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The originator of rodeo steer wrestling, or bulldogging, Bill Pickett is believed to have been born December 5, 1870, in Travis County, Texas, about thirty miles north of Austin. He was one of thirteen children of Thomas Jefferson Pickett and Mary Virginia Elizabeth Gilbert Pickett.
After acquiring a fifth-grade education, Bill Pickett went to work on a ranch. He soon learned to "bulldog" a steer by grasping it by the horns, twisting its neck, biting its nose or its upper lip, and making it fall on its side; this biting technique he had learned by observing how herder dogs controlled steers. Soon he and his four brothers (B. W., J. J., C. H., and B. F.), established their own horse breaking business in Taylor, Texas. Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough Riders advertised "catching and taming wild cattle a speciality."
Bill Pickett entered his first rodeo in 1888 at the fair in Taylor. By the early 1900s he was a popular rodeo performer. In 1905 Pickett joined the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch and Wild West show. Billed as the "Dusky Deamon" [sic] he performed with that outfit for over a quarter century. In 1907 he moved his family from Texas to the 101 Ranch, near Ponca City, where in the off seasons he worked as a cowboy and also competed against white contestants in hundreds of rodeos around the West. In order to enter these events, Pickett was often identified as being an Indian, not an African American. His "bite-'em-down" technique of felling a steer evolved into steer wrestling, which remains one of rodeo's most important events.
Bill Pickett also performed in a number of motion pictures and is credited with being the first black cowboy star. Richard E. Norman Studios, of Jacksonville, Florida, an all-black film production company, featured Pickett in Crimson Skull (1921) and The Bull-Dogger (1922), both filmed in Oklahoma. Bill Pickett died April 2, 1932, of head injuries inflicted by a rogue horse at the 101 Ranch. He was buried on the ranch near the White Eagle Monument.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bailey C. Hanes, Bill Pickett, Bulldogger: The Biography of a Black Cowboy (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977). Jerrold J. Mundis, "He Took the Bull by the Horns," American Heritage (December 1967). "Bill Pickett," Vertical File, Rodeo Hall of Fame, Rodeo Historical Society, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Willard Porter, "Bill Pickett," in Who's Who in Rodeo (Oklahoma City, Okla.: Powder River Books, 1982).
© Oklahoma Historical Society


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This study will determine whether stimulating the nerves or the brain can modify the spinal reflex that controls the muscles that flex and extend the ankle. Training spinal nerve networks with sensory input may provide a way of re-establishing movements, such as walking, in patients with spinal injury.
Healthy normal volunteers with no history of peripheral neuropathy or radiculopathy, ankle contractures or tendon surgery may be eligible for this study. Participants will undergo three stimulation procedures, each in a different session, to measure leg muscle reflexes. The procedures are:
- Reflex testing - Metal electrodes are taped to the skin over the leg muscles. A small electrical pulse is delivered through the electrodes to stimulate two nerves to the muscles. This evokes a reflex between the ankle flexor and extensor muscles. The responses to several dozen stimuli are averaged.
- Nerve stimulation - The nerve to the muscle that flexes the leg is electrically stimulated near the knee through electrodes taped to the skin. The strength of the stimulus is adjusted to produce little or no muscle movement. The stimulation is repeated every few seconds for 45 minutes.
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation - An insulated wire coil is placed on the subject's scalp. A brief electrical current passes through the coil, creating a magnetic pulse that travels through the scalp and skull and causes small electrical currents in the outer part of the brain. There may be twitching in the muscles of the arm or leg. During the stimulation, the subject may be asked to tense certain muscles slightly or perform other simple actions to help determine the best position for the coil over the part of the brain that controls the leg. The leg is then stimulated once every 10 seconds, combined with nerve stimulation every 1 to 2 seconds.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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History of The BIG Zoo Lesson
Initiated by Michigan Teacher of the Year _PHONE_ Margaret Holtschlag, The BIG Zoo Lesson is an interdisciplinary, problem-based approach to teaching and learning and an innovative tool for learning conservation and developing sensitivity to the natural world. Teachers bring their students to the zoo for a full week for lessons with docents and zookeepers, daily animal observations, and cooperative research. Following the model of Jane Goodall, children are up close as the primary researchers with a first hand experience of the animal world.
For more information about The BIG Zoo Lesson, contact: Margaret Holtschlag, Director of BIG Lesson Programs, Clinton County RESA, 1013 S. US27, Suite A, St. Johns, MI 48879. Phone: _PHONE_. Email: _EMAIL_.


Do Squirrels Have Good Eyesight? Can Squirrels See In The Dark?
We all know about the squirrels. They are the small and cute creatures that chase each other on the treetop. They perform different tasks on daily basis such as they wander in the search of food. Their steady calculated and speedy motion in snatching and stashing nuts must have made you think about their eyesight. You must have thought that how much they can see. Whether they can see colors or not?
Do Squirrels Have Good Eyesight
Are they color blind or not? So in this article, we will discuss how squirrels see.
Do Squirrels Have Good Eyesight?
Squirrels rely on their senses for their daily tasks especially on hearing, smell, and eyesight.
They are blessed with good vision, hearing, and smell sense because they have to respond when they feel danger.
They have to find food even when it is buried underground.
The answer to the question that whether squirrels have eyesight is, Yes they have very good eyesight. They have better eyesight than other rodents. They have good daylight vision. They have sharp peripheral vision it means that they can see things next to them and in peripheries without moving their head. This sharp peripheral vision helps them to stay alert from environmental changes and also to detect danger and predators. Squirrels have poor night vision as compared to day vision.
So here is another question why is the need for having good sight. Let us find the answer.
Why Do Squirrels Have A Good Vision?
Vision plays important role in their survival. Other rodents like mice and rats spend their time running in the dark. Since they have poor vision so they use whiskers as a navigation tool. Squirrels are not nocturnal so they keep running around the day to search for food. They rely on their vision to detect to spot predators. The visual brain area for squirrels is larger and well developed than any other rodent.
A pale yellow pigment is founded on their lenses which protect. and enhance their vision This yellow pigment helps to see in sunlight. The yellow pigment reduces glare and acts like sunglasses. It also blocks UV rays and protects the retina from damage. Morphological examination of squirrels' eyes shows that it has wide angle vision with exceptional focusing power across the retina.
Humans have a single point on the retina which is known as fovea centralis where the cone cells are densely packed hence we humans have sharp vision. The result is that we can focus on the single central point and the peripheries remain blurred. But the squirrel can see in their peripherals without moving their head.
The squirrels also have a blind spot caused by the optic nerve passing through the retina. Squirrel vision totally bases upon the movement. They can catch an observer from a couple of feet if he or she stands still. The two types of photoreceptors, rod and cones are present in squirrels' eyes. The ability to see in dark or low light is enabled by rods. The concentration of rods varies in different types of
squirrels. The ground squirrel has a rod density of10 % and the ground squirrel has a rod density of 40%.and the nocturnal flying squirrel has a density of 100 percent rod density. The ability to see at night varies differently in different squirrels. There is an exception in albino animals. Albino animals lack melanin pigment. Melanin is also important in the development of the retina and also needed for color in the eye. Animals with this trait have poor vision and underdeveloped eyes. However, it comes to know from some sources that squirrel with albino trait has maintained good vision.
Are Squirrels Color Blind?
As compared to other animals squirrels are not color blind, they can see color. Early retinal studies show that squirrels can see color but recent studies have shown that squirrels have dichromatic vision it means they can see yellow and blue color tone and cannot distinguish between red and green hues. It means that they are color blind. The red object will appear yellow-green to a squirrel. Most of the squirrels have cone-dominated media and have the dichromatic vision that is mediated by green and blue cones. Some interesting studies have shown that they are capable of distinguishing red and green biscuits.It was totally different from the information about squirrel eyesight however it was suggested that they can smell or respond to the rightness of the biscuit, not the color.
Can Squirrel See In Darkness:
Squirrels have been always classified for their strong vision from their peripheries to a focal point. They have the ability to see above and beside their head without turning their head. So it is impossible for a predator to creep on them. Their color vision is though not excellent; the yellow tint in their eyes acts as sunglasses in the sunlight. While thinking about whether these creatures see in darkness or come out at night, you must know that they are made for day and love to be in bed at night. They have good day vision and poor night vision squirrels leave their nest in the morning to search for food and scampering trees. At night time they are silent and asleep just like human beings. Night time is for a catch-up sleep and you will find them in their nest or underground.
They are not nocturnal like other critters. This also does not mean that they are always inactive, they may leave the nest at night to search for food or water but mostly they are inactive. Squirrels that tend to be active at night are mostly flying squirrels. Flying squirrels do not make many noises at night and do not talk a lot. You can hardly listen to their noises at night at your home or attic. The answer to the question that can squirrel see in the dark is, yes most of the squirrel species can see in the dark but they are mostly inactive at night and tend to sleep the whole night.
Squirrel vs Human Vision :
You may think who has the better vision, squirrel or humans? There are many similarities in both visual perceptions. Color blindness is the same for squirrels and humans. The people suffering from color blindness confuse the color spot as the
squirrel does. Humans only focus on one object at one time but squirrels have the ability to see in peripheries without nodding their head. The human retina has a very small area where vision is sharp but in squirrels, this area is spread on the whole retina.
To Sum Up :
Despite being color blind, they have excellent eyesight. The vision is also aided by yellow pigment that helps to see in sunlight and peripheral vision. These factors help them to survive in wild. However, they are more active in the daytime and have good day vision, and inactive at night time. Studies show that they can see in the dark but tend to rest in thor drey at night.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q1: Do squirrels have eyesight?
Yes, squirrels have very good day vision. they also have yellow pigment in their eyes which reduces glare in sunlight and act like sunglasses.
Q2: Can squirrels see humans?
Yes, squirrels can see humans. They have a lot of visual similarities with humans. they have sharp focus than a human being and can see in the peripheries as well without raising their head. Whereas a human can focus on an object at one time.
Q3:Are squirrels color blind?
Squirrels do have color vision but they cannot differentiate between red and green. They have a dichromatic vision that means they can only see two colors blue and green. This shows that they are color blind.
Q4:Can squirrels see in the dark?
Squirrels have excellent daytime vision and poor night vision. If they tend to active at night they have exposed to all types of dangers.


