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Over on Stack Exchange, there's a proposal for a new CNC/3D printer site. It's a personal manufacturing stack exchange, and hopefully we'll see some awesome discussion when it's eventually created.
Stack Exchange is already well-known for hosting the most useful programming site as well as awesome sites/forums covering everything from LaTeX to grammar. The proposed Personal Manufacturing site is sure to provide a ton of advice and discussion covering the hardware, software, electronics, and toolchains of CNC routers, RepRaps and mills.
The personal manufacturing stack exchange hasn't been created yet – a few more people still need to commit to use it. Once that's done, though, we're sure to see a lot of very helpful advice and discussion from the Stack Exchange community.
Kudos to [Michael] for sending this in.


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Generally, it's never a good idea to frustrate your readers. Though you may be fleetingly proud of yourself for eliciting an emotional response, nothing good can come of it. First, there's the crushing sense of failed responsibility to your reader, who gave up a not insignificant chunk of her life to read your writing, and who next time will opt instead to spend that time hunting neighborhood pets, or getting liquored up and driving through golf courses, or watching reruns of Scrubs. Secondly (and more importantly), there's the hate mail you'll be forced to ignore.
To avoid these consequences, I'll give an example of the most frustrating story I ever overheard, followed by some advice on how to achieve the right kind of ambiguity.
I'm riding the bus to work one morning, and I overhear this guy telling another passenger a story. He's gesturing wildly, his voice alternating between a haggard shout and a hushed whisper, and he keeps referring to the guy next to him, a bearded, cavern-eyed redhead, as his "renowned companion."
The story is about how they met three days ago on the other side of the country, and how they came to end up here on this bus. It's a funny story, he keeps saying, but by the tone of his voice it doesn't seem like he believes that.
Three days ago, this guy is driving his truck away. Away from what? He asks rhetorically. Away from his job, his wife, his lousy bills. Away from everything. It starts to rain, and as the guy flips his wipers on, he sees a hitchhiker on the side of the road. He picks the hitchhiker up, because who would want to be in that rain? He points to his "renowned companion," who is staring straight ahead, eyes fixed on nothing, and says, soaked like a dog in the deep end.
As they drive through the rain, the guy tells the hitchhiker about his great escape. Sometimes you just have to move. Momentum, you know? The hitchhiker doesn't have much to say, but the guy can tell he understands. In fact, the guy feels this strong vibe with the hitchhiker, a feeling like he knows him from somewhere.
The guy asks, "Have we met?" The hitchhiker just smiles. Right here, in the bus, the hitchhiker smiles again.
"Of course," the guy on the bus says, "I didn't know who he was at that time. I hadn't figured it out yet."
He goes on: "I start to get tired from all driving, so I ask my companion if he wouldn't mind taking over the wheel while I grab a snooze. We switch places and I'm out, dead asleep, just like that. I have a dream where I'm underwater and everything smells like smoke. The deeper I dive the stronger the smell becomes. I wake up and guess what? The hood is on fire."
The woman to whom I thought the guy was telling the story shakes her head and says, "I can't do it tonight." She's on the phone. I realize that I have no idea who this guy is talking to. Everybody and nobody, I guess.
"I jump out and start running," the guy continues. "I get maybe five feet away from the car when boom, it explodes. I'm thinking, oh crap, the hitchhiker! But my renowned companion isn't in the truck. He isn't anywhere. Vanished. That's when I feel something small and weighty in my pocket. It's a smooth little stone, and it has an address written on it in black marker."
In the bus, the guy pulls out the stone and holds it up. Next to him, the redhead companion grins, and a little whimper of a laugh ekes out.
"I start walking," the guy goes on. "It turns out that the address on the stone is a little house, just up the street. When I get there and the house comes into view, I am smacked, just blasted with this sense of recognition. I know this house. And then it all comes to me. How I know the house. Who my renowned companion is."
A dull ding overhead. A sign lights up at the front of the bus and the driver announces the next stop.
"This is us!" the storyteller yells, whacking his renowned companion on the knee. The two stand up together, gathering their bags in a hurry. The bus reels over to the side of the road and the two guys tumble out onto the sidewalk. As the bus pulls away, I watch them look around in every direction, confused, unsure about which way to head next.
I'm five minutes early for work that day, so I stop and grab a coffee and a croissant.
And that was the most frustrating story I ever overheard.
To state the obvious, the reason this story is so frustrating is that it arouses certain questions—who put that rock in his pocket? How does he know the old house? Who is his renowned companion, and why the hell is he always grinning?—that are never answered. Of course, the storyteller hopped off the bus before he could answer these questions, but too many writers (myself included, so many times) hop off the bus before they answer their own questions.
For a fiction writer, ambiguity is a lot like a microwave: if you use it right, it makes life so much easier; if you misuse it, however, your house, or story, can be reduced to a pile of ashes. Moral ambiguity, which relates to whether a certain character's thoughts or actions are morally sound or flawed, invites the reader to interpret the meaning of the story for herself. This is a good thing. Plot-based ambiguity, or uncertainty as it pertains to the events of a story, is fine as long as you clear up that ambiguity by the end. If not, then you've got an unsolved mystery, an episode of Scooby Doo without the obligatory unmasking of Old Man Futterman. And really, who wants to watch that?
In other words, don't answer any question for your reader that you don't have to. However, if you have posed questions in your story that require answers, then respect your reader enough to supply those answers. If you don't, you better hope your mailing address isn't included in the publication.

subset: commoncrawl


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Original OSNews Interviews Archive
Interview with Ray Tomlinson on Creeper/Reaper
It's been several weeks since Ray Tomlinson, best known for the invention of email, passed on. Email, however, represents only a very small portion of his work and contributions.
While writing a research paper on possible new methods to reduce and eradicate malware, I came across a bit of intriguing history whose available details did not satisfy my curiosity, and I needed to know more than what the internet had to offer. The event in question was the creation of Creeper, a piece of software created in 1971 by Bob Thomas that, according to most sources, is the world's first computer virus. There hasn't been a lot of information available on the internet regarding Creeper except that it was created to "infect" computers running the TENEX operating system on ARPAnet. It would cause the machine to print "I'M THE CREEPER. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN." Then Ray Tomlinson created Reaper whose sole purpose was to seek out and remove Creeper from the machines it had "infected".
I wanted to know more, though. Why was Creeper created in the first place? Did it cause problems? Was it an annoyance to those managing the machines it affected? Should it really be considered the first virus (technically worm, if that)? In late 2014 I ended up finding Ray Tomlinson on LinkedIn of all places and asked him if I could ask a few questions about Creeper and Reaper. He very kindly obliged.


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2-in-1 Wireless Keyboard & Mouse
25 Reviews For This Product
A+ Perfect
Works as described and even better.
So easy to set up, even a 3 year old could do it.
Smaller than I expected, but it serves its purpose.
I got it to replace my Sony Smart TV remote and it works perfectly.
Works great! Really lightweight and easy to use. I use it with my XBOX one.
It was bought to use with my smart tv and I can say nothing bad about it. I love it!
Touchpad has a tendency to freak out and act like a mouse on a shiny surface sometimes.
Great bargain for the price. Works very smoothly and the keyboard is very responsive.
Plugged directly into the USB port on the back of my LG TV and doesn't run all functionality
This is great for the price. I don't use it a lot but it keeps charge for a long time. Works great with firecube.
Everything about this device is amazing, it's small but functional, and super light weight with long battery life.
I'm in love with this keyboard! Works flawlessly on Mac and windows. Have had no issues using it and it's size is perfect!
The touchpad is sensitive but not overly so. Buttons are very responsive and the range is excellent. Great keyboard for the price.
I bought this wireless keyboard for my Android TV Box. Works great. I highly recommend this product. Best purchase I made this year.
The positive notes: the buttons function properly, it has a good handle and feels. The negative notes: a few buttons layout may be confusing for some.
Loved at first, now not so great. Little keys not working right. Like if I push just a tiny bit hard gives me several. If I try to push lighter I get nothing. Sorry to say I am disappointed
I lay in bed at night and often watch my laptop. Either on the nightstand or plugged into the TV. This little keyboard is exactly what I was looking for. Small yet effective. Good quality for the money.
For the most part, the qwerty keyboard keys work fine for the letters, but all the numbers and symbols are too heavily mixed around for me to keep track of which key is actually assigned to which symbol.
I was pleasantly surprised with this unit. I have bought several of these mini keyboards but this particular one is the best I've bought so far. It just simply works better. It also doesn't feel cheap like the others. Well pleased with this product for the price.
I use it to control my computer from a distance and find it very ergonomic for typing and pausing or playing videos and movies. I don't have to be hunched over my tiny laptop keyboard, so I can sit up straight or recline while typing. It's just a really useful, lightweight gadget.
This little guy is perfect! With 2 children, I have a dedicated computer that only plays their movies 24/7. With this keyboard, I can turn it off, put it on a shelf, and grab it when needed! These things are also perfect for any technician! Throw it in your bag, and you always have a known good keyboard and mouse at the ready!
Because of the low cost, light weight, and materials I was worried that it was cheap junk that wouldn't work properly or would break shortly after getting it. But I've had a very good experience with it! Range is good, rechargeable battery lasts a decent amount of time between charges, and it functions very well overall. Good buy.
I got this so I didn't have to keep getting up in between episodes of a show while using my laptop on my TV. Lazy? Yes. This gadget? A new necessity and I can't believe I lived without one. The light is super helpful and it's small but not too small you can't type comfortably. Sleep works great to conserve the charge. Freakin awesome!
The battery lasts a long time. I haven't had an issue with it dying on me yet. The battery inside looks like a cellphone battery, and it's behind a little hatch that is easily popped open, so in the event it needs to be replaced, you actually can extend the life of the product. I appreciate it very much. Would buy it again, but I don't think I'll have to.


