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...Little Me! Maybe you've been following his antics on IG? Well today he was united with his very own black Dodge. All is right in the universe now.
Posted by damion saunders at Sunday, October 14, 2012 2 comments
I'm SUCH a Turd...
I really need to apologize to everyone who purchased a shirt (or shirts) from me. There have been some unforeseen problems with the printing of them. But... from what I've been told, I do believe that they will be finally going out this coming week! Thank you all so very much for your support, and also your patience and understanding. I'm going to figure out a way to make right by everyone, no definite plans yet, but I have some other fun stuff in the works and will keep you informed.
Thank you all!
-Keep On
Thank you all!
-Keep On
Posted by damion saunders at Sunday, October 14, 2012 1 comments
The Vandoleros 1st show was a huge hit!
Such a crazy time. I'm still trying to process it all but I do know that it was absolutely amazing. I met a lot of new friends and got to hang out with some great old ones too. It was pretty stressful for me to make this on such short notice and without the money to even cover the fuel, but everyone came together and it all worked out. Big hugs to everyone that had anything to do with the show... My brothers that supported me and helped make it happen, all my new and old friends that bought shirts to help me out (the hick-up is resolved now btw, and I'll be sending them out shortly, and each and every person that came out to the show to support us by buying support shirts or stickers, beers, water, whatever... or just being there, you all are awesome, thanks so much!!
So, without further adieu, I give to you this giant photo dump. No captions, no order, just the glorious hot-mess that was.
So, without further adieu, I give to you this giant photo dump. No captions, no order, just the glorious hot-mess that was.
Posted by damion saunders at Tuesday, September 11, 2012 2 comments
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The challenges on the travel market are broad and deep. Customers expect the same level of digital service that they receive in other industries, and thus transform the way they interact with travel brands.
In the digital era, airlines that invest in the right experience will reinforce their brand identity, create meaningful long-term relationships and transform passengers into loyal customers.
Accenture Amadeus Alliance is the natural combination of two market leaders in airline solutions and digital thought leadership—mapping out the evolution of the industry, jointly serving as reference points to coach airlines through transformations, helping them lead the way in innovation, and address the changing needs and demands of today's savvy digital travelers.
One stop shop service
Accenture Amadeus Digital Experience is a set of stand-alone and integrated solutions that enable airlines to expand current processes and systems and address the digital paradigm. The many services in the Accenture Amadeus Digital Experience have been shaped to keep day-to-day operations running while building a bridge to new solutions that drive the innovation journey.
Accenture Amadeus Digital Experience reflects the complete value chain and helps airline define their digital vision, implement their strategic roadmap and drill down into every step along their digital transformation journey.
Accenture Amadeus Digital Experience services combine and apply the Alliance's capabilities to steer airlines through the entire digital transformation journey, mapping out the evolution of the industry and helping lead the way in innovation.
The combined assets of our Alliance can drive specific actions on web analytics allowing optimisation of channel performance and thus enable airlines to drive tangible business value. By leveraging a state-of-the-art suite of tracking tools, we place available data in context, semantically connect it and create web analytics that let airlines manage their web data more intelligently. All this regarding the airlines complexity given by voluminous and diverse data that come from multiple sources and need to be connected and managed intelligently.
Airlines are facing challenges driven by a competitive landscape on traffic acquisition and they are struggling to find out what is the best acquisition strategy. Our joint set of services is focused on acquisition performance as well as engagement and retention optimization in order to become the partner that helps airlines implement and power their digital transformation. Applying proven techniques and methodologies to improve traffic acquisition, using SEO, SEM, e-mail marketing and Social Media Optimization we help our clients to enhance an airline's content strategy, inspire and attract customers.
Both customer and traveler experiences are critical to ensuring conversion and revenue.
As a customer, finding personalized offers and having a positive navigating experience within the website.
As a traveller, experience from inspiration and search, through booking to pre-trip, during and post-flight touchpoints.
A single little pain point in the experience can jeopardize conversion.
The Alliance has more than 60 UX multi-skilled experts in-house in B2B and B2C interfaces and has access to 100+ Amadeus airline customers.
A high-level overview of an airline's digital performance, detecting key pain points and improvement areas.
Focuses on the customer to identify areas of opportunity to enhance content and thus the traveller digital experience.
Digital sales boost through digital marketing and UX optimization with focus on conversion optimization.
UX performance enhancement through usability insights and design improvements tailored to airline's needs.
A service to maximize Sales conversion and revenue on digital channels.
Digital shopping deep assessment to optimize conversion rate and redefine shopping strategy.
Focus on increase and optimize digital presence through investment optimization and digital marketing actions.
Provides a cost-effective way to test user interfaces and validate website design optimizing airline's investment on UX.

subset: commoncrawl


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Water and industrial accidents
Major industrial accidents may cause far-reaching transboundary effects and may lead to accidental water pollution. The Signatories to the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents and the Parties to the Convention on the protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International lakes decided to cooperate on issues related to the prevention of accidental pollution of transboundary waters.
The Joint Expert Group of the Water and Industrial Accidents Convention, in accordance with its Strategy adopted by the Bureau to the Industrial Accidents Convention and endorsed by the Meeting of the Parties to the Water Convention, is activated on a specific subject.
In 2010, the two Bureaux of the Water and Industrial Accidents Conventions endorsed the proposal to develop a checklist/methodology for harmonized contingency planning for accidents with potential impacts on transboundary watercourses and assigned this task to the Joint Expert Group. The objective of the document is to help to establish/facilitate the review by UNECE countries of procedures and requirements for crisis management and contingency planning so that in the event of an accident with effects on transboundary waterways response actions could be taken in a harmonized way by neighbouring countries. In 2010-2012, several meetings of the Joint Ad Hoc Expert Group on Water and Industrial Accidents were held with the aim to develop a methodology for harmonized contingency planning. At present, the methodology is at advanced stage of preparations.
The Seminar on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Sandoz accident was organized under the leadership of Germany on 8 and 9 November 2011 in Bonn, Germany, with the main objective to reflect on the work carried out and progress achieved in the area of prevention of accidental water pollution in the UNECE region as well as to examine existing deficits in prevention of water pollution by chemical substances, and formulate the way forward to address these deficiencies. At the workshop the experts jointly identified a number of challenges such as new sources of risk, reliable and up-to-date inventories of risk sources, enforcement of procedures and safety standards, including personnel and technical capacity, etc.


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Domack Named AAAS 2012 Fellow
Eugene Domack, The J.W. Johnson Family Professor of Geosciences at Hamilton, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.
Domack was awarded the honor "For seminal contributions to our understanding of the quaternary history of the circum-Antarctic offshore region, and for engaging scores of undergraduates in the excitement of Antarctic paleoceanographic field work."
This year 702 members were awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. New Fellows will be honored on February 16 at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2013 AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston, Mass.
Domack was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in December, 2011. Specializing in the sediments, paleoenvironments, and glacial geology of the Southern Hemisphere, he has been the chief scientist aboard many research vessels to Antarctica. Over the last 15 years he has led more than 100 undergraduates to Antarctica as part of his NSF-sponsored research program. Domack has published many articles for journals such as Nature, Antarctic Science, Marine Geology, and Geological Society of America Bulletin, and has also edited the book, The Earth's Glacial Record.
Most recently, in October Domack undertook an 18-day cruise to Antarctica along with two Hamilton students and two alumni. The researchers were engaged in collecting and analyzing ocean floor sediment core samples from the western drainage of the Bruce Plateau Ice Dome. They plan to test findings from previous expeditions for which Domack served as principal investigator.
The team also installed a cGPS station, the seventh of its kind on the Antarctic Peninsula and a part of the cGPS network established by the LARISSA (LARsen Ice Shelf System, Antarctica) project. These stations continuously transmit meteorological data and elevation data to enable researchers to quantify crustal rebound and determine how it relates to warming and ice mass loss/gain on the Antarctic Peninsula.
The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by the steering groups of the Association's 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members, or by the AAAS chief executive officer.
The AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of one million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education and more.


