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Applications of Targeted Nano-Drugs and Delivery Systems: Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery explores the applications of Nano-drugs and their delivery systems, investigating the role they can play in key body systems and major diseases. The book explores how nanotechnology can be deployed in developing new drug delivery systems and how they enable pharmaceutical companies to reformulate existing drugs on the market, thereby extending the lifetime of products and enhancing performance by increasing effectiveness, safety and patient adherence, and ultimately reducing healthcare cost. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the subject matter, this book includes contributions by experts from different fields.
Readers will find a reference and practical source of guidance for researchers, students and scientists working in the fields of nanotechnology, materials science, and technology and biomedical science.
- Enables readers from different fields to access recent research and protocols across traditional boundaries
- Focuses on protocols and techniques, as well as the knowledge base of the field, thus enabling those in R&D to learn about, and successfully deploy, cutting-edge techniques
- Explores the applications of Nano-drugs and their delivery systems, investigating the role they can play in key body systems and major disease types
Please Note: This is an On Demand product, delivery may take up to 11 working days after payment has been received.
2. Application and Perspective of pH-Responsive Nano Drug Delivery Systems
3. Mechanism for Development of Nanobased Drug Delivery System
4. Nanobased Nano Drug Delivery: A Comprehensive Review
5. Recent Advances in Development of Nano Drug Delivery
6. Thermoresponsive Drug Delivery Systems, Characterization and Application
7. Graphene and Graphene-Based Nanomaterials Are Suitable Vehicles for Drug Delivery
8. Combination Strategies for Targeted Delivery of Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy
9. Nanotechnology Toward Treating Cancer: A Comprehensive Review
10. Nanoparticles as Delivery Systems in Cancer Therapy: Focus on Gold Nanoparticles and Drugs
11. Trends in Nanotechnology for Practical Applications
12. Antiviral and Antimicrobial (Antibacterial) Potentiality of Nano Drugs
13. Antiviral and Antimicrobial Potentiality of Nano Drugs
14. Nanotechnology in Targeted Drug Delivery and Therapeutics
15. Engineering Nanomaterials for Smart Drug Release: Recent Advances and Challenges
16. Nano Drugs for Curing Malaria: The Plausibility
17. Nanoparticles Mediated Gene Knockout Through miRNA Replacement: Recent Progress and Challenges
18. Transdermal and Intravenous Nano Drug Delivery Systems: Present and Future
19. Nanobased Intravenous and Transdermal Drug Delivery Systems
20. Electrospun Nanofibers for Drug Delivery in Regenerative Medicine
Shyam Mohapatra is Distinguished USF Health Professor, Director of the Division of Translational Medicine at the University of South Florida. He also directs the USF Center for Research and Education in Nanobioengineering and is a Research Career Scientist at the James A. Haley VA Hospital in Tampa. He also serves as Associate Dean of Graduate Programs at the USF College of Pharmacy, and established a highly innovative Master of Science program in Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology. He has published over 170 papers and holds over 30 U.S. and international patents. He is a Fellow of the AAAAI, NAI, and AIMBE, and a 2014 inductee of the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame.
Ranjan, Shivendu
Dr. Shivendu Ranjan has extensive expertise in Micro/Nanotechnology and is currently working as Head R&D and Technology Development at E-Spin Nanotech Pvt. Ltd. He has founded and drafted the concept for the first edition of the "VIT Bio Summit in 2012, and the same has been continued till date by the university. He has worked in CSIR-CFTRI, Mysuru, India as well as UP Drugs and Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., India and IIFPT, Thanjavur, MoFPI, Govt of India. At IIFPT, Thanjavur, he was involved in a project funded by a leading pharmaceutical company, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and have successfully engineered micro-vehicles for model drug molecules.
His research interests are multidisciplinary and include: Micro/Nanobiotechnology, Nano-toxicology, Environmental Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine, and Nanoemulsions. . He is the associate editor of Environmental Chemistry Letters - a Springer journal of 3.59 impact factor - and an editorial board member in Biotechnology and Biotechnological Equipment(Taylor and Francis). He is serving as executive editor of a journal in iMed Press, USA, and also serving as editorial board member and referee for reputed international peer-reviewed journals. He is the author of many books and edited six books.
Dasgupta, Nandita
Dr. Nandita Dasgupta has vast working experience in Micro/Nanoscience and is currently working at LV Prasad Eye Institute, Bhubaneswar, India. She has exposure of working at university, research institutes and industries including VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India; CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, India; and Uttar Pradesh Drugs and Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Lucknow, India and Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT), Thanjavur, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India. At IIFPT, Thanjavur, she was involved in a project funded by a leading pharmaceutical company, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and have successfully engineered micro-vehicles for model drug molecules. Her areas of interest include Micro/Nanomaterial fabrication and its applications in various fields - medicine, food, environment, agriculture biomedical.
She is the author os many books and edited more than 6 books. She has authored many chapters and also published many scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals. She has received the Certificate for "Outstanding Contribution in Reviewing from Elsevier, Netherlands. She has also been nominated for advisory panel for Elsevier Inc., Netherlands. She is the associate editor of Environmental Chemistry Letters - a Springer journal of 3.59 impact factor - and also serving as editorial board member and referee for reputed international peer-reviewed journals. She has received several awards and recognitions from different national and international organizations.
Kumar, Raghvendra
Raghvendra Kumar Mishra is currently working as Senior Research Fellow at the International and Interuniversity Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Mahatma Gandhi University, India. He has received India's most prestigious Visvesvaraya Research Fellowship, and he is currently serving as Visvesvaraya Fellow. He has widely studied the processing of blends, in situ generation micro- and nanofibrillar composites, electromagnetic shielding effect of nanocomposites, decorating and alignment of carbon nanotubes, and thermal, dynamic mechanical, and structural relationships in polymer blends and nanocomposites. He has won several awards from different organizations and technology events. He is serving as reviewer in many international journals, for example, Environmental Chemistry Letters (Springer). He has research experience in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Technology, and Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. His areas of research are multidisciplinary, which include thermodynamics, heat transfer, refrigeration and air-conditioning, fluid mechanics, machine design, solid mechanics, machine theory, power plant engineering, metal and ceramic processing. In addition, he specializes in polymers, which include polymer recycling, polymer blends, fiber-filled polymer composites, particulate-filled polymer composites and their morphological characterization, aging and degradation, nanomaterials e.g., metallic, metallic oxide, carbon nanotubes, graphene, conducting polymer blends, composites and nanocomposites, biodegradable polymer blends and composites. He has expertise in sophisticated characterization techniques such as dynamic mechanical analyzer, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, spectroscopy, vector network analyzer, scanning electron microcopy, and atomic force microscopy (AFM).
Thomas, Sabu
Sabu Thomas is a Professor of Polymer Science & Engineering, in the School of Chemical Sciences in Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India. His areas of research are in polymer blends, fiber filled polymer composites, nanomaterials and polymer nanocomposites, ageing and degradation, pervaporation phenomena, sorption and diffusion, interpenetrating polymer systems, recyclability and reuse of waste plastics and rubbers, elastomer crosslinking, dual porous nanocomposite scaffolds for tissue engineering, polymer nanocomposites for electronic applications, water purification, and energy storage