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American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A Muslim scholar who interprets the shari'a.
- n. Civilian dress, especially when worn by one who normally wears a uniform.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A Mohammedan law-officer whose duty it was to expound the law which the kadi was to execute.
- n. In India, citizen's dress worn by officers when off duty: now commonly used in this sense in the British army.
- n. countable (Islam) A Muslim scholar and interpreter of shari'a law, who can deliver a fatwa
- n. uncountable (UK, New Zealand) Civilian dress when worn by a member of the military, or casual dress when worn by a pupil of a school who normally would wear uniform
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An official expounder of Mohammedan law.
- n. One of the chief legal advisers to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
- n. Colloq. Eng. Ordinary civilian dress when worn by persons who serve in a uniformed service, such as the military or police. It originally was used in reference to British naval or military officers, and originated with the British service in India.
- n. a jurist who interprets Muslim religious law
- n. civilian dress worn by a person who is entitled to wear a military uniform
- From Arabic المفتي (al-múftī ) (definite form). (Wiktionary)
- Arabic muftī, one who gives legal opinions, active participle of 'aftā, to decide by legal opinion; see ptw in Semitic roots.Probably from mufti1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
"A flunkey in mufti is as unseemly an object as a soldier on furlough, with his jacket unbuttoned and his neat stock replaced by a coloured neckerchief."
"In 2008, Umar left for South Africa to pursue a two-year master's degree in Islamic jurisprudence and earned the title "mufti."
"Predominantly old soldiers and, allowing for the dreadful appearance that men drilling in mufti always present, not a bad lot."
"He was embarrassed in 2006 when the Saudi daily inaccurately described him as the "mufti" - i.e. the chief Islamic religious official - of California."
"All Salah needs to become a mufti is the approval of the chief judge, or grand mufti, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, but so far he has remained silent."
"Another Guantánamo detainee, also captured in Pakistan in 2001 and later released to a Saudi rehabilitation program is Ibrahim Suleiman al-Rubaysh, 30, who also disappeared and is now described as the mufti, or theological guide, to Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula."
"He and his companion-sentry under the other arch were aware of officers in "mufti" on the opposite sidewalk, and kept their eyes immovably to the front."
"There are the sentries to be squared, and the fellow who provides you with a suit of'mufti'."
"The resplendent uniforms of the members totally eclipsed that of the Duke, who was in "mufti"; but he readily understood that the division of attention was really not attributable to us."
"Any one looking at him in'mufti' would exclaim, 'what an unfortunate object!' and perhaps offer him a penny, while in his hunting habiliments lords would hail him with, 'Well, Tom, how are you?' and baronets ask him"
These user-created lists contain the word 'mufti'.
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
About leaders, particularly the authority-figure at the top of the tree.
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c)...
found while reading
Words gathered while reading Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov.
an addendum or Anhang to Prolagus's list 'The braggadocio recipe'
Words compiled while reading Presidents At War.
Looking for tweets for mufti.


Grand Prairie, TX
Grand Prairie profile
Living in Grand Prairie
Grand Prairie is a relatively large city located in the state of Texas. With a population of 194,543 people and 35 constituent neighborhoods, Grand Prairie is the 15th largest community in Texas.
Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Grand Prairie is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both whiteand blue-collar jobs. Overall, Grand Prairie is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Grand Prairie who work in office and administrative support (13.65%), sales jobs (9.79%), and management occupations (7.73%).
Also of interest is that Grand Prairie has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
One downside of living in Grand Prairie, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 30.44 minutes every day commuting to work.
The education level of Grand Prairie citizens is a little higher than the average for US cities and towns: 23.59% of adults in Grand Prairie have at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Grand Prairie in 2018 was $26,761, which is upper middle income relative to Texas, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $107,044 for a family of four. However, Grand Prairie contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Grand Prairie is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Grand Prairie home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Grand Prairie, accounting for 47.48% of the city's residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Grand Prairie residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Grand Prairie include German, Irish, English, African, and European.
Foreign born people are also an important part of Grand Prairie's cultural character, accounting for 22.83% of the city's population.
The most common language spoken in Grand Prairie is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Vietnamese.


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Summarise Ideas From a Paragraph
In this worksheet, students will be asked to summarise main ideas from a paragraph. An important skill in Year 6 is to be able to summarise key information into a few well-structured sentences.
'Summarise Ideas From a Paragraph' worksheet
Key stage: KS 2
Curriculum topic: Reading: Comprehension
Curriculum subtopic: Identify and Summarise Main Ideas
Difficulty level:
Worksheet Overview
In this activity, you will practice how to write a summary from a paragraph.
A good summary will give the reader all of the information they need without the extra, unnecessary detail.
A summary is much shorter than the original piece of writing.
The crucial information includes the 5 W's:
The summary needs to take the form of a well-structured paragraph.
Think of this paragraph as a sandwich.
The top piece of bread is the topic sentence that introduces what the paragraph is about.
The filling is the supporting sentences that add detail to the topic sentence.
The bottom piece of bread is the ending sentence which concludes or closes the paragraph.
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The government defines social enterprises as 'businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners.'
All social enterprises have a social and/or environmental mission, which is absolutely central to what they do – it's why they exist. That may be reducing carbon emissions or landfill, supporting people with disabilities into paid work, or providing training to young or disadvantaged. Put simply, when social enterprises profit, society profits.
- Have a clear social mission set out in their governing documents
- Have an accountable structure to oversee and protect the social mission
- Generate the majority of their income through trade
- Reinvest their profits
- Be autonomous and independent organisations
- Be majority owned and controlled in the interests of the social mission


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Puppet has launched Puppet Remediate — its first vulnerability remediation product. The product aims to reduce the time from vulnerability detection to remediation by unifying infrastructure and vulnerability data, quickly identifying which infrastructure resources are being impacted and taking immediate action to remediate vulnerabilities.
Key features of Puppet Remediate include the following:
- Shared vulnerability data between security and IT ops: The platform unifies infrastructure data with vulnerability data from Tenable, Qualys and Rapid7. This prioritizes vulnerabilities while enabling IT ops to access vulnerability data in real time to reduce delays.
- Risk-based prioritization: Puppet Remediate includes a dashboard that lists the most critical vulnerabilities to show IT ops which assets have vulnerabilities and which should be fixed first.
- Agentless remediation: The product includes four prebuilt tasks, including the ability to update packages. Additionally, it can load modules from Puppet Forge, where IT operators, security analysts and developers share ready-to-automate solutions as Bolt tasks. These capabilities enable IT ops to take action to remediate a vulnerability without leaving the application or having to use a command-line interface or write scripts and without requiring any agent technology.
Additionally, according to Puppet, its channel partners help provide an established infrastructure and information security practice.
Security continues to be an important area of improvement for organizations. As more devices are connected through IoT, more vulnerabilities are exposed to those with malicious intent. In July, SafeBreach launched its newest version of the GRID platform in an effort to help security teams prioritize and manage security gaps.
Risk-based prioritization has been identified as a cost-effective way to reach security goals, as it identifies the most critical and immediate risks to an organization and then treats them. This enables organizations to use their security budgets in an effective way while still providing critical security.
Dig Deeper on Network threat detection

