text:
© Jan-Joseph Stok / Greenpeace
1. 300 million of us depend on forests in our day-to-day lives.
Failure to protect forests threatens our homes and livelihoods.
© Will Rose / Greenpeace
2. Forests absorb nearly 30 % of our CO2 emissions.
Not only do they absorb carbon, but they store just under 300 billion tonnes of carbon in their living parts. It's estimated that deforestation is responsible for 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Destroying them will not see that figure reduced.
© Greenpeace / Alex Yallop
3. Forests are home to more than 50% of all plant and animal species.
In the last few hundred years extinction rates have increased by up to a thousand times. This rate could increase further if we do not protect our forests.
© Ulet Ifansasti / Greenpeace
4. Forests provide vital medicines.
70% of the plants identified as having anti-cancer characteristics by the US National Cancer Institute are found only in tropical rainforests.
About a quarter of drugs used in conventional medicines are derived from rainforest plants.
© Thomas Einberger / argum / Greenpeace
Take Action
Corporations must clean up their act and governments must enforce strong legislation to protect what forests remain. Today, over 10,000 people are storming Twitter and Facebook under the hashtag #StandForForests to show the world that forests must be protected.
You can take action too. We uncovered widespread forest destruction in the supply chains of consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble. For months now, this company has not responded with a promise to guarantee forest friendly product.
Sign up here to get involved. Together, one step at a time, we can achieve zero deforestation!
Written by Greg Norman, Congo Forests Communications Coordinator for Greenpeace International


text:
Not that Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter is ever in doubt, but there's truth in the notion "when in doubt, bring in Jimmy Smits." Smits has proven in the last decade to be a most-welcome Johnny-come-lately, on shows like The West Wing, Dexter, and now Sons (he even turned up in the last Star Wars movie, the best of the prequels). Though it wouldn't have seemed a natural fit for him, Smits rocks the role of Nero Padilla, a pimp who sexes up Katey Sagal's Gemma and becomes entangled with SAMCRO's business dealings. Smits is loose and sexy in the role, and he also makes an excellent straight man as he reacts to the swirl of anarchy the Sons always find themselves in.
As valuable a presence as Smits is to the show's fifth season, he's not the defining element. Nor is late-season guest star Donal Logue, who will clearly drive much of Season Six. It's not even the excellent Harold Perrineau (Lost), weaving silky evil as a character who more significantly drives the plot: down-low crime lord Damon Pope. No, the presence that continues to define Sons of Anarchy is that of Sutter, who has proven consistently eager to shock the audience, and so far hasn't allowed that impulse to become so expectedly unexpected as to start to bore us. Sons continues to be an heir to The Shield in this respect, except with more mythic overtones provided by its Shakespearean inspiration. Sutter continues to inch inexorably toward Act Five of Hamlet (now slower than ever, given a projected two more seasons till a finale), doing so in Season Five by strengthening the resolve of ascendant outlaw motorcycle club president Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam of Pacific Rim) and intriguingly complicating the relationship between fading "king" and "queen" Clay (Ron Perlman) and Gemma.
One of the most satisfying areas Sutter explores in Season Five is the way characters are adopting others' roles. Sutter opens the season with a deeply satisfying flourish that establishes Jax's growing maturity: instead of reading his father's journal, Jax is writing his own, providing the audience his inner thoughts through narration. Though Jax struggles to remain hopeful that the Sons can clean up their business (getting out of drugs and into more legitimate, if not entirely legal, enterprises), storm clouds have begun to gather, leading Jax to say things like "I see the end" and "Things are going to get bloody." In attempting to become his father (hopefully without dying), Jax risks becoming Clay—a point Jax's "Horatio" Opie (Ryan Hurst) calls him on. Meanwhile, Clay seems to be turning into the late Piney, complete with travelling oxygen and breathing tube up his nostrils.
What people will no doubt most remember about Season Five, though, will be those principal guest stars and, yet more so, the big shocks. Sutter knows how to conceive inconceivable violence, and while it's fair to question whether or not such disgusting ideas are just cultural poison, one can't argue that Sutter ignores the consequences of each act. The deaths in Season Five (including one of a long-term regular character) resonate in the characters' ongoing anguish and decision-making, informed by existential horror and rage. There's plenty of territory to explore in small-town Charming, California, with its family angst, crime and (vigilante) punishment, and politics from the clubhouse down to the mayor's office.
Fox does its typical bang-up job with Sons of Anarchy in its Season Five on Blu-ray, even if the extras feel a little slimer than usual. The picture quality on the thirteen episodes (one in an extended cut) deeply satisfies, and remains consistent with previous season sets: apart from a bit of mild noise in low light, these are tight and bright transfers, with vivid color and impressive detail and texture. The well-resolved image is complemented by powerful, lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound, which will shake your home theater with rumbling LFE (think motorcycles) and cannon-like gunfire. Placement of effects in the sound field contributes mightly to convincing and involving ambience, dialogue is always crystal clear, and the rock source cues are always terrifically full-bodied.
Disc one serves up a raucous commentary on "Sovereign" with executive producer Kurt Sutter, director Paris Barclay, Katey Sagal, Maggie Siff and Dayton Callie. Fans will find this a heckuva lot of fun, especially in the absence of a video-based cast roundtable. Each disc includes a selection of "Deleted Scenes" (4:59, HD) from that disc's episodes, and that's all we get on Disc Two: "Deleted Scenes" (5:40, HD). Disc Three's "Deleted Scenes" (4:04, HD) share space with an entertaining commentary on "Darthy" with director Peter Weller, as well as four video extras: a "Gag Reel" (4:51, HD); "Opie Winston" (6:48, HD), a profile of one of the season's most prominently featured characters with comments by the man who plays him (Ryan Hurst) and his castmates, as well as Sutter; the all-too-brief interview "Kurt Sutter: Creating Anarchy" (3:41, HD), and this season's fan-reward featurette, "Fan Concert at the Club House" (19:29, HD).
Review gear: |
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subset: commoncrawl


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Keegan Cooke and Kevin Rand created MudWatt kits as a way to engage kids/students with science. From the website:
Unfortunately, our experience in school wasn't unique. In 2011, less than one-third of 8th graders in the U.S. were deemed proficient in science. Today, 70% of the fastest growing careers are in STEM fields. The supply of STEM education is not meeting the demand.
Most of the world's mud contain microbes that produce electricity when they eat. That is the engine driving the MudWatt. Colonies of special bacteria (called shewanella and geobacter) generate the electricity in a MudWatt.
The electricity output is proportional to the health and activity of that bacterial colony. By maintaining these colonies in different ways, you can use MudWatt to run all kinds of great experiments. Thus the MudWatt allows kids to engage with science, using their natural curiosity to experiment and learn. Engaging this too-often-neglected human potential will bring joy to those kids (as kids and as grown-ups) and benefit our society.
With standard topsoils, typical power levels are around 100 microWatts, which is enough to power the LED, buzzer, clock, etc..
Related: Arduino, open source hardware (Introduction Video Tutorial) – Teaching Through Tinkering – Awesome Gifts for the Maker in Your Life – Qubits Construction Toy


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(CNN) — David Welch hopped into his maroon Pontiac van last month and drove for hours. Without expressing where he was going, he kept on driving, police say.
Nearly seven weeks later, a hitchhiker found him in a deep, isolated desert patch in Utah, hundreds of miles from his Kansas home.
Injured and trapped in his car, he'd spent his final days penning love letters to his wife of 32 years and four sons.
Authorities say his car plummeted into the ravine in early September after it veered off the road.
Welch, 54, sat in his mangled car for days, maybe weeks, police say. Nights became days, then weeks, then over a month.
And as his family searched for him, he was trapped in his car, scribbling his last words.
What is in the letter is private, authorities say. But the notes have been handed over to Welch's family.
His family's ordeal started on September 2 when he left his home in Manhattan, Kansas.
A day later, relatives contacted the police to report he had not returned home.
"At this time officers confirmed that there was no reason to believe Welch was currently in danger of harm or had known medical issues that may cause him to be in danger," the Riley County Police Department said.
It said it notified law enforcement agencies in areas where Welch may have gone.
Four days after he left home, a missing persons report was filed. Long stretches of time passed with no news of his whereabouts.
The retired Pepsi Co. representative was an avid outdoorsman who loved landscaping, scuba diving and snow skiing, according to his obituary posted on a funeral home's website.
Forty-six days after he left home — on October 18th — a pedestrian walking along the edge of the desolate road saw an overturned car in a deep ravine.
It was about 850 miles away from his home on a deserted section off of Interstate 70.
Straight tire marks led off the road down to where his vehicle crashed, authorities said.
It didn't appear like he was braking or attempting a turn, just that he went straight off the road, said Cpl. Todd Johnson, a spokesman for the Utah Highway Patrol.
Authorities believe Welch fell asleep while driving, sending the car crossing into the ravine and rolling onto its passenger side, CNN affiliate KSNT reported.
Welch was trapped alive in the ravine for an unknown number of days.
He was found dead. What police don't know is how long he lived.
And with his passing, a lot of questions remain, like why he was so far away from home.
By Faith Karimi, CNN
CNN's Sonya Hamasaki, Drew Iden and Jennifer Feldman contributed to this report.