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This course provides you with the knowledge and skills to effectively develop, apply and research business intelligence systems. These are computerised systems which support an organisation in the decision making process. Many of the techniques used in this area are underpinned by predictive statistics and mathematical modelling.
International Scholarships
Find out about available scholarships and country specific fee discounts for international students.
Computing MSc/PG Dip/PG Cert
Data Analytics MSc/PG Dip/PG Cert
Information Systems Management MSc/PG Dip/PG Cert
Course code: G50077
Institution code: D26
Duration: One year full-time, two to six years part-time or by distance learning.
Start date: January and September
Fees and funding:
For 2020/21 full-time fees will be £7,920 per year.
Part-time fees will be £660 per 15 credits.
EU Students: Find out about student loan information and scholarships.
Apply for the DMU Sports Scholarship, worth up to £6,000.
Find out more about course fees and available funding.
Additional costs and optional extras associated with this course
Contact us: For more information complete our online enquiry form or call us on +44 (0)116 2 50 60 70.
How to apply
Application guidance document
Submit a study-related enquiry
Course code: G50077
Duration: One year full-time, a minimum of two years part-time or by distance learning.
For 2020/21 tuition full-time fees will be £14,600 per year.
You should have the equivalent of a British Honours degree (2:2 minimum) in a relevant subject.
We are happy to consider equivalent qualifications from anywhere in the world.
If English is not your first language an IELTS score of 6.0 or equivalent when you start the course is essential. English Language tuition, delivered by our British Council accredited Centre for English Language Learning, is available both before and throughout the course if you need it.
If you have no formal academic qualifications but do have extensive industry experience we will consider your application on an individual basis.
If you feel you would like to talk to us about your qualifications before submitting an application please do not hesitate to call or email using the contact details below.
First semester
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Plus one optional module from the following list:
Third semester
For individual module descriptions, click here.
Teaching will normally be delivered through formal lectures, informal seminars, tutorials, workshops, discussions and e-learning packages. Assessment will usually be cariied out through a combination of individual and group work, presentations, reports, projects and exams.
Compulsory taught modules give you the opportunity to gain the fundamental knowledge and practices required to apply, develop and research business intelligence systems, while optional modules provide you with chances to study particular aspects of system application and development in more depth.
The individual project module allows you to undertake research into an aspect of business intelligence systems that interests you, and/or to perform appropriate business intelligence development tasks in response to a given practical problem.
Contact and learning hours
Full-time students will normally attend around 16 hours of timetabled taught sessions per week, and can expect to undertake around 24 further hours of self-directed independent study and research to support your assignments and dissertation.
This course was developed and is run in conjunction with SAS.You will gain substantial SAS software skills as part of your study.
SAS is the world's largest independent business analytics company. It provides an integrated set of software products and services to more than 45,000 customer sites in 118 countries. Across the globe, both the public and private sector use SAS software to assist in their efforts to compete and excel in a climate of unprecedented economic uncertainty and globalization.
The Computer Science laboratories in Gateway House provide 80 computer workstations for students to use. The space is divided into four interconnected laboratories each with 20 machines (20 HP PCs running Windows/Linux).
There are printing facilities available, internal network access and digital projectors to aid your learning. All the machines are connected via the Faculty of Technology network to a dedicated, high-performance file server for storage and backup of students' work. Many of the software packages are open source, which means students can download and run the software at home.
The Computer Science laboratories include a study area, in which you can work individually or in groups.
Our Learning Zones and The Greenhouse also provide space for group or individual work and study.
There are 1,600 study places across all library locations, more than 700 computer stations, laptops to borrow, free wi-fi and desktop power outlets.
You can also book rooms with plasma screens, laptops and DVD facilities for group work and presentations, secure an individual study room with adjustable lighting or make use of our assistive technology.
The main Kimberlin Library is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (other than in exceptional circumstances) and offers a huge range of online resources, all of which can be remotely accessed from anywhere you choose.
The library is run by dedicated staff who offer additional support to students, including help with academic writing, research strategies, literature searching and reference management and assistive technology, and mathematical skills for non-maths students. There is also a Just Ask service for help and advice, available via email or telephone.
This is our innovative international experience programme which aims to enrich your studies and expand your cultural horizons – helping you to become a global graduate, equipped to meet the needs of employers across the world.
Through DMU Global, we offer a wide range of opportunities including on-campus and UK activities, overseas study, internships, faculty-led field trips and volunteering, as well as Erasmus+ and international exchanges.
This course prepares graduates for business intelligence and data mining roles within any target industry. There is a very high market demand for SAS expertise, and our graduates will be able to take up such opportunities. You will also be well placed to take up more general management and business information systems development roles within industry, and to undertake academic research in this field.
Find out about our upcoming Postgraduate Online Chat and Open Evening events
Our prospectus will give you a clearer idea of what it's like to live and study at DMU and a snapshot of the courses we offer.
We welcome applications from UK and international students with a wide range of qualifications and experience.
If you've completed an undergraduate degree at DMU, then you can benefit from a tuition fee discount of up to 50 per cent on our postgraduate courses. The discount is available on selected full-time, part-time and distance learning postgraduate courses running across multiple start dates.
The discount, based on academic achievement and merit, applies automatically to all DMU UK and EU students who are graduating this year or have graduated within the past two years and achieved a 2:1 (or equivalent) or above. Learn more here.
The perfect way to find out more about DMU is to attend one of the postgraduate open evenings or events that take place all year round. If you can't visit the university in person, you can also sign up for one of our online chats. Find out more.
De Montfort University (DMU)'s growing reputation for research which benefits society has been confirmed with the publication of the REF 2014 results. Find out more.
Studying here gives easy access to the vibrant hub of entertainment, shopping and culture that is Leicester. There are clubs, bars and pubs, as well as festivals, live music, theatres and cinemas. Leicester City Football Club play in the Premier League while Leicester Tigers are one of Europe's biggest rugby clubs. Find out more.
At DMU there is always something to do or see, check out our events for yourself.
DMU is a dynamic university, read about what we have been up to in our latest news section.
Take a look around DMU by exploring our Virtual Open Day.

subset: commoncrawl


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Want to predict the result of a sporting event? Don't even think about it:
The 4 Psychological Techniques That Increased Navy SEAL Passing Rates
This Is How Accurate Snap First Impressions Are
via eurekalert.org:
First impressions do matter when it comes to communicating personality through appearance, according to new research by psychologists Laura Naumann of Sonoma State University and Sam Gosling of The University of Texas at Austin.
Despite the crucial role of physical appearance in creating first impressions, until now little research has examined the accuracy of personality impressions based on appearance alone. These findings will be published in the December 2009 issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, co-written with Simine Vazire (Washington University in St. Louis) and Peter J. Rentfrow (University of Cambridge).
"In an age dominated by social media where personal photographs are ubiquitous, it becomes important to understand the ways personality is communicated via our appearance," says Naumann. "The appearance one portrays in his or her photographs has important implications for their professional and social life."
In the study, observers viewed full-body photographs of 123 people they had never met before. The targets were viewed either in a controlled pose with a neutral facial expression or in a naturally expressed pose. The accuracy of the judgments was gauged by comparing them to the aggregate of self-ratings and that of three informants who knew the targets well, a criterion now widely regarded as the gold standard in personality research.
Even when viewing the targets in the controlled pose, the observers could accurately judge some major personality traits, including extraversion and self-esteem. But most traits were hard to detect under these conditions. When observers saw naturally expressive behavior (such as a smiling expression or energetic stance), their judgments were accurate for nine of the 10 personality traits. The 10 traits were extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness, likability, self-esteem, loneliness, religiosity and political orientation.
"We have long known that people jump to conclusions about others on the basis of very little information," says Gosling, "but what's striking about these findings is how many of the impressions have a kernel of truth to them, even on the basis of something as simple a single photograph."
Gosling cautioned that observers still make plenty of mistakes, but noted that this latest work is important because it sheds new light on the sources of accuracy and inaccuracy of judgments.
With this kind of knowledge, individuals can choose to alter their appearance in specific ways, either to make identity claims or shape others impressions of them, Naumann says.
"If you want potential employers or romantic suitors to see you as a warm and friendly individual, you should post pictures where you smile or are standing in a relaxed pose," suggests Naumann.
For example, whether you smile and how you stand (tense vs. relaxed, energetic vs. tired) are important cues to judge a variety of traits. Extraverts smile more, stand in energetic and less tense ways, and look healthy, neat and stylish. People who are more open to experience are less likely to have a healthy, neat appearance, but are more likely to have a distinctive style of dress.
The researchers also found males who have a neat and healthy appearance are often seen as more conscientious. However, defining personality in women was more difficult because they were more strongly influenced by cultural demands to look presentable.
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Can you tell if a man is dangerous just by looking at his face?
Via slate.com:
Now some of the "new physiognomists" are resurrecting an old claim: that you can gauge a man's penchant for aggression by the cut of his jib. Last fall University of California-Santa Barbara psychologist Aaron Sell reported that college students could accurately estimate the upper body strength of unfamiliar men after viewing their faces alone. (The men's necks were obscured.) The students did equally well with fellow undergraduates and men from South American indigenous groups—all of whom had had their strength measured using gym equipment. Interestingly, the toughest-looking undergrads also reported getting in the most fights. Another study by Sell suggests that such formidable men are more prone to use violence—or advocate military action—to resolve conflicts.
So which features might hint at belligerence? Sell suspects the brow ridge and jaw, two structures that are shaped by testosterone in puberty. (High testosterone has been linked with masculine looks as well as with aggression.) Other scientists propose a different measure: the width-to-height ratio of the face, as measured from cheek to cheek and lip to brow. Last year, a team of Canadian psychologists showed that men with wider faces (think Ernie) score higher in lab tests of aggression than slender-faced men (think Bert). They also found that wide-faced hockey players rack up more penalty minutes. Now, two studies in Psychological Science—one from August and another forthcoming—reinforce the notion that stout-faced men appear tougher and are more likely to behave in aggressive and untrustworthy ways.
The psychologist Robert Deaner recently went through the database of mug shots of the Michigan Department of Corrections and measured the facial width-to-height ratios of 688 white convicted criminals. He classified each inmate as either violent or nonviolent based on FBI standards and compared their faces with their crimes. There was no difference in the average width-to-height ratio of violent vs. nonviolent offenders, he says. However, Deaner did find that prisoners' faces were significantly wider than a population of undergraduates. Curiously, pro hockey players had even wider faces than the prisoners. His conclusion: "Face width does not predict violent crime. … [W]e believe the cliché, 'never judge a book by its cover' remains sound advice."
Join over 320,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here.
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New Neuroscience Reveals 4 Rituals That Will Make You Happy
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How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert


text:
TOUGH GUYS & DRAMA QUEENS – MIDDLE SCHOOL – This 9-week video course is a must for any parent of middle schoolers or homeschoolers as this series is packed with wisdom and gives parents a vision of what they could offer in the life of their teens, helping all viewers understand today's teen culture.
Mark shares what works – and what doesn't – for parents in today's young teen culture.
RAISING TEENS IN A CONTRARY CULTURE – HIGH SCHOOL – Mark shares how parents can successfully guide their high school-aged teens through the difficult landscape of late adolescence.
LEAVING A LEGACY OF HOPE – GRANDPARENTS OF TEENS – Grandparents have far more influence on teens than they might think. Mark encourages older generations to leave a legacy that lasts by giving them the tools to connect with and inspire their teenaged grandchildren.


