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Having problems with your PC Desktops ?
Could not recognize and no spin
\015 I have a Seagate Freeagent Desktop external HD (500G).\015\012It has no probelm until this morning (for 1yr). My PC did not recognized the external HD. I test with different computers but same. The external HD make short beep sound every 10sec and could not make any sound. (even no spin sound)\015\012I took the bare HD from the brown case and attached to my PC. PC did not boot.. \015\012I will send this external HD but I would like to recover my data before send them for replacement.\015\012\015\012Please help me to save my data...\015\012Thank you.\015
Answers :
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but from the sound of it you can't. At least not cheaply. The drive must be rebuilt to save the data. Your only option is to bring the drive to a HDD Recovery service for a Clean Lab Recovery. Expect to spend 600-1000.
Sorry Again :-(
Sorry Again :-(
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Hi all, here is the demo script that I circulated internally. If anyone has a chance to comment I'd appreciate it as I can incorporate those changes into my research in further specifying the script. Cheers, -kls -----Original Message----- From: Smathers, Kevin Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 11:44 PM To: Butler, Mark; Tansley, Robert; Bass, Mick; Seaborne, Andy; Shabajee, Paul; ERICKSON, JOHN (HP-UK,unix1) Subject: RE: Updated demo script A *very* rough draft demo script attached. I've also attached the result of one full day of work examining The overlaps between the course called out in this demo, and the ArtStor metadata. -----Original Message----- From: Butler, Mark Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 9:29 AM To: Tansley, Robert; Bass, Mick; Smathers, Kevin; Seaborne, Andy; Shabajee, Paul; ERICKSON, JOHN (HP-UK,unix1) Subject: Updated demo script Hi team, here is the word version of the demo script, in case people prefer to return feedback in that way ... Mark
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 20:13:09 UTC


text: Songs may be the substance as well as the most crucial facet of the life. I second that as well as the beauties from 18onlygirls.tv, http://wow-porn.tv and http://fantasy-hd.tv. Songs is actually classified below numerous styles for example rock and roll, jazz, traditional and so on. The actual groups tend to be based on the actual devices which can be accustomed to create the actual monitors. Continue Reading


text:
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Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia
versión impresa ISSN 0066-782X
MARTIN, Rosana dos Santos e Silva et al. Ventricular hypertrophy and cardiovascular mortality in hemodialysis patients with low educational level. Arq. Bras. Cardiol. [online]. 2012, vol.98, n.1, pp.52-61. Epub 06-Ene-2012. ISSN 0066-782X. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0066-782X2012005000004.
BACKGROUND: Left ventricular hypertrophy is a strong predictor of mortality in chronic kidney patients. A previous study of our group has shown that chronic kidney patients with low educational level has more severe ventricular hypertrophy. OBJECTIVE: To extend a previous study and to assess whether left ventricular hypertrophy can explain the association between schooling and cardiovascular mortality in hemodialysis patients. METHODS: This study assessed 113 patients from January 2005 to March 2008 and followed them up until October 2010. Survival curves were built to compare all-cause and cardiovascular mortality of patients with up to three years of schooling (median schooling) and those with schooling of four years and over. Cox multiple models were built and adjusted to confounding variables. RESULTS: Association between educational level and ventricular hypertrophy was observed. Statistical difference in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality between the different educational levels was observed at 5.5 years of follow-up. In the Cox model, ventricular hypertrophy and C-reactive protein associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. The etiology of kidney failure associated with all-cause mortality, and creatinine associated with cardiovascular mortality. The association between educational level and mortality lost statistical significance in the adjusted model. CONCLUSION: The results of this study confirm those of a previous study. In addition, they show that the higher cardiovascular mortality observed in patients with low educational level can be explained by risk factors of biochemical and cardiac morphological origin.
Palabras clave : Hypertrophy, left ventricular [mortality]; renal dialysis; underachievement; kidney diseases.


text:
Map by:SnowKK
Last edited by snow.kk (2012-03-06 17:28:01)
i saw the video a few hours ago, thanx for posting here!
If you want you can upload this map to this site yourself, with proper information.
See you profile - maps upload
You can fill in number of jumps or rooms, and the release date (take the date of the .bsp file)
And you can write a bit about the making-process or so.
thanx a lot again!
Ill PM you this. Else we moderators will upload map and make datasheet, but maybe we do that after the contest, after 2 weeks.
Last edited by Driller (2012-03-02 21:40:23)
Ah, welcome here
just like Driller, will play the map after the contest!
I hope you fixed the lemming issues
Not bad A lot of little bugs, but not bad
Hi Snow.kk
My mistake i didnt put you in a mappers group.
Now we added you to the mappersgroup, and so you can upload the map and every time new betas with proper information yourself.
If not, we add the map and info later.
Will play after 2 weeks or so, maybe earlier
thanks ppl.
I have been kinda bussy lately becos of the school so i didn't had time to make much changes... however im working on it at the moment.
will upload the new map version whit
- some bug fixes
- new jumps
- new funstuff
- improved light efects
- new levelshot(removed the name [Love]Apple as i don't use it anymore)
- etc...
Last edited by snow.kk (2012-03-06 17:14:48)
nice map
I had some feedback on this map but I won't give it..
Appears that last time I did you just ditched it and didn't improve anything so I won't waste my time.
Have a nice day [LOVE]Apple
Hey xandax ... that was the old version teh same u tested before i dident changed anything at that ver new one is coming soon. -.- i have been bussy whit school and on this vacation i have been training taekwondo every day for 100% however ialready added like more 3/4 jumps.
and now im an menber of expert games im working as programer so i dont realy have much free time
and i hate to be cale [Love]Apple im not at that clan anymore and i hate it.
Last edited by snow.kk (2012-04-04 21:56:11)
Long time ago I had blue belt and 2 stripes extra for the original taekwondo: 당수도, TangSuDo
Tang Su !!
aw nice one
im just begining however i can beat some brownbelts
just reporting realy near to post test version 2, today i got there long time mapping whit help of my clan menbers ideas
last jump i made is like for relax afther the other hard ones, its kinda fun like curve jumps behind walls whit icy i found it kinda cool becos i never have seen it in any other jump map
then whit some easy rotating objects, i think i'm gona make now one whit invisible ground.
sry for my realy bad englis.
In the current version you have only the easy-path? I cant find more jumps now, except one secret jump which leads to the last 2 jumps.
Think i will play the new beta