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Or should I say dysteleological physicalesque? Richard Feynman wrote poetry.
Or should I say dysteleological physicalesque? Richard Feynman wrote poetry.
David Wilford says
Richard Feynman had the talent for making science simple, but no simpler than necessary, first with a fun demonstration of the physics of rubber bands:
Second with a serious demonstration of the physics of O-rings:
Christopher says
He also liked titty bars and hotrodding his corvair van…
"There was a topless bar, The Other Ball, down the street on Valley Blvd in San Gabriel," says Banks. "A fella with Corvair van came down to San Gabriel from Pasadena for lunch everyday because he loved nude women and painted erotic art. He stops in one day because I had all kinds of Corvair stuff. Says, "I want to get some of that speed equipment." It was Richard Feynman."
Even by the lofty standards of late 60's California, Feynman was an eccentric's eccentric. A Caltech physicist, Feynman was a key member of the Manhattan Project and had just won the 1965 Nobel Prize for his work in quantum electrodynamics. He also played bongo drums, picked locks, ogled topless dancers and hopped up Corvairs.
"We started a friendship," says Banks. "Sometimes I'd go down to the bar with him, you know, to see the topless babes."
Cuttlefish says
Everyone should. No, really. Writing within a constraining system forces deliberate thought and creativity–whether you are writing actual poetry, or doggerel.
pHred says
He also played the bongos. As much as I respected him as I physicist, I am truly glad I never met him because, being female, I would have wanted to throttle him. Reading Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman is an amazing exercise in sociology.
David Wilford says
I'd have loved to meet Feynman and hoped to when he was invited to be the Science Guest of Honor at Minicon back in 1988, but sadly he died of cancer before he could make it.
Caine, Fleur du mal says
As much as I respected him as I physicist, I am truly glad I never met him because, being female, I would have wanted to throttle him.
Word. In certain respects, he was a staunch product of his time. I've always noted that those most enthusiastic about Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman tend to be men. And yes, I've read it, I have a copy on my bookshelves.
Larry says
His work during the Challenger disaster investigation was a true tour de force. Using an elegant, yet simple, demonstration, he proved that the cold temperatures present at launch caused the O rings to deform resulting in the fuel leak from the tank which resulted in the explosion. All done while he was dying of cancer. For all his human faults, he was a brilliant man and was the very definition of a scientist.
mobius says
@1 David Wilford
Thanx for the Feynman videos. The rubber band video shows Feynman's sense of humor and his abilities as one who explained science.
The second video I have seen a couple of times before. There was a NOVA episode on the Challenger disaster and talked about some of Feynman's role in the investigation. I also took a class in engineering ethics that discussed the event and showed some of the investigating committee's reports.
Rob Grigjanis says
Don't care for the poetry, but his insights leading to the theory of liquid helium, and the parton model, were stunning. Leonard Susskind mentions these in his reminiscences about Feynman;
Caine, Fleur du mal says
Psssssssssssssst, pHred! I think we're supposed to be all apologetic for bringing up the Blessed Feynman's human faults.
Travis says
Caine said,
Psssssssssssssst, pHred! I think we're supposed to be all apologetic for bringing up the Blessed Feynman's human faults.
I like reading Feynman. I have the Lectures on Physics sitting beside me now, as well as Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman and What Do You Care What Other People Think?, and I enjoyed reading all of them, some of the stories are extremely fun. When I was younger I watched The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out and even though they were the stories I had read the passion for science was inspiring. But I have never understood why so many people get so rankled when his flaws are pointed out. Hero worship is something I just do not get.
Rob Grigjanis says
Travis @11:
…I enjoyed reading all of them, some of the stories are extremely fun.
I found the autobiog stuff a bit off-putting. The man's ego was a bit too intrusive. I'd have loved to attend his lectures, but meet him? Probably not. Same goes for Leonard Susskind. Paul Dirac, on the other hand…
I've always noted that those most enthusiastic about Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman tend to be men.
Honestly, I mostly keep it around for a couple of particular essays, notably the one about the safes at the Manhattan Project and the one about no one believing him when he admitted to stealing doors (which also has him looking like an asshole, it's just very illustrative of a common social tendency). Many of the rest are somewhat witty, but also show him looking like an asshole a lot; being a very bright, multitalented person hardly prevents someone from being a total jackass too.
pHred says
being a very bright, multitalented person hardly prevents someone from being a total jackass too.
I don't see how anyone could read his autobiographical stuff and not think that he could be a total pain in the posterior. And the ego! The whole he didn't buy drinks for women so that they would sleep with him thing. ACK!
I have to give him credit for laying all of that out in his writing though. He didn't try to build himself up as a plaster saint.
David Wilford says
Since poetry is a topic here, I thought this would be nice poem to share.
An Interruption
by Robert S. Foote
A boy had stopped his car
To save a turtle in the road;
I was not far
Behind, and slowed,
And stopped to watch as he began
To shoo it off into the undergrowth—
This wild reminder of an ancient past,
Lumbering to some Late Triassic bog,
Till it was just a rustle in the grass,
Till it was gone.
I hope I told him with a look
As I passed by,
How I was glad he'd stopped me there,
And what I felt for both
Of them, something I took
To be a kind of love,
And of a troubled thought
I had, for man,
Of how we ought
To let life go on where
And when it can.
Louis says
I confess, Feynman is as close to a hero as I get.
I also confess, Feynman was as flawed a human being as every other damned hero I could possibly want.
I don't expect heroes to be flawless. They're human. I wonder why so many people DO expect flawless heroes. Isn't the good that heroes do enough? Of course they're going to be complex, multifaceted, flawed, human beings. That's a given. I admire Feynman's scientific bravery, brilliance and insight. Amazingly I don't have to visit strip clubs to emulate that. (Not saying I CAN emulate that….different issue!)
[sarcasm] I visit strip clubs for entirely different reasons of course. [/sarcasm]
Sometimes high achieving, "heroic" folks are a total pain in the arse. It can be, not necessarily is, part of what got them there. It's not excusable or laudable that this happens, but it shouldn't be surprising.
hannacoy says
I'm tickled that he wrote a poem. It's not a very good poem, but it's not the absolute worst, either. Not that it matters — he wasn't claiming to be a skilled poet or anything — but I can't help thinking about the other art-y stuff he did, like play the bongos and learn to draw, where he was very concerned that he be judged on the quality, and not the fact that he could (or was willing to) do it at all.
So, in that spirit: if Feynman were alive, I'd tell him to work on his craft before inflicting more poems on the rest of us. I'm sure he could write something less cliched and boring than that.
David Wilford says
The spirit of Feynman's poem more than made up for the shortcomings of his actual verse.
bad Jim says
J. B. S. Haldane wrote verse too:
Cancer's a Funny Thing
I wish I had the voice of Homer
To sing of rectal carcinoma,
Which kills a lot more chaps, in fact,
Than were bumped off when Troy was sacked.
But I've a very neat colostomy,


text:
Economy Adds More Jobs Than Expected in July
U.S. job growth accelerated more than expected in July as private employers stepped up hiring, a development that could ease fears the economy was sliding into a fresh recession.
U.S. payrolls increased 117,000, the Labor Department said on Friday, above market expectations for an 85,000 gain. The unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent from 9.2 percent in June, but this was mostly the result of people leaving the labor force.
The payrolls count for May and June was revised to show 56,000 more jobs added than previously reported.
The report was the first encouraging piece of economic data in some time.
Fears that U.S. economy might be sliding back into recession, coupled with Europe's inability to tame its spreading debt crisis have roiled global financial markets. Economists see the odds of a recession as high as 40 percent.
U.S. stocks on Thursday suffered their worst sell-off in two years.
Top policymakers at the Federal Reserve will sift through the report when they meet on Tuesday but are not expected to announce any new measures to support the sputtering recovery.
The U.S. central bank has cut interest rates to zero and spent $2.3 trillion on bonds.
Policymakers have said they want to see how the economy fares before taking any further action.
U.S. growth stalled in the first half of 2011, fanning fears of a new downturn. Gross domestic product grew at a 1.3 percent annual pace in the second quarter after a scant 0.4 percent rise in the first three months of the year.
A stand-off between Democrats and Republicans over raising the country's debt ceiling poisoned the atmosphere for employers and consumers. The economy's poor health has eroded President Barack Obama's popularity among Americans and could hurt his chances of reelection.
The borrowing limit was raised this week in a deal that relied on spending cuts. Economists estimate the budget cuts and expiring stimulus -- including a payroll tax cut and emergency unemployment benefits -- could subtract more than a percentage point from GDP growth next year.
All the gains in non-farm employment in July came from the private sector, where payrolls rose 154,000 -- an acceleration from June's 80,000 increase and more than the 115,000 expected by economists.
Government payrolls dropped 37,000 in July, a ninth straight month of job losses. The drop was mostly due to a government shutdown in Minnesota that left thousands of state workers without pay checks during the survey period for July payrolls.
With looming budget cuts at the federal government level and state and local governments still tightening their belts, the burden of job creation falls on the private sector.
Within the private sector, most of the job gains were concentrated in the services sector. Temporary help -- a harbinger of permanent hiring - rebounded modestly after declining for three straight months.
Manufacturing payrolls rose 24,000 after increasing 11,000 in June. Most the gains came from the auto sector. Construction employment increased 8,000 after dropping 5,000 in June.
The average work week was steady at 34.3 hours, but average hourly earnings rose 10 cents.


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Joyce A. Hughes papers
Correspondence, meeting minutes and agendas, reports, legal and financial records, newspaper clippings, and other papers of Joyce A. Hughes, a Northwestern University law professor who served on the Chicago Board of Education (1980-1982). Materials chiefly pertain to school desegregation and related financial issues. Includes records of the Chicago Board of Education (CBE) Desegregation Committee, Audit and Finance Committee, and Real