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32" Sanyo LED HDTV
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- Resolution: 720p
- Refresh Rate: 60Hz
- HDMI inputs: 2
In a glossy black finish, this TV blends into the background when the lights are dimmed for your movies, sports, and favorite programs in your den or living room. Having a full array of HDMI, Component Audio/Video, Composite Audio/Video and RF inputs, you have plenty of options for DVD, VCR, Cable, Satellite and external antenna hookups. A coaxial digital audio output allows hookup to a home entertainment receiver amplifier system for theater-like sound. The USB input and Photo Viewer feature allows display of your digital camera photos for all too easily see. And with a thin space saving design and small footprint, it can be positioned anywhere. The detachable stand base allows it to be wall mounted with an optional VESA 100x100 wall mount kit (not included).
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- Resolution: 720p
- Refresh Rate: 60Hz
- 2 HDMI inputs
- 1 combo Component-Composite input
- USB input
- JPEG viewer
- 1 Digital Audio output
- Power requirement source: AC 120V, 60Hz
- AC Power consumption: 56 watts
FOR ONE YEAR from the date of original retail purchase, Sanyo Manufacturing Corporation (SMC) warrants this TV to be free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use and conditions for parts and labor. For the FIRST 90 DAYS from the date of the original retail purchase, Sanyo Manufacturing Corporation will replace any defective TV via exchange at the retailer.To ensure proper warranty application, keep the original–dated-sales receipt for evidence of purchase. The defective TV will be exchanged for the same model, or a replacement model of equal value, if necessary. Replacement model will be contingent upon availability and at the sole discretion of Sanyo Manufacturing Corporation.
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30.2"W x 7.0"D x 20.2"H
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Standard - 2 to 6 business days


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The French Quarter Festival summons unique music and an incredible amount of delicious food to New Orleans' French Quarter, during the weekend of April 7-10. This festival is a perfect place to discover the unique charm and beauty of the French Quarter.
The French Quarter Festival, with 17 stages and over 100 performers, is the biggest free music festival in the South! You'll hear many genres of music; jazz, gospel, brass band, cajun and zydeco and even a bit of classical. Some of our favorites include Kermit Ruffins, Bonerama, Baby Boyz Brass, Little Freddie King and Glen David Andrews.
An incredible array of food is offered at three beautiful venues: the old US Mint, Jackson Square, and the Woldenberg Riverfront Park – each only about 16 min from our Uptown bed and breakfast. The choices of food are endless and all worth a try. Get a taste of our unique culinary history while listening to some of the best music our country has to offer, but remember, the French Quarter Festival is a relay, not a sprint. So pace yourself, and split up your food with music and your music with food.
The French Quarter Festival is easy to get to, but not so easy to leave! Easy on the wallet but heavy on the heart, this festival will make you fall in love with the Big Easy.


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PER: Potchefstroomse Elektroniese Regsblad
versão On-line ISSN 1727-3781
PER vol.15 no.5 Potchefstroom Dez. 2012
Prof C Rautenbach
The last issue of 2012 boasts no less than twenty contributions covering a vast array of themes. The first contribution is a keynote speech delivered by Judge Dennis Davis, a Judge of the High Court, Cape Town and Judge President of the Competition Appeal Court. His speech was delivered on 16 November 2012 at the 3rd Human Rights Indaba on The Role of International Law in Understanding and Applying the Socio-economic Rights in South Africa's Bill of Rights co-hosted by the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation and the Faculty of Law of North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus. Judge Davis investigates the relationship between courts and the other arms of government in promoting and protecting socio-economic rights in South Africa and airs his views on the doctrine of the separation of powers.
The first two articles also deal with the increasingly volatile relationship between the executive and judiciary in South Africa. Both were co-authored by David Hulme and Stephen Peté of the University of KwaZulu-Natal and are published in two parts; part I and part II. The third article, co-authored by Abraham Hamman and Raymond Koen (both of the University of the Western Cape) identifies the dangers which money launderers pose to attorneys and highlights the need for vigilance in the face of these dangers. In the next article Stephanie Luiz comments generally on the definition of a scheme of arrangement as an "affected transaction" as defined in theCompanies Act 71 of 2008, highlighting the elements of a scheme of arrangement. In yet another co-authored article by Jeanette Weidemann (Candidate Attorney at Adams & Adams) and Leonie Stander (North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus) the authors are of the viewpoint that an analysis of the European and American approaches to cross-border insolvency matters will provide South African practitioners with valuable insight, knowledge and lessons that could be used to understand and apply the principles adopted and applied in terms of international instruments. Anél Terblanche and Gerrit Pienaar of the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus) argue that a human rights-based approach to food security will add the dimensions of dignity, transparency, accountability, participation and empowerment to food-security initiatives, and discuss the manifold ways in which such an approach can be accommodated in a proposed framework law as a national legislative measure. The uncertainties regarding the functional areas and authorities of the three spheres of government in the context of planning law are examined by Jeannie van Wyk of UNISA. The article of Yeukai Mupangavanhu of the University of the Western Cape analyses the dispute settlement mechanisms available under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008. He argues for a narrow interpretation of the relevant sections of the Act to ensure that the consumer protection institutions are exhausted before the ordinary courts are approached. The Consumer Protection Act is also the focus of Jacolien Barnard of the University of Pretoria. She gives a comparative overview of the influence of the Act on the common law warranty against eviction. Amanda Boniface of UNISA compares the difference in mediation styles of communities following African and Western lifestyles with the focus on divorce and family mediation. The right to terminate a pregnancy versus foetal interests in terms of The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act 92 of 1996 is investigated by Camilla Pickles of the University of Pretoria. Stephan Terblanche of UNISA's article, which promises to be the first in a series of discussions dealing with the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008, deals with the sentencing of a child offender in a child justice court in terms of section 68 of the Act. The last article of this issue considers the consequences of section 35(5) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, that governs the exclusion of unconstitutionally obtained evidence in criminal trials. Dane Ally of the Tshwane University of Technology asks if the "effect" or "social costs" of exclusion, which consist of the "seriousness of the charge faced by the accused" and the "importance of the evidence to secure a conviction", should not be used as factors to argue that certain unconstitutionally obtained evidence should be permitted in a court of law.
Four case notes are published in this issue. The first one is by Puseletso Thejane (Rankoane) of the University of the Witwatersrand. He discusses Pillay v Shaik 2009 4 SA 74 (SCA), which dealt with the doctrine of quasi-mutual assent in contract law. The second note is co-authored by Nic Olivier (University of Pretoria), Clara Williams (University of Pretoria) and Pieter Badenhorst(Deakin University, Australia) and deals with the principles applicable to the granting of mining rights or mining permits by the Minister of Mineral Resources in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 as decided in Maccsand (Pty) Ltd v City of Cape Town 2012 (4) SA 181 (CC). Thirdly, Siyambonga Heleba of the University of Johannesburg reviews the question of costs in constitutional litigation as dealt with in Christian Roberts v Minister of Social Development Case No 32838/05 (2010) (TPD). In the last case note, Steve Cornelius of the University of Pretoria evaluates the mora debitors and the principle of strict liability, which formed the crux of the matter in Scoin Trading (Pty) Ltd v Bernstein 2011 2 SA 118 (SCA).
Two book reviews are also published in this voluminous issue. Hein Lubbe of the University of the North-West (Potchefstroom Campus) reviews H Tonkin's State Control over Private Military and Security Companies in Armed Conflict published by Cambridge University Press in 2011.Najma Moosa of the University of the Western Cape reviews the book The Future of African Customary Law co-edited by J Fenrich P Galizzi and TE Higgins. The book was also published in 2011 by Cambridge University Press.


