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Posted by limedragon | Filed under knitalongs, knitting, personal, secret pals or swaps, socks
Oy! I can hardly wait! And my SP8 says she has a birthday package on the way. Now, I really can't stand the suspense! : )
Thanks for your nice comments on my Amazing Lace Challenge #2 entry. I had fun both writing the post and shopping, heh. Most of you apparently agree with my Mom and the Fates… knitting on a Tilt-A-Whirl? Not the best idea. ; )
On the SYAC swap socks front… I have excellent news! The curse has broken. The socks are finally speeding along. I am so happy!
Tags: amazing lace, birthday, cursed, one skein, secret-pal, sock yarn addicts club, socks, swap
3 Responses to "Anticipation"
Chris Says:
June 19th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
A test of your willpower. :) But excellent that the socks are progressing!
sp8 Says:
June 20th, 2006 at 6:55 am
Where is that package? I'm almost as excited as you! Glad the socks are back to rockin'.
Frarochvia Says:
June 22nd, 2006 at 9:47 pm
And you can open it today!


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When I obtained pregnant I weighed fifty three kilos at 170cm (118 pounds, 5'eight); I gained thirteen kilos or 28 pounds over my pregnancy. The above chart reveals you how a lot it is best to gain dependent on your Physique Mass Index quantity. I recommend you focus totally on building an all-round weight acquire food regimen from a variety of foods, and only then add a mass gainer.
Eat plenty of excessive-carb and excessive-fat meals if weight achieve is a precedence for you. Weight gainers include on average about 900 energy per serving and are just the way in which so as to add the additional energy ladies need without them having to gorge on an excessive amount of food.
Resulting from genetics you are more likely to be gaining weight on your higher physique but having skinny legs. Most cancers: Cancerous tumors usually burn giant quantities of calories and might cause somebody to lose a whole lot of weight. If you happen to're underweight or struggling to put on weight for any motive, CB-1 Weight Gainer is one supplement chances are you'll wish to consider.
Anyone can get stretch marks, however while you gain too much weight, it results in potential for even more stretch marks. In addition they advocate that you just improve your caloric intake by eating 5 or 6 small meals a day (three full meals and two or three snacks) and have a meal every three hours.

subset: commoncrawl


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Offering spectacular sea views over Sandown Bay towards Culver Cliff, this magnificent villa was built in 1929, as a luxurious gentlemen's residence. Built for entertaining, the house has an impressive triple aspect drawing room and large oak-panelled dining room with doors into the sunroom and garden for al-fresco dining. The architecture, proportions and landscaped gardens with palms over the sea are reminiscent of an elegant Mediterranean villa.
more details...
more details...
Island Webservices
Isle of Wight Accommodation
Isle of Wight Webhosting
Island Business


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North Carolina Out of Print Genealogy Books on CD
North Carolina out of print history and genealogy books on CD that you can view on your computer. All books are photocopied. Pages are printable from the CD.
Cyclopedia Of Eminent And Representative Men Of The Carolinas (North And South) Of The Nineteenth Century On CD
Historical Papers, St. John's Lutheran Graveyard, Short History -Cabarrus County, NC - 3 Books! On CD
The Catawba Soldier Of The Civil War : A Sketch Of Every Soldier From Catawba County, North Carolina On CD


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The American Dental Association recommends having a dentist perform a routine dental checkup twice each year. This will clean your teeth of plaque and tartar while also monitoring the health of every component of your mouth. Early detection of oral health maladies can significantly improve your chances of treatment success.
This is especially true for oral and pharyngeal cancers. It's important to let Dr. Shelly Galvin know about any family history of oral cancers, regular tobacco use, or excessive alcohol consumption. These risk factors can contribute to the early development of oral cancers.
Early symptoms of oral or pharyngeal cancer might include a persistent pain in your mouth, which could also be associated with swelling, or a lump in your cheek. Pharyngeal cancer symptoms also include a persistent sore throat or a feeling like something is stuck in the back of your mouth.
The cancer screening is brief as our dentists typically perform it at the end of the exam by inspecting your tongue, throat, face, and neck for any swelling or abnormal discoloration. If they have any concerns, they will likely refer you to an oncologist for further diagnosis and treatment.
If you live in the Kansas City, Kansas, area and you're concerned about oral or pharyngeal cancer, you should call 913-432-0765 to schedule a dental check-up at Westwood Dental.


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Services: NDIS, Disability Services
Inclusion Melbourne provides personalised, high-quality support for adults with an intellectual disability for a more inclusive community.
Our vision at Inclusion Melbourne is to provide support for adults with an intellectual disability and the opportunity to live in an inclusive community environment – where everyone has the same opportunities to participate in community life and to take their place in society as respected citizens.
Our role, as a disability service and support provider, is to encourage and enable people to achieve and maintain a valued quality of life. We achieve this by supporting people to create highly individualised and flexible lifestyles based on their needs and desires.
- Trading Hours: 9am – 4pm
- Refer: Schools refer to head office
- Phone: 03 9509 4266
- Website: inclusion. Melbourne


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Spectral Instrument Imaging's (SI Imaging) was formed by the coming together of pioneers in pre-clinical optical imaging, Bo Nelson and Mike Cable, and recognized industry leaders in CCD camera technology Keith Copeland and Gary Sims.
Bo and Mike are among the most recognized names from the earliest days of pre-clinical imaging technology at Xenogen.
Keith Copeland and Gary Sims, who as founders of Spectral Instruments, helped design and deliver cameras for some of the earliest optical ultra-low light level imaging applications.
The founding team continues to collaborate and provide active leadership, strategic guidance and technology advice to help guide SI Imaging to a high growth future.
Bo Nelson, Founder and Chief Technical Officer
Bo is one of the original members of the team that developed the Xenogen IVIS® systems prior to Xenogen's acquisition by Caliper Life Sciences. For seven years, Bo was in charge of the Instrumentation department of Xenogen, where he led the team that produced, calibrated, installed, serviced and supported the entire IVIS product line and accessories. Bo has additionally worked at both Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and General Atomics, where he has become very familiar with the instrumentation needs of scientific teams.
Mike Cable, Founder and Advisor
Mike assembled and led the team that developed the Xenogen IVIS® systems. As CTO of Xenogen, for six years he oversaw all aspects of the instrumentation development and manufacturing. He served as a key member of the Xenogen management team from shortly after its founding through the company's IPO prior to its acquisition by Caliper Life Sciences. Mike has also been involved or held executive positions with several other high tech companies including Quantum Dot, Fovi Optics, Matrix Sensors and Xradia.
Keith Copeland, Founder and CEO
Keith co-founded SI Imaging to help innovate and bring to market the next generation molecular imaging system. This built upon his extensive experience in camera technology as CEO of Spectral Instruments, which he continues to run. Prior to that he lead the development team and then ran manufacturing at Ventana Medical Systems (Roche) for the first Immunohistochemistry instrument. He started out his career doing mechanical design on CCD cameras at Photometrics (Roper).
Gary Sims Ph.D., Founder and President
Gary has 30 years experience developing and testing solid state imaging sensors and systems for scientific measurement applications including analytical spectroscopy, astronomy, high energy physics programs, bioluminescence measurement systems, and X-ray crystallography detectors. He is an author of numerous scientific publications and patents and is President, CTO and a founder of Spectral Instruments.


