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With tens of millions of dollars' worth of plastics heading to Wisconsin landfills each and every year, a government-appointed group is out with a list of recommendations to better capture that material for recycling.
The Wisconsin Council on Recycling is targeting a few key areas in an attempt to divert plastics from landfill disposal. Council recommendations include: increasing collection of plastic packaging from commercial establishments; increasing recovery of plastic bottles at public events; and increasing agricultural plastic film recycling.
"The approach has been to target actions that can be successfully implemented now, within existing budgets and policies, and that are supported by the private and public sectors," said Rick Meyers, chairman of the recycling council, in a statement.
Recommendations come following a series of public meetings last year to discuss ways to capture some of the $64 million in plastics thrown away in the state each year.
Work already has begun on some diversion ideas, including a pilot project to increase plastic film, including bags and product wrap, from customers, businesses, distributors and warehouses.
That pilot project, the council said, began in the Milwaukee area but now will expand throughout the state.
Current council members represent industry, business, non-profit organizations and local units of government, the group said.


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Tantalum and Niobium
Tantalum and Niobium are...
- refractory metals with melting points of 3,017°C and 2,477°C
- excellent materials for capacitor anodes as they form an extremely thin but dense oxide layer as dielectric
- highly corrosion resistant and ductile at elevated temperatures
- biocompatible and not allergenic materials, best suited to medical applications
- ideal diffusion barriers (e.g. for semiconductor industry)
Excellent energy density in high performance tantalum capacitors
Tantalum capacitors have a high energy density and due to their stable temperature and BIAS characteristics, they are superior to other materials.
Their reliability has been proven for decades and therefore they are truly the technology of choice for mobile devices, medical devices, automotive and defense applications.
Leading edge semiconductors
High-speed data processing in leading-edge semiconductors is made possible by using copper in semiconductors.
To prevent copper from diffusing into the semiconducting layers, Ta or TaN is used as thin but effective barrier layer. Key applications include logic Integrated circuits (IC) and memory chips (DRAM, NAND-Flash).
High reliability under extreme conditions
Tantalum and niobium are characterized by high corrosion resistance and ductility at elevated temperatures. These properties provide many benefits to the chemical process industry, for instance, in the production of reactor coatings, heat exchangers and pipelines.
We provide high-quality tantalum and niobium in five main product groups:
- capacitor materials
- metal powders
- oxides
- alloys additives
- compound & chlorides
In the aerospace and energy industries, tantalum and niobium increase the corrosion resistance of alloys in turbine blades.
Based on lithium tantalate, lithium niobate surface acoustic wave filters enable mobile communication in the required complexity and frequency. Therefore, they are applied in every device using mobile communication standards in relation to the Internet of Things (IoT).
Last but not the least, niobium is the element with the highest transition temperature and therefore highly suitable for superconductor applications. Pure niobium and niobium alloys are used in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), NMR Collider or fusion reactors.
Their extraordinary properties make tantalum and niobium the materials of the future, which facilitate megatrends such as increasing world connectivity, demographic shifts, future mobility and environmental responsibility.
As one of the leading suppliers of tantalum and niobium metal powders and compounds, we are a reliable partner for customers in all industries.
Our products are characterized by their consistently high quality. With our experience and expertise in application technology, we can provide engineered product solutions to your demanding, technically challenging and unique requirements.

subset: commoncrawl


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Theresa Rowley has been a resident at Sentinel Pointe Retirement Community in Grand Rapids for the past 15 years.
She moved in when she was 89 years old.
On Jan.1, 2018, she turned 104.
"I'm surprised that I'm 104," said Rowley. It just doesn't seem like I should be that old."
When asked when she and her family moved to Grand Rapids, Rowley couldn't remember the exact year, only saying that she was born in Illinois in 1914, then moved to North Dakota before eventually coming to Michigan.
"When I was 100, I thought I'd never be 104; I thought I'd pass away by that time but it just didn't happen," said Rowley. "Then I turn 101, and nothing happens.
"Here I am 104, and still nothing happens."
Maybe the reason why nothing has happened is because of her daily intake of her favorite beverage -- Diet Coke.
"I drink it because I like it," said Rowley. "I'm going shopping Wednesday, and I need more Diet Coke. I have a bag full of empty Diet Coke cans that I need to return to buy more Diet Coke."
Rowley says she drinks at least one can of Diet Coke each day.
On Tuesday morning, Rowley celebrated her 104th birthday in style, with a cake, and with the support of many of the members of her retirement community.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the WZZM 13 app now.
Have a news tip? Email firstname.lastname@example.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter.


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On 8 March 2023 we are introducing online programme forms for Performance Grades and digital ARSM diplomas. Instead of candidates showing a paper programme form to the camera at the start of the exam recording, the person submitting the video will enter the programme details online. Read our news story to find out how this will affect candidates and what you need to do. Find out more.
ARSM (Associate of the Royal Schools of Music)
ARSM is a performance-focused diploma for learners beyond Grade 8 level. Working towards an ARSM provides motivation, structure and feedback for developing musicians, and successful candidates can use the letters ARSM after their name.
Taking an ARSM performance diploma offers an opportunity to:
- develop and demonstrate performance skills, such as technique, control, interpretation, communication and delivery;
- explore new repertoire;
- create and perform an extended programme of music.
Introducing ARSM
Who it's for and what's involved
Performances, advice and guidance
Preparing for the exam
Qualification specification, syllabus and repertoire lists
Answers to common question


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When in doubt with firewalls, "How Do I?" it out
Spring is a great time to take stock and wipe off the cobwebs at home. Within the sales engineering department at SoftLayer, we thought it was a good idea to take a deeper look at our hardware firewall products and revamp our support documentation. Whether you're using our shared hardware firewalls, a dedicated hardware firewall, or the FortiGate Security Appliance, we have lots of new information to share with you on KnowledgeLayer.
One aspect we're highlighting is a series of articles entitled, "How Do I?" within the Firewalls KnowledgeLayer node. A "How Do I?" provides you with a detailed explanation about how to use a SoftLayer service or tool with the customer portal or API.
For example, perhaps your cloud admin has just won the lottery, and has left the company. And now you need to reorient yourself with your company's security posture in the cloud. Your first step might be to read "How Do I View My Firewalls?" which provides step-by-step instructions about how to view and manage your hardware firewalls at SoftLayer within the customer portal. If you discover you've been relying on iptables instead of an actual firewall to secure your applications, don't panic—ordering and securing your infrastructure with hardware firewalls can be done in minutes. Be sure to disable any accounts and API keys you no longer need within the Account tab. If you're new to SoftLayer and our portal, take a look at our on-demand webinars and training video series.
Now that you've identified the types of firewalls you have protecting your infrastructure, fel free to drill in to our updated articles that can help you out. If you're running a dedicated hardware firewall and want to know how to manage it within the portal, this "How Do I?" article is for you. We've also tailored "How Do I?" entries for shared hardware firewalls and the FortiGate Security Appliance to help you beat the heat in no time. The SoftLayer customer portal also provides you with the ability to download firewall access logs in a CSV file. See for yourself how the Internet can truly be a hostile environment for a web-facing server. Every access attempt blocked by your firewall has saved your server from the work of processing software firewall rules, and keeps your application safer.
We know that not all issues can be covered by how-to articles. To address that, we've also added a number of new entries to the Firewalls FAQ section.
Keep the feedback coming! We're here to help answer your sales-related technical questions. And be sure to check out our latest Sales Engineering Webinar: Creating a Digital Defense Plan with Firewalls.


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On Saturday January 9th, 2016 a fire broke out after a small explosion in M's Pub located in Omaha's historic and iconic Old Market neighborhood. The fire ravaged the building and broke the hearts of all those who had ever stepped foot in the Old Market, especially M's Pub. The fire would rage on for around 12 hours before it was considered under control. The Omaha Fire Department not only had to battle the three alarm fire in front of them, but also the frigid below freezing temperatures with wind chills hovering around -15 degrees.
Because of a major warehouse fire in Chicago a couple of years ago in similar conditions, I knew that whatever was left of M's Pub and the apartments above it would look oddly beautiful once the fire was out. Subzero temperatures and thousands of gallons of water makes for an impressive sight. Here are a few of the pictures I took this morning.


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- Publishers
- Boom
- series: Denis Kitchen
Comic book series : Denis Kitchen
Denis Kitchen's Chipboard Sketchbook
Following on the heels of THE ODDLY COMPELLING ART OF DENIS KITCHEN, an overview of the pioneering underground cartoonist published this summer by Dark Horse Books, DENIS KITCHEN'S CHIPBOARD SKETCHBOOK is comprised of particular kinds of drawings on "chipboard" that Kitchen has done below the radar for many years. Chipboard is the heavy, grainy card stock at the base of writing tablets. The artist started the habit of drawing on this unlikely substance during long, often boring production meetings at Kitchen Sink Press, his former company, when he would flip his notes tablet over and doodle with a combination of the only tools at hand: a Sharpie pen and fine-point Uni-ball pen. With subject matter often extremely bizarre, or, in his own words, even "demented," Kitchen filed these away for many years. They were seen only his close friends and colleagues...until now! Measuring 6 1/4 x 8 3/4 inches, this collection features an extra thick 3 mm cover stock (chipboard, of course) with a de-bossed cover image and vertical belly band. The full-color 128-page hardcover was edited and designed by Greg Sadowski and art directed by John Lind, who won a 2009 American Graphic Design Award for their work on Underground Classics (Abrams).


text:
"A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order." (Wikipedia) It's easy to read the latest posts, but it's not too easy to read everything in chronological order, like in most books.
Google Reader offers a partial solution through a new option that sorts posts from oldest to newest. You can find it for each feed, in "Feed settings". If you also click on "show all", Google Reader shows the posts from the last 30 days.


