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It just doesn't make sense. You've been doing the same workout that helped you lose the first 15 pounds, but now the scale refuse to budge. The problem with this common scenario might surprise you. You might think hitting a plateau means your body's getting less efficient at burning calories, when, in fact, it's getting too efficient!
When we challenge our bodies with a new workout at the fitness center, we tend to burn a lot of calories. As we continue to do the same workout or lift the same weights in the same way, our body adapts to the challenge and becomes more efficient at burning fuel in the process. The key, then, is to keep challenging yourself in slightly different ways.
Although this might mean working out harder, it definitely means workout out smarter so you can outsmart your body's efficiency system and continue to get leaner. Here are four tips for how to do that in your daily fitness gym workouts.
Tip #1: Up the Intensity
Slow, methodical cardio workouts don't burn as many calories as fast bursts of exertion. If you can't sustain high-intensity for very long, it's okay – that's the point of interval training! Try to work speed bursts and higher intensity intervals into your cardio training and faster, combination movements into your weight training to increase your heart rate and burn more calories. You don't have to work out like this all the time – adding just a few high-intensity sets into your program can make an impact on that plateau!
Tip #2: Vary the Order of Your Workout or Change Up Your Route
Even the order in which we do things can become predictable enough to our muscles that we become more efficient and burn fewer calories. Try switching up your routine. For instance, don't always do squats first or run 3 miles in the same direction around the block.
Tip #3: Up the Resistance and Try New Moves
When you get used to lifting a certain weight, you'll notice your muscles aren't as sore the day after. It may feel great to get past DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), but this is one sign your body might be getting a little too efficient and your results may start to plateau.
The most obvious solution when it comes to weights and resistance tools is to increase the weight load or resistance level you use. At some point, however, you're going to reach a limit, and that's where the second strategy can be helpful – choosing different workout moves.
There's more than one way to work your triceps, abdominals or pecs. Finding new or different ways to work the same muscle groups – even slight variations – will recruit different sets of supporting muscles and burn more calories as you challenge your body in new ways. Watch what other fit people at the gym are doing, talk to the staff, or watch YouTube fitness channels for some inspiration.
Tip #4: Move More the Rest of the Day
A strange thing tends to happen after a hard workout day: we tend to be lazy the rest of it. A study from 2013 showed this was especially the case among older adults. Sure, you're burning more calories all at once, but are you still walking around and staying active when you leave the gym? If you're not mindful of this, you might be surprised to find that your calorie burn or total steps on hard workout days dips below your rest days!
Wearing an activity tracker is a great way to keep track of your activity all day long and remind yourself to get up off the couch or step away from the desk and move around.
There are many reasons and ways we can plateau, but these tips can help you continue to challenge your body in ways that lead to results.


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This rather lovely literary arts magazine which is out bi-annually has published one of my short stories. I'm absolutely thrilled, not least because it is a beautiful publication with some wonderful, talented writers, but also, this piece, entitled Rule Britannia, is very close to my heart. It was inspired by one of my favourite authors, Daphne du Maurier, and a book she wrote in 1972 entitled Rule Britannia. Her book is set in an imagined near future where the UK's recent withdrawal from the EEC brings the country to the brink of bankruptcy and leads to an American warship being stationed in a bay in Cornwall and marines marching over England's fields.
Obviously, although written so long ago, this book is incredibly relevant to now. There is civil confusion and fear, economic and military failures on the continent have resulted in the UK and USA joining together as a single nation USUK; there are speeches by the Prime Minister speaking about 'unknown agents hostile to USUK'; streams of American helicopters dominating the English skies and a general fear that leads the people of Cornwall to defend their land. It is, in many respects, so relevant to the here and now that it can be read as a very bleak and frightening novel. However, there is still a wonderful air of satire in the desperation, particularly amongst the perfectly named Mad and her large house in Cornwall with its many occupants.
For my piece, I set the large house in Devon, for obvious reasons for those who know me. I wanted to create not just the air of desperation but hope. In the near future of the lawless country that has dissolved into chaos and violence, I could imagine this place would always provide sanctuary. No matter what winds of change would come, this ancient house would withstand yet another threat and although under attack by roaming gangs, a society ungoverned and streets in the midst of civil violence, there is a sense that this will pass. It's what attracts me to works by people such as Margaret Atwood, to great stories such as Day of the Triffids and 28 Days Later. It could so easily be tomorrow but however desperate the world is, there has to be a shred of hope for us to carry on with the story. The light lingers in the background with the idea that it might just all be all alright in the end. Let's hope it is.
You can feel flush and buy a copy in either full colour or black and white or, I believe there is a very generous option to read it free online. I will not check your bookcases.

subset: commoncrawl


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Bibliothèque à Vila-real
Bibliothèque à Vila-real, Castellón, Espagne
Avda. Píus XII con calles José Ramón Batalla, María Rosa Molás y Consolación, Castellón
OAB - Carlos Ferrater
Peñín Arquitectos - Alberto Peñín
GyF - J.L. Gimenoo
J. Dolz (Engineer)
E. Mezquita, E. Fabregat (Quantity Surveyors)
Construction company
Becsa S.L.
Completion date
Built area
Alejo Bagué
The rectangular site (40x17) is oriented to the Northwest, located in between an important access to Vila-real and a school, above a preexisting parking with its exists and ventilations. The proposal that won the completion consists of a simple volume of 83x17m, two floors heigth, that provides a urban façade to the avenue, integrating those volumes, adapting itself to the existing structure, and providing a public space for the school, from which two vegetal slopes lift the building.
The access to the building is strategically placed at its 1/3 length, for its inner function and also for shortening the dimension of the façade and allowing a crossed access. The central atrium of the library gathers circulations with the deployment of the main stair and the arrival of the different parking exists that through the façade interstice connect with the three structural cores.
The project proposes a series of functional spaces of different size but clear geometry, which allow different configurations for a flexible use, initially dedicated to reading, information and work. It will be able to contain 75.000 books and 275 reading spots. A precise and careful work with installations and ceilings has been made seeking integration and flexibility.
The façade, built with the local company Butech is made with prestressed steal bars covered by ceramic cylinders of 52mm diameter and 1m high, separated 19cm. It proposes a reinterpretation of Mediterranean culture from the use of high technology. It combines innovation with roots in the tradition of wooden pieces of many Mediterranean villages to build a pleasant light, temperature and acoustical filter through an intermediate space.
Opaque parts of the façade are covered by corrugated sheet panels, related with the exterior curtain. Inside areas are built with rough painted ceramic bricks and pavement with ceramic meshed pieces similar to the Mediterranean mosaics. The library becomes the innovative, dynamic and cultural image of the society and industrial ceramic sector of Vila-real.


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Page summary
What if the global Body of Christ united in informed, compassionate prayer for Islam's most prominent leaders and influencers? And what if the Gospel of Jesus Christ transformed their hearts?
The world would change.
God asked us to do just that. He told us to pray for "kings and all those in authority. This is good and pleases God, our Savior, who wants ALL people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:2-4)
Let's obey Him.
Pray with us for these kings, presidents, and religious leaders. Because…
grow the movement
leaders and influencers Videos
onewayministries | activating God's people to exalt Jesus Christ and advance His gospel to the multitudes | ©2023


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So here are some links and notes from my week
It's a few weeks to go until the new website goes live for Brilliant Noise (see a preview in the brand treatment from Endless), and I'm thinking one of the things I may well do is have weeknotes. It's a simple idea which I cam across via Robin Sloan. Companies like Berg share some thoughts about their week every Friday.


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Norway: High Activity and Good Operations Mark Statoil's 2nd Q
Statoil's second quarter 2010 net operating income was NOK 26.6 billion, compared to NOK 24.3 billion in the second quarter of 2009.
The quarterly result was affected by a 32% increase in liquids prices measured in NOK, a 6% increase in equity production and a 12% decrease in gas prices measured in NOK. Also impairments, loss on derivatives and a provision for an onerous contract influenced net operating income.
Adjusted earnings in the second quarter 2010 were NOK 36.4 billion, up 25% from second quarter 2009 when adjusted earnings were NOK 29.2 billion.
Net income in the second quarter of 2010 was NOK 3.1 billion. This result reflects higher oil prices and increased liftings, lower net financial losses and lower tax rates partly offset by lower gas prices, impairments, losses on derivatives and an onerous contract compared to the second quarter of 2009, when net income was zero and the tax rate unusually high.
Adjusted earnings after tax were NOK 10.6 billion in the second quarter of 2010, up 21% from second quarter 2009 when adjusted earnings after tax were NOK 8.8 billion. Adjusted earnings after tax excludes the effect of financial items and the tax on net financial items, and represents an effective adjusted tax rate of 71% in the second quarter of 2010 and 70% in the second quarter of 2009.
"Statoil's second quarter is characterised by strong operational performance and a high activity level," says Statoil's Chief Executive Officer Helge Lund.
"We are making good progress on important projects. The Gjøa production platform is now anchored at the field in the North Sea. The Gudrun development was approved by the Norwegian Parliament in June, and key contracts have now been awarded. In Brazil, the Peregrino field development is moving forward and we have agreed to bring in Sinochem as a 40% partner in the project," says Lund.
"Statoil's production is on track. Equity production is up 6% compared to second quarter last year. However, planned maintenance turnarounds will heavily impact production in the third quarter," says Statoil's CEO Helge Lund.
Highlights since first quarter 2010:
* Equity production is up 6% from second quarter 2009 to 1,957 mboe per day. For the first six months of the year, equity production is 2,029 mboe per day.
* Entitlement production is up 2% from second quarter last year to 1,765 mboe per day.
* Average prices measured in NOK are up 32% for liquids and down 12% for gas compared to second quarter last year. Gas prices continue to be low in a historical perspective.
* On 19 May pressure change and loss of drilling fluid occurred in the C-06 well at Gullfaks C, causing production on Gullfaks C, Gimle and Tordis to be shut down. Production on Gullfaks and Gimle was resumed 14 July, and Tordis will be back on stream after a planned pipeline operation, which started on 20 July.
* On 21 May Statoil announced its agreement with the Sinochem Group to sell 40% of the Peregrino field offshore Brazil.
* On 27 May a six months drilling moratorium was imposed in the Gulf of Mexico.
* On 16 June the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) approved the plan for development and operation (PDO) for Gudrun.
* On 1 July the Agbami equity determination process was completed increasing Statoil's share in the Nigerian field from 18.85% to 20.21%.
Source: Statoil, July 29, 2010:


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Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News and co-author of "Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump," joins TRNN's Aaron Maté to discuss the evidentiary basis for claims of a Kremlin interference campaign in the U.S. and potential Trump campaign cooperation
Story Transcript
AARON MATE: It's The Real News. I'm Aaron Mate.
The first formal summit has been announced between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two will meet in Helsinki, Finland on July 16 for one-on-one talks. The announcement comes as Trump's suspected ties to Putin and Russia continue to engulf his presidency. And on that front, there's a lot going on. Well, joining me to discuss the latest in the Trump-Russia probe is Michael Isikoff. He is chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, and co-author of the New York Times bestselling book "Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump." Michael Isikoff, welcome to The Real News.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: It's good to be with you.
AARON MATE: So let me start by asking you about your assessment of where we are in terms of what we know about the central question behind this entire kerfuffle, and certainly will be revived now in the wake of Trump announcing the summit with Putin next month, which is the extent of the ties between Russia and Trump. And on that front maybe you could also lay out for us what you go through in your book about what we know about Trump's ties to Russia. You start much earlier than the 2016 campaign. So just your assessment of what we know right now about this relationship.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Well, first of all, I do think that the timing of this summit is pretty interesting, because you know, my sense is, nobody knows for sure, but that Robert Mueller is coming on, coming to a critical juncture in his investigation, with a lot of anticipation or expectation he's going to do something this summer, if for no other reason than, you know, there's a consensus he won't do anything after Labor Day so he doesn't get accused of trying to interfere in the midterm elections in the way that Comey's last-minute intervention in the Hillary Clinton matter affected that election. And he was, quite rightly, roundly criticized for it.
So I think given that Mueller has been at this for some time, given the pace of his activity, the continued subpoenas, the continued grand jury work, the vast scope of his investigation, I'm expecting that we'll be seeing something relatively soon. And the first sort of iteration that we're likely to see is some report on the obstruction of justice issue. Whether or not Mueller goes the route of subpoenaing the president if he doesn't agreed to testify or submit himself for an interview is an interesting question, and I'm not sure that Mueller will go that route. He may just go with what he's got, submit a report to Rod Rosenstein, and then the question will be what does Rosenstein do with the report. He has the discretion to release it, to share it publicly, or, or not. It's hard to imagine, given the intensity of the public demand for a, for all information on this, that he be able to resist a public release.
Now, that said, look, as we lay out in "Russian Roulette," this does go back to well prior to the 2016 election. I mean, Trump for years had been trying to do business in Russia, as he'd been trying to do business in many parts of the globe. But he did seem to have a particular focus on Russia. We started the account with the, our book with the account of the 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant, where he forged his business deal with Aras Agalarov, the billionaire oligarch who is, was close to Putin, had just gotten a medal from Putin a couple of weeks earlier. He was known as Putin's builder. And while there for the Miss Universe pageant, Trump signs a letter of intent to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. This went much further than anybody realized at the time, or even during the 2016 campaign. Donald Trump Jr. was put in charge of the project. Ivanka Trump flew over to Moscow in February 2014 to scout potential sites for Trump Tower in Moscow with Emin Agalarov, the pop singer son of Aras Agalarov.
But what's, you know, one of the things that's interesting about this is it was all going fine until what happened just a few weeks later. That's when Putin annexes Crimea, that's when he intervenes in Ukraine. That's when the U.S. and EU imposed sanctions on Russia. One of the sanctioned entities by the EU was Sberbank, the Russian majority state-owned bank that was going to finance the Trump Tower deal.
And what's interesting is that the deal collapses after the imposition of sanctions. So sort of as a starting point, if you're trying to understand where Donald Trump was coming from on the issue of U.S.-Russia relations and sanctions, it's useful to note that sanctions are pretty much screwed up his, this long-cherished project to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. And I think that's certainly something to keep in mind when one looks at Trump's responses very early on to questions about sanctions. He was, you know, was one of the first questions, as we lay out in the book, he gets asked a few weeks into his campaign by Maria Butina, the suspected, well, the aide de camp of Aleksandr Torshin, the Russian central banker who's been long suspected of organized crime ties, who's been investigated by the Spanish police for his ties to Russian-organized crime. And Butina nails him down very early on, saying if he's president, we wouldn't need sanctions.
AARON MATE: But then when it comes to the central issue of coordination, and this longstanding relationship between the two, which is a central claim of the Steele dossier, which you also write about-. I mean, the Steele dossier contends that there is this relationship between Trump and Russia that goes back many years. And in fact, it also says that the Russian government has floated real estate deals to trump over many years, but Trump himself has turned them down. How does, how, then, does all that square with Trump trying to build a Trump Tower in Moscow twice, and that not happening? But not because Trump said no, but because the sanctions, as you say, and then later on because he couldn't get financing from the Russian government?
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Well, look, I think we put the Steele dossier under a microscope and give it some scrutiny in the book. And you know, I think if you've, if you've read the chapter on that, we do raise questions about some of the claims in the Steele dossier. Certainly some of the sourcing is, is exceedingly murky and hard to, you know, it's hard to figure out what to make of it. And I think some of the, the allegations in the Steele dossier, you know, we simply have no evidence to support them. But that doesn't take away from A, the larger point of the Steele dossier, that there was a Russian effort to cultivate Trump. There clearly was that. And-.
AARON MATE: But Michael, how do we know that? How do we, I mean-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: How do we know that there was a Russian effort to-.
AARON MATE: A Russian effort to cultivate Trump. And on the question of sources of Steele, I did learn a lot from your book. You report that Steele's sources were, on the one hand, secondhand in one case. And then in another case it came from the lover of a Kremlin insider, and the words used as 'pillow talk,' is also the basis for another of Steele's sources, which I find very illuminating. But yes, but how do we know that there was a deliberate Russian government effort to cultivate Trump? Becaue this is the central question, or one of them.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Well, I think that there's a body of evidence on this matter. Let's go back to the aforementioned Aleksandr Torshin, who is somebody who's clearly a Kremlin insider with close ties to Putin, who is making multiple efforts to make contact with the Trump campaign, to set up meetings with the Trump campaign, to set up a summit between Trump and Putin during the election. Who was in Louisville for the NRA convention and met Donald Trump Jr. There's a rather extensive email trail on this, and we quote from some of the e-mails on that in the in the book. Let's go back to the Agalarovs, again. Remember-.
AARON MATE: But Michael-. Michael, you also note in the book that Torshin's efforts ultimately weren't successful. I mean, I think he met, I think you note he managed to meet with Don Jr. on the sidelines of-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Right. Right. But you asked me was there was there a Russian effort to cultivate Trump. And I think the evidence, unfortunately-.
AARON MATE: A Russian, a Russian government effort.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: A Russian government effort to cultivate Trump. And I think the Torshin entreaties and email trail is evidence in and of itself of that. But let's go back to the Agalarovs, who clearly had their own ties to the Kremlin. You know, they established this business relationship with Trump in 2013 that continued. We talk about how Trump and Emin Agalarov stayed in touch. Emin Agalarov visits Trump in Trump Tower in January of 2015. And then let's cut to 2016, and the email trail that begins with Rob Goldstone's emails to Donald Trump Jr., which were triggered by the Agalarovs offering documents, according to the according to the Goldstone email, official Kremlin documents that had been given by the chief prosecutor in Moscow to Aras Agalarov, passing them off to, and then setting up the meeting, setting up the meeting in Trump Tower. That's further evidence of a Russian attempt to establish relations with Trump, to cultivate Trump. And Trump-. And the Trump campaign.
AARON MATE: Those people do hold Russian passports. But the question then is does that lead to some sort of high-level Kremlin conspiracy. And do you dismiss the explanation that the participants in the meeting have given, which is that basically Rob Goldstone got limited information Emin Agalarov, this Azerbaijani pop star, and all he was told was basically is that his father wanted him to get a meeting for some Russian colleagues of his. So Goldstone, he said in his-. He's a publicist, he's a former tabloid journalist. He says, he's told Congress in his testimony, that he used publicist puff to try to get the meeting for his client. And when he did-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Yeah. The publicist puff, as you put it, it appears to be the offer of incriminating information about Hillary Clinton. But let's, let's put that aside for the moment. That's clearly what the Trump folks were interested in. That's what Donald Trump Jr. responded to. If it's what you say, I love it. But look at the testimony of what took place during the meeting itself. It was about the Magnitsky Act. It was about lifting the sanctions imposed on the Magnitsky Act, which was at the top of the Russian government's agenda at that moment. That's what the Russians cared about. That's why they were going to the Trump folks. And that's why they were cultivating the Trump campaign in hopes that a relationship between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign would lead to the lifting of the hated Magnitsky Act.
So that's, in any way, the reality of what the testimony in the meeting was about supports the idea that the Russian government was reaching out to the Trump campaign.
AARON MATE: Well, it supports the idea that some Russians who wanted to repeal the Magnitsky Act-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: It's not some random Russians. Where did they get the, the, where did the agenda come from? The Magnitsky Act, where was that coming from? You know, it was-. The email trail is quite clear that this begins with some conversation between the chief government prosecutor and Aras Agalarov, the Kremlin-friendly, Putin-friendly oligarch, who everybody, who the Kremlin knows, has this relationship with Donald Trump. So they were using their ties to Donald Trump, using Agalarov's ties to [inaudible] a business relationship to further the Russian government's political agenda with the United States, which was to get the Magnitsky Act lifted.
AARON MATE: I got-. But I guess my point is just because an act was undertaken that comports with the agenda of the Russian government doesn't mean it came from the Russian government. The lawyer, the key lawyer in that meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya, had been working on this issue for years on behalf of her client.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: In our book, among other things, it shows that she was more than that, that she had an ongoing relationship with the FSB, and had represented the FSB's interests in multiple cases.
AARON MATE: Right. OK. But if you believe the testimony about what they discussed, then what do you say, then, to the testimony that basically Kushner and John Jr. and Manafort heard all this, they couldn't understand what she was talking about, because she was talking about this Magnitsky Act, and this ban on the adoption of Russian children that the Russian government [proposed response]. And that Don Jr. and his, and his crew didn't understand what was going on, and so they ended the meeting very abruptly. And by the way, the information that was even floated to begin with had nothing to do with the information that were all, that is at the heart of this whole scandal, because Goldstone in his email offered information, I'm paraphrasing, but information on Hillary Clinton and her dealings with the Russian government that he said was incriminating. Nothing to do with stolen emails that would come out a few weeks later.
