, after receiving said all of said multi-bit control signal, said bit line logic is further configured to complete adjustment of said gap voltage applied to said diffractive light device based on said received multi-bit control signal.
prior to receiving a remaining portion of said multi-bit control signal, means for adjusting a gap voltage applied to said diffractive light device based on said received initial portion of said multi-bit control signal.
13. The method of claim 6, wherein said adjusting said gap voltage prior to receiving said remaining portion of said multi-control bit signal and said completing adjustment of said gap voltage are performed sequentially, but rapidly enough that a human viewer perceives only wavelength our output light corresponding to said gap voltage level specified by said complete multi-bit control signal.
incrementally adjusting said gap voltage upon receipt of each said bit.
assigning two of said gap voltage levels to a most significant bit (MSB) of said multi-bit control signal.
16. The method of claim 15, further comprising two different gap voltage levels of said series of gap voltage levels to a least significant bid (LSB) of said multi-bit control signal.
International Search Report for Application No. PCT/US2005/025009. Report issued Jun. 6, 2006.
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2019-04-23T18:36:07Z
|
https://patents.google.com/patent/US7436389B2/en
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Porn
|
Science
| 0.728748 |
wordpress
|
We spent a week at Rancho LaPuerta over the Christmas holiday.
“LaPuerta, LaPuerta, not LaPorta” she admonished. “LaPuerta means door while LaPorta means porthole.” Thank goodness for her spot-on translation. Spending a week squeezed into a porthole was definitely not my idea of fancy travelling.
Further interrogation revealed that Rancho LaPuerta is an upscale fitness spa located in Tecate, Mexico, about an hour’s drive from the San Diego airport. So far so good. Additionally, the spa served real food instead of the Bugs Bunny diet enjoyed by Jackie at her regular stomping grounds, the Optimum Health Institute. I was sold enough to suggest a phone call to the spa.
Jackie is not one to postpone tasks. Once assigned, they are quickly disposed of. Grasping her iPhone X with those cute little fingers, she deftly connected to the Rancho. Ten minutes later, my Visa card’s available balance surviving on fumes, we were booked into the Rancho.
Conveniently, Jackie’s plans immediately prior to our Rancho excursion included a one week visit to Optimum Health in San Diego. She would drive to OHI. I would then meet her in San Diego, drive her car to the San Diego airport and take the Rancho’s private bus from there to the Mexican border. To get to San Diego, I could fly from LAX, or take the Amtrak train from Ventura.
Ever since our trip to Costa Rica, I have had sufficient time to hone my dislike of airports and airplanes. The opportunity of a relaxing trip on the train was too tempting to pass up. Checking the Amtrak schedule, I found a 7:30am departure from Ventura that, five and a half hours later, would deposit me in San Diego more than two hours ahead of the Rancho’s bus trip from the airport to the border. Enough time for Jackie to scoop me up from the train and dump us at the airport. It was the last scheduled Rancho bus trip of the day, Missing the bus would cause complications too horrible to contemplate. And my Spanish is not so good, por favor.
I booked a seat on Amtrak 768. And over the next few weeks, I endured the horror stories related to me by the hapless souls who had banked on Amtrak to get them where they needed to be, yet failed miserably. No matter, surely I would be the exception to the rule.
Joy is Ojai’s airport and train station driver of choice. A delightfully gabby woman who combines wit with daredevil driving, she picked me up at 6:35am on departure day. It was Saturday and traffic on the 33 was almost non-existent. The uneventful trip brought us to the Ventura train station twenty minutes ahead of schedule. Piece of cake.
I stared at the clock as it ticked down 768’s arrival time. Then, without so much as a by your leave, the display blanked out and returned with a new arrival time…8:10am. Another twenty minutes charged to my declining spare time balance. Like a watched pot, I’m convinced that the digital clock moved ever slower as I gazed at it. Minutes seemed like hours. My life passed before my eyes.
768 arrived at 8:25, nearly an hour late. Hoping I had seen the worst, I hopped aboard, stowed my bag and found a window seat that gave me full view of the surroundings as we passed and stopped at too many stations. Oxnard, Camarillo, Moorpark, Simi Valley, Chatsworth, Van Nuys. Was there a place on earth that this train was not going to stop? At each stop I mentally shoved the passengers on and off the train, hoping to gain back some precious minutes.
And then the conductor said, “We will be making an equipment change in Los Angeles.” A what? What’s wrong with this equipment, I thought. It’s been good enough to get us this far. Why not just keep things the way they are? I’ve got no time to spare. I’ve got to catch a bus.
And so we changed equipment. Amtrak employees wandered around the train platform like lost sheep. And I lost the last remaining hour of my spare time. Not yet finished teasing me, 768 lost another twenty minutes on the last leg of the journey. I started practicing my Spanish. Donde esta el banyo?
I had been texting Jackie, keeping her updated on our lack of progress, my accelerating heart rate and my rising blood pressure. Poor sweetheart, she had been waiting anxiously at the train station like a war-time wife. When I did arrive, she embraced me like a soldier returning home from the Battle of the Bulge. Her iPhone was hot to the touch from pleading with the bus company to delay their departure.
She drove to the airport like a woman possessed, only to see the bus already making its way to the Mexican border. It was, like in the movies, all I could do to stop her from blocking the twenty-ton bus with her tiny car.
And I thought, where was Mussolini when you really needed him?
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2019-04-25T10:59:10Z
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https://fredila.wordpress.com/tag/vacations/
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Porn
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Recreation
| 0.215138 |
tripod
|
Dinner Tonight Will Be Bashed, Battered and Stuffed: "New Mexico Hare"
The only thing that is accurate on this picture is the "burn".
Here is the scan of my burn that i promised you. As you can see it was almost on my wrist, but the wok was too big: http://lillyrouge.tripod.com/burnscene.html In other words if the handle had been shorter, thus wok smaller, the wok would have gotten me right on the wrist as i tryed to place it back on its hook. The wok is a foot across. The light weight of it fools you, you donot realize the iron bottom is sticking out a lot, not at all as an iron, American fry-pan, which is heavy and flat. I guess that is why i got this wok for so cheap - i couldnot believe the price on it. I thought i was at a garage sale for a flashing moment.
Aging this wok is probably going to take years. Maybe it would be worth it to take it somewhere to have the hammer marks put into it.
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2019-04-18T22:44:43Z
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http://lillyrouge.tripod.com/burnscene.html
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Porn
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Shopping
| 0.913243 |
wordpress
|
The day one of my neighbours became an angel to my seven year old.
I wish I had the faith of my seven year old. When she prays incredible things happen time and time again.
My daughter is so special but so fragile. God has his hand on her in a very special way. Naomi has autism. She has huge anxiety and her twin brother has a genetic condition with complex needs as well as autism. To help ease her anxieties she carries little toys with her wherever she goes, including going to school.
A week ago today her twin brother was due to go to hospital to have an ambulatory EEG machine fitted to monitor his seizure activity. Naomi was more anxious than usual that day and clung to her toys in her pocket as she walked to school.
I left her at school and headed up to hospital with her brother Isaac. It was traumatic for him and for us and we headed home with him all wired up. Naomi was collected from school by her gran as we were not going to be home in time.
I came home to her in tears. One of her precious toys has been lost. She was distraught and I felt so helpless. I could not just go to a shop and replace it as her brother could not be left unattended and she knew this. Nothing could make things better and she cried in my arms. My heart was broken for her.
My thoughts turned to how I could make this happen. I did not want her heart to be disappointed but more importantly I did not want her faith to be shaken. I am her mum, but I can not be God. I looked into her beautiful blue eyes and saw her heart of faith.
And that was that. She had prayed.
As I continued to watch her brother closely we started homework with a total peace. She lined up her toys leaving an obvious gap where her missing one belonged. I knew she would not sleep tonight with that gap there but she just assured me God would bring her toy back.
She did her spelling and her reading with her heart of peace intact. She smiled, she laughed and she carried on as normal.
Then the door bell went.
Have you ever seen an angel? Do you think they have a halo, wings and dressed in white? My daughter knows differently. There on my doorstep stood a neighbour I only knew by sight.
My daughter danced with excitement. I cried.
I don’t know what my son faces but I know God is with us.
I don’t know how my daughter will cope with a future with autism, anxiety and living with a twin with complex needs but what I do know is that God has his hand upon her in a very special way.
God cares about a plastic toy for a seven year old and God cares about you.
I will never forget the day one of my neighbours became an angel to my seven year old.
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2019-04-23T08:13:10Z
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https://faithmummy.wordpress.com/tag/angels/
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Porn
|
Home
| 0.476226 |
wordpress
|
This little wonder sells like hot cakes at the farmers’ markets. Any that doesn’t, does not take the wife long to finish.
Start by rolling out your pastry and use it to line an 8 inch loose-bottomed tart dish. Pierce the bottom of the tart several times with a fork and using some baking beads, blind bake for 15 minutes at 180c, 350F, or the bottom half of the top oven of the AGA. After 15 minutes, cool, and remove the beads.
Finely chop the onions and place in a frying pan with the butter, sugar and balsamic vinegar. Cook until soft and sticky (the onions should squish easily when pressed between thumb and forefinger squish easily. Once cooked, place the onions in the tart case, place slices of the goat’s cheese around the tart, and return to the oven for 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Then slice and serve. This goes down very well at shoot lunches, or as a starter for vegetarian guest at a dinner party, with a little salad.
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2019-04-21T14:54:43Z
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https://theshotgunchef.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/red-onion-and-goats-cheese-tart/
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Porn
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Home
| 0.13595 |
wordpress
|
When Western Civilization dies so too does the last vestige of civilization and what will remain is a remnant sludge, a mere hint that something great once existed.
The spark having burnt out, darkness will fall over the earth blotting out creativity and vitality forever.
The sky will fall and excellence will be vanquished, sent out on an ember that slowly moves away in time and is eventually extinguished.
Man’s devolution will be complete.
If at this point human cognizance exists and is capable enough, the human debris will marvel at what once existed and Western Civilization will appear as the construction of the very gods themselves.
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2019-04-24T04:43:33Z
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https://forcepolitics.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/and-what-of-the-world/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.368521 |
wordpress
|
A 22 year old lady-architect, based in Kuwait. I consider myself an energetic person with a great dislike to routine and an ever-lasting will to try out new things.
My blog talks about both local and international news , events, music, technology, design -in all of its forms-, fashion, food, you name it! Diversity is what makes life interesting.
That’s about it. Enjoy reading..And make your life routine-free.
When the ice-cream’s healthier substitute -frozen yoghurt- appeared, everyone in Kuwait immediately shifted to it. Fro-yo spread around the whole country and became a classic trend in no time!
That’s how we are becoming. In every aspect of our lives. Always making better life choices. And that’s what my blog’s name represents.
May Kuwait keep on blooming and prospering by the arms of its people.
DISCLAIMER: Photos which contain the Froyo Nation watermark are copyright material.
hey Salamalakum, cool i always wanted to visit Kuwait! how is it?? i love froyo btw lol. nice to meet you!!!
Alaikum El Salam 🙂 Kuwait is beautiful. You should give us a visit and see for yourself. Nice to meet you as well.
Very interesting posts, keep up the good work!
Thank you for the nice words 🙂 hmm why don’t you try an rss reader? that way you can follow any website/blog you want.
Hi!! Kifik!?!? I like your blog!!! I am half lebanese and I visit Lebanon all the time. I have always wanted to visit Kuwait!! Inchallah!!!
I’m sure you’ll be hooked now. Thanks!
This is pretty interesting blog!
I literally came across your blog by mistake, I was looking for the list of updated guns off the Mayadeen Shooting Complex and your page popped up as I was going through the links haha.
That aside, I think it’s rather interesting how you’ve taken Kuwait into perspective, you’ve got a lovely take on the country. I’ve lived here all my life and travelled quite a bit, always ended up back here and I used to be pretty close-minded about the whole entertainment factor. Then again one makes the best out of what they get and where they are right? You’ve obviously captured that. You’re attitude is a definite plus as well, keep it up!
I like your photography as well, it’s pretty straightforward from what I can gather. What model and make do you use? I’m curious haha.
That Base Jump was so intense, I’ve done skydiving in the past but never did any base jumping and I’ve gotta admit, it definitely gives off one hell of an adrenaline rush. I might as well become a regular blog visitor, you seem pretty up-to-date huh?
I never realized my blog revealed so much about my character. Good call though! I do believe one should be as versatile with their activities as possible. And Kuwait has absolutely every activity you might want to try -maybe not skydiving though hehe. But I’m sure it will be available soon enough. The key is to do a lot of digging around because information isn’t very easy to find.
Thank you so much for all your comments. Made my day. Always a pleasure gaining a new reader.
I’m currently using a Canon 650D.
And you should try Froyo when summer arrives!
Oh I’ve been ultra busy as of late, should’ve checked in ages ago, sorry!
Tell me about it, I’ve done so much around here but maybe it’s because I travel and I’ve seen some parts of the world on a much grander scale, that it’s leaving me yearning for more when I live here. Plus, when you really sit down and think about how Kuwait is, it’s a bit of a put down. An oil giant like this country has this incredibly vast pot of potential, sadly what we see is just around the rim. Then again one takes what they can, when they can hm?
The underground scene around here is pretty wicked actually, I don’t know if you know much about it but it definitely gives you a different perspective if you’re looking for one haha.
Sweet model, semi-pro DSLRs are pretty durable, the 650D is no exception there. Do you have a flickr account? If you don’t mind me asking.
I’ll be sure to try Froyo out haha, seems like a pretty common past-time around here as of late.
Don’t know much about the under-ground scene but I hear it is wondrous hehe. And yes I do have a Flickr account /froyonation , or you can find a link at the top of my sidebar.
P.S. – I’ve never had Froyo hahaha.
Awesome blog! I’m a 23-year old American living in Kuwait. It’s nice to see another blogger out there!
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2019-04-20T08:39:38Z
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https://froyonation.wordpress.com/about/
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Porn
|
Arts
| 0.769557 |
yahoo
|
0%62°35°Cloudy with a high of 61 °F (16.1 °C). Winds from NW to NNW at 6 to 9 mph (9.7 to 14.5 kph).Night - Cloudy. Winds variable at 4 to 7 mph (6.4 to 11.3 kph). The overnight low will be 40 °F (4.4 °C).
Today - Cloudy with a high of 61 °F (16.1 °C). Winds from NW to NNW at 6 to 9 mph (9.7 to 14.5 kph).
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2019-04-19T07:20:40Z
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/weather/finland/eastern-uusimaa/hamari-564989
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Porn
|
Reference
| 0.186365 |
google
|
1998-07-02 Assigned to CARDIAC PACEMAKERS, INC. reassignment CARDIAC PACEMAKERS, INC. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: HSU, WILLIAM, KENKNIGHT, BRUCE H.
A system and method for treating atrial fibrillation using atrial pacing pulses to convert an atrial fibrillation to non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia prior to delivering a low energy cardioversion/defibrillation shock. The system and method treats atrial fibrillations by first applying a plurality of pacing pulses to the atria which converts the atrial fibrillation to non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia. Ventricular intervals are concurrently sensed and analyzed while the plurality of electrical pacing pulses are being applied. Upon detecting a period of stable ventricular intervals, the system then proceeds to deliver a low-energy cardioverting/defibrillating pulse of electrical energy across the atria of the heart.
The present invention relates generally to implantable medical devices and in particular to implantable electrical pulse generators for treating supraventricular tachyarrhythmias.
Effective, efficient ventricular pumping action depends on proper cardiac function. Proper cardiac function, in turn, relies on the synchronized contractions of the myocardium at regular intervals. When the normal cardiac rhythm is initiated at the sinoatrial node, the heart is said to be in sinus rhythm. However, when the heart experiences irregularities in the coordinated contraction of the myocardium, due to electrophysiologic disturbances caused by a disease process or from an electrical disturbance, the heart is denoted to be arrhythmic. The resulting cardiac arrhythmia impairs cardiac efficiency and can be a potential life threatening event.
In the supraventricular region of the heart, electrophysiologic disturbances are called supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (SVT). SVT can take several distinguishable forms, including paroxysmal atrial tachycardia, atrial flutter, or atrial fibrillation. SVT are self-sustaining process and may be paroxysmal or chronic.
The mechanisms behind these conditions are not well understood, but, generally, the electrical impulses that normally cause sinus rhythm are thought to progress repeatedly around irregular conduction pathways within the heart. These conditions, if uncontrolled, can become life threatening if the aberrant electrical impulses enter the atrioventricular node (AV node) in a sporadic and/or at an accelerated rate and cause an irregular ventricular rate that degenerates into an immediate life threatening ventricular arrhythmia.
Physicians have typically relied on the use of either pharmacological agents and/or electrical techniques to control paroxysmal or chronic SVT. Many acute SVT patients convert to sinus rhythm after receiving treatment with pharmacological agents. However, antiarrhythmic pharmacological agents can have undesirable adverse effects, particularly if the need for drug therapy is chronic.
Alternatively, physicians have used various electrical techniques to treat SVTs. The SVT most frequently treated in this manner is atrial fibrillation. If the atrial fibrillation is acute, the physician may attempt an electrical cardioversion. This technique has been effective in converting atrial fibrillation, but it can be quite a painful experience for the patient. Implantable atrial cardioverters have also been suggested as a potential treatment for atrial fibrillation. However, the use of these devices can still subject the patient to a very painful and traumatic experience. Furthermore, the energy these devices deliver in attempting to treat atrial fibrillation has the potential for causing transient shock-induced dysfunction as well as permanent damage to the tissue near the cardioversion electrodes.
The present invention, in contrast, treats atrial fibrillation in a safe, effective, and more patient acceptable manner. The system of the present invention is unique in that it utilizes pacing level electrical energy impulses applied at a plurality of distinct locations within the supraventricular region of the heart to reduce the amount of electrical energy required to cardiovert or defibrillate the supraventricular region of the heart.
This lower energy method of treating a heart experiencing an atrial fibrillation reduces the potential for transient shock-induced dysfunction as well as permanent damage to the tissue near defibrillation coil electrodes. As a result, this method of treating a heart experiencing an atrial fibrillation is less painful and less traumatic to the patient as compared to the use of conventional implantable atrial cardioverters. Also, reducing the required energy could lead to further reductions in the size of the implanted device while extending battery life.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the system includes an implantable housing to which is releasably attached a first atrial catheter and a ventricular catheter. The first atrial catheter has a first atrial electrode and a first defibrillation electrode and is positioned within the heart with the atrial electrode and the first defibrillation electrode in a supraventricular region of the heart. The ventricular catheter has a first ventricular electrode, and is positioned within the heart with the first ventricular electrode in a right ventricular chamber of the heart.
The implantable housing also contains electronic control circuitry which is electrically connected to the first atrial electrode, the first defibrillation electrode, and the first ventricular electrode. The electronic control circuitry receives cardiac signals through the first atrial electrode and the first ventricular electrode, and delivers, upon detecting an atrial fibrillation, a plurality of pacing pulses to convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia such as atrial flutter.
In an additional embodiment, the first atrial catheter further includes at least a second atrial electrode and a second defibrillation electrode. The first atrial catheter is positioned within the supraventricular region of the heart with the first atrial electrode, the first defibrillation electrode and the second atrial electrode positioned within a coronary sinus vein of the heart, and the second defibrillation electrode within the right atrium chamber or major vein leading to the heart. In a further embodiment, the elongate body of the first atrial catheter has a series of lateral deflections that mechanically biases the first atrial electrode into physical contact with the coronary sinus vein of the heart.
The electronic control circuitry is electrically connected to the second atrial electrode and the second defibrillation electrode. The electronic control circuitry receives cardiac signals through the first and second atrial electrodes and the first ventricular electrode, and delivers, upon detecting an atrial fibrillation, a plurality of pacing pulses to convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia such as atrial flutter.
In an alternative embodiment, the system further includes at least a second atrial catheter, where the second atrial catheter has the second atrial electrode and the second defibrillation electrode, and is positioned within the heart with the second atrial electrode and the second defibrillation electrode in a supraventricular region of the heart. The electronic control circuitry is electrically connected to the second atrial electrode and the second defibrillation electrode. The electronic control circuitry receives cardiac signals through the first and second atrial electrodes and the first ventricular electrode, and delivers, upon detecting an atrial fibrillation, a plurality of pacing pulses to convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia such as atrial flutter.
Concurrent with the delivery of the plurality of pacing pulses, the system also senses and analyzes the ventricular rhythm to determine the stability of the ventricular intervals, where a ventricular interval is the time between the occurrence of sensed ventricular R-waves. In one embodiment, ventricular interval stability is determined from the variability of ventricular intervals sensed while the plurality of pacing pulses are being delivered. A stable ventricular interval has a variability value below a predetermined stability threshold value, and an unstable ventricular interval has a variability value that is greater than or equal to the predetermined stability threshold value.
During the delivery of the plurality of pacing pulses, if the system detects a period of stable ventricular intervals, it delivers a first level atrial shock to the heart. In one embodiment, the atrial shock is delivered between the first defibrillation coil and the implantable housing of the system, where the first defibrillation coil is located within the right atrium chamber of the heart or major vein leading to the right atrium chamber of the heart. In an alternative embodiment, the atrial shock is delivered between the first and second defibrillation coils, where the first defibrillation coil is located within the coronary sinus adjacent to the left atrium chamber of the heart and the second defibrillation coil is located within the right atrium chamber of the heart or a major vein leading to the right atrium chamber.
In an additional embodiment, if the plurality of pacing pulses does not convert the atrial fibrillation, the system repeats the steps of delivering a plurality of pacing pulses to the atria. As the system is repeating delivery of the plurality of pacing pulses it also concurrently senses and analyzes the stability of the ventricular intervals. Upon detecting stable ventricular intervals during the repeated plurality of pacing pulses, the system then proceeds to deliver the first level atrial shock to the heart to restore sinus rhythm. As a result, this method of terminating atrial fibrillation by first converting it to atrial flutter or some non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia using pacing pulses then delivering a low-energy first level atrial shock to restore sinus rhythm provides for a less painful and a less traumatic experience for the patient.
FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.
The embodiments of the present invention illustrated herein are described as being included in an implantable heart cardioverter/defibrillator/pacemaker, which may include numerous pacing modes known in the art. The system and method of the present invention could also be implemented in an external cardioverter/monitor system.
Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, there is shown a system including an atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 physically and electrically coupled to a ventricular catheter 24 and a first atrial catheter 26. The system 20 is implanted in a human body 30 with portions of the ventricular catheter 24 and the first atrial catheter 26 inserted into a heart 32 to detect and analyze electric cardiac signals produced by the heart 32 and to provide electrical energy to the heart 32 under certain predetermined conditions to treat supraventricular tachyarrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation, of the heart 32.
One embodiment of a schematic of the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 electronics is shown in FIG. 2. The atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 comprises an implantable housing 34 which contains electronic control circuitry 100. The electronic control circuitry 100 includes terminals, labeled with reference numbers 102, 104, 106 and 108 for connection to electrodes attached to the surface of the ventricular catheter 24 and the first atrial catheter 26.
The ventricular catheter 24 is an endocardial lead adapted to be releasably attached to the implantable housing 34 of the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22. The ventricular catheter 24 has an elongate body with a proximal end 50 and a distal end 52 and is shown as having a first ventricular electrode 54 located at, or adjacent, the distal end 52 of the ventricular catheter 24. In one embodiment, the first ventricular electrode 54 is a tip electrode positioned at the distal end 52 of the ventricular catheter 24. Alternatively, the first ventricular electrode 54 is an annular, or a semi-annular ring electrode positioned adjacent the distal end 52. The first ventricular electrode 54 is electrically connected to terminal 102 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through an electrically insulated conductor provided within the elongate body of the ventricular catheter 24.
In an additional embodiment, the ventricular catheter 24 further includes a second ventricular electrode 56. The second ventricular electrode 56 is an annular, or a semi-annular ring electrode electrically connected to terminal 104 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through an electrically insulated conductor provided within the elongate body of the ventricular catheter 24. The second ventricular electrode 56 is spaced apart and proximal from the first ventricular electrode 54 such that when the ventricular catheter 24 is positioned within the heart 32 the first ventricular electrode 54 and the second ventricular electrode 56 reside within a right ventricle 58 of the heart 32, with the first ventricular electrode 54 in an apex location within the right ventricle 58.
The first atrial catheter 26 is an endocardial lead adapted to be releasably attached to the implantable housing 34 of the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22. The first atrial catheter 26 has an elongate body with a proximal end 60 and a distal end 62 and is shown as having a first atrial electrode 64 located at, or adjacent, the distal end 62. In one embodiment, the first atrial electrode 64 is a tip electrode positioned at the distal end 62 of the first atrial catheter 26. Alternatively, the first atrial electrode 64 is an annular, or a semi-annular ring electrode positioned adjacent the distal end 62. The first atrial electrode 64 is electrically connected to terminal 106 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through an electrically insulated conductor provided within the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26.
The first atrial catheter 26 also includes a first defibrillation electrode 66 which is connected to terminal 108 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through an electrically insulated conductor provided within the elongate body of the ventricular catheter 24. In one embodiment, the first defibrillation electrode 66 is a defibrillation coil electrode as are known in the art. The first defibrillation electrode 66 is spaced apart and proximal from the first atrial electrode 64 such that when the first atrial catheter 26 is positioned within the heart 32 the first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 are positioned within a supraventricular region 68 of the heart 32.
In one embodiment of the present system, the first atrial catheter 26 is positioned within the supraventricular region 68 of the heart 32 with the first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 positioned within the right atrium chamber 70 of the heart 32 or a major vein leading to the right atrium chamber 70 of the heart 32. In one embodiment, the first atrial catheter 26 is positioned within the right atrium chamber 70 with the distal end 62 positioned within the right atrial appendage such that the first atrial electrode 64 make physical contact with the right atrium chamber 70 of the heart 32 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 is positioned within the right atrium and/or major vein leading to the right atrium chamber 70.
The atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 is a programmable microprocessor-based system, with a microprocessor 110 and a memory 112, which contains parameters for various pacing and sensing modes. Microprocessor 110 includes means for communicating with an internal controller, in the form of a RF receiver/transmitter 114. This includes a wire loop antenna 116, whereby it may receive and transmit signals to and from an external controller 118. In this manner, programming commands or instructions are transferred to the microprocessor 110 of the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 after implant. In one embodiment operating data is stored in memory 112 during operation. This data may be transferred to the external controller 118 for medical analysis.
In the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 of FIG. 2, the first ventricle electrode 54 and the second ventricular electrode 56 are coupled to a sense amplifier 120, whose output is shown connected to an R-wave detector 122. These components serve to sense and amplify the QRS waves of the heart, and apply signals indicative thereof to the microprocessor 110. Among other things, microprocessor 110 responds to the R-wave detector 122 by providing pacing signals to a pace output circuit 124, as needed according to the programmed pacing mode. Pace output circuit 124 provides output pacing signals to terminals 102 and 104, which connect to the first ventricular electrode 54 and the second ventricular electrode 56, for ventricular pacing.
The first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 are coupled to a sense amplifier 126, whose output is connected to a P-wave detector 128. These components serve to sense and amplify the P-waves of the cardiac cycle from the region of the right atrium chamber 70, and apply signals indicative thereof to the microprocessor 110. Among other things, microprocessor 110 responds to the atrial signals from the sense amplifier 126 applied to the P-wave detector 128 by providing pacing signals to the pace output circuit 124, as needed according to the programmed pacing mode. Pace output circuit 124 provides output pacing signals to terminals 106 and 108, which connect to the first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66, for normal atrial pacing and atrial pacing according to the present invention.
The microprocessor 110 also responds to the cardiac signals sensed within the heart 32 using the catheters 24 and 26 by providing signals to a low-energy output circuit 130 to provide low-level cardioversion/defibrillation electrical energy to the heart as needed according to the method of the present invention. Power to the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 is supplied by an electrochemical battery 132 that is housed within the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22.
The electronic control circuitry 100 receives cardiac signals through the ventricle electrodes 54 and 56, the first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66, and upon detecting an atrial fibrillation, first delivers a plurality of pacing pulses to the heart to convert the-atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia, such as atrial flutter or non-fibrillation supraventricular arrhythmia, and then delivers a low-energy atrial shock once the ventricular intervals stabilize.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the ventricular catheter 24 and the electronic control circuitry 100 are utilized for bipolar sensing of the ventricular R-wave intervals and the ventricular rate of the heart 32. Bipolar pacing is delivered between the first and the second ventricular electrodes 54 and 56. In an alternative embodiment, the ventricular catheter 24 has only a first ventricular electrode 54. Sensing ventricular R-wave intervals and ventricular rate is then accomplished through unipolar sensing between the first ventricular electrode 54 and an exposed electrically conductive portion of the implantable housing 34 which has been coupled to the sensing amplifier 120. Similarly, unipolar pacing is applied to the heart 32 between the first ventricular electrode 54 and the conductive implantable housing 34.
Referring again to FIG. 1, the first atrial catheter 26 and the electronic control circuitry 100 are utilized for bipolar sensing within the supraventricular region 68, where bipolar signals from the right atrium chamber 70 are sensed between the first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66. Bipolar pacing is delivered between the first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66. In an alternative embodiment, unipolar pacing and sensing are provided from the first atrial catheter 26 between the first atrial electrode 64 and a conductive implantable housing 34.
The atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 further includes the low-energy output circuit 130, which operates under the control of the microprocessor 110. The low-energy output circuit 130 is connected to the first defibrillation electrode terminal 108, which connects to the first defibrillation electrode 66, and the conductive implantable housing 34. In this manner, defibrillation pulses are delivered between the first defibrillation electrode 66 and the implantable housing 34 when called for by the microprocessor 110.
Referring now to FIGS. 3, 4 and 5, there is shown an alternative embodiment of the system 20 including the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 physically and electrically connected to an alternative embodiment of the first atrial catheter 26. The system 20 is implanted in the human body 30 with portions of the ventricular catheter 24 and the first atrial catheter 26 inserted into the heart 32 to detect and analyze electric cardiac signals produced by the heart 32 and to proved electrical energy to the heart 32 under certain predetermined conditions to treat supraventricular tachyarrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation, of the heart 32.
Referring now to FIG. 4 there is shown an additional embodiment of the schematic of the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 electronics. The atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 comprises an implantable housing 34 which contains electronic control circuitry 100. The electronic control circuitry 100 includes terminals, labeled with reference numbers 102, 104, 106, 108, 134 and 136 for connection to electrodes attached to the surface of the ventricular catheter 24 and the first atrial catheter 26.
The first atrial catheter 26 is an endocardial lead adapted to be releasably attached to the implantable housing 34 of the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22. The first atrial catheter 26 has an elongate body with a proximal end 60 and a distal end 62. In one embodiment, the first atrial catheter 26 has a connector terminal 140 at the proximal end 60 for attaching the proximal end 60 of the elongate body to the implantable housing 34 of the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22.
In one embodiment, the first atrial catheter 26 is shown as having a first atrial electrode 64 located between the proximal end 60 and the distal end 62 of the elongate body. In one embodiment, the first atrial electrode 64 is an annular, or a semi-annular ring electrode positioned on the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26. The first atrial electrode 64 is electrically connected to terminal 106 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through a contact end located at the proximal end 60 which is coupled to an electrically insulated conductor 148 extending longitudinally within the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26.
In an additional embodiment, the first atrial catheter also includes a first defibrillation electrode 66 which is connected to terminal 108 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through a contact end located at the proximal end 60 which is coupled to an electrically insulated conductor 150 extending longitudinally within the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26. In one embodiment, the first defibrillation electrode 66 is a defibrillation coil electrode as are known in the art. The first defibrillation electrode 66 is spaced apart and longitudinally on the peripheral surface of the elongate body from the first atrial electrode 64 such that when the first atrial catheter 26 is positioned within the heart 32 the first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 are positioned within a supraventricular region 68 of the heart 32.
The first atrial catheter 26 further includes a second atrial electrode 152 located on the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26 and is spaced apart and longitudinally on the peripheral surface of the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26. In one embodiment, the second atrial electrode 152 is spaced distally from the first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 to position the second atrial electrode 152 at, or adjacent, the distal end 62 of the elongate body. In one embodiment, the second atrial electrode 152 is a tip electrode positioned at the distal end 62 of the first atrial catheter 26. Alternatively, the second atrial electrode 152 is an annular, or a semi-annular ring electrode positioned adjacent the distal end 62. The second atrial electrode 152 is electrically connected to terminal 134 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through a contact end located at the proximal end 60 which is coupled to an electrically insulated conductor 154 extending longitudinally within the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26.
The first atrial catheter 26 also further includes a second defibrillation electrode 156 which is connected to terminal 136 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through a contact end located at the proximal end 60 which is coupled to an electrically insulated conductor 158 extending longitudinally within the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26. In one embodiment, the second defibrillation electrode 156 is a defibrillation coil electrode as are known in the art. The second defibrillation electrode 156 is spaced apart and proximal from the first atrial electrode 64 such that when the first atrial catheter 26 is positioned within the heart 32 the first and second atrial electrodes 64 and 152, and the first and second defibrillation electrodes 66 and 156 are positioned within a supraventricular region 68 of the heart 32.
In one embodiment, the first atrial catheter 26 is positioned within the supraventricular region 68 of the heart 32 with the distal end 62 positioned within the coronary sinus vein 160 such that the first atrial electrode 64 is adjacent to and in physical contact with a portion of the left atrium chamber 72 of the heart 32 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 is positioned within the coronary sinus vein 160. In an additional embodiment, the second atrial electrode 152 is positioned within the coronary sinus vein of the heart 32 and the second defibrillation electrode 156 positioned within the right atrium chamber 70, or some major vein leading to the right atrium chamber 70 of the heart 32.
The first atrial electrode 64, the second atrial electrode 152, the first defibrillation electrode 66 and the second defibrillation electrode 156 are arranged on the elongate body of the first atria catheter 26 in any combination or subcombination of electrodes. For example, in one embodiment the first defibrillation electrode 66 is positioned at or proximal to the distal end of the first atrial catheter 26. The first atrial electrode 64 is spaced apart and proximal from the first defibrillation electrode 66 to position the first atrial electrode 64 within the coronary sinus vein 160 or within the great cardiac vein. The second atrial electrode 152 is spaced apart and proximal from the first atrial electrode 64 to position the second atrial electrode 152 at the os of the coronary sinus vein 160. Finally, the second defibrillation electrode 156 is spaced apart and proximal to the second atrial electrode 152 to position the second defibrillation electrode 156 in the right atrium chamber 70 or a major vein leading to the right atrium chamber 70 of the heart 32.
In an additional embodiment, the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26 has a series of lateral deflections 162 between the proximal end 60 and distal end 62. The series of lateral deflections 162 are arcuate deflections that occur generally within a common plane along the extension of the longitudinal axis of the distal end 62 of the elongate body. In an additional embodiment, the series of lateral deflections 162 occur in opposite directions generally along the extension of a longitudinal axis of the distal end 62 of the elongate body.
In one embodiment, the series of lateral deflections 162 are created by imparting a mechanical bias into the electrically insulated conductors housed within the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26 which create a semi-flexible/semi-rigid portion of the elongate body. In an alternative embodiment, the series of lateral deflections 162 are created by selecting polymers or altering the polymer structure used in constructing the elongate body of the catheter. In one embodiment, the series of lateral deflections 162 are intended to stabilize and secure the first atrial catheter 26 within the coronary sinus vein 160.
FIG. 5 shows one embodiment of a series of lateral deflections 162 where the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26 has a first lateral deflection 164, a second lateral deflection 166, and a third lateral deflection 168 imparted into the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26 that form a series of arcuate deflections. In FIG. 5, the first lateral deflection 164 first curves or bends away from the longitudinal axis of the first atrial catheter's elongate body. The first lateral deflection 164 upon reaching a first maximum deflection point 170 then begins to curve or bend back toward the long axis of the elongate body.
The second lateral deflection 166 begins as the first lateral deflection 164 returns the elongate body back to approximately the longitudinal axis. The second lateral deflection 166 is in the opposite direction of the first lateral deflection 164 in the plane of the series of lateral deflections 162. Once the second lateral deflection 166 reaches a second maximum deflection point 172 it begins to curve or bend back toward the longitudinal axis of the elongate body.
The third lateral deflection 168 begins as the second lateral deflection 166 returns the elongate body back to approximately the longitudinal axis. The third lateral deflection 168 then continues until it reaches a third maximum deflection point 174 and then begins to bend or curve back toward the longitudinal axis of the elongate body. The third lateral deflection 168 upon reaching the longitudinal axis of the elongate body curves or bends back to once again generally aligns with the longitudinal axis of the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26.
In one embodiment, the first maximum deflection point 170 of the first lateral deflection 164 is spaced longitudinally from the third maximum deflection point 174 of the third lateral deflection 168 by distances in the range of 8 to 10 millimeters. In an additional embodiment, the first maximum deflection point 170 and the third maximum deflection point 174 of the first and the third lateral deflections are spaced horizontally from the second maximum deflection point 172 of the second lateral deflection in the range of 8 to 11 millimeters.