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Everything you need to create a modern game world with that retro flair.
Optimized for:
This graphic pack finally gives you that old school style reminiscent of games like Pokemon and Earthbound. Tilesets, characters and objects give you everything you need to create a modern game world with that retro flair. Now updated with new content!
Take your game to the modern era with the Old School Modern resource pack. The crisp pixel-based style recalls games of the early console era, with fresh new tiles that provide limitless possibilities. Create towns and cities with modern homes, stores and office buildings. A variety of tiles provides everything you need to build the wilderness around your towns, including dungeons like caves, temples or a technology maze. And populate that world with all sorts of characters designed to fit in with style!
This pack contains:
RPG Maker VX Ace
Adding product to your cart
Choose your wishlist to be added
Copy wishlist link to share
We will notify you on events like Low stock, Restock, Price drop or general reminders so that you don't miss the deal
See Product Details


text:
Internet Explorer users beware, there is a new zero day (previously unknown, unpatched vulnerability) attack targeting your browser.
Microsoft has issued an advisory about the flaw and it is being referred to as CVE-2012-4792. Microsoft has also made a temporary FixIt available until it can deliver a formal patch.
The flaw affects users of Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, but not 9 or 10 and allows for remote code execution with the privileges of the logged in user.
Another poignant reminder that running your computer as a non-administrative user pays off when new flaws are uncovered.
Non-privileged users will severely limit the damage that can be done using a vulnerability like this one.
The vulnerability was initially discovered by FireEye on the Council on Foreign Relations website on December 27th, 2012.
SophosLabs has records showing the Council's website infected as far back as December 7th.
We have seen the exploit used on at least five additional websites suggesting the attack is more widespread than originally thought.
The attack appears to be closely related to attacks we reported on last June that were targeting visitors to a major hotel chain.
While the vulnerability being exploited is entirely different, the payload is nearly identical to the hotel attack and others we have associated with the Elderwood Project.
While the attacks appeared to be targeted to a small number of sites, there is no obvious link between the victims.
Some are referring to this as a "watering hole" attack, but the evidence we have doesn't necessarily support that conclusion.
If you use Internet Explorer, be sure you are using at least version 9 to avoid being a victim of these attacks. If you can't upgrade, consider using an alternative browser until an official fix is available.
Microsoft's FixIt is intended as a temporary workaround that could also be considered, but until an official fix is available I recommend avoiding IE 8 and lower.
If further information becomes available, we will publish the latest here on Naked Security.
Sophos Anti-Virus on all platforms blocks this malware as follows:
• Exp/20124792-B: Misc. files specifically associated with this attack
• Sus/Yoldep-A: Encoded payload also seen in other Elderwood Project attacks
• Troj/SWFExp-BF: Adobe Flash component
• Sus/DeplyJv-A: JavaScript components evolved from earlier Elderwood Project attacks
Update: Microsoft recommends using its EMET tool for the best mitigation against this threat until an official patch is available. You can find more details in the MS Advisory.
Update 2: There are reports that researchers have been able to exploit this vulnerability even with EMET and the FixIt in place. While it may be possible, we have yet to see any in the wild attacks using these techniques.
Watering hole photo courtesy of Shutterstock.


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At its Android Dev Summit, Google today announced a number of new tools and features for developers that write apps for its mobile operating system. Some of those are no surprise, including support for the latest release of the Kotlin language, which is becoming increasingly popular in the Android developer ecosystem, as well as new features for the Android Jetpack tools and APIs, as well as the Android Studio IDE. The biggest surprise, though, is likely the launch of the In-app Updates API.
While the name doesn't exactly make it sound like a break-through feature, it's actually a big deal. With this new API, developers now get two new ways to push users to update their app.
"This is something that developers have asked us for a long time is — say you own an app and you want to make sure the user is running the latest version," Google senior director for Android product management and developer relations Stephanie Saad Cuthbertson told me. "This is something developers really fret."
Say you shipped your application with a major bug (it happens…) and want to make sure that every user upgrades immediately; you will soon be able to show them a full-screen blocking message that will be displayed when they first start the app again and while the update is applied. That's obviously only meant for major bugs. The second option allows for more flexibility and allows the user to continue using the app while the update is downloaded. Developers can fully customize these update flows.
Right now, the new updates API is in early testing with a few partners and the plan is to open it to more developers soon.
As Cuthbertson stressed, the team's focus in recent years has been on giving developers what they want. The poster child for that, she noted, is the Kotlin languages. "It wasn't a Google-designed language and maybe not the obvious choice — but it really was the best choice," she told me. "When you look at the past several years, you can really see an investment that started with the IDE. It's actually only five years old and since then, we've been building it out, completely based on developer feedback."
Today, the company announced that 46 percent of professional developers now use Kotlin and more than 118,000 new Kotlin projects were started in Android Studio in the last month alone (and that's just from users who opt in to share metrics with Google), so that investment is definitely paying off.
One thing developers have lately been complaining about, though, is that build times in Android Studio have slowed down. "What we saw internally was that build times are getting faster, but what we heard from developers externally is that they are getting slower," Cuthbertson said. "So we started benchmarking, both internally in controlled circumstances, but also for anybody who opted in, we started benchmarking the whole ecosystem." What the team found was that Gradle, the core of the Android Studio build system, is getting a lot faster, but the system and platform you build on also has a major impact. Cuthbertson noted that the Spectre and Meltdown fixes had a major impact on Windows and Linux users, for example, as do custom plugins. So going forward, the team is building new profiling and analysis tools to allow developers to get more insights into their build times and Google will build more of its own plugins to accelerate performance.
Most of this isn't in the current Android Studio 3.3 beta yet (and beta 3 of version 3.3 is launching today, too), but one thing Android Studio users will likely be happy to hear is that Chrome OS will get official support for the IDE early next year, using Chrome OS's new ability to run Linux applications.
Other updates the company announced today are new Jetpack Architecture Component libraries for Navigation and Work Manager, making it easier for developers to add Android's navigation principles into their apps and perform background tasks without having to write a lot of boilerplate code. Android App Bundles, which allow developers to modularize their applications and ship parts of them on demand, are also getting some updates, as are Instant Apps, which users can run without installing them. Using web URLs for Instant Apps is now optional and building them in Android Studio has become easier.


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The cute IMM button comes from Bewitched Bookworms.
Choker b Elizabeth Woods
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
(Click on the titles to go to Goodreads)
|Click on the picture to make larger
|Click on the picture to make larger
I can't wait to read Across the Universe and Choker! Enjoy!
Happy Reading :)
I LOVE CORMAC MCCARTHY!! Though I have yet to read The Road or see the movie. When did you read it?
And I totally want to read The Witch's Daughter.
Great mailbox, Smalls! Hope you enjoy.
P.S. If you ever decide to drop by my house, I"ll need some warning so I can pull the sell price stickers off my books. ;)
Great stack of books. I love Across The Universe. Curious to see what you think of Choker. Happy reading :)ReplyDelete
I've seen a few people have downloaded Starlighter and I'm looking forward to hearing what you all think of it. Choker is a definite for my wishlist. Hope you enjoy all your books this week.ReplyDelete
Witch's Daughter looks good! Hope you do a review soon!
My In My Mailbox
Hannah, Thanks!
Missie, Hm, going back to my trusty reading list...I read The Road in November 2008. I've only read that one and No Country for Old Men, but I loved them both (probably The Road more).
I read TR in a night. Kept thinking, "I'll just read until the end of this chapter" only the book doesn't have chapters. By the time I realized, I was so far in I just read to the end. I was sobbing. The movie isn't nearly as good as the book.
Oh, and stickers are ok on your books. They'd just better be far, far away from my books. :P
Nic, You loved AtU? Ok, good to hear. Because I was starting to lose motivation. :)
The Slowest Bookworm, Thanks! Me too. I probably won't get to the e-books for a while though.
Yiota, I'm reading The Witch's Daughter now, so a review isn't too far off :)
All the Pretty Houses is my favorite. Blood Meridian and Old Country are gritty and raw and a bit much. Gonna have to read TR soon. ;)ReplyDelete
Oh good! I have a copy of All the Pretty Horses. Maybe now I'll get to reading it (when it can find it)!
I started Blood Meridian, but I had to return it back to the library before I finished. Gritty and raw is right!
The Road is so great. Ah probably one of my favorite books ever.
Really looking forward to reading your review of Across the Universe! I put it on hold at the library but haven't received it yet. Choker sounds so creepy! Looking forward to reading your review on that one too! I hate when there are stickers on books and DvDs too! Drives me nuts! Happy reading :o) To see what's IMM:
I love free Amazon books! Can't wait to see what you think of Choker, that one looks all creepy and twisted and I always like that in a book:) I'm reading Across the Universe now, have you started it yet?ReplyDelete
Awesome books this week! I can't wait to read all your reviews, and I'm really interested in your thoughts on Choker - I've seen mixed things :)ReplyDelete
I LOVE The Road. Such a good book. I just ordered Choker last night. I need a good creepy book.
Don't think I've heard of The Witch's Daughter (really like the cover though) so I'll have to go check it out.
Have a great week!
Great books! I haven't read The Road. I agree, I don't care for stickers on books either. Especially the percentage off stickers. Ugh! I'm looking forward to what you think of Choker. It's really different. I loved Across the Universe! I haven't posted my review yet. But I loved it so much, I want my own copy. Happy reading! Here's my IMM.ReplyDelete
But now you have just a random circle where the sticker was! So annoying.
Interested to read what you think of Choker... I've heard mixed things. Also what you think of Across the Universe. Apparently the big reveal is very obvious which is unfortunate.
I keep seeing "Choker" on the book table whenever I go to Wal-Mart and I keep thinking to myself, "Hmmm... Should I buy it?" But then I remember that I don't know anything about it (besides the fact that it has a pretty cover). Therefore, I think I will wait to see what you think of it before I buy it!
I got Starlighter free too. ^^;;. The Witch's Daughter has such a beautiful cover and an interesting premise but it has such low ratings on goodreads. X_X.ReplyDelete
Great books & beautiful covers too! I really want to read Across the Universe & Choker, so looking forward to your reviews. Starlighter & The Witch's Daughter looks really interesting, adding them to my TBR stash.
What I got this week: New To My Stash. Happy Reading :)
Laura, Haha, drives me nuts too. I was actually debating sending Across the Universe and/or Choker back to the library, but I think I'll read them now. There's so much interest in both of them.
Jenny, Aren't they awesome?! I haven't started Across the Universe yet. Probably will be the next book I pick up.
Melissa, I've read mixed reviews too. I'm curious to see which end I fall on.
Jessica, Yay for The Road! (though "yay" probably isn't the right word at all). I think The Witch's Daughter is adult fic, but the main character spends most of the book as a 17 year old girl. At least so far.
Julie, The Road is fantastic, but definitely a "heavy" read. Ugh, yes those stickers are awful. This one was the dreaded Oprah's book club sticker. Gah, I think that one is one of the worst! Wow, you've made me excited to read Across the Universe now!
Aylee, Yeah, I know :( That's why I hate stickers so much. I've heard that about Across the Universe too. I can be dense sometimes, so I'm hoping my powers of perception are on the dull side when I read it :P
Avery, It does have a pretty cover, doesn't it? All I really know is it's about two friends and one (or both?) is pretty disturbed.
Need-Tea, I saw those ratings too! I'm almost 100 pages in, and most of it hasn't been written in journal form so I'm not really sure what the reviewers are referring to. Maybe it goes back to a journal soon? So far it's good, but not fantastic. The teeny tiny font is making me read slower than usual.
SimplyMe, Thanks for stopping by! I'll have reviews up for all of them, eventually :)
I've been meaning to read The Road. I thought the movie looked pretty good, too.
I can't wait to see your reviews for Across the Universe and Choker. I've seen lots of great reviews for those.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of Choker.ReplyDelete
Awesome haul! You will love Choker! I finished it last night :) Thank you for sharing :)
My IMM
l don't like stickers on books either! Unless they come off ok.
Enjoy your books, the free books aren't free on the UK site =( Get jealous when l see its only on USA one! lol
I haven't gotten too many books with stickers on them but I agree I don't like them either. I have been wanting to read Choker, Across The Universe and The Witch's Daughter. Hope you enjoy and Happy Reading!
Logan, The movie was good, but I don't think it compares to the book. Viggo was PERFECT, but the boy was all wrong and the movie wasn't as horrifying as the book. I'm almost glad. I think it would have been too much to watch if it had been able to truly capture the book.
A Canadian Girl, me too! I'll let you know :)
Moonlight Gleam, Good to hear!
Books for Company, I agree, when they come off ok then I'm fine with them. I think most of the major sellers put on stickers that come off ok just so long as you remove them soon. Aw, sorry to hear the e-books aren't free for the UK!
BLHmistress, Thanks for stopping by. Good to see there's a good number of us against stickers :P
It's all about friendly conversation here at Small Review :) I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Be sure to check back again because I do make every effort to reply to your comments here.
Because I am absolutely terrible about following through with blog awards, I can't in good conscience accept any more. Thank you very much for thinking of me though!
Spam WILL be deleted. Attacks on myself or other comments WILL be deleted.