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Orchard Rd, Evening Street Scene
Bruce sucks up his ice-blended coffee on Orchard Rd, runs the mouthful of sweet crystals around for a taste, swallows. The Coffee Bean and Tea-Leaf. Not his favorite coffee shop, but OK, it passes, and it's convenient for an hour or two of quiet contemplation before things start, before he finds some dinner, before he kick on across the road to the 4FoW. A Spinelli (San Francisco's best) Spin would suit him better, the ice is finer, the coffee less bitter, but outlets seem few and far between these days. He makes a mental note to Google their locations.
The table has a nice vantage of the footpath. Young Singaporean girls in their ultra-short jean, inside pockets visible, their white singlets and push-up bras, chatting with friends, briskly gesticulating, walking fast. And those ambling ones, generic Asians, maybe even in a cheong-sam, a tight skirt, nothing ostentatious, and a tight top, an LV handbag and a lean hungry look. And so slim, narrow waist, trim buttocks (as they say, there's a Latin term for this), thin thighs.
Bruce loves this town. Old man, single, financially secure so long as his job lasts. Lecher. Typical nomad, it's his new word for 'expat'. Is it merely because they are slimmer that he finds these girls so attractive? Discuss.
It is after work on Wednesday and evening is hanging around like these hookers, it's half-light, it's a half-real world. He feels sticky and warm, man we're in the tropics, and so welcomes how the ice-coffee cools the inside of his body, at least as far it can get down into his throat. Every now and then when he has cold drinks like this his oesophagus goes into a spasm, as it does now. The drink is too cold. He pauses from drinking, it's sitting – just – there. And he waits, sighs. A central chest pain. Another heart attack? He can't belch, his stomach is unavailable. Then the mucosa warms the ice, melts, his body heat, and the constriction eases, the ice-coffee slips past. GORD. Is there no health problem he doesn't have?
Birds, the feathered ones, in the many plane trees (not fruit tree, there is no orchard here anymore), have begun their evening chirping, and slowly, as it builds up to a 76 trombones effect without him noticing, their combined song has become a roar. It covers the bursts of traffic that flow according to the traffic light's rhythms. Maybe not throat-singing Ferraris and Maseratis, let them scream, let them roar. White noise. He has one of his several thousand unread books in his hand and he is not reading it carefully.
A person is beside him. Her presence sudden, blue sparks, ozone, she's here to hunt him down, that's all she does.
He looks up at her and sees the thin ridge of angular cheeks, smile showing small teeth constrained in expensive wire, bright green eyes and a line of mascara going up at the outer edge to emphasis her exotic face, as if she needed that. She is one of those women who had been walking in front of him, parading past several times, up and back in the previous half-hour.
She had at last caught his eye, his Nordic blue, hers emerald green, held his gaze past that special time, into the who's going to be the first to break zone, and then smiled at him, the killer. However he had been lost in reverie, not in his book, but somewhere else, even further away than Cloud Atlas. Some place where a tightness in the chest from ice-choke didn't mean impending death, myocardial infarction, spilled coffee and an unpaid bill. He had hardly been aware that he had been making eye contact, and every working girl looks at him like that anyway, like he was target demographic. He was now looking away, into a nowhere, but she didn't notice that he was more than day-dreaming, he was willing himself to stay alive. She only saw a man. With a wallet and a sex-drive. Or perhaps she saw more. Probably not.
"I can join you?" she asks. Slim, in a dark green, eye-matching, body-hugging top, white skirt, tight.
"I'm sorry?" The background bird chirping, he didn't hear. "Of course, of course," he says, ever the gentleman. He shuffles his chair back and nudges the table so that she can slip past the pole onto the chair opposite him. It doesn't have to slipped far, there is not much to her body.
And soon the banalities are out of the way. The special massage price, so cheap, how come?
"Tomorrow, I go back Hanoi. Need have some money." The implication is that she hasn't been making much. Good English, pleasant GFE personality, nicely faked sincerity. He is surprised, genuinely.
"Why do you not have so much money? Such a pretty lady!"
"It very quiet, too many girls. And I spend my money on my plane ticket, need always to be work. Work, work. Go to home and come back only three month after. And," she tapped at her mouth, "my teeth is expensive."
"You should marry someone here. A dentist maybe."
"Yes, yes," she urges. He seems to have pressed a button. "I need husband for come here. Get visa for many entry."
"Well you would need that, I guess. So many entries," smiles Bruce.
"If can get marriage with local man, can get visa. Ten thousand dollars."
"What is ten thousand dollar?"
"For husband. We pay ten thousand dollars for Singapore man get marry."
"You pay the man ten thousand dollars if he marries you?" Bruce immediately thinks of E@L as a likely candidate for an arrangement such as this.
"Yes, he get money. And girl get visa."
Bruce drums the table with his empty coffee container. This too, is hard to swallow. He texts E@L.
The evening is advancing quickly enough, no hurry. E@L was otherwise engaged anyway. She knew of a Thai place, we wonder where, for dinner. She ate slowly, noodles, picking sprouts form her braces. She is not in a rush now. Her flight is early in the next morning, one customer tonight – Bruce – and that's enough. And they stand to move away, collect their stuff, her LV, his man-bag with iPad, and walk across the road to the Hilton where he is staying as usual.
"You have condom?" she asks before they get too far from a 7/11.
"Me? Why? Don't you have a condom, surely you can claim it on your tax!"
She smiles, gets the joke. "We cannot carry condom. Working girl on the streets cannot carry a condom. Police. You know this, I am sure."
"No, not at all. Really? Why not?"
"Police can make arrest against you if you have a condom. For being prostitute. It illegal for girl to work on streets, so we don't carry condom."
Bruce shrugs, impressed. He's never thought of that – why would he? – and it makes sense. There are so many of these details in the world, where the devil lies in wait. Have a condom, must be a prostitute. No condom, must be a charity worker seeking donations.
"You don't have condom?" she asks again.
"Yes, yes, I have several in my room. The hotel supplies them," he lies.
Within two weeks of this mythical incident not having taken place, the immigration department cracked down on these marriage scams – she wasn't joking about the $10k. And then, later, local newspapers talked of the aggressive tactic of streetwalkers on Orchard Rd.)
Laws To Penalise Sham Marriages. Today Online.
"… Pointing to the increasing number of sham marriages – from four to five cases a year in the past five years to 12 cases this year – Second Minister for Home Affairs S Iswaran said this is a "significant rise" and is "probably symptomatic of a larger trend".
"So we want to introduce new laws to send a strong deterrent message to individuals who contemplate entering MOCs (marriages of convenience) for the purpose of obtaining an immigration facility such as Permanent Residency, long-term passes and visas," he told the House.
But, while there is a "desire for vigorous enforcement" in clear cases of marriages of convenience, he cautioned against unfairly penalising genuine marriages.
Several Members of Parliament were concerned over how gratification could be proven.
…" [My emphasis]
Streetwalkers getting more blatant at Orchard Road. The NewPaper
"Foreign women touting sex services are no longer just operating around Orchard Towers.
They are now covering areas as far as Far East Shopping Mall.
The minute they spot a potential customer, usually a male tourist, they would approach them with offers of 'massage'.
Said one expat: "It's like running a gauntlet. If you make the mistake of looking at them, they'll be all over you in seconds."
[My emphasis]
Anywhere up to eight years ago, walk anywhere from the Marriott to corner of Tanglin Rd, and E@L would be given the look, sometimes a question. Then it went quiet for a few years, or perhaps he didn't walk there as often as a resident, but yeah, as this hypothetical and nowhere near 100% true story suggests, it might be "on the rise" again in the areas not immediately adjacent to the 4FoW.
(E@L knows the birds aren't in the plane trees, but the other ones. Larches? Elms? Jesus, E@L knows fuck all about treeology. And those trees are down further anyway, by Paragon.)
Nabokov: Redux or, The Principle Of Three,
E@L does have a million things to confess to, to enlighten you with, to explain, to reveal and to review, to explicate, to examine and allow you to cogitate over, as he does himself, given the time.
Time? Things to talk about? So little, so many.
Like Tristram Shandy, E@L is afraid that the cataloguing and explanation of his life has become more and more frustratingly difficult as time slips away from him, as that evaluation of one's life is for all of us, is a task never ends, unlike the life itself, which has its inexorable termination. Incident upon incident stumble over themselves and demand to be discussed, each incident requiring more words, even though it builds upon the facts of the earlier.
Forever in E@L's blogging heart lurks the question that no blogger should ever given utterance to (well, not so much, at least lately) …
— Why?
— Why bother?
OK, that's two questions but you get E@'s point. If E@L can't keep up with what's going on, what's the point of your people hanging around? Don't talk to me about the unexamined life…
For example…
E@L has been on an extended tour as the previous posts might have told you, had you the wisdom to know of them, and the last 10 days have been in Croatia with Izzy, her TALL Bosnian boyfriend and another young, independent lady, of whom more, obliquely, soon.
C***-struck. Err, Croatia-struck that is. Amazing place, party time, great food and wine, old buildings, history, stoney beaches, Listerine-blue clear water. Great place to have sex, we are told. Unfortunately if you're E@L's age you better have an 80ft ocean going yacht to back up the size of your cigar if you want to win the heart and/or pussy of the lady who's lounging beside you at Carpe Diem for the evening …
But Pussy-Struck, that's an entirely other type of story.
The tip of the tongue takes a trip down the the palate to tap at three on the clitoris, or E@L's would if it was allowed.
Yes, that sad, sad creature, the obsessed and depressed man out of his depth and mind with Nabokovian, Lolitian, illegal in some countries, desire… That was E@L for the last week or so. In the midst of all this amazing scenery and beauty, completely gone was he on the tight arse attached to the tanned legs walking in front of him.
Desire. What a word! Fuck-nutty is also a good word, little bit less serious, but hey.
Cramping over, his gut churning with physical discomfort brought on by irrational emotional disturbances, his brain reeling with completely reality-divorced fantasies. If ever there was a bust to Descarte's mind/body dualism, then sexual longing, unrequited lust, is it.
Here's this old fat bald ugly (yet mildly amusing) man, Dantean-forest-lost in self-hatred, self-revulsion and chronic self-abuse: and here's this (way too) young (but not a teenager) elfin wisp of a thing, completely in control of her bi-sex-life, completely, (or pretending to be completely) unaware of the lust and longing that gives rise to E@L's stomach acids (and his occasional bouts of depression and weeping), completely indifferent to it (as it should be) one presumes, and no matter how amusing the self-deprecating stories this Humbert Humbert may mumble out at 4am, and no matter that they are sharing a bedroom, E@L is not going to manage a successful sexual connection. Maybe if he asked politely, you say? Maybe, yes, but what can we expect, how will we ever know? E@L can't even order kopi with kaya toast correctly
And don't you lecture him. about the moral ambiguity here, about the lessons we all should have learned. Don't talk to E@L about the classics, your Dostoevsky, your Shakespeare, your Thomas Hardy, your P.G. Wodehouse, the plays and poetry, the novels and the fillums. He know, he knows. He probably knows better than most of you… He has read about it, watched appalled as other men, good men, true men, were sucked into the vortex of it. But he has also watched masters surf it with skill and joy, their used condoms falling back like the bubbles of latex with traces of toxic albumen in them that they are, onto the streets below.
Unattractive stupid old man and immensely attractive clever young woman, new? A NEW thing? Read the death notices for details. Read the applications for the restraining orders.
Of course E@L recognizes it. He is actually enjoying the pain of it, sucking it in, it's grist to his mill of incident. He is trying to retain the feeling or its memory, but like hunger or satiety, once it's gone, it's gone. Until the next time.
It's every love-lorn tourist's story in Bangkok, is it not?
E@L has identified the causative agent in cases like this. It is the as yet un-blogged-about "Principle of The Three".