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Well you asked for it now you have it. I will be featuring some of the best Cape Ann talent out there. This area has a multitude of artistic people. Musicians, artists, photographers , etc. Please let me know what you think. I think this can be a regular thing. There sure are enough musicians in this area and I have tons of their music.
Inge Berge resides in Cape Ann. Born in Norway, Inge's music is original and unique. This Track is called Whispers and Screams and features Inge on Guitar and vocals. Mike Lindberg on Sax, and Leo Sharamitaro on drums. You can check out Inge's schedule at ingebergeworld.com.


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why are graduating seniors struggling?" -Joe Ganem
Three surprising reasons why
We are in the midst of paradox in math education. As more states strive to improve math curricula and raise standardized test scores, more students show up to college unprepared for college-level math. The failure of pre-college math education has profound implications for the future of physics programs in the United States. A recent article in my local paper, the Baltimore Sun: "A Failing Grade for Maryland Math," highlighted this problem that I believe is not unique to Maryland. It prompted me to reflect on the causes.
The newspaper article explained that the math taught in Maryland high schools is deemed insufficient by many colleges. According to the article 49% of high school graduates in Maryland take non-credit remedial math courses in college before they can take math courses for credit. In many cases incoming college students cannot do basic arithmetic even after passing all the high school math tests. The problem appears to be worsening and students are unaware of their lack of math understanding. The article reported that students are actually shocked when they are placed into remedial math.
The article did not shock me. It described my observations exactly. In recent years I've witnessed first hand the disconnect between the high school and college math curricula. As a parent of three children with current ages 14, 17, and 20, I've done my share of tutoring for middle school and high school math and I know how little understanding is conveyed in those math classes. Ironically much of the problem arises from a blind focus on raising math standards.
For example, the problems assigned to my children have become progressively more difficult through the years to the point of being bizarre. My wife keeps shaking her head at how parents without my level of math expertise assist their children. My eighth-grade daughter asked me one evening how to perform matrix inversions. I teach matrix inversion in my sophomore-level mathematical methods course for physics majors. It is difficult for me to do matrix inversions off the top of my head. I needed to refresh my memory by pulling Boas' book: Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences off my shelf. Not exactly eighth grade reading material.
On another night my eighth-grader brought home a word problem that read: If John can complete the same work in 2 hours and that it takes Mary 5 hours to complete, how much time will it take to complete the work if John and Mary work together? That's an easy problem if you know about rate equations. Add the reciprocals of 2 and 5 and reciprocate back to get the total time. However it took me a lot of thought to arrive at an explanation of my method comprehensible to an eighth-grader.
My other daughter struggled through a high-school trigonometry course filled with problems that I might assign to my upper-class physics majors. I certainly wouldn't assign problems at such a high level to college freshmen. I kept asking her how she was taught to do the problems. I wondered if the teacher knew special techniques unknown to me that made solving them much easier. Alas no such techniques ever materialized. The problems were as difficult as I judged. At least I could solve the problems, a feat the teacher couldn't manage in a number of cases.
For example one problem involved proving a complicated trigonometric identity. My daughter brought it to me saying she had tried but couldn't find a solution. I saw immediately that the textbook had an error that rendered the problem meaningless. One side of the problem had a combination of trigonometric functions with odd symmetry and for the other side the symmetry was clearly even. I told her it was not an identity and that fact could be proven with a simple numerical substitution on each side. If it is an identity the equality condition must hold for all values of the angle. A single numerical counter example proves that it is not an identity. It only took one try to find a counter example.
The next day she reported to me that the teacher couldn't solve the problem.
"Did you tell him that it is impossible?" I asked.
"I told him it was not an identity and if he put numbers in he would find that out. He didn't believe me. He just said 'We'll see'."
The teacher never talked about that problem again. He did teach the class about the symmetry properties of trigonometric functions but evidently he didn't understand the usefulness of that knowledge.
At the same time I work the summer orientation sessions at Loyola College registering incoming freshmen for classes. Time and again students cannot pass the placement exam for college calculus. Many students cannot pass the exam for pre-calculus and that saddles them with a non-credit remedial math course--the problem described in the newspaper article. Without the ability to take college-level math the choices students have for majors are severely limited. No college-level math course means not majoring in any of the sciences, engineering, computer, business, or social science programs.
A colleague in the engineering department who also works summer orientation complained to me that many students who wanted to major in engineering could not place into calculus. The engineering program is structured so that no calculus means no physics freshman year and no physics means no engineering courses until it's too late to complete the program in four years. For all practical purposes readiness for calculus as an entering freshman determines choice of major and career. The math placement test given to incoming freshmen at orientation has much higher stakes than any test given in high school. But, the placement test has no course grade or teacher evaluation associated with it. No one but the student has any responsibility for or stake in its outcome.
Through the years I've found it discouraging as a faculty member to see so many high aspirations dashed at orientation before classes even begin. I tell students with poor math placement scores to go home, review high school math over the summer and take the test again. But, few take my advice. Most students with poor placement scores switch to majors that do not have significant math requirements.
So if eighth graders are taught math at the level of a college sophomore why are graduating seniors struggling? How can students who have studied college level math for years need remedial math when they finally arrive at college? From my knowledge of both curricula I see three problems.
1. Confusing difficulty with rigor. It appears to me that the creators of the grade school math curricula believe that "rigor" means pushing students to do ever more difficult problems at a younger age. It's like teaching difficult concerti to novice musicians before they master the basics of their instruments. Rigor-defined by the dictionary in the context of mathematics as a "scrupulous or inflexible accuracy"-is best obtained by learning age-appropriate concepts and techniques. Attempting difficult problems without the proper foundation is actually an impediment to developing rigor.
Rigor is critical to math and science because it allows practitioners to navigate novel problems and still arrive at a correct answer. But if the novel problems are so difficult that a higher authority must always be consulted, rigorous thinking will never develop. The student will see mathematical reasoning as a mysterious process that only experts with advanced degrees consulting books filled with incomprehensible hieroglyphics can fathom. Students need to be challenged but in such a way that they learn independent thinking. Pushing problems that are always beyond their ability to comprehend teaches dependence-the opposite of what is needed to develop rigor.
2. Mistaking process for understanding. Just because a student can perform a technique that solves a difficult problem doesn't mean that he or she understands the problem. There is a delightful story recounted by Richard Feynman in his book: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character, that recounts an arithmetic competition between him and an abacus salesman. (The incident happened in the 1950's before the invention of calculators.)
The salesman came into a bar and wanted to demonstrate the superiority of his device to the proprietors through a timed competition on various kinds of arithmetic problems. Feynman was asked to do the pencil and paper arithmetic so that the salesman could demonstrate that his method was much faster. Feynman lost when the problems were simple addition. But he was very competitive at multiplication and won easily at the apparently impossible task of finding a cubed root. The salesman was totally bewildered by the outcome and left completely discouraged. How could Feynman have a comparative advantage at hard problems when he lagged far behind at the easy ones?
Months later the salesman met Feynman at a different bar and asked him how he could do the cubed root so quickly. But when Feynman tried to explain his reasoning he discovered the salesman had no understanding of arithmetic. All he did was move beads on an abacus. It was not possible for Feynman to teach the salesman additional mathematics because despite appearances he understood absolutely nothing. The salesman left even more discouraged than before.
This is the problem with teaching eighth-graders techniques such as matrix inversion. The arithmetic steps can be memorized but it will be a long time, if ever, before the concept and motivation for the process is understood. That raises the question of what exactly is being accomplished with such a curricula? Learning techniques without understanding them does no good in preparing students for college. At the college level emphasis is on understanding, not memorization and computational prowess.
3. Teaching concepts that are developmentally inappropriate. Teaching advanced algebra in middle school pushes concepts on students that are beyond normal development at that age. Walking is not taught to six-month olds and reading is not taught to two-year olds because children are not developmentally ready at those ages for those skills. When it comes to math, all teachers dream of arriving at a crystal clear explanation of a concept that will cause an immediate "aha" moment for the student. But those flashes of insight cannot happen until the student is developmentally ready. Because math involves knowledge and understanding of symbolic representations for abstract concepts it is extremely difficult to short cut development.
When I tutored my other daughter in seventh grade algebra, in her words she "found it creepy" that I knew how to do every single problem in her rather large textbook. When I related the remark to a fellow physicist he said: "But its algebra. There are only three or four things you have to know." Yes, but it took me years of development before I understood there were only a few things you had to know to do algebra. I can't tell my seventh grader or anyone else without the proper developmental background the few things you have to know for algebra and send them off to do every problem in the book.
All three of these problems are the result of the adult obsession with testing and the need to show year-to-year improvement in test scores. Age-appropriate development and understanding of mathematical concepts does not advance at a rate fast enough to please test-obsessed lawmakers. But adults using test scores to reward or punish other adults are doing a disservice to the children they claim to be helping.
It does not matter the exact age that you learned to walk. What matters is that you learned to walk at a developmentally appropriate time. To do my job as a physicist I need to know matrix inversion. It didn't hurt my career that I learned that technique in college rather than in eighth grade. What mattered was that I understood enough about math when I got to college that I could take calculus. Memorizing a long list of advanced techniques to appease test scorers does not constitute an understanding.
Joseph Ganem is a professor of physics at Loyola University Maryland and author of the award-winning book: The Two Headed Quarter: How to See Through Deceptive Numbers to Save Money on Everything You Buy, that teaches quantitative reasoning applied to financial decisions.
Previously Published by The Daily Riff 4/15/10
Originally published by APS Physics.org
Related post on The Daily Riff:
Why Other Countries Do Better in Math: Should Parents "Race to the Tutor?"


