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Posted on 17 April 2012, 21:20
Case Study: I had just put down the telephone receiver after a long conversation with Dr Brian Cocksey in Auckland, a man who has been at the centre of many striking synchronicities.
In the course of the conversation, on my side, I had mentioned;
(1) a book about the Holy Communion Service in which the author suggested that the text was like the script for a play.
(2) in which the actors might or might not have true spiritual communion.
(3) I had mentioned Stephen the martyr and my book about him, also
(4) Lawrence LeShan and his four modes of viewing reality,
(5) the Cubic City of God of Revelation chapter 21.
(6) I had also described a long series of synchronicities which had led me to imagine a cube containing the globe of the Earth. I saw the Cubic City of God of Revelation as embracing the whole earth, and I saw the cube that I believed I had been led to draw, as an affirmation of my notion of the all-embracingness of the Cubic City.
After I had put down the receiver, I looked to see if any e-mail had arrived. Yes, my friend Joakim of Gothenburg, Sweden, had sent me an e-mail telling me about a dream that he had had eleven days before, that he thought might interest me. In the dream he was in his parish church and the pastor was upfront energetically proclaiming that…
(1) the communion service was like a script for a play;
(2) Joakim noticed that there were white robed beings having spiritual communion at a higher level;
(3) the church caretaker by the name of Stephen stood in the gallery at the west end of the church applauding the words of the pastor.
(4-5) Stephen was twirling four cubes simultaneously and
(6) as they twirled, the cubes resembled globes of the Earth.
(7) There was confirmation that Joakim was dreaming in terms of Revelation 21: because at the end of the service there was to be a wedding, but the bride had not yet arrived. This looks like a parallel to, "I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband." (21:2)
(8) Rev 22:14 - "Happy those who wash their robes clean! They will have the right to the tree of life and will enter by the gates of the city." To me this parallels the white robed beings in Joakims dream.
Even if we want to quibble about a detail, Joakims dream of eleven days before appears to predict most of what I had to say to Brian during that telephone conversation. Brian, no doubt, had many things to say as well it was a long conversation but Joakim appears to be dreaming about my side of it.
(1)The Conversation (2) immediately afterwards I read the e-mail about (3) the Dream that predicted it. And that is the synchronicity. I (we) need time just absorbing what was happening then, and to think about the implications of the event.
Let's face it, the precognitive dream and the synchronicity are completely baffling happenings if we go around looking for normal explanations. Furthermore if dreams can accurately predict the future we might be forced to the conclusion that, in spite of our believing that we can make up our own minds whether or not to do a thing, we are actually puppets with some kind of invisible agency pulling the strings. If we were to believe that, then we have would have to consider it a valid defence in court if a criminal pleaded not guilty on the grounds that he was such a puppet.
Precognitive dreams and synchronicities have been described since the beginning of recorded history, and there have been various attempts to explain them.
Plato (423-347 BCE): Plato (below) lets Socrates describe a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on that wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato's Socrates, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.
According to Plato, then, it seems that precognitive dreams and synchronicities are signs of the things passing in front of the fire in the spiritual plane, of which we only see their shadows in the world that our physical bodies inhabit.
David Bohm (below) (1917-92) a leading British physicist, together with several colleagues, maintains the position of Plato that this world is a kind of projection of the mind, from a deeper level of reality. The explicate (unfolded) world is a projection of the "implicate (folded)" level of reality. A like-minded colleague David Peat (b.1938) has written a scholarly book on synchronicity. Another sympathetic physicist Victor Mansfield (1941-1998) is the author of yet another such book. The psychologist Carl Jung (1875-1961) collaborated with Nobel prize winner physicist Wolfgang Pauli (1900-58) in studying dreams and synchronicity.
I said that Joakims dream raises for me the question of who pulls the strings of us puppets on Earth. And the following quote from Stephen reinforces the question: In Afterlife Teaching Stephen said, In the course of our destinies we tend with the use of our physical minds to create a path which differs from what we are to follow, and will follow. It would be easier to step off this earth, than to change one moment of what our lives will be.
Stephen had this to say: "Think of yourselves as you would gaze upon your image in the pool which, for all intents and purposes, be your mirror. How often, as a child, have we looked into this pool and our consciousness has gone into that which we see. This then is the state that our conscious mind is in, in the image. What we see in the city are reflections, or so be it, symbols of what truly is, but because of the unreality of that image it can either be good or not good as we ourselves choose to see."
Stephen said, "Imagine that you are a reflection. Now I say to you, step outside of your consciousness, and come within yourself that you may see the image." Later he says: "We take our consciousness and immerse it in the image, for we reason as children do: I wish to experience
For by looking at myself from without, I can understand myself better." (Afterlife Teaching, pages 16 and 17.)
So then, what are we to say about Joakims precognitive dream and the synchronicity?
First we might remind ourselves of Lawrence LeShans four modes of viewing reality. [See (4) above.] We can think in terms of his Sensory/Physical mode, where time passes, when we have first Before, then After; when we see and touch and measure. In that mode, the dream was precognitive, and the synchronicity inexplicable. When we think in terms of what LeShan calls the "clairvoyant, perhaps "holistic" mode, we are in timelessness or eternity, where everything is present at the same time. The clairvoyant mode is a bit like when you hold a DVD: you hold the whole video drama in your hands. The sensory physical mode is a bit like putting the disk to the video player, and letting the drama unfold - but only a bit like, since of course we have no DVD but rather an eternal pattern of relationships in a wider order of spirit.
LeShan makes the point that it is valid and okay to see and perceive things in the sensory physical mode; and that it is equally valid to see and perceive things in the clairvoyant mode, even though the two modes appear to contradict each other. On the one hand we are going about our business in a sane and sensible businesslike manner; on the other hand it seems that our citizenship is in heaven (Philip.4.20)
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly (Heb.12.22). Other religions use different picture language for this, but do not disagree. In all that we do it seems that we have dual citizenship, the one thing in terms of the physical and another in terms of the spiritual.
My physical mind just can't get its head around Joakims precognitive dream; my spiritual self feels lifted up and happy about the dream, reassuring you and me that we are citizens of eternity, and that nothing can separate us from the love that is in all, through all, and above all.
Michaels revised edition , Afterlife Teaching From Stephen the Martyr is published by White Crow books and available from Amazon and all good online book stores.
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Next blog, May 1
It is Scientific Method, not Materialism, that makes these "exact" (more often "statistically probable") "predictions about our world." There are scientists who are religious believers, and those who are Materialists. Buddhists, Moslems and Spiritualists can do their arithmetic just as well as anyone else.
Materialists are people who claim to know the nature of Energy. Energy in fact is defined by what it does rather than by what it is. Materialists think of energy as having nothing to do with mind; for them, when you get sufficiently complicated configurations of energy as in a brain, you get mind as a by-product. Destroy the brain, then no more mind. As Materialism is a belief and almost a "religious" faith, and not the result of scientific research, Materialists strenuously seek to discredit the scientists who study the paranormal including mediumistic phenomena.
As I said, scientists can do science perfectly well regardless of faith or lack of it. The trouble with Materialism, or with conservative religious dogmas, is that they all seek to prescribe one's scientific conclusions, thereby precluding the research. In what I wrote earlier, rather than referring to "Mentalists" I could have called them "Open-Minded" scientists, accepting as given that the universe is one system, and that we have to try and make sense of the phenomena that are addressed in the books published by White Crow Books.
@Michael: "Our thoughts will become very muddled if we try to combine Mentalism with Materialism"
Perhaps that statement is true, but it doesn't seem to have any content.
Materialism makes exact, verifiable predictions about our world. That those predictions sometimes fail doesn't mean they are any less useful in the domain where they do work.
The problem I'm trying to articulate with Mentalism as currently (not) defined, is that it doesn't seem to make *any* predictions, whether correct or incorrect.
Saying "all is matter", while possibly false, at least has some content which makes it falsifiable: matter is defined has having specific, measurable, attributes like force and mass and charge.
To say that "all is mind", without somehow defining what "to be mind" *means* in terms of observable behaviour, doesn't seem to be saying anything at all. "The world is a dream" seems to be an empty statement - certainly, it may be true, but what *kind* of dream is it? What might we expect dreamlikeness to imply? What would it NOT imply? How would we test the proposition of dreamlikeness, and compare it to nondreamlikeness?
What I'm asking is, can we make the word "mind" say something, rather than nothing?
Joakim's Dream is a synchronicity that seems to predict the future. I have described what happened accurately. Researchers have collected a multitude of such dreams. The phenomenon makes no sense for the Materialist who asks, "What is Matter?" And answers, "Never Mind."
It makes sense for the Mentalist who asks, "What is Mind?" And answers, "No Matter."
Physicist David Bohm and his allies are Mentalists. Like the Materialists, Mentalists see the universe as one system. In the realm we call "spiritual", physicists who are Mentalists see it as the CREATIVE aspect of Mind. In the realm we call "physical", these physicists see it as the CREATED aspect of Mind. What we see in the world about us is the created aspect of Mind which seems to obey Newtonian laws, but shows its mental nature through events like synchronicities and predictive dreams. The Newtonian laws seem to be overridden by what seemed like dreams of the creative aspect of Mind.
Mentalist physicists produce theories attempting to create a physics embracing the creative and created aspects of Mind.
Our thoughts will become very muddled if we try to combine Mentalism with Materialism, because they contradict each other.
@Nate: Well, I am certainly not qualified to judge the validity of string theory. I just read what´s out their and draw conclusions based on that, so I may be way of the mark. It would be a pity, I kinda saw a pattern emerging there…. Ah, well.
@Simon: Sadly I don't understand the first thing about string theory, and as a physics layman I'm rather of the impression that the best mathematicians in the world don't understand string theory either. I'm a fan of Peter Woit ( http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/ ) who points out that string theory has yet to make an actual non-falsified prediction. That seems like a big problem to me.
Generally I just feel that something went wrong in 20th century physics around the WW2 era because of the sprawling complexity of our postwar models and the rapidly diminishing returns on mental investment. Quantum computing and condensed matter physics are interesting, as they seem to be getting actual results; telescopes which can observe actual images are certainly real; the rest of the high-energy physics and cosmology theory scene just seems to have been leading nowhere. In my opinion, and I am of course unqualified to have one.
@Nate: Thanks for sharing your perspective! Have you contemplated the implications of string theory to spirituality? Science, I believe will end up explaining spirituality and, eventually, merge with it.
If you haven´t before, give string theory a go! If you have, I would love to hear your thoughts on the origin of strings and how spirituality could tie into it.
Scotty may just beem you up yet….
Sorry, just another addendum:
Of course neither "atom" nor "cell" are really primal notions in physical science. I think I mean by "atom" something more like "extended body in space and time possessing substance/mass/momentum" which would have the real conceptual breakthrough around the era of Newton and Liebniz, though observations of biological cells via microscope date from about that era too.
