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Newsletter - 2019 Archive |
Cycling Club |
My Heart(s) of the Kootenays Super 600 Permanent(s) I have been in striking distance of earning the coveted Super 10000 pin ever since it was announced; there was just that one missing event… a Super 600. When Bob Koen designed and received approval for the Heart of the Kootenays route, I was excited. I had worked for two summers as a student in the Kootenays and had spent many summers vacationing with my family there. Most of the H of the K route, actually all of the route, I had ridden or driven many times, even up Idaho Peak. The route beckoned, but injuries and atmospheric conditions (heavy smoke) forced me to forgo any attempt to do the ride year after year. Bob knew I was keen to do it, and as he planned to do it for a second time this year, he extended an invitation to accompany him. The plan was put in motion for an early July attempt (July 3rd). Eric Ferguson and two SIR riders (John Pearch and Hugh Kimball) were also interested, so as a group of five, we met up at the start location: Christina Lake. We planned for a 4pm start to take advantage of the cooler night temperatures (it gets HOT in the Kootenays.) As it turned out, the temperature was going to be a problem, but not as we anticipated. We headed off at 4pm as planned in overcast, suspect conditions. Bob, John and Hugh set off at a brisk pace. By the time we reached the start of the big climb (about 5km into the ride), they were out of sight. Eric and I were settling into a steady pace, but then…… There was a construction crew working at the Paulson Bridge (25km up the climb). Eric and I stopped there to see if they had any tools that we could use. They were very helpful, moving heavy equipment out of the way that was being used to barricade their tool shed. They had a set of allen wrenches but the 10mm was not to be found, darn! We thanked them and pushed on. About 5km further up the climb, two 'recovery tow trucks' were attempting to wench a camper truck and the boat that was being towed up an embankment to the road. What a mess (thankfully no one had been badly hurt in the rollover/crash)! They had a 10mm allen wrench, but tightening the retaining bolt was not the solution to the problem. When I tightened the retaining bolt the crank locked up and couldn't be turned. I had to re-loosen it and live with the problem. Onward we went over the Blueberry-Paulson and Nancy Green Summits and started the big descent down through Rossland to Trail. What a drop! It was now dark (9ish) and the temperature was below 10C. With the windchill (we were rolling at 50kph+) it was bloody cold. I started to shiver uncontrollably so of course the bike started to shake as well. It was not fun. We reached the control point (the bridge over the Columbia River) at 9:30pm and headed back to the A&W where we had seen three bikes parked outside. There we joined Bob, John, and Hugh who were just finishing their meal. They left at about 9:50 and we were out the door shortly after 10pm to start the huge climb back up to Rossland. I had probably climbed this hill on my trusty Peugeot 10 speed back in late 1960s three dozen times, I think it was easier to do this time, being dark. What you don't see can be a blessing. As we rode through Rossland and past Red Mountain (ski hill), the crank really began to wobble, and the weather was turning foul, cold and damp. It was now after midnight, and I was really concerned for my safety given the weather conditions and likelihood that the crank might actually fall off. I decided it was best to coast back to Rossland where I talked my way into the best hotel in town at a 'cut' rate. It was sublime! I did some thinking and formulated two plans. Plan A: Coast back down the hill to Trail ( the LBS opened at 9AM) get the bike fixed and take a taxi back up the hill to the where I abandoned and resume the ride. If all went 'very' well, I might still be able to do the ride within the 60hr time limit ( in hindsight silly me). Plan B: Get the bike fixed and then ride from Trail through Castlegar and Nelson to Balfour to meet up with the other riders and complete the remainder of the ride with them. First thing in the morning I headed down to trail. Checking my e-mail and messages as the bike was being repaired, I learned that the weather had got the better of Bob, John, and Hugh and they had abandoned at Castlegar and ridden back to Christina Lake. Wow, they had climbed the Blueberry Summit three times in less that 16hrs!. The messages indicated that Eric had pressed on to Salmo. With this information, Plan C was a no brainer, take the bus back up to Rossland then either ride or hitchhike back to Christina Lake. After 75minutes thumbing, I got a ride back to my motel a C.L. I tracked down John and Hugh and joined then for beer and steak. No one knew where or what had become of Eric. At about 8pm that evening, Eric called. He had abandoned in Salmo in the cold and had worn the rubber off his brake pads on the descent into Castlegar and down Bombi Pass. I told him I'm get him the next morning as I was a bit under the influence. We had a long but leisurely drive back to Vancouver, Eric to prepare for PBP; moi to plan another attempt to get a SR600. Bob was equally keen to complete the ride and tried again a week later but abandoned after day two (see his write-up). Bob has told me that Hugh also made a second attempt but DNF'd due to a mechanical at Creston). I was prepared to try a solo attempt in early August when I learned that Bob was game to try again. We explored some possible dates and agreed to go again starting at 12 noon on Tuesday, August 5. Sheryl and I decided to make a vacation of the trip as Christina Lake is a summer paradise. We drove up on the 3rd, visiting friends in Midway. On Sunday we stopped in Greenwood at a neat coffee shop and then explored Grand Forks (enjoyed a stop at another coffee shop) before driving on to Christina lake. On Monday we explored the town and a section of the Columbia & Western Rail to Trail section of the Great Trail (formerly called the Trans Canada trail) by bike. After lunch we kayaked the southern half of the lake. Day # 1: Bob and I departed as planned shortly after 12pm, on Tuesday….it was HOT! I felt great and we rode well together arriving in Trail at 5pm. The descent from Rossland to Trail was a hoot with fast sweeping corners and then it hit you. Rossland was hot but alpine. Trail down in the Columbia River Valley felt like an oven; the temperature jumped at least 10C; it was oppressive! It was A&W for dinner and then the long climb back up to Rossland (in daylight…), over the Nancy Green summit and down the long but gradual descent to Castlegar. It was a short day (149km) with two of the major climbs completed. Bob had arranged for us to stay at his friend, Osa's son's place. Day # 2: We were on the road shortly after 4 AM, stopping at a local T.H. for a quick breaky. Bombi Pass beckoned. This low pass from Castlegar to Salmo is much tougher than its profile and distance implies. It just seems to go on forever. The views down the Columbia River Valley are absolutely spectacular. The descent down to Salmo is steep, and the ride into Salmo itself is flatish. We arrived in Salmo at approximately 8AM, and it was already getting HOT, with intentions to have a second breakfast. All the restaurants (1) and fast food joints (1) were packed. Everywhere one looked there were folks climbing out of campers, the backs of pickups, from cars (mostly wearing their PJs or rather interesting costumes). It was a human zoo! Why, the Shambhala Music Festival was about to start. This is probably the wildest hard rock music festival in North America. The festival grounds are south of town on the way to Kootenay Pass. Traffic was backed up for over a kilometre getting onto the site. It was crazy! Kootenay Pass is a vertical and visual monster: 68km end to end, a 24km climb from the west and a 43km descent to the east…total elevation gain 1296m. I have driven this pass literally dozens of times; what I remembered was that you could see approximately half of the climbing distance ( 12km) as it works its way towards the summit. Somewhat visually like the upper section of the Coquihalla, but much longer with a hell of a lot more vertical. Psychologically demoralizing, at least in my mind. NOTE: The Coquihalla from The Othello Tunnels Rd. to the summit has slightly more vertical spread over 34km). Something was not right. Literally, as I began the climb I felt awful; no energy, headache, burning thighs. Bob just pulled away from me. I was having to stop every 2 or 3 km to rest. This was NOT ME, climbs don't hurt me like this! Was it the lack of food, had I screwed up my water intake routine, was it electrolytes'? I don't know but I came very close to throwing in the towel. Bob tends to descend faster than I do (mass and gravity….) but with some effort I can more or less stay with him. There was no energy to chase. I arrived in Creston about 10 minutes behind him. I have ridden the next 70km up the east side of Kootenay Lake many times, it has been rated as one of the 10 best rides in North America, it is wonderful; but I was not looking forward to it at all. And, the pressure was on as we would have to hustle to get the targeted ferry from Crawford Bay to Balfour. If we missed it, it was going to be a long delay and a late night. But something happened, the head ache vanished, the legs recovery and I felt ready to go. T.H. food seemed to have done the trick. We had to hustle (and did) and arrived in time to catch the ferry as planned, but as we arrived at the terminal about 10 -15 minutes early, we could see the ferry pulling away. What the ^&%*$^0! We quickly learned that the scheduled ferry was out of service and the remaining larger vessel was shuttling back and forth across the lake as fast as it could go. We had the better part of a 2 hour wait. Darn! Fortunately they load bikes first, so we were at the head of the line in the cafeteria. We both stuffed the food down and were fueled up for the remaining 35km from Belfour up to Kaslo. When we arrived at Bob's friend ,Osa's place, she had a meal waiting for us. There is a cycle Goddess! On reflection I think the problem I has summiting Kootenay pass was likely a direct result of me deviating from my usual water/food plan. I had been having problems with frequent bio breaks so I cut back on the frequency and volume of the water and food I was consuming. Choosing to make such a change on such a demanding ride was a 'rookie mistake'. Day # 3: What a day, and it got even HOTTER than on Day # 2. Departing from Kaslo we were immediately confronted by a short but very steep climb. This was followed by a gentle climb to the summit of Retallack Pass and a steep descent down to the turn and climb to Sandon. Bob had stashed a mountain bike at the start of this climb, good plan. With the biggest climb of the ride about to start we jettisoned all non-essentials, hid it in the bushes. The gravel road up to Sandon (6Km) was smoother than some of the paved road we had been on. As we left Sandon, it became abundantly obvious why Bob wanted to ride his mountain bike. I was riding 42mm semi-slicks. Oh my!!!! First the road had a closed barrier across it (to discourage tourists) as it was completely blocked to vehicle traffic at the 5km point due to a developing sink hole over an old mine shaft. From Sandon to the Idaho summit parking lot was 12km that was one long mix of gravel, boulders and sand. I ended up walking about 10km of it, pushing the bike….is this fun???? But there is more to tell. There were lots of signs indicating the presence of bears and guess what (?). As I rounded a curve there was a GRIZZLE bear standing on the road just ahead of me. I STOPPED, the bear turned, looked me over then did a 180 and disappeared into the underbrush. When Bob rounded the corner, he likely wondered why I was glued to the spot. I asked him, "How brave he was?", then explained the situation. Time to strategize our next move. We had to get to the summit parking lot to achieve the required elevation gain for the event. After a short delay, making lots of 'human' noise we carried on. The Idaho Forestry Fire lookout is one of the highest in B.C. The views in every direction did not disappoint, but they could not detract me from the thought, how the *..* am I going to get down that road: ride, walk, crawl? Let's just say it was crazy. I had lots of braking power, although the hands were in a death grip much of the time. I had virtually no braking traction; if I braked to control my speed (why else would one brake?) I would lock up one or both wheels on the soft sand and gravel.. Bob told me afterwards he thought I was going to kill myself. I thought I was going to kill myself for much of that 12 Km descent. Remember that 6km stretch of gravel road from Sandon back to the highway' it was oh so smooth; I rarely touched the brakes and was often rolling at 45-50kph. I suspect that 12km climb and descent on Idaho Peak qualifies as one of, if not the squirreliest chunks of road on any Super 600 in the world. Bob ditched the MTB, we gathered up our gear and enjoyed a rocket ride down to New Denver on Slocan Lake. I had forgotten just how beautiful it is. While refueling we met a guy who has lived there for decades. He recognized our 'kit' and examined our bikes with knowledgeable interest. We learned he had virtually every issue of Bicycle Quarterly. He relished talking to riders who understood the nuances of different frame materials, tires sizes, tire pressures, etc. How cool…in New Denver. We were on the home stretch. Two climbs to go, the Slocan Hump and The Blurberry-Paulson back to Christina Lake. The Hump is a soul sucker, a 6km 1000' climb that sort of follows the lake shore. Why couldn't the road have just hugged the shoreline like the road along the eastern shore of Kootenay Lake? And to add insult to misery the 20km decent to Sloan City was peppered with miserable short climbs. Thankfully the next 70km was for all purposes a gentle (<1%) incline (with a few tiny rollers) all the way to Castlegar. One BIG climb to go!!!!! We had 68km with approximately 750m of climbing to do. All but for a 4km section near the start of the climb and a few shortish pitches (approx. 1-2km) of a 7/8% grade the climb was most in the 1 ½-2 % range. We had 5hrs and the final 10km was steep….DOWN to the Paulson Bridge. We could do it! We were both getting weary and my knees were starting to demand short breaks, probably a product of the decreasing temperature as we climbed into the night. We made good time and at one point walked a half kilometer or so up the last of the steep pitches. In the cool air and mountain darkness this was a joy. When we saw the summit sign, I think complete elation set in, forgetting that long steep descents are hard in their own way. I find I don't move around or squirm on the bike and rigormortis sets in. The finish control was at the Paulson Bridge, still over 20km from our motel at Christina Lake ( all down hill). I wasn't looking forward to those gratuitous bonus kms. To our surprise, the bridge was lit up like a suburban mall parking lot (the night shift repair crew). They were taken by surprise by our sudden appearance. The foreman came out to meet us and was agreeable to signing our control cards. What an end to an epic ride. Then it got better. A set of headlights appeared behind us, it was Sheryl!!!!!!! OK, I had called her from Castlegar and told her approximately when we would finish. I hinted it would be 'nice' if she could meet us and drive us back to the lake. Salvation!!!!! In hindsight this ride was an epic adventure. One of the things I relish about this crazy sport is ADVENTURE; the new, the different, and yes the challenge. This ride had it all. How hard was it ...really? It was probably one of the two hardest rides that I've ever done; it was certainly the craziest with that Idaho climb and descent. What qualified this ride as so hard was the complete body collapse the morning of day two. It took everything I had to push through that, but that's what Randonneurs try to do. Sometimes the push works; other times it doesn't. If it hadn't this time, there would have been another S 600 attempt somewhere. Perhaps I'll still give Bob Goodison's new S 600 route a go next year, just for the adventure. Go to: Permanent Results August 30, 2019 |


