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South African Journal of Occupational Therapy
On-line version ISSN 2310-3833
Print version ISSN 0038-2337
S. Afr. j. occup. ther. vol.44 n.1 Pretoria Jan. 2014
Using measurement principles to confirm the levels of creative ability as described in the Vona du Toit Model of Creative Ability
Daleen Casteleijn
B Occ Ther (UP), B Occ Ther (Hons) (Medunsa), PG Dip Vocational Rehabilitation (UP), Dip Higher Education and Training Practices (UP), M Occ Ther (UP), PhD (UP); Associate Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy School of Therapeutic Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand
Many occupational therapists in South Africa and the United Kingdom are using the Vona du Toit Model of Creative Ability with its associated assessments and outcome measures in their practice settings. Although there appears to be strong clinical confidence in the use of these instruments that apply the levels of creative ability in the scoring system, little evidence to date has been published on the validity of the levels.
The aim of this study was to investigate three instruments based on the levels of creative ability: the Creative Participation Assessment (CPA), the Functional Levels Outcome Measure (FLOM) and the Activity Participation Outcome Measure (APOM), for evidence that the levels indeed represent increasing amounts of ability and that the scoring of the three instruments follow a linear or hierarchical pattern.
A secondary data analysis was done using the threshold ordering of the Rasch Measurement Model to indicate whether the levels of creative ability exist. Results showed that all three instruments indeed represent increasing amounts of ability in a person and that the levels of creative ability exist. Although these findings are significant, it is the first in a series of analyses and the remaining assumptions in the Rasch Measurement Model still need to be tested.
Key words: Vona du Toit Model of Creative Ability; outcome measures; Rasch Measurement Model; threshold ordering
All health care professionals are expected to demonstrate the effectiveness of their services, not only to their clients but also to the funders of the service and society at large. It is the responsibility of a profession to provide evidence of the noticeable value and quality of service delivery1. Demonstrating evidence of change after intervention requires valid and reliable measurement instruments. Measurement in occupational therapy gathers vital information about individuals, groups or populations. It is part of evaluation in the occupational therapy process (Occupational Therapy Practice Framework - OTPF II)2. During evaluation, clinicians make use of different measurement instruments and assessment tools to observe and measure the factors that support or prevent occupational performance in individuals. Some of these instruments have been developed before the awareness of the importance of validity and reliability properties.
Evaluation is core to the process of occupational therapy but not all variables are easily measured. Occupational therapists, more often than not, deal with abstract constructs when they attempt to understand individuals as occupational beings and what their needs and expectations are for occupational therapy services. Assessment tools aim to describe the influence of illness, injury, disability, poverty, delays in development and environmental factors on individuals' participation in activities and occupations. It is also done to predict performance, for example school readiness or return to work. There are also tools used for screening purposes and outcome measures to evaluate change after intervention. When considering the reasons why occupational therapists do assessments and what they have to measure, it is clear that they often have to measure latent variables, those things that are abstract and not linear in nature. Schofield3 and Laver-Fawcett4 further referred to the fact that defining and measuring outcomes are complicated by the dynamic and multifaceted nature of occupational performance as well as the complex and subjective experience of individual cases. This brings numerous challenges to accurate measurement.
Despite the complexities of the variables that occupational therapists need to measure, measurement principles still need to be applied in the use of assessment tools. Stevens' influential theory of scales of measurement becomes essential in the choice of tools. According to Stevens' theory, there are four levels of measurement: nominal (level one), ordinal (level 2), interval (level three) and ratio (level four) scaling5. The nominal level classifies data into categories, for example males or females. This level is not measurement per se. The second level is the ordinal scale with numbers assigned to observations in a hierarchical order. Lickert scales are examples of ordinal scaling. The third and fourth levels of scaling, interval and ratio scales, also provide a hierarchical order but the difference is that the distances between the points on the scale are equal e.g. the temperature points on a thermometer (level three) or the numbers on a ruler (level four).
Most of the assessments in occupational therapy are on an ordinal scale, which limits the interpretation of the data. Scores may not be summed and averaged as the distance between points are unequal, and mathematical calculations are not allowed on this level. It can only be used to describe observations. The misuse of ordinal raw scores is often seen in the calculation of changed scores, means and effect sizes. Grimby, Tennant and Tesio6 voiced their concerns about this malpractice and urged researchers to subject their assessments and outcome measures to Rasch analysis. This type of analysis has the unique ability to transform ordinal data (level two) to linear or interval type of data (level three and four), provided the data fit the Rasch model7,8. The constructs investigated by the Rasch model are often latent traits (not measured directly) and therefore this model falls in the family of latent trait models 9. The expectation of the Rasch model is that persons with higher ability will pass more of the difficult items in a test and those with lower ability will only pass easier items. The model puts the measures of persons and items on the same scale. Rasch, a Danish mathematician developed a formula to calculate the probability (or the odds ratio) of a person to pass a certain item. These odds ratios make up the scale for persons and items at the same time. The scale is arranged in equal intervals (according to the odds ratios in the responses of the sample) and is called the logit scale in Rasch terminology. The required response structure is a probabilistic Guttman pattern because persons with lower ability are expected to pass fewer items than those with higher ability10. Detailed descriptions of the Rasch process of analysis are available in the literature7,8,9,10.
Theoretical frameworks and outcome measures
Occupational therapists develop preferences for the theoretical frameworks and practice models that they use in the occupational therapy process. Examples include the Model of Human Occupation, the Canadian Model of Occupational Performance, the Person-environment-occupation model or the Kawa Model to name a few11. Each of these models often have a series of screening and assessment tools for instance self-report questionnaires, checklists or objective measures.
Many occupational therapy clinicians use the Vona du Toit Model of Creative Ability (VdTMoCA) with its different assessment and outcome measurement tools. The Creative Participation Assessment (CPA) is used to determine the level of participation in day-to-day living. It was developed by van der Reyden12 and its psychometric properties were investigated by Casteleijn13. The CPA showed good inter-rater reliability provided that the therapists had a good understanding of the underlying theoretical concepts of the VdTMoCA and characteristics of each level of creative ability. Content and construct validity were also found to be adequate13. De Witt compiled a grid to assess creative ability according to occupational performance areas, namely personal management, social participation, work, and leisure. Descriptions of the actions in each occupational performance area for each level are provided12. This method is used to identify the level of an individual's creative ability and does not have a specific scoring system but it allows the therapist to indicate the specific level of creative ability in each performance area that a person is currently able to achieve. The specific phase within each level (therapist-directed, patient-directed or transitional) is also indicated for each area of occupational performance12. This assessment has not been subjected to psychometric investigation.
Zietsman developed the Functional Levels Outcome Measure (FLOM) that is used to measure change in functioning after intervention and Casteleijn et al14 investigated the psychometric properties of this measure. Its psychometric properties have been investigated and the Rasch analyses showed that the FLOM has excellent internal construct validity with good item functioning. Inter-rater reliability was also good provided the therapists were familiar with the characteristics of the levels of creative ability14. This outcome measure has been successfully implemented in several long-term care centers in South Africa and is used by occupational therapy technicians/assistants14.
Another outcomes measure is the Activity Participation Outcome Measure (APOM) developed by Casteleijn that also tracks changes after intervention in mental healthcare settings. The APOM has demonstrated good inter-rater reliability with good construct and content validity15.
Vona du Toit contributed significantly to the establishment of a sound theoretical foundation for occupational therapy when she developed the Model of Creative Ability16,17. The main focus of the VdTMoCA is on participation in everyday activities16. A person needs motivation to participate: this motivation is the inner force that initiates or directs all behaviour and results in the creation of a tangible or intangible product17. Motivation governs action and the actions are the manifestations of motivation. Through observations of the actions of a person, one is able to infer the level of motivation17. Du Toit then developed a hierarchy of levels of motivation with corresponding levels of action. This resulted in nine consecutive levels of motivation and action, starting with Tone and ending with the Competitive Contribution level (Table I)16,17,19.
The ability to create is central to the philosophy of the VdT-MoCA. This ability to create is indicative of the level of psychical development and for this reason, the assumptions of developmental theories such as Piaget's stages of cognitive development are well aligned with Du Toit's thinking in the levels of creative ability.
Levels of creative ability are seen in a developing child where a new born baby functions on the level of tone. At the age of approximately five months, the baby moves to the level of self-differentiation demonstrating actions that are incidental. Explorative actions are then seen from the age of two years which is the level of self presentation. When a child is ready to enter school, they show characteristics (e.g. norm awareness) of the level of passive participation. During adolescence, imitative actions are observed which imply the level of imitative participation. Active participation is the next level where there are actions of original contributions with authentic actions. Competitive participation, contribution and competitive contribution are the last three levels of creative ability that Du Toit described17. These levels are found in people who contribute towards their communities and society at large and who have transcended the self to change circumstances for the better. A typical example of the highest level of creative ability namely competitive contribution is Nelson Mandela. His contributions to society are well known.
Grobler18 argued that the higher levels of creative ability may be used to identify the chasm between management and leadership skills. According to her study, people with leadership skills are more likely to be on the levels from competitive participation to competitive contribution.
Not all people have the capacity to develop to the highest level of creative ability. Each individual has a creative potential or capacity which is influenced by many factors for instance genetics, temperament, intellectual functioning, resilience, and environmental barriers to name a few16.
Children move through the levels of creative ability in a sequential manner as they develop while adults regress in a sequential pattern to lower levels due to challenges in their lives, (illness, injury, economic changes, and unemployment). When they overcome these challenges, they may progress sequentially to higher levels again.
Occupational therapists who use the VdTMoCA usually assess the level of creative ability, design and implement an intervention programme, and measure the change after intervention. During intervention, specific principles are used to facilitate growth in a person to progress to higher levels of creative ability12,16,17.
It is generally the first six levels that are seen in occupational therapy services. Persons achieving levels seven to nine usually possess the knowledge and skills to overcome everyday challenges, achieve the norms for participation and reach out to influence and contribute towards communities and populations19.
Assessment of creative ability
The different assessment tools and outcome measures mentioned above apply the levels of creative ability in the scoring of a person's ability to participate in everyday activities12,15,16,17.
Occupational therapists in South Africa and the United Kingdom believe in the levels of creative ability and find the VdTMoCA extremely useful as a practice model19. The fact that a clinician can describe participation in everyday activities or occupation in levels opens up possibilities of measuring baseline performance or functioning, tracking the progress of clients and calculating the effect of the service at the end of the intervention. The levels are thus useful in outcome measurement 15,19.
The levels of creative ability also assist clinicians in assessing and describing the nature of a client's participation and engagement in activities and occupationsl2,l6. Once the level has been determined, the intervention can be directed at the correct level and intensity. Specific intervention principles are available for each level 12,14,16,17.
Problem statement
The characteristics mentioned above make the VdTMoCA a popular practice model in SA and the UK l9. However, one basic important question has not been answered: do the levels of creative ability exist? What evidence do we have that there are different levels of creative ability and that they follow a linear and hierarchical pattern? Several assessment and outcome measures are being used by occupational therapists that are based on the levels of creative ability without evidence of these characteristics.
The aim of the study was to determine if the levels of creative ability as measured by three different measurement instruments, follow a linear or hierarchical pattern.
A secondary data analysis was done using data that were previously collected by clinicians in South Africa using measurement instruments whose scoring systems are based on the levels of creative ability.
Data were collected with the three measurement instruments as part of the routine use of assessment or outcome measurement in the case of the FLOM and the APOM while the data for the CPA were collected as part of a research project in 2001 as well as routine assessments during 2007 and 2008. The three instruments are briefly described below.
Measurement tools
The Creative Participation Assessment (CPA)12,13. This assessment uses a 7-point scale with l2 items. It covers levels from Tone to Competitive Participation and is a one-page table with 8 columns and l4 rows. The first column presents the l2 items namely Action, Volition, Handle tools and materials, Relate to people, Handle situations, Task concept, Product, Assistance/supervision required, Behaviour, Norm awareness, Anxiety and emotional responses, Initiative and effort. Columns 2 to 7 represent the levels of creative ability from Tone to Competitive Participation. There is a description of the expected response in each cell of the table e.g. the description for the item Action under the level of Tone reads undirected and unplanned. A therapist will select the description of the item that fits her client the best and mark or tick that cell. In the last row, the number of ticks for each level will be counted and written down. The level with the most number of ticks will be the level of that client12,l3.
The Functional Levels Outcome Measure (FLOM)l4. This outcome measure has l0 items and covers the first five levels: Tone to Imitative Participation. The items are Mental illness, Orientation, Self care, Appearance, Continency (of urine and faeces), Social behavior, Activity participation, Domestic skills, Responsibility and Employment potential. The FLOM is a 5-page document with descriptions (in the form of a question) for each level and each item. A therapist needs to answer yes or no to each description and the level with the most yes marks will be the level of the clientl4. The last page is a summary of the items and the score that the client obtained in the form of a line graph.
The Activity Participation Outcome Measure (APOM)'5- This outcome measure has eight domains namely Process skills, Communication /interaction skills, Life skills, Role performance, Balanced lifestyle, Motivation, Self-esteem and Affect. Several items (53 in total) represent each domain. It covers the first six levels from Tone to Active Participation. The scale has l8 points as it includes the phases within each level. For each item a description for the first six levels of creative ability are given and a therapist decides which description best fits her patient. As soon as the level has been decided, the therapist will also determine the phase within the level, that is therapist-directed, patient-directed or transitional phase. These phases within the level are based on the amount of assistance a patient needs within the level. The APOM is a web-based application and therapists need to complete a one-day training workshop before they may use the APOMl5.
The sample
Table II describes the samples that were subjected to measurement by the three instruments.
The data collection using the CPA took place in a pubic mental health care facility. Two occupational therapists trained in the VdTMoCA and the use of the CPA assessed the level of 52 patients (males and females) diagnosed with schizophrenia. The average of the two assessors for the 12 items on the CPA were taken as the final score. These data were collected for a previous study in 2001 and were re-used in this study13. An additional 156 records from occupational therapists who used the CPA routinely to determine the level of creative ability in their clients between 2007 and 2008, were used. After a preliminary Rasch analysis was done on this sample, the logit scale in the threshold map was extremely compressed between -77 and 68 with a very high standard deviation. The logit scale is indicated by the odds ratio of a person to fall into a certain category. When the sample does not represent all the categories on the scale, the logits may be extremely compressed. Since the sample only included people with mental disorders, none of them obtained scores higher than five (imitative participation). Categories on level six (active participation) and level seven (competitive participation) were thus not represented. The author then collected data from people employed in the open labour market (without mental disorders) with successful participation in their respective occupations. Thirty four additional assessments were completed.
The collection of data using the FLOM 14 was done as routine assessments in a public-private partnership institution that provides long-term care for mental healthcare users. The FLOM is routinely completed for each patient on a monthly basis to track progress and enable reports to be written for the Review Board as stipulated in the Mental Health Care Act of 2002. Five hundred and twenty FLOMs were completed between January and March 2013. A selection of 306 FLOMs was used for this study. Incomplete assessments (all items not assessed) were discarded. These FLOMs were completed by six occupational therapy technicians and assistants trained in the use of the FLOM who use it as routine assessments14.
The data collection for the APOM15 also occurred during routine outcome measurement in different public and private mental health care institutions and clinics that provide care of acute, sub-acute and long-term adult mental healthcare users. All diagnostic groups were included. Occupational therapists trained in the use of the APOM completed the assessments between August 2012 and February 2013.
Permission to use the secondary data was obtained from the relevant authorities with three separate ethical clearance numbers.
Preparation of the data for analysis
The raw data of each instrument were recorded on an excel spreadsheet. The data from the CPA were at the level of creative ability as assessed by occupational therapists. The data of the FLOM and the APOM were the baseline assessments (before intervention commenced). This article only reports on the threshold ordering of the categories of the instruments and therefore no personal factors (e.g. gender, age, condition) were included for the analysis, only their score (level of creative ability) was used.
The data on the excel spreadsheet were entered into the RUMM2030 system, a software package for Rasch analysis.
Data analysis
The Rasch Measurement Model6,7,8,9 was used to test the hierarchical nature of the levels of creative ability as scored with the three instruments described above. This model has the ability to convert ordinal type of measurement into interval (or linear) measures. Since the levels of creative ability are ordinal measurements, the Rasch Model was the obvious choice.
The aim of this investigation was to discover if the points on the rating scale indicate an increasing amount of the ability of a person to participate in everyday activities. When scales measure the abilities of people, they should clearly indicate that people with higher abilities would pass more items on the scale than those with less ability. This measurement is only possible if the categories or points in the scale are ordered from low to high. The thresholds are those distances between two points on a scale. When the thresholds of an instrument are ordered according to the Rasch Model, each point or category is represented on a line as indicated in an example analysis in Figure 1a and 1b. Figure 1a indicates that only three items were ordered on a scale of 1 - 7. The analysis indicated that the rest of the items could not be measured on a 1 - 7 point scale. When this happens, one has the option to collapse points or categories (e.g. collapse point 2 and 3 as one category) as indicated in figure 1b. When the scale was redesigned with only three thresholds for most items, and in some items like bladder and bowel and stairs, only two thresholds, all items appeared linear. With the example below, it became clear that certain items like eating, grooming, bathing etc. cannot be measured on a scale of 1 to 7 as originally designed but that a 1 to 3 scale is a more valid scale to measure a person's ability for specific items. This process is called threshold ordering in the Rasch Model7.
Thresholds ordering or scalability was done with data collected with the CPA, FLOM and APOM using the RUMM2030 software
Figure 2 shows that the levels of the CPA are ordered in a linear fashion. No collapsing of items was necessary. The logit scale ranges between -15 and 15.
Figure 3 shows similar results for the FLOM and threshold are all ordered. The logit scale ranges between -8 and 11.
Figure 4 also indicates that the thresholds in the APOM are ordered. The logit scale ranges from -14 to 11.
All the scales showed perfect threshold ordering of categories of the scales, indicating that the levels of creative ability indeed exist.
In all three of the instruments, no collapsing of categories was necessary, showing that the categories of all the instruments resemble a linear or hierarchical arrangement of scores. The logit scale in all three instruments displayed a relatively lengthy scale. This could be that the majority of the sample is arranged between the levels of self-presentation (level 3) and passive participation (level 4). With less representation on the higher ends of the scale, it is expected that a longer logit scale will be present.
The categories or levels of creative ability in three different instruments all showed hierarchical ordering. This indicates that the levels are measuring increasing amounts of the construct under measurement, in this case creative ability. These findings confirm the clinical belief of occupational therapists that the levels of creative ability indeed exist.
The ordered thresholds hold great significance for occupational therapists using any of the three instruments. The significance lies in the fact that mathematical calculations may be done: for instance scores of the individual items of the instruments may be summed to obtain a total score, means and averages may be calculated as well as effect sizes (difference between final and baseline score). However, this significance must be viewed in light of the rest of the requirements of the Rasch Model. Threshold ordering is but one of 10 requirements8 before an instrument may be used as a measure with linear or interval scores. The remaining analyses such as item functioning, local dependency between items, unidimensionality and item-person fit still need to be reported on these three instruments.
The APOM is the only instrument that integrates the phases of each level (therapist-directed, patient-directed and transitional) in the scoring. It results in a lengthy scale with 18 categories but becomes essential when small changes in activity participation need to be detected. Even with this lengthy scale, thresholds were still ordered. It reiterates the fact that the levels of creative ability are accurate and valid and resemble linear measurement.
Although the three different instruments use the levels of creative ability as the basis for the scoring, each tool uses different terminology. The CPA uses the term Creative Participation, the FLOM uses Functional Levels and the APOM Activity Participation. The reason for the different terminology could be the different interpretations of the basic assumptions of the VdTMoCA but also shows the flexibility of the model. Different items are included in the three instruments, which allows for variety but the scoring seems to be accurate.
Only the first six levels have been tested, as these are the levels that are most commonly seen in clients seeking occupational therapy services. Data for the higher levels were not available and currently no assessments for the levels above active participation have been described or published to date.
The analysis of threshold ordering that was done is only the first of several assumptions to be tested before one can claim that the instruments are true measures with interval characteristics. The rest of the analysis of the three instruments are under investigation and will be reported in the near future.
There is sound evidence that the levels of creative ability exist and that clinicians can use the assessments and outcome measures in the VdTMoCA with confidence and assurance that it gives a valid indication of the limitations of participation in everyday activities.
1. Baum C, Christiansen C. Outcomes: The result of interventions in occupational therapy practice. In: Christiansen C, Baum C, BassHaugen J, editors. Occupational Therapy: Performance, Participation and Well-being. 3rd ed. New York: Slack Incorporated, 2005: 523-534. [ Links ]
2. American Occupational Therapy Association. Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process (2nd ed). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2008; 62: 625 - 683. [ Links ]
3. Schofield P Measuring outcome in psychiatric rehabilitation. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2006; 69(10): 481-83. [ Links ]
4. Laver-Fawcett A. Principles of Assessment and Outcome Measurement for Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists. Theory, Skills and Application. Chichester: John Wiley, 2007. [ Links ]
5. Stevens SS. On the Theory of Scales of Measurement. Science. 1946; June: 677-680. [ Links ]
6. Grimby G, Tennant A, Tesio L. The use of raw scores from ordinal scales: time to end malpractice? Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 2012; 44: 97-98. [ Links ]
7. Bond TG, Fox CM. Applying the Rasch Model: Fundamental measurement in the human sciences. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007. [ Links ]
8. Tennant A, Conaghan PG. The Rasch Measurement Model in Rheumatology: What is it and why use it? When should it be applied, and what should one look for in a Rasch paper? Arthritis Rheumatology, 2007; 57(8):1358-1362. [ Links ]
9. Iramaneerat C, Smith EV Jr, Smith RM An introduction to Rasch measurement. In: Osborne JW. Best Practices in Quantitative Methods. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc., 2008: 50 - 69. [ Links ]
10. Hagquist C, Bruce M, Gustavsson JP Using the Rasch model in nursing research: An introduction and illustrative example. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 2009; 46: 380 - 393. [ Links ]
11. Turpin M, Iwama M. Using Occupational Therapy Models in Practice - A Field Guide. London: Churchill, Livingstone Elsevier, 2011. [ Links ]
12. De Witt P. Creative ability, a model for psychiatric occupational therapy. In: RB Crouch RB, Alers VM, editors. Occupational Therapy in Psychiatry and Mental Health. 4th edn. London: Whurr Publisher, 2005: 1 - 32. [ Links ]
13. Casteleijn,D, Smit C. The psychometric properties of the Creative Participation Assessment. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2002; 32(1): 6-11. [ Links ]
14. Casteleijn D, Zietsman K, Crawford S, Grahan-Parker L, Karadimos L, Michell S. The psychometric properties of the Functional Levels Outcome Measure (FLOM): Construct validity, internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. Research project in partial fulfilment of the requirements for BSc IV OT (WITS). Unpublished document, 2013. [ Links ]
15. Casteleijn JMF. Development of an outcome measure for occupational therapists in mental health care practice. University of Pretoria, South Africa. Unpublished doctoral thesis, 2011. Available from: http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02102011-143303/ [ Links ]
16. Van der Reyden, D. Vona du Toit memorial lecture: Creative participation, 20 years later. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 1989; 19(1): 28-36. [ Links ]
17. Du Toit V Patient volition and action in occupational therapy. 3rd edn. Pretoria: Vona & Marie du Toit Foundation, 2004. [ Links ]
18. Grobler A. Growth in the higher levels of creative ability. Presentation delivered at the International Creative Ability Conference, London 21 May 2010. [ Links ]
19. Casteleijn D. The use of core concepts and terminology in South Africa. World Federation of Occupational Therapists Bulletin 2012; 65: 20 - 27. [ Links ]
Daleen Casteleijn
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation Thuthuka Funding (Post PhD track), grant number TTK20II08I4000024469.


