The 2020 Production Assistant Jobs Report
We surveyed different production assistant jobs to better understand the current state of the industry for career seekers.
So if you've been looking for how to get a film production assistant job and profit from the movie industry, this article is for you.
In this report you'll learn:
 - How much production assistants earn.
 - Duties and responsibilities of a production assistant.
 - Basic skills, education, and certification required to become a production assistant.
 - Why people decide to become production assistants.
 - Lots more.
So without further ado, let's get right in.
Who is a Production Assistant (PA)?
A production assistant is a member of a film crew usually attached to individual actors or filmmakers to carry out odd jobs and support tasks in the process of production.
Production assistant jobs are basically entry-level jobs within the film production industry. It is the first step to a long career in Hollywood and movie production in general.
PAs do the jobs that no one else wants to do in a movie production set!
Here's a shortlist of some odd jobs a production assistant could be assigned to do:
 - Organizing food or catering
 - Making copies of movie scripts
 - Managing paperwork (contracts, scripts, timesheets, etc.)
 - Controlling crowds and fans
 - Answering important phone calls
 - Moving equipment around
 - Transporting casts and crews between locations
 - Many more…
Why Do People Decide to Become Production Assistants?
film production assistant job
From our recent survey, we were able to discover the following as major reasons why people decide to become production assistants:
1. The Love of Media
Most people aim at getting a production assistant job just because they are passionate about a particular medium (movie, TV or radio).
Randolph Bookman once stated in his article titled: Being a Production Assistant that:
It was a love of the film industry that drew him closer to his job as a film production assistant.
Randy is now a producer/production manager known for his works on Forced Alliance (2007), Poseidon (2006) and Terminator 3 (2003).
2. Connecting with Talents
Becoming a production assistant creates an opportunity to connect with top celebrities in the film production industry.
And it doesn't have to be all about connecting with celebrities!
Production assistants also have the chance to work with leading film producers and directors.
3. Learning the Craft
This is one of the major reasons why people decide to take-up production assistant jobs.
The willingness to view the job as a hand-on education is a huge advantage for every production assistant.
4. Union Benefits
Randy also pointed out that the job of a production assistant is part of a union with strong benefits attached, and protection against termination without cause.
Also, a production assistant may earn some residual income especially on movies or shows that earn a significant income.
Working as a production assistant is a great way to get to know all the various departments on a movie set and figure out what a person wants to do. It's also an excellent way to finally getting hired in those departments.
No matter what you think, there's little glory attached for being a production assistant.
But, is it really that easy to get a production assistant job?
Basic Skills and Requirements to Become a Production Assistant
The good news about production assistant jobs is that they are all entry-level positions and require the least number of years of experience.
Education, Certification, and Training
Production assistant jobs don't necessarily require a particular educational background or qualification.
But in order to be a bit ahead of your other job applicants, you may require an associate's or bachelor's degree with classes like theater, television and film production, communications, or an artistic field such as graphic design or costume would be helpful.
But basically, the minimal level of education you may require is a high school diploma or GED.
While working as a production assistant, you can work to prepare yourself for a better position. You can take up other side-gigs like working for your college radio station, local television stations or signup for internship programs.
You can also learn more about the movie industry business by participating in production assistant boot camps.
All these will help to expand your knowledge of filmmaking and learn how to handle different positions in the industry.
Required Skills
Although your level of education isn't a major criterion when applying for a production assistant job, recruiters still lookout for certain skills to qualify an applicant.
These skills include:
1. A good listener
Normally speaking, no employer likes to have to repeat themselves. So, for you to become a production assistant you must be a really good listener at all times, listening to the directions you are given.
2. Responsibility
Production assistants are really easy to replace.
So for you to retain your production assistant job, you must be really hardworking and try as much as possible not to be late and lazy at work.
3. Social skills
Surprisingly, this is one of the most important parts of a production assistant's job description.
Anyone working in the entertainment or film industry will at some point of his career comes to deal with some eccentric personalities. And for production assistant jobs, you need to be extra kind, polite and hospitable.
You also need to have confidence in yourself not to back down just because a director tries to bully you.
Your social skills will also be helpful in getting new jobs and moving your career up the ladder.
The movie industry is more about who you know to help you move forward. So, you will need to really put yourself out there, attend networking events, join as many Facebook groups as possible just to create a reliable network for your future gigs.
4. Always willing to learn
Production assistants are there to help and not become an obstacle to the completion of a film production process. Do as much as you can to learn more about every job on the set without getting in the way.
