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Global mass balance from GRACE
February 7, 2012
In the first comprehensive satellite study of its kind, a University of Colorado Boulder-led team used NASA data to calculate how much Earth's melting land ice is adding to global sea level rise.
Using satellite measurements from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), the researchers measured ice loss in all of Earth's land ice between 2003 and 2010, with particular emphasis on glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland and Antarctica. The total global ice mass lost from Greenland, Antarctica and all Earth's glaciers and ice caps over the period studied was about 4.3 trillion tons (1,000 cubic miles), adding about 12 millimeters (0.5 inches) to global sea level. That's enough ice to cover the United States 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) deep.
About a quarter of the average annual ice loss came from glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland and Antarctica (about 148 billion tons, or 39 cubic miles), while ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica and their peripheral ice caps and glaciers averaged roughly 385 billion tons (100 cubic miles) a year. Results of the study are published online Feb. 8 in the journal Nature.
"Earth is losing a huge amount of ice to the ocean annually, and these new results will help us answer important questions in terms of both sea rise and how the planet's cold regions are responding to global change," said University of Colorado Boulder physics professor John Wahr, who helped lead the study.
"The strength of GRACE is it sees all the mass in the system, even though its resolution isn't high enough to allow us to determine separate contributions from each individual glacier," said Wahr, also a fellow at the University of Colorado-headquartered Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Traditional estimates of Earth's ice caps and glaciers have been made using ground measurements from relatively few glaciers to infer what all the world's unmonitored glaciers were doing. Only a few hundred of the roughly 200,000 glaciers worldwide have been monitored for longer than a decade.
One unexpected study result from GRACE was that the estimated ice loss from high Asian mountain ranges like the Himalaya, the Pamir and the Tien Shan was only about 4 billion tons of ice annually. Some previous ground-based estimates of ice loss in these high Asian mountains have ranged up to 50 billion tons annually, Wahr said.
"The GRACE results in this region really were a surprise," said Wahr. "One possible explanation is that previous estimates were based on measurements taken primarily from some of the lower, more accessible glaciers in Asia and were extrapolated to infer the behavior of higher glaciers. But unlike the lower glaciers, most of the high glaciers are located in very cold environments, and require greater amounts of atmospheric warming before local temperatures rise enough to cause significant melting. This makes it difficult to use low-elevation, ground-based measurements to estimate results from the entire system."
"This study finds that the world's small glaciers and ice caps in places like Alaska, South America and the Himalayas contribute about 0.4 millimeters (.02 inches) per year to sea level rise," said Tom Wagner, cryosphere program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "While this is lower than previous estimates, it confirms that ice is being lost from around the globe, with just a few areas in precarious balance. The results sharpen our view of land ice melting, which poses the biggest, most threatening factor in future sea level rise."
Launched in 2002, the twin GRACE satellites track changes in Earth's gravity field by noting minute changes in gravitational pull caused by regional variations in Earth's mass, which for periods of months to years is typically due to movements of water on Earth's surface. It does this by measuring changes in the distance between its two identical spacecraft to one-hundredth the width of a human hair. The spacecraft, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., are in the same orbit approximately 220 kilometers (137 miles) apart.
This animation shows the average yearly change in mass, in cm of water, during 2003-2010 from all of the world's glaciers and ice caps (excluding Greenland and Antarctica). Regions with large ice loss rages stand out clearly as blue and purple. The yellow circles mark the locations of glaciers. A colorbar overlay shows the range of values displayed.


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Uberlink CEO Rob Ackland on #CambridgeAnalytica in The Conversation
We need to talk about the data we give freely of ourselves online and why it's useful
Robert Ackland, Australian National UniversityThe Cambridge Analytica and Facebook data harvesting scandal has provided yet another reminder of what has long been known: as social media users, we are the product.
Our personal information and behaviour that we divulge via social media use is valuable and used for commercial gain.
Yet those who do research using big data – and I count myself among these – are probably feeling both concerned and conflicted at this latest scandal.
Read more: Australia should strengthen its privacy laws and remove exemptions for politicians
Those of us academics who also have a private business interest in data analytics may even be having a "but there for the grace of God go I" moment.
Gathering Facebook data
The data used by Cambridge Analytica came from University of Cambridge researcher Aleksandr Kogan, and were not collected as part of his university work.
Kogan created a Facebook app which used Facebook's "application programming interface" (API) to gather data on about 50 million people in the United States.
At the time there were many academics using the Facebook API in a similar way and, as has been pointed out by Facebook in the Cambridge Analytica case, there was no data breach (Facebook's servers were not hacked).
Around the same time Kogan was collecting his data, I was using the Facebook API for research and teaching at the ANU. It was understood that the use of a Facebook app for research required ethics clearance and informed consent. Further, the collected data should be de-identified, stored securely and only used for the stated research project.
It is clear that these requirements were not met in the case of the Cambridge Analytica Facebook data.
It has been argued that it was not appropriate for Facebook apps to access the information of friends of the participants (the people who installed the app). But it was precisely the social network data (who are the participant's friends, and how do they connect with one another?) that made Facebook data so useful for social research.
It is important to recognise that researchers using the Facebook API had to respect Facebook's privacy settings – it was not possible to access profiles that were private or could only be viewed by friends.
Facebook restricted the API in 2014 to prevent this kind of collection. So a budding Aleksandr Kogan of 2018 would not be able to collect Facebook data that would be of interest to Cambridge Analytica.
But there are several reasons why this latest story is not simply "old news".
A shifting, competitive environment
The Cambridge Analytica scandal highlights that social media companies such as Facebook are faced with often conflicting privacy-related demands from users and advertisers, as well as from civil society, academia and government.
MIT management professor Sinan Aral calls this the "transparency paradox".
It is a quickly changing environment and what was considered ethical and appropriate five or ten years ago (such as the savvy use of social media by the Obama presidential campaign) may be regarded as unacceptable in the future.
This is just the natural process of technology evolving over time in response to public scrutiny.
But some of Facebook's privacy missteps have appeared to be wilful, with the platform testing the water (and then apologising) in terms of what it could get away with to make itself more valuable to advertisers.
Read more: Consent and ethics in Facebook's emotional manipulation study
Taking risks in the WWW Wild West
Facebook operates in a highly competitive environment, as do the academics and entrepreneurs who want to make use of social media data. Some will always be more willing than others to take calculated risks in an attempt to leapfrog the competition.
The world of big data analysis is like the Wild West. If we don't collect and analyse these data, then our competitors will (and they will get the grants, or the big contracts).
Anyway, the API may be turned off next year or the social media platform might go bust, so we had better get in quick.
I recently attended an academic presentation involving potentially sensitive social media data (not Facebook data) collected via an API. I was not the only person in the room shifting uneasily in my seat when we were told "everyone is doing it".
Impact on future of access to big data
Researchers, including myself, who use big data will be concerned that the Cambridge Analytica scandal will contribute to making it even harder to access social media data for legitimate research.
But while the public APIs may be further restricted, social media companies will continue to use the data themselves and to give preferential access to affiliated university researchers.
Yet public APIs help to level the research playing field. They allow researchers from around the world, who are less likely to have any preferential access to social media companies, to conduct open science using publicly available data.
If I conduct research using data from a public API and you don't agree with the results, you can use the same API to collect a similar dataset to try to prove me wrong.
Restricting API access will also make it harder for outside researchers to understand the privacy implications of the data being collected by Facebook and similar companies.
I am only able to write about the nature of the Cambridge Analytica scandal because the data were originally collected via the public Facebook API, which I was using at around the same time.
By further restricting public APIs, only the social media companies themselves will be able to conduct research about users' behaviour on their platform. What is the implication for accountability and transparency, let alone research into important topics such as political filter bubbles and fake news?
How to govern our online social data?
These privacy concerns are particularly pertinent to those platforms that want "the real you". That is, those where it is either against the Terms of Service or doesn't make sense to create multiple or fake profiles. Facebook, Academia.edu and LinkedIn are prime examples.
But all social media platforms share a common feature that they are only valuable if they have significant market share. Because of the network effect, these platforms can grow very quickly and it is a winner-takes-all proposition. They will "move fast and break things" to get to number one.
Concerns have been raised about the enormous power that platforms such as Google and Facebook have as a result of controlling data on consumer preferences and search behaviour, and how this can reduce competition and innovation.
Read more: Regulating Facebook won't prevent data breaches
The Cambridge Analytica scandal will inevitably focus attention on the question of how we should govern our online social data. The European Union's DECODE (Decentralised Citizen Owned Data Ecosystems) project is developing tools to give people control over how their data is used, and the ability to share it on their terms.
Social media platforms are walled gardens but data portability is one of the planks of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, which will come into effect in May 2018. This is the right for an individual to require an organisation to give them back a copy of their personal data or to send this data to another organisation (potentially a competitor).
Maybe this is a step towards a world where users will be able to easily leave a social media platform if they don't agree with how their data are being used, without suffering the social or career hit that would be associated with the only option available now: delete your account.
Robert Ackland, Associate Professor and Leader of the VOSON Lab, School of Sociology, Australian National University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

