text:
From the "I keep having to re-derive this because the Wikipedia explanation sucks" department, here are the transformation rules for differentials and for the gradient in terms of the Jacobian (you can think of this as an adaptation of the simple multivariate chain rule). Of course, the real story is quite a bit more interesting and nuanced, and revolves around the fact that gradient components live in the dual space -- hence the strange inverse transpose Jacobian transformation law. For an elementary, yet rather insightful and detailed discussion I would recommend Koks' Explorations in Mathematical Physics (Chapter 8).
Gradient transformations
Integrating Dirichlet distributions
I've been learning a whole lot about PGMs and machine learning lately. I don't consider it straying too far from my physics roots, in light of the fact that many juicy bits of contemporary AI, such as Markov random fields or Metropolis-Hastings sampling originated in physics. This connection notwithstanding, my background doesn't give me that great of an advantage -- most of the time. A few days ago, however, I was able to apply one delicious trick I knew in order to work out the integral of a Dirichlet distribution, and I can't help sharing it here. This story has it all -- Fourier representation of the Dirac delta, Gamma functions, Laplace transforms, sandwiches, Bromwiches -- and yet it all fits into a pretty simple narrative.
Our story starts on a stormy summer night, with our protagonist grappling with the following question: how on Earth do you take this integral?
Variables here are multinomial parameters, and thus must be non-negative and sum to 1. In a valiant (but ultimately futile) effort to avoid doing this integral by myself, I found this blog post -- which was a good start, and would allow me to casually drop terms like "integration over a simplex" or "k-fold Laplace convolution". But it turns out that we can get away with something much simpler than this simplex business. When faced with some constraint in an integrand, a physicist's instinct is to express it as a Dirac delta and integrate right over it. For the problem above, this approach works like magic! Without giving too much away, here's the punchline:
Want to know more? Because I've been on a Xournal/youtube binge lately, I narrated this derivation and put it up for the world to see. Here are the "slides" and below is the actual video. Enjoy!
Lindy Hop is physics
This plain truth becomes obvious when we think about the flow of energy in the dance, changes in angular and linear momentum, friction between the floor and your Aris Allens, the spring constant in the connection – the list goes on and on.
This isn't a new concept. For instance, recently, I found the following great quote:
"Lindy is 50% Newtonian physics, 30% musicality and 20% magic"
I would argue, however, that this quote is wrong. Lindy hop isn't about Newtonian physics – sure, the descriptions of inertia and conservation laws can come in handy, and leads are sometimes known to jokingly discuss the concept of a perfectly spherical follow in vacuum. But fundamentally, the dance isn't about particles. It's about the superposition of particle and wave properties of the motion to create the dance.
That's right, Lindy Hop is a dance best described by quantum physics.
Conversely, quantum physics is best described by Lindy Hop, as we learned earlier this week from Krister Shalm and his Project Q.
The first step towards studying Quantum Lindy Hop, of course, is to understand its classical wave dynamics. As a data scientist who spent years playing around with waves for his Ph.D., I accept the challenge. I hereby inaugurate Project W, a.k.a. Lindy Hop Science (1). Wanna help? Send me an email!
(1) Project W for waves. Project C for classical sounded kind of lame.
Org2blog setup miscellany
The other day I had to spend some time figuring out how to do the following things in org2blog:
- display LaTeX properly
- embed YouTube videos
- clear org2blog keybindings
All are very easy, but took a little bit of digging, so here it is recorded for posterity.
First, there is a plethora of LaTeX plugins for WordPress. I favor the ones that use MathJax; after all, we live in the year 2012. Converting LaTeX to images is so 1990s. For MathJax support, you can use the excellent plugin by zhiqiang. Note that the syntax for inline vs display formulas is slightly different than what one might be used to (note the exclamation marks). On the org2blog side, you have to make sure to set
(setq org2blog/wp-use-wp-latex nil)
otherwise, the LaTeX syntax generated is incompatible with the plugin.
YouTube videos can be embedded using the Artiss youtube embed plugin; in the org2blog you have to specify something like
#+BEGIN_HTML [shortcode surrounding youtube video code, as per the Artiss docs] #+END_HTML
Finally, the default org2blog bindings are non-standards-compliant in that they use the
C-c [letter] keys, which are reserved for the user. In particular, the bindings were interfering with parts of my setup. The solution was to clear the bindings and define my own. Clearing the bindings takes the following form:
(add-hook 'org2blog/wp-mode-hook '(lambda () (setq minor-mode-map-alist (assq-delete-all 'org2blog/wp-mode minor-mode-map-alist))))
Overall, I am very happy with org2blog. It allows me to blog right from within my preferred computing / brainstorming / writing environment. I like to think that I am not one of those Emacs users that tries to put every aspect of his or her life in some Emacs buffer somewhere, but this little lifehack is just too sensible to ignore.
Deriving the volume of an n-dimensional hypersphere in 3 minutes
What's bigger, the unit circle or the unit sphere?
This is a trick question, because and are incompatible units, so the fact that the area of one is less than the volume of the other (i.e. < ) doesn't tell you much. So let's ask a different question: if we inscribe an n-sphere inside an n-cube, is a unit circle bigger or smaller, relative to its bounding square, than the unit sphere relative to its bounding cube? And in general, what will be the ratio of their volumes as a function of ?
Suppose we fix the radius of the n-sphere to be 1. The edge length of the n-cube, then, is 2, and its volume is 2n. So, that means that the ratio of the volumes is (1/2)n, times some prefactors. Right?
Right. But the form of the prefactor here is quite fascinating. Here's what the volume of the n-sphere is:
See that Gamma function in the denominator? It grows like , meaning that our original estimate of the hypersphere/hypercube volume ratio as (1/2)n is quite a few orders of magnitude off for even moderate n. As n grows, the volume of a unit n-sphere goes to zero super-exponentially.
This has an important implication when you want to cluster high-dimensional data. Intuitively, any clustering algorithm (e.g. k-means) involves drawing a boundary around a set of points that lie within a certain radius of their mean. But what we just found is that if we draw a sphere of even a relatively large radius around points in n-dimensions, for n larger than about 30, the volume of that region enclosed by the spherical boundary is approximately zero, meaning that it's highly unlikely to have any points! In that sense, everything is far apart in high dimensions. This is known as the curse of dimensionality.
Volumes of n-spheres are useful in other contexts (for instance, in statistical mechanics). In fact, back in my physics days I learned a very cool and easy derivation of the n-sphere volume formula above. I like it so much that I made not one but two videos about it. Below you can see me doing the derivation in 3 minutes flat. There is also the longer version where I do the same steps, but a little more slowly and methodically. Enjoy!
The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.
Tagged with math.
Emacs + Evil = ecumenicalism
Early on in the history of the editor wars, adherents of Emacs banded together to form a religion. As a result of this ecclesiastical schism, vi came to be known as "the editor of the beast". It comes as no surprise that something denounced by a particular religious sect turns out, in reality, to be very awesome, useful, and generally good for society.
I am talking, of course, about the power of modal editing.
The ubiquitous, second-nature process of reading and writing belies the fact that working with text is a subtle, complex, and multifaceted task. Moreover, in our interactions with text we typically spend the majority of the time reading, searching, and editing. This is doubly true for structured text, such as Wikipedia markup or computer programs. Key-chord-based text editors make this process needlessly slow and inconvenient.
But this post isn't just another vi/Vim paean. This post is about Evil, the Extensible Vi Layer for Emacs written by Frank Fischer and Vegard Øye. It allows to combine the incredible power of Emacs with the ergonomics, terseness, and efficiency of Vim, and if you are an Emacs user, you should check it out. If you are a Vim user, here's your chance to switch to a better editor without having to retrain the muscle memory.
Currently, most Evil users seem to come from the Vim camp. As a result, Evil's defaults skew towards Vim behavior. This makes it somewhat difficult to adopt for us Emacs users: we have to face the double task of learning Vim, as well as figuring out how to make the modal editing paradigm work smoothly with the existing Emacs usage patterns. As someone that has done this journey, I would like to share some tips.
So let's assume you successfully installed Evil. Great! Now, what exactly did you get yourself into? Well, effectively, all Evil does is redefine the key bindings depending on the context, or "state". As a user, you will primarily deal with three states: normal (for navigating/editing), insert (for typing characters), and motion (used for read-only buffers such as help). There is also the Emacs state, which simply gives you familiar Emacs behavior, the same as what you'd get if you turned off Evil.
One option, therefore, is to use Evil's Emacs state as a default, using
C-z to toggle between it and the normal state. However, I don't recommend this approach, as one would be tempted to revert to old Emacs habits, thereby missing 90% of the awesomeness Evil provides. Let's just plunge in:
(setq evil-default-state 'normal)
Now do a Google search for a good Vim tutorial, and experiment lots!
Issues you might encounter as an Emacs user
Insert state clobbers some useful Emacs keybindings
The solution to this is to clear the insert state keymap, leaving you with unadulterated Emacs behavior. You might still want to poke around the keymap (defined in
evil-maps.el) and see if you want to salvage some useful insert state command by rebinding them to keys of your liking. Also, you need to bind
ESC to putting you back in normal mode. So, try using this code. With it, I have no practical need to ever switch to Emacs state.
(setcdr evil-insert-state-map nil) (define-key evil-insert-state-map (read-kbd-macro evil-toggle-key) 'evil-emacs-state)
I want the keybinding X to work in Evil!
You can always override or add bindings to any Evil state. Just use something like this:
(define-key evil-normal-state-map "\C-r" 'isearch-backward) (define-key evil-normal-state-map "\C-e" 'evil-end-of-line) (define-key evil-motion-state-map "\C-e" 'evil-end-of-line)
Evil bindings for key X shadow the default bindings in mode Y
A common culprit here is the
return key, which is ordinarily bound to
evil-ret (a command that, as of this writing, doesn't know about what return is supposed to do in a current mode).
A crude but effective solution is to change Evil bindings on a per-state, per-mode basis, like so:
(evil-declare-key 'motion completion-list-mode-map (kbd "<return>") 'choose-completion) (evil-declare-key 'motion completion-list-mode-map (kbd "RET") 'choose-completion) (evil-declare-key 'motion browse-kill-ring-mode-map (kbd "<return>") 'browse-kill-ring-insert-and-quit) (evil-declare-key 'motion browse-kill-ring-mode-map (kbd "RET") 'browse-kill-ring-insert-and-quit) (evil-declare-key 'motion occur-mode-map (kbd "<return>") 'occur-mode-goto-occurrence) (evil-declare-key 'motion occur-mode-map (kbd "RET") 'occur-mode-goto-occurrence)
Note that I am using both the
RET and
<return> forms to make sure the key works both in terminal and under X.
This issue becomes more tricky in "read-only" modes that use letter keys for navigation (e.g. info, dired, ibuffer). It's not obvious to me what the best practices are for such modes. Should the Emacs bindings shadow Evil normal state? Does insert or normal state make more sense as the default? Currently, I don't have clear-cut answers.
I don't want Evil to ever touch keybinding X
This can too be arranged! Define the following function:
(defun evil-undefine () (interactive) (let (evil-mode-map-alist) (call-interactively (key-binding (this-command-keys)))))
Now, to make sure that Evil's normal state never touches
TAB, just wire this fall-through binding like so:
(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "TAB") 'evil-undefine)
Mode X should start in normal state, but mode Y should start in insert state
(evil-set-initial-state mode-x 'normal) (evil-set-initial-state mode-y 'insert)
Doing a copy via M-w loses a character
If you are running Emacs 24, see if you are being affected by this bug.
My selection is off by a character
This can be somewhat subtle, as Emacs and Vim have different defaults regarding the visual/transient mark. In particular, in Emacs, the last selected character is always the one before the point. This makes operating on text from left to right and from right to left asymmetrical: if you wanted to select the string
123, and your cursor is on the 1, you press
C-SPC,C-3,C-f. However, if your cursor is on the 3, you first have to move it past the 3, and only then do
C-SPC,C=3,C-b. In Vim, on the other hand, the last selected character is always under point, so you'd just do
v2l if the cursor is no the 1, or
v2h if the cursor is on the 3. The fact that in Emacs, you always deal with this asymmetry, whether you are aware of it or not, can lead to selections (or, in general, cursor positioning) being off by a character when you use commands that are, conceptually, the same in Emacs and Vim, but differ in their treatment of character under point vs character before point. The good news is that Evil provides the following setting, which might help with correct character selection at beginnings and ends of lines:
(setq evil-want-visual-char-semi-exclusive t)
You might also look into changing Vim's default behavior whereby the cursor moves back one space (although this behavior makes a fair amount of sense). For this, you could look into
(setq evil-move-cursor-back nil) ;;and maybe also: (setq evil-highlight-closing-paren-at-point-states nil)
You could also try playing with
(setq evil-visual-char 'exclusive), but I personally see no good reason to use that setting. In my own configuration, I just turned on
evil-want-visual-char-semi-exclusive and it's been working well for me thus far.
Favorite Vim / Evil usage patterns
I will keep this section brief, since I am relatively new to the Vim way of editing text. Here are a few things that I have found handy or elegant in my 1.5 months with Evil. Some of these are pretty trivial, and some have Emacs equivalents (either built-in or via add-on Elisp). However, everything just feels cleaner without having to press
C or
M all the time.
Searching via
We all know that isearch is the way to navigate text in Emacs buffers, and
/ is very similar to isearch. Because
/ is ergonomically superior to
C-s, I find myself using the search-to-navigate paradigm much more than with my old Emacs setup.
Block selection
In Vim/Evil,
C-v allows you to select rectangles and do things like insert or paste text before every line in a rectangle. In Emacs, CUA rectangle mode does something similar, but you have to enable it. In Evil, it comes built-in.
Combining search, motion, deletion, and selection commands
Such combinations are very powerful. Here are a few examples to give you a flavor of what I am talking about:
d/foo[RET]: deletes from point to string "foo"
dfa: deletes from point to character "a", inclusive
cta: deletes from point to character "a", exclusive, and puts you in insert mode
viw: selects inside word
vfa;: selects from point until the second occurrence of char "a", inclusive
yi): copy text inside parens
di": delete text inside double quotes
Operating on surrounding delimiters (quotes, parentheses, etc.)
These are enabled by the port of Vim's surround plugin, available here. You can do things like change double quotes to single quotes via
cs"', surround words with HTML tags, and if you have selected some text, surround it with delimiters via e.g.
s) or
Defining your own normal mode commands
For instance, I have
gj mapped to
org-goto in org-mode, and
gb mapped to
ido-switch-buffer. I like those way more than the original bindings.
One can take this idea further and create keymaps starting with a dedicated leader key (
, has been suggested as a good leader key choice). See this discussion for more insight into how one might do this via a plugin or Emacs built-in keymap functions.
Where to learn more
Evil is a relatively new project, and resources online are somewhat sparse at the moment. Some of the useful resources out there are:
- Evil on Emacswiki
- Official mailing list
- Michael Markert's Evil config file is an excellent example of how one might want to customize Evil bindings and behavior, and do so in a clean manner. There are lots of goodies there, my favorite being a method to dynamically change the look of the cursor based on the state (insert vs normal). (Note that the code in that file sometimes relies on external utility functions.)
- For a quick run-down of Evil's internals, consult the PDF or Info documentation that comes with the code.
I would have very much liked to include some Vim tutorials here, for the benefit of Emacs users, however, most of the materials that I have stumbled upon seem to be either too basic or too advanced. If you have something that you like, please leave a comment!
Most of the choices we make result in imperfect compromises, which makes it easy to lapse into the "grass is greener" mentality. I am a lindy hopper that envies salsa dancers, and a Linux/Android user that evangelizes all things Apple. Up until recently, I've been an Emacs devotee that coveted modal editing. Today, however, my CapsLock key is mapped to ESC instead of Ctrl, and the world is a slightly more perfect place – all thanks to the powers of Evil.
Tagged with emacs.
Shake that grating
Using phonon scattering and temporal degreees of freedom for superresolution at the nanoscale
(This means "we can see very small things if we shake them just right".)
Have you ever wondered why we can't see viruses under a microscope? The answer to this question is the diffraction limit. But what is the diffraction limit, exactly? In signals processing terms, it is the spatial frequency bandwidth for propagating optical waves. Using optical microscopes to look at a 130 nm flu virus is akin to trying to pick out the sounds of piccolos in a Strauss concerto, over a very bad cell phone connection. You can probably discern the piccolos if you are right in the concert hall, but the task is hopeless for someone on the other end of the line. Likewise, in optics, you can see arbitrarily small things – provided you are close enough to them so that you can pick up the signal from "the piccolos" (in physics, we call them evanescent waves). That is to say, your detector must be placed in the "near field", which is the area less than a micron from the object.
This, unfortunately, is not always practical or easy to do. But over the years researchers have come up with various tricks to get around the bandwidth problem. One conceptual approach is to take the high frequency information, encode it using low-frequency data, transmit it to the far-field detector, and decode it there. This idea has been around for several decades, but the encoding/decoding step is nontrivial to accomplish, and so this scheme hasn't seen adoption in applications.
Recently, we came up with an unusual new way to perform the high spatial frequency encoding, which may turn this around. In order to lower the spatial frequency of the light wave for transmission, it is necessary to scatter its evanescent components on some periodic subwavelength structure. We showed that this is possible to do with a dynamic phonon grating, validating Jacob Khurgin's original idea.
The phonon grating creates a periodic potential that converts evanescent waves to propagating optical signals. Because it's a dynamic structure, there is much flexibility in encoding and processing the signal. Most intriguingly, phonon scattering is associated with the temporal frequency (i.e. energy) shift of the incident photons. Because of this, it is possible to uniquely detect the scattered signal in the far field using coherent detection, greatly simplifying the decoding step.
This paper was a long time in the making, and it is finally getting some attention, perhaps due to the fact that nano-opto-mechanics with phonons is becoming a popular research area. It's about time the lattice vibration quasiparticles got some good publicity, they certainly deserve it!
A related project, in which we model a system where the scattering is performed by a chirped anisotropic nanostructure (but ultra-high frequency vibrations are still used to aid coherent detection) also got published very recently. In fact, it is the first article in the first 2012 issue of APL (mendeley link). I am currently taking the corresponding issue/article designation of {100,011101} as a divine sign that I should do more programming projects. (I believe that in the coming few months the Almighty will be pleased on that angle.)
Tagged with nanophotonics, physics, research.
Integrating org-mode HTML export with a WordPress theme
Org-mode exporting capabilities are excellent, but making a freshly-exported HTML project look good with your WordPress theme might seem non-trivial. As a scientist / analyst / statistician you are way overqualified to be dealing with the minutiae of PHP and CSS, and so you might have resigned yourself to less-than-stellar formatting.
Luckily, the recipe for converting an org-exported HTML file into somethign that looks like an integral part of your blog turns out to take 4 easy steps. Let's assume that I'm in the
www/org/project/ directory, and the WordPress blog is in
www/blog/ directory.
- Make a new file, e.g.
project.php, and start it with
<?php define('WP_USE_THEMES', false); require('../../blog/wp-blog-header.php'); get_header(); ?>
- Paste in the contents of the <style> and <script> tags from the org-exported HTML header
- Paste in the contents of the org-exported <body>
- Paste
<?php get_footer(); ?>at the end of the file.
You are done! You are free to mess with minor details (centering of the title, location of the org-exported postamble – sometimes it makes sense to move it into the contents div), but you've achieved the main goal: your spectacular analysis looks awesome. Here's an example of the above procedure in action!
Of Russian cats and server names
I name my computers after cats. Not all of them, mind you, and I pick the names carefully. My workhorse servers are Begemot and Matroskin. Today, as I was doing some admin work, I started wondering what I would do if I had to name more machines, given that I'd rather not borrow names from T. S. Eliot.
No other fictional Russian feline can match Begemot or Matroskin in their charisma and/or raw satanic power, but for both of them I found a counterpart of sorts: Vasilii from Monday Begins on Saturday (another talking cat), and Leopold, another cartoon character.
In the process of looking for fictional Russian cats, I stumbled upon a series of Sergei Alimov's magnificent sketches for a never-produced animation feature based on Master and Margarita. This is, in fact, why I'm writing the post.
I am very taken with this simple charcoal rendition of Satan and his cat, black silhouettes overlooking the busy landscape of 1930's Moscow, wondering about the inner world of humans inhabiting the gray communal apartments.
The rest of the sketches are almost equally great, and convey very well the spirit of the book: at times philosophical, at times irreverent, and always just plain hilarious.
Org-mode as a blogging platform
I first noticed that technology tends to come full circle the first time I saw a CD. It was hard to miss the cyclical progression from my parents' reel-to-reel magnetic tape recorder to LPs with fairy tales about Br'er Rabbit back to (comparatively) miniature tape cassettes with '90s Soviet pop and Madonna and, finally, to a shiny disk which was just like an LP (except completely different).
The last time I mused about technology coming full circle was when I recently noticed the surging popularity of org-mode, which is essentially an add-on to a 30-year old text editing platform.
There are several reasons that Emacs/org-mode combination has such a wide appeal. Key among them is the fact that it provides a unified environment for notes, record-keeping, project-planning. The underlying format (plain text) guarantees ultimate portability, native presentation layer (in Emacs) is very simple yet very powerful, and HTML/LaTeX export functionality allows to share one's work easily.
Case in point: this post is being written in Emacs using the org2blog interface to WordPress. As of late, the amount of text in my *.org files and the amount of text on my blog have been, to put it mildly, incommensurate. Hopefully org/wordpress integration will help restore the balance to a more sensible level.
Tagged with emacs.


