In Iraq, One Scammer Took Advantage Of The IED Epidemic
Jul 12, 2013
Originally published on July 12, 2013 6:19 pm
Our next story illustrates a variation on an old theme. There's a military procurement officer born every minute. In the current issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, Adam Higginbotham has an article with the stunning title, "The $38 Million Bomb-Detection Golf Ball Finders." It's about a man named James McCormick, a Briton who managed to make a very good living selling devices that he claimed detected bombs. He sold them in many countries, most notably Iraq, where concealed bombs, so-called improvised explosive devices were epidemic.
Adam Higgenbotham joins us now from New York. Welcome to the program.
SIEGEL: As you report, James McCormick was ultimately convicted by a British court for selling devices like the ADE651. What was or is the ADE651?
HIGGENBOTHAM: Well, it was essentially a touted up dousing rod. A plastic pistol grip with a plastic hinge in it on which was mounted what looked a lot like a telescopic car antenna.
SIEGEL: And it actually was adapted from a golf ball retriever.
HIGGENBOTHAM: It was. The golf ball retriever was conceived by a guy named Wade Cuatelbam in the mid-'90s in South Carolina. And he maintained that after his initial work building the device to detect golf balls, he then developed it further so that it could be used to find explosives, narcotics, weapons and ultimately missing persons.
SIEGEL: How did it do this? What was the science behind it?
HIGGENBOTHAM: Well, would you like me to tell you what they said or what the real science is?
SIEGEL: What's the real science behind it?
HIGGENBOTHAM: There is no science.
SIEGEL: No science behind it at all.
HIGGENBOTHAM: It's a dousing rod. It waggles about from side to side on the hinge, as you would expect a car aerial attached to a plastic hinge to do. They may, themselves, have for a period at the beginning thought that it really genuinely did work because of a psychological phenomenon called the Ideomotor effect, which is the same principle that convinces people that ouija boards work, apparently, which is that in response to suggestion or expectation, you can make tiny muscular movements entirely involuntary that can cause something that's free swinging or moving to move from side to side in the direction of something that if you were using a divining rod you're looking for.
SIEGEL: How much did it cost him to make one of these and how much did he sell them for?
HIGGENBOTHAM: Well, the best example is that he bought, at one point, 300 of the remains of stock of the original golf ball finders. And then he rebadged the devices, because originally they said gofer golf ball finder, with the logo of his company. And then the devices, which he paid around $19 for mail order, he would sell for $3,000 each.
SIEGEL: Now I gather in the trial of McCormick, the challenge to prosecutors - this was in Britain - was that to convict him of fraud you had to show not just that this device didn't do anything but that they knew it didn't do anything and were selling it despite that fact.
HIGGENBOTHAM: That's right. Because the original manufacturers of the similar device that this all started with in the mid-'90s ended up begin acquitted because they were brought to trial by the Department of Justice in 1996 and subjected to a jury trial in which the prosecution fielded a wide array of expert witnesses that showed that this was nonscientific junk. But the jury, apparently, were not convinced that the guys who were selling these things really knew that however ridiculous it seemed, what they were selling did not work.
SIEGEL: Can someone establish with any certainty that bombs were detonated and people were killed or injured because they slipped through checkpoints in Iraq that were manned by people wielding what amounted to novelty golf ball finders with pointless cards inserted into them?
HIGGENBOTHAM: What the British police told me was that they couldn't show to the standards of a British court that a specific bomb had passed through a specific checkpoint where only these devices were being used to detect explosives and that bomb had then gone on to kill the specific individuals. But the fact is that these devices were pretty much the only bomb-detecting equipment being used on more than 1,400 checkpoints throughout Baghdad for several years, during which time there's been an epidemic of massive car bombs that have killed hundreds of people.
SIEGEL: Adam Higginbotham, a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek, has written about this in the article "The $38 Million Bomb-Detection Golf Ball Finders." Thanks for talking with us today.
HIGGENBOTHAM: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


What Does Return Within 28 Days Mean?
Can I return an item after 28 days?
Companies don't have to have a returns policy, but if they do have one, they have to follow it.
You usually have 28 days to return an item, but this isn't always the case.
While free returns are mandatory for faulty goods, some online retailers may expect you to cover the cost of sending back unwanted items..
What does receipt of your order mean?
1 a written acknowledgment by a receiver of money, goods, etc., that payment or delivery has been made. 2 the act of receiving or fact of being received. 3 usually pl an amount or article received.
What does within 3 days mean?
Does within 3 days include today?
But people often take today to be the first day of the count, so if on Monday someone says "within 3 days" they are thinking day 1=today, Monday; day 2=Tuesday, day 3=Wednesday.
What is 3 business days from now?
3 days from today (2 weekdays) would be Saturday, January 2, 2021. There are 31 days in January 2021.
What does return within 30 days mean?
Also, "within one day" implies a 24-hour period (at least), so "within 30 days" implies a period of at least 30*24 hours (and since they don't examine the time of day of the purchase, only the date, that means that the 30th day AFTER the purchase is within the required 30 day period).
What does within 4 hours mean?
'Within hours' is basically a widely accepted shorthand version of the phrase 'within a few hours' time', which means exactly what it means: 'a few hours later'. You asked for common usage of this phrase.
Can I return items to Debenhams after 28 days?
You just need to make sure that you return your item within 28 days of receiving it in the post, or collecting it from your chosen Click & Collect location and you have proof of purchase, such as your receipt, e-receipt, delivery note or your order is on its way or ready to collect email.
What does within 2 hours mean?
The phrase means: You may perhaps be called within an hour. You will definitely be called within two hours. There is no implication that your being called within one hour is any more likely than your being called between one and two hours. … I'll be home in an hour, two hours tops.
What does it mean within 48 hours?
Does within 5 days mean?
"within five days" means the event/action will occur anytime between now (when the sentence is said/written) and the point in the future which is 120 hours after the sentence is uttered.
Does 14 day return include weekends?
Count 14 days including the day of purchase. So if you purchased Saturday, you must return by Friday of that 2nd week.
What to do if a company refuses to refund you?
How do you make sure you get a refund?
Here's how to get your money back on absolutely anything:Find out the return policy before you pay.Proof of purchase goes a long way.Be strategic with in-store returns.Use this secret weapon.Get money back for shoddy services too.Get your credit card company involved.Get your money back for credit card late fees.More items…•
Does within 30 days include the first day?
Within 30 days or less means exactly the same thing as within 30 days. That is, the "or less"" is superfluous; it doesn't add anything. Within 30 or fewer days means within 30 days, within 29 days, within 28 days, …, within 1 day. It also means exactly the same thing as within 30 days.


Sometimes, we need to print a report on a printed blank paper. Such as invoice, bill, credential, etc. With common reporting tools, we need to measure every data area with a ruler, and design the report according to the sizes. In a practical case, it may need to debug the report for many times. Therefore, it will be very complicated and frustrated. Moreover, if the paper format changes, developers have to design the report again. Preformatted paper printing is also called locating printing, which means to print desired content at a specific position on paper precisely. This function is widely used in report print. RAQ Report adopts base image depicting to realize the preformatted paper printing. With RAQ Report, developers can scan needed paper into an image, and set it as the background picture of the report. Next, drag the gridlines of the report to match the picture. Then, the report will be printed on the preformatted paper precisely. For specifi operations, please refer to


text:
Intro: Purple Light(BLACK LIGHT)
Quick & Cheap experiment
It is also called UV light
Step 1: Things Needed Are 3.
1.Flash light (cell phones flash light also can be used)
2.Transperant and write able TAPE
3. 2 markers (voilet and blue)
Step 2: Final Step
1. Take a piece of tape cover it on flash light,colour the tape with blue marker
2. Again do the same process on it, of blue marker
3. Take another piece of tape cover it on flash light,colour the tape with voilet marker
4. Apply the last layer of tape
Step 3: Try It..!!!!!
CHECK YOUR TOILET'S,MATTRESS,
PLEASE LIKE IT????