subset: commoncrawl


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Monday, August 29, 2011
There's got to be a morning after....
The mood inside was strange. It felt like waiting for the bad guys that you knew were waiting on the other side of the door. I felt strangely restless but was unable to concentrate on anything; not the TV, my book or fashion. I just sat or lay waiting. I made calls to my mother every few hours to give her a report on what was happening here and to find out how she was doing. She was cheerful and happily reading in her den. After the eye passed the real performance began with not so much rain as more and more wind. It clocked in at 65 mph at different points taking the trees and whipping their heads back and forth and around in circles. the ground was strangely still but 30-50 feet up things were crazy. The deer that graze contentedly on every lawn and in the middle of most roads were no where to be found. It was the turkeys who treated the event as an invitation to a buffet. I looked out the windows and on the road at the bottom of the driveway was a flock casually strolling through the debris sampling this morsel and that. The bugs, worm life and baby vegetation was laid out on a gigantic platter for their delectation. They had to have been tossed from their aeries high in the trees to wander the deserted ground.
We lost power for only moments at a time which was a blessing. I shower when I'm freaked out and took several. It was an opportunity to play dress up in all my different sets of pajamas and bath robes. I discovered that my Bottega Veneta celadon shearling slippers actually go with every bedtime outfit I could dream up. They're even better with nothing to distract the eye. Tomas Maier is a genius. See, fashion has a place in every corner of our lives. Its not just those public occasions but the private moments when it means the most. I imagined what I would wear if we had to be evacuated which was totally different if we were rescued. No matter which way the wind blew I knew that Bottega Veneta celadon shearling slippers were the anchor to my look. It made the rest of the ordeal so much easier to bare. My mind was clear and ready to rake, chainsaw or blog my way out of this mess.
It was a comfort to know that I wasn't alone in my disaster preparedness. The stores on Main St. and Newtown Lane were sans plywood and open for business. Retail salvation was generously made available to all and sundry. East Hampton was like a shelter with cashmere, jewels, tennis togs, everything Ralph: RRL, Purple Label, kiddz, and Rugby, Sneakerologists, art, bad art and all of it over-priced, along with real estate. I was particularly gratified to see Joseph Altuzzara strolling down Main extolling the obvious benefits of fashion shopping therapy to the masses. They huddled around him like hummingbirds to a trough of nectar. Yes, fashion will lead us to safety.
* For those of you who actually suffered in the hurricane, I don't mean to diminish your situation or to offend. I turned on the news and saw my bookkeeper's ex's restaurant in the Catskills sitting in the middle of a rushing river and not safely on its banks like a few days ago. My prayers go out to Walter and everyone in Margaretville, Phoenicia and 2 other communities up there that are almost completely under water. So many of us were incredibly fortunate to come through this unscathed.
4 comments:
- José said...
Good to know that you're safe. Enjoy those slippers! they look sumptuously cozy and sound like a lot of fun.
- August 29, 2011 at 9:48 PM
- spirou said...
Forget about the Bottega Venetta comfy slippers, what about that amazing armchair at 9 ocloock ? I am sending it around the world,especially to my " picker" in LA, that includes the picture of your feet, I want that chair !
On another note NY Social Diaries had some of their socialites Ladies (?) describe their experience in the hurricane, it was as if Marie Antoinette had been asked to write about a food shortage at the palace....What a great laugh !
Happy you and Anton are well. - August 30, 2011 at 12:25 PM
- antique engagement rings said...
We are all lucky and yes your slippers look great!
- August 31, 2011 at 12:57 PM
- Jane Kilpatrick Schott said...
Showering when you are freaked out!!! OMG I could never do that without visions of Miss Janet Leigh in her signature scene.
that is the first I have ever heard of that, but I will be using it at a cocktail party in my future. - September 4, 2011 at 12:59 AM


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Eat Smart kale salad bags recalled due to possible listeria contamination
Eat Smart brand kale salad bags are being recalled due to possible listeria contamination.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says the 794-gram salad bags with best before dates of July 17 are being recalled in six provinces--Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.
The agency says the recall was triggered by test results and it is conducting a food safety investigation, which may lead to the recall of other products.
It says food contaminated with listeria may not look or smell spoiled but can still make people sick.
It says symptoms of illness can include vomiting, nausea, persistent fever, muscle aches, severe headache and neck stiffness, and pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk.
The agency says there have been no reported illnesses associated with the salad.


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The peer pressure to try drugs is no less intense than the sexual pressure that so many adolescents face. As with any situation that could conceivably lead to trouble, we need to prepare our kids to refuse offers of alcohol and other drugs—preferably without alienating their peers, although sometimes that isn't possible. The strategies below mirror those for rebuffing sexual advances.
"Just say no"? It's a start, but few teens bent on enticing a peer to try drugs will let the matter rest there. In fact, substance abusers tend to view converting the "straight" kid as an irresistible challenge, if not their civic duty, and they can be exasperatingly persistent.
"C'mon, dude, you'll love the buzz from this stuff! It's kickin'."
Role-play this scene with your youngster. The repertoire of possible replies includes:
In particular, the odorless, colorless drug benzodiazepine flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) has been linked to thousands of rapes in which youngsters secretly drop it into their unsuspecting dates' drinks, alcoholic or otherwise. It quickly causes them to be dizzy, disoriented and to black out.
Share the following tips with your daughter. Reading them could spare her from having to experience one of the most traumatic events of her life, and maybe even save her life.
A young woman who believes she may have been drugged and sexually abused should go to a rape crisis center or hospital at once and alert the staff. Among other tests, a urine sample will be analyzed for evidence of any of these substances, which usually remain detectable for about three days.


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Now, with an exclusive 500gsm bamboo charcoal knitted fabric cover, the Giselle Bedding Alanya Series 34cm Euro Top Mattress is certainly above and beyond the ultimate in sleep health. This means that Mattress has even more health benefits for you including better blood circulation and reduced stress over a full night's sleep. The lavish construction also addresses all the elements that make for quality sleep– plush Euro Top padding, high-density foam and an innovative independent coil system for unrivalled zonal support. Also, with its 34cm thickness, our Euro Top Mattress guarantees absolute comfort with medium-firm support that many Australians love and desire. Not least, the Euro Top Mattress comes with side handles for effortless positioning. So awake rejuvenated every day and make it a really good morning with the Giselle Bedding Alanya Series 34cm Euro Top Mattress. Get yours today.
Giselle Bedding – Alanya Series
34cm thick mattress
Medium-firm support
500g bamboo charcoal knitted fabric
Plush Euro Top padding
5 zoned pocket springs
Independent coil system
6 working turn coil system
High-density foam
Hypo-allergic material
Side handles for positioning
Size: Single
Firmness: 6.0 / Medium Firm
Thickness: 34cm
Dimensions: 190cm x 91cm x 34cm
Package Contents
1 x Euro Top Mattress
Care Instructions
Do not machine wash
Do not bleach
Do not iron
Do not dry clean
Do not saturate with water or other cleaning liquids
Treat spills with a cloth and dry with blow dryer
May be spot cleaned with water or soap
Rotate mattress regularly
Vacuum using low suction


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100 words: Introduction
The twelfth, and final, Hodderscape Review project title is Smiler's Fair, by Rebecca Levene. It's a big, world-built secondary world fantasy with maps that all three of my regular readers will have some idea that it's may not be my personal cup of tea. I was still intrigued to read it – Levene is a tremendous writer with a big range of great stories, so it should be at the very least loads of fun. Plus, I was assured from some of those in the know that it's very, very good. Will it live up to its reputation? We shall see.
100 words: The set-up
The prologue starts out with a boy smuggled out of his mother's womb due to a prophecy, taken away by a whole range of disturbing, engaging measures, and… well, spoilers, I suppose.
The titular Smiler's Fair is the anything-goes carnival: traveling around the world, selling men, women, flesh, drugs, and gambling. There's a fragmented kingdom with people and races, and here's the thing: everyone has to move. There are (possibly legendary) people underground who will find you and come eat you if you stay in one place too long – and there appears to be little metal (mining being extraordinarily dangreous).
100 words: The world & its environs
This is where Smiler's Fair really shines. Levene has created a breathing world with cultures who affect each other, so neighbouring tribes have knowledge of each other. There's no lazy shorthand – "Bastard" might, for instance, be a grave insult to one race but not at all to another. The way different people move to avoid the underground men differs, according to class, race, and geography. The cultures aren't thinly veiled analogues of one or more of our cultures fused together clumsily. The story starts off as a good/evil clash, but that battle itself is starting to be questioned and unpacked.
100 words: So… is it good?
In a word… yes. In two: rather good.
It can be a challenging read – the benefit of shorthand is you can think "Ah, all the assassin/rogues are Japanese-ish" or whatever, so you have to think, and pay attention, and there is a massive range of races, plus a whole load who are out of their environment and stuck together at Smiler's Fair. This creates a richer tapestry but conflicts, a bit, with the fast pacing of the book: It can be difficult to keep track of these. It'd be no harm to read it twice in rapid succession. Fun, too.
And now…
This will be my final review for a while here on the old blog. I took over The Kitschies recently, and am a judge, and have now hundreds of books to read. Hundreds. Lots. Loads. SO MANY. And I can't really talk about them.
I may start writing reviews of comics or lego or 80s bands you've never heard of.