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome TarotBlogHoppers from Kerry Ardilla's Neopagan Priestess blog!
Welcome to this Tarothoppin' segment along your TarotBlogHop dance of "Mabon ~ The Power of Transformation."
Tarot ~ Mabon ~ Mystereum Mead Made
Power your life's firmament fermenting Tarot mead
What serves as your Tool of Transformation? What makes your grapes and honey turn to mead?
~ Turbo read the Majors card by card in verse as a "Mystereum Mabon Poem of Transformation Of How Dreams Actively Come Into Being"
Mead Making Topic: Is Marriage Like The Confluence of Getting A Ticket Together, Making Honey, and Then Fermenting Mead With It?
Try to read the entirety without seeing the card at the first part of each line . . .
Try to mead the following without seeing the first card speaking each line . . .
The Fool: On a whim I trusted myself without explanation, feeling that reasons were just damn unreasonable fluff
The Magician: and as I stepped into nothingness, new ground formed right under my feet
The High Priestess: as form was given to the formless
The Empress: a quizzled and wild-eyed smile coming to full term
The Emperor: as my vision spread out across such expansive beauty
The Hierophant: in the majestic and inspiring down-to-earth-spirit of painters' sunlit skies thick with clouds
The Lovers: and I turned to pause. That whim was like another's eyes brightening mine, and there she was
The Chariot: singin' Doo Waa Ditty Diity Don't Ditty Deet
Justice: yet, even the loud music pressing the foot further and was a balanced scale of a
The Hermit: silent man in uniform with intense gaze
The Wheel: "Uh hem. You'll need to pay this by next Tuesday, or appear in court as it says.
Strength: We turn again, don't we?, with the power of our natural voices to each other in the present. BWAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. WhatEV. You? Me? Should we pay the ticket or the toll man?
The Hanged Man: Neh, that would be a clear waste of time floating around with either of THEM.
Death: NEW ROAD! That tree's cool. Turn left!
Temperance: Where are we really going? We're in this wonderfully deeply . . .
The Devil: Oh YEAH! Let's have sex behind every tree in the forest!
The Tower: And, our worlds exploding altered the very fabric of the forest as we crashed down heaving together
The Star: to look up at that single first night light making wishes never smoking hope and diggin' our celestial groove so
The Moon: that only we each knew inside, smiling at each other with our newly formed secrets
The Sun: knowing that we were behind on our "every tree" deadline as the sun would come up soon enough and call time though it didn't stop our conversation,
Judgment: only re-introduced us to the magic of twilight as we resurrected from our newly humidified forest to emerge with most of our clothes
The World: and conquer the world with tired and knowing smiles.
The washer and dryer aren't what steal that other sock are they?
Wands: Our energies developed
Cups: a nourishing fulfillment
Pentacles: that we began to solidly base things on
Swords: where all the elements came together to temper and quench us in masterful communication, and we cut off looking for the sock.
All similar, each unique.
How does YOUR Tarot make the honey-ambrosia of the mead of the fermenting fun of a road trip of a story?
Happy Tarot Mabon Meading where Merry Meet Mabon's to Merry Mead! Jordan
Best to you painting new life into your journey as you explore the Mabon series of TarotBlogHops! Click here to POOF yourself right to the next TarotBlogHop stop at Sungoddess Tarot's blog.