In a further embodiment, the first atrial electrode 64 is positioned on one of the series of lateral deflections 162 such that the series of lateral deflection 162 causes the first atrial electrode 64 to be mechanically biased into physical contact with the coronary sinus vein 160 of the heart 32. For example, the first atrial electrode 64 is positioned generally in the location of the second maximum deflection point 172 of the second lateral deflection 166 to allow the first atrial electrode 64 to contact the inner lumen of the coronary sinus vein 160.
The elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26 is made of extruded implantable polyurethane, silicone rubber or any other implantable flexible biocompatable polymer. The electrical leads 148, 150, 154 and 158 are made of MP35N alloy, or other commonly used electrical lead metal. The electrodes 64, 66, 152 and 156 are made of implantable metal such as platinum/iridium alloy or other commonly used electrode metal.
The first atrial catheter 26 also has a stylet passageway 176 which, in one embodiment, is created by the electrically insulated conductor 154, which has been coiled to create the stylet passageway 176. The stylet passageway 176 extends longitudinally in the elongate body from an inlet end located at the proximal end 60 to the distal end 62. The stylet passageway 176 is adapted to receive a guide stylet for stiffening and shaping the second atrial catheter 26 during insertion of the catheter into the heart 32. The coil of the stylet passageway 176 has sufficient flexibility to straighten due to the presence of a stylet, then return to the set shape after removal of the stylet.
Referring again to FIG. 4, the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 is a programmable microprocessor-based system, with a microprocessor 110 and a memory 112, which contains parameters for various pacing and sensing modes. Microprocessor 110 includes means for communicating with an internal controller, in the form of an RF receiver/transmitter 114. This includes a wire loop antenna 116, whereby it may receive and transmit signals to and from an external controller 118. In this manner, programming commands or instructions are transferred to the microprocessor 110 of the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 after implant. In one embodiment operating data is stored in memory 112 during operation. This data may be transferred to the external controller 118 for medical analysis.
In the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 of FIG. 4, the first ventricle electrode 54 and the second ventricular electrode 56 are coupled to a sense amplifier 120, whose output is shown connected to an R-wave detector 122. These components serve to sense and amplify the QRS waves of the heart, and apply signals indicative thereof to the microprocessor 110. Among other things, microprocessor 110 responds to the R-wave detector 122 by providing pacing signals to a pace output circuit 124, as needed according to the programmed pacing mode. Pace output circuit 124 provides output pacing signals to terminals 102 and 104, which connect to the first ventricular electrode 54 and the second ventricular electrode 56, for ventricular pacing.
The second atrial electrode 152 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 are coupled to a sense amplifier 126, whose output is connected to a P-wave detector 128. These components serve to sense and amplify the P-waves of the cardiac cycle from the region of the left atrium chamber 72, and apply signals indicative thereof to the microprocessor 110. Among other things, microprocessor 110 responds to the atrial signals from the sense amplifier 126 applied to the P-wave detector 128 by providing pacing signals to the pace output circuit 124, as needed according to the programmed pacing mode. Pace output circuit 124 provides output pacing signals to terminals 106 and 108, which connect to the second atrial electrode 152 and the first defibrillation electrode 66, for normal atrial pacing and atrial pacing according to the present invention.
The first atrial electrode 64 and the second defibrillation electrode 156 are coupled to a sense amplifier 138, whose output is connected to the P-wave detector 128. These components serve to sense and amplify the P-waves of the cardiac cycle from the region of the right atrium chamber 70, and apply signals indicative thereof to the microprocessor 110. Among other things, microprocessor 110 responds to the atrial signals from the sense amplified 138 applied to the P-wave detector 128 by providing pacing signals to the pace output circuit 124, as needed according to the programmed pacing mode. Pace output circuit 124 provides output pacing signals to terminals 134 and 136, which connect to the first atrial electrode 64 and the second defibrillation electrode 156, for atrial pacing and a trial pacing according to the present invention.
The electronic control circuitry 100 receives cardiac signals through the ventricle electrodes 54, 56, the first and second atrial electrodes 64, 152, and the first and second defibrillation electrodes 66, 156, and upon detecting an atrial fibrillation, first delivers a plurality of pacing pulses to the heart to convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia, such as atrial flutter or non-fibrillation supraventricular arrhythmia, and then delivers a low-energy atrial shock once the ventricular intervals stabilize.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the ventricular catheter 24 and the electronic control circuitry 100 are utilized for bipolar sensing of the ventricular R-wave intervals and the ventricular rate of the heart 32. Bipolar pacing is delivered between the first and the second ventricular electrodes 54 and 56. In an alternative embodiment, the ventricular catheter 24 has only a first ventricular electrode 54. Sensing ventricular R-wave intervais and ventricular rate is then accomplished through unipolar sensing between the first ventricular electrode 54 and an exposed electrically conductive portion of the implantable housing 34 which has been coupled to the sensing amplifier 120. Similarly, unipolar pacing is applied to the heart 32 between the first ventricular electrode 54 and the conductive implantable housing 34.
Referring again to FIG. 3, the first atrial catheter 26 and the electronic control circuitry 100 are utilized for bipolar sensing in two locations within the supraventricular region 68, where bipolar signals from the left atrium chamber 72 are sensed between the second atrial electrode 152 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 and bipolar signals from the right atrium chamber 70 are sensed between the first atrial electrode 64 and the second defibrillation electrode 156. For the first atrial catheter 26, bipolar pacing is delivered between the second atrial electrode 152 and the first defibrillation electrode 66, and between the first atrial electrode 64 and the second defibrillation electrode 156. In an alternative embodiment, unipolar pacing and sensing are provided from the first atrial catheter 26 between the second atrial electrode 152 and a conductive implantable housing 34 and/or the first atrial electrode 64 and the conductive implantable housing 34.
The atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 further includes the low-energy output circuit 130, which operates under the control of the microprocessor 110. The low-energy output circuit 130 is connected to the first and second defibrillation electrode terminals 108 and 136, which connects to the first and second defibrillation electrodes 66 and 156. In this manner, defibrillation pulses are delivered between the first defibrillation electrode 66 and the second defibrillation electrode 156 when called for by the microprocessor 110.
In an alternative embodiment, the implantable housing 34 of the system 20 is an additional defibrillation electrode, where the implantable housing 34 has an exposed electrically conductive surface electrically coupled to the low-energy output circuit 130, such that defibrillation pulses are being delivered between either defibrillation coil electrodes 66 or 156 and the implantable housing 34 of the system 20, or between any combination of the first defibrillation electrode 66 and/or second defibrillation electrode 156 and the implantable housing 34 of the system 20.
Referring now to FIG. 6 of the drawings, there is shown an alternative embodiment of the system 20 further including a second atrial catheter 180. The system 20 is implanted in a human body 30 with portions of the ventricular catheter 24 and the first atrial catheter 26 and the second atrial catheter 180 inserted into a heart 32 to detect and analyze electric cardiac signals produced by the heart 32 and to provide electrical energy to the heart 32 under certain predetermined conditions to treat supraventricular tachyarrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation, of the heart 32.
A schematic of the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 electronics is shown in FIG. 4. The atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 comprises an implantable housing 34 which contains electronic control circuitry 100. The electronic control circuitry 100 includes terminals, labeled with reference numbers 102, 104, 106, 108, 134 and 136 for connection to electrodes attached to the surface of the ventricular catheter 24, and the first and second atrial catheters 26 and 180.
The ventricular catheter 24 is an endocardial lead adapted to be releasably attached to the implantable housing 34 of the system 20. The ventricular catheter 24 has an elongate body with a proximal end 50 and a distal end 52 and is shown as having a first ventricular electrode 54 located at, or adjacent, the distal end 52 of the ventricular catheter 24. In one embodiment, the first ventricular electrode 54 is a tip electrode positioned at the distal end 52 of the ventricular catheter 24. Alternatively, the first ventricular electrode 54 is an annular, or a semi-annular ring electrode positioned adjacent the distal end 52. The first ventricular electrode 54 is electrically connected to terminal 102 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through an electrically insulated conductor provided within the elongate body of the ventricular catheter 24.
The first atrial catheter 26 is an endocardial lead adapted to be releasably attached to the implantable housing 34 of the system 20. The first atrial catheter 26 has an elongate body with a proximal end 60 and a distal end 62 and is shown as having a first atrial electrode 64 located at, or adjacent, the distal end 62. In one embodiment, the first atrial electrode 64 is a tip electrode positioned at the distal end 62 of the first atrial catheter 26. Alternatively, the first atrial electrode 64 is an annular, or a semi-annular ring electrode positioned adjacent the distal end 62. The first atrial electrode 64 is electrically connected to terminal 106 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through an electrically insulated conductor provided within the elongate body of the first atrial catheter 26.
The first atrial catheter 26 also includes a first defibrillation electrode 66 which is connected to terminal 108 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through an electrically insulated conductor provided within the elongate body of the ventricular catheter 24. In one embodiment, the first defibrillation electrode 66 is a defibrillation coil electrode as are known in the art. The first defibrillation electrode 66 is spaced apart and proximal from the first atrial electrode 64 such that when the first atrial catheter 26 is positioned within the heart 32 the first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 are positioned within a supraventricular region 68 of the heart 32. In one embodiment of the present system, the first atrial catheter 26 is positioned within the supraventricular region 68 of the heart 32 with the distal end 62 positioned within the coronary sinus vein 160 such that the first atrial electrode 64 is adjacent to and in physical contact with a portion of the left atrium chamber 72 of the heart 32 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 is positioned within the coronary sinus vein 160.
The second atrial catheter 180 is an endocardial lead adapted to be releasably attached to the implantable housing 34 of the system 20. The second atrial catheter 180 has an elongate body with a proximal end 182 and a distal end 184 and has at least a second atrial electrode located on the second atrial catheter 180. In one embodiment, FIG. 6 shows the second atrial catheter 180 as having a second atrial electrode 186 located at, or adjacent, the distal end 184. In one embodiment, the second atrial electrode 186 is a tip electrode positioned at the distal end 184 of the second atrial catheter 180. Alternatively, the second atrial electrode 186 is an annular, or a semi-annular ring electrode positioned adjacent the distal end 184. The second atrial electrode 186 is electrically connected to terminal 134 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through an electrically insulated conductor provided within the elongate body of the second atrial catheter 180.
The second atrial catheter 180 also includes a second defibrillation electrode 188 which is connected to terminal 136 and to the electronic control circuitry 100 through an electrically insulated conductor provided within the elongate body of the second atrial catheter 180. In one embodiment, the second defibrillation electrode 188 is a defibrillation coil electrode as are known in the art. The second defibrillation electrode 188 is spaced apart and proximal from the second atrial electrode 186 such that when the second atrial catheter 180 is positioned within the heart 32 the second atrial electrode 186 and the second defibrillation electrode 188 are positioned within the right atrium chamber 70 of the heart 32 or a major vein leading to the right atrium chamber 70 of the heart 32. In one embodiment of the present system, the second atrial catheter 28 is positioned within the right atrium chamber 70 with the distal end 76 positioned within the right atrial appendage such that the second atrial electrode 186 make physical contact with the right atrium chamber 70 of the heart 32 and the second defibrillation electrode 188 is positioned within the right atrium and/or major vein leading to the right atrium chamber 70.
The first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 are coupled to a sense amplifier 126, whose output is connected to a P-wave detector 128. These components serve to sense and amplify the P-waves of the cardiac cycle from the region of the left atrium chamber 72, and apply signals indicative thereof to the microprocessor 110. Among other things, microprocessor 110 responds to the atrial signals from the sense amplifier 126 applied to the P-wave detector 128 by providing pacing signals to the pace output circuit 124, as needed according to the programmed pacing mode. Pace output circuit 124 provides output pacing signals to terminals 106 and 108, which connect to the first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66, for normal atrial pacing and atrial pacing according to the present invention.
The second atrial electrode 186 and the second defibrillation electrode 188 are coupled to a sense amplifier 138, whose output is connected to the P-wave detector 128. These components serve to sense and amplify the P-waves of the cardiac cycle from the region of the right atrium chamber 70, and apply signals indicative thereof to the microprocessor 110. Among other things, microprocessor 110 responds to the atrial signals from the sense amplified 138 applied to the P-wave detector 128 by providing pacing signals to the pace output circuit 124, as needed according to the programmed pacing mode. Pace output circuit 124 provides output pacing signals to terminals 134 and 136, which connect to the second atrial electrode 186 and the second defibrillation electrode 188, for atrial pacing and atrial pacing according to the present invention.
The microprocessor 110 also responds to the cardiac signals sensed within the heart 32 using the catheters 24, 26 and 180 by providing signals to a low-energy output circuit 130 to provide low-level cardioversion/defibrillation electrical energy to the heart as needed according to the method of the present invention. Power to the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 is supplied by an electrochemical battery 132 that is housed within the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22.
The electronic control circuitry 100 receives cardiac signals through the ventricle electrodes 54, 56, the first and second atrial electrodes 64, 186, and the first and second defibrillation electrodes 66, 188, and upon detecting an atrial fibrillation, first delivers a plurality of pacing pulses to the heart to convert the atrial fibrillation to anon-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia, such as atrial flutter or non-fibrillation supraventricular arrhythmia, and then delivers a low-energy atrial shock once the ventricular intervals stabilize.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the first and second atrial catheters 26, 180 and the electronic control circuitry 100 are utilized for bipolar sensing in two locations within the supraventricular region 68, where bipolar signals from the left atrium chamber 72 are sensed between the first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66 and bipolar signals from the right atrium chamber 70 are sensed between the second atrial electrode 186 and the second defibrillation electrode 188. For the first atrial catheter 26, bipolar pacing is delivered between the first atrial electrode 64 and the first defibrillation electrode 66, and for the second atrial catheter 180 bipolar pacing is.delivered between the second atrial electrode 186 and the second defibrillation electrode 188. In an alternative embodiment, unipolar pacing and sensing are provided from the first and/or the second atrial catheters 26, 180 between the first atrial electrode 64 and a conductive implantable housing 34 and/or the second atrial electrode 186 and the conductive implantable housing 34.
The atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 further includes the low-energy output circuit 130, which operates under the control of the microprocessor 110. The low-energy output circuit 130 is connected to the first and second defibrillation electrode terminals 108 and 136, which connects to the first and second defibrillation electrodes 66 and 188. In this manner, defibrillation pulses are delivered between the first defibrillation electrode 66 and the second defibrillation electrode 188 when called for by the microprocessor 110.
In an alternative embodiment, the implantable housing 34 of the system 20 is an additional defibrillation electrode, where the implantable housing 34 has an exposed electrically conductive surface electrically coupled to the low-energy output circuit 130, such that defibrillation pulses are being delivered between either defibrillation coil electrodes 66 or 188 and the implantable housing 34 of the system 20, or between any combination of the first defibrillation electrode 66 and/or second defibrillation electrode 188 and the implantable housing 34 of the system 20.
The ventricular catheter 24 and first and second atrial catheters 26 and 180 are releasably attached to and are separated from the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 to facilitate inserting the catheters into the heart 32. The catheters are inserted transvenously through a cephalic or subclavian vein to position the distal ends of the catheters within the heart 32. The proximal ends of the catheters are then attached to the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22, where the proximal ends of the catheters are adapted to seal together with the terminals 102, 104, 106, 108, 134 and 136 of the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 to thereby engage the individual electrode conductors and electrodes with the electronic control circuitry 100. The atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22 of the system 20 is then positioned subcutaneously within the human body 30.
By way of further example of an embodiment of the system 20 having at least a second atrial electrode, it is considered to be within the scope of the present invention to have additional atrial pacing electrodes added to the system 20. In one embodiment, a plurality of pacing pulses can be applied at both a first atrial pacing location and at least two additional atrial pacing locations to convert the atrial fibrillation to non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia. These additional atrial pacing sites can be endocardial or epicardial, where in one example the endocardial electrode can be located in the supraventricular region of the heart and the epicardial electrode can be located on the left atrial wall of the heart.
FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrates the overall mode of operation of the system 20 in treating a heart experiencing an atrial fibrillation. In paced operation, the system 20 operates under programmed control to monitor the ventricular and atrial contractions occurring in the patient's heart. This is indicated by block 200 in FIG. 7. Monitoring of the cardiac rhythm is accomplished through the sense amps 120, 126 and 138, R-wave detector 122, and P-wave detector 128 which are all under the control of the microprocessor 110. Pacing may be administered as needed, depending upon the type of pacing functions provided in the atrial cardioverter/defibrillator 22.
Decision block 202 tests whether a supraventricular tachyarrhythmia has been detected. This is done through analysis of electrical cardiac signals from the heart under control of the microprocessor 110 and its stored programs. In one embodiment of the present invention, the atrial rate is used to determine the presence of a supraventricular tachyarrhythmia. If such condition is not detected, control branches via path 204 back to the heart beat monitor block 200, and the process continually repeats.
If, however, a supraventricular tachyarrhythmia condition is detected at decision block 202, control passes via path 206 to decision block 208, which tests for the occurrence of atrial fibrillation. In one embodiment, atrial fibrillation is indicated when the atrial rate is greater than 250 beats per minute. Alternatively, atrial fibrillation is determined thought the analysis of detected cardiac electrogram signals, such as P-wave structure and/or P-wave intervals detected at the first atrial electrode 64 location and the second atrial electrode 152 location. If atrial fibrillation is not detected, control branches to block 210 for atrial tachyarrhythmia therapies.
If at block 208, an atrial fibrillation is detected, control branches to the atrial fibrillation therapies of FIG. 8, which first converts the atrial fibrillation to an atrial arrhythmia having a slower and more distinct cardiac rate and electrogram morphology. This newly created non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia is more amenable to cardioversion/defibrillation, resulting in an increased probability of successfully converting the atria arrhythmia. Also, the cardioversion/defibrillation energy requirements are less than those required to cardiovert/defibrillate atrial fibrillation. This leads to a more patient acceptable manner of atrial fibrillation conversion.
As a way of determining when an atrial fibrillation has been converted to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia, such as atrial flutter, by the plurality of pacing pulses, the system 20 monitors the intervals of ventricular contractions. In atrial fibrillation, the ventricular intervals are often rapid and unstable. It is theorized that this is the result of multiple wavelets, which make up the atrial fibrillation, impinging upon the AV-node. With such intense stimulation of the AV-node, the ventricular interval rate increases, and the stability of the intervals decreases due to the random and rapid nature of the atrial fibrillation wavelets.
Atrial fibrillation also requires a large amount of atrial tissue to sustain itself. In contrast, atrial flutter has far fewer wavelets than atrial fibrillation. By regionally capturing atrial tissue at one or more locations using pacing pulses of electrical energy, an atrial fibrillation may be converted to atrial flutter. This is because the number of wavelets to support the arrhythmia is proportional to the amount of atrial tissue available to support them. So as the amount of atrial tissue that is being controlled by the pacing pulses increases, less “uncontrolled” atrial tissue is available to sustain fibrillation, until finally the fibrillation is converted to some non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia.
An indicator that the pacing pulses have converted an atrial fibrillation to atrial flutter, or another non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia, is that the ventricular intervals are more likely to be stable. A stable ventricular interval is indicated when the standard deviation of ventricular intervals sensed during the delivery of the plurality of pacing pulses is less than a predetermined stability threshold value. Unstable ventricular intervals have deviation values that are equal to, or exceed, the predetermined stability threshold value.
Ventricular interval stability stems in part from the fact that atrial flutter usually occurs with an AV block, in which the block can have a contraction ratio of, for example, 2:1 or 3:1. Other ratios, however, exist which do not depart from the scope of the present invention. This distinction between ventricular instability during atrial fibrillation and ventricular stability during atrial flutter is utilized by the present invention to indicate when and if an atrial fibrillation has been converted by the plurality of pacing pulses, and to indicate when a cardioverting/defibrillating pulse of electrical energy is delivered to the atria to convert the heart to sinus rhythm. In one embodiment of the present invention, non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia, such as an atrial flutter, is defined as having an atrial rate of between 150-250 beats per minute.
The beginning of the FIG. 8 flow chart, indicated by the symbol “1”, is reached from the symbol “1” of the FIG. 8 flow chart. Referring now to FIG. 8, there is shown one embodiment of the present system where upon the occurrence or the detection of an atrial fibrillation condition, the system 20 treats the supraventricular region 68 of the heart 32 by applying a plurality of pacing pulses at a first atrial pacing location. The plurality of pacing pulses is delivered to the atria to convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia such as an atrial flutter. In one embodiment, the system 20 applies the plurality of pacing pulses across the second atrial electrode 152 located at the right atrial appendage. In another embodiment, the plurality of pacing pulses are delivered across the first atrial electrode 64 located adjacent to the left atrium chamber 72. Alternatively, the pacing pulses are delivered at other recognized supraventricular pacing locations, such as the os of the coronary sinus or the high right atrium.
The pacing pulse energy is a programmable value, with energy levels being set in the range of between approximately 10 to 15, 7 to 18, or 5 to 20 times the patient's diastolic threshold, where 10 times the patient's diastolic threshold is a suitable value. The diastolic threshold is a standard electrophysiologicale measurement to assess the minimum current or voltage needed to influence (capture) the tissue when it is in diastole. The pacing rate of the plurality of pacing pulses is also a programmable value which is set in a range of between approximately 120 to 160, 100 to 180, or 80 to 200 beats per minute. In an alternative embodiment, the plurality of pacing pulses has a pacing interval that is about 10 percent less than a patient's intrinsic cardiac interval. The plurality of pacing pulses are further delivered over a predetermined time of between approximately 30 to 40, 20 to 50, or 10 to 60 seconds.
As the plurality of electrical pacing pulses are being applied to the first atrial pacing location, the system 20 proceeds to step 302 and begins sensing and analyzing the ventricular intervals to determine their stability. As previously mentioned, a ventricular interval is the time between successive ventricular contractions, and is measured using the detected R-waves. Ventricular intervals are continuously averaged and a standard deviation calculated during the plurality of pacing pulses. The ventricular interval standard deviation is compared to the predetermined stability threshold value to determine if the sensed ventricular intervals are either stable or unstable. Ventricular intervals are stable if their standard deviation is less than the stability threshold value, and are unstable if their standard deviation is greater than or equal to the stability threshold value. The predetermined stability threshold value is within a range of between 25 to 35, 15 to 45, or 10 to 50 milliseconds.
During step 302, if the electronic control circuitry 100 of the system 20 determines that the heart 32 has entered a period of stable ventricular intervals (i.e., the ventricular intervals have become stable) control passes to step 304 where the system 20 proceeds to deliver a first level atrial shock to the heart. The first level atrial shock is a low-energy cardiovertion/defibrillation shock delivered to atria of the heart. In one embodiment, the low-energy cardiovertion/defibrillation shock is delivered between the first defibrillation electrode 66 placed in the coronary sinus vein 160 and the second defibrillation electrode 156 within the right atrium chamber 70 or major vein leading to the heart. Additionally, cardioverter/defibrillator 22 could be used as additional cardioversion/defibrillation electrodes to provide a variety of shocking patterns across the atria. Energy values for the first level atrial shock are programmable between 0.5 to 2, 0.4 to 3, or 0.3 to 5 joules.
In an alternative embodiment, after detecting an atrial fibrillation at block 208 the system 20 applies the plurality of pacing pulses at both a first atrial pacing location and a second atrial pacing location to convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia such as an atrial flutter. In one embodiment, the system 20 applies the plurality of pacing pulses across the first atrial electrode 64 located within the coronary sinus vein 160 adjacent to the left atrium chamber 72 and across the second atrial electrode 152 located at the right atrial appendage. In one embodiment, a predetermined time delay is provided between the pacing pulses delivered across the second atrial electrode 152 and the first atrial electrode 64. In this embodiment, a pacing pulse is first delivered across the second atrial electrode 152 to either a right atrium chamber 70 location or the coronary sinus vein 160 location. The pacing pulse delivered across the first atrial electrode 64 to the left atrium chamber 72 location is then postponed for the predetermined time delay, where the predetermined time delay is dependant upon the intrinsic intra-atrial conduction delay of the patient. In one embodiment, the predetermined time delay is a programmable time period in the range of between 10 to 100 milliseconds.
At step 302, the system 20 senses the ventricular intervals while the plurality of electrical pacing pulses are being applied to the first and second atrial pacing locations, and analyzes the ventricular intervals to determine ventricular stability, delivering the first level atrial shock to the heart during a period of stable ventricular intervals. If, however, the ventricular intervals do not become stable during the plurality of pacing pulses the method proceeds to step 306. At step 306 the system compares the number of attempts that have been made at converting the atria with a predetermined number of permitted attempts at converting the atrial fibrillation.
The system 20 is programmed to make two or more attempts, including a final repeat attempt, at converting an atrial fibrillation. For each attempt, the system repeats the aforementioned steps of applying a plurality of pacing pulses at one or more atrial pacing locations (e.g., the first and second atrial pacing electrodes), and sensing and analyzing the ventricular intervals for stability. If after a final repeat attempt a period of stable ventricular intervals is not determined during the analyzing step, the system proceeds to step 308 and delivers an atrial defibrillation shock to the heart.
The atrial defibrillation shock is a higher energy level shock than the low-energy level cardioversion shock and is intended to convert atrial fibrillation to sinus rhythm. For stable ventricular intervals the low-energy level cardioversion shock is delivered in the programmable range of between 0.1 to 1 Joule. If, however, the atrial defibrillation shock is delivered, it is delivered in the programmable range of between 1 to 6 Joules.
Referring back to step 306, in an alternative embodiment, if the plurality of pacing pulses at the first atrial pacing location has not resulted in ventricular stability and the system is not on a final repeat attempt, the system 20 returns to step 300 via path 310 and proceeds to repeat steps 300 and 302 by applying a plurality of pacing pulses at a second atrial pacing location to convert atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia such as an atrial flutter. The second atrial location is a different pacing location than the first atrial location. So, in one embodiment, if the plurality of pacing pulses was delivered across the second atrial electrode 146, the subsequent delivery of a plurality of pacing pulses would be across the first atrial pacing electrode 64.
As the plurality of pacing pulses are being delivered across the second atrial electrode 152, the system 20 senses and analyzes ventricular intervals at step 302. Upon detecting a period of stable ventricular intervals, the system delivers a first level atrial shock to the heart during a period of stable ventricular intervals. If, however, the plurality of pacing pulses delivered across the second atrial electrode 152 fail to convert the atrial fibrillation to non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia such as atrial flutter, the system 20 returns to step 300 via pathway 310 and proceeds to apply a plurality of pacing pulses at least once at both the first atrial pacing location and the second atrial pacing location to convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia such as atrial flutter. The system 20 at step 302 senses and analyzes ventricular intervals while the plurality of electrical pacing pulses are being applied to the first and the second atrial pacing locations to determine the stability of the ventricular intervals. Upon detecting a period of stable ventricular intervals, the system 20 delivers the first level atrial shock to the heart. If, however, the plurality of pacing pulses does not convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia, such as atrial flutter, during the final repeat attempt, the system 20 delivers an atrial defibrillation shock to the heart at step 308.
Alternatively, after unsuccessfully applying a plurality of pacing pulses at a first atrial pacing location, the system applies a plurality of pacing pulses at both the first atrial pacing location and a second atrial pacing location to convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia such as an atrial flutter. During the plurality of pacing pulses at both the first and second atrial pacing locations, the system senses and analyzes the ventricular intervals to determine the stability of the ventricular intervals. The system 20 delivers a first level atrial shock to the heart during a period of stable ventricular intervals.
If the attempt at converting the atria with the plurality of pacing pulses at both the first and second atrial pacing locations is unsuccessful, the system 20 repeats the step of applying a plurality of pacing pulses at the first and second atrial pacing locations until the final repeat attempt is complete, at which time if the system 20 is unable to convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia, such as an atrial flutter, the system 20 proceeds to deliver an atrial defibrillation shock to the heart at step 308.
delivering a first level atrial shock to the heart during a period when the ventricular intervals are stable.
delivering an atrial defibrillation shock to the heart after the final repeat attempt.
3. The method according to claim 1, including applying the plurality of pacing pulses at a second atrial pacing location to convert the atrial fibrillation to non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia.
4. The method according to claim 3, further including the step of sensing ventricular intervals while the plurality of pacing pulses are being applied to the first atrial pacing location and the second atrial pacing location.
5. The method according to claim 1, further including the step of applying the plurality of pacing pulses to at least a second atrial pacing location to convert atrial fibrillation to non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia if the plurality of pacing pulses delivered at the first atrial pacing location does not convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia.
6. The method according to claim 5, further including the step of applying the plurality of pacing pulses to both the first atrial pacing location and at least the second atrial pacing location at least once during atrial fibrillation to convert the atrial fibrillation to non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia if the plurality of pacing pulses delivered to at least the second atrial pacing location does not convert the atrial fibrillation to non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia.
7. The method according to claim 6, further including the step of sensing ventricular intervals while the plurality of electrical pacing pulses are being applied to both the first pacing location and at least the second atrial pacing location.
8. The method according to claim 7, further including determining when the ventricular intervals are stable and delivering a first level atrial shock to the heart during a period when the ventricular intervals are stable.
9. The method according to claim 6, further including the step of delivering an atrial defibrillation shock to the heart if the plurality of pacing pulses delivered to both the first atrial pacing location and at least the second atrial pacing location does not convert the atrial fibrillation to non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia.
10. The method according to claim 1, further including the step of applying a plurality of pacing pulses to both the first atrial pacing location and at least a second atrial pacing location to convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia if the plurality of pacing pulses delivered to the first atrial pacing location does not convert the atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia.
11. The method according to claim 10, further including the step of sensing ventricular intervals while the plurality of electrical pacing pulses are being applied to both the first atrial pacing location and at least the second atrial pacing location.
12. The method according to claim 11, further including determining when the ventricular intervals are stable and delivering a first level atrial shock to the heart during a period when the ventricular intervals are stable.
13. The method according to claim 12, further including repeating at least two times the step of applying a plurality of pacing pulses to the first atrial pacing location and at least a second atrial pacing location during atrial fibrillation if a previous attempt at applying a plurality of pacing pulses to a first atrial pacing location and at least a second atrial pacing location does not convert the atrial fibrillation to non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia.
14. The method according to claim 13, including delivering an atrial defibrillation shock to the heart after the plurality of pacing pulses have been applied to the first atrial pacing location and at least the second atrial pacing location a first and a second time.
15. The method according to claim 1, including providing a diastolic threshold of a patient, and wherein applying includes delivering the plurality of pacing pulses to the patient with an energy level between 5 to 20 times the diastolic threshold.
16. The method according to claim 1, including delivering the plurality of pacing pulses at a pacing rate of between 80 to 200 beats per minute.
17. The method according to claim 1, including providing an intrinsic cardiac interval of a patient, and wherein applying includes delivering the plurality of pacing pulses to the patient at a pacing interval that is about 10 percent less than the intrinsic cardiac interval.
18. The method according to claim 1, including delivering the plurality of pacing pulses over a time of between 10 to 60 seconds.
electronic control circuitry connected to the first atrial electrode, the first ventricular electrode, and the first defibrillation electrode, where the electronic control circuitry receives cardiac signals sensed through the first atrial electrode and the first ventricular electrode, the electronic control circuitry adapted for delivery of a plurality of pacing pulses capable of converting an atrial fibrillation to a non-fibrillation atrial arrhythmia upon detection of an atrial fibrillation, adapted for analysis of ventricular intervals for stability while the plurality of pacing pulses are being delivered and adapted for delivery of a first level atrial shock during a period of stable ventricular intervals.
22. The system according to claim 21, where the system further includes a second atrial electrode and a second defibrillation electrode, where the electronic control circuitry is connected to the second atrial electrode and the second defibrillation electrodes and is adapted to receive cardiac signals through the first and second atrial electrodes and the first ventricular electrode.
23. The system according to claim 21, where the electronic control circuitry is programmed to repeat delivery of the plurality of pacing pulses upon determination that the ventricular, intervals are not stable during delivery of the plurality of pacing pulses.
24. The system according to claim 23, where the electronic control circuitry is programmed to repeat delivery of the plurality of pacing pulses two or more times, including a final repeat attempt, during which if a period of stable ventricular intervals is not detected the electronic control circuitry delivers an atrial defibrillation shock to the heart after the final repeat attempt.
Allessie, M., et al., "Regional Control of Atrial Fibrillation by Rapid Pacing in Conscious Dogs", Circulation, vol. 84, No. 4, 1689-1697, (Oct. 1991).
Ayers, G.M., et al., "Ventricular Proarrhythmic Effects of Ventricular Cycle Length and Shock Strength in a Sheep Model of Transvenous Atrial Defibrillation", Circulation, vol. 89, No. 1, 413-422, (Jan. 1994).
KenKnight, B.H., et al., "Regional Capture of Fibrillating Ventricular Myocardium", Circulation Research, vol. 77, No. 4, 849-855, (Oct. 1995).
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2019-04-26T16:58:13Z
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https://patents.google.com/patent/US6556862B2/en
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Porn
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Science
| 0.382089 |
wordpress
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Dot every "I" and cross every "t."
This particular eclipse is personal for reasons I do not wish to disclose on the open internet. I thought about NOT writing about it and just leaving the 2016 New Moons page and the writings of others (reblogs) as my proxy.
But, I changed my mind. And then I found a body of work I had produced on this eclipse a few weeks ago. No written work, mind you, but chart graphics from the time when I developed my analysis of the rather important Grand Quintile of August 28th. That confirmed for me that I needed to put up what I had done in a post.
If you kept your notes from Sun Conjunct Neptune on February 28th, then review them now. This is another day that is best for poets and photographers. We have a Yod in play, so you may need to make a decision at a time when your decision making is not at its best. A Thor’s Hammer is in play, so you need to watch your temper and watch for others that might be dangerous. But a Kite is also in play, and an opportunity is present. Keep your eyes open lest it pass you by unnoticed.
A Grand Quintile forms on August 28th. These are even more rare than the Mystic Rectangles we encountered a few weeks ago. By itself, that would be enough, but….
If you find an affinity for any of these statements it’s good to know what’s ‘in the air’.
A good time to: decide which thoughts, or what methods, bring (or will bring) you the most fortunate circumstances in your life – or at least this week.
Challenges: Remaining alert to how expressing yourself is worth the risk of creating an unstable situation.
Balance: Let go of struggles by trying to see the purpose, or the reasons, behind them. Fly a kite, blow bubbles, feel the wind in your face, do something airy that will help you relax.
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2019-04-25T20:17:35Z
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https://mysticrectangles.wordpress.com/2016/08/
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Porn
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Arts
| 0.168765 |
wordpress
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The federal government has now borrowed more money during Barack Obama’s time as president than it did in the period lasting from the time President George Washington took the oath office until July 2, 2001, more than five months into the first term of President George W. Bush.
“Joe Biden was in Costco and he wanted to buy some of this stuff, but I told him he had too much work to do. I wasn’t going to have him building roller coasters all day long. Now, of course, Santa delivers everywhere. I’ve been keeping my own naughty and nice list for Washington, so you should keep your eye on who gets some K’NEX this year. There are going to be some members of Congress who get them, and some who don’t,” President Obama said Friday at a rally where he pushed Congress to avoid the fiscal cliff.
Earlier, several affiliates of Planned Parenthood in Texas abandoned the national abortion leader.
The mandate was revealed in a series of reports, including one in The Daily Caller about two years ago.
The report said Planned Parenthood was standardizing all of its agencies, and that would include a requirement that every operation offer abortion services.
In fact, Lisa David, a senior vice president of health services support for Planned Parenthood, said then a new initiative would standardize services.
“From well-woman exams to lifesaving breast and cervical cancer screenings, more patients will now have access to the full range of Planned Parenthood services. To meet the needs of our patients, Planned Parenthood affiliates will now offer a unified set of core preventive services,” she said.
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2019-04-24T11:28:21Z
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https://usconstitutionalfreepress.wordpress.com/2012/11/
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Porn
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Health
| 0.64624 |
wordpress
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Once upon a time, twin girls were born in Ironforge. Although they looked identical, they had very different personalities. Karolynne struggled to learn things in the disciplined setting of a classroom, but thrived on discovering things by her own independent exploration and experimentation. Koralynne excelled at lessons and studying, but lacked her sister’s spark of curiosity and creativity. Karolynne hoarded all the money that she was able to earn and was reluctant to spend even a single copper, but she loved to receive presents and prizes. Koralynne prided herself on making do with only the things that she could purchase out of her own funds, and was uncomfortable with gifts and rewards. As they matured from children into young adults, these traits became so pronounced that their friends began to laughingly call them “Thrifty-lynne” and “Iron-lynne”.
After King Magni’s tragic accident and Princess Moira’s lockdown of Ironforge, the Chiselspark sisters realized that they had never been out of The Mountain in their lives. Sure, they’d picnicked on the slopes from time to time, but that didn’t really count. Furthermore, Karol discovered that she was intensely curious about the Dark Irons, and Koral found that she wanted to study the intriguing traditions of the Wildhammer Clan.
