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TOKYO – When the U.S. Defense Secretary arrives in Asia this weekend, his biggest challenge may not be convincing China that America will give its full support to longtime ally Japan in the escalating dispute over islands in the East China Sea. His biggest challenge may be convincing Japan.
"There is a perception in Japan that the U.S. commitment is ambiguous," says Yoichiro Sato, director of international strategic studies at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in southern Japan. "If China thinks Japan will hesitate to respond or that America will hesitate, that will embolden the Chinese. It's better that America sends a clear, explicit message now than have to respond to something worse later."
On Friday, a group of six Chinese marine-surveillance ships entered territorial waters around the remote Senkaku Islands, which are claimed and administered by Japan as sovereign territory. It was the latest and most serious escalation in the dispute over the small but potentially valuable islands; they are also claimed by China, where they are known as Diaoyu.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is scheduled to meet separately with Japan's Foreign and Defense ministers on Monday before continuing on to China and later New Zealand. It will be Panetta's third trip to Asia in 11 months as the U.S. looks to rebalance its forces in the region in response to China's growing military power and assertiveness.
The disagreement between Japan and China over ownership of Senkaku/Diaoyu, a group of tiny islets and rock outcroppings near Taiwan, has grown increasingly bitter. Though surrounding seabeds are believed to hold large deposits of oil and gas, the dispute hinges largely on issues related to Japan's wartime and colonial period.
(PHOTOS: Anti-Japan Protests Hit China's Capital)
The lightly armed Chinese marine-surveillance ships' entry into Senkaku/Diaoyu territorial waters was an apparent display of Beijing's displeasure at the purchase of the islands by Japan's national government earlier this week. Though Tokyo insists that the purchase — from private owners in Japan — was necessary to preserve the islands in their current state, China views the transaction as illegal and an affront to its sovereign rights.
(Kyodo News reported Saturday that more than 60,000 Chinese citizens staged anti-Japan rallies in at least 24 cities to protest the purchase of the islands. These appeared to be the largest anti-Japan demonstrations in China in terms of participants and cities involved since the two countries normalized diplomatic relations in 1972. Some rallies turned violent, with protestors clashing with police and destroying Japanese-brand cars. The rallies appeared to have the tacit approval of Chinese authorities amid a flood of anti-Japan reports and broadcasts by official Chinese media.)
Officially, the U.S. takes no position on the Senkaku-Diaoyu dispute or the many other conflicting territorial claims that are upsetting the region. Under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, the U.S. is obligated to respond to any attack on Japan or its territory. Pressed to declare whether that security umbrella includes Senkaku/Diaoyu, U.S. officials stated publicly that the treaty applies to "all areas under Japanese administration" — a seemingly clear nod to Senkaku/Diaoyu.
But Sato says that's not clear enough. The alliance also calls for Japan to take "primary responsibility" for territorial defense. That could give the U.S. a loophole to avoid confronting its most important trading partner and leave Japan on its own, he says.
"If Japan loses the islands and the U.S. doesn't come to aid Japan, the credibility of not only the U.S. alliance with Japan but of all U.S. alliances globally would be severely harmed," Sato says.
For an officially pacifist country, Japan has a deceptively large and powerful military. More than 250,000 of its men and women are in uniform, and its annual defense spending is the 6th highest in the world. Its maritime forces bristle with modern submarines and surface warships.
In 2010 Japan adopted a realignment plan to better protect its southwestern islands, which extend more then 750 miles (1,200 km) from Japan's home islands. But it has a long way to go. While Japan's naval forces are more than a match for China's navy and armed patrol fleet, ground forces still have little capability to retake islands that China, if so inclined, might succeed in occupying.
About 40 Japan Ground Self-Defense Force troops are conducting their first-ever amphibious warfare training this month with U.S. Marines in Guam; the JGSDF plans to buy four amphibious assault vehicles — but not until next year. That's too little, too late to help with Senkaku/Diaoyu.
The U.S., meanwhile, has more than 14,000 Marines stationed in Okinawa, many of them veterans of multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. The powerful U.S. 7th Fleet is homeported in Yokosuka, Japan, within easy range of the East China Sea.
But for all that, a direct confrontation at sea is unlikely, says Alessio Patalano, a Japan naval historian and East Asia security specialist at the Department of War Studies, King's College London. He notes that the patrol vessels cruising Senkaku/Diaoyu belong to neither China's navy nor its coast guard; instead, they are part of the Chinese marine-surveillance service, a largely civilian organization charged with environmental protection, scientific research, enforcement issues related to exclusive economic zones and similar duties.
"The PLA Navy is aware of its limitations, and they don't want to get a beating from the Japanese," says Patalano, who presented a series of lectures in Beijing and Tokyo this month. "The more likely scenario would be for China to insert special forces under cover of night, by parachute or other means. When the Japanese wake up in the morning and see Chinese soldiers on one of their islands, what do they do then?"
Brad Glosserman, executive director of the Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu, says there's little doubt that the U.S. would respond if shooting were to break out between China and Japan. The key, Glosserman says, is to make sure the Japanese know exactly what they can count on from the U.S. — and what, if anything, they can't.
"The U.S. will be there, because if we aren't, our credibility is shot and the Japanese will never trust us again. That would transform the regional security environment, and the Chinese will think they have carte blanche," says Glosserman. "But the problem is, do Americans and Japanese agree on what 'being there' means? Does that mean submarines? Surface warships? Helicopters with Marines rappelling to the ground? The Americans need to understand what the Japanese expect of them, because failure to do those things could cause big problems."


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What is Business VoIP in Lynwood, CA? Here is an Overview
Here at VoipReview, people often ask us 'What is business VoIP?' Put simply, business VoIP in Lynwood, CA is a type of phone service that utilizes your own high-speed Internet connection to send and receive telephone calls. Business VoIP also offers a number of other features that will meet the needs of your company and help you remain competitive in today's marketplace.
Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP is not just available for businesses-providers also offer it to residential customers in Lynwood, CA. That doesn't mean the two are the same as VoIP plans for business use tend to focus on the tools that help businesses succeed. Residential plans on the other hand often have more basic features along with standard inbound or outbound calling capabilities.
No phone lines are needed with business VoIP. Instead, this calling system uses your company's broadband Internet connection in place of a traditional phone wiring system. Even so, business VoIP is a whole lot more than just a replacement for your existing phone system. Business VoIP solutions in Lynwood, CA also include some form of Private Branch Exchange (PBX) phone system, in addition to advanced features that assist with call management and productivity.
PBX phone systems along with the advanced productivity features offered by a business VoIP plan are included at no extra cost, yet are considered add-ons by traditional phone companies. Not only that, but many business VoIP providers also offer greater flexibility and mobility than what your current phone provider is capable of. We recommend comparing the different business VoIP providers with your current phone service to see the difference in price and features. When you do, you will notice that business VoIP provides you with a greater value for your money.

subset: commoncrawl


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Are you looking to replace or convert your existing conservatory roof? We have a conservatory roof conversion specialist in Aylesbury that can help.
Conservatory roof replacements are big business with demand from homeowners springing up all over the country. Conservatories have become part of British culture and continue to peak interest. It's no surprise then that when a conservatory has seen better days, homeowners are left wondering what to do. Conservatories need to be replaced every 20 years, with most people wanting to wait way past that mark!
Conservatory roof replacements are a necessity and there is no reason why you should put up with anything less than ideal because it can be fixed. Conservatories have become an extension of the home in many ways but also act as a way to extend the seasons, with most homes in the UK not seeing enough sun. Conservatories have given people easier access to enjoying their garden all year round and has also become a status symbol for some homeowners. Conservatories are extremely popular but as we've mentioned before, can be expensive so it's important to ensure that you get what you pay for! Conservatory roof replacements can take many forms, from new frames and replacement roof panels to the full works.
Conservatories are an investment for most homeowners as they give a great place to relax or entertain inside your home but also by doing this you get easy access to enjoying the garden which means that in comparison with your neighbours, you'll be getting more out of your garden. Conservatories can be expensive to install but in the long run are a great investment, giving you an extra room to use all year round and meaning that even on those cold rainy days, you will still have somewhere warm to enjoy. Conservatories give homeowners a way of extending their homes; many people who live in flats or small terraced houses don't have much room for a garden and are left with small patios. Conservatories allow people to at least get some colour in their homes as well as giving them somewhere to enjoy the sun, even if it's just vicariously through your conservatory roof replacements!
Replacing a Polycarbonate Conservatory Roof
Are you looking to replace your old tired polycarbonate conservatory roof? We have a range of glass and tiled roof to suit all budgets.
Tiled Roofs
A tiled conservatory roof is a great option if you are looking to keep your conservatory warm and to extend the life of your Conservatory. Conservatories with a tiled roof can be quite large, offer great heat retention and also look really attractive. They can enhance your property value considerably.
Tiles conservatory roofs come in many different forms including slate or terracotta clay tiles as one of the most popular choices. Tiles are a more expensive option compared to other forms of Conservatory Roof Replacement, however they can prove to be very cost effective in the long run as they have a longer life expectancy than most roofing materials and are also easier to repair if damage occurs.
Glass Roofs
Are you looking to replace your old tired poly-carbonate conservatory roof? We have a range of glass and tiled roof to suit all budgets.
A glass roof is the most aesthetically pleasing and decorative of all Conservatory Roof replacement options. The glass can be tinted to help provide privacy while letting in the maximum amount of sunlight, as well as never having to clean it. Conservatory panes are available in a variety of colours, sizes and styles.
If you need a roof for your Conservatory that is more durable as well as energy efficient, we can provide Conservatories with low-e glass. This option has the additional benefit of never having to clean it or replace "dirty" glass. With Low-E Conservatory glass, you can also specify between three (3) different levels of solar shading.
Conservatory Roof Conversion Company in Aylesbury
Don't let your conservatory roof go to waste. We can help you replace it with a new tiled or glass roof so that your conservatory is not only beautiful, but functional and in line with the latest trends. Contact us today for more information on how we can work together to get you started on designing a new conservatory roof!
If you are looking to replace your conservatory roof with a new tiled or glass roof, we would love the opportunity to work for you. Our team of experts can help you find the perfect solution that meets all of your needs and fits within your budget. Contact us today and one our local Aylesbury representatives will be happy to answer any questions you may have about how we can help! We look forward to hearing from you soon.