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


How parents should talk to kids to stem suicide crisis
Parents need to equate puberty's huge bodily changes with a corresponding shift in their mindsets as part of a new discussion aimed at stemming the rising tide of youth suicide.
And one of the most vital aspects of these discussions are to get children aware of staying on top of their mental health around age 11-12 before they go through the 'I'm not talking to my parents' phase.
This is the warning from experts as international trends in the US, UK and Australia reveal how children are engaging in self harm and suicideal behaviour at a younger age than what they were 10 years ago.
Professor Patrick McGorry, Executive Director of Orygen.
Professor Patrick McGorry, Executive Director of Orygen.
In a script put together by Orygen's Professor Patrick McGorry and Associate Professor Jo Robinson, parents are urged to use certain lines warning their children that "just as you are having huge changes in your body similar things are happening in your mind".
THE SCRIPT: You can use lines like
"You will experience stronger emotions than what you've ever felt which may be very difficult to handle.
"The big pressure points will be friendship groups, the possibility of bullying and school.
"Friendship groups can be fickle and change quickly - especially when you are moving into high school.
"It's important to remember that the friends you have now may not be the same group you have later on.
"This is one of the best times of your life because you are becoming your own person.
"But you can't let becoming your own person come at the expense of your own wellbeing.
"You also can't let that evolving independence stop you from reaching out to me or other people.
"To feel disappointed and sad is normal, but if you are struggling on an ongoing basis then you need to reach out to someone you trust.
"That could be me, someone else in the family or someone who is older."
A crisis in a young person's life - a break up, friendship troubles, a major disappointment etc - is also a big opportunity to understand what's going on in their heads and to get them to open up.
"I've noticed that your mood has changed. Is there any reason for that?
"Is there anything that you are looking forward to? Why don't we see if you can do more of that.
"It's understandable at your age to be more moody and emotional than usual, but feeling an ongoing depression, self harming or having suicidal thoughts is not normal.
"Psychosis and eating disorders are some things that young people suffer from, but there is also plenty of help out there."
The two experts also recommend wrapping this talk in with the puberty discussions around age 11-12 and noted that it could also be helpful to do it while engaged in something else like driving, watching TV, walking or doing something where you are not necessarily eye-to-eye.
As many as 10 per cent of young Australians will self-harm at some point in their lives.
Sydney University's Brain and Mind Centre co-director Professor Ian Hickie said 12-year-olds are exhibiting the same "frightening" behaviour that previously surfaced in the average 16-year-old less than a decade ago.
Prof Hickie said while the causes of this change remains a mystery, it has underscored the need for parents to have a "birds and bees" style conversation with their kids about how to deal with heightened emotions.
"It's a really tricky age to be having these sorts of conversations because a lot of boys are very immature and a lot of girls are experiencing severe emotionality that they have not experienced before," Prof Hickie told The Sunday Telegraph.
Professor Ian Hickie says parents should talk to their kids about mental health. Picture: Kym Smith
"The conversations are about coping with emotional distress, transitioning to high school, letting them know that it's normal to have sudden and deep changes and feelings and planning on how to deal with that."
The state's youth suicide rates are at their highest level in 15 years, with 54 people under the age of 18 dying by suicide in 2016 and 2017.
Separate research said the economic impact will increase the number of NSW suicides in 15-24-year-olds by 30 per cent in the next five years.
Teenagers' unprecedented access to social media is thought to be a big part of the change.
Prof Hickie said whereas previous generations could keep a lid on conversations about self-harm and suicide, in today's interconnected world that is impossible.
He said it is also not an option simply to ignore it.
"There needs to be more open dialogue between parents and the teaching community and if there are clusters of suicidal behaviour and self harm, parents need to be involved," Prof Hickie said.
"And if you're not getting the information from the school, talk to other parents and see what you can find out.
"Often there are at least a few parents who are in the know - perhaps because they are more tech-savvy or more in tune with the kids. Other parents can be oblivious. It's worth asking around."
Originally published as How parents should talk to kids to stem suicide crisis
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Academy of Tantric Science
Aaron and Alissa are Tantric practitioners and teachers experiencing a Cosmic Partnership with one another. They share a family of 6 children, and operate the Academy of Tantric Science together.
They share a common understanding of the power of relationship as a ground for conscious awakening, breaking through past conditioning, healing toxic shame, and unlocking vital creative power.
More importantly, they share the common interest of supporting and serving others on this path.
Their workshops aim to bridge the gap between traditional Tantra and and the current needs of North American people. They keep it fun and interesting, without forgetting to include the essential elements of Tantra that are missing from so many other teachings.
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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate how Lean Six Sigma (LSS) may help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 within health care environments. The goals of this study were to understand the current knowledge of LSS and COVID-19 through a systematic review of the current literature, identify the gap in the current knowledge of LSS in COVID-19 mitigation within health care environments and define the principles of LSS, within organizational resilience that support a health care organization's ability to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach: A narrative literature review was conducted to identify relevant research. A total of 21 subject matter experts (SMEs) meeting the inclusion criteria were approached through a guided interview process. Content analysis was conducted to describe how LSS principles contribute to supporting health care organizations operating in the era of COVID-19.
Findings: Study results report that personal safety is the primary subject, followed by supporting dimensions of process redesign, and telemedicine. LSS topics that directly relate to COVID-19 are in four thematic areas: tools, applications, benefits and challenges. Particular areas of application, techniques, challenges and benefits are identified and discussed that could be applied proactively and reactively, to organizational and supply chain resilience to recover from COVID-19.
Research limitations/implications: There were a number of limitations to the generalizability of this work. The sample size was small and purposeful, thus, external validity of the study results are not determined. The SMEs in this study have not implemented the practices noted in the results at the time of the study, and knowledge of results is limited to the study aims.
Originality/value: This study of LSS principles and COVID-19 has implications for practitioners and offers specific guidance for areas of health care adoption of LSS techniques and tools that benefit patient safety, challenges for the user to be mindful of and potential benefits in resilience of operations in the era of COVID-19.
- Health care
- Lean six sigma
- Organizational resilience
- Supply chain resilience
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Strategy and Management
- Management Science and Operations Research
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


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Now that consumers have general access to high-quality VR content by way of the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, eye-tracking technology seems to be the next step in the evolution of VR. But what about touch input, as in feeling the virtual wind against your skin or how a virtual object feels when you grab it with your hand? One group of developers is looking into just that, and has created a way to generate full-body tactile feedback with what they call Skinterface.
Created by Ka Kei Suen, Charlotte Furet, George Wright, and Andre McQueen from London's Royal College of Art, Skinterface is essentially a skinsuit covered with a matrix of small nodes (actuators) that use sound to move tiny magnets underneath those nodes. When each node is fed a specific sound, the node will send out a waveform that vibrates the magnet. Different waveforms will generate different vibrations.
"Each moving magnet node is independent, and has several modes of operation," the team states in a video. "Complex waveforms can be fed into the output of these actuators while the direction of the movement can be separately controlled and varied, allowing for acute control of touch intensity, form, temperature, and sensation."
In a separate report by Quartz, each node on the Skinterface suit is color-coded, allowing a 3D camera to track its movements. As the user moves through the virtual space, the suit will generate different sensations that can be felt across the body. The team's next step with Skinterface is to allow users to "feel" virtual objects in their hands.
The main idea behind Skinterface is that skin is the human's interface to the physical world, allowing us to feel the hardness of keyboard keycaps, the breeze of an overhead fan, the softness of a chair's cushion, and so on. As a result, skin should also be the main interface in the digital world as well. Otherwise, humans are mere observers looking through a virtual window strapped to their face.
The team recently showcased its Skinterface design at the Milan Design Week 2016 showcase back in April. The developers also revealed a glove that provided sensations to the hand and forearm when passed through a special window frame, as if the user was moving their hand through a portal into another, unseen world.
In addition to the glove, the exhibit included a device that featured two platforms: one on the right with embedded sensors that visitors placed their hand upon, and one on the left sporting an artificial hand with its palm facing up. When visitors touched the fake hand on the left, those with their hand placed on the platform to the right could feel those sensations.
"The focus in this exhibit is primarily on the physical transition into the virtual world, the feeling of crossing an imaginary threshold into a computer simulated environment," the team states. "Beyond this transition, the suit would also be capable of facilitating two-way interactions with virtual objects or people — be that for entertainment, communication, virtual prototyping or one of the many other potential applications."
Touch is just one of the main goals involved in moving virtual reality forward. Emteq is currently working on technology to bring emotional interactions to virtual reality, deeming this input as the fourth-generation of VR, following the initial headset availability, hand-movement tracking, and eye tracking. And another company is working on Veeso, a VR headset sporting face-tracking technology.


Viewpoint: Protecting the flood plain -, Albany News, Weather, Sports
Viewpoint: Protecting the flood plain
It's easy to criticize government programs, but from time to time, one comes along that might produce some good.
We think one of these is the flood plain recovery program the Natural Resources Conservation Service offered recently.
All this rain we've seen recently really brings the purpose of the program into focus. The program is designed to put floodplains, where people have built houses, or planted crops, back into their natural state.
The government pays up to 100% of the cost of restoration. If the land is crop land, trees will be planted, and native vegetation will return. If there's a house or other structure there, the government will pay to relocate it.
While the land can't be developed, landowners still own the land, and can use it for hunting and fishing.
This will help restore the natural floodplains of the rivers in the state.
The benefits for us all would be reduced erosion, improved water quality, protection of fish and wildlife habitat, and protection of endangered species.
We salute the effort to restore Georgia's floodplain.