text:
Compare IBM data masking solutions: InfoSphere Optim and DataStage
Options for depersonalizing sensitive production data for use in your test environments
Introduction to the data masking solutions
For companies that build software, their systems have evolved to follow a set of best practices for development. These generally include the following.
- Separating test and development environments to test changes before it affects your users.
- Using production data to populate the databases for these test and development environments to improve test quality and reduce environment costs.
- Limiting access to sensitive personal data to as few people as necessary.
The second and third best practices conflict with each other. By using production data in test and development environments, you are exposing sensitive data to software developers and testers. But, this being said, the ability to use production data in test environments is so compelling that the third best practice often takes a back seat to the second. For this reason, many companies are now being pressured to prevent the exposure of sensitive data to their testers and developers. This often comes in the form of privacy legislation from governments, or through industry regulatory organizations such as the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council.
IBM offers two solutions to eliminate the inherent conflict within these best practices. The solutions extract data from production and depersonalized it while still maintaining its realism for high-quality testing. The IBM products refer to this process as data masking. National IDs look like national IDs, names look like names, addresses are valid addresses, but all the data is no longer sensitive because all the personally identifiable information (PII) is now fictional. The two solutions that do this are as follows.
- InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management Solution - Data Masking option (now also sold as the InfoSphere Optim Data Privacy Enterprise and Workgroup Editions).
- The InfoSphere DataStage Pack for Data Masking.
The first products collectively referred to as the InfoSphere Optim products in the rest of this article, are licensed differently, but the underlying technology is the same. So, if both solutions solve the same problem, the natural question is, "What's the difference?" This article attempts to answer that question by looking first at the common core functions shared by the products, and then by examining the differences between them. Technical in nature, the aim of this article is to provide a guide for customers who are faced with the decision of which product to purchase, and which features of the products to use after they have identified the need to mask their data.
Test data masking essentials – The commonalities
Before examining the differences between the solutions, let's look at the fundamental functions that both provide. These functions are common between the solutions because they are all required to populate test environments with realistic, but fictional, data that can be used for testing. Many of these commonalities stem from the fact that both solutions use almost identical sets of data masking algorithms.
Masking algorithms
Some PII data follows a strict format and pattern. These fields include items such as credit card numbers, US Social Security Numbers, Canadian Social Insurance Numbers, or Brazil's Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas. Because the values follow a set of rules that determine their validity, they can be generated using an algorithm. Both solutions provide functions to mask credit card numbers from all of the major issuers, and National IDs from a variety of countries.
There is another set of PII fields that also follow a strict format but the values allowed are more flexible. One example is email addresses, where every address has a user name, a domain name and a '@' symbol. Both solutions provide functions to generate new and valid email addresses. In addition, an algorithm is available in both solutions to detect the format of data and replace the value with a new value of the same format. For example, it would detect the position of the space, numeric, and alphabetic characters in a Canadian postal code L6G 1C7, and replace the values with a generated L3R 9Z7, all without you specifying the format ahead of time.
Masking lookup functions
There are some PII fields that cannot be easily generated by an algorithm. These are things like first and last names, or postal addresses. For these, both solutions have lookup functions to look up values in pre-populated tables that contain things like names and addresses. The index of the value looked up to replace the original is either chosen randomly or by hashing an input value. Hashing an input value is performed in order to maintain consistency when masking.
Some of these data masking functions are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. A sampling of the Optim data masking algorithms for the data masking solution
Both solutions have masking algorithms that are designed for consistency. No matter when the masking process is run, the same values will result if the input values are the same. This is very useful in re-populating or adjusting your test data sets without breaking existing regression tests that may rely on certain values being present in the test environments.
Referential integrity
Some values that are masked are located in multiple tables, and the applications that are tested rely on the values between those tables being the same. Both solutions are designed to allow you to mask values and then propagate the results to the other tables.
Both solutions allow customers to build custom transformation functions to extend the ones that come with the products. The InfoSphere Optim Data Masking option for Test Data Management allows you to build new data privacy functions using column map exits in C/C++, or by creating scripts in the Lua language. DataStage can be extended using C/C++ or BASIC in Transformer Stages, or by creating custom operators in C/C++.
Data movement
Both of the solutions extract data, mask it, and then place it into a destination environment. Even so, how they move data is very different. The differences in the movement of data are the focus of the following section.
Solution differences
This articles has discussed how, in terms of data masking functionality, both solutions offer a similar set of functions. Both can mask data so it's no longer sensitive but still realistic. Both allow you to do this while maintaining consistency between data masking processes and referential integrity between tables. Both move data from production, mask it, and then place it into a target destination. The following section will examine what makes each of them special.
The InfoSphere Optim products
With the InfoSphere Optim products, there is a version for System z and a version for distributed systems. Because the distributed version was modeled on the System z version, aside from how they deal with IMS and flat file data, they look fairly similar.
Both the System z and Distributed Infosphere Optim products mask data that has been placed in files. The extraction process results in an extract file. The data is then masked using a convert process. At that point the masked extract file is then sent to destination environments. If a load request is built, load files are generated from the masked extract file and sent to the loader utility of the database in question. Figure 2 shows you this process.
Figure 2. The masking process for the Optim Masking for TDM product
The InfoSphere Optim products work their best when incorporated into a larger Test Data Management initiative rather than performing data masking alone. The solutions operate on what's known among InfoSphere Optim practitioners as the complete business object, which is a list of tables and relationships between those tables that define one end-to-end business process. Both Optim solutions are specifically designed to extract enough data for your test environments, and no more. It does this by traversing the relationships in the data and picking up related data elements. The Related topics section has an article that explains the complete business object more fully.
A recent development for the InfoSphere Optim products is that the design time tooling has been completely updated and reworked into an Eclipse-based component called the InfoSphere Optim Designer, which is shown in Figure 3. At the same time, a web-based management framework has been constructed. Having a web-based interface that is separate from the design interface allows you to more easily give test data users control over when and how their test data is refreshed.
Figure 3. Applying data masking policies using the Optim designer
In summary, in terms of data selection for data movement, the InfoSphere Optim products are similar to surgical tools dissecting test cases from production. This is not to say that the Optim solutions cannot handle large amounts of data (they can and have in the past), but they have extensive sub-setting capabilities and weren't built with the same bulk data-movement abilities of Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) tools.
InfoSphere DataStage Pack for data masking
The InfoSphere DataStage Pack for data masking is an add-on package for InfoSphere DataStage which, in turn, is part of the IBM Information Server suite. InfoSphere DataStage is an ETL tool built to move large amounts of data from one system to another.
Now, if you want all of your production data moved, masked, and loaded, and you want to do it very quickly in a system that scales to very, very, large amounts of data, InfoSphere DataStage with the addition of the pack for data masking can do that very well. It is able to do so by being built on top of enterprise grade ETL data movement architecture. While some parallelism does exist in Optim, it is much more extensive in DataStage, allowing for full utilization of symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), clustering, grid deployments, and massively parallel processing (MPP). DataStage excels at splitting workloads into multiple concurrent processes and computers. See the Related topics section for an overview of DataStage capabilities for scaling.
Another important difference between InfoSphere Optim products and the DataStage Packs for data masking is that DataStage does not need to create intermediary extract files. Extracted data can be masked and sent to a destination database without writing the data to persistent storage. As such, jobs that are run with the DataStage can be less I/O bound when compared to the InfoSphere Optim products. Reducing disk I/O requirements is useful for environments that have constrained I/O resources, for example, a virtualized environment that shares its disk resources with many other virtual machines.
Because DataStage does not require the writing of data to persistent storage, it also allows for its processes to be pipelined, which means that extraction, masking, and insertion happen concurrently rather than being separate processes, helping reduce the total amount of time for the process to run. This is sometimes referred to as data pipelining. See Figure 4 for an illustration, and consider how this compares to Figure 2 which shows the InfoSphere Optim Product's Process. If desired, DataStage can also output intermediary files, but this is not a requirement.