If one goes back to the same hooker bar and talks to the same hooker for the third time (the third time is the charm they always say) then the trap has been fired. New neuronal pathways have been established. Those lines about , "You are so handsome", "You heb good heart", etc… have been burned with serotonin into a new depiction of reality. The brain is a living organism (for some of us) and is capable of almost anything (except communicating effectively with cafe staff).
And the mere proximity to a cute babe, hooker or not (as in this case) over a period of three or more days can have the same type of effect. Particularly if she is nice to you. OMG how quickly "She's nice to me" can become, "oh she's attracted to me"…
How irrational are we, I mean, fuck it's just unbelievable.
And when you are a cute, sexually energised, in-control female and this previously nice avuncular, nearly three times your age, sister's ex-flat-mate starts drooling in your general direction, well it can get get creepy and it's best to ignore it and go out and try to fuck the people you really came here to fuck, like young international party hunks or the rich old cigar guys on their 80ft yachts, and just be polite to the creepy old guy in the bed opposite (when, if, you get home that night/morning).
But as E@L has noted before – everyone wants to fuck good-looking (or rich, if you're Singaporean) people. Even ugly people want to fuck good-looking people. But as for good-looking people wanting to fuck ugly people? (i.e. the rest of us), well ah there's your mis-match.
Still it's reassuring to know that his heart still beats within its copious emotional frame, that amino acids can be stirred into stomach burning action, that there is pain other than in the idiopathic neuropathy of his feet. Nothing new here, move along nothing to see. Man being stupid.
Its just that happens in the stoney cold heart of E@L so rarely that E@L has to post it, and he will apologize to the parties concerned later.
Yes, E@L can remain emotionally detached from his intellectual confusion – um, maybe he means the other way around. Um. Maybe not. Well he can write about it here, because hey, who gives a fuck, nobody's listening, but for other reason's as well…
Because E@L has been on the receiving end, he's been in the same situation (apart from the being cute and young bit) himself.
There *are* (as in *have been*) women in and around E@L's life (and not only the 50ft Zombie Divorcees of expat-land) who have become d***-struck for him, for some Darwin-forsaken superficial reasons.
We mean that there are women who had become emotionally linked, but from their side only, to E@L. OK, when we say 'some', E@L means one or two. E@L might like these ladies, indeed he *does* like these ladies. But never in a month of first days of the month would E@L consider sleeping with any of them. Last lady on earth sort of thing. But nice people one and all. And E@L was nice back to them, which only exacerbates the situation.
And so E@L understands the complete bemusement with which the object of his obscure desire fends off any clumsy, debasing (for E@L), and creepy (for her), moves, just as he has said, "Thanks, nioce to see you, please back off now", to his own unwanted, wannabe paramours.
(There's the as yet un-written novel/chapter/page/paragraph/C&P of this sentence tale of the surreptitious stroke on the arm from one stalker lady as E@L was kissing farewell to his then genuine ex-girl-friend. Urghh. Creepy.)
These completely incoherent thoughts are not meant to indicate anything to anybody, btw.
It's been four days since E@L had a decent sleep – more posts need to be discoursed upon concerning those days in the Croatian sun, those evenings Tequila Booming and clubbing until the wee hours. E@L needs to have more time than E@L has lifetime available, enough time to do them justice, every minute a philosophy.
He wants to do his various dances (Joyce vacuuming, the sprinkler, big fish little fish cardboard box) more. Tonight, at the Singapore Beerfest, he would have bopped and wiggled to elevator music (those jumping on the tables and chairs things during the U2 covers set, they were most embarrassing, could please E@L have this evening back), the niteclub beats were still with him (plus listening to Daft Punk TRON Legacy on the plane back) from Thursday night with the girls. Those memories are in heavy rotation in E@L's head.
As are the memories of E@L walking through the crowds outside the Singapore Flyer crying out like a preacher, calling out from his soul things like: "My life is a mere husk of truth, a sham, a lie, all is emptiness. I am not who you have thought I am. I need reality. I need truth, but I cannot find it amongst you people! Taxi driver, take me to the Towers…"
And the trip to Orchard Towers tonight with an over-emotional Bruce who may or may not have touched the scrotum sac of your truly, though in jest [oops and FB evidence surfaces of vice versa], that was 20 minutes of hell, from the great pile of someone else's crap all over the toilet seat, to the choking testosterone fumes in Ip-an-enemas. All those memories needs to be expunged as well. There is not enough time, nor the need to talk about them anymore.
Maybe the truth is that E@L doesn't need the Towers, for he certainly doesn't want them. If there was only some other way (beyond frantic masturbation). And so he left tonight by himself, carrying a $10 posie of flowers from the guy in the wheelchair at the entrance. E@L sniffed the roses, so nice. All other things OT completely revolted and repulsed him.
What he wants and what he needs (but doesn't really need, though it would be nice) is to fuck Izzy's horny little sister till the stars explode.
And none of this is going to happen or needs to happen.
Because the words are here now, this is the reality of it for you, dear reader. Anyone else's opinion is mere facts.
On the other hand, there's always love. A love without self-pity.
*one word from anyone involved and this comes down if that is their wish*
Bull Wang Gib You POWER!
File this under Travellers' Warning.
Yesterday's mood distortion was not caused by a batch of fake Cialis from Thailand, though some was offered to me on the street last time I was in Bangkok.
"Where you go? Body massage, girl, DBD porno, Viagah, Chalice?" is the chant of the superfluous tuk-tuk drivers along Sukhomvit Rd as they accost me on each Soi corner. Meanwhile I try to avoid stepping on the ragged women beggars, sitting cross-legged by the steps to the train, drugged children comatose on their laps. And try to avoid twisting my ankle on the Indiana Jones-like stepping-puzzle they call a footpath here.
Rather than the usual worn fold-up ad for a three-girl soapie and massage, the tuk-tuk driver may hold open a plastic bag, showing me the blue or orange box of the potency drugs.
I don't buy anything from these guys. No matter what you do or where go on a tuk-tuk these days, you will be ripped off. When I first came to Thailand they were a legitimate form of transport, much cheaper, faster and more available than taxis. Now, with the traffic at lock-jaw levels, tuk-tuks are just as stuck as ordinary cars. And they charge enormous amounts of money. Demands of 200Bht for a trip that would cost 45Bht in a A-C taxi are not to be believed. A motor-cycle taxi is the only way for serious commuters to weave through the cars, though chances of smashing a knee are pretty high. As often as possible, I take the sky-train.
Tuk-tuk drivers can only make their money by scamming you, the wide-eyed, wet-eared tourist. Selling erectile dysfunction medication is their latest beat.
On the odd occasion I might have made discreet purchases of ED drugs while travelling, it would have been in a "legit" pharmacy in Bangkok while getting a top up on my other medications: blood pressure, cholesterol and nerve-pain. Mmm, I hope they were legitimate drugs (Don't we? You know who!) I bought. They certainly cost enough – like full price, but without the added cost and embarrassment of seeing a physician to get a 'script.
I can't bring myself to get some here. I imagine my cute female GP asking me, "How much do you need? When will you use it? How often?"
What am I going to say – the truth?
"I don't KNOW, I DON'T KNOW! Cheeerist woman, leave me alone with your incessant cataloguing of my personal failures! I KNOW I AM OVERWEIGHT, alright!? I KNOW that's the cause of almost all my problems, alright! I just need to have some Viagra handy in case I get so despairing in my pathetic lonely existence that I am prepared to suffer the ignominy and shame of picking up a bored and desperate Triad-run hooker in the ultra-sleazy 4FoWs and attempt to have sex with her even I don't even know or like her and she speaks no English and when I can't get it up… again… I'm a failure because I've wasted $250 not to mention taxi fare, and my life is shit, I don't know why I even bother breathing…!"
OK, moving on…. I think we can all agree it'd be for the best if I pick the occasional batch up when I get to Thailand and avoid that scene all together, right?…
So this article in the New England Journal Medicine is a bit of a warning:
An Unusual Outbreak of Hypoglycemia
Pasted from NEJM
To the Editor: The off-label use of drugs for the enhancement of sexual performance in persons without erectile dysfunction is a phenomenon that is increasingly recognized.1 These drugs are available in illegal forms, including counterfeit versions of brand-name drugs for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and purported herbal remedies containing synthetic phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors.2 We describe an outbreak of severe hypoglycemia in Singapore; this outbreak was associated with contamination of illegal sexual-enhancement drugs with glyburide.
Between January 1 and May 26, 2008, a total of 150 nondiabetic patients with severe hypoglycemia were admitted to the five public hospitals in Singapore. All the patients except one were men, and they ranged in age from 19 to 97 years (median, 51). Seven patients remained comatose as a result of prolonged neuroglycopenia, and four subsequently died.
Glyburide was detected in blood or urine samples obtained from 127 of these patients (85%). On specific questioning, 45 patients (30%) admitted ingesting illegal sexual-enhancement drugs before the onset of hypoglycemia. Drug samples obtained from these patients and from drugs seized in police raids were analyzed by means of high-performance liquid chromatography. Four preparations were contaminated with glyburide in amounts ranging from 13 to 100 mg per tablet (Figure 1A). These drugs included a counterfeit of Cialis (tadalafil) and three herbal preparations for the purported treatment of erectile dysfunction (Power 1 Walnut, Santi Bovine Penis Erecting Capsule, and Zhong Hua Niu Bian).3 All four products also contained sildenafil in amounts ranging from 0.5 to 110.0 mg per tablet. Santi Bovine Penis Erecting Capsule and Zhong Hua Niu Bian also contained trace amounts of tadalafil and sibutramine.
Translation: Travellers in foreign climes be warned. The Cialis and crap Chinese copies/clones/competition you buy off the street in towns like Bangkok are pirated and could possibly contaminated by substances like glyoburil which is a diabetes drug that is harmful to non-diabetics. In Singapore, in a three month period in 2008, nearly 200 people were admitted to hosptial and four people died from these sprurious medications. There was a similar though more restricted experience in Hong Kong at around the same time. The NEJM article does not say where these medicines were purchased.
"Zhong Hua Niu Bian" means Chinese Bull Penis. "Saint Bovine" also hints at the non-herbal origin of the source of these pseudo-TCM's "Penis Erecting" power. [This just screams for a 'Truth In Naming' case-study.]
Of course, eating the (herbal) penis of any dead animal is a total waste of time in a pharmacological sense: a) they're really chewy, b) just don't. The TCM idea of like for like is patently illogical nonsense to my Western eye. Eat a big penis get a big penis? What a – dare I say it – wank.
Penis munchers, you might HYPNOTIZE yourself into a placebo effect, but note that these "herbal" products are also stuffed with various amounts of tadalafil (Cialis) and sildenafil (Viagra) which DO actually work in many cases of ED. So if some of these herbal remedies eventually work, it's because they are packed surreptitiously with the REAL medicine, not because of the TCM's magic properties!
But note too the potential dose range across the products seized: "All four products also contained sildenafil in amounts ranging from 0.5 to 110.0 mg per tablet." At least if you buy the genuine article you know that the dosage is going to be close to that stated on the package, and the results can be assessed in a reasonable light.
With any herbal concoction, not only are the doses basically random due to the typical slack QA at these snake-oil producers factories , there is also a higher risk of contaminants, such as occurred with the glyburide.
Of course these products were probably stamped together in a filthy backyard factory in Outer Nowheresville, China, perhaps near a slaughterhouse for a steady supply of bull products. They could contain anything, and usually do. The milk scandal is another case of un-policed Chinese regulations allowing producers to get away with, literally, murder.
If you would consider buying such drugs off the street you should first get a mirror and some Viagra eyedrops – then take a long, hard look at yourself.