So I mean, if you believe the account of the meeting, of the topic of the meeting, then do you believe the account of the result, which is that actually, Veselnitskaya had no dirt to offer at all?
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: And that appears to be the case, yeah. I mean, all we know is what the testimony is about what took place in the meeting, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the Russians, and I think there's grounds to believe, strong grounds to believe, that this was a Russian government-inspired effort, were reaching out to the Trump campaign, and the Trump campaign, hoping that somehow they were going to get dirt on Hillary Clinton that could be useful for Donald Trump's campaign, eagerly accepted the meeting. It is what it is.
But I don't think-. I mean, you're kind of being, you know, sort of an effective defense lawyer here in that you, trying to take each piece and then put it under a microscope, and then sort of suggest, well, couldn't this explanation take away from some of the larger thesis. There is a larger point here, if we can focus on the forest from the trees. There was, in fact-.
AARON MATE: Sure. I think I'm trying to analyze the evidence, but go on. Yeah. Sorry.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: There was, in fact, a massive Russian effort to interfere and influence our election. There was a hack of the DNC-.
AARON MATE: Michael, Michael, you say that-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: There was the hack [inaudible] the emails. There was a, there was this social media campaign by the internet research agency. All of these things actually took place. And that was something that was vast and unprecedented.
AARON MATE: Michael, have you seen any proof from, from, from anyone, from the U.S. government, from any of your sources, that makes you believe that this was definitely a Russian government massive influence operation? You wrote the definitive book on the hoax that was the Iraq war, and I took from that that we should look at our intelligence community claims with skepticism. But in this case you seem to be taking the opposite conclusion. We still don't even have evidence that the Russian government committed the hack, but yet it's been sort of taken on faith.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Do you really have questions in your mind that the Russian government was behind the hack of the DNC? You realize, of course, that we've now had two administrations, one Democratic, one Republican, in which every single official who has seen the evidence, who has looked at this, has come to the exact same conclusion. Not only that, but now the House and Senate intelligence committees, and the House Republicans. The House Republicans, who have the most interest of anybody in trying to discredit the Mueller investigation, in trying to undercut the premises behind the Muellar investigation. The House Republicans, in their report, said, having reviewed the intelligence, they reached the same conclusion. The Russians hacked the DNC. The Russians gave the emails to WikiLeaks. The Russians hacked the Podesta emails. The Russians gave them to WikiLeaks.
So I mean, there is no-. The difference between this matter, the Russian attack on our election, and the clearly flimsy claims behind the Bush administration's case about weapons of mass destruction is it was very clear, even during the run up to the Iraq war, and became very clear afterwards, that there were multiple dissents from within the U.S. intelligence community. That there were whistleblowers who were trying to say this, this intelligence doesn't add up. The information doesn't add up to what the political claims that were being made by the Bush administration. In this case-. In this case, hold on, let me finish. In this case there's not a single whistleblower who has seen the intelligence, who has come forward to say anything other than what the intelligence community and the U.S. government officials, and officials in two administrations, Republican and Democrat, and the House Oversight and Senate oversight committees that have examined the intelligence. They've all reached the identical conclusion.
Now, you know, maybe you want to cling to the idea that there's somebody out there who actually has access to the intelligence, that actually has access to information that somehow undercuts that. And I'd be happy to listen to them. But we've been at this more than two years now, and no such person has come forward.
AARON MATE: OK, Michael, two points. One is that we've heard all these conclusions. We have. And you're right, they come from a sweeping body of people. But-. Of government officials, I should say. But all in all-. [Crosstalk] But hold on a second, Michael. Hold on a second. All of that has been presented with no evidence. The intelligence assessment that came out in January 2017, there was no evidence to the public. So they tell us that they, they're confident that this came from Russia. But they didn't show us any evidence. So again, I don't believe we should just believe official claims, no matter how unanimous it is.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: I don't, I don't believe what you-. [Crosstalk]
AARON MATE: And my second point, and my second point, and I'll let you respond, Michael. My point is that it's true that we have not seen any dissenting intelligence officials come out and say that the assessments were wrong. But we also know that this was a different process. You detail in your book how the Obama administration kept this whole, during its deliberations about what to do when it first, when the attack, when the hack first happened and when the emails first started coming out, you report how the Obama administration kept this to a very small group of people.
And we also know that the intelligence analysts who put out that report that everybody cites as the basis for blaming Russia, the one that came out in January 2017, that report, in the words of James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence at the time, the analysts for that report were, quote, handpicked. So he selected some analysts from, from certain agencies, who put out a report that accused Russia with no evidence. So if you could respond to those two points. It's a-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: And you think there was some sort of conspiracy to concoct a phony claim against Russia? That somehow everybody bought into, those intelligence analysts, they all bought into it. The, everybody who reviewed the intelligence. The House Republicans that reviewed the intelligence, they bought into it, too? The Senate, bipartisan Republican and Democratic staff members, and members, they bought into this all phony, concocted conspiracy? I think at some point, you know, the suggestion you're making really does stretch credulity.
And by the way, there is multiple evidence that's out there, many that has been, much of which is cited by security researchers. But there was also human sources. We talk about a human source back in 2014 who is warning about what the Russians were up to on this, and we detail that for the first time in the book. There were intercepts that made it clear the Russians were congratulating themselves on the job well done in, in leaking the Podesta emails and the DNC emails.
AARON MATE: There were reports on that-. There reports on the [crosstalk].
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: There is a body of evidence. Yeah. Well, I got it. We reported on those intercepts. That report comes from us. OK? And, and others. But I'm telling you, we spoke to multiple sources.
AARON MATE: Did you see the intercepts yourself?
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: No, of course I didn't see the intercepts myself.
AARON MATE: So someone told you about the intercepts. Well, you know-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Somebody, multiple sources who are not political people, who were not trying to promote an agenda, who are not trying to start a phony war the way the Bush administration was doing in Iraq. People who were trusted, who were known, who were experts in this area, and you know-. And so, like I say, there is a body of evidence here. And just go back to why did the House Republicans buy into this? Why did they accept 100 percent that the Russians-. This is almost not worth talking about any further anymore. I'd love to see more evidence. Just so, you know, people like you can go to sleep at night [crosstalk].
AARON MATE: Michael. Michael, I could apply that same logic to the Democrats and their support for the Iraq war. Why did the Democrats support the Iraq war back-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Not all the Democrats supported the Iraq war.
AARON MATE: The vast majority of them did, including many of the Democrats who are now accusing Russia of carrying out this interference campaign. So, so, so partisan, partisan motivation sometimes does not define everything. In this case you have a longstanding bipartisan consensus that, that, that sees Russia as a threat and as an enemy. That, that, that confrontation with Russia has benefits to certain influential domestic groups. The military-industrial complex, [think tanks].
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: So you think our sources from inside the intelligence community, our sources who are long-trusted people who served in the U.S. government in multiple administrations, had some sort of financial interest in promoting this and-.
AARON MATE: No, I'm not saying that. No. But I'm saying the same mentality-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: What are you saying, what-.
AARON MATE: The same mentality that may have led people to buy into phony intelligence before the Iraq war, and many other cases. I mean, the intelligence community has a long history of concocting intelligence to suit political imperatives. So that, that same dynamic may have been at play here. I'm certainly not saying that's what happened for sure. And I think it's quite possible that everything you assert is true. Maybe the Russian government did carry all this out. I think we can agree, though, that-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: By the way, you do know that the Russians have done this quite extensively around the globe. Go back to Estonia, go back to what they did in Ukraine, in frying servers and shutting down the electric grid in Ukraine. Go back and look at their interference in-. [Crosstalk]
AARON MATE: Actually, Michael, that's been disputed. Even that's been disputed. That-. Michael, that allegation comes from CrowdStrike.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Well, sure, the Russians-.
AARON MATE: No, that allegation comes from CrowdStrike, which is a, which has-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Which is what? Which is what, a bunch of dishonest people who are trying to serve somebody's political agenda? What? John Henry's chief of counter-. He was chief of cyber for the FBI. He's got some secret objective?
AARON MATE: It's a private firm aligned with the Democratic Party. It worked for it on this analysis of their servers, and they, they're the ones-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: They contracted [inaudible] the Democratic Party. Yeah.
AARON MATE: Founded, founded, I believe, by a, by someone who was very openly hostile to Vladimir Putin, doesn't like him. Probably his point of-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: There are a lot of people who are, who don't like Vladimir Putin, for good reason.
AARON MATE: Sure, sure. But what I'm saying is I don't necessarily-. But because they might have, but because they have political viewsm that makes me at least think that we shouldn't believe all their claims on faith without seeing the-.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Well, look, if you find a whistleblower, somebody who actually knows something, and that suggests that anything you're saying has some validity, please let me know, or publish it. I'll be happy to read it. I'll be happy to look into it. But all I can tell you is that, you know, we've been out this more than two years. We, you know, David and I wrote a, did a lot of research for this book. And you know, nobody credible who we talked to suggested anything like the kind of conspiracy you're suggesting.
AARON MATE: All right. Well, we're out of time, because I promised to have you out of here in half an hour. So I will stick to that.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: I hope you'll just let people know that there is a lot of information in our block that, you know, this is not carrying water for any side. This is not, it's not a political work of polemic. It's, it's reporting. We lay out sourcing, we put everybody under a microscope and scrutiny, like the Steele dossier, like the way the Clinton campaign handled things, like the way the Obama administration handled things, as well as the Trump campaign. So I just hope people will consult the book and then draw their own conclusions.
AARON MATE: Well, and many people have already, because it's a bestselling book. And I certainly agree that there's plenty of sourcing in the book, there's a lot of reporting. I learnt a lot from it. I guess, actually, Mike, what I'm saying is I learned stuff that I think reinforces my skepticism of this entire affair. So I think this book is incredibly important to understanding this, this entire Trump-Russia scandal.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: OK. Well, thank you. I'll take that.
AARON MATE: Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent of Yahoo News. The book is called "Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump." Michael Isikoff, thank you.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Thank you.
AARON MATE: And thank you for joining us on The Real News.


