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© ® The Nobel Foundation IPCC honoured with the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
IPCC Phone: +41-22-730-8208/84 e-mail: email@example.com
Much work has been conducted since SAR. Work has focused on a wide array of issues ranging from that which explores the tools of analysis to that which employs those tools to shed light on the problem of climate change. Researchers such as De Canio (1997), De Canio and Laitner (1997), De Canio et al. (2000a, 2000b, 2000c), Laitner and Hogan (2000), Laitner et al. (2000), Peters and Brassel (2000), and Sanstad et al. (2000a, 2000b) have focused on integrated assessment, endogenous technological change, and behavioural, social, and organizational phenomena (discussed in Chapter 8). Work has also continued to examine the problems of costbenefit, cost-effectiveness, and the interaction of uncertainty with decision making. New approaches have also been developed, including, for example, tolerable windows and safe landing.
Work has continued in the development of tools to understand the influence of uncertainty on decision making. The initial work examined in SAR explores the problem of emissions-mitigation objectives under a cost-effectiveness framework, but the interaction between concentration limits and the date at which uncertainty is resolved influences the results. This interaction occurs because in decision analysis no option can ever be foreclosed before the date at which uncertainty is hypothesized to be resolved. Any concentration ceiling implies a cumulative emissions limit. Thus preserving the option to stay below any arbitrary limit means adopting a hedging strategy. Grubb (1997) characterizes the problem thus: If we delay action in the belief that we are aiming at a 500ppmv target, for example, then after a couple of decades it may be simply too late to be able to stabilize at 400ppmv, however urgent the problem then turns out to be; and even stabilization at 450ppmv might by then involve radical changes of direction that could prove economically very disruptive.
The core of the issue is the interplay between inertia and uncertainty; without inertia any trajectory could indeed be corrected at no cost, but as inertia is important, changing course may be very costly. Fortunately, the Convention embodies the dynamic nature of the decision problem in drafting climate as an ongoing process, not a once and for all event. The UNFCCC (1993) requires periodic reviews in light of the best scientific information on climate change and its impacts, as well as relevant technical, social and economic information.
Such a sequential decision-making process aims to identify short-term strategies in the face of long-term uncertainties. The next several decades will offer many opportunities for learning and mid-course corrections. The relevant question is not what is the best course of action for the next 100 years, but rather what is the best course for the near-term given the long-term objective?
There have been several attempts to frame the issue. Figure 10.1 reports the results of an analysis by Ha-Duong et al. (1997). The authors use their model of the Dynamics of Inertia and Adaptability for integrated assessment of climate-change Mitigation (DIAM) to determine the least-cost emission pathway given an uncertain concentration target. A defining feature of their model is an inertia parameter that accounts for the time scale of change in the global energy system. In their analysis they assign equal probability to a target of 450, 550, and 650ppmv. The solid 550ppmv line corresponds to the optimal pathway when the target is known to be 550ppmv from the outset. The analysis shows the optimal hedging strategy when uncertainty is not resolved until 2020. The authors note that our results show that abatement over the next few years is economically valuable if there is a significant probability of having to stay below ceilings that would be otherwise reached within the characteristic time scales of the systems producing greenhouse gases.
The degree of near-term hedging in the above analysis is sensitive to the date of resolution of uncertainty, the inertia in the energy system, and assumes that the ultimate concentration target (once it has been agreed) must be met at all costs. The last stems directly from the formulation of the problem as one of finding the least-cost mitigation pathway in the face of uncertainty. Since a future political decision on a 450ppmv target cannot be excluded, decisions prior to 2020 must be such that they do not preclude the achievement of such a target.
Continues on next page
Table of contents
IPCC Homepage


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Back in 2008, I had the chance to lead P&G's Joint Business Planning with Facebook (as well as the other big digital media players). The intent of the Joint Business Plan wasn't about just increasing advertising dollars. It was about knowledge sharing between the two companies with the goal of having a strategic relationship where we both became better businesses as a result. This cultural exchange was about P&G accelerating our digital knowledge, while Facebook learned how brand marketers thought. Following the announcement of their purchase of WhatsApp, it looks like Facebook didn't just learn how to think like P&G but maybe how to become P&G as well.
What I mean is that Facebook appears to be using the Procter & Gamble playbook for building a "house of brands." This playbook is about building a portfolio of businesses that often will compete against each other but ultimately giving your company a larger market share. For instance, P&G's global laundry market share is around 31%. This includes brands like Tide, Gain and Ariel, each of which contributes above $1 billion in annual sales. But they also have brands like Bounce, Downy, Era and others that all compete in the same space. The same goes for Baby Care with both Pampers and Luvs, as well as Hair Care with Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Aussie, and Herbal Essences.
Facebook has a history of being active in the acquisition space, with WhatsApp being their 45th purchase. But historically, all of their purchases were either acqui-hires for the talent or a foundation for a future Facebook feature. For instance, Hot Potato became the basis for Facebook Places and Karma became Facebook Gifts.
But this might be changing. The first indication was the purchase of Instagram in April 2012. At the time, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom wrote bluntly in a blog post that, "Instagram is not going away." As we near the two year anniversary of that deal, those words have held true and Instagram is an even stronger brand today than it was back then. With the WhatsApp purchase, the key message track for Zuckerberg and company is that "WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people." The talk isn't around how WhatsApp will fix Facebook Messenger but instead its all about the potential of the WhatsApp brand and service.
If you look at P&G's Purpose, they say that they "will provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world's consumers, now and for generations to come." Facebook on the other hand talks about their purpose being "to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected" With the addition of WhatsApp and Instragram, you could argue that these purposes are becoming more and more similar. Facebook now has three "branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world's consumers" to "share and make the world more open and connected."
People were shocked at the price of Facebook's purchase of Instragram in 2012. And there is even greater disbelief as the WhatsApp acquisition goes down as one of the largest M&A deals in history. But in many ways, both of these deals are similar to the moves P&G made to buy Gillette for $57 billion and Clairol for $5 billion. With Gillette, P&G gained one of the strongest male grooming brands in the world, while Clairol was a foundation for the scale of P&G Beauty. For Facebook, WhatsApp has the same role in Messaging, while Instagram offers it for Photos.
In the end, Facebook is following the same strategy of building a House of Brands that has built the great CPG companies like P&G, Unilever, and Nestle. I'd say they clearly learned something about building brands during all those Joint Business Plan meetings years ago.
Source: Dave Knox
Want to bring Dave to your next event? Let us know here. We'd love to help make it happen!

subset: commoncrawl


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The definition of an elephant undertaken as a collective and cumulative task by six blindmen each of whom felt a different part of the animal's body is the basis of a familiar joke. The unlikely, not to say, preposterous, conjunction of such weird components as an ivory tusk, serpentine trunk, monumental floppy ear and picayune tail offers a witty point of departure for Nate Cassie's installation olifant/Funhouse. Sited in what appears to be a corridor leading from the principal gallery to the workshops beyond, it consists of a soft grey "leatherette" wall whose surface recalls the hide of the proverbial beast, punctured, seemingly randomly, by a number of small oculi. Pressing an inquisitive eye to these tiny apertures, the spectator observes a number of seemingly discrete spaces, spaces whose dimensions and character could not easily be reconciled as belonging to a single milieu.
Or could they? Do these apparently irreconcilable vistas in fact all belong to the same site, as do the similarly anomalous trunk, and other appendages of the memorable subject of the incredulous blindmen's astonished investigation? And what to make of the bizarre fact that the viewer on several occasions sees her own image looking out, returning her inquiring gaze?
Stepping back from the soft, yielding wall, the bemused spectator may then notice several additional oculi inserted in the window wall opposite. In this case, the vistas opened up are incommensurable with what can easily be verified to be present. From the panoply of competing perspectival distortions found in these spyholes arises the second referent in Cassie's title, the Funhouse. The oculi, set in the glass, act as prostheses; they aid the naked eye, enhancing vision, as do magnifying glasses and telescopes. But instead of rendering visible what is otherwise unseeable because it's too small or too distant, these particular prostheses offer a differently configured rendering of what is already unproblematically visible through the adjacent panes. In providing an alternative, one that is far from conventional or convenient in its reordering of place and space, they become an allegory for the act of seeing in its relation to the artwork. Far from offering a (transparent) window onto a world beyond, the conventional role of mimetically based styles of post-Renaissance painting, these oeils-de-boeuf proclaim the highly conventionalized and coded character of such representations, along with their attendant acts of apprehension. Not only is the viewing of any artwork literally and metaphorically a tightly framed activity, but what is revealed through the lens of art is not identical to, and perhaps not always readily reconcilable with, the world as it appears in its familiar and normative guises. Similarly, how the artwork is apprehended depends on what the viewer brings to the situation; her presuppositions, prior experience, pre-existing ideas and expectations.
Inscribing herself into the work, metaphorically she projects herself onto the object of scrutiny, which literally occurs here in Cassie's telling sleight of hand. Armed with these salutary reminders, the spectator turns back once more to the wall behind whose comfortably inviting surface snugly accommodates her prying frame, as it bends, stretches, and twists in order to discern every detail from within these widely dispersed openings.
Perhaps what is most remarkable about what is revealed through the eyeholes is how unremarkable Cassie's scenes are. A figure in an otherwise empty, cavernous room; a corridor harshly lit by a bevy of fluorescent lights; a streetscape seen as if from a driver's viewpoint; a figure bending forward so that only the top of its head is visible…. If several are obviously video images, others are probably manipulated views of the actual space behind, but illusion and reality so seamlessly fuse as to make this distinction irrelevant, even meaningless. Either way, such vistas are far from the spectacular, teasing or revelatory scenarios that might have been anticipated, given Duchamp's celebrated precedent, amongst many others. Yet it is the very ordinariness and indeterminacy of Cassie's ostensible subjects that permits the elephantine allusion to operate so effectively. Instead of revealing exotic, phantasmatic or enigmatic vistas as does Étant Donnée, Cassie's installation insists on what is familiar and mundane but now decontextualized—or, better, recontextualized.
Imaginative synthesis, the act of making sense from the miscellany of what is given, becomes thereby foregrounded. Even though so well accustomed, so habituated, to the singular configuration of elements that comprise an elephant as to fail to remember the initial feeling of awe and amazement that the first encounter, in childhood, provoked, most adults would find it difficult to explain in what way their combination makes sense, that is, what determines it. The sense of wonder and fascination with which the young observe these marvelous mastodons is analogous to the delight in the abnormal and illusory that the funhouse vouchsafes adults and children alike. Counterpointed to the investigative experience offered by the window's oculi, this entree into the magical and marvelous recalls another of art's time-honored functions, to provide spaces for the imaginary, the fantastic and the hypothetical, spaces that border on the ineffable.
-Lynne Cooke
Lynne Cooke is the curator of Dia Center for the Arts in New York.


