text:
A rather interesting article went up on Konami's official strategy site yesterday evening, detailing what new products we can expect to see over the coming months. In addition to those some of you would already know, Konami's Kevin Tewart revealed some rather surprising additions to the Summer schedule, take a look.
Source: Konami
First off, this month we just released Order of Chaos Special Edition, which comes with 3 packs of ORCS plus either The Winged Dragon of Ra or Effect Veiler. And next week, on March 20, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Premium Collection hits shelves. This mini-tin featuring Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma comes with Elemental HERO The Shining and Number 34: Terror-Byte, plus 4 more Secret Rares and 8 Super Rares from a new 23-card set that includes monsters from all 4 Yu-Gi-Oh! TV series.
On April 17, you can pick up Starter Deck: Xyz Symphony. Starter Decks are designed to help new players to get in the game. This 45-card Deck is the second to feature the black-framed Xyz Monsters, and comes with 4 new Xyz Monsters you haven't seen before!
The next booster set is Galactic Overlord, releasing on May 8. This new set introduces the Hieratic Sun Dragons of Heliopolis, a brand new deck archetype! Plus tons of new cards that can go in any deck.
Then on May 29, Battle Pack: Epic Dawn launches. We've talked a lot about the Battle Pack, and will keep talking about it, because it's a brand new concept for most Duelists. In a few days I'll be talking more about the new Starfoil Cards in the Battle Pack, plus news about how you can get special Starfoil versions of other popular cards by playing in Sealed Pack tournaments at your local store.
On the same day, you can also pick up the new Kaiba & Obelisk the Tormentor Card Sleeves. These are the next in a series that began with the Yugi & Slifer Card Sleeves we came out with last year. If you have multiple decks, putting one deck in Yugi sleeves and another in Kaiba sleeves is a sure way to make sure they never get mixed up!
Now for the new stuff:
NEW: Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Gold Series: Haunted Mine
Summer is the best time to soak up some golden sunshine, so that's when we always release our annual Gold Series boxes. And this year, we're adding another twist!
Both ghosts and gold await you in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Gold Series: Haunted Mine, the first time ever to see the new Ghost/Gold Rare hybrid cards – with the luster of a gold rare and the 3D holographic illustration of a Ghost Rare!
There will be 6 Ghost/Gold Rares to collect. And since these are so cool, we selected 6 different kinds of cards, so we could print on as many card frame colors as possible, to see how they looked. You can get Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, Herald of Perfection, Naturia Barkion, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Solemn Judgment. (Yes, this will be the first time ever that we've released Spell and Trap Cards with 3D holographic Ghost Rare artwork!)
You can also get new 'standard' (if there is such a thing) Gold Rare versions of cards like Fabled Grimro, Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, Starlight Road, Formula Synchron, and Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X "Bureido".
All this treasure comes with a catch, though – this particular gold mine is haunted! When gold and ghosts come together, mayhem is sure to follow. A horde of Zombies, and some of the deadliest Trap Monsters ever created, are protecting the fantastic treasure hidden in the mine! So we've enlisted the best thieves in the business to help crack it open: Don Zaloog and his Dark Scorpions!
Each box comes with 1 Ghost/Gold Rare, plus 2 'standard' Gold Rares and 22 Common Cards. Total set size: 55 cards. (Normally, Gold Series sets are 50 cards, but Don Zaloog insisted on bringing his entire team.…)
Available on June 12!
NEW: Tournament-Themed Structure Deck
And finally, on June 26 we're coming out with another new idea – a whole new take on Structure Decks!
Most of our Structure Decks introduce a new theme, or put a twist on an old theme, but this Structure Deck is designed to give you a jumping off point to play one of the most popular tournament Decks of the past year: The Six Samurai!
The Samurai Warlords Structure Deck comes with 41 cards, including a brand new Six Samurai Xyz Monster! And it's packed with some of the hottest Six Samurai cards ever released, from Great Shogun Shien and Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan to Six Samurai United and Musakani Magatama.
And of course it comes with great cards that work in ANY deck, like Dark Hole and Fiendish Chain.
If you're a casual player who hasn't jumped on the tournament wagon yet, Samurai Warlords will give you a great place to start.
I don't know about you, but I'm dying to get me some Golden Ghost Rare Solemn Judgments after reading this, and that Structure Deck will be handy for people building on a budget.


text:
Tear® Plus-Soft 1.8 oz.
E-Zee Tear® Plus-Soft 1.8 ounce is a heavy weight,Tear Away stabilizer. Residual
excess backing left after tearing it away has a softer feel against the skin. Use
for medium to high stitch count designs with medium to heavy weight woven
fabrics. Tear Away backings should be used with stable, non-stretchy fabrics.
Available in white.
Click Here to view a product information and instruction sheet.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Below are links to various research papers I've come across over the last couple of years. I've cited most of them, but that's not a criterion for getting on the list. The only criterion, really, is that the paper relate to urban issues and that it appear to be sound research.
Some day I'll do something useful like write a summary for each.
Land use regulations in general
- Pendall, Puentes & Martin, From Traditional to Reformed: A Review of the Land Use Regulations in the Nation's 50 Largest Metropolitan Areas (Aug. 2006)
- Gyourko, Saiz & Summers, A New Measure of the Local Regulatory Environment for Housing Markets: The Wharton Residential Land Use Regulatory Index (March 2007)
The impact of land-use controls on home prices
- Davis & Palumbo, The Price of Residential Land in Large U.S. Cities (May 2006)
- Eischer, Municipal and Statewide Land Use Regulations and Housing Prices Across 250 Major US Cites (Jan. 2008)
- Glaeser & Gyourki, Zoning's Steep Price (2002)
- Glaeser, Gyourko & Saks, Why Is Manhattan So Expensive? Regulation and the Rise in House Prices (Aug. 2004)
- Glaeser, Gyourko & Saks, Why have housing prices gone up? (Dec. 2004)
- Glaeser & Ward, The Causes and Consequences of Land Use Regulation: Evidence from Greater Boston (Oct. 2006)
- Isakson, Analysis of the Effects of Large Lot Zoning (2004)
- Malpezzi, Housing Prices, Externalities, and Regulation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas (1996)
- Nelson, et al., The Link Between Growth Management and Housing Affordability: The Academic Evidence (Feb. 2002)
- Quigley & Raphael, Regulation and the High Cost of Housing in California (Nov. 2004)
- Quigley & Raphael, The Effects of Land Use Regulation on the Price of Housing: What Do We Know? What Can We Learn? (2005)
- Somerville & Mayer, Government Regulation and Change in the Affordable Housing Stock (June 2003)
- U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Dev., "Why Not In Our Community?" Removing Barriers to Affordable Housing (Feb. 2005)
- Vatter, The Cause and Effect of Exclusionary Zoning Within a Jurisdiction (July 2006)
Affordable housing
- Feldman, The Affordable Housing Shortage: Considering the Problem, Causes and Solutions (Aug. 2002)
- Katz, et al., Rethinking Local Affordable Housing Strategies: Lessons from 70 Years of Policy and Practice (Dec. 2003)
- Susin, Rent Vouchers and the Price of Low-Income Housing (1999)
Housing market dynamics
- Dye & McMillen, Teardowns and land values in the Chicago metropolitan area (July 2006)
- Glaeser & Gyourko, Urban Decline and Durable Housing (Aug. 2004)
- Glaeser, Gyourko & Saks, Urban Growth and Housing Supply (Feb. 2005)
- Somerville & Holmes, Dynamics of the Affordable Housing Stock: Microdata Analysis of Filtering (2001)
Urban economics
- Glaeser, The Economic Approach to Cities (Feb. 2007)
- Glaeser & Gottlieb, Urban Resurgence and the Consumer City (Feb. 2006)
- Glaeser, Kahn & Rappaport, Why Do the Poor Live in Cities? (April 2000)
The spatial structure of cities
- Bertaud & Malpezzi, The Spatial Distribution of Population in 48 World Cities: Implications for Economies in Transition (Dec. 2003)
- Bertaud, The Spatial Organization of Cities: Deliberate Outcome or Unforeseen Consequence? (2004)
- Bettencourt, et al., Growth, innovation, scaling and the pace of life in cities (April 2007)
Sprawl and its causes
- Lewyn, Suburban Sprawl: Not Just an Environmental Issue (2000)
- Lewyn, How Overregulation Creates Sprawl (Even in a City without Zoning) (2005)
The costs of sprawl
- Congressional Budget Office, Effects of Gasoline Prices on Driving Behavior and Vehicle Markets (Jan. 2008)


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Thursday, September 30, 2010
Random ramble.
Helloo my dear bloggers : )
I found this picture before and found it so darn cute i just had to post it :)
Iv noticed the beauty of spring is starting to come, going for drives seeing baby calves lambs and horses.. it just makes me smile no matter what:)
same with notcing flowers in bloom and the grape vines sprouting
slowely the weather is getting warmer to :)
even though the years not over yet its gone soooo fast
before we know it will be christmas!!!
all day iv been watching ABC kids with imy
its soo fun :)
Anyway i dont have much more to say
love you all
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Jeffrey PowersProfessor of Horn
School of Music
One Bear Place #97408
Baylor University
Waco TX 76798
E-Mail: email@example.com
Phone: (254) 710-6527
Fax: (254) 710-3574
Listen to Mr. Powers and members of the Baylor Horn Studio
JEFFREY POWERS, Professor of Horn, Baylor University School of Music, is a native of San Antonio, Texas, where he attended John Marshall High School. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with "Honors in Music" from Austin College in Sherman, Texas (where he was elected to Alpha Chi National Honor Scholarship Society), and a Master of Music in Horn from the Cleveland Institute of Music. His major instructors were James London of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Albert Schmitter and Myron Bloom of the Cleveland Orchestra, and Roy Waas of the Buffalo Philharmonic. Mr. Powers was elected to Pi Kappa Lambda-the national music honor society-by his fellow faculty in 2003.
