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Pomeroy Academy of Irish Dance News
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St. Patrick's Day Ceile
Printable Version
Posted on:
Mar 13/2007
@ 12:27 pm by:
Kimmie Gulevich
The Pomeroy Academy of Irish Dance and the Slainte Society of Irish Dance welcome you to their Fourt...
Check out our New Website
Printable Version
Posted on:
Sep 25/2006
@ 6:29 pm by:
Kimmie Gulevich
Check out our new website (www.pomeroyacademy.com). This website will be kept up to date with all of...
May 5th Recital
Printable Version
Posted on:
May 04/2006
@ 7:39 am by:
Kimmie Gulevich
On May 5th, 2006 we will be hosting a recital at the North Peace Cultural Centre. Tickets are on sal...
Festival of the Arts, Garage sale, and Recital
Printable Version
Posted on:
Feb 05/2006
@ 1:30 pm by:
Kimmie Gulevich
We will be performing at the Festival of Arts again this year. This takes place from March 30-April ...
Shows, cancelled classes and other information
Printable Version
Posted on:
Nov 17/2005
@ 7:41 am by:
Kimmie Gulevich
If you need to know when or where our shows are then you can be checking the calender for all of our...
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subset: commoncrawl


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After Asphalt & Rubber first announced the bike back in July, the 2012 Ducati Streetfighter 848 has finally made its official debut (with a little teaser help from Nicky Hayden). Expanding Ducati's Streetfighter brand to now include two bikes (we'll have to wait a little longer for the 2012 Ducati Streetfighter 1198), the Ducati Streetfighter 848 is certainly not a shocking release. True to the streetfighter movement's ethos, the Streetfighter 848 is a stripped-down version of the Superbike 848, with a twist.
As we predicted, Ducati has brought over the Testastretta 11° engine configuration for the smaller Streetfighter, meaning not only will the Streetfighter 848 have a wet-clutch, but also a 15,000 mile valve service interval. While Ducati is mum on many of the new SF 848's details, the Bologna brand says the bike will come with the Ducati Traction Control system (DTC), and from what we can see in the photos, unsurprisingly lower-spec Brembo brakes and Marzoochi forks, instead of the Superbike 848's monoblocs and Sachs units.


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When you login, various library services are become available:
Dissertations in Archival Sections
You can browse and search theses/dissertations of Kyushu University (including Kyushu Imperial University and Kyushu Institute of Design).
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- Only a few Master's and Bachelor's Theses are included.
- If without online fulltexts, please ask librarians to use print copies (conferred before March 2013) or digital copies (after April 2013) of the theses/dissertations.
- Digitized Contents Transmission Service by National Diet Library may also help you.
Please contact us if you find incorrect bibliographic information.


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More D15 Blog….. by Shauna
So this week at Youth Theatre, we did more work with our scripts.
As a warm-up and to get us thinking and acting as our character, Eimear had us play a game where we take it in turns to say things our character has done during the week as our character would say them.
Then we split into our groups and ran our lines.....
I'm in a scene from the Shakespearian classic Romeo & Juliet with Conor, Heather and Katie and I'm lucky enough to be playing Juliet herself. Conor and Heather are playing Capulet & Lady Capulet, my parents, respectively and Katie is the Nurse.
Although the play is over 400 years old, this scene is very relatable to teens today. In this scene, I am hiding pain and love from my parents, and arguing with them about my future and what I want. Many teenagers nowadays have the same struggles and arguments with their parents, and so in the scene I find it easy to tap into my own experiences to portray Juliet and how she's feeling.
We're setting the scene in a modern teenage girl's bedroom, an interesting angle and setting for the Shakespearian scene. I'm really looking forward to acting it in the showcase later in the year.
This past year a lot has changed for me, I've had a lot of great new experiences and met some amazing people, and a lot of that is down to my involvement with the D15 Youth Theatre. I've never felt so comfortable around a group of people in my life. Everyone in the group is friends, we get on so well we even joke and say that we're a family. Being so comfortable around my fellow group members allows me to express myself, blossom and be creative and this in turn helps me to develop as an actress and writer all the time. Having such a supportive and constructive creative environment available is fantastic, and does wonders for your confidence and self esteem.
When you show up to a workshop on a Tuesday night having had a crap day or week you know you're going to leave with a smile on your face because the chemistry and energy in the group is amazing, it just lifts your spirits immediately when you step into the same room as them.
What we have in our group is really special, the dynamic is unbeatable and because we're a newly established Youth Theatre there's a certain excitement and buzz in the air as we can feel ourselves starting to take flight. The next couple of years will be exciting for us as we'll have our first couple of shows together and we'll all be able to say that we helped to build what will hopefully in a few years be a Youth Theatre big and bold enough to rival Dublin Youth Theatre from the ground up, and that really is special.
I'm truly honoured to be a part of the group, and I love everybody in it with all my heart.


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LAS VEGAS — A California newlywed was wondering why a slot machine refused to spit out the $250 she thought was due Saturday night, until a casino worker informed her she had actually won $1.15 million.
Lorraine Page, 25, had been playing the progressive $1 slots for three minutes when she lined up four triple-bars to win the jackpot, Caesar`s Palace spokeswoman Debbie Munch said. Misreading the machine, Page thought she had won $250. A casino employee then told her the jackpot was really $1,150,697, Munch said.


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OKLAHOMA CITY – Olympic Gold Medalist Bart Conner flew to PyeongChang, Republic of Korea, in January to continue his passion and support of the Special Olympics at the 2013 World Winter Games.
With approximately four million athletes in more than 170 countries, the Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for people with intellectual disabilities.
It all began when Eunice Kennedy Shriver had a vision for the fair and just treatment of people with intellectual disabilities. She pioneered a foundation where children could play, that focuses on the fact that people with intellectual disabilities can, and will succeed when given the opportunity.
Conner, who serves as the vice-chair of the Special Olympics International board of directors, holds this life-changing organization near to his heart.
"One of my great joys in life is being involved with Special Olympics," Conner said. "Eunice Kennedy Shriver is among my greatest heroes for her passion to use sports as the catalyst to improve the lives of people with intellectual disabilities."
During this year's games, over 2,500 athletes competed in various winter sports such as alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, snowboarding, speed skating, snowshoeing and other sports.
Conner, a volunteer for Special Olympics for 33 years, had the opportunity to participate in a snowshoeing relay race in the new Special Olympics Unified Sports.
"Special Olympics Unified Sports is an exciting new program where athletes with and without intellectual disabilities compete on the same team," Conner said. "We had fun, but the Special Olympics athletes from Russia completely smoked us. They were exceptionally fit and fast!"
The 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games also welcomed other prominent legends, leaders and celebrities such as: Toby Dawson, Donna DeVarona, Dan Jansen, Michelle Kwan, Yuna Kim, Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutombo, Apolo Ohno, Sam Perkins, Karl Schranz, Trixie Schuba, Hannah Teter, Xhang Ziyi, Michael Tritscher and Yang Yang.
For more information about the Special Olympics, please visit their website at www.specialolympics.org.____________________________________________________________________________
Torchbearers John Amaechi and Nadia Comaneci posing with the Olympic Torch on the viewing platform of the North Greenwich Arena, London. (Photo credit: The Telegraph)
Bart and Nadia hanging with some Olympic Legends at the 2012 London Olympics
Exclusive Webisode: Why Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci Support the Special Olympics
Husband-and-wife team Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci, both gold medal gymnasts, also share a commitment to the Special Olympics, the world's largest sports organization for people with intellectual disabilities. Watch as Bart reveals how the Special Olympics transforms lives around the world and carries on the mission of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the organization's founder.
Nadia's 2012 Olympic Visa Commercial (Narrated by Morgan Freeman)


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The first cookies I made were these Chewy Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies. I found the recipe at http://pickypalate.blogspot.com/2008/01/could-it-really-be-my-paridise-bakerys.html. She says that they are very similar to Paradise Bakery's Black and White Chippers. I have never had those before though, so I couldn't relate. Either way- these are sooooooo good! I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, but I loved these. They are really chewy and yummy.
Chewy Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder)
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsps. baking soda
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups white chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease cookie sheet. (I alway use a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper)
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addiction. Add the salt and vanilla.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour, cocoa and baking soda and gradually add to the creamed mixture. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until fluffy but still soft. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
I packaged mine up in these cute little tin tie bags.