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The Polynomial : Space of the music.
More videos
Steam™ product page
Art gallery
About author
The Polynomial
is a 3D musical 'space shooter' game, with non-shooter mode and built in fractal editor. Visuals are generated mathematically and animate to your music or microphone input; there are 4 music-driven animators and 38 arenas to choose from (12 arenas in free demo). You can create your own arenas using built in editor, and you can save your fractal images at any resolution. There are many parameters you can change for entirely new, original look; the number of combinations is astronomical. The Polynomial comes with 50 minutes of excellent soundtrack created by Alexey Lavrov and T.K. ; you can hear fragments of the game soundtrack in the official trailers.
I recommend that you simply download free demo for
Mac OS X
Due to my payment processor going bad, the sales through this site are temporarily disabled. You can
buy it on Steam instead
. You can get Linux version on
Long description:
The Polynomial is a 3D spaceflight music game with abstract, mathematically generated scenery and models which are set to the music of your choice. You fly around in a very strange universe, shoot the enemies, meet and protect the friends, collect bonuses, fly through wormholes, and so on, all while rocking out to the music.
You can play the music supplied with the game or build a playlist of your own songs; you can even use microphone as music source. The music animation is highly configurable with multiple visualization types.
If shooting up stuff is not your thing, maybe you'll like using it in editor mode to create unique fractal artwork. Or you can set the difficulty to none and concentrate on all the non-killing action and enjoying the beauty.
The Polynomial features an innovative scoring system. Scoring is based on continuously timed counts of your actions in the past 1, 5, 20, and 60 minutes of your play, as well as on how much you can do in the space of one lifetime without being killed. If you are playing for the score and you screw up early, you can just keep on playing – thanks to the unique continuous scoring. All of the timed counts are running simultaneously and your scores are constantly updated.
There are multiple scoreboards for different types of action, as well as a combined score which rewards you for balanced play. Conversely, if you just like flying around and don't like shooting, you can try top the scoring in just the flowers you have collected or wormholes you passed through – and if you think you are very bad at this game, you can try to get the high score in number of deaths.
GiantBomb quicklook:
There's fractals over here!
Ok Jeff we have to stop this quicklook before I swallow my own tongue!
It's trippy as hell
Oh, God! It's like if I was playing Geometry Wars, and a singularity opened inside of its programming, causing me to fall through my television and into the game. This is one of the most gorgeous games I've ever seen, and that distortion effect is phenomenal. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY MIND I WANT MORE OF WHATEVER THIS IS OH NO.
Bet the devs were totally tripping balls when they made this.
Giantbomb crew has made me impulse buy another game...
I could easily look at this game all day
RockPaperShotgun, 2010-10-22:
RPS's own Lewie Proctor tipped us off about this. The Polynomial: Space of the Music is a shooter out now on Steam, boasting a demo, a reasonable 5.99 UKP pricetag and the prettiest screenshots in the world.
Quinns: The death effect made me think my graphics card was melting. I need a new PC. But yeah, it feels like a videogame. It feels like what gamers in the 80s might have thought we'd be playing in 2025. And there are enough elements to it, with the Ghosts and the Amplifying Spheres and the Flowers to make it feel nuanced. It feels like future-sport.
Jim: Yeah, it is a sort of 80s dream of the future, precisely because it's an extension of early 3D's abstractness
Quinns: Now we're getting somewhere. Everybody! Play The Polynomial, because it's an 80s dream of the future. There's a demo out and all.
Jim: And try not to feel queasy when you die. It's just not cricket. (And in the game!)
RockPaperShotgun, 2009-06-23:
"This morning's trippy maths-cleverness comes to us via Indiegames, where they flagged up fractal 3D space shooter in progress, Polynomial. It's a beauty, although somewhat slow paced at the moment."
[they seriously need to set difficulty to insane ;)]
User comment:
Lovely. I admire how graduall it ramps up the difficulty. You're just whooshing around, popping hapless amoebas, then at some point, you turn your ship around and stare at a seemingly endless miasma of rainbow-colored things, sending blue strings of death all over the place, and then, between all the mayhem, an autotarget-upgrade, right in front of you, the picking up of which results in an amazing cascade of alien doom, a crescendo of pops accompanied by an orgasm of color, on drugs, while strapped to a rocket, flying into the sun.
Amanti degli sparatutto psichedelici è ritornato il vostro momento, anche se per ora quello che potremo ammirare sui nostri monitor è solo un'anteprima del fenomenale sparatutto 3D creato da Dmytry Lavrov. A dire il vero il gioco è già in prevendita al prezzo di 15 €. Pagando all'autore questa cifra le dieci arene disponibili nella versione demo diventeranno 28, gli scarsi effetti sonori della versione trial saranno migliori e troverete anche una primitiva componente multiplayer. In pratica, acquistando ora il work in progress, avrete diritto alla versione completa di questo The Polynomial senza ulteriore esborso, quando sarà finito.
Indie Game Pick: Polynomial (Dmytry Lavrov)
Gamasutra, 'Best Of Indie Games'
"Polynomial is a 3D arcade shooter that features mathematically generated fractal scenery, with simplistic ship controls and a configurable difficulty setting that allows players to engage enemies in intense dogfights or explore the vast reaches of space at their own leisurely pace. The included editor can be used to generate new fractal sceneries and arenas, although the save option is only accessible for customers who purchased the game."
2日前、久しぶりにDmytry Lavrov(いろいろ面白プログラムを作っている優秀な人)のページを調べたら、The Polynomialという彼の最新のプロジェクトをたまたま見つけました。彼の数学能力を活かしたtrippy shooter(?)です。マニュアルの説明が気に入ってます:Shot red stuff, collect green stuff, avoid getting shot by red stuff(十分分かりやすい!)モーションシックネスにご注意。
IFSという、単純な方程式で複雑で綺麗な3Dパターンを生み出すアルゴリズムを使っているように見えます。形を制御することが難しいですが、適当にパラメーターをいじると出力が大きく変わります。Eye Candyとして価値が高い…彼のブログでそのfractalのエディターのビデオがありますが、中々楽しそうです。
Krawall gaming network:
Während ihr eine News weiter unten bereits euren Intellektuellen-Status durch Jubelrufe über das mögliche Lars von Trier Spiel bekunden dürft, gibt es jetzt gleich noch eine Chance zu glänzen. Statt wie der ganze restliche Pöbel mit sabbernder Zunge darauf zu warten, in "Call of Duty" demnächst wieder Terroristen zu exekutieren, dürft ihr euch über Mathematik in ihrer schönsten Form freuen. Als Spiel! Und zwar in Form des Independent-Shooters "Polynomia". Wie in "Wing Commander" düst ihr dabei in 3D durchs All…oder…was auch immer es sein soll, verfolgt kleine Pfeile auf eurem Bildschirm bis der Gegner im Visier ist und ballert ihn weg. Der Clou dabei ist, dass all die extrem bunten, fantastischen Weiten durch die ihr gleitet aus wenigen mathematischen Formeln erwachsen. Eine Ausprobierversion sowie eine erste Beta zum kaufen gibt es auf der Homepage zum Spiel.
Dmytry Lavrov
. Contact:
dmytry _lavrov a t ya hoo do t c om (turn on javascript to get clickable link)
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Haribo DE Balla-Balla Sticks Kirsch 200g Piece
Haribo DE Balla-Balla Sticks Kirsch 200g Piece
Brand |
Haribo |
Origin |
Europe |
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Cash on Delivery (COD)
The sale of goods in which payment is made upon delivery rather than in advance.
Local pickup for online orders
You can set up the option for customers to pick up their online orders at your retail store, curbside, or any location that you choose.
To do this, activate the local pickup option for each location where customers can go to get their orders.
The shipping rate for local pickup is set to Free and can't be changed.
Each pickup order requires you or a staff member to verify that each item is in stock. After you verify each item, you can send a notification to the customer that the order is ready. You can also print a pickup slip to attach to the order.
When a customer comes to get their order, you need to change the order status within Shopify from unfulfilled to fulfilled. This signals to you and your staff that the order has been picked up and no further action is required.