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Guy Laroche Fall/Winter 2019
Black marble (Laroche in French) was indeed the theme, just like the kind that adorns luxury spaces. White branches, drawn from crystals, broke through the dark ensembles.
Daring outfits exposed skin around the breast area, coupled with more classic and timid ones, expressed the two facets of femininity this season. A hat here and dark shades there, added a certain enigma to the looks.
Creative director, Richard René seems to be persistent on raising the image of the French brand, as he dedicated the newest collection to the maison founder, Mr. Guy Laroche.


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Planetary nebulae (PN) represent the last stages of evolution for low- and intermediate-mass stars whose Main Sequence mass was less than about 8 solar masses. After evolving through the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a phase characterised by shell burning resulting in radial pulsations that drive prodigious mass-loss, these stars possess thick, dusty, molecular circumstellar envelopes. In the rapid (few x 1000 yr) post-AGB or proto-planetary nebula (PPN) phase, the mass loss drops dramatically and the circumstellar envelope detaches from the star. The ejection of the envelope exposes the evolving progenitor star which is increasing in temperature and on its way to becoming a white dwarf. Once the central star temperature reaches ~30,000 K, it emits most of its radiation in the ultraviolet region. This radiation ionises the remnant circumstellar envelope, producing the optically-visible planetary nebula. The planetary nebula is still expanding however, and eventually its material will disperse into space, leaving the exposed white dwarf.
The term 'planetary nebula' is something of a misnomer, with historical origins. When these objects were first discovered, their apparent disk-like structure and similarity to the outer planets of Uranus and Neptune led to their mistaken link with planets. The first PN discovered was Messier 27 (M27), the Dumbbell, catalogued by Charles Messier in 1784.
Research on PN advanced significantly with the advent of the Hubble Space Telescope, which revealed their exquisite structures in unprecedented detail. PPN and PN often display complex morphologies with extreme bipolarity, multipolar structures, high-velocity (~100s km/s) outflows and point-symmetric features. These characteristics are thought to arise due to a post-AGB evolutionary process that involves the effects of a binary central system, or a local stellar magnetic field, or both. The Helix nebula, (NGC 7293) is one of the most well known PN.
Study Astronomy Online at Swinburne University
All material is © Swinburne University of Technology except where indicated.


