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By Andrew Cawthorne
CARACAS (Reuters) - Murals adorning a Caracas slum that has given militant backing to President Hugo Chavez over the years are a virtual pantheon of international radicals.
From Colombia's FARC guerrillas to the Palestine Liberation Organization and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the images and slogans on teeming slopes above Chavez's presidential palace hail socialist revolutionaries the world over.
Beside them are tributes to Chavez himself - testimony to the Venezuelan leader's bid to place himself at the front of global "anti-imperialism" in his ever-controversial 14-year rule.
Now, though, as Chavez battles cancer in a Cuban hospital, his role as garrulous international activist and rich godfather to fellow leftists around Latin America is under threat.
"All Venezuelan revolutionaries, and all people of good faith around the world, are praying for his recovery," said Greivis Garcia, a 26-year-old mechanic at a vigil for Chavez in the January 23 slum full of revolutionary images.
"We need him so much. And so does the world. But whatever happens, Chavez will live forever, damn it!"
Should he die or be forced to stand down, faraway friends from Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Belarus's President Alexander Lukashenko and Syria's President Bashar al-Assad would lose a loud and highly visible supporter.
Chavez has provided some concrete help to such allies - skirting Western sanctions to send a few controversial fuel shipments to Tehran and Damascus, and doling out home-building contracts to Chinese and Belarussian companies.
Yet his international role has been mainly symbolic.
From visiting Iraq's Saddam Hussein in 2000 to cheering Libya's Muammar Gaddafi during his final days in 2011; from calling former U.S. leader George W. Bush "the devil" to hailing the veteran Marxist militant known as Carlos the Jackal, Chavez has never lost an opportunity to goad and shock the West, and the United States in particular.
"Venezuela used to be known only for two things: oil and beautiful women. Now, it is famous the world over for just one: Chavez," said a senior Western diplomat in Caracas.
"He has deliberately courted controversy from day one. It is hard to imagine that booming voice falling silent."
Chavez has influenced some election campaigns around Latin America in recent years by showing support for leftist candidates and making clear that their victory could bring economic support from his government
Unlike former Cuban leader Fidel Castro during the Cold War, however, Chavez has not committed troops to foreign wars or helped train Marxist guerrillas to fight right-wing governments in their home countries.
He does not have a nuclear weapons program and he has continued to sell oil to the United States even when fiercely criticizing its policies.
In geopolitical terms, he is much more a man of rhetoric than of action.
The quietening of Chavez's voice might be a relief to Washington and local foes who see him as an embarrassing friend of dictators. But to many, especially round the Third World, he is admired - a bit like Castro - for standing up to U.S. power and daring to say what plenty of others thought.
Chavez is due to start a new, six-year term on January 10, but he is still fighting to recover from his fourth cancer operation in just 18 months. He has named a preferred successor, Vice President and Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, to be the ruling party's candidate in an election should Chavez be forced out.
There is little sign that Maduro - a former bus driver, union activist and committed socialist who has faithfully echoed his boss's views around the globe for the last six years - would change Venezuela's foreign policies.
Yet without the flamboyant personality of Chavez promoting these policies, the impact would be diminished.
Under the many speculative scenarios - from death to a full recovery - one would be that Chavez takes a Castro-like role, leaving day-to-day affairs to Maduro but opining from behind the scenes as an elder statesman.
In his Latin American backyard, where Chavez has led a resurgence of the left since his own rise to power in 1999, there is far more at stake from a possible end to his rule.
Around the region, smaller nations whose governments are politically allied with Chavez - from Cuba and the Dominican Republic to Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador - have come to rely on Venezuela's subsidized oil supplies and other economic aid.
Communist-run Cuba, whose economy was tied to the Soviet Union for decades and then, when that nation collapsed, was perilously adrift in the 1990s before Chavez came to power, is particularly dependant.
It receives more than 100,000 barrels per day of crude from Venezuela on preferential terms, covering 60 percent of its energy needs. Last year, Venezuela accounted for $8.3 billion of its $20 billion foreign trade - most of that as payment for more than 40,000 medical staff and other Cuban workers in Venezuela.
While a post-Chavez government led by an acolyte such as Maduro would be unlikely to end such generosity, it might be tempted to roll it back at the edges given that many Venezuelans are not over-enthusiastic at the international solidarity.
Opposition politicians play on that, saying Chavez has scandalously neglected local needs with politically motivated foreign patronage. During the recent presidential election, they showed pictures of a gleaming Venezuelan-sponsored hospital in the Dominican Republic next to a rundown medical ward at home.
So there is little doubt that should the opposition win a new vote triggered by Chavez's departure, the aid would dry up. "We cannot afford these giveaways while Venezuelans still have so many problems," opposition leader Henrique Capriles has said.
Though Chavez is the undisputed head of the ALBA bloc of leftist-led nations in the Caribbean and Latin America, his leadership role has arguably waned given the general preference for Brazil's "soft left" model over his more radical brand.
"His regional and international influence shrank as the Venezuelan economy deteriorated and his seemingly endless energy and vitriol began to fade with his illness," said Peter Hakim, president emeritus of U.S.-based Inter-American Dialogue.
"Chavez's death will not change the broad dynamics of regional affairs, but some things will change. Brazil's predominant role in South America will be reinforced. It will have less reason to compromise with Venezuela or its allies on the continent — and it may even feel freer to criticize Venezuela, whoever ends up in charge."
Speculation is rife over who would inherit Chavez's mantle as the new firebrand on the block. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa seems to be the favorite - but insisted it would be teamwork.
"There are lots of extraordinary leaders in the region," he said. "But careful, let's not kid ourselves. The historic changes in our nations are not because of Rafael Correa, (Argentina's) Cristina Fernandez, (Bolivia's) Evo Morales or Chavez. It's because our people said 'That's enough!'"
To follow us on Twitter: @ReutersVzla
(Additional reporting by Marc Frank in Havana, Alexandra Valencia in Quito, Deborah Charles in Washingon; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Kieran Murray)


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TV Review: Sherlock Returns, Brilliant As Ever
It's been two years since we've had a new installment of Sherlock, so there's something extra thrilling about seeing that long coat billow anew behind Benedict Cumberbatch. When season three premieres on PBS Sunday night at 10, Sherlock's quips will seem quippier, his disdain for others more disdainful, and the bond between him and Watson even more powerful. Season two's "A Scandal in Belgravia" was about sex; "The Reichenbach Fall" about glory. The third season premiere, "The Empty Hearse," is about devotion. The people devoted to Holmes, the people to whom Holmes is devoted — and a little bit about fans who have devoted themselves to the show over the last four years.
At the end of "Reichenbach," we viewers knew Holmes had survived his supposed suicidal jump off a building (the only way to stop his foil Moriarty's evil schemes), but the grieving John Watson (Martin Freeman) knew no such thing. "Hearse" picks up two years later, with Watson still in a state of semi-mourning — as signified by a somewhat seedy mustache. He's also preparing to propose to his girlfriend, Mary (Amanda Abbington, Freeman's longtime companion), and one wonders if Watson would ever have been able to make room in his life for a significant relationship had Sherlock not been "dead." But the great detective is alive (and the show has some fun teasing us with the hows and whys of his survival), and so the two of course must reunite — and there's a dazzling, Marx Brothers–esque sequence in a restaurant with Sherlock trying to surprise Watson by hiding in plain sight, even though this revelation will be quite painful for Watson, who struggled with issues of guilt and grief before he met Holmes. It's a quintessential Sherlock scene, one that uses a slapstick tone and impressive comic choreography to disguise the fact that something heavy is happening, like Moriarty's ringtone being the Bee Gees' "Staying Alive." Sherlock is all about how cleverness ameliorates cruelty. Yes, I caused you tremendous and ultimately unnecessary emotional pain, but you gotta admit, I did it with style.
That's the deal Sherlock strikes with its fans, too, and it's a deal most of us are more than willing to make. Sherlock (and Sherlock) is that good, we do forgive his callousness, and yeah, we'll wait for two years for his return and never let our fervor flag. In exchange, when the miracle happens and he (and the show) come back, he's as good or maybe better than ever.
Sherlock's two-year absence affected more than just Watson. Anderson, the Scotland Yard police officer who openly loathed Sherlock (and whom Sherlock loathed back), is now a major Sherlock conspiracy theorist, even organizing a group of fellow Holmes devotees who — before the presumed-dead detective reemerges — gather to share their occasionally crackpot ideas about how he could have faked his suicide. Given the group members' tendency to insert romantic moments into their stories, it's hard not to feel like this group is a stand-in for the show's actual obsessive fans who find moments of erotic significance in seemingly innocent gestures. (Or perhaps this club is meant to represent Tumblr in toto.) It's as if creator David Moffat is embracing and dismissing these fantasizing fans all at once — again, in keeping with Sherlock and Sherlock.
"The Empty Hearse" is funny and exciting, heavier on the action than some other installments, but it also has a lot of work to do to move through Watson forgiving his best friend for faking his death. Freeman's performance has always been the emotional engine of the show, and in "Hearse" he's as powerful as ever. Sherlock can be a harsh and jagged show, with its zippy score, angry characters, jumpy editing, its perfect but almost-stressful use of technology (all those texts piling up on the screen), its sense of impending doom. The moments of softness or vulnerability tend to come from Watson, and that flips a little in "The Empty Hearse." Suddenly Sherlock is slightly vulnerable, and Watson's the one who's fed up. It's not a radical change, nor is it a permanent one, but it does add a richness to the season, another layer to Watson and Sherlock's deep relationship.
But there is one part of "The Empty Hearse" that threw me. In a moment of great distress (which I will not spoil here), Watson declares that Sherlock is the "best and wisest man" that he has ever known. Sherlock's certainly among the most interesting people one could know, the cleverest, and maybe the smartest. But Sherlock isn't wise. Watson is wise. Whether they realize it or not, Watson and Sherlock see themselves in each other throughout the show — what happens to one always happens to both, and Sherlock's death was in some ways Watson's death too. But, fortunately, now both are alive, and goddamnit, it's great.