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Place your bets! (Only book makers can start new threads)
Use this control to limit the display of threads to those newer than the specified time frame.
Allows you to choose the data by which the thread list will be sorted.
Order threads in...
Note: when sorting by date, 'descending order' will show the newest results first.
Forum Rules


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iOS App Rewrite | Launched Jun 2014
When we say all-new, we mean all-new. Designed and built from scratch. Easy and natural to use while you are out and about. Something that lets you hear more of what you want to hear.
So what makes the app special? It's beautifully simple. You can control everything with your thumb. Tap anywhere to play and pause. Swipe to skip tracks. Slide along the waveform to explore a track and its artwork. Easy.
Tracks and playlists you've liked, and the playlists you've created, can all be found under the 'You' tab. The new home screen makes it easier to find new things you'll love — your stream, trending artists, tracks and genres are all there. Use the new Search to play tracks directly from the Search page, or to follow a user you've discovered. And see the likes, playlists and posts of any user right up front on their profile — nothing is hidden behind tabs.
As we focused on making the best possible listening experience, we decided to remove the Record button. For those of you who want to record and post audio to SoundCloud from your phones, Retronym's new AudioCopy app is a great solution. (If you have recorded sounds stored on your iPhone, please read this before installing the new app.)
Collaboration is at the heart of SoundCloud, so we invited users like you to give feedback along every step of the process, speaking to all kinds of people about what would make the best SoundCloud app. Keep the feedback coming: we'd love to hear from you as we continue the ongoing process of developing the app.
- Objective C
- Swift
- RxCocoa
- Scala BFF
- Ruby


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Virtually any time a major event ripples across Washington, the Justice Department is positioned near the center of it.
From the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner that carried three Americans on board to the fate of voting rights for millions of people, the attorney general has an enormous portfolio. And the stress to match it.
But after an elevated heart rate sent him to the hospital last month, Eric Holder says he's on the mend.
"Got some medication that got me back down to where my heart is supposed to be beating, and I'm doing just fine," Holder, 63, told NPR in an interview this week.
Five years into the job, the attorney general says he's determined to use the bully pulpit to talk about things that matter, like an overhaul of the justice system.
On Thursday, he'll testify to the U.S. Sentencing Commission about proposals to reduce prison terms for thousands of people in drug cases, changes that could trim sentences by an average of 11 months per defendant.
"For too long, we have labored under the misapprehension that we have to have these extraordinarily long sentences if we want to keep the American people safe," Holder said.
The whole system needs to be smarter and more flexible, he added, by "putting in the hands of judges what should happen to a particular defendant as opposed to going to a sheet of paper, a computer and spitting some kind of almost mechanical determination of what should happen."
Already one of the longest-serving attorneys general in history, Holder says he has no immediate plans or timetable to leave — not while cases to protect the rights of minority voters in Texas and North Carolina are just starting to move through the courts. But those efforts suffered a setback last week when seven Senate Democrats voted to block the Obama administration's nominee for the top civil rights post.
Lawmakers cited Debo Adegbile's work on an appeal for a convicted cop killer as a reason to deny him a job at the Justice Department.
"The political decision — and it was a political decision — not to pay close attention to what his record was or to be misinformed about what his record was and then to use that as a basis to deny him the opportunity to serve here as assistant attorney general is something that to me is extremely disturbing," Holder said.
The attorney general said that vote set a dangerous precedent that could scare lawyers away from representing unpopular clients.
"What he did was something that is in the finest tradition of who we are as lawyers," Holder added. "You take on unpopular clients. And then when you have the opportunity to serve in government, that should not be held against you."
It's such a long tradition for prominent attorneys that those Holder cited include former President John Adams and current Chief Justice John Roberts — both of whom handled cases of murderers without being blocked from big jobs or facing any punishment in their careers.
And speaking of punishment: The attorney general says he's still open to talking with NSA leaker Edward Snowden about terms of surrender on Espionage Act charges. Holder says what Snowden did was "wrong" and "inappropriate," but he promises Snowden will be treated fairly if he decides to face justice.
Yet so far, no deal. And no conversations to date, except with Russian authorities who are giving him shelter.
For now, the reasons behind the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner this week remain a mystery, too. Holder says he has offered to help foreign allies — but it's too early to say whether terrorism played a role. He also wants companies to start paying more attention to an international database of suspicious passports after at least two passengers on the missing flight boarded with stolen documents.
"Interpol does a really good job of keeping track of passports that are reported stolen," Holder said. "It's a database that is accessible, and it would be my hope that airlines and other appropriate entities would make use of that tool."
As for some of the biggest national security controversies of his long and bumpy tenure, Holder said he's convinced he was right about the wisdom of trying terrorists in ordinary federal courts — and he won't hesitate to send defendants to New York if they've already been indicted and are picked up overseas.
A federal jury in New York is hearing evidence in the conspiracy case against Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law to Osama bin Laden who was sent to the U.S. last year. Meanwhile, the military commission case against Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed is still limping along with no trial in sight, Holder pointed out.
"If that case had been brought in an Article III court, it would be over by now, and as I've said previously, Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his confederates would be on death row," Holder said.
Holder said he's generally comfortable with rules President Obama has set out for the killing of Americans overseas with armed drones — as authorities are weighing with at least one American on foreign soil. He said the U.S. national security team properly conducts an after-action analysis to examine whether any civilians died and to minimize the possibility of future collateral damage.
"You know, collateral damage is a phrase I just don't like to use," Holder said. "It is a euphemism. What we are talking about are the lives of human beings, and it's something that weighs on the mind of, I know, the president, those of us who are on the National Security Council. We want to do this in as surgical a way as we possibly can, minimizing the danger to others."
Last year, in a letter to Congress, the attorney general told lawmakers the U.S. had specifically targeted just one American overseas since Obama took office. The other three U.S. citizens who died, Holder wrote, were collateral damage.
U.S. drone strikes will doubtless be a part of the legacy Holder and his boss, the president, leave. But so will their response to the financial crisis that began nearly six years ago. Most corporate sharks have escaped criminal accountability, but Holder said the Justice Department hasn't put away all its hooks. Every 10 days or so, Holder meets with members of a financial crime task force to monitor big cases in the pipeline, along the lines of last November's $13 billion settlement with JPMorgan Chase over the quality of mortgages the bank sold.
"I guess the latter part of last week," the attorney general said, "we were talking about whether and how we might approach a criminal investigation with regard to a high-ranking official in one of these major institutions, and the statute of limitations would not be a bar to us moving in that direction — if the evidence warranted it."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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The Australian Tax Office (ATO) is targeting privately owned and wealthy groups that display specific behaviours and characteristics in relation to their tax affairs and lifestyle.
A large focus is currently on lifestyle assets and private pursuits that generate deductions or are mischaracterised as business activities. The ATO is also looking at those assets and pursuits which are incorrectly accounted for in terms of Division 7A or Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT).
Activities that attract the Tax Office's attention include:
• private aircraft ownership or activities
• art ownership and dealings
• car or motorbike racing activities
• luxury and charter boat activities
• enthusiast or luxury motor vehicles
• grape growing and other farming pursuits
• horse breeding, racing and training activities
• holiday homes and luxury accommodation provision
• sporting clubs and other activities involving the participation of principals or associates of principals of private groups.
The ATO is addressing the following tax risks:
Income tax
• Entities claiming deductions from ownership lifestyle assets or private pursuits against other income derived by the entity but not carrying on a business.
• Individuals disposing of assets and not declaring the revenue or capital gains on those disposals.
• Entities incorrectly apportioning deductions where assets have been used privately or periods not available for rent or hire.
• Division 7A – individuals purchasing assets through their business entities but applying assets to the personal enjoyment of a shareholder or associate of a private company giving rise to a deemed dividend.
Individuals purchasing assets through their business entities but applying those assets to the personal enjoyment of an employee or associate giving rise to a FBT liability.
The purchasing of assets or expenditures concerning private pursuits for personal use through their business or related entities and claiming input tax credits they are not entitled to claim.
SMSF's acquiring assets but applying them to the benefit of the fund's trustee or beneficiaries.
You can read more in our full newsletter here:
For any questions or further advice please contact our friendly team of accountants on (08) 8339 4950.


