text:
Why did Chuck Hagel perform so poorly before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday? Perhaps because his Obama administration handlers urged him to be something he's not. The real Hagel is a curious combination of raw emotion and international relations theory abstraction. On the one hand, he's known for getting angry, especially when people who know little about the realities of war imply that he's not tough enough on America's foes. Knowing that, Hagel's former Republican colleagues were clearly hoping to goad him into some kind of eruption. Tennessee's Bob Corker had already warned that Hagel's "overall temperament" would be an issue at the hearings.
All nominees are warned not to allow their hearings to turn combative, but a source close to Hagel suggests that the staffers prepping Hagel were particularly adamant on this score. "They expected [Jim] Inhofe, [John] McCain and especially [Ted] Cruz to come after him, and they said, 'Be a tank—don't rise and attack back.'" An aide involved in the Hagel preparations says that's overblown, but acknowledges that it was made clear that as a nominee, Hagel could not allow himself to be drawn into the kind of feisty exchange that Hillary Clinton had with Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson during last month's hearings on Benghazi. This was considered particularly important in winning over those relatively moderate Senate Republicans like Tennessee's Lamar Alexander and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, who administration aides believe like Hagel personally, and can be convinced to vote for him, or at least to oppose a Republican filibuster.
The problem is that Hagel is quite compelling when he's mad. I suspect that's part of why Obama chose him in the first place, because Obama is himself mad that he was pressured by the military brass and by congressional Republicans into sending more troops to the lost cause that is the Afghan War. And Obama wants someone to push back, hard, if Benjamin Netanyahu and his friends in the GOP try to pressure him the same way on Iran.
At the hearing, however, under instruction not to show too much emotion, Hagel sounded like Obama in the first debate: lethargic, unfocused, disassociated from his own words. To make matters worse, says the source close to Hagel, the White House also worried about Hagel being too professorial. Given his penchant for quoting George Kennan, or at least Thomas Friedman, and saying things like "borderless challenges will require borderless solutions," Hagel's handlers reportedly advised him not to wax theoretical about the broad direction of American foreign policy. In particular, they worried that Hagel would justify his past views—in particular his concern about the overreliance on American military power and his belief that Israel bears some of the blame in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute—in a way that allowed Republicans to draw a distinction with Obama's public statements. "Republicans wanted to crystallize and make distinct his views and show the distance between his views and Obama's," says the source. "Hagel didn't want to do that."
This too may have made sense on paper. But in practice, Hagel's effort to avoid both a fight and a lengthy discussion of his personal views kept him from effectively explaining his past statements. Staffers involved in the nomination process suggest that Hagel spent much of his preparation time on the less politically contentious issues—weapons acquisitions, post-traumatic stress disorder, Afghanistan, cyber warfare—that defense secretaries actually focus on. But when the Republicans went after Hagel, again and again, on his past statements about Iran and Israel, Hagel appeared so worried that defending those statements might create distance between his views and the administration's that he often did little more mutter that he had been wrong.
If the aim of the hearings was simply to make sure Hagel gets confirmed, all this may not matter very much. After the hearings, three important senate Democrats—New York's Kirsten Gillibrand, Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal and Colorado's Mark Udall—said they would support Hagel. And if the Democrats hold firm, as it appears they will, it's unlikely the Republicans will be able to mount an effective filibuster. But if the aim of the hearings was also to begin building a case for Obama's second term foreign policy—a foreign policy that brings military spending into balance with economic resources and aggressively pursues diplomacy with Iran, and maybe Israel and the Palestinians too—Hagel failed. And if he continues to fail as a foreign policy spokesman once confirmed, that second term agenda will be harder to achieve.


