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This page contains information about the modern and authentic didgeridoos
we carry. Although we don't claim that it is exhaustive, we hope it gives
you a solid basic understanding of your instrument. If you need clarification
or have something you feel would be useful to add, please contact us.
We'd be happy to help!
To Play Your Didgeridoo
Position and Technique - The didjeridu can be played
while seated, standing. If you have heard an experienced didj player
you are probably familiar with the variety of sounds that one can make
with this simple instrument. Although you should not expect yourself
to be making overtones and efficiently circular breathing all within
10 minutes of beginning to play, by following these instructions, and
patiently practicing, you'll soon get the drone going.
- Step 1 - Warm up and loosen the lips by closing them
softly and blowing air through, making the "motorboat" sound.
- Step 2 - When you feel warmed up, lightly place the
lips on the beeswax mouthpiece. Most experienced players position the
mouth slightly off center, but beginners may find it easier placing
the lips squarely over the center of the mouthpiece.
- Step 3 - Begin with a small burst of air (like making
a "puh" sound) and continue to buzz the lips. The most common
mistake when learning to play is making the lips to tight and blowing
too hard. Try to relax the lips as much as possible, and don't waste
all of your breath in the first 5 seconds!
Step 4 - Once you can produce a steady drone, play
around with different vowel sounds, changing the size of the mouth cavity,
vocal noises and overtones, and continuous breathing.
How To Care for and Maintain
- Transport and Exposure - Although your didjeridu
is made with durability and mobility in mind, you should avoid exposing
it to the elements for prolonged periods of time (dampness, rain, snow,
etc.). Changes in humidity and altitude will not affect the instrument.
You must NEVER LEAVE YOUR DIDJERIDU IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT or in a very
warm room (including your car, near a heater vent, etc.) because the
beeswax mouthpiece will melt. Don't use your didj as a lever, cane,
bat, or weapon.
- Cleaning - Your didjeridu may be cleaned with a damp
cloth, but don't apply cleansing agents or other cleaning tools.
Avoid playing with dirty hands or leaving your didj exposed to sand
- Maintenance - Should you want or need to remold the
mouthpiece simply warm it under running warm water until it is the consistency
of playdough or silly putty. Overwarming can cause it to become flakey,
which should be avoided. When reinstalling the mouthpiece make sure
there is a consistent seal around the entire top rim of the didj by
pressing the beeswax firmly against the inside wall.
- Transport and Exposure - Eucalyptus is a very hard,
dense wood, which makes it resiliant. However, you should care for your
didgeridoo as you would any other valuable musical instrument. Do not
expose your didj to rain, snow, or sand, and do not leave it in extreme
conditions, such as very hot or very cold temperatures. You must NEVER
LEAVE YOUR DIDJERIDU IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT or in a very warm room (including
your car, near a heater vent, etc.) because the beeswax mouthpiece will
melt. If you need to travel with your didj we would recommend a well
padded travel bag, and some extra padding around the bell and mouth
ends if you anticipate a rough journey. High impacts may crack the wood,
and should be avoided.
- Cleaning - You may clean the outside of your didj
with a damp cloth, but don't use any cleansing agents or scrubbing tools.
After playing your eucalyptus didgeridoo for some time it may develop
a unique odor due to the wood's absorption of the moisture in your breath.
This is natural and will not damage your didgeridoo. If you would like
to restore the natural eucalyptus smell you can use some essential oils,
mixed with water, or other natural anticeptics such as tea tree oil.
Spray a few squirts into the mouth end of your didj, and let it dry.
- Maintenance -
- RIGHT AWAY: When you first get your didjeridu it will need to
adjust to its new home. Avoid playing for longer than 20 minutes
at a time for the first week or so. This will give the wood inside
the bore hole a chance to dry, and will prevent moisture buildup
- LONG TERM: Your eucalyptus didgeridoo was treated with linseed
oil before it was exported from Australia. The exterior was treated,
as well as the inside. Some didjs were stained before they were
oiled. With time the wood may appear dry, and perhaps could use
another coat of linseed oil. However, as linseed oil is a hardening
oil (i.e. when left exposed to air it will harden), it will serve
to harden the wood after it has been absorbed. This will prevent
future coats of linseed oil from soaking in, so only apply very
thin coats, giving many months for the oil to fully dry and harden.
You should not need to apply linseed oil more than once or twice
more in its lifetime.
- SPLITS IN WOOD: All wood is hygoroscopic, meaning it readily
takes up and releases water depending on relative humidity and
exposure to moisture. In dryer climates your didj may develop
some small hairline cracks on the bell or mouth end. These are
inconsequential and will not affect the sound of the didj, and
will often close up when in a more humid environment. And as
you play the didj the moisture from you breath will be absorbed
and released continually to some degree, and may eventually
cause some splitting. Occassionally a check will develop that
goes all the way through the wood, and allows air to escape.
If this is the case you can seal the crack yourself by using
one of the following methods:
- Soften pure beeswax
and mold it into the crack. The wax will harden and seal up
the leak. We have 1
OZ bars of beeswax available for this purpose.
- Super Glue works very well as a permanent fix. The wood will
absorb the glue first, then the glue will build up to fill the
hole. If the crack is too large to be filled with plain Super
Glue, fill the split with fine sawdust, then soak the sawdust
with the glue. This will create a very hard material that is
permanently stuck to the didj. Sand down any lumps or rough
- Size - The size of the opening does affect the playability
and versatility: the larger the hole the easier to play, while a smaller
hole facilitates circular breathing, sustained droning, and vocal tricks.
Beginners will probably appreciate a large mouthpiece opening.
- Reshaping - When played for a long period of time
the mouthpiece will soften because of the heat from the mouth. Taking
small breaks and remolding the mouthpiece will solve the problem. Gently
press the wax into the shape you want and let it cool until firm enough
- Installing a new mouthpiece - Don't be intimidated!
Installing or repairing a mouthpiece is very simple and intuitive. Follow
the steps below for some basic guidelines, and feel free to experiment.
- HEAT AND ROLL: Heat the bar of wax by either placing it in warm
water, heating in microwave on low for short amounts of time, or
using a blow drier on light heat. Be careful to not allow the wax
to melt, as this will alter the properties of the wax and make it
less useable as a mouthpiece. It should be soft enough to easily
- PREPARE DIDJ: Heat a small bit of wax until extremely soft, and
smear this onto the end of the cleaned mouth end of the didj. Also
apply to inside of bore hole about 1" down.
- INSTALL WAX ROLL: Making sure the wax on the mouth end, and the
wax roll are warm and malleable, place roll onto didj end and push
down firmly with thumb and index finger. Be sure to create a tight
seal between the wax and the wood. The inside wall should have wax
extending down about 1", gradually tapered from the top to
- SMOOTH OUTSIDE LIP: Once you have a solid seal shape the outside
of the wax. It shoud be rounded and comfortable to play. Make sure
the size is optimal for your player level and preference.
- CLEAN IT UP: After getting the shape you want remove any excess
wax from the outside that may be hanging over the wood or have uneven
edges. You should be able to peel it off with your fingers, or you
can use a knife for a cleaner line.
History of the Didgeridoo
The didjeridu (did-jury-doo) is possibly the most ancient
woodwind instrument known to man. The native Aborigines of Australia
use the didjerid


Life is different than it used to be, and our bodies are handling it in odd ways. We used to work in the fields, and our stress arose in finding food and shelter. These days, our stress is more mentally challenging, where many people are faced with complex brain-challenging projects. In addition, we tend to move at a more rapid pace, take on more commitments, etc.
We have come to find that even the strongest of people may need help proactively dealing with anxiety and the daily stresses that add to it. Today, we would like to introduce you to one of our newest and favorite products, AnxioCalm® from Terry Naturally®.
Why AnxioCalm®?
The Terry Naturally Anxio Calm product package states the following:
1. AnxioCalm® has been clinically studied to quiet your nerves and relieve your occasional anxiety!
2. It is fast-acting for the relief of occasional anxiety, stress, nervous tension, excessive worry*, restless sleep*, along with such related symptoms as excessive sweating*, upset stomach, muscle tension, insecurity, and occasional restless sleep*.
3. It is safe, effective, and great for adults and children (ages 4 and up)!
4. AnxioCalm® is Non-Drowsy, Non-Addictive, Safe, and Caffeine-Free!
5. It is perfect for everyday use, or occasionally when you need extra support.
6. It provides relief when you need it, without mental fogginess.*
7. Benefits increase with continued and consistent daily use.*
So what's in AnxioCalm®?
Commonly, Echinacea (commonly known as Narrow-leaved Coneflower) has been used for the immune system among other health benefits. AnxioCalm®, however, contains a specialized Echinacea plant extract standardized to unique compounds which "provide brain-specific echinacosides that safely bind to brain receptors to trigger feelings of calm and relaxation.*"
What are the recommendations for use?
The Anxio Calm product box recommends taking one tablet twice daily for occasional use. For aggressive support, you may take 1 tablet up to 4 times daily. May take at bedtime to support restful sleep.*
What are other people saying about AnxioCalm®?
"AnxioCalm® has been compared to other anxiety-relieving substances, and the results were amazing. It not only met -- or exceeded—the benefits of the compared substances, it did so without causing drowsiness." It was tested by volunteers experiencing heightened stress and nervous tension. A standardized questionnaire was used to gauge the volunteers' feelings of anxiety before using the AnxioCalm® tablets. Furthermore, the volunteers were asked to answer these same questions on days 3 and 7 of taking the specialized extract.† After comparing their responses, it was found that "after only 1 day of use, the volunteers experienced a significant reduction in anxiety. By day 7, the reduction of anxiety was even greater.*†"
AnxioCalm® has become a favorite product at Homestead Market as it has helped several of our employees and family members. What can AnxioCalm® do for you?
Information for this blog comes from the product packaging and the following publication:
1. "Relieve Your Anxiety Stress... Fast!" Terry Naturally, EuroPharma 2017
† Relieves occasional anxiety and stress.
Jana Duval is the Marketing Manager at Homestead Market
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I am trying to use
geom_point to illustrate the count of my data. I would also like to annotate a few of the points in my graph with
geom_text. When I add the call to
geom_text, it appears that it is plotting something underneath the points in the legend. I've tried reversing the order of the layers to no avail. I can't wrap my head around why it is doing this. Has anyone seen this before?
set.seed(42) df <- data.frame(x = 1:10, y = 1:10, label = sample(LETTERS,10, replace = TRUE), count = sample(1:300, 10, replace = FALSE) ) p <- ggplot(data = df, aes(x = x, y = y, size = count)) + geom_point() p + geom_text(aes(label = label, size = 150, vjust = 2))

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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Ahh squirting. Isn't it just one of those wacky old myths like centaurs or unicorns? Well, no, actually. Female ejaculation is a legit real thing, and not as elusive and mysterious as people like to make out.
No other sexual phenomenon is as shrouded in mystery as female ejaculation. Even today the concept of squirting is still often met with scepticism. So is female ejaculation real or merely a stunt invented by the porn industry?
For many — men and women included — squirting is a mysterious occurrence. Where does the liquid come from? What does it feel like? And crucially, is it urine? You might laugh, but in the UK banned squirting in porn, apparently because it's difficult to tell the fluid apart from pee which is also banned.


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Are In-Demand Jobs in the Hospitality Sector, In-Demand for Opportunity Youth?
A familiar theme in a "changing world of work" is the fear of job loss to automation, matched by insufficient job creation to meet the demands of youth unemployment. Despite these fears, the hospitality industry continues to grow: Demand for workers, the large number of entry-level jobs, combined with low barriers to entry, transferable customer service skills, and a tendency to promote existing and long-term employees to management-level positions, make the hospitality sector ideal for workforce development efforts that target young people. Hotel supply chains also represent a diverse array of opportunities for youth in a changing world of work. With so much potential for career pathways in hospitality, why aren't more youth engaged? This session discussed the potential of the hospitality industry alongside some of the common and persistent barriers to Opportunity Youth gaining access to jobs in the sector, as well as some of the strategies being deployed to address these challenges.


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Envision Math Grade 5 Homeschool Bundle
Let the pictures to the talking! Envision Math develops math concepts through interactive and visual learning. Math concepts are taught with step-by-step purposeful, sequential illustrations along with learning activities and lesson exercises. Grades 3-6 use a hardcover student edition book which contains daily lessons that provide a Visual Learning Bridge.
The grade 5 homeschool bundle includes:
- Student Edition Worktext (hardcover)
- Mindpoint Quiz Show CD-ROM
- Teacher Edition CD-ROM
Macintosh/Windows Dual Compatibility System Requirements: Windows: Minimum Processor: Pentium II 233MHz; Minimum System: Windows 2000 (SP4)/XP (SP2); Memory: 256MB; CD/DVD Speed: 8X; Hard Drive Space: 40MB (20MB for Lite version). Macintosh: Minimum Processor: Power Mac 200MHz; Minimum System: OS 10.3.9 (Classic mode required. Will not work on Intel® based Macs.); Memory: 256; CD/DVD Speed: 8X; Hard Drive Space: 32MB (20MB for Lite version).

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


The Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's Daily, carried an article on its website from the Changjiang Daily newspaper describing artillery shells exploding on a mountain in Yingjiang County, which borders Myanmar.
Officials in the Dehong prefecture government, in which the county is located, declined to comment on Friday.
The intensification of the conflict has cast doubt on the intentions of Myanmar's government, which is led by former generals who have been praised for reforms in other areas including elections, media and civil society.
Kachin rebel sources have reported aerial bombings, shelling and even the use of chemical weapons since Dec. 28. Myanmar's government said there were no airstrikes, but that K-8 trainer jets had provided cover fire to protect ground troops from rebel attacks.
The 18-month conflict in Kachin state is one of the biggest tests for Myanmar's new civilian government's reform effort and the use of aircraft has raised doubts about whether the retired generals in the government have really changed their harsh old ways.
While China has strong business and trade ties with Myanmar, it has long looked with wariness at its poor and unstable southern neighbour and has repeatedly called on the country to ensure stability along the vast and remote border.
China had forcibly returned scores of ethnic Kachins who have fled Myanmar, a human rights group said last year.


it has not corresponding "command". So you can't run "grails _grails-settings" for example. That is also why they don't have a default target.
Internal scripts are all about code sharing and reuse. In fact, we recommend you take a similar approach in your own scripts: put all your targets into an internal script that can be easily shared, and provide simple command scripts that parse any command line arguments and delegate to the targets in the internal script. For example if you have a script that runs some functional tests, you can split it like this:
includeTargets << new File("${basedir}/scripts/_FunctionalTests.groovy")
target(default: "Runs the functional tests for this project.") { depends(runFunctionalTests) }
includeTargets << grailsScript("_GrailsTest")
target(runFunctionalTests: "Run functional tests.") { depends(...) … }
Here are a few general guidelines on writing scripts:
 - Split scripts into a "command" script and an internal one.
 - Put the bulk of the implementation in the internal script.
 - Put argument parsing into the "command" script.
 - To pass arguments to a target, create some script variables and initialise them before calling the target.
 - Avoid name clashes by using closures assigned to script variables instead of targets. You can then pass arguments direct to the closures.
4.4 Hooking into Events
Grails provides the ability to hook into scripting events. These are events triggered during execution of Grails target and plugin scripts.
The mechanism is deliberately simple and loosely specified. The list of possible events is not fixed in any way, so it is possible to hook into events triggered by plugin scripts, for which there is no equivalent event in the core target scripts.
Defining event handlers
Event handlers are defined in scripts called _Events.groovy. Grails searches for these scripts in the following locations:
 - USER_HOME/.grails/scripts - user-specific event handlers
 - PROJECT_HOME/scripts - applicaton-specific event handlers
 - PLUGINS_HOME/*/scripts - plugin-specific event handlers
 - GLOBAL_PLUGINS_HOME/*/scripts - event handlers provided by global plugins
Whenever an event is fired, all the registered handlers for that event are executed. Note that the registration of handlers is performed automatically by Grails, so you just need to declare them in the relevant _Events.groovy file.
Event handlers are blocks defined in _Events.groovy, with a name beginning with "event". The following example can be put in your /scripts directory to demonstrate the feature:
eventCreatedArtefact = { type, name ->
 println "Created $type $name"
eventStatusUpdate = { msg -> println msg }
eventStatusFinal = { msg -> println msg }
You can see here the three handlers eventCreatedArtefact, eventStatusUpdate, eventStatusFinal. Grails provides some standard events, which are documented in the command line reference guide. For example the compile command fires the following events:
 - CompileStart - Called when compilation starts, passing the kind of compile - source or tests
 - CompileEnd - Called when compilation is finished, passing the kind of compile - source or tests
Triggering events
To trigger an event simply include the Init.groovy script and call the event() closure:
includeTargets << grailsScript("_GrailsEvents")
event("StatusFinal", ["Super duper plugin action complete!"])
Common Events
Below is a table of some of the common events that can be leveraged:
StatusUpdatemessagePassed a string indicating current script status/progress
StatusErrormessagePassed a string indicating an error message from the current script
StatusFinalmessagePassed a string indicating the final script status message, i.e. when completing a target, even if the target does not exit the scripting environment
CreatedArtefactartefactType,artefactNameCalled when a create-xxxx script has completed and created an artefact
CreatedFilefileNameCalled whenever a project source filed is created, not including files constantly managed by Grails
ExitingreturnCodeCalled when the scripting environment is about to exit cleanly
PluginInstalledpluginNameCalled after a plugin has been installed
CompileStartkindCalled when compilation starts, passing the kind of compile - source or tests
CompileEndkindCalled when compilation is finished, passing the kind of compile - source or tests
DocStartkindCalled when documentation generation is about to start - javadoc or groovydoc
DocEndkindCalled when documentation generation has ended - javadoc or groovydoc
SetClasspathrootLoaderCalled during classpath initialization so plugins can augment the classpath with rootLoader.addURL(...). Note that this augments the classpath after event scripts are loaded so you cannot use this to load a class that your event script needs to import, although you can do this if you load the class by name.
PackagingEndnoneCalled at the end of packaging (which is called prior to the Tomcat server being started and after web.xml is generated)
4.5 Customising the build
Grails is most definitely an opinionated framework and it prefers convention to configuration, but this doesn't mean you can't configure it. In this section, we look at how you can influence and modify the standard Grails build.
The defaults
The core of the Grails build configuration is the grails.util.BuildSettings class, which contains quite a bit of useful information. It controls where classes are compiled to, what dependencies the application has, and other such settings.
Here is a selection of the configuration options and their default values:
PropertyConfig optionDefault value
The BuildSettings class has some other properties too, but they should be treated as read-only:
baseDirThe location of the project.
userHomeThe user's home directory.
grailsHomeThe location of the Grails installation in use (may be null).
grailsVersionThe version of Grails being used by the project.
grailsEnvThe current Grails environment.
compileDependenciesA list of compile-time project dependencies as File instances.
testDependenciesA list of test-time project dependencies as File instances.
runtimeDependenciesA list of runtime-time project dependencies as File instances.
Of course, these properties aren't much good if you can't get hold of them. Fortunately that's easy to do: an instance of BuildSettings is available to your scripts as the grailsSettings script variable. You can also access it from your code by using the grails.util.BuildSettingsHolder class, but this isn't recommended.
Overriding the defaults
All of the properties in the first table can be overridden by a system property or a configuration option - simply use the "config option" name. For example, to change the project working directory, you could either run this command:
grails -Dgrails.project.work.dir=work compile
or add this option to your grails-app/conf/BuildConfig.groovy file:
grails.project.work.dir = "work"
Note that the default values take account of the property values they depend on, so setting the project working directory like this would also relocate the compiled classes, test classes, resources, and plugins.
What happens if you use both a system property and a configuration option? Then the system property wins because it takes precedence over the BuildConfig.groovy file, which in turn takes precedence over the default values.
The BuildConfig.groovy file is a sibling of grails-app/conf/Config.groovy - the former contains options that only affect the build, whereas the latter contains those that affect the application at runtime. It's not limited to the options in the first table either: you will find build configuration options dotted around the documentation, such as ones for specifying the port that the embedded servlet container runs on or for determining what files get packaged in the WAR file.
Available build settings
grails.server.port.httpPort to run the embedded servlet container on ("run-app" and "run-war"). Integer.
grails.server.port.httpsPort to run the embedded servlet container on for HTTPS ("run-app --https" and "run-war --https"). Integer.
grails.config.base.webXmlPath to a custom web.xml file to use for the application (alternative to using the web.xml template).
grails.compiler.dependenciesLegacy approach to adding extra dependencies to the compiler classpath. Set it to a closure containing "fileset()" entries. These entries will be processed by an AntBuilder so the syntax is the Groovy form of the corresponding XML elements in an Ant build file, e.g. fileset(dir: "$basedir/lib", include: "**/*.class).
grails.testing.patternsA list of Ant path patterns that let you control which files are included in the tests. The patterns should not include the test case suffix, which is set by the next property.
grails.testing.nameSuffixBy default, tests are assumed to have a suffix of "Tests". You can change it to anything you like but setting this option. For example, another common suffix is "Test".
grails.project.war.fileA string containing the file path of the generated WAR file, along with its full name (include extension). For example, "target/my-app.war".
grails.war.dependenciesA closure containing "fileset()" entries that allows you complete control over what goes in the WAR's "WEB-INF/lib" directory.
grails.war.copyToWebAppA closure containing "fileset()" entries that allows you complete control over what goes in the root of the WAR. It overrides the default behaviour of including everything under "web-app".
grails.war.resourcesA closure that takes the location of the staging directory as its first argument. You can use any Ant tasks to do anything you like. It is typically used to remove files from the staging directory before that directory is jar'd up into a


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Looking for unisex fantasy names, here we have 100+ fantasy names that are suitable for both baby boys and baby girls. Fantasy names became a new trend among parents for naming their baby as they're different from regular names and also look new.
Fantasy names are taken from fantasy novels and movies; for instance, all the marvel characters' names are fantasy names. Likewise, everyone familiar with Shakespeare's novels' names, and they're very famous among baby names. Jessica is one of my favorites. What's yours?
Unisex fantasy names are scarce to find, and also, there are no articles on the internet, so we have decided to provide them for you. Baby naming is a wonderful gift for every parent, and they should give a perfect name for their baby.
If any parent commits any naming mistake that may result in hurting their child when they grow up, be careful in finalizing a name. Now without wasting our time, we get into the topic.
Top Unisex Fantasy Names
- Aeryn: A female character from Farscape TV series.
- Frankie: A fictional boy character from the novel 'The Member of the Wedding (1946)'.
- Axton: Lead role name from Borderlands 2 video game.
- Beverly: A female character from Star Trek.
- Squire: A character from the very old novel Tom Jones(1749).
- Echo: A character's name from Dollhouse. Echo seems like a girl's name but it can also be used as a boy's name.
- Ezri: A female role from Star Trek series.
- Auryn: Auryn means gold and it is of Celtic origin. A role from 'The Neverending Story'.
- Faris: It means knight and is an Arabic name. It is more known as a boy's name. A female game character from Final Fantasy V.
- Iris: In Greek origin, Iris means rainbow. A role from The Flash. Iris can be considered as a unisex name. If we see some sources, some people mentioned it as a female name while some people said it as unisex.
- Enoch: A character from the poem Enoch Arden (1864).
- Alyx Vance: A video game character from Half-Life 2.
- Morrigon: Goddess of war in Iris origin and a character from Dragon Age video game.
- Nyx: Greek Goddess of night and lead role from comic series NYX.
- Fran: A video game role from Final Fantasy series. It means from France or free man.
- Revan: A character from Star Wars video game.
- Jamil: It means beautiful and a role from Anita Blake novel.
- Arya: A character name from Game of Thrones and also in Star Wars.
- Susan: The meaning of this name is lily and is a character from Narnia.
- Brooke: A character from the novel Be more chill and several fictional characters are with the name Brooke.
- Madison: A fictional female video game character from Heavy Rain. It is more famous as a girl's name.
- Seraphine: A name of Hebrew origin it means burning ones. It is famous as a girl's name. A role from World of Warcraft.
- Seren: It means star. This name is more known as a girl's name but it is a unisex name. A character from the Gossip Girl novel series.
- Elexis: A female video game character from SiN series.
- Bailey: George Bailey is a role from the movie It's a wonderful life (1946)
- Shasta: It means "From The Triple-peaked Mountain" and a male role name from Narnia.
- Julian: It means youthful and is a role from Chronicles of Amber.
- Blair: A character from the anime Soul Eater.
- Reiko: It is of both German and Japanese origin and a fictional female video game role from Rage Racer.
- Tyris: A princess role from Goldex Axe video game.
ALSO READ: Best Fantasy Girl Names
Popular Fantasy Unisex Names
- Alfie: A fictional character from Peaky Blinder and the full name is Alfie Solomons
- Aubrey: It means elf ruler. A role from Anita Blake novel.
- Kairi: A role from Kingdom Hearts game. It means ocean village and it is of Japanese origin.
- Christie: A female villain character from Dead or Alive game.
- Vivian: Villain role from Paper Mario game.
- Linden: Linden Cullen is a fictional role from Holby City.
- Clay: A fictional role from Pokemon and others.
- Brent: David Brent is a fictional character from the television mockumentary The Office.
- Rhun: A role from Dark Tower series.
- Lennox: A soldier role from Transformers in the name of William Lennox.
- Eric: A character from Chronicles of Amber.
- Rilian: It means small stream and a character from Narnia.
- Brand: A male role from Chronicles of Amber
- Cassidy: It means clever and Hopalong Cassidy is a cowboy hero character from E. Mulford's novels
- Alex: A role from Power Rangers.
- Logan: I think it needs no explanation.
- Campbell: Billy Campbell is the title character from The Rocketeer
- Darby: Randall Darby is a mutant role from Marvel comics
- Finn: A character from Star Wars and more.
- Asher: It means blessed and of Hebrew origin. A character from Anita Blake novel.
- Bree: The name means strength and is a role from Chronicles of Narnia.
- Colin: It is more likely a male name and a character name from Anita Blake.
- Tirian: It means kind and a role from Narnia.
- Eddie: There are a lot of fictional characters with this name. For example Eddie Brock from Venom
- Daryl: A role from the horror series The Walking Dead with the name Daryl Dixon.
- Billie: Billie Reed is a lead from the soap opera Days of our lives.
- Flynn: A famous character Flynn Rider from Disney's Tangled.
- Jordan: A role from Disney Pixar's film Inside Out.
- Carson: It is a Scottish surname and Carson is a fictional character from Venus series and more examples
- Randall: The meaning of this name is wolf shield and a role from Dark Tower novel.
- Fred: It means a peaceful ruler is of Germanic origin. A character from Discworld novel.
- Stevie: Stevie Hunter is a role from Marvel comics.
- Bennett: Elizabeth Bennett is a female character from Pride and Prejudice.
- Riley: A major character from Disney Pixar's Inside Out.
- Terry: A fictional role from Reno 911.
- Addison: A lead role from ABC TV series Dr. Addison Montgomery.
- Finley: A lead from Disney movie Oz the Great and Powerful.
- Adrian: A female fictional character from Creed II.
- Robin: A fictional character from DC comics.
- Tanner: Bill Tanner is lead from James Bond
- Kendall: A role from soap opera All My Children with the name Kendall Hart.
- Glenn: From the video game Chrono Cross.
- Spencer: Character from Beyblade.
- Remy: Rat name from Ratatouille and also from Gambit Marvel comics.
- Henry: Henry Hawk is a role from Looney Tune and more.
- Harper: There is a number of examples with this name. Just Google it.
- Emerson: Fictional characters like Michael Emerson, Radcliffe Emerson, and more.
- Cameron: Female character from TV series Terminator and more references.
- Elliott: A character from Mr. Robot with the name Elliott Alderson.
- Jessie: Shorten version of Shakespeare's Jessica.
- Shawn: A role from Barney & Friends.
- Morgan: A role name from the Walking Dead.
- Ryan: There is a TV series named Ryan.
- Quinn: Harley Quinn is a character from DC comics.
- Lane: In Mad Men with the name Lane Pryce.
- Nova: A fictional role from Marvel comics.
- Sage: Member of X-Men
- Reese: John Reese is a role from the TV series Person of Interest
- Gabriel: Character from Minecraft story mode and more are there with this name.
- Hadley: Hadley Hale is a fictional role from True Blood.
- Jade: A character from Sofia the First.
- Reagan: It is a character from Shakespeare's novel and other examples.
- Quincy: A fictional role from Little Einsteins and others.
- Parker: As Peter Parker from Spider-Man.
- Tracy: Title from Dick Tracy (1934).
- Kyrie: A female lead from the video game Devil May Cry 4.
- Nikita: A title role from Nikita series.
- Wallace: A character from Pokemon.
- Paige: Role from X-Men.
- Whitney: A role from Barney & Friends.
- Tobin: A princess character from Dragon Prince novel.
- Ray: A superhero name from DC comics.
ALSO READ: Biblical Boy Names
What are your thoughts on the above names? I hope you've loved this post. It's difficult to find unisex fantasy names. We spent lots of time to find these names.
Don't forget to cross-check with other sources and some names have one or more examples, but we took one. Kindly share with others. Thanks for reading. Have a good day.


Pearcy v. Stranahan
205 U.S. 257 (1907)
Annotate this Case
 - Syllabus |
 - Case
U.S. Supreme Court
Pearcy v. Stranahan, 205 U.S. 257 (1907)
Pearcy v. Stranahan
No. 1
Submitted March 4, 1907
Decided April 8, 1907
205 U.S. 257
The averment that territory named in the complaint is a part of the United States is a conclusion of law and not admitted by a demurrer.
The court takes judicial cognizance whether or not a given territory is within the boundaries of the United States, and is bound to take the fact as it really exists, however it may be averred to be.
Who is the sovereign de jure or de facto of territory is not a judicial, but a political, question, the determination of which by the legislative and executive departments of any government conclusively binds the judges as well as all other officers, citizens, and subjects of that government. Jones v. United States, 137 U. S. 202.
The Isle of Pines, under the provisions of the Platt Amendment and the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, is de facto under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Cuba, and. as the United states has never yet taken possession thereof, it has remained and is foreign country within the meaning of the Dingley Tariff Act of 1897. Delima v. Bidwell, 182 U. S. 1; United States v. Rice, 4 Wheat. 246.
The facts, which involve the political status of the Isle of Pines and whether it is under the jurisdiction of Cuba or that of the United States, and whether merchandise therefrom is subject to duty, as coming from a foreign country within the meaning of the Dingley Tariff Act, are stated in the opinion.
Page 205 U. S. 262


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How Latin Could Serve as a "Bond of Unity"
By Uwe Michael Lang, CO
ROME, 11 MARCH 2011 (ZENIT)
Language is not only an instrument that serves to communicate facts, which it seeks to do in the most simple and efficient way, but it is also the means to express our mind in a way that involves the whole person. Consequently, language is also the means by which we express thoughts and religious experiences.
Christine Mohrmann, the great historian of the Latin of Christians, affirms that "sacred language" used in divine worship is a specific way of "organizing" the religious experience. In fact, Mohrmann maintains that every form of believing in supernatural reality, in the existence of a transcendent being, leads necessarily to the adoption of a form of sacred language in worship, whereas radical secularism rejects any form of it.
In this connection, Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka, explained in an interview to the Italian daily La Repubblic in July 2009 that "the use of sacred language is a tradition in the whole world. In Hinduism, the language of prayer is Sanskrit, which is no longer in use. In Buddhism Pali is used, a language that today only Buddhist monks study. In Islam, the Arabic of the Koran is used. The use of a sacred language helps us to live the sensation of the beyond."
The use of a sacred language in the liturgical celebration is part of what St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologiae calls the "solemnitas." The Angelic Doctor teaches: "What is found in the sacraments by human institution is not necessary to the validity of the sacrament, but confers a certain solemnity, useful in the sacraments to exercise devotion and respect in those who receive it" (Summa Theologiae III, 64, 2; cf. 83, 4).
Sacred language, being the means of expression not only of individuals, but rather of a community that follows its traditions, is conservative: it maintains the archaic linguistic forms with tenacity. Moreover, introduced in it are external elements, in so far as associated to an ancient religious tradition. A paradigmatic case is the Hebrew biblical vocabulary in the Latin used by Christians (Amen, Alleluia, Hosanna, etc.), as St. Augustine already observed (cf. "De doctrina christiana," II, 34-35 [11, 16]).
In the course of history a wide variety of languages has been used in Christian worship: Greek in the Byzantine tradition; the different languages of the Eastern traditions, such as Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Coptic and Ethiopic; Paleo-Slavic; the Latin of the Roman rite and of the other Western rites.
Found in all these languages are forms of style that separate them from the "ordinary" or popular language. Often this separation is the consequence of linguistic developments in the common language, which then are not adopted in the liturgical language because of its sacred character.
However, in the case of Latin as language of the Roman liturgy, a certain separation has existed since the beginning: Romans did not speak in the style of the canon or of the prayers of the Mass. As soon as Greek was replaced by Latin in the Roman liturgy, a highly stylized language was created as a means of worship, which an average Christian of Rome of late antiquity would have had difficulty in understanding.
Moreover, the development of Christian "latinitas" could have rendered the liturgy more accessible to the people of Rome or Milan, but not necessarily to those whose mother tongue was Gothic, Celtic, Iberian, or Punic. Nevertheless, thanks to the prestige of the Church of Rome and the unifying force of the papacy, Latin became the singular liturgical language of Christianity, and subsequently one of the foundations of culture in the West.
The distance between liturgical Latin and the language of the people became greater with the development of the national cultures and languages in Europe, not to mention the mission territories. This situation did not foster the participation of the faithful in the liturgy, and that is why the Second Vatican Council wished to extend the use of the vernacular, already introduced to a certain degree in the preceding decades in the celebration of the sacraments (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy "Sacrosanctum Concilium," Article 36, No. 2). At the same time, the council stressed that "the use of the Latin language [...] should be kept in the Latin rites" (Ibid., Article 36, No. 1; cf. also Article 54).
However, the conciliar fathers did not imagine that the sacred language of the Western Church would be totally replaced by the vernacular. The linguistic fragmentation of Catholic worship was pushed so far, that many faithful today can hardly recite a "Pater Noster" along with others, as can be seen in international meetings in Rome and elsewhere.
In an age marked by great mobility and globalization, a common liturgical language could serve as a bond of unity among peoples and cultures, apart from the fact that the Latin liturgy is a unique spiritual treasure that has nourished the life of the Church for many centuries. Undoubtedly, Latin contributes to the sacred and stable character "which attracts many to the old use," as Benedict XVI wrote in his Letter to Bishops, on the occasion of the publication of the "Summorum Pontificum" (July 7, 2007). With the wider use of the Latin language, an altogether legitimate choice, but little used, "in the celebration of the Mass according to the Missal of Paul VI, could manifest, in a stronger way than it has often up to now, that sacredness" (Ibid.).
Finally, it is necessary to preserve the sacred character of the liturgical language in the vernacular translation, as noted with exemplary clarity in the Instruction of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments on the translation of liturgical books Liturgiam Authenticam of 2001. A notable fruit of this instruction is the new English translation of the Missale Romanum, which will be introduced in many English-speaking countries in the course of this year.
* * *
Oratorian Father Uwe Michael Lang is an official of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and consultor of the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.
[Translation by ZENIT]


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The Hathaway Brown School Library Program prepares its students to be effective and efficient users of information by providing print and electronic resources that serve the educational needs of the school community, while encouraging a deep appreciation of literature and reading for personal enjoyment.
The Primary School Library serves the Primary and Early Childhood divisions, which include preschool through grade four. Each class in the Primary School visits the library once during the rotation for story times and other literacy activities with the librarians.
The Middle School Library serves grades five through twelve. Fifth and sixth graders visit the library once a rotation for information literacy lessons, booktalks and selection of books to read for personal enjoyment.
The Martha Frohring Geisel Library serves nine through twelve. The Geisel Library has computers for student use and houses the School's archives collection.


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Allentown Art Museum (Allentown, PA)
In 2002, Allentown Art Museum asked its longtime patrons to name their favorite of the museum's exhibits, discovering a 1964 show about arms and armor stood out. The appeal of knights and armor, combined with a promised gift to the museum of 110 pieces of Renaissance and Baroque armor, was the genesis of Allentown Art Museum's most ambitious exhibition in a generation: Knight in Shining Armor: Myth and Reality, _PHONE_. In FY 2007, Allentown Art Museum received an NEA Access to Artistic Excellence grant of $15,000 to support their Knight in Shining Armor exhibition, which ran from January 27 through June 3, 2007.
The Allentown Art Museum was established in 1939 and maintains a collection of more than 12,000 works of art. With more than 150 objects from the Baroque and Renaissance periods, including arms and armor as well as paintings, prints, and tapestries, the exhibition was arranged into four sections -- Nobility and Authority; Religious Imagery; Images of War; and Myth, Story, and Allegory. The exhibition explained how during this time period, armor was seen more off the battlefield than on it, as wearing armor became a sign of social status, worn in pageants and parades, and often seen in portraiture. In addition, the exhibition reveals women's roles in armor -- from a painting of Joan of Arc in armor to the lacy handles on swords inspired by women to paintings of the Sabine women who stopped war by carrying their infants as armor onto the battlefield.
In order to make the exhibition accessible for younger children, Allentown Art Museum created the Art Ways Interactive Family Gallery, recreating Renaissance life with workshops, stables, gardens, and the home of a knight. In addition, the museum arranged a full Renaissance evening with music, sword-play demonstrations, and a talk by Daniel Weiss, president of Lafayette College and a leading authority on the art of medieval Europe in the age of the Crusades.
More than 23,000 people participated in the museum's education and outreach programs, on top of the more than 41,000 who toured the exhibition, proving that the public's fascination with knights and armor hasn't diminished.
(From the NEA 2007 Annual Report)
National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency


How to Become a Nutritional Psychologist | PsychologySchoolGuide.netHow to Become a Nutritional Psychologist
How to Become a Nutritional Psychologist
Nutritional psychology is an emerging field of work that is a specialization in the field of health psychology. Nutritional psychology is a relatively new area of practice within the realm of the likewise relatively young area of health psychology. Health psychology only emerged in the middle of the last century and has since grown rapidly in popularity. Increased interest in the prevention of illness and the role that diet plays in the development of illness have fueled the growth of nutritional psychology as well.
Despite unprecedented levels of material wealth, or perhaps because of it, we as people fail to live a healthy lifestyle. Fatty and sugary foods are difficult to resist, and the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and other health problems are the proof. Fortunately, there are ways to combat these afflictions. One way is to seek out a nutritional psychologist who can provide dietary advice and motivation. Tempted to become one? Here's how to do it.
An old adage posits that we are what we eat. As a nutritional psychologist, it's a no-brainer that you need to have a healthy diet if you want to lead other by example. However, that is not all. To pursue this career, you must be willing gorge on the mental nutrition of dietary information. Only that way can you learn about how food and the body are linked. You must read up on everything from vitamins and minerals, to proteins and carbohydrates, to cholesterol and calories. Couple this also with the required rigorous study of how different types of nutrition affect the mind, and it becomes clear. Becoming a nutritional psychologist takes effort.
Related: What is the Difference Between Health Psychology and Medical Psychology?
What is a Nutritional Psychologist?
Nutritional psychologists are primarily concerned with how one's diet impacts mood and behavior. Many nutritional psychologists investigate how diagnosis and treatment of mental illness is affected by diet, specifically, misdiagnoses that might occur as a result of the dietary habits of people today. Nutritional psychologists are also part of a larger and rapidly growing movement to integrate mental and physical health care, especially at large government agencies like the Department of Veteran's Affairs.
Individuals employed as nutritional psychologists focus their efforts on bridging the gap between physical health and mental health. Nutritional psychologists might focus on issues related to weight, body image, and how the foods we eat contribute to issues in those areas. There is also significant effort to establish a better understanding of the link between mind and body. As a result, some nutritional psychologists explore how stress negatively impacts the immune system, thus making physical illnesses more likely.
Other nutritional psychologists examine the physical manifestations of mental illness, such as the aches and pains often associated with depression. Once these mind-body linkages are better understood, nutritional psychologists go about devising appropriate strategies for improving the diet of individuals suffering from mental illness. With an improved diet, people have improved decision-making concerning food, as well as improved digestion and metabolic processes, which in turn have an overall positive impact on physical and mental health.
What are the Job Duties of a Nutritional Psychologist?
The duties of nutritional psychologists are many. They must use relevant discussions and assessments to map out dietary habits of patients. In some cases, they must suggest appropriate laboratory tests. The goal is essentially to track the progress that patients may, or may not, be making. This means follow-up meetings constitute a large part of the job.
Other than obesity, common patient problems are conditions such as ineffective digestion, bowel issues, and skin problems. Some patients may even be depressed as a consequence of bad diet. While educating these individuals is of great importance, you must also have the ability to inspire them. A knack for motivating clients is therefore essential.
What are the Education Requirements to Become a Nutritional Psychologist?
Nutritional psychology is commonly regarded as an area within health psychology. Health psychology in turn pertains to the clinical concentration (SAGE). Your best bet is hence to get educated in the clinical concentration. The completion of a Ph.D. in psychology, or a Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) degree, is what will get you there. However, just like any other field, you should start your journey with a bachelor's degree in psychology.
The Ph.D. is essentially a research degree, constituted by comprehensive exams, and an even more comprehensive dissertation. A one-year internship is a standard requirement of this doctoral program, but additional predoctoral or postdoctoral supervised experience, or a residency program, will give you an even greater advantage.
The Psy.D.is particularly focused on clinical aspects, and involves a lot of practical work and examinations, with no dissertation.It may hence be an even better avenue to become a qualified nutritional psychologist. Both options will, however, result in obtaining a license, which makes you eligible to begin practicing (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Some colleges offer introductory courses in nutritional psychology. If you're still an undergraduate, jump at the opportunity to enroll in these. It will make it easier for you once you reach the graduate level.
What is the Employment Outlook for Nutritional Psychologists?
Increasing awareness surrounding diet and health is very likely to amass more job opportunities for nutritional psychologists. It definitely will not worsen them. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs in clinical psychology (to which nutritional psychology belongs) have a projected growth rate of 22% until 2020. This is the same as for psychology occupations in general and well above that of professions outside of the field.
As a nutritional psychologist, you may find work in any job sector, be it government, private, or even non-profit. Because the specialty is new and poorly established, many go into independent practice in the private sphere.
What are the Career Opportunities in Nutritional Psychology?
What is the Salary for a Nutritional Psychologist?
Nutritional psychologists (therapists to be exact) average $38,000 in income per year (simplyhired.com). This may seem low compared to the $68,640 that psychologists make on average (Bureau of Labor Statistics). However, it fluctuates quite dramatically.
Your exact salary as a nutritional psychologist will depend on where in the country you work (urban vs. rural area), your sector of employment (government vs. private business), and the amount of work experience you possess. Just as any psychologist, you can expect a pay raise as the years go along. Provided that you are willing to work for it, that figure will land at a very pleasing level. Essentially, it is all up to you.
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Effectiveness of Information Education and Communication on Menstrual Hygiene among Adolescent School Girls of Jumla District
Background: Menstruation and menstrual practices are darkened by taboos and different societal as well as cultural restrictions, which results in lack of adequate knowledge in adolescents regarding the scientific facts of menstruation as well as healthy menstrual hygiene practices. The objective of the study was to find out the effectiveness of information, education and communication (IEC) on menstrual hygiene among adolescents of Jumla district.
Materials and Methods: Quasi-experimental research design was used for the study. The samples were taken from government school, Shree Janta Secondary Technical school of Chandannath municipality of Jumla District. A total of 112 adolescents girls studying in class 9 and class 10 were selected by using non probability total enumerative sampling technique. Data was collected by using self administered questionnaire. Data analysis was done by descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: The study revealed that 8.9% of respondents had high knowledge during pre test which was significantly increased to 60.7% during post test and 27.7% of respondents had good practice during pre test which was significantly increased to 51.8% during post test.
Conclusion: The present study concluded that adolescents lacked appropriate knowledge and practices about menstruation in the pre test which significantly increased in post test. Thus, structured health education program can significantly bring positive change in healthy menstrual hygiene practices.
Copyright (c) 2019 Anika Dahal, Kamal Prasad Acharya
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
JoNMC applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to works we publish. Under this license, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their content, but they allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute and/or copy the content as long as the original authors and source are cited.


This writeup explains how to find the shortest distance from a point to a plane, when both the point and the plane are defined by vectors, by an example.
Suppose that there is a plane with scalar equation:
r.(2i - j - 3k) = 13
and we want to find the shortest distance from a point P with position vector (3i + j + 16k) to this plane.
First, find the perpendicular distance of the plane from the origin. To do this, consider the position vector r of an arbitrary point on the plane. Now imagine a vector that is perpendicular to the plane and passes through the origin. (I would recommend drawing a diagram.) It is now evident that the vector r, that is the vector from the origin to the arbitrary point on the plane, is the hypotenuse of a triangle with its base on the plane, and the remaining side formed by the perpendicular vector. This perpendicular vector is called n.
Looking at the triangle, we can see that the perpendicular distance of the plane from the origin, call it OA, is |r|cos θ.
Now, using the dot product:
r.n = |r||n| cos θ
which we can rearrange to say that:
|r|cos θ = (r.n)/|n|
So: OA = (r.n)/|n|
The general form of the scalar equation of a plane is r.n = a.n = ρ
OA = ρ/|n|
From the equation of the plane given at the beginning, we know that ρ = 13. We also know that n = 2i - j - 3k. Therefore |n| = sqrt(4 + 1 + 9) = sqrt(14).
Hence, OA = 13/sqrt(14).
Now we need to form a plane containing the point P that is parallel to our original plane. As the planes are parallel, the vector n must be the same for both of them. If we let a equal the position vector of P, we have the equation of the plane:
r.(2i - j - 3k) = (3i + j + 16k).(2i - j - 3k) = 6-1-48 = -43.
What we need to do now is the same that we did for our original plane, but for our new plane this time. We can use the result from before, so if we say that OB is the perpendicular distance of this plane to the origin:
OB = ρ/|n| = -43/sqrt(14)
The fact that this value is negative indicates that P is on the other side of the origin to the original plane. Keeping this in mind, we can see that to get the distance between the original plane and P, we need to add the magnitudes of the two numbers together.
Hence, if the perpendicular distance of P from the original plane is d:
d = |13/sqrt(14)| + |-43/sqrt(14)| = 56/sqrt(14)
which is our final answer.
This problem actually has two solutions, as Swap pointed out. The other is the airport.
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Can I Donate Blood After Having Hepatitis B?enteens out what the experts have to say.blood donors with hepatitis, blood and hepatitis, hepatitus, hepetitis, hepetitus, blood donation, donating blood, what prevents a person from donating blood?, can i donate blood?, who can't donate blood?04/14/200508/08/201808/08/2018Elana Pearl Ben-Joseph, MD08/02/2018e4bc0710-5540-4d4d-9027-0d3082eeaba0Is it possible to donate blood after having hepatitis B? – Josh* Hepatitis B is one of the viruses that cause hepatitis. One way that someone can become infected with the hepatitis B virus is through blood. People infected with hepatitis B may carry the virus without even knowing it. They can pass it to others through blood or sexual contact. Because of this, anyone who has ever tested positive for hepatitis B cannot donate blood. It's not just hepatitis B that affects who can donate blood. Other types of viral hepatitis, HIV, and some infections can mean that a person can't give blood. *Names have been changed to protect user privacy.
Blood Find out about the mysterious, life-sustaining fluid called blood.
Donating BloodThere's a 97% chance that someone you know will need a blood transfusion. Blood donors — especially donors with certain blood types — are always in demand. Find out what's involved in this article for teens.
HepatitisHepatitis, an infectious liver disease, is more contagious than HIV. Find out about the different types of hepatitis.
Hepatitis B Hepatitis B can move from one person to another through blood and other body fluids. For this reason, people usually get it through unprotected sex or by sharing needles.
kh:age-teenThirteenToNineteenkh:age-youngAdultEighteenPluskh:clinicalDesignation-infectiousDiseasekh:genre-qAndAkh:primaryClinicalDesignation-infectiousDiseaseBirth Control, Pregnancy & STD Q&A for Teens Problems Q&A for Teens


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Results of the 2007/8 Hong Kong Sustainable Development Index Survey (HKSDI Survey) produced by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) in conjunction with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong were released on 20 November.
The findings of the survey reveal that environmental protection ranks alongside the education system as Hong Kong's top sustainable development priority. Among the issues of top concern are clean air, quality of teaching and the related issue of student-teacher ratio.
Launched in 2003, the Hong Kong Sustainable Development Index measures progress on 10 key economic, environmental and social priorities that have been identified as important for furthering the territory's sustainable development.
For 2007/8, the Index rose to a new high of 103.6, compared to 102.6 in 2006 and a baseline of 100 in 2003. The survey results indicate that the general public sees some overall progress being made toward Hong Kong's sustainable development goals.
While the education system has been identified as a top priority in every HKSDI Survey since 2003, the importance placed by the public on environmental protection rose significantly in 2007/8 to rank alongside the education system as a top priority. However, its performance rating fell from fourth in 2003 to ninth in 2007/8, resulting in the largest "satisfaction gap" among the sustainable development priorities tracked by the HKSDI Survey. (Click here for key findings)
"The satisfaction gap in nine of the 10 priorities decreased in 2007/8, resulting in an overall increase in the HKSDI," explained Professor Graeme Lang, convener of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce's Sustainable Development Index sub-committee and Head of CityU's Department of Asian and International Studies. The Index is, however, anticipated to decrease as a result of the deteriorating economy.
"Pursuing a sustainable quality of life should be the central objective of every society, but it is difficult to get a clear picture of where improvement is needed most unless you measure public perception of the issues," said Dr Geoffrey Tso Kwok-fai, Associate Professor, Department of Management Sciences of CityU. "Our survey is unique in providing a large-scale measure of public perception of the top priorities for sustainable development in Asia's world city. We randomly selected more than 2,000 Cantonese-speaking adults – forming a representative sample of the Hong Kong community – and interviewed them each for at least 20 minutes to generate this year's findings."
"These results enable us to assess the importance the community attaches to multiple facets of sustainable development and to track perceived progress in managing these areas, especially when viewed as a five-year series," said Professor Lang.


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Index Organized Table (IOT) Enhancements In Oracle 9i
The Index Organized Table (IOT) concept has matured in Oracle 9i to the point where the differences between IOTs and Heap Organized Tables (HOT) are less than the similarities.
Like indexes, IOTs are subject to inserts, deletes, block splits and coalesces, all of which affect the rowid. This means a standard rowid cannot always be used to retrieve an IOT record from a secondary index. For this reason secondary indexes on IOTs use a logical rowid which is made up of the original rowid and the primary key of the row. When a secondary index is referenced the rowid is used to find the block. If the block is not present at that disk address the primary key is used to find the block. This initial rowid access is know as a guess, since the block may not be at its origninal disk address anymore. Physical movements of the row do not affect the logical rowid, so long as the primary key is not updated.
With time the percentage of hits using the guess rowid will drop. When the hitrate gets sufficiently low the index should
be dropped and recreated to refesh the guess rowids. The guess hitrate can be monitored using the
SELECT index_name, index_type, pct_direct_access FROM user_indexes WHERE pct_direct_access IS NOT NULL;
Bitmap Secondary Indexes
A bitmap index contains a series of bitmaps that represent row locations corresponding to each key value. The bitmap can locate the row because it assumes the rows are contiguous within the block. Since this is not the case in IOTs Oracle 8i did not allow secondary bitmap indexes on IOTs.
Oracle 9i removes this restriction by introducing a mapping table which literally maps the bit position to the row
location within the IOT. The mapping table is created as part of the
CREATE TABLE statement.
CREATE TABLE countries ( country_id CHAR(2) CONSTRAINT country_id_nn NOT NULL, country_name VARCHAR2(40), currency_name VARCHAR2(25), currency_symbol VARCHAR2(3), region VARCHAR2(15), CONSTRAINT country_c_id_pk PRIMARY KEY (country_id) ) ORGANIZATION INDEX MAPPING TABLE TABLESPACE tbs_1;
Maintenance of the mapping tables causes a performance overhead so they should only be created for IOTs that need to support secondary bitmap indexes. A single mapping table can support multiple bitmap indexes on the same table.
COALESCEof secondary indexes. The base IOT is no longer locked during these DDL operations.
- Parallel DML on IOTs.
MOVEof IOTs with overflow segments. In Oracel 8i an online move was only possible if all data was stored inline.
For more information see:
Hope this helps. Regards Tim...


Set up "Validator" Code Box
Please follow the steps below to have a code box appear when a registrant chooses a specific registration. For example, a code box will appear if "Speaker Registration" is selected. This will not allow submitting the form without a valid code.
Step 1: Create a Radio Button Field that has different types of registration options
Step 2: Add the Promo Code Text Box field
Add a text box to your form for people to enter in a code. It's usually best to add this below your registration options. To do this, go into the set up area and click into the section you want the field to appear from the left men
Step 3: Add Validation
1. Click Add Validation
2. Select "Custom" as Validation Type
3. Click Save
4. Add validation text in the "Valid Expression" column (This is what the registrant's code should be)
There are different ways codes can be validated:
Codes need to be case-sensitive with no variation - ^HSBC157 - matches only 'HSBC157', does not allow spaces at the beginning, but allows spaces at the end.
Codes aren't case-sensitive? - (?i)^HSBC157$ - matches 'HSBC157' or 'hsbc157' or 'HsbC157', etc., no spaces allowed
Need more than one code? - (?i)^HSBC157$|^test123$ - matches 'HSBC157' or 'hsbc157' or 'HsbC157' or 'TEst123' or 'test123', etc... no spaces allowed
5. Click Save
Step 4: Add Logic to the Code field.
1. Click Add Logic
2. Select "Show" under Type
3. Select the field you created in Step 1 "Registration Type" as the Dependent Field. Logic is always dependent on other fields.
4. Select "Is Equal To" as the Operator
5. Select which option you need someone to enter a code for. (This will bring up the validator code box when that registration option is selected.)
6. Click Save


Lasso Soft Inc. > Home
Name Summary Category
loop_count [Loop_Count] returns the number of the current repetition of any looping method. When used with the [Loop] method, it obeys the optional parameters so the [Loop_Count] can run backward or... Loop
loop_value [Loop_Value] returns the value of the current value within an [iterate] container. Within the container, [loop_value] can be modified, however the source object within the iterated object... Loop
loop_key [loop_key] is analogous to [loop_value] when using [iterate] with no variable to store the iterative value in. Loop
loop_abort [Loop_Abort] aborts the [Loop] or [While] containers, exiting immediately and not executing any further repetitions of the loop. The [Loop_Abort] method can be used to abort any looping... Loop
loop_continue [Loop_Continue] ends the current iteration of a looping method and immediately starts the next iteration. Loop
loop [loop] executes the provided body of code a specified number of times. A single parameter specifies the number of times the body should loop. The [Loop_Count] method can be used within the body of... Loop
iterate The [Iterate] method loops through each element of a data type, such as an array or a map. A variable is set to the value of each element of the data type in turn. This allows the same operation to... Loop
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I'd be thinking this through science.
As we all know, snow is rain and vice versa, except they have different solid states due to temperature changes.
Temperature changes can be associated to winds.
A quick Google for "what causes wind" gave me an answer from Answers.com:
"The pressure gradient force, which arises from the uneven heating of
earth's surface. Once it is in motion, the Coriolis force arises from
Earth's rotation to deflect it (right in the northern hemisphere, left
in the southern hemisphere)."
Aye, not the best source for scientific questions, but it gives the idea.
So, theoretically, you only need wind now. It could be random, or, might as well be somehow scripted to you environment which heats due to some events.
Take wind now, apply to your current position, and randomly or through a scripted way, make clouds out from it. The denser the cloud, the more the probability and density of rain. If temperature is low enough, rain becomes snow. Move the cloud around and make it "not so dense" with that wind.
As for the display, that's up to you, just cache the states of the falling particles,
if rain -> use water drop texture and
if snow -> use snowflake texture. Use the wind to make these particles move according to wind direction (yeah, you should store this one too, somewhere) to make it a little more realistic.
And with this you can expand upon everything. Like, if there is snow falling and the snowflakes fall near some kind of heat source, change particle texture to rain again.
Lots of possibilities actually, this is just a simple concept.
P.S. As for the hail, look what makes those, expand the concept for such environment.
Have fun, good luck.


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Loving-kindness meditation might slow the aging process in women, based on a small study by researchers at Harvard Medical School.
In the new study, scientists analyzed white blood cells from 37 adult men and women, of whom 15 had practiced loving-kindness meditation almost every day for at least four years.
The researchers measured length of participants' telomeres — regions at the end of chromosomes. Shortened telomeres have been linked in humans to chronic stress, mood disorders and accelerated aging.
The scientists found that women who practiced lovingkindness meditation had significantly longer telomeres than women who did not. But telomere length in men was the same whether or not they practiced loving-kindness.
The results for women remained significant when researchers controlled for differences in body mass index (BMI) and history of depression between meditators and nonmeditators. (The groups resembled each other in terms of age, gender, race, education level and history of trauma.)
Why was the positive result seen only for women? The study's authors noted that female participants had practiced lovingkindness meditation longer than their male counterparts, although the difference wasn't statistically significant.
"We could also speculate," they wrote, "that [loving-kindness] practice leads to greater psychological, and therefore physiological, changes in women because they are able to utilize it better."
Loving-kindness focuses on emotions, not thoughts, and brain scans of women show they rely more on the "emotional" parts of their brain for performing certain tasks. When women are shown pictures and asked to label and assign emotions, for example, they use their amygdalas more than men do. The amygdala is a brain structure that helps regulate and interpret emotions.
The study's limitations included its small sample size and the fact that the loving-kindness practitioners also practiced insight meditation. In addition, researchers did not measure participants' self-reported stress levels, only telomere length.
The study appears in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity.


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An audit is an unbiased examination/evaluation of the walking and biking environment. The general purpose of an audit is to identify concerns for pedestrians and bicyclists related to the safety, access, comfort, and convenience of the environment. In addition to identifying problem areas, an audit can be used to identify potential alternatives or solutions (such as engineering treatments, policy changes, or education and enforcement measures). Audits can be performed before, during, or after the construction of a project.
Audits involve a review of all the data for a location or travel corridor analyzed by a multi-disciplinary team independent of the site or project being audited. Informal audits can be performed by any individual or community group. More formal audits (i.e., those that follow a standardized set of audit procedures) can also be conducted; these are usually performed by a multidisciplinary team of trained professionals, including engineers, planners, transportation researchers, pedestrian and bicycle specialists, and others. A multi-disciplinary team will often allow a fresh look at traffic conditions at a location or along a corridor.
The Federal Highway Administration's Road Safety Audit (RSA) Guidelines and Prompt Lists can be used to assess the safety of bicycle or pedestrian facilities:
- Bicycle RSA Guidelines and Prompt Lists (2012)
- Pedestrian RSA Guidelines and Prompt Lists (PDF) (2007)
Other audits and checklists include:
- CDC Worksite Walkability Audit Tool — Instrument developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess the walkability surrounding a workplace.
- AARP Sidewalks and Streets Survey — Adapted from PBIC's Walkability Checklist and focusing on older pedestrians, this toolkit is designed so that communities can make walking safer by teaching small groups to take simple "walkability" surveys and to take recommended actions for community improvements.
- Toolkit for the Assessment of Bus Stop Accessibility and Safety — Tool developed by Easter Seals Project Action to evaluate pedestrian access features and connections, assess passenger comfort amenities, evaluate safety and security features, and document information features.
- Universal Design Audit Checklist — Tool developed by the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access to assess the design of a facility for universal access.
Active Living Research hosts a number of resources related to walking audits, including:
- Active Neighborhood Checklist
- Analytic Audit Tool and Checklist Audit Tool
- Systematic Pedestrian and Cycling Environmental Scan (SPACES) Instrument
- Measurement Instrument for Urban Design Quantities Related to Walkability
- Physical Activity Resource Assessment (PARA) Instrument
- Pedestrian Environment Data Scan (PEDS) Tool
- Path Environment Audit Tool (PEAT)
- Rural Active Living Assessment (RALA) Tools


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|This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2009)|
Formally, a string is a finite sequence of symbols such as letters or digits. The empty string is the extreme case where the sequence has length zero, so there are no symbols in the string. There is only one empty string, because two strings are only different if they have different lengths or a different sequence of symbols. In formal treatments, the empty string is denoted with ε or sometimes Λ or λ.
The empty string should not be confused with the empty language ∅, which is a formal language (i.e. a set of strings) that contains no strings, not even the empty string.
The empty string has several properties:
- |ε| = 0. Its string length is zero.
- ε ⋅ s = s ⋅ ε = s. The empty string is the identity element of the concatenation operation. The set of all strings forms a free monoid with respect to ⋅ and ε.
- εR = ε. Reversal of the empty string produces the empty string.
- The empty string precedes any other string under lexicographical order, because it is the shortest of all strings.
Use in programming languages
In most programming languages, strings are a data type. Individual strings are typically stored in consecutive memory locations. This means that the same string (for example the empty string) could be stored in two different places in memory. (Note that even a string of length zero can require memory to store it, depending on the format being used.) In this way there could be multiple empty strings in memory, in contrast with the formal theory definition, for which there is only one possible empty string. However, a string comparison function would indicate that all of these empty strings are equal to each other.
In most programming languages, the empty string is distinct from a null reference (or null pointer) because a null reference does not point to any string at all, not even the empty string. The empty string is a legitimate string, upon which most string operations should work. Some languages treat some or all of the following in similar ways, which can lessen the danger: empty strings, null references, the integer 0, the floating point number 0, the boolean value false, the ASCII character NUL, or other such values.
The empty string is usually represented similarly to other strings. In implementations with string terminating character (null-terminated strings or plain text lines), the empty string is indicated by the immediate use of this terminating character.
|λ representation||Programming languages|
||C, C++, Objective-C (as a C string)|
||Objective-C (as a constant
||Objective-C (as a new
||C#, Visual Basic.NET|
Examples of empty strings
|This section requires expansion. (March 2010)|
The empty string is a syntactically valid representation of zero in positional notation (in any base), which does not contain leading zeros. Since the empty string does not have a standard visual representation outside of formal language theory, the number zero is traditionally represented by a single decimal digit 0 instead.
Zero-filled memory area, interpreted as a null-terminated string, is an empty string.
Empty lines of text show the empty string. This can occur from two consecutive EOLs, as often occur in text files, and this is sometimes used in text processing to separate paragraphs, e.g. in MediaWiki.
- Kernighan and Ritchie, C, p. 38
- JOHN CORCORAN, WILLIAM FRANK, and MICHAEL MALONEY, String theory, Journal of Symbolic Logic, vol. 39 (1974) pp. 625– 637
- CSE1002 Lecture Notes - Lexicographic


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This resource was created by Kate Reilly.
For the past 47 years, the National Science Teachers Association has published a spring list of Outstanding Trade Books which includes titles on general science content. Appearing below is one that focuses on the natural world, the study of environmental science, and insects galore. Additionally, it demonstrates the historical inequities to the fair access to education and how this system limited the hopes and dreams of a talented individual who ultimately prevailed making weighty contributions along her journey of closed doors.
Included are notes that help make connections to the ongoing ecological work conducted at Duke Farms and additional resources for further dialogue and research.
Evelyn, the Adventurous Entomologist
By Christine Evans, Illustrated by Yasmin Imamura
The book follows Evelyn Cheesman on her relentless and life-long pursuit of knowledge about animals, especially insects. In the early 1920s, women were expected to stay home, but Evelyn embarked on eight solo expeditions to distant islands. She collected over 70,000 insect specimens used for education at the Museum of Natural History in London; discovered new species some of which were named after her; adventured through little known terrain to make significant contributions while functioning in a male-dominated world. Cheesman was unable to train for a career as a veterinary surgeon due to restrictions on women's education at that time. Instead, she studied entomology and was the first woman to be hired as a curator at Regent's Park Zoo, in London. (Source: NSTA)
Questions to prompt discussion about this book:
- An ecologist who focuses on insects and their lives really has their work cut out for them! Why do you think that being a field-based entomologist would be difficult? This Smithsonian article may help you answer this question.
- Apart from Evelyn Cheesman, can you name some other female environmentalists who lovebugs? If you can't think of any, why do you think that is? The Entomology Society of America has an idea.
- Evelyn Cheesman was prohibited from going to veterinary school based on her gender. What is the current male and female enrollment at US veterinary schools? Have things changed, and if so, why/why not? If you have a pet and have recently visited a vet, you may have your own impressions, but the American Veterinary Medical Association offers these stats.
Who's That Bug Lady?
- If you are interested in another career entomologist, Alice Gray was often called the Bug Lady of the American Museum of Natural History in New York! As a talented illustrator, she was responsible for countless renderings while raising all sorts of spiders and insects at the museum for educational purposes and for exhibits
Duke Farms Connection
Insects play a critical role in our environment. Just their activities as pollinators, as aerators for soil and as scavengers eating dead and decaying plant material thereby recycling materials back to the earth, confirm their essential place in ecosystems. Acknowledging the importance of insects and the intrigue of studying them, Duke Farms has offered insect-related classes for children, families, and adults through the Junior Entomologist series and sessions such as Winter Weeds, Galls, and Insect Identification and Moths of NJ. Currently, there are numerous resources involving insects on the Duke Farms Distance Learning Portal. Check out The Forgotten Flower Series to learn about how miner bees are pollination specialists for the spring beauty or how ultraviolet light is involved with the insect pollinators of cutleaf toothwort. On the other hand, you can also read about a very unwanted invasive species in the article, Spotted Lanternfly: Beat that Bug.
Click here for the Duke Farms Distance Learning Portal.
Remember, books are even better when read outside!
Next in the series: Moth Madness


Columbia County Health Officials Report 'Significant Increase' Of COVID
(Columbia County) Public health officials in Columbia County say the coronavirus activity level has seen a significant increase. In a press release, Health Officer Susan Lorenz says Columbia County had a total of 47 positive cases at the beginning of June. As of Thursday, the county has seen 63 new positive cases since June. That accounts for 57-percent of the 110 total cases experienced since March. Thirty-four (34) people are being actively monitored by local health officials.
Younger people comprise the largest group of new cases with those in their 20s making up the largest single age grouping of positive cases at 22-percent. People in their 30s are in the second largest group of new cases at 20-percent. Lorenz says the majority of the cases are being transmitted from unknown sources, meaning they are not close contacts of a household member or a known case investigation, they are acquired in the general community.
When someone tests positive for coronavirus, the county health department interviews them to ask about places they have been and who may have had close contact with them. Columbia County health officials are in contact with them daily to monitor their symptoms and ensure they are following isolation instructions.
Health officials also monitor people who may have come in contact with someone who tests positive for coronavirus, through a method called contact monitoring or contact tracing. The standard contact investigation for any communicable disease includes letting them know they may have been exposed, giving them information about symptoms to watch for, and making sure they quarantine themselves if they meet certain criteria.
Lorenz says the best protection against COVID-19 is to continue to maintaining a six-foot social distance, wearing face coverings when you cannot maintain that distance, avoiding large gatherings, washing hands and disinfecting surfaces regularly, and staying home when you are sick.


Perturbation Methods
The full perturbation method was the standard numerical method that Simulink used to solve a system. For this method, Simulink solves the full set of perturbation equations and uses LAPACK for linear algebraic operations. This method is costly from a computational standpoint, but it remains the recommended method for establishing baseline results.
The sparse perturbation method attempts to improve the run-time performance by taking mathematical advantage of the sparse Jacobian pattern. Returning to the sample system of three equations and three states,
The solver Jacobian is:
It is, therefore, necessary to perturb each of the three states three times and to evaluate the derivative function three times. For a system with n states, this method perturbs the states n times.
By applying the sparsity pattern and perturbing states x1 and x 2 together, this matrix reduces to:
The solver can now solve columns 1 and 2 in one sweep. While the sparse perturbation method saves significant computation, it also adds overhead to compilation. It might even slow down the simulation if the system does not have a large number of continuous states. A tipping point exists for which you obtain increased performance by applying this method. In general, systems having a large number of continuous states are usually sparse and benefit from the sparse method.
The sparse perturbation method, like the sparse analytical method, uses UMFPACK to perform linear algebraic operations. Also, the sparse perturbation method supports both RSim and Rapid Accelerator mode.
Full and Sparse Analytical Methods
The full and sparse analytical methods attempt to improve performance by calculating the Jacobian using analytical equations rather than the perturbation equations. The sparse analytical method, also uses the sparsity information to accelerate the linear algebraic operations required to solve the ordinary differential equations.
Sparsity Pattern
For details on how to access and interpret the sparsity pattern in MATLAB®, see sldemo_metrosldemo_metro.
Support for Code Generation
While the sparse perturbation method supports RSim, the sparse analytical method does not. Consequently, regardless of which sparse method you select, any generated code uses the sparse perturbation method. This limitation applies to Rapid Accelerator mode as well.
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identifies it as such, the adequate answer to R2 is that 'the scanner would only not identify it as blue if it were off or jammed in some other position'.
Therefore I am inclined to deny the claim that "Why X rather than not-X?" is just the same as "Why X?" The two cannot be equivalent because the conditions for an adequate answer to each are not the same. We can put the point in a crude but clear form. You can answer the latter just by talking about the conditions that actually led to X in this case. To answer the former, you have to talk about the conditions required for not-X as well. But there may be other conditions that would lead to X that have to be taken into account when discussing the latter, that don't have to be taken into account when discussing the former. Q2, P2, and R2 all require some sort of consideration of counterfactuals in the answer. Q1, P1, and R1 do not, because they allow as adequate answers claims that would not be adequate answers to Q2, P2, and R2.
This is not to say that there are no adequate answers to Q2 that would not also be adequate answers to Q1,, or even that all adequate answers to Q2 are adequate answers to Q1 and vice versa; rather, this is to say that the conditions for an adequate answer to Q1 are not the same as the conditions for an adequate answer to Q2. If the same answers are adequate for both questions, they are not adequate for exactly the same reasons. Thus Q1 and Q2 are not equivalent, and we cannot assume on the basis of the question alone that an adequate answer for one will be an adequate answer for the other.
One way to think of it is to think of it in this way. Suppose that things are set up so one factor makes it true in the actual world that something exists; but that there is a 'back-up factor', so that even if the actually explaining factor were to have failed, there would be another fact that would have made it so that something exists. To answer Q1, all we have to do is point to the actually explaining factor. To answer Q2, however, we have to take into account the back-up factor, because leaving it out doesn't explain why anything exists rather than nothing (something would exist even if the actually explaining factor weren't there). But we cannot rule out the possibility of an answer like this simply in virtue of the questions themselves. Therefore Q1 and Q2 are not equivalent, however closely related they might be.
Jorge Gracia and Lloyd Newton have an article on Medieval Theories of the Categories at SEP. It might be useful to give a slightly clearer summary of Aquinas's derivation of the categories than is found in the article.
It begins with predication. Predicates can do several things.
(1) The predicate can express what the subject is. This type of predicate falls into the category of substance.
(2) The predicate can express what inheres in a subject. It can do this (a) absolutely or (b) relatively.
(2a) If absolutely, it can indicate an inherence deriving from (1) matter or (2) form.
(2a1) If from matter, the predicate falls into the category of quantity.
(2a2) If from form, the predicate falls into the category of quality.
(2b) If relatively, the predicate falls into the category of to-another or relatedness.
(3) The predicate can express what does not inhere in a subject but is somehow relevant to it. This may be (a) wholly extrinsic; or (b) in some way intrinsic.
(3a) If wholly extrinsic, (1) we may be talking about something that measures the subject, or (2) we may not.
(3a1) If it measures the subject in some way, it may be a measurement according to (a) time; (b) place.
(3a1a) If time, the predicate falls into the category of when.
(3a1b) If place, the predicate may indicate (1) the parts of a subject in relation to each other, or (2) it may not.
(3a1b1) If so, the predicate falls under the category of situation or position.
(3a1b2) If not, the predicate falls under the category of where.
(3a2) If the predicate is wholly extrinsic but does not measure the subject, it falls within the category of vestment or habit (because things worn are the most obvious example of this category: 'being clothed' is an instance of habit or vestment).
(3b) If we are talking about something that is in some way intrinsic to the subject, we may be indicate (1) something done to the subject or (2) something done by the subject.
(3b1) If done to the subject, the predicate falls under the category of passion.
(3b2) If done by a subject, the predicate falls under the category of action.
Gracia and Newton make a big deal about how this requires an isomorphism between reality and language; but I'm not convinced of it. It's possible, for instance, that there may be predicates that look superficially like they belong in one category, but really belong in another. (For instance, 'undergoes' has a verbal form that usually suggests action; but it obviously falls under the category of passion.) What governs Aquinas's division is the way things are actually attributable to a thing; all this requires is that we can, in fact, attribute things to other things in a way that captures reality. That is, it does not require isomorphism, or even anything approaching it, but merely the ability to say things that are true about reality.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Linguistic Simplification
An exquisite jigger of philosophy of science from Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz:
"The community has been curious about your labors," he told the scholar. "We'd like to hear about it, if you don't mind discussing it. Of course we've all heard about your theoretical work at your own collegium, but it's too technical for most of us to understand. Would it be possible for you to tell us something about it in--oh, general terms that non-specialists might understand? The community has been grumping at me because I hadn't invited you to lecture; but I thought you might prefer to get the feel of the place first. Of course if you'd rather not--"
The thon's gaze seemed to clamp calipers on the abbot's cranium and measure it six ways. He smiled doubtfully. "You'd like me to explain our work in the simplest possible language?"
"Something like that, if it's possible."
"That's just it." He laughed. "The untrained man reads a paper on natural science and asks, 'Now why couldn't he explain this in simple language.' He can't seem to realize that what he tried to read was the simplest possible language--for that subject matter. In fact, a great deal of natural philosophy is simply a process of linguistic simplification--an effort to invent languages in which half a page of equations can express an idea which could not be stated in less than a thousand pages of so-called'simple' language. Do I make myself clear?"
[Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz. Bantam (New York: 1988) 182.]
The point could scarcely be put in a better way. Of course, it raises further questions, because it's precisely this that gums up the works when it comes to scientific pedagogy and popularization.
Latour on Critical Barbarity
There has been some discussion of Bruno Latour's article in Critical Theory on the problems with the popularization of critique. We should be careful about over-interpreting the article. Latour explicitly denies that popular relativisms and the like are direct appropriations of critical theory: he insists that they are absurd deformations of critical arguments, "like weapons smuggled through a fuzzy border to the wrong party". The repeated parallel to nuclear weapons -- a result of applied science -- is, I would be willing to bet, quite deliberate; Latour's claim is not that he and other critical theorists were wrong but that he and other critical theorists find themselves in much the same boat as nuclear scientists. One of the longstanding points of critical theory has been that when scientists reassure themselves that things like nuclear weapons are simply the result of 'bad guys' using any weapon at hand, they are kidding themselves; and thus Latour finds critical theory in much the same state: critical theorists can't simply say that the conspiracy theories are just what you get when your critical arguments land in the hands of 'bad guys', even though the conspiracy theories, like nuclear weapons are a sort of absurd deformation of scientific work. Latour is unreprentant about what what he calls his critiques of "an excessive confidence in ideological arguments posturing as matters of fact"; he simply doesn't want to deny that something else also requires critique, namely, "an excessive distrust of good matters of fact disguised as bad ideological biases."
In other words, Latour's argument is simply that critical theory must be examined by critical theory. This becomes much clearer, I think, in the expanded version of the article on Latour's website (actually, the lecture on which it is based). There Latour discusses critical theory as pharmakon -- i.e., drug, one that can heal or poison. As he sarcastically says


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Health benefits of green lipped mussel
Green lipped mussel has many health benefits such as protect the heart, aid nerve function, boost circulation, increase fertility, improve skin health, lower inflammation and it has ability to prevent arthritis. Green lipped mussel is typically found in New Zealand and nearby regions. It has many nutrients and many health benefits which are used by people who live in these regions. The scientific name of the green lipped mussel is Perna canaliculus. This bivalve mollucs is important for the economic part of New Zealand but also it is important for the other parts of the world because it is rich with nutritional benefits. People with sensitive stomachs who eat lipped mussel can experience stomach upset, excessive gas and diarrhea but these symptoms can be lessened in supplement form. Also there are some studies in which is shown that there can be some complications during the pregnancy when a high concentration of minerals and compounds are added to the diet of the pregnant women so this is a reason why pregnant women should avoid these supplements. Before you make major changes in your diet, talk with your doctor. Following are some the health benefits of green lipped mussel.
Health benefits of green lipped mussel:
Skin health: Green Lipped mussel has essential nutrients and minerals in which we can also include the Omega – 3 fatty acids which are giving you an aesthetic beauty boost. They can improve the health and appearance of your nails, teeth, hair and skin. Many people seek out for these supplements for the mentioned benefits.
Nervous function: It is very important to have normal functioning of your nerves. There are some studies in which is shown that the green lipped mussels can improve the function of the nerve cells and also it is boosting the bone sensitivity, tissue and muscle. This will help your body to behave and self – regulate itself more effectively and you will notice improvements in your metabolism, dexterity, mood and energy levels.
Immune system strength: Green Lipped mussel has good effect on the immune system and this is not well-known fact about it. They have natural antibacterial qualities which can keep us from infections and also they can help to stimulate the formation of antibodies in people who consume them at regular basis.
Fertility: There are some studies in which is shown that the lipped mussels can increase the volume and viscosity of the sexual fluids both in women and men and also it is increasing the chances of conception. But in the future should be done a lot more studies about this health benefit of the green lipped mussel.
Circulation: It is very important to keep our blood flow constant and healthy because this is crucial for the health of every system and when our blood vessels weaken or break and then it can cause many different issues. You should add green lipped mussel in your diet because it can help you to prevent the heart attacks and atherosclerosis, speed the healing and improve energy levels. It has minerals and active ingredients which can help to strengthen arterial walls which mean that it will boost the efficiency of the circulation and it will improve the strength of your cardiovascular system.
Osteoporosis and bone health: When the inflammation is eliminated in our bodies, then our bones do not have so much stress and also the chances of getting bone degeneration over time are reduced. In the green lipped mussels there is more than inhibitory activity. Also there are organic compounds and crucial minerals which can lend strength and stability to our bones and teeth which means that they will be stronger for long period.
Arthritis: The most famous health benefit of the lipped mussel. The western world has discovered the impact of this natural cure on arthritis. The local New Zealanders were eating lipped mussel and they have noticed that the signs of joint pain and bone deterioration have reduced. When they have eaten the green lipped mussel, there were studies in which it was revealed the pathway – inhibiting properties of the lipped mussel. Green Lipped mussel can reduce the inflammation which is the main cause of the arthritis because it can stimulate the formation of leukotrienes.