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You can choose from several options to control the startup process when booting from the Ubuntu CD-ROM. When you see the Ubuntu startup menu (the first menu option is Start or install Ubuntu) you have the option to select an alternative.
The following lists provide a summary of those codes.
Using the F1 Help Menu
Press the F1 function key and the Welcome to Ubuntu help menu opens. You can then press the following function keys to get specific information.
F1 The main F1 menu
F2: Minimum hardware requirements
F3: Several methods you can use to start Ubuntu.
For instance, you can turn off power-saving mode if you're having problems getting Ubuntu to boot and suspect that option is causing the problem.
F4: Additional boot methods.
F5: Special boot parameters overview (why you might use boot parameters and where to find them)
F6: Hardware specific special boot parameters (examples of boot parameters for specific devices)
F7: More hardware specific special boot parameters (more examples of boot parameters you might use for specific devices)
F8: Debugging oriented special boot parameters.
F9: Describes how you can get help from Ubuntu.
Esc: Exits the Help menu
F2 Language Menu
Pressing the F2 function key opens an extensive language support menu. Use the Up and Down cursor keys to navigate the menu and select a language.
F3 Key Map Menu
Pressing the F3 function key opens an extensive keyboard support menu. Use the Up and Down cursor keys to navigate the menu and select the mapping that matches you keyboard.
F4 VGA Menu
If you're not satisfied with your computer screen's resolution, press the F4 function key. A menu displays a selection of screen resolutions. Use the Up and Down cursor keys to select a resolution from the menu.
F5 Accessibility Menu
This menu provides options to help access your computer for those who need extra help. Use the Up and Down cursor keys to select a assistant option. For instance, select the High Contrast option if you need a brighter screen.
F6 Others Menu
This menu opens a one-line text editor showing the Ubuntu kernel boot options. You can modify any options that are
Fed to the Linux kernel
Used by the kernel to start your Ubuntu computer
Getting a Virtual Terminal
Linux provides six virtual consoles (text-based command-line interfaces). Simultaneously, pressing the Control (Ctrl) and Alternate (Alt) keys with any of the functions keys from F1 through F6. For example, press Ctrl-Alt-F1.
Return to the graphics screen by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F7.


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YAML is well-known format within Ruby community, quite widely used for a long time now. But we as Java developers mostly deal with property files and XMLs in case we need some configuration for our apps. How many times we needed to express complicated configuration by inventing our own XML schema or imposing property names convention?
Though JSON is becoming a popular format for web applications, using JSON files to describe the configuration is a bit cumbersome and, in my opinion, is not as expressive as YAML. Let's see what YAML can do for us to make our life easier.
For sure, let's start with the problem. In order for our application to function properly, we need to feed it following data somehow:
- version and release date
- database connection parameters
- list of supported protocols
- list of users with their passwords
This list of parameters sounds a bit weird, but the purpose is to demonstrate different data types in work: strings, numbers, dates, lists and maps. The Java model consists of two simple classes: Connection
package com.example.yaml; public final class Connection { private String url; private int poolSize; public String getUrl() { return url; } public void setUrl(String url) { this.url = url; } public int getPoolSize() { return poolSize; } public void setPoolSize(int poolSize) { this.poolSize = poolSize; } @Override public String toString() { return String.format( "'%s' with pool of %d", getUrl(), getPoolSize() ); } }and Configuration, both are typical Java POJOs, verbose because of property setters and getters (we get used to it, right?).
package com.example.yaml; import static java.lang.String.format; import java.util.Date; import java.util.List; import java.util.Map; public final class Configuration { private Date released; private String version; private Connection connection; private List< String > protocols; private Map< String, String > users; public Date getReleased() { return released; } public String getVersion() { return version; } public void setReleased(Date released) { this.released = released; } public void setVersion(String version) { this.version = version; } public Connection getConnection() { return connection; } public void setConnection(Connection connection) { this.connection = connection; } public List< String > getProtocols() { return protocols; } public void setProtocols(List< String > protocols) { this.protocols = protocols; } public Map< String, String > getUsers() { return users; } public void setUsers(Map< String, String > users) { this.users = users; } @Override public String toString() { return new StringBuilder() .append( format( "Version: %s\n", version ) ) .append( format( "Released: %s\n", released ) ) .append( format( "Connecting to database: %s\n", connection ) ) .append( format( "Supported protocols: %s\n", protocols ) ) .append( format( "Users: %s\n", users ) ) .toString(); } }
Now, as model is quite clear, let us try to express it as the human being normally does it. Looking back to our list of required configuration, let's try to write it down one by one.
1. version and release dateversion: 1.0 released: 2012-11-302. database connection parameters
connection: url: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/db poolSize: 53. list of supported protocols
protocols: - http - https4. list of users with their passwords
users: tom: passwd bob: passwd
And this is it, our configuration expressed in YAML syntax is completed! The whole file sample.yml looks like this:
version: 1.0 released: 2012-11-30 # Connection parameters connection: url: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/db poolSize: 5 # Protocols protocols: - http - https # Users users: tom: passwd bob: passwd
To make it work in Java, we just need to use the awesome library called snakeyml, respectively the Maven POM file is quite simple:
4.0.0 com.example yaml 0.0.1-SNAPSHOT jar UTF-8 org.yaml snakeyaml 1.11 org.apache.maven.plugins maven-compiler-plugin 2.3.1
Please notice the usage of Java 1.7, the language extensions and additional libraries simplify a lot of regular tasks as we could see looking into YamlConfigRunner:
package com.example.yaml; import java.io.IOException; import java.io.InputStream; import java.nio.file.Files; import java.nio.file.Paths; import org.yaml.snakeyaml.Yaml; public class YamlConfigRunner { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException { if( args.length != 1 ) { System.out.println( "Usage: <file.yml>" ); return; } Yaml yaml = new Yaml(); try( InputStream in = Files.newInputStream( Paths.get( args[ 0 ] ) ) ) { Configuration config = yaml.loadAs( in, Configuration.class ); System.out.println( config.toString() ); } } }
The code snippet here loads the configuration from file (args[ 0 ]), tries to parse it and fill up the Configuration class with meaningful data using JavaBeans conventions, converting to the declared types where possible. Running this class with sample.yml as an argument generates the following output:
Version: 1.0 Released: Thu Nov 29 19:00:00 EST 2012 Connecting to database: 'jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/db' with pool of 5 Supported protocols: [http, https] Users: {tom=passwd, bob=passwd}
Totally identical to the values we have configured!