The problem with ESP and spiritual visions is that we don't seem to be dealing with things even remotely similar to Aristotelian ideas of "extended bodies in space", with or without Newtonian ideas of momentum and energy. We have personal, subjective, mental "observations" which can't be repeated and which are mostly invisible to instruments. We have maybe "extended mental entities" or "shared idea-feeling-forms" but they don't seem to obey even the idea of enclosure within regions of space and time. We don't really grasp how they connect, what their properties are, how big or small they are, or how to compare them to anything.
In spiritual science, we seem to be stuck at a prehistoric level of understanding without even the barest inkling of how to rub the rocks together. And it's not obvious that we're even making any progress after thousands of years, or even how to tell if we were.
(though possibly the Gospels might give some clue there: peace, love, joy might be indicators we're doing something right.)
I'd like if I may to restate the central point I was trying to make, but didn't quite get to:
Science, in the domains where it has appeared to work spectacularly well for us, is based on the very simple idea of "putting small, simple ideas together in simple, easy ways to create complicated ideas". At least that's my paraphrase of the core of it.
The problem that many science-believers have with religion (and spiritualism and philosophy and politics and art, all of which are seen as "soft" enterprises at best if not outright mind-viruses) is that these appear to put the cart before the horse: they start with very complicated, not-at-all-well understood ideas such as "spirit" and "human personality" and "God" and "the good", and then come down from there to attempt to explain the simple and everyday. And that just doesn't seem like a very good way of doing things. How can we get anywhere if we start from something we don't understand? Better to start from what we do, and move up the complexity ladder, than down. And so we got Logical Positivism and Behaviourism and neo-liberal economics and Evolution by Natural Selection, and other ideas which attempt to leverage simplicity to explain complexity, with various levels of success.
Assuming that "the spirit" is in fact real and primary to "the physical" - how can we possibly start to characterise "spirit"? We do indeed seem to be the blind trying to lead the blind. We don't agree what beauty and truth are, but we seem to agree what rocks and tables are, and "what if the universe is just made of trillions of rocks with no living Spirit overseeing it", though probably false and certainly artistically uninspiring, is at least something we can calculate, and then test our calculations against our observations.
So here's the trillion dollar question: if our sense that the universe is physical is wrong, what can possibly replace it? Against the complex idea of "human body", we have the simple ideas of "cell" and "atom" (both of which are getting woolly at the low end, but at least let us model some stuff which turned out to be useful).
What is the equivalent of "atom" and "cell" to "the human spirit"? Even "idea" or "thought" or "feeling" seem hugely complicated and vague. Is it even conceivable that we could ever have "a science of spirit"? Without "atoms of spirit" on which we agree, how can we even begin?
As a Star Trek fan I have to point out the obvious similarities between the New Jerusalem of John's Revelation and a Borg Cube ( http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Borg_cube ). Coincidence…. or eerie synchronicity?
Tongue firmly in cheek. For those here not familiar with television science fiction, let me explain. The Borg, Star Trek's most popular primary "villain" race, were an invention of the late 1980s Next Generation series. Since this was before the end of the Cold War, they were a fairly transparent Soviet/Communist analogy: they went around gobbling up other races and forcibly "converting" them into a sort of man/machine hybrid. For their own good, but other races didn't usually see it that way. Their catchphrase was "Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated."
(In fact looking and acting almost exactly like Doctor Who's Cybermen did in the 1960s, but let's not get into debates about originality in American vs British TV. Let's just admit that the Brits got there first and continue).
Anyway, since the Borg are basically Space Stalinists, they have a very pragmatic, minimalist approach to architecture: their space ships are nothing more than giant flying cubes. Filled with worker drones constantly wired up to the local Internet. As a Net addict myself, that actually sounds kind of like my idea of Heaven, but I guess on the TV show the Borg Cubes were supposed to be Scary Socialism gone wrong. Everyone was an equal interchangeable worker and constantly communicating with their neighbours at a mental level to form a group mind. This was apparently bad and Star Fleet officers spent a lot of time and effort either trying to blow these guys out of the sky or explain to them the merits of individualism and competitive ego and not turning planets into slag unless they really annoy you.
On a more serious note, it seems to me that while precognition and synchronicity are quite probably true, there is still a huge unsolved problem around causality when we start playing with future-to-past time communication, and it's not clear to me how LeShan's "four modes" come anywhere near solving this. If causality DOESN'T flow directly in a linear stream from past to future, then how DOES it work? If future events can affect the past, then why do only some events out of the infinity of possible futures actually occur? And more importantly, if time flowing backward can occur at room temperature inside living systems like the human brain, why can't we construct physical experiments also at room temperature (ie in situations where neither quantum physics nor general relativity are usually held to apply) to demonstrate such temporal inversion?
It's easily established by dropping an egg onto the floor that there is, in our normal easily repeatable physical reality, a clear difference in the "arrow of time": an egg simply does not rise from the floor and unscramble itself no matter how many times we repeat the observation. If we truly believed that time ordering of evens is either symmetrical or irrelevant, then it seems that we should equally be able to argue "The egg fell because I pushed it off the table" or "I chose to (or accidentally did) push the egg off the table because it was destined to fall in the future." But the second is very difficult to reconcile with both our intuitions and experiences: we feel that the case of pushing an egg has a very simple cause-and-effect relationship that we can categorise both in terms of personal agency and energy-mass interactions: my hand has more momentum than the egg, the egg can't "push back", so it falls. We can easily measure mass and force. But we can't seem to measure "this egg is or isn't destined to fall" and it's very unclear how the physical pathways would work.
Thermodynamics, in fact, seems to give us a clear "arrow of time" from energy to entropy; the usual assumption is that "the past is more energetic than the future" and therefore sorting out the direction of time is a simple matter of energy flows. Introducing some kind of destiny mechanism like an Aristotelian "final cause" would complicate ordinary common sense science immensely (possibly infinitely) with no obvious predictive payoff.
Arguably the fundamental equations of physics, or our current approximations of them such as QED, do demonstrate temporal symmetry; Richard Feynman made this point. But we have never found a way of exploiting this in the "room temperature" domain. If we had, there'd already be a "Timebook.com" where you could read your future self's diary. That we don't have that today suggests that nobody in the future is going to choose to try to set one up. Yet given humanity's basic curiosity and willingness to experiment, why aren't those future selves of ours doing just that?
Liebniz's "monadology" seems even weirder, where he suggested that there's neither a flow of energy/time from past to future nor from future to past, but an infinity of atomic states all co-existing separately. Some spiritual writings such as Stephen seem to suggest that something like that literally exists. But that seems to fail Occam's razor in the worst way: it makes an infinitely complex assumption and then fails to generate even any basic predictions. How can that lead to a coherent science?
And yet, even though it seems personally do believe in something like a "final cause", which would suggest something like a single "highly energetic future state" reaching back to our past (an Omega Point or Second Coming or something like that). But I don't know how to get from here to there. It seems far more philosophy than science, and unfortunately in the world where I live (computing and engineering), where we seem to need and seem to have the ability to create simple answers to pressing technical questions, that's not all a compliment.
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Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 specifications leaked ahead of CES Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The official press release for the processor leaked by the popular leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks). Qualcomm's latest processor will also be able to run full Windows 10 OS.
According to the leaked press release, Snapdragon 835 is one-of-a-kind processor that's smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient than any chipset in history. The processor uses a new 10nm design, which makes it 30 percent smaller than Snapdragon 820. Also, Snapdragon 835 uses 40 percent less power than the previous generation and provides up to a 27 percent performance increase.
Snapdragon 835 Features:
Battery Life
Snapdragon 835's Qualcomm Kryo 280 CPU, Qualcomm Adreno 540 GPU, and Qualcomm Hexagon DSP manage separate workloads — all of them tightly integrated by Qualcomm Symphony System Manager to support better thermals and longer battery life.
Along with the new 10nm design, these multi-pronged, harmonized computing solutions bring unprecedented energy improvements. They include: 1+ day of talk time, 5+ days of music playback, and 7+ hours of 4K video streaming. Should your phone need more power, Qualcomm Quick Charge 4 provides five hours of battery life for five minutes of charging.
Immersive AR and VR Support
Snapdragon 835 features game-changing enhancements to the three most important VR requirements: accurate audio, vibrant visuals, and intuitive interactions. Designed to meet VR processing demands within strict thermal and power constraints, Snapdragon 835 offers 25 percent faster 3D graphic rendering and 60X more display colors when compared to Snapdragon 820.
To generate true-to-life sound, Snapdragon 835 supports scene- and object-based audio and audiophile-grade DSD audio. And for the most intuitive and comfortable user experiences on VR, the new SoC produces a 20 percent reduction in motion-to-photon latency and six-degrees-of-freedom for precise and pleasant motion tracking.
New improved zoom and stabilization for photos and videos by developing highly optimized software algorithms that intelligently toggle between processing sub-systems like the Qualcomm Hexagon DSP, Qualcomm Spectra 180 ISP, and Adreno 540 GPU to deliver a smooth zoom experience. Furthermore, Qualcomm's newest generation of video stabilization software, EIS 3.0, provides superior, 4K video stabilization through advanced yaw, roll, and rolling shutter correction.
New support for Dual Photodiode (2PD) and enhancements to our hybrid auto-focus framework bring intelligent phase and lighting detection to users' devices, ensuring that they never miss another important moment because of bad camera focus. And Qualcomm Clear Sight is engineered to fuse together images for improved sharpness, noise reduction, and dynamic range.
Snapdragon 835 is designed to deliver each of these key experiences through the integrated Snapdragon X16 LTE modem and customized support for 802.11ad Wi-Fi, giving power users gigabit and multi-gigabit experiences wherever they are.
Supporting peak download speeds up to 10X faster than first-generation 4G LTE devices, the Snapdragon X16 LTE modem is designed to obtain peak speeds on a number of fronts. The modem hauls in information with advanced 256-QAM digital signal processing, receives data on four antennas through 4×4 MIMO, and supports up to 4X carrier aggregation for optimized peak throughput. And with the new 10nm architecture, the X16 LTE modem has a 45 percent smaller footprint and 60 percent better power efficiency.
Snapdragon 835's Qualcomm Haven Security Platform provides three layers of security on SoC, device, and system levels. Haven uses pins and fingerprints to authenticate the user interface and eye- and face-based security to authenticate the camera. At the same time, Haven runs device attestation on the software, apps and OS, and hardware. The end result is a security platform that continuously and thoroughly authenticates both the user and the device, protecting the reams of new information and transactions taking place on our phones.
Machine Learning
Snapdragon 835 to make object recognition for better photos, real-time hand-tracking for immersive VR, voice recognition for a low-power virtual assistant, and biometric authentication that knows and protects users.