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F-117: Why America's First Stealth Fighter Would Be Crushed by Russia or China
But what about against Iran? Could the F-117 make a comeback?
Ultimately, it's the pilot vehicle interface the United States has developed over the decades at great expense that affords it the edge over Russia and China's upstart programs—as Carlisle himself told me a few years ago at the Pentagon. Nonetheless, the United States will have to keep developing new technology to stay ahead.
With the U.S. Air Force working hard to develop the B-21 bomber, it is a good time to look at the evolution of stealth starting with the Lockheed Martin F-117 Nighthawk. That aircraft was retired in 2008, but would the F-117 still be useful today?
The answer is that against most mid-range threats like Iran, absolutely. But against higher-end threats like Russia or China, not so much. Technology has advanced since engineers first dreamed up the F-117 "stealth fighter" concept.
Developed in the 1970s and declared operational in complete secrecy in 1983, the F-117 ushered in a new era that would enable the United States to dominate warfare for decades to come. Ironically, the equations that ultimately enabled the United States to develop the Nighthawk have their origins in the Soviet Union with a paper titled Method of Edge Waves in the Physical Theory of Diffraction. An obscure Russian scientist by the name of Pyotr Yakovlevich Ufimtsev wrote the paper in 1962. While the Soviet Union more or less dismissed Ufimtsev's work as being wildly impractical, Lockheed Skunk Works engineer Denys Overholser saw potential in the Russian physicist's equations.
Recommended: Why North Korea's Air Force is Total Junk
(This first appeared in 2015.)
Overholser's work resulted in a concept that many at the Skunk Works—including the legendary Kelly Johnson—derisively called the Hopeless Diamond. But soon it became apparent that the ungainly diamond shape was incredibly effective at reducing an object's radar cross section. As such, the Pentagon immediately awarded Lockheed a contract to develop a demonstrator called the Have Blue as part of its Experimental Survivable Testbed (XST) program. The Pentagon was forging ahead full steam to defeat the Warsaw Pact's increasingly potent air defenses at the time. That was because it was increasingly apparent that NATO air forces would suffer horrific losses if the Cold War turned into World War III.
Recommended: Why Doesn't America Kill Kim Jong Un?
Lockheed was successful in developing the ungainly Hopeless Diamond design into a barely flyable design thanks to then new fly-by-wire technology. The resulting aircraft, which used a faceted design to defeat enemy radar—and resembled a subscale version of its F-117 successor—first flew in December 1977. While both of the prototypes were destroyed, the Have Blue program was a stunning success. As such, the Air Force decided to go ahead with the development of the follow-on F-117.
Recommended: The F-22 Is Getting a New Job: Sniper
The F-117 first flew in 1981 and eventually entered service in 1983. Lockheed was able to develop an operational aircraft quickly as the company built the jet out of existing components already in use on other planes. The fly-by-wire controls came from the F-16 while the engines were non-afterburning versions of the F/A-18A's General Electric F404 turbofans. Additionally, unlike later stealth aircraft, the F-117 was constructed using conventional aerospace aluminum—which made building the jet easier. Lockheed ultimately built a total of fifty-nine F-117As and five YF-117As developmental prototypes.
The F-117 made its debut in secret over Panama in 1989, but its performance was lackluster. However, the F-117 performed spectacularly well over Iraq during the first Gulf War in 1991. It also served in several subsequent conflicts including the second Gulf War during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. The Air Force ultimately retired the Nighthawk in 2008 as a cost saving measure as the service struggled to pay for the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. At the time, the Air Force claimed that with the advent of the air superiority-oriented Raptor—and eventually the F-35—meant it no longer needed the F-117.
During its time in service, only one F-117—flown by Lt. Col. Dale Zelko—was lost over Yugoslavia in March 1999 during Operation Allied Force. Zelko's experience over Kosovo was the first inkling that the wider public had that stealth aircraft were not invincible nor are they invisible to radar and infrared. Military and national security professionals have never had such illusions, but during the 1990s, many grew overconfident in the capabilities offered by low observable aircraft. But stealth is mere delayed detection and tracking—the idea is one releases their weapons before the enemy is aware of you. Stealth is not a magical cloak of invisibility.
But the Air Force had always known that stealth aircraft are not invisible or invincible. In fact, during Operation Desert Storm, contrary to popular belief, U.S. Army AH-64 Apache gunships made the first air raids on Iraq rather than the F-117. Those attack helicopters had one mission—that was to eliminate Iraqi low frequency early warning radars operating in the VHF and UHF-bands. Those radars can detect and track stealth aircraft like the F-117, which are designed to operated against radars operating in the C, X and Ku-bands. The Apaches cleared a path for the stealth fighters to proceed to their targets deep inside Iraq undetected.
Subsequent stealth aircraft like the F-22 and F-35 are also designed to operate against high-frequency fire control radars. The concept behind fifth-generation fighters—which in some ways are the direct successors to the F-117 tactical stealth attack aircraft—is that they operate with the enemy potentially knowing that something is present in their air space. The enemy just can't do anything about their presence however—putting it basically—or so the theory goes. But, despite its public stance, the Air Force has never operated its stealth aircraft without the presence of Navy electronic warfare aircraft like Prowler or jammers.
Stealthy strategic bombers like the B-2 however, are designed to operate more like submarines—that is they operate without their presence being noticed. The massive bombers are optimized for "broad band all-aspect" stealth, which means they are able to remain unnoticed even in the presence of low frequency radars by hiding in the background noise and clutter. But even then, the Pentagon didn't fully anticipate how quickly the Russians and Chinese would develop low frequency radars with performance to threaten even the B-2. "We've had the ability to map our threats in real time in the B-2 for a while with our Defense Management System (DMS)," said an Air Force official. "But the growth in the EW [electronic warfare] spectrum wasn't reasonably anticipated and thus precipitated an upgrade into a new DMS." But even the B-2 is not going to be able keep pace with the evolving threat, that's why the new Air Force LRS-B will be optimized to defeat those low frequency systems.
But the Air Force official's statement also highlights why the F-117 is no longer relevant in the ultra high-end fight. Not only is the subsonic light bomber optimized to defeat high frequency radars, it also does not have the ability to map out threat emitters and manage its signature in real time like the F-22 and F-35. Nor does it have the performance to survive when it is detected and confronted.
But that's the real advantage of the F-22 and F-35 over not only the F-117, but also the Russian PAK-FA and Chinese J-20 and J-31. The F-117 was entirely dependent on an autorouter to map out its course to avoid threats before each mission. Both the F-22 and the F-35 have the ability to map out threats in real time and are equipped with pilot vehicle interfaces that can make sense of that information for the pilot. In that respect, the Joint Strike Fighter is head and shoulders above the Raptor thanks to years of technological advancements.
Multiple Air Force and industry sources confirm that the Raptor has a lower radar cross section over a wider range of frequencies than the F-35 (as the Air Force maintained for nearly decade till 2014), but the newer aircraft is far better at managing its signature thanks to an incredibly advanced electronic warfare suite. That is likely why retired Air Combat Command commander Gen. Mike Hostage told Breaking Defense: "The F-35 doesn't have the altitude, doesn't have the speed [of the F-22], but it can beat the F-22 in stealth." The operative word there is can. As current ACC commander Gen. Hawk Carlisle told National Defense Magazine: The F-35 has much better "passive capability to determine who's out there [and] its ability to manage its own signature."
Ultimately, it's the pilot vehicle interface the United States has developed over the decades at great expense that affords it the edge over Russia and China's upstart programs—as Carlisle himself told me a few years ago at the Pentagon. Nonetheless, the United States will have to keep developing new technology to stay ahead.
Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar.


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March 2017 Challenge
You may enter as many times as you wish during the month and link with as many other challenges as allow you to do so.
As I have an abundance of patterned paper - 12 x 12, 8 x 8, 6 x 6, A4 - I'm giving a prize each month to the randomly chosen winner. I'm willing to post anywhere in the world, so that means that anyone can enter regardless of where you live.
15 x 15 cm - 36 sheets - 12 patterns
Please scroll down or click here to see the winner of
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper February challenge.


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I get so resentful when I don't get any sewing time. And I don't sport a good grumpy look either. So with back-to-back work deadlines this month, I needed to find a little sewing project that I could tap into in between marathon stints in front of the screen to retain balance and sanity… for everyone concerned!
#sewdots was brought to my attention on Instagram. Instigated by the brilliant Rosie of DIY Couture and writer of No Patterns Needed. She also works for the RNIB – Royal National Institute for the Blind – where she learned about their campaign that runs every October called Wear Dots Raise Lots. It highlights the impact of Braille and raises money for their services. It encourages the wearing of dots to raise awareness, encouraging people to hold dotty parties, or coordinate with colleagues and pick a 'wear dots' day for the office.
So Rosie has upped the ante to encourage the sewing of dots too!
The idea was to use fabric from stash and donate what you would have spent via the JustGiving page she has set up. Simples!
This was all shaping up nicely. I had two pieces of coordinating red and white polkadot fabric. And I had a Tilly and the Buttons Fifi pyjama pattern on my to do list. A pattern that needs little space to cut out and can certainly be achieved in manageable chunks of sewing time.
The Shorts took 40 mins, including cutting out time. And including unpicking my first elastic attachment!
The camisole happened a week later… over 3 days: The cutting and stay stitching in one shift, the main body sections sewn together in another, and the binding made and sewn on before work one morning. I sewed on the bow and attached the back straps just now!
But I'm sure if you had dedicated and uninterrupted sewing time, you could easily rustle this set up in a couple of hours.
This is such a neat and gratifying garment to make. all the seams are 'Frenched' and it's as neat inside as it is out. It really doesn't need much fabric and if you are lucky enough to have coordinating scraps, the design possibilities are endless.
And to boot, I have a lovely set of PJs at last! It appears I've made them for everyone in the household except me. I know they are slightly out of season but I really don't care. I'm going to make more.
Theres still days left this month if you'd like to participate. There's some great prizes up for grabs too!
Doesn't have to be a garment of course. Could be a much smaller project still, like a sleep mask or a headband or a scarf!
I can totally assure you that sewing and giving is a great self-indulgent, feel-good combo too. Good work Rosie!