text:
Power Over Depression Tee White
Regular price $34.99
Unit price
Shipping calculated at checkout.
- 6.10oz Heavyweight Open-End Cotton
- Screen Printed Graphics on Front
- Reinforced Collar
- Two Needle Sleeve and Bottom Hem
- Sewn in Woven Neck Label
- Item comes packaged in our 999 Dust Bag
- Produced in Los Angeles
- Fits True to Size
Care Instructions
- Machine Wash Cold
- Hang Dry or Machine Dry Low Heat
All sales are final on this item. Ships in 4-6 Weeks.


text:
Export 1 results:
Filters: Author is Fei Chen [Clear All Filters]
Expansion microscopy. Science 347 , 543-548 (2015).
CBMM Memos were established in 2014 as a mechanism for our center to share research results with the wider scientific community. Click here to read more about the memos and to see a full list of the memos.


text:
The ideal exercise program combines strength training, aerobic exercise, and stretching (flexibility) exercises. These videos show strength training exercises that are specifically designed to fit into a weight loss plan, along with some tips on how to do each one.
But you don't have to be managing your weight to do these. They're great beginner exercises for anyone to try.
Before you start any kind of exercise program, check with your doctor. It's also good to know these strength training basics:
Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD


text:
The figures were published in a statistical release from the Department of Energy and Climate Change. This also updated final figures for 2011, which show that Scotland sourced 36.3% of electricity from renewable sources last year, surpassing its renewables target.
This record is on track to be smashed in 2012, as renewable electricity generation in the first three quarters is 15.2% higher than in 2011.
Meanwhile, generation from gas in the UK fell by over 40% due to high gas prices and coal-fired generation rose by almost 50%. Nuclear generation was 14.4% higher than in Q3 2011 when some power stations suffered outages.
These shifts in energy generation come against a backdrop of an overall drop in UK electricity generation of 2.8%.


text:
WELLINGTON, Nev. – A wildfire that destroyed two homes in a rural neighborhood near the California-Nevada line may have been caused by an illegal burn that had been smoldering at a private residence since the weekend, investigators said Wednesday.
Rugged terrain forced firefighting crews to concentrate on an aerial attack to try to slow the flames. The fire had consumed about 7,000 acres of mostly sagebrush, cheat grass, juniper and pinion as it burned in the mountains within miles of another residential area in rural Lyon County, about 60 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe.
No deaths or injuries have been reported, and evacuations have been lifted. There were no active flames near residential areas Wednesday evening, but officials said dozens of homes continued to be threatened because the fire was only 15 percent contained and hot spots remained within burned-out areas.
Northern winds blew smoke from the fire more than 350 miles southeast to Las Vegas, where a sooty haze obscured surrounding mountains and Clark County officials issued a smoke advisory.
Investigators believe the fire started when a resident failed to properly snuff out a burn Sunday and it suddenly burst into flames Tuesday afternoon at Topaz Ranch Estates.
Authorities initially indicated the burn likely was within the confines of a county permit that allows open burning of weeds and grass in rural areas when conditions are favorable.
But Douglas County Sheriff's Sgt. Jim Halsey said Wednesday a preliminary investigation indicates the residential burn exceeded the permit requirements, including ignition of materials prohibited under county regulations.
Halsey did not name the resident or provide other details about the burn, but he said the sheriff's office, Nevada state fire marshal and U.S. Bureau of Land Management were continuing to investigate.
One resident who lost everything said the fire department was called to a neighbor's home two days earlier when an intentional burn got out of control.
Fire officials would not comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
But Jack Taylor said the fire re-erupted Tuesday in the same place.
He was on the couch reading a book when he noticed the smoke. He grabbed a garden hose to try to protect the home where he lived with an elderly, disabled man he considered his grandfather, but the fire was swift and furious.
"After it hit the chicken coop, we ran," he said.
"I don't know what to do next," Taylor said, standing in front of the blackened hillside that used to be his home. He escaped with a few pairs of pants and some T-shirts. "I'm angry."
Authorities remain concerned because Thursday's weather forecast calls for relatively dry conditions and strong gusty winds, conditions that create extreme fire danger. As many as 560 firefighters were on-scene Wednesday evening.
Crews had dug a line around about 10 percent of the fire's perimeter, and full containment was expected by Saturday.
But the steep, rocky slopes in the foothills of the Pine Nut mountains were keeping most fire engines and heavy equipment away from active flames Wednesday as the fire burned to the east approaching the Upper Canyon Road neighborhood in the Smith Valley northwest of Wellington.
At least four air tankers and five helicopters were helping the mostly hand crews battling the blaze.
"It's difficult to get firefighting equipment up there so it is basically an air show at this point," Halsey said.
Authorities warned boaters to beware of helicopters dipping their aerial buckets in Topaz Lake to haul water to the fire.
Rita Ayers, fire information officer for the Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Center, said two homes and 17 outbuildings had been destroyed by the fire. Authorities reported during the initial, frantic hours of the blaze that seven houses had burned, but they scaled that back Wednesday after determining several of those structures were not residences.
All evacuations had been lifted by Wednesday, but officials said approximately 120 residences, 300 outbuildings and numerous utility lines "continue to be threatened."
"Even though this area is doing pretty good, we could have some flare-up," said fire spokesman Mark Regan. "We have a lot of open line right not and a lot of hot spots."
Halsey said the fire had burned less than 10 acres when crews arrived at the scene at about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, but the wind "just took off and (the fire) was growing like gangbusters."
"It shot across the valley real fast," said resident Diana Richardson, 69. Richardson said she and her husband were "just sitting here minding our own business" when they noticed flames halfway up a hill near their house in Topaz Ranch Estates. "It was scary."
Strong winds gusted steadily through Tuesday across a region that has seen very little moisture all winter, leaving vegetation dry and extremely flammable.
Betty Hathaway, 52, said the fire started behind her home in the foothills of the Pine Nut mountains and that a house two doors down "completely burned down."
"It was just a wall of fire," she said. "It is unbelievable my house did not burn down."
Associated Press writer Scott Sonner in Reno contributed to this report.