You are there as a production assistant both to help and to learn. Be open-minded to whatever you're asked to do on the set.
5. Patience
You must understand that it takes time to grow. And once you're the best at what you do, someone will definitely notice you.
N.B: A driver's license and clean driving record may be required of you because production assistant jobs often require you to make deliveries and run errands.
Production Assistant Jobs Economic & Career Outlook
movie production assistant role
Most production assistant jobs are typically short-term and lack any benefit or raise.
According to
"The average salary production assistants earn as of May 31, 2019, is $31,404. The job may last a few days or extend several months, all depending on the type of production."
Production assistants are usually paid by the week, with daily pay between $150 – $250, all depending on the job and your level of experience.
TV series and other returning shows may have the most potential for a longer-term of employment and promotion from within.
Production assistants can expect to work long hours, nights and even weekends. Set-based production assistants tied to a production schedule usually work hours that are typically more erratic.
The average work-time for a production assistant job is 10-12 hours daily.
How to Apply for Production Assistant Jobs?
Production assistant jobs are available anywhere in the country, but most opportunities can be found in Los Angeles and New York City.
You can get updated on production assistant job openings from sites like:
The same questions often come up during a production assistant job interview. You can prepare by reading these questions and getting acquainted with the best answers for them.
Film Production Assistant Job Alternatives?
Some production assistant career alternatives include the following:
Producer & Director
According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics:
The projected growth for employment positions of producer and director positions from 2016-2028 is 5%, which is faster than average.
The average salary of producers and directors is $71,680, though some producers and directors may earn portions from ticket sales.
Producers and directors working in advertising and public relations usually earn top wages than those just performing the arts.
Announcers are in charge of presenting news, music, and sports updates. They also interview guests and help to provide commentary.
Another report by the BLS shows that:
There's an expected decline for employment positions for announcers from 2016-2028 by 5%.
The average salary announcers earn is $31,990.
Being a production assistant, there are countless other job opportunities available for you. You may ultimately land into other jobs like a costume attendant which pays an average salary of $41,190.
Wrapping Up
I hope this survey helped you get a better understanding of how the production assistant job industry feels like in 2019.
And now I'd love to hear from you:
What did you really learn from today's survey?
Or maybe you have a question that has been bothering you from what you just read. Either way, feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts and I'd be happy to get back to you.
2 thoughts on "The 2020 Production Assistant Jobs Report"
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The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has warned its employees against a "Ransomware" virus attack that encrypts computer data and restores it when ransom is paid.
"It is being informed that a virus attack named "Ransomware" has been launched worldwide on Microsoft Operating Systems specially windows 7 and 10, which encrypts the data and attacker demand ransom from the user to restore the same," read a circular issued by the high court's additional registrar (Information Technology).
The staffers have been instructed to follow the below-given steps in order to avoid such an unpleasant situation.
- Create a backup of the important official data in Z-Drive of your computer.
- Do not plug the USB into official computers
- Share the data using Email services or through local network
- Do not install or add new plugins in your browser
- Avoid opening unnecessary websites or unauthentic web-links

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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After working in air fed suits,operatives are required to give samples from their nasal passages by blowing their nose into a tissue,which is then counted in a noseblow counter. How does this work?
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The big risk for people working in the nuclear industry is if they breath in particles of anything that emits alpha particles. The problem is that the dust particles lodge in the lungs and sit there pumping alpha particles into the surrounding lung tissue, which eventually becomes cancerous. By contrast contamination on the skin will be washed off, rubbed off or just fall off as the skin cells are shed.
Your nose contains filters to remove large particles of dust, so if you've breathed in contaminated dust there's a good chance some will have lodged in your nose, and of this some will be expelled when you blow your nose. So if you blow your nose and the expelled mucus contains contaminated dust you're in trouble and need treatment immediately.
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rings are visible but they aren't any cause for concern.
sigma 35mm 1.2 bokeh
sigma 35mm 1.2 bokeh
At 1.4 the roundness of the balls improves on the Sigma. The Zeiss displays less oval shapes at 1.4 but has more onion rings. The Samyang bokeh circles are smoother inside but have a distinctive light border.
sony 35mm 1.4 bokeh
sony 35mm 1.4 bokeh
Af f2, the Sigma and Zeiss display beautiful rounded circles, whereas on the Samyang we start to see the shape of the iris blade.
samyang 35mm 1.4 bokeh
At f2.8 and f4, they all start to display the shape of the aperture but once again it is more pronounced on the Samyang.