subset: commoncrawl


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Result of a continuous work throughout its history, Zaccaria has become the leader in the Brazilian milling market , reaching 70 percent of a market of 12,000,000 tons / year. The Zaccaria products line also includes equipment for processing beans, maize and other cereals.
Together with agents locate throughout Brazil and the world, Zaccaria supplies a complete line of original and spare parts, rolls and rubber brakes.
Within the competitive market for cereal processing and the growing of globalisation, Zaccaria make all efforts to offer to its customers not only products with excellent quality and technology, but also personalised projects for specific purposes according to customers' requirements, as well as technical assistance, commercial and technical support through highly qualified agricultural / mechanics engineers ,who are able to offer proper orientation regarding to the products for each customer, according to their needs.
The Zaccaria has the "CE " certification in the milling cereals business, which enables them to market their products and services worldwide. They are market leaders in Latin America, being that about 50 percent of paddy production is processed by Zaccaria machinery Nowadays, Zaccaria is located in an area of 54 thousand square meters, 34 thousand covered by built area. It has a team on average 350 highly qualified and trained staff.
They have the honour of being a Brazilian company with national and international recognition by their achievements and the continuous improvement of its products and services offered to their customers.
Visit the company website, HERE.
The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.
For additional daily news from milling around the world: global-milling.com


text: Public speaking isn't just about what you say, it's also about what you think. In today's episode, I interview Linda Ugelow, a public speaking and performing coach who helps entrepreneurs and professionals overcome their self-consciousness and nerves so they can be freely expressive in meetings, on video or on stage. She has a Master's in Expressive Therapy and has taught improvisation forms of movement for over 25 years. We discuss her methods for helping new speakers get over their fear of speaking and how to create new neural pathways to create a better experience on stage. Linda has built her own signature program that helps speakers of all levels gain more confidence, feel more connected to themselves, and build better presentations. You'll hear how she discovered the need for this work through her own experiences and the type of people who have benefited from what she does. If you deal with negative self-talk when thinking about or performing a speech, this episode is for you! Learn more about linda at www.lindaugelow.com.


text:
Plan number 35
Jo has been a dealer of international repute based in the Sablon district of Brussels since 1996. For more than 20 years, he has exhibited and provided expertise for major tribal and antique art shows around the world, including Parcours des Mondes (Paris), BRUNEAF (Brussels) and the Tribal and Textile Arts Shows (San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York). He is recognized in his field of specialization both by colleagues and collectors, and has always placed an emphasis on authenticity and how to recognize it. He is very interested in placing ethnographic objects in their historic context to understand the function of the art. The publications he made on the Emile Lejeune collection and on the legacy of Hendrik Elias are wanted tools for this purpose. You are welcome to contact him for advice on objects or curating your collection. He speaks Dutch, French, English and German.
+32475841729 +32475841729
43 Rue Des Minimes, Belgique
During the "Parcours des Mondes",
Exhibits at
French Arts Factory 19 Rue de Seine, 75006 Paris.
Exhibits at
French Arts Factory 19 Rue de Seine, 75006 Paris.


