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Aviation Investigation Report A11C0100
Table of Contents
Collision with Terrain
Lawrence Bay Airways Ltd.
De Havilland DHC–2, C–GUJX
Buss Lakes, Saskatchewan, 2 nm SE
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) investigated this occurrence for the purpose of advancing transportation safety. It is not the function of the Board to assign fault or determine civil or criminal liability. This report is not created for use in the context of legal, disciplinary or other proceedings. See Ownership and use of content.
The Lawrence Bay Airways Ltd. float-equipped de Havilland DHC-2 (registration C-GUJX, serial number 1132) departed from a lake adjacent to a remote fishing cabin near Buss Lakes for a day visual flight rules flight to Southend, Saskatchewan, about 37 nautical miles (nm) southeast. There were 4 passengers and 1 pilot onboard. The aircraft crashed along the shoreline of another lake located about 2 nm southeast of its point of departure. The impact was severe and the 5 occupants were killed on impact. The emergency locator transmitter activated, and the aircraft was found partially submerged in shallow water with the right wing tip resting on the shore. There was no post-crash fire. The accident occurred during daylight hours at about 1111 Central Standard Time.
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Factual information
History of flight
The pilot had flown from Southend to a remote fishing cabin near Buss Lakes to pick up 4 passengers he had transported there 4 days earlier on 26 June 2011. This was a commercial charter operating under Canadian Aviation Regulations Part 703.
The flight had been scheduled to depart Southend at 0900 but was delayed by 1 hour due to a line of cumulonimbus (Cb)Footnote 1 clouds that passed through the area.
The closest weather reporting station to the accident site is Key Lake, Saskatchewan, approximately 80 nautical miles (nm) to the northwest of Buss Lakes. A special weather observation issued at 1111 for Key Lake indicated wind 290° true (T) at 3 knots; visibility 5 statute miles (sm) in light rain and mist; cloud scattered at 1 700 feet above ground level (agl) and overcast at 2 500 feet agl; temperature 14°C, dew point 13°C.
Graphical area forecasts (GFA) valid for the time period of the flight indicate a low pressure system and cold front moving eastward through the area. Adverse weather conditions were associated with this system, and a report of significant meteorological information, SIGMET H10, was issued at 0656 Footnote 2 on 30 June and was valid for the period 0855 to 1255. The SIGMET indicated that within 30 nm of a line co-incident with the route between Buss Lakes and Southend, a line of Cb had been observed by satellite and lightning detection screens. Cumulonimbus tops were estimated at 38 000 feet above sea level (asl). Large hail and wind gusting to 40 knots were forecast along the line of Cb which was moving northeastward at 25 knots.
Images recovered from a camera of one of the passengers showed the line of Cb passing overhead Buss Lakes and the aircraft arriving about 2 hours later. While the images indicate that there was still some cloud in the area, the ceiling appeared sufficient for visual flight rules (VFR) flight. Images of the water surface during the landing and subsequent take-off showed no wave action other than a light ripple.
In view of the variability of weather conditions, a meteorological assessmentFootnote 3 for the Buss Lakes area was requested from Meteorological Service of Canada. The following was gleaned from the report:
- From satellite imagery it was determined that a brief clearing of weather occurred at Buss Lakes at or around 1030 after the frontal system had passed through the area.
- By 1046, shortly after this clearing occurred, stratiform cloud could be seen developing in the clear skies in advance of the next band of cloud associated with this system.
- By 1100, the growing area of stratiform cloud was affecting the Buss Lakes area itself; it had expanded further by 1716.
- The combination of saturated lower levels, resulting from recent precipitation; light winds in the axis of the trough; and cold water surfaces may have resulted in local dense fog patches over the Buss Lakes area, possibly obscuring shorelines and/or higher terrain in the area.
Pilot Qualifications
The pilot was certified and qualified in accordance with existing regulations. On 30 June, the pilot's total flying time was 4023 hours with 3664 hours on float-equipped aircraft. Company records indicated that the pilot had completed the required ground training, which was in accordance with CAR 703.98,Footnote 4 before starting the summer season. The pilot had also completed the company's required flight proficiency training prior to carrying passengers.
Lawrence Bay Airways Ltd. operated 2 aircraft, the accident DHC–2 and a Cessna 180, both on floats. The company was being operated under an Air Operations Certificate issued under subpart 703 – Air Taxi Operations of the Canadian Aviation Regulations.
Aircraft Information
Manufactured in 1958, technical records indicated that the aircraft was certified, equipped and maintained in accordance with existing regulations and approved procedures. Prior to the float season, the aircraft underwent an 800–hour inspection by an approved aviation maintenance organization (AMO) in La Ronge, Saskatchewan, on 28 May 2011, when the airframe had logged 12 746.9 hours. On 30 May 2011, the pilot picked up the aircraft and flew it back to Southend. The company had a maintenance arrangement with the AMO, under which it would supply an engineer to fly to Southend to fix any maintenance issue that arose. About a week prior to the accident, the AMO received a call that a 100–hour inspection was coming due and that, other than a few minor issues, the aircraft was operating satisfactorily.
Weight and Balance
No record of a pre-departure weight and balance calculation for the occurrence flight was found. Using actual passenger and cargo weights loaded in different seating and placement configurations, investigators made centre of gravity (C of G) estimates. All showed that the aircraft was operating within its maximum gross weight and C of G limits. The estimates did show, however, that the aircraft was near its maximum gross weight and that some load placements would put the C of G near its aft operating limit.
Site Examination
The wreckage was located partially submerged in the water on the north shoreline of one of the Buss Lakes approximately 2 nm southeast from the departure lake where the fishing cabin was situated. A portage was required to reach the accident lake by boat from the departure lake (Figure 1).
The nose of the aircraft was oriented to the southwest, about 245° T. The tip of the right wing was on the shore and at a right angle to the shoreline. The remainder of the aircraft was partly submerged in the water. The engine had been driven under the fuselage and the floats had been driven back behind the wings. The aft fuselage had buckled just behind the wing and was bent in towards the shoreline. Broken trees directly behind the aircraft and a ground scar left by the outer portion of the right wing indicated that the aircraft had struck the ground and water surface at an angle of about 30° nose down and right wing low. After striking some trees, the aircraft came to rest about 10 feet beyond and about 24 feet to the left of the ground scar.
Wreckage Examination
The wreckage was slung onshore by helicopter and examined. All control surfaces were present and continuity of controls was established. Several instruments and instrument panel warning lights were removed and sent for examination at the TSB Laboratory in Ottawa. The engine, propeller and flap actuator were removed and taken for examination to the TSB regional wreckage examination facility in Winnipeg.
Examination and Component Testing
Examination of the propeller revealed twisting that was characteristic of high engine power at impact. One propeller tip had broken off and the fracture face was examined at the TSB Laboratory. It was determined to be an overload failure. A mark on the propeller dome indicated that the propeller was at the low pitch stop at impact.
Impact damage to the engine precluded an engine test run. The engine was disassembled and no pre–existing internal damage was found. The engine–driven fuel pump was removed. Corrosion damage to the impeller section, the result of being in the water for some time, prevented running the pump. Other than the water corrosion, no other damage was found in the impeller section. The control section of the pump, which includes a pressure regulator and a by-pass valve, was not affected by the corrosion and tested serviceable. The investigation revealed that the fuel pressure warning light would illuminate when taxiing at low power settings.
Both engine magnetos were tested and found to function. The engine tachometer was examined and determined to be indicating 2400 revolutions per minute (rpm) at impact, approximately 50 rpm over the maximum engine rpm setting of 2350 rpm. The oil temperature was at 60 degrees C, in the middle of the green arc (normal operating range).
Microscopic examination of the airspeed indicator (ASI) revealed a possible speed range at impact of 50–83 miles per hour (mph). A similar examination of the vertical speed indicator gave a rate of descent in the range of 500 feet per minute (fpm) to 1200 fpm. The suction gauge was at 3.6 inches of mercury, at the bottom of the green arc (normal operating range.)
Examination of the instrument panel warning light filaments found the fuel pressure warning light filament had come off its support posts and had some minor stretching. The remainder of the lights had no filament stretch. Filament stretching can occur at impact when a light is illuminated and the filament is warm. The examination could not determine whether the stretching had occurred on the accident flight.
Risk of Low Flying
Transport Canada publishes the following warning about low flying:
Warning-Intentional low flying is hazardous. Transport Canada advises all pilots that low flying for weather avoidance or operational requirements is a high-risk activity.Footnote 5
The Transport Canada approved company operations manual addresses this risk by specifying that:
Except for take-off and landing, the aircraft shall not be operated in VFR flight during the day at less than 300 feet agl or at a horizontal distance of less than 300 feet from any obstacle.Footnote 6
Aerodynamic Stalls
An aerodynamic stall occurs when the wing's angle of attack exceeds the critical angle at which the airflow begins to separate. When a wing stalls, the airflow breaks away from the upper surface and the amount of lift will be reduced to below that needed to keep the wing flying. While stalls occur at a given angle of attack, they can happen at any speed.
Airspeed is often used to predict stall conditions. The faster an airplane flies, the less angle of attack it needs to produce lift equal to weight. As the airplane slows down, the angle of attack needs to be increased to create the lift equal to weight. If an aircraft slows further, the angle of attack will be equal to the critical (stall) angle of attack at some point. Stall speed is the speed below which the airplane cannot create enough lift to sustain its weight in flight.
The Beaver was originally certified in 1947 to British Civil Airworthiness Requirements and its stall characteristics were found to be acceptable. However, the Beaver demonstrates little or no pre stall buffet and, if a warning system is not installed, the onset of the stall may surprise pilots. This aircraft was not equipped with a stall warning.
Stalls and low-level manoeuvring are hazardous. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) explains it as follows:Footnote 7
Maintaining control of an airplane during flight requires managing lift. Lift is produced by the dynamic effect of air acting on the airfoil, or wing. The pilot controls lift by controlling the angle of attack (AOA), which is the acute angle formed between the wing's chord line and the relative wind (that is the direction of the air striking the wing). All other things being equal, increasing the AOA increases lift until the wing reaches the maximum, or "critical," AOA. Increasing AOA beyond this point results in a large loss of lift and an increase in drag. A wing in this condition is said to be "stalled".
Because lift must equal weight, an airplane that is heavier because of physical or aerodynamic loading must generate more lift in order to maintain level flight. For any given airspeed, then, an aircraft with a greater load must be flown at a higher angle of attack in order to generate sufficient lift for level flight. Since an airfoil always stalls at the same AOA, an aircraft loaded by additional physical weight (e.g., passengers, fuel, baggage) or aerodynamic "weight" (e.g., g-force from turning flight) flies at an AOA closer to the critical AOA.
Recovery from an aerodynamic stall is accomplished by reducing the angle of attack and increasing engine power. Aerodynamic stalls at low level are hazardous because there may be insufficient altitude to accommodate the descent that would ensue during the stall recovery.
The following TSB Laboratory reports were completed:
- LP090/2011 Examination of Fractured DHC–2 Propeller Blade
- LP076/2011 Instrument Examination
This report is available from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada upon request.
Both the images recovered from the wreckage and the meteorological assessment indicate that the pilot had waited until the weather was suitable to accomplish the flight to and from Buss Lakes. The meteorological assessment suggested that light winds would prevail during the flights. Therefore it is unlikely the flight encountered unusual winds or turbulence that would have led to the accident. The assessment suggested that local dense fog patches could have formed in the Buss Lakes area, possibly obscuring shorelines and/or higher terrain in the area. While it is unlikely the pilot would have flown into dense fog at low level, it is possible that manoeuvres had to be performed to avoid it. Fog patches near the aircraft would have been a distraction and would have contributed to the pilot's workload.
Airframe and engine problems were not considered to be factors in the accident. The indications of a relatively high power setting at impact and the condition of the fuel pump suggests it is unlikely that the fuel pressure warning light was illuminated and a factor in the accident. Since the fuel pressure warning light illuminated at low power settings when taxiing, the minor stretching of the filament could have occurred on a previous flight.
Forward movement after impact was limited to 10 feet. While this can be attributed to the steep angle at impact, it also suggests low forward speed. Consequently, the speed was likely in the lower range of the airspeed marking of 50 to 83 mph. Likewise, the severe damage to the aircraft and limited forward movement suggests the rate of descent was likely at the higher end of the range of 500 to 1 200 feet per minute identified on the instrument. A low forward speed, high rate of descent and steep angle are consistent with an aerodynamic stall. Consequently, while manoeuvring the aircraft, the pilot likely exceeded the critical angle of attack for the aircraft weight. Since the propeller appeared to be in a low pitch condition, suggesting that the propeller governor did not have time to adjust rpm, and the rate of descent had developed to only 1200 fpm, the stall likely occurred at low level, from an altitude that would preclude recovery. The weight of the aircraft and possible aft C of G could have contributed to the aerodynamic stall.
The location of the accident site was close to, but not easily accessible from, the lake on which the fishing cabin was located. The aircraft's heading to the southwest at impact rather than toward Southend, and its low altitude, suggest that the pilot was manoeuvring along the shoreline, possibly to permit the passengers to observe the area.
Findings as to Causes and Contributing Factors
- While manoeuvring at low level, the aircraft's critical angle of attack was likely exceeded and the aircraft stalled.
- The stall occurred at an altitude from which recovery was not possible.
Other findings
- The separation of the propeller blade tip likely resulted from impact forces.
- The investigation could not determine whether the fuel pressure warning light was illuminated prior to the accident.
This report concludes the Transportation Safety Board's investigation into this occurrence. Consequently, the Board authorized the release of this report on . It was officially released on .
- Date modified:


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Everyone knows about the cities of Westeros in Game a Thrones (or a Song of Fire and Ice series for those fans of just the books). Westeros is primarily where the series of books and show take place, what with the white walkers impending doom, five kings fighting for supremacy, and every lord and lady plotting their own plots. However across the Narrow Sea lies the continent of Essos, which we only primarily see through Daenerys Targaryen and some other characters in later books.
There is a lot of history and events that occur in Essos, however it is often overshadowed in the books by what is going on in Westeros. George R.R. Martin, however, has created a rich and detailed history for each city.
Part Two contains the following cities:
Vaes Dothrak
For other cities, visit Cities of Essos Part One
Spoilers present below, mostly in regards to the leadership and dealings of Meereen and Yunkai
Meereen is sister city to Astapor and Yunkai. Like those cities, it is also a slave trading city ruled over by the Great Masters until Daenaerys Targaryen's arrival, after which she becomes queen of the city. Meereen is larger than Yunkai and Astapor put together, however unlike its sister cities, they do not have a slave specialty. They sell slaves for every use, from guards like Astapor's Unsullied, bed slaves like Yunkai, and general use slaves.
Meereen used to have great cedar grown along the coast, however they were either all chopped down or burned in the war between Valyria and Ghis. The trees will no longer grow and now the ground blows away in great red clouds. In the old days when bronze was still a valuable metal for warfare, Meereen prospered due to the large amount of copper nearby. However, now copper has little worth. It is believed that without slaves, Meereen does not have much to offer.
Myr is one of the nine free cities and is located on the eastern mainland in a vast cove. The city of Myr is ruled by Magisters, which are rich merchants, similar to Pentos. The dark skinned and dark eyed inhabitants are known for being excellent craftsmen. They make the best glass in all the world as well as the best telescopes, which are known as far eyes or myrish eyes.
As well as glass, they also export fine carpets and lace. Readers of the book series will recognize Myr as many of the gowns are made from or lined with fine myrish lace.
They rose up in rebellion against their Volantis rulers with Lys when Aegon rode to conquer Westeros, however they do not have any sort of alliance with Lys. In the first Song of Fire and Ice book Game of Thrones they were being vied for as an ally by both Tyrosh and Lys who were on the verge of ware. however in A Feast of Crows, Myr was facing a war against both Lys and Tyrosh.
Norvos is one of the nine free cities, it is also the only one aside from Qohor to reside on the inland of the continent of Essos. The city sits on the hills next to the tributary Noyne, fed by the massive river Royne. It is a popular city for trade caravans travelling from west to east with their wares. There are many farms surrounding Norvos in its rolling hills.
Norvos is ruled by a High magister and a council. The men in Norvos his long mustaches in which they style and dye various colors. They are masters at creating vibrant tapestries, which are seen as the best in the world. This city is also home to a sparsely mentioned militant order known as the Bearded Priests. These priests take unwanted or orphaned boys and train them to wield a long axe and join their order. After training, they wed their long axes and swear to "Serve. Obey. Protect." They are also branded on the chest with the shape of the axe to always remember to keep their long axes sharp.
Pentos is one of the nine free cities located on the east coast of Essos, north of Myr but south of Braavos. Pentos is considered one of the most populated cities in Essos and has a large trade industry. Pentos is a city where wealth truly equates to power. Pentos is ruled by a Prince who is elected by the fourty families of Pentos. However, the Princes position is mostly ceremonial, the council of wealthy Magisters do most of the ruling.. Many of the rich in Pentos earned their wealth from their expansive spice trade. The people of Pentos often fashion themselves with oiled, dyed and forked beards.
While slavery is banned in Pentos, many of the families have 'servants' which are slave save for the name.
Qarth is considered the center of the world and to their locals the greatest city there ever was and ever will be. It is located to the west of Astapor, Meereen, and Yunkai and southeast of the Red Waste.
Qarth is ruled over by the Pureborn who handle civic manners. However the various merchant guild like the Thirteen, Tourmaline Brotherhood, and Ancient Guild of Spicers all play a role in politics of the city. With the large merchant guild, Qarth has been a large center for commerce for hundreds of years. this has allowed the city to amass an impressive amount of wealth. This wealth is shown off by the brightly colored buildings and ornate statues and other decor. The wealth also funded the three layers of walls that serve as Qarth's protection.
The guards in Qarth wear scaled bronze armor and some of them ride camels layered in colorful blankets and gem encrusted saddles. the Qartheen are tall and pale people that often cry in times of high emotion, as it is a sign of civilization. A unique fashion in Qarth is for the women to wear gowns with one breast exposed.
Qohor is one of the nine free cities and is located furthest inland next to the Dothraki Sea. The city lies by the Forest of Qohor where the wood is greatly sought after, causing their economy to thrive. Like Myr, the Qohorik are great craftsmen. Their blacksmiths have the ability to meld paint onto metals and some have boasted the ability to reproduce Valyrian steel.
Unlike the other cities, Qohor worships a God known as the Black Goat, which is just one of the faces of the Many faced God.
This city is entirely guarded by the Unsullied ever since the Battle of Qohor where three thousand Unsullied defeated fifty thousand Dothraki riders. The Dothraki who surrendered were forced to cut off their braids in defeat. to this day, the Unsullied who guard Qohor still have those braids tied to their spears.
Tyrosh is one of the nine free cities. They are known for being loud and boisterous, constantly starting wars and battling for the various lands around them. They are ruled over my a high magistrate known as an Archon, who is described in the books as having a green beard. The Tyroshi people love to dress in bright colors and color their hair bright colors as well.
Tyrosh is home to many sellswords as it is the city in Essos closest to Westeros, many of them are hired there. They are renowned for pear brandy and their armorsmiths who can make inventive animal helmets and ingenious torture devices.
Vaes Dothrak
Vaes Dothrak is the only city of the Dorthraki people which is located far east in the middle of the Dothraki Sea, a sea of tall green grass. While the people of the Dothraki follow the strongest leaders in hordes called Khalasars, the feuding raiders must not shed blood within Vaes Dothrak nor carry their weapons. The city is ruled over by the Dosh Khaleen, who are wives of dead Khals.
There are few houses made of stone, most are made from wood or animal hide. this is due to the fact that the city does not often hold a large population and the city is made from the materials raided from foreign lands.
To greet the returning Khals, they pass through the horse gate that is no gate at all. The horse gate is named for the two fighting stallion statues that serve as an archway. From a distance, the horse gate frames a great purple mountain known as the Mother of Mountains where only men can set foot.
Near Vaes Dothrak lies the Womb of the World, which is a deep lake rumored to have no bottom. As legend says, the first man emerged from that lake thousands of years ago astride the first horse.
Valyria is a ruined city on the southern peninsula of Essos. This city once controled a vast empire all throughout Essos until is was hit by an unspecified Doom. People believe that George R.R. martin was inspired by the lost city of Atlantis for this city. It was said to be an advanced city wielding an advanced knowledge of the arcane arts. When the city was destroyed, many of the secrets were lost including how to produce Valyrian steel swords.
This is the ancestral home of the Targaryen's, however their house was not considered a powerful house in Valyria. Though, like the Targaryen's, the people shared the characteristics of pale skin, silver blonde hair, and purple eyes.
The Doom of Valyria broke apart the peninsula into small islands surrounded by a boiling sea. This suggests that it may have been destroyed by a large earthquake or perhaps a volcano. It is said that anyone who travels to Valyria never returns as the island is haunted or ruled by The Doom still. Sailors believe that anyone that has even seen the peaks of the continent is doomed to die.
Volantis is the last of the nine free cities. It lies at the delta of the massive river of Rhoyne and practices a form of government more similar to democracy compared to the other free cities which are more of a republic.
Each year the freeborn citizens of Volantis elect a new Triarch or reelect a current one. these candidates may only run if they can trace their ancestry back to Valyria. The candidates split themselves into two parties--The tiger and the elephant. The elephants are merchants and bankers while the tigers are old aristocracy and warriors. Elections span ten days in which the city delves into madness. There are speeches, minstrels, activities. Bravos from Braavos fight in honor of their candidate and some Triarch even hire slaves to bed potential voters for their votes.
In Volantis, their slaves wear facial tattoos which pair with their jobs. Bed slaves have tears, dung collectors have flies, fishermen have fish, ect.
Yunkai is the sister city of Astapor and Meereen. Like its sister cities, it flourishes through the slave trade. the city is ruled by the Wise Masters and their slave specialty is bed slaves. Their bed slaves are trained in the ways of the seven sighs and the sixteen seats of pleasure. Unlike Astapor and Meereen, Yunkai is built from yellow bricks, not red.
This was the only one of the sister cities not to be sacked and raided by Daenaerys Targaryen. She decimated their army and Yunkai gave into her demands to release every slave in the city. Yunkai prepared for future conflicts by hiring companies of sellswords and attacking a free Astapor to reclaim it.