Subject separation and portrait examples
The Sigma has the advantage of a faster aperture and shallower depth of field. The separation between subject and background is very pleasant. The Sony does a good job as well and both lenses have a creamy and pleasant bokeh that doesn't distract you. Because of the different bokeh characteristics, the Samyang displays a somewhat busier background but it also gives the lens a more distinctive character.
If we look at another example with a full body shot, the difference is less perceptible between the Sigma and the Sony. The former gives you slightly more shallow depth of field but the latter does equally well when it comes to subject separation. The Samyang separates a bit less than the other two but has a more distinctive look because of the higher contrast by default as well as more severe vignetting (which I decreased in this example).
The Sigma has one advantage over all the others however and that is sharpness once again. See the crops below to see how well preserved the details are on the subject in comparison to the other two photos.
Optical Quality: Field of View and Distortion
Despite all three being labelled 35mm lenses, the Sigma has a slightly narrower field of view in comparison to the other two. The Zeiss is the widest but the difference with the Samyang is almost imperceptible.
Note that in the three images below, the lens profile was deactivated. When applied, the field of view becomes slightly narrower on the three lenses but the same difference remains.
Another difference concerns the maximum magnification at the minimum focus distance. The Sigma has the highest magnification factor whereas the Samyang angle of view is wider than the other two lenses.
The three lenses exhibit some barrel distortion: the Sigma is the one that suffers more from it whereas the Sony/Zeiss is the least affected. When the lens profile is applied, the distortion becomes well contained.
Note however that there isn't a dedicated lens profile for the Samyang. The closest I could get was the manual focus version, and I applied some extra adjustments to make it look good.
Optical Quality: Colours and Chromatic Aberration
In terms of colour rendering, the Sony has cooler tints whereas the Samyang is the one that gives a warmer image. The Sony version is a bit darker too, which means that the light transmission capability is below the other two products (about 0.4Ev).
In the following crop, you can observe the difference in colours better. I've levelled up the exposure to make it easier to observe. Of course, keep in mind that these colour shifts are easy to correct when processing the RAW files.
The Sigma displays a bit of purple fringing at the fastest aperture which disappears between f/4 and f/5.6. It is easy to remove it in post with the CA correction tool.
The Zeiss has less purple fringing but a bit of longitudinal chromatic aberration. It is almost gone by 2.8 and 4.
The Samyang displays purple fringing that only disappears from 5.6 / 8.
Optical Quality: Vignetting and Flare
The Samyang shows more vignetting at the fastest aperture. The Sigma manages to mitigate most of it from f/2.8 already, whereas it takes further stopping down on the other two lenses to get rid of it. If you apply the lens profiles, vignetting becomes a non-issue but I would say that even without it, it is easy to correct in post.
The three lenses can display flare when a strong source of light is the frame, such as the sun in the sky. Ghost flares of different sizes and colours will appear in images taken with the Sigma and Samyang lens, whereas flare on the Sony is a bit smaller but shows a distinctive triangular rainbow flare.
If you like sun star flares, the most capable out of the three lenses is the Samyang. The Sigma is not as pleasant whereas the Zeiss doesn't really shine when it comes to this specific characteristic.
Auto and Manual Focus
The Sigma is a bit noisy when working in stills mode, but gets quieter in movie mode.
The Zeiss is the quietest out of the three. In S-AF you can hear the aperture blades opening and closing, but in C-AF and video mode it is very silent.
The Samyang is the loudest in all modes. It is not very loud but you can hear the noise quite clearly.
As for the autofocus speed, the Zeiss is the fastest followed closely by the Sigma. The Samyang is somewhat slow, something you can notice with Eye AF as well.
The three lenses have a fly-by-wire focus ring but the experience when manual focusing is quite different.
sigma 35mm 1.2 for sony
The Sigma is the best for fine tuning your focus point manually, especially when using the magnification mode. Unlike the other two, turning the ring slower or faster doesn't affect the distance travelled. This means that it takes longer to go from infinity to the shortest focus distance, but you also have more rotation available to nail the focus precisely.
The Zeiss gives you good feedback and is precise to use, although not as pleasant as the Sigma lens. The Samyang is the worst. The fly-by-wire electronic mechanism is too erratic and it works in steps rather than giving a smooth change. It can be annoying when trying to focus precisely on a point of your image.
samyang 35mm 1.4 autofocus
Finally, the Samyang shows a bit more focus breathing than the other two lenses.