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Trail Guide to U.S. Geography
by Cindy Wiggers
Trail Guide to U.S. Geography is a family-friendly, multi-level geography curriculum guide for students in grades 3 through 12. With its trail markers (animal track icons) guiding your student along three different learning paths, this book can be used for more than one academic school year and works well if you have a number of students of varying abilities learning together.
There is not one exact way to use this unique course. It was designed with flexibility in mind to better meet various objectives when teaching geography. Trail Guide to U.S. Geography provides activities and assignments for a 36-week school year on U.S. Geography.
Atlas Drills
Spend 5-10 minutes a day with the atlas drills to develop and maintain map reading skills. Some folks use the book strictly for the Geography Trails section alone and say it's worth every penny at that!
Geography Notebook
Add an outline map with a list of places to label and students have a smooth beginning to creating a great U.S. Geography Notebook. Additional assignment choices lead students deeper to learn about key places throughout the United States. You set your pace and objectives. Spend as much time as your schedule allows. You can always use the book again another year, with all new atlas drills questions.
There are three sections of assignments for each week. You can use all three sections or any combination.
[1] Geography Trails Weekly: Days 1-4
In the weekly Geography Trails section you will find daily short atlas drills at three different levels. Students follow their assigned trail and, using the required atlas, answer two questions a day. They gain practical experience with map reading and atlas usage in a light-hearted and natural way. Many especially enjoy the challenge of finding the answers in this 5-10 minute activity.
[2] Mapping Weekly
Weekly mapping lists provide opportunities for students to label an outline map for inclusion in their personal U.S. Geography Notebook. Most students will complete the mapping assignment in one sitting. (Outline maps are not included.)
[3] Trail Blazing — Personal Research and Discovery
The Trail Blazing section fleshes out the remainder of the school week. Here you will find a number of various type of assignments to choose from. So, in addition to the five- minute atlas drills and the mapping activity students (or teachers) select two to four of these Trail Blazing assignments each week to complete. Assignments span all learning styles and cover many topics of interest.
Students will use outside resources, such as library or Internet for most of the Trail Blazing assignments. Some example of the kinds of assignments include: creating a chart or graph, research and study, art or craft, meal planning and preparation, designing a travel brochure, making flash cards or a crossword puzzle to aid in memorization, creating an illustrated geography dictionary, and so much more.
Literature Unit Component
The final weeks of the school year we change it up with a Literature Review Unit. Using family read-aloud time and The Captain's Dog by Roland Smith, student will map the trail of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, learn about Native Americans, plants and animals that were discovered at that time and more. Some families do this six-week unit during the summer months as an introduction to the upcoming U.S. geography studies.
The three trails represent three levels of difficulty.
Elementary, 3rd-4th grades
Middle School, 5th-8th grades
High School, 9th-12th
When determining the level for your student you should rely more on the student's ability to read and use an atlas than on a specific grade.
Using Trail Guide to U.S. Geography as your core, students will:
- Gain experience with map reading using an atlas;
- Create their own personal geography notebook, or portfolio;
- Develop critical thinking skills;
- Learn countries and capitals;
- Much more!
Resources used with Trail Guide to U.S. Geography
With the following required and optional resources, Trail Guide to U.S. Geography makes for an interesting year of geography studies and most can be used again when students have moved up a level:
- Desk Atlas of the United States — atlas used for daily questions and weekly mapping assignments
- 3-Level Trail Guide to U.S. Geography Notebook printable pdf files (or a good set of outline maps) form the core of the geography notebook. Of course, we recommend the Uncle Josh's Maps book or collection on CD-ROM if you don't choose to use the Student Notebook files.
- State Notebook includes stickers of state bird, flower and tree
- The Captain's Dog — read-aloud novel for 6-week literature review unit
Optional Complimentary Resources
These optional resources meet more specific needs and aid in making this an even more interesting subject to study:
- Eat Your Way Through the USA — This cookbook is referenced in Trail Blazing assignments, and features complete meals for each of our fifty states. It is interesting how differently we eat across the country. Includes ingredients grown in the state, recipes the state is known for or, recipes submitted by families in that state. Food facts for each state add interest and provide opportunities for discussion while preparing the dish. Everyone loves to eat so cooking is an easy connection to any geography study.
- Geography Through Art — Introduces world and U.S. cultures in a medium children enjoy and relate to ... Art! They learn what children in countries around the world do for art and create their own from the instructions provided. Many projects come with fascinating information of historical significance. Step-by-step illustrating examples help students draw a number of different animals and more, and all projects include great simple-to-follow instructions. Nineteen art projects from the United States aid this study; there are 100 additional projects from around the world.
- Cantering the Country — Literature-based geography unit study curriculum which compliments the family geography study. For those who also have younger students, or who love finding real books from which to teach. Using this book in tandem with Trail Guide to U.S. Geography helps family members with different learning styles and of varying ages learn together by allowing each child to do activities and assignments selected just for them.
- Trail Guide to U.S. Geography Lapbook — For younger students or hands-on learning types, this lapbook adds depth to creating a fascinating geography notebook.
- USA PlaceMap — Great visual aid in a compact size. Includes handy state facts students can use when creating data charts.
Save money with GeoPacks — specially assembled bundles to include everything you need to embark upon an exciting adventure in geography.
"Adding this resource to our study of the U.S., we have realized that there is so much more to know about the geography of our great country than just states and capitals! Thankfully, author Cindy Wiggers has made it easy to incorporate the often overlooked, but important subject of geography into our already packed homeschool routine. The Trail Guide to U.S. Geography provides lots of guidance while allowing for (and encouraging) flexibility and this is just the balance most homeschool moms need! The manual is easy to navigate and I am very impressed with how thoroughly material is covered. This resource is destined to be a favorite with homeschool families for years to come!"
—Cindy Prechtel, Editor Homeschooling From the Heart
Trail Guide to U.S. Geography may be used in an individual homeschool, but it is well-suited to use in a group or co-op, with the added benefit of students tackling different activities and sharing the fruits of their studies with each other through presentations and discussion.
—Jean Hall, Eclectic Homeschool Online
"This is an EXCELLENT resource for U.S. Geography. Your child will be very familiar with the United States and each state independently when they are through with this course!"
—Holly Cameron at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
"Systematically moving through the US, there's something here for everyone, whether you're looking for a few warm up drills or a thorough, in-depth geography course."
"We have been using the Trail Guide to U.S. Geography by Cindy Wiggers for our geography studies for over a year now. This resource is wonderful! I have decided to do a series of posts in which I show how we use this resource to study the geography of our country. For years I had felt guilty because we really weren't studying geography in a systematic manner. For me, the Trail Guide to U.S. Geography is the perfect geography curriculum. Our geography studies are completed together which works really well for my children (7th, 5th, and 3rd grades)."
—To Be Busy At Home Blog
"While the curriculum can be completed in a year, I decided to take a slower pace and complete our study of United States geography over a two year period. The Trail Guide to U.S. Geography is such a rich resource of ideas, even with two years in which to work through the text, I had to pick and choose which activities we would complete for our homeschool. There are just so many ideas in the text and geography is just one part of our school day. We usually spend about 20 minutes on geography studies each day, although some projects take a bit."
—Samantha at the Curriculum Choice
"If your homeschooled child loves maps, state trivia and geography, or it's important to you that your kids learn all 50 states, their capitals and basic history, The Trail Guide to US Geography from GeoMatters is designed just for your home school. The curriculum provides everything necessary for a thorough overview of each of the fifty states in an engaging, multi-level, multidisciplinary method."
—Andrea Rose at Associated Content
Publisher: | Geography Matters |
Edition: | 2015 |
Product: | |
Format: | Paperback or electronic |
Size: | 8.5" x 11" |
Pages: | 142 |

subset: commoncrawl


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Radix Adenophorae
Nan Sha Shen (Radix Adenophorae)——Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Shen Nong's Herbal)
The Processing of Radix Adenophorae
The root of the perennial herbaceous plant Adenophora tetraphylla (Thunb.) Fisch or A. stricta Miq. of genius Ladybell of family Campanulaceae.
Cultivated in most area in Southern China.
Plucked in spring and autumn.
The actual smell and taste
No foul smell, slightly sweet.
Best quality
Plump and even coarse, yellow-white color.
The Effect of Radix Adenophorae
Sweet, slightly bitter, slightly cold; lung and stomach meridians entered.
Nourish yin of lung and stomach, clear heat of lung and stomach, tonify qi of spleen and lung, and dispel phlegm.
A. Lung yin deficiency syndromes
It is indicated for dry cough with little phlegm, blood in phlegm, dryness in throat, and hoarseness due to lung yin deficiency with dryness-heat in lung too, because it can nourish lung yin, moisten dryness in lung and clear lung heat. Though, it is weaker than Bei Sha Shen from the aspect of moistening dryness in lung and clearing lung heat, it can disperse phlegm and tonify lung qi, and it is very indicated for chronic cough due to yin deficiency with dryness in lung, sticky phlegm and difficulty in spitting, and both qi and yin deficiency. It is commonly combined with yin-nourishing, lung-moistening and cough-relieving herbs, such as Bei Sha Shen, Mai Dong, and Xing Ren. Or it can be combined with both qi and yin tonifying herbs, such as Xi Yang Shen, Tai Zi Shen.
B. Stomach yin deficiency syndromes
It is indicated for dryness in mouth and throat, dry stool or constipation, red tongue with little fluid, hunger without appetite, retching and other symptoms due to stomach yin deficiency with heat, because it can nourish stomach yin, produce fluid to check thirst, and clear stomach heat. From the aspect of stomach yin nourishing and stomach heart clearing, it is weaker than Bei Sha Shen, But, it has the action of tonifying spleen qi, so it is indicated for both stomach yin and spleen qi deficiency syndrome, especially indicated for qi and yin both deficiency with remaining heat at the later stage of heat diseases, which is contraindicated to tonifying with warm herbs. It is usually combined with stomach-yin-nourishing and stomach-heat-clearing herbs. For instance, it is used with Yu Zhu, Mai Dong and Sheng Di Huang in Yi Wei Tang from Wen Bing Tiao Bian.
Dosage and Administrations
Decoct 10~15 g.
Antagonizing Li Lu.


text:
Following the completion of your journey, the taxi company you booked with will mark your booking as fulfilled.
You will then receive an automated feedback email allowing you to provide us with a detailed feedback.
Our taxi companies are organised on our website based on past customer experiences and reliability, so we always value your feedback.


