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Mysteries of the deep come alive as satellite data bring thousands of uncharted sea mountains and new clues about deep ocean structures into focus
Accessing two previously untapped streams of satellite data, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and their colleagues have created a new map of the world's seafloor, creating a much more vivid picture of the structures that make up the deepest, least-explored parts of the ocean. Thousands of previously uncharted mountains rising from the seafloor and new clues about the formation of the continents have emerged through the new map, which is twice as accurate as the previous version produced nearly 20 years ago.
Developed using a scientific model that captures gravity measurements of the ocean seafloor, the new map extracts data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) CryoSat-2 satellite, which primarily captures polar ice data but also operates continuously over the oceans, and Jason-1, NASA's satellite that was redirected to map the gravity field during the last year of its 12-year mission.
Combined with existing data and drastically improved remote sensing instruments, the new map, described in the journal Science, has revealed details of thousands of undersea mountains, or seamounts, extending a kilometer or more from the ocean bottom. The new map also gives geophysicists new tools to investigate ocean spreading centers and little-studied remote ocean basins.
"The kinds of things you can see very clearly now are abyssal hills, which are the most common land form on the planet," said David Sandwell, lead scientist of the paper and a geophysics professor in the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) at Scripps.
The authors of the study say the map provides a new window into the tectonics of the deep oceans. Previously unseen features in the map include newly exposed continental connections across South America and Africa, and new evidence for seafloor spreading ridges at the Gulf of Mexico that were active 150 million years ago and are now buried by mile-thick layers of sediment.
"One of the most important uses of this new marine gravity field will be to improve the estimates of seafloor depth in the 80 percent of the oceans that remains uncharted or is buried beneath thick sediment," the authors say in the report.
"Although CryoSat-2's primary mission is in the cryosphere, we knew as soon as we selected its orbit that it would be invaluable for marine geodesy, and this work proves the point," said Richard Francis, a coauthor of the paper and project manager for the development of CryoSat-2 at the European Space Agency, and honorary professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at University College London.
The new map also provides the foundation for the upcoming new version of Google's ocean maps to fill large voids between shipboard depth profiles.
"The team has developed and proved a powerful new tool for high-resolution exploration of regional seafloor structure and geophysical processes," says Don Rice, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences. "This capability will allow us to revisit unsolved questions and to pinpoint where to focus future exploratory work."
"The use of satellite altimeter data and Sandwell's improved data processing technique provides improved estimates of marine gravity and bathymetry world-wide, including in remote areas," said Joan Cleveland, Office of Naval Research (ONR) deputy director, Ocean Sensing and Systems Division. "Accurate bathymetry and identifying the location of seamounts are important to safe navigation for the U.S. Navy."
In addition to Sandwell and Francis, coauthors of the paper include R. Dietmar Muller of the University of Sydney, Walter Smith of the NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry, and Emmanuel Garcia of Scripps.


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The impact of government stimulus checks continues to permeate economic data. Personal income rose 10% in January, and disposable income rose 11.4%. Where did the money go? It primarily bought goods or was saved. Goods spending rose 5.8% in January, and the personal savings rate jumped to 20.5% from 13.4% the previous month (Figure 1). Limits on activity continue to pressure services spending, which rose only 0.7%.
Key Points for the Week
- Government stimulus payments drove personal income 10% higher in January.
- Economic growth estimates are rising on expectations for vaccine distribution and an additional stimulus package.
- Interest rates have increased based on expectations for faster economic growth.
Investors are raising their expectations for economic growth and inflation because of the additional stimulus. Several economists have pushed growth expectations to more than 6% this year, and inflation expectations have moved above 2%. Actual inflation data remains weak, and the PCE price index rose only 1.5% over the last year.
The increasing growth expectations have contributed to rising interest rates. When rates rise, it often pressures the returns of stocks as well as bonds. Last week, the S&P 500 dropped 2.4% in response to economic data. The MSCI ACWI index sagged 3.3%. The Bloomberg BarCap Aggregate Bond Index fell 1.5% last week.
The U.S. employment situation will top economic reports next week. The primary focus will be on whether the service economy shows signs of strength based on mid-February survey data.
Figure 1
Looking Forward to More Growth
After a difficult and trying 2020, in which the U.S. economy contracted 3.5%, investors are looking forward to the prospect of growth. An environment of rising yields, inflation concerns, stock market highs, COVID uncertainty, government stimulus packages, accommodative monetary policy, and massive vaccine rollouts makes it even more difficult to confidently predict the future.
Let's start with the most recent data. Personal income was up 10% in January, but the increase was almost entirely attributable to the $600 government relief checks and unemployment insurance payments. Consumer spending was also up 2.4% last month, marking the biggest increase since last June. This gives credence to the jump in retail sales numbers released last week as consumers are evidently spending the money quickly. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, excluding the volatile food and energy component, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, rose 0.3% after a similar gain in December. This shows even with the increased spending, inflation currently remains benign.
The next stimulus package is moving forward through Congress, and economists are increasing their U.S. GDP estimates for the year to 6-6.8% growth. To put the stimulus's potential effect in perspective, the Federal Reserve previously forecasted real GDP growth of 4.2% in 2021.
It's important to note that even with the potential increased spending from more stimulus and the release of pent-up demand as the country reopens in the second half of the year, the Fed is currently not worried about inflation. It views any inflation uptick as transitory and has stated it will remain accommodative until labor markets improve in terms of lower unemployment rates and increased labor participation.
Meanwhile, the optimism about economic growth contributed to further increases in interest rates. The closely watched 10-year Treasury temporarily reached 1.5%, which is near the dividend yield of the S&P 500. If stock values are created using projected future cash flows, the value of these future cash flows declines when rates are rising. Rising yields often hit stocks with higher dividends hardest as their yields need to compensate investors for the additional risk and tougher competition from bonds.
2021 is shaping up to be much better than 2020, but numerous unknowns remain. Virus infection rates have dropped and levelled off, but there are potential new variant threats. The vaccine rollout is increasing as more vaccines are manufactured and approved, but we have yet to see how many people will forego a shot when it's readily available. Spending is improving, but labor markets are still weak. Inflation is subdued but has the potential to pick up. To quote Dr. Anthony Fauci, investors have the right to be "cautiously optimistic."
This newsletter was written and produced by CWM, LLC. Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly. The views stated in this letter are not necessarily the opinion of any other named entity and should not be construed directly or indirectly as an offer to buy or sell any securities mentioned herein. Due to volatility within the markets mentioned, opinions are subject to change without notice. Information is based on sources believed to be reliable; however, their accuracy or completeness cannot be guaranteed. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index is a capitalization-weighted index of 500 stocks designed to measure performance of the broad domestic economy through changes in the aggregate market value of 500 stocks representing all major industries.
The MSCI ACWI captures large- and mid-cap representation across 23 developed markets (DM) and 23 emerging markets (EM) countries*. With 2,480 constituents, the index covers approximately 85% of the global investable equity opportunity set.
Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index
The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index is an index of the U.S. investment-grade fixed-rate bond market, including both government and corporate bonds
Compliance Case #00966583