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Play to Learn is a free program for children and adults to play together! Now offered at 10 community locations throughout Pierce County. Play to Learn is for parents, grandparents, neighbors, family, and friends who nurture children ages six and under. Thematic curriculum invites individual play, fun group activities, songs, and a whole group circle time for children and adults to enjoy together! Support from Tacoma Creates makes Play to Learn available for children and families in Tacoma locations.
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Many regions in India have their own style of cooking Kadhi, a yogurt based curry (or soup). Punjabi Kadhi is easily recognizable because it has Pakodas, fried dumplings made of chickpea flour. Punjabi Kadhi can be enjoyed with plain white rice or chapati. Try this tangy and delicious recipe for Punjabi Kadhi.
For the Pakodas:
Chickpea Flour (Besan) – 1/2 cup
Turmeric Powder – 1/4 tsp
Red Chili Powder – to taste
Salt – to taste
Water – 1/4 cup
Baking Soda – 1/4 tsp
Potato – 1 medium, diced
Onion – 1/2 medium, diced
Cilantro – few sprigs, chopped
Oil – for deep frying
Method: (Heat Oil for Deep Frying)
1. In a medium bowl, mix together Chickpea Flour, Turmeric Powder, Red Chili Powder, Salt, Baking Soda and Water.
2. Mix well to form thick batter.
3. Add in Potatoes, Onions and Cilantro. Mix to coat evenly.
4. With your hand or a spoon, drop a small ball of the mixture into hot oil and deep fry until golden brown.
5. Remove Pakodas onto a plate lined with paper towels. Keep aside.
For the Kadhi:
Plain Yogurt – 2 cups
Water – 4 cups
Ginger – 2 tsp, minced
Garlic – 1 Tbsp, minced
Dried Fenugreek Leaves (Methi) – 2 Tbsp (divided)
Chickpea Flour (Besan) – 1/2 cup
Coriander Powder – 1 tsp
Garam Masala – 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder – 1/4 tsp
Cumin Powder – 1/2 tsp
1. In a medium bowl, mix together Yogurt, Ginger, Garlic, 1/3 of the Fenugreek Leaves, Chickpea Flour, Coriander Powder, Garam Masala, Turmeric Powder and Cumin Powder.
2. Add a small amount of water and blend with a hand blender until there are no more lumps.
For the seasoning:
Oil – 1 Tbsp
Cumin Seeds – 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds – 1/4 tsp
Dried Whole Red Chilies – 2, broken
Onion – 1 medium, sliced
Green Chilies – to taste, slit
Fenugreek Leaves – remaining from above
Salt – to taste
Water – 4 cups
Cilantro – few sprigs, chopped for garnishing
1. Heat Oil in a pot.
2. Add Cumin Seeds and allow them to sizzle.
3. Add Fenugreek Seeds and Whole Red Chilies. Stir for few seconds.
4. Add Sliced Onions and Green Chilies. Saute until lightly brown.
5. Add remaining 2/3 of Fenugreek Leaves and stir for 30 seconds.
6. Add Yogurt mixture, Water and Salt. Mix well.
7. Bring Mixture to a rolling boil.
8. Add in Pakodas, mix, cover and cook for 10-15 minutes.
9. Garnish with Cilantro and serve hot with Rice or chapati.


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Based on how our model was set up, the European-Aboriginal Australian and African-Aboriginal Australian split times that we presented above could be no less than 2,000 and 3,500 generations ago, respectively.
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1211177
An Aboriginal Australian Genome Reveals Separate Human Dispersals into Asia
Morten Rasmussen et al.
We present an Aboriginal Australian genomic sequence obtained from a 100-year-old lock of hair donated by an Aboriginal man from southern Western Australia in the early 20th century. We detect no evidence of European admixture and estimate contamination levels to be below 0.5%. We show that Aboriginal Australians are descendants of an early human dispersal into eastern Asia, possibly 62,000 to 75,000 years ago. This dispersal is separate from the one that gave rise to modern Asians 25,000 to 38,000 years ago. We also find evidence of gene flow between populations of the two dispersal waves prior to the divergence of Native Americans from modern Asian ancestors. Our findings support the hypothesis that present-day Aboriginal Australians descend from the earliest humans to occupy Australia, likely representing one of the oldest continuous populations outside Africa.


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This lab exercise will have you configure/deploy a custom (private) Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) Service (Stopwatch Service) on a BM71, then interface it with a PIC24 MCU (running demo code) and test it using a dedicated Android Stopwatch App.
You will:
- Configure a custom "GATT Stopwatch Service" attribute table on a BM71 using the User Interface (UI) Configuration Tool.
- Create a BM71 "Configuration EEPROM table" for inclusion into the PIC24 project.
- Prepare the BM71 PICTail for use on the Explorer 16 board.
- Program the PIC24 MCU Stopwatch Demo Project.
- Interact with the Service using the Stopwatch App.
The PIC24 demo code provided in this lab implements the BM71 Configuration EEPROM programming algorithm, simplifying the deployment of static/default BM71 parameters in the final application.
After creating a BM71 UI Configuration text file, you will run the BM7x EEPROM Table Utility to convert this file into an EEPROM table array that is #included in the PIC24 MPLAB® project.
On reset, the PIC24 demo code reads the configuration memory of the BM71, and if it differs from the table, re-programs all BM71 configuration EEPROM memory contents with the settings in the table.
Hardware Tools
- BM71 PICtail™
- Explorer 16 Development Board
- MPLAB ICD 3 In-Circuit Debugger
- Android Smartphone (Lab tested with BLU Advance 5.0).
- OS version 4.4 or higher
- BT 4.0 or higher hardware
Software Tools
Exercise Files
Before You Begin:
- Install MPLAB X IDE and XC16 Compiler.
- Install the MCP2200 USB driver.
- Download the BM7x EEPROM Table Utility using the link above.
- Download/extract the UI Configuration Tool as well as the Manual Pattern Test Tool to your PC using the links above.
- Download/extract the Explorer 16 BM7x Pictail Stopwatch Project to your C:\ folder.
Connection Diagram
Generic Access Profile (GAP) Peripheral Device (GATT Server)
The Explorer 16 Board with the BM71 advertises a Stopwatch Service, which provides stopwatch data to a smartphone, as well as providing a control point to remotely trigger the stopwatch to start counting.
GAP Central Device (GATT Client)
An Android smartphone running the Stopwatch demo app, scans, filters, and connects to a specific stopwatch. It also can trigger the stopwatch to begin counting.
GATT Server Configuration
In this sequence, you will configure the BM71 static parameters for this application, including creating the GATT Table for the Stopwatch Service.
Verify Module Firmware Version
This demo requires BM71 module firmware version 1.06. Verify the firmware version, and if necessary, program v1.06 firmware into the module.
Load UI Configuration
Launch the UI Configuration Tool (found in the "Software Tools" section above) and load in the Default BM71 UI Config File (IS1871SF_102_BLEDK3_UI v100.132(BM71) default.txt), which you obtained from the "Exercise Files" section of this page.
Default BM71 Configuration Files are located in the root folder where the UI Config Tool is installed.
Change the Device Name, UART Setting, Operation Mode
On the System Setup tab, in the Device Information pane, set the Name Fragment to a unique value. This identifier will become the GAP Service Device Name characteristic.
Recommend a maximum length of eight characters.
If your name is longer than eight characters, you will see an error message when filling in the balance of your ADV_IND payload (remember, we only have 31 bytes of payload!)
On the System Setup tab, in the Uart Setting pane, select Enable for UART RX_IND pin function.
In the Operation Mode Setting pane, set the Operation Pattern to Manual Pattern as shown:
Click Next to proceed to the System Setup2 Tab
Advertising Interval (ADV_IND Packets)
On the LE Mode Setup tab, in the LE Advertising Setting pane, change the default LE Fast Advertising Interval to 100 mS (0x00A0). Enter 00A0 as shown:
LE Reduced Power Advertising Interval parameter (not shown above) is only used in Auto Pattern (Transparent Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART)) mode operation. You do not need to modify this.
BLE ADV_IND type advertising packet is a generic advertisement, meaning that it is undirected and is connectable. This would be the initial default advertising type for a new product, before it has paired with a smartphone.
Advertising Payload (ADV_IND Packets)
On the LE Mode Setup tab, in the Advertising Data Setting pane, add the Stopwatch Service UUID (0x8E9598AC066211E6B5123E1D05DEFE78) to the ADV_IND payload as shown:
The Stopwatch App uses the Service Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) form the ADV_IND packets to filter out other devices, only displaying Stopwatch Devices on a scan.
Click Next to proceed to the GATT Service Table tab.
GATT Stopwatch Service
You will now create the Stopwatch Service attribute table having the following characteristics and features:
Stopwatch Service:
UUID: 0x8E9598AC066211E6B5123E1D05DEFE78
Stopwatch Control Point Characteristic:
UUID: 0x8E959DE8066211E6B5123E1D05DEFE78
Value:0x00 (1 byte)
Value Permissions: Write/Write without response
Stopwatch Status Characteristic:
UUID: 0x8E959FE6066211E6B5123E1D05DEFE78
Value:0x0000000000 (5 bytes)
Value Permissions: Read/Notify
Requires Client Characteristic Configuration Descriptor (CCCD) (UUID: 0x2902) with value 0x0000
- These UUIDs are "version 1" types, and were generated using www.uuidgenerator.net UUID generator.
- Attribute handle values will be automatically assigned by the UI Configuration Tool, starting at 0x8000.
- The characteristics need to be added to the service table in the order shown below, so the handle values match those embedded in the PIC24 demo code.
Create Custom GATT Service Table
Scroll down to the Add-on Service pane, and from the Service List, drag/drop Others into the Add-on Service Table view as shown:
You should see a dialog box prompting you to define a new private service. Type/Copy/Paste the Stopwatch Service UUID value (0x8E9598AC066211E6B5123E1D05DEFE78) into the UUID field as shown:
Click Next to enter the first characteristic.
Add Stopwatch Status Characteristic
Under Add-On Service Table, add the next characteristic by right-clicking on the Service UUID and selecting Add Characteristic as shown:
Enter the Hex UUID value (0x8E959FE6066211E6B5123E1D05DEFE78), Permissions (Properties), and Characteristic Value (0x0000000000) for the Stopwatch Status characteristic (defined above), as shown:
Click OK.
Add Client Characteristic Configuration Descriptor (CCCD) Attribute to Stopwatch Status Characteristic
Under Add-On Service Table, expand all the + tabs to see the completed GATT Service Table. Right-click on the characteristic handle 0x8003. We need to add a descriptor attribute (CCCD, type 0x2902) to this characteristic:
Define a CCCD by entering its Hex UUID value (0x2902) and initial value of 0x0000 as shown:
Click OK.
Create BM71 Config EEPROM Table Array
The PIC24 demonstration code simplifies deployment of BM71 configuration settings by in-circuit-programming the module's configuration EEPROM memory. In this next sequence, you will convert your BM71 configuration file into a Flash Configuration Table that can be #included in the MPLAB project.
If you have not done so already, download and extract the Explorer 16 BM7x Pictail Stopwatch Project to your C:\ folder
Prepare the BM71 PICTail for use on the Explorer 16 board
Prepare BM71 PICTail Jumpers
Disconnect the USB cable from the PICTail board. Configure the module for Application mode by moving dip-switch SW7 to the OFF position. Prepare for connection to Explorer 16 by disconnecting the BM71 UART pins from the MCP2200 (remove J3 Jumpers), and finally, set the power source to PIC (Jumper J1) as shown:
Program/Run the PIC24 MCU Stopwatch Demo Project
If you have not done so already, download and extract the Explorer 16 BM7x Pictail Stopwatch Project to your C:\ folder.
Open the Project
Start MPLAB X and open the project C:\host-firmware\Explorer16 BM70 Pictail Stopwatch.X.
Build/Run the Project
Build/Run the project by pressing the Make and Program Device button.
You will first see "Initializing…" text on the LCD display, indicating the initialization of the BM71 parameters, as well as verification of correct BM71 firmware version (1.06).
Upon success, the LCD should display the device name, the last four bytes of the MAC address, as well as a stopwatch display.
LED_D3 should also blip two times per second indicating an advertising state.
PIC24 Demo Startup Troubleshooting
LCD reads "Initialize Error"
This results in the host MCU not receiving any response to Read Information command, or an invalid BM71 fw version is read (not v1.06).
Possible Causes:
- Incorrect PICTail jumper settings—review Step 18.
- Incorrect BM71 firmware—reprogram with v1.06.
- Incorrect BM71 configuration—re-load your saved BM71 UI configuration file and verify correct settings as described in steps 1 through 15. Re-create the BM71 EEPROM Configuration Table.
- Alternatively, create/deploy the BM71 EEPROM Configuration Table using the Solution BM71 UI Configuration File provided.
Sanity Check:
To verify the basic functionality of the module, you can revert the PICTail jumpers J3 and J1 for standalone operation (as shown) and use the Manual Pattern Test Tool.
Note: You may need to Jumper UART_RX_IND to GND before the tool will be able to communicate as shown here.
Interact With The Service using the Stopwatch App
You will need to research the specific details for the installation of *.apk application files on your Android device.
Generally, you connect your phone to the PC using the USB cable that came with it, then transfer the *.apk file over to the device. Next, go to the security settings, and enable installation of Apps from "sources other than the Play Store". Finally, simply locate and tap on the *.apk file to install it.
After installing the app, go to security settings and disable the "installation of Apps from sources other than the Play Store."
Start The App, Scan for Stopwatch Devices, Select Device
Start the Stopwatch App on your smartphone:
Tap on SCAN to begin scanning for devices as shown:
Locate and Tap on your device to establish a connection to it. The Explorer 16 LCD should indicate connected status. In addition, you should see Explorer 16 LED_D3 latch to an ON-state indicating a connected state:
Demo Not Working?
The device is connected, however, you cannot start the stopwatch from the app, or you do not receive any updates from the Explorer 16 when pressing S3/S6 buttons.
The most likely cause is a mismatch between the characteristic handle values in the BM71 GATT Service Table, vs what is encoded in the PIC24 firmware.
In MPLAB X IDE, open file definitions.h, and scroll to line 106. This is where we define the Handle IDs for each characteristic we want to update in our application:
In particular, note the two handles circled. The first is the writable characteristic Stopwatch Control Point (0x8002), the second is the notify characteristic Stopwatch Status (0x8004).
The Handle values for these two characteristics need to match those generated by the UI Configuration tool (see Step 12):
- Private GATT Services are easily created on the BM71 using the UI Configuration tool.
- The BM7x EEPROM Table Utility is used to convert a UI Configuration file to an EEPROM Table that can be embedded into your project, simplifying production deployment.
- The MCU Host must capture BLE connection parameters (including Connection Handle) to be able to modify characteristic values in the BM71.
- Care must be taken to embed the correct characteristic handles generated by the tool into the embedded host code.
Table of Contents