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This tool allows you to monitor, dequeue and requeue scripts and styles that are enqueued on your site. It is designed for frontend performance engineers who want to view and manage all assets enqueued on any page and control the minification and concatenation themselves.
For background, please read Chris Coyier's initial request.
Warning: This plugin makes it easy to break your site. Don't use this unless you know what you're doing.
How to use
Once the plugin is activated, browse to any page on the front of your site. An Assets link will appear on the top right of the admin bar. Click that to view and manage all assets.
Development takes place on GitHub. Patches welcome.
- Unzip
- Upload the contents of
to the/wp-content/plugins/
directory - Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress
- I dequeued jQuery (or something I shouldn't have) and now my site is broken
Go to the list of plugins in your admin panel. Find the Asset Queue Manager and click the "Restore Dequeued Assets" link.
Contributors & Developers
"Asset Queue Manager" is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
ContributorsTranslate "Asset Queue Manager" into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
1.0.3 (2016-03-10)
- Fix #5: issues with third-party code which extends native types. h/t @AndiDittrich of https://wordpress.org/plugins/enlighter/
1.0.2 (2016-02-17)
- Fix #4: allow assets with dots in the handle to be managed
1.0.1 (2014-12-17)
- Fix critical bug where assets were only dequeued for logged in users with the admin bar present
1.0 (2014-10-23)
- Initial release


text:
Albipack may use cookies to store your login information, collect statistics to optimize site functionality, and perform marketing actions based on your interests.
Strictly necessary cookies They allow you to browse the website and use its functionalities as well as access secure areas of the website. Without these cookies, the services you may request can't be provided.
Functional Cookies They save user preferences for site usage, so you won't need to reconfigure the site each time you visit it.
Advertising Cookies They are used anonymously for the purpose of creating and analyzing statistics in order to improve the functioning of the website. They measure the success of applications and the effectiveness of third-party advertising. They can also be used to customize a widget with user data.


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Loveramics Tulip Espresso Cup (Red) 80ml
Loveramics Tulip Espresso Cup (Red) 80ml
Loveramics Tulip Espresso Cup (Red) 80ml
Eye-catching, functional and durable, Loveramics cups are designed by award-winning ceramicist, Simon Stevens. The Loveramics Tulip Espresso Cups are made to SCA standards, with ideal cup wall thickness for heat retention. The narrower body of the Tulip Espresso Cup focuses and intensifies coffee aromatics more than its wider Egg Cup counterpart. Your coffee also oxidises at a slower pace; this means the Tulip Espresso Cup pairs great with coffees with high fruitiness or acidity, and holds crema well for retaining that complementary bitterness.
The Loveramics Tulip Espresso Cup is dense and has a comforting weight that sits snugly in your hand, due to the commercial-grade high-fired porcelain it's made of. All cups are dishwasher and microwave safe, freezer and oven safe, and stackable. Suitable or domestic or cafe use.
Loveramics Tulip Espresso Cup Additional Info:
- Diameter 6.5cm, Height 6cm
- Capacity 80ml
- Restaurant Grade & Food Safe
- Dishwasher / Microwave Safe
- Material: Porcelain


text:
Every shirt we make is handmade to the highest Savile Row standards. We use the finest cottons, Mother of Pearl buttons and brass collar bones. The packaging, shows the care and attention we take when delivering every shirt. This is a bengal stripe shirt on its way to a customer.
Photography credit: Petra Exton


text:
For more than 20 years, the Rev. Eric Williams has educated people about AIDS and helped those who suffer from the disease. But the focus of Williams' ministry isn't something he could have predicted back in 1991.
In those days, Williams was a young pastor who had only recently taken charge of his own church — Calvary Temple Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo. He had been ordained in 1988.
"I got a call from a local funeral home," says Williams, 56. The woman on the other end of the line told him, "I've got a really big favor that I want to ask."
The favor had to do with a young man who had just died.
"He'd been a member of the church all his life," Williams recalls. "His parents were very active in church. Mom sang in the choir. At any rate, he's 25 years old, and he died of AIDS. And he just happened to be gay."
The woman from the funeral home told Williams that when the man's "pastor found out how he died, he said, 'Well you know, I am not going to do the funeral. And it can't happen in our church.' "
Williams was asked to perform the service. And as he tells his colleague Jannette Berkley-Patton at StoryCorps, "I didn't want to do it."
"It's not appropriate for one pastor to go against what another pastor has said" in his own church, Williams recalls thinking at the time.
"And I was perfectly all right with that — until I went home and started thinking about this family.
"You know, everything good that I've been able to accomplish has started with some kind of a burden," Williams says. "And AIDS burdened me. So reluctantly, I did the funeral.
"I met the parents of this kid," he recalls. "And you know, I was used to black dads disowning their gay sons. That was the thing to do: 'My son can't be gay.'
"But not this family. This father and this mother, they celebrated his life. They embraced all of his friends."
In the years that followed, Williams became an advocate for those with HIV/AIDS, organizing prayer and information sessions. He's also urged other pastors to take up the cause and spread awareness. And it all started with that "favor," and the funeral that followed.
"You know, they taught me more about unconditional love in that little experience than any of the Sunday school books and any of the courses in seminary, or any of it," Williams says. "And that was the event that kind of rearranged my life."
World AIDS Day is Saturday. Audio produced for Morning Edition by Katie Simon with Michael Garofalo.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Dead Sea Mineral Makeup OPALESCENT
Welcome to the World's BEST Mineral Makeup! Our exclusive formula contains 10% Dead Sea Minerals in the powder! Since 2008, our light, yet full coverage formula has remained FREE from Bismuth Oxichloride, a known acne, rash and itch/irritant filler ingredient used in many other mineral makeups on the market today. Our formula is also FREE from Parabens, Formaldehyde, Urea, Synthetic Fragrances and various other toxic ingredients. No need for additional concealers or veils with our full coverage Dead Sea Mineral Makeup! From light to dramatic runway coverage, this incredible product allows you to put your 'Best-Face-Forward', all day long!
My mission is to help you - 'Rest Assured' that you are investing in personal care products that are Safe, Effective and Non-Toxic. Our products help with your skin-confidence as well as current and future health and well-being.
My philosophy is: 'What goes ON your body goes IN your body'! After all, it's a fact - Your skin is your largest organ.
'Discover the Aviv Difference!'™ for yourself, family, friends + our planet.
Take care of the Temple God has blessed you with. Don't Settle for Mediocre - Invest in The BEST! You ARE a Priceless Treasure.
Nurture Your Skin, Nurture Your Life
The Aviv Philosophy
We believe your personal care products should contain natural, sustainable, body and earth-friendly ingredients that allow you to maintain a youthful appearance at every stage of life.
I have used products from Aviv Spa for several years now and every product I add to my repertoire has been fantastic! I have used everything from the concrete feet to the Lavender Lovers High Magnesium Oil, which is my current favorite(it's getting rid of my under eye bags). The products are fantastic and I am always confident that they will not harm me or our environment in any way.
You may also like
Yes, we ship all over the world. Shipping costs will apply, and will be added at checkout. We run discounts and promotions all year, so stay tuned for exclusive deals.
It depends on where you are. Orders processed here will take 5-7 business days to arrive. Overseas deliveries can take anywhere from 7-16 days. Delivery details will be provided in your confirmation email.
You can contact us through our contact page! We will be happy to assist you.