Figure 4. The masking process for the InfoSphere DataStage Pack for data masking
Even so, there is a lot less flexibility in the InfoSphere DataStage Pack compared to the InfoSphere Optim products for selecting a specific subset of data to be masked. DataStage is driven by supplied SQL statements, whereas InfoSphere Optim is driven by traversing the database model, picking up related data elements from a starting point. So, while DataStage is built for maximum scalability and can move larger sets of data much faster, Optim is better at moving only what is needed for the test environments. DataStage is the chainsaw to Optim's scalpel.
It is also worth remembering that DataStage, complete with the InfoSphere DataStage Pack for data masking, can do a lot more than mask data. It is a complete ETL framework that can help you build systems like data warehouses by restructuring and moving data from transactional databases. Keep in mind too that DataStage is part of a larger data platform called InfoSphere Information Server. Aside from the DataStage ETL capabilities, Information Server contains tools to help you manage your metadata, improve data quality, build a common system vocabulary, and automate data integration tasks. You can purchase DataStage without the Information Server suite, but it is a major advantage for the product to be part of such an extensive and well integrated data platform.
Figure 5 shows one of the simplest data masking jobs you can create in DataStage.
Figure 5. A data masking job in DataStage
Figure 6 shows the masking of an address using a lookup function in the DataStage interface.
Figure 6. Masking an address in DataStage using a lookup table
Masking on demand for flexibility
If the common thread of the masking products is their use of the same data masking functions, you may be wondering if you can use those masking functions without using one of the data movement engines discussed previously in this article. The good news is that the InfoSphere Optim products now include these functions in an externally accessible API. These functions are the same ones used by the InfoSphere Optim products for both System z and Distributed, as well as the data masking packs for Data Stage.
One use case of the new API is the creation of data masking stored procedures inside of the database. Because no data movement has to occur in and out of the database, these stored procedures can mask data extremely quickly compared to other methods. Many customers favor in-place masking such as this because they may have already invested a great deal in the necessary infrastructure to rapidly refresh their test environments.
One thing to keep in mind when using these APIs, especially in the stored procedure use case, is that unmasked data may come into contact with a non-production environment. Even if this contact occurs for a short period of time, it is a security concern and should be planned for. In comparison, the processes for creating a clean separation between your unmasked data and non-production environments are well known when using the InfoSphere Optim products and InfoSphere DataStage.
It is also worth mentioning here that having an externally available API for data masking opens up other possibilities to help with managing test data. For example, the API can be used to help facilitate the creation of stubs and test services, or it can be used to mask data sources that are not directly supported by InfoSphere DataStage or the InfoSphere Optim products.
Comparison table
Table 1 shows the comparison of the three IBM data masking solutions.
Table 1. A Comparison of the three IBM data masking solutions
|InfoSphere Optim data masking option for test data management (Distributed and IBM for z/OS)
|InfoSphere DataStage Pack for data masking
|Realistic masking algorithms
|Consistent masking across systems and time periods
|Maintain referential integrity
|Can be customized
|YES (C, C++, or Lua for Distributed. Assembler, VS COBOL II, PL/I, C, or Lua for z/OS).
|Comes with externally callable data privacy functions
|Works with native database load utilities
|Pipelined processes (reduced masking server I/O)
|Works on the concept of a complete business object (allows for efficient subset creation)
|Built for symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), clustering, grid deployments, and massively parallel processing (MPP)
|NO (but, there is some SMP support).
|Heterogeneous data source support (see the Related topics section for lists of platforms)
This article has explored the primary functions that are required for a data masking solution. These include extensive data masking algorithms that not only mask the data, but do so realistically while maintaining referential integrity in the data, and consistency over time and between databases. It also discussed how these functions are present in both IBM solutions for data masking: The InfoSphere Optim Data Masking option for Test Data Management, and the InfoSphere DataStage Pack for Data Masking.
The article then discussed the differences between the solutions. The InfoSphere Optim products excel at surgically removing small amounts of data for masking. The InfoSphere DataStage Pack for Data Masking was built on top of DataStage, an enterprise class ETL tool that excels in parallelism and scalability. Finally, the article discussed the use of the data masking API provided by the InfoSphere Optim products. Using these allows you to provide you own data movement engine, and can give additional flexibility for masking your data in non-production environments.
- Thank you to my wife, Erin Haldeman, for her constant encouragement and for her help in turning my fragments into sentences.
- Thank you to the Polly Lau, Martin Dizon, and Alan Fischer e Silva from the InfoSphere Optim Technology Ecosystem team out of the IBM Canada Lab for reviewing the article and providing their valuable comments on its contents.
- Thank you to Aarti Borkar and Jim Lee from the IBM InfoSphere Optim Product Management Team for answering my questions on how the products are licensed.
- Thank you to my colleagues: Greg Marshall, David Slater, Doug Mogck, and DuQuay Allen at Information Insights for their feedback on the article.
- A special thank you to my colleague, Matt Simons, for his assistance in keeping me up to date with the developments in masking with the InfoSphere Optim products.
Downloadable resources
Related topics
- Read an overview of parallel processing in InfoSphere Information Server and DataStage and how it uses parallelism for scalability.
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- Review the announcement letter for InfoSphere DataStage 8.5. The Connectivity section of the letter outlines which database types have native database connectors in DataStage.
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Hi guys,
I bought some cones of yarn this past weekend during a camping trip. We found a little shop that was closing. Anyways, some are rather thin and i would like to ply a few strands together. Anyway i can do that without a wheel or spindle? Would a ball winder work?
The ball winder will only
The ball winder will only allow two strands to be wound together--not plied---because cones are involved, some twist will occur, but not enough to be really plied well enough to knit.
I knit with multiple strands
I knit with multiple strands of cone yarns a lot...works beautifully. I don't recommend winding a ball with several strands...they have a tendency to get "out of sync"...and develop a loop while knitting...easier to knit from several individual balls or cones.
If you really want to ply them...they will each have to be respun to put more twist in them, then plied in the opposite direction.
Well, could there be a way
Well, could there be a way to use a ball winder to do this? Hmm.... it spins, so you would need some way to anchor the yarn, but it also wobbles. I guess as long as it spins, the wobble might not hurt anything.
You would need to potentially sacrifice your ball winder to experimentation, but what if you super-glued a plastic hook, to work like an orifice, on the center of the top of the ball winder's cone. Wind a bit of starter yarn on the cone as normal, then secure the cone-end of the yarn on the hook, and then hold the incoming yarn at arms length, while simultaneously turning the crank the desired number of times to add the extra twist, then unhook the yarn still pinching at arm's length to keep the twist, and turn the crank some more to wind it on, hooking it again. Essentially, you would have improvised a Chakra.
After you have your two balls of over-twisted singles, you could tie the ends together, and using the ball-winder in the opposite direction, use the same technique to twist the two singles together into the ply.
An easier technique, however, is to make a friend who has a spinning wheel they'll let you use :).
I have knit with up to 5
I have knit with up to 5 strands and just knit them as they come from the cone or ball and it works well. My favourite is using two fingering weight yarns together and a worsted weight with a contrasting colour in fingering weight produces beautiful fabric as well.
I agree with everyone else
I agree with everyone else on this one...trying to ply multiple yarns with varying twists would be very hard, even with a wheel. Knitting with several strands at once will cause them to twist together slightly [in my experience] even though getting your muscle memory to hold them at even tension may take a bit of practice. [That is my observation, anyhow.] -- Books, knitting, cats, fountain pens...Life is Good.
Books, knitting, cats, fountain pens...Life is Good.
I bought my Hansen
I bought my Hansen minispinner specifically so I could ply the cone yarns I had...(not knowing that I should re-spin them first to add more twist)...and sometimes I do that...
but I've found that many of the commercial cone yarns, once plied and washed, actually bloom and set enough to knit with. They're not technically correct...but they work very well.
There are ways to use the
There are ways to use the ballwinder to ply yarns, but it's a bit complicated to explain, and takes more time than you may want to spend. I'll leave that for another time.
But the suggestion that just using them directly from the cones is good advice. I've done that many times, and I think it does work the best. If you really wanted to add a bit of twist to the yarns, you can just let your knitting hang and give it a few turns. It's not much but will add a bit of twist. Do this periodically. The good thing is that as you knit, one of the yarns will have to be sitting on top showing that colour, and another stitch it will be another colour. You can get some really interesting colouring happening this way, and it is very hard to control. Have fun with it!
Hey there Dave, I don't
Hey there Dave,
I don't know where you live in Montreal, but I recently went to Espace Tricot on Monkland and they have a basic drop spindle for 15-17 dollars I think.
Though if you're just wanting to ply your your yarn you can always make an improvised drop spindle with anything really. A pencil/dowel and a scratched CD for instance, or anything that can simulate the purpose of a drop spindle in that you can manage to twist your yarn and store it as you twist.
Or you can make a spinning wheel friend as Jon suggests ;) I'm going on an American road trip in a couple of weeks and my objective is to not return to Montreal without my very own brand new wheel :)
Do it...it's much easier
Do it...it's much easier than it sounds...LOL


