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Everything I post has the word balance in it somewhere. Ensuring you are 'in balance' with the horse whilst he is constantly changing centre of gravity takes time to learn.
The trick is relaxation of the lower body, which includes those buttocks as mentioned in an earlier post. The upper body remains upright, supporting itself.
You should strive for the lower body to be completely independent of the upper body. Feel like you could unscrew yourself from the waist and separate the two parts. Aids with the legs should absolutely not affect the upper body.
You can achieve this by noticing whether you are collapsing in the upper body with the effort of the leg aids, if this is the case, re-establish your position and try again until your leg is able to go 'on' and 'off' independently of the rest of your body. Once again, you could be putting in too much effort!
It will take much practise, but just being aware of when you have achieved it and more importantly, when it is all going wrong will help you get there.


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Australian Animal Rescue
Australian Animal Rescue Incorporated (AAR) is a non-profit, volunteer run, non government organization. AAR was established in April 2009 after bush fires devastated the Gippsland, Kinglake and Marysville areas of Victoria. Spurred into action by the devastating events that were unfolding, a small group of dedicated volunteers spent 3 months rescuing wildlife and providing as much food and supplies as possible out to the effected people and animals.
We at AAR differ from other rescue groups as we also specialize, not only in wildlife animals but also domestic animal rescues and adoptions. Australian Animal Rescue Incorporated operates 7 days a week and provides animal rescue and information services throughout Victoria. We also provide assistance to other shelters and disaster relief by doing fundraising throughout Melbourne.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Primary purpose of the Academy is to prepare leaders for the Indian Police, who will lead/command the force with courage, uprightness, dedication and a strong sense of service to the people.
Academy will endeavour to inculcate in them, such values and norms as would help them serve the people better. In particular, it will try to inculcate integrity of the highest order, sensitivity to aspirations of people in a fast changing social and economic milieu, respect for human rights, broad liberal perspective of law and justice, high standard of professionalism, physical fitness and mental alertness.
The Academy will be a focal point for training of the trainers of police training institutions all over the country and will provide consultancy services to sister training institutions for improving their management of training.
The Academy will be a centre for research studies on police subjects and will expand its resource base through tie-ups with similar institutions in and outside the country.
Vision of the Academy
We aspire to be a Global Center of Excellence and the Nodal Center of Police Training in India - setting Benchmarking Standards, leading the Network of Police Training Institutions in the country and contributing to their Capacity Building, developing training literature, besides being a Centre for Research par excellence on Policing and Internal Security issues, ever keeping pace with emerging challenges.
We shall build a cadre of exemplary police officers who will uphold the Rule of Law, respect National values of Secularism, Democracy, Equality and Service to People and ensure the dignity and Human Rights of the citizens with sensitivity.


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Our Challenge are now over on our That's Crafty! Creatives FB Group, please come and join us.
Our current Challenge is Tagtastic!
Our New Challenge
Posted by That's Crafty! at 12:00 pm
Challenge News
We are hoping to start our challenges again in a couple of months - this will probably be over on Facebook and we will make an announcement as soon as we are up and running.
Posted by That's Crafty! at 8:07 am
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What's on Santa's DCIM list? Find out here!
Santa needs DCIM? Why on earth would that be?
Well obviously, a global enterprise like the Claus family operation has a substantial IT need. Certainly, the scale of the back office functions that Mrs. Claus runs needs some pretty substantial IT. The elves have to keep track of hundreds of millions of children's orders all coming in December (and not lose a single one), not to mention the logistics for all the raw materials that are delivered throughout the year and the amazing route planning software for Santa's deliveries on Christmas eve! It is a well-kept secret but the Claus enterprise DC is at the North Pole with a DR site in Greenland, but those are not the only data center locations.
Over the years, the Claus operation has needed to become closer to their customers, who, like anyone under the age of 35, want to interact with Santa on mobile devices with almost instant response times. The Claus operation now has racks of equipment in 15 co-location facilities from Australia to Africa to the Americas and beyond. This dual operation model has kept Claus Inc. nimble when they need to react quickly (elves were some of the first adopters of DevOps in the world), but ensures the crown jewels, the naughty and nice list, stays secure in the Claus data center. While they have considered it, for now Mrs. Claus has decided the only thing going in to the cloud is Santa.
So what features were on the Claus DCIM list? They needed a solution that could work across all their sites, be very configurable, include mobility for changes, and be easy-to-use so the co-location staff could update the changes made to racks themselves. (Did you know Santa insists all his racks have chimneys? It's a 'green' option and well, it is Santa!) They also needed to keep up with lifecycle changes and monitor spare and new inventory. Mrs. Claus hates to see a penny wasted, so she is a big user of the planning and auditing functions to ensure there is not a single wasted port or server. Additionally, power at the North Pole is not cheap, so she watches that like a hawk. Mrs. Claus is also one with an eye to the ROI and I know she needed an affordable solution with rapid implementation options.
As Santa said to us recently, "Your Cormant team will definitely make my 'nice' list this year."
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Cormant team!
– By: Paul Goodison


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Sunday 21 September 2014
#SilentSunday #mysundayphoto 21/09/14
Posted by My Mummy's Pennies at 22:55
Labels: #mysundayphoto, #silentsunday, my Sunday photo, Silent Sunday
2 comments:
- Susan MannMonday, September 22, 2014
Lovely picture. Hope you had a great time xReplyDelete
Was this for the MADs? I hope you had a good timeReplyDelete
Thank you for linking up
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This article is a follow-up to A Flexible Tree Structure in which I explained how to create a hierarchical tree structure from only 3 database tables. This design can hold any number of structure (tree) types, with any number of levels and any number of nodes, and also has the ability to enable levels to be added or deleted from a structure without requiring that the whole structure be rebuilt.
A tree structure is a hierarchy of NODES to which other objects known as LEAVES can be attached. A typical example is where the nodes are points in a company's organisational hierarchy (companies, divisions, departments, etc.) and the leaves are people who occupy positions within this hierarchy.
When examining leaf details it is often a requirement that rather than being able to access the details of every leaf within the system a particular user is only able to access a subset of those details. The way to achieve this is to give each leaf a security code and to give each user a security key that only allows access to some of those codes.
Take as an example the tree structure shown in figure 1. It shows an arrangement of nodes in a typical a hierarchy, each node being identified by a unique number (the Node ID).
Figure 1 - A typical hierarchical structure
When a leaf is attached to a node all that is required to be held in the leaf details is the value of the selected Node ID. However, if a security code for record-level security is required one can be constructed by tracing that node's ancestry all the way back up to the root node. This is possible because each node can have only one parent, and the identity of that parent is held within the node's details. It is therefore a simple matter of stepping through the parent of each node until there are no more parents. For the structure in figure 1 this would produce the set of security codes as shown in table 1:
Table 1 - Security Codes for each Node
In this example the separator between each Node ID is a hyphen, but it could be anything. A separator would not be needed if each Node ID were to be given the relevant number of leading zeros so that each portion were of identical length.
Each user who is allowed to access the leaf details is given a security key which identifies a node in the structure. This user is then able to access only those leaves which are attached to the designated node and any of its children, and is prevented from accessing any leaves that are attached to nodes which are either higher in the structure or which belong on other branches.
Assuming that the security code on each leaf record is called SECURITY_CODE, and that the current user's security key is held in a global variable called $$SECURITY_KEY this can be achieved by using code similar to the following before firing the <read> trigger of the leaf entity:
security_code.LEAF/init = $$security_code retrieve/e "LEAF"
Note that $$SECURITY_CODE must be adjusted to include the profile characters
<GOLD>* at the end in order to include any child nodes.
This means that anyone with a security key of "1" will be able to access all the nodes from 1 downwards. A key of "1-2" will give access to nodes 2,5 and 6, while a key of "1-2-5" will give access to node 5 only.
A simple technique, but I think quite effective.
Tony Marston
4th November, 2001
Back to TOP.