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A person's behavior on the Web is highly goal-driven. People have something they want to accomplish, whether it's making a purchase, finding a recipe, or learning how to do something new. Inherent in many web page designs, therefore, is information to help a user perform an action. For example, if you design a button that must be clicked to reach a desired goal (e.g., placing an item in a shopping cart), then shadowing the button so it appears to be raised will help your audience understand that the shape is a clickable object.
In addition to these types of visual cues, we often write instructions to assist users in knowing what to do next. These instructions guide the eyes and minds of the individual to look at the appropriate place and to take the appropriate action.
Mental models
Designing and writing the instructions that are part of the UI design is both an art and science, involving copywriting and design skills as well as an understanding of how people use mental models.
A mental model is a person's internal mental representation of how things work. It's a broad conception of causal actions and their effects. People apply their mental models to new situations so they don't need to relearn everything from scratch. This helps to make us cognitively efficient.
Through experience, users develop mental models of how different types of websites work. They learn the types of actions to take on an e-commerce site versus the types of actions that will work on a photo-sharing site. This means people will apply their stereotype or mental model of similar websites to make assumptions about how your website works.
This is one of the main reasons UI instructions are so important. People have an unpleasant experience when their mental models are inaccurate or incorrect. It causes frustration, errors, and inability to accomplish a goal. A frustrated user might look for another website that's easier to use.
Writing easy-to-understand instructions and presenting them in an aesthetically pleasing way can ward off these types of problems. Good instructions will guide website visitors, even if their mental models are imprecise or erroneous.
So here are some guidelines for writing UI instructions that I've gleaned from years of designing online learning as well as gems from usability research.
1. Know the subtleties of your audience
When you know the characteristics of your audience, you can imagine them and direct your words to them. Unless your visitors are a savvy, homogeneous group, it's best to assume they'll need some guidance to achieve their goals.
Think beyond the obvious audience characteristics to consider the subtleties of how readers might perceive and react to your words. Will they understand idioms? What about humor?
Notice the example above. The humorous instructions on the CAPTCHA form could only work with a sophisticated and experienced audience. Inexperienced computer users and those who are not fluent in English would have no idea that "Verify you're human" means to type the alphanumeric characters in the box.
2. Balance brevity with getting the point across
Finding balance is always an issue. When writing UI instructions, include enough detail so users know exactly what to do, but not so much detail that it becomes difficult to process the information. People can only process small amounts of information at one time.
You can help the situation by writing instructions in plain and simple language, which should help visitors accomplish their tasks efficiently and quickly. Try to use short sentences when possible. For example, this sentence could easily be broken into two: "Click the Add to Cart button, then click Check Out at the top of the screen."
3. Remove irrelevant information
This guideline goes along with the brevity advice above, but is often best to do at the end of the writing process. At the end, you look at your writing from a different perspective. It's easier to see which information is irrelevant, because it adds to the confusion quotient. Deleting extraneous and superfluous details will tighten up the final copy. In the example above, the communication could be more effective with fewer words. There's no need to sacrifice clarity for personality. With balance, you can have both.
4. Select the most effective and accurate words
The task of writing accurately involves a subtle discrimination between words with similar meanings. Usability research shows that people scan a web page rather than read it. Thus, your wording should communicate effectively while someone is on the fly and barely paying attention.
Use words that promote clarity. "Select a date" is okay, but "Click on a date" is more accurate. Avoid double negatives, such as "I do not want to unsubscribe." Also, stay away from jargon that some people won't understand, like industry acronyms and technical terms. Speaking of precision in word choice, when you look at this menu on the right, do you understand the difference between Explore and Browse?
[Note: There is some disagreement over whether "select" or "click" is more appropriate for people using assistive technologies.]
5. Write in the active voice
The active voice is crisp and clean and will move people to take action. The passive voice makes readers yawn. Compare this sentence in both voices:
- Active – "Click the Journal link to search for an article."
- Passive – "The Journal link should be clicked when you are ready to search for an article."
6. Place the instructions aesthetically
Designing UI instructions can be a challenge. You must determine where they belong in the visual and information hierarchy. Although they need to be noticed by users, they shouldn't be so prominent that they overpower the page. And as a design element, they must fit in well with the surrounding environment. Bottom line: Plan for instruction text during the initial phases of design.
7. Communicate relationships through vertical spacing
If the instructions are longer than one line, it's important that readers know which instructions belong together. The leading (or vertical spacing) between related sentences should be large enough to enable legibility yet small enough to show the sentences are associated. When there are several steps, keep each step separate by increasing the line spacing. Number the instructions if they are complex or will be perceived as such.
8. Select a typeface that enhances legibility
Think hard about the type as a design element. Use a typeface and style coherent with the rest of the site design. Consider the size of the font. The user instructions must be legible by people of all ages. Avoid bitmapped text whenever possible so users can enlarge the text if necessary.
9. Use graphics if they will help you communicate
Yep. Sometimes it's nearly impossible to say something in words. A graphic provides support and makes text comprehensible, as in this explanation of where to find your account number on a magazine label.
10. Make it personal
It's okay to add a little personality to your UI instructions and system messages. It might help your visitors have a pleasant or humorous experience. Just ensure that your between-the-lines message can never be interpreted as a put-down. For example, the instructions above help visitors feel better. After reading the message, you don't feel like such a loser for failing to keep passwords in a place where they can be found.
11. Make your instructions accessible
It's important that people who have difficulty reading small print and/or use devices to read computer screens can read your small print instructions.
Some basic accessibility guidelines for writing user interface instructions are to: avoid using graphical text so it can be enlarged (discussed in #8 above); provide text alternatives to graphical content so it can be translated into other forms such as Braille; and clearly separate the instructions from the background so they can be easily seen. In addition, use hyperlinks contextually so that they make sense if the person can't see the screen. For example, a link that states, "Instructions for using this form" is better than a "Click here" link.
12. Test your instructions
Test instructions with sample audience members, people outside of your office and with no prior knowledge of what it is you are doing. Observe one or more people performing the task for which you've written instructions. Note any difficulties they have and revise the instructions. Repeat the process until people accomplish the task without problems.
You may be surprised at the time and effort it takes to write effective UI instructions. Yet it might be one of the most valuable endeavors you pursue in designing a successful UI. Through the simplicity of comprehensible instructions, you can achieve so much—user assistance, appropriate tone and personality, and showing that you care.


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Thomas Aquinas once said, "There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship." Through thick and thin, highs and lows, good times and bad, true friends are those who stay with you through everything; they are those you can go to with great news, and seek for help when you struggle. The best friends are the ones who are there throughout the years, even when the business of life makes it challenging to keep in touch.
Friendship can cross the boundaries of race, culture, politics and even international lines. From a global perspective, our world faces constant challenges, crises and forces of division, which undermine the harmony of our global community. To confront these challenges, we must promote and defend a shared spirit of human solidarity—through friendship. So, in 2011, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed today, July 30th, as the International Day of Friendship. According to their website, the U.N. states:
Through friendship—by accumulating bonds of camaraderie and developing strong ties of trust—we can contribute to the fundamental shifts that are urgently needed to achieve lasting stability, weave a safety net that will protect us all and generate passion for a better world where all are united for the greater good.
The International Day of Friendship was first conceived in 1997 as an initiative following a world Culture of Peace proposal. It recognizes the relevance and importance of friendship as a noble and valuable sentiment in people's lives from around the world. Whether you make friends with your next door neighbor, community member or someone who lives halfway across the world, you can celebrate International Day of Friendship. Here's how.
1. Get to know your neighbors.
One of the easiest ways you can celebrate International Day of Friendship is by simply getting to know your neighbors. How often do we surround ourselves with others, yet barely know anything about them? Your neighbors are the first line of people you can make an effort to know, care for and walk alongside with through life. Make an effort to reach out to the neighbors in your area and get to know them. Take over a plate of cookies, invite them over for dinner or ask them to do something in town. By getting to know your neighbors, you can take the first step in truly building bonds of friendship in the community near you.
2. Be involved with your community.
Speaking of community, why not take your friendships to the next level by being involved with others in your community? Get to know people by joining various clubs and activity groups, or volunteer with an organization to find lifelong friends who share the same values as you. Check out what's available around you and see how you can join a cause or a club you care about. The more you're involved with, the more opportunity you will have to meet different people and make new friends.
3. Make friends with somebody different from you.
Finally, take advantage of International Day of Friendship by making an effort to be friends with somebody different from you. This could mean different racially, ethnically, politically or culturally. Oftentimes, we're naturally attracted to people who have the same background, same appearance and same opinions as us. However, these types of friendships might not challenge us to grow. Instead, be intentional about meeting people who might be different from you, getting to know them and pursuing a genuine friendship with them. This way, you can have a variety of different friends, who can all challenge and strengthen you in different ways.
As Thomas Aquinas said, true friendship is the most prized thing on earth. This International Day of Friendship, celebrate one of our closest human relationships by being mindful of how you make friends. Get to know your neighbors, be involved with your community and make friends with somebody different from you in order to truly build bonds across boundaries. You may find the more friends you have, the more joy flows through your life.