text:
A Social Network for Navy Veterans of the United States of America
Added by Jim Decota on July 27, 2011 at 4:51pm — 1 Comment
Added by John (Blue Eagle) Maddalena on July 22, 2011 at 12:00pm — 1 Comment
by Sharon Rondeau
Added by John (Blue Eagle) Maddalena on July 20, 2011 at 7:43am — 4 Comments
Added by Kimberly Hogan Castillo on July 14, 2011 at 1:44pm — No Comments
Hi all,
I just joined Navy Vets. I was in CHB-2 in Vietnam from Feb.1966 to May of 1967 or 68. Looking for other members of the unit.
Added by robert L. Scott on July 14, 2011 at 11:39am — No Comments
There should not be a single vet that is homeless while we have housing sitting and rotting that could serve very well as temporary housing for those who have served!
As an example, the former Alameda Naval Air Station! Houses and barracks galore, sitting empty and no other use that the city can come up with right now! I mean come on now! How stupid and ignorant are the politicians and the military leadership and the VA?…Continue
Added by Jim Decota on July 13, 2011 at 6:00pm — No Comments
Just wanted to wish a Fantastic Independence Day to all!
I was on the Gilmore (AS 16) in La Madd from '76-'78... and was given charge as ranking PM right out of "A" school. A big thank-you to PMC Mirckey (sp) for his leadership!
I was assigned to R-1 Carpenter Shop (64 A) and later went to Rubber and Plastics (57 B). I met a lot of great people co-ordinating with the Tech Library, Foundry, Machine Shop and others. There were some excellent R&R trips to Sicily,…Continue
Added by David Wilson on July 2, 2011 at 3:50pm — No Comments
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text:
St. Augustine's mobility task force aims to think big
Posted: June 8, 2016 - 11:54pm | Updated: June 9, 2016 - 12:27pm
By SHELDON GARDNER
Correction: A previous version of this story misquoted a slide from the consultant. The slide defines mobility as "movement provided by an efficient and coordinated system of transportation options." Updated on June 9, 2016.
Two men stand with fishing poles on a dirt road in an image displayed Wednesday at City Hall as part of a meeting on mobility.
The photo shows an 1800s view of what is now King Street.
"It's a far cry from what it looks like today," said George Kramer, director of planning for Littlejohn Engineering Associates, the consultant chosen to create a mobility plan for the city.
The photo was part of a presentation during the first meeting of the city's Mobility Advisory Task Force, a group of residents and officials assembled to help shape the mobility plan.
The presentation outlined through historic photos how St. Augustine has changed and how traffic pressures have affected land use. King Street is now one of the busiest roads influencing St. Augustine's traffic issues.
How locals interact with their city has also changed, something Vilano Beach resident and task force member Lisa Lloyd reflected on at the meeting.
"Having grown up here, I miss downtown. When I was a kid, I rode my bike there, I shopped there, I hung out there. I feel like I circumnavigate it these days," Lloyd said. "I would love to have locals feel like we own our downtown and it's a part of us the way it used to be, instead of a place to be avoided. So, part of this process is making sure that locals have access to their own city center."
Work on the mobility plan began in full Wednesday as the city's consultant toured the city and the task force had its first meeting.
The tour began Wednesday morning, with a group of people clad in neon safety vests walking down King Street. They were led by officials from Littlejohn, who stopped periodically to discuss the roads and sidewalk features.
The walk was intended to give the officials — representing St. Augustine, St. Johns County, Flagler College, the Florida Department of Transportation and other entities — a firsthand experience of what it's like to be a pedestrian in St. Augustine.
It was also a chance to bring together some of the stakeholders in St. Augustine who will be involved in the mobility plan. Consultant officials also used a bicycle and a wheelchair on the tour to get different perspectives.
Today, the work on mobility continues with an open house from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at City Hall, where people can talk with consultant officials and get their questions about the mobility plan answered.
The first Mobility Advisory Task Force meeting Wednesday evening laid out the basic agenda for the task force, set the ground rules and discussed the definition of mobility and what guidelines task force members want for the process.
A slide from the consultant defined mobility as "movement provided by an efficient and coordinated system of transportation options."
What this won't be is just a document, Kramer indicated.
Kramer said he's heard questions about why other studies related to traffic issues in the city have not been implemented.
"And that's a good question, and I don't know that there's one answer," he said.
But, he added, "Our task is to provide a holistic plan that's focused on implementation."
Getting to an implementable plan will probably take a year or more. The first and second phases are expected to take several months.
A mobility plan — which has also been referred to as a transportation and parking master plan — will have six parts focused on the street network, land use and urban design, streetscapes, parking, transportation demand management and a capital improvements plan, the piece that will describe how the city puts the ideas into action.
The consultants will have a lot of ground to cover when it comes to transportation options.
"You have more modes in this city than any other city I've worked in," Kramer said. "From the Segways to the golf carts, you name it it's here, it's a challenge and you have the narrowest roads of anywhere."
Through September, the consultants plan to work on understanding the problems and discussing the issues with the public, officials said. That will lead to a framework for putting the plan together.
Designing and creating the plan will be the final phase.
The city plans to pay more than $108,000 to Littlejohn for the first phase, as work is completed. A second contract will cover the final phase.
The task force is one tool for involving the community to get the plan done, Kramer said. But the plan will be a community plan, and the process invites public participation at any time.
People have apparently been eager to participate.
Consultant officials cited about 800 or 900 responses that have come in from a mobility survey posted on the city's website.
When it came to ground rules for the task force, committee members indicated they want a free flow of ideas at meetings and long-term, creative solutions — and some could be very creative.
North Davis Shores resident Wolfgang Schau suggested the group needs to look ahead 10 or 15 years and may need to get "radical."
Schau referred to an idea he heard about creating a tunnel for vehicles from the Vilano Beach area to Anastasia Island.
The committee also talked about coming up with ideas that are implementable and realistic.
The city faces realities such as limited funding and the fact that the Florida Department of Transportation controls several state roads that carve through or around the city. Those are King Street, State Road A1A and U.S. 1.
Task force member Mark Edwards also suggested the plan find a way to measure with empirical evidence, whether ideas are successful or not.
Kramer stressed the importance of looking at possible solutions in context of the bigger picture of the city and the effects of those solutions.
Officials at the table included people from Vilano Beach, some neighborhoods in the city, the West Augustine CRA Steering Committee, the St. Johns County Council on Aging and the tourism industry. Staff advisers representing St. Augustine Beach, St. Johns County and city officials were on hand.
There was not a public comment period at the meeting, though one audience member spoke near the end of the meeting and said it would be appropriate to include everyone all the time.
Kramer said officials intended to keep the task force meeting short and invite public comment at today's open house. He also invited people to make comments via a form that was handed out.
Mobility work continues
Today a mobility open house will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Augustine City Hall, 75 King St. At the open house, the public can meet with members of the project team and ask questions and make comments. People can also contact St. Augustine Mobility Coordinator Xavier Pellicer III at email@example.com A survey is at staugustinegovernment.com under "Mobility Update."
sponger2 06/09/16 - 09:14 am 54Mobility plan simplified.
Remove superfluous tours (Ancient city Latrine tours), remove "events" to remote locations, and limit the amount and duration that the Bring of Lions opens. That will be $189,000.00 please.
PS: How official and important they look in their DOC issued yellow vests.
martystaug 06/09/16 - 11:04 am 55Mid-week morning walking tour?
Can't wait for the Saturday afternoon driving tour. Here's another piece of advice, Don't invite an extra 30,000 vehicles to downtown St. Augustine all at the same time. (as detailed in Sponger's 10lbs in a 5lb bag rule). Will they spend some of that money on a ride in the bi-plane or yellow helicopter to actually see all of the long lines of traffic coming into the choke points of this city? The locals live with the rush hour and weekend traffic backups, but inviting the world to all show up at once for an event, should happen somewhere away from our narrow downtown streets. Adding all that traffic to downtown is proof that the TDC has zero concern for quality of life here.
sponger2 06/09/16 - 11:42 am 55I have to steal this.
On another thread mach referred to
the TDC as the "Trouble, Disturbance, and Chaos" organisation. I just have to add that to my lexicon. Too good to pass up and so true. Send them out to pasture. They've "helped us" enough already.
Firstcoaster 06/09/16 - 12:10 pm 35Quality of Life
The TDC is concerned about quality of life - their$.
Rich The Lube Guy 06/09/16 - 06:16 pm 32A Great Laugh
I typically don't respond to many news articles but had to write this after seeing today's front page.
We just happened be in town yesterday and stopped by the gas station at Malaga and King St.
Across King Street we saw the same group of people on the front page standing on the corner and we were wondering what was going on, FDOT, Utilities, or something else.
All of a sudden three men began to walk few steps east on King when one of them stepped onto the grass and began striding across the sidewalk as to measure it.
He then must have said something to the other two gentlemen and then one of them began to measure the width of the sidewalk by placing one foot in from of the other. Just like the drunk drivers test.
Needless to say, we couldn't stop laughing thinking that these obvious professionals engineers were measuring with their feet! And measured twice!
Their feet must be approved by the Department of Weights and Measures or to quote an old movie was this the same group that sold Jack those Magic Beans for the Beanstalk!!!
With all due respect I'm sure the Company will do a great job but I've always learned that the appearance of an impropriety is usually far worse than what really happened.
Next time bring a measuring tape or wheel.
Thanks for the Great Laugh!
Rich Marinucci
Firstcoaster 06/09/16 - 07:24 pm 21Rich
The $108,000 doesn't include a tape measure. That would be covered under the $150,000 plan.
sponger2 06/09/16 - 08:14 pm 32Same four down votes.
You can probably pick them out of the "Time Bandits" photo from the article curtailing "The Ancient City Latrine Tours". By the way, it wasn't so hard to retreat to the Flea Market. And let's not forget our underutilized county fairgrounds on SR-207. Ship the rest of that crap out there and give us our town back.
mach12.1e 06/09/16 - 08:18 pm 32I'm sure it's the "Resort Managers" that are upset.
Any dog and pony show will do. As long as we can "pack em in" and keep the B&B's filled to capacity.
People pitch ideas for St. Augustine traffic to mobility consultant
Posted: June 9, 2016 - 11:46pm | Updated: June 10, 2016 - 9:29am
By SHELDON GARDNER
Locals came armed with ideas for the city's mobility plan at Thursday's open house at St. Augustine City Hall.
Roy Jaeger and Maury Keiser, leaders of the St. Augustine Maritime Heritage Foundation and St. Johns County residents, brought forward an idea they've been talking about for some time: using St. Augustine's waterways to get people around town.
"The waterways parallel every major artery," Keiser reasoned. "Why not use it?"
A focus of the foundation is waterway connectivity, said Jaeger, who was an executive with the port authority in New York and New Jersey.