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Kaus'alyá's eyes with tears o'erflowed.
Weighed down by varied sorrows's load;
On her dead lord her gaze she bent,
Who lay like fire whose might is spent,
Like the great deep with waters dry,
Or like the clouded sun on high.
Then on her lap she laid his head.
And on Kaikeyí looked and said:
'Triumphant now enjoy thy reign
Without a thorn thy side to pain.
Thou hast pursued thy single aim,
And lulled the king, O wicked dame.
Far from my sight my Ráma flies,
My perished lord has sought the skies.
No friend, no hope my life to cheer,
I cannot tread the dark path here.
Who would forsake her husband, who
That God to whom her love is due,
And wish to live one hour, but she
Whose heart no duty owns, like thee?
The ravenous sees no fault: his greed
Will e'en on poison blindly feed.
Kaikeyí, through a hump-back maid,
This royal house in death has laid.
King Janak, with his queen, will hear
Heart rent like me the tidings drear
Of Ráma banished by the king,
Urged by her impious counselling.
No son has he, his age is great,
And sinking with the double weight,
He for his darling child will pine,
And pierced with woe his life resign.
Sprung from Videha's monarch, she
A sad and lovely devotee,
Roaming the wood, unmeet for woe,
Will toil and trouble undergo.
She in the gloomy night with fear
The cries of beast and bird will hear,
And trembling in her wild alarm
Will cling to Ráma's sheltering arm.
Ah, little knows my duteous son
That I am widowed and undone--
My Ráma of the lotus eye,
Gone hence, gone hence, alas, to die.
Now, as a living wife and true,
I, e'en this day, will perish too:
Around his form these arms will throw.
And to the fire with him will go.'
Clasping her husband's lifeless clay
A while the weeping votaress lay,
Till chamberlains removed her thence
O'ercome by sorrow's violence.
Then in a cask of oil they laid
Him who in life the world had swayed,
And finished, as the lords desired,
All rites for parted souls required.
The lords, all-wise, refused to burn
The monarch ere his son's return;
So for a while the corpse they set
Embalmed in oil, and waited yet.
The women heard: no doubt remained,
And wildly for the king they plained.
With gushing tears that drowned each eye
Wildly they waved their arms on high,
And each her mangling nails impressed
Deep in her head and knee and breast:
'Of Ráma reft,--who ever spake
The sweetest words the heart to take,
Who firmly to the truth would cling,--
Why dost thou leave us, mighty King?
How can the consorts thou hast left
Widowed, of Raghu's son bereft,
Live with our foe Kaikeyí near,
The wicked queen we hate and fear?
She threw away the king, her spite
Drove Ráma forth and Lakshman's might,
And gentle Sítá: how will she
Spare any, whosoe'er it be?'
Oppressed with sorrow, tear-distained,
The royal women thus complained.
Like night when not a star appears,
Like a sad widow drowned in tears,
Ayodhyá's city, dark and dim,
Reft of her lord was sad for him.
When thus for woe the king to heaven had fled,
And still on earth his lovely wives remained.
With dying light the sun to rest had sped,
And night triumphant o'er the landscape reigned.


text:
Find definitions to words and phrases commonly used in the planning process.
The Guide to Zoning Categories has been prepared by the Development Review Division to help our customers understand the different zoning classifications used in the county.
Use the online development activity monitoring system utilized by the Prince George's County Planning Department to track development activities in the area.
View the Planning Department's Procedural Chart.


text:
The term obese describes a person who's very overweight, with a lot of body fat.
It's a common problem in the UK that's estimated to affect around 1 in every 4 adults and around 1 in every 5 children aged 10 to 11.
The most widely used method to check if you're a healthy weight is body mass index (BMI).
BMI is a measure of whether you're a healthy weight for your height. You can use the NHS BMI healthy weight calculator to work out your score.
For most adults, a BMI of:
BMI is not used to diagnose obesity because people who are very muscular can have a high BMI without much fat.
But for most people, BMI is a useful indication of whether they're a healthy weight.
A better measure of excess fat is waist size, which can be used as an additional measure in people who are overweight (with a BMI of 25 to 29.9) or moderately obese (with a BMI of 30 to 34.9).
Generally, men with a waist size of 94cm or more and women with a waist size of 80cm or more are more likely to develop obesity-related health problems.
It's very important to take steps to tackle obesity because, as well as causing obvious physical changes, it can lead to a number of serious and potentially life-threatening conditions.
These include:
Obesity can also affect your quality of life and lead to psychological problems, such as depression and low self-esteem.
Obesity is generally caused by consuming more calories, particularly those in fatty and sugary foods, than you burn off through physical activity. The excess energy is stored by the body as fat.
Obesity is an increasingly common problem because for many people modern living involves eating excessive amounts of cheap high-calorie food and spending a lot of time sitting down at desks, on sofas or in cars.
Find out why sitting too much is bad for your health
There are also some underlying health conditions that can occasionally contribute to weight gain, such as an underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism), although these types of conditions do not usually cause weight problems if they're effectively controlled with medicines.
The best way to treat obesity is to eat a healthy reduced-calorie diet and exercise regularly.
To do this, you should:
You may also benefit from receiving psychological support from a trained healthcare professional to help change the way you think about food and eating.
If lifestyle changes alone do not help you lose weight, a medicine called orlistat may be recommended.
If taken correctly, this medicine works by reducing the amount of fat you absorb during digestion. Your GP will know whether orlistat is suitable for you.
In some cases, weight loss surgery may be recommended.
Obesity can cause a number of further problems, including difficulties with daily activities and serious health conditions.
Day-to-day problems related to obesity include:
The psychological problems associated with being obese can also affect your relationships with family and friends, and may lead to depression.
Being obese can also increase your risk of developing many potentially serious health conditions, including:
Obesity reduces life expectancy by an average of 3 to 10 years, depending on how severe it is.
It's estimated that obesity and being overweight contribute to at least 1 in every 13 deaths in Europe.
There's no quick fix for obesity. Weight loss programmes take time and commitment, and work best when fully completed.
The healthcare professionals involved with your care should provide encouragement and advice about how to maintain the weight loss achieved.
Regularly monitoring your weight, setting realistic goals, and involving your friends and family with your attempts to lose weight can also help.
Remember that even losing what seems like a small amount of weight, such as 3% or more of your original body weight, and maintaining this for life, can significantly reduce your risk of developing obesity-related complications like diabetes and heart disease.
If you:
Our guide to care and support explains your options and where you can get support.
If it's been a long time since you did any exercise, you should check out the Couch to 5K running plan.
It consists of podcasts delivered over the course of 9 weeks and has been specifically designed for absolute beginners.
To begin with, you start running for short periods of time, and as the plan progresses, gradually increase the amount.
At the end of the 9 weeks, you should be able to run for 30 minutes non-stop, which for most people is around 5 kilometres (3.1 miles).
Page last reviewed: Mon May 2022 Next review due: Mon May 2022


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Workers under threat
Staff working in the health service, councils, education and social work, the community and voluntary sectors, libraries and parking attendants were all victims of assault, according to public service union UNISON.
The union's report Violence at Work: A Survey of UNISON employers and Staff in Scotland 2015 shows an increase of 1,227 assaults compared with 2014.
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Hide AdNine out of ten people who responded to the survey were women, and well over half were aged between 45 and 60 years of age.
Describing the abuse of staff as intolerable and unacceptable, Scott Donohoe, chairman of UNISON's health and safety committee, commented: "The abuse of staff is intolerable and no one should have to experience it as part of their work. The problem is clearly growing, rather than decreasing.
"Public service workers have a right to carry out their duties free from fear of attack. Whatever the difficulties faced by some of those who are assaulting staff we need to ensure special measures such as extra training, additional staffing or sanctions should be introduced by managers. We would urge employers to follow guidelines like the ones set out in the Centre for Healthy Working Lives Managing occupational violence in the workplace".
UNISON members described being bitten, threatened with 'weapons', head butted, kicked, grabbed, punched, having things thrown at them and event attempted strangulation.


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Condo & Apartment Property Management
Town Property Group serves all types of properties from vintage brownstones to newly constructed high-rise buildings, from small multi-unit buildings to large associations and planned unit developments. We provide a vast amount of services tailored to the needs of our clients and develop relationships with the unit owners, condo trustees, and regular contractors. Below is a list of services you can expect from Town Property Group.
General Services
- Attend Board Meeting
- Maintain Owner & Resident Database
- On-Site Meetings with the Association and Contractors on a Regular Basis to Facilitate Repairs and Improvements
- Dispute Resolution (including but not limited to delinquent condo fee accounts, failure to pay assessments, and vendor related issues)
- Maintain Detailed Record Keeping (including but not limited to invoices, receipts, bylaws, master deed and owner information
Financial Services
- Banking
- Accounts Receivable
- Accounts Payable
- Financial Reports
- Delinquent Account Remediation
- Budgeting
Maintenance Services
- Vendor Relations (portfolio of qualified contractors)
- 24/7 Emergency Service
- Regular Property Inspections
- In-House Service Technicians: We employ highly skilled and qualified maintenance technicians to assist with routine maintenance and repair.
- Brokerage Division


text:
Famous British and American Songs and their cultural background
Mario Papa and Giuliano Iantorno
This collection of well-known songs has accompanying notes dealing with difficult vocabulary in the songs and relevant passages on many aspects of British and American culture. The passages can also be used as supplementary reading material or for stimulating classroom discussion. Suggestions for exploiting the songs are given in the introduction, and there is a structural index which lists the most important structures in the songs. The songs are recorded on a cassette.


text:
APG and IMF meet with Myanmar Ministers and Parliamentarians
On 19, 20 and 21 November 2013 a delegation from the APG and from the IMF met jointly with the Union Minister of Home Affairs, HE Lt General Ko Ko, and Speaker of the Upper House of Parliament, HE Mr Khin Aung Myint, together with other senior Parliament Committee chairs and senior officials in government including the Attorney General, Dr Tun Shin, and Presidential Senior Legal Advisor, Mr U Sit Aye.
The IMF is providing technical assistance to Myanmar through the generous support of the government of Japan. Aspects of this assistance were discussed with officials during the visit. The APG delegation discussed the importance of Myanmar taking significant steps in the coming months to improve Myanmar's anti-money laundering and terrorism frameworks. Myanmar is undertaking wide sweeping reforms across all sectors of society including the financial sector as part of its democratisation process. Included in these reforms are three Bills currently in the policy development stages with the government, namely:
- an Anti-Money Laundering Bill,
- a Terrorism Bill and
- an Extradition Bill.
The enactment of these measures would address many concerns expressed by the APG and the FATF in the context of the pace of Myanmar's AML/CFT reforms.
Photo: Speaker of the Upper House of Parliament, HE Mr Khin Aung Myint, centre. On the left are the APG and IMF delegations and on his right are committee members of the Upper House.
On 12 and 13 December 2013 the Asia-Pacific Regional Review Group (RRG) of the FATF's International Cooperation Review Group met Nepali Ministers and officials in Kathmandu, Nepal.
The delegation, consisting of Elizabeth Liu of Hong Kong, China (RRG Co-Chair), Sabina Kook of the United States Treasury Department and Gordon Hook of the APG Secretariat met with the Minister of Finance, Governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank (central bank), Secretary of Finance, Secretary of Foreign Affairs and other senior officials to discuss the status of Nepal's AML/CFT system and the ICRG process.
The visit was organised by Nepal's Financial Information Unit and Nepal Rastra Bank.