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Mexico Steps up Measures to Keep out PEDV
MEXICO - The Ministry of Agriculture is stepping up biosecurity to ensure that porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus (PEDV) does not enter the country.Through the animal health authority, SENASICA, Mexico's Ministry of Agriculture (SAGARPA) is restricting the import of live pigs from the US and raising the level of surveillance.
SENASICA has not detected the presence of the virus in Mexico.
Following confirmation from the USDA of the presence of PEDV in that country, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock , Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) has taken various measures to protect the Mexican swine and prevent entry of the disease into the country:
- Restricted imports of live pigs or standing from the US in order to check on a case-by-case basis as well as health guarantees.
- The National Service of Health, Food Safety and Food Quality (SENASICA) has asked the USDA to submit technical information on the outbreak and control measures that apply, as well as risk mitigation for exports.
- Border surveillance has been stepped up in hog-producing areas, in order to identify abnormal increase in pig mortality.
In case of acute disease, it is very unlikely that PEDV is involved in pigs imported before 17 May 2013 but they should be quarantined and subject to extreme vigilance.
Since May, SENASICA technicians have been investigating the large number of pigs imported over the last three months - before the first report of PEDV is the US - but to date, there have been no cases of the disease in Mexico.
The head of SAGARPA, Enrique Martinez y Martinez, says that SENASICA has maintained communication with the USDA over epidemiological research and with Mexican pork producers to coordinate prevention activities.
PED is very similar to transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) in pigs, which is a common disease in these animals. Only laboratory tests can differentiate between the pathogens, although PED is more severe in newborn piglets.
PED transmission occurs through the introduction of infected animals or contaminated equipment, so it is important that producers impose good biosecurity on their units in order to prevent the entry of this and other diseases.
Further Reading
Find out more information on porcine epidemic diarrhoea (PED) by clicking here.