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NEW YORK (AP) — Toyota and Hyundai have recalled roughly a combined 110,000 trucks and sport utility vehicles, including the 2018 Toyota Tundra and Sequoia, and the 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe and Santa Fe Sport.
In its recall announced Saturday, Hyundai says some of Santa Fe vehicles are at risk for the steering wheel breaking away from the steering column. Roughly 43,900 vehicles are included in Hyundai's recall.
Toyota recalled roughly 64,900 Tundras and Sequoias, saying these vehicles are at risk for having their electronic stability control systems shutting down unexpectedly.
Both car makers will notify impacted owners of the recalled vehicles starting in March, and if necessary, will repair the vehicles at no cost.
For more information on the recalls, visit www.safercar.gov.


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Nordost Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 Cable
Regular price £3,990.00
The Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 is revolutionary in terms of USB cable design. For the first time, Nordost is introducing a flat, twin-axial geometry to its USB cables. This innovative layout allows the two signal wires to run parallel, compared to the standard twisted-pair configuration, shortening the signal path and drastically increasing transfer speeds. Another advantage to a twin-axial design is the ability to separate the power (positive) and ground (negative) legs of the cable, isolating them from signal and each other, minimizing the effects of harmful interference. The Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 then goes one step further, taking the precaution of isolating the signal conductors, by covering each power leg with a finely-braided, silver shield, as well as enclosing both signal conductors in their own braided, silver shields. Each shield is connected to the metal plated backshell, completely ridding the cable of any EMI or RFI and eliminating noise.
In addition to these advances, the Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 still uses all of the main technologies and design structures that Nordost has built its reputation upon. The V2 USB 2.0 is constructed using four, 19 AWG solid core, silver-plated copper conductors. Each conductor, both power and signal, is suspended in Nordost's proprietary Dual Mono-Filament technology, increasing the dielectric and mechanical damping, while maintaining the overall flexibility of the cable. It also takes advantage of Nordost's unique, mechanically tuned lengths, reducing internal microphonics and high-frequency impedance resonance.
Of course, as with all of our Valhalla 2 cables, the V2 USB is completed with a HOLO:PLUG® connector. Nordost purpose-built this fully shielded, low mass USB connector to ensure that there is no loss of signal transfer from the cable to the connectors themselves. The Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 is the only solution on the market capable of elevating digital streaming, attaining true, reference-quality results.


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CycleTrader.com becomes title sponsor of Rock River Powersports Yamaha MX team
News release
CycleTrader.com, the nation's largest powersports marketplace, has announced they will join Wisconsin-based Rock River Powersports as the title sponsor for their motocross racing team. This partnership gives CycleTrader.com a stronger presence in the motocross world while providing the Rock River team with the resources to help pro and amateur riders as they compete nationwide.
"CycleTrader.com is very involved in every aspect of the powersports industry," said Paige Bouma, general manager of CycleTrader.com. "We felt it was time to elevate our profile in the motocross arena and bring CycleTrader to an entirely new generation of riders. We could not think of a better way to do so than by supporting these hardworking motocross athletes. We are proud to join the Rock River Powersports team."
Rock River Racing arose from the joint effort between Rock River Powersports, a 5-Star Pro Yamaha multi-specialist dealer, and Roost MX, one of the fastest growing graphics companies in the country. The premise behind the Rock River program is to support riders from their PW50 years through their 450 Supercross years.
"We have worked so hard for the past 5 years, and we knew if we held on, good things would happen," said team owner Mike DuClos. "CycleTrader.com is an amazing addition to our program, and we can't thank them enough for the support they are giving us."
The original Rock River supercross/motocross professional team was formed in 2009 under the direction of team owner Mike DuClos and team manager Christina Denney. Riders signed up so far for the 2014 season include Ben Lamay, Alex Martin, and Greg Gehrer, with a fourth rider in the works.
Mike Guerra, Racing Division department manager at Yamaha Motor Corporation, said, "We're really excited about adding CycleTrader to the team and look forward to having another successful year of racing."
CycleTrader.com is also launching a new "Pro Pit Corner" on the homepage where you can interact with the team's riders, manager, owner, and pro mechanics. This site section will offer team giveaways, tech tips, team tracking, an event calendar, and an exclusive sale link to the team's factory Yamaha race bikes.
Visit CycleTrader.com, RoostMX.net, and RockRiverRacing.com for more information.


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Constantin Roman a Romanian patriot and is presently a professor honoris causa in Bucharest, while residing with his family in salubrious Glyndebourne. Roman must, by his account, surely be one of the world's most upwardly mobile earth scientists. Starting in England with only £5 in his pocket, by ability, persistence, and charm, and using Newcastle as a stepping‐stone, he became acquainted with the right people and obtained a scholarship to Peterhouse, Cambridge, to do a Ph.D. on the tectonics of the Caucasus and across into Central Asia.
Entries Tagged as 'PlateTectonics'
David OLDROYD – Book Review: Continental Drift, Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures
February 20th, 2017 · Comments Off on David OLDROYD – Book Review: Continental Drift, Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures · Books, Diary, Education, Famous People, History, PEOPLE, Reviews, Science
Tags:"Book Review"·"Buffer Plates"·"Constantin Roman"·"History of Science"·"Sir Edward Bullard'·Bullard Laboratories Cambridge·cambridge·Central Asia·communism·David Oldroyd·Doctorate·England·geophysics·Lotus eater·New Scientist·Non-rigid lithospferic plates·PlateTectonics·review·Romania·science·tectonics


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Robert Condlin, 'Practice Ready Graduates': A Millennialist Fantasy". Abstract:
The sky is falling on legal education say the pundits, and preparing "practice ready" graduates is the best strategy for surviving the fallout. This is a millennialist version of the argument for clinical legal education that dominated discussion in the law schools in the 1960s and 1970s. The circumstances are different now, as are the people calling for reform, but the two movements are alike in one respect: both view skills instruction as legal education's primary purpose. Everything else is a frolic and detour, and a fatal frolic and detour in hard times such as the present.
No one would dispute that the United States legal system has a labor market problem, but law schools cannot revive the labor market, or improve the employment prospects of their graduates, by providing a different type of instruction. Placing students in jobs is a function of a school's academic reputation, not its curriculum, and the legal labor market will rebound only after the market as a whole has rebounded (and perhaps not then). The cause of the present troubles is a lack of jobs, not a lack of graduates (of any kind), and producing more "practice ready" graduates will have no effect on the supply of jobs. The proposal is a spectacular non sequitur to the present troubles.
The concept of "practice ready" also is unintelligible and would be impossible to implement if it were not. There are as many different types of practice, for example, as there are levels of readiness for it and proponents of the proposal do not say which of these various possibilities (and combinations of possibilities), they have in mind. If the expression had a clear meaning, law schools still could not implement it because proficiency at practice depends upon dispositions (i.e., habits informed by reflection), and dispositions take longer than a law school course to develop. Like a lot of blog commentary, the "practice ready" proposal is more slogan than idea. Perhaps that is why it is so popular.
Not pulling any punches here, are we? Lest you think Prof. Condlin (whom I don't know) is an Ivory tower guy or anti-clinic, here's his official bio:
From 1969 to 1972, Professor Condlin was an assistant attorney general for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He represented the Commonwealth in several major lawsuits in state and federal court, including Massachusetts v. Laird, an original action in the United States Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the Vietnam War, Sturgis v. Quinn, the state court precursor to the Supreme Court decision in Baird v. Bellotti, upholding a woman's right to birth control, and Board of Appeals of Concord v. Housing Appeals Committee of the Department of Community Affairs, the first defense of an anti-snob zoning statute in the United States. He left the Attorney General's office in 1972 to establish the Urban Legal Laboratory, a full-semester clinical program for students of Boston College Law School, run jointly with the Boston Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. In 1974 he became a teaching fellow at Harvard Law School, where he taught and did graduate study in the field of clinical law. He left Harvard in 1976 to become associate professor of law at the University of Virginia, where he created that school's clinical law program. He moved to Maryland in 1980. He has served as a consultant to the AALS Law Teachers Clinic and Clinical Teachers Training Conferences and to the Canadian Law Teachers Clinic and has taught at Indiana University Law School at Bloomington as a visiting professor
OK, a little ivory tower, maybe. But the paper sounds like it might be a useful corrective to certain over-enthusiasms.