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Apple has told health app developers they can't gather and sell user information, according to reports.
The developers will see their apps used on the HealthKit platform, but can't sell user data to advertisers, the Guardian (U.K.) reported. Health data is often considered private and protected by privacy laws, so Apple's move to keep developers from selling that information to advertisers is likely a little self-serving. Who would trust Apple's HealthKit platform if all their health data was being sold to pharmaceutical companies?
The developers "must not sell an end-user's health information collected through the HealthKit APIs to advertising platforms, data brokers or information resellers," according to Apple's rules. Developers are allowed to share data for "medical research purposes" but only with user consent.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
By Jethro Mullen
HONG KONG (CNN) — North Korea said Tuesday that it had conducted a new, more powerful underground nuclear test using more sophisticated technology, jolting the already fragile security situation in Northeast Asia and drawing condemnation from around the globe.
It is the first nuclear test carried out under the North's young leader, Kim Jong Un, who appears to be sticking closely to his father's policy of building up the isolated state's military deterrent to keep its foes at bay, shrugging off the resulting international condemnation and sanctions.
Although Pyongyang had announced plans for the test in recent, vitriolic statements, its decision to go ahead with it provided a stark reminder of a seemingly intractable foreign policy challenge for President Barack Obama ahead of his State of the Union address later Tuesday.
The test was designed "to defend the country's security and sovereignty in the face of the ferocious hostile act of the U.S.," the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, referring to new U.S.-led sanctions on Pyongyang after the recent launch of a long-range rocket.
"This nuclear test is our first measure, which displayed our maximum restraint," KCNA said. "If the U.S. continues with their hostility and complicates the situation, it would be inevitable to continuously conduct a stronger second or third measure."
Tuesday's nuclear test, which follows previous detonations by the North in 2006 and 2009, had greater explosive force and involved the use of a smaller, lighter device, KCNA reported.
North Korea's nuclear program is shrouded in secrecy, so it's almost impossible to independently verify many of the details of the test. But its claims play into fears among the United States and its allies that Pyongyang is moving closer to the kind of miniaturized nuclear device that it can mount on a long-range missile.
The United States will try to determine if North Korea has tested a uranium weapon for the first time, a senior White House official said. The first two were plutonium bombs.
Despite the North's claims of progress Tuesday, analysts say they believe it is still years away from having the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead on a missile.
"This test isn't going to do that in and of itself, but it is a significant step forward," said Mike Chinoy, a senior fellow at the University of Southern California's U.S.-China Institute.
Condemnation from world leaders
After Pyongyang confirmed it had gone ahead with the test in defiance of international pressure, world leaders responded with condemnation.
"This is a highly provocative act" that threatens regional stability, breaches U.N. resolutions and increases the risk of proliferation, Obama said in a statement.
"North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs constitute a threat to U.S. national security and to international peace and security," he said, calling for "further swift and credible action by the international community."
"It is a clear and grave violation of the relevant Security Council resolutions," the office of Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, said in a statement referring to the test.
The United Nations Security Council will meet in New York on Tuesday morning to discuss the development, a Security Council diplomat said, declining to be identified because of U.N. protocol on such matters.
South Korea, which chairs the Security Council at the moment, said the test presented "an unforgivable threat to the Korean peninsula's peace and safety."
"North Korea should be responsible for all the serious consequences brought by such an action," said Chun Young-woo, national security adviser to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who is near the end of his term in office.
In a statement, Russia's Foreign Ministry demanded that North Korea refrain from any nuclear missile program and adhere to U.N. Security Council guidelines.
It condemned the test as an affront to the community of nations: "It's doubly sad that we are talking about the state with which our country has a long history of good neighborliness."
The China question
Perhaps the most closely watched reaction came from China, North Korea's main ally and the source of crucial economic and political support to the regime in Pyongyang.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it "resolutely opposes" the North's latest test, which it noted had taken place "despite the international community's widespread opposition."
It said it "strongly" urged North Korean officials to "abide by their promise to denuclearize and take no further action that will worsen the situation."
The real question, though, is whether Beijing will support significantly tougher measures against its smaller neighbor following the test, something it has refrained from doing in the past.
"The Chinese don't like the idea of international sanctions and coercing other countries," Chinoy said. "They still have a strategic interest in maintaining a viable separate North Korea as a buffer against a pro-U.S. South Korea, and that has only become more important as tensions between the U.S. and China have increased."
Recent opinion articles published in the state-run Chinese newspaper Global Times suggested Beijing's patience with North Korea may be wearing thin and raised the prospect of reducing support to Pyongyang.
But with fears in Beijing of what a possible collapse of the North Korean regime could bring, strong measures appear unlikely for the time being.
"I think the key with China right now is that they are necessary to a solution, but we can't expect them to solve the problem for us," said Philip Yun, executive director of the Ploughshares Fund, a U.S.-based foundation that seeks to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
Seismic activity
Indications that the test had taken place first emerged when U.S. seismologists reported a disturbance Tuesday morning in North Korea centered near the site of the secretive regime's two previous atomic blasts.
The area around the epicenter of the tremor in northeastern North Korea has little or no history of earthquakes or natural seismic hazards, according to U.S. Geological Survey maps.
The disturbance reported Tuesday had a magnitude of 5.1 — upgraded from an initial estimate of 4.9 — and took place at a depth of about one kilometer, the USGS said.
Kim Min-seok, a spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry, said the magnitude of the "artificial tremor" suggested the size of the blast could be in the order of 6 to 7 kilotons, more powerful than the North's two prior nuclear tests.
That calculation, though, was based on the USGS's initial estimate of a 4.9-magnitude seismic disturbance, he said. A 5.1-magnitude tremor could indicate a 10-kiloton explosion.
News breaks amid key dates in Northeast Asia
The test took place at a time when several East Asian countries, including China, North Korea's major ally, are observing public holidays for the Lunar New Year, which began Sunday.
It also comes ahead of significant dates in both North and South Korea.
On Saturday, North Koreans will celebrate the birthday of Kim Jong Il, the former North Korean leader who died in December 2011 after 17 years in power and was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Un.
And on February 25, the South Korea president-elect, Park Geun-hye, will take office. She had campaigned on a pledge to seek increased dialogue with the North, but Pyongyang's recent moves have left her little room for maneuver.
In a statement Tuesday, Park condemned the nuclear test, saying it harmed ties between the two Koreas.
North Korea announced last month that it was planning a new nuclear test and more long-range rocket launches, all of which it said were part of a new phase of confrontation with the United States.
It made the threats two days after the United Nations Security Council had approved the broadening of sanctions on the reclusive, Stalinist regime in response to the North's launching of a long-range rocket in December that apparently succeeded in putting a satellite in orbit.
Pyongyang said it carried out the launch for peaceful purposes, but it was widely considered to be a test of ballistic missile technology.
Threats against the U.S.?
The North's recent propaganda has used words and images that imply a threat to the United States, but analysts dismiss the prospect that Pyongyang is willing or able to carry out a military attack on U.S. soil.
The latest nuclear test is worrying in military terms, Chinoy said, "but does this mean they can drop a nuclear weapon on Los Angeles? Absolutely not. The notion that they are going to target the U.S. is way off the mark."
U.S. analysts say North Korea's first bomb test, in October 2006, produced an explosive yield at less than 1 kiloton (1,000 tons) of TNT. A second test in May 2009 is believed to have been about 2 kilotons, National Intelligence Director James Clapper told a Senate committee in 2012.
By comparison, the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 was a 15-kiloton device.
The North's latest test on Tuesday suggests the country has made a notable step forward in terms of power, said Jeffrey Lewis, East Asia director at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, part of the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
"They were pretty clear they were going to up the yield a lot," Lewis said, and it "looks like they've done that."
He also warned that Kim Jong Un's regime may not be ready to relinquish the headlines yet, suggesting that a second test remained a possibility and could happen within a few days.
In a commentary last week, the North's KCNA said that Pyongyang had "drawn a final conclusion that it will have to take a measure stronger than a nuclear test to cope with the hostile forces' nuclear war moves."
It didn't elaborate on what would be stronger than a nuclear test.
CNN's Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's K.J. Kwon in Seoul, South Korea; Yoko Wakatsuki and Junko Ogura in Tokyo; Judy Kwon in Hong Kong; Dana Ford and Matt Smith in Atlanta; Anna Maja Rappard in New York; and Elise Labott in Washington contributed to this report. Journalists Katie Hunt in Hong Kong and Connie Young in Beijing also contributed reporting.