subset: commoncrawl


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In these next two articles, I am going talk about some of the more controversial "pro-liberty" positions, and urge all my Republican friends to talk about these issues as issues of liberty. There are not social issues, economic issues, business issues, and fiscal issues, there are only liberty issues, that is, do we, as Republicans, officeholders or activists, believe that the individual should have more or less control over their lives. Or, do we think that expanded government power is necessary. That really is the only issue that the politically powerful address daily. Do they expand their power at the expense of the individual, or do they diminish their power, and keep themselves out of the family and business decisions of the people they rule? In a society that values liberty, the ruling class trust the people over which they rule, and they have jails and prisons for those who abuse that trust. If the ruling class does not trust people over which they rule, they pass a myriad of laws and regulations over all sorts of real or imagined bad behavior. Their "subjects" then prove themselves as untrustworthy as the ruling class believes they are because they end up breaking the law, sometimes by mistake, sometimes by design, simply because they are doing what they have to do to survive under an oppressive government.
I'm going to use the current debate surrounding guns as the best example of exactly how this process works. There are millions of gun owners in this country. The Government estimated in 2011 that somewhere between 70 and 80 million people in the United States own guns. You heard that right–70 to 80 million. And one nut with a gun kills 20 children, a truly horrendous act to be sure, and the ruling class is falling all over itself to deprive people of their ability to buy guns. What could possibly justify this kind of regulation? Why would one person, acting extremely badly, deprive 79,999,999 people of an important constitutional right? It is because the ruling class in this country doesn't trust their subjects, and they believe they must deprive the subjects of their liberty so the ruling class can keep its power.
Guns control the behavior of the powerful. Interestingly enough, some of the earliest gun control legislation in this country was enacted to prevent
African Americans from owning or possessing guns. In the midst of Jim Crow, there was a great fear that if those protesting racial discrimination owned guns, they might be able to stop the discrimination. In fact, they did. In the early part of the civil rights movement, gun toting African American protesters prevented police abuse of protestors simply by walking peacefully with their guns on display. Government oppression of the less politically powerful was thwarted because of the presence of peaceful citizens with guns. We can go back to the Revolutionary War to talk about how the British tried to take away the guns of the colonists (in fact, Paul Revere's ride was to warn the citizens of Concord and Lexington that the British were coming to seize their guns. The colonists said, basically, Mr. Redcoat, you can take my gun when you pry it from my cold dead fingers, and the NRA was born when the British heard the shot heard round the world. Of course, it took some time for the NRA to actually take real form, but the sentiment of the colonists then created the mindset that still predominates among freedom loving Americans), but we really don't have to go back that far. The civil rights movement, on many occasions, was given life through the peaceful display of force by civil rights protestors. Guns protect liberty.
We are not pro-gun because of the guns themselves, and Republicans should not be pro-gun because gun owners are a powerful voting bloc. We should be pro-gun because we believe, like we believe with respect to economic liberty, small government, and less taxes, that liberty is an important value, and individual choice with respect to gun ownership is an important part of protecting that liberty. Democrats, quite frankly, don't believe in any form of liberty. Republicans do. And if Republicans are going to start winning elections, they are going to do so, because they consistently support liberty at every turn, including that right which is defined in the Constitution as "a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right OF THE PEOPLE to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."(emphasis added)


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The children are hit by a hard lot because all attempts to get a grip on the inherent defect with mechanic heart valves or the biological version from a pig are coupled with lifetime restrictions. Those patients depend on blood thinning drugs. There can be no question of a carefree childhood. In addition the artificial implants carry the risk of rejection respectively to calcify. Even more grave for children is the fact that the valves do not grow with them. That means that a young person has to expect four surgeries during his or her youth – for the most part on the open heart. A heart valve made of the child's own body tissue growing with the little one would be the perfect solution. Scientists all over the world are hoping that tissue engineering will make that wish come true in a few years down the road. Germany is leading in this field and neck and neck with the US, reports Dr. Stefan Jockenhövel to DocCheck.
Heart valve made by injection molding
Dr. Stefan Jockenhövel, until 2005 heart surgeon at the university hospital Zurich/Switzerland and other, now works as the department manager of the working group "Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering" at the chair of Applied Medical Device Technology at the RWTH Aachen/Germany. He and his team have proof of initial achievements concerning the development of heart valve growing with the patient create by a special injection molding procedure. Normally, machine tool builders use this procedure to making moldings, for example of plastics, for industrial use.
Since engineers are part of the team as well, the transfer of the term to heart valves does not really come as a surprise. Because the be-all and end-all is the supporting structure respectively the mold which makes sure that cultivated cells condition to a natural valve structure. Cell donors could be veins, arteries or, during birth of a baby suffering from a cardiac disease, especially the umbilical cord. The first step would be the isolation followed by cultivation of a sufficient number of vascular cells. Parallel to that the people in Aachen prepare a fibrin gel-matrix made of the patient's own blood. Together with the cultivated cells, the whole thing – in brief – is molded and then further bred in the bioreactor. After about three months the completely body own heart valve prothesis is ready for implantation. The procedure of Jockenhövel & Co. Already stood the test in animal experiments.
Heart valve research with diverse approaches
In Germany, the Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin (DHZB, German Heart Center) and the Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (MHH, Medical University Hanover) are also working on the heart valve made of body own tissue. The basic principle of all three research groups, i. e. using body own respectively autologous cells, is comparable. Fundamental differences are the selection of the supporting structure respectively the carrier material.
The Berlin heart surgeons use biodegradable polymer populated with cells. They also use umbilical cord tissue for newborns with a cardiac defect. For teenagers, suitable cells are planned to be isolated from their own marrow. British physicians at the Imperial College London follow a similar approach. In Hanover, says Jockenhövel, decellularized pig valves are reprocessed as matrix and populated with cells extracted from the patient's own blood. The Zurich University also reports successful research where heart valves are bred with stem cells extracted from human amniotic liquor. "however, our research project at the RWTH is the only one with the target to create a completely body own heart valve prothesis", emphasizes Jockenhövel.
EU-Regulations – an obstacle
The Aachen researcher hopes that that children suffering from a cardiac disease will benefit from his heart valve in about five years. One obstacle could be the new EU regulation concerning quality standards. And everybody expects that the obstacles will be even set higher. Although this is considered understandable since security of the patient has utmost priority. But the regulation obsession of the EU commissions might go by reality – as it does so often, complains Jockenhövel. Also expected are bottle necks regarding EU funds. Although the EU is currently strengthening the researches in the field of tissue engineering, the Aachen researcher's application for additional EU-funds will be one out of 200.