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Paris Party Decorations, Party Table Scatter, Vintage Party Decor
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RimSim Response Hospital Evacuation: Improving Situation Awareness and Insight through Serious Games Play and AnalysisCampbell, B. D., Weaver, C. E. (2011), RimSim Response Hospital Evacuation: Improving Situation Awareness and Insight through Serious Games Play and Analysis, International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, 3(3), pp. 1-15 (PDF)
RimSim Response Hospital Evacuation: Improving Situation Awareness and Insight Through Serious Games PlayCampbell, B. D., Hedley, N., Schroder, K. (2011), RimSim Response Hospital Evacuation: Improving Situation Awareness and Insight Through Serious Games Play, (R-11-1) Seattle: HIT Lab. (PDF)
Adapting Simulation Environments for Emergency Response Planning and TrainingCampbell, B. D. (2010), Adapting Simulation Environments for Emergency Response Planning and Training, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, December 17. (PDF - full | PDF - partial)
RimSim Visualization: An Interactive Tool for Post-event Sense Making of a First Response EffortCampbell, B. D., Schroder, K. E., Weaver, C. A. (2010), RimSim Visualization: An Interactive Tool for Post-event Sense Making of a First Response Effort, In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM 2010, Seattle, WA, May 2-5. (PDF)
Training for emergency response with RimSim:Response!Campbell, B. D., Schroder, K. E. (2009), Training for emergency response with RimSim:Response!, In Proceedings of the 2009 SPIE Defense, Security + Sensing Conference, Orlando, FL, Apr 13-17. (PDF)
Campbell, B. D., Mott, B. (2008), Personal Connection to the Ocean Via On-line Interactive Experiences, In Proceedings of the 7th International Aquarium Congress, Shanghai, China, Oct 19-24. (PDF)
XML in Theory and Practice
I performed the technical review for Chris Bates' book on all things XML. The book is appropriate for a beginning XML enthusiast who has a strong background in Information Systems and Web Enablement. John Wiley Europe published the book as ISBN 0-470-84344-6.
Teach Yourself Dynamic HTML in 7 Days
I am the primary author of this title published by Sam's Net. Rick Darnell is the co-author. Rick and I worked hard to be first to market with a self-help book on the emerging HTML 4 specification. Both Netscape's and Microsoft's approach to interactive Web page development are covered with respect to their latest version 4.0 web browsers. The Teach Yourself series is especially successful and this book follows the traditional recipe closely. The book comes complete with the HTML specification as well as explanations, examples, Q&A, quizzes and workshops. The book ISBN is 1-57521-335-4 and is available in soft cover, about two inches thick.
Teach Yourself VRML 2 in 21 DaysBook source code available here.
I am co-author of this title published by Sam's Net. Chris Marrin is the primary author. Chris worked for Silicon Graphics at the time and was responsible along with two others for the Moving Worlds VRML 2 proposal. Chris now works for Sony on their TV set top box project and is active in the EAI Working Group of the Web 3D Consortium. The 21 Days series is especially successful and this book follows the teach yourself recipe closely. The complete VRML 2 specification is covered with explanations, examples, Q&A, and exercises. The International Standards Book Number is 1-57521-193-9 and is available in soft cover, about two inches thick.
VRML Developer's JournalI have an article about creating a Kaleidoscope (PDF) using VRML's External Authoring Interface in the first issue of the first volume of the Virtual Reality Developer's Journal as well as the August 1998 Java Developer's Journal.
The second issue of the VRDJ was never published. My submission focused on using the VRML 97 PROTO node to create group projects in VRML. Check out my suggestions for a Worldwide Kaleidoscope Project (PDF). Feel free to submit a Kaliedoscope piece to me. If I get enough, I will put a dynamic Kaleidoscope generator on the Web and let you know about it.
I had hoped to contribute regularly to the first ever magazine devoted entirely to VRML development.
Distributed Collaboration Project Final Project ReportHedley, N. and Campbell, B. (1998).(R-99-3). Seattle: Human Interface Technology Lab.
Trade Space Navigation for VR Application Design.Weghorst, S.; Emerson, T.; Kerr, A.D.; Campbell, B. (1997).(R-97-5) Seattle: HIT Lab
VRML As a Superset of HTML: An Approach to ConsolidationI presented a paper called VRML As a Superset of HTML: An Approach to Consolidation (PDF) during the Annual Computer Science Conference on April 26, 1997 at The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute-Hartford. I received the Most Original Paper award -- chosen out of the 48 papers presented.
Seattle Magazine is a 10-issue-a-year publication covering all things Seattle. July-December 1999, I wrote one Link column per issue covering a different Seattle-based website genre and discussing the implications on cyberspace.
Masters Document
3D Collaborative Multiuser Worlds for the InternetAbstract: Acknowledgements and Abstract
Chapters 1-7: PDF
Appendix A: Participant Overview Guide
Appendix B: My Java Client
Appendix C: My Java Server
Appendix D: My Virtual World
Thesis Proposal
Problem StatementA collective vision for a shared, 3-dimensional, internet accessible cyberspace is rapidly becoming a reality in Silicon Valley. Successful technology companies are coming together and creating standards to support a cross-platform, cross-server, shared cyberspace. Living Worlds is an example of such a standard. Living Worlds focuses on standard connections of a web browser to the internet and the requirements of a server to communicate with a compatible browser in a standard manner. Many 3D web browsers have recently incorporated an external interface API that will allow others to write the scripts that make cyberspace come alive. Server technology is rapidly improving the shared behavior routines that allow one browser to see the effects of the actions of another cyberworld visitor. So, its time to start building the worlds this technology will support. How effective will we be able to communicate, educate, and entertain ourselves in cyberspace over an internet connection? The question is a wide open one. It is time to begin to build worlds and test out our abilities to collaborate in them.
Signficance of the ProblemCollaborative, shared digital worlds have been created in the past. Many have been created on dedicated networks such as the military's DIS network, Japanese research lab networks, or university laboratory networks. The shared spaces were always created at great cost and with little opportunity to make them available to the mass public. The commercialization of the internet and the advent of the World Wide Web have made public availability to computer networks a possiblity. The internet is not a reliable deliverer of information. The attempt to port yesterday's shared digital worlds have failed. These applications required reliable and rapid delivery of information. Today, the technology is being built from the bottom up to work with the inherent weaknesses of internet information delivery. The goals may be the same as cyberspace projects of the past, but the delivery strategies are quite different.
We have an opportunity to give cyberspace access to millions of world citizens. Some of these people will be able to truly participate in a cybersociety where they have struggled to participate in our society to date. Many physically challenged individuals are not mobile. They can't easily run out and participate in a spontaneous societal event such as a political rally or sports team celebration. Even a typical world citizen can't phsically get to where the educational and entertainment opportunities are available. Instead, they settle for struggling to find the best opportunity in their own neighborhoods. In too many neighborhoods the best opportunities are not near good enough. They are limited by the experience and knowledge of the neighbors that live there.
The technologies needed for cyberspace are falling into place. It is time to build cyberspace as it should be built to reach out to the needs of our society. It is everyone's responsibility to build it right. I want to do my part by understanding the technology, trying it out, and providing feedback through a significant project/thesis paper. The Living Worlds standard addresses networking, user interface, application programming interface, and avatar representation issues. I will be learning specifics that will have broad, transferable teachings for me.
Specification of Project/ThesisMy project thesis will have three major sections. In the first section, I will review the history of shared digital worlds and investigate the tools available today for creating new ones. I will discuss the technologies used, the goals of the shared communications, and critique the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. I will conject on the new affordances the 3rd dimension add in a visible, collaborative world. In the second section, I will use the best technology available from the consortium of technology companies supporting the Living Worlds standard and build the best world I can to demonstrate the use of cyberspace to communicate and collaborate within a digital, virtual world. After trying out different techniques, I will focus my work on one aspect of the world/interface that seems to be critical in invoking collaborative behaviors among participants. At that time, I will get data based on applying the scientific method to groups of people using worlds with and without that feature. In the third section, I will document the strengths and weaknesses of using the technology for my intended purpose. I will present my data on the one collaborative feature I find most worthy of research. I will also invite participation in the world from anyone with an internet connection who is willing to download the necessary sofware and related files. I will keep myself present in the world as a participant and evaluator and document any serendipidous findings along the way.
I may change my scope should I find a specific technological bottleneck that I think I can help solve. I don't expect that to happen. There are many experts with at least 15 years of networking and software engineering experience working on the Living Worlds standard. Instead, I expect to be able to opine on which aspects of the technology need the most work and what elements are most important in a virtual world to foster enthusiastic, collaborative participation. In other words, I will speak to the different bottlenecks and design decisions that have limited my virtual world's acceptance by the general public, and focus on the questions that will require additional research.
Method of solutionFor the first section, I have already found much on-line information about technologies used in the past to collaborate. Other theses have been already written critiquing those technologies. I will read, digest, and summarize the papers I encounter in my literature review. I will also continue creating the 3D objects, scripts, and code objects necessary for my world development. For the second section, I will continue to try out the available technologies for creating shared, 3D worlds for use over the internet. I have been creating worlds with other technologies not specifically intended for internet use. The companies involved with Living Worlds have been delivering software expressly for internet use. At the lowest level, my world can be created using an ASCII editor. I will use the best tools available to be a more productive developer. I expect to use the CosmoPlayer API with Java scripting to create my world and house it on a Living Worlds compatible server of which I am most familiar with Black Sun's CyberHub server. Once my world is created, I will publicize it on-line in Usenets and on chat services, through the Contact Consortium, and via word of mouth. When others come to visit, I will be one of the participants and will guide others' interaction. After they experience my world, I will follow up with a survey and email correspondence to get their feedback. At some point, when I have determined which aspect of my world seems important for invoking collaborative behaviors among participants, I will set up the appropriate test subject groups and test my hypothesis. I will keep a detailed journal of my progress including any surprise findings throughout the process.
Hardware and software to be usedFor the client, based on all the software solutions I have seen to date, I expect to use Silicon Graphics' CosmoPlayer as a 3D VRML viewer. The viewer can be extended by using its external interface and Java based routines I will acquire and write myself. I expect to be innovative in extending the interface to make it more appropriate for my specific virtual world. CosmoPlayer runs on Windows95, different flavors of UNIX, and soon, Macintosh machines. It supports the VRML 2.0 standard in its entirety. The VRML 2.0 standard is the standard I will use to deliver my world to each connected user. Other client software I will consider includes Dimension X's Liquid Reality browser and Netscape's Live3D browser.
On the server side, I will use a simple server already developed at The Human Interface Technology Laboratory in Seattle, WA to connect the visitors together in my world and pass information around to all participants. As my world gets more complicated, I will work to extend the current server through cusomized C code, and/or run an NT or Solaris based server with Black Sun's CyberHub software to maintain the shared world. So far, Black Sun is leading the way in delivering servers that support the Living Worlds standard. I may find another server that performs better, but I don't foresee that today. CosmoPlayer is already ready to plug into a Living Worlds compatible server and share client actions across virtual world participants.
My Project/Thesis Program Plan
Section 1 - Literature search and technology critiques February 28, 1997 Section 2 - Virtual World Built December 1, 1997 Section 3 - Shared Experience Conclusions December 15, 1997 Defense December 21, 1997
Last Modified: Saturday, 22-Oct-2011 09:46:41 EDT