Select language:
The tanks are shown according to Chronological order:
1. Entrance Hall: At the entrance, the museum displays a collection of flags representing armored military units. Some of these units are still in-service in the Jordanian Armed Forces, while others exited or have been merged with former units. Behind the flags is Al Hussein tank, the current main battle tank serving in the Jordanian armed forces.
2. Armoring Origins: The protection of soldiers and cavalries has captured human attention since ancient times. Armies protected their knights by equipping them with armors. Even artists had a contribution to finding a way of armoring. Learn more about the origins of armoring in this hall.
3. World War I Hall: More than hundred years have passed since the outbreak of the Great World War, the war that witnessed the use of the first tank in battle. WWI resulted in the disappearance of countries from the world map and the emergence of others, resulting in the death of more than ten million people between civilian and military.
4. Great Arab Revolt: The Great Grandfather of His Majesty King Abdullah II, Al Sharif Al-Hussein Bin Talal, Sharif of Mecca and the King of the Arabs launched his first shot announcing the start of the Great Arab Revolt. The Jordanian tribes joined Al Sharif and his sons the princes, declaring their support for them against Ottoman rule. In this hall, we tell the story of the revolution in time with the events of the First World War.
5. World War II Hall: One of the bloodiest wars in history, which resulted in millions of deaths from almost every part of the world. This hall displays the tanks that participated during the war from both the Allies and the Axis in their three main fronts. (North Africa, Europe and Russia).
6. Arab Legion Hall: The Arab Legion has been described as a distinct army for its discipline and courage since its establishment in the 1930s. The Arab Legion, later known as the Jordanian Armed Forces, participated in the World War II and was an active participant in the stability of our region. In this hall, you will see some of the first vehicles used by the Arab Legion.
7. Jerusalem Hall: The Jordanian Armed Forces played the major role in protecting Jerusalem in 1948. The Jordanian soldiers made heroic sacrifices that Jordanians are still proud of. The Jordanian Armed Forces witnessed major victorious battles in while defending Jerusalem. Learn more about them in this hall.
8. Jordanian Armored Forces (1950's - 1960's) Hall: A notable development of the Jordanian Armed Forces took place in the 50s and 60s of the last century; several tanks and military vehicles were brought into service, and the amendment began to suit the needs of the army. Know about the developments in the Jordanian armed forces when you visit this hall.
9. Al Karameh Hall: The Jordanian victory in Karamah Battle was a decisive point in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the result of this battle changed the political and military perspectives of the conflict back then. The battle perceived heroic stories of the Jordanian Armed Forces, which were linked to every Jordanian house. In this hall we present many stories and vehicles that participated in the Battle of Karamah.
10. Arab Israeli Halls: Jordan played a major role in the Arab Israeli wars, either by direct battles, or by supporting Arab forces. Jolan war in 1973 is of the examples. Know more about the Arab Israeli wars in this hall.
11. King Abdallah II Hall: You will discover in this hall the three most important stages of the life of His Majesty King Abdullah II and the vehicles he used during his military service.
12. Inside the Tank Hall: Operating inside the tank is one of the most difficult military tasks due to the limited space which results in the difficulty of moving. Imagine being inside a tank to appreciate the sacrifice soldiers are giving their homelands.
13. Armored Reconnaissance Vehicles: The Armored Reconnaissance Vehicles were used in the armored formation in WW2 to go forward in enemy territories to observe and report enemy activities; also they were used to guide troops during movement and also used by artillery forward observation officers. During WW2 armored reconnaissance vehicles were generally wheeled armored cars which were small in size and lightly armored with crew of 2 to 3 men. The most famous vehicles in WW2 were Dingo scout car for UK, M8 Greyhound and M24 Chaffee for USA and BA 64 for USSR. After WW2 armored reconnaissance vehicles became mostly tracked vehicles with large gun as main weapon or ATGM and they became an active weapon in the battle fields. The most famous vehicles after WW2 were Scimitar and Fox for UK, M551 Sheridan for USA and BRDM 1 and PT 76 for USSR.
14. Tank Destroyers Vehicles: Tank destroyers are armored vehicles equipped with weapons dedicated for destroying tanks. They were widely used during the WW2 supporting the armed forces during operations.Tank destroyers have the abilities to destroy heavy armored vehicles in long ranges. Most of the tank destroyers does not have a turret but a gun on the hull of the tank which leave them with very little manoeuvring abilities where the destroyer has to turn completley to take position.The German Jagdpanther is one of the most famous destroyer during WW2. During the cold war the tank destroyers were replaced by other anti tanks weapons.
15. Tank In Battle Hall: This hall gives its visitors the chance to experience a battle by incorporating the tanks displayed with imaginary sceneries of war.
16. International Hall: After the end of World War II, the world has been split into East (WARSAW) lead by the USSR and the West (NATO) lead by USA. This split became to be known as the Cold War (_PHONE_). In this hall, you know the tanks of the eastern and western camps.
17. Jordan Design and Development Burea Hall: Jordan has a prominent role in the field of military manufacturing. This role was received with the direct attention of His Majesty the Supreme Commander of the Jordanian Armed Forces, King Abdullah II.
Jordan Design and Development Bureau was the result of this interest. It presents creative designs and military tools used by many countries. Know the story of the bureau when you visit this hall.
18. Gift Shop: The gift shop offers souvenirs and clothes related to the military life. Visit the store at the end of your tour and ask about any offers available for the day.
19. World Of Tanks: The World of Tanks game offers a unique experience for visitors through giving them a chance to examine some of the tanks they saw in display through an actual tank battle. The museum offers the game free to all visitors.


Janette Oakman
'Bringing comfort &
 understanding through
 Helping to bring comfort and
understanding through knowledge
Mediumship Is Just Like Driving A Car
In the early days mediumship can be very similar to driving a car. When you start to learn to drive, you have to understand the gears, know which pedal to use and how much pressure to use, judge distances, remember to indicate, keep looking behind you through your rear view mirror, keep looking ahead of you as you need to know where you are going, pre empt what the person infront of you is going to do, pre empt what the person behind is going to do, pre empt what everyone at every junction you drive past is going to do, pre empt if the traffic lights are going to change or not, concentrate on your speed, concentrate on the pedestrains, make sure you are always 3ft away from any parked car, remember to indicate and then put someone else in the car that expects you to talk to them!
But just like learning to drive a car, it doesn't take too long before you are naturally doing all of the above without even giving it too much thought. A good friend of mine Bill Forrester psychic artist says its when we are doing scared spider impressions, you have arms and legs going everywhere! must admit I do like that visualisation.
Now if the person learning to drive can have a bit of understanding as to why they have to do each thing whilst driving, it can help the 'need to do it' to sink in. For example, if you stay in first gear you will ruin your gear box... a medium that isn't on the right level of awareness will NOT be able to give good spirit communication, as they won't be tuned n properly.
When learning to drive you must be aware of everything happening around you, if not you may miss something very important eg a child running into the road.. a medium must be aware of their whole body whilst working or they could miss some very good evidence that their body is picking up (a large part of my mediumship is done this way as I am a strong clairsentinent - clear feeling)
The traffic lights work in a certain way - we know when driving that if the green light goes amber that very soon it is going to be red and we must stop the car, so we start to slow down (of course checking the rear view mirror first) - many mediums recieve symbols from their guides when they are working, for example one medium I know will always see daffodils when there is a passing in January, another medium I know always knows there is a baby due to be born here soon when she sees rhubarb (long story).. so during your devleopment you might start to see that you always seem to see the same symbol and that it has the same meaning each time.. you will also have symbolic symbols given to you that you may need to either just give straight to the person you are giving a reading to or you may have to decipher the symbol for them.
so let's go back,
You and a passenger get in to your car and put on your seat belts - Protection very important and grounding
You put the key in the ignition - you have shown intention to work
You turn the key in the ignition - you connect with your guides
You pull off from the side of the road - you tune in to see if there is anyone in spirit that would like to communicate
you are driving your car - this is now you the medium
all traffic lights you see are now signs from your guides
the passenger in your car is now the person you are giving a reading to
the person driving a car infront of you is now your spirit communicator - never take your eyes off of them, hold them in your mind at all times. If they change direction and you have a new person driving infront of you, then you have a new spirit communicator to work with now..
Whilst watching them you will notice that they do odd things.. for example indicate to drive around a parked car - we as mediums need to notice these things when working. They may pull over and pick someone up - is it a male or female, how old, are they related? Notice anything about the way they walked or stood up? What hair colour they have etc etc
Now as living people we know that when a car infront of us stops to pick someone up that it is rare for anyone to do this for someone they have never known and that in the majority of cases it is because they belong to the same family group etc (unless the word taxi appears on the roof of the vechile of course lol)
When we are driving we have to apply the right pressure to the gas pedal to keep at a good speed and then maintain that speed - a medium has to make sure they are working on the correct level for what they are doing. A medium cannot give off to someone spirit communication if for example they are actually working on the psychic level, so it is important to start noticing what level you are actually working on.
Whilst driving our car we will use our eyes, our ears, our gut instincts, sometimes sense of smell (bonfires, car fires, manure, petrol etc) as mediums we use clear seeing, clear feeling, clear hearing, clear tasting, clear smelling
When we have finsihed our journey we will find somewhere safe to park our car, we will lock it up and this is also very similar to mediumship as we will close down, we will thank our guides for a lovely experience of working with them again. Just as our passenger may say, thank you for taking me to the shops for example..
I hope that this article has helped you to understand that, it may all sound very confusing at the beginning but if you allow it to, mediumship will become a lot easier the more often you do it and soon it will be as easy as driving a car.
God bless you all and thank you to my guides for helping me write this article for you all
copyright Janette Oakman
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text:
Patek lab Postdoc Phil Anderson led a new paper about the mechanical evolution of linked systems in mantis shrimp. Published online at the journal Evolution, this paper paves the way for examining how linked biomechanical systems co-evolve.
Title: Levers and linkages: mechanical trade-offs in a power-amplified system
Mechanical redundancy within a biomechanical system (e.g., many-to-one mapping) allows morphologically divergent organisms to maintain equivalent mechanical outputs. However, most organisms depend on the integration of more than one biomechanical system. Here, we test whether coupled mechanical systems follow a pattern of amplification (mechanical changes are congruent and evolve toward the same functional extreme) or independence (mechanisms evolve independently). We examined the correlated evolution and evolutionary pathways of the coupled four-bar linkage and lever systems in mantis shrimp (Stomatopoda) ultrafast raptorial appendages. We examined models of character evolution in the framework of two divergent groups of stomatopods—"smashers" (hammer-shaped appendages) and "spearers" (bladed appendages). Smashers tended to evolve toward force amplification, whereas spearers evolved toward displacement amplification. These findings show that coupled biomechanical systems can evolve synergistically, thereby resulting in functional amplification rather than mechanical redundancy.


text: Electromagnetic interference, equipment noise, multi-path effects and obstructions in harsh smart grid environments make the quality-of-service (QoS) communication a challenging task for WSN-based smart grid applications. To address these challenges, a cognitive communication based cross-layer framework has been proposed. The proposed framework exploits the emerging cognitive radio technology to mitigate the noisy and congested spectrum bands, yielding reliable and high capacity links for wireless communication in smart grids. To meet the QoS requirements of diverse smart grid applications, it differentiates the traffic flows into different priority classes according to their QoS needs and maintains three dimensional service queues attributing delay, bandwidth and reliability of data. The problem is formulated as a Lyapunov drift optimization with the objective of maximizing the weighted service of the traffic flows belonging to different classes. A suboptimal distributed control algorithm (DCA) is presented to efficiently support QoS through channel control, flow control, scheduling and routing decisions. In particular, the contributions of this paper are three folds; employing dynamic spectrum access to mitigate with the channel impairments, defining multi-attribute priority classes and designing a distributed control algorithm for data delivery that maximizes the network utility under QoS constraints. Performance evaluations in ns-2 reveal that the proposed framework achieves required QoS communication in smart grid.