text:
Table of Contents
Simeon F. Terrill
Simeon F. Terrill was born in Petersburg in 1843, to early Boone County settlers John and Nancy Terrill.
He was the youngest child born of this large family. There was a span of 18 years between the eldest child, Elizabeth (Terrill) Berkshire and Simeon. Simeon's nephews were closer in age to him than his brothers.
Early in the Civil War, Simeon enlisted with the Confederate forces of the 5th KY Cavalry, along with his older brothers Joshua and Captain George W. Terrill, in addition to other Boone County Terrills. Simeon's remaining two brothers, Robert and William, fought for the Union.
Although there is no burial record for him, there is documentation of his capture, transfer and death during the war. According to a report from the Adjutant General's office, Simeon was "killed in battle, or died from wounds or disease" sometime between April 27 and June 29, 1863. There is no cause or location of death mentioned.
More Information
- Browse photographs of the Terrill family


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98 green-rooibos/c/98/
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An herbal gem, green rooibos tea has a mild taste and an impressive resume of health benefits. In traditional societies, this caffeine-free drink is believed to help prevent disease, promote digestion, and ease inflammation. When comparing green rooibos vs. red rooibos, it is important to note that green rooibos leaves are lightly steamed to halt the oxidation process, preserving the South African herb's natural enzymes. Enjoy a cup of green rooibos tea today and drink to your health!


text:
Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Our staff will ask them to use the equipment appropriately and to share and take turns with the other children. If they are not following those instructions, they will be asked to leave the YAC for the remainder of the day and try again another day.
Show All Answers
Children between ages 6 to 12 years. They must have a hand stamp from the front desk and sign themselves in and out of the YAC.
No. They are responsible for signing themselves in and out as they choose.
No, but they may leave the YAC and eat at the snack tables and then return when they are finished.
Activities we have include:


text:
Allegro CL |
ANSI Common Lisp 1 Introduction 1.1 Scope, Purpose, and History
1.1.2 HistoryLisp is a family of languages with a long history. Early key ideas in Lisp were developed by John McCarthy during the 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence. McCarthy's motivation was to develop an algebraic list processing language for artificial intelligence work. Implementation efforts for early dialects of Lisp were undertaken on the IBM 704, the IBM 7090, the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-1, the DEC PDP-6, and the PDP-10. The primary dialect of Lisp between 1960 and 1965 was Lisp 1.5. By the early 1970's there were two predominant dialects of Lisp, both arising from these early efforts: MacLisp and Interlisp. For further information about very early Lisp dialects, see The Anatomy of Lisp or Lisp 1.5 Programmer's Manual.MacLisp improved on the Lisp 1.5 notion of special variables and error handling. MacLisp also introduced the concept of functions that could take a variable number of arguments, macros, arrays, non-local dynamic exits, fast arithmetic, the first good Lisp compiler, and an emphasis on execution speed. By the end of the 1970's, MacLisp was in use at over 50 sites. For further information about Maclisp, see Maclisp Reference Manual, Revision 0 or The Revised Maclisp Manual. Interlisp introduced many ideas into Lisp programming environments and methodology. One of the Interlisp ideas that influenced Common Lisp was an iteration construct implemented by Warren Teitelman that inspired the loop macro used both on the Lisp Machines and in MacLisp, and now in Common Lisp. For further information about Interlisp, see Interlisp Reference Manual.
Although the first implementations of Lisp were on the IBM 704 and the
IBM 7090, later work focussed on the DEC
PDP-6 and, later, PDP-10 computers, the latter being the mainstay of
Lisp and artificial intelligence work at such places as
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University,
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) from the mid-1960's through much of the 1970's.
The PDP-10 computer and its predecessor the PDP-6 computer were, by
design, especially well-suited to Lisp because they had 36-bit words
and 18-bit addresses. This architecture allowed a cons cell to be
stored in one word; single instructions could extract the
car and cdr
parts. The PDP-6 and PDP-10 had fast, powerful stack instructions
that enabled fast function calling.
But the limitations of the PDP-10 were evident by 1973: it supported a
small number of researchers using Lisp, and the small, 18-bit address
space (218 = 262,144 words) limited the size of a single
One response to the address space problem was the Lisp Machine, a
special-purpose computer designed to run Lisp programs. The other
response was to use general-purpose computers with address spaces
larger than 18 bits, such as the DEC VAX and
the The Lisp machine concept was developed in the late 1960's. In the early 1970's, Peter Deutsch, working with Daniel Bobrow, implemented a Lisp on the Alto, a single-user minicomputer, using microcode to interpret a byte-code implementation language. Shortly thereafter, Richard Greenblatt began work on a different hardware and instruction set design at MIT. Although the Alto was not a total success as a Lisp machine, a dialect of Interlisp known as Interlisp-D became available on the D-series machines manufactured by Xerox - the Dorado, Dandelion, Dandetiger, and Dove (or Daybreak). An upward-compatible extension of MacLisp called Lisp Machine Lisp became available on the early MIT Lisp Machines. Commercial Lisp machines from Xerox, Lisp Machines (LMI), and Symbolics were on the market by 1981. For further information about Lisp Machine Lisp, see Lisp Machine Manual. During the late 1970's, Lisp Machine Lisp began to expand towards a much fuller language. Sophisticated lambda lists, setf, multiple values, and structures like those in Common Lisp are the results of early experimentation with programming styles by the Lisp Machine group. Jonl White and others migrated these features to MacLisp. Around 1980, Scott Fahlman and others at CMU began work on a Lisp to run on the Scientific Personal Integrated Computing Environment (SPICE) workstation. One of the goals of the project was to design a simpler dialect than Lisp Machine Lisp.
The Macsyma group at MIT began a project during the late 1970's called
the New Implementation of Lisp (NIL) for the VAX, which was headed by
White. One of the stated goals of the NIL project was to fix many of
the historic, but annoying, problems with Lisp while retaining significant
compatibility with MacLisp. At about the same time, a research group at
Stanford University and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory headed
by Richard P. Gabriel began the design of a Lisp to run on the
The first effort towards Lisp standardization was made in 1969, when Anthony Hearn and Martin Griss at the University of Utah defined Standard Lisp - a subset of Lisp 1.5 and other dialects - to transport REDUCE, a symbolic algebra system. During the 1970's, the Utah group implemented first a retargetable optimizing compiler for Standard Lisp, and then an extended implementation known as Portable Standard Lisp (PSL). By the mid 1980's, PSL ran on about a dozen kinds of computers. For further information about Standard Lisp, see "Standard LISP Report." PSL and Franz Lisp - a MacLisp-like dialect for Unix machines - were the first examples of widely available Lisp dialects on multiple hardware platforms. One of the most important developments in Lisp occurred during the second half of the 1970's: Scheme. Scheme, designed by Gerald J. Sussman and Guy L. Steele Jr., is a simple dialect of Lisp whose design brought to Lisp some of the ideas from programming language semantics developed in the 1960's. Sussman was one of the prime innovators behind many other advances in Lisp technology from the late 1960's through the 1970's. The major contributions of Scheme were lexical scoping, lexical closures, first-class continuations, and simplified syntax (no separation of value cells and function cells). Some of these contributions made a large impact on the design of Common Lisp. For further information about Scheme, see IEEE Standard for the Scheme Programming Language or "Revised3 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme." In the late 1970's object-oriented programming concepts started to make a strong impact on Lisp. At MIT, certain ideas from Smalltalk made their way into several widely used programming systems. Flavors, an object-oriented programming system with multiple inheritance, was developed at MIT for the Lisp machine community by Howard Cannon and others. At Xerox, the experience with Smalltalk and Knowledge Representation Language (KRL) led to the development of Lisp Object Oriented Programming System (LOOPS) and later Common LOOPS. For further information on Smalltalk, see Smalltalk-80: The Language and its Implementation. For further information on Flavors, see Flavors: A Non-Hierarchical Approach to Object-Oriented Programming. These systems influenced the design of the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS). CLOS was developed specifically for this standardization effort, and was separately written up in "Common Lisp Object System Specification." However, minor details of its design have changed slightly since that publication, and that paper should not be taken as an authoritative reference to the semantics of the object system as described in this document. In 1980 Symbolics and LMI were developing Lisp Machine Lisp; stock-hardware implementation groups were developing NIL, Franz Lisp, and PSL; Xerox was developing Interlisp; and the SPICE project at CMU was developing a MacLisp-like dialect of Lisp called SpiceLisp.
In April 1981, after a DARPA-sponsored meeting concerning the
splintered Lisp community, Symbolics, the SPICE project, the NIL
project, and the In 1986 X3J13 was formed as a technical working group to produce a draft for an ANSI Common Lisp standard. Because of the acceptance of Common Lisp, the goals of this group differed from those of the original designers. These new goals included stricter standardization for portability, an object-oriented programming system, a condition system, iteration facilities, and a way to handle large character sets. To accommodate those goals, a new language specification, this document, was developed. |


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Archie's Americana Vol. 2: The 50's
The '50s are a fondly remembered decade for many-for both those who lived through it, and those who know it only from nostalgic movies and TV shows. Now journey back to the days of drive-ins and hula-hoops and join Archie and his teenage friends as they frolic through the frantic Fifties! Read about Archie's Scottish ancestors! See the girls in cassimere sweaters, plaid skirts, and bobbysox! Experience the time Archie and Jughead became beatniks! Behold an Elvis look-alike mesmerizing Riverdale! Witness as Moose takes apart Archie, literally! Follow Archie's lead as the group hoots it up at the sock hop! Glide with the gang as they rollerskate through the magical world of Riverdale and laugh again at the antics of American's #1 Teenagers!
Cover Illustrator