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Our beautiful Japanese Pavilion—with its style and air of something ancient, yet nevertheless modern—houses three-thousand-year-old vessels, jars, Buddhas, ancient animal guards, fierce Samurai armor, and deadly sharp Samurai swords. However, within a few steps, in Fracture: Daido Moriyama, we are flung and plunged into twentieth- and twenty-first-century Japan—an experience somehow disquietly familiar, eerily alien, and weirdly futuristic, with shades of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.
Daido Moriyama, Untitled (trash cans), printed 2009, courtesy of Courtesy Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, © 2012 Daido Moriyama
In Memories of a Dog, Daido Moriyama—with a slight smile—declares, "I'm like a stray dog," unconcerned with the allusion. His black-and-white images are not memory, but the stylized theater of urban reality caught as moving targets by a modern man, testosterone-rich and unapologetically masculine. The striking drama as the white glares to diffusion of the black images—be they objects or people—injects loads of glittering glamour to the odd collection of groupings. For instance, trash-canister tops are in the foreground of a group of people as if something nefarious were present. The human condition is made provisional, alluring, and infinitely mysterious. Sometimes it's obliquely erotic and other times straight up and in-your-face sexual—and always through a scrim of menace. There's a fierce motion in his photos, blurring to abstraction on one hand, yet with the intense need to capture the immediacy and vitality of living presence on the other.
Daido Moriyama, Kariudo (Hunter), 1971, printed 2009, courtesy of Courtesy Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, © 2012 Daido Moriyama
Like all voyeuristic imagery, he makes you a party to his vivacious lens, and thus you are made predator in Hunter. You are unable to turn away from the giant lips, their pout like creased pillows. It's hallucinogenic, as a sullen chubby boy's face presses forward into the frame. Wired fences are so close as to form a grid, while the vague cars and buildings are mere palettes of grays and charcoals. The world is shadows, broken into pieces and seen through the zoom lens of confrontation. Mountainously sensual rear ends in jeans or fishnet stockings force themselves on you. It's physical, and it's intimate.
Daido Moriyama, Untitled (shadows with tires), printed 2009, courtesy of Courtesy Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, © 2012 Daido Moriyama
Moriyama, more than most, to me, epitomizes the realization that photography is an alien third eye with the power to create an alternate reality—a reality which is as repulsive as it is seductively attractive. It's a reality we know is exaggerated, dipped in a lugubrious ink the color of midnight—those down-and-dirty blues which we associate with the dark side of American life. His Tokyo—or rather his neighborhood, Shinjuku—is made somehow precious, vulgar, clownishly regal, and elegant. Take the picture of the coat covered in pearl buttons—where he shoots in perfect relationship to the light, somehow sharing the darkness—making it almost weightless and ethereal, kind of heavenly. Texture abounds in his images. Old dogs and old tires are transformed into junk beauty or elegant brutal realism. It's our safe passage to the other side, though we are uneasy and somewhat fearful. Japan is no longer white cranes fluttering across a sea-green kimono or white-masked smoky mythic dramas on folded silk screens taking us out of our hard metal world of acid-washed jeans and plastic dreams.
Daido Moriyama, Shinjuki #11, 2000, courtesy of Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, © 2012 Daido Moriyama
Daido Moriyama repositions us with his macho zing and daring honesty; he sees the beauty where we would look elsewhere, and plays in the dark. You get to walk with him in his video—it's close contact. You sense the flash of his captured moments like some adrenaline-high quick-draw artist. He's a modern-day samurai, eyeing with laser speed the disjunctive elements. In spite of this, it's an embrace. And then you squeeze down the narrow stairwell when he declares the city a sexual entity, which from his point of view it could hardly be otherwise.
Moriyama's photography braids us constantly into the fabric of the singularity of our actual "looking" and ties the knots to our deepest sensual signals. For those split seconds, our eyes are amoral, panoramic, and restlessly inventing beauty. But for Moriyama they are not seconds but a jet stream of a life in motion—and at some existential level—making all encounters mean something in the deep well of his visual cortex.
Hylan Booker


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Display *display;
If successful, XOpenDisplay returns a pointer to a Display structure, which is defined in <X11/Xlib.h>. If XOpenDisplay does not succeed, it returns NULL. After a successful call to XOpenDisplay, all of the screens in the display can be used by the client. The screen number specified in the display_name argument is returned by the DefaultScreen macro (or the XDefaultScreen function). You can access elements of the Display and Screen structures only by using the information macros or functions. For information about using macros and functions to obtain information from the Display structure, see section 2.2.1.
The XCloseDisplay function closes the connection to the X server for the display specified in the Display structure and destroys all windows, resource IDs (Window, Font, Pixmap, Colormap, Cursor, and GContext), or other resources that the client has created on this display, unless the close-down mode of the resource has been changed (see XSetCloseDownMode). Therefore, these windows, resource IDs, and other resources should never be referenced again or an error will be generated. Before exiting, you should call XCloseDisplay explicitly so that any pending errors are reported as XCloseDisplay performs a final XSync operation.
XCloseDisplay can generate a BadGC error.


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Yampa is a domain-specific embedded language for the programming of hybrid (discrete and continuous time) systems using the concepts of Functional Reactive Programming (FRP). Yampa is structured using Arrows, which greatly reduce the chance of introducing space- and time-leaks into reactive, time-varying systems.
Yampa was originally developed by the Yale Haskell Group based on the original idea of Conal Elliott's Fran.
Hackage: Yampa
- Henrik Nilsson - A Brief Introduction to Functional Reactive Programming and Yampa
- Henrik Nilsson - ITU-FRP2010
- Paul Hudak - Yampa, Arrows, and Robots
- Yampa tutorials by Gerold Meisinger
- Yampa book - Tutorial series for BearRiver Yampa
- library reference sheet: ps, pdf
- Videos
Primitive signal functions
(download original Image:Yampa signal functions.svg)
Reddit - How to read Yampa diagram?
Each switch comes in two different flavors:
- immediate: switch to the new behaviour immediately and also calculate the return value based on the new behaviour.
- delayed: return the value based on the old behaviour, but use the new behaviour afterwards. To use delayed switch prefix the switching functions with the letter 'd', f.e. 'drpSwitchB'.
External Links
- Yampa-Users mailing list - Yampa-related comments, questions, discussions, and announcements. You can also send bug reports to email@example.com.
- #yampa - This is Yampa IRC Channel, please refer to Getting there on how to join the channel.
- Yampy Cube - a live coding presentation with Yampa by Konstantin Zudov at Helsinki FRP Meetup May 6, 2015. (Source code on Github)
- George Giorgidze created YampaSynth, a modular music synthesizer written in Haskell and using Yampa.
- Hai (Paul) Liu papers and slides
- Blog about Yampa - introduction tutorials and diagrams
- Demonstrating a Time Leak in Arrowized FRP (Web archive)
- An overview of Yampa video clips on YouTube
Known users
- YampaSynth - is a software synthesizer implemented in Haskell using Yampa. It contains a framework of sound generating and sound shaping modules (e.g. oscillator, amplifier, mixer, envelope generator, filter, etc.) and example applications.
- Frag; a simple Quake 3 clone, using a very early version of Yampa called arrowized functional reactive programming (AFRP)
- SpaceInvaders; a video game, demonstrating the usage of Yampa
- cuboid; a small puzzle game
- Haskelloids; asteroids clone
- Nettle - Programming Network Routers
- Euterpea - computer music development (also uses CCA)
- YFrob; robot simulation
- Haskanoid A breakout-like videogame with SDL graphics and sound that can optionally be controlled with a Wiimote or a Kinect.
- Magic Cookies! An iOS/Android board game implemented in Haskell using Yampa and SDL2.