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Sunbeam is excited to announce that Sunbeam Duos™ Sous Vide and Slow Cooker (MU4000) has been awarded the prestigious Product of the Year 2014 in the Kitchen Appliance Category.
POY is Australia's largest independent consumer-voted award for product innovation. A POY award highlights to consumers the best and most innovative products in each of the 42 categories. This year over 16,000 household consumers were surveyed to determine the winners.
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RRP $199Sunbeam enquiries: 1300 881 861 or visit www.sunbeam.com.au


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Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae. Together with several other lizard families, including Lacertidae (the "true" or wall lizards), they comprise the superfamily or infraorder Scincomorpha. With about 1200 described species, the Scincidae are the second most diverse family of lizards, exceeded only by the Gekkonidae (geckos).
This post is part of the I Heart Macros meme,
and also part of the Weekend in Black and White meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme.
Saturday, 20 July 2013
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I love to hear from you, so please comment. I appreciate constructive criticism as it improves my skills as an amateur photographer.
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Germany 4-0 Argentina (03:07:10)
He's back back back. Tim Stewart was due to be flying back to England before the quarter finals. Which self respecting Englishman wouldn't want to hang back to see Germany finally get their comeuppance though. It wasn't as if they were going to knock their mandatory four goals in against Diego's boys was it, oh:
After a temporary World Cup reprieve, I saw the Germans demolish Argentina on Saturday. How do they do it? Not so long ago they lost a friendly in Berlin to a patched-up England side featuring the likes of Stewart Downing and Darren Bent. They also lost a World Cup warm-up at home to Argentina. As ever, they were mentioned as Cup contenders only in as much as 'You can never write off the Germans'.
What happens? For the second World Cup running, they have confounded the critics by producing, out of nowhere, the most attractive, swashbuckling attacking football of all. Unlike Capello's chokers, they have the fearlessness of youth and go for the jugular with ruthlessly direct counter-attacks. I went to Green Point hoping that Argentina's beautiful game would triumph over Teutonic efficiency. Instead, Messi and co were crushed even more humiliatingly than England.
Watching eight German goals live in a week could be considered bad for any Englishman's mental health and there was a distinct sense of deja vue. In the lead-up to kick-off, the stadium was a sea of blue and white with Argentines partying like they had already won the Cup and greeting Maradona like a cult leader. By the end, the Deutschland flags had appeared out of nowhere and it was the Germans who suddenly seemed to have taken over Cape Town last night.
Spain are my last hope of flair winning the day but the Germans are starting to look unstoppable. Much as I would love to see Durban, it is probably for the best that I am now due to fly out tonight ahead of the semi. You have to admire the Germans' achievements - but I don't need to see them all at close quarters. Mind you, I met an Aussie last night, who had seen them put four past all of his team, England and Argentina.
Idling away my days in Cape Town, I checked out Africa's smallest bar, the Workshop in Hout Bay, and got a lift over a spectacular mountain pass with a biker. I also found myself in somewhere called the 'Kink Bar', which has burlesque videos running on a giant screen and cocktails with names like 'The Fetish' and 'The Anonymous Fondle'.
Subject to getting on a BA standby flight tonight, it looks like my World Cup has now finally run its course. There's people on the pitch. They think it's all over. It is now (as Klose scores again).
Bafana Tim
- feel free to comment below -