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I would like to share my view on following homework.
I'd like to visualize storyline from my perspective operating on barber paradox, and why it is somewhat nonsense question.
Paradox states: The barber is the "one who shaves all those, and those only, who do not shave themselves." The question is, does the barber shave himself?[Reference Wikipedia]
But wait a minute, what is "all those, and those only, who do not shave themselves"?
It sounds like a group, or set. Many objects, which by some condition can be seen as a single entity.
Now if to think, that barber is inside redbox, and it is possible to "draw" him from the superset "ALL" by predicate "those who doesnt have themselves", that indeed leads to quite amusing but useless paradox.
ZFC theory avoids fallacy here, and points that there is not enough reason to consider barber as possible candidate for "all those" set.
Giving it a little bit formal approach, one should be careful defining set and deriving subsets. It is quite easy to imagine self set of all real things, ie universe. However when one considers notion of , it is very obvious that this concept is far from reality. After all, "all" implies "all real" things.


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Galaxy Architecture
GALAXY is an architecture developed by the SLS group for
integrating speech technologies to create conversational spoken
language systems. GALAXY utilizes a client/server approach where users
can communicate with the system from light-weight clients while
specialized servers handle the computationally heavy tasks such as
speech recognition, language understanding, database access and speech
synthesis. GALAXY's key architectural component is a central
programmable Hub which controls the flow of data between the various
clients and servers and retains the state and history of the current
conversation. GALAXY has been selected as the reference architecture
for the DARPA Communicator Program. In collaboration with the MITRE Corporation, the SLS
group released GALAXY as an open source package.
S. Seneff, E. Hurley, R. Lau, C. Pao, P. Schmid, and V. Zue,
"GALAXY-II: A Reference Architecture for Conversational System Development,"
Proc. ICSLP 98, Sydney, Australia, November 1998.
S. Seneff, R. Lau and J. Polifroni,
"Organization, Communication, and Control in the
GALAXY-II Conversational System,"
Proc. Eurospeech 99, Budapest, Hungary, September 1999.
J. Polifroni and S. Seneff,
"GALAXY-II as an Architecture for Spoken Dialogue Evaluation"
Proc. Second International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC),
Athens, Greece, May 31-June 2, 2000.


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- Biomass
- Crop Care
- Global
- Harvesting
- Hay & Forage
- Massey Ferguson
- North America
- Precision Agriculture
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Singapore sits moodily atop wealth pole
Haven't posted anything for quite a while, but this is worth keeping. Sunday, Dec 25, 2011 The Business Times Last month, if Singapore had been a person, it would have stood above the unwashed tableau of Occupy Wall Street (OWS), watching from its penthouse and laughing into its cognac. But it has spent the year being a little down in the mouth, preoccupied with property prices, taxi fares and faulty trains. This gloom is hard to explain in the grander scheme of things. When OWS's gross simplification of the one per cent trampling on the 99 per cent is contemplated, Singapore is practically part of the world's one per cent. This is a country where, every single day, 25 people bought either a Mercedes-Benz or a BMW for the first 11 months of the year. In the same period, every four days, someone drove away from the Ferrari showroom with a big smile on his face. (One assumes that, each time, it's a different person.) When it comes down to it, Singapore can be almost as Wall Street as Wall Street. Last year, 8.5 per cent of New York City's workforce was on the payroll of the finance and insurance industries. Singapore had about 6.4 per cent of its resident population on it, while Hong Kong had 6 per cent. If a demonstrator with anti-banking invective to expend were to imagine the two as corporate entities – which is not hard – he would therefore be more inclined to picket Singapore than Hong Kong. "One per cent" might be a dirty term these days, but would-be picketers here have to be careful about calling others names that might apply to themselves. On a per-adult basis, Singapore has the sixth highest net wealth in the world: a mean value of US$284,692, according to the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2011. "Net wealth" here is defined by a person's financial and real estate assets minus debt. The mean value, however, gets short shrift from experts, since...read more