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Bar Magnet, Compass, and Magnetic Field Lines Interactive
Have you ever seen someone sprinkle iron filings over a magnet to show the magnetic field around it? This interactive does almost the same thing!
The red and green rectangle (below) is like a bar magnet. The smaller, red and green diamond is like a compass needle. Drag the compass needle to explore the magnetic field around the bar magnet.
Red stands for the north pole of both the bar magnet and the compass needle. Green stands for the south pole of both the magnet and the needle.
This interactive uses Java software. If you can't see the interactive, you may not have Java on your computer.
© Walter Fendt, April 20, 2001 The original version of this applet can be found at Walter Fendt's web site at www.walter-fendt.de/ph11e/mfbar.htm. Other Java applets by Walter Fendt related to physics topics are available at www.walter-fendt.de/ph11e. |
Click on the magnetic needle and hold down the mouse button. You'll see a blue magnetic field line appear through the center of the compass needle. When you let go of the mouse button, the field line is "frozen" in place. You can draw more field lines by clicking on the compass needle and dragging it to another place.
Arrows on the magnetic field line show the direction of the field. Magnetic field lines "flow" from the north pole of a magnet to its south pole. That's the direction that the north pole of a compass needle points.
If you want to start over, click the "Clear field lines" button. That will erase all of the field lines you have drawn so far.
If you click the "Turn magnet" button the magnet will flip over. It will turn so its north pole is on the right and its south pole is on the left.
Interactive animation: Bar Magnet & Compass (using Flash software)
Interactive animation: Earth's Magnetic Field
Earth's North Magnetic Pole interactive
Activity: Build a Magnetometer and use it to detect magnetic fields!


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Walt Disney Biography
Born: 1901
Birthplace: Chicago, Ill.
Art of animation—Animation pioneer, invented the multiplane camera in 1937. This advanced camera created three-dimensional effects by giving the illusion of depth, as seen in the first full-length animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney went on to create many more award-winning movies filled with classic characters in addition to breaking new ground in family entertainment. (2000)
Died: 1966
Rudolf Diesel | The National Inventors Hall of Fame | Carl Djerassi |
See also:


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Boasting spectacular landmark locations in major metropolitan cities, Wallscapes are elaborate ads that are either painted or attached directly to exterior building surfaces. Wallscapes provide excellent exposure in prominent downtown urban areas and are designed for long-term use.
Wallscapes are custom-designed to fit a building's exterior space.
Wallscapes are custom-designed in a variety of unique shapes and sizes to fit the building's exterior space. Add eye-catching special effects such as neon tubing, fiber optics, hydraulic movement, video screens, three-dimensional extensions, incandescent lamps, strobes and more to make a huge impact in major metro areas.
Wallscapes vary in size and shape. A variety of production techniques are available to accommodate building and design specifications.
Wallscape ads can be hand painted directly on the wall as a mural, printed on vinyl (special open weave, typically mesh) and securely attached to the wall using grommets, or printed on special adhesive-backed vinyl and adhered to the wall. We typically use one of these three production techniques to meet building and design specifications.
Using Out of Home, this beverage company was able to reach their hypermobile demographic to target them where they go during the day and socialize at night. Read more »
Read more »
Hennessy needed to redefine itself to a younger audience without losing its established base. Using Out-Of-Home media formats, this leading brand was able to create multiple touchpoints to educate…
The State of Montana increased tourism in a weak economy using out of home formats to target and influence those individuals already prone to travel. Read more »
Learn more from our full list of great case studies
Get inspired with more creative examples online.
Read more success stories on Out-of-Home advertising from our clients.


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General Description
Household pets are made of three general groups: mixed breed/random-bred cats; half-pedigree "oops" cats; and pedigree cats which are either unregistered or do not meet the breed standard (such as straight-eared Scottish Folds or non-curly Selkirk Rex, or even a Persian whose nose is too long). They are our everyday companion cats who bring joy to our lives. Many have been adopted from shelters and have found new, loving homes where they blossom in the love and attention they receive from their new owners.
The basic mixed breed cat goes back to the days of the Pharaohs and perhaps before. Even though early cats tended to be somewhat uniform within a geographic area, over time these early populations became mixed as cats were found on sea-trading vessels and the like, and often abandoned ship joining the local feline population. Cats survived the witch hunts of the 1500s and 1600s, though their numbers were severely reduced. As people realized that cats were valuable in curtailing rat populations and were, in fact, good companion animals, their numbers grew. At first, most cats were allowed to breed randomly and could be considered the ancestors of today's mixed breed cats. In the early 1830s fairs were well-established in the northeast USA and farmers had contests where their 'coon' cats that guarded the barns competed for awards like the fullest tail - these cats had tails resembling the raccoon. In the late 1800s, the first cat show was held at the Crystal Palace in London. While some of the cats were pedigreed', others were of mixed breeds and of non-pedigreed heritage. The early cat fancy focused on the unusual and different as well as colors and patterns. These same attributes are seen today at the modern cat show in the Household Pet class.
In household pets, there really is no one personality type. Those that are unregistered pedigree cats will generally exhibit the traits of their breed. The "oops" cats will generally, though not always, exhibit the traits of the pedigree parent, or if two pedigree cats are involved, they may exhibit either personality, or something else entirely. With mixed breed cats, there is truly no way to guess. Even if you know both parents, the actual personality can be a surprise and may be based more on early environment than on ancestry. In this class, the feisty tortoiseshell cat with an interesting blaze competes equally with the kitten-like antics of a solid blue whose ear shows some scarring from frostbite.
The household pet may be big or small, cobby or lean, long-haired or short-haired, kinky haired or straight-haired, or somewhere in between. They come in any color or combination of colors and patterns that Mother Nature can dream up. They can be bold or shy. They can be playful or regal. Some HHPs are uncomfortable in the show environment, and should be allowed to stay home where they are happier.
Because many Household Pets are rescued strays, anomalies that would not be allowed in the pedigree classes are accepted in HHPs. Blind cats, three-legged cats, earless cats and more are all accepted. The only requirement is that the cat is obviously well-cared for and content. In addition, adult HHPs are required to be altered.
Household Pet Kitten |
Photos used courtesy of © Helmi Flick Cat Photography.
Best of Breed: Household Pet Kitten |
2018-2019 |
2018-2019 |
2018-2019 |


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Any who, here is a tutorial to turn those old ugly milk crates in your garage or basement into something you can actually use in your home.
This cutie...
is covering this dirty little crate that I stole from my husband. Shhh don't tell him, but his golf supplies are in a pile on the shelf in the garage.
This tutorial is a method type pattern, because all crates are different sizes. I used 1/4 inch seam allowance throughout.
First measure the bottom of the crate. Mine is 11 1/2 inches square. Add 1/2 inch for seam allowance...my final square is 12" x 12".
Measure the side from the inside of the crate, over the rim and...
Down the other side. Mine is a total of 21 inches...here I added 3/4 inch. 1/4 for one seam and 1/2 inch for hemming the bottom edge. Total for this measurement is 21 3/4 inch.
Now measure all the way around. Mine was 51 1/2 inches. Add 3/4 - 1 inch so you have a little room to fold fabric over the crate.
Any fabric works great, but Tool Time Tuesday has a touch of hardware store, so I used my drop cloth fabric I bought for $5.00. Remember this fabric from the purse I made with it? It looks like linen, but so much cheaper. Click here for the purse tutorial.
Here are your supplies...
- rectangle of fabric...the long length is the distance around the crate and the height of the fabric is the measurement from the inside and over the side.
- the square is your bottom measurement
Hem ONE long edge of the rectangle. I folded over 1/4 inch and fold over another 1/4 inch.
Sew down seam...
Fold over the rectangle, right sides together and sew the sides together on the right.
You now have a tube. Try in the crate to see if it fits before sewing the bottom in.
Put it in the crate, wrong side facing out and the hemmed edge on the top.
I match that seam to one of the corners of the crate...just for looks really.
Now fold over so hemmed edge is now at the outside bottom.
Your raw edge is on the inside.
Now to sew the bottom...First you need to find the FOUR corners.
Place tube with wrong side out, side seam on the right. Place a pin on the fold to the left where my finger is.
Now take that pin and the side seam and bring them to the middle.
close up of the first pin and the seam in the middle...
Place a pin in the left fold and...
the right fold...
Take your square from your bottom measurement...
To help you sew the corners easier, place a dot 1/4 inch down from the top and over from side. This will be your pivoting point when sewing the corners.
With RIGHT sides together, match your four pinned corners with the four corners of the square. Pin the corners first, then you will pin to ease in the extra tube fabric to the bottom square.
Here it is all pinned.
See how much fabric you have to ease in. This is where I don't care if it's perfect. It's on the inside on the bottom which will be covered with all the things you put in this crate.
Sew all the way around, pivoting at the corners. Just make sure you keep all the excess fabric away from your sewing foot as your making your way around.
Place inside the crate wrong side of fabric facing out.
Place it in and fold it over.
Done. See how I place the seam matched up with the corner. Kind of hides it there.
Add a pretty bow...
or maybe sew a band of contrasting fabric to the bottom to match your decor.
Perfect for this open cubby in the hutch. You can hide lots of junk in there.
a nice black ribbon looks good too.
This may seem like a complicated project, but I made this Monday morning before I went to work in less the 1 hour and that included making up the pattern as I was went along. Only had to rip one seam out...ggrrr.
These crates would be great for so many things...keeps things together, nice and neat and it's pretty too
- magazines
- toys
- sewing projects
- scrap booking supplies for one particular project you're working on
- reading materials by the side of your chair or bed
- kids shoes by the back door
- cute emergency kit for the trunk of your car
- sports equipment
- food pantry
- linen closet supplies
Have fun with this one. If we all get together, we'll make all those ugly crates...Crate (great) to look at!!