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Upcoming Events
NSR livestock/beef sale
Off The Grid
Winter at NSR
Native Son Ranch
Natural Grass Fed Black Angus Beef * Off The Grid
Mike maintains "Off The Grid" from the ranch. OTG offers renewable energy solutions under 10kW for the Grayson County area. OTG is a certified dealer/installer of Bergey wind systems.
OTG can design systems for on-grid or off-grid applications.
Native Son Ranch
727 Gordon Road
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Mike Cell 903-819-9199


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Libtard Democrat Chuck Schumer will resign his seat as US Senator and Minority Leader this morning after learning that the White House has enough on him to ruin his marriage and send him to jail. Rather than face the backlash and vindictive response from the Trump administration to his requests to play ball, Schumer will resign, deny all of the allegations and spend the next 7 1/2 years under investigation by Trey Gowdy.
This was a great move by Trump. Not only does he get rid of a huge political opponent, he shows America that our elected officials can be compromised and forced to do as they're told. No more of this pussyfooting around with majority votes and filibusters…either get in line of get out.
One of these days the Democrats will realize they can't keep up with the winning strategy of the Republican party. It doesn't matter how many more votes the Dems get, the GOP continues to grow stronger. With Schumer out of the way it will grow even stronger. The alleged file on Schumer includes things like pushing entitlement programs that are meant to give away free stuff for votes and adultery.
President Trump doesn't mess around.


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Former England all-rounder Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff has labelled South African Daryll Cullinan's sledging as 'the worst I have seen'.
International Cricket Council boss David Richardson has issued a warning in light of Australia's David Warner's latest on-field spat – where he told India's Rohit Sharma to 'speak English' – saying the world body will come down hard on players who verbally abused their opponents at the upcoming ICC World Cup.
Warner has come under fire for repeatedly asked his rival to 'speak English. However, Flintoff – fresh from his Big Bash League stint with Brisbane Heat – believed today's on-field banter paled into insignificance to his baptism of fire.
'Twenty years ago, sledging was 10 times worse,' he told BBC Sport. 'Now, with stump microphones and cameras all over, everything gets picked up.
'One of the first Test matches I played against South Africa, there was one fella … he was the worst I have ever come across – Daryll Cullinan. 'He was horrible. I was only young … the words he called me, I didn't even know what they meant.
'He just went at me and I don't think there's any place for that in any sport or any society.'
Flintoff -said there was a place for backchat but hoped the likes of Warner knew where to draw the line.
'I don't mind the odd chirp – Adam Gilchrist was fantastic at it because he'd do enough to put you off but not enough to upset you. Shane Warne was similar.
'It seems you can walk onto the field, say anything you want about somebody and then walk off and forget about it. You wouldn't walk into somebody's office and let rip at them for 10 minutes and then go for a cup of tea.
'As people you know the difference – you know right from wrong,' Flintoff added.


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If you are disappointed to receive a benefit denial notice, we would be happy to help you tackle the disability appeals process. Please contact us today for a free evaluation of your disability situation.


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Aerations are scheduled in the spring or fall for optimum results and we recommend it be done on a two year cycle. Aeration benefits your lawn by improving drainage, reducing water run-off, improving grass rooting, reducing soil compaction, and over-all health of your lawn.
Fertilizing gives your lawn a balanced feeding for healthy root development and a greener lawn, in addition to controlling broadleaf weeds. University Landscaping will perform the application depending on your needs to ensure your lawn is happy and healthy all year round.
Thatch is a layer of slowly decomposing grass stems, dead roots and debris that accumulates above the soil line and below grass blades.
Dethatching should be done when a thick layer of thatch builds up above the soil line. Water and fertilizer may run off instead of penetrating the soil. Dethatching can help rejuvenate a lawn by restoring passageways to the soil. Dethatching is done by power raking the lawn so fertilizer and water will then penetrate the soil.
Fairy Ring
Fairy Ring is a fungal disease which appears as rings of dark green grass surrounding areas of dead or light colored grass. Grass inside the rings dies because water cannot penetrate the cobwebby surface of the fungus. Fairy Ring develops in soils that contain non-decomposed, woody organic material and can develop in all types of grass. A good lawn maintenance program would be the most effective in keeping fairy ring under control.
The best time of year to prune trees or shrubs depends on the plant species, its condition and reason for pruning. In most cases, corrective pruning of dead/weakened branches or one or two small branches can be done at any time as it will have little effect on the trees growth. Heading, limbing and thinning, however, should be done in late fall or early winter when leaves have dropped. This prevents excessive bleeding, and the wounds will heal quickly when the new growth begins in spring. Pinching, tip pruning and shearing should be done when the shoots are actively growing in the late spring or early summer. In the case of coniferous trees, pruning should be completed before the new shoots have hardened off.