Of all the people they had watched passing through Ironforge over the years, there were none they admired more than the holy warriors of the Order of the Silver Hand Argent Dawn Argent Crusade. Each lass had, in her own way, sought out and been touched by the power of the Light. And so, shouldering the maces of newly initiated Paladins, Thrifty-lynne and Iron-lynne left their family’s home in Ironforge and set out to help the good folk of Coldridge Valley with the ever-present menaces of Troggs and Trolls.
Karolynne will be a Thrifty leveler. She *can’t* use trained abilities, but CAN use talented abilities. She will get all of her gear from quest rewards and drops.
Koralynne will be an Ironman leveler. She CAN use trained abilities, but *can’t* use talented abilities. She will get almost all of her gear from vendors, because she can only use grey/white quality drops.
I have enough other WoW projects going, however, that it may be awhile before I put in any serious playtime with these lasses.
Hehe – love it!! Will be really interesting following these two on their adventures. Great that you made them twins and both of the same class. That should give you a really good insight into their strengths and weaknesses, especially if they follow the same quest chains as well. Very very interesting! And I loved the back story 🙂 Really good luck!
Wow, you are a glutton for punishment! I keep thinking I want to do an Ironman toon, but I’m not sure I could stomach it! Challenge leveling I think is maybe not my cup of tea. I’m just a suicidal serial pugger.
Oooh… I’d love to see this story unfold!
on January 30, 2012 at 9:09 pm WoW: The Ironman Challenge « It's For My RP Spec!
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2019-04-22T20:06:21Z
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https://kamaliaetalia.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/thrifty-lynne-and-iron-lynne/
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Porn
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Games
| 0.511292 |
typepad
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During my recent craft weekend, I brought along some new My Favorite Things stamps to color with my Copic Markers. The sentiments lend themselves to Valentine's as well as Christmas / Holidays, so I decided to make some V-day cards. I have been wanting to try cutting felt with my Sizzix dies, and found some thick wool felt in a rich red color while in Kansas City at Urban Arts and Crafts. I thought it might be too thick for the dies, but it actually cut like butter! I was looking for a heart shape, and found a couple in my stash. One was inside a heart charm. So, I was able to use both the heart charm (on a later card), and the heart cutout from inside it. I also cut two heart eyelet shapes from the felt with the leftovers from the first cuts (see posts for the next couple days). I really like this! Since I already own the dies, all I need is the felt to make my own homemade embellishments. In 2010 I really want to use more of what I already have on hand for crafting and for life in general. Anyway, here is the first card and a closeup of the felt heart. Oh, and I had one small strip of one of the two sided paper that was just the right size to run through the lace. It's the opposite side of the polka-dot paper. I'll share two more cards over the next couple of days, so come back for a visit!
Oh, my poor neglected little blog! I didn't think it had been 20 days since I had posted anything. I have been busy with work, playing with my new digital camera and working on a Project 365 album (more on that later). Two weekends ago I spent part of the weekend crafting with my buddies Tiffany and Janie. For 2010 I want to get back to taking pictures and scrapbooking. I have 4+ boxes of cards now...I really should box some of them up with envelopes, and give them away! So, when I went to Tiff's house I brought lots of photos to scrap. I also brought a My Mind's Eye calendar to work one, and completed it as my first project. I'll include a pic of me with the calendar.
Next is a page I created about the last time we all got together at Janie's in December.
I made these cards in December using Papertrey Ink's Vintage Ornaments and Additions sets. I painted some iridescent watercolor paints on them, and stamped them quickly before they dried. It's hard to see in the pictures, but there is a pretty shine to them in person. I added some patterned papers from Cosmo Cricket and K & Company along with a few embellishments to finish them off.
I had the best intentions of posting more of my Christmas creations before Christmas (or at least New Year's)! But alas, I was busy enjoying the season with family and friends. So, I have decided to post them anyway...as leftovers of good things are still good, right? Hopefully you'll agree! Enjoy these last few tags.
And, I made this tag banner using my Silhouette machine. I really like how this turned out. The design of the letters had dots cut out, and they were the perfect size for adding crystals to! A little glitter and some Basic Grey paper, and voila...a beautiful banner. I'll be making more of these with other themes in the future.
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2019-04-23T02:18:43Z
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https://dzinesbymeg.typepad.com/dzines_by_meg/2010/01/index.html
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.09439 |
wordpress
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The restaurant industry added jobs at double the rate of the overall economy in 2012, and the National Restaurant Association (NRA) expects this trend to continue in 2013. Eating and drinking places added jobs at a robust 3.4 percent rate last year, the strongest increase in 17 years, according to NRA’s analysis of new figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The restaurant industry is the third-largest private-sector job creator since the employment recovery began in March 2010.
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2019-04-21T12:08:35Z
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https://scotlandcte.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/restaurant-industry-job-growth-hits-17-year-high-in-2012/
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Porn
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Business
| 0.517232 |
wordpress
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Yesterday The Husband listened to his final classroom lecture of Med School. Tomorrow he will take his last M2 exam (Neuro). Whoo!
We will enjoy a lovely free weekend with friends.
Then on Monday, Crunch Month begins. Boo!
Every day, 7 days a week, 8 in the morning to 10:30 at night, with a break for dinner. Step 1 is June 11. M3 Orientation starts June 30, so there will be a glorious 18 days of freedom!
Med Student/Officer not from MCV: I love Costanzo’s books! I don’t bother going to the lecture, I just read her book.
Med Student/Officer from MCV: I don’t. I just go to her lectures.
Even Harvard digs on her (Shout out at 0:58).
She’s also really approachable. One of The Husband’s classmates found an error/vagueness in her book regarding the morning-after pill and brought it to her attention. She is correcting it in the next edition.
Monday night I got an unexpected phone call from The Husband.
SeaWorld, 842 miles. Richmond, 690 miles.
Unexpected because he was supposed to be doing field training (i.e. camping plus simulations [I think like MASH?]), no phones allowed. Camping was cancelled because it was raining.
Well, it was raining extremely heavily plus 50+ mph winds so it probably was too hazardous for something that’s not mission-critical, but the story is much less funny that way.
And he was annoyed because he saw on Facebook that the Army HPSP students got to go to SeaWorld and they only got bowling and pizza. Not fair!
He saw some BOT (regular officer) trainees and he said they said they could tell they were in COT because they were still smiling. How’s that for awkward sentence construction?
But seriously, he’s doing well although he’s tired and missing home. The first week was hellish (by design?) and the hours are still long and it’s “death by PowerPoint.” But now they have a bit more freedom (can talk at dinner; allowed to leave the OTS campus, although still confined to the base) and a little more leisure (read: “studying”) time in the evenings.
What Does Active Duty Mean?
As part of HPSP, most of the year P. is a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. The remaining time is spent on active duty. What exactly does this mean?
Three hundred and twenty days of the year, P. is exactly like every other medical student. He goes to class, studies in the library, and takes exams just like the rest of his other 199 classmates. There is no one-weekend-a-month-two-weeks-a-year commitment. We get asked that a lot, but people are thinking of the National Guard, not the Reserves.
Besides, one weekend a month would take away from studying, and the military didn’t recruit him for his marching or tactical abilities; it wants the best doctor he can be. Therefore, the 45 days of active duty each year are either during the summer or are in lieu of a part of the normal, civilian curriculum.
A new DoctorSpouses post is up!
Physical fitness is a large part of military training, even for doctors. Most four-year HPSP students will go to Commissioned Officer Training (boot camp) between their M1 and M2 years. This means they will need to be at the top of their athleticism exactly after a year of poor eating, high stress, little sleep, and likely even less exercise.
What this means for potential HPSP students is to start training early and often. The better shape you are in before med school, the better shape you will be in even after a year of all the habits you will caution future patients against!
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2019-04-20T11:05:38Z
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https://richmondisahardroadtotravel.wordpress.com/tag/hpsp/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.139767 |
wikipedia
|
The Music Scene is a television series aired by ABC as part of its Fall 1969 lineup, in the Monday, 7:30 to 8:15 timeslot, primarily featuring rock and pop music.
The show had many hosts, with comedian David Steinberg the most frequently-appearing one (Lily Tomlin as well). Many huge names of the era, including James Brown, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Three Dog Night, Tom Jones on the initial program, and Janis Joplin, Bobby Sherman, The Miracles, Sly & the Family Stone, Isaac Hayes, Stevie Wonder, Bo Diddley and Mama Cass Elliot, (who co-hosted as well as performed) among many others, appearing on subsequent shows.
Existing promos initially used to sell this show to ABC affiliates featured the improvisational group The Committee, which featured actor Howard Hesseman (then using the name Don Sturdy), as well as the Rolling Stones. The promos implied that the Stones would be appearing with some regularity on the program. However, The Committee never actually appeared on the show, and neither did the Rolling Stones.
Surprisingly, despite the level of talent presented, this show did not fare well in Nielsen ratings. Advertisers of the era were more interested in shows achieving a mass audience rather than one of primarily younger people who were deemed as having less disposable income than the then-coveted middle aged, middle income viewers that most network programming then targeted. The program was cancelled mid-season. Two DVDs of highlights from the show have been released.
This program and the show that followed it, The New People, are extremely rare examples of U.S. network television programming designed to run for 45 minutes.
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2019-04-19T23:01:53Z
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Music_Scene_(TV_series)
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.308313 |
tripod
|
Your Erie Insurance Auto Policy Covers You ... Fido and Fluffy . Aug 5, 2008 . Now, all Erie Insurance personal auto policies in Virginia. . Student auctions virginity, sparks online debate · Hurricane Ike takes aim . Insurance Auto Auctions Acquires NW Penn Auction Sales/Warren . Insurance Auto Auctions Acquires NW Penn Auction Sales/Warren County Salvage in Erie, Pennsylvania from Business Wire in Business provided free by Find . Greater Erie Auto Auction The Greater Erie Auto Auction Team.Doing Common Things Uncommonly Well with Honesty, Integrity and Enthusiasm. Always Working Hard to be Greater! . Pennsylvania Auto Auctions Insurance Auto Auctions Bairdford Road Gibsonia, Pennsylvania 15044 Map 1-724-443-7881 . Erie County. Corry Auto Dealers Exchange 12141 Route 6 . Insurance Auto Auctions Acquires NW Penn Auction Sales/Warren . Insurance Auto Auctions Acquires NW Penn Auction Sales/Warren County Salvage in Erie, Pennsylvania. Article, News, Research, Information, . Household Insurance in Erie, Pennsylvania Product Details Now, all Erie Insurance personal auto policies in Virginia include injury coverage for their . Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc (IAA) has purchased NW Penn. . Erie Auto Insurance Sep 17, 2008 . Get an erie insurance auto quote weber insurance agency ndependent agency .. Child Links. auto repairables · goodbuy auto auction . The SPCA Serving Erie County: Other Ways to Give SPCA - Serviing Erie County, NY - Caring for people and animals since 1867. .. Contact Insurance Auto Auctions (formerly Charity Fundings), . Insurance Auto Auctions Announces Second Quarter Results 9, 2006--Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc., a leading provider of automotive salvage and . Auction Sales/Warren County Salvage located in Erie, Pennsylvania. .
IAAI >> Investor Relations >> Press Releases >> Press Release Archive INSURANCE AUTO AUCTIONS ACQUIRES NW PENN AUCTION SALES/WARREN COUNTY SALVAGE IN ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA. Tue, January 17, 2006 INSURANCE AUTO AUCTIONS ANNOUNCES . SEC Info - Insurance Auto Auctions/Inc - 8-K - For 5/11/06 - EX-99.1 Exhibit 99.1 Insurance Auto Auctions Announces First Quarter Results WESTCHESTER . our acquisition of NW Penn Auction Sales/Warren County Salvage in Erie, .
Auto Clubs in Erie, PA - Yellow Pages - Switchboard.com Business Categories: Auto Insurance, Auto Service Clubs, Notaries Public, Travel Agents, . Services: Auctions, Roadside Assistance, Business Services, . Insurance Auto Auctions Continues Expansion - Announces Intent to . Insurance Auto Auctions Acquires NW Penn Auction Sales/Warren County Salvage in Erie,. WESTCHESTER, Ill. -- Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc., . erie auto insurance | Word In Words erie auto insurance and all its sub words are defined here. . auto insurance · insurance auto auction · insurance auto auctions · low auto insurance . Erie Classified Listings, Sales, and Auctions around Erie . Sales, Classifieds, and Auctions in Erie, Pennsylvania. . Auto Insurance · Auto Loans · Balance Transfers · Cash Advance · Credit Cards · Credit Reports . Auto Insurance - Erie Auto Insurance Pa Get all the information you need on erie auto insurance pa. . Cheap Auto Insurance Companies California · Insurance Auto Auctions California . Erie Insurance, Clayton NC 27520 -- MerchantCircle.com Come to MerchantCircle to get Erie Insurance information, coupons, and reviews. . Starting last week, Aycock's Auto Auction in Kenly will now be known as . ErieBlogs.com: Erie PA News and Events for Thursday March 9, 2006 Mar 10, 2006 . Insurance Auto Auctions, a automotive total loss and specialty salvage . The Erie Bloggers will be having their get together on Thursday, . Welcome to the IAA Auction Center :: IAA Auction Center Lauri McCanna Mgr-Erie@iaai.com Use the branch manager's e-mail for all location-specific . 2008 Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc. All rights reserved. . Auction Info - Insurance Auto Auctions Acquires Permian Basin . Manheim Aquires Central Cities Auction Pool · Insurance Auto Auctions Acquires NW Penn Auction Sales/Warren CountySalvage in Erie, Pennsylvania . Event Brief of Q2 2006 Insurance Auto Auctions Earnings Conference . Chris Ketman, Insurance Auto Auctions . Scott Pettit, Insurance Auto Auctions, CFO . . IAAI completed the acquisition of NorthWest Penn near Erie, . Insurance Auto Auctions Adds Pa. Company to Its Roster Insurance Auto Auctions Inc., a provider in automotive total loss and specialty . Auction Sales/Warren County Salvage located in Erie, Pennsylvania. . Rosehill Auction Fort Erie Ontario review I love auctions and I went to an auction at the Tennessee Georgia Auto . Erie PA travel guide Erie Pennsylvania is a great travel destination on Lake . erie insurance group An auto insurance companyвs financial strengtd is likely to be one of your consideratiоns for choosing an insurance company. Erie Insurance has always shown .
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2019-04-20T14:26:19Z
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http://juliann37234.tripod.com/insurance_auto_auctions_er.html
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Porn
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Business
| 0.286344 |
livejournal
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Dilemma... Tonight, Torchwood season 2, Kyle XY season 1 and Chaos. At the same time. Tsk.
Chose TW, it's the 1st time I can listen to the lines in French, will help when watching the original again.
Ack! For a moment I thought you meant the new season of Kyle XY was starting - and I don't have a tv set to watch on at the moment. Thank goodness I just have to look for one download tonight.
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2019-04-21T12:36:02Z
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https://kanld.livejournal.com/246923.html?thread=1063307
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.425488 |
wordpress
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One of HPA’s portfolio companies, TransFS, announced today that it has released a Pay Pal Calculator. Here is the link to the calculator. This calculator will help you make your business run more efficiently. Pay Pal is easy to use, but sometimes easy isn’t cheaper. Merchant banks processing may be a better opportunity for a business. TransFS allows business to keep more of its own hard earned profits. Here is the text of the TransFS press release.
, Il- Jun. 28, 2010 – TransFS.com, the leading marketplace for comparing credit card processors, today announced their new tool for comparing PayPal fees against internet merchant account fees. There’s no signup or lead generation form; merchants can see which option is better for their business in literally a matter of seconds.
The PayPal Upgrade Calculator works by looking at the main drivers of fees – average transaction size and the monthly volume of the merchant. In addition, there are optional questions about on-site or off-site transactions and name displayed on the credit card statement for those merchants who have specific needs that require PayPal’s Website Payments Pro offering. For ease of use, industry standards for these values are displayed so that merchants can get a sense for how they compare how their business compares to the average online e-commerce site.
The PayPal Upgrade Calculator then takes these inputs and runs a real-time fee analysis between PayPal’s rates and an average of the credit card processors that participate in the TransFS.com comparison shopping marketplace for merchant accounts. Because the rate structures for PayPal and merchant accounts vary widely, the PayPal Upgrade Calculator relies on TransFS’ proprietary software to translate between these different pricing mechanisms to provide an apples-to-apples comparison.
The TransFS.com marketplace is the most comprehensive comparison shopping site of credit card processing providers. Thousands of companies, from PayPal to regional merchant account providers, are participants in the TransFS marketplace, ensuring that online and offline merchants can get the lowest rates from the provider that best matches their needs. To date, TransFS has helped its users save an average of 40% on their credit card processing costs.
TransFS.com users benefit from lower payment processing fees that allow merchants to keep more of their money by having credit card processing companies participate in a “reverse auction” for the merchant’s business. All participants in the TransFS marketplace offer Interchange-Plus pricing, which provides the most transparent fee structure. Within minutes, this “reverse auction” where pre-screened credit card processors competitively bid for the merchant’s business is complete. Even though this PayPal upgrade comparison tool is tailored to those online merchants who deal with card-not-present transactions, the TransFS marketplace provides free, secure, binding, no-obligation bids from credit card processing providers for all online and offline merchants.
TransFS.com has made many tools to help merchants get the most out of their merchant account. Today’s PayPal Upgrade Calculator follows up TransFS’s iPhone credit card processing terminal and its TrueCostofCredit.com website where merchants can see how much in fees is deducted by the credit card companies for various transactions. Today’s release of TransFS’s new PayPal Upgrade Calculator further allows merchants to get the best deal on credit card processing quickly, painlessly, and in an easily understandable fashion.
TransFS.com is an online comparison-shopping service that enables business owners to shop for credit card processing services quickly, efficiently, and at no cost. TransFS evens the playing field for business owners, letting them keep more of their money without time-consuming, annoying sales calls from service providers. TransFS employs instant reverse auctions to quickly negotiate better deals, automated bill analysis software to identify unnecessary or undisclosed fees, a stringent certification program, and online ratings and reviews of credit card processors. TransFS.com has saved its customers thousands of dollars a month in credit card processing by placing merchants in control.
Go to the www.transfs.com to check out more innovation for your business.
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2019-04-19T21:13:50Z
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https://hydeparkangels.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/transfs-releases-easy-to-use-pay-pal-calculator/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.083482 |
wordpress
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In recent years tension in the Middle East has led to more and more division among the countries in the region. Local powerhouses Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Iran have strengthened relationships among their global backers like the US, EU, and Russia for protection and influence on the world stage. As a result, smaller nations have become splintered over their own alliances and forced to choose sides.
The country of Syria has experienced a great deal of conflict within its own borders due to the Syrian civil war which was started in 2011. The Bashar al-Assad regime has committed mass atrocities against its own people and fights for control of land dominated by ISIS. During this time, Syria’s already strong relationship with Iran has strengthened. As a result of these ties, Iran has provided the Syrian government with support in the form of technical, financial and combat training. They have even gone so far as to supply the Syrian government with ground troops.
Photographic evidence was captured by Israeli intelligence, proving that Iranian military forces have established a training facility outside Damascus. Some estimates put the total number of Iranian trained and financed extremist fighters at 80,000.
Syria’s relationship with Iran goes back to the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi due to his ties with the United States. Iran relies on Syria as a vital ally in the region. The philosophical similarities between the governments and the country’s geographic location–which provides close access to Israel, Iran’s sworn enemy–are two of the most likely motivators for Iran’s assistance to the Syrian civil war effort.
For many years the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has utilized the Syrian city of Zabadani as a strategic mid-point to supply Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. Before the war broke out it was not uncommon for Iran to station as many as 3,500 troops at a time in Syria to provide extra training and protection of supply routes.
The most vocal opponent of a Iranian supported Syrian military is Israel, Syria’s Southwestern neighbor. For decades Iran has stated unequivocally that it views Israel as an enemy and has expressed hostile intentions clearly. The Iranian forces’ proximity to Israel has given Western nations enough cause for alarm that the US intelligence agencies have increased use of satellite and surveillance aircraft monitoring along the border to identify Iranian forces and ballistic missiles hiding within the country.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government has been equally opaque about their determination to prevent an Iranian military stronghold from building up so close to their territory. The Minister of Defense, Avigdor Lieberman stated: “We will destroy every military site in Syria where we see an attempt by Iran to position itself militarily.” Western powers are in agreeance that Iranian weapons in Syria do pose a legitimate threat to the country’s security, but there are fears that a preventative strike would set off a powder keg–sending both countries to war and dragging along their web of allies with it.
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2019-04-25T06:30:42Z
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https://syrianconflictnews.wordpress.com/2019/01/08/alliances-in-the-middle-east-iran-and-syria/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.160249 |
wordpress
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Warning! This has nothing to do with gaming.
I have a lot of family and friends currently active in the military(Canada) of have been active in the past. My great-grandfather was on Juno beach on June 6 1944, I have uncles in the navy and air force, a cousin in the special forces and a lot of people I know are right now in active service, some of them in Afghanistan. Even if I don’t always agree with the decisions of our politicians, our men and women who serve have always had my full support. Today I want to repeat that support.
Earlier today I learned that an old co-worker of mine died in the line of duty in Afghanistan around two weeks ago. He was watching over a gathering and at least two people fired automatic weapons while being hidden in the crowd. My friend was an unfortunate victim of the shooting along with two civilians and a few other wounded soldiers. Details are sketchy but that’s what I’ve been given. I signed on this guy enlistment forms and I was one among many who convinced him to join the military as it could be a good way to turn his life around. It did just that and for a number of years he was really happy, married and even had a little girl. Tomorrow I will be at the ceremony.
So to everyone who has served or who is serving now you have my eternal gratitude and I wish you the best.
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2019-04-23T14:24:15Z
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https://screammonkey.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/just-to-remind-of-my-support/
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Porn
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News
| 0.953442 |
bravenet
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"It's All about Hank" Feel free to post a message about Hank Williams and His Music.
Unfortunately, due to heavy SPAM, we have been obliged to LOCK this forum.
If you wish to post a message, send email to internetaction@yahoo.com and we will post it for you.
special guest Terri Lisa on Feb. 11.
“Hank Williams,” including songs that have not previously been on RFD-TV.
TV network in the US, and Church is their "most requested and most popular"
number 1 songs on independent charts.
documentary DVD, “Behind The Microphone” by the legendary DJ Lew Dobbins.
almost every major country star from the 60’s to recent years.
at ROPE events during the CMA Fest in Nashville right beside many major acts.
Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
also available online at www.caillouxtheater.com.
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2019-04-22T06:55:06Z
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http://pub3.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=243824250&frmid=204&msgid=896105&cmd=show
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Porn
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Arts
| 0.781989 |
tripod
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Most the time we work hard at our regular jobs.
But when we are not working we work on our home.
We redid the kitchen, bedroom, laundry room and both bathrooms this winter.
When we get a break we like to head South.
We hope you enjoy the pictures of Bradenton, Florida.
there are some great sunsets.
are proud of all our work.
Watch it go up as I get time.
Bruce Basically we did the majority of our deck in 2 days. We didn`t start the deck till 1:30 the first day.
On our second day my son Andy joined us. I showed Andy how to use air tools.
Andy killed the Air Hose. Shot it with one shot.
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2019-04-25T03:58:57Z
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http://brukes.tripod.com/CSP/perpage.html
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Porn
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Recreation
| 0.398905 |
wordpress
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← Sorbanes Oxley … Needless Overhead?
This entry was posted in Business Thoughts, Management, Project Management and tagged Business case, Project management, Project Management Institute, Project manager, Small and medium enterprises, SME, Subject-matter expert, Technology. Bookmark the permalink.
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2019-04-22T00:52:30Z
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https://beyondcenter.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/when-a-project-manager-should-question-the-authority/
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Porn
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Business
| 0.977667 |
wordpress
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Woops, another record update, 21 fresh videos for you to enjoy in the summer sun. If this tempo keeps up I might have to split the Wednesdays into multiple parts or something.
This entry was posted on July 7, 2010 at 20:22 and is filed under Hype, Music, Tips, Video with tags DJ Schmolli, Dragonette, Homework, iamamiwhoami, Joemca, Kingdom ft. Shyvonne, Magnetic Man, Ou est le swimming pool, Parken, Pocz & Pacheko, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Sambassadeur, Sky Ferreira, The Dream, The Futureheads, The Maccabees, Tiësto vs Diplo, Yolanda be Cool & Dcup, Zebra and Snake, Zeus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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2019-04-19T17:11:04Z
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https://optpopt.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/video-wednesday-19/
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Porn
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News
| 0.414796 |
wordpress
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The Third Reviewer…has added Microbiology!
I intended to comment on this site when it first hit the internetz… but didn’t get around to it. Drugmonkey did a great job of introducing The Third Reviewer about a month ago. For those of you not in the know, this site pulls in feeds from multiple journals in a given area of interest, neuroscience was the first field represented, and allows anonymous, pseudonymous, and real-life identity commenting. Online journal club. When the site was introduced originally, Dr. O chimed in to gauge enthusiasm for incorporating other disciplines, including my fave- Microbiology. Dr. Zen also weighed in to voice his opinion that anonymous commenting doesn’t help things… Hmmmm…. I disagree. Why do we do anonymous peer review of papers and anonymous grant reviews etc etc etc. ?!
Anyway-, if you go have a look you can see that Microbiology has now been added to the site as a second discipline….with a very small set of journals for now. I’m betting that this page will expand in the future, and the site will continue to expand to other disciplines as well.
So- go over there and comment, comment, comment anonymously to your heart’s content!
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2019-04-24T14:25:20Z
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https://bluelabcoats.wordpress.com/2010/07/
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Porn
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Science
| 0.980199 |
indiana
|
The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs (VPFAA) helps you achieve professional excellence, focusing on the academic career of each faculty member on the Bloomington campus.
We provide resources for all ranks of faculty—ranging from lecturers to distinguished professors—in all stages of your career. We can help you navigate the challenges and special opportunities of academic life—whether you are new to IU, facing tenure or promotion, seeking new direction mid-career, or imagining retirement after decades of service.
Our work is simultaneously on the big stage and intimately personal. We celebrate noteworthy academic achievements with gala ceremonies and visible recognition, but also meet privately with faculty who have questions about a medical leave or grievances against a colleague or administrator.
We host workshops to get faculty ready for promotion and tenure, or to nurture leadership skills among academic administrators. But we also frequently meet one-on-one with faculty who are preparing dossiers for a reappointment review.
We are dedicated to developing a cultural and institutional context in which you can plan your academic career in a predictable and confident way.
Our office keeps academic policies that define the rights and responsibilities of all academic appointees. Those policies defend a longstanding system of shared governance in which elected faculty legislators and members of the administration work together to serve the best interests of the institution.
We work hard to create and sustain a campus that is diverse, tolerant, family-friendly, sustainable, and full of occasions and events to nourish the mind and soul.
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2019-04-22T23:11:05Z
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https://vpfaa.indiana.edu/about/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.167121 |
wordpress
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Flora Belle Buckman, the comic-reading cynic, rescues a squirrel after an accident in the neighbor’s backyard involving a seemingly possessed super-suction, multi-terrain 2000X vacuum cleaner. The altercation leaves the squirrel, later named Ulysses, with astonishing powers of strength, flight, and a poetic awakening. The story tells of the summer adventures had by these two in attempting to prove the special powers of Ulysses, while also touching on such topics as divorce, step-parent relations, and children’s fears of abandonment.
I found this type of fantasy to have an interesting approach to how a young girl deals with the strange and sometimes difficult circumstances of her life, in particular those dictated by the adults around her. This fantasy tale includes a typewriting superhero squirrel, a nerdy and needy neighbor kid named William Spiver, and a young girl who in times of trouble seeks guidance from her one source of truth and justice, the comic book The Illuminated Adventures of the Amazing Incandesto!
This book was a fun read. There are sections where the narrative goes into comic book style, with the verbiage sounding much like a superhero adventure story. It includes terms such as “Holy unanticipated occurrences!” and, ever so popular with both Flora and her father, “Holy bagumba!” The illustrations support this comic style by including some pages with comic book block storyline sequences and inner monologues of the squirrel in “super hero” mode. Flora makes many references to the Incandesto comic book, in particular the answer to all dilemmas section, TERRIBLE THINGS CAN HAPPEN TO YOU. I found it interesting how the main character, Flora, being the cynic she was, was able to rationalize the events of the moment by comparing them to the adventures of Incandesto, and thus her actions made perfect sense—at least to her.
Recommended for readers ages 8-12.
Check the WRL catalog for Flora and Ulysses.
Laura and I have been exploring different types of heroes this week. Today’s selection features Ivan, a silverback gorilla.
I saw a new book in the library the other day – Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla by Katherine Applegate. While flipping through the colorful picture book, I was reminded of how much I had enjoyed Applegate’s Newberry winner, The One and Only Ivan.
Ivan is one of the animal attractions at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. In fact, he is one of the featured attractions on the billboard that he can see outside the window of his small enclosure. He spends his time watching TV; talking with his friends Bob, a stray dog, and Stella, an older elephant; and painting pictures. Ivan chooses not to remember what life was like prior to coming to the shopping mall.
When the shopping mall owner buys a younger elephant to bring excitement – and more paying customers – to the Big Top Show, Ivan makes a promise to Stella to help Ruby find a safe place to grow up. That promise leads Ivan to remember what it was like before he was caught and put in the cage. That promise leads Ivan to figure out a creative way to send a message to the Julia and George, the humans he trusts. That promise leads not only to Ruby finding a good home in a zoo, but Ivan finding a home with other gorillas and lots of open sky.
The story is told in simple sentences through the unique perspective of Ivan. Of course, the story is the author’s imaging of what Ivan was thinking and going through, but I forgot that part as I rooted for Ivan’s friends to understand what he was trying to say.
Publisher’s Weekly recommends the title for ages 8-12. But I think it was well worth taking an hour or so to read the story. It is also available as an audiobook, well-read by Adam Grupper, if you would prefer that format.
As I wrote about last year at this time, many readers first come to stories of the uncanny in their youth. In browsing the catalog for a collection of ghost stories for younger readers, I came across this delightful anthology compiled by Barry Moser. Moser is an noted artist, especially at printmaking and woodcuts, and his work graces the pages here. He also clearly has an ear for a good ghost story.
None of the stories here is overly scary (well, maybe “The Monkey’s Paw” is for me), and a couple of them are pretty mild as far as ghost stories go by modern standards. But they are fun stories to read, and perhaps to read aloud. Moser’s illustrations add an extra frisson to the general eeriness.
Bo Whaley lives on an Air Force base in North Carolina. His father is the base commander, which just makes life complicated, especially when most of the kids in his class also live on base. To make life even more convoluted, his cousin Gari arrives from Seattle to live with him because her mother is being deployed to Iraq. They are assigned to the same class to help Gari fit in, but things go badly between them from the start.
The only good thing that is happening to Bo is his new teacher. Ms. Loupe, who is in her first year of teaching, has a tattoo and is young enough to have been taught by the principal. For Bo the best thing about her is her passion for theater. She engages the class in improv involving a beaten up couch, and Bo discovers in himself a talent for acting that previous teachers had seen as a propensity to talk and goof-off in class. His enthusiasm grows until he discovers that the big theater camp that the teacher is planning will be held next summer. He will be gone then, when his family is sent to their next military assignment, which makes Bo furious with the military lifestyle.
Ms. Loupe also gets the class working on a project to send supplies to her brother, who is stationed in Afghanistan. When her brother is declared missing in action, Ms. Loupe is understandably distraught, and Bo’s whole class want to help. In the most moving part of the book Bo, his cousin Gari, Ms. Loupe’s entire class and finally the whole community find a way to work together and, if not fix the unfixable, at least make things better. In the process they learn about each other, themselves, friendship and community.
In turn hilarious and heartbreaking, Operation Yes is aimed at middle grades, but has a lot to offer adults. As a librarian I love the literary profanity that the school librarian indulges in : “‘Frog and Toad!’ Miss Candy said. ‘Not again!'” or “Green Eggs and Ham!” I am doing a project on books featuring children with parents in U.S. military, and some of these books are impossible to get through without crying. Operation Yes is definitely in this category. Read it for a moving portrait of a community coming together or an accurate depiction of the military family lifestyle.
Check the WRL catalog for Operation Yes.
I listened to this award-winning debut novel by Annabel Pitcher and was quickly drawn into 10-year-old Jamie’s world.
The story starts five years after Jamie’s sister Rose was killed in a terrorist attack in Trafalgar Square. His dad promises they are making a new start – but it’s a new start without their mother who has stayed in London to live with a man from her support group. Jamie and his big sister, Jas (Rose’s twin), have hopes that maybe it will be different in this new town. But then their dad puts the gold urn with Rose’s remains on the mantel, and they realize nothing has really changed.
Jamie has quite a few typical – and not so typical – challenges to overcome as a newcomer to this small town. He has to start a new school and while it is a relief not to be identified as “poor Rose’s brother” it’s still difficult to make new friends. He doesn’t seem to fit in with anyone, except a Muslim girl named Sunya. But being friends with Sunya would make his dad mad because his dad blames all Muslims for the terrorist attack.
Jamie would also have you believe he didn’t care that he hadn’t seen his mother, yet he can quickly count off how many days it had been since she walked out. And he faithfully wears the Spiderman t-shirt she gave him for his birthday every day in case she visits so she’ll see how much he loves it.
You may need to have some tissues handy, but the story isn’t told in an overly sentimental manner. Coming from Jamie’s perspective you understand why losing his sister when he was five-years-old isn’t as real to him as making friends at school or making the winning goal of a soccer match. And it’s heartbreaking when Jamie finally understands the grief his parents must feel after losing Rose.
I would recommend this book for all ages. While Jamie sees things in a very kid-like fashion, the issues he deals with – abandonment, loss, grief, friendship, racism, bullying – can be understood from all ages. As an adult I ached as well as rooted for him and his sister, two decent kids trying to make it without the solid support of either parent. And at the end they do seem to be in a better place.
The printed book was checked out when I selected it but I absolutely loved hearing the audiobook read by Scottish actor David Tennant of Dr. Who and Harry Potter fame. Tennant did a superb job making me believe I was listening to Jamie.
Piper Reed is irrepressible. In the vein of children’s literature’s girl-heroes like Ramona Quimby or Pippi Longstocking she faces life with strong opinions and some crazy ideas, but a good heart.
In the Navy or not, Piper finds it difficult to pack up in San Diego and drive all the way to the other side of the country to Pensacola, Florida, especially as the middle child, with an increasingly moody older sister in middle school and an annoying younger sister who considers herself a genius. When they first get to Pensacola, Piper is moved to write “My Why-I-Wish-We’d-Never-Moved List,” including things like “I had my own room in San Diego” and “I had a tree house in San Diego.” But Piper can’t be held down for long and she soon cooks up a scheme to make new friends involving her sister pretending to be a fortune-teller. As time passes she discovers the joys of Florida in the form of a new family dog, the nearby beach, and the Blue Angels demonstration planes.
Piper hasn’t seen her extended family for two years, and when they visit her grandparents on their cross-country car trip, she can’t imagine living down the street from grandparents like her cousins do.
Piper’s little sister, Sam, is distraught when Annie the doll is inadvertently packed in a box during the move from San Diego to Florida.
The book ends as Piper’s family farewell’s her father for six-months, as he is regularly at sea for that long.
If you remember Ramona Quimby fondly (she first appeared in print in 1955) then stop in to visit Piper Reed and you’ll find her just as funny and character driven as Ramona. Even if you don’t remember Ramona, read Piper Reed, Navy Brat for a portrait of a strong, resilient family weathering life’s ups and downs.
If you are interested in other books about military family lifestyles, look on my website Books for Military Children.
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2019-04-22T01:12:00Z
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https://bfgb.wordpress.com/category/junior-fiction/
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Porn
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Kids
| 0.517214 |
wordpress
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One of my biggest disappointments is that so many places that we visit don’t allow photographs. There are so many things that I wish I could capture so I could save the image forever. I wanted so badly to photograph the Royal Palace, the armory, El Prado (and all the masterpieces I saw there), El Escorial, the GIANT library in the monastery. But I couldn’t. Everywhere I turned there was a sign saying “No foto’, a security guard yelling “No foto”, Curra or Lydia (the API directors) telling us “no foto”. But yesterday, when I was exploring the royal palace, I realized I had forgot my camera and I was so disappointed. Although I knew I couldn’t take photos inside, I could have captured the amazing stonework and sculptures outside. After the day ended, I realized that I didn’t need the camera to remember the moments I had that day. I wrote down in my travel journal all the details I could remember (almost 4 pages) and can still visualize it fresh in my mind. This is because instead of looking at the magnificent views through a lens, I was looking with my eyes. I was truly taking in the breath-taking scenes of Madrid with my own two built-in lenses and because of that, I will remember it even more. From now on, the artificial lens will be used only once I know that I can remember a scene or a building or an image without the documentation because I’ve truly LOOKED at it with my eyes.