text:
We are pretty lucky to live in a small space with access to the internet. I am loving the camaraderie and creativity out there. People who live in 250 square feet and nerd out on space efficiency and then hop online to share their nerdiness with nerdy people like us.
Having wee friends over is funny.
There is much about our space (400 square feet; a bit smaller than a two-car garage) that feels exciting and liberating:
- We picked exactly what we need and realized we still had space for non-essentials.
- Our kids have never been more creative with their play, with only a few books, art supplies, puzzles and a bag of scarves.
- It feels like camping every day.
- More cuddling, hanging, reading, talking, being together.
- Cooking! Not much kitchen space.
- Our home always feels messy. For example, laundry to put away? It's in the kitchen. Kids make a fort? I can't walk.
- It's like camping every day.
- The kids don't really want to sleep because, a few feet away, mom and dad are doing something awesome and interesting (not in that way. GEEZ).
OK, I'm off to the other side of this wall to slumber. Sweet dreams out there.


text: The Department of Earth Science and Engineering has two teams of student representatives looking at both academic and wellbeing issues within their departments. There are two Academic and one Wellbeing Representative for each year or study, as well as one Academic and one Wellbeing Departmental Representative. These student representatives use your feedback to inform academic staff on issues students face within the department and look to create student-centric solutions to problems that are identified.


text:
Selling war from 1917 to 2012
The US has become more accepting of capitalism in the past century, even as economic security has declined.
This is the second article in a two-part series. Read Part One here.
New Haven, Connecticut – One day in 1917, US President Woodrow Wilson sat in his office scratching his head. He faced a dilemma. The war in Europe was very good for American business, but he needed to persuade the American public that entering the war was good for democracy.
The problem was that Americans were deeply sceptical of capitalism, far more than today. As John Reed wrote in "Whose War?", an essay that ran in the socialist magazine The Masses: "The rich has [sic] steadily become richer, and the cost of living higher, and the workers proportionally poorer. These toilers don't want war… But the speculators, the employers, the plutocracy – they want it… With lies and sophistries, they will whip up our blood until we are savage – and then we'll fight and die for them."
Reed wasn't on the fringe. Six weeks after Congress officially declared war, enlistment totalled over 70,000 recruits. The military needed a million men. Something needed to be done, but initiating a draft alone would only incite rioting in the streets.
|NYPD under fire for spying on Muslim students
So Wilson launched an enormous propaganda campaign to turn public opinion around. He sent 75,000 speakers into communities around the country to deliver 750,000 speeches in favour of war. For the unmoved, Congress passed the Espionage Act, which criminalised criticising the government during wartime.
Americans often ascribe to economcis effects that are in fact caused by politics. Before the Espionage Act, for instance, there were hundreds of radical newspapers, many of them socialist or communist – or just sympathetic to the plight of workers. After the war, most disappeared. That wasn't the result of market forces. The US government went to great pains at great expense to persuade Americans to embrace an approved ideology while it silenced dissidents with old-fashioned censorship. The Masses, along with 70 other radical publications, went out of business, because the US Post Office wouldn't deliver it.
Yet they were the lucky ones.
'A turnkey totalitarian state'
The Wilson era saw 2,000 prosecutions under the Espionage Act. One was Eugene V Debs, the union organiser. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for giving a speech, lambasting the draft for World War I. Today, the Obama administration hopes to convict Bradley Manning for allegedly leaking documents to WikiLeaks, including a video of an American helicopter gunning down Iraqi children.
The War on Terror has inspired new laws and new ways to decimate civil liberties. The US Department of Justice recently rationalised the killing of Americans abroad. Attorney General Eric Holder twisted himself into knots trying to separate due process from judicial process. The difference apparently means that it was okay to murder an American working for al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Worse is our spying on everyone, including Americans. The National Security Agency (NSA) is building a huge complex in Utah to house server farms that can handle yottabytes of data (a yottabyte equals one septillion bytes, or one quadrillion gigabytes). According to James Bamford, the NSA wants to eavesdrop without needing court orders. As one source said, we are becoming "a turnkey totalitarian state".
If the NSA is collecting information on everybody, who does it consider an enemy of the state? "Terrorists" is one answer, but how do you define "terrorist"? Are terrorists also political extremists?
What about someone who believes in the right of the people to revolt against the government if it is not fulfilling the will of the people? The United States' founding ideals are so radical that it seems exercising them might be considered a threat to American security by those in charge of protecting Americans.
Police violence as standard operating procedure
The US government has spent about $635bn over the past decade militarising local law enforcement. That, as Stephan Salisbury has reported, includes "tanks and drones, robot bomb detectors, grenade launchers, Tasers, and most of all, interlinked video surveillance cameras and information databases".
In 2003, a federal judge ruled that the New York Police Department could broaden its surveillance programmes in the name of public safety. The AP later revealed that the NYPD had been keeping tabs on Muslims and Islamic groups as far away as Yale University (where I teach). Weeks afterward, it became public that New York City's police force, the largest in the US, had also been monitoring the activities of Occupy Wall Street protesters.
"Today, a militarised police force that authorised spying on Americans is … containing unrest at home while the 1 per cent continues to make a killing."
Naturally, there have been attempts to characterise protesters as bums, deviants, criminals or whatever. This is no doubt true in some cases, but even if it were true in all cases, these are still Americans invoking the guaranteed privilege of citizenship – and their actions are being met with the full force of the militarised state. The United States seems to be the land of the free as long as you don't collectively complain about the superstructures of money and power.
But we're not just talking about the marginalised. The middle class, it's safe to say, believes in the American dream; its protests were against bailouts for banks and sacrifice for everyone else. And yet these respectable law-abiding citizens met with police violence, too. If violence is standard operating procedure, doesn't that legitimately call into question the legitimacy of the state?
Liberated markets don't equal a liberated people
The Espionage Act suppressed dissent so that the one per cent of 1917 could continue making a killing on the war in Europe. Today, a militarised police force that has authorised spying on Americans is doing the same thing: containing unrest at home while the 1 per cent continues to make a killing. And they are making a killing without much regard for the laws that the police enforce.
As Yale's Bruce Judson noted, it's nearly certain that Wall Street firms committed felonies in the run-up to the 2008 crisis and afterwards – perjury, obstruction of justice and false claims that allowed them to defraud shareholders, taxpayers and homeowners of billions. And yet federal regulators hesitate to act.
"With each decision not to prosecute, Wall Street executives justifiably conclude that they are immune to the rules," Judson wrote recently in The National Memo. "As a result, it appears that Wall Street criminal activity is increasing in frequency…"
Such criminality sank the economy and destroyed millions of jobs, and the damage may be deeper than we know. According to the Center for Working-Class Studies, the de facto unemployment rate is around 28 per cent. This figure estimates the percentage of people who have given up looking for work, who are employed only part-time and who have enrolled in Social Security early.
And such criminality impedes freedom, because it undermines security. We don't hear enough about the relationship between freedom and security. Freedom is typically defined as choice, doing what you want to do, being all that you can be, et cetera. But what is freedom without the security of having a job, good health, property and faith in a promising future? The answer is not much.
The United States' power elite generally regards capitalism and freedom as synonymous and proportional – liberated markets equal a liberated people. Perhaps that's true philosophically, but in practice, the opposite has usually been true. The more unfettered capitalism becomes, the more destructive it becomes. It's that simple. Yet the US government has decided that national security is more important than economic security, and over three decades, these have acted as opposing forces to diminish our core liberties.
This wasn't an accident. About three decades ago, the government unleashed capitalism from the bonds of the New Deal in the name of freedom. Capitalism slowly and then quickly destroyed lives and stole billions. When protesters rose up in the name of freedom, the government smacked them down. As Howard Zinn wrote in A People's History of the United States: "The courts and jails had been used to reinforce the idea that certain ideas and certain kinds of resistance could not be tolerated."
Zinn was talking about social tensions that arose at the close of World War I. After the censorship, incarcerations and political intimidation had come to an end, the establishment was worried. A socialist movement, one more energised than before the war, was mounting an attack – and violence was breaking out.
Today another kind of movement is growing. What the future holds, no one knows. But in 1919, one of President Wilson's advisers said he worried about this threat to both major parties. He said: "Steadily from day to day, under our very eyes, [there is] a movement that, if it is not checked, is bound to express itself in attack on everything we hold dear. In this era of industrial and social unrest, both parties are in disrepute with the average man."
John Stoehr is the editor of the New Haven Advocate and a lecturer at Yale.
Follow him on Twitter: @johnastoehr