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CNET — AT&T is offering free public Wi-Fi hot spots to help it deal with increasing congestion on its wireless network.On Tuesday, the company launched a free outdoor wireless hot spot in New York's Times Square.The pilot program will offer free Wi-Fi access to AT&T wireless and broadband customers using smartphones, laptops, and other Wi-Fi enabled devices. AT&T's Wi-Fi network is set up on the north side of Times Square on Seventh Avenue between 45th and 47th Streets.
Visit my Linked in Profile
Solar News


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« AnteriorContinuar »
all writers, repeated a few of the identical phrases and ideas which he had already used in that and other dramas. I have formerly observed in a note on King Lear, (See Vol. XIV, Act V,) that Shakspeare has appropriated the same sentiment, in nearly the same words, to Justice Shallow, King Lear, and Othello; and may now add, that I find another allusion as nearly expressed in five different places :
"I'd strip myself to death, as for a bed
"That longing I'd been sick for." Measure for Measure. "I will encounter darkness like a bride,
"And hug it in my arms."
"A bridegroom in my death, and run unto 't
"I will die bravely like a bridegroom." King Lear.
"Devesting them for bed."
The degree of credit due to the title-page of this tragedy is but very inconsiderable. It is not mentioned by Meres in 1598; but that Shakspeare was known to have had some hand in it, was sufficient reason why the whole should be fathered on him. The name of the original writer could have promoted a book. seller's purpose in but an inferior degree. In the year 1611, one of the same fraternity attempted to obtrude on the publick the old King John (in Dr. Farmer's opinion written by Rowley) as the work of our celebrated author.
But we are told with confidence, that
"Shakspeare's own muse his Pericles first bore,
"The Prince of Tyre was elder than the Moor." To the testimony of Dryden respest is always due, when he speaks of things within the compass of his own knowledge. But on the present occasion he could only take report, or a title-page, for his guide; and seems to have preferred smoothness of versi fication to preciseness of expression. His meaning is completely given in the second line of his couplet. In both, he designs to say no more than that Shakspeare himself did not rise to excellence in his first plays; but that Pericles, one of the weakest imputed to him, was written before Othello, which is generally regarded as the most vigorous of his productions; that of these two pieces, Pericles was the first. Dryden in all probability met with it in the folio edition, 1664, and enquired no further concerning its authenticity. The birth of his friend Sir William D'Avenant, happened in 1605, at least ten years below the date of this contested drama.*
Shakspeare died in 1616; and it is hardly probable that his godson, (a lad about ten years old) instead of searching his pockets for apples, should have enquired of him concerning the dates of his theatrical performances. It is not much more likely that afterwards, in an age devoid of literary curiosity, Sir
The abuse of J. Tatham would have deserved no reply, had it not been raised into consequence by its place in Mr. Malone's Preliminary Observations. I think it therefore but justice to observe, that this obscure wretch who calls our author a "plebeian driller," (droller I suppose he meant to say) has thereby bestowed on him a portion of involuntary applause. Because Horace has pronounced that he who pleases the great is not entitled to the lowest of encomiums, are we therefore to infer that the man who has given delight to the vulgar, has no claim also to his dividend of praise-interdum vulgus rectum putat. It is the peculiar merit of Shakspeare's scenes, that they are generally felt and understood. The tumid conceits of modern tragedy communicate no sensations to the highest or the meanest rank. Sentimental comedy is not much more fortunate in its efforts. But can the period be pointed out in which King Lear and The Merry Wives of Windsor did not equally entertain those who fill the boxes and the gallery, primores populi, populumque tributim?
Before I close this enquiry, which has swelled into an unexpected bulk, let me ask, whose opinion confers most honour on Shakspeare, my opponent's or mine? Mr. Malone is desirous that his favourite poet should be regarded as the sole author of a drama which, collectively taken, is unworthy of him. I only wish the reader to adopt a more moderate creed, that the purpurei panni are Shakspeare's, and the rest the productions of some inglorious and forgotten play-wright.
If consistently with my real belief I could have supported instead of controverting the sentiments of this gentleman, whom I have the honour to call my friend, I should have been as happy in doing so as I now am in confessing my literary obligations to him, and acknowledging how often in the course of the preceding volume he has supplied my deficiencies, and rectified my errors.
On the whole, were the intrinsick merits of Pericles yet less than they are, it would be entitled to respect among the curious in dramatick literature. As the engravings of Mark Antonio are valuable not only on account of their beauty, but because
William should have been solicitous about this circumstance, or met with any person who was capable of ascertaining it.
If it be urged against this opinion, that most of the players contemporary with Shakspeare, were yet alive, and from that quarter Sir William's information might have been derived, I answer,―from those who were at the head of their fraternity while our author flourished, he could not have received it. Had they known that Pericles was the entire composition of our great poet, they would certainly have printed it among his other works in the folio 1623.-Is it likely that any of our ancient histrionick troop were better acquainted with the incunabula of Shakspeare's Muse, than the very people whose intimate connection with him is marked by his last will, in which he calls them-" his fellows John Hemynge, and Henry Condell ?"
they are supposed to have been executed under the eye of Raffaelle, so Pericles will continue to owe some part of its reputa tion to the touches it is said to have received from the hand of Shakspeare.
To the popularity of the Prince of Tyre (which is sufficiently evident from the testimonies referred to by Mr. Malone) we may impute the unprecedented corruption in its text. What was acted frequently, must have been frequently transcribed for the use of prompters and players; and through the medium of such faithless copies it should seem that most of our early theatrical pieces were transmitted to the publick. There are certainly more gross mistakes in this than in any other tragedy attributed to Shakspeare. Indeed so much of it, as hitherto printed, was absolutely unintelligible, that the reader had no power to judge of the rank it ought to hold among our ancient dramatick performances. Steevens.
Mr. Steevens's intimate acquaintance with the writings of Shakspeare renders him so well qualified to decide upon this question, that it is not without some distrust of my own judg. ment that I express my dissent from his decision; but as all the positions that he has endeavoured to establish in his ingenious disquisition on the merits and authenticity of Pericles do not appear to me to have equal weight, I shall shortly state the reasons why I cannot subscribe to his opinion with regard to this long-contested piece.
The imperfect imitation of the language and numbers of Gower, which is found in the choruses of this play, is not in my apprehension a proof that they were not written by Shakspeare. To summon a person from the grave, and to introduce him by way of Chorus to the drama, appears to have been no uncommon practice with cur author's contemporaries. Marlowe, before the time of Shakspeare, had in this way introduced Machiavel in his Jew of Malta: and his countryman Guicciardine is brought upon the stage in an ancient tragedy called The Devil's Charter. In the same manner Rainulph, the monk of Chester, appears in The Mayor of Quinborough, written by Thomas Middleton. Yet it never has been objected to the authors of the two former pieces, as a breach of decorum, that the Italians whom they have brought into the scene do not speak the language of their own country; or to the writer of the latter, that the monk whom he has introduced does not use the English dialect of the age in which he lived.-But it may be said, "nothing of this kind is attempted by these poets; the author of Pericles, on the other hand, has endeavoured to copy the versi. fication of Gower, and has failed in the attempt: had this piece been the composition of Shakspeare, he would have succeeded."
I shall very readily acknowledge, that Shakspeare, if he had thought fit, could have exhibited a tolerably accurate imitation of the language of Gower; for there can be little doubt, that what has been effected by much inferior writers, he with no great difficulty could have accomplished. But that, because these choruses do not exhibit such an imitation, they were
therefore not his performance, does not appear to me a necessary conclusion; for he might not think such an imitation proper for a popular audience. Gower, like the persons above mentioned, would probably have been suffered to speak the same language as the other characters in this piece, had he not written a poem containing the very story on which the play is formed. Like Guicciardine and the monk of Chester, he is called up to superintend a relation found in one of his own performances. Hence, Shakspeare seems to have thought it proper (not, to copy his versification, for that does not appear to have been at all in his thoughts, but) to throw a certain air of antiquity over the monologues which he has attributed to the venerable bard. Had he imitated the diction of the Confessio Amantis with accuracy, he well knew that it would have been as unintelligible to the greater part of his audience as the Italian of Guicciardine or the Latin of Rainulph; for, I suppose, there can be no doubt, that the language of Gower (which is almost as far removed from that of Hooker and Fairfax, as it is from the prose of Addison or the poetry of Pope,) was understood by none but scholars,* even in the time of Queen Elizabeth. Having determined to introduce the contemporary of Chaucer in the scene, it was not his business to exhibit so perfect an imitation of his diction as perhaps with assiduity and study he might have accomplished, but such an antiquated style as might be understood by the people before whom his play was to be represented.f
As the language of these choruses is, in my opinion, insufficient to prove that they were not the production of Shakspeare, so also is the inequality of metre which may be observed in different parts of them; for the same inequality is found in the lyrical parts of Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream. It may likewise be remarked, that as in Pericles, so in many of our author's early performances, alternate rhymes frequently occur; a practice which I have not observed in any other dramatick performances of that age, intended for publick representation.
Perhaps not by all of them. The treasures of Greece and Rome had not long been discovered, and to the study of ancient Languages almost every Englishman that aspired to literary reputation applied his talents and his time, while his native tongue was neglected. Even the learned Ascham was but little acquainted with the language of the age immediately preceding his own. If scholars were defective in this respect, the people, we may be sure, were much more so.
If I am warranted in supposing that the language of the Confessio Amantis would have been unintelligible to the audience, this surely was a sufficient reason for departing from it.
See p. 116, of n. 6.
§ The plays of Lord Sterline are entirely in alternate rhymes; but these seem not to have been intended for the stage, 'nor were they, I believe, ever performed in any theatre.
Before I quit the subject of the choruses introduced in this piece, let me add, that, like many other parts of this play, they contain some marked expressions, certain ardentia verba, that are also found in the undisputed works of our great poet; which any one who will take the trouble to compare them with the choruses in King Henry V, and The Winter's Tale, will readily perceive. If, in order to account for the similitude, it shall be said, that though Shakspeare did not compose these declamations of Gower, he might have retouched them, as that is a point which never can be ascertained, so no answer can be given to it.
That the play of Pericles was originally written by another poct, and afterwards improved by Shakspeare, I do not see sufficient reason to believe. It may be true, that all which the improver of a dramatick piece originally ill-constructed can do, is, to polish the language, and to add a few splendid passages; but that this play was the work of another, which Shakspeare from his friendship for the author revised and corrected, is the very point in question, and therefore cannot be adduced as a medium to prove that point. It appears to me equally improbable that Pericles was formed on an unsuccessful drama of a preceding period; and that all the weaker scenes are taken from thence. We know indeed that it was a frequent practice of our author to avail himself of the labours of others, and to construct a new drama upon an old foundation; but the pieces that he has thus imitated are yet extant. We have an original Taming of a Shrew, a King John, a Promos and Cassandra, a King Leir, &c. but where is this old play of Pericles 2* or how comes it to pass that no memorial of such a drama remains? Even if it could be proved that such a piece once existed, it would not warrant us in supposing that the less vigorous parts of the performance in question were taken from thence; for though Shakspeare borrowed the fables of the ancient dramas just now enumerated, he does not appear to have transcribed a single scene from any one of them.
Still, however, it may be urged, if Shakspeare was the original author of this play, and this was one of his earliest productions, he would scarcely in a subsequent period, have introduced in his Winter's Tale some incidents and expressions which bear a strong resemblance to the latter part of Pericles: on the other hand, he might not scruple to copy the performance of a preceding poet.
Before we acquiesce in the justice of this reasoning, let us examine what has been his practice in those dramas concerning the authenticity of which there is no doubt. Is it true that Shak speare has rigidly abstained from introducing incidents or characters, similar to those which he had before brought upon the stage? Or rather, is not the contrary notorious? In Much Ado
* When Ben Jonson calls Pericles a mouldy tale, he alludes, I apprehend, not to the remote date of the play, but to the antiquity of the story on which it is founded,


