text:
Published on Isolated symptoms.
Asthenia means intense lack of energy. It is provoked by the absence of references and loss of the feeling of being part of the herd, of the group, of the clan. It occurs at the level of the subconscious, both individually and collectively.
In order to better describe what a person suffering from asthenia goes through, we shall take an example from the animal world.
Contrary to what happens with wolves, where each individual wolf in the pack is not essential (one wolf leaving the group does not impact on the pack), in the case of sheep, and, more precisely, a sheep herd, any reduction in the number of heads originates a situation of danger. Sheep depend on the group, reason for which they bet on it. The herd cannot attack nor run away, only gather together. Predators do not attack a herd. What they see when looking at the herd is a huge sheep. The sheep led astray is the one which becomes the prey.
For the lost sheep, the only valid direction is the course which will take it back to the herd. For this reason, the lost sheep does not know which way it should run to, because it does not know where the herd is, and so it stays still. It stays very still, so not to give itself away to the wolves. The lost sheep has to focus on itself, and for this reason, its body has to generate a mechanism that calms it down. What the body does then is to act over the suprarenal glands, calming them down and literally draining them. The sheep becomes exhausted as a result. It becomes worn out, and then lies down, still. When we see a sheep looking like this, it means it is lost. It is trying not to move any further away from the herd. It waits for it to show up, and, when it happens, then its suprarenal glands come back into force and the sheep runs fast to the herd, to be part of it and feel safe again. An animal under stress is a very active animal.
The lost sheep has to focus on itself, and for this reason its body has to generate a mechanism that calms it down.
When the sheep parted from the group, there are natural mechanisms through which the herd sends signals, from brain to brain. Since the lost sheep is very calm and in asthenia, it is very apt to capture this type of signalling from the herd and start moving in its direction. If it was not in asthenia, it would not be able to detect the radar signals sent by the herd. The same happens with elephants. They turn around in rotation and translation movements. It is all very fast.
The person suffering from asthenia is alone, and has to stop. For this reason, the brain produces fatigue. The person who feels very tired is a person who is lost. He would like to find his former group, family, herd, clan, or to find a new one. The person suffering from asthenia needs to stop his mental turmoil; he is leading a very fast and logical life, a very yang, very masculine, very controlled life. The more one fights off fatigue, the more it makes itself felt. One needs to accept and not move.
It is necessary to thank fatigue and to adopt a zen attitude, in other words, to let intuition win over. And to keep an ear out for the signal that will take him back to a clan, a herd.
We all derive from a clan. It is difficult to uproot the values of that clan. The clan always calls back the person who moved away from it. And it is very powerful. One may change clans. Anytime one is between clans, a crisis presents itself in his life. If the person manages to set up another clan, then balance returns. Independence is not lived in isolation. Independence means that one is able to choose his herd, his group.
The safety that comes when a person reencounters a group regenerates him. The suprarenal glands fill up again and the person recovers his vitality.
The individual person matters to the species, and for this reason the species has a programme for the individual.
Human beings are gregarious. The person who shows up with new ideas is the outcast, the black sheep. The clan fears its safety is in jeopardy.
For this reason, it is advisable to always respect the herd, not destroy it. Advancement is achieved by beginning a new herd, not by destroying the old one.
Usually, we act fully in accordance with the clan, or totally opposed to the clan, but always with the clan as a reference, which is not good for the individual person. A person should act in accordance with his balance.
The combination of brains in a herd leads to a collective brain, with its own identity.
The same applies to politics, to society and to the system in general.
For the person suffering from fibromyalgia, please see Fibromyalgia.


text: Iam the Director of Information and Instructional Technology Services at the University of Toronto Mississauga. The Uof T Mississauga is one campus ocation of our tri-campus university. Areas of responsibility include the campus network operations, research computing support, client services, classroom technology, storage and infrastructure services, web design and application development, digital signage, video conferencing, lecture capture and web casting. Previously, I held the position of Associate Librarian, Research and Information Technologyh Services, UofT Mississauga Library where I was responsible for public and staff computing in the Library, library application development and support, emerging technologies, digital signage, scholarly communication, digital research services with an emphasis on digital humanities, special archival collections, the library website and project management leadership. I also spent nineteen years with ExxonMobil Canada in various roles from business librarian, corporate archivist, electronic documents management analyst and b2b internet services manager.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
by Craig Kwasniewski
Just a few random thoughts/observations this week in the NBA:
-Shaquille O'Neal's fourth-grade teacher from Fort Stewart, Ga., Annette Swann, 76, saw him play for the first time. "She was one of the first people to believe in me," said O'Neal, who arranged tickets for Swann and her daughter Amy Allyn, plus hotel accommodations and gifts from the Heat store.