To my eyes, the Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art comes out on top, and not by a small margin. The sharpness it is capable of delivering from 1.2 is impressive. The subject separation and the quality of the bokeh are exceptional, the colour rendering is excellent and it handles other things such as distortion and vignetting very well. There is a bit of purple fringing to deal with at the fastest aperture (in backlit situations mainly), but it is easy to eliminate.
The manual focus experience is the best out of the three lenses thanks to the precise focus ring. The price is very competitive given its characteristics, so really the only negative aspect I can mention is the size. The Sigma is a large and heavy lens, but it is a small price to pay in comparison to what this 35mm delivers in terms of quality.
The Sony / Zeiss Distagon don't reach the same level of optical quality as the Art lens, but I do like its bokeh and how it separates the subject from the background. It is not as sharp but it remains a very good lens overall. It has the fastest and quieter AF motor but unfortunately it is the most expensive out of the three products here.
The Samyang is the most affordable option, so I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being a best-seller. From an optical point of view, I find it to be the one with the most distinctive character when it comes to the bokeh, although it may not be to everyone's taste. (I personally find it a bit distracting at times.)
I wish Samyang would make the effort to add some controls to the lens barrel (AF/MF switch, but also an aperture ring like the other two lenses would be nice). The focus ring is terrible and made my sharpness tests more challenging than they should have been. The AF motor is the noisiest for stills and video, but it focuses fast enough.
Choose the Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art for your Sony E-mount camera if:
 - you want the very best optical quality
 - you plan to shoot a lot at the fastest aperture
 - you like to work in manual focus
Choose the Sony 35mm 1.4 ZA for your Sony E-mount camera if:
 - you want the fastest and quietest AF motor
 - you want a small but high quality lens to carry around
Choose the Samyang 35mm 1.4 AF for your Sony E-mount camera if:
 - you want to spend less
 - you like the unique bokeh rendering
Check price of the Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art on:
Amazon | Amazon UK | B&H Photo | eBay
Check price of the Sony 35mm 1.4 ZA on:
Amazon | Amazon UK | B&H Photo | eBay
Check price of the Samyang 35mm 1.4 AF on:
Amazon | Amazon UK | B&H Photo | eBay
Second-hand E-mount lenses on:
So, now it's your turn. Which one would you choose and why?
Additional 35mm lens comparisons:


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Die Northern Arizona University gab am 30. Juni 2016 per Pressemitteilung etwas bekannt, was wir schon immer geahnt hatten: Mehr CO2 lässt Pflanzen besser wachsen. Dies funktioniert umso besser, je mehr Stickstoff als Dünger zur Verfügung steht. Alternativ können auch Bodenpilze diese Rolle übernehmen. Im Folgenden die Originalmeldung:
Microbes, nitrogen and plant responses to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide
Plants can grow faster as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increase, but only if they have enough nitrogen or partner with fungi that help them get it, according to new research published this week in Science.
The study was led by César Terrer Moreno, a Ph.D. student at Imperial College London, and included researchers from Northern Arizona University, the University of Antwerp (Belgium), Indiana University and New South Wales University (Australia). The team synthesized more than 80 past experiments and found that higher CO2 boosted plant growth, as long as the plants received enough nitrogen. Without added nitrogen, CO2 had no effect, confirming the long-standing idea that nitrogen limits plant response to rising CO2. But there was a major exception: some plants–those with specialized partnerships with soil fungi–were able to respond to the extra CO2, just as much as if they had been fertilized with nitrogen.
"Nitrogen and mycorrhizae are like the X-factors in plant responses to CO2," said Bruce Hungate, Director of NAU's Center for Ecosystem Science and Society and Regents' Professor of Biological Sciences, who was a co-author on the study. "Rising CO2 is not a universal fertilizer, but neither is nitrogen limitation a universal restriction on the CO2 response. The truth is in the middle, and microbes are the key mediators," Hungate said.
Most plants associate with mycorrhizal fungi, a partnership in which the fungus provides the plant with nutrients and water and receives food from the plant in return. But not all mycorrhizae are the same. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi specialize in taking up phosphorus from the soil, but not nitrogen, and plants that associated with arbuscular mycorrhizae were unable to respond to CO2 unless extra nitrogen was added. It was the plants that form ectomycorrhizal partnerships that responded to extra CO2 without any added nitrogen fertilizer, because these fungi produce enzymes that liberate bound nitrogen from soil organic matter, and the fungi can take up the nitrogen and pass some along to the plant.