subset: commoncrawl


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The man taking over the Justice Department following Jeff Sessions' firing as attorney general has argued that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation went too far.
Matthew Whitaker, who was Sessions' chief of staff, is expected to take over oversight of Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Trump campaign associates colluded with Russia. A source close to the President told CNN that the idea of Whitaker ending or suppressing the Russia probe is not an option as of now.
In a CNN op-ed written last year, Whitaker argued that Mueller is "dangerously close to crossing" a red line following reports that Mueller was looking into Trump's finances.
He argued that Mueller does not have "broad, far-reaching powers in this investigation," but that the investigation's limits are clearly defined by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's May 2017 letter appointing Mueller.
"It is time for Rosenstein, who is the acting attorney general for the purposes of this investigation, to order Mueller to limit the scope of his investigation to the four corners of the order appointing him special counsel," he wrote then. "If he doesn't, then Mueller's investigation will eventually start to look like a political fishing expedition."
Back in 2017, Whitaker also told CNN's Don Lemon that he could see a scenario where Sessions is replaced with an attorney general who "reduces (Mueller's) budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt."
Trump announced on Twitter Wednesday that Whitaker would fill the role of attorney general while he finds a permanent replacement to be "nominated at a later date."
Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation after it emerged that he had failed at his Senate confirmation hearing to disclose two pre-election meetings with Russia's ambassador to Washington at a time when Moscow was accused of interfering in the presidential race. The recusal was harshly criticized by Trump and led to the deterioration of their relationship.
Whitaker was a CNN legal commentator and former US attorney who directed the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), a conservative ethics watchdog group. He ran in the Republican primary for Iowa Senate in 2014.
This opinion article was originally published on August 6, 2017, and authored by now acting AG Matthew Whitaker:
Last month, when President Donald Trump was asked by The New York Times if special counsel Robert Mueller would be crossing a line if he started investigating the finances of Trump and his family, the President said, "I think that's a violation. Look, this is about Russia."
The President is absolutely correct. Mueller has come up to a red line in the Russia 2016 election-meddling investigation that he is dangerously close to crossing.
According to a CNN article, Mueller's investigators could be looking into financial records relating to the Trump Organization that are unrelated to the 2016 election. According to these reports, "sources described an investigation that has widened to focus on possible financial crimes, some unconnected to the 2016 election." The piece goes on to cite law enforcement sources who say non-Russia-related leads that "involve Trump associates" are being referred to the special counsel "to encourage subjects of the investigation to cooperate."
This information is deeply concerning to me. It does not take a lawyer or even a former federal prosecutor like myself to conclude that investigating Donald Trump's finances or his family's finances falls completely outside of the realm of his 2016 campaign and allegations that the campaign coordinated with the Russian government or anyone else. That goes beyond the scope of the appointment of the special counsel.
In fact, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's letter appointing special counsel Robert Mueller does not give Mueller broad, far-reaching powers in this investigation. He is only authorized to investigate matters that involved any potential links to and coordination between two entities -- the Trump campaign and the Russian government. People are wrongly pointing to, and taking out of context, the phrase "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation" to characterize special counsel's authority as broad.
The word "investigation" is clearly defined directly preceding it in the same sentence specifically as coordination between individuals associated with the campaign of Donald Trump and Russia. The Trump Organization's business dealings are plainly not within the scope of the investigation, nor should they be.
Indeed, Sunday on Fox News, Rod Rosenstein acknowledged Mueller had limited authority and would need to seek his permission to expand the investigation.
Beyond the legal reading, the broad authority argument defies plain logic: If the special counsel could investigate anything he wants, why would there even need to be a letter spelling out the specific limits of the investigation?
One of the dynamics at play here is that people are conflating this investigation and Kenneth Starr's 1994 investigation into President Bill Clinton. While partly understandable at first glance, the two investigations are not comparable -- not only have more than two decades passed since then, but a completely new law and legal framework governing separate investigations has also passed. Starr was an independent counsel and Mueller is a special counsel, the two words are different for a reason.
Any investigation into President Trump's finances or the finances of his family would require Mueller to return to Rod Rosenstein for additional authority under Mueller's appointment as special counsel.
If he were to continue to investigate the financial relationships without a broadened scope in his appointment, then this would raise serious concerns that the special counsel's investigation was a mere witch hunt. If Mueller is indeed going down this path, Rosenstein should act to ensure the investigation is within its jurisdiction and within the authority of the original directive.
I've prosecuted several financial crimes at the federal level and I've also defended plenty in my private practice. From this unique vantage point, I can understand how a motivated prosecutor, in a broad investigation into the financial affairs of high-profile individuals, can become overzealous toward the targets of such probes -- with calamitous results. While no one is above the law, in situations such as this, any seasoned prosecutor must use discretion both judiciously and expertly.
It is time for Rosenstein, who is the acting attorney general for the purposes of this investigation, to order Mueller to limit the scope of his investigation to the four corners of the order appointing him special counsel.
If he doesn't, then Mueller's investigation will eventually start to look like a political fishing expedition. This would not only be out of character for a respected figure like Mueller, but also could be damaging to the President of the United States and his family -- and by extension, to the country.