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This is such a cruel disease – Apart from the medical staff that he saw when he had to, John was alone for a week. I was alone at home, and I'm now alone at home, nobody can give me a hug.
I was so fearful for my husband because he did have mild controlled asthma. I've since been advised that there was nothing I could've done, that I would've been infectious long before I knew it and that it was almost inevitable that he would get it. John began to feel unwell.
We spent the next few days coping. He was gradually getting worse but not, not too bad. But he was fearful of going to hospital. He was fearful that if he went to, he wouldn't come out although I kept trying to really show him that wouldn't be the case.
Then at 3 o'clock in the morning, he was having a terrible coughing fit. The ambulance was with us in about 25 minutes. And as I shut the door behind him, it crossed my mind that I might never see him again.
On the Saturday, they moved him into the private wing of the hospital, which they were using as a high-dependency unit. On the Wednesday morning, when I phoned to see how he was, they said he was not doing so well. I then said: "If he gets worse, will you ventilate him?" And the nurse said: "We wouldn't ventilate him, we would be making him comfortable," which I know, other words they use for palliative care.
This was a big shock. I had no idea he was quite that ill. About quarter to 10 at night, the night nurse phoned me. And she said that John had said he had enough. We're all Christians and he was ready … to go. She said we could have some time together, and then when we were ready, she would take off the CPAP, and his breathing would become more difficult and they would help with medication.
And then I, we said goodbye, sort of, and the nurse took the mask off him and gave him some medication. And I was able to hold his hand. I was able to kiss his forehead, as he got more and more distressed. John's breathing became really, really labored. And it is not a nice quiet way to go. It is not a gentle death to start with.
Eventually, I was almost dozing but not quite. And I noticed a change in his breathing. It was less noisy. I pressed the buzzer, and the nurse came in and observed John for a minute. Then there was a slight exhalation. She then put her hand on his chest. And she nodded to me and she said: "Yes, he's gone."
Apart from the medical staff that he saw when he had to, John was alone for a week. I was alone at home, and I'm now alone at home, nobody can give me a hug. My friends have rallied round. My church and everybody have been fabulous, but nobody can give me a hug.
And I'm not lonely. I want to make that clear. I'm not lonely, but I am … alone.
Source: BBC News
fearful /ˈfɪə.fəl/ [C2] (adj): lo sợ
mild /maɪld/ [C1] (adj): nhẹ
asthma /ˈæs.mə/ (n): hen suyễn
infectious /ɪnˈfek.ʃəs/ [C2] (adj): mang tính lây nhiễm
inevitable /ɪˈnev.ɪ.tə.bəl/ [C1] (adj): không thể tránh khỏi
cope /kəʊp/ [B2] (v): đối phó
coughing fit /ˈkɒf.ɪŋ ˌfɪt/ (n): cơn ho
It crosses my mind that … (expression): tôi chợt nghĩ rằng
high-dependency unit (medical terms): khu chăm sóc tích cực
ventilate /ˈven.tɪ.leɪt/ (v): thông hơi, thông gió
palliative care (medical terms): chăm sóc giảm nhẹ (làm giảm đau đớn và khổ sở cho các bệnh nhân không thể chữa khỏi)
medication /ˌmed.ɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/ [C2] (n): thuốc
sort of /sɔːt/ [B1] (expression): đại loại vậy
distressed /dɪˈstrest/ [C1] (adj): đau khổ, khổ sở
labored /ˈleɪ.bəd/ (adj): nặng nhọc
doze /dəʊz/ (v): ngủ gật, ngủ ngày
buzzer /ˈbʌz.ər/ (n): còi, chuông
exhalation /ˌeks.həˈleɪ.ʃən/ (n): hơi thở, sự thở ra
nod /nɒd/ [B2] (v): gật đầu
rally round sb /ˈræl.i/ (v): thăm hỏi, động viên
fabulous /ˈfæb.jə.ləs/ (adj): tuyệt vời
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- The Henriksdal Wastewater Treatment Plant Will Become the World's Largest MBR Facility
- Stockholm Vatten Using GE LEAPmbr* Technology to Increase Capacity and Meet Stringent Requirements Set by the Baltic Sea Action Plan
TREVOSE, PA.-March 4, 2015-GE (NYSE: GE) today announced it will provide Stockholm Vatten with membrane bioreactor (MBR) equipment for the Henriksdal municipal wastewater treatment facility to upgrade the existing technology, making it the largest MBR plant in the world. The Henriksdal facility is responsible for treating two thirds of the municipal wastewater for the city of Stockholm, Sweden, and once the upgrade is complete, will process up to 864 million liters of wastewater per day.
The City of Stockholm has one of the fastest growing populations in Europe, and Stockholm Vatten, the city's water company, was tasked with both expanding the capacity of the facility and producing effluent of higher quality to meet the country's environmental commitments under the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) and the E.U. Water Directive. The Henriksdal wastewater treatment plant, located in the center of Stockholm, is one of the world's largest treatment plants located inside rock. With over 18 kilometers of tunnels blasted into the rock structure, this presents a huge challenge to expand the facility in the same relative footprint. These drivers steered Stockholm Vatten to select GE's LEAPmbr* technology as the right solution for the retrofit and upgrade.
"We saw the need to update the current wastewater treatment technology at our Henriksdal facility to meet the demands of a growing population in Stockholm and new environmental requirements set by our governing bodies," said Gösta Lindh, managing director of Stockholm Vatten. "GE's LEAPmbr and ZeeWeed* technology will help us meet our long-term needs for increased wastewater treatment capacity and will help us do so in a more energy-efficient and cost-effective manner."
At the core of LEAPmbr is GE's ZeeWeed 500 membrane, an advanced ultrafiltration technology that separates solids, bacteria and viruses from water or wastewater. More than 1,000 plants worldwide use this technology to produce superior quality water. GE's ZeeWeed ultrafiltration membranes offer an unmatched combination of performance, energy efficiency, durability, ease of operation and reliability.
"Considering the more stringent effluent requirements for nitrogen and phosphorus removal under the BSAP and E.U. Water Directive, GE's LEAPmbr technology is the right solution for the Henriksdal retrofit project," said Yuvbir Singh, general manager, engineered systems-water and process technologies for GE Power & Water. "Looking ahead to future demands on the facility and region, GE's LEAPmbr technology will give the City of Stockholm the flexibility needed to meet these challenges."
As part of the contract, GE will be delivering a scope that encompasses the design, supply and servicing of the entire membrane filtration package. The contract will be completed in multiple stages and delivered over a period of four to five years. Design will be completed in 2015 and first shipments will begin in 2016.
About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) imagines things others don't, builds things others can't and delivers outcomes that make the world work better. GE brings together the physical and digital worlds in ways no other company can. In its labs and factories and on the ground with customers, GE is inventing the next industrial era to move, power, build and cure the world. www.ge.com
About GE Power & Water
GE Power & Water provides customers with a broad array of power generation, energy delivery and water process technologies to solve their challenges locally. Power & Water works in all areas of the energy industry including renewable resources such as wind and solar; biogas and alternative fuels; and coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy. The business also develops advanced technologies to help solve the world's most complex challenges related to water availability and quality. Power & Water's six business units include Distributed Power, Nuclear Energy, Power Generation Products, Power Generation Services, Renewable Energy and Water & Process Technologies. Headquartered in Schenectady, N.Y., Power & Water is GE's largest industrial business.
Follow GE Power & Water and GE's water business on Twitter @GE_PowerWater and @GE_Water.
* Trademark of General Electric Company; may be registered in one or more countries.
Beth Coffman
Soteryx Corporation
[email protected]
+1 518 886 1076
Howard Masto
Masto Public Relations
[email protected]


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text:
Joint Pain
Walk to keep joint pain at bay
When we are in pain, it is natural to want to avoid movement to reduce the chances of aggravating the pain in any way. This appears to be the case with those suffering arthritic conditions, with 50 percent succumbing to avoiding exercise due to pain. However, when it comes to joint pain/arthritis, a bit of…
Read More