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This Week's Message
Unafraid Into the Desert
By Cliff Garvey
As our Lenten journey begins, we find ourselves faced with the desert, the darkness, and the challenge of temptation. In this weekend's reading from Saint Luke's gospel, we find Jesus renewed, reinvigorated and "filled with the Holy Spirit" after his baptism (Luke 4:1). But soon after, that same Spirit leads Jesus into the desert for forty days of temptation, trial, and tribulation at the hands of the devil. During his time in the desert, Jesus is tempted three times by this devil, who offers him food, power and glory, and an opportunity to test God's love for him. Each time, Jesus declines the devil's advances and turns faithfully back to God. If only we had such faith and trust!
In this classic gospel reading, Jesus is tested in a struggle between good and evil. But because God is with Jesus and because Jesus trusts in God's goodness, Jesus chooses God over the tricks and temptations of the darkness. Each year, the Church begins the Holy Season of Lent with an account of Christ's temptation in the desert. By doing so, the Church offers us an opportunity to confront head-on the enduring challenge of our faith journey: to love and serve God with all our heart, soul, and strength in the face of ongoing temptations from our troubled world. This gospel reading also reminds us that each one of us is called into the desert; called to the test; called to choose good over evil; and called to choose divine light over sinful darkness. It isn't easy. It isn't easy to resist temptation. It isn't easy to resist that chocolate dessert even after we decide to fast during Lent. It isn't easy to decline the upper hand over a colleague, friend, or loved one. It isn't easy to trust in God when it seems so much easier to trust the convenient ways of the world.
In his book, "Transfiguration: A Meditation on Transforming Ourselves and Our World", Father John Dear writes: "All we have to do is make our lives fit into the story of Jesus. We have to get our lives to make sense in light of the Gospel." But that takes courage, dedication, perseverance, prayer, and trust. And all too often, most of us are too busy, too frazzled, and too stressed out to resist temptation, let alone walk willingly into the desert! Most of us count ourselves lucky just to make it to Mass on Sunday, let alone do battle with the devil. And most of us are frightened of the kind of trial that Jesus experiences in the desert. Indeed, each and every year (including this year), I resolve to fast from sweets during Lent, to pray better and pray more, and to reach out to someone in need. But each and every year, I flail, fail, and stumble my way through Lent. I arrive at the Good Friday service feeling embarrassed by my own selfishness and my own weakness. I arrive at the Easter Vigil thanking God that Lent is over. Each and every year during Lent, I just can't seem to make my life fit into the story of Jesus. I feel like a failure. And I know that I'm not alone.
As I entered into the desert of Lent this year, however, the Lord presented me with a small but powerful gift of grace. While skimming Father Dear's book, which I had nearly cast aside because it was not quite what I had expected as a meditation on the Transfiguration of Jesus, I was shocked into attention by this passage: "The commandment 'Do not be afraid' appears exactly 365 times in the Bible, more than any other commandment of God. Likewise, the one message that Jesus says to his terrified disciples over and over again, more than any other saying in all four Gospels, is 'Do not be afraid.' Jesus knows how terrified we are, and he has compassion on us. That is why he touches us. He is gentle and kind. He gives us the best wisdom he had: 'Rise and do not be afraid.' With his touch, his word, his example, and his love, he gives us the faith and the strength to stand and live."
Do not be afraid! I remained stunned by the awesome simplicity of this commandment and its relevance for all of us as we begin our Lenten disciplines. Despite all of my prayer and reading and study over the years, I had somehow forgotten that Jesus understands my embarrassment, my lack of discipline, and my weakness. He knows and understands my fear of failing during Lent. He knows and understands my anxiety about entering into the upcoming Triduum knowing that He suffered for me but I might be too cowardly to suffer with him through my meager Lenten resolutions. He knows and understands that while my intentions are good, they count for nothing if I do not turn to Him in faith, hope, and love when the darkness lurks in the shadows of my life. And Jesus know all of these things about you, too. He knows these things about each and every one of us. He calls us to rise and to be unfraid as we follow him into the desert during the next six weeks.
This Lent, let us resolve to pray for each other, for our pastor and pastoral team, and for all who live, work, and worship in the Catholic Community of Gloucester & Rockport. Let us resolve to enter the desert of Lent without fear, confident that Jesus enters with us, that he offers his hand to us, that he will lead us through the darkness of temptation into the light of God's love and mercy. And let us remember that when we stumble and fall, Jesus is there. He reaches out to us and says: "Rise and do not be afraid!"
May the Lord give you peace during Lent and always!
Cliff Garvey
Associate Minister
Catholic Community of Gloucester & Rockport
Contact: email@example.com
CCGR Weekly Newsletter (2-14-16)
Bringing Home the Word (2-14-16)
Lent Mass for Families
This Weekend! All Are Welcome!
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says: "Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs (Matthew 19:14)." In response to the Lord's call, all parents, grandparents, godparents, and children are invited to join Father Jim for a Lent Mass for Families on either Saturday, February 13th at 4:00pm in Saint Ann Church or Sunday, February 14th at 11:45am in Our Lady of Good Voyage Church.
During Mass, Father Jim will offer a special homily about the Holy Season of Lent and a special blessing for all families and children. In addition, because Lent is a season for prayer, penance, and charity, every child and family will be asked to help us raise $1,000 during Lent for the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, a service organization in our parishes that provides food and financial assistance to local families in need. During the Family Mass, each child will receive a "campaign can" to collect coins for this effort. Thank you in advance for your generous support! As we celebrate our Lenten Family Masses, let us reaffirm: Mass is our class! Christ Jesus is our teacher! And every family in our pews is a gift from God! For more information about the Mass for Families, please contact Father Jim at firstname.lastname@example.com. Please spread the word! All are invited! All are welcome!
Holy Family Women's Guild
Valentine's Day Bake Sale
Weekend of February 13th-14th
Valentine's Day is here! The Holy Family Women's Guild will host a Valentine's Day Bake Sale this weekend, Saturday, February 13th after the 4:00pm Mass in Saint Ann Church and on Sunday, February 14th after the 8:15am Mass in Saint Ann Church. We'll have homemade cakes and cookies, quick breads, and other delicious baked goods. Here's your chance to buy something sweet for someone you love and support Holy Family Parish. For more information, please contact Lydia Bertolino at email@example.com or Janet Lucido at email@example.com. Thank you in advance for your generous support! Please join us! All are welcome!
The Light Is On For You!
Confessions & Eucharistic Adoration
Wednesday, February 17th
During the Holy Season of Lent, all Catholics are invited to experience Christ's love and mercy through the Sacrament of Penance & Reconciliation (Confession). On six consecutive Wednesdays during Lent (February 17th through March 23rd), at Our Lady of Good Voyage Church from 6:00pm until 8:00pm, all are invited to join us for "The Light Is On For You!" These special evenings of prayer will include Evening Prayer and Night Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours; Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament; and two full hours of confessions for those who feel called to participate. Please note that this program will be preempted on Wednesday, March 9th for our Lent Mission & Retreat. For some, this may be a time for sacramental reconciliation. For some it may be a time for silent prayer and reflection. And for some, it may be a time to begin or renew a life of faith. Wherever you are on your faith journey, please join us! All are welcome! For more information about the Sacrament of Penance & Reconciliation in the Catholic Community of Gloucester & Rockport, please visit our website: ccgronline.com; or contact Father Jim at email@example.com.
Learn More: Guide for Making a Good Confession
The Parables of Mercy
A Year of Mercy Scripture Study
Friday, February 19th
During the Holy Season of Lent, all are invited to join Father Jim for a weekly lunchtime scripture study based on the "Parables of Mercy." As part of our community's commemoration of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, each Friday during Lent (February 12th through March 18th) in Our Lady's Hall, Father Jim will lead a one hour discussion on various parables of Jesus that focus on God's love and mercy for his people, including the Two Debtors & Their Creditor; the Good Samaritan; the Widow & the Judge; the Rich Man and Lazarus; and the Lost Sheep.
Father Jim's next scripture study session is scheduled for Friday, February 19th at 12:00pm! Interested friends and parishioners are welcome to bring their own lunch and to join us for as many sessions as they can. If you would like to join us for this special scripture study series, please contact Father Jim at email@example.com. A donation of $20.00 per person is requested from those who can afford it for the entire series. All participants will be provided with a copy of the book, "The Parables of Mercy" by Father Mitch Pacwa, SJ, along with coffee, hot tea, or bottled water. Please join us! All are invited! All are welcome!
Stations of the Cross
Fridays During Lent
The Stations of the Cross are one of the most enduring and moving devotions of the Roman Catholic Church. By uniting our prayers with the sufferings of Christ through both word and imagery, we make a spiritual pilgrimage with Lord on his way to the Cross. During Lent, all are invited to join us in praying the Stations of the Cross on six consecutive Fridays (February 12th through March 18th) according to the following schedule:
Saint Ann Church
Fridays at 3:30pm
Our Lady of Good Voyage Church
Fridays at 7:00pm (Begins with Mass)
Please note that Mass will be celebrated at 7:00pm before we pray the Stations of the Cross at Our Lady of Good Voyage on Friday evenings. For more information about Lent in the Catholic Community of Gloucester & Rockport, please contact Father Jim email@example.com or see a member of our pastoral team. Please join us! All are invited! All are welcome!
About Us
Established in 2014, the Catholic Community of Gloucester & Rockport is a collaborative of two historic parishes: Holy Family Parish and Our Lady of Good Voyage Parish. Our worship sites include Saint Ann Church in Gloucester, Saint Anthony Chapel in Gloucester, Saint Joachim Church in Rockport, and Our Lady of Good Voyage Church in Gloucester. We are a Roman Catholic faith community united in prayer, fellowship, and service. For more information about becoming a member of one of our parishes, please contact Father Jim at email@example.com. Please join us! All are welcome!
Follow us on Twitter: @CCGRonline