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Widely acclaimed as Tobago's premier bird watching and natural history guide, Newton George is not only an experienced and knowledgeable ornithologist - he is also a committed and dedicated Birder in the truest meaning of the word. His sheer enthusiasm leaves one in no doubt that birds and wildlife are both his love and his life.
Newton's love of birds was honed to an art form while working for the Trinidad & Tobago Forestry Department for 23 years, monitoring and protecting the oldest protected rainforest in the western hemisphere. Between 1971 and 1981, he was Custodian of the island of Little Tobago, where he identified and established key viewpoints for birders to study the wonderful Brown and Red-footed Boobies, Red-billed Tropicbird and Magnificent Frigatebird; trails and viewpoints that are used and enjoyed by every visitor to Little Tobago to this day and which were featured in David Attenborough's wonderful natural history documentary series, The Trials of Life. Newton has also been featured on the BBC Holiday television series.
During subsequent years, Newton studied wildlife conservation at the Eastern Caribbean Institute of Agriculture and Forestry in Trinidad, conducted workshops to train tour guides for the Department of Tourism, and has visited four of the world's five continents to observe different wildlife environments and attend conferences.
The depth of Newton's experience and knowledge of the birds of Trinidad and Tobago are without question. Of equal importance, however, is the fact that Newton is a highly approachable, enthusiastic individual with a keen sense of humour. He demonstrates the warmth and hospitality for which Tobagonian people are particularly noted. Whatever your level of birding, wildlife and natural history experience, it is hardly surprising that tour with Newton have become so popular that they are now considered one of the essential "musts" of any visit to the beautiful island of Tobago.
For added interest, Newton and his wife Dianne have now established a public hummingbird gallery at their Speyside home.


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Engineering Resins
Find the best Laser SLA, LCD, and DLP 3D printer resins for your 3D printer for engineering applications. From known, reliable brands like Peopoly and PhotoCentric, MatterHackers has the right type of resin to fit your needs. Photopolymer resins designed for engineering applications are ideal for printing detailed prototypes, product testing, and more. Available in tough, firm, hard, high-tensile, and high-temperature formulas (and more), there is an engineering resin specially designed for your specific needs. Produce high-quality, functional, durable results with engineering 3D printer resins.
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The Elsevier Fingerprint Engine mines the text of the experts' scholarly documents - publication abstracts, awards, project summaries, patents, and other sources – to create an index of weighted terms which defines the text, known as a Fingerprint. By aggregating and comparing Fingerprints, the Elsevier Fingerprint Engine enables users to look beyond metadata and expose valuable connections among people, research units, publications, and ideas.
- Sort by
- Weight
- Alphabetically


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This class is designed for MFA students to show works-in-progress, try out ideas with their colleagues, and discuss issues involved in the development of new work. The weekly format is determined with the students. Outside of class, students develop their own independent creative projects that will be presented to the public, either formally or informally, by the end of the term.
Corequisites: Dance Workshop (Thursday 7-8:30 PM).


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C6 Corvette Parts and Accessories
C6 Corvette Parts
Custom Corvette Accessories offers a wide selection of C6 Corvette Parts. In this section of our website you will find our Full Line of C6 Corvette Parts. Directly below and on the right side of this page, You Can Filter Your Search by using the Drop Down Menus. Shop by Manufacturer, Part Type, A-Z, Price or Popularity. CCA's extensive Vendor and Distributor relationships make our company extremely nimble and one of the fastest at shipping your C6 Corvette Accessories. Shop our extensive collection of Sixth Generation Performance Parts from all the best manufacturers for your Long Tube Headers, Axle Back and Cat Back Exhaust Systems, Cold Air Intakes, Suspension Components and Racing Equipment. CCA also has a wide selection of Interior and Exterior Parts. No matter what you are looking for, you can customize your Vette and make it uniquely yours. Finish off your C6 Base, Grand Sport, Z06 and ZR1 with a new set of Floor Mats, a Cold Air Intake System, Exhaust System or even a full set of Long Tube Headers. Protect the paint on your Vette with our huge selection of indoor and outdoor car covers. From the deepest snow to the hottest sun, we have a Corvette Car Cover for you. We don't just have C6 Corvette Parts for Sale, our staff lives and breathes Vettes from sun up to sun down. We Show them, We Street them and Race them. Feel free to give us a call, we would be glad to help you with all your C6 Corvette Parts and Accessories.
2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005 C6 Base, Grand Sport, Z06 and ZR1


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Bengali Mutton Stew adapted from Lila Majumdar's Brown Stew |
When I was a small child, I did not sing. Rather I assumed that "I cannot sing". It must have been a true assumption since years later when I tried to sing lullaby to my daughters, they protested and later told me to not sing when they are trying to sleep!
However my father, like all fathers, did not believe in my lack of singing talent as a 5 year old. He was a connoisseur of Rabindra Sangeet and though he himself could not sing a single note in key, he made it up by being an ardent listener. Rabindra Sangeet was the only music that played in our house in those days. The few Hindi songs that I heard were either over the neighborhood loudspeaker or on Binaca Geetmala on Bibidh Bharati. The only voices that boomed through our tape recorder was that of Debobroto Biswas, Suchitra Mitra and Kanika.
This overdose of Rabindra Sangeet at home, made me kind of detest Tagore's Songs. Yes, a blasphemy, but honestly I did not get most of the Tagore songs as a child. There were few like "Purano sei diner kotha" and "Aakash bhora surjo tara" which I really liked but most others, played day in and day out sounded monotonic to my ignorant ears.
As a result when my Father wanted me to learn Rabindra Sangeet, as most Bengali Fathers would, I protested. I said "I cannot sing", which might have been true but not something that could not have been worked on with some training. But I steadfastly refused any training and even with an opportunity to learn at Tagore's ChitraBhanu, I did not succumb to the pleasures of learning music. Even at the compulsory music class in school, I mouthed words, keeping my voice low, assuming that I cannot really sing.
Many, many years later, I kind of started appreciating Tagore's songs. I partly understood the words, the poetry and the music or at least I thought I did. My understanding was not even close to my Father's love for Tagore's songs but at least I realized why he might have wanted me to learn Rabindra Sangeet.
So, as most Bengali Mothers are wont to do, I enrolled my daughters in a Bengali music class.
I have always heard that most parents want to fulfill their wishes through their children. I thought it was a selfish thing to want. Now, I know, it is not always so. With their years of trudging through the swirling waters of life, when parents eventually realize what happiness those wishes and trainings could bring, they want to plant a love for that wish in their child's heart. So a parent who dropped out of school makes sure that the offspring gets to finish academics, the one who hardly practiced the piano and wishes she could play music for her own solace persuades her child to practice piano every day and the one who never learned to sing wants her daughters to sing.
It is not that we parents want our children to become like us, we think it will do them good to be what we aren't.
With that wish in my heart, I suggested gaaner school aka music school to my daughters. Of course my father has been subtly suggesting the same all along.I must say that I was lucky enough to find a music teacher in my neighborhood, who is not only fantastic but also knows how to work with kids very well. So once a week, after school, in the evening, she fills my daughter's life with music they don't hear everyday.She teaches them children's songs along with Vedic songs often interspersed with Rabindra Sangeet. The result is that both LS and BS look forward to their Friday Bangla Gaaner school where they go along with little friends they have known since birth.
For this Saraswati pujo, their music teacher has taught them Tagore's "Modhuro Dhwoni Baaje". And when these little kids sing this difficult Bengali song, pronouncing the words just right, my heart is filled with an unknown happiness.
My Dad was in tears hearing their rendition which I had sent him over e-mail.After all they are little kids, growing up far from Tagore's land and probably do not understand meaning of half of the words of this song. Their singing is not perfect but it is beautiful.
For my father, it is probably a wish come true.
Modhuro Dhwoni Baaje by Little Sis
Now back to this very Bengali Mutton Stew which LS loves. BS too loves the stew as long as she does not have to eat the mutton. She is turning into a vegetarian these days. In winter vegetables like carrots and beet makes this the perfect winter stew.
Usually I make the stew this way. But this time I followed the recipe for Leela Majumdar's "Brown Stew" narrated in her inimitable style, from her cookbook which I read more for the comfort it brings than recipes. This is truly the most heart warming soup you can make, with minimal effort on your part. It tastes best with mutton but is good enough with chicken too.
Though the recipe does not suggest, I always marinate my meat. Marinate Mutton/Goat meat in ginger paste, garlic paste, salt and a pinch of turmeric powder. I usually marinate all the mutton I get and then freeze in portions. For this stew I used about 10 piece of that marinated mutton (about 1 lb)
Wash and chop the following vegetables for stew
1 carrot
half of a large beet
2 small red potatoes in halves
about 8-10 string beans
a small portion of green papaya
half of a red onion
As the author says, do not overload this stew with vegetables. The vegetables should be in proportion with the meat you use.
Heat about 1 Tbsp of Vegetable oil in a pressure cooker
Temper the oil with
2 small Tej Patta
2 clove
2 green cradamom
a small stick of cinnamon
10 whole black peppercorns
When the whole spices sputter, add the mutton pieces. The pieces should be in a single layer and not crowd the pan.
Saute at high heat until the mutton pieces are browned. If the mutton releases water, cook until the water is dried off and the mutton has lost its raw coloring. Take out the mutton and keep aside.
To the same oil, add the onion and fry for 2-3 minutes until onion softens a little.
Add all the other chopped vegetables, sprinkle salt and let the vegetables brown a little. It is not really necessary to fry the vegetables, just gently saute for a few minutes.
Next make a roux by mixing about 1/4th cup of flour mixed in 1/4 Cup Milk + 1/4 Cup Water(whole wheat atta or maida). Pour this and toss the vegetables around. The original recipe had suggested adding the flour along with the mutton but I add it with the vegetables
Now add the browned mutton pieces.
Add about 3-4 cups of water, salt to taste and mix everything with a ladle.
At this point add 2 fat clove of garlic chopped in slices and an inch of ginger grated. Add a tomato if you wish. Let the stew come to a simmer.
Close the pressure cooker. After the first whistle or once the pressure is built up, lower the heat and let the stew cook at low medium heat for about 10 minutes. After that raise the heat and cook for 5-6 more minutes. Switch off and let the pressure cooker release steam naturally.
Once the pressure cooker lid can be opened, carefully open the lid and check if meat is done. If not, you have to close the lid and cook for another 6-8 minutes.
If the meat is done, taste the stew and add freshly cracked black pepper and salt to taste. If the stew looks a bit runny, open the lid and put it on heat again to cook off some of the excess water.
Serve with a dollop of butter and with a piece of crusty bread or rice on the side..
Similar Soups and Stews from my blog:
One more Mutton Stew
Chicken Stew for the Kids -- Chotoder Chicken Stew
Kerala Style Chicken Stew


