text:
THE amethyst and crystal stalagmites comprising this morning's Chanel show didn't create quite the headline atmosphere of Karl Lagerfeld's aquatic set of last season, but the traffic chaos outside and dramatic, huge setting within the Grand Palais certainly maintained his position at front of centre stage in the international fashion hierarchy today.
And today's show was as fiercely original and elaborately played out as ever. "It was one of my favourite Chanel shows for years," said Vogue's fashion director Lucinda Chambers. "It was so focused and precise in that he stuck to those great shapes and the layering that we saw in New York and is really coming through this week in Paris, with the trousers, under a skirt, under a blouse and big jacket and the oversized coats - but what sets it apart from Celine, say, is that the coats are so worked upon with wonderful embellishment and feathers and appliqué. Even a luxe tweed parka with a sequinned hood in Karl's hands becomes really beautiful but still has that street edge."
A roomy silhouette allowed for a side-stepping of the size prejudices that Lagerfeld has been accused of recently, while a three-year-old little boy taking to the catwalk, carrying his own miniature Chanel bag, walked neatly into the controversy about under age models that continues to rage within and without the industry. Very sweet but hard to justify in terms of essential – but then, what about Chanel is essential?
As ever with Lagerfeld's work, not a single detail had been missed, from the Maison Lesage embellished, glittering eyebrows to the Lurex-shot tweeds in petrol green, indigo and purple, incredible emerald, amethyst and sapphire embellishments and petrol green feather-smothered jackets and miniature tweed rucksacks.
Wide-shouldered trench coats were belted and collared in jewels or worn with baggy, glittering mohair snoods; dramatic cutaway ankle boots had Perspex heels to cater to that particular trend – these ones with stiff, faceted clutches to match - while crushed velvet jeans lined in more glitter brought fashion's new penchant for investment trousers to the forefront.
Loose knitwear featured irregular patterns in green, purple, pink and mustard, while heavy grey wool coats were scattered with bright yellow, pink and green jewels and long silk muslin dresses in the same stained glass prints gave a nod to the modern hippy we've seen creeping in elsewhere.
Despite the hardy mood, the Chanel delicacy was very much in evidence too, with pearl-embellished chain belts wound around dresses of frothy lace, silk chiffon pleat-fronted pussy bow blouses and disco chic skirts of pink and green ribboned lamé. Some futuristic, panelled wool coats revealed chiffon ruffles of sleeves from stiff shoulder panels.
It was a feast of colour and texture with a feel of sorcery - Karl's signature rebellion giving the dark arts a moment within his couture repertoire.
SEE THE CHANEL SHOW ARCHIVE
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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama wants to strengthen the government's authority over financial institutions in a sweeping attempt to modernize a regulatory latticework that failed to detect early signs of a worldwide crisis.
The president plans to detail the administration's overhaul plan on Wednesday, recommending new powers for the Federal Reserve; a new consumer protection agency to govern lending and credit; and new rules that would reach into currently unregulated regions of the financial markets.
An 85-page draft of the administration's plan details an effort to change a regulatory regime that Obama's economic team maintained had become too porous for the innovations and intricacies of the today's financial markets.
With Congress already embroiled in health care legislation, Obama has set an ambitious schedule, pushing lawmakers to adopt a new regulatory regime by year's end.
Obama said Tuesday his administration was going to put forward "a very strong set of regulatory measures that we think can prevent this kind of crisis from happening again."
The financial sector and lawmakers from both parties concede the need for significant changes in the rules that govern the intricate and interconnected world of banking and investment. But the details of Obama's proposal already are facing resistance, signaling a tough sell for a president who is spending major political capital on his health care overhaul.
Under Obama's plan, the Fed would gain power to supervise holding companies and large financial institutions considered so big that their failure could undermine the nation's financial system. But even as it gains new powers, the Fed also would lose some banking authority to a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
Obama's proposal would require the Fed, which now can independently use emergency powers to bail out failing banks, to first obtain Treasury approval before extending credit to institutions in "unusual and exigent circumstances."
The expanded Fed role and the new consumer regulator are likely to be the two main political flash points in the administration's proposal. Many bankers oppose a new consumer protection regulator and many lawmakers worry the Fed could become too powerful. Friction over those points could slow any major overhaul.
Besides having the Federal Reserve supervise "systemically significant" institutions, Obama will recommend a council of regulators, which would include the Fed, to monitor risk throughout the broader financial system. The arrangement is designed to prevent crashes like those that felled AIG and Lehman Brothers.
In conjunction with the Fed's authority over large financial institutions and the new consumer agency, Obama also will propose:
• Additional protections for investors, including greater disclosure by hedge funds; regulation of credit default swaps and over-the-counter derivatives that previously operated outside of government oversight; and new conditions on brokers and originators of asset-backed securities.
• A system for the orderly disposition of any troubled, interconnected firm whose failure poses a risk to the entire financial system, together with rules that insist that financial institutions hold more capital to avoid over-leveraging.
Obama's plan does not attempt major consolidation of turf-conscious regulatory agencies and does not inject itself into an ongoing debate over whether to bring some insurance companies under federal oversight.
"We don't want to tilt at windmills," Obama said on CNBC.
Obama's decision to create a consumer agency comes amid criticism that mortgage lenders and credit card companies have taken advantage of unwitting customers and saddled them with debt.
The new regulator would have the power to demand that customers have the option of simple financial products, to impose fines and to allow states to pass laws that are stricter than the federal standards. Consumer protections are now spread among various state and federal authorities, including the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and banking regulators.
Financial lobbyists rallied against the new agency, saying it's impossible to separate bank regulation from oversight of the products they offer.
"We're supposed to be trying to plug holes and connect dots" with the regulatory overhaul, said Scott Talbott, top lobbyist with the Financial Services Roundtable. "The consumer regulator idea moves in the opposite direction."