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Drop L Luxury Bottle
Packaging Design Focus: Drop L Luxury Bottle
A Good Packaging design example, the Drop L is a creative Luxury Bottle design. Drop L was designed in 2011, and here is a how it is described by its designer: Drop L is a luxury looking glass or metal bottle with golden finishing, it can be used as an olive oil bottle, beverage bottle and much.
Drop L Luxury Bottle Images:
End of the article, click here to go back to previous page, or alternatively go back to The d3z1gn Magazine homepage.
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Reliable employer
Our people are INEOS Styrolution's most important asset. Their creativity, diversity, knowledge, passion and expertise help us achieve a competitive advantage and drive business success.
Our approachOne of our core guiding principles is "valuing and respecting people" and we aim to maintain positive relations with our employees and develop a healthy working environment where our workforce can develop and maximize their potential.
With 16 manufacturing sites in nine countries and 24 sales offices around the world, our employees are accustomed to working with people of diverse cultural backgrounds. We truly believe in diversity and equal employment opportunities regardless of gender, age, nationality, religion, race, or cultural background.
Click here to read more about our approach.
Our performance
In 2017, we conducted our global employee survey, which received very active participation resulting in a very high response rate of 82%. This well above the industry benchmark of 60% for a first survey. The survey has revealed a high level of engagement and commitment towards the company, role and colleagues.
In alignment with our material assessment and to underscore our commitment to continuous improvements, we defined the following global sustainability targets for being a reliable employer.
Our global employee survey received very active participation resulting in a very high response rate of 82%.
We implemented senior management development training in 2017 and all executives reporting to a board member will have attended this training by mid-2018.
In 2017, 54% (EMEA 66%, Americas 70% and Asia-Pacific 14%) of our exempt employees had employee development interviews undertaken jointly with their manager. We will continue to aim for 80% of our exempt employees to complete employee development interviews by the end of 2018.
Click here to read more about our performance.
Click here to read more about being a reliable employer.