text:
Years ago…
As a 25 year-old quarterback playing football overseas in France, I suffered a devastating back injury that left me motionless on a football field in Aix-en-Provence, France.
I remember lying there on the field that Saturday afternoon looking up at a beautiful blue sky with 3 white clouds off to the left, thinking to myself that I was in big trouble. I could not move my limbs. I felt excruciating pain. And I was scared.
The diagnosis was 3 herniated discs, spinal stenosis, and degenerative back disease.
For weeks, I had nurses coming to my condo in Cannes, France shooting me up with pain-killers. I was taking Vicodin. I was taking Voltarin. Getting shots of Toradol. Epidural shots into the discs. You name it… I did it.
And nothing was working.
"The Journey"
I went on a journey to heal my own pain. Despite the doctor telling me that I needed surgery, I wanted to exhaust EVERY option before undergoing the knife.
And that's when my journey of healing really began. For many months that turned into several years, I sought out many different experts to try and get help—doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors, physical therapists, massage therapists, energy workers, healers, Shamans…. Heck, you name it, I tried it.
If you've ever been in pain, you know what I mean. You will do ANYTHING to get out of pain.
And for 5 years, that's what I did. My focus became solely on trying to heal myself. Without surgery.
And during that time, many things changed.
My dream changed.
My vision changed.
My life changed.
I eventually healed my back pain. Got off Vicodin. Never had surgery. I established a functional-fitness routine to stave off weakness and tightness and enhance mobility and flexibility of my hips and back.
And I restored my health & fitness. And more importantly, I restored my LIFE.
Many of those same people who helped me get out of pain became my mentors.
I got ignited with more passion than ever to share my knowledge and help people out of pain. And to help them improve their performance.
So despite no money, no clients, and no business plan (after all, I had spent the last 5 years trying to heal myself), I started my business.
Fitness Quest 10 Opens
In January 2000, I founded Fitness Quest 10 in Scripps Ranch, San Diego. It was a 2,000 square foot space with very little equipment, carpet on the floor, and nothing real fancy.
But I had a ton of passion and enthusiasm to help people achieve their goals. Sometimes it dealt with helping people lose weight. Sometimes it had to do with helping them out of pain. And sometimes it had to do with helping their fitness or sports performance.
My dream was to share all my lessons from my back injury and healing, and couple it with high-level functional fitness and sports performance training for people of all ages, shapes, sizes, and levels.
I wanted to gear Fitness Quest 10 towards fitness enthusiasts whose bodies needed to restore good health & proper functioning.
I wanted to work with athletes. Athletes of all ages and levels.
I wanted to work with kids.
I wanted to work with seniors, where I could apply my "functional fitness" principles learned while on my journey to help one's balance, core strength, and overall functioning.
Heck, I wanted to help ALL people who had the will and desire to feel and function at their absolute best.
So literally on pure passion and sheer determination, I set out to "change the world one person at a time."
Fitness Quest 10 Today
Fast forward to today. We have grown to an incredible team of 38 experts that helps us deliver one of the most extraordinary fitness experiences on the planet. Literally.
Maybe you need more motivation.
Maybe you need more accountability.
Maybe you need more know-how.
Or maybe you need to get out of pain…
Or get stronger, lose fat and inches, and feel better…
Or you need to decrease your blood pressure, cholesterol, and burn off stress…
Or you need to improve your flexibility and improve the functioning of your body.
Or maybe you are an athlete or "weekend warrior" and you want to compete at your highest level.
I can promise you one thing: I GUARANTEE you will have one of the most amazing experiences with our world-class team as we do everything possible to fulfill your goals and get you your stated health, fitness and performance goals.
We know your selection of services depends on many things: your goals, budget, and level of commitment. I invite you to come in for a complimentary consultation and see how my team & I can help you restore the most amazing asset all of us have: our HEALTH.
You can call us or come in and visit us and get a tour of our world-class environment.
Final Thoughts:
Here is what I learned from my back injury, which ultimately ended up being one of the biggest blessings in my life:
We are all on a journey. Sometimes that journey isn't always as smooth as we plan it or envision it. Heck, sometimes it's completely different than we envision it.
But with discipline to best practices, a positive attitude, surrounding yourself with the right people/team, unwavering faith despite fear, and embracing the curveballs that life throws at you, sometimes those curveballs turn out to be blessings and take you down a path to even deeper fulfillment and enlightenment.
It is my hope and intention that whatever your goals are and wherever you are today, that you can immerse yourself in a positive environment like Fitness Quest 10 to get the most out of your health, fitness, performance, and LIFE.
Each of us has a life worth telling a story about. My team & I look forward to helping you on your journey to creating the BEST life you can imagine.
Much love and much IMPACT!
Todd Durkin, MA, CSCS
Owner & Founder, Fitness Quest 10
Lead Training Advisor, Under Armour
Author, The IMPACT Body Plan
Get Your Free 30-Day Workout Plan
(As designed by Internationally Recognized Trainer Todd Durkin)
" A workout plan to help you get in the best shape of your life!"Yes I want to get my free ebook
Meet Donna Dickinson
"Age places me beyond the goal of achieving a sculptured body, so my fitness priority is about about remaining strong and maintaining the ability to move. Fitness Quest 10 is preeminent at offering the tools through top notch professional trainers, to accomplish these goals.
Yoga classes have kept me flexible and strong, Pilates sessions continue to strengthen my core while adjusting my body alignment, one-on-one training sessions increase my strength, agility and all important balance. And when the efforts necessary to staying fit are spent, the reward, personalized body work/ massage is a miracle cure. All this is possible with TD and his staff. They are the best!" – Donna Dickinson.
It's time to see what the buzz is all about and how our friendly,
welcoming, and positive environment and team can help you achieve YOUR goals.


