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Vivian has always been independent, opinionated, and strong-willed. I know that these are good qualities for her to have, but it can make things exhausting. Sometimes the littlest things can send her over the edge because things have to be just so. We have had many arguments because she can't find exactly what she's looking for, or has tragically forgotten her beloved blanket somewhere. As a means of dealing with this, as well as saving my sanity, I started implementing a bit of a mantra.
"You're in charge of your own stuff."
She likes it because it gives her responsibility and ownership over her things. I like it because it stops a lot of arguments in their tracks. "Mommy! I can't find my blanket and I want it!" "I don't know, Vivian. Who's in charge of your stuff?" "I am." And then she'll head off to find it, typically right in front of her face.
It's worked out almost too well - now she's extended it to "I'm my own boss." That part is a little trickier. I have to follow it up with, "Well, you have to listen to people like Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa and Oma and your teachers and, and, and, and, and." She's far from being her own boss, such is the tragedy of being 4 years old. I do, however, like to tell her, "You're the boss of your own body" because that's a concept I care about very deeply. I always want her to feel confident and in charge of her own body and own person. She seems pretty content to have "I'm my own boss" morph into "I'm in charge of my body and my stuff."
So for now she's the boss in a few somewhat limited areas, and I pretend to be the boss the rest of the time.


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Southwest Ohio Crochet Guild
As a registered chapter of the Crochet Guild of America, we are a group of crochet enthusiasts who meet to learn new techniques, share our projects and ideas, and help each other improve our skills. Our members range in ability from beginners to experienced instructors and designers.
BUT we all share one thing in common....
We love to crochet and want to share our passion with others!
Join our Facebook Group
Visit our Facebook Page
Find us on TeamSnap

subset: commoncrawl


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Part III, interview by Komsun Dilokkunanant.
8. As a horn student from Thailand where information is still quite limited, your articles and resources on hornmatters.com is one of the oasis that I could find online. What was your inspiration behind this creation? How do you come up with new topics?
First, I am very glad that you found Horn Matters helpful in Thailand! A goal we have had is to reach out to the horn world as broadly as we can. I am very happy that it has become such a go-to resource for community and amateur hornists in particular.
The inspiration for Horn Matters has a short story. Going way back in Internet years, Bruce Hembd was the original developer of the IHS website, and I was brought on board as an editor/manager by Jeff Snedeker, who was then the editor of The Horn Call. Bruce and I had known each other at Eastman and we worked well together. We worked together on that from 2001-2007. At that time the IHS Advisory Council was asking for some big changes and, ultimately, we came to feel that they mostly wanted someone else to do the site, so we both retired.
Independently of each other, Bruce and I both had started blogs. His was The Horndog Blog and mine was the Hornnotes Blog, which was then a part of my Horn Articles Online site. We were not making money off either venture, we just liked writing and sharing horn news and information with others.
After a few years of doing this, I was talking to my wife one day and said to her something like "If I were thinking big, Bruce and I would combine our blogs into a giant website." She thought that was a good idea, Bruce thought about it too and we went forward. He owned the domain for Horn Matters. It was a big move but the new site went live in September of 2009. The rest, as they say, is history.
As to coming up with topics, in a way it was easy … for a while! Ultimately the articles all relate to my teaching and interests. I have partial drafts of many more articles than are posted as well, so do keep watching for more. At one point I was posting three articles a week, but at this point I aim for three or four a month.
9. Is doing hornmatters.com part of your tenure-track promotion? If not, what do you need to do for applying for the promotion?
Horn Matters was not created to specifically be a part of my creative activity, and was developed after I achieved tenure/promotion at Arizona State.
But, backing up a bit, within our system at ASU when looking at promotion, from Assistant to Associate Professor and from Associate to Full Professor, ultimately, they consider very specifically four "products" (of our choice) of our scholarship and creative activity. In the case of performance faculty such as me, one typical type of product is the CD, and in my own planned full professor case (yes, I am actually still an Associate Professor) I have two recent CDs as products, my Rescued! CD and also Table for Three (horn/trombone/tuba works). Beyond that I also plan to include my natural horn book and yes, Horn Matters.
[Confused by academic ranks at universities? More info here.]
Including a website is a bit unusual, but it really is my most widely recognized "product" and will be a part of my case.
10. As an applied music teacher, is it necessary to published any articles, journals, research? should this be a requirement for applied music teacher as well?
Surprisingly I am actually going to say no, it is not necessary. Within our tenure system, at least, the main thing is that performance faculty perform and be nationally/internationally recognized for that performance. Typically applied faculty focus on that type of performance and on products related to performance.
But publications are great and easily understood by the people looking at your tenure case outside of music. I think publications do really help toward that solid case. What each individual faculty member will do to build that case in the end depends on interests and skills.
If I were to offer one general advice, big picture, it would be this. Do as much as you can and build the strong resume to get the job. Then, in the job itself, carefully read the exact tenure guidelines of your school and do your best to angle your research and creative activity toward "checking off the boxes" in those guidelines. I did not really do this, actually – if I had I might have been able to go up for full professor earlier….


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Today is no ordinary Thursday! November 14 is recognized as World Diabetes Day to bring awareness to diabetes, through events worldwide. Today I'll be at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg as a part of their World Diabetes Day activities. Check out my latest post for PARADE Magazine on what this day means to me. How are you marking the day and encouraging others to take steps toward a healthier life?
Thursday, November 14, 2013
It's World Diabetes Day!
Posted by Charlie Kimball at 8:00 AM
Labels: 2013 , Living with Diabetes
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> Marketplace store
A recap on whats going on at Goth1c0 :)
This necklace works with lola's too.
Plus 3 hunts, one special sale and we are part of the Winter Wishes Market too. Sooo come on down, listen some tunes and grab some of our deals, it cant get better than this!!
> TP to the store


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played with the 53 some
I just don;t understand it that battery I bought back in 04 of 2010 just won't start the car anymore. so while we are waiting for it to come in tomorrow we played around with the gurneys I have here and made up some hanger rods for it
Armbruster used Washington equipment unless ferno was requested. but I have been trying to find the proper hanger for the car. this one is like a #11and will fit the bill but one would have to turn the inside set of wheels and legs up to keep them from dangling in the face of the pt on the bottom. bet we need a #12
things are tight in the smaller car but once seated in the attendants seat you are in a good position to attend. the gurney I picked up from Kurt is the same height as the 54xl but a whole lot lighter so I will most likely use it.
sitting in it, your hat is on the headliner but other then that it's not bad.
drop in for coffee anytime
|The Following User Says Thank You to John ED Renstrom For This Useful Post:
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I love this picture of Kai Kai Sweetie Pie because this is what he looks like when he is making the mmmmmm sound for more. Mmmm is the only consonant that Kai is using currently.
Cute picture of Cousin Katherine too!
I feel like Alice in Wonderland since Kai was diagnosed this summer with severe hearing loss. I am navigating a world that I hardly knew anything of, the Hard of Hearing (HOH)/Deaf world. Unfortunately, nobody holds your hand and tells you what the choices are and what the best decisions are for your child. I lay in bed many nights and question my decisions, worry about what I don't know about the HOH world and wonder how my decisions are going to affect the future for Kai Kai Sweetie Pie. Right now my focus is getting Kai a language and we have decided to enroll Kai into the N@rthern Voices program in January. It is the auditory/oral program that doesn't use sign language in it's curriculum. This is one decision that won't keep me up at night because we are really excited for him and feel that he is ready to make that next step forward. We would be grateful for any and all prayers lifting Kai up to be blessed with the gift of language.


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World Cup 2018
For Sochi, the excitement doesn't end with 2014. After a few year hiatus, Russia's resort city will be back on the world stage as it hosts the 2018 World Cup. And when a city in the biggest country hosts the largest event of the world's most popular sport, there is no limit to the amount of excitement to be had. Matches will take place in the still new, and hardly used, Fisht Olympic Stadium in front of nearly 48,000 of the luckiest football fans in the world. Don't miss your chance to be one of the 48,000. Come to Sochi in the summer of 2018 for the football, stay for everything else the city has to offer and come back many times after you have fallen in love with paradise on the Black Sea.


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So I fixed the audio issue on this reel so you can hear the lipsyncs and background audio.
Here is the end of quarter reel I was cutting together last week. I am curently experimenting with uploading a higher res Modeling reel to youtube, if it works i'll embed it at the top right of the page, with more higher res to follow.


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Solid Ways To Get Your Internet Promotion Off The Ground
The nature of online marketing is interesting, complex and always evolving. There are many different avenues one can pursue to tailor marketing strategies directly to your business for optimal success. But, for someone new to the Web marketing game, it can be challenging. These tips can help get you ready for the challenge.
If you are interested in having others link to your website, create a link that is readily available to them on your site. Making it easy for customers to see and use your button will encourage more traffic to your own website.
It is a good idea to keep contact information for your customers. Give your customers several opportunities to leave their email address. Later, you can incorporate this information to market to your customers, as well as send them promotional materials or inquire about customer feedback.
Add links to your website everywhere you go on the web by putting it with your signature. If you are a member of online message boards and forums, you should put a link to your website in the signature. Place a link in your signature in all of your emails. By doing this you will be passively promoting your website every time you communicate with someone online. Additionally, you will also be building quality backlinks to your website which can have a positive affect on your website's SERP ranking. Type an interesting statement above the link that persuades them to click it.
Knowing your competition can be very beneficial to your own strategies as you learn from their successes and mistakes. If your competitors' websites make you want to buy something, analyze the techniques used to make you feel that way.
Writing some frequently asked questions can often be helpful. Think of the common questions or problems you see often, and provide helpful solutions that utilize your products or services. Write the questions down in a way that you have an opportunity to mention specific products without actually making it appear that way.
Web Design
Take time to learn web design basics. CSS and HTML are a few of the key things to learn to begin designing websites; you can find information about these, and other components of web design, on the Internet. Set aside half an hour a day, and you will soon be ready to tackle the design.
Always keep track of what your main competitors are doing. Look at your competitors' sites to get a better idea of how they are marketing their products or services. This also gives you an opportunity to gauge their traffic against yours.
If your website is for the most part unchanging, you might want to create a blog. Fresh information are preferred by search engines, if you lack this in your site, your ranking will go down. You could, for instance, write weekly articles on topics related to your products or services.
One tip webmasters forget is to keep their sites simple. Glitzy multimedia tools, such as Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flash may lure website owners, and professional web designers frequently offer these tools. Wise webmasters remember that using specific technologies renders their websites useless to some prospects. A website should be fully functional without such flashy bells and whistles.
Stay abreast of new features and developments occurring on the Internet. Things change quickly and constantly in the online world, and vast numbers of potential customers can suddenly flock to a site or a service that didn't exist a week ago. Keeping tabs on where the users are will allow you to market more effectively.
If you are trying to sell a product, make a video of it being used. Your customers can see how the product is actually used. Demonstrate the features of the product, as well as its benefits. Post your video on your blog, as well as other websites like Vimeo and Youtube.
The security of all third party transactions is essential for high volume sales. There are a lot of impartial, reputable services. VeriSign, McAffee, etc. that will protect the exposure of financial material for both customers and vendors. Online security is very important and it's not free. However, it can help you avoid a myriad of problems, so do your research and make sure your financial transactions are protected.
Any banners that you place on your website should not look like banners. Make them look as if they are links that can be clicked in order to get to more content. Most experienced Internet users ignore banners automatically, so a little bit of artistry can make them more effective.
You can anticipate more business if you allow more payment options. You might think that offering credit card payments is sufficient, but many customers prefer using PayPal or direct debits from their checking accounts.
Html Tags
If you want to optimize every part of your site, learn how to utilize HTML tags. HTML tags will highlight important content on specific pages of your site. Search engines will often judge your website based on what terms your HTML tags emphasize. It is important, then, to emphasize your essential keywords.
Understanding your competition is a key to successful Internet marketing. Keeping updated on what products your competitor has will help you take what is working for them and use it to your own advantage while letting you avoid any pitfalls they may have already fallen into. This is crucial to any Website marketing plan.
Knowing your competition is crucial in Website marketing. Research what your competition is doing and the things that are helping them as well as hurting them. Watching others is a great way to learn. You will rise above your competitors.
There is so much to learn about Website marketing, with many plans and strategies , and it is best to choose something has proven to be successful. It's a gift because there are so many options that are customizable and it's a curse because too many options make it difficult to decide. These tips will make it easier for you to cash in on Affiliate marketing.


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I quilted and bound it up on Saturday. This is the first time I've done a machine binding that actually looks really good and professional. I might even do a little tutorial on it.
I really like this quilt and I hope it makes a mom (and baby) happy! Every child is special and is known by a loving God.


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Hi folks,
Here are some quick shots of the upcoming 15mm Fantasy battle we will be fighting.
Figures are mostly old Grenadier or new Splintered Light Miniautres, with an odd unit or two of Ral Partha.
We have a large Evil Army attacking at dusk the human town defended by High Elves, Humans, and Dwarves (one unit a Hobbits too). The Evil army has loads of Orcs, Satyrs, Bugbears, Kobolds (just there for the thieving!), Zombies, Ghouls, Lizardmen, and a Manticore.
Photo 1: Satyr from Splintered Light Miniatures
Photo 2: Wizard fighting Skeleton Dragon
Photo 3: Humans defend their town. Humans are from the Saxon line of figures from Splintered Light Minis.
Photo 4: High Elves (Grenadier Minis) defend the small village.
Photo 5: Overview of the battlefield. Evil army on the left. Orc masses closest.
Rules are home written Fantasy rules loosely based on my favorite rule system: Piquet. You can see many of the Usborne card buildings I have been showcasing on this blog.
Battle is set for Wednesday night.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Gearing up for a 15mm Fantasy Battle
4 comments:
- Mongo said...
Very cool! Who makes that 15mm Wizard?
Would you be willing to share your rules?
- January 12, 2010 at 10:44 AM
- Eric Burgess said...
Wizard is from Black Raven Foundry's Wizards pack.
- January 12, 2010 at 6:20 PM
- Prometheus said...
Do you have Hostile Realms? Is it any good?
- November 3, 2010 at 9:22 AM
- Eric Burgess said...
Yes, I have HR. IMO, it is very good.
- December 12, 2010 at 5:33 PM
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Management Board
Scientific Advisory Board
Robotics and Related Courses at NUS
ARC Colloquium
Robotics @ Lunchtime
ARC Seminars
Other Events
About Us
ARC Colloquium
Industrial Design of an Universal Gripper
Axel Thallemer
Seminar Date/Time:
10/04/2018 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Seminar Venue:
ARC Engagement room
Compared to taking inspiration from paragons found in nature, purpose-driven reasoning is used to open up a larger range of strategic solutions than would generally be available in the context of biomimetics, due to the evolutionary burden and organic constraints. With respect to a suitable functional shape, the specific design around a pneumatic micro actuator leads to this "tool" as human artefact. Working from the self-defined technical package, an appropriate shape is embodied on a multifunctional and rational basis where saving of resources and the use of least expensive material and fabrication technologies were in the centre of thinking that gripper system.
Towards Smart Service Robots with Task Intelligence
Prof Jong-Hwan Kim
Seminar Date/Time:
30/08/2017 4:30pm to 5:30pm
Seminar Venue:
Engineering Auditorium
Robots have been expected to do smart services as well as various troublesome or arduous tasks for humans. Since these human-scale tasks consist of sequential procedures, the robots need a knowledge structure to store the temporal sequences through active learning and to retrieve them to autonomously perform such tasks in similar situations through reasoning. The capability for performing those tasks is defined as task intelligence that can be realized based on intelligence operating architecture (iOA). As a knowledge structure, a long-term memory can be employed, which consists of episodic memory, semantic memory, procedural memory, and emotional memory. The crux of the realization of task intelligence for robots is to design the memory module for storing temporal event sequences of tasks, the mechanism of thought for reasoning, and motion planning methodology for execution, among others. This talk introduces how to realize task intelligence based on iOA. This talk focuses on the design of a long-term memory, neural model-based mechanism of thought, and an online motion planning algorithm, Q-RRT*. The long-term memory is developed as an integrated multi-memory neural model in which an episodic memory is designed using a Deep ART (Adaptive Resonance Theory) neural model and a semantic memory is built through the consolidation of memory contents in episodic memory. Procedural memory is also designed using the context-based recurrent neural network to store the trajectories of the manipulators along with context information and then retrieve them according to the context information without conscious thinking. Robots are taught either by human demonstration or symbolic description. A behavior appropriate to the current situation is selected by the developmental neural memory-based mechanism of thought, while a proper task is retrieved from Deep ART model. The behaviors are executed safely and quickly with the motion planning algorithm. The effectiveness of the realization of task intelligence based on iOA in terms of machine intelligence learning and executing tasks is verified through experiments with a humanoid robot, Mybot, developed in the Robot Intelligence Technology Lab. at KAIST. Invited by the World Economic Forum, Mybot had a performance demonstration at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China on June 26~28, 2016.
Industrial Design Approach Exemplified on Zoo-kinematic Robotic End Effectors
Axel Thallemer
Seminar Date/Time:
12/04/2017 6:30pm to 7:30pm
Seminar Venue:
In the course of evaluating the biological grippers by analytical classification, the opening mechanism of birds' beaks proved to be particularly promising. This mechanical principle was first described by Franz Reuleaux in the second half of the 19th century. More than 100 years later, in the 1990s, Schilling and Zimmermann re-interpreted the biological paragon by translating the three-dimensional kinematic into a two-dimensional Watt's linkage. About 20 years later it was designed and additively fabricated in Titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V). These grippers are actuated by artificial muscles co-developed by the speaker for Festo. Video: Dynamic display of the three zoo-kinematic grippers at Hannover Industrial Fair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkAlWBLwMVw For the full abstract, please visit https://goo.gl/forms/sr1oFiBz5kbd5qdZ2
ARC Colloquium in conjunction with Computer Vision for Robotics Workshop
Prof. Dr. Marc Pollefeys
Seminar Date/Time:
25/11/2016 1:00pm to 6:00pm
Seminar Venue:
NUS School of Computing, Lecture Theatre 19 (LT19)
ARC Colloquium Talk: Semantic 3D Reconstruction While purely geometric models of the world can be sufficient for some applications, there are also many applications that need additional semantic information. In this talk I will focus on 3D reconstruction approaches which combine geometric and appearance cues to obtain semantic 3D reconstructions. Specifically, the approaches I will discuss are formulated as multi-label volumetric segmentation, i.e. each voxel gets assigned a label corresponding to one of the semantic classes considered, including free-space. We propose a formulation representing raw geometric and appearance data as unary or high-order (pixel-ray) energy terms on voxels, with class-pair-specific learned anisotropic smoothness terms to regularize the results. We will see how by solving both reconstruction and segmentation/recognition jointly the quality of the results improves significantly and we can make progress towards 3D scene understanding.
AirArm – An Anthropofunctional Robot Arm with Inherent Flexibility
Professor Dipl.-Ing. (univ.) Axel Thallemer
Seminar Date/Time:
06/09/2016 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Seminar Venue:
NUS Faculty of Engineering Lecture Theatre 7A (LT7A)
Inspired by nature, AirArm is a function-driven robot capable of carrying out humanoid motions. Unlike other nature-inspired research that focus on mimicking the mere structure and form of the human arm, AirArm is designed with the arm's natural motion in mind. This industrial, pneumatic 4-axis kinematics with inherent flexibility has been researched, designed, developed, fabricated, and demonstrated by bachelor students of the scionic® I.D.E.A.L. curricula in Austria. The presentation will cover the main aspects of the methodology in designing AirArm, such as industrial design management, coupling materials and production technologies to create the purpose-driven nature-inspired robot.
The New Robotics Age: The Interactivity Challenge
Oussama Khatib
Seminar Date/Time:
14/06/2016 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Seminar Venue:
NUS Faculty of Engineering Lecture Theatre 7A (LT7A)
The generations of robots now being developed will increasingly touch people and their lives. They will explore, work, and interact with humans in their homes, workplaces, in new production systems, and in challenging field domains. The emerging robots will provide increased operational support in mining, underwater, and hostile and dangerous environment. While full anatomy for the performance of advanced tasks in complex environments remains challenging, strategic intervention of a human will tremendously facilitate reliable real-time robot operations. Human-robot synergy benefits from combining the experience and cognitive abilities of the human with the strength, dependability, competence, reach, and endurance of robots. Moving beyond conventional teleoperation, the new paradigm - placing the human at the highest level of task abstraction - relies on robots with the requisite physical skills for advanced task behaviour capabilities. Such connecting of humans to increasingly competent robots will fuel a wide range of new robotic application in places where they have never gone before. This discussion focuses on robot design concepts, robot control architectures, and advanced task primitives and control strategies that bring human modelling and skill understanding to the development of safe, easy-to-use, and competent robotic systems. The presentation will highlight these developments in the context of a novel underwater robot, Ocean One, called O2, developed at Stanford in collaboration with Meka Robotics, and KAUST.
Service Robots Are Here
Steve Cousins, Founder of Savioke, Former President & CEO of Willow Garage
Seminar Date/Time:
28/03/2016 1:00pm to 2:30pm
Seminar Venue:
NUS School of Computing, Executive Classroom (COM2-04-02)
After 20 years of predictions that robots will work among us soon, the predictions are finally starting to come true. Investment in robotics is up, enabling start-ups to explore a range of use cases. Decreasing component costs will make it easier to make real business cases for the technology. Mobile robots are beginning to transform the way we serve people in hotels, elder care facilities, hospitals, restaurants, and throughout the service industry, and this trend is accelerating. Savioke deploys delivery robots in hotels, and has had one in continuous operation since August, 2014. There are now several Savioke Relay robots doing over 400 deliveries each week across California, and the number is quickly expanding.
Bio-inspired Wire-Driven Fishlike Underwater Robot
Ruxu Du, Ph.D., F-SME, F-ASME
Seminar Date/Time:
02/03/2016 6:15pm to 7:15pm
Seminar Venue:
NUS Faculty of Engineering Lecture Theatre 7 (LT7)
Fishlike underwater robot, or simply robot fish, is a topic that has attracted much interest in the recent decade. Fish swimming is a wonder of nature: elegant, fast, agile, and highly efficient. Compared to conventional screw propelled ship, fish is several times more efficient, which motivates scientists and engineers to design and built robot fish for various applications, such as underwater exploration, pollution monitoring and shipping. This presentation introduces our bio-inspired wire-driven fishlike underwater robot, covering the design, modeling and optimization, control and experimentation. The presentation will help scientists and engineers to understand the exciting robot fish research and development from theory to practice.
Advanced Robotics Center Colloquium: Making Robots Behave
Professor Leslie Kaelbling
Seminar Date/Time:
21/01/2016 3:00pm to 4:30pm
Seminar Venue:
Video Conference Room, COM1-02-13
The fields of AI and robotics have made great improvements in many individual subfields, including in motion planning, symbolic planning, probabilistic reasoning, perception, and learning. Our goal is to develop an integrated approach to solving very large problems that are hopelessly intractable to solve optimally. We make a number of approximations during planning, including serializing subtasks, factoring distributions, and determining stochastic dynamics, but regain robustness and effectiveness through a continuous state-estimation and replacing process. This approach is demonstrated on a PR2 robotic system which integrates perception, estimation, planning and manipulation.
Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping: A Fifteen Year Journey
Gamini Dissanayake
Seminar Date/Time:
03/09/2015 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Seminar Venue:
NUS Faculty of Engineering Blk EA, Level 6, EA-06-03
Robot navigation in unknown environments, particularly when an external location reference such as a global positioning system (GPS) is not available, requires the robot to be able to build a map of the environment in real-time and simultaneously estimate its own location within the map. Robust solutions to the "Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)" problem, therefore, underpin successful robot deployment in many application domains such as urban search and rescue, underground mining, underwater surveillance and planetary exploration. The SLAM problem has revealed many surprises since the first "solutions" emerged in the late 90's. This talk will chronicle my journey in looking for solutions to SLAM through extended Kalman filters, information filters, non-linear optimisers, graph theory and most recently linear least-squares. The talk will also present an overview of the activities of the UTS: Centre for Autonomous Systems that currently consists of 55 staff and students working in various aspects of robotics.
From Geometry to Startups—The Rise of a New Robotics Industry in China
Zexiang Li
Seminar Date/Time:
21/11/2014 10:00am to 11:00am
Seminar Venue:
Lecture Theatre 1
Many problems in robotics, mechanism design and manufacturing research are geometric in nature: Rigid body motion, modeling, analysis and synthesis of both open-chain and closed-chain manipulators, grasping and manipulation with multifingered robotic hands, tolerance formulation and verification, design and control of five- axes machines, etc. In this talk, I will present an effort, which was initiated by R. Brockett of Harvard about 30 years ago, and continued by the Berkeley group and then my own group at HKUST for the last 20 years to develop a unified theory, using tools from differentiable manifolds and Lie groups, for robotics, mechanism design and manufacturing research. First, using intuitive examples, I will recollect some of the basic concepts of differentiable manifolds and their "engineering" classifications. Then, I will show how problems in robotics ,mechanism design and manufacturing research can be modeled using various types of manifolds as their model spaces. Finally, I will highlight how geometric properties of these spaces are being exploited to provide more efficient solutions for optimization problems defined on these spaces. I will describe how results from this research program are being used as basis for founding of three companies, one in motion control, one in UAV-based consumer products and the other in assembly automation for 3C products. Burrowing from L. Page's words, I credit this effort to "Geometry as inspiration." There are grand opportunities for robotic research in China. However, the biggest challenge lies in the creation of an eco-system that foster growth of many more startups from our research and teaching programs. A new robotics institute is being proposed at HKUST for such a purpose.
RGB-D Perceptions in Robotics
Professor Dieter Fox
Seminar Date/Time:
04/11/2014 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Seminar Venue:
Seminar Room 1, COM1-02-06
RGB-D cameras provide per pixel color and depth information at high frame rate and resolution. Gaming and entertainment such as the Microsoft Kinect system resulted in the mass production of RGB-D cameras at extremely low cost, also making them available for a wide range of robotics applications. In this talk, I will provide an overview of depth camera research done in the Robotics and State Estimation Lab over the last five years. This work includes 3D mapping, autonomous object modeling, and unsupervised feature learning for object recognition, and articulated object tracking.
The Mathematics of Human Robot Interaction
Professor Siddhartha Srinivasa The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University
Seminar Date/Time:
06/06/2014 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Seminar Venue:
Executive Classroom, COM2-04-02
For years, the focus of robot motion planning has been to produce functional motion: industrial robots move to weld parts, vacuuming robots move to suck dust, and personal robots move to clean up a dirty table. We have been exploring the thesis that although functional motion is ideal when robots perform tasks in isolation, it is insufficient for collaboration, where a human and a robot are manipulating in a tightly-coupled shared workspace. Our goal is to make this collaboration fluent and seamless. To this end, we have been developing algorithms where the notion of an observer watching the motion is woven into the fabric of the motion planner. This perspective has allowed us to formalize qualitative notions such as predictability and legibility in psychology in terms of Bayesian inference and inverse optimal control, and to develop generative models for such motion using functional gradient optimization. I will also describe some of our user studies on applying these algorithms to human-robot handovers, assistive teleoperation, and shared workspace collaboration, and ongoing work on deception, ambiguity, and emotive motion.
Living with Robots
Professor Oussama Khatib, Stanford University
Seminar Date/Time:
01/04/2014 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Seminar Venue:
Engineering Auditorium 9 Engineering Drive 1 (S) 117575 Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore
Robotics is rapidly expanding into the human environment and vigorously engaged in its new emerging challenges. From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics has undergone, by the turn of the new millennium, a major transformation in scope and dimensions. This expansion has been brought about by the maturity of the field and the advances in its related technologies to address the pressing needs for human centered robotic applications. Interacting, exploring, and working with humans, the new generation of robots will increasingly touch people and their lives, in homes, workplaces, and communities, providing support in services, entertainment, education, health care, and assistance. The discussion focuses on new design concepts, novel sensing modalities, efficient planning and control strategies, modeling and understanding of human motion and skills, which are among the key requirements for safe, dependable, and competent robots. The exploration of the human‐robot connection is proving extremely valuable in providing new avenues for the study of human movement ‐‐ with exciting prospects for novel clinical therapies, athletic training, character animation, and human performance improvement.
© Copyright to arc acronym is ARC.All Rights Reserved


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The doc who writes CodeBlueBlog has a great rant about the British Medical Journal's double Christmas issue. Particularly of concern is this bit from the editorial:
Freedom has become the political buzzword of the 21st century. George Bush's agenda is to bring democracy and freedom to the rest of the peoples of the world, while his own are slaves to work, crippled by personal debt, and trapped in loneliness or loveless relationships the shackles of the rich. Now that the surviving Afghanis and Iraqis are enjoying the benefits of Western freedoms, what will this mean for their health? No empirical studies have explored the relation between the extent of freedom allowed by political regimes and the effect on a nation's health until now.
OK, I agree that calling all Americans crippled, trapped, lonely, and loveless is a bit much. And the fact that the acting editor of the BMJ is a sports writer who specializes in covering cricket matches doesn't give him a lot of credibility to comment on world health or America's state of freedom. But The Effect of Democracy on Health: Ecological Study, the article referenced in the editorial, actually is pretty interesting. The summary points:
Data now available make it possible to measurethe global impact on health of a wide range of political andeconomic variables
Freedom ratings can be used as proxies toexplore the effects of democracy on other variables
After acountry's wealth, level of inequality, and the size of its publicsector are adjusted for, democracy has a beneficial effect onhealth
Maybe I just don't have enough "shackles of wealth" to qualify as an American to the BMJ's acting editor's mind, but I value the freedoms I have as a U.S. citizen, and defend them zealously. That they correlate with better health doesn't surprise me. But how to teach docs to prescribe health-giving freedom to their patients? Hmm. I'll leave that one up to you...


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So the World Cup is about to start. Thursday, June 12 is the opening game. We here at Vacuum-Packer.com, being a very international group and avid futbol fans, will be having an Opening Day bash.
The idea is to have a sort of Pot-Luck, where co-workers each bring in a little something to eat or drink for the group to share. One person may bring the soft drinks, somebody else a baked casserole of some sort – these things usually are not very good, culinary-wise. So I have decided to take it upon myself to try and elevate the food at this inter-office shindig by cooking something sous vide.
I am still working out what that might be, but I would like it to reflect a little bit of my preference in teams, and this is where I am a little torn.
Do I route-route-route for the home team, USA? Stay true to my Spanish/Mexican heritage, and to my time spent in Mexico? Perhaps I show some solidarity to the Clock Work Orange team of The Netherlands in support of our very good friends from Henkelman.
Maybe I sous vide ribs; finish them on the grill with BBQ sauce (U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!).
Add some quesadillas, corn and chistorra to the grill (Si Se Puede! Si Se Puede!)
We must quench our thirst…a cold Dutch brew…Heineken sounds "goed" (Wij houden van Oranje!)
From the ribs I would remove as much fat as possible and cut them into manageable size racks, vacuum pack them in the Boxer 35 Chamber Vacuum Sealer, after seasoning with my special blend.
Since they are pork ribs, we will cook them using our Pearl Fusionchef Immersion Circulator at 143ºF (61.5ºC) for 48 hours, to make sure they are tender and juicy. Due to the forgiving nature of sous vide and the cooking time associated with it, the ribs will be in the water bath ready when we are. Once the hunger grows to a growl, we will finish them on the grill.
I usually do a quick sear on both sides, then brush a thin layer of BBQ sauce on one side, through it back on the hot grill – sauce side down. Sauce the other side and flip…and repeat. I do this maybe four times. I am no chef, but I think it gives the ribs a very nice BBQ and char-broiled flavor, and I must say, very good.
Ahhhh…grilling some perfectly cooked BBQ ribs, drinking a cold Heineken under the warm Florida sun, with friends, in observance of the world's favorite sporting event…you tell me a better a way to spend a Thursday afternoon.
Cheers! Salud! Proost!


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April 11th, 2016 - by Karla Fonseca
March 9th, 2016 - by Lance Abbrederis
Predicting the future is quite a challenge – for most of us! But cutting-edge analytical tools are continually improving… READ MORE
March 4th, 2016 - by Hugh Fisher
When it comes to analyzing the big amounts of Big Data that hotels and brands generate, the hospitality industry uses a… READ MORE
Resolutions for Brand Success in 2016: Four Simple Actions to Take the Hotel Guest Experience to the Next Level
January 13th, 2016 - by Karla Fonseca
So, in the hospitality industry, was 2015 the year of Millennials? The year of mobile? The year of mergers? What about… READ MORE
Every Bit of Data Tells a Story: Take Control of These Indicators for Higher Conversion Rates and More Revenue
October 23rd, 2015 - by Sabre Hospitality Solutions
Those double-decker reading assignments we had to deal with in school could be real killers. If you're like a lot of… READ MORE


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Sunday, 5 October 2014
back country, back story
9 comments:
What an amazing, beautiful book!!! How you ever decided on the pictures to include are beyond me. They carry you through from one to the next almost like a song. Your work is wonderful and I love your Eco Colour book (yes, it's in my personal library!). Thanks for sharing this.ReplyDelete
Another wonderful book India!ReplyDelete
Beautiful book, amazing images, I love seemingly arid landscapesReplyDelete
thank you for sharing the colours of the deep spirit of the landReplyDelete
Tis gorgeous !ReplyDelete
... the book, and the sublime rawness of that land.
wounderful India , the colours in your red country cannot be more different from my D:K:ReplyDelete
Such rich and wonderful red earth. Beautiful book.ReplyDelete
So many beautiful, rich luscious reds and earthy colors... so textured... and the words... so poetic.ReplyDelete
Beautiful book for rich and powerful artwork. It is a stunner India!ReplyDelete


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Climate Central is using the Before/After plugin in their article, Images Show Impact of Sea Level Rise on Global Icons.
Category: Before/After
Disney Blog Using Before/After Plugin
For those that missed it around the holidays last year, the Disney Parks Blog recently used the Before/After plugin to show some dramatic differences in Walt Disney World's Tomorrowland from 1971 to today. The plugin was also used in 2013 to showcase differences in Fantasyland in the blog's Then and Now series.


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Freebie First
The Alphabet Game
Andie M Long
Get the Erotic Romance Short Story series now all in one addictive edition, THE ALPHABET GAME, the complete series: A TO X, Y, Z.
A to E. Stella Mulroney is playing a game. It's taken her two years but she finally has an interview at Gregory & Sons, the top London law firm that looks after her stepfather's interests. She plans to discover what her Multi-millionaire Stepdaddy really invests in and bring him down. Unwittingly, she's caught the attention of Hot Alpha Gabriel 'Gabe' Gregory, son of her Stepfather's top Lawyer. He wants to know why Stella has such a need for revenge and would prefer her to channel that fury into a game of his own, 'The Alphabet Game'. After all, his is much more fun to play …
F to K: Stella Mulroney had been getting an education, with Lawyer Gabe Gregory teaching her The Alphabet Game, a sexual exploration from A through to Z, so she could infiltrate the sex clubs owned by her stepfather. After the restaurant debacle, Stella now has more to learn. Can Gabe be trusted, or is her stepfather no longer the enemy? Stella hires a Private Investigator to help her track down her stepsister Isabel, who might hold some of the answers. Or then again, maybe Isabel has secrets of her own ...
L to R: As Stella starts work at The Rodeo, the New York sex club owned by her stepfather and Gabe's dad; Gabe himself reels from the secret his mother kept from him for years. The Alphabet Game continues, but is it still about the sex or are deeper feelings emerging? Stella finally uncovers a lead in her quest for revenge. However Arnie Gregory isn't so keen for his secrets to be revealed and Stella is about to find out what happens when he's crossed ...
S to X, Y, Z: It's the end of the games. The sexual alphabet is coming to a close and Stella has a test to take. Arnie Gregory has been pushed too far and the revenge plan becomes a fight for survival that not everyone around Stella can win. Her stepfather, Mitch Daniels shows his true colours and there's someone else who hasn't been totally honest about who they are. With fame for some and infamy for others, The Alphabet Game ends with a kiss ...
Add to Goodreads
Purchase Links
Amazon UK
Amazon USA
Sale Second
Andie M Long
LAUREN LAWLER's life is visually perfect. However husband Niall seems to have forgotten she exists. Running a Vintage shop on Ebay and meeting her best friend Monique for coffee and shopping, Lauren feels
Add To Goodreads
Purchase Links
Amazon UK
Amazon USA
About The Author
Author of The Alpha Series: The Alphabet Game, The Calendar Game and The Alphabet Wedding, plus Underneath and Quickies.
Andie is a mum of one from Sheffield, UK, who desperately tries to juggle the day job, motherhood, writing, gardening and her other obsessions. She has a long suffering partner.
Stalker Links


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1. A MovieClip subclass instance starts playing as soon as it's been instantiated:
var myMC:MyMC = new MyMC();
AddChild(myMC); or
removeChild(myMC) doesn't affect the playhead in myMC, meaning if there is no framescript, myMC will continue playing regardless of whether it's been added to the playlist or not.
2. To use the versatile/artistic/rétrospectif/timeline-script style, one thing to keep in mind is if any children MovieClip symbols are physically placed inside the timeline of your MovieClip subclass, you can either have Flash make those variable declarations automatically (and thus you should not declaring them as variables in your timeline script), or associate your movieClip symbol with an external class file definition and remove those variable declaration in the class. (in such a case, you will still have Flash declare those children instances variables for you but you will have to make them public in your class.)
Link: Flash CS3: Automatic Timeline Declarations
3. To use an external class definition for a MovieClip symbol and associate timeline script with it, use
addFrameScript(frameObj1, frameHandler1, frameObj2, frameHandler2, *rest);. Note that frameObject is zero based: meaning if you want to use frame number, frame one would need a value of 0.
4. To determine if a displayObject is on the playlist or not, check to see if either of the following revolves to true or false:
5. Since the timeline script is synchronized by "
Event.ENTER_FRAME", it might be it's delayed because of other script took longer to execute. As an animator, I found myself, especially in my earlier days of using Flash, put a
stop() on some frame (say that frame is labeled "paused") of a MC symbol and in my client code, I need to
gotoAndPlay("paused") to resume from that specific point. It would sometimes get confusing since
gotoAndPlay("paused") won't always resume the playhead, instead it seems to freeze at that certain frame; that is because the frame script
stop() is executed AFTER
gotoAndPlay("paused") is executed . A quick-n-dirty workaround is to simply do the following:
6. Render Event
7. Flash 9: Timeline navigation and code execution


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[2] viXra:1410.0151 [pdf] submitted on 2014-10-24 02:54:53
Authors: VT Padmanabhan, Joseph Makkolil
Comments: 8 Pages.
A Kerala based industry producing food-pharma grade gelatine from animal bones is contaminating its neighbourhood and thousands acres of organic farms in Kerala and Tamil Nadu with its 18,000 tons of solid waste, containing heavy metals like lead and nickel, sold as organic manure. The waste may also contain persistent organic pollutants like dioxin and furan as they are using waste hydrochloric acid from a PVC manufacturing plant. The industry poses an unacceptable food safety risk, which needs to be investigated.
Category: Chemistry
[1] viXra:1410.0085 [pdf] submitted on 2014-10-16 08:45:54
Authors: Vladimir Komarov
Comments: 33 Pages.
Periodic system of elements in the form in which it exists today is just a convenient form of presentation of the late XIX early XX centuries. It does not fit into the Unified System of combinatorial evolution, adaptation and selection. It is in no way affiliated with the fundamental concept of nature - symmetry. It does not allow clear and easy to determine the accuracy of the experimental data for the nuclei of atoms and ions and their electron shells in general. In this work, an attempt was made to consider a set of atomic nuclei as a combination of a proton and a neutron with repetitions. Constructed a new form of chemical elements. On the example of the first twenty elements analyzed ionization energy of atoms. On the basis of previously made representations on unitary symmetry derived equation - conservation laws. It is shown that a significant number of data for the ionization energies of atoms were measured not accurately enough.
Keywords: Periodic table, Combinatorics, Homologous series, Unitary Symmetry, Ionization energy of the atoms.
Category: Chemistry


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IWBs in the classroom.
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sarspri's curator insight, April 16, 2013 7:18 PM
Visual, visual, visual ...
A post by a classroom language teacher and teacher trainer, Nik Peachey.
Shona Whyte's curator insight, April 17, 2013 3:40 AM
The iTILT manual provides advice on using the IWB in language teaching at all educational levels (young learners to adults and university students) and proficiencies (beginners through advanced). There are examples of teaching activities for different language learning objectives such as speaking, listening, grammar and pronunciation, as well as criteria for materials development designed to help teachers make their own IWB files.


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Happy hump day O readers!! It's time to share some inspiration from the fabulous O'Gallery. It really is a challenge for me to only choose a few pages to feature! The gallery is always a great resource when I am in need of inspiration! We are wrapping up another month here at Oscraps and with that I wanted to take a moment to show you some gorgeous creations from the challenge gallery.
First up is the Template Challenge. I found this fantastic page by MrsPeel – Dream and Live. I just fell in love with the bursts of color on the neutral background and the always amazing clustering skills.
Next is the Photo Challenge. I scoured through a ton of amazing pages and found this stunning page – Poppies by sabdesbois.
Moving along we have the Web Inspiration Challenge. I really liked Every Life by scrap-genie. A twist on a traditional family tree and a great take on the challenge.
Now on to the Lyrics Challenge. Somewhere in the South by Nessita is absolutely stunning! The bright colors, the blending, the photo. I just can't get enough of this one!
Chalkboards are on topic for the Trend Challenge this month. I really liked the wonderful group photo and all of the chalk work on We Are Ready for the Holidays by marijke.
Last, but not least is the Scraplift Challenge. The Abbey by easyeyes4you is beautiful. I was drawn by the bright colors and the wonderful blending.
Such amazing pages. Be sure and visit these ladies' galleries and leave them some well deserved love. The new challenges will be posted soon, so keep your eye on the challenge forum!!
3 Comments. Leave new
Thank you so much for picking my page 🙂
WOW…I am so flattered to be spotlighted here today…Thanks you!
These are beautiful picks!! I love how our challenges inspire such great work!


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Sekaten activities Kraton Surakarta routinely held to commemorate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad could not be separated from the existence of gamelan.
Gamelan Kyai Guntur Madu and Gamelan Kyai Guntur Sari placed in the Grand Mosque after Asr sounded week and stopped before the maghrib.
One of the courtiers named Parmo (65) explained before in place in the Grand Mosque, the orchestra must be taken from the palace.
"Because of the orchestra is one of the heritage belonging to the Kraton of Solo," he said in Solo, Central Java.
Parmo reveal gemelan lifting devices is not easy. Must clean born and minds. Lifting gamelan troupe will use typical clothing palace courtiers.
Although there is no specific rituals such should Poso (fasting) first. What is certain is required in order to clean the bath only when carrying the gamelan to the Grand Mosque.
Parmo admitted he did not feel heavy and weighed down when lifting device gamelan, because he did it with sincerity.
For Parmo said everything is done with a sincere heart, inner and outer ngawula intention, God willing smoothly.
"Ning yen 'ngesula' (complain) even when carrying heavy gamelan instruments will feel," he said.
Parmo already pulahan years of service so the Solo Palace courtiers. Since the time of PB XII still east (young). Even had since the days of his grandfather, his family devoted to the Palace.
Together with around 150 courtiers Parmo lifting devices and Gamelan Kyai Kyai Guntur Guntur Madu Sari to the Great Mosque which is not far from the Kraton of Solo.
Later Parmo prick up lampah (signpost) will go hand in hand to bring the gamelan then to be put in ward Great Mosque of Solo.
For Gamelan Kyai Guntur Madu device is placed in ward north Mosque Ageng. And the Gamelan Kyai Guntur Sari to the ward in the south.


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Okay, picked up for cheap a Pedalworx Tejas Overdrive pedal made by Pedalworx in the USA. From what I can gather Pedalworx is a small family business that produce some very nice handmade gear that is still very affordable. For example this pedal I got off EGay new for $71 shipped because it isn't over marketed yet. Even Klon and Wampler pedals started off doing small batches and slowly grew to become just too expensive (yes I know that they produce amazing great pedals, but $1000+ for an OD pedal by Klon… I mean C'mon…you can get a vintage Fender Twin Reverb for that! lol)
PedalWorx Tour Pro Toggle Overdrive
End Date: Thursday Mar-14-2019 8:27:48 PDT
Buy It Now for only: $175.00
Buy It Now | Add to watch list


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The Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA) 'Raising Our Game' Midsummer conference at the Westerwood Hotel in Cumbernauld today provided the venue for Business, Energy and Tourism Minister, Fergus Ewing's first post-election address to the Scottish tourism industry.
Over 100 leading figures from tourism businesses and organisations across Scotland gathered for the Minister's speech and to hear the success story of a tourism industry turned around, from Irish counterparts, the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC). The conference also focused on the importance of collaboration and how destinations can and have raised their game through funding initiatives ,with sessions delivered by Ian Davison Porter, Director of BID Scotland, Graeme Ambrose, CEO of VisitInvernessLochNess and Richard Millar, Head of Enterprise at Scottish Canals.
In his address, Mr. Ewing acknowledged the positive growth and confidence within the sector over the past two years and spoke of the commitment from Government to working with industry sectors to help build on tourism's recent successes.
The Minister said; "The 2014 tourism figures are hugely encouraging and show Scotland's tourism industry continuing to grow as we outperform the rest of Great Britain in both domestic and international visitors."
"The Scottish Government is committed to working together with the tourism industry to ensure its continuing success. This includes work in skills, business rates, better regulation, engagement with Europe, investment in infrastructure and support for events.
"We understand the importance of the tourism industry to Scotland's economy and in promoting the Scottish brand across the world and events like this will help this work continue."
Marc Crothall, CEO of the Scottish Tourism Alliance said; "We are delighted to have received such a strong pledge of support from the Minister for the sector today. We have over the past three years become an industry that speaks as one, an industry which is heard and recognised as being one of Scotland's main economic drivers. A strong foundation has been built and due to the past two years of growth the industry is confident but by no means complacent that there will be more of the same. There is certainly more joined up thinking taking place and stronger collaboration across the public and private sector which is essential to bringing about the longer-term change required to deliver the ambitious 2020 growth target set in the Tourism Strategy. Having the support of Government and working with Local Authorities and other public and private sector bodies remains key to enable Scotland to compete as a global tourist destination."
He added; "A step change is however required at a number of levels to remove barriers to growth and to make Scotland a destination of first choice for a high quality, value for money and memorable customer experience. Tax levied on tourism experiences, APD, high fuel price levels, digital connectivity, recruiting talent into the industry, destination funding – these are all areas which make it extremely challenging to compete within a global environment .As the voice of the industry, and one that has the ear of Government we will continue to highlight these issues to those who can influence change to relax and remove some of barriers we face to make Scotland more competitive as has happened in Ireland. As was evidenced in Mr. Ewing's comments today 2014 marked a turning point. The industry came together and worked harder than ever before to deliver these memorable experiences for visitors and there is real acknowledgement there is much work to do and that we must continue to build hard on the success and momentum gained over the past two years to raise our game and ensure that tourism remains a significant economic driver for Scotland."
As a response to the release of the recent tourism figures, Stephen Leckie, Chairman of the STA delivered his address on the national tourism strategy, Tourism Scotland 2020 (TS2020), sounding a clarion call for every organisation that tourism touches to get behind the Strategy. He said "Trading conditions continue to be challenging and as an industry, we need to be focused and pragmatic about what needs to be done to grow Scottish tourism. Tourism is everyone's business and we must all continue to get behind the industry strategy to ensure Scotland remains internationally competitive both as a destination for visitors and also a place to do business."
Leckie also announced that there will be a mid-term review of the Strategy in Autumn of this year, with the outcome to be published during Scottish Tourism Week between 11-18 March 2016.
The STA also announced the launch of its new business support line for Members. Partnering with Buell Exchange, the STA is now offering a free service which allows its members to tap into a range of high quality specialist advisory services and service providers.
Media contacts:
For further comments, images or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Mhairi Clarke – PR, Communications & Marketing Manager
Scottish Tourism Alliance
Tel: 07809 558 375
Email: email@example.com
Notes to Editors:
The Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA) was formed in 2012, an evolution of the Scottish Tourism Forum which was established in 1998 to act as the Industry Leadership Groupfor tourism and the leading voice for the tourism sector in Scotland.
The primary role of the STA is to represent the views of industry and be the ear and voice of the tourism industry.
The organisation also leads the facilitation and co-ordination of the on going development and delivery of the National Strategy: Tourism Scotland 2020, industry wide. The strategy ambition being to make Scotland a destination of first choice for a high quality, value for money and memorable customer experience.
One of the Scottish Tourism Alliance's key objectives is to help support individual businesses, marketing services, trade associations, local area tourism groups and any organisation with an active interest in tourism to realise their potential by maximizing and building on opportunities to ensure future growth of our industry.
The role of the STA is also to "lead on industry matters", collaborating with and representing industry views to government and agencies, bringing public and private players together to encourage the voicing of opinion about problems and priorities to find solutions.
The STA also acts as the united voice of the Scottish tourism industry to represent the "bigger" issues and bring about the changes needed at all levels to ensure future growth of the tourism industry and the economy.
The STA has circa 70% -75% of the tourism sector as members either directly and indirectly through association with, membership has trebled in three years and continues to grow.
For more information on the STA and the National Strategy: Tourism Scotland 2020 please visit http://scottishtourismalliance.co.uk/ or call 01786 459 235


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Here's a sneak of the card class I'll be teaching at Paperific this year from 29-31 August:
We'll be using the gorgeous Radiant range of papers from Authentique - so bright and cheery! We'll also be using Darkroom Door stamps and a bunch of dies and punches from a variety of companies. I must also acknowledge the very generous sponsorship of X-Press Graph-X who will be donating the awesome Foam Tape we will use on all the cards.
There are still some spots left if you're interested in booking in. All bookings can be done through the Paperific website (see class 4 on the list).
I look forward to seeing you there!


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Photo credit: Peter Forbes
I'm chaotic and energetic with a touch of mellow, a free spirit who doesn't like to settle for anyone's rules. My life is always full of new ideas, experimental interests, random adventures… I love to challenge myself, expand my mind, push my body, try new things, travel to gorgeous places. But I'm not afraid to stop and take a breath whenever life goes too fast.
I started this blog as an outlet for a journey back to myself after three years of motherhood. Not only did it serve that very purpose, but the challenges I set forth for myself herein opened new doors for me in unxpected ways. Read about the first few months of my challenges, follow the links to other writing I've been doing lately, and stay tuned for a rebirth of this blog itself.
Thanks for visiting.
Other places you can find me:


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This is outstanding: a supercut of every zombie death from the first season of "The Walking Dead," created by my new favorite person, Eric Linn (video below). It is 69 seconds of pure, unfiltered ZOMBIE OWNAGE. If there's a downside to this video — and there isn't — it's that it only has the active zombie kills, which means we don't get to enjoy the battered wife taking a pickax to her husband's head (we do, thankfully, get the famous ax to the head).
Of course, nothing awesome can exist without a nerd nitpicking it, and in this case the jackhole is a YouTube commenter who says that the last zombie beheading isn't technically a zombie death, because the brain has to be destroyed. GLAYVIN! Hey nerds, shut up. I'm trying to enjoy some decapitation over here.
[io9 via The Daily What]


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This creative homemade Halloween outfit is a clever play on words on the term "jail bird" by turning the catchphrase into a bird that has been recently locked up. The costume is a creative and simple one that you can easily put together at home before the big night.
Taking a literal meaning to the term "jail bird," lifestyle blog Brit + Co put together this fashionable costume begining with a stripped T-shirt and skirt to replicate a prison uniform. The "bird" aspect of the phrase is tied in through the use of black angel wings that are worn in a fanned out style. The costume is complete with a hand drawn prison number attached to the T-shirt.
Avian Wordplay Costumes
More Stats +/-
Celebrity Couple Costumes
Data-Powered Costume Finders
Fashion-Forward Superhero Comics
Breakfast Pastry Costumes
Luxurious Skull Cufflinks


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Friday, December 11, 2015
Christmas is coming...
8 comments:
- cm said...
Two beautiful cards and my favourite is....BOTH! Give me snowflakes - any kind, any colour, and you have me swooning! Thank you for sharing these festive gems in the Cupcake Inspirations *Let it Snow* challenge!
- December 11, 2015 at 9:42 PM
- Tanja said...
love those snowflakes - thanks for sharing your creation at Cupcake Inspirations
- December 12, 2015 at 3:44 AM
- *Vicki* said...
Your snowflakes look gorgeous!! Love your colors and designs! Thanks for joining in the fun with us at {Cupcake Inspirations}! Hugs & Smiles - *Vicki*-DT Sweetie
- December 12, 2015 at 7:07 AM
- Indy said...
Both are beautiful cards; though, the white snowflakes are more striking and visible. So glad you joined our Let It Snow Challenge at Cupcake Inspirations!
Debbie, DT Sweetie
- December 12, 2015 at 7:12 AM
- Margaret said...
So glad to see you crafting. I must say that I like the card with the white snowflakes. They really pop on the blue background. Hope you have a wonderful holiday and Merry Christmas.
- December 13, 2015 at 8:16 AM
- Shelly Schmidt said...
I love the silver and I love the white, and the silver, no the white....well. I cannot pick wither....both are awesome!
- December 13, 2015 at 5:38 PM
- Lynn McAuley said...
I love the blue backgrounds for your beautiful snowflakes, Tania! What pretty holiday designs!
- December 13, 2015 at 6:51 PM
- Kim P said...
Those snowflakes are wonderful...I really like the white ones. The blue background is very pretty for these.
- December 15, 2015 at 9:17 AM


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Monday, September 12, 2016
Paean to the typosphere
Typed by Richard P at 12:45 PM
6 comments:
Excellent. Great typeface too.ReplyDelete
Cue theme from Star Wars..... now scroll text... the resistance lives!ReplyDelete
A very complex poetry level indeed. In a certain way, it remembered me the start of "Star Wars" (all the movies). xDReplyDelete
I also saw the Star Wars thing immediately... this is all very well said. I think "Profit from the obsolete" could be a typosphere motto... or a sweet thing to etch or paint onto a typewriter...ReplyDelete
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FX News Today
European Fixed Income Outlook: Asian stock markets traded mixed. Japanese shares dipped as the yen bounced back against the dollar ahead of a speech by U.S. President Trump in Davos. The Nikkei is down 0.16%, Hang Seng and CSI 300 meanwhile are up 1.46% and 0.64% respectively while Australia was closed for a holiday. U.S. and U.K. stock futures are moving higher, bond markets are equally mixed and while 10-year Treasury yields are slightly higher, 10-year JGB's corrected -0.7 bp. Bund futures continued to move up from the lows seen in the wake of Draghi's presser yesterday and with reports that some at the ECB want to wait until June before tweaking the guidance, Eurozone yields should continue to stabilise, after yesterday's surge higher. While Eurozone markets will continue to digest yesterday's presser, U.K. markets have the first reading of Q4 GDP, with growth seen steady at 0.4% q/q, which would bring the annual rate down to 1.4% y/y from 1.7% y/y.ta.
Japan's CPI improved to a 1.0% y/y pace in December from a 0.6% y/y pace in November. The core rate (which excludes food) grew 0.9% y/y in December after a matching gain in November. The growth rate of the national and core CPI came in as expected in December. Tokyo core CPI improved to a 1.3% y/y pace in January from a 1.0% y/y pace in December. The core Tokyo CPI slowed to a 0.7% y/y pace from 0.8%. USDJPY has dipped to 109.44 from 109.72, but remains above the 108.52 low seen during North American trading, which gave way to a sharp gain over 109.50 after Trump said the dollar is going to get stronger and stronger, and that ultimately he want to see a strong dollar. His comments contrasted with Mnuchin's "weak dollar ok" comments that had knocked the greenback lower against a broad suite of currencies. The Nikkei is 0.2% firmer, the Hang Seng is up 0.8% and China's CSI 300 is 0.3% higher. It was a mixed session on Wall Street Wednesday, as the Dow rose 0.5% to a fresh record 26,392.79, the S&P 500 inched 0.06% higher to a record 2839.25 while the Nasdaq fell 0.05%.
Charts of the Day
Main Macro Events Today
- UK GDP- Q4 GDP expected to come in unrevised from the preliminary estimated growth readings of 0.4% q/q and 1.4% y/y.
- US GDP and Durable Goods – Q4 GDP set to increase 3.0%, a tad slower than 3.2% in Q3. Durable goods orders are projected to rise 0.8% in December vs 1.3% in November, or +0.5% ex-transportation.
- Canadian CPI and Core CPI – the CPI is projected to slow to a 1.9% y/y pace in December from 2.1% in November, as the index drops 0.3% m/m after the 0.3% bounce in November.
- BoE Carney and BoJ Kuroda Speech at 14:00 GMT
Click here to access the HotForex Economic calendar.
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Andria Pichidi
Market Analyst
Disclaimer: This material is provided as a general marketing communication for information purposes only and does not constitute an independent investment research. Nothing in this communication contains, or should be considered as containing, an investment advice or an investment recommendation or a solicitation for the purpose of buying or selling of any financial instrument. All information provided is gathered from reputable sources and any information containing an indication of past performance is not a guarantee or reliable indicator of future performance. Users acknowledge that any investment in FX and CFDs products is characterized by a certain degree of uncertainty and that any investment of this nature involves a high level of risk for which the users are solely responsible and liable. We assume no liability for any loss arising from any investment made based on the information provided in this communication. This communication must not be reproduced or further distributed without our prior written permission.


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Top of the evening to all...
Some years ago, I had received mobilization orders to go to Afghanistan. People asked my beloved bride if she was worried about me in a combat zone. Jennifer's response was tongue-in-cheek, to a point. She said: "he rides a bicycle downtown. That scares me more than anything he might do in Afghanistan."
On May 19th, a cyclist was hit in the Mt. Pleasant area. He died May 29th. Since then, two more cyclists have been killed in Toronto. Today, a fourth cyclist was killed while riding his bicycle out in Milton.
Does anybody care?
When I was but a wee lad growing up in the Commonwealth of Virginia, there was a stretch of US 58 near Emporia, VA, about an hour to the west, that was known as "Suicide Strip." It was a two-lane highway that was a legal passing zone. There were deaths along that stretch of road for years. Finally, the government widened it, and in 1991, dedicated the new US 58, a four-lane highway that is now a lovely drive. Historically, it had been a death every 2.5 months.
Apparently, when motorists die, it is important. No one asks if the driver was being reckless. No one complains that someone was speeding. People point out the unsafe conditions, and finally elicit a response. Dangerous drivers do stupid things. Infrastructure can and should be built to prevent such stupidity as much as possible. In Virginia, it happened.
The recent mess has been more than one death in 2.5 months. This is now four deaths in five weeks. In these cases, the cyclists were all being safe. Not that it matters...there is clearly a need for safety measures.
When I first really started traveling the city by bicycle, I was usually content to ride in the painted cycle lanes. There are some really nice lanes. Russell Hill is just a dandy ride. I was run off the road there once though. A driver did not see me, and elected to go around a turning car via the bicycle lane as I was passing.
Lately, I have been more and more uncomfortable traveling on the streets. The carnage of the last five weeks is unnerving, to say the least.
I no longer support painted lanes. There should be a physical separation on all of the major streets. The bloodshed must end. Cyclists have the absolute right to safety on streets for which they pay taxes to pave and to maintain. Not only do they have the right to safety, they have the right to the feeling of safety.
To its credit, the City of Toronto is embarked on a major study to figure out the next steps in developing infrastructure. It will take time to see if the city is serious in taking the set of steps necessary after the current set of steps. I will believe it when I see it.
In the meantime, I encourage everyone to go to toronto.ca/cycling to do the cycling survey and to make your own cycling map. This is not just an issue for cyclists. This is also an issue for drivers. We do not have to be adversaries. We should not be adversaries. We all want to get where we are going safely.
Thank you all for listening.
Have a good night.


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There are 2`2/9` as many cars as motocycles in a parking spot.
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The correct answer is : 20/29


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Only those deeds have been discussed here that do not involve any significant labour or difficulty but earn much merit and reward. The purpose is to awaken in the hearts of the readers the urge to follow and observe them and increase their store of goodness for the Afterlife. However, it is necessary to remember the following points when reading this book:
1. Since this booklet deals with only those good deeds that are easy to perform without much labour or hardship and one can start performing them immediately, there is no mention of those acts and actions which are unavoidably enjoined and prescribed. Hence it should be remembered that din (i.e. faith) is not confined to the deeds mentioned here. The commandments of faith embrace all aspects of life and it is incumbent upon every Muslim to carry out all prescribed acts and to desist from sinning.
This book has two purposes: Firstly it is to urge those who already carry out the prescribed duties to add those easy-to-perform actions in their repertoire of good deeds and thus enhance the positive value of their roster of deeds. The second purpose is to attract those who, believing the commands of the faith are too difficult to observe, have deviated from it, and to gradually persuade them to do easy-to-perform deeds which lead them at once to the portals of faith. It is hoped that if they start performing those easy deeds, there shall gradually awaken in their hearts the urge to observe all the commandments of the faith and they shall one day easily embrace a wholly religious way of life.
2. The second point to be understood is that, ahadith (saying of our eternally blessed Prophet) have been quoted in this book, which promise Divine forgiveness for some very simple actions. However it must be remembered, when reading these ahadith that the sins which are automatically pardoned by good deeds are minor sins only: major sins require formal repentance and forswearing. The Holy Qur'an says : If you avoid the major sins you are prohibited to perform, We shall atone your minor vices.
Similarly, sins relating to the human rights are not pardoned until and unless the right due to the aggrieved is restored to him or her, or the aggrieved person forgives the wrongdoer. Thus the mention of sins pardoned by simple good deeds should not delude the reader into believing that whatever sins big or small he commits he would be receiving Divine pardon by virtue of these good deeds.
One should keep in mind the environment in which the eternally blessed Prophet Muhammad spoke of Divine pardon for good deeds:
The conditions then were such that it was difficult to imagine a mu'min (a believer) committing a major sin and not repenting for it. In those days most sins were minor and thus only those sins were mentioned, while the Seriousness and heinousness of major sins and the importance of penitence and penance remain.
3. Keeping in mind the above mentioned two points, one must not forget the following saying of our eternally blessed Prophet: Never take any -good deed as humble.
Hence one must never be deluded into believing that if we are unable to do big deeds. How can small relatively insignificant deeds lead to our salvation? A good deed is never insignificant and so no opportunity of doing good should be let pass, as it is entirely possible that good deed may be rewarded by Divine 'pleasure and our whole life may change. This book, if read with those points in mind, shall be useful. May Allah reward this humble effort and may He grant us the good fortune to do good deeds. Ameen.


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Discussion > Momentum and Inertia of the Establishment
It is tempting to use "Power of the Establishment", but I will stick with "momentum" and "inertia".
If you haven't seen this documentary, I would recommend it: Hillsborough. A well made documentary where the only voices are those involved.
I am not going to write a deep analysis of the parallels between Hillsborough and Climate Science. At first what may seem at face value a strange hypotheses, really isn't, not after you watch the program. And after watching, you will either see straight away the similarities of how the establishment acts or you will not (or will not want to.) Such enlightenment will not be helped much by thousands of words from me. The parallels are blindingly obvious, if you want to look, but hey "looking" is not a trait that appears often with Climate Alarm proponents. But I will say this...
The truth was hiding in plain sight. A truth that was not contradicted by the facts. Yet the truth was not enough.
Elements of the establishment, even until the last moment, even after 27 years, felt they could still control the wheels of society and influence the interpretation of the truth.
I often feel that Climate Science is an "Emperor's New Clothes" event. But after watching this story, and reading in details the events, I am not so sure it will be, With the establishment "truth" is relative, "truth" is what you make it.
The parallels are clear if you want to look.
plenty more examples in this excellent book.
It's all happened before and I'm sure it will continue to happen in the future...how on earth do you prevent it.
The Climategate enquiries could have been an episode of Yes Minister it was so obviously an establishment cover up. They didn't even look at the offending e-mails and of course admitted "playing a blinder".
Yet intelligent people, many of whom presumably enjoyed Yes Minister, even today trot it out as a vindication of Jones et al.
Astonishing and depressing in equal measure.
Thanks Simon I will download it.
It is such an interesting area. Of course we only know of people or organisations that ultimately fail.
Remember Jonathon Aitken and his "sword of truth"? https://youtu.be/BR51fB8JNhI?t=1m
And perhaps a perfect case study (and an excellent documentary) of the truth being defined by "he who blinks first, loses", Lance Armstrong. The Armstrong Lie documentary is an excellent film, even more so that its premise changed during production from valedictory to hubris (it is available from any number of lawful streaming services, "unlawful" sites)
Hillsborough was different. A few minutes after the tragedy the Police pushed their rock of justification off down the hill and the force of the establishment gravity kept it going and going. It took a generation of politicians to come and go to make an up-slope for the rock to stop and then fall backwards.
I find the class element quite interesting. Aitken, Hillsborough were still of the time when a Public School accent (for the US these means private school) would automatically give you an advantage, both with the establishment, and with putting the plebs in their place. Hillsborough reeks of that. But it wasn't just that, regional stereotyping by other working class, and also habit of this region to often disparage itself, and turn in on itself.
Anyway that is a digression from Climate. People talk about conspiracies. About covers-ups re Climate. It doesn't have to be anything like that. The Alarmism rock was tipped over the side of the hill many years ago. The establishment provide the gravitational force to keep it moving (this has nothing to do with truth.) Even just to slow the rock will take many events over many years. The rock is huge and forces great.
> People talk about conspiracies. About covers-ups<
The Official investigations into the Climategate scandal, have a lot in common with regular drug testing of Lance Armstrong.
Everyone knew what they paid not to ook for. So they never found it.
golf charlie
Lance Armstrong always had a politicians answer when asked if he took performance enhancing substances.
I've never tested positive
The same response as
An independent enquiry found nothing
SandyS, when tested, Mann's Hockey Stick always gets a negative result.


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Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.
Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.
The world-building was surprisingly brilliant and so well-laid. Unfortnunately though, the romance was just enveloped in what seemed like a Twilght-ish wrapping yet to me it was a bit more sweeter. Nonetheless, you'd be surprised at the amount of emotions in this book, from every single character. It was just whiskful of emotions blended together - love of all sorts, longing, fear, sadness - and the lenght of the story gave a way for the author to bring all what she had out and it was masterful. The characters were all well-written and seemed authentic to being fictional charaters and Diana herself - regarding how long the book was as I said - went through courses of showing different aspects of her personality and it just deepened my connection to her.
However, Deborah's style of writing wasn't the easiest to read, it leaned toward being complex. Despite the fact that I loved her usuage of other languages and especially French but the writing itself was perplexing but it was still well-researched and written too.
Overall, this book was really good which I kind of didn't expect, there was something enthralling about it. And witches, vampires and history..... it was a good mix. An enjoyable storyline, averagely detailed and easy to imagine, along with a sweet love story that will make you heart flutter. So if you are a fan of Twilight and fantasy novels in general but maybe won't mind much details then I recommend this book for you. Can't wait to start reading the next book!
Title: A Discovery of Witches
Author: Deborah Harkness
Series: All Souls Trilogy
Published: February 8th 2011 by Penguin Books
Source: Owned
Links: Goodreads
Rating: 4/5
Happy Reading!
xoxo, Mariam


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Dissident Jago raglan sleeve jumper Two colour stitch checked effect Raglan sleeves Branded tab to hem and sleeve Contrast ribbed collar, cuffs and hem A great textural knit, that ticks several key trends for autumn. Choose burgundy for this seasons hot colour, or go for grey and work the monochrome look. Whatever your pick, this jumper is an easy piece to style, just pop on jeans or chinos and your favourite winter boots.
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Users Page
An archive of propellant formulations, motor designs, static test data and other information from the country's top EX flyers! Individuals are invited to submit their favorite designs for posting here. When preparing your submission please use the following format: formulation details, sources of supply, processing notes and static test and/or flight photos and videos.
Click here to submit information to RCS.
RCS and the authors of the information provided on this page take absolutely no responsibility in any way for the material presented herein. The authors believe it to be accurate and safe from their own experience, but if you choose to use any of this information you are doing so entirely at your own risk. Bear in mind also that you must obey all laws in your city, county, and state, as well as the federal laws pertaining to rocket motors. Learning about these is not within the scope of the material presented herein - it is your obligation to ensure that you are in full compliance. That having been said, if you are a sensible adult and wish to make your own motors, read onward.
Bear in mind that the materials used in propellant manufacture, the finished propellant, and especially the propellant shavings are all extremely flammable. Safety is paramount! One mistake and you can have a serious injury or fire. Here is a list of things you must bear in mind...
• Always conduct all operations in a safe place. That does not mean your kitchen table, your bedroom, or even an attached garage. Think about this - in a worst case scenario, if there were to be a fire, what would be at risk? I think you'll agree that isolating any flammable materials from your home and loved ones is a wise thing to do. Build a shed, buy a little trailer, whatever you have to do... just keep your experimentation in a safe place.
• Always have fire extinguishing agents available in your work area. A standard household extinguisher is okay for secondary fires, but will not extinguish burning propellant. Really, your best bet if you have burning propellant is water, but even this may only limit the fire. And remember, only try to extinguish a fire if it is safe to do so. Don't be a hero. Since your work area will be isolated, if it burns down, it will not be the end of the world.
• Always use proper safety equipment. Wear chemical resistant gloves, and use a dust mask when handling dry chemicals, especially metal powders.
• Never smoke around propellant. Never operate grinders, welding torches, etc. in the same area where you have your gear.
• Read those MSDS sheets. Know your risks.
• Remember that cured propellant can be cut and drilled at low speed (~500 RPM), but must never be subjected to impact, friction, static or mechanical spark or heat above 170 deg. F.
• Strive to know as much as possible about what you are doing. Read every book you can and talk to everyone who is into making motors you can find. Safety and knowledge go hand in hand.
• If you are into pyrotechnics, bear in mind that chlorates must never come in contact with AP.
Propellant Formulations (PDF format)
Everclear Formulation Submission
Wimpy Red Formulation Submission
Simple Green Formulation Submission
Purple Formulation Submission
Purple Formulation Performance Data in Kosdon 54-1400 Case
Everclear Formulation
Wimpy Red Formulation
Don Rice's Exocet using a 75mm 6-grain Wimpy Red propellant motor (photo by Kevin Trojanowski).
Rich Pitzeruse's Patriot using a 75mm 6-grain Wimpy Red propellant motor.
Everclear Formulation
Click here to view an mpg video of a test of a 54mm 1040 N-sec Kosdon case loaded with 9" of Everclear propellant total (3 BATES grains X 3" long each). Bottom (nozzle end) grain had a 5/8" core and the top two grains had a 9/16" core. Nozzle throat was .441" diameter.Click here to view an mpg video of a test of a 54mm 1400 N-sec Kosdon case loaded with 12" of Everclear propellant total (4 BATES grains X 3" long each). All grains had a 5/8" core.
Click here to view an mpg video of a test of a 54mm 2550 N-sec Kosdon case loaded with 24" of Everclear propellant total (6 BATES grains X 4" long each). The two grains at the nozzle end had 7/8" cores, while the remainder of the grains had 3/4" cores. The two grains with 7/8" cores got ejected through the nozzle at the end of the burn. Nozzle throat was .658" diameter.


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Tuesday, November 11, 2008
What is a retro-clone game?
I've seen the term used all over the place now, sometimes used in ways that confuse me. So I want to define a little more closely what I think a retro-clone is, for whatever my ramblings are worth.
A retro-clone, the way I use the term, refers specifically to a game that attempts to emulate as closely as is legally possible the game rules of another game. That's it. If you've ever encountered the various game emulators for NES, SEGA, and other old cartridge console games, then you have an idea what I mean.
However, I see the term used for other games, such as Castles & Crusades and Mazes & Minotaurs. We should draw a line between retro-clones and retro games in general. Mazes & Minotaurs is a retro game, but it clearly is not closely cloning another game.
Castles & Crusades is in an odd category. It clones elements of Basic D&D, AD&D, and D&D 3.5, mixing them all together for a game that can appeal to 3.xers and old-schoolers. So it is definitely a retro game, to one degree or another, but it does not emulate the rules of a specific single game. As a side note, fans of C&C who are critical of retro-clones have no moral high ground. Cloning elements of three games does not make it qualitatively more "moral" compared to games that only clone one game. IMHO cloning is cloning.
Mutant Future is also a special case, which I would call retro but not a "retro-clone." Since it borrows its core rules from Labyrinth Lord, but other elements from other OGC, it does not directly emulate a specific game.
Anyway, I'd classify this post as one of those "oddball rants" I promise in my blog header.
5 comments:
- JimLotFP said...
... so does BFRPG qualify?
- November 11, 2008 at 10:00 PM
- Dan of Earth said...
I would say it is as much a clone as Mutant Future is. So, in the strict sense, no it's not a retro-clone since it does not emulate one game as closely as possible.
- November 11, 2008 at 11:14 PM
- Olman Feelyus said...
No, that is a very helpful distinction for me. Thanks, those terms needed clearing up in my head.
- November 12, 2008 at 3:51 AM
- Malcadon said...
I was reading up on various retro and simulacra games, and I fund an interesting entry for a retro-clone for the James Bond game, called Double Zero (see below link). UncleBear (the guy who is making the game) calls retro-clone games "distills". Such a term is a bit crude, but somewhat appropriate to describe the nature of purging a game of its copyrighted elements, and keeping its core rule system intact. The term retro-clone and distill are the same thing, but retro-clone sounds much better.
- November 13, 2008 at 3:14 PM
- donna said...
- February 20, 2010 at 9:15 AM