subset: commoncrawl


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General Comments: Futures closed firm as bulls talked of increasing crop losses in Florida due to the greening disease, drought, and cold temperatures that were seen a couple of weeks ago. Greening disease and what it might mean to production prospects continues to be a primary support item. Weather is good for production overall, but more rain is needed. Irrigation is widespread. Temperatures are warm in the state, and conditions are dry, and talk about the potential for more fruit drop and poor development of the crop for next year continues. The Valencia harvest is continuing. Bloom has been reported in groves in all production areas of the state. Brazil is seeing near to below normal temperatures and scattered showers.
Overnight News: Florida weather forecasts call for mostly dry conditions, but some precipitation is likely on Friday. Temperatures will average near to above normal.
Chart Trends: Trends in FCOJ are mixed to up with objectives of 146.00 and 152.00 May. Support is at 135.00, 132.00, and 131.00 May, with resistance at 142.00, 144.00, and 147.00 May.
General Comments: Futures were higher across the board as New York rallied and pulled the other markets higher. Traders noted decreased exports from Guatemala because of the rust, and also the marketing loan program modifications from the Brazil government that will make it easier for producers there to hold old and new crop supplies off the market. Guatemala March exports were down 17% from March of last year. The new Brazilian harvest is just a couple of months away, and traders expected big offers to develop on rallies. No one had been paying much attention to the reports of rust in Central America and parts of South America and prefer to concentrate on Brazil and also on improving production conditions in Vietnam. But the decreased exports from Central America as seen with the data from Guatemala yesterday changed some ideas, and chart patterns also show the potential for a low to be developing. Reports of rust in Central America and the production cuts that it are still in the press, and major crop losses are being estimated by traders and producers. Current crop development is still good this year in Brazil, and there are showers around. Production ideas remain big there. Central America crops are mostly harvested. Colombia is reported to have good conditions.
Overnight News: Certified stocks are unchanged today and are about 2.743 million bags. The ICO composite price is now 131.58 ct/lb. Brazil should get scattered showers. Temperatures will average near to below normal. Colombia should get a few showers, and Central America and Mexico should get mostly dry conditions. Temperatures should average near to above normal. LIFFE stocks are now 12,162 lots.
Chart Trends: Trends in New York are mixed. Support is at 136.00, 134.00, and 132.00 May, and resistance is at 141.00, 144.00, and 147.00 May. Trends in London are mixed to down with objectives of 1990 May. Support is at 1995, 1970, and 1950 May, and resistance is at 2060, 2080, and 2100 May. Trends in Sao Paulo are mixed to up with objectives of 179.00, 186.00, and 187.00 September. Support is at 170.00, 168.00, and 166.00 September, and resistance is at 176.00, 177.00, and 180.00 September.
General Comments: Futures closed mixed, with New York higher and London a little lower. It appeared to be a mostly short covering rally. Ideas of weak demand and big supplies keep traders negative to prices. Traders know that ther might be less production in India and Thailand, but expect Brazil to produce enough to cover any losses. The market could be in a new down trend. So far, no new demand is being reported, and chart patterns continue to look weak. Reports indicate that Brazil will start harvesting next month and that a big offer is expected. Exports from Brazil continue to be very strong overall despite the port problems.
Overnight News: Scattered showers are expected in Brazil.
Chart Trends: Trends in New York are mixed to down with objectives of 1725 and 1610 July. Support is at 1760, 1740, and 1710 July, and resistance is at 1780, 1790, and 1800 July. Trends in London are down with objectives of 486.00 and 481.00 August. Support is at 487.00, 484.00, and 481.00 August, and resistance is at 496.00, 500.00, and 505.00 August.


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Icy weather expectations bring early end to some school days today
Anticipated icy precipitation this afternoon prompted several area schools to make decisions Thursday about early dismissals.
Lenoir County Schools will be releasing students at 12:30 p.m. today, according to Lidia Guzman, public relations officer.
Greene County Schools Superintendent Patrick Miller said schools in Greene County will be released at noon today.
Jones County Schools Superintendent Michael Bracy planned to wait until this morning to decide the status of school dismissal.
Arendell Parrott Academy will close at noon today, according to Assistant Headmaster Hugh Pollock.
Efforts to obtain information from Bethel Christian Academy were unsuccessful by press time Thursday evening.
Check Kinston.com for updated information, or call the school office.
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her on Twitter, @JessikaMorgan.
School Board Offices:
Lenoir County Schools
Greene County Schools
Jones County Schools
Arendell Parrott Academy
Bethel Christian Academy


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Weekend Project: Integration Testing for TSM
by, March 21st, 2016 at 03:02 AM (12717 Views)
It's been a while since I've posted here, but this weekend I've been working on a project which I've wanted to tackle for a while. Mainly, I just wanted to figure out how doable it would be, and use it as an excuse to learn more about Python and automation framework design. The project was to "bot" TSM, in the name of automated integration testing. Fair warning: this is going to be a long post.
What does this mean?
Well, as you may know, the TradeSkillMaster addon is massive, with tens of thousands of lines of code. As a general rule, we do some level of testing on a new feature or change before releasing it, but bugs slip through the cracks, and there's no way to be 100% confident that a change isn't going to cause a bug in some unrelated area of the addon. Integration testing is generally a great way to make sure the basic functions are working as expected, and that there aren't any obvious breakages before a new release goes out to the world. So, my project this weekend was to write an integration testing harness and framework for TSM, with the end-goal of being able to run a comprehensive suite of tests before any new release in a completely automated fashion. I also wanted to learn as much as possible from the project, so didn't spend much time looking for existing WoW-automation solutions, but instead went for a homegrown approach.
The first step was to setup a test environment. I created a separate WoW account and character, made a copy of my WoW folder, and tweaked all the game settings to make sure things ran as reliably as possible (lowest graphics settings, block trades and guild invites, etc). I also decided on Python (3.4.3) as my language of choice (running on Windows 10) since I'm fairly comfortable with it and it has an abundance of libraries and Google-able information.
Now that I was all setup, I started out with automating the login process. The first challenge I ran into was programmatically determining what screen of the login process I was on at any given time (email/password entry, character selection, loading, etc). After a bit of Google'ing, I found this blog post which describes a simple image hashing approach which allows the use of the Hamming distance algorithm to determine the similarity of images. I implemented the process as described, but ran into issues with it not giving enough resolution and often providing inaccurate results for which image in my list of hashes was closest to the real one. So, I made some tweaks including using color instead of grayscale and using a larger image (and resulting hash). I ended up with the following, which seems to work well enough for me:
I am using Python's Pillow library for grabbing the screen image and processing it. Each hash I'm comparing against has a unique threshold (the login screen has a lot of animation in the background which warrants a larger threshold for example). I also had to do a bit of cropping to get just the area of the WoW window I wanted (the actual game screen). After some more searching, I found some examples of how to use the win32 APIs to send mouse and keyboard events to the game, which I successfully implemented, and I used Python's subprocess module to be able to launch WoW from my script. With all of these pieces in place, I could now automatically go from WoW not running at all to my character logged in and sitting in Orgrimmar (where I left him).Code:img = img.resize((32, 32), Image.ANTIALIAS) data = img.getdata() avg = tuple(sum(x[i] for x in data) / len(data) for i in range(0, 3)) hash_str = '' for i in range(0, len(data), 2): value = 0 for j in range(3): if data[i][j] > avg[j]: value += 1 << j if data[i+1][j] > avg[j]: value += 1 << j hash_str += '%01x' % value return hash_str
I'm going a bit out of order from how I actually did things, but the next thing I'd like to touch on is how I got consistent screen images once I was logged into the game, even though the game world is constantly changing. I wanted to be able to sit by the auction house to test the AH features of TSM, but didn't want random other players messing up my image hashes. After a lot of experimentation, I finally stumbled across a solution. In my addon code, I created a frame at the lowest possible frame level of "BACKGROUND" and made it completely black and opaque. I also created a new "Empty" chat tab which had all chat sources disabled. As you can see, this fixes the problem of changes in the game world throwing off my image hashes. However, there are still a few things that aren't constant (like the minimap and clock), and flash (like the player portrait and chat frame tab highlight). So, I simply hid them, leaving only the chat box (which I needed to keep). Of course, the TSM windows show above this black frame, so there's no problem there. This gives me an extremely consistent environment for comparing images, to the point where a slight change in text will cause image hashes to no longer match (which in this case is a good thing).
Now, my Python script could send commands to the addon via slash commands, but there was no way for the addon to send data back to the Python script. This part is what I spent a big chunk of my time on, and which I personally found the most enjoyable (I like networking - don't hate!). The TSM Desktop Application gets data out of the addon through the saved variables, but these are only updated upon logging out (or reloading); way too slow for this. A few years ago, I wrote a small addon and companion application (link just for reference - it's long been abandoned) for opening URLs in your browser from the game. The way the addon sent data to the companion application was to change the color of a few specific pixels. Data could then be encoded in these pixels and read by the companion app. I used the same approach for this project, but needed to send a lot more data with perfect reliability. Each pixel is an individual button, with the data being encoded in the background color. Unfortunately, it's really hard to draw single-pixel things from addons (every other black pixel is actually 2 pixels wide - everything is intentionally 3 pixels tall). After trying a lot of different things, the scheme that ended up working was to use the just the red and green channels to transmit data (1 byte each = 2 bytes per pixel) and use the blue channel to indicate the "type" of the pixel, with the type of consecutive data pixels alternating in a checkerboard pattern. This way, no matter how big the pixels turned out to be in my image in Python, I could simply look at the blue channel for the edge between two pixels. I also had a single clock pixel, which had a completely separate blue channel "type". This blown-up image shows an example of what these data pixels look like. I ended up with 10 rows of 1000 pixels each, for a data rate of 20kB per frame (I wanted everything to fit into a single message and TSM group exports can be tens of thousands of characters).
So, I could now reliably log into WoW, send slash commands to control the addon, and get data back from the addon in real-time. Now I was ready to actually do some testing! I went through a half dozen iterations on how I wanted the test cases to be structured, how they should interact with the test harness, and generally trying to increase the level of abstraction. What I finally ended up with as far as test structure is concerned is something very similar to Python's own unittest framework. The simplest test case is just 4 lines of code:
The idea that tests should be easy to write was critically important. So, I tried to make them as straight-forward and simple as possible and do as much of the complex stuff within the test harness (under the hood) as possible. As an example, here's an actual test I wrote which verifies that group importing, group exporting, subgroups, and group filtering is all working.Code:from lib import TestCase class MyTest(TestCase): def test_basic_math(self): self.assert_equal(1 + 1, 2)
I can now easily and quickly write very high-level integration tests for TSM. My future plans for this project are to continue to add functionality to the test harness to enable more tests, speed things up by removing blind delays and instead using image-based indicators, and move the whole thing to a separate system so it can be run remotely (and automatically).
NECESSARY DISCLAIMER: I know this is technically against the ToS. I've purposely left out the details of how I'm sending inputs to the game and how I'm modifying TSM to enable this (there are deliberate road-blocks to automation within TSM's code). I'm also not releasing the source code for this (although if you're a fellow developer and want to discuss it, I'd be happy to do so either here or via IRC).


