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ORGANIZER: Melissa
EVENT: Race to End Child Homelessness 2016
EVENT DATE: Oct 30, 2016
New City Initiative began in 2010, with the purpose of fostering communities where all people achieve their full human potential. We envision a new community of mutually transformative relationships with communities across the greater Portland area with the power to end the intergenerational cycle of homelessness and poverty.
On any given night in Multnomah County, over 2,000 children experience homelessness either on the streets, in shelter, doubled up with family or friends, at a transitional housing facility or in an apartment paid for by rent assistance. Homelessness and other adverse and traumatic childhood experiences cause these children to face greater barriers and obstacles in their education, employment and relationships.
On October 30, we will be running and walking to end the cycle of homelessness and trauma for these children and their families.


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The Chisago Soil and Water Conservation District has been successful in implementing Best Management Practices in certain targeted locations within the county, including the prioritized and assessed areas of Chisago City, Lindstrom, and Center City. However, there are many areas that want to implement conservation projects but aren't within targeted areas. This award will empower community partners, especially lake associations, to award grants for rain gardens, shoreline buffers, and other worthwhile projects to improve water quality.
This project will complete the installation of four nested wells to the Ambient Groundwater Monitoring Network and relocated one well in the City of Saint Paul. Braun Intertec will coordinate site access and oversee the well installation by a state drilling contractor.
Great River Energy (GRE) operates a power plant in the City of Elk River which generates electricity by incinerating municipal solid wastes. The plant is located proximate to the City of Elk River wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). This project will result in a corresponding reduction of groundwater use by GRE.
The project will include lake monitoring on three (3) lakes found in the Rum River watershed in southeastern Crow Wing County (CWC). The project will be conducted in an effort to gain sufficient data on these data-deficient lake sites. All of the proposed monitoring sites are target sites for 2013-2014. One of the goals of the CWC Local Comprehensive Water Plan (CWP) is to establish a countywide Comprehensive Monitoring Plan (CMP).
The goal of this project is to construct, calibrate, and validate five Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed models. The outcome will be HSPF models that can readily be used to provide information to support conventional parameter TMDLs. These models will generate predicted output timeseries for hydrology, sediment, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen which are consistent with available sets of observed data.
The goal of this project is to continue and finalize HSPF watershed model construction and complete the calibration/validation process.
The goal of this project is to refine the segmentation, extend the simulation period, and recalibrate an existing Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed model for the Rum River Watershed.
Lake George is the premier recreational lake in Anoka County with above average water quality, a vibrant fishery, and a large regional park and beach that is among the most utilized in the county. Located in northwestern Anoka County within the Upper Rum River Watershed Management Organization (URRWMO), the Lake George Improvement District (LGID) was formed to tend to the lake's diminishing water quality and problematic invasive species.
This project supports monitoring and assessment activities by MPCA EAO staff and includes lab analysis, equipment, and fieldwork expenses associated with monitoring and assessment activities within the described priority watersheds.
Lake Monitoring: Lakes are monitored for nutrients, clarity and other information to provide the data needed to assess the aquatic recreation use support.
This project supports monitoring and assessment activities by MPCA EAO staff and includes lab analysis, equipment, fieldwork, data management, and interpretation expenses associated with monitoring and assessment activities.The ambient groundwater monitoring network describes the current condition and trends in Minnesota's groundwater quality.
This project combines the use of automated soil moisture probes for irrigation scheduling with diverse cover crop planting to reduce or eliminate leaching of nitrogen and other nutrients on cropland with an early season harvested crop in the rotation. The more efficient use of irrigation waters provides a secondary benefit: less withdrawal from the aquifers that provide recharge for the Mt. Simon-Hinckley aquifer.
This project will gather watershed data necessary for the development of a Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy with parameter-specific targets that will maintain or improve water quality in the Rum River Watershed. Local Partners will lead various portions of this project and a hired onsultant will be subcontracted to write selected TMDL protection plans.
The purpose of the project is to collect data to represent the ambient condition of the lakes and streams of the Rum River Watershed within Mille Lacs, Isanti and Sherburne Counties that is needed to determine if thresholds set to protect designeated uses, such as aquatic recreation and aquatic life, are being met .
This project will focus on Watershed Restoration and Protetion Strategy (WRAPS) and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report development for the Rum River Watershed, which includes Mille Lacs Lake (the second largest lake in Minnesota) and the Rum River of which Mille Lacs Lake is the headwaters. The project will produce a plan that partners and citizens will be able to implement, a framework for citizen engagement, and a set of watershed management activities that will achieve water quality standards for all impairments within the watershed.
At almost 4,000 acres, Trout Brook is the largest subwatershed in the Capitol Region Watershed District and the City of Saint Paul. The restored stream is part of the 42 acre Trout Brook Nature Sanctuary project, whose goal is to return the area back to some resemblance of its pre-industrialized valley of stream floodplain and wetlands. Monitoring results within the corridor show that phosphorus, sediments, bacteria, lead and copper are the pollutants of most concern.
This project will complete a chloride management plan which will lay out a strategy for addressing chloride impacts to our surface waters for the 7-county metropolitan area. This chloride management plan will satisfy EPA requirements for impaired waters, address waters not yet listed, and develop a strategy to protect waters that are currently meeting the water quality standards.
This project will provide the MPCA and all local partners in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (TCMA) the information and tools necessary to improve and/or maintain water quality with respect to chloride for the 7-county metropolitan area during the winter maintenace period.
This project will provide the monitoring of reaches where there are data gaps, incorporate new data and analyze relevant data, identify pollutant sources, hold a stakeholder meeting, and gather information towards the future development of a Draft Restoration (TMDL) and Protection Plan.
This project will support the monitoring of reaches where there are data gaps, incorporate new data and relevant data, continue identification of pollutant sources, complete load duration curves, coordinate and encourage participation in stakeholder meetings. The information gathered during Phase IIB will be utilized towards the development of a Draft Restoration (TMDL) and Protection Plan (Plan).

subset: commoncrawl


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At last! The camera my husband and I have been trying to find for years, is here. The one that is small (measures 100.5X60X21mm), light weight (140 grams), has a large screen (3.0 in LCD screen), is easy to use and is the Nikon Coolpix S6 - a 6 megapixel (CCD) digital camera with a 3X Optical Zoom and 20 megabytes of internal memory.
Coolpix S6 comes in a small, sleek box, secure but easy to open. The 'Quick Start Guide ' is there immediately and just underneath are two CDs, then the full service "Nikon Guide to Digital Photography". Lifting the protective cardboard cover, there are the adaptor plugs, cables etc. tucked into neat compartments. And there it is the camera, itself, with its large screen.
Referring to the "Quick Start Guide", we find simple, clear instructions. First, we attach the strap and next we insert the battery, which can only go in one way. With the camera turned off, we insert it into the COOL-STATION, plug it in and in less than two hours, the light stops blinking, indicating the battery is charged and the camera is ready to go.
The first thing is to turn it on. Then find out how it works. After checking the menu, mode, the multi selector, focus, and flash, my husband bravely pushes the shutter release; and there is a picture. Now how do you make it go away? Easily. The next picture is better so it stays. We alternated trying additional features. A 'blurred' message came up once. The landscape and portrait features worked well. But I was stymied trying to take a picture of my friend's acrylic paintings and needed to understand more about the flash.
Fortunately, Nikon is there to help. It has a web support home page and a 24-hour phone line. I wondered if I could get some assistance in understanding how to take the pictures of the paintings. I tried phoning even though it was 11:00 pm. Rather quickly, a kind and patient real person, a man, answered the phone and talked me through the 'flash' procedures. In fact, the flash needed to be disabled, in order to take those pictures of the paintings.
The very kind man also registered the camera for email upgrades. This was so supportive. If I really want to learn even more, Nikon offers full day classes all around the country at various times.
The camera has given us pleasure in capturing spring, our spider orchids and orchids at the Lincloln Park Conservatory in Chicago. We can't wait to learn if it travels well.
The Nikon Coolpix S6 is special because:
It is visually appealing with thin compact dimensions and is easy to hold.
The function can be selected by name or icon. A Rotary multi selector is incorporated into the camera back for high speed image browsing with circular scrolling action at up to 10 frames per second. An on-screen icon with a cursor that tracks rotary multi selector scrolling makes function selection simple.
One-touch portrait button gives access to face-priority AF, automatically finds and then focuses on faces no matter where they are, in-Camera Red-Eye Fix that automatically detects and compensates for this effect and D-Lighting which improves underexposed images or shots taken with too much back light.
Pictmotion allows you to select your favorite images and movie files, then pick a style and add a music file of your choice from among 5 preinstalled ones, or load your own. It then automatically puts the elements together to produce a show with pace and transitions that are determined by the music and style. It is great for in-camera viewing. The voice recording is available until memory capacity is reached (as much as 5 hours).
Wi-Fi capability allows users to send images wirelessly to a computer as soon as they are taken or to transfer in one go all images stored in memory to a computer. It is possible to send images directly to PictBridge-compatible printers without the need to use a computer without a cable.
The S6 comes bundled with Nikon's complimentary PictureProject software and an easy-to-use wireless camera setup utility. This makes editing pictures, organizing shots and sharing images simple.
BSS (Best shot selector) identifies and saves the sharpest shot automatically from ten sequential shots.
The help Button provides easy explanations for functions on main menu.
A Blur Warning warns if an image is blurred.
The Menu is available in a choice of 20 languages.
The Nikon website listed the Nikon Coolpix S6 for $399.95, while another website listed it for $368.00