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Acquisition Broadens Company's Portfolio of Technical Information Solutions
NEEDHAM, MA – July 16, 2013 – PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC) today announced it has acquired Enigma, a developer of software that aggregates and delivers technical content in aftermarket service environments. The acquisition enhances PTC's existing portfolio of service lifecycle management (SLM) solutions and further distinguishes the Company's leadership position within the SLM market. Now, in addition to its best-in-class capabilities in technical authoring, illustrating, publishing, and delivering product-centric information, PTC will be able to amass, digitize, and deliver technical content that was created outside the PTC platform.
The Enigma products intelligently aggregate a wide variety of service content available in many formats and then repurpose and present that information for technicians or end users requiring technical and parts information to operate, maintain and service complex products. By leveraging Enigma's technology within PTC's existing Technical Information and Service Parts Information solutions, PTC will enable service-oriented organizations to make available a broad array of technical content.
"The addition of Enigma technology to the PTC solution suite will expand companies' ability to deliver the best possible product performance and service experience to their customers," stated Lee Smith, divisional vice president and general manager, SLM Segment, PTC. "Our combined solution will get the right information to the right person at the right time – regardless of the information's origin. What made Enigma an attractive acquisition to us was its rich intellectual property, world-class customer base and skilled technical resources. This deal reinforces PTC's commitment to become the single best partner to manufacturers, equipment operators and service providers seeking to increase value from their service operations and improve their customers' experience."
"We share PTC's vision of providing best-in-class solutions that help customers reduce costs and provide faster and more personalized service," stated Jonathan Yaron, CEO of Enigma. "Our customers will benefit from the vision, commitment, and resources of our combined companies."
PTC's decade-long investment in organic development and select acquisitions has resulted in mature, market-leading solutions that help service organizations produce, manage and deliver high-quality, configuration-specific service information.
Benefit to Manufacturing and Service Organizations – A single system that aggregates service content (including technical product information authored and published within and outside of the PTC platform) from across the enterprise will enable the right information to be available at the critical point of service.
Benefit to Manufacturers' Customers – A single system for service that provides the latest configuration-specific content and parts information will enable improvements in technician work quality, product uptime, and customer satisfaction.
"Up-to-date technical and service parts information has immediate potential to improve service outcomes and, ultimately, the customer experience," stated Aly Pinder, Research Analyst, Customer Experience and Service Management, Aberdeen.
About TriStar
TriStar is PTC's leading provider in North America and offers a complete range of engineering products and services including software; training; PLM, CAD, and CAM implementation and consulting services; and professional staffing services. More information can be found at www.tristar.com.
About PTC
PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC) enables manufacturers to achieve maximum value from their product strategies with software and services designed to optimize key business processes. More information can be found at www.ptc.com.