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Original Godzilla Stomps Into Theaters Before Big-Budget Remake
When most Americans think of Godzilla, they think of the movies that filled Sunday-afternoon voids on basic cable. That Godzilla was rarely menacing, and in some series installments he was actually heroic, helping puny humans battle the likes of equally phony looking beasties like Rodan and Baragon. Silly sequels, bad dubbing, re-editing and generally misguided Americanizing did nothing to help the giant lizard's image.
Considering how he was presented to U.S. audiences, it's no surprise that Godzilla has been hard to take seriously. That might finally change now that the original and uncut Japanese version of 'Godzilla' (or 'Gojira' as it was called) is coming back to a handful of U.S. theaters on April 12.
Moviegoers who aren't familiar with the 1954 black-and-white Japanese version (which received a limited theatrical release once before in 2004) are in for a surprise, especially if they've seen only the sliced-to-ribbons domestic cut, which inserted new scenes featuring Raymond Burr as an American reporter in Tokyo.
In both versions, Godzilla is far more menacing than he'd ever be again. Even the watered-down U.S. version is pretty bleak and serious compared to subsequent outings. But the differences between the two cuts reveal two completely different movies with different stories, different characters, different motivations and, perhaps most important of all, different subtext.
In the U.S., the first Godzilla was a simple monster movie import to stand alongside other cheesy atomic-age sci-fi movies. But in Japan it was a cautionary tale and an allegory -- a terrifying visceral reaction from a country still shaken from the A-bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki nine years earlier. It might, in fact, be the world's first notable anti-nukes movie, reflecting the fears of a population still unsure of what to expect in the wake of atomic weaponry.
Whether intentional or not (and one has to be careful about assigning too much thoughtfulness to opportunistic American distributors), 'Gojira''s political and environmental message was stripped away during its metamorphosis into 'Godzilla: King of the Monsters.' With it went a lot of drama and intensity. For example, a tormented eye-patch-wearing Japanese scientist -- a darkly heroic major player in 'Gojira' – is sidelined for most of the U.S. version to accommodate Burr's newly filmed scenes.
With this new remastered and uncut Japanese version hitting big screens again just one month before the release of a highly anticipated re-imagined 'Godzilla,' a new generation could be introduced to Big G just in time, and in the best way possible. Here's a complete list of cities where the original 'Godzilla' will screen. You can watch the re-release trailer above.
'Gojira' did get "special edition" DVD treatment in 2004 and a Criterion Collection Blu-ray in 2012, so if the newly mastered cut doesn't make it to your neighborhood, you still have an opportunity to soak it up before the remake levels your local mall's multiplex.


text:
On Father's Day 2007
I haven't been able to phone my dad on Father's Day for more than 15 years. But I remember him today. And as years pass, the things that were hard seem smaller and the strong roots of my father's life seem more and more important.
For Daddy's funeral, my husband wrote a poem remembering the strength of Daddy's life. Psalm 1 was Daddy's favorite passage of Scripture. It was a sweet thing today to read it again and to give thanks again for a father who did his best to point me to Jesus.
In Memory of Dr. George Henry
Reflections on Psalm 1 and Joshua 24:15
by John Piper
No tree however deep the roots,
However high and green the shoots,
However strong the trunk has stood,
Or firm the fibers of the wood,
No tree was ever meant to be
A never-ending shade for me
Or you. Save one: where Jesus died
With bleeding branches spread as wide
And far as faith for sinful men.
But there was shade, especially when
The tree was old: the leaves were thick
With life, and though the root was sick,
The bark deep-creased with age, the limbs
Were laden down with love, and hymns
Were heard beneath when wind bestirred
The bowing branches with the Word
Of heaven. O there were years of shade!
And more: there was the fruit he made,
Or better, bore, when all the ground
Seemed dry, we turned again and found
The branches heavy with some rare
Well-watered food and sweet called Care.
There must have been a river there
Beneath the arid earth somewhere
Deep-flowing up around the tips
Of dying roots, and giving sips
Of everlasting life for him
To share with us while every limb
Gave up its own. O, there was fruit!
Life-giving from the dying root.
And more. Much more. There was the wood
And it was strong. It had withstood
A thousand storms, and everyone
More firm. And now for every son,
Grandchild and every daughter here
He lies a fallen tree and dear,
And leaves in you the solid wood
And bids you stand where he has stood
Beside the river of the Word,
And that you keep what you have heard,
And sing with him in one accord:
"My fruitful house will serve the Lord."


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Wait till Your Vampire Gets Home
Broken Heart, Oklahoma, Book 4
Michele Bardsley
Signet Eclipse
November 4, 2008
Book Blurb:
To prove her journalistic chops, Libby Monroe ends up in Broken Heart, Oklahoma, chasing down bizarre rumors of strange goings-on—and finding vampires, lycanthropes, and zombies. She never expects to fall in lust with one of them, but vampire/single dad Ralph Genessa is too irresistible. Only the town is being torn in two by a war between the undead—and Libby may be the only thing that can hold Broken Heart together…
My thoughts:
Chasing down a lead for Paranormal Research and Investigation Services (PRIS), Libby Monroe travels to Broken Heart, Oklahoma and finds more than she ever imagined she would. Her mother has had books published on everything from werewolves to aliens and Libby believes those stories are true. Still, she'd like to experience the paranormal first hand.
Hiding in the cemetery and spying on a man tending to a grave may have been wrong, but it leads to Libby meeting Ralph Genessa. Their introductions have to wait as vampires, werewolves, zombies, wraiths and dragons are soon added to the mix leaving Libby and Ralph to fight for their lives. While the cemetery battle may be short lived, the war within the community continues.
Ralph Genessa is not only a vampire, he's a single parent of twin boys. From what Libby sees he's doing a pretty good job of taking care of them considering his condition. What starts out for Libby like a prison sentence within the town of Broken Heart changes when Libby's forced to face her feelings. Life as she knew it will never be the same.
This is the fourth book in the Broken Heart, Oklahoma series, and the first that I've had the pleasure of reading. Ms. Bardsley pens a paranormal tale that's an enjoyable mix of humor and romance. Wait Till Your Vampire Gets Home is fast-paced, steamy and an all-around entertaining read. If you've missed any of the previous books and run into a question of who or what someone is, the author has provided a handy list of the Ancients as well as two glossaries at the back of the book
To learn more about the Broken Heart, Oklahoma series, please visit Ms. Bardsley's site: Here
Kimberly Swan, Darque Reviews
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Review - Wait Till Your Vampire Gets Home by Michele Bardsley
6 comments:
- SciFiGuy said...
I've read all of the 'Broken HEart' books and enjoyed them thoroughly. Nice review - can't wait to get my copy.
- October 10, 2008 at 1:42 PM
- Kimberly Swan said...
Lucky you! I'm surprised that I hadn't before, but this was fun, and even with the darker bits it stayed on the lighthearted side. Thanks, enjoy it when you get the chance. :)
- October 10, 2008 at 2:07 PM
- samantha.1020 said...
I LOVED the 1st book in this series!!! I really need to read the 2nd book in this series soon.
- October 11, 2008 at 7:22 PM
- Kimberly Swan said...
Hi Samantha - You just have a few to catch up on. Hope you enjoy them! :)
- October 11, 2008 at 8:02 PM
- Michele Writes said...
Thank you so much for the lovely review. I'm so thrilled you enjoyed the book!
- December 18, 2008 at 9:54 AM
- Kimberly Swan said...
Hi Michele - It was my pleasure! I really loved the humor and am looking forward to more. Thanks so much for stopping by! :)
- December 18, 2008 at 10:19 AM
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text:
To allocate a Java array you can use the array type specifier
as a constructor function. For example, to allocate an array with room for 10 elements
each of each is a primitive int
(int[] length: 10)
You can specify the initial elements instead of the length:
(object[] 31 32 33 34)
This creates a 4-length array, initialized to the given values.
Note this is a variation of the generation object-allocation
(see Allocating objects) pattern. You can explicitly
use the make
function, if you prefer:
(make object[] 31 32 33 34)
If you specify a length, you can also specify initial values for selected elements. If you specify an index, in the form of a literal integer-valued keyword, then following elements are placed starting at that position.
(int[] length: 100 10 12 80: 15 16 50: 13 14)
This creates an array with 100 elements. Most of them are initialized to the default value of zero, but elements with indexes 0, 1, 50, 51, 80, 81 are initialized to the values 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, respectively.
You can access the elements of a Java array by treating it as a one-argument function, where the argument is the index:
(define primes (integer[] 2 3 5 7 11 13)) (primes 0) ⇒ 2 (primes 5) ⇒ 13
You can set an element by treating the array as a function
with a setter
(set! (primes 0) -2) (set! (primes 3) -7) primes ⇒ [-2 3 5 -7 11 13]
To get the number of elements of an array, you can treat
it as having a length
primes:length ⇒ 6
Here is a longer example. This is the actual definition of the
standard gcd
function. Note the args
receives all the arguments on the form of an integer
(This uses the Java5 varargs feature.)
(define (gcd #!rest (args ::integer[])) ::integer (let ((n ::int args:length)) (if (= n 0) 0 (let ((result ::integer (args 0))) (do ((i ::int 1 (+ i 1))) ((>= i n) result) (set! result (gnu.math.IntNum:gcd result (args i))))))))
The above example generates good code, thanks to judicious use of casts and type specifications. In general, if Kawa knows that a "function" is an array then it will generate efficient bytecode instructions for array operations.
The deprecated Low-level array macros are also supported.


text:
Leilani - Silver
How to purchase
Our exclusive collection is only available in a select number of retailers. You can find your closest retailer here.
Like anything precious, your Milane Collective pieces need to be cared for to maintain their beauty.
When cleaning your jewellery please use fresh water and a dry microfibre cloth ensuring you remove all moisture. Never use cleaning products on your Milane Collective Jewellery.
Ensure you keep your jewellery in its Milane Collective packaging to ensure it stays dry and out of direct sunlight or excessive heat.
To keep your Milane Jewellery looking as stunning as it does the day you recieve it please avoid direct contact with chlorine, nail polish remover, perfume, hairspray and moisturisers.


text: Our Facilitators are trained to be compassionate and child-friendly that is essential in an education system where basic human values are nurtured. Children are born with these values and it requires a facilitator who can patiently nurture them viz. friendliness. compassion. co-operation. smile, laughter, a sense of belongingness. wanting to care and share. Our facilitators recognize the need for complete development of the children because they understand that body and mind are so interlinked that what we put in the body reflects on the mind, and what is happening in the mind is reflected on the body e.g. violence in the mind reflects on the child's body and his/her actions.