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Hooni Kim's Guide to Korean Food and Ingredients in NYC and New Jersey
Locals' guides to New York neighborhoods.
Hooni Kim was trained in French and Japanese cooking (by way of Daniel and Masa), but the Seoul-born chef returned to his roots with his first restaurant, the modern Korean Danji, whose bulgogi slider inspired fever dreams in Ruth Reichl. His follow-up, Hanjan, is a take on the 'joomak,' a Korean tavern that provided sustenance for weary travelers.
The liberties Kim takes with his native cuisine speak to his encyclopedic knowledge of Korean food and ingredients: he buys many items from Korea, electing to have them slow-boated over. If his supply of hand-roasted sesame oil or gluten free soy sauce runs out, however, he's got a few back-up spots close to home.
Korean Ingredients
The only Korean supermarket in Manhattan is H-Mart, in Koreatown. It's not very big, but it has a lot of stuff. It's my emergency go-to for the restaurant. The biggest one is the H-Mart superstore in Ridgefield, New Jersey. You can get everything there: flatware, Korean pajamas, ingredients for kimchi, kimchi that has been made by H-Mart, or kimchi that has been made in Korea and shipped over.
It's like a Bloomingdale's with an eatery below. They have all kinds of stuff: dried daikon, dried anchovies, perilla leaves (Western and Chinese markets don't sell these), probably 20 different varieties of gochujang...sometimes it makes it confusing. They sell sesame oil that comes straight from Korea, and it's $30 a bottle. We get it from Korea for the restaurant, so we try not to have to buy that, but a couple of times we've had to.
Kimchi is such a personal thing; my mother and I couldn't eat the same kind. I personally like kimchi that's a little fresher, not as aged. Right when the shrimp is starting to ferment, it gives off a slight carbonation. That, for me, is when kimchi is perfect: it's fresh, crunchy, a little funky from the garlic, but hasn't really fermented yet. It's like the sparkling rosé of kimchi, whereas some people prefer a Cabernet. I have a friend who runs a steakhouse called Prime and Beyond NY, that's a typical American steakhouse with Korean sides. They first opened in Fort Lee, as a butcher shop, and then expanded there to a restaurant, and recently opened this one in the East Village. The owner, Q the Butcher, does the cooking, and his mother makes all the sides, including the kimchi. I love her kimchi.
Pulmuone is a brand they sell at M2M (multiple locations). In Korea, the company is famous for being honest and healthy, using only organic soybeans. There are 4 different kinds: firm tofu, that you use to cut and sauté; soft, that you can put in stews; the really soft one that you can just steam and spoon eat with soy sauce; and then the super soft one, that you use for soondubu.
If it's a special occasion, I love Dickson's in Chelsea Market. Korean cows are tough but very flavorful, so we tend to marinate beef a lot. The main ingredient when marinating beef in Korea is Asian pear—the acid breaks down the fibers so the meat becomes really tender.
I've had really good luck getting Kurobuta pork, which is a dark-skinned, Japanese breed of Berkshire pig, at Lobel's on the Upper East Side. They carry it all the time. I use it for Korean-style pork ribs or grilled or braised pork belly.
Soy sauce
The one brand I like is Sempio. That company has an amazing reputation: all they do is soy sauce, which is rare (since once a company starts selling soy sauce, they usually begin to sell all other condiments). It's gluten-free. All the H-Marts carry it.
Korean food is based on garlic. Most of the garlic sold in the states comes from China, and the initial flavor of Chinese garlic is really aggressive, so it tastes really good, but the flavor disappears after a few hours. California garlic has a more lasting flavor. I like a brand from Gilroy, California, called Christopher Ranch, which you can buy at Baldor.
What's New On Serious Eats
At Hanjan, we have a late-night ramen, and the noodles are made by the guys at Totto Ramen.
Red pepper flakes
We get ours from Korea, but whenever we start running out, we go to Kalustyan's for back-up: they sell really good Korean red pepper flakes. Korean pepper flakes are sweeter and don't have that dry flavor. The texture is a little soft and not as dehydrated.
Tous Les Jours is a big pastry chain in Korea that just opened its first branch in K Town. Their breads are so soft that they stand out. The pastries aren't as sweet, and it's very typical of what Koreans consider bread or pastry. I feed my four year-old the bread and pastry there because it has a little less sugar and is easier to eat.
In Manhattan, there's this lunch take-out place called Woorijip that sells about four different kind of soju. There's a liquor store attached to H-Mart, and they sell every brand of soju known to man. Jinro 24 is what we exclusively use on the menu at Hanjan. There are hundreds of different soju brands, and I've tasted them all. This is far superior to drink straight. At Danji, we make fruit-infused soju and then turn it into sangria.
Korean Dishes
Kang Suh is open 24 hours, 7 days a week. I always run into my previous boss, Masa, late at night, when he has a craving for Korean. They do a sashimi bibimbap called hwe dup bop, with salmon, yellowtail, and fluke atop fresh vegetables. There are many kinds of bibimbap besides the plain one we know, and this is one of the most popular in Korea.
This is a very wintery, spicy pork neck potato stew that you usually have with soju. It has mustard seeds and perilla leaves. The broth, with the flavor from the bone, really makes that dish. They serve it with the pork neck bone and there's tender, flavorful meat stuffed inside that you can pick it out. The best place to have that is Geo Si Gi in Flushing; they're famous for that dish.
Koreans have a tradition of sashimi also, and it's called hwe. In Korea, you get the whole fish filleted, skinned, and sliced for you. A really good place for that is Je Ju Do in Flushing. All the fish are alive in a tank, you pick the fish, and you get the head and bones, with the sashimi is on top. The tail is still whacking, and you can see the fish still breathing. At the end they make a spicy stew called maeuntang out of the bones, and it's a great way to end after the cold sashimi. It's a spicy broth with garlic, radish, scallions, tofu, and red pepper flakes.
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Zoo On Wheels 1
Chad, a 15-year-old small, colorful bird with a huge personality whistled and performed tricks for Penn State Brandywine education majors during a visit by the Philadelphia Zoo on Wheels to campus on Monday, Dec. 8. Zoo on Wheels is a program that uses exotic animals to educate the public.
Zoo On Wheels 2
Philadelphia Zoo on Wheels expert Vanessa Torti clutches Timothy, a nervous 4-year-old chinchilla, during a visit to Penn State Brandywine to promote the use of zoo animals as classroom learning tools for elementary education majors and others at the campus.
Zoo On Wheels 3
Students meet Rhonda, a 20-year-old Galapagos turtle, in the Vairo Library during a visit from the Philadelphia Zoo on Wheels.
Zoo On Wheels 4
Lucille, a 10-year-old python, curiously explored the Penn State Brandywine Vairo Library while students watched from a safe distance.


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Brant Geese
Hear Me! I Exist.
Red-winged blackbird perched on a cattail at the edge of a wetland.
Great Blue Heron
A heron stalks its prey in the tidelands.
As if he is looking at himself in a mirror, a Great Blue Heron looks for food in a tideland.
Harlequin Ducks
Heron in Flight
Moving On
He seemed very comfortable having me around with my camera. But, when a fishing boat came along, he decided to move on.
Red-winged Blackbird (bicolored)
Caspian Tern
The Odd Couple
A Great Blue Heron and a Thayer's Gull share a quiet inlet at dawn.
Heron at Dawn
Great Blue Heron wading in shallow water as the morning sun just clears the bluff.
Red-breasted Merganser


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Sometime between when The Dismemberment Plan broke up and got back together, frontman Travis Morrison formed his own band, The Hellfighters. They released a full length on Barsuk in 2007, All Y'all, then recorded a few other tracks with producer Devin Ocampo in 2008 before splitting up.
Those Ocampo tracks never saw the light of day until just recently, when Bad Friend Records approached Morrison about putting them out digitally and on vinyl. The resulting EP, Cruisin' (All Night Long), is available now as a stream, as a download, and as a real, hard-copy record fans can order online.
All three tracks are fairly poppy, but they also stick pretty close to Morrison's usual chatterbox fare. This time, though, he's talking about topics like "queer cops" out looking for love, rather than calling his mom on New Year's Eve and pouring a bottle of champagne over his head. Check it out below.


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This will be Mr. Liebman's third farm internship. He has come to love the muscle fatigue that sets in at the end of a day. The rhythm of farm life is a welcome break from cellphones and Facebook. And the work makes him feel as if he is doing something to better the world.Are you raising your child to be a farm hand?
"I'm not sure that I can affect how messed up poverty is in Africa or change politics in Washington," he said, "but on the farm I can see the fruits of my labor."
"By actually waking up every day and working in the field and putting my principles into action, I am making a conscious political decision," he added.
Or maybe you are a farmer, in which case: Do you want a farm hand like Alex Liebman?


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Cleveland Indians to honor area children who have raised $20,000 for charity before Sunday's game vs. Los Angeles Angels
Youth participating in inaugural year of Our Children Making Change's Cleveland chapter will be honored Sunday at Progressive Field
Cleveland, OH - In the inaugural year of Cleveland's chapter of Our Children Making Change, 200 area youth raised $20,000 for this year's four designated charities: Autism Speaks, Juvenile Diabetes, Fiona's Friends (to assist a young girl going through a liver transplant) and West Side Catholic Charities.
Before the Indians game on Sunday, August 11, at the Progressive Field Terrace Club, the 200 children will proudly present the money raised to the representatives of the four charities and then as a celebration of their efforts, the Indians will treat them to their game that afternoon against the Los Angeles Angels. The children also will enjoy lunch courtesy of Delaware North Companies, Sportservice.
At the beginning of the summer, 14 children each spoke on behalf of charities that they wanted to raise money for and then the 200 children voted on the four charities that would be designated for this year. Over the last six weeks, they broke into teams and conducted fundraisers such as lemonade stands, swim-a-thons and talent shows to raise the grand total of $20,000.
Our Children Making Change is trying to bring awareness to get more children involved next year. It is a national nonprofit that inspires children ages 5-16 to learn the importance of giving back to their communities and how they can have fun, be creative, and feel good about themselves in the process. It was started by Laura Dulac in New Jersey as she looked for ways to get her own young children involved in the volunteer process.
For more information: www.ourchildrenmakingchange.org.


