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Bill George: Volunteering in New Orleans
As I went through my Lenten journey this year, I could not stop reflecting on my trip this past February with IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities) to New Orleans. I knew that my journey through Lent would not just be a physical struggle with prayer and fasting, but would be provoked by issues I had come to contemplate from my time volunteering with Habitat for Humanity.
My week in New Orleans did not afford me the opportunity to see the areas hit the hardest by the storm, but hearing peoples' stories and from what I heard on the news, I was able to piece together an accurate picture of the devastation that occurred. The intense storm and how the residents responded made me realize I could use their experience to understand my struggle through Lent. Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the countryside just as my spiritual journey through Lent is battered with temptations to sin. Just as some houses were left untouched or others completely destroyed, certain temptations are harder to drive off than others.
Everyone who went to volunteer went with high spirits and the desire to accomplish as much as they could. Each person had varying skills, from those with construction experience, to others that had never lifted a hammer before. Yet each person, working together, was able to contribute to building a house. This taught me that I must talk to others and learn from them about how to deal with my temptations during Lent. Everyone has different experiences during Lent and each can lend some wisdom to help me rethink and rebuild my fasting and prayer. That is the basis for my Lenten journey. Even though I may break my fast during Lent, I can ask for help, find ways to correct it, and look forward to the Paschal celebration.
The people in New Orleans know that it is never going to be the same, but instead of complaining or worrying they continue to work hard and with the help of others they will make their future even better. My trip was not at all what I had expected. I went knowing I was going to work hard to help others, but I returned home feeling I had received more from my journey than I had given
by Bill George


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We asked our team what their favorite orange items of the moment are. Here's what they found:
Tiffany Burgess, Managing Editor WHAT SHE FOUND: Orange Melamine Mixing Bowls
WHAT SHE SAID ABOUT IT: Fall makes me want to mix up a batch of pumpkin bread or muffins. These orange mixing bowls are the perfect hue for the season.
WHERE SHE FOUND IT: Williams-Sonoma
Chip Jones, Editor in Chief WHAT HE FOUND: A gingham shirt
WHAT HE SAID ABOUT IT: I love a Gingham shirt and this time of year makes me want to wear Orange. A Ralph Lauren Gingham button-down is one of my all time favorites.
WHERE HE FOUND IT: Ralph Lauren
Kelly Frazier, Publisher/Owner WHAT SHE FOUND: Decorative accents
WHAT SHE SAID ABOUT IT: I love a splash of orange in a room…like these pillows!
WHERE SHE FOUND IT: Burnham Design on Houzz
Emilie Head, Account Executive WHAT SHE FOUND: Homemade Orange Sweet Rolls
WHAT SHE SAID ABOUT IT: My fiancé absolutely loves Pillsbury's Orange Sweet Rolls. This homemade version looks even sweeter. I will definitely be baking up a batch of these this fall!
WHERE SHE FOUND IT: Sally's Baking Addiction
Zoe Barton, Editorial Intern WHAT SHE FOUND: Studded Coral Clutch
WHAT SHE SAID ABOUT IT: When fall comes around, my wardrobe starts to showcase the colors of the season. My favorite way is to add a pop of color with any accessory, whether it be a pair of bold earrings, or a twist on a classic clutch like this one from Riff Raff.
WHERE SHE FOUND IT: Riff Raff

subset: commoncrawl


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Countries Agree New Plan for Global Shark Conservation
Press Release
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
– News Centre –
27. September 2012
Over 50 countries have made renewed efforts to tackle over-fishing and other threats to migratory shark species as part of a new UN-backed conservation plan.
Bonn, 27 September 2012
Government representatives from 50 countries have gathered in Bonn, Germany, for the first meeting of signatories to the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks concluded under the UN Convention on Migratory Species (CMS).
Participants adopted a new conservation plan, which aims to catalyze regional initiatives to reduce threats to migratory sharks. Signatory states also agreed to involve fishing industry representatives, NGOs, and scientists in implementing the conservation plan.
Under the agreement, countries agreed to exchange information among government bodies, scientific institutions, international organizations and NGOs. Improved monitoring and data collection will help assess the structure, trends and distribution of shark populations necessary to design targeted conservation measures.
The MoU on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks (2010) is the first global instrument dedicated to migratory sharks and complements a suite of existing wildlife and fisheries agreements.
Since migratory sharks cross the high seas and national waters of different states, closer collaboration between countries is needed to tackle over-fishing and other threats.
"The Convention on Migratory Species welcomes the continued cooperation among governments and partners and challenges participants to take meaningful actions to promote shark conservation within their waters and on the high seas," said CMS Acting Executive Secretary Elizabeth Maruma Mrema.
Sharks are under serious threat around the globe. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified 17 percent of more than 1000 assessed species as threatened, according its 'Red List' criteria. Sharks are caught intentionally or as accidental "by-catch" in virtually all types of fisheries worldwide.
The new conservation plan will encourage fisheries-related research on incidental and direct shark catches with the aim to ensure that all shark catch is sustainable.
In particular, governments will work with fishing industries, regional fisheries management organizations, scientists and NGOs to avoid the capture of two of the largest sharks in the world: the basking shark and great white shark. These shark species are considered endangered migratory species and are listed in Appendix I of CMS.
Other species targeted by the conservation plan include mako, spiny dogfish, porbeagle, basking, white, and whale sharks.
Countries also stressed that the accidental capture of sharks in fishing gear needs to be more closely regulated. Participants at the Bonn meeting agreed to encourage catch quotas to ensure sustainable use of targeted sharks and stricter limits on endangered shark species. No international fishing quotas have been established to date for the short and long fin mako sharks, which traverse ocean basins, are fished by multiple countries, and are covered by the CMS agreement.
The conservation plan also suggests that sharks should be landed with their fins still attached in order to prevent shark "finning" (slicing off a shark's fins and discarding the body at sea). The high value of fins has created an economic incentive for shark finning , but to date, more than 60 fishing nations, including the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU), have banned the practice.
However, in the EU and some other countries, processing sharks on board vessels is still allowed in some cases. This means that shark fins can be removed from carcasses and stored separately under a fin-to-carcass weight limit that can be difficult to properly enforce. In 2011, the European Commission proposed putting an end to these permits and requiring that sharks be landed with their fins attached. On 19 March 2012, the Council of the European Union endorsed the Commission's approach. The proposal is currently being debated by the European Parliament.
It is estimated that 26 to 73 million sharks are killed every year to support the global shark fin market. Shark fins, used in the traditional Asian dish shark fin soup, are among the world's most valuable fishery products. The price of shark fins reached more than US$ 700 per kilo in 2011, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Sharks are also sought for meat and liver oil and, increasingly, their cartilage skeletons are also marketed.
Most sharks are long-living species that grow slowly, mature late, and produce few young. These biological factors make sharks particularly vulnerable to overfishing and mean that populations can be slow to recover once depleted.
Representatives from other UN bodies such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as well as INTERPOL also participated at the meeting of signatories, in addition to leading NGO representatives and shark fisheries experts.
CMS is working with Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) to promote the conservation and sustainable use of sharks.
Notes to Editors:
The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, also known as the Bonn Convention, works for the conservation of a wide array of endangered migratory animals worldwide through negotiation and implementation of agreements and species action plans. The Convention is administered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). With 117 member countries, UNEP/CMS is a growing convention with special expertise in the field of marine species. The CMS Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks entered into force in March 2010 and has 25 signatories to date. It is the first intergovernmental treaty dealing specifically with shark conservation at a global level.
For more information please contact:
Veronika Lenarz, Public Information, UNEP/CMS Secretariat, on Tel.: +49 228 815 2409 or e-mail: email@example.com,
UNEP Newsdesk (Nairobi) on Tel. +254 20 7625022 / +254 20 762 3088 / +254 20 762 5261 or e-mail: email@example.com
Source: UNEP


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Washing Systems
An additional manufacturing branch from our copmany are washing systems.
The machines are being made according to the customers needs and demands. Some washing machines are manufactured in a similiar design as our wet blast machines. The machines can be executed as stand-alone versions, or even in-line, e.g. in connection with a wet blast system.


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Stay Connected During the Holidays: 7 Tips for Hearing Your Best
Whether parties or dinners, there are countless opportunities during the holidays to gather with loved ones. That means plenty of chances to practice our tips for giving yourself the greatest gift of all: connection. Read on to get started.
Give Yourself a Firm Foundation
- Put together a holiday better-hearing kit and keep it in your bag or purse wherever you go. Include extra batteries, a cleaning set, a dehumidifier, extra domes or tubing, and an older set of hearing aids if you have them.
Around the Table
Meals are a big part of the holidays — we want to help you get your fill of both the food and the festivities with these better-hearing tips for the table.
- Speak up
If you feel comfortable doing so, give a gentle reminder to slow down, speak up, and talk directly to you. It will go a long way — for you and for those in the conversation. - Find a friend
Sit near a relative you enjoy talking to and who won't mind repeating things for you if you miss something. Also, pick a seat at the table where there is less noise to drown out your conversation. - Sit strategically
If possible, avoid spots near the kitchen or underneath a speaker. Even better, request a spot away from noise and with enough light to provide you the advantage of reading lips and seeing facial expressions.
It's Party Time
Parties are a must for holiday fun, whether with your co-workers or loved ones. Put on your boogie shoes and put your best foot forward with these communication ideas.
- Turn down the background noise
The host's job is to help you enjoy yourself, so if you feel comfortable doing so, ask them to turn down the music or television. We're sure everyone will appreciate not having to yell! - The fewer, the merrier
Situating yourself among fewer people can help you focus more on what's being said — as well as boost your hearing confidence. - Direct the action
Just like at the table, if you feel comfortable, remind those around you that it can be hard to hear with a lot of background noise (not just for you but for everyone!). Try helping them help you: How could they speak differently to help you hear better?
We want to help keep your spirits merry and bright — if you've experienced a lack of clarity at gatherings lately, contact us today for a hearing consultation.


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It can be really embarrassing to fart in public, however, if it happens with close friends and family members, then you can usually make a joke about it.
Still, there are situations when farts can be super annoying. However, you need to realize they are bodily functions, same as hiccups and burping
Yet, there is more about them to know then just being funny and smelly. Thus, we are here to present you with some facts about farts that you probably might not have known.
Some Facts About Farting
1. While we sleep during the night is the time when most of the farting is happening.
2. Women fart less than men.
3. Female's farts have a higher concentration of hydrogen sulfide and this is why they stink more but they are healthier to smell.
4. Farts are made of hydrogen sulfide and this is why they are healthy for smelling.
5. Gum and soda and more of it can make one person fart more.
6. The average number of how many times a person farts per day is 14 times.
7. The lounder farts usually come from a tight sphincter.
8. Termites are the animals that produce the most farts. Then come the cows, camels, elephants, dogs (retrievers and labs), zebras and sheep.
9. People should not be embarrassed if it happens to fart in front of other people. This means that you are a healthy individual. In fact, if you do not fart at all you should seek medical help.
10. Farts go 10 ft/s
11. The average 14 farts a day can fill up a balloon.
12. The word fart was coined in 1962 and it means a wind from the anus.
That is all about farts. As you can see there is more to farts that what you have heard. Also, it is healthy to do it, so do not shy away.


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Q: I love the convenience of payment apps, like Cash App and Venmo, but I've heard there's been an increase in scams being pulled off within these apps. How can I continue to use my payment apps without compromising my safety?
A: Payment apps offer users the ability to effortlessly send payments to friends, making it easy to split the tab at a shared meal, buy a present for a mutual friend and quickly pay back a small loan. Unfortunately, though, scammers are using these apps to cheat people out of their money.
Here's all you need to know about payment app scams and how to protect yourself from being the next victim.
How the scam plays out
There are several variations of the mobile payment app scam, most of which involve the scammer hijacking the victim's linked checking account or credit card and using it to pay for their own purchases. Now, though, with the COVID-19 pandemic changing people's attitudes toward money, there is another, more nefarious scam being played out through mobile payment apps.
In this trending scam, a payment app user is invited to participate in a contest on Twitter or another social media platform. The host of the contest is giving away a bundle of cash to one lucky winner as a way of helping them through the economic downturn caused by COVID-19.
After entering the contest, the victim receives a message informing them that they've won the giveaway — but they need to pay a small fee to verify their account and, later, receive their cash prize. Thrilled to be the winner and suspecting nothing unusual, the victim will gladly pay the fee and wait for their big payday. Unfortunately, though, the money never lands in their account, and they won't see the funds they used to pay the "fee" ever again.
In the above scenario, the contest the victim entered may actually be authentic, but the follow-up post they've received is the work of a scammer.
Sometimes, the victim has not entered any contests but receives a message appearing to be sent directly from the payment app informing them they've been randomly chosen to win a cash prize — with a small processing fee attached.
Other times, scammers take the ruse one step further. After asking the victim to send the fee via mobile payment app, the scammer hacks the victim's linked account or credit card and uses it to make their own expensive purchases.
Scammers use keywords like #coronavirus and #emergencyfunds to make their social media posts appear authentic; their efforts often pay off.
"My goal is to help those in need," one scammer in Florida wrote. "Your deposit allows us to immediately send you your payment."
The scam can be pulled off through any payment app, but is especially popular with Cash App users who are familiar with the app's "Cash App Fridays." To the unsuspecting victim, the new freebies seem like an extension of the app's existing giveaways.
Likewise, the scam can be executed through several social media platforms, but is most commonly found on Twitter. The social media giant is a popular host for contests of this sort, and another cash giveaway hardly stands out. The "Retweet" culture on Twitter also makes it easy for scammers to pick up on a legitimate contest and choose a participant to target.
"This behavior is absolutely against our rules and outlined as such here," Twitter spokesperson Lauren Alexander wrote in an email. "Users who see such scams should go to the 'Suspicious and Spam' category to report the scam."
Protect yourself
Luckily, you don't need to give up on the convenience of mobile payment apps just yet. Protect yourself from this scam by learning about the medium used to pull it off and how to recognize the scam's red flags.
Here's what you need to know about Cash App and other mobile payment apps:
- Cash App will never ask customers to send it money as a "processing fee" or for "verification."
- Cash App will not ask users to share their PIN or sign-in code outside the app.
- Cash App currently has only two official Twitter accounts, @cashapp and @cashsupport, both of which have blue, verified check marks. If you receive a tweet from another account appearing to be from the app, it is likely bogus.
If a post or tweet looks suspicious, don't take any chances; ignore it and move on.
If you believe you have fallen victim to a mobile payment app scam, contact the app's support through the app or website. If the scam is reported early enough, they may be able to reverse the transaction. You can also report the scam to the FTC at ftc.gov and let your friends know about the circulating scam so they don't fall victim to it themselves.
Mobile payment apps make transferring money easy, but they also make it easy for scammers to con victims out of their money. Stay alert and practice caution to keep your money safe.
Your Turn: Have you been targeted by a payment app scam? Tell us about it on Facebook.


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WASHINGTON — Calling Donald H. Rumsfeld energetic was like calling the Pacific wide. When others would rest, he would run. While others sat, he stood. But try as he might, at the pinnacle of his career as defense secretary he could not outmaneuver the ruinous politics of the Iraq war.
Regarded by former colleagues as equally smart and combative, patriotic and politically cunning, Rumsfeld had a storied career in government under four presidents and nearly a quarter century in corporate America. After retiring in 2008 he headed the Rumsfeld Foundation to promote public service and to work with charities that provide services and support for military families and wounded veterans.
The two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate died Tuesday. He was 88.
"Rummy," as he was often called, was ambitious, witty, engaging and capable of great personal warmth. But he irritated many with his confrontational style. A man seemingly always in a hurry, he would let loose with a daily flurry of memos to aides — some well down the bureaucratic chain — which he dictated into an audio recorder and were typed up by assistant. They became known as his "snowflakes."
An accomplished wrestler in college, Rumsfeld relished verbal sparring and elevated it to an art form; a biting humor was a favorite weapon.
Still, he built a network of loyalists who admired his work ethic, intelligence and impatience with all who failed to share his sense of urgency.
From his earliest years in Washington he was seen by friend and foe alike as a formidable political force. An associate of President Richard Nixon, Bryce Harlow, who helped persuade Rumsfeld to resign from Congress and join the Nixon Cabinet as director of the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1969, called him "rough and ready, willing to tangle" and "the kind of guy who would walk on a blue flame to get a job done."
Rumsfeld is the only person to serve twice as Pentagon chief. The first time, in 1975-77, he was the youngest ever. The next time, in 2001-06, he was the oldest.
He made a brief run for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination, a spectacular flop that he once described as humbling for a man used to success at the highest levels of the government, including stints as White House chief of staff, U.S. ambassador and member of Congress.
For all Rumsfeld's achievements, it was the setbacks in Iraq in the twilight of his career that will likely etch the most vivid features of his legacy.
By the time he arrived at the Pentagon in January 2001 for his second stint as defense secretary, the military that Rumsfeld inherited was in a slow-motion transition from the Cold War era to a period dominated by ethnic conflicts in the Balkans, humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa and spasms of terrorism. Among the other prominent worries: China's military buildup and the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.
But nine months into his tenure, on Sept. 11, Rumsfeld found himself literally face-to-face with the threat that would consume the remaining years of his tenure. When a hijacked American Airlines jetliner slammed into the Pentagon, Rumsfeld was in his third-floor office meeting with nine House members. He later recalled that at the instant of impact, the small wood table at which they were working trembled.
Rumsfeld was among the first to reach the smoldering crash site, and he helped carry the wounded in stretchers before returning to his duties inside the building.
The nation suddenly was at war. U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan on Oct. 7, and with Rumsfeld at the Pentagon helm the Taliban regime was toppled within weeks. Frequently presiding at televised briefings on the war, Rumsfeld became something of a TV star, admired for his plain-spokenness.
Within months of that success, President George W. Bush's attention shifted to Iraq, which played no role in the Sept. 11 attacks. Rumsfeld and others in the administration asserted that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was armed with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, and that the U.S. could not afford the risk of Saddam one day providing some of those arms to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was launched in March 2003 with a go-ahead from Congress but no authorization by the U.N. Security Council. Baghdad fell quickly, but U.S. and allied forces soon became consumed with a violent insurgency. Critics faulted Rumsfeld for dismissing the public assessment of the Army's top general, Eric Shinseki, that several hundred thousand allied troops would be needed to stabilize Iraq.
Square-jawed with an acid tongue, Rumsfeld grew combative in defense of the war effort and became the lightning rod for Democrats' criticism. Years afterward, the degree of blame that should be shared among the White House, Rumsfeld and the U.S. military for the disasters in Iraq remained in debate.
In his 2009 biography of Rumsfeld, author Bradley Graham wrote that it was "both incorrect and unfair to heap singular blame" on Rumsfeld for Iraq.
"But much of what befell Rumsfeld resulted from his own behavior," Graham wrote in "By His Own Rules." "He is apt to be remembered as much for how he did things as for what he did. And here, too, he was an internal contradiction. Capable of genuine charm, kindness and grace, he all too frequently came across as brusque and domineering, often alienating others and making enemies where he needed friends."
Bush on Wednesday hailed Rumsfeld's "steady service as a wartime secretary of defense — a duty he carried out with strength, skill, and honor."
Survivors of the Iraq war were more critical. Rasha Al Aqeedi, now a U.S.-based analyst from the Iraqi city of Mosul, said: "The legacy he left behind … the Iraq war, has been such a stain on Americans' foreign policy. It shaped how an entire generation views any intervention" by the United States.
In his 2011 memoir, "Known and Unknown," Rumsfeld offered no hint of regret about Iraq, but acknowledged that its future remained in doubt.
"While the road not traveled always looks smoother, the cold reality of a Hussein regime in Baghdad most likely would mean a Middle East far more perilous than it is today," he wrote. He sounded unconvinced that the failure to find WMD in Iraq poked a hole in the justification for invading.
"Our failure to confront Iraq would have sent a message to other nations that neither America nor any other nation was willing to stand in the way of their support for terrorism and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction," he wrote.
Rumsfeld twice offered his resignation to Bush in 2004 amid disclosures that U.S. troops had abused detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison — an episode he later referred to as his darkest hour as defense secretary.
Not until November 2006, after Democrats gained control of Congress by riding a wave of antiwar sentiment, did Bush finally decide Rumsfeld had to go. He left office in December, replaced by another Republican, Robert Gates. Defiant to the end, Rumsfeld expressed no regrets in his farewell ceremony, at which point the U.S. death toll in Iraq had surpassed 2,900. The count would eventually exceed 4,400.
"It may well be comforting to some to consider graceful exits from the agonies and, indeed, the ugliness of combat," he told his colleagues. "But the enemy thinks differently."
Born in Chicago as the second child of George and Jeannette Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld wrote in his memoir that he and his father shared a favorite sports team: the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. He recalled that while listening to a Bears game on the radio at home one Sunday in 1941, the announcer interrupted the broadcast to announce that Japanese airplanes had launched a surprise attack on Hawaii.
Rumsfeld was 9 years old.
"I could feel that something terrible had happened," he wrote. "I saw it in my parents' faces and heard it in the tense voices reporting the news of the attack."
After Pearl Harbor, Rumsfeld's father joined the Navy at age 38 and the family moved frequently to be near him on the West Coast.
In high school he met his future wife, Joyce Pierson. He entered Princeton on a partial scholarship and joined the campus Navy ROTC program to cover his other expenses. In June 1954, Rumsfeld graduated and was commissioned an ensign in the Navy. Six months later he married Joyce.
He launched his Washington career in 1957 by signing up as an assistant to Rep. Dave Dennison, R-Ohio. Soon he was serving as a congressman himself, first elected to represent Illinois in 1962. He served four terms.
One of his early acts as a member of the Nixon White House was to hire a young Dick Cheney, starting a lifelong friendship.
Rumsfeld was working as the U.S. ambassador to NATO in Brussels, Belgium, when he was recalled to Washington to lead President Gerald Ford's transition team after Nixon resigned in August 1974. He became the new president's chief of staff and then, in November 1975, his defense secretary.
After leaving the Pentagon in 1977, Rumsfeld embarked on a successful business career in the private sector, including as chief executive officer, president and then chairman of G.D. Searle & Co., a major prescription drug manufacturer.
He still dabbled in government service, including serving as a special envoy to the Middle East for President Ronald Reagan in 1983-84. It was in that capacity that he famously met in Baghdad in December 1983 with Saddam, whose nation at the time was at war with Iran.
"None of us in the Reagan administration bore any illusions about Saddam," Rumsfeld wrote in his memoir. "Like most despots, his career was forged in conflict and hardened by bloodshed. He had used chemical toxins in the war he initiated with Iran three years earlier. But given the reality of the Middle East, then as now, America often had to deal with rulers who were deemed 'less bad' than the others."
Two decades later, Rumsfeld was again dealing with Saddam — this time overseeing an invasion that toppled the tyrant and led, ironically, to Rumsfeld's own downfall.
He is survived by his wife, Joyce, three children and grandchildren.


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Product Information
The practical little helpers in the bathroom that may not be front and centre, but if they weren't there at all, you would miss them. For perfect functionality and individual bathroom design, it's the small things that ultimately make the difference. REVA means "the one that connects", and as a combination of design and function, it truly lives up to its name.
With a matt black surface, the REVA accessories set powerful accents and play a key role in the bathroom design. For everyone who loves the colour black in the bathroom, and wants to add a touch of extravagance to the bathroom design with compelling accessories.
Product Dimensions: 450mm
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Philosophy of Science 67 (March 2000), University of Chicago
August 31, 2000
Some biochemical systems require multiple, well-matched parts in order to function, and the removal of any of the parts eliminates the function. I have previously labeled such systems "irreducibly complex," and argued that they are stumbling blocks for Darwinian theory. Instead I proposed that they are best explained as the result of deliberate intelligent design. In a recent article Shanks and Joplin analyze and find wanting the use of irreducible complexity as a marker for intelligent design. Their primary counter-example is the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, a self-organizing system in which competing reaction pathways result in a chemical oscillator. In place of irreducible complexity they offer the idea of "redundant complexity," meaning that biochemical pathways overlap so that a loss of one or even several components can be accommodated without complete loss of function. Here I note that complexity is a quantitative property, so that conclusions we draw will be affected by how well-matched the components of a system are. I also show that not all biochemical systems are redundant. The origin of non-redundant systems requires a different explanation than redundant ones.
In the past half-century biology has made astonishing progress in understanding the molecular and cellular basis of life. In light of this progress it is fair to ask whether Darwin's mechanism of natural selection acting on random variation appears to be a good explanation for the origin of all, or just some, of the molecular systems science has discovered. In Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (Behe 1996) I argued that some biochemical systems, such as the blood clotting cascade or bacterial flagellum, are resistant to Darwinian explanation because they are irreducibly complex. I defined irreducible complexity as a single system which is composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, and where the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning. (1996, 39)
The difficulty for Darwinian theory is that an irreducibly complex system cannot be produced directly (that is, by continuously improving the initial function, which continues to work by the same mechanism) by slight, successive modifications of a precursor system, because any precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition nonfunctional. (1996, 39)
To illustrate the concept with a familiar example for a general readership, I pointed to a simple mechanical mousetrap, composed of several parts such as the base, hammer, spring and so on, and noted that the absence of any of the parts destroys the mouse-catching ability of the trap. Darwin's vision of natural selection gradually improving function in "numerous, successive, slight modifications"(Darwin 1859) appears not to fit well with such systems. I went on to argue that, since intelligent agents are the only entities known to be able to construct irreducibly complex systems, the biochemical systems are better explained as the result of deliberate intelligent design.
But are gradual Darwinian natural selection and intelligent design the only potential explanations? Shanks and Joplin (1999) direct our attention to complexity theory, which concerns the ability of systems to self-organize abruptly, sometimes in surprising ways. They suggest that irreducibly complex biochemical systems might in principle be explained by self-organization, eliminating the need to invoke intelligence. They then go on to argue that biochemical systems are "redundantly complex"--that is, contain components that can be removed without entirely eliminating function.
After briefly describing the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction--Shanks and Joplin's main counterexample--I will first argue that the reaction does not meet the definition of irreducibly complex, because the interacting components are not "well-matched." I will then agree that redundant complexity exists, but show that not all of biochemistry is redundant.
The dissipation of energy in nature can organize matter and produce reaction pathways. A simple example is the clumping of matter into stars under the influence of gravity. More complex examples are tornados and the stellar nuclear pathways that lead to the production of the heavy elements. These examples, however, have no direct relevance to the origin of biochemical systems. Shanks and Joplin (1999) offer what they think is a more pertinent example--the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, a self-organizing chemical system discovered in the 1950's by B. P. Belousov in an attempt to model the Krebs cycle. The term "BZ reaction" is applied to a group of chemical reactions in which an organic substrate is oxidized by bromate ions in the presence of a transition metal ion and acid. Instead of proceeding monotonically to equilibrium, the reaction oscillates between two pathways because of a competition between bromide ion and bromous acid for reaction with bromate ion. Bromate oxidizes the metal ions, which in turn are re-reduced by reaction with organic substrate. When the reaction is well-stirred, the visible result is a solution that switches from one color to another at constant time intervals until the reaction materials are consumed. When the same reaction is set up as a thin, unstirred layer, waves of color change propagate through the layer. For details of the reaction pathways see Gray and Scott 1994 and references therein.
Shanks and Joplin write that the BZ reaction "satisfies Behe's criteria for irreducible chemical complexity" because if any of the chemical components is removed "the characteristic behavior of the system is disrupted." Thus "Irreducible complexity in a self-organizing system" can be generated "without the aid of a designing deus ex machina" (1999, 272-273).
I disagree that the BZ reaction "satisfies Behe's criteria" for an irreducibly complex system. Although it does have interacting parts that are required for the reaction, the system lacks a crucial feature--the components are not "well-matched." The appearance of the modifier "well-matched" in the definition I constructed (above) reflects the fact that complexity is a quantitative property. A system can be more or less complex, so the likelihood of coming up with any particular interactive system by chance can be more or less probable. As an illustration, contrast the greater complexity of a mechanical mousetrap (mentioned above) with the much lesser complexity of a lever and fulcrum. Together a lever and fulcrum form an interactive system which can be used to move weights. Nonetheless, the parts of the system can have a wide variety of shapes and sizes and still function. Because the system is not well-matched, it could easily be formed by chance.
Systems requiring several parts to function that need not be well-matched, we can call "simple interactive" systems (designated 'SI'). Ones that require well-matched components are irreducibly complex ('IC'). The line dividing SI and IC systems is not sharp, because assignment to one or the other category is based on probabilistic factors which often are hard to calculate and generally have to be intuitively estimated based on always-incomplete background knowledge. Moreover, no law of physics automatically rules out the chance origin of even the most intricate IC system. As complexity increases, however, the odds become so abysmally low that we reject chance as an explanation (Dembski 1998).
Just as I think that a gradual origin by natural selection is a good explanation for some things, I agree that a discontinuous origin by self-organization explains some things too. Nonetheless, I do not think either explains irreducible complexity. I argue that Shanks and Joplin's counterexample--the BZ reaction--is not IC; it is SI, because the components are not well-matched. To justify my position, let me first illustrate a well-matched system using the blood-clotting cascade (Stubbs and Bode 1994). The active form of one protein of the cascade is called thrombin, which cleaves the soluble protein fibrinogen to produce fibrin, the insoluble meshwork of a blood clot. The chemistry catalyzed by thrombin is simply the hydrolysis of a certain fibrinogen peptide bond. However, all proteins are made of amino acid residues joined by peptide bonds. A typical protein contains several hundred peptide bonds. There is nothing remarkable about the bond in fibrinogen that is cleaved by thrombin. Yet thrombin selects that particular bond for cleavage out of literally hundreds of thousands of peptide bonds in its environment and ignores almost all others. It can do this because the shape of thrombin is well-matched to the shape of fibrinogen around the bond it cleaves. It "recognizes" not only the bond it cuts, but also a number of other features of its target. The other proteins of the clotting cascade (Stuart factor, proaccelerin, tissue factor, and so on) have similar powers of discrimination. So do virtually all of the components of the molecular machines I discussed in Darwin's Black Box.
Let's contrast this biochemical specificity with a comparable chemical reaction lacking such specificity. The peptide bonds of proteins can also be cleaved by simple chemicals. A typical procedure calls for incubating the protein in 6N hydrochloric acid at 110°C for twenty four hours. If fibrinogen were incubated under those conditions, the peptide bond that thrombin cleaves would be broken, but so would every other peptide bond in the protein. It would be completely reduced to amino acids. If thrombin were in the mix, it too would be completely destroyed. If the other proteins of the clotting cascade were there, no clotting would take place, even though the peptide bonds that are cleaved in the cascade would be cleaved, because all other peptide bonds would be hydrolyzed too. There is virtually no specificity to the chemical hydrolysis beyond the type of bond that is cleaved.
Similarly, the reactants of the BZ reaction are small organic or inorganic chemicals that show little specificity for each other. One ingredient, sodium bromate, is a general purpose oxidizing reagent and is capable of degrading a very large spectrum of chemicals besides the ones used in BZ reactions (thus its transport aboard airlines is forbidden). Another requirement of the reaction is simply for a transition metal that can change its oxidation state, and a number of such metals are known, including iron, cerium, and manganese ions (Field 1972). A third requirement is for an organic molecule that can be oxidized. Many candidates could fulfill this role (ones that have been used include malonic, citric, maleic, and malic acids), and organic molecules can be oxidized by many reagents other than bromate. The last ingredient is simply a high concentration of sulfuric acid. As Field (1972, 308) noted, setting up BZ reactions "is an exceedingly easy task as they will occur over a wide range of concentrations and conditions."
The BZ class of self-organizing reactions--chemical oscillations--is surprising and interesting. Nonetheless, its complexity can be likened to other self-organizing systems found outside of biology, such as, say, tornados, which, although they command our attention, do not approach the specificity of well-matched, irreducibly complex biochemical systems.
The dynamical behavior of the BZ reaction has been modeled by a set of two ordinary differential equations (Tyson 1994) (page 577). Because some biological systems can be modeled by similar mathematics, Shanks and Joplin (1999) conclude that self-organization can explain the behavior of the biological systems. There are several reasons to question the relevance of their point. First, they also note that "the substrates and products in these systems are very different from those in the BZ reaction" (1999, 273). In other words, we have traveled far from cerium, sodium bromate, and the other constituents of the chemical system. Second, and more importantly, the behavior of a system must be distinguished from its origin. As an illustration, consider highway traffic flow. A number of mathematical models have been used to describe traffic flow, some drawing on theories of self-organization (Schreckenberg and Wolf 1998). The mathematics, however, have not called the automobiles into being. The mathematics simply try to describe the typical behavior of traffic when a certain density is reached under conditions of restricted movement on a highway.
Examples of biological processes that show BZ dynamical behavior include glycolysis and aggregation of dispersed cells of the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum into a slug. But consider the sophisticated components of the aggregation-signaling system of D. discoideum, which include: a cyclic AMP membrane receptor protein that can exist in an active and inactive form; an adenylate cyclase that binds to the active form of the receptor and itself becomes activated; a protein to export cyclic AMP into the extracellular medium; and more (Goldbeter 1996, Part I). All of that complicated machinery is ignored in BZ models--treated as a black box. Oscillations in the cellular concentration of glycolytic intermediates are due in large part to the multi-talented phosphofructokinase (PFK), a tetrameric enzyme that can exist in two conformational states (an active form and a less-active one) and which has binding sites for a dozen different activators and inhibitors (Goldbeter 1996, Part III). Mathematical models of BZ behavior don't explain the origin of the impressive abilities of PFK any more than models of traffic flow explain the origin of brakes or gas pedals. Thus, even if a biological system displays self-organizing behavior, the question of its origin remains.
In contrast to claims about irreducible complexity, Shanks and Joplin write that "Real biochemical systems, we argue, manifest redundant complexity--a characteristic result of evolutionary processes" (1999, 268). By this they mean that biochemical pathways overlap and are interconnected, so that removal of one or even several components does not completely destroy the function. In support of their position they cite a diverse array of biochemical examples: the synthesis of an alternate pine tree lignin with increased content of dihydroconiferyl alcohol; viable mice in which the gene for the tumor suppressor p53 was knocked out; and more. Their initial illustration is the metabolic pathways for the synthesis of glucose-6-phosphate. They point out that the molecule can be made by "several different isoforms or variants of hexokinase, and all are present, as a result of gene duplication, in varying proportions in different tissues." What's more, "Knock out one enzyme isoform and the other isoforms in the tissue can take over its function."
True enough. The observation that some biochemical systems are redundant, however, does not entail that all are. And, in fact, some are not redundant. Consider the following examples of nonredundant metabolic pathways. Primates, including humans, cannot synthesize ascorbic acid (vitamin C) because they lack a functional gene for L-gulono-gamma-lactone oxidase, although a pseudogene is present (Nishikimi and Yagi 1991). Vitamin C is made by no other pathway. Hexosaminidase A is required to catabolize ganglioside G(M2); its loss results in Tay-Sachs disease (Kolter and Sandhoff 1998). These enzymes are parts of "real biochemical systems," but they do not "manifest redundant complexity." (For many, many additional examples, see The Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease (Scriver 1995) or other texts on inborn errors of metabolism.) Therefore, arguments developed about the origin of redundant systems do not necessarily apply to all biochemical systems.
Shanks and Joplin's argument for redundant complexity has the same strengths and weaknesses when the subject moves from metabolic pathways to other biochemical systems. That is, they are right to notice that some systems or components are redundant, but wrong to extrapolate the conclusion to all systems. For example, they point to mice in which the gene for the protein p53 has been knocked out. p53 is "involved in a number of fundamental cell processes, such as affecting gene transcription, acting as control points in the cell cycle, initiating programmed cell death," and more. Shanks and Joplin write that "Looking at this case from the standpoint of a 'genetic mousetrap model,' one would naturally predict that the removal of this gene . . . would lead to catastrophic collapse of the developmental process. . . . Such is not the case" (1999, 279). Yet contrast this case with that of mice in which the gene for either fibrinogen (Bugge et al. 1996a), tissue factor (Bugge et al. 1996b), or prothrombin (Sun et al. 1998) has been knocked out. Those proteins are all components of the blood clotting cascade, which I discussed prominently in Darwin's Black Box (1996, Ch. 4), claiming it is irreducibly complex. The loss of any one of those proteins prevents clot formation--the clotting cascade is broken. Thus Shanks and Joplin's concept of redundant complexity does not apply to all biochemical systems.
Behe, Michael J. (1996), Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. (The Free Press: New York.)
Bugge, Thomas H., Keith W. Kombrinck, Matthew J. Flick, Cynthia C. Daugherty, Mary Jo S. Danton, and Jay L. Degen (1996a), "Loss of fibrinogen rescues mice from the pleiotropic effects of plasminogen deficiency", Cell 87: 709-719.
Bugge, Thomas H., Qing Xiao, Keith W. Kombrinck, Matthew J. Flick, Kenn Holmbäck, Mary Jo S. Danton, Melissa C. Colbert, David P. Witte, Kazuo Fujikawa, Earl W. Davie, and Jay L. Degen (1996b), "Fatal embryonic bleeding events in mice lacking tissue factor, the cell-associated initiator of blood coagulation", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 93, 6258-6263.
Darwin, Charles. (1859), The Origin of Species, (Bantam Books: New York.)
Dembski, William A. (1998), The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance Through Small Probabilities, (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.)
Field, Richard J. (1972), "A reaction periodic in time and space", Journal of Chemical Education 49: 308-311.
Goldbeter, Albert. (1996), Biochemical Oscillations and Cellular Rhythms: the Molecular Bases of Periodic and Chaotic Behaviour, (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.)
Gray, Peter and Stephen K. Scott (1994), Chemical Oscillations and Instabilities: Non-linear Chemical Kinetics, (Clarendon Press: Oxford England.)
Kolter, Thomas and Konrad Sandhoff (1998), "Glycosphingolipid degradation and animal models of G(M2)-gangliosidoses", Journal of Inherited Metabolic Disease 21: 548-563.
Nishikimi, Morimitsu and Kunio Yagi (1991), "Molecular basis for the deficiency in humans of gulonolactone oxidase, a key enzyme for ascorbic acid biosynthesis", American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 54: 1203S-1208S.
Schreckenberg, Michael and Dietrich E. Wolf (1998), Traffic and Granular Flow, (Springer: Singapore.)
Scriver, Charles R. (1995), The Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease, (McGraw-Hill, Health Professions Division: New York.)
Shanks, Niall and Karl H. Joplin (1999), "Redundant complexity: A critical analysis of intelligent design in biochemistry", Philosophy of Science 66: 268-282.
Stubbs, Milton T. and Wolfram Bode (1994), "Coagulation factors and their inhibitors", Current Opinion in Structural Biology 4: 823-832.
Sun, William Y., David P. Witte, Jay L. Degen, Melissa C. Colbert, Melissa C. Burkart, Kenn Holmbäck, Qing Xiao, Thomas H. Bugge, and Sandra J. F. Degen (1998), "Prothrombin deficiency results in embryonic and neonatal lethality in mice", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 95: 7597-7602.
Tyson, John J. (1994), "What everyone should know about the
Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction", in Simon A. Levin (ed.), Frontiers in Mathematical
Biology. Berlin: Springer-Verlag 569-587.
Copyright © 2000 Michael Behe. All rights reserved. International
copyright secured.
File Date: 11.08.01


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Concerned about the prospect of taxpayer funded counselors steering women toward abortion, the Reagan Administration issued what its critics called a "gag rule," prohibiting options counselors under Title X from referring women for abortions. Planned Parenthood and others challenged the rule, claiming that it prevented women from receiving full and unbiased information about all of their options. Although the Supreme Court upheld it in Rust v. Sullivan, the "gag rule" was one of the first to be repealed when President Clinton took office. However, it appears that a "gag rule" has reemerged – as Planned Parenthood works to steer women toward the one option that is financially beneficial to Planned Parenthood, abortion.
In 2010, according to its own numbers, for every 391 women who came to Planned Parenthood looking for unbiased information her unplanned pregnancy, 1 chose adoption and 391 chose abortion. And even those numbers may be inflated because former Planned Parenthood clinic directors tell me that there is no reporting system for adoption referrals and they never saw one. In the nation as a whole, there are roughly 1.1 million abortions and 160,000 adoptions every year. If Planned Parenthood's numbers are subtracted from the equation, there is approximately 1 adoption for every 5.7 abortion decisions. Why is a woman coming to Planned Parenthood 6800% more likely to decide to abort than the general population? And what does it mean for Title X options counseling that its largest single grantee for supposedly nondirective counseling has such a track record?
Although the "gag rule" was repealed in 1993, new Title X regulations to replace it were not issued until the last days of the Clinton Administration in 2000. Almost everyone believes that under these rules a counselor must give pregnant women unbiased and nondirective counseling about all of her options, including adoption. That is a myth. Planned Parenthood brings in over 25%, the largest single share of the $300 million in taxpayer funds under Title X options counseling. Here are its instructions:
5. A project must:
i. Offer pregnant women the opportunity to provided information and counseling regarding each of the following options:
A. Prenatal care and delivery;
B. Infant care, foster care, or adoption; and
C. Pregnancy termination.
42 C.F.R. 59.5(a)(1). That's right. Look at the conjunctions again. If a woman walks into a Planned Parenthood clinic to talk to a taxpayer funded counselor about the full range of her options, that counselor is required by law to tell her about abortion. But information about the possibility of adoption is optional. Would it surprise you to know that Planned Parenthood supported that rule?
And if Planned Parenthood's taxpayer funded counselors do give a woman information about adoption, what might they tell her? Probably something like this, posted on Planned Parenthood's website:
The psychological responses to abortion are far less serious than those experienced by women bringing their unwanted pregnancy to term and relinquishing the child for adoption.
Women who relinquish their child for adoption are at risk for long-term grief that can have physical, psychological, and relational repercussions. While this response is comparable to that of losing a child through death, the grieving response post-adoption is often more symptomatic and can be chronic in nature.
The same website instructs that "[r]esearch studies indicate that emotional responses to legally induced abortion are largely positive." Between silence and telling women that adoption will be emotionally devastating while abortion is quick and easy, is it any surprise that women coming into Planned Parenthood clinics almost never choose adoption?
So far I have shown that women coming to Planned Parenthood for supposedly neutral advice have a disturbingly high likelihood of choosing abortion – almost never choosing adoption. And we have a regulatory structure that permits Planned Parenthood to take taxpayer funds and use them to steer woman toward abortion and away from adoption through silence and abortion-skewed information. The motive is probably obvious.
Planned Parenthood has total annual revenues of just over $1 billion. But its health center income, the amount its individual affiliates bring in from services, was roughly $400 million in 2009. According to the Guttmacher Institute, an average abortion costs $468. Given Planned Parenthood's approximately 330k abortions, it brought in approximately $155 million from abortion revenues, about 38% of its total health center revenues, in 2009. Depending on how one counts Planned Parenthood's numbers that percentage of health center revenues attributable to abortion may have been higher in 2010 and 2011.


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The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It's a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.
If you'd like to participate with The Sunday Salon, it is now being hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.
It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a meme with a new host! It's now being hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. This is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next "must read" book will come from!
I'm also linking to Stacking The Shelves which is hosted by Reading Reality.
Hi Everyone!


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Most Real Estate Agents still take the shotgun approach to their marketing, putting out as many business cards, post cards, and bus benches as they can afford. While these time honored marketing strategies can result in qualified leads, they can also be expensive and unreliable. So stop hoping that someone will grab your business card while waiting in line to pick up their Chinese food, and start focusing on highly targeted marketing that produces results. Marketing to the individual is about creating and leveraging relationships. People are hard wired to build relationships, our survival for the last few million years has depended on our being social creatures. Marketing to the individual is about forming positive networks through mutual friends, past customers, organization affiliation, and almost anywhere else. Everyday you are presented with opportunities to build your network of contacts through your activities. The person handing you your dry cleaning is your next potential client. A key part of relationship building is treating those people in your "network" as valued individuals, not as nameless prospects that you can add to your monthly e-newsletter. How do you accomplish this? By marketing to their individual needs. Do you know what their values are? Do you know what their life's aspirations are? Do you know who they really are? The girl behind the counter is probably going to school, waiting until after graduation to start her career in accounting. Your buddy on your softball team probably recently had a baby and is looking to move to a nicer neighborhood. What can you do with this information? Marketing to the individual means knowing enough about your prospect that you can deliver a timely and relevant marketing message to them, so much so that it seems like a service or a favor rather than a sales pitch. What if you could sent the girl behind the counter that has been ringing you up for years a graduation card and a recommendation on a great condo complex for young professionals. What if you sent a hand written note on your personal stationary congratulating him on his new addition, and a recommendation on a neighborhood that is near his work and has great schools. Personalized stationary is a great way to sent out personal notes to friends and prospects in a professional yet highly personal manner. It is an effective tool for marketing to the individual. Those two contacts would be much more effective then sending out a hundred post cards. While these are simple examples, you will find these opportunities everywhere. Handwritten notes of congratulation and personal notes on your own stationary are a great way to show people that you see them as individuals. Personal notecards are an inexpensive way to start the process of marketing to the individual.
------ About the author: Esteban Morales is the owner of ImpressInPrint.com an online invitation and stationary company. He has over ten years of experience in marketing, and marketing automation (using technology to market effectively).


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Local Guides have contributed content about hundreds of thousands of businesses. They get together and have held meetups and conducted projects in Europe, India, South America, North America, Australia, and Asia.
How Are Google's Local Guides Different From Google Users?
People have been contributing reviews, photos, and videos to Google for years. Google Local Guides are part of a program that offers benefits provided through Google Maps.
The Local Guides provide a way for Google to improve its maps and local business information. Local Guides can post photos, reviews, and answer questions about businesses — all tied to Google Maps.
What Do Google Local Guides Get From Contributing?
The Local Guides program offers a rewards program for participants. The points-based program offers a way for guides to get points for contributing nine different kinds of information based on their local area.
The types of information and points include:
- Answers: 1 point
- Edits: 5 points
- Fact Checks: 1 point
- Photos: 5 points
- Places: 15 points (for places and roads)
- Q & A Answers: 3 points
- Ratings: 1 point
- Reviews: 10 points, plus additional 10 points for reviews over 200 words
- Videos: 7 points
Guides advance through the point system. They start at Level 1 and can achieve Level 10. People using Google Maps can see the Guide's level and use it to decide the trust level and authenticity of the information.
What Other Benefits Do Local Guides Get?
Local Guides have access to perks from Google's partners and also get early access to Google features. They can also get badges and recognition from other Google Maps users.
Google Local Guides have profiles that display badges and recognition. Recognition from users shows next to the Guide's level on their profile.
How Do Local Guides Level Up?
Local Guides advance through Levels by accumulating points from their contributions. Level 1 Guides are just starting out. They have 0 points. By Level 2. guides have achieved 15 points.
Here are the other Local Guide levels and points needed to achieve them:
- Level 1: 0 points
- Level 2: 15 points
- Level 3: 75 points
- Level 4: 250 points and a badge
- Level 5: 500 points and a new badge
- Level 6: 1,500 points and a new badge
- Level 7: 5,00 points and a new badge
- Level 8: 15,000 points and a new badge
- Level 9: 50,000 points and a new badge
- Level 10: 100,000 points and the highest badge
Level 10 is a high level of achievement requiring many contributions over a significant period. As of 2018, members of the Local Guide community identified over 500 Level 10 Local Guides around the world. The number of Local Guides of different levels in each area shows on each Local Guide's profile.
How Do You Become a Google Local Guide?
Anyone with a Google account can visit the Local Guides page and choose "Join Local Guides" to get started. Provide your home location and confirm the details, and then sign up.


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- Europe
- Americas
- Asia and Middle East
- Africa and Oceania
Stäubli's complete pneumatic connections consist of a selection of flexible hoses, with and without protection from ballast impacts, equipped with GPL, RTD or SPI OS quick-release couplings.
Since safety is of utmost importance, each system undergoes a unit test for function as well as tightness. Along with the assurance of safety, we offer the convenience that comes with obtaining the complete connection from a single supplier and a complete solution including the railway requirements.
Pressure point and leveling tests on passenger and freight rolling stock
Fluids | Other features |
*depending on the model and operating conditions


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There is a remarkable woman living in Rochester who just can't stand to see things fall apart.She rescues old furniture, useful household items, and even buildings that are in need of repair or rehabilitation and transforms them from trash to treasure.She worked magic at the Ellwanger Estate on Mt. Hope Avenue when she commissioned architects, builders, interior designers, landscapers, and artists to turn it into the Symphony Show House for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in the summer of 2008. She has continued to improve the house and landscape since that successful project.
The Ellwanger Estate, adjacent to the Landmark Society's historic Ellwanger Garden, now serves as a private residence during the week and a seasonal bed- and -breakfast on the weekends.
It is no surprise then that Rosemary Janofsky, owner of the Ellwanger Estate, decided that the classically inspired garden wall designed by landscape architect Fletcher Steele for Helen Ellwanger in the 1930's needed her help.She had already spent several thousand dollars on a total repair of the wall's stucco and tile elements.However, one of the cast- stone coping bands supporting the distinctive masonry urns had since crumbled badly.She called Stoyan Passero, the mason who completed the initial repair, to assess the damage and learned that something had to be done before winter to prevent further damage and to preserve the urn.It should be no surprise that she hired Mr. Passero immediately.
Within days there was a new cast-stone coping band in place with the urn affixed securely to the top of the wall.Considering that this part of the wall is a prominent architectural element at the edge of the Ellwanger Garden, we are grateful that Ms. Janofsky could not bear to see it crumble.
Thank you Rosemary!
Deteriorated coping band that was replaced.
Posted by Beverly Gibson, Horticulturist


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New Urbanism Division
New Urbanism is a time-tested planning practice that incorporates interrelated patterns of land use, transportation, and urban form to create communities that foster the most desirable characteristics of human habitation: neighborliness, environmental sustainability, economic efficiency and prosperity, historic preservation, participation in civic processes, and human health. New Urbanism practices apply to all scales of community, from the region and neighborhood to the block and building.
Restrictive conventional zoning and subdivision regulations over the past 50 years have led to development patterns, particularly in the suburbs, that diminish these desirable characteristics of human habitation. Separated land uses and excessive traffic and parking provisions result in increasing air and water pollution, decreasing natural environments, lack of accessibility among children and the elderly, lengthening congestion and commuting time, rising public service costs, reduced civic involvement, and declining health.
The purpose of the New Urbanism Division is to provide planners, public officials, and other decision makers with the information, support, and tools needed to eliminate restrictive conventional development regulations and allow New Urbanism patterns to be incorporated in all communities.
Join the New Urbanism Division


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In experiments involving a simulation of the human esophagus and stomach, researchers at MIT, the University of Sheffield, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have demonstrated a tiny origami robot that can unfold itself from a swallowed capsule and, steered by external magnetic fields, crawl across the stomach wall to remove a swallowed button battery or patch a wound.
The new work, which the researchers are presenting this week at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, builds on a long sequence of papers on origami robots from the research group of Daniela Rus, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
"It's really exciting to see our small origami robots doing something with potential important applications to health care," says Rus, who also directs MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). "For applications inside the body, we need a small, controllable, untethered robot system. It's really difficult to control and place a robot inside the body if the robot is attached to a tether."
Joining Rus on the paper are first author Shuhei Miyashita, who was a postdoc at CSAIL when the work was done and is now a lecturer in electronics at the University of York, in England; Steven Guitron, a graduate student in mechanical engineering; Shuguang Li, a CSAIL postdoc; Kazuhiro Yoshida of Tokyo Institute of Technology, who was visiting MIT on sabbatical when the work was done; and Dana Damian of the University of Sheffield, in England.
Although the new robot is a successor to one reported at the same conference last year, the design of its body is significantly different. Like its predecessor, it can propel itself using what's called a "stick-slip" motion, in which its appendages stick to a surface through friction when it executes a move, but slip free again when its body flexes to change its weight distribution.
Also like its predecessor — and like several other origami robots from the Rus group — the new robot consists of two layers of structural material sandwiching a material that shrinks when heated. A pattern of slits in the outer layers determines how the robot will fold when the middle layer contracts.
Material difference
The robot's envisioned use also dictated a host of structural modifications. "Stick-slip only works when, one, the robot is small enough and, two, the robot is stiff enough," says Guitron. "With the original Mylar design, it was much stiffer than the new design, which is based on a biocompatible material."
To compensate for the biocompatible material's relative malleability, the researchers had to come up with a design that required fewer slits. At the same time, the robot's folds increase its stiffness along certain axes.
But because the stomach is filled with fluids, the robot doesn't rely entirely on stick-slip motion. "In our calculation, 20 percent of forward motion is by propelling water — thrust — and 80 percent is by stick-slip motion," says Miyashita. "In this regard, we actively introduced and applied the concept and characteristics of the fin to the body design, which you can see in the relatively flat design."
It also had to be possible to compress the robot enough that it could fit inside a capsule for swallowing; similarly, when the capsule dissolved, the forces acting on the robot had to be strong enough to cause it to fully unfold. Through a design process that Guitron describes as "mostly trial and error," the researchers arrived at a rectangular robot with accordion folds perpendicular to its long axis and pinched corners that act as points of traction.
In the center of one of the forward accordion folds is a permanent magnet that responds to changing magnetic fields outside the body, which control the robot's motion. The forces applied to the robot are principally rotational. A quick rotation will make it spin in place, but a slower rotation will cause it to pivot around one of its fixed feet. In the researchers' experiments, the robot uses the same magnet to pick up the button battery.
Porcine precedents
The researchers tested about a dozen different possibilities for the structural material before settling on the type of dried pig intestine used in sausage casings. "We spent a lot of time at Asian markets and the Chinatown market looking for materials," Li says. The shrinking layer is a biodegradable shrink wrap called Biolefin.
To design their synthetic stomach, the researchers bought a pig stomach and tested its mechanical properties. Their model is an open cross-section of the stomach and esophagus, molded from a silicone rubber with the same mechanical profile. A mixture of water and lemon juice simulates the acidic fluids in the stomach.
Every year, 3,500 swallowed button batteries are reported in the U.S. alone. Frequently, the batteries are digested normally, but if they come into prolonged contact with the tissue of the esophagus or stomach, they can cause an electric current that produces hydroxide, which burns the tissue. Miyashita employed a clever strategy to convince Rus that the removal of swallowed button batteries and the treatment of consequent wounds was a compelling application of their origami robot.
"Shuhei bought a piece of ham, and he put the battery on the ham," Rus says. "Within half an hour, the battery was fully submerged in the ham. So that made me realize that, yes, this is important. If you have a battery in your body, you really want it out as soon as possible."
Additional background
ARCHIVE: Centimeter-long origami robot
ARCHIVE: New way to make batteries safer
ARCHIVE: Origami robot folds itself up, crawls away
ARCHIVE: Bake your own robot
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Abby Abazorius
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The post Ingestible robot operates in simulated stomach appeared first on Scienmag.


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Fighting intensified as Israel continued its Gaza offensive for a fourth day Friday, with Palestinian militants continuing rocket attacks on the Jewish state and rocket fire coming from Lebanon for the first time.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will not bow to international pressure to stop the military campaign.
Netanyahu said Friday no pressure would prevent Israel from combating "terrorists" that call for Israel's destruction. Other Israeli politicians backed him up.
"If we are able to stop [the rocket barrage] from the air and Hamas understands the price is too big - there will be no need in ground invasion. But if Israel, for its own reasons, seeks an escalation - we'll have to conduct the ground operation," said Ze'ev Elkin, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee.
A rocket launched from Lebanon into northern Israel early Friday drew retaliatory artillery fire from Israeli troops, raising fears of a broader regional conflict.
The rocket, launched around 6 a.m. local time, struck an open area near Metula at Israel's northernmost tip without causing casualties or damage, the AFP news agency reported.
"It wasn't fired by Hezbollah - Israel's main threat in Lebanon - but by a person who was apprehended by the Lebanese military while the rockets were still [being] launched. From time to time Palestinian organizations in Lebanon make such attempts," Elkin said in an interview with VOA's Russian service.
Israeli troops responded by firing about 25 artillery shells on southern Lebanon, the Associated Press reported.
Israel filed a complaint with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which monitors the countries' border, AFP reported.
Hamas isues warning
Also Friday, Hamas warned airlines against using Tel Aviv's international airport, which has maintained flights desipite the aerial offensive launched Tuesday by Israel.
"The armed wing of the Hamas movement has decided to respond to the Israeli aggression, and we warn you against carrying out flights to Ben-Gurion airport, which will be one of our targets today because it also hosts a military air base,'' the Islamist group's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement, Reuters reported.
The group, saying it wanted to avoid injuries to passengers, had fired at least one rocket toward the airport Friday.
The airport quieted for about 10 minutes after a siren sounded because of a general alert in the Tel Aviv area, Israel's Airports Authority spokesman told Reuters.
Intense air attacks
Israeli warplanes have launched more than 1,000 strikes since Tuesday.
The military said it hit targets belonging to the ruling Islamic militant group Hamas, including long-range rocket launchers, government facilities, smuggling tunnels and training camps.
The Israeli military said its air strikes had hit another 320 Hamas targets Thursday, focusing on underground tunnel networks and rocket-launching sites but also hitting homes.
Israel has reported no fatalities, while Palestinian officials say the death toll from Israel's Gaza military offensive has risen above 100, including women and children.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of "genocide" in the attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has delivered a severe blow to Hamas and other terrorist groups, and he promised the operation would inflict even more damage. The offensive will unfold in stages, the prime minister said, hinting at a possible ground operation.
Israel has deployed tanks and artillery along the Gaza border and has called up at least 20,000 reservists.
Hamas has been hitting back with rocket salvoes. On Friday, a rocket slammed into a gas station in Israel's southern port city of Ashdod near Gaza, causing a massive explosion. Three Israelis were injured, one seriously.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum vowed that the group would reach every house and military facility in Israel and force three million Israelis into bomb shelters.
Hamas doesn't seem interested in a political solution, Elkin said.
"Currently they are in total international isolation, they've even lost the support of their traditional ally, Egypt. They don't have money for the functioning of their regime in Gaza, and maybe this escalation is their attempt to divert attention from their failure," he said.
Diplomacy urged
The ongoing strife prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to phone Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday to express concern and offer help in negotiating a resolution to the crisis.
"The United States remains prepared to facilitate a cessation of hostilities, including a return to the November 2012 cease-fire agreement," the White House said Obama told Netanyahu, according to Reuters news agency. The president also repeated his condemnation of Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and reaffirmed Israel's right to defend itself.
The White House says it is willing to turn to some of its Middle East allies to help bring an end to the violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
Spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday the U.S. has a number of relationships it is willing to leverage.
Earnest also condemned rocket attacks on Israel Friday from Lebanon. He reaffirmed Israel's right to defend itself while again appealing to all sides to protect civilian lives and restore calm.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke via telephone Friday with Israeli Minister of Defense, Moshe "Boogie" Ya'alon. Minister Ya'alon updated Secretary Hagel on the events unfolding in Israel and Gaza.
As Israeli warplanes relentlessly attacked hundreds of Hamas targets in Gaza Thursday, Netanyahu told a parliamentary committee that a cease-fire is "not even on the agenda."
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry phoned Egypt's foreign secretary to ask that the country exert its influence in defusing the situation, Reuters reported. Egypt played a critical role in mediating a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in 2012. The U.S. government refuses to negotiate directly with Hamas, which Washington considers a terrorist organization.
Kerry "has been reaching out to countries in the region, including Qatar, including Egypt," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, according to Reuters. "… Any country in the region that can play a role in bringing an end to the rocket fire from Hamas, we're certainly going to be engaged with."
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon called Thursday for an immediate cease-fire in the Israeli conflict with Hamas militants in Gaza, but neither of the warring sides showed any hint of stopping its attacks.
The U.N. secretary-general told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that Israel and Hamas "must exercise maximum restraint" to end the fighting.
Violence in the region has escalated since the killing of three Jewish students last month and the murder of a Palestinian teen in a suspected revenge attack.
VOA's Robert Berger contributed to this story.


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I have waited three years to have a full size walk-in chicken coop and we are finally under construction. I'm sure all my friends are laughing, but glad to see it coming to fruition because that is probably all I talk about to them. (They are very good, patient friends.)
I know that many people just have a small "tractor" type and are satisfied with their movable unit. But I have dreamed and designed a larger house over and over again in my mind and on paper. Finally, I came up with just what I needed after hours of thinking about this project.
Where we live there are always predators seeking to get an easy meal. We've already lost hens to a rattlesnake, a neighbor dog, and two to coyotes and bobcats. Large hawks can be an issue as well, but I haven't lost one to the bigger birds so far. Because of the wild animals, if I let the hens run loose, I have to be right there watching all the time. This just isn't practical - I've got too much to do. So we went back to keeping them caged nearly 100 percent of the time. I hate this, especially since our run is very small. Here is our current coop:
The problems with this house are numerous. It only holds about 5-6 hens comfortably, the run is too small, and it doesn't allow me to separate older hens from new chicks that I am introducing. Also, it is designed so that the roof lifts up in order to clean it out. If my husband isn't home, no one can get inside. I tried to lift it along with one of my daughters and it wouldn't even budge. Even if I could get it open, I can't reach where I need to because of the tall sides. So obviously it doesn't get cleaned as often as I would like.
In the new coop, I will be able to walk inside easily. There will be three areas inside, all screened off from floor to ceiling: an area for raising new chicks, an area for the hens, and a little "closet" with a utility sink and tool storage for clean up. Above in the ceiling there is an area for extra feed storage and such. Off of each side of the coop there will be two large enclosed runs; a smaller run for the chicks and a larger run for the hens. When I'm not raising chicks, then I will open up their area and the chickens will have full use of both sides of the hen house. And obviously this coop will allow us to keep it clean more often, too. I'm so excited I can hardly wait. I keep asking my husband "What do you have to do next?" which is an adult disguise for "How much longer until we get there?". He's very patient.
The pictures below show the process and where we are as of today. Soon he'll be adding siding and the large runs, but of course, not fast enough for me!


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- Airline BoD's proposes a cash dividend distribution of 10 fils per share
- Fourth quarter net profit increased 177% and 21 new routes added to the airline group network
Beirut; February 12, 2018: Air Arabia (PJSC) today announced full-year financial results for 2017 as the Middle East and North Africa's first and largest low-cost carrier once again delivered high levels of profitability and growth across the breadth of its operations.
Air Arabia's net profit for the full year ending December 31, 2017 was AED 662 million, a 30 per cent increase compared to AED 509 million registered in 2016. Turnover for the full year 2017 was in line with the preceding 12 months reaching AED 3.74 billion. More than 8.5 million passengers flew with Air Arabia in 2017 and the average seat load factor – or passengers carried as a percentage of available seats – in 2017 stood at an impressive 79 per cent.
Following its solid full year 2017 performance, Air Arabia's Board of Directors proposed a dividend distribution of 10 per cent of share capital, which is equivalent to 10 fils per share. This proposal was made following a meeting of the board of directors of Air Arabia and is subject to ratification by Air Arabia's shareholders at the company's upcoming Annual General Meeting.
Air Arabia added 21 new routes to its global network in 2017 from its five operating hubs in the UAE, Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. The carrier took delivery of 4 new aircraft and ended the year with a fleet of 50 Airbus A320 aircraft operating to 140 routes across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammad Al Thani, Chairman of Air Arabia said: "Air Arabia has enjoyed consistent and sustained growth in 2017 driven by its network expansion strategy and cost control measures helping us to once again deliver a strong set of results. While political and economic challenges continued to impact the performance of the aviation sector in 2017, we have focused more keenly than ever on ensuring the highest level of operational efficiency and appealing product offering".
He added: "Air Arabia's ability to continue to report sustained profitability and achieve solid growth margins across our network reflects the strength of our business model and the carrier's management team".
In the fourth quarter of 2017, Air Arabia reported a net profit of AED 26 million, an increase of 177 per cent compared to a net loss of AED 33 million registered in the last quarter of 2016. Turnover for the three months ending December 31, 2017 was AED 858 million, an increase of 5.4 per cent compared to AED 814 million in the same period in 2016. Air Arabia flew over 2 million passengers in the final quarter of 2017 at an impressive seat factor of 78%.
"The solid operating metrics and high seat load factor that Air Arabia achieved in the fourth quarter were positively impacted by improvement in yield margins and capacity rationalisation that the market have seen in the last quarter" Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammad Al Thani continued: "We are extremely confident about the long-term fundamentals of the aviation sector in the region which is driven by the underlying demand for air travel, major investments undertaken in aviation infrastructure in the region as well as the region's hub position on the global map".
He concluded: "We believe Air Arabia has the right business model, operating base and infrastructure in place to continue delivering innovative value driven services to our customers. We will continue to explore opportunities and enter into new ventures that will best serve the airline's ambitious growth plans and at the same time provide highest returns to our shareholders".
Air Arabia continues to be recognized, locally and internationally, for its strong performance and community efforts. In 2017, Air Arabia won "Outstanding Performance – Robust Performance and Community Initiatives" by the Aviation Achievement Awards 2017 at the Aviation Annual Gala Evening 2017. The carrier's corporate social responsibility program "Charity Cloud", which aims at providing sustainable education and healthcare initiatives in underprivileged communities across the world, embarked on 10 new projects spread across Kenya, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Sudan, Egypt and Jordan.
About Air Arabia:
Air Arabia (PJSC), listed on the Dubai Financial Market, is the Middle East and North Africa's leading low-cost carrier (LCC). Air Arabia commenced operations in October 2003 and currently operates a total fleet of 50 new Airbus A320 aircraft, serving some 140 routes from five hubs in the UAE, Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. Air Arabia is an award-winning airline that focuses on offering comfort, reliability and value-for-money air travel. For further information, please visit: www.airarabia.com.


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A bottleneck is a great conceptual metaphor to describe those pedagogical moments where a significant number of learners get stuck. Identifying bottlenecks is the first step toward designing learning pathways through those bottlenecks. I'm borrowing the idea from the Decoding the Disciplines project at Indiana University. As Joan Middendorf, one of the project leaders, puts it, "Bottlenecks are important because they signal where students are unable to grasp crucial ways of knowing in our fields." The question of bottlenecks is a central concern in the opening weeks of the Davidson Domains Digital Learning Community.
Let me backtrack. What is Davidson Domains? What is the Davidson Domains Learning Community?
Davidson Domains
Davidson Domains is a pilot program that gives faculty, staff, and students a "domain of one's own"—an online space for blogs, exhibits, research, creative work, portfolios, web development, programming, and more. Users name their domain and maintain control over it. Faculty and students can create a domain for their courses, but they can also use it outside of coursework. The Davidson Domains pilot is a partnership between the Digital Studies program, Davidson's Center for Teaching and Learning, and our instructional technology team. The pilot is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The mission of Davidson Domains is to enable faculty and students to:
- Develop technical and critical web literacies;
- Forge a digital identity through online publishing;
- Reclaim ownership and control over one's digital footprint;
- Explore the possibilities of blended learning and social pedagogies.
Underlying this mission is a fundamental concern of the liberal arts: to raise technical, philosophical, artistic, economic, and political questions about the role of the Internet on ourselves, our communities, and our practices.
We quietly launched Davidson Domains a year ago and have seen dramatic growth. To wit:
The number of accounts on Davidson Domains in September 2014: 0
The number of accounts on Davidson Domains in May 2015: 255
The number of accounts on Davidson Domains in September 2015: 500
And we're about to add capacity for 500 more accounts, making Davidson Domains available to nearly half the campus community. We haven't tied the roll-out of Davidson Domains to any particular year of students (say, all rising seniors) or program (for example, the First Year Writing Program). Rather, faculty and students are developing their Domains Across the Curriculum (DAC) based on interest and need. Given that we've registered 500 accounts in 9 months, that's a lot of interest and need.
Davidson Domains Learning Community
We kicked off Davidson Domains in December 2014 with a two-day workshop led by Jim Groom and Tim Owens. Jim and Tim are pioneers of the "domain of one's own" movement and co-founders of Reclaim Hosting, our partner providing the actual domains. My collaborators at Davidson, including Kristen Eshleman, Anelise Shrout, and Katie Wilkes, have worked tirelessly with faculty and students on Davidson Domains as well. But this formal and informal faculty development isn't enough. We don't simply want a bunch of people using Davidson Domains, we want to build a community of practice around Davidson Domains.
This desire for—as Etienne Wenger describes a community of practice—a group "of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly" is the impetus behind the newly formed Davidson Domains Learning Community. Approximately 25 faculty, staff, and students will meet as a group throughout the semester to think through the rewards, challenges, and possibilities of Davidson Domains. Smaller affinity groups of 3-4 people will also meet on their own to explore more focused topics, for instance, using domains to foster student dialogue or to support longitudinal constructive student projects.
We've learned over the past year that faculty have recurring questions about Davidson Domains, which include:
- How do domains fit in with other technologies (like Moodle)?
- Where do we find good models?
- What's the balance between student agency and scaffolding?
- What about privacy and copyright?
- Can we preserve the work on domains?
We hope to answer these questions for our faculty and students, or at least begin conversations about them. But I also have my own questions about Davidson Domains, more conceptual in nature:
- How does total and free access to online domains change teaching, learning, and research in a liberal arts environment?
- What happens when a community asks the same questions together, and repeatedly, over the course of the semester?
These questions are not simply idle musings. They are research questions. The first tackles the underlying premise of the entire domain of one's own movement, while the second tackles the notion of a learning community. Working with Kristen Eshleman, Davidson's Director of Digital Learning Research & Design, I aim to systematically explore these questions, with the Davidson Domains Learning Community serving as our object of study.
The Bottlenecks of Davidson Domains
Which brings me back to the question of bottlenecks. The affinity groups have a topic to discuss during their first meeting, the notes of which they'll share with the rest of the learning community. That topic is the question of bottlenecks—the essential skills, concepts, and ways of thinking that stump us:
What are the bottlenecks for you or your students for working with Davidson Domains?
As David Pace and Joan Middendorf point out, there is a typology of bottlenecks. Understanding what type of bottlenecks we and our students face makes it easier to design ways of overcoming them. Bottlenecks might be:
- technical (getting the technology itself to work)
- procedural (knowing how to enact conceptual knowledge)
- affective (affective perspectives or emotional responses that hinder us)
- disciplinary (discipline-specific knowledge and practices)
For example, one faculty member told me she struggles with what she calls "Internet shyness"—this is a kind of affective bottleneck. Another faculty member noted that the text- and image-heavy nature of blogs worked against her teaching priorities, which in the performing arts depend upon embodied knowledge. That's a disciplinary bottleneck. Our students, I'm sure, will face these and many other bottlenecks. But until we articulate them, we're unable to move forward to address them. (I guess this is the bottleneck of bottlenecks.)
We are just getting started with the learning community, and I can't wait to see where we end up. I believe that Davidson Domains are essential for the liberal arts in the digital age, and this community of practice will help us explain why. I'll record our progress here from a more conceptual perspective, while the nitty-gritty progress will show up on our learning community site. In the meantime I'll leave you with the slides from our first plenary meeting.