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With the heady days of the late 1990s a distant memory and a prolonged industry downturn creating another cycle of close-to-the-vest business strategies, the industry's powertrain sector seemingly retrenched in 2003 to examine its development and investment priorities. Gone, for example, were discussions of advanced powertrain systems that relied on or were made practical by the advent of 42-volt electrical architecture. In light of the industry's protracted recession, most powertrain ...
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After dropping out of contention for the final 2011 race cockpit at HRT, Davide Valsecchi could still be in formula one this year.
The Italian website 422race.com claims the 24-year-old Italian, who has raced in GP2 in the last few years and impressed F1 chiefs with his pace at the Abu Dhabi test last November, is set to join Team Lotus.
Valsecchi will be a test driver alongside young Brazilian Luiz Razia, who was with the Virgin team in 2010.
The Italian report said Valsecchi will get a half-day of testing with Lotus at the Bahrain test in March, and probably then two outings on the Friday mornings of the Australian and Malaysian grands prix.
And Razia, another GP2 driver, will do as many as "five Friday free practice" sessions in 2011, added the report.


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Discussion in 'Landscape & Cityscape' started by Joerocket, Dec 14, 2005.
Went for a walk today, im sick of all this white , can't wait for spring!
Thanks for looking!
#2 is very cool. Love that you angled it. spring's around the corner
#2 is great, good job working with what you've got! :thumbup:
Score another one for number 2! Als and that first one tells a story. : )
Love that feeling of the first one!
Separate names with a comma.


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U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement that he will make a historic visit to Cuba in March marks another step in the normalization of relations between the two countries — and once again raises questions about how the Canadian tourism experience in Cuba could change.
- Barack Obama set to make historic visit to Cuba
- Cuba booming as tourists flock there before Americans come
- Cuba, U.S. to restore diplomatic relations after 50-year rift
On Tuesday, the U.S. and Cuba signed an agreement to restore American commercial flights to the Caribbean country for the first time since the two nations became estranged 50 years ago.
During those five decades, Canada has been one of Cuba's main sources of tourism.
"I think a lot of Canadians and others are probably wanting to get to Cuba before the American onslaught," said Arch Ritter, an economics and international affairs professor at Carleton University in Ottawa. "It was very nice for Canadians to be there and they seemed to be welcomed by the Cubans, and I'm sure that's the case now for the Americans."
Next month, I'll travel to Cuba to advance our progress and efforts that can improve the lives of the Cuban people.—
That "onslaught" of tourists from the U.S. has already begun, according to Jury Krytiuk, senior travel agent in the Cuban department of A. Nash Travel Inc. in Mississauga, Ont.
"There has been a stampede of Americans wanting to see Cuba before it changes," Krytiuk said. "It's just been chaotic."
But the increased demand hasn't affected accommodation prices for Canadians yet, he said, because U.S. tourists have primarily been travelling to Havana and sightseeing destinations for educational purposes, while Canadians mainly visit Cuba for beach vacations.
So for now, Krytiuk said, Canadians noticing higher prices at Cuban resorts should blame the falling loonie, not an influx of American tourists.
But that could change, he noted.
"If they start selling beach vacations [to U.S. travellers], then I can see the prices going up for Canadians also, because the hotels are going to sell to whoever gives them the best price," Krytiuk said.
"Even though Cuba keeps saying, 'Canada is our friend, they were there when nobody else was there, we will never forget them,' politics is politics and the dollar rules."
Cuba unlikely to become 'Americanized'
Both Krytiuk and Ritter believe Canadian tourists' fears that Cuba will become Americanized as relations open with the U.S. are unfounded, at least in the short term.
"There's always a risk, but I personally don't think it's that large a risk," Ritter said. "The Cubans for some time to come would want to maintain their unique culture and their unique economic culture, which is very distinct."
"Everybody's talking about Cuba changing, but how is it going to change and who's going to be in charge of that change?" Krytiuk asked. "They think there's going to be a Walmart on every corner or a McDonald's on every corner?
"The Cuban people are proud of their culture and they're going to want to protect their culture and their image and not have it Americanized the way Puerto Rico was."
Ritter said entrepreneurship has been on the rise in Cuba since it was legalized in 2010, and there doesn't appear to be an appetite for U.S.-style franchises over local business culture.
"I think that's something that a lot of Cubans would like to see flourish and continue, because it does maintain sort of a unique economy," he said. "Over a longer period of time that may change. But say for the next 20 years, my guess is that they will try and keep the huge chains out of the country."
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The Coordinator of Government Operations in Judea, Samaria and Gaza District Unit coordinates activities of government bureaus, the IDF, and security establishments vis-a-vis the Palestinians. This is done through the application of government policies pertaining to various aspects of civilian life, including humanitarian issues, infrastructure projects, and economical projects. The following actions are part of the many activities and actions taken by COGAT in its efforts to improve the lives of the civilian population that are not involved in terrorism.
- The spokesperson for the Coordinator of Government Activities in Territories (COGAT) announced that on Tuesday (November 15), a plan to import building materials for the private sector in the Gaza Strip was implemented.
- The Israeli Government, together with the IDF, coordinates the delivery of a variety of humanitarian aid and development assistance to the civilian population of the Gaza Strip on a daily basis. (Infographic: Gaza Strip Weekly Crossing Report).
- On November 9, in light of the agricultural export season due to start at the end of November, a continuing education program for Palestinian agriculturists took place in the Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza. As part of the conference, a detailed explanation of the export process was given.
- Last September, COGAT coordinated the visit of a group of Palestinian children receiving cancer treatment at Hadassah Hospital and their families in the Ramat Gan Safari, Jaffa beachfront and Holon bowling alley.
- Last June, a group of Palestinian children from the West Bank along with their parents traveled to the Jerusalem Zoo for a day. Their trip was organized by the Civil Administration and Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Many of the children had previously undergone open heart surgery at Hadassah, a procedure which was paid for by the hospital and the A Heart for Peace organization. The trip was designed to provide relaxation, learning, enjoyment and an overall positive experience for the children coping with health difficulties.


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Rob Wu is co-founder of Causevox, an online social-media and donor-acquisition platform, and he and his team have been working hard over the last number of months moving the online system to 2.0. We had the pleasure of talking with Rob a year or so … [Read more]
#VIDEO: The Knowledge Fountain Promos
The Challenge: The Knowledge Fountain offers not-for-profit organizations a spectrum of short courses online covering fundraising, communications, organizational development, social media, and productivity software. It is a start-up venture … [Read more]
#INTERVIEW: Michael Hoffman, CEO of See3 Communications, Discusses Why Nonprofits Need to Embrace Video
Michael Hoffman is co-founder and CEO of See3 Communications and a leading authority on online video for nonprofits and online fundraising and outreach strategies. After turns as a political consultant and developer of Internet startups, he founded … [Read more]
#VIDEO: Metro214 – A TV Pilot
The Challenge: How to present an engaging arts and lifestyle magazine television series in a top 50 market where the main competitor is not similar shows on local television, but streaming-video via the Internet. Our Solution: MKCREATIVE put … [Read more]
#VIDEO: Recounting America's Greatest Stories – A Conversation with Ken Burns
Educators! Bring history to life in your classroom with this PBS LearningMedia webinar featuring documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns, live-streamed last year. Read more about the webinar and watch a recording of it here. … [Read more]
#EDUCATION: Why Computer Literacy Is Crucial
Why Computer Literacy is Key to Winning the 21st Century Let's not make ourselves obsolete … "Upending our notions of what it means to interface with computers could help democratize the biggest engine of wealth since the Industrial … [Read more]
#INTERVIEW: Chris Forbes, Co-Author of Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits, Offers Great Advice to Groups
Chris Forbes is the co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits and a certified guerrilla-marketing coach. His varied background in marketing includes experience in the faith sector and work on five continents, and he has pioneered several media … [Read more]
#Communications: Fine Tune Twitter Use To Enrich Outreach
The idea of using Twitter can overwhelm some, and how to use it as a smart tool for strategic engagement seems downright contradictory to many. Yet as the social-networking platform matures - Rather, as the people who use it explore that myriad ways … [Read more]
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Anthony Davis Enters NBA MVP ConversationThe Pelicans power forward has averaged an amazing stat line since the NBA All-Star break, while putting his team in the playoff hunt.
LeBron Haters Sound Off On Warriors Free Agency RumorsLeBron James, criticized for a rumor that he would talk to the Warriors in free agency, deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Best Current NBA BeefsIn a league with so many personalities, which rivalries have risen above the rest?
Keidel: Kyrie Can't Do Any Better Than ClevelandKyrie Irving, Cavs point guard playing with LeBron James on a team likely to return to the NBA Finals, wants a trade for some reason.
Keidel: Are Warriors Just Too Much For Cavs?The Warriors beat the Cavaliers handily in the NBA Finals' first two games, and LeBron and company couldn't stop Durant. On to Cleveland.
Keidel: NBA Finals, With Legacies In LimboThe Cavaliers and Warriors will square off in their third consecutive NBA Finals, as LeBron James and Kevin Durant look to their legacies.
2017 NBA Finals PreviewThe NBA Finals match up the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, to no one's surprise. Here's what to expect.
Bradley's Last-second Shot Stuns Cavs 111-108Leprechauns are imaginary. Celtic pride is very real.
James, Love help Cavs rout Celtics 117-104 in Game 1LeBron James embarrassed every defender Boston threw at him and the Cleveland Cavaliers picked up where they left off following a long layoff, rolling to a 117-104 victory over the Celtics on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Keidel: LeBron Passes Kareem, Sports World ShrugsLeBron James has been the NBA's best player for a decade, so long that his accomplishments seem mundane.
Keidel: LeBron's Not Done YetThe Cavaliers are struggling, but do you really want to bet against LeBron James, who's reached the NBA Finals in six straight seasons?
2017 NBA All-Star Game Starting LineupsThe votes are in and the 2017 NBA All-Star Game starting lineups have been announced. Who will start for the East and West and why?


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David Hartley's father-in-law and the sheriff leading the investigation into his death on Falcon Reservoir cast doubt Thursday on speculation that the former Colorado man may have been a victim of mistaken identity.
But they also couldn't completely rule out speculation from a Texas intelligence think tank, which reported that it had sources who believe Hartley could have been targeted by drug cartel members who saw the Mexico license plates on his truck and assumed he was spying for a rival cartel.
Hartley was out with his wife, Tiffany, in the lake straddling the border when he was apparently shot and killed Sept. 30 in an area on the Mexico side of the border known as Arroyo Salado.
"My opinion is there is no mistaken identity," said Zapata County, Texas, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr.
"If you are going to go into Arroyo Salado, you are going to be stopped by the cartels. It's as simple as that," he said.
Gonzalez said the area on the south side of Falcon Reservoir is controlled by the Zeta cartel.
His comments came after Stratfor, an intelligence think tank based in Austin, Texas, wrote that "unnamed sources" noted that the Hartleys' license plates, which were from the state of Tamaulipas — where they formerly lived — could be a clue to the incident.
The Zetas have battled the Gulf cartel, according to Stratfor's report.
"It is possible," according to the company's report, "that Zetas scouts identified them as a Gulf cartel surveillance team."
Bob Young, David Hartley's father-in-law, called it a "theory" but said he does not know how much credence to give it.
"It might be true — I don't know," Young said. "I don't know what to think until we find somebody who can verify it."
For it to be true, it would likely mean that the couple was watched, either sometime during the two-hour drive from their home in McAllen, Texas, or at the boat ramp in Zapata where they launched their WaveRunners.
Gonzalez acknowledged that is possible — authorities have discovered people on the U.S. side of the border who are gathering intelligence for the cartels, sharing it via radios or cellphones.
"These guys communicate every day for everything," Gonzalez said.
Clinton responds
The case has been rife with speculation — in the early days, Mexican officials questioned Tiffany Hartley's description of what happened on the lake, and various U.S. officials accused their counterparts south of the border of dragging their feet in the search for David Hartley's body.
In response to criticism that the U.S. has not done enough to find Hartley, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told "Good Morning America" that the federal government is doing all it can.
"The United States government is supporting local law enforcement, supporting the authorities on the border, doing everything that we know to do to try to assist in helping to find the body and helping to find the perpetrators," Clinton said.
Earlier this week, a Mexican state police investigator working on the case was beheaded — a move that was seen by some as a warning from the cartels to back off.
The search for David Hartley's body resumed Thursday, however.
Young said he and Hartley's family realized that at some point they may have to confront the reality that they will not be able to give his son-in-law the proper burial they hope for.
"It's more in the back of the mind," he said. "We really haven't come to the point of giving up, but, yeah, it's more and more going to be a fact of life."
Kevin Vaughan: 303-954-5019 or firstname.lastname@example.com


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Heat stay alive in OT
Spurs blow 10-point lead in fourth; Miami forces a deciding Game 7
Updated 7:41 am, Wednesday, June 19, 2013
LeBron James shrugged off a poor start to get 32 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds, Ray Allen hit a 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds to play to force overtime and the Miami Heat staved off elimination with a 103-100 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday night.
James missed nine of his first 12 shots, but scored 16 points in the fourth to rally the Heat from a 10-point deficit. The Heat trailed 94-89 with 28 seconds to play, but James hit a 3 with 20 seconds to go and Allen drilled another to tie it.
James' layup with 1:43 to play in overtime gave the Heat a 101-100 lead, and Allen added two free throws to force Game 7, which is on Thursday night in Miami. The Spurs had one final chance down 103-100, but Chris Bosh blocked Danny Green's 3-pointer from the corner as time expired.
Tim Duncan had 30 points and 17 rebounds in a performance straight out of 2003. But he was scoreless in the fourth and overtime and the Spurs squandered a golden opportunity to close out the series and win their fifth championship.
Mario Chalmers scored 20 points, Bosh had 10 points and 11 rebounds and Shane Battier hit three 3-pointers for the Heat, who trailed 75-65 after three quarters.
James eschewed his trademark headband in the fourth quarter, then spearheaded the ferocious comeback. He scored six straight points for the Heat, then fed Chris Andersen, who made a free throw to pull the Heat within two at 82-80 with seven minutes to play.
James then blocked a layup by Duncan and scored on the other end to tie it and Allen's reverse layup gave the Heat an 84-82 lead with six minutes to go.
The Heat led 89-86, but Tony Parker hit a step-back 3 and a layup to take back the lead.
After Allen's big shot from the corner sent the game into overtime, James scored on a layup for a 101-100 lead with 1 minute to go. The Spurs had a chance to take the lead in the closing seconds, but Manu Ginobili's drive was thwarted and Allen hit two free throws.
Bosh blocked Danny Green's 3-pointer at the buzzer, and the defending champs lived to fight another day.
Parker finished with 19 points on 6-for-23 shooting and eight assists and Kawhi Leonard had 22 points and 11 rebounds for San Antonio. Green, who broke the NBA Finals record for 3-pointers, had just three points on 1-for-7 shooting.
After a vintage first three quarters from Duncan had the Spurs steamrolling toward the championship, James delivered a vintage performance of his own in the fourth. Tentative and flustered through the first three, James went into full-on attack mode in the fourth to force a Game 7.
It was the force-of-nature showing that had been all too rare for James in these finals, but the Heat have never needed it more after Duncan took it to them the first 36 minutes.
Duncan hit his first eight shots of the game, conjuring the dominant form that brought four titles to San Antonio between 1999 and 2007. But he long ago handed the reins of the Spurs' offense over to Parker, letting the speedy French point guard take over as Duncan grew older.
Until Tuesday night.
After getting a vintage performance from Manu Ginobili in Game 5 to take control of the series, the Spurs got a throwback effort from Duncan to start Game 6, scoring San Antonio's next 13 points to start a 17-4 run.