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Stat Display Pro
Jure Kožuh
Typeface Story
License Information
Jure Kožuh
Jure Kožuh
Complementary Type Family
Stat Text Pro
Stat Display Pro
is an information design sans serif type family legible in circumstances of low visibility. Its large character set with multiple weights is defined by optimal size ratio, distinctive letter shapes, wide aperture and balanced counters.
Stat Display Pro
remains legible in unfavorable circumstances of distance, size, movement and similar. It contains
nearly 700 glyphs
, including diacritics, ligatures, small caps, old–style figures, arrows and more. This enables it to achieve
wide language support
. It consists of
four main
(Light, Regular, Medium, Bold) and
four secondary, negative weights
(Light Negative, Regular Negative, Medium Negative, Bold Negative) which are accompanied by their corresponding
Stat Display Pro
type family has
higher than average x height
(72% of cap height) which is accompanied by matching ascender and descender size ratios. With its
distinctive letter shape detail
it minimizes the possibility of letter shape confusion, while optimizing legibility with
wide aperture
balanced counters
. Its main intended use is
information design
, where it, with its characteristics, meets the requirements of wayfinding, infographics, table setting and much, much more. The development of the type family was based on research in legibility to achieve
highly legible letter shapes
, while not diminishing their visual character.
A detailed description of
Stat Pro
type family is available at
where a DEMO font can be downloaded.
Grotesque Sans
Sans Serif


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Toby Ord has been giving away a third of his income for quite some time. A 33 year old academic at Oxford, he allows himself £18,000 a year, and donates the rest to charity.
"I'd always been idealistic about helping others", he says. "People would say "if you think that why don't you give all your money to people in poor countries?" I think this was meant to make me shut up."
Instead he started giving away a large sum each year, and in the process set up a campaign – Giving What We Can – to encourage others to give away at least 10 per cent of their earnings.
Ord's subject is philosophy, and he came to the decision in a philosophical way. "I was writing on the subject of luxuries, and I came across the question of whether we should forgo a luxury if it would save a life. I realised this decision happens in our lives all the time."
"I was reading [the philosophers] Peter Singer and Thomas Pogge. The two of them think furiously about the problems of the world today. They both took their ideas very seriously and gave away a large proportion of their incomes. I decided I was going to make a commitment to give money to poor people."
To his surprise, people soon contacted him to see if they could do the same thing – and Giving What We Can was born.
"I'm not a natural leader for such an organisation", Ord says, describing himself as "more of a theoretician". But he has a very clear vision for the project.
"For me it [giving away a large percentage of income] doesn't seem too odd. We literally have a choice to save hundreds of lives."
Yes, but giving money to charity never seems quite as straightforward as that. Can we ever be sure that what we give is really saving a life?
He agrees that would be more motivational if there was a "clear line of operation", and that the path from your wallet to saving someone's life can sometimes look "messy". "But if your money goes on, say, 200 mosquito nets in a malarial area there is no question. You will save a life."
What about the horror stories, the charity money that never makes it, the corrupt organisations that divert aid to their own ends?
"There are lots of rather garbled stories about problems with aid. These are bit stupid. The whole of the world is paying billions of dollars in aid, and people point to one or two things that go wrong. It is quite easy to find these problems which then act as excuses for not giving", he says.
"There is a perfect storm of excuses for forgetting about charities."
He admits that some charities are more effective than others, though.
"Charities can often benefit from thinking of effectiveness more. One of the targets for criticising them is the amount of money that goes into administrative costs – but this is a bad measure of ineffectiveness – an organisation might need that level of spending on admin. I do think organisations should think about how they can help people more. There is a big academic literature on this. They should focus on outputs, and not get hung up on brand – for example they should be prepared to change the disease they are working on, if they could help more people that way."


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How do I decide which resolution to select when scanning from Epson Scan?
Resolution refers to how many dots or pixels per inch (dpi) or dots or pixels per centimeter (dpcm) your image contains. The best resolution for a scanned image depends on the type of image you're scanning and your final output device. For most images except line art, use a scanning resolution that is approximately one third of your output resolution. For example, use a scanning resolution up to 100 dpi with a 300-dpi laser printer, and up to 200 dpi with a 600-dpi laser printer. For high dpi ink jet printers, such as the EPSON Stylus Color or Photo series, use a scanning resolution of approximately 240-300 dpi. For on-screen viewing, you can scan at 72 dpi.
When you choose a resolution: Higher resolution settings result in larger file sizes. For example, an 8.5 x 11-inch original scanned at 300 dpi can produce a 24MB file. The same original scanned at 72 dpi creates only a 1.3MB file. Large files take longer to process and print, so consider the practical limitations of your computer system when selecting a resolution. To keep your file size manageable, select the lowest possible resolution that gives acceptable quality. When scanning at a higher resolution, reduce the file size by scanning the image and cropping or removing the unneeded empty spaces.
Was this helpful? Thank you for the feedback!


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Bản đồ - Bản đồ Bạn có thể xem bản đồ thế giới ở dạng 3D hoặc địa điểm bạn đang tìm kiếm Giá trong App Store $ 3,99 trong cửa hàng - Tải xuống miễn phíGiới thiệu về Maps 3D PRO - Hike & Bike
Enjoy exploring the great outdoors? If you're a fan of biking, hiking and running then Maps 3D is the ideal app designed for planning your outdoor adventures. Whereas other mapping apps are primarily designed for cities and roads, displaying hills and mountains as flat and lifeless features, Maps 3D is packed with amazing features that brings the great outdoors to vibrant life with valleys, hills, mountains and footpaths displaying in full 3D so you'll know your exact elevation.
*** Featured by Apple with a main banner in the US App Store Navigation category! (02/2013)
*** 3rd place at the '2013 Best App Ever Awards' by 148apps.com in 'Best Outdoors Apps'
*** Over 1,700,000 global users!
*** TOP 1 App in Navigation in 75+ countries (as of 01/2017)
*** "The functions are helpful; the compilation of 3D maps is impressive." Macwelt.de – Score: 1.8
*** "An app recommended for hikers, cyclists and horse enthusiasts..." iPhone & iPad apps in Test Magazine, issue 3/2011 – Score: 8/10
With Maps 3D you'll have the option to plan, record and share your routes, turning your iPhone into a fully-fledged GPS device so you can log key coordinates and elevations. You'll also have offline access to worldwide 3D map data which limits the drain on the battery and means that you can pre-load maps to store when you don't have a signal.
As an added bonus Maps 3D offers 3D terrain and trip planning, so you'll never need to worry about getting lost. Towns, streets, mountain peaks and lakes are all searchable, with an accurate and precise map display based on NASA scans of the Earth's surface combined with the outdoor map OSM (Open Street Map) and the Official USGS topo maps.
GPX-tracks can be imported via iTunes, email, URL or Dropbox, and recorded tracks can be shared via email, Facebook and Twitter, great for showing your friends your latest outdoor accomplishments.
+++ Load maps in advance over WIFI or 4G before your trek, no internet connection needed thereafter
+++ Record your routes by GPS, all coordinates and exact elevations are logged
+++ Plan and evaluate routes directly in the 3D map view
+++ Search for towns, streets , mountain peaks, lakes - offline
+++ Distance traveled, current and average speeds all displayed for an ideal trek
Background GPS recording can significantly cut battery life
* * * * *
If you like Maps 3D, please remember to leave a positive rating on iTunes!
The movingworld team is working constantly to improve Maps 3D. Any suggestions? We'd love to hear them! Just e-mail them to us at email@example.com. We'll try to answer you within 24 hours!
Thank you for using Maps 3D!
Phiên bản ứng dụng 6.4
Cập nhật ngày 19-05-2022
Dung lượng: 19.62 MB


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What is the Radiator all about?
The radiator performs a critical function; it keeps the engine from overheating. While running, the engine produces heat. Coolant flowing through the system absorbs and removes extra heat from the engine. The coolant then passes through the radiator where it cools off and is later circulated back to the engine to absorb heat again.
A radiator has two tanks that are connected to each other through aluminum or brass tubes. When the coolant passes through these tubes, the radiator cooling fan blows air across the radiator to lower the temperature of the coolant. The tank is usually made of plastic, and it is common for it to crack and start leaking coolant. If the tank or the tubes crack, coolant will leak , the vehicle will overheat and could cause severe engine damage. Radiators also tend to clog over time. When this occurs, not enough coolant flows through the radiator leading to heat build-up, causing the engine to overheat.
Keep in mind:
When replacing the radiator, it is best to also replace the radiator cap and thermostat.
After your radiator is replaced, it is best to have it checked for leaks, to assure that everything is in working order.
When the radiator is replaced, the entire cooling system should be checked, especially the radiator hoses.
How it's done:
Inspect radiator for leaks.
Pressure test cooling system.
Remove and replace the radiator.
Fill radiator with proper mixture of 50/50 coolant.
Recheck for leaks.
Our recommendation:
Follow the service maintenance schedule provided by the manufacturer to get the coolant replaced at regular intervals. It is a good practice to change the coolant every 25,000-40,000 miles. Replacing the coolant will ensure it is free of contaminants such as rust or scale that can block it from flowing through the radiator and engine. Given high engine temperatures, it is inevitable that the tanks in the radiator will eventually crack. The thermostat should be replaced when replacing the radiator as well as any necessary radiator hoses.The system should also be flushed out of all old coolant to remove any contamination.
What common symptoms indicate you may need to replace the Radiator?
Car is overheating.
Coolant (red, yellow, green fluid) is leaking.
How important is this service?
If a defective radiator is not replaced, the overheating of the engine can potentially lead to serious internal engine damage.