From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia
By Swami Harshananda
Sometimes transliterated as: Jatamukuta, JaTAmukuTa, Jataamukuta
Jaṭāmukuṭa literally means 'hair dressed up as a crown'.
Jatā means matted hair and mukuṭa means crown. If the matted hair on the head of a deity is dressed up as a crownit is called 'jaṭāmukuṭa'. We find it on the head of the deity in some forms of Devi, Śiva, Kārttikeya and Śāstā (Ayyappan).


Chairman Scott Praises Support for Nutrition Assistance in the American Families Plan
WASHINGTON – Chairman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after President Biden released his American Families Plan, which proposes strengthening nutrition assistance programs for families and expanding children's access to healthy school meals.
"The American Families Plan makes a historic investment in preventing child hunger, supporting struggling families, and unlocking the potential of young people across the country. I applaud President Biden for releasing a plan that acknowledges and confronts the enormous moral and economic cost of child hunger, which has surged as a result of the pandemic.
"The Biden plan proposes a permanent expansion of the Summer EBT program, which is proven to lower rates of food insecurity during the summer months when students do not have access to school meals. It also calls for a major expansion of eligibility for free school meals that would give more than 9 million additional children access to nutritious food every school day. Decades of research that demonstrate profound benefits of freeing children from the terrible burden of wondering where their next meal will come from.
"I look forward to advancing the president's plan to address our nation's child hunger crisis and ensure that all families can put food on the table."
Press Contact
Contact: Democratic Press Office, _PHONE_


text:
Planeamento de Marketing
Mestrado em Desenvolvimento de Produtos de Turismo Cultural
6 ECTS; 1º Ano, 1º Semestre, 21,0 T + 24,0 TP
- José Luís Sousa Soares de Oliveira Braga
At the end of the course students should be able to develop the marketing plan of a cultural tourism product either through the analysis of case studies or through the development of new products.
Contents of the course unit:
1. Introduction to tourism marketing;
2. Consumer behavior and market segmentation in tourism;
3. Strategic marketing of tourist destinations: conceptual and methodological aspects;
4.Characterization of Marketing Plan;
Evaluation through individual reading reports to be held in all sessions and individual project work in which it is intended that the student develops a marketing plan (70% + 30%).
Examination in case of failure to deliver the project work.
- Torres, H. (2011). PME - Plano de Marketing Empresarial. Porto: Afrontamento
- Kotler, P. e Baloglu, S. e Bowen, J. e Makens, J. (2016). Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism. London: Pearson
- Netto, A. e Ansarah, M. (2015). Produtos turisticos e novos segmentos de mercado: planejamento, criacão e comercializacao. Barueri, Sao Paulo: Editorial Manole
Method of interaction
Theoretical-practical classes in which priority is given to reading and discussion of texts, case studies and documentaries.
Analysis of individual papers to be presented and discussed in the classroom.
Software used in class


April 26, 2006
Police break up anti-nuclear Red Square protest
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police on Wednesday dragged away
activists protesting on Red Square against atomic power on the
20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.
Thirteen young protesters from Greenpeace chained
themselves to railings around St Basil's Cathedral, a central
Moscow landmark famous for its multicoloured onion domes,
before plain clothes agents told them to move on.
Unsanctioned protests are forbidden on Red Square, which
was a favorite gathering place for Soviet dissidents. The
leather-jacketed agents and uniformed Kremlin guards used bolt
cutters to unchain the activists, whom they dragged away.
The 13 activists were wearing yellow t-shirts with
individual letters that, when taken together, spelled out "No
to Chernobyls" in a reflection of green groups' opposition to
world plans to build a new generation of nuclear reactors.
Russia is planning 40 more reactors, and is still using 11
reactors of the type used at Chernobyl, which was the world's
worst civilian nuclear disaster, spewing radiation across
The agents also led away photographers and cameramen
filming the protest. "They said they were not detaining us,
just taking us away for a conversation," one photographer said.
The main events marking the anniversary of the disaster are
taking place in Ukraine -- home to the remains of the power
station's fourth reactor which contaminated swathes of
territory in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Concerns over soaring global energy needs and security of
fossil fuel supply have put nuclear power back at the heart of
the global energy debate despite the risk of Chernobyl-like
disasters and the nuclear waste that humanity will bequeath to
future generations.
Both Russia and the United States have called on fellow
industrialized powers to embrace nuclear energy to guarantee
stable supplies and cut greenhouse gas emissions.


Learn French Now Free
Learn French Now Free – Invite to French 101 comes through performance, the fastest easiest and the most fun method to find out French salut, je m 'appelle Ingrid Ashanti hi, I 'm Ingrid great to satisfy you in this series.
We are going to learn basic French expressions.
Learn French Now Free
You are going to learn how to introduce yourself in French.
There are just two sentences.
You need to do it, but first it is very important to clarify that in French there is a distinction in between the formal and the casual language.
Let 's first see how French individuals present themselves in a casual situation: salut, je m 'appelle, Ingrid or Chantal o to Hong Kong, say hi, I 'm Ingrid good to meet you salut, je m 'appelle, Ingrid ashanti, due to a home nation, start by stating, salut, je m 'appelle then say your Name: salut, je m 'appelle in Vida lastly say on Chantal o to house country, salut, je m 'appelle Ingrid on shantae, doujin country and now, let 's see the same sentence: informal speech, Boudreau, je m 'appelle in hedge, a justice on shantideva house country great early morning, I 'm in redeploy good to Meet you grow ja, je m 'appelle, Ingrid gbg3, wear t do vu home nation.
So what has altered from the previous intro? Let 's take a better look at this together, salut has actually been substituted with the official welcoming, Bonjour French for excellent day.
Je m 'appelle Ingrid has actually not been altered.
We always say our surname, so I stated certainly here you would state your full-name finally focus on the ending.
We went from 200 nation to country.
What is altering.
Is the French word for you in a formal sentence.
We utilize the more courteous word who one more time.
The informal way to present yourself in French is salut.
Now it 's time for English insights.
When you introduce yourself, it 's an excellent habit to shake hands in France and if you are uncertain whether to use on program table to home country or Horizonte the Wuhan country just simply state or Shanthi.
As I stated at the start of this lesson, if you utilize the proper sentence with French individuals, they are definitely going to be impressed in the last lesson.
We find out how to present ourselves in French.
Today we are going to learn how to utilize great manners as we thank people exactly.
Are you all set hello Zippity? Let 's start there are a number of ways to thank somebody.
Let 's start with the easiest, it is just one word messy unpleasant messy ways.
Thank you when saying.
Thank you quite.
You just need to include beaucoup.
Merci, beaucoup, merci, beaucoup beaucoup means a lot, so merci beaucoup is like saying.
Thank you quite during the last lesson we discussed both the casual and the official way of speaking French maxi is the casual way to thank someone.
If you wish to be more formal, there is another phrase you ought to use uvula message sure charm hoo might see.
Kumasi means appreciate.
I offer thanks to you, je vous remercie.
How do you answer it 's easy? There are basically 2 different methods to do it.
The other method to say you are welcome.
Oh, please do, but it has actually become a common and respectful method to react to someone thanking you.
When somebody state you unpleasant to you, we can simply reply with dunya or Dhruva zonkey.
Now it 's time for Ingrid 's within, if you 're not sure about whether to use messy or uvula untidy, just keep it easy.
You put on 't have to worry about official or casual scenarios.
Messy can be utilized with practically anyone anywhere or anytime.
In the last lesson, we found out how to be grateful to individuals by stating max.
If, in this lesson, we 'll learn some of the other most typical greetings using friends utilize it.
Are you prepared, a poor party? Let 's start the most use casual greeting is salut.
Salut salut suggests hi, hey there or farewell.
We need to only use this conference with family and friends, and now, let 's continue by talking about the formal way to welcome people, the one you are probably used to hearing is usual boom rules, actually Bonjour suggests great day.
We may likewise interpret it as great early morning or excellent afternoon as a guideline of thumb.
We can use Boudreau just throughout the day time for morning until evening, during the evening we say: bonsoir boom.
Suave suave is French for night.
So bonsoir implies good evening.
Boudreaux and bonsoir are used when we meet somebody, but when we leave, we put on 't say them again in this official situation: French individuals utilize au revoir, au revoir, au revoir implies goodbye.
Lastly, in French, we have an expression, indicating see you soon. Learn French Now Free
That can be considered both formal and casual abdel.
Ah, damn now you can greet individuals in several methods French: let 's evaluation them all again when meeting someone informally with a cell you, when conference someone formally, we state bonjour bonsoir when living in an official situation of voix when living no matter, whether its formal Or casual scenario, I belong to it 's quickly.
Isn 't it now it 's time for Ingrid 's insights in official scenario, French individuals frequently greet each other by shaking hands.
On the other hand, if we fulfill someone, we are really pal with we kiss each other on both cheeks.
Do you remember them in this lesson? We are going to learn an extremely useful phrase.
Even if their answer is no here 's, the informal method to say it, escucha parle Anglais, a Sukkah pas Anglais in French verbs change depending upon the pronoun that is used.
Please discover the world in the middle of the sentence.
Remember that this is the casual way to state you.
The next word is the verb Palli, which indicates to speak because it 's describing it 's conjugated to match an ESCO is an interrogative form to introduce the question.
It is similar to the English word do here and you probably acknowledge just the is English s ketchup, a long method to find out how to properly conjugate verbs like parley.
Please look at the absolute start series on French pad.
Oh Alan Wong calm.
You can find very comprehensive grammar lessons and resources there.
We are now going to make this sentence formal.
We need to utilize an official version of you, which is vu.
It becomes this, however it 's pronounced the same way partially es que vous parlez, Anglais, suku, vous, parlez Anglais, adding excuse moi.
Excuse me the sentence ends up being even more courteous.
The reactions you will get could be one of these 3 with yes, we amp a little huh.
No, you know pal Bangla.
No, I put on 't speak English.
We need to state no prior to the verb buddy and pas after it discover that the verb pal is a little different from parley.
Keep in mind the ferb change, depending upon the pronoun used.
We are now discussing sure French, for I.
Thus I put on 't speak is Joon Appa Appa.
Now it 's time for Ingrid insights, for those of you who are not only English speakers, you can clearly utilize this question with any other language.
You require French individuals research study other European languages at school, so perhaps you will get lucky simply substitute only with English Italian for Italian who 's, for Russian espanol, for Spanish almo for German and any other languages.
It 's never too late to reveal your good manners with French individuals.
Excuse me: do you speak English? We mentioned the word excusez-moi, which implies excuse me in formal French.
In this lesson, we are going to learn how to utilize reason moi and other words when asking forgiveness in French.
We should utilize excuse moi, casual circumstance such as when you are ordering something in dining establishments or bars, for example, reason moi and coffee shop s 'il vous plait.
We can likewise utilize it when asking a question.
Reason moi.
Well, a to defend.
Excuse me, where is the Eiffel Tower, excuse moi, boo a litter? Sometimes we likewise hear individuals stating s 'il vous plait, which suggests the same thing when you want to draw somebody 's attention.
We constantly utilize this phrase in formal speech, s 'il vous plait.
The informal way to say, excuse me is reason me excuse more. Learn French Now Free
Similar to excuse moi.
When asking a question or when apologizing we can also use the word pardon, we can use reason moi.
French people use it in very casual circumstances.
All of these expressions can be utilized for either excuse me or I 'm sorry, however if you really wish to apologize for something, it might be much better to utilize a different phrase.
That expression is simply read quickly.
It means I am sorry and can be used in both informal and official scenarios, just 3d zhu-li.
First, we have the familiar sure.
We have the adjective dizzily, suggesting sorry Juicery dizzily.
Now it