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I love avos. I was lucky enough to grow up with an enormous tree in the garden that produced such a splendid crop it was impossible to eat them all, even though I come from a large family. Needless to say, we were always popular in avocado season, turning up at friend's houses with fruity gifts.
Avos are amazingly versatile, they go with so many other ingredients, so it's a good idea to experiment and find your own favourite combination. Or they're just as good eaten on their own, cut in half, remove the pip, season and eat with a teaspoon (one of my favourite snacks) – and are delicious for breakfast mashed up on toast.
There are several different types of avocados that come from different countries. These recipes are made using Peruvian Haas avos which are widely available in the UK from now until December. It's time to try some new flavour combinations! And maybe think about a trip to Peru?
Peruvian Hass avocado, pink grapefruit, pomegranate and prawn salad
Refreshing, colourful and healthy, this is a wonderful salad that makes the most of creamy Peruvian Hass avocados.
Serves 4
2 Peruvian Hass avocados, halved, pitted and peeled
2 handfuls of rocket
2 pink or red grapefruit
200g peeled cooked prawns
100g pomegranate seeds
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
Share the rocket between 4 serving plates.
Peel the grapefruit with a sharp, serrated knife to remove all the pith, then slice into
segments. Arrange on the salads. Slice the Peruvian Hass avocados on top, then share the
prawns between the portions. Sprinkle the pomegranate seeds over the top.
For the dressing, whisk together the pomegranate molasses and olive oil. Season with salt
and pepper, then spoon over the salads.
Cook's tip
Pomegranate molasses is sold at most major supermarkets and delicatessens. It hasa fruity, zesty flavour.
Savoury Peruvian Hass muffins
Perfect for breakfast or brunch and great for packed lunches or picnics too.
Makes 8 muffins
For the muffins
200g self-raising flour
4 eggs
125ml whole milk
80ml vegetable oil
50g sun dried tomatoes, chopped
Salt and pepper
80g feta cheese, cut into 8 chunks
For the topping
3 Peruvian Hass avocados, halved, pitted and peeled
200g soft cheese
Squeeze of lemon or lime juice
Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan oven 180°C, Gas Mark 6. Line a muffin tin with 8 paper muffin cases.
In a large bowl, beat together the flour, eggs, milk and oil, using a hand whisk to give a smooth batter. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes and season with
a pinch of salt and pepper.
Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases, then push a feta cheese cube into each one, making sure the pieces are covered by the mixture.
Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until risen and golden brown. Cool.
Meanwhile, mash or blend 2 Peruvian Hass avocados to make a smooth purée, then beat in the soft cheese and lemon or lime juice until smooth and creamy. Spoon on top of the muffins and serve at once, garnished with thin slices of avocado.
Cook's tip: If you're making the muffins for a packed lunch or picnic, put the topping into aseparate container for spreading on top later


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The Colne Valley Tree Society
Click here to send us an email!
Saturday, 2 July 2016
Livin' la Vida loca
Vida obscured by young tree.
Fifth bracken bashing session of the season. Back at Butterley. Today we were: myself, Philip, Steve, Stephen, Geoff, Dianne and Lizzie the dog, Jess, Ben and Solo the dog, Neil with Seth and Jake, and Robert with Jack and Vida (hence this week's song title). We got a ton of work done, despite the passing heavy showers. And enjoyed ginger cake at break time.
All followed by a short but lively conversation about Brexit with Bobby back at the Sair!
Guy said he would be bashing later on in the afternoon. No photographic evidence though yet.
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Simon Lyes
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Art at SAAC
Art provides individuals with autism with a meaningful and enjoyable outlet for the expression of inner thoughts and emotions through the artwork they produce. To that end, art education at SAAC focuses on the holistic development of the individual with autism, emotional modulation, and the cultivation of focus, control and the ability to respond well to one-on-one instruction. It is more about the journey of creating an artwork and leveraging teachable moments in the process for growth than about acquiring skills and techniques.
Individuals with moderate to severe autism require concerted prompting from the art teachers and instructors to draw out and assist in expressing their thoughts through art. Even with this level of guidance, it can take a person with moderate to severe autism anywhere from a month for a simple painting to several months for more complex artwork.