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On 6 February 2011, Egypt's hastily appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman invited in the old guard or what we could call the Businessmen's Wing of the Muslim Brothers into a stately meeting in the polished rosewood Cabinet Chamber of Mubarak's Presidential Palace. The aim of their tea party was to discuss some kind of accord that would end the national uprising and restore "normalcy." When news of the meeting broke, expressions of delight and terror tore through the blogosphere. Was the nightmare scenario of both the political left and right about to be realized? Would the US/Israel surrogate Suleiman merge his military-police apparatus with the power of the more conservative branch of the old Islamist social movement? Hearing the news, Iran's Supreme Leader sent his congratulations. And America's Glen Beck and John McCain ranted with glee about world wars and the inevitable rise of the Cosmic Caliphate.
On that same day, an unnamed White House official told the Associated Press that any "academic type" who did not focus on the Muslim Brothers and see them as the principle actor in this drama "was full of sh*t." The White House seemed to believe that Suleiman, Chief of Egypt's Intelligence Services, was the kind of keen mind they could depend on. Suleiman's brand of "intelligence" was on display in his interview on 3 February in which he traced the cause of Egypt's uprising to a conspiracy coordinated by a united front of Israel with Hamas, alQaeda with Anderson Cooper. Is it true that Suleiman also has a dossier revealing the sinister role played in all this by "Simpsons" character C. Montgomery Burns?
In reality, the Suleiman-Brothers tea party turned out to be nothing more than another stunt staged by Nile TV News. This once interesting cable service was transformed in the last week into a rather Murdochian propaganda unit whose productions are run by the artistic genius of Mubarak's Presidential Guards. Images of the Suleiman-Brothers tête-à-têtes were broadcast at a time when Suleiman's legitimacy and sanity were appearing increasingly shaky within Egypt, and when this particular sub-group of the Brothers who represent only one fraction of one faction of the opposition was trying to leverage an unlikely comeback. As reporters obsessed over which Brother was sitting with Suleiman, they continued to ignore or misapprehend the continuing growing power of the movements that had started this uprising. Many progressives continued to think that the US was conspiring with Suleiman to crush all hope – as if America's puny $1.5 billion in aid (which all must be recycled back as purchases from US military suppliers anyway) really dictates policy for a regime that makes multi-billion dollar deals with Russia, China and Brazil every month, and that has channeled an estimated $40-70 billion into Mubarak's personal accounts.
Proving Nile TV and the pessimists wrong, 1.5 million people turned out on 7 February — the biggest mobilization so far in this uprising. Commentators focusing on the Brothers had completely missed the real news of the past two days. The ruling NDP party leadership had been savaged from within. In a desperate attempt to salvage his phantom authority, Mubarak had tossed his son Gamal and a whole class of US-linked businessmen to the lions, forcing them to resign and freezing their assets. And at the same time, Egyptian newspaper El-Masry El-Youm reported that the Muslim Brothers' Youth and Women's Wings split off from the main Brothers' organization to join the leftist 6 April Movement. The men sitting around Suleiman's table were left without much of a movement behind them.
Below I trace the declining power of the economic and moral politics of this "Businessmen's Wing" of the Brothers. I map the ascendant socio-political power of a new national-development-oriented coalition of businessmen and military entrepreneurs, as well as the decisive force of micro-enterprise and workers' organizations consisting of women and youth — a force that portends well for the future of democracy and socio-economic inclusion in Egypt.
Bands of Brothers
The Muslim Brothers are not a marginal force in Egypt. They are very well organized in every city, and can be credited with providing health, education, legal aid and disaster relief to citizens ignored or neglected by the state. But they are not Egypt's equivalent of Hizballah or Hamas. As Mona El-Ghobashy has described, in the 1990s the Society of Muslim Brothers made a definite break, abandoning its secretive, hierarchical, shari'a-focused form. Today the Muslim Brothers is a well-organized political party, officially banned but occasionally tolerated. In the past twenty years it has made significant inroads in Parliament via alliances with other parties and by running independent candidates. The Brothers now fully support political pluralism, women's participation in politics, and the role of Christians and communists as full citizens. However, with the rise of other competing labor, liberal and human-rights movements in Egypt in the 2000s, what one can call the "new old guard" of the Brothers (the ones that emerged in the 1980s) have retained a primary focus on cultural, moral and identity politics. Moral-cultural conservatism is still seen by this group as what distinguishes the Brothers from other parties, a fact they confirmed by appointing a rigid social conservative, Muhammad Badeea, as leader in 2010. This turn was rejected by women and youth in the movement. This socially conservative leaning thus brings the "new old guard" more in line with the moralistic paternalism of Mubarak's government and set them against the trajectory of new youth, women's and labor movements. This leads to new possibilities of splits in this organization or for exciting revitalization and reinvention of the Brothers, as Youth and Women's wings feel drawn toward the 6 April coalition. The moral-cultural traditionalist wing of the "new old guard," is composed of professional syndicate leaders and wealthy businessmen. In the 1950s-80s, the movement regrouped and represented frustrated elements of the national bourgeoisie. But this class of people has largely been swept up into new opportunities and left the organization. The "new old guard" of the Brothers' business wing has started to look like a group of retired Shriners, except that in the Middle East, Shriners have stopped wearing fezes.
In the past ten years this political force of this particular wing of the Brothers has been partially coopted by Mubarak's government from two angles. First, Brothers were allowed to enter parliament as independent candidates and have been allowed to participate in the recent economic boom. The senior Brothers now own major cell phone companies and real estate developments, and have been absorbed into the NDP machine and upper-middle class establishment for years. Second, the government wholly appropriated the Brothers' moral discourse. For the last ten or fifteen years Mubarak's police-state has stirred moral panics and waved the banner of Islam, attacking single working women, homosexuals, devil-worshipping internet users, trash-recycling pig farmers, rent-control squatters, as well as Baha'i, Christian and Shi'i minorities. In its morality crusades, the Mubarak government burned books, harassed women, and excommunicated college professors. Thus, we can say that Egypt has already experienced rule by an extremely narrow Islamist state – Mubarak's! Egyptians tried out that kind of regime. And they hated it.
In recent years, as described in the work of Saba Mahmood and Asef Bayat, people have grown disgusted by Mubarak's politicization of Islam. Egyptians began to reclaim Islam as a project of personal self-governance, ethical piety, and social solidarity. This trend explicitly rejects the political orientation of Islam and explicitly separates itself both from Brothers' activities and Mubarak's morality crusades.
The Military as a Populist Middle Class
At one time, the Muslim Brothers represented frustrated, marginalized elements of the middle class. But that story is so 1986! Now there are a wide range of secular (but not anti-religious) groupings that represent emergent economic patterns within the country. Moreover, these groups are swept up in a whirlwind of new political-economic energies coming from new or renewed world influences and investors – Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Israel, Dubai, China, Turkey, and Brazil, as well as the return of remittance flows into the country as Egyptian professionals got swept up in the Emirates' building and development boom.
In the context of this new multi-dimensional globalization, in which East/West divides and post-colonial patterns are radically remade, the military have come to be one of the more interesting economic mediators and success stories. The Egyptian military is one of the most interesting and misunderstood economic actors in the country. The military's economic interests are split in interesting ways. Since the military has been prevented by the Camp David treaty from making war, it has instead used its sovereignty over huge tracks of desert and coastal property to develop shopping malls, gated cities and beach resorts, catering to rich and modest Egyptians, local and international consumers and tourists. Their position vis-à-vis the uprising is thus complicated. They hated the rapacious capitalists around Gamal Mubarak, who sold off national lands, assets and resources to US and European corporations. But the military also wants tourists, shoppers and investors to consume in their multi-billion dollar resorts and venues. The military identifies very strongly with representing and protecting "the people," but also wants the people to go home and stop scaring away the tourists. The military will continue to mobilize this in-between position in interesting ways in the coming years.
Suleiman's General Intelligence Services are nominally part of the military, but are institutionally quite separate. Intelligence is dependent on foreign patrons (Israel and the US primarily) and are looked on skeptically by Egyptians. But the actual Army and Air Force are quite grounded in the economic and social interests of national territory. The army's role in countering Suleiman's lust for repression was crucial to saving the momentum of this uprising. On 4 February, the day of the most terrifying police/thug brutality in Tahrir Square, many commentators noted that the military were trying to stop the thug attacks but were not being very forceful or aggressive. Was this a sign that the military really wanted the protesters to be crushed? Since then, we have learned that the military in the square were not provisioned with bullets. The military were trying as best they could to battle the police/thugs, but Suleiman had taken away their bullets for fear the military would side with the protesters and use the ammunition to overthrow him.
Bullets or no, the military displaced the police, who had stripped off their uniforms and regressed into bands of thugs. Security in Cairo has been taken over by the military, in public spaces, and in residential quarters we witnessed the return of a 21-st century version of futuwwa groups. As Wilson Jacob has described, in the 19th-century futuwwa were icons of working-class national identity and community solidarity in Egypt. Futuwwa were organized groups of young men who defended craft guilds and working-class neighborhoods in Cairo. But the futuwwa reborn on 1 February 2011 are called Peoples' Committees and include men of all classes and ages, and a few women with butcher knives, too. They stake out every street corner, vigilant for police and state-funded thugs who would try to arrest, intimidate or loot residents. Given the threat of sexualized physical violence from Mubarak's police/thugs, there is a gender dimension to this reimagining and redeployment of security and military power during this uprising. In the first days of the uprising we saw huge numbers of women participating in the revolt. Then the police/thugs started targeting women in particularly horrifying way, molesting, detaining, raping. And then when the police were driven back, the military and the futuwwa groups took over and insisted that "protecting" the people from thugs involved filtering women and children out of Tahrir and excluding them from public space. But women in this revolt have insisted that they are not victims who need protection, they are the leading core of this movement. On 7 February, women's groups, including the leftist 6 April national labor movement, anti-harassment, civil rights groups, and the Women's Wing of the Brothers reemerged in force in downtown Cairo by the hundreds of thousands.
Gutting Gamal's Globalization
On 28 January the headquarters of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party burned down, and with it, Mubarak's substantive authority was turned to ashes. The rising military and national-capital interests then spat on those ashes on 5 February. On that day, they ensured that Gamal Mubarak would resign as head of the Political Office of the NDP. In his place, Dr. Hosam Badrawy was named the new Secretary-General of the party. The choice of Badrawy reflects the direction the winds are blowing now. Badrawy holds the dubious honor of being the man who founded Egypt's first private-sector health-care HMO in 1989. All Egyptians are constitutionally guaranteed access to free, universal health care. But Mubarak, under orders from the IMF, made draconian cuts to the public health service beginning in the 1980s. Badrawy has championed the privatization of health care, and has created a national private health care industry with significant capital and legitimacy. This industry is threatened by global competition and describes itself in nationalistic, paternalistic tones. Gamal Mubarak serving as a vehicle for foreign investment posed a threat to national businessmen like Badrawy. Badrawy also served in the past as the Director of the NDP's human rights organization, a particularly contradictory job to hold during a time of mass repression and torture.
Naguib Sawiris, the self-proposed chair of the "Transitional Council of Wise Men," is similar in some ways to Badrawy. Sawiris is a patriotic, successful nationalist businessman. Sawiris heads the largest private-sector company in Egypt, Orascom. This firm has built railways, beach resorts, gated-cities, highways, telecom systems, wind farms, condos and hotels. He is a major Arab world and Mediterranean region financier. He is also the banner carrier for Egypt's developmentalist nationalists. On 4 February Sawiris released a statement proposing a council of wise men who would oversee Suleiman and the police, and who would lead Egypt through the transition. The proposed council would be a so-called "neutral, technocratic" body that would include Sawiris, along with a couple of non-ideological members of the Muslim Brotherhood's businessmen's wing, some strategic-studies experts, and a Nobel Prize winner. Would this Nobel winner be Mohammed ElBaradei, the peace laureate and opposition leader? Nope. They had found an Egyptian laureate in organic chemistry.
Women, Micro-Businesses and Workers
In the context of the relationships described above, we can understand why we witnessed the emergence in the first week of February 2011 of a coalition around nationalist businessmen in alliance with the military – a military who also act like nationalist middle-class businessmen themselves. This group ejected the "crony globalizers" and "barons of privatization" surrounding Gamal Mubarak. Would this group then cement their hold on power, to rule the country with Suleiman as their hammer? No. Other massive social forces were also at work. They are well organized. Legitimacy, organization, new vision and economic power are in their hands. The new nationalist business-military bloc cannot develop the country without their participation and mobilization.
It is crucial to remember that this uprising did not begin with the Muslim Brothers or with nationalist businessmen. This revolt began gradually at the convergence of two parallel forces: the movement for workers' rights in the newly revived factory towns and micro-sweatshops of Egypt especially during the last two years, and the movement against police brutality and torture that mobilized every community in the country for the last three years. Both movements feature the leadership and mass participation of women (of all ages) and youth (of both genders). There are structural reasons for this.
First, the passion of workers that began this uprising does not stem from their marginalization and poverty; rather, it stems from their centrality to new development processes and dynamics. In the very recent past, Egypt has reemerged as a manufacturing country, although under the most stressful and dynamic of conditions. Egypt's workers are mobilized because new factories are being built, in the context of a flurry of contentious global investment. Several Russian free-trade zones and manufacturing settlements have opened up, and China has invested in all parts of the Egyptian economy. Brazil, Turkey, the Central Asian Republics and the Gulf Emirates are diversifying their investments. They are moving out of the oil sector and real estate and into manufacturing, piece-goods, informatics, infrastructure, etc. Factories all over Egypt have been dusted off and reopened, or newly built. And all those shopping malls, gated cities, highways and resorts have to be built and staffed by someone. In the Persian Gulf, developers use Bangladeshi, Philippine and other expatriate labor. But Egypt usually uses its own workers. And many of the workers in Egypt's revived textile industries and piece-work shops are women. If you stroll up the staircases into the large working-class apartment buildings in the margins of Cairo or the cement-block constructions of the villages, you'll see workshops full of women, making purses and shoes, and putting together toys and computer circuitboards for sale in Europe, the Middle East and the Gulf. These shop workers joined with factory workers to found the 6 April movement in 2008. They were the ones who began the organizing and mobilizing process that led to this uprising in 2011, whose eruption was triggered by Asmaa Mahfouz' circulating a passionate Youtube video and tens of thousands of leaflets by hand in slum areas of Cairo on 24 January 2011. Ms. Mahfouz, a political organizer with an MBA from Cairo University, called people to protest the next day. And the rest is history.
The economic gender and class landscape of Egypt's micro-businesses has been politicized and mobilized in very dynamic ways, again with important gender and sexual dimensions. Since the early 1990s, Egypt has cut back welfare and social services to working-class and lower-middle-class Egyptians. In the place of food subsidies and jobs they have offered debt. Micro-credit loans were given, with the IMF and World Bank's enthusiastic blessing, to stimulate entrepreneurship and self-reliance. These loans were often specifically targeted toward women and youth. Since economically disadvantaged applicants have no collateral to guarantee these loans, payback is enforced by criminal law rather than civil law. This means that your body is your collateral. The police extract pain and humiliation if you do not pay your bill. Thus the micro-enterprise system has become a massive set of police rackets and "loan shark" operations. Police sexualized brutalization of youth and women became central to the "regulation" of the massive small-business economy. In this context, the micro-business economy is a tough place to operate, but it does shape women and youth into tough survivors who see themselves as an organized force opposed to the police-state. No one waxes on about the blessings of the market's invisible hand. Thus the economic interests of this mass class of micro-entrepreneurs are the basis for the huge and passionate anti-police brutality movement. It is no coincidence that the movement became a national force two years ago with the brutal police murder of a youth, Khalid Saeed, who was typing away in a small internet café that he partially owned. Police demanded ID and a bribe from him; he refused, and the police beat him to death, crushing his skull to pieces while the whole community watched in horror.
Police demanding bribes, harassing small micro-businesses, and beating those who refuse to submit had become standard practice in Egypt. Internet cafes, small workshops, call-centers, video-game cafes, microbuses, washing/ironing shops, small gyms constitute the landscape of micro-enterprises that are the jobs base and social world of Egypt's lower middle classes. The so-called "Facebook revolution" is not about people mobilizing in virtual space; it is about Egyptian internet cafes and the youth and women they represent, in real social spaces and communities, utilizing the cyberspace bases they have built and developed to serve their revolt.
The Egyptian Difference
In the case of the Iranian Revolution in the 1970s, the "bazaaris of Tehran" (the medium-sized merchants and shop owners) ended up serving as the crucial "swing vote," moving the Iranian Revolution from left to right, from a socialistic uprising toward the founding of an Islamic Republic. In the case of Egypt, the social and political force of women and youth micro-entrepreneurs will lead history in the opposite direction. These groups have a highly developed a complex view of the moral posturing of some Islamists, and they have a very clear socio-economic agenda, which appeals to the dynamic Youth Wing of the Brothers. The progressive groups have a linked network of enterprises, factories, identities and passions. They would go to any length to prevent the reemergence of police brutality and moralistic hypocrisy that have ruled them for the past generation. The women and youth behind theses micro-businesses, and the workers in the new Russian, Chinese, Brazilian, Gulf, and Egyptian-financed factories seem to be united. And they grow more so each day.
Micro-entrepreneurs, new workers groups, and massive anti-police brutality organizations obviously do not share the same class position as Sawiris and Badrawi and the rich men in the "Council of the Wise." Nevertheless, there are significant overlaps and affinities between the interests and politics of nationalist development-oriented groups, the newly entrepreneurial military, and the vitally well-organized youth and women's social movements. This confluence of social, historical and economic dynamics will assure that this uprising does not get reduced to a photo opportunity for Suleiman and a few of his cronies.
A Cheshire Cat is smiling down on Suleiman's tea party.
This article was originally published on Jadaliyya.com.