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Are you using LinkedIn? You should, it's still a brilliant tool for career networking and is actively geared towards helping you present a more professional digital presence than Facebook or Twitter. I've been using it for a while and I can see the potential but honestly my use of it could be considerably better (so I'll probably end up talking about it in a future blog entry). The only use I really get out of it at the moment are the weekly emails with links to career based articles on other websites. Most seem to be very US centric but some articles are useful, and most are at least interesting in the sense that they give a wider understanding of the current or predicted job market. One article I came across last year really peaked my interest though. Entitled The STEM Staffing Crisis is a Myth it highlighted several interesting discussion points on a topic that I knew next to nothing about but, given my career path, really should know everything about. I've wanted to write something highlighting this article for a while and I realised not long after my first post that this blog would be a perfect place to bring it to everyone's attention. Even if you don't study a STEM degree it brings up topics that are relevant to everyone. So this blog entry is aimed at getting the gears turning so to speak and getting you wonderful readers to think and talk more about the topic.
Despite having studied science at various academic levels for the better part of a decade, 'STEM' wasn't an acronym I had come across before I came to Newcastle University. It stands for 'Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics' and is an umbrella term used to cover all the associated degrees. The staffing crisis of the article title is referring to the concern companies and governments are currently showing about the lack of science graduates. According to sources stated in the article there aren't enough students currently in education to fulfil the demand for the science roles that need filling. So far so good for current science students. Jobs aplenty upon graduation it would seem. Except that the article swiftly moves onto explain that "myth" of its title is that quite the opposite is true. There are fewer STEM jobs available to even the current undergraduate students, let alone the current post graduate students and those students from previous years. The article goes into greater detail and to begin with is quite worrying for those of us currently in STEM degrees.
But further on it becomes clear that in reality, predicting future STEM recruitment needs or an individual's career path, are in fact far from easy. Variation plays a big role in this and that what you trained and studied for may not necessarily be what you end up doing. The author points out that STEM jobs may not be filled by STEM graduates, rather by people who have transitioned from non-STEM jobs. But the converse is also true, which is honestly not surprising. STEM graduates unable to find relevant job roles or deciding on a change also fill non-STEM job positions. The discussion surrounding the reasons for this, hinted at in the article, is fascinating while potentially a little dis-heartening. The negative effect this may have on the economy due to unemployment and stagnant wages for STEM employees, the difficulty in even attempting to predict STEM staffing needs and the occurrence of natural cycles of "alarm, boom, bust" on the STEM job market all make it seem like studying a STEM degree is a bad idea. But I actually found it all to be quite positive. Madness I hear you cry! But honestly, read the article and you'll probably end up feeling the same.
This is because the author ends on a fantastic point. That if there is a shortage of any kind it is on STEM knowledge, in both STEM and non-STEM graduates. STEM graduates tend to be too blinkered in their world view, missing out on the benefits gained from a greater understanding of the arts and humanities. This is probably less true at the undergraduate level, but the higher up you get and the more time you have to devote to your research, it certainly seems harder to make time for such topics. But also there is a lack of a proper STEM grounding in education in general. A proper basis would among other things, make everyone more informed about the advances made in the rapidly growing fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. A better public understanding of these advancements then leads to reduced fear surrounding new discoveries and the implementation of clearer policies guiding these discoveries, with greater public approval. In other words, at the very least a good understanding of STEM topics gives you more topics to debate over a drink at the pub!
Ultimately it seems that times have changed quickly in recent decades and that having a STEM degree doesn't guarantee a STEM job. But that doesn't mean that your choices are limited but such a degree and that in fact STEM subjects are ones that we should all aim to learn more about.
Co-incidentally, several parts of the university will be taking part in the National Science and Engineering week between March 14th- 23rd. In the wake of the hugely successful British Science Festival held at the university last summer, these events aims to continue showcasing the STEM work being conducted across the university and generally increase the discussion surrounding STEM topics. So it's a great chance to build from this article, learn more about new discoveries, understand STEM topics a little better and better inform your debates over those drinks! More information on the week and the events can be found here.


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Writing for Bloomberg tonight, Jesse Drucker has an excellent analysis of the astonishing level of "sub-rosa corporate welfare" underway — via trivially miniscule US tax payments made on transfer-priced income made by multinational pharma concerns, in tax havens like Puerto Rico, Ireland and Costa Rica. Do go read it. It did not escape the notice of Bloomberg that thus far, Schering-Plough has been the only large pharma to lose a "haven repatriation" restructuring/transactional case to the IRS. It should not excape the readers' notice here, either — as was plainly true on several fronts, Schering's lawyers had pushed to the very edge of the enforcement envelope — and then pushed, just a little bit beyond it. Last year, a federal judge hit the company with a nearly $500 million judgment for playing far too much tax-avoidance footsie.
Here is the background on that Schering-Plough loss, as I had previously reported back in August of 2009. [Note that Schering-Plough's then General Counsel, Tom Sabatino, was also then in favor of the idea of distorting the attorney client privilege doctrine, for certain kinds of corporate work product, well beyond the existing state of the law. And, why?
Well, because the various schemes and slides drawn up under his supervision in Kennilworth had likely cost him the case, against the IRS (to the tune of nearly a half-billion dollars). In the able federal judge's entirely non-novel view, schemes to avoid taxes (as opposed to simply minimizing them) are plans to overtly violate the law. As such, the judge had ruled that the Schering-Plough slides and schemes could not fall under attorney client protections. Mr. Sabatino has since also resigned from his most-recent employer, United Airlines.]
In any event, below is a bit of the long and well-sourced Bloomberg article — do go read it all:
. . . .Merck. . . the second-largest drugmaker in the U.S., last year brought more than $9 billion from abroad without paying any U.S. tax to help finance its acquisition of Schering- Plough Corp., securities filings show. Merck is also appealing a federal judge's 2009 finding that Schering-Plough owed taxes on $690 million it had earlier brought home from overseas tax-free. . . .
With the exception of the Schering-Plough case, no authority has accused Merck. . . of paying less tax than [it] should have. . . .
Last year, Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, tapped its offshore cash, tax-free, to pay for just over half the cash portion of its $51 billion merger with Schering-Plough, according to company filings.
At the deal's closing, Merck's foreign subsidiaries lent $9.4 billion to a pair of Schering-Plough Dutch units. Then the Dutch companies used those funds to repay a pre-existing loan from their U.S. parent, securities filings show. The $9.4 billion ended up with Schering-Plough shareholders as part of the cash owed under the merger, according to the company's disclosure.
No Tax Hit
Bottom line: Merck used its overseas cash to pay the former Schering-Plough shareholders — with no U.S. tax hit. In considering whether companies owe taxes in such cases, the IRS often asks whether payments from an offshore unit constitute a dividend, which would be taxable.
In Merck's case, it arguably could be, said Robert Willens, who runs an independent firm that advises investors on tax issues.
"Merck was obligated to pay Schering-Plough shareholders and they tapped into the funds of their overseas subsidiaries to do it," he said. "You'd have to be concerned about a constructive dividend there. . . ."
In the Schering-Plough case decided last year, the drugmaker brought home $690 million tax-free as a result of assigning its rights to income from a complex interest-rate swap to a foreign subsidiary in the 1990s. A judge found the company "failed to establish a genuine purpose for the transactions other than tax avoidance" and said Schering-Plough was not entitled to $473 million in back taxes in dispute. Merck is appealing the judgment. . . .
So, the next time you hear a Republican politician, or a red-faced CEO complaining about the level of cost for health care as any form of "socialist" medicine, please remind yourself that these very same multinational corporations are, and have been for decades, among the largest beneficiaries of one of America's most "socialist" of policies — essentially free-passes, on corporate income taxes — for the unimaginably wealthy ficticious persons we've chartered as corporations in the US. These non-people generate between $10 and $15 billion in net profits quarterly, year after year (among just the top 20!), and pay almost no tax on these profits — decade after decade. And no one even mentions this.
If that's not wrong — then I don't know what is. These corporations enjoy all the benefits of the most-liquid capital markets on the planet, the most-developed infrastructure on the planet, the highest standards of living (for their key executive officers, and boards of directors) — but simply will not pay their fair share for roads, bridges and schools — to say nothing of national defense, or humane health care, for all. And that, my friends, is simply appalling.