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Some of the most common questions I am asked are regarding wood flooring. The many types, various suppliers and often confusing lingo associated with wood flooring can result in difficulty choosing the right option, as well as determining what will be best suited for a personal or professional environment. Hopefully the guide below can help answer some questions and clear up confusion for anyone in the market for new floors.
The following are brief descriptions of the types of wood flooring available, some of the pros and cons of each, and a few additional design details to consider when selecting the right project for your home or office.
Solid wood flooring is exactly what it sounds like—the same solid board all the way through each plank. A solid floor can be resanded and refinished several times. Although the frequency of necessary resanding will vary based on wear levels and taste, every twenty years is often recommended. Solid hardwoods are available in either unfinished (to be finished on-site) or prefinished, and both options have plenty of pros and cons. Unfinished hardwoods offer a greater selection of finish options and the ability to install the boards flush to one another, without the micro-beveled edges typically seen on prefinished boards. Prefinished floors offer a vapor-free and single session installation, versus the solvent smell and multi-step process of floors finished on-site.
Engineered wood flooring is a man-made flooring board that is made up of layers and layers of wood bonded together to create a strong core board, which is then topped with a solid hardwood laminated layer. The top layer, which can vary in thickness, is a thin sheet of actual wood. In some cases the product can endure one resanding, although typically this is not the case, meaning any major damage, scraping or scratching is often permanent. However, these products will often allow you to have a higher grade of wood without the expense of a solid wood product. In terms of both solid and engineered flooring, there are many wood species from which to choose. Each type of wood – oak, pine, ash, walnut, maple, and bamboo – has distinct properties such as the density (hardness), graining (natural pattern), and knotting (actual pits/holes in the wood). Each of these properties affects how well the floor repels scratching and denting, how it accepts stain finishes, and how it will impact the overall aesthetic design of the space.
In addition to wood species, engineered and solid hardwoods are also classified into grades of wood. Whether you choose solid or engineered hardwood flooring, you'll be able to choose from prime, select, natural or rustic grade wood. Each grade is determined based on the number of knots present as well as the color consistency. Generally speaking, smaller knots coordinate with a more uniform color, a higher grade of wood and of course a higher price (prime wood). As you go down the list to rustic grade, the number and size of knots increases as does the inconsistency of color. Also, the price decreases as you go down the list. Which option you choose will depend on the overall design concept of the space and your budget constraints.
Laminate flooring is made up of an image that is sealed onto a backboard and made to look like real hardwood flooring. Since it is not made up of any actual hardwood products, it can endure no resanding and is generally not considered as durable as hardwood products.
Finishes & plank widths are also important aspects when selecting wood flooring. There are a multitude of finishes available to today's consumers. Consider the overall design of the space as you select the color (ranging from almost white to rich, dark brown tones), sheen (from hardwearing lacquered finishes to prevent fading and sun damage, to natural, matte oiled finishes), and distressing (from a smooth, mirror-like finish to centuries-old-looking distressed). There are also many options available when selecting the plank (board) size for your flooring. Very thin planks are typically used in spaces with an older, more traditional feel, while the current trend is wide, and even varied length boards.
Regardless of where you land after navigating the many options available, well made and correctly installed wood floors will add warmth, character and value to any size, style or age interior as long as you call your space home and beyond.


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Studies on Insect Pests and Diseases of Chayote, Sechium Edule (Swartz.) in Kenya
Kahuthia-Gathu, R.
Mwangi, M.
MetadataShow full item record
The chayote, Sechium edule Sw., belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae. All parts of the plant can be utilized including the fruit, seed, tuberous roots and young shoots. Yields of up to 1,500 fruits per plant have been recorded. A study was conducted to investigate the pests that attack this crop. Mature plants were observed for pest damage, punctured and wounded fruits were harvested, placed in plastic containers and observed daily for larval and subsequent pupal development. The pupae were harvested using forceps, placed in plastic vials and observed daily for adult emergence. The emerged adults were identified, sexed and counted. Data was analysed using SAS. The leaves were infested by sap sucking pests; thrips, Spider mites Tetranychus ludeni, Cotton aphid Aphis gossypii, White flies Bemisia tabaci, brown bugs, leaf feeders; Spodoptera species and coleopteran. The fruits were infested by fruit flies Dacus bivittatus andD. ciliatus and two unidentified dipteran species. An average of seven fruit flies was collected from each fruit. Fruit flies significantly reduced fruit yields and marketability; causing fruit rot and deformation. The wounds caused by insects provided entry points for fungal pathogens. Fruit fly larvae that came into contact with the fungus died. But those that developed within the fruit and only came to the surface for pupation were able to pupate and emerge as adults. Only one gregarious larval-pupal parasitoid, Oomyzus species (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) was recorded from one cocoon of fruit fly, from where sixteen adults emerged comprising offive females and eleven males. The main disease was powdery mildew which. led to the drying •of the leaves. The results demonstrate that that S. edule is attacked by a wide- variety of pests. More research is .needed to develop an effective IPM programme and to support adoption ofthe vegetable to improve in slums and semi arid areas.


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Sheffey receives public service award
Rita Sheffey, Emory Law's assistant dean for public service, received the Ben F. Johnson Jr. Public Service Award from Georgia State University College of Law. The award is given each year to a Georgia attorney whose accomplishments reflect selfless public service.
Sheffey has long been a champion of pro bono work. Before joining Emory Law in January of this year, Sheffey had a long career at Hunton & Williams where, for 20 consecutive years, Sheffey logged more than 100 pro bono hours each year, and led the Atlanta office's Pro Bono Committee since 2005. She created Hunton & Williams' Southside Legal Center pro bono clinic in 1995 and, in 1996, partnered with the Fulton County Juvenile Court to develop a program that allows firm attorneys to serve as guardians ad litem in Children in Need of Services cases.
She lobbied for the creation of a second full-time, pro bono fellowship at Hunton & Williams' Atlanta offices. It allows a recent law school graduate to work exclusively on pro bono cases for two years. Since its establishment, three of seven fellows have been Emory Law graduates.
In her remarks Thursday night, Sheffey told the crowd, "A significant part of Ben F. Johnson Jr.'s public service career was focused on legal education, first as dean at Emory Law and later as the founder of the Georgia State University School of Law. I am humbled and deeply honored to receive this recognition bearing his name."
Charging the lawyers in attendance to look at public service as part of who they are rather than as something they do, Sheffey encouraged them to answer their own call to serve: "Public service alone is always rewarding, often in ways you could not imagine," she said. "Collaborating with others in service can be life changing for all involved."


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Infrastructure bias
In economics and social policy, infrastructure bias is the influence of the location and availability of pre-existing infrastructure, such as roads and telecommunications facilities, on social and economic development.
In science, infrastructure bias is the influence of existing social or scientific infrastructure on scientific observations.
In astronomy and particle physics, where the availability of particular kinds of telescopes or particle accelerators acts as a constraint on the types of experiments that can be done, the data that can be retrieved is biased towards that which can be obtained by the equipment.
Procedural bias, related to infrastructure bias, is shown by a case of irregular genetic sampling of Bolivian wild potatoes.[1] A 2000 report of previous studies' sampling found that 60% of samples had been taken near towns or roads, where 22% would be the average, had the samples been taken at random[1] (or from equidistant points, or at specifically varying distances from towns, representative of the average terrain density).
- ^ a b "Assessing the geographic representativeness of genebank collections: The case of Bolivian wild potatoes" (PDF). Diva Geographic Information System. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2006-06-16.


text: global Tax Tax Planning Can Help You Benefit from the 0% Capital Gains Rate March 06, 2017 Heard of the 0% capital gains tax rate? Taxpayers can benefit greatly from this provision, but proper tax planning is important. A little known provision in the tax code allows taxpayers to pay a 0% rate on qualified dividend income and long-term capital gains. This was one of the Bush era tax cuts that can be very favorable to taxpayers who have income from qualified dividends and long-term capital gains. Let's dive a little deeper. The rate applies when a taxpayer's taxable income is in the 15% or 10% taxable income brackets. For single taxpayers, that means the rate applies up to $37,650 of taxable income and for married taxpayers up to $75,300 of taxable income. An example of how this could benefit a taxpayer: In 2016, a married couple has $50,000 of ordinary income, $25,000 of qualified dividend income, $25,000 of long-term capital gains and $20,000 of itemized deductions. Their taxable income is after the personal exemption is $71,900. Their federal income tax is $2,361. That is an effective tax rate of 3.2% on taxable income of $71,900. If long-term capital gains increased by $10,000 to $35,000, the federal tax would be $3,351, an increase of only $990 and still a very low effective rate. It is always important to remember any increase in federal income will affect your state income tax and possibly cause more social security income to be taxed. Tax planning is important. It may be difficult for taxpayers to get their taxable income below the $75,300 or $37,650 numbers but proper tax planning can pay off. Some suggestions on how you can reduce taxable income: Accelerate state income tax deductions and charitable contributions Maximize 401(K) and IRA deductions Sell investments that are up, and buy them back right away, therefore avoiding the wash-sale rule. You can get a step-up in basis on current investments without owing federal taxes. Be on the lookout for "obscure" deductions like the moving expense deduction. Consider tax-exempt bonds. Will Trump eliminate this provision? It is too early to tell whether the new administration will change this tax provision but based on discussions about lower rates, we are inclined to think he will not. If you have any questions concerning the capital gains tax, please contact a member of our tax services team.