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The healthcare field is growing quickly. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects about 1.9 million new healthcare jobs by 2028, a rate of growth far above and beyond what most other fields will see. If you're looking to start a career, it's a great field to be in.
You don't even have to work in direct patient care. Medical office administration skills are also in high demand, and they'll be even more so in the coming years. It's an important field and a rewarding way to have a career—not just a job.
Medical office administration isn't the kind of job that explicitly requires certification. Practices and hospitals are free to hire anyone they feel to be qualified, though you're unlikely to be considered if you don't at least have your high school diploma or GED.
Although you technically don't need a medical office certification to land a job like this, having one will make you a more qualified candidate. Also, as you work toward your certification, you'll learn the medical-specific office skills that you wouldn't get somewhere else, such as:
Several different certifications incorporate these skill sets, each of which is offered by a particular credentialing body.
As in any field, there are healthcare admin certifications for almost every level and subset of professionals.
A medical office assistant certification will teach you all of the administrative skills you need to maintain an office, including those listed above.
Some programs are focused more on office management and are geared toward those who aspire to supervisory positions. Others, like the Certified Medical Administrative Assistant (CMAA), credential from the National Healthcareer Association, give you a comprehensive skillset so that you're ready to work solo, as part of a team, or at the head of that team.
If you're looking to work in healthcare and have an interest in tech, consider a certification in health IT. There's a lot of demand today for people who know how to work with complex patient records systems, in all their technical detail and intense compliance requirements.
There are at least a half dozen different certification programs out there for health IT. Some are specific to medical coding, while others, like those offered by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), have more to do with medical records analysis and verification.
These certifications have a lot of upward mobility attached, but you might have to have an associate's or bachelor's degree going in.
Higher-level professionals can get certified in healthcare administration. This certification, like the more advanced health IT credentials, are typically add-ons to a bachelor's or master's degree.
A credential like the CMAA can get you working in healthcare without having to earn a post-secondary degree. It's a convenient way to up your earning potential and land a job that will launch a career.
See all of the blog posts that the MedCerts team has published.


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When Chiara de Blasio, daughter of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, openly discussed her past struggle with a mood disorder, it was hailed by many as a triumph for fighting the stigma of mental illness. In 1999 the U.S. Surgeon General labeled stigma as perhaps the biggest barrier to mental health care; this stigma manifests particularly in a phenomenon known as social distancing, whereby people with mental issues are more isolated from others. Eradicating the stigma and social distancing of people with mental illness must be a top public health priority in order to improve worldwide mental health and reduce economic burden. more
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Brought to you by The VAR Guy
Arista Networks finally caught a break in its long legal battle against Cisco Systems. A federal court in Northern California denied Cisco's demand for $335 million in damages and ruled Arista did not infringe a Cisco patent, nor Cisco's copyright on its user manuals.
The main part of software in question was Cisco's command line interface (CLI). Cisco argued that Arista, several of whose executives are former Cisco employees, illegally copied Cisco's CLI right down to the typos. Arista claimed that the CLI is used by many of Cisco's rivals, and that Cisco's attack against Arista stems from personal enmity. Cisco originally filed the suit in 2014.
The decision stands in stark contrast to the ruling last week from the International Trade Commission (ITC) that Arista had violated two of Cisco's patents, after previously ruling that Arista had violated three other patents. For a brief time, it even banned the import of Arista products into the U.S.
The jury ruled that Arista was protected by what's called the 'scenes a faire' doctrine, a legal principle that says if there is no other way to make a product, the value of it cannot be attributed to the creator of the work. The company has been steadily gaining market share since it was founded in 2004, threatening Cisco's position as undisputed leader of the networking world.
"Arista copied despite the fact that other competitors have developed user interfaces in a wide variety of ways that do not copy," said Mark Chandler, general counsel and secretary of Cisco, in a blog post. "Cisco's user interface is well-known and successful, and while it has often been referred to as an 'industry standard' - meaning a popular benchmark - none of Cisco's technology in this case has been incorporated in any actual industry standard; in fact, no CLI standards body actually exists."


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Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale
Rumors of a Sony fighter in the style of Smash Bros. have been swirling for quite some time now, and the publisher finally let the cat out of the bag at a recent showcase event. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale will feature a cast of characters from the brand's 18 years in the gaming industry, and I played it using a restricted selection of combatants.
Sony unveiled Kratos, Sly Cooper, Parappa the Rapper, Fat Princess, Sweet Tooth, and Killzone's Colonel Radec as playable characters. Four stages were available, including Hades (God of War), Sandover Village (Jak & Daxter), Dreamscape (LittleBigPlanet), and Metropolis (Ratchet & Clank). Unlike the singularly focused stages of Super Smash Bros., most of these stages eventually morph to showcase trademarks from another PlayStation series.
Hades is set in the Underworld, with the namesake god performing shockwave attacks on the playing field. The background eventually shifts to a Patapon stage, and the dancing creatures begin throwing spears at players. The grassy islands of Sandover Village are visited by golfers from Hot Shots at certain points in the round, and they begin showering golf balls from the sky. Metropolis is a futuristic city that features an appearance from Captain Qwark. His visit is cut short thanks to the Hydra from God of War, who bursts up through the stage and sends the bumbling superhero flying. Dreamscape feels different than the other stages, as it's set in the level editor of LittleBigPlanet. You see Pop-It bubbles and creation elements spring up throughout the fight, which creates different platforms to battle on. Keeping with the hybrid stage theme, it eventually turns into an impromptu game of Buzz! Quiz. A PlayStation-related question appears on the screen, and the fighters have to stand on the platform that corresponds with the correct answer to avoid taking damage.
Like Smash Bros., each character has a variety of moves accessed via a directional input in conjunction with an attack button (square, circle, or triangle). Every character has approximately two dozen attacks in their arsenal, and they vary wildly. Kratos has his trademark blades, Radec stays at range with his sniper rifle and other guns, Sweet Tooth controls space with land mines, and Parappa relies on the karate moves he picked up from Chop Chop Master Onion.
None of this really strays from the Smash Bros. formula, but the scoring method has notable differences. Attacking foes fills an AP bar at the bottom of the screen, which grants three levels of a super attack once filled. You can attack an opponent all day, but the only way you'll actually score a point is if you KO them with a super attack. Level one attacks are usually limited, such as Parappa's spin kick. Once you get to level three, however, you're almost guaranteed a couple of points with screen-clearing attacks. Parappa breaks into a rap performance that annihilates nearby opponents, while Sweet Tooth transforms into his robot form for an insane damage boost.
Considering the importance of super attacks, managing your AP becomes the focus. Items like rocket launchers and the Spear of Destiny from God of War will occasionally drop onto the battlefield, and they can be used to reduce the super meter of opponents. AP orbs can be granted by certain moves, such as Parappa's Boxy Boy boombox ability.
There's no denying where the inspiration for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale comes from, but I had fun during my time with it. Sony's characters may not fit the colorful, family-friendly mold of Nintendo's creations, but their differences make for some entertaining and varied attacks and play styles. While plenty of roster reveals are inevitable before Battle Royale is released, I can't help but wonder if it'll compare to the variety in Nintendo's fighter. That said, we wouldn't be surprised to see big names like Nathan Drake, Sackboy, Jak, and Ratchet join the fray (Crash Bandicoot is likely excluded thanks to the fact that he isn't Sony-exclusive anymore). It's far from a novel idea, but All-Stars Battle Royale made for a fast-paced and fun four-player experience in my time with it.
Check out footage of the game in action below.


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Intel introduced a reference design for thin and light fanless computers last year called Canoe Lake. But while Intel showed off the platform at events in June and November, no PC makers ever brought anything looking like a Canoe Lake laptop to market… until now.
Malata is showing off an upcoming netbook at Computex in Taiwan, and it's pretty much ripped straight from Intel's Canoe Lake playbook — with one key difference. The Canoe Lake platform was designed to work with Intel's Pine Trail chips, but Malata plans to use a next-generation Cedar Trail chip in its netbook.
That means the laptop will have an Atom N2600 or N2800 processor instead of an Atom N550 chip. The netbook also features a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 16GB or 32GB solid state disk, up to 2GB of RAM, and Windows 7 operating system. The netbook measures just about 0.7 inches at its thickest point.
Malata is a Chinese device maker that sells some items under its own brand name and partners with other companies as an ODM (Original Device Manufacturer) to sell products under different names. I doubt this model will come to the US anytime soon, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility.
You can find a few hands-on videos after the break from jkkmobile and Netbook News.