Mr. Powers brings extensive experience in performing and teaching to his duties at Baylor University. He played fulltime professionally and internationally in symphony orchestras for twenty-three years. Having begun his career as second horn in the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Mr. Powers then served as second horn in the New Jersey Symphony, fourth horn in the Philharmonic of Caracas, Venezuela, and fourth horn and Wagner tuba in the Cleveland Orchestra under Lorin Maazel and Christoph von Dohnanyi. Then followed sixteen years as principal horn with the Royal Philharmonic of Flanders, Antwerp, Belgium (a fulltime 96 member symphony orchestra serving the Flemish community). During his tenure in Belgium, he also performed as guest principal horn with most of the major orchestras of the Benelux (Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg) region, including the Philharmonic Orchestra of Luxembourg, the Flemish Radio Orchestra, the Brabants Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia.
Presently Mr. Powers is principal horn with the Waco Symphony Orchestra and The Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra, and a member of the Baylor Brass and the Baylor Woodwind Quintet. Mr. Powers also performs regularly with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and the East Texas Symphony Orchestra.
Before coming to Baylor, Mr. Powers taught students of all ages, from beginners to professionals, and served on the faculties of the Lemmens Institute in Leuven, Belgium, the Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory Department, the Summer Music Experience in Hudson, Ohio, and the Hong Kong Government Music Administrators Office.
Recently graduated horn majors from the Baylor University School of Music Horn Studio have been accepted to and received scholarships and/or assistantships for graduate study to The Juilliard School, The Cleveland Institute of Music, The Eastman School of Music, Indiana University - Jacobs School of Music, The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Southern Methodist University - Meadows School of the Arts, University of North Texas - College of Music, Temple University - Boyer College of Music and Dance, The University of Maryland – School of Music, Duquesne University - Mary Pappert School of Music, The University of California at Santa Barbara, Ohio State University, The University of Massachusetts - Amherst, The University of Houston - Moores School of Music, Texas Christian University - School of Music, The Conservatory of The University of Tasmania, Australia, and Wichita State University School of Music; and have won positions with and are performing with or have performed with The Phoenix Symphony, The Army Field Band - Washington, D.C., and numerous regional orchestras including the Canton Symphony (OH), The Wichita Symphony Orchestra (KS), the Waco Symphony (TX), the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra (TX), and The Valley Symphony Orchestra (TX).; and are working as public school educators (elementary, junior high, and high school) throughout the state of Texas in renowned music programs. Students from the Baylor Horn Studio have been accepted to and awarded scholarships to various summer music festivals including The Round Top Festival, Round Top, TX, The National Orchestra Institute - University of Maryland, The Texas Music Festival – University of Houston, The Barry Tuckwell Institute, The Brevard Music Center Festival, The Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific, The MasterWorks Festival, and The Hot Springs Music Festival.
Well known for his clinics and master classes, Mr. Powers has given clinics on topics such as the low register of the horn, the essentials of training young horn players, the All State experience, and playing and using the assistant horn, and he has taught master classes to students of all levels (see "Jeffrey Powers - Clinics" below). Mr. Powers has toured with Dr. Vincent de Vries to China where they played in recital and taught the students at Hong Kong Baptist University, Taipei National University of the Arts and the Shanghai Conservatory. Mr. Powers is also in demand as an adjudicator being asked to regularly judge the Texas State Music Educators (TMEA) All State 5A Horn Placement auditions and the University Interscholastic League (UIL) Texas State Solo and Ensemble Competition (TSSEC).
Mr. Powers has recorded extensively in ensemble and has 5 solo CD's released to date (see "Jeffrey Powers - Recordings" below). Let All That Hath Breath Praise the Lord: Music of Praise for Horn is the title of Mr. Power's first solo CD. This recording includes works by Basler, Gryc, Hindemith, Krol, Marc, and the Sonata in One Movement by Hugh Chandler written for Mr. Powers. Together with Dr. de Vries, Mr. Powers has released 2 CD's on the MSR Classics label. His second solo CD: Into the 21st Century: Music for Horn and Piano by Baldwin, Bentzon, Pilss and Vignery includes the Appalachian Suite written for Mr. Powers by Daniel Baldwin. In a Lyrical Way: Music for Horn and Piano by Flemish Masters was released in the Fall of 2008. In addition, Mr. Powers and Dr. de Vries have recorded 2 volumes of Steppingstones for Horn on the Potenza label comprised of performances for both students and teachers to use as reference in preparation of works from the solo repertoire.
In addition to Mr. Baldwin's and Mr. Chandler's pieces, Mr. Powers has premiered numerous other works including Thou Holiest of Rivers written specifically for him by David Uber (see "Jeffrey Powers - Premieres and Commissions" below). His own transcription of 5 Psalms by Dvorak for horn and piano has been published by Imagine Music Publishers.
Mr. Powers is married to Julie, a native of Northern Ireland, and they have four children - Aaron, Hannah, Joshua, and Liesbeth.
Jeffrey Powers - Clinics
In addition to standard masterclasses, Mr. Powers has prepared, presented and is available to give clinics on the following subjects with these titles:
- Daily Warm-up and Workout for Horn
- The Essentials of Tone Production
- Guidelines for Preparing an Excerpt
- The Essential Horn Quartet" - the elements necessary to training a quality horn section.
- Focus and Concentration in Performance
- The All State Experience - Perspective and Preparation
- Preparing the All State Etudes
- Application of Biblical Principles to Life in the Workplace
- On Practice
- Bringing Up 'Johnny Corno' - Avoiding the Pitfalls When Training Up Your Horn Section
- Lest We Forget: The Low Range of the Horn
- The Horn, Sacred Music and Ministry
Jeffrey Powers - Recordings
Let All That Hath Breath Praise the Lord - Music of Praise for Horn. The CD includes the first recordings of the "Sonata in One Movement for Horn and Piano" written for Jeffrey Powers by Hugh Chandler, "Reflections on a Southern Hymn for Horn Alone" by Stephen Gryc, and of the complete set of Paul Basler's "Songs of Faith for Choir, Horn and Piano," as well as pieces by: Edmond Marc, Bernhard Krol and Paul Hindemith. Available from MSR Classics. Released 2002.
Into the 21st Century: Music for Horn and Piano by Baldwin, Bentzon, Pilss and Vignery. Jeffrey Powers, Horn and Vincent de Vries, Piano. The CD includes the first recording of the "Appalachian Suite" by Daniel Baldwin written for Jeffrey Powers, and sonatas by Niels Viggo Bentzon, Karl Pilss and Jane Vignery. Available from MSR Classics. Released 2007.
In a Lyrical Way: Music for Horn by Flemish Masters. Jeffrey Powers, Horn and Vincent de Vries, Piano. Works by Meulemans, Mortelmans, Ryelandt, Poot, Westerlinck, and Van Eechaute with the first recording of the "5 Preludes" by Paul Gilson. Available from MSR Classics. Released November 2008.
Steppingstones for Horn - Volume 1. Jeffrey Powers, Horn and Vincent de Vries, Piano. This first of 2 volumes of "Steppingstones for Horn" is comprised of performances for both students and teachers to use as reference in preparation of works from the solo repertoire selected from the Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) Prescribed Music List (PML), and a number of additional works chosen for both their pedagogical and musical value. Available from Potenza Music. Released Feb. 2012.
Steppingstones for Horn - Volume 2. Jeffrey Powers, Horn and Vincent de Vries, Piano. This second of 2 volumes of "Steppingstones for Horn" is comprised of performances for both students and teachers to use as reference in preparation of works from the solo repertoire selected from the Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) Prescribed Music List (PML), and a number of additional works chosen for both their pedagogical and musical value. Available from Potenza Music. Released Feb. 2013.
Chamber Music
In preparation by The Baylor Brass - Original Works for Brass Quintet by American Composers. Works by Richard Willis, Anthony Plog, John Cheetham and Herbert Haufrecht.
The Baylor Woodwind Connection: Contemporary Quintets by American Composers with the Baylor Faculty Woodwind Quintet. Works by Richard Willis - "Colloquy" and "Six Miniatures"; Scott McAllister - "Of Growing Wind and Tide"; Charles Rochester Young - "Three Summer Evenings" and Paul Richards - "Ars antiqua". Available from Centaur Records. Released Nov. 2008.
Principal Horn with the Royal Philharmonic of Flanders:
Music of Peter Benoit - Frederic Devreese, cond., Naxos
Complete Symphonic Works of Luc Brewaeys - Arturo Tomayo, cond., Cypress, Snepvangers en Cecilia Prize 1996
Berlioz - La Damnation De Faust (complete) - Gunther Neuhold, cond., Bayer Records
Music of August De Boeck - Frederic Devreese, cond., Naxos
Franck - Symphony in d minor and Prelude, Choral et Fugue - Gunther Neuhold, cond., Naxos
Wim Henderickx - Raga I, II, III - Grant Llewwllyn, cond., Megadisc Classics
Music of Jef Maes - Gerard Oskamp, cond., Naxos
Joseph Ryelandt - Agnus Dei - Grant Llewellyn, cond., Marco Polo
Sibelius - Symphony No. 2 and Pelleas et Melisande - Gerard Oskamp, cond., Verdi Records
Night of the Proms - Gunther Neuhold, cond., Tauro Records
Principal Horn with the Chamber Orchestra Walter Proost:
Mozart - Symphonies No.1, 4, 10 and Odense - Walter proost, cond., Trepsichore
Mozart - Arias, Louis Hagen-William, Bass-Baritone, Walter Proost, cond., Quantum
Barber - Violin Concerto and Bernstein - Serenade, Jaap van Sweeden, Violin - Walter Proost, cond., Sony Classical
Fourth Horn with The Cleveland Orchestra:
Beethoven - Symphony No. 3 - Christoph von Dohnanyi, cond., Telarc
Beethoven - Symphony No. 8 and Schubert Symphony No. 8 - Christoph von Dohnanyi, cond., Telarc
Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique - Lorin Maazel, cond., Telarc
Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique - Lorin Maazel, cond., CBS
Dvorak - Symphony No. 8 and Scherzo capriccioso - Christoph von Dohnanyi, cond., London
Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 - Christoph von Dohnanyi, cond., Decca
Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky - Riccaedo Chailly, cond., London
Prokofiev - Romeo & Juliet - Suites 1 & 2 - Yoel Levi, cond., Telarc
Prokofiev - Cinderella (complete) - Vladimir Ashkenazy, cond., London
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5 - Lorin Maazel, cond., Telarc
Sibelius - Symphony No. 2 and Finlandia - Yoel Levi, cond., Telarc
Strauss - Ein Heldenleben - Vladimir Ashkenazy, cond., Decca
Tchaikovsky - Francesca da Rimini, and Romeo and Juliet - Riccardo Chailly, cond. Decca
Tchaikovsky - Romeo and Juliet, and Nutcracker Suite - Lorin Maazel, cond., Telarc
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 4 - Lorin Maazel, cond., CBS
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5 - Lorin Maazel, cond. CBS
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 - Lorin Maazel, cond., CBS
Second Horn with The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra:
Chinese Encores for Orchestra - Hans Gunther-Mommer, cond.