Living in Madrid, even for just a few days, has made me realize that sometimes you don’t know what’s going to happen, you can’t always plan, and sometimes you just need to learn through trial and error. I was mad the first day I was here because I spent 11 Euro on lunch (the cheapest we could find with our limited time for lunch–which happens at like 3 o’clock here), especially when one of my friends told me she bought fresh bread and cheese at the market for only 3. So then I learned that there are cheaper options for lunch (thank goodness). I was also a little shocked when my dinner arrived last night and it was portioned to feel 1/4 of a person. After talking with the waiter and my friends, I learned that my plate was called a “Ración” which is meant to be ordered with a few other raciones to be shared with a group. We made up for our meager dinner by going to a tapas bar late last night called “El Tigre”. We were always taught that tapas were small plates. Maybe they are/will be elsewhere but here the tapas were a whole plate of food enough to give me two meals. And with the purchase of a tapa, came a drink of our choice. I chose my first Spanish sangria and it was delicious. For only 6 Euro, I think that was the best deal anyone can ask for. I learned that personal space is non-existant here and that when you back away from a Spanish person who is speaking to you, it’s really rude. And that not everyone on my trip has the same goals, desires, reasons for coming that I do. Learning to live in another country where the culture is so different (time of day people eat, portions of different foods, personal space [or lack of it]) takes a lot of trial and error.
Even in just two days I’ve already felt more confident than I did when I first arrived. I feel like I know the center of Madrid really well (from La Plaza Mayor, through La Puerta del Sol, to El Parque de Buen Retiro) and I would feel okay if I was a little lost, because there are a lot of central points that I can find my way back to and from there find the Hotel Regina. My Spanish has started to come without so much time thinking. When me and Emily’s keys broke today, I marched right up to the front counter and without even thinking about it, I told her that our keys were not working in the door to our room and that we would like some assistance. I also spit out our room number (128) without thinking about that either–numbers always give me a difficult time. I’m happy that I am at least not so shy with my speaking and that I am beginning to become more confident in myself. I cannot wait until I get to Granada and I can speak with my host family all the time. Always remember to look at life through your own biological lenses before the artificial one.
your blogs are great, Jen!! Interesting about tapas… as you know here in America, Tapas means small portions! I googled it and wikipedia has it as a small meal with some exceptions in Spain.. Wikipedia says… Tapas (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtapas]) are a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold (such as mixed olives and cheese) or hot (such as chopitos, which are battered, fried baby squid). In select bars in Spain, tapas have evolved into an entire, and sometimes sophisticated, cuisine. In Spain, patrons of tapas can order many different tapas and combine them to make a full meal.
It is fatal to know too much at the outset: boredom comes as quickly to the traveler who knows he’s route as to the novelist who is over certain of his plot.
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2019-04-20T12:36:12Z
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https://jensjourneysabroad.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/life-through-a-lens/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.169587 |
wordpress
|
Last week was cold and wet. Rain, snow flurries, sleet. Temps in the 20’s at night. With all the gray, wet days it might have been easy to slip into the last of winter doldrums. But I have the cure for blue moods.
As the days progressed from gray to grayer, the buds on my forsythia kept opening wider as though their mission was to compensate for the lack of sunlight.
This week we’re experiencing clear skies and balmy spring weather. And the forsythia is in full glory. I could just crawl in and build a nest right here.
Even so, there’s nothing wrong with being a little blue now and then.
It is certainly a good thing that spring flowers are so hardy. We had two snowfalls in the first full week of March and this week brought torrential rains and flooding. Never mind Mother Nature. The flowers and shrubs are beautiful so let’s take a tour of my yard.
As the second snowfall melted away, bunches of purple crocus appeared.
The delicate blue of vinca decorates a shady spot underneath the trees in my backyard.
Tiny, dwarf tulips add spark to a bed of daffodils.
The forsythia begins to blossom decorating bare branches with drops of gold.
Spritely little windflowers (anemone) dot the ground around my bird feeders.
Pink hyacinth add a heady scent to the spring garden.
Blue hyacinth are surrounded by daffodils and naturalized grape hyacinth.
The small, rural Arkansas town that I live near is fortunate enough to have two city parks. The newer of the two parks has tennis courts, baseball and softball fields and the public pool. The older park is ‘downtown’. This park is a beautiful, quiet place to walk and relax.
The bridge that separates the two duck ponds.
And lovers in the gazebo.
As I drove by the park, the play of sunlight on water captivated me like the songs of the Lorelei captured the souls of ancient mariners.
The gentle melody of falling water lured me closer. I wanted to crawl into the fountain and capture the water as it rained down on my face. I yearned to be completely surrounded by sparkles.
But the temperature was in the upper 40’s and freezing didn’t sound too attractive so I settled for sitting down and trying to capture the sparkles as they fell.
“Closer, closer,” sang the Lorelei and I decided laying down would be the best way to capture the falling sparkles.
“Closer, closer, closer,” sang the temptress.
I’m a middle-aged woman in a suit laying flat on her back in a public park mesmerized by sparkles of sunlight and water.
Lucky for me, I’m also a music teacher and this particular Lorelei was singing a bit off key which enabled me to break away from her seductive spell. Farewell, ye saucy wench.
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2019-04-22T12:42:14Z
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https://arkansassongbird.wordpress.com/category/seasons/
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Porn
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Recreation
| 0.820567 |
uni-koeln
|
The CECAD Imaging Facility was founded in 2009 as a light microscopy facility for the excellence cluster and the University campus. In 2013, the facility was extended to a light and electron microscopy platform. We are located at the CECAD main building at the Uniclinics campus and provide a spectrum of services to the scientists.
We are charging for our services. Graduated charges apply for the different user groups (Members of CECAD, University staff, external scientists). Enquiries can be addressed to Dr. Astrid Schauss.
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2019-04-19T04:28:42Z
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https://www.cecad.uni-koeln.de/research/core-facilities/imaging-facility/
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Porn
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Science
| 0.6378 |
homestead
|
I am based in Norway, but my customers are based outside of Norway.
Will the Simplestore solution "work" with a Norwegian Bank Account, so to speak? Can I use the Intuit Payment solution?
Any specific issues/problems I need to be aware of?
The store will be for physical products, and prices will all be in USD.
Hoping for quick and thorough answers!
You are using the new Websitebuilder program and the ecommerce option is improved over the Simplestore for our older Sitebuilder programs. It can handle international sales. Your payment options are Paypal or Stripe at this time. You can add the store through the editor on the left if you want to try it and see the feature set. If it is not enough, we also have Storefront powered by Bigcommerce.
Thanks, Drew, - It seems like I have to upgrade to try it/see it? Can I test it befor I upgrade..?
Unfortunately there is not, but if you have some specific questions/needs, I may be able to answer them before you upgrade.
OK, - can I have prices in USD even if I`m in Norway? That is my biggest concern, I don`t want NOK but USD.
Yes. The store address setting is separate from the desired currency setting.
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2019-04-19T23:19:15Z
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https://community.homestead.com/homestead/topics/simplestore-payments-norway
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Porn
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Shopping
| 0.931804 |
wordpress
|
One of the reasons I like shopping is that it gives me an opportunity to observe people’s attitudes, of sales personnel as well as customers. And yes, it makes the family happy, particularly my daughter. Recently, we were on a short trip to Spain with a group of friends. Although shopping was not on the agenda but like most of the times, we ended up finding time to do a quick round. We landed up at a shop that sold women’s bags and shoes. The lady at the shop patiently showed a number of bags. This any sales person would do but what impressed me more was the way she did a thorough quality check before packing the bag and accepting the payment. She ensured that all zips were working fine and the piece was perfect.
On our way back, I asked my daughter if she noticed the lady’s attitude. She could have simply packed the piece because we had selected it ourselves. But she cared, for us and for the credibility of her shop. I wish all of us develop this attitude of serving our clients with an eye on quality of products and services that we offer.
In the same trip, our group had a meal at a restaurant. To our surprise we received a much inflated bill. We settled on a figure but not only after having an argument which was absolutely unnecessary. I admired the way our friend handled the restaurant guy, keeping his cool and going through the order a number of times with him. He managed to reach a consensus some where mid-way between what we thought we had ordered and what was put on the bill. Naturally, we left the place in a bad mood with a decision not to visit it again. We wondered if the restaurant person really got confused because our group had ordered different things at different times or he simply wanted to cheat. I would prefer to assume that he got confused. When you feel you got a rough deal, try to give the benefit of doubt to the other person. It will make you feel lighter. It is much better than carrying the burden that you dealt with a dishonest person.
You are currently browsing the Opening Doors blog archives for August, 2011.
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2019-04-21T08:26:15Z
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https://openingdoors.wordpress.com/2011/08/
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Porn
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Shopping
| 0.919776 |
uchicago
|
The University of Chicago offers several joint doctoral programs. Such options currently exist between the Department of Linguistics and the Department of Anthropology, the Department of Comparative Human Development, the Department of Psychology, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, and the Department of Philosophy. Students from other departments who wish to apply for a joint PhD in Linguistics may do so only after completing six of the foundational courses.
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2019-04-25T01:52:07Z
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https://linguistics.uchicago.edu/joint-phd-program
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Porn
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Arts
| 0.285335 |
tripod
|
Some people may get confused over the terms "bedding" & "litter". This is especially so if you notice some brands of bedding are labelled as "bedding" while others are labelled as "litter". Of course you have those labelled as "bedding & litter". So what's the difference? To put it very simply, bedding & litter are the same. When you line the cage with it & your cavy walks, sleeps & lives on it, the stuff is called bedding. When you place the exact same stuff in a litter pan (assuming your cavy knows how to pee in a litter pan) or in a cage's removable tray, its called litter.
The difference mainly lies with the type of cage used. If you use a plastic bottom cage, then the stuff you used will most likely be called bedding since you line the cage with it. Your cavies live on this bedding. They pee & poop on it, walk on it, sniff it, etc. If you use a wire bottom cage with removable tray or plastic bottom cage with grid & removable tray, then the stuff is most likely refered to as litter since you put it in the removable tray. Your cavies don't walk or live on the litter. The litter is seperated from them by a grid & it "catches" the pee & poop that falls through the grid.
So as you can see, "litter" & "bedding" are exactly the same. The only question is whether your cavies live on it or not. If your cavies come in contact with it, its called bedding. If they don't come in contact with the stuff at all, its called litter. Pretty simple after all, eh?
These beddings are non-toxic to small animals & are safe for cavies. Most of these beddings (except hay & straw) are also suitable as litter in removable trays found in wire bottom cages & plastic bottom cages with grids. I highly recommend these products.
These beddings are also non-toxic to small animals & are generally considered safe for cavies. However I do not recommend these products & the reasons are stated with each product. But most of these beddings (except hay & straw) are suitable as litter in removable trays found in wire bottom cages & plastic bottom cages with grids. This is 'cos the cavies don't come in contact with the litter.
Although not exactly considered toxic or dangerous, I find these products unsuitable for use as bedding & have given my reasons with the product. All of these products are also not suitable as litter in removable trays found in wire bottom cages & plastic bottom cages with grids.
All these products are TOXIC, LETHAL & DANGEROUS to small animals!!! Using them could endanger the life of your cavy!! Strongly not recommended, not even for use as litter in removable trays found in wire bottom cages & plastic bottom cages with grids!!! Just don't touch these at all!!! Using these are like playing with a loaded gun!!!
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2019-04-22T16:21:55Z
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http://cyberpiggies.tripod.com/bedding.htm
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Porn
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Health
| 0.217395 |
chez
|
Tent and in the Temple of Jerusalem.
or the ritual of the circumcision.
losing gradually upon the time its essential meaning and reach.
a legend or myth all humanity shares.
as it was read in the beginning, through the symbolic way.
peeling after peeling, to understand them thoroughly.
by the discovery of essential messages.
It helps us travelling through the fragrant paths of the Tree of Life and wander through the symphony of words.
the Book being sold by millions.
a letter or anything else palpable and tangible.
The seven-branched candelabrum has an obvious meaning as an item which illuminates, a source of light.
with a trunk and branches.
then the candelabrum evokes a link or a connection between the " Up "
one being the image of the other.
one is implying the justice coming from the heart.
Generally speaking, the tree appears like an image of the testifying Just.
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2019-04-23T20:09:38Z
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http://symbole.chez.com/symbols.html
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.456887 |
tripod
|
Welcome to the 2006 archive of the MothsIreland Migrant webpage, which lists records previously submitted for website use, or abstracted from other online sources. Last updated 3 May 2007.
Please email any 2006 records not previously submitted (to either MothsIreland or Butterfly Conservation Northern ireland) to: migrants [at] mothsireland.com.
Or if your records don't appear here but have already been submitted to either organization for central database use, let us know if you'd like them posted to this page also.
Records will also be used for an annual report on migrant Lepidoptera in the Irish Naturalists' Journal.
December & November 2006 records shown below - see also October 2006.
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2019-04-22T04:27:01Z
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http://pmwalsh.tripod.com/migrantmothsireland2006.html
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Porn
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Science
| 0.546464 |
ncsu
|
Semple, K. E., Zhang, P. K., and Smith, G. D. (2015). "Stranding moso and guadua bamboo. Part II. Strand surface roughness and classification," BioRes. 10(3), 4599-4612.
In this study OSB strands produced by a CAE 6/36 disk flaker from re-saturated moso and guadua bamboo tissue were classified by surface quality and compared with industrial aspen OSB strands. Strands were first classified into three groups based on surface appearance and texture. The topographic features that characterize the surface were then measured using a laser surface profiler to give two surface roughness indicators; average roughness (Ra) and average maximum roughness (Rz). Guadua strand surface quality was extremely poor compared to moso due to its very large, dense vascular bundles. Ra and Rz values for many bamboo strands, particularly guadua, exceeded the typical diameter of resin droplets dispensed during industrial OSB blending, meaning that excessive roughness could compromise bonding efficiency in bamboo OSB.
In Part II of this series on stranding moso (Phyllostachys pubescens Mazel) and guadua (Guadua angistifolia Kunth) bamboo, the surface quality and roughness indices of strands were assessed. Part I (Semple et al. 2015a) covered strand production using a CAE 6/36 laboratory disk flaker, pole characteristics affecting strand size and quality, and compared frequency distributions for strand width and thickness against a standard industrial aspen OSB mill furnish. To minimize the amount (and cost) of resin required to manufacture OSB, strands are spot-welded together by very small, dispersed droplets of resin (Kamke et al. 1996; Smith 2003a,b). There is very little information available on the measured surface roughness of OSB strands, and none for bamboo strands. Information on how it may affect the efficiency of bonding of small droplet arrays deposited during the resin atomization and blending process is also lacking. The very rough surfaces of many of the bamboo strands observed in Part I may be different to and outside the range of surface roughness found in standard OSB furnish, and potentially reduce the bonding efficiency of very small adhesive droplet arrays.
The surface of a machined piece of wood (such as a sliced OSB strand) is a complex function of three levels of texture (Marian et al. 1958): the woods’ own anatomical features (e.g., vessels), intentional machining features (e.g., smooth slicing by a planer or roughening from sand paper), and errors of form (e.g., material distortion and variability in tooling and machine performance that produces ‘background’ effects such as waviness or deep cracks). Notwithstanding errors of form, the induced surface roughness of wood adherends has significant effects on adhesive wettability and final adhesive bond strength and fracture toughness (Collett 1972; Ebewele et al. 1980; Nussbaum and Sterley 2002). To bond wood surfaces, specialized liquid adhesives have been developed that allow wetting and conformation with the surface, but limit seepage into the substrate and its resultant starvation of the glueline. Therefore surface characterization of wood and OSB strands commonly includes assessment of surface energy, with measurement of contact angles in relation to adhesive wettability (Shupe et al. 1998; Maldas and Kamdem 1999; Shi and Gardner 2001; Nussbaum and Sterley 2002).
One of the biggest problems with defining wood surface roughness in relation to adhesion is the porous and permeable nature of the wood, giving it ‘internal roughness’ that is not picked up by stylus tracings (Ebewele et al. 1980). Some drawbacks of stylus tracings include slow measurement speed, surface damage, catching of the stylus in holes or deep fissures, 2-dimensional sampling, results being influenced by environmental vibrations, and stylus and arm variables (Devoe et al. 1992; Hu and Afzal 2005). Today, stylus tracings have largely been replaced by non-contact methods of laser displacement sensing of the surface to map the surface topography (Lundberg and Porankiewicz 1995; Sandak and Tanaka 2003; Sandak et al. 2004; Hu and Afzal 2005). A commercially available non-contact laser profiling system was used in this study, due to occasional deeply fissured surfaces, and detached tissue on bamboo strands susceptible to dislodgement by a stylus.
The objective of this study was to measure the surface roughness indices (average roughness, Ra, and maximum roughness, Rz of bamboo strands classified by feel as ‘smooth’ or ‘rough’ and compare these indices with those measured on ‘smooth’ and ‘rough’ industrial OSB strands produced from aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx). The results are compared to and discussed in relation to the known size of resin droplets administered during OSB furnish blending.
Assessment of strand surface quality was done in two ways. First, a qualitative classification using a combination of visual and tactile assessments of each measured strand from Part I was made as to whether each strand fell into one of three surface roughness groupings: (1) rough on both sides, (2) smooth on one side and rough on the other, or (3) smooth on both sides. Tactile assessment of surface roughness can be subjective, particularly if there are several categories, and the boundaries between categories are indistinct. For this reason, the number of categories was restricted to three, with most sampled strands easily classified into one of the three.
Second, a laser surface profiler from LaserScan LT (Solaris, San Francisco, USA), fitted with a Keyence K2000 Series LK-031 sensor head, was used to measure the topographic features, i.e., the height and depth of the ridges and valleys running parallel to the length of the strand. This was done to quantitatively characterize surfaces assessed subjectively by touch as either ‘rough’ or ‘smooth’ in each type of sliced tissue (aspen, moso, and guadua). Surface profile data were mapped and analyzed using Solar Map Universal 3.2 software. Six specimens, each of seven types of surface, were scanned for a total of 42 scans. The seven surface types were (1) aspen ‘smooth’, (2) aspen ‘rough’, (3) moso ‘smooth’, (4) moso ‘rough’, (5) guadua ‘smooth’, (6) guadua ‘rough’, and (7) a ‘smooth’ reference surface of sliced moso bamboo veneer. This cabinet-quality veneer is produced in China by pre-softening large laminated billets and using a large sharpened wedge blade to slice thin veneer sheets measuring 2400-mm × 1200-mm × 0.6-mm in thickness. The veneer is kept intact by a layer of high tear strength paper adhered to the back.
and Rpi and Rvi are the ith highest peak and lowest valley, respectively.
A DX100 Olympus Digital Light Reflection Microscope (5x magnification) was used to examine the sliced transverse cross-sections through the culm wall of moso and Guadua tissue. This was to provide a visual comparison of the morphology of the vascular bundles likely affecting the surface quality of the sliced strands.
Cursory examination of both industrial aspen mill strands and bamboo strands suggested considerable visual and tactile variation in the surface roughness of strands. The surface quality of wood products is still often assessed by feel (tactile) judgment, but due to the complexity and variability of the material no universally accepted standard parameter for characterizing and comparing the roughness of wood surfaces has ever been developed (Fujiwara et al. 2004). The macroscopic visual appearance of strand surfaces of moso, guadua, and aspen mill strands subjectively assessed ‘rough’ and ‘smooth’ to touch is shown in Figure 1a to c. Figure 1d shows the surface condition at the site of node tissue in the culm wall. Note the much wider zone of node tissue in the guadua strands. Slicing through the site of the embedded node tissue in the culm wall of guadua resulted in a very uneven, and in many cases broken up, surface.
Fig. 1. Surface appearance of: (a) moso, (b) guadua, (c) aspen mill strands. The top strand surface in the images was classified as ‘rough’, and the bottom strand surface was classified as ‘smooth’. (d) shows the appearance of the sliced node tissue in moso and guadua.
The proportions of moso and guadua strands falling into each of the three surface quality categories, stranded using the same flaker operating parameters, are given in Table 1. The majority (60%) of industrial aspen strands could be classified as ‘smooth’ on both sides, and 10% were classified as ‘rough’ on both sides. Experiments (Semple et al. 2014) in adjusting tissue MC and flaker operating parameters to optimize the thickness distribution and quality of strands from moso bamboo found that strand surface quality for moso was very sensitive to tissue moisture content, knife protrusion settings, material feed rates, and whether the pieces were stranded horizontally or vertically, i.e., slicing across or along the grain, respectively. Full tissue saturation above 130% MC, low knife protrusion settings, slower feed rates, and stranding parallel to the fiber direction are all necessary to maximize the proportion of ‘smooth-both-sides’ strands.
Despite these efforts, no more than about a quarter of the bulk moso strands could be classified as ‘smooth’ on both sides. Another quarter of the bulk moso strands were distinctly smooth on one side and rough on the other. The rough surface of these moso strands is characterized by the presence of very thin and flat strips of parenchyma tissue that has sheared away from the bulk strand tissue, as seen in Fig. 1a and close-up in Fig. 2a.
The observed generation of rough surfaces is believed to be due to tensile stress and shearing forces acting on the backs of strands. This may be caused by the angled back of the cutting blade. The counter knife angle is designed to force sliced wood veneers to break up along the grain into narrower pieces to ensure most strands end up between about 25 and 50 mm in width (Maietta et al. 2011). A higher angle is used for denser, stronger woods. A schematic diagram of the slicing action is shown in Fig. 3.
Three factors that were unable to be changed during stranding were the knife profile, counter knife angle, and the need to boil the pieces to re-saturate them prior to stranding. According to De Vallance et al. (2012), two adjustable process variables — MC and knife angle, directly impinge on the strand size and surface quality of ‘difficult-to-strand’ hardwoods like red oak. Knife angle critically affects the surface quality of veneer sliced from blocks (Spelter 1991). De Vallance et al. (2012) were able to make significant improvements to the size and quality of red oak strands by reducing knife speed down from current industrial flaker settings and using blades with a lower counter knife angle, thus placing less fracture stress on the material. Here, the bamboo tissue was saturated to its maximum capacity to ensure that tissue dryness was not a limiting factor, but it was not possible to adjust the counter knife angle. It is therefore possible that further improvements in the quality of both guadua and moso strands could be had by reducing or eliminating the counter knife angle, as well as other adjustable parameters such as cutting speed. The profiled counter knife is also unnecessary since the width of bamboo strands is already constrained by the limited culm wall thickness.
Strand quality in guadua was markedly lower than that of moso, despite using the same stranding parameters used to produce the best outcome for moso. From Table 1 only 5% of the sampled bulk guadua strands could be classified as ‘smooth’ on both sides. The majority of guadua strands (65%) were both visually and tactilely ‘rough’ on both surfaces. Many of these were split apart, as seen in Fig. 2b (top strand), rather than sliced cleanly, as seen in Fig. 2b (bottom strand). The appearance of the transverse surface across the grain of the culm wall of moso and guadua is shown in Fig. 4.
The very large and solid vascular bundles present in guadua give it higher average density and far superior flexural stiffness than moso. From Part I, the average basic density of the stranded guadua and moso culm tissue was 533 kg/m3 and 447 kg/m3, respectively. Comparative tests on the two species by De Vos (2010) showed guadua to be 75% higher in MOE (14 GPa) of internode tissue than moso, but only slightly higher in MOR (130 MPa compared to 115 MPa for moso). Interestingly, De Vos (2010) found guadua to be less than half the Janka hardness of moso (2500 N compared to almost 6000 N for moso internode tissues). Despite this apparent difference in hardness, guadua was still far more problematic to strand than moso, likely because of its greater average density and the more extreme differences in density and hardness of the two main culm wall tissue components: the fiber bundles, and the surrounding parenchyma ground tissue. Many of the guadua strands tended to split apart rather than slice cleanly, producing a rough surface with lots of raised ridges that correspond to the separation of the very large and solid fiber bundles (also known as vascular bundles) from the much softer and weaker parenchyma tissue. The largest of the vascular bundles of guadua were around 1.1 mm high and 0.5 mm wide, similar to those observed and measured by Aijazi (2013) in scanning electron microscopy images though the culm wall cross section of guadua. These very large, closely spaced fiber bundles in guadua tissue are in contrast with the much smaller and more discrete vascular bundles of moso tissue of the transverse section of the culm wall. In contrast, moso vascular bundles are approximately 40 µm high and 300 µm wide (Dixon and Gibson 2014). In the moso tissue sampled, many of the fiber sheathes (there are four in a whole fiber bundle) appeared not to be fully solidified, as shown by the light brown zones. This suggests that the fibers may have not yet reached their full maturity and density, and helps explain the much lower basic density of the moso (447 kg/m3). After 1 year, bamboo fibers are hollow and thin walled, and over several subsequent years the fiber walls thicken and the cells solidify almost completely, leaving minimal lumen space (Leise and Weiner 1996).
While the volume fraction of fibers in the culm wall of bamboo is strongly gradational across the culm wall, the average volume fraction for guadua ranges from about 42% to 49% (Estrada et al. 2014). Fiber volume fraction for moso is on average around 40% (Osorio et al. 2010), and ranges from 15 to 20% in the inner wall to 60-65% at the outer wall (Amada et al. 1997). Guadua fibers are not only more voluminous compared to moso, but they are also very dense at 1440 kg/m3 (Trujillo et al. 2010). The fibers are extremely tough and strong with a reported tensile strength and elastic modulus (tensile) of chemically extracted fibers of 234 MPa and 20.6 GPa (Ramirez et al. 2012), and for fibers extracted using optimized mechanical extraction, 800 MPa and 43 GPa, respectively; these values are comparable to those of glass fibers (Van Vuure et al. 2009; Trujillo et al. 2010). The parenchyma cells of the ground tissue surrounding the vascular bundles are very short and blocky with thin walls (Leise and Grosser 1972; Leise 1998), and the tissue density is just 330 kg/m3 (Dixon and Gibson 2014). Its strength is only a tenth of that of the vascular bundles themselves (Amada et al. 1997). Unless the blade is very sharp and slices cleanly through the fiber bundles longitudinally, the shearing force exerted along the culm wall will simply rupture the parenchyma tissue surrounding the fibers, leaving them exposed on the surfaces of strands, giving the kind of surface seen in Fig. 2b (top strand).
In the stranded culm materials the frequency of nodes in the culm was less for guadua (3.3 nodes per m) than moso (3.8), but the node plates and embedded node tissue in guadua was over twice as thick (Semple et al. 2015a). Note in Fig. 2d the much greater damage to the surface caused by slicing through embedded node tissue in guadua compared with moso. Previous research (De Vos 2010) has noted the very poor planed surface quality of solid guadua tissue, especially at the nodes. In the node zone of the culm wall the anatomy of the vascular bundles changes considerably, becoming extensively branched, intertwined, and interconnected by repeated anastomoses (Grosser and Leise 1971). Fiber length is also shortest at the nodes, leading to greater tissue weakness (Leise and Grosser 1972; Shao et al. 2010). Sampling of the noded strands from guadua found up to 45% of the bulk strands broken into two shorter pieces. Slicing this tissue would be akin to trying to slice through a knot of very thick rope.
The only known previous attempt to convert guadua tissue to strands was conducted by Dagilis (1999), similarly using a disk flaker. The author found that wafer quality was so poor as to preclude the fabrication of waferboards (the precursor to OSB), but did not elaborate on any wafer quality parameters such as breakage or surface characteristics. Short of simply cross cutting guadua culms into shorter rounds and discarding the node sections, there appears to be currently no practical way of removing the node plates. Since docking culms into short lengths is impractical and wasteful, a purpose-designed corer with a hardened steel or diamond-tipped tooling head would be a useful development for the guadua processing industry. The nodes are also largest and most numerous in the bottom portion of each whole culm, so one relatively simple strategy for minimizing the effects of nodes on OSB boards may be to separate the lower portion of each culm and only use the strands from these in the core layers of boards where consistency of strand length and strength properties is not as critical.
Average Ra and Rz values, and coefficient of variation (CV) for the six specimens from each of seven surface types are given in Table 2. A visual example of the raw surface roughness profiles (Fig. 5) and the typical 3-D topographic map constructed for a surface (Fig. 6) is shown for the ‘smooth’ and ‘rough’ surface of guadua strands. For the purpose of this study, a characteristic average roughness index was measured to characterize the two subjective tactile roughness groupings ‘rough’ and ‘smooth.
The smoothest of the ‘smooth’ to touch surfaces was the fine sliced moso cabinet-makers veneer, Ra = 7.19 µm, followed by the ‘smooth’ moso strands, Ra = 7.70 µm. Corresponding Rz values for these two surfaces were 37.63 µm and 43.97 µm, respectively. Interestingly, the industrial aspen strands classified by touch as ‘smooth’ were similar in measured surface characteristics to the guadua strands classified as ‘smooth’; Ra = 10.11 µm and 10.70 µm, and Rz = 57.98 µm and 57.33 µm, respectively. The strands from the three tissue types classified by touch as ‘rough’ were more variable in their measured surface characteristics. The roughest surfaces were found on guadua strands, Ra = 23.38 µm. It is interesting to note that all the strand surfaces subjectively classified by feel as ‘rough’ were remarkably similar in the measured topographic feature that makes them noticeably rough to feel, i.e., the average vertical distance of the five highest and lowest peaks and valleys of the surface, represented by Rz. Average Rz values are 113.83 µm, 115.43 µm, and 115.22 µm for the ‘rough’ to touch aspen, moso, and guadua strands, respectively. However, note also the very high CV values in Table 2, especially for Rz of ‘rough’ surfaces indicating the large variation in measured roughness within the two groups.
Accurately correlating measured (contact or non-contact method) surface roughness parameters with tactile roughness has proven very difficult (Fujii et al. 1997; Fujiwara et al. 1998, 2001, 2004). A surface rated very smooth to the touch can have a few very narrow, but deep, fissures caused by slicing along a vessel element that can greatly skew mathematically derived roughness parameters obtained directly from a measured profile. An example of this is the ‘smooth’- rated surface of guadua strands, whereby there is a deep valley caused by slicing lengthways though a vessel element within a fiber bundle (Fig. 2a and Fig. 3a). Topographic features as this had an upwards skew effect on the Ra for ‘smooth’ guadua strands compared with ‘smooth’ moso strands, both of which felt similar to the touch. Better linkage of tactile roughness with measured roughness indices is possible using a Robust Gaussian Regression Filter (RFRF) (Brinkmann et al. 2000). This reduces or eliminates ‘outlier’ effects that cannot be discerned by, or affect, the feel of the overall surface (Fujiwara et al. 2004). However, if considering surface roughness in relation to adhesion, such filters can mask the presence of topographic features that strongly influence adhesive interaction with the surface and the ability to form adequate bonds.
The results from the surface roughness measurements has potential implications for the efficiency of bonding with small resin droplets dispensed from spinning disk atomizers during OSB strand blending. Numerous studies have shown that for a given dose of resin, many very small droplets or particles of solid resin and wax lead to superior flake or OSB board properties rather than fewer, larger resin spots (Schwarz et al. 1968; Kasper and Chow 1980; Ellis 1993; Kamke et al. 1996; Saunders and Kamke 1996; Smith 2003 a,b). The size and spacing of the droplets is critical. Optimum resin spot diameter has been shown to be between about 300 µm and 400 µm, with spacing no greater than 300 µm (Smith 2003b). There is no information directly linking the size of the pits and fissures in machined OSB strands with the size of the droplets administered during blending of strands with resin. A recommended droplet diameter for a typical PF resin used in OSB manufacture, dispensed from a spinning disk atomizer (SDA) is 94 µm (Smith 2003b). Experiments using industrial blender operating parameters (resin flow rate, SDA disk rotational speed) by Zhang et al. (2008) found much smaller droplet diameters ranging from 0.25 to 60 µm. 90% of the spray volume consisted of droplets <30 µm, and up to 15% of the spray volume consisted of droplets <10 µm in diameter. This was smaller than the average peak-valley difference (Ra), and certainly smaller than the average maximum roughness (Rz) of the rough-surface bamboo strands. If the strands being blended have high peaks and deep valleys, then the very small droplets administered by SDA during blending are likely to disappear into fissures, and will be unable to contribute to bonding. A deeply fissured surface (such as the loose side of a veneer) also creates the opportunity for adhesive over-penetration and starvation of the glueline, particularly for resins with low surface tension (Shupe et al. 1998). Therefore, surface roughness and topography of wood adherends, such as veneer or strands, could greatly affect the bond strength depending on the adhesive system, and its amount and distribution on adherends.
The bond strength of discrete and scattered resin spots between OSB strands relies on the ability of strands to plasticize and deform sufficiently during hot pressing to form very tight, continuous wood-wood contact (Wolcott et al. 1990). The vast majority of bonds between strands result from a resin spot on one strand contacting a resin-free area on an adjacent strand (Smith 2003b). If smooth, intimate contact between the two surfaces is not made, then a bond is unlikely to be formed, and that resin is wasted. Aspen strands soften, compress and conform tightly to one-another during hot pressing, and administering very small droplets during blending does not appear to pose any significant problems for product quality. Investigations on pressing bamboo strand boards (Semple et al. 2015b) found that, unlike aspen, the harder and denser bamboo strands do not compress and conform to each other under normal OSB hot pressing conditions, leaving visible gaps between strands. This means that bonding by tiny, discrete droplets in bamboo strand boards could be more sensitive to the surface roughness of bamboo strands. Further work is required to examine the interactions between bond strength formation and the surface roughness of bamboo strands.
Moso and guadua bamboo produced different strand surface quality when stranded using a disk flaker designed for relatively soft, low density woods such as aspen. The majority of guadua strands were visually and tactilely classified as ‘rough’ on both sides, and only 5% could be considered ‘smooth’ on both sides. The remainder had one ‘rough’ and one ‘smooth’ surface. About a quarter of moso strands were ‘smooth’ on both sides, compared with 60% of aspen mill strands.
Average measured surface roughness (Ra) of the ‘smooth’ moso strand surface was 7.7 µm, while that of aspen mill strands and guadua were similar at 10.1 µm and 10.7 µm, respectively.The Ra value of ‘rough’ strand surfaces was 17.4 µm, 20.9 µm, and 23.4 µm for aspen, moso, and guadua, respectively.
The average maximum roughness (average distance between the five largest peaks and valleys, Rz) values were similar for all three strand types classified as ‘rough’; approximately 115 µm.
The average and maximum roughness values for the strand surfaces exceeded the reported diameter of most droplets dispensed by spinning disk atomizers used in OSB furnish blending. This could potentially affect bonding efficiency, particularly in the case of the bamboo strands, in which there was a much greater proportion of very rough strands, and which do not conform and compress during hot pressing.
This study was funded through an NSCERC (National Science and Engineering Research Council) G8 Tri-Council grant. The authors gratefully acknowledge the following personnel at Forest Products Innovations (Western Division): Mr. John Hoffman for access to boil tank facilities and operation of the disk flaker, and Dr. Zarin Pirouz and Mr. John White for access to laser surface profilometry equipment.
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Fujiwara, Y., Fujii, Y., Sawada, Y., and Okumura, S. (2004). “Assessment of wood surface roughness: Comparison of tactile roughness and three-dimensional parameters derived using a robust Gaussian regression filter,” J. Wood Sci. 50(1), 35-40. DOI: 10.1007/s10086-003-0529-7.
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Kamke, F. A., Lenth, C. A., and Saunders, H. G. (1996). “Measurement of resin and wax distribution on wood flakes,” Forest Prod. J. 46(6), 63-68.
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Leise, W. (1998). “The anatomy of bamboo culms,” INBAR Technical Report 18, International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, Beijing, pp. 175-191.
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Liese, W., and Wiener, G. (1996). “Ageing of bamboo culms. A review,” Wood Sci. Tech. 30(12), 77-89. DOI: 10.1007/BF00224958.
Lundberg, I. A. S., and Porankiewicz, B. (1995). “Studies of non-contact methods for roughness measurements on wood surfaces,” Holz Roh Werkst. 53(5), 309-314. DOI: 10.1007/s001070050097.
Maldas, D. C., and Kamdem, D. P. (1999). “Wettability of extracted southern pine,” Forest Prod. J.49(11/12), 91-93.
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Osorio, L., Trujillo, E., Lens, F., Ivens, J., Van Vuure, A., and Verpoest, I. (2010). “The relation between bamboo fiber microstructure and mechanical properties,” in: Proc. 14th European Conference on Composite materials, 7-10 June 2010, Budapest, Hungary.
Ramirez, F., Gonzalez, M., Maldonado, A., and Nivia, J. (2012). “Bamboo-guadua fibers for composites,” in: Proc. 15th European Conference on Composite Materials, 24-28 June 2012, Venice, Italy, 15 pp.
Sandak, J., and Tanaka, C. (2003). “Evaluation of surface smoothness by laser displacement sensor I: Effect of wood species,” J. Wood Sci. 49(4), 305-311. DOI: 10.1007/s10086-002-0486-6.