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If you want to create your own HDMI cable, for a custom length, or perhaps to utilise the very thin cables these connectors can use, our selection of DIY cables and connectors is just the job.
Match this with another HDMI connector from the range, and connect them with one of our HDMI ribbon cables, and you're all set! The sturdy cable clips provide a good connection at both ends of your custom cable
This version is a straight Micro HDMI plug.
Ribbon cable not included. Check out our DIY cables and connector section for our full range
These have been tested with a Raspberry Pi 4 with great results! NOTE: whilst these connectors offer flexibility and customisation, this will not be as robust as a traditional cable.
- Dimensions: 26.5mm x 17.3mm x 4.0mm
- Weight: 1.2g


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SimEarth: The Living Planet
DOS game, 1990
- Genre:
- Strategy
- Year:
- 1990
- Developer:
- Maxis Software
- Publisher:
- Ocean Software
- Perspective:
- Top-down
- Theme:
- Educational, Nature
The year 1990 was a very productive year for the game company Maxis. One of games released in 1990 was a great simulator SimEarth: The Living Planet. The game follow the well known pattern of Sim games from those times, but this time you will not lead city or farm, but an entire planet. You have a relatively simple (haha) goal: to guide inhabitants of your planet from single-celled roots to an advanced civilization that goes to space. You can be a leader of planet Earth, or you can also choose other planets (Mars, Venus, Aquarium, some randomly generated planet, etc.) On you path, you must overcome a number of threats (pollution, disease, hunger, war and global warming) and make sure the inhabitants of your planet will survive.
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Loesch and Bowman will meet with fans, sign and give away memorabilia special to MAGLITE and SHOT Show
ONTARIO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Mag Instrument, Inc. / MAGLITE(R) will welcome Dana Loesch, nationally syndicated radio talk show host and Dana Bowman American hero, veteran and founder of the Halo for Freedom Foundation, to MAGLITE's Booth 4029 during the run of the SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Dana Bowman will appear Tuesday, Jan 22 – Thursday, Jan 24, 2019 at the MAGLITE(R) Booth at 10 a.m. and Dana Loesch Thursday at 3 p.m.
"Our great lineup of MAGLITE products always produces plenty of excitement, but we have amped it up this year by adding both Loesch and Bowman to our SHOT Show program," said Scott Field Global Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
MAGLITE(R) is a supporter of the Halo for Freedom Foundation and entered into a relationship with Loesch in 2018 including an ad run on her syndicated radio program.
"I can't even remember a time in my life when I didn't know MAGLITE," said Loesch. "Family and Friends who are hunters, who served, and relied on its power, MAGLITE has always been within arm's reach. They are a company that embodies the American Dream and I am proud to be partnering with them."
Dana Bowman often executes his jumps using a signature MAGLITE(R) parachute and explains the significance here. "Like a parachute, a MAGLITE must work when you need it, or the consequences can be bad, and I know something about bad outcomes that are unexpected. MAG Instrument is a company that has always supported our armed forces, veterans and first-responders and I am grateful for their support."
Visit the MAGLITE(R) brand at the 2019 SHOT Show January 22 – 25 at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Booths 4029 and 30109.
About Mag Instrument:
Mag Instrument, manufacturer of the MAGLITE(R) flashlight, is proud to be a U.S.A. manufacturer. Each flashlight is a result of an obsession with fine engineering, craftsmanship and a commitment to perfection. Founder, owner and president Anthony Maglica has guided his company's growth from a one-man machine shop in 1955 to an enterprise that has proudly employed thousands of American workers since it produced its first flashlight in 1979.
Learn More: https://maglite.com/
This version of news story was published on and is Copr. © 2019 California Newswire® (CaliforniaNewswire.com) – part of the Neotrope® News Network, USA – all rights reserved.
Information is believed accurate but is not guaranteed. For questions about the above news, contact the company/org/person noted in the text and NOT this website.