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Consumer electronics manufacturers, former toy and hobby suppliers, research university spinoffs and major aerospace companies are among the entities vying for a share of the simmering commercial market for small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) generally weighing less than 20 pounds. They are advancing numerous fixed- and rotary-wing designs, some of which were displayed at the Unmanned Systems 2014 conference in May and others elsewhere. Following is a description of some, although by no means all, of the recent showings:
Paris-based consumer electronics developer Parrot, exhibiting for the first time at the AUVSI show, introduced its in-development Bebop quadcopter, essentially a flying 14-megapixel "fish-eye" camera that also records and streams 1080p HD video. A three-axis image stabilization system fixes the angle of the view whatever the inclination of the aircraft and its movements caused by wind turbulence, Parrot says.
Weighing all of 14 ounces, the ABS-plastic reinforced Bebop can be flown either by an optional, yoke-like "Skycontroller" handset with a mounted tablet computer display or simply by a smartphone or the tablet alone. An HDMI port in the Skycontroller allows the user to plug in multimedia head-mounted displays such as the Oculus Rift, Zeiss Cinemizer, Epson Moverio or Sony Personal Viewer for "first person vision" of what the flying camera sees. With an embedded global navigation satellite system chipset, the Bebop can fly to user-defined waypoints; a "return home" function brings it back to its takeoff point. One limiting factor is that the Bebop's lithium polymer (LiPo) battery keeps its rotors turning for just 12 minutes.
Perhaps mindful of the controversy in the U.S. over commercial UAS restrictions, Parrot employees staffing the company's exhibit said the Bebop is intended for consumer use. But Parrot CEO Henri Seydoux, speaking to reporters a few days earlier at the Small Unmanned Systems Business Expo in San Francisco, reportedly said that he envisions architects, real estate agents and filmmakers finding the Bebop useful (see report at Dronelife.com).
One small UAS designed for commercial use out of the box is the eBee, a 1.5-pound flying wing developed by senseFly of Cheseaux-Lausanne, Switzerland. Parrot acquired a majority interest in the company, a spinoff of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), in 2012.
The hand-launched and self-landing eBee is constructed of EPP foam and carbon fiber, with detachable wings. It can fly for 45 minutes to a radio-link range of 3 km (1.86 miles), driven by a LiPo battery-powered pusher propeller. The bird-like vehicle comes with a 12 megapixel Canon S110 NIR (near infrared) still camera as standard with various sensor options, each one "electronically integrated" in the aircraft's autopilot.
The NIR band is "the region where high plant reflectance occurs," supporting precision agriculture functions such as crop monitoring and calculating yield. SenseFly also advertises the eBee for surveying, mining and environmental management applications, and reports that several U.S. universities and the Ohio Department of Transportation are using it. The Parrot group company provides ground-station software that runs on a tablet computer and post-flight photogrammetry software that processes aerial imagery to 2-D maps and three-dimensional models.
The police in Mesa County, Colorado, are among the U.S. pioneers in using small UASfor law enforcement–the county's public works department plans to begin flying the Trimble UX5 flying wing for aerial surveying. Similar in appearance to the eBee, the UX5, at 5.5 pounds, is heavier and faster, with a more powerful 700 W pusher-propeller motor. The catapult-launched airplane, constructed of EPP foam and carbon frame structure, has a communication and control range of 3.1 miles and 50 minutes' endurance. It is a successor to the Gatewing X100 platform that came with Trimble Navigation's acquisition of the Belgian company Gatewing in 2012.
Branded as an "aerial imaging rover," the UX5, equipped with the 16.1 megapixel Sony NEX-5R mirrorless APS-C digital camera, provides surveyors and other "geospatial professionals" with photogrammetric data over several square kilometers in less than an hour. The operator programs the aircraft using the Trimble Yuma tablet computer, and it flies overlapping parallel sweeps of a predefined area. Trimble's Business Center software processes the data to produce geometrically corrected "orthophotos," contour maps, 3-D digital surface models and other "deliverables."
Trimble Navigation, based in Sunnyvale, California, started shipping the UX5 for surveyors and mapping professionals in June 2013 and this January incorporated the aircraft within its agricultural product offerings. In combination with the earlier Gatewing model, "hundreds" have been sold in Europe, Canada, China and Latin America, said Todd Steiner, the company's imaging business marketing director.
PrecisionHawk, with locations in Toronto, Canada; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Noblesville, Indiana, supplies the more conventional Lancaster Mark III, a three-pound, fixed-wing airplane with integrated sensor suite. The company started life in 2010 as WineHawk Labs with Bob Young, co-founder of software company Red Hat, as its first investor. It rebranded itself to PrecisionHawk in May 2013. "The change in company name…reflects a change in focus from specifically viticulture to broader agriculture, where there is a great need for precise data collection and cost-effective platforms for farmers and surveyors," it explained at the time.
The Lancaster carries a range of sensors, including high-resolution RGB(red/green/blue) camera, multispectral, thermal infrared, light detection and ranging (Lidar) and hyperspectral. A water kit comes with a set of floats that enable the plane to take off from a lake surface and fly to a particular site, land and taxi to specific coordinates, collect a water sample and return. As of May, the Lancaster was flying in the U.S. under certificates of authorization (COAs) the Federal Aviation Administration granted to Kansas State, North Carolina State and Texas A&M universities. It was also flying in Canada, and PrecisionHawk reported interest in Australia, Europe and South America.
Bridging the Gap
Small UAS developers are bridging the gap between airplanes and helicopters with hybrid air vehicles. Aurora Flight Sciences' 2.2-pound Skate, which the company supplied to the U.S. military in Afghanistan, is an airfoil-shaped structure with fins and propellers. It is both a fixed-wing and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) platform. "Independently articulating motor pods allow the Skate UAS to rapidly transition between vertical and horizontal flight," said Manassas, Virginia-based Aurora. "The thrust vectoring provided by the motor pods also enables extreme maneuverability and rapid navigation of congested environments, such as city streets and urban canyons." Skate either flies autonomously to waypoints or by "fly-the-camera" piloting using a hand controller. It carries electro-optical, infrared, high-definition video and laser illumination pods.
Arcturus UAV of Rohnert Park, California, unveiled the Jump VTOL system conversion of its T-16 and T-20 fixed-wing aircraft in April, and then announced a larger Jump-25 development at the Unmanned Systems Conference. The system is based on "hybrid quadrotor" technology from Latitude Engineering of Tucson, Arizona, managed in transition by a Cloud Cap Technology Piccolo autopilot.
Booms fitted with vertical lift motors and rotors are mounted to each wing to provide vertical lift for takeoff and landing. "Vertical lift motors are shut off for winged flight and propellers are feathered longitudinally for minimum drag," Arcturus UAVexplained. "All flight control is fully autonomous. Arcturus Jump enjoys all of the versatility of a quadrotor while retaining the superior range and endurance of a fixed wing." The conversion is aimed at both military applications and public markets for border protection, aerial mapping and search and rescue.
Multirotor Success
Fixed-wing designs have been miniaturized and optimized for remote-controlled missions, but it is multi-rotor helicopters that rule the small UAS roost. Companies are developing and producing numerous rotorcraft designs for applications that include farming, law enforcement and inspection of powerlines, pipelines, flare stacks and even airliners–as announced in May by UK carrier easyJet. At the high end of agricultural applications, perhaps the largest growth market for UAS, motorsport giant Yamaha seeks to reproduce in the U.S. the success it has had in Japan with the 207-pound RMaxcrop-dusting helicopter.
Also eyeing the market for unmanned aerial farming is Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense contractor with $45 billion in annual sales. The company has placed several of its five-pound Indago quadrotors with farmers in Minnesota, through a relationship it has with agricultural sensor manufacturer FourthWing Sensors of Minneapolis. FourthWing leases the Indago, its own Vireo hand-launched plane and the Altavian Nova Block III fixed-wing drone, equipped with its dual-band NIR and RGB sensor. The FAA endorsed the use of the UAS in a November 2013 letter, providing they are flown over farmers' own property, for their personal use, and following Academy of Model Aeronautics guidelines, the companies say. Lockheed Martin also has a relationship with Detroit Aircraft in Michigan to deploy Indagos for "first responder and public utility" missions.
The Indago resulted from Lockheed Martin's January 2012 acquisition of Procerus Technologies of Orem, Utah. Procerus developed the miniature Kestrel 3.1 autopilot system that controls the quadrotor, containing an integrated GPS/inertial navigation system sensor for geo-location and precise payload control. Soon after its acquisition, Procerus started work on an anticipated U.S. Army requirement for a 4.5-pound, "backpackable" VTOL system and hand controller. "At that point we were mainly focused on the avionics, 'the guts,' for the unmanned vehicle industry. We were trying to be the intel inside everyone else's aircraft," said Reed Christiansen, Procerus's VTOLsystems engineering manager. "Since Lockheed acquired us, we've branched out to provide avionics to Lockheed aircraft and we're also [developing] complete systems." As it happened, the Army requirement did not materialize, but the commercial market beckoned.
"Farmers need the data, they need regular overflights. This provides them with information satellites can't provide," Christiansen said. "Satellites fly over, [but] there could be cloud coverage, [so] you don't have data that day. These can fly under the clouds and they can also be controlled by the farmer so they can get that regular and timely data."
The Indago has a range of 5 km within line-of-sight and endurance of about 45 minutes with a 6-ounce payload. It is capable of multiple "hot-swappable" payloads and folds into a briefcase. Onboard video and high-resolution still photos are recorded to an SDmemory card, which the farmer can plug into a computer or send to software company Superior Edge, of which FourthWing is a subsidiary, for analysis.
At a flight demonstration held in advance of the Unmanned Systems conference at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Ty Rozier exhibited the six-rotor, iPad-controlled Agri6 helicopter. His company, Orlando-based Elevated Horizons, integrates a 12-megapixel Canon camera, modified as a multispectral sensor, to keep down the cost of the system.
Produce giant Dole uses the Agri6 in Costa Rica, and Elevated Horizons is supporting Florida International University in a project to combat laurel wilt disease, which threatens avocado and other crops in the Redland district near Miami. "We're working with FIU to gain a COA in order to fly unimpeded throughout their crops there," Rozier said. "We're using the drones to fly over and pinpoint certain locations that may be of interest, where this disease may be migrating, and then we have specially trained canine dog teams that go in and sniff out the disease."
Long Arm of the Law
Law enforcement and public safety are other major market focuses for multirotor helicopters. Among its customers, Aeryon Labs of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, supplies its foldable, snap-together Scout quadcopter to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the more robust, 6.2-pound SkyRanger to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Both models completed trials under the Robotic Aircraft for Public Safety program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Oklahoma, and the Scout was distinguished in May as the first UAS to take flight at an FAA-designated test site–the Pan-Pacific UAS Test Range managed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Launched in May 2013, the SkyRanger has a larger lithium polymer battery than its 2009-vintage predecessor and can fly for 50 minutes, double the Scout's flight time. Aeryon emphasizes its ability to remain stable in 40-mph sustained winds with 55-mph gusts. The wind "does rock it, but the way our autopilot system works, it senses that, using the GPS and its wind position to try to maintain its position," said Shaun Coghlan, Aeryon Labs senior product manager. "It will tilt the system as needed and power the different propellers" to right the aircraft. "If it's gusting too much then it will start coming home." Both models feature "hot swappable," high-resolution EO/IRcamera payloads.
Draganfly Innovations of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, began in 1998 as a distributor of remote-control aircraft for the hobby market. A decade later, the company produced its first industrial helicopter, the Draganflyer X6. It is configured with three arms, each having top and bottom rotors. In January 2009, the X6 became the first commercial UAS to receive Transport Canada approval to operate full time in civilian airspace, the company said.
Next came the Draganflyer X8, a quad configuration aircraft with eight top and bottom rotors–the top spinning clockwise, the bottom spinning counterclockwise. "The reason for that configuration was to allow for more lift without making a bigger footprint," explained Kevin Lauscher, Draganfly Innovations' lead for police and industrial sales. The X6 has a payload capacity of 500 grams; the X8 carries twice that.
The X8 with camera and mount weighed nearly nine pounds and had limited endurance of several minutes. As cameras became smaller, Draganfly improved the X8 and extended its range, creating a new model line. "With smaller, better-sensored cameras, we were able to modify the X8's airframe, remove the bottom four rotors and change the profile of the [remaining] rotors," Lauscher said. "[We] sped them up, carried a lighter payload and increased our flight time with the payload by almost three times." An X8 carrying a Canon T2i Rebel camera managed about six to eight minutes in flight. Fitted with a lighter, 20 megapixel Sony RX100 camera, the new Draganflyer X4-P (professional) and X4-ES (emergency services), which the company introduced in 2012, fly for about 24 minutes.
Draganfly has sold its multirotor commercial helicopters in Canada, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Asia. In Canada, the RCMP and the OPP have used Draganfly models. In the U.S., the aforementioned Mesa County, Colorado, Sheriff's Department operates the X6 and the X4-ES, as well as the Falcon Hover and the bungee-launched Falcon fixed-wing UAS, supplied by Falcon Unmanned of Aurora, Colo. The FAAissued a COA to the Grand Forks County, North Dakota, Sheriff's Department in November 2012 permitting it to operate the Draganflyer X6 in 16 counties in northeastern North Dakota. This March, the FAA granted the department a COAallowing it to use the X4-ES at night, a U.S. first.
The Grand Forks Sheriff's Department also uses the 5.5-pound Qube quadcopter, the only helicopter in the mainly military small UAS line manufactured by AerVironment of Monrovia, California. The company claims flight endurance of 40 minutes for tubular aircraft. AeroVironment's 13.5-pound, fixed-wing Puma AE, granted restricted-category type certification by the FAA in July 2013, flies for 3.5 hours.
Learning from Insects
Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), a research-and-development company based in Andover, Massachusetts, exhibited its InstantEye quadrotor at the Navy League Sea-Air-Space conference outside of Washington, D.C., in April. The rotorcraft weighs less than two pounds fully loaded; on its underside it carries an infrared illuminator that can be used to flood an area from 200 feet off the ground without the aircraft being seen, and three standard cameras–forward, angled and downward–to return imagery to the ground. InstantEye also allows "plug and play" operation with the GoPro Hero3+ camera or FLIR Systems Quark thermal camera, and is being developed to carry a detector package for radiological or nuclear threats.
InstantEye was inspired by biomimetic research of insects, and PSI touts its robustness to operate in gusty wind conditions. A GPS hold mode allows the user to select a tight circle of GPS coordinates where the vehicle will hover. The aircraft operates to about 1 km line-of-sight range; endurance is 30 minutes with a lithium-ion battery strapped to its belly by Velcro. Aimed at military and law enforcement users, InstantEye was developed with funding from the U.S. Army Research Lab and the Pentagon's Rapid Reaction Technology Office and Countering Terrorism Technical Support Office.
Some of the smallest and most interesting models on display in Orlando were of Welsh design. The AV Sparrow, developed by R&D and rapid prototyping firm Torquing Group of Pembrokeshire, Wales, measures 4.7 inches by 4.7 inches (120 mm by 120 mm) and weighs 3.5 ounces (100 grams). A sonar "bubble" protects it against colliding with objects and supports autonomous and indoor operation by military or special weapons and tactics police units. The quadcopter "can interact, avoid, land and return to operator [and] hold positions using GPS, inertial systems or the sonar."
The AV Sparrow incorporates two 2-megapixel infrared cameras and built-in microphone, and can be fitted with nuclear, chemical and biological detection sensors. It can also be used by itself as surgical-strike explosive. Advertised range is 2 km line of sight, with 30 minutes' endurance.
BCB International of Cardiff, Wales, a designer and manufacturer of survival and protective equipment, featured the seven-ounce SQ-4 Recon quadcopter. The SQ-4 can be operated either by remote control or autonomously flown using GPS waypoint navigation. It carries a 5-megapixel day/night digital camera and can fly out to 2.5 km with 25 minutes' endurance. It is ideal for missions including "forward surveillance, damage assessment, coordination, exploration, measurement and observation," BCB said.
German engineering will also factor in the small UAS marketplace. In March, Multirotor service-drone of Berlin announced the opening of an office in Boulder, Colorado, its first location outside Europe. The manufacturer of industrial-grade multirotor UASselected Robotic Skies, the fledgling Part 145 repair station network for unmanned aircraft, to be its MRO provider. Delivery company DHL envisions the md4-1000 quadcopter manufactured by Microdrones of Siegen, German, as a Paketkopter. In December, testers flew the md4-1000 across the River Rhine to deliver parcels from a pharmacy to DHL's headquarters in Bonn.
Organized by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), the annual Unmanned Systems conference is the industry's largest gathering. This year's event in Orlando attracted more than 7,000 attendees and nearly 600 exhibitors. In past years, the show was heavily military; that has changed as new and legacy exhibitors featured small but sophisticated models aimed at markets including law enforcement, firefighting, search and rescue, surveying, infrastructure inspection and precision agriculture.
Read the original article here.