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One of the first stops within the National Lakeshore is Au Sable Point where there is a very nice, but not very photogenic cascading waterfall. Too much contrast with bright sunshine and heavy shade. If I was into HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography, this would have been a good place to experiment with it.
A short distance down the road was a place called Log Slide Overlook. A flyer picked up at the waterfall trail said of the Log Slide: "The 1,000 foot trail to the viewing platform from the picnic area is worth the walk. Newspaper accounts tell of logs sent down the dry log chute generating enough friction to cause the chute to catch fire. Today the chute is gone, but the lumberjack stories still linger as you gaze out over the Grand Sable Banks and Dunes."
A short walk on a very well manicured path leads you to a small sand dune, about 25 feet high. This is the view from the top, overlooking Lake Superior. What you can't see is that beyond that opening is a 500 foot drop to the water's edge!
Perhaps "drop" is a bit dramatic, but a nearby sign states that the distance from the top of the dune to the lakeshore is 500 feet with 200 feet being nearly vertical. It also states that it takes only a few minutes to get to the bottom but can take an hour or more to climb back up!
The view looking to the east toward Grand Marais.
This is the view looking down toward the lakeshore, 500 feet below.
And this is the same view showing some rather energetic and youthful people near the bottom of the dunes. Provides a bit of perspective, doesn't it?
Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), I did not even attempt this feat. I was pretty sure the old legs would give out on the way down and if they didn't the heart and lungs would get quite a workout on the way back up!


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I'm marking first-year essays at the moment. Because these students have had little or no practice at writing scientific essays before they arrive in my class, we give them a lot of learning support. There's a marking rubric, which students get along with the questions at the very beginning of the semester. (Alas! This doesn't seem to stop the last-minute rush-combined-with-sheer-panic!) We spend time on tuts discussing how to structure an essay, how to cite and to reference & to paraphrase, and so on. Both the senior tutor & I are more than happy to comment on drafts – some of my colleagues think we're nuts, but giving formative feedback early in the piece significantly improves the final essay & means less time is spent at that end. And this year I followed the example of my friend Margaret Henley and ran a drop-in session in the student centre: I was there, along with the Science librarian and staff from Student Learning, and the 50 or so students who attended moved around between us depending on what they needed. (Far more time-efficient then having the same number of students turn up to see us in drips and drabs.
And of course we also discuss at some length the issues and concepts relating to plagiarism, and students' essays are put through the Turnitin system on submission. (This year I set it up so that they could see their score after submission, which they seem to quite like.) So I was interested to see this story on plagiarism and cheating in NZ universities, in the NZ Herald a few days ago. It was notable that there was a bit of variation between institutions in the number of instances of cheating that were detected, which I suspect has more to do with processes than with actual differences in (dis)honesty in the student bodies. We all seem to handle it differently, too; my own institution has a student discipline committee, to which all instances of suspected plagiarism are supposed to be referred. I like this system – it is a lot more transparent in that the paper convenor doesn't end up being the judge, jury, and executioner (with all the potential conflicts that this entails), and more consistent because the same set of standards, and outomes, is applied across the board. Which is probably why I felt more than a little uncomfortable to see that, in one instance reported in the Herald story, an individual lecturer seemed to be making the judgement call. Maybe that was just the way the story came across in the paper. I hope so.
There's an interesting discussion here on why students plagiarise, which suggests that maybe we, the teachers, have something to do with it in that we maybe don't do enough to help our students develop their own 'voice' and the confidence to use it:
Students… often stumble into plagiarism (or rush head-long into it) because they either cannot find or do not trust the authority of their own voice.
The author, Nick Carbone, concludes that
[h]elping students find their own voice, their own words, so that they can distinguish better their voices and words from the voices and words of the sources they research, hear, read, and that really, when you think about it, always already surround them, seems to me more and more, the best way to help students understand, really, what plagiarism is all about.
I'm not sure how feasible it actually is, in a paper that's not first & foremost a writing paper, to help all students find their 'voice'. (Nor am I sure that all academics would view it as part of their role to do so.) And I definitely agree with Jonathan Bailey that the ultimate responsibility for plagiarism does rest with the student. But – as he says – teachers can do a lot both to educate students about academic integrity and to minimise the temptation and the pressure to plagiarise. For example, the pressures involved around large high-stakes assignments may make a spot of cheating look more attractive. Bailey lists the following steps to reduce plagiarism's allure (but also reminds us that the problem's never going to go away completely):
Educate on Plagiarism: Teach students clearly what it is and how to avoid it. Discuss plagiarism openly and without scare tactics.
Craft Plagiarism-Resistant Assignments: Use prompts that can't be Googled, require multiple drafts and include in-class portions when possible.
Connect With Students: Offer to help and give students the support they need so they are confident they can complete the assignment.
Forgive Mistakes: Understand that mistakes happen and treat them as chances to teach, not discipline.
Discipline Fairly: Those who clearly are trying to cheat should be disciplined fairly and strongly as appropriate.
Which makes me feel that we're doing something right, in my first-year papers. (It also reminds me how frustrated I get to see the same questions pop up in tests and exams, year after year. What do people expect?!)


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Spirits is a truly unique responsive WordPress Theme. Built using the ThinkUpThemes framework you can customize just about everything. With the general options panel make site wide changes in seconds. There's even a built-in options panel for each page so now it's easier and faster than ever before to create a unique and high quality website in no time.
Designed with a modern feel the 1170px grid layout looks great on desktops and with the awesome responsive and retina ready features you can create a website that looks amazing on all devices.
Create parallax pages using the page builder, and with over 20 page builder modules you'll be able to add awesome content in just a few clicks. Everything from font awesome icons, to carousel and YouTube videos plus so much more. The modules are exclusive to ThinkUpThemes so you wont find them in any other Page Builder.
Summary of features:
- Never code again with the Page Builder
- Over 20 pre-made page builder modules
- 100+ Theme options in the general options panel
- Options panel for each page
- 150+ shortcodes
- Responsive layout
- Retina ready
- Animate.css included. So you can animate anything
- Awesome portfolio layouts
- Unlimited portfolio pages
- Built-In ThinkUpSlider – Create slideshows in seconds
- ThinkUpSlider for all inner pages
- Pre-designed contact page
- Add you own header image
- Modern layouts – great for all types of businesses
- 1 click theme color change
- Testimonials page
- Customers page
- Team page
- Movies page
- 10+ widgets
- Unlimited sidebars
Images Used:
Note: All images are just used for preview purpose only and NOT included in the final purchase files.
Credits for Image Content:
Anna Paschenko
George Bokhua
Mike | Creative Mints
Rodrigo Bellão
Tommy Kinnerup
Yoga Perdana
=== Version 1.0.6 === New: Update notice added. New: Function added which allows post excerpt to be output using post id. Fixed: Twitter feed flickr widget updated to ensure IE 10 (and earlier) compatibility. Fixed: PHP errors (trying to get property of non-object) fixed. Updated: Page Builder v1.2.10 added. Updated: vertical-align: middle removed from Services Style 1 shortcode. Updated: Updated shortcodes added (blog carousel, portfolio carousel, portfolio item). Updated: All text domain references of _lan-thinkupthemes changed to lan-thinkupthemes. Updated: Button text can now be specified for each slide in homepage ThinkUpSlider. Updated: http:// removed from copyright notice. Removed: jQuery used to correct z-index on video removed. === Version 1.0.5 === New: Progress Round shortcode added. New: jQuery knob library added - used in Progress Round shortcode. Fixed: Twitter widget update to ensure compatbility with IE v10 and earlier. Updated: Font Awesome shortcodes updated for Font Awesome v4.1.0. Updated: http:// removed from social media sharing links on blog page. Updated: Shortcodes updated. http:// removed from video lightbox shortcodes. === Version 1.0.4 === New: Social media icons added to header. New: Unlimited blog pages can be created. === Version 1.0.3 === New: Page builder activation notice added to TGM Plugin Activation. === Version 1.0.2 === Updated: Sidebar layout for front page posts now controlled in Blog layout. === Version 1.0.1 === New: Custom styling added to sticky post on blog page. New: Floating elements cleared after content is added in single posts. Fixed: thinkup_nav_menu_responsive updated to correct php error. Fixed: wpautop replaced with code that strips "p" / "br" tags from ThinkUpShortcodes. Updated: Slider disabled upon theme activation. Updated: WordPress bundled jQuery library is now being loaded. Updated: Frame global variable changed from $redux to $thinkup_redux_variables Updated: Footer Widgets Area 1, etc.. renamed to Footer Column 1, etc... === Version 1.0.0 === Initial release.