text:
WHY: NEW YORK, NY - (NewMediaWire) - May 16, 2024 - Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of common stock of The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC) between February 10, 2023 and February 28, 2024, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important May 20, 2024 lead plaintiff deadline.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Chemours common stock during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.
WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Chemours class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=22563 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email or email@example.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than May 20, 2024. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.
WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.
DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants misrepresented and/or failed to disclose that: (1) certain of Chemours' senior executive officers manipulated Free Cash Flow targets as a means to maximize additional cash and stock incentive compensation applicable to executive officers pursuant to Chemours' Annual Incentive Plans ("AIPs") and Long-Term Incentive Plans ("LTIPs"); (2) Chemours' accounting practices and procedures, including its internal control over financial reporting, were deficient, and (3) as a result, defendants' statements about Chemours' business, operations, and prospects lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
To join the Chemours class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=22563 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email email@example.com for information on the class action.
No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Contact Information:
Laurence Rosen, Esq.
Phillip Kim, Esq.
The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 686-1060
Toll Free: (866) 767-3653
Fax: (212) 202-3827


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Artistic masterpieces, prestigious historical buildings, cities to explore.
Discover the artworks at Gallerie d'Italia in Milan, Piazza della Scala
Discover the artworks at Gallerie d'Italia in Naples, Via Toledo
Discover more about Gallerie d'Italia in Turin, Piazza San Carlo
Discover the artworks at Gallerie d'Italia in Vicenza, Contra' S. Corona
Explore the collections on line
Virtual tour on Gianbattista Tiepolo exhibition
Suggested results
Alighiero Boetti (1940 - 1994)
embroidery on fabric
116 x 179 cm
Gallerie d'Italia - Napoli
Exhibition path
Vitalità del tempo
For further information mail to


text:
Welcome to Sedgewick Eye Associates, a leader in comprehensive eye care. We appreciate your interest in our office. We specialize in the latest techniques and strive to offer compassionate care in a non-hurried environment. Excellence in the care of your eyes is our commitment to you. From your initial phone call, to my treatment and conversation with you about your concerns, to your eyeglasses needs from our extensive designer collection of eyeglass frames for men, women, kids and teenagers. We pride ourselves on offering you the absolute best!
My staff and I are trained and skilled in the latest treatments for cataracts, LASIK, glaucoma, diabetic laser treatments and macular degeneration to ensure you are receiving the best care possible. If your ocular needs are outside of what I can do for you, we have screened and picked for you the best referral Doctors available, so, no matter what your ocular needs are, you can be assured that we have taken every step possible to insure that your care is in the best hands possible.
Your vision is our top priority and we appreciate the trust you have placed in us.
Patients whom I anticipate might need access to me after regular business hours are given my personal cell phone number ahead of time. For new Patients or for existing Patients that develop new problems after hours, your best option is to either come to my office at 9:30 AM the next weekday or call the nearest emergency room and ask for the Ophthalmologist on call and meet them at his/ her office. This will avoid needless waiting time in the ER and provide you access to whom you eventually need to see anyway. In addition, most emergency rooms and ER Doctors are not properly equipped or trained to diagnose complex ocular conditions.
For any billing questions please call ESM billing at 703-723-4484 and ask for Donna.
44121 Harry Byrd Hwy (Route 7), Suite #175
Ashburn, VA 20147


text:
An exceptional interview
My friend Alfred was in a job interview the other day, with a guy named Quincy. It was for a Java programming gig and they were apparently getting too many resumes, so they sat him down with a paper and a pen and asked various questions in order to determine his skills. I hear it is very trendy nowadays, all the cool kids are doing it. After a lot of rather boring, Java-for-dummies kind of stuff, he was given a paper with something more-or-like the following code printed on it:
public String getSomething(String one, Object two, Integer three) {
if (one != null) {
if (two != null) {
if (three != null) {
String result = reallyGetSomething(one, two, three);
doSomethingMore(one, two);
return result;
} else throw new ObjectNotDefinedException("three is undefined");
} else throw new IllegalArgumentException("two is not legal");
} else throw new NullPointerException("one is null");
After taking a few moments to read the code, Quincy started firing away:
Q: What is wrong with this method?
A: Lot's of things.
Q: You mean more than one?
A: Of course. The most obvious mistake is that the method does not declare that it can throw ObjectNotDefinedException.
Q: Yep, that's right. Is there anything else?
A: Sure. That's the easy part that the compiler can tell you right away. Furthermore, the method is needlessly complex and has a questionable API.
Q: Really?
A: Sure, the order the null checks are in, force the indentation to increase, making the code difficult to follow. Moreover, if doSomethingMore() and reallyGetSomething() do not modify their parameters and have no side-effects that require this particular ordering, they could be swapped, saving one line:
public String getSomething(String one, Object two, Integer three)
throws ObjectNotDefinedException {
// Validate.
if (one == null)
throw new NullPointerException("one is null");
if (two == null)
throw new IllegalArgumentException("two is not legal");
if (three == null)
throw new ObjectNotDefinedException("three is undefined");
// Do the actual work.
doSomethingMore(one, two);
return reallyGetSomething(one, two, three);
Q: OK, now what's wrong with the API?
A: Check out the exceptions the method throws back to the caller.
Q: What about them?
A: Only one of them, ObjectNotDefinedException, is a checked exception that would give the caller a chance to react to such an anomaly. The others are unchecked exceptions that will bubble up the call stack and probably blow up in the users face.
Q: Well, perhaps the API designer wanted to differentiate the handling of the three error cases.
A: Perhaps, that's why I said "questionable". But looking at the similarities in the way the method handles its parameters, that would be hard to believe, don't you think?
Q: I'll ask the questions.
Then, after a bit of fiddling with the internals of his briefcase, Quincy presented another sheet of paper with the following printed code listing:
public class ThrowNull {
public static void main(String[] args) {
public static String getFluff(String name) {
if (name == null)
throw new NullPointerException("BOOM!");
return "Fluff: "+name;
public static String getStuff(String name) {
if (name == null)
throw null;
return "Stuff: "+name;
Alfred was given a few moments to digest it and then Quincy went on:
Q: What does the program print?
A: That's easy. It prints nothing. At least, nothing useful. It throws a NullPointerException since the caller of getFluff() is null.
Q: Why does getFluff() throw an NPE if the name parameter is null?
A: I suppose the getFluff() API designer considered that it's the caller's job to make sure it is not called with a null argument. He should have put that in the javadoc, though. You do write javadoc comments don't you?
Q: I'll ask the questions. What will the program output if we change the first println() in main to
A: It's not much of a change. The line "Fluff: bad" will be printed, followed by a new NullPointerException.
Q: So the "throw null" syntax is legal?
A: Hell yeah! Even Neal Gafter is using it.
Q: Which way of throwing an NPE is better?
A: Better in what way?
Q: I'll ask the questions.
A: Well, each one has its merits. The first form is more explicit and traditional, but longer. The second is more succinct and closer to the natural language, but cryptic to newcomers.
Q: So what would you recommend that we use?
A: Does that mean I got the job?
Q: I'll ask the questions.
A: Well, I kinda like the short, concise form, but I don't feel particularly strong about it.
Q: Good answer, because we picked the other one after a three-hour long debate last week.
A: You mean you were debating about ways to throw a NullPointerException for three hours?
Q: Yeah, why?
A: Don't you have real work to do?
Q: I'll ask the questions.
I don't believe Alfred has heard back from them ever since.
I'm actually glad about it.