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882C Emerson Street
Palo Alto, CA 94301
3456 Mowry Ave
Fremont, CA 94538
If you need gum disease treatment, Union City area gum disease dentist, Dr. Shoker offers extensive experience. Unhealthy gums can be a risk factor for more serious health problems if not treated promptly.
Our professional team will assess your situation and create a personalized treatment plan. We're committed to your life-long healthy gums and teeth.
Union City area periodontics dentist, Dr. Shoker offers extensive experience. Gingivitis and bleeding gums can be risk factors for more serious health problems if not treated promptly.
Our friendly and highly-trained team will assess your needs and design an individual treatment plan. We're here to help you maintain healthy gums and teeth for life.
For comfortable dental hygiene treatment in the Union City, California area, Dr. Devinder Shoker is known for having a gentle touch. The friendly team at Shoker Dental Inc. provides teeth cleaning for a whiter smile.
Maintaining good dental hygiene is the foundation for healthy teeth and gums. We're committed to helping you have a lifetime of oral health.
Devinder Shoker, D.D.S., provides general dentistry for people of all ages. Dental health is important during your entire life. When your teeth are healthy, it follows that you will be healthier, and your quality of life increases. No matter what your age, Shoker Dental Inc. is here to serve your dental needs in the Union City, California area.
1289 E Hillsdale Blvd Suite 10
Foster City, CA 94404
If you want a gorgeous smile that turns heads, you may want to learn about the range of dental services offered at Foster City Sedation Dentistry. Foster City area cosmetic dentist Dr. Victor Sobrepena is dedicated to producing quality results and beautiful smiles.
With IV sedation you'll have no memory of your dental procedure at our Foster City area sedation dentistry practice. Since you are safely sedated during the treatment, you experience virtually no pain. You'll simply wake up to your successful results.
If you suffer from periodontal disease or want to make sure you avoid it, Foster City area gum disease dentist Dr. Victor Sobrepena offers the solution with non-surgical preventive gum therapy. Look and feel your best with healthy gums and an attractive smile.
If you are missing one or more teeth, you'll want to talk with Foster City area dental implant dentist Dr. Victor Sobrepena about replacements that look and feel as natural as your own teeth. If dentures are causing you problems, you may consider dental implants. Unlike dentures, which can be removed, Dr. Sobrepena offers dental implants that are permanently anchored into the jaw itself.
A beautiful smile can brighten your life! If you are continuously hiding your chipped, stained, or cracked teeth from others, it's time for a change! Victor Sobrepena, D.D.S., a trusted Foster City area dentist, can fix chips, cracks, and stains to reveal a great new smile - and a new you. You'll look so good you'll wonder why you waited so long!
Ng, Frank L D.D.S.
931 San Bruno Ave W # 8
San Bruno, CA, 94066-3435
Dental Health Ctr
1178 El Camino Real # 2
San Bruno, CA, 94066-2406
San Bruno Dental Group
298 Linden Ave
San Bruno, CA, 94066-4805
Thodas, D.D.S.
1001 Sneath Lane Ste. 211
San Bruno, CA, 34066
CPAP therapy is the number one sleep apnea treatment. CPAP machines give continuous positive air pressure throughout the night, which you simply inhale through a sleep mask. You'll sleep better, snore less, and be more rested the next day.
The CPAP machine is not large - about the size of a shoe box. CPAP masks come in different varieties, but most people choose a CPAP mask that covers just the nose and leaves the mouth uncovered.
CPAP machines are regulated by the FDA and require a doctor's prescription. (The same is true for other breathing machines, like VPAP or APAP.) A doctor's supervision is an essential part of getting the most out of CPAP sleep apnea treatment.
Some CPAP machines keep records of a patient's nightly breathing. By examining this information, your sleep doctor or dentist can learn more about your sleep patterns - without you coming into a sleep center for overnight monitoring.
When it comes to moderate to severe sleep apnea, CPAP is the treatment that is most often effective. There are many brands and models of CPAP machines out there; it's all a matter of finding the one that will work best for you.
Sleep apnea surgery is the treatment of last resort for people with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) or sleep disorders who have not found relief from other sleep apnea treatments. When it comes to surgery for sleep apnea, information is key.
In OSA, the airways become obstructed and cause the person to skip breaths and gasp for air. If methods such as lifestyle changes, CPAP machines, and oral appliance therapy are not successful in treating sleep apnea, then sleep apnea physicians may recommend sleep apnea surgery.
There are many parts of the airway (the breathing tubes) that can be obstructed. For sleep apnea surgery to be successful, the sleep apnea dentist or sleep apnea physician must identify and treat all areas with obstructions. For some patients, this may require more than one surgical procedure.
Here is an overview of the different types of sleep apnea surgery:
Maxillomandibular Advancement: This is a type of orthognathic surgery that moves the jaw forward (the same principle behind sleep apnea oral appliance therapy). Also known as bimaxillary advancement (Bi-Max) or maxillomandibular osteotomy (MMO), it's often accompanied by tongue surgery.
Tracheotomy: This is a procedure in which a sleep apnea surgeon creates a new "breathing hole" in the throat. Patients breathe and speak normally during the day, but at night they breathe through the tracheotomy tube in their windpipe. It's a dramatic procedure, but one that's certain to provide relief.
Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty: Known as a UPPP or UP3, this is a procedure in which soft tissue is surgically removed from the back of the mouth and throat. The tonsils and uvula are removed, leaving the patient with a "bigger" throat that makes breathing easier. Laser-assisted UP (LAUP) uses a laser to provide similar results. Unfortunately, these procedures are not always successful.
Tongue Reduction: Reducing the size of the tongue can leave more space in the throat and airway. This may be a surgical glossectomy or somnoplasty.
Tongue Advancement: Surgery that pulls the tongue and its muscles toward the front of the mouth. Known as genioglossus and hyoid advancement (GGA), this procedure leaves more space for breathing in the back of the mouth and throat. It is most often done in conjunction with other treatment or surgery.
Tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy: This surgery removes the tonsils and adenoids, making more space in the throat for breathing. It is especially useful in treating children's sleep apnea.


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Pink Pearl Fairy Sailing Ship Digital Kit
This digital kit includes the patterns for the Ship and a mini album and box for the ship to sit on for display. It also includes the digital templates and papers needed to complete the project. The papers and templates are electronically delivered as 8 1/2″ x 11″ JPEG files for you to download and print from your home printer or have them printed for you. These digital kits includes written instructions noted above and video tutorials showing the complete construction process. These pages are for Personal Use Only. Please respect my copyright and do not share these files.
Each digital kit includes:
- Written tutorials for the Pirate Ship with Fairy Sailing Ship modifications and Supplies/Video and Video Tutorials for the Rising Tide Mini Album
- Digital Papers For Ship Exterior and elements
- Digital Paper Pack "Pink Pearl Pixies", includes Patterned Paper (19) and Journal Cards (6) for the Album
This is a Digital Download, not a physical product. The Downloads will be available in your Laura Denison Designs account after completion of your order and payment. They will be delivered as zipped (compress files). These files will need to be downloaded to a computer hard drive to be unzipped and printed. In addition to these digital items, you will need chipboard and card stock.
The video tutorials will recorded and available under the Paid Tutorials Tab on the website.
These papers are for Personal Use ONLY. Please respect my copyright and do not share these files.