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Drive your own fund and save
As a result of the GFC many people saw the value of their superannuation decrease dramatically. The amount they lost depended on their super fund's level of exposure to share investments. This was not surprising given that a market crash of this size had not been experienced since the Great Depression.
Unfortunately when members get an annual statement from their super fund, and their account balance has decreased, superannuation as a retirement vehicle often gets the blame. Blaming superannuation for these losses makes as much sense as blaming a car that cuts you off in traffic. The vehicle is not at fault, it's the driver. The sad truth is many Australians do not take an active interest in their superannuation other than opening the envelope that encloses the annual statement.
What members of super funds often fail to understand is that they are the driver of their superannuation. They have the choice to sit back and treat superannuation as a bus ride, where everything is done for them and they end up at a destination called retirement, or they take an active interest in their superannuation.
Another major impact on the performance of a person's superannuation is the number of super funds they have. There is another major similarity between motor vehicles and superannuation. The more cars a person has, the greater the costs will be. Because every superannuation fund charges an administration fee, the more funds a person has the greater their super fund fees will be.
Over a person's working life it is not unusual for them to work for several employers. As a result they can have a super fund that relates to each different employer. Just because all the employers were contributing to industry funds does not make the situation any better when you have more than one fund. Not only will they be paying several lots of administration fees, but fees can vary greatly between industry funds.
An example of this is 45-year-old truck driver Lindsay, who has worked for four different trucking companies. As a result he is a member of four different funds – three industry funds and one commercial fund. From the table you can see all of the industry funds have the same member fee, but other fees can apply. For the commercial fund all fees are higher, plus a commission of up to 4.5 per cent can be charged on contributions.
Administration costs and fees should not be the only consideration when comparing super funds.
Another major differentiator between funds is the cost of insurance for members. Also, if the investment performance of a low-cost fund is poor, a higher-costing fund with better investment performance can produce a better overall result for its members.
If Lindsay consolidated all of his superannuation into one fund his saving on member fees would be at least $234 a year before other possible savings. Some superannuation funds offer an online service as a part of their website that compares their fund with other funds. This can be a big help when deciding which fund to pick if you have several.
If you think you could have more than one superannuation fund, but are worried that you don't know all of them, the Australian Taxation Office provides a service called SuperSeeker. To use this service you must first register online with the ATO. You will need to enter your tax file number and create a password. As all superannuation funds must have a tax file number for members when receiving contributions this can be used to find any missing superannuation.
So, to take charge of your superannuation you must establish how many funds you are a member of, compare the fees, charges and performance of each, then take steps to consolidate all your superannuation into one fund.
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B.10.1. An Analytic Model for Einstein Rings
Most of the lensed extended sources we see are dominated by an Einstein ring - this occurs when the size of the source is comparable to the size of the astroid caustic associated with producing four-image lenses. When the Einstein ring is fairly thin, there is a simple analytic model for the formation of Einstein rings (Kochanek, Keeton & McLeod [2001]). The important point to understand is that the ring is a pattern rather than a simple combination of multiple images. Mathematically, what we identify as the ring is the peak of the surface brightness as a function of angle around the lens galaxy. We can identify the peak by finding the maximum intensity () along radial spokes in the image plane, () = 0 + (cos, sin). At a given azimuth we find the extremum of the surface brightness of the image fD() along each spoke, and these lie at the solutions of
The next step is to translate the criterion for the ring location onto the source plane. In real images, the observed image fD() is related to the actual surface density fI() by a convolution with the beam (PSF), fD() = B* fI(), but for the moment we will assume we are dealing with a true surface brightness map. Under this assumption fD() = fI() = fS() because of surface brightness conservation. When we change variables, the criterion for the peak brightness becomes
where the inverse magnification tensor M-1 = d / d is introduced by the variable transformation. Geometrically we must find the point where the tangent vector of the curve, M-1 . d / d is perpendicular to the local gradient of the surface brightness fS(). These steps are illustrated in Fig. B.70.
Figure B.70. An illustration of ring formation by an SIE lens. An ellipsoidal source (left gray-scale) is lensed into an Einstein ring (right gray-scale). The source plane is magnified by a factor of 2.5 relative to the image plane. The tangential caustic (astroid on left) and critical line (right) are superposed. The Einstein ring curve is found by looking for the peak brightness along radial spokes in the image plane. For example, the spoke in the illustration defines point A on the ring curve. The long line segment on the right is the projection of the spoke onto the source plane. Point A corresponds to point A' on the source plane where the projected spoke is tangential to the intensity contours of the source. The ring in the image plane projects into the four-lobed pattern on the source plane. Intensity maxima along the ring correspond to the center of the source. Intensity minima along the ring occur where the ring crosses the critical curve (e.g. point B). The corresponding points on the source plane (e.g. B') are where the astroid caustic is tangential to the intensity contours.
This result is true in general but not very useful. We next assume that the source has ellipsoidal surface brightness contours, fS(m2), with m2 = . S . where = - 0 is the distance from the center of the source, 0, and the matrix S is defined by the axis ratio qs = 1 - s 1 and position angle s of the source. We must assume that the surface brightness declines monotonically, dfs(m2) / dm2 < 0, but require no additional assumptions about the actual profile. With these assumptions the Einstein ring curve is simply the solution of
The ring curve traces out a four (two) lobed cloverleaf pattern when projected on the source plane if there are four (two) images of the center of the source (see Fig. B.70). These lobes touch the tangential caustic at their maximum ellipsoidal distance from the source center, and these cyclic variations in the ellipsoidal radius produce the brightness variations seen around the ring. The surface brightness along the ring is defined by fI((), ) for a spoke at azimuth and distance () found by solving Eqn. B.135. The extrema in the surface brightness around the ring are located at the points where fI((), ) = 0, which occurs only at extrema of the surface brightness of the source (the center of the source, = 0 in the ellipsoidal model), or when the ring crosses a critical line of the lens and the magnification tensor is singular (| M|-1 = µ-1 = 0) for the minima. These are general results that do not depend on the assumption of ellipsoidal symmetry.
For an SIE lens in an external shear field we can derive some simple properties of Einstein rings to lowest order in the various axis ratios. Let the SIE have critical radius b, axis ratio ql = 1 - 1 and put its major axis along 1. Let the external shear have amplitude and orientation . We let the source be an ellipsoid with axis ratio qs = 1 - s and a major axis angle s located at position ( cos0, sin0) from the lens center. The tangential critical line of the lens lies at radius
while the Einstein ring lies at
At this order, the Einstein ring is centered on the source position rather than the lens position. The orientation of the ring is generally perpendicular to that of the critical curve, although it need not be exactly so when the SIE and the shear are misaligned due to the differing coefficients of the shear and ellipticity terms in the two expressions. These results lead to a false impression that the results do not depend on the shape of the source. In making the expansion we assumed that all the terms were of the same order ( / b ~ ~ 1 ~ s), but we are really doing an expansion in the ellipticity of the potential of the lens e ~ el / 3 rather than the ellipticity of the density distribution of the lens, so second order terms in the shape of the source are as important as first order terms in the ellipticity of the potential. For example in a circular lens with no shear (1 = 0, = 0) the ring is located at
which has only odd terms in its multipole expansion and converges slowly for flattened sources. In general, the ring shape is a weak function of the source shape only if the potential is nearly round and the source is almost centered on the lens. The structure of the lens potential dominates the even multipoles of the ring shape, while the structure of the source dominates the odd multipoles.
In fact, the shape of the ring can be used to simply "read off" the amplitudes of the higher order multipoles of the lens potential. This is nicely illustrated by an isothermal potential with arbitrary angular structure, = rbF() with <F()> = 1 (see Zhao & Pronk [2001], Witt et al. [2000], Kochanek et al. [2001], Evans & Witt [2001]) in the absence of any shear. The tangential critical line of the lens is
If and are radial and tangential unit vectors relative to the lens center and 0 is the distance of the source from the lens center, then the Einstein ring curve is
with the limit showing the result for a circular source.
Thus, by analyzing the multipole structure of the ring curve one can deduce the multipole structure of the potential. While this has not been done non-parametrically, the ability of standard ellipsoidal models to reproduce ring curves strongly suggests that higher order multipoles cannot be significantly different from the ellipsoidal scalings. Fig. B.71 shows two examples of fits to the ring curves in PG1115+080 and B1938+666 using SIE plus external shear lens models. The major systematic problem with fitting the real data are that bright quasar images must frequently be subtracted from the image before the ring curve can be extracted, and this can lead to artifacts like the wiggle in the curve between the bright A1 / A2 images of PG1115+080. Other than that, the accuracy with which the ellipsoidal (plus shear) models reproduce the curves is consistent with the uncertainties. In both cases the host galaxy is relatively flat (qs = 0.58 ± 0.02 for PG1115+080 and 0.62 ± 0.14 for B1938+666). The flatness of the host explains the "boxiness" of the PG1115+080 ring, while the B1938+666 host galaxy shape is poorly constrained because the center of the host is very close to the center of the lens galaxy so the shape of the ring is insensitive to the shape of the source. Unless the source is significantly offset from the center of the lens, as we might see for the host galaxy of an asymmetric two-image lens, it does not constrain the radial density profile of the lens very well - after considerable algebraic effort you can show that the dependence on the radial structure scales as | |4. It can, however, help considerably in this circumstance because it eliminates the angular degrees of freedom in the potential that make it impossible for two-image lenses to constrain the radial density profile at all.
Figure B.71. The Einstein ring curves in PG1115+080 (top) and B1938+666 (bottom). The black squares mark the lensed quasar or compact radio sources. The light black lines show the ring curve and its uncertainties. The black triangles show the intensity minima along the ring curve (but not their uncertainties). The best fit model ring curve is shown by the dashed curve, and the heavy solid curve shows the critical line of the best fit model. The model was not constrained to fit the critical line crossings.