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Do you have a process in place for UX design? Most of us have certain techniques and approaches that we favour. To over simplify the process we engage in research, design a prototype, present it to our clients, get feedback, and alter our designs accordingly.
We'll examine some of the challenges that are faced by UX designers and how they can be overcome. These techniques can be applied to your UX process to resolve some common problems.
With relatively small projects, you can probably proceed straight to wireframe creation and produce an interactive prototype relatively quickly to present your design concepts to your client.
In scenarios where the design is more complex, many designers will create a map of user journeys and define user personas prior to creating a wireframe.
However, what will you do when your user journeys are so complex, and there are so many paths the user can take, that the project's feasibility is dubious?
There may be numerous workflows in a web application that are applicable to users with numerous roles. However, although some portions of the process may be very complex, we can identify portions of it that are feasible. In other words, you can identify the primary user pathways and follow them.
When creating your wireframe, it's a good idea to follow the journey of your users from the landing page all the way through to their final goal. Before, examining all the alternate pathways that can be followed, determine if the main pathways are feasible.
Determining whether a reasonable UX can be designed is important. If you find out later in the course of the project that your goals were overly optimistic, then you may have wasted a significant amount of effort and time.
During the initial phase of the project, determine which parts of your UI are the most problematic and create wireframes for them. This will fit in well with the UX practice of mapping the various types of users and their journeys.
By examining these UI challenges at the outset, your design process will proceed more quickly and you'll begin to get an approximation of the amount of development time that will be required.
Although the issue of feasibility can be hard to quantify in large projects, we can determine more rapidly if we create wireframes for the most problematic parts of the UI right at the outset.
This issue is an off-shoot of our initial solution. How can we account for the gaps that are left after we produce our initial wireframes? In order to validate our work, we need to show it to our client and their users. We must get all the stakeholders involved to ensure they agree with our solution.
Rather than having a long process that shows the navigation in all of the less important user journeys, begin your meeting by showing the solution you propose for the primary navigation paths. By showing these primary pathways, we get our clients' attention and avoid being side-tracked.
It's common to become side-tracked in wireframe presentation meetings. Avoid getting stuck in user journeys that are not of prime importance. Get feedback on the primary journeys you have designed for and attempt to fill in the gaps on less important user journeys.
Tell the user a story that coincides with the wireframes you've designed and solicit feedback on how you can fill in the gaps for user journeys that are incomplete.
How much detail can you show in your wireframe? A lot of web apps have subtle interactions and rich animations that few wireframes can simulate.
Additionally, state cannot be maintained in wireframes. For instance, is there a change in layout for administrators? On e-commerce sites, what is the appearance of empty and full shopping carts? It may be a good idea to simulate these states in a prototype.
In the absence of state, most applications are of no use, and wireframe software is unable to effectively simulate state.
At the outset of a project, determine the degree of complexity that user interaction will have. Is it possible to convey your design concepts using static wireframes? If this doesn't appear feasible, then you're likely to need a prototype that is higher-fidelity.
Doing this at the outset may seem like a lot of extra effort, but it has several benefits. In a project that consists of complex user interactions each keystroke and mouse click can involve details that have a large impact on the overall user experience. A prototype that's animated will be easier to give to developers so that they will know precisely how the site should function.
This higher-fidelity prototype will also convey your design more clearly to stakeholders and users. You may want to consider one of the following.
If you have front-end developers that you can utilise, then producing a prototype using HTML, along with CSS and JavaScript may be worthwhile.
The advantage here is that by using JavaScript you can simulate state. Of course this process may be rather time consuming.
An animated prototype is a great way to convey your concepts. While Adobe Flash is outdated for use in a website, it's still good tool to use for rapid animation. Certainly other tools can also be used such as Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Sketchflow.
Animations can help with issues related to interactivity, and the use of annotations can provide further information on the state of an application. This is a relatively simple solution, however, it is effective in a lot of scenarios. Just ensure that you have informed your development team of your annotation format.
After you have created your prototypes, along with animated wireframes, and annotations to convey the state of your application, there may still be some questions in the minds of your developers, particularly if you are working with a large team.
Therefore, you may have to go a bit further to ensure that everyone involved has an understanding of user behaviour.
Solution: User Behaviour Guide
A lot of projects make use of style guides, however a user behaviour guide may be necessary in conjunction with your wireframes and prototypes.
Your behaviour guide may describe things like:
This is a description of the position, interactivity, and style of elements like success messages and error dialogues.
Describe the behaviour of components such as form fields, modal dialogues, and navigation. You may also want to provide guidance on pagination and lazy loading as well.
In an ideal scenario, your client will have a huge budget, and deviation from the norm would be acceptable. Nevertheless, this is usually not what occurs. The reality is that your client has a limited budget against which the cost of the project has been estimated.
We've presented some concepts that won't necessarily coincide with a type UX design process. Therefore, how can they be detailed when you're arriving at a project estimate?
As with many design projects, there has to be some flexibility built-in to the process. Your client has to have trust that while a specific action plan has been identified, issues may arise. You need to be honest in the way you deal with your client and the way your contract is written.
Therefore, in order to cover uncertain scenarios, your project estimates should be given as a range. Rather than saying a particular task will take one month, say that it may take between 25 and 40 days. This will give you the flexibility you require.
In large projects this can create a large variation in the total cost of the project, which may make your client apprehensive. Yet, this estimation method will give them a scenario for the best and worst-case, to help them to manage their budget more effectively.
We haven't outlined a complete list of the essential UX tasks you should use. However, many of the things we've described can be useful. Projects will differ, and the same process may not work on every project. You need to tailor your process to suit the unique issues you face with each project.
To summarise:
yes,Build A Brand New
yes,Revamp An Existing


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The Year Well, where do I even start with this year. It has been one of the most awful years I can think of for the people globally! I almost don't want to go through it! Terrorism, explosions, the most bizarre year ever for politics, Trump, Brexit the change of Prime Minister in the UK […]More...
2016 – What A Year!
- Posted By : Ian Skeavington
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- Comment : 0


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Hotel Catalina
Read more about this Hotel
The Catalina offers affordable luxury and great value in a stylish and sophisticated environment. This stylish Miami Beach hotel boasts 2 outdoor pools, 2 restaurants and 4 bars. Lincoln Road Mall is a 5-minute walk away along with numerous art galleries and restaurants.
How far is the nearest beach?
The beach is located a mere 300m away from the hotel.
Distance from Airport
This hotel is located 25km from Miami International Airport
All 190 guest rooms are equipped with Tempur - Pedic Swedish Mattresses, Masconi sheets and goose-down comforters and pillows. The rooms are glazed in white with hints of color with oversized bath towels and cotton bathrobes in the bathrooms. Suites also feature upgraded 42-inch plasma TVs and mini-bars. All guests receive access to two beach lounge chairs per day for use at the beach club and use of Catalina beach-cruiser bicycles.
Food & Drink
The Catalina Hotel and Beach Club features a free evening cocktail hour every night. Kung Fu Kitchen & Sushi serves gourmet Asian cuisine and casual dining is offered at Maxine's Bistro.
Sports & Entertainment
Guests can relax by the rooftop pool or by the bamboo pool which is surrounded by tall, lush bamboo trees. Spa services including in-room massages are available as well as discounted passes to David Barton Gym.


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The basic idea: speeches or short plays based on a specific location.
For example, one or more speeches or a flash play to be performed on Cardiff Bay in the summer of 2016. These speeches would be based upon an aspect of the bay's past or even projected future.
Another example. During the May Day celebrations held at Cefn Coed colliery museum every year, a short play based upon the colliery's past and the central role coal mining played within the local community.
These are just thoughts at the moment but I soon hope to turn them into projects.


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Use your curiosity; not your judgment
Use your curiosity; not your judgment
I am in Epidaurus, Greece, which seems like the perfect place to tell you this story.
Once upon a time, high up on Olympus, the gods and goddesses gathered to create a new creature for earth – a woman. "A woman! A woman!" they said excitedly. Let's name her Pandora, which means "the gifted" and "the all-giving".
Athena, the goddess of wisdom, breathed the life force into her, and gave her a soul, which contained the wisdom of the ages for guidance and creativity.
Aphrodite, the goddess of love, stepped forward and said, "I will give her the gift of beauty and vibrant sensuality. She will have uninhibited sensual desire, and a captivating beauty, which will allow hearts to open in her presence."
Apollo said, "I'll give her music. She will be able to give and receive joy through song and dance as she celebrates life itself."
Hermes, the messenger god, said, "I'll give her the ability to communicate. She will be able to listen without judgment, and use her words eloquently, and speak her truth clearly, kindly and honestly."
Hephaestus, the blacksmith of the gods, began to fashion a body for her using water and earth; creating a three-dimensional container that was strong enough to serve as a vessel for her consciousness. He said, "I will give her the three dimensions of height and weight and depth." He began to forge a dazzlingly beautiful body with gorgeous curves and rounded features, the likes of which had never been seen before – a woman's body.
When Hephaestus had completed her body, Hera (interestingly enough, the goddess of marriage), gave her a most interesting gift, which she placed in the very core of […]


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With the persistent buzz about growth hacking, why don't we catch up with local hack evangelist, Simon Sylvest, and ask: What is it good for?
"Basically growth hacking tools (like these) can work as a counterbalance to a startup culture that is in love with ideas and rapid execution. Instead of just getting a lot of things done, the tools force you to learn from what you are doing. One of the fundamentals of growth hacking is to write down what you expect from an action and then compare your hypothesis with the business outcome.
It's not about not failing. It's about not making the same mistake twice, and if you don't write it down, you risk repeating it. The habit of self-reporting can be difficult to establish, because the reward is not immediate, and the process of reflection can feel annoyingly slow. But remember: A startup is in the eye of the hurricane, and you need to impose structure on it. Way more than some old ship of a company sailing steadily along.
And of course, you need to report on the right indicators of growth. Don't track vanity metrics like how many journalists are writing about you, or how many visitors you have on your website. Ultimately the only thing you need to track is retention.
Having documents that contain the accumulated learnings of your startup is especially rewarding, when you add a new member to your team. When the person has been through 20 experience documents, you don't have to consider once again to hand out flyers on Strøget or write long blogposts, because you already tried that."
You can try out Simon's growth hacking kit here and say hi to him on firstname.lastname@example.com When it comes to daily execution and short deadlines, he does not use his own tools, but sticks to Trello and Asana.