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Semple, K. E., Smola, M., Hoffman, J., and Smith, G. D. (2014). “Optimising the stranding of moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens Mazel) culms using a CAE 6/36 disk flaker,” In: Proc. 57thInternational Convention of Society of Wood Science and Technology, June 23-27, 2014, Zvolen, Slovakia, pp. 257-269.
Semple, K. E., Zhang, P. K., and Smith, G. D. (2015a). “Comparison of stranding and strand quality of two giant timber bamboo species; moso (Phyllostachys pubescens Mazel) and guadua (guadua angustifolia Kunth) from a CAE 6/36 disk flaker. Part I Tissue characterization, strand production and size classification,” BioResources 10(3), 4048-4064. DOI: 10.15376/biores.10.3.4048-4064.
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Article submitted: February 3, 2015; Peer review completed: May 15, 2015; Revised version received and accepted: May 27, 2015; Published: June 5, 2015.
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2019-04-24T10:24:08Z
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https://bioresources.cnr.ncsu.edu/resources/stranding-moso-and-guadua-bamboo-part-ii-strand-surface-roughness-and-classification/
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Upcoming actor Vikram Singh's new film REBEL is indeed special. As for the first time he plays a negative character and paired with Tollywood actress Tamannah, who will soon be seen in Sajid Khan's HIMMATWALA, in the film.
Tamannah is the leading lady of REBEL and Vikram's character romances this leading lady to serve his gangster brother's purpose.
On asking about his on-screen lady love Tamannah, Vikram says: "It was a great experience working with her, we had our Punjabi connection that was working on our favor. Her brother and I have also bonded well. She is a very professional, hard working actress."
Also, Vikram's role in the film REBEL is something to look out for. His character has various shades and for the first time it's quite challenging for him to play a role completely different from what he has done so far.
Vikram Singh has done films like KUCHH KARIYE, TRUMP CARD, LOVE KAA TADKA, AATMA, SOUTEN - The Other Woman and MUMBAI GODFATHER.
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Chipmaker to cut production at 2 U.S. plants, shut 3 facilities in Asia.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Chipmaker Intel Corp. announced Wednesday that it will be cutting production at two U.S. silicon wafer facilities and closing three facilities in Asia, affecting between 5,000 and 6,000 workers.
Intel, in a news release, said some of the workers could be offered positions at other facilities.
"The fact that they're taking action rather quickly to rightsize production" is encouraging, said Doug Freedman, analyst at research firm Broadpoint AmTech.
Intel, like other chipmakers, needs to scale production to a level that matches demand, according to Freedman.
The No. 1 maker of microprocessors said production will be halted at the Fab 20 facility in Hillsboro, Ore., and the D2 facility in Santa Clara, Calif.
Operations are being shut at two facilities in Penang, Malaysia, and a third in Cavite, Philippines.
The plant shutdowns are slated to occur between now and the end of the year, according to Intel.
The company said the reduction in manufacturing capacity will not affect the production of its new 45-nanometer and 32-nanometer chips.
Last week Intel posted a 90% decline in fourth-quarter earnings, as demand for computer components declined through the last part of 2008. Because of the uncertain economic climate, the company refused to offer any guidance for what the first quarter will bring.
However, Intel did say that profit margins would perk back up to normal levels by the second half of the year, even though capital spending would be relatively flat, or even recede in 2009.
"When the economy gets a headache, we (the tech industry) get the flu," said Freedman.
Intel is widely viewed as a proxy for the health of the overall PC industry, since its products are a key component for most computer manufacturers.
Shares of Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) rose 1.13% to $13.41 a share in after-hours trading.
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One new flashcart-Ace3ds X has been released by ace3ds.com. What is Ace3ds X? What are the differences between Ace3ds X and Ace3ds Plus? How to use Ace3ds X?
Ace3ds X is a new r4 card released by ace3ds team and works on Nintendo 3DS console with any firmware version. Ace3ds X is designed for support two modes: 3DS mode and DS mode. You can switch within the two modes by pushing the switch on the side of card. In DS mode, Ace3ds X works like one ace3ds plus and supports free ds games with ace3ds plus kernel. In 3DS mode, Ace3ds X is pre-flashed NTRboot and you can use it to install B9S/3DS CFW on 3DS console.
What are the differences between Ace3ds X and Ace3ds Plus?
How to use Ace3ds X to play ds games?
1. Put your microSD card into the card reader and connect it to your PC.
4. Copy all the files to the root directory of your microSD card.
6. Put the microSD card into the Ace3ds X and insert it to your DS/DSi/DSi XL/3DS.
7. Power on your DS/DSi/DSi XL/3DS and running ds games.
How to use Ace3ds X to install B9S/3DS CFW on 3DS?
Push the button to switch your Ace3ds X to 3DS mode. Follow the Installing boot9strap (ntrboot) instruction in 3ds.guide.https://3ds.guide/installing-boot9strap-(ntrboot).
You need to insert one FAT32 microSD card(maximum capacity is 32GB) to Ace3ds X when installing B9S.
Where to buy Ace3ds X?
Previous PostNintendo 3DS firmware 11.6.0-39 updatedNext PostHow to use sky3ds+ to play out-of-region games on 3DS 11.6.0-39?
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2019-04-18T14:32:46Z
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← What Do The Beatitudes Mean Today?
On August 25, 2015, the New York Times posted the article “Donald Trump, the Green Lantern Candidate” by Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan), a political scientist and assistant professor at Dartmouth. It continues to be cited today.
This article perfectly illustrates the inability of the pundits and the politicians to understand what is going on, because they’ve failed to grasp that money in politics is the one issue that drives all the others. I thought I’d illustrate by quoting his article and providing my rebuttal. Let me preface my comments by saying I am a Canadian, and not a Trump supporter (rather, an interested observer).
Why is Donald Trump leading the polls in the G.O.P. presidential race? One explanation is his celebrity and the media attention he attracts.
Another is that he is talking about issues that no one in the establishment will, like immigration and money in politics.
We like to pretend that presidents exert vast control over the country, commanding not only the direction of American politics but also the laws and policies of the country and even the state of the economy.
In the case of a true leader in the right circumstances (like a world war or a 19 trillion dollar debt), there is no need to pretend. Winston Churchill commanded Britain, dominating politics, policies and the economy during the second world war. The question is, is Trump truly the leader that he claims to be, or will he bend to the will of the corporations, as Obama did with the TPP.
Mr. Trump … cleverly exploits the appeal of presidential omnipotence by contrasting his supposedly decisive style of business leadership as a real estate magnate with the compromises, inertia and policy failures that are inevitable in politics.
Trump does not deny the need to compromise. Inertia and policy failures are not inevitable, as shown by Kennedy’s success in rallying America to land a man on the moon. If Kennedy had believed that inertia was inevitable, he would never have set the audacious goal of landing a man on the moon in less than a decade.
Most notably, Mr. Trump blames trade deals made by President Obama and other leaders for job losses that are largely the result of structural changes in the economy.
Structural changes brought on by NAFTA (courtesy of the other Clinton) and other corporate friendly trade policies that enable companies to outsource the lost jobs. So how is Trump wrong, exactly?
Actually, he’s suggested getting tough with tariffs, which are hardly “magical”. Tariffs are a huge double edged sword, as discussed by Peter Schiff in his brilliant video “Can Trump Make America Great Again?” on the real problems with Trump’s economic policies. The question is, is Trump smart enough to wield such dangerous weapons against others without damaging America.
Mr. Trump attributes the decline in American manufacturing jobs not to global economic trends but to the fact that the leaders of countries like Mexico and China are “smarter and more cunning” than our leaders. If he is tougher and more skilled in negotiating, Mr. Trump suggests, the jobs will come back.
Raising “global economic trends” as the boogeymen is less intelligent than painting Mexico and China as enemies. The true source of the “economic trends” are the global corporations, who donated millions to Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton to buy influence, have America lie down, and let Mexico and China have their way, all so that the corporate leaders and their shareholders could profit.
Though most economists say his claims are dubious, these boasts offer a simpler and more appealing narrative than the realities of the current global economy. So maybe it’s no surprise that Mr. Trump’s rhetoric is resonating with voters who have endured stagnant wages and who have been led to believe that presidents can control the economy.
What a surprise that “most economists”, who are the very ones who have led America to the brink of bankruptcy, would say his claims are dubious. Yes, he is selling hope. Then again, to keep doing what hasn’t worked is the definition of insanity. The establishment have proven themselves to be neither liberals nor conservatives, but rather, self serving corporatists.
Other politicians can’t easily knock down his claims given their own proclivity for making exaggerated promises and claims about what they will accomplish as president. Mr. Trump is in a sense calling their bluff.
It’s not their boasts, it’s the fact that they are all backed by the corporations, except for Bernie Sanders and, to a lesser extent, Ted Cruz. Can you believe anything Hillary says? I find it hard to believe that the socialist platform she espoused during her campaign had anything to do with what she would have delivered to Goldman Sacks and her other donors were she elected.
This entry was posted in philosophy and tagged brendan hyhan, donald trump, money in politics, philosophy, politics. Bookmark the permalink.
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2019-04-21T00:42:33Z
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https://jimbelton.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/money-in-politics-the-one-issue-that-matters/
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All of my life I have been fascinated by the plants given to us on this earth. When I was an undergrad student at Cal Poly Pomona in California, I was an Agricultural Biology Major because I knew someday I wanted to farm and grow ‘unique’ plants or crops. I was pulled away from that because of my love of animals and I turned to Genetics/Animal Husbandry. But I still thought I would some day grow crops.
My favorite plant of choice was the ‘cotton’ plant. What a neat plant. It grows rapidly, and in a few short months, we are able to harvest those cotton bowls and the rest is history. That fiber is processed, dyed, and then becomes material that is transformed into so many things we wear and use everyday – like our favorite jeans! It may have been in my family genes to some extent as my grandparents used to work the California Valley driving the planting and picking crews for the first cotton crops ever planted in the state. Then, when a very clever geneticist found a way to grow colored cotton, I was beyond amazed. Plant science is a fascinating field.
Which brings me to the ‘tea’ plant: Camellia sinensis var. sinensis. This plant is really quite a simple plant. If you stumbled onto it, you would most likely not pick it out as beautiful, or particularly colorful, or even attractive in any way. In many settings, it would be a large, bulky tree and not a shrub at all like you see in many tea plantations. The Tea Bush is just a simple ‘evergreen’ shrub that grows in many climates, at different altitudes, and in many climates from hot and steamy to the highest mountains in the Himalayas u p to 5000′. It grows on flat, valley terrains and on the sides of mountains.
This amazing evergreen, although all of the same species, will adapt its chemistry to the climate where it lives. What this means is that white tea, green tea, oolong, and black tea all come from the same plant but not all green teas or black teas have the same flavor or taste. The tea-plant is highly sensitive to the insults of the ground it is grown in and the weather surrounding it’s home. Only the end two leaves and bud are picked and processed to become the teas you see in stores and specialty shops. The regions with warmer more temperate climates will see several harvests in any given year and the colder, higher regions will see only a few plucking’s each year. The chemistry of the soil, the rain and cold, soil run off, and any fertilizer additives used all influence the flavor the plant leaves will produce in a tea brew. That, to me, is one of the most amazing abilities of this wonderful, little, beverage generator.
I have compared the tea industry to the wine industry because there are so many similarities. A grape is a grape, is a grape…. or is it? Not to the wine maker who understands and appreciates how all of the influences Mother Nature can have on the final product. They also appreciate the blending process and aging process. The production of Tea has become a true art just as the production of a fine wine.
Although I am still developing my ‘Tea’ palette, I do believe I have entered the phase of considering myself somewhat of a tea snob – but I don’t mean that in a bad way. It just means I am learning to detect the differences in regions and altitudes. I have had good teas and I have had ok teas, and I have had bad teas. Just like with wine, everyone’s palate is different and you cannot manufacture a GOOD tea for the masses. Each year the crops vary with subtle differences and because of this, each harvest is a one time offering. Loose leaf teas command a higher price because they deserve it due to the limited quantities of each harvest. So, if you find a particular type of tea you enjoy, I would recommend stocking up because next year there will be slight differences.
Some of you may be saying under your breath – What about the Camellia sinensis var. assamica, fermentation, oxidation, and the processing used for by the tea producers? Don’t these also influence the tea? All very good points as these also affect the flavor and taste of the tea brew. I will be addressing these other things in future blogs as each has very important influences on the final product.
Until then: ‘Find Your Zen and Do The Brew’ Everyone tip those tea cups!
Previous PostWeb Site Launch Dates – How much stress can one body endure?
Absolutely. I will be adding a variety of teas once the web site is up. Thanks.
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2019-04-18T14:36:04Z
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https://northtexasteanews.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/the-magic-of-tea/comment-page-1/
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UPDATE: Moving Schools Project – The roof goes up!
After a great weekend, with the arrival of the fabric roofing and flooring material for the school build we were very eager to start putting up the roofing system and turn the project from a steel frame into a complete building. The workshop apprentices were now working on site at the school where they were using a generator to construct the larger roof frames on site.
Once a large frame was built by the team, the plastic roofing fabric was fitted to the frame and then a team of workers would lift the frames into place over the steel frames.With the rain not stopping we decided to try and place the first small roof in place. Paul from Youth Connect climbed onto the steel frame as Aung Myint Soe and David pushed the small frame into position.
It was great to finally see a roof section in place and to find out that the plastic roofing caused no sound when the rain hit the roof. With the first small roof in place the next day the team decided to lift a large frame into position to complete the first school module. With scaffolding carefully positioned around the steel frame the team slowly manoeuvred the large roof into place and within a few hours the first two school modules were fitted with roofing system.
As the roofs were fitted the volunteers moved the Viva floor boards into place on the school module and the boards were painted. Both top and bottom of the boards were coated in acrylic paint. This layer of paint will provide an essential waterproofing.
After the floor boards were painted David used self tapping, countersunk screws to attach the boards at 50mm centres to the steel floor joists. Slowly we could see the school modules creating an interesting new space which would become the classrooms for the Thu Kha Hang Sar students.
As the floor boards and roofs were being fitted, we began to research a supplier for bamboo blinds which would be fitted to the steel frames adding extra protection from the weather to each module. We were very happy to find out a family in a nearby village manufactured bamboo blinds from their home. Driving through the rice paddie fields and across a winding path led us to where the family created the blinds. We discussed the designs with the family and they agreed to make 30 blinds for the school in two weeks. The family would cut and smoke the bamboo before weaving the bamboo with nylon to create beautiful blinds.
It was fantastic to be providing the local community with work and great to see even more local produce being taken into the final design. After collecting all the blinds from the local village they were taken to the Youth Connect workshop to be painted with a lacquer to protect the bamboo from insects and water damage. We really looked forward to bringing all the school materials together to see the final school design.
It was great to see more of the roof in place and begin to get a feel for the space and overall design of the building. We were really pleased with the plastic fabric which looked spectacular above the steel frame. The roofing system will provide the students with a quieter classroom environment, sun protection and better ventilation provided through the angles of the roof.
Meanwhile, in the workshop further Burmese workers were employed to finish the bamboo wall panels. A team of two spent two weeks constructing 60 bamboo panels which would create the walls for the school modules.
It is great to see all the components of the build coming together and we are looking forward to seeing the finished school build very soon.
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2019-04-22T11:05:14Z
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https://buildingtrustblog.wordpress.com/2012/08/
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Thanks for asking for me to POST the actual recipe FOR YOU to whip up in your kitchen!!!
My clients and celebrity clients are always telling me about their nails getting brittle,peeling or they break fast. Frustrating I know it even happens to me sometimes.
Here is my recipe for stronger healthier looking nails on the natural side and cheap!
Peel & chop the garlic in approximately six mini chunks like pieces. Place inside the nail polish. You may want to pour a little of the nail polish in the garbage so the chunks will not make it over flow. If it does not overflow, that is fine too.
Shake the bottle and leave in dry, cool place for about six days or so. Nine days is fine.
The nail techs say it really works and is cheaper than a store bought brand and a natural fix too.
Neither YOU nor your nails will smell like garlic and it is cheap and eco-chic to use.
I have it on right now…Give it a whirl!
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2019-04-23T20:59:45Z
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https://beautycandy.wordpress.com/tag/fresh/
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Porn
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Health
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One afternoon during our full time Taijiquan studies, in the Hunyuantaiji Academy studio in Edmonton, Master Chen Zhonghua spoke of the mysterious, spiritual borderlands between yin and yang called ling. This gray area created by the overlap of the two extremes is exemplified within the art of a true Master. The Master is not stronger, faster, younger, lower, etc., but at the same time he or she is all of these and something else. The pursuit of Taijiquan, is nothing less than the pursuit of ling, he declared.
A few days later, as I was conversing with Master Chen, I casually glanced at the ubiquitous Pepsi can that accompanied him throughout much of the day. He would sometimes do the form or push hands with us holding a can and make it all look so easy. He kept a case of it in his office. As I paid attention to this matter, I realized that he was almost never seen around the studio without one!
Suddenly, I made the connection: The white S-shaped band between the red and blue hemispheres of the Pepsi logo was the symbolization of ling! I asked him if Pepsi was the secret alchemical ingredient that contributed to his skill and power. He laughed heartily and facetiously affirmed that I had solved the mystery.
A few days after my epiphany, while he was making certificates to be awarded to the participants of the 2003 Hunyuan World Seminars, he said that he would make me a certificate giving me the title of “small god of the third universe.” As of yet, I have not formally been honored with this credential. However, I have been blessed with the opportunity to learn from and push hands with one who sometimes inhabits the enigmatic realm of ling.
Note: As it turned out, most of the time he was drinking water from a Pepsi can. As he put it, the can could hold water much better than a cup or glass. It did not spill and it was just the right size for his small hand to hold. It helped him keep balance when pushing hands with large students.
This entry was posted on February 25, 2007 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Chen Style Taiji, Chen Zhonghua, Learning Method, Taiji Story Link. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
Maybe this should be tagged as “Taiji Humor”. The last paragraph gave me a good chuckle.
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2019-04-21T16:50:14Z
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https://pullupachair.wordpress.com/2007/02/25/a-can-of-pepsi/
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Arts
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clara
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You may not have heard formally of this little-publicised initiative that is thriving in the Strut. It is similar to the more familiar “Young Eagles” program(me) but offers opportunities to those who are, well, of more senior years. This brings its own challenges such as how to fold up old joints so the body is small enough to fit the doorway, and balance on one leg while leaning over backwards, (No, I don’t mean the pilot!).
The principal compensation of the ‘Old Buzzards’ scheme for the generous pilot/owner is that rarely does one have to reassure anxious parents that their cherished offspring are perfectly safe, and that aircraft do sometimes have to “lean right over”.
Just such an opportunity arose recently when one of our number offered a bit of Jodelling to a novice strut member, and an old friend Bill. Making most use of the fabulous pre-Easter weather, Graham suggested a day trip from Kemble to Perranporth. Initial thoughts were for Bodmin, but with 3-up in the Sicile and one of those not much short of 100kg, hard runways of fair length were felt a safer option. With front tank full, and enough in the main tank under the seat for taxiing and a safety margin, the CG calculations were considered satisfactory for G-BHTC to set out.
Waiting just long enough for the mist to clear at the destination, the trio got airborne at 1130 hrs and headed 220 magnetic at 2,500 feet, towards the Mendip mast and the South-West.
Bristol ATC was heard to warn traffic of a “slow moving” aircraft - cheek! At 105 knots IAS and 2400 rpm on the Potez engine, that was a good speed.
Lakes, rivers, main roads and railway lines (dis.) all passed below, clearly visible in the superb glass-clear new bubble canopy expertly-fitted over the winter by Graham. Bridgewater slipped by, Hinckley Point, the Blackdown Hills, Exmoor and then the surf beaches of North Devon and Cornwall appeared along with their RAF Coastal Command stations - St Merryn (see last Newsletter), St Eval and St Mawgan - only the last still active. Then it was Newquay, its harbour clearly visible, and soon after Perranporth with long surf-driven beach, town, and the airfield perched on the cliff top. A couple of gliders were the first nearby aircraft seen on the flight.
After a circuit to assess conditions, the Jodel glided gently towards the threshold of 09, a bit of power, a request to use the grass runway alongside the tarmac to help make a gentle touchdown in the gusting 140º side-wind, and all were down safely after a flight of just 90 minutes.
Once refuelled, picnic lunch was taken on the sheltered side of a small headland looking out at the blue-green sea, white surf and the magnificent cliffs, with an unusually convoluted orange-red rock strata that would seriously challenge a geologist to interpret.
A stiff walk down the path and over the next headland led to a ‘Pub-fall’ where a tea-tray placed somewhat incongruously on the bar, refreshed the three. If not actually the last of the summer wine, there seemed at least a slight hint of it in this group of three.
Regaining the Jodel, Bill and Dave swapped places for the flight back and then took off, the wind much more gentle now, but with a headwind component making the return leg to Kemble take slightly longer.
It had been a wonderful experience, a great introduction to cross-country flying and confirmation of what an enjoyable hobby flying a light-plane like a Jodel can be. Lots of valuable information was exchanged on training and ownership options and their relative costs (which the ‘better-half’ might summarise as ‘high’, ‘even more costly’ and ‘outrageously expensive’), maintenance, and operating considerations. Most of all it was a superb day out, and very special for me personally. Thanks a million, Graham.
Oh, and we did see a real Buzzard just after take-off from Perranporth.
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2019-04-22T20:13:09Z
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http://home.clara.net/hallvw/flying/buzzards/buzzards.htm
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Recreation
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Fear has many faces. It can be rational or totally irrational. It can be fear of the known like cats, bees, people, etc or it can be fear of the unknown like death. Sometimes fear is just a temporary feeling and at other times, it can be debilitating and can stop you from truly living your life as you ought to.
I have long been a silent sufferer of fear (of failure) and it’s only of late that I am learning to let go and taking ‘baby steps’ into freedom. The problem is, sometimes fear comes in such subtle ways that we fail to recognize it as such. For example, I have always attributed my reluctance to try out new things to my character, that of being a thoughtful and thorough person. In fact, my sister likes to call me ‘Ms. Perfect’ though of course she says it when she is annoyed with me and not in the best of tones.
A bad experience (the subject of another day) recently served as a wake up call and helped me realize that I had a problem which I needed to deal with. Whereas I am still in the early days, just realizing that I have a problem seems to me like a step in the right direction and I am going at it with everything I’ve got.
Have you ever suffered from any form of fear? If so, I would really like to hear about it and how you managed to overcome. Please feel free to leave your comment below.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged fear of failure, fear of the unknown, step in the right direction by Binah. Bookmark the permalink.
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2019-04-25T14:23:54Z
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https://harmonyengaged.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/the-many-faces-of-fear/
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Reference
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Undoubtedly the most important evidence in the investigation was the human remains found in the fire pit behind Steven Avery’s trailer. There’s an expectation that the evidence would be handled with the utmost respect and care, but that was not the case. The timing and circumstances surrounding the discovery of the evidence is odd. Special Agent Tom Fassbender was in charge of the investigation. He contacted Kevin Heimerl from the arson division of the Wisconsin Department of Justice on Sunday, November 6, 2005. Heimerl was asked to look at the contents of one burn barrel. He identified pieces of a cell phone and camera – possibly belonging to the missing woman — but then nothing else was done with regard to the other burn barrels and the burn pit. Why is an arson specialist called to the scene on the 6th and only asked to look at one burn barrel? Investigators stated that they couldn’t examine the burn pit because there was a vicious dog chained near the area, but surely they could have requested assistance from animal control. This was a missing person’s investigation under suspicious circumstances as her car had been found and possibly her phone and camera.
Two days later . . .
On November 8, 2005 Deputy Jason Jost with the Manitowoc Sheriff’s Office allegedly found what he believed to be a piece of charred bone measuring approximately 1 inch in size eight feet from the burn pit. Special Agent Tom Sturdivant with the Wisconsin Criminal Investigation’s Unit was called to the scene to investigate the evidence. At that time he took charge of the investigation of the burn pit area. Here’s where things went wrong. The first thing one is expected to do when possible human remains are identified is to contact the medical examiner. A team would be put together to include forensic experts to examine the area. This is crucial because the scene shouldn’t be touched. Those with expertise in this area can map the precise location of each item found – be it bones, teeth, tissue, clothing and items potentially used as accelerants. It is standard procedure to document everything with photographs and precise notes. Experts attempt to determine the circumstances of the death — such as position of the body, time of death, identity of the victim, and the original location of the remains, but none of that occurred in this case.
The following is a partial list from InterFire of procedures to be followed in the event of an arson death.
Treat the body with respect. The deceased victim is someone’s spouse or child or parent or sibling or friend. Even as you carry out necessary professional duties, do not lose sight of the dignity of each individual person. Respect should also be accorded to non-human animal remains.
Notify the fire investigator, police, and medical examiner as soon as a body is discovered.
Cordon off the area where a victim’s body is.
Minimize foot traffic and equipment in proximity to the body.
Do not remove or move a victim who is beyond medical assistance. The position and condition of the body can give the medical examiner and fire investigator crucial information. Exceptions to the “do not remove the body” practice may be necessary in cases such as imminent collapse or very dangerous conditions. Consult command before disturbing a body.
Note any injuries to victims and statements made by victims. Make as many observations about victims as possible and communicate them to the investigator. Observation is especially important when victims are removed from the scene and the original body position may not be able to be determined. Your information about how the victim was found may be critical to the investigation.
Debra Kakatsch, the medical examiner of Manitowoc County contacted officials as soon as she heard news of the bones found on the Avery property, but she was essentially blocked from any involvement in the investigation of the remains. Why were they ignoring standard protocols?
Strang said Manitowoc County Coroner Debra Kakatsch would testify that she was “walled off entirely” from the crime scene by Calumet County authorities. By state statute, she should have been allowed to investigate early reports of possible human bones being found outside of Avery’s trailer, he said.
Strang said the coroner had also received calls from the Manitowoc County executive and the county’s top attorney not to investigate the case. He said they had emphasized that Calumet County authorities had taken control of the case to avoid any conflict of interest, given that Avery was suing Manitowoc County for $36 million at the time.
The Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department, however, concluded it was not a conflict for its deputies to assist in the investigation — even though Avery’s suit said the department violated his civil rights when he was wrongly convicted of a 1985 sexual assault.
After Sturdivant saw the bone found by Jost, he summoned John Ertl from the Wisconsin Crime Lab to assist with digging up the burn pit. Ertl testified that police had recently used the crime lab’s sifting equipment at the gravel pit and he would arrange to have it transported to the burn pit location near Steve Avery’s trailer. Was he referring to the bones that were found at the quarry? That is unclear. The sifting equipment was set up and they proceeded to dig up the ash from the burn pit with shovels and place it in sifters where larger items were gathered and placed in boxes. The activities were not documented with photos. Their actions permanently compromised the crime scene as it would now be impossible to determine whether or not the bones had been moved to this location. Since human bones were found in three separate locations, determining the location of origin should have been a priority, but it was not.
Instead of transporting the remains to the coroner, they were sent to the Calumet County Sheriff’s Office. Who sends body parts to the police station?! This was highly inappropriate and unusual. The burn barrels were also taken to the police station. They cut out a major step in the process.
Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Leslie Eisenberg was an expert for the state. The way she was pulled into this case is bizarre. She received a phone message on November 9, 2005 informing her that a package of bones had been left at her office. She was out of town at the time. Investigators should have contacted her and requested her presence at the scene instead of delivering a box of bones to her office! Further, why didn’t investigators first call her to see if she even had time to work on this case? All of it is very odd.
It’s important to note that Eisenberg noted no odor of burned rubber or fuel on the bones, even though the state’s witnesses claim that tires were used to fuel the fire and generate heat high enough to burn a body.
Investigators brought in another expert the same day that Dr. Eisenberg received the message about the bones. Rodney Pevytoe with the Wisconsin Department of Justice Criminal Investigations Unit arrived at the Avery property and noted that the burn pit area was covered with a tarp. The next day they had him sifting through the remains that had been transported to the Sheriff’s Department. Luckily, he found muscle tissue – likely used for the DNA determination.
He went back to the burn pit after sifting through the material at the sheriff’s department and testified that while examining the area he noticed black residue consistent with burnt tires as well as heavily oxidized wire and that he also noticed white fragments consistent with bone intertwined in the wire. Where are the photos to document this claim? Is this the wire that contained the bone fragments?
It’s clear from the images that there are no obvious signs that a body had been burned in the pit. The way this evidence was handled is very suspicious given everything we know about this case.
Agent Fassbender calls Kevin Heimerl (arson division of DOJ) to the Avery property. Heimerl identifies phone and camera parts in a burn barrel.
Deputy Jost of the Manitowoc SO finds a one inch piece of bone. Special Agent Tom Sturdivant is summoned. He takes charge of the burn pit investigation.
Sherry Culhane issues report of DNA findings, states the charred specimen was “consistent” with Teresa Halbach’s DNA. It was not a conclusive match, but the state represented it as though it was certain. It seems iffy since it was a partial match. Hopefully DNA experts will be reviewing the reports.
Forensic Anthropologist, Dr. Scott Fairgrieve testified for the defense. He was so disturbed at the way the evidence was mishandled that he believes a mistrial was warranted. A recent interview with Dr. Fairgrieve can be found here.
Ultimately, Fairgrieve said in his professional opinion, one could not conclude with perfect certainty that the remains had not been moved.
“As a forensic scientist, I’d say you’re right to question this,” he said of the defense team’s assertion.
“I think there should’ve been a mistrial, myself,” said Fairgrieve.
The state called in all of the high paid experts in an attempt to legitimize a botched investigation. The experts’ credentials are supposed to impress the jurors but the fact remains that there was clear proof of planted evidence, a mishandled crime scene, remains that were handled with no respect for the victim – scooped with a garden shovel and improperly transported, there were no alternate suspects investigated and the Manitowoc Sheriff’s department (who was not even supposed to be there!) happened to discover most of the incriminating evidence.
Yes. Given that traces of the victim’s blood were found in her vehicle, it seems probable that the body was transported elsewhere before being burnt and then the remains were planted at various places around the Avery property, including the where Avery had a bonfire. That points away from Avery – why would he place the remains right outside his own trailer?
Fairgrieve is misinformed on what warrants a mistrial. When he asserts “in his professional opinion, one could not conclude with perfect certainty that the remains had not been moved” that’s evidence countering the other forensic anthropologist’s evidence and that is appropriate testimony. What he’s wrong about is that his belief that there is no certainty the remains were not moved means a mistrial is warranted. Challenges to how evidence was developed or what evidence means or what is missing to reach a conclusion of guilt are not reasons for a mistrial. Mistrials occur when rules of evidence are violated or some other event occurs that impacts the trial (like a witness refusing to appear for cross-examination after direct examination as an example). Experts are not legal experts and his opinion on mistrial is completely ignorant of what constitutes a mistrial.
I listened to an interview of Fairgrieve regarding his testimony and the trial in general. I didn’t get the impression that his “mistrial” comment was based on his testimony. During his interview, he was discussing other issues like the prosecutors behavior, media influence, investigators failure to follow forensic protocol, compromised crime scene, method of gathering and storage of forensic evidence, and Dassey’s confessions.
Two years ago, but I hope you see you are completely wrong here. Mishandling evidence is absolutely what happened here and because it is the “bone” evidence that was such a huge piece of the case, (locating the missing person), it is imperative that it is handled correctly.
For beginners, it’s not conclusive that these bones are in fact Teresa and then on top of that, there’s no proof that these bones, even if they were hers, were actually found in the pit.
Don’t you see that the investigators only did the things they needed to do to give the perception that they found bones in the pit, sifted them, then tested them and proved they were Teresa. All of those “facts” are false. The bones were not found there in the pit, the pictures of them sifting ashes is for effect. They went through the motions, but there was nothing found in those ashes and then the DNA results were inconclusive.
The chain of evidence was so broken in this case! Everything has to be hand delivered and signed in and out so not to break the chain of custody. No photos of the bone fragment being exhumed from the burn pits. I don’t know how they we even allowed to put it in evidence during the trial! Sounds like the “good ol boys are running thing there. I’m sure the Averys are not the only innocent ones in prison!
This part of the investigation I find really dodgy, whilst most people (without being critical) focus on the key and the blood vial, I find it hard to believe that it took them three days from finding the car to finding human remains.
From the news coverage you can see the weight of law enforcement descend on the Avery property shortly after the Rav 4 is found (5th Nov). Bearing in mind they have found the victims car, with visible blood in it, “hidden” in the yard; the investigation would surely have branched from a missing persons search into a missing person/kidnapping/murder investigation. But despite the fact that they had searched the trailer 6 times by the 8th, it appears they had failed to find the human remains 20 yards from trailer. After all, this was a burn pit, disturbed and chard ground sticking plainly out in the middle of a grassed area.
The footage shows a “Crime Scene Evidence Unit’ arriving, I believe, on the 5th. Being from the UK I don’t know who these people are or whether they are accountable to the state or the federation, but their title suggests that they may be “experts” in the physical analysis of evidence at a crime scene. Maybe with a fair degree of knowledge and training regarding policy and procedures that are supposed to protect the integrity of evidence.
The footage also shows the arrival of K-9 search teams. I take it they are there to search???
Would that burn pit, along with the adjacent buildings, not be the obvious place to start looking? Were they really prevented from getting to the pit by one dog?
Considering the seriousness of the situation (the priority being locating Teresa Halbach), how was it that the might of State police, with the availability of canine experts at the property (K-9), was delayed by a dog? What kind of dogs have you got over there?
If the dog was chained, then who chained it there? Why wasn’t the owner called to remove it?
If you were investigating, and at this point (the 5th/6th/7th/ and some part of the 8th) you were still unaware of Teresa’s situation, a dog wouldn’t stop you. This at bests appears to be gross incompetence. A delay of three days into a missing persons investigation.
Also, its not entirely clear from the documentary, but it seems that Steven and various members of his family were away from the yard when the car was found (??). And told to remain away during those crucial three days.
It is clear from Stevens news interviews at this time that the police had spoken to him. The discovery of Rav 4 should have presented the police with a group of suspects/people they would like to speak to quite urgently, extending to all those that lived on the property and had access/connections to it, including Steven.
Did those in law enforcement engaged in the search adequately interrogate this group with a purpose of finding her, dead or alive? Was Steven adequately interrogated with regards to her whereabouts? Or was he allowed to swan around talking to news crews while he could have potentially helped the police find her alive?
6 times they searched the trailer. It would have been obvious that she wasn’t in there after the first search, but they kept looking. Where the other buildings searched this often in those three days? Was the car crusher searched? And that burn pit. If only they could distract that dog?
Were they looking for Teresa? They kept searching Stevens place. Why? She wasn’t there. There persistence with Steven would have suggested they had their suspect. So why wasn’t he arrested on suspicion? Luckily for them Steven didn’t do runner before they discovered the remains coincidently at the same time the key appeared on the floor. But him running would have given far more of case than they ever had.
What happened to the plywood boards and branches that were put in place around Teresa’s car? Were they saved as evidence? Was it determined where they came from ? Avery property? If so where? Would these boards have been available to officers or others to use in staging a frame-up while the family was off the property? Certainly these boards had to be manually gathered ,transported then placed . If examined clothing fibers, human hair, dirt, grease ,paint and even human DNA could have been found then used or at least considered in the case.The question is was this discovery work done in the beginning or not ?Were these boards and branches saved? If not would this be considered an injustice? I haven’t been able to find a mention of this evidence anywhere . I did write a letter to Karhleen Zellner regarding my concerns ..Perhaps they have already looked into this. Can anyone share information on what happened to these boards and branches ?
They did little with the items. They said they couldn’t get prints from anything because of the texture. I know they saved the hood because it was in the trailer with the RAV, but I doubt they saved the rest of the items. I believe it was Ertl’s testimony if I recall correctly.
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2019-04-19T21:03:32Z
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https://justiceforbradcooper.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/protocols-ignored-evidence-mishandled-in-teresa-halbach-investigation/
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Online registration is now officially closed. You can register on-site at the Teacher Education Faculty as of Friday 11 May 2018. Please note that on-site registration for the conference does not guarantee the availability of all conference material.
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2019-04-20T21:01:02Z
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https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1N27LST6JB-EJKPQnXq6tO0zV8FCd1s2nchXWtt7vqvc/closedform
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I’m not talking funky music, either! That would be a fun, as well as, funky matter and might even get me off the sofa to dance. I’m talking about being “in a funk.” All January and now I notice it’s already 10 days into February. This must end! For one thing, my birthday is exactly one week away and that would definitely make a funk worse to feel like this on one’s special day.
Dictionary.com says funk means “a dejected mood.” Now look up dejected. Disheartened, low-spirited. Ah, low-spirited, that’s it. We’re not talking spirits here; from time to time in the evening I might have a glass of red wine. No, my spirit has been low.
Must I remind us? It is 11 degrees outside, feels like -1. I like snow but not if I have to shovel it with slabs of ice in it. I like snow from inside a warm home; it looks beautiful out here in suburbia which used to be country. So this extra harsh winter is a factor.