text:
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WWE '13 will feature the franchise's industry-defining Creation Suite, enabling players to develop and customize Superstars, entrances, arenas, finishing moves, storylines, highlight reels and more, as well as share and download creations with others from around the world. Furthermore, they will compete with a vast array of WWE Superstars and "Attitude Era" luminaries from the largest roster in franchise history, including cover Superstar CM Punk, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Sheamus, Undertaker, Mankind, Chris Jericho, Big Show and Mark Henry. Along with to-be-announced features, a comprehensive roster reveal, downloadable content and big surprises, WWE '13 is poised to live a revolution all its own.
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text:
King's Legacy Remembered At Memorial
Thousands attended the formal dedication Sunday of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall – an emotional day for those, including President Obama, who came to honor the slain civil rights leader.
As the choir from King's home church in Atlanta took the stage, people streamed into the park, just west of the King Memorial, carrying chairs, cardboard boxes to sit on, and their children. There were tears on the faces of some in the rainbow crowd, and big smiles on others such as Edna Smith Hector, who said she was proud to be there.
"It's an honor to him – and for us as a race," she said.
Jim Nichols, who had come from South Carolina with his wife, said he thought some of King's dreams were fulfilled.
"They have been achieved – not like he would want nor as he predicted — but I think we're on the way," he said.
But many who spoke noted that while some things have changed, the nation still faces many of the challenges King battled against. Obama told the rapt crowd that while it is right to honor King's dream, and his vision of unity, "Nearly 50 years after the March on Washington, our work, King's work, is not complete."
Obama ticked off a list of things still to be done – from rebuilding the economy and making sure the economic system is one where everyone gets their fair share, to fixing the schools and the nation's health care system. But he also spoke very personally about what he wants his daughters to take away from this memorial and what he thinks King would have wanted them to know.
"He would want them to know that he had setbacks because they will have setbacks. He would want them to know that he had doubts because they will have doubts," he said. "He would want them to know that he had flaws because all of us have flaws."
Obama said America admired King precisely because he was a man of flesh and blood – not stone.
King's daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, also shared personal thoughts about her father. She said he'd have much to say about the poverty, unemployment and violence plaguing the nation, and about the protests – such as Occupy Wall Street — that have been occurring globally.
"I hear my father saying what we are seeing now all across the streets of America and the world is a freedom explosion," she said.
Keeping in the vein of personal thoughts about King, Aretha Franklin performed "Precious Lord," a song she said he often asked her to sing.
Former Ambassador Andrew Young recounted a funny story about King.
"You think of Martin Luther as a giant of a man, but the one complex he had was a complex about his height," Young recalled. "He was really just 5 feet 7 and he was always getting upset with tall people who look down on him. Now he's 30 feet tall looking down on everybody."
King's older sister Christine King Farris told the audience that she saw a baby grow into a great hero to humanity who provided hope to freedom loving people everywhere.
"You have ensured that his legacy will provide a source of inspiration for people all over the world for generations to come," she said.
That's exactly what Kiyani Johnson said she was hoping.
"This is our legacy. This is our future — and if we don't pass it on, it will be lost and that would be tragic," she said.
Johnson brought her 11- and 13-year-old daughters so they could honor King.
"I have one daughter that's biracial and I want her to understand that she might not even exist if this man hadn't done what he did," she said.
Johnson says she tells her daughters if they don't understand where they come from as a people, they won't be able to direct where they're going to go in the future.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
1970 Plymouth Satellite - The Cab Ride
Picking up passengers in a fast project
"Yo cabbie! (whistle). Step on it...there's $100 in it if you can get me to the airport in 10 minutes!"
We've all seen this sort of clich in some TV or Hollywood drama, some desperate soul hoping the driver he just met can get him someplace as fast as possible. For somebody like Kevin Wesley, the humor of this scenario was enough for him to build his latest project, completing it in just 75 days.
"I wanted a fun street car, something I could just pile all the kids in and not worry about dings, parking issues, whatever," he says. "So it kind of got out of hand with the motor, but the rest of this car is just how I wanted it, a well-handling, five-speed overdrive cruiser that I can take everywhere."
Well-handling is important to Kevin, who has been involved in road racing on a competitive level. The idea of building a four-door that is tweaked for cornering was a good one; the idea of creating a bogus taxi around a '70 Satellite that Kevin could then give people "the ride of their lives" in was sheer genius.
The car was found in the same shape you see here. Kevin bought the well-preserved 318-powered sedan in 2010 for $3,500 at the Mopar Nationals. The lettering on it is actually printed-vinyl wrap, like what is used on most race cars these days. The car is street-tagged, but Kevin did not get a cabbie license.
Next came the stuff to make it stick. The 116-inch wheel-based Plymouth benefited from Hotchkis rear leaf springs, subframe connectors, and their TVS torsion-bar based front suspension. Optioned into this mix went Bilstein RCD shocks on all four corners, Firm Feel Stage II steering, AR Engineering Viper front caliper conversion, and Scarebird rear disc conversion. The big issue now that body roll had been "handled," were the right wheels and tires for the taxi. Without modifying the wheel openings, MB Motoring 18-inch wheels and Falken tires help Kevin and his riders get a grip.
Before we go under the hood, a peek inside the passenger compartment begins to clue you in that this is no ordinary pay-as-you-go outfit. In place of the old bench seats are four racing buckets. A smaller Grant Tuff wheel is used for steering, with a five-speed-shift knob jutting from the floor. Sort of saying, "Go ahead, make my day..."
Kevin mentioned going overboard with the engine, and a big-block replaced the factory LA-series mill. This is a 451 stroker, built by Greg Bigford, for the purpose of autocrossing, though Kevin admits it was assembled more on the basis of available parts and time realities than any super-science. The old 904 followed the 318 into the corner, and this car got the RS5600 from Keisler. The 3.23 ratio in the rear is perfect with the five-speed's low first gear.
Kevin admits that the fast-paced project was a thrash, and the credit card got swiped in the need for speed in more ways than one. He brought it out fresh and untested from the garage to Carlisle in 2012, where he gave cab rides to hundreds of attendees, wearing his trademark ball cap and laughing a lot. While at the event, Greg was still doing minor tweaks to the engine, and also helping were Pat Herman and Bill Wesley, his dad.
We'd guess you probably won't find this taxi taking fares in Lansing, Michigan, anytime soon, but should you see this car cornering on one of the hobby's autocross events in 2013, go ahead and whistle. It's worth the time, and Kevin won't even expect a tip!
'70 Plymouth Satellite "TAXI"
Kevin Wesley, Lansing, Michigan
|Engine: The base 400 block was built by friend Greg Bigford, who runs a shop called Auto Design in Grand Ledge, Michigan. Greg used a Mopar stroker crankshaft to bring the engine up to 451 inches. A set of 10.75:1 compression pistons does mean that Kevin needs to find some high-test, but the package is made to live in the hard on-off throttle environment of auto-crossing. Bulldog aluminum heads use stainless valves, and a Comp Cams hydraulic bumpstick to get the fuel into the engine. Metering of that fuel is thanks to a 750-cfm Quick Fuel Technology carburetor, and a Holley single-plane intake. An electronic distributor coupled to an MSD box lights it, and Hedman headers and Flowmaster 3-inch pipe with good mufflers finish it off.
|Transmission: A Keisler Engineering five-speed replaced the automatic. This uses the company's hydraulic clutch package, with a Ram clutch disc and aluminum flywheel.
|Differential: Into the mix went a 1967-era factory 834 differential with a Sure Grip, and the 3.23 gear is perfect with the transmission selected.
|Horsepower and Performance: Greg and Kevin guess about 525 off the crankshaft.
|Suspension: Hotchkis—front and rear packages plus frame connectors. Firm Feel added the steering box.
|Brakes: To convert the car to four-wheel disc brakes, AR Engineering Viper caliper front bracket conversion and Scarebird rear disc brakes were installed.
|Wheels: MB Motoring 18x9.5 with sticky Falken Azenis RT 615K 275/35/18 tires went onto all four corners.
|Body: Well-kept all these years, the original '70 Plymouth sedan needed literally nothing.
|Paint: Original. Without the stickers on it, you'd guess this car was created for no other reason than making the best of a four-door situation.
|Interior: Four Scat Procar buckets with RJS race harnesses. A set of Allstar gauges for engine vitals are added under the dash. Kevin doesn't need a tach when the corners are close and right ahead.
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text:
In the following examples, input and output are distinguished by the
presence or absence of prompts (">
>> " and "... "): to repeat
the example, you must type everything after the prompt, when the
prompt appears; lines that do not begin with a prompt are output from
the interpreter. Note that a secondary prompt on a line by itself in an example means
you must type a blank line; this is used to end a multi-line command.
Many of the examples in this manual, even those entered at the interactive prompt, include comments. Comments in Python start with the hash character, "#", and extend to the end of the physical line. A comment may appear at the start of a line or following whitespace or code, but not within a string literal. A hash character within a string literal is just a hash character.
Some examples:
# this is the first comment SPAM = 1 # and this is the second comment # ... and now a third! STRING = "# This is not a comment."
Let's try some simple Python commands. Start the interpreter and wait
for the primary prompt, ">
>> ". (It shouldn't take long.)
The interpreter acts as a simple calculator: you can type an
expression at it and it will write the value. Expression syntax is
straightforward: the operators
* and
/ work just like in most other languages (for example, Pascal
or C); parentheses can be used for grouping. For example:
>>> 2+2 4 >>> # This is a comment ... 2+2 4 >>> 2+2 # and a comment on the same line as code 4 >>> (50-5*6)/4 5 >>> # Integer division returns the floor: ... 7/3 2 >>> 7/-3 -3
The equal sign ("=") is used to assign a value to a variable. Afterwards, no result is displayed before the next interactive prompt:
>>> width = 20 >>> height = 5*9 >>> width * height 900
A value can be assigned to several variables simultaneously:
>>> x = y = z = 0 # Zero x, y and z >>> x 0 >>> y 0 >>> z 0
There is full support for floating point; operators with mixed type operands convert the integer operand to floating point:
>>> 3 * 3.75 / 1.5 7.5 >>> 7.0 / 2 3.5
Complex numbers are also supported; imaginary numbers are written with a suffix of "j" or "J". Complex numbers with a nonzero real component are written as "(real+imagj)", or can be created with the "complex(real, imag)" function.
>>> 1j * 1J (-1+0j) >>> 1j * complex(0,1) (-1+0j) >>> 3+1j*3 (3+3j) >>> (3+1j)*3 (9+3j) >>> (1+2j)/(1+1j) (1.5+0.5j)
Complex numbers are always represented as two floating point numbers,
the real and imaginary part. To extract these parts from a complex
number z, use
z.real and
>>> a=1.5+0.5j >>> a.real 1.5 >>> a.imag 0.5
The conversion functions to floating point and integer
(float(), int() and long()) don't
work for complex numbers -- there is no one correct way to convert a
complex number to a real number. Use
abs(z) to get its
magnitude (as a float) or
z.real to get its real part.
>>> a=3.0+4.0j >>> float(a) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in ? TypeError: can't convert complex to float; use abs(z) >>> a.real 3.0 >>> a.imag 4.0 >>> abs(a) # sqrt(a.real**2 + a.imag**2) 5.0 >>>
In interactive mode, the last printed expression is assigned to the
_. This means that when you are using Python as a
desk calculator, it is somewhat easier to continue calculations, for