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Welcome to Thursday, June 14, 2012's Clicks of the Day!
Clicks of the Day is a daily round up of news posted Sunday through Thursday with quantity and quality of content differing depending on how busy Linda's day is.
- Loved ones of fatal hit and run victim shocked
- Homicides cooling compared to last year
- Woman accused of defrauding immigrant for millions speaks out
- Montreal teacher fired for showing body-parts video
- Marathon vote on budget bill passes halfway mark
- UN Monitors find stench of death in Syrian town
- One in 12 patients readmitted to hospital within 30 days
- Pure ecstasy can be 'safe' if consumed responsibly: B.C. health officer
- Computers won't rot your brain – if you exercise
- Facebook wants users' cell numbers in bid to bolster security
- Nokia to cut 10,000 jobs worldwide, Canada affected
- Cost of kid-raising hits $234,900 in U.S
- Dollarama to introduce $3 items as part of 'natural evolution'
- Newspaper delivers headlines to your coffee sleeve
- 10,000 words founder Mark S. Luckie to join Twitter
- Can you 'Live Below the Line' on $1.50 a day?
- China's Wuhan city covered in mysterious haze
- City block-sized asteroid to fly by Earth
- Woolly mammoths wiped out by multiple killers
- New study claims humans evolved from primitive species of shark
- 10 weirdest urban ecosystems on Earth
- Red dot becomes 'oldest cave art'
- Cooked squid inseminates woman's "tongue, cheek and gums"
- 'Vampire' skeleton to go on display in Bulgaria
- Homeless Texan man finds $70,000 in gold
- U.S. man catches fire after applying sunscreen
- [Video]: Cats playing patty cake and what they were saying
"While police investigate a deadly hit and run late Wednesday night, friends and family of the man killed in the incident are grieving the tragic loss. Police said a Good Samaritan had pulled over to help a stranded driver in the southbound lanes of the Anthony Henday near 62 Avenue late Wednesday night. Investigators were called to the scene after 11:30 pm, after the man was struck and killed by a passing vehicle. Family confirmed the Good Samaritan is 46-year-old Andrew Green, a new Edmontonian who had just moved into the area from Toronto six months ago."
This is very sad. :(
"It wasn't until June of last year that Staff Sgt. Bill Clark of the Edmonton police homicide unit began to worry. Only six months in to the year, and 24 people had already been slain on city streets. The 14-member homicide unit was beginning to feel the strain… Already this year, there has been some significant arrests made on a couple of those cases. With detectives pursuing other investigative avenues on their files, Clark expects to see more positive results as the year goes on."
Good news.
"The president and founder of the Temporary Foreign Workers Association of Canada has responded to allegations that she scammed Fusako Kametani out of a substantial amount of money… I am devastated by these false accusations. It is my fervent hope that these allegations will not tarnish the reputations of my and other decent humanitarian organizations in Canada helping people."
There's always two sides to the story…
"A Montreal high school teacher was fired Thursday for showing a Grade 10 class what is believed to be the video of the infamous body-parts killing. The school board issued a statement saying the 29-year-old teacher, who was under contract until the end of the school year, was terminated — effective immediately. The teacher at Cavelier-De LaSalle High School showed the video on June 4, apparently at the urging of students in his history-and-civics class. Students said that during a discussion of current events, and the Magnotta case, they had asked him to show the video and he apparently relented after they voted 22 to 3 in favour of watching it."
"Federal MPs passed the halfway mark in a marathon voting session on the government's omnibus budget implementation bill, which began at around 1 a.m. ET Thursday morning. The opposition parties have introduced more than 800 amendments or deletions to Bill C-38, which include major changes on everything from Employment Insurance to environmental approvals for major projects. Andrew Scheer, speaker of the House of Commons, grouped some of those amendments together and ruled others out earlier this week. The end result is that as many as 159 votes are being undertaken by MPs — a process expected to take about 24 hours."
I hope whatever the end result is is good for us…
"Smoldering buildings, looted shops, smashed cars and a strong stench of death greeted U.N. observers who entered the nearly deserted Syrian town of Haffa on Thursday, a day after President Bashar Assad's forces overran it as part of a major offensive to recover rebel-controlled territories. The monitors had been trying to get into the town for a week after fears were raised that a brutal assault by regime forces was under way. They found the main hospital burned, state buildings and an office of the ruling Baath party in ruins and a corpse lying in the street."
So sad.
"More than one in 12 Canadian patients who were sent home from hospital in 2010 were readmitted within a month, a new study reveals. In many cases, those patients were back in hospital within a week – a finding that raises questions about whether some patients are being discharged too early."
Just trying to kick people out as quickly as possible to make room for the next batch~
"B.C.'s top health official says taking pure ecstasy can be "safe" when consumed responsibly by adults, despite warnings by police in Alberta and British Columbia about the dangers of the street drug after a rash of deaths. Dr. Perry Kendall asserts the risks of MDMA — the pure substance originally synonymous with ecstasy — are overblown, and that its lethal dangers only arise when the man-made chemical is polluted by money-hungry gangs who cook it up."
Hmmm. I don't know about that.
"Staring at a computer screen for hours on end won't rot your brain — if you get enough exercise. A recent Mayo Clinic survey of nearly 1,000 people between the ages of 70 and 93 showed computer use combined with regular exercise actually keeps the brain sharper than just exercise or computer use alone… This goes against most past studies about the computer's impact on the health of your brain. Excessive computer use has been tied to brain damage and depression."
I don't exercise as much as I should… but I certainly don't feel depressed!
Technology/Social Media/Internet
"In the wake of a rash of password leaks, Facebook wants to educate its members about how to make their accounts more secure and is asking for users' cell phone numbers as part of that effort. The social network has begun adding a message at the top of every member's news feed that suggests they "Stay in control of your account by following these simple security tips." The message includes a link to Facebook's security page, where users are tutored on how to identify a scam and choose a unique password, and are asked to provide a cell phone number where replacement passwords can be sent."
"Nokia Corp. will lay off 10,000 jobs globally by the end of 2013, the company said Thursday, in a further drive to save costs and streamline operations. The company will shut some research and development projects, including facilities in Burnaby, B.C., and Ulm, Germany."
Job loss sucks.
"It takes a bundle of cash to raise a bundle of joy in the United States. New parents can expect to spend more than a quarter of a million dollars raising a child, according to a government report issued on Thursday. A middle-class family with a child born in 2011 can expect to spend about $234,900 in the next 17 years on food, shelter and other necessities. And that's before a family adds in the cost of college."
Definitely costly, that family thing.
"Dollarama, one of the largest dollar stores in Canada, is set to introduce $3 items in the coming months. Already raising prices on much of its dollar items, its CFO says it can offer higher quality and a wider range of products."
Lol. Sign of the times.
" When customers order their drinks, a barista runs their coffee sleeve through the device, printing the latest headlines on the cup's jacket. The sleeves are adorned with a short URL and QR-Code, so readers can learn more about a story by either typing the Web address found on the cup or by simply scanning the QR-with their smartphones."
Well that's neat! (Also, I don't drink coffee. This boggles many given the industry I am in).
"In an interview with Journalism.co.uk, Luckie elaborated on what being Twitter's creative content manager would entail, saying he would be "serving as a liaison between Twitter and the journalism community." He will be tasked with "coming up with creative ways that they can use Twitter, moving beyond hashtags" and also shaping the opportunities for news outlets and individual journalists by "soliciting their ideas and building up new products based on that." Luckie told me his new role at Twitter gives him a "global platform to elevate how journalists report social media." He also wants to be receptive to new ideas — or as he put it, to "digest the suggestions" — journalists have for expanding Twitter and how it is used."
"Live Below the Line is an initiative of the Global Poverty Project, an education and campaigning organization whose mission is to increase the number and effectiveness of people taking action against extreme poverty. The challenge asks you to take a day, or five, and live on $1.50 or less to see what life is like for the 1.4 billion people who live below the poverty line every day."
This would be extremely difficult.
"Young and old residents of the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan were advised to stay indoors on Monday after a thick haze blanketed the city of nine million people, official media said."
"An asteroid the size of a city block is expected to pass Earth tonight. The huge space rock, 2012 LZ1, may fly by close enough for earthlings to watch it online, Space.com reports."
I think I missed it, lol.
"Woolly mammoths were apparently driven to extinction by a multitude of culprits, with climate change, human hunters and shifting habitats all playing a part in the long decline of these giants, researchers say… Scientists have often speculated over what might have driven the mammoths to extinction. For instance, for years researchers suspected that ancient human tribes hunted the mammoths and other ice age giants to oblivion. Others have suggested that a meteor strike might have drastically altered the climate in North America about 12,900 years ago, wiping out most of the large mammals there, the so-called "Younger Dryas impact hypothesis." Now an analysis of thousands of fossils, artifacts and environmental sites spanning millennia suggest that no one killer is to blame for the demise of the woolly mammoths."
Poor woolly mammoths.
"A new study says all jawed vertebrates, including humans, evolved from a species of shark that lived about 300 million years ago. Scientists came to the conclusion after analysis of a 290-million-year-old fossil braincase… Researchers say the braincase showed the shark belongs to the same group as modern animals called gnathostomes — animals with jaws. Gnathostomes include several extant vertebrates including fish, birds, reptiles, mammals, including human beings."
"Cities are havens for weirdness. From communities built around garbage to dogs that ride the subway, urban environments have fostered all manner of weird patterns. Here are the 10 freakiest urban ecosystems on the planet."
Pretty interesting.
"Red dots, hand stencils and animal figures represent the oldest examples yet found of cave art in Europe. The symbols on the walls at 11 Spanish locations, including the World Heritage sites of Altamira, El Castillo and Tito Bustillo have long been recognised for their antiquity. But researchers have now used refined dating techniques to get a more accurate determination of their ages. One motif – a large red dot – is said to be more than 40,000 years old."
Very impressive art, lol.
Weird News, Other News & Fluff
"According to a scientific paper from the Journal of Parasitology, a 63-year-old Korean woman "experienced severe pain in her oral cavity immediately after eating a portion of parboiled squid along with its internal organs." She spat out the food in her mouth, but still had a "pricking and foreign-body sensation" in her oral cavity. When she went to the hospital, they removed a dozen "small, white spindle-shaped, bug-like organisms stuck in the mucous membrane of the tongue, cheek, and gingiva." Yes, the dead squid's spermatophores were still active, and they'd inseminated the woman's mouth."
What the heeeeckkk!!!!
"Ever since archaeologists announced last week that they have found two ancient skeletons in Bulgaria with iron rods thrust through their chests, the media have been reporting how Bulgarians once did that to prevent the dead from emerging from the grave as vampires. On Saturday, one of those 700-year-old skeletons will be put on display at the National History Museum in Sofia, and its director, Bozhidar Dimitrov, says he expects there to be a big turnout."
I feel bad for all of the people who died because people thought they were vampires/witches/wizards/etc. back in the old days.
"Timothy Yost was homeless and down on his luck. He was used to living on the streets, even though the streets are no place to live… Strolling along the Colorado River in Bastrop, Texas, Yost discovered a bag. When nobody was looking, he took a look inside. He certainly did not imagine in a million years, that he would find treasure to the value of over $70,000."
Good for him… so lucky.
"Sunscreen is supposed to protect us from getting burned, but in the case of one man in Massachusetts, it did exactly the opposite. Brett Sigworth says he was grilling up a meal on a charcoal barbecue last month when he remembered he was not wearing sunscreen. He sprayed on an aerosol form of Banana Boat sunscreen to his chest and arms and rubbed it in for a few seconds before walking back over to his grill. When he reached his arm into his grill, flames shot up his arm and spread up his chest and neck."
Well that sucks.
This is apparently very old but I only just saw it and it's super cute and hilarious. :)
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Posted - September 9, 2022
This beautiful Edmond home now has a new GAF Timberline HD shingled roof in weatheredwood. Jerry worked with the homeowner and their insurance to get their roof replaced.
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An Icelandic storyteller and friend, Stephanie Brewer, who has gone on to tell stories in The Great Beyond used to tell about the Yule Lads, trolls causing such mischief in December. I think she would approve of this Troll Bear:
|A 2012 Steinbach Signed Troll Polar Bear German Christmas Nutcracker at
All this talk of Christmas trolls reminds me of that very old troll named Carol. You may have heard about her in the Christmas song, Deck the Halls.
What you never heard of "Troll, the ancient Yuletide Carol"?
On that note I guess it's time to include my explanation of why I want you to keep alive stories in Public Domain and hope you find lots of wonderful stories, old and new at this time of year.
This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain." The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated. I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century. I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.
At the same time, I've returned to involvement in projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience. Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week. This is a return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here. Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings as often as I can manage it.