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Mareine Mbengang
Specialty Program Camp: Modeling
Both Boy's and Girl's Camps - Day and Overnight Camp
Religious Affiliation: Presbyterian
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA - (240) 643 0338
Camp to have fun. Meet new people and have a lot of fun. To be able to walk like a model. In shows.


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Research, development and trades concerning the powerful Proxmark3 device.
Remember; sharing is caring. Bring something back to the community.
"Learn the tools of the trade the hard way." +Fravia
You are not logged in.
Pages: 1
Is there a compiler for the language used in FPGA?
The toolchain is only for arm? Is it correct?
The toolchain is only for arm? Is it correct?
Exactly. For the FPGA you need the Xilinx WebPack that you can get from the Xilinx site. Important: You need version 10.x, because version 11.x doesn't include support for the Spartan-II that's used on the proxmark anymore.
Thank you henryk for your help, I downloaded the versions 10.1 and 11.1 for windows and linux.
Pages: 1


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You can install Matomo on your own server at no cost. To get all the analytics goodness download the latest version of Matomo (3.6.0) for FREE!
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Need your analytics on the go? Use our free Matomo Mobile app to check your stats from anywhere and show them to colleagues in meetings.Read More
Many answers and more information about Matomo you can find here:
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New era of gene-based 'personalized medicine' dawning
Six years ago, scientists announced the completion of the Human Genome Project, a historic effort to decipher each of the 3 billion letters in the genetic instruction book for our species. A single anonymous male from Buffalo, N.Y. - code name RP11 - provided the bulk of the DNA used for the project.
Now, many thousands more people are contributing DNA samples for a wide array of follow-on studies designed to turn the project's findings to practical use in health care, genetics and biological research.
Researchers and doctors have opened a new era of "personalized medicine" that seeks to tailor therapies to patients based on their unique genetic makeups and medical histories.
According to the National Cancer Institute, the days are passing when most cancer tumors were thought to be essentially the same and patients got the same drugs.
"We're not very good at selecting therapies for individual patients," Dr. Rick Hockett, the chief medical officer of Affymetrix, a genetics firm in Santa Clara, Calif., told a conference on personalized medicine this month in Washington. "Targeted therapy," he said, can "improve the benefit-risk ratio for patients."
For example, Hockett said that heart patients who took the popular anti-clotting drug Plavix had a greatly increased risk of serious problems, including death, if they had two tiny mutations in their genes.
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York have begun to screen lung tumors for genetic abnormalities that could reveal whether a particular treatment is likely to work or should be avoided.
Last year, Dr. Richard Wilson, the director of the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University in St. Louis, compared 20,000 genes in cancer cells from a woman who died of leukemia with healthy cells also taken from her body. Wilson identified 10 mutations _ or genetic mistakes _ related to her cancer, including one that blocks chemotherapy drugs from getting inside the cancerous cell.
Other developments in the approaching world of personalized medicine include:
_A "Personal Genome Project" led by George Church, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, aims to recruit 100,000 people of diverse backgrounds to analyze their genomes and medical histories.
The first 10 participants already have published their personal data _ including their pictures, weights and smoking and drinking habits, as well as their DNA _ on the Internet for anyone to see at www.personalgenomes.org/pgp10.html.
To take part, volunteers donate hair and saliva samples for DNA analysis. So far, 13,000 people have asked to be enrolled. For privacy, their data will be encoded by number, not by individual names.
The goal is to discover which genetic variations are related to which diseases, so that targeted therapies can be designed. According to Church, at least 1,449 genes have been linked to potential illnesses. For instance, a gene called ApoE is associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer's.
_The National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., has launched a "1000 Genomes Project," which has started to collect DNA from 1,000 individuals from Africa, Asia and Europe. The goal is to provide much broader and deeper information than the original, limited Human Genome Project could.
Researchers are seeking clues to individual differences in susceptibility to disease, response to drugs and sensitivity to the environment.
"Just as astronomers see farther and more clearly into the universe with bigger telescopes, the results of the 1000 Genomes Project will give us greater resolution as we view our own genetic blueprint," Francis Collins, the former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, said in a statement explaining the plan. "We'll be able to see more things more clearly than before, and that will be important for understanding the genetic contributions to health and illness."
_The National Geographic Society is collecting DNA from about 300,000 people for a "Genographic Project" that traces their distant ancestries from continent to continent all the way back to their African roots.
Researchers at 10 centers around the world collect DNA samples from local populations. A team led by Spencer Wells, a genetic anthropologist and the magazine's "explorer in residence" in Washington, will analyze the samples.
In addition, anyone who wishes to can buy a $100 self-testing kit and provide a saliva sample to the Genographic project. Participants will get back reports that describe in general terms the migration of their ancestors from their original roots in Africa some 60,000 years ago.
_A booming, but controversial, genetic testing industry also has sprouted, offering to analyze a person's DNA _ at a price _ for possible susceptibility to cancer, Alzheimer's and dozens of other diseases.
More than 1,000 such tests are on the market, Kathy Hudson, the director of the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, told a congressional committee.
According to the Human Genome Project's Web site, some genetic tests have "greatly improved or even saved lives," but there are concerns that they might be used by insurance companies to deny coverage or by employers deciding whom to hire or promote.
To meet these concerns, Congress passed a "Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act" last year, which is just starting to have an impact.
"The portions of it relating to health insurance just went into effect on May 21, and so will apply to next year's (health) plan for most people," said Susannah Baruch, of the Genetics and Public Policy Center. The parts of the new law that relate to the use of genetic information on the job won't take effect until Nov. 21, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission already has drafted regulations.
More on personalized medicine: www.personalizedmedicinecoalition.org
Personal Genome Project: www.personalgenomes.org
1000 Genomes Project: www.1000genomes.org/page.php
National Geographic's Genographic Project: genographic.nationalgeographic.com
(c) 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau on the World Wide Web at www.mcclatchydc.com.
Explore further


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During a trip to Arthur's Pass we came across these amazing boulders sitting on the hills on the side of the valley the highway went through. The area is known as "Castle Hill" and there's a convenient parking lot for stopping and nice walk out to the rocks. You can then climb up and around on the boulders.
There's a nice flat area on top of the boulders near the highest point which provides a nice view of the valley and the pasture where some cows and sheep are grazing.
Unfortunately, clouds moved in shortly after our arrival and it took away a lot of the light which really highlighted the rocks. I would love to go back someday and re-shoot some panoramas on a nice day. But, the two panoramas still give you a feeling of what it's like to visit this place. Definitely worth a stop and a nice way to stretch your legs a bit after the long drive from Christchurch.