text:
I am wondering how one can generalize the Dirac adjoint to flat "spacetimes" of arbitrary dimension and signature. To be more specific, a standard situation would be to consider 4 dimensional Minkowski space (signature $-+++$) and the 4 (complex) dimensional Dirac representation of $\text{spin}(3,1)$ via $\gamma^a= \left( \begin{array}{ccc} 0 & \sigma^a \\ \bar{\sigma}^a & 0 \\ \end{array} \right)$. Then we would define the Dirac adjoint as $\bar{\psi}=\psi^\dagger \gamma^0$. Let us denote the representation by $D:\text{spin}(3,1) \rightarrow \text{Lin}(\bf{C^4})$.
The fundamental property of the Dirac adjoint of $\psi$ is that under a Lorentz transformation, $\bar{\psi}$ transforms to $\bar{\psi} D^{-1}$ which ensures, for instance, that $\bar{\psi} \psi$ is a Lorentz scalar.
So now to my concern. It seems to me that this construction of $\bar{\psi}$ is super specific to 1+3 dimensions and maybe also to the chiral form of $\gamma$. What if we consider a Diracy representation of $\text{spin}(n,m)$? That is, we take a collection of $d$ dimensional matrices $\left\{ \gamma^a \mid 1\leq a \leq n+m \right\}$ such that $\left\{ \gamma^a,\gamma^b \right\} = 2 \eta^{ab}$ ($\eta$ is the diagonal matrix with $n$ 1's and $m$ $-1$'s) and use these to construct a $D$ dimensional representation. Then, if $\psi \in \bf{C}^D$, I'd like to find a (hopefully real) function $\psi \mapsto \bar{\psi} \psi$ that is invariant under the action we just (kind of) constructed.


text:
Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Southern Skates has snack bar which sells prepacked refreshments. Menu prices and items are subject to change without notice.
Show All Answers
Yes, you can bring your own skates and you will only be charged for admission to the skating rink. Yes, roller blades are allowed.
No, alcohol is not permitted on the premises of Southern Skates Roller Rink. For the safety of our patrons, our staff reserve the right to deny entrance/remove anyone who appears under the influence of alcohol/drugs.
We do not allow outside food or drink into the facility, with the exception for birthday cakes when a birthday party package is purchased or when a private party is scheduled. If you have any questions or concerns on this topic please call for more info.


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Twin Spin
Turn on the turbo with Twin Spin. This neon edged slot machine features linked reel capabilities that have the power to deliver a top jackpot .
Twin Spin
Stack it up and let the good times roll on the grid with Twin Spin. This electrically charged slot machine has a blazing linked reel system that magnetically synchronises symbols. With shocking prizes and high voltage wins available, dare you take a spin?
- 5 reels, 3 rows, 243 ways to win
- Wild symbols
- Twin reel feature
- Linked reels throughout whole grid
- 96.6% Return to player
- 27.8% Hit frequency
- Riffing disco soundtrack with cool bass and kicking drums
- Neon lit graphics that come to life with every spin
How to Play
- Twin Spin features 5 reels, 3 rows and 243 ways to win.
- Use the COIN VALUE button to adjust your coin size with values. Use the BET LEVEL to set the number of coins per spin.
- MAX BET starts a new game with the current coin size at the maximum bet level.
- The SPIN button initiates a new game. When all the reels have stopped in place, winning combinations are evaluated and prizes paid.
- The AUTO PLAY button allows you to select a number of automatic spins.
Extra Value
- There is no conventional bonus system in Twin Spin.
- This machine features linked reels. At the beginning of any standard spin between 2 and 5 adjacent reels can become linked for the duration of the spin.
- When reels are linked the symbols on them are completely synchronised, giving you a boost when it comes to hitting those big cross grid combinations.
- With no bonus round, that huge win could come at any time on Twin Spin.


text:
Green Building
The term 'green building' is generally used to refer to the practice of using building materials and techniques to create buildings that are environmentally responsible and promote profitable, healthy places to live and work.
City Programs
The City of Arroyo Grande does not have any green building programs in place at this time; however, the city was the first in the county to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SLO Green Build (more information following). Additionally, city councilmen and city staff, along with representatives of Grover Beach and Pismo Beach, attended the South County's 2030 Challenge to learn more about the role of planning and building techniques in energy use and demand.
Green Building
If you are interested in green building and wish to learn how you can apply green building practices to your building project, please refer to the Build It Green website.
SLO Green Build
SLO Green build is a local non-profit group consisting of planners, architects, builders and concerned citizens whose mission is:
- To promote sustainable building techniques that minimize construction waste, build healthier indoor environments, and reduce energy use while conserving natural resources
- To provide architects, engineers, contractors, developers, and other building professionals with the proper tools to build sustainable projects
- To support and help develop public policy which advocates for sustainable architectural, social, and building practices
Peer-Review Meetings
SLO Green Build offers a peer-review meeting once a month where members of the public can have their plans reviewed by professionals with green building experience to identify ways in which the project can implement green building practices. These meetings are free of charge, but space is limited and appointments are recommended. Feel free to bring along your checklist, although it is not necessary to have one completed prior to the meeting. For more information, please visit the SLO Green Build website.
Additional Resources
More information regarding green building can be found on the following websites:


text:
The Legacy of La Raza Unida
October 11, 2012
October 11, 2012
Open gallery
La Raza Unida is no longer a registered political party in the United States, but its legacy is still very much alive.
Studying that legacy is the focus of research conducted by Brenda Sendejo, assistant professor of anthropology at Southwestern.
El Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida, or La Raza Unida Party, was founded in Texas in the early 1970s by Mexican Americans who were concerned about the lack of Mexican American representation in local and county politics and about how few Mexican Americans were registered to vote. It quickly spread throughout the Southwest and even to some parts of the Midwest.
The party was part of a broader set of social and political movements in the post-World War II era that also focused on issues such as labor rights, education reform and sexism. While the party itself is no longer active, many of its members are still involved with politics and in community activism and organizing.
Among these women is Rosie Castro, a San Antonio resident who once served as chair of the Bexar County Raza Unida Party. Today, Castro is best known as the mother of two twin sons who are considered rising stars in the Democratic Party. Julián, who currently serves as mayor of San Antonio, was chosen to be the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in August. Joaquín is a Texas state representative running for Congress. Both brothers credit their mother's activism with their interest in politics.
Rosie Castro is among 10 women Sendejo highlighted in her dissertation for her Ph.D. from UT-Austin. Sendejo recently had an opportunity to meet up with Castro at a 40th anniversary reunion of La Raza Unida members held in Austin. At that reunion, Sendejo presented Castro with a copy of her dissertation.
"Rosie and her sons' journeys are pretty incredible," Sendejo said.
Sendejo said the legacy of early Chicana activists such as Rosie Castro is still very much alive in people like the Castro twins and in people like herself who are now devoting their lives to studying the history of Mexican Americans.
Since joining the Southwestern faculty in 2010, Sendejo has tried to give her students access to some of the Chicana activists she has known. In 2010, she helped Kappa Delta Chi arrange for Chicana feminist historian Martha Cotera to speak at the annual Cesar Chavez dinner. She has invited Susana Almanza, the director of an environmental justice organization in East Austin called PODER, to visit campus Nov. 14.
Last summer, with the assistance of a faculty-student grant from Southwestern, Sendejo launched an oral history project that has given Southwestern students a chance to interview some Chicana activists themselves.
Abby Morales, a sociology major who graduated in August, interviewed Velia Sanchez, a retired teacher who fought for bilingual education in central Texas, and María Elena Martínez, another retired bilingual educator who was the last chair of La Raza Unida Texas from 1974-1976. Martínez was the inspiration for Sendejo's Ph.D. dissertation.
Janice Contreras, a senior psychology major, interviewed Rev. Virginia Rincon, an Episcopal pastor in Austin who has been active in fighting for immigrant rights, and Yvette Mendez, an art teacher in Austin who is both a Chicana and Native American activist.
"This project was a great way to expose students to conducting original research," Sendejo said.
One thing Sendejo is particularly interested in is the spiritual change that occurred in Mexican American women who became activists. Among the women she has interviewed, Sendejo said 80 percent have experienced some form of spiritual transformation over their lifetimes – a transformation from the kind of Catholicism they knew growing up to a different kind of Catholicism or a totally different kind of spirituality.
"I wanted to know why this is happening," Sendejo said. "As it turned out, a lot had to do with their activism in the movement as well as growing up in Jim Crow Texas and experiencing racial discrimination and sexism."
Sendejo said Rosie Castro is a good example of a Mexican American woman whose spirituality has changed. Although she was brought up in a devoutly Catholic household and attended 12 years of Catholic school, Castro began questioning some of the church's doctrine as her activism increased. The last time Sendejo interviewed her, Castro said she participates in a community of likeminded Catholic women who have their own mujerista theology that denounces the patriarchy and sexism within the church.
"The relationship between her spiritual trajectory and her political life is fascinating," Sendejo said. "She has found a way to continue to be Catholic without being part of an institution she finds flawed."
Sendejo said even if they leave the church, many Mexican American woman in her study remain devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe and/or view her as the Aztec Earth goddess known as Tonantzin.
Sendejo also is interested in whether the current generation of Mexican American women has had a similar or different experience when it comes to religion. After Contreras and Morales conducted their interviews, Sendejo interviewed the two students.
"As it turned out, both these students have also have had powerful experiences with their own identity," she said.
Sendejo gave a presentation about her intergenerational oral history research project, which she calls "Spirit Stories: Narratives of Spirituality and Social Justice," at the annual Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (Women Active in Letters and Social Change) conference at UC-Santa Barbara in July.
Sendejo is now working on turning her dissertation into a book that will include her work with the students and updates on what the women she interviewed are doing now. She is applying for a sabbatical in the fall of 2013 to finish the book.
Sendejo said she hopes to start a Chicana/Tejana archive at Southwestern. "There is a need for more research on Chicana/Tejana religious and spiritual experiences," she said. "I'd love to start an archive building on 'Spirit Stories' at Southwestern one day."