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The journal Frontiers in Plant Science recently shared an important article from researchers at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, highlighting the "Pathogens and Molds Affecting Production and Quality of Cannabis Sativa."
As a chemist focused on the science of preventing and mitigating mold in greenhouse and indoor cannabis grow facilities, this piece was fascinating to me. Like many others, it details and explains prevalent mold like Penicillium, Cladosporium and Aspergillus – things I see in grows every day.
But wait, there's more fungi
The research and resulting article also brought up another type of fungi – endophytic mold. Endophytic mold usually lives symbiotically with plants, or is at least beneficial for both plant and fungi.
But not always.
In the past, the industry has believed that damaging mold spores were found on the outside of the flower. When moved, that flower would release the spores and send them flying – often creating massive cross-contamination issues for indoor grows.
"While cannabis is an incredibly powerful plant in terms of its medicinal properties, it is unfortunately highly susceptible to many pest and pathogens," says Hope Jones, PhD, CEO, Adivina & ECS. "And it is this susceptibility that is so challenging to many inexperienced or undisciplined grow operations."
Now, however, we know that there's another culprit to add to the list: the inner parts of the plant can also be a source of endophytic cross contamination and mold.
Since it grows inside of the plant, this fungus creates high spore counts that can cross contaminate from outside, into the flower.
Treating mold in a facility
Here's the good news:
This seemingly bad news – that there's a new fungus to worry about, and it is inside the flower – may actually help cannabis grows struggling with mold, and those who are following the proper protocols already.
Effective mitigation protocols can include things like treating HVAC systems, controlling humidity, using products like chlorine dioxide to treat irrigation lines, enforcing protective clothing and shoe covers for employees, reducing the amount of in-and-out for employees around grow rooms.
These are important upstream and environmentally-focused integrated pest management (IPM) programs that will usually keep facilities clean and relatively mold-free.
But if these programs are in place, and there's still an issue, Endophytic fungi may be to blame.
If you are having ongoing mold issues but have ruled out cross-contamination and a facility without proper protocol, look to the mother plant.
"Small mistakes in agricultural practices are amplified with cannabis," Dr. Jones continues. "And today's propagation practices of traditional cloning add to this vulnerability. Cannabis is an annual plant and by keeping mothers in a perpetual state of vegetative growth for years, and taking repetitive cuttings produces clones in a highly stressed state. This stressed state diminishes genetic potential and weakens a plant's ability to fight disease and pests."
Testing for and addressing endophytic fungi
If these concerns are ringing a bell, remember, there is also a way to test for Endophytic mold.
Checking cuttings from suspected mother plants over a period of time is the best way to see if the Endophytic mold is present.
A section of the mother plant cutting is placed into a solution (for example, as outlined by the article, a very concentrated hypochlorite followed by 70% Ethanol) that will kill all of the microorganisms that are present on the surface of the plant tissues.
From there, an unadulterated dissection of the internal tissues can be extracted and cultured for quantification and identification of endophytic fungi.
"Tissue culture offers a form of genetic rebooting returning the plant to its natural genetic potential and thereby strengthening its natural ability to defend against environment assault," says Dr. Jones. "It also allows the breeder to conduct pathogenic disease testing which provides the entire industry with a higher level of scientific certainty and analysis."
If you find this mold inside of the mother plant, your facility's mold problem could be a systemic issue, not an environmental one.
If you do find that Endophytic mold is causing issues, of course, you may have to destroy the mother plant.
This should not mean the end of a strain. Tissue culture on a cutting is an option that can eliminate the unwanted fungi and save the genetics. Using those genetics to regrow a mother will start fresh and avoid the intrinsic mold that was plaguing the strain prior.
Growing knowledge
The practice of checking mother plants for Endophytic mold is not yet commonplace in cannabis, but the hemp business is leading the way.
They're testing to create very clean plants, so you don't have issues during cultivation.
Major growers in the U.S. could save millions in lost harvests with mold mitigation. If your current IPM program isn't doing the trick, you may want to follow in hemp's footsteps and look inside the plant.


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Meet us!
We are one of the leading consulting firms in Europe. Our team of highly professional consultants is passionate about what they do. And this is reflected in our motto: Making a difference together! We are in the midst of a strong growth phase, but our company is still very personal at its core.
Our preferred way of communication is open and direct. Meet us at one of our next events!


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All eyes are on next week's Tobii Rex eye-tracking Windows 8 demo
Tobii Technology to meet eye-to-eye with the press at CES 2013
Tobii Rex, the eye-tracking peripheral for PCs, has the opportunity to make touchscreens look "so 2012" at CES 2013 next week.
That's where Swedish developer Tobii Technology plans to show off its latest forward-looking Windows 8 eye-controlling technology.
According to the company, the device is being marketed toward everyday consumers instead of impaired individuals.
The reason for the broader scope is that the monitor-mounted Tobii Rex functions in tandem with mouse, touch and keyboard controls to get the job done.
With proper calibration, a person's eye gaze can zoom, scroll, auto-center and open windows thanks to this pen-sized USB device that adheres to the bottom of any desktop computer monitor.
Limited 'Eyedition'
The Tobii Rex that is intended for consumers is currently pegged with a fall 2013 release date, according to PC Magazine.
Tobii Technology plans to make 5,000 of these limited-edition peripherals in the next year, but it hasn't announced a price for this desktop-only consumer version.
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The company said that a Tobii Rex developer's kit is available right now for $995, and that it will work on laptops in addition to desktop computers.
The official website for Tobii Technology is also having "interested parties" sign up to receive a forthcoming VIP invitation to put down money for the Tobii Rex 48 hours before the general public pre-order. A pre-pre-order if you will.
There's no 'i' in compete
Tobii Rex isn't the only eye-tracking device that will catch the eye of consumers in 2013. Recently, Google patented eye-tracking technology for its much-hyped Google Glass prototype.
However, Tobii Rex has been in the eye-tracking game for a several years now - so long that the company actually made the first eye-controlled video game called EyeAsteroids.
The company has also previously developed an eye-tracking tablet and partnered with Lenovo for an eye-controlled laptop.
Via PC Magazine


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Fuchsia Royale
Add to Wish List6 taper candles
These candles are called Royale due to their formidable size. They are handmade, employing traditional methods, in our Normandy workshop. Overcoated in our exclusive colors, Royale candles are created from superior quality wax. They are dripless and smokeless.
Height: 280mm Ø: 25mm
Each box contains 6 Royale candles.
- Dimensions
- H: 280mm Ø: 25mm
- Burning time
- 14 hours
- Height
- 28 cm


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Emelle Me, LLC
Philadelphia, PA, United States
Emelle Me, LLC focuses on transitioning businesses of all sizes to Web 2.0 technologies. Whether you are just starting out on the web, or looking to increase your current visibility on the web, we can provide you with a solution that will empower your organization to stay competitive in the growing web ecosystem.
Our clients include everyone from large organizations like the Philadelphia Police Department (www.phillypolice.com) to smaller start-ups like www.melodiekent.com. Our services include:
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- Search Engine Optimization
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If you have any questions feel free to give us a call at 610-945-2016 or email us at firstname.lastname@example.com! We look forward to hearing with you.
Contact Emelle Me, LLC
PA, United States
1050 N. Hancock St.
Philadelphia, PA 19123
United States