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So it turns out the Chinese have found a way to genetically modify cows so that they no longer make COWS milk, but instead make human milk. (Ummmm, okay.) I have heard that they are plotting the return of the Mammoth...... but this?! COME ON! Wondering how they did it? I am more wondering WHY?!!!! But here is the how:
"Scientists have created 300 cows that produce milk with some of the properties of human breast milk, including lysozyme, which fights bacteria and improves infants' immune systems in their first few days of life.
Researchers in China introduced genes that express human lysozyme (also called HLZ) and other human proteins into Holstein cattle embryos, and implanted the embryos into surrogate cows. When the GM cows started lactating, their milk contained HLZ and two other proteins.
Using a new purification process, the researchers were apparently able to make the milk taste more human — they increased its fat content and changed the amounts of milk solids."
One of the researchers says that it could be 10 years or more until they are able to "finally pour this enhanced milk into the consumer's cup." They also revealed that they boosted milk fat content by around 20 per cent and have also changed the levels of milk solids, making it closer to the composition of human milk as well as having the same immune-boosting properties.(again I say UMMMMM OKAY.) However, it is this comment that really gets me....Professor Li said "their work has shown it was possible to "humanize" cows milk." Why would they want to humanize a cow?! What is it about a cow that makes these scientists want to make them produce HUMAN breastmilk?! I mean really? Perhaps they are doing this just to say "HAHA we made cows into humans!" But personally.... I think a cow should make cow milk and a human should make human milk. I am not one to mess with nature. Genetically Modified Foods are a bit scary to me! Escepcially when they are trying to make an animal taste like humans!
Now with that said.... my house stays far away from food and beverages made in China. Yes, we check all labels! We have even returned opened containers, to the store, when we noticed that the label read "Made In China." We no longer buy Apple Juice, as all Apple Juice we have found has the "Apples from China" label. Personally I am not going to pay an inflated price for juice just to have USA ingredients.
I am waiting for the day we hear of a study that says "We have genetically modified human milk into cow milk." I for one...... am happy I can produce my own mummie's nummes and do not need a cow to do it for me!
If you are super curious... this study was published back on March 16, 2011 in the PLoS ONE Journal
Okay, mummies.... sound off. What are your feelings on this?


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Global telecommunication refers to the world wide communication through cable, telegraph, internet, telephone, or broadcasting. It facilitates the transfer of various data. facts, figures and information from one region to any other region of the globe. In broad sense, it refers to a wide variety of electrical and electronic communication systems used throughout the world. Modern telecommunication enables us to send and receive sound, videos, printed materials, and visual images in a fraction of a second.
Late 1960s saw the emergence of internet as an impotent instrument of global telecommunication. Internet is a enormous network of computers that connects many of the world's businesses, governments, institutions, and individuals. The Internet, which means interconnected network of networks, links millions and billions of smaller computer networks. It enables computer users throughout the world to send and receive messages, share information in a variety of forms. Compuers of all sorts, whether it is of an individual i.e. a personal computer or super computers and servers of various institutional bodies and government can be connected to the internet.
Telephone is a device for transmitting sound to a distance by cable or radio by altering acoustic vibrations to electrical signals. It is one of our most valuable means of global communication. In just a few seconds, one can telephone a person in any part of the world. In its most indispensable form, a telephone enables people to talk with one another at distances beyond the range of the human voice. Modern telephones are also capable of transmitting text messages, graphics and videos apart from traditional voice messages.
Radio is one of our most important means of global communication. It enables people to send words, music, codes, and other signals to any part of the world. Persons in aircraft and on ships can keep in contact with persons on land by using radio. People also use radio to communicate far into space.
These satellites are now an essential part of worldwide communications. A communication satellite is capable of transmitting a large number of phone calls or streaming videos in very little time. It is also essential for satellite telephony system. A ground station has a large dish aerial for transmitting and receiving radio signals.
The Global Telecommunications System (GTS) is a global grid for the transference of meteorological data from weather terminals, satellites and numerical weather forecasting centers.
The Global Telecommunication System (GTS) consists of an incorporated set of connections of meteorological telecommunication centres. The circuits of the GTS are framed with a amalgamation of terrestrial and satellite telecommunication associates. The GTS is well thought-out on a three stage basis, namely:
The Main Telecommunication Network is the hub network of the GTS. It connects jointly three World Meteorological Centres and 15 Regional Telecommunication Hubs. These are:
The Main Telecommunication Network (MTN) has the purpose of providing an regimented and dependable communication facility between its centres, with the intention of making sure the speedy and consistent global and interregional transfer of observational facts and figures, processed information and other data essential for Members.
The Regional Meteorological Telecommunication Networks consist of an integrated network of circuits interconnecting meteorological centres, which are assisted by radio broadcasts where essential. The Regional Meteorological Telecommunication Networks are to make certain the gathering of observational statistics and the local careful circulation of meteorological and other correlated information to Members. The RTHs on the MTN carry out a crossing point purpose between the Regional Meteorological Telecommunication Networks and the MTN.
The National Meteorological Telecommunication Networks facilitate the National Meteorological Centres to accumulate observational data and to accept and dispense meteorological information on a national stage.
Fibre optic cables are indispensable part of global telecommunication network as a channel for high speed data transfer across the globe. The largest fibre-optic cables can carry hundreds of thousands of telephone conversations or hundreds of television channels across the globe. Satellites and microwaves are also employed in global telecommunication.
Companies like AT&T, Microsoft, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, Aces, and Singular Wireless are some the major players which operate in global telecommunication industry and provide the facility of global communication.