Jeffrey Powers - Premieres and Commissions
Daniel Baldwin - Lone Star Trilogy for Contrabassoon, Horn Violin and Marimba
Daniel Baldwin - Appalachian Suite for Horn and Piano - commissioned by Mr. Powers
Hugh Chandler - Sonata in One Movement for Horn and Piano - written for Mr. Powers
Hugh Chandler - Suite for Four Horns
Jeffrey Collazo - Sonido for Horn and Piano
Dvorak/ transcribed by Jeffrey Powers - Five Psalms for Horn and Piano
Joanna Murphy - Sonata for Horn and Piano - commissioned by Mr. Powers.
Andy Rivera - Sonata for Horn and Piano
David Uber - Thou Holiest of Rivers for Horn and Piano - written for Mr. Powers


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Synesthesia is a fascinating phenomenon: It almost seems impossible that some people can see colors associated with sounds, emotions, or letters and numbers. Yet many do — as many as one percent of people experience some synesthesia.
V.S. Ramachandran and others have suggested that synesthesia is less of a disorder than an exaggeration of some aspects of the perceptual system. At CogDaily, we've even informally found that some colors are more frequently associated with particular emotions among our readers.
Now a new study has found some patterns in the perceptions of synesthetes:
Psychologist Daniel Smilek and his colleagues at the University of Waterloo have found that a relationship exists between how frequently a synesthete uses a given digit and the brightness of synesthetic color experiences. That is, the more often letters or digits are used in everyday life, the more luminous the synesthetic colors.
But this phenomenon extended beyond synesthetes:
The researchers also found that this relationship is not limited to synesthetic color experiences. When non-synesthetes were asked to select a colors to associate with each letter of the alphabet and the digits 0-9, the non-synesthetes also selected more luminous colors for digits and letters used more frequently.
The relationship between luminosity and frequency of use wasn't as strong in non-synesthetes, but it was measurable. This certainly seems to support the notion that we all have a little synesthesia.


text:
Related Studies
- Related by Investigator
Related Links
Cleveland Intermarriage Study 2007
Sponsor(s): Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland
Principal Investigator(s): Pearl Beck
Study Dates: 2007
Report is NOT a population study, but a non-random survey of 51 intermarried couples in Cleveland, OH - with both the Jewish and the non-Jewish partner interviewed separately.
Intermarried couples in Cleveland, OH, recruited by the principal investigator.
59% of the mothers and 41% of the fathers interviewed were Jewish.
Sample Size: 102 telephone interviews of 51 intermarried couples were completed by trained interviewers.
DownloadsSurvey Reports
» Main Report


text:
- Product Description
- Specification
- Shipping Options
- Reviews
Piza Mother & Child Floor Lamp Black Chrome.
The Piza Mother Child Floor Lamp is a free standing light fitting with a glossy black chrome finish featuring a bowl uplighter with frosted diffuser panel. A flexible mid placed reading light completes the look. The contemporary design features a double rod stand which is supported by a circular bottom plate.
The lights are both controlled by a double rotary dimmer switch, which is located in the middle of the floor lamp. This means the lighting can be changed to suit different tastes or requirements.
- PAGAZZI Exclusive.
- Black Chrome Finish.
- Adjustable Reading Light.
- Rotary Switch.
The Piza Mother and Child Floor Lamp stands at a height of 1810mm and measures 254mm in diameter. The uplighter requires a 300w (117mm) Tungsten linear halogen bulb while the reading light requires a 33w G9 Capsule bulb.
Additional Information
|Weight (kg)
|Height (mm)
|Diameter (mm)
|Number of Bulbs
Orders of £50 and over qualify for free next day UK Mainland delivery* with DPD.
We also offer free delivery to BT postcodes and Highlands and Islands addresses on orders of £100 and over.
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See our full delivery details page for detailed information.
For further details please contact us


text:
ERIC Number: ED386297
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1995-Jun
Pages: 575
Abstractor: N/A
Reference Count: N/A
Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers. Technical Report, Public Report, and Executive Summary.
Helburn, Suzanne W., Ed.
Conducted at a time when increasing numbers of the nation's young children are in child care and when the American public is concerned about children's readiness for school, the Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes Study provides the first comprehensive econometric and psychometric analysis of child care and children's outcomes. The study was designed to examine the relationships among the costs of child care and the nature and effects of children's child care experiences. Cost and quality data were collected through visits to 50 non-profit and 50 for-profit centers in each of four states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, and North Carolina. Trained data collectors conducted interviews with and distributed questionnaires to center directors, teachers, and parents; they also observed two randomly chosen classrooms in each center. Data were then collected on 826 children from preschool classrooms visited earlier. The study found that while child care varies widely within and between states and sectors of this industry, most child care is mediocre in quality, sufficiently poor to interfere with children's emotional and intellectual development. Market forces constrain the cost of child care and at the same time depress the quality of care provided to children. It costs somewhat more to provide good quality care than to produce poor quality care; however, higher costs are not obviously reflected in parent fees, which are relatively similar in centers of different quality. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made: (1) launch efforts to educate parents on identifying high quality programs; (2) implement higher state standards; (3) increase investments in child care staff; and (4) assure adequate financing and support of child care. (BGC)
Descriptors: Child Rearing, Costs, Day Care Centers, Day Care Effects, Early Childhood Education, Econometrics, Educational Economics, Educational Quality, Emotional Development, Intellectual Development, Organizational Effectiveness, Outcomes of Education, Program Effectiveness, School Readiness
Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes Study, Economics Department, Campus Box 159, P.O. Box 173364, University of Colorado at Denver, Denver, CO 80217-3364 (Technical Report, $40; Executive Summary, $8; Public Report, $15. Make check payable to "Cost & Quality Study").
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Practitioners; Parents
Language: English
Sponsor: Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia, PA.; U.S. West Foundation.; David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Los Altos, CA.; Carnegie Corp. of New York, NY.
Authoring Institution: Colorado Univ., Denver. Dept. of Economics.
IES Cited: ED555737


text:
I went through my pantry and picked out a few ingredients which I hoped would make for something...
Yummy and delicious in less than 30 minutes! (Often the meals I prepare don't take much time...so I knew it wouldn't take me long anyway..it just happened to be under 30 lol)
Having said that...
It's really quite amazing what you can prepare in no time with just a few key things you have laying around for the using.
After my workout one day...
I turned on my element and got to cooking.
I swear...
It can be a lot of FUn to just throw things together and it turn out to be something flavourful! (And even if it's not, at least you know you attempted something new, which brought out the creativity in you. I mean, you don't know until you try right?!)
No doubt...
I was happy when SuperFit said his pasta was mighty good! (Okay, he didn't use the word mighty but he did say something along the lines of "well, that was really good!")
Here's the recipe if you're wanting to try something new for dinner!
Savoury Tomato Sauce in 30 minutes...
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
- 3/4 of a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 (10 ounce) can Tomato Soup, reduced sodium
- 1 (6 ounce) Can of Tomato Paste
- 1/2 cup chicken stock (or vegetable)
- 1/2 large onion, diced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 to 3 tbsp cumin powder (to taste)
- 1 1/2 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 2 bay leaves
- Salt and pepper to taste
- In a medium sized sauce pan, add in your olive oil over medium heat
- Once the oil is hot, add in your onions until slightly browned
- Add in your dried dried spices and stir
- Add in your crushed tomatoes, chicken stock, tomato soup and paste
- Stir
- Add in your bay leaves
- Turn down your element to low and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally
- Season as you go ... based on your own liking!
- If you like it hot, add in some chili flakes :)
- Feel free to freeze the leftover sauce in a freezer safe container. Dethaw and reheat before next use :)
Ways to use the tomato sauce
- In your spaghetti and feel free to add chicken to it to.
- A top your white fish, meatballs or a spoonful on your eggs.
Powered by Recipage
Okay so now it's your turn...
If you have a recipe to share for this edition of #RECIPEFRIDAY...
Link up!
I can't wait to see what you've been making and loving as of late ;)
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The ubiquity of top-down causal explanations within and across the sciences is prima facie evidence for the existence of top-down causation. Much debate has been focused on whether top-down causation is coherent or in conflict with reductionism. Less attention has been given to the question of whether these representations of hierarchical relations pick out a single, common hierarchy. A negative answer to this question undermines a commonplace view that the world is divided into stratified 'levels' of organization and suggests that attributions of causal responsibility in different hierarchical representations may not have a meaningful basis for comparison. Representations used in top-down and bottom-up explanations are primarily 'local' and tied to distinct domains of science, illustrated here by protein structure and folding. This locality suggests that no single metaphysical account of hierarchy for causal relations to obtain within emerges from the epistemology of scientific explanation. Instead, a pluralist perspective is recommended—many different kinds of top-down causation (explanation) can exist alongside many different kinds of bottom-up causation (explanation). Pluralism makes plausible why different senses of top-down causation can be coherent and not in conflict with reductionism, thereby illustrating a productive interface between philosophical analysis and scientific inquiry.