Here's my question, if she was one of the first people to believe in Shaq then why did it take her 13 seasons to see him play? Did she think this whole basketball thing was a hobby? Was she waiting for discount tickets to the Heat's new promotion: Euthanasia Day?
-Speaking of the Heat, according to the AP, " Antoine Walker busted out of his slump with a season-high 32 points as the Miami Heat overcame Dwyane Wade's absence to beat Toronto 106-97 on Tuesday night"
Help me on this one, how is it "busting out of a slump" if you continually shoot poorly from the field your entire career? (His career field goal percentage is 41.5%) Any Antoine Walker fan (do they exist?) will acknowledge that his best overall season was 2001-02 when the Celtics were 2 games from the finals. Did you know he shot 39.4% from the field in 01-02? I've seen enough of his shots hit the side of the backboard this season to realize that he can no longer "bust out of a slump". A good game from him results from TON of garbage points or a planetary alignment (re. rare).
-There was a great discussion on John Hollinger (genius or fraud) in yesterday's post. He's another reason why The Daily Dime reigns supreme in unintentional comedy. Some of the quotes and news items (such as Shaq's teacher story), originally intended to inform are simply hilarious. Take for example, Marc Stein's quote from the weekend edition from Spurs Coach, Gregg Pockavich:
"I spend no time engaging in psychological bull----. What this game means and how motivated they are and we've got to bring the juice and all that crap ... I'd get tired if I did that before every game."
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, not exactly eager to help us hype up Friday's final Dallas-at-San Antonio showdown of the regular season.
This comes from the same guy who executed one of the biggest coachspeak/phychological ploys back in 2003-04. After winning the title in 02-03, to motivate the team the following season, Pock would not acknowledge the title. He went as far as to ask the Spurs PA announcer to stop calling the Spurs "the defending champions!" In press conferences he reminded those willing to listen that the 03-04 Spurs are not the defending champs, but rather they need to earn a new title. COME ON!!!
-I saw the Lakers beat the Golden State 111 to 100 last night at Staples. There's not really much to gather from the game. Kobe was trying for 50 from the get-go, but landed awkwardly on a drive in the second quarter and may have hurt his knee or ankle. (The injury didn't look too serious) He had 30 at half but pretty much laid low for the rest of the game as he finished with 31 points.
For the fans of Entourage, they were filming the show during the entire game with Jeremy Piven's character (Ari) sitting next to the Laker bench acting a scene with producer Joel Silver. The rest of the cast was sitting courtside across the way doing some scenes. Personally, I think it's one of the most overrated shows on television, but the game was a blowout so what else was I going to do watch Kwame Brown drop 4 or 5 passes?


text:
How can I update the View title of a SharePoint 2007 list using the views.asmx web service? According to MSDN the Views.UpdateView web method takes a parameter viewProperties =
An XML fragment that contains all the view-level properties as attributes, such as Editor, Hidden, ReadOnly, and Title.
But what is the structure of this XML fragment? I tried supplying <ViewProperties Title='MyCustomView' />
but always get an SOAP exception indicating that the viewProperties has invalid value.


text:
Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'lonzu'.
I've seen a few tier lists for Lunatic and hard mode no grind (because grinding makes anyone good or correct until lategame). I think some units are overrated while some are underrated. S tier: - Sumia: while she has the speed to double in hard mode when she joins, she's another chip unit for a good while before reaching her owerspike for like 2 chapters and then becomes a staff/rally bot or support. I don't see why she should be S tier since her placement is really hard to optimize as a flying unit and she won't get reclassed into a foot unit for long if you don't ant to loose too much mobility/start over from level 1 with no mobility at all or no weapons (if reclassed before promotion). She can make a fast GK etc. but in no grind, feeding her 23 levels of exp to get rally speed seems a bit of a waste while with avatar you have a free rally spectrum with more bulk and rally needs bulk except if you can position the rally bot outside of ennemies' range (lol most maps are like you're in the middle and 25 ennemies circle you by turn 3 with wind mages and archers). So I'd put her high B-rank because her mobility is good but she needs hell of a bias to get anywhere close to middle A-tier. - Olivia: as a dancer she has a useful skill. But same problem as Sumia: squishy AF so she needs to never be in ennemies' range not to die, she won't ever see combat as a dancer in no grind, she won't be able to dance very often (not even 10x per map so less than 1 level up per map meaning she's even more OHKO food for ennemies without any natural avoid skills (+4 luck isn't an avoid skill)) and like I explained above ennemies surround you in most chapters with a few ones having ranged weapons and the old rescue mechanic gone to put her even more behind because if she get hit she's dead (no miracle for dancers sadly it would be much more useful than their useless luck +4 and a medium-level single target rally on dance, especially luck +4 in a game where 4 luck means 2 avoid LOLOLOL so damn useless) and she starts...at level 1 with awful bases (while in TSS the dancer started with some workable def/res and good growths in it with wonderful avoid and growths in avoid stats, like 80/70% in speed and luck and 50+ in res) and nearly 0 HP since 18 means OHKO by anyone from chapter 11 to epilogue. with terrain bonuses halved for most of them she can't even benefit from forests to dodge anything (10 avoid instead of 1 def 20 avoid in a game with 140 hit rate ennemies LOL this game's design is killing me). So yes dancer is useful but Olivia in Awakening is just not that good of a dancer and joins too late to even reach level 15 before ending and she will get killed by anything that get close to her, even a mid-late game thief/trickster. - Lon'zu: why is he S-tier? I don't know, his only good point is joining with a killer sword which can be used by any other sword unit who got exp even before he joined and who reached higher strength/defence and maybe even speed and skill if the unit got blessed (or just Chrom since he has the same speed, skill, 2x Lon'zu's strength and 2.5x his def, a bit more res and 2x more luck around level 12 at this point). Lon'Zu will never get enough strength to be ORKOing any ennemy in late game if the crit/astra doesn't activate (which happens a bit too often sometimes and tends to apply several times in a row), he can dodgetank: yes and no. In no pair up runs try to make him and his 60-ish avoid dodge the 140+ hit rate ennemies (even avoid +10 makes it 70ish avoid it lets them have around 70% hit so no dodgetank isn't the solution for that) and he's as squishy as swordmaster Olivia (which I use often for a swordfaire Lucina). It's like playing luntic + FE:TSS with squishy chip units. I know it doesn't exist but if it existed you wouldn't want to use any swordmaster to clean it since even in normal difficulty swordmasters need godly strong weapons to ORKO anything with medium def in no grind runs (so strength not capped in unpromoted AND promoted classes most of the time). I didn' see anyone even arguing about his reclassing options. Wyvern has too many weaknesses for no grind runs (and no swords) and thief isn't supposed to be a combat class. A tier: - Sully: she can be worthy of it as well as be screwed by RNG especially in early level ups. Mine just got her 2 first level ups to be +1HP +1luck and +1HP +1strength. She didn't raise her def for like 5 levels, her strength and def got locked at 8-9 until level 8 and her speed struggled to blow up from the start. Finally she got saved by 2 excellent level ups (as in everything ecept magic and res went up) and then she found her way to 17 speed and average everything else. She is a semi-myrmidon cavalier with less speed/avoid/skill than a myrmidon and less bulk than an average cavalier so she doesn't want to get screwed by RNG or else she's good to be benched since her start is the moment when she can get strong or completely left behind. Myrmidon cuts her from 2 move and some bulk and lance use so it's not really nice on a no pair up run (I mean he unit isn't self-sufficient which A-tier is for). -Lissa: your first healer, balanced shitty growths can pull her up to Libra's level 1 pre-promote base stats when she's 20/1 warmonk or she can be a more magic-oriented staff bot sage with more survivability than Miriel (miracle from level 1 saves her from B-tier). She has good reclass options for support but in no grind wamonk or sage is all she needs. - Anna: I don't see why she's A-tier and Libra B to C-tier. I'll write about him later. She has no combat prowess and is not by any means self-sufficient, she has good mobility but struggles to move to chests by herself without getting killed so she needs more of a mobile turtle tactic. Past turn 7 she looses 20 avoid and hit (so if you plan on taking all the reinforcements be careful she won't be able to dodgetank like pre-turn 7). She doesn't have any rally in her thief classes. - Frederick is a must have in early game in lunatic, he's a good pair up partner in hard, he can chip ennemies to feed kills to noob units until Stahl and Kellam catch up with him (around chapter 6-8). He's needed in early game in no grind runs and he's a must in no pair up runs since your units loose their +4 def or speed precious bonuses from pair up. He's not going to see late game mainly because if his growths seem better than Stahl's on paper, I've never or close to never seen a Frederick be as good as Stahl (even as 20/20 in any class from level 1 GK) so he won't bump to S tier but he is useful AF for a challenger's early game. - Maribelle: LMAO this unit should go down to high C tier: she won't ever see any combat as her bases and unpromoted growths lead her to be the worst unpromoted unit in the game (worse than Ricken), she doesn't learn the skill which gives +5 healing power on staves in her base class and has to go for 10 more unpromoted with -2 move to get this and miracle which she doesn't start with either (making her even worse at taking a hit than level 1 Lissa when she joins) and even when promoted she isn't worth it. I still prefer using Miriel in a no grind no pair up run than using Maribelle while I'm asking myself if I should just promote Miriel before level 20 to get staves and reroll sage as many times as I have to for her to have correct stats. Maribelle can be useful in grind runs bu in no grind she's like