text:
Once upon a time, about 13.8 billion years ago, our universe sprang from a quantum speck, ballooning to one million trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion times its initial volume (by some estimates) in less than a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second. It then continued to expand at a mellower rate, in accordance with the known laws of physics.
So goes the story of cosmic inflation, the modern version of the Big Bang theory. That single short, outrageous growth spurt fits all existing cosmological data well and accounts for the universe's largeness, smoothness, flatness and lack of preferred direction. But as an explanation of how and why the universe began, inflation falls short. The questions it raises — why the growth spurt happened, how it happened, what (if anything) occurred beforehand — have confounded cosmologists since the theory emerged in the 1980s. "We have very strong evidence that there was this period of inflation," said Matthew Kleban, a cosmologist at New York University. "But we have no idea — or we have many, many ideas — too many ideas — what inflation was, fundamentally."
To understand the origin of the universe, today's cosmologists seek to identify the unknown driver of inflation, dubbed the "inflaton." Often envisioned as a field of energy permeating space and driving it apart, the inflaton worked, experts say, like a clock. With each tick, it doubled the size of the universe, keeping nearly perfect time — until it stopped. Theorists like Kleban, then, are the clocksmiths, devising altogether hundreds of different models that might replicate the clockwork of the Big Bang.
Like many cosmological clocksmiths, Kleban is an expert in string theory — the dominant candidate for a "theory of everything" that attempts to describe nature across all distances, times and energies. The known equations of physics falter when applied to the tiny, fleeting and frenzied environment of the Big Bang, in which they struggle to cram an enormous amount of energy into infinitesimal space and time. But string theory flourishes in this milieu, positing extra spatial dimensions that diffuse the energy. Familiar point particles become, at this highest energy and zoom level, one-dimensional "strings" and higher-dimensional, membranous "branes," all of which traverse a 10-dimensional landscape. These vibrating, undulating gears may have powered the Big Bang's clock.
At his office on a recent afternoon, Kleban sketched his latest inflaton design on the blackboard. First, he drew a skinny cylinder to depict the string landscape. Its length represented the three spatial dimensions of macroscopic reality, and its circumference signified the six other spatial dimensions that string theory says exist, but which are too small to see. On the side of the cylinder, he drew a circle. This is Kleban's timepiece: a membrane that bubbles into being and naturally expands. As its inflating interior forms a new universe, its energy incrementally ticks down in clocklike fashion each time the expanding circle winds around the cylinder's circumference and overlaps itself. When the energy of the "brane" dilutes, the clock stops ticking, and inflation ends. It's a scheme that some string cosmologists have hailed for its economy. "I think it's pretty plausible that some version of this happens," he said.
Though Kleban acknowledges that it's too soon to tell whether he or anyone else is on to something, plans are under way to find out.
The record of the inflaton's breakneck ticking can be read in the distribution of galaxies, galaxy clusters and superclusters that span the cosmos. These structures (and everything in them, including you) are artifacts of "mistakes in the clock," as Matias Zaldarriaga, a cosmologist at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, N.J., put it. That is, time is intrinsically uncertain, and so the universe inflated at slightly different rates in different places and moments, producing density variations throughout. The jitter in time can also be thought of as a jitter in energy that occurred as pairs of particles spontaneously surfaced all over an "inflaton field" and stretched apart like two points on an inflating balloon. These particles were the seeds that gravity grew into galactic structures over the course of eons. The pairs of structures spanning the largest distances in the sky today came from the earliest quantum fluctuations during inflation, while structures that are closer together were produced later. This nested distribution across all cosmic distance scales "is telling you in detail that the clock was ticking," said Nima Arkani-Hamed, a theoretical physicist at IAS. "But it doesn't tell you anything about what it was made of."
To reverse-engineer the clockwork, cosmologists are seeking a new kind of data. Their calculations indicate that galaxies and other structures are not merely randomly spread out in pairs across the sky; instead, they have a slight tendency to be arranged in more complex configurations: triangles, rectangles, pentagons and all manner of other shapes, which trace back not just to quantum jitter in the Big Bang's clock, but to a much more meaningful turning of the gears.
Teasing out the cosmological triangles and other shapes — which have been named "non-Gaussianities" to contrast them with the Gaussian bell curve of randomly distributed pairs of structures — will require more precise observations of the cosmos than have been made to date. And so plans are being laid for a timeline of increasingly sensitive experiments. "We're going to have far more information than we have now, and sensitivity to far subtler effects than we can probe now," said Marc Kamionkowski, a cosmologist at Johns Hopkins University. In the meantime, theorists are making significant progress in determining what shapes to look for and how to look for them. "There's been a great renaissance of understanding," said Eva Silverstein, a string cosmologist at Stanford University who devised the dimensional-winding mechanism used by Kleban, as well as many clock designs of her own.
The rigorous study of non-Gaussianities took off in 2002, when Juan Maldacena, a revered, monklike theorist at IAS, calculated what's known as the "gravitational floor": the minimum number of triangles and other shapes that are guaranteed to exist in the sky, due to the unavoidable effect of gravity during cosmic inflation. Cosmologists had been struggling to calculate the gravitational floor for more than a decade, since it would provide a concrete goal for experimenters. If the floor is reached, and still no triangles are detected, Maldacena explained, "then inflation is wrong."
When Maldacena first calculated the gravitational floor, actually detecting it seemed a distant goal indeed. At the time, all precise knowledge of the universe's birth came from observations of the "cosmic microwave background" — the oldest light in the sky, which illuminates a two-dimensional slice of the infant universe as it appeared 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Based on the limited number of nascent structures that appear in this 2-D snapshot, it seemed impossible that their slight propensity to be configured in triangles and other shapes could ever be detected with statistical certainty. But Maldacena's work gave theorists the tools to calculate other, more pronounced forms of non-Gaussianity that might exist in the sky, due to stronger effects than gravity. And it motivated researchers to devise better ways to search for the signals.
A year after Maldacena made his calculation, Zaldarriaga and collaborators showed that measuring the distribution of galaxies and groupings of galaxies that make up the universe's "large-scale structure" would yield many more shapes than observing the cosmic microwave background. "It's a 3-D versus 2-D argument," said Olivier Doré, a cosmologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who is working on a proposed search for non-Gaussianities in the large-scale structure. "If you start counting triangles in 3-D like you can do with galaxy surveys, there are really many more you can count."
The notion that counting more shapes in the sky will reveal more details of the Big Bang is implied in a central principle of quantum physics known as "unitarity." Unitarity dictates that the probabilities of all possible quantum states of the universe must add up to one, now and forever; thus, information, which is stored in quantum states, can never be lost — only scrambled. This means that all information about the birth of the cosmos remains encoded in its present state, and the more precisely cosmologists know the latter, the more they can learn about the former.
But how did details of the Big Bang get encoded in triangles and other shapes? According to Zaldarriaga, Maldacena's calculation "opened up the understanding of how it comes about." In a universe governed by quantum mechanics, all of nature's constituents are cross-wired, morphing into and interacting with one another with varying degrees of probability. This includes the inflaton field, the gravitational field, and whatever else existed in the primordial universe: Particles arising in these fields would have morphed into and scattered with each other to produce triangles and other geometric configurations, like billiard balls scattering on a table.
These dynamical events would be mixed in with the more mundane quantum jitter from those particle pairs that popped up in the inflaton field and engendered so-called "two-point correlations" throughout the sky. A pair of particles might, for instance, have surfaced in some other primordial field, and one member of this pair might then have decayed into two inflaton particles while the other decayed into just a single inflaton particle, yielding a three-point correlation, or triangle, in the sky. Or, two mystery particles might have collided and split into four inflaton particles, producing a four-point correlation. Rarer events would have yielded five-point, six-point and even higher-point correlations, with their numbers, sizes and interior angles encoding the types and relationships of the particles that produced them. The unitarity principle promises that by tallying the shapes ever more precisely, cosmologists will achieve an increasingly detailed account of the primordial universe, just as physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe hone their theory of the known particles and look for evidence of new ones by collecting statistics on how particles morph and scatter during collisions.
Following Maldacena's calculation of the gravitational floor, other researchers demonstrated that even many simple inflationary models generate much more pronounced non-Gaussianity than the bare minimum. Clocksmiths like Silverstein and Kleban have since been busy working out the distinct set of triangles that their models would produce — predictions that will become increasingly testable in the coming years. Progress accelerated in 2014, when a small experiment based at the South Pole appeared to make a momentous discovery about the universe's birth. The announcement drummed up interest in cosmological triangles, even though the supposed discovery ultimately proved a grave disappointment.
As news began to spread on March 17, 2014, that the "smoking gun" of cosmic inflation had been detected, Stanford University's press office posted a celebratory video on YouTube. In the footage, the cosmologist Andrei Linde, one of the decorated pioneers of inflationary cosmology, and his wife, the string and supergravity theorist and cosmologist Renata Kallosh, answer their door to find their Stanford colleague Chao-Lin Kuo on the doorstep, accompanied by a camera crew.
"It's five sigma, at point two," Kuo says in the video.
"Discovery?" Kallosh asks, after a beat. She hugs Kuo, almost melting, as Linde exclaims, "What?"
Viewers learn that BICEP2, an experiment co-led by Kuo, has detected a swirl pattern in the cosmic microwave background that would have been imprinted by ripples in space-time known as "primordial gravitational waves." And these could only have arisen during cosmic inflation, as corkscrew-like particles popped up in the gravitational field and then became stretched and permanently frozen into the shape of the universe.