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|100% Human Hair
|1. Pre-Plucked w/ natural hairline& baby hair
|2. Can be Dyed and Restyled
|3. Combs inside wig cap to fasten the wig
|4. Adjustable strap inside wig cap
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|Cap Size
|Light brown Swiss Lace
|At least 1 year with proper care
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Quinnipiac goalkeeper Borja Angoitia walked over to the sideline at the end of the second overtime period. The game was headed to penalty kicks, the winner of which would capture the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship crown and head to the NCAA Division I Tournament.
Angoitia sat down alone on the bench while his teammates gathered on the field. He began to whistle to himself in a nonchalant manner, looking down toward the wet ground.
Quinnipiac head coach Eric Da Costa walked over to Angoitia and informed the junior he would again take the first penalty kick in addition to playing in net, just as he had done in Friday night's semifinal game. Angoitia slightly nodded, his eyes still peering towards the wet ground, all while he continued to whistle.
When it came time to start penalty kicks, Angoitia trotted out onto the field. He lined up for Quinnipiac's first kick, and struck the ball past Monmouth goalkeeper Eric Klenofsky. Four rounds later, Angoitia made a diving save to his left off of a John Egan shot, securing a victory and a MAAC Championship for the Bobcats.
"The emotions right now are between joy and relief," Da Costa said. "We've been doing this for nine years, and it slipped out of our grasp a couple of times. To be able to see our guys, and how ecstatic they are, it's beyond measure and beyond words."
With the win, Quinnipiac is headed to its first NCAA Division I Tournament in program history. Prior to tonight's contest the Bobcats had not beaten Monmouth in 10 games, their last win against the Hawks coming in 2004.
"It's unbelievable," Angoitia said. "We've always had confidence as a team, but to go this far and win and be heading to the NCAA Tournament is just something we've never experienced before. It feels amazing."
Quinnipiac had not beaten Monmouth in the last 10 meetings prior to Sunday afternoon's win over the No. 1 seed, going 12-3-2 in its history against the Hawks.
"I told coach [Da Costa] yesterday that I lost twice to Monmouth already, and that the third time was a charm," Quinnipiac co-captain Simon Hinde said. "When I came to America I learned quickly that Monmouth was the team to beat, and I just can't stop smiling."
Hinde says sharing this win with his coach makes it worth more than anything he has every experienced.
"He's built this program up and had faith in playing real football," Hinde said. We've had faith in him, he's created a great program, and I'm very happy for him."
The first half featured minimal scoring opportunities for both teams. Monmouth had two free kick chances, but senior Paco Navarro couldn't capitalize on either. The first came almost 15 minutes into action, and Navarro lined the kick straight at Angoitia. The second chance came with under ten minutes left in the half, but it was lined wide left of the goal.
Quinnipiac's Tobi Esche, the last line of defense many times, stood strong throughout the half.
"[The defense has] been perfect all season, that's why the team went so far," Angoitia said. "We are a team based on defense and we get clutch scoring hear and there, and today was much of the same. Great team win."
The Bobcats best scoring chance of the half came with just over 17 minutes remaining. Machel Baker got into Monmouth territory, but was turned away by Matt Jeffery, MAAC Defensive Player of the Year.
Steven Hawkey also got a shot on net with 12 minutes left, but the shot was saved by Klenofsky.
The second half featured much of the same, both teams strong in their own end.
The best scoring threat came from Quinnipiac's Machel Baker with 10:57 left. Baker found the ball just outside of the box, spun and struck the ball towards Klenofsky in net. The shot went just wide right, though.
It was the best chance the Bobcats had gotten all day, and brought the Quinnipiac crowd on the far side to its feet.
"Our boys knew how much [the game] meant, and how big this game was," Da Costa said.
"We would not be intimidated. As they game progressed we started to show how technical we are, and how good of a team we are."
With just under ten minutes left in regulation, it was Monmouth's turn to nearly end it. Derek Luke struck the ball towards the Quinnipiac net from just outside of the box, but Angoitia made a diving save high and to his right, keeping Quinnipiac's season alive.
"He's the biggest guy out on the field today. He was called upon late in the second half to make that safe, and he came through again," Da Costa said of his goalkeeper.
Monmouth and Quinnipiac then played two scoreless overtime periods, both teams with minimal chances. The game would be decided by penalty kicks, the same way both Quinnipiac and Monmouth had gotten to the championship game itself.
Angoitia and captain Simon Hinde started it off strong for the Bobcats, each scoring on their chance. Brandon Strain-Goode then missed, and Monmouth's Joseph Schmid tied things up at two goals apiece through three rounds. Toby Esche then found the back of the net with his scoring chance, followed by a Monmouth conversion as well.
Simon Brossier was next up for Quinnipiac. He stuck the ball to the left side, just out of the reach of Klenofsy. Angoitia then made another momentous save, his largest of the season.
"The guy told me with the run-up," Angoitia said. "He knew if he missed it was over, and he gave me a telegraph telling me he was going across and I was able to save it."


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Romani Identities, Histories and Ethnicity
Open Lecture in the Identity and Leadership Series
Online Streaming
Dr. Adrian Marsh, Researcher in Romani Studies, Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, Turkey
December 4 2017 13.00-15:30, Central European University, Budapest Nador utca 15 103 Tiered Room
Please register by December 1 using the form at this link.
This lecture will examine the differing identities adopted by Romani and Traveller communities, particularly those groups outside of the 'usual' purview of European Romani scholarship and activism - the Romani and Traveller communities in Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt and the Middle East on the one hand, and those in the British Isles and Scandinavia, on the other. The histories of Romani and Traveller migration, the influences upon cultures, confessional identities and their contested natures, will be part of the context for this examination, from the 'inside out'.
Romani and Traveller people across Europe are consistently defined and described by others in terms that draw upon historical stereotypes, mistaken identities and fantasies of the imaginary 'Gypsy'. Our history is ignored or 'lost' by majority scholarship, our ethnicity dismissed or misunderstood and attempts to 'fit' us into the homogeneous nation-state are made. Romani and Traveller diversity and experience make us what we are…
Dr Adrian Marsh, Researcher in Romani Studies & Romani Early Years, is of Romany-Traveller origins, who works with Roma, Gypsy, and Traveller communities in the UK, Sweden, Turkey, Egypt and Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. He gained his PhD in Romani Studies at the University of Greenwch, London (2008) and his MA in South East European Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (1998), London University. Dr Marsh was, awaded a first class honours BA degree in East European History at the School of Slavonic & East European Studies (1996) and won the Andrew Ferguson Memorial Prize for a final dissertation on women and power in the Ottoman Empire (1996). Dr Marsh has taught Romani Studies in universities in London, Malmö, Lund, Stockholm, Cairo, Istanbul and Diyarbakir and has held an ESRC fellowship as Researcher in Romani Studies at Greenwich University, London. He recently managed Early Childhood Development projects for Roma, Gypsies, and Travellers for the Open Society Foundations, Early Childhood Programme, London. He is currently living and working in Istanbul with his NGO, the International Romani Studies Network, established in Istanbul (2002). He has published a number of articles on Romani identity (2005, 2006, 2008) and religiosity (2014), edited collections from international conferences on Romani Studies he organised (2006, 2014) and contributed to peer reviewed journals, regarding education for Romani children (2014) and to the 'Encyclopaedia of Human Migration' (2012)
Photo Credit and Background: Douglas and Elisabeth Hern and their eight children, on the road between Bala and Swansea, Wales, 22nd June 1951. Photo: Geoff Charles Collection © National Library Wales
Bala, Wales is a small market town within the historic county of Merionethshire, now Gwynedd, at the northern end of Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid, in Welsh). It is famous in Romani Studies, as this is where many of the descendants of Abram Wood lived, including those Welsh Gypsies that John Sampson carried out research amongst, for his monumental study on the Romani language of the Welsh Gypsies (Kalé).


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|Flooded St. Francis
That was two weeks ago. The first few days we stayed with friends then found a vacation rental that offers weekly rates and would allow all of our pets. Everybody has been safe and dry and comfortable, though we miss our tiny off-grid home and nursery. We miss walking the dogs along our trails and tending our gardens.
Finally, we have had consecutive days without rain and our flooded ponds are beginning to drain. The water has receded below the house; the floor and porch are beginning to dry. But we have a huge clean-up project ahead of us. That's OK: our home and personal belongings will recover just fine. The gardens are a total loss, the nursery stock is 95% lost, and both vehicles are failing. Sage and I have been down for two days with some kind of summer cold. Still, I consider us very fortunate. I had inadvertently stored all of our garden seeds in the bin that holds our business files. When the waters seep away, we will be ready to start preparing for our fall and winter garden. The plants that were protected and have survived are part of current projects and look incredible. We will recover some of our investment. One vehicle was repaired yesterday (but has unfortunately failed again today) and the other should be ready sometime next week. We have been showered with generous offers from friends and acquaintances. Even the owners of our home-away-from-home have been very helpful. Despite all of this upheaval, we have continued to work daily and complete projects timely.
David texted me these photos of our porch this morning. Waterline on the door is noticeable. Messy but it appears all of our belongings are salvageable. And so the clean-up process begins...
Due to the situation at Sage Hollow, we have decided to suspend all plant sales until further notice. We need sufficient time to clean up and make our home livable again, to plant our gardens again, and to restock the nursery. True to my optimistic nature, however, I expect the future of NativeDave and specifically our nursery to be exponentially better. We hope you will continue to grow with us.


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Fresh Basil Pesto
A simple pesto recipe using toasted pine nuts, fresh basil, olive oil, parmesan cheese and a good olive oil.
There is a wonderful restaurant in Needham, MA called Sweet Basil that everyone should experience in their lifetime. The tables are intimately placed closed to one another with sweet little flowers in vases and candles decorating each table, vibrant music plays overhead, ivy grows from pots hung from the ceiling and soft twinkling lights brighten the room.
Not only is the atmosphere amazing, but the food is out of this world. Fresh local ingredients are served up every night and a lovely little bowl of fresh house-made basil pesto with warm crusty breads awaits on your table. It is to die for.
I have only had the pleasure of dining there once, but it's pretty hard to forget.
I have always had a love for pesto but have never liked the store bought kind - it's too salty, oily and garlicy for my taste. Sweet Basil wouldn't share their basil recipe (and why would they?!), which inspired me to try my own. It can never beat the pesto at Sweet Basil, but I'll give myself a pat on the back because this is pretty darn tasty.
Try this Basil Pesto with my Pesto Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers or A Taste of Spring: Fresh Basil Pesto with Penne
- 2 C basil leaves, stems removed and washed
- 4 small garlic cloves, diced
- 1/2 - 1 C grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 C extra virgin olive oil, plus more for storage and/or taste
- 1/2 C pine nuts or walnuts
- In a food processor, combine garlic and pine nuts until finely ground (30 seconds to 1 minute)
- Mix in parmesan cheese and pulse again until combined, then add basil leaves and olive oil.
- Season with salt and pepper if needed
- Serve immediately or store in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container with a small film of olive oil poured on top (it will keep the basil from spoiling)
- Makes about 1 - 1 1/2 Cup pesto