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"be consistent" | |
PerlMonks |
(OT) Obfuscated Perl/Geek Humorby Ovid (Cardinal) |
on Nov 07, 2001 at 04:15 UTC ( [id://123735] : perlmeditation . print w/replies, xml ) | Need Help?? |
Snippets sent to me by a co-worker. Source unknown. My apologies in advance if the last two are offensive. Perl: Un*x: Any others? Cheers, Update: Yes, I already know that mandog had sumbitted this node for consideration to be deleted because he felt that this node wasn't enough about Perl to be worth keeping here. There is nothing wrong with that. Let me restate that: mandog was right to do what he did. Now, I'm not saying that I want this node reaped or that it should be reaped. All I'm saying is that, IMHO, mandog did what he thought was appropriate. He 'voted his conscience', so to speak. If more of us did what we felt was the right thing, the world would really, really be a better place. While I don't think this node should be reaped, I have absolutely no problem with mandog considering it. Side note: if you search some of my past posts, I recognize that I post a fair amount of off-topic material. Admittedly, these are Meditations about project management, database issues, and whatnot -- and therefore at least peripherally of interest to many of us. However, it may be the case that some people cut me some slack because of my XP. If you think the posts shouldn't be here, feel free to consider them, downvote them, or make replies telling me that I'm outta line. If you feel that they're out of place, I'll respect that. Otherwise, I'll keep posting 'em. By the way, I'm having carburetor troubles. Can anyone help? ;) Update 2: Just for the record, I don't know who removed my node from consideration, but it wasn't I. Join the Perlmonks Setiathome Group or just click on the the link and check out our stats.
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The Pittsburgh Steelers 2019 season is over, and although there are no more games, the news is still ongoing. With a surge of Steelers news, it was time to get back on the airwaves and discuss the Black-and-gold.
Take a look at the rundown for the latest episode of the BTSC flagship podcast The Standard is the Standard. On this show Jeff Hartman and special co-host Lance Williams break down all things Steelers!
Check out the rundown of the show:
- News and Notes
- Will the Steelers make a trade to get back into the first round?
- Diagnosing the issues with the Steelers using statistics
- Steelers Q&A
- and MUCH MORE!
Jeff Hartman, editor of BTSC, and Lance Williams walk you through everything you need to know regarding the Black-and-gold.
If you haven't heard, we have a YouTube channel, and the main reason for this is to increase the sound quality on our shows. But if you're a visual learner you can watch the show below. Be sure to subscribe to our channel!
If you missed the live show, be sure to check out all episodes on the following platforms:
Apple Users: CLICK HERE
Spotify: CLICK HERE
Google Play: CLICK HERE
If you're old-school and just want the audio, you can listen to it in the player below.