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This works fairly naturally in a game like D&D, which has an extraordinarily steep power curve. A party of tenth level characters can take on large numbers of monsters that are quite dangerous when they first set out.
In other game systems, though, power levels aren't nearly as steep. In games like Warhammer FRP, Burning Wheel, or E6 (and I hear RuneQuest), characters don't ever get so powerful that they can laugh at mundane threats like they can in D&D.
In games like this, what are some ways to pull off escalating difficulty?
In Dungeon World, and its stripped-down cousin World of Dungeons, there's almost no quantification of monster power level at all. These games aren't about flat power curves, necessarily, (they just don't make statements about power) but the effect is the same. What are some non-mechanical ways to tweak the danger level?
Ben tells an anecdote about his players fleeing from goblins for days, ultimately having to run so far they fled into a vermin-filled swamp. He also talks about the barrow wights in the otherwise pleasant Wil Wood - dangerous, but easily avoided, and in fact not that easy to find.
These got me thinking about non-mechanical difficulty levels for monstrous threats in general.
The lens I'm looking at this subject through is stocking a west marches-type wilderness map, so I'm thinking of this in terms of concentrations of monsters - factions, settlements, lairs, and so on. It could be a single owlbear, or an entire subsurface city of Derro.
Here's what I've got so far.
Controlling the Degree of DangerThis is the general principle - how much control do players have over the degree of danger? Can they get a taste and pull back, or does moving forward risk pulling down more than they bargained for?
SpeedIt's easy to get away from Slow monsters. Maybe they're just slow all the time, maybe they're fast in short spurts but can't match the adventurers for endurance (like cheetahs). Maybe they just suck in the terrain the encounter occurs in. In any case, the players can control difficulty by just walking away.
It's much harder to escape from Fast monsters. Maybe they have a terrain advantage, maybe they know shortcuts. Maybe they have mounts, or long legs. But as long as they can find you, they control the distance.
Unorganized monsters can be dealt with piecemeal - maybe they communicate poorly, maybe they hate each other. Angering one won't necessarily mean angering the others, and even if it does, they're not organized enough to do anything about it.
Factional monster concentrations are broken into smaller groups that don't quite get along. They have great communication within the smaller groups, but organizing beyond that is fraught. Pissing off one faction probably won't prompt an immediate reaction from the others, could actually win friends.
Cohesive groups have set internal conflicts aside, and are willing to pull together for the common good, sometimes rapidly.
Militaristic groups are not only willing to work together, they've drilled for it. Sometimes they're praying for it. Their response to external threats will be quick and decisive.
Gestalts are extremely dangerous - they are so cohesive that the entire community can respond as a single organism.
Defensive creatures just want to be left alone - they might even avoid the party if they can. If cornered or attacked, they might react violently, but the motive is to intimidate intruders to drive them away.
To Territorial monsters, on the other hand, just being around is a threat. Moose might not want to eat you, but they'll pursue you until you wish you'd never set eyes on them.
Vengeful monsters don't just want you gone, they want you to remember them. Maybe they send bounty hunters, trackers, rangers or wargs after you. Predatory monsters are similar.
Proactive monsters aren't waiting to stumble into you, they're on the lookout for threats before they develop, and will act to neutralize them before they get out of hand. They know what you people from the lowlands are all about, and they're not having any of it. If they get the drop on you, they'll mess you up just to send a warning.
The quickened trees of Grilwood might be organized, vengeful, but are so Oblivious that unless you smell like orc or try to cut one down, they probably won't even know you're there.
Inattentive monsters aren't expecting to meet anyone, while Alert ones do from time to time.
A Vigilant threat, on the other hand, may have scouts, spies, keen senses, or magical scrying.
The Sarlacc and Blood Willow are nasty, but controlling your exposure to them is relatively easy because they're Stationary. Territorial monsters might be bad, but they're not so bad if their territory is only the graveyard you were digging in. Some are Site-Bound and don't leave the site where they are found, others will venture in the Local area, and some will have a wider Territory. Still other threats will have a Regional reach, able to come and get you long after you thought you were safely back in town.
Singular or threats can be dealt with decisively (whether by evasion, bribery, negotiation, or violence) in a single encounter. Numerous creatures are not so easily dealt with, and Hordes are impossible to stop with anything less than an army, or cataclysmic magic.
ObscurityHow well does the party understand what they're dealing with? Do they know the lay of the land, the nature and disposition of the threats? Are their weaknesses, strengths, and motives understood? If the threats are Understood, the party is at least aware of how much trouble they are likely to bring down on themselves. If the threat is Unknown, the party may not realize it's in danger at all.
I'll talk a lot more about this in another blog post.
Other Qualities of Disposition
These factors have a more complex effect on threat level.
Inaccessible sites are those with obstructed approaches - defenses, narrow defiles or bottlenecks, town walls or ruined fortifications, difficult ascents or caverns, or a long trip across the desert. These barriers may confine the danger making the surrounding area safer, but once the obstacles are crossed, retreat can be difficult.
If a threat is Hidden, this takes control out of the players' hands, and multiplies the effects of the threat's territoriality. Hidden/Predatory threats are a big problem, while Hidden/Defensive sites may never be found at all.
Sealed threats are somehow confined, imprisoned, or penned in. Perhaps a cave-in has trapped underground dwellers, a barricade is preventing the crypt ghouls from flowing into the rest of the dungeon, or demons are trapped behind a door of black granite. These barriers offer parties at least an opportunity for control - don't break the seal, and you're safe. Once the seal is down, however, it's usually hard to put back.
In some cases, only experienced parties can break the seals, which is a useful way of shaping the danger level.
Overall Threat Level
These individual factors all combine to produce an overall threat level. Fast, Militaristic and Predatory makes for a much greater threat than just one or two of those factors.
By these standards, it's easy to see why the barrow-wights of the Wil Wood aren't a great danger to parties that wander through the area - they may be Territorial and Unknown, but they are also Unorganized, Inattentive, Hidden, and Site-Bound, giving players a lot of control over the danger they invoke.
The goblins, however, were much more dangerous - Fast, Cohesive, Vengeful, Alert and Numerous.
The Orcs of Tirru-Stryggal from adventure #09 are almost as deadly as they come: Hidden, Regional, Vigilant, Fast, Militaristic, Predatory, Fortified, Unknown, Numerous. This is a threat that will destroy all but the most prepared and capable parties that tangle with them.


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Preparing your Child and Yourself for Anesthesia and Surgery
Our new book is geared towards pediatric patients and their families. Our book introduces the idea of anesthesia and surgery in a unique way that empowers the child and eases parental fears. In addition to the fantastic adventure Welwyn takes in to space, the book features a color atlas of non-threatening hospital equipment, and an essay to the parents.
For Pediatric Medical Practices and Hospital Marketing
- Market or fundraise with your hospital's/groups logo
- Discounted rates (see below) for ordering Custom Copies and Bulk Orders
- Book signing event available at your facility with larger purchases
Customized Copy Pricing
(May be subject to change based on Shipping Method, and Quantity of Revisions)
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Quantity Cost/Unit
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You *could* just do the more well known Bermondsey Beer Mile – But this one looks like it is a lot more fun and off threaten track.
I currently help behind the bar on Saturdays at Anspach & Hobday on the Bermondsey Beer Mile (pop in and say hi) which is now a very popular must do beer crawl. But what about other breweries and craft bars in South East London? Last Saturday I had a day off from working in the brewery bar tap to go and, well, visit other breweries bar taps. Is it possible to devise another beer crawl? The answer is yes. I had a look on the map and sorted a route.
You can find the route here: Rad beer map
We would start at Hop Burns & Black just off Rye Lane in Peckham then onwards to Brick Brewery a little further north off Rye Lane. Next stop would be Beer Rebellion on Queens Road then a trip over to Loughborough Junction to The Beer Hive. The penultimate stop would be…
View original post 1,434 more words


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Bob Connelly Named Offensive Line Coach
Feb. 14, 2007
Bob Connelly, who spent the last four years coaching the offensive line at the University of Alabama, has been hired to coach the UCLA offensive line, Bruin head coach Karl Dorrell announced today. Connelly has coached in a Rose Bowl, a Sugar Bowl and a Cotton Bowl.
'Bob is an outstanding communicator and teacher,' said Dorrell. 'He produced all-league performers at both Washington State and Alabama. I think he will bring a level of energy and expertise that will be a great fit for the young men in our program.'
Last season, running back Kenneth Darby rushed for 835 yards, left tackle Andre Smith earned first-team Freshman All-America honors and sophomore center Antoine Caldwell was named second-team All-SEC. In 2005, Connelly was named one of the nation's Top 25 recruiters by Rivals.com and his offensive line helped Darby rank second in the SEC in rushing and become only the fourth back in Alabama history to post back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons. In addition, Caldwell and guard B.J. Stabler both earned Freshman All-SEC honors.
In 2004, Connelly tutored a pair of his starters, Wesley Britt and Evan Mathis, to All-SEC honors. His offensive line helped Alabama carve out the 20th best rushing attack in the country and the top rushing game in the SEC. The Crimson Tide also ranked second in the SEC in fewest sacks allowed. In 2003, Connelly's line led a rushing attack that netted 2,067 yards, fourth best in the Southeastern Conference, and produced two All-SEC linemen.
Alabama played in three bowl games during his four seasons, including the 2007 Independence Bowl, 2006 Cotton Bowl and the 2004 Music City Bowl.
Prior to coaching at Alabama, Connelly, 36, spent two seasons tutoring the offensive line at Washington State. In Pullman, his 2002 squad allowed just 24 sacks in 424 pass attempts while helping the Cougars win a share of the Pac-10 title and play in the 2003 Rose Bowl. His 2001 unit gave up 27 sacks in 434 attempts and WSU played in the Sun Bowl. Derrick Roche was a first-team All-Pac-10 selection in both of Connelly's seasons in Pullman and Calvin Armstrong was a first-team choice in 2002.
A 1994 graduate of Texas A&M-Commerce, Connolly was a graduate assistant at Texas A&M in 1998 and coached the offensive line at Cal State Northridge in 1999 and at San Jose State in 2000 before moving to Washington State.
Bob Palcic Hired to Coach Offensive LineJan 7 '08
Steve Morton Named Cougars Offensive Line CoachJan 15 '10
Basketball Pregame ShowThu 1/23 | 4:30pm PTLive
Thu 1/23 | 5:00pm PTLive
Thu 1/23 | 7:00pm PTLive