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Votre sélection
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How to make COVID-19 mask-wearing a habit: Social scientists offer some suggestions
Protective behaviour may feel embarrassing at first, but changing the rules could help
Mandating, not just recommending, the use of non-medical masks will help convince more Canadians to wear them as the economy reopens, just as wearing seatbelts is now the norm, some social scientists and physicians say.
In Canada's largest city, wearing non-medical masks is now mandatory for people riding with the Toronto Transit Commission, with certain exemptions, to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. A bylaw extending the rule to indoor public spaces goes into effect on July 7. Similarly, mayors in Peel Region, which includes Mississauga and Brampton, west of Toronto, and York Region to the north also plan to introduce such bylaws.
In Quebec, Premier François Legault announced that public transit users in the province will be required to wear masks starting on July 13.
Many health authorities now consider face coverings a necessity, and governments are passing laws that require them, but those laws are difficult to enforce. That's why behavioural scientists say it's so important for the public to get on board if the rules are going to stick.
Virus not more powerful than collective will to fight it, says expert
Kim Lavoie, a professor of psychology in behavioural medicine at the University of Quebec at Montreal, is among the experts calling for governments in Canada to consult social scientists on preventive measures like wearing masks as lockdowns lift in the absence of vaccines or effective treatments for COVID-19.
"Wearing a mask is something we control. Washing our hands, staying home, skipping that party are all things we control," Lavoie said.
"People forget that the virus isn't more powerful than our collective will to get rid of it, and there are things we can do. But right now, they're behavioural."
Dr. David Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, said masks could help more people get back to business and "regular life."
"We think it's sort of low-hanging fruit and a no-brainer," Fisman said.
Why? Layering on masks on top of hand hygiene, avoiding touching your face and physical distancing helps reduce transmission in small case reports, observational studies and a preliminary model.
"Me wearing a mask protects you. If I have COVID, you wearing a mask also protects you from breathing in my virus," Fisman said.
While Fisman called Canada "a country of rule followers," there are people who oppose mandating masks, saying it impinges on individual rights and freedoms.
But with COVID-19, one person's behaviour affects the next person — the basis for secondhand smoke laws.
"It's no more [an infringement] than asking you to wear a seatbelt," Lavoie said. "You're not free to drink yourself under the table and then get behind the wheel. If you don't have a PCR test at your house to test yourself negative, then you have to consider the possibility that you might be infected and not know it and be putting us all at risk."
Protecting yourself a major motivator
Lavoie is one of the researchers behind a large study called iCARE (International assessment of COVID-19-related attitudes, concerns, responses and impacts). Together with collaborators from Concordia University in Montreal, Johns Hopkins University's project on cases and Oxford's policy tracker, they're regularly surveying Canadians and people around the world on how they feel about and adhere to policies.
The goal of the research is to disentangle what motivates people of different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds to change their behaviour to inform health-care policy and messaging.
Based on 50,000 responses since the end of March, Lavoie said the findings to this point suggest that concern about getting infected with the virus is a major motivator.
"One thing people don't realize is how contagious it is," she said.
Most people recover at home, but people of all ages have also been severely sickened, some for months, says the Public Health Agency of Canada. Patients say long-term symptoms and consequences such as heart damage are coming to the fore.
An urgent need
While making mask wearing the norm would help prevent transmission, Fisman said mixed messaging and "dithering" by Ontario's government have hindered mask use from becoming commonplace.
"Once the signal comes from our public health leaders that this is the expectation and this is how we're going to move forward, I think people will fall in line pretty fast," he said.
Wearing masks could be considered a behaviour that needs to be adopted urgently and collectively, Lavoie said.
She pointed to how behavioural change boils down to three factors:
- Awareness of the need to wear masks.
- Motivation, such as protecting yourself, loved ones or neighbours who may be vulnerable to serious complications.
- Confidence in the ability to execute the behaviour.
Cost can be a barrier. That's why Alberta's government is distributing 20 million non-medical masks at drive-thru restaurants.
Shift from self-consciousness to the norm
Mitsutoshi Horii, a professor of sociology at Chaucer College in Canterbury, England, studied the uptake of masks in Japan during the 1918 flu pandemic. The practice continues in Japan during flu and hay fever season, as well as during COVID-19.
Horii said when the 1918 flu pandemic hit, the Japanese government prohibited traditional folk rituals around health as part of its efforts to promote modernization and to avoid colonization.
"Then the mask came in and that gave people a sense of direction. When you're facing uncertainty, you want to do something. By doing something, we establish a sense of control," he said.
WATCH | Canada's patchwork of mask measures:
Horii contrasts that with his experience in the U.K. now, where wearing masks is not common.
"Personally, I still feel embarrassed to wear a mask" in the U.K., Horii said, even though they're now compulsory on public transit in England and will soon be required in stores in Scotland.
He said he thinks changing the rules would encourage him and others to overcome self-consciousness.
"At the same time, I bought some masks and we're ready to wear [them] at any time. We just need a bit of a push to do it."
With files from Christine Birak


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A new featurette on James Mangold's The Wolverine has come online and is titled "A Ronin Story." You can check it out below!
Based on the celebrated comic book arc, the July 26 release takes Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), the most iconic character of the X-Men universe, to modern day Japan. Out of his depth in an unknown world, he will face a host of unexpected and deadly opponents in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed. Vulnerable for the first time and pushed to his physical and emotional limits, he confronts not only lethal samurai steel but also his inner struggle against his own immortality.
Will Yun Lee, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima and Brian Tee co-star.


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Moore (1994) studied the historical teaching methodologies in agricultural education and found three major teaching approaches in agriculture: formal steps, project approach, andProblem solving approach.
These approaches used from the late 1800s to 1980s Newcomb et al. (1986) and Tyler (1969) concluded that the teaching strategy must base learning on inquiry, investigation, and critical study in situations in which genuine purposes, needs, and wants are experienced. For this reason, the role of teachers and their teaching strategies are never ending topics in all educational settings (Martin et al., 1986; Miller et al.
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, 1984) recently there has been much concern expressed about quality teaching in educational institutions, while industries in the rapidly changing society have been concerned about the well-educated person. These concerns have led to the issue of teaching strategies and their effectiveness in secondary agriculture education (Kahler, 1995; Martin, 1995; Moore, 1994; Rollins, 1989). As agricultural educators, It is our responsibility to ensure adequate teaching and learning as necessary to meet the changing needs of the industry and the values of society (Melion, 1995, p. 5). According to Carkhuff (1981), teaching is the opportunity to help others to live their lives fully, which means we help to give to our learners' lives through their physical, emotional, intellectual and social growth. Anderson (1994) concluded that student outcomes might heavily depend on the teacher's instructional planning, teaching method selection, and having a variety of learning activities. The Committee on Agricultural Education (1988) suggested that the teaching strategy becomes the most critical element to educate students in learning activities.
Kahler (1995) addressed this issue when he stated. I discovered that it is a different world in the agriculture classroom than when I taught agriculture. I found that many of the students were not interested in what I was teaching them. I had to deal with several confrontations wherein students refused to perform tasks that I asked them to do. Some of my students just sat passively while I taught and waited for the bell so they could leave.
Several of the students were visibly troubled and it was apparent that they were in deep thought about what was bothering them. It became clear to me rather quickly that I was not reaching them and that I did not have enough techniques in my professional methods bag to pump up their interest in what I was teaching. Students come from different backgrounds and have varied experiences and abilities, Good teaching is not only dependent on teaching strategies or their effectiveness but it also depends on individual needs and adequacy of the content. Dyer and Osborne (1995) in their study entitled "Effects of Teaching Approach on Achievement of Agricultural Education Students with Varying Learning Styles" proposed that "the selection of an appropriate teaching approach is one of the most important processes to have teaching success and student achievement" (p. 260). Joyce and Weil (1986, in Dyer and Osborne 1995), further stated that "students react differently to different teaching methods, and that the selection of the proper method is critical to the learning style of those being served by the instruction" (p.260). There is an assumption that students learn with different styles, at different speeds,Different levels of prior knowledge and different environments when the subject matter isGiven by way of a variety of teaching strategies the second role of the social environment is to develop a set of propositions we call knowledge.
We seek propositions that are compatible with our individual constructions or understanding of the world. Thus, facts are facts because there is widespread agreement, not because there is some ultimate truth to the fact. It was once a fact that the earth was flat and the sun revolved around the earth. More recently, it was fact that the smallest particles of matter were electrons, protons and neutrons. These were facts because there was general agreement that the concepts and principles arising from these views provided the best interpretation of our world. The same search for viability holds in our daily life. In both cases, concepts that we call knowledge do not represent some ultimate truth, but are simply the most viable interpretation of our experiential world.


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In Sept. 2010, six months after signing the Affordable Care Act and just weeks before his party's massive losses in the midterm elections, President Obama wondered whether the law's unpopularity might be due to a communication failure on his part. "Sometimes I fault myself," he told an audience in Virginia, "for not having been able to make the case more clearly to the country."
There was nothing wrong with the president's communication skills. The case he made for his sweeping health care overhaul was straightforward and appealing: It would make health insurance available to every American, especially the more than 40 million people who were uninsured. It would significantly reduce insurance premiums for individuals and families. It would guarantee that Americans who already had a health plan they liked, or a doctor they liked, would be free to keep them.
The case for Obamacare was perfectly clear. But those claims rang false even before the law was passed. Nothing is left of them now — and another midterm election season is underway.
The Affordable Care Act turned four this week, as unpopular as ever. It has been underwater in hundreds of national polls, frequently by double-digit margins. Americans don't like it any better now than they did back when Democrats muscled it through Congress over unified Republican opposition.
By its proponents' own empirical benchmarks, Obamacare has been a debacle. The rosy promises about no one being forced to change doctors or health plans have been ditched. So has the enticing prospect of $2,500 premium reductions for every family. Instead, the "Affordable" Care Act in most states is driving up underlying premiums, even doubling them in some parts of the country.
Voters rewarded the GOP for standing fast against the law four years ago, and there is a growing sense that they're going to do so again this fall. Obama has been warning Democrats for months that they are likely to "get clobbered" at the polls this November. It's not just widespread disapproval of the president's signature legislation that makes his party so vulnerable — it's the intensity of that disapproval. "The people who favor Obamacare, which is a minority, aren't really that enthusiastic about it even if they favor it," says political analyst Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia. "But the majority who oppose Obamacare are much more charged up, and they're the people who tend to turn out" for midterm elections.
It had been widely assumed on both sides of the debate that as the Affordable Care Act was implemented, the law's frontloaded benefits and subsidies would quickly become such sacred cows that repealing the law would soon be a political impossibility.
So far it hasn't worked out that way. Most Americans haven't come around to accepting the massive law and its unprecedented mandates as a permanent feature on the landscape. Ardent liberals, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, have been telling Democrats to run as unabashed defenders of Obamacare, insisting "it's a winner" of an issue for them. But it proved a losing issue for Democrat Alex Sink, who was beaten in Forida's special congressional election this month by Republican David Jolly. Obamacare was a key issue in the race, which pitted Jolly's "repeal and replace" message against Sink's "don't nix it, fix it" theme. The pro-repeal candidate won.
A single special election doesn't prove a GOP sweep is coming, but the outcome in Florida wasn't lost on Scott Brown, who knows better than most what it's like to win a special election on the strength of an anti-Obamacare refrain. "A big political wave is about to break in America, and the Obamacare Democrats are on the wrong side of that wave," Brown told a Republican crowd in Nashua three days after Sink's defeat. "If we don't like Obamacare, we can get rid of it. Period."
That was overstating it. Politics is the art of the possible, and even with a slew of midterm pickups, it would be impossible for opponents of Obamacare to "get rid of it — period." But there is nothing impossible about replacing the Democrats' unpopular monstrosity of a law with alternatives that expand freedom and competition in health insurance, rather than suppressing them. Four years of Obamacare have shown what arrogance, deception, and top-down control can accomplish. No wonder voters want to see if Republicans can do better.
Jeff Jacoby can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeff_jacoby.