her kid, but worse, not even able to promote for 7 levels and D-rank in staves when Lissa is already C in no grind and even more in grind runs (maybe A lol). And she can't move more than 2 tiles in the desert, 3 chapers before reaching 2 desert chapters in a row (XD so useless) without having base access to ranged staves and with terrible range on them (just before recruiting Libra, pre-promote who doesn't require any stat booster, can move in the desert like it's home, has more stats near everywhere than level 20/1 Maribelle and C axes and C base rank staves). B tier: - Stahl: people often discuss about Stahl's tier, his speed means he's not able to be the MVP of the game though. He's a slow-starting Frederick who replaces him on the long run as the mobile tank of the army. He chips well, he's accurate enough to hit most of the time with >=80% hit weapons, not so reliable with lower hit rate weapons. I would put him to A-tier because he has no match for what he does (Kellam has less mobility untill reclassed thief level 10 or promoted into GK and he looses on some growths as a GK like res and maybe skill) and he has the best availability for a tank, having time to get to his powerspike by chapter 7 (maybe 6 if you managed to replace Fred by Stahl or if unlike me you didn't force yourself to use Miriel). And his GK promotion gives him the best tank weapon: the axe. Why the axe? Because sword users don't hit as hard as lance/axe users so he's better with a weapon that gives him +10 avoid and -1 damage from lances and neutral advantage against axes. Cuz' yes, his avoid kind of sucks. Libra: He heals as much as Anna, has more bulk, miracle, level 15 he has sustain each turn (so can use miracle again if needed), he has a rally even if it's not the best, he has combat utility with ordinary weapons unlike Anna who needs rare weapons to be of any utility in figts and joins with a killer axe so he can take a few ennemies down in his joining chapter if you want. He's rarely in danger because of his solid bases and he pees on 20/1 Maribelle in any stat except luck and maybe speed. All his classes are useful even for combat unlike Maribelle with awful bases awful growths (most of the time she's worse than Lissa at level 20 unpromoted). Virion: depending on how you use him (and how much too) he can be a better Miriel or a wyvern knight or straight to bow knight for extra movement and bowbreaker. He can also be benched without hurting your army. B rank is fine, I just wanted to remind he's not only an archer but also a mage and wyvern rider (like Panne but she's faster than him and stronger too). Gaius: B is where I put him: useful for early chests in a game that stupidly didn't provides keys for chests most of the time, Gaius is one of the slowest starting combat units. Better go with anyone else rather than him for combat, even Vaike is more salvageable thanks to his availability lead while Gaius comes underlevelled with iron swords only and gutter fighting stats. Even his speed is subpar by the time he joins (many ennemies have as much as him as fighting units lol and myrmidons are faster than him). Without reclassing/promoting he won't even get fighting skills to help his crappy start and thieves can't even steal anymore so...what's the point of keeping this class? Zelcher: some people bias her, but even if I like her style (except the maid thing in her outfit it's just good for frustrated otakus who go in maid cafes to feel loved or respected for money) I admit that her base level is too low to be good. If she came at level 16 she would probably be better (especially her base speed) but anyways her class set in totally absurd with one physical offensive base class and 2 magical support classes with only 1 hybrid and 0 physical promotion. She doesn't even get bowbreaker or tomebreaker so she's left behind by IS because she can't tank effectively in the Valm arc AND late game where there are archers and mages with each sort of tomes in every chapter. As a support she's probably the balance between Libra and Maribelle, and it's not a good thing, because from Libra she has physical bulk and combat ability as a warmonk while from Maribelle she has shitty magic, bad magic bases and worse growths than Maribelle. Cordelia: I think she deserves low A-tier: she has mercenary's bases and growths but with higher res than mercenaries and she can reclass into mercenary, so her flyer class isn't forced onto you. Even if she's not a great magic user, she has access to dark mage, which should be considered before putting her into B-tier. Gregor: His bases are correct, he's C-rank in swords and comes with a steel sword. He's usable, but he's an all-rounder, the type that Stahl's supports define as average in everything, good or bad in nothing. His Strength is correct, his skill is average (especially for his class which should have just a bit less skill than archers), his speed is average (like Stahl's but Stahl is more mobile without skills and should have gained much more levels than Gregor when this one is recruited), his def is average, his luck is average, his res is the same shit as any physical unit and he has average tank HP. Nowi: awful bases, awful growths (Myrrh would be ashamed by her weakling baby), 6 move locked dragon (saved by 1/2 ranged weapon), limited weapons until chapter 12 (like Panne in her original form), reclassing options aren't really amazing. No sol access and life drain is on player phase. Henry: awful base speed, other base stats are about the same