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Interner Bericht des Fachbereich Informatik
- Preprint (4) (entfernen)
A translation contract is a binary predicate corrTransl(S,T) for source programs S and target programs T. It precisely specifies when T is considered to be a correct translation of S. A certifying compiler generates --in addittion to the target T-- a proof for corrTransl(S,T). Certifying compilers are important for the development of safety critical systems to establish the behavioral equivalence of high-level programs with their compiled assembler code. In this paper, we report on a certifying compiler, its proof techniques, and the underlying formal framework developed within the proof assistent Isabelle/HOL. The compiler uses a tiny C-like language as input, has an optimization phase, and generates MIPS code. The underlying translation contract is based on a trace semantics. We investigate design alternatives and discuss our experiences.
The feature interaction problem in telecommunications systems increasingly ob-structs the evolution of such systems. We develop formal detection criteria whichrender a necessary (but less than sufficient) condition for feature interactions. It can be checked mechanically and points out all potentially critical spots. Thesehave to be analysed manually. The resulting resolution decisions are incorporatedformally. Some prototype tool support is already available. A prerequisite forformal criteria is a formal definition of the problem. Since the notions of featureand feature interaction are often used in a rather fuzzy way, we attempt a formaldefinition first and discuss which aspects can be included in a formalization (andtherefore in a detection method). This paper describes ongoing work.
A Case Study on Specifikation,Detection and Resolution of IN Feature Interactions with Estelle (1994)
We present an approach for the treatment of Feature Interactions in Intelligent Networks. The approach is based on the formal description technique Estelle and consists of three steps. For the first step, a specification style supporting the integration of additional features into a basic service is introduced . As a result, feature integration is achieved by adding specification text, i.e . on a purely syntactical level. The second step is the detection of feature interactions resulting from the integration of additional features. A formal criterion is given that can be used for the automatic detection of a particular class of feature interactions. In the third step, previously detected feature interactions are resolved. An algorithm has been devised that allows the automatical incorporation of high-level design decisions into the formal specification. The presented approach is applied to the Basic Call Service and several supplementary interacting features.


