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United Kingdom House of Lords Decisions
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom House of Lords Decisions >> National Westminster Bank plc v. Spectrum Plus Limited & Ors [2005] UKHL 41 (30 June 2005)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/2005/41.html
Cite as: [2005] 2 BCLC 269, [2005] 2 AC 680, [2005] 3 WLR 58, [2005] 2 Lloyd's Rep 275, [2005] BCC 694, [2005] UKHL 41, [2005] 4 All ER 209
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|Judgments - National Westminster Bank plc (Respondents) v. Spectrum Plus Limited and others and others (Appellants)
National Westminster Bank plc (Respondents) v. Spectrum Plus Limited and others and others (Appellants)
My Lords,
Prospective overruling
United Kingdom practice
'We cannot say that the law was one thing yesterday but is to be something different tomorrow. If we decide that [the existing rule] is wrong we must decide that it always has been wrong, and that would mean that in many completed transactions owners have received too little compensation. But that often happens when an existing decision is reversed.'
'I consider it to be a legitimate exercise of your Lordships' judicial function to declare prospectively whether or not the immunity - which is a judge-made rule - is to be available in the future and, if so, in what circumstances.'
Overseas experience
Luxembourg and Strasbourg
'the interpretation the Court of Justice gives to a rule of Community law is limited to clarifying and defining the meaning and scope of that rule as it ought to have been understood and applied from the time of its coming into force. It follows that the rule as thus interpreted may, and must, be applied by the courts even to legal relationships arising and established before the judgment ruling on the request for interpretation ..' (emphasis added)
But the court noted that 'exceptionally' it may limit the temporal effect of a ruling. It has done so only in defined circumstances (paragraph 69):
'The court has taken that step only in quite specific circumstances, where there was a risk of serious economic repercussions owing in particular to the large number of legal relationships entered into in good faith on the basis of rules considered to be validly in force and where it appeared that both individuals and national authorities had been led into adopting practices which did not comply with Community legislation by reason of objective, significant uncertainty regarding the implications of Community provisions, to which the conduct of other member states or the Commission may even have contributed ...'
Practical difficulties
Objections in principle
'The judge, even when he is free, is still not wholly free. He is not to innovate at pleasure. He is not a knight-errant, roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness. He is to draw his inspiration from consecrated principles. He is not to yield to spasmodic sentiment, to vague and unregulated benevolence. He is to exercise a discretion informed by tradition, methodized by analogy, disciplined by system, and subordinated to "the primordial necessity of order in the social life"'.
My Lords,
My Lords,
"It is competent under the law of Scotland for an incorporated company , for the purpose of securing any debt or other obligation (including a cautionary obligation) incurred or to be incurred by, or binding upon, the company or any other person, to create in favour of the creditor in the debt or obligation a charge, in this Part referred to as a floating charge, over all or any part of the property (including uncalled capital) which may from time to time be comprised in its property and undertaking."
That provision must be read together with section 463(1)(b) of the 1985 Act, which declares that where a Scottish company goes into liquidation within the meaning of section 247(2) of the Insolvency Act 1986 a floating charge created by the company attaches to the property then comprised in the company's property and undertaking or, as the case may be, in part of that property and undertaking, but does so subject to the rights of any person who holds a fixed security over the property or any part of it ranking in priority to the floating charge. It must also be read together with section 464(6) the 1985 Act as amended by section 439(1) of and Schedule 13 to the 1986 Act, which states that the order of ranking set out in that section is subject to sections 175 and 176 of the 1986 Act as to the ranking of preferential debts in winding up. So the rule that was first introduced by the 1897 Act for England and Wales applies to Scottish floating charges too.
Did Spectrum's debenture create a fixed charge?
"It is well established that the normal relation between a banker and his customer is that of debtor and creditor, but it is equally well established that quoad the drawing and payment of the customer's cheques as against money of the customer's in the banker's hands the relation is that of principal and agent. The cheque is an order of the principal's addressed to the agent to pay out of the principal's money in the agent's hands the amount of the cheque to the payee thereof."
The general rule is that a banker is bound to honour his customer's cheque so long as he has funds in his hands if the account is in credit, or up to the agreed limit of any overdraft. He may determine the contract at any time on giving notice to the customer. But he cannot refuse to honour cheques drawn before the notice of determination is received.
Should Siebe Gorman be overruled?
Should Siebe Gorman be overruled prospectively?
"Subject to consideration by appellate tribunals, and (within limits) by judges of equal jurisdiction, what [a judge] states to be the law will, generally speaking, be applicable not only to the case before him but, as part of the common law, to other comparable cases which come before the courts, whenever the events which are the subject of those cases in fact occurred.
It is in this context that we have to reinterpret the declaratory theory of judicial decision . when the judges state what the law is, their decisions do, in the sense I have described, have a retrospective effect. That is, I believe, inevitable. It is inevitable in relation to the particular case before the court, in which the events must have occurred some time, perhaps some years, before the judge's decision is made. But is also inevitable in relation to other cases in which the law as so stated will in future fall to be applied. I must confess that I cannot imagine how a common law system, or indeed any legal system, can operate otherwise if the law is to be applied equally to all and yet be capable of organic change."
Later in the same paragraph he said that a system of prospective overruling, although it had occasionally been adopted elsewhere, had no place in our legal system.
"This Court has no power to overrule cases prospectively. A hallmark of the judicial process has long been the making of binding decisions of rights and obligations arising from the operation of the law upon past events or conduct. The adjudication of existing rights and obligations as distinct from the creation of rights and obligations distinguishes the judicial power from non-judicial power. Prospective overruling is thus inconsistent with judicial power on the simple ground that the new regime that would be ushered in when the overruling took effect would alter existing rights and obligations. If an earlier case is erroneous and it is necessary to overrule it, it would be a perversion of judicial power to maintain in force that which is acknowledged not to be the law."
"In principle it must be that your Lordships, as the ultimate court of appeal, have power to correct any injustice caused by an earlier order of this House. There is no relevant statutory limitation on the jurisdiction of the House in this regard and therefore its inherent jurisdiction remains unfettered. In Broom v Cassell & Co Ltd (No 2) [1972] AC 1136 your Lordships varied an order for costs already made by the House in circumstances where the parties had not had a fair opportunity to address argument on the point."
The circumstances in that case were, of course, quite different. But the principle which the House was applying there is capable of a much wider application.
"I consider it to be a legitimate exercise of your Lordships' judicial function to declare prospectively whether or not the immunity - which is judge-made rule - is to be available in the future and, if so, in what circumstances."
My Lords,
The issues
The debenture
" [a] specific charge [of] all book debts and other debts now and from time to time due or owing to [Spectrum]" (para. 2(v))
"[a] floating security [of] its undertaking and all its property assets and rights whatsoever and wheresoever present and/or future including those for the time being charged by way of specific charge pursuant to the foregoing paragraphs if and to the extend that such charges as aforesaid shall fail as specific charges but without prejudice to any such specific charges as shall continue to be effective." (para.2(vii))
"5. With reference to the book debts and other debts hereby specifically charged [Spectrum] shall pay into [Spectrum's] account with the Bank all moneys which it may receive in respect of such debts and shall not without the prior consent in writing of the Bank sell factor discount or otherwise charge or assign the same in favour of any other person or purport to do so and [Spectrum] shall if called upon to do so by the Bank from time to time execute legal assignments of such book debts and other debts to the Bank."
This provision barred Spectrum from dealing with its book debts in any of the ways specified but left Spectrum free to deal with the debtors who owed the debts and, in particular, to collect the debts in the normal course of business.
The facts
The rival lines of judicial authority
" a requirement to pay the proceeds of the book debts into the company's account without any restriction on how the company may use those proceeds does not give effective possession of those proceeds to the Bank. It does not, without more, fasten the charge onto those proceeds".(p 321)
"A restriction on disposition [of book debts] which nevertheless allows collection and free use of the proceeds is inconsistent with the fixed nature of the charge; it allows the debt and its proceeds to be withdrawn from the security by the act of the company in collecting it"
The judgments in the courts below
"It seems to me that it is at least arguable that a debenture which prohibits a chargor from disposing of book debts before they are collected and requires him to pay them, beneficially, to the chargee as and when they are collected properly falls within the definition of a fixed charge, regardless of the extent of his contractual right to draw out sums equivalent to the amount paid in. Strictly speaking the chargor is neither entitled to dispose of the book debts before they fall due for payment, nor to dispose of the proceeds. What he does enjoy are contractual rights to payments, whether as lender or borrower, from the bank" (para 94).