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Are you thinking of having PV solar panels installed in Thamesmead East? You're not alone, as thousands of people are choosing renewable energy to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and to lower the cost of energy bills.
You might know a little bit about solar panels and how they are installed, but it's always worth doing your homework before going ahead with any project of this size. After all, this will be a sizeable investment, so it's best to learn about the process so you understand exactly what's going on.
As a professional solar PV panel installation company in Thamesmead East, Skylamp Solar is perfectly placed to tell you all you need to know. We've compiled this guide to do just that - by the end, you'll have all the information you need to decide whether a solar PV system is the right choice for you. You will also know what's involved in the installation process, and you'll learn many other fascinating facts besides!
First, let's deal with the issue of the difference between PV panels and thermal panels.
If you didn't realise that there was a difference, don't worry; many people believe that solar panels are all the same. However, it is vital that you know which is which as they both perform very different functions.
In the past, most solar panels were designed to use the sun's energy to heat air or water, hence the term thermal. Although these are still used today, and the technology has improved in recent years, consumers are showing more interest in solar PV panels (we'll learn why in a moment).
This type of panel uses simpler technology: the sun's rays are absorbed by collectors to heat fluid which is then pumped through a sealed circuit that passes through a hot water cylinder. Essentially, this means that you get free hot water once the equipment has been installed.
Thermal panels, though generally more expensive to fit than PV panels, are around 70% more energy efficient than their counterparts.
These days, when people talk about solar panels, they usually mean solar PV. So, what does this mean and what's the difference?
First of all, PV means photovoltaic, referring to special cells inside the panel:
So, light particles from the sun's energy are transformed into usable electricity, making it a much more versatile option than thermal solar panels. Not only do you get free energy, but you can also sell surplus electricity back to the national grid!
This is the main reason why solar PV installation is proving much more popular than the thermal version. Here you can read more on what is solar PV .
These are the newest types of solar panel systems on the market today that combine the benefits of solar thermal systems by heating water and also converting the sun's energy into excess electricity to sell back to the grid. We also have a hybrid solar panel installation service.
We touched on this briefly, but let's look more closely at the technology involved.
Photovoltaic solar panels are set up in an array, usually comprising several panels. Inside each panel are photovoltaic cells coated with a thin film of silicon, which is a semiconductor.
Light particles (photons) hit the cells and the silicon inside, causing electrons to be knocked off the surface which generates an electrical charge known as the photovoltaic effect. This is collected and channelled through to an inverter as DC electricity, where it is converted into an AC current.
After this, it goes through to a meter and a fuse box ready for use anywhere within the property.
Before any work takes place, we need to know what type of roof your home in Thamesmead East has. You also need to be absolutely certain that no planning permission is required (see below for more details).
Let's deal with the type of roof first:
Arguably, asphalt and composite materials (recycled rubber, paper, fibreglass etc.) are better suited, as these make it easier to install solar panels. Also, if you have a standing metal roof, this would be ideal (and cheaper!) as the raised seam allows the installers to affix the panels quickly and easily.
Conversely, ceramic tiles are questionable, as they can crack during the fitting process. The same applies to slate, which is even more brittle than ceramic. It's not impossible to fit solar panels on these types of roofs, but it can be very tricky. It can also mean extra work and increased installation costs.
Finally, wood and thatch are no good, partly because of the fire risk, but also because thatch would rot and there's nowhere to attach the panels.
For maximum efficiency, your roof should ideally have a pitch of between 30 and 45º. Solar PV systems will work on roofs outside this range but at reduced efficiency.
Solar panels work even on a flat roof, as they can be angled using a frame to ensure they catch the sun's rays.
Also, the direction of your roof has a bearing on efficiency. For the very best results, a south-facing roof is ideal as it makes the most of the sunshine throughout the day. Even so, solar panels don't require direct sunlight and will still work on north-facing roofs, though again, at reduced efficiency.
Concerns have also been raised about location within the UK, as customers question whether solar panels work very well in the north. While it's true that homes in south-west and south-east England get more sunlight, the difference in terms of electricity produced isn't that significant.
Solar panel installations should only ever be undertaken by professionals. This is complex equipment that can be damaged if mishandled or fitted incorrectly.
That's why it's always best to contact trained experts like Skylamp Solars Thamesmead East team to do this job.
Here's an outline of a typical solar PV system installation:
This is an essential part of the process that must take place before any work begins. If a contractor offers to go ahead without this step, they are acting irresponsibly and should be avoided.
The roof should be inspected for any damage and to ensure that it is safe to work on. They will assess the load capacity and gauge whether it can take the weight of solar panels.
The structural survey must be carried out by a qualified person and this will involve a thorough physical examination of the loft space.
The rafters, truss connector plates and all structural elements will be checked for woodworm and rot, and measurements will be taken to calculate the correct size of the array and determine the type of fittings required.
Scaffolding will be erected and certified to give access to the roof before any work commences.
This is to ensure the safety of the contractors as they must have a safe working platform throughout the installation process. Working at height can be hazardous, and we always insist that health and safety protocols are followed to reduce the risk of accidents or injuries as much as possible.
This is one of the most difficult steps, requiring skill and precision. The mounts must be attached securely and at the correct angle to get the optimum amount of sunlight. And all this must be done while taking care not to damage the roof. Skylamp Solar installers are trained to work carefully and efficiently, getting the job done without causing damage.
The appropriate number of solar panels will be fixed to the mounts and double-checked to make sure they are secure and angled correctly to catch the most sunlight.
During this technical process, it will be necessary to switch off the electricity supply to ensure the safety of the workers. This is a highly-skilled job, and it is essential that a qualified person carries out the work. Thankfully, you're Thamesmead East Skylamp Solar team is fully trained and qualified for the task.
The inverter is the 'brain' of the solar PV system. It makes sure the array is working properly and safely, as well as ensuring that it is operating at maximum power output. It also communicates with the national grid and provides feedback on power production.
One other vital role it plays is in converting the charge, as solar panels carry this as DC electricity and the inverter transforms it into AC electricity. This matches the current that is supplied by the grid, and any electricity you sell back to them has to be AC.
There are several different types of solar inverters, and we'll discuss which one is best for your system when you arrange your solar system fitting. You can read more here on "what size inverter do I need for my solar panels".
The solar inverter is connected to a battery so that any excess electricity can be stored overnight or sent to the grid.
Although battery storage is optional, it makes good economic sense if you want the best energy savings. For example, as soon as the sun sets at night, your solar power system will no longer generate electricity. Unless you have battery storage you'll be without power, or you'll need to rely on an energy company to provide it through the nighttime hours. This will mean higher electricity bills, which is probably one of the issues you are trying to avoid.
The consumer unit is what most of us know as a fuse box or fuse board. Without this step, your solar panels would be pretty useless! From here, it is connected to a meter so you can monitor your energy consumption.
The Skylamp Solar team will run tests to make sure that the panels are generating electricity and that all of the equipment is functioning as it should. The team will only sign off the job and leave the site when they are satisfied that your solar PV system is running perfectly.
The scaffolding will be taken down carefully and the team will perform a general tidy-up around the site. We always endeavour to leave the working area clean and free from debris or clutter that takes place during the installation.
On average, domestic solar panel systems take between one and two days, although this can be affected by a range of factors.
Please bear in mind that unforeseen circumstances might cause a delay in the work. While this rarely pushes up the installation cost as agreed with the client, it might mean that we are onsite for longer as we strive to provide high-quality installations.
There are various issues that affect the price, such as how many solar panels you need, so we can only offer a rough estimate here. To get an accurate figure that fits your situation, get in touch and let us know the details. We'll talk you through the pricing details and explain how you can get the most out of your solar panel system.
Here are a few price examples to guide you:
We have a more detailed article for you entitled "how much does a solar panel installation cost" should you wish to dig deeper.
The peculiar thing about solar PV is that the more panels you have, and the more energy they produce, the more cost-effective the system. This means that although you'll pay more for installing solar panels, the quicker you'll recover that investment.
Again, these are only ballpark figures, as there are other factors that will affect the cost, such as the type of roof material, the angle of the pitch, the size of the array, and the power output of the panels.
Note: the government has scrapped VAT on solar panel installation until 2027, potentially saving you up to £800.
In almost all cases, domestic solar panels come under permitted development, meaning that they don't require planning permission from Thamesmead East Council provided they stay within these restrictions:
If your solar panel installation falls within these criteria, then you shouldn't need planning permission.
Even so, there are a few points where solar installations might need permission to go ahead.
For example:
As the solar panels will need to be set on a frame to produce an effective angle for maximum power output, they will obviously extend more than 0.2 metres above the roof line, so they fall foul of the permitted development rules.
These are subject to special regulations that restrict any alterations to the facade, roof and even the grounds. For listed buildings, you need listed building consent first and then planning permission. In conservation areas, you need to make sure that the solar panels won't alter the outward appearance. In effect, as long as they aren't visible from the highway, they should be fine.
It might still be possible to have solar panels installed, but each planning authority might have its own local stipulations.
It's always best to liaise with your local authorities before arranging any work.
If your solar panels are to be set on the ground there are certain rules that apply.
Basically, as long as the entire array is less than nine square metres in size, you shouldn't need planning permission. Even so, it's a good idea to check with your local planning office beforehand.
If you intend to have more than one array (that is, a second, separate solar panel installation), you will definitely need planning permission.
If you need any advice on this (or any other matter relating to solar panels) please speak to our friendly team who will explain all of the ins and outs of planning permission red tape.
Under optimum conditions, your solar panels will generate electricity to meet all your daily energy needs - and more besides. By installing battery storage as well as solar panels, you can store any surplus electricity and sell this back to the national grid.
This is an excellent way of making money - you are effectively selling free electricity! In fact, most people recover the initial cost of solar panel installation within the first 15 years.
The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme replaced the earlier Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme in January 2020. Both were designed to encourage people in Thamesmead East to invest in renewable energy by offering payment incentives for excess electricity generated by solar panels. In a way, the Feed-in Tariff was better, as rates were fixed.
Under SEG, electricity suppliers can set their own rates for tariffs, so it pays to search for the best one. We have a post on the "smart export guarantee rates".
In all likelihood, new and better incentives will be introduced as the government pushes to achieve its environmental targets for 2030 and beyond.
Although a PV solar panel system will work without one, you'll need solar battery storage if you want to sell electricity to the grid. This battery will keep any energy that you don't use, allowing you to access this at night or on gloomier days when electricity generation is lower.
However, these batteries don't come cheaply at the present time. Depending on the size and type you need, they will cost between £1,200 and £6,000, which is a hefty investment. They also have a shorter lifespan than the solar panels themselves, typically lasting between 5 and 15 years. Most domestic solar panels will last between 20 and 30 years, maybe longer, before they need to be replaced.
While this might put you off the idea, there is some positive news in that battery technology is always advancing rapidly. In the very near future, battery storage is likely to be cheaper and more efficient.
As there are very few moving parts, solar panels require very little maintenance. Ideally, they should be inspected every three to four years for any damage, and given a gentle wipe to remove dust and dirt. Keeping the solar cells free from dust helps them to run efficiently, meaning more solar power is absorbed and turned into electricity.
Although you can clean the solar panels yourself, it's best to check the details of any warranty, as this could be voided if you cause any damage to the solar panels during the cleaning process.
It's a good idea to keep any nearby trees pruned to stop branches and debris from dropping onto your solar panels, as this could damage them or reduce their efficiency.
Yes, without question! They can help you live a more sustainable life, cut your electricity bill, and even charge your electric vehicle.
If you can comfortably cover the initial costs, solar PV panels are a worthwhile investment. This renewable energy source is rapidly expanding in the UK as more people seek to become greener and reduce their energy bills.
The only exceptions would be if your property had an unsuitable roofing material, was too old and unsafe, or you were planning to move house in the next few years.
Even so, if you do install solar panels and intend to move house within five years or so, you could boost the value of your property by several thousand pounds. Recent estimates suggest that solar panel installation pushes up the price of an average house by 4.1%!
The main benefit of solar PV panels overall is that you can slash your electricity costs drastically. In the last decade, the biggest six energy companies have raised energy prices by a staggering 60%, and this doesn't look set to change any time soon.
Once the solar installation process is complete, you essentially get free energy. And if you sell any excess electricity back to the energy companies, you will recoup your original expenditure even quicker.
Alongside wind and wave power, solar energy is on course to deliver more of our energy needs in the future. It's clear that dependence on fossil fuels must end, and as a result, more of our energy will come from green technology.
Schemes like the Smart Export Guarantee will become more widespread, as future governments push the UK towards a sustainable energy supply.
The fact is that an hour and a half of sunlight provides more energy than we use in an entire year. And that's not just in the UK - that's the whole world!
That's why Skylamp Solar is proud to be a part of the solar electricity revolution, installing the best solar panels and photovoltaic systems professionally and expertly.
By now, you should have more than enough information on solar PV panels to decide whether it's right for you.
In most cases, it makes a lot of sense.
Here's a brief recap of the facts to guide you:
This paints a very positive picture of solar panels, but these are all still valid facts nonetheless.
In fairness, installing solar panels isn't exactly inexpensive, but it is a long-term investment that's well worth considering. With our help, you can discover which is the best-sized system for your needs, and we will show you how to get the most out of your solar panels.
Of course, the decision is yours. But the evidence speaks for itself clearly: solar panels are a great investment.
The only real obstacle to getting solar panels is if your roofing material is not suitable, your roof is too old and unstable, or your financial situation doesn't allow for such an investment.
If the last point is relevant, check out schemes like EC04, Green Deal and LA Flex as these could offer a way for you to afford the cost of solar panels.
The benefits of solar PV installation are clear, and it makes sense to make the move to renewable energy and have solar panels installed in order to reduce your carbon footprint.
However, there's one very important point to keep in mind: this will only work if your solar panel system is installed by professionals. Substandard workmanship will result in poor operation, a lack of efficiency, and costly repairs.
It is essential that you use a respected, reputable company, like Skylamp Solar. We ensure that all work is undertaken competently and efficiently, leaving you to enjoy the benefits of your solar PV installation.
So, don't gamble on your future energy needs, or your investment! We'll guide you through your solar journey from beginning to end, offering our professional advice when needed, and providing you with a cost-efficient system.
Call Skylamp Solar solar PV installers in Thamesmead East now to save money on energy bills and contribute to a greener future.
In simple terms, it means solar photovoltaics, and it's all about catching the sun's energy and transforming it into usable electricity. We have covered this exact question in detail in our blog. It's a hefty read!
Typically people tend to put them on the roofs of their homes but you can also place them on land, outhouses and sheds as long as you have sufficient angle for them to catch the sun.
No solar panels do not devalue your home, they are an investment and an investment that saves money on the home's energy costs so they are very likely to make your property a more attractive investment.
The schemes for solar panel grants are changing all of the time so you would be best to speak to us about this but we also cover it in our blog post that we use for updates.


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It's two weeks since Google+ launched and the Inside PR hosts, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley, have been testing it for its strengths and weaknesses. This week we talk about our experience so far.
One of the things that has caught most people's attention is Google Hangouts, the feature that lets Google+ users set up video conference calls with up to ten users. So we thought that we'd use this feature for our recording. Well, as you'll hear in this episode, there's a reason why Google+ is still in the "test" period. Not everything works the way that you'd like it to. We lose Gini part of the way through. But she rejoins us by the end. We also experienced the same problem that Shel Holtz noticed when he and Neville Hobson recorded a special episode of the FIR podcast using Google Hangouts with Camtasia studio. The video recording had several defects – frozen screens and video that lagged behind the audio. Hangouts is quite ready for this use. But we're hoping that Google will keep improving this feature and we'll keep testing it. Eventually, I'm sure we'll be able to produce a video version of Inside PR to accompany the audio version.
Have you ever sat down with a long time partner and said, if we could do it over again, what would we do differently? So far, I think that Google+ is the Social Network that's doing it over and is doing it right.
For me, Facebook started as a place that suggested we could have private conversations with friends and family. But as Facebook developed its business model, it broke the faith with us on that. Bit by bit, it pushed our information onto public feeds – and it wasn't always up front about what it was doing and didn't provide us with easy control over how we could control our information.
Martin has been focused on rebuilding his network on Google+. And he's found that it feels like the early days of Twitter, before the celebrities invaded it and the network became obsessed with numbers of followers. Martin's finding that he can connect with his real community of interest on Google+ and have much higher quality conversations than he's experienced on the other networks.
So far, I've had an experience similar to Martin. I've found that I share the interests of most of the people who have followed me. And by using the Circles feature to sort people by topic, I can dip into different areas just as I would if I were choosing between sections of a newspaper. A great way to increase the signal to noise ratio.
Martin also finds that a strength of Google+ is the ease with which users can adjust their privacy settings – on a general basis and on a post by post basis. It's intuitive and clear.
Gini also points out that the Circles approach is different from the asymmetrical following on Twitter and the symmetrical friending on Facebook. And this means that we'll have to develop a different way of figuring out how to manage ourselves in a way that takes full advantage of the unique properties of Google+
So, that's our Google+ discussion this week. It's the biggest thing that's happened in social media in the past couple years. We'll continue to test it and share our experiences in future weeks.
And what about you? Are you using Google+? What do you think of it? It's strengths? Its weaknesses?
Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.
Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.
This week's episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.


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Barry Moore |
Moore faced two counts of perjury and two counts of providing false statements, in the first trial to grow from a Lee County grand-jury investigation of State House corruption. That Moore was charged with two distinct crimes, and the relevant statutes treat the "knowingly" element in radically different ways, probably created enough confusion to give Moore not-guilty verdicts on all four counts.
In retrospect, prosecutors probably would have been better off to charge Moore only with perjury. That's because the second charge, providing false statements to any matter under investigation, probably caused the confusion that let Moore go free.
If jurors were confused, they were not alone. Some members of the press also appeared to be confused. Consider this from an al.com report on Wednesday about the trial:
Moore testified today that he did not willingly or knowingly tell the grand jury anything that was untrue, a required element for the charges.
We can find only one problem with that sentence--it isn't true; in fact, it's a flatly inaccurate statement of the law.
All reporter Mike Cason had to do was check the indictment to get an accurate read on the law. Apparently he didn't do that. The indictment correctly states that "knowingly" was an element of the charge under Counts One and Three (providing false statements), but it was not an element under Counts Two and Four (perjury).
A quick look at the relevant statutes shows a difference in the crimes. This is from the key portion of Code of Alabama 36-15-62.1:
Section 36-15-62.1
Providing false statements relating to any matter under investigation; penalties.
(a) Any person who knowingly commits any of the following in any matter under investigation by the Attorney General, or a prosecutor or investigator of his or her office, upon conviction shall be guilty of a Class C felony.
You can see that the word "knowingly" plays a prominent role in describing the offense. Now. let's take a look at the key section of Code of 13A-10-101:
Section 13A-10-101
Perjury in the first degree.
(a) A person commits the crime of perjury in the first degree when in any official proceeding he swears falsely and his false statement is material to the proceeding in which it is made.
(b) Perjury in the first degree is a Class C felony.
You can see that the word "knowingly," contrary to what al.com reported, is not an element of perjury. The offense is straightforward--you make a materially false statement in an official proceeding, and you have committed perjury. It doesn't matter whether the statement was knowingly
made or not.
That's important because Moore admitted on the stand that he gave at least one answer that was false related to a phone call with Josh Pipken, who wound up being Moore's primary opponent. From the al.com report:
Prosecutors say the recordings show that Moore was not truthful with the grand jury. Defense attorneys disputed that.
Moore acknowledged during his testimony today that one answer he gave during his testimony was wrong, but said it was because he didn't fully remember the phone call with Pipkin from seven months earlier.
Moore then proceeded to tell the jury that he did not willingly or knowingly tell the grand jury anything that was untrue. His reference to the grand jury means he was referring specifically to the perjury counts; the providing false statements counts involve statements made to investigators for the attorney general's office.
In other words, Moore told jurors that he did not knowingly commit perjury. But "knowingly" is not an element of the offense; it only applies to the false statements counts. And Moore's own words show he did make a materially false statement in an official proceeding.
What does it all mean? Moore probably presented a valid defense to the false statements charges, and the not-guilty verdicts on those might be proper. But based on our review of the relevant law and press reports on this week's trial, Moore offered no legitimate defense to the perjury charges. In fact, he appears he admitted to committing perjury in at least one instance.