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


sticking out their tongue when compiling the next quantitative questionnaire.
 A strategist is the same palmist who never looks at the lines themselves in the palm of his hand, but reads and builds into a single picture all that surrounds the process of divination by hand, its causes and possible goals.
 And therefore, not specific lines, shadows and pixels are important in your interface - but the whole concept. An idea and a message that speaks a language that is understandable to a person is much more important than a set of buttons, tapes, swipe and checkboxes - never forget about it.
 Also popular now:


text:
All human societies have their traditions of body modification. At the simplest this may involve washing and oiling the skin, cutting hair, etc. At the most complex, this may involve shaping the head and cutting patterns deep into the skin. The displays at the Museum and this website are designed to illustrate some of the many ways in which people around the world have modified their bodies, and to offer some explanations for why they have done so.
The site is organised in the same way as the displays themselves. There are sections here on 'Temporary Arts', such as make-up and glitter, 'Permanent Arts', such as piercing and tattooing, and 'Lifecycle Arts', such as ornaments for marriage and mourning.
Some thing for every body: letting loose the Museum's cross-cultural collections of body arts and ornaments

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
February 17, 2013
SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, ELOI:
Why humans lost their body hair: to stop their brains from overheating as we evolved (STEVE CONNOR, 17 FEBRUARY 2013, Independent)
The need to keep a cool head is why man became a naked ape according to scientists who believe they can finally explain why humans are the only primate to lose their body fur.Bare skin allows body heat to be lost through sweating which would have been important when early humans started to walk on two legs and began to develop larger brains than their ape-like ancestors, scientists said.
Yet the great men of history wore beards or wigs?Posted by Orrin Judd at February 17, 2013 3:42 PM


text:
Many people want to know what happens to our pets when they die.
The spirits of our pets often stay with us after their 'physical' death in order to provide us with the same companionship and love as they did when alive. We are often not able to consciously perceive the presence of our passed-over pet - but on a soul level we intuitively know when our cat, dog, bird etc are around us. So what happens to our pets when they die?
Animals are alive and well on the 'Other Side'. All the animals that exist on earth, exist on 'The Other Side' The animals on the 'Other Side' include every pet we have had in this and all of our past lives.
We can often recall the smell or softness of our pet's fur, and/or its distinctive sound or personality. After the death of a pet many people are convinced that they are able to see, hear or sense their pet's presence, even if only for a moment or two.
So what happens to our pets when they die and where do they go?
They can be in between bodies (or incarnations), hanging out in their favourite spot in the garden or under a tree or even lazing in their favourite chair. They can even have new bodies and a new life. They could be your next door neighbour's new kitten or a newborn lion in Africa, or they could even be the new puppy or kitten you introduce into the family home. They may even be languishing in 'heaven', waiting for their owner's arrival on the 'Other Side' or at the 'Rainbow Bridge'.
The concept of the 'Rainbow Bridge' is a way of expressing the everlasting bond of love between pets and humans. When curious as to what happens to our pets when they die, listen to your own intuition, coming from a place of love.
Through research, intuition and personal experience, we are able to know what happens to our pets when they die.
Read our full article on what happens when pets die.


Help Centre
Frequently asked questions and other supporting information
Active ETFs
What are EQMFs?
EQMF stands for Exchange Quoted Managed Fund. An EQMF is a managed fund traded on a stock exchange. They function like managed funds, but traded like shares which can be bought and sold during trading day on the stock exchange. EQMFs are actively managed by fund managers to generate alpha and outperform relevant benchmarks.
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They are also sometimes known as Exchange Traded Managed Funds (ETMF), listed managed funds, active ETFs or quoted managed funds.
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text:
EIS Definitions and Conventions
30 August 2004
The EIS survey system is designed to administer and document (via
integration with a robotically maintained WEB service) multiple
surveys and strategies in their entirety, from survey definition to
release of science-grade products by nominally operating in
unsupervised mode. Achieving this requires the introduction of
well-defined procedures to enable adaptive, automatic and
sequential addressing of information. Occasionaly, these may be
need to be properly explained, which will be done in this document
In addition, the system also produces a large variety of survey
products requiring clarification on the different data types, FITS
header keywords and conventions.
The purpose of this document is to serve as a quick reference
document for users of data products produced by the EIS survey
system. This is a ''live'' document which will evolve time as
For some surveys involving external collaborators, inconsistencies
may be present between adopted conventions which, while inconvenient,
are unavoidable. Below some of these differences are described and
their origin explained.
Ideally, the standard adopted by EIS to name a field is to use the
survey name and/or region as the root, followed by a numerical
suffix generated by the particular algorithm used in the
construction of the "Observation Block" (OB) and the associated
survey strategy (as defined by a set of pointings, instrument and
passband). Typically, this numerical suffix is assigned in an
increasing sequence based on the R.A. and Dec. defining the
pointings. This should be done when a survey is first defined. In
this way, all possible identifiers of a field utilized by the EIS
system (both internally and externally, e.g. OB name, object name,
target name, field name) and their graphical representations on the
EIS WEB pages form a homogeneous set.
Historically, however, the conventions have evolved in time due
to several factors:
- At their outset, prior to the introduction of a systematic
global approach, several surveys were defined case-by-case
and in isolation.
- Over time, some pre-existing and on-going surveys had their
geometries changed; methods for addressing positions were
reviewed; surveys were extended, amalgamated or otherwise
re-defined using modified algorithms.
- In the absence of pre-determined standards, collaborative
surveys co-administered by independent groups have led to
different notations. The interface to a common scheme (when this
requirement is inevitably identified) becomes particularly
difficult leading unavoidable to inconsistencies.
Hence, in practice, the desired ideal case is not always attainable
and requires some retroactive adaptations. The following noteworthy
discrepancies between these different conventions are:
- There exist surveys for which addressing information was
assigned in isolation at the survey outset and which were also
assigned a sequential value to be incorporated into, and
referenced by, the EIS system at a later date. For these
surveys, while the multiple nomenclatures persist
simultaneously, sequentially numbered fields and/or regions
referred to in EIS indices do not correspond to numerical values
which may appear in region and/or field names assigned prior to
introduction of the EIS system. For example, in the
the field indexed by the EIS system (including the web service)
as "1" does not necessarily correspond to the field name
originally defined to be "F01" in the GOODS survey
- The current EIS terminology prefaces fields with root names
derived from the particular survey name whereas the same fields
may be refer to by a subjective name (e.g.XMM-06 =
SHARC-2). This applies to the OB names as well as the OBJECT
keyword in image FITS header. Thus, the use of this keyword to
rename the distributed images is discouraged since it may lead
- Sequential TILEID numbers appearing in the FITS header of an EIS
product are automatically assigned by the EIS system when
binding mosaic images and their contributing tiles into a set of
related products for a given release. The binding depends on the
geometry and completeness of the contributing reduced
data. Therefore TILEID numbers do not necessarily correspond to
other indices such as the field identifiers used by the Survey
teams, or the field identifiers employed by EIS algorithms.
EIS Definitions and Conventions
- FIELD: An individual pointing of an instrument defines a
field. Fields are thus instrument specific and if exposures
at the same coordinates are taken with different instruments, they
constitute different fields. Each field belongs to exactly one
- REGION: Region is the area covered contiguously by fields
belonging to the same strategy. Each region belongs to exactly one
- STRATEGY: An observing strategy is a combination of telescope,
instrument, filter, exposure time and expected limiting magnitude.
Strategies are grouped by wavelenght domain (optical/infrared) and
by limiting magnitude (deep/shallow). Each of these groups is also
referred to as Strategy.
- SURVEY: A survey is a group of strategies covering one or more regions.
- FILTERS: All filters listed on the EIS WWW pages have the format
''passband''+''ESO Filter ID''. Details about these filters can be
found on the telescope pages which are directly linked from the filter names.
- OBSERVATION BLOCK (OB): as defined in the ESO Data Flow System
- REDUCTION BLOCK (RB): one RB is a group of raw images obtained in the same night
which share the same position, passband and form a
sequence in time. The content of one RB is usually
identical to an executed OB. However, the system
also allows RBs to be formed by concatenation of
similar sequentially executed OBs. In addition
individual exposures can be discarded based on
configurable constraints on their properties
(e.g. background counts, DIMM seeing values,
integration time, etc.)
- REDUCED IMAGE: A "reduced image" is the "nightly" product of a
reduction process of a so-called "Reduction Block"
- STACKED IMAGE: A "stacked image" is the product of an advanced
process in which "reduced images" sharing the
same instrument, passband and position on the
sky are grouped into so-called "Stack Blocks"
(SB). In the assembly of SBs, individual
"reduced images" can be discarded according to
configurable constraints on their properties
(e.g. measured seeing, amplitude of PSF
distortion, visual grade, OB completeness). The
images of the thus assembled SB are re-scaled
and accumulated in a weighted co-addition
procedure to generate a single final output
- MOSAIC IMAGE: A "mosaic image" (or simply "mosaic") is an
image formed from several contiguous (reduced
or stacked) "images" produced by the EIS
survey system, which have been subsequently
re-scaled to share a common zero point and
co-adjoined as "tiles" to form a single,
- MOSAIC TILE: A "mosaic tile" (or simply "tile") is an image
(reduced or stacked) produced by the EIS survey
system which has been subsequently re-scaled
such that it shares a zero point common to other
tiles and a large-scale "mosaic image" (or
simply "mosaic") of which it forms a component.
- VERSION: A release "version" represents a wholesale, global
change: either introducing a new set of products,
affecting or superseding the quality or properties of
more than 5 per cent of previously release products.
- REVISION: A release "revision" represents localized changes
which may affect individual products with a released
data set, while leaving others unaffected. Individual
products found to be anomalous may be removed or
replaced. New products may be added. The total
revisions must not alter more than 5 per cent of a
pre-existing set of products.
- ZP: FITS header keyword ZP contains the value of the zero point
(magnitudes) computed from night solutions. In a
reduced image the ZP in the header is given by ZP =
ZP' + KX. where ZP' is the zeropoint at zero airmass
(determined from the linear fit), K is the extinction
coefficient and X is the observed airmass. Therefore,
the Vega magnitude is given by mag (Vega) =
-2.5*log(flux) + ZP. In the case of a stack the ZP is
the zeropoint at zero airmass where the flux is the
number of counts directly measurable on the images
(note that the reduced images are normalized to 1
sec). It can also be set to a default value in which
case the associated error is set to a negative value.
- ZPERR: FITS header keyword ZPERR contains the value of the
uncertainty (magnitudes) associated with the
determination of ZP. This is estimated to be the
scatter relative to the best linear fit to the flux
measurements of standard stars as a function of the
airmass. It can also take the values of (-1) for
nights with poor fits; (-2) for nights without
standards; (-3) for nights in which the zeropoint
deviates significantly from a ''typical'' (normally
- ZPMOSAIC: FITS header keyword


text:
A teacher has information power because of the teacher's access to more information than the students. One positive effect from information power is the person with power can educate everyone else. One negative is the teacher might teach personal opinions inappropriately.
Expert power based on skill, or knowledge on a subject. Positive effect people get the best and most accurate information from someone with expert power. Negative effect someone with expert power could take advantage of someone by providing them with unfinished or misleading information
Connection power is based on who the leader knows. Positive effect connection can help people obtain important things like a job recommendation. Negative effect it can lead to someone getting something they are not deserving of or unqualified to have.