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- Home
- Government
- Departments
- City Management
- Capital Improvement Plan
Capital Improvement Plan
A Capital Improvement Plan, or CIP, is a long-range plan which identifies capital projects and equipment purchases, provides a planning schedule and identifies options for financing the plan.
The Texarkana, Texas City Council adopted a 2016-2017 budget on Monday, September 12th, 2016 that includes a Capital Improvement Plan with 53 projects spanning through the year 2044.
Here's a list of the projects in Texarkana Texas' CIP for this year:
2017 Capital Improvement Project Descriptions
- Roof Replacement- Replacing roofs for City buildings, including public works, parks, and the health department.
- Forest Lake Concrete Reconstruction- This project would remove and replace all concrete pavement in the Forest Lake area. It would also include replacing all drainage structures associated with the street. For more information about this project, and progress updates, visit Forest Lake Reconstruction Project page.
- Playground Equipment Replacement (All Parks)
- Ball Field Lights at Spring Lake Park and Wallace Park Softball Fields- This Project would improve the ball-field lighting on Fields 1 &2 at Spring Lake Park -Swanger Complex, and Fields 1-5 at Wallace Park. This cost estimate would include all electrical upgrades, removal of old equipment and installation of new.
- Walton Drive and Pavilion Drainage Improvements- This project would realign and improve an earthen drainage ditch.
- Police Training Center Parking Lot Reconstruction- This project will improve the parking lots around the Police Training Center
- Fire Training Field Phase 2 Enhancement- This project would increase the paved area by adding a second loop, add training props, and add a classroom to the property.
- Spring Lake Park Dredging- Dredging activities will bring the pond to a depth of 10 feet, and the pond will be dewatered to facilitate the construction efforts. The project will also include the installation of gabion baskets with rock to support and enhance the perimeter of the pond. For more information about this project, visit our Alert page.
- Courthouse Square Initiative- This project is a dual city effort to enhance and increase walkability around the existing Federal Courthouse/Post Office in downtown.
- Building and Parking Improvements- Public Works- This project would expand and update the Street Department Building, expand the vehicle storage bays, repave the Fleet facility parking area, and pave the Street Department parking lot.
- Cowhorn Creek Linear Park Trail- The Cowhorn Creek Linear Park Trail includes the construction of a ten-foot-wide paved trail that will run along Cowhorn Creek from Galleria Oaks eventually to the south side of Richmond Road. There are also proposed extensions into the Beverly & Rosehill Neighborhoods. This project may include possible funding from TXDOT, Partnership for the Pathway, and TP&W.
Design funding for the following projects:
- Airport Terminal
- Perot Theatre Restoration and Arts Park
- Fire Station Relocation


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The Closure Exercise
Master's degree candidates are required to complete a closure exercise demonstrating mastery of some area within their field of study. Closure exercise options vary across degree programs, and can include theses, applied projects, comprehensive examinations and capstone courses. The exact nature and format of the closure exercise is determined by the academic department offering the degree program; however, all closure requirement options must have an identifiable academic focus and must include a written component.
Plan Ahead
Graduate students typically find closure exercises challenging because they involve the integration and application of knowledge and skills that you've acquired as well as considerable self-discipline in terms of planning and organizing the work involved. Students are strongly encouraged to learn about their program's closure requirements and options early in their degree work, and to begin planning by discussing the closure requirements with their academic advisors.
Continuing Enrollment Requirement
UIS has a continuing enrollment policy, which requires that once a student begins a closure exercise, they must continue to enroll in the closure exercise each fall and spring semester until the exercise is complete. (Summer semesters are not subject to the continuing enrollment policy.) The continuing enrollment requirement applies even when a student "stops out" of other courses. Under exceptional circumstances, a student may submit a petition requesting the academic department to grant a leave of absence for one semester. If the petition is approved, the student will be exempted from the continuing enrollment requirement for one semester. Requests for exemption can only be approved on a semester-by-semester basis; a separate petition is required for each semester of exemption requested.


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Chairman Roberts, Vice Chairman Rockefeller, and Members of the Committee:I am pleased to be here to talk about reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act. I appreciate this opportunity to come before Congress to discuss our successes in the war on terror and to find new ways to fight for freedom more effectively and consistent with the values that we all cherish as Americans.
As the distinguished members of this Committee know, the threat of terrorism remains serious, and it is critical that Congress continue to provide tools that enable prosecutors and law enforcement to both thwart terrorism and investigate and prosecute other serious crimes. I believe the authorities in the PATRIOT Act have enabled us to better protect America. But the exercise of government authority is always worthy of respectful and accurate discussion. I am open to suggestions for strengthening and clarifying the Act, but I cannot support amendments that will weaken our ability to protect our Nation.
The PATRIOT Act helped dismantle the "wall" that used to separate law enforcement from intelligence officials. Prior law, as interpreted and implemented, sharply limited the ability of law enforcement and intelligence officers to share information and "connect the dots" in terrorism and espionage investigations. Sections 203 and 218 of the PATRIOT Act, which are scheduled to sunset at the end of this year, brought down this "wall."
Together, these provisions have reduced the statutory and cultural barriers to information sharing. And it is information sharing - as the 9/11 Commission and the WMD Commission made clear, and as this Committee knows full well - that will make the difference in our ongoing efforts to prevent terrorism.
This Committee is familiar with successful uses of section 218, including the investigation of the "Portland Seven" and "Virginia Jihad." Section 203, along with section 218, was used extensively during the investigation of the Holy Land Foundation which a 2004 indictment alleged was created to provide material support to the terrorist organization HAMAS, to further its goal of destroying Israel through violent jihad.
Law enforcement professionals tell me that allowing sections 203 and 218 to expire would discourage information sharing, making it more difficult for us to disrupt terrorist plots.
Other similar common-sense PATRIOT Act provisions also will expire if Congress doesn't take action.
Section 206, which provides national security investigators with an authority long possessed by criminal investigators, authorizes the use of multi-point or "roving" wiretaps tied to a specific target rather than a specific communications facility. Before the PATRIOT Act, these orders were not available for national security investigations under FISA, a gap in the law that sophisticated terrorists or spies could easily exploit. Although specific examples of the use of multi-point wiretaps under section 206 remain classified, I can represent in this open hearing that this authority is valuable. As of March 30th of this year, we have used this authority 49 times. Importantly, section 206 contains numerous safeguards to protect civil liberties: the FISA Court can only issue a roving wiretap order upon a finding of probable cause; the order must always be connected to a particular target; and minimization procedures must be followed concerning the collection, retention, and dissemination of information about U.S. persons.
Section 215 also filled a gap in the law. It granted national security investigators authority to seek a court order for the production of records relevant to a foreign intelligence investigation, similar to prosecutors' authority to use grand jury subpoenas as the building blocks of criminal investigations. Use of this provision has been judicious - we have used this authority 35 times as of March 30 of this year. Moreover, we have not sought a section 215 order to obtain library or bookstore records, medical records, or gun sale records. Let me be clear - the reading habits of ordinary Americans are of no interest to those investigating terrorists or spies.
Section 213, although not scheduled to sunset, is another valuable provision of the PATRIOT Act. Section 213 codified one consistent process and standard for delayed-notice search warrants, which can be used in limited circumstances, with judicial approval, to avoid tipping off criminals who otherwise might flee, destroy evidence, intimidate or kill witnesses, cut off contact with associates, or take other action to evade arrest.
The portion of section 213 that has received the most attention is the provision allowing a court to authorize delayed notice if immediate notice would "seriously jeopardize" an investigation. I'd like to describe one actual case where immediate notice would have seriously jeopardized an investigation. In this case, the Justice Department obtained a delayed-notice search warrant for a Federal Express package that contained counterfeit credit cards. At the time of the search, it was very important not to disclose the existence of the federal investigation, as this would have exposed a related Title III wiretap that was ongoing for major drug trafficking activities.
An Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which included agents from the DEA, the IRS, the Pittsburgh Police Department, and other state and local agencies, was engaged in a multi-year investigation that resulted in the indictment of the largest drug trafficking organization ever prosecuted in the Western District of Pennsylvania. While the drug trafficking investigation was ongoing, it became clear that several leaders of the drug trafficking conspiracy had ties to an ongoing credit card fraud operation. An investigation into the credit card fraud was undertaken, and a search was made of a Federal Express package that contained fraudulent credit cards. Had notice of the Federal Express search tied to the credit card fraud investigation been immediately given, it could have revealed the ongoing drug trafficking investigation prematurely and the drug trafficking investigation might have been seriously jeopardized. Even modest delay would not have been available, however, if this provision of section 213 were deleted.
It is critical that law enforcement continue to have this vital tool for those limited circumstances where a court finds good cause to permit the temporary delay of notification of a search.
Finally, I'd like to close by addressing a common question that must be answered by this Congress: the issue of whether we should continue to impose sunset provisions on critical sections of the PATRIOT Act.
The PATRIOT Act was a swift and decisive response to the attacks of September 11. In the weeks and months following the attacks in Washington, Pennsylvania, and New York, Democrats and Republicans came together to address the vulnerabilities in our nation's defenses. Both Congress and the Administration worked with experienced law enforcement, intelligence, and national security personnel to design legislation to better protect the American people. Although there was extensive consideration in 2001, and although it is unusual to impose sunsets on statutory investigative tools, Congress included sunsets on certain provisions of the PATRIOT Act because members wanted to ensure that we were not risking the very liberties we were setting out to defend.
Today, we can all be proud. The track record established over the past three years has demonstrated the effectiveness of the safeguards of civil liberties put in place when the Act was passed. There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse. Our Nation is stronger and safer. Our bipartisan work has been a success. The Department of Justice has exercised care and restraint in the use of these important authorities because we are committed to the rule of law. We have followed the law because it is the law, not because it is scheduled to sunset. With or without sunsets, our dedication to the rule of law will continue.
The Department will strive to continue to carry out its work lawfully and appropriately and as a citizen I expect Congress will continue its active oversight over our use of the PATRIOT Act - not because of sunsets - but because oversight is the constitutional responsibility of Congress. So, given the Department's record in using these authorities, the obvious effectiveness of these tools in stopping violent crimes and protecting our Nation, and the authority of Congress to reexamine these provisions at any time to correct abuses, the sunset provisions are, in my judgment, no longer necessary and should be repealed.
The authorities in the PATRIOT Act are critical to our Nation's efforts in the war against terrorism. The Act has a proven record of success in protecting the security of the American people, while simultaneously respecting civil liberties, and I question how we can afford to allow its most important provisions to sunset. The efforts of the terrorists to strike our country surely will not sunset. I look forward to continuing to work with this Committee in the period ahead, listening to and responding to your concerns, and joining together again to protect the security of the American people.