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If I don't get 8 hours of sleep, I tend to need more food. That's when I sometimes eat easy to get, junk food. - by MARYMAC45
I am a true believer in getting enough sleep. Your body has worked hard for you all day, it needs the rest! You should get at least 7 hours a night.... you will feel so much better. I promise!This Sparked Me! Leave a Comment


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London Hearth Tax: City of London and Middlesex, 1666
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Peter Robinson is sitting in his lab at the University of Sydney waiting for his brain to have a catastrophic seizure. He knows the seizure is coming because he's planned it, but so far there are no signs that anything untoward is about to happen. For a while, the brain waves dancing on the display in front of him undulate with a healthy regularity. Then crunch: his brain crashes. It's a perfect seizure.
Robinson's become used to abusing his brain; it's what he gets paid for. When he's done with forcing it to have fits, he plans all manner of other horrendous tests. He hopes that by forcing his brain to malfunction in various unpleasant ways, he will unravel some of the many dark mysteries about how brains work, and how they can all too easily go wrong.
Despite his unorthodox methods, Robinson isn't one of the breed of scientists that, in the pursuit of answers, goes that extra mile past the border of sanity. He's got an extra brain to use for his morbid experiments. Like a real brain, it is driven by flashes of electricity. But instead of being made of soft and wet organic tissue, it lives in a virtual world of computer code.
Robinson is a physicist who got caught up in brain research in the mid-90s when Chris Rennie, a medical physicist at Westmead Hospital, Sydney, approached him about a joint project. Rennie's proposal was ambitious: he wanted to build a computer model of the brain that produced a life-like EEG (electroencephalogram). In essence, it would mimic the electrical activity of the brain.
Scientists had tried this before but had little success. A big problem they faced was not knowing how to model the brain well enough. The confusion led to a series of very different models coming out of labs around the world. Each could mimic specific aspects of brain behaviour with some success, but none worked like a real brain. And because they were all different, there was no one model that predicted brain behaviour in its entirety.
Rennie argued that for a model to be useful, it would need to be based on what neuroscientists knew about the brain. They would have to write into the model well known, if approximate, figures describing how many neurons there are in a brain, how long they are and how many others each tends to be connected to. Then, they would need to programme the model so the virtual neurons could fire at a range of realistic rates and intensities.
In 1996, Robinson took Rennie on as a PhD student and together the two set about building their new model brain. The result - in its rawest form, just a few tens of lines of computer code -fits easily on to a computer disc and can run without difficulty on an out-of-date PC. Yet it has given the scientists more insight into how the brain works than either dared hope for.
Switching on the brain makes a life-like EEG trace appear on the computer screen. Typically, it displays 20 horizontal waves, one above the other, each rising and falling according to the model brain's simulated electrical activity. Immediately, Robinson and Rennie realised the model brain was producing alpha waves, the most distinctive flurry of electrical activity seen in any EEG. The waves are fast, moving up and down 10 times a second.
By changing some of the numbers in the brain model, the scientists were able to work out what it was that produced the alpha waves. They found the cause to be electrical pulses originating from a region called the thalamus, deep inside the brain, that shot up to the cortex (the outer, grooved region of the brain) and back down again. Each circuit took a tenth of a second for each pulse to complete. The circuit is vital: the thalamus relays information from our senses to the cortex for processing.
Knowing the origin of alpha waves turns out to be useful in itself. New born infants are known to have slower alpha waves than adults, rising up and down at just four times a second. This is because the neurons in babies' brains are not yet coated with a fatty substance called myelin. In adults, this coating makes signals fly around the brain much faster. Robinson's model shows that EEGs could be used to monitor how well the myelin coating is growing on those neurons that form the vital link between the thalamus and cortex in a developing child's brain. "You can use it to measure the maturation of a child's brain, so you can check if it's developing evenly and in the right order," he says.
Robinson now uses his model to find out what is happening inside the brains of people with a host of neurological ailments. He starts by gathering EEGs from people with a particular condition, then uses his model to try to replicate it. Depending on the condi tion, the changes can include altering the rate certain neurons fire at, giving them more or less connections than normal. The variations are endless.
Having manipulated his brain to simulate epileptic seizures, Robinson moved on to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). "It turns out that in many of those kids, certain regions of their brains are more sleepy than in normal kids," he says. Robinson believes this could explain why children with ADHD are hyperactive.
"It might be that their hyperactivity in some way compensates for the brain being underactive," he says. "They might be more physically active to try and boost their brains into a fully wakeful state." The finding could also explain why stimulants like ritalin calm children with ADHD, instead of making them even more hyper: wake the brain with drugs and the child won't need to do it with physical activity. Or so the theory goes. Robinson says he needs to do more work to confirm the explanation.
Scientists in Robinson's team also plan to look into Alzheimer's. People with the dementia have very different EEGs to people with healthy brains, and Robinson hopes he'll be able to use his model to work out what happens inside their brain to cause the differences. It may turn out that there are telltale signs in an EEG that warn when a person is about to develop the dementia. "If we can do that, we can start looking for treatments that might help them," he says.
Karl Kriston, who heads the functional imaging lab at the Institute of Neurology in London, says Robinson's model brain could provide unprecedented insights into brain function. "If you look at the history of EEGs, it's clear they had their heyday 30 years ago. But work like Robinson's means it's having a renaissance."
When EEGs were first used, scientists didn't know how best to get information out of the muddle of brain waves. Robinson's model is revealing how useful they can be. "The technique is still a bit out of favour, particularly because there are loads of sexy imaging technologies around now, but I think we're giving EEGs a new lease of life."
Robinson isn't only going to use his second brain to look at medical conditions. He is adapting the model now to enable it to fall asleep and wake up, like a living brain. It'll allow him to abuse his brain even more. Once it is asleep, he wants to see if he can wake it up again by "stimulating it into wakefulness" - science speak for prodding it with a stick. As long as the brain doesn't develop a mind of its own and tell Robinson where to go, it could keep him busy for years to come.