This synthesis helps resolve a long-standing debate about the role of nitrogen limitation for plant responses to CO2. Without enough nitrogen, it is thought that plants will be unable to respond much to rising CO2, and many experiments support this idea. But in some experiments where nitrogen is in short supply, the plants still grow more with elevated CO2, and the reasons have puzzled scientists for many years. The new synthesis offers a clear answer: "Plants need nitrogen to respond to high CO2, whether they find it readily available in the soil, or whether their mycorrhizal partners can help them get it," explained Hungate.
The research should help project climate change into the future. Forests, grasslands and other ecosystems around the world currently absorb about 30 percent of human CO2 emissions, without which climate change would be happening even faster than it is now. The future of this terrestrial carbon sink depends on carbon accumulation by ecosystems through plant growth. This new research shows that it is essential to take into account mycorrhizal fungi, and suggests that the next generation of global carbon cycle models should include mycorrhizae as an important control point on plant responses to rising CO2 in the atmosphere. It is well known that grasses and herbs form arbuscular mycorrhizae, and that many trees form ectomycorrhizae. Since global carbon cycle models already recognize these different plant forms, adding mycorrhizae to models of the carbon cycle should be straightforward, and the team is already moving toward that goal.


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Blending by Blogging: weblogs in blended learning initiatives
Weblogs (blogs) are emerging in many educational contexts as vehicles for personal expression and the dissemination and critique of Internet materials. The study of the weblog phenomenon in itself can convey important insights about social construction; hundreds of thousands of blogs emerged worldwide within a fairly short time span without considerable direction from corporations or other institutions. Strategic approaches toward blended learning environments are often instructor-centered, with control of the mix of educational approaches in the instructor's hands. In contrast, weblogs are a flexible medium that can be used in approaches that provide educational participants with a middle space of options as to how to integrate face-to-face and online modes. Weblog construction encourages the development of individual, critical voices within the broader context of classroom interactions.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


The orientation of some pages change from portrait to landscape when I scan multiple pages with Epson Scan and save them as a PDF. What should I do?
 - This happens if ABBYY Fine Reader is installed and you selected Create searchable PDF in Epson Scan. (The Create searchable PDF option saves the PDF file in a format that allows you to search for text within the document.)
 Follow these steps to disable this setting:
 1. Start Epson Scan.
 2. Click the file folder icon next to the Scan button. The File Save Settings window appears.
 3. Under Image Format, select PDF for the Type setting.
 4. Click the Options button.
 5. Click the Text tab.
 6. Deselect Create searchable PDF.
 7. Click OK to save your changes.
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SOURCE: United Nations Foundation
UNA-USA's Global Classrooms Program Aimed at Teaching Students to be Global Citizens
MIAMI, FL (PRWEB) February 23, 2013
More than 700 middle and high school students from 30 schools in the Miami Dade area are attending the United Nations Association of the USA's Global Classrooms® Miami Model UN Conference today at Miami Dade College. The conference will involve 31 schools in the Miami Dade County Public School District, as well as dozens of volunteers from area colleges.
"Students' participation in Model UN today marks the beginning of a long period of engagement between them and the United Nations," said UNA-USA Executive Director Patrick Madden. "The Miami conference is part of a country-wide movement where students are showing they care about issues that go beyond their local communities, and are willing to bring down the common barriers that divide countries and cultures."
Casimiro Global Foundation President, and UNA-USA Miami Chapter Vice President Juan P. Casimiro will deliver the day's keynote address. Topics of global interest will be debated in committees, including: women, peace, and security; dealing with an aging population; and child labor.
Global Classrooms Miami has grown rapidly since its inception in 2005 thanks to support from the public school system as well as the local community and educators. More information on the Miami Conference can be found at _URL_
In Model UN, Students role-play as representatives from countries, interest groups and nongovernmental organizations in simulations of UN bodies. Global Classrooms Model UN has amazed schools around the globe with its ability to cultivate global literacy, life skills, and attitudes necessary for active citizenship, showing that students deeply care about the world outside their local community.
Watch the Global Classrooms Model UN Documentary "Decorum" at _URL_
Tweet This: Hundreds of students are in Miami today w/ _USER_ to tackle the world's toughest challenges! Learn more: _URL_
The United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) is a membership organization dedicated to informing, inspiring, and mobilizing the American people to support the ideals and vital work of the United Nations. For 70 years, UNA-USA has worked to accomplish its mission through its national network of Chapters, youth engagement, advocacy efforts, education programs, and public events. UNA-USA is a program of the United Nations Foundation. UNA-USA and its sister organization the Better World Campaign represent the single largest network of advocates and supporters of the United Nations in the world. Learn more about UNA-USA's programs and initiatives at _URL_.