1. Top-down explanation (and causation): ubiquitous (and controversial)
One does not have to look very hard to find examples of scientists making appeals to top-down causation or emergent properties at higher 'levels' having causal effects at lower 'levels'. They are ubiquitous.
The question of 'Why is the world green?' … has encouraged many ecologists to investigate whether herbivore population dynamics are limited by the availability of food plants and plant defence mechanisms or rather by top-down control through predators. In each case, herbivorous arthropods play a decisive role in ecosystem functioning because, as midtrophic level species, they are influenced by bottom-up and top-down forces [1, p. 1].
Molecular chaperones … have a number of functions [that] can be understood only by considering the emergent properties of cellular networks [such as] … genetic buffers stabilizing the phenotype of various cells and organisms [2, p. 45].
The terminology of 'top-down control', 'top-down forces' and 'network functions' is drawn from a causal vocabulary—predators exercise top-down control by eating prey and molecular chaperones biochemically interact with other proteins in a network to stabilize cellular phenotypes.
This causal vocabulary is used in the context of explaining biological phenomena, which requires that these phenomena be represented—symbolized, embodied, pictured, or designated in equations, scale miniatures or abstract diagrams. In cases where the representations are hierarchical, and properties of higher 'levels' influence or make a difference on lower 'levels', we have a top-down causal explanation. Top-down causal explanation is an epistemological concept because it refers to how research communities in the sciences try to comprehend the world by: (i) representing natural phenomena with hierarchical relations (i.e. with tops and bottoms) and (ii) taking temporal dependency relations (i.e. causation) between features of these representations to be explanatory. For example, an explanation of herbivore population dynamics will involve a hierarchical representation of trophic levels where the predators (birds, bats, etc.) are at a higher 'level' in the food web than the relevant herbivores (arboreal arthropods). The relation of dependency can be construed in terms of changes in the value of a variable for the population at the lower 'level' (e.g. prey abundance) at a later time owing to changes in the value of a variable for the population at the higher 'level' (e.g. predator foraging success) at an earlier time [3]. It is often assumed that causal explanations can be from the bottom-up if not also from the top-down ('influenced by bottom-up and top-down forces'). To keep this in view, we can refer to these types of explanation more generally as hierarchical causal explanations.
Top-down versions of hierarchical causal explanation in the sciences exist alongside bottom-up (reductive) versions as a matter of fact. How to interpret them metaphysically is another question [4]. Top-down causation, or hierarchical causation more generally, is a metaphysical concept because it refers to the way our ontology might include causes that operate at higher 'levels of organization' and bring about effects on lower 'levels of organization' (or vice versa), quite apart from our inquiry into them [5,6]. 'Downward causation … means that higher-level entities, by virtue of the emergent characteristics and capacities proper to their level and nature, sometimes possess the ability to act causally back down upon entities operating at lower levels of reality' [7, p. 40]. This appeal to 'levels' is common and usually described as a discovery of the sciences: 'I find the hierarchical picture of nature ['as stratified into levels'] plausible as reflected in the structure and discoveries of the sciences' [8, p. 498]. It is a persistent feature of discussions about emergent properties: 'there are layered strata, or levels, of objects, based on increasing complexity' [9, §3.1].
Although it is natural to take the ubiquity of top-down causal explanations as prima facie evidence for the existence of top-down causation, there is good reason to hesitate. Much of the philosophical debate surrounding top-down causation has focused on whether it is even possible or if it involves problematic assumptions [9–12]. These debates involve substantive disagreements about the nature of causation, such as whether causes necessitate their effects or whether causes can be understood sufficiently as difference makers. Although the possibility of pluralism about the nature of causation is an important question [13], it is not the focus herein. Another point of debate is the (seeming) incongruence of top-down causation with reductionism in the sciences. In one sense this is incorrect; sciences can use reductionist methods to investigate natural phenomena regardless of whether particular reductive explanations of those phenomena succeed or fail [14]. In another sense, the degree to which this incongruence is genuine turns on how top-down causation is interpreted metaphysically. If reductionism is understood as a claim about the asymmetry of hierarchical causation (i.e. causes always operate from the bottom up), then appeals to top-down causation will be in conflict because they invoke a contradictory asymmetry (i.e. causes sometimes operate from the top down).
These interpretations are conditional on a key question involved in deriving an account of top-down (hierarchical) causation from top-down (hierarchical) causal explanations: do these representations of hierarchical relations (i.e. tops and bottoms, and their temporal orderings) pick out a single, common hierarchy? If not, then it is possible that a top-down causal explanation that uses a particular hierarchical representation cannot be directly linked to another using a different representation of hierarchical relations; attributions of causal responsibility in different hierarchical representations may not have a meaningful basis for comparison. A top-down causal explanation of a natural phenomenon does not foreclose the possibility of a bottom-up causal explanation of the same phenomenon represented differently. This situation complicates the move from the ubiquity of top-down causal explanation to the existence of top-down causation, long before we invoke philosophical worries about the coherence of hierarchical causation or the possibility of pluralism about the nature of causation.
Whether the different representations of hierarchical relations in causal explanations found in diverse sciences can be combined or integrated is a question of hierarchical representation commensurability: is there a common standard or hierarchy to which heterogeneous hierarchical representations can be reduced or unified? (This differs from the Kuhnian sense of lacking a common standard to judge between two paradigms but retains the semantic import of incommensurability: 'not able to be judged by the same standard or lacking a common standard of measurement'.) Actual scientific representations of hierarchical relationships often return a negative answer to this question, which throws doubt on the commonplace view that science has shown the world to be divided into stratified 'levels'. This picture, reliant upon hierarchical representation commensurability, has long been a central component of claims that emergent properties with novel causal powers have been discovered by the sciences: 'The organizational levels of molecule, cell, tissue, organ, organism, breeding population, species, … are accepted as factual realities rather than as arbitrary conveniences of classification, with each of the higher orders organizing the real units of the lower level' ([5, p. 179]; cf. [9]). Instead, hierarchical representations deployed in top-down and bottom-up explanations are primarily 'local'—not articulated in such a way as to 'globally' cohere or contrast with all other hierarchical representations—and the 'locality' is related to their application to specific domains of inquiry. For example, biological sub-disciplines can work with non-coincident spatial decompositions of organisms into parts, such as cell types, biochemical reactions or developmental fields [15]. These local 'levels' can be considered real but do not correspond to global, nominalized designations (e.g. the organismal 'level'), in part because different representations of those 'levels' are available. This helps us to explain why seemingly similar hierarchical orderings can recur in different explanations; the hierarchical ordering of cells below organisms is widespread but the precise representation of hierarchical relations differs depending on the phenomena in view (e.g. whether intervening organizational structure is represented). Here I use layers of organization in protein structure and explanations of protein folding to illustrate the locality of hierarchical representations and how they operate in top-down causal explanations.
The locality of 'levels' and the incommensurability of hierarchical representations suggest that no unified metaphysical account of hierarchy for causal relations to obtain within emerges from the epistemology of scientific explanation. Therefore, a pluralist perspective might be warranted—many different kinds of top-down causation (explanation) can exist alongside many different kinds of bottom-up causation (explanation). Different sciences exhibit a plurality of representational schemes, explanatory strategies and models.
Pluralism is a view about this state of affairs: that plurality in science possibly represents an ineliminable character of scientific inquiry and knowledge (about at least some phenomena), that it represents a deficiency in knowledge only from a certain point of view, and that analysis of metascientific concepts (like theory, [hierarchical causal] explanation, evidence) should reflect the possibility that the explanatory and investigative aims of science can be best achieved by sciences that are pluralistic, even in the long run [16, p. ix–x].
Pluralism makes plausible why several different senses of top-causation can be coherent and why they do not conflict with reductionism, thereby illustrating a productive interface between philosophical analysis and scientific inquiry.
2. Local 'levels' of organization: protein structure
As is well known, proteins are composed of amino acids linked by covalent peptide bonds into a polypeptide chain. This linear chain of amino acids is the first structural 'level' of a protein ('primary structure'). 'Secondary structure' refers to repeating patterns of coiling or folding (α helices or β pleated sheets) resulting from regular hydrogen bonding rather than specific chemical moieties of amino acid residues. Nearly all proteins adopt a three-dimensional structure ('tertiary structure') in order to be functional [17]. This conformation of the polypeptide is understood in terms of interactions among its amino acids (e.g. hydrophobic residues avoid interaction with surrounding water by segregating to internal regions). A major part of the protein-folding problem is explaining how this active conformation is achieved for polypeptides subsequent to translation from RNA in the cellular context. Finally, tertiary-structured proteins can further aggregate into 'quaternary structure' such as in haemoglobin, a tetramer composed of pairs of α and β subunits.
Proteins are represented regularly with these 'four levels of structural organization' [18, p. 78]. The structural features of proteins are depicted in a variety of ways, often with schematic diagrams that emphasize one or more of the 'levels' and their distinctive features (figure 1). Other biological macromolecules can be described with the same four layers, especially nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). But, here, we begin to see the manifestation of 'locality' because most of the utility in applying these 'levels' of structural organization to nucleic acids pertains to RNA, not DNA. DNA does have secondary structural organization—the famous double helix—as well as tertiary structure—three naturally occurring helical geometries (A, B and Z)—but these categories are less often applied. One reason is the lack of functional diversity exhibited among the structural 'levels' for DNA, making all four structural designations less useful in practice. In contrast, RNA adopts a wide variety of secondary structure (e.g. stem-loops) and tertiary structure (e.g. coaxial stacking; figure 2), although quaternary structure is less relevant [19,20]. This diversity at the different structural 'levels' is accompanied by a corresponding functional diversity in terms of the cellular roles RNA is able to play.