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Slovo: Towards a Digital Library of South Slavic Manuscripts
The project corresponds with the 7th framework priority concerning digital libraries of cultural heritage. It promotes the integration of Slavic cultural objects into EU by means of information technologies. The project is based on the comprehension of the common European heritage of the South East and Central European Slavs. The main objectives and aims of the project are the following:
- Cooperation between the Slavic countries and Central Europe in the field of medieval Slavic studies, especially concerning the written Balkan cultural heritage;
- Networking between institutions involved in academic research on medieval Slavic monastic literature and culture and their relationship with Central European literature and culture: organization of a workshop on Digital Libraries of Slavic Manuscripts and Archival Documents and a round table on Early Slavic Monastic culture (Sofia, February, 2008);
- Developing of an experimental web site SLOVO for the Balkan written heritage and culture, maintained by the Bulgarian Academy of sciences (BAS) ;
- Developing international standards for the description and analysis of the written heritage (terminology, principles and methods) in order to create a common platform for electronic publishing.
This common platform will serve as a base for future collaborations (initiatives) aiming at the preservation (description and encoding) of medieval manuscripts and archival documents in electronic form.
International Workshop and Round Table "South Slavic Monastic Culture"
Some pictures from the International Workshop and Round Table


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While transparency has emerged as one of the hallmarks of modern central banking, so too has an appreciation for the challenge of communicating about policy under uncertainty. This challenge can be substantial. It means conveying not only the most likely trajectory for key economic variables, but also the uncertainty around that trajectory and perhaps some indication of how policy might react under the myriad ways that the uncertainty could be resolved. I want to devote my remarks today to exploring what it means, and what it does not mean, for a central bank to communicate in an effective way about policy in the face of uncertainty.
The issue of communication is particularly relevant in the current economic environment. For much of the past three years, financial markets have reflected a high degree of certainty about the near-term outlook for monetary policy in the United States. Market expectations in the weeks preceding each of the last 16 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings attached a probability close to one that the FOMC would raise the target for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points. Also, there was very little probability attached to inter-meeting moves over this period, or to moves in increments larger than 25 basis points. And, although market expectations about how far the FOMC would ultimately move were revised significantly over the course of this period as the economic outlook was revised, these changes occurred without the Committee needing to deviate from the near-term path.
This period of unusual certainty in the path of the fed funds rate was the result of a confluence of factors. When the Committee first moved to tighten policy in June 2004, the fed funds rate was at the historic low of 1 percent, and it was clear that policy would have to move a substantial distance to get back within the range of plausible estimates of the neutral rate. Over the course of the following months the incoming data tended to reinforce the case for a progressive move up in the target rate. And, the Committee made a conscious decision to signal that in view of the likely path of growth and inflation further tightening of monetary policy was necessary and could be achieved at a relatively gradual pace.
We are now in the process of emerging from this rather exceptional period, and this provides us with an interesting context in which to reflect on uncertainty and how it affects the conduct of monetary policy and communications about monetary policy.
The degree of confidence in the sign and shape of the near-term path of the fed funds rate we've seen in recent years is unlikely to be a common feature of monetary policy in the United States or in other countries. The simple reason for this is that the economic circumstances that precipitated the policy were also not typical. There are likely to be times when incoming data deviates substantially and persistently from our forecasts. In those situations, policymakers have to examine whether they have significantly misestimated certain fundamental features of the economy, such as the NAIRU or the trend productivity growth rate, that might alter the appropriate course of monetary policy.
Central banks everywhere conduct policy in a state of limited knowledge about the economy and how best to achieve their objectives. The sources of uncertainty they confront are many and varied.
Sometimes, what we think we know about how the economy works turns out to be wrong, either because certain features of the economy have changed, or because our understanding was not right in the first place. It was once widely held that monetary policy could achieve somewhat lower rates of unemployment by allowing somewhat higher rates of inflation, and that it could do this without risking a substantial acceleration of inflation. This view proved to be mistaken because it did not correctly account for the role inflation expectations played in inflation dynamics.
Economic concepts that are critical to our understanding of the economy may be difficult or impossible to capture in practice. One such concept is the neutral or equilibrium interest rate, which is the rate that, if sustained over some period of time, is likely to be consistent with an economy growing at potential with low inflation. Plausible estimates for the prevailing level of this rate have a range of at least 100 basis points, and the center of the estimates tends to move around quite a bit.
Another concept that is difficult to estimate precisely is the economy's potential, or sustainable, growth rate. The acceleration in productivity growth in the United States in the late 1990s, for example, led us to revise our estimates of how fast the economy was likely to be able to grow at that time without undermining price stability.
We also face considerable ignorance about the precise channels through which policy actions ultimately affect the economy, as well as how long those effects will take to show up and how large they will be when they do show up. As you would expect, this makes it difficult to assess in advance, or even in real time, the amount of loosening or tightening that is likely to be necessary to achieve the goals of central banks.
Even if we had precise knowledge of key economic relationships, our ability to assess economic conditions in real time would be impeded by data limitations. Though most modern central banks implicitly or explicitly target some measure of inflation, the host of issues surrounding the proper definition and measurement of inflation for policy purposes is daunting. In general, most economic data are subject to sampling error and so cannot simply be taken at face value. Also, many of the series we rely on are subject to revision as more or better information becomes available, and potentially can even be redefined in a way that makes the history of the series less useful for interpreting current movements. Finally, data are often reported with a significant enough delay to limit their use as a read on current conditions.
But, even if we knew the model and data with certainty, it is impossible to perfectly predict the evolution of factors that are largely beyond the influence of current monetary policy but that would likely affect our policy today if we knew for sure how they would look tomorrow. One way to say this is that we simply cannot know what types of "shocks" are likely to hit the economy or when they will hit. And even as they impact the economy, the appropriate policy response may not be obvious because it may be difficult to assess in real time the probable duration of the shock and whether it is demand driven or supply driven.
Even at a one-year horizon, which for policy purposes is not a very long time, there is considerable uncertainty surrounding forecasts of GDP growth. For example, the Survey of Professional Forecasters reports that on average 50 economists attach a 90 percent probability to an outcome for real GDP growth for 2007 that ranges from 1.0 percent to 5.0 percent. The width of this band of confidence or uncertainty is similar to that in the published forecasts of many central banks.
The types of fundamental uncertainty I just reviewed are always present, but their impact on the appropriate near-term trajectory of rates, and hence on the degree of confidence the central bank can convey about that trajectory, may vary substantially over time.
I want to mention a few other concrete examples of the uncertainty we currently face. The latest wave of global economic integration has influenced inflation and output dynamics around the world in ways that may be hard to understand fully in real time. Technological progress, along with the transition to greater labor force participation in emerging and developing economies has probably served to keep inflation low in many other countries and has served to increase the rate of growth in potential output globally. But the rapid growth in the market sectors of emerging and developing economies may also contribute to more rapid growth in global demand and inflation pressures. This changing configuration of world markets complicates the task of forecasting inflation and output within national economies.
Energy prices have surprised us over the past few years, in terms of the extent of the rise in prices, the increase in volatility, and the limited negative effects to date on global economic growth. Our capacity to project future energy prices has proven to be very limited, as has our ability to convincingly ascertain the extent to which temporary supply factors, rather than an unrecognized strength in global demand, accounts for the energy price trajectory we've witnessed recently. The consequences of these limits to our knowledge may be even greater given the extent of the price increases already experienced.
The unprecedented level of the U.S. current account deficit and dramatic rise in U.S. indebtedness adds to the normal degree of uncertainty that surrounds any medium-term forecast because of the dynamics that could accompany the path to a more sustainable pattern of capital flows.
The process of adjustment that appears to be underway in the U.S. housing market, occurring as it is after a sustained and very substantial decline in the household savings rate, provides more than the usual challenge in predicting the future strength of consumer spending.
It is also hard to assess the degree to which the current constellation of global monetary conditions has influenced the behavior of long-term interest rates. This makes it harder to assess the appropriateness of the current stance of monetary policy. And it may also mask some of the pressures on risk premiums we might expect to see given the deterioration of the U.S. long-term fiscal situation and the magnitude of the U.S. current account imbalance.
In reviewing these dimensions of uncertainty, I want to emphasize that the fundamental conditions of the U.S. economy, and much of the world economy, are very strong today. But these aspects of uncertainly help illustrate what makes monetary policy interesting, and they help explain why central banks may confront wide bands of uncertainty around even a strong central outlook. They also emphasize the importance of the process we use to make decisions about policy in a state of limited knowledge.
Policymakers can use a range of approaches to deal with uncertainty. In addition to making a very substantial investment in trying to capture changes in economic activity that may not be fully evident in the national data, we typically spend a lot of time looking at the assumptions that underpin the central forecast, and the sensitivity of that forecast to the possibility that those assumptions prove wrong.
We regularly and systematically examine a range of alternative scenarios that attempt to capture a broad range of different paths for the main forces operating on the economy. These scenarios include those that seem highly implausible but might prove very damaging, as well as those that seem more plausible but might alter the outlook less. To complement this, we look at the implications for monetary policy of alternative scenarios for the outlook—what should we do if the world moves in a different direction. And we also look at the impact on the outlook for growth and inflation of different paths for the fed funds rate.
These approaches help illustrate the size and sources of uncertainty we live with at any moment. They do not give us the capacity to attach precise probabilities to alternative scenarios or to quantify with precision the implications, but they help frame a discussion of the material risks to the outlook and the potential consequences of different types of policy mistakes. And they can help inform choices about how central banks should affect expectations about future interest rates.
Along with these analytical tools, many central banks have adopted a decisionmaking structure that is designed to bring a diversity of independent perspectives to the table. Although the FOMC's discussions begin with the presentation of a forecast prepared by the staff of the Federal Reserve Board, the committee members bring to the discussion substantial information based on independent efforts to understand the underlying dynamics of demand and inflation and their implications for monetary policy. This can provide a stronger foundation for decisions, particularly where uncertainty is inherently great.
Central banks have adopted different approaches to this challenge, even as there has been broad convergence toward the model of independent central banks, with explicit mandates that include price stability and greater disclosure and transparency.
The central banks that publish quantitative forecasts for growth and inflation now typically show the confidence bands around their forecasts. In some cases, these forecasts use, as a conditioning assumption, financial market expectations for the path of short-term interest rates. In others, the central bank publishes a forecast that includes the central bank's assessment at that time of the likely path of monetary policy over some horizon. In the former case, the implications of the forecast for monetary policy are left implicit. In the latter case, the likely path of monetary policy is made explicit, but that path is heavily qualified or conditioned to make it clear that that expected path of short-term interest rates will change as conditions change.
The FOMC's approach to communication differs in interesting and important ways from these other models. Although the Committee has introduced a gradual but marked increase in the degree of communication over the past two decades, it provides information about its forecast in quantitative terms less frequently and with less detail than has become typical of many other central banks. And yet, because of the unique circumstances over the past two to three years, it has provided more information about the near-term path for monetary policy than has been the practice of many of our counterparts.
These differences in approaches to communication do not seem to reflect fundamental differences in perceptions of the degree or nature of uncertainty. The proponents of the regimes with the most explicit forecasts and greater disclosure about the future path of interest rates do not claim to have greater confidence in their ability to forecast. They do express, however, greater comfort with some of the potentially adverse consequences of such approaches, the tendency, for example, for observers to gravitate toward the central tendency of the forecast and to look past the uncertainty bands and qualifications. And they express less concern that these approaches to communication will end up limiting the flexibility of central banks to react as circumstances change without inducing damaging volatility into markets.
And so, even as central banks have moved in varying degrees toward greater clarity about their goals, forecasts and policy decisions, they have also moved to being more explicit about uncertainty and about the need for flexibility in how policy should adjust over time.
This reflects an evolving appreciation that there are limits to transparency. Transparency in monetary policy cannot mean that the central bank conveys more confidence in the outlook for growth and inflation than it can reasonably have, and it cannot provide more assurance about the likely future course of policy than it actually has.
This seems self evident. And yet as central banks have moved to communicating more and disclosing more about monetary policy, transparency in monetary policy has been associated with rising expectations for clarity about the path of target interest rates over time. It might seem desirable in an ideal state of the world for expectations in financial markets about the future course of policy to closely track in real time those of the central bank. But given the degree of uncertainty that surrounds monetary policy making, this is unlikely to be possible, except in special circumstances.
There will be circumstances when it is appropriate for the central bank to send a signal about the target rate that extends well beyond the immediate horizon. These circumstances are not likely to arise frequently, and will be appropriate in particular conditions when the benefits afforded by the effect on expectations clearly outweigh the cost imposed by the loss to flexibility.
Central banks should be clear about what they are trying to achieve. They should be open with the knowledge and insight they possess. And they should provide the public with clarity where it is attainable. But they also need to convey the limits to their knowledge and avoid providing a sense of certainty they do not, or cannot, possess.
Uncertainty strengthens the case for being open about what we do not know, and exploring the robustness of our decisions to a range of alternative scenarios. But uncertainty also reinforces the case for clarity in communications about the objectives that guide policy and the rationale for our decisions. Perhaps most crucially, this means preserving confidence in our commitment to keep underlying inflation low over time, and for retaining the capacity to respond with flexibility to the challenges we face in this uncertain world.
Thank you.
Note: Figure in 3rd paragraph revised to read "...or to move in increments larger than 25 basis points."
May 31, 2006