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Benjamin H. Robbins, John D. Thomas; CYCLOPROPANE ARRHYTHMIAS IN THE CAT: THEIR CAUSE, PREVENTION AND CORRECTION. Anesthesiology 1960;21(2):163-170.
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© 2020 American Society of Anesthesiologists
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text:
It didn't take long for diet firm Nutrisystem to shed Lawrence Taylor.
Hours after news broke that the Hall of Fame ex-linebacker had been arrested on suspicion of rape, Nutrisystem canned Taylor as a company spokesman, according to TMZ.com.
"Based on the severity of these allegations, Nutrisystem has made the decision to sever our relationship with Mr. Taylor effective immediately," a spokesperson told the site.
U.S. & World
In now-obsolete ads, Taylor is seen sporting a paunch and then showing off a trim waist, along with the claim that he lost 35 pounds on the plan.
"During my time as a professional football player, I was constantly doing strength and conditioning workouts," Taylor, 51, said on commercials that began airing last year. "But after retirement, I tried many other diets, and even tried to lose weight on my own. In each case I had difficulty achieving my target weight, until I turned to NutriSystem. I have had tremendous success and I've already lost 30 pounds. Using NutriSystem while training for Dancing With The Stars has given me an easy way to eat a balanced diet and stay in shape."
When the company hired Taylor it had to know of his volatile history, which included numerous drug arrests. But Taylor claims to have been clean for 12 years, and remained a beloved and charismatic figure.
However, after he was arrested in an upstate New York hotel room and charged with raping a 16-year-old runaway from the Bronx who authorities say was brought to him by a pimp, Nutrisystem dropped him. The company's newest athlete/pitchman is San Diego Padres' pinch hitter extraordinaire Matt Stairs. The 42-year-old ballplayer once carried 230 pounds on his 5-foot-9 frame, but dropped down under 200 pounds over the winter in a successful bid to catch on with a big league team.
"My daughter didn't recognize me," Stairs, the second-oldest player in the Major Leagues, said recently. "I'm a totally different person."


text:
Home » Applications » Automotive » Automated Screw Thread Quality Checking » Thread Check Example Application
Thread Check Example Application
This automotive customer needed 100% verification of the thread. They were using eddy current sensors for thread inspection which did not work well in castings. An eddy current sensor emits an electrical field and from that gets an image. The field becomes distorted in castings.
- Automated Screw Thread Quality Checking
- Bore Gauging & Groove Inspection
- Automated Switch Testing
- Fuel Injector Component Quality Control
- Fuel Injector Plug Gauging
- Automotive Wheel Valve Pressure Test
- Contact Inspection of Rod Eccentricity
- Precision Force Control for Battery Winding/Tensioning
- Automotive Containment
- Seatbelt & Child Seat Buckle Testing
- Electronics & Semiconductor
- Glass Manufacturing
- Bottle Filling
- High Speed Soft Eject, Soft Divert, and Multi-lane Sorting
- High Speed & Consistent Bottle Capping
- Capsule Packaging
- Sanitary Assembly: Food Hygiene Syringe
- High Efficiency Liquid Nitrogen Dosing
- Bottle Fill Line: High Speed Pressure/Leak Detector System
- Brewers and Microbrewers
- Sealing and Cutting
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- OEM Solutions
- Automotive
For More Information
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text:
Floyd County Schools (FCS) Early Childhood Program offers high-quality educational experiences for three- and four-year-old children. The program is designed to prepare children socially, physically, emotionally, and educationally for elementary school. We offer a full-day program Monday through Thursday from 8:00 AM until 2:45 PM when Floyd County Schools are in session. Full day services are free to eligible families. Student progress records are used to measure skill development and mastery. The Early Childhood curriculum supports the smooth transition to elementary school following completion of the Early Childhood Program. Home visits and conferences with parents and guardians are important activities in the Early Childhood Program.
With an emphasis on parent involvement, all Head Start/Preschool classes are designed to make the most of children's early learning capabilities and to prepare children for Kindergarten and the Primary Program.
The Early Childhood Program in Floyd County Schools is a blended program – providing services through both Head Start and KERA Preschool funds. Federally funded, Head Start serves children from low-income families who meet eligibility guidelines. Applicants must be three or four years old by August 1st of the program year. The students participating in the KERA Preschool program are funded through the Kentucky Department of Education. Students must be four years of age by August 1st of the program year and must meet specific criteria for admission.
Registration will be held throughout the year in the Early Childhood Offices at Adams Middle School 2520 S. Lake Dr. Prestonsburg, KY 41653, Monday through Friday, except for specified holidays identified in the district calendar.
Throughout the year, special dates are chosen when applications are taken at the elementary schools and other community locations. Please refer to the Early Childhood Department's Upcoming Events, Floyd County District Homepage, Floyd County Schools FaceBook page or call the Early Childhood Office at 606.886.4549 for times and dates.
Please bring the following documents with you to apply for admission:
Health requirements for students entering the Floyd County Schools Early Childhood program include an up-to-date immunization record, a current physical examination form (including a lead screen and hematocrit / hemoglobin level), an eye exam, and a dental exam.
Questions? Call us at 606-886-4549.


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Archdiocese of Madagascar
The Holy Archdiocese of Madagascar is a diocese under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa. Its territory includes the parishes and missions located in the nation of Madagascar and the Islands of Mauritius, Reunion, Comores, and Maillot.
The Diocese of Madagascar was established by Patriarchal and Synodal decree on September 23, 1997. Prior to the formation of the Diocese of Madagascar, the territory of the diocese was part of the Archdiocese of Zimbabwe. During the November 21, 2012 Fall meeting of the Holy Synod of the Church of Alexandria the Diocese of Madagascar was elevated to the Archdiocese of Madagascar.
On February 16, 2008, His Beatitude Theodoros II inaugurated a new seminary near the valley of Alasora in Madagascar that was financed by the faithful in Australia, adding a new institution to those seminaries in Alexandria, Nairobi, and Kinshasa.
Ruling Bishops
- Nektarios (Kellis) 1997 - 2004.
- Ignatios (Sennis) 2004-Present
Categories > Church History
Categories > Church History > Canon Law > Ecclesiology > Jurisdictions > Dioceses
Categories > Church History > Canon Law > Ecclesiology > Jurisdictions > Dioceses > Alexandria Patriarchate Dioceses
Categories > Places > Orthodoxy by country > Orthodoxy in Africa


text: The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) understands and sympathizes with the anxiety that the LSAT causes test takers and their strong desire to discuss with their peers the questions that they have just taken on the LSAT. However, LSAC prohibits such discussion, including the so-called postmortem discussion of test questions immediately after a particular test administration, because it has the potential to affect the fairness of the LSAT and the law school admission process. Certain LSATs are non-disclosed and their questions may be used again at a later administration of the test. And even in the case of disclosed tests there may be circumstances in which LSAC may need to administer a test form to some test takers somewhat later than to others. Discussion of test questions in a public forum like a website before the test is disclosed, even though its usefulness is limited by the memory and ability of the participants, makes information about that test widely available to anyone who has access to the web and may unfairly advantage test takers who see the discussion before they take the test. Since the number of admission slots in law schools is limited, such an unfair advantage could penalize those who took the test at an earlier time, including those very people engaging in the post-mortem discussion.In an effort to ensure the fairness of the LSAT, LSAC requires test takers to sign a statement on the LSAT answer sheet saying that they agree not to copy or retain examination questions or to transmit them to or discuss them with any other person in any form. In addition, test takers sign a certification statement on the LSAT admission ticket agreeing that they have no right to reproduce, recreate, distribute, or sell any of that test. In this statement they also certify that they understand that the Law School Admission Council reserves the right to pursue all suitable courses of action to prevent fraudulent or unauthorized use of its property and to prevent the compromise of secure test material. Thus, test takers enter into a contract with LSAC that they will not discuss with others the test questions they have taken. In addition, LSACs Instructions for the Day of the Test state: Legal action may be taken against anyone who removes test materials and/or reproduces test material in any way, or shares LSAT test content prior to LSACs disclosure of that test.If inappropriate public discussion of test questions on public websites reaches a point at which it threatens to undermine the fairness of the LSAT, injuring LSAT test takers, or at which it damages the value of non-disclosed LSAT test forms, LSAC would be compelled to take appropriate action to prevent such injury or damage. These actions could include reporting violators to the LSAC Misconduct Committee. Admission to the bar and the practice of law impose high standards of conduct and LSAC member law schools take very seriously the integrity of the candidates they admit.LSAC does not seek to take special steps to enforce its prohibition on the inappropriate discussion of test questions. We would prefer that test takers recognize that compromising test questions before they have been disclosed by LSAC runs counter to the general interest of test takers in a fair testing process, as well as to the personal interest of those discussing the questions, and voluntarily refrain from discussing LSAT questions until after they have been disclosed to test takers by LSAC. However, we believe that we have an obligation to both our law school members and our test takers to protect the fairness and integrity of the LSAT and the law school admission process, and we take that obligation very seriously.