level as Zelcher with more rounded stats. His class set makes up for his crappy base speed, he's a dark mage who can open chests while nosferatanking. In no grind run, he's too late to be reclassed into thief but in grind runs he's very useful for gold digging, treasure hunting and all this without being hurt by anything. But in no grind he's in the low B-tier because he comes way too late and his combat is even worse than Zelcher due to ennemies having much more speed than him (in no pair up run he's garbage you can probably let him die to slow the bottom ennemies while you rush to the top to slaughter the boss before getting subjugated by the waves of ennemies while being attacked from archers from the hills). Say'ri: considering her bases, the economy of a master seal and her immediate access to B-swords, she comes just in time to be used. Her hard difficulty bases are better by 1 point everywhere and 2 HP than her normal bases, which you can't say about Lon'zu and she has more rounded defensive stats. She also has wyvern reclass option which I already talked about, but she has pegasus instead of thief, which is more suited for support/combat. Still Say'ri is best used as a swordmaster or assassin and dodgetanking without pair ups and infinite stats potions /stats boosters isn't the best idea in this game for a no grind. But if you want a swordmaster, she can make you save exp on Lon'zu for other units (because no pair-ups=supports don't really affect your efficiency in combat and by no pair ups I mean units aren't supposed to dual-strike either, old classic way, except for trio attacks like pegasi in TSS or the brothers in POR/RD) so that you can level up anyone who you like instead (if you have a bias you can give Lon'zu's exp to your bias). I see Lon'zu vs Say'ri as Edward vs Zihark. The first can surpass the latter but odds are RNG and anyway without support bonuses it's the same so why would you give tons of exp to someone just to get him to the same level than the other and waste items and this exp pool? Miriel: a weaker version of FE:TSS's Lute: good magic (but not capping without grinding or bias), bad skill (or mediocre if you're blessed), medium speed to double slow units, bad defence while Lute had often around 14-17 defence without any items (similar to Awakening's hard difficulty 24 or so defence) and Lute benefitted from better terrain bonuses and lower ennemy hit rate coupled with better early to late game avoid even as a pure stat (not taking hit rate into account). Same subpar res for a magical unit (like a natural swordmaster's defence) she's like Say'ri with tomes. Her reclassing options save her from being benched from the start as sorcerer and dark knight can make up for her shitty bulk, but she's still better off as a staff bot sage. Tiki: never recruited her 'or maybe in normal grind so long ago that I don't even remember. A better version of Nowi, with solid bases unlike her baby version and with better growth rates. She is hard to recruit and has the same problems as Nowi for reclass options. B+ because a good manakete is always useful but her availability, paralogue with tens of flyers spawning everywhere and rushing towards her like exponential growth zombies towards the exit but you have to protect her for the whole time while not dying yourself to ennemy waves (litterally waves, like tsunami of ennemies). It's the Fire Emblem: Prepare to die edition. Better take her spotpass character who has access to all classes and costs around 17k (and access to dragonstone+ is nice) but it's forbidden in no grind+no pair up. Basilio: very late, usable bases (at least he can rally strength) and saves you from using Gaius or Vaike for this purpose. Not really useful in fights in no grind and even less in no pair up but his rally is even better in no pair up since it makes up for the absence of support bonus stats. If you give him 5 level ups he learns counter, take it if you want. His reclassing makes him better at tanking and general gives him rally defence. C tier: Flavia: the speedy version of Basilio without rally strength and with better res (still you won't throw her into walls of ennemies either since she has too low defensive stats for it). Can replace Anna for late game chest hunting if you can make her gain the 9 thief levels to go to trickster/assassin in 1 or 2 skirmishes but in absolute no grind she's just a replacement for the crazy ones who play in classic no reset if they lost...Gregor maybe? XD he's the only one she could replace exactly or even surpass for the same class level without reclassing. I like her character design, her impossible love with Basilio (the 1st black man I've seen in a Japanese artwork without the big lips or the colossus black American body guard stereotype, maybe he's a mixed-blooded with some white people lol as Flavia doesn't have such a dark skin and she's blonde), but she's hardly salvageable at this point of the game, she comes 5 chapters too late to be really good. She could be upper if she had ore availability... Overall late characters: If you want to plainly use late game/underlevelled joining characters like Henry, Tiki, Basilio and Flavia, just force yourself into the challenge "no grind, no reclass" and eventually "no pair up" and why not "no reset" for peope who don't mind loosing units due to a random 2% crit rate ennemy (that also means your Chrom can die to the boss in prologue due to 6% crit rate so you're gonna restart the game from the prologue XD good luck on no reset).