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Charles Ackerman
Manager, Managed Solutions
Charles Ackerman is a manager of managed solutions at Remote-Learner. He leads the solutions architects team responsible for the design and implementation of tailored, fully integrated digital learning environments consistent with the goals and business rules of Remote-Learner clients. Charles has a master of science degree in human resource development and has been designing learning solutions for Remote-Learner clients since 2011. Prior to joining Remote-Learner, he spent seven years as a classroom teacher.


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It's no secret my family is addicted to Blue Mountain in Collingwood, Ontario. Spring, summer, fall and winter, we love everything they have to offer. The scenery is just beautiful and it's complemented perfectly by the Village at Blue Mountain which is full of shops, restaurants and activities for the entire family.
Today I heard some news and am thrilled to be one of the first to share it with you. In July, Glama Gals Tween Spa is opening a Boutique location right in the Blue Mountain Village.
You may remember I shared our experience at our local Glama Gal Tween Spa awhile back – it's pretty much my daughter's paradise and she still talks about it constantly. She's a girlie-girl through and through and we can't wait for our next visit to Blue Mountain so we can check it out.
In addition to their famous manis, pedis and facials we already love, this new location will have some brand new options for guests to enjoy including the first ever Glama Gal Doll Spa so dolls can be pampered too, and a Bath Bakery which will include sorbet scrubs, gelato-inspired bath bombs and cupcake soaps!
Seriously, what's not to love about this company? Not only is it a fun experience, they really encourage a positive attitude and experience. Their motto: Be Confident! Be Positive! Be YOU!
The Glama Gal Tween Boutique in the Village will also offer a trendy tween retail boutique and drop-in craft sessions with unique and engaging workshops like Nail Design 101, Be You Workshops and jewelry making. It will truly be a one of a kind experience for your glama-gal.
Spending time with my daughter getting pampered is one of our favorite our bonding activities together. We love the chit-chat, the laughs and of course the glam! We are planning to visit Blue Mountain again this summer and visiting this new location will definitely be top of our list. I imagine we will also have to bring her "American Girl" style doll with us for a little pampering as well. 😉


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Learn Adobe Illustrator
This Illustrator Course runs in our Adobe Authorised Training Centre in Dublin
Learn the skills to become creative with Adobe Illustrator CC. A practical hands-on tutorial for users of all levels. You'll learn how to create stunning designs graphics, pictures and icons
Intermediate to Advanced
2 Day Classroom Course
Certification Awarded
Includes Free Online Course
Skills You will have at the end of the Course
Understand vector graphics and creative industry terminologies
Design and create Illustrator artwork from scratch
Work with images and layout pages for posters, fliers or ads
Create infographic elements, icons and logos
Create graphs and charts and link to Indesign
Make maps, plans and point of sale signage
Course overview
Go from Zero to Hero on this 2 Day hands on course that takes you through the Key fundamentals of this amazing graphic design application.
Course participants must have good computer, file management, keyboard and mouse skills. No prior knowledge of Illustrator is required.
At the end of the course, you'll be Certified by the Irish Academy of Computer Training
Who would benefit
Existing Illustrator users, beginners looking to get an understanding of Adobe Illustrator, or upskill to a career into the following creative areas, Graphic Design, Web Design, Social media & Digital Marketing, Interior Design, Production Design, Video and animation.
Why take the Course
To become proficient in Adobe Illustrator, to be able to produce a wide range artwork. This includes being able to create and edit infographics, logo Design, maps, posters, flyers, web UI and large format point of sale graphic design.
Online Option
Course curriculum
Day 1 : Illustrator Course Curriculum
Day 1
On Day 1 you will cover the following topics;
- The Workspace
- Take a look around
- Panels and Palettes
- Starting a New Document
- Print vs Screen ?
- File formats, Resolution, Colour Mode
- Document Navigation, Zooming and Panning
- The Pasteboard
- Basic drawing objects
- The Stacking order
- An introduction to Layers
- Grouping and Isolation mode
- Alignment tools
- Pathfinder and Shape making
- The White arrow
- Vectors and Anchor points
- The Pen tool, adding, editing, deleting
- Basic Curves
- Drawing from scratch
- Cutting tools
- Simple effects
- Introducing Text
- Gradients and Blends
- Bringing it all together
- Creating your first Illustrator artwork, a 45 minute recap
- Saving your files.
- Colours Swatches and Libraries
- Advanced Text
- Time for a challenge, finish the day with a 60 minute recap of the day
Day 2 : Illustrator Course Curriculum
Day 2
On Day 2 you will cover the following topics;
- Art Boards
- Editing, adding, deleting
- Save to PDF
- Export for other formats
- Working with Images
- Linking and embedding
- Clipping masks
- Page Layout
- Rulers and Guides
- Importing Text
- Working in Columns
- Linking Text Frames
- Text Wrap
- Symbols
- Image Trace
- Making icons
- Looking at Stock
- Infographics
- Recap Exercise
- Graphs and Charts
- Linked files to Indesign
- Overview of online content
- Final Exercise
- Creating Maps and Plans
For Dates, Pricing & more info, please enter your details and we'll get back to you quickly.
Or call us on 01 434 7600
*Required info. We treat your data with care, please see our Privacy Notice for more details


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IndiaVision television channel has reported on large scale clinical trials of drug trials in Kerala. http://www.indiavisiontv.com/2012/08/16/101958.html
It claims that about 100 people have died during drug trials. This and other allegations are not well corroborated. Given the number of trials that have taken place in the State, this is, however, not an improbable figure though many of them may have died during the trial due to other causes. But were they well investigated?
Given the number of trials being done in a few of the institutions, it is clear that sufficient attention is not being paid to obtaining informed consent of the patients and proper monitoring of their health and side effects.
The report raises several questions: Is it ethical to use free medical camps as a recruiting ground for clinical trials?
It is seen that old and unhealthy patients have been used for testing new drugs. Though such patients can be subjected to studies on efficacy of approved drugs, is it ethical to try new drugs on them?
It appears that Trivandrum had at least two institutions that were exclusively engaged in drug trials. Is it right for institutions without facilities for emergency care to undertake such tests?
It is reported that a hospital used to obtain consent for testing medicines after patients have been administered with anesthetics and such medicines are injected when they are unconscious. If true, this calls for a criminal investigation.
Should not the ethical committees in hospitals be appointed and controlled by the government. Should not they at least have representatives of government in them? Should not an independent agency be recording informed consent of patients? Or, there should be a government controlled depository for such consents with authority to verify consents randomly. Details of clinical trials being done by each institution should be well-publicised and transparent.