Different biological macromolecules, such as polysaccharides and lipids, have higher order structure but do not fit into the four layers of structural classification used for proteins and nucleic acids (figure 3). Polysaccharides are linked chains of repeating carbohydrate units (polymers), sometimes composed of the same building blocks (monosaccharides) and sometimes heterogeneously composed. They are often linear but also may display branching to varying degrees. Examples include cellulose and chitin (structural polysaccharides), which play critical roles in animal and plant morphologies, and starch and glycogen (storage polysaccharides), which are important in metabolism. Although they have a three-dimensional structure and are chains of (sometimes) heterogeneous elements, they are not described in terms of the four structural 'levels' for proteins and nucleic acids. Lipids include glycerides, phospholipids, waxes and some vitamins. They play roles in energy storage and signalling, as well as being structural components of membranes. Ketoacyl and isoprene groups are the two basic types of biochemical subunits of lipids, which can be further classified based on their structure and function (e.g. steroids, such as oestrogen, which share a structure of four core rings of carbon and function in hormonal signalling). Again, these biological macromolecules have three-dimensional structure and are built out of smaller subunits but are not classified with the four structural 'levels' for proteins and nucleic acids.
The hierarchical representation of four structural layers of organization is applicable to proteins and nucleic acids. This categorization of hierarchical organization is extremely robust and well established empirically. But it quickly loses its significance when applied across the spectrum of biological macromolecules. In this sense, the 'levels of structural organization' are localized to a particular domain of inquiry (proteins and nucleic acids) and not reified into a nominalized designation (e.g. the tertiary structural level of biological macromolecules). Hierarchical representation incommensurability seems to obtain in the realm of macromolecules. The inability to align higher order polysaccharide or lipid structure with the four 'levels' of protein structure may not be a theoretical liability because these are not attempts to stratify macromolecular reality (i.e. an overall account of macromolecular levels of organization is not the scientific aim). There is no confusion in applying the hierarchical representations; there is no tendency among molecular biologists to assign a branched polysaccharide to the tertiary 'level' along with folded proteins or RNAs. At the same time, the four structural layers give a precise meaning to 'higher' and 'lower' for protein structure, and one that is empirically anchored. Tertiary structure is at a higher 'level' than primary or secondary structure; adjacent layers are stratified. This robustness and precision in the classification of 'levels' can facilitate hierarchical causal explanations, such as the dynamics of protein folding in the cell.
3. Top-down causal explanations of protein folding
The most familiar hierarchical causal explanation for protein structure is the linear sequence hypothesis: the three-dimensional folding of a protein (i.e. its tertiary structure) results from the properties of the amino acid residues in the polypeptide (i.e. the primary structure) and their interactions alone. A folded protein is purportedly explained by the chemical interactions of its components as ordered in a linear polypeptide—the whole is a 'sum' of the interaction of its parts over a (rapid) temporal duration. The primary, lower protein 'level' causally brings about the tertiary, higher protein 'level'. This is a bottom-up (hierarchical) causal explanation in molecular biology focused on the kinetic, thermodynamic and structural characteristics of the protein-folding process [21,22], which differs from the question of whether one can accurately predict the three-dimensional shape of a protein from its primary structure [23].
Initial experiments on the denaturation and refolding of proteins in vitro appeared to confirm the linear sequence hypothesis [24]. Denatured ribonucleases refolded into their native conformation rather than a myriad of other biochemical possibilities, which could only occur if folding follows a limited number of pathways [25]. Although correct refolding happened as predicted by the linear sequence hypothesis, it took an hour or longer rather than several minutes or less without elements from the endoplasmic reticulum. Recent research has been able to characterize the role of these elements, and a more complex picture of protein folding has emerged [22]. 'Cell biologists, having been taught that polypeptide chains can spontaneously fold to the native state, have been frustrated to discover that, although spontaneous folding can occur for small simple proteins … spontaneous, high-yield folding to the native state might be the exception, rather than the rule' [26, p. 527]. Chaperone proteins guide folding during and after polypeptide synthesis [27], as well as in refolding subsequent to stressful conditions such as heat shock [28]: 'Proteins need the assistance of molecular chaperones and folding enzymes to reach their native structure efficiently' [29, p. 78].
One reason why molecular chaperones must provide oversight in the process of protein folding is that the cellular environment is crowded [29–31]. Another is that the rate of folding is faster than the rate of synthesis for a polypeptide chain in the ribosome, which is done in tandem for individual mRNAs (termed a 'polyribosome'), thereby allowing for misfolding and cross-reactions subsequent to the completion of translation [32]. Distinct functional groups of chaperones monitor protein folding during de novo synthesis, quality control and the response to stress [33,34]. Chaperones work in different ways, often cooperatively and in conjunction with diverse client proteins [2,35], sometimes providing a sequestered environment for folding and at other times facilitating folding actively [32,36,37]. Experimental changes to the volume of the cavity inside a nanocage increase the folding speed for small proteins by modifying their energy landscapes [38]. Multiple amino acid residue interactions between an already functional, folded protein (the chaperone) and the unfolded polypeptide underlie the process of correct folding [39]. Even when mutations are introduced that lead to altered amino acid components, correct folding can be induced by the overproduction of molecular chaperones [40].
Explanations of protein folding that rely on chaperones are a form of top-down causal explanation. Chaperones are themselves folded proteins, at the tertiary (or higher) 'level' of structure. They operate on primary and secondary (or lower) 'levels' of structure. An entity at a 'top' or higher 'level' in the hierarchy causally brings about changes in a 'bottom' or lower 'level' entity as a consequence of having properties not found at the bottom 'level': 'there is a need for molecular chaperones because the intrinsic properties of proteins assure that incorrect interactions are possible' [41, p. 73]. The causal contribution of chaperones in protein folding is due to three-dimensional structure, a kind of property that the amino acid parts lack. 'The manner in which a newly synthesized chain of amino acids transforms itself into a perfectly folded protein depends both on the intrinsic properties of the amino acid sequence and on multiple contributing influences from the crowded cellular milieu' [42, p. 884].
The top-down causal explanation of protein folding is in terms of macromolecules and their components, and the hierarchical relations that apply to protein structure are delineated precisely (for a more complete discussion, see [43,44]). This does not prevent us from appealing to different sets of hierarchical relations where proteins are at a lower 'level' and causally explain higher level properties (e.g. with respect to organelles or the entire cell). It does require that we adopt a different representation of tops and bottoms because the four structural layers for proteins are not meant to be stratified 'levels of organization' across nature. An implication is that bottom-up and top-down causal explanations are not necessarily mutually exclusive options because they can be based on different representations of hierarchical relations rather than a single, correct stratification of the world.
4. Aspects of local 'levels' of organization
We have thus far observed that the hierarchical relations articulated for protein structure are not commensurate with the hierarchical relations invoked for other biological macromolecules, and that explanations of protein folding in terms of molecular chaperones constitute a well-defined (but 'local') top-down causal explanation. Hierarchical representation incommensurability of this kind is widespread within and across sciences and is displayed in the violation of expectations on the representation of part–whole relations (see also [45]). Instead of every part being assigned to a single 'level' and strictly nested within the whole at a higher level, some parts cannot be assigned to a 'level' and others occupy more than one. Organelles are represented as parts of cells but it is unclear that there is an 'organelle level' or simply an assortment of organelles within a cell. If cells are considered parts of organisms, then unicellular organisms are paradoxical since they are represented simultaneously at two 'levels'. Ecological relationships among species suggest reversals of part–whole relationships. For example, microbiological populations and ecosystems are contained within our organs (e.g. the stomach and intestines). Ecosystem representations should not be nested within organs according to this expectation. Instead of a single hierarchy of part–whole relations where every part is a component of exactly one entity at each 'level' above it, proteins are often represented as cellular constituents but sometimes reside in the extracellular matrix. It is unclear whether the extracellular matrix should be represented at the cellular 'level'. Finally, instead of every part being composed of parts at each 'level' beneath it, tissues are not composed exhaustively of cells, as they contain proteins, polysaccharides and other constituents external to the cells, and synapses are combinations of parts of two cells and intervening extracellular space (to highlight just two examples). The representation of compositional relations in these systems is not exhausted by immediately adjacent (stratified) 'levels'. A primary reason why is that these hierarchically relations are articulated locally for particular domains of inquiry and are not designed to hold across all sciences (as universal, stratified levels should).
Although hierarchical representation incommensurability holds within and across different sciences to varying degrees, it is important to reiterate that the locality attributed to the structural 'levels' for proteins, and more generally for the violations of part–whole relations, is not equivalent to spatial locality. Proteins are everywhere in biological systems, so generalizations about their structural 'levels' license a variety of inferences and explanations. Here is one way to characterize this locality alongside its fecundity in scientific reasoning (e.g. the potential for general causal explanations): 'Levels of organization can be thought of as local maxima of regularity and predictability in the phase space of alternative modes of organization of matter' [15, p. 209]. The terms in this characterization pick out features we have already dwelt upon. 'Local maxima of regularity and predictability' refers to the domain specificity of 'levels' that are scientifically useful because they capture regular (robust) patterns of properties (e.g. the secondary structure of a protein highlights the significance of two organizational patterns resulting from hydrogen bonding), and facilitate generalizations and explanations (e.g. the role of molecular chaperones in folding). 'Phase space' is another way to refer to a representation where the variables map 'modes of material [and functional] organization' (e.g. the fourfold 'levels' of protein structure). This mapping always involves a selection of some set of variables from among a larger array: 'we seek a set of reduced variables that efficiently capture the main features of … complicated behaviour' [46, p. 186].