- 67 replies
- overrated
- underrated
- (and 25 more)


text: The 1-inch Smallfry is effectively the smallest version of the popular Mad Minnow. These tiny, shallow running crankbaits from Hester have a super fast, wiggling action and are deadly lures for perch, trout and chub on ultralight gear. They are floaters but will sink slowly once attached to a light wire trace. Offered in a great range of colours and featuring realistic, holographic eyes and 2 x size 14 VMC trebles. Made in Poland under strict quality control, each lure is individually tank tested before leaving the factory.


text:
The 'War of the Sanders' is on and poppin'! First Deion accused his wife, Pilar, of being an adulterous hussie and a fame-chasing gold digger. Now Pilar just filed court papers in Texas that blast her soon-to-be-ex with some pretty serious accusations, according to TMZ.
SEE ALSO: New Reality TV Show: "Motor City Wives"
The dueling couple's impending divorce already has the markings of a legal battle that will remain tabloid fodder for months to come.
Pilar is now alleging in the legal documents that throughout their marriage Deion has been "unkind, uncaring, insensitive, cruel." She also claims that she, along with the children, have experienced "physical, mental, and emotional abuse." The former model and reality star also points an accusing finger at Deion's cheating ways, calling her husband a serial cheater and adulterer who appears incapable of being faithful.
The legal documents state:
[Deion] committed numerous acts of adultery … on numerous occasions throughout the marriage [and he] voluntarily had sexual intercourse with others who were not his spouse.
But wait, the nuptial mud-slinging gets even more vicious. Pilar went for the jugular when she called Deion a "bully … who suffers from a narcissistic personality disorder, and who needs a full psychological evaluation."
The couple, who have been married for 12 years, have always projected a loving and united front. When they co-starred on their now-defunct reality show "Deion and Pilar: Prime Time Love," their marriage seemed to be the personification of the perfect home, which was envied by most. The pair have three children together, but prior to Deion's marriage to Pilar, he married Carolyn Chambers and they had two children. Dysfunction was nowhere to be seen among the blended Sanders household.
How times have changed.
Now Pilar is claiming that Deion is in dire need of a parenting coach so that he can be a better father, so she is requesting sole legal custody of their three children on the grounds that the former gridiron great is a bad and absentee dad.
Yet only last week, Deiondra Sanders, the oldest member of the brood, mercilessly blasted her step-mom on Twitter, revealing some highly personal and embarrassing family secrets. The 19-year-old defended her actions by saying that she wanted to stop Pilar from slandering her dad.
Now Pilar is pulling out all the stops and even wants a judge to discard her pre-nup, claiming she was forced to sign it while under duress. She also wants the Prosper,Texas, 30,000-square-foot home that was featured on their reality show and is requesting that the judge give Deion the boot from the $21-million property.
Breaking up is so hard to do, especially when you're rich and famous. There's certainly more drama to come from the Sanders saga, so stay tuned.


text:
A common position among many Christians in America is that the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other types of drugs (marijuana, etc.) is immoral and sinful. Paul seems to indicate that, in the context of food at least, nothing should be considered forbidden:
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. (1 Timothy 4:1–5, ESV)
What, then, is the Biblical basis for why the use of tobacco and other types of drugs are considered by many to be immoral or sinful?


text:
Please ensure the following is setup correctly to earn cash back:
1. Enable browser cookies
In the event that you have turned off cookies on your web browser, here are some instructions to re-enable them, restart your browser, then continue to the retailer's website to shop.
2. Turn off ad blockers
If you have ad blocking software such as Adblock, Adblock Plus, Adguard please disable them (turn it off completely, not just for this one site), refresh the fundraiser page on your web browser, then continue to the retailer's website to shop.
3. Complete your shopping within 24 hours
To make sure cash back is counted properly, when you click over to the retailer's website complete your shopping trip in the same tab that it was opened in - don't close and reopen or leave and come back the next day as this will affect how we account funds.


text:
In a recent article for the San Francisco Daily Journal I examine Google v. Equustek: a case currently before the Canadian Supreme Court involving the scope of jurisdiction of Canadian courts to enjoin conduct on the internet.
In the piece I argue that
a globally interconnected system of free enterprise must operationalize the rule of law through continuous evolution, as technology, culture and the law itself evolve. And while voluntary actions are welcome, conflicts between competing, fundamental interests persist. It is at these edges that the over-simplifications and pseudo-populism of the SOPA/PIPA uprising are particularly counterproductive.
The article highlights the problems associated with a school of internet exceptionalism that would treat the internet as largely outside the reach of laws and regulations — not by affirmative legislative decision, but by virtue of jurisdictional default:
The direct implication of the "internet exceptionalist' position is that governments lack the ability to impose orders that protect its citizens against illegal conduct when such conduct takes place via the internet. But simply because the internet might be everywhere and nowhere doesn't mean that it isn't still susceptible to the application of national laws. Governments neither will nor should accept the notion that their authority is limited to conduct of the last century. The Internet isn't that exceptional.