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A little off topic, but thought you might find it an interesting thought experiment.
My friends and I were discussing some of the typical (and even Trope-ish) types of traits that we often see in alien races. For example, Cat-like, Saurian or other hunter-carnivores are often portrayed as the warrior-aliens, Aquatic species as more tranquil (unless you are basing them on sharks), etc. And because we like to turn things on their heads we kicked around some alternatives and came up with one in particular that actually has some pretty decent real-world basis:
Beware the Herbivores.
On Earth, if you were to look at the catalogs of the most (deliberate) Human Deaths per year, the title doesn't go to carnivores but to herbivorous species. (By 'deliberate' I mean by direct cause - mostly to rule out mosquitos etc.). The reason for this - and this is where it could be fun in Space - is not that these species are inherently the bullies of the natural world, but the most fearful and cautious. Imagine an Alien Space-Race derived from the descendants of the North American Bison. Your typical Space Opera Hero meets them, sets up negotiations, and thinks, "Great - these guys are herbivores - they'll be docile and pacifistic." So he begins to approach the Star Port when suddenly Guard Ship leaps out from the dock and drops four Plasma Torpedoes into his cockpit. When the next intrepid explorer comes to the Star Port and sees the still glowing debris, the Space-Bison's explain, "Well... we saw the Weapons Ports were still open, and we are all Hard-Wired to not take any chances with predators, so standard protocol is to drop all our Stomp-Missiles straight away..."
The point I am getting at (painfully slowly, I know) is that in our world it is often the Herbivores who are by far the most dangerously unpredictable, because while a predator plans and plots and calculates, herbivores and prey species can't afford to - they need to react immediately and at full force in order survive, either individually or as herds. I would like to see this reflected in Alien Species some time.
So what are your thoughts on cultural/biological traits and where they might lead to in a space-faring culture?
StormWraith, Feudal Sakkran Researcher,


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(credit: target.com)
BALTIMORE (AP) — Maryland's Emergency Management Agency is signing a formal agreement with Target Corp. to prepare for future disaster response and recovery.
The agreement announced Thursday calls for the government and the private company to work together on preparation and relief efforts during an emergency.
Target's role is to partner with the state to identify needs and determine how to respond with supplies, personnel and support. The agreement says items donated in the past have been water, food, batteries, clothing and other supplies.
Target volunteers also can be provided to help emergency responders.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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Located on the seashore near Söderfors, Sweden, this white inside country house, owned by the Swedish stylist Mikael Beckman, offers one hundred and five square meters of pure white. Numerous windows, painted white floors, a wood burning sauna, and beautiful views make this a perfect country home.
The exterior of this home is a lovely chocolate brown with bright white accents. The contrast is absolutely beautiful. It has a beautiful bright orange roof, and it is surrounded by gorgeous tall trees, and serene water. That landscape is positively breathtaking.
The interior of this white country house is stunning. The living room has a beautiful white sofa and three lovely loungers. White, neutral, and a few patterned pillows decorate the seating area. We love the brightly colored pillows added to the design, it adds a dose of the unexpected.
In front of the sofa, there are two brown leather bean bags, and in front of the loungers, a simple wooden coffee table. The fireplace is positively stunning in this space. The overall size and the brick add a dose of cozy splendor.
The kitchen is a wonderful example of the stunning relationship between bright white and wood. It has a long and sleek white table, surrounded by beautiful wooden chairs. The natural hardwoods are absolutely fantastic, effectively separating the kitchen from the rest of this white country house. We love the black ceiling light, contrasting with the white in the room, and the fabulous open shelving, keeping the space open and airy.
Images found on: Desiretoinspire
The bedrooms are simple and dazzling. In one bedroom, the bright white is warmed by beautiful bedside tables. In another, twin beds are placed against the wall, on opposite sides of the room. Two simple tables and industrial-like lighting, decorate the space.
This is a white country house that's just as beautiful as the landscape surrounding it.


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PDC Energy, Inc. ("PDC" or the "Company") (PDCE) today announced that it has agreed to sell 3,480,000 shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering. The Company has granted the underwriters an option for 30 days to purchase up to an additional 522,000 shares of the Company's common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.
Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC are acting as the sole underwriters of the offering.
The offering is being made pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement. The offering may be made only by means of a prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, copies of which may be obtained by sending a request to: Goldman, Sachs & Co., 200 West Street, New York, New York 10282, Attn: Prospectus Department, email: [email protected]; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, email: [email protected]
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale of these securities would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
About PDC Energy, Inc.
PDC Energy, Inc. is a domestic independent exploration and production company that produces, develops, acquires and explores for crude oil, natural gas and NGLs with primary operations in the Wattenberg Field in Colorado and in the Utica Shale in southeastern Ohio. Its operations are focused on the liquid-rich horizontal Niobrara and Codell plays in the Wattenberg Field and the condensate and wet gas portion of the Utica Shale play.
Statements in this news release related to the Company's planned public offering of common stock, and all other statements other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. PDC urges you to carefully review and consider the cautionary statements made in this press release, the registration statement, the Item 1-A Risk Factors in the 2014 Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on February 19, 2015, and other filings with the SEC for further information on risks and uncertainties that could affect the Company's business, financial condition and results of operations, which are incorporated by this reference as though fully set forth herein. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. PDC undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect any event or circumstance occurring after the date of this release or currently unknown facts or conditions or the occurrence of unanticipated events. All forward looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.


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On the songs chart, Dan + Ray were again second with "Tequila." Brett Young was third with his ballad, "Mercy," up three. Kenny Chesney's "Get Along"was fourth and Kane Brown's "Heaven" fifth.
Luke Combs was at 29 with "She Got the Best of Me," up 3. So was Jimmie Allen's "Best Shot," which was 30th. Chris Young was 33rd with "Hangin' On," up 3. Travis Denning's "David Ashley Parker From Powder Springs" was the biggest mover, going from 48 to 41.
On the albums chart, Jason Aldean was second with "Rearview Town," Dan + Shay with their self-titled disc, Brown fourth with his self-titled release and Chris Stapleton fifth with "Traveller."
Keith Urban jumped from 18 to 6 with "Graffiti U." Tim McGraw was at 20 with "Number One Hits," up 5. Carrie Underwood was 23rd with "Greatest Hits: Decade #1," climbing 3. Chesney was 30th with "Greatest Hits II," up 3. Maren Morris jumped 8 to 31 with "Hero." LANCO was 32nd with "Hallelujah Nights," up 5.
Taylor Swift's "Fearless" was up 6 to 36. Lori McKenna debuted at 39 with "The Tree."
On the Americana/Folk Albums chart, Stapleton was first with "Traveller." He also was second with "From a Room: Volume 1." The Lumineers were third with "Cleopatra," Kacey Musgraves fourth with "Golden Hour" and "Simon and Garfunkel's "Greatest Hits" fifth.
Punch Brothers led the Bluegrass Albums chart with "All Ashore." Bradley Walker was second with "Blessed: Hymns And Song of Faith." Jim Lauderdale & Roland White debuted in third with their self-titled disc. Old Crow Medicine Show held fourth with "Volunteer" and Trampled By Turtles fifth with "Life Is Good on the Open Road."
On the Top 200 chart, Combs was 11th, Aldean 24th, Dan + Shay 29th, Brown 34th and Stapleton's "Traveller" 37th.


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Summary | Excerpt | Reviews | Beyond the book | Readalikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Giles Milton marks his fiction debut
with an olfactory shaggy dog story that meanders
happily through three hundred years of history and
ten generations of Trencom males, who are linked by
an uncommonly distinguished and sensitive nose, a
love of cheese, and a habit of dying early from
unnatural causes.
Alexander Trencom was killed by a blow to the head close to his beloved cheese shop in 1728, Samuel Trencom was crucified on foreign soil in 1769, Charles Trencom met his early demise with Lord Byron in Greece in 1824; Henry Trencom was shot in Constantinople in 1853; Emmanuel was murdered in the cellars of Trencom's in 1878, and Peregrine Trencom was killed by Germans during World War II while defending a small Greek island for no apparent reason. What is it that links the fates of these and other generations of Trencoms?
The story opens in 1969 when we meet Edward Trencom. He is the 10th generation to run the eponymous emporium considered "the oldest, finest and most famous cheese shop in London", and he is happy with his lot in life. Not only is he the author of the 12-volume Encyclopaedia of Cheese and head of the Most Worshipful Company of Cheese Connoisseurs, he's also the proud possessor of the finest Trencom nose in generations - a nose that can distinguish the provenance of a cheese down to the cow from which it originated, and he's happily married to Elizabeth, who first came to his attention because she "had the complexion of a ripe bethmale cheese, a cheese of which he was uncommonly fond".
Edward's gently maturing life takes an unsavory turn when a series of mysterious events lead him to discover a stash of long buried family papers that reveal to him the chain of murder and mayhem that has inflicted his family for nine generations - events that appear to trace to Humphrey Trencom's mysterious journey into the heart of the Ottoman Empire, following the destruction of the first Trencoms cheese shop in the 1666 Great Fire of London.
Although comparisons to writers such as P.G. Wodehouse and Tom Sharpe are apt, Edward Trencom's Nose is more historical than satirical. Weaving through three hundred years, Milton brings a light touch to the imparting of history with many a happy sidetrack to lovingly describe the cheeses that populate his tale. There is no great inner meaning to the novel, no message of huge significance to impart, just a jolly historical romp. As the reviewer for The Guardian newspaper so correctly says, "any old halfwit can produce 400 pages of stinking high seriousness, but it takes a real wit to manage 400 pages of mild, fragrant good humour."
b>About the Author: British writer and
journalist Giles Milton was born in Buckinghamshire
in 1966. He has contributed articles for most of the
British national newspapers as well as many foreign
publications, and specializes in the history of
travel and exploration. In the course of his
researches, he has traveled extensively in Europe,
the Middle East, Japan and the Far East, and the
Insatiably curious, Milton locates history's most fascinating—and most overlooked—stories and brings them to life in his books such as Samurai William: The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan, Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History , and White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves.
He lives in London, where he is a member of the Hakluyt Society, which is dedicated to reprinting the works of explorers and adventurers in scholarly editions, some of which he uses in his research. He wrote most of Samurai William in the London Library, where he loves the "huge reading room, large Victorian desks and creaking armchairs". At home and while traveling, he is ever on the lookout for new untold stories. Apparently he began researching the life of Sir John Mandeville for his book The Riddle and the Knight after Mandeville's book Travels "literally fell off the shelf of a Paris bookstore" in which he was browsing.
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in September 2007, and has been updated for the July 2008 edition. Click here to go to this issue.This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access become a member today.
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This is awesome.
Thanks @FrontAve!
This is awesome.
Thanks @FrontAve!
Last night we finally made it over to C Bar to try their poutinesque SE Poutin.
Available on the happy hour menu (4:30-6pm every day) in the bar, Irving Street Kitchen's poutine does not appear on the regular menu. At only $5 it's one of the better poutine deals in town.
Eater PDX reports that one of Portland's poutine purveyors, Fats Pub has closed.