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the new consumer products agency "the cornerstone of regulatory reform." The Fed and other banking regulators, he said, were too focused on the "safety and soundness" of the institutions they oversee, and "did not do a very good job of protecting consumers."
Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat who has helped write a consumer protection bill in the House, said: "Here we are just beginning to extract ourselves from this mess that was on the cusp of total collapse, and the banks don't want further regulations. Give me a break."
The administration will also have to use its political skills to strengthen the Fed. While Democrats generally agree with a need for regulatory changes, many oppose a Fed with expanded powers.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has advocated an alternative plan to strip the Fed of its regulatory role entirely and create a new consolidated bank regulator that would assume the roles that the Fed and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. now play in helping regulate state-chartered banks.
Dodd, however, is a strong proponent of a consumer protection agency and is likely to champion that component of Obama's plan.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Liberty News
Nursing students cap off hard work with annual pinning ceremony
|Dr. Deanna Britt, Chaiperson of the Department of Nursing, addresses the December graduates.
Liberty University's December nursing graduates gathered on Friday, Dec. 16 at the Towns-Alumni Lecture Hall for the annual pinning ceremony.
"It is a celebration of the end of several years of hard work," said Dr. Deanna Britt, chairperson of the Department of Nursing, before Friday's ceremony. "They are now finished and (are) looking forward to meaningful careers in healthcare."
The December graduating class includes 42 females and seven males, who have participated in clinical training, simulations and mock physical examinations throughout their years in the program. Along with special awards and certificates, the graduates received their pin -- an emblem of Liberty's nursing program -- that they can wear on the job.
Liberty currently offers a residential Bachelor of Science in Nursing, as well as an R.N. to B.S.N. and a Master of Science in Nursing through its online education program.
|Graduates celebrate after the ceremony.
Ten students in the online program traveled to Lynchburg to attend Friday's ceremony.
The winter ceremony, though much smaller than May's, has grown in size since the first December pinning in 2005 with 12 students.
The nursing department was launched in 1991 and has expanded greatly beyond the limits of Lynchburg.
"Because of our size, we are now sending students for clinical experiences to Richmond, Roanoke and Charlottesville," Britt said last week. "They can work with spinal cord injuries and we don't have a unit dedicated to that here in Lynchburg. There are also pediatric emergency rooms and intensive care units at these other facilities."
Liberty's nursing program boasts a 99 percent job placement rate for students upon graduation.


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A House Divided
- $5.99
- $5.99
Publisher Description
Life is close to perfect for the Reverend Curtis Black and his wife, Charlotte--except their son Matthew and his girlfriend, Racquel, are about to become parents at the tender age of eighteen. Even though Curtis and Charlotte wish Matthew could focus on Harvard instead of fatherhood, they are determined to welcome their new grandson with open arms. But for Charlotte, welcoming her future in-laws is another story. Try as she might, Charlotte can't stand Racquel's mother, Vanessa--and the feeling appears to be mutual.
When the tension between Charlotte and Vanessa finally erupts, the stress sends an already-fragile Racquel into early labor. Everyone is quick to blame Charlotte, including Matthew and Curtis. That her own husband would side with someone else infuriates Charlotte and strains the relationship they've only recently been able to repair. Her one ally is Racquel's father, but that brings problems of its own.
While Charlotte schemes against Vanessa, Curtis is consumed with his own concerns about Deliverance Outreach. A mysterious figure from his past has been sending Curtis cryptic messages threatening to take away Curtis's coveted position as senior pastor and destroy everything he has worked so hard for. But who could hate Curtis that much? And how can he fight an enemy he can't even name?
Times of trouble are descending upon the Black family in more ways than one. Will they be able to overcome their challenges and stand together against someone who could take it all away? Or is the Black family finally out of miracles?
Customer ReviewsSee All
Another in the series that I couldn't put down
I have read all of the books in this series and like before, I can't wait to see what happens next. Very intriguing read!
A House Divided
Another great Curtis Black saga. Can't wait for what's to com we.
the books just keep getting better. i so can't wait for the next one.


text:
First of all, I would like to thank all the readers for the interesting comments, both here as well as on reddit. And I would like to correct a mistake I made in the previous post, as well as add some more details.
Going over my notes again, S.Borkar from Intel spoke of a current use of 8B transistors and a foreseen 100B-transistors by 2015, so my figure of 1T was off by one order of magnitude. According to him, a majority of this will go to cache so we can foresee 100MB cache on such a real-estate. Since cache is typically implemented as SRAM (for those that don't know, SRAM requires 6 transistors/bit while DRAM requires 1 transistor/bit, not counting the access-logic). So when you take into account 100MB-cache or 800Mb-cache, that's still only 4.8B transistors. To give you an idea of complexity: The Montecito, which had 26MB cache and was probably one of the most complex Intel architectures (VLIW architecture with out-of-order-execution) required on the order of 100M transistors.
Due to what was said before, that clockspeed will no longer increase and possibly decrease, we need parallelism. And to deal with that parallelism we need a communication interface. Traditionally this used to be a bus, but nowadays a lot of research is going into NoC or network-on-chip. The amount of papers on NoC at this year was quite staggering (number-to-be-filled-in). The reasons for NoC are both obvious and non-obvious. On the obvious reasons is that a bus is a shared resource and as your number of masters go up contention only increases, and therefore also congestion. With a NoC you alleviate this pressure a bit by enabling easier communication between processing elements closer to one another. A less obvious reason was presented by one of the papers at the conference, namely that it allows you to have an easy way of dealing with variability by only having to care about variability (in timing) along a link and not of the whole system. This idea was more specifically applied to the clock-tree, though I think it's a good idea in general. In a worst-case scenario, where variability really becomes an issue and clock-synch becomes increasingly impossible, the NoC could act as an asynchronous interface to tie together the different synchronous processing elements (cores with their local communication-assist and their local memory). I am certain there are many other reasons why NoC are a good solution, as indicated by the plethora of papers that have risen in the last 4-5 years.