text: As fighting continues inside Syria, over two million have fled to neighbouring countries but at least five million have been forced to leave their homes and move elsewhere in the country. Lacking money and material to build new homes, many Syrians have to use mud to construct temporary shelters. Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal reports. SOURCE: Al Jazeera Middle East


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text: Amendola96 18 Posted January 1 Even in limited minutes, playing alongside Westbrook and Harden gives him a nice deep league appeal. Double doubled tonight in just 18 minutes, coming off a strong performance with Capela out. I think he clinched a rotation spot ROS. Highly interesting dinasty stash... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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08.30 am – Bought a loaf of wholemeal.
Made toasts and added a slice of Chinese barbecued pork.
Oats milk.
Soft boiled eggs.
11.00 am – Stumbled across an interesting quote by Robin Sharma.
You don't get what you want, you get what you are.
It's so true!
01.00 pm – Had curry chicken, cabbage and perut ikan.
05.30 pm – Tea break!
06.00 pm – Watched Eminem's world premiere of We Made You.
06.30 pm – Downloaded Kanye West's remix of Lady Gaga's Poker Face.
07.00 pm – Power Training at Zero Fitness.
08.30 pm – Bolognese sauce.
Cheese ham bread.
12.00 am – zzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz


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- In ancient times, the market was where large crowds would usually be.
- Early Christians would preach the Gospel openly in the markets.
- Unofficial term to refer to someone who shares the Gospel at the workplace.
- Daniel 1:3-7 ESV – Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful beyond all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.
- A prophet during Israel's exile to Babylon in about 605 B.C.
- Chosen among the young men of Israel to be a Chaldean, a sort of mystical advisor to King Nebuchadnezzar.
- Served over 60 years under different rulers who died or went mad.
- Received dreams and visions that would later be echoed by John in the Book of Revelations.
- Daniel 1:8 ESV – But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.
- The chief of the eunuchs was afraid he might get in trouble, but Daniel was steadfast in his decision (Daniel 1:10) and his faith allowed him to be vindicated with a test (Daniel 1:11-20)
- King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream (Daniel 2:1) then challenged the Chaldeans to not only tell him the interpretation, but they must first be able to tell him the dream itself (Daniel 2:5-6).
- The Chaldeans could not tell the dream, and so King Nebuchadnezzar ordered all of them to be killed (Daniel 2:10-13)
- Daniel 2:14 ESV – Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon
- Daniel 2:16 ESV – And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king.
- Daniel 2:17-18 ESV – Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
- Daniel understood the principle of Matthew 18:20.
- Daniel 2:24b ESV – He went and said thus, to him: "Do not destroy wise men of Babylon; bring me before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation."
- Daniel 2:49 ESV – Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king's court.
- Daniel shared the rewards of a victory.
- Daniel 2:19 ESV – Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
- Daniel praised God for all of the good things in his life (Daniel 2:20-23), and would not take any credit, but gave all honor to God.
- Daniel 2:27-30 ESV – Daniel answered the king and said, "No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind.
- King Nebuchadnezzar had a second dream (Daniel 4:4).
- Daniel 4:19 ESV – Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for awhile, and his thoughts alarmed him. The king answered and said, "Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you." Belteshazzar answered and said, "My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies!"
- Even though Nebuchadnezzar had almost killed him and his friends before, Daniel still felt concern for his king.
- Daniel 4:27 ESV – Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.
- Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's son, was having a great feast with his lords and praising idols (Daniel 5:1-4) when a hand appeared and wrote on the wall (Daniel 5:5).
- Daniel was summoned to translate the writing on the wall (Daniel 5:25) because he was known to be in favor with King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 5:11-12)
- Belshazzar offered the biggest reward he could (Daniel 5:16)
- Daniel 5:17 ESV – Then Daniel answered and said before the king, "Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation."
- Daniel had his focus not on earthly things, though he held a high position in the kingdom and was daily exposed to palace-life and much the king's wealth he understood that his number one audience was God. His great "rewarder" was not the king but the King of kings!
- With Belshazzar's death, King Darius became king and he loved Daniel to the point that he made Daniel one of three presidents that all other officials would report to (Daniel 6:1-2)
- Daniel 6:3-4 ESV – Then this Daniel became distinguished above all other presidents and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. Then the presidents and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complain or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him.
- The only way they could trap Daniel, was by persecuting his faithfulness to God (Daniel 6:12-13)
- We too have been given the Spirit of Excellence, the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. Like Daniel, we can live excellently before a God who does all things excellently. (Find a verse to make this into a homerun. – great point!)
- Daniel 6:10 ESV – When Daniel knew that the document was signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed before his God, as he had done previously.
- Even knowing full well the consequences, Daniel refused to stop praying to God.
- Daniel clearly had a consistent relationship with God.
- Prayer must be our first resort not our last.
- Faithful & Resolved
- Wise
- Cameraderie
- Humble
- Kind & Considerate
- Unselfish
- Excellent
- Prayerful
These are all character traits that each of us can obtain, or possibly already have.
The difference between where we are now and how Daniel lived is in the purpose; we must live our faith with intention regardless of where we are: at home, at work, in school, in the mall, everywhere.
Colossians 3:12-17 ESV – Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through him.
2 Peter 1:5-11 ESV – For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The Christian life is a call to be progressive, not stagnant. Daniel possessed these qualities that set him apart in the work place. We need to welcome the work of the Lord to develop character in us; having a progressive life (possessing these qualities in increasing measure) is key to a steadfast life. That is why Daniel served faithfully for so many years.


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Lisa is a Licensed Addiction Therapist in Ardmore, Serving the Greater Philadelphia Area and Main Line including: Philadelphia, Old City, Fairmount, Northern Liberties, Society Hill, Queen Village, Bella Vista, Rittenhouse Square, Fitler Square, University City, Washington Square, Chestnut Hill, Mount Airy, Montgomery County, Chester County, Bucks County, Bala Cynwyd, Elkins Park, Jenkintown, Wynnewood, Gladwyne, Bryn Mawr, Narberth, Haverford, Rosemont, Havertown, Villanova, Wayne, Malvern, Media, Swarthmore, Southern New Jersey, Camden County, Collingswood, Haddonfield, Cherry Hill, Haddon Township. Radnor, Manayunk, East Falls and Conshohocken
Lisa Silk is an addiction therapist who practices addiction counseling in suburban Philadelphia on the Main Line in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Lisa has devoted her career as a substance abuse counselor, to helping individuals and families suffering from addiction, heavy drinking and drug use.
Lisa also has experience in counseling a wide range of personal issues and mental health disorders. Much of her work is spent counseling clients with depression, anxiety, eating disorders and compulsive behaviors such as: internet addiction, food addiction (overeating), and shopping addiction.
Through a motivating and empowering approach, Lisa Silk believes that everyone has the opportunity to find recovery and obtain balance and peace in their lives. For many people, addiction counseling can be a wonderful way to seek recovery, reduce stress, obtain hope, and gain greater clarity and understanding of life issues. The privacy and confidentiality that come with this therapy creates a safe space to express feelings without the judgment or bias that may come from other situations.
If you have a specific question, you are welcome to call 610-649-3331 or email Lisa to find more about addiction counseling and whether it would be a helpful tool for you. Leave your information and Lisa will return your call/email promptly.
When you have no idea what to do or where to go, when family and friends may not understand… I can help. Many of my clients are the loved ones of someone struggling with alcohol or substance abuse. Most people don't know where to begin, what to do, or what not to do. I will help you learn the difference in a clear and practical way while providing answers to your questions. If you have found this page, you still have hope -- this is very important. Let me help you hold on to the hope you have and find the calm within the storm.
Alcoholics never have to drink again, those with ED's have to eat every day no matter what is happening in their life or how they are feeling about themselves and their body. This makes recovery even more challenging, but there is hope
Lisa Silk, MSW, LCSW
Lisa Silk is a Licensed Addiction Therapist and Substance Abuse Counselor specializing in Addiction and Eating Disorders in Ardmore, the Main Line and Philadelphia
My personal and professional passion is helping individuals and families suffering from addiction. In 1999 someone told me, "There may be a greater reason you had to suffer so deeply." I heard this in a way I never had heard before. And so I felt if I could help someone else get out of the pain and despair that comes with addiction, then my suffering would have been worth it. This has been my mission ever since.
Check back for future speaking dates
Addiction is an insidious disease; substances promise solace but provide utter wreckage. This is often difficult to see and even when a client has acceptance of the nature of their illness, change can be more than difficult. Whether you are in recovery and struggling with a current life issue or with something painful from your past or if you think you MAY have a problem with drugs and/or alcohol, I can help.
Lisa Silk & Associates
Substance Abuse Counselor, Addiction Therapist
Compassionate Counseling for Addiction, Depression,
Anxiety, and Eating Disorders
This may be your first time, or 100th time seeking help. Either way, there are so many questions which may be hard to ask or you may not even know where to begin.
Copyright 2013. Lisa Silk, Addiction Therapist. All Rights Reserved.