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Educating the Influencers: The "Check, Please!" Prototype
Author: mikecaulfield
Go to Source
OK, maybe you're just here for the video. I would be. Watch the demo of Check Please, and then continue downpage for the theory of change behind it.
Watched it? OK, here's the backstory.
Last November we won an award from RTI International and the Rita Allen Foundation to work on a "fact-checking tutorial generator" that would generate hyper-specific tutorials that could be shared with "friends, family, and the occasional celebrity." The idea was this — we talk a lot about media literacy, but the people spreading the most misinformation (and the people reaching the most people with that misinformation) are some of the least likely people to currently be in school. How do we reach them?
I proposed a model: we teach the students that we have, and then give them web tools to teach the influencers. As an example, we have a technique we show students called "Just add Wikipedia": when confronted with a site of unknown provenance, go up to the omnibar, add "wikipedia" after the domain to trigger a Google search that floats relevant Wikipedia pages to the top, select the most relevant Wikipedia page, and get a bit of background on the site before sharing.
When teaching students how to do this, I record little demos using Camtasia on a wide variety of examples. Students have to see the steps and, as importantly, see how easy the steps really are, on a variety of examples. And in particular, they have to see the steps on the particular problem they just tried to solve: even though the steps are very standard, general instruction videos don't have half the impact of specific ones. When you see the exact problem you just struggled with solved in a couple clicks, it sinks in in a way that no generic video ever will.
Unfortunately , this leaves us in a bit of a quandary relative to our "have students teach the influencers" plan. I have a $200 dollar copy of Camtasia, a decades worth of experience creating screencasts, and still, for me to demo a move — from firing up the screen recorder to uploading to YouTube or exporting a GIF — is a half-hour process. I doubt we're going to change the world on that ROI. As someone once said, a lie can make it halfway around the world while the truth is still lacing up its Camtasia dependencies.
But what if we could give our students a website that took some basic information about decisions they made in their own fact-checking process and that website would generate the custom, shareable tutorial for them to share, as long as they were following one of our standard techniques?
I came up with this idea last year — using selenium, a invisible Chrome browser you can run on the server — to walk through the steps of a claim or reputation check while taking screen shots that formed the basis of an automatic tutorial on fact-checking a claim. And I ran it by TS Waterman and after walking through it a bit we decided that — maybe to our surprise (!!) — it seemed rather straightforward. We proposed it to the forum, won the runner-up prize in November, and on January 15 I began work on it. (TS is still involved and will help optimize the program and advise direction as we move forward, as soon as I clean up my embarrassing prototype spaghetti code).
But here's the thing — it works! The prototype is so so far from finished, and the plan is to launch a public site in April after adding a couple more types of checks and massively refactoring code. But it works. And it may provide a new way to think about stopping the spread of misinformation, not by by generic tools for readers, but by empowering those that enforce social norms with better, more educational tools.


text: 1 thru 10... 1 bein "this will likely be my last post here"... an 10 bein... "Perfect... no changes needed" The poll is set for private so no one will know how you voated.!!! This thred is for the purpose of ratin moderation in general... NOT to name particular mods to ridicule them.!!! I give Sciforums moderation a solid "8".!!! It ant perfect... but prolly perty close to satisfyin the most people possible.!!! Wit a tweek or 2... i thank Sciforums coud easily rate a "9".!!!