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This post is syndicated (?) from The Whisky Exchange - New Products & News
Overeem Single Malt Whisky / Port Cask #027 / 70cl / 43% / Distillery Bottling
Cask 27 of Old Hobart's flagship whisky, aged in 100-litre French oak, ex-port quarter casks. The small casks help the spirit develop more intense flavours, showing off the quality of both the new make and the French oak.
Price: £140.00 Inc. VAT…
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November 30, 2016
The 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid offers a range and fuel economy that surpasses manufacturer estimates, according to ratings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Pacifica Hybrid offers 566 miles of driving range, which is 6.8% above the 530 miles initially announced by Fiat-Chrysler. The EPA rated the vehicle at 84 miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe) and gave it a 10 rating in its Green Vehicle Guide. FCA has estimated the gasoline-electric minivan would achieve 80 MPGe.
Charging and fueling the vehicle should cost about $900 per year, according the the EPA.
The Pacifica Hybrid combines a gasoline-powered 3.6L V-6, pair of electric motors, and 16-kWh lithium-ion battery pack. Charging the vehicle takes about 2 hours using a 240-volt (Level 2) circuit or 14 hours with 120-volt (Level 1) charging. The vehicle comes with a standard Level 1 charger.
FCA implemented eFlite EVT technology to increase efficiency of the minivan by using two electric motors and a one-way clutch.
The base model Pacifica Hybrid costs $34,495 after the federal tax credit and before state or local incentives.
Related: 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Provides 530 Miles of Range
Determine the actual cost of owning and running a vehicle in your fleet. Compare vehicles by class and model.
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All it takes: stories
Atheneum, 1990 - Fiction - 205 pages
Stories deal with the relationships of sisters, mothers and daughters, and wives and their husbands
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Short story writing is a demanding art form. The writer must convey a universe of ideas in a few pages. In sparsely worded conversations, Volk conveys the intensity of life for the modern urban woman ... Read full review
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Manny Pacquiao Puts Floyd Mayweather in Tough Spot with Super Fight CommentsSeptember 21, 2012
Manny Pacquiao finally brought an end to all of the posturing between his camp and Floyd Mayweather's camp by making crystal clear comments about a potential super fight. Mayweather is now in the spotlight as boxing fans await a response.
Ever since the idea of an encounter between the two biggest draws in the sport arose, it has been turned into a media relations battle as both guys attempted to make it look like they weren't the reason a deal didn't get done.
Pacquiao bucked that trend by stating his willingness to take a smaller portion of the revenue, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
"I'm waiting for that fight to happen," said Pacquiao, boxing's only eight-division world champion. "I don't know what's the reason why that fight has not happened. ... It's OK for me if he gets a higher percentage than me."
Rafael reports Pacquiao told Mayweather he felt comfortable accepting 45 percent of the money. He also put an end to the ongoing talk that he wasn't going to accept random drug testing by saying it wouldn't be an issue in finishing negotiations.
Now that the boxing world knows exactly where Pac-Man stands on the key issues, the ball is in Mayweather's court. The undefeated American has to either accept the terms, or something close, or become the scapegoat for the fight not happening.
It seems like a good deal for him. He gets the bigger share of what should be a massive amount of money generated by the long-awaited fight and the testing will ensure a clean fight, something everybody should have wanted from the start anyway.
He doesn't have to make a decision immediately. Pacquiao is already scheduled to face Juan Manuel Marquez in early December and nothing will be decided until after that fight happens, so Mayweather has time to weigh his options.
That said, it's hard to imagine him coming out of the situation in a positive light if he doesn't agree to a deal. Pacquiao is clearly prepared to make it happen, and the fans are waiting anxiously for a fight that will make boxing mainstream again for awhile.
Both guys are gigantic draws, so it would be difficult for Mayweather to make a strong case to get a bigger portion of the money, especially since both guys are already set to make a mind-boggling amount.
And Mayweather should have no trouble getting back up to full strength for a fight that would probably happen sometime in the middle of 2013, if they agree to terms after Pac-Man's next bout.
In other words, all of the overused excuses have been eliminated. Mayweather is on the clock, and he needs to decide whether to fight or walk away.
For the fans' sake, hopefully he chooses to fight.


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Past Meetup
Take a Walk @ the Mall 4 Health & Humanism, Thursday @Clackamas TC, Coffee Too!
This Meetup is past
4 people went
We're adding a mid-week walk at Clackamas Town Center mall for the duration of the rainy season!
We'll meet at the mall. If the weather is clear, we'll move to a nearby park.
Please check here for rare cancellations when no RSVPs have been received up to an hour prior to the start of the walk.
Do you have a Darwin/humanism/freethought T-shirt? Remember to wear it so we can spread a little science and reason as we walk the mall.
Plan to arrive a few minutes early so we can make introductions and be ready to start the walk together at a warm-up pace shortly after 9:00, when we can pair up according to our walking rates, if that works for you.
We'll meet in the food court near Seattle's Best Coffee and, after about 50 minutes of walking and talking, return there for something caffeinated and to continue the conversation.
Teens, and older children with adult supervision are welcome, as are little ones in strollers.
Members who can't come for the walk are invited to join us for the coffee hour at 10:00 AM.
To get the Event Host's cell number in case you can't find us, you can send an email from their member page before the activity by clicking on their name.
This is a joint activity with Secular Humanists of East Portland.
We look forward to seeing you -- bring a friend!
Go to Attendee List


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Carole Bell column: The milk and cookie theory
Published 7:00 pm, Monday, August 25, 2008
The big dark hallway loomed before me. My hands were sweating and my stomach hurt. I was paralyzed with fear. To make matters worse, I could not put out of my mind that I had been a kindergarten dropout. Kindergarten had been optional. My fears and my tears had convinced my mother that I was not ready for school at the age of five. She only allowed me to suffer a few days before she let me stay home. However, there would be no dropping out of first grade. This was the real thing.
For many children today, the beginning of school is just as terrifying as it was for me those many years ago. Even for little social persons who appear to handle it well, it takes time to get accustomed to the routine. It is a wise parent who recognizes it for the big step it is and helps her child adjust.
I will share with you what my mom did. It seemed to help. It was not long before I was running up the steps to school, eager to see my friends and to do my school work.
For the first couple of weeks, Mom spent a little extra time with me when I got home from school. We sat at the kitchen table. Sometimes, I even sat in her lap. Other times, I was happy to sit in my own chair. I enjoyed graham crackers and milk as I impressed my little brother with all I was learning to do. She prompted me to tell her what successes I had had that day. She also encouraged me to share any fears and failures I had experienced.
Our little "therapy" sessions gave me a chance to unwind from school, put my fears in the daylight of our kitchen (where they shrank in size) and recognize that there had also been good times. As I adjusted to school, the milk and cookies continued, but I less often needed the comfort of Mom's lap.
Mom planted a seed. When my children started to school, we had after-school "snack" time at the kitchen table. Then, many years later when Mom was no longer able to drive, it became a part of my routine to leave school (my job) and drop by her house for a visit. I am not sure which of us benefited most from those times. I know I enjoyed the chance to unwind with Mom as I had so many years ago.
Perhaps this is a habit you would like to start with your children as the new school year begins.
(Carole A. Bell is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a retired public school educator and counselor.)


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1,500 firefighters battle Colorado High Park Fire
Published 4:00 am, Sunday, June 17, 2012
Denver --
Additional crews arrived Saturday to battle a wildfire in northern Colorado that has scorched 85 square miles and destroyed at least 181 homes, the most in state history.
Fire information officer Brett Haberstick said Saturday that more than 1,500 personnel are working on the High Park Fire burning 15 miles west of Fort Collins. The lightning-caused blaze, which is believed to have killed a 62-year-old woman whose body was found in her cabin, was 20 percent contained. The fire's incident commander said full containment could be two to four weeks away.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who oversees the Forest Service, met with fire managers in Fort Collins on Saturday and said: "Fighting this fire is going to require us to be aggressive, persistent and also patient."
In New Mexico, questions were being raised about whether bureaucratic red tape prevented firefighters from saving more homes affected by the Little Bear Fire.
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Republican Rep. Steve Pearce said Friday in an interview with KOB-TV that he believed federal officials could have done more after lightning sparked the fire outside the resort town of Ruidoso on June 4. Days later, high winds carried embers, causing the inferno to grow.
However, officials released transcripts of the response on the Lincoln National Forest website that suggested firefighters were attacking the blaze as soon as it was a quarter of an acre.
The fire has destroyed 224 homes and burned 59 square miles.
In Arizona, the Northern Arizona Incident Management Team took command of the 1,500-acre blaze in the Tonto National Forest. Officials said the fire was 15 percent contained and firefighters continued to battle unseasonably dry fuels, high temperatures and low humidity.


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Word of Mouth blog + Mexican food and drink
Felicity Cloake: Is this student staple cheesy Tex Mex junk or the perfect finger food? Can radishes ever replace jalapeños – and is it best with or without beef?
Fried grasshoppers – a Mexican delicacy – are currently on offer in one London restaurant. Is it time to get over our squeamishness and learn to savour the taste of bugs?
Traditional hand-crafted Mexican mescal is becoming available in the UK, but if it's the artisanal nature of the spirit which appeals, you should try it soon says Natalie Hardwick
Spice up your life - and your lager - with this idea for a refreshing Mexican cocktail. Salud!
Britain has never quite mastered street food, but the burrito might finally bring us up to speed. If not Mexican, what other culture's snacks would you like to see on a stall near you?
How the MasterChef winner and Mexican food enthusiast answered your questions