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Dee Milliner's proclamation that he is the NFL's best cornerback was so outlandish that Richard Sherman didn't even bother to weigh in via social media.
The second-year cornerback's braggadocio did manage to rub former New York Jets special teams coach Mike Westhoff the wrong way, however.
"I was not very impressed with his rookie year," Westhoff said this week, via NJ.com. "He made the mistake -- and sometimes I think it's the way a guy phrases an answer to a question -- about being the best cornerback in the league, and he said that he was.
"Man, I'm not sure he's the best cornerback up here in Cortland. And I might include the university."
Westhoff remains in good standing with the Jets, spending time on the sidelines this week.
He's not alone in his sentiment that Milliner is better seen and not heard.
One high-ranking front office man told Dan Pompei of Sports On Earth, "He had an average year. What he said was a joke."
"Average" is putting it kindly. Milliner was benched three times before turning his season around with Defensive Rookie of the Month honors for December.
It's worth noting that coach Rex Ryanisn't asking his players to tone it down.
Confidence is a fragile thing in a young cornerback, and Milliner appeared to finally find his late last season. If he gets his way, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft will be shadowing opposing No. 1 receivers this season.
The latest Around The League Podcast breaks down Marshawn Lynch's belated arrival at Seahawks camp and debates which active NFL players are first-ballot locks for the Hall of Fame.


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Contact the Customer Service Division at 626-570-5061.
Show All Answers
Service is established in person at the Customer Service Center located at 68 S First Street. You must complete an application for (residential (PDF) or business (PDF), provide a valid Drivers License, and pay the appropriate service fee. The Service Fee schedule is available in English (PDF), Traditional Chinese (PDF), and Spanish (PDF).
The following information is required when you open an account:
Bills are due upon receipt and must be paid within 30 days from the statement date to avoid service charges and/or service interruption.
Please call 626-570-5061 during regular business hours to speak with a representative.
Shorb Garden, located just north of the Customer Service Center, features xeriscape plants comprised of natural native California plant materials that promote water conservation and water awareness. A decorative water fountain located within a city-inspired Moorish arch, a historic mural outside the building, and a statute of James DeBarth Shorb, the father of Alhambra's water service grace the urban garden space.
Current Water and Sewer Rates (PDF)


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IDW Publishing is pleased to announce the return of its preeminent horror series, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT. Originally created by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT has spawned two feature films and countless nightmares since it first launched in 2002. Now, award-winning horror writer Joe R. Lansdale and legendary artist Sam Kieth (Sandman) take the helm with an all-new series 30 DAYS OF NIGHT: NIGHT, AGAIN.
"Lansdale and Kieth on 30 Days of Night is really a nightmare come true," said Chris Ryall, IDW's Chief Creative Officer and Editor in Chief. "What they're doing in NIGHT, AGAIN is a return to form for 30 DAYS, hearkening back to the terror of the first series while pushing it into an insane new direction, too."
30 DAYS OF NIGHT: NIGHT, AGAIN follows a band of survivors from the vampire infestation, who take refuge at a science facility in the Alaskan wilds. The inhabitants of the research compound are trying to determine the nature of a strange object found in the ice when the survivors arrive, leading to a frightening and bloody confrontation between humans and vampires! In addition to regular covers by Kieth, this four-issue series will also feature incentive covers by acclaimed Scalped cover artist Davide Furno.
"30 DAYS OF NIGHT has always been a singularly fantastic horror property," said series editor Tom Waltz. "And now Joe and Sam are stamping their unique-and, dare I say, twisted-vision onto the franchise with 30 DAYS OF NIGHT: NIGHT, AGAIN. I'm not exaggerating when I say 30 DAYS OF NIGHT fans are in for a wholly unexpected and unpredictable ride with this series, not to mention a fascinating addition to franchise canon."
30 DAYS OF NIGHT: NIGHT AGAIN #1 ($3.99, 32 pages, full color) will be available in stores in May. Diamond order code MAR11 0447.
Visit IDWPublishing.com to learn more about the company and its top-selling books.


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Ryan Reynolds isn't done making comic book movies just yet. With Green Lantern's filming wrapped, and Deadpool stuck in development, his next adaptation, R.I.P.D., is moving forward with a director. But will Reynolds make a good undead cop?
Variety is reporting that Robert Schwentke, (The Time Traveler's Wife, Red) has been chosen to direct the big screen adaptation of Dark Horse Comics' R.I.P.D. Which actually stands for the Rest in Peace Department, because in order to be in this squad you have to be dead. Which Ryan Reynold's character is. Here's the official comic book run-down.
Welcome to the Rest In Peace Department — the devoted, yet dead, officers of divine law enforcement "patrolling the deadbeat...reporting to one boss." Yep — THAT boss. Nick Cruz was murdered by an unknown assailant, at the height of his personal and professional life. Now he's traded a hundred years of service to the R.I.P.D. in exchange for a shot at finding who killed him. Unfortunately his search will take him to Hell and back — literally!


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This article incorporates, in modified form, material from the not-yet-published Illustrated Guide to Forensics Investigations: Uncover Evidence in Your Home, Lab, or Basement.
Gentian violet stain has been used for many years to develop latent fingerprints on nonporous surfaces, particularly the adhesive side of sticky tapes. The specimen to be treated is simply immersed in or floated on a 0.1% w/v aqueous solution of gentian violet for one to two minutes and then rinsed with water. Repeated stain/rinse cycles may be used to intensify the color of the stains. With some types of tape a clearing solution of 1 M hydrochloric acid is used as the final rinse, to remove background staining without affecting the developed prints. When the print is fully developed, it can be viewed and photographed under ordinary light. Gentian violet is non-destructive, so it is often used first on sticky tape specimens. If gentian violet fails to develop the print, other powder-based methods can be attempted. Obviously, the aqueous solution of gentian violet should not be used on tapes that use water-soluble adhesives.
In this lab session, we'll use gentian violet stain to develop latent fingerprints on various types of tape and other sticky surfaces.
Required Equipment and Supplies
- goggles, gloves, and protective clothing
- magnifying glass, loupe, or stereo microscope to examine specimens (optional)
- camera (optional)
- forceps, hemostat or tweezers
- evaporating dish
- microscope slides (optional; see Substitutions and Modifications)
- transparent stiff plastic sheet (optional; see Substitutions and Modifications)
- gentian violet solution (see Substitutions and Modifications)
- hydrochloric acid, 1 M (optional)
- tape specimens (see Substitutions and Modifications)
The MAKE Forensic Fingerprinting Kit includes all of the specialty items needed for this lab session. Alternatively, you can purchase these items individually from Maker Shed or other laboratory supplies vendors.
Hydrochloric acid is corrosive. Gentian violet solution stains anything it contacts. Wear splash goggles, gloves, and protective clothing.
Substitutions and Modifications
- For ease of handling, we used microscope slides to secure our specimens and prevent them from curling. We placed each of them sticky side up on a slide and then used additional tape to secure the two ends.
- Preserving developed prints on sticky tape can be problematic because of the nature of the surface. Transparent tape can be pressed into contact with a white sheet of paper, but that reverses the prints to a mirror image and is not usable for opaque tapes. Because the adhesive often remains sticky after treatment, you can't simply leave the surface exposed. One method is to mount the developed prints by placing the sticky side of the tape in contact with a thin sheet of stiff transparent plastic. (We used a sheet of plastic that was used to protect the screen of a new LCD display we'd purchased. Acetate theater gels or similar sheets also work.) The drawback to mounting the developed prints is that it may make it difficult to see the prints on some surfaces. Overall, the best method of preserving gentian violet developed prints is to photograph them.
- You can make up a 0.1% w/v solution of gentian violet by dissolving about 0.1 g of gentian violet crystals in about 100 mL of water. Gentian violet is available from lab supply vendors and some drugstores in solid form, and often as a 1.0% aqueous solution, which can be diluted one part solution to nine parts water to make up a 0.1% solution. Gentian violet is sold under many names, including crystal violet, methyl violet 10B, basic violet 3, brilliant violet 58, Gram stain, and many others. (Gentian violet is the hexamethyl form of methyl violet, which is also available in tetramethyl (methyl violet 2B) and pentamethyl (methyl violet 6B) forms. Make sure you know what you're getting.)
- * If you don't have a bench solution of 1 M hydrochloric acid, you can make it up by adding 8.3 mL of concentrated hydrochloric acid (or 9.7 mL of hardware store muriatic acid) to about 80 mL of water and then making it up to 100 mL. Using this final hydrochloric acid rinse is optional, but it may improve the contrast of gentian violet prints on some surfaces.
- Obtain as many different types of sticky tape and other adhesive materials as possible. In addition to ordinary cellophane tape, you can try masking tape, packaging tape, electrician's tape, medical adhesive tape, sticky computer labels, and so on.
- If you have not already done so, put on your splash goggles, gloves, and protective clothing.
- Pour sufficient gentian violet solution into the evaporating dish to cover the bottom to a depth of 5 mm or so.
For small specimens, including microscope slides, you can conserve gentian violet solution by placing the specimen flat in a dish and applying a few drops of the solution with a disposable pipette until the surface is covered. Discard the solution after treating each specimen.
- Put a latent fingerprint on your first tape specimen by pressing the tape against your fingertip and then peeling it away.
- Place the specimen sticky side up on a microscope slide and carefully secure both ends of the tape to the slide using additional tape.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 with each of your other tape specimens.
- Using the forceps, place the first specimen face up in the gentian violet solution, and allow it to soak for one to two minutes.
- Using the forceps, remove the specimen from the gentian violet solution and rinse it under cold running water for several seconds, as shown in Figure 8-18. (You can begin staining the next specimen while you rinse the current specimen.)
Figure 8-18. Rinsing a specimen after treating it with gentian violet solution
- Examine the rinsed specimen for visible fingerprints. If the fingerprints are distinct, set the specimen aside to drain and dry. If the prints are stained only lightly, repeat the stain/rinse cycle several times, until no further improvement is evident. If the contrast between the developed prints and the background is poor, try using the dilute hydrochloric acid final rinse to improve it.
- Place the specimen on a clean, flat surface and examine it carefully under strong oblique light with the magnifier or loupe. You should see fingerprints revealed in considerable detail as violet stains. If you have a camera, shoot an image of the developed fingerprints for your records. Record the pertinent details for the specimen in your lab notebook.
- Repeat steps 3 through 9 for your other specimens.
Figure 8-19 shows a latent fingerprint revealed by gentian violet staining.
Figure 8-19. Latent fingerprint revealed by gentian violet staining
Review Questions
Q1: For which specific types of specimens is gentian violet solution best suited?
Q2: You are presented with a cellophane tape specimen that may contain latent fingerprints on either or both surfaces. How would you proceed, and why?
August 16, 2009