ABOUT GLOBAL CLASSROOMS
The United Nations Association of the USA's Global Classrooms Model UN is an educational program that engages public middle school and high school students in the United States and abroad in an exploration of current world issues through interactive simulations and curricular materials. Global Classrooms is the only comprehensive program of study and instruction based on Model UN, the largest Model UN network both inside and outside the United States, and the only Model UN provider focused on underserved populations. Impacting more than 25,000 students and teachers annually, Global Classrooms is implemented as a stand-alone curriculum, co-curricular, and as an after school program. For more information, visit _URL_
For the original version on PRWeb visit: _URL_


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Opening that first checking account is exciting and a little daunting. To avoid the first-time jitters, these tips for writing checks explain the process. Check-writing is a rite of passage for many adults, and it is important to understand the basics of what checks are for and, most importantly, what needs to be written on those intimidating blank lines.
1. What is a Check?
A check is a legal document that instructs the bank to transfer a specific amount of money from the check writer's account to the account of another person or business. The person writing the check is known as the drawer, and the person receiving the money is the payee. To ensure the correct amount of money is withdrawn, the check writer needs to fill out the check carefully. It is better to print, especially if the check writer's handwriting is poor or hard to read.


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HANDS ON Crafts for Kidshttp://www.craftsforkids.com/
Snakes are part of our natural surroundings. Many of them are harmless and some are dangerous. Our Stained Glass Snake Craft is a safe way to enjoy these reptiles and learn about their habits.
Elmer's® Painters Color Cutter®
Cardstock, yellow, blue, green
School Glue StickDisappearing Purple
Black mat 11"x14"
1.Trace the pattern onto yellow cardstock. BEFORE activating the blade in the Color Cutter, use the black one to go over all the lines in the snake.
2. Use the red and black Color Cutters to color the snake as shown.
3. Follow the directions on the package and activate the blades in the Black and Gold Color Cutters. Place your drawing on a cutting mat and use the Black Color Cutter to cut out the snake. Cut out the 3 spaces in the snake's coil also. Use the Gold Color Cutter and a ruler to cut the snake into 1" vertical strips.
4. Use the Gold Color Cutter to cut the green cardstock diagonally in both directions and to cut each piece in half. Glue pieces onto the blue cardstock as shown.
5. Glue the snake onto the prepared cardstock. Mat with a black mat.
This craft is reprinted courtesy of HandsOnCraftsForKids.


Denton and Harlaxton - long and short
Enjoy a circular walk in and around these two pretty rural villages that lie at the edge of the Trent and Belvoir Vales and close to the border with Leicestershire. The walks use village and field paths to visit Denton Reservoir, the Grantham Canal, and Denton and Harlaxton villages. The walks start at Denton which lies approximately three miles (five kilometres) south west of Grantham.
Shorter route
3.5 miles (5.5 kilometres)
1.75 hours
Longer route
four miles (6.5 kilometres)
two hours
Starting point
St Andrew's Church
NG32 1LG
Grid reference SK 865 325.
 1. From the church follow the road around to the right and past the school. Go straight on at the first junction and at the second turn left onto Casthorpe Road.
 2. Approximately 100m after the cottages, cross the stream and turn right onto the public footpath and follow it along a track and across the field to the far right hand corner up a bank. Cross a track (the old mineral railway line) and carry straight on beside the the feeder stream to the reservoir. Walk 3/4 of the
 way around the reservoir (approximately0.5 miles or 800m).
 3. Turn left onto a public footpath which goes down some steps and across a bridge. Carry on in the same direction between two hedges and then along a field edge/track. At the field corner go over the bridge ahead and follow the footpath across/around the field to the far corner. Go through the gap in the hedge. The Grantham Canal is now on your left.
 4. For the shorter walk turn right following the restricted byway. Go through a field gate to join a track which will lead you uphill to the road. Cross the road (take care crossing this busy road) and walk down Rectory Lane to the corner and turn right onto West End. Rejoin the walk directions at point 7.
 For the longer walk carry straight on alongside the canal to the road and turn right.
 5. At the crossroads, with the A607, go straight on (take care crossing this busy road) onto Harlaxton High Street.
 6. Walk past the shop and turn right up some steps onto a footpath opposite the telephone box and village cross, to the church. Follow the path to the left hand side of the church and out of the churchyard. Continue on in the same direction along the field edge, through a yard and across another field, bearing slightly to the left, to a gate onto a road.