He discussed using water transport to connect people to the Northeast Florida Regional Airport, the Vilano Beach area and the St. Augustine Shipyard development via water taxi, with connectors along the way.
The mobility open house was scheduled to last until 5 p.m. By about 4 p.m., organizers estimated more than 120 people had come to the meeting.
The point of the open house was to give the public a chance to interact with the city's mobility consultant, Littlejohn Engineering Associates. The feedback will be used by the consultant as officials move forward with the first phase of creating the mobility plan, a phase that is expected to last until September and produce a framework for actually creating the plan.
Several stations were set up to represent different sections of the city or the city overall. Staffed by consultant staffers who wrote down ideas, the setup allowed attendees to walk around the room, ask questions and be heard.
Ideas and points to consider were scribbled on Post-it notes and paper — among them, the words and phrases "cut-thrus," "enforce speed limits," "roundabouts" and "crosswalks."
Those words were listed in the station designated "Anastasia."
On Anastasia Island, Peggy Bliss has seen some traffic issues near her home that is close to the Bridge of Lions in Davis Shores.
When the bridge is drawn for boat traffic, traffic tends to take an alternative route down her road. She said she's in favor of looking at one-way streets in Davis Shores, as an idea to be explored.
"We'll see as many as 10 cars in a row," Bliss said.
Aside from Thursday's event, there is still opportunity for input. People can provide comments related to the mobility plan — such as traffic concerns and ideas for improvements — at any time via email to firstname.lastname@example.com.
The ideas presented Thursday won't necessarily be part of the plan, but some could be, said George Kramer, director of planning for Littlejohn Engineering Associates.
Another public presentation is scheduled at 1 p.m. today at City Hall where "the team from Littlejohn will offer a presentation on some of the initial findings from the community's input, including ideas, suggestions and special challenges," according to the city.
sponger2 06/10/16 - 08:04 am 44Mobility plan simplified, take 2.
Show the T.D.C. ( Trouble, Disturbance, and Chaos) the exit corridors to the city and bid them a fond farewell. Parasitic organisms need to find a new host from time to time, and now is the time. Remove the Ancient City Time Bandit/ Latrine/ Ghost and assorted "tours". Limit "special" events (done, good move city) and move existing ones to our underutilized fairgrounds out on SR-207. Limit number of times and duration that the Bridge of Lions opens. That will be another $105,000.00 please.
mach12.1e 06/10/16 - 08:41 am 43Use the pirate ship...
To ferry tourists from the island to the mainland at the fort. They'll be poised to be parted from their loot on St. George Street that much quicker. When they're out of money, ferry them back and pick up the next load.
wnsvtumbleweed 06/10/16 - 11:41 am 21You are forgeting the Developers.
The congestion is also made up of the urban sprawl promoted by developers. Take a look at the McMansions going up on small plots of land all over the county. No down payment and away you go move in the family. Where do these folks work?
Some may cut through downtown to get to JAX from the island.
Take 312 and bypass the bridge, "no" they say we'd rather sit in traffic as the bridge goes up. We love to hear ourselves cry "boohoo I'm stuck" good for a Facebook or twitter quote. The ICW is a highway too. The bridge schedule is the following no opening 8am,12pm, 5pm. The openings are based on a request by a captain of a vessel to the bridge operator on the hour & 1/2 hour. If it is a tug under tow the Coast Guard mandated navigation rule is on demand. You see they can't stop no brakes on a tug. There are plenty of times the bridge does not go up. I've had to wait with my boat with the tides pulling it. Considering how swift the tide is it is amazing how few times the bridge has not been hit by a vessel under power. (FYI Water taxis do not need the bridge to go up.) This town was always a port the year 1565 comes to my mind, let's use what we have and create more public transportation for everyone not just the touristas. When I used public transportation to go to work I was always on time, when I was stuck driving I was late more times then not. If we had good public transport service I would love to not drive downtown!
sponger2 06/10/16 - 01:17 pm 53I never forget developers...
Just ask anyone on this site. They are the rapists of this county, and have the bought and paid for county commission as their tool to rubber stamp almost every development and zoning change that has crossed their desks in the last twenty years. Without them, this problem would not exist. It is greed and exploitation that drives them, and most of them don't live here. Just look on the supervisor of elections website to find out where the money comes from.
I love boating and I am aware of bridge operations. Some of my comments are tongue-n-cheek. However, I have been stuck at rush hour either side of the bridge numerous times since I have lived here forever. That is probably because of the Coast Guard requirement.
We need about 100,000 people to disappear to get this county back to where it needs to be. That is uncrowded, unhurried, and no longer overpriced, with plenty of room and what made this a nice place to live (nature and old time Florida) before the circus arrived and took over. I guess I would call that the
"De-Disneyfication" of St. Augustine, if I had to coin a term.
mach12.1e 06/10/16 - 01:38 pm 32Better yet...
Take the pirate ship out to sea with all the "contributors" to the development machine, and fire the fort's cannon at it. Make a special spot on the bow for the T.D.C. (Trouble, Disturbance, and Chaos organization).
Disclaimer: We know the cannon fires blanks, but there's an event I would pay money to see. Let's call it "a re-enactment".
attinson63 06/10/16 - 01:08 pm 45Open house
So did y'all go to the open house yesterday and submit all your brilliant ideas, as set forth in these comments?
The Muse -- actually louche lame duck pro-developer COUNTY COMMISIONER PRISCILLA "RACHAEL" BENNETT (R-HUTSON COMPANIES) 06/10/16 - 04:12 pm 33Attinson
Of course they did not attend! They do not seek positive solutions- they just hide in the dark and spit at everyone else. They want the world to go back in time- AFTER they got here, but before anyone else did.
Bob Fliegel 06/10/16 - 06:48 pm 42Sponger2 wants to go back to...
"...[a place] That is uncrowded, unhurried, and no longer overpriced, with plenty of room and what made this a nice place to live (nature and old time Florida) before the circus arrived and took over."
You and columnist Kathleen Parker think alike. I strongly recommend you read her piece, "Mourning a Florida we lost long ago" in the June 7th edition of the Washington Post. Perhaps it will soon appear on the Record's op-ed page.
sponger2 06/10/16 - 09:51 pm 43No one over here hides.
This forum reaches far more voters than the paper tiger meeting which was designed to find a way to pack even more people in then they are now because they will feel they have "solved the congestion problem" while making "the people" feel like they have real input. What a sham.
These folks are PAID consultants attempting to find a way to increase flow so as to squeeze every dollar they can out of the teeming hordes, and to keep them coming. Take note of the article "Event organizers cry foul over new rules". All 16 opinions at the time of my last reading overwhelmingly approved putting on the brakes and giving the locals a breather. You think "LittleJohn" gives a crap what we think? Then I got a bridge to sell you. Wake up, this is all about more dollars. If that weren't the case, I wouldn't now be seeing TV ads bringing more attention to the Ancient Gold Mine, and you wouldn't see hundreds of thousands of dollars going into the coffers of the "presumptive commissioners". That is, those that were hand picked by Jacksonville developers, bankers, and attorneys.
PS: Bob, I will look for the article. Remember: "You just can't put 10 pounds of poop in a five pound bag."
mach12.1e 06/10/16 - 09:00 pm 43If I had showed up at the meeting...
Would I had gotten one of those yellow important looking D.O.C. issued yellow vests? Oh goody. I'll need a hard hat too, so it can look like I work for a living.
attinson63 06/10/16 - 09:45 pm 24Debbie Downer
You go on with your Debbie Downer attitudes. They're doing something about the problem and that's not good enough for you? What the hell do you want? Move to Hendry County. Nothing grows there except the unemployment rate.
mach12.1e 06/10/16 - 10:05 pm 33Come on Add.
You know it's the truth. You're a smart lady. I'm sure you can't be fooled that easily. Go to the election site and see for yourself, if you don't already know. Member of the chamber of commerce? If so, you already know the score. Those are the meetings worth going to, if you know what I mean.
sponger2 06/11/16 - 11:41 am 22I call it eyes wide open.
With the BS detector set on maximum. One must be blind not to see the manipulation. Like Lemmings jumping off a cliff.
In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
Sunday, June 12, 2016
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Tag Archives: Dutch
Developing Resources Bibliography and Publications Listing
We have developed a general bibliography that will help researchers place their ancestors in a historical context, and am soliciting comments and additions for this. See the Publications and Resources pages on this site. For example, my first suggested resources … Continue reading
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I learned about Mae through Jen's blog..
Here's a copy of Mae's letter posted at her website:
I hope this letter finds you well.
My name is Ferlene Mae Muto, 15 years of age, I was born normal and healthy on September 25, 1994. I go to a private school in Sharjah and will be in fourth year high school. I am the eldest and only daughter and I have two younger brothers who are aged 7 & 4 years old.
During my younger years I got sick of primary complex when I was in the Philippines and was under medication for 1 ½ years thats why the doctor suspected that my hearing loss might be from ototoxic. Maybe the side effect of a medicine. I wore a pair of hearing aids since I was nine years old and now my hearing is deteriorating fast and the doctor advised me to consider the cochlear implant which will cost AED 132,408.00 including of speech therapy, programming and hook up.
I have so many dreams in life but still I dont know if I will achieve that in my present condition. I would like to go to college and take up English Literature because I love to write stories that came from my inspiration and my imagination. I like to draw sometimes, which people always compliment that Im great at it but still Im an amateur though. I am fond of reading books and listen to music but at the moment of my life I can never do that because I cannot even hear anything... anymore..
Sometimes, Its really hard for me accept the truth and I feel so sad because I cant do what a normal teenager does, but I know that theres a reason behind this and I will never loose hope that someday I can hear my favorite music again, as well as hearing out your words. But still Im thankful to GOD that I can say I am lucky because I can talk and go to a normal school by understanding them on lip reading and writing. I know that GOD has always a plan for everyone and I will never surrender and bind myself in deafness, I will do my best to live a normal life and have a bright future since I know I am not alone because GOD is always with me and I have a supportive family, friends and also YOU.
It is a very difficult decision to ask someones help but I need to do this and tell to you honestly that we cannot afford a cochlear implant. I know how my parents worked so hard to save money from work as well as making and selling dried fishes, selling bags, shoes etc. which they didnt feel ashamed of so that they can earned extra money and save for my implant but they are an ordinary employees only who will not be even allowed to have a bank loan in Dubai.
Here I am, knocking at your heart, pleading for your support so that I can undergo for a cochlear implant and have a normal life and maybe someday I will be as successful same as what you are right now.
I would like to thank you all for reading this and I am hoping and praying that you will help me financially and in prayers as well.
May GOD continue to shower your more blessings and please make my life more meaningful...'coz..I love to hear you again.
Support Mae and buy her shirt for 30EAD..
here's the contact info posted at her site:
With our prayers and support, Mae's wish to be able to hear again will definitely come true..