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Build-A-Bear Workshop's "Pay Your Age" promotion proved too popular. The chain known for its customizable teddy bears and other stuffed toys couldn't handle the crowds Thursday, and had to turn shoppers away.
The company wrote in a Facebook post that it closed lines at its stores in Canada and the U.S. due to overwhelming crowds and safety concerns. The offer, which let customers with youngsters in tow buy a bear and pay their current age with a cap at $29, was also available at its United Kingdom stores.
Customers took to social media to complain afterward. Analyst Neil Saunders of GlobalData said in a report that "the decision to shut stores and end the promotion early was necessary on both safety and operational grounds, but it will damage the brand."
Later Thursday, the company said it distributed vouchers to customers in line that can be redeemed for a purchase through Aug. 31, the chain said. It said the goal is to better control traffic at the stores and prevent long lines and significant wait times.


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This article is more than 1 year old
AMD to get dense about servers – but in a good way
Hires two more chip hotshots to drive down the roadmaps
Maybe SeaMicro, the upstart maker of low-power microservers that dragged Intel kicking and screaming into the market, should have bought AMD instead of the other way around. Or maybe after the AMD transformation is all done some years hence, it will look like that is what happened anyway so the difference will be moot.
There's no question that AMD is not having an easy time right now, as its latest financial results show. After having to renegotiate its wafer supply agreement with fab partner GlobalFoundries, the company posted a $473m net loss compared to the year-ago period's gain of $71m as revenues dropped 31.4 per cent to $1.16bn. If you ignore that renegotiation, AMD still lost $55m, and you can't really ignore it anyway.
The problems AMD faces are complex, and so are its answers to them.
A resurgent Intel in the data center has hurt AMD's Opterons since early 2009, and many server makers either abandoned AMD entirely or only give it minimal support in their servers. HP, Dell, and Super Micro are probably AMD's biggest friends, and the loss of Cray as a volume customer, which is shifting to Xeon E5 chips for its latest XC30 supers, will hurt AMD for years to come.
AMD has excellent GPUs, but seems to have lost its way competing against Nvidia in the fast-growing market for GPU accelerators for supercomputer workloads. The company's Fusion APU chips could turn out to be useful on this front, if AMD can marshal the software tools and partners to make it so. Thus far, Nvidia has stolen all the headlines and most of the business with its CUDA programming environment and Tesla GPU coprocessors.
The PC biz on which both Intel and AMD are dependent is hurting, and neither can get into tablets, smartphones, or embedded devices fast enough to fill in the gaps. AMD is going to deliver ARM-based Opteron processors for servers next year, but that didn't help 2012's financials and it won't help 2013's numbers, either.
So it was not much of a surprise that AMD's Computing Solutions division saw revenues fall by 37 per cent to $829m in the fourth quarter ended in December and by 20 per cent for the full year to just a hair over $4bn. And thanks to restructurings and the rejigged wafer contract with GlobalFoundries, Computing Solutions had a $231m operating loss for the year.
This is a tough business, and it is going to get a lot tougher as ARM processors continue to ride up the smartphone and tablet waves and make their way into PCs and servers.
AMD does not break out specific revenue and shipment figures for its server processors and chipsets, but on a conference call with Wall Street analysts on Tuesday after the market closed, newly appointed CFO Devinder Kumar, said that the server business was up sequentially, helped no doubt by the rollout of the Opteron 6300 processors in early November and the Opteron 3300 and 4300s in early December.
Server chipset revenues and server CPU shipments were down, as expected, but Opteron revenues overall were up sequentially thanks to their adoption in dense hyperscale servers. And, while Kumar did not say this, Cray's many big deals for Opteron-based XE6, XK6, and XK7 supers, with many hundreds of thousands of cores shipped in the second half of the year, certainly helped a little, too.
Server and fabric interconnect maker SeaMicro, which AMD purchased for $334m back on Leap Day (February 29) in 2012, was privately held before AMD bought it and AMD doesn't talk about its business except very generally to this day.
CEO Rory Reed say that AMD "recorded significant revenue growth" for the SeaMicro servers, which is great, but you have to remember that AMD only just started shipping an Opteron-based SM15000 machine late last year using a custom Opteron 4300 part.
SeaMicro did pretty well with its initial Atom-based machines, but a year ago when it dropped a Xeon chip in the boxes, the business really took off. So while having SeaMicro on the rise is good, it is helping sell Intel chips up until now and, perhaps more importantly, AMD is competing with server maker customers who might otherwise build machines based on Opterons to attack these hyperscale workloads.
Eventually, AMD will be able to sell SeaMicro's "Freedom" interconnect and both x86 and ARM Opteron parts to server makers as raw components. But that day is not here yet, and the question that AMD has not answered to anyone's satisfaction is how it will transition SeaMicro from a server maker to a set of components for server makers.
"We will combine our extensive 64-bit design experience, X86 processor IP, and ARM processor cores with our SeaMicro Freedom fabric to continue to drive leadership as the industry transitions to dense servers," Read said on the call, saying that Q4 was the best quarter ever for dense servers.
"We believe we already have significantly more dense server customer installations than any other competitor, thus making our SeaMicro technology the most-tried dense server solution available in the industry."
That's Read talking like a server vendor, not like a parts supplier. And that's fine, so long as AMD has concluded that it wants to fight the war in the data center instead of selling bullets. And honestly, given how badly it was treated by Sun/Oracle, Fujitsu, Acer, and IBM, which dropped Opterons like hot potatoes as soon as there was a bug in Barcelona Opterons as an excuse to not have to incur server engineering costs, you can't blame AMD if it wants to control its own systems and control its own fate.
SeaMicro would have had to come to the same conclusion if it were an independent and fast-growing company, too. It would have had to license ARM processors and maybe even Opteron processors and design its own processors to mesh with its fabric. The reason is simple: Networking and computing will not be separate in future systems.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, but for the moment, AMD is in transition and no one, including AMD, really knows.
But the company has added some more techie brains to help sort out all of the complex issues it is facing. In a separate announcement today.
Wayne Meretzky has rejoined AMD after a long and stories career. Meretzky is a hardware engineer with experience in early Unix and supercomputers back in the early 1980s and who was also the technical lead for MacOS at Apple in the 1990s.
He was also co-author of the x86-64 spec for the Opterons at AMD, where he was made an AMD Fellow, and the he was director of hardware and software development at Power chip upstart PA Semi (the carcass of which ended up inside Apple). Meretzky took a position as corporate vice president of software development at AMD in December, as it turns out.
Charles Matar, who worked on the PowerPC chip for the Motorola portion of the PowerPC alliance (which also included IBM and Apple back in the late 1980s and early 1990s), is also joining AMD as corporate vice president of SoC development.
SoC is short for system on chip, of course, and that means Matar is going to be helping AMD form its battle plan for both x86 and ARM SoCs for all kinds of devices. Matar worked on the HAL Computer Systems clone of Sparc processors way back when and for the past decade has been vice president of engineering at Qualcomm, working on various aspects of SoC design. Matar also did a stint at AMD working on the K8 processor, better known as Opteron in the server, Athlon in the desktop, and Sempron in the laptop.
"Charles and Wayne will serve as key members of our engineering brain trust, bringing with them years of expertise in SoC design and developing 64-bit software ecosystems, respectively," said AMD CTO Mark Papermaster in a statement.
"The fact that these computing experts have returned to the company underscores AMD's unique position and opportunity, based on differentiated IP, to take a leadership position in low-power clients and dense cloud servers." ®


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Who Is AC?
Who Is AC?
Tintin Pantoja, Hope Larson
In this breakthrough graphic novel from the award-winning author of Mercury, there's a new superhero in town—and she's got kick-butt cyberpowers. Meet Lin, a formerly average teenage girl whose cell phone zaps her with magical powers. But just as superpowers can travel through the ether, so can evil. As Lin starts to get a handle on her new abilities (while still observing her curfew!), she realizes she has to go head-to-head with a nefarious villain who spreads his influence through binary code. And as if that weren't enough, a teen blogger has dubbed her an "anonymous coward!" Can Lin detect the cyber-criminal's vulnerability, save the day, and restore her reputation? With ingenious scripting from graphic novel phenom Hope Larson and striking art from manga illustrator Tintin Pantoja, this action-packed story brims with magical realism and girl-power goodness.
Book Details
- Manga/Graphic Novel
Age Level:
- 12 and up
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Thank you for looking at our English Saddle Horse Themed Gifts. See our reviews!!