Different principles of selection yield different kinds of hierarchies, many of which are incommensurable across different sciences [15]. An organism might be decomposed according to physico-chemical principles or in terms of anatomical organs, cell types, developmental gradients or biochemical reactions. These decompositions sometimes yield parts with non-coincident spatial boundaries and thus no common measure for translating between them. The situation is compounded by the fact that these principles are often mixed: 'This borrowing of criteria of individuation of parts from different and diverse theoretical perspectives is one factor that can make functional organization in general and biology in particular a conceptual morass at times' [15, p. 184]. In summary, localized hierarchical representations facilitate scientific inquiry and causal explanation by extracting a subset of variables to define 'levels of organization' that exhibit regularity and predictability for natural phenomena represented in diverse ways.
Given that these hierarchical representations are primarily local and yet empirically robust, it is not advisable to seek a comprehensive account of 'levels of organization'. A more germane philosophical strategy is to hunt for 'aspects' of hierarchical representations that operate within and across the sciences and characterize their associated assumptions [43,44]. One aspect is fundamentality: explanations that rely on hierarchical representations involve commitments to things being more or less fundamental [47]. This fundamentality is usually anchored to a particular hierarchical representation (e.g. 'primary' protein structure), which means that what counts as fundamental is a restricted set of properties depicted in the hierarchy (e.g. cell types or upstream metabolic reactions).
A second aspect involves the diversity of hierarchies: hierarchical relations can pertain to compositional (spatial) properties, functional (procedural) properties and/or abstract properties (e.g. directed graphs). Depending on the kinds of hierarchies involved, commitments of fundamentality vary. Other key factors manifested in the diversity of hierarchies include intrinsicality (how a system is represented as distinct from a surrounding environment) and temporality (how temporal relations are designated, whether via absolute chronology or via some type of staging or periodization). In the case of protein structure and folding, compositional relations in the structural hierarchy are salient and the representation of time is in terms of a very rapid chronology (milliseconds). Biochemical interactions arising from the distinctive side chains of amino acid residues in proteins are explanatorily fundamental. In contrast, the functional hierarchy of a gene network diagram indicates causal relations in terms of gene activation or repression, represented schematically and changing through temporal stages of specific embryonic processes (e.g. endomesoderm formation). Fundamentality is understood in terms of regulatory genes that reside high in cascades of network control.
Much more can be said about fundamentality and the diversity of hierarchies in biology [15,48–50]. In this context, the main message to take away from different commitments of fundamentality and diverse kinds of hierarchies is that the prevalence of hierarchical representation incommensurability modulates our interpretation of causation within hierarchical structures. Dependency relations can change as a consequence of adjusting abstract, spatial and temporal aspects of hierarchical representations, whether these pertain to compositional or functional organization. Deriving our understanding of top-down and bottom-up causation from the top-down and bottom-up causal explanations, which rely on empirically robust and yet 'local' hierarchical representations that are sometimes incommensurable, implies that an apposite metaphysical interpretation might be some form of pluralism.
5. 'Levels of organization' and pluralism
The assumption of hierarchical representation commensurability is a form of monism. In the face of diverse, local hierarchical classifications that are constructed according to different methods and for different aims, 'monism holds that all such … accounts can be reconciled into a single unified account or that there is a single perspicuous representation system within which all correct accounts can be expressed' [16, p. xv]. One rationale for this is a unified metaphysical perspective on nature: 'The raison d'être of a useful metaphysics is to show how the separately developed and justified pieces of science (at a given time) can be fitted together to compose a unified world-view' [51, p. 45]. Many philosophers seek to provide a unified, abstract characterization of ontology (e.g. the nature of composition or parts and wholes) from the concepts and theories found within and across different sciences.
If the materials that are used to construct this metaphysics are drawn from the epistemological successes of the sciences (a methodological stricture that can be debated), then hierarchical representation incommensurability presents an obstacle. A unified account of top-down causation does not emerge from the ubiquity of top-down causal explanations within and across the sciences. An initial construal of this ubiquity as a type of consilience—multiple, distinct lines of evidence supporting some unified explanation—does not withstand further scrutiny. These hierarchical representations do not offer a fully general account of features of reality; the four 'levels' of protein structure do not apply to all macromolecules and the top-down causal explanations that result from this hierarchical conception are localized to the domain of protein folding. They do not offer the prospect of a unified picture of 'levels of organization' in nature. Instead, the case of protein structure and folding point in the direction of a different metaphysical interpretation.
Some philosophers who hold a commitment to monism have drawn a negative conclusion about the metaphysical import of hierarchical representations: 'We will deny … that the world comes in "levels". Contemporary science … gives no interesting content to this metaphor, and so a metaphysics … should not reflect it' [51, p. 54]. But this is simply untrue. Contemporary sciences give very interesting content to various conceptions of 'levels'; they just do not yield a fully general or wholly unified account. Our discussion of protein structure and folding displays one example of interesting content—a robust fourfold conception of organizational 'levels' that is pertinent to understanding causation in the realm of macromolecules. If we recognize that these hierarchies are tailored to specific phenomena studied by different sciences with different methods, and are not meant to cohere in a global fashion, then the sciences affirm the existence (i.e. the reality) of manifold 'levels' or hierarchical layerings [52]. (One could debate whether the specific term 'level' should be retained or not.) The pervasiveness of hierarchical representation incommensurability could be a clue to the plurality of hierarchies present in the natural world.
What does it mean to offer a pluralist metaphysical interpretation of hierarchical causal explanations? Negatively, it means that there is no single, overarching picture of 'levels of organization' or hierarchical causation. Positively, it means that multiple accounts of 'levels' in different sciences capture significant features of reality and dependency relations in these hierarchical representations track a diversity of causal relationships. This perspective is motivated by the success of the epistemological practices in different sciences. It is not based on an appeal to our ignorance but from what we have learned about the world's diverse properties using divergent hierarchical representations in scientific reasoning. One might still argue that current science is incomplete or that pluralism is resolvable to monism in principle, even if it cannot be done in practice. Pluralism of the sort proffered here does not rule out these two possibilities, but both rejoinders move us away from the actual hierarchical representations and their discovered dependency relations that have been successful empirically within and across the sciences. In fact, to say that current scientific practices are incomplete with respect to interpreting the ubiquity of hierarchical explanations is to admit the absence of convergence on a univocal sense of causation within hierarchical structures.
One might object that the pluralist perspective laid out here is incoherent [51]. How can conflicting claims about hierarchical causation that emerge from incompatible hierarchical representations be considered a variety of realism? This might even be seen as a game-stopper or a form of quietism (i.e. there are severe limitations on drawing any metaphysical interpretations from the sciences). 'If the world were fundamentally disunified, then discovery of this would be tantamount to discovering that there is not metaphysical work to be done' [51, pp. 5–6]. 'There is a legitimate role for metaphysics just insofar as the world is unified' [53, p. 1818]. This is overly strict and an unwarranted view of metaphysical inquiry. It goes beyond a methodological dictum of seeking as unified a metaphysical picture as possible to the stronger claim that the absence of discovering one renders the project moot. Much turns on what is meant by 'fundamentally' disunified, as opposed to 'locally' disunified. Although the four structural 'levels' of protein and nucleic acid organization do not apply to all biological macromolecules, it does not follow that there is no legitimate metaphysical interpretation to be formulated from them. Pluralism is intended as a corrective to this 'all or nothing' attitude underwritten by monism (unification): 'a commitment to avoid reliance on monist assumptions in interpretation or evaluation coupled with an openness to the ineliminability of multiplicity in some scientific contexts' [16, p. xiii]. Pluralism as a methodology calls into question an expectation of unification, a presumption that the sciences aim at a (relatively) unified view of the world. And, as a consequence, we can explore a new array of possibilities that confront how realism and pluralism fit together given the variety of successful representational strategies contained in extant, mature sciences. This exploratory task will require a collaborative effort between scientists and philosophers because, instead of retreating to in principle considerations, questions about top-down causation must be tackled from actual, in practice scientific representation and explanation; i.e. how hierarchical relations and dependencies between 'levels' are established and facilitate powerful generalizations within and across sciences [3,52].
Pluralism also offers a possible resolution to the potential incongruence between reductionism and top-down causation; the apparent conflict between a claim that causes always operate from the bottom-up and a claim that causes sometimes operate from the top-down. If no unified metaphysical account of causation within hierarchies emerges from the epistemology of hierarchical causal explanations in scientific practice, then the contradiction can be illusory. Top-down causation and bottom-up causation can be fully compatible when the hierarchical representations are different, which encompasses the dependency relations among variables and what contours the aspects (such as intrinsicality and temporality) take in hierarchical explanations. Thus, pluralism respects the details of actual hierarchical causal explanations (including why several different senses might be extant), while offering a fruitful metaphysical interpretation of top-down causation that demonstrates why it is not in fundamental conflict with reductionism. Many different kinds of top-down causation (explanation) can coexist alongside of many different kinds of bottom-up causation (explanation) because there is a diversity of hierarchical relations in the world rather than a single, correct stratification of 'levels'.
6. A productive interface for philosophy and science
Several consequences follow from the preceding discussion. In a recent critical evaluation of contemporary sociology, Christian Smith grounds his argument for personhood as an emergent aspect of human beings with a straightforward appeal to the 'fact' that the sciences have discovered a world stratified into 'levels of organization'.
Reality…is not flat. Reality is stratified. It exists and operates, in fact, on many levels, each of which is governed by structures, processes and tendencies appropriate to its own level. The reality in which we live and participate (and of which we are partly composed) involves at the very least these many stratified levels: subatomic, atomic, molecular, chemical, biological, physiological, zoological, ecological, meteorological, mental, social, global, galactic and cosmological. At each of these levels different dynamics and mechanisms operate [7, pp. 34–35].
This is by no means a recent development. British emergentists also saw the world as 'divided into discrete strata' [9, §1.4]. Not surprisingly, Smith sees his project in terms of a choice between reductionism and emergence ('the counter to reductionism is emergence'). We have now traced the inherent difficulties posed by hierarchical representation incommensurability for the layered view of nature. We also have observed how a pluralist stance calls into question whether there is always an either/or decision between reductionism and emergence. Much of Smith's project is built on a faulty understanding of the sciences and their utilization of hierarchical explanations. In this he is not alone.
Smith's argument shows that further issues are at stake. In addition to seeing the world as layered, there is an assumption that the sciences are organized to track this layering. 'This is why we have the different scientific disciplines of physics, chemistry, biology, meteorology, physiology, psychology, sociology, astronomy and so on' [7, p. 34]. Again, this not a new claim, and earlier emergentists were committed similarly: 'To each level corresponds a special science, and the levels are arranged in terms of increasing organizational complexity of matter' [9, §1.4]. Although there have been discussions about the hierarchical organization of empirical inquiry since Aristotle, infamously revived in Auguste Comte's positivist conception of scientific organization [54], the relationship between areas of science and hierarchical 'levels' is subtle and complex. For example, developmental biology tracks multiple 'levels of organization' simultaneously and classical mechanics applies to a variety of size scales that violate part–whole relationship requirements [55]. Hierarchical representation incommensurability and a pluralist interpretation of its metaphysical implications push us to capture, in a more adequate fashion, the 'cross-level' complexity of scientific disciplines.
Thus far, our analysis of hierarchical causal explanations and its implications for metaphysical interpretations of causation within hierarchies has produced two outcomes: (i) the undermining of arguments founded on faulty conceptions of stratified 'levels' in nature and (ii) a recognition that the organization of scientific disciplines is more complex than a layered cake of physics, chemistry, biology, psychology and sociology. Others include a reconfiguration of the task of philosophy, which is often assumed to demand a form of monism: 'to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term' [56, p. 1]. The above analysis instantiates a model of the relationship between the sciences and philosophy termed reasoning explication: reconstructing and evaluating the kinds of reasoning used in scientific investigation, such as hierarchical causal explanation, to identify characteristic strengths and latent biases [57]. This model operates via a standard mode of inquiry in philosophical research, abstraction: the excluding of concrete particulars (e.g. bats and birds) in order to comprehend the significance of scientific claims and methodology over different degrees of exclusion (e.g. top-down control of prey in an ecological hierarchy). It is pursued with two aims in mind. First, methodologically, reasoning explication can indicate more or less fruitful lines of inquiry, modelling strategies and data gathering (e.g. the value of switching between hierarchical representations or adjusting their aspects in different ways). Second, epistemologically, reasoning explication can facilitate theory construction, data interpretation and the evaluation of explanations (e.g. the compatibility of hierarchical causal explanations and varying standards for explanations due to different representations).
Reasoning explication is therefore a productive interface between the sciences and philosophy. It is one in which the sciences benefit from the resources of philosophy through the advantages of abstraction, as seen here with respect to the locality of hierarchical explanations, their diverse aspects, and ways in which top-down causation can fit with a reductionist viewpoint. It is also one in which philosophy benefits from the resources of the sciences through a pluralist approach to metaphysics that can incorporate the empirically successful yet diverse findings within and across scientific disciplines. Additionally, philosophy is cautioned against too quickly assimilating diverse examples of hierarchical causal explanation into standard discussions about top-down causation, thereby obscuring the salient scientific issues in these examples that might suggest novel philosophical applications. A reciprocal relationship of this kind, where philosophical analyses of how science works offer genuine resources for ongoing empirical inquiry and epistemic dimensions of actual scientific practice inform metaphysical questions in new ways that advance our philosophical understanding, is exactly where interdisciplinary collaboration between philosophy and science is laudable.
Questions about the meaning and status of pluralism as a philosophical interpretation of scientific reasoning remain. There are clear differences between an integrative pluralism where the plurality exhibited by the sciences can be locally integrated when explaining phenomena [58] and the representational pluralism adumbrated here where the plurality often cannot be integrated due to hierarchical representation incommensurability. But arguments over these differences and other forms of pluralism not canvassed here (including radical versions, such as social constructionism), even if valuable in their own right, take us away from the key point. Top-down causal explanations rely on representing natural phenomena with hierarchical relations (i.e. with tops and bottoms), and taking a temporal ordering of dependency (i.e. causation) between features of these representations to be explanatory. This reliance, also found in bottom-up (reductive) causal explanations, means that any metaphysical interpretations derived from these hierarchical causal explanations (independent of disagreements about the nature of causation) must address the question of hierarchical representation commensurability. Thus, the burden of sorting through differences in pluralist positions, and the need to further articulate the details of specific viewpoints (integrative, representational or otherwise), should be undertaken with this question at the forefront.
We have observed one instance that suggests this incommensurability in the case of biological macromolecules even though a local top-down causal explanation of protein folding is precisely defined. In combination with more general considerations about mereological relationships, there is reason to doubt the commonplace view that science has shown the world to be divided into stratified layers. Hierarchical representations deployed in top-down explanations are not articulated in such a way as to cohere or contrast with others because they are related to specific domains of inquiry. A top-down causal explanation of some natural phenomena does not foreclose the possibility of a bottom-up causal explanation of the same phenomena; questions of congruence between reductionism and top-down causation turn on the details of hierarchical representation. On a pluralist metaphysical interpretation, these local 'levels' are real but do not correspond to global, nominalized designations and encourage a more tempered view of whether the sciences deliver a relatively unified world picture. The rejection of assumptions about causation across universal 'levels' of organization that do not correspond to the epistemological details found in scientific practice [52,59] and the development of more sophisticated accounts of hierarchical relations [60,61] are the most promising routes to inferring metaphysical conclusions from the local layers of organization that arise from diverse and incompatible hierarchies represented within and across the sciences. On the reasoning explication model of how science and philosophy interact [57], these types of analyses also hold methodological and epistemological promise for advancing ongoing investigation into the natural world.
Ingo Brigandt, Tom Doyle, Andreas Hüttemann, Marie Kaiser and Leia Rollag provided me with helpful criticisms and suggestions on a distant ancestor of this paper. Insightful comments on a more recent version were supplied by Robert Bishop, Tom Doyle, Alan Padgett, Leia Rollag and Michael Silberstein. I also benefited from the detailed comments provided by five anonymous reviewers for the journal. Thanks to the organizers of the September 2010 symposium 'Top-Down Causation: An Integrating Theme Within and Across the Sciences' and symposium participants for feedback. Critical comments and discussion were received from audiences at the workshop 'Science Engages Metaphysics: Emergence, Reduction and Explanation' (July 2010), and the Society for the Metaphysics of Science session at the Central Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association (March 2011), where some of these themes were advanced. I am grateful to Colin Klein for sharing his unpublished manuscript 'Against levels', which I profited from while revising the manuscript.
One contribution of 15 to a Theme Issue 'Top-down causation'.
- Received June 28, 2011.
- Accepted October 24, 2011.
- This journal is © 2011 The Royal Society


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"This is a case about federalism." No sentence better captures the Rehnquist Court's approach to criminal justice than this one, written by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as the opening line of a 1991 decision. In fact, the case was about whether the State of Virginia could execute Roger Keith Coleman without further judicial review because his lawyers filed his appeal three days late. The Court told Virginia to go ahead. To the Rehnquist Court, criminal justice is all too often a technical matter best left to the states. Even with the state's most awesome sanction–the power to lock up and even kill human beings [see Stephen Bright, page 17]–concerns of equality and justice take a back seat to efficiency and police discretion. If George W. Bush is elected President, the hard-right Justices he promises to appoint would be likely to make matters even worse, wiping out precedents going all the way back to the Warren Court.
During Chief Justice Earl Warren's tenure (1953-1969) the Supreme Court virtually created the field of constitutional criminal justice. Extending the Bill of Rights provisions that protect criminal defendants to state criminal prosecutions and giving those provisions expansive readings, the Court created the Miranda warning, required state courts to exclude evidence seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment, guaranteed poor defendants lawyers paid by the state and authorized federal courts in habeas corpus proceedings to review state criminal convictions for constitutional error.
The Burger Court began dismantling these protections in 1969, and the Rehnquist Court has followed its lead. Its devotion to the task is especially impressive in light of what has happened to the criminal juistice system during Rehnquist's leadership. From 1986, the first year of his tenure, to the present, America's incarcerated population has doubled, from about 1 million to more than 2 million. And as the prison population has exploded, racial disparities in the criminal justice system have grown exponentially. Much of this is attributable to the war on drugs. From 1986 to 1991, for example, the number of white drug offenders in state prisons increased by 110 percent, but the number of imprisoned black drug offenders increased by 465 percent. From 1985 to 1995, black men's per capita incarceration rate increased at nearly ten times the rate of white men's. Today, one in twenty black men over 18 is in prison, compared with one in 180 white men.
To prefer efficiency over justice in these circumstances requires heavy blinders. The Rehnquist Court has not only willingly adopted them but has insisted that other courts wear them as well. In 1987, in McCleskey v. Kemp, the Court deemed a study by Professor David Baldus–the most sophisticated statistical showing of racial discrimination in the administration of the death penalty ever undertaken–to be insufficient to raise any equal protection concerns. Nine years later, in United States v. Armstrong, it barred pretrial discovery into a claim that the crack cocaine laws were being selectively enforced on racial grounds, even though the defendants showed that every one of the fifty-three federal crack cocaine defendants represented by the Public Defenders Office in the prior three years was black or Hispanic. In the Court's most recent term, Justice Rehnquist did not even mention race in his opinion for the Court in Illinois v. Wardlow, upholding the apprehension of a black man solely because he ran from police in a high-crime neighborhood. On claims of racial bias, the Rehnquist Court's attitude has been "see no evil, hear no evil."


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Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has sent a congratulatory message to Kiribati's President His Excellency Te Berentitenti Anote Tong as the country celebrates her National Day on 12th July.