 7. Cross the road and walk along West End and continue straight on through a gate to a field. Bear diagonally right across the field aiming to the right of the line of trees in the hedge, to the main road. Cross the road with care and take the footpath opposite diagonally left across the field. At the old railway line turn right then almost immediately left and continue in the same direction over a footbridge. Bear right across the field to the far right hand corner. Follow this path back to Denton Main Street.
 8. Cross the road and follow the public footpath between two cottages almost immediately opposite. Cross the bridge and continue straight on under the horse chestnut trees to a gate. Turn right down the road and follow the public footpath on the left behind the school, to return to the church.
Download map
The walks use village footpaths and field paths to visit Denton reservoir, the Grantham Canal and two pretty villages. Mostly easy level walking with one gentle incline, it may be muddy in places. There are stiles on both routes and you are likely to encounter livestock.
Facilities available on this walk
 - refreshments
 - village/town
Features of this walk
 - historical interest
 - wildlife interest
Map of starting point


Mixed Bump Dots
These Bump Dots allow a variety of uses from tactile marking of everyday items such as computer keyboards, telephone keypads, and multiple switches to adding feet to vases and ceramic pieces. In homes or offices with both blind and sighted people, use the clear dots so the view of keypad displays aren't obscured. For those with low vision, use black dots on a white background (and vice versa) or the fluorescent orange dots on patterned or darker backgrounds.
There are 8 different types of sizes and colors, 10 of each style for a total of 80 pieces in one package.


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The Evolution Deceit
The star Sirius appears in Surat an-Najm (meaning "star"). The double stars that comprise Sirius approach each other with their axes in a bow-shape once every 49.9 years. This astronomical phenomenon is indicated in the verses Surat an-Najm 9 and 49.
When certain concepts mentioned in the Qur'an are studied in the light of 21st century scientific discoveries we find ourselves imparted with yet more miracles of the Qur'an. One of these is the star Sirius, mentioned in Surat an-Najm 49:
… it is He Who is the Lord of Sirius. (Qur'an, 53: 49)
The fact that the Arabic word "shiaara," the equivalent of the star Sirius, appears only in Surat an-Najm, meaning only "star," 49 is particularly striking. Because, considering the irregularity in the movement of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, as their starting point, scientists discovered that it was actually a double star. Sirius is actually a set of two stars, known as Sirius A and Sirius B. The larger of these is Sirius A, which is also the closer to the Earth and the brightest star that can be seen with the naked eye. Sirius B, however, cannot be seen without a telescope.
The Sirius double stars orbit in ellipses about one another. The orbital period of Sirius A & B about their common centre of gravity is 49.9 years. This scientific data is today accepted with one accord by the departments of astronomy at Harvard, Ottawa and Leicester Universities.51
This information is reported as follows in various sources:
Sirius, the brightest star, is actually a twin star … Its orbit lasts 49.9 years. (Exposes Astronomiques, La troisième loi de KEPLER, _URL_
As is known, the stars Sirius-A and Sirius-B orbit each other in a double bow every 49.9 years. (_URL_
The point requiring attention here is the double, bow-shaped orbit of the two stars around one another.
However, this scientific fact, the accuracy of which was only realised in the late 20thcentury, was miraculously indicated in the Qur'an 1,400 years ago. When verses 49 and 9 of Surat an-Najm are read together, this miracle becomes apparent:
… it is He Who is the Lord of Sirius, (Qur'an, 53: 49)
He was two bow-lengths away or even closer. (Qur'an, 53:9)
The description in Surat an-Najm 9 may also describe how these two stars approach one another in their orbits. (Allah knows best.) This scientific fact, that nobody could have known at the time of the revelation of the Qur'an, once again proves that the Qur'an is the Word of Almighty Allah.
[He is] the Originator of the heavens and earth. When He decides on something, He just says to it, "Be!" and it is.
51. _URL_ (Leicester edu dept of Physics & astronomy); _URL_ (University of Ottowa); and
_URL_ (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)


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This year, THE CONCRETE PRODUCER, with our sister publication, CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION, introduced the GreenSite Project of the Year con contest honoring the concrete community's efforts to promote concrete's role in creating eco-friendly structures that will stand the test of time.
The name "GreenSite" reflects the innovative processes and materials that create a green building project, many of which are invisible in the final product. For instance, visitors to the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center in Wisconsin breathe air that is pretreated by an underground concrete pipe ventilation system. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, lightweight CarbonCast walls protect residents of the Symphony House condominiums from the elements, while using less energy and fewer materials than traditional concrete panels.
TCP's 2008 GreenSite winners each represent a different category: Institutional, Commercial, Multifamily, Residential, and High-rise. For more details and photos of each project, click here.
To learn how to participate in next year's GreenSite Project of the Year, click here.
InstitutionalGrand Rapids Art Museum Grand Rapids, Mich.
When planning for the new Grand Rapids Art Museum, project officials and donors decided to pursue Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification "with a vengeance," to make it the world's first newly built, LEED-certified art museum. They eventually exceeded this goal with a Gold level certification by incorporating green design elements and sustainable building materials.
Concrete was an important contributor to the project's sustainability and design flexibility. Of the many elements brought to life in this 135,000-square-foot building, the architectural concrete exterior stands out as one of its most beautiful components. At the same time, the museum's 12-inch-thick, cast-in-place concrete walls optimize energy use by keeping the building warm or cold.
Inside, exposed concrete walls feature tie holes aligned in rows and columns, and defined corners and reveals. A sequence of 177 separate architectural concrete pours led to a one-of-a-kind forming system. The forms, which called for sharp corners, needed to be watertight around the tie holes and edges. Each pour had zero tolerance for rework, since patches were not allowed.
Concrete also helped meet LEED material requirements because much of it came from local sources, requiring less energy in transportation. The museum's 20,000 yards of 4000 to 6000 psi concrete contained 3% recycled content and 100% regional materials.
Other items that contribute to the sustainable quality of the museum include extensive use of natural light, gray water collection, management, and recycling, and an innovative mechanical system that uses energy recovery wheels to pre-condition incoming fresh air and lower energy requirements.


Four-Wave Mixing
Four-Wave Mixing is one of the four Non-linear attributes in optical fiber communication. As the name indicates, the fourth wave gets generated when three (or even two) distinct signals travel together. Four-wave mixing (FWM), which is also called four-photon mixing, occurs when the interaction of two or three optical waves at different wavelengths generates new optical waves, called mixing products or sidebands, at other wavelengths.
This interaction of waves occurs between signals in multiple-channel systems, between OA ASE noise and a single channel, as well as between the main mode and side modes of a single channel. In the case of two signals, the intensity modulation at their beat frequency modulates the fiber refractive index and produces a phase modulation at a difference frequency.
The phase modulation creates two sidebands at frequencies given by this difference. In the case of three signals, more and stronger mixing products are produced, which will fall directly on adjacent signal channels when the channel spacings are equal in frequency. Two optical waves propagating along a fiber produce FWM with high efficiency if the phase matching condition is achieved between sidebands and initial signals.
Author: Fiber
Chief Editor of Fiber Optic Mania Magazine


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1. "An Assembly Such as This" is the retelling of which author's original work?
2. Which classic novel is "An Assembly Such as This" a retelling of?
3. What is Darcy's first name?
4. What does Darcy notice about Bingley's sisters at the assembly hall?
5. What caused Bingley to be the subject of jokes in town?
6. How does Darcy react to Mr. Lucas when they are introduced?
7. While Bingley dances, where does Darcy position himself in the assembly hall?
This section contains 4,556 words
(approx. 16 pages at 300 words per page)


South Carolina's Flagship University
Regulatory Pathfinder
for Coastal Development in South Carolina
Nationwide Permit # 36 - Boat Ramps
Boat ramps may be eligible for a federal streamlined permitting process under NWP #36.
It may be worthwhile to contact the Corps office to discuss your project if you have any questions.
Boat ramps must meet both federal and state requirements. All boat ramps must meet the following state standards:
 1. Boat ramps are to provide water access to those who do not otherwise have access by a dock, pier or marina;
 2. Unless no feasible alternatives exist in non-vegetated wetlands, vegetated wetlands cannot be filled or excavated for purposes of constructing boat ramps. If filling or excavating is allowed it must be limited to what is reasonable for the intended use;
 3. Boat ramps must be constructed of environmentally acceptable materials and demonstrate sound design and construction so the ramp is reasonably expected to be safe and effective and minimize adverse effects;
 4. Boat ramp locations that require dredging or filling of wetlands to provide deep water access, parking areas or associated facilities are not permitted, unless no feasible alternatives exist and environmental impacts are minimized;
 5. Public use boat ramps in easily accessible areas (bridges, existing abandoned causeways or other areas) are encouraged if the areas comply with other applicable regulations;
 6. Priorities for boat ramp construction in environmentally sensitive areas are as follows:
 1. First priority goