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Unidentified assailants fatally stabbed Li, 30, at least
10 times early in the morning, news reports said. Police told reporters that
the journalist's laptop, camera, and wallet were stolen during the assault.
News accounts reported that Li may have been targeted for
his coverage of a recent food scandal involving the recycling of waste oil into
cooking oil. Police had arrested 32 people and confiscated 100 tons of the
carcinogenic product known as "gutter oil" from Henan and two other provinces,
according to Agence France-Presse. In his last microblog post, Li highlighted a
discrepancy between the illegal oil manufacturing reported in Henan and the
findings of local food safety officials who had denied the existence of such
illicit production, news reports said.
Police arrested two suspects on September 21. Local news
reports said the motive was robbery, although a police spokesperson told AFP
the case was still under investigation.


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Shopping for the Perfect Holiday Present at Staples
Friday, November 27, 2009
When the Silicon Valley Moms blog selected me for a $200 Staples shopping spree, I thanked them and politely declined, saying we didn't really need anything from Staples.
Joke!!! Are you kidding me ???? I snatched that giftcard and wrote my name on it in permanent marker and coughed on it and peed around it in a circle to make sure everyone knew that Staples giftcard was mine, all mine. I could think of a million cool things Staples sells that I could spend that $200 on..... a wireless printer.... an iPod nano... half a netbook.... a digital camera.... a digital photo frame.... The possibilities were endless.
The problem is, I'm kind of a cheapskate. I knew I'd end up spending it on printer paper and toner and cartridge and all the practical stuff that we need. Not a very exciting shopping spree, huh. So I decided to give the giftcard to Alfie as a present. I told him he had complete say in how to spend the $200; I would not interfere (okay, I did try and put in a few good words for a Canon Powershot camera), and all he had to do was let me take his photo and blog about the experience.
Imagine my disappointment when the first thing he reached for was an extension cord. Then a power surge strip. Then a compressed-air canister for blowing dust out of keyboards. I tried to point out the iPod docking stations. The ergonomic office chairs. The iPod Touch. But he only had eyes for the HDMI cable (okay, that one isn't an everyday purchase, but it's certainly a geeky one. I don't want to blog about how I got my husband a video cable for a present!).
Er.....no, Alfie. That's not what you buy on a shopping spree, that's what you buy on an errand! I could have done that myself and stocked up on printer ink! Now is not the time to be practical! My resolve to not interfere was sorely tested. I was beginning to wish I had just gone to Staples myself and bought him a Sony digital reader. Now that's a present.
Then we moved to the GPS aisle. And that is where he found the perfect present.
Alfie is absolutely hopeless when it comes to directions; he can barely find his way around the block. He bought his car in 1996 and his motorcycle in 2002, when installed GPS systems weren't common yet. When we bought our minivan in 2004, we decided not to spend the extra money to get a GPS system since I happen to be good at directions and I'd be driving the minivan most of the time. So whenever Alfie goes anywhere without me, he prints pages and pages of maps and directions. Which is why a portable GPS is exactly what he needs.
Alfie's perfect present, the Garmin Nuvo 1200, was just $169.99. We also decided to get the Staples Technical Support & Protection Plan since we'd get full protection for damages and defects for 2 years, as well as a guaranteed one-time replacement (basically, Staples would issue us a $169.99 credit towards the purchase of a new GPS) within the next 2 years. We ended up buying all the other stuff that Alfie had picked up, because it was something we needed anyway, but I'm so happy that we were able to find a practical present for just over $200 (with the protection plan), with major coolness points! Alfie was so happy with his present, and so was I! Thanks Staples!
I received a $200 Staples gift card and used it to review the shopping experience at Staples. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
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Last week we launched Ask SQLTeam as an alternative to our forums. One of the interesting features of the site is that it uses OpenID as a login mechanism. Google and Yahoo both support OpenID and you can use them to login. What I really wanted was a way to login using a SQLTeam.com username and password. So I had to make SQLTeam.com an OpenID provider.
When you get to the main login screen just enter "http://openid.sqlteam.com" in the text box.
After clicking the Login button you'll be taken to the SQLTeam OpenID page. Here you login using your SQLTeam.com forum username and password.
After you login you're asked to confirm that you want to proceed and login using this OpenID.
After you click "yes" you'll be taken back to Ask SQLTeam and given the option to create a new user. (See below if you already have an Ask SQLTeam account.) After clicking "Create New User" you'll be taken back to the home page. Don't forget to update your profile with your Display Name.
If you already have an Ask SQLTeam account you can still use your SQLTeam.com OpenID with your account. The site supports each account having two OpenIDs associated with each account. On your profile page, just look for the "new login" link. It will walk you through the steps above. After that you can login using either OpenID.
Strongly worded disclaimer: Please be aware that this is beta software. I haven't tested it as extensively as I'd like. I also designed this specifically to work between the two sites on the SQLTeam.com domain. Using this as an Internet wide OpenID isn't supported and may be actively prevented at some point in the future. My choice of URL isn't ideal to support OpenID across the Internet. This feature is designed solely to allow existing forums users to easily try out Ask SQLTeam.com.
That all said, give it a try. It seems to work well and I'm happy with the growth in Ask SQLTeam so far.


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The purpose of the Communicative Sciences and Disorders (CSD) Program is to provide an education and scholarly environment in which undergraduate and graduate students receive quality academic training and professional experience in the field of Speech-Language Pathology. The Program functions within a student-centered environment devoted to learning, research, scholarship, creativity, professional expertise and personal development designed to ensure that students are ethical, knowledgeable, skillful and capable of working independently and in collaboration with clients, families and other professionals.
The commitment of the CSD Program to the University's mission is reflected in the undergraduate and graduate academic course work in normal and abnormal development and behavior across the human life span; in course work that engenders awareness of issues in culturally diverse populations, in human communication disorders, in diagnostic and treatment methodologies, in clinical practica requirements and in technology-integrated course work teaching independent research skills that support lifelong learning.


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Making Smart Risk Management Decisions
This article discusses what it is like to be in charge of making important decisions when it comes to day-to-day operations in a business. Topics such as risk tolerance, risk appetite, and insurance programs are all outlined in great detail. No matter your business industry or current business position, these insights are worth taking a look at!
To view this article, click HERE to access the original content.


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Section Branding
Header Content
William Shatner is bound for space, but the rest of us will have to wait
Primary Content
Star Trek's Captain Kirk is about to boldly go where hundreds of others have gone before, continuing a decades-long tradition of space flights for non-astronauts who are wealthy or famous or well-connected — or all of the above.
As for ordinary folks without deep pockets — well, the final frontier might be opening up a just a bit, but opportunities still basically come down to contests and luck.
Space for the few
Actor William Shatner is scheduled to blast off Wednesday morning on a quick trip to the edge of space and back, riding in the capsule developed by Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
The 90-year-old actor, who will be the oldest person to reach space, has said he feels "terrified." Shatner's reportedly going as a guest rather than as a paying customer.
"I do think it's classic marketing," says Joseph Czabovsky, an associate professor of public relations and marketing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Whenever a new product or service makes a splash, like the first Blue Origin flight did this summer, he says, companies have to figure out how to keep the public's attention.
"William Shatner makes sense in that here's a celebrity that made their claim to fame on traveling in space," says Czabovsky. "It's like a one-time, kind of kitschy branding opportunity."
But even though a celebrity like Shatner can generate headlines, says Czabovsky, this kind of marketing stunt does run the risk of reinforcing the perception that spaceflight is just for the privileged few.
After all, one seat on Blue Origin's first flight was auctioned off for $28 million. Czabovsky recently worked on a poll that found about 80% of U. S. residents saw the recent launches as "billionaire ego trips."
"You have that kind of cynicism, negativity, maybe realistic understanding of what is going on," he says.
Despite that, that poll also showed that people generally felt positive about space travel's potential for humanity, says Czabovsky.
More than half said the recent private spaceflights made them believe that one day soon, ordinary people will be able to go to space.
That's long been the promise of both real-life space travel and science fiction shows like Star Trek. In the early days of the Space Age, astronauts famously had to have "The Right Stuff"; they were mostly military pilots. But the possibility of space vehicles someday becoming more like airlines didn't seem so farfetched.
A brief history of ordinary folks in space
When NASA's space shuttles began flying in the 1980s, all kinds of VIPs started lobbying to go as passengers, says Alan Ladwig, author of See You In Orbit? Our Dream of Spaceflight.
A task force ultimately decided that flying a non-astronaut would be OK for NASA to do, for public education purposes. That's why, in 1984, President Ronald Reagan said he was directing NASA "to chose as the first citizen passenger in the history of our space program, one of America's finest: a teacher."
Ladwig, who managed NASA's program for citizens in space, remembers going on Late Night with David Letterman to talk about it. "I said the first spaceflight participant program would be the teacher," he recalls.
The very next day, however, he was stunned to see a newspaper report that Senator Jake Garn, who chaired the committee that oversaw NASA's budget, would be flying in space.
NASA ultimately flew not just Garn, but also another member of Congress, Bill Nelson, who is now the head of NASA. Both went up before the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster, which killed the whole crew, including teacher Christa McAuliffe. She had participated in a nationwide contest to select the first teacher and had received widespread publicity; millions of Americans watched the tragic explosion.
"There was some criticism out of Congress, some media, that, well, this just shows space is too dangerous for an ordinary citizen," recalls Ladwig, who says NASA canceled plans to fly a journalist in space.
After that, NASA only flew professional astronauts, with the exception of John Glenn, a former astronaut and the first American to ever orbit the Earth. When Glenn said he wanted to fly again at the age of 77, NASA gave the go-ahead.
"The media turned out in droves for that mission, the public loved it," says Ladwig, noting that Glenn was a national hero.
For people who weren't astronauts or national heroes, the only way to get to space, for years, was paying millions of dollars to Russia.
The Russian space agency has sold trips to orbiting space stations to a TV journalist from Japan, a bunch of businessmen turned space tourists, and just last week, an actress and movie director.
Space tourism takes off
Now, though, Russia has competition from U. S. companies. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin both offer up-and-back jaunts that have a few minutes of weightlessness. And Space X has a capsule that can orbit the planet for days.
This year, flights operated by these firms have taken a motley assortment of people to space — what Saturday Night Live recently called "random weirdos" in a skit that parodied both Star Trek and rich space entrepreneurs.
Just a couple of days later, Blue Origin announced that it was taking up Shatner.
The SpaceX flight in September that made history by having no professional astronauts on board was bankrolled by a billionaire Jared Isaacman. But he offered up three seats to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, which allowed a physician assistant from the hospital to go, as well as a community college professor who won a contest and a data engineer whose friend won a fundraising sweepstakes.
One nonprofit, called Space For Humanity, is trying to raise money to sponsor space trips for people from all over the world who might otherwise never be able to afford them.
"We are now at this cusp of a new era in space exploration, where more and more people are going to have access to this experience," say Rachel Lyons, executive director of the group, who says seeing the Earth from space can have a transformative effect. "We believe that it's our responsibility to use this advancement in technology for the good of all."
She says right now, space is just "not accessible to 99.99% of humanity," and that about 4,000 people from over 100 countries have applied to their program.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Blades on a large heavy metal circular ball spin at a high rate of motion against hard, metamorphic rocks, causing crushed rock, dirt and, possibly, dangerous levels of invisible methane gas to form. Pressure and speed are adjusted by the person controlling the machine with joysticks and buttons, but this isn't your next-generation gaming console.
This is reality 200 feet below ground in a coal mine. The machine: a roadheader.
The roadheader is equipped with tools that grab the rocks and place them on a conveyor before they are sent out of the mine for processing, before ultimately being burned to produce electricity, cement, or even steel.
Although the cliché "safety first" is said in just about every work environment, it has to be the standard in coal mining, where people are hundreds of feet below ground in a hazardous environment.
KFG Electric Systems in Poland knows this. KFG engineered and installed a modern underground coal mining control system in Poland that could be used anywhere in Europe with the latest safety features for many of the major mining companies, including protection against methane.
Methane is a big concern for coal miners as it releases naturally during coal extraction. For years, canaries were used in mines to detect high methane levels. They could not survive in slightly lower than dangerous methane levels for humans. When the bird stopped chirping, miners knew to flee. For at least four decades, thanks to modern detectors worn by every miner, methane is detected without killing birds.
The controls enclosure that is on the backside of the roadheader measures 1,700 x 700 x 600 mm with a weight of 1,200 kg (2,400 lbs), making it rock-solid in an underground mine. It is equipped with a safety Rockwell Automation® Compact GuardLogix 43S, a POINT I/O™ safety adapter, and a regular POINT I/O adapter. A safety PAC is used for safety-specific instructions, security, and safety I/O.
KFG needed to communicate from the Rockwell Automation system that natively speaks EtherNet/IP™ to protection relays, EX IOs, and other devices that speak the Modbus® language.
The operation uses several specialized Modbus® devices from different vendors. Because of this, they needed a gateway with multiple ports. ProSoft Technology's gateway has four Modbus ports and is fast with up to 4000 words in 5ms.
KFG chose ProSoft Technology's EtherNet/IP to Modbus Gateway to communicate from the controller to the protection relays and other remote Modbus devices.
"We didn't want to be beta testers and use a device made by a one-person company," said Marcin Ptaszny, CEO of KFG Electric Systems. "It was key to have long-term support and availability of the device."
They wanted a proven solution, so they chose ProSoft Technology. Protection relays sense when there could be trouble via an electrical overload and relay the information to the PAC quickly to shut off the system.
Port 1 of the gateway is connected to an RTU Master and communicates with overcurrent protectors. Port 2 is connected to a RTU Slave that is used for the remote radio control system that allows the miner to control the roadheader from a safe distance. Port 3 is connected to an RTU Master and explosion-safe distributed IO system. Port 4 is connected to an RTU slave and communicates to a surface SCADA system.
ProSoft's gateway was easy to configure, diagnose, and implement.
"This is why the customer loves the Add-On Profile and Add-On Instruction we delivered," Mr. Ptaszny said. "They are pleased with the implementation of the EtherNet/IP to Modbus gateway, specifically the IO connection allowing really fast data exchange with the IOs and the remote joystick in the roadheader."
Mining is the kind of market that does not implement technological changes quickly. KFG is one of the first companies in the world designing new mining systems this way, using safety IO and a GuardLogix safety controller communicating with numerous protection relays and EX IOs.


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We believe in owning our inventory and offering the finest paintings at the best prices. Each painting at MME Fine Art has been carefully selected to maintain an extremely high quality for the discerning collector. Whether a painting is $5,000 or $1,000,000 it must make our hearts sing and more importantly yours! Our inventory includes exceptional examples from the 19th and early 20th century, encompassing Hudson River School, Luminist, Marine, Still-Life, Tonalist, Barbizon, Impressionist, Ash Can, Belle Epoque and Genre paintings.
MME Fine Art is located in the premier art center of New York City's Upper East Side in a duplex penthouse. We have always thought that the process of acquiring a beautiful painting should be an immensely enjoyable, as well as, informative experience, and to that end we have created an elegant and home-like salon for our clients to enjoy and share our fine inventory and our mutual passion for collecting.
If you would like further information on these works or to see any of these paintings in thier frames, please email: firstname.lastname@example.com or call (212) 439-6600. Art Acquisition / Selling to Us We are actively buying on a regular basis and we can provide a quick and easy auction alternative to selling your fine paintings. We will provide immediate payment if we are interested in purchasing your painting. Please call or email us to discuss the painting (s) you would like to sell and have an image ready to send us. We will incur all shipping and insurance costs associated with the purchase. Appraisals We can provide you with complimentary verbal appraisals for your fine paintings and we will always provide written evaluations for paintings we have sold. Curating Collections Mindy Moak and Elizabeth Stallman of MME Fine Art have advised many important private and museum collections. We offer assistance to our clients in establishing their collecting goals and also provide an objective vetting service for potential purchases from outside sources. We also provide advice on proper restoration, framing, installation and care of fine works of art for our valued clients.


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The Orks call their ruling caste Nobz. Nobz are bigger and scarier than other Orks and revel in cruel or casual violence. Nobz lead by example, plunging into the thick of the fighting and breaking skulls left, right and centre. In this way each Nob acts as a sergeant-at-arms, champion, oppressor and role model for the Boyz they lead.
This box set contains five multi-part plastic Ork Nobz. This 104-piece set includes: 10 head variations, five different torso-fronts and five body variations allowing you to assemble a unique looking squad. Also included are a range of weapon options including: big choppas, power klaws, shoota/rokkit kombi-weapons, a shoota/skorcha kombi-weapon, sluggas and choppas. Additonally there are a host of extra components to allow you to further customise your squad, including parts to upgrade your Nobz with Cybork bodies and a Grot ammo runt. Models supplied with 25mm round bases.


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Many people are familiar with—or have at least heard of—the Mariana Trench. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, this crescent-shaped feature on Earth's crust is the deepest part of the world's ocean, reaching a maximum depth of 10,994 meters (36,070 feet) in an area known as "Challenger Deep."
Fewer people, however, are familiar with the Mariana Islands—a chain of 15 islands that include ten uninhabited volcanic islands to the north and five limestone islands to the south. The Marianas are divided into two political regions: the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (a Commonwealth of the United States comprising Saipan, Tinian, and Rota) and Guam (a US territory). Fringing the coasts of each of these islands are lush coral reefs that support indigenous fishing and a large tourism economy, including many ecotourism opportunities.
For six weeks in April and May, the coral reefs of the Mariana Islands also supported a cadre of scientists deploying instruments and collecting data as part of NASA's COral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL) mission. Using a state-of-the-art sensor—the Portable Remote Imaging SpectroMeter (or PRISM)—housed in a Gulfstream-IV airplane, CORAL will provide a new perspective on the function and future of coral reef ecosystems.
The data collected by PRISM, and validated through extensive in-situ (or in-water) measurements in the field, will form a series of maps that indicate the relative densities of coral, sand, and algae in each study area, as well as rates of primary productivity (the creation of new organic material) and calcification (the process by which reefs produce calcium carbonate, an important determinant of reef health). With these maps, the CORAL team can build models to help scientists, resource managers, and politicians better predict how reefs are impacted by both natural and human processes.
From April 7-18, the CORAL field validation teams surveyed locations in Guam and from May 1-16 they conducted similar validation activities in Palau, an island nation southwest of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands whose coral reefs have been named one of the "Seven Underwater Wonders of the World" by the Council for Educational Development and Research (the Great Barrier Reef and the Galapagos Islands are two other famous examples on this list).
While in Guam, the three in-water validation teams surveyed 65 benthic cover sites (from which high-resolution photo-mosaics will be produced, allowing for detailed analysis of the various types of seafloor, or benthic, habitats), 6 metabolism gradient flux sites (which reveal information about reef productivity), 1 metabolism Lagrangian site (with instruments that measure reef productivity and calcification in a set mass of water, over a specific amount of time, along a set transect across the reef), and 42 water optical property sites (which yield information on how light travels through the water column, from the surface to the seafloor and back).
Eric Hochberg gives the "ok" sign after completing a set of benthic reflectance measurements in Palau. Photo credit: Stacy Peltier
Having spent a significant amount of time doing underwater surveys in Guam during the mid 2000s, Eric Hochberg, an Associate Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and the CORAL Principal Investigator, was pleased to see the reefs looking much the same as they did a decade ago.
"The conditions in Guam were great, with the water ridiculously clear just a few hundred meters offshore," said Hochberg. "Honestly, the biggest challenge in Guam was the fact that we didn't have access to a working field lab and had to create a makeshift lab in a conference room at the Hilton!"
Brandon Russell, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Connecticut and part of the CORAL optics team, echoed Hochberg's sentiments about the challenges in Guam. "Working in remote locations is incredibly challenging," said Russell. "It forces you to be flexible in planning and implementation to successfully collect good data but, if you can overcome these challenges, there's a great opportunity to collect a huge, unique, and varied data set."
In Palau, the field teams surveyed 74 benthic cover sites, 10 metabolism gradient flux sites, 2 metabolism Lagrangian sites, and 52 water optical property sites. In addition, 23 sites were studied with an underwater spectrometer to collect measurements of benthic reflectance, or the amount of light that is reflected from the seafloor back to the ocean surface. Each benthic community—in this case coral, sand, and algae—has a different spectral "signature" (how much light is reflected as a function of wavelength), which means that measurements of benthic reflectance can be used to identify the composition of the seafloor.
The reefs in Palau lived up to their billing, providing a stunning natural backdrop for the CORAL survey work being conducted. Stacy Peltier, a research technician in Hochberg's lab at BIOS and part of the CORAL benthic team, said the reefs there were a completely new experience for her.
"While in Palau we discovered a gap in our underwater communication," said Peltier. "We had no way of conveying how awesome something was, so we had to invent a new diver signal: the head explosion. The scenery was so overwhelming you could barely decide what to look at."
A view of Palau's stunning and diverse coral reefs, along with some of its local fauna.
Photo credit: Eric Hochberg
And, unlike in Guam, the CORAL team had access to dedicated facilities and research vessels in Palau courtesy of the Coral Reef Research Foundation and the dynamic husband-and-wife team of Pat and Lori Colin (Director and Laboratory Manager/Research Biologist, respectively).
"It's not an exaggeration to say that we wouldn't have been able to complete this portion of the CORAL mission without the support of Pat and Lori," said Hochberg. Agreeing, Peltier said, "Pat and Lori were eager to share their knowledge of Palau's reefs and actively guided us through so many field aspects that could have easily turned into serious problems."
The airplane carrying the PRISM instrument shuttled between bases of operation on Guam, Yap (part of the Federated States of Micronesia), and Palau, allowing the flight team to take advantage of shifting weather windows in each region. Over the six-week campaign a total of 75 flight lines were coll
ected, representing at least partial coverage of reef areas in Guam, Rota, Tinian, Saipan, Farallon de Medinilla, Anatahan, Guguan, Alamagan, Pagan, Asuncion, Maug, Farallon de Pajaros, and Palau.
With the campaign in the western Pacific complete, and with flight hours remaining, the CORAL investigation ended on a high note by flying PRISM over reef tracts in the Florida Keys. This "bonus reef" is the first CORAL data set from the Atlantic Ocean and will serve as another representative reef area in terms of reef type, physical forcings, human threats, and biodiversity.
"As we ended the campaign with a number of planned flight hours 'in the bank' we were able to quickly formulate a plan to image the coral reefs around Florida," said William Mateer, CORAL project manager with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). "This reef was the initial location for the CORAL operational readiness test. Weather cooperated and we had two days of great collections (22 lines) to add to the data available for science analysis."
The field and airborne teams have returned to their respective home institutions and the CORAL project is now moving into the data processing and analysis phase, which will extend into 2018. CORAL datasets and data products are publicly available. For more information please visit coral.bios.edu/data or coral.jpl.nasa.gov.
Sponsored story by Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences


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Zenbu is a collaboratively edited directory of businesses, and places or things, that are public and signposted in the real world.
To help you find anything, anywhere in New Zealand.
Simply put, our mission is to enable you to find everything.
How are we doing so far? See the Zenbu New Zealand statistics page.
Help build Zenbu! It's easy to get involved and any information contribution, large or small, is appreciated. Sign up to get started.
You can be assured that your efforts will be valued by and available to others, as all the information in Zenbu is freely usable under the Creative Commons Attribution license which guarantees anybody's rights to reuse, remix and share the information..
Incorrect data / data update requests: Please use the Report Error link on the appropriate entry page
Data licensing enquiries: [email protected]
For all other enquiries please email us at [email protected] or use this contact form.


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Oracle's First Dozen Cloud Blockchain Applications Are Now Live
The software giant now has up to a dozen enterprise customers using live blockchain applications.
Despite years of hype and chatter, enterprise blockchain deployments actually in production are few and far between.
But according to Oracle, the list just got a little bigger.
Announced Tuesday, the software giant now has up to a dozen enterprise customers using live applications that have sped into production since its cloud-based blockchain platform went live last July.
This includes a cargo tracking consortium called the Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN); China Distance Education Holdings, which shares educational and professional certificates; Circulor, which tracks conflict minerals; and SERES, a solution for dealing with invoices between franchisors.
Oracle said other customers at the production stage are: Arab Jordan Investment Bank, Certified Origins, NeuroSoft, TradeFin, HealthSync, OriginTrail, ICS FS, SDK.Finance, and Nigeria Customs.
Previously, the only major enterprise blockchains in production were built using IBM Blockchain; namely trade finance solution we.trade and Food Trust (it's notable that both Oracle and IBM have used Hyperledger Fabric to create their blockchain platforms.)
Frank Xiong, group vice president of blockchain product development at Oracle, told CoinDesk:
By "in production," Xiong said he means these applications have their own end users and are handling live transactions. He said transaction numbers vary from customer to customer, with them all gradually rising.
"To start with we were seeing transactions probably among hundreds an hour. But are expecting many of them to grow to thousands of transactions per second," said Xiong.
This also depends on the size of your payload, or transmitted data, and the number of peers on the network, he added.
Taking on IBM
The GSBN consortium, which formed last year, includes five ocean carriers (COSCO, CMA CGM, Evergreen Marine, OOCL, and Yang Ming) as well as terminal operators: DP World, Hutchinson Ports, PSA International Pte Ltd, and Shanghai International Port.
As such, it's a clear competitor to IBM and Maersk's TradeLens, which also seeks participation from shipping carriers, freight forwarders and port authorities.
Xiong said the GSBN consortium grew out of Oracle's close partnership with CargoSmart, an independent software vendor that put the consortium together. CargoSmart is a subsidiary of OOCL and therefore some way comparable with IBM and Maersk. But he said GSBN works out cheaper.
"As a pricing model, we charge by transactions," he said. "So it becomes a very attractive model for new entrants. Once you are established, the transaction charges are very low at this point."
Xiong also dispelled any potential confusion over IP ownership, which was seen by some as an obstacle for TradeLens.
"We own the IP for our platform, the piece we put in there," he said. "CargoSmart develops the application on top and they own the IP on that." (CargoSmart, which itself was previously known to be an Oracle blockchain customer, did not answer requests for comment by press time.)
Fabric of the future
It's fine to see Oracle going great guns with Hyperledger Fabric, but one criticism which has been leveled at the vendor is the lack of code it has supplied to the open-source project.
Asked if this was a fair comment, Xiong pointed out that Oracle has been working on Fabric for over a year and contributed a number of bug fixes.
In addition, Oracle worked out certain enhancements around the database, said Xiong, specifically switching out Fabric's Level DB and using Oracle's Berkeley DB which, he said, has better performance and richer querying capabilities.
"For these enhanced areas we will make a decision about when we will contribute the interface to the community. I would say definitely yes, we are going in the direction of making more contributions to this OS community."
And measure for measure, Oracle is open to collaborating with IBM and others when it comes to blockchain, Xiong said.
"We offer a very rich Rest API connection for a Fabric-based blockchain," he said. "So whether you are IBM Bluemix [cloud] developer or other cloud or on-premises – you can be integrated with our platform."
Oracle image via Shutterstock.


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VICTORIA -- Victoria police say no one was injured after a large fire tore through a tent in Beacon Hill Park on Thursday night.
The fire broke out after 7 p.m. near Douglas and Toronto streets on the west side of the park.
Firefighters at the scene say the flames reached approximately six to nine metres high but were extinguished quickly.
The fire was started by a Bunsen burner that a man briefly left unattended in his tent while he visited his girlfriend in a neighbouring tent.
A fire crew planned to remain at the scene to monitor for hotspots.
Police warned that traffic in the area may be affected while emergency responders clear the scene.
Video provided to CTV News by an area resident showed flames and black smoke filling the air.
What sounded like a small explosion could also be heard in the video.
The man who lost his tent in the blaze was given a care package by an outreach worker at the site.
Much of the park remained shrouded in a haze as the smoke dissipated Thursday night.


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ONE DIRECTION-Harry Styles of British band One Direction performs on stage during the BRIT Awards 2013 at the o2 Arena in London on Feb. 20. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)
by Jane Caffrey
(CNN) — Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen were launched into stardom after getting discovered on YouTube, and now "The X Factor" creator Simon Cowell is setting out to find the world's next big YouTube stars.
Cowell's company Syco Entertainment just partnered with YouTube to create the world's first global audition channel, The You Generation. Aspiring stars can upload audition videos for various categories, ranging from vocals to makeup.
Syco will determine winners every two weeks, and those selected will then become finalists in a global competition for a grand prize.
"We wanted to devise a way that is easier for you to get noticed. It's a simple idea," Cowell said in an introductory video for the channel. "It goes way beyond singers or dancers or all the stuff we've done before. And all the resources I have here or we have at Sony are all behind it."
The channel will go live in 26 countries on March 20, and the competition will last 52 weeks with a total of 26 contests.
"It's the biggest TV channel now in the world!" Cowell said of YouTube. "If you're good and you've got a talent, the fans are going to make you the star."
Boy band sensation One Direction was largely propelled into fame by British fans on YouTube who spread their work internationally. The band will give a live stream interview on the channel to kick off The You Generation's March 20 launch.
Cowell, who signed One Direction to Syco Records, added that YouTube has drastically changed the way record labels operate and stars are discovered.
"Years ago you'd have these awful showcases," he said. "You'd have to trek across London, all the record companies would be there, the acts were normally terrible. The system's changed now, we have people looking at YouTube all the time. It's a fantastic vehicle, it's changed everything! It has literally changed the music business for the good."


text:
Life Is Wild TShirt
A classic unisex t-shirt that works well with any outfit. Made of a heavier cotton feel polyester with a double-stitched neckline and sleeves.
– Rolled-forward shoulders for a better fit
– Seamless double-needle collar
– Taped neck and shoulders for durability
This product is made on demand. No minimums.
– 100% Cotton feel polyester.
A must have t-shirt that fits perfectly on both men and women
An extra comfy loose fitting t-shirt.
Follow wash instructions to increase longevity.
Try creating your own T-Shirt in the product designer.


text:
Nautilus at Waterview is a new condo project by Monarch currently under construction at 68 Marine Parade Dr in Toronto. Available condos start at $1,150,990.
From Nautilus at Waterview: From your pinnacle vantage point at Nautilus, revel in dreamy days and gentle nights where the water becomes a shimmering extension of your living space. Bask in the sun filled heat of the day and the moon and star filled night sky where the restorative powers of nature's purest elements are a elixir for your body and soul. Escape to Nautilus at Waterview and leave the world behind. Imagine if at day's end you could slow your hectic pace to a tranquil rhythm, like the ebbing and flowing of gentle waves lapping at the shore.
BathroomBathrooms with tub and shower receive; - Separate 5' soaker tub to include 2 rows of one choice of porcelain or ceramic tile on tub enclosure from Vendor's standard samples* - Separate shower stall with framed glass door to includeceramic tile from Vendor's standard samples on shower wall to ceiling (excluding ceiling) with ceramic base and separate ceiling light with switch*FoyerInterior designed suite entry with solid core entry door, with security observation port and brushed metal lever hardware.
Interior Finishes
The trademarks MLS®, Multiple Listing Service® and the associated logos are owned by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and identify the quality of services provided by real estate professionals who are members of CREA. Used under license. The trademarks REALTOR®, REALTORS®, and the REALTOR® logo are controlled by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and identify real estate professionals who are members of CREA.
RE/MAX Realty Enterprises Inc. Brokerage, Independently Owned & Operated


text:
CORS Enabled
What is CORS about?
CORS is a specification that enables truly open access across domain boundaries.
Why is CORS important?
While enabling such access is important for all data, it is especially important for Linked Open Data and related services; without this, our data simply is not open to all clients.
For CORS access to anything other than simple, non auth protected resources please see this full write up on Cross Origin Request Security.
How can I participate?
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * Access-Control-Allow-Origin: http://example.com:8080
The asterisk wild-card permits scripts hosted on any site to load your resources; listing a specific <base URI>
will permit scripts hosted on the specified site -- and no others -- to load your resources.
This is compatible with both XHR XMLHttpRequest and XDR XDomainRequest, and is supported by all the major Web browsers.
(Note that it is not possible to grant access to multiple specific sites, nor use a partial wildcard match. It is also not possible to specify more than one Access-Control-Allow-Origin header.)
At the HTTP Server level...
Security Note: The examples given below assume a wild-card '*' domain for the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header. This is provided to simplify basic use of CORS, practically meaning "I don't care how this is used." In an intranet setting, this could lead to leakage of data beyond the intranet and therefore should be avoided. In a production setting, you should take advantage of the full features of the CORS specification to make sure it does express your actual security policy. That said, in a typical Open Data situation, the wild-card can be an appropriate use of CORS.
For Apache
Apache can be configured to expose this header using mod_headers
. This is enabled by default in Apache, however you may want to ensure it's enabled in your deployment by running the following command:
a2enmod headers
To expose the header, you can add the following line inside <Directory>
, <Location>
, and <Files>
sections, or within an .htaccess
<IfModule mod_headers.c> Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*" </IfModule>
You can use add
rather than set
, but be aware that add
can add the header multiple times, so it's generally safer to use set
Finally, you may need to reload Apache to make sure your changes have been applied.
For nginx
CORS can be enabled using the Headers core module which is compiled into nginx by default:
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin *;
For IIS7
Merge this into the web.config
file at the root of your application / site:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <configuration> <system.webServer> <httpProtocol> <customHeaders> <add name="Access-Control-Allow-Origin" value="*" /> </customHeaders> </httpProtocol> </system.webServer> </configuration>
If you don't have a web.config file already, or don't know what one is, just create a new file called "web.config" containing the snippet above.
For IIS6
- Open Internet Information Service (IIS) Manager
- Right click the site you want to enable CORS for and go to Properties
- Change to the HTTP Headers tab
- In the Custom HTTP headers section, click Add
- Enter
as the header name - Enter
as the header value - Click Ok twice
For Jetty (7 and above)
Jetty 7 (starting with 7.0.0.RC2 to be exact) ships with a CrossOriginFilter
. More information...
Include the jetty-servlets
JAR into you WEB-INF/lib
and merge this into your WEB-INF/web.xml
<filter> <filter-name>cross-origin</filter-name> <filter-class>org.eclipse.jetty.servlets.CrossOriginFilter</filter-class> </filter> <filter-mapping> <filter-name>cross-origin</filter-name> <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern> </filter-mapping>
The CrossOriginFilter
can also be configured in the webdefault.xml to apply to all applications; the jetty-servlets
JAR is already bundled within Jetty for this use-case.
It's a simple servlet filter and should be usable in other servlet containers, such as Tomcat, JBoss AS or Glassfish.
For OpenLink Virtuoso (Basic Web Sites, Linked Data Spaces, SPARQL Endpoints, and otherwise)
- Instance/server-level settings require Virtuoso Open Source (VOS) 6.1.3 or later, or Virtuoso Commercial Edition 06.02.3129 or later.
- For older versions of Virtuoso, you can use any of the Web Application-level instructions in the following section, including the Virtuoso-specific PL (VSP). More information...
- Open up the Virtuoso Conductor's Virtual Home and Directory Admin UI
- Set the CORS options on your target virtual directory via the Cross-Origin Resource Sharing field by entering: " * " or a space-delimited list of HTTP server URIs, e.g.,
http://example.com:8080 http://blah.example.com http://foo.example.com
- Optionally hatch Reject Unintended CORS check-box, and unmatched Origins (after any header re-writing by the application itself) will be receive an empty response.
For Apache Tomcat (7.0.41 and above)
Apache Tomcat (7.0.41 onwards) ships with a Cross Origin Resource Sharing filter. Please refer documentation for more information.
The minimal configuration required to use this filter is:
<filter> <filter-name>CorsFilter</filter-name> <filter-class>org.apache.catalina.filters.CorsFilter</filter-class> </filter> <filter-mapping> <filter-name>CorsFilter</filter-name> <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern> </filter-mapping>
For more configuration options, refer configuration initialization parameters.
At the Web Application level...
If you can't configure the HTTP server, you can still add the necessary header through various hosting environments.
In ASP.NET
Add the the following line to your source pages.
Response.AppendHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
This is compatible with IIS6, IIS7 Classic Mode, and IIS7 Integrated Mode.
In Plack Scripts
Install the Plack::Middleware::CrossOrigin module and enable it with:
enable 'CrossOrigin', origins => '*';
There are also more advanced options available.
In CGI Scripts
Just output the line
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
as part of your CGI script's headers.
With Perl, using CGI.pm
print header( -type => 'text/turtle', -content_location => 'mydata.ttl', -access_control_allow_origin => '*', );
With Python
print "Content-Type: text/turtle" print "Content-Location: mydata.ttl" print "Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *" print
In ExpressJS
In your ExpressJS app on nodejs, do the following with your routes
app.all('/', function(req, res, next) { res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*"); res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "X-Requested-With"); next() });
app.get('/', function(req, res, next) { // Handle the get for this route });
app.post('/', function(req, res, next) { // Handle the post for this route })
In PHP
Add the following line to your PHP scripts --
<?php header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *");
As with all uses of the PHP header function, this must be done before any output has been sent from the server.
Via VSP (Virtuoso Server Page)
You can implement CORS checking through Virtuoso's built-in HTTP functions http_request_header() and http_header(). This will work with any version of Virtuoso. For example --
<?vsp IF (http_request_header (lines, 'Origin', NULL) = 'http://host.org') { http_header ('Access-Control-Allow-Origin: http://host.org\r\n'); } ELSE { RETURN; } -- Additional code here --- ?>
In Java servlets
Simply add a header to your HttpServletResponse by calling addHeader
response.addHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
Who is doing it already?
- Dydra
- OntoWiki (Plugin Documentation)
- OpenLink Virtuoso (Virtuoso Open Source (VOS) 6.1.3 and later, and Virtuoso Commercial Edition 06.02.3128 and later)
- Talis Platform - coming soon
- DBpedia Spotlight
- Open Calais
- publishmydata.com
- sameas.org
- Uberblic - coming soon
- URIBurner.com
- Zemanta
- Helprace
- OpenStreetMap delivers map tiles with CORS headers
- Nokia Maps delivers map tiles with CORS headers
SPARQL Endpoints
- DBpedia and DBpedia-live
- Linked Open Commerce
- LOD Cloud Cache
- URIBurner.com
- University of Southampton - Open Data
- Muninn Project
- RDF::LinkedData version 0.16 and later.
- dotNetRDF Version 0.4.0 and later unless explicitly disabled by user configuration
- JSON-LD module for Drupal 7
Data Sets
- bibliographica, a catalogue of cultural works
- ckan
- catalogue.data.gov.uk
- data.gov and the new home of data.gov data
- DBpedia and DBpedia-live
- dig/csail - coming soon
- GeoNames
- productdb.org
- *.rkbexplorer.com which includes various data sets
- Semantic Web Dog Food
- everything at buzzword.org.uk
- Good Relations (GR)
- everything at ontologi.es and wiki.ontologi.es
- rdfs.org which includes SIOC, Resume-RDF and Likedis
- Vehicle Sales Ontology (VSO)
- vocab.deri.ie, all ontologies
- W3C, all ontologies - coming soon
Who still needs to get on board?
Join our effort to enable CORS on the Web by requesting that your favorite website implement it. You can follow the progress of requests sent to popular services here. Don't hesitate to join the conversations linked here, and to list the requests you've made yourself!
- purl.org -- Please see the outstanding issue.
- vocab.org and open.vocab.org
- CloudMade -- A request has been made to add CORS headers to their Mass Downloads API.
- MapQuest -- A request has been made to add CORS headers to their Open Javascript Maps API.
- Twitter -- They're willing to add CORS where they support JSONP, see the related discussion.
- Twitpic -- They've "talked about adding it in the future", but have closed the related ticket.
- Yfrog -- A request has been made to enable CORS on their API.
Who's not willing to get on board?
- Google Maps -- They won't add CORS to their API unless we find a valid use case that respect their terms of service. Offline use of maps is against section 10.1.3 of the TOS, see related discussion.


text:
Who is this position for?
Anyone over the age of 40. Charisma of the purest kind, dynamic personality, and first-class mind. Convincing, smooth, genuine and smart. You know who, and what you are. Sir or Madam, we're looking for that shining star.
What will you be doing?
Reporting directly to the chairman, the admiral of the fleet, you are the captain, and in the helmsperson's seat. With a well-defined course, you are qualified to take us through any weather. Your experience with sextant, compass and charts, should only be matched, by your business smarts. This is an opportunity to command a futuristic vessel. This starship enterprise is going, where no initiatives have gone before. Beam yourself aboard.
- Click here for further details >> https://zagenie.com/ceo/


text:
NECA Predator 2 – 7″ Scale Action Figure – Ultimate City Hunter
At long last, the classic Predators are back – and with some huge upgrades! From the 1990 film Predator 2, we present the definitive collector's version of the City Hunter. The action-packed sequel to the original movie moved the hunt to Los Angeles, where even on the streets, the Predator stalks his prey with deadly precision.
The chilling creature has received "Ultimate" treatment, including additional articulation in the biceps (bicep swivels), elbows (double elbow joints) and torso, plus an opening gauntlet! Comes with 2 interchangeable heads and 5 hands, plus bloody skull and spine, smart disc, removable net launcher, cannon blast effect, collapsed spear and extended spear. Collector-friendly deluxe window box packaging with opening flap.


text:
Alex Constantine - May 1, 2009
By MATTHEW LEE and MIKE BAKER
Apr 20, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) — Armed guards from the security firm once known as Blackwater Worldwide are still protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq, even though the company has no license to operate there and has been told by the State Department its contracts will not be renewed two years after a lethal firefight that stirred outrage in Baghdad.
Private security guards employed by the company, now known as Xe, are slated to continue ground operations in parts of Iraq long into the summer, far longer than had previously been acknowledged, government officials told The Associated Press.
In addition, helicopters working for Xe's aviation wing, Presidential Airways, will provide air security for U.S. diplomatic convoys into September, almost two years after the Iraqi government first said it wanted the firm out.
The Washington Times first reported that Blackwater, or Xe, signed a $22.2 million deal in February with the State Department to keep the company working there through most of the summer.
The company's continued presence raises fresh questions about the strength of Iraq's sovereignty even as the Obama administration urges the budding government to take more responsibility for the nation's future.
Iraqis had long complained about incidents caused by Blackwater's operations. Then a shooting by Blackwater guards in Baghdad's Nisoor Square in September 2007 left 17 civilians dead, further strained relations between Baghdad and Washington and led U.S. prosecutors to bring charges against the Blackwater contractors involved.
That deadly incident was the end, Iraqi leaders said. Blackwater had to get out.
But State Department officials acknowledge the company is still there.
The company declined to comment about a timetable for leaving. "We follow the direction of our U.S. government client," Xe spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said. Last February, Blackwater changed its name to Xe — pronounced ZEE — in a bid to leave its controversial reputation behind.
Defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., said Iraq's ability to enforce bans on companies like Blackwater may provide an early measurement of the strength of its internal sovereignty. As the Iraqi leaders gain more control, he said, the final exit for Blackwater will be inevitable.
"But let's face it, they're not entirely their own masters yet," he said.
In Baghdad, an Iraqi security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said that while Xe will not be allowed to work in Iraq, the company needs "some time" to fully shut down its operations there. The official did not give further details on the timetable.
The State Department's continued reliance on Blackwater also underscores the difficulties facing the U.S. government in finding other options to protect its diplomats in dangerous areas.
Department officials said this month that Blackwater guards would stop protecting U.S. diplomats on the ground in Baghdad on May 7, when the company's contract for that specific job expires and a new security provider, Triple Canopy, takes over.
But in its statement following the Iraqi government's decision to prohibit Blackwater from operating there, State did not reveal that the firm has two other contracts — known as "task orders" — that do not expire until August and September respectively.
Blackwater guards will remain on the ground protecting American diplomats in al Hillah, Najaf and Karbala, all south of Baghdad, until Aug. 4, according to the department.
And Presidential Airways — which operates some two dozen helicopters — will continue to fly until Sept. 3, it said.
After the Nisoor Square deaths, Iraqi officials ruled that North Carolina-based Blackwater would be barred from operating in the country. Despite the ban, the State Department renewed Blackwater's contract seven months later, in April, 2008.
It wasn't until January of this year, when Iraqi authorities denied the company an operating license, that the Obama administration said it would not renew the company's existing task orders.
On Jan. 30, the department said it had informed Blackwater in writing that it "did not plan to renew the company's existing task orders for protective security detail in Iraq."
On Feb. 2, though, the department signed a revised task order for Presidential Airways that allowed the Blackwater-owned airline to operate through Sept. 3, according to a federal public procurement database.
Department officials deny any impropriety in the move because the change in the task order was a revision of an old contract. Karl Duckworth, a State spokesman, said the Iraqi government did not tell U.S. officials until March 19 that it would bar Presidential Airways' flights.
"Based on the government of Iraq's decision, the department notified Xe in writing that it did not plan to renew the company's task order for aviation services in Iraq," Duckworth said.
Duckworth said that State would "re-compete the aviation task order," allowing Xe and Virginia-based DynCorp and Triple Canopy to bid for the air security contract.
Xe is technically allowed to rebid under federal law because it holds the existing task order. But State would not grant the company a contract because it lacks an operating license in Iraq, officials said.
The State Department has not yet selected a successor to Blackwater for ground protection in al Hillah. But both Triple Canopy and DynCorp have the capability to do the job.
Some of the same security personnel who worked for Blackwater might simply transfer to the new companies operating there, industry experts say.
"As Triple Canopy's work expands, the logical place to start looking and interviewing and evaluating employees will be those who are already there, those who have some skills and are already employed by Blackwater," said Alan Chvotkin, a senior vice president and counsel for the trade group Professional Services Council.
Xe, DynCorp and Triple Canopy are all members of the council.
Chvotkin added that in view of the controversies over Blackwater's role, "Triple Canopy and other security companies are making an independent assessment of any individual before deciding whether to hire them."
The Iraqi official also said that some former Blackwater officials could remain in Iraq, depending on their experience.
The transition from Blackwater to a new air security firm may be even more complicated. Chvotkin said it will not be easy to find a firm with Blackwater's air resources. Blackwater should not be ruled out as an option, he said.
"Since the nature of the work is so very different, there may actually be authority for them to operate the air services contract even though they don't have a license for private security," Chvotkin said.
Blackwater has been shifting its focus to other lines of business, including international training and air support in places like Afghanistan and Africa.
Mike Baker reported from Raleigh, N.C. Associated Press Writer Brian Murphy contributed to this report from Baghdad.


text:
Comment by Linda
Linda June 20, 2014 at 3:58 pm
quero compartilhar em meu facebook
Mindfulness exercises allow you to be able to identify, tolerate and reduce difficult, painful and even frightening thoughts, feelings and sensations. Mindfulness gives you back some sense of mastery over our thoughts and feelings. Rather than having the sense that you are being pushed around by your feelings and thoughts you learn to be able to have some agency over them.
So what is mindfulness? Below are some definitions:
Put simply, mindfulness is as simple as becoming aware of your here and now experience, both internally and in the external world around you. It gives you a space in the present moment to be able to more safely deal with the distressing and painful memories of things that might have happened to you in the past. It also allows you to look at and plan for the future, even when you might have fearful thoughts about things that haven't yet happened, from a secure position of knowing that you are in the present moment. In fact, we are never NOT in the present moment – we just lose track of that fact quite often.
Sometimes it is easier to understand something in terms of what it is not. Here are some examples of mindLESSness:
If you do some or even most of these things at times, then you are probably a normal member of the human race! However they do indicate a disconnect from the now, from awareness, and from being "in the present moment."
We have provided a number of downloadable mindfulness strategies in this section. These pages include audio mindfulness exercises you can download, and also PDF files you can read over. You can download them to a CD or straight to an iPod or MP3 player. Use the ones that seem most helpful to you. After using the recordings for a while you may find that it is easier to just practice mindfulness without them. You might find you are developing your own mindfulness strategies that work well for you.
Note: We would like to express our appreciation to Kent Smith and Janine Hills for the development of these valuable resources. Should anyone wish to purchase a complete CD of these Mindfulness Exercises, please contact us with a return email address and we will pass your enquiry on to Kent.
Another great website discussing the value of Mindfulness is Jim Hopper's page on Mindfulness and Kindness at www.jimhopper.com/mindfulness.
Linda June 20, 2014 at 3:58 pm
quero compartilhar em meu facebook
Anonymous June 20, 2014 at 4:04 pm
Really grateful for these exercises – finding them very helpful
Anonymous June 20, 2014 at 4:23 pm
The exercises are very helpful. I will definitely be sharing them. Just what I was looking for.
yesand June 20, 2014 at 4:23 pm
What a wonderful resource and contribution to the development and enhancement of mental health.
Anonymous June 20, 2014 at 4:26 pm
Is it possible to have written handouts of these audios as I find that reading them to participants is sometimes better received than listening to an anonymous voice?
J Duncan June 20, 2014 at 4:29 pm
I love these exercises! I use them to teach mindfulness to anxious teenagers. They have really enjoyed it and have displayed a reduction in stress levels and a greater sense of peace within themselves. I also love the handouts as it gives them the opportunity to practice on their own. I will use these exercises again and again! Thank you!
Julie June 28, 2014 at 11:19 pm
These are excellent exercises. Great that they are concise and on one sheet to print and also have the MP3 versions. Thankyou!
Wesley August 26, 2014 at 9:53 am
Great exercises for mindful living. We can't change what we don't see, so learning to see with greater attention to detail and to deploy our attention with greater nuance and care is a very powerful art that I enjoy writing about myself. Good job!
Jean Rees September 18, 2014 at 4:17 pm
I would like to purchase the cd of mindfulness exercises
Ben March 3, 2015 at 11:53 am
Hi , I use a mac and right clicking > save as just downloads a html file not mp3. How do we get the mp3s please?
bree August 11, 2015 at 11:43 am
thank you so much
Georgia February 11, 2016 at 1:19 am
I am in my mid-twenties and found these exercises really helpful. The hustle and bustle of everyday life often all gets a bit too much so its really great to find some exercises that really focus on controlling our mind and thoughts to make us happier people. Thank you!
Sandra February 11, 2016 at 11:04 am
Meu inglês é nível básico ainda é está ruim, será que tem a versão em português???
Alexandra March 7, 2016 at 8:20 pm
You´re amazing for sharing these tools. Thank you very much.
I´m a fan.
A deep chackra hug!
Shannon April 3, 2016 at 10:08 am
This information is really helpful. I will be sharing with my friends. Thank you!
Gabriela October 8, 2016 at 1:44 am
Why can't I download the audio files? The links lead to an error page.
maria October 22, 2016 at 10:29 pm
thanks a lot
Paul November 8, 2016 at 4:16 pm
I am so mindless with my pain and thoughts I feel like a hamster for retention of anything
wendy davies March 27, 2017 at 1:03 pm
I would love a CD as I don't know how to down load and don't have MP3 whatever that is.
Elizabeth March 8, 2018 at 3:21 pm
Thank you for these exercises. I have used one or two every day for the past 3 weeks and I can feel the difference. They are very helpful and I would highly recommend them.


text:
Phytoplasma - forage grass
Contributors to this page are: CIAT, Colombia (Maritza Cuervo, Cesar Medina, Jose Luis Ramirez, Socorro Balcazar, Josefina Martinez, Daniel Debouck); ILRI, Ethiopia (Jean Hanson, Janice Proud, Juvy Cantrell).
Napier Grass Stunt Disease
Scientific name
Phytoplasma belonging to 16SrXI (rice yellow dwarf) group; 16Sr111 group
Reduction in plant biomass by 20 to 40% poses a major problem to small-holder cattle producers (milk and meat). It is threatening the livestock industry and food security in east and central Africa.
Etiolation, reduction in leaf size, proliferation of tillers and shortened internodes
Pennisetum purpureum, Medicago sativa, Cynodon dactylon
Geographic distribution
East and Central Africa
Biology and transmission
The method of plant propagation and the presence of insect vectors promote the spread of NGSD over long distances. Napier grass produces small, unviable seeds thus propagation is vegetative either by stem cutting or clump splitting.
Transmission of the pathogen among plants is facilitated by leafhoppers. Leafhoppers generally spend their life on one plant but can transfer to another plant during cropping or when blown by wind. Transmission of pathogen in plants happens after the latent period when phytoplasma multiplies in the body and migrates to the salivary glands of the insect. While feeding on phloem sap, the insect inoculate the pathogen into the plant.
Strains were most similar (96%) to Bermuda grass white leaf phytoplasma (Accession 16388).
Detection/indexing method in place
- at CIAT: Not applicable
- at ILRI: NASH, PCR method
- If the disease is present then all symptomatic plants should be removed and burnt.
- Measures to control the spread of NGSD can be effective only if there is sufficient knowledge on vector lifecycle in relation to phytoplasma transmission.
- For high infection check for disease free seeds tillers to re-establish plots.
Procedure followed at the centers in case of positive test
- All individual plants tested, clean plants retained and infected plants rogued and material burnt
References and further reading
Arocha Y, Zerfy T, Abebe G, Proud J, Hanson J, Wilson M, Jones P, Lucas J. 2008. Identification of Potential Vectors and Alternative Plant Hosts for the Phytoplasma Associated with Napier Grass Stunt Disease in Ethiopia. Journal of Phytopathology. Published Online: 11 Nov 2008.
Diekmann M, Putter CAJ. (eds.) 1995. FAO/IPGRI Technical Guidelines for the Safe Movement of Germplasm. No. 14. Small Grain Temperate Cereals. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome/International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome.
Frison EA, Putter CAJ. (eds.). 1993. FAO/IBPGR Technical Guidelines for theSafe Movement of Sugarcane Germplasm. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome/ International Board for Plant Genetic Resources, Rome.
Jones P, Arocha Y, Zerfy T, Proud J, Abebe G, Hanson J. 2007. A stunting syndrome of Napier grass in Ethiopia is associated with a 16SrIII Group phytoplasma, Plant Pathology, 56, 345.
Jones P, Devonshire BJ, Holman TJ, Ajanga S. 2004. Napier grass stunt: a new disease associated with a 16SrXI Group phytoplasma in Kenya. [online] Available from URL: http://www.bspp.org.uk/ndr/july2004/2004-19.asp Date accessed 13 April 2010
Mulaa M. Nov. 2004. A Survey to Collect and Identify Potential Vectors of Napier Grass stunting disease Associated with Phytoplasma in Western Kenya. Nov. 25-29, 204. ILRI, Unpublished material.
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text:
Devon Boutte and Martin Moser developed the land building logics Phase 02 proposal that evolved from the original ecolibrium proposal from Phase 01.
The proposal for this project expands on several discrete aspects of the City Sense project Ecolibrium. Ecolibrium proposed utilizing real time data sensing in the Atchafalaya basin to convert negative ecological problems into positive byproducts with the intention of providing more ecological resiliency, or fitness, to these negative problems as they are managed in the future. Currently, certain ecological processes, directly resulting from current or past human intervention, have detrimental effects on the basin. The ecological processes investigated within Ecolibrium are algae blooms, excessive water hyacinth populations, and sedimentation. This proposed land management project takes into account the fluctuations of these processes throughout the year in both their negative effects as well as the opportunity for positive byproducts through management, focusing specifically on algae and water hyacinth. Managing land building in the Atchafalaya Basin redefines land-building strategies, and focuses on a nuanced, calculated approach to utilize biomass generated from algae and water hyacinth as a land building substrate.
Several ecological issues arise from the excess of algae and water hyacinth growth in the Atchafalaya Basin. If this plant material benefits from the nutrients and agricultural runoff that flows into the basin and the vegetation thrives, it creates hypoxic conditions for underwater fauna. These hypoxic conditions, marked with depleted underwater oxygen levels, create massive fish kills and offset the normal ecological balance. The basin has also suffered the detrimental effects of altered hydrology, stemming from human interventions for logging and oil and gas exploitation. This altered hydrology has resulted in erosion and changes in sedimentation patterns, resulting in land loss.
This project provides an alternative to traditional land building methodologies – the typical paradigm is permanent, cumbersome, and unable to react to change. The Army Corps of Engineers, for example, approaches land and land building as simply another infrastructural element – one to be analyzed, sited, built, and maintained when necessary – when in reality, land is part of a living, fluctuating ecological system, and must be managed as such. Utilizing real time data to drive land building locations and patterns allows a responsive environment, capable of functioning at a micro scale and reacting to macro system changes. In this project, sensors located throughout the basin provide real time fertilizer inputs and quantify where land building substrate is available throughout the basin. Additionally, by specifically locating where this biomass substrate is available and in what quantities, an average location of these points shows where land building could most efficiently occur.
The real time data sensing is investigated within this project at a number of scales and time periods. Within the Atchafalaya Basin, ecological systems fluctuate based on inputs from millions of influences. Within the scope of this project, it was necessary to understand some specific factors that relate to the growth and management of the major ecological systems.
In order to provide this real time data, sensing network of three different scales is employed to sense the large picture, zoom in, and finally sense at a micro, nuanced scale. These scales each imply a different time scale of sensing as well. By sensing this data at a variety of scales and times, a wholistic model of real time data is able to be interpolated to provide a glimpse into any given moment in the basin.
The data that this sensing model provides is dynamic and fluctuates according to normal yearly trends as well as unseasonal and unexpected events and systems. Expected year-ly trends may include the seasonal flooding of the basin in the spring of each year, due to the snow melt.
Unseasonal or unexpected events may be storms, ecological pestilence, or industrial accidents.
In addition to the macro cycles on which these different data inputs fluctuate, the sensing model is also able to sense and identify micro changes in real time. Within each of these data criteria, minor fluctuations due to daily or even hourly micro-adjustments have an affect on the macro system. The real time data sensing model is able to pick up on these changes and provides a tool with which to aide programming and design.
Figure #1 depicts the interface between the computer, arduino, and sensing model to help develop the typology and land building rules. This model offers an effective scale to sense the nuanced, micro scale changes and how they affect the macro systems.
In addition to the data fluctuations, the rules that govern the land building are dynamic as well. This type of calibration model requires a feedback loop of real time data sensing, land building, programming, and critique. The goals and rules of the land building strategy may be in flux until a best management solution has been reached. This hypothetically may take a number of months or years to perfect.
All of these various land building models were prototyped with a combination of arduino, grasshopper, rhinoceros, and City Engine modeling software. The arduino and grasshopper interface provided a basic environment in which to program the basic rules were investigated, and City Engine offered additional parameters with which to understand these rule relationships.
This land building will occur according to a series of typologies and rules that reflect the context of the basin near the current location of the land building point. Three land typologies in the Atchafalaya basin: edge, open water, and fragmented, have been identified and are reflected in the land building process. Additional rules within each typology guide the creation of land in reaction to more specific real time data at a site scale. The factors for determining the rules at the local scale may include more specific spacing, connecting, height, and proximity characteristics than the typological rules. The process for determining some of these rules involved utilizing scaled sensing models of the basin to provided a means of physical study of real time data inputs. Additionally, incorporating City Engine software into this investigation may provide another tool for effective parametric modeling to aid in the adaptation of land building rules. As shown in Figure #2, it was necessary to investigate an interface between the grasshopper enviornment and the City Engine environment in order to further understand the land building rules. Ultimately, all of these typologies and rules come together in a loop for ecological fitness and efficient land building, driven by the programming sequence of rules and typologies, and supplemented by feedback from the real time sensing data that updates in response to changing site conditions.
As technology continues to advance into the 21st century, humans are being provided with increasingly efficient and intelligent options to man-age increasingly complex operations and relationships. Real time data and its ability to interface with these new technological devices offer promising opportunities for ecological land management strategies in the Atchafalaya Basin. This new way of managing land building contradicts the contemporary belief that ecological infrastructure must be static and lifeless. Rather, these new pieces of ecological infrastructure offer a nuanced and dynamic footprint of land building that actively manages biological nuisances in ways that result in positive outcomes for both ecological resiliency and ultimately human use and inhabitation.
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In many games I have played, initial editions (eg the 1960s version of Midway) use squares for their boards.
Often, later editions (eg the 1990s edition of Midway) change to a hex pattern.
Hexes get around awkward movement rules (like being able to move 14 squares, or 10 on the diagonal (10 / sqrt of 2
is very close to 14)), but I wonder when squares would give a better feel for the environment?
In Clue it makes sense because they represent tiles in the hallways (and while you can be whisked around the house by being involved in an accusation or via tunnels, the hallways analogy makes sense). However, in a simulation game, I cannot see how squares could be useful.
When are they a good mechanic in simulation game design?


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Bigfoot is not real, yet there are many believers. Â And some of these believers write letters to the editors of local newspapers.
No one has ever been abducted by aliens.  Alien abductees certainly write letters to newspapers.  I knew a guy who could see and hear scenes from ancient times on the surfaces of some round rocks he found, and as his disease progressed, on the tiles in his bathroom.  I know he wrote letters to the editors because he cc'ed them to me!
Yet, we do not see these emails published in the newspapers. The newspapers weed them out.
Evolution is real. Â Creationism is not. Â Why are emails from creationists often published in respectable newspapers? There is a reason, and I'll tell you what it is below. (Preview: It is your fault.)
Yes, yes, I get that creationism is part of certain religions, and therefore newspaper editors may feel obliged to print this material. But there are many other things that are part of various mainstream religions that we do not see in letters to the editors of modern newspapers. Â Newspapers are not printing any rants about food taboos not being followed; or about people failing to take their hats off or put them on in the correct setting, or forgetting to cross themselves at the altar or eating fish on Thursday instead of Friday. Â Few letters say anything overt about being saved by Jesus, and none that I know of say what I hear the street-corner soap-box preachers telling me as I walk by them. Â These are all things that are part of religion but being part of religion does not get them on the editorial pages of modern newspapers.
OK, a quick caveat. Â Yes, you do see crazy stuff in the letters to the editor section of newspapers, and perhaps you know of (and can point to) examples. But major cities have "local" newspapers that are supposed to be above all this. Minneapolis' Star Tribune ("The Strib") is one of those. Â
Yet we saw this just the other day:
What is unobservable is a theory — no moreWithin the species, evolution can be observed and scrutinized in the development of new life forms such as variants of corn and cattle. … However, evolutionists and creationists diverge where observation ends and ideology takes over.
… One does not actually see a life form generating the next level from conception to birth outside of its boundary that serves as an invisible wall.
But where it is unobservable, it may still be considered a construction of the mind — a theory. Political candidates who refer to creationism in less than a negative manner need not be demeaned.
JAMES SCHACHER, Blaine
In this case, the Strib ran this rant side by side with an "evolution is for real" letter written by Arnold Erickson of Mesa, Arizona. Nice. The two letters were debating the validity of a point made by Richard Dawkins concerning the lack of understanding of science by Michel Bachmann, Ron Paul and other political candidates running for the Republican nomination this election cycle.
The Strib has demonstrated that it subscribes to the policy of there being "two sides" to every story (even though this is not true) and they've demonstrated that they can't find anyone in Minnesota who thinks evolution is real. Thanks for that, Star Tribune.
But enough complaining. It seems to me that it is quite possible to do something about this, and here's where we see how this is all your fault, and that only you can fix it.
The logic is simple: Major, credible newspapers do not publish letters to the editor from those with delusions, poorly informed individuals, or plain old cranks who think they've seen bigfoot, were abducted by aliens, have proof that Jimmy Carter was seen in Fukushima's nuclear power plant just before the meltdown or insist that rocks speak to them. Why, then, would they publish letters from people who deny basic science, including well established aspects of Evolutionary Biology as well as the firmly established findings of Climate Science?
They avoid the former because it would be embarrassing, they practice the latter because it brings in readership and so far has not brought sufficient ire to bear on the editorial staff. Because you haven't told them that they are doing it wrong.
As a person with fingers and an internet connection (or equivalents) you can tell them how you feel about this. If you happen to subscribe to a newspaper that has published this sort of drek, you can tell them that their credibility is at risk and this causes you view renewal of your subscription as unlikely. This might be especially effective if you currently subscribe to your local newspaper via one of these new, experimental iPad or Smart Phone apps.
In this case, the offending newspaper is the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Minnesota. You can send off a few emails and tell them what you think. I make it easy for you:
The letter in question, quoted in part above, is here. Right at the top of the page.
Here are some suggestions as to whom you might email:
Michael J. Klingensmith
Publisher and CEO
Nancy Barnes
Editor and Senior Vice President
Scott Gillespie
Jeff Griffing
Chief Revenue Officer, Advertising
Don't just sit there. Take action!


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Almost immediately after winning a second term in office on May 23, India's Prime Minister Modi gave a speech making light of parties and individuals who had espoused secularism over the past five years.
During the five years while the Indian government has been led by Modi and the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party — or BJP —several Muslims were lynched on allegations of eating beef or even just transporting cattle for slaughter. As the number of attacks on Muslims grew, Modi mostly remained silent.
The consumption of beef in India has long been a divisive issue because many Hindus believe that the cow is a sacred animal. Cow slaughter and consumption of beef have long been banned in 24 out of 29 states across India.
Despite this concession to orthodox Hindu sentiments, India has a constitutional commitment to secularism. Unlike in the West, where secularism calls for a strict separation of church and state, Indian secularism is based on the premise of respect toward all faiths.
However, Modi and the political party he represents are adherents of Hindutva. What exactly is Hindutva and how is it different from the beliefs and practices of Hinduism?
Colonial roots
Hindutva is an ideology that states that India is the homeland of the Hindus. According to believers, those who profess other faiths can live in the country only at the sufferance of Hindus.
As a scholar of contemporary Indian politics, I find this proposition to be profoundly disturbing and deeply antithetical to the the central tenets of Hinduism.
The roots of this ideology can, in considerable part, be traced to the growth of Hindu anxieties in colonial India. In 1906, a Muslim political party — the All-India Muslim League — was created. Later, a charismatic politician, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, became its standard-bearer and subsequently the first governor-general of the state of Pakistan following the British partition of India in 1947. Partition led to the division of the former British India into the two independent states of India and Pakistan.
The creation of the All-India Muslim League caused some serious misgivings on the part of some segments of the Hindu population, leading to their political mobilization along religious lines, pitting Hindus against Muslims. In 1921, an organization emerged in northern India called the Hindu Mahasabha.
It brought together people who opposed the secular outlook of the major political party at the time, the Indian National Congress, led by Mahatma Gandhi and others. The Mahasabha's ideology espoused the education and uplift of Hindus and also the conversion of Muslims to Hinduism.
The ideology has its roots in the ideas of an important but controversial Indian nationalist, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who was not only ardently opposed to British rule in India, but advocated violence to end colonial domination and argued that India was the sole preserve of Hindus.
His ideas were fundamentally at odds with the principals of the Indian nationalist movement, Mahatma Gandhi and his disciple Jawaharlal Nehru, who would become the first prime minister of a free India. Gandhi, though deeply religious, had advocated Hindu-Muslim amity. Nehru, a staunch secularist, had supported religious pluralism. He died at the hands of a fanatic, Nathuram Godse, a member of the Hindu Mahasabha, in 1948.
Growth of the BJP
The Hindu nationalists sought to make Hinduism, an ancient religion which has no common holy text, no overarching set of beliefs and no single place of pilgrimage, into a homogeneous, organized faith based upon a set of common religious tenets.
During the early years of the Indian republic, following its independence from British colonial rule in 1947, the ideology of Hindutva and its adherents found little appeal among the Indian electorate.
However, since the 1990s the BJP has gathered strength in both the electoral and social arenas. Electorally, it was in power as the dominant partner in a coalition regime from 1998 to 2004. Later, in 2014, it emerged as a majority party in Parliament.
It has also attracted substantial numbers of followers. In considerable part their disaffection stems from the willingness of secular governments to pander to the Muslim minority.
The Indian National Congress, on a number of occasions, especially in the 1980s, made a series of concessions to orthodox Muslim sentiment in its quest for their votes. Among other matters, a Congress government banned Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses," even before Iran had issued the fatwa against Rushdie. On another occasion, it overturned an Indian Supreme Court judgment that had granted alimony to a Muslim woman. Members of the Muslims orthodoxy were outraged with the decision, as they deemed it to be an affront to their religious beliefs.
The BJP deftly dealt with the myriad concessions made to sectarian Muslim demands. They argued that the majority Hindu community was being short-changed and that only the BJP would adequately protect the interests of the majority Hindu population.
These sentiments, it appears, struck a resonant chord with significant segments of the electorate and played a not inconsiderable role in propelling the BJP to victory.
Sumit Ganguly, Distinguished Professor of Political and the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations., Indiana University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.


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NEW YORK – Preparing for what she knew would be her last professional tennis tournament, Kim Clijsters — four-time Grand Slam title winner; mother of 4-year-old Jada — devoted her effort and energy to the U.S. Open.
Family time needed to wait a tad longer.
"She was like, 'Why don't you come with us to go out, go for a walk?' I'm like, 'Mama's almost done,'" Clijsters said Wednesday after her singles career ended where she wanted it to, just not the way she hoped. "So, yeah, I think she's going to be excited to kind of have her mom around more, on a more regular kind of basis."
Little Jada's gain is the tennis tour's loss.
Clijsters lost 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) to 18-year-old Laura Robson of Britain in the second round of the U.S. Open, and will head into retirement after she finishes playing doubles at Flushing Meadows.
"It's been an incredible journey, and a lot of dreams for me have come true because of tennis. As a little girl, I got Christmas rackets under the tree and outfits of Steffi Graf and Monica Seles, and I would want to wear them to bed, I was so excited," Clijsters said. "So for me to have been able to have been a part of women's tennis, and on top of women's tennis for so many years — you don't think about it when you're in it; you're kind of on automatic pilot. ... Now that I think about it, it's been a crazy rollercoaster at times, as well."
She walked away from the sport once before, in May 2007, then returned after a hiatus of two-plus years. Now 29, the Belgian insisted this season that she means it this time, and decided the U.S. Open — and its hard courts that she conquered on the way to three championships — would be her final tournament.
"It's the place that has inspired me so much to do well and to do great things. It's hard to explain sometimes why," Clijsters said in an on-court interview, her face flushed and her eyes welling with tears.
"This completely feels like the perfect place to retire," Clijsters told the spectators at Arthur Ashe Stadium, many of whom rose to shower her with a standing ovation. "I just wish it wasn't today."
The loss Wednesday ended Clijsters' 22-match winning streak in New York, encompassing titles in 2005, 2009 and 2010, plus Monday's first-round victory.
She missed the hard-court major in 2004, 2006-08 and last year, thanks to a combination of injuries and the time she took off while starting a family. Clijsters was married in 2007, and Jada was born in February 2008. By August 2009, Clijsters was back on tour; unseeded and unranked, because she only played in two previous tournaments during her comeback, she won that year's U.S. Open.
"Since I retired the first time, it's been a great adventure for my team and my family," said Clijsters, who was 28-0 against players ranked outside the top 10 at the U.S. Open before Wednesday. "It's all been worth it. But I do look forward to the next part of my life coming up."
Her previous defeat at Flushing Meadows came against Belgian rival Justine Henin on Sept. 6, 2003, in the tournament final. Robson was 9 at the time.
This did have the feel, in some ways, of a changing of the guard.
Clijsters finished with a career singles record of 523-127 (a winning percentage of .805) and 41 titles, including her last major trophy at the 2011 Australian Open. She spent a total of 20 weeks ranked No. 1, as recently as February 2011.
"I hate to lose. My husband and I, we play ping pong in our garage, and I don't even want to give him a point," Clijsters said, rubbing her palms together.
Ranked 89th, and with only one prior victory over a woman ranked in the top 25, Robson has been viewed — particularly back home in Britain — as an up-and-coming player whose smooth left-handed strokes would carry her far.
But she had never produced the kind of grit and court-covering athleticism that carried her past the 23rd-seeded Clijsters. And until now, Robson never had won more than one match in a Grand Slam tournament; her claim to fame had been teaming for a silver medal in mixed doubles at the London Olympics with Andy Murray, who reached the U.S. Open's third round by beating 118th-ranked Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 in the last match Wednesday night.
Robson knows how much Clijsters means to the game, not only as a superb player but as someone who by all accounts is universally liked — by fans, tennis officials and even opponents.
"She's always been someone that I've looked up to since I started on the tour. She's always been incredibly nice to be around," Robson said. "I think we're all going to miss her."
When the contest ended with Clijsters sailing a backhand return long, allowing Robson to convert her third match point, they met at the net. Clijsters began to extend her arm for the customary handshake, and Robson pulled her in for a hug.
"I want to thank Kim," Robson told the crowd, "for being such a great role model to me for so many years."
Less than an hour later, Clijsters was hanging out in the players' garden alongside the stadium. She shared a laugh with some friends, hugs from others, and paused to pose for a photograph alongside 14-time major champion Serena Williams, who was headed out after partnering sister Venus for a first-round victory in doubles.
Clijsters was the only woman of real significance who lost on Day 3, when the winners included No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, four-time major champion Maria Sharapova, defending champion Sam Stosur, 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and 2011 French Open champion Li Na.
"The whole tour is certainly going to miss having her around. She's been a great player and a great person," Stosur said about Clijsters. "I guess she's ready to do other things. She's definitely one of those people that you can look up to and really admire with what she's been able to achieve."
Joining Robson with a surprise victory was American wild-card entry Mallory Burdette, the NCAA runner-up who reached the third round in her Grand Slam debut by eliminating 69th-ranked Lucie Hradecka 6-2, 6-4.
Until recently, Burdette planned to take premed courses as a senior at Stanford in pursuit of a career in psychiatry.
"It's been a crazy ride," the 252nd-ranked Burdette said.
Could get even wilder: She next faces Sharapova, a 6-0, 6-1 winner Wednesday night over 78th-ranked Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain.
Earlier on Ashe, the highest-ranked American man, John Isner, let out a big exhale of relief while waving to the crowd after getting past an argumentative Xavier Malisse 6-3, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-6 (9) in the first round.
"I know in the nitty-gritty times of a match, I always have that confidence and all those wins in my back pocket," said Isner, who is 37-13 in tiebreakers this season.
The 6-foot-9 Isner hit 20 aces and ended things with a service winner on his third match point. That came after Malisse pushed an easy backhand volley into the net, then grabbed the ball and shoved it in his mouth and chomped on it as though it were an apple.
The 57th-ranked Malisse, a 2002 Wimbledon semifinalist, was louder and angrier during a few exchanges with the chair umpire and even members of the crowd, earning a warning for profanity.
"Half of the crowd doesn't understand what's going on," Malisse said. "They yell. We're in New York. So you're going to get more yells. That's fine by me. ... (But) I'm going to say something back."
There were no such shenanigans during Clijsters vs. Robson, simply plenty of terrific play.
With her husband — Brian Lynch, an American who used to play professional basketball in Belgium — fidgeting from his front-row seat in the stands, Clijsters wound up getting the worse of lengthy exchanges. As big a forehand as Clijsters owns, Robson was out-hitting her, compiling a 16-11 edge in winners off that wing.
Clijsters went up a break in the second set, helped by a pair of double-faults by a slightly shaky Robson — nerves that were understandable, given the setting and the significance of this match. But Robson got right back in it, playing gutsy, go-for-the-lines tennis, repeatedly pounding the ball hard as can be, and seeing shots land right where she aimed.
"I really enjoyed myself out there," said Robson, who found herself singing along to the pop songs that blare over loudspeakers during changeovers.
As you might expect from a teen, the youngest player ranked in the WTA's top 100.
Try as she might, Clijsters could not quite gain the upper hand, no matter how many times she yelled "Come on!" and raised a clenched fist after winning points.
On one well-disguised drop shot by Robson, Clijsters raced forward and did her trademark splits through the doubles alley, stretching to get her racket on the ball. But her response landed in the net.
"I just wasn't good enough at the end of the match," Clijsters acknowledged.
And now? What does she look forward to the most?
The answer came quickly: "Being home."
Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich


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Specifications:Material: Keyboard + Resin DiamondSize: 65*70mm/2.6*2.8"Type of diamond: Full drillDIY Diamond painting production steps:1. Open the box and check the diamond draw special tools2. View the resin diamond color, arranged in order of coding3. Uncover tape drawing above, you will see a lot of symbols corresponding to the color coding4. According to the corresponding color coded clamp the corresponding the resin inlaid diamonds5. Suggested that one type of the resin diamond one set completed faster6. In order to create a perfect diamond painting, drawings put together in one place every row symbols do not have to stay stuck diamonds7. To cut a good figure on the drawings hold sorted array mounted to the plane of the material above8. Splices need flat against the neat, do not have cracks9. After a good fight, the rest of the gap at the glue corresponding symbols of diamonds10. To complete a good diamond drawing, put it in your selection of a suitable framewDiamond Paintingork (this product does not provide a framework)Notes:This is DIY diamond painting, not finished, and you need to finish it yourself. All products are manual measurement, please allow 1-2cm deviation. Because the light is different from the screen, the color of the item may be slightly different from the picture. Please understand.
Package Content:
4 X Keyrings1 X Diamond Painting Tool (Drill Pen, Speed up Plate)
Our Customer Service Team Is Available:
Mon to Fri. 9:00-18:00, GMT+ 08:00


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Boris Johnson 'confident' lockdown restrictions will end in England on 19 July
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he is "confident" that no further delay to the lifting of remaining Covid restrictions in England will be necessary, and will come to an end on 19 July.
The Prime Minister confirmed on Monday (14 June) that lockdown measures would remain in place until July - pushed back from 21 June - due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant.
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Hide Ad'Now is the time to ease off the accelerator'
The Prime Minister said 19 July will now be the "terminus date" for the remaining restrictions on social contact.
Covid restrictions in England were due to come to an end on 21 June, but this has been pushed back by four weeks to 19 July amid the rise of the Delta variant.
Limits on numbers for sports events, pubs and cinemas will remain in place, with nightclubs to stay shuttered and people will be asked to continue working from home where possible.
However, the 30-person cap for wedding ceremonies and receptions, as well as wakes, will be lifted on 21 June, with limits to be set by venues based on social distancing requirements.
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Hide AdMr Johnson said it is "sensible to wait just a little longer" and that he is "confident" no further delay will be necessary.
"It's unmistakably clear that vaccines are working and the sheer scale of the vaccine rollout has made our position incomparably better than in previous waves," he said.
"But now is the time to ease off the accelerator because by being cautious now we have the chance in the next four weeks to save many thousands of lives by vaccinating millions more people."
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "We must learn to live with this virus and we must learn how we can live our normal lives with this virus so I reflect the Prime Minister's words, which I of course concur with entirely on July 19."
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Hide AdCabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said it was "regrettable" that ministers had to order a delay of up to a month to the final phase of the road map.
Asked if restrictions would ease on 19 July or whether there could be another delay, Mr Gove told Sky News: "That will be the terminus date.
"What we said is that we won't lift those restrictions before June 21, in the road map it says not before, and the whole point about the road map was to build in an element of flexibility and caution.
"It is regrettable that we do have this pause before moving to Step 4, but what we want to do is to make sure that when we do make that move, that we don't go back.
"Because the worst thing for business, worst thing for any of us, would be to open up again and then to very quickly find that we have to reimpose restrictions."