Read the whole thing!


text:
On the evening of June 9, 2006, three inmates of the Guantanamo detention facility known as Camp Delta, Salah Ahmed al-Salami, Mani Shaman al-Utaybi and Yasser Tala al-Zahrani, were found dead in their cells.
All three men had died in a very similar and somewhat bizarre circumstances hung alone in their individual cells, with bound hands and feet, and with a rag stuffed down their throats.
Their bodies were not discovered for two hours despite supposedly being under surveillance from both circulating guards and static cameras.
Senior military commanders at Guantanamo described the deaths as "an act of asymmetrical warfare" perpetrated by the dead men. A military investigation pronounced the deaths suicides.
No disciplinary action was taken against any member of the guard force despite manifest breaches in the standard operating procedures in effect at the facility on the night in question.
In December 2009 Seton Hall University School of Law published a detailed review of the military investigation based on redacted documents disclosed as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request.
The report, Death in Camp Delta, found that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigation suffered from major shortcomings and raised "more questions than answers".
Earlier this month an article written by Scott Horton for Harper's Magazine appeared which went one step further. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST


text:
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Herocraft Yumsters
Posted by Nurhisham Hussein in "Windows Phone Software" @ 07:30 PM
Yumsters is a casual strategy game involving what I can best describe as guiding the diets of fruit-eating worms. The more they get to eat, the more points you score, and there's even a global leaderboard. Worth a look, especially at the decent price of $1.49.


text:
Neo-Globalism: An Introduction to Week 3 at the Lab by ZUS
Global institutions are increasingly interested in engaging with the urban reality. Aware of the challenges that accompany rapid urbanization, they have the power and reach to develop solutions to them. But how does a global entity become involved in local practices to address public problems? To what extent are global actors capable of dealing with specific issues? Join Lab Team members Elma van Boxel and Kristian Koreman of ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles] as they introduce the focus for this week's activities at the Lab: "neo-globalism." This week we will decode the forces and possibilities of global initiatives for urban causes.
Neo-Globalism: An Introduction to Week 3 at the Lab by ZUS
Image: courtesy ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles]


text:
This course is designed for undergraduate students interested in computer mapping in the fields of public health and planning. The fundamental understanding of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will be taught with real New Jersey data. In addition to understanding GIS, students will learn how to integrate data into a GIS database, how to enhance data visualization, and how to perform small area analysis.
– Dr. Wansoo Im


text:
This river (A) carries so much sediment that there are places in the middle where islands of sand and gravel poke up above the water. Large pieces of sediment, like sand and gravel, are typically deposited in a fast moving river while smaller particles of sediment are carried away. The sediment is tumbled around in the river and eventually each piece becomes rounded like in the rock shown in (B). This sedimentary rock is called conglomerate. It was once the sediment in the bottom of a river.
Back to the Table of Environments


text:
BOTULINUM TOXIN(Botox)The anti-wrinkle treatment that's the most powerful neurotoxin known. |
Guillermo Godino Sedano
King´s College School, Tres Cantos, near Madrid, Spain
Molecule of the Month February 2012
Also available: JSMol version.
Botulinum toxin is the most powerful neurotoxin known to date. Only one single molecule of it is needed to stop one neuron working. This makes the lethal dose for a mouse only 1.2 ng! The table below shows the amount of various substances required to kill a normal human being. In fact, 1 gramme of botulinum toxin would be enough to kill 14,000 people (if ingested), 1.25 million people if inhaled, or a staggering 8.3 million people if injected!
Botulinum toxins are often found in poorly preserved food, or even in flesh wounds, and have been known since the 18th century when the German medic, Justinus Kerner (right) described botulinum toxin as a "sausage poison" and "fatty poison", because is arose from improperly handled or prepared meat products. In fact, Kerner coined the name botulism (from Latin botulus meaning "sausage"). In 1897 a Belgian scientist named Van Ermengem found that the toxin in the blood of a patient with Botulism was actually produced by a bacteria, Clostridium Botulinum. Later it was found that 4 types of bacteria can produce this toxin, Clostridium botulinum, C. butyricum, C. baratii and C. argentinense, and there are 7 distinct types of the toxin known, labelled A through G, most have several subtypes also.
The Botulinum toxins are proteins consisting of a sequence of ~1,300 amino acids - nearly 21,000 atoms. They can be made as a single-chain polypeptide, but in this form they are not very toxic. They are made more potent and toxic in two steps. In the first step, which usually occurs in the bacteria, the chain is cleaved into larger chain connected to a smaller chain associated with a single zinc atom. The two chains are joined by a single disulfide bond. In the second step, which occurs within the body during the neuro-toxic mechanism, the disulfide bond is reduced, which activates the toxin.