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Where has 2010 gone?
While signs exist that the recession is over, many unemployed workers are still struggling. Those who are working also struggle, though their challenges are different: extra long work days, no pay raises or promotions, stressful work environments, political posturing with peers and bosses. Some surveys point out that over 50% of all workers yearn for the opportunity to move to a different job or employer, and plan to jump at the first chance they get!
Hope for a dream career has been replaced with a longing to just work in a happy environment. Next year things could change. In fact, I believe 2011 will become the Year of the Worker. However, for the worker, career change won't come easily. It definitely won't come without planning and preparation. If you are someone wanting to change jobs or employers, do you know what it takes to be successful? Do you know a friend or family member stuck in the same spot who needs help with creating a career plan?
One service that we offer at Abilities Enhanced is the Career Power Hour. If you have a single career issue to resolve fast, during this 60-minute highly intensive hour I will do laser career coaching to get you to the heart of the matter and help you move forward quickly. (Not for the timid or very talkative or anyone with complex career challenges.) Some have used this service for choosing between two job offers (nice problem to have, huh?). Others use it to get clues on what means the most to them in a job and how they should begin their job search.
Sixty minutes go fast, but it's amazing how much can be accomplished in this time frame. Don't you owe it to yourself to be ready when the right career opportunity pops up?
Normally $200US, I'm participating in Cyber Monday by discounting this service 25% - yes, only $150.00 until Tuesday, November 30! This is a Cyber Monday deal you may use for yourself or give to a friend or family member as the service may be scheduled until January 31, 2011. (However, this "deal" must be claimed by December 31, 2010.)
Click here to purchase the Career Power Hour
After you purchase, you will receive a follow-up email, "AE Career Power Hour - What to Do Next." Follow the instructions carefully. If you purchase this service for another person, then forward the follow-up email to them with instructions to claim their "deal" by December 31.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at mailto:[email protected].
Get the help you need to make 2011 your best career year yet!
Click here to purchase the Career Power Hour
Wishing you career success in 2011!


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acrylic on paper
7"x 10 (2-pages)
For Camille Olsen, who's journal theme is peace. Must be the tropical heat here in Maryland, because my colors got away from me and turned all lime and melon and banana, and I swear I'm hearing Calypso music. Camille and her husband are standing near a very rough rendition of my favorite Matisse painting. (Yep, more sailboats). My apologies to the Olsens if I'm not close to a likeness. We haven't met, but rumor has it, both have wicked senses of humor and that they are a colorful and fun-loving pair.
Thanks for all of your comments on the last post. I appreciate it!
Peace out ;-)


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The City Department of Investigation released a scathing report today detailing what it described as "unsafe and unhealthy conditions" pervading the homeless shelter system.
The study—conducted at the behest of Mayor Bill de Blasio—surveyed 25 shelter facilities operating under the umbrella of the Department of Homeless Services and uncovered 621 violations of sanitation, fire and building codes and a population of residents complaining of discomfort, fear and unresponsive landlords and management companies. The resulting 45 page report is replete with photos of mold, rodents—living and dead—overcrowded rooms, smashed windows, ruined walls and rusted-out elevators and stairs, but also contains a plan to clean up the entire citywide network of 161 buildings housing 11,900 families.
"At its worst, DHS is turning a blind eye to violations that threaten the lives of shelter residents," the report said. "Many shelters operate with existing violations that make life unsafe for its children and family residents."
The study broke down the shelter system into three groups: buildings operating under the city's Tier II transitional housing program and providing private rooms, food and social services; former hotels converted into shelters; and "cluster" buildings where the city paid landlords to house the homeless. It was in the last category that DOI discovered the most desperate and disgusting circumstances.
"DOI investigators observed unsafe and unhealthy conditions including a dead rat in a cluster apartment where four children lived, the decaying smell of which permeated the hallways; roaches scattering as inspectors knocked on doors; garbage in the stairways and halls; and in one location, a puddle of urine in the building's only functional elevator," the report read, noting that the city's inspection task force uncovered 223 code violations in just five cluster buildings, ranging from trash-choked hallways to locked exits to "extensive vermin infestation."
Tenants in the cluster buildings also complained of a lack of security that left them feeling in constant danger.
Conditions at the Tier II and former hotels, however, were also far from ideal. The DOI inspectors found 168 violations at nine converted hotels for problems like lack of smoke detectors and fire extinguishers and fungal growth, as well as plentiful rats and mice. Residents reported being unable to get even basic repairs done at their buildings.
The city task force found that a number of the 11 Tier II buildings it assessed were operating contrary to zoning and building codes, and were providing only a minimal level of the social services the program mandates.
DOI also found that DHS had inspected 19 of the 25 buildings studied in the past year, but not closed any of them or forced landlords to make improvements.
The report laid the blame for the decrepit state of the shelter system upon previous administrations, but also found Mr. de Blasio had so far failed to reform the system.
"These problems are not new; indeed they are the inheritance of decades," the report said. "However, to be clear, these problems have continued and there can be no further delay in addressing them."
To that end, DOI laid out a series of recommendations, insisting that the city deploy its personnel to immediately fix all potentially dangerous problems at the shelters and for DHS to revise its inspection criteria—which at present does not give failing marks to any facility, no matter how bad the conditions.
The report also called for bolstered security and social services programs within the next three months. But the bulk of the proposal called for bringing landlords into contract with the city, and holding them accountable for repairs.
At 58 of the buildings operating under DHS' purview, landlords are compensated on an "emergency" day-by-day basis, which DOI maintains creates no incentive for property owners to do any kind of upkeep on the premises.
"With no contracts, providers and landlords are not subject to any competition, and are not held to enforceable contract terms that could, in theory, require them to maintain their buildings or make needed repairs, or else be subject to penalties such as rent reductions or fines," DOI lamented. "Not only are their no financial consequences to the providers and landlords for not correcting issues, but DHS does not follow up to ensure violations are corrected."
Noting that the per diem payments are also considerably more costly, DOI called for the city to create a plan inside of six months for bringing landlords into contract, and to devise a system for either forcing them to do maintenance work or for deducting the cost of repairs from the rent the city pays.
"DHS must commit to enforcing the contracts," the report said.
DOI said that DHS had agreed to its recommendations, and was already undertaking some reforms in response to the investigation.
The New York State Constitution guarantees shelter to all, and thus the city is legally obligated to provide housing to anyone who requests it.


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I record podcasts regularly - typically once a week at the Packet Pushers Podcast. One of the less obvious problems of podcasting is that I have to listen to my own voice during the edit process (which Ethan & I do ourselves). Even after 170 shows published to date, I still cringe when listening to my own voice. it's personal excoriation that never ends.
Even though people think you would get used it, I never have.
I don't think about the sound of my voice at all during a working day, or when associating with others. Your voice is just what you got when the genetic lucky dip delivered its goods. But when you are forced to listen to your own voice for hours every week, you start to adapt. I've noticed that my speech patterns are different from the earlier shows. I have less fillers (ums, ahs, pauses) in my speech patterns on the show and this is starting to carry over into my normal speech patterns. In fact, I was presenting to some colleagues a few weeks back and realised that I had unconsciously switched into 'podcaster' mode - this is where I project my voice for the microphone with extra 'tone' and 'colour' ( I call it cheese because it sounds cheesy).
It takes about two hours to edit every one hour of published content. We do this editing because many of our guests are not experienced at public speaking and sometimes get hesitant about being in public which leads to a lot of ums, ahhs, well and over-talking Ethan & I would rather have these conversations than to have a format where only semi-professional voices are on the show every week.
The last part is listening to your old podcasts is also painful. I listened to two of our early shows to assess how our professionalism has improved and what has changed. It's quite obvious that my voice, tone and speech patterns are different.
This, of course, is also called practice and any form of practice improves. But you don't think of the first 100 shows that you create and publish as practice.


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Towards a pollution-free planet
In early December, world governments committed to a pollution-free planet at the third United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-3) in Nairobi, Kenya, with resolutions and pledges promising to improve the lives of billions across the globe by cleaning up our air, land and water.
A new resolution on preventing and reducing air pollution to improve air quality globally recognises that air pollution is "the single greatest environmental risk to health", linked to an estimated 6.5 million premature deaths across the world, and says that "in the absence of aggressive intervention, the number of premature deaths due to ambient air pollution are estimated to be on track to increase by more than 50% by 2050". It urges countries to take action across sectors to reduce all forms of air pollution.
Source: United Nations Environment, 6 December 2017.
The resolutions: https://papersmart.unon.org/resolution/index