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With January here I have been trying to eat healthier and when I am doing that I often think about salads, whole grain salads in particular. The combination of green beans and mushrooms are a favourite of mine whether I am simply sauteing them as a side dish or doing something more with them like making a casserole and I have had the idea to use them in a whole grain salad for a while now. Normally I would start a salad like this by sauteing the mushrooms and green beans but this time I thought that I would try something a little different and roast them both in the oven. Roasting vegetables seems to concentrate their flavours and make them even tastier and I was thinking that that would be the perfect way to go for this salad. With the vegetables decided the next component is the whole grain and there are a lot of choices that would work in this salad but I decided to go with farro. Farro is a really nice whole grain and I enjoy its earthy nuttiness and the chewy texture. For the dressing I went with a flavour packed homemade balsamic vinaigrette and I finished the salad off with a bit of feta though goat cheese or a mild blue cheese would also be wonderful.
Roasted Mushroom and Green Bean Farro Salad
A roasted mushroom and green bean farro salad with balsamic vinaigrette and feta.
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup farro
- 8 ounces mushrooms, quartered
- 1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup feta, goat or blue cheese, crumbled
- 1/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped and toasted
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme (chopped)
- Bring the water and farro to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the farro is al dente. about 20 minutes.
- Toss the mushrooms and green beans in the oil, thyme, salt and pepper and place them on a baking sheet in a single layer.
- Roast the mushrooms and green beans in a preheated 400F/200C oven until they start to caramelize, about 20 minutes, flipping them half way through.
- Mix everything and enjoy.
Roasted Cauliflower and Mushroom Quinoa Salad in Balsamic Vinaigrette
Mushroom and Thyme Farro Salad
Roasted Cauliflower and Red Pepper Farro Salad
Roasted Eggplant, Red Pepper and Green Bean Pomegranate Salad
Green Beans in a Creamy Mushroom Sauce
Green Bean Casserole
Green Bean, Mushroom and Caramelized Onion Tart
Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpea Quinoa and Arugula Salad with Almonds, Pomegranate and Feta in a Lemony Tahini Dressing
Roasted Mushrooms in a Browned Butter, Garlic and Thyme Sauce
Balsamic Garlic Grilled Mushroom Skewers
Maple Dijon Green Beans with Bacon, Candied Pecans and Goat Cheese
Balsamic Soy Roasted Garlic Mushrooms
Roast Acorn Squash, Sweet Potato and Beet Kale and Quinoa Salad with Avocado, Feta and Pomegranate in a Cilantro Lemon Tahini Dressing
Skillet Butter and Garlic Mushrooms and Cauliflower


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XChat is a popular Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client. It has a choice of a tabbed document interface or tree interface, support for multiple servers and is highly configurable.
XChat is a full-featured IRC client and includes all basic functionalities that are found in most other IRC clients, including CTCP, DCC file transfers and chats.
It supports a plugin system for various languages (including C, C++, Perl, Python, Tcl, Ruby, Lua, CLISP, D, and DMDScript). By writing plugins, the features and functionality of XChat can be extended and customized.


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Citing officials directly familiar with the information, Solomon writes in the Washington Guardian that Obama and other administration officials were told that "that the attack was likely carried out by local militia and other armed extremists sympathetic to al-Qaida in the region."
He adds:
The details from the CIA and Pentagon assessments of the killing of Ambassador Chris [Stevens] were far more specific, more detailed and more current than the unclassified talking points that UN Ambassador Susan Rice and other officials used five days after the attack to suggest to Americans that an unruly mob angry over an anti-Islamic video was to blame, officials said.
Most of the details affirming al-Qaida links were edited or excluded from the unclassified talking points used by Rice in appearances on news programs the weekend after the attack, officials confirmed Friday. Multiple agencies were involved in excising information, doing so because it revealed sources and methods, dealt with classified intercepts or involved information that was not yet fully confirmed, the officials said.
Solomon cautions that there were bits of evidence pointing to a spontaneous attack but, as Eli Lake of the Daily Beast and others have reported, he writes: "Among the early evidence cited in the briefings to the president and other senior officials were intercepts showing some of the participants were known members or supporters of Ansar al-Sharia — the al-Qaida-sympathizing militia in Libya — and the AQIM, which is a direct affiliate of al-Qaida in northern Africa, the officials said."


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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
And I'm Renee Montagne.
We have a clearer picture this morning of just what an immigration overhaul might look like.
INSKEEP: A bipartisan group of senators is spreading word that they have agreed on principles for change.
MONTAGNE: The proposal would include a pathway to citizen for millions of people now in the U.S. illegally. Republicans have led the opposition to that change, up to now, commonly calling it amnesty.
INSKEEP: Republicans who favor the change, like Senator John McCain, were forced to back off for years. But now, McCain is among the group of Democrats and Republicans that is trying again.
Let's talk this over with Cokie Roberts who joins us most Mondays. Cokie, good morning.
COKIE ROBERTS, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: How big a deal is this?
ROBERTS: Oh, it's a big deal. This is a substantial group of senators. It includes Marco Rubio of Florida, where I am right now. And he is a darling of conservatives, so to have him support something that calls for a legalization of the more than 11 million illegals who are in the country now is something that is very significant.
Now, you know, we're dealing with here is an election. We had an election, as you might remember, and in it more than 70 percent of Hispanics voted for the Democrat and so did about three-quarters of Asian voters. So, you've got Republicans taking a lot of notice.
But they want to say before any citizenship, first border enforcement. And they would create some new commission of governors, law enforcement officers, community leaders to say that the borders are secure. And then they want to have an exit system that would track people who come into our airports and seaports, to make sure that they don't overstayed their visas.
And then there are some provisions that young people who were brought in as kids would have an easier path to citizenship; so, the people who already got a pass from the president temporarily last year. Farm workers would also have an easier path. The employers would have to verify much more strongly the legal status of their employees.
So there's a lot here. And there's likely to be quite an argument over exactly what steps need to be taken for citizenships and how long it will take. And Senator Rubio is saying anybody who is here illegally has to go to the back of the line, behind the people who are you going through the process.
INSKEEP: OK. So dealing Republican concerns about security, then getting a pathway for citizenship - that's the formula. And the senators seem to have gotten out ahead of the president, who's also planning to talk immigration this week.
ROBERTS: He's going to make a speech in Las Vegas tomorrow. There's been some discussion reportedly among Democrats and the White House about whether it's good to have the president out front on this. There's some sense that anything with the president's name on it, is so poisonous to some Republicans that it just becomes a problem. For instance, Obamacare.
And the president was struck with the showed the movie "Lincoln" and the stars from the movie were at the White House, that not one Republican showed up, answered his invitation to come, because it's become a problem for them. As he said in his press conference, you know, somebody has - or Republican has his picture taken with the president and he gets a primary challenge.
So, you know, he's not quite sure what to do on this. He wants to get his supporters out working for the bill. And if he wants that he has to take the lead, but it could become a problem to get it passed.
INSKEEP: OK, so these bipartisan senators - this bipartisan group of senators has a proposal. It would also have to pass the House. I was talking with a leading house Republican a couple of days ago who said they've made all sorts of subtle preparation for this - speakers they chosen at their recent Republican retreat, members of committees that will be dealing with this have been chosen with immigration in mind. But is the House really ready to sign on to this?
ROBERTS: Very tough, Steve. You know, we've talked about those House districts that are drawn to be very, very safe for Republicans. But the problem there is then they can get a challenge from their right, from people who are adamantly opposed to citizenship for aliens and people who are here illegally. And so, they really are going to have to work it hard.
If speaker Boehner wants to pass it, he's going to hope for a strong vote in the Senate with a lot of momentum coming into the House. And then do a bipartisan vote there with very few Republicans, probably. You know, it's possible that these very safe congressional districts secure the Republican House majority but becomes a problem for the party brand as a whole.
INSKEEP: OK. Thanks very much. That's Cokie Roberts who joins us most Monday mornings. And she joins us on this Monday when a bipartisan group of senators has been talking about a framework for immigration changes. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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ICC Note:
There is evidence that the 2001 bombing of a Catholic church in Bangladesh was the work of several Islamic groups including at least two that are banned.
12/11/2010 Bangladesh (CompassDirect) – Police in Bangladesh said they believe at least two Islamic extremists are responsible for a bomb blast in a Catholic church building that killed 10 young Christians and maimed dozens of others in 2001.
After a district court remanded the two extremists of the banned Harkat-ul-Jihad Al-Islami (HuJi) group, including its chief leader, to police for seven days on Dec. 7, Police Inspector Sheikh Mohammad Akhteruzzaman of the Criminal Investigation Department told Compass that they believe the militants are responsible for the long-unresolved case.
"We took Mufti Abdul Hannan and Arif Hassan Sumon on remand for interrogation for three days in the middle of November, and we found their involvement in the bombing inside the church," Akhteruzzaman said. "We took them again on remand on Dec. 7 for seven days to verify their previous information found after interrogation. If the previous information matches this time's interrogation, then we can be sure that they were involved in the bombing inside the church."
A total of 14 Islamic extremists are suspected in the bombing, including three from the banned militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and 11 from the HuJi.
The blast took place as about 70 Christians attended Sunday mass on June 3, 2001 in Baniarchar village in Gopalganj district, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the capital, Dhaka.
Initial police reports suggested that the blast might have been the result of a dispute between two Christian groups in the area.
"The bomb blast did not happen because of any internal feud of church members that was previously suspected," Akhteruzzaman said. "The magnitude of the blast indicates different motives. Apparently, it seems that they found Christians as their enemy for whatever they were doing against Islam. But the exact motive will come out soon."
The late archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Bangladesh, Michael Rosario, had said after the blast that there was no report of any communal tension in that area.
The initial investigation faltered under the previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led Islamic alliance in power from 2001 to 2006 but was revived after a landslide victory of the Awami League-led Grand Alliance government in December 2008. The chief priest of Baniarchar Catholic Church, the Rev. Jacob Gobbi, had urged the new administration to revisit the case.
The left-leaning Awami League-led government does not include Islamic fundamentalist parties such as Jamaat-e-Islami. Prior to the election, the country was ruled for two years by an army-backed, caretaker government that imposed a countrywide state of emergency.
Christians account for less than 1 percent of Bangladesh's 164.4 million people, according to Operation World, but Baniarchar has a large number of Christian residents. Muslims make up nearly 90 percent of Bangladesh's population, with Hinduism the second largest religious affiliation at 9.2 percent of the people.
The Bangladesh government banned HuJi and its activities in Bangladesh in 2005. An international Islamic militant group, HuJi's Bangladesh chapter had been involved in carrying out terrorist activities in Bangladesh for more than five years.
It was responsible for several major bomb attacks, as well as assassination attempts in 2004 on leading intellectuals and on then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, who was ushered back into office in December 2008. An intelligence report in October 2003 had strongly recommended that HuJi be banned.
The Bangladesh chapter of HuJi was established in 1992 with an aim toward establishing Islamic rule in the country.