What is a floating charge?
" immediately on the new machinery and effects being fixed or placed in the mill, they became subject to the operation of the contract, and passed in equity to the mortgagees" (per Lord Westbury at p 211)
and that
" in equity it is not disputed that the moment the property comes into existence, the agreement operates on it" (per Lord Chelmsford at p 220).
" all the property of the company, not only which existed at the date of the debenture, but which might afterwards become the property of the company."
He said also that the word "undertaking"
" necessarily infers that the company will go on, and that the debenture holder could not interfere until either the interest which was due was unpaid, or until the period had arrived for the payment of his principal, and that principal was unpaid".
(see also In re Florence Land and Public Works Co [1878] 10 Ch D 530, 540).
The two features mentioned by Gifford LJ became the hallmark of the new form of security, namely, (1) a charge on the chargor company's assets, or a specified class of assets, present and future and (2) the right of the chargor company to continue to use the charged assets for the time being owned by it and to dispose of them for its normal business purposes until the occurrence of some particular future event. In In re Colonial Trusts Corporation (1879) 15 Ch D 465 Jessel MR referred to this form of security as a "floating security" (see at pp 468, 469 and 472) and in Moor v Anglo-Italian Bank (1879) 10 Ch D 681, 687 he contrasted the new form of security with a "specific charge" on the property of the company.
"I certainly think that if a charge has the three characteristics that I am about to mention it is a floating charge.
(1) If it is a charge on a class of assets of a company present and future; (2) if that class is one which, in the ordinary course of the business of the company, would be changing from time to time; and (3) if you find that by the charge it is contemplated that, until some further step is taken by or on behalf of those interested in the charge, the company may carry on its business in the ordinary way as far as concerns the particular class of assets I am dealing with."
But it is important to notice that Romer LJ prefaced his definition with a qualification. He said -
"I certainly do not intend to attempt to give an exact definition of the term 'floating charge', nor am I prepared to say that there will not be a floating charge within the meaning of the Act, which does not contain all the three characteristics ".
The case came to this House under the name Illingworth v Houldsworth [1904] AC 355. In short ex tempore speeches their Lordships upheld the Court of Appeal. Lord Macnaghten described the case as "clear" and offered the following definition of a floating charge in contrast to a "specific charge" -
"A specific charge, I think, is one that without more fastens on ascertained and definite property or property capable of being ascertained and defined; a floating charge, on the other hand, is ambulatory and shifting in its nature, hovering over and so to speak floating with the property which it is intended to affect until some event occurs or some act is done which causes it to settle and fasten on the subject of the charge within its reach and grasp"(p 358).
"[A floating security] is not a specific security; the holder cannot affirm that the assets are specifically mortgaged to him. The assets are mortgaged in such a way that the mortgagor can deal with them without the concurrence of the mortgagee. A floating security is not a specific mortgage of the assets, plus a licence to the mortgagor to dispose of them in the course of his business, but is a floating mortgage applying to every item comprised in the security, but not specifically affecting any item until some event occurs or some act on the part of the mortgagee is done which causes it to crystallise into a fixed security".
" [had] had the unrestricted right to deal with the proceeds of any of the relevant book debts paid into its account, so long as that account remained in credit the charge on such book debts could be no more than a floating charge."
Hoffmann J in In re Brightlife Ltd [1987] Ch 200, 209, in a passage cited with approval by Lord Millett in Agnew v Commissioners of Inland Revenue [2001] 2 AC 710, 723, said that the significant feature of the Brightlife debenture was that the company was free to collect its debts and pay the proceeds into its bank account. He went on
"Once in the account, they would be outside the charge over debts and at the free disposal of the company. In my judgment a right to deal in this way with the charged assets for its own account is a badge of a floating charge and is inconsistent with a fixed charge."
Similar conclusions were expressed in In re Keenan Bros Ltd [1986] BCLC 242 in the Supreme Court of Ireland and by Tompkins J in the Supercool Refrigeration case [1994] 3 NZLR 300, in New Zealand.
"Between men of full age and competent understanding ought there to be any limit to the freedom of contract but that imposed by positive law or dictated by considerations of morality or public policy? The limit proposed is purely arbitrary, and I think meaningless and unreasonable."
These reservations, he thought, supported the view that it was open to contracting parties, if they wished to do so, to provide for a fixed charge on uncollected book debts but a floating charge on the money received in payment of those debts.
Did the bank's debenture create a fixed charge or only a floating charge?
(1) The extent of the restrictions imposed by the debenture (para 81 above)
(2) The rights retained by Spectrum to deal with its debtors and collect the money owed by them (para 81 above)
(3) Spectrum's right to draw on its account with the bank into which the collected debts had to be paid, provided it kept within the overdraft limit (para 82 above)
(4) The description "fixed charge" attributed to the charge by the parties themselves.
" creat[ed] in equity a specific charge on the proceeds of [the book debts] as soon as they are received and consequently prevents the mortgagor from disposing of an unencumbered title to the subject matter of such charge without the mortgagee's consent, even before the mortgagee has taken steps to enforce its security". (p 159)
But it is very difficult to see what feature of the arrangement between chargor and bank chargee in Siebe Gorman justified this conclusion. The debenture was on all fours with the debenture in the present case. There is nothing in the report of the case to suggest that the bank account into which the chargor had to pay the collected book debts was other than, as here, a normal bank current account on which the chargor could draw for its normal business purposes. In considering the cited passage it seems to me worth noting that the issues that Slade J had to decide in the Siebe Gorman case did not include the question whether the charge over book debts was a fixed charge or a floating charge. The main issue in the case was one of priority as between the bank chargee on the one hand and a subsequent assignee of the charged book debts on the other. This issue turned on notice. Did the subsequent assignee have notice of the bank's charge and the provision barring subsequent assignments? If the subsequent assignee did have notice, the bank would have priority. If not, the subsequent assignee would have priority. The categorisation of the charge did not matter.
Prospective overruling
" the pretended power of suspending of laws or the execution of laws by regall authority without consent of Parliament is illegall."
It is probably right that the exercise of judicial authority is not caught by the reference to "regall authority" in the Bill of Rights but your Lordships in this House exercise an appellate jurisdiction deriving from the Queen in Council and if the promoters of the Bill of Rights in 1688 had been asked whether there was a power in the House of Lords to suspend laws without the consent of Parliament I do not think it is difficult to guess what their answer would have been.
My Lords,
The history of the floating charge
"It was admitted by the learned counsel for the respondent, that a trader may assign his future book debts in a specified business. Why should the line be drawn there? Between men of full age and competent understanding ought there to be any limit to the freedom of contract but that imposed by positive law or dictated by considerations of morality or public policy?"
But in Salomon v Salomon & Co Ltd [1897] AC 22, 53, he said,
"For such a catastrophe as has occurred in this case some would blame the law that allows the creation of a floating charge. But a floating charge is too convenient a form of security to be lightly abolished. I have long thought, and I believe some of your Lordships also think, that the ordinary trade creditors of a trading company ought to have a preferential claim on the assets in liquidation in respect of debts incurred within a certain limited time before the winding-up. But that is not the law at present. Everybody knows that when there is a winding-up debenture-holders generally step in and sweep off everything; and a great scandal it is."
Upgrading the security to a fixed charge
"if I had accepted the premise that [McDonald] would have had the unrestricted right to deal with the proceeds of any of the relevant book debts paid into its account, so long as that account remained in credit, I would have been inclined to accept the conclusion that the charge on such book debts could be no more than a floating charge."
The Crown has little quarrel with that, except perhaps for the adjective "unrestricted."
The essential difference
Siebe Gorman & Co Ltd v Barclays Bank Ltd
"I see no reason why the court should not give effect to the intention of the parties, as stated in clause 3 (d), that the charge should be a first fixed charge on book debts. I do not accept the argument that the provisions of clause 5 (c) negative the existence of a specific charge. All that they do, in my judgment, is to reinforce the specific charge given by clause 3. The mere fact that there may exist certain forms of dealing with book debts which are not specifically prohibited by clause 5 (c) does not in my judgment turn the specific charge into a floating charge.
This conclusion that the charge is a specific charge involves the further conclusion that, during the continuance of the security, the bank would have the right, if it chose, to assert its lien under the charge on the proceeds of the book debts, even at a time when the particular account into which they were paid was temporarily in credit."
"shall pay into the company's account with the bank all monies which it may receive in respect of the book debts and other debts hereby charged and shall not without the prior consent of the bank in writing, purport to charge or assign the same in favour of any other person and shall if called upon to do so by the bank execute a legal assignment of such book debts and other debts to the bank."
The judge saw this as reinforcing the specific charge given by clause 3 (that is, the "label"). Its real significance, in my opinion, was that it did not in any way restrict McDonald from taking the most natural course for a trader in the ordinary way of business, that is collecting the debts and paying them into its current account with the chargee bank. I agree with the criticism by Alan Berg, "Charges over Book Debts: a Reply" [1995] JBL 433, 445 that the judge's construction was based too much on linguistic considerations, in isolation from the matrix of facts in which the security was created.
Later authority
"It is my conclusion that a requirement to pay the proceeds of the book debts into the company's account without any restriction on how the company may use those proceeds does not give effective possession of those proceeds to the bank. It does not, without more, fasten the charge onto those proceeds. Supercool was free to deal with those proceeds except in the two respects stated, unless and until the BNZ intervened in a manner that would effectively inhibit that freedom."
I consider that that would be a correct statement of the position under English law.
"I am satisfied, accordingly, that the correct construction of the clause is that the trustee had a discretion to determine into what company account with what bank the proceeds of book debts should be paid from time to time. But there is no restriction in the clause on the companies drawing the monies out of these accounts. Accordingly, there is nothing in it to prevent the companies from using the proceeds of the book debts in the normal way for the purpose of carrying on their business. By reason of this the charge has also the third characteristic referred to by Romer LJ in his judgment in the case of In re Yorkshire Woolcombers' Association Ltd and is accordingly a floating charge and not a fixed charge."
"The categorisation of a charge over receivables requires examination of the permitted dealings with collected proceeds only in order to clarify whether the chargor is free to deal with the charged asset itself (the receivable) in the ordinary course of business without the consent of the chargee. This, and nothing else, is the hallmark of a floating charge."
The judgments below
"Counsel for the bank points out that the observations of Slade J were directed to an account which was in credit. By contrast in this case the account was when opened and at all times thereafter in debit. He submits that the payment of the proceeds of a book debt into an overdrawn bank account prevents its further identification or tracing through such debit balance so that it cannot be contended that the company thereby enjoyed an unrestricted use of that book debt or of those proceeds. It is convenient to deal with this point at this stage.
I do not think that any distinction is to be drawn for this purpose between the operation of an account which is in credit and the operation of one which is in debit but within the overdraft facilities agreed with the bank. The question is not whether the subsequent drawings by the company can be traced to or identified as the proceeds of a previous book debt but whether the charge when created contemplated that the company should continue to trade and should until the occurrence of some specified future event be free to use in such trade the class of asset described as book debts."
The Vice-Chancellor then referred to the classic statements in the Yorkshire Woolcombers case [1903] 2 Ch 284, 289 and Illingworth v Houldsworth [1904] AC 355, 357-358.
"But, as indicated in Agnew's case, the real question was whether the rights and obligations conferred and imposed by clause 5(c) disclosed an intention that the company should be free to deal with the book debts and withdraw them from the security without the consent of the bank. Such an approach to the provisions of clause 5 (c) of the debenture in the Siebe Gorman case must have led to the conclusion that the collection and free use of the proceeds of book debts through the ordinary operation of the bank account was not only permitted but envisaged. The inevitable consequence would be to reject the description of the transaction as a first fixed charge."
Postcript: draftsmen's precedents and collateral transactions
"this is a type of transaction in respect of which judicial precedent is a particularly valuable guide to the commercial adviser. It is one of the main justifications for the doctrine of precedent that the adviser can, if he can rely on precedent, give reliable advice to his clients, and it is trite law that that is a particularly cogent consideration in regard to property transactions of one sort or another."
Requirements for particulars of floating charges to be registered publicly, and for a company's register of debentures to be open for inspection, suggest that Parliament intended that the existence and scope of any floating charge should be ascertainable by the general public, at least in theory (doubts as to how the system works in practice were expressed by Lord Hoffmann in the Cosslett case, [2002] 1 AC 336, 347-8, para 19).
"The question we have to decide must be decided, like all other questions of the kind, having regard to the surrounding circumstances under which the instrument was executed, and especially the respective positions of the parties who were the contracting parties, to carry out whose agreement that instrument was executed."
Cozens-Hardy LJ made similar observations in Yorkshire Woolcombers [1903] 2 Ch 284, 297. Many of the later cases have emphasised the need for the court to look at the commercial realities of the situation. The wish to achieve legal certainty by use of a standard precedent cannot override the need to construe any document in its commercial context.
My Lords,
My Lords,


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Digital and video microscopes are instruments that use digital technology to magnify images of objects. They include built-in cameras and a series of high-powered lenses that provide superior image quality and resolution. Some digital and video microscopes require users to view objects through a standard eyepiece. Others provide a computer interface that displays images on a monitor. Image analysis processing software allows adjustments to both linear dimensions and resolution. Total magnification, the ratio of the image size to the actual object, is usually determined by linear measurement. This specification represents the device's entire magnification range, including both eyepiece magnification and objective magnification.
There are three grades of digital and video microscopes: student, benchtop, and research. Student microscopes are the smallest and least expensive type of device. They are capable of advanced techniques and are designed for bright field, dark field, and phase contrast examinations. Benchtop microscopes are used in industries such as textiles and animal husbandry. They provide a range of examination techniques, but can perform only a few methods at one time. Research microscopes are large devices that weight between 30 kg and 50 kg and contain complex optical, mechanical, and electronics systems. These devices include multiple cameras and can perform the widest range of simultaneous examinations. Many research microscopes contain built-in computers that control the cameras and functions such as focus management and image processing.
Digital and video microscopes use several imaging technologies. Acoustic and ultrasonic devices use sound waves and are suitable for non-destructive testing. Compound microscopes, which use a single light path, are designed for viewing very small specimens such as cells. Fluorescent and ultraviolet (UV) microscopes use high-energy, short-wavelength light to excite electrons within specific molecules. Inverted microscopes place the illumination system above the stage and the lens system below the stage for viewing thick specimens. Laser or confocal microscopes use a laser of light to image one plane at a time. Polarizing microscopes position polarizers perpendicular to each other so that the only light that passes through the specimen reaches the eyepiece. Portable field microscopes are lightweight devices that include an energy source such as a battery. Scanning electron microscopy (SPM) forms images with a detector that is synchronized with a focused electron beam. Scanning probe microscopes (SPMs), atomic force microscopes (AFMs), and transmission electron microscopes (TEMs) are also available. Microwave microscopes use electromagnetic radiation, which has a long wavelength between 1 mm and 30 cm. Stereomicroscopes use two different paths of light so that users can view specimens in three dimensions.
There are a variety of configurations and applications for digital and video microscopes. Gemological devices use polarized light with lower magnifying powers to produce sharp, bright images in a wide field of view. Medical and forensic microscopes are often hands-free and binocular. Measuring microscopes are used in applications such as tool making. Biological and life science microscopes transmit light or use environmental scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Digital and video microscopes are also used to examine the layers in semiconductor wafers and fabricated integrated circuit (IC) components. These digital and video microscopes provide superior precision and throughput.
- Benchtop
- Biological / Life Science
- Compound
- Computer Interface
- Fine Focus
- Fluorescent / UV
- Image Analysis Processing Software
- Inverted
- Laser / Confocal
- Measuring / Toolmaker
- Mechanical Stage
- Metallurgical
- Polarizing
- Research
- Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)
- Scanning Probe / Atomic Force (SPM / AFM)
- Semiconductor Inspection
- Stereomicroscope
- Student
- digital microscope cameras
- portable digital microscope
- USB digital microscope
- 3D digital microscopes
- digital eyepiece cameras
- driver USB digital microscopes
- firewire microscope cameras
- high resolution digital microscopes
- high resolution microscope cameras
- high speed microscope cameras
- industrial microscope cameras
- pen scope USB digital microscopes
- USB digital microscope cameras
- USB video microscope cameras


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Safavieh Clearance Four Seasons FRS479A Natural Rug
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- Weave: Machine Made
- Item: Rug
- Brand: Safavieh Clearance
- Country: China
- Collection: Four Seasons
- Color: Natural
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Chic and classic designs adorn this versatile collection of rugs by Safavieh Clearance. Pile height is 0.25 inches,
This rug is made using a cotton �backing� layer which is applied to the underside of the rug to secure the yarns firmly in place.
The color descriptions and images shown have been supplied by the manufacturer. The actual pattern may vary as it is scaled to fit each rug's size and shape. All sizes and colors are approximate. We encourage all customers to view these products in person whenever possible. We cannot be held responsible for individual monitor settings. If you are unsure of the true colors, please contact us, we are here to help.


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If at least one parameter is to be fitted, the progress of the fitting can be observed in the Dataplore ® message window, where the current estimations of the parameters are displayed.
The signal returned from this function corresponds to the fitting function with parameters that give the best fit for the input singal.
This function takes either one or two signals as input; if two signals are given, the second one is used as a weighting function consisting of the individual standard deviations of the input signal samples. Note that both signals must be equal in size, scale and shift.
Otherwise, if a single signal is given, all signal samples are weighted equally.
Parameters of "Fit sine functions" are
Note that x can be a standard or an XY plot signal.


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Carlyle, J;
Mass and magnetic field of eruptive solar filaments.
Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).
Download (29MB) | Preview
I present a method for column density calculation of filament material seen in absorption in EUV wavelengths which utilises satellite data in a quasi-spectroscopic way. First, back-falling material following a particularly large eruption is examined and found to have column densities comparable with pre-eruption filaments (over 10^19 cm^−2), which is surprising since the filament material had been seen to expand by approximately two orders of magnitude. I then highlight morphology seen in the back-falling material consistent with the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTi) and estimate a characteristic magnetic field strength from equations governing the instability to be 0.6 G. Bubbles indicative of the RTi can also be seen developing into the bulk of the ejecta before breaking up and falling back. The growth rate of these bubbles is measured, and found to be larger than predicted by previous studies. Simulations of RT-unstable plasma are then conducted to investigate the effect of magnetic field strength on the development of the instability, which indicate that the development of the RTi is slower in plasmas with stronger magnetic fields embedded. When the observed growth rates were compared to that of the simulations, they were found to be a factor of five larger possibly due to outflows impacting the material, or that the material is not in fact stationary as the instability sets in. Finally, the column density calculation is refined by removing the noisy 94 Å channel and then applied to various portions of material involved in two unusual eruptions of an intermediate filament. The total hydrogen mass of the filament is estimated to be M_H = 2.4 × 10^15 g, and over half of this material appears to be lost in the second eruption.
|Thesis (Doctoral)
|Mass and magnetic field of eruptive solar filaments
|UCL (University College London)
|Open access status:
|An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
|Additional information:
|Joint funded by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
|astrophysics, solar physics, astronomy, space science, plasma physics
|UCL classification:
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics
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|View Item


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WNBA player news:
Breanna Stewart's Achilles surgery this morning was successful.
Odyssey Sims and Kalani Brown have formed another hoops connection in the WNBA.
Han Xu is confident of conquering the WNBA.
The Lynx will retire Lindsay Whalen's jersey.
College team news:
Notre Dame is ready to get to work replacing their starting five.
A setback in KeyArena's remodel will hurt chances of the Pac-12 Tournament's return.
College player news:
Five former FAMU players allege discrimination in lawsuit.
Mahogany Matthews is transferring from Ole Miss to Marshall.
Two will transfer from Northern Colorado.
College coach news:
Fordham has extended coach Stephanie Gaitley's contract by two years.
Tammi Reiss is Rhode Island's new head coach.
Coquese Washington is a new assistant coach at Oklahoma.
Cal's new assistant coach is April Phillips.
Marquette coach Megan Duffy has hired her three assistant coaches.
Toledo has added Mark Stephens as an assistant coach.
Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton has stepped down as Purdue assistant coach.
Kim Mulkey reflects on Baylor's National Championship.
After losing transfers, Dawn Staley might dive into "college free agency" to get some.
College player news:
Top recruit Azzi Fudd tore her ACL and MCL.


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Gov. Abbott Sent Anti-Immigrant Letter Day Before El Paso Tragedy
This is the opening line of a letter sent by Texas Governor Greg Abbott the day before a gunman walked into a Wal-Mart in El Paso and killed 22 people, injuring another 24.
Governor Abbott goes on to blame Democrats and gives numbers like:
Between October and May, there were 593,507 apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border. In just three weeks in June, 45,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended crossing the Mexican border in to Texas!
I'm not sure if those facts are actual facts, but that's not the focus here. Governor Abbott puts towards the bottom of the letter:
Doing nothing will only lead to disaster for Texas, both economically and politically. Securing our border should be should be the federal government's job, but there is clearly a crisis at our southern border -- a crisis that Congress refuses to fix.
I live in the border city of El Paso and the only crisis that I can even think of is a madman walking into a Wal-Mart with a military style weapon and killing 22 people, plus injuring 24 others.
Let's take a look at Lt. Governor Dan Patrick. How did he react to the shooting in El Paso? He blamed mental health and video games. He said on Fox & Friends:
How long are we going to ignore — at the federal level particularly — where they can do something about the video game industry? In this manifesto that we believe is from the shooter, this manifesto where he talks about living out his super soldier fantasy on Call of Duty. We know the video game industry is bigger than the movie and music industry combined.
No, it's not video games. It's been proven time and time again that video games DO NOT cause violence.
I'll give you mental health is an issue. But we need to be able to look at the hate filled rhetoric as a part of the problem. Just take a look at the murderer's manifesto that said his attack was a:
...response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Take one part mental issues, one part easy access to guns, and one part "crisis on the border" rhetoric vilifying good people, and you have a recipe for what happened in El Paso on August 3rd, 2019.
Look, I know that Governor Abbott wasn't writing this letter with the intentions of violence and murder. But his intentions do not change the end result. It is time to put an end to this vote grabbing, hate filled rhetoric.


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Kyolic garlic is produced from organically grown cloves cold aged for 20 months to produce sulphur containing compounds including s-allyl cysteine and S-allyl mercaptocysteine. Aged garlic contributes to normal heart, liver and immune function.
Aged Garlic Extract, hypromellose, Bulking agent: Microcrystalline Cellulose, Anti-caking agent: Silicon Dioxide, Magnesium Stearate.
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Capps: 'I'm Running'
Dem Incumbent Firm on 2012 as GOP Veteran Makes Move on House Seat
It's 616 days until the 2012 congressional elections, but incumbent Representative Lois Capps isn't leaving any doubt about her plans.
"I am going to run for re-election," the Santa Barbara Democrat told The Independent.
It was the first public comment about her future intentions by Capps, who represents the 23rd Congressional District, since former Republican Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado shook up the local political landscape last week by announcing his intention to seek a Central Coast House seat in two years.
The unusually early maneuvering by Capps, re-elected just four months ago, and by Maldonado, a longtime GOP fixture beaten by Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom last November, reflects a dramatically new political dynamic confronting all candidates for office in California. For the first time, an independent citizen's commission has taken charge of the every-ten-years task of re-drawing the maps for congressional and legislative districts, based on the 2010 census; simultaneously, the state's election rules also have substantially changed, after voters approved a ballot initiative last June aimed at lessening the importance of party affiliation in primary races.
Taken together, these political permutations will shape a new, uncertain, and unpredictable political terrain for 2012, a sweeping shift that is motivating candidates to declare their ambitions early and clearly, not only to set down a marker on what they consider their turf, but also to begin the task of building support and raising money faster and further in advance than they might have done under the old rules.


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Chaos 'n' Sprinkles… you know, to liven (and brighten) up your Sunday!
Chaos because my life is so chaotic, all over the place… and loud (I could write post after post about all the chaos that takes place in this house). Sprinkles because I have found a new-found love of sprinkles. Just staring at them makes me happy.
Instead of the usual recipe today, I have a little different post for you guys. It is not something I plan on doing all that often, since I really don't have all that much interesting stuff to share, but this post has been a few weeks in the making. Just a little more about my life. Day to day stuff that you may or may not find interesting.
We shall see.
Chaos~ The snow. I know winter has been pretty brutal in a lot of places this year, but I just have to say that in my seven years of living in Colorado, I have seen more snow this season than any other… and we're only half way through. For the entire month of February it has snowed. I think we have seen the sun only a handful of days and they were all in the last five days. So before this last week it had been just straight snow. At first I really thought it was so pretty, but then it just got plain annoying – and cold.
Especially annoying when I got my car stuck in the driveway, and since the number one guy in my life (talking about my dad) was out-of-town, it sat there, stuck, for an entire week. Lucky for me my dad has a rather large truck that he had lifted and all that stuff that guys do. The thing is a tank and it plowed right through the snow. I have to say though, it's a little funny watching me drive that car. I already only look about sixteen, so just imagine me in this huge truck. Yeah, I get some interesting looks when I drive that car.
BUT, I totally feel like a bad ass while diving it.
Chaos~ Since there was so much snow, hiking my usual trail was kind of out of the question, so I went to the gym and ran. So not my thing.
Sprinkles~ This bowl. I get so many questions about this bowl and where I got it. The thing is, I actually just found this bowl in my younger brother's room while looking for his phone charger. I never found the phone charger, but I did not come out empty-handed. I totally just stole this bowl right off his desk. At the time it had coins in it, but I had much better uses for it. The bowl is probably the poorest art class bowl you will ever see. While that may be kind of harsh, I think my brother was only in like seventh grade when he made it, but it still has finger indents all over it. I love its imperfections though, and it is my very favorite bowl to use in my photographs.
Chaos~ The Barn. The barn is moving along a little slower than I would like, but it is moving. We are currently looking for contractors and all that fun stuff. The reason it is taking a little longer than I would like is because one, life is so busy and I barely have time to blink my eyes. Two, my parents have come up with the grand idea to build another barn. It's a long story and if the second barn pans out, I can't wait to share the news about it. It is a pretty cool idea!
Sprinkles~ Mom's Orchids. Is that not just so pretty? I absolutely love flowers. There is nothing like fresh flowers on the kitchen table, especially during a white winter. My mom is a master orchids grower. She is honestly a pro at keeping them alive for years. Yes, YEARS!!. She had one for eight years that she left behind when we moved out to Colorado. This one above just came out of its dormant stage and is going on two years. AND we bought this orchid together…..in LA. So yeah, it spent a summer with me in LA and then traveled to Fort Collins, CO, spent a few days there and then back home to Frisco, Colorado (all done in a car) and it is still this pretty. Amazed.
Sprinkles~ This blogger. This e-cookbook. So excited.
Sprinkles~ Also, this new e-cookbook. 31- meals Cookbook. Dana is amazing.
Sprinkles~ Fun Towels. A Valentine's Day gift from my grandma. Love them.
Sprinkles~ New favorite blog. New favorite inspiration. She is amazing.
Sprinkles~ Malley's Chocolate. Okay, A LOT of Malley's Chocolate. See, my family (minus me) was back in Cleveland for a week two weeks ago and I made my mom stop and buy all this chocolate because nothing will ever be better than Malley's Chocolate. If you live in Ohio and have not had Malley's you need to get up, stop whatever you are doing and go get yourself some Malley's. Oh, and they have a website and they ship nationwide, so if you do not live near Malley's you need to click over and order some. Shipping isn't cheap (hence the stocking up and flying it back to CO), but you gotta try it. Your life will be changed.
Chaos~ My family went back to Cleveland. Why? Because after seven and a half years the home I grew up in (mostly) finally sold and they had to get the last of our stuff out. For the last seven years my family has rented out that Ohio house, hoping it would eventually sell. No one ever thought it would take YEARS, but thank God it finally sold.
Chaos~Our new house in CO (love) has the worst stove. It is terrible, so we ordered a new one and it is beautiful. Only problem is that it is currently sitting in the middle of my kitchen. Yes, IN THE MIDDLE. Like right in the way. We need a gas line installed and it is taking forever. Thus the range right in the way of everything for over a week now (it weighs over 650 pound's so it is not moving until it replaces the old stove). I am still not sure when it will be getting installed – still trying to find a more reasonable estimate than the first one we got – ouch!
Sprinkles~ I am in love with citrus.
Sprinkles~ Being nominated for the Better Home and Garden Blogger Awards! I am beyond excited about this and still cannot even believe they chose me to be include with so many other amazing bloggers. If you can head over and check it out! You can check out all the bloggers and vote here.


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ICM Applicants with special needs
In the framework of Erasmus+ Programme, the European Commission has adopted a general policy which aims to integrate people with special needs in all of the activities, especially in education. To ensure that students with special needs can take full advantage of the European mobility arrangements, the Erasmus+ Programme pays particular attention to guidance, reception, physical accessibility, technical support services and financing of the extra costs.
All students with special needs that have been selected to perform their mobility for studies or for placement as well as the staff with special needs of the Sending Institution who are going to perform their mobility for teaching or for training, are eligible for this additional funding in the following cases:i) their mobility has very high cost and ii) this cost cannot be funded by other means, i.e. national funding.
The applications are submitted to the European Program's Office of A.U.A. while individual applications submitted directly to the State Scholarship Foundation (Ι.Κ.Υ.) are not valid.
The final decision for this additional funding is taken by the National Agency/ State Scholarship Foundation (Ι.Κ.Υ.).
All persons applying for this additional funding should know that the acceptance of their application is not automatic since it depends on the total number of applications sent to the National Agency by all High Institutions as well as the available funds. At this point, it is critical to mention that even if the application is finally approved, it is possible that the actual funding will be less than the one applied. Finally, all applicants should have in mind that the preparations for the mobility should start in time, at least 6 months earlier than the starting date of mobility.
More specifically, the process is as follows:
Primarily, the disability of the student/professor/staff member of the Sending Institution must be officially recognized. The beneficiary will fill in the student application or the staff application describing the disability and will also submit the official medical diagnosis issued by a Public Hospital (the diagnosis must be not older than three months prior) or any other valid official document in which it appears clearly:
- the percentage of disability and
- the difficulties that this disability causes in the mobility of the student/professor/staff member and the specific additional requirements needed to overcome them.
For this reason, in the application there must be a thorough description of each case and a detailed financial budget for the additional needs provisioned to be caused by the disability during the mobility period in AUA. The form for the detailed financial analysis must be attached in the application.
As an example, the following additional needs are covered:
- Travel Assistant (to the recipient country and back)
- Special transfer from the Sending Institution to the Receiving Institution as well as local transfers during the mobility abroad
- Housing in an adequately equipped room
- Personal assistant during day time or/and night time
- Caregiver
- Assistant during classes (keeping notes, etc.)
- Medical attendance (physiotherapies, regular medical control in the receiving country)
- Special teaching material (braille system, enlarged copies, lecture recording, etc.)
- Medical supplies in case they are not covered by the private insurance contract
The applicants should provide fully detailed information concerning any financial support or contribution in kind that they receive apart from the ERASMUS grant (i.e. caregiver) and they should explain why it cannot meet the demands during the specific mobility period.
In the application, it should also be submitted a certificate that AUA is fully aware that the applicant student/professor/staff member has special needs and that AUA can provide all the necessary facilities and support as well as that the buildings, amphitheaters, libraries, laboratories and offices are accessible by the student/professor/staff member with the special needs.