IGCSE and GCSE - What is the difference?
(46 Posts)
Lollybrolly Sun 27-Jan-13 14:52:08
DDs school say they do IGCSE in a majority of subjects and they are selling this as an advantage. We have a meeting about course options in a few weeks so would like to have a basic understanding. So far I know they do IGCSE in science.
I know little about GCSE other than I was the 1st year to do it back in 1986.
Can anyone explain simply what the difference is and if there are any advantages/disadvantages please.
bulby Sun 27-Jan-13 15:04:25
The I stands for international and historically was taught In British international schools meaning the curriculum is more suitable for international candidates. An examplemight be that in IGCSE Biology the pupils may not learn about how to brew beer as this would not be appropriate in middle eastern countries.
They are no harder or easier than GCSE but some schools have jumped in a band wagon to try make them selves seem more academic by teaching them. I've taught both and 'hardness' wise there is really no difference.
complexnumber Sun 27-Jan-13 15:48:49
As bulby has stated, IGCSE's are designed for overseas schools.
A big difference was that there was no coursework obligation in many of the courses, meaning it was all down to a couple of exams. Many consider this to be more rigorous.
I do believe maths IGCSE to be harder than GCSE.
TotallyBS Sun 27-Jan-13 16:58:44
bulby: I find it a bit worrying (for your students) that you, as a teacher, find GCSEs and IGCSEs to be the same in terms of difficulty. I may not have your presumably extensive teaching qualifications but I have looked at both, from the viewpoint of a pushy parent, and they are in no way the same. It's like saying O levels and GCSEs are the same.
solidfoundation Sun 27-Jan-13 17:04:50
Complexnumber, does the IGCE maths syllabus include any calculus, do you know?
olivevoir58 Sun 27-Jan-13 18:06:56
This is an interesting article, a couple of years old but still relevant. I think that basically (certainly for maths), the igcse content is harder but the exam questions are more straightforward. 94% of igcse candidates pass maths at C+ compared to only about 60% of gcse candidates. This makes me think that actually there's not a lot in it and Igcse might even be easier to pass!
Remember that pretty much all pupils in the country have to be entered for GCSE maths/English, which has an impact on the pass rate. And "only" 60% is really pretty high when you consider that accounts for the top 4 pass-grades out of 8.
IGCSE entries aren't statutory, and for a long time weren't even counted in league tables in State schools. They are at the moment, and because there isn't the same dicking around (technical term for Gove's 'improvements' to education) with the pass rates, they are attractive for state schools with ever-increasing demands on pass rates for maths and English GCSE. There is coursework for the one English Language IGCSE I am familiar with, but it's essentially reading comprehension and writing, no set texts. (There would of course be set texts for the Literature course).
That doesn't really answer your question, to be fair...
gelo Sun 27-Jan-13 19:17:58
solidfoundation iGCSE does include some very, very elementary calculus. The questions don't really require any understanding to answer and some teachers have found that low ability candidates find it easier to pick up the marks for the simple differentiation just applying the rules than getting the marks on some of the questions targetted at the lower grades (thus meaning some candidates find it easier to reach a 'C' grade on iGCSE than on GCSE).
TotallyBS Sun 27-Jan-13 19:27:13
olive: interesting reasoning.
May I suggest an alternative view. IGCSEs tend to be taken at highly selective Indies where a significant proportion of students get 10 GCSEs at A to C. The more able students will be steered towards IGCSEs.
In other words,iGCSEs appear to be easier because it is usually the high achieving pupils or schools that take the exams.
Lollybrolly Sun 27-Jan-13 22:39:34
Ah interesting - thanks for the input.
DD is at a selective school and although quite academic in Sciences and Languages she has to work her socks off to remain in the mid stream maths set.
I dont know until we go to a parents options meeting in a couple of weeks which subjects will be GCSE and IGCSE.
Am off to have a read of the link Olivevoir58 posted.
happygardening Mon 28-Jan-13 03:51:30
The Latin IGCSE is significantly harder a very experienced Latin teacher and friend involved with both says that part of the IGCSE is AS level standard for example the set text for this years paper would never be found on a GCSE paper. Another friend who teaches maths quickly looked at the IGCS text book and thought after this cursory glance the maths also looked harder. I have recently assisted DS1 revise for the higher level GCSE science exams and then looked at the IGCSE text books for science and it appeared to me that the subjects were covered in a more in depth fashion in fact I was a bit shocked at how basic the science was for GCSE. I also understand all IGCSE exams are less prescribed.
Lolly don't despair re the maths my DS1 (yr 11) was up until half way through last term the worst mathematician in the world suddenly (literally) its all fallen into place and with minimal effort on his part and has just ben entered into the higher GCSE paper and predicted a B.
Jobforlife Mon 28-Jan-13 11:31:07
My DD is doing all IGCSEs this summer, as we are at an international school abroad. For sciences, the advantage for the school is that there is no modular exams and it's all tested after the two years of study (year 10 and 11). In fact, there is basically no coursework for any of the subjects... It's much more akin to doing the old O levels really. Advantage in Maths is that Edexcel also have a Further Maths IGCSE which my daughter will take. This is helpful for bridging the gap between the IGCSE and AS level Maths.
hellsbells99 Mon 28-Jan-13 11:42:40
The maths GCSE (at least for Edexcel) has got harder lately. The exam in November was very difficult as there are a lot more functional type questions and not as much pure maths questions. The grade boundaries ended up beeing lowered as they had set such complicated questions.
happygardening Mon 28-Jan-13 12:15:49
Jobforlife there is course work for Eng Lang IGCSE, worth I believe 25% of the mark, both my DS's schools do it and I think they are different examining boards.
Phineyj Mon 28-Jan-13 12:22:05
They are definitely more academically demanding. I can assure you that the superselective grammar where I work wouldn't offer them otherwise. It costs money and time to offer alternative courses, but the result should be better preparation for sixth form.
gelo Mon 28-Jan-13 12:42:58
Phiney, you naivity is touching. I'm sure if a school (superselective or not) found a qualification that their students were achieving higher grades in (thus boosting their league table position) and that could be argued to be more academically demanding they would jump at it.
It's also worth noting that more academically demanding doesn't necessarily mean more difficult (at least it depends how you are defining easy/difficult). Better preparation for A level doesn't necessarily mean more difficult either (it may just be a more relevent lead in to the A level syllabus - or have terminal exams which in spit of A levels being modular (currently), people always seem to think is a better preparation (maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but if that's all that's better about iGCSEs then it's not that much).
I think the jury is out as to which is more difficult personally. There are plenty of teachers that have taught both who find their students achieve more highly at iGCSE which would suggest they are easier, but even there it might just be that the course is more engaging so the students work harder. With the freedom from controlled assesments in iGCSE, teachers have more teaching time so that might account for raised grades too.
happygardening Mon 28-Jan-13 13:46:41
"Phiney, you naivity is touching"
gelo I find your cynicism equally touching!
All the teachers I've spoken to about IGCSE's including those teaching both at the same time and who often have no axe to grind (?unlike you) say that the IGCSE is harder. As I've already stated one of the set text pieces for 2013 Latin IGCSE is I'm told by


Financial education Why do young people get into debt?
Risk factors, first signs and what parents can do.
byUBS Insights 29 Mar 2019
You read about it more and more: young people who get into debt on the road to financial independence. But how can this happen? We have put together significant findings from various studies and compiled tips on preventive measures.
Statistically, young adults aged 18 and over with a low level of education, incomplete training, a lack of professional qualifications, and low income are most at risk.
What parents can do: emphasize the importance of school and education and provide active support so that their child succeeds in completing their studies.
In addition to unemployment, over-indebtedness often starts with young parenthood, leaving the parental home (too) early or – especially in the case of young women – emotional dependencies on partners.
What parents can do: be involved, discuss the situation together and, if necessary, seek professional help.
Psychological factors are just as important as the financial skills learned. Self-confidence, the ability to postpone rewards and self-control are important safeguards. Young people who have the confidence to handle their money well and who have control over their own scope of action are less likely to get into debt.
What parents can do: transfer financial responsibility and trust to their children early on and in a controlled manner.
Give your child personal responsibility
The Banking Package UBS Generation with a range of benefits
Strong consumerism encourages over-indebtedness. This is especially true if young people have low self-esteem, and are easily influenced by and closely connected to consumer-oriented peers.
What parents can do: set a good example of sensible consumer behavior and discuss the purpose of different purchases. Consciously convey non-material values and sharpen perception of what really counts: spending time with family, having fun with friends, being appreciated for what you are – and not what you have.