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Puzzle Rules: The solution to the puzzle is a former Dodger. Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:
- Send me an Email with "PCS" somewhere in the subject line, containing the first and last name of the players, along with your reasoning. Submitted answers without the reasoning, or those submitted with the incorrect reasoning, will count for participation only, even if the answer itself is correct. And please include your screen name somewhere in the email; and
- Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. We may not be able to reply to your original email promptly, so please be patient and check back on the comment thread for the latest news; we may confirm correct answers there.


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859-854-0505 -
From the moment you step on our lot until the time you drive away in your next car, your buying experience with Auto Connection Used Trucks & Cars is our number one priority. We encourage you to use the expertise and resources of our sales staff; they are here to help you find the right car at the right price. Call us today at 859-854-0505 to schedule your test drive!
I hereby consent to receive text messages from or on behalf of dealer at the mobile phone number I provided above. I understand that I am opting in to receive text messages from dealer or their employees. I include consent to receive phone calls at the mobile phone number I provided. I understand that message and data rates may apply.


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Trusted Network Connect (TNC)
This feature provides Trusted Network Connect(TNC) framework that can be used to assess and verify end clients' system state (such as network ports/firewall status or legitimate binaries) and its compliance to a predefined policy with existing network access control (NAC) solutions.
- Name: Avesh Agarwal
- Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Current status
- Targeted release: Fedora 19
- Last updated: 2013-03-11
- Percentage of completion: 80%
Currently this work requires a patch in freeradius for enabling EAP-TNC. The patch is attached in this rh bz https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=712903 . freeradius upstream has already committed the TNC part of the patch and the upstream commit is here:
https://github.com/FreeRADIUS/freeradius-server/commit/529b3fed6964969820b83f4e1501520231af7b3f .
I am still working with freeradius upstream to merge the ttls part. As soon as the upstream merges the whole patch, the patch will be built in fedora, and I will provide concrete testing instructions for anybody to test, and update the status here.
Meanwhile, I have added a new package to fedora which is strongswan-tnc-imcvs that provides PTS functionality for this feature. The link for this package is here:
Detailed Description
Traditionally network access control (NAC) has lacked the ability in its decision making to assess endpoint's security posture and its compliance to enterprise policies. (For example, a network might want to grant only limited access to clients that have exploitable browser plugins installed.) This lack of assessment may leave an enterprise's network vulnerable to malicious attacks. Trusted Computing Group (TCG) (and IETF too) has defined an open architecture called Trusted network connect (TNC) (IETF's Network Endpoint Assessment (NEA)) to fill this gap. TNC, as part of its architectural components, includes integrity measurement collectors (IMCs) and TNC client at endpoint and integrity measurement verifiers (IMVs) and TNC server at enterprise network side communicating over NAC solutions such as EAP with 802.1X to evaluate and verify the security posture of the endpoint against the enterprise policies before allowing network access. For this, TCG has released transport (IF-T), session (IF-TNCCS) and messaging (IF-M) standards which are open and interoperable. TNC architecture by virtue of it's IF-M protocol can leverage NIST's SCAP's (OpenSCAP) automated security aspects for measurement collection, verification and remediation. In addition, TCG has defined IF-PTS and PTS protocol specifications to integrate platform trust services (PTS) with TNC for TPM based attestation of integrity measurements. PTS protocol defines messaging payloads to be used over IF-M protocol.
This feature includes the aforementioned functionalities and aims to provide an end-to-end network based client assessment, verification and remediation.
Benefit to Fedora
System and network administrators using fedora can now utilize the potential of open and interoperable TNC protocols over existing NAC solutions. It helps them reduce the possibility of allowing a vulnerable client accessing their network.
This feature involves following packages as of now: tncfhh, openpts, wpa_supplicant, freeradius, tpm_tools, trousers, NetworkManager, strongswan-tnc-imcvs
TNC client and server functionality: TCG's IF-TNCCS 1.1 and IETF RFC 5793
Integrity measurements collector (IMC) and verifier (IMV) messaging protocol functionality: IF-M 1.2 and IETF RFC 5792
Implementation of Local IMC and IMV interfaces: IF-IMC 1.2, IF-IMV 1.2
A development library for building custom IMCc and IMVs.
OpenSCAP based IMC and IMV that follow IF-IMC, IF-IMV and IF-M specifications.
PTS protocol (PTS-IMC and PTS-IMV) functionality and its integration (IF-PTS) with platform trust services for TPM based attestation of integrity measurements.
Support with NetworkManager.
How To Test
Configure wpa_supplicant at client and Freeradius at server.
Configure 802.lX managed switch.
Configure tnc.
Configure policies at IMC (provided or custom built) client and IMV (provided or custom built) at server.
Start network access.
Observe if network access is allowed or not.
If not, remediate the system, and try again.
User Experience
Users should be able to see if their system is in compliance to their network's predfined policy and are able to gain access to the network. If their system is not compliant, they should remediate it before trying to access the network again.
This feature requires EAP-TNC support with wpa_supplicant and freeradius.
Contingency Plan
Although, this feature works on top of wpa_supplicant and can be used with NM, this does not require any changes in wpa_supplicant currently, so wont impact any existing functionality, and other packages part of this feature are stand alone in themselves. In summary, this feature does not change any part of the current networking stack, so won't break any existing networking functionality. If a user does not use this feature, there is no impact on other functionalities.
Release Notes
Fedora 19 offers support for Trusted Network Connect protocols to be used with 802.1X framework. OpenSCAP based client (IMC) and server (IMV) plugins are provided to leverage SCAP based measurements collection, verification, and remediation. It offers PTS protocol functionality for TPM based attestation of integrity measurements. It also includes some basic prototype IMCs and IMVs and provides a development library to build custom IMCs and IMVs.
Comments and Discussion
None yet.


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Athletics track cleaning maintenance Skellorn Green SK10 4 is needed to make sure the polymeric and Multisport synthetic sports surfaces are clear from moss and algae growth. Athletics facility maintenance should be done throughout the year as a way of preventing damage and drainage issues. Different methods are used for cleaning athletic surfaces depending upon the surface type used. The polymeric rubber surfacing is cleaned with a brush and pressure wash to blast away any dirt or contaminants stuck on the track. The synthetic turf specification is commonly installed in schools, this is cleaned using drag brushing to spread the sand infill evenly and get rid of debris. The upkeep for sand-filled surfaces https://www.artificialpitchmaintenance.co.uk/sand-filled-pitch-maintenance/cheshire/skellorn-green will depend upon the condition of the facility but we can provide all the necessary information on costs.
Both athletic track specifications can have chemical treatments applied that stop moss and algae from growing on the surface. Build up of contaminants on the athletic tracks makes the surfacing become slippery and the owners have a duty of care to the athletes and children to make certain it is safe to play on. It is advisable to have a professional external maintenance contractor being proactive to keep the athletic track in pristine condition. We can offer help to clean and repair your running track surface with specialist preservation methods. Use our enquiry form to get in touch and we'll talk to you about the costs of completing upkeep services.
Polymeric Athletics Surfaces are a perfect surfacing system for athletes if kept maintained and the upkeep of these athletics tracks is what keeps the rubberised surfacing in the best condition. If the maintenance is neglected then it is predicted the lifespan of the polymeric surfacing could be as little as half the lifespan prediction so when working out the costs, and prices of these professional maintenance visits you will work out that actually, it's a worthwhile investment in having proactive athletics track upkeep.
As part of regular maintenance, this would include any repairs to the polymeric surface and line marking because if surfaces are left damaged then they will quickly become larger and repairs should be reported the minute they are found otherwise the repair will increase significantly in size. A new coating of anti-slip paint can be applied as part of athletics track cleaning maintenance to improve performance and appearance. Clear line markings will then be added to give athletes an accurate running surface for training and events. We also offer services for other sports facilities like football pitches and hockey surface maintenance https://www.artificialpitchmaintenance.co.uk/artificial-hockey-turf-maintenance/cheshire/skellorn-green for a variety of flooring types.
Needlepunch multisport synthetic carpet may also be used for athletic facilities. Maintaining needlepunch surfacing can be easy if you carry out regular upkeep rather than leaving it to become damaged and worn out. Multisport synthetic carpets can be rejuvenated to prevent flooding and waterlogging. To learn more about rejuvenation please click here https://www.artificialpitchmaintenance.co.uk/rejuvenation/cheshire/skellorn-green. During rejuvenation, the sand infill is taken out and cleaned or replaced with a new infill and is then distributed over the surfacing. Drag brushing is highly recommended to help prevent contamination of the court. Regular drag brushing will allow you to redistribute the sand infill which can also improve performance qualities.
For more information on maintaining needlepunch surfacing in Skellorn Green SK10 4 and surrounding areas, and the costs to carry out this servicing, please fill in our contact form and we will get back to you.
Brush dirt and debris off the runway
Pressure wash the surface to remove tough dirt
Apply a chemical treatment to prevent moss and algae
Inspect the surface for waterlogging and damages
Repair the surfacing as soon as possible to prevent costly repairs
The long jump and even triple jump runways call for minor servicing once built. We strongly suggest you sweep debris and dirt off the runway in order to avoid contaminants becoming caught within the pores, moreover covering up the sand pit area helps to keep it clean and safe. Sand pit area covers might be supplied, which consist of a plastic sheet together with metal poles at the edges to help keep it in place. Preservation techniques can be designed to make sure the runway is safe to use; this is significant, especially for schools in an effort to make sure that the children aren't getting hurt. We also offer an entire cleaning service for you to keep on top of your facility and help to keep it appearing like new. Upkeep service costs will differ with respect to the size of the athletic facility, the area along with the workload that is required. The upkeep service method is recommended to help keep the facility in good shape and extend its lifespan of the facility.
Artificial Football Pitch Maintenance in Skellorn Green - https://www.artificialpitchmaintenance.co.uk/football/cheshire/skellorn-green
Artificial Hockey Turf Maintenance in Skellorn Green - https://www.artificialpitchmaintenance.co.uk/artificial-hockey-turf-maintenance/cheshire/skellorn-green
Artificial Rugby Surface Maintenance in Skellorn Green - https://www.artificialpitchmaintenance.co.uk/rugby/cheshire/skellorn-green
3G Pitch Surface Maintenance in Skellorn Green - https://www.artificialpitchmaintenance.co.uk/3g-pitch/cheshire/skellorn-green
4G Astroturf Maintenance in Skellorn Green - https://www.artificialpitchmaintenance.co.uk/4g-pitch/cheshire/skellorn-green
Astroturf MUGA Pitch Maintenance in Skellorn Green - https://www.artificialpitchmaintenance.co.uk/muga/cheshire/skellorn-green
Sand Dressed Pitch Maintenance in Skellorn Green - https://www.artificialpitchmaintenance.co.uk/sand-dressed/cheshire/skellorn-green
Sand Filled Pitch Maintenance in Skellorn Green - https://www.artificialpitchmaintenance.co.uk/sand-filled-pitch-maintenance/cheshire/skellorn-green
Astroturf Rejuvenation Cleaning Maintenance in Skellorn Green - https://www.artificialpitchmaintenance.co.uk/rejuvenation/cheshire/skellorn-green
Should an athletics track in Skellorn Green or surrounding areas, come to the end of its lifespan and be in need of a resurfacing then this is also a simple process to carry out in replacing the full facility. The rip-up and removal will be done within a few days and then resurfaced within a week after the removal which shouldn't affect too many athletic events.
Please fill in our contact form for further details, costs, prices and specifications of the athletics track cleaning maintenance in Skellorn Green SK10 4 where we will be able to assist you with everything you need.
We cover Skellorn Green (Cheshire)