In the next scene, Linde sips champagne with his wife and their guest. In the early 1980s, Linde, Alexei Starobinsky, Alan Guth and other young cosmologists devised the theory of cosmic inflation as a patch for the broken 1930s-era Big Bang theory, which described the universe as expanding outward from a "singularity" — a nonsensical point of infinite density — and couldn't explain why the universe hadn't become mottled and contorted as it grew. Cosmic inflation provided a clever fix for these problems, and BICEP2's finding suggested that the theory was conclusively proved. "If this is true," Linde says to the camera, "this is a moment of understanding of nature of such a magnitude that it just overwhelms. Let's see. Let's just hope that this is not a trick."
To many researchers, the most exciting thing about the alleged discovery was the strength of the swirl signal, measured as r = 0.2. The measurement indicated that inflation occurred at an extremely high energy scale and at the earliest moments in time, near the time-energy domain where gravity, as well as the effects of strings, branes or other exotica, would have been strong. The higher the energy scale of inflation, the more cross-wiring there would be between the inflaton and these other primordial ingredients. The result would be pronounced triangles and other non-Gaussianities in the sky.
"After BICEP, we all stopped what we were doing and started thinking about inflation," Arkani-Hamed said. "Inflation is like having a gigantic particle accelerator at much higher energy scales than you can get to on Earth." The question became how such an accelerator would operate, he said, "and if there really was exotic stuff up there [near the inflation scale], how you could go about looking for it."
As these investigations took off, more details of BICEP2's analysis emerged. It became clear that the discovery was indeed a trick of nature: The team's telescope at the South Pole had picked up the swirly glow of galactic dust rather than the effect of primordial gravitational waves. A mix of anguish and anger swept through the field. Two years on, primordial gravitational waves still haven't been detected. In January, BICEP2's successor, the BICEP/Keck Array, reported that the value of r can be no more than 0.07, which lowers the ceiling on the energy scale of inflation and moves it further below the scale of strings or other exotic physics.
Nonetheless, many researchers were now aware of the potential gold mine of information contained in triangles and other non-Gaussianities. It had become apparent that these fossils from inflation were worth digging for, even if they were buried deeper than BICEP2 had briefly promised. "Yeah, rwent down a little bit," Maldacena said. But it's not so bad, in his opinion: A relatively high scale is still possible.
In a paper last spring that drew on previous work by other researchers, Maldacena and Arkani-Hamed used symmetry arguments to show that a key feature of string theory could manifest itself in triangles. String theory predicts an infinite tower of "higher-spin states" — essentially, strings vibrating at an infinitely rising sequence of pitches. So far, no fundamental particles with a "spin" value greater than two have been discovered. Maldacena and Arkani-Hamed showed that the existence of such a higher-spin state would result in alternating peaks and troughs in the strength of the signal produced by triangles in the sky as they grow more elongated. For string theorists, this is exciting. "You can't build a consistent interacting theory of such a particle except if you have an infinite tower of them" like the tower in string theory, explained Daniel Baumann, a theoretical cosmologist at the University of Amsterdam. Finding the oscillatory pattern in the triangles in the sky would confirm that this tower exists. "Just seeing one particle of spin greater than two would be indicative of string theory being present."
Other researchers are pursuing similarly general predictions. In February, Kamionkowski and collaborators reported detailed information about primordial particles that is encoded in the geometry of four-point correlations, which "get interesting," he said, because four points can lie flat or sweep into the third dimension. Observing the signals predicted by Arkani-Hamed, Maldacena and Kamionkowski would be like striking gold, but the gold is buried deep: Their strength is probably near the gravitational floor and will require at least 1,000 times the sensitivity of current equipment to detect. Other researchers prefer to tinker with bespoke string models that predict more pronounced triangles and other shapes. "So far we've explored only, I think, a very small fraction of the possibilities for non-Gaussianity," Kamionkowski said.
Meanwhile, Linde and Kallosh are pushing in a totally different direction. Over the past three years, they've become enamored with a class of models called "cosmological alpha-attractors" that do not predict any non-Gaussianities above the gravitational floor at all. According to these models, cosmic inflation was completely pure, driven by a solitary inflaton field. The field is described by a Kähler manifold, which maps onto the geometric disk seen in Escher's drawing of angels and devils. The Escherian geometry provides a continuum of possible values for the energy scale of inflation, including values so low that the inflaton's cross-wiring to the gravitational field and other primordial fields would be extremely weak. If such a model does describe the universe, then swirls, triangles and other shapes might never be detected.
Linde isn't bothered by this. In supporting the alpha-attractor models, he and Kallosh are staking a position in favor of simplicity and theoretical beauty, at the expense of ever knowing for sure whether their cosmological origin story is correct. An alpha-attractor universe, Linde said, is like one of the happy families in the famous opening line of Anna Karenina. As he paraphrased Tolstoy: "Any happy family, well, they look in a sense alike. But all unhappy families — they're unhappy for different reasons."
Will our universe turn out to be "happy" and completely free of distinguishing features? Baumann, who co-authored a book last year on string cosmology, argues that models like Linde's and Kallosh's are too simple to be plausible. "They are building these models from the bottom up," he said. "Introducing a single field, trying to be very minimal — it would have been a beautiful model of the world." But, he said, when you try to embed inflation into a fundamental theory of nature, it's very hard to engineer a single field acting by itself, immune to the effects of everything else. "String theory has many of these effects; you can't ignore them."
And so the search for triangles and other non-Gaussianities is under way. Between 2009 and 2013, the Planck space telescope mapped the cosmic microwave background at the highest resolution yet, and scientists have since been scouring the map for statistical excesses of triangles and other shapes. As of their most recent analysis, they haven't found any; given the sensitivity of their instruments and their 2-D searching ground, they only ever had an outside chance of doing so. But the scientists are continuing to parse the data in new ways, with another non-Gaussianity analysis expected this year.
Hiranya Peiris, an astrophysicist at University College London who searches for non-Gaussianities in the Planck data, said that she and her collaborators are taking cues from string cosmologists in determining which signals to look for. Peiris is keen to test a string-inflationary mechanism called axion monodromy, including variants recently developed by Silverstein and collaborators Raphael Flauger, Mehrdad Mirbabayi, and Leonardo Senatore that generate an oscillatory pattern in triangles as a function of their size that can be much more pronounced than the pattern studied by Arkani-Hamed and Maldacena. To find such a signal, Peiris and her team must construct templates of the pattern and match them with the data "in a very numerically intensive and demanding analysis," she said. "Then we have to do careful statistical tests to make sure we are not being fooled by random fluctuations in the data."
Some string models have already been ruled out by this data analysis. Regarding the public debate about whether string theory is too divorced from empirical testing to count as science, Silverstein said, "I find it surreal, because we are currently doing some traditional science with string theory."
Moving forward, cosmologists plan to scour ever larger volumes of the universe's large-scale structure. Starting in 2020, the proposed SPHEREx mission could measure non-Gaussianity sensitively enough in the distribution of 300 million galaxies to determine whether inflation was driven by one clock or two cross-wired clocks (according to models of the theory known as single- and multi-field inflation, respectively). "Just to reach this level would dramatically reduce the number of possible inflation theories," said Doré, who is working on the SPHEREx project. A few years further out, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will map 20 billion cosmological structures. If the statistical presence of triangles is not detected in the universe's large-scale structure, there is yet another, perhaps final, approach. By mapping an ultra-faint radio signal called the 21-centimeter line, which is emitted by hydrogen atoms and traces back to the creation of the first stars, cosmologists would be able to measure even more "modes," or arrangements of structures. "It's going to have information about the whole volume of the universe," Maldacena said.
If or when triangles show up, they will, one by one, reveal the nature of the inflaton clock and why it ticked. But will enough clues be gathered before we run out of sky in which to gather them?
The promise of unitarity — that information can be scrambled but never lost — comes with a caveat.
"If we assume we can make perfect measurements and we have an infinite sky and so on," Maldacena said, "then in principle all the interactions and information about particles during inflation is contained in these correlators" — that is, three-point correlations, four-point correlations and so on. But perfect measurements are impossible. And worse, the sky is finite. There is a cosmic horizon: the farthest distance from which light has had time to reach us, and thus, beyond which we cannot see. During inflation, and over the entire history of the accelerating expansion of the universe since then, swirls, triangles, quadrilaterals and other shapes have been flying past this horizon and out of sight. And with them, the subtlest of signals, associated with the rarest, highest-energy processes during inflation, are lost: Cosmologists will never be able to gather enough statistics in our finite patch of sky to tease them out, precluding a complete accounting of nature's fundamental constituents.
In his paper with Maldacena, Arkani-Hamed initially included a discussion of this issue, but he removed most of it. He finds the possibility of a limit to knowledge "tremendously disturbing" and sees it as evidence that quantum mechanics must be extended. One possible way to do this is suggested by his work on the amplituhedron, which casts quantum mechanical probabilities (and with them, unitarity) as emergent consequences of an underlying geometry. He plans to discuss this possibility in a forthcoming paper that will relate an analogue of the amplituhedron to non-Gaussianities in the sky.
People vary in the extent to which they are bothered by a limit to knowledge. "I'm more practical," Zaldarriaga said. "There are, like, tens or many tens or orders of magnitude more modes that in principle we could see, that we have not been able to measure just because of technological or theoretical inability. So, these 'in principle' questions are interesting, but we are way before this point."
Kleban also feels hopeful. "Yeah, it's a finite amount of information," he said. "But you could say the same thing about evolution, right? There's a limited number of fossils, and yet we have a pretty good idea of what happened, and it's getting better and better."
If all goes well, enough fossils will turn up in the sky to tell a more complete story. A vast searching ground awaits.
Correction: This article was revised on April 19, 2016, to reflect that the Keck Array is BICEP2's successor, not its predecessor, and on April 21, 2016, to correct the spelling of Mehrdad Mirbabayi's surname.
This article was reprinted on Wired.com.