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We present here our studies concerning the variation of refractive index with the optical gap in amorphous silicon prepared by glow discharge decomposition of silane. The study has been carried out in the light of the models of Penn, Wemple-Didomenico, Ravindra et al., Moss and Bahl-Bhagat. It is essentially seen that the model of Bahl-Bhagat is good enough to explain the relative shifts in the refractive indices in terms of the changes in the gaps on introduction of hydrogen into amorphous silicon. However, because of weaknesses associated with the fitting parameters, we propose here an alternate model which explains fairly well the dependence of the index of refraction on the optical gap. Furthermore, to explain the gradient of the refractive index vs optical gap plots, we see that a simple model like that of Moss would suffice. This is all the more interesting by virtue of the fact that the Moss formula is basically representative of the atomic picture. Of course, the constant depends on conditions during formation of the sample. Under some limiting conditions, the Bahl-Bhagat relation is shown to reduce to the linear form like that of Ravindra et al. We also attempt to analyse qualitatively the dependence of dispersion energy and the average excitation energy on temperature in the light of the Wemple-Didomenico model. The present study has been carried out for samples prepared by glow discharge at different substrate temperatures and with different hydrogen concentrations.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes


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Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Woods Hole is a census-designated place and village within the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near the island of Martha's Vineyard, and is the site of three famous scientific institutions: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the Woods Hole Research Center. It is also the site of a United States Coast Guard station (The USCG Group Woods Hole) and the terminus of a ferry route between the cape and Martha's Vineyard. The Steamship Authority As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 925.
Woods Hole is located at 41°31'36" North, 70°39'47" West (41.526730, −70.663184).
As of the census2 of 2000, there are 925 people, 459 households, and 212 families residing in the village. The population density is 165.3/km² (427.9/mi²). There are 942 housing units at an average density of 168.4/km² (435.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the village is 94.70% White, 1.62% African American, 0.54% Native American, 1.84% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.22% from other races, and 1.08% from two or more races. 0.97% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
Of the 459 households, 14.8% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.7% are married couples living together, 5.4% have a female householder with no husband present, and 53.6% are non-families. 40.5% of all households are made up of individuals and 17.9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 1.94 and the average family size is 2.58.
In the village, the age of the population is spread out, with 13.5% under the age of 18, 7.1% from 18 to 24, 25.7% from 25 to 44, 26.4% from 45 to 64, and 27.2% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 48 years. For every 100 females, there are 94.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 88.7 males.
The median income for a household in the village is $47,604, and the median income for a family is $57,969. Males have a median income of $31,964 versus $31,875 for females. The per capita income for the village is $30,752. 5.3% of the population and 0.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 0.0% of those under the age of 18 and 6.4% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
The contents of this article is licensed from _URL_ under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details


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When you create a table and you realize that you made a mistake, or the requirements of the application change, you can drop the table and create it again. But this is not a convenient option if the table is already filled with data, or if the table is referenced by other database objects (for instance a foreign key constraint). Therefore PostgreSQL provides a family of commands to make modifications to existing tables. Note that this is conceptually distinct from altering the data contained in the table: here we are interested in altering the definition, or structure, of the table.
Change default values
Change column data types
All these actions are performed using the ALTER TABLE command, whose reference page contains details beyond those given here.
To add a column, use a command like:
ALTER TABLE products ADD COLUMN description text;
The new column is initially filled with whatever default value is given (null if you don't specify a DEFAULT clause).
You can also define constraints on the column at the same time, using the usual syntax:
ALTER TABLE products ADD COLUMN description text CHECK (description <> '');
In fact all the options that can be applied to a column description in CREATE TABLE can be used here. Keep in mind however that the default value must satisfy the given constraints, or the ADD will fail. Alternatively, you can add constraints later (see below) after you've filled in the new column correctly.
Tip: Adding a column with a default requires updating each row of the table (to store the new column value). However, if no default is specified, PostgreSQL is able to avoid the physical update. So if you intend to fill the column with mostly nondefault values, it's best to add the column with no default, insert the correct values using UPDATE, and then add any desired default as described below.
To remove a column, use a command like:
ALTER TABLE products DROP COLUMN description;
Whatever data was in the column disappears. Table constraints involving the column are dropped, too. However, if the column is referenced by a foreign key constraint of another table, PostgreSQL will not silently drop that constraint. You can authorize dropping everything that depends on the column by adding CASCADE:
ALTER TABLE products DROP COLUMN description CASCADE;
See Section 5.11 for a description of the general mechanism behind this.
To add a constraint, the table constraint syntax is used. For example:
ALTER TABLE products ADD CHECK (name <> ''); ALTER TABLE products ADD CONSTRAINT some_name UNIQUE (product_no); ALTER TABLE products ADD FOREIGN KEY (product_group_id) REFERENCES product_groups;
To add a not-null constraint, which cannot be written as a table constraint, use this syntax:
ALTER TABLE products ALTER COLUMN product_no SET NOT NULL;
The constraint will be checked immediately, so the table data must satisfy the constraint before it can be added.
To remove a constraint you need to know its name. If you gave it a name then that's easy. Otherwise the system assigned a generated name, which you need to find out. The psql command \d tablename can be helpful here; other interfaces might also provide a way to inspect table details. Then the command is:
ALTER TABLE products DROP CONSTRAINT some_name;
(If you are dealing with a generated constraint name like $2, don't forget that you'll need to double-quote it to make it a valid identifier.)
As with dropping a column, you need to add CASCADE if you want to drop a constraint that something else depends on. An example is that a foreign key constraint depends on a unique or primary key constraint on the referenced column(s).
This works the same for all constraint types except not-null constraints. To drop a not null constraint use:
ALTER TABLE products ALTER COLUMN product_no DROP NOT NULL;
(Recall that not-null constraints do not have names.)
To set a new default for a column, use a command like:
ALTER TABLE products ALTER COLUMN price SET DEFAULT 7.77;
Note that this doesn't affect any existing rows in the table, it just changes the default for future INSERT commands.
To remove any default value, use:
ALTER TABLE products ALTER COLUMN price DROP DEFAULT;
This is effectively the same as setting the default to null. As a consequence, it is not an error to drop a default where one hadn't been defined, because the default is implicitly the null value.
To convert a column to a different data type, use a command like:
ALTER TABLE products ALTER COLUMN price TYPE numeric(10,2);
This will succeed only if each existing entry in the column can be converted to the new type by an implicit cast. If a more complex conversion is needed, you can add a USING clause that specifies how to compute the new values from the old.
PostgreSQL will attempt to convert the column's default value (if any) to the new type, as well as any constraints that involve the column. But these conversions might fail, or might produce surprising results. It's often best to drop any constraints on the column before altering its type, and then add back suitably modified constraints afterwards.
To rename a column:
ALTER TABLE products RENAME COLUMN product_no TO product_number;
To rename a table:
ALTER TABLE products RENAME TO items;