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Tell me if you recognize this story. A guy with super strength and really long hair gets tricked by a pretty prostitute. He literally brings the house down around his enemies in a final blaze of justice-seeking glory. Sounding familiar?
The story of Samson and Delilah, recorded in the sixteenth chapter of Judges, has been the delight of scores of writers, artists, and composers for hundreds of years. When Samson dallied with Delilah in the Sorek Valley of ancient Philistia, he never imagined that their sordid relationship would be projected on huge movie screens some 30 centuries later. -- Got Questions
This week I have the distinct privilege of directing The Death of Samson, based on Judges 16:4-31, for Piercing Word Summer Camp, and I used the Script Study method to learn a little about the characters and themes in this tale as old as time.
What's in a Name?
Ancient stories didn't come to us through picture books or slide shows. They were passed down orally until someone finally preserved them in writing, and even then, they didn't include illustrations. I wonder if the scarcity of paper at the time also contributed to the lack of physical descriptions. They didn't have pages and pages to tell us exactly what Samson looked like so the authors chose their words carefully, putting everything they could in the name.
The name Samson means "like the sun". What insight could that picture give us into Samson's personality and character? The sun is bright, warm, powerful, and the center of the universe. If you get too close to the sun, you burn. The sun is powerful but it's also ruled by very strict laws of nature. Of course, the people in ancient Israel hearing the story wouldn't have known about the laws of nature or that the sun is the center of the universe. But they would have recognized and attributed to Samson those same god-like qualities.
Delilah means "delicate one" or "feeble". There are two ways I look at this. On the one hand, she probably was in a weak position, socially and possibly economically. She lived in the valley between the Philistine territory and the Israelite territory. The text does not call her a prostitute (contrary to popular opinion) but it does say that Samson loved her. Loved her, in this case, does mean intimately. She also uses her skills to weaken Samson, the strongest man in town. She literally takes his strength away, making him feeble. Her name tells us not only who she is, but her role in the story as well.
Picture This
The Philistine lords offered Delilah 1100 pieces of silver to discover Samson's secret.
Like names, numbers in Ancient Hebrew have meaning beyond their numerical value. Not that they're secret messages you can decode. But like names, they serve as illustrations. They are another device authors used to paint the picture. The number eleven represents betrayal, extreme lack or extreme excess, and disorder. The number zero, when added to another number, emphasizes that number. So two zeros… you get the idea. I don't think Samson was the kind of guy to rescue the damsel in distress, so I tend to think Delilah was on the side of extreme excess, but I'm sure a case could be made either way.
Study the Script
Did you know that the word Palestine is a derivative of the word Philistine? It's from a word meaning "sea-people" because the Philistine's lived along the southern coast.
Fun facts like this fascinate me and certainly influenced the direction our show took in terms of staging. But it's all moot if we can't tie it back together and recognize the Lead character of every scene. In other words, what does the story of Samson and Delilah tell us about God?
As we studied characters and staged the scene, I watched Samson and Delilah tear each other down and realized how much more amazing God's mercy is in light of our arrogance and self-destructive natures.
I've never really understood why Samson is included in the Hebrews Hall of Faith, but my students this week reminded me that Samson's death was sacrificial and paralleled the death of the Greatest Deliverer. Set apart from birth and miraculously conceived, Samson was a beacon of light, calling the people to return to God. In the end he was ridiculed and mocked. Humbled by his enemies, his death set the stage for future Philistine defeat. A shadow of another unlikely hero who would rise up to save his people and suffer agonizing torment but this time he would be humble and innocent. A true sacrifice.
And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight. Hebrews 11:32-33
God used Samson's life to bring justice to his people and to humble the nations that arrogantly defied Him. Samson made many poor choices, and I'm not sure he ever learned his lesson, but God still used Him to accomplish His will. In Samson's weakness, God proved truly strong.


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This repository contains the code and data to reproduce the main results from the paper:
If you find the code/data is useful, please cite the above paper:
title={Cancer Metastasis Detection With Neural Conditional Random Field},
booktitle={Medical Imaging with Deep Learning},
author={Li, Yi and Ping, Wei},
If you have any quesions, please post it on github issues or email at firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com
Python (3.6)
Numpy (1.14.3)
Scipy (1.0.1)
PyTorch (0.3.1)/CUDA 8.0 The specific binary wheel file is cu80/torch-0.3.1-cp36-cp36m-linux_x86_64.whl. I havn't tested on other versions, especially 0.4+, wouldn't recommend using other versions.
torchvision (0.2.0)
scikit-image (0.13.1)
matplotlib (2.2.2)
tensorboardX Standard along tensorboard that also works for PyTorch. This is mostly used in monitoring the training curves.
QuPath Although not directly relevant to training/testing models, I found it very useful to visualize the whole slide images.
Most of the dependencies can be installed through pip install with version number, e.g.
pip install 'numpy==1.14.3'
Or just simply
pip install numpy
A requirements.txt file is also provided, so that you can install most of the dependencies at once:
pip install -r requirements.txt -i https://pypi.python.org/simple/
For PyTorch please consider downloading the specific wheel binary and use
pip install torch-0.3.1-cp36-cp36m-linux_x86_64.whl
Whole slide images
The main data are the whole slide images (WSI) in *.tif
format from the Camelyon16 challenge. You need to apply on Camelyon16 for data access, and once it's approved, you can download from either Google Drive, or Baidu Pan. Note that, one slide is usually ~100Kx100K pixels at level 0 and 1GB+ on disk. There are 400 slides in total, together about 700GB+. So make sure you have enough disk space. The tumor slides for training are named as Tumor_XXX.tif
, where XXX ranges from 001 to 110. The normal slides for training are named as Normal_XXX.tif
, where XXX ranges from 001 to 160. The slides for testing are named as Test_XXX.tif
where XXX ranges from 001 to 130.
Once you download all the slides, please put all the tumor slides and normal slides for training under one same directory, e.g. named /WSI_TRAIN/
The Camelyon16 organizers also provides annotations of tumor regions for each tumor slide in xml format. I've converted them into some what simpler json format, located under NCRF/jsons. Each annotation is a list of polygons, where each polygon is represented by its vertices. Particularly, positive polygons mean tumor region and negative polygons mean normal regions. You can also use the following command to convert the xml format into the json format
python NCRF/wsi/bin/camelyon16xml2json.py Tumor_001.xml Tumor_001.json
Patch images
Although the original 400 WSI files contain all the necessary information, they are not directly applicable to train a deep CNN. Therefore, we have to sample much smaller image patches, e.g. 256x256, that a typical deep CNN can handle. Efficiently sampling informative and representative patches is one of the most critical parts to achieve good tumor detection performance. To ease this process, I have included the coordinates of pre-sampled patches used in the paper for training within this repo. They are located at NCRF/coords. Each one is a csv file, where each line within the file is in the format like Tumor_024,25417,127565
that the last two numbers are (x, y) coordinates of the center of each patch at level 0. tumor_train.txt
and normal_train.txt
contains 200,000 coordinates respectively, and tumor_valid.txt
and normal_valid.txt
contains 20,000 coordinates respectively. Note that, coordinates of hard negative patches, typically around tissue boundary regions, are also included within normal_train.txt
and normal_valid.txt
. With the original WSI and pre-sampled coordinates, we can now generate image patches for training deep CNN models. Run the four commands below to generate the corresponding patches:
python NCRF/wsi/bin/patch_gen.py /WSI_TRAIN/ NCRF/coords/tumor_train.txt /PATCHES_TUMOR_TRAIN/
python NCRF/wsi/bin/patch_gen.py /WSI_TRAIN/ NCRF/coords/normal_train.txt /PATCHES_NORMAL_TRAIN/
python NCRF/wsi/bin/patch_gen.py /WSI_TRAIN/ NCRF/coords/tumor_valid.txt /PATCHES_TUMOR_VALID/
python NCRF/wsi/bin/patch_gen.py /WSI_TRAIN/ NCRF/coords/normal_valid.txt /PATCHES_NORMAL_VALID/
where /WSI_TRAIN/
is the path to the directory where you put all the WSI files for training as mentioned above, and /PATCHES_TUMOR_TRAIN/
is the path to the directory to store generated tumor patches for training. Same naming applies to /PATCHES_NORMAL_TRAIN/
and /PATCHES_NORMAL_VALID/
. By default, each command is going to generate patches of size 768x768 at level 0 using 5 processes, where the center of each patch corresponds to the coordinates. Each 768x768 patch is going to be further split into a 3x3 grid of 256x256 patches, when the training algorithm that leverages CRF comes into play.
Note that, generating 200,000 768x768 patches using 5 processes took me about 4.5 hours, and is about 202GB on disk.
The core idea of NCRF is taking a grid of patches as input, e.g. 3x3, using CNN module to extract patch embeddings, and using CRF module to model their spatial correlations. The CNN module is adopted from the standard ResNet released by torchvision (https://github.com/pytorch/vision/blob/master/torchvision/models/resnet.py). The major difference is during the forward pass that 1. the input tensor has one more dimension, 2. use the CRF module to smooth the logit of each patch using their embeddings.
def forward(self, x):
x: 5D tensor with shape of
[batch_size, grid_size, 3, crop_size, crop_size],
where grid_size is the number of patches within a grid (e.g. 9 for
a 3x3 grid); crop_size is 224 by default for ResNet input;
logits, 2D tensor with shape of [batch_size, grid_size], the logit
of each patch within the grid being tumor
batch_size, grid_size, _, crop_size = x.shape[0:4]
# flatten grid_size dimension and combine it into batch dimension
x = x.view(-1, 3, crop_size, crop_size)
x = self.conv1(x)
x = self.bn1(x)
x = self.relu(x)
x = self.maxpool(x)
x = self.layer1(x)
x = self.layer2(x)
x = self.layer3(x)
x = self.layer4(x)
x = self.avgpool(x)
# feats means features, i.e. patch embeddings from ResNet
feats = x.view(x.size(0), -1)
logits = self.fc(feats)
# restore grid_size dimension for CRF
feats = feats.view((batch_size, grid_size, -1))
logits = logits.view((batch_size, grid_size, -1))
if self.crf:
logits = self.crf(feats, logits)
logits = torch.squeeze(logits)
return logits
The CRF module only has one trainable parameter W for pairwise potential between patches. You can plot the W from the ckpt file (see next section) of a trained CRF model by
python NCRF/wsi/bin/plot_W.py /PATH_TO_MODEL/best.ckpt
When the CRF model is well trained, W typically reflects the relative spatial positions between different patches within the input grid. For more details about the model, please refer to our paper.
With the generated patch images, we can now train the model by the following command
python NCRF/wsi/bin/train.py /CFG_PATH/cfg.json /SAVE_PATH/
where /CFG_PATH/
is the path to the config file in json format, and /SAVE_PATH/
is where you want to save your model in checkpoint(ckpt) format. Two config files are provided at NCRF/configs, one is for ResNet-18 with CRF
"model": "resnet18",
"use_crf": true,
"batch_size": 10,
"image_size": 768,
"patch_size": 256,
"crop_size": 224,
"lr": 0.001,
"momentum": 0.9,
"data_path_tumor_train": "/PATCHES_TUMOR_TRAIN/",
"data_path_normal_train": "/PATCHES_NORMAL_TRAIN/",
"data_path_tumor_valid": "/PATCHES_TUMOR_VALID/",
"data_path_normal_valid": "/PATCHES_NORMAL_VALID/",
"json_path_train": "NCRF/jsons/train",
"json_path_valid": "NCRF/jsons/valid",
"epoch": 20,
"log_every": 100
Please modify /PATCHES_TUMOR_TRAIN/
respectively to your own path of generated patch images. Please also modify NCRF/jsons/train
and NCRF/jsons/valid
with respect to the full path to the NCRF repo on your machine. The other config file is for ResNet-18 without CRF (the baseline model).
By default, train.py
use 1 GPU (GPU_0) to train model, 2 processes for load tumor patch images, and 2 processes to load normal patch images. On one GTX 1080Ti, it took about 5 hours to train 1 epoch, and 4 days to finish 20 epoches. You can also use tensorboard to monitor the training process
tensorboard --logdir /SAVE_PATH/
Typically, you will observe the CRF model consistently achieves higher training accuracy than the baseline model.
will generate a train.ckpt
, which is the most recently saved model, and a best.ckpt
, which is the model with the best validation accuracy. We also provide the best.ckpt of pretained resnet18_base and resnet18_crf at NCRF/ckpt.
Tissue mask
The main testing results from a trained model for WSI analysis is the probability map that represents where on the WSI the model thinks is tumor region. Naively, we can use a sliding window fashion that predicts the probability of all the patches being tumor or not across the whole slide image. But since most part of the WSI is actually white background region, lots of computation is wasted in this sliding window fashion. Instead, we first compute a binary tissue mask that represent each patch is tissue or background, and then tumor prediction is only performed on tissue region. A typical WSI and its tissue mask looks like this (Test_026) To obtain the tissue mask of a given input WSI, e.g. Test_026.tif, run the following command
python NCRF/wsi/bin/tissue_mask.py /WSI_PATH/Test_026.tif /MASK_PATH/Test_026.npy
where /WSI_PATH/
is the path to the WSI you are interested, and /MASK_PATH/
is the path where you want to save the generated tissue mask in numpy format. By default, the tissue mask is generated at level 6, corresponding to the inference stride of 64, i.e. making a prediction every 64 pixels at level 0.
Probability map
With the generated tissue mask, we can now obtain the probability map of a given WSI, e.g. Test_026.tif, using a trained model:
python NCRF/wsi/bin/probs_map.py /WSI_PATH/Test_026.tif /CKPT_PATH/best.ckpt /CFG_PATH/cfg.json /MASK_PATH/Test_026.npy /PROBS_MAP_PATH/Test_026.npy
where /WSI_PATH/
is the path to the WSI you are interested. /CKPT_PATH/
is where you saved your trained model and best.ckpt corresponds to the model with the best validation accuracy. /CFG_PATH/
is the path to the config file of the trained model in json format, and is typically the same as /CKPT_PATH/
is where you saved the generated tissue mask. /PROBS_MAP_PATH/
is where you want to save the generated probability map in numpy format.
By defautl, probs_map.py
use GPU_0 for interence, 5 processes for data loading. Note that, although we load a grid of patches, e.g. 3x3, only the predicted probability of the center patch is retained for easy implementation. And because of this heavy computational overhead, it takes 0.5-1 hour to obtain the probability map of one WSI. We are thinking about developing more efficient inference algorithm for obtaining probability maps.
This figure shows the probability maps of Test_026 with different settings: (a) original WSI, (b) ground truth annotation, (c) baseline method, (d) baseline method with hard negative mining, (e) NCRF with hard negative mining. We can see the probability map from the baseline method typically has lots of isolated false positives. Hard negative mining significantly reduces the number of false positives for the baseline method, but the probability density among the ground truth tumor regions is also decreased, which decreases model sensitivity. NCRF with hard negative mining not only achieves low false positives but also maintains high probability density among the ground truth tumor regions with sharp boundaries.
Tumor localization
We use non-maximal suppression (nms) algorithm to obtain the coordinates of each detectd tumor region at level 0 given a probability map.
python NCRF/wsi/bin/nms.py /PROBS_MAP_PATH/Test_026.npy /COORD_PATH/Test_026.csv
where /PROBS_MAP_PATH/
is where you saved the generated probability map, and /COORD_PATH/
is where you want to save the generated coordinates of each tumor regions at level 0 in csv format. There is an optional command --level
with default value 6, and make sure it's consistent with the level used for the corresponding tissue mask and probability map.
FROC evaluation
With the coordinates of tumor regions for each test WSI, we can finally evaluate the average FROC score of tumor localization.
python NCRF/wsi/bin/Evaluation_FROC.py /TEST_MASK/ /COORD_PATH/
is where you put the ground truth tif mask files of the test set, and /COORD_PATH/
is where you saved the generated tumor coordinates. Evaluation_FROC.py
is based on the evaluation code provided by the Camelyon16 organizers with minor modification. Note, Test_049 and Test_114 are excluded from the evaluation as noted by the Camelyon16 organizers.