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Monday, December 3, 2012
Lollipop Flowers & Trees
4 comments:
- WoolenSails said...
I do like using circles, even if mine are a bit wonky.
It works well for flowers, since a little change give them a folky look.
- December 3, 2012 at 12:29 PM
- Amy Badskirt said...
I have a Japanese quilt book dedicating to revisiting traditional blocks that includes the lollipop flowers. They call the blocks "Tanpopo" which roughly means Dandelion. My Japanese is poor. I'll see if I can get some photos to you.
- December 3, 2012 at 1:44 PM
- Wendy W said...
I just love the stylised "Tree Quilt"! It must have been green fabric when first made, don;t you think? wonder how hard it would be reproduce that one?
- December 4, 2012 at 3:53 PM
- Barbara Brackman said...
Wendy, The big tree that the Minn Inst of the Arts recently acquired? The trunk is certainly that tell-tale nothing color that was the result of early synthetic green dyes from about 1880-1930. It would be pretty easy to do if you liked to do berries.
- December 5, 2012 at 10:47 AM


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- Alpine Acupuncture5825 221st Pl SE Ste 204
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Probate matters have the potential to be incredibly stressful and complex; as such, they need to be handled with great care. One misstep in a probate case could result in years of misery for all those involved. Due to the touchy nature of probate law, it is important to work with an attorney sensitive to the potential for emotional and financial devastation that surrounds each and every case. Joel K. Elkin understands the complications of the probate process and will do whatever is necessary to satisfactorily resolve your case without causing unnecessary family drama. He is the ideal legal advocate to have at your side during this difficult time.
What is Probate and Why is it Such a Sensitive Matter?
Probate is, at its base level, a legal process in which the validity of a person's will is determined after he or she has passed away. Additionally, the probate process may involve identifying the deceased person's property and distributing it based on his or her previously expressed wishes. Often, multiple parties believe that they have claim to the deceased individual's property, thus paving the road for a long and contentious probate battle. Probate matters are even more complicated where a will has been poorly drafted. Although many probate cases are successfully resolved with few problems, others result in lingering feelings of resentment, as well as the potential loss of inheritance property.
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Joel K. Elkin handles a variety of probate matters, including probate of wills and estate administration, adoption, guardianship, name change and trust matters. These cases often differ greatly in their specific details, but regardless of the circumstances, Joel Elkin always addresses his clients with the respect and compassion they deserve. He abides by his clients' wishes, whether these involve settling estate matters out of court or taking a more litigation-based approach to probate law. The talented Gahanna lawyer has the legal understanding and skills necessary to successfully resolve complex probate cases, no matter which approach is deemed preferable.
Joel K. Elkin, Attorney at Law: A Trusted Resource For Probate Matters
Probate cases can be frustrating, but the right lawyer can ease a great deal of the burden surrounding this difficult process. If you are in the midst of a complicated probate case, it is in your best interest to get in touch with Joel K. Elkin, Attorney at Law. A respected Gahanna lawyer, Joel Elkin will take the steps necessary to procure a satisfactory resolution for your probate case.


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Mary Alice (Bowers) Woolard
Funeral Service
Mary Alice Woolard 81 of Nokomis passed away Friday, June 7, 2019 at 7:03 A.M. in Memorial Hospital, Springfield, Illinois.
Alice the daughter of John Frankie Bowers and Zella Irene Smith Bowers was born August 22, 1937 in Norris City, Illinois. She married Eugene May. She then married James Woolard December 27, 2008 in Trinity Lutheran Church, Nokomis. He passed away July 9, 2017. She is survived by Gene May of Penscola Florida, 21 grandchildren and 29 great grandchildren, sisters Vera Dean Pease of Centralia, Brenda Sue Forbes and Edith May Dial both of St. Elmo. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, children Juanita Lynn, Della Marie, and Crystal Dean and siblings Marilyn, Mavis, Johnny, Jim, Jeanie and Debbie.
Alice was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church of Nokomis, a past worthy Matron of the Eastern Star and had been employed as a tech at the Family Development Center.
Funeral services will be Tuesday June 11, at Trinity Lutheran Church, Nokomis. Visitation will be from 10 to 11 at the church Tuesday. Burial vill be in Mound Cemetery, Pana, Illinois.
Arrangements by Stiehl-Dawson Funeral Home, Nokomis, Illinois
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Hello Everyone!
I am so so sorry that I haven't been writing for almost the entire December. I have been so busy with Christmas shopping, Christmas concert planning with the children, parties and just lots of shopping. I know it is no excuse.
I went with my family to the Distillery District in Toronto a couple of weeks ago. I finally did the photoshoot of my sister, Kristen wearing the scarf. She has asked me for me not to include her face in the photo.
|My sister wearing the finished scarf! :)
|Keeping her neck and hands nice and warm :)
|The lone tree...
|The HUGE Christmas tree in the square.
|Me inside a store at Distillery
|Close up of the tree ornaments, so pretty :)
|Lit up reindeer.
I cannot believe that it is Christmas Eve today. The month has flown by. I have been buying my family tons of gifts this year I think I spoil the heck out of them! But they spoil me too JI decorated cookies with friends the other day as well. Leeanna (elle-tea) and I got pointers from our friend Beatrice who is a baker and an expert on how to outline the cookie with icing and then flood the inside so it creates a smooth and flawless finish. A lot of people were impressed on facebook. It is always fun to develop new skills J
|Leeanna in the land of cookies!
|Too many cookies!
|One that I decorated :)
|The finished product, so festive :)
I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Thank you for your support, you are all wonderful :)


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Operators Of Idaho Aquarium Arrested For Wildlife Violations
Florida Indictment Alleges Two Illegally Purchased Marine Life
BOISE – Ammon Covino, 39, of Meridian, Idaho, and Christopher Conk, 40, of Middleton, Idaho, were arrested today for violations of the Lacey Act, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned a sealed indictment on November 8, 2012, charging the defendants with conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and violating the Lacey Act by purchasing Florida protected marine life in interstate commerce.
The four count indictment, which was unsealed today, alleges that Covino and Conk purchased four spotted eagle rays (Aeobatus nairnari) and two lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) for approximately $6,300. The marine wildlife were allegedly harvested illegally and without a permit.
Covino and Conk appeared this afternoon before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy W. Dale at the federal courthouse in Boise. The court ordered the defendants to appear on March 15, 2013, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lurana S. Snow, at the Sidney M. Aronovitz Federal Courthouse in Key West, Florida.
The defendants are each charged with one count of Conspiracy and three counts of Illegal Purchase and Sale of Fish/Wildlife. Each count is punishable by up to five years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and at least three years of supervised release. The indictment also includes a forfeiture count.
The case is being investigated by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
An indictment is only an allegation of criminal conduct and is not evidence of guilt. A person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.


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Archive for June 20th, 2011
No Clowning Around
And somewhere a mother is saying, "He was a good boy. He just fell into the wrong crowd."
An off-duty Chicago police officer dressed up as a clown for a South Side fundraiser shot and killed a teen who held him at gunpoint tonight after the event, authorities said.
The officer, who is assigned to the Near North police district, was in his clown outfit for a fundraiser for a day-care business. The event, attended by a group of 50 children, was near West 87th Street and South Damen Avenue.
At 10:10 p.m. after the event ended, the officer went to his car and a teen approached him, asking him for money, authorities said. When the officer said he had no money, the teen pulled a gun on him, authorities said.
During a struggle with the teen, the officer grabbed hold of the gun, opened fire and killed him.
The officer sustained minor injuries, according to a release from police News Affairs.
A weapon was recovered from the scene.
One person was also taken into custody.
Listen To Coco
The whole video is worth watching, but even if you don't like Conan's comedy, skip to the 16:00 mark. So true.
Here's the written transcript of the last part of his speech.
Eleven years ago I gave an address to a graduating class at Harvard. I have not spoken at a graduation since because I thought I had nothing left to say. But then 2010 came. And now I'm here, three thousand miles from my home, because I learned a hard but profound lesson last year and I'd like to share it with you. In 2000, I told graduates "Don't be afraid to fail." Well now I'm here to tell you that, though you should not fear failure, you should do your very best to avoid it. Nietzsche famously said "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger." But what he failed to stress is that it almost kills you. Disappointment stings and, for driven, successful people like yourselves it is disorienting. What Nietzsche should have said is "Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you watch a lot of Cartoon Network and drink mid-price Chardonnay at 11 in the morning."
Now, by definition, Commencement speakers at an Ivy League college are considered successful. But a little over a year ago, I experienced a profound and very public disappointment. I did not get what I wanted, and I left a system that had nurtured and helped define me for the better part of 17 years. I went from being in the center of the grid to not only off the grid, but underneath the coffee table that the grid sits on, lost in the shag carpeting that is underneath the coffee table supporting the grid. It was the making of a career disaster, and a terrible analogy.
But then something spectacular happened. Fogbound, with no compass, and adrift, I started trying things. I grew a strange, cinnamon beard. I dove into the world of social media. I started tweeting my comedy. I threw together a national tour. I played the guitar. I did stand-up, wore a skin-tight blue leather suit, recorded an album, made a documentary, and frightened my friends and family. Ultimately, I abandoned all preconceived perceptions of my career path and stature and took a job on basic cable with a network most famous for showing reruns, along with sitcoms created by a tall, black man who dresses like an old, black woman. I did a lot of silly, unconventional, spontaneous and seemingly irrational things and guess what: with the exception of the blue leather suit, it was the most satisfying and fascinating year of my professional life. To this day I still don't understand exactly what happened, but I have never had more fun, been more challenged—and this is important—had more conviction about what I was doing.
How could this be true? Well, it's simple: There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized. I went to college with many people who prided themselves on knowing exactly who they were and exactly where they were going. At Harvard, five different guys in my class told me that they would one day be President of the United States. Four of them were later killed in motel shoot-outs. The other one briefly hosted Blues Clues, before dying senselessly in yet another motel shoot-out. Your path at 22 will not necessarily be your path at 32 or 42. One's dream is constantly evolving, rising and falling, changing course. This happens in every job, but because I have worked in comedy for twenty-five years, I can probably speak best about my own profession.
Way back in the 1940s there was a very, very funny man named Jack Benny. He was a giant star, easily one of the greatest comedians of his generation. And a much younger man named Johnny Carson wanted very much to be Jack Benny. In some ways he was, but in many ways he wasn't. He emulated Jack Benny, but his own quirks and mannerisms, along with a changing medium, pulled him in a different direction. And yet his failure to completely become his hero made him the funniest person of his generation. David Letterman wanted to be Johnny Carson, and was not, and as a result my generation of comedians wanted to be David Letterman. And none of us are. My peers and I have all missed that mark in a thousand different ways. But the point is this : It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It's not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound re-invention.
So, at the age of 47, after 25 years of obsessively pursuing my dream, that dream changed. For decades, in show business, the ultimate goal of every comedian was to host The Tonight Show. It was the Holy Grail, and like many people I thought that achieving that goal would define me as successful. But that is not true. No specific job or career goal defines me, and it should not define you. In 2000—in 2000—I told graduates to not be afraid to fail, and I still believe that. But today I tell you that whether you fear it or not, disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality.
Many of you here today are getting your diploma at this Ivy League school because you have committed yourself to a dream and worked hard to achieve it. And there is no greater cliché in a commencement address than "follow your dream." Well I am here to tell you that whatever you think your dream is now, it will probably change. And that's okay. Four years ago, many of you had a specific vision of what your college experience was going to be and who you were going to become. And I bet, today, most of you would admit that your time here was very different from what you imagined. Your roommates changed, your major changed, for some of you your sexual orientation changed. I bet some of you have changed your sexual orientation since I began this speech. I know I have. But through the good and especially the bad, the person you are now is someone you could never have conjured in the fall of 2007.
I have told you many things today, most of it foolish but some of it true. I'd like to end my address by breaking a taboo and quoting myself from 17 months ago. At the end of my final program with NBC, just before signing off, I said "Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen." Today, receiving this honor and speaking to the Dartmouth Class of 2011 from behind a tree-trunk, I have never believed that more.
Thank you very much, and congratulations.