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The Fencing Master Quiz | Eight Week Quiz E
Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Purchase our The Fencing Master Lesson Plans
Eight Week Quiz E
Name: _____________________________ Period: ___________________________
This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter VI, pages 171-180.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Why does Don Luis say he chose Don Jaime to hide the file?
(a) Don Jaime can defend himself.
(b) He is the only honest man he knows.
(c) He rarely talks to other people.
(d) His home is difficult to break into.
2. How did the person in the morgue die?
(a) Tortured.
(b) Drowned.
(c) Heart attack.
(d) Stabbed.
3. Which of the following are one of the few things that Don Jaime can determine about Dona Adela's life?
(a) She has never been in love.
(b) She is rich.
(c) She lives alone.
(d) She hates men.
4. Who does a woman tell Don Jaime has landed in Spain?
(a) A savior of the people.
(b) Jesus Christ.
(c) A rival to the Spanish throne.
(d) A King from afar.
5. How does the author describe the journalist's smile?
(a) Loving.
(b) Aristocratic.
(c) Manly
(d) Olympian.
Short Answer Questions
1. Where does Don Luis think much of Don Jaime's personal philosophy comes from?
2. Why does Don Jaime leave the cafe early?
3. What does Luis is the only reason he is a nobleman?
4. What method does Don Jaime teach?
5. In which city does Don Prim currently reside?
(see the answer key)
This section contains 224 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page)
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- Open Access
- Total Downloads : 0
- Authors : Ajay Sehrawat, Neha Shankar Das, Praveen Mishra
- Paper ID : IJERTV7IS070118
- Volume & Issue : Volume 07, Issue 07 (July 2018)
- Published (First Online): 20-07-2018
- ISSN (Online) : 2278-0181
- Publisher Name : IJERT
- License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Application of Network Forensics in Identification of Network Traffic
Application of Network Forensics in Identification of Network Traffic
1Ajay Sehrawat, 2Neha Shankar Das and 3Praveen Mishra 1 Software Engineer (IT), Regional Centre for Biotechnology, 2M.Tech, GGSIPU,
3Additional Director, ERNET India,
Abstract – With the development of the latest technology interventions in the field of networking, cybercrimes are increasing at a gradual rate. It has led to increase in online crimes and attacks in which malicious packets are being sent to other hosts. Network Traffic Analysis comes under Network Forensics which is one of the classifications of Cyber Forensics that deals with capturing, recording, monitoring and analysis of network traffic. Keeping this in view, the paper describes the need of network forensics and its aspects. The paper proposes a model for network traffic analysis which is useful for detecting malicious packets received from intruders.
Keywords: Network Forensics, Network Monitoring and Network Traffic Analysis
Network attacks and cyber crimes are one of the most critical issues in todays era of ICT. These attacks are characterized by stealing authentic information by malicious hosts that continuously monitors websites Criminals make use of techniques like information hiding, network source trackback that can cause harm to security of system. As these crimes cannot be removed completely only by improving technologies but it must cover legal issues and such malicious intruders must be punished.
The use of Network Traffic Analysis can also be seen in security domain. It includes management and monitoring of packets from source IP address to destination IP port number. It takes amount of packets sent in consideration to check flow of consistency in network. Network forensics is defined in as capturing, monitoring and scrutiny of network events in order to determine the cause of security attacks and other problem incidents. It can be said that Network Forensics is a branch of digital forensics which is studied to examine the network traffic so that attacks and malicious activities can be discovered. There is difference between computer forensics and digital forensics. Computer forensics deals with copying of files, removal and recovery of deleted files, buffer content access and system log analysis while Network forensics reduces risk of unwanted hosts and monitors track of packets sent on network.
The remaining paper is categorized as follows. Section II describes related work and research on network forensics and traffic analysis. Section III describes some techniques used in network forensics. It is followed by proposed model for the network traffic analysis. Section IV shows analysis of packets sent through different port numbers followed by conclusion and references.
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
The given table presents the review of studies conducted in the context of network forensics.
Table1: Review of studies conducted in context of network forensics
Work on network forensics
Amran et al
This paper proposed a seven step model for the analysis of network flow of packets on Internet. The query is scanned in the model itself from corrupt query. It is then filtered using rephrases and techniques.
Ham et al
This paper describes various challenges associated in network forensics like acquisition (gathering information about packets), content (what is hidden in them), storage (how much space does the packets take) and their admissibility.
Simon et al
They proposed a two stage network forensics system. It captures large data packets and puts them on the server. Secondly, it analyzed each packet and saved its information for future uses.
Kim et al
This paper identified the problems encountered while monitoring large network of packets. Correlation analysis is needed to monitor packets which make process intelligent.
M. Huang et al
The paper describes the need to preserve all network information by addition of the information behavior coordinates and performing real time analysis. It also presents applications of data packets used in forensics.
Redmonet al
It introduced a network security technique named as Honeypot, which uses deception technique. It is a trap that monitors packets accessed by hackers in real time environment.
Pilli et al
They devised a generic framework for investigation of network forensics. Their model consists of 8 phases viz. preparation, detection, collection, preservation, examination, analysis, investigation and maintenance. Every phase is described precisely. Preparation phase deals with network sensors detection system that needs to be put on servers to stop unwanted attacks.
Detection phase will generate alert in case of violation. Collection phase deals with changing of data on the network. Preservation phase maintains a copy of original data for back up support. It is followed by Analysis and Investigation phase.
3.0 PROPOSED MODEL
A network traffic analysis model has been proposed that employs use of machine learning techniques in its phases. It has a number of phases as stated below:-
Collection of data
Data means packets (large number of random packets sent on various servers). Now, these packets are being collected by using server devices like Firewall, Hypervisors. These are placed between main server and receiver so that it gets noticeable in case of any data attack.
Categorization of data
The data collected in the above step is now classified into different packets on the basis of their size and content of information. It involves techniques like deep packet inspection and port based learning.
Classified data is now clustered in order to separate them on the basis of common feature values. Clusters are defined on
the basis of data mining algorithms like NaÃ¯ve Bayes, KNN Algorithm. It will determine them in statistical manner.
This phase will detect clusters that have been identified as harmful after going through clustering and classification phase. It will lead to creation of log files to ensure different clusters formed through machine learning. After the log file is created, it can be updated time to time.
This phase presents report of packets that have been analyzed on the basis of clusters. It requires usage of Capsa tool that is discussed in the next section. It classifies and analyses packets on different ports.
The report is made which contains information about clusters henceforth.
4.0 IMPLEMENTATION & SCENARIO
Fig1: Steps in proposed model
depicts identification and flow of packets via TCP layer. The
This section demonstrates classification of different network packets at different ports using real time network application Capsa Tool. ColasoftCapsa is a real-time portable network analysis application for both LAN and WLAN. It is one of the tools used for monitoring of network traffic by identifying malicious hosts and estimate performance level of data in particular layer.
Figure 2 and 3 depicts distribution of network packets on dfferent TCP ports and UDP ports. The malicious packets will be identified this tool and they are blocked automatically using senor device fitted in proposed model. There are various ports associated with identification of network like MAIL, TCP, UDP, POP3 and many more. The demonstration of packets via TCP and UDP is shown in figures. The traffic monitor window is shown in figure 4 that
values shown in graphs are in bytes which denote receiving bytes as y axis and sending bytes as x axis respectively.
The tool takes IP address or any website URL as input. It automatically detects malicious packets from address and starts its diagnosis. In Fig 4, flow of packets in TCP layer is diagnosed and network monitoring is done after 5 successful attempts. The tool gives a prompt message as it detects malicious packets. So, after 5 attempts, it lists IP and Mac addresses of valid packets by filtering malicious packets from it. In fig 2, it is seen that in last value 29450 packets have been sent but received bytes lies between 0- 2236 which is less as compared to traffic. It leads to downfall in traffic flow due to bad packets in network. The graphs are taken after 3 attempts so that unevenness can be seen due to bad packets.
Fig 2: TCP ports distribution (x axis sending bytes, y axisreceiving bytes) Similarly, packets distribution can be seen at UDP layer as shown in fig 3.
Fig3: UDP ports classification
Fig4: Network performance in TCP layer
This paper describes proposed model of network traffic analysis by considering various factors and studies conducted in the context of digital forensics. Network traffic is divided into various clusters and their analysis is done in real time network application to detect malware packets. This paper also makes readers aware about the various network intrusion detection techniques that form the basis of the theory. The model can be extended in cloud based environment using virtualization and ontological based features.
Amran, A. R., &Saad, A. (2014, January). An evidential network forensics analysis model with adversarial capability and layering. In Computer Applications and Information Systems (WCCAIS), 2014 World Congress on (pp. 1-9). IEEE.
Davidoff, S., & Ham, J. (2012). Network forensics: tracking hackers through cyberspace (Vol. 2014). Upper Saddle River: Prentice hall.
Garfinkel, S. (2002). Network forensics: Tapping the internet. IEEE Internet Computing, 6, 60-66.
Kim, J. S., Kim, M., & N


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The name Ben-hur in the Bible
Whether Ben-hur is a Biblical name has been disputed (because the man named Ben-hur might simply have been a "son of Hur", which is what Ben-hur means). But the Hebrew construct ben hur occurs in 1 Kings 4:8, where Ben-hur is mentioned among the twelve deputies of king Solomon of Israel. The only detail we know of this Ben-hur is that he was stationed in the region of Ephraim.
Etymology of the name Ben-hur
The name Ben-hur consists of two elements. The first part is the word בן (ben), generally meaning son:
The second part of the name Ben-hur is the same as the name Hur. The origin and meaning of the name Hur is not known for sure but that's not because there are no candidates: In fact, there are so many possibilities that we don't know which one is the right one:
The name Ben-hur may mea Son Of Hur, or it may mean One Of The Burnings/Nobles/Holes/Whites.
For a meaning of the name Hur, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Cavern. BDB Theological Dictionary says to have no clue, and NOBSE Study Bible Name List either takes the name Hur from another language, or bends the meaning of Noble or Freeman into Splendor.


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Aims: We determined the association between short-term neonatal morbidities, such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), and Ureaplasma spp. in amniotic fluid, placental and amniotic membrane of preterm infants.
Methods: This study enrolled 257 patients who were born by cesarean section at <34 weeks' gestation. Patients were divided into two groups according to detection of Ureaplasma spp. by culture-based and/or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques.
Results: Significant differences were observed between both groups for all IVH (P=0.032) and IVH grades III or IV (P=0.013), as wells as for BPD [odds ratio (OR) 5.46, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.02-14.77], oxygen requirement at 28 days postnatal age (OR 1.93, 95% CI 1.00-3.70), and for death between 28 days and 36 postmenstrual weeks or BPD (OR 4.20, 95% CI 1.77-9.96). Ureaplasma spp. was a significant predictor (P<0.001) of BPD after correcting for birth weight (P=0.003) and positive pressure ventilation (P=0.001).
Conclusions: In our study population Ureaplasma spp. was associated with BPD and IVH in preterm infants even after adjustment for multiple risk factors.