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* Kevin Cannon wrote: >I just looked through the XHTML2 spec and noticed that the ol tag does't >appear to allow you to specify the start attribute again. I feel that is >part of the markup rather than something that should be left to style. This has been discussed to some extend in march 2003 on this list. Some people think that list numbering is purely stylistic, some people (like you) consider the numbering content; I think there is a general dislike for the "start" and "value" attributes as you cannot use them for some things some authors want to do (e.g., linking parts of a splitted list) for example. I do not think that these attributes would help you much, your document would break if I specify to render ol elements with a, b, c, ... numbering style in my user style sheet. I've asked the HTML WG to tell the community about their consensus what features XHTML 2.0 should provide in this regard in http://firstname.lastname@example.com to be able to propose a better solution, but I am not aware of any reply to that message...Received on Sunday, 7 September 2003 00:16:51 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Wednesday, 7 January 2015 15:06:05 UTC


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Baptism - Infant/Child
"I baptize you in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
We are excited to help you with the baptism of your child. Baptism brings new life into the Church and the parish. Below is a list of frequently asked questions to help you. If you do not find what you are looking for, please contact Herlinda Paiz and she will connect you to the right person.
What is Baptism?
"Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as children of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: Baptism is a sacrament of regeneration through water in the word." (Catechism 1213) Through baptism, we become part of the royal, priestly people of God, called to holy lives of prayer and service.
How do I get my child Baptized?
Contact Herlinda Paiz the parish secretary. She can help you to make an appointment with one of the three priests on staff. When you meet with one of the priests, they will help you fill out the necessary forms and you can register to attend two baptismal preparation classes. You will receive a Baptism Preparation Packet.
Where and when do Baptisms take place?
Infant baptisms in English are held monthly in the Cathedral (301 Sheldon SE). The monthly baptism schedule is based upon the availability of the Church. English Baptisms alternate their designated monthly date between Saturday mornings at 10:00 am, and Saturday evenings at the 4:30pm Mass.
Infant and child baptisms in Spanish are held monthly in the Cathedral as well. Spanish baptisms are normally held on Saturday mornings at 10am.
For more information contact: Herlinda Paiz.
Can I schedule a private baptism or a date other than the regular schedule?
It is our desire to serve the parents and families of the Cathedral. The priest will do their best to assist with special needs. Please bring these up when you meet with one of the priests. It is important to understand that Baptism celebrates the initiation of the child into the parish community. Public baptisms ensure that the community is present at the baptismal celebration.
How far ahead do I need to plan?
Please call two months before you desire your child to be baptized. Since parents are required to attend preparation classes prior to the baptism of their children, you will need to have enough time to complete those before the baptism of your child. We welcome your call even prior to the birth of your child.
For more information contact: Herlinda Paiz.
What are the requirements?
The minimal requirements are as follows:
1) One of the parents must be a baptized and practicing Catholic.
2) One of the godparents must be a baptized, confirmed and practicing Catholic.
3) Both parents are to attend the baptism preparation classes prior to baptism.
My child is school age. Do I need to register them for religious education?
Yes. Register your child for his or her appropriate grade level religious education. In addition to attending religious education classes, your child needs to register for special baptism prep classes. Parents and children attend these classes together.
Older youth of high school age normally enroll in the RCIA process to prepare for baptism. Find out more by visiting our RCIA page.
If your child is of school age please contact Sean Donovan our Director of Religious Education.
Who can be a Godparent?
To be a Catholic godparent, one must:
- be a Catholic who has received the Sacrament of Confirmation and regularly participates in the Eucharist
- be an active member of a Catholic faith community
- be at least sixteen years old
When choosing a godparent for your child, it may be helpful to consider the following:
- Is this person actively practicing his or her faith? Does he or she worship at Sunday Eucharist regularly? (This is the most important question to ask. If the person selected is not an active, practicing Catholic, he or she will not be able to fulfill effectively the role of godparent.)
- Does this person live close enough, or will this person have sufficiently frequent contact, to get to know your child and play an active role in your child's faith life?
- Does this person know enough about the Catholic Church and Catholic faith to be able to teach your child about it?
- If something happened to you, would this person make sure your child was raised as an active member of the Catholic Community?
Can a non-Catholic be a Godparent?
Some families may wish to have a non-Catholic Christian also serve as a godparent for their child. Although one Catholic godparent is required for baptism, a second baptized (non-Catholic) Christian may serve as a "Christian witness." This Christian witness participates in the celebration and stands alongside the godparent during the baptismal ceremony.
What if a Godparent cannot come to the actual celebration?
You can have a proxy stand in for the godparent(s). Please let the staff know, so they can record the name of the proxy on the baptismal certificate.
I am an adult. What do I need to do to be baptized?
The process for baptism for adults is through the Rite of Initiation for Adults (RCIA). You can find out more by visiting our RCIA page.
For more information contact Fred Johnson.


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CLARK – Sherri D'Amico's fifth grade students at Frank K. Hehnly Elementary School in Clark recently completed a lesson on Colonial Times. The students then had to use their knowledge to create a scene from that time period. The dioramas depicted various scenes from different colonies, market towns and farms. Pictured are the fifth graders with their shoebox dioramas. (Photo courtesy of Hehnly School)
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A fantastic collection of men's clothing in large sizes
If you're a big size man it can be difficult to find clothes in your size that are comfortable and stylish, here at MenswearUK we've a great selection of fashionable large clothing in a fantastic size range.
Big menswear in a range of sizes
Our range of large men's clothing includes a great range of waist sizes from 36 to 54 as well as menswear in sizes Medium to XXXXXL including 2 XL, 3XL, 4XL and 5XL so you'll find your size in fashionable styles. Our range is the perfect way to make clothes shopping quick and easy.
A choice of leg lengths from our large size menswear range
If you wear big men's clothing you might still have difficulty shopping for clothes in the right leg length. Our big men's clothing range includes a choice of lengths so you can get the perfect fit. Our lengths range from 27in to 33in so whether you're tall or need big men's trousers and jeans in shorter lengths we'll have something ideal.
If you're not quite sure what size will offer the best fit then check out our quick and easy sizing guide.


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© Copyright 2018 by Optimation.


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1st place USD
2nd place USD
3rd place USD
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5th - 6th places USD 1,500
7th - 10th places USD 1,000
11th - 20th places USD 500
21th - 30th places USD 200
Register for the contest
A special DEMO account will be created in your name
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Contest period starts on the 1st day of each month and you should use this month's trading credentials sent to you via e-mail. For more information, please consult the rules.
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Hi traders, Alivio from Russia has managed to earn 295 points (1 031.66k) and finished first in July…


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The Gower Peninsular is Britain's First Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and it is renowned for its magnificent coastline of sandy beaches and imposing cliffs. It is a place to get away from it all and experience a truly magnificent landscape.
Below is an example of the sweeping and spectacular views from Apple Croft
Summer Sunset from the back garden


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THE Queen will meet Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness next week and shake hands in an historic first for the Northern Ireland peace process, it was confirmed today.
The Deputy First Minister will attend a cross border event in Belfast on Wednesday, which the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, will also attend.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said the decision had been taken by the party's ruling council at a four hour meeting in Dublin after consulting with grass roots support.
The Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister, a chief negotiator for Sinn Fein during tough talks to bring the IRA terror campaign to an end, turned down an invitation to meet the Queen during her visit to Ireland last year.
During that trip, the Queen won over many people by paying her respects to Ireland's patriot dead at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin, among many other significant engagements.
The meeting and handshake will be a particularly poignant moment for the Queen whose cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten was murdered by the IRA in 1979. Mr McGuinness is a former IRA commander.
Lord Mountbatten, whose country seat was at Broadlands in Romsey, was blown up by an IRA bomb while on a boat during a holiday in Ireland.