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Oh, Gillian Flynn. My heart, in some weird and disturbed way, beats for you in this myster/thriller/horror book set all over the home state I love SO much! It was, I have to admit, a bit titillating and surreal to see places I've been and know fairly well (KCK, KCMO, Lawrence, Topeka, etc.) described in a book that has such, well, creepy as all hell plot components.
Most of you, I'm sure, are familiar with the Lady Flynn's most recent best seller Gone Girl. This book, with its dark and yet somehow nondescript book cover sat on the shelves where I work for, like, months, quietly whispering to me every day "you haven't read me yet. You keep recommending me to people. people keep recommending me to you. Reeeeaaaaddd mmeeeee……" (the last part was always in some creepy, Jacob Marley voice, complete with chain rattling). But I didn't want to. Mostly because the plot didn't quite make me go all
But also because, you know, I refuse to read a book that a billion people and the whole universe is telling me to read all at once. I just can't. It's silly rebellion, but so was buying hundreds of dollars worth of Breakfast Club t-shirts and black rubber bracelets when I was a freshman in high school. But I did feel bad about continuing to recommend a book to others that I hadn't read just because it was on the best seller wall (NO, FIFTY SHADES! I WILL NOT HAND YOU TO A SINGLE PERSON.), so I decided to compromise with myself and I read this book instead. And I LOVED it.
Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in "The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas." As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who've long forgotten her. The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details–proof they hope may free Ben–Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she'll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club . . . and maybe she'll admit her testimony wasn't so solid after all. As Libby's search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby's doomed family members–including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started–on the run from a killer.
First of all, Lady Flynn has quite the mouth on her. Secondly. I was bat shit terrified staying up late and reading the chapters when Libby goes back in her own mind and describes what it was like to wake up and hear her family being murdered, only to run away and have to live with not only the survivor's guilt but with the memories. I also want to give the Lady MAD PROPS for creating one of the few books I've read in a while that truly kept me guessing as to who the killer was, why the killer killed, and what this could mean for Ben, for Libby, and for the family that they both, in one way or another, lost. Libby was the kind of narrator that at once infuriated me – she refused to actually do anything with her life, instead excusing it all away because of what happened to her – while also making me feel sympathetic to this girl who lost her family, and then has to deal years later with all the possible "what if's" that come with being that young and testifying in such an intense case.
The book also touched on some of the "darker" aspects of the legal system – what can happen when well meaning people encourage young people to say things that they feel the adults want to hear, and when the system has already made decisions about certain people in certain walks of life. It was frustrating to read, and was one of those situations where I felt myself going "THAT'S NOT FAIR! IF YOU ONLY KNEW THE TRUTH!" I found the ending to be surprising, although I will say that, probably about a dozen pages out or so I was kind of able to put it all together. BUT, most books don't even string me along for that long. So I thought that this plot was really well done, and the plot twist was one that, as I understand it, is one of the Lady Flynn's typical gusto storytelling maneuvers! Here here!
Rating: Hell yeah!


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Deploying with the LWJGL Applet Loader 3 - Compression
Compression - Part 3
Java applications/applets are usually distributed as jar files (compressed zip files), this has become a rather old and dated compression format. Since the AppletLoader works like a custom plugin it easily allows a custom distribution format to be used in addition to standard jars.
LZMA is currently one of the best compression formats and performs much better then standard zip. Java 5+ added support for Pack200, this lossy compression scheme specifically targets class files and uses various tricks to collapse and merge them, this allows them to be compressed much more effectively. When used together, Pack200 and LZMA allow very good compression of jar files.
The standard lwjgl.jar at maximum zip compression is about 800kb in size. Using Pack200 and LZMA on the same jar shrinks it down to about 200kb. That's a very impressive 75% reduction in size.
Creating pack200 and lzma compressed jars is bit of a pain to get this right the first time but the end results are well worth it. This tutorial will attempt to run through the steps you need to get this to work.
Before using pack200/lzma you need to create your jar file(s) as normal as this is the format they will be extracted to and stored as once they are downloaded by the AppletLoader. Remember you must use uncompressed jars otherwise LZMA compression won't be fully effective.
You must sign your jars before applying pack200/lzma compression to them. However there is a pitfall you need to watch out for. Since pack200 is a loosy compression format and not lossless, when you sign a jar and then apply pack200 to it there is no guarantee that the class structure will remain the same when you unpack it. This has the effect of causing the signature verification of the file to fail. To avoid this you need to normalize the jar by using repack on it before signing. This will ensure that once you unpack, your jar is the same as before and the certificate remains valid. The Repack tool is available with the pack200 tool and creates a normalized jar.
To create pack files from you can use the JDK's built in tools to apply pack200 to jars files. To simplyfy things further you can use tools like Scar (build system) or the Pack200 Ant Task.
Pack200 is only useful for jars with class files inside them, so no need to use it on the jars containing the native files as it won't have any effect.
Since pack200 is built into all Java 5+, you won't need any extra libraries to unpack pack200 files.
LZMA is occasionally confused with the 7z format but do note that its different as lzma on its own can only compress a single file at a time while 7z is a container format for lzma.
Once you have your jar or jar.pack file(s) you simply use your tool of choice on them to create jar.lzma or jar.pack.lzma files.
To use your lzma file(s) with the appletloader you need to include the lzma decoder (lzma.jar) with the AppletLoader, this will allow it extract lzma files. lzma.jar (comes with the LWJGL download bundle), you simply add this to the codebase parameter in the applet tag in addition to lwjgl_util_applet.jar.
<applet code="org.lwjgl.util.applet.AppletLoader" archive="lwjgl_util_applet.jar, lzma.jar" codebase="." width="640" height="480"> ... </applet>
To create LZMA files there are a number of tools you can use. Such as the Jlzma.jar (a command line tool), Scar (build system), Lzma SDK or the Pack200 Ant Task.
Automation using a build system
You will notice that there are a lots of steps you need to go though to get it all working. Namely the following:
1) Create uncompressed jars 2) Repack jars 3) Sign jars 4) Pack200 jars 5) finally apply LZMA to the file
This can becomes pretty unmanageable after a few goes at it. You will definitely want to use a build tool to make this easier and quicker. Some build tools that you can use include ANT, Maven or Scar.
Removing the Unused Bits
Compression can only save you so much but another way to shrink the size of your application is to remove the bits of code and other resources that aren't used. For example the LWJGL library jar is just over 700kb and contains code covering the whole of OpenGL, OpenAL, OpenCL and various other bits. Its almost certain that your application will not be using all the code in there. You can manually delete bits you don't need but this is time consuming and tedious. However you can use tools like ProGuard to automate this for you although requires some tweaking to get right. ProGuard can also obfuscate java code thus making it even small. Typically this can shrink the LWJGL library well below 200kb (including natives) but of course depends on your application.
Further Saving by Splitting Natives by Architecture
LWJGL provides natives for both 64bit and 32bit Systems. Linux and Windows have seperate natives for both architectures.
You can package the 32bit and 64bit natives into seperate jars, so the AppletLoader only downloads the natives needed for the platform and architecture.
To do this you use the al_window32, al_window64, al_linux32 and al_linux64 parameters. These parameters will take priority over al_windows and al_linux as they will be used if provided.
<param name="al_windows32" value="windows32_natives.jar"> <param name="al_windows64" value="windows64_natives.jar"> <param name="al_linux32" value="linux32_natives.jar"> <param name="al_linux64" value="linux64_natives.jar"> <param name="al_mac" value="macosx_natives.jar">
Since the LWJGL MacOS natives are fat binaries, meaning PPC, 32bit and 64bit architecture natives are lumped together into the same binary it not possible currently to split the natives into separate jars. However the AppletLoader does support the al_mac32, al_mac64 and al_macppc parameters in case you have other natives which are platform specific.
Compression - Part 3


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Sponsored links
onion (chopped) - ½ cup
wheat flour - 1 cup
ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
pomegranate seeds (dry) - 1 tbsp
green chilly (chopped) - 2
ghee - 1tbsp
coriander leaves as required
salt to taste
1. Mix all the above ingredients except the wheat flour in a bowl.
2. Add ghee to this along with the wheat flour and some water to make dough.
3. Make proportionate rolls from the dough and roll them over to the size of a paratha.
4. Heat a tawa and add a little ghee to it.
5. Now place the paratha on the tawa and make sure that both side of the paratha are properly heated on a slow flame.
6. As the paratha turns brown on both sides it is ready to serve.
Waiting for the right Signature


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Devotional: Grandma's Visit
July 26th, 2010
After you've heard "Grandma's Visit," check out this devotional thought. (If you haven't heard the episode, check out the Media Player. You can also find a station in your area.)
By Catherine Wilson
In "Grandma's Visit," when the Parker family got to know their strange relatives, it sounded a little too familiar to me. I took some unusual vacations when I was a kid. While other kids were going to Disney World or to a cabin on a lake, I was going to my Grandma and Grandpa's house. When I got there, the table was always set with raw hamburger, cabbage boiled in lemon juice, hummus, spinach turnovers, and mashed garbanzo beans. These are the kinds of foods that my grandparents ate on a regular basis! After watching all the adults eat this strange dinner and eating all the plain rice that I could stand, it was time for me to do the dishes. Who would call this a vacation?
My grandpa has since died and my grandma can't cook by herself anymore. And guess what? I really miss those big meals at Grandma and Grandpa's. At the time, I spent way too long complaining to myself about the weird food. Now I look back and miss the good conversations, and the fun games that I played with my cousins.
You'll never guess how I connect with my Grandma now. I've decided that I really like all that "weird food" now (well, except for raw hamburger). When I go see my Grandma I ask her to help me make stuffed cabbage, hummus, and spinach turn-overs. I never would have thought of those "weird foods" as something I would like, not to mention make it for myself and my friends!
I've realized that I love my family, especially the "weird" stuff. That's really what makes them unique and special. Just like the Parkers, it took me a while to realize how cool my weird family was.
Do you have any unusual family traditions? What does your family do to stay connected? Let us know in the comments below.
Tags: Grandma's Visit