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It's a tradition for people to shower their special someone with flowers, chocolates and a romantic dinner on Valentine's Day. Why do we go to all this trouble? To demonstrate our love and show we care. But what really shows a loved one you care is a thoughtfully developed financial plan. A couple's finances are often a major point of contention as it's common for one partner to act as the CFO with most of the financial decision making falling solely on their shoulders. Businesses typically have regular meetings to discuss financial statements and set short term and long term goals. So why not do your loved one a favor and plan a special get together to discuss your family's finances? Here's a guide for that discussion: 1. Budget – probably the most controversial subjects and also the most important. Don't make it too complicated, just pick a prior month and determine what came in and what went out. If you're in the red at the end of the month, then you need to determine what can be cut from your expenditures. We all have more control over what we spend than what we earn so focus on how you're allocating your funds. 2. Savings and investments – people view money differently so it's important to respect each other's risk tolerance. If you're loved one is very conservative and you're very aggressive, it's advisable to invest your own accounts separately and have a balanced approach with any joint investments. 3. Insurance and estate plan – it's never a fun conversation to talk about the potential for one or both of you to become sick, injured, or even die. However, it's an important conversation to have to ensure that you and your family are protected for the "what ifs" in life. Talk openly about what concerns you and what you want your legacy to be when you're gone. Just like any business, I believe regular meetings to discuss your finances are crucial to your family's financial success so schedule that meeting and don't forget the flowers and chocolates. Securities offered through Securities America, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC. Ryan Olds, Registered Representative. Advisory Services offered through Securities America Advisors, Inc. An SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Peter Franz, Investment Advisor Representative. Cedar Brook Financial Partners, LLC and the Securities America companies are not affiliated. Securities licensed in: OH, IL and PA
Guest Blogger
Roses, chocolates and ... a financial plan?


text: Serial adapters provide either a DB-9 port or a terminal block connection for RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485 communication signals. The integration of USB with serial adapters gives the user flexibility in receiving data and the distance over which that data travels. Serial adapters are supplied in many forms constructed with molded jackets, industrial metal chassis, or plastic shells. From one to sixteen ports, serial adapters are used widely with stenographers (steno machines), bar code scanners, ATM's and other equipment for communication.


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Leather Croc Embossed Chain Sneakers
Verified & Authenticated By Our Experts
Verified & Authenticated By Our Experts
On Wardrobe Collectr, each item sold has gone through our authentication and verification process by our well trained in-house expert team. We focus on authenticity as our main priority, thereafter we will go into the depth of the sellers description to verify that the condition and the quality lives up to the mentioned statement of the seller.
We give a 100% refund within 24 months if the item that has been sold shows out to be a counterfeit product. If the item has been wrongly delivered by our courier service, we do a 100% refund in store credit.
Customer Care
Our product experts are here to help you via Email and Chat.
Condition: Used | Read more
An item in New condition is a second-hand item which has never been worn and might still have the original purchase hangtags on it.
An item in Mint condition is a second-hand item which has been only lightly used and extremely well maintained.
Very good
An item in Very good condition is a second-hand item which has been worn and well maintained.
An item in Used condition is a second-hand item which has been worn frequently and shows small flaws.
Well used
An item in Well used condition is a second-hand item which has been worn frequently and shows defects.
Giuseppe Zanotti Leather Croc Embossed Chain Sneakers , comes with nothing original. The Shoes are well maintained with no flaws just slight heel drag on left & right shoe. The item is in Used condition.
100% of items sold are checked by our experts.
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At Wardrobe Collectr, we accept offers selected products. This means that you can make an offer on a product.
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If you are interested in making an offer on the product, click the "Make an offer" button and put in your desired price.
Shipping: The item has already been checked and is ready to be sent directly to you from a our warehouse. You'll pay shipping, but there is no authentication fees!
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Returns: We offer a 14-day return upon the shipment's arrival for in-store credit.
This means that we must receive your returns within 10 days of your shipment being delivered to you.


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There's no question that Apple turned the smartphone market upside down when it introduced the original iPhone way back in during the summer of 2007. After its release, numerous competitors kicked into overdrive to come up with smartphones built around a touch interface.
Apple again caught the industry with its pants down when it launched the iPad in 2010. Once again, competitors were caught off guard and rushed to get their own products onto the market.
In a new lawsuit filed this week, Apple is alleging that at least one of its competitors — Samsung — took a few shortcuts in getting its smartphones and tablets to market. Those shortcuts, Apple alleges, are that Samsung copied the exterior design and interface elements of its iOS-based devices.
Apple names the Galaxy S 4G, Epic 4G, and Nexus smartphones along with the Galaxy Tab tablet in the lawsuit according to the Wall Street Journal.
Apple claims:
Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple's technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products.
Ina Fried of Mobilized received stronger language from an Apple spokesperson; "It's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas."
Apple may have a point when it comes to the Galaxy S smartphones, as the design and interface do look more than a bit like the iPhone 3GS. It remains to be seen whether the courts will agree with Apple, however.