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Suzhou Silver Lamp, 42" - Tall, Asian Inspired, Pagoda Design with Antiqued Silver Leaf Finish and Rust Undertones, Cast Composite. Clear Crystal Footing. Black Silkette Lampshade. Houses 1) 100 Watt Bulb, 3-Way.
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Bisphenol-A sensors on polyimide fabricated by laser direct writing for on-site river water monitoring at attomolar concentration
This work presents an aptamer-based, highly sensitive and specific sensor for atto- to femtomolar level detection of bisphenol A (BPA). Because of its widespread use in numerous products, BPA enters surface water from effluent discharges during its manufacture, use, and from waste landfill sites throughout the world. On-site measurement of BPA concentrations in water is important for evaluating compliance with water quality standards or environmental risk levels of the harmful compound in the environment. The sensor in this work is porous, conducting, interdigitated electrodes that are formed by laser-induced carbonization of flexible polyimide sheets. BPA-specific aptamer is immobilized on the electrodes as the probe, and its binding with BPA at the electrode surface is detected by capacitive sensing. The binding process is aided by ac electroosmotic effect that accelerates the transport of BPA molecules to the nanoporous graphene-like structured electrodes. The sensor achieved a limit of detection of 58.28 aM with a response time of 20 s. The sensor is further applied for recovery analysis of BPA spiked in surface water. In conclusion, this work provides an affordable platform for highly sensitive, real time, and field-deployable BPA surveillance critical to the evaluation of the ecological impact of BPA exposure.
- Authors:
- Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
- Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Sichuan Univ., Chengdu (People's Republic of China)
- Sichuan Univ., Chengdu (People's Republic of China)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Beijing Univ. of Technology, Beijing (People's Republic of China)
- Publication Date:
- Grant/Contract Number:
- Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces; Journal ID: ISSN 1944-8244
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society
- Research Org:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org:
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; ac electroosmosis; aptasensor; capacitive sensing; laser direct writing; point of care
- 1261363


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I wish I weren't so busy with school, I have so many more things I want to post on here…the list is quite long. I have taken some time to do quite a lot in the last 2 months, but mostly just fashion and food related posts, because they're picture heavy and don't take too long to do, though they do take up some time. Those are two of my favorite things, but I have other interests and ideas. I'll get to other things eventually, maybe on my spring break in the beginning of March. Anyway, here's a cute outfit from last month (getting close to the present! yay!) that I think is the perfect cozy outfit for a cold winter night out, perfect for cuddling. <3
I love when my boyfriend gives me pretty flowers! <3 I love this picture of us too.
Skirt: H & M, Sweater: Kohl's, Leggings & Boots: Avenue, Adorable gloves and Shawl: Macy's (gift), Necklace: ??? old, Ring: gift, came with nail polish set…lol♥ Xoxo Gabriella


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Popular Now
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01803 865913
+44 1803 865913
By: Elna Venter(Author)
248 pages, 1800+ colour photos, colour illustrations, colour distribution maps
Language: English with English, Afrikaans, and scientific nomenclature
This easy tree guide is meant for people who would like to get to know the trees of the Garden Route, whether they are experienced botanists, or amateurs. The Garden Route is a popular stretch of the south-eastern coast of South Africa. It stretches from Heidelberg in the Western Cape to the Storms River.
- Information about 110 trees
- Listed in alphabetical order to their scientific names
- Afrikaans and English common names as well as the South African tree number is listed below the scientific names
- More than 1 800 photographs in full colour
- A very visual, unique tree key makes identification easy
- Identification aspects are all photo-illustrated
- Distribution maps
- Notes on usage of tree parts and interesting facts
There are currently no reviews for this book. Be the first to review this book!
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I don't know how you got a book printed 26 years ago in the conditions that I received it (like new) but you do it! ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!
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A New Wine For A New Bottle (3) by Pastor Faith Oyedepo
Topic: A New Wine For A New Bottle (3)
Dear Reader,
It is a great privilege to share with you from the Word of God. Last week, I shared on: God's move for the end-time. Today, I will be examining the topic: "The requirement for the New Wine"
What Can I Do To Be A Partaker Of This New Wine?
What can I do to become a new bottle in the hands of God? The Bible says: But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved" "No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, the old is better (Luke 5:39). If you sit down to think about it, you will discover very clearly that there are certain things that vessels who want to become new bottle in the hands of God must be ready to do, in order to partake of this new move. In the course of this teaching, I will mention one of these qualities.
God has a container in His hand and He is ready to pour the new wine into as many vessels that will come before Him. God is getting the wine ready in His container and He is looking for people to pour His new wine into. Right now, He is distinguishing between the goat and the sheep; He is looking for the bottles that have been refined and are ready to partake of the new wine. That brings us to the first requirement for this new wine:
The first thing the Bible tells us that such bottles must be ready to do to partake of the new wine is to purge himself or herself from the old wine. Any bottle that wants to be a container of the new wine must be ready to purge himself of all the leaven.
So, if you and I want to be partakers of the new wine that God is ready to pour out in our time and days, the first thing we must do is to purge ourselves of the leaven. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:6 that: "Don't you know that the little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" A little leaven, no matter how small it may be, when you mix it with flour, the effect is always tremendous and visible. I don't know what leaven you need to purge yourself of at this moment: it may be the leaven of pride or anger; or those little things that you say don't really matter.
The new wine cannot stay in the same bottle with that leaven. It may be the leaven of little lies that you tell and you say to yourself: "Oh! It doesn't really matter." The old bottle cannot contain the new wine. If you put the new wine in the old bottle, the bottle is going to burst or get destroyed. God doesn't want you and I destroyed; rather, He wants us to make our lives living sacrifices in His house.
There is a story in the Bible about Ananias and Sapphira. There was a time in the history of the church, when God began to do a new thing just like He is determined to do in our days. God was busy pouring out the new wine into new bottles when suddenly; Ananias and Sapphira brought in their old bottles and wanted the new wine poured into it. The end result was a great calamity. The Bible tells us that they were destroyed; they died physically just because of that little leaven that was still in their lives. I don't know you, and I don't know the leaven that is in your life but you know it. That is why the Bible says: if we judge ourselves truly, we shall not be judged. Every Sunday morning, we all go to church, sing to God and listen to the Word of God; yes. But from Monday to Saturday, what is your life like?
Everyone who comes to church on meeting days appear holy and righteous before God; but on other days of the week, what kind of life do you live? What is that leaven that is in your life? It may be so tiny and small, according to you, but remember the Bible says: "Little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Let's read that verse of Scripture together: Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).
There are leavens of malice and wickedness; yours may not be either of this but I am sure you know what yours is. God is giving you and I another opportunity, today, to get the leaven out of our lives. The Bible says: "The little foxes that spoils the vine" (SOS 2:15). As little as they seem, they have the power to spoil your vine. Don't ever forget that your vine have tender grapes; therefore, give no place to the enemy. God is getting ready for His people; He is building for Himself an army, but that little leaven in your life can be a deterrent to you being a partaker of this new wine. You must examine yourself as every day comes, and make sure that you don't give room to any leaven in your life.
You will discover that some of these leaven come so subtly on man. They come so gently, they enter so secretly and anyone that is not careful will open up a place to the enemy.
Maybe you just did something good and everybody says, "Oh! That sister is just wonderful. That brother is just great. Oh! What a mighty thing." Before you know what is happening, the devil says that you are the wicked and crooked person in your environment. Then, you look at yourself and say, "Me! oh!" You may not tell the next person to you, but you say in your heart, "As great and wonderful as I am?" The devil says, "It doesn't matter." As a result, you too start crying. Subtly, that is the leaven the enemy uses to see what he can do or how he can eat up the tender vine that God has given to you.
The Bible says that we should give no place to the devil. You have the power to refuse the devil at will. I don't know what that leaven in your life is, but you have the duty to make sure that you don't give room to it. The Bible says that pride goes before destruction; it comes in subtly. It is, therefore, a matter and conviction of the heart. No other person knows that thing which exists in your life. Maybe, you are the only person who knows that leaven; do yourself a lot of good by purging your life of that leaven and giving no place to them. As you do so, you are preparing yourself as a new bottle for the wine of God in this end-time.
Every heart that desires to be a partaker of the new wine for this end-time must first make his life available to God by accepting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. This is an opportunity for you to give your life to Jesus, right now. If you are ready to be born again, please say this prayer: Dear Lord Jesus Christ, I come to You today. I am a sinner. Forgive me of my sins and cleanse me with Your Blood. Deliver me from sin and satan to serve the living God. I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Make me a child of God today. Thank You for accepting me into Your Kingdom.
If you prayed this simple prayer, you are now a child of God. He loves you and will never leave you. Read your Bible daily, obey God's Word and seek Christian fellowship (John 14:21).
Congratulations! You are now born again! All-round rest and peace are guaranteed you, in Jesus' Name. Call or write, and share your testimonies with me through [email protected], [email protected]; OR 07026385437 and 08141320204.
For more insight, these books authored by me are available at the Dominion Bookstores in all Living Faith Churches and other leading Christian bookstores: Marriage Covenant, Making Marriage Work, Building A Successful Home and Success in Marriage (Co-Authored).


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The former owner of a funeral home in Gary, Ind., where four apparently abandoned bodies were discovered last week had his license revoked in 2001 while at a South Side funeral home he owned.
No charges have been filed in the Indiana case, but authorities are seeking information from Darryl Cammack, who ran the Serenity Gardens Funeral Home, 934 E. 21st Ave. in Gary, up until about three years ago.
The building was bought in an April tax sale by a Gary church, whose pastor apparently found the bodies in the vacant facility.