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CONTEST: Resting MY Way!
- Rene RitchieEditorial DirectorFebruary is fitness month at Mobile Nations, and you know what that means? we all get together to get in shape, share tips and tricks and recipes for success, review amazing apps and accessories, give away great prizes, and have a ton of fun!
This here is our Resting MY Way contest. Simply tell us how you use your iPhone or iPad, to sleep, nap, meditate, or breathe better and stay healthier. What are your favorite apps? Yoga? Guided meditation? White noise? Timers? What are your go to accessories? How does your device fit your active lifestyle? We want to know!
Write them out like a blog post. Yup, use paragraphs, list apps, list accessories, make it really helpful for anyone else interested in using their tech for exercise!
We'll post the best entries on Friday, so get them in ASAP! Need more incentive? We'll pick one winner a week and send them a $100 gift certificate!
What are you waiting for, start posting NOW!02-18-2013 10:33 AM
- I use my iPhone5 in combination with my FitBit One to track my sleep.
The FitBit uses the accelerometer to determine how much you are moving while you sleep. You need to wear the FitBit in the included wrist strap, and it is fairly accurate. The sync to the iPhone is done via Bluetooth and as long as the app is running in the background, it will do so automatically.
You can then look at the app to see the hours of sleep you received, and it also shows you how many times you were awake. It also gives you the option to edit the sleep in case it is not set correctly.
There are a few drawbacks though. You need to put the FitBit into activity mode by pressing and holding the button on it. You also need to stop activity mode in the morning. If you forget either you can use the iPhone app to edit your sleep times. Also the movement tracker, while it is pretty accurate on noticing if you are moving, but it does not really know if you are in true REM sleep.
Either way it is a great way to see about how much you are sleeping and you can see the average sleep per week/month etc.
Last edited by bamf-hacker; 02-18-2013 at 11:40 AM.02-18-2013 11:24 AM
- I use the Fitbit with my iPhone 5, as well. It's also nice that in addition to tracking your sleep, it includes a silent alarm - gently vibrating you awake in the morning with out the annoying alarm sounds that also wake my wife.
I had the Jawbone UP for a while, but returned it because the largest size (large) is too tight on my wrist. The Fitbit works great for sleep with the wrist band, and otherwise, lives in my pants pocket.
And I often use my iPod Nano to"sing me to sleep"... I have recorded several white noise "songs" and use them to help clear my mind and settle my soul at night when I go to sleep.02-18-2013 11:38 AM
- Wow have you folks hit the button on this one. Sometimes I sleep very well, but other times, not so much. I spent three years in Japan when I was a kid. Part if my education was exposure to Japanese culture. I took a class on Meditation. After clearing my mind, I didn't find enlightenment, but I did find some really good snoozes. All I got to do is meditate, and it normally takes me right out. With that being said, I have tried multiple apps, but my go to insomnia daisy cutter is an iPhone app called Relax. Also as far as podcasts go, one particular episode of one particular podcast is Episode 6 of "The Meditation Podcast". It works like a good snort of Ether.02-18-2013 12:07 PM
- I love the Fitbit idea but does anyone use a sleep tracking application? I'm looking to stop using the iHome app since it's buggy as can be. Any sleep tracking recommendations similar to the iHome app? I'm not looking at anything where I have to place my device on or under my pillow more just a start stop timer with possible sound tracking to tell me how much I snore.02-18-2013 07:29 PM
- I don't really use my iPhone too much to help with sleep, relaxation or meditation. But what I do like to do when I meditate is listen to sounds that help induce a meditative state. I will use Safari to look up new ways of meditation and how to better meditate.
I also use the Music app to listen to my meditative state inducing sound files, I currently have two. And I will set my phone to Do Not Disturb and then play my sound file and turn the screen off so that I am not disturbed while I am meditating. And since I use passive noise canceling headphones, I am free to meditate wherever I am and not being disturbed by my surroundings.
So for about 30-40 minutes as often as I can (depending on the sound file), I can peacefully avoid any active thoughts and let my mind do its thing and get the rest and relaxation it needs. And this also helps me to find great insights to myself and problems I am having. And I should remember a dream after any nights sleep I will again go to Safari to interpret my dreams (the site I use better online than the app).
I also like to sometimes lay down for a while and gets lost in my thoughts and I spur this on by listening to music. Since my iPhone has replaced my MP3 player I use it for my all my music needs. I even go so far with this as to eventually block out all external sounds, even the music coming in through my earphones. I find this method of relaxation to be near meditative and makes me feel much better about life and myself in general when I am done.
For now that's all I use my iPhone for with relaxation and meditation but as I'm always looking things up and looking at new apps, I'm sure I will find some apps that can be just as useful. Technology does not have to be counterproductive to a healthy mind, curiosity and lifestyle, it can in fact exponentially increase it when used properly and effectively.
Mobile engaged, message transmitted02-20-2013 09:47 PM
- I use sleep cycle app to monitor the quality and length of my sleep! Great app!02-21-2013 11:15 AM
- Cool, i love this topic and have lots of apps for my iPhone about this!
Also done some resarch and presented it with links and pics.
Here is my post:
Sleep Cycle alarm clock
By Maciek Drejak Labs
Everybody should know this one or has seen it on the top of the appstore, it's amazing!
If you place it as the above image shows it tracks your movements and analizes your sleep.
When you wake up it will show you a graph of your sleep, but most important it wakes you up knowing when you are less in deep sleep.
It also has some relaxing sounds to help you get in to sleep!
(Baisicly get's you in to sleep, tracks it and wakes you up in perfect timing)
This app is pretty cool, i have used it many times altough i don't see it as practical, yes, it works or it must be a placebo, but i'm not really happy putting my phone under my pillow (I use airplane mode and it has also fallen a few sometimes) logically using acelerometer there is abattery drain and it's suggested leaveing the phone charging all night (which i'm not really keen on doing), but it's worth a try!
Price: 0.89$ (iPhone)
ALTERNATIVE: aSleep (Much more simple)
Accessories to help and track sleep:
Lark, WakeMate, LumaWake (Reservation), FitBit One (& Flex(Availlable Fall 013))
(Never tryed one of these, it would be awsome)
PS: ++(Interesting) This is a good website that calculates bed time: sleepyti.me
PS2: Also, i normally read a book, studies have shown disconection and better sleep when reading some pages before bed, and even better if it's fiction (Get a book or use you'r tablet!)
> Check out Amazons TOP 20
By Urban Apps
This is really the best of the best out there!
Includes over 2500 free sounds to download and listen. You can create customized sound mixes, cycle through playlists and even wake up to relaxing sounds.
(You can purchase more HD sounds)
Price: $2.99 (iPad & iPhone)
(If you want to be cheap and just try out how these relaxing sounds work, just youtube search 'relaxing... sounds')
Cool/Fun games: Koi Pond , Zen Bound 2 , iZen Garden 2
By SpreadCode
This app assists you to follow breathing patterns.
For example you chose 4-20 seconds holding your breath, (automatically calculates depending on what you selected) 2-10 breathing-out, 1-5 seconds breathing-out and it will start repeating (the app is predeterminated for 10 repeats).
I really like this one for it's simplicity, nice design and ease to use just after download.
Price: FREE (iPhone)
(Has a non-obtrusive ad-banner at the top. 0.89c to take)
ALTERNATIVE: Breathe2Relax (Can track and shows you how to breathe)
Yoga Free: 250 Poses & Yoga Classes
By ARAWELLA CORPORATION
Simple and straight foward yoga app, all what you want and need.
250 Poses and some nice extra features (Calendar, quotes...).
Price: FREE (iPhone)
(InAppPurchase for detailed text instructions, photos of poses, categories...)
ALTERNATIVES: Daily Yoga , https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hot-...mUvbUpU1993168
It came out pretty well, i put a los of time in to it
Thanks for reading, comment or add any suggestions!
Last edited by da_abades; 02-22-2013 at 04:41 PM. Reason: OH FAIL, LINKS ARE NOT APPEARING WELL02-21-2013 11:18 AM
- Yup......I use my iphone/ipad during my leisure time to hear music and even in performing excercise.......i'ts amazing gadgets! Lastly, when I'm not ready to sleep.....I use it to comfort myself.02-21-2013 09:21 PM
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Germany has seen success with solar power, despite having about the equivalent solar resource of Alaska. The U.S. contains vast solar resources, but could use more federal policies to utilize this renewable resource. Trans-Atlantic collaboration could boost the transition to sustainable energy systems on both sides of the Pond. (Source: German-American Chambers of Commerce)
The U.S. and Germany are obligated, as two of the largest economies and historic emitters of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, to lead the global transition to cleaner power systems. Their success or failure in transforming energy systems has immense global signaling effects. Closer cooperation in this innovative sector could revamp a faltering historic partnership.
Germany's chosen path to a clean energy future is ambitious and unprecedented amongst industrialized countries. The government passed a series of measures in 2011 to simultaneously move away from fossil fuels and phase out nuclear power. Renewable energy is to become the backbone of the country's energy system – at least 60 percent of the nation's primary energy consumption and 80 percent of electricity are to come from renewables in 2050. Meanwhile, the last nuclear reactor is to be shut down in 2022.
The country is already a leader in renewable energies. Few countries have a greater installed per capita capacity of renewables, excluding hydropower, than does Germany. Moreover, the government also envisions energy efficiency to be a key component in enabling the clean energy transition. Germany aims to reduce primary energy consumption by 50 percent by 2050 and increase energy productivity, or the GDP produced per unit of energy, by 2.1 percent per year.
The U.S. trails German ambition and lacks a federal clean energy strategy, but is nonetheless one of the most important and dynamic renewable energy markets in the world. As of the end of 2011, the U.S. led the world in installed biomass and geothermal power capacity, ranked second in total installed renewable power as well as wind power capacity, third in hydropower, and fifth in solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity. While total emissions in the U.S. have historically been higher than most other countries, no other country has seen a larger drop in energy-related greenhouse gas emissions over the past five years. Shifts from coal to natural gas in the power sector, as well as fuel efficiency improvements in the transportation sector, are the main reason for this reduction, but growing investments in renewable energies also contributed to this positive trend.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included several incentives for clean energy projects that led to a demand surge for renewable energy. Moreover, U.S. states enjoy great autonomy in regulating power markets and can therefore move ahead in the absence of a federal clean energy strategy. This has led several states to implement progressive measures such as renewable energy portfolio standards, or obligatory energy efficiency improvements that are comparable to efforts of some European countries.
The transformation of power systems is a global challenge that we need to master if the most dangerous consequences of climate change are to be avoided. Frontrunner countries need to communicate their experiences to encourage the adoption of similar strategies elsewhere. However, rather than partnering in their efforts, misconceptions and reservations on both sides of the Atlantic currently shape the U.S.-German relationship.
In the U.S., the German nuclear phase-out is equated with an alleged renaissance of coal power. However, this view fails to look beyond developments that will, in all likelihood, be short-lived. Climate and renewable energy targets leave no room for fossil fuels in the long-term and will ensure a withdrawal from coal power. Nonetheless, the government's management of the transition is critically debated within Germany. For example, the slow progress in renewing the country's transmission lines and finding cost-effective options for electricity storage remain a concern. Many U.S. states face similar problems. A closer look across the Atlantic can help in finding innovative solutions.
European critics are similarly quick to conclusions and chastise the United States for its lack of a comprehensive federal clean energy strategy, disregarding successful bottom-up efforts in U.S. states. From 2007 to 2012, U.S. energy-related emissions declined 13 percent, much more than in any other industrialized country. Moreover, renewables have jumped from 6.4 percent to 9.4 percent of total energy consumption. While more U.S. ambition is still needed to adequately address the threats of climate change, Europeans should regard these fast-changing circumstances in the energy sector as an opportunity to advance common interests.
Worldwatch is therefore launching its new ReVolt series "Transforming Transatlantic Power Systems" to strengthen the international dialogue on transitioning to clean energy systems, communicate respective efforts, and learn from best-practices. The goal of the blog series is to regularly report on energy developments on both sides of the Atlantic, address common myths misrepresenting respective efforts, and to encourage finding solutions to common problems, such as electricity storage, smart grid infrastructure, and the role of natural gas in the transition to a carbon-free electricity sector.
Michael Weber is the Research Coordinator for the Climate & Energy team at Worldwatch Institute.


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Posidonia sinuosa
|Scope: Global
Language: English
|Scientific Name:
|Posidonia sinuosa Cambridge & J.Kuo
Common Name(s):
|Taxonomic Notes:
This species is a member of the P. australis complex (P. australis Hook.f., P. sinuosa Cambridge & J.Kuo, P. angustifolia Cambridge & J.Kuo) (Campey et al. 2000).
|Red List Category & Criteria:
|Vulnerable A2ce ver 3.1
|Year Published:
|Date Assessed:
Needs updating
|Short, F.T., Carruthers, T.J.R., Waycott, M., Kendrick, G.A., Fourqurean, J.W., Callabine, A., Kenworthy, W.J. & Dennison, W.C.
|Livingstone, S., Harwell, H. & Carpenter, K.E.
Posidonia sinuosa is endemic to western and southern Australia. This species is slow growing and has a long recruitment time of 20 years. There have been major areas of loss across the range of P. sinuosa which have caused significant population declines. Major threats to this species are a decrease in water quality, sedimentation and coastal development. This species is more susceptible to detrimental human activities due to slower growth and less flowering than other Posidonia spp. Over the last 60 years (three generation lengths), the recorded declines in areas of this species suggests a population reduction greater than 30%. Therefore this species is listed as Vulnerable under criterion A2.
|Range Description:
|Posidonia sinuosa is endemic to western and southern Australia. It is distributed from Kalbarri to Eyre in Western Australia and from the head of the Great Australian Bight to Encounter Bay, South Australia.
|Countries occurrence:
|FAO Marine Fishing Areas:
Indian Ocean – eastern
|Additional data:
|Range Map:
|Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.
|There have been major areas of loss across the range of Posidonia sinuosa due to human activities, which have caused significant population declines. Based on 11 studies during the period between 1990 and 2000, there was a 1.2 % annual decline in the area of this seagrass (Orth and Dennison 2007). Over the last 60 years (three generation lengths), the recorded declines in areas of this species suggests a population reduction greater than 30%.
In one area of P. sinuosa's distribution, Cockburn Sound has been subjected to steady degradation since 1954, with the establishment of an oil refinery and the successive establishments of steel works, fertilizer factories, sewage-treatment facilities, and a power station. This has lead to contaminated effluents and increased nutrient loads. Between 1954 and 1978 the meadow in this region reduced from 4,200 to 900 ha (Cambridge and McComb 1984).
Seagrass loss (Posidonia australis and P. sinuosa) in Oyster Harbour between 1962 and 1988 was the culmination of diffuse nutrient and sediment influx from rural catchments (Cambridge et al. 2002).
|Current Population Trend:
|Additional data:
|Habitat and Ecology:
|Posidonia sinuosa is widely distributed in marine embayments and near shore areas on the western and southern coasts of Australia from low water to 15 m depth in sandy substrates. It may form meadows with Amphibolis spp. and typically grows in linear rows up to 50 cm wide, parallel to prevailing direction of water movement (Cambridge and Kuo 1979). This species is slow growing and has a long recruitment time of 20 years.
Posidonia sinuosa has inflorescences born on flattened, leafless peduncles, with reduced, hermaphroditic flowers and filiform pollen. Inflorescence of P. sinuosa are well hidden below the "umbrella-like" meadow canopy at ~10 cm above the sediment. Anthesis and fruiting occurs from August to January (Womersley 1984).
Posidonia sinuosa meadows have a high number of tightly packed shoots with overhanging semi-permanently bent top portions. This species has high leaf density surrounding the flowers which may prevent the pollen from escaping out of the meadow into the overlying water column. This likely leads to greater neighbour to neighbour pollination in this species (Smith and Walker 2002).
|Generation Length (years):
|Major Threat(s):
|Major threats to this species are excessive nutrient inputs, eutrophication, sedimentation and pollution, and dredging and sand mining activities. Coastal developments such as port development are also threatening for this species.
|Conservation Actions:
|Posidonia sinussa is protected in various Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), in Fisheries Acts, National and Marine Park Acts. There are no specific conservation measures for this species.
|Short, F.T., Carruthers, T.J.R., Waycott, M., Kendrick, G.A., Fourqurean, J.W., Callabine, A., Kenworthy, W.J. & Dennison, W.C. 2010. Posidonia sinuosa. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T173349A6996688. . Downloaded on 25 September 2018.
|To make use of this information, please check the <Terms of Use>.
|If you see any errors or have any questions or suggestions on what is shown on this page, please provide us with feedback so that we can correct or extend the information provided