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What did MLK think about gay people?
(CNN)– Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was writing an advice column in 1958 for Ebony magazine when he received an unusual letter.
"I am a boy," an anonymous writer told King. "But I feel about boys the way I ought to feel about girls. I don't want my parents to know about me. What can I do?"
In calm, pastoral tones, King told the boy that his problem wasn't uncommon, but required "careful attention."
"The type of feeling that you have toward boys is probably not an innate tendency, but something that has been culturally acquired," King wrote. "You are already on the right road toward a solution, since you honestly recognize the problem and have a desire to solve it."
We know what King thought about race, poverty and war. But what was his attitude toward gay people, and if he was alive today would he see the gay rights movement as another stage of the civil rights movement?
That's not the type of question most people will consider on this Monday as the nation celebrates King's national holiday. Yet the debate over King's stance toward gay rights has long divided his family and followers. That debate is poised to go public again because of the upcoming release of two potentially explosive books, one of which examines King's close relationship with an openly gay civil rights leader, Bayard Rustin.
The author of both books says King's stance on gay rights is unclear because the Ebony advice column may be the only public exchange on record where he touches on the morality of homosexuality.
Yet King would have been a champion of gay rights today because of his view of Christianity, says Michael Long, author of, "I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin's Life in Letters," who shared the story of King's Ebony letter.
"Dr. King never publicly welcomed gays at the front gate of his beloved community. But he did leave behind a key for them – his belief that each person is sacred, free and equal to all to others," says Long, also author of the upcoming "Keeping it straight? Martin Luther King, Jr., Homosexuality, and Gay Rights."
Did King's dream include gay people?
One person close to King, though, would disagree.
Rev. Bernice King led a march to her father's graveside in 2005 while calling for a constitutional ban on gay marriage. She was joined by Bishop Eddie Long, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Church in Georgia, where she served as an elder at the time. Long, who recently settled out of court with four young men who filed lawsuits claiming he coerced them into sexual relationships, publicly condemned homosexuality.
King did not answer an interview request, but she has spoken publicly about her views.
During a speech at a church meeting in New Zealand, she said her father "did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage."
Yet her mother, Coretta Scott King, was a vocal supporter of gay rights. One of her closest aides was gay. She also invoked her husband's dream.
Ravi Perry, a political science professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, said King's widow once said in a public speech that everyone who believed in her husband's dream should "make room at the table of brother and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people."
There is no private or public record of King condemning gay people, Perry says. Even the FBI's surveillance of King's private phone conversations didn't turn up any moment where King disparaged gay people, she says.
"If Dr. King were anti-gay, there would likely be a sermon, a speech, a recording of some kind indicating such," she says. "And knowing how closely his phones were tapped; surely there would be a record of such statements."
Those who say King did not condemn gays and would have supported gay rights today point to King's theology.
Though King was a Christian minister, he didn't embrace a literal reading of the Bible that condemns homosexuality, some historians say. King's vision of the Beloved Community – his biblical-rooted vision of humanity transcending its racial and religious differences – expanded people's rights, not restricted them, they say.
Rev. C.T. Vivian, who worked with King at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, says King would have championed gay rights today.
"Martin was a theologian," Vivian says. "Martin starts with the fact that God loves everybody, and all men and all women were created by God. He based his whole philosophy on God's love for all people."
King's relationship with 'Brother Bayard'
Those who say King would have championed gay rights also point to King's treatment of one of the movement's most important leaders, Bayard Rustin.
Rustin was an openly gay civil rights leader who is widely credited with organizing the 1963 March on Washington. He was an organizational genius, the man who insisted that King speak last on the program, giving his "I Have a Dream" speech the resonance it would not have had otherwise, says Jerald Podair, author of "Bayard Rustin: American Dreamer."
"He was the kind of guy who could tell you how many portable toilets you needed for 250,000 people in a demonstration," Podair says. "He was a details guy. King needed him for that march."
But Rustin could do more than arrange a demonstration. He was also a formidable thinker and debater. He was born to a 15-year-old single mother and never graduated from college.
The movement was led by intellectual heavyweights like King, but even among them, Rustin stood out, Podair says. He read everything and was a visionary. One aide to President Lyndon Johnson described him as one of the five smartest men in America, says Podair, a history professor at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.
"People who heard him speak were transfixed," Podair says.
Rustin became one of the movement's most eloquent defenders of its nonviolent philosophy, says Saladin Ambar, a political scientist at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
"He was one of the few individuals not afraid to debate with Malcolm X in public," Ambar says. "Rustin more than held his own and really challenged Malcolm to push his thinking."
Rustin was a special assistant to King and once headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. During the planning of the March on Washington, King resisted calls to jettison Rustin because he was gay, Podair says.
King, though, didn't speak out on behalf of gay rights because he was doing all he could to hold the movement together, historians say.
He had to constantly fend off rumors that the movement was infiltrated by communists. He was also criticized for expanding the movement to take on poverty and oppose the Vietnam War.
"The movement superseded any discussion of gay rights," Ambar says. "King was dedicated to the cause at hand."
With all that was going on, King couldn't afford to wage a public campaign defending Rustin's homosexuality, says Vivian, a SCLC colleague of King's.
"Any employee that would employ a gay person at the time who was outwardly gay would have problems," Vivian says. "I don't care if you were the president of the Untied Sates, you would have trouble doing that."
After the 1963 March on Washington, Rustin remained as King's adviser. The two, however, drifted apart when King became more radical during the last three years of his life, says Adair, Rustin's biographer.
When Rustin died in 1987, he was starting to receive attention from gay and lesbian activists who linked civil rights with gay rights, Podair says.
Rustin was a late convert to their cause.
"He never put it [homosexuality] front and center," Podair says. "He never politicized it until the end of his life. He didn't want to make a big deal out of it."
It's no longer unusual today for gay and lesbian activists to draw parallels between their struggles and King's legacy. Vivian, King's SCLC colleague, says the comparison is apt.
"There was a time when black people were afraid to be themselves among white people," he says. "You had to fit a stereotype in order to be accepted. They're going through the same thing but now they feel better about themselves."
Vivian says the movement shouldn't be limited to race.
"As we were freeing up black people, we're freeing up the whole society."
Long, author of the upcoming books on King and Rustin, says King's vision transcended his personal limitations. Maybe he could have said more to that anonymous boy who wrote him at Ebony. But he did leave him a key to the Beloved Community– even if he didn't realize it at the time, Long says.
Now, Long says, it's up to those who claim King today to use that key.
"A turn of that key and a gentle push on the gate, swinging it wide open so everyone can enter into the Beloved Community," he says. "That's the best way to advance the legacy of Martin Luther King."


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Designed to work with Wet-Dry, Euro or KIS style ''sump'' filter systems THAT HAVE TWO RETURN ASEEMBLIES / INTERNAL OVERFLOWS. Includes dual 36" flexible drain lines, elbows, hose barb fittings and clamps to connect the TWO Internal Overflow to the top of the filter. Additionally, all pump fittings, union ball valves, check valve, 8 foot of flexible tubing and bulkhead hole pre-drilled into the end of the filter.
The Little Giant 4MDQ-SC water pump is specially design for aquarium applications. The motors are thermally protected and the pumps are UL listed and CSA certified. It has 1" female threaded inlet and 1/2" male threaded outlets and moves approximately 590 GPH at 3 foot of head.
Safe for saltwater applications. Pump comes with mounting bracket and and 6' power cord.


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text:
Apr 2, 11:41 AM EDT
Apr 2, 11:41 AM EDT
PARIS (AP) -- Google's new privacy policy is under legal
attack from regulators in its largest European markets, who want the company to
overhaul practices they say let it create a data goldmine at the expense of
unwitting users.
Led by the French, organizations in Britain, the
Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Italy agreed Tuesday on the joint action, with
the ultimate possibility of imposing fines or restrictions on operations across
the entire 27-country European Union.
Last year the company merged 60 separate privacy policies
from around the world into one universal procedure. The European organizations
complain that the new policy doesn't allow users to figure out which
information is kept, how it is combined by Google services, or how long the
company retains it.
The fines' financial impact on Google would be limited -
French privacy watchdog CNIL has the right to fine the company up to 300,000
euros ($385,000), approximately the amount it earns in three minutes, based on
its projected revenue of $61 billion this year. Britain can fine up to 500,000
pounds, but rarely does.
But successful legal action would hurt Google's image and
could block its ability to collect such data until it addresses the regulators'
Google dominates the European market for Internet
searches. According to one survey, as much as 95 percent of searches in Europe
are carried out through Google, compared with about 65 percent in the United
States. European regulators have demanded specifics for anyone using Google on
what's being collected and a simpler presentation.
Tensions between privacy and the swiftly evolving ability
of companies to spin online usage data into vast profits are ramping up,
especially in Europe, where privacy laws tend to be strong and nearly every
country has a regulatory body. But Internet users have consistently shown a
willingness to give up privacy in exchange for convenience and new online
services that Google and other tech companies offer.
Google says it merged its myriad privacy policies in
March 2012 for the sake of simplicity, and that the changes comply with
European laws.
"There is a wider debate going on about personal
data and who owns and controls personal data," said Colin Strong, a
technology analyst with GfK. "The question is the extent to which
consumers understand the value of their personal data and the extent that they
are happy with the trade that they're getting."
Each of the six European states bringing legal action
against Google has to make its own decision on how to handle perceived
"No one is against Google's objective of simplicity.
It's legitimate. But it needs to be accompanied by transparence for consumers
and the ability to say yes or no," Isabelle Falque Pierrotin, head of
French privacy regulator CNIL, said in a recent interview. "Consumers have
the right to know how the information is being used and what's being done with
But regulations tend to lag technology, and the delay is
more pronounced in a digital age when small bits of information can offer
increasingly powerful - and lucrative - insights into the psyches of consumers
or voters.
Proposed Europe-wide data protection legislation will
take until at least 2015 to be fully implemented. In the meantime, said Falque
Pierrotin, the national privacy regulators must ensure that European consumers
are not vulnerable.
Johannes Caspar, a German data protection commissioner,
said the company's policies were vague - it used the word `may' dozens of times
on a single page when describing its rights to data.
"Many users don't even know what is happening with
their data and might worry that their private information is used to produce
personality profiles of them," Caspar said.
Though consumers have been using the Internet despite the
loss of some data privacy, they appear worried about the potential
consequences. The European Commission says 70 percent of EU citizens are
concerned about the misuse of their personal data; in the United States, about
65 percent are worried, according to a January 2011 Gallup poll.
In March, Google agreed to a $7 million fine to settle a
38-state investigation in the U.S. into software that intercepted emails,
passwords and other sensitive information sent over unprotected wireless
networks in neighborhoods worldwide. Google blamed an engineer who rigged a
data-collection program for its online mapping service that then collected
communications on Wi-Fi networks from early 2008 until the spring 0f 2010.
Earlier this year, Microsoft started an ad campaign
linking Google to privacy concerns, hoping to cause defections to its own
Two weeks ago, a European Parliament committee signed off
on continent-wide legislation that would include a "right to be
forgotten," requiring companies that operate online to show Internet users
the personal information collected and, if requested, delete it. It's no simple
request when information is gathered from countless computers and mobile
devices and stored on servers all around the world.
In the meantime, it's unclear how far beyond fines the
regulators are willing to go to impose their will on Google.
"I'm glad that the French are plucky and I'm glad
that the French are pushing this," said Anthony Mullen, an analyst with
Forrester Research who advises companies on emerging technologies. "I'm
not sure that Google thinks that French regulators have teeth."
Associated Press writers Frank Jordans in Berlin and
Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.