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I have answered my own question.
A Keyword field can be populated by drawing multiple lines from the same single text zone and the configuring each line for a new segment of the data string. I issue I an into that seems to be a bug with the window that allows you to set the screen info is that you cannot set the screen character and the position at the same time. I had to set the Between Separator and the space character then close it, then reopen it and set the position to make it stick
Sie müssen angemeldet sein um Beiträge in den Foren zu erstellen.
Hilfe erhalten


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Tooka Ebisu (10 January) is a New Year's festival for good luck in commerce and many worshippers throng to this annual Ebisu festival to pray for prosperity in business. This goes back to Fukuoka's history as a merchant town. The deity of commerce at Ebisu Shrines, intimately called "Ebessan", is believed to bring good luck to those engaged in commerce and business. During this festival the shrines are packed with visitors purchasing Fukusasa, good-fortune bamboo branches. Stalls line the shrine road selling traditional charms and decorations believed to bring good luck for business.
Hina Matsuri
in Susaka-machi,
Nagano Prefecture.
(03 Mar - 03 Apr)
During this one month period, dolls that have been passed down since the ancient times will be specially exhibited in museums and art galleries, thus attracting large crowds of visitors.
During Doronko Matsuri, women smear mud on men's faces to wish for good health and a fruitful harvest. The origin of this festival dates back about 380 years ago. A feudal lord was inspecting his paddy field and one of the rice-planting women threw mud at his follower. Instead of getting riled by such an act of impertinence, the feudal lord tried to calm the furious man. When the others in the field saw this, they were so overjoyed that they started to smear one another's faces with mud.
Doronko Matsuri in Nagahama, Kochi City, Kochi Prefecture (02 - 04 April)
Any male will receive pitapats of mud on his face from girls and women dressed up as paddy field workers. Beware! Not even the cameraman will be spared.
Legend has it that about 1370 years ago, two fisherman brothers, Hamanari and Takenari Hinokuma, caught a statuette of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy, in their fishing net along the Sumida River. A wealthy landlord, Hajinomatsuchi heard about the discovery and approached the brothers and taught them about Buddha. Greatly impressed, Hamanari and Takenari converted to the Buddhist faith. The three men then enshrined the statuette in a small temple (Senso-ji) and devoted their lives to preaching the way of Buddhism. The temple grew and prospered together with the surrounding district of Asakusa. The 3 men recognized as the founders of Asakusa were later revered as deities and a shrine, Asakusa-Jinja was built to honour them. Although the Asakusa-Jinja is a guardian of the Senso-ji, a new ruling in 1868 marks the separation of the two. However, the commemoration of these 3 deities continues with the Sanja Matsuri as 3 portable shrines are paraded through 44 towns to bless town folks with prosperity and descendants.
Sanja Matsuri in Tokyo, Taito District (20, 21, 22 May)
Town folks shouting "Sei-ya! Sei-ya!" as they parade the portable shrines tbrough the town.
If you are interested in ancient Japanese history, you should visit Kyoto during the Gion Matsuri which is one of the largest festivals in Japan. Its origins date back to the year 869 in the Heian period when people believed that plagues were caused by vengeful spirits. During the epidemic, a priest from Yasaka Jinja (shrine) led a procession of people through Kyoto in an attempt to appease the Shinto gods with prayers and rites. The plague ended but the event became a popular festival in Kyoto. The most exciting part of the festival is Yomaboko Junko (The Grand Procession) on the 17th when elaborately decorated Yama and Hoko floats are paraded through downtown. Some weighing over 10 tons, the Hoko floats are so big that they require a large team of attendants to manoeuvre them.
Matsuri in Aomori (02-07 August)
Nebuta Matsuri in Aomori (02-07 August)
Kaze no Bon, a festival that dates back to the Edo period (1603-1868) represented the people's prayers for protection from typhoons. The first day of September was the "unlucky" day when typhoons were likely to strike. On this day, young men and women dance through the streets of their town to the slow, lilting tunes of folk songs called owara. The music comes from the three-stringed shamisen, taiko drums and kokyu lutes.
Owara Kaze no Bon in Toyama Prefecture
Dancers dancing to traditional folk songs called owara. Their faces are hidden under braided straw hats so that the spirits will not become overly attached to them.
Nada Matsuri or Nada-no-Kenka Matsuri (Nada Fighting Festival) is an annual festival held at Matsubara Hachiman Shrine of Shirahama town in Himeji city. Villagers prepare for this celebration one year in advance. On the day of the event, paced by the rumbles of drumbeats, large teams of men clad in mawashi chant "Yoi yasa!" as they parade palaquins (yatai) to the Matsubara Shrine to receive blessings from the local Shinto priest. On the second day, the intensity of this physically demanding event heightens. The yatai, each representing a deity, are forcefully jostled together and thus the name 'Nada Fighting Festival'. It is believed that the harder they collide, the more pleased the deities will be and the more prosperous the village will become. The near-end of the festival involves an arduous ascend up the mountain with those palaquins followed by a descend. Despite the risk of injuries and even death, this festival remains one of the more interesting events to behold in autumn.
Nada-no-Kenka Matsuri in Shirahama-cho
Saga prefecture, Karatsu city
This festival was started among the villagers who strongly believed that they were under the protection of a tutelary god in that region.During the Showa period, the emperor's convalescence warranted a hold on all festive activities. Karatsukunchi, however, was never cancelled despite threats because the locals felt that it was all the more reason to hold the festival to pray for good health. So for 400 years, Karatsukunchi continued to survive and about 180 years ago the hikiyama (floats paraded through town during the 3-day festival) made their first appearances.
The hikiyama -- 14 of them to be exact -- are each constructed with an internal wooden frame and then papered over and lacquered. It takes 2 to 3 years to complete one and the biggest hikiyama goes up to 6.8 metres in height and weighs 3 tons. The year they were completed became the order of their appearances during the parade. This order is strictly adhered to except for the 13th (Shachi) and the 14th (Shichihoumaru) hikiyama. As they were completed at the same date, their order of appearances switches from time to time. The hikiyama -- starting with Akajishi (red lion) and ending with Shichihoumaru -- are wheeled through the town by large teams of men, often turning tight corners at precarious speed. Accompanying the giant floats are the lilt of Japanese flutes, the rhythmic beats of the drum and the paraders' chant of "en-ya en-ya" and "oi-sa oi-sa". On the last day, the hikiyama are returned to the Hikiyama Tenji-ba (exhibition hall) where they are exhibited until the festival comes round again next year.
Saitama prefecture, Chichibu city
Chichibu Yomatsuri (Chichibu Night Festival) held by Chichibu-jinja (shrine) has over 300 years of history and is considered one of the 3 biggest hikiyama (float) festivals in Japan. Even though it uses the least number of floats (6 compared to Gion Festival's 32), these 10-tonne national cultural assets are in no way any less impressive.
The Chichibu region, known for its kinu (silk) produce, had many kinu markets in the area during the Edo period. The festival was held as a closing event marking the end of the silk trading activities on the 3rd of December every year. Even though the kinu markets no longer exist presently, the townsfolk still celebrate this year-end event with much aplomb.
In the evening, the 6 floats start off from the grounds of Chichibu-jinja and parade towards the Chichibu park which is about 1 kilometre away. Of the 6 ornately crafted floats, 4 of them (yatai) are built with a stage in front for Kabuki acts and folk dances presented by child performers while in the backstage area, musicians provide musical accompaniment on traditional Japanese instruments. The toughest part of the journey comes just before the destination when the floats have to be wheeled uphill over Dango-zaka. However, the struggle is instantly rewarded by the magnificent display of fireworks lighting up the night sky.
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2005 archive