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Dell Inspiron 13Z 13" Laptop Computer, Intel Core i5-3337U, 6GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive
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- 3rd Gen Intel Core i5-3337U
- 500GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
- Intel HD Graphics 4000 (IB)
- 6GB Memory
- 13" HD WLED with Truelife
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current price: $449.00
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text:
Friday, May 30, 2014
Consensus or not in Ontario?
The projection has swung wildly again with the addition of this poll. But it is less a product of the tendency of the model to lurch back and forth with every single survey (Ipsos now occupies 57% of the projection, so plenty of room for the other numbers) than it is a sign of just how different the likely voter numbers are from the rest of the field.
The last EKOS survey had the Liberals at 36%. The last Abacus poll of likely voters also had the Liberals at 36%. And yesterday's Forum poll, which bakes in a turnout model into the overall numbers, also had the Liberals at 36%. So, Ipsos having the party at just 29% among likely voters causes a bit of a swing.
The PCs have now moved ahead again with 38.6%, a gain of 3.6 points since yesterday's update. Their range now stands at 37% to 42%. The Liberals dropped 3.8 points to 32.1%, or between 31% and 35%, while the NDP increased by 2.4 points to 23.4% (or between 22% and 25%). The Greens are down 2.2 points to 4.8%, or between 3% and 6%.
In the seat count, the Tories are up eight to 51, or between 39 and 57 seats, just potentially getting them over the majority threshold of 54 seats. The Liberals fell 13 seats to 36, or between 38 and 48, while the NDP picked up five to reach 20, or between 17 and 25.
So is this a case of the polls disagreeing with one another again? Not exactly. The polls are now in general agreement on the state of the race, in that it is close and somewhere around 35% for the two leading parties. But the way likely voters are estimated is different from one poll to the next, a difference that perhaps has a much more significant effect on the numbers than the methodological variations between telephone and online polling.
EKOS will be coming out with likely voter numbers before the end of the campaign, so we will see what method they are employing. Forum uses a likely voter model, but it is a 'secret sauce' and we know nothing about it. Abacus asks respondents a half-dozen questions relating to commitment and interest in the election, and bases their estimate on how likely a respondent is to vote on that. Ipsos asks survey takers how likely they are to vote, only counting those who say that 'nothing short of an emergency' would prevent them from voting to come to their likely voter tally. That number is tracking with turnout from 2011, so on the face of it could be an effective model.
This makes it not entirely about disagreement among polls but rather the models used for estimating turnout. The two are very different. We can only wait until June 12 to see which model was the best.
May 20-21, and since then recorded a one-point gain for the PCs, who led with 36%. The Liberals were up three points to 34%, followed by the NDP at 23%, down five points. Support for other parties was up one point to 7%, and 17% of the entire sample was undecided.
Only the drop in support for the NDP would be outside the margin of error of a probabilistic sample of this size.
Among likely voters, the Tories were steady at 41%, with the Liberals and NDP each down one point to 29% and 25%, respectively. Stability here, then, which would suggest that while unlikely voters may be moving towards the Liberals (the party has gained in two consecutive Ipsos polls), those who are most likely to cast a ballot are sticking with their preferred choice.
Regionally, the PCs were in front in central, eastern, and southwestern Ontario, while the Liberals led in the GTA and the NDP in the north. The Liberal lead in the 905 region of the GTA is the first that Ipsos has recorded since the beginning of the campaign.
The disparity between the results among eligible and likely voters makes this poll a difficult one to put into context. It is certainly a relief to see the eligible numbers squaring with those from other surveys, as it means we now have a better understanding of what is going on. But the likely voter numbers are still extraordinary for the PCs, and like nothing other polls are showing (even those that explicitly or implicitly account for turnout). For now, we can simply say that turnout will be key, both in terms of pollster accuracy and the election outcome.
36 comments:
Turnout will be important, alright. But so will the last-minute impact of media reporting on polling. If the final polls show a significant Tory trend, watch for the opposite to develop, in response, on election day. Watch this space, everyone.ReplyDelete
With the reported numbers, I get:ReplyDelete
With likely-voters, I get:
And the 308-aggregated gets me:
It seems a bit crazy that, with a 12% lead and sitting at 41%, the PCs wouldn't get a majority. I didn't look at the riding numbers, so maybe a lot of very close races that are predicted as lost, but still, it seems to me they should easily have their majority...Replies
From what I've heard Ipsos' numbers show things as being pretty polarized regionally.Delete
I was wondering about your riding numbers and Kitchener-Waterloo. I remember you mentioned the other day that you had Kitchener-Waterloo not very close and Eric had them going to the NDP. I was wondering what you were using as your baseline, are using the by-election results where the NDP won or if are using the general election results where the PCs won?Delete
I don't use the regional numbers, so those can't influence my model. Region definition is sometimes too sketchy and number of people polled is too small.Delete
As for by-elections, I don't use those either. They are different beasts entirely with messages being sent to parties where, very often, things go back to normal during a general election. I could potentially add them, but count them less than general elections, but that's only my second election (Québec being the first), I'll see about upgrading it after.
Seems to me that Ipsos' methodology is biased towards the conservatives. By taking only those most likely to vote, are ignoring those only somewhat likely to vote, they are capturing only a part of the population that will actually vote, a part which we know leans more towards the conservatives than the rest of the actual voting population.ReplyDelete
Seems that it would be better to model for each respondent a probability of voting and use those as weights. That way you're not ignoring big swaths of the population.Replies
I think the counter argument is that a lot of people in opinion polls seem to over estimate their likelihood of voting. Turnout is likely to be below 50% for this election so a model that only counts the 51% of respondents who said they are certain to vote seems like a pretty reasonable method to try and identify likely voters. Having said all that, I suspect someone who is willing to do an online poll about an election is probably a bit more interested in politics and therefore more likely to vote, so I could see a rational for increasing the likely voter model a little bit. However, the problem is this increases your projection of how many people in the panel will turn out from 51% to 81%. (the next question reads: I would do my best to vote, but sometimes things get in the way). This just seems to high for me. I suspect you may be curious, as I was, what happens If you add these individuals into the likely voter model. The results, if you add these next individuals into the likely voter model and count them fully, is PC 38%, Liberal 33% NDP 23%. If you want to weight them the result would be somewhere between those numbers and the numbers Ipsos provides depending on how heavily you weight them.Delete
Thanks for your efforts, Eric. Again, the polling firms seem to be operating within their own biases. What gives? Left leaning Ekos has the Libs in front and right leaning Ipsos puts the Tories in front. The political affiliation of the firms is now a greater independent variable than recency/time. Maybe that should be factored into your weighting system! :-)ReplyDelete
I would love to know how Ipsos is finding their respondents. Internet is not like IVR, you can't just go into 1000 random homes and ask for their opinions over the internet. Obviously it's a sampling of people who are hitting particular websites. And from the last Ipsos poll, we can only conclude it's the same websites. Thus you're only going to get the people who hit those websites. Not exactly random.ReplyDelete
just reinforces that with an apathetic electorate, parties' GOTV efforts in key ridings will be the difference between victory and defeat.ReplyDelete
Ping pong. Welcome to Ontario where we're watching a riveting game of three-way table tennis. Who's ahead? You decide! Today it's, oh, never mind, it just changed again. I'm pretty sure the average voter out there is desperately looking for Premier Above, first name "None of," last seen in the mid-80s in Ontario ....ReplyDelete