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Auf einen Blick
- Beyond generating insights, leading sales and marketing groups deploy analytics to prescribe specific actions that raise the odds of closing or expanding deals.
- Prescriptive analytics frequently takes three forms: guided marketing, guided selling and guided pricing.
- These forms of guidance all hinge on the organization having a solid analytical foundation and the right processes and technology applications to use analytics.
- Companies can get started on a small scale, however, even if they lack fully integrated, high-integrity data.
Sales and marketing organizations are grappling with a flood of data and deploying analytics to improve the quality of the insights being generated. While the underlying analytical methods have been around for decades, advanced analytics has only recently become accessible for most business-to-business (B2B) organizations via the confluence of abundant data, cheap computing, open sources and a large ecosystem of technology applications.
The key challenge now is determining the best moves to make based on the insights produced by the analysis. Leading companies have begun to deploy prescriptive analytics—that is, guided actions on specific customer or prospect opportunities that flow from predictive insights. When applied to sales and marketing, prescriptive analytics can help companies improve the return on their investments, optimize conversion and win rates, or maximize profit margins.
Within the commercial organization, prescriptive analytics takes three forms—namely, marketing, selling and pricing—each serving to guide people toward actions that produce better sales and marketing outcomes. These forms of guidance all hinge on the organization having a solid analytical foundation. There's no shortcut to prescribing actions, although there are ways to get started on a small scale.
Guided marketing
Successful companies meet and engage customers wherever they are in the process, using relevant content and channels. Advanced analytics can produce smarter responses to the ways that customers explore, research and buy in nonlinear journeys. It takes marketing activation to the next level by guiding buyers through the journey with increasingly less human intervention (see Figure 1).
Orchestrating demand through guided marketing
In this context, one foundational capability is having a clear view of who the right buyers are and identifying them at the right time, such as when they are likely to enter a buying cycle. Using machine learning through applications such as those developed by Lattice Engines, companies can deploy scoring and prioritization techniques to develop ideal customer profiles, and use intent signals to identify high-propensity prospects searching for the company's products or services in real time.
Demand orchestration platforms such as Demandbase can then assign these prospects to high-fit, high-interest audiences of prospective customers. The platforms typically evaluate thousands of company attributes, ranging from standard firmographic details of industry or company size to technographics such as which applications a company likely uses behind its firewall. When linked to additional data sources such as DiscoverOrg or ZoomInfo, insights about potential buyers can extend down to the contact level. Marketers and sales reps know who key buyers and influencers are, who reports to whom and even what internal projects appear to be active within target companies.
Building on this foundation, prescriptive analytics guides marketers in several ways. One is delivering the right content at the right moment, typically through digital channels. The content could be a vendor's own website recommending personalized marketing collateral relevant to the company and role of the visitor, or targeted ads on demand-side platforms.
Guidance can quickly become outdated as prospect behavior changes, so dynamic audience management reclassifies or reroutes buyers at each new step taken by buyer or seller. After a productive discussion with a high-value prospect, a sales rep would note that stage in the customer relationship management (CRM) system, which triggers a new set of prescribed activities for other decision makers at the target company.
Being prescriptive allows organizations to work on a more focused set of high-quality leads and opportunities. Technology company Masergy used these methods to improve customer acquisition. Masergy began with customer intent data, using Lattice Engines to identify target accounts and prioritize leads. It then designed and deployed highly personalized, multichannel engagement programs against those targets, with focused messaging based on segment, buyer profile and sales cycle stage. Accounts targeted this way had a 50% higher win rate—in large part because the campaigns were tailored to senior-level decision makers who engaged with Masergy in half of the initial sales conversations that occurred as a result of the guided marketing programs.
Guided selling
Turning to the sales organization, analytics can proactively recommend actions that sales reps should take. The key foundational capability here is having a quantified view of the market opportunity for both new and existing accounts. Understanding the revenue potential for key offerings at an account level helps companies determine how and where to deploy sales resources. Analytics guides sellers along several dimensions (see Figure 2).
Analytics-driven guidance leads to better sales outcomes
- Work this deal, not that one—invest in the right sales opportunities. Traditional pipeline management relies heavily on the sales rep's input; if a rep deems a deal to be high value and high probability, she will aggressively work that deal. Her manager might inspect the deal, but typically has little basis for questioning the rep's assessment. By contrast, analytics-based pipeline scoring applications such as Aviso can independently assess the probability that a deal will close based on modeling the attributes of comparable past deals won or lost. That gives managers solid data with which to direct their reps so that reps do not waste time chasing low-probability deals.
- Sell this, not that—focus on specific offerings. Commercial organizations with large product sets or complex offerings that require configuration or customization are developing packages for reps to take to customers. An internal recommendation engine determines the appropriate offer based on the characteristics of the specific customer and opportunity.
- Do this next—take specific sales actions. Even in the high-probability scenarios described above, certain actions can further raise the probability of closing the deal. Insights derived from analyzing successful pursuits or sales reps also help define the appropriate sales cadence—say, a sequence of 15 touchpoints, using social, email, rich media and phone calls, over 30 days. Cadences such as these are prescribed to reps and bolstered by periodic reminders through engagement platforms such as SalesLoft and InsideSales.
- Send this, not that—deliver specific messages. While no artificial intelligence assistant can yet whisper in a rep's ear during sales calls, leading companies use applications that prescribe content and messaging relevant to the customer's segment, buyer persona, industry and stage in the sales process. Sales enablement platforms such as Seismic can store and serve content that has already been customized to communicate a particular value proposition, that gets automatically triggered within CRM and that comes from the rep's email address. Some companies with inside sales or contact centers also use multivariate testing to optimize language in call scripts so that reps say precisely the right thing at the right time.
A more prescriptive approach improves the effectiveness of individual salespeople and the overall go-to-market model. One global technology company worked with Aviso on a prescriptive approach to managing its sales pipeline. Aviso's software scored each sales opportunity and forecast the probability of each deal closing within the quarter. The application recommended specific deals to focus on and highlighted opportunities that were at risk, which allowed sales leaders to reallocate resources to pursue the most critical opportunities. The analytics forecast which deals would close within the first three weeks of the quarter with 95% accuracy, giving the salesforce plenty of time to act on the recommendations provided. As a result, the technology company increased win rates by 15%.
Guided pricing
Analytics provides guidance on price levels and discounts based on market, competitive, internal and customer-level data, allowing reps to maximize the profit margin on each transaction. The process begins by defining which variables matter most to getting the optimal price—it's often much more than customer size or type, which is where many companies stop. Instead, the variables that make the price equation more dynamic and reliable might include the customer's end market, length and quality of the relationship, size of order and time of year, and real-time competitive activity. Combining that analysis with market research helps a company define a more effective price equation for any transaction.
With the first version of the price guidance equation built, companies can enhance their capability in several ways.
- Test additional variables from historical data in order to customize for regions or small segments of customers.
- Add variables that would increase the accuracy of pricing decisions, such as third-party data on competitor share or pricing, or forecasts of raw material costs. A medical device company, for instance, could combine a range of variables to optimize the discount levels it allows on different products (see Figure 3). These variables, in themselves, don't break new ground, but what the leading companies do well is apply them across the entire portfolio of SKUs and customers to set guidance for the pricing and sales teams.
Combining variables can create more effective discounting decisions for a medical device company
- Update the model more frequently, and push the best data to the front lines more rapidly to make the model dynamic. A retail gasoline company may choose to change prices two to three times a day to capture intraday opportunities.
- Build in test-and-learn feedback loops that evaluate win-loss data, customer attrition and lifetime value metrics in order to push pricing close to full willingness-to-pay thresholds for certain customer segments and transactions.
The most advanced companies are also using this logic to create if/then modeling that can solve for a specific outcome with price as the key input variable—such as what price is needed to double pipeline conversion rates this quarter or meet certain market share targets.
Analytics also informs the inevitable chain of price approvals that remain. Typically, when a deal price falls outside the authorized band, the deal elevates to a manager, but few companies arm these approvers with robust information to guide their decision. Analytics provides recent quotes and orders for similar customers or products, estimates a win rate at that price and higher prices, and takes real-time competitive information into account. This information allows approvers to direct the sales rep regarding a realistic price to seek. The logic can also highlight which deal or customer variables suggest that the current price is too low, giving the sales team a viable script to use during negotiations.
Dynamic pricing guidance has delivered meaningful financial benefits to a range of B2B companies. One manufacturing company in Europe was struggling with prolonged price quote conversion times and sinking profit margins. The company worked with cloud pricing software provider Pricefx to optimize price quotes in real time. By embedding price quotes into the manufacturer's Salesforce system, sales reps were able to create quotes quickly on their smartphones. The average quote conversion time dropped from 48 hours to 4 hours, and the manufacturer realized a 50-basis-point improvement in pricing as well as a higher win rate.
Getting started without fretting about the data
Some marketers and sales heads hesitate to embrace prescriptive analytics because they lack all the data to set a firm foundation. But while the "garbage in, garbage out" axiom certainly applies, having low-fidelity data doesn't mean that executives need to wait until they have completed a massive data integrity and integration effort. Make early progress with the data at hand through the following principles.
- Pick one micro-battle. Based on management's growth expectations, understanding of the opportunities and the company's marketing/sales mix, select one or two specific, narrowly defined topics, such as developing an ideal customer profile, building a quantified view of the market opportunity or defining basic price target zones.
- Define the minimum viable input to begin providing guidance to the salesforce. The effort could start with a heavier reliance on third-party data and fairly manual processes before developing ample proprietary internal data with highly automated processes.
- Know how and when to measure success. Specify the metrics for activities and outcomes, as well as a date by when results should materialize. That avoids pulling the plug prematurely, and it provides an objective rationale to extend the use of prescriptive analytics once you succeed with an early project.
- Spread the word. Repeat. Communicate regularly with the sales and marketing groups about how prescriptive analytics improves outcomes for them and the company overall so that they trust the guidance offered.
Analytics doesn't replace human judgment, but it has become reliable enough that commercial leaders should start incorporating analytics into prescriptive playbooks. Organizations that refine their processes to take advantage of these approaches will raise the return on their sales and marketing activities.
Chris Dent is a principal and David Burns and Saber Sherrard are partners with Bain & Company's Customer Strategy & Marketing practice. They are based, respectively, in Chicago, Chicago and Dallas.