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The story of Mike Huckabee's youngest is snowballing into a collision course faster than the "No Smoking" sign was extinguished on the Hindenburg. As we learn more and more details about the incident, the story has become so grotesque, that the attempts to cover it all up appears like a pair of headlights for a horrible embarrassment.
Michael Isikoff and Holly Bailey of Newsweek magazine have a detailed story in the upcoming Christmas Eve issue and it doesn't look good for anybody involved, especially for a Presidential Candidate like Republican Governor Mike Huckabee.
Once the camp had discovered what the boys had done, an anonymous was faxed to Animal Legal Defense Fund. (Kinky Friedman's Utopia Rescue has the original Action Alert bulletin here.) The Director of the Anti-Cruelty division of the Animal Legal Defense Fund fired a letter of to the Chief Scout Executive, Jere Radcliff complaining about the boy's behavior and pleaded for justice on behalf of the tortured and eventual murder of the animal. Pamela Frasch, an attorney wrote:
It has come to my attention that David Huckabee and Clayton Friday, two scout counselors, have admitted to the brutal killing of a stray dog at Camp Pioeneer on 7/11/98 and have been protected by the Caddo Area Council as well as Camp Pioneer authorities. The two boys allegedly hung a dog by his/her neck, throwing the body over a railing to a twenty foot drop. After realizing that this did not kill the dog, they slit his/her throat and stoned the dog to death. These disturbing events should have been reported immediately to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, where a complete investigation of this horrific crime should have taken place. It is my understanding that the boys lost their jobs, which is hardly acceptable punishment for the committing of a violent crime. And it is especially unbelievable that this could happen at a Boys Scout Camp, where young men are supposed to be taught respect and kindness towards the natural world an all its inhabitants. That dog suffered an enormous amount of pain and suffering, and eventual death at the hands of these two youths. This unspeakable, and legal act can not be dismissed with a "boys will be boys' adage or as anything less than the malicious crime tha ti so understandibly is.
The Isikoff/Bailey story notes that the Arkansas State Police headquarters was bombarded by animal rights groups everywhere demanding an immediate investigation. (Animal Cruelty at best, is a misdemeanor in Arkansas. In a state where marrying your sister will get you a gallon of moonshine and a pair of shoes, it's no surprise.) The investigation was never launched by state police. However, the director of the state police told Newsweek that:
Governor Huckabee's chief of staff and personal lawyer both leaned on him to write a letter officially denying the local prosecutor's request. Bailey, a career officer who had been appointed chief by Huckabee's Democratic predecessor, said he viewed the lawyer's intervention as improper and terminated the conversation.
Huckabee and his chief of staff obviously disagree with this part of the story. Especially when:
Seven months later, he was called into Huckabee's office and fired. "I've lost confidence in your ability to do your job," Bailey says Huckabee told him. One reason Huckabee cited was "I couldn't get you to help me with my son when I had that problem," according to Bailey.
The FBI steps up to the plate in defense of Bailey:
"Without question, [Huckabee] was making a conscious attempt to keep the state police from investigating his son," says I. C. Smith, the former FBI chief in Little Rock, who worked closely with Bailey and called him a "courageous" and "very solid" professional.
Huckabee thinks this is all bullshit by saying:
Huckabee called Bailey's account "totally untrue" and described him as a "bitter" exemployee. "I asked him to resign because he had so alienated the entire state police," he said. "It had nothing to do with my son."
Yeah right. Baily was appointed by the Huckabee's Democratic predecessor, so it's because he was a Democrat that made him "bitter"?! But if the FBI is agreeing with the State Police director, Huckabee is the one with the credibility problem of the story. It gets worse for Huckabee's account when his own staff jump into the story with:
Brenda Turner, Huckabee's then chief of staff, and Kevin Crass, the Huckabee family lawyer, also disputed Bailey's account, although both acknowledged talking to him about the dog killing. "I asked him, 'Is it normal for the state police to … investigate something that happened at a Boy Scout camp?' " Turner says. "We wanted the same treatment that anybody else would get."
And the treatment David Huckabee received?! He was later promoted to Eagle Scout! This story stinks to high heaven and makes a body just want to weep.
Dogs are pack animals. And they identify with their pack-mates solely for survivability. All dogs identify with their human counter-parts as being part of their own pack. This dog's innocence in hoping to find a pack ended up in hanging, torture and eventual death. All so a Governor's son could find a few minutes of "entertainment".
Typical for the Republican Party, nothing is leveled against this boy's horrific behavior and his high-profile Republican father dismisses it with:
…that his son did not engage in "intentional torture." "There was a dog that apparently had mange and was absolutely, I guess, emaciated."
Excellent excuse for a man who's completely out of touch. If he's out of touch with his son's behavior and the brutality of his actions, then he's out of touch with what's going on in the world.
Let's not forget that David Huckabee was 17 years old at the time. Four years later, David Huckabee ends up bullying his way around Jonesboro, AR in front of city employees for paying a required fine for two businesses on campus. This brutal behavior is more than a deep psychological problem that needs to be addressed. Let's also remember that in 2007, Huckabee once again shows his apathy for others by showing up with a loaded Glock at the Little Rock airport attempting to casually walk through the screening metal detectors. This young man is a disaster waiting to happen. And while Daddy makes up excuses for his behavior, the rest of us should be very scared of both of them.
Filed under: GOP, Uncategorized | Tagged: , animal cruelty, Animal Legal Defense Fund, animal rights, Boy Scouts of America, brutality, David Huckabee (Dog torturer), Eagle Scouts, GOP, GOP Disease, hanging, John Baily (AR State Police), Mike Huckabee (R), stoning, stray dog, throat, torture, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »


text:
The Problem with Social Media Activism
I'd like to think that I'm the type of guy who walks the walk. If I say something should be done or approached a certain way, then I should be able to approach it the certain way. I don't mind awareness campaigns, as long as you follow up your awareness with something tangible and substantial.
So when I see something on Facebook or Tumblr that is activist in nature, but doesn't appear to have any substance, I immediately become suspicious. Over the weekend, it was something a Facebook friend had posted about the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan. It was a huge post supposedly written by someone living in the Philippines, giving a detailed account of the first six days after the typhoon, and the awful, horrible conditions that people are living in in the aftermath.
But the very first line of the post infuriated me so much that I couldn't read the rest of the post. The very first words of what will surely become Facebook spam are: "I don't watch TV news, so I have only heard a little about the bad situation in the Philipeans. [sic]"
I went on brief but strongly worded rant about this on Twitter, but the basic point, which I will expand on in this post, is simple: In your effort to show that you are above corporate media, you have exposed your ignorance to the world, and it will definitely come back to bite you.
It's amazing how many assumptions can be made about this person by one sentence alone. To paraphrase the sentence, it says, "I don't watch TV news, so I didn't know about the destruction in the Philippines."
Now, I'm as against commercial media as anyone else. If your primary news source is only one cable news channel, you're being subjected to a certain agenda, and news stories will have a certain slant, whether you realize it or not. Fox News has the conservative slant, MSNBC has the liberal slant. Even an institution as supposedly neutral as CNN occasionally slants stories in a certain direction to fit a narrative. Any time corporate interests are at stake, organizations will happily bend toward those interests in order to keep up the cash flow.
But in today's information age, where literally anything you could ever want to know is a quick Google search away, saying "I don't watch TV news" is no longer an excuse. You don't watch cable news, but you've obviously heard about the typhoon that ripped through the Philippines. How did you hear about it?
The other day I was pointed to a story in the USA Today about how a Colorado judge has allowed a man accused of sexual assault to blame his identical twin brother for the attacks, as they share DNA, and really, who knows, right? How did I hear about this story? A friend of mine texted me. "You won't believe what this judge in Colorado did," she said. "Look it up." A lot of breaking news stories I learn about come from Twitter, which often include links to several different news sites to verify the story's authenticity.
There are endless news sources to refer to for more information about breaking news. The internet alone gives you access to blogs, newspaper websites (like the New York Times), corporate news websites (like CNN), and news-centric websites (like Slate or Salon), among others. Outside of the internet and television, there are newspapers! Your local area has a newspaper that costs less than a dollar to buy. There's also the radio! I get most of my news from National Public Radio, which isn't corporate-controlled, but rather listener-controlled, but even commercial radio has news breaks every hour that gives you information.
The question that keeps running through my mind is this: if this person is a Redditor (as they mention in the very next sentence), and presumably is getting their news from Reddit, why the hell didn't they just open a new tab and look up more information about the typhoon and educate themselves?
And that's my real problem with Social Media Activism: we take an ethos-centric Facebook or Tumblr post, and we instantly make a judgement based on virtually nothing at all, and then that becomes an opinion set in stone. And when competing evidence is shown to us that may suggest that our opinion about an issue is wrong — or even that the issue itself is very complicated when viewed in context — we hold firm to our beliefs and tear down the opposing viewpoint. It's a legitimate psychological phenomenon, and absolutely explains the polarization of American politics today.
There was a post I saw on Tumblr a while ago that illustrates this confirmation bias beautifully. The initial post was a picture of a joke from a joke book. The joke was very simple:
What do you call the useless flap of skin at the end of the penis?
A man.
Tumblr feminists cackled gleefully at this joke, because apparently they've never heard a joke that was disparaging toward men before. Screw boys, am I right?
But then, brilliantly, someone made a comment on the post that was so brilliantly simple. All this user did was change two words in the joke, and reposted it:
What do you call the useless flap of skin at the end of the vagina?
A woman.
Suddenly the tables have turned, and Tumblr feminists would have none of it. "What sort of mysoginistic crap is this?" they cried. "It's this sort of oppression against women that is the problem! I hope you're happy!"
And that's the point. Social Media Activism is all knee-jerk, college hyper-liberalism. There's no thought. There's no substance. There's no critical thinking. Watch the video, share the post, get back to Reddit.
This sort of activism, however, is fleeting. There will come a time, once you're away from the safety of the college campus, where you're going to casually mention that you don't pay attention to commercial media, so you don't know very much about this particular major news story, and someone is going to reply with, "What are you, stupid?"
And suddenly you're That Guy, the ignorant one in the office, who can't be bothered to know about the world around him. And that's a lonely road to walk.