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text:
To all the moms that blog, and more
I began blogging almost accidentally. I had never planned to keep an online record of life with WonderBaby; in the early weeks of our life together, I was pretty preoccupied by the incredible challenge of pulling that life together. My psychiatrist had suggested keeping a diary as a way to sort through my thoughts on and experiences of new motherhood, but I had dismissed this as a fantastic suggestion for a brand new mother. All of my literary energies were devoted to reading the same pages of What To Expect The First Year over and over and over again, hoping for some hidden insight to leap off of the page at me and reveal the secret of How to Keep Your New Mother Shit Together, and to recording the details of every last spit, shit and nursing session in a little notebook that was dedicated to these subjects. I did spend a lot of time on-line, but that time was spent clicking back and forth between kellymom.com (why is baby spitting up with the force and volume of Linda Blair? why does breastfeeding hurt so much? is new motherhood going to kill me?) and askdrsears.com (co-sleeping is okay, right? I'm not messing up baby forever, right? immediate crib sleeping isn't necessary to avoiding Electra complexes, right? right?) and googling "nipples falling off breastfeeding ouch."
I had never heard of a mommy blog. I did not know who Dooce was. If you had said to me, 'go read Dooce,' I would have boggled at you and wondered who in their right mind looks for enlightenment on feminine hygeine product packaging.
(Then again, if someone had told me that reading Dooce would reveal the secrets of surviving motherhood, the knowledge of which I craved with the desperation of a dehydrated hippo, I would have been camped out in the feminine products aisle of the local pharmacy scrutinizing every last Summer's Eve box and the Monistat boxes just for good measure.
But I digress.)
One day, during a google search on "extreme baby gas help," I noticed a link to a page that I hadn't seen before. Amidst all of the links to pages advertising Gerber Gas Drops and gripe water, there was a link to something called JezeWhiz, where somebody was saying something about the gas my god the gas what is UP with the baby gas thank god I had the foresight to stock up on gas drops. Intrigued, I followed that link, and in doing so, tumbled down a virtual rabbit hole, and arrived in the mommy blogosphere. And my life changed.
The page that I had arrived at was Jezer's blog. And the first words of hers that I read, referring to the challenge of a new baby, were, "this gig is hard, dudes."
I may have gasped audibly. Somebody else knows. SOMEBODY ELSE KNOWS.
In an instant, I realized that I was not alone. I spent the next hour - hours - reading through her wonderful blog, laughing and wincing and nodding and goggling at the pictures of her adorable baby boy. (Go look! You will hyperventilate from the adorableness!) Then I started following her links. I linked to Amalah, and discovered another new mother who was babbling hysterically, brilliantly, about having a new baby and making with the funny my god the funny. And then I followed another link, and discovered that Dooce was not a feminine hygiene product. And then I linked to another blog, and another, and another.
I was totally sucked in.
Women – and men, and men and women – were writing about having babies. They were writing about how hard and amazing and exhilarating and painful and awe-inspiring and crazy-making and wonderful it is to have babies. (Okay, sorry, I cannot even begin to sort out the potential linkages for the preceding sentence. And? Baby on tit. So here's a game for you: check out my sidebar links, read some relevant posts at those blogs and then take that sentence and play Match The Adjective To The Post. And when you run out of adjectives, make up your own.) And their voices sounded like my own. They sounded like me. Scared like me, amazed like me, bemused like me. Determined to suck every moment – good and bad – out of every day with the new little beings that had changed their lives. Like me.
So I started my own blog. I called it 'the first days of the rest of my life.' It was just going to be an online diary. I hadn't yet discovered comments or inter-blog communication; I was writing just for me and for WonderBaby and for the Husband and for friends and family. But when, during one of my daily visits to Jezer's blog, I realized that I could comment on her posts – on anyone's posts – the rabbit hole opened up even further. And when she came to my site and left a comment on one of my posts, I landed at the bottom of that hole and recognized this whole new world for what it is: a place to not only find joy and solace in one's own words, but to find those things in the words of others.
And although Jezer was the first (thank you, Jezer!), there are so many others that I don't even know where to begin - or end - in singing their - your - praises. So I'm not going to start. I can't. I can't do each of you justice in one short post and I would almost certainly forget somebody and then I would wake up in the middle of the night tonight in a fit of guilt and self-loathing. You know who you are; I visit you whenever I can and when I'm done laughing or crying or gasping or nodding my head so vigorously that my teeth rattle over what you've written, I tell you so. (And if it's not every post, it's not that I'm not reading; sometimes I have to play catch-up.) You all make a huge difference in my life as a new mother. An extraordinary difference.
KoolAid Moms, I salute you.
(And KoolAid Dads and KoolAid Friends, I salute you too. For helping us all to be the super-crazy-hip-awesome moms that we are)
Speaking of which, of whom... I lied when I said above that I can't single anyone out (Carol-Kane-in-Princess-Bride-voice: Liar! LIE-urrrrr!) . I do have to do a teeny bit of singling out. Not because these blogs are any more special than all of the others that I simply do not have the time and space to appropriately fête here, but because I want to single out a particular type of mommy/mom/mama blogger for celebration: the mama-blogger who blogs as part of her parent team, with her husband/partner. The mother who not only puts her life as a mother on the screen, but her life as a wife, friend and lover on that screen as well.
We all, to some extent, share our marriages and partnerships through our blogs. But the shared parent blogs do something really special with what and in what they share: they put the marital and parental partnership right up there on the screen to inspire and reassure. They celebrate, daily, the love and collaboration and struggle and love that define the extraordinary work that is Mom-and-Dad. So, Wood? Thank you for sharing your life as a mother and as a wife/partner/friend with us all, and for doing so so articulately and honestly and with such good humour. For showing us what love really looks like from all sides, so that we can see ourselves in that love, or aspire to that love. And Mo-Wo? Thanks for putting the struggles and triumphs of motherhood and pregnancy and womanhood firmly within the context of shared struggle and triumph, within the context of family.
Thank you both for standing up alongside your husbands and proclaiming loudly that you have your own unique powerful, beautiful voices as mothers, as women and as writers, and for demonstrating that those voices ring all the more powerfully when raised in concert with the voices of your men.
So there you have it. One small contribution to what I hope will be - what is shaping up to be - the Biggest MommyBlogger Group Hug Ever. Keep posting, and sending me your links.
Word to you mothers...


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ISO sensitivity is the ability of a sensor to provide a defined response for a given level of lighting. Photographers use this information to determine the nominal exposure conditions. If the actual ISO sensitivity of a digital camera's sensor is lower than the sensitivity set by the user, the image is underexposed; if the sensitivity is greater, the image is overexposed. To be easily understood by photographers, the ISO sensitivity of digital cameras has been defined such that it is similar to the ISO sensitivity of photographic film cameras, thus lower sensitivities require longer exposure for the same luminance to produce the same result. However, just as very sensitive films are known to be very grainy, parallels can be drawn for digital cameras, since high sensitivities are related to high gain and noise amplification.
The myth of high ISO
While it is a common practice for camera vendors to emphasize high ISO settings on their cameras, it must be said that high ISO does not mean good image quality. Any serious photographer knows that the lowest ISO should be used to shoot a scene with a longer exposure time. Only when conditions do not allow it (as in photojournalism, low-light conditions, or sport photography) should lower exposure time and high ISO be used (typically to limit motion blur).
With film photography, changing the ISO meant having to change the film (which was very annoying). The intrinsic sensitivity of a digital camera is determined by the silicon structure of the sensor itself and cannot be changed, but the ISO of the camera can be artificially increased to arbitrary values by applying a gain to the signal. The price to pay is a proportionate increase of noise and eventually, a decrease of SNR for a given output value (see Essential characteristics of noise). The only trick is that the gain is applied before analog/digital conversion so as to avoid quantization effects. So the fact that a camera attains ISO 10000 is no guarantee of image quality; the noise level at this ISO has to be reported as well.
ISO sensitivity (also known as ISO speed) is a numerical value calculated from the exposure provided at the focal plane of a digital camera to produce specific camera output signal characteristics. ISO Standard 12232 defines two ways to measure ISO sensitivity. The first relates sensitivity to the exposure necessary to saturate the camera. The second, seldom used, compares the relative exposures to obtain different signal-to-noise ratios. The more common saturation-based method is described below.
The saturation focal plane exposure is defined as the exposure (illumination multiplied by exposure time in lux.s) necessary to reach sensor saturation. ISO sensitivity is then defined by
When a focal plane exposure measurement is not possible, as for a camera with non-removable optics, it is possible to compute the focal plane exposure as
L is the scene luminance (cd/m²),
t is the exposure time (s),
A is the lens aperture (f-Number),
with T as the transmission factor of the lens,
v as the vignetting factor,
and θ as the angle of the image point from the optical axis.
ISO 12232 considers a transmission factor T = 9/10, an angle θ = 10°, and a vignetting factor v = 98/100, which leads to q = 65/100.
DxOMark measures ISO sensitivity at the image center; thus θ = 0° and v = 1, considering the same transmission factor T = 9/10, which leads to q = 71/100.
ISO sensitivity is then defined by
with Lsat being the minimum luminance necessary to reach sensor saturation.
As tests show, the ISO settings reported by camera manufacturers can differ significantly from measured ISO in RAW. This difference stems from design choices, in particular the choice to keep some "headroom" to avoid saturation in the higher exposures to make it possible to recover from blown highlights.
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