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The roundtable: will gather 20-25 organic and non-GMO sector stakeholders, NGO representatives and EU regions working on food production and prevention of GMO contamination. The objective of the roundtable is to give strategic input to specific challenges on the prevention of GMO contamination in the food chain.
The working groups: the roundtable is divided in working groups. These working groups gather members of the roundtable and other expertises that assess the state of play of specific issues regarding GMO contamination across the food chain and decide the key questions that will be discussed in the thematic workshops. The outcomes of these groups will be presented in the thematic workshops and in roundtable meetings.
Thematic workshops: for in-depth discussions of specific topics and on the alternatives to strength the capacity to stay GM-free. . These thematic workshops will take place in different countries across Europe and it will include specific section to assess the situation at regional level with national/regional stakeholders and administration.Stakeholders from the roundtable and other expertise can also participate.


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Jersey Shore Recap: Snooki Fought the Law and the Law Won
After defying the laws of etiquette by sticking her butt in a fridge, Snooki discovers she can't defy Jersey's laws.
Some people spent Martin Luther King Jr. Day in quiet reflection, thinking about what they can do to make the world a better place. Others spent it watching a weeble-wobble soothe her itchy anus in a mini-fridge. That was just one of the many wonderful moments that made this special holiday episode of Jersey Shore so compelling. Here now, this week's Filthy Dozen:
1. The Fantastic First Four Minutes
Before we could even settle in with our fried pickles and ether shots, Snooki drunkenly ate an entire raw potato and tried to grab Vinny's wiener! Oddly enough, this was Snooki's most dignified moment the entire episode. We quickly learned that Vin's pet name for his penis is "Seabiscuit," presumably as a nod to the Depression-era racehorse who overcame tremendous odds to become a champion thoroughbred. But is this the most apt metaphor? We don't want to step on anyone's balls here, but perhaps a better name for Vinny's junk might be "Barbaro," since the only humane thing to do would be to put it down.
2. Mike's Heartfelt "I Have a Dream" Speech
Deena likes Mike. Snooki is Deena's friend and would like to see those two get together. So, Snooki decides to break the ice in the only way she knows how — by grabbing a two-liter bottle of Hawaiian Punch and yelling "threesome!!!" Thus, we are treated to The Situation's pointed paraphrasing of Dr. King's unforgettable words: "Every guy has a dream ... of having a threesome with two women, obviously — maybe not Deena and Snooks." However, Mike clearly will not judge the girls by the color of their skin (orange), or by the content of their character, and leads them down to his fake-wood-paneled Promised Land.
3. Snooki's Bait and Switch
But wait! Before things can get started, Snooki leaves Mike's room, turning his threesome into a "D-Some"! Snooki decides to go to Vinny's and sexually assault him in his sleep instead. She's rebuffed for the second time (before the first commercial, even!) and then gives young women a valuable lesson in self-esteem by wishing out loud that Vinny would just "stop caring and fuck me, man!"
4. The Saddest Fridge in America
Who among us hasn't suffered the discomfort of an itchy rectum? You can all sheepishly raise your hands. But, who among us had the idea of rectumfying that problem by sitting bare-assed in a mini-fridge while eating a bag of Cheez-Its? Snooki! While the ingenuity of her solution is to be commended (it did make her feel better), we can't help but wonder if this was environmentally sound. Probably not, for a variety of reasons, but it did make a pretty solid argument for having two fridges in the house. Especially since she concludes her therapy session by saying "I have to poop." Of all the words you don't want to hear when someone's perusing your fridge with their anus, it's those four.
5. The Saddest Couple in America
What a letdown: going from Snooki's "Anus & Cheez-Its" (which is a great name for a potential morning-zoo radio duo) to yet another boring SamRon fight. Who knows what this one was about, but Ron apparently needed a "mind condom" because he was being "mind fucked" by Sammi. Blech. At least he wants to practice safe mind sex.
6. The Emancipation of Sammi
Pauly, Snooki, and Sammi head out for another backbreaking shift at the T-Shirt shop, where a newly enlightened Sammi decides that the creepy break room is the perfect place to apologize to Snooki. Sammi acknowledges that Snooki did indeed have her best interests at heart in Miami, and the two share a heartfelt hug. Snooki accepts her apology with an oddly sweet "oh my God, bitch, you're such a whore," and we know exactly what she means. Sammi finds the good vibes intoxicating, and apparently becomes addicted to not being the bad kind of bitch whore. Her next apology is to Deena, interrupted only by JWOWW's disapproving burp-by. Deena, too, mends fences with Sammi, and with a patron pledge and high-five, their bond is sealed and Sammi's redemption is almost complete.
7. Night of a Hundred Skanks
The "we're single" atmosphere was crackling as the gang readied for a night at Karma: In addition to Sammi and Ron, JWOWW and Tom were on "rocky conditions" (which sounds like the name of a stripper he may have hooked up with the night before), and Pauly D was promising to break out a brand-new fist-pump! And as soon as we got to Karma, we were treated to so many faces from the past (Roger! Paula! Stalker!) and flashbacks within flashbacks within dreams that the episode started to feel like Inception. Thankfully, a blurred-out crotch shot of Deena falling off the stage was our totem, and we were kicked back to reality.
8. The Saddest Bar Floor in America
JWOWW confessed to ex-flame Roger that she often checked his Facebook relationship status, a possible plug for the script she's developing, The Social Disease Network. But after she got snatch-blocked by the only woman in Karma wearing reading glasses, JWOWW retreated upstairs with Snooki for some dance-shouting. Then, in an act that was either extremely sexy or extremely unsettling, JWOWW peed on the floor behind the bar. Sometimes, you've just got to "make your own bathroom." And sometimes, as JWOWW did, you have to make your own bidet out of a ginger-ale spritzer.
9. Samron United!
After a breakup that lasted about four heartbreaking hours, Sammi and Ron got back together in the "pff" of an eye. Ron simply can't resist it when Sammi breaks out her patented "pff" sound, which, like the Hebrew word "Shalom", has several different meanings. Sometimes it means "hello" ... sometimes it means "good-bye" ... and this time, "pff" means "I never want our evenings of crying under a stained bedspread to end!" Ron surmises that their unhealthy relationship makes them stronger, and it may. Or it will be a prelude to a murder-suicide. Relationships are funny that way.
10. The DTF-O-METER Is Off the Charts!
Vinny, Pauly, and Mike return home with girls whose DTF-O-METERs are at record levels. Mike takes his ex, Paula, upstairs for some "face washing" and "turkey burger grilling." Don't try looking on urbandictionary.com for these terms: This is what they actually did, wash their faces and grill turkey burgers. Because nothing gets The Situation in the mood quite like Noxzema and mechanically separated meat! And even after one of the patties is dropped on the ground, Mike places it back on the grill because "the heat burns the germs." Will Mike soon be hooking a propane tank up to his bed?
11. "This Isn't Law School, This Is a T-Shirt Shop."
In an eerie bit of whoreshadowing, Snooki shows up for work still drunk from the night before and wearing some sort of decorative blanket. Danny catches her drinking in the break room, and orders her to go get a coffee and come back to work. Great move, Danny! He's not the tacky T-shirt king of Seaside's boardwalk for nothing! Of course, Snooki decides to eat fried pickles, do shots, and give marital advice to Paul Mitchell and his wife. Yes, Snooki, this isn't law school, but you'll soon wish it was ...
12. SnookiLeaks
What more is there to say about Snooki's hammered beach walk? While it didn't quite have the emotional heft of her getting punched in the face in season one, it was no less dramatic. JWOWW and Deena did everything they could to save ... Snooki's purse ... but alas, the Jersey Shore's finest cuffed poor, misunderstood Nicole and charged her for disorderly conduct. For Snooki's sake, there'd better be a mini-fridge in jail.
Honorable Mentions
- Snooki saying, upon eating the raw potato, "if you were stuck in the cornfields, you'd eat it." Assuming there was no corn, sure.
- Mike appears to break the fourth wall when he does some "Kitchen Ditchin'" of Deena.
- Pauly D channeled his inner Rich Little with his inspired impression of customers at the T-shirt shop.
- Pauly also promised his new fist-bump but failed to deliver. You can't make promises like that.
- We sincerely hope that dancing is not Deena's "best thing."
- Mike's girl Paula appeared to have the balance and clear-headedness of Paula Abdul.
- Danielle the stalker looking like the she-demon from Paranormal Activity when she punched the camera.