text:
In today's world, most of the companies are aiming to go global in order to tap the vast opportunities that exist in various global territories. To achieve this aim, there is a growing need of their applications (web and desktop) and websites to support multiple languages. Apart from developing such applications, there is a huge demand for testing these applications.
During my career, we did a lot of research for performing effective language specific testing for various applications. In this paper I am summarizing the findings which can help any novice to understand and achieve effective internationalization testing.
What is Internationalization
Internationalization (abbreviated as "i18n") entails to design and development of an application or product that removes the barriers to localization.
It can be termed as a process or a practice that allows easy migration of a product from one language to another. The main aim of internationalization is that it helps in product localization.
What is Localization
Localization (abbreviated as "l10n") entails to adaptation of an application or a product to support the language, culture and other requirements of a particular Locale.
The first thing that comes to anyone's mind when asked to perform localization is translation to a particular language. But localization is not just translation. During the course of this document you will come to know about the various things that will help you to perform effective localization testing.
Environment Compatibility
Though Unicode is becoming an increasingly adapted standard for coding, still different Operating Systems show different behaviors for this support. Windows 2000 and Windows XP provide a support for i18n, but Windows Millennium shows a bit of issues with Unicode. Other kind of issues can be seen with Mac and Unix platforms.
Know the Languages and Locales
Various different languages in the world have different characteristics. To build an application that is compatible with Western Europe languages is simpler to the one that needs to support Far eastern languages like Arabic.
For Left-to-Right (L2R) languages, some of these languages require more screen area as compared to English. E.g. German language UI typically require almost 30% more area than that required by English. Some text translations can also raise issues like in Spanish, OK is translated to 'Aceptar', which will raise the issue of button size.
For Right-toLeft (R2L) languages, to perform tests for these languages, an input Method Editor (IME) is mostly preferred as they require a combination of keys for the 101 key keyboards. Among other far east languages, Japanese language uses the combination of two syllabaries with ideographs and also makes use of Latin characters as well, which further complicates the testing process.
Before starting testing identify and decide on the locales that are to be certified initially.
Identify Areas to Test and create Test Plan
It is very important to define the environments before starting the testing for internationalization. The hardware and software requirements for an application that needs to be internationalized should be narrowed down, in the starting, for getting quick results.
Apart from locale language, some of the things that should be kept in mind while testing for localization are
- Date and time formats – Some regions put date in dd/mm/yyyy while some put the same in mm/dd/yyyy. The clock is preferred in some regions as in 24 hour format, while some prefer AM/PM.
- Numeric – These can be denoted differently in different countries. Like in US, 100000 is written as 100,000 while the same in India is written as 1,00,000.
- Use of currency – Currency is different for different locales. Even in English locale, currency is different for different countries like US and Canada.
- Symbols, icons and colors – Color schemas can be different for different regions. Like in the traffic lights in US, "Green" symbolizes the "Go" while in Japan the color for same is "Blue". Same holds true for symbols and icons for regions.
- Names – Most of the English speaking countries use First Name + Middle Name + Last Name, but in some countries like China, Family Name is considered as the First Name. Similar kind of differences can be seen for different countries.
- Keyboard Usage – Apart from the 101 Key Keyboards, different countries have different key caps. Like English-language keyboard starts with "qwerty", while a German-language keyboard starts with "qwertz".
- Text and graphics can contain references to objects, actions or ideas which make different sense in different regions
- Varying legal requirements including the appropriate contact information for various locales
Based on the above information, create a Test Matrix that includes platforms and versions for all the components eligible for certification. Create test cases based on the following guidelines:
- Specify tests for English and non-English configurations.
- Develop non-ASCII data for any text that is used in testing. This can either be real non-English data or it can be pseudo-localized data.
- Develop tests that use non-ASCII values in path names, file names, URIs, account preferences, etc., not just in "regular" data.
- Develop tests for time or date values that specify different time zones and include cross-time zone and daylight savings.
- Create some testcases for some mixed configurations (such as Indian client to Japanese server).
- Develop tests for localizability
- Test the Life-cycle (install, uninstall, configure, etc.)


text:
Juan Luis Buñuel's 1973 film, Expulsion of the Devil (Au rendez-vous de la mort joyeuse, literally "At the Meeting of the Joyous Death"), could be called a "slow burn." It moves through its tale of poltergeist activity plaguing a young family in their isolated rural home with absolutely no music (except of the incidental sort, as when a character listens to a radio or a record player in the scene), and spends a good deal of time contentedly watching the family work and play--the father at his commercial drawings, the mother at her magazine articles, and the children exploring the grounds of their new home and interacting with the occasional guest. For the most part, it's a quietly effective, slow-moving film.
However, when the paranormal starts happening--as happen it must, since this is a ghost story, after all--it happens hard, fast and loud, and with a fairly consistent regularity. Windows break, tables come to life and wreck entire rooms, and even household appliances go on the offensive, battering the characters with an amount of ectoplasmic energy seldom seen this side of Amityville II: The Possession.
The set-up is fairly standard for movies of this subgenre. A family takes advantage of an unbelievably good deal on a house they would never be able to afford if priced at market value, whereupon supernatural hijinx ensue. In this case the family is made of up commercial-artist dad Marc, magazine writer mom Françoise, and their two young children, a son and a daughter. While the boy is perhaps six or seven years old, the main focus is on 14-year-old daughter Sophie (teen model Yasmine Dahm), caught as so many characters in these movies often are between her innocent girlhood and her sexual coming of age. Sophie is clearly a Daddy's Girl, listening to music with him while he works and pumping him for info about his forsaken dreams of being a Real Artist.
While Sophie's relationship with her father is warm and affectionate, her relationship with Mom is a bit less so. Françoise paints the kitchen and trades emasculating barbs with Marc about their comparative incomes, ordering the children out to play so that she can maybe work a little on the writing that bought them the place before starting on a dinner of her specialty, Martyr Souffle.
We spend a fair amount of time getting to know the family and watch them settle into their new abode, and for a while only a mysteriously overturned paint can hints at anything out of the ordinary. Later the young brother's lead soldiers suddenly break themselves into pieces, and Marc finds his drawing table (and latest commission) covered in a layer of mud. Tensions start rising as the parents think--perhaps understandably--Sophie is acting out her displeasure at the move.
The first real supernatural manifestation occurs a night or two later, when her brother has a nightmare and Marc, hoping to get a little housewarming done IYKWIM, instructs the tot to sleep in his sister's room. Sophie is very displeased. "I don't like to hear him breathe!" she gripes, but her father obviously values her preferences less than his own carnal needs. Furious, Sophie waits until her brother is snoozing and then heads upstairs and flings the door of her parents' bedroom open, interrupting them just before Marc can bag his baguette and proving what a drag it is to have no privacy. She storms down the hall with her father hitching his pants up in blueballed indignation, when suddenly rocks begin crashing through the windows of the upstairs hall, in an extended rain of stones and broken glass. A shot of Sophie standing haughtily in silhouette while her father ducks and covers hints that there may be something other than vandalism afoot.
After having the windows repaired by some local workmen, Marc and Françoise drink wine outside while awaiting the arrival of a friend of Marc's from the city, who is coming out to spend the weekend. While lounging they discuss sending Sophie to a boarding school next year, which Françoise says will "give them more time together." Still thinking with Little Pierre, Marc readily agrees. Meanwhile in the living room Sophie admires her reflection in a full-length mirror, startled (as we are) by the fact that her mirror image doesn't quite match her movements, and wears a slight, unsettling smile that is NOT on Sophie's own lips. Suddenly a table from the patio begins to quake, and then flies through the front door like a cannonball, smacking into walls, wrecking furniture, breaking windows, and making it halfway up the stairs before finally falling inert! Marc and Françoise have little time to reflect on the episode before Marc's friend arrives bearing much-needed wine.
Yasmine Dahm is perfectly cast as the girl coming into her young womanhood, just learning the power of her looks and sexuality. Flirting with Marc's friend and subtly badgering her folks, Sophie goes from naive childish charm to overt sexual limits-testing in a real and believable way. Shortly after she's sent upstairs to bed all hell breaks loose again, as the kitchen comes to life and attacks the boorish guest: pots and pans flying, tables tipping over, and finally the refrigerator itself flying out ot pummel his face with the door! The friend leaps out a window to escape the rampaging appliances, cutting himself badly and finally inspiring Marc and Françoise to seek help.
Unsolved Mysteries-type show for which the family's "haunting" is perfect. He assembles a crew and heads out to the now-empty house to see if they can capture a ghost on film. Of particular note is the sound technician played by a young and bearded Gérard Depardieu!
We get more leisurely character work as the crew settles in, sets up their lighting, and chooses bedrooms. Nothing supernatural occurs, so they all just smoke, cook, and play cards. They're soon surprised by the arrival of Sophie, who has snuck out of the hotel where her family is staying and hitchhiked back to the house because of her interest in TV. The producer friend admonishes her and calls Marc to come get her, while a few of the TV crew ogle her and she basks in the attention. Even the producer notices her short skirt and long legs, though he quickly shakes off his Lolita fixation--for the moment.
Things go into overdrive when Marc arrives, too late to go back into town for the evening, and thanks to the now cramped quarters must share a room with his daughter. The priest mentions something about historical poltergeist cases that were all strangely focused to pubescent girls, putting the last puzzle piece in place. After another creepy un-matched mirror sequence in which Sophie's double looks ever more malevolent, Sophie provokes her dad to argument and then appears in the producer's bedroom and attempts to seduce him--but is it Sophie, or her supernatural double? The answer comes fast and loud, leading to a truck overturned by some sentient trees, Gérard freaking out and kidnapping some girls couts (who take a surprising revenge), and Sophie utilizing her strange powers for chaos and destruction.
Expulsion of the Devil proceeds at a comparatively slow pace. The lack of music gives the whole movie a quiet, leisurely feel that makes the explosive supernatural episodes that much more shocking. The connection between Sophie's coming of age and the violent "haunting" scenes is never made explicit--certainly not pounded into your head like a sledgehammer as it would be in an American remake--but for me the subtlety was appreciated and effective. (A scene where the TV crew "sees" the priest in bed with a couple of his charges, only to burst in and find him innocently reading the Good Book, is creepy and underscores the movie's sexual theme, specifically Sophie's mischevious perversity.) The movie boasts only one real showstopping OOGA-BOOGA scare, but the pervasive unease leading up to the creepy unexplained happenings nonetheless kept me on the edge of my seat.
Director Juan Luis Buñuel does a good job with the material, building character and layering on the clues until the final bang-up flee-the-house scene. He comes by his filmmaking savvy honestly, as his father, Luis Buñuel, is widely considered one of the greatest directors in cinema history (and famously worked with Salvador Dali on the seminal surrealist silent short Un Chien Andalou (1929).
Poltergeist, which seems to consciously echo it at times. In any event, it's an interesting, somewhat restrained horror flick that I think holds up well. 2.5 thumbs.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Expulsion of the Devil (1973): or, When Fridges ATTACK!
With Sophie back in the house, things start happening quickly. Gérard is forced by invisible powers to submerge his hand in boiling water, and thereafter becomes quite skittish and panicked about the evil spirits in the house. A priest and his troupe of girl scouts show up on the doorstep, having camped at the previously abandoned house the last few years. The TV crew allows them to stay, and during an after dinner play the girls put on, a child's toy ball comes rolling down the stairs, Changeling style!
Posted by The Vicar of VHS at 7:00 AM
Labels: '70s, 2-3 thumbs, Haunting
3 comments:
'Cold spot, or just Frigid Air?' Oh you cards!
This sounds great. Adding to Netflix, ASAP!
- March 31, 2010 at 7:10 AM
- The Duke of DVD said...
This sounds really fantastic, Vicar. I especially like that the lack of music adds that much more to the supernatural stuffs. More movies need to do that. Either no music, or the bowel-loosening bass that David Lynch employs to great effect...
Then again, I would consider it high-art if a farting orangutan was the harbinger of evil in a movie.
- April 3, 2010 at 10:04 PM
- buy movies dvd said...
This movie seems to have lots of Drama and the overall role played by each person in this movie is really great.
- June 10, 2010 at 3:55 AM
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text:
Dorothy Booth lived a long and eventful life filled with the love of her family. At age 97, when it was clear the end was near, her family gathered around her to spend their last moments together. They turned out to be some of the most joyful times in her life. During those final days, her family spoke to her about heaven. Booth's granddaughter-in-law, Angela Patteson, explained on Facebook how "they talked many times with Grandma, lightheartedly, even jokingly, [asking her] when you get to heaven, see if you're able to send a sign that you're there, and that you're happy." They even came up with what they'd use to convey the message - a cardinal, one of Booth's favorite birds. Dorothy responded the way she so often did when she was asked for something: "I'll see what I can do." She came through in a major way.
A day after her funeral, Dorothy's family gathered together to play canasta, her favorite card game, as a tribute to their beloved matriarch. Before long, they heard a tapping on the kitchen window. Patteson explained, "My father-in-law went outside and saw it was a cardinal. It was just sitting there, completely alert and calm - nothing wrong with it." That alone brought tears to their eyes, but what happened next can only be described as a miracle.
The family was able to approach the bird, hold it and even bring it inside. They spent 10 minutes with the cardinal, feeling the presence of Dorothy around them. Then, they went outside to release it but the bird refused to fly away, instead turning around and landing on one of Dorothy's daughters' shoulders as everyone stood by in awe.
Eventually, they placed the bird on a branch where it sat and watched the family before flying away some time later.
Patteson spoke about what happened, saying, "This has brought so much comfort to them, to have this prayer answered."
Photo: Facebook