The Ipsos poll seems to consistently show the PCs doing better than the others. Is this polling company really very reliable?ReplyDelete
I thought the mess with the PC's being unable to read at a grade 3 level (mixing up years with jobs) would kill them, but it seems to have had a media life measured in hours vs the latest story on the Liberals (leaked by the PC's and saved for just such an emergency it seems) blowing over $300 million to help out MaRS by buying an office tower.ReplyDelete
Sigh. The way the media lets the big parties (especially the PC's in this case) manipulate them is scary. Btw, I do feel both are scandals worthy of coverage but it blows my mind that a party could be taken serious that makes such a basic mistake as the PC's did on their core platform.Replies
Probably has something to do with the Liberals already being scandal ridden, people still remembering the billions wasted on the gas plant cancellation, etc etc. The Tories aren't in power with no track record to go on, so any debate over the validity of their platform is just an intellectual exercise based on opinion and conjecture among people of differing political viewpoints. Contrast this with the MaRS "scandal" which is yet another situation where the Liberals are perceived to be wasting taxpayer money with little regard for the public. The media loves a good scandal.Delete
There's no scandal in a platform being torn to pieces, that's par for the course during every election. There is a scandal when a government is perceived to have 'wasted' more money. And the media loves a good scandal, that much should be obvious.
Interesting -- who has the better ground game?ReplyDelete
How to do you weight the polls given that some have all voters and some have likely voters? To me it seems they are measuring different things so should have a different impact on the model. The everyone surveys should be a more accurate general reflection of overall public opinion because less is done to the numbers and therefore less added statistical error. On the other hand they are not usefully measuring how people will vote.ReplyDelete
Is there a track record weighting that comes into play that is different between the Likely and Eligible voter models? There is a much longer track record for the Eligible. Do you have a default reduction weighting for new polling companies or for new methodologies?
I work in the OPS, and I'm junior enough that a big jobs cut may see me unemployed, so naturally I'm drawn to any site that projects the election. I have to say, while I love the site, dude, you're killing me. One day the Liberals are up, and I think, hooray, I'm safe! The next, I wonder how long EI benefits will last.ReplyDeleteReplies
I wish you the best of luck whatever happens but, being a junior civil servant may actually save your job. When I worked for the feds during a time of layoffs it was the senior people who the Government wanted out because, they get paid far more. 1 senior layoff usually is enough to employ two junior people. Plus due top the way the pension system used to work federally if you work 35 years you receive 75% of your best 5 years as pension but, if you work 34 years you only received 60% plus a small top up. Nowadays everything is based on years; 1 year equals 2% of salary so if you work 25 years you receive 50% of your salary as a pension.Delete
I am in the Solar business and have same experience this time aroundDelete
My (I think informed) intuition is that Ipsos' likely voter screen is terrible. The problem is that while the "emergency only" people will mostly vote, so will many of their other respondents (their unlikely voters), especially in the second category ("do my best"). The fact that the first category matches expected turnout well is because the people in their panel will certainly vote at a much higher rate than the general public because people who do online political polls are considerably more interested in politics than average. One hint at the problem is that Ipsos has 58% of men but only 44% of women as likely voters, when women consistently vote at least as much as men. I think Ipsos may be headed for a rude surprise on election day.ReplyDeleteReplies
Not to be pedantic or a "spelling Nazi" but, intuition can never be informed. Its very nature and meaning is that it is understood without the need of conscious reasoning-it is immediately known!Delete
I don't see how NDP numbers increase when using likely voters. The evidence from polls and BC suggest the opposite. We know the NDP does better among the young and we also know from Elections Canada and others that only about 15% of the 18-24 year olds vote, we know that 25-35 year old have the second lowest turnout rate. It makes me think that these "likely numbers" are likely not correct!ReplyDelete
It has always puzzled me how online can be accurate at all isn't there an inherent self-selection bias? What's Ipsos' track record with this method? I'm not discounting their results at all but they have since the beginning had much different results than the rest of the pack.ReplyDelete
Either we've got a revolutionary new model for polling in Canada, or they're dead wrong. It'll be really interesting to see which it is.Replies
The problem with all polling now is that it really, really hard to get a true random statistical sample.Delete
For online polling what matters is how large pool they have to draw from and how they populate their pool. EKOS and Ipsos work to build a large pool of people and use methods of recruitment that offer diversity. Is it perfect? Likely not, but it is what works at the moment.
With phone polling the companies have a much easier time get people 55+ to respond than any other demographic which means they need to weight their results a lot to reflect the over all public.
Can someone else verify that the Ipsos likely voters N is really 439, not the 868 which is the full sample (and which had only a 2% gap) and which is the number in Eric's table. And, perhaps Eric might explain why only the "likely" numbers are used in your running calculations and not the full sample? it was the same poll, done at the same time, wasn't it?ReplyDeleteReplies
As I've explained many times, I use the likely voter numbers from any pollster when available, because I am trying to project the outcome of the election in which only a portion of the electorate will vote, rather than the opinions of 100% of the electorate.Delete
For the poll table, I record the total sample size of the poll, including undecideds.
Sorry, but it seems to me from Ipsos table that the N for the likely also includes undecideds. It would be an easy thing to simply put the N for the subtotal used for the likely next to the total N (in parenthesis) so as not to unintentionally mislead since the N for the likely is given and is clearly NOT the N for the whole survey.Delete
Also, can someone explain why Ipsos likely %s vary so much from the others? Is their likely sample demographically different in some significant way?
Eric, have you added the forum northern poll into the model? I don't think it will make a huge difference as you have the same results in your riding predictions as forum but I am curious if you've included it.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous30 May, 2014 19:41
The east numbers are way too high. No way they get 56% if including Ottawa and KingstonReplyDelete
cre47 If you remove Ottawa and Kingston which are municipal zones you will discover that Eastern Ontario votes solidly PC. I know, I live here.ReplyDelete
Urban Ottawa and Kingston haven't voted PC in a million years (Ottawa-Vanier has never voted anything but Liberal since its creation almost 100 years ago). If they over-polled from Lanark county and the Ottawa Valley, then this puts the East numbers out of whack in this poll.ReplyDeleteReplies
Ottawa -Vanier votes Liberal due to its large francophone and Catholic community. John Baird is M.P. for Ottawa West Nepean. The Tories won 4 Ottawa ridings in 2011.Delete
In addition other than Kingston Eastern Ontario voted solidly conservative. Urban Ottawa either has 4 or 7 ridings depending on one's definition. Ottawa South is a swing riding as is evident from the 33% the Conservatives took in the 2011 election. Provincially Ottawa South was solidly Conservative until Dalton Sr. usurped the riding in1987.Delete
The reality is Tories do better in urban areas than many on the left wish to believe. 56% in the East may be an over-sample or an outlier but, it is probable the PCs will garner 30% of the vote or better in "urban Ottawa"
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Magician-daredevil David Blaine is ready to shock people.
Blaine is returning to New York City on October 5 for a three-day, three-night stunt called 'Electrified: One Million Volts Always On'. It will be streamed live.
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Blaine's last stunt was hanging upside down without a net high over New York's Central Park for 60 hours in 2008. But the grand finale of the "Dive of Death" stunt didn't go according to plan.
His other stunts include holding his breath underwater for 17 minutes and 4 seconds, being buried alive for a week in a see-through coffin and being encased in a block of ice for 63 hours.