Typically at the root of your network (if you implement a tree-like NoC) there will be an interface to the shared memory. Now obviously you want to use burst-transfer to get the data you're working on to your local scratchpad. However I don't see this working when you got to manycore ( > 100 core). So really, we can postulate only three possibilities (readers are welcome to suggest alternatives).
- Few tasks per application:
Either applications will not become that complex that we need to scale much further for one application. When that is the case it becomes easier to partition your memory space to enable multiple applications. Of course then one could argue that eventually we won't need better chips as a user is unlikely to run more than say 10 applications on his embedded device. For those of you that will claim that applications will require more compute-power then I refer you to the fact that clock-speeds won't scale anymore, or otherwise said, this is not a valid postulate.
Note that I made some bold assumptions in the second and first case of the above list. I assumed that we'd have an idealistic operating system. In the end, since applications will be more dynamic and will use such dynamic memory management, they're still going through the operating system to ask for memory allocations. As such, they're still communicating in a sense by the fact that how one application allocates and frees memory affects another application. Since I didn't want to get too technical, I ignored this problem and assumed it solved. Suffice to say that even when you have non-communicating applications, there will still be contention for and congestion on shared resources.
I would like to come back to my previous post and make some things clear. While I very much enjoy using higher-level languages such as Haskell and Scheme, and fancy most languages with a sense of purity (for instance Smalltalk), I was not advocating for them by saying C is no longer the proper model of computation. Definitely I would advocate for Haskell or Scheme for tool-development, but I will not enter that discussion as I thin
k it's mostly a matter of personal preference. True, I do believe I am more efficient in Haskell, but I prefer sticking to the idea of "live and let live". Debating endlessly over which language is the ideal for developing tools and applications is in my opinion very much like beating a dead horse.
That being said, I do think what we need is a programming model that addresses some of the issues I mentioned. Someone on IRC mentioned that I was just pointing out problems and not suggesting solutions. I admit that such is true. However, I think that while that may not be appropriate in a language war, where there are different solutions, it is definitely appropriate in this context for there is no solution. It was a sentiment I also felt in the other attendees of the DATE conference. Does this mean we should drop C? Absolutely not, it still serves its purpose as accurately describing the behaviour on a single core. What is required on top of this is a model of concurrency, and while such have been suggested in past, with Pi-calculus being a very famous one, critics might say that they never got picked up. Well, for one, the push back then was not like the push now. Right now we are facing the issues of the memory-wall and parallelism, and we must overcome them. That being said, I do not think that a simple reinvention of a concurrent model as such invented in the 70s would suffice. One very big difference between then and now is the aforementioned memory wall. Memory accesses cost, a lot in fact. So what I think is required, and now I can't remember if I explicitly mentioned this in my last post, is a concurrency model that takes into account data. Data-coherency, data-movement, data-replication. All these issues exist in embedded systems nowadays but are not modeled. Examples are respectively: cache-coherency, process-migration, local-copies in scratchpad.
As final note, I would like to point out that the above ideas are meant as postulations. I would love to hear your view on this.


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This One Change Made Me Feel 20 Years Younger
For most of my life, I've been a health nut, exercising, eating well, getting enough sleep and keeping stress to a minimum. But in 2005, that all changed. I developed a collagen problem in my shoulder that required multiple surgeries, and after the procedures, I was in pain all the time. The discomfort wore me down, and by 3 p.m. every day, my energy was depleted. To help myself, I started reaching for whatever offered instant relief and energy -- mainly carbs and sugar. As for those long draining workouts I used to love, they were now out of the question.
My pain wasn't going away, and after a couple of years of suffering, I felt miserable. I doubted I'd ever return to my normal self. I had come to a standstill.
My Transformation
My daughter Nicole couldn't stand to see me in pain all the time. One day, she emailed me a link to a wellness site, where women improved their health by tweaking their diets. She confessed that she thought my eating habits were prolonging my pain. I doubted that the issue was as simple as that, but before I could completely discard her theory, more links arrived in my inbox from my daughter. As I read others' stories, what I suddenly started seeing left me stunned: A whole army of women were really transforming their lives with an approach as simple as setting better eating habits.
Although I still had my doubts -- and really didn't want to give up my pizza! -- what finally convinced me to try it was watching my daughter set the example by eating and feeding her husband and two sons in this new, healthy way. So I followed suit, filling my fridge and pantry with proteins and high-fiber foods.
And the results were astounding. It turned out my body was starving for proper nutrition. I didn't realize that my body needed extra protein while healing. And unlike all those sugar and carbs I'd been munching on, fiber helps maintain a healthy weight, an excess of which only adds more stress -- and therefore pain -- to my body. With my new balanced diet, I was actually helping my body heal and deal with pain. I felt energized and optimistic for the first time in a long time.
Strong and Happy Beyond 50
I consider myself a smart person, but I have no idea why it took me so long to figure this one out! Once I began feeling better, I had to call my daughter and say, "You had it right!" Her response: "Well, Mom, I'm made of the same genes you are, and it's been working for me." It was like we had reversed roles. She was the mother, and I was the daughter.
At 53, I feel happier, healthier and stronger than ever, and I'm proud I raised my daughter Nicole to be so wise. Today, as we continue to work together in changing our diets, we are continuing to transform our lives as well. And I thank my lucky stars for that, because I couldn't have asked for a better supporter than her.