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Gambling, or GAMING, is the staking of money or other thing of value on the issue of a game of chance. It thus belongs to the class of aleatory contracts in which the gain or loss of the parties depends on an uncertain event. It is not gambling, in the strict sense, if a bet is laid on the issue of a game of skill like billiards or football. The issue must depend on chance, as in dice, or partly on chance, partly on skill, as in whist. Moreover, in ordinary parlance, a person who plays for small stakes to give zest to the game is not said to gamble; gambling connotes playing for high stakes. In its moral aspect, although gambling usually has a bad meaning, yet we may apply to it what was said about betting (see Betting). On certain conditions, and apart from excess or scandal, it is not sinful to stake money on the issue of a game of chance any more than it is sinful to insure one's property against risk, or deal in futures on the produce market. As I may make a free gift of my own property to another if I choose, so I may agree with another to hand over to him a sum of money if the issue of a game of cards is other than I expect, while he agrees to do the same in my favor in the contrary event. Theologians commonly require four conditions so that gaming may not be illicit. What is staked must belong to the gambler and must be at his free disposal. It is wrong, therefore, for the lawyer to stake the money of his client, or for anyone to gamble with what is necessary for the maintenance of his wife and children. The gambler must act freely, without unjust compulsion. There must be no fraud in the transaction, although the usual ruses of the game may be allowed. It is unlawful, accordingly, to mark the cards, but it is permissible to conceal carefully from an opponent the number of trump cards one holds. Finally, there must be some sort of equality between the parties to make the contract equitable; it would be unfair for a combination of two expert whist players to take the money of a couple of mere novices at the game. If any of these conditions be wanting, gambling becomes more or less wrong; and, besides, there is generally an element of danger in it which is quite sufficient to account for the bad name which it has. In most people gambling arouses keen excitement, and quickly develops into a passion which is difficult to control. If indulged in to excess it leads to loss of time, and usually of money; to an idle and useless life spent in the midst of bad company and unwholesome surroundings; and to scandal which is a source of sin and ruin to others. It panders to the craving for excitement and in many countries it has become so prevalent that it rivals drunkenness in its destructive effects on the lives of the people. It is obvious that the moral aspect of the question is not essentially different if for a game of chance is substituted a horse-race, a football or cricket match, or the price of stock or produce at some future date. Although the issue in these cases seldom depends upon chance, still the moral aspect of betting upon it is the same in so far as the issue is unknown or uncertain to the parties who make the contract. Time bargains, difference transactions, options, and other speculative dealings on the exchanges, which are so common nowadays, add to the malice of gambling special evils of their own. They lead to the disturbance of the natural prices of commodities and securities, do grave injury to producers and consumers of those commodities, and are frequently attended by such unlawful methods of influencing prices as the dissemination of false reports, cornering, and the fierce contests of "bulls" and "bears", i.e. of the dealers who wish respectively to raise or lower prices.
Hitherto we have prescinded from positive law in our treatment of the question of gambling. It is, however, a matter on which both the civil and the canon law have much to say. In the United States the subject lies outside the province of the Federal Government, but many of the States make gambling a penal offense when the bet is upon an election, a horse-race, or a game of chance. Betting contracts and securities given upon a bet are often made void. In England the Gaming Act, 1845, voids contracts made by way of gaming and wagering; and the Gaming Act, 1892, renders null and void any promise, express or implied, to pay any person any sum of money under, or in respect of, any contract or agreement rendered null and void by the Gaming Act, 1845, or to pay any sum of money by way of commission, fee, reward, or otherwise, in respect of any such contract or agreement, or of any services in relation thereto or in connection therewith. From very early times gambling was forbidden by canon law. Two of the oldest (41, 42) among the so-called canons of the Apostles forbade games of chance under pain of excommunication to clergy and laity alike. The 79th canon of the Council of Elvira (306) decreed that one of the faithful who had been guilty of gambling might be, on amendment, restored to communion after the lapse of a year. A homily (the famous "De Aleatoribus") long ascribed to St. Cyprian, but by modern scholars variously attributed to Popes Victor I. Callistus I, and Melchiades, and which undoubtedly is a very early and interesting monument of Christian antiquity, is a vigorous denunciation of gambling. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215), by a decree subsequently inserted in the "Corpus Juris", forbade clerics to play or to be present at games of chance. Some authorities, such as Aubespine, have attempted to explain the severity of the ancient canons against gambling by supposing that idolatry was often connected with it in practice. The pieces that were played with were small-sized idols, or images of the gods, which were invoked by the players for good luck. However, as Benedict XIV remarks, this can hardly be true, as in that case the penalties would have been still more severe. Profane writers of antiquity are almost as severe in their condemnation of gambling as are the councils of the Christian Church. Tacitus and Ammianus Marcellinus tell us that by gambling men are led into fraud, cheating, lying, perjury, theft, and other enormities; while Peter of Blois says that dice is the mother of perjury, theft, and sacrilege. The old canonists and theologians remark that although the canons generally mention only dice by name, yet under this appellation must be understood all games of chance; and even those that require skill, if they are played for money.
The Council of Trent contented itself with ordering all the ancient canons on the subject to be observed, and in general prescribed that the clergy were to abstain from unlawful games. As Benedict XIV remarks, it was left to the judgment of the bishops to decide what games should be held to be unlawful according to the different circumstances of person, place, and time.
St. Charles Borromeo, in the first Synod of Milan, put the Tridentine decree into execution, and drew up a list of games which were forbidden to the clergy, and another list of those that were allowed. Among those which he forbade were not only dicing in various forms, but also games something like our croquet and football. Other particular councils declared that playing at dice and cards was unbecoming and forbidden to clerics, and in general they forbade all games which were unbecoming to the clerical state. Thus, a council held at Bordeaux in 1583 decreed that the clergy were to abstain altogether from playing in public or in private at dice, cards, or any other forbidden and unbecoming game. The council held at Aix in 1585 forbade them to play at cards, dice, or any other game of the like kind, and even to look on at the playing of such games. Another, held at Narbonne in 1609, decreed that clerics were not to play at dice, cards, or other unlawful and unbecoming games, especially in public. There was some doubt as to whether chess was to be considered an unbecoming, and therefore an unlawful, game for clerics. In the opinion of St. Peter Damian it was certainly unlawful. On one occasion he caught the Bishop of Florence playing chess, to while away the time when on a journey. The bishop tried to defend himself by saying that chess was not dice. The saint, however, refused to admit the distinction, especially as the bishop was playing in public. Scripture, he said, does not make express mention of chess, but it is comprised under the term dice. And Baronius defends the saint's doctrine. Some sciolist, he remarks, may say that St. Peter Damian was under a delusion in classing chess under dice, since chess is not a game of chance but calls for the exercise of much skill and talent. Let that be as it may, he proceeds, priests must at any rate be guided in their conduct by the words of St. Paul, who declared that what is not expedient, what is not edifying, is not allowed.
Modern ecclesiastical law is less exacting in this matter. The provincial Councils of Westminster are content with prescribing that clerics must abstain from unlawful games. The Plenary Synod of Maynooth, held in 1900, says that since not a little time is occasionally lost, and idleness is fostered by playing cards, the priest should be on his guard against such games, especially where money is staked, lest he incur the reproach of being a gambler. He is also exhorted to deter the laity by word and example from betting at horse-races, especially when the stakes are high. The Second Plenary Council of Baltimore made a distinction between games which may not suitably be indulged in by a cleric, even when played in private, and games like cards which may be played for the sake of innocent recreation. It repeated the prohibition of the First Plenary Council of Baltimore that clerics are not to indulge in unlawful games, and only in moderation are to use those that are lawful, so as not to cause scandal. Nowadays, it is commonly held that positive ecclesiastical law only forbids games of chance, even to the clergy, when in themselves or for some extrinsic reason, such as loss of time or scandal, they are forbidden by the natural law.


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Grundig G8 Discontinued
Replaced by the Recently sold used |
Discontinued Portable Receivers |
The Grundig G8 Traveler II covers longwave, medium wave, shortwave and FM bands. Shortwave coverage is: 3190-3450, 3850-4050, 4700-5100, 5700-6300, 7080-7600, 9200-10000, 11450-12200, 13500-13900, 15000-15900, 17450-17900, 18850-19100 and 21430-21950 kHz. The G8 has an analog circuit with digital display. It features a 24 hour clock with alarm that can wake you to a buzzer or to your favorite radio station. Other features include: key lock function, backlit display (momentary on), fast or slow tuning, longwave disable function, daylight savings time adjust and 9 or 10 kHz AM band step. There is also an extensive memory system that may be filled manually or automatically (ATS). The capacity is: 100 FM, 100 AM, 100 longwave and 200 shortwave frequencies. There is a built in ferrite bar antenna for longwave and medium and a telescopic whip for FM and shortwave. This radio even employs DSP-Digital Signal Processing technology to improve reception. Requires three AA cells (not included). Supplied with: carry pouch, stereo ear buds and manual. 6.625 x 4.125 x 1.125 inches 12.2 ounces. There is also an AC adapter jack (6 VDC 100 mA, negative). AC power supply not included. |
Copyright 2009-2017, Universal Radio, Inc. #0888 09-C D[070]060/035 Q020/027 CH 09/15 |