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A++ has designed a new set of 50 Sustainable Modular Lightweigth (SML) houses for a project located in the city of Melaka in the south-west of Malaysia. The project maintains a light ecological footprint by employing a variety of green building strategies and systems – including an on-site river filtrating system. The homes are also designed to mitigate the region's strong rain and intense sun with roof-mounted solar photovoltaic systems and hydroelectric generators.
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text:
The Best Red Carpet Fashion at the Emmys 2012
The 15 Most Fashion-Forward Looks at the Emmys
The 15 Most Fashion-Forward Looks at the Emmys
This year's Emmys may just have been the most fashionable yet. Christian Dior, Zac Posen, Jason Wu, and Dolce & Gabbana were all well-represented on the red carpet, and even better, the amount of stars who bucked the trend for cookie-cutter glamour and weren't afraid to experiment a bit seemed higher than ever. Perhaps it's all those front-row seats at Fashion Week and darkly dramatic magazine covers (ahem, Michelle Dockery)? Whatever the reason, it's definitely all for the better. Herein, our picks for who nailed it at the 2012 Emmys.


text:
So some of you reading this will have seen this thread I started a while back suggesting that the Ion platform would translate into a great all round/all mountain 29er.
I've called this bike/model/project Ion15 29 but not sure what we/Nicolai will end up calling it, it'll do for now.
Some background:
In late 2011 I started thinking about a longer travel 29er for my type of riding and for racing Enduro on fast flowing trails. This kind of bike just wasn't available on the market, 150mm travel, light, long, low, maneuverable and with the ability to go slack.
I had a lot of discussion with Whafe, Cyril and Dipper particularly, but others too off this forum and many, many emails to and from Nicolai.
Whafe had pioneered the genre with Nicolai, but I didn't want such a hard hitting bike with the weight that brings, it had to be light enough for big days out with a lot of uphill, basically Enduro racing and all round riding. Cyril had commissioned a similar bike for Enduro so we discussed his design and specification, oh did I mention it had to be slack...
So eventually Nicolai and I settled on geometry, pretty short chainstays, head angles that allowed a lot of flexibility using an angleset/front shock mounts, low BB, long top tube for short stem/wide bar and a target of as close to 150mm travel at the rear as possible.
In early 2012 this bike arrived and I've spent the year thrashing it, messing about with geometry and learning. It was specified to be really flexible in terms of angles but in a way that wouldn't screw up the riding position/handling so I could get a good idea of what worked and what I really wanted/thought would make it ideal for Enduro and fast all round riding in all kinds of terrain. As an aside the build came in at 28.5lbs with pedals and a dropper post. Not too shabby.
So fairly quickly I started to get a good idea of the geo and features I wanted.The geo and angles the likes of Cyril and I have moved to with the custom bikes has now materialised in the 2013 AC, they are pretty close, so Nicolai listen, are open to trying and testing stuff, this is good! Mine has a little more travel and is a little slacker but pretty close. There are some things I wanted to change though...
So mid 2012 I started thinking, Some of the things I wanted weren't available when I asked....then the Ion16 surfaced and I started the Ion15 29 thread..
Well a few other Nicolai enthusiasts expressed serious interest in trying to progress the idea and we gained a little internal momentum.
So with the prospect of more than one order for a bike of this nature I approached Nicolai....
The future:
After kicking off some dialogue with Marcel at Nicolai, submitting some design parameters and then Marcel talking to Vincent and Kalle, it would appear that we have the go ahead for this project from the top man.
Based on the key design objectives of long TopTube, low BB and slack with 150mm of travel at the rear, the ability to take up to a 160mm fork (Due 2013), chain stays that can take a 2.4 Maxxis Ardent/2.35 Hans Dampf but are as short as practical, keeping the new bush design, eccentric shock mount, no front mech so no constraints etc.
This is NOT intended to be a DH 29er but more an AM that can be built with the latest 1x10 kit and light but stiff wheels to create a bike that you can ride all day, uphill too, and then hammer the descents, much like the new 16.
Nicolai have concluded that design and machining changes to the shock lever, BB/seat tube area are needed, probably some shock curve analysis to make sure we are getting the right suspension characteristics in addition to the usual geometry etc possibly some tube changes to accommodate a max 571mm A2C fork.
So Nicolai have suggested we document the whole process here, with their full support. That means factory photos and insight into the whole process from this initial idea, through the design process, the engineering development and production, hopefully concluding in April 2013 with the new ION 15 29 hitting the trail, maybe getting first dirt under the tyres around Nicolai HQ, you never know.
I think this is a fantastic opportunity, and kudos to Nicolai, to provide an insight into everything that goes into taking a bike from idea to trail with a customer directly involved, including photos and words from the factory all the way through. The whole story.
So far Whafe, Dipper and myself are in for this. Any others interested please let me know. Obviously we will have individual requirements in terms of sizing like top tube/seat tube lengths etc but the key design objectives and frame features are shared.
I'll post up the initial tech specifications soon and we will go from there. This thing is gonna rip..
- Home