I spent Thanksgiving and longer in India. The first week of December I visited South India where I had to buy a sleeveless top. After sharing all the photos and reconnecting to my Midwest U.S. time zone, I realized I was right in the heart of winter. Ugh. This is also part of it.
Funk. Probable origin Scottish and northern English, from a verb to ‘fail through panic (1737). Suddenly, I feel better. Panic? That’s going too far. I’m just in a funk, that’s all.
Maybe when you’re in a funk you just shouldn’t try to analyze it. Just be. Go through it. Watch some comedies. Catch up on sleep. Relax. And that’s what I did. Especially on those days when the county closed down. Too much ice with the snow. Dangerous to drive. As long as I still had bread, peanut butter, and wine ….. cereal, almond milk, yogurt. Those frozen nan I got from Costco. I hit the carbs a little too heavy but, hey, I was in a funk.
After all, I didn’t call anyone and yell at them. Even the fitness place customer service, even after they told me my dues were overdue. I calmly told the woman I wasn’t renewing. She let me send an email instead of a letter stating that. That surprise could have doubled my funk.
I found a compelling book to read (I’ll save this for another blog post). I spent quality time with my two dogs and two cats. I made some great dinners with vegetables I got from Green Bean (organic) delivery. I caught up on my Facebook (is there such a thing?). I drove less, saving gas for my car, and thus money from my checking account. In fact, a week ago I did my taxes and I get a refund. Turbotax makes it easy! They hold you by the electronic hand (they are no paying me to say this).
The days are getting longer. The sun sets after 6:00 p.m. It is nearly mid February. March is coming, Spring is coming, gardening, sitting on the deck, going barefoot. I’ll admit I’m getting a little ahead of the calendar but suddenly that funk is gone.
I am obsessed with this film. I’ve seen it twice in one week and ordered the book it is based on.
All the actors do a great job. If anything, I’d like the film a bit longer to get more into the characters but perhaps the book will do this.
This film, will all its color, energy, grace–it makes me want to return to India. I went in 2008; four years have passed. I can recall Varanasi in all its glorious, holy atmosphere at a moment’s reflection. This is not enough. I want to immerse myself in masala, bow to a goddess, kiss a cow! I am 62 now. In this blog, I vow to go back to India while I’m still in my 60s.
This film–I won’t spoil the plot for you who haven’t seen it. Just go.
Maria came over to my house for the first time. She needed me to burn a cd of her writing and a resume to apply for an artist residency. She also wanted another dvd of our India trip. We were part of a small group that went in March 2008. We had been strangers before the trip halfway around the world. We are now friends.
So after lunch on the back deck where she admired the creek and woods, she asked to pop the dvd in and watch it. I had taken hundreds of her photographs and learned how to make a movie from the images. I added Donna DeLory’s “Ganapati Om” as background music. It has always been one of my favorite chants. Ganapati is another name for Ganesh or Ganesha. This lovable elephant headed god is the one to invoke at the beginning of a project or event (or trip). He is the remover of obstacles.
and thank you for bringing India to me.
I recently returned from a two week trip to India. Most of the time was spent in Varanasi (Banares), gliding in a boat along the Ganges River or visiting goddess temples.
I am writing up my trip before it fades away. Miraculously, however, India seems to have become a part of me. My stomach calls out for Indian food at least once weekly and I am enjoying listening to various kinds of Indian music. My memories of India are a big part of what I am currently writing about.
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2019-04-25T11:44:43Z
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https://phebek108.wordpress.com/tag/india/
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This material may be copied only for noncommercial classroom teaching purposes, and only if this source is clearly cited.
The author has developed a strategy that should help students to grasp a reasonable sense of the vastness of geological time (millions to billions of years), and to see the many tens of millions of years between the first emergence of each major class of vertebrates over a 500 -200 million year period. They should also recognize how each successive group retained the main vertebrate traits of its predeccessor, while adding modifications that are diagnostic for its classification. Hopefully, this approach should be understandable to 5th graders through high school. This lesson is now available as Patterns in Time.
Students are taken on a simulated "voyage" backward in time, to the beginning of our planet. They will "witness" that beginning, the origin of life, and a number of key events from then to the present. This becomes a dramatic experience, involving body and mind, helping students to relate physically at least to the relative timing of events in geological and biological history, if not to the absolute vastness of that time.
Geological and biological events have occurred in a clear sequence of vast but measured time.
1. Being surrounded by a familiar scale of time throughout the course will provide a constant and convenient frame of reference on which to place events in biological history, helping students to see and remember the existence and rate of biological change.
2. Students will be more likely to internalize the difficult concept of deep time if they use all their senses in a dramatic context, and if the time scale always surrounds them.
1. recognize the relative timing of major biological events in geological time.
2. recognize the proper orders of magnitude to those events ("billions of years", "millions of years", "thousands of years".
3. recall the approximate timing of a few selected key reference events, e.g. origin of earth (4.5 bya), oldest fossils (3.5 bya), beginning of Cambrian "explosion of life" (545 mya), largest extinction event (Permian/Triassic, ~90% of all species died out: 250 mya), age of dinosaurs (235 mya - 65 mya), the K-T extinction (~65% of all spp. died out: 65 mya ), earliest hominins (6 mya).
PowerPoint Presentation (Optional): This could be used as an introduction to this lesson, or serve as a quick presentation of the concept in place of the lesson.
- a. Measure the perimeter of your classroom.
- b. Using that dimension to represent 4.5 billion years, and starting at the door into your classroom (= NOW), place markers at intervals backwards in time matching the list above. See some TIME SCALES, or have your students calculate the scale dimensions for your room. To assure accuracy, have 3-4 students assigned to each dimension to calculate the scale independently; they can compare results and work out any errors.
- c. If possible, have your students (or your more artistically talented ones) illustrate the past 543 million years with appropriate key life forms of each era on a length of butcher paper, and mount it as a mural along the wall, from "NOW" at the doorway, and running along the side wall of your room toward the back of the room. This, alone, will be a handy reference for you (and/or your students) to point out various events of the past when you talk or read about them throughout the year. If possible, get it laminated (or cover it with clear contact sheeting) for year-to-year durability. The periphery of my room was about 45 meters, so I used the first time scale. The illustrated time scale I had started at the door near the front of the room, and extended along the wall toward the back of the room about 550 cm (5.5 meters), so that portion was always visible to all my students. Be sure to include pictures of key fossils for certain time periods: a trilobite (Cambrian), a placoderm (Devonian), a Dimetrodon (Permian), and an Ammonites (Cretaceous).
- a. the fanfares from the first selection in the tape or record of the music from the motion picture sound track for 2001 - A Space Odyssey : "Also Sprach Zarathustra". There are 3 dramatic fanfares in about 1.5 minutes. You will probably need some filler time from when you turn on the tape to when you will make your grand entrance to one of those fanfares. The two bands following the "Zarathustra" (selections 2 and 3) would work fine...they're long and mildly spacey. Tape them first (for the duration of "filler" needed, then add the "fanfares".
- b. some appropriate sound effects (from a sound effects tape or CD, or the selections 2 & 3 mentioned above); try "space" sounds, stormy winds, etc. These should serve first as the timed "filler" before the fanfares, then simply for background sounds during your "voyage" through time after the fanfares.
- a. helmet: I borrowed a black motorcycle helmet from a colleague of mine.
- b. cape: Get some material from a yardage shop...something flashy (I chose red), and attach snaps, or an elastic band, so it goes on over your head quickly.
- c. boots: I used my black after-ski boots...real spacey!
I wear all black that day, with a black, long-sleeved turtle-neck pullover shirt. I wear my lab coat over that initially (easier to remove when putting on the costume).
- c. put the time of the event (bya or mya) on the sign.
- d. there should be enough cards so that everyone in your largest class has a card to hold.
- e. these should be placed around the periphery of the room, on counter tops, marker trays, et c.), in their proper position of the time line, face down.
- a. it can be very thrilling for a student to actually hold a very old rock or fossil, so try to get as many of these as you can, with the ages documented if possible (from catalog supply companies, or local university geologist).
- b. where necessary, here and there, you can substitute fake items, or plastic replicas, or stuffed animals (e.g. dinosaurs). For ancient bacteria and algae, provide plastic petri dishes or culture tubes at some locations.
- c. place the items around the room at their appropriate locations (somewhat hidden).
- d. keep these items and signs in a special box to be used every year.
(see end of lesson for the formatted handouts).
2. "Time Map". This is a vertical time line on a sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper, blocked out in billions of years. Off to one side, list the several main events which students are to place on the time line in their proper positions after their "voyage through time".
1. This trip is best done early in the course, perhaps in conjunction with your introduction to evolution, or your intro to ideas on the origin of life. This will provide a memorable and constant frame of reference for all subsequent lessons, discussions, films, and news events which have a geological time element. Throughout the course, you (or a student) can refer to the appropriate part of the time line when dealing with these events.
2. This dramatized "trip" may seem a little hokey, or childish for high schoolers, but it has worked very well with Juniors and Seniors. Success will hinge largely on your attitude and rapport with your students. You can always adjust your approach, so it could work well with elementary through junior college.
3. In conjunction with this, you might want to explore the methods for measuring these vast time periods, especially if you have students who might question the validity of our ability to measure geologic time (and you probably will!). A quick way is to do the mini lesson "13 Ways to Tell Time Backwards"; the strength of this is that it provides multiple lines of evidence pointing to the same time dimensions. Or consider doing the new DEEP TIME lesson, and/or one of the additonal suggestions listed under "Extensions and Variations" below.
Click here for an animated PowerPoint presentation that nicely compares cosmic and biological evolution with special creation timelines, This link will take you to the script for the PPP and how to request the PPP itself.
1. Students are prepared for a voyage backward in time...back to the formation of planet Earth. They must have "trip slips" signed by parents. Collect these a day or two before the "voyage". Anticipation grows!
If you like, you can explain at some point that the curtains must be closed because "our time machine causes everything outside to spin, and this could make you dizzy if you could see outside."
3. With the next fanfare, you throw open the door dramatically, step in, shouting "Aha!!! Are you ready?....It's TIME ...for the voyage of your life!!!" Rev up the engine (a child's pretend bicycle engine, or appropriate sound effects). Explain to students that they will need to get "spaced out"...they do this by standing and walking out of each row, starting at the back, and walking back and around the perimeter of the room, with each row falling into the growing line, until everyone is standing around the edge of the room. You should lead the line, using your trusty "laser blaster" to deal with dangerous dinosaurs, terrible trilobites, belligerent brachiopods, attacking algae, and bad bacteria! When all students are standing around the room perimeter, facing into the room, move back around and gently re-position students so that they occupy positions pre-selected where they can hold a sign and/or object representing that point in time (which you placed there before class).
If you need (or want) to cut across the room, pretend that you are passing through a "worm-hole in the space-time continuum", while you move across in staggering thrusts and bumps along the way.
4. Once positioned, announce that you will step outside for a moment "to set some switches". Do this, then immediately throw open the door, with loud booming noises, flash the room lights off and on quickly (lightning), shake a large sheet of posterboard or sheet metal (thunder), and announce "It's four and a half billion years ago...the earth is forming!" Hand off these two jobs to two students standing there, while you move on to the next station, handing "hot" volcanic rocks to a student ("tsssss"). At the 3.8 billion years station, hand the student a piece of 3.8 billion year old rock, exclaiming "One of the oldest known rocks on earth....3.8 billion years old!" At a station between 3.8 and 3.5 billion years, pick up a hidden box of "Life" cereal, hand it to the student there, announcing "The first living thing!". "We know this, because the oldest fossils found are about 3.5 billion years old" (handing a piece of chert to that student, pointing to the student, saying "The oldest fossil!!!"). At 2.7 billion years, announce "You've got a nucleus!... you must be the first eukaryote!"
to the 2% level), you could have an oxygen molecule model here.
In order to have something for every student to hold, prepare several stations for the long 3.5 bya to 2 bya, time frame, with signs saying "BACTERIA" , "ALGAE", "MORE BACTERIA", "MORE ALGAE", "UGLY ALGAE", "BEAUTIFUL BACTERIA", etc., along with appropriate rocks, culture tubes, fake "slime", and/or petri dishes.
6. Continue thus around the room until you arrive at "NOW". At this point turn up the lights, have each student pick up his/her sign identifying the event or material at that point, hold the signs so all can see them, and ask everyone to look around the room for a few minutes, noticing the timing and sequence of the events. Then, ask students to place the signs at their positions so that they can be seen when they leave. Students must then walk forward through time, (counterclockwise in my room), going past all those events, and eventually moving into their row to sit down. They then begin to fill in their "time map" diagram, placing the events asked for at the proper position in time, according to the signs in the room. Meanwhile, you return to the back room, remove costume, and return to the class, asking if they found the trip exciting, etc.
7. If there is time, it's interesting to show them a series of slides, or the video entitled "Powers of Ten", moving from the familiar to the far reaches of outer space, moving out exponentially, then back down to the familiar, and deep into the microscopic and sub-microscopic reaches of inner space. This adds further to dramatize the vast ranges of time, size, and space. You might close with a little homily that, "Even though each of us is just a little speck in the universe, in time and space, we ARE special: we ARE made of stardust...the remains of a supernova, we ARE ALIVE!, we CAN DO amazing things, ...and we ARE ALL IMPORTANT, certainly to ourselves, and to those who care about us. Isn't that amazing?!"
8. Another version of some closing comments: "For such a tiny speck of material (in this vast universe), existing but an instant in the vastness of time, we (and all life) are very precious...very important, to each other. If you are having problems, trouble, sadness, anger in your life, just stand back and reflect on your place in this universe, and perhaps those problems will not seem so overwhelming!!! In addition, even little things we do can have a profound effect on others, so DO GOOD THINGS!"
Prepare a quiz in which students are expected to place selected events on a timeline at their proper location. They should also provide the times (in bya or mya) for a few of the key events. And finally, given the times, students will respond with the key events associated with those times.
When clicking on these links, you will leave ENSIweb. To return, just click on "Back" in the menu bar of your browser.
1. As mentioned in the Teaching Strategy section, it would be useful to explore some of the ways scientists actually determine the ages of geological events and fossils. Using "13 Ways to Tell Time Backwards" is a good opener. In addition, it would probably be helpful if you could include a lesson dealing with radiometric age-dating (e.g. C-14 and Potassium-Argon), the principles and procedures involved, especially if students have not explored this topic in earlier courses. We have a new lesson (2004) that provides a very nice experience in a rock-dating simulation. It's called Date-a-Rock!. Try it. There is also an excellent online interactive dating tutorial on radioactive dating, C-14 dating, and using isochrons for nearly fool-proof dating. You should also consult the Talk Origins Archive essay on Radiometric Dating for information. In addition, the University of California Museum of Paleontology web site "Learning from the Fossil Record" features a nice age-dating lesson: "Determining Age of Rocks and Fossils" by Frank McKinney.
2. Seriously consider spending a session with the new interactive lesson on the ENSI site: DEEP TIME, in which the methods and high level of confidence held by scientists in geological age dating is experienced. This lesson is designed to be a useful introduction to the Virtual Age Dating Tutorial described above. It also points to the pseudoscience of those predisposed to discredit the science of modern geochronology in favor of "evidence" for a young Earth.
3. To help students gain a more realistic personal sense of deep time (especially in middle school life science or earth science), try our Patterns in Time lesson. In that lesson, students also come to realize that the different vertabrate classes emerged separately over several 100s of millions of years, and did not exist prior to their emergence (as revealed in the fossil record). That lesson also demonstrates the accumulation of modified traits on top of the accumulated traits found in the previously emerged group, showing gradual, additive and mosaic changes over time. All of this provides a strong implication that each group descended from the earlier antecedents through gradual change over time.
5. There are many versions of student-constructed or class-constructed time line lessons. Most are not as dramatic as the "Time Machine" lesson described here, but they could be useful for students to do in addition to "going back in time". An excellent timeline lesson is available, with vivid illustrations, from the efforts of ENSI fellow and OBTA winner, Thomas Atkins and one of his students. It's entitled: "The History of Everything".
6. For students with little or no experience in dealing with time sequences, there is an excellent exercise on the UCMP web site ("Sequencing Time" by Judy Scotchmoor) which takes the students from sequencing the events in their own lives, to assigning numerical values for those events (years ago), then giving names to the groups of related events (e.g. "Pre-Schoolian Era", etc.). From here, it's an easy jump to working with geological time charts.
In addition, a followup lesson ("What Came First?", also by Judy Scotchmoor) physically engages students in building a room-scale timeline. This lesson could be even more impressive and effective than the Time Machine lesson: it's very physical, but it's easier to do and prepare for. The timeline is already provided (mounted around the room). You ask students to pick one of about 15-20 large event cards (this requires about half of your class). Then ask them to arrange themselves in the sequence they think the events happened (not along the timeline, yet). Lots of shuffling and reshuffling! Then, ask the seated students to suggest any changes they think should be made (can vote, if necessary). When they are all more or less satisfied, read your list of the events in proper sequence, asking students to move accordingly, as you go. Quite an eye-opener.
Next, when all properly sequenced, ask them to move to the time line around the room, and take up positions where they think they should be. When "done", again ask for input by those in seats. Finally, have students move to where they should be, as necessary. Another eye-opener, depending on whether they have done any timeline work before. Most will be jammed into the very short past 500 million years. You can find this lesson (with list of events) on the UCMP site.
1. A beautiful timeline poster is available: "A Correlated History of Earth". It is not a scaled timeline, but it correlates a variety of events in geological and biological history. It shows stages of plate tectonics, mountain building, volcanic episodes, glacial epochs, asteroid and comet impacts, fossil group ranges from many different localities, and major extinctions. It can be seen and ordered from the Worldwide Museum of Natural History for $20 (laminated for $25), including shipping. You can also order by phone at 1-800-216-8130.
2. TalkOrigins Archive has a very nice listing of events (with their times) in their "Evolutionary and Geological Timelines". They also have a short discussion of why the times seem to change, and why they may be different in different references: "Geological Time Scale".
Also, (same site): Time Scale Chart and Timescale comparison charts (to scale - 1937-2004) - These are useful to show changes in the Time Scale Charts over the past 50 years..
Some of the ideas in this lesson may have been adapted from earlier, unacknowledged sources without our knowledge. If the reader believes this to be the case, please let us know, and appropriate corrections will be made. Thanks.
TRIP SLIP FORM: parental consent slip for the "voyage"
TIME MAP: worksheet for plotting time scale after the "voyage"
These three pages are in Adobe Acrobat pdf format in order to maintain their intended layout form. Each one-page item is shown in reduced form. For access to full size pages, you will need to download the free Acrobat Reader from Adobe (unless it's already installed in your system). Then just click on the blue file name at the bottom of each item. You may see the "Acrobat Exchange" application loading, then the pages will display.
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2019-04-26T00:23:58Z
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http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/time.mac.html
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Being a farm kid is not for sissies and cowards. The dark side of the chicken experience is slaughtering, plucking, cleaning, and preparing chickens for the pot. I watched as Mother transformed into a slobbering beast as she towered over the caged chickens, snagging her victim by the leg with a twisted coat-hanger, ringing its neck and releasing it for its last run. We crowded by, horribly thrilled by what we knew was coming. It was scarier than ”The Night of the Living Dead”, as the chicken flapping its wings, running with its head hanging crazily to one side, chased us in ever larger circles until it finally reached the Pearly Gates. It looked horribly cruel, but done properly, a quick snap of the wrist breaks the chicken’s neck instantly, giving a quick death. Afterward, my mother grabbed the dead chicken, plunged it into a pot of boiling water, plucked the feathers, slit its pimply white belly and removed its entrails, cut off its feet and head, and prepared it for dinner. I was repulsed when Mother found a unlaid eggs in the egg cavity and used them in cooking. That just didn’t seem right. I was happy to eat the chicken, but future eggs….disgusting.
Mother looked out one day and saw one of her chickens eating corn, oblivious to the fact that her gizzard was hanging out, bobbing up and down as the chicken pecked corn off the ground. Apparently she had suffered injury from a varmint of some kind. Clearly, she wouldn’t survive with this injury, so Mother and I tried to catch her. At least she could be salvaged for the table. Well, she could still run just fine. We chased her all over the yard with no luck. Finally, Mother decided to put her out of her misery by shooting her. She missed. She fired again and shot the hen’s foot off. I knew I could do better. I shot her beak off, then hit her in the tail. By this time, we both felt horrible and had to get her out of her misery. Her injuries had slowed the poor beakless, tailless, gizzard-bobbing, one-leg hopping chicken down enough so we could catch her and wring her neck.
All chickens didn’t end life as happily. The LaFay girls, Cheryl, Terry, and Cammie raised chickens for 4-H with the rest to fill their freezer. Late one Thursday evening while their mother was at work, they realized tomorrow was the day for the big barbecue chicken competition. Mama wouldn’t be in until way too late to be helping with slaughtering and dressing the chickens. After all the time and effort they had put in on their project, they had no choice but to press forward without Mama’s help. They’d helped Mama with the dirty business of putting up chickens lots of times. They’d just have to do manage on their own.
Cheryl, the oldest sister, drew the short straw and won the privilege of wringing the chicken’s neck. She’d seen Mama do it lots of times, but didn’t get the theory of breaking the neck with a quick snap. She held the chicken by the neck and swung it around a few times in a wide arc giving it a fine ride, but no real injury. When she released it, it just ran off drunkenly. The girls chased and recaptured the chicken a couple of times, giving it another ride or two before the drunken chicken flew up in a tree, saving its life. Acknowledging her sister’s failure, Terry stepped up to do her duty. She pulled her chicken from the pen, taking it straight to the chopping block, just like she’d seen Mama do so many times. Maybe she should have watched a little closer. Instead of holding the chicken by the head and chopping just below with the hatchet, Terry held it by the feet. The panicked chicken raised its head, flopped around on the block, and lost a few feathers. On the next attempt, Cammie tried to help by holding the chicken’s head, but she jumped when Terry chopped and the poor chicken only got a slice on its neck. By now, all three girls were squalling. Cheryl tied a string on the poor chicken’s neck, Cammie held its feet and they stretched the chicken across the block. By now, Terry was crying so hard so really she couldn’t see. She took aim, and chopped Henny Penny in half, ending her suffering. Guilt-stricken, they buried the chicken. Defeated, they finally called their Aunt Millie, who came over and helped them kill and dress their chickens for the competition, which they won. All’s well that ends well.
Howling with laughter and horrified all at once. Great story telling!
We really aren’t evil incarnate like it sounds.
Absolutely! Love your sense of humor, wit & candor!
Your terrifying humor know no bounds.
My mother should have had me neutered when she had my tonsils out. I have a boy just like me.
Ha! Thanks for sharing your humor.
Oh good. I thought you might unfollow!
My husband gets a pig from the 4H kids for their company pig roast every summer. It always bothers him a little that the kids then send thank-you notes telling him thanks for buying ___________(insert Pig’s pet name) for their pig roast:0).
Kind of makes you hate yourself when you laugh, doesn’t it?
You had the best job. Thanks for reading.
That is just sad and hilarious at the same time!
Sad, true, and hilarious. I am so glad chickens don’t have nine lives!
Quite a saga–there’s a story out there, about a headless rooster surviving for several weeks. The farmer took pity on the poor creature, and fed it with an eye dropper. It continued to roost at night, and attempted to crow (which had to sound pitiful). Apparently the rooster had enough of its brain stem left for basic functions. This was also a botched execution with a hatchet. I’m a farm kid and hated killing, plucking, singing, butchering chickens. the smell was horrible–as you well know.
I think I saw that on Public Television. “The Natural Life of the Chicken” There was nothing natural about it, though. It was all chicken nut stories. That being said, I loved it.
OMG, LInda, that could be part of a horror movie. I feel so sorry for the poor chickens. You really must have felt very bad. But you didn’t mean it.
We were trying to put it out of its misery, but just made it worse and worse. Thank goodness we finally caught the poor thing.
What a panic all around… it wasn’t its lucky day.
But we dis have TV to watch back then!
That’s what you call hard living. I’m guess I’m too much of a city gal to handle such a site. But I’ll still eat me some chicken, though.
Oh, it was definitely rough for the chickens. When it’s your life and you’re with people you love, it’s just life. My life was just like everyone else’s in the neighborhood. We needed those chickens and eggs.
Like the new theme by the way, much easier to read!
It is cleaner and better set out.
Oooh YUCK how gruesome! I am a wimp and a cissy (but I DO love chicken)!
Yes or get someone else to do the dirty work!
Well yes you are pretty rubbish with a gun. I would bloody starve if it were down to you. I beak is not going to fill me up!
Certainly not if you were puckish! So sorry for that!
I never felt bad for the chickens they were the meanest critters on the face of God’s green earth even meaner than the hogs. The cows and sheep, on the other hand, I felt really awful about. They were so sweet. I couldn’t eat beef while I was on that ranch.
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2019-04-24T14:49:32Z
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https://nutsrok.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/the-sad-saga-of-the-beakless-tailless-gizzard-bobbing-one-leg-hopping-chicken/
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Porn
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Kids
| 0.567984 |
wordpress
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Holy crap this game rules! Dragon Force is a rather unique strategy game for the Sega Saturn that mixes turn based strategy with real time tactical movement, decision making, and party building. Development was started by a company called J-Force, but Sega itself eventually took it over and finished it. In North America it was localized and released by Working Designs. Sega used Working Designs’ English translation for the European release of the game.
Dragon Force focuses on a continent wide war between various kingdoms and empires. The continent is called Legendra, which is a terrible name. There are eight total kingdoms to choose from, but only six are initially available. The rest are unlocked after the first time beating the game.
Each kingdom gets control of various Generals, either by recruiting them by searching in various castles, or by recruiting captured commanders. There are ten different types of Generals, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. There are ten main types of common soldier types as well, and each of these have strengths and weaknesses as well. The manual includes a table detailing the effects that common soldiers have against other types.
Now, with so many different countries and stories to choose from the game is built in with plenty of replayability. For this review I just played one scenario from start to finish and dabbled in a few others. I picked Highland as my main campaign, and after playing it this one does seem to be designed to be a tutorial type of campaign. Highland is rather isolated so you do not have to worry about border wars early on, and there is an easy peaceful annexation of Palemoon. It makes me think that Lord Wein and the elf Queen Teiris will be more than friends after this giant war.
Given this easy annexation I then stormed Tristan to basically conquer the entire Eastern half of Legendra. The rest of the conquest then focused on the Western half, picking off kingdom after kingdom until I finally took down Goldark. The threat continues as the evil being Madruk is still working to be awakened, so simply conquering Legendra is basically the first half of the game.
This game is quite fast paced in the beginning, but gets bogged down in the middle. You can just run around and storm castles all day long, making sure your enemies have little and later, nothing to counter your assault with. Once you’ve finished the conquest absolute chaos ensues but you can basically spend the time just grinding levels until you’re ready to easily blitz through the rest of the game. Turns start taking quite a long time though when you’re storming castle after castle and being counterattacked. Just before I was done conquering it wasn’t unfounded to have single turns take nearly an hour or more! So this game ends up being a major time sink, and its why I’ve just been pecking at it for months while I stroll through other games.
Each one of these scenarios by itself is quite long and rewarding, and if you could only pick one Saturn game to have on the system until the end of time, and only that one game, this would be a great candidate. Is it worth the price tag? It is if you enjoy the game and play through every single campaign to see the story unfold from so many different perspectives. This game is not cheap though, so in most cases it may be one of the last games that anybody collecting for the Saturn will pick up.
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2019-04-26T10:32:53Z
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https://whydidiplaythis.wordpress.com/tag/teiris/
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Porn
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Games
| 0.365126 |
wordpress
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Multi-Level Simply means that you get paid from the efforts of others that the boring and physically intensive chores are taken care of for you. ::: – Monitoring a process or the results of an action – Monitoring Performance – Recording of an event As we can see there are many program that is low cost and offers the best compensation plan. Global Domains International, or GDI, was founded in 1999 by Michael Reed, CEO being able to walk away from a job is a great thing if you desire it. As you have been trained, you need to meet people and tell guidelines and remain steadfast and consistent with your strategies. After all the core of all MLM businesses is this is the MLM system or lack of that theyre using to build their business.
It is because the Multi Level Marketing business model presents an excellent opportunity for http://stlaaf.org/make-multiple-degree-advertising-workout-to-suit-your-needs-2/ the “little your web application development project around your company2s services, objectives and of course your budget. That person that you refer for every person that they refer to GDI, the best place to start until you feel comfortable. These are the overrides managers earn from the base possible result for your Internet application development and web application development initiative. If, for instance, 2 percent of the total sales revenue for the whole company is designated to the executive bonus pool, and something the better chance you have of being a success. A MLM marketing system, or Network Marketing, is a business model where a customers to offset the bill for the auto-shipped products or their initial starter package.
← So You Need To Give Your Mlm Business The Time To Grow, All The While Implementing Your Marketing Plan.
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2019-04-19T22:41:59Z
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https://andrerdcu.wordpress.com/2016/02/27/there-are-countless-mlm-marketing-systems-on-the-market-but-nothing-is-as-revolutionary-as-the-attraction-marketing-system/
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Porn
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Business
| 0.958905 |
wordpress
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The Russian bug has really got me. A couple of weekends ago we saw Mikhail Bulgakov’s play The White Guard (1926) in a new version by Andrew Upton performed at the Sydney Theatre. Bulgakov is also the author of The Master and Margarita (1967) the novel it seems all Russians know, a piece of magical writing where Satan – in various forms, sometimes a cat – stalks 1930s Moscow.
Still, I read it with great pleasure and will re-read it.
Stalin saw Bulgakov’s play The White Guard on 15 occasions and appeared to baptise Bulgakov with his support. But Bulgakov’s work in Moscow theatre dried up and he started to grumble. He had the unnerving experience of receiving a phone call from General-Secretary Stalin with the opening line, “I hear you are not happy with us.” At that point he might have fainted. But he survived the Great Purges and wrote The Master and Margarita, only published in 1967, after his death.
You can visit Bulgakov’s house museum in Moscow.
It was an energetic production of his play and I was grateful that Upton and Cate Blanchett, artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company, had chosen it at as one of the European works in their current season.
From the Gleebooks stand in the foyer I bought a boxed set of television versions of Chekov plays.
We were enormously taken by the 1970s production of Three Sisters, the play Chekhov wrote in 1900. It is the best production of the several we have seen of this wistfully sad evocation of what were to be the last days of the Russian gentry.
Olga, Masha and Irina Prozorova and their brother Andrei are together in their large family house in somewhat attenuated circumstances since the death one year earlier of their father, a general in the army. The house fills with visiting army officers from the local detachment. In bursts of conversation with one another and the men in uniform the women’s disaffection with life positively steams off them.
I even forget what she looked like. I suppose people will forget us.
We must work. The reason we are depressed is we are the children of parents who despised work.
Being trapped is a motif, as in Vanya. Masha is trapped in a failed marriage with a tedious uniformed village schoolmaster; Olga is trapped in her job as school teacher; and their brother Andrei, played here by an astonishingly youthful Anthony Hopkins, is trapped with a wife who ends up tyrannising him and his gentle, passive, sisters.
“Nothing ever happens as we want it too. I never wanted to be a headmistress. We shall never go to Moscow,” laments Olga.
The appeal of the play lies in the talk. “Since we can’t have any tea let’s do a little philosophising,” says Vershinin, the officer who is new to the town, himself trapped in a marriage with a neurotic wife who regularly attempts suicide and who captivates Masha with his speculations.
All this has a sinister foreboding. We know the fate that was to overtake these gentlefolk when the Leninists in their belted blouses, cloth caps and revolvers were to come to town to eliminate class enemies.
Indeed – this is Chekhov at his most haunting – someone refers to a “storm coming.” Remember this in a play, set inRussia, written in 1900: they refer to the “coming clap of thunder.” If they knew of the tortures being refined for them, Solzhenitsyn was to wonder about Chekhov’s characters, surely they would kill themselves.
What’s the point of knowing a foreign language in a town like this?
Futility runs through all the talk and Chekhov seems cast as a precursor to Samuel Beckett and existentialists. Nothing is worthwhile, all effort is wasted. Nothing in the country works; after all, this is a place where the railway station is 15 miles from the town and where no one will succeed at anything. Andrei, who aspired with the support of three doting sisters to be a brilliant academic, becomes the biggest failure, ending up the dullest of provincials, proud to be on the local council and losing what’s left of the family inheritance at card games.
…wondering what people years off in the future will think of them, if they will think of them at all.
I’ll report on the other plays as I play them.
The documentary deals with a period I find fascinating, the immediate post-war years in Germany. The country surrendered in May 1945, demolished, devastated, defeated. But within 10 years the basic reconstruction was finished and within another 15 years it had grown rich on high-quality manufactured exports.
The years 1945 to 1949, dealt with on this DVD, were the basis for the miracle. The documentary tells the story through interviews with German civilians and military survivors, and veterans of the Western armies who occupied the land and grew to appreciate its people. There are also good re-enactments. But the best is probably the newsreel footage – for example, of the first Leipzig Trade Fair in the spring of1946, of the first reopened rail that ran from central Berlin to the lakes, of a double amputee hauling himself up a ladder to work on roof repairs. There are miners and factory workers in 1946 demonstrating outside the town hall in Essen for more coal and more food from the British occupiers. And an interview with the communist agitator who helped organize them. There is coverage of Communist show trials of textile factory owners in Leipzig.
Honestly, I could watch 10 or 20 episodes of this. It is a drama of recovery and resilience and an account of the political movements that lead in 1949 to the declaration of two states, the Federal Republic of Germany in the West and the German Democratic Republic in the East.
What emerges is, yes, the sheer resilience and ingenuity and doggedness of the Germans.
Millions of refugees flowed into a ravaged country as the German populations of the East were forced out. Millions of their servicemen were still held in POW camps. Much of the housing stock had been destroyed. The Russians insisted on hauling factory machinery out of the country and into their own, where it rotted unused.
The one Russian interviewee, a newspaper reporter (one fault of the documentary is that there aren’t more Russians) speaks of his unbounded admiration for the German people in surviving this time. Almost immediately, he said, they got water flowing through pipes, trams back on tracks, telephones functioning.
There are interviews with adults who as kids lost their parents and were allocated to other families for Christmas celebrations before being returned to the makeshift orphanages. One woman tells how she lost two brothers – one went down with his U-boat the other just vanished and had to be declared dead – but she proceeded to set up a business making shoes out of hemp when there was no leather or rubber.
The Germans kept bleeding. Those held as POWs by the Russians were not to be returned until 1955, if they survived the Gulag. In the East, the Communist dictatorship revived Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen, inflicting conditions as terrible on their prisoners as those inflicted by the Nazis.
No doubt there are documentaries made in Germany that give us a fuller picture. But we will never see them given the absence of a serious documentary or history channel on cable TV that will purchase them, stick on subtitles and treat us as intelligent viewers. Instead our History Channel gives extraterrestrials and Andre Rieu. In the meantime if this subject interests you as much as it does me, get hold of this DVD. The grainy black and white newsreel footage is living history.
One thing from the start. This is not to be confused with the miniseries The Kennedys, which the History Channel rejected.
Like its documentary on Nixon, this brings very interesting talking-heads to the screen, first and foremost Ted Kennedy. Touching to have the Lion of the Senate talk about what “my brother” did and thought. There is Hugh Sidey, the TIME magazine correspondent and confidant of the President, and Robert McNamara, who seems an old acquaintance because of his own extraordinary documentary The Fog of War. There is Ted Sorenson, Special Counsellor to the President, and Arthur Schlesinger Jnr, both devotees and high priests of the Kennedy mission. Fascinating is Khrushchev’s foreign policy advisor, especially on the Vienna Summit. And the Social Democratic German politician Egon Bahr talks about the great Berlin speech and about the impact on Berliners of the assassination.
So the human material in the documentary is substantial and it is a thrill to have these big faces on the screen talk as if in your lounge room.
But as Hugh Sidey said in respect to the President’s illnesses, “For Kennedy, every day was a gift.” And historian-journalist Richard Reeves makes the point that for Kennedy life was a race against boredom. And the tapes of his crisis meetings apparently confirmed his full lucidity.
Vital to an understanding of his Presidency is the widespread belief there would be nuclear exchange.
Tapes during these two crises over Cuba confirmed, in one historian’s view, that Kennedy was ahead of everyone else in the room. He knew what was going on; his thinking was completely lucid. The historian adds interestingly that he was poorly served by his staff. Robert McNamara says – as in The Fog of War – that in the Missile Crisis war was avoided by a hair’s breadth. But, not to miss the point, it was Kennedy’s experiences in the Bay of Pigs which made him disbelieve his military. And the most recent tapes confirm this.
I believe this President therefore has a claim on greatness. To put it bluntly he saved us from war when – who knows – another President might have been nagged by his military into accepting the inevitability of war. Kennedy gave a great speech on June 10 1963, known as the “peace speech”, in which he made a case for the ending of the Cold War. This was no idle rhetoric because in September 1963 he negotiated and sold to the Senate the first significant arms control measure of the Cold War: the Atmospheric Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
It’s the view of this documentary that he was moving to detente. The floundering was at the tactical level, for example, with Vietnam.
And there are even a few who say that it is true that Communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.
The documentary does not ignore the Judith Campbell affair. It comes down with the view that Jack and Jackie did consider separation while they were in the White House. Hugh Sidey states the view that scandals would have broken in a second term. That is, that Judith Campbell or Mary Meyer would have been examined by the Congress and the media because they were not just affairs, but affairs with national security or law and order implications.
The documentary establishes that there were two years of protests before President Kennedy announced a civil rights bill. As a recent book argues, he and his brothers were “bystanders” as blacks themselves campaigned in the American South against their second-class status.
But after viewing this I’m left with two impressions. First, he was in fact a peace maker who kept us away form a nuclear exchange. And, second, he grew as President.
He was the civilian leader laying down strategy in a room with empty headed military brass. We needed him. McNamara ends up saying had he lived the world would have been a different place, and a better one. But that’s based on the problematical expectation – one supported by only faint evidence- that he would have wrapped up the American endeavour in Vietnam had he got a second term.
Oh, that we were denied that possibility.
It’s worth it for the frequent close-up interviews with General Alexander Haig, who ended up Nixon’s final days Chief of Staff (1973-74). Haig was later to sully his reputation when he became incoherent with panic after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981 when he was Reagan’s Secretary of State. But here – talking about Nixon – he is surprisingly articulate and persuasive. Kissinger is there of course, talking about the tragedy of Nixon: that he destroyed himself as much as he was destroyed by “pitiless enemies.” Ben Bradlee, Managing Editor of the Washington Post and Richard Reeves, author of books on American politics are helpful. And there is Monica Crowley, who was his researcher on foreign policy while he was in retirement and who wrote a short memoir of her time with him.
Nixon pinning a medal on Alexander Haig.
One mystery of the Nixon Presidency is that of the tapes. First, that he ever took such a risk. Second, that he had not realised the risk as Watergate gathered pace shortly after his second Inauguration of January 1973 and realising the danger, had them obliterated. It is dealt with in full.
The documentary is sound because of the people interviewed but, because of time constraints, doesn’t give us the depth we might want. For example, there is the newsreel coverage of the 1972 visit to China. There is none of the more recent revisionist material that criticises the diplomatic strategy and paints the American team as willing to do anything to keep Mao and Zhou Enlai positive, all for the pressing political advantage Nixon was achieving domestically.
I screwed it up and I paid the price.
It reminds us that Nixon was always on the look out for petty frauds and dirty tricks. When he heard that, in the lead up to the 1972 campaign, theAlabamapolitician George Wallace had been shot, he beamed with satisfaction. Wallace was not going to be able to run as an independent and take Republican votes. His next thought was to plant Democrat election material in the apartment of the would-be assassin. This would have been done, but the apartment had already been sealed by the FBI.
There is brief attention paid to modernising impulses in the Nixon administration, like establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. But no examination of Nixon’s exploitation of race prejudice in the South as the deliberate building of a new political coalition. But this is a 90 minute documentary, not a book, and you watch it for the nostalgia, the black and white imagery of the politics of the 50s and 60s, the faces and the words of the participants – all of which send you back to the books with a renewed relish.
The political groupie should pursue the box set entitled The Rise and Fall of Margaret Thatcher: The Collection. It has two discs, one called “The Long Walk to Finchley”, which details Thatcher’s 10 year pursuit of a pre-selection – inspirational wa tching for any young political activist in that hardest phase of a political career, locating a seat. A lot of atmosphere out of the 1950s with the old Tory party receiving a satirical rub; a deft portrayal of the young Ted Heath, in one scene, Margaret appears to try to seduce him. It concludes with her arrival in the Commons.Disc two recreates her final days in power with flashbacks to her defeat of Heath for the Tory leadership and her 1979 election victory against “Sunny Jim” Callaghan. All in all, two of the best documentary drama treatments of politics.
The Financial Times listed Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo as one of the best films on politics ever made. It is a lively recreation of the political crisis in Italy that erupted around the figure of Giulio Andreotti, Christian Democrat Prime Minister and an unsuccessful candidate for the Presidency. Delicious insights into Italian politics: Andreotti was a faction leader within the Christian Democratic union haunted by his failure to rescue a much admired colleague Aldo Moro who was kidnapped by the Red Brigades – the guilt hangs over Andreotti as he battles allegations about links to the mafia. He battled and survived, winning on appeal against a magistrate’s sentence on two occasions. I’m told by an Italian churchman that Andreotti’s conversations were mesmerising.
The New York Review of Books saw fit to run an article on The Red Riding Trilogy, a British police drama with separate episodes located in 1974, 1980 and 1983. I would compare it with The Sting except for its multilayered complexity. It suggests a link between corrupt senior police and a land developer that, in turn, involves a serial killer.
The plot takes liberties which in the final analysis makes it fall short of much of the praise it received. On atmosphere, however, it rates very well.
I doubt if we could ever see Dickens on the screen better than the four discs of Little Dorrit with a running time of eight hours and 19 minutes, colossal achievement of the BBC. I could go back and home in on any one of 100 scenes to appreciate this craft.
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2019-04-18T23:20:57Z
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https://bobcarrblog.wordpress.com/best-dvds/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.284945 |
tripod
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Pet supplies are all around us!
A variety of common items can be used to keep your pet safe, healthy and comfortable. And best of all, a lot of them are free or very inexpensive.
A hairbrush with rounded bristles makes a good grooming tool, especially for short-haired pets.
* Cat litter alternatives - Newspaper cut into ¼ inch strips, sand or wood pellets can be used. Or try ground corn or fine sawdust. Mix in baking soda to keep odours down.
Old kitchen and bathroom towels, washcloths, saddle pads and wraps make good rags and towels for around the barn.
Empty condiment and spray bottles make great containers for hoof creams, lotions, soaps, and sprays.
Paper feed bags can be used as garbage bags, as poultice wraps, to soak up spills, or they can be shredded and added to compost.
Damaged buckets can become storage containers, trash bins, or grooming buckets.
A broom handle can be recruited to become a sturdy blanket rack.
Consider using vegetable oil rather than Showsheen on your horse's coat.
Palmolive dish detergent is a gentle alternative to shampoo.
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2019-04-24T16:32:20Z
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http://kibblecanada.tripod.com/id20.html
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Porn
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Home
| 0.23915 |
wordpress
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but on paper it cast no light.
flew on my croaky breath’s wing.
deliver me to death in style.
a race to survive the days.
whilst I was my own liar.
and on right path had my feet stay.
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2019-04-24T22:26:46Z
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https://freemytongue.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/destiny-had-its-way/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.240674 |
saunalahti
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Early version Konepistooli m/31 Suomi with the 50-round box magazine. Picture provided by J. Haartikka.
This is my fifth version of the Suomi SMG. If anyone has additions or comments, please let me know.
-:Pistole-mitrailleuse "Suomi" - Brevet annouce. Tikkakosken Rauta- ja Puuteollisuus Osakeyhtiö, Helsinki 1931.
Huhtala, P.: Reserviupseeri - Reserviupseerien ja -aliupseerien kertaus- ja jatko-opiskelukirja. Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö, Porvoo 1940.
Note: For pictures and detailed history of this weapon, please read the Suomi Submachine Gun, KP/-31 article in the Gunwriters' online magazine.
Konepistooli m/31 Suomi "Bunker Model"
Konepistooli m/31 Suomi "Tank Model"
The Konepistooli m/31 Suomi has been the standard sub-machinegun of the Finnish army for more than sixty years. Conscript NCOs were still being taught how to handle the Suomi in the late Eighties, although the gun had been replaced decades earlier as the infantryman's standard automatic weapon by the RK m/62 assault rifle, a copy of the AK-47. Tens of thousands of Suomi SMGs are rumored to be stockpiled by the Finnish army in case a need should arise.
Designed by Aimo Lahti, this accurate if heavy SMG is a well-made, elementary blowback weapon. In appearance it is very similar to the German Bergmann MP34 and the Soviet PPD 1934G/38G and PPSh41 which it inspired.
The gun is capable of both automatic and semi-automatic fire. When firing full automatic this well-balanced weapon remains very easy to control thanks to its heavy bolt. The Suomi is very reliable even in extreme conditions and its barrel can be speedily changed without special tools. The 1940 Handbook of the Officer of the Reserve states that weapon is at its most effective at a distance of 50 to 300 meters. The bullets are lethal up to 500 meters and more but at those distances the spread of the burst begins to be too wide to ensure hitting the target. The sights were graduated up to 500 meters.
During World War II most Finnish troops were armed with bolt-action rifles. During the Winter War of 1939-40 the standard deployment of automatic weapons was two LMGs and two SMGs per platoon. In the Continuation War of 1941-44, the number of SMGs was increased to four per platoon. In the field, however, troops who needed much firepower - such as strike units, bunker-clearing teams and long range patrols - tended to have a very high concentration of SMGs. Suomi SMGs were always issued to the most capable men and used with devastating effect during close combat in the forests.
The Late Model Suomi SMG with the 50-round box magazine. Picture by J. Hartikka.
The later model Suomi appeared in 1942. Except for the the addition of a muzzle brake and the consequent increase in length and weight, it is identical to the original model.
Left: The Bunker Model Suomi. Picture by J. Hartikka. About 500 "Bunker Model" Suomi were commissioned by the army in 1941 for use in trench fortifications. The original Suomi SMG's thick barrel jacket was a liability when defending a bunker; it could not fit through small firing slits and if the gun was kept completely inside the bunker, the shooter was blinded by the muzzle flash and gunsmoke. The special Bunker Model addressed this deficiency with a much longer, slimmer barrel jacket, while the barrel itself remained as originally designed. For additional agility the gun's stock was replaced with a pistol grip.
The "Tank Model" Suomi had a pistol grip and a very heavy barrel jacket that could be attached to a six-ton Vickers tank's small weapon mount. Instead of a hull machine gun, the Vickers boasted a sub-machine gun and submachine gunner. When the crew were outside the tank, the SMG could be carried as a personal weapon. In practice the heavier jacket was often kept semi-permanently attached to the tank turret and a standard barrel jacket was attached to the weapon when it was taken outside the tank.
Other developments included a standard Suomi SMG attached to a Finnish model 44 flamethrower. With this combination weapon, the flamethrower user could protect himself against enemies out of the 15-meter reach of the flamethrower. The tanks of the flamethrower lasted for 40 to 60 seconds, providing 50 to 60 short flame bursts. A small batch of these weapons was made and tested at the front.
The Suomi was tested in 1941 by the US Army as a candidate for M1A1 Thompson SMG successor. This competition was won by the M3 "Grease Gun". Some Suomis were bought by the Swedish, Swiss and Danish armies. The weapon, in a modified form, was made in Sweden as the 37-39, and imported as the 37-39F. In Switzerland they were made by both Hispano-Suiza and the Waffenfabrik in Bern as the Model 43/44. In Denmark the manufacturer was Madsen. Makeshift factories in Stalingrad produced a rough copy of the Suomi, the 7.62 mm KF-42 SMG. 120 Suomis were presented to the German troops of AOK Norwegen in 1942 for use on the Finnish Front. Most of these weapons left Finland with German troops in 1944 and were subsequently used in other theaters of war.
The standard magazines during wartime were the 20 and 50-round clips and the 70-round drum. The 50-round clips were somewhat unreliable and prone to cause jamming problems. The drum magazine was copied by the Soviets for their PPSh41 and earlier SMGs. In 1955 Suomis were converted to take the Swedish 36-round box of the Carl Gustaf, and this magazine is still used along with the 70-round drum.
The following accessories were issued with the weapon: A spare barrel in a leather pouch, a pouch for carrying clips, a tool pouch, gun cleaning accessories and a leather strap for the gun proper.
An early version Suomi SMG stripped. Note the heavy bolt. Picture provided by J. Haartikka.
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2019-04-19T04:40:14Z
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http://www.saunalahti.fi/~ejuhola/7.62/suomi.html
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.19357 |
wordpress
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We all feel like this, do we not? Rule of thumb: It takes 4 weeks for you to see results, 8 weeks for family/friends to see results, and 12 weeks for the rest of the world to see the results. Trust the process and keep going!
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2019-04-21T02:34:55Z
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https://wherefithappens.wordpress.com/2016/01/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.933109 |
wordpress
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Water pollution is one of the biggest problems our country, Philippines, is facing. Countless plans and efforts had been exerted by numerous government and non-government organizations and private individuals to answer this problem. But unfortunately, until now it has not been resolved.
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2019-04-25T02:39:23Z
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https://megacebu2050.wordpress.com/2015/07/
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Porn
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Society
| 0.645585 |
livejournal
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This is a Friends Only moderator contact journal.
1. You currently moderate or co-maintain one of these communities.
2. You have volunteered to keep an eye on one of these communities.
3. You are being considered as a moderator for one of these communities.
Any questions about this journal can be directed to: communitycrew@gmail.com.
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2019-04-23T09:59:11Z
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https://communitycrew.livejournal.com/profile
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.850924 |
wordpress
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Previous PostAt God’s Door.Next PostHis Smile, For Her.
Thank you so much! 🙂 Lotsa love from me too!
Thank you, John! I completely agree with you! No one else is going to come and complete us. We’re complete in ourselves.
Yes, I wrote it because I lately realized how difficult it is to bear the brunt of a slighted heart alone. Thank Heavens for the people I have around me.
Every relationship needs work. No relationship is perfect. It has to be nurtured and the love kept alive to keep it going.
Thank you for agreeing… I don’t think love is blind… It is more like we let it make us blind. To other things.
Very true. Love should be the path of our lives, not the destination.
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2019-04-22T22:20:51Z
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https://inkingthethinking.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/life-notes-9/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.141807 |
wordpress
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Cost of capital is the required return necessary to make a capital budgeting project, such as building a new factory, worthwhile. Cost of capital includes the cost of debt and the cost of equity. A company uses debt, common equity and preferred equity to fund new projects, typically in large sums. In the long run, companies typically adhere to target weights for each of the sources of funding. When a capital budgeting decision is being made, it is important to keep in mind how the capital structure may be affected.
Capital structure is a mix of a company’s long-term debt, specific short-term debt, common equity and preferred equity. The capital structure represents how a firm finances its overall operations and growth by using different sources of funds.
Debt comes in the form of bond issues or long-term notes payable, while equity is classified as common stock, preferred stock or retained earnings. Short-term debt such as working capital requirements is also considered to be part of the capital structure.
A company’s proportion of short and long-term debt is considered when analyzing capital structure. When people refer to capital structure they are most likely referring to a firm’s debt-to-equity ratio, which provides insight into how risky a company is. Usually a company more heavily financed by debt poses greater risk, as this firm is relatively highly levered.
Optimal capital structure is the best debt-to-equity ratio for a firm that maximizes its value and minimizes the firm’s cost of capital. In theory, debt financing generally offers the lowest cost of capital due to its tax deductibility. However, it is rarely the optimal structure since a company’s risk generally increases as debt increases. A healthy proportion of equity capital, as opposed to debt capital, in a company’s capital structure is an indication of financial fitness. We’ll discuss optimal capital structure further in section 14.
A firm has control over its capital structure, and it targets an optimal capital structure. As more debt is issued, the cost of debt increases, and as more equity is issued, the cost of equity increases.
It is assumed that, when making investment decisions, the company is making investments with similar degrees of risk. If a company changes its investment policy relative to its risk, both the cost of debt and cost of equity change.
The level of interest rates will affect the cost of debt and, potentially, the cost of equity. For example, when interest rates increase the cost of debt increases, which increases the cost of capital.
Tax rates affect the after-tax cost of debt. As tax rates increase, the cost of debt decreases, decreasing the cost of capital.
Here’s a very simple example: let’s say you require a rate of return of 10% on an investment in TSJ Sports. The stock is currently trading at $10 and will pay a dividend of $0.30. Through a combination of dividends and share appreciation you require a $1.00 return on your $10.00 investment. Therefore the stock will have to appreciate by $0.70, which, combined with the $0.30 from dividends, gives you your 10% cost of equity.
The cost of equity can be a bit tricky to calculate as share capital carries no “explicit” cost. Unlike debt, which the company must pay in the form of predetermined interest, equity does not have a concrete price that the company must pay, but that doesn’t mean no cost of equity exists.
Rf – Risk-free rate – This is the amount obtained from investing in securities considered free from credit risk, such as government bonds from developed countries. The interest rate of U.S. Treasury Bills is frequently used as a proxy for the risk-free rate.
For public companies, you can find database services that publish betas. Few services do a better job of estimating betas than BARRA. While you might not be able to afford to subscribe to the beta estimation service, this site describes the process by which they come up with “fundamental” betas. Bloomberg and Ibbotson are other valuable sources of industry betas.
(Rm – Rf) = Equity Market Risk Premium (EMRP) – The equity market risk premium (EMRP) represents the returns investors expect to compensate them for taking extra risk by investing in the stock market over and above the risk-free rate. In other words, it is the difference between the risk-free rate and the market rate. It is a highly contentious figure. Many commentators argue that it has gone up due to the notion that holding shares has become more risky.
The EMRP frequently cited is based on the historical average annual excess return obtained from investing in the stock market above the risk-free rate. The average may either be calculated using an arithmetic mean or a geometric mean. The geometric mean provides an annually compounded rate of excess return and will in most cases be lower than the arithmetic mean. Both methods are popular, but the arithmetic average has gained widespread acceptance.
Assume Newco’s stock is selling for $40, its expected ROE is 10%, next year’s dividend is $2 and the company expects to pay out 30% of its earnings. Additionally, assume the company has a flotation cost of 5%. What is Newco’s cost of new equity?
Weighted average cost of equity (WACE) is a way to calculate the cost of a company’s equity that gives different weight to different aspects of the equities. Instead of lumping retained earnings, common stock and preferred stock together, WACE provides a more accurate idea of a company’s total cost of equity.
First, calculate the cost of new common stock, the cost of preferred stock and the cost of retained earnings. Let’s assume we have already done this and the cost of common stock, preferred stock and retained earnings are 24%, 10% and 20% respectively.
Now, calculate the portion of total equity that is occupied by each form of equity. Again, let’s assume this is 50%, 25% and 25%, for common stock, preferred stock and retained earnings, respectively.
Finally, multiply the cost of each form of equity by its respective portion of total equity, and sum of the values to get WACE. Our example results in a WACE of 19.5%.
Determining an accurate cost of equity for a firm is integral in order to be able to calculate the firm’s cost of capital. In turn, an accurate measure of the cost of capital is essential when a firm is trying to decide if a future project will be profitable or not.
Recall from Section 5 that companies sometimes finance their operations through debt in the form of bonds because bonds provide more flexible borrowing terms than banks. How much do companies pay for this debt?
Compared to cost of equity, cost of debt is fairly straightforward to calculate. The rate applied to determine the cost of debt (Rd) should be the current market rate the company is paying on its debt. If the company is not paying market rates, an appropriate market rate payable by the company should be estimated.
Because companies benefit from the tax deductions available on interest paid, the net cost of the debt is actually the interest paid less the tax savings resulting from the tax-deductible interest payment.
Note: Rd represents the cost to issue new debt, not the cost of the firm\’s existing debt.
Newco plans to issue debt at a 7% interest rate. Newco’s total (both federal and state) tax rate is 40%. What is Newco’s cost of debt?
As we discussed in section 6 of this walkthrough, preferred stocks straddle the line between stocks and bonds. Technically, they are equity securities, but they share many characteristics with debt instruments. Preferreds are issued with a fixed par value and pay dividends based on a percentage of that par at a fixed rate.
Assume Newco’s preferred stock pays a dividend of $2 per share and sells for $100 per share. If the cost to Newco to issue new shares is 4%, what is Newco’s cost of preferred stock?
For more on this subject, read Prefer Dividends? Why Not Look At Preferred Stock?
Next, we’ll take a look at the weighted average cost of capital, a calculation that will put our formulas for both the cost of equity and the cost of debt to work.
Weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is a calculation of a firm’s cost of capital in which each category of capital is proportionately weighted. All capital sources – common stock, preferred stock, bonds and any other long-term debt – are included in a WACC calculation. All else equal, the WACC of a firm increases as the beta and rate of return on equity increases, as an increase in WACC notes a decrease in valuation and a higher risk.
Broadly speaking, a company’s assets are financed by either debt or equity. WACC is the average of the costs of these sources of financing, each of which is weighted by its respective use in the given situation. By taking a weighted average, we can see how much interest the company has to pay for every dollar it finances.
The capital funding of a company is made up of two components: debt and equity. Lenders and equity holders each expect a certain return on the funds or capital they have provided. The cost of capital is the expected return to equity owners (or shareholders) and to debtholders, so WACC tells us the return that both stakeholders – equity owners and lenders – can expect. WACC, in other words, represents the investor’s opportunity cost of taking on the risk of putting money into a company.
Securities analysts employ WACC all the time when valuing and selecting investments. In discounted cash flow analysis, for instance, WACC is used as the discount rate applied to future cash flows for deriving a business’s net present value. WACC can be used as a hurdle rate against which to assess ROIC performance. It also plays a key role in economic value added (EVA) calculations.
Investors use WACC as a tool to decide whether to invest. The WACC represents the minimum rate of return at which a company produces value for its investors. Let’s say a company produces a return of 20% and has a WACC of 11%. That means that for every dollar the company invests into capital, the company is creating nine cents of value. By contrast, if the company’s return is less than WACC, the company is shedding value, which indicates that investors should put their money elsewhere.
WACC serves as a useful reality check for investors. To be blunt, the average investor probably wouldn’t go to the trouble of calculating WACC because it is a complicated measure that requires a lot of detailed company information. Nonetheless, it helps investors to know the meaning of WACC when they see it in brokerage analysts’ reports.
Be warned: the WACC formula seems easier to calculate than it really is. Just as two people will hardly ever interpret a piece of art the same way, rarely will two people derive the same WACC. And even if two people do reach the same WACC, all the other applied judgments and valuation methods will likely ensure that each has a different opinion regarding the components that comprise the company’s value.
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2019-04-22T18:11:00Z
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https://fadhilconsult.wordpress.com/2017/09/10/buacc3701-cost-of-capital-cont/
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Porn
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Business
| 0.742309 |
wordpress
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Daylight Saving Time | Living life in the carpool lane..
Last Sunday, we turned the clocks back one hour. Thus, gaining an hour of sunlight, but losing an hour of sleep.
I’ve always dreaded this time change because of the loss of sleep, or what feels to be a loss of sleep, but have begun to appreciate the extra hour of daylight.
How do the kids adjust?
We never really saw any real adjustment issues with M. We never really changed our schedules to accommodate the time change. We kept things the same. She never really had an issue with either time changes.
K, on the other hand, I’m not so sure. She’s always been one to fight sleep. She’s the shortest napper, she’s the earliest riser, she’s the latest sleeper. She’s the exact opposite of M’s easy sleeping ways. It’s maddening at times, but there really isn’t anything I can do. She is who she is.
With the extra hour of daylight, I’m hoping to go back to our afternoon/early evening walks around our neighborhood. I’m looking forward to running errands after Hubby gets back home from work without it getting dark too soon. I’m looking forward to the summer where we can jump into the pool before dinner.
There’s a lot to look forward to during this time of the year.
How do your kids deal with the time change?
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2019-04-25T19:48:12Z
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https://artsyprincess.wordpress.com/2016/03/15/daylight-saving-time/
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Porn
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Kids
| 0.483678 |
wordpress
|
Salt Creek Canyon, located in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park, is where my wife and I chose to backpack in October of 2017. Our last backpack in Canyonlands occurred in October of 1976: 41 years ago! It was wonderful to return to this land of red slickrock, golden cottonwoods, and starry, starry nights. This time, we were enchanted by the evidence of the Ancestral Puebloan People of the region. Their houses, granaries, potsherds, and pictographs provided a spiritual presence and brought the canyon alive in our imagination.
There are trail guidebooks and blogs that provide detailed descriptions of the hike, so I decided instead to simply provide a visual look at the canyon through my photography and to use a few word impressions to give a sense of the experience.
10,000 years ago, a Raven chuckles to its mate and young as they play in the air currents along the canyon walls. A Camel glances upward at the sound, then resumes munching a mouthful of Sagebrush, vaguely wondering why it hasn’t seen any other Camels for years. Wind quietly flutters the Cottonwood leaves as a Coyote howls in the distance.
800 years ago, Ancestral Puebloan women chatter and giggle along the creek while filling clay pots with water. Children play hide-and-seek among the sagebrush and rocks, shouting suddenly upon spotting a companion. Turkeys gobble at the irritation of being packed together in the village’s pen. Men chip arrowheads from chunks of chalcedony, creating sharp percussive sounds. Then a sudden shout to ascend to the cliff fortress, as strangers are spotted creeping along Salt Creek!
700 years on, the sound of cattle lowing and spurs-a-jangling occasionally brings the canyon alive, as ranchers run cows in the sagebrush. Picture the clouds of dust during the roundup as cowboys herd the cattle along ancient trails. Listen to the crackle of pinyon logs in the evening campfire while cowboys scrape their tin plates; a Great Horned Owl hoots in the distance.
60 years ago, a jeep engine roars as a uranium prospecter shifts into low gear while descending steep red slickrock. He gets out and tests the sandstone with his rock pick, then tosses the rocks aside with a clatter. He camps tonight near the stream, the soft gurgling reassuring him. Then a wildcat screams from the cliffs above.
In October of 2017, we set up camp as the last warm sun glows on the cliffs. I use a rock to pound the tentstakes into clay, while the gas stove hisses as water starts to boil for our evening meal. After dinner, all is quiet as we snuggle in a warm sleeping bag. Two Coyotes howl back and forth in the canyon. There are no human sounds in the distance under the vast panorama of stars.
Here is a selection of other photographs from the trip. Double Click on one to see them larger and with captions.
Canyonlands National Park’s Salt Creek Canyon was a quiet place during our four day backpacking trip. In fact, we didn’t see anyone for 2 1/2 days during the hike, making it the perfect wilderness experience. It is a place suffused with remnants of the past, as well as spectacular slickrock formations and evidence of wildlife.
When we visited in October, we started out at the Cathedral Butte Trailhead and hiked in about as far as there was potable water. It is named Salt Creek for a reason: there are alkali salts suspended in the water that quickly clogged our filter, so we had to depend upon iodine tablets and boiling water in order to get drinkable water. No problem if you are prepared.
October was colder than we expected, with the three clear nights reaching down to 16°F, 13°F, and the last night at 11°F. Our down sleeping bags were perfect; don’t expect to be warm with summer-weight bags. The Milky Way and moonlight were wonderful in the canyon, and it was great to climb into the fluffy sleeping bag after our stargazing sessions.
Black Bears are frequently sighted in the canyon, so the National Park Service now requires that hikers carry bearproof canisters. What would the wilderness be without a few predators to make us wary?
Salt Creek Canyon is filled with evidence of prior inhabitants. Please, leave everything untouched so that our descendents can enjoy the magic of this spiritual place.
The National Park Service requires backpacking permits for Salt Creek Canyon, and there are four campsites that are assigned when hikers get their permits. Go to the Canyonlands National Park website for more information about the park and backpacking permits.
For more information about my photography go to Lee Rentz Photography.
Among birders, the legend lives on of the Colima Warbler, found among oak trees in a remote canyon high in the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park. The species is mostly found in Mexico, but this region of south Texas has a couple of places where birders can fairly reliably stalk it, and we decided to be warbler stalkers for a day.
Early that May morning, we laced up our hiking boots and smeared on SPF 55, anticipating a long day in the bright sun. The route would take us from the Chisos Basin, where we were camped, to Boot Canyon, about 3.5 miles distant, with a 2,000 foot elevation gain.
As usual, my intention of finding the Colima Warbler got sidetracked almost immediately, when we walked past a dead Havard Century Plant that was cheeping at me. Huh? I looked on the other side of the brown flowering stalk and discovered a perfectly round hole that was clearly a nest with hungry baby birds in it. So, I hunkered down in the dust and waited for a parent to come. It didn’t take long until a wary mother Ladder-backed Woodpecker showed up and ducked quickly into the hole, where it fed the nestlings.
I was there a long time, and Karen had the opportunity to see a pair of Crissal Thrashers trying to thrash each other while waiting interminably for me to finish photographing. So she got a new species and I missed the opportunity entirely. Oh well, at least I got a few pictures of the woodpecker.
Next I got distracted by bugs, specifically some Giant Agave Bugs crawling around the tip of a rapidly growing Havard Century Plant stalk. Creepy? Yes. But I was amazed at the size of these creatures, which are in the scientific category known as “True Bugs.” Yes, that really is a category, though most real scientists would prefer to use the scientific name, Hemiptera, so that they don’t sound like 8-year-old boys with bug nets. These big bugs sip the sap of the century plant, though probably not enough to hurt it.
Onward and upward, we came upon our first Mexican Jays, which are loud and travel in gangs and aren’t very afraid of people. If Donald Trump was a birdwatcher, he would probably want to set up a wall, or at least a mist net, to stop these birds from entering the country. Though he might like their gaudy blue color and brash attitude. Seeing these jays was a first for us, as we climbed toward seeing 530 birds on our North American Life Lists.
Higher still, Karen spotted a Painted Redstart, in the oak and maple forest–another first for us and a stunningly beautiful bird. There were also Texas Madrone trees, similar to the Madrone trees of the west coast, but with minor differences that I apparently couldn’t see.
Over the pass with long views into Mexico. There were birdwatchers on their own journeys to see the famous Colima. There were also lots of backpackers heading up to campsites hidden all along the trails. It would be a beautiful place to backpack, except for the lack of water along the way, which means carrying the recommended one gallon of water (8+ lbs!) per person per day. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for camera equipment, but we all have our priorities. Would I rather photograph little birds or die of thirst in the desert? I’ll have to think about that one.
Meanwhile, we finally reached Boot Canyon, where the Colima Warbler had been spotted earlier in the week. We stood around. We listened. We walked a few feet. We scanned the canyon with our binoculars. And … nothing. I’m pretty sure I heard the warbler, but not sure enough to count it on my all-important life list. After an hour or so, we gave up on this location, hoping beyond hope that it had simply wandered down the trail we were taking. It didn’t.
We decided that since we had come this far, we might as well complete the 10+ mile loop, rather than going back the way we came. I busied myself with photographing century plants and cactus, since they can’t fly away and hide, although I am paranoid about poking myself in the eye with a sharp spine, which makes me cringe at the thought even as I write this.
By the time we arrived back at the campground, our feet were aching and hot, and we were ready to rest. But that moment brought the best light of the day, with alpenglow or its desert equivalent lighting up Casa Grande with brilliant orange light. So I scurried around the campground trying to get the best angle on the iconic peak until I was bone tired.
We had “dipped” on the warbler: birdwatcher speak for not seeing a desirable bird that we had traveled miles to see, but it was still a great day.
Postscript: We arrived in El Paso late the next day, after passing through a fierce dust storm that sandblasted us with 60 mph winds and near zero visibility. With the temperature at 95 degrees F and the dust storm continuing, we wimped out and stayed in a motel rather than camping for the night. In the cool and quiet lobby of the motel, there was a birding tour group getting their final debriefing for their Texas trip by the trip leaders. It turned out that all these old birders (as in, anyone older than me!) had done the same hike we did, but with expert leadership, they had seen the Colima Warbler. I’ll be back and the punk warbler will make my day.
Remember that Big Bend National Park is is the Chihuahuan Desert. If you go, make sure you plan your schedule to maximize your chance to see the warbler and other birds, and make sure to know the hazards of the desert ahead of time.
To see more of my work, read more of my blog entries here or go to my website Lee Rentz Photography.
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2019-04-26T12:38:00Z
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https://leerentz.wordpress.com/category/recreation/outdoor/
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Porn
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Recreation
| 0.921391 |
google
|
Each dog tag is made of durable Iron Legion steel (or less durable but very shiny gold) and has detailed information about your character, plus room for your own flavor text.
If any of your character stats ever change, you can request one update (text changes only) - free of charge!
Choose from one of twelve backgrounds: Amnoon, Black Citadel, Dragon's Stand, Flame Citadel, Fort Trinity, Jahai Bluffs, Jormag, The Priory, Rata Sum, The Grove, Verdant Brink, or Vigil Keep.
You can also request a unique background tailored to your character's story!
You can also get these dog tags (and more) as monthly rewards on my Patreon!
Dog tags are delivered as 3D-rendered PNG images (1600 x 1600 pixels) within one business day after payment has been received.
You may post and use your dog tag wherever you like, as long as the image watermark is kept intact.
One free update included: if you character's stats ever change, you can request an updated dog tag free of charge once, provided that the dog tag material and background remain the same.
I reserve the right to refuse commissions for any reason, including but not limited to insufficient information provided, abusive or malicious orders, or pending payment issues.
CREDITS AND LEGAL INFORMATIONFrom the Night by Twilight Saint is a commissioned work and used with permission. I am not affiliated with or endorsed by ArenaNet or NCSOFT in any way. Guild Wars 2 and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCSOFT Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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2019-04-19T03:20:19Z
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https://sites.google.com/kianga.eu/homepage/art/dog-tags
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Porn
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Games
| 0.403748 |
wordpress
|
We went to Catch for our anniversary meal the other week and it was so good it’s definitely worth blogging about.
Catch is based in West Vale, it claims to be modern day fish & seafood restaurant based on the family values, and it doesn’t disappoint. It has a traditional fish and chip takeaway, but also a lovely restuarant.
Such a popular place that we only had a choice of two times for a table booking, 6.45 or 9.15, this was only a couple of days before so unsurprising, plus it was a Friday, and everyone knows Friday’s are fish days!
I chose the starter special which was Whitby Dressed Crab – see photo below. Whilst hubby had Peri-peri battered squid rings.
Both dishes were good, perfect portion size and the squid was cooked to perfection.
For main course I went for the Lobster and Shellfish Risotto, and hubby went for Simply Grilled Lobster with Chippy Chips.
Photo below of the risotto.
Again both dishes were perfect.
Prices were reasonable. We compared the lobster dish to Burger & Lobster’s and value for money and quality at Catch was superior by far.
The Chippy chips are amazing! Service was friendly and prompt.
Takeaway looked good too – queue was out the door!
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2019-04-21T08:24:00Z
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https://harleybeecroft.wordpress.com/tag/fish-and-chips/
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Porn
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Business
| 0.967419 |
indiana
|
This program is a companion course to HISP-S 315, Spanish in the Business World, and continues many of the same themes. Upon successful completion of the semester course, students will travel to Peru and work alongside the nonprofit organization 7elements and their community partners in the homeland of the indigenous Yanesha people. Discover how the Yanesha fight to save their cultural traditions and values while integrating global economic systems. Students will collaborate with coffee production companies in Villa Rica and visit agricultural and tourism organizations in Oxapampa, learning about small business challenges and the value of cultural norms and knowledge.
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2019-04-20T19:17:48Z
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https://college.indiana.edu/student-portal/undergraduate-students/international-programs/international-courses/spanish-experiential-learning.html
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Porn
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Business
| 0.949968 |
wordpress
|
I have already written about the announcement of the new IBM MQ Appliance M2002 which is generally available today (July 27th 2018). It is an amazing bit of kit, and already has demonstrated some staggering performance figures.
But you may well be sitting there reading this going “so what”? Why would I want a physical appliance? Surely this is enterprise middleware software, so I simply build an image, configure it and deploy it on a server, either somewhere inside my enterprise, or in a public cloud. And that is a perfectly valid question. And selecting to deploy software on servers, perhaps in a VM or a container is certainly the typical choice of deployment model these days. And IBM is doing what we can to make that style of deployment easier, simpler and yet more powerful as well. So, given all that, why might you consider and choose a MQ Appliance?
Most importantly, it is a choice. It provides an alternative. One of the benefits of the MQ Appliance as an alternative is that it provides a lot of benefits enabling the use of a very powerful MQ configuration without a number of the costs and burdens that otherwise might be associated with such a deployment. And although it might initially look expensive, it is important not just to realize that the price includes state of the art hardware, but that along with that, there are a multitude of benefits which make the MQ Appliance actually a lower cost alternative to many other software deployment configurations.
Many businesses using MQ have one or more highly skilled MQ administrators, who have, over the course of a number of years, built up a rigorously controlled MQ environment where individual Queue Managers are carefully deployed and managed for significant periods of time. While this is effective, it can also be limiting, as each environment becomes bespoke and dependent on the skills only available in the team and become restrained to the specific deployment environment which is tuned to fit that particular need.
Problems in this type of deployment arise when one of the key resources is no longer available for some reason. There can also be significant disruption at maintenance time, and when moving machines for lifecycle reasons. In the same way it becomes very difficult and time consuming to try and add to the system either to provide additional capacity to the existing applications or to support new applications as the MQ environment is very strong, but not very agile and responsive to change. And one of the problems is that with IT infrastructure, change is continuous. Servers need regular attention, with new OS or firmware patches required, and new hardware needing to be purchased and deployed that is always slightly different to the existing deployed systems.
The MQ Appliance is designed to provide a very strong and resilient MQ environment, primarily for production environments on premises. And it does this without requiring a highly skilled MQ administration team to design, configure, deploy, maintain and operate the MQ environment.
There is no need for what can turn out to be months of optimization and tuning of the MQ environment, as the MQ Appliance gives you optimized Queue Managers out-of-the-box.
There is no need to disrupt operations as an operating system or firmware update is scheduled. With no need to then have another disruption as a separate patch is applied to MQ itself. Instead the MQ Appliance is updated with a single firmware flash, updating all aspects of the appliance including MQ in a matter of minutes.
Unlike with servers where each machine might be different, each generation of MQ Appliances are identical, and will have exactly the same counterpart in IBM itself for development and testing of each firmware update. No more differences between systems. No more ‘install and hope’ that your environment is close enough to the supported environments for that version of MQ. And if the MQ Appliances are defined as a Highly Available pair, then both appliances can be updated to the latest level, with no down time, in less than 15 minutes.
With the MQ Appliance there is no risk that malware or additional code will be placed on the system as it is completely locked down. The only code that can be added to the MQ Appliance is the signed firmware updates that are downloaded from the IBM systems. And with MQ AMS included in the MQ Appliances, all messages flowing through the MQ Appliance can be encrypted end-to-end, simplifying audits, and helping to protect data from breaches, and to help meet GDPR requirements for data protection.
Even High Availability becomes much easier with the MQ Appliance. With each MQ Appliance able to run as a self-contained solution with local storage inside the appliance (the M2002A provides 6TB of SSD storage), it is trivial to set-up replication between 2 appliances. This offers a very easy solution to meet high availability needs, with no external dependencies, and literally just a 2-click setup. One of the outcomes of this benefit is that it makes it very easy to deploy MQ Appliances in remote locations, where MQ might be needed in HA configurations, but there aren’t any local skills to setup and maintain a complex network attached storage environment.
Imagine therefore you have MQ running today in an existing environment. Your hardware is old and needs replacing, and so you would need to start planning and evaluating for new hardware. Then there is the issue of how long it will take to order and configure the hardware, which is likely to be done by a different team to the MQ administration team. Once that is setup then there is the issue of what is the standard environment for that type of system? What other software needs to be installed, and then what is the maintenance program for the hardware, OS and other software. All that before installing a version of MQ, configuring it, and then figuring out how to move the existing MQ configuration and runtime across, once sufficient testing had been done.
Or you can simply select the MQ Appliance. It comes as a choice of 2 models offering different levels of processor capacity and storage capacity. And you can upgrade from one model to the other with a command. Then you install it into the rack, cable it into the network. It will already have the latest version of MQ and as you create Queue Managers they will be allocated a protected share of the Appliance resources. If you want to configure the Queue Manager as Highly Available, it’s as simple as identifying where the other appliance is on the network. You want to have Disaster Recovery as well in a remote site – again as simple as connecting to that appliance.
The MQ Appliance is a simple, secure, reliable and powerful way to deploy, run and maintain IBM MQ in your on-premises environments. Suitable for consolidating your existing MQ infrastructure in your data center, or deploying new MQ capacity in your data center, or in remote locations. The MQ Appliance works well if you have existing MQ systems, or if the MQ Appliance is your first MQ system.
It’s good to have a choice. Especially if you choose the IBM MQ Appliance, with the M2002 model available today.
What is GDPR and how does it affect IBM MQ use?
Imagine as a business that you were given the opportunity to grow turnover by 4%, at a stroke, or to increase revenue by €20 million. This would be certainly a key focus area. Well, there is good news and bad news, because these figures are accurate, and can apply to your business, but they are fines that will be applied to your business if you are in breach of the GDPR regulations that will be enforced in May 2018. And your business will be liable for whichever is the greater amount. As such, it is a subject that demands attention. And it can apply to any business if it concerns the personal data of EU citizens, even if your business is not based in the EU.
GDPR is a complex piece of legislation, and not one that can be solved through any one single act or solution. It requires understanding of the legislation, and then a thorough review of existing governance and processes, especially those involved in data handling and security, and ensuring that all people involved in all these aspects are aware of changes being made, and why these are important and must be complied with.
Amongst the key criteria for GDPR compliance are a number of aspects that are likely to need to be reflected in the choices made in MQ deployment to help to meet the compliance needs. However, it must be understood that taking this action around MQ alone will not achieve GDPR compliance, but simply be a part of that compliance.
Given that GDPR is concerned with data protection, it should be clear that data privacy is key in reaching compliance. This isn’t the only aspect, as there are multiple additional aspects such as the ‘right to be forgotten’ providing a requirement to remove data, and also the need to track the movement of data through all systems. Considering all these aspects together, it should be clear that reducing the movement of data to modes of transport that allow for end to end encryption, as well as logging, reporting and monitoring for the movement of data are likely to be seen as essential to aid in GDPR compliance.
Using end-to-end encryption could be the only way to protect personal data wherever in the organization it moves, as it moves as it reduces the need to ensure control of all intermediate systems to protect the data.
End-to-end encryption can help to demonstrate privacy by design as part of your compliance verification process.
IBM MQ can be configured to log all messages and accesses which can be used to track all movement of data, and who had access to it.
Building new tools using the REST API for MQ admin to offer a custom view of MQ configuration and operation could be a critical aspect of generating reports on data movement and protection.
Holding and moving those files around your business could add further vulnerabilities.
File data needs to be handled and managed with the same care as application data as it is just as likely to be personal data that needs to be protected.
As mentioned at the start, there is no single solution that can address all the aspects of GDPR within your business. Ensuring your MQ environment is configured to securely move data with end to end encryption, with comprehensive logging and reporting of messaging access and movement can be a critical step in the wider compliance task.
Work with your IBM representative to ensure you hear more about the benefits of MQ Advanced entitlement to allow your business to move file data and to encrypt messages and data end to end, and thus reduce the risk of data being exposed in a security breach. Or review whether the MQ Appliance would be a good fit for your business, providing the same benefits in end to end encryption and file data movement.
When is a wall a great wall? When it’s a firewall?
Today is June 6th – and the 73rd anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy in World War 2. There were 156000 soldiers landed who attacked the defences on those beaches – the dreaded Atlantic Wall. But they had been preparing for this and had even built walls to practice assaulting, such as the one shown above in Hankley Common in Surrey (down the road from where I live).
Not all walls can withstand assault. But they are almost all built for a specific purpose – to provide safe and secure separation. This holds true for today’s firewalls as well as historical defensive walls.
Hundreds if not thousands of IBM’s customers use IBM MQ to communicate with business partners or separate parts of their own businesses beyond their enterprise firewall. There are a number of ways to do this – including deploying MQ Internet Passthru (MQIPT), opening ports for MQ connectivity, or deploying MQ servers in the DMZ. Not all DMZs are quite as scary or indeed obvious as the one separating North and South Korea. But they exist for good reason – to protect what’s behind the firewall. There is a huge cost associated with data breaches.
The issue some customers have with deploying MQ servers in the DMZ, is that this can lead to messages being persisted to disk in the DMZ – and while devices like IBM DataPower appliances are designed to run in the DMZ this is because they are, on the whole, stateless with no information persisted. This is not the case with IBM MQ, and thus the data on the disk in the DMZ poses a concern due to the increased risk in this environment. This is the primary reason that MQ IPT is used – to avoid the persistence of MQ data here.
IBM doesn’t prevent customers deploying MQ Servers or indeed MQ Appliances in the DMZ – despite typically recommending that customer choose not to do that – there is no impact in terms of their IBM contract or support if they do – this deployment of IBM MQ is still supported – but IBM wants to make sure that customers consider the implication and risk of this (as we do with all their MQ deployment choices – as this is typically critical for their business).
Our concern with the deployment of the MQ Appliance into a DMZ has been that due to being based on the DP hardware customers might see it as addressing these concerns and deploying it as a secure solution to DMZ deployment – whereas the fundamental issue of persisted data still exists. This can be mitigated in various ways such as the end to end encryption of AMS included in the Appliance – but there is no absolute lock-down of the Appliance and therefore we have that statement included in the documentation to ensure that customers make their choice knowingly.
There are therefore a number of different options to allow the movement of MQ messages through the firewall without it going horribly wrong. Customers can deploy MQ or the MQ Appliance into the DMZ if they want to – taking the precautions that are sensible to mitigate risks. IBM will support them with PMRs they raise, but we would work to ensure they are aware that they can be increasing the risk of data compromise and that they should take steps to lock down the environment as much as possible, and use MQ AMS for end to end encryption if using MQ Advanced or MQ Appliance.
Walls are essential, but the best walls make the best neighbours, and with IBM MQ deployed successfully and securely, you can ensure your firewall is a great wall, but that it doesn’t lock your business in – but helps it to grow with safety.
Some of you reading this blog may recall the great athlete Ed Moses – who had a record 122 race winning streak in just about the hardest event – the 400M Hurdles. You need to be strong, fast, and agile just to compete, and to keep winning you need to be reliable. Well, this is how we view IBM MQ, especially with the latest release – IBM MQ V9. You may have seen a recent blogpost on here that had a Statement of Direction talking about a new way of delivering IBM MQ – one that provided a Long Term Support release, and a Continuous Delivery release. The aim of this model is to give customers more choice to select either highly stable releases with just fixes, or releases that benefitted from additional function in the fixpacks.
UPDATE: There is a FAQ on the new support model. Read it here.
On April 19th, IBM announced MQ V9 which is the first release that moves to this new more agile delivery model. As such at the initial release it delivers a small set of additional capabilities that will be available to all customers. Then subsequent mod-level updates will deliver even more updates to customers choosing the continuous delivery stream, but all customers moving to V9 will get the benefit of the new capabilities being delivered in this release.
As with previous releases of IBM MQ, customers have a lot of choice in where and how they may want to deploy this version. IBM supports deployment of MQ – and MQ Advanced pretty much on every commercial IT environment where business critical applications may be exchanging data reliably, securely, and at scale. This could be on-premise, deployed in cloud environments like IBM Softlayer, Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS. IBM also supports virtualization with many customers deploying in VM images, and also in Docker containers, which can be deployed anywhere, including in IBM’s Bluemix platform. This flexibility enables customers to make use of enterprise messaging to support deployments on-premise, on cloud or in hybrid environments.
So what are the key new features of MQ V9 being delivered in this release? Well there are a number of them that are called out in the announcement letters – so you can read the MQ V9 distributed announcement letter here. And the MQ V9 z/OS MLC announcement letter here. And you can read the MQ V9 One Time Charge announcement letter here. But below I will call out a few of the features that I think will be most important to customers.
One of the features likely to be most interesting is a change to the MQ Client Channel Definition Table (CCDT), which is needed by the MQ Client application to provide the channel definitions needed to connect to the MQ Queue Manager. This file is created automatically and prior to MQ V9 needed to be distributed to the client application prior to use. The big change from this new release is that the CCDT can be a web addressable file instead of needing to be distributed out to every client, and to then need to do that with every change. By having a web addressable CCDT accessed by URI, then there are much lower administration needs, and also the MQ infrastructure can be much more dynamic as changes can be made centrally and take effect quickly and without application disruption.
The second big change to the new release of MQ is in MQ Advanced Message Security (MQ AMS). This feature, which is a priced extension to MQ (available either separately or as a part of MQ Advanced) provides policy based encryption at rest of the MQ message contents. By using this capability, businesses can be assured that their message contents can only be unencrypted and read by the targeted application destination, and there is no risk of exposure should any security breach take place which provides access to the system or storage where the MQ Queue Manager holds its queues. This privacy and integrity has been assured by the generation of asymmetric keys for every exchange between client and queue manager, which provides an extremely high level of security, but can introduce a high overhead in terms of the processor cost of the asymmetric key generation.
With MQ V9, a new mode of operation is added to MQ AMS, called ‘Confidentiality’. In this mode there is an initial asymmetric key exchange then subsequent exchanges can reuse (to an extent that can be configured) a symmetric key. This still provides a high level of security and protection for the message content, but with a dramatically lower level of overhead in terms of encryption workload cost. IBM expects that due to the increasing importance of security and protecting systems and data from breaches, that this new feature of MQ AMS will help more customers protect their message contents and therefore their business and customer data. IBM expects to produce performance data for the new AMS configuration around the time that MQ V9 is generally available. But the early testing shows considerable improvement.
A further change for MQ AMS is the support of non-IBM JREs for use with MQ AMS. Previously applications written in Java that relied on a non-IBM JRE wouldn’t work with MQ AMS. In MQ V9 this has now changed so that suitable non-IBM JREs can be used, as well as IBM JREs, extending the ability of more customers to use MQ AMS.
There are a number of other new functions and capabilities available in MQ V9, such as updates to MQ Managed File Transfer capabilities – which are described in the announcement letter, and with the movement to a Continuous Delivery model customers should expect to see more capabilities being delivered in mod levels on top of MQ V9 in the future.
With the recent announcement of the End of Support for MQ V7.1 – announced here – along with the related end of support of the older separate versions of MQ FTE and MQ AMS, this latest release of MQ V9, along with the recent announcement of the update to the MQ Appliance provides customers with a strong set of choices of how to take advantage of the latest new releases as they plan to move off the older releases of MQ they may be using, keeping their deployment of MQ up to date and supported.
When you are taking advantage of the benefits of IBM MQ, you may not need to have to work as hard as Ed Moses did to be #1.
UPDATE: Mark Taylor has provided one of his highly useful videos detailing more of the new function in MQ V9. Watch it here.
Change is always with us. IT infrastructure needs are changed. Application needs change. Skills profiles change. Even workloads and expected response times change. These changes we see in the market drive how we view our products. We frequently update MQ products, perhaps too frequently for some of our customers. As well as adding to and updating the functions and capabilities of MQ, we also try to update or change the packaging and the pricing of our various MQ offerings. We do this to try to respond to the changing needs of the market and the feedback we get from our customers.
As a way of describing this process, we have been recently talking about the different deployment choices available for IBM MQ. Check out this recent webcast on this.
The fundamental thought here is that your business should be able to use the value that MQ provides; however you choose to deploy MQ and consume it. The presentation in the webcast highlights a number of different ways in which your business might want to deploy MQ. This could be maybe reviewing the new MQ Appliance as a deployment choice, deploying the complete MQ set of capabilities using MQ Advanced or seeing whether you want to deploy and use IBM MQ in the cloud – whether that is a public cloud like Microsoft Azure or IBM SoftLayer, or a private/hybrid cloud infrastructure running on your own hardware on-premise, using something such as IBM PureApplication.
Going back to MQ Advanced, IBM announced on May 26th 2015, slightly new packaging and pricing for MQ Advanced. Included in this announcement were also various MQ Managed File Transfer parts. These parts were updated to reflect the needs of our customers – given their growing use of using Managed File Transfer with MQ.
As Senior Product Manager for IBM Messaging I talk to many customers through the year, and one of the constant pieces of feedback I get is about the ever-present need for better handling of file transfers. This is an area where every business has a solution, or 2, or 3 today. No one is happy with their existing offering, and most, even if they are existing MQ customers, are unaware that MQ can help.
MQ’s Managed File Transfer solution can read data from a file, and send it as a MQ message over the MQ network. Once received on the remote system, the MQ MFT solution can then recreate the original file, achieving the movement of the file with greater security and reliability thanks to IBM MQ. This can help to address many of the issues businesses have with moving files, while also simplifying their infrastructure and consolidating on MQ. After initially using MQ MFT to move files, many businesses then take the next step to make use of one of the unique points of MQ MFT which is ‘file to message’ movement. As the file contents are moved as MQ messages, this data can then be directly consumed as MQ messages – meaning that the file contents don’t need to be written back as a file, identified, and then read in again. Instead the data can be delivered directly to the application as a MQ message.
The May 26th announcement simplified the packaging and lowered the pricing for how customers could purchase the MQ MFT capability – either as an extension to existing MQ licenses or as part of the MQ Advanced bundle. The MQ Appliance can also be a part of a MQ Managed File Transfer solution – acting as the co-ordination Queue Manager to allow the MQ MFT Agents to send and receive the file data as MQ messages. With more and more MQ customers choosing to use and deploy MQ MFT we are changing the packaging to ensure they can do this more cheaply by removing the Connect:Direct and Control Center products we had bundled in as they haven’t been used as widely as the MQ MFT capabilities.
Don’t forget that if you buy the MQ Advanced offering you not only get the MQ MFT Service part but also the MQ AMS capability for end-to-end encryption. This has also been a hot topic of conversation with customers and if you want to know more you can read my previous blog about it here.
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2019-04-24T04:14:24Z
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https://leifdavidsen.wordpress.com/tag/ibm-mq-ams/
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Porn
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Business
| 0.953054 |
wordpress
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Episode 16 is the sixth and final part of the Chicago to The Bay Arealeg of Tim Davies’ journey – and also the final instalment of his trip overall.
Tim has been travelling across the USA on the iconic Amtrak trains, and this is the latest leg of the US Railway Travelogue which has continued on the California Zephyr train.
In this episode, we reach the final destination of The Bay Area in California.
These images represent some of the views from the train along this section of the journey, as well as some of the ‘stops’ along this part of the route.
Cape Horn and American River. Credit: Loco Steve, CC BY 2.0.
Coming down the mountain. Credit: Tim Davies.
A few people live here as well! Credit: Tim Davies.
Gold Run – home of hydraulic mining. Credit: Loco Steve, CC BY 2.0.
There are some cars somewhere as well! Credit: Tim Davies.
The Sierras are beautiful. Credit: Tim Davies.
Nearing Colfax. Credit: Tim Davies.
Gold miner at Colfax station. Credit: Loco Steve, CA BY 2.0.
Downtown Colfax. Credit: Tim Davies.
The trees have changed. Credit: Tim Davies.
The homes have changed. Credit: Tim Davies.
Coming in to Roseville. Credit: Tim Davies.
On the homeward trek. Credit: Tim Davies.
Rail yards in Roseville. Credit: Tim Davies.
Roseville Wagon Repair Yard. Credit: Loco Steve, CC BY 2.0.
Leaving Roseville, going west. Credit: Tim Davies.
Much new building in Sacramento. Credit: Tim Davies.
Sacramento centre. Credit: Tim Davies.
Sacramento station. Credit: Tim Davies.
The local Amtrak service in Sacramento station. Credit: Tim Davies.
Sacramento locomotive works. Credit: Tim Davies.
Over the river, leaving Sacramento. Credit: Tim Davies.
Travelling west, between Sacramento and Davis. Credit: Tim Davies.
Travelling west between Sacramento and Davis. Credit: Tim Davies.
Davis Station. Credit: Tim Davies.
Historic Davis Station. Credit: Tim Davies.
Agriculture, between Davis and Matinez. Credit: Tim Davies.
Between Davis and Martinez. Credit: Tim Davies.
Suisun Bay – the mothball fleet has gone. Credit: Tim Davies.
Benicia Martinez Bridge. Credit: Tim Davies.
Journey’s end, at Richmond. Credit: Tim Davies.
It has been great having you along for the ride – we hope you have enjoyed the trip – and we looked forward to planning our next one!
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2019-04-21T18:33:21Z
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https://soundvaulthq.wordpress.com/ep-16-us-railway-travelogue/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.209498 |
wordpress
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« Date of creation or date of commemoration?
This entry was posted on October 25, 2004 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Maps in War Rugs, Translation of texts in War Rugs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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2019-04-25T02:29:26Z
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https://rugsofwar.wordpress.com/2004/10/25/headline-texts/
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Porn
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Reference
| 0.254525 |
cnn
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Finalists in the prestigious CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2016 Competition were announced today by Ferial Haffajee, Chair of the independent judging panel.
This year, the competition received 1637 entries – a record number – from 38 countries across the continent, including French and Portuguese-speaking Africa.
The independent judging panel, chaired by Ferial Haffajee, Chair of the Judging Panel & Editor-in-Chief, City Press, South Africa, includes: Debo Adesina, Editor-in-Chief, Guardian Newspapers, Nigeria; Jean-Paul Gérouard, Former Editor-in-Chief, France Télévisions; Eleni Giokos, Africa Correspondent, CNN; Fernando Gonçalves, Editor, Savana, Mozambique; Anton Harber, Editor-in-Chief, eNCA, South Africa; Joel Kibazo, Media & Public Affairs Consultant; Amadou Mahtar Ba, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, AllAfrica Global Media; Wanja Njuguna, Senior Lecturer, Namibia University of Science & Technology & CNN Journalist of the year 2000; David Ohito, Digital Editor, The Standard Media Group, Kenya and José Sebastião Paulo, Professor of Journalism, University Agostinho Neto, Angola.
The competition is once again supported by the following sponsors, who continue to lend their valuable support to the awards: African Development Bank, Dow, Ecobank, GE and IPP Media.
The finalists will enjoy an all-expense paid four day programme of workshops, media forums and networking in Johannesburg, South Africa, culminating in a Gala Award Ceremony in October 2016.
The CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2016 competition is open to African professional journalists, whether directly employed or freelancers, working in the continent of Africa who have produced a story which has been made available as a printed publication or broadcast through an electronic medium (television; radio or digital platform) whose primary audience are based in Africa.
Culture Award; Ecobank Economics & Business Award; Mohamed Amin Photographic Award; Environment Award; Press Freedom Award; The Maggie Eales Young Journalist Award; Health & Medical Award; Sport Reporting Award; News Impact Award; Francophone general news awards; Portuguese language general news awards; GE Energy & Infrastructure Award; Features Award; and Dow Technology & Innovation Award.
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2019-04-25T17:53:44Z
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http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2016/07/18/cnn-multichoice-african-journalist-2016-finalists-announced/
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Porn
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Sports
| 0.328521 |
typepad
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I’m freshly back from the Mountain West where the struggle over values and conflicting freedoms tends to play out across the landscape rather than in the bedroom.
Each afternoon I hiked through a rugged wedge of public land just north of Colorado National Monument. One day I meet two trail runners and watch a mountain biker snake along another path I’d explored in solitude the day before. Another time, I encounter only a dog with his couple trotting behind. There are bike tracks in the wisps of snow that cling in the shade, but I doubt I’ll ever find the stamina or the nerve to ride in these high places.
It is sunny and pleasant, mountain freezing — a temperature in the low 30s that feels like 60.
Up on Eagle’s Nest, I can see our new house taking shape a thousand feet below. It’s a 12-minute bike ride to the center of town, but houses are sparse here. Nothing but an arroyo stands between us and the harsh, arid lands of Bang’s Canyon and the Monument.
This week the local paper showed a homeowner standing on the deck of his under-construction dream home, overlooking an area where about 100 new oil and gas wells, a pipeline and a compressor station are planned for 2006. More public land in the area is scheduled to be opened for oil and gas development in a February through a federal lease sale, which could add hundreds of more wells to the resort area.
A couple hundred more miles to the east, people in the historic mountain town of Idaho Springs may find themselves squeezed out by a widened Interstate 70. The highway and its Eisenhower Tunnel have dramatically shortened the trip from Denver to Grand Junction, but they've also stimulated the development of faux towns like Vail and their conversion from resorts to year-round bedroom communities for Denver commuters.
As our president just reminded us, we used to think the oceans would keep our country safe from foreign enemies. Before long, we'll have to give up thinking we can always move farther out. We try to get away from it all, and we just bring it all with us — Lowes, Wal-Mart, Circuit City and Chick-fil-A following our cars like tin cans tied to a newlywed's tailpipe.
There is almost no such thing any more as local color, and the few human-built environments that still qualify are ringed by identical wastelands. Only nature still has enough power to truly distinguish a place, and it, too, is losing out at the fringes. Grasslands once plowed to farmland can be just as easily dozened into cookie cutter malls and industrial parks. Woodlands get trimmed back into amenities that give name to McMansion subdivisions. Lakes become too valuable to leave to the ma and pa resorts, and ocean waves can't beat back the beachfront highrises and casinos forever.
There is still hope for harsh places. They don't take easily to civilization, but as an acquired taste, they naturally attract those who like to own things other people don't have.
The fierce escalation of land values they trigger drives real ranchers out of business and prevents working families from ever owning their own home.
Meanwhile, the nostalgia ranchers take advantage of agricultural tax breaks designed to help real ranchers survive.
Westerners now must live with, in the language of real estate ads, "unique lifestyles" of "quiet luxury," which workers can't afford any more than they can afford the $740 cowboy hats in Telluride's "Bounty Hunter" shop.
What a choice. Designer ranch vistas with picturesque tipi tableaus, drilling sites with throbbing compressors or mall sprawl. I'm building a tasteful, energy efficient, low-impact house in country where my roots go back for generations, but I look around and wonder if I'm still part of the problem.
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2019-04-19T22:22:15Z
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https://greatdivide.typepad.com/across_the_great_divide/2006/01/index.html
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Porn
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Recreation
| 0.449617 |
wordpress
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*The definition of experimental animation is open to interpretation. If submitting interactive or generative works, please submit a video documenting how this would be exhibited.
All entrants will be notified if their work has been successful by Monday 4 February 2019.
If selected, your final exhibition works and accompanying stills MUST be received by Friday 15 February 2018.
‘Future’ is a broad theme which treads a path between pessimism and optimism.
Works must be complete and no longer than 6 minutes long.
We may request English subtitles for any works not in English.
Excerpts of selected works and stills may also be published online and in print materials to promote the screening.
You must have the legal authority to submit the work and to have it exhibited publicly, including any necessary permissions.
By submitting your work, all entrants are deemed to have read and agreed to these rules.
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2019-04-20T04:37:31Z
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https://animateexperiment.wordpress.com/2018/06/06/call-for-submissions-2019/
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Porn
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Arts
| 0.924785 |
cnn
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February raid: Cover-up or not?
Watch as CNN's Atia Abawi talks to the family members and walks through the compound, the site of the killings.
A U.S. aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing three U.S. service members and one civlian employee, a statement from NATO-led forces said Friday.
members were injured in the crash late Thursday night.
take off and land as a helicopter and is used to conduct long-range infiltration and resupply operations, ISAF said.
responsibility and said that 30 Americans had been killed.
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2019-04-20T16:16:12Z
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http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/09/
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Porn
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News
| 0.663043 |
wordpress
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Intuitive Consulting for Business & Life!
Wow – looking back over my blog I realized it’s been way too long since I was here! This year started out with a bang as our Wolf dog pair had puppies. What a blessing. 🙂 I feel 2015 will continue to open up many new possibilities. It’s a year for new beginnings and prosperity!
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2019-04-24T16:33:23Z
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https://intuitionforbusiness.wordpress.com/2015/02/
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Porn
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News
| 0.36614 |
wordpress
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Rohit Sharma here. A fun loving person. Love to go out, spend time with friends. Working at built.io as a Technical Lead.
I primarily worked on Ruby on Rails for the first 2-2.5 years of my career. I also had experience of working on Chef(a systems and cloud infrastructure automation framework). Then the focus shifted towards MongoDB. Had quite some fun with the replication and sharding techniques of MongoDB.
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2019-04-21T02:34:00Z
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https://rohitsharma9889.wordpress.com/about-me/
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Porn
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Computers
| 0.546243 |
wordpress
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Up the Eiffel Tower and through Notre Dame, we continued our explorations of Paris.
Lunch at the cafe on the 1st level of the Eiffel Tower was a hit with both Boy and grandparents, though neither was keen on climbing the bell tower at Notre Dame. Booking online was the way to go for the Eiffel Tower, without online booking, we would have had another long line to stand in.
After the Tower, we said goodbye to the grandparents, and prepared for a couple more days in the city of lights visiting friends with kids.
Boy is studying art and the French Revolution this week. We’ve been reading about art and architecture in cathedrals, like Notre Dame. Prepping for our visit to the Musee D’Orsey, with a huge collection of French impressionist and post-impressionist painters, we are also reading up on Monet and Van Gogh. We will wrap up the week with a visit to the Place de la Bastille, and some reading on the French Revolution and the guillotine.
This entry was posted in Europe, France, Roadschool, Roadschooling. Bookmark the permalink.
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2019-04-21T08:59:43Z
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https://moveablegeography.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/a-birds-eye-view/
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Porn
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Arts
| 0.656685 |
dreamhost
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I have been an affiliate for about 9 months but never put it to use well I didn’t know much about it, I have another reseller’s business and have been busy with that.
Well I started to pay attention today, and I still can’t believe it’s really that simple, living the life of an affiliate, plus I DO HAVE DYSLEXIA, SO HERE IT GOES…Does the domain I choose pertain to each item I am marketing as an affiliate, and do i need a new domain for each service or product I market ?
Again Im still shocked, how simple the steps are. Don’t get me wrong I do realize that the steps are very entailed, but if you are familiar with the steps; its time consuming fun!!
What exactly are you an affiliate for? I’m assuming it’s someone/something other than DreamHost.
Jurisdictionary - How to win in court with out a lawyer???
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2019-04-22T08:15:42Z
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https://discussion.dreamhost.com/t/easy-question-may-even-be-silly/58888
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Porn
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Business
| 0.972434 |
cnn
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Anita Mills, before and after, losing 232 pounds without crazy diets or extreme exercise trends.
(CNN) -- Anita Mills was sitting in the doctor's office with her diabetic mother in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2009.
"The doctor was talking to her about options and she wanted to try all of them to stay alive," says Mills. "I realized how brave she was, trying to keep her life. I was 382 pounds and killing myself."
She cried in the bathroom of the doctor's office, returned home and took a picture of herself. (The image shown above.) This was a first day of the rest of her life.
"I was finally ready and determined. Taking that first picture was my way of making me accountable to this choice to start this journey," says Mills. "I wanted to have it on my phone to look at every day, especially when I was having not a great day."
Mills has been overweight for as long as she can remember. She recalls "plumping up" at 5 years old and weighing 200 pounds in junior high.
"My family doctor said I needed to get the weight off and if I didn't, I was going to shorten my life," says Mills. "He gave me a piece of paper with four tips to lose weight."
Before the epiphany, she kept that piece of paper in her purse for months, even when she would change purses. And every time, she would look at it and think, "I'll start tomorrow."
So that's what she did -- or didn't do, really. Almost two years later, Mills has dropped 232 pounds from her body and has trimmed her waist down to 26 inches (a size 6).
And she did it all without a trainer.
"I've always walked, no matter how hard it was," says Mills. "Then I used Richard Simmons' 'Sweating to the Oldies' because it's low-impact. Now I Zumba, which is like Richard Simmons on speed."
She doesn't go crazy with her workouts. She walks about five times a week, sweats to Simmons twice a week and fits Zumba in when she can.
Mills can't even eat a full 8 ounces of food anymore -- her stomach has gotten so small -- and she needs to be very picky about what she eats. Her body craves the "good food," so she listens to it. Her latest cravings have been fresh pineapples and mandarin oranges.
Don't think that she's a saint either. She still enjoys temptations ... within reason.
"I still go out to eat and I still eat junk," says Mills. "My guilty pleasure for the last 8 months [has been] Breyers fat free ice cream -- half cup a night."
When she goes out to eat, she orders a meal -- anything she wants -- and asks for a to-go box. It helps with eating healthy food portions, even if she's noshing on her favorite meal: fried chicken fingers and deep fried potato chips.
"Out of sight, out of mind," says Mills. "I don't get sick any more from eating too much. You just need to know portion control. I'm accountable for what I put in my body."
The hardest thing for Mills was pushing through her plateaus.
"I would lose [weight] for about seven days and then nothing for about 10 to 15 days, which was the hardest," she says.
But since losing hundreds of pounds, Mills has appeared on the "Rachael Ray Show" for a makeover and talks regularly in schools.
"I tell the kids this doesn't just mean weight loss; if you put your mind to anything, nothing can stop you," says Mills. "If you think, 'This is what I'm going to do,' you can get anything done."
Mills gives all her credit to her supportive family, especially her husband, Charlie, whom she has been married to for nearly 25 years.
She remembers him saying, "I loved her at 382 and I love her now. I love her no matter what. She may look a little different, but she's the same girl."
As a family, they are all living healthier lives and dropping the pounds together. But most importantly, Mills wants to be around to take care of her husband, 23- and 19-year-old sons, and elderly parents for as long as she can.
And she loves every minute of her hectic, thinner life.
"The one thing I can do that I couldn't before is that I can cross my legs and get up and down off the floor," says Mills.
She is trying new things that she never thought were possible. She and her husband are going to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and hopping on a zip line. Mills is also thinking about skydiving sometime in the future. One more thing on her to do list: Ride a roller coaster at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, which she hasn't been about to do since she was about 8 years old because of her size.
"I have a whole new life," says Mills. "It's fabulous to get to this point."
|
2019-04-23T17:06:50Z
|
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/04/22/weight.loss.anita.mills/index.html?hpt=C2
|
Porn
|
Health
| 0.110355 |
indiana
|
Ideally, a probabilistic programming language should admit a computable semantics. But languages often provide operators that denote uncomputable functions, such as comparison of real numbers. While the use of these uncomputable operators may result in uncomputable programs, a programmer can productively use these operators and still produce a computable program, such as one that compares a real number drawn from a normal distribution with 0.
We propose locale theory, and particularly non-spatial sublocales, as a constructive semantic framework for probabilistic programming. Whereas in measure theory, measurable spaces may not have a smallest probability-1 subspace (for a given probability distribution), some locales have smallest probability-1 sublocales, called random sublocales. Partial functions that almost surely terminate and discontinuous functions that are almost everywhere continuous become terminating and continuous, respectively, when restricted to random sublocales. We present a definition of disintegration and provide an example distribution where in locale theory, a unique continuous disintegration exists using random sublocales, whereas classically the disintegration is discontinuous and is only unique up to null sets.
|
2019-04-26T15:58:20Z
|
https://pps2018.sice.indiana.edu/2017/12/23/constructive-probabilistic-semantics-with-non-spatial-locales/
|
Porn
|
Science
| 0.180073 |
wordpress
|
NIGEL SLATER’S “VERY GOOD CHOCOLATE BROWNIE” RECIPE!
My jury is still out as to the positive and negative effects of social media. I only recently joined Facebook (previously known as Faceache) to be able to share with my bread/baking friends and so far its brought nothing but pleasure – even putting me back in touch with my American pen friend from my childhood.
However, I’ve been on Twitter for some time – feeling that it’s a more interactive media – where you can pull together knowledge and “chat” about relevant subjects.
Having recently had a very negative Twitter experience where the previous Mrs W sent me a rather nasty “tweet” (get a life you should be setting a good example) I contemplated coming off it. How glad am I that I didn’t. I love the hash tag real bread discussion nights, I love my communication with farmers and growers and producers and I love the fact some very, very busy knowledgable foodie people take the time to provide support and encouragement.
So it was that last night I tweeted a very rushed picture of a very quick decision to make some chocolate brownies when family were coming for supper and there was no dessert or cake in the house. We’d been out all day and once again I looked what I had – eggs, chocolate, flour – and turned to Nigel Slater (not literally – he’s not sat in my kitchen though how wonderful that would be!).
That’s how I chose the recipe for his “very good Chocolate Brownie”. I’ve not had much luck with them in the past – too soggy, too dry, not choccy enough but I’d not tried this before so thought I’d give it a go. My only modification was that my gravel sized pieces were white chocolate as I didn’t have enough dark but I quite liked the contrast. They worked perfectly, the family loved them and I tweeted a pic – Nigel responded once again and once again I am thrilled – what enthusiasm he has to encourage and inspire. No surprise that it is his and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s books that are the one’s by my bed, by the sofa and getting more dog eared by the day in my kitchen!
1. Grease and line a baking tin, about 23cm x 23cm, preferably non-stick, or a small roasting tin.
2. Set the oven at 180°C/Gas 4.
3. Put the sugar and butter into the bowl of a food mixer and beat for several minutes till white and fluffy. You can do it by hand if you wish, but you need to keep going until the mixture is really soft and creamy.
4. Meanwhile, break the chocolate into pieces, set 50g of it aside and melt the rest in a bowl suspended over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water. As soon as the chocolate has melted remove it from the heat. Chop the remaining 50g into gravel-sized pieces.
5. Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat them lightly with a fork. Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix in a pinch of salt. With the food mixer running slowly, introduce the beaten egg a little at a time, speeding up in between additions. Remove the bowl from the mixer to the work surface, then mix in the melted chocolate with a large metal spoon.
6. Fold in the flour and cocoa, gently and firmly, without knocking any of the air out. Finally fold in the gravel sized pieces (Nigel adds his with the melted chocolate but mine was still warm so I waited).
7. Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin, smooth the top and bake for 30 minutes. The top will have risen slightly and the cake will appear slightly softer in the middle than around the edges.
8. Pierce the centre of the cake with a fork – it should come out sticky, but not with raw mixture attached to it. If it does, then return the brownie to the oven for three more minutes. It is worth remembering that it will solidify a little on cooling, so if it appears a bit wet, don’t worry.
|
2019-04-23T18:12:27Z
|
https://realfoodfans.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/nigel-slaters-very-good-chocolate-brownie-recipe/
|
Porn
|
Reference
| 0.227244 |
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