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Teaching Resources for Your Classroom
Colonial Williamsburg offers a variety of quality
materials to assist you in teaching American history, including:
This set includes Refreshing Lavender Water (pour some in your bath or add a bit to your steam iron), Bath Water (a relaxing blend of flowers and herbs to pour into running water), Powder of Violets (talc scented with dried flowers, herbs and spices; based on an 18th-century recipe), Sweet Honey Lip Balm (soothing, moisturizing combination of almond oil and beeswax), and our three Williamsburg soaps in light, lovely scents make washing up an everyday treat.
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These fascinating CD-ROMs will introduce your students to the artifacts, written documents, prints, buildings, and other sources that historians use to uncover the past. The Grades 1-3 CD-ROM provides an interactive experience with primary sources. The Grades 4-6 CD-ROM encourages students to analyze and evaluate evidence. In no time, you'll have your students "thinking like a historian!" Teacher lesson plans and classroom activities included.
Grades 13, $39.95. Grades 4–6, $39.95. To order, call _PHONE_ or email _EMAIL_.


text:
The Shimabara domain was ruled by the Christian Arima clan
in the late Muromachi period. After the
Tokugawa government banned Christianity
the daimyô Arima Naozumi was replaced by Matsukura Shigemasa.
Matsukura enforced the prohibition against the Christians and raised
taxes to pay for the new castle Shimabara-jô (1618-24). This
repression of the peasants was a major factor leading to the Shimabara Rebellion (1637-38).
castle came under siege during the riots, but was not damaged. The
Kôriki clan, Matsudaira clan, Toda clan and again the Matsudaira
family remained in residence at Shimabara castle until the Meiji
period. Only moat and walls remain original.


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E. Cobham Brewer _PHONE_. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Minories (3 syl.) (London).
The cloister of the Minims or, rather, Minoresses (nuns of St. Clare). The Minims were certain reformed Franciscans, founded by St. Francis de Paula in the fifteenth century. They went barefooted, and wore a coarse, black woollen stuff, fastened with a woollen girdle, which they never put off, day or night. The word is derived from the Latin minimus (the least), in allusion to the text, I am less than the least of all saints. (Eph, iii. 8).


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This text is a reference source covering the chemical elements that are nutrients for plants and animals. It deals with the concentrations and transformations of these elements in soils, grassland plants, and ruminant aniamls, particularly cattle and sheep. For each element, the following data are given: forms occurring in soil, factors that affect availability and concentration, uptake and distribution in grassland plants, role in animal nutrition, amounts and forms excreted by grazing animals, and concentrations needed by ruminant animals.
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New Work: Clock for an Architect
Privately commissioned to create a gift for an architect, Daniel Weil created a one-of-a-kind clock that is both simple and complex. Reducing objects to their component parts has long fascinated Weil. The Radio in a Bag he created for his degree show at the Royal College of Art three decades ago is an icon of 20th century industrial design. This clock is the latest demonstration of his interest in investigating not just how objects look, but how they work.
Constructed in ash and nickel-plated brass and silver, the clock is built of five separate elements. The numbers, both hours and minutes, are inscribed on the face and interior of a 9 3/4-inches diameter ring. The mechanism for setting the time connects with the central mechanism with visible rubber belts. A single AA battery provides power to the clock through visible power strips that are recessed in the assembly's base. (Note the different screws that support the battery stand, keyed to the positive and negative poles of the power source.) And, befitting the object's recipient, the housing for the central mechanism takes the form of, literally, a house.
"Objects like clocks are both prosaic and profound," says Weil. "Prosiac because of their ubiquity in everyday life, profound because of the mysterious nature of time itself. Time can be reduced to hours, minutes and seconds, just as a clock can be reduced to its component parts. This doesn't explain time, but in a way simply exposes its mysterious essence."


What is the Best Color for Blue Sapphire? Part 1
September 3rd, 2009 by James L. Sweaney, CGA, FGA. GG
Classic Blue Sapphire
Classic Blue Natural Sapphire
Our clients often ask "What is the best color blue sapphire?" There are two answers– the obvious is that personal preference should dictate your color choice. Every person has unique abilities to perceive color, based on such things as age, health, culture and genetic gifts. Some people prefer light pastel colors, others prefer rich intense colors. The best color for you is the one that pleases, stimulates, or excites you!
The more complicated answer has to do with gem grading and market preferences, the physical characteristics of natural sapphires, the geological sources of sapphire including Ceylon, Burma, Kashmir, Madagascar, Thailand, Australia, and Montana, and the various methods of color enhancement and heat treatment of sapphire. We'll begin by discussing gem grading and market preferences.
Color is a very complicated phenomenon in gemstones, presenting many challenges for gemologists and gem traders. We begin by grading the color of blue sapphires in terms of hue, tone, and intensity– for a thorough discussion of color grading gems, visit the color grading page at our Gallery of Gems.
Hue can be described as the name of a color, and relates to the actual wavelength of the visible light emanating from the gem. Some gem colors are described as two hues– such as green blue, signifying equal parts green and blue, or greenish blue for a color proportionately more blue than green. In grading gem colors, we normally emphasize the dominant hue by capitalizing it. For blue sapphire, the perfect hue would be simply Blue– not greenish Blue or violetish Blue. The hue of the sapphire below would be described as very slightly violetish Blue, while the hue of the second stone shown below and the blue sapphire ring shown at the beginning of this article is Blue.
slightly violetish blue sapphire color
very slightly violetish Blue sapphire color
Blue sapphire color
Tone is the relative position of a color on a 1 to 10 scale of light to dark. 1 being white, 10 being black. Blue sapphires can range from very pale blues that might be graded 2- 3 on the tonal scale to extremely dark blues that are graded 9.
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3 Responses to "What is the Best Color for Blue Sapphire? Part 1"
 1. simon Says:
 I would like to get a valuation for some jewelry, 1920′ ex Greta Garbo blue sapphire on gold, a black saphire with dimonds plus several items that are no longer used.
 Can you advise.
 2. Madeline Appelin Says:
 I have a ring purchased by my grandfather from Greta Garbo's auction when she left for America, it was bought by her lover Mauritz Stiller and consists of a Blue sapphire and diamonds.
 Would you be able to inform me of a value and place to sell, as i never use it.
 It is a perfect Sapphire set in red and white gold and is very beautiful.
 Madeliene appelin.
 3. James L. Sweaney, CGA, FGA. GG Says:
 I believe you queried my blog about this ring a while back. You should be able to sell your ring effectively in several ways.
 First, to be able to realize the most money, you will need to get a good current Fair Market Value appraisal from a well qualified appraiser– Contact the Gemmological Assn. of Great Britain for a referral for someone local to you. It should include a good digital photograph, along with weight estimates and measurements for the gems, weight and metal quality, gem grading, especially for the sapphire. Add any written documentation you have showing the Garbo provenance– letter from your grandfather, bill of sale, etc. The Garbo provenance may or may not add value, depending on how strong it is and the quality of the ring.
 Once you have a good idea of value, you can look at the markets available to you.
 The highest value you could get would be to sell to an interested private party. Price would be negotiable, exposure would be based on the effort and expense you put into it. You might be able to negotiate between 50 and 100% of Fair Market Value ( Appraisal)
 Another market would be something like Ebay, but you need to know what you are doing here. It's important to make sure you get paid!
 If the value is over $10.000 US, you might look at an auction house like Christy's or Sotheby's. They do charge a seller's premium, usuallly about 10%.
 An immediate market would be a legitimate respected jeweler who buys estate jewelry. Expect to get about 25 to 50% of Fair Market Value, depending on the ring.


Toxic Effect ofAluminum OxideNanoparticles on GreenMicro-Algae dunaliella salina
Document Type : Original Research Paper
Aluminum oxide nanoparticles are the most widely used nanoparticles in various industries.The
increasing use of nanoparticles in the past two decades and their entry into the industrial and non-industrial
inhibition (I%) were also calculated. The obtained 72-hour levels were EC10=1.6610-3, EC50=0.162, EC90=15.31,
and NOEC=16.2×10-2mg/L. The control and treatment algae had a significant difference in terms of cell density
and growth inhibition rate (p<0.05). Aluminum oxide nanoparticles had a significant impact on the shape and
of carotenoid decreased following increase in concentration of treatments (p<0.05). Aluminum oxide
Dunaliella salina chlorophyll and carotenoid concentration reduced significantly (p<0.05).


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Brunch Tips from the Fair
Sherry's secrets for delicious eggs:
- Beat eggs with a fork, not a whisk.
- Add heavy cream to eggs while beating.
- Use real butter in the pan, not margarine.
- Add your own twist! Try fresh chives, dill, basil or even hot sauce
- Heat a heavy pan before adding butter.
- Add eggs once the butter starts to sizzle, but before it browns.
- Use a spatula to gently push the edges of the eggs into the center of the pan while cooking.
- Undercook eggs slightly. By the time you serve them they'll be perfect!