text:
West Ham: Adrian, Cresswell, Zabaleta, Obiang, Ogbonna, Reid, Antonio, Noble Masuaku, Lanzini. Arnautovic .Subs: Hart, Ayew, Sakho, Carroll, Hernandez, Rice
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Holding, Monreal, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Wilshire, Lacazette, Ozil, Giroud. Subs: Sanchez, others to be confirmed.
NB: Amendments may be made once we arrive at the London Stadium
moore 6 legend
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 18:38
Unchanged side then,had to be I surpose COYI
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 18:59
but I would take a draw in this one, the worst part for me is the game is about to start and I have to go to work and at work you always get that one bastard that will tell you the result, even though you are recording it to watch when you get home. Oh well, COYI'S.
moore 6 legend
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 19:12
I so hope its our night alby,sick of us being there whipping boys,i mean the last time we beat them at home was when harewood got us a late goal 11 years ago FFS,it's just not on mate,lol
La Vida Hammer
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 19:07
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 19:26
Let's play as in the last two matches ... Forward powerful Hammers
moore 6 legend
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 19:33
First start for wilshire in a year and half,f*ck me turtle head must be desperate,lol
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 19:35
I think if we play the same way as against Chelsea we could win. Arsenal always love to score in fluid passages, but force them to break you down and they often sputter and they are ALWAYS susceptible to counterattack.
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 19:54
3-1 arsenal, Lanzini with our goal, Giroud with a brace and Ozil with one
Dicks is the man
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 19:55
we will DESTROY wenger, oops sorry Arsenal.
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 20:48
Lanzini and Antonio have been poor so far
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 20:57
To see lanzini get subbed pretty early in 2nd half he has not been at the races today
La Vida Hammer
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 20:55
COYI, I think the Chelsea game took a lot out of them
moore 6 legend
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 21:13
I heard we look tired,why the f*ck don't the arse get tired.
Burkie 1
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 21:24
Cos they got 15 men on the pitch
Burkie 1
Dicks is the man
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 21:24
moyes is training too hard, bring back bilic
moore 6 legend
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 21:33
He's running em into the ground lol
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 04:57
Even Noble seems to have got one leg back.
Burkie 1
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 21:34
When did we sell Lanzini
Burkie 1
moore 6 legend
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 21:36
I hear he's been crap tonght
moore 6 legend
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 21:49
Oh chicha FFS! that would have been the one
moore 6 legend
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 21:57
Great pt boys,4 PTS from ci££y, chelski and the arse,i'd have snapped your arm off COYI
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 04:53
After Everton, I thought it was all over. Looking at our points total and goals against one would still have to say it is a very big hole to dig ourselves out of. We will never really be free of the relegation battle (if we stay up) until the end. BUT, on the performance of the last 3 games you could hopefully say that Moyes has stopped the rot, and first things first, that's what was needed. Now, we have to build on the defensive foundation. Make no mistake: Stoke are in the same boat as we are, and they played pretty solid against Burnley. COYI.
By the way: what a different story this Arsenal match might have been had Elbow been onside for Arthur's cross in the first half!
moore 6 legend
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 10:31
Yes mate,i feared the worst too,when the toffoes destroyed us,but to be honest I thought it would be typical west ham to take some pts off the so-called big boys and we have,but now it so must NOT be typical west ham,to get f*cked over by the teams that really matter to our survival ,that's the big test now.COYI
Dicks is the man
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 21:55
take that 0-0 thrashing wenger.
moore 6 legend
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 21:59
lol,that's hurt him don't worry about that mate.
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 22:16
can play giroud and not put crosses in for him...big thank you from me for that.....now the real work starts stoke away is as big as these last two have been..players earned a rest so tomorrow off then back to it friday ready for saturday
Wed, 13/12/2017 - 22:17
Not as polished as against Chelsea but the defence stood solid. We need to make a statement against Stoke.
Burkie 1
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 00:56
I'll say it again ,there's something wrong with Ant
Burkie 1
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 03:12
Yes Burkie, the fact is hes f**ked mate! No pre season, rushed back from long term injury, rushed back from re occurrence, 'passes' late fitness test, plays gets injured has been back for 2 games one of whic hhe had to ask to be subbed off knackered. He improved massively 2nd half today, but its gonna be a few games, he needs a goal aswell, hes a big confidence player imo. We didn't exactly play balls for him to run on to or balls to feet today.
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 09:13
Could have won it at the end with chickpeas strike that hit the underside of the bar & arnies marginal offside goal earlier on.4 points from the chavs & the arse is not to be sniffed at!!had a couple of beers in the carpenters arms beforehand still a proper old boozer, rocking with proper westham fans inside...downside for me,as usual - way too many plastics in the stadium who will never know the meaning of showing passion for a great,traditional club!!Could take a lifetime to organise stands for proper westham fans away from the plastics & tourists,& then it might be called home,but i wont hold my breath with this lot in charge...
moore 6 legend
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 09:57
Yes, I heard the hard core fans get in the carpenters arms mate,atmosphere not so good in the stadium then dave,never see the game,but for a lick of paint could have took all 3pts bloody shame that.
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 11:35
There are pockets of people who try to get it going,but you look round mate & there are hundreds of "fans" who just sit there motionless,who might as well be watching a game of chess!!Now i know at U.P you had the same in various areas,but i see a different fan at westham nowadays,you do still get the hardcore but they are few & far between...i know theres no going back but i tell you what its hard to take sometimes!!
moore 6 legend
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 12:15
I know what you mean mate,chin up,after all we do have the biggest screen in Europe,lol
Burkie 1
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 13:42
And west ham coffee
Burkie 1
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 16:15
moore 6 legend
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 21:58
Don't forget the popcorn & soft porn ;)
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 17:00
every last one of em
moore 6 legend
Thu, 14/12/2017 - 22:55
What you done the whole tub HG,lol