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Ceratotherium simum cottoni (northern)
Ceratotherium simum simum (southern)
The white rhinoceros or square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) is the largest extant species of rhinoceros. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species. The white rhinoceros consists of two subspecies: the southern white rhinoceros, with an estimated 20,405 wild-living animals in 2013, and the much rarer northern white rhinoceros. The northern subspecies has very few remaining, with only four confirmed individuals left (three females and one male), all in captivity.[3]
A popular theory of the origins of the name "white rhinoceros" is a mistranslation from Dutch to English. The English word "white" is said to have been derived by mistranslation of the Dutch word "wijd", which means "wide" in English. The word "wide" refers to the width of the rhinoceros' mouth. So early English-speaking settlers in South Africa misinterpreted the "wijd" for "white" and the rhino with the wide mouth ended up being called the white rhino and the other one, with the narrow pointed mouth, was called the black rhinoceros. Ironically, Dutch (and Afrikaans) later used a calque of the English word, and now also call it a white rhino. This suggests the origin of the word was before codification by Dutch writers. A review of Dutch and Afrikaans literature about the rhinoceros has failed to produce any evidence that the word wijd was ever used to describe the rhino outside of oral use.[4] Other popular theories suggest the name comes from its wide appearance throughout Africa, its color due to wallowing in calcareous soil or bird droppings or because of the lighter colour of its horn.
An alternative name for the white rhinoceros, more accurate but rarely used, is the square-lipped rhinoceros. The white rhinoceros' generic name, Ceratotherium, given by the zoologist John Edward Gray in 1868,[5] is derived from the Greek terms keras (κερας) "horn" and therion (θηριον) "beast". Simum, is derived from the Greek term simus (σιμος), meaning "flat nosed".
The white rhinoceros of today was said to be likely descended from Ceratotherium praecox which lived around 7 million years ago. Remains of this white rhino have been found at Langebaanweg near Cape Town.[6] A review of fossil rhinos in Africa by Denis Geraads has however suggested that the species from Langebaanweg is of the genus Ceratotherium, but not Ceratotherium praecox as the type specimen of Ceratotherium praecox should, in fact, be Diceros praecox, as it shows closer affinities with the black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis.[7] It has been suggested that the modern white rhino has a longer skull than Ceratotherium praecox to facilitate consumption of shorter grasses which resulted from the long term trend to drier conditions in Africa.[8] However, if Ceratotherium praecox is in fact Diceros praecox, then the shorter skull could indicate a browsing species. Teeth of fossils assigned to Ceratotherium found at Makapansgat in South Africa were analysed for carbon isotopes and the researchers concluded that these animals consumed more than 30% browse in their diet, suggesting that these are not the fossils of the extant Ceratotherium simum which only eats grass.[9] It is suggested that the real lineage of the white rhino should be; Ceratotherium neumayri → Ceratotherium mauritanicum → C. simum with the Langebaanweg rhinos being Ceratotherium sp. (as yet unnamed), with black rhinos being descended from C. neumayri via Diceros praecox.[7]
Recently, an alternative scenario has been proposed[10] under which the earliest African Ceratotherium is considered to be Ceratotherium efficax, known from the Late Pliocene of Ethiopia and the Early Pleistocene of Tanzania. This species is proposed to have been diversified into the Middle Pleistocene species C. mauritanicum in northern Africa, C. germanoafricanum in East Africa, and the extant C. simum. The first two of these are extinct, however, C. germanoafricanum is very similar to C. simum and has often been considered a fossil and ancestral subspecies to the latter. The study also doubts the ancestry of C. neumayri from the Miocene of southern Europe to the African species.[10] It is likely that the ancestor of both the Black and the White rhinos was a mixed feeder, with the two lineages then specialising in browse and graze, respectively.
There are two subspecies of white rhinos; the southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) and the northern white rhinoceros. As of 31 December 2007, there were an estimated 17,460 southern white rhino in the wild (IUCN 2008), making them by far the most abundant subspecies of rhino in the world; the number of southern white rhinos outnumbers all other rhino species combined. South Africa is the stronghold for this subspecies (93.0%), conserving 16,255 individuals in the wild in 2007 (IUCN 2008). There are smaller reintroduced populations within the historical range of the species in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Swaziland, while a small population survives in Mozambique. Populations have also been introduced outside of the former range of the species to Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.[11]
Wild-caught southern whites will readily breed in captivity given appropriate amounts of space and food, as well as the presence of other female rhinos of breeding age. For instance, 93 calves have been born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park since 1972. However, for reasons that are not currently understood, the rate of reproduction is extremely low among captive-born southern white females.[12]
The northern white rhinoceros, or northern square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) is considered Critically Endangered or Extinct in the Wild. Formerly found in several countries in East and Central Africa south of the Sahara, this subspecies is a grazer in grasslands and savanna woodlands. In the world, there are currently only one rhino of this subspecies left in captivity (San Diego Zoo), along with three that have been returned to a conservancy in Kenya.[13]
Initially, six northern white rhinoceros lived in the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic. Four of the six rhinos (which are also the only reproductive animals of this subspecies) were transported to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, Africa,[14] where scientists hope they will successfully breed and save this subspecies from extinction. In 2015, the Kenyan government placed the last remaining male of the species at Ol Pejeta under 24-hour armed guard to deter poachers. One of two remaining in the Czech Republic died in late May 2011.[15] The only other captive rhino, also a female, presently lives at the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park in California. Both of the last two males capable of natural mating died in 2014 (one in Kenya on 18 October and one in San Diego on 15 December).[13][16]
Following the phylogenetic species concept, recent research has suggested the northern white rhinoceros may be an altogether different species, rather than a subspecies of white rhinoceros, in which case the correct scientific name for the former is Ceratotherium cottoni. Distinct morphological and genetic differences suggest the two proposed species have been separated for at least a million years.[17]
The white rhinoceros is the largest of the five species of rhinoceros and the world's largest land mammal after the three species of elephant. It weighs slightly more on average than a hippopotamus despite considerably mass overlap between these two species.[18] It has a massive body and large head, a short neck and broad chest. The head and body length is 3.7 to 4 m (12.1 to 13.1 ft) in males and 3.4 to 3.65 m (11.2 to 12.0 ft) in females, with the tail adding another 70 cm (28 in) and the shoulder height is 170 to 186 cm (5.58 to 6.10 ft) in the male and 160 to 177 cm (5.25 to 5.81 ft) in the female.[19] The male, averaging about 2,300 kg (5,100 lb) is heavier than the female, at an average of about 1,700 kg (3,700 lb).[19] The largest size the species can attain is not definitively known, specimens of up to 3,600 kg (7,900 lb) are considered reliable, while larger sizes have been claimed but are not verified.[20][21][22] On its snout it has two horn-like growths, one behind the other. These are made of solid keratin, in which they differ from the horns of bovids (cattle and their relatives), which are keratin with a bony core, and deer antlers, which are solid bone. The front horn is larger and averages 60 cm (24 in) in length, reaching as much as 150 cm (59 in) but only in females.[23] The white rhinoceros also has a noticeable hump on the back of its neck. Each of the four stumpy feet has three toes. The color of the body ranges from yellowish brown to slate grey. Its only hair is the ear fringes and tail bristles. White rhinos have a distinctive broad, straight mouth which is used for grazing. Its ears can move independently to pick up sounds but it depends most of all on smell. The olfactory passages which are responsible for smell are larger than their entire brain. The white rhinoceros has the widest set nostrils of any land based animal.