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Forget the Feds: States Are Trying to Rein in the NSA
Legislators in statehouses around the country are seeking to take the battle over government surveillance into their own hands. By Dustin Volz
If you are worried about your privacy and remain unconvinced that President Obama will offer any serious reforms to the National Security Agency, take heart: Legislators in statehouses around the country are seeking to take the battle over government surveillance into their own hands.
The OffNow coalition, a group of organizations with a libertarian bend, are taking a page out of the American Legislative Exchange Council's notebook and offering up model legislation to state lawmakers in an attempt to disrupt the NSA.
"As we began to look at it, we started to realize that the federal government, as with most things, is not going to limit itself," said Michael Maharrey, spokesman for the Tenth Amendment Center, an OffNow member. Citing the writings of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Maharrey contends that the idea of states waging war on the NSA "is on very strong legal footing."
Earlier this week, a bipartisan duo of California state senators dropped legislation that would prevent the state from aiding the NSA's collection of phone and Internet metadata on grounds it is a "direct threat to our liberty and freedom." On the same day, a lawmaker in Oklahoma introduced a similar bill. Both measures features four cornerstones: They would prohibit state and local agencies from helping the NSA within their jurisdiction, including state-owned public utilities; make warrantless data gathered inadmissible in state court; bar public universities from contributing to NSA research or recruitment; and issue sanctions against contractors that work with the NSA.
(Related: The NSA's Surveillance Programs Aren't Making Us Any Safer)
Arizona has also introduced the full slate of proposed reforms, according to Maharrey. Missouri and Kansas have introduced pared-down measures. Legislators in Washington, Utah, and a few other states are mulling over the model legislation as well, Maharrey said.
They've already made strides in a handful of states despite uncertainty that what they're trying to do would be constitutional. While Maharrey and others believe the have a solid case, legal experts aren't so sure.
"If this becomes a real battle, the federal government wins, because the federal government always wins," said Jeremy Rabkin, a constitutional law professor at George Mason University.
He added that he was "extremely skeptical" of the measures being pushed by OffNow, though added that the sections dealing with state courts and universities could have some merit.
But while states can't trump federal law, they don't have to make things easy for the feds.
"State governments are free to refrain from cooperating with federal authorities if they so choose," explained Randy Barnett, a professor at Georgetown's Law Center. "In general, states cannot attack federal operations, but that's not the same as refusing to help."
Barnett pointed to the more than two dozen states that refused to implement their own online health exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, leaving the task up to the feds instead, as a recent example of how states can decide to be willfully unhelpful even if they can't block a federal program.
Barnett further noted that even if the states did have legal authority to pull the plug or turn off the water on the NSA, it's unlikely they'd really want to. States like Maryland and Utah, which house NSA facilities, aren't going to try to shut them down because of the huge economic boon they provide to the states.
Maharrey and others recognize the legal hurdles they face, but they remain undeterred.
"Obviously, the NSA is going to have other options," Maharrey conceded. "But an organization that is spying on virtually everyone in the world should have life made as difficult as possible for them."


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It has been said that a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. The Lord Jesus frequently used parables as a means of illustrating profound, divine truths. Stories such as these are easily remembered, the characters bold, and the symbolism rich in meaning. Parables were a common form of teaching in Judaism. Before a certain point in His ministry, Jesus had employed many graphic analogies using common things that would be familiar to everyone (salt, bread, sheep, etc.) and their meaning was fairly clear in the context of His teaching. Parables required more explanation, and at one point in His ministry, Jesus began to teach using parables exclusively.
The question is why Jesus would let most people wonder about the meaning of His parables. The first instance of this is in His telling the parable of the seed and the soils. Before He interpreted this parable, He drew His disciples away from the crowd. They said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,
'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.' But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it" (Matthew 13:10-17).
From this point on in Jesus' ministry, when He spoke in parables, He explained them only to His disciples. But those who had continually rejected His message were left in their spiritual blindness to wonder as to His meaning. He made a clear distinction between those who had been given "ears to hear" and those who persisted in unbelief—ever hearing, but never actually perceiving and "always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7). The disciples had been given the gift of spiritual discernment by which things of the spirit were made clear to them. Because they accepted truth from Jesus, they were given more and more truth. The same is true today of believers who have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth (John 16:13). He has opened our eyes to the light of truth and our ears to the sweet words of eternal life.
Our Lord Jesus understood that truth is not sweet music to all ears. Simply put, there are those who have neither interest in nor regard for the deep things of God. So why, then, did He speak in parables? To those with a genuine hunger for God, the parable is both an effective and memorable vehicle for the conveyance of divine truths. Our Lord's parables contain great volumes of truth in very few words—and His parables, rich in imagery, are not easily forgotten. So, then, the parable is a blessing to those with willing ears. But to those with dull hearts and ears that are slow to hear, the parable is also an instrument of both judgment and mercy.