text:
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Sindorf Trading Holland is an intermediary between the old and the new. Used machines are bought all over the world and brought to the workshops in Ter Apel. There they are completely stripped down, cleaned, upgraded and, where necessary, provided with components and engines after which they are re-sprayed in bright colours.
After these drastic operations the machines are indistinguishable from the new ones and can start a new life anywhere in the world. The equipment in the workshops is excellent. Not only as far as tools and devices are concerned, but also in terms of provisions against pollution of the environment.
To Sindorf, quality is of the utmost importance and we certainly have a name to live up to. A reconditioned machine must run without problems. When it leaves our workshop, it is for 100 % ready for use, because delivery only takes place after extensive technical checks. If required guarantees are given on the components.
Apart from completely reconditioned machines however, Sindorf Trading Holland also supplies equipment for which this quality guarantee cannot be given, because it has not undergone the complete reconditioning programme. This is done in order to meet the demand for cheaper machines. For instance because they are only needed for a brief period.
Sindorf Trading Holland has more than sixty years' experience in buying and selling heavy equipment. The head office is situated in 't Harde in The Netherlands. Sindorf supplies from stock and when a machine is still in the process of being reconditioned, an extra effort is made by expert engineers to get it in working order as soon as possible.
The cranes, bulldozers, trucks and pipelayers from this company find their way to building contractors and construction firms in both road construction and hydraulic engineering as well as civil and utility engineering. Due to their capacity and tonnage they are particularly suitable for the more complex and larger projects such as floodcontrol dams, power stations, high-rise construction, drilling platforms, etc.
In 1996 the former Nato premises in Ter Apel were bought. Since then the workshops were fitted up at this location. The employees at Sindorf are aware that apart from supplying a good product and adhering to short delivery times, a flexible attitude, the correct processing of documentation and good after sales are just as important. As a result of this vision long term relationships were built up with many customers.