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
Hometown veteran Army Cpl. Earl Wickett remembered
As the nation and the world mark the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor in solemn remembrance, Congressman Brian Higgins paid tribute to those who served in the battle, including South Buffalo's own United States Army Cpl. Earl Wickett.
In 2011, before Wickett's passing, Higgins recognized him for his service.
Higgins made the following remarks on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor on the House of Representatives Floor:
"Today marks the 75th anniversary of the tragic attacks on Pearl Harbor. It is a day we reflect and remember over 2,400 Americans whose lives we lost that morning.
"Today, I especially remember Army Cpl. Earl Wickett, a South Buffalo native who was stationed at Pearl Harbor on the day of the attacks. Mr. Wickett went on to fight on behalf of our nation for over four years. Following his tour, he returned home to Western New York, raised a family and continued to serve his community as a Buffalo Firefighter.
"Unfortunately, Mr. Wickett is no longer with us, passing away a few years ago, but his stories and acts of bravery live on.
"Today I join all Americans in remembering those who paid the ultimate price at Pearl Harbor and those who sought and seek to protect our freedom here and throughout the world. This nation is always grateful to those like Mr. Wickett, for their bravery, dedication and selfless service."
Higgins recognizes there are many others, like Wickett, who served during that time, but few are left to share their stories from that tragic day. Over 16 million Americans served in World War II, and it is estimated that just 4 percent are still living today.
More than 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,100 were wounded at Pearl Harbor.


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Happy New Year!
Well, 2009 is off to a good start Chez Brainy: after almost exactly one year, I've finally finished my Flock of Triangles quilt!
(The big crease down the centre shows why we're not supposed to keep quilts folded. I haven't washed and dried the finished quilt yet, so I'm sure it will look normal afterwards.) I'm very proud of this. I love Denyse Schmidt's quilts. My previous two baby quilts were kits, with precut squares of fabric; this is the first time I've started with only fat quarters and a quilt pattern.
I sewed the pieces together for the top by machine and then did the quilting by hand. I didn't know what colour to use for the back, and I think I was influenced by Kris when I chose the grey.
The red quilt on the bed beneath my Triangles is yet another rescued vintage quilt, bought a month or so ago. It's lovely, but a bit fragile. So much hand quilting! The fabric is faded and thin, and at first I thought of packing it away for safekeeping, but what's the point of that?
Did you spot the approaching kitty tail in the top photo? About five minutes after photographing my quilt(s) -- which isn't easy to do! -- this was the scene in the bedroom:


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Kent Hehr defeats Joan Crockatt in Calgary Centre
'I believe we have changed this city and Canada for the better,' says former MLA
It's a spot of red in the heart of a sea of blue, a hard fought victory the Liberals desperately wanted in Calgary Centre.
Kent Hehr, a popular former MLA, defeated the incumbent Conservative MP Joan Crockatt, who took the riding in a close byelection race in 2012.
- Liberals win 1st Calgary seat since 1968 as Conservatives take 8
- CBC Canada Votes: See the full results for Calgary, Alberta and Canada
- Calgary Confederation's Len Webber celebrates 'nail biter' victory over Matt Grant
While Crockatt was far ahead early on, her share of the vote started to contract rapidly two hours after polls closed and she never recovered.
Echoing his Liberal colleague Darshan Kang, who captured Calgary Skyview, Hehr said they made history on Monday.
"For this great city to have a Liberal go to Ottawa. I believe we have changed this city and Canada for the better," he told a crowd of supporters in downtown Calgary.
"I will go to Ottawa to represent not only those who voted for me but people who cast a ballot for other parties."
Crockatt to 'enjoy a little time off'
Crockatt said she's going to take a breather and "enjoy a little time off" before getting back to work.
"I fundamentally do believe that the residents of Calgary Centre are fundamentally conservative and I believe this riding again will have a Conservative member of Parliament," she said while conceding defeat.
Home owners vs. renters
Calgary Centre is a diverse riding, encompassing wealthy suburbs and the dense, inner-city Beltline area.
It's unusual in that it is dominated by people who rent their homes in a city that, as a whole, has among the highest rates of home ownership in the country.
A 2011 National Household Survey found rentals outnumbered owned dwellings in Calgary Centre by a margin of 55.5 per cent to 44.4 per cent.
The riding boundaries have changed over time, with the original Calgary Centre riding created in the 1960s.
The riding was significantly redrawn and renamed Calgary South Centre in 2003 before being renamed Calgary Centre in 2004.
In the early 2000s, the seat was held by Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark, before that party merged with the Canadian Alliance to form the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada in 2003.
Clark didn't join the new Conservative party and held the seat, effectively as an Independent, until the 2004 election, when he retired from politics.
Conservative Lee Richardson won the seat in 2004 and held it until 2012, when he quit to take a job working for then-premier Alison Redford.
2012 byelection
That triggered a byelection, which saw a tight three-way race between Crockatt, Liberal Harvey Locke, and star Green Party candidate Chris Turner, a well-known local author.
Crockatt won with 37 per cent of the vote, ahead of Locke's 33 per cent and Turner's 26 per cent.
Calgary Centre's boundaries changed again in the 2013 riding redistribution, losing some ground in the west and gaining some in in the east.
Calgary Centre is a multicultural and largely urban riding that includes the city's downtown core and Beltline area, in addition to communities like Ramsay, Mission and Inglewood.
Its boundaries stretch from the Bow River in the north to Glenmore Trail in the south, and from 37 Street S.W. in the west to the Bow River in the east.
Beyond Hehr and Crockatt, the candidates included Jillian Ratti for the NDP, Thana Boonlert for the Greens and independent Yogi Henderson.
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AFP: Nelson Mandela is comfortable, after a restful night in hospital for tests, the South African government said Sunday as the leader spent his second day in hospital.
President Jacob Zuma visited the country's first black president and said he had found him "comfortable, and in good care." It was the second time the 94-year-old and increasingly frail Mandela had been hospitalised this year. While officials are trying to allay fears over his health, they are not releasing any details of his condition.
The tests and medical attention were consistent with his age, he added.
Medical experts say there is nothing out of the ordinary for a person of Mandela's age to require in-patient attention from time to time.
The anti-apartheid hero and Nobel Peace Prize laureate was flown from his home village of Qunu in the southeast of the country to a hospital in the capital Pretoria on Saturday.
The once spry boxer, who stayed fit during his 27 years in prison by doing calisthenics in his cell, has grown increasingly frail. But his stature as one of the world's most famous and loved public figures remains undimmed.
Keith Khoza spokesman of the ruling ANC party, which Mandela once led, said the party wished him well.
Security appeared to have been beefed up however at 1 Military Hospital on the outskirts of Pretoria. Military police were searching the trunks of all the cars entering the hospital complex, according to an AFP photographer.
South Africa's military has in the past been responsible for Mandela's health.
The revered statesman has not appeared in public since South Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup final in 2010.
Madiba, as he is affectionately known by South Africans, has all-but retired from public life, choosing to live in his childhood hometown of Qunu in the rural Eastern Cape.
His last hospitalisation was in February when he spent a night in hospital for a minor exploratory procedure to investigate persistent abdominal pain.
In January 2011, Mandela had the country on edge when he was admitted for two nights for an acute respiratory infection. He was discharged in a stable condition for home-based care and intense medical monitoring.
Mandela has also had prostate cancer, for which he was successfully treated in 2001. He had cataract surgery in 1994, just months after he took office as president.
After years fighting white-only rule, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the last white president, FW de Klerk, in 1993.
A year later, he crowned his long fight against minority rule by becoming the country's first black president at the end of apartheid.
The last pictures of Mandela published in the media were in August when he received a visit from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at his home.