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Dedicated Heating Company in Hickory, NC
At Morris Heating & Cooling, one of our specialties is residential and light commercial heating service. We repair, install, and maintain heat pumps and furnaces across Hickory, NC, as the premier heating company in the area, and all for an affordable price! Our team is full of heating experts, from our installation crew to the highly skilled technicians that work on your system. We stand behind our work, and offer free estimates as well. Our reputation as a heating contractor is one for fast, reliable, and honest service.
These are just a few of the benefits of hiring our heating company:
- More than 20 years of experience
- Free, accurate estimates
- Trained, licensed, and insured technicians
- 24/7 emergency repair availability
Leave Your Repairs to Our Hickory Heating Company
We service all makes and models and can diagnose any heating repair issue. If your furnace or heat pump is short-cycling, making strange sounds, or failing to turn on, we'll come over promptly for inspection. Once you approve of our estimate, we'll fix the issue without interfering with your busy routine. Each heating repair we perform is thorough, and we use premium replacement parts to ensure our work stands the test of time. You can always trust our technicians for highly reliable and professional heating repairs.
Our team often tackles problems with:
- Thermostats
- Blower motors
- Heat exchangers
- Air filters
Reliable Heating Installation in Hickory, NC
Morris Heating & Cooling is a Rheem Pro Partner and we carry top-rated, energy efficienct heat pumps and furnaces from name brands like Rheem and Mitsubishi. We also service all makes and models. Once we determine that a furnace replacement is more cost-effective in the long run than repairs, we'll help you find a system that fits your property's size and rate of heat loss.
Digital thermostats from Honeywell are also available. Our heating contractors can present Hickory residents with systems that comply with the ENERGY STAR program.
Expert Heating Maintenance in Hickory, NC
You'll want us to set up a planned service agreement for your new furnace or heat pump because this can help catch small issues before they lead to more serious ones. The furnace maintenance plan will be customized just for you! By scheduling routine preventative maintenance, you'll have one of our expert technicians over to give your heater the royal treatment. We'll clean its internal components, calibrate all the bell and whistles, and let you know if anything looks out of line. It's the best way to get ready for a comfortable, cozy holiday season!
Hickory residents can depend on Morris Heating & Cooling for friendly, professional service that keeps them warm during the winter months. We back our work with a 100% quality guarantee, and special offers are available. We set up financing on approved credit as well. Contact our heating company for more information. Not looking for heating service? We also offer air conditioning services.
Heating Blogs
- Steps For Changing a Furnace Filter
- Top Tips for Furnace Safety
- Ways to Help Your Furnace Deal With Extreme Cold Weather
- What are the most common indoor air pollutants?


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About UsThe National Bank Note Census (NBNC) promises to be the most comprehensive resource ever created for collectors, dealers, and researchers of national bank notes. This all-encompassing census combines the data of both Don Kelly and Martin Gengerke into a single fully searchable database. In addition, the Van Belkum data (revised, corrected, and updated by Peter Huntoon) is available in a searchable bank title and note issuance database. With over 350,000 bank note records, this fully searchable database incorporates the work of four pioneers in national bank note research.
New and improved search filters allow for single or multiple variable searching across data fields (i.e., search for $5 and $10 series of 1882 Brown Back and Date Back notes from Washington and Oregon). Search filters for the bank issuance data are similarly configured (i.e., search for all banks that issued $20 1882 Brown Back notes in California, Montana, and Idaho).
NBNC updates in development include: an image database linking bank note records to specific images (depending on image availability), a "home page" for each charter number with at least one illustration of an existing note or a BEP proof. Most importantly for both collectors and dealers, we are working on our auction record database to provide auction prices realized in a highly searchable format.
Notes in Census: 451,917
Notes added since 1/1/2012: 86,993
Notes with Images: 197,721
Number of Auction Records: 210,899
NBNCensus Guide/Manual with Screenshots
|Pioneers | Acknowledgements | Administration


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Search found 10 items
- without certificate
- (-) Remove Aviation filter Aviation
- (-) Remove Management & Financial filter Management & Financial
- (-) Remove Acquisition & Procurement filter Acquisition & Procurement
Weaknesses in the Department's Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program Limit Achievement of Its Objectives
On April 23, 2013, we issued our final report on the Department of Transportation's (DOT) administration of its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program.
Library Item
Date: 04.23.2013
MWAA's Weak Policies and Procedures Have Led to Questionable Procurement Practices, Mismanagement, and a Lack of Overall Accountability
On November 1, 2012, we issued a report on the management policies and processes of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA). Established through the Metropolitan Washington Airports Act of 1982, MWAA operates the federally owned Was
Library Item
Date: 11.01.2012
Quality Control Review of the Department's Implementation of Earned Value management and Security Cost Reporting
On April 24, 2009, we issued our report on the audit of the Department of Transportation's implementation of earned value management (EVM), and the supportability of estimated security costs for major information technology (IT) investments.
Library Item
Date: 04.24.2009
FAA Must Strengthen Its Cost and Price Analysis Processes to Prevent Overpaying for Noncompetitive Contracts
On May 19, 2011, we issued our final report on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) cost and price analyses. The Office of Management and Budget emphasizes the importance of conducting effective cost and price analyses to avoid overpaying
Library Item
Date: 05.19.2011
As required by AIR-21, we reported to Congress on our second annual assessment of the status of FAA's cost accounting system.
Library Item
Date: 01.10.2002
FAA's Contracting Practices are Insufficient to Effectively Manage its Systems Engineering 2020 Contracts
On March 28, 2012, we issued our final report on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Systems Engineering 2020 (SE-2020) contracts. SE-2020 is a portfolio of contracts that FAA is using to obtain professional and technical services to supp
Library Item
Date: 03.28.2012
At the request of Representatives Frank R.
Library Item
Date: 06.21.2011
What We Looked At
Library Item
Date: 02.28.2018
On March 18, 2010, the Inspector General testified on the Department of Transportation's (DOT's) Suspension and Debarment (S&D) Program. This testimony was based on the Inspector General's January 7, 2010, audit report
Library Item
Date: 03.18.2010
This report is one in a series on implementation of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cost accounting system. FAA initially planned to have a fully operational cost accounting system by October 1, 1998.
Library Item
Date: 12.18.2000


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I just spent a very enjoyable weekend giving Damian Cerini an edited highlights tour of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail and related tourism assets. Damian is the proprietor of Tour De Vines, the largest cycling tour company in Australia. If all goes according to plan, he will be collaborating with us to bring inter-State visitors to the BVRT in the cooler months of next year.
We've also recently been contacted by the publisher of the Qantas in-flight magazine seeking information about the BVRT for inclusion in the next edition.
The BVRT is finally coming of age as one of the great tourism assets of Queensland.
Paul Heymans, President
BVRT Users Assoc


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How Your Gut Protects You From Disease
A leaky gut may be the cause of some cancers in the body, according to researchers at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
A new study, published online in PLoS ONE, suggests that guanylyl cyclase C (GC-C)—a hormone receptor in the intestinal tract that has tumor-suppressing qualities—also plays a key role in strengthening the intestinal barrier and can possibly prevent cancer and Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
The research team found that silencing the hormone receptor in mice can weaken their intestinal barrier and make them more susceptible to cancer due to inflammation, microbes seeping out into the body, and damaged DNA that formed cancer in the liver, lung, and lymph nodes.
However, the research team found that stimulating the GC-C hormone in mice strengthened the intestinal barrier to prevent the cancer-causing agents from leaking out of the gut and causing damage.
"If the intestinal barrier breaks down, it becomes a portal for stuff in the outside world to leak into the inside world," said lead researcher Scott Waldman, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Thomas Jefferson University and director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Program at Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center. "When these worlds collide, it can cause many diseases, like inflammation and cancer."
What is Leaky Gut Syndrome?
Leaky gut, also called increased intestinal permeability, is a condition that affects the lining of the gut. When that lining is damaged—possibly from food sensitivities, extended use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and excessive alcohol consumption—it becomes permeable and allows molecules that don't normally pass through the gut lining to "leak" out of the gut and into the bloodstream.
This triggers an autoimmune reaction with symptoms, such as:
- Abdominal pain, bloating, and gas
- Joint pain
- Skin rashes
- Fatigue
- Depression
How to Strengthen Your Intestinal Barrier
According to the Thomas Jefferson University press release, a new drug containing GC-C is on the verge of hitting the market. However, its intended prescribed purpose is to treat constipation.
"This study helps lay the groundwork for future pre-clinical and clinical studies investigating GC-C's abilities beyond those treatments in humans, including prevention and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and cancer," said Dr. Waldman.
"We've shown that when you pull away GC-C in animals, you disrupt the intestinal barrier, putting them at risk for getting inflammatory bowel disease and cancer. And when you treat them with hormones that activate GC-C, it helps strengthen the integrity of the intestinal barrier," Dr. Waldman said. "Now, if you want to prevent inflammation or cancer in humans, then we need to start thinking about feeding people hormones that activate GC-C to tighten up the barrier."
In the meantime, talk to your doctor about your symptoms. He may suggest that you abstain from alcohol, cease the use of NSAIDs, and follow an anti-inflammatory diet to help heal leaky gut syndrome.
Press release. Thomas Jefferson University.Web.
Jieru Egeria Lin, Adam Eugene Snook, Peng Li, Brian Arthur Stoecker, Gilbert Won Kim, Michael Sullivan Magee, Alex Vladimir Mejia Garcia, Michael Anthony Valentino, Terry Hyslop, Stephanie Schulz, Scott Arthur Waldman. GUCY2C Opposes Systemic Genotoxic Tumorigenesis by Regulating AKT-Dependent Intestinal Barrier Integrity. Web. PLoS ONE, 2012
Science Daily. Stronger Intestinal Barrier May Prevent Cancer in the Rest of the Body, New Study Suggests. Web.
Leo Galland. Leaky Gut Syndromes: Breaking the Vicious Cycle.Web.
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