It is pointed out that the applicants who will receive additional funding are obliged to submit a financial review to AUA upon return. All expenditures must bear the relevant proofs (invoices, receipts) otherwise they are not eligible. In case that the actual eligible expenditures are less that the additional funding the difference will be returned.
For any additional information you may contact the European Program's Office of A.U.A. at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Completion of the Southwestern Ontario Diagnostic Imaging Network Leverages GE Healthcare Technology
LONDON, Ontario - Oct 7, 2010 - GE Healthcare announced today the successful completion of a vendor neutral Digital Imaging Repository (DI-r) that connects hospitals and medical centers throughout Southwestern Ontario (SWO), Canada, enabling the sharing of patient health data across the region. For the first time in Ontario's history, 26 hospital organizations in the Erie St. Clair and South West Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) are able to share filmless diagnostic image exams between their facilities.
Today, the archive contains approximately 2.7M exams and grows, on average, by 120,000 new exams each month. These exams can be accessed by acute care facilities in these two LHINs, increasing healthcare providers' access to provide timely results for patients. Clinicians also have the ability to compare images to previous scans, enhancing the quality of information at the time of diagnosis.
"The program is an integral part of Ontario's ehealth strategy," said Greg Reed, President and CEO of eHealth Ontario, the organization responsible for implementing the provincial government's eHealth agenda. "Now radiologists, referring physicians and specialists across Southwestern Ontario can view images and results anywhere, anytime using the Southwestern Ontario Diagnostic Imaging Network. This repository is the first of its kind in North America."
The vision for this ambitious project is to eventually provide some of the infrastructure for the Canada Health Infoway (CHI) and eHealth Ontario initiatives to create a pan-Province and, eventually, pan-Canadian Electronic Health Record (EHR), providing Canadian clinicians a longitudinal patient view leveraging GE's Centricity® Enterprise Archive.
"Our customers continue to show that they are global leaders and innovators in healthcare," said Don Woodlock, Vice President and General Manager of GE Healthcare IT. "Together, we work to solve today's healthcare challenges; improving the quality of care while expanding access and controlling costs. This project is a fabulous demonstration of how technology providers can collaborate with customers to develop healthcare solutions that serve the patient."
The complexity of this project is underscored by the number of vendors and their solutions: five Picture Archiving Communications System vendors, three Radiology Information System vendors, all feeding images and information into the DI-r backed by the interoperability technology from GE. This collaboration enables radiologists to access images that originated in other facilities. Referring physicians can receive patient reports faster. Patients benefit from faster treatment planning, more informed diagnoses and a reduction in unnecessary transfers.
"This milestone illustrates GE's commitment to bringing communities together by bridging patients to providers and providers to each other," added Woodlock. "This is not the culmination of our efforts as a company but is, instead, an extraordinarily strong first step."
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.
Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
For our latest news, please visit http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com


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MACHINE HEAD Frontman Discusses Importance Of Craftsmanship When Creating Physical Music Product (Video)January 11, 2018
In the three-and-a-half-minute clip below, MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn discusses the importance of craftsmanship when producing physical formats of new music releases.
MACHINE HEAD's new album, "Catharsis", will be released on January 26 via Nuclear Blast. The effort will be made available in several formats, including a CD/DVD digipak edition which contains footage of MACHINE HEAD's 2015 concert at San Francisco's Regency Ballroom.
The follow-up to 2014's "Bloodstone & Diamonds", "Catharsis" was produced by Flynn and recorded, mixed, and co-produced by Zack Ohren (FALLUJAH, ALL SHALL PERISH) at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California. Mastering was handled by Ted Jensen (HATEBREED, ALICE IN CHAINS, DEFTONES) at Sterling Sound in New York. Cover photography was created by Seanen Middleton.
The album is available for pre-order at this location.
MACHINE HEAD recently released the official video for the "Catharsis" title track.
The North American tour in support of "Catharsis" will kick off on January 25 in Mesa, Arizona.


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Hot Stone Massage in Blue Bell, PA
Our Signature Massage! Hot Stone Massage is a form of massage therapy that follows the same principles of Swedish Massage with the addition of heated stones, which helps lead to deep relaxation. Adding heat to specific areas on the body enhances the feelings of relaxation and peace. Recommended in particular for individuals suffering from fibromyalgia, arthritis or other chronic pain. The penetrating effects of the heated stones allows the massage to be delivered without excessive pressure.
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0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
are you saying that this is Alice's current backstory
are you coming at this from the perspective of one last nod to the PC-98 canon?
Wait, isn't the person who try to hang itself a girl?
And turned into Youkai?
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One of the things I've tried to do most of my life, both in my personal and professional lives, has been to become aware of the more subtle aspects of what I'm thinking, feeling, and doing. I especially like to become aware of implicit assumptions that lie behind what I'm doing, outside of my normal consciousness, as such assumptions can control what I'm thinking, feeling, and doing in ways that I'm not aware of, thus limiting my freedom and having consequences for the people I relate to insofar as such implicit assumptions affect the way I act.
One of the frequent assumptions (sometimes explicit, but often implicit) that seems to be embedded deeply in most instructions for various forms of meditation is that the longer you carry out a particular meditation procedure, the deeper and more powerful the results are likely to be. Thus if you're trying to concentrate on a single focus, for example, after 20 minutes or 40 minutes of practice you should be more deeply concentrated than you were at the beginning. This assumption seems so widespread that I suppose this is often the case for many practitioners. My own experience generally runs contrary to this, though. I often have the most success in carrying out various meditation techniques within the first few minutes of practice, and then my mind starts to drift away from the technique more and more as time goes on. Sometimes I'm inclined to think that my mind is so addicted to verbal thinking that the longer it goes without it, the more desperate its need to generate more and more words! And/or my mind gets tired and so naturally drifts.
A few days ago I was sitting outside in the country, looking at a hillside with patches of redwood trees, the sky and the clouds, and intending to meditate. I remembered that in one style of meditation, or "non-meditation" as Dzogchen teachers prefer to call it (because, for one thing, it doesn't fixate on an object), the advice is to do short sessions, and do them very frequently, rather than prolonged sessions, so I decided to apply his recommendation in a, to me, novel manner.
One of the things I've done for the past few years as I've gotten older is to take up crossword puzzles as a hobby. They were initially quite difficult for me but I have gotten better, and while there are moments of frustration (How dare they abuse the language like that!), doing them is generally enjoyable. Even more, I believe the idea that a hobby like crossword puzzles helps keep your mind flexible as you age is a valid idea. Crossword puzzles exercise my language capacities, as it were, often calling me to remember words that I may not have used or seen used in decades, and often thinking of unusual, but correct interpretations or implications of words. I usually do one or two crossword puzzles each day.
So the style of meditation I did was along the lines of my current understanding of Dzogchen meditation. Dzogchen meditation to me means relaxing your mind, but being attentive to the moment-by-moment experience that is occurring in the here and now in a spacious manner. Thoughts may occur, but you let them go, rather than get caught up in them, and you don't try to make anything in particular happen. (That's not a comprehensive or completely accurate description of the Dzogchen approach, but sufficient for this essay.)
I can recall that when I first attempted to meditate, I considered thoughts my enemy, and I still find this attitude in lots of writings on meditation (see "Thought is Bad? Enlightenment Means Not Thinking?" of March 3, 2012, http://blog.paradigm-sys.com/archives/737). I might intend to concentrate on sensing my breath, for example, but a thought would come along, which would lead to another, which would lead to another, and five or 10 minutes later I would remember that I was supposed to be concentrating on my breath! Thoughts did indeed carry me away, far away! I had failed again!
Now thoughts are not my enemy in terms of my understanding. Sometimes I become aware that verbal thoughts (talking to myself) have arisen while they're happening, and they just die down almost immediately as I remain aware, or, if they catch me up, it's only for a few thoughts in a row, and then I come back to whatever kind of meditation I am practicing. (I am especially grateful to Sogyal Rinpoche and Shinzen Young whose instruction has enormously improved my meditation ability)
So I decided that, as I sat there looking out over the hillside, I would alternate, at intervals that felt appropriate to me, between working on a crossword puzzle and simply being present, in the here and now, looking at the view, hearing the wind and the birds, feeling myself sitting in my chair, etc., whatever was happening moment-to-moment.