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Cheap airfares on the internet - are they for real, or is it just hype?
The world of buying and selling airfares, especially discount airfares, is complicated as it is, before adding the internet to the mix. That is why you will hear different stories and different opinions. Please regard the information on these pages as just another piece to add to the puzzle.
It appears that the cyber world of airfares roughly parallels the "real world", so the hype probably lies in the idea that the internet per se is making cheaper airfares possible. It is probably a more balanced view to see the internet as offering another method for finding the same sorts of deals you could find offline.
In the real world you can buy air tickets direct from the airlines, or through travel agents, or resellers known as "consolidators" and "bucket shops". Travel agents are for those who prefer to have the leg-work done for them, and a good travel agent will get you a good deal.
Consolidators are for those who prefer a do-it-yourself approach. Consolidators buy tickets (usually for international flights) in bulk from the airlines at about half the full price, and sell them to consumers at a markup. You can expect to save 20-30% off the full fare, however consolidator tickets usually come with more restrictions. It's a good sign if your consolidator is approved to issue tickets directly, as they have shown financial means and ticketing experience to do so. In the real world, if you choose the latter you need to have done your research to know what you are getting and who you are dealing with. You can get lucky, or you can get stung. Same goes for the internet.
However, the internet does offer some advantages that we can see.
1. It is easier to do your research: for example, to find discounts, to compare prices, especially within the USA, and to find out what other consumers are saying.
2. World-wide reach: comparison shopping can be "world-wide" perhaps allowing people to take advantage of the "global" nature of the "bucket shop" system and those international agreements that ensure "a customer in country W can buy a ticket from a travel agent located in country X for a flight from country Y to country Z." See FAQ mentioned below.
3. Convenience: Being able to book tickets 24 hours a day.
4. Late booking. A noticeable change pre-and post-Internet booking is that booking well in advance does not necessarily equate with getting the best deal. In fact the opposite can be true with "e-saver fares"..
Read on for tips on finding and buying air tickets on the web...
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Today, apparently, we are meant to celebrate a mixed drink called a Harvey Wallbanger. It's made by combining three parts vodka, one part Galliano, and six parts orange juice. Add a twist of orange and, like this doodlewash, a maraschino cherry, and you've got yourself a celebration in a glass.
Though legend has it that this drink was invented in the 50's, the earliest known appearance in literature was 1971, the year I was born. I don't think my mother was drinking this at the time of my birth, however, as she never touched alcohol. She would only drink coffee. Lucky for her, it's also National Cappuccino Day, but I wasn't quite ready to paint more brown things after yesterday's post.
I've never had this specific drink, though I have had a Screwdriver, which is the same drink without the Galliano, so I figure that's close enough. This was back in college when drinks with more than two ingredients were rarely made because being able to afford the primary ingredient was considered a luxury.
I was never good at drinking hard liquor. No matter how little I thought I had consumed, my body would violently reject it later that evening. This didn't stop me from drinking them, of course, as I was willful and determined to teach my body a lesson in a battle I was destined to lose. Which I did, every time.
One of the first mixed drinks I tried went by the unfortunate name of a Fuzzy Navel. This harkens images of belly button lint, but was actually made with orange juice and peach schnapps. It was like a liquid Jolly Rancher with alcohol and so sickeningly sweet that, between the sugary taste and the strong alcohol flavor, it would make your face contort into a permanent smile like that of a homicidal clown.
So, these days, I only drink wine. And my body seems to approve of this choice. Though doctors tend to agree that red wine has something in it that helps your heart, they unanimously agree that this only works when consumed in moderation. My body apparently read those articles while I wasn't looking, as it decides I'm too sleepy to have any more after just two glasses.
When Philippe came, we only drank French wine, mainly because he thought the wine labels in America were a joke. In France, the wine is simply labeled to show you the region where it was crafted and whether or not a medal had been earned. Sometimes there is a simple black and white sketch of the vineyard but never anything to complex.
In America, like most packaged goods, wine labels often scream at you, doing everything they can to get your attention. To Philippe, this means that they spent more money on the label than they did actually trying to produce good wine. He's immediately suspicious and refuses to try it. Clever naming is another thing he detests, so we haven't yet been lucky enough to try Fat Bastard Shiraz or Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush Sauvignon Blanc.
On this day of celebration, however, I must then apologize to Harvey for choosing not to consume his signature drink. We'll be sticking with wine today so I can avoid embarrassing myself later. But if this sounds like a delectable offering to you, then by all means you should celebrate! Or if you're opposed to alcohol, then Happy Cappuccino Day! If you're opposed to both , then although I'm sure you're a lovely person, we probably won't be hanging out together anytime soon.Recommend0 recommendationsPublished in By Charlie


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All that glitters: Supermarkets do away with this Christmas 'essential' in environmentally friendly move
Deck the halls with just bells and holly - Morrisons and Tesco lead the charge for an environmentally friendly Christmas by removing this festive 'essential'
and live on Freeview channel 276
The annual Christmas tradition of vacuuming up bits of glitter may be a thing of the past, as a number of high street retailers are ditching the sparkly material from wrapping paper and cards. It comes as numerous stores are opting to be more environmentally friendly regarding the packaging of products stocked on their shelves.
Both Tesco and Morrisons were the first supermarkets to announce they would be limiting the use of glitter and plastic for their Christmas packaging, with Buying Manager for Christmas and Events at Morrisons, Jodie Mackrill, saying: "We are always looking to find ways to reduce and remove plastic packaging across all of the products we sell. It's what our customers tell us they want too.
"During the Christmas period, 269,423 miles of wrapping paper are used every year, contributing to plastic ending up in landfill. Our new entirely plastic-free Christmas wrap and gift range means customers can have a more sustainable Christmas and we hope that cutting costs on gift bags and wrapping paper will help them in that."
The move by both Morrissons and Tesco have led to other supermarket chains following suit, as many businesses work towards reducing and then eliminating the amount of plastic waste they are using. Morrisons went one step further this Christmas by removing all plastic toys from Christmas crackers to further reduce their waste.
Boots have decided they will no longer sell glitter and single-use plastic packaging from its Christmas gifts, and Waitrose and John Lewis have also promised to remove glitter from single-use products this Christmas. Stores such as Marks and Spencers and Aldi already eliminated the reliance on glitter over the Christmas period in 2019 and Asda released their first set of sustainable Christmas products in 2020.
Why is glitter such a problem?
Glitter is considered a microplastic made of polyethylene terephthalate which is also used for polyester clothing and containers to store liquids and foods. Research has shown that the level of microplastics that are making their way into the ocean have a toxic effect on fish and other aquatic life, including reducing food intake, delaying growth, causing oxidative damage and abnormal behaviour.
Glitter made with microplastics have also been shown to take more than 1,000 years to biodegrade, leading to biodegradable options such as glitter made from eucalyptus tree extract and aluminium.
Dr. Chris Flower, Director-General of the Cosmetic Toiletry and Perfumery Association, "the total contribution to marine plastic litter from glittery cosmetic products is negligible when compared to the damaging effects of bags and bottles... [While the] total effect of giving up traditional glitter might not be great in comparison with other harmful plastics, we should still do everything we can."


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#bioPGH Blog: More Than a Puddle
A resource of Biophilia: Pittsburgh, #bioPGH is a weekly blog and social media series that aims to encourage both children and adults to reconnect with nature and enjoy what each of our distinctive seasons has to offer.
If you walk along Pine Creek in Hampton Township in the spring, you will notice multiple low-lying spots near the creek that are filled with water. By summer, those same spots will most likely be completely dry. Perhaps one or two will be a bit muddy, but they will hardly show a sign that only a few months earlier, you could walk in water up to your knees. These little seasonal "ponds," called vernal pools or ephemeral pools, may only be around for the spring, but they are quite important year round. Let's explore!
Vernal pools are defined as small seasonally-present wetlands or pools that are often found in little depressions of land. They can be fairly small, maybe a few square yards, or the size of a small, shallow pond; and they have no permanent water source or drainage, thus relying on annual precipitation and snow melt to fill them. What differentiates vernal pools from big puddles is their predictable annual arrival and the fact that they are heavily used by some species every season because of their regular appearance.
Despite their fleeting nature, vernal pools are uniquely important habitat types. Since they aren't permanent bodies of water, they tend to lack predators like fish. Thus, they are perfect sites for animals like frogs and salamanders to lay eggs. Intriguingly, vernal pools also make an excellent home for some little invertebrates that can tolerate complete desiccation (drying out)! Fairy shrimp, for example, are tiny relatives of shrimps and crabs, and they intentionally lay eggs in vernal pools because those eggs (called cysts) can survive the pool drying out over the rest of the year. The eggs then hatch once the pools are filled. If you visit the Hampton Township vernal pools that I mentioned earlier, you would find an exciting abundance of these quirky little fairy shrimp, swimming about in the water with their distinct rhythm that mildly resembles scooting. Many of those pools are also a key habitat type for our local spotted salamanders.
Spotted Salamander found near a vernal pool in Allison Park.
Fairy Shrimp, USGS photo
Pennsylvania actually has a registry for vernal pools through the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage program (a collaborative effort of the PA Department of Conservation of Natural Resources, Fish and Boat Commission, Game Commission and the Western PA Conservancy.) The registry helps wetland researchers identify vernal pools throughout the state, and it will assist them understand the function and use of vernal pools in ecosystems. The development of the registry also helps us citizens since the old adage "Out of sight, out of mind" often applies to the locations of vernal pools: since the pools are absent for most of the year, many outdoor projects we might start in the summer could accidentally overlook them completely, risking important wildlife habitat.
Connecting to the Outdoors Tip: If reading this post brought to mind an area you know is always full of water each spring, check out the details to the vernal pool registry! And if you have access to the little pool, see if you can check out the little aquatic invertebrates that might be swimming about! And be sure to be on the look-out for my favorite little stinky sign of spring—skunk cabbage often grows near vernal pools.
Continue the Conversation: Share your nature discoveries with our community by posting to Twitter and Instagram with hashtag #bioPGH, and R.S.V.P. to attend our next Biophilia: Pittsburgh meeting.
PA Natural Heritage: Vernal Pools
Michigan State University: Michigan Natural Features Inventory—Vernal Pool
National Wildlife Federation: Fairy Shrimp
Photo Credits: Nicholas Tonelli CC-BY-2.0, USGS Public Domain, Pexels CC0