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Bank Night prepares teams for upcoming
Relay for Life
Send a link to a friend
[July 08, 2014]
LINCOLN - As the upcoming 2014 Relay
for Life approaches, teams participated in the annual Bank Night. On
Monday, June 30 participants began turning in donations and
collections for luminaries (memorial lights).
The teams have raised money throughout the year with various
fundraisers that include purchase of "fundraising feet" at area
businesses and such -- coin cans, scratch and give cards, dress
down/jean days at work, hat days at school where students pay one
dollar and wear a hat, and Culver's nights. Teams also get support
and sponsorship directly from various area businesses.
Rachel Ray, a Relay for Life specialist from the Springfield
American Cancer Society office says that funds raised are used for
areas such as research, education, and patient support.
Rachael Ray, Relay For Life specialist from
the Springfield American Cancer Society office displaying
information on fundraising for the Relay.
A team captain, Trenton Crawford, says that much of the funding
collected for the Relay is used locally to provide free rides for
out-of-town treatments, free wigs and makeovers for patients, and
for lodging at HOPE lodge, which is for people far from home who
have family members receiving aggressive treatments.
Ray reports that there are 21 teams this year. This year's co-chairs
are Tonita Reifsteck and Esther Boward and the honorary co-chairs
are cancer survivors Nancy Reese and Nichole Bottrell.
The theme for 2014 is "Cooking up a Cure for Cancer," which Ray says
encourages healthy eating and lifestyle.
Chairperson Tonita Riefsteck assisting people
at Relay for Life Bank Night.
Relay T-shirts say "Finish the Fight." Tonita Reifsteck reminds
teams that some still need to sign up for survivor's shirts because
they will only be available for those who sign up.
Team captain Lindsey Lafrance has team shirts with purple ribbons
that she will also be selling around town. As the event nears, teams
will "paint the town purple" with yard signs and posters displayed
at area homes and businesses.
[to top of second column]
Bill Post noted that there is still time to order luminaries in
memory of cancer patients.
Bill Post collecting the money for the
Seven year survivor Kathleen Brumbaugh says she is part of the Relay
for Life because of her own cancer, and because she has lost several
family and friends to cancer. Her team is made up of members from
the Logan County Breast Cancer Support Group.
On the night of the relay, Friday, July 25, events will begin with
the survivor's dinner at 4 p.m. The opening ceremony follows at 6
p.m. with a welcome by Master of Ceremonies John Guzzardo and an
opening prayer by Pastor and cancer survivor Robert Long.
The American Legion Post 263 will then present the flags and
Debbie Ross will sing the National Anthem.
Trenton Crawford and Kathleen Brumbaugh will read the mission
statement, followed by introduction of honorary co-chairs Reese
and Bottrell who will read their bios.
Soloist Lesleigh Bennett will kick off the survivor's lap and
soloist Sheralyn Bolton will start the caregiver's lap, followed by
soloist Laurin Hill for the kids 10-and-under lap. When all teams
have been introduced at their campsites, team laps will begin after
Jennifer Keith reads the 'Fight Back' statement.
Activities throughout the evening and early morning hours will
include a live auction, solos by survivors Monica Hay and Kim
McFarland, signing by Angela Rogers and Praise Handmade, music by
the groups Trash and Spotlight Entertainment 2, line dancing led
first by Suzanne Gowin and later Bob Hashman, Limbo and jump rope
contests, a scavenger hunt, and Bingo. At 4 a.m. teams will
participate in Zumba in order to renew their energy.
The events will close with a prayer by Teresa Luken followed by a
balloon release.
The teams will have one final meeting for the relay at Lincoln
Christian Church on July 14 at 7:00 p.m.
[By ANGELA REINERS]
< Top Stories index
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The Jim Henson Legacy is a non-profit organization founded in 1992 that seeks to further the appreciation of Jim Henson as an artist. The Legacy hosts periodic screenings, exhibits and live appearances that celebrate Henson's work. They are also involved in locating examples of Henson's work that are not yet part of the Jim Henson Company Archives.
Craig Shemin, who serves on the Legacy board, has been particularly active in bringing archival footage to public attention. Shemin designed the extras on the 2005 Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas DVD, and he has set up events at The Paley Center for Media, Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Museum of the Moving Image.
"Established in 1993, The Jim Henson Legacy was created by family and friends in response to the extraordinary interest in the life and work of Jim Henson. The organization is dedicated to preserving and perpetuating Jim Henson's contributions to the worlds of puppetry, television, motion pictures, special effects and media technology.
By making Jim's creative body of work available to the public through presentations and exhibits, the Legacy will share the power of his art, his imagination and his positive view of life with generations to come.[1]"
Officers and Board of Directors
- Founder: Jane Henson
- President: Craig Shemin
- Vice President: Karen Falk
- Chair: Al Gottesman
- Treasurer: Thea Hambright
- Directors: Fran Brill, Bonnie Erickson, Al Gottesman, Heather Henson, Arthur Novell
- Manager: Nathaniel Wharton


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Updated: Lamp Switch Started House Fire
A three-alarm fire that destroyed a home and damaged two others in North Berkeley on Thursday afternoon was apparently caused by a faulty lamp switch, an assistant fire chief said today.
The blaze was reported at 12:02 p.m. at a home in the 500 block of San Luis Road, Assistant Fire Chief Sabina Imrie said.
The fire was caused by a malfunction in the lamp switch, and the lamp was surrounded by papers that fueled the fire, Imrie said.
The blaze caused at least $500,000 in structural damage to the home, rendering it uninhabitable. It also caused at least $100,000 in damage to two neighboring homes, according to Imrie.
The owner of the home where the fire started was displaced, along with her sister and their dog. The dog was rescued from the home by a neighbor during the blaze, Imrie said.
The residents in the two neighboring homes were able to return to their houses later Thursday after they were deemed safe and utility services were turned back on in the area, she said.
No residents or firefighters were injured by the blaze.


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What's new in Game Collector for Windows?
Game Collector (Windows)
v16.3.2: Updated date fields and fixed a couple of bugs
June 30th, 2016
- Date fields now have dropdowns for Month and Day. Order of Month and Day dropdown depends on system's shortdate setting now
- Edit Multiple: F8 in date fields didn't clear them
- Main Screen:
- horizontal scrollbar was sometimes showing in folder tree when it shouldn't
- Cards View: scrolling using the mouse wheel wasn't working properly
- layout wasn't always restored properly when quick filter panel was showing
- Quick Filter Panel: collection status filter wasn't showing in filter description at bottom of the screen
Recent changes
v20.3: Faster image downloads, faster Update from Core June 25th, 2020 v20.2: Faster Shelves View + 2 new Shelf Styles June 8th, 2020 v20.1 Faster CLZ Cloud syncing! March 25th, 2020 v20.0.2 Better Tag editing / Faster syncing February 5th, 2020 v20: Folder panel improvements + new Statistics screen January 8th, 2020 v19.4 Add Games by Platform August 6th, 2019 v19.3: Add Hardware by searching CLZ Core July 19th, 2019 v19.2.1: New: Duplicate Finder tool April 15th, 2019 v19.1.2: More tweaks to the Add button March 25th, 2019 v19.1: Three cool tweaks requested by our users March 7th, 2019 v19.0.3: Image Viewer now resizes the window December 7th, 2018 v19.0: multiple collections, auto-sync images, 64-bit and a new Flex template! December 3rd, 2018 v18.3.1: Secure HTTPS connections July 27th, 2018 v18.2.1: Selection checkboxes / New Action Bars May 30th, 2018 v18.1: Full support for High DPI screens / Large Fonts May 23rd, 2018 v18: Auto-Cloud-Syncing, revamped Edit screen, new "Clean" template and more! December 15th, 2017 v17.2.1: A completely new Add Games screen! June 14th, 2017 V17.0.1: Major updates to the Quick Search and Image Viewer popup! February 14th, 2017 v16.5.1: Easily add games that come up as "Unrecognized Barcode" December 14th, 2016 v16.4.2: Quick search with regular expressions and other tweaks November 10th, 2016 v16.4.1: New: "Search-As-You-Type" suggestions when adding games by title October 10th, 2016 v16.3.1: New: Light, Dark and System skins and Quick Filter panel June 23rd, 2016 v16.2.1: Introducing: Card View for the main screen February 24th, 2016 v16.1.1: Find Cover systems now all use Bing Image Search December 3rd, 2015 v16.0.1: Game Collector V16: Quicksilver November 30th, 2015


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out of a billion people in new york, this morning i ran into mutinyco on the train.
Obviously what you are doing right now is called (in my upcoming book of psychology at least) validation. I think it's a normal thing to do. People will reply, say anything, and then you're gonna do what you were subconsciently thinking of doing all along.
If by cool you mean awkward.