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Brianc wrote:Hi Ian. One cardboard cap was missing and the other damaged so I had to make both complete assemblies. I sourced some card of the right thickness and used the old one, opened up, as a template. The metal fixing plate also had to be made. One of the things I did for these and the tubular caps was to buy a cheap (£14) mini deep fat fryer and some beeswax. The fryer is thermostatically controlled and can be set to under 100deg. so that the wax doesn't get too hot.
Brianc wrote:The last RF stage drives the anode bend detector via a bifilar wound transformer. I was able to make rewinding easier by sourcing some ready made bifilar wire from a company called The Scientific Wire Company (http://www.scientificwire.com). This is a useful source of all sorts of "magnet wire" as enameled copper wire seems to be called now!
Brianc wrote:The second picture shows the sweep of the RF section from aerial to CRT cathode It starts at 45MHz and finishes at 48.5MHz so the results so far are not too bad. The 9 cores to be tweaked make for an interesting exercise in patience and memory (that's a bit of a blow for me!) because every adjustment seems to affect the waveform in some way but, more annoyingly, seems to affect the effect that the previous core made before!
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SETI Institute Undertakes Search for Alien Signal from Kepler Star KIC 8462852
Updated: 23 Dec , 2015 by Bob King
"We either caught something shortly after an event like two planets crashing together or alien intelligence," said Dr. Gerald Harp, senior scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, referring to the baffling light variations seen by the Kepler Observatory in the star KIC 8462852 .
And he and a team from the Institute are working hard at this moment to determine which of the two it is.
Beginning last Friday (Oct. 16), the Institute's Allen Telescope Array (ATA) was taken off its normal survey schedule and instead focused on KIC 8462852, one of the 150,000-plus stars studied by NASA's Kepler Mission to detect Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting distant stars.. The array of 42 dishes comprises a fully automated system that can run day and night, alerting staff whenever an unusual or interesting signal has been detected.
A swarm of comets has been proposed to explain the erratic and non-repeating light variations seen in the star located nearly 1,500 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. But no one really seems satisfied with the explanation, and the chances that we'd catch a huge event like a comet breakup or planetary collision in the short time the star has been under observation seems unlikely. Collisions also generate dust. Warmed by the star, that dust would glow in infrared light, but none beyond what's expected has been detected.
The ATA picks up radio frequencies in the microwave range from 1-10 gigahertz. For comparison, your kitchen microwave oven produces microwaves at around 2 gigahertz. Although Harp couldn't reveal the team's results yet — that will come soon when a paper is submitted in few weeks in a science journal — he did share the excitement of a the hunt in a phone interview Tuesday.
The array normally looks for a very narrow wave or specific frequency when hunting for potential "ET" signals. But not this time.
"This is a special target," said Harp. "We're using the scope to look at transmissions that would produce excess power over a range of wavelengths." Perhaps from a potential alien power source? Maybe. Harp believes the star's peculiar, a-periodic light variations seen by Kepler are "probably natural and definitely worth looking at" but considers an intelligent source a possibility, however remote.
During our conversation, he emphasized how special the light variations from the star were, adding how the "big gob" of material orbiting KIC (stands for Kepler Input Catalog) 8462852 is unusual in that it's "clumped". "We expect it to spread into a ring," he said.
Meanwhile, the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) published an Alert Notice this week requesting amateurs and professional astronomers around the world to immediately begin observing KIC 8462852 now through the end of the current observing season. To locate the star, you can either use the charts provided in our previous story or go to the AAVSO site and type in KIC 8462852 in the "Pick a Star" box to create a chart of your own.
I'm a variable star observer, so naturally I thought of variables with irregular fluctuations in light when I first heard about this stellar mystery. Time to talk to an expert. According to Elizabeth Waagen, senior technical assistant for science operations at the AAVSO, KIC 8462852 is different.
"Based on the information so far, it doesn't seem to fit the criteria for an irregular variable," said Waagen in a phone interview this morning. "It's doesn't add up."
She encouraged an open mind. "It's a big puzzle, so we sent out the notice," referring to the alert described above.
All quite exciting, and I'm as eager as you to see the published results on the signals, which Harp said would appear or link from the SETI website soon. Stay tuned …
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By Bob King
I'm a long-time amateur astronomer and member of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). My observing passions include everything from auroras to Z Cam stars. I also write a daily astronomy blog called Astro Bob. My new book, "Wonders of the Night Sky You Must See Before You Die", a bucket list of essential sky sights, will publish in April. It's currently available for pre-order at Amazon and BN.
Allen Telescope Array, Kepler, KIC 8462852, SETI
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55 Responses
Justin LG says
What are the odds of rogue planets or something passing across the plane of view closer to us than the star system that is being monitored?
If it were likely, I think the authors would have brought up that possibility. Even if a rogue planet made a pass by this star, it still wouldn't explain the highly irregular signal. Take a look at the light curve in the previous story I did on the star at http://bit.ly/1kao5m7
- Member
Member Aqua4U says
The 'buzz' is stronger than the signal? Sooner or later I suspect that a definitive alternate to 'alien construction' will present itself. Of course, it would be so way double extra groovy cool if we did find a coherent signal somewhere in the mix of data from this star. PROBABLY that signal would not be in radio frequencies but instead might exist in the realm of gravity waves or monopole magnetic pulses? Or even with a hyper frequency attenuation of some sort? The Allen radio telescope array definitely needs more funding to buy and install more sophisticated sensors, nodes/antennas to sharpen it's view. A crowd source funding effort wouldn't hurt?
Come ON you billionaires! Don't you want your name to live through history? Of course, in a 'perfect world' this would be moot and not personally aggrandizing.
UFOsMOTHER says
Great article Bob we are all waiting for the SETI results from this one and what an Impact to Humanity it would make if it is an Alien Structure from 1500 years ago. And if it is the next question would be where are they now ? and do they still exist ? but we will probably find some other (more natural) explanation for these very exciting signals…
FarAwayLongAgo says
It's just a technical glitch in the telescope. Nothing astronomical about it. SETI is making fools out of themselves. More now than ever. They've recently had generous donors, but after this failure I'm afraid that investors will be very careful to associate themselves with them. I'm sorry.
Member Aqua4U says
Your handle. Don't we wish… Think Kepler next gen. aka JWST!
Note: The JWST will be located in L1, whereas the DSCOVER mission is now operating at L2. (L= Lagrange point)
Far Away,
What makes you think it's a technical glitch in the telescope?
FarAwayLongAgo says
What makes me think?
Well, the obvious but little mentioned fact that the three anomalies are separated by EXACTLY two Earth years apart. And deteriorating along with the second reaction wheel failing, sweeping that one dead pixel across that poor star's light again and again, dipping it like this and like that.
A poor pixel seems a more reasonable explanation than alien superstructures, or unimaginably large "comet clouds"(!). But I'm just thinking, I'm not an astronomer.
Far Away,
You're reaching, and the two (of the many) anomalies are not exactly 2 earth years apart. There's nothing wrong with sharing speculation – we love it here! I would only caution, for the sake of better understanding of your posts, to not pitch it as if it were plain fact.
FarAwayLongAgo says
The telescope turns four times per orbit. That means that a quarter of the time, regularly spaced, the same pixel on the CCD is catching the light of that star. If it turns out that the same pixel is responsible for the anomalies, voila!
The starlight is certainly caught by several pixels. Assume that one pixel in its vicinity is dead and slowly moves in and out of the star. Kepler must have had some tiny movement although it was incredibly stable. And in the end, as the second reaction wheel were deteriorating, the anomaly got much bigger with the dead pixel crossing the star erratically.
That 1 out of 95 million pixels fails is much more likely than any enormous comet field or any astrophysical explanation that has been construed thus far.
UFOsMOTHER says
F.A.L.A. It is not a poor or broken pixel they have tested that against other local Stars many times over..
Beckler says
I like how you just assert as though fact – thanks. Also it's a good thing you did comment since otherwise the possibility of it being noise from the instrument or environment never would have occurred to them.
The researchers eliminated instrument error during their investigation. Of course the possibility might still be there, but that type of error occurred to them and they investigated it.
FarAwayLongAgo says
The researchers investigated and eliminated the most complicated of errors. It is an impressive piece of peer reviewed paper with dozens of authors. Exquisite with its analyses ranging from instrument technology to stellar astrophysics.
But the post-doc first name maybe should've had a look in the calendar in order to realize that this artefact is an instrument failure. However else could the phenomenon be perfectly coordinated with the telescopes orbital period around the Sun?
Excellent work! And a memorable lesson learned by the post-doc. And by the community, I hope.
Far Away,
What is your source for your information or are you making a surmise?
FarAwayLongAgo says
The famous paper on the subject is my source, of course. See figure 1 for the timing. There's no need to "surmise" anything, just a need to think. How come that F3 star 1500 light years away twinkles in lock step with the telescope's orbital period? Really very clever aliens maybe 😀
Far Away,
Kepler's orbital period is 372.5 days. The variations – other than the 20-day variety – are more random. For instance, the first big dip occurs around 790 days = 2.12 orbits. The next dip occurs at 4.07 orbits followed by dips at 4.16 and 4.24 orbits. Not to mention additional variations of lesser magnitude. Not "lockstep" the way I read the data.
Bo Zo says
TY for clarifying that. I don't see how Keppler's orbital period fits the pattern either.
It also occurs to me that if the orbital period affected the data, there was a bad pixel, there'd likely be more than one such anomaly out of 150,000 targets.
- Member
Bo Zo says
The fools at SETI didn't spot KIC 8462, it was completely different fools. The SETI fools are just doing what you'd expect fools to do; pointing a radio telescope array at the weirdest stellar body ever seen. Crazy, isn't it. I'm sure most people with radio telescopes are not foolish enough to bother observing peculiar stars.
Some day something like SETI will detect extraterrestrials. It might take another hundred years, or it might have just happened over the weekend. Yawn. Either way, the investment so far has been probably less than what the world spends on jumbo paper clips. Fools! We could have nearly doubled our jumbo paper clip supply instead. You know, just in case.
FarAwayLongAgo says
It's maybe not one dead pixel. Maybe a set of neighboring pixels fade gradually now and then. They might be damaged by cosmic radiation. Maybe a microscopic grain of dust is caught in a bad place. Why do pixels on a TV screen in a living room sometimes go blank? It should be verifiable if the erratic dimming at the end has something to do with the failing reaction wheel.
The perfect timing with turning the telescope makes an astrophysical explanation unlikely, especially since there exists no reasonable astrophysical explanation. How could 0.02% of Solar system mass comets hide 22% of the star? Is it an extremely high metallicity star? No, it seems to be a perfectly normal F3 star. Maybe comets is the least unreasonable astrophysical explanation, but it is still completely unreasonable.
Bo Zo says
I tend to agree, the comets explanation is underwhelming. That's a lot of comets, "clustered" no less. I've never heard of a comet cluster before. As you say, the whole Oort Cloud is only supposed to be a small % of the mass of the solar system, and it's pretty spread out (understatement). I can hardly imagine how an Oort Cloud could be perturbed such that a presumably large fraction of the whole cloud could be corralled into a cluster, then sent inward en masse. TBH your solution (plain old human error) has got to be more likely than that. But I'm still not sold.
It's worth mentioning that the Kepler folk don't claim they've proved that, about comets; just that it's their leading explanation. Maybe it is – nothing else makes much sense either.
It could be something really weird. Everyone says this or that is unlikely given various models of stellar dynamics or planetary formation. But those are models, not physical laws. Occam's razor is just a rule of thumb. Reality is usually messier than theory. It's a big universe. Weird, improbable things must sometimes happen. The odds against winning a lottery are "astronomical," but countless people have won them anyway. So it could be a miraculous conjunction of comets, or incomprehensible stellar dynamics (every star IS unique, after all), or alien pranksters fiddling with Kepler, or fill in the blank. What are the chances it's a Dyson sphere? Either zero or 100%, depending on what it is.
(I still think it could be two or more slightly weird things at once, muddying the water.)
Maybe the Kepler people could definitively rule out bad pixels, shmutz on the CCD, gyro problems, etc.. They do claim they eliminated instrumental error (but not those specifically?) Maybe one of them will read this and edify us.
I would be more inclined to take your solution seriously if I saw how the periods matched, as you say, "perfectly." I don't see that at all. At best it seems sometimes close to matching, but not close enough to persuade me. Please post your proof if you've got it.
Member Jeffrey Boerst says
Again, it's too bad they don't have you on their teams like all of the other teams that are so dim witted compared to you that you've made mention of before, as you obviously know more than any other mere mortal……….
FarAwayLongAgo says
@Jeffrey Boerst Yeah, it's a pity. I would've saved them a lot of time. Because I know the number of days in a year, and I can multiply by two. None of those two dozen astronomers seems to have thought about that. It's way too simple for them to consider. They didn't mention it in section 4 where they in bold conclude:
"the nature of KIC 8462852's light curve is astrophysical
in origin."
And they don't mention the two-year cycle, although periodicity should be at the heart of Kepler exoplanetary science. Instead they invent a humongous comet cloud. Nice handiwork in the details, but total failure in the overall conclusion, I think. Much as if they were still at school, focusing on the details without overview. I'm sorry, but failure is failure, everyone who has dared has failed, and one has to deal with it and go forward.
No evil has been done, it has just been a mistake in an experimental science of the unknown. It is fine, but it is what it is and it is not anything astrophysical. It is artificial, but not alien. These young guys won't err again. Next time they will search for instrument failures much much more closely. And they will make jokes about it as they as nestors hold future lectures.
mewo says
The apparent two year periodicity is just coincidence. It isn't even exactly two years, and the earlier dips at 140 and 260 days do not fit it anyway.
Both the Kepler control team and the authors on this paper know to check for wonky pixels. In any case, light curves are extracted from several pixels surrounding the position of the source, not just one.
FarAwayLongAgo says
One dead pixel going in and out of the star's light can very well explain the random dips. At most it would be one out of five pixels imaging that star. And the authors do NOT mention a dead pixel as an explanation. Nor do they touch on the two year cycle. It is a bit more than 2 years because Kepler orbits slightly slower than Earth. The 140 and 260 day anomalies are much less than 1% and unremarkable, they can have any kind of explanation as do thousands of similar tiny Kepler data variations (they could even be exoplanets).
The idea that Earth orbit is coordinated with some huge comet cloud around a star 1500 light years away is, well, I'll politely not spell it out.
mewo says
Nope, you are wrong. The two-year "period" does not line up exactly with Kepler's orbital period either. The fact remains that this *is* an astrophysical event, and you just don't understand how the telescope works. The authors *did* check your dead pixel explanation, by testing whether the centroid of the star moved during the dipping events. The way that works is this: say you have an image of a star spread over five or ten lit pixels. You can measure the apparent center of that distribution through various averaging techniques. Now say one of the pixels turns off but the others stay lit. That will move the center of the distribution, shifting the centroid of the star. The team checked this, and it did not happen during the dips, which proves that a single malfunctioning pixel cannot be the cause of the dips.
Bo Zo says
Wait, so, it's not clear whether you are saying ONLY that a pixel did not fail DURING the transit, or that this method proves no bad pixels COULD have been involved, period. Do you know?
Not that I believe the Lone Pixel theory based on Faraway's declaration, but I'd like to know whether it's definitively ruled out, or not (and preferably why). A bad pixel isn't any crazier on its face than a Borg cube, or some of the other ideas. (Did Kepler detect tachyon weapon signatures?) At least a bad pixel would be easier to prove/disprove.
FarAwayLongAgo says
mewo, If I match up the dates of turning the scope correctly with the days into the mission the anomalies occur, the 15% and 22% anomalies occur directly after it having been oriented in the same way. The first anomaly (<1%) occurs a week before such an orientation according to the table, but maybe the orientation wasn't changed during those early days, so it is covered too.
It's a slam dunk instrument issue. "Tabby's star" which it is unfortunately for her dubbed on Wikipedia, does not have any astrophysical explanation. Her et al paper is great in its investigation, but the conclusions that 1) It is not an instrument failure and 2) It is a comet cloud, are unfounded. Senior peer reviewers should give proper advice.
Bo Zo says
OK… If Kepler rotates 4 times per 372 day orbit, and the same pixels stay glued to the target for ~93days… Why don't the dimmings last almost exactly 93 days? What happens to make the pixel work fine most of the time?
And, how do you know they can't/didn't test the CCDs for bad pixels? Maybe they can't/didn't, but do you know it? Maybe they did, and all the pixels are A-OK – do you actually know otherwise?
And, even if the dimming is an artifact caused by the rotation, I don't see how you know it's specifically a bad pixel that's responsible. Maybe it's something else that corresponds to the rotation.
Not to mention the many minor dimmings that seem to be all over the calendar, apparently regardless of Kepler's orientation.
And, I just tried again to do the arithmetic. I'm not a genius, but I can count purdy high without even using my toes. The two Big Events don't seem to correspond nicely to your timeline. (Is there a source for the actual dates that Kepler rotated? All I saw was "every ~93 days." If that's just an average, then maybe your "theory" can be squeezed in there, depending on the dates, but it doesn't otherwise seem to fit.)
And in any case, I repeat, if it's a bad pixel, then why don't the dimmings last the whole 93 days?
- Member
permanently_ad_hoc says
Can someone explain why this isn't just gas blocking the star light? Clouds can cover a lot of area with little mass. They need not be evenly distributed which would explain the irregular light curve. Not being solid particles, they don't radiate IR. Possibly a collision involving a gas giant? Or a near miss that pulled out streamers of gas? Or perhaps some other source?
According to http://keplergo.arc.nasa.gov/CalibrationResponse.shtml
Kepler doesn't contain a filter, so gasses absorbing a portion of the spectrum would be perceived as a dip in the total intensity.
Boy, it would have to be a lot of gas to take the light down 22%. I would guess that if a collision were involved we'd see a companion nearby. There is a nearby red dwarf star that might be in a distance orbit around the KIC star, but I doubt it could produce such a cataclysm.
permanently_ad_hoc says
I have no way to estimate either how much gas might be generated, nor how much would be needed to knock the light down by 22%; thus I am not sure i can say it is reasonable…or unreasonable.
I just read the paper at http://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.03622v1.pdf. At the end of the conclusion, the authors do briefly consider gas as a means to block the light, but only in the context of gas associated with a swarm of comets. They then indicate that they did not attempt to look for evidence of gas themselves.
Bo Zo says
Gas clouds big enough to block starlight would be heated by the star's light and re-emit detectable IR, and that IR is missing (is what we are told).
I've wondered whether gas clouds (or some other objects) could be in the foreground, far from any star, and thus remain cold, but I still don't think that's the answer. Maybe it's part of the answer? Might there be multiple factors at work? One phenomenon producing the ~22 day cycle, and something(s?) totally unrelated that caused the two ~20% dips.
permanently_ad_hoc says
Bo Zo,
I don't think that atoms or molecules of gas absorbing the sunlight will emit broad, thermal IR. They will get rid of their energy at discrete wavelengths.
PAH, Bo Zo,
I think Bo Zo is correct that the gas would be heated and emit detectable IR light above and beyond what the star produces. BZ, not that I have special knowledge but I agree with your hunch that two things could be going on. Material much farther from the star seems plausible, at least with my limited knowledge. Cold gas or a mix of cold gas and dust and a chancy, brief alignment along our line of sight. Why not? What we need are more data to see if anything repeats or if this was a one-off.
crocodilebomb says
I like the "more data" idea, Bob.
Bo Zo says
Oh, now that's just cheating!
permanently_ad_hoc says
Bob and BoZo,
Unfortunately, that is a common mis-conception. Gas molecules can only absorb and radiate energy in one of three ways – due to electronic, vibrational or rotational changes. Electronic (electrons changing orbits) gives off optical or ultraviolet photons. Rotational gives off microwave and lower. Only vibrational gives off IR photons. And that is quantized into discrete lines. So you are NOT going to see a broad IR signature from warm gas. Dust, yes. Chunks of rocks, yes. Gas, no.
Here is a reference that describes it nicely.
Another way to think of it: Those FLIR sensors that see body heat wouldn't work if the intervening air, which is also about at body temperature, were radiating across the IR range.
As far as I see, gas clouds in the system can explain the observations without resorting to aliens mega-structures.
Bo Zo says
I'm no expert, so I stand ready to stand corrected. But.
Vibrational energy is heat, and the gases would be heated, so vibration increases until a photon is emitted. Why does it matter whether the IR is broad spectrum or discrete lines? Discrete IR emissions are still detectable IR emissions, no?
I think it was actually dust & debris that were ruled out by missing IR, rather than gases. But wouldn't the same thing apply? If a gas cloud is being energized by a star it must re-radiate the energy, or get infinitely hot. If there's a ton of gas, where's the stellar energy? (At any spectra you like.)
And, changing subjects a bit, I don't know how much gas you'd need, but I intuit you'd need a real lot of gas. It would have to be a very large (thick) or very dense cloud. If it was very large, it would have to be moving pretty fast to transit in a few hours. How do you get a large cloud, which would have to be a coherent clump, moving at orbital speeds without stretching it out across the whole orbit? Or else, how do you get a dense clump of gas to stay dense for more than 2 yrs in vacuum? (That's why, if it's gas, I think I prefer a gas cloud in the foreground where it would be cold, it wouldn't be gravitationally disturbed/stretched out so it could stay clumpy by its own gravitation, and the relative speeds make more sense.)
Please don't think I'm arguing (except in the friendly sense.) I'm wondering/asking. Wonderasking?
Bo Zo says
As to your example of the FLIR sensors:
IR is great for astronomy because dust and gas are transparent to IR _at_some_wavelengths_, but not all wavelengths, depending on the composition of the gas. As an example, CO2 is a "greenhouse gas" that absorbs some of the outgoing IR from the earth, but is otherwise mostly transparent to IR.
Bo Zo says
Oh. I misunderstood what you meant by your FLIR example. I get it now.
Do humans and atmospheric gas radiate at the same wavelengths? If its a different wavelength, then there's no noise from the intervening air.
And even if there is interference, IDK, but it seems to me that, even at the same temperature, the human (50+kg) is radiating a lot more heat than the air in between (nearly zero grams), so the human is much brighter. Just a guess.
Bo Zo says
I just read somewhere that IR astronomy is performed in orbit in part because ground based scopes are blinded by the IR emitted by the atmosphere (and to a lesser extent because much of the IR from space is absorbed by the atmosphere). So by whatever mechanism, Earth's atmosphere radiates in the IR. (Although maybe it's particulates or suspended vapor?)
Also, I found some "before and after" visible and IR photos of nebulae, where gas is apparent in IR that is not seen in the visible.
(If I am wrong I'm interested to know the right answer.)
But, from what I think I understand, the lack of observed IR might not rule out gas anyway, due to the timing of the few IR observations that were made.
- Member
PrometheusOnTheLoose says
Building a Dyson sphere seems to me to be somewhat impractical. The amount of time and materials it would take to build a Dyson sphere just seems to make it unlikely that any civilization would want to bother trying. My bet is that, instead of doing the Dyson sphere thing, they would be creating huge space ships, going to the gas giants they have, and siphoning off Hydrogen, Oxygen, Helium, whatever they need, for their energy needs, using fusion reactors, or, nuclear reactors in space. I just think that the alternatives to a Dyson Sphere would be better, given that they can be built on a smaller scale, perhaps even be made mobile. Artificial planets would even be easier to build than a Dyson sphere.
Bo Zo says
FWIW, I mostly agree. I think a Dyson sphere just seems outlandish, even if E.T. only had to press a button on the old Dyson-o-matic and bam, it's done. Still seems crazy.
A modest Dyson swarm OTOH might be worth having. We might build one ourselves some day.
Bo Zo says
My old camera has one bad pixel. I never fail to notice it in every picture. That's without any diagnostic software or experts or anything. I'd expect a bad pixel to affect every single measurement. I just don't buy it.
On what are you basing this theory, just that one graph that shows two dips ~500 days apart? Do you actually know from some source that there is a bad pixel, or is that your conclusion based exclusively on the graph? (I know it has an entire bad CCD, but the Kepler people know that too…)
Also, I still don't see how the periods coincide, even with a 93 day rotation. (That's like 5.2 rotations or something between major events, it almost disproves itself.) And Kepler was staring at the same smallish spot in the "sky" the whole time anyway, so what difference would Kepler's orbital period or rotation make at all?
And, even if a bad pixel did explain the two ~20% dips, how does it explain the discontinuous and irregular ~20-ish day cycle?
FarAwayLongAgo says
I'm basing my "theory" on revolutionary new astrophysics according to which the 0.01% of the mass of a solar system which consists of comets, suddenly forms a huge swarm, half the diameter of a huge F3 star, and swims around it once exactly every even birthday of mine…
No. I simply note that all anomalies occurred when the Kepler telescope had the same pixel directed towards that star. 4 times a year it rotated to keep its shield towards the Sun. It turns out that the two major anomalies occurred right after it oriented itself into the same position, exposing that star to the same faulty pixel. The crowd which authored that paper should've noticed that too, especially since they did a number of investigations into possible measurement failures and concluded in bold that the phenomenon is "astrophysical in origin". Their peer reviewers should've helped them, shame on them! (Or are they jokers? They title their paper "Where is the flux?" Doesn't sound serious.)
Bo Zo says
So, in other words, your assessment of the unlikelihood of a comet swarm (which btw everyone shares) is absolute proof that there is one pixel responsible for the effect.
It just seems you're jumping pretty quick and far to that conclusion. Especially since the periods are irregular and not divisible by/into 372. And it doesn't explain most of the activity at all (like the irregular ~20 day cycles).
I was hoping you had something more to base it on.
Darklight says
FarAwayLongAgo: In this day and age the name is a generic one. Get with the times, or do you not believe in traveling through time? WTF, I mean – where's the flux!? If this is an alien structure, you might need a little humor.
Darklight says
What were the exact dates of when Kepler started gathering data from the area, when researchers noticed the star, when researchers noticed the star making its first flux, and when researches became aware that it was weird? Thanks for any information.
I can't find start and end dates, but the Kepler star was observed throughout the mission to yield a precision light curve stretching over a full four years. The Planet Hunters volunteer group first noticed irregularities in the light curve fairly early one and told the researchers, who then started pulling more data taken throughout the mission.
Hamilton1 says
Kepler began data acquisition on May 12 2009. However the Julian Day used by the researchers, 2454833, corresponds to January 1 2009 and mission days are calculated from this date. The first 0.5% dip was noticed around day 140, so ~ May 20 2009. Then another 0.5% dip 120 days later, ~ Sep 17 2009. Then a major 15% dip between day 788 and 795, Feb 27 2011 – Mar 6 2011. And finally the remarkable series of dips from ~ day 1490 to 1570, Jan 30 2013 – Apr 20 2013. Kepler 1 ceased operations in May 2013.
Much appreciated – thank you!
Darklight says
Thank you my friends. 🙂
- Member
Member Aqua4U says
Hopefully the JWST will settle all.. Or maybe we'll have to wait for the JWST Mk. II? Regardless… more observations won't hurt.
Darklight says
Eyes to the sky, routinely.
Comments are closed.


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