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Philips AVENT Moisturising Nipple Cream moisturises and softens dry or sensitive nipples.
Apply once or twice a day during pregnancy to help prepare skin for breastfeeding, as well as after the birth between feeds or as required to help maintain healthy supple skin. There is no need to remove the cream prior to breastfeeding.
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Maria Nepomuceno
Maria Nepomuceno
About the Artist
Using traditional methods of rope weaving and straw braiding as well as techniques of her own design Maria Nepomuceno has, since the the early 2000s, developed a process of sewing coils of coloured rope in spirals. She explores the potentially endless permutations of this adaptable form in sculptures and installations that incorporate beads, playful ceramic forms and found objects of varying sizes. Often realised in carnival-bright colours, these works are chromatically, culturally and metaphorically rich, suggesting animals, plants, the human body and landscape ranging from the microscopic to the macrocosmic.
In Focus
Maria Nepomuceno discusses her exhibition Sim
First of all, tell us about the title of exhibition.
"Sim, which means yes in Portuguese, is a word I like very much. It ties in with the ideas for the show, such as beginnings, things being created and expanded. It also makes reference to Yoko Ono's famous text piece, which she showed in London when she and John Lennon first met. It's affirmative but of course it's also very subjective."
We could all use some affirmation right now…
"Yes, I think we are in a moment in the world where things are going along a certain path and it feels very retrogressive. The first piece you see in this exhibition is very much like a birth, a generation of life, with beads radiating outwards. Most of the pieces in the exhibition have a deliberate crack or fault, or they contain a piece of ceramic or fibreglass that appears to split open. There is very much this idea of something that, at one moment, went wrong or failed, and it had another chance. I want the work to have a spirit of possibility and of generosity."
I want the work to have a spirit of possibility and of generosity.


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When it comes to action figures, few toymakers can match the level of detail that Hot Toys puts into its sixth-scale collectibles. So when the company creates a Star Wars diorama for those figures, it ends up being a monstrous sight to behold.
We've seen Hot Toys' gigantic 5.5-metre-long Millennium Falcon before (at the Ani-Com and Games convention in Hong Kong back in July) but here it's paired with a matching sixth-scale First Order Transporter and more Stormtroopers than even a well-funded collector could ever hope to afford.
If you want to check out Hot Toys' sixth-scale The Force Awakens diorama for yourself, you'll just need to head on over to Times Square, but not in New York. This Times Square, the Times Square Grand Exhibition, is in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. So maybe you're just better off checking out all the wonderful photos of the exhibit included below. [Facebook - Hot Toys via Geek Tyrant]
Want more updates from Gizmodo UK? Make sure to check out our @GizmodoUK Twitter feed, and our Facebook page.


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MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
The search for an antidote to aging has hit a snag. New research suggests that a natural substance once thought to extend lifespan may not be such a big deal after all. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on the rise and fall of an idea that intrigued scientists and captivated the public.
JON HAMILTON: About a decade ago, scientists noticed that natural proteins called sirtuins seemed to help living things live longer. Then, in 2006, a Harvard researcher named David Sinclair reported that a substance thought to activate sirtuins actually did extend the lives of obese mice. The substance is called resveratrol and it's found in red wine. This is how Sinclair described its effect at the time.
DAVID SINCLAIR: The chance of dying was reduced about 30 percent. And the reason I can't tell you exactly how much longer they lived is the study's still going. We rushed it to publication because it was so dramatic.
HAMILTON: Sinclair's study was published in the journal Nature and reported by media around the world. The thinking was that if fat mice lived longer, so would thin, healthy mice. As a result, sales of red wine jumped and a biotechnology company co-founded by Sinclair became extremely valuable. The company, called Sirtris, was purchased by Glaxo Smith Kline in 2008 for $720 million.
But along the way, some scientists began questioning whether sirtuins really were the key to living longer. And this week, the journal Nature is publishing research that offers a strong rebuttal to that idea. The centerpiece is a study by a team including David Gems, a geneticist who studies aging at University College London. Gems says the team tried to replicate some of the early experiments with worms and fruit flies.
DAVID GEMS: We could create worms and flies with elevated levels of this sirtuin protein, and they were not long lived. So that implies that the sirtuin protein is not causing an increase in lifespan.
HAMILTON: Gems says some animals in the original studies had genetic mutations that made them live longer for reasons that had nothing to do with sirtuins. He says the new findings put sirtuins in a very different light.
GEMS: What this should do is act as a cap on the idea that they're important in the biology of aging. However, I suspect that the arguments will carry on for another year or two, with people who are very attached to the idea that they're important in aging.
HAMILTON: One of those people is Lenny Guarente from MIT. He did some of the key studies suggesting that sirtuins could extend life in both worms and fruit flies. He's also on the science advisory board at Sirtris.
Guarente has a new paper of his own in Nature that looks at whether his initial results with worms could have been affected by a mutation. He says they were.
LENNY GUARENTE: One strain did have a problem and so we redid everything and found that the basic conclusion of the paper stands. But the degree of extension of lifespan, we place now in the 10 to 15 percent range, rather than the 30 percent range.
HAMILTON: Guarente says he's not sure why Gems didn't find any life-extending effect. But Guarente adds that his goal has always been to find drugs that use the sirtuin system to prevent the diseases associated with aging, diseases like diabetes and heart disease. And he says in animals at least, sirtuin drugs have done just that.
GUARENTE: We're treating diseases. We're not treating aging itself. So I think that all this fuss about whether it's 10 percent or 15 percent or 30 percent extension in a roundworm is a bit of a tempest in a teapot.
HAMILTON: So even if sirtuins don't prevent aging, they might prevent disease. But this new thinking may be disappointing for healthy people hoping sirtuins would help them live longer.
Scott Pletcher is a geneticist at the University of Michigan who wrote an article that accompanies the new research in Nature. Pletcher agrees that sirtuin drugs may well turn out to have a role in preventing diseases.
SCOTT PLETCHER: But the concept of understanding the nature of aging and having that sort of be solved, that's what I think is sort of just blown apart.
HAMILTON: Pletcher says the new research also blows apart the idea that resveratrol, the substance in red wine thought to activate sirtuins, can extend life. The researchers included an experiment that found resveratrol didn't, in fact, activate those sirtuin proteins.
Jon Hamilton, NPR News.
Copyright © 2011 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.


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In the fall quarter I studied abroad from USYD at the University of California in Santa Barbara. I studied American politics and English Literature and Global Studies- and in the winter quarter I studied, Global Conflict, Feminist Studies and Introduction to Buddhism.
Studying in California I can safely say that yes, sororities and fraternities, red cups, and huge day parties every weekend are everywhere! There are about 10 frat houses and sorority houses each, and all the sports teams usually lived together in their own houses and were basically the same as frats. The team events were always events on Facebook and usually got quite a crowd too.
I didn't live in a sorority, but usually rooms around University have 2-3 people in them. I actually didn't meet one person who had their own room but it's surprisingly really fun, and you get used to sharing very quickly. I didn't know any of the people I moved in with, and actually found my accommodation on Craig's List. Most of the time people will just move in with their friends, non of it is organised through the University. The place I was in was incredible! I lived right on the water in an apartment complex with five American girls. I was paying US$808 per month (and that was sharing a room), so it was pretty expensive!
It was definitely a good choice living with American girls, they took me straight under their wing and into the college spirit from movies that is not a dramatisation at all. While USCB was not as full of the mascot and cheerleaders as I thought, other Universities definitely were. USCB didn't even have a football team so I missed out on that, but making up for it were house parties- a HUGE part of the Uni lifestyle happening literally every weekend, Friday – Sunday. Everyone lived in a place called Isla Vista which was a little city just of students – completely out of control!


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A leading Integrator
Leading systems integrator in Romania working in B2B and B2G sectors, S&T Romania, have chosen document recognition technologies in mobile applications, developed by specialists from Smart Engines.
S&T Romania is a subsidiary of S&T System Integration and Technology Distribution AG, a corporation based in Austria. The company's activities include software development, consulting, projects management and technical support for customers.
A High Quality MRZ Reader
In scope of the project lead by S&T Romania, Smart Engines delivered a high-quality machine-readable zone (MRZ) recognition solution for Android mobile devices to be used by more than 20 000 agents.
Smart MRZ Reader reduces the time for data entry
The integration of Smart Engines' document recognition technology in mobile application allows to decrease the time needed to enter the personal data down to 1-2 seconds. The user only needs to show the MRZ document zone to the smartphone's camera. After that the recognized data is entered automatically in appropriate fields of the application for further processing.
Smart Engines' document recognition solution in video-stream is for us not only a compliance with modern trends of intense functionality increase for the mobile services, but also high-quality data recognition itself.
Cristian Necula
Managing Director


text:
Washington > News > Minister Jean Asselborn at the luncheon of the EU Ministe... >
Minister Jean Asselborn at the luncheon of the EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Jean Asselborn, participated in the working luncheon of the 28 EU Foreign Ministers with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson which took place in Brussels on 5 December 2017.
Chaired by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, the discussions addressed transatlantic cooperation in the face of global challenges. In this context, the Luxembourg Foreign Minister stressed that "a close transatlantic cooperation and a strong partnership between the EU and the US are more important than ever". He recalled that it is important to "reaffirm our common values".
During their luncheon, the EU Ministers and the Secretary of State touched upon the latest developments in the Middle East, the situation in Syria, policy vis-à-vis Russia, cooperation with Ukraine as well as tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The Ministers underlined that the EU and the US are strategic partners and share values, principles and common interests to jointly address global challenges. Jean Asselborn insisted on the importance of an "approach based on multilateralism to face global challenges, in particular climate change and migration".
The meeting was also an opportunity to highlight the importance of a continued rigorous implementation of the Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA.