White rhinoceroses are found in grassland and savannah habitat. Herbivore grazers that eat grass, preferring the shortest grains, the white rhinoceros is one of the largest pure grazers. It drinks twice a day if water is available, but if conditions are dry it can live four or five days without water. It spends about half of the day eating, one third resting, and the rest of the day doing various other things. White rhinoceroses, like all species of rhinoceros, love wallowing in mudholes to cool down. The white Rhinoceros is thought to have changed the structure and ecology of the savanna's grasslands. Comparatively based on studies of the African elephant, scientist believe the white Rhino is a driving factor in its ecosystem. The destruction of the megaherbivore could have serious cascading effects on the ecosystem and harm other animals.[24]
White rhinoceroses produce sounds which include a panting contact call, grunts and snorts during courtship, squeals of distress, and deep bellows or growls when threatened. Threat displays (in males mostly) include wiping its horn on the ground and a head-low posture with ears back, combined with snarl threats and shrieking if attacked. The white rhinoceros is quick and agile and can run 50 km/h (31 mph).
White rhinoceroses live in crashes or herds of up to 14 animals (usually mostly female). Sub-adult males will congregate, often in association with an adult female. Most adult bulls are solitary. Dominant bulls mark their territory with excrement and urine.[25] The dung is laid in well defined piles. It may have 20 to 30 of these piles to alert passing rhinoceroses that it is his territory. Another way of marking their territory is wiping their horns on bushes or the ground and scrapes with its feet before urine spraying. They do this around 10 times an hour while patrolling territory. The same ritual as urine marking except without spraying is also commonly used. The territorial male will scrape-mark every 30 m (98 ft) or so around its territory boundary. Subordinate males do not mark territory. The most serious fights break out over mating rights with a female. Female territory overlaps extensively, and they do not defend it.
Females reach sexual maturity at 6–7 years of age while males reach sexual maturity between 10–12 years of age. Courtship is often a difficult affair. The male stays beyond the point where the female acts aggressively and will give out a call when approaching her. The male chases and or blocks the way of the female while squealing or wailing loudly if the female tries to leave his territory. When ready to mate the female curls her tail and gets into a stiff stance during the half-hour copulation. Breeding pairs stay together between 5–20 days before they part their separate ways. Gestation occurs around 16–18 months. A single calf is born and usually weighs between 40 and 65 kg (88 and 143 lb). Calves are unsteady for their first 2 to 3 days of life. When threatened the baby will run in front of the mother, who is very protective of her calf and will fight for it vigorously. Weaning starts at 2 months, but the calf may continue suckling for over 12 months. The birth interval for the white rhino is between 2 and 3 years. Before giving birth the mother will chase off her current calf. White rhinos can live to be up to 40–50 years old.
Adult white rhinos have no natural predators (other than humans) due to their size,[26] and even young rhinos are rarely attacked or preyed on due to the mother's presence and their tough skin. One exceptional successful attack was perpetrated by a lion pride on a roughly half-grown white rhinoceros, which weighed 1,055 kg (2,326 lb), and occurred in Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa.[27]
The southern subspecies or majority of white rhino live in southern Africa. About 98.5% of white rhino occur in just five countries (South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda). Almost at the edge of extinction in the early 20th century, the southern subspecies has made a tremendous comeback. In 2001 it was estimated that there were 11,670 white rhinos in the wild with a further 777 in captivity worldwide, making it the most common Rhino in the world. By the end of 2007 wild-living southern white rhino had increased to an estimated 17,480 animals (IUCN 2008).
The northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) formerly ranged over parts of north-western Uganda, southern Chad, south-western Sudan, the eastern part of Central African Republic, and north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).[28] The last surviving population of wild northern white rhinos are located in Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)[29] but in August 2005, ground and aerial surveys conducted under the direction of African Parks Foundation and the African Rhino Specialist Group (ARSG) have only found four animals: a solitary adult male and a group of one adult male and two adult females.[30][31] In June 2008 it was reported that the subspecies may have gone extinct in the wild.[32]
Like the black rhino, the white rhino is under threat from habitat loss and poaching,[33] most recently by Janjaweed. The horn is mostly used for traditional medicine although there are no health benefits from the horn;[33][34] the horn is also used for traditional necklaces.
Rhino poaching has been occurring for well over four centuries, as hunters have driven the Indian rhinoceros to near-extinction ever since the colonial era. The 19th-century concept of hunting for sport nearly eradicated the white rhino from the planet, until anti-poaching laws in India and Nepal helped the species recover to a considerable extent. "Operation Rhino," initiated in 1961, was a program designed to save the rhino from extinction. Remaining members of the species were moved to reserves in South Africa, but in 1970 it was revealed that the rhinoceros population had decreased by about 90% since historic times.[35]
Historically the major factor in the decline of white rhinos was uncontrolled hunting in the colonial era, but now poaching for their horn is the primary threat. The white rhino is particularly vulnerable to hunting, because it is a large and relatively unaggressive animal and generally occurs in herds.
Despite the lack of scientific evidence, the rhino horn is highly prized in traditional Asian medicine, where it is ground into a fine powder or manufactured into tablets to be used as a treatment for a variety of illnesses such as nosebleeds, strokes, convulsions, and fevers. Due to this demand, several highly organized and very profitable international poaching syndicates came into being and would carry out their poaching missions with advanced technologies ranging from night vision scopes, silenced weapons, darting equipment and even helicopters. The ongoing civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and incursions by poachers primarily coming from Sudan have further disrupted efforts to protect the few remaining northern rhinos.[36]
In 2013, poaching rates for white rhinos nearly doubled from the previous year. As a result, the white rhino has now received Near Threatened status as its total population tops out at 20,000 members. Poaching of the animal has gone virtually unchecked in most of Africa, and the non-violent nature of the rhinoceros makes it susceptible to poaching. Mozambique, one of the four main countries the white rhino occupies, is used by poachers as a passageway to South Africa, which holds a fairly large number of white rhinos. Here, rhinos are regularly killed and their horns are smuggled out of the country.[37] As of 2014, Mozambique labels white rhino poaching as a misdemeanor.[36][38]
Even with increased anti-poaching efforts in many African countries, many poachers are still willing to risk death or prison time because of the tremendous amount of money that they stand to make. Rhino horn can fetch tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram on the black market in Asia and, depending on the exact price, can be worth more than its weight in gold.[39] Poachers are also starting to use social media sites for obtaining information on the location of rhino in popular tourist attractions (such as Kruger National Park) by searching for geotagged photographs posted online by unsuspecting tourists. By using GPS coordinates of rhino in recent photographs, poachers are able to more easily find and kill their targets.[40]
The Northern White Rhino is critically endangered to the point that there are only four of these rhinos remaining in the world.[3] To keep peace, several conservation tactics have been taken to prevent this subspecies from disappearing from the earth. Perhaps the most notable type of conservation these Rhinos have received is having moved to Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy from Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic on 20 December 2009, where they have been under constant watch every day, and have been given favorable climate and diet, both of which they have adapted to well, in order to boost their chances of reproducing.
In order to save the Northern White Rhino from extinction, Ol Pejeta Conservancy announced that they would introduce a fertile Southern White Rhino from Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, in February 2014. Here they have this rhino in an enclosure with both female Northern White Rhinos in hopes to cross-breed the subspecies. Having the male rhino with two female rhinos will increase competition for the female rhinos and in theory should result in more mating experiences. Till now Ol Pejeta Conservancy has not announced any news of the rhino mating.[14][36][41]
Most white rhinos in zoos are southern white rhinos; in 2001 it was estimated that there were 777 white rhinos in captivity worldwide.
The captive northern white rhino population consists of only four animals, and is maintained in two zoological institutions in the USA and Kenya. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park in San Diego, California, has one northern white rhino,[29][42] which was wild-caught. A female named Nola (b. 1974, on loan from 1989 from ZOO Dvůr Králové in Dvůr Králové, Czech Republic). On 14 December 2014 a male named Angalifu died of old age at the San Diego Zoo. He was 44.[43] The other three animals are in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Female Najin and Fatu with males Sudan and Suni (died 2014)[44] were transferred to Ol Pejeta Conservancy from Dvůr Králové ZOO in 2009 as an attempt to protect taxa in their natural habitat.[45][46]
In 2015, died hybrid female Nabire in Dvůr Králové ZOO,[45] born at Dvůr Králové on 15 November 1983. Her mother was a northern white rhino (C. s. cottoni), but her father was a southern white rhino (C. s. simum) named Arthur. Thus there is only one northern white rhino in full captivity at this time.
Horse, Equidae, Plains zebra, Animal, Species
Cnidaria, Sponge, Bacteria, Fungus, Biological classification
Extinction, Threatened species, Conservation status, Birdlife International, Endangered species
Degré (angle), Kilomètre, Unité astronomique, Ceinture d'astéroïdes, Grand axe
South Sudan, Extinction, Angola, Sudan, Kenya
India, Nepal, China, Zebra, Africa
Horse, Zebra, Equidae, Animal, Extinction
White lion, England, Worcestershire, African elephant, United Kingdom
Assam, Nepal, Pakistan, Kaziranga National Park, Zebra


text: Now you can get a list of all fitness training equipment stores in Saskatchewan without going through the yellow pages manually. Health-local is Canada's National health directory which gets you the list of Fitness equipment and various exercise equipment stores in Saskatchewan. You can find information about all fitness training equipment stores in your area through your postal code or city name without stepping out from your home.


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This year marks the 11th consecutive time Heller Electric Co., Inc. has completed electric work for the Presidential Inauguration. This year's ceremony is scheduled for January 21.
Work on the 57th Presidential Inauguration began almost immediately after the election. Electrical Alliance contractor Heller Electric began electric installation on three separate structures for the ceremony: the Presidential Reviewing Stand, Media Stand, and Mayoral Parade Reviewing Stand the week before Thanksgiving. Since then, an average of nine electricians worked 10-hour days, up to seven days a week to ensure it was completed by January 7.
Heller installed 600A in the Presidential Reviewing Stand, where President Obama and his family will watch the parade, for lighting and heating the entire stand and bulletproof enclosure. The three-story Media Stand is powered by 800A that supply approximately 192 electric outlets for the worldwide media in attendance to utilize. Finally, Heller completed the heating and lighting work for the Mayoral Parade Stand that will hold the mayor and all Washington, D.C., government and guests.
"It is a bit challenging because of the definitive end and start date, ordering of custom materials, and allotment of only 10 people to work on the project because of security, but our team thrives on fast-paced jobs and we feel honored to work on such a prestigious job," says Michael Ritchey, Heller Electric's president.
With the inauguration, the electric work doesn't end on the finish date. Four Heller Electric workers will man each structure and the materials trailer on the day of the ceremony to ensure all operations run smoothly.
"The Inaugural Stands have been a huge part of our history since 1973, when we were selected to light President Nixon's second term inauguration," says Brian J. Heller, Heller's executive VP. "Each inaugural project brings us not only new challenges, but stories and a tremendous sense of pride among all of our employees who work tirelessly to complete the projects on time. We look forward to the opportunity every four years and proudly celebrate our ability to participate in such a historical event."


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(The Root) —
"Should I tell my fiance that my friend is really my ex of 10 years? If I do, how should I approach it? He and I don't hang out, but my fiance knows about him because he calls from time to time. We're completely platonic, and I don't look at him as my ex. I'm sure my fiance has friends he's had sex with, but for some reason this feels different to me. Please help me decide what to do." —C.T.
What you're essentially asking is should you be entirely honest with the man you are planning to spend the rest of your life with. Yes, you should. My grandmother had a saying — "Everything done in the dark will come to the light" — and it has proved, sometimes unfortunately, to be true.
It's a small world, and the truth will eventually come out. Your omission is a big issue now, and it has the potential to become monumental if your fiance ever discovers the whole story from anyone but you, which could easily happen if you don't speak up.
Understand that the biggest problem here is not that your now-platonic friend is a long-ago flame. Plenty of people get into relationships, break up for whatever reason and down the line become genuine friends. Most mature people can understand that this happens. And while it can be uncomfortable, especially in the beginning, they have an easier time accepting it when they're told the backstory up front.
You've compounded the situation by, in some sense, lying to your fiance about the nature of your friendship with the old dude. It doesn't matter how long ago the relationship was. It does matter that when the ex called "from time to time," your fiance perhaps asked, "Who's that?" and you likely said, "Oh, him? Just a friend."
That answer omitted the whole truth. I'll guess that you recognized there could be a potential conflict, and you wanted to avoid the issue at the time, and so you did. But you may have made matters worse in the long run.
Come clean with your fiance as soon as possible. Leave out the part about, "I'm sure you've done it, too." That's irrelevant — you didn't say you had any concrete examples, and playing tit for tat in relationships is a recipe for disaster.
Set the tone of the conversation by telling him that you've been thinking about your future together, and you feel it's important to begin your marriage with a clean slate. Then tell him what you've done: not been entirely up front about the full nature of the relationship with the man he thinks is just your friend. Also say why you didn't tell him the whole truth, whatever your reasons are, and then apologize.
I believe you when you say there's nothing going on between you and your ex. But understand that from your fiance's perspective, it will seem shady. He will wonder why — if everything is on the up-and-up as you claim — you felt the need to hide information from him during your relationship. He may also wonder why you didn't trust him with the truth, and whether you can really be trusted.
The level of his anger will depend on whether he believed you when you said that your friend was just that and whether you've denied it before. If he didn't suspect anything and you're coming clean out of the blue, he's likely to be upset but more likely to receive it better. However, if he had suspicions about the nature of the friendship — which I suspect is the case, since your guilt seems to be weighing on you now as opposed to when you first downplayed the relationship — things will likely get a little ugly. You didn't just lie once — you've been lying, and that is a huge breach of trust.
Unfortunately, I can't predict whether your fiance will get over it in time. He's been lied to. His reaction to this information will depend on whether something like this has happened in his previous relationships and if trust issues have come up before in your relationship.
What you have on your side is that he's hearing the truth from you and, since you're engaged, he obviously loves you. There's a lot invested in the relationship thus far. It's not so easy to walk away from this relationship, even if it's been damaged.
In the best-case scenario, be prepared to stop communicating with your friend, even if it's just been a call "from time to time." That's not ideal, of course, but if the friendship is causing a wedge in the relationship with your fiance, then it has to end. And no, that doesn't solve the underlying problem of trust, but it's a make-nice action that will go far in getting your fiance to want to work with you a little more on this relationship.
You may also find that in the spirit of keeping it real, your fiance has some of his own confessions. You can't get upset, though, because you were just as wrong as he was. Just hear him out, and when he's done, you two need to be proactive about being honest with each other. Enlist the help of a therapist if necessary. If you two can get through this one, then your marriage, one based on honesty, will be better for it.
Good luck!
Demetria L. Lucas is a contributing editor to The Root, a life coach and the author of A Belle in Brooklyn: The Go-to Girl for Advice on Living Your Best Single Life. She answers your dating and relationship questions on The Root each week. Feel free to ask anything at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Greenhouses meet Khost's vegetable demand
Greenhouses meet Khost's vegetable demand
KHOST CITY (Pajhwok): Greenhouses recently established in southeastern Khost province have been producing enough vegetables to meet the local demand and reduce reliance on agriculture goods from Pakistan.
Khost City, the provincial capital, is supplied vegetables from 150 greenhouses the Comprehensive Agriculture and Rural Development – Facility (CARD-F) set up over the past few months.
CARD-F provides needs-based services and support to create and sustain licit businesses in rural communities by providing alternative livelihood opportunities and receding into poppy cultivation.
Hazrat Omar, who owns two active greenhouses in Mandozai district, said he daily supplied hundreds of kilograms of vegetables to the market.