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This article in JEQ
 1. Vol. 38 No. 6, p. 2334-2343
 Received: Aug 31, 2008
 * Corresponding author(s): _EMAIL_
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Litter Contributions to Dissolved Organic Matter and Disinfection Byproduct Precursors in California Oak Woodland Watersheds
 1. Alex T. Chow *a,
 2. Seong-Tae Leeb,
 3. Anthony T. O'Geenc,
 4. Tony Orozcoc,
 5. Dylan Beaudettec,
 6. Po-Keung Wongd,
 7. Peter J. Hernesc,
 8. Ken W. Tatee and
 9. Randy A. Dahlgrenc
 1. a Dep. of Biosystems Engineering, and Dep. of Forestry and Natural Resources, Clemson Univ., SC 29634
 b Gyeongsangnamdo Agricultural Research and Extension Services, 1085-1 Chojeon-Dong, Jinju 660-360, Korea; A.T
 d Dep. of Biology, The Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
 e Dep. of Plant Sciences, Univ. of California, Davis, CA 95626
Export of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from California oak woodland ecosystems is of a great concern because DOM is a precursor for carcinogenic disinfection byproducts (DBPs) formed during drinking water treatment. Fresh litter and decomposed duff materials for the four dominant vegetation components of California oak woodlands: blue oak (Quercus douglassi H. & A.), live oak (Quercus wislizenii A. DC.), foothill pine (Pinus sabiniana Dougl.), and annual grasses, were exposed in natural condition for an entire rainy season (December to May) to evaluate their contributions of particulate (POC) and dissolved (DOC) organic carbon, particulate (PON) and dissolved (DON) organic nitrogen, inorganic nitrogen (NH4 + and NO3 ), and trihalomethane (THM) and haloacetonitrile (HAN) formation potentials, to surface waters. Litter and duff materials can be significant sources of DOC (litter = 29– 126 mg DOC g−1 C; duff = 6.5–37 mg DOC g−1 C) and THMs and HANs (up to 4600 mg-THMs g-C−1 and 137 μg-HANs g-C−1). Blue oak litter had the highest yield of DOC, THM, and HAN precursors. When scaled to the entire watershed, leachate production yielded 445 kg-DOC ha−1, as compared to DOC export via streams of 5.25 kg-DOC ha−1 DOC transport to surface waters is facilitated by subsurface lateral flow through A horizons during storm events. The majority of DOM and DBP precursors was leached from plant materials in the initial rainfall events and thus may explain the seasonal stream pattern of a DOC pulse early in the rainy season.


Trustable Communication Between Mathematics Systems
Jacques Carette, William M. Farmer, Jérémie Wajs
This paper presents a rigorous, unified framework for facilitating communication between mathematics systems. A mathematics system is given one or more interfaces which offer deductive and computational services to other mathematics systems. To achieve communication between systems, a client interface is linked to a server interface by an asymmetric connection consisting of a pair of translations. Answers to requests are trustable in the sense that they are correct provided a small set of prescribed conditions are satisfied. The framework is robust with respect to interface extension and can process requests for abstract services, where the server interface is not fully specified.


text:
When the Long Island Power Authority said last summer that it was going to need new power capacity in the next few years, most people assumed that meant new generating stations or new transmission cables. But of the 16 companies that submitted proposals, one, AES Energy Storage, took an entirely different tack: it proposed batteries.
When all is said and done, batteries are not a source of energy; in fact, they consume it. For every 10 kilowatt-hours put into a battery, only about nine come back out. The battery is a little like a savings account at a bank, but with a negative interest rate. Still, withdrawals are possible at times when they are most useful.
Batteries are a temporary source of energy and power, with the instantaneous ability to meet load and do work. AES is proposing the use of a 400-megawatt battery, with the same output as a medium-size natural gas plant, that can operate for four hours. It would be about 10 times larger than the biggest grid-connected battery system now in service.


Co-author of Jackson-Vanik amendment dies
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Co-author of Jackson-Vanik amendment dies
Charles Vanik, a former U.S. congressman who co-authored a historic law designed to pressure the former Soviet Union into allowing freer emigration of Jews and other dissidents, died Thursday. He was 94 and living in Jupiter, Fla.
Vanik, an Ohio Democrat, wrote the Jackson-Vanik amendment to a 1974 trade law with Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a Washington Democrat.
Supporters say the legislation eventually spurred huge increases in emigration of Soviet Jews. It requires the United States to assess the human rights records of countries with non-market economies before deciding whether to grant them special trade privileges.
Mark Levin, director of NCSJ, which advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic states and Eurasia, recalled the many opportunities he had to work with Vanik.
"It was a privilege to have known and worked with an elected official truly committed to the advancement of human rights and Jewish concerns," Levin said. "There are few who could match his compassion and heart."
While the measure's intent was to allow Soviet Jews to emigrate, its reach extended to many other countries, including China and Vietnam.
Critics have called for its elimination, arguing that it is an outdated obstacle to trade and harmed U.S. economic and diplomatic ties abroad.


Letter of Testimony: Protective order to prevent gun violence
Testimony of Mr. Jason Adkins, Executive Director
House Ways and Means Committee
Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Division
HF 9 (Richardson)
February 27, 2019
The Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota, supports H.F. 9 (Richardson), which allows for the issuance of a protective order to prevent gun violence. The legislation is a common-sense measure consistent with the principle that rights should be exercised responsibly. It is time to put aside gun ideology and come together to protect the right to life.
There will be lots of testimony on both sides of this bill. In our testimony, we seek to implore all parties in the gun debate to overcome "gun absolutism" and work for measures that may actually limit gun violence while also respecting legitimate gun ownership. This bill is a step in that direction.
Many proposed gun regulations will not significantly decrease gun deaths overall — most of which are suicides, followed by homicides in urban areas.
Nor will these regulations eliminate all acts of terrorism. Mass shootings are not primarily about guns. These tragic events, shaped by our violent culture, are often born out of despair. Hurt people hurt people. The needed policy changes and moral renewal are more comprehensive than simply changing gun laws.
Yet, gun policy matters. Common-sense regulations to prevent the most tragic and needless acts of gun violence come with little cost and might save hundreds of lives per year.
In this instance, the legislation rightly focuses on the reality that in preventing harm to persons by guns, the mental health and disposition of a potential shooter matter more than the weapon—we want to prevent dangerous people from accessing weapons that can harm many people with ease and efficiency.
Though this may seem like an infringement on the freedom of some, the protection order is not permanent, and gun ownership can be restored. Additionally, there is a measure of due process for those subject to a potential protection order.
Gun owners have rights, but they also have responsibilities to the common good. The common good requires that we ensure that gun ownership is exercised responsibly and that people who are potential threats to themselves or others are disarmed.
Thank you for your consideration.


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Myths and Legends
The Rainbow Serpent
Heathen or unenlightened person engaging in festivals or rituals previously thought to be unenlightened.
1. Pilgrim returning from the holy land with palm branch or leaf. 2. Travelling monk under a vow of poverty.
The assembly that makes a countries laws.
Those who supported Cromwell during the English Civil War in the 17th Century.
Very small pieces.
1. Foot way or tract. 2. Way forward (such as in finding the right path).
A person whose job it is to patrol - travel regularly over an area in order to guard it.
Travelling seller of small wares usually carried in a pack.
British bronze coin.
Bewilder, puzzle or confuse.
Be continually cruel to somebody, especially because you disagree with his or her beliefs.
1. An apparition or spectre 2.A form without substance or reality mental illusion
A thing that occurs over which the cause is in question.
A pilgrim's journey.
A person who journeys to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion.
Carry off goods using force, especially in war.
A person on a ship who attacks and robs other ships or places on the coastline.
Natural or manmade whole in the ground, often made by extracting material.
Supernatural being akin to a fairy.
1. To rob a person or place by force, especially during war. 2. The goods that have been carried off by force.
E2B® and E2BN® are registered trade marks and trading names of East of England Broadband Network (Company Registration No. 04649057)


It is the birthstone of May. It is very rare and extremely beautiful, so it is the most valuable gemstone out there. Even emerald is more precious than diamond. Emeralds are the green glowing gemstone holding it significance from the ancient 4000BC. It signifies the Mercury planet, so it is very powerful.
Emerald is found in the market in different color range from bluish green color to vivid green color. In accordance to the color and quality, the prices of the emerald differ. It has the wide range of use. Emerald can be used in a ring, necklace, pendant and bracelets. The most famous use of the emerald stone is in the ring, which is gifted in the anniversary and engagement.
In Hindu mythology emerald is known as 'marakata' which has the meaning of the glowing green stone in Sanskrit. It holds the planetary energy that gets transferred to the wearer's body and benefits in the many ways.
Select quality before buying the emerald gemstone;
Emerald gemstones are graded in different grades: A grade, AA grade, AAA grade and B grade. So the price of the stone differs in accordance to the quality of the stone. Ig you have high budget then go for the high grade emerald and if you have limited amount of budget then choose it according. But it is very important to be cautious about the fake and original gemstone.
Emeralds in the market are often found to be oil polished and synthesized. Be aware of these products and seek for the natural and pure stone.
The most abundant shapes of the emerald stone found are round and octagon. So be prepared on the shape you want to purchase. If you want to embed into the ring then go for the round one because ring suits the round gemstone. Also the round shaped emerald has the higher refractive index, due to which it sparkles a little more than other ones.
What are the actual benefits of the emerald gemstone?
The benefits or uses of the emerald gemstone can be listed as;
 - Happy and prosperous life: as emerald stone emits only positive radiation, so it helps in keeping the mood of everyone around happy. The emerald gemstone produces and influences the positive vibes in the workplace and houses to attain the peaceful environment.
 - Luck/ fortune: emerald stone is also called as lucky stone. It brings the luck and fortune to the wearer helping for the prosperous life.
 - Loyalty; in ancient periods people believed that emerald is the stone of loyalty. It make the person loyal and faithful in every sector like, love, business and work.
 - Protects the wearer from the serious accidents: the emerald stone kept near to the body helps in protecting the wearer from the sudden and fatal accidents. It basically shields the wearer from any bad incidents.
 - Great benefits for the pregnant women: during pregnancy, women should undergo many difficult activities, so the use of this gemstone aids in some of the problems. It emotionally helps in the situation as well as makes you physically strong and tolerable.
 - Prevent nightmares: during sleep, the unique vibration of the emerald stone helps in preventing the evil thoughts and prevents from the nightmares. This gemstone also cures for the insomnia patients. People who cannot sleep at night can have good sound sleep by wearing the emerald gemstone in their body in any form, rings, bracelets, or necklace.
 - Bringing wealth in the family: if you cannot save money or if you are having difficulty in earning money then emerald stone helps in creating the environment to save money and bring wealth into the house.
Sources of the Emerald Gemstone:
The sources of the emerald gemstone are very limited. The countries that produce the commercial emerald stones are: Colombia, Zambia, Brazil, and Zimbabwe. Besides, the other countries that trade the emerald gemstone seasonally are: Madagascar, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Canada, Russia and other few countries.
The mining process of the emerald stone has stared in United States. But very few stones are traded by the America in the international market of gemstones.
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Fix: Unable to initialize OpenGL window
Open Graphics Library is a cross-platform application programming interface (API) which is used in rendering 3D and 2D vector graphics. The API is usually used for interaction with a graphical processing unit (GPU) which in turn helps achieve hardware-accelerated rendering.
Many heavy games rely on this API for their graphics operation and use them in the gameplay. Recently, many users experienced a problem where they were unable to play the game because an error occurs which states "Unable to initialize OpenGL window". This error is mostly associated with graphics drivers or with the game's resolution settings. We will go through all the workarounds one by one. Check them out.
Each game has a dedicated file which is used for loading settings whenever it is launched. These settings include the resolution, shadow details, texture details etc. We will open this file in notepad, make some changes according to your system and try launching the game.
 1. Right-click anywhere on your Desktop and select Display settings.
 1. Check the resolution which your computer is currently using. Here it is '1920 x 1200'. Note this down as we will need it further in the solution.
 1. Press Windows + E to launch the File Explorer. Navigate to the following directory:
Do note that your directory will be different. Here Steam is installed in Local Disk D. Your Steam might be installed on another hard drive. Make sure you change the navigation address according to your system.
 1. Right-click on the file 'MXML' and select "Edit with Notepad++". This is if you have that editor installed. Otherwise, you can select Open with > Notepad.
 1. Now once you have opened the configuration file, search for the tag 'ResolutionWidth' and 'ResolutionHeight'. Check if the current resolution is set. If the values don't match, you should change the value to what you saw earlier on.
For example, if your resolution is 1920 x 1200, the 'ResolutionWidth' should be '1920' and the 'ResolutionHeight' should be '1200'. As you can see in the example below, the resolution set was incorrect.
 1. Save changes to the file and exit. Restart your computer properly, launch Steam and try playing the game.
If you still encounter an error when trying to launch the game, you can try changing the attribute 'Fullscreen'. Change the attribute to "false". Save changes and try launching the game.
Solution 2: Installing latest client for PS4
If you experience this error on PS Now on your PC, it is probably because the client is outdated and a new one is out. Every now and then, developers release a new version to counter some bugs or add new features to the platform. If you have an outdated client, this may introduce discrepancies.
 1. Download the latest PS Now client from the official website.
 2. Now do not uninstall the older version. Install this new version on top of the existing version.
 3. Once done with the installation, restart your computer completely and check if the problem at hand got solved.
Solution 3: Changing user/ logging in again
There is also a known workaround where simply relogging into Steam fixes the issue. The reason behind this is not well known but it makes sense to deduce that the currently logged in user may have some problems with the display configurations stored. Relogging might fix this issue.
 1. Launch your Steam client using Steam.exe
 2. Log out of Steam by clicking on the option of "Change User" present if you click your account title on the top right corner of the Steam client.
 1. After clicking the option, you will be given a login screen where you have to enter your credentials. After inputting your credentials, check the box which says Remember my password. Click the button Login.
 1. Once logged in, launch the game you were trying to play and check if OpenGL error still persists.
Solution 4: Updating Graphics Drivers
If you have corrupt or outdated drivers, it may be the reason why your game fails to launch or the OpenGL message pops up. Now there are two ways through which you can update the drivers: either manually or automatically. In manually, you have to personally download the driver after searching for it at the manufacturer's website.
Before updating drivers, we will check if installing the default drivers solve the problem for us.
 1. Boot into Safe mode. Type "devmgmt.msc" in the dialogue box and press Enter. Here navigate to Display Adapters, right-click on your adapter and select Uninstall Device.
 1. Boot your computer into normal mode, press Windows + R, type "devmgmt.msc" in the dialogue box and press Enter. Most probably the default drivers will be installed. If not, right-click on any empty space and select "Scan for hardware changes". Now check if the game works without any problems. If it does without any problems, good for you. If it doesn't, carry on.
 2. Now there are two options. Either you can search online for the latest driver available for your hardware from the manufacturer's website such as NVIDIA etc. (and install manually) or you can let Windows install the latest version itself (search for updates automatically).
 3. We will take a look at installing automatically. Right-click on your hardware and select "Update driver". Select the first option "Search automatically for updated driver software". Choose the second option if you are updating manually and select "Browse for driver" and navigate to the location where you downloaded.
 1. Restart your computer after installing the drivers, launch the game and check if you can successfully launch the game without the error message.
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Fix: Unable to initialize OpenGL window
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Term Definition
OAI (Official Action Indicated)
A classification for an FDA audit that indicates that action is required by the inventor or company in order to seek approval for a device.
Observational Studies
Studies that make conclusions about the efficacy of a treatment or device on a group of subjects where the assignment of subjects into the treated versus control groups is outside the control of the investigator.
OCP (Office of Combination Products)
Office of Combination Products; the section of the FDA that reviews medical technology that is a combination of drugs and device or drugs and biologics to determine which center of the FDA will regulate it.
Off-Label use
The use of a treatment for conditions other than those approved by the FDA.
Office action
A document issued by the USPTO that outlines objections or necessary changes to an application or claim due to finding prior art.
Operating profit
The difference between income and the expense incurred during operations.
OpEx (operating expenses)
Costs considered not to be manufacturing costs, including R&D, sales staff, general and administrative functions, and non-production facilities costs.
Opportunity cost
The opportunity forgone by choosing a different opportunity.
Option pool
The total number of stock options available for a company to grant, typically to employees.
OTC (Over the Counter)
Drugs or devices that are sold directly to the end consumer.
OTL (office of technology licensing)
The office within a university that manages its IP assets.
OUS (Outside United States)
Refers to clinical trials that are performed outside the US. Used in reference to obtaining regulatory approval.
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Fields as columns. For example. to show all Objects of type com.example.mat.Listener, you would simply write:
select * from com.example.mat.Listener
Columns can be configured using different fields, such as:
SELECT toString(l.message), l.message.count FROM com.example.mat.Listener l
SELECT toString(s), s.count FROM java.lang.String s WHERE (toString(s) NOT LIKE "message.*")
10. Exporting your results
The memory analyzer is a great tool for creating reports about the state of an application's memory. A Heap Dump contains valuable information about the state of your system, and the MAT provides the tools needed to access this data. However, like with many open tools, if something is missing you're not locked in, nor are you out of luck. With the MAT you can export your results to several different formats including HTML, CSV or even Plain Text. You can then use your favorite spreadsheet program (or your own tool) to continue your analysis.
The Eclipse Memory Analyzer is a powerful tool, one all Java Developers should be familiar with. Tracking memory leaks and other memory related problems is often challenging, but hopefully with the MAT you can get to the root of your problems relatively quickly.