Kiribati, formerly known as the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, was a British colony that attained independence on 12th July in 1979.
Prime Minister Bainimarama highlighted the relations shared between Fiji and Kiribati over the years, saying that it stands to be further strengthened in the near future.
"The Island Nations of Fiji and Kiribati have mutually enjoyed the warm reciprocity amongst Pacific colleagues," PM Bainimarama said.
PM Bainimarama added that Fiji and Kiribati, as neighbouring Pacific Small Islands Developing States, have enjoyed cordial and meaningful relations with each other in various aspects of cooperation.
"This too is our mutual surety that the established goodwill and sincerity we have at all levels of our two societies will ensure the resilience of our people in the many years ahead."


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- Home
- Umbrellas
- Brackets
- Photos & Archives
- Links
- Ordering
- View Cart
Jerome Increase Case started his company in Rochester, Wisconsin in 1842. He soon moved to Racine, Wisconsin where he began to manufacture threshers. In 1953, J.I. Case accepted 3 partners to form J.I. Case & Company. Their Eagle Trademark, "Old Abe", was adopted in 1865 and is patterned after a bald eagle that served in the Civil War as a mascot.
The first Case farm tractor appeared on the scene in 1892. In 1953 the first Case diesel powered tractor appeared as a model 500. The 800 series came about in 1958 and featured the Case-O-Matic drive.
General Rule of thumb: Use the six point (parasol style) until the end of World War II. All metal parts are finished with a special baked epoxy covered with a baked aluminum enamel to provide resistance to rust.
From WWII on, we generally recommend the square units. Both the curved hanger and bent shaft units were produced and used by many tractor manufacturers. Both umbrellas feature yellow dichromate zinc plated tubular steel frame provides a corrosion resistant, durable finish. No painted parts.
Recently we have had many requests for the 40-inch 3 Bow Buggy style sunshade. The sturdy design features easy installation on tractors using home made, fender style or axle mounted brackets. Heavy gauge steel components withstand rugged field use and strong winds.


text: I'm trying to plan a road trip for my husband and I to go from Wisconsin out east... not really sure where... we were thinking Pennsylvania/North Carolina possibly and back up? We have to be able to do it in a week and we're interested in seeing a lot of sites... possibly things with tours??? Amusement parks maybe... we're really not into the nightlife too big but would more enjoy nature or museum/zoo type activities. This will be our last vacation without kiddos being along. We're thinking of taking it in April or May... any advice or tips on places to go?


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Talk of a tax cut lifted U.S. stocks to new record levels last week.
Stock prices had been moving mostly sideways until Thursday, when President Trump said he would be making an announcement within the next three weeks that would be "phenomenal in terms of tax." NASDAQ once again led the way with a 1.2% gain for the week, while the Dow rose 1.1% and the S&P 500 increased 0.9%. So far this year, NASDAQ is up 6.5% in price, well ahead of the S&P's 3.5% increase and the Dow's 2.6% rise. All three indexes hit their all-time highs during the day on Friday although they finished just below those levels at the end of trading.
Foreign stocks also got a lift from the U.S. news. European stocks, as measured by the Stoxx Europe 600, were up almost 1% on the week despite signs of yet another Greek debt crisis. The country has an €8 billion payment due in July, which investors are worried that the country won't be able to make without more international aid. Elsewhere in Europe, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi warned against the premature withdrawal of ECB stimulus measures, which several officials have been calling for recently as the euro zone economy has been improving and inflation rising, particularly in Germany. Asian stocks rebounded from the previous week's losses, rising about 2% on average, led by a 2.4% rise in Japan's Nikkei 225 index.
Global sovereign bond prices were also mostly higher last week, reducing yields. In the U.S., the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note ended the week at 2.41%, down five basis points on the week, although it had fallen as low as 2.33% on Wednesday, when the government sold a new note issue. The 30-year long bond closed at 3.01%, down eight bps. In Europe, the yield on the 10-year German bund fell 10 bps to 0.32%.
It's not necessarily a good omen, but writers of investment newsletters are more bullish than they have been in more than a decade. Investors Intelligence said 62.7% of the more than 100 newsletter writers it surveys each week for its Sentiment Index are bullish, the highest level since 2004. However, the index has a reputation of being a contrarian indicator, possibly signaling a market top.
It was a very quiet week for government economic statistics, but that changes this week. Producer and consumer price indexes for January come out on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, while retail sales and industrial production get reported on Wednesday. Janet Yellen testifies before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday. Leading indicators come out on Friday.
Reports/dates/facts/links worth paying attention to over the next week:
1. February 14: Producer price index for January; Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen gives her semiannual monetary policy testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.
2. February 15: Consumer price index for January; retail sales for January; industrial production for January; National Association of Home Builders housing market index for February; Empire State manufacturing survey for February; Yellen testifies before the House Financial Services Committee.
3. February 16: Weekly unemployment claims; housing starts for January; Philadelphia Fed business outlook survey for February.
4. February 17: Leading economic indicators for January.


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Holmes & Holmes is a brand new series that follows Mike Holmes and his son Mike Jr. (MJ) as they transform MJ's modest bachelor bungalow into the perfect, two-storey home for MJ and his girlfriend Lisa. While Mike and MJ share a last name, a strong work ethic, and a desire to help others, they don't always see eye to eye. Their different approaches provide the foundation for unexpected moments of humour and drama - though they always vow to build it right. In addition to seeing the newest materials and build techniques, viewers will get a glimpse into the personal lives of the Holmes men. Holmes + Holmes is a memorable Father/Son journey with a hammer...and a dream!
Watch Holmes+Holmes on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV Canada. Missed an episode? Watch them now: HGTV
We are excited to announce that Holmes+Holmes will be premiering on DIY Network on January 3, at 10 p.m.ET/PT.


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The Spring Cure: Throwing a Party!
without sacrificing style. Hooray, Adam!
• Cure Clock: 0 weeks remaining!!
• Assignment: Read Chapter 8: Throwing a Party!
• Give your home a good cleaning
• Prepare for your party
• Curees: 900!
>> New Flickr Group: AT Home Cure
>> Submit your photos directly to AT
Congratulations, Cure graduates! You made it! You're at the end of the eighth and final week of the Spring Cure, and by the looks of it, your homes are ready to party! Do remember that your party is a chance not only to welcome guests into your newly welcoming home, but also to congratulate yourself on all of your hard work and perseverance. As you may have realized, the Cure is not for sissies. It takes serious dedication as well as good old-fashioned elbow grease, and boy have you all risen to the occasion. Let's take a look at some of your final fabulous results...
Wow, look at Anica's office-in-a-closet! Talk about small space solutions... this workspace looks cozy and completely manageable. The blue chair and blue boxes are adorable accents. Great work, Anica!
Samantha took the Cure to work and revamped her cubicle. We all know how a healthy work environment can do wonders for productivity. Check out her blog to see some of the fun ways she has personalized her space at work. Hooray for Samantha!
Here's Sparkle's studio before...
And after! I love the bright green duvet, and everything feels so organized and pared down. Just the results we all hope to get from the Cure, a liveable and beautiful space... Sparkle has a great editing eye, doesn't she? Wonderful work! Congratulations, Sparkle.
Check out Chloe & Ivan's new bathroom! The brightly colored towels, new shelving and baskets, and adorable bird artwork really make the room feel cheerful and fun.
Inkstainedwriter shared her son's cured bedroom with the Home Cure Flickr group. Such lovely choices! The old-fashioned schoolroom desk, the colorful flag banner, and the Ikea lamp for soft light... lucky boy to grow up in such a pleasant room. Read more about how the room took shape here.
Nicole's dining nook looks great! She's still trying to figure out what to do with the pesky TV, but I love the group of artwork she's hung, and the tulip table is a nice contrast with that crazy (and beautiful!) piece in the corner.
Joymich has created a bedroom with such a peaceful vibe. That accent wall is dreamy, and the new bedding adds graphic interest. Great work!
Another lovely bedroom, this one from emward76. She's chosen fantastic colors; the neutral quilt against the soft blue wall is just perfect. I'm always jealous of those who don't live in earthquake country, with their pretty shelves above the bed... and these are a really nice example!
Yellow can be such a tough color to work with, but somehow Cassie Lynne has managed to find the perfect shade. It looks great with the dark furnishings, all of which seem lovingly chosen... this just looks like a room that contains a dozen stories. Wish I was going to Cassie Lynne's Cure-graduation party!
In fact, I wish I could be a fly on the wall at all of the Cure parties! I've enjoyed following your progress so much, and I only lament not being able to see your wonderful homes in person. Certainly many of you must be feeling the same... so in the absence of some kind of portal that could bring us all together, why not spend some time this weekend in the Apartment Therapy Home Cure flickr pool, checking out what everyone has accomplished. It's a humbling experience!
It's also worth mentioning that many of you are still continuing to work on your Cure-related tasks. In fact, so much of what the Cure involves carries over into regular life; that's what makes it such a profound experience. Cooking at home, regular cleaning, entertaining guests, keeping your home in good repair... these are all habits for a healthier life, and you have all shown amazing dedication in making them part of yours. So, bravo! It's party time!
• Week 8 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 8 - Intro
• Week 7 - Show & Tell
• Week 7 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 7 - Intro
• Week 6 - Show & Tell
• Week 6 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 6 - Intro
• Week 5 - Show & Tell
• Week 5 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 5 - Intro
• Week 4 - Show & Tell
• Week 4 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 4 - Intro
• Week 3 - Show and Tell
• Week 3 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 3 - Intro
• Week 2 - Show and Tell
• Week 2 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 2 - Intro
• Week 1 - Show and Tell
• Week 1 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 1 - Intro
>> Main Cure Page - Spring 2009
>> About The Book
>> Excerpt from Chapter I
>> From Amazon
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>> nquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780553383126">From Barnes & Noble