text:
LONDON (Reuters) - By the end of U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney's first full day in London on Thursday, he had been the target of a verbal jab from the British prime minister and had been mocked by the city's mayor, who spoke before a cheering crowd.
So it is safe to say that Romney's trip - carefully choreographed to boost his image on an international stage - has not gone exactly as planned.
The Republican ruffled British feathers by appearing to suggest in a U.S. television interview on Wednesday that London was not ready for the Games, whose opening ceremony in the British capital is on Friday.
"It's hard to know just how well it will turn out," Romney, who led the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002, told NBC News of London's Olympic preparations. "There are a few things that were disconcerting," including the threat of a strike by immigration and customs officials.
The comments provoked an uproar in the feisty British media and drew a biting response from Prime Minister David Cameron, one of the government officials with whom Romney met briefly on Thursday.
Cameron, who was forced to deploy extra troops to bolster security at the Olympics to cover a shortfall left by a private contractor, defended Britain's handling of the Games and seemed to suggest that the challenge was significantly greater than what Romney faced at Salt Lake City's much smaller Winter Games a decade ago.
"We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world," the Conservative prime minister said during a news conference at the Olympic Park in London. "Of course, it is easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere."
London Mayor Boris Johnson cast aside diplomatic niceties when addressing a cheering crowd in Hyde Park, an Olympics venue in central London.
"I hear there's a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we're ready," Johnson said, in a moment that could have been scripted as a commercial for U.S. President Barack Obama, Romney's opponent in the November 6 election.
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The scene, and Cameron's remarks, put Romney in damage control mode at the start of a foray to Britain, Israel and Poland that is scheduled to be light on policy pronouncements and heavy on photo opportunities and fundraising.
Romney, who has made much of his record in helping to save the failing Salt Lake Games, predicted the London Games will be highly successful.
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Romney has traded on his Olympic stint in a political career that has included serving as the governor of Massachusetts. He often cites his Salt Lake City experience as a key reason why he has the can-do spirit to rebuild the U.S. economy.
His comments about the London Games followed what already had been an inauspicious start to his week-long overseas trip, designed in part to establish his foreign policy credentials with voters back home.
Romney had to disavow comments by an unidentified adviser who told the Daily Telegraph that Obama, the United States' first African-American president, had mishandled U.S.-British ties and that Romney better understood the "Anglo-Saxon heritage" between the two countries.
On Thursday, Romney also took the unusual step of acknowledging that he had met with the head of MI6, Britain's secretive foreign intelligence agency, when asked about his discussions with British officials about Syria.
Such conversations are not normally discussed publicly by government leaders.
"I can only say that I appreciated the insights and the perspectives of the leaders of the government here and opposition here as well as the head of MI6 as we discussed Syria and hoped for a more peaceful future for that country," he said.
Romney also is using his visit to raise campaign cash from Americans living in Britain, and plans to pull in about $2 million to add to his huge campaign war chest.
The Republican was careful to avoid criticizing Obama while abroad, but in his fundraising speech he did pledge to restore to the White House a bust of Winston Churchill that Obama sent back to the British government when he took office in 2009.
"I'm looking forward to the bust of Winston Churchill being in the Oval Office again," Romney said.
Romney's discussions with British officials, including Cameron, Labour Party leader Ed Miliband of the opposition, and others were dominated by the Eurozone crisis and its impact on the British and U.S. economies, a senior Romney adviser said.
Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Tunisia, Egypt and Afghanistan all came up during the discussions, but Romney would not talk about specific policy proposals to avoid any appearance of critiquing Obama, the adviser said.
Romney, who polls indicate is in a tight race with Obama, is due to leave London on Saturday for Israel.
(Editing by Jon Boyle, David Lindsey and Mohammad Zargham)
Updated Date: Jul 30, 2012 14:30:08 IST


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A call for all Letters of Intent for the Board of Directors is being made. Please send all of your letters to me at firstname.lastname@example.com and I will post them here. The dead line for all letters are August 30th so that they may be published for the Imperial Estates Meeting, with the new officers taking effect January 1st, 2010.
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Pare the zest from all the lemons, taking care not to include any white pith. Put the zest in a large clean jar and pour over the vodka. Cover with a tightly fitting lid and leave for a week, shaking the jar each day.
Put the sugar in a heatproof bowl and pour over the boiling water, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Add the vodka and peels and leave for a further week, shaking the jar regularly.
Strain into decorative bottles, adding a few strips of lemon zest to each bottle.
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7th Nov, 2017
This was delicious, with a few tweaks made after reading some of the advice. I am a little greedy and made more with 1.5 litres of vodka and 7 lemons, 1050mls water and 900g of sugar. (less than recipe). I made a mistake and took the lemon zest out when i added the water. Despite this is was delicious and still sweet enough.
11th Feb, 2016
My daughter made this for Christmas and we have just made another two batches. We used basic vodka from a discounter as it came out well in a recent vodka review. Easy to make and superior to most of the supermarket ones I've tried. It does not have the same chemically created yellowness as the bought stuff but that's got to be a good thing.


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It wasn't Owen Smith's short stature that got him in trouble with his 6-foot, 1-inch boss.
Smith, 28, was born a woman, but was in the process of transitioning to a man. He worked at a coffee shop in Maryland, where his boss, he said, was not sympathetic.
"He called me he-she and other inappropriate things in front of my co-workers and customers," said Smith. "He'd yell it across the coffee shop. It got so bad he got physically violent," he said. "He shoved me into a refrigerator."
A first-ever report that will be made public this week paints a bleak picture of life as a transgender person in the United States.
The survey, "Injustice at Every Turn," says discrimination is pervasive. Most respondents said they lived in extreme poverty, and many reported attempting suicide.
The National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force surveyed 6,450 -- those who were transgendered or non-gender conforming.
They revealed harassment in education, employment, housing and health care, as well as in the government and prison systems.
The report concluded that "nearly every system and institution" in the United States discriminated against the transgendered.
Transgender people are becoming a more visible segment of the population and have triggered a national conversation about fair and equal treatment.
Just this week LGBT groups have asked for an apology from NBC's "Saturday Night Live" for airing a mock ad for ad for "Estro-Maxx," ridiculing transgender women.
The fake commercial for estrogen replacement therapy showed men with facial hair wearing dresses.
"Dehumanizing, holding people up for ridicule simply on the basis of their identity, fuels a dangerous and hurtful climate and puts people in danger, especially given how infrequently the media shines a fair and accurate light on the lives of transgender people," responded the Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)."
Smith said he was also appalled, though not surprised.
"It's a really good example of how the mainstream views transgendered people as a joke they can make fun of," he said.
"It's hard to come out and to start being the public person you know you are," he said.


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Discover Ravenswood, an old gold mining settlement, set amongst the rolling hills of the outback. Ravenswood is a small township approximately 130km south-west of Townsville and 90km north-east of Charters Towers and is a living tribute to the history and heritage of western Queensland. Mullock heaps, tall chimneys, poppet heads and discarded mine machinery pepper the countryside, reminiscent of the town's century-old glory.
Beautifully restored hotels and public buildings will give you a glimpse of what the town was once like. Take the time to stop and explore because there's more to this historic town than you would expect and the locals are only too happy to tell you all about it.
Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).


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In my previous post I talked mainly about why there isn't a large showing of chemistry in the cloud. It was based of Deepaks post and a FriendFeed thread, but really only addressed the first two words of the title. The issue of collaboration came up in the FriendFeed thread via some comments from Matthew Todd. He asked
I am also interested in why there are so few distributed chemistry collaborations – i.e. those involving the actual synthesis of chemical compounds and their evaluation. Does it come down to data sharing tools?
The term "distributed chemistry collaborations" arises, partly, from a recent paper. But one might say that the idea of distributed collaborations is already here. Chemists have been collaborating in variety of ways, though many of these collaborations are small and focused (say between two or three people).
I get the feeling that Matthew is talking about larger collaborations, something on the lines of the CombiUgi project or the ONS Challenge. I think there are a number of factors that might explain why we don't see more such large, distributed chemistry collaborations.
First, there is the issue of IP and credit. How will it get apportioned? If each collaborator is providing a specific set of skills, I can see it being relatively simple. But then it also sounds like pretty much any current collaboration. What happens when multiple people are synthesizing different compounds? And you have multiple people doing assays? How is work dividied? How is credit received? And are large, loosely managed groups even efficient? Of course, one could compare the scenario to many large Open Source projects and their management issues.
Second, I think data sharing tools are a factor. How do collaborations (especially those without an informatics component) efficiently share information? Probably Excel – but there are a number of efforts such as CDD and ChemSpider which are making it much easier for chemists to share chemical information.
A third factor that is somewhat related to the previous point is that academic chemistry has somewhat ignored the informatics aspects of chemistry (both as infrastructure topic as well as a research area). I think this is partly related to the scale of academic chemistry. Certainly, many topics in chemical research do not require informatics capabilities (compared to say ab initio computational capabilities). But there are a number of areas, such as the type that Matthew notes, that can greatly benefit from an efficient informatics infrastructure. I certainly won't say that it's all there and ready to use – but I think it's important cheminformatics plays a role. In this sense, one could say that there would be many more distributed collaborations, if the chemists knew that there was an infrastructure that could help their efforts. I will also note that it's not just about infrastructure – while important, it's also pretty straightforward IT (given some domain knowledge). I do think that there is a lot more to cheminformatics than just setting up databases, that can support bench chemistry efforts. Industry realizes this. Academia hasn't so much (at least yet).
Which leads me to the fourth factor, which is social. Maybe the reason for the lack of such collaborations is there chemists just don't have a good way of getting the word out they are available and/or interested. Certainly, things like FriendFeed are a venue for things like this to happen, but given that most academic chemists are conservative, it may take time for this to pick up speed.