text:
Dear Secretary of State,
It was a privilege to be asked to lead an independent review to advise on:
- how technological and other developments (including in genomics, artificial intelligence, digital medicine and robotics) are likely to change the roles and functions of clinical staff in all professions over the next two decades to ensure safer, more productive, more effective and more personal care for patients;
- what the implications of these changes are for the skills required by the professionals filling these roles, identifying professions or sub-specialisms where these may be particularly significant;
- the consequences for the selection, curricula, education, training, development and lifelong learning of current and future National Health Service staff.
We are at a unique juncture in the history of medicine, with the convergence of genomics, biosensors, the electronic patient record and smartphone apps, all superimposed on a digital infrastructure, with artificial intelligence to make sense of the overwhelming amount of data created. This remarkably powerful set of information technologies provides the capacity to understand, from a medical standpoint, the uniqueness of each individual – and the promise to deliver healthcare on a far more rational, efficient and tailored basis.
From late 2017 to the present, our cross-disciplinary team of experts, including clinicians, educators, ethicists, computer scientists, engineers and economists, reviewed the available data and projected into the future what impact these technologies would have on the NHS workforce over the next two decades. Such an undertaking with experts from multiple disciplines and a country-wide perspective has not, to our knowledge, been undertaken previously.
The Review has been predicated on the following pre-suppositions:
- The patient must be considered to be at the centre when assessing and implementing any new technologies.
- There is remarkable potential for digital healthcare technologies to improve accuracy of diagnoses and treatments, the efficiency of care, and workflow for healthcare professionals, but implementation must only be carried out when there has been robust clinical validation.
- Patients who are willing to take greater charge of their care using digital tools and algorithms will be empowered, but this should always be an opt-in choice for them.
- A marked improvement in the patient-clinician relationship is possible, owing to the gift of time delivered by the introduction of these technologies. This will bring a new emphasis on the nurturing of the precious inter-human bond, based on trust, clinical presence, empathy and communication.
- The new medicine as envisioned will require extensive education and training of the clinician workforce and the public, with cultivation of a cross-disciplinary approach that includes data scientists, computer scientists, engineers, bioinformaticians, in addition to the traditional mix of pharmacists, nurses and doctors.
There are, of course, considerable uncertainties in projecting anything, no less such a precious part of our lives – our health. There are three noteworthy changes that we expect to take hold: a much greater proportion of the population will have their genome sequenced; the empowerment of individuals who will increasingly be generating their own health data with the help of algorithms to interpret that data; and a marked improvement in the speed, accuracy and scalability of medical data interpretation afforded by artificial intelligence, which will provide robust support for all types of clinicians. Taken together, this will lead to an evolution of the patient-doctor relationship that we hope can be greatly strengthened, along with the alleviation of burnout that currently affects a significant proportion of clinicians.
Ultimately, embracing and implementing these technologies (including genomics) throughout the NHS, while clearly representing a challenge, is likely to prevent diseases and their complications and produce an overall improvement in health outcomes. We offer a number of recommendations for you to consider. These will require early implementation by education providers, as well as by arm's-length bodies and employers on behalf of the NHS, if we are to gain the benefits these digital healthcare technologies offer.
I would like to personally thank your Department for encouragement, my extraordinary Review Board and Panels for their expertise and commitment, Health Education England and the secretariat for their work on the Review, not forgetting all those who shared insights and experience in response to our call for evidence.
Yours sincerely
Eric Topol, MD
Executive VP and Professor, Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute
Founder and Director, Scripps Research Translational Institute


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Harold Burson certainly believes in 'Better Late Than Never'. If my memory serves me right he probably is the first Founder of a Top 10 Public Relations firm to have penned an autobiography. And I'm so glad he did.
Not sure if Lord Chadlington or Larry Weber or for that matter Oscar Zhao or lower down the ladder Kathy Bloomgarden or Melissa Wagner will write a memoir. I hope that Margery Kraus and Jim Weiss do. Well, if you are not familiar with these names look them up online.
Coming to the book I read over seven hours in two sittings, I would rate it 7 / 10 and highly recommend it to anyone in business, politics and certainly to everyone in Public Relations. The book in its entirety with 18 chapters can be a three-credit course by itself at a post-graduate programme. There is plenty to learn and know from the remarkable life and times of the iconic Harold.
Well, there are four things that I felt could have been done better –
- The structure of the book – At times it seems to be all over the place but then at the end of the chapter you realise why it is all put out that way because the man has a method to the madness.
- I was looking forward to seeing Prema Sagar getting additional pride of place, especially in the pictures section. And her non-profit is referred to as an Institute instead of a Foundation which I think was in the absence of a fact checker.
- All case studies should have had a serial number purely for referencing and it would help various academic pursuits.
- Lastly, there is no mention of Dan Edelman, whose firm displaced BM from pole position, founded by Burson's contemporary and fellow Jewish entrepreneur who came from humble origins.
But the six things that simply stand out are –
- The elephant's memory or the ability write a dairy for over 80 years because the dates mentioned throughout add a greater amount of authenticity right from the 1920s and 1930s until recent years.
- Every detail of Harold's professional life is brought alive through an interesting narrative of the highs and lows.
- There is loads of inspiration hidden in every page for everyone. Be it a reader with no interest in Public Relations or a veteran who wants to understand more about the profession.
- The Takeaways section at the end of each chapter is a ready reckoner of things one can learn after reading through the numerous stories in the preceding chapter.
- The eye for detail, passion for writing, love for reading, appetite for research and thirst to know more through nine decades come across on every page of the book – and these are exactly the qualities one needs to have to be successful in most service businesses.
- Lastly, I'm so glad that Harold hits the nail on the head on Page 208 by saying that Communication is only one function of the Public Relation professional.
I won't give out more. I would urge every PR professional to go and buy their own copy of the book (rather than borrow from me). I feel proud to have been a Burson Person.
Here is an offer you must not refuse. Go online, buy your copy, send me the receipt and tweet a picture of you with a copy of the book before December 31st and receive a voucher equal to the value (approx. Rs 2000) of the book that you can use to register for any Reputation Today event in 2018.


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Good day,
Yinka Awosanya here.
Today we are discussing
- Bitcoin black market trading in Nigeria
- Does Nigeria have 85.9 million broadband subscriptions?
- Multichoice to take on Netflix in Africa
The black market price of bitcoin in Nigeria
Earlier in February, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released a circular, effectively banning cryptocurrency trading in Nigeria and ending the relationship that existed between Nigerian crypto exchanges and banks in the country.
The ban has forced many Nigerians to hold their cryptocurrencies. But those who can't afford to hold are selling at a higher rate through peer-to-peer exchanges. For instance, bitcoin that was valued at $51,000 sold for $71,000 in Nigeria as at February 17.
Who's the boss? The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria initially issued regulations for cryptocurrency in September last year. Some months later and following CBN's somewhat total ban, SEC paused plans to regulate the crypto space in the country.
What could be done: The real victims in the tussle to control the digital currency space in Nigeria are the Nigerian crypto exchanges, as users find other avenues to buy and sell their digital currencies.
It appears that the way forward for crypto exchange platforms in Nigeria is enabling a seamless P2P while also expanding outside the country. However, not all Nigerian exchanges currently offer peer-to-peer (P2P) on their platform.
Bundle Africa, in an email to its users on February 8, revealed plans to expand to Ghana while also building a P2P platform.
In case you want to know: What the CBN's crypto order means for you going forward.
Nigeria's broadband penetration is now at 85.9 million
Recent figures revealed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) put broadband subscriptions in Nigeria at 85.9 million, as at December 2020, 19% higher than the figures of December 2019.
The new figure, according to NCC, puts the broadband penetration at 45.02%. Over the years, NCC has been celebrating broadband penetration figures which have always been questioned by stakeholders in the industry.
The 2013 broadband plan: According to the 2013 Nigerian National Broadband Plan, 'broadband connection' is defined as an internet experience where the user can access the most demanding content in real time at a minimum speed of 1.5Mbit/s. So in context, over 85.9 million Nigerians have access to a minimum of 1.5Mbit/s.
Beyond an increase in broadband penetration, other objectives of the 2013 plan included the availability of broadband services at affordable prices and the promotion of pervasive broadband deployment. However, there are still concerns about the affordability of broadband services in the country and right of way, one of the contributing factors of deployment, is still a major issue.
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About wrong signals: Shortly after the NCC released industry figures in January 2019, digital rights activist and Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, Gbenga Sesan accused the regulator of sending wrong signals about the telecommunications market in the country.
Sesan, who was a member of the independent group that put together the 2013 plan, also revealed that the motive for the plan was to measure terrestrial infrastructure-enabled broadband and not mobile broadband. But it appears that what the regulator is measuring is mobile broadband.
In case you missed it: Discussion about Policy Frameworks towards Sustainable Local Technology at Techpoint Inspired 2018.
There's another broadband plan: The initial broadband plan ended in 2018 and the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy has since developed and released the Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020 – 2025 which was unveiled last year.
The new broadband plan aims to deliver data download speeds across the country at a minimum of 25Mbps in urban areas and 10Mbps in rural areas. It is also targeting coverage of not less than 90% of the population by 2025. The plan also targets not more than ₦350 (less than a dollar) for the price of one gigabyte of data.
Read more: When calls and data could get cheaper for Nigerian states that slashed RoW charges.
MultiChoice reveals plans to take on Netflix in Africa, again
MultiChoice Group, the owner and operator of DStv and GOtv, has once again made the promise of taking on Netflix in Africa for the umpteenth time. And this time, the South African media group's approach is a hyper-local plan to increase its local content composition from 38% to 45% in the next two years.
The 'hyper-local' plan for MultiChoice is to go deeper into African communities, telling stories in their street language while also focusing on their everyday lives.
In case you forgot: MultiChoice signed an agreement with Netflix and Amazon to integrate their services onto the new DStv Explora decoder in June 2020. Netflix was added in November 2020 while Amazon came in the following month.
Who should really worry?: As of September 2019, Netflix had only 152,588 subscribers in South Africa, its biggest market in Africa. Nigeria, the most populous African nation, had less than 52k subscribers. On the other hand, DStv had 20.1 million paying customers, as of September 2020, with 8.7 million subscribers in South Africa alone, which is also its biggest market.
There is also the cost of Internet subscriptions, on the part of Netflix subscribers in Africa, which DStv subscribers don't have to worry about except for those on its standalone streaming platforms.
The real winners: With both Netflix and MultiChoice making efforts to increase African content on their platforms, the winners are the consumers and African content creators.
Read more: Disney+ proposed launch, Netflix's local content strategy and what it means for African producers.
Have a great weekend!
Yinka Awosanya for Techpoint Africa.