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Race 1:
Myakka River (#1)
Was green in debut, climbing early, before making a solid late run in the stretch.
His dam was Grade 1-placed at today's distance.
DRF Formulator Fact: Over the past five years, Shug is 6 for 12 (50 percent) for a $4.27 ROI with 3-year-olds-and-up second-time starting maidens in dirt sprints coming off layoffs of 60 days or less.
5-2 on ML
Race 3:
Moon Over a Beauty (#7)
The Pace Projector is predicting he will be on the lead in a situation favoring the front-runner.
Stumbled at the start last time, costing him any chance.
Has run better than it appears on a few occasions.
10-1 on ML
Race 9:
Sassicaia (#3)
Was racing in an uncomfortable position before getting squeezed back at the quarter pole last time.
Had run better than it appears two back after not getting much pace to close into.
An early duel between Green Gratto and Unified would help his cause.
10-1 on ML
Race 10:
Cloud Computing (#7)
Ran almost as well as the winner in the Gotham after contesting a taxing early pace.
The 116 TimeformUS Speed Figure he earned last time is one of the highest in the field.
Should get a more comfortable trip this time as Irad Ortiz has been instructed to rate him just off the pace.
5-2 on ML


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Monthly Archives: August 2013
Superior Scaffold and the historical Bausman Memorial United Church of Christ
This neat old church at 1064 Penn Ave, in Wyomissing, PA, that began its life in 1909, needed some repairs to the high vaulted plaster ceilings – so they called Superior Scaffold.
Superior is known for its skill working with historical buildings and the care it takes around one of a kind artifacts and structures. This was no different. We had to construct some cool system scaffolding up, over and around pews, alters, and priceless objects at Bausman Memorial United Church of Christ
The ceiling was divided into sections with flying buttresses, so the layout had to be spot on accurate.
We used system scaffold with joists and plank to not only get to the hard to reach places but to also build a solid platform or dancefloor for the workers.
The steep, sloped, plaster ceilings had new sheetrock added over the old plaster, and then they were textured and painted.
This gave the old girl the dress up she needed for the next 100 years.
We were proud to bring our skills and experience working with historic buildings to Bausman Memorial United Church of Chris.
Here are some articles detailing Superior Scaffold's work with historic buildings:
A little history on this church.
Bausman Memorial United Church of Christ is part of a denomination which is a merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches of the United States.
Construction of a small church began in 1909 and it was dedicated in 1911. As the congregation grew, members decided to complete the church building with an addition begun in 1922. The completed building was dedicated in 1924.
1064 Penn Ave Wyomissing, PA 19610
(610) 375-9790
Bausman Memorial United Church of Christ is a church of diverse learners seeking answers to life's questions based on the teachings of Christ. We nurture each other with respect, share with each other as family, and engage God and others in worship, music, study and in service. Every Sunday we offer Church School programs for all ages at 9:00 a.m. and gather for worship at 10:15 a.m.
Philadelphia Inquirer reports Superior Scaffold to erect Canopy at Amtrak's 30th St. Station
Superior Scaffold will provide 10-foot-high canopies around the gigantic 30th Street Station. This is no small feat. (Look at the photos) In fact, this is Amtrak's 3rd largest station – it's huge.
The renovation will take several years to complete at a cost of $60 milliion. The scaffolding will be erected to not only protect pedestrians but allow business as usual during a planned restoration of the limestone facade of the 80-year-old neo-classical building.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (philly.com) reported the story Aug 17, 2013 and quoted our very own man about town, Pat McAndrew (of the naked, fighting McAndrew clan) who had this to say, "the canopies – posts with "debris panels" on top – will be installed atop concrete barriers along the Market and Arch Street sidewalks and at the east and west entrances to the station. The station will remain "totally accessible" to pedestrians during the work."
Well put Pat.
The $2 million canopy installation will start in a few weeks and is expected to be completed by the end of September.
The 30th Street Station is the main railroad station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the seven stations in SEPTA's Center City fare zone. It is also a major stop on Amtrak's Northeast and Keystone Corridors. It sits at 93 N. 30th St. & Market St. Philadelphia PA 19104 (215) 580-6500.Here's a link to the philly.com article.
And some cool information:
Great photos of the 30th Street Station
Scaffolding support for Riddle Memorial Hospital $16.5M emergency department expansion
Riddle Memorial Hospital has embarked on two-year expansion designed to increase its emergency-room capacity by 60 percent. The two-phase project is anticipated to cost $16.5 million and will expand the emergency room by 4,000 to 5,000 square feet. Riddle has 33,000 visits annually to the emergency department. The hospital, which was built in the 1960's, was made to only accommodate 25,000 to 28,000 visits so this is a much needed expansion.
In the end, we provided exactly what they needed so the rennovation could continue and the hospital remain open for business. And a shout out to the hard working crew who consistently goes above and beyond the call of duty erecting these complicated jobs!
Phase Two is still in the design stages, but is expected to begin construction in June after the Rapid Evaluation Unit is complete. It is estimated it will cost $15 million. Riddle Memorial Hospital is located at 1068 W Baltimore Pike Media, PA 19063.
Superior Scaffold and Mission Impossible at Seneca Niagara Casino, Niagara Falls, NY
They said it couldn't be done. They said it was too far away. They said it was too costly.
But they were wrong. Only the awesome staff at Seneca Niagara Casino and one lone salesman at Superior Scaffold had the vision for this $26 Million dollar remodel of their main casino floor. And as part of the massive redesign the Casino is investing $6 Million toward a new HVAC system to greatly improve the air quality throughout the entire casino. This will be the first major renovation of the original casino since it turned the old Niagara Falls Convention Center into the Seneca Niagara Casino back in 2002.
Think of Anthony Pini as the Tom Cruise of this corporation, a rogue, a rebel, determined saboteur of the nay sayers… It was his lone persistence to make the 8 hour drive many times through many negotiations that led to Superior Scaffold's participation of this very unique project. I mean, look at the similarities.
And what a project this has turned out to be. Gigantic doesn't begin to describe the size of this job inside the main gaming floor. The interior is the size of 2 full length football fields.
What this project entails is getting crews up underneath the ceiling, while the casino remains open for business as usual so they can get the new HVAC and mechanicals installed. Look at the photos… Not only is the expanse vast, but it's over 40 feet off of the ground and has to be self contained so people can come and go as usual below. How will they do it? How could they do it?
Leave that up to Tom Cruise, I mean Anthony Pini, to devise a Multi-Point Suspended Scaffold System to do the job. Yes, it is like something out of the movies… Giant work platforms actually hang from chains from the arched trusses at the ceiling. It's netted in so nothing can fall off of the sides and its sturdy enough for crews to get their HVAC ducting and all necessary pieces parts onto it.
A Multi-point suspended scaffold system. Yes, it's a mouthful but it's also something quite incredible to see. We've done these before (see blog on Hanging bridge platform) but never at this scale. It's 300 feet long by over 300 feet wide! That's a massive undertaking. Check out the E shaped design drawings.
And look at the rendering. If you think it was easy – you'd be wrong. The ceiling has giant arches which of course curve and give different elevations along that curve. So the monster challenge for our crews was to get the lengths of chains correct over the entire spans of this platform. The segments had to hang at different elevations from the trusses to accommodate the particular ducting and venting going on up there. Some lengths would be 20 feet while others would be 10 and so forth. But once our guys go the proper lengths in place the platform was installed, level and sturdy.
We will be getting much more detailed photos – but you can see that this is something quite impressive and something that doesn't happen very often.
Truly a mission impossible of a job. We are just proud to be a part of this prestigious job in Niagara Falls.
Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel is home to the largest hotel in Western New York and received the impressive AAA Four Diamond certification every year since 2005. The casino floor has an area of 147,000 sq ft (13,700 m2) with 99 gaming tables and 4,200 slot machines. It is the largest hotel in New York outside of Manhattan.
Performers from Nelly Furtado, Lynyrd Skynyrd to Smokey Robinson and Johnny Mathis are regulars at the Seneca Niagara Casino.
This is brilliant. Great job Carhartt.
A carefully crafted blog about women getting things done, carving, building, scaffolding, painting, etc – but the kicker is that they are all wearing Carhartt clothing.
Well done. A very smart campaign.