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Oct 21, 2015 – Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's Ex-Girlfriend Chioma Amaryllis Accuses Him Of Using Biafra To Dupe The Igbos
The former girlfriend of recently arrested Radio Biafra founder has exposed his fraudulent activities.
US-based Chioma Amaryllis, a former PR coordinator for Radio Biafra alleged that Kanu is misleading gullible Igbos and collecting money from them to sustain his lavish lifestyle.
Hear her:
"I am Chioma Amaryllis I live in the USA but I am from Mbaise in Imo State, a proud Igbo woman. I had a relationship with Nnamdi Kanu as he presented himself to me in the US as a single man. I hope that the point I am trying to make about Nnamdi Kanu will take precedence. I am telling the truth about Nnamdi Kanu & Radio Biafra as I saw it and closely witnessed"
"It is easy enough to live in Malasia, China, Japan, Indonesia and donate money to Radio Biafra"
"I bought and paid my ticket from the USA to Nigeria for Radio Biafra to see things for myself"
"I was donating my savings in the USA to Radio Biafra for defence & all forms of funds"
"As Nnamdi Kanu's girlfriend I went to Nigeria myself I wanted to see what Biafra was about"
"It is not enough for Ndi Igbo's to get excited by someone you hear on the radio, verify"
"I don't want Igbo's in diaspora to believe me, buy your ticket like I did and see Nnamdi's lies. Go back home to Igbo Land and do your investigations, don't be deceived"
"Money was being collected by Nnamdi Kanu, huge money from genuine people & misappropriated," she said.
Nnamdi Kanu collected huge donations to build a cenotaph for Ojukwu but never did. A lot of donations to Biafra went down the drain & I have a right to speak out because I contributed."
"When Nnamdi Kanu asked for $8 million to start in 2014, I took a step back knowing Ojukwu used his own money for Biafra. I am unhappy people are being tricked to donate money using Biafra as a cover."


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Trust Judy G. Russell to start the week off with a bang. In Monday's post, O death! Thy name is woman, Judy explores women who received the death penalty in the United States, from colonial times to the last woman executed.
The Knitting Genealogist published a fascinating look at the transformations wrought by the Industrial Revolution in the U. K. and their effects on her ancestors and their communities, "Those infatuated creatures calling themselves Luddites."
Dave Tabler of Appalachian History writes about the life of Gertrude Dills McKee, a native of Jackson Co., NC, and the first woman to serve in the North Carolina State Senate.
The Rally at the Capitol in support of funding for the Georgia Archives received news coverage from The Clayton Daily News. Don't forget to write your local representatives to the General Assembly about this important issue.
Well, we almost got snow here. I think a few parts north of us did, so here are some snow day recipes from Alison Murray at North Carolina Miscellany for y'all.
As an aside, my mother used to make snow cream for us using snow, milk, sugar, and vanilla. Yum. Now, if we could just have some actual snow…


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Euzebe - Saturday 19/09/2009, 14:01
Imperator - The Saiyans
More and more lotteries are organized in our community and some are
created to scam players. That's why we need new rules about these events.
Free lotteries :
No problem with these lotteries, they are allowed.
- The organizer must clearly give the list of all prizes he gives
- The organizer must explain in the rules how winners will be chosen
(if a moderator will draw winners or if a moderator knows about this
lottery and is seeing to it)
Donations :
You could ask for donations or agree to receive some BUT ALL cards
MUST be given to the players who joined your lottery.
You must give the list of ALL donations.
It must be clear : the organizer mustn't keep clintz or cards for him/
herself. He/she could be blacklisted or even banned for scam.
Lotteries with entry fee :
It is allowed only if you follow these rules :
- The organizer must explain how the jackpot will be given.
Example : 80% / 20% or 10 x 10% or 50% / 30% / 20%
- The organizer mustn't keep a part of the jackpot for him/herself or
he/she will be blacklisted or even banned for scam.
- The jackpot cannot be used to buy collectors (or even other cards).
The jackpot must be given to players.
Random selection of winners :
I advise you to be honest with random.
Your friends are not supposed to be more lucky than the others.
You could ask a moderator to help you to organize your lottery and do
the draw for you.
Of course, if you are using multiple accounts to win something, all
accounts will be banned.
dkassassin - Sunday 15/04/2012, 08:58
Ok people i have a question? what if this is an internal revenue thing like we are trying to raise money for an even bigger event. i had an idea to do a 50/50 drawing half for the event cordinator and half for the winner of the drawing. then we go and use the money for the next event like a drawing for a cr or some other kind of high priced card. so in short we would be able to do other ones that would normaly cost thousands or even millions.
Pun Intended - Thursday 08/11/2012, 23:51
Senior - La Asamblea
I have read the new rules, but i think:
If your lotto has a fee, you cant keep the money so you cant scam players, and have to say what people have donate to the lotto.
So I think that maybe rules could let organizers keep part of the Jackpot or all the Jackpot IF it isnt biggest than the cards he/she put in the lotto, without the donated cards, so organizer could get at least a 50-60% of the clintz he had used to make the lotto.
It's my oppinion, but I think its fair.
ZacharyThomas - Saturday 24/11/2012, 07:57
Colossus - Harbingers of Ares
So is there a restriction to how many events I enter in a given time or am I free to enter as many lotteries as I find
Infiniti - Saturday 24/11/2012, 17:24
Colossus - Open Casket
There is no restriction
XxExavieRxX - Tuesday 28/05/2013, 14:27
This is a great set of rules


text:
When you boot your system, you will notice lots of text floating by. If you pay
close attention, you will notice this text is the same every time you reboot
your system. The sequence of all these actions is called the
First, your boot loader will load the kernel image you have defined in the
boot loader configuration into memory after which it tells the CPU to run the
kernel. When the kernel is loaded and run, it initializes all kernel-specific
structures and tasks and starts the
This process then makes sure that all filesystems (defined in
Finally, when all scripts are executed,
When all
Of course
If you remember the boot sequence we have just described, you will remember
si::sysinit:/sbin/rc sysinit
This line tells
rc::bootwait:/sbin/rc boot
Again the
In this case (which the majority of Gentoo users will use), the
l0:0:wait:/sbin/rc shutdown l1:S1:wait:/sbin/rc single l2:2:wait:/sbin/rc nonetwork l3:3:wait:/sbin/rc default l4:4:wait:/sbin/rc default l5:5:wait:/sbin/rc default l6:6:wait:/sbin/rc reboot
The line that defines level 3, again, uses the
c1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux c2:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty2 linux c3:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty3 linux c4:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty4 linux c5:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty5 linux c6:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty6 linux
You have seen that
In Gentoo, there are seven runlevels defined: three internal runlevels, and four
user-defined runlevels. The internal runlevels are called
The user-defined runlevels are those with an accompanying
The scripts that the
To start, stop or restart a service (and all depending services),
# /etc/init.d/postfix start
If you want to stop a service, but not the services that depend on it, you can
use the
# /etc/init.d/postfix --nodeps stop
If you want to see what status a service has (started, stopped, ...) you
can use the
# /etc/init.d/postfix status
If the status information tells you that the service is running, but you know
that it is not, then you can reset the status information to "stopped" with the
# /etc/init.d/postfix zap
To also ask what dependencies the service has, you can use
# /etc/init.d/postfix ineed
Similarly, you can ask what services require the service (
# /etc/init.d/postfix needsme
Finally, you can ask what dependencies the service requires that are missing:
# /etc/init.d/postfix broken
Gentoo's init system uses a dependency-tree to decide what service needs to be started first. As this is a tedious task that we wouldn't want our users to have to do manually, we have created tools that ease the administration of the runlevels and init scripts.
You have already added init scripts to the "default" runlevel during the
installation of Gentoo. At that time you might not have had a clue what the
"default" is for, but now you should. The
To add or remove an init script, just give
# rc-update del postfix default
# rc-update -v show
You can also run
Init scripts can be quite complex. It is therefore not really desirable to have the users edit the init script directly, as it would make it more error-prone. It is however important to be able to configure such a service. For instance, you might want to give more options to the service itself.
A second reason to have this configuration outside the init script is to be able to update the init scripts without the fear that your configuration changes will be undone.
Gentoo provides an easy way to configure such a service: every init script that
can be configured has a file in
Such a configuration file contains variables and variables alone (just like
No, writing an init script is usually not necessary as Gentoo provides ready-to-use init scripts for all provided services. However, you might have installed a service without using Portage, in which case you will most likely have to create an init script.
Do not use the init script provided by the service if it isn't explicitly written for Gentoo: Gentoo's init scripts are not compatible with the init scripts used by other distributions!
The basic layout of an init script is shown below.
#!/sbin/runscript depend() {
(Dependency information)} start() { (Commands necessary to start the service)} stop() { (Commands necessary to stop the service)}
Any init script
There are two dependency-alike settings you can define that influence the
start-up or sequencing of init scripts:
It should be clear from the above that
Now, if you look at many of Gentoo's available init scripts, you will notice
that some have dependencies on things that are no init scripts. These "things"
we call
Let us take a look at the dependency information for the postfix service.
depend() { need net use logger dns provide mta }
As you can see, the postfix service:
As we described in the previous section, you can tell the init system what order
it should use for starting (or stopping) scripts. This ordering is handled both
through the dependency settings
depend() { need net before inetd before xinetd }
You can also use the "*" glob to catch all services in the same runlevel, although this isn't advisable.
depend() { before * }
If your service must write to local disks, it should need
depend() { need localmount after bootmisc }
Next to the
start() { if [ "${RC_CMD}" = "restart" ]; then
# Do something in case a restart requires more than stop, startfi ebegin "Starting my_service" start-stop-daemon --start --exec /path/to/my_service \ --pidfile /path/to/my_pidfile eend $? }
Another notable setting used in the above example is to check the contents of
If you need more examples of the
Another function you can define is
Here is an example of a
stop() { ebegin "Stopping my_service" start-stop-daemon --stop --exec /path/to/my_service \ --pidfile /path/to/my_pidfile eend $? }
If your service runs some other script (for example, bash, python, or perl),
and this script later changes names (for example,
start() { ebegin "Starting my_script" start-stop-daemon --start --exec /path/to/my_script \ --pidfile /path/to/my_pidfile --name foo eend $? }
$ man start-stop-daemon
Gentoo's init script syntax is based on the POSIX Shell so you are free to use sh-compatible constructs inside your init script. Keep other constructs, like bash-specific ones, out of the init scripts to ensure that the scripts remain functional regardless of the change Gentoo might do on its init system.
If you want your init script to support more options than the ones we have
already encountered, you should add the option to the
extra_commands="restartdelay" restartdelay() { stop sleep 3
# Wait 3 seconds before starting againstart }
You don't have to do anything to support a configuration file in
Also, if your init script provides a virtual dependency (such as
Many laptop users know the situation: at home you need to start
For instance you can create a second "default" runlevel which you can boot that has other init scripts assigned to it. You can then select at boottime what default runlevel you want to use.
First of all, create the runlevel directory for your second "default" runlevel.
As an example we create the
# mkdir /etc/runlevels/offline
Add the necessary init scripts to the newly created runlevels. For instance, if
you want to have an exact copy of your current
(Copy all services from default runlevel to offline runlevel)# cd /etc/runlevels/default # for service in *; do rc-update add $service offline; done (Remove unwanted service from offline runlevel)# rc-update del net.eth0 offline (Display active services for offline runlevel)# rc-update show offline (Partial sample Output)acpid | offline domainname | offline local | offline net.eth0 |
Even though
If you do want to enable hotplugging, but only for a selected set of scripts,
use the
# Allow net.wlan as well as any other service, except those matching net.* # to be hotpluggedrc_hotplug="net.wlan !net.*"
Now edit your bootloader configuration and add a new entry for the
title Gentoo Linux Offline Usage root (hd0,0) kernel (hd0,0)/kernel-2.4.25 root=/dev/hda3 softlevel=offline
Voilà, you're all set now. If you boot your system and select the newly added
entry at boot, the