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Although legal exclusion in slums has not been featured prominently in global health research, recent studies on Indian cities have shown a strong relationship between legal exclusion and various poor outcomes including infant mortality, child vaccination, child and adult under nutrition, literacy, and educational attainment. Community environmental deficiencies, including deficiencies in infrastructure and location disadvantages, are among the explanations most frequently cited to explain poorer health outcomes in non-notified slums, as compared to notified slums.
Recent ethnographic studies have shed light on some of the other factors that shape health and wellbeing in slums. These factors include exposure to violence, fragmented social relations, strained interactions with government and health institutions, and a marginalized position in the urban underclass of the global capitalist economy. Beyond the more specific focus on health, recent ethnographies in Indian slums reveal significant variations in the ability of residents to access basic services, garner political power, and maintain individual and social resilience. These studies show that the moniker of "slum" masks significant diversity across legal category, geographic location, and degree of social and economic marginalization, all of which shape residents' opportunities, well-being, and subjective experiences.
On the one hand, legally recognized slums such as Dharavi has drawn political and economic strength by extensive negotiations with politicians, police officers, and representatives of civil society organizations, whereas on the other, for residents of more precarious — although not necessarily non-notified — slums, such negotiations are often less successful or can exact a significant personal and collective price even when they are successful.
Building on these insights from social epidemiology, urban ethnography, and migration studies, our research will investigate how legal exclusion, in particular, shapes social conditions, as well as how it impacts subjective experiences of health and well being, and intersects with other forms of social marginalization based on gender, caste, and religion.


Che Guevara Net Worth
How much is Che Guevara Worth?
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Che Guevara Net Worth:
$50 Thousand
Che Guevara Net Worth: Che Guevara was an Argentine revolutionary, physician, author, diplomat, and military theorist who had a net worth of $50 thousand. Ernesto Guevara was born in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina in June 1928. Guevara played a major part in the Cuban Revolution. His image is often used as a counterculture symbol of rebellion in popular culture. Che traveled throughout South America as a medical student. What he saw led him to get involved in Guatemala's social reforms. In Mexico City Guevara met Raul and Fidel Castro and joined their 26th of July Movement. He played a crucial role in a two year guerilla campaign to overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. He served in the new Cuban government. He worked as minister of industries, helped head a literacy campaign, served as national bank president for Cuba's armed forces, trained militia forces, and brought Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles to Cuba. As a writer Che composed a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare and a best-selling memoir. He left Cuba in 1965 and tried to lead revolutions in Congo-Kinshasa and Bolivia. He was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. The Maryland Institute College of Art named a photo of Che titled Guerrillero Heroico the "most famous photograph in the world". Che married Aleida March in 1959 and was previously married to Hilda Gadea. He had five children. Guevara was captured by CIA assisted Bolivian forces and summarily executed on October 9, 1967 at the age of 39. In 2008, his life and work as a revolutionary was turned into a two-part film from director Steven Soderbergh, starring Benicio del Toro as Guevara. The first part, The Argentine, details his involvement with the Cuban revolution and Fidel Castro, while the second part, entitled Guerilla, deals with his time as guerilla fighter in Bolivia.
Che Guevara Net Worth
Che Guevara
Net Worth:$50 Thousand
Date of Birth:Jun 14, 1928 - Oct 9, 1967 (39 years old)
Height:5 ft 11 in (1.82 m)
Profession:Politician, Physician, Diplomat, Author, Revolutionary
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Cyclotactor: Towards a Tactile Platform for Musical Interaction
This paper reports on work in progress on a finger-based tactile I/O device for musical interaction. The improvements made to the device since the previous report are discussed, and its increased capability to support audio-tactile synthesis is illustrated by an example interaction. Central to the device is the ability to set up cyclical relationships between tactile input and output. A direct practical application of this to musical interaction is given, using the idea to multiplex two degrees of freedom on a single tactile loop.
Staas de Jong, The Cyclotactor: Towards a Tactile Platform for Musical Interaction. In: Proceedings 8th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2008), June 2008, Genova (Italy)


Home / Commentary / Closing Arguments: Is Wisconsin's collateral-source rule worth preserving?
Closing Arguments: Is Wisconsin's collateral-source rule worth preserving?
BACKGROUND: Wisconsin lawmakers this year are once again giving serious consideration to eliminating the state's collateral-source rule, a doctrine that has been around in Wisconsin for nearly a century and whose roots extend into common law.
The rule plays a particularly important role in personal-injury cases. Many times, health insurers will negotiate reductions in the amount billed on behalf of their insurees, creating a situation in which the amount paid by the insurer on behalf of an injured party is less than the amount billed by the provider.
The current collateral-source rules bars evidence of such reductions from being admitted in court. Lawyers are instead allowed only to introduce medical bills listing the amounts that were charged before being lowered through negotiations.
Opponents of the rule argue that it allows plaintiffs to recover "phantom damages." In other words, when defense lawyers are barred from showing that health insurers were able to secure cost reductions, plaintiffs are able to win more than they actually should.
Proponents, in contrast, argue that eliminating the collateral-source rule would do nothing more than benefit a perhaps underserving party: namely, a defendant who has been lucky enough to have injured someone who happens to have good health insurance.
Collateral-source rule outdated, unfair, should not be preserved
Paul Curtis
Wisconsin's collateral source rule is not worth preserving in its current form. In my opinion, the rule is outdated and flawed because it promotes deceit and injustice.
Jurors are charged with the serious and solemn task of deciding the fates of plaintiffs and defendants in a court of law. Our legal system demands that jurors seriously and thoughtfully consider all of the evidence and then render a fair and truthful verdict. "Let your verdict speak the truth, whatever that truth may be." Wis JI-Civil 190.
In a personal injury case, the jurors are charged with determining fault and money damages. However, under the current collateral-source rule, jurors are not entrusted with truthful, accurate information relating to medical expenses.
For nearly a century, Wisconsin jurors have been told to assume that the "truth" is that a plaintiff's reasonable medical expenses are reflected in the amount of services billed; i.e., the "sticker price." Of course, the truth is that the plaintiff's actual medical expenses are typically a fraction of the amount billed.
So why does Wisconsin law follow the collateral-source rule? The purported equitable policy is that the tortfeasor should not be relieved of his or her obligation to the victim simply because the injured party had the foresight to purchase insurance, and enjoy the benefits thereof.
However, the policy fails to account for the fact that automobile-liability insurance is now mandatory in Wisconsin. Even in non-auto accident cases, insurance companies often pay the verdict or settlement amounts. Tortfeasors are rarely held personally liable for the injured party's expenses.
Another policy set forth in the case law is that the collateral-source rule deters negligent conduct. I respectfully disagree. I am semi-confident that not a single human being has ever contemplated the effects of the collateral-source rule before committing a negligent act.
The policies, and the rule, are flawed and outdated. Other states that have done away with the collateral-source rule have found that it is unfair. Those foreign courts have reasoned that the defendant or tortfeasor should not be held liable for medical expenses that were never paid or actually incurred by the plaintiff. To impose liability on the defendant for those unpaid medical expenses is simply unfair and unjustified.
Wisconsin's collateral-source rule should be modified to permit jurors to consider both the amount billed and the amount paid when determining a plaintiff's reasonable medical expenses. A jury verdict cannot reasonably "speak the truth" if it based on inaccurate and incomplete facts.
The common goal is to reach a fair verdict such that an injured party is justly compensated and made whole — to the extent that money can achieve that goal. Defense lawyers and insurance companies are often unfairly portrayed as the enemy.
We are not the enemy. We have no interest in seeing a party, who is legitimately injured through no fault of their own, go uncompensated.
We too want justice to be served but we want it served on a level playing field. The collateral-source rule should be modified so as to be transparent with the jury regarding the actual medical expenses charged and paid.
We should trust the jury to weigh and consider all of the evidence and to reach a fair and truthful verdict.
Paul Curtis is a partner and liability-defense lawyer at Axley Brynelson.
Collateral-source 'cure' worse than supposed disease
Robert Jaskulski
Robert Jaskulski
Those calling for changes to Wisconsin's long-held "collateral-source rule" suggest that it is "unfair" to allow injured parties to collect more than their out-of-pocket losses by allowing for recovery of the value of medical services provided.
In reality, legislation eliminating the collateral-source rule would lead to a sea change in the manner in which recoverable damages are determined by juries. The result would be unfair treatment for injured consumers, their health insurers and Wisconsin taxpayers.
Lawmakers' currently proposed bill would allow into evidence much more than just amounts paid by health insurers. As drafted, it in fact allows for the introduction of evidence of "any compensation for bodily injury received from a source other than the defendant to compensate the claimant for the injury. …"
Consequently, the collateral-source rule will no longer be an impediment to the introduction of disability-insurance recoveries or life-insurance recoveries, which might be submitted in an attempt to reduce a defendant's financial responsibility.
How is it remotely "fair" for negligent parties to reduce their legal responsibility to fairly compensate the one they injured or killed by allowing into evidence the fact that the plaintiff was responsible enough to carry decent medical, disability or life insurance?
The unfairness of the proposed change is best illustrated by language in the bill that prohibits the introduction of "amounts paid or incurred by the claimant in recovering payment from a source other than the defendant." One cannot logically or fairly argue on the one hand that the jury is entitled to know the "true" economic loss suffered by an injured party, and on the other hand argue it is appropriate to preclude the introduction of the costs incurred by the injured party in procuring adequate medical, disability or life-insurance benefits.
The bill will inevitably result in reduced recovery by health insurers and, in cases involving Medicaid payouts, the state of Wisconsin. Anyone handling personal-injury litigation understands that subrogation liens are negotiated according to factors that include the total amount of money recovered in settlement by the plaintiff.
When that pool of money is reduced, which will inevitably occur when the plaintiff is not allowed to recover the full value of past medical expenses, all interested parties, including subrogated insurers and the state, will recover less from the wrongdoer. Pursuant to the ratio approach established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Albhorn, 547 U.S. 268 (2006), Medicaid subrogation recoveries will be significantly affected.
Shifting responsibility for the harm caused by negligent parties from property and casualty insurers to health insurers and taxpayers is bad public policy.
Finally, changing the law in the manner suggested will significantly increase costs to health care providers, who will now be called upon at trial to justify their billings and their contractually reduced insurance recoveries. In addition, health insurers will be forced to testify about the reasons for their reduced payments.
Increasing the cost and complexity of litigation in this manner makes no sense in an age when health care and health insurance costs are ever on the rise.
Robert Jaskulski is a shareholder and personal-injury lawyer at Habush, Habush & Rottier.
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getting management to sign off on the purchase of new hardware might not be that easy.
Several vendors offer storage solutions that can be configured to store data on multiple tiers on a single volume over different speed disks. This gives the same basic benefit as partitioning for CAPEX but without needing to dive into how the table needs to be partitioned. The storage array automatically moves the data that's most often used to the fastest disks, which leaves the stale or idle data on the slower, less-expensive disks.
Buffer Pool Too Small
The buffer pool is where SQL Server stores data pages that it has read or written to recently. A small buffer pool will generally cause performance problems, because it will put too much pressure on the disk subsystem. There are a couple of different performance monitor counters that you can look at to see if the buffer pool size is healthy. Both counters are located within the SQLServer:Buffer Manager performance counter object.
The first counter to look at is Database Pages. This counter tells you how much memory is currently allocated to the buffer pool. This counter is in pages, so to get it into gigabytes, multiply the value by 8, then divide by 1,048,576.
The second counter to look at is Page Life Expectancy. This counter tells you how long, in seconds, SQL Server expects that you'll be keeping the data in memory before releasing the page so that additional data can be loaded into memory. There is no magic number that says that the buffer pool is healthy. There's a myth floating around the Internet that says a Page Life Expectancy of 300 means that the system is healthy. However, this isn't the case. On a system that has 100MB of RAM, a Page Life Expectancy of 300 seconds might be a good number to go by. However, a Page Life Expectancy of 300 on a system that has 256GB of RAM would be a disaster.
Fixing a small buffer pool requires adding more memory to the server and configuring SQL Server to use the additional memory. The only other way to increase the amount of data that SQL Server can load from one database into the buffer pool is to move databases from one server to another so that the remaining databases have access to a higher percentage of the database engine's buffer pool.
Slow Network
Another potential server bottleneck is the network. The easiest way to identify this problem is to look at the wait statistics on the system. A wait type of ASYNC_NETWORK_IO indicates that the network between SQL Server and the client computers is having a performance problem. If the client computers are located at a remote site, this could be the cause of the ASYNC_NETWORK_IO wait types.
If all the client computers are local, ASYNC_NETWORK_IO wait types might be the result of an older version of SQL Server or an older network switch being used. A slow or misconfigured network port could also be the cause of ASYNC_NETWORK_IO wait types. For example, having a network port configured for 10/half duplex could cause performance problems. In addition, there could be performance problems if a network port is configured to auto-detect the network speed, but the network switch and server don't successfully negotiate the fastest possible network speed.
Fixing a slow network isn't something that a DBA will be able to handle alone. It will require a coordinated effort between the network administrator, the network provider if there's a WAN involved, and the DBA.
Wrong Technology Used
Some database performance problems can be traced back to simply using the wrong technology to get the job in question done. Usually this revolves around running large reports against production OLTP databases or databases that have an OLTP schema. Many of these reports end up doing large, complex aggregations. Although SQL Server can do the aggregations, it isn't the best technology to use for them. For large, complex aggregations, SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) is often the more appropriate tool because SSAS pre-aggregates the data when the databases are loaded. As a result, when a query asks for aggregated data, it has already been aggregated and the results can simply be returned instead of being processed.
The Cost of Poor Performance
There are many reasons why SQL Server database engines can slow down. It could be a database design problem, system design problem, infrastructure design problem, or code problem. No matter the reason, it's important to realize that slow SQL Server database engines can have more serious consequences than just people complaining. Customers might not get their orders placed. Application users might be spending minutes instead of seconds waiting for screens to load. Users might be waiting hours instead of minutes for reports to run. All of these things will cost the company money -- and nothing will cause a company to want to get its database performance problems resolved more quickly than being able to quantify the money being lost because of slow performance.