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Well, it is official; more studies show that obese people are more at risk for cancer. Exercise and diet are the protocol - like I didn't know that? I am not in the obese category, just "rounded," but I know I need to lose weight. Why do I know that? Because every study tells me so.
I got a great comment back from an enthusiast when I was looking for "Magic." I loved the way Renee addresses exercise - it sounds like fun. So starting today, I am going to try to remember what it was like to be a child and have no greater desire than to ride my bike, swim, play football, skip…I can do this because my energy is returning. As I have mentioned, I stopped Arimidex (anastrozole), and maybe this is the result.
In the end, I may gain brawn, but I am still looking for my brain. The fuzziness, forgetfulness and all the other symptoms did not disappear. I am having more moments of clarity, but I wonder if it is because I am just learning to function better in my reduced intellectual state. Other women have told me that a daily walk helps them to focus better.
We have not addressed "chemo brain" lately. However, I have heard of some new studies and am going to spend some time looking into them.
What have you heard - anything new?


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You can watch Walks Around Britain whenever you like on Amazon's Prime Video.
If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can watch all of seasons one, two and three - and the Great Glen Way Special - whenever and wherever you like at no extra cost.
If you aren't a Prime member, you can also buy or rent individual editions or the entire seasons to watch whenever and wherever you want - starting from £1.89.
Visit our Prime Video home page here for all our programmes available on Amazon's Prime Video.
Amazon's Prime Video is included when you are a member of Amazon Prime - which also includes...
- Unlimited One-Day Delivery on millions of eligible items at no extra cost
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- and the unlimited streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows on Prime Video
If you're not a member of Amazon Prime, click here for a 30-day trial and enjoy all three seasons of Walks Around Britain and our Great Glen Way Special. You can cancel at any time in the 30 days without being charged afterwards.
Walks Around Britain on YouTube
Currently, all editions from season four are available to watch in HD for free on the Walks Around Britain YouTube Channel.
The full editions of Walks Around Britain available for free on our YouTube channel change every so often, so the best way to make sure you catch the latest is to subscribe to our channel here.
Our YouTube channel is also the home to the Walks Around Britain Shorts - which are the brief summaries of our walks you'll find on each of the walk pages on this website.
Walks Around Britain on HorizonSports
Selected editions from seasons one, two and three are available to watch on HorizonSports.
HorizonSports is the nature sports & lifestyle TV and video platform which is building to be the single best destination for a broad selection of content for people who want to be more active in nature.
If you like hiking, trail running, trekking, Nordic walking, kayaking, cycling, mountain biking, triathlon, mountaineering, camping, skiing, stand up paddleboarding… then there's something for you to explore on HorizonSports.
At the moment, season three of Walks Around Britain is available to watch on demand on HorizonSports, via their iOS and Android apps, and on connected TVs too.
Subscribing to HorizonSports is €19.99 a year with 15 days access free.
Walks Around Britain on HorizonSports
Selected editions from seasons one, two and three are available to watch on HorizonSports.
HistoryHit TV is the on-demand TV network dedicated to History in its' many forms. Born from the desire of historian and TV presenter Dan Snow to be THE place for detailed and in-depth look at history.
At the moment, season one of Walks Around Britain is available to watch on demand on HistoryHit TV, via their website.
Subscribing to HistoryHit TV is £4.99 a month with a 30 days free trial.
Walks Around Britain on board trains
Editions of Walks Around Britain are available to watch for free on board Virgin Trains West Coast, West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway trains.
On Virgin Trains, you need to download the BEAM app to your device before you log onto the trains' on-board WiFi. Once installed, connect to the trains' WiFi and open the BEAM app. The app will then connect to the on-board server and you'll be able to search for Walks Around Britain in the app.
For more information about BEAM, visit the Virgin Trains' website here.
On West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway trains, you need connect to the trains' on-board WiFi, and then go to http://www.loopwifi.co.uk in your web browser. You'll then be able to search for Walks Around Britain on the Loop website.
For more information about Loop, visit the West Midlands Railway website here.
PLEASE NOTE - Since the transfer of the East Coast franchise to LNER, the BEAM service is no longer available on trains which used to be Virgin Trains East Coast. As soon as the team at LNER have a new on-board entertainment service we'll be working to get Walks Around Britain back on it.
For more information, visit the LNER website here.
Walks Around Britain on Television
You can also watch Walks Around Britain on 19 television channels across the UK. Horse & Country TV, CLTV, Globetrotter TV, Forces TV and PBS America are available nationally, with 14 of the Local TV channels in the UK also showing the series too.
For further details about when they will be showing Walks Around Britain, please visit the website of the channel of your choice, or follow us on Twitter, where we try to tweet out as often as we can when a channel is showing an edition.
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Use walls for a perfect room climate
Tenno consists of heating and cooling elements which have been developed for installation in commercial dry walls. The system can be used if temperature control from the ceiling of other surfaces will not be possible or sufficient.
With Tenno the heat exchange takes place via the surface of the gypsum boards facing the room.
- Comfortable room climate
- Perforated plasterboards for perfect room acoustics
- Fixing of images on the wall possible - pipes are protected with the heat conducting panels
- No drafts, no noise compared to conventional air conditioning
- Prefabricated modules for fast on-site assembling
- Suitable for standard wall systems


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Barbara Ehrenreich is the best-selling author of 11 books, including Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. The book challenges welfare reform's premise that a steady job ensures financial independence. Spending a year working in Florida, Maine and Minnesota at such low-wage jobs as house cleaner, waitress and Wal-Mart clerk, Ehrenreich documents -- with precision, outrage and humor -- the substandard workplaces and palpable desperation of the working poor.
Primarily a social critic and essayist, Nickel and Dimed was Ehrenreich's first foray into reportage and narrative journalism, but not her last. "Welcome to Cancerland: A Mammogram Leads to a Cult of Pink Kitsch," appeared in Harper's Magazine in 2001. Ehrenreich's breast-cancer diagnosis propels her to the disease's shop-for-a-cure merchandising, Web sites and races. She rails against the "infantilizing" of the disease with cute teddy bears and pink ribbons, the "relentless brightsiding" that cancer is a character-builder and being angry a waste of energy, and the sponsorship of Breast Cancer Awareness month by major polluters who gloss over the role that carcinogens may play in cancer. The article was subsequently featured in two books, Best Essays of 2002 and the Best Science Writing of 2002.
Ehrenreich is a frequent contributor to Time, The New Republic, The Progressive and The New York Times Magazine. She will appear in Pittsburgh as part of the Drue Heinz Lectures series on Mon., March 29.
How did your Nickel and Dimed jobs cause you to describe the American workplace as generally a "dictatorship?"
It's the strange rules that you have to put up with. In one of my jobs you couldn't talk to your fellow workers. Of course you could say, "Where did you put that cart that I had such and such in?" But you were never to be caught saying, "How was your weekend?" or "Is your headache better?" I found that to be astonishing. I imagine they would say that it's efficiency, that you can't ever be doing anything that isn't work. But I think another part of it must be to prevent people from sharing their complaints and beginning to talk about how to make changes.
It's really hard for people to agitate. You agitate for one second and you're fired. If American workers don't have a union contract, they can be fired "at will" -- at the will of the employer. There's a palpable inhibition against speaking up.
What I found particularly disturbing was Marc Linder and Ingrid Nygaard's Void Where Prohibited, which you cite.
They write about people on cash registers or assembly lines who wear adult diapers to work because they're never going to get a chance to pee. And he talks about the health effects of not being able to go to the bathroom when you need to.
What bothered you about having to take a drug test for one of your jobs?
I just don't think drug testing is justified. It's been interesting to hear the talk about [drug testing for] professional athletes recently. All the lawyers for the athletes are saying, "Look, this is presuming guilt, there's no cause for those drug-test thing. What do they think is going on in this country?" They're acting so righteous and chagrined, as well they should be. It's just that this has been the rule -- you know there's no cause, there's no reason for suspicion across the board.
What made you decide that your breast-cancer diagnosis was journalistic fodder?
Almost the moment after I finished Nickel and Dimed, I was hit with this diagnosis. And I learn from the book that you can get through some pretty hard things if you are writing about them, if you can create the detachment from being an observer, a writer.
Was there much response to that piece?
Yes. I still get letters from people saying it really helped them get through their cancer experience. Not only breast-cancer people: I just got one from a woman who had been treated for some kind of lymphoma and she said there was the same sort of cult of false cheerfulness going on there. And also it has influenced some of the breast-cancer activists. My favorite group, Breast Cancer Action in San Francisco, has launched a campaign, "Think Before You Pink," attacking all these races and walks and other things for being sort of a corporate PR effort and beside the point.
You've remarked on conformity among journalists, which is perhaps similar to the "cult" you write about in "Cancerland." Can you explain your contention that newspapers that subject writers to drug testing are less interesting than those that don't?
Maybe newspapers should have pre-employment drug testing for journalists and anybody who would agree to submit to it should not be hired. Because, as far as I'm concerned, they'd lack the independence of mind to be a real journalist.


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Introduction to Pandas
Data Munging in Python
Python's popularity has skyrocketed with the creation of Pandas. It has become the de facto python library when working with heterogeneous tabular data, and has since been integrated with various Python libraries. While many tasks can be performed in spreadsheet programs, e.g., Excel, Pandas allows you to script these tasks in Python so you have a complete audit trail for how your data was manipulated. Additionally, more and more datasets are hitting the limits of how much spreadsheet programs can even open, so having an alternative means to work with these types of data is essential.
This Pandas introduction will guide you from "opening" Python, to loading a dataset and beginning the process of cleaning and analyzing data.
What you'll learn-and how you can apply it
- This Pandas introduction will guide you from "opening" Python to loading a dataset and begin the process of cleaning and analyzing data.
This training course is for you because...
- You are new to data analytics and/or performing data analytics using Python
- You want a more reproducible workflow to cleaning and process data
- You want to learn Python in an applied way by working with data
- You have used python before, but want to see how it can be used to clean and process datasets
- It will help if you know some basic bash/shell commands (On macos/linux: ls, cd, windows: dir, cd)
Participants enrolled in this course need to have the following installed on their computers:
- Have python and pandas installed. This can be done using the anaconda or canopy distribution
- Additional installation instructions and datasets get be found on: https://github.com/chendaniely/pandas_for_everyone
Recommended Preparation:
Pandas Data Analysis with Python Fundamentals LiveLessons (video)
Pandas for Everyone: Python Data Analytics (book)
Tidy data paper: http://vita.had.co.nz/papers/tidy-data.html
Organizing computational (biology) projects: http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000424
Course setup - Please be sure you have python (and pandas) installed on your computer before class begins: https://www.anaconda.com/download/
About your instructor
Daniel Chen, trainer and data scientist, is a graduate student in the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in genetics, bioinformatics & computational biology (GBCB) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He is involved with Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry as an instructor and lesson maintainer. He completed his master's degree in public health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in epidemiology with a certificate in advanced epidemiology and is currently extending his master's thesis work on attitude diffusion in social networks in the Social and Decision Analytics Laboratory under the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech.
The timeframes are only estimates and may vary according to how the class is progressing
Day 1
Segment 1 Different ways you can interface with Python (25 min)
- Anaconda, Python, IPython, and Jupyter notebooks
- Spyder, nteract, Rodeo IDEs
- Installing packages
Break + Q&A (5 minutes)
Segment 2 Pandas basics and tour (55 min)
- Load, subset, slice, filter data
- The Pandas Series and DataFrame object
- Quick whirlwind of grouped operations and plots
- Manual creation of data objects
- Series and DataFrame object methods
- Conditional and 'fancy' subsetting
- Saving data: csv, excel, feather, odo library
Break + Q&A (5 minutes)
Segment 3 Assembling data and missing values (55 min)
- Concatenation
- Merging
- Python for loops and list comprehensions
- How are missing data represented
- How are missing data created
- Ways to count and find missing data
- Calculations with missing data
Break + Q&A (5 minutes)
Segment 4 Data Reshaping (55 min)
- Hadley's Tidy Data paper
- Column headers are values, not variable names.
- Multiple variables are stored in one column.
- Variables are stored in both rows and columns.
- Multiple types of observational units are stored in the same table.
- A single observational unit is stored in multiple tables.
Break + Q&A (5 minutes)
Segment 5 Data Types (25 min)
- Different Data types
- Converting data types
Break + Q&A (5 minutes)
Day 2
Segment 6 Functions (25 min)
- Writing functions in Python
- Testing functions and Python unit tests
Break + Q&A (5 minutes)
Segment 7 Strings and text data (55 min)
- Python strings and pandas 'object' types
- Subsetting and slicing strings
- String methods
- String formatting
- Regular Expressions
Break + Q&A (5 minutes)
Segment 8 Applying Functions (25 min)
- Custom functions
- Vectorized Functions
- Lambda Functions
Break + Q&A (5 minutes)
Segment 9 Grouped Operations (55 min)
- Aggregation methods
- Transformation methods
- Filter methods
- Iterating over groups
Break + Q&A (5 minutes)
Segment 11 Dates and Times (25 min)
- Python datetime
- Converting to datetime types
- Loading data with dates
- Extracting date components
- Date calculations and time deltas
- datetime methods
- Date ranges
Break + Q&A (5 minutes)
Segment 11 Modelling (25 min)
- linear mondels with sklearn and statsmodels
- dummy variables
- patsy
Break + Q&A (5 minutes)
Segment 12 Wrapping up (25 min)
- Additional resources
- Timing your code
- Thinking about performance
Break + Q&A (5 minutes)


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Currently, 44000 resident and teaching doctors in hospitals of Maharashtra are on strike. The triggering issue was the latest violent attack by patient's relatives, on the doctor of a patient who had died of chronic renal failure, in a medical college hospital in Mumbai. The medical community, on social media, is expressing their disbelief that even the Hon'ble High Court is not sympathetic to their manner of protest-mass leave-on grounds of poor security at their places of work. The Hon'ble High Court has stated that state doctors cannot resort to strike/mass leave, as a means of protest in the same manner as factory workers.
Incidently, police routinely face mob or individual violence during the course of their duties – like enforcing traffic rules – or during public protests-which may be against deficits of service or against government policies . Many a times, policemen get injured or killed during action on such violent protests. But it is taken for granted that duty of a policeman may involve such risks! It is for another day that we may talk of risk compensation to policemen. But I want to point out the similarity in situations faced by both professions in their dealings with public ire, though the difference is that it is the job of police to face and deal with public violence, while for a doctor, it is not. For both, however, it has become a professional risk.
Doctors practice the most benevolent of professional roles in all humanity – that of dealing with saving and nurturing human life and health. Clearly, it is a basic need that hospitals should have secure workspaces for them. And their demand of better security in hospitals starting with visitor management, is very valid. The administrative response to that demand, that armed security will be deployed in large numbers at hospitals, however, may not be sufficient to ensure peace from violent relatives in hospitals. One must remember that, besides cures, hospitals will continue to deal with death of patients too. Armed security in large numbers, alone as a measure, will not be useful in those circumstances, to deal with affected relatives. Hospitals, like educational institutions, are peopled with a unique psychological profile. A fine tuned, multi pronged approach is required, to put in place a mechanism that will work.
The problem, to my mind, needs to be looked at from two perspectives- 1) immediate work on well trained, sufficient number of security personnel to be deployed for effective visitor management in public hospitals. This, currently, is a visibly deficient area. The police is not the agency for guard duties, but the same should be fulfilled through non-police security agencies of the government – like the Maharashtra Security Corporation or the district guard boards or the Armed Forces retired persons Resettlement Boards. Security in public hospitals needs better resourcing.
The second viewpoint is more important in the long term. What can public hospitals do to reduce anger in its visitors, since this is clearly a problem needing to be tackled? Can the hospital spaces, more so in areas of greater mortality, be designed differently to evoke calmness – with better seating, different lighting, more greenery/ water fountains in open spaces? Can there be better use of the existing para medical manpower, like nurses, by training them for communication with patients' relatives and even for reducing the work-hours burden of resident doctors? I think equal importance needs to be given to psychological designing as to feet on the ground security, when solving the problem of hospital based violence. I've heard of pet dogs and pups being made available in some universities abroad, for students during exam times to reduce their stress. Some out of the box solutions are warranted in India too, for problems like this one.
I am especially impressed with the work culture at Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital-a public hospital in Mumbai. It is amazing how the patient-focus is so visible there. And everyone including a lift operator is so unfailingly polite and considerate- despite the massive patient load. Do they train their manpower differently? How do they achieve that organisational culture of service?


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Product description
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