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Fergie Reveals Unique Cure for Morning Sickness
Fergie opened up Thursday for the first time about her pregnancy and revealed that she plans on taking a natural approach throughout her journey to motherhood.
Speaking on Good Morning America, the 37-year-old Black Eyed Peas singer said she's already found an alternative remedy to combat morning sickness. "I've been doing acupuncture, which really helps with that [morning sickness], and Chinese herbs," she said.
PICS: Adorable Tots: Celebs and Their Cute Kids!
"I'm just going to play it by ear and see how things go and let the natural instincts kick in," said Fergie, who announced to the world last month on Twitter that she was expecting a child with husband Josh Duhamel, 40.
"We're thrilled," she gushed, recalling the moment she found out that she was pregnant. "I know that my husband told everybody what I said -- my quote when we found out, 'This [blank] just got real,'" she said. "It's true, when that moment occurs to you that, yeah, there's going to be a human being growing inside of you. It's reality. It's amazing."
RELATED: Fergie Reveals: I'm Pregnant!
While the singer has slowed the pace of her music career and other interests to focus on becoming a mom, she confirmed to GMA that she'll continue to keep writing music whenever she finds the inspiration. "It always is so spastic, my writing," she said. "I could have one thought and it be so weird and have nothing to do with anything that's going on in my life," she said.


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Many sprinkler heads are broken annually by neighbors and family driving off of the driveway and over the street curb. Who has not experienced the aggravation of a lawn crew cutting your sprinkler heads? Are you tired of the high water bills caused by someone else breaking your sprinkler heads? Concrete donuts are the only solution!
This is a green dyed - concrete donut for sprinkler heads. They come in two sizes (spray head size and rotary head size). The purpose of the donut is to displace the weight of a vehicle or lawn mowers tire. This will aid in the protection of the sprinkler head and the pipes below the head. These donuts are made out of fiber reinforced concrete for maximum strength and durability. They are tapered on the outer side of the donut to aid in the weight displacement. The outer bottom edge measures 7.5" and the top outer edge measures 6.25". The entire concrete mixture is green.
Frequently Asked Questions
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A study appearing in the journal Investigational New Drugs and conducted by researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital, discovered that two new small molecule inhibitors are showing promise in blocking STAT3, a protein linked to the most common malignant bone tumor, osteosarcoma. These small molecule inhibitors – one derived from a portion of the turmeric spice – may serve as a new, non-toxic treatment for these deadly tumors.
Osteosarcoma is aggressive and its treatment outlook has not changed significantly over the last 20 years. Treatment consists of a combination of toxic chemotherapy and aggressive surgical resection. Yet, despite these options, patients have at most a 50-to-60 percent five-year disease-free survival rate.
"The outcome for patients with advanced or metastatic osteosarcoma continues to be dismal, emphasizing the need for new therapies," said the study's lead author Jaiyuh Lin, PhD, principal investigator in the Center for Childhood Cancer in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital. "Directly targeting STAT3 signaling represents a potential therapeutic approach to treating this type of cancer."
STAT3 is a member of a protein family that plays a role in relaying signals from cytokines and growth factors. The abnormal activation of STAT proteins is becoming more commonly associated with unrestricted cell growth and transformation of normal cells into malignant cells. Abnormal STAT3 activation has been seen in human and canine osteosarcoma cell lines and shows cancer-causing-capabilities in cultured cells and mouse models.
"Recent experiments aimed at blocking STAT3 signaling have been successful, resulting in the inhibition of growth and the induction of death in tumors," said Dr. Lin, also a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. "They have also shown that blocking STAT3 in normal cells is neither harmful nor toxic."
Dr. Lin and his team evaluated two newly developed compounds, LLL12 and FLLL32, to determine their ability to inhibit STAT3 activity in human osteosarcoma cells. FLLL32 is derived from the dietary agent curcumin, the principal compound in the popular Indian spice turmeric.
Findings showed that both agents were able to inhibit STAT3 activity and suppressed tumor growth in the mouse model that was developed using human osteosarcoma cells, and primary osteosarcoma xenograft provided by Nationwide Children's Hospital scientist, Peter Houghton, PhD, directly from a patient.
"This study suggests that LLL12 and FLLL32 should be suitable for targeting osteosarcoma and possibly certain types of cancer cells with persistently activated STAT3," said Dr. Lin. "This approach deserves further exploration as a potential treatment of osteosarcoma."
The development of both STAT3 inhibitors is in the collaboration with Drs. Chenglong Li, Pui-Kai Li and Jim Fuchs from The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy.


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To curb rising HIV rates, we must target our human flaws
Biomedicine has ensured that HIV is no longer a fatal condition, but changes to human behaviour are still the most effective way to curb the epidemic, argues Professor John de Wit. CONFERENCE
Biomedicine has ensured that HIV is no longer a fatal condition, but changes to human behaviour are still the most effective way to curb the epidemic, argues Professor John de Wit. CONFERENCE
OPINION: One of the most perplexing risks to public health is human nature. No matter how diligently public health campaigns lay out the facts, we continue to make seemingly illogical decisions. Just look at the obesity epidemic or binge drinking for evidence of our willingness to knowingly and repeatedly make apparently self-defeating choices; even more so when sexuality and intimacy is thrown into the mix.
In Australia, the HIV epidemic continues. Just like in other high-income countries that offer high-quality, widely accessible HIV prevention, treatment and care, HIV infection rates in Australia have been steadily climbing since 1999, with the single biggest annual jump of 10% reported in 2012.
The reason is human behaviour. Optimism began to creep in when life-saving anti-retroviral therapies (ART) transformed HIV/AIDS from a certain death sentence into a manageable, if medically complex, chronic condition from the mid-1990s.
Today's global HIV statistics reflect increasingly risky sexual practices, particularly among gay men, and particularly in countries with both the resources and the political will to turn the HIV pandemic around. By contrast, many developing countries are achieving meaningful reductions in their HIV infection rates.
To date, Australia has been at the forefront of global efforts to combat the HIV epidemic since our much debated "grim reaper" campaign of the 1980s. Australia's world-class medical researchers helped develop ARTs and have made a major contribution to the use of ARTs in prevention, as the drugs drastically reduce the "viral load" in HIV positive people, and so reduce the risk of transmission.
However, increasing risk-taking is outpacing these significant advances in medical science. In 2012 more than 1,200 new cases were diagnosed in Australia, bringing the estimated number of people living with HIV to 25,708.
Every new infection comes with a lifetime of medical treatment, significant risk of medical complications and considerable lifelong costs; about A$18,000 each year for ARTs for one person in Australia.
We urgently need to re-evaluate our approach and bridge the gap between that knowledge and our HIV prevention responses. That a better understanding of human behaviour will help seems obvious. But few public health campaigns are underpinned by rigorous behavioural and social research.
Much of what we currently do is based on common sense and past experience, which is problematic because people do not necessarily behave in their own best interests. People are, in fact, often motivated, well intentioned and well informed but suffer from the common so-called "new year's resolution" effect; they do genuinely want to change but just don't quite manage to get started or fail to maintain new behaviour.
We are also, rightly, reluctant to lecture or play on people's fears because we want them to make their own informed choices. So we assume that if we give people all the information they need they will put it together and act accordingly. But most people have more on their minds than staying healthy, and most assume they are healthy anyway.
Who hasn't been on a diet and nevertheless eaten the birthday cake because we don't want to spoil the party and surely one slice won't hurt, will it? Likewise, it's easy to imagine that sex is about many other things than avoiding HIV, particularly since HIV has become a less ominous health threat.
There are promising approaches in the behavioural sciences that go beyond limited assumptions around rational decision making and take into account everything from personal beliefs, unconscious influences and the complex "ecosystems" of signals in our environments that determine how an individual acts, even in the heat of the moment.
Some of the most important insights to emerge from the behavioural sciences in recent years reveal that simple changes can have a profound effect. Implementing an opt-out HIV testing policy at a sexual health clinic, whereby in principle everyone gets tested unless they decline, for instance, substantially increases the rates of HIV testing and so can greatly improve timely diagnosis,
One of the most powerful behavioural science strategies is to help people to make a simple action plan. This takes only a few minutes and has been found to be effective in promoting a wide range of health behaviours, including making appointments for sexual health checks, using condoms, using contraception and getting vaccinated against hepatitis B.
We have a whole range of personalised communication tools such as smart phones that can help; both with gathering information and reaching individuals with tailored health promotion approaches.
There are many human and economic reasons to reinvigorate our efforts to combat HIV. It may no longer be a fatal condition for people with access to ARTs and medical care. But this is not the same as a cure. The best reason of all is that HIV is preventable – if we effectively support people to protect themselves and others.
Professor John de Wit is Director of UNSW's Centre for Social Research in Health. The Centre is hosting the 13th Social Research Conference on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Related Diseases at UNSW this week.
This opinion piece was first published in The Conversation.


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C-mount lens
Manually-adjusted, high-performance lens offers the most flexibility in terms of lens size, aperture and focus. Provides even resolution throughout the entire field of view, making this the most widely-used lens type.
X-coded, power I/O and external light cables available.
C-Mount Lens Cover
IP67-rated C-mount lens covers are available for protection in harsh environments and support wider diameter lenses. An extender of 30 mm is also available for lenses that require more length and is used in conjunction with this C-mount cover.
I/O Modules
The I/O Breakout Module provides easy connection of In-Sight systems to power, acquisition triggers, outputs, and serial devices. I/O Expansion Modules increase the number of I/O points available to In-Sight systems, and provide full RS-232 handshaking.