I was very pleased to notice how well I could rapidly and thoroughly alternate between these two kinds of activity. For a minute or two I would work on the crossword puzzle, thinking about the meanings of various words, remembering synonyms, related words, and the like, and then I would put the puzzle book down and look out over the hillside and be mostly aware of what was happening in the present time, with the thoughts relevant to the puzzle I had just been working on pretty much or completely gone. I would be fairly calm, open, and spacious. After half a minute to a minute or two of this, I would sense my verbal mind getting restless, so I would pick up the crossword puzzle book and get back into the crossword for a minute or two. While doing the crossword puzzle I would keep some attention open to the here and now of sensory perception, I wasn't completely absorbed in the crossword puzzle, and I was somewhat mindful of what I was doing.
I don't know how useful the meditation technique like this would be for anyone else, but I'm going to continue exploring it. It seemed to satisfy my need to be simply present in the here and now, on the one hand, and the need for the intellectual parts of my mind to keep busy, to have fun with words on the other hand. My current (July 2012) understanding of the Dzogchen path is that it is essential to develop a way to be deeply present to ongoing experience, yet deal efficiently with ordinary reality things, but come back to being present, being spacious, or, if I'm using the phrase correctly, "resting in the nature of mind." Gurdjieff's concept of being "awake" seems very similar to me.
I tried the same technique yesterday, although I was sitting in my living room rather than out in nature. Besides doing a crossword puzzle once in a while, several times I got up to do short (a minute or two) errands that needed doing. Again I was very satisfied with how readily I switched between an intellectual task like the crossword puzzle and actions and motions, keeping some spaciousness and here and nowness going in all these. Perhaps variant of this approach will also help me deal with the sleepiness that so frequently comes on me in meditation practice – get up and do something, mindfully, every few minutes!
Short sessions, frequently, keeping some mindfulness and spaciousness in between – very interesting…..


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Since the development of the abacus in ancient China, humankind has searched relentlessly for numerical approaches to informed decision making. That progression quickened with the development in 1946 of the world's first electronic numerical integrator and digital computer (ENIAC),[1] developed by Army Ordnance to compute World War II ballistic firing tables. Many view the ENIAC as the first practical electronic computer. Since then, we have witnessed a steady, exponential increase in computing power and network bandwidth, along with a simultaneous decrease in both size and cost of computing power.
Gordon Moore's 1965 prediction that computing power would essentially double every 18 to 24 months for the same cost has, astonishingly, held true. Attempting to capitalize on these vast improvements in computer performance, businesses developed powerful decision support systems and collected even more numbers (i.e., data). And now, those information technologies allow business managers to digitize, classify, and evaluate hundreds of strategic variables, providing them with quick and accurate solutions to common business problems.
While this capability is clearly a benefit to decision-makers, it can also create inherent risk namely, that variables easiest to measure and track via information technology and quantitative models can assume greater importance than they deserve. Sometimes, what is critical is also difficult, if not impossible, to measure and, unfortunately, tends not to be considered in the final analysis. In this article we discuss some of the extraordinary benefits that IT and quantitative analysis bring to the decision-making process, and we also challenge the reader to consider, thoughtfully, the inherent risk of reducing complex decisions to measurable, or calculable mathematical models.
How IT and Numbers Can Help Us
Information technologies have, undeniably, had a positive impact on economic growth over the last century. One need look no further than a daily newspaper to see that information technology has radically changed today's cultures and the way people think. Advanced information systems and networks enable the nearly immediate transmission of digital information in such forms as photographs, streaming video, graphs, numerical indices, financial facts, market analyses, expected values, etc. All of this information flows through and nourishes the global economy as blood does the human body. Numbers, the information systems in which those numbers are stored, and the analytical procedures we use to make sense of those numbers are fundamental to progress in modern societies.
This constant flow of information has at least three distinct advantages for business. It provides 1) an increased awareness of opportunities, 2) an increased awareness of inefficiencies, and 3) an increased ability to predict, monitor, and track performance. Information technologies make it possible for managers to identify opportunities in the form of emerging markets, demand for new products, and new customer service initiatives.
For example, premium ice cream company Cold Stone Creamery has a difficult product mix. The staple of their product line is a collection of ice cream dishes recommended by the store. However, by allowing customers to mix and match "add-ins" such as chocolate chips, fresh strawberries, and sour gummy worms into their choice of ice cream flavors, Cold Stone Creamery has an almost limitless set of possible product combinations. Unfortunately, the legacy IT systems at Cold Stone Creamery were not able to record what add-ins were mixed with which flavors. By integrating a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, the company is now able to quickly identify new trends in flavor mixes from their broad base of customers and offer these new flavors as in-store recommendations for new customers. This "sense-and-respond" capability has contributed to Cold Stone Creamery's dramatic growth from one to 12,000 stores in ten years.[2]
Information Technologies Help Eliminate Inefficiencies, Track Performance
The application of information technologies also permits business organizations to identify and replace established processes that are embedded with inefficiencies. An exciting example of this technology is known as "business intelligence" (BI). BI methodologies make it possible for firms to measure, collect, analyze and act on information on a grand scale. An example of the benefits of BI can be seen at Continental Airlines, whose various BI initiatives have saved the organization more than $500 million over the past six years.[3] Continental's COO, Larry Kellner, argues that "BI is critical to the accomplishment of our business strategy and has created significant business benefits."
Information systems such as their "Demand-driven Dispatch" system have helped Continental become a more efficient organization. Prior to developing the Demand–driven Dispatch system, Continental rarely changed flight schedules, plane assignments, or maintenance routines. This inflexibility led to frequent inefficiencies in the form of oversold flights, empty planes and frustrated customers. However, with the Demand-driven Dispatch system, Continental now combines data from revenue forecasts with flight schedule information to identify promising new sources of additional revenue. For instance, the system might recommend larger planes for routes with high demand, or a reduction in the number of flights on unprofitable routes. These systems have helped Continental increase performance since 1996 when they were rated among the "worst" of major U.S. air carriers.
Finally, information technologies have increased a firm's ability to predict, monitor, and track performance. A powerful example of this capability surfaced in the fall of 2005 as America watched various U.S. agencies forecast the path, strength, and potential for peril of hurricanes Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi and Rita in Texas. Days before the storms came ashore, analysts were able to assess risks and warn inhabitants in areas that would likely be affected. Such capabilities were unheard of just a decade or two ago.
These advances have been possible only because of the ongoing development and application of IT resources. Undoubtedly business has benefited greatly from rational judgments based on "hard evidence," i.e. numbers, rather than on "gut reactions", intuition, or myths.
What Numbers Cannot Measure
When one recognizes the extraordinary value to business of numbers and the information systems that store them, it is easy to see why the maxim at our headiest consulting firms goes something like this: "If it can be performed, it can be measured. If it can be measured, it can be managed." We ascribe inordinate importance to numbers in our personal and professional lives. Professional presentations usually include charts, summary statistics, financial projections, and expected monetary values. Every day it seems that someone in the media or government proffers a number that will help us better comprehend our world. We saw this recently in the U.S. when the hurricanes threatened. The National Weather Service immediately queried their information systems looking for the numbers that would help them select an optimum strategy.
Our infatuation with numbers has been described most eloquently by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
Grown-ups love figures. When you tell them you've made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you "What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?" Instead they demand "How old is he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?" Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.[4]
Why then, in spite of all the counting, do we continue to find ourselves disillusioned, confused, and surprised by the "unexpected." Saint-Exupéry observed that perhaps it is because numbers neither capture everything of importance, nor do they tell the whole story. This is especially true when we insist upon relying on numbers to the exclusion of good judgment or intuition, or when we find that we have asked the wrong questions and therefore have collected the wrong data. In fact, the relative simplicity with which many variables can be identified, measured, and tracked with IT may hinder effective decision making. Decision makers may erroneously choose to focus their attention on the easily measured variables and models rather than giving adequate attention to those elements of a decision that are difficult even impossible to measure. While this decision-making strategy may lead to a mathematically optimal solution, it may not suggest the wise or prudent response.