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In case you haven't read enough about Sony this morning, there's still a bit more PS4 news to share. Developer Digital Extremes, whom you may remember as the team behind The Darkness II and will certainly have forgotten for their work on Star Trek: The Video Game, have announced their free-to-play third-person shooter Warframe will arrive as a launch title to accompany the PS4's release. The game, currently in open beta, is most notable for its unique character design.
I certainly like the idea of Sony getting behind more MMOs and free-to-play games as we head into a new generation of consoles. Sony's been making a conscious effort to promote the PS4 as an all-inclusive system that will accommodate all types of gameplay experiences and genres, so this move is certainly evidence enough that they're serious about it. A launch day free-to-play title is also an incredibly clever move to incentivize taking the plunge for early adopters; as it's a guarantee they'll have at least one more game to try out than they intended to purchase. With Warframe now and Diablo III before it, I'll be interested to see what other types of non-traditional experiences Sony plans to bring to consoles next-generation.
Do you folks like the idea of bringing more free-to-play experiences to consoles? What types of PC or Mobile games would you be interested in seeing come to the PS4? Share your thoughts in the usual place, and don't forget to like IGXPro on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or give us the 'ol +1 on Google+. And if you can't get enough of my shenanigans, (who could blame you?) you can check me out @GamingsNirvana, or add +VinnyParisi to your circles.


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Powerful yet easy to use, out-of-the box, web-based solution.
PMWeb is the only enterprise application that provides a powerful, easy-to-use solution for Real Estate Management. Manage your properties with efficiency and ease.
Although no two organizations are the same, PMWeb's flexible modular-based system is typically deployed for Real Estate Management with the below configurations. Many organizations start using PMWeb for Asset/Facility Management with PMWeb's Visual Workflow, and then expand into other modules over time.


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By Reb Bahir Davis
In Judaism, we start not with birth but before birth and appropriately with the murky mists of myth. We are taught that before we are born we are taught all the secrets of life, the universe and everything. Then, just after our soul is poured into the fetus, we are touched just above the mouth (the philtrum) and we forget. That might be the first of our life spiral ceremonies.
You ask why I call it a life spiral instead of a life cycle? The answer is a matter of perspective. If one looks down upon a spiral one sees a circle, for all of the cycles are one on top of the other, hiding one beneath the one above. If one looks at that same spiral from the side, one sees a line and no circles at all. Life is all about perspective. Let us look first down upon the spiral and see a circle as a cycle of life.
In Judaism we celebrate moments along the cycle of life. We start with birth, that joyous moment of beginnings. It is the original 'coming out ceremony.' The first born, that is the first to come out of the womb, is given a special ceremony called Pidyon HaBen or Peter Rehem, the opening of the womb. We attach this newness to an ancient custom. Money is given to a Cohen, one of those whose ancestors served in the Temple of old. This custom serves as a memory peg, a dowel that glues us to our past as we begin our future in this moment.
The next ceremony takes place in eight days if the child is male and twenty-eight days (a moon cycle) if the child is female. The former is a very ancient and lovely if barbaric ceremony while the latter is a new attachment to the parade of life cycle ceremonies. A boy who survives a week is brought into the covenant of Judaism with a Brit Milah, literally a 'contract of circumcision.' The foreskin of the boy is removed with great ceremony and a drop of blood. Many reasons are offered for this tradition but they all pale, as do some of the guests and parents at the ceremony, compared to the stark reality that it is an ancient ceremony of bringing our sons into the contract, indeed cutting the contract with G, the Jewish tribe, and this boy.
It is a fact of ancient history that there was no ceremony in ancient times for female children. I will not go through the mental gymnastics of justification. It did not exist, but now it does. In ancient times we acted much as ancient people did; this is no surprise. Now we have added a meaningful moment for female children. It is called by many different names, Brit Bat, the covenant of women is most accepted, but in my opinion the best name is Brit Levanah, the covenant of the moon, based on the Midrash that women were given the moon festivals by G for their act of faith at the shameful time of the Golden Calf incident. Connected to that is, of course, the relationship between the monthly cycle of women and the cycle of the moon.
This ceremony offers the parents and planners more creativity for gathering than does the ceremony for boys and this is fitting. One Hebrew word for female is Nekavah. Women in Judaism are the creative ones who perforate tradition and gather in, which the term Nekavah implies. Men are the 'rememberers' as the term for male, Zachar, suggests (you might be more familiar with its cousin, Zachor, that is defined as remember).
For some of our tribe there is a ceremony when a boy gets his first haircut. For some there is a ceremony when a child begins to study, to read Jewish texts and stories. This involves sweets in one form or another accompanied by the words: "It is sweet to study the words of Torah!"
The next ceremony that is familiar to all is the Bar or Bat Mitzvah at age 13 for a boy, and 12 for a girl (for as any woman will tell you, girls mature faster than boys). Again this originated with a son (Bar) coming to the age of responsibility (Mitzvah). In this century, with the liberal movements within our tribe, a daughter (Bat) was acknowledged as having come into an age of responsibility (Mitzvah) as well. Originally (and one must be careful using that word, as what was original may be lost in the ancient time), a boy was brought to the Bimah (that elevated place in the synagogue where Torah was read) to give a blessing before and after the reading of Torah. This was the announcement that he was of age to be called upon to help the tribe in religious and communal activities. Over time this ceremony has gained in pomp and circumstance so that now, in many cases and in every congregation where I have been the rabbi, the Bar Mitzvah leads the entire service in our ancient spirit language of Hebrew. He reads and translates or chants and translates Torah for the congregation. And of equal importance, he gives us a teaching on Torah that is original to him.


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With Ben Mendelsohn and Cynthia Erivo starring, HBO chose not to produce a second season of The Outsider. This choice was taken because there was no compelling tale to tell, according to HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys.
We try to approach everything as if there will be a second season," Bloys says in an interview with EW. It's always a struggle to adapt a book into a film, but with The Outsider, you have a terrific guide. Make sure there's a tale to tell if you're going to accomplish more without that. It was difficult to find a plot that could live up to the high standards set by the first season.
The first season of "The Outsider" covered nearly all of King's novel "The Outsider". As a result, they'll have to start from scratch on a fresh tale. However, according to reports, Season 2 is being marketed to premium networks and streaming services. Currently, Netflix holds the lead.
After being axed by HBO, the deck suddenly appears to be stacked against The Outsider. They're exploring a new network or online home for the show, according to reports. In light of the show's high ratings, this move is shocking.
Before the show was canceled by HBO, Stephen King told Entertainment Weekly that a second season of the show was in the works. When talking about Mr. Mercedes, his other Holly Gibney show that is now available exclusively on Peacock, he noted in passing that the second season of The Outsider is just about ready to take off.
King was comparing Cynthia Erivo's portrayal of Holly in The Outsider to Justine Lupe's in Mr. Mercedes, pointing out that Lupe has had more seasons, episodes, and time to make the character her own than Erivo has had for Holly.
A second season of "The Outsider" will be produced "as soon as they can get the production started," he stated.
This gave us reason to believe that there would be more seasons, even though we had already finished reading the book's plot and had no idea where it was going to go. It was only in an interview with Collider in April that Jason Bateman confirmed the show would return for a second season.
Read Also:-


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text: Anti-Aging Benefits of Pumpkin Seed Oil After Monday's weekly anti-aging hacks, I received emails from many of you. All were inquiring about pumpkin seed oil. And there is so much to say about this little seed that I thought I would use today's article to expand on the hack. Like I did, you might be thinking that this oil comes from the fall fruit that has been hollowed out for … [Read more...]