text:
¿Solo asi he de irme?
¿Como las flores que perecieron?
¿Nada quedara en mi nombre?
¿Nada de mi paso aqui en la tierra?
¡Al menos flores, al menos cantos!
Ceramic representation of Mictlantecuhtli, Aztec god of the dead and king of Mictlan (Chicunauhmictlan), lowest and northernmost section of the underworld, recovered during excavation of the House of Eagles in the Templo Mayor, now on display at the museum of the Templo Mayor, Mexico City: photo by Thelmadatter, 23 March 2008
Nahuatl Huexotzinco codex (panel four), made in 1531 by Nahua Indians in a legal case in Mexico and Spain against Spanish administrators who abused them. The Indians were part of the Cortes estate. Cortes was a co-plantiff against the administrators who mismanaged his estate.
Panel 1 of the 1531 Nahuatl Huexotzinco Codex, showing image of the Virgin with Child and symbolic representation of the taxes paid.
Nahua Numbering System
|= 20
|= 20 turkeys
|= 400
|= 400 bushels of corn
|= 8,000
|= 8,000 chili peppers
|= 1 load of adobe bricks
|= 1 load of lime
|= 1 load of lumber


text:
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VM::EC2::Volume - Object describing an Amazon EBS volume
use VM::EC2;
$ec2 = VM::EC2->new(...);
@vol = $ec2->describe_volumes;
for my $vol (@vols) {
$id = $vol->volumeId;
$size = $vol->size;
$snap = $vol->snapshotId;
$zone = $vol->availabilityZone;
$status = $vol->status;
$ctime = $vol->createTime;
@attachments = $vol->attachments;
$attachment = $vol->attachment;
$origin = $vol->from_snapshot;
@snapshots = $vol->to_snapshots;
$vols[0]->create_snapshot('automatic snapshot')
This object is used to describe an Amazon EBS volume. It is returned by
The following object methods are supported:
volumeId -- ID of this volume.
size -- Size of this volume (in GB).
snapshotId -- ID of snapshot this volume was created from.
availabilityZone -- Availability zone in which this volume resides.
status -- Volume state, one of "creating", "available",
"in-use", "deleting", "deleted", "error"
createTime -- Timestamp for when volume was created.
volumeType -- The volume type, one of "standard" or "io1"
iops -- The number of I/O operations per second that the volume
supports, an integer between 100 and 4000. Only valid for
volumes of type "io1".
tags -- Hashref containing tags associated with this group.
See L<VM::EC2::Generic>.
In addition, this class provides several convenience functions:
$attachment = $vol->attachment
@attachments = $vol->attachments
The attachment() method returns a VM::EC2::BlockDevice::Attachment
object describing the attachment of this volume to an instance. If the
volume is unused, then this returns undef.
The attachments() method is similar, except that it returns a list of
the attachments. Currently an EBS volume can only be attached to one
instance at a time, but the Amazon call syntax supports multiple
attachments and this method is provided for future compatibility.
$attachment = $vol->attach($instance,$device)
$attachment = $vol->attach(-instance_id=>$instance,-device=>$device)
Attach this volume to an instance using virtual device $device. Both
arguments are required. The result is a
VM::EC2::BlockDevice::Attachment object which you can monitor by
calling current_status():
my $a = $volume->attach('i-12345','/dev/sdg');
while ($a->current_status ne 'attached') {
sleep 2;
print "volume is ready to go
$attachment = $volume->detach()
$attachment = $volume->detach(-instance_id=>$instance_id, -device=>$device,
Detaches this volume. With no arguments, will detach the volume from
whatever instance it is currently attached to. Provide -instance_id
and/or -device as a check that you are detaching the volume from the
expected instance and device.
Optional arguments:
-instance_id -- ID of the instance to detach from.
-device -- How the device is exposed to the instance.
-force -- Force detachment, even if previous attempts were
The result is a VM::EC2::BlockDevice::Attachment object which you can
monitor by calling current_status():
my $a = $volume->detach;
while ($a->current_status ne 'detached') {
sleep 2;
print "volume is ready to go
$boolean = $vol->deleteOnTermination([$boolean])
Get or set the deleteOnTermination flag for attached volumes. If the
volume is unattached, then this causes a fatal error. Called with no
arguments, this method returns the current state of the
deleteOnTermination flag for the volume's attachment. Called with a
true/false argument, the method sets the flag by calling
modify_instance_attributes() on the corresponding instance and returns
true if successful.
$snap = $vol->from_snapshot
Returns the VM::EC2::Snapshot object that this volume was originally
derived from. It will return undef if the resource no longer exists, or
if the volume was created from scratch.
@snap = $vol->to_snapshots
If this volume has been used to create one or more snapshots, this
method will return them as a list of VM::EC2::Snapshot objects.
$snapshot = $vol->create_snapshot('Description')
Create a snapshot of the volume and return a VM::EC2::Snapshot object.
To ensure a consistent snapshot, you should unmount the volume before
snapshotting it. The optional argument allows you to add a description
to the snapshot.
Here is an example:
$s = $volume->create_snapshot("Backed up at ".localtime);
while ($s->current_status eq 'pending') {
print "Progress: ",$s->progress,"% done
print "Snapshot status: ",$s->current_status,"
$status = $vol->current_status
This returns the up-to-date status of the volume. It works by calling
refresh() and then returning status().
$boolean = $vol->auto_enable_io([$new_boolean])
Get or set the auto-enable IO flag.
$boolean = $vol->enable_volume_io()
Enable volume I/O after it has been disabled by an Amazon health check.
If successful, the call will return true.
When used in a string context, this object will interpolate the
VM::EC2 VM::EC2::Generic VM::EC2::Snapshot VM::EC2::BlockDevice
Lincoln Stein <email@example.com>.
Copyright (c) 2011 Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
This package and its accompanying libraries is free software; you can
redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GPL (either
version 1, or at your option, any later version) or the Artistic
License 2.0. Refer to LICENSE for the full license text. In addition,
please see DISCLAIMER.txt for disclaimers of warranty.
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