>>> tax = 12.5 / 100 >>> price = 100.50 >>> price * tax 12.5625 >>> price + _ 113.0625 >>> round(_, 2) 113.06 >>>
This variable should be treated as read-only by the user. Don't explicitly assign a value to it -- you would create an independent local variable with the same name masking the built-in variable with its magic behavior.
Besides numbers, Python can also manipulate strings, which can be expressed in several ways. They can be enclosed in single quotes or double quotes:
>>> 'spam eggs' 'spam eggs' >>> 'doesn\'t' "doesn't" >>> "doesn't" "doesn't" >>> '"Yes," he said.' '"Yes," he said.' >>> "\"Yes,\" he said." '"Yes," he said.' >>> '"Isn\'t," she said.' '"Isn\'t," she said.'
String literals can span multiple lines in several ways. Continuation lines can be used, with a backslash as the last character on the line indicating that the next line is a logical continuation of the line:
hello = "This is a rather long string containing\n\ several lines of text just as you would do in C.\n\ Note that whitespace at the beginning of the line is\ significant." print hello
Note that newlines would still need to be embedded in the string using
\n; the newline following the trailing backslash is
discarded. This example would print the following:
This is a rather long string containing several lines of text just as you would do in C. Note that whitespace at the beginning of the line is significant.
If we make the string literal a ``raw'' string, however, the
\n sequences are not converted to newlines, but the backslash
at the end of the line, and the newline character in the source, are
both included in the string as data. Thus, the example:
hello = r"This is a rather long string containing\n\ several lines of text much as you would do in C." print hello
would print:
This is a rather long string containing\n\ several lines of text much as you would do in C.
Or, strings can be surrounded in a pair of matching triple-quotes:
""" or
'. End of lines do not need to be escaped
when using triple-quotes, but they will be included in the string.
print """ Usage: thingy [OPTIONS] -h Display this usage message -H hostname Hostname to connect to """
produces the following output:
Usage: thingy [OPTIONS] -h Display this usage message -H hostname Hostname to connect to
The interpreter prints the result of string operations in the same way as they are typed for input: inside quotes, and with quotes and other funny characters escaped by backslashes, to show the precise value. The string is enclosed in double quotes if the string contains a single quote and no double quotes, else it's enclosed in single quotes. (The print statement, described later, can be used to write strings without quotes or escapes.)
Strings can be concatenated (glued together) with the
+ operator, and repeated with
>>> word = 'Help' + 'A' >>> word 'HelpA' >>> '<' + word*5 + '>' '<HelpAHelpAHelpAHelpAHelpA>'
Two string literals next to each other are automatically concatenated; the first line above could also have been written "word = 'Help' 'A'"; this only works with two literals, not with arbitrary string expressions:
>>> 'str' 'ing' # <- This is ok 'string' >>> 'str'.strip() + 'ing' # <- This is ok 'string' >>> 'str'.strip() 'ing' # <- This is invalid File "<stdin>", line 1, in ? 'str'.strip() 'ing' ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Strings can be subscripted (indexed); like in C, the first character of a string has subscript (index) 0. There is no separate character type; a character is simply a string of size one. Like in Icon, substrings can be specified with the slice notation: two indices separated by a colon.
>>> word[4] 'A' >>> word[0:2] 'He' >>> word[2:4] 'lp'
Slice indices have useful defaults; an omitted first index defaults to zero, an omitted second index defaults to the size of the string being sliced.
>>> word[:2] # The first two characters 'He' >>> word[2:] # Everything except the first two characters 'lpA'
Unlike a C string, Python strings cannot be changed. Assigning to an indexed position in the string results in an error:
>>> word[0] = 'x' Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in ? TypeError: object doesn't support item assignment >>> word[:1] = 'Splat' Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in ? TypeError: object doesn't support slice assignment
However, creating a new string with the combined content is easy and efficient:
>>> 'x' + word[1:] 'xelpA' >>> 'Splat' + word[4] 'SplatA'
Here's a useful invariant of slice operations:
s[:i] + s[i:] equals
>>> word[:2] + word[2:] 'HelpA' >>> word[:3] + word[3:] 'HelpA'
Degenerate slice indices are handled gracefully: an index that is too large is replaced by the string size, an upper bound smaller than the lower bound returns an empty string.
>>> word[1:100] 'elpA' >>> word[10:] '' >>> word[2:1] ''
Indices may be negative numbers, to start counting from the right. For example:
>>> word[-1] # The last character 'A' >>> word[-2] # The last-but-one character 'p' >>> word[-2:] # The last two characters 'pA' >>> word[:-2] # Everything except the last two characters 'Hel'
But note that -0 is really the same as 0, so it does not count from the right!
>>> word[-0] # (since -0 equals 0) 'H'
Out-of-range negative slice indices are truncated, but don't try this for single-element (non-slice) indices:
>>> word[-100:] 'HelpA' >>> word[-10] # error Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in ? IndexError: string index out of range
The best way to remember how slices work is to think of the indices as pointing between characters, with the left edge of the first character numbered 0. Then the right edge of the last character of a string of n characters has index n, for example:
+---+---+---+---+---+ | H | e | l | p | A | +---+---+---+---+---+ 0 1 2 3 4 5 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1
The first row of numbers gives the position of the indices 0...5 in the string; the second row gives the corresponding negative indices. The slice from i to j consists of all characters between the edges labeled i and j, respectively.
For non-negative indices, the length of a slice is the difference of
the indices, if both are within bounds. For example, the length of
word[1:3] is 2.
The built-in function len() returns the length of a string:
>>> s = 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' >>> len(s) 34
See Also:
% operator are
described in more detail here.
Starting with Python 2.0 a new data type for storing text data is available to the programmer: the Unicode object. It can be used to store and manipulate Unicode data (see http://www.unicode.org/) and integrates well with the existing string objects providing auto-conversions where necessary.
Unicode has the advantage of providing one ordinal for every character in every script used in modern and ancient texts. Previously, there were only 256 possible ordinals for script characters and texts were typically bound to a code page which mapped the ordinals to script characters. This lead to very much confusion especially with respect to internationalization (usually written as "i18n" -- "i" + 18 characters + "n") of software. Unicode solves these problems by defining one code page for all scripts.
Creating Unicode strings in Python is just as simple as creating normal strings:
>>> u'Hello World !' u'Hello World !'
The small "u" in front of the quote indicates that an Unicode string is supposed to be created. If you want to include special characters in the string, you can do so by using the Python Unicode-Escape encoding. The following example shows how:
>>> u'Hello\u0020World !' u'Hello World !'
The escape sequence
\u0020 indicates to insert the Unicode
character with the ordinal value 0x0020 (the space character) at the
given position.
Other characters are interpreted by using their respective ordinal values directly as Unicode ordinals. If you have literal strings in the standard Latin-1 encoding that is used in many Western countries, you will find it convenient that the lower 256 characters of Unicode are the same as the 256 characters of Latin-1.
For experts, there is also a raw mode just like the one for normal
strings. You have to prefix the opening quote with 'ur' to have
Python use the Raw-Unicode-Escape encoding. It will only apply
the above
\uXXXX conversion if there is an uneven number of
backslashes in front of the small 'u'.
>>> ur'Hello\u0020World !' u'Hello World !' >>> ur'Hello\\u0020World !' u'Hello\\\\u0020World !'
The raw mode is most useful when you have to enter lots of backslashes, as can be necessary in regular expressions.
Apart from these standard encodings, Python provides a whole set of other ways of creating Unicode strings on the basis of a known encoding.
The built-in function unicode() provides access to all registered Unicode codecs (COders and DECoders). Some of the more well known encodings which these codecs can convert are Latin-1, ASCII, UTF-8, and UTF-16. The latter two are variable-length encodings that store each Unicode character in one or more bytes. The default encoding is normally set to ASCII, which passes through characters in the range 0 to 127 and rejects any other characters with an error. When a Unicode string is printed, written to a file, or converted with str(), conversion takes place using this default encoding.
>>> u"abc" u'abc' >>> str(u"abc") 'abc' >>> u"äöü" u'\xe4\xf6\xfc' >>> str(u"äöü") Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in ? UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode characters in position 0-2: ordinal not in range(128)
To convert a Unicode string into an 8-bit string using a specific encoding, Unicode objects provide an encode() method that takes one argument, the name of the encoding. Lowercase names for encodings are preferred.
>>> u"äöü".encode('utf-8') '\xc3\xa4\xc3\xb6\xc3\xbc'
If you have data in a specific encoding and want to produce a corresponding Unicode string from it, you can use the unicode() function with the encoding name as the second argument.
>>> unicode('\xc3\xa4\xc3\xb6\xc3\xbc', 'utf-8') u'\xe4\xf6\xfc'
Python knows a number of compound data types, used to group together other values. The most versatile is the list, which can be written as a list of comma-separated values (items) between square brackets. List items need not all have the same type.
>>> a = ['spam', 'eggs', 100, 1234] >>> a ['spam', 'eggs', 100, 1234]
Like string indices, list indices start at 0, and lists can be sliced, concatenated and so on:
>>> a[0] 'spam' >>> a[3] 1234 >>> a[-2] 100 >>> a[1:-1] ['eggs', 100] >>> a[:2] + ['bacon', 2*2] ['spam', 'eggs', 'bacon', 4] >>> 3*a[:3] + ['Boe!'] ['spam', 'eggs', 100, 'spam', 'eggs', 100, 'spam', 'eggs', 100, 'Boe!']
Unlike strings, which are immutable, it is possible to change individual elements of a list:
>>> a ['spam', 'eggs', 100, 1234] >>> a[2] = a[2] + 23 >>> a ['spam', 'eggs', 123, 1234]
Assignment to slices is also possible, and this can even change the size of the list:
>>> # Replace some items: ... a[0:2] = [1, 12] >>> a [1, 12, 123, 1234] >>> # Remove some: ... a[0:2] = [] >>> a [123, 1234] >>> # Insert some: ... a[1:1] = ['bletch', 'xyzzy'] >>> a [123, 'bletch', 'xyzzy', 1234] >>> a[:0] = a # Insert (a copy of) itself at the beginning >>> a [123, 'bletch', 'xyzzy', 1234, 123, 'bletch', 'xyzzy', 1234]
The built-in function len() also applies to lists:
>>> len(a) 8
It is possible to nest lists (create lists containing other lists), for example:
>>> q = [2, 3] >>> p = [1, q, 4] >>> len(p) 3 >>> p[1] [2, 3] >>> p[1][0] 2 >>> p[1].append('xtra') # See section 5.1 >>> p [1, [2, 3, 'xtra'], 4] >>> q [2, 3, 'xtra']
Note that in the last example,
p[1] and
q really refer to
the same object! We'll come back to object semantics later.
Of course, we can use Python for more complicated tasks than adding two and two together. For instance, we can write an initial sub-sequence of the Fibonacci series as follows:
>>> # Fibonacci series: ... # the sum of two elements defines the next ... a, b = 0, 1 >>> while b < 10: ... print b ... a, b = b, a+b ... 1 1 2 3 5 8
This example introduces several new features.
a and
b simultaneously get the new values 0 and 1. On the
last line this is used again, demonstrating that the expressions on
the right-hand side are all evaluated first before any of the
assignments take place. The right-hand side expressions are evaluated
from the left to the right.
b < 10) remains true. In Python, like in C, any non-zero
integer value is true; zero is false. The condition may also be a
string or list value, in fact any sequence; anything with a non-zero
length is true, empty sequences are false. The test used in the
example is a simple comparison. The standard comparison operators are
written the same as in C:
< (less than),
> (greater than),
== (equal to),
<= (less than or equal to),
>= (greater than or equal to) and
!= (not equal to).
>>> i = 256*256 >>> print 'The value of i is', i The value of i is 65536
A trailing comma avoids the newline after the output:
>>> a, b = 0, 1 >>> while b < 1000: ... print b, ... a, b = b, a+b ... 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987
Note that the interpreter inserts a newline before it prints the next prompt if the last line was not completed.
See About this document... for information on suggesting changes.


text:
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Having plants at home comes with several benefits. They not only prettify the living space with their lush greenery and freshness, but some plant varieties also help reduce toxic pollutants present in the air.
No matter which season it is, for students, every season is exam season. And there is no better feeling than getting your hard work acknowledged for your studies.
A woman is the most powerful weapon. She is a girl, she is a daughter, she is a mother, and she is a sister. Without her, there's no future.


text:
The standard eye chart only covers letters and numbers, but athletes need above average vision to track balls hurtling toward them at alarming speeds. To test those special skills, a University of Houston optometrist has founded the Sports Vision Performance Center, a facility where athletes perform while a strobe light is flashing, play tag with a board of lights and engage in other activities designed to improve their visual abilities.
"The biggest problem that athletes face is not knowing they can potentially see much better than 20/20 vision," said Kevin Gee, a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and an assistant clinical professor with the UH College of Optometry. Gee opened the Sports Vision Performance Center in January to individual athletes and teams from various sports, and utilizes a range of tests to analyze what is called the "visual system."
"The visual system is more than just 'what's the smallest line on the chart you can see,'" Gee said. "The visual system consists of many things, but specifically for sports, depth perception, color, speed and accuracy of movements and contrast sensitivity -- or the ability to detect an object off a background."
To assess these skills, Gee and his staff use instruments, such as a 3-D movie projected on a computer screen with shimmering objects that pop up to measure depth perception, a lighted batting test that can time up to one-thousandth of a second to gauge timing and accuracy, and a Dynavision™ board -- a vertical lighted peg board -- that determines reaction time, peripheral awareness and accuracy of movement.
Gee has worked with several amateur and professional sports clubs and has been testing the skills of the UH women's softball team since 2006. Some initial meetings during the 2006-07 season turned into weekly meetings during the offseason to test, train and condition the female athletes and their eyes in preparation for the 2007-08 season.
"We started out by examining every player on the team," Gee said. "Through our testing methods, we identified where improvements in the visual system could be made. We timed the player's swings to see if they were ahead or slightly behind. We customized the tests to focus on vision skills needed for infielders versus outfielders, and batters versus pitchers. Most importantly, we were able to enhance their vision with different shades, filters and correction through sports-specific eyewear."
UH softball coach Kyla Holas jumped at the opportunity to work with Gee and his staff, and believes her team's efforts now will pay off in the long run.
"The eye is a very intricate thing and although the differences are slight, I think it is one of those things that we have improved," Holas said. "From his in-office tests to the field tests, the girls love the challenge and the way he presents the tests.
"We had to make some sacrifices in order to make this happen, but I would absolutely recommend this training for other teams," Holas said.
April is Sports Eye Safety Month and Gee's clinic is open to both individual athletes and teams as new patients. Along with softball and baseball, Gee has developed tests for tennis, football and soccer players. Gee hopes that ultimately his clinic will improve performance, but athletes must not neglect the need for eye protection.
"The easiest way to protect your eyes as an athlete is to get regular eye exams and to wear proper eye protection, as well as sunglasses, if needed," Gee said. "A lot of athletes think polarized sunglasses are the way to go, but those are really for water sports or driving. The best types for athletes are impact resistant and sports-specific with a wraparound design to reduce the light but not the entire glare. Some athletes actually use the shadows and the reflection of the ball off the grass to see it better."
To provide the best eye protection for athletes, Gee also spends time educating the athletics trainers and sports medicine groups on how to distinguish eye injuries, which can range from scratches, pokes or the simple loss of a contact lens, and how to treat those injuries while on the field.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Houston. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Cite This Page:


text:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup raspberry beer
- 1/4 cup seedless raspberry preserves
- 5 ounces coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup dark cocoa powder (such as Hershey's Special Dark)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- 5 ounces coarsely chopped dark chocolate truffles (Lindt)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line an 11x8-inch baking dish with foil; coat with cooking spray.
Melt 1/2 cup butter in a small saucepan over medium heat; stir in beer and raspberry preserves. When mixture is hot, and starts to bubble, turn heat off, and stir in bittersweet chocolate, until melted, and well combined; set aside.
In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer on high speed, beat together granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla, for 3 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low, and beat in melted chocolate mixture, until well combined. Stir in flour mixture, until just combined.
Scrape batter into prepared dish; bake at 375 degrees F, for 20-25 minutes, or until set. Plunge dish into a larger baking dish, filled with ice water, until brownies are cool.
To make the ganache, melt 1 tablespoon butter, in a small saucepan set over medium heat; stir in cream. When mixture starts to bubble, reduce heat to low, and stir in chopped truffles, until melted, and smooth. Pour ganache over brownies, and smooth the surface, using a rubber spatula.
Freeze the brownies until ganache is set, about 15 minutes. Lift the foil-lined brownies out of dish, and slice into bars, using a sharp knife.
Yield: 14 brownies


text:
|ETCSLtranslation : t.5.5.5
1-6. ellu mallu! Go, oxen, go, put your necks under the yoke! Go, ...... oxen, go, put your necks under the yoke! I am ...... of the country. I am ...... of Enlil. I am ...... of the Land.
7-20. ellu mallu!
21-37. ellu mallu! In the temple he lay down to dream with Nance. He said good night (?) to Nance. He had his leather bag filled with bread, he had water poured into his waterskin. She stood by for him ....... The farmer had a vision (?): a young bull was talking ......, ...... tied the feet (?). The farmer said to his mother, "Bread was put for me in my leather bag, water was poured for me into my waterskin. ...... stood by for me."
38-61. ellu mallu! What ......? What ......? Who ......? Who ......? Who ...... the clods? Who ...... the birds? On the right ......, on the left .......
62-65. ellu mallu! The early-working farmer, the shepherd of the holy cattle-pen, the young man who, since his youth, has had a wife and has had sons, does not ...... alone.
66-91. ellu mallu! I ...... the stars in the sky, I ...... a gleam in the sky. I ...... the bedding on the roof.
92-118. ellu mallu! Enkimdu, he of dykes and canals, says to the lord ......, "My king, I want to ....... I will irrigate your fertile fields ....... The early rain ......"
119-142. ellu mallu! The harrow, the comb of my field, must be fitted with large teeth to harrow the holy field. The mattock must dig the edges. Remove the stumps! The mattock must dig the edges. Once you have taken down from the beam your holy plough which was hanging from a beam, a skilled carpenter must tighten its bonds. ...... its side boards.
143-148. ellu mallu! Go, oxen, go, put your necks under the yoke! Go, ...... oxen, go, put your necks under the yoke! Tread the furrows of the fertile field, walk the sides straight. In the alehouse, the joy ......, ...... Inana ...... a place of relaxation. ...... is restored again .......
149. An ululumama song of Ninurta.
© Copyright 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 The ETCSL project, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford


text:
In past blogs, I have explored the notion of an organization's "collaborative advantage" and outlined core attributes of organizational collaboration.
Effective organizational collaboration is more than strategic tactical measures that produce results. It is not just a way of acting or behaving, but a way of being. Collaboration is being connected, is having a felt sense of being a valued member of workplace networks. It demands a level of inter-personal relationships. It requires being an integral part of the organizational team, a committed team player who actively contributes to the success of the organization.
For collaborative workplace systems to be effective, it is important that collaboration is a conscious and valued organizational component—that it is an intrinsic element of the organization's very fabric: structure, culture, leadership style, human resources, power vision and practice, communication systems, and ways of networking.
This goes for both internal and external working relationships, including those with business partners, supply chain vendors, customers/clients, etc.
Collaborative organizations are challenged to be "dynamic adaptive relationship-driven networks" comprised of diverse talented people who can:
- not just tolerate ambiguity, but thrive in it by transforming it into an environment that fosters personal leadership, interaction, knowledge generation and innovation,
- assume responsibility for the organization's success,
- accept, communicate with, and work with people who are different from themselves, and
- form dynamic relationships where inquiry, dialogue, disagreement, experimentation and learning from each other can occur.
Such a "flat, open door organization" strives to have an inclusive culture that fosters open communication across all levels of leadership and departments or units. Guiding values for managers and staff alike are conscious honesty, transparency and mutual benefit.
Boundaries inside and outside the organization are permeable, with employees being able to network and work across traditional organizational boundaries. The workforce sincerely and authentically respects employees as organizational members and valued resources. With this respect comes the expectation that all are contributing members who "bring something to the table" to make the organization successful.
In collaborative work systems, it is critical that people appreciate and are comfortable with each other. There is a level of trust and loyalty rooted in knowing each other and feeling that all are credible. This must exist even though managers and team members might hold opposing perspectives. Disagreement does not have to hinder collaboration, but can actually fuel its capacity to promote creative thinking and innovative solution building.
Another critical element is people actively being engaged with each other and willingly sharing their expertise so they and others can accomplish their job tasks. In this manner the organization is intelligent—comprised of knowledge networks—and can access and apply its knowledge as needed. Sharing is expected. It is a part of the job description. It is an integral part of the organizational culture and workforce profile.
Recognition and reward is not gained by being the solitary expert, but by freely interacting with others so one's expertise is shared, stretched, and transformed thus generating new innovative expertise that can be applied in the given situation.
Collaborative organizations are interactive ecologies—structures, cultures and relationships that promote workplace belonging. People are active members of the workplace community, care about the success of their colleagues and interested in their projects, and are willing to help out others as needed. All of this is done because of the workforce's commitment to the common good of the organization.
Central, then, to collaborative workplace systems is inviting workforce members (individuals, networks, teams, organizations, etc.) to belong to a dynamic group, network, team, partnership or community.
While there are various levels, degrees or dimensions of belonging, for collaboration to exist and to be effective there has to be at least a minimal sense of belonging to the collaborative system that has offered the invitation. One is not an outsider but a member. "Higher degrees" of collaboration demand "higher levels" of belonging. Some require a sense of membership while others a sense of "team" and still others a sense of "community." Organizations choose which is most needed to operate and achieve its goals.
Individuals as well as the collective (be it a group, network, team, partnership or community) invite others into the collaborative group, etc. because they value the person, team, organization, etc. They want the "invited other" to find an enriching and empowering place (not just a utilitarian space) there, a place that allows "the other" to be and share themselves and expertise and to be engaged with others in a generative fashion for the mutual benefit of the group, network, team, etc. It is important, though, that the invitation and collaborative system not be exploitative of its members in intent or behavior.
In light of this sense of belonging, organizational collaboration challenges workers to be present, "to personally show up," in an authentic and creative manner, with a willingness to go beyond self-interest and personal gain and to work for the common good of all.
Finally, this stretching to engage with and contribute to the collective so it is enhanced and greater than if one was not a member is paradoxical. Workers are simultaneously independent and interdependent with collaboration taking place at the intersection of the two.
One has value as both an individual and as a member of the collective. Collaboration calls one to place the needs and goals of the collective over one's own needs and goals while not losing one's own identity and self-worth.
A sense of collaboration rooted in belonging requires a level of safety, trust and caring because to collaborate in this manner there are levels of vulnerability and intimacy; that is, of people as individuals and as groups choosing to authentically know one another, share their viewpoints, values, questions, etc., and challenge each other.
Collaboration is challenging because it not only involves developing generative workplaces relationships, but also to risk to authentically engage in organizational networks.
Read other posts by Chuck Piazza
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