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The forgotten North Cascades grizzly bear
Page 2
But biology is never the only consideration, especially when it comes to a controversial species like the grizzly bear. Some folks will never want a large, unpredictable carnivore in their backyard. Ranchers could do without another predator eyeing their livestock, and recreationists worry about trail closures. Safety concerns, however exaggerated, are only made worse by bear attacks; this summer, grizzlies in Yellowstone killed two hikers, the first fatal maulings there since 1986.
"Grizzly bears carry a lot of political baggage," says Fitkin, especially in the Northwest, where people aren't used to them. In 1993, at an infamous public meeting in conservative Okanogan County on the east side of the Cascades, an elderly woman spat on Doug Zimmer, Fish and Wildlife information and education supervisor, before the meeting even started. By the end of the meeting, he'd receive nine death threats, according to Knibb's Grizzly Wars. Even within the state wildlife agency, managers were reluctant to get behind the effort. In 1995, the state Legislature passed an outright ban on bringing grizzlies in from other states to help the Cascades -- a mostly symbolic gesture that can't stop federal recovery work but would keep state biologists like Fitkin on the sidelines.
That same year, the anti-bear political climate likely killed a chance to get money for an EIS. Fish and Wildlife had funding available to study recovery in either the Cascades or the Bitterroot recovery area on the Montana-Idaho border, which had no grizzlies but lies closer to other populations. With much stronger political support for the Bitterroot, the agency diverted funds from the Cascades and finished an EIS to reintroduce bears, only to be shut down when President Bush took office.
Since then, however, opposition from a vocal minority in the Cascades seems to have faded. Public outreach efforts have built a strong base of public support; a 2005 survey by the Grizzly Bear Outreach Project found 86 percent of rural residents west of the recovery zone supported grizzly bear preservation.
But money has been harder to come by. Grizzlies must compete with many other imperiled species; in the Northwest that includes salmon and spotted owls, plus hundreds of endangered species in Hawaii that are funded from the same federal pot. (See infographic)
Though federal funding has tightened over the past decade, the state of Washington stepped up in 2007, when the Legislature offered almost half a million dollars for a Cascades grizzly EIS. That money was matched by another $250,000 from the nonprofit Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission, which funds cross-border conservation efforts. But the feds balked. The grizzly recovery office in Missoula could offer only staff time; another critical player, Fish and Wildlife's Region 1 headquarters in Portland, was silent. Agency officials say they didn't ask for grizzly funding because the Washington state office couldn't afford to take it on. The state money, unused, went back to the coffers.
In 2009, Washington Congressman Rick Larsen requested $1 million for grizzly recovery in a federal budget request; that too was ignored in D.C.
"There was a lot of political capital spent to raise that money and nothing came of it," says Scott. "It's a shame."
Chris Servheen is the only grizzly bear recovery coordinator the Fish and Wildlife Service has ever had. His office in Missoula, Mont., is about 10 miles from the border of the Northern Continental Divide recovery area, the country's largest. The Bitterroot recovery area is 20 miles southwest, and Yellowstone is 300 miles southeast. The North Cascades are 400 miles and two states away.
Servheen has been widely recognized for his central role in recovering grizzly bears in the West. When he started his career in 1981, fewer than 200 grizzlies remained in Yellowstone; today, there are 600. With that success, in 2007, his agency removed Yellowstone grizzlies from the endangered species list, only to be sued by environmental groups. In 2009, environmentalists won: A federal court found there were too few protections in place to hand management to the states, and the agency underestimated the potential impact of declining whitebark pines, whose nuts are a major food source for grizzlies. The agency appealed in 2010; the court has yet to decide.
Servheen says delisting Yellowstone grizzlies could free up resources for more threatened populations like those in the Cascades and Selkirks, but litigation is slowing the process, eating up 40-60 percent of his staff's time. It's "a grand waste of recovery money and time, and a net loss to all grizzly bears," he says.
"If the FWS were doing their job, there wouldn't be so much litigation," responds Louisa Willcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups challenging the delisting. "The conservation community has won most of the litigation brought on grizzly bears. That should tell you something."
But Willcox is sympathetic to the agency's financial bind. "Litigation is a result of the agencies not doing their job, and they are not doing their job in part because they don't have the money. It's kind of this vicious cycle. The real answer is that this agency is incredibly underfunded."
Servheen agrees that it all comes down to resources. "If you put money in the North Cascades right now, it will have to come out of someone else's pocket," he says, and that could compromise the hard-earned progress in the Rockies. "The big issue is not cutting this really small pie into pieces," he says. "The big issue is trying to make the pie bigger."


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Take a look inside
A central aspect of modern medical treatment is the ability to see inside the body and identify lesions or illnesses in a non-invasive manner. The first major advance in this regard was not achieved until the late 19th century with the discovery of X-rays by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen. These use a form of electromagnetic radiation to provide clear images of bones and of certain organs, such as lungs.
X-rays provided a major advance in medicine but have drawbacks, in particular exposure to radiation that has a carcinogenic effect. Röntgen was conscious of this potential risk and wore protective lead shields, much like those in use today.
A significant improvement in imaging procedures was provided by using high-frequency sound waves and their echoes. Images of internal organs can be produced by measuring the distances covered by the reflected waves, a technique similar to that used to detect submarines.
Improved techniques have been developed to produce 3D images that allow a better look at the organ examined and to calculate blood flow using Doppler ultrasound, which can measure a moving solid or liquid matter. Ultrasound imaging is expanding faster than any other form of medical imaging. However, the use of ultrasound in the medical domain has been extended beyond imaging to include surgery and therapy, dental care, and even the cleaning of certain pieces of medical equipment.
The need for Standards
Work on medical ultrasonic safety Standards started back in 1955, in the early days of clinical use of ultrasounds, within a WG (Working Group) of TC (Technical Committee) 29: Acoustics. This WG was upgraded to SC (Subcommittee) 29D: Ultrasonics, in 1966 and transformed into the full TC 87 in 1985.
Its remit is "to prepare standards related to the characteristics, methods of measurement, safety and specifications of fields, equipment and systems in the domain of ultrasonics". TC 87 brings together experts from 15 participating and 19 observer IEC member countries.
Its publications cover the whole range of equipment used in medical ultrasonics, such as the various types of ultrasonic transducers, which convert energy into ultrasound, and hydrophones, as well as a means of reporting the acoustic output of medical diagnostic ultrasonic equipment. They also cover test procedures and the characteristics of, or requirements for, ultrasonic equipment used for diagnosis, surgery, therapy or physiotherapy.
Collaborative effort
The safety aspects of medical electrical equipment and systems do not fall within the scope of TC 87 but of IEC TC 62: Electrical equipment in medical practice, and its SCs. TC 87 therefore maintains close liaison with TC 62 in fields of common interest. It uses Standards created by SC 62D/MT 18: Therapy equipment, and is a provider of Standards to that SC.
TC 87 is also a supplier of Standards to the following TC 62 SCs:
- SC 62A: Common aspects,
- SC 62B: Diagnostic imaging equipment, which is working on a revision of IEC 60601-2-37, Particular requirements for the basic safety and essential performance of ultrasonic medical diagnostic and monitoring equipment,
- SC 62D: Electromedical equipment, which includes work on extracorporeal lithotripsy equipment used to treat kidney stones.
Safe imaging and other applications
Ultrasonic imaging is invaluable in obtaining views of soft tissues and muscles and does not have known long-term side effects; it is also relatively inexpensive in comparison with other imaging modes such as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) or X-ray CT (computed tomography). It is generally considered very safe, including for foetuses. As a result, it is the only imaging method used widely during pregnancy in obstetrics and neonatal medicine.
The range of ultrasonic applications in the medical field has now extended well beyond imaging and diagnostics to include surgery, non-invasive therapeutic applications and targeted drug delivery (see article in this e-tech for details of ultrasonics use in medicine).
However, if the most visible and demanding ultrasonic applications today are in the medical field, TC 87 prepares also Standards outside the medical field, these include:
- underwater acoustics, with Standards for hydrophones, used in equipment such as sonar devices, systems for tracking shoals of fish and other deepwater-based survey tools.
- cleaning equipment, TC 87 published IEC/TR 60886, a Standard to test the effectiveness of ultrasonic cleaners, which are not only used in medical but also in industrial applications.
- transducers, as these are not unique to medical usage, but can be incorporated in any relevant application.
Standardization to sustain growth
Given this expansion in the range of medical ultrasonic applications and its rapid pace of growth, helping drive a steady rise of the market from an estimated USD 5,6 billion in 2011 to a predicted USD 8,1 billion by 2017, standardization for ultrasonic medical equipment is increasingly important.
As a result, the 94 TC 87 experts, currently preparing International Standards in the ultrasonic field can expect to have a busy agenda in coming years.


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All TSAOG offices and both OrthoNow Walk-In Injury Clinics will be closed on Monday, September 3rd to allow Team TSAOG to celebrate Labor Day with our friends and families.
The OrthoNow Injury Clinic at the Orthopaedic Institute will be open this Saturday, September 1st to provide walk-in care from 9am-1pm.
We will resume normal operating hours at all clinic locations on Tuesday, September 4th.
We wish you all a safe and happy Labor Day!