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SmeltSee smelting for the chemical process.
Smelt is the name of several species of small anadromous fish of the family osmeridae. They are common in the Great Lakes, and run in large schools along the coastline during their spring migration to their spawning streams. The fish usually reach only 6 inches (15 cm) and are a food source for salmon and lake trout. It is one of the few fish that sportsmen are allowed to net, using gill nets, either along the coastline or in the streams. Some sportsmen also icefish for smelt. Smelt are often fried and eaten whole.
Smelt roe is bright orange in color, and is often used to garnish sushi.
The Boy's Own Book of Outdoor Sports (early 1900s) adds:
In the United States this fish seldom exceeds ten inches in length, and the usual size is from five to eight inches. In South America they grow to the length of two feet, are semi-transparent, and are most delicious eating. Some of them caught by American sailors at the Straits of Magellan were thirty inches long by eight inches round the body. The smelt is exceedingly plentiful in the waters around Boston, and they are also taken in the rivers of New jersey and the ponds of Long Island. They are of a pale green color on the back, with silvery sides, and a satin band running along the sides. They may be called a sea fish, though they run up fresh water streams in the spring to spawn. They are caught in October and November, and in the winter months by breaking holes in the ice. The tackle used for the smelt is a silk, or silk and hair line, with Limerick trout hooks Nos. 2 to 5, on single gut leaders. The sinker should be pretty heavy to overcome the tide. Shrimp bait is generally used, or small pieces of minnow or frog will answer. If you wish to fish them through a hole in the ice, take a piece of small brass wire a foot and a half long, put it through a piece of lead for a sinker, and fasten your hooks at both ends. Tie on a cotton or flax line and then drop your hooks. You can use three or four of these lines at different holes, setting them, while you are either skating or running round to keep warm. In this way you will get a fine string of smelts in a short time. Smelts will live, breed and thrive when transferred to fresh water ponds; and by some people these fresh water smelt are considered the best eating. They live a long time out of water and hence are good eating after being carried long distances.


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Contentious Politics in the Trump Era
by Charles Crabtree, University of Michigan, Christian Davenport, University of Michigan, Erica Chenoweth, University of Denver, Dana M. Moss, University of Pittsburgh, Jennifer Earl, University of Arizona, Emily Hencken Ritter, University of California, Merced, and Christopher Sullivan, Louisiana State University
In our paper, we identify a potential problem in recent works on repression in the American context. The concern here is that papers, popular articles, and blog posts often use the term 'repression' in a non-standard way, sometimes even confusing it with two other related concepts: oppression and discrimination. By including a large range of state activities under the 'repression' label, we limit our ability to discuss the phenomenon with any precision. We also might potentially prevent scholarly accumulation and synthesis by a creating a conceptual wedge between researchers.
In light of these concerns, we construct a conceptual map that distinguishes between repression, oppression, political discrimination, and non-political discrimination. In line with Goldstein (1978), we think that 'repression' is defined by two key features: (1) it involves the threat or application of physical violence and (2) that it is meant to deter political opposition (in action or thought). This is in contrast to 'oppression', which is commonly used to describe violent behavior by the state that does not target individuals or groups for political purposes. As we show in the paper, both of these concepts can be viewed as subtypes of discrimination.


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1 Top 100 Names Number 1 in the United States
Independence, Leadership Popularity Rank: 9
The Number 1 suggests a strong sense of independence, desire to excel and to lead. It is the most ambitious number and can bring those who identified with it to the greatest heights. "Dream the impossible dream" is the deepest motivation of these people, and the hidden motive is self-acceptance. Number 1 promotes masculine energy expressed as action and accomplishment.
Number 1 represent Desire. It can be a desire to love, knowledge, wealth or wisdom. Number 1 isn't usually known for their patience, because they have so much to accomplish in this lifetime and so little time to do it, and there's no time to stay and look inside themselves, or waiting for others. They may appear selfish at times, but it comes from a compelling urge for freedom and action, and preoccupation to establish their identity.Most Popular Names


text: Free-space optical communication is a promising solution to the "last mile" bottleneck of data networks. Conventional near infrared-based free-space optical communication systems suffer from atmospheric scattering losses and scintillation effects which limit the performance of the data links. Using mid-infrared, we reduce the scattering and thus can improve the quality of the data links and increase their range. Because of the low scattering, the data link cannot be intercepted without a complete or partial loss in power detected by the receiver. This type of communications provides ultra-high bandwidth and highly secure data transfer for both short and medium range data links. Quantum cascade lasers are one of the most promising sources for mid-wavelength infrared sources and Type-II superlattice photodetectors are strong candidates for detection in this regime. The same way that that low scattering makes mid-wavelength infrared ideal for secure free space communications, high scattering can be used for secure short-range free-space optical communications. In the solar-blind ultraviolet (< 280 nm) light is strongly scattered and absorbed. This scattering makes possible non-line-of-sight free-space optical communications. The scattering and absorption also prevent remote eavesdropping. III-Nitride based LEDs and photodetectors are ideal for non-line-of-sight free-space optical communication.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.