We described above how Cold Stone Creamery, Continental Airlines, and the National Weather Service use information technologies to identify new opportunities, isolate inefficiencies, and predict, monitor, and track performance. Many companies have followed suit, creating massive data warehouses of customer-based information on what products their customers buy, how often they buy those products, and the stores from which they purchase the products. Yet a true understanding of how their customers came to make those decisions is still anyone's guess.
Such "measurement above meaning"[5] is not necessarily an asset; neither does it lead to good decision making. As Fortune columnist Michael Schrage argues, "just because single, left-handed, blond customers who drive Volvos purchase 1,450 percent more widgets on alternative Thursdays than do their married, non-blond, right-handed, domestic car-driving counterparts does not a marketing epiphany make."[6]
Managers must realize that often the number crunching, the cost/benefit analyses, and the net present value calculations can be of great value; but they can also leave us wanting. In the final analysis after the numbers have been counted, the information systems built, the predictions made the ultimate success of a strategic decision may well depend on factors that have escaped measure. For many of the terribly complex problems that managers encounter, cannot be solved using the information from numbers alone. In those circumstances, intuition, profound process knowledge, sound judgment, moral reasoning, and the zeal for managing people will also be essential.
When one considers the tremendous capabilities of information technology, it is easy to see why IT professionals place great value on numbers. Indeed, business strategists from all disciplines, including the authors of this article, have championed this very noble cause.
Encouraged by the many successes, however, we have perhaps put too much emphasis on the value of measurable information. In our haste to measure performance and manage uncertainty, we have been slow to recognize that the information we collect, manipulate, and analyze often has limited value. For example, society is well served by the increases in information technology that enables experts to simulate a variety of hurricane scenarios and prioritize levee construction projects based upon estimates of potential damage.
However, once the simulations are complete and the numbers are "in," it us up to leaders with strong resolution, sound judgment and moral reasoning to weigh the immeasurable costs of human life and well-being that can be affected by a natural disaster and to make the difficult and morally weighty decisions about which projects to fund. It is difficult when building mathematical models or information technologies, to place value on some very important things the elderly that were left behind, the children separated from their parents, or the untoward effects of pollutants on the environment. Unfortunately, because these "values" can not be easily measured nor included in a simulation model, they tend to be ignored. And, if they are ignored, we not only risk making poor decisions, we also are in danger of creating a world where only those values that can be "seen" will matter. We endorse numbers, and urge our readers to use them.
We also recognize, however, as Peter Drucker points out, tools and concepts are mutually interdependent. That is, the tools we use to analyze our business often force us to see our business differently. As our tools develop and change, so do our businesses.[7] To see rightly, then, we need to look beyond the numbers; calling upon a broader set of values, and making sure that we have asked the right questions, created metrics with meaning, and made judgments that were based on both mathematical and moral reasoning.
[1] Meik, Martin H. (1961) The ENIAC Story – Retrieved from the World Wide Web: 10-6-05 http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/comphist/eniac-story.html. (no longer accessible)
[2] Schuman, E., (2005). From Gooey Designs to GUI, IT Helps Ice Cream Chain Deliver, CIO Insight, September.
[3] Anderson-Lehman, R., Watson, H.J., Wixom, B., & Hoffer, J. (2004) Continental Airlines Flies High with Real-Time Business Intelligence. MIS Quarterly Executive. 3 (4): 163-176.
[4] Saint-Exupéry, A. (1993). The Little Prince, translated by Katherine Woods. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
[5] Schultze, Q. (2002). Habits of the High-Tech Heart, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic Press.
[6] Schrage, M. (1999). "Sixteen Tons of Information Overload," Fortune, August: 244.
[7] Drucker, P.F. (1998). "The Information Executives Truly Need," Harvard Business Review, February, 73 (1): 54-62.


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Google has been nice enough to reveal, among other things, that in 2011, they disapproved over 134 Million ads for a variety of things, including spam and fraud. On top of that, almost 800k accounts were completely killed, banned from using Adwords.
According to their blog:
Ads that are in violation of our ads policies aren't allowed to be shown on Google and our AdSense partner sites. For many repeat offenders, we ban not just ads but also advertisers who seek to abuse our advertising system to take advantage of people. In the case of ads that are promoting counterfeit goods, we typically ban the advertiser after only one violation. Here are some metrics that give some insight into the scale of the impact we have had over time, showing the numbers of actions we've taken against advertiser accounts, sites and ads. You can see that the numbers are growing—and growing faster over time.
Even in this ever-escalating arms race, our efforts are working. One method we use to test the success of our efforts is to ask human raters to tell us how we're doing. These human raters review a set of sites that are advertised on Google. We use a large set of sites in order to get an accurate statistical reading of our efforts. We also weight the sites in our statistical sample based on the number of times a particular site was displayed so that if a particular site is shown more often, it's more likely to be in our sample set. By using human raters, we can calibrate our automated systems and ensure that we're improving our efforts over time. In 2011, we reduced the percentage of bad ads by more than 50 percent compared with 2010. That means the proportion of bad ads that are showing on Google was halved in just a year.
Of course, they didn't reveal how many accounts were accidentally shut down for no reason. While Google may not be as bad as Facebook, they are notorious for occasionally shutting down accounts for no reason, even after the ads were approved for months. Why? Because they were too effective?


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In the following blog post, the author summarizes the forthcoming American Journal of Political Science article titled "Injustice Abroad, Authority at Home? Democracy, Systemic Effects, and Global Wrongs".
Many people – inside and outside academia – believe that democratically made laws have a special claim to moral authority. The fact that a law is traceable to democratic procedures that give an equal vote to each citizen means that disobeying it is failing to respect the equality of our fellow citizens. Therefore, we should normally follow the directives of such a law even when we disagree with its substance.
In my American Journal of Political Science article, "Injustice Abroad, Authority at Home? Democracy, Systemic Effects, and Global Wrongs," I explore a fundamental but overlooked puzzle about this conception of democratic authority. The puzzle begins from the firm judgement that even a government that keeps democratic procedures intact loses its general authority, if it enacts abhorrent major laws. This judgement means that the moral failure of some laws can dissolve the moral authority of other laws – even ones that are quite distinct in their content. But how can we explain these systemic effects of specific laws? I confront this challenge by introducing a global perspective into the discussion of political authority. I begin by suggesting that we should only adopt an account of systemic effects that can explain how the worst global conduct dissolves a government's general authority. And, after developing such an account, I use it to reflect on thornier global cases.
The argument I construct connects to ongoing political events in at least two ways. First, my account of the systemic effects of flawed laws puts center-stage the ubiquitous phenomenon of abuse of elected office. To give just a few current examples from around the world, accusations regarding abuse of democratic power are hovering above the entire political class in Brazil, including the country's President; such accusations have already led to the impeachment of South Korea's President; similar accusations may very well lead to criminal proceedings against Israel's Prime Minister; and – last but not least – may also lead to impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States. My argument builds on our convictions regarding such abuses of office, to advance our thinking about the systemic implications of democratic laws that are profoundly morally flawed: I contend that we should think about such laws too as an abuse of political power.
Second, in considering the moral implications of laws that bear most immediately on outsiders rather than on citizens, my argument also explains why deeply troubling laws and policies that have received enormous public attention actually warrant this attention. The recent travel ban pursued by the Trump administration, clearly targeted to prevent the entry of Muslims into the United States, is perhaps the most obvious example. The claims I defend suggest that policies of this sort have wide-ranging repercussions for the Trump administration's moral claim to authority, notwithstanding whatever democratic credentials it may have. But similar repercussions follow for any other administration around the world whose laws and policies blatantly mistreat outsiders.
About the Author: Shmuel Nili is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Australian National University's Research School of the Social Sciences (School of Philosophy) and, starting in September 2017, he will be an assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University. Nili's article "Injustice Abroad, Authority at Home? Democracy, Systemic Effects, and Global Wrongs" is now available for Early View and will appear in a forthcoming issue of the American Journal of Political Science.