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Winter is coming and it's darker mornings and nights that top the list of the nation's seasonal pet hates. These are closely followed by feeling cold, with well over half of people giving them the thumbs down.
A poll of 2,000 UK homeowners showed that people from East Anglia feel the cold the most (58 per cent), while Scots are the least concerned about plummeting temperatures (48 per cent). It was also East Anglians who fretted the most about heating bills (45 per cent), while those in Northern Ireland worried the least (30 per cent).
The survey also revealed how nearly two-thirds of us detest dismal mornings and 56 per cent would dodge dark nights where possible. The sustained darkness means one-third of us have less motivation to go outside. More than half of people hating being cold and, therefore, having to pay more to heat their homes (38 per cent).
Our top 10 winter pet hates are:
- Dark mornings (62 per cent)
- Dark nights (56 per cent)
- Being cold (52 per cent)
- = The weather (41 per cent)
- = De-icing the car (41 per cent)
- Rain
- Paying more to heat the home (38 per cent)
- Having less motivation to go outside (34 per cent)
- = Getting ill (28 per cent)
- = Clocks going back (28 per cent)
- Feeling miserable (24 per cent)
- Having to wear lots of layers (16 per cent)
In the battle of the sexes, it's women who worry far more than men about paying to keep the house warm (44 per cent compared to 32 per cent). This doesn't stop them from turning on the central heating early though. Women also helped to disprove the man flu theory, with one-third dreading getting ill compared to less than a quarter of men. More women than men admitted to feeling the cold and hating dark mornings.
Fifteen per cent of men expressed their inner Scrooge by confessing to a loathing of Christmas adverts. They also highlighted Christmas songs and saving up for presents as pet hates. Meanwhile, 14 per cent of women complained about the return of the new football season.
The biggest winter woe among millennials was de-icing the car (52 per cent), followed by being cold and getting ill. Baby boomers are most affected by the cold (54 per cent), yet it's people aged 25 to 34 that most dread feeling poorly.
Other pet peeves that came high across the board included the winter weather. This includes the rain (40 per cent), the clocks going back (28 per cent), and generally feeling miserable (24 per cent).
Rather more unusual complaints included a hatred for wearing tights and not being able to visit beer gardens. One respondent lamented not being able to play golf and another feels their hackles rise whenever their glasses steam up in warm shops.


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In a unique move, Idaho's Department of Labor has licensed and begun to roll out its self-built unemployment benefits system to Iowa and Vermont, with hopes that other states will join the consortium of users.
Faster, smarter and cheaper. That's the name of the game for the Idaho Department of Labor's Internet Unemployment System (iUS), which launched in 2014 to quickly process unemployment taxes and benefits in a matter of hours. Now, advancements in the system are being developed on a whole new level to help other states around the nation.
With an antiquated, costly mainframe system built in the 1970s, the Idaho Department of Labor was pressed to find an alternate viable solution. As a result, the administration used 12 in-house employees and spent approximately $7 million to develop the iUS to more efficiently manage unemployment processes. After its launch in 2014, the new system was able to reduce manual worker processing time by more than 2,000 hours.
Mark Mayfield, executive director of the Internet Unemployment System for the Idaho Department of Labor, said the update has also enhanced long-term efficiencies throughout the department. "The mainframe limited our ability to do the things that we really wanted to," he said. "It required a lot of time, and since we've gone to the new technology, we've been able to add on new applications that have made our jobs easier, more efficient and accurate."
The system was recognized in 2015 by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers and received the State IT Recognition Award for Improving State Operations.
Since its launch, four new applications have been added to the iUS to further improve efficiencies and ease of use. One major addition includes a new front-end employer portal that allows employers to digitally communicate with the department 24 hours per day regarding self-service duties without picking up a phone.
Similarly, a new front-end claim portal was implemented to allow customers to log in and view more information about their personal claims online. Other applications were also added to help the department collect on payments.
After a successful two years, the Idaho Department of Unemployment is now partnering with Iowa and Vermont to expand the iUS to accommodate their states' needs. To do this, Mayfield and his team are updating the system as a more modular solution to easily meet the various criteria of states around the nation.
"We are now breaking it up into pieces because we have found there is a lot of commonality among states (approximately 70 to 80 percent is the same)," said Mayfield. "However, we do have those separate items where they may have specialized programs or processes, so we're trying to break those into small pieces so we can account for those small differences and assess what they have and how they operate."
The goal is to create a main system that can be widely used across states. From there, small accommodations can quickly and easily be made to meet specific needs of individual states. While Iowa and Vermont are the first two states to purchase the system's license and implement the iUS, Mayfield pointed out that as more states join the consortium, it will become even faster and more cost-effective to implement. "The more states that come on, the more inventory we have and the lower the costs will be. Plus, the maintenance will be shared, among other things," he said.
The Idaho Department of Unemployment is currently coordinating specifics and identifying goals with Iowa and Vermont with plans to begin coding the iUS updates in July 2016. The project is expected to take no more than two years to complete before iUS is launched in both states.
While the iUS rollout is starting slowly, the long-term goal is to expand the system to other states around the nation as demand increases for an affordable solution. "Funding keeps getting cut every year and for various reasons, we have to operate on a limited budget. In the IT world in the long run, a lot of the automation really saves dollars," said Mayfield. "The more states we have, the more we're sharing those costs. If we're in a consortium and we're all sharing that, hopefully we will see dramatic cuts in the annual costs."
For more information on the Internet Unemployment System (iUS), please visit https://labor.idaho.gov/dnn/iUS.aspx.
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text: The bryophyte collection comprises approximately 85 000 specimens, of which ca 65 000 have been collected in Sweden. Many specimens are relatively old and collected in the 1800s or in the beginning of the 1900s. Captain Carl Stenholm was one of the most important collectors at that time, and he collected more than 5 000 specimens. The herbarium also holds 1 500 collections by Sven Fransén from Sweden, Norway and Ecuador. Other important collectors include Sigfrid Arnell, Sixten and Carl Bergström, and Johan Emmanuel Zetterstedt, all who have collected more than 1 000 specimens.


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(Austin Business Journal) Austin maintained its No. 1 spot in the Business Journals' latest analysis measuring the economic health of major metropolitan areas.
In March, the Capital City again ranked in first place in the Business Journals' On Numbers Economic Index, which is calculated by an 18-part formula. The formula assesses private-sector job growth, unemployment, earnings, housing-price appreciation, and construction and retail activity for all 102 metropolitan areas with populations of more than 500,000.
Austin held the position for the second straight month — and the third time in four months.
Second place is held by Provo, Utah, which moves up from sixth place a month ago. Rounding out the top five are Houston, Oklahoma City and Dallas-Fort Worth.
Austin has been consistently strong since the index debuted in August 2012, occupying first place three times and second place the other five months. Its current record of economic growth is unparalleled:
• The number of private-sector jobs in the Austin area has increased by 9.7 percent during the past five years. No other market has expanded more rapidly than 7.5 percent.
• Austin is the only market with growth rates of better than 3 percent in four key categories: private-sector jobs over the past year and the past five years, and personal earnings during the past year and past five years.
• Home values have risen in just 10 of the 102 major markets since 2008. Austin qualifies for that elite group with an appreciation rate of 4.7 percent.
Last place currently belongs to Bridgeport-Stamford, Conn.
To view the Austin Business Journal article, click here.


text: Some external progress photographs of Plot 2. The timber frame is complete, the windows and doors are in and the slate roof is finished. Once the external finishes push on the scaffolding can come down and the building will be revealed. architect Architecture homebuilding house new build perthshire Plot 2 residential scotland self build Add comment Cancel reply Comment Name * Email * Website PrevNext