The bacteria produce Botulinum Toxin (BTX) by anaerobic respiration, so it commonly occurs in canned-food containers, where there is no oxygen. When ingested, BTX causes botulism, a serious illness which begins by causing the paralysis of the face muscles and then the paralysis of most of the body. When the muscles which control breathing become paralysed, this results in repiratory arrest and death. The bacteria can be killed and the toxin detroyed with high pressures or high temperatures (boiling for a few minutes), for example when cooking food.
Although it is very toxic, poisoning from botulism in the modern world is quite rare. Between 1990 and 2000, the Centers for Disease Control in the US reported 263 individual cases from 160 foodborne botulism 'events' in the United States, of which only 4% proved fatal. 39% occurred in Alaska as a result of traditional Alaska native foods (seal meat, etc). In the other 49 states, home-canned food was implicated in 70 (91%) events, with canned asparagus being the most numerous cause. Most US states had an incidence rate of 1 case per ten million people or less.
There are antitoxins for BTX, but it has to be used very quickly after the bacteria are ingnested, or it won´t be able to save the person.
The main effects of botulism are:
BTX works by preventing signals from the nerve cells from reaching muscles, effectively leaving the muscles without 'instructions' and so paralysed. A nerve cell contains spherical capsules called synaptic vesicles which contain a neurotransmitter molecule such as acetylcholine. When acting normally, an electrical signal passing down the nerve towards a muscle fibre causes these vescicles to move towards the interface between the nerve and muscle, and also to produce special types of protein called SNARE proteins. Three types of SNARE proteins are involved, called SNAP-25, Synaptobrevin and Syntaxin. These SNARE proteins can break through the membrane barrier at the end of the nerve cell, allowing the neurotransmitter to flood out into the receptors on the muscle, causing it to contract (see image A below).
On exposure to BTX, the two chains split and the heavy chain lodges withinthe vescicles, while the lighter chain sits on the outside of the vesicle and cleaves the SNARE proteins. Different versions of BTX cleave different SNARE proteins.
But since all 3 SNARE proteins are required for a successful transmission of the signal, breaking any one of these prevents the muscle receiving the signal (as can be seen in image B below).
Due to its paralysing effect on muscles, BTX can be used in very small, localised doses to help certain medical ailments. In this form, the toxin is commonly known as Botox (OnabotulinumtoxinA). Botox contains some BTX, but in extremely small quantities; otherwise, most of the users of Botox would be dead! It was first used for medical purposes in 1981, to treat strabismus (Crossed eyes), by paralysing the muscle on one side of the eye that was pulling the eye into a crooked position. It is also used as a treatment for achalasia (a swallowing disorder); it works well in about 65% of the treated people. Botox also has cosmetic uses and is mainly used to relax the muscles that cause wrinkles, so the wrinkles disappear. It is also used to treat many other conditions, such as blepharospasm (excessive blinking), hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating), and migraine.
There are only 7 companies with permission to manufacture BTX for medical uses, and many more companies which can produce it for labs and for schools (for research). But there are even more which produce it illegally; they don´t have quality control, so they are able to produce the toxin with too high concentration. The products produced with this BTX are poisonous and they can kill the customers. The illegal BTX can also have concentrations which are too weak, and therefore won´t have any effect.
There is an even worse potential use for the toxin: terrorism. Botulinum Toxins are the most toxic substances known, and for this reason they were among the first considered for use in biochemical weaponry. A gram of such a toxin is estimated to be capable of killing 200,000 mice. Even more startling, a single cup of this substance in its pure form is estimated to be capable of depopulating the Earth!
A great deal of time was spent during and after the Second World War, by both the Allied and German scientists, to find a method of converting Botulinum Toxin to weapon form. Whilst both of these former enemies have long since forgotten the idea of using these toxins for warfare, concerns still remain over the threat from other organizations, namely terrorists. A chilling example of how such a weapon might be used was shown by the use of a similar reagent, sarin nerve gas, on the Tokyo subway in 1995. 13 people were killed and more than 6000 were injured (50 severe). Some countries are known to have developed Botulinum Toxins in aerosol form, which if used would be far more devastating than Sarin gas.
However, the toxin, up to now, can only have an effect in closed places, as the wind can mix it with air easily, reducing the effectiveness a lot. Nevertheless illegal BTX is still a worry for many nations trying to prevent terrorist groups finding an easy and cheap way of killing people.
Back to Molecule of the Month page. [DOI:10.6084/m9.figshare.5426578]