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With the exception of a few types of cells, (acinar cells, T lymphocytes and hepatocytes), every cell in your body has a cilia. In the vision community, we are used to seeing these structures in the distal portion of the photoreceptors. The reality is that every cell in the retina has a cilium and some cells use the cilia as a means to expand a very specialized function like the photoreceptor outer segment or the hair cell or the respiratory epithelium of the lung. This particular cilia was found in an amacrine cell in a rat retina.
Cilia were thought for a long time to be vestigal organelles that are formed in development, then left over after the developmental process ended. Prachee Avasthi Crofts in the Wallace Marshall laboratory notes that "cilia are signaling centers capable of sensing a variety of extracellular stimuli: fluid flow in the kidney, odorants in olfactory neurons, and hormones in the satiety center of the brain. Motile cilia in the trachea and brain ventricles can also generate flow of mucus and cerebrospinal fluid respectively. Dysfunction in conserved ciliary structure and function therefore results in a variety of disorders (termed ciliopathies) which include polycystic kidney disease, anosmia, obesity, bronchiectasis and hydrocephalus, to name a few.
In the retina, the outer segments of photoreceptors that sense light are in fact modified sensory cilia with conserved mechanisms of formation and maintenance. Thorough characterization of phototransduction proteins that reside in the outer segment as well as rapid turnover of outer segments to recycle spent membrane and protein make this system an excellent model to study cargo transport within cilia. Furthermore, a hallmark of many pleiotropic ciliopathies is retinal degeneration that results from abnormal photoreceptor cilia function. Investigation of photoreceptor cilia dysfunction can yield much insight into generalized mechanisms of cilia-related pathogenesis and potential avenues for therapeutic intervention".
In the retina, the applications being explored by a number of labs including Jun Yang's laboratory here at the Moran Eye Center and by a recent student who's work on Senior-Loken Syndrome in Wolfgang Baehr's laboratory. This is in addition to a number of labs throughout the world including Joe Besharse at the University of Wisconsin Madison, and Uwe Wolfrum at the University of Mainz, David S. Williams, University of California Los Angeles, Marius Ueffing, University of Tübingen, Eric A. Pierce, Harvard Medical School, Gregory J. Pazour, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Nicholas Katsanis, Duke University, USA, Tiansen Li, NEI and many others.


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A Queen's-led team has discovered the reason why garlic is so good for us.
Researchers have widely believed that the organic compound, allicin – which gives garlic its aroma and flavour – acts as the world's most powerful antioxidant. But until now it hasn't been clear how allicin works, or how it stacks up compared to more common antioxidants such as Vitamin E and coenzyme Q10, which stop the damaging effects of radicals.
"We didn't understand how garlic could contain such an efficient antioxidant, since it didn't have a substantial amount of the types of compounds usually responsible for high antioxidant activity in plants, such as the flavanoids found in green tea or grapes," says Chemistry professor Derek Pratt, who led the study. "If allicin was indeed responsible for this activity in garlic, we wanted to find out how it worked."
The research team questioned the ability of allicin to trap damaging radicals so effectively, and considered the possibility that a decomposition product of allicin may instead be responsible. Through experiments with synthetically-produced allicin, they found that an acid produced when the compound decomposes rapidly reacts with radicals.
Their findings are published in the January 2009 issue of the international chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie.
"Basically the allicin compound has to decompose in order to generate a potent antioxidant," explains Dr. Pratt, who is Canada Research Chair in Free Radical Chemistry. "The reaction between the sulfenic acid and radicals is as fast as it can get, limited only by the time it takes for the two molecules to come into contact. No one has ever seen compounds, natural or synthetic, react this quickly as antioxidants."
The researcher is confident that a link exists between the reactivity of the sulfenic acid and the medicinal benefits of garlic. "While garlic has been used as a herbal medicine for centuries and there are many garlic supplements on the market, until now there has been no convincing explanation as to why garlic is beneficial," says Dr. Pratt. "I think we have taken the first step in uncovering a fundamental chemical mechanism which may explain garlic's medicinal benefits."
Along with onions, leeks and shallots, garlic is a species in the family Alliaceae. All of these other plants contain a compound that is very similar to allicin, but they do not have the same medicinal properties. Dr. Pratt and his colleagues believe that this is due to a slower rate of decomposition of the allicin analogs in the onions, leaks and shallots, which leads to a lower level of sulfenic acid available to react as antioxidants with radicals.
The study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Ontario Ministry of Innovation. Other members of the research team are Queen's Chemistry post-doctoral researcher Vipraja Vaidya and Keith Ingold, from the National Research Council of Canada.
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Plan for new Cyprus vote casts uncertainty on bailout
NICOSIA, April 17 - A 10 billion euro aid deal to save Cyprus from bankruptcy has been thrown into fresh uncertainty with news that the country's fractious parliament will vote on the final package.
The surprise vote has only just been scheduled, and early signs are that nearly half the members of the 56-seat parliament may oppose the bailout, seen as vital to keep Cyprus in the euro zone.
The tiny opposition Greens Party said on Wednesday its sole parliamentarian would vote to reject the deal, becoming the first party to announce its intentions.
However, the Communist AKEL and Socialist EDEK parties, which together have 24 seats, have been vocal in their opposition to the bailout, and are seen as likely to vote against, although there is some chance they may abstain instead.
"We've fought for freedom, we've fought to maintain the Cypriot Republic," lawmaker George Perdikis said in statement.
"It is, in my opinion, a crime and wrong to deliver Cyprus into the hands of the troika and allow it to become a colony," he said, referring to the country's European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund lenders.
The parliament shocked Europe by voting unanimously in March against an initial bailout plan which featured controversial demands that bank depositors including small savers should have funds seized to pay towards the cost.
The final version of the bailout agreed with the European Union and International Monetary Fund, forced massive losses on big depositors in the island's two major commercial banks, triggering economic turmoil likely to sink the country deeper into recession.
The deal, which still requires ratification by parliaments in some EU member states, must also be put to Cyprus's parliament for a vote - a previously unscheduled plan - according to the attorney general, Petros Clerides.
In a statement late on Tuesday, Clerides cited a constitutional requirement for a vote on the bailout deal after it is formally submitted to the assembly by President Nicos Anastasiades. Opposition members had called for a vote, saying the assembly could not be ignored on such an important issue.
"Whoever is prepared to vote against the loan agreement should at the same time propose where this 10 billion euros will be found," government spokesman Christos Stylianides told state radio.
"They should also propose how we would deal with issues such as paying wages and pensions, and how we would deal with the international uproar caused by a possible rejection of the loan agreement," he said.
The bailout agreement was expected to be put to the assembly at the end of the month, once it has been approved by the cabinet, parliament's acting permanent secretary, Socrates Socratous, told Reuters on Wednesday.
Euro zone finance ministers last week approved 10 billion euros in aid. In return Cyprus must come up with a further 13 billion euros, bringing gross financing needs for the island to 23 billion euros.
Two of the biggest parties in parliament and allies in government, the Democratic Rally and the Democratic Party, will vote in favor of the deal. Even combined, however, they fall short of a majority, leaving the government scrambling to find support among smaller parties.
"It's time to face this critical situation for the salvation of our country and everyone needs to take responsibility," said Lefteris Christoforou, vice chairman of the ruling Democratic Rally party.
(Editing by Stephen Nisbet)


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After tragedy strikes the family of young Naomi Miller, her friend Rebecca Bachman does all she can to help. But things get complicated when Rebecca's brother, Micah, returns from a combat tour in Afghanistan. For one thing, he chose to serve in the military even though he served as a medic and never picked up a gun. For another, he is under the Meidung—the shunning— because of that and none of the Amish are permitted to speak to him or eat with him. And finally, he is not only Rebecca's brother, he is Naomi's husband! But how can Naomi pick up where their marriage left off after he turned away from her and his people to enlist in the army? How can Naomi and Micah even begin the process of healing their relationship when he will not repent of what he has done and the Amish will not forgive him for what he has done? Naomi despairs of ever again having a happy married life with her husband.
But God has a way of working on the hearts of His people—especially at Christmas time. When an unexpected turn of events sets things right, miracles happen to the Amish community, to the Miller family, and to Naomi and Micah, miracles that transform everyone.
Here is warm and tender story of faithfulness, love, and reconciliation at the most wonderful time of the year.


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Earlier this year, we got a not-so-subtle taste of Neil Young's upcoming album Fork In The Road. The video of the title track had Young singing while waving around an apple with earphones stuck in it.
Young has now released not one but two additional videos from the new record, and they're a study in contrasts both visually and musically.
Cough Up The Bucks
The first, called Cough Up The Bucks, is a comical look at a corporate raider in the last throes. Young, dressed in power suit and riding in the back of a ridiculously long stretch limo, reads the Wall Street Journal while singing/talking into his Blackberry and checking stock reports on his laptop.
"Where did all the money go/ where did all the cash flow/ cough up the bucks, cough up the bucks," Young demands over a throbbing, distorted guitar-driven beat.
Check out the video on Neil Young's MySpace page here. (It's not on YouTube yet,)
Light A Candle
On a different note entirely, the acoustic ballad Light A Candle is as beautiful and elegiac as anything Neil Young has ever done before. The video features Young's wife, Pegi, holding a candle in the window of the RV behind him as he sings, "Instead of cursing the darkness/ light a candle for where we're going/ there's something ahead worth looking for."
You can see this video at Young's MySpace page here.
If these songs are indications of the depth and range of Fork In The Road (due 7 April), we can't wait to hear the fiished set.