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Discover all of the wonderful upcoming yoga and other retreats currently scheduled at Good Commons. For more information and to sign up, please click on each individual event, and then proceed to the organizer's website by clicking on the event links provided within.
- This event has passed.
Private Event – Closed to the Public
March 29 - March 31
Good Commons has been booked by a private group for this time period. To inquire about booking our facility for your group, please email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Mary Camilleri
Booking Manager at Good Commons
Mary Camilleri is an avid snowboarder/skier, hiker, mountain biker and animal lover. She moved to Vermont in 2007 to reconnect with nature after spending 15 years working in the greater New York City area in the classical music and veterinary hospital industries. In addition to her work as Booking Manager for Good Commons, Mary is a ski industry professional who is fortunate to work for Peak Performance - a world-renowned alpine race ski shop in Killington, VT. As a life-long advocate for the environment, Mary is both proud and fortunate to now be able to call the beautiful state of Vermont her home.
Latest posts by Mary Camilleri (see all)
- Eco-friendly Vacation Rentals with GetawayGreen.com - January 13, 2016


text: Abu Dhabi, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Etihad Airways today announced four additional weekly flights on the popular Abu Dhabi – Malé route, increasing frequency to the idyllic Maldives to 11 services a week between 1 July and 17 September 2017. The capacity increase will cater to high demand during the peak summer season. The announcement comes as the Abu Dhabi-based airline completed five years of operations to the Maldives. The summer expansion will be supported by a two-class A320 aircraft operating the route, with 16 Business and 120 Economy seats. The four extra flights each week will provide more options for local passengers travelling between Abu Dhabi and Malé with an early morning arrival into the Maldives islands. Overall connectivity to and from key destinations in the GCC and Europe will increase and, new two-way connectivity will be established from markets such as Edinburgh, Jeddah, Madrid, Moscow and Zurich. Over the past five years, Etihad Airways has carried more than 450,000 passengers on the route, with the majority travelling to the Maldives from Abu Dhabi, the GCC and key European markets. The Maldives is the ultimate honeymoon and leisure destination, with Malé being the gateway to the premium leisure destination. Etihad Airways is a key contributor to the Maldivian economy, supporting the vibrant tourism and fishing industries. Etihad Airways launched daily scheduled flights between the capital cities of the United Arab Emirates and the Maldives on 1 November 2011. The additional flights will operate every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday between 1 July and 17 September 2017. Flight No. Origin Dep Destination Arr Freq Aircraft EY 278 Abu Dhabi 08.40 Malé 14.05 Daily Airbus A320 EY 279 Malé 20:35 Abu Dhabi 23:55 Daily Airbus A320 EY 260 * Abu Dhabi 00:55 Malé 06:20 Thu, Fri, Sat and Sun Airbus A320 EY 261 * Malé 19:40 Abu Dhabi 23:00 Thu, Fri, Sat and Sun Airbus A320 * additional flights Contact met Etihad Als wereldwijd opererende luchtvaartmaatschappij hebben wij natuurlijk overal ter wereld vestigingen. Lees hoe u contact kunt opnemen met uw dichtstbijzijnde Etihad-kantoor. Bekijk onze contactgegevens Feedback Als u een opmerking, compliment of klacht wilt doorgeven, of een vraag wilt stellen, klik dan hier Vind ons leuk Bezoek onze Facebookpagina! Bekijk ons Bekijk ons YouTube-kanaal! Volg ons Etihad Airways | Etihad Aanbiedingen | Etihad Help | Etihad Rewards


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A warning to managers of grimy small-town diners: Disrespect Kesha at your own risk.
That's more or less the message served up by the new music video for "C'mon," in which the free-spirited L.A. native quits her grim-looking waitressing job in order to join a band of furry-costumed pranksters on the prowl for a good time.
You can probably imagine what they do with the pinata modeled after Kesha's old boss.
The second single from her hit 2012 disc "Warrior," "C'mon" extends the pulsating electro-disco vibe of "Die Young," which peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100. Though other tracks on the album find Kesha dabbling in more rock-associated sounds (with help from members of the Strokes and the Black Keys), the singer insisted in a recent interview with The Times that she hasn't abandoned her core style.
"A lot of people think 'pop' is a dirty word," Kesha said, "but I love living on pop radio -- that's where my heart is."
Watch the "C'mon" video, posted to YouTube on Friday (one bit of foul language).


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Subscribe To Ridley Scott Scares Prometheus Crew In Behind The Scenes Clip Updates
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As part of his efforts to expand the world of Alien in Prometheus, Ridley Scott utilized cutting edge computer graphics to realize some of the extraordinary creatures and jaw-dropping landscapes he envisioned. But when it came down to capturing the realism of being scared out of your mind by strange alien beasts, he relied on the kind of old school practical effects that made Alien such a lasting classic.
Io9 has unearthed one of the behind the scenes clips from the upcoming Prometheus DVD, and in it you can see Scott prepping to frighten actress Kate Dickie, not for some sort of sadistic set prank, but to capture an honest moment of terror when the snakelike animal bursts forth from Millburn's corpse. Click the image below to link to the clip.
Devoted fans of the franchise will not only recognize the visual parallels of this scene from that of Alien's iconic chestburster scene, but also may remember Scott used a similar directorial device there. In that film, the cast knew that a puppet of the chestbursting alien would pop up from John Hurt's torso, but Scott purposely neglected to tell them it would be accompanied by a spray of fake blood and assorted viscera. As a result, the shock and horror that registers on Veronica Cartwright's face in that unforgettable shot is genuine, and damn effective.
Prometheus will be available on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, and DVD on October 9, 2012. You can check out a list of its extensive bonus features, or relish in Alien adoration by scoping out an early costume test for the first film's titular terror.


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Click Here to Submit a Cat Adoption Application
Cherry came to Friends for Life after being born without a home to go to. This kitty doesn't want to miss a thing and enjoys exploring every corner. She is playful and might be found batting around a rolly ball or jumping on a piece of string...and it is all for your entertainment! She wants you to know how happy she is to have you there as an admiring audience and so appreciates your love and affection. Her energy and cute antics will bring much joy and laughter to your life.


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Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Reports Results for Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2012, saying the losses for the year were in line with projections. Here's word: "For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012, net revenue was $825.8 million, as compared to $1,136.9 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011, which had benefited from the release of Red Dead Redemption. GAAP loss from continuing operations was $107.7 million, or $1.30 per diluted share, as compared to GAAP income from continuing operations of $53.8 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, for the prior fiscal year. Non-GAAP net loss was $59.4 million, or $0.71 per diluted share, as compared to Non-GAAP net income of $94.3 million, or $1.02 per diluted share, for the prior fiscal year." There's also news of a delay to 2K Marin's planned XCOM first-person shooter, which was most recently delayed to their fiscal 2013. Now word is: "2K Games now expects to release XCOM, its shooter version of the franchise that is in development at 2K Marin, during fiscal year 2014," so this additional one-year setback means the game may not be released until March 31, 2014.
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Hello! The Jennifer Jangles Shop is hitting the road this weekend. I am headed to The Villages Quilt Show this weekend. Here's the map and info if your near the area and want to come. It should be fun.
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