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Click on the link above to read the first three chapters. (Note: If you can read these chapters, you already have Adobe Reader on your computer.)
Some backstory on this book:
Many people have asked how I came to write a book about Elvis and Richard Nixon. After all, could two people really be more different? The fact is, Elvis and Nixon had numerous things in common, from their poor upbringings to their conservative politics to their respective falls from grace. But as for how the idea behind Elvis Presley, Richard Nixon, and the American Dream actually came about, well, that's an interesting story.
First, a brief note on how my co-author of this title, Marc Hendrickx, and I met. Marc, who lives in Belgium, initially contacted me after reading my articles in Elvis Monthly. He wanted to use parts of a concert review I had done for the magazine in his upcoming bio on Elvis. I agreed, and over the course of time, we realized we had a lot in common, both as Elvis fans and writers. After Marc finished his lengthy bio, he mentioned he had all the White House photos from the Elvis Nixon meeting, but hadn't used them in his book. He wondered whether the two of us might put together a short photo book on the topic, and include a factual play-by-play of the meeting. I agreed this was a good idea, and set about putting together a short narrative on the topic. Most of that original writing, and some further details, appear in Chapter 8 of this book.
Believing we had what might be a potential blockbuster on our hands (no one had written about this subject yet, let alone put a book out with all the photos), I began contacting some literary agents. To my surprise, their reaction varied from outright laughter ("You can't be serious!") to eye rolling ("Oh no, another nutty Elvis fan wants to write a book,"), to admitted skepticism ("Publishers don't want another Elvis book,"). One agent bucked that trend, said she thought it was a great idea, and would I consider expanding the book to include more of each man's life story.
My initial reaction to that idea was skeptical, but as I did some basic research, I found that Elvis and Nixon actually had quite a few things in common. Both were dirt poor growing up. Both lost a brother during their childhoods. Critics panned them early in their careers. Neither gave up when the going got tough. Both loved and respected their parents. Each enjoyed some of their highest popularity ratings at the time of their meeting in December 1971. And, sadly, both came crashing to the ground shortly thereafter. All the while, the media hounds blasted away, doing whatever they could to destroy these two men who had succeeded in realizing the American Dream.
I spent some two and a half years researching Nixon heavily. (This was before the internet had taken off, so I had to do it all the old fashioned way: buying books and documentary videos and checking others out from the library. Nixon's memoir alone is 1100 pages, and I read it all, twice.) I didn't need to do as much research on Elvis, given how I knew so much about him already, and had Marc's watchful eyes as an editor. Still, all the facts had to be verified, then everything had to be pulled together in a time line for the book. When I was finished, I contacted the agent mentioned above. She spent a few weeks talking the book up to her friends and coworkers in the business. Unfortunately, their general consensus was the book wouldn't sell. So, she politely and regretfully declined representation.
I tried other agents again, but none had warmed to the idea, so I began contacting publishers directly. The big ones passed, but a few smaller houses were interested. I convinced Marc to go with McFarland because they were (and remain) a respected academic publisher. I felt confident they wanted the book and would do a good job with it. They didn't disappoint on the publishing end. They opted for a hardcover edition and spent the extra money on a lavish color cover. As mentioned elsewhere, their marketing didn't live up to expectations, but most publishers probably don't unless the author has already made them millions of dollars. So, final word on this, I remain satisfied with the job McFarland did on the initial printing–enough so that I agreed to allow them to reprint the book in November 2015. Hey, you just never know. People might love the movie so much that they will do an Amazon search for a book tie-in and find ours.
As with my other books listed on this blog, you can read the first three chapters for free via the above link. If you like Elvis and are interested in modern American history and/or politics in general, I'm confident you will enjoy this book. And in the process, you just might come away realizing that Nixon wasn't nearly the monster the media made him out to be.


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About Us
Who are we
Roofcare Yorkshire Limited are a wholly owned family business that stretches back through four generations of Master Craftsmen whom have handed down their skills and expertise to the present day. We offer a comprehensive roofing service to suit every need and don't ask for any deposit or final payment until our customers are 110% satisfied and that their expectations have been met. This approach creates trust in our ability to get the job done right and gives you the reassurance that you are in safe hands with Roofcare.
Areas We Cover
We cover all local areas including Barnsley, Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham, Wakefield Pontefract/Castleford, Worksop and Huddersfield.
The core values of our company are attention to detail, knowledge, enthusiasm for our industry and 110% customer satisfaction. Our business has developed an enviable reputation throughout Yorkshire and the surrounding areas for delivering quality, professional work.
If you have any emergency roofing need, simply call our 24 hour emergency roofing team
0800 2888 023
Priding ourselves on our professionalism and our courteous tradesmen, we are accredited by the Confederation of Roofing Contractors, Home Pro, The Guild of Master Craftsmen & The European Builders Confederation.
Health & Safety
All of our employees are equipped with the appropriate safety clothing and equipment required to carry out their work in a safe and controlled manner. Our ongoing training process ensures that all employees stay informed of important health and safety issues. This helps our workforce to remain vigilant within the workplace.
We are proud of our excellent safety record and constantly strive to ensure all our employees fully understand their obligations under current health and safety regulations.


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Sound Off 256
Solomonster rather enjoyed the wedding angle on Impact and has praise for the show. Unfortunately, TNA squandered that goodwill by screwing over their UK fans and so they get an equal amount of scorn this week. We'll talk what the company should do, at the very least, to make up for their lack of class, plus talk about Raw's 20th anniversary, the absurdity of Super Cena, Eve's WWE departure and where that leaves the Divas division, using Ric Flair to endorse The Miz, why Bobby Heenan hates Tony Schiavone, and a blunt answer on why some fans hate on indy wrestling.


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A strategy for growth and economic transformation of Caribbean economies
ECLAC advocates that the Caribbean's high debt dilemma was not principally driven by policy missteps, or the international financial crisis. Rather, it finds its roots in external shocks, compounded by the inherent structural weaknesses and vulnerabilities confronting Caribbean SIDS and their limited capacity to respond. A major factor has been the underperformance of the export sector, partly due to a decline in competitiveness and a slowdown in economic activity especially among the tourism-dependent economies.
Caribbean countries have also accumulated debt as a consequence of increased expenditures to address the impact of extreme events and climate change attendant difficulties. Most Caribbean countries are located in the hurricane belt and are also prone to earthquakes and other hazards. Indeed, a disaster resulting in damage and losses in excess of 5 per cent of GDP can be expected to hit any Caribbean country every few years. Moreover, over the period 2000-2014, it is estimated that the economic cost of natural disasters in Caribbean countries was in excess of US$30.7 billion. The English Speaking Caribbean countries are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters.
Meanwhile, Caribbean economies have had limited access to concessional external finance, given their classification as middle income developing countries. This has constrained the availability of finance for growth and development. Evidence also shows that ODA had been in decline in the region since the early 2000s. The decision to concentrate international cooperation on poverty and to target lower-income countries assumes that as incomes grow, countries have more resources to combat poverty and finance their development.
However poverty and inequality are both a cause and effect of development (ECLAC, 2012). Increases in per capita income do not reveal that a single hurricane can wipe out half the capital stock of a society in a day or the impact of sea level rise on the tourism sector a mainstay of several economies. Such existential threats are not revealed by per capita income.
For presentation at the Fourth meeting of the Caribbean Development Roundtable, Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, 21 April 2016.
UN Symbol: LC/CAR/L.492


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Paypal allows you transfer money safely and to keep a detailed history of your orders.
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We ship our products to every nation inside the European Union. The shipping cost is automatically calculated depending on the weight of the items you selected. You'll be able to check the subtotal in your shopping cart before placing your order. Bulgaria, Cyprus and Switzerland are nations subjected to particular shipping conditions, so any shipping that exceeds 1kg will have to be managed via email, on demand.
If the item you received is not the one you wanted or it has arrived damaged, something went wrong and Heya will replace it with a new one or offer a complete refund. To make this happen you'll have to contact us in 15 days at [email protected], making sure to tell us who you are and the number of your order (or the shipping ID); we'll also need a brief description of the problem and a photo of the damaged item, so we can immediately understand what went wrong.Your money will be refunded only if you followed the correct procedure.
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Every personal information you'll insert in our website will be stored in our database. No one but us is authorized to access it, but in case of a criminal investigation or legal action we might hand out that information to the police.
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Test Equipment
BMI Surplus is your one stop shopping source for used Test Equipment that is IN STOCK and READY TO SHIP! We offer an excellent variety of used test equipment and measurement equipment including many legacy pieces.
Shop Used Test Equipment Online
Our used Test Equipment inventory consists of Amplifiers, Analyzers, Calibration Equipment, Data Generators, Oscilloscopes, Data Loggers, Metering Equipment and much more used testing equipment inventory.
Buy Online or Call 781-871-8868. If you don't see the used test equipment you're looking for and we'll see what we can do to find that product for you! Feel free to also contact us for more details to test or calibrate any product in stock.