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AUSTIN - Today, The Texas House of Representatives passed two pieces of legislation crafted within the borders of House District 2. House Bill 2612 and Senate Bill 453 passed their respective final chambers this afternoon, moving both closer to Governor Perry's desk for signature.
House Bill 2612, by Representative Dan Flynn (Van), would allow local officials the right to prohibit use of specific county roads by heavy or overweight vehicles. Provided an alternative route is posted, any use of the prohibited road would result in the rights of the county to hold the offenders liable.
"The inability for our local officials to hold offenders liable for damage to their respective county roads has become a serious issue for each county within House District 2," stated Representative Flynn. "Commissioner Beth Wisenbaker, of Hopkins County, came to me with her county's concerns and I was happy to draft legislation to address these issues. The entire Hopkins County Commissioners Court came to testify on this bill and show their support and dedication to resolving this issue. House Bill 2612 is the result of their concerns being brought to my attention."
Another piece of legislation that was crafted within House District 2 was Senate Bill 453. Boles ISD Superintendent Graham Sweeney collaborated with Commerce ISD Superintendent Blake Cooper, and Texas A&M Commerce President Dan Jones on solutions to address the various international student visa's that are accepted by public schools and local ISD's. Currently, public schools accept students traveling in the United States on J-1 Visa, a visa associated with a nationally recognized foreign exchange program. An F-1 Visa is issued to students travelling abroad, but not associated with an international exchange program; a visa public schools cannot accept. It also requires the international student to reimburse the school they choose to attend the full unsubsidized per capita cost of their tuition and education for the period of their attendance. By granting public schools the authority to accept F-1 Visa's, they would now have the authority to charge tuition.
SB453 would not impact the immigration in Texas or increase costs to local ISD's. This bill would grant the Education Commissioner the authority to determine the amount of tuition per school district.
"Senate Bill 453 was a great piece of legislation by Superintendent Sweeney," said Representative Flynn. "SB453 gives local school districts greater opportunity to not only diversify their campus for a school year, but it grants them greater financial flexibility when assessing the feasibility of certain programs at the beginning or end of each school term."
Capitol Address:
District Address:
Room 1N.10
P.O. Box 999


text:
Arjuna Ranatunga
Full name: Arjuna Ranatunga
DOB: December 1, 1963
Batting style: Left-handed middle order batsman
Bowling style: Right-arm medium pace
Primary role: Middle order batsman, former captain
Arjuna Ranatunga (Sinhala:අර්ජුන රණතුංග) is a Sri Lankan politician, former international cricketer and cricket administrator. He served as the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team for much of the 1990s, and the team won the 1996 Cricket World Cup under his leadership. He is the serving member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka from Kalutara District. Wikipedia >>


text:
Rest of the rankings: http://www.njcaa.org...&category=polls
1) Butler County CC (Region 6), 7-0
2) Hutchinson CC (Region 6), 6-0
3) Coffeyville CC (Region 6), 6-0
First three, same state (Kansas), same region. How many times does this happen?
Already got my tickets to the Coffeyville/Butler game, too. Gonna be nasty.
Haha, we're on the banner.
Woo, Coffeyville/Butler tomorrow. Tickets have been sold out since the 9th...good thing I snatched mine that day, haha.
Look at some of these scores the two have been dishing out...
http://www.njcaa.org...Schedule&slid=5 (Coffeyville)
http://www.njcaa.org...Schedule&slid=5 (Butler)
Rumor is that ESPN will be there.


text:
Alongside several of its adidas EQT counterparts, the extremely sought after Support 93-17 drops in its White/Turbo Red colorway today.
Undeniably the most popular EQT model thanks to its molded Boost cushioning, this effortlessly cool summer colorway in white knit construction with pops of Turbo Red and black at the heel will be everywhere in the warm weather months ahead.
The adidas EQT Support 93-17 White/Turbo Red lands today at select shops like afew for $170.


text:
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - LSU is just over a week away from by far its biggest game of the season, as top-ranked Alabama rolls into Baton Rouge and once again, the football team is dealing with some negative publicity.
Tyrann Mathieu, Jordan Jefferson, Karnell Hatcher and Derrick Bryant were arrested on drug charges Thursday.
Even though the former Tigers no longer suit up in purple and gold on Saturdays, fans were still passionate in their reaction.
Word of the arrests quickly became common knowledge at Walk-On's Bar and Grill, with some folks disappointed and others not surprised to hear the news.
"It just shows I can get kicked off once and say I will get help and get in trouble for it again and it's alright," said Joshua Ashcraft. "People just don't seem to get it."
"It gives us a negative image," said Garrett Remson. "We're trying to bounce back from all the negative and it happens again."
Most of the reaction from people centered on former defensive back Tyrann Mathieu, who just months after being kicked off the football team for failing a drug test, is now once again charged with drug possession.
"He was going to be a pro and he threw it all away over weed," said Dylan Viola.
"He threw away his college career and probably threw his first round pick," added Brand Applewhite. "He should have had an eye opener, but I guess not."
Still others remained optimistic the former players can bounce back from this run-in with the law.
"It's a sad thing that happened, but it's life and you live and you learn and that's it," said Lionell Sellers.
Copyright 2012 WAFB. All rights reserved.


text:
Hunting ▼
Refine Your Search
- Remove This Item Mackinaw Wool
Take advantage of full days in the field in any season, with gear that's built to last. Made with tear-resistant fabric and materials that repel rain, mud and blood, our hunting gear is field tested by sportsmen to ensure it's up to the task.
There are no products matching the selection.


text:
A number of flight attendants and air marshals want the Transportation and Security Administration to reconsider its decision to allow passengers to carry small knives aboard planes starting next month.
The changes in the carry-on security standards, announced Tuesday, have prompted action from unions and associations representing air marshals and flight attendants who worry about their safety in the post-9/11 world.
George Randall, head of the air marshal unit of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Assn., told CNN: "It's as if we didn't learn anything from 9/11. Flight attendants are going to be sitting ducks."
The Assn. of Flight Attendants and the Flight Attendants Union Coalition have circulated a petition on the White House's We the People Web page aimed at stopping the changes. So far the posting shows that more than 5,400 people have signed online.


text:
JD is 4, almost 5. Life is interesting these days. One minute he's a blond, wide-eyed angel, next he's a karate-chopping maniac with a 'tude. As a result, the following things come out of my mouth on a daily basis. Here goes (no shame!)...
What are you doing? Why. Why. Why. Really? Wow!
No, no. no.
Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.
Eat this. Take another bite.
Cartoon Network was disconnected from our TV. I can't help you. No, Poppy can't help either.
Clean up these Lego blocks or I'm throwing them out.
Wash your hands. Seriously, with soap too. They don't smell like soap. Back to the bathroom. Now.
Can I have my iPhone back? I'll trade you for your iPod Touch. Give me my phone. (I do not endorse Apple for products or profit)
Go to bed. You already had a drink. I read you 17 books. You just peed.
Put on your sneakers. You do know how. Fine, don't wear sneakers today, but your socks might get dirty. Now you're not wearing socks? LOL.
Where's that cup you were just drinking from?
I don't know what yellow and black make. A bee? They don't make another legit color in real life, bud.
I love you more than anyone. Ever.
What things do you say on a daily basis to your child(ren)? Have a great weekend! Ours is full: QT with my Mom, Date, Girls Night, T-Ball, Parties, Sunshine!
*******NEWS IS COMING so friend me on Facebook & follow me on Twitter @JDSMOM2007 to keep up. Order a copy of my single mom memoir, Rattled! or download it @ iTunes. It's now available on audible.com Check out ChristineCoppa.net for more info.