text:
WASHINGTON, DC — With no end in sight for the war in Iraq, manufacturers are reporting that sales of fitness equipment to the military are up as the government works to maintain troop fitness and morale.
Currently, about 138,000 troops are in Iraq, but more troops will be in the country soon to provide security for Iraq's election in January. Keeping the troops in Iraq and on aircraft carriers fit requires that thousands of pieces of fitness equipment be placed in military facilities across the world. U.S. fitness equipment manufacturers are stepping up to the plate to ensure the military has the equipment that it needs.
Iron Grip has received so many orders for equipment from the military that the company is on pace to sell more equipment to more military fitness facilities this year than last year, said Michael Rojas of Iron Grip. In 2003, the company, whose military business is facilitated through Life Fitness, shipped to about 375 facilities, but Rojas expects a considerable increase for 2004. Just since this summer Iron Grip has sent 15 orders to Iraq and five to Afghanistan for large facilities, he said.
"Demand is substantial, and the needs are immediate," Rojas said. "It's an indication that there's a big, full-scale push to provide the military with facilities that are at least on a level that is the same [as in America]."
Rojas has also seen increased business on military vessels, on bases in the United States and in other countries where troops are located. He's equipped fitness facilities on a large number of navy ships and aircraft carriers, such as the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Reagan, and has done work on fitness facilities for the Pentagon and the FBI.
A strong "buy American policy" has helped fuel purchases by the military of equipment made by navy ships and aircraft carriers, such as the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Reagan, and has done work on fitness facilities for the Pentagon and the FBI. A strong "buy American policy" has helped fuel purchases by the military of equipment made by U.S. fitness equipment manufacturers, said Rojas, although the government has not mandated that equipment be manufactured in the United States.
Bob Sikora, who represents MedX/Core Fitness and Woodway USA treadmills, has sold 75 treadmills and a few pieces of core equipment for facilities in Iraq, but due to confidentiality agreements he doesn't know where in Iraq they were placed.
While a lot of money is going to equipment for soldiers in Iraq, Sikora also has done work for the Marines in Hawaii, the FBI, the CIA and the naval submarine base in Kings Bay, GA. Most of the sales are for new equipment. He recently sold several rowers to military facilities in Turkey and Guam, who found the compact rowers worked better for them because they required less room and they cost less than larger pieces of equipment, he said.
Regardless of the equipment's size, the machines play an important part in keeping the troops strong, said Wayne Westcott, fitness director at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, MA. He has worked with the military and has written fitness-training manuals for them. His research shows that boot camp type calisthenics are not as effective as high-intensity strength training.
"We have to go to something else that actually works better than the boot camp, and not the repetitive nature that causes injuries and burns you out psychologically," Westcott said.
By using weights, troops can get a better workout in a shorter amount of time, he said. With push-ups and sit-ups an individual only has his or her body weight as resistance, which means the exerciser must increase repetitions to gain strength and endurance. When exercisers use weights, they get big benefits with just one repetition, Westcott's research showed.
"Everything works in proportion," he said. "When you increase your strength, you'll automatically increase the number of chin-ups and push-ups you can do — even if you didn't train with those exercises."
Besides keeping the troops in good physical condition, the exercise and fitness equipment helps keep morale up, said Sikora.
"Physical fitness is a big thing for [the troops] — it's an outlet to their stress," he said. "Over there you have mostly young guys…War is hell. I've been in war and I know what it's like. I don't know if these guys were ready."
To keep spirits high, the military has been purchasing some customized equipment, such as equipment personalized with base names and other designs, Rojas said.
Even with these morale-boosting efforts, just getting the equipment to the troops can be a challenge. Sikora has heard of dumbbells and other equipment being blown up in convoys. Despite the challenges, equipment manufacturers continue doing their part for the troops, Rojas said, and that support is not likely to end until the troops are home.


text:
"I think that yesterday was a crisis in my life. I finished the first part of Renouvier's second Essais and see no reason why his definition of free will — 'the sustaining of a thought because I choose to when I might have other thoughts' — need be the definition of an illusion. At any rate, I will assume for the present — until next year — that it is no illusion. My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will."
"There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self." William James
"It is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things." René Descarte
Ever since Socrates started to question the basis of our ethics and morals philosophers have questioned and questioned until we can only shrug our shoulders and resign ourselves to an "I don't know". But this comes from assuming one thing; that the basis of our ethics should be explainable. We are faced with resorting to "because I say so" or "because that's the way it is" and expose our inability to come up with the rhetoric to sustain our argument.
Yes, the post-modernists are right, there is no wrong or right (paradoxically making the post-modernists neither wrong nor right in their rightness), except what we make right or wrong. Any wrong or right we perceive are social constructs. We live in an ethical and existential void, with no inherent values, that we are forced to make sense of ourselves, so some Existentialists would have us believe.
So, just make it up as we go along right, as though we are tabula rasa?
In a postmodern society, where all points of view are relative and equally valid or invalid, it is easy to lose perspective, even of what is innate within us. The infant human being learns to absorb and reflect the qualities of its society. It is no surprise then that a child born in a "postmodern world" would feel tabula rasa, that they could not even trust their own being.
René Descarte came to an interesting conclusion, when he considered the philosophical possibility everything he experienced was the result of a demon tricking him, otherwise known as "the method of doubt". Out of all the things he could be sure of, what could he really be sure of? In the end he came up with what he called his First Certainty, which most of us will recognise as; "I think, therefore I am" or more simply "I exist". In the end, Descarte thinks, the one thing that we can depend on is the "self", the thinker, the "I", even if everything else can be considered an "illusion". Unfortunately it was an "I" divorced from physical embodiment, a ghost in a machine, if you like.
At this point a Zen Master may apply a well deserved Zen Slap: "So, that pain you feel on your cheek, is it real or illusory?" Descarte's thinker may, in the end, conclude that no matter the answer that's it's probably worthwhile saying that the pain is real, especially after a few more well applied Zen Slaps. Some pragmatist thinkers, like William James, would think the same; "real pain" versus "illusory pain" seem so indistinguishable as to be a meaningless distinction, you might as well act as if "illusory pain" is "real" until experience tells you otherwise. If it's reliable as an experience it's probably true.
When all society offers us is an existential void, we learn to distrust. We distrust the world around us, we distrust our experience, we may even learn to distrust ourselves. The void has swallowed us.
Exept some experiences are so persistent they cannot be denied out of hand. One of these, as I believe Descarte correctly identified, was the "I" at the centre of thought and experience that I described in Anatta and the Importance of Personhood as:
And yet, there it remains; a strong, persistent sense of self. Despite changing over time, despite interruptions in the flow of consciousness called sleep, there is a strong sense of continuity, that, despite being different ages and with different personal qualities, the "I" ten years ago is the same "I" that is experience by this brain now.
Another is that this sense of self is inextricably attached to a body and therefore the undeniable (whether real or illusory) pain of the Zen Slap. There are some experiences that can be trusted, a rare quality for any person to have!
Going back to Socrates and his continuous questioning (whose philosophical purpose was to "know thyself", not to nit-pick by the way); we may lose trust in many things, but there are many things we cannot deny, or if we do they hang around like a bad smell. It's good to question everything, and thoroughly, but it doesn't pay to live with a feeling that you can't trust anything. It's not in human nature to live without meaning… well, I don't think so. I tried very hard, casting doubt at it from every direction, but this feeling just wouldn't go away!
At some point the human mind has to find its orientation, and form itself and its world around that orientation. It doesn't have top be some great big mythological epic, detailing some super-cosmic story that explains EVERYTHING!!! but we do need something, even if it's thinking about where the next meal comes from.
Following Pragmatist philosophy I think it's good to trust basic experience and build on that, until experience tells me differently. There is a "me", no matter how many times I try to fool myself I am "just" a bundle of neurons. I am a physical presense (body) in the "world", which, incidently, does exist. And there is a a way of telling right from wrong, and it's called a conscience. I chose to trust these things as far as I may, as far as my experience tells me that they work.
With so much cultural bias and disillusionment it's easy to see how we learn to distrust in the basic realities of experience, and abstract ourselves from what is right in front of us, what makes our very being; the "I", conscience, sense, thoughts. We aren't without some references to go with. And at times they're not rationally explainable, they just "feel right".
So, go on, I dare you; trust your Self. You might find it's worth it.


text:
I like to do pictures of my babies when they turn 1. And they always end up turning into family pictures too. So here are some of 'Audrey's first year' pictures:
Audrey's face here more accurately describes how she felt about getting pictures done. She did NOT like it.
But it didn't stop her from walking away and then looking over her shoulder for this cute shot!
We were bribing both of them with Smarties at this point!
We're done!


text:
This weekend, a small town celebrated their football club's promotion to Spain's top flight. These celebrations were tempered with a sense of realism and the preparations that come with inevitable disappointment as their promotion may be all but guaranteed because of a simplistic, yet nonsensical financial provision in place.
In Spain's north, smack dab in the heart of Basque country sits a town of 27,000 on the road between Bilbao and San Sebastián called Eibar. Flanked by the mountains which encircle much of Eibar, Ipurua is a football grounds reminiscent of the same ones inhabited by many of England's non-league sides: a simple design of one prominent stand covered by an aging aluminum awning. Despite its humble surroundings, this past weekend, SD Eibar gained automatic promotion to Spain's La Liga by virtue of being top of the Segunda Division, 1 point clear of La Liga mainstays Deportiva La Coruna.
On any other day and in any other town, a sense of jubilance would have swept over the small population and the Ipurua ground which holds no more than 6,500 people, as their local boys would begin preparations to be the minnow among a sea of carnivorous predatorial species the likes of FC Barcelona and European Champions Real Madrid. Instead, the future of SD Eibar as a La Liga sides floats in financial purgatory, as the club are being punished for their responsible financial practices, deemed not worthy of membership in Spain's top flight.
SD Eibar have not only climbed the many rungs of Spanish football playing well and using the most of what they have at their disposal, they've done so with the lowest wage bill (3.5 million euros) and by not incurring any debt. Eibar is by far the smallest town to reach such a footballing pinnacle, and their home ground's capacity is comparatively miniscule.
Because of an economic principle, Real Decreto 1251/1999, in place to govern the finances of clubs in Spain's top two levels - formally classified as 'professional football' - SD Eibar could find themselves relegated back to the Segunda Division. What is most frustrating about this is that it would be at no fault of their own. Real Decreto stipulates that every club must have a capital equal to 25 percent of the expenses (average) of all teams in the Segunda Division, with the two sides with the biggest output and the two with the smallest not included. It's a simple means of ensuring the financial viability of Spain's professional sides, but it's also on a scale incomparable to the modest expenditures and means of SD Eibar. At the moment, the club's capital sits just above 422,000 euros. Based on the stipulations of Real Decreto, the club would have to raise that to 2,146,525 euros to meet the standards that other clubs have created with their financial practices. Other clubs, that unlike SD Eibar, are in serious debt, mirroring the country's economic downfall, collapsing industry and abysmal unemployment numbers. Simply put, the club need to raise 1,724,242 euros by the beginning of the next La Liga campaign. In August, club members will be able to buy shares at 50 euros a piece, and shortly thereafter, sales will open to the public. That's a lot of money for a town of 27,ooo in a nation crippled by a poor economy.
SD Eibar, unlike many of their fellow clubs, are not in debt. They have exercised staunch fiscal policies and used modest means to climb to the zenith of Spanish football. Now, they are being punished for being a model club that may not have the chance to reap the benefit of their efforts, and this modern David Versus Goliath tale may fizzle in a boardroom before it has a chance to see one of La Liga's football pitches.