text:
Oh My! CHRISTmas Cards from Shutterfly!
After I saw this blog post here, I plan on using Shutterfly for this year's cards also.
I always send cards each year with a family photo included on the card and with a religious CHRISTmas theme and message to share the true meaning of CHRISTmas with friends and family. It's fun to look back at our past cards and to see how our family has changed and grown through the years.
Shutterfly has a great selection of photo cards and I am especially pleased to see that cards can be sorted by "Religious Christmas Cards".
I love this card here titled "Mod Merry Ornaments Christmas" because there is room for lots of pictures and a personal message:
In the religious CHRISTmas cards selection, I love how the card pictured below, Nativity Blessing, includes the Nativity with a space for a great family shot or a picture of your blessings:
There are also options to send folded cards like this Rejoice Lord King card where you can have a picture and a personal message on the inside of the card also:
Shutterfly is also offering a promotion for bloggers to create a post like this showcasing some of your favorite Shutterfly cards to be able to receive 50 free Christmas cards, but hurry because this deal is ending tomorrow, Friday, Dec. 10th!
I give Joy to the World when I tell others of another great way to share Christmas joy with Shutterfly cards!
Be sure to visit these great blogs and if you are visiting my blog from Blog Hop Friday, welcome!
23 comments:
i was suprised to read that 43% of Americans (polled I guess) do not send Christmas Cards. I don't send them- but I though I was in a smaller group of people that 43%.
cute picture!
Tracy, your 2009 Christmas photo was great! You always seem to have it all together and with a smile! I hope you are having a happy, peaceful Advent. God bless, Annita
follower #200!!! woohoo. And cute family photos
HI Kimberly,
Thank you for your visit, comment and follow! I just left a comment on your post about your talented son! Great post!
That is an interesting fact about the Christmas cards :)
Have a blessed weekend!
Hi! I'm visiting (& following) from Blog Hop Friday. Congrats on being featured!
Have a great Friday!
Linda @ Linda's Lunacy
Hi Annita,
Thanks always for your continued visits and kind comments! Our 2009 Christmas card was taken in our backyard woods and many people have asked us why there was a wreath hanging from a tree! LOL :) I liked my wreath prop to add to the seasonal card even if others thought it a bit odd :)
I hope you are having a blessed Advent as well :)
Have a blessed weekend!
HI Erica!
Thanks for your visit, comment and being my 200th follower :) I sent you an email about getting you featured on my blog for being my every 50th follower :)
Have a great weekend!
HI Shelley!
I saw you linked up to our No Ordinary Blog Hop! Thanks and thanks for following! I left you a comment on your post and I'm following you now :)
Have a great weekend!
HI Linda!
Thanks for your visit, comment and follow! I just hopped on your blog and posted a comment on the Christmas book review you did! I'm following you back now :)
Have a blessed weekend!
You have such a beautiful family. I will have to go over to the Blog Hop Friday to check it out. So many things to keep up with, oy! lol Have a blessed day tomorrow. I voted for you today.
Thanks Lynda! I hope you had a blessed birthday today! Have a blessed weekend and thanks for the vote!
I'm following you from the blog hops . . . hope you get a chance to visit my blogs :-)
Hope you are having an awesome Friday . . . Gina
. . . and many more!
You have such a beautiful family Tracy. I love the wreath in the background:). I will have to look into shutter bug and see if they work with folk overseas. i used to get a Christmas picture of the family every year but having photos done professionally here is very very expensive. Voted for you.
Stopping by from friday blog hop.
Hope you will follow back.
We home school also. I love your Christmas pictures.
Have a blessed weekend.
I love sending out Christmas cards! One of my pet peeves is that it can be so difficult to find ones that say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. I did notice that all the cards I have received so far this year say Merry Christmas!! I love that. Have fun choosing and creating your cards :)
What great CHRISTmas cards!
I'm stopping by from the Friday Hop and am now a follower on GFC and FB.
Stop by if you get a chance:
Coupon Clippin' Daddy
Coupon Clippin' Daddy on FB
I'm visiting from No Ordinary Bog Hop and am now following your blog. I blog at http://reneeannsmith.com/. Blessings!
HI Gina!
Thanks for your visit, comment and follow! WOW! You maintain 10 blogs! Now that's impressive! I am following your "Gina's Italian Kitchen" blog since I'm Italian and your recipes look oh so good!
Have a blessed weekend!
Hi Anna-Marie,
Thank you for your kind comments! We haven't taken a professional photo (from a photo store) of our family in awhile, but since my dad used to be a full time professional photographer he is always willing to take our family pictures :)
Have a blessed weekend! PS: If you come to the states again I can have my dad take a beautiful family picture of you :)
HI April!
Thanks for your visit, comment and follow and I am following you too! I love the cute Christmas ornaments you made! So fun!
Have a blessed weekend!
HI Jen!
Giving and receiving Christmas cards is always fun! I love the religious ones the best :) Thanks for your visit and comment!
Have a blessed weekend!
Thanks Coupon Clippin Daddy for your visit, comment and follow! I've never "met" a husband and father who loves to clip coupons and save money so much! Awesome!
Have a blessed weekend!
Hi Renee Ann!
Thanks for your visit,comment and follow! I loved your No Ordinary Blog Hop post and love your last name too :)
Have a blessed weekend!
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