Deep Earth
Computational Mineral Physics
Quantifying the physical and transport properties of the minerals that comprise the Earth's lower mantle is important for interpreting seismic observations and providing constraints for geodynamics models. Research at Leeds uses quantum mechanical based calculations to determine the properties of lower mantle minerals at the extreme temperatures and pressures of the deep Earth. Particular focus is on their elastic properties and thermal conductivity.
Elastic Properties
Seismic studies of the lower mantle provide constraints on its elastic properties. By computing the elastic properties of minerals as a function of temperature, pressure and chemical composition and comparing them to seismic observations inferences can be made about the structure and composition of the Earth.
Of special interest are the elastic properties of iron-rich lower mantle minerals. Seismic studies indicate that in various places at the core mantle boundary there exist regions, tens of kilometers thick, where compressional-wave velocities are depressed by about 5-10 % and shear-wave velocities are depressed by about 10-30 %, relative to normal mantle. These ultra-low velocity zones have most often been attributed to partial melt, but it has recently been suggested that they could be better explained by iron-rich mineral phases.
Thermal Conductivity
The thermal conductivity of the lower mantle is of great geophysical interest, because of its role in shaping the structure and dynamics of the Earth's interior. During the formation of the Earth, the overlying mantle will have controlled the heat flux from the core and thus played a key role in its thermal evolution. In the present day, it governs the dynamics of the lower mantle and could influence magnetic field generation.
Experimental determination of the thermal conductivity of lower mantle minerals is difficult at lower mantle temperature and pressures. Computer simulations provide an alternative method for determining these quantities.
Model of a screw dislocation in MgO.


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North Goa Coast Strives to Bear Its Tourist Burden
By Frederick Noronha
GOA, India, April 27, 2004 (ENS) - For the two million visitors who land on its shores each year, India's beach tourism capital of Goa is just a good holiday. Goa is a former Portuguese colony, a small region of 3,700 square kilometers with a population of just 1.4 million. But scientific studies now show that the impact of mass tourism is pressuring North Goa, where tourism first took root in the 1960s with disaffected Western youth fleeing the materialism of their own societies.
North Goa's most scenic spot is being squeezed of its water resources, choked by sewage, swamped by humans. Its skyline and vegetation are undergoing a drastic change, say a series of recently published studies on the subject. Unless something is done fast, the price to be paid could be enormous.
The North Goa district is a major tourist destination and a "hub of a variety of tourism-related activities" says a team of scientists from the Goa based National Institute of Oceanography. Their paper is presented in the new book "Coastal Tourism, Environment, and Sustainable Local Development" published by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), formerly Tata Energy Resarch Institute.
The researchers point out that over 500,000 tourists visit the beaches and other coastal places of this district each year. Currently, tourism officials estimated a total of two million tourists visit the province of Goa each year, of which nearly a 250,000 are foreigners.
Goa's tourism belt is getting overcrowded. Candolim, a former fishing village now turned tourist destination immediately south of the overbuilt and once world famous Calangute beach, has a density of 1,021 persons per kilometer, as compared to Bardez Taluka's 624 persons per kilometer.
Male in-migration into the tourism areas of Goa has reversed the earlier favorable-to-women sex ratio here. Calangute, notes another essay here, was the first village to be "visited by tourism" which came in the shape of hippies in the 1960s. It went on to soon gain international recognition."
Tourism is highly seasonal in Goa, and another tourist season has just ended, leaving many Goa residents concerned about their resources. Since the tourist concentration in the occurs non-monsoon months of October to March, this causes some problems of its own. Goa has to scale up its infrastructure to be able to meet the demands of the peak season. So, facilities are underutilized in off-season, and the tourist population outnumbers the local host pouplation in season, placing additional stress on coastal resources.
Farmers in villages around coastal areas of North Goa which have stakes in tourism have not been cultivating their agricultural land. Researchers have found that as many as 57 percent of households in Assagao and 50 percent in Arpora and Marra have left their lands to lie without tending them.
Estimates also show that some 65 percent of rent-backs are owned by non-resident Goans, 20-25 percent by Goans from India's cities, and 10-15 percent by natives residing in Goa.
Says this study, "Qualitative research indicates a feeling among local people, despite their involvement, that the gains from tourism are not substantial. There is a growing feeling that large hotels and external groups are cornering the economic benefits, while the local population has to bear the social and environmental burden."
Locals have been fighting to prevent major hotel projects, such as the proposed Japanese village at Morjim, and also fighting hotel extension programs. At the same time locals view migrant groups with distrust, as they feel that their lack of a stake in the land within the tourist village.
In the Baga-Nerul watershed on the North Goa coast, it was found that sewage is rarely treated. In 99 percent of low-budget, 100 percent of middle-budget, 89 percent of high-budget, and 33 percent of luxury hotels, the sewage is being disposed of in soak-pits or tanks. Only 11 percent of high-budget and 67 percent of luxury hotels are able to treat their sewage in treatment plants.
The study has found that the potential of profits from tourism are being siphoned off by neighboring states. "Since Goa depends on Karnataka and Maharashtra for its food products," the authors write, "it is evident that there is a high leakage of the potential income that could have been generated, were local sources to supply food to the tourism industry."
Water resources too are stretched by the influx of tourists. Low budget hotels need 573 of liters of water per room per day. Luxury hotels, by contrast, need 1,335 liters per room per day, as they have huge landscaped areas, swimming pools, and up to three restaurants.
Say researchers TG Jagtap, K Desai and R Rodrigues, "The beaches of Goa were reported to be very clean with dense vegetation and magnificient dunes three decades ago. Overexploitation of the beaches for tourism related activities has severely degraded the sand dune habitats."
Warns another study from this TERI collection, "It is estimated that the groundwater in coastal Bardez [Taluka] is stressed due to tourism related activities. Groundwater quality has deteriorated due to indiscriminated disposal of human generated waste, including disposal from septic tanks and cesspools. The bacterial and nitrate concentrations are quite abnormal in almost all the coastal stretches of Bardez Taluka."
On the positive side, tourism has enabled some the people to "reduce their dependency on activities such as fishing and agriculture." Women were also found to have a "high involvement" as owners and managers in the low budget hotels and guest houses. This suggests that the tourism trade can support the "evolution of women as entrepreneurs."
N Lourenco and R Jorge of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Portugal say tourism causes these problems worldwide. Land is abandoned for speculation, as rural land prices rise. Traditional systems of cultivation are converted, and agriculture becomes a part-time activity by workers who have shifted to the service sector.
In Goa, this has already happened.
KS Nairy, S Kazi and M Abraham of TERI together with R Jorge of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa have found that there are indicators to predict which sections of the population will be most likely to engage in tourist businesses.
They suggest the "smokeless industry" is more attractive to those with houses close to the sea. Tourism also attracts the young "given that tourism is a glamor activity," those with low levels of education and drop-outs.
Others likely to become involved are people who own agricultural land in watersheds but do not cultivate it; those from the fishing community, as it provides them a social ladder for moving up; and those who belong to the low-income bracket, as "tourism is associated with easy money."
From a lot of statistics and some academic jargon, the story of what is going wrong on the Goa coast emerges.
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