He said vegetables grown in the greenhouses had a better taste and dealers themselves visited the greenhouses to buy the vegetables.
Another owner of a green house, Mohammad Asghar, said he harvested cucumber from his greenhouse multiple times higher than his other agriculture products.
He said he had cultivated 4800 cucumber plants in his half acre greenhouse and he had so far supplied 20 tonnes of the harvest to the market in two months.
A vegetables seller in Khost City, Mohammad Rahman, said before the establishment of the greenhouses in the province, the market largely depended on Pakistani vegetables.
He said the greenhouses produced enough vegetables and had reduced the reliance on Pakistani vegetables to a great extent.
In this regard, Khost agriculture director Samiullah Nasrat said more than 100 greenhouses had been built in the province in cooperation with CARD-F and work on another 50 greenhouses was underway.
He said the more than 100 greenhouses had been set the target of producing 620 metric tones of vegetables and it seemed the target would be met.
Khost has enough arable land and a suitable environment for agriculture and the reliance on foreign agriculture products could be completely shunned if the available land is properly utilized.
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Say happy birthday to Mozart in his native Salzburg
Where stunning Baroque churches are nestled before a backdrop of snow-covered peaks. Nothing beats it for a touch of historical magic, with evidence of its imperial past in a huge variety of proud palatial architecture. There's plenty of skiing, eating and drinking to be done – and even coffee drinking has been elevated to the highest form of art.
The cobbled alleyways of Salzburg's Old Town shelter a treasure trove of traditional shops, craft workshops and little boutiques. The best-known shopping streets are Getreidegasse and Judengasse, but check the little passageways and courtyards too. Highlights include chocolate shop Holzermayr (Alter Markt 7), St Peter's bakery (Kapitelplatz 8) and centuries-old leather workshop Schliesselberger (Lederergasse 5). In contrast, the glitzy Europark shopping centre (Europastra�e 1) has all the big brands and more. For fresh produce and traditional Austrian spice bouquets, try the Green Market (University Square), open Monday to Saturday.
Food & Drink
Salzburg has some of Austria's grandest restaurants, serving some of its most traditional food. Many are in historic buildings with stone pillars, panelling, vaulted ceilings and chandeliers aplenty. One such is the venerable Stiftkeller St Peter (St Peter Bezirk 1/4), arguably Europe's oldest restaurant at 1,200 years. In contrast, Magazin (Augustinergasse 13) led a new wave of neue K�che (nouvelle cuisine) restaurants, with stylish d�cor and mid-range prices. Austria's biggest beer cellar, Augustiner Br�u (Augustinergasse 4), offers simple fare or allows guests to bring their own food to accompany the beer. Or for a quick pick-me-up, 300-year old Caf� Tomaselli (Alter Markt 9) has local legends, baked goodies and famous coffees to spare.
Salzburg Easter Festival
Warm-up act to the big summer extravaganza, the Salzburg Easter Festival is also a respected opera and classical music festival in its own right.
Salzburg Marathon
What better way to see Salzburg than to pant and sweat your way around 42km of it? Well, we can think of plenty, but thousands willingly run the city marathon through beautiful palaces, squares and gardens each year.
Salzburg Festival
Top of the cultural agenda, this world-renowned programme of opera, theatre and classical music lasts for a full five weeks, and is staged in venues across Salzburg. It finishes in true Austrian style with a ball.
The perfect antidote to the highbrow Salzburg Festival, SommerSzene is an avant-garde performing arts festival that showcases edgier contemporary dance, theatre, music and film.
Christmas Market
In the festive season, an explosion of fairy lights, candy canes, snow globes and crafts decorates the Domplatz. The sounds of carol singers and smells of mulled wine fill the air, and announce that the Salzburg Christmas Market is in business.
The best hotels in Salzburg huddle in its historic core, but converted castles and rustic farmhouse pensions also hide in the surrounding hills. The celebrated Hotel Goldener Hirsch (Getreidegasse 37) has been an inn for 600 years and channels old Austrian charm like nowhere else. Good mid-range options also in the Old Town include style-conscious Arthotel Blaue Gans (Getreidegasse 41-43) and the historic Elefant (Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 4), which has hosted everyone from the real Maria von Trapp to Maximilian II. Alternatively, splurge on a period room in a medieval castle such as Haunsperg (Hammerstrasse 51, Oberalm), 15km south of Salzburg.


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Every year in May, JFFF (read: jay-eff-three) is held in Sentra Kelapa Gading (Mall Kelapa Gading, La Piazza, and Harris Hotel Kelapa Gading). JFFF is a huge celebration, organized by PT Summarecon Agung Tbk. in co-ordination with the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government through the Tourism and Culture Office, as well as supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy and the Ministry of Trade. JFFF was first held in 2004 with a vision of transforming Indonesia into a global taste, as well as a mission of elevating the image and prestige of Indonesia in the international stage by pushing various cultural-oriented business sectors forwards.
This huge event in fashion and culinary world consists of three main events: Fashion Extravaganza, Food Festival, and Gading Nite Carnival. Fashion Extravaganza presents many ready-to-wear looks from known designers, independent designer, and young designers from various fashion educational institute through a fashion show and a trade show. Appreciation towards traditional culinary verities as well as cultural exchange between nations will be done in the Food Festival through Kampoeng Tempo Doeloe and Wine & Cheese Expo. Jakarta Wine & Cheese Run will also be present, which is a unique running competition where the participant will wear attractive costumes. Lastly, Gading Nite Carnival, the pioneer of night carnival in Indonesia, will open JFFF with a spectacular parade and performances around Sentra Kelapa Gading.
Organized by :
PT Summarecon Agung, Tbk.
Facebook : Jakarta Fashion Food Festival
Twitter : @JFFF_Info
Website: www.jfff.info