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In an internal memo distributed Wednesday, the investment bank has disclosed its launch of three funds that would enable bitcoin ownership to individual clients.
This is great news for the crypto community at large: a major financial institution, in particular a banking institution, is now accepting bitcoin as an emerging asset class. The move from Morgan Stanley is an industry first and positions the firm on a tight spot as other major financial institutions are likely to follow suit.
The announcement is a timely and relevant indicator of how strong bitcoin has been going forward: the alpha cryptocurrency has just hit a new record high of $61,742 on March 13.
The firm is one of six U.S. banks who have expressed interest in bitcoin as an asset class and as a way of hedging against inflation. Notably, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and the Bank of America's wealth management divisions currently prohibit their advisors from offering direct bitcoin investments.
However, according to details shared by CNBC through an exclusive report, the bank will only consider applications for the fund from its individual clients who have at least $2 million in assets held with the firm.
Morgan Stanley has also confirmed that the minimum qualifications for other investment firms to join in runs down to at least $5 million (USD) assets held with them, citing that the limitations were set in place because they can only consider providing access to people with "an aggressive risk tolerance" for the new stakes at hand.
The investment bank is an established brand name in wealth management and the financial industry, with roughly $4 trillion in client assets. For both investor categories, the accounts must have been open and verified for at least six months, prior to application.
For accredited U.S. investors with brokerage accounts and qualifying assets, Morgan Stanley puts out a strict limit on bitcoin investments at 2.5% of a client's total net worth. Of the three funds on offer, two were identified. One is with Galaxy Digital, a crypto firm founded by Mike Novogratz, and the other is a collaboration between asset manager FS Investments and NYDIG, a tech and finance firm specializing in Bitcoin.
According to Morgan Stanly, minimum investments begin at $25,000 through the Galaxy Bitcoin Fund LP and FS NYDIG Select Fund, a baseline that's set alongside the Galaxy Institutional Bitcoin Fund LP, which has a $5 million minimum investment amount. The investment rounds open next month, April.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.


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Bubble Sort (Flowchart)
Flowchart for Bubble Sort
The flowchart shows the steps of the bubble sort algorithm. It is a simple sorting algorithm, that can switch two neighboring items in one run. The items "bubble" up with every additional iteration until the whole list is sorted. It is very ineffective for most real-life scenarios and is used mostly for educational purposes.
Bubble Sort algorithm includes the following steps:
1. Set N = Length of Array
2. Array[j] > Array[j + 1] (Decision)
- if no - continue with the step 4
3. Swap Array[j] and Array[j+1]
4. Increment j (j++)
5. j < N - i - 1 (Decision)
- if yes - continue with the step 2
6. Clear j (j = 0)
7. Increment i (i++)
8. i < N - 1 (Decision)
- if yes continue with the step 2
9. Ordered Array
Download Bubble Sort Flowchart
The project file with the bubble sort flowchart can be download here. After downloading you can edit it using the flowchart designer Software Ideas Modeler - you can download it here.
Bubble Sort (Flowchart)


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Sonos launched its Sonos Radio streaming radio offering earlier this year, letting owners of Sonos equipment listen to the company's premier Sonos Sound System station, artist-curated and genre-specific stations for free in the Sonos app.
Today, the company is announcing an expansion of the service into new countries, a feature collaboration with beloved entertainer Dolly Parton, new stations and a HD upgrade available for a monthly subscription.
Sonos Radio HD launches in the US and UK
First things first – the high definition service carries with it a monthly subscription. With your subscription comes CD quality audio (16-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC) versions of all the existing stations, plus the ability to skip songs you don't like, and repeat those that you do. It's also an ad-free experience, although "global broadcast stations" are exempted.
Sonos is adding some new stations exclusive to the HD offering, including one curated by Dolly Parton called Songteller Radio with a promise of more artist-curated stations coming soon.
There's also additional genre stations focusing on specific music scenes and styles, stations designed to promote mindfulness, productivity and relaxtion, and a range of sleep stations
Sonos Radio HD is launching in the US and UK today. It'll cost customers in those territories $7.99/£7.99 per month with a 30-day free trial. We don't have any information about an Australian launch just yet, but we can assume it's coming.
Sonos Radio expands availability and content
Sonos' existing free (ad-supported) Radio product continues to expand into new countries, coming online today in Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium – and there's some new content coming our way on the free tier.
There's two new holiday stations, Holidaze and Holiday Concerto, coming to the free tier. While Sonos Radio HD gets the Songteller Radio station, we'll be getting a one-hour Holly Dolly Christmas Special, focusing on Dolly Parton's 2020 Christmas album debuting on Holidaze.
Some new regional genres are also debuting, with stations British Beats and Bars, UK Session Sounds, French Connection, The Netherlands' Radio à Gogo, German Zeitgeist and Hip-Hop Stammtisch.
Finally, Sonos Sound System will be adding new Radio Hour shows with Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Erykah Badu, A$AP Ferg and Laurie Anderson.
I've been listening to Sonos Radio quite a bit while working from home over the course of 2020. I've mostly stuck to the main Sound System station, and found it a pretty eclectic mix of genres and artists when I'm not sure what I want to listen to and just want some background audio. I'm not sure whether I make enough use of it to really justify a monthly outlay for the new HD offering, but I'm certainly interested to take it for a spin on the 30 day trial when it comes to Australia.


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With brands such as Ecosa, Koala, Fern and even Aldi getting in on the action, it's not surprising that mattresses in a box are an increasingly popular bedding choice for Australians. As Perth's home of ergonomic back-friendly bedding, we are frequently fielding questions, particularly – can a one size, one brand mattress in a box suit everybody? Our answer is always a king-size no and here's why!
Well, it's rather simple – every individual is different and a mattress in a box is (often) built with a one-size fits all approach. A mattress being marketed as the best mattress since the beginning of time and regardless of one's age, shape or size is quite a statement. Imagine one pair of jeans, sunglasses, shoes or one brand and colour of cosmetics suiting everyone – enough said. Unfortunately, a lot of people fall prey to this type of amazing and powerful marketing and end up disappointed with a bed that doesn't suit their bodies and sleep – talk about turning lemons into lemonade!
Often partnered with promises of convenience and fast delivery, a business offering one type of mattress in a box plays the numbers game and the huge cost of collecting and returning mattresses is factored into the price you pay. Are those returned mattresses really going to orphanages, the needy and the poor? I thought there was a law regarding second hand used mattresses? And further costs are saved for them in the manufacturing process – give the mattress an Australian-sounding name and have it made overseas (you can guess where) or construct it in the land down under from overseas (again, you know where) materials and call it made in Australia!
Rather than going for a uniform mattress in a box, why not consider a mattress that's made to suit you? By going this route, you can choose from a variety of different densities including plush, medium and firm and ensure that you end up sleeping on a mattress that's right for you! And what about if you have a partner to consider? How will a mattress in a box take into account different body sizes, height, weights, shapes and even sleeping styles? Based on our experience in the bedding industry, most of the time they don't.
But that's no problem if you're open to alternatives! We stock an expansive range of Sleep Whisperer king-size and queen-size mattresses that can be uniquely constructed with individual inserts so you can both choose your individual comfort and firmness levels – no more compromising and everyone is happy! Imagine for twenty six (26) cents a night *over 10 years a Queen mattress that gives you what you want and what your body needs.
You take care of your body all day, so why compromise at night with a mattress that may not best suit your body? Choosing the right bed is a personal decision with 'comfort' and 'support' being very objective and unique. You want to make the right decision from off the bat and we believe that now isn't the time to compromise. We, The Back and Neck Bed Shop, hope the above gives you time to reflect on your next mattress purchase and hopefully we will see you soon.
* Statistics is based on a queen-sized (for 2 people) SpineAlign Latex Mattress available in-store and online at The Back and Neck Bed Shop for $1,899.