text:
SYNLawn's exclusive EnviroLoc backing technology 'Locks In' turf fibers for lasting beauty and long life-spans.Tell Me More
Made in the USA using renewable and recyclable components that reduce your carbon imprint due to its long-life expectancy.
Our exclusive EnviroLoc™ Technology replaces a large portion of petroleum-based polymers with biobased polymers such as renewable soybeans.
SYNLawn® Des Moines artificial grass is the first in the business to offer up to a 15-year warranty* on our synthetic turf products. 15 years! Call SYNLawn® Des Moines your local certified SYNLawn installation experts for more information on how to qualify in Des Moines, IA.Schedule Free Estimate
SYNLawn® Des Moines are the industry leaders in artificial landscape grass for residential and commercial applications. Unlike most synthetic turf companies SYNLawn® Des Moines proudly MAKES what we sell at our manufacturing facilities located in Dalton, Georgia USA. SYNLawn® Des Moines are so confident that our artificial landscape turf is the best grass available we back up our word with manufacturer warranties up to 15 years*.
While SYNLawn® Des Moines may appear to simply be a company manufacturing and installing synthetic turf our products do much more than appear like natural green grass. At SYNLawn® Des Moines we offer a lifestyle to our customers they may not have experienced before. With our faux grass requiring virtually zero maintenance or watering our clients not only save money and conserve precious water resources, they also have more free time to enjoy life instead of the hassles of maintaining a lush, green yard.
SYNLawn® Des Moines specializes in the installation and application of artificial landscapes for residential homes, commercial common areas and so much more. At SYNLawn® Des Moines we continue to improve our turf products and application processes to ensure that our grass products look and feel as natural as possible with a long-life span. Our expertise is unmatched in the synthetic grass industry as we have over 50 years of research and development invested in our products.
SYNLawn® Des Moines not only makes the best synthetic landscape grass for residential lawns we also specialize in several artificial turf applications. Our artificial grass system for play areas and playgrounds are built with safety built in. SYNLawn® Des Moines also excels in the application and installation of artificial grass for pets of all sizes. Hypoallergenic and safe for both children and animals. SYNLawn® Des Moines also takes grass into places never thought possible in areas such as rooftops, decks, patios and once thought unusable spaces. With the versatility of our artificial turf SYNLawn® Des Moines transforms once unused places into lush, beautiful and functional living spaces.
SYNLawn® Des Moines also lead the way in the world of amatuer and professional golf with top quality synthetic putting green surfaces, rough, collar and fringe that perform just like real golf grass. With research and development by world renowned golf instructor Dave Pelz applying his knowledge of physics into the creation of our golf products we create the most realistic artificial golf grasses available.
SYNLawn® Des Moines are proud of our products and installations and look forward to helping you create the landscape of your dreams no matter how big or small. Give us a call today and see how SYNLawn® Des Moines artificial grass can transform your lifestyle!


text:
Princecraft Springbok 15 boats for sale
Princecraft Springbok 152018Request Price
A fishing rod, a waterway, a utility boat: it's often the simple things that are the most fun. Add unmatched durability, incredible lightness, and rock solid strength. Can't you just feel the tingle of the line as you move through the water? Hey, you've got a bite!• Aluminum clad transom • Heavy-duty tubular seat to gunnel braces• Bow eye and stern handles• Bulkhead center seat• Durable ribbed polyethylene seat covering (except Lynx, Scamper & Seasprite)Please note: This boat model may or may not be in-stock. A Nationally Advertised Price, if listed, may change without notice or include accessories not fully described herein. Please contact your local, authorized dealer for exact details on model availability and package pricing.More…3
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The Environmental Studies & Sciences Program at Rhodes College offers an innovative curriculum that allows students to combine study in social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, and fine arts. The program encourages a personalized combination of interdisciplinary coursework and a sustained examination of global and local contexts environmental issues from many perspectives.
This short film titled "Green Rhodes" discusses student efforts to combat climate change and encourage environmental sustainability at Rhodes. Highlights include the Rhodes College Bike Shop and student recycling crew as well as other Environmental Planning Cooperative programs. It also features an introduction by President William E. Troutt.
Sophie Osella '14 and Becca Martin '15 created the video in collaboration with Professor Kimberly Kasper in her Ecological Anthropology course. The short film won first place in a competition sponsored by the Associated Colleges of the South, a consortium of 16 liberal arts colleges.


text:
Understanding the foreclosure process in Tucson AZ is an important part of navigating your own home foreclosure. Before we dive in… What is foreclosure anyway? Foreclosure is the legal process that lenders use to take back property securing a loan, generally after the borrower stops making payments. Foreclosure is no fun. But just know that it's not […]
Tag Archives | avoid foreclosure process
Understanding the Foreclosure Process in Tucson AZ
By Karl Krentzel on October 28, 2014 in sellers
Can I sell my Tucson house in foreclosure?
By Karl Krentzel on October 6, 2014 in sellers
Can you sell your Tucson, Arizona house even when it is under foreclosure? Do you have a Tucson Arizona house that's in foreclosure right now? Many people going through the Arizona foreclosure process want to get out from under that burdensome house and wonder if they can sell the house in foreclosure. The short answer: […]
Sell My Tucson House Fast Blog!
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Yikes.On the other hand, to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan's speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold.
The good news is that the Romney-Ryan campaign has likely created dozens of new jobs among the legions of additional fact checkers that media outlets are rushing to hire to sift through the mountain of cow dung that flowed from Ryan's mouth. Said fact checkers have already condemned certain arguments that Ryan still irresponsibly repeated.
Fact: While Ryan tried to pin the downgrade of the United States' credit rating on spending under President Obama, the credit rating was actually downgraded because Republicans threatened not to raise the debt ceiling.
Fact: While Ryan blamed President Obama for the shut down of a GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, the plant was actually closed under President George W. Bush. Ryan actually asked for federal spending to save the plant, while Romney has criticized the auto industry bailout that President Obama ultimately enacted to prevent other plants from closing.
Fact: Though Ryan insisted that President Obama wants to give all the credit for private sector success to government, that isn't what the president said. Period.
Fact: Though Paul Ryan accused President Obama of taking $716 billion out of Medicare, the fact is that that amount was savings in Medicare reimbursement rates (which, incidentally, save Medicare recipients out-of-pocket costs, too) and Ryan himself embraced these savings in his budget plan.
Elections should be about competing based on your record in the past and your vision for the future, not competing to see who can get away with the most lies and distortions without voters noticing or bother to care. Both parties should hold themselves to that standard. Republicans should be ashamed that there was even one misrepresentation in Ryan's speech but sadly, there were many.
Last edited by 21st Amendment; 08-30-2012 at 04:01 AM.
THE U.S. IS BORROWING OR PRINTING MORE than 40 cents of every dollar the government spends today. The math is simple: Federal spending must be cut not by millions or billions, but by trillions. And it must be done today.
It's time to:
Submit a Balanced Budget to Congress, not five or ten years down the road, but in 2013.
End excessive spending, bloated stimulus programs, unnecessary farm subsidies, and earmarks.
Reassess the role of the federal government and identify responsibilities that can be met more efficiently by the private sector.
Recognize that you can't have limited government at home, but big government abroad.
simple solution by the libretarian party and gary johnson
Dim wit! Sally Kohn is a democrat contributor to FOX...WTF did you expect her to write that Ryan knocked it out of the park? Which he did by the way...this is why Fox is fair and balanced. Do you think Obama's propaganda channel (MSNBC) would allow a republican contributor to write a disparaging article like this...not only are you people sheep, you are blind sheep.
LOL to the OP. Ryan's speech was epic. One of the best political speeches I have personally ever seen. All of the nonesense in the Opinion piece was false.
My favorite was the part on Medicare.
"Fact: Though Paul Ryan accused President Obama of taking $716 billion out of Medicare, the fact is that that amount was savings in Medicare reimbursement rates (which, incidentally, save Medicare recipients out-of-pocket costs, too) and Ryan himself embraced these savings in his budget plan."
LOL. What the writer neglected to mention is that after reducing what medicare pays to providers (which will limit seniors access to doctors and care) they then use the money not to strengthen medicare but rather to pay for the Obamacare entitlement.
Only the twisted mind of a liberal progressive can think that people are too stupid to understand that taking 800billion out of medicare and using the money for a new entitlement would be a move that strengthens medicare.
Here is another doozy from that article:
"Fact: While Ryan tried to pin the downgrade of the United States credit rating on spending under President Obama, the credit rating was actually downgraded because Republicans threatened not to raise the debt ceiling."
Another joke. I get that this is a talking point for leftists but does anyone really believe that our debt was downgraded because the Republicans are trying to get spending under control? The logic here is that raising our national debt by 50% in just 3 years wasn't the problem. The problem is the evil republicans that pointed out that the national debt has risen 50% in 3 years? That is obviously absurd. Regardless the national debt was downgraded under Obama. Thats the fact.
Isn't it quite a world we live in when you have to fact-check the "fact checkers"?
You guys are missing an obvious example: Ryan never said that factory closed during Obama's term. She's disputing a statement that Ryan never made.
So to be clear on this, Romney/Ryan is a facist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facist) ticket, looking to create a totalitarian state based on the personal power and magnetism of the leader, Romney, backed by a personal pledge of loyalty by all to this leader above all, including the State, as in Nazi Germany circa 1930's.the romney/ryan plan is to take us back to the days of yore, and quite frankly smacks of ye ole german play book. well if you see the reichstag burning again you'll know what time it is.
I'm curious, what do you think is his purpose in Romney following the National Socialist model? Whats his "endgame" if you will? Hitler's was quite clear, Lebensraum (living space), racial purety, and the extermination of what he deemed "lesser" racial types. What is Romney/Ryan's goal?
Last edited by Warfish; 08-30-2012 at 10:36 AM.
S&P cleary states that the downgrade was due to not raising the debt ceiling AND continuing with large growths in public spending.S&P's statement was blunt in its assessment.
"We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process," the ratings firm said.
"We also believe that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration agreed to this week falls short of the amount that we believe is necessary to stabilize the general government debt burden by the middle of the decade," S&P said.
Her outrage, like the same outrage we hear from both sides of the media, is built on false pretenses. She'll argue that she's dealing only in facts, but her facts only provide evidence against something that Ryan never said. She clearly is lying about what he said.