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MarketsandMarkets forecasts the global Automation Testing Market size is expected to grow USD 20.7 billion in 2021 to USD 49.9 billion by 2026, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.2% during the forecast period. The Automation Testing Market is gaining need for insightful approaches to increase the use of scalable and adaptable delivery models.
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Implementation services segment to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period
Implementation services facilitate the integration of automation into the existing software testing infrastructure. Interoperability issues are a major concern in deploying platforms with automation testing solutions. Hence, integrating the solutions with various hardware components and testing the functioning of the entire system is of the utmost importance for the successful execution of automation testing solutions. These services bring together several communication standards, diverse services, and device and data management tools to build automation testing solutions for organizations. Furthermore, these services begin with collecting customers' requirements and then deploying, integrating, testing, and rolling out the solutions. These services enable organizations to integrate their operational and enterprise environment to provide a transparent testing experience ultimately.
Mobile Endpoint Interface segment is expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period
Mobile automation testing is an important segment in this fast-moving world. When the development team becomes acquainted, they can work fleetly, and there is no possibility that the existing features will change. Even with the best manual testing processes and test engineers, it is considered that no company can set up and afford the framework for testing mobile applications. Repeating the tests manually is costly and time-consuming, whereas, in the case of test automation, time and cost are both saved as the tests performed are spontaneous according to the framework
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The major vendors covered in the Automation testing market include Accenture (Ireland), AFour Technologies (US), Applitools (US), Astegic (US), Broadcom (US), Capgemini (France), Cigniti Technologies (India), Codoid (India), Cygnet Infotech (India), froglogic (Germany), IBM (US), Infostrecth (US), Invensis (India), Keysight Technologies (US), Micro Focus (UK), Microsoft (US), Mobisoft Infotech (US), Parasoft (US), ProdPerfect (US), QA Mentor (US), QA Source (US), QualityKiosk Technologies (India), Ranorex (Austria), Sauce Labs (US), Smartbear Software (US), Testim.io (US), Thinksys (US), Tricentis (US), Worksoft (US). These players have adopted various growth strategies, such as partnerships, business expansions, mergers and acquisitions, agreements, and collaborations, new product launches to expand their presence in the digital banking platforms market. Partnerships and new product launches have been the most adopted strategies by major players from 2018 to 2021, which helped them innovate their offerings and broaden their customer base.
IBM is one of the leading providers of cloud platform and cognitive solutions to its clients in 170 countries across the globe. As of December 2020, IBM and all its subsidiaries include 345,900 employees. It offers services in five business segments: cognitive solutions, technology services, cloud platforms, Global Business Services (GBS), systems, and global financing. IBM offers products and solutions across various domains such as industries, artificial intelligence, automation, blockchain, business operations, cloud computing, data and analytics, IT infrastructure, security, and supply chain. IBM caters to various verticals, including automotive, telecommunications, financial services, health, aerospace and defense, insurance, life sciences, and retail. It nurtures an ecosystem of global business partners operating in more than 170 countries. IBM research constitutes one of the largest industrial research organizations globally, with 12 labs across 6 continents spread across the Americas, Europe, MEA, and APAC.
Accenture is a global professional services company that offers capabilities in domains like digital, cloud and security. Accenture combines experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries. They offer strategy and consulting, interactive, technology and operations services which is powered by the world's largest network of advanced technology and intelligent operations centers. The company has 624,000 employees that deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity, serving clients in more than 200 countries.
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Through the Eyes of Yankelovich
Challenging the Economist Worldview
IN a recent New York Times article, the noted American economist Tyler Cowen challenged one of the truisms of economic theory: the assumption that it is just a matter of time before technological innovation replaces all the jobs that it destroys. Economists have taken this assumption for granted ever since Britain proved the Luddite challenge unfounded in the late 18th century. The Luddites wanted to destroy the new machines that they felt were destroying their jobs. But as time passed, technology came to be seen as a mighty creator as well as destroyer of jobs.
Cowen points to an ever-growing abundance of evidence that technology in today's global economy is threatening skilled middle-class jobs and low-skilled ones. This is reducing the ranks of highly paid workers and lowering the wages of the typical four-year-college graduates.
As a non-economist, I have been waiting a long time for an economist of Cowen's stature to point to a threat that is increasingly recognized outside the economist profession. For non-economists, there is something mystical and illogical about the assumption that there will always be enough good jobs to go around. It reveals a superstitious faith in the concept of a self-sustaining economy always striving for equilibrium. Indeed, I think Cowen's question should be reframed in stronger terms: "Why, we should ask ourselves, should we go on believing in the 'old normal' when the evidence all points in a different direction?"
Could the reasons we hold onto the old faith simply be that (1) it serves the selfish interests of a lot of people in positions of power, and/or (2) it reflects the arbitrary and mostly incorrect assumption of many traditional economists that a capitalist economy works best on automatic pilot?
If current trends continue, the situation will become so threatening to the stability of our societies that economists will lose their credibility and we will be plunged into a serious political crisis.
I propose that our two economies — that of Japan and that of the United States — provisionally adopt the hypothesis that, as Cowen puts it, "We are witnessing a fundamental transformation unveiled in bits and pieces." I propose that we form a Japan-U.S. Commission consisting of the most insightful and least ideological industrialists, political leaders, social scientists, journalists and public intellectuals of both nations.
Economists and lawyers can serve as outside consultants but not be a part of the commission. Their input would be highly valued, but not decisive. It would be funded and staffed to produce a range of possible solutions, some far-reaching in nature.
If we do not take this sort of initiative, we may lose one or two decades before we are forced to face the fundamental nature of this transformation. The delay could have harsh and unacceptable consequences. tj
The complete article can be found in Issue #278 of the Tokyo Journal. Click here to order from Amazon.


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Cross Stitch Patterns:
Dimensions for 14 Count, 18 Count, and 30 Count given.
This is a Digital Download.
Pattern will be emailed when payment has been processed.
Included in your package: *One Page Color picture depiciting the stitched pattern.
*Enlarged pattern on Nine pages to make reading the pattern easier.
* Floss chart DMC, stitch count, dimensions.
*Basic instructions for counted cross stitch.
Supplies (floss, needles, etc.) can easily be obtained from your local craft store or craft department. Cross stitching is a rewarding hobby that will allow you to create that special icon


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Microsoft swipes at Google Apps
Microsoft has launched an attack on Google in which it seeks to dissuade businesses from downloading Google Apps.
The attack came in a statement on Monday, the same day Google signed a deal with Capgemini to promote its office-productivity software among businesses.
Capgemini, a global consulting firm, is to offer desktop support and installation services to large corporations running Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE), the premium version of Google's Web-based package. Google Apps includes a word processor, calendar and mail functions, and so is a direct rival to Microsoft Office.
In its statement, Microsoft laid out 10 questions it wanted users considering Google Apps to ask themselves.
"We believe competition is good for customers and the industry. That said, customers tell us that our solutions deliver the ease of use, reliability and security that enterprises need," the statement began. It then asked questions such as: "Google's apps only work if an enterprise has no power users, employees are always online, enterprises haven't built custom Office apps--doesn't this equal a very small percentage of global information workers today?"
Another one read: "Google touts having enterprise-level customers but how many 'users' of their applications truly exist within the enterprise?" A further one questioned Google's commitment to Google Apps, asking: "Their enterprise focus and now apps exist on the very fringe, and in combination with other fringe services only account for 1 percent of the company's revenue. What happens if Google executes poorly? Do they shut (them) down given it will (affect) them in a minimal and short-term way? Should customers trust that this won't happen?"
Microsoft's statement poured scorn on Google's "perpetual beta" ethos, which sees its software upgraded on a relatively continual basis, rather than upgrades appearing in official releases. "With Google Apps in perpetual beta and Google controlling when, and if, they roll out specific features and functionality, customers have minimal, if any, control over the timing of product rollouts and features."
And the statement asked: "Google has a history of releasing incomplete products, calling them beta software, and issuing updates on a 'known only to Google' schedule--this flies in the face of what enterprises want and need in their technology partners--what is Google doing that indicates they are in lock step with customer needs?"
Ovum analyst David Bradshaw told ZDNet Asia's sister site ZDNet UK that the missive showed "Microsoft is paying (Google) the second most sincere form of compliment, in treating them as a serious rival."
Bradshaw described Microsoft's allegations that Google released incomplete products with no clear update schedule as being "at best, cheeky".
He suggested that the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model of updates had been proved successful by Salesforce.com. "Clearly they are taking advantage of the platform to change things when they need to, when it's ready," said Bradshaw. "They don't have to wait until the end of the year or whenever--all that has changed. In a sense, SaaS enables continual improvement."
Bradshaw added that, as Microsoft itself was moving into the hosted-service market with Office Live Meeting and its upcoming customer relationship management play, there might be "people in Microsoft who will strongly object to" the viewpoints in the statement.
Google refused to comment on the statement.


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kproplog - display the contents of the Kerberos principal update log
/usr/sbin/kproplog [-h | -e num]
The kproplog displays the contents of the Kerberos principal update log to standard output. This command can be used to keep track of the incremental updates to the principal database, which is enabled by default. The /var/krb5/principal.ulog file contains the update log maintained by the kadmind(1M) process on the master KDC server and the kpropd(1M) process on the slave KDC servers. When updates occur, they are logged to this file. Subsequently any KDC slave configured for incremental updates will request the current data from the master KDC and update their principal.ulog file with any updates returned.
The kproplog command can only be run on a KDC server by someone with privileges comparable to the superuser. It will display update entries for that server only.
If no options are specified, the summary of the update log is displayed. If invoked on the master, all of the update entries are also displayed. When invoked on a slave KDC server, only a summary of the updates are displayed, which includes the serial number of the last update received and the associated time stamp of the last update.
The following options are supported:
Display a summary of the update log. This information includes the database version number, state of the database, the number of updates in the log, the time stamp of the first and last update, and the version number of the first and last update entry.
Display the last num update entries in the log. This is useful when debugging synchronization between KDC servers.
Display individual attributes per update. If more than one –v is specified then very verbose output is displayed. An example of the output generated for one entry:
Update Entry Update serial # : 4 Update operation : Add Update principal : email@example.com Update size : 424 Update committed : True Update time stamp : Fri Feb 20 23:37:42 2004 Attributes changed : 6 Principal Key data Password last changed Modifying principal Modification time TL data
The update log file for incremental propagation.
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
kpasswd(1), kadmin(1M), kadmind(1M), kdb5_util(1M), kprop(1M), kpropd(1M), kadm5.acl(4), kdc.conf(4), attributes(5), kerberos(5)


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Founded in 1994, SBT is a commercial investment property Agency, specialising in the acquisition of investments for private clients, property companies, and small pension funds. SBT then manages those assets from both a physical and financial perspective, in order to maximise value on behalf of clients.
SBT act across the country and currently have almost 200 properties under management.
We can use our expertise and market knowledge to source and acquire the right the right commercial property, matched to your value and risk profile requirements.
In addition, we undertake all related professional work including rent reviews, lease renewals, rating appeals, schedules of condition and dilapidations, commercial property valuations, property dispute resolution, rent collection and service charge administration.
Our current portfolio of managed properties include industrial estates in Devon and Yorkshire, offices in Ipswich and Manchester as well as many shops, offices and factories in Hampshire and the Thames Valley.
We can provide all of the services required to make your ownership, occupation or investment in commercial property more profitable including:
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Bones are quite literally the support system of the body, so it's super important to keep them strong and healthy. Bones are continuously being broken down and rebuilt in tiny amounts. Before about age 30, when bones typically reach peak bone mass (which varies from person to person), the body is creating new bone faster, but after age 30, the bone building balance naturally shifts and more bone is lost than gained.
Some people have a lot of savings in their "bone bank" because of factors including genetics, diet and how much bone they built up as teenagers. The natural depletion of bone doesn't affect these lucky ducks too drastically. But in those with a smaller bone fortune, when the body can't create new bone as fast as the old bone is lost, osteoporosis can set in, causing bones to become weak and brittle and allowing them to fracture more easily. The disease is most common in postmenopausal women over the age of 65 and in men over the age of 70.
Although all this talk of menopause and older age makes the threat of osteoporosis seem like a long way off, know that once it sets in, it's extremely hard to reverse. Since there's no way of being 100% positive you'll develop osteoporosis, the best way to counteract it is to take steps earlier in life to beef up bone mass (and prevent its loss) as much as possible.
Unfortunately, some are more likely than others to develop osteoporosis and weak bones in general (namely white and Asian postmenopausal women). Also unfortunately, it's awfully difficult to change your race, gender or menopausal status. But never fear — there are some things that can be changed to bump up bone mass. Here are 10 tips to make deposits in your bone bank for a healthier future.
1. Know your family history. As with many medical conditions, family history is a key indicator of bone health. Those with a parent or sibling who has or had osteoporosis are more likely to develop it. "So, how's your bone density, Grandma?" might seem like an awkward question at Thanksgiving dinner, but ask anyway before she passes the gravy.
2. Boost calcium consumption. When most people think bones, they think calcium. This mineral is essential for the proper development of teeth and bones. (Not to mention it's a huge helper in proper muscle function, nerve signaling, hormone secretion, and blood pressure.)
But calcium isn't the end-all, be-all bone loss cure. The key might be to help the body absorb calcium by pairing calcium-rich foods with those high in vitamin D. Some studies on postmenopausal women have shown that simply adding calcium alone to the diet doesn't have a huge affect on bone density (though follow-up studies have suggested the opposite).
Foods that are good sources of calcium include yogurt, cheese, milk, spinach and collard greens. Not a dairy fan? Check out our list of non-dairy sources of calcium.
3. Don't forget the vitamin D. Where there's calcium, there must be vitamin D: the two work together to help the body absorb bone-boosting calcium. Boost vitamin D consumption by munching on shrimp, fortified foods like cereal and orange juice, sardines, eggs (in the yolks) and tuna, or opt for a vitamin D supplement. Greatist Expert Eugene Babenko suggests getting your vitamin D (specifically vitamin D3) levels checked at your next doctor's appointment, and to discuss the use of supplements with your doctor.
The body also produces vitamin D when exposed to the sun — 10 to 15 minutes of exposure three times per week will do. Vitamin D's importance to bone health has been proven in studies on "seasonal bone loss" — elderly people can lose more bone mass during the winter because of lack of sun exposure. Though these and many other studies on bone loss looked at elderly people specifically, bone health is all about prevention, so younger folks should catch a few rays to stock up on D.
4. Boost bone density with vitamin K. Vitamin K is mostly known for helping out with blood clotting, but it also helps the body make proteins for healthy bones. However, the exact way vitamin K contributes to bone health is unclear. Two studies on young girls showed that vitamin K had different effects: one showed that vitamin K slowed bone turnover, but it didn't have any effect on bone mineral density, while the other found the reverse.
Another study specifically compared the effects of vitamins K and D on calcium absorption in rats, and it turns out the two vitamins work well as a team: vitamin D stimulated calcium absorption in the intestines, while vitamin K reduced the amount of calcium excreted by the body.
Regardless of how vitamin K might help, fill up on it with foods like kale, broccoli, Swiss chard and spinach.
5. Pump up the potassium. Potassium isn't necessarily known for aiding bone health: it's a mineral that helps nerves and muscles communicate and also helps cells remove waste. But it turns out potassium may neutralize acids that remove calcium from the body.
Studies in both pre- and postmenopausal women have shown that a diet high in potassium can improve bone health. In fact, the study involving premenopausal women showed an 8% difference in bone density between women with high potassium intake and those with low potassium intake.
Load up on potassium by eating foods like sweet potatoes, white potatoes (with the skin on), yogurt and bananas.
6. Make exercise a priority. Seriously. Regular exercise is key to keep a number of health issues at bay, and bone health is no exception. In fact, living a sedentary lifestyle is considered a risk factor for osteoporosis. One study comparing bone density in college women with various body weights and activity levels found that athletes with low body weight had the highest bone density of any group in the study, showing exercise (and low body weight) can have a positive effect on bone density.
What type of exercise is most effective? Weight-bearing exercises like running, walking, jumping rope, skiing and stair climbing keep bones strongest. Resistance training has also been shown to improve bone health in several studies, so pick up the weights after going for a jog. Bonus for the older readers: improved strength and balance helps prevent falls (and the associated fractures) in those who already have osteoporosis.
7. Consume less caffeine. Caffeine does have some health benefits, but unfortunately not for our bones. Too much of it can interfere with the body's ability to absorb calcium. One study showed that drinking more than two cups of coffee per day accelerated bone loss in subjects who also didn't consume enough calcium. Another study (albeit on elderly women) showed that more than 18 ounces of coffee per day can accelerate bone loss by negatively interacting with vitamin D. So enjoy the java, but keep it in moderation and consume enough calcium, too.
8. Cool it on the booze. But like caffeine, there's no need to quit entirely. While heavy alcohol consumption can cause bone loss (because it interferes with vitamin D doing its job), moderate consumption (that's one drink per day for women, two per day for men) is fine — and recent studies actually show it may help slow bone loss. Bottoms up!
9. Quit smoking. Here's yet another reason to lose the cigarettes: multiple studies have shown that smoking can prevent the body from efficiently absorbing calcium, decreasing bone mass.
10. Don't be an astronaut. Not to kill any childhood dreams, but because of those hours and hours of weightlessness and low-calcium diets, astronauts often suffer from space-induced osteoporosis. Space-anything sounds kind of awesome, but space bones definitely aren't: astronauts can lose up to 1% to 2% of their bone mass per month on a mission! For those who simply must visit the moon, there is a possible solution: two studies have found that vitamin K can help build back astronauts' lost bone — more than calcium and vitamin D.
This article has been read and approved by Greatist Experts Eugene Babenko and Mike Reinold.
What are you doing to build bone health now? Tell us in the comments below or tweet the author @llovermyer.
Greatist is the fastest-growing fitness, health and happiness start-up. Check out more tips, expert opinion and fun times at Greatist.com.


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HCM Norwegian
Forest Cat Testing Results
Updated 07/15/16
M=Whole Male Blue=newest added/changed result(s) |
To add your cat(s) please provide the following:
- Cat's Name
- Cat's Parents' Names (titles not necessary)
- Breeders' Name(s)
- Owners' Name(s), cattery name & contact information
- First or repeat test
- Official HCM testing results signed by a licensed veterinarian
- Date and cause of death, if applicable
This site is purely voluntary on the part of the breeders and has no affiliation with the clinics or vets performing the tests. This site will not contain those cats who may be thought to be normal as a result of their parents being tested, if the offspring themselves are not tested.
Please send all official documentation by e-mail to:
firstname.lastname@example.com you would prefer to fax your official results, please contact me at the e-mail address above.
Note: it is recommended that Norwegian Forest cats intended for breeding be tested for HCM when the cat is at least one year old and then repeated annually until the cat reaches five-six years of age. There is unfortunately no way to guarantee that a cat listed in our database will not develop these conditions over time. We ask that breeders notify us if a cat's status changes, but we have no way to guarantee this will happen.


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I have several friends who do wonderful things with used clothing.
Nifty Quilts, quilt made of 70's fabrics
See Nifty's blog here:
Buffy, Huipil Quilt
Quilt with a center made from used Guatemalan clothing, a huipil.
For Brian by Deb Rowden
See Deb's take on the upside of the obesity epidemic here:
The history of recycling fabrics and clothes is a long, yet strangely familiar story.
See a post I did about buying used fabric here:
The other part of the story is selling used goods. Where did the Rag Fair and the Used Clothing Shops get their goods?
In 1864 towards the end of the American Civil War, Confederate Mary Boykin
Chesnut was wearing rather shabby mourning, "such things as I have would
not have been thought fit for a chamber-maid." She no longer needed her
brighter dresses and she needed money.
An unknown woman in mourning during the Civil War
"March 18th.—Went out to sell some of my colored dresses.
What a scene it was—such piles of rubbish, and mixed up with it, such splendid
Parisian silks and satins. A mulatto woman kept the shop under a roof in an
out-of-the-way old house. The ci-devant [once] rich white women sell to, and
the negroes buy of, this woman."
Wardrobe Dealer:
He bought/he sold.
In her book Fashion's
Favourite: The Cotton Trade and the Consumer in Britain, 1660-1800, Beverly Lemire tracked the market, noting a 1740 English ad offering to barter crockery in exchange for used clothing. A dozen years earlier Mr. & Mrs. James Varlow's occupations were described. He gathered rags and his wife sold Manchester ware (new British-produced fabrics)---an excellent partnership.
Lemire lists sources for the used clothing markets. Tailors, who might barter with their customers, sold the used clothing of the well-to-do; thieves sold stolen clothing; pawnbrokers sold unretrieved items given as collateral for loans. Many households listened for the call of the peddler who came through the neighborhood offering to buy used clothing (and worn-out quilts, we can imagine.) And then there were what we might call estate sales---the public vendue.
In 1776, Philadelphian William Adcock sold a
"great variety of goods suitable for the season."
Vendues might be the estate of one deceased person,
one bankrupt family or a regular public auction
of new and used items.
Everything had a value. Boots and shoes were recycled to make mineral dyes. Rags too worn to wear went to make rag paper. And slightly worn and slightly unfashionable clothes descended the ladder of social class.
During the Great Depression the government documented poverty.
Here is an Iowa family described as living in dire poverty---an example of how much for granted
we have taken an excess of clothing in the U.S. for well over a hundred years. Even cash-poor families have an excess of clothing.
(Living in a similar house, I might also guess it's a lack of closets rather than a lack of money that causes things to pile up in such fashion.)
As the industrial revolution made clothing cheaper and more commonplace, excess clothing moved briskly around the local market.
An Old Clothes Shop, Seven Dials, London
About 1878
John Thomson (1837-1921)
See the rest of this great photo of a used clothing dealer in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum here:
The Ohio quilt project book, Quilts in Community, noted an 1870 discussion of the economies of patchwork and rags in the Western Rural magazine. Apparently a letter-writer labeled patchwork a waste of time. "Hass" wrote her two-cents worth:
"Patchwork Quilts-Tied Comfortables
Nothing...is neater in my opinion than a neat scrap quilt to
say nothing of economy...I save every scrap left over from my dresses &
aprons...If we sold them for paper rags we could get only 2 cents a pound,
while at the very least we would pay 12-1/2 c a yard for calico to make
While selling and buying used goods might be something polite people didn't ordinarily discuss, war-time fabric shortages and other disasters periodically made the whole idea patriotic and worth bragging about.
Above and below from the Library of Congress
During World War II it was called scrap collecting.
The Library of
Congress has many pictures of the workings
of a WW II
recycling center.
Go to their web page and search for
Scrap salvage.
Used American clothing often winds
up in countries like Myanmar.
The wheel of textile recycling is international today. We buy and sell at garage sales, consignment and thrift shops. Charities sort and grade our donations, selling the higher-end clothing back to us with the lower-end goods shipped to other countries. Low-grade textiles are recycled as rags for industry or fiber for new products.
Unless Buffy or Rosie get there first...
Thrift Shop Star by Buffy
Hawaiian Shirts by Rosie Mayhew


text: Exhibitor List Index PLEASE NOTE: This list of exhibitors was compiled by the National Safety Council with permission from the individual exhibitors. This list is the exclusive copyrighted intellectual property of NSC and is reproduced here for informational purposes only. Any unauthorized commercial use or reproduction of this list, including soliciting exhibitors or representing yourself as an agent of the trade show, is prohibited and may subject you to civil and criminal liability.


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Supervalu adds 250 stores to zero-waste program
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Supervalu is moving ahead with its sustainability efforts by increasing the number of stores that will divert 90% or more of their waste from local landfills by the end of the current fiscal year.
The retail chain said 250 stores will join its zero-waste program by the end of the current fiscal year ending Feb. 23, 2013. The announcement follows the company's fourth-quarter earnings call last week, during which it reported it had transitioned 54 stores to 90% waste diversion during the past year, exceeding its original target of 40 locations.
"Last year marked incredible progress in our zero-waste efforts and we're even more excited about what lies ahead," Supervalu president and CEO Craig Herkert said. "Keeping waste out of landfills is better for the environment, better for our customers and better for the bottom line. It's simply the right thing for us to do."
Additional sustainable store operation achievements achieved by Supervalu banners during the last year included:
More than 54 million lbs. of food donated through the Fresh Rescue program — which captures such items as meat, dairy and produce that have reached their "sell by" date, but are still edible and safe, and donates them to local nonprofit organizations — equivalent to approximately 45 million meals using the USDA conversion of 1.2 pounds per meal.
Reduction of more than 28,000 tons of landfill waste in 2011, compared with calendar year 2010.
A 98%increase in mixed paper recycling, a 55% increase in hard plastic recycling, and 293% increase in the number of stores composting or diverting organic material (491 total).
Reduced garbage expenses costs $3.4 million and increased recycling income to more than $36 million.


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PDB - (Pilot Database) file format
#define dmDBNameLength 32/* 31 chars + 1 null terminator */ struct pdb_header { /* 78 bytes total */ char name[ dmDBNameLength ]; Word attributes; Word version; DWord create_time; DWord modify_time; DWord backup_time; DWord modificationNumber; DWord appInfoID; DWord sortInfoID; char type[4]; char creator[4]; DWord id_seed; DWord nextRecordList; Word numRecords; }; struct pdb_rec_header { /* 8 bytes total */ DWord offset; struct { int delete : 1; int dirty : 1; int busy : 1; int secret : 1; int category : 4; } attributes; char uniqueID[3]; }
The PDB (Pilot Database) file format is used by all models of the Palm Pilot and IBM Workpad. The format consists of a header followed by a set of record headers followed by the records themselves. Word Sizes In the SYNOPSIS above, the types ''Byte,'' ''Word,'' and ''DWord'' are used just as in the Pilot headers. The type ''Byte'' is 8 bits; ''Word'' is 16 bits; ''DWord'' is 32 bits. The latter two are in big-endian format.
1. The C structures given in the SYNOPSIS above are illustrative and most likely will not work in actual C code since compilers align data members on word boundaries. 2. The PDB file format presented here is not official and was written at the time when PDB file format was not public. It is possibly outdated. The official standard is available on the Palm web page. (SEE ALSO)
txt2pdbdoc(1), html2pdbtxt(1), pdbtxt2html(1), doc(4) Palm Computing Inc. Palm File Format Specification, 2000. http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/docs/fileformats/front.html
Paul J. Lucas <email@example.com> Updated by Erik Schanze <email@example.com> txt2pdbdoc August 20, 2005 PDB(4)


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Help Make Sense of Crazy Steve Cuozzo
So, Streetsblog is well past the point of bothering to rationally rebut anything that Post columnist Steve Cuozzo has to say on the subject of re-engineering streets for greater safety. The man clearly has a few screws loose, and, in the words of midtown BID impresario Dan Biederman, "He doesn't know this field. He just loves to scream and rant about it."
But after reading today's out-of-touch diatribe about the Columbus Avenue bike lane, I'm still scratching my head, trying to puzzle out exactly why the Cuozz loves to scream and rant about this stuff so much.
You have the conventional theories. Bike lane rants goose pageviews. The Post is a reactionary Murdoch-financed rag that couldn't care less about actual New Yorkers wanting to make their streets safer. And Gothamist's favorite explanation: Cuozzo is just a grumpy old man, like Abe Simpson with column inches.
I'm starting to think there's something else going on, though. Some deep psychological need embedded in Cuozzo's amygdala that compels him to write this garbage.
It could be a manifestation of obsessive-compulsive disorder, as Cuozzo's extreme discomfort with "vehicles unattractively parked in the middle of the street" suggests. In other words: Who cares if fewer pedestrians are getting injured with the new parking arrangement! Streets are absolutely perfect when cars are parked by the curb, and the street must not deviate from the perfect arrangement!
It could be a form of stalking, where the object of Cuozzo's obsession is bike lanes. The amount of time Cuozzo spends monitoring bike lanes certainly seems obsessive. "I've watched it repeatedly, at all hours and in all weathers, on weekdays and weekends," he says of the Columbus Avenue lane. Yes, "all weathers." While the rest of us were holed up during Hurricane Sandy, apparently, Cuozzo was out there watching a bike lane.
It could be some childhood trauma that's blocking Cuozzo from embracing the infrastructure that would clearly give him great joy, if he would only allow himself to use it. "Growing up on Long Island," he writes, "I lived on a bike." Transplanted to New York, though, he finds traffic too dangerous to ride here, "with or without bike lanes." While many New Yorkers would probably agree with Cuozzo that they don't feel safe enough riding on the streets as they exist today, most of us think bike lanes are a good thing. Personally, I think one of the reasons they're good is that they can help people overcome their fear of riding in traffic, especially if there's a connected network that can get you from point A to point B.
Maybe some awful encounter with a motorist on the peaceful, bikeable streets of Cuozzo's idyllic Long Island childhood is preventing him from seeing how the Columbus Avenue bike lane extension would create a safer, useful connection to other parts of the city.
Got a diagnosis? Share it in the comments.


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Skema Vano Finito Terra Light Laccato ULTRAopaco Green
Skema is a closing system designed to use difficult and irregular spaces . It consists of flush to the wall panels of various sizes and reduced thickness that disappear to give new shapes and functionality to rooms, creating made-to-measure wardrobes or storage areas, closing off under-stairs compartments, kitchen compartments and niches.
Images are for illustrative purposes only, dimensions and colours are merely indicative. Everything perceived by the screen may be altered by many factors, including screen size, ambient light, viewing angle, screen calibration, etc. If the customer wishes to know this information in detail, he should contact our nearest dealer for specific technical advice, as any deviations for reasons listed above cannot be accepted.


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What do reality star Kim Kardashian, investor/mogul Warren Buffett and super-attorney Gloria Allred have in common (besides the fact all three are swimming in money)?
They are all media darlings. When they want the world to know what they are doing – people listen. When they have a new offering, or they want you to know about something they are doing, the headlines flash, the video cameras roll and within hours, everyone knows what they want us to know about them.
Wouldn't it be great having the ability to command headlines to tell people about your business without the paparazzi or the need for rehab a year later?
Knowing how to build your platform of fans and customers is an essential part of creating a business that people will notice in 2012 and beyond. It's how books become number one on the bestseller lists, how bloggers with a business drive sales into hyperspace, or how products like the Missoni line of designer fashions at Target are snapped up and sell out in a few hours. Below are seven secrets to help you get noticed and be seen as influential when you want to get the word out about your business.
1. Your presence on social networking platforms like Facebook is essential. Connect with movers and shakers you want to know you. You can add comments, start a group of followers or develop a fan page. Don't know what to say? Share what you're doing in a compelling way. There's only one degree of separation with social networking. Post daily and build a fan base.
2. Conduct business with integrity and honesty – not for a quick buck. In this new era of citizen media, disgruntled customers can spin out of control and destroy your reputation faster than you can say "Twitter." Trust is critical to your success in the post Bernie Madoff environment. Take care of customers and let them go online with a positive story about your business, not a negative one.
3. Get comfortable with media including radio, television, print and online sources. Surprisingly, radio is an unsung hero because you have an opportunity to tell listeners how to connect with you. Print can be powerful, too. Professional trade journals are usually crying out for fresh articles for their eager readers. If you're uncomfortable with this strategy, remember that every day you own a business is like the biggest kick-butt seminar you'll ever attend. Be willing to stretch.
4. Use public speaking in front of groups as a way to position yourself as an expert or an authority in your field. The minute you stand in front of a room full of people, you're automatically seen as an expert. Develop a sense of humor or at least memorize a few jokes. People are more open to new ideas right after a good chuckle. If speaking makes you uncomfortable, consider joining a Toastmasters group for practice and constructive support.
Knowing how to build your platform of fans & customers is an essential part of creating a business that people will notice in 2012 & beyond.
5. Discover ways to keep your energy level or "chi" up. You can work 24/7 and never get everything done. Learn to delegate things to others who are better suited and love to do the tasks you don't have to do. Building up your success only to crash and burn a year or two later is no fun. Plus, in 2012 you never know when someone has a camera and captures you being you.
6. Use short videos (no more than five minutes) to share helpful tips and ideas about your expertise and how you help customers. Or, tell people about exciting events coming up in your business or life. Don't be afraid to share your successes when they happen. Let your enthusiasm and passion for what you love shine. Upload them to a platform like YouTube and share all over the Web.
7. Share your story of success in a way that's emotionally compelling and helps people relate to you and what you're all about. If you're a positive person, generally you want to forget the tough times. But that's where your ideal customer is at right now, in need of your product or service. There's a way to craft your story so you come across as a person who has overcome obstacles and who can relate to their concerns now.
These seven keys provide the broad brushstrokes to become an overnight sensation. Of course, an "overnight sensation" is really a person who's worked hard for years then it appears they suddenly burst upon the scene. When you harness and leverage these secrets you'll be well on your way to commanding the influence and positive attention that will help your business successfully grow.
A powerful way to gain the strategic skills and confidence you need to pull it off is with the help of two bestselling authors, Stacey Hall and Denise Michaels. Both know the secrets to creating success in a sea of constant change. In a two-and- a-half-day workshop called "Occupy Your Life … NOW!" they teach business owners ways to embrace the skills to become influential and an "overnight sensation" in your own right.
Copyright 2020 ist Magazine


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Recent efforts to improve teacher performance by linking pay to student achievement have failed because such programs often rely on metrics that were never intended to help determine teacher pay, contends Derek Neal, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago.
"Many accountability and performance pay systems employ test scores from assessment systems that produce information used not only to determine rewards and punishments for educators, but also to inform the public about progress in student learning," Neal writes in the paper, "The Design of Performance Pay in Education."
These testing systems make it easy, in theory, for policymakers to obtain consistent measures of student and teacher performance over time. But Neal argues that the same testing regimes also make it easy, in practice, for educators to game incentive systems by coaching students for exams rather than teaching them to master subject matter.
"As long as education authorities keep trying to accomplish both of these tasks (measurement and incentive provisions) with one set of assessments, they will continue to fail at both tasks," he adds in the paper, which was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research and is a chapter in the upcoming Handbook of Economics of Education.
Although a great deal has been written about the results of pay bonuses for teachers linked to student achievement, few studies have actually examined the design of those programs, Neal said. Working with his own research and that of others on achievement, he explored why many incentive programs are unsuccessful.
In some rare instances, teachers have cheated in response to the pressure of high-stakes tests. In other cases, teachers may avoid instruction that leads to more comprehensive learning while increasing time devoted to activities that prepare students for upcoming assessments. For example, they may decide to skip writing and simply ask students to practice finding grammar mistakes in passages written by others.
In other cases, teacher incentive programs based on student achievement have encouraged teachers to leave schools in which most students come from disadvantaged backgrounds, research shows.
Still, other programs appear to fail because they set the performance standards so high that teachers felt they had little chance winning reward payments by working harder.
Neal writes that education officials should separate the provision of incentives and the measurement of student and educator performance by using separate testing programs for these two tasks. Neal said that reward pay should be attached to the results of assessments that vary enough annually so that they are not predictable, and therefore do not invite coaching. Such assessments may provide little information about whether long-term trends in student achievement are positive or negative, but the results provide enough information for reward pay systems that base yearly bonuses for teachers on the performance of their students relative to students from similar backgrounds in other schools.
Separate assessment systems that involve no stakes for teachers, and thus no incentives for manipulation, should be used to produce measures of student performance over time, Neal contends. This two-system approach would discourage excessive "teaching to the test."
"The designers of assessment-based incentive schemes must take seriously the challenge of designing a series of assessments such that the best response of educators is not to coach, but to teach in ways that build true mastering," Neal said.


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Backpacker hostels are the perfect option for those on a budget. You'll meet like minded travellers and make new friends.
In New Zealand you'll find backpacker hostels in all the major cities and most towns, and the best part is you won't break the bank finding somewhere to sleep after a massive day of adventuring.
They are the ideal environment for backpackers. You're sure to meet people who are keen to swap their stories, and who can offer you advice on your next New Zealand experience. You might even make some new friends, and find someone new to share your next adventure with.
With everything being so close no matter which hostel you stay at you'll find an amazing experience near by.