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Deployment of a High-Sample-Rate Seafloor Geodetic System Across the Discovery Transform Fault
DOEI Project Funded: 2003
Proposed ResearchIn continental regions, deformation of the earth is routinely studied using geodetic techniques, such as Global Positioning Satellites, which detect motion of benchmarks installed in the earth's crust. Unlike seismometers, such systems do not require earthquakes to detect fault motion but can measure displacements that occur smoothly over long periods of time. However, this technology has not been easily exported to study crustal movements in the deep ocean environment. Developing high-precision geodetic measurement techniques for the seafloor is extremely important because more than half of the motion across oceanic plate boundaries occurs as smooth aseismic slip.
We are completing the development of an acoustic extensometer system that is capable of measuring displacements as small as 3 mm on the ocean floor. We will take advantage of two funded cruises to deploy it across the Discovery Transform Fault in the equatorial Pacific to investigate how slip occurs along this fault. If successful, this deployment will hopefully nucleate a significant new research program at WHOI that will address scientific questions in a variety of plate boundary environments.


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CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — The Guinean opposition on Sunday called for a march to protest President Alpha Conde's announcement that elections will be held on June 30.
Opposition supporters will hold a peaceful demonstration in the capital, Conakry, on April 18 to protest the date of the elections, said Aboubacar Sylla, spokesman for the Guinean opposition.
"We are determinated to bar the way to any attempt of fraud perpetrated by the government. We will walk to express our dissatisfaction on Thursday to deal with this unilateral decision of the authority to set the date while negotiations are ongoing," said Sylla.
The presidential decree was read Saturday evening on national television following months of negotiations over the vote.
The West African country has not had a functioning parliament for four years, and it only held its first democratic presidential election in 2010. Disagreements over the electoral process already have spilled over into violent protests.
Originally the vote was scheduled for May 12, but the opposition said it was pulling out because of concerns over election procedures.
Guinea suffered decades of dictatorship and strongman rule before the 2010 vote. Ethnic tensions, however, have risen in the deeply impoverished country since the landmark election.
Guinea's 10 million people are among the world's poorest, even though the country has resources of diamonds, gold, iron and half the world's reserves of the raw material used to make aluminum.


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Accessibility tools
Service tools
Language selector
Navigation path
The latest versions of the guides to national social security systems are now also available as web pages, further to a revision of their format and content to increase their user-friendliness.
The revised guides are available in English, French, German and in the country's own language(s).
Click on a flag to find out about your pension rights, unemployment benefits, family benefits and other social security rights in:


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A key federal panel Wednesday recommended the Food and Drug Administration approve the first new weight-loss drug in more than a decade.
At the conclusion of a day-long hearing, the FDA's Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee voted 20-2 to endorse a request from Vivus to approve the drug Qnexa. The same panel gave a thumbs-down to Qnexa in 2010.
Qnexa is a combination of two generic drugs that are already on the market:
- phentermine, a stimulant used for short periods to help control weight, and
- topiramate, typically used for migraines and seizures.
The FDA doesn't have to follow the advice of the panel, but the agency usually does.
The FDA rejected Qnexa in 2010 because of concerns about side effects, especially possible heart problems and birth defects such as cleft lips and cleft palates. The rejection came amid a series of rejections and withdrawals of weight-loss drugs, which put a spotlight on the FDA's handling of obesity medications.
Despite the obesity epidemic, the FDA hasn't approved a new weight-loss drug since 1999. In 2011, the the diet drug Meridia was pulled from the market at the request of the FDA because of concerns about heart problems. Only one weight-loss drug, Xenical, remains on the market for long-term use, but it is only marginally effective and causes diarrhea and other unpleasant side effects.
Some advocates have urged the FDA to consider allowing some drugs to be on the market even if they have risks, given the serious health problems caused by obesity.
During Wednesday's hearing, Vivus gave a series of presentations designed to show show that the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks. The risk of birth defects, one concern, was relatively low. And obesity itself can increase the danger that women will give birth to babies with birth defects, according to one presentation.
In addition, Qnexa appears to have other health benefits beyond weight loss, such as lowering blood pressure, that could outweigh any risks posed by an increase in the heart rate seen in some patients, according to another presentation.
Vivus also outlined a plan to reduce the risk that pregnant women might take Qnexa, including regular pregnancy testing of women taking the drug.
For its part, the FDA presented concerns it had highlighted in new analyses posted on its website Friday, especially the increased risks for birth defects and the elevated heart rate. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also presented data on the birth defect risk from topiramate.
During the public comment part of the hearing, several obesity experts urged the panel to recommend approval, saying diet and exercise simply do not work for many people.
Kelly Close, who described herself as an advocate for people with obesity and diabetes, urged the panel to endorse the drug. She noted few drugs were in the pipeline for obesity. "The panel and the FDA has a chance to today to do something historic for obesity," Close said.
Joe Nadglowski of the Obesity Action Coalition, agreed. He noted that only one member of the committee had any experience with treating obesity.
"There is a significant treatment gap from Weight Watchers to bariatric surgery," Nadglowski. "There is a consequence of remaining obese."
Several health advocates, however, appealed to the panel to recommend against the drug, saying the risks outweighed the benefits.
"Qnexa doesn't give women what they need," said Kate Ryan of the National Women's Health Network, noting that many people regain whatever weight they lose while taking Qnexa once they stop taking the drug.
A new drug to fight obesity has gotten strong support from advisers to the Food and Drug Administration. They voted today 20 to 2 in favor of Qnexa. If the FDA approves the drug, it would be the first time since 1999 that the agency has OK'd an obesity drug and Qnexa itself was originally rejected.
With me now to talk about this is NPR health correspondent Rob Stein. And, Rob, first explain how Qnexa works.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: Sure. Qnexa is made up of two drugs that have been on the market for a while now. The first one is called phentermine, which has been used for quite a while to help people lose weight for short term use only. And the other one is called topiramate, which has been used to help people prevent migraine headaches and prevent seizures - people who have epilepsy.
And when they're combined, they seem to suppress people's appetite, so they eat less and they seem to lose significant amounts of weight.
BLOCK: And when the drug has been tested and studied, how much weight did people lose?
STEIN: Yeah. It's been pretty substantial. Between about three and 10 percent, which is really pretty good for an obesity drug. Not a lot of drugs have really reached that level and that's had significant effects on people's health related to their weight.
BLOCK: We mentioned that this drug, Qnexa, was rejected by the FDA back in 2010. Why? What happened?
STEIN: Right. There were really two big concerns. The first one was that the drug can increase heart rate and that's a big concern because heart problems have been a major concern among health - weight loss drugs in the past. You probably remember, there's been a bunch of drugs that have been on the market and then they've been pulled off the market mainly because of heart problems. Fen Phen is probably the one people recognize the most.
The second concern is about birth defects. Topiramate is known to cause birth defects, most commonly cleft lips and cleft palates, and that's a big concern, so people were really worried that if this got on the market that it wouldn't be just obese people taking it, but lots of people would be taking it and that could cause serious complications.
BLOCK: Well, given those serious complications that you just went through, what changed? Why would the panel vote today to improve it?
STEIN: Yeah. It's interesting. It's really a combination of factors. Part of it was that the company presented new data that suggested that the risk of birth defects was maybe a little bit lower than people had thought. They also presented a very detailed plan to try to prevent pregnant women or women of child bearing age from actually taking the drug to prevent birth defects from occurring.
And, also, I think it probably reflects sort of a new thinking at the FDA. There's been a lot of criticism of the FDA for not approving any new drugs in quite a while and the obesity epidemic has been raging out of control. And so there's been some thought that they really ought to sort of rethink the way they approach weight loss drugs and accept some risks for some drugs because there's some benefits from losing weight.
BLOCK: Now, Rob, I gather the vote today to recommend approval came with some conditions. What were those?
STEIN: Right, right. One condition was something I just alluded to, which was that there's going to be this strict system in place to reduce the risk that women of child bearing age will take the drug. And that will include things like it won't be available anywhere. It'll only be available at a few handpicked mail order pharmacies so that the company can sort of keep tabs on it, who's using it, how much are they using. It'll be limited to 30 day supplies and women who are taking the drug will be asked to take pregnancy tests on a regular basis.
In addition to that, they're going to ask the company that makes the drug to conduct a large study to really get a better handle on the risks of the heart because that's really the big concern from these drugs, the heart risks.
BLOCK: Now, the advisory panel is just that, it's an advisory panel. Do you expect the FDA to go along because the vote was 20 to two, to go ahead and approve the drug?
STEIN: Right. Now, the agency doesn't have to follow this advice, but traditionally, they usually do and usually when - especially when it's a lopsided vote like this, they usually do take the advice of the advisory panels.
BLOCK: OK. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein. Rob, thanks so much.
STEIN: Nice to be here. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Ghosts, Spirits, Apparitions, and the like.
RE: Ghosts, Spirits, Apparitions, and the like.
Conkles, you might find this interesting:
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If you don't know how to ignore a message, complain to me and I will be happy to demonstrate.
RE: Ghosts, Spirits, Apparitions, and the like.
(13-12-2012 04:45 PM)Aseptic Skeptic Wrote: Take 10 people to that cave. Tell all 10 of them the stories of the massacre. Almost all of them will have feelings of dread, etc.This was before I had any knowledge of the history. I was told about the history more than a few weeks afterword. Also, I was skeptical, and still am. Just thought I would clarify.
(13-12-2012 04:54 PM)Chas Wrote:I do not believe exactly in our personalities or consciousnesses can survive our physical death, or at least exactly. But I know of quantum theory and string theory (if ANYBODY claims to understand them, then they obviously have no idea what they are), and I believe there may be some relationship between what humans perceive as "paranormal activity" and other things from other universes (dimensions) and quantum phenomena. My belief is strictly a hypothesis still awaiting testing.(13-12-2012 04:38 PM)conkles Wrote: I think ghosts are a really interesting subject. I consider them possible, and I feel like I have experienced some supernatural and freaky shit before. I frequently go to a park called Starved Rock in Illinois where there was a large massacre of natives throughout the canyon system, and during certain times I enter caverns and have felt very uneasy and like I want to leave the area (feelings like dread or the feeling of being watched as well). I have also had other experiences in the house I grew up.
Here is what I currently feel is possible: As 3 dimensional beings, we can perceive the third dimension, just as 2 dimensional beings would only be able to perceive 2 dimensions (presumably). If a 3D being appears to a 2D being, it appears as a 2D cross section. If anybody has seen the geometry movie "Flatland" or has read the book, that may be of help. So if we popped in a 2D world, the 2D being would see something like an MRI of whatever slice of body we happen to show them (say my abdomen), which would certainly look eerie. This same concept applies to objects of higher dimensions appearing in lower dimension and creating a strange 3D cross section that we see (what we may know as ghosts).
This is a very short and under-complicated attempt at spelling out what I hope to test one day and further understand, but here is a project that does a decent job at explaining many of the theories
We have a decent share of information about quantum mechanics that I hope will one day prove or disprove that this does or does not violate our current laws of physics, but as of right now I just think of this as an interesting field that we do not know about and that we can test further.
RE: Ghosts, Spirits, Apparitions, and the like.
(14-12-2012 11:32 AM)KVron Wrote: Conkles, you might find this interesting:I love infra-sound. It explains a lot of "paranormal" activity, and I have definitely known it being used in concerts and DJ'ing. Waves influence how we live in so many different waves, and they can definitely fuck with perception, but I do not think it blankets all things paranormal.
RE: Ghosts, Spirits, Apparitions, and the like.
(14-12-2012 09:21 AM)Vosur Wrote:Because we all die.... then there is either nothing or something.(14-12-2012 02:09 AM)bemore Wrote: One thing I do know is we will all find out one day wether its real or notWhy do you think that?
I feel so much, and yet I feel nothing.
I am a rock, I am the sky, the birds and the trees and everything beyond.
I am the wind, in the fields in which I roar. I am the water, in which I drown.
RE: Ghosts, Spirits, Apparitions, and the like.
(14-12-2012 01:10 PM)bemore Wrote:And if there is nothing, you won't be finding out anything.(14-12-2012 09:21 AM)Vosur Wrote: Why do you think that?Because we all die.... then there is either nothing or something.
Skepticism is not a position; it is an approach to claims.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
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Adenosis (16-10-2013)
RE: Ghosts, Spirits, Apparitions, and the like.
(14-12-2012 01:15 PM)Chas Wrote:(14-12-2012 01:10 PM)bemore Wrote: Because we all die.... then there is either nothing or something.
Nothing wrong with a good sleep.
If there is something, we won't know either because we are not taking our brain with us, and all our info is in there. We would have nothing to reference things with, so no understanding or memories or anything.
Science is the process we've designed to be responsible for generating our best guess as to what the fuck is going on. Girly Man
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Chas (14-12-2012)
14-12-2012, 03:09 PM (This post was last modified: 14-12-2012 03:24 PM by conkles.)
RE: Ghosts, Spirits, Apparitions, and the like.
When we die, all the energy holding our molecules together will be decomposed and effectively given back to the planet we took them from. After all, we are just atoms. And none of them are "ours," because as you sit and type and think there are atoms you just ate being put into you and atoms being brushed off yours skin. One day some of the atoms inside you had once been in a stalk of corn, which had some carbon dioxide it had taken from the air in photosynthesis. Most of that carbon is from engine emissions.
Even farther back, any single atom in any of those molecules had to be synthesized by immense heat and pressure, often only available in the stars. So we are part car, part plant, part stardust, and part anything we inhale or ingest, and in turn what they have ingested.
At the same time, all of those atoms have electrons, and quantum theory has shown us that electrons can be at the different places at the same time, or appear to transport over space and time, and exhibit other strange behavior that we cannot even begin to fully comprehend.
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bemore (14-12-2012), Dom (14-12-2012), Bucky Ball (18-12-2012), LaFeske (25-09-2013)
RE: Ghosts, Spirits, Apparitions, and the like.
(14-12-2012 03:09 PM)conkles Wrote: When we die, all the energy holding our molecules together will be decomposed and effectively given back to the planet we took them from. After all, we are just atoms. And none of them are "ours," because as you sit and type and think there are atoms you just ate being put into you and atoms being brushed off yours skin. One day some of the atoms inside you had once been in a stalk of corn, which had some carbon dioxide it had taken from the air in photosynthesis. Most of that carbon is from engine emissions.
Quote:Every one of us completely regenerates our own skin every 7 days. A cut heals itself and disappears in a week or two. Every single cell in our skeleton is replaced every 7 years.
I feel so much, and yet I feel nothing.
I am a rock, I am the sky, the birds and the trees and everything beyond.
I am the wind, in the fields in which I roar. I am the water, in which I drown.
RE: Ghosts, Spirits, Apparitions, and the like.
(14-12-2012 02:09 AM)bemore Wrote: Science has explained a lot to us, however there are a lot of mysteries like how can a particle be in many places at once and be nowhere at the same time? How this world is solid yet the only thing "holding it together" is the force between electrons and nuclei. Not that I know a lot about quantum physics and im not using it as a case to prove anything.You see, that's an important point. If there was a different kind of matter surrounding us, with slightly different arrangement of the electrons and nuclei, it wouldn't collide or bond with us, maybe only weakly. As far as I'm concerned, our body dies and rots, no mystery about it. People theoretize that in death some energy of this body may separate, some light emissions or something and perhaps exist independently. I say, that's not using all the possibilities.
Care to tell me what do you think about the model of people as composite beings? I think it makes more sense, it's very materialistic actually.
(14-12-2012 02:09 AM)bemore Wrote: One thing I do know is we will all find out one day wether its real or notCertainly, but I hope science won't be the last one to acknowledge it. I wonder when a cultural thing like seeing and meeting ghosts becomes impossible to ignore by science. What if ghost is not a natural phenomenon, what if it has a will of its own? That would be also a social phenomenon.
A year or two ago I've been on a trip in a small rural village in Bohemia. A guy was building an ecologic house in there, so he invited lots of volunteers and prepared some fun program for them. We slept in a clay and straw house, on a half-built floor, with mud everywhere, and the fun was terribly physically demanding, but we all had a great time.
Also, he was a keeper of a local "ecologic center", that is, kind of a guesthouse, summer school for children and other visitors to stay in and get familiar with various natural technologies, like root cleaning of sewage water, solar collectors, heat pump, floor heating and wine cellar. Mostly funded by the European Union.
The whole house was heavily rebuilt. It used to be a big old farming homestead or two together actually, complete with courtyard. It was about two hundred years old at least. A part of the old house remained in maximally authentic state, all the original stuff that the owners left, for people to see how the villagers lived. There was a story behind it too, sort of. The keeper told us the story of a couple of last generations of owners before the Communists came. The last owner was a man who married a young woman, he liked the young meat and she liked the old money, apparently. She got the better part, because he got old, weak and senile, while she was still relatively young and strong. So the keeper showed us a diary of the senile old man, where he documented all the wrongs, perceived or real, the wife did to him. She probably slept around too. Overall, it wasn't a nice story, lots of unhappy people lived there, not happy with what the other generation is doing with the household or who are they marrying. Village soap opera stuff, but nothing like murder or anything.
So the keeper was in charge of it all, of the school classes that stayed there and of their daily program. He had to deal with children and their teachers, so he took care of not telling them any history of the house or anything scary. And yet, things kept happening. IIRC, in that original un-reconstructed room some picture or cross kept falling down from a window on bed, or the diary kept opening or something was moved when nobody was there, stuff like that.
Also, reports kept coming from the children, for example, some children saw an apparition of a nice old woman in their modern, reconstructed room and asked if she was one of the owners. The keeper vehemently denied this, but actually, that room was once hers, one of the old original owners before things started going down with the family. Eventually I think he invited a priest to pray in the rural room or sprinkle it with holy water or something, which kind of helped. Maybe it got the old man's vengful ghost away.
Well, that's what he told us, when we got a tour of the household. You can have a look too, if you think anyone would feel scared in there:
RE: Ghosts, Spirits, Apparitions, and the like.
(13-12-2012 08:40 PM)poolboyg88 Wrote:Well there's the damn proof for ya. She's got my rubber ducky. How the hell did that happen ? It must be the ghost of my ducky as mine is still here. I better call in the para-normal people. Oh wait. There already here.(13-12-2012 05:10 PM)Momsurroundedbyboys Wrote: I don't really believe in ghosts, but I love the idea of them :-)
Insufferable know-it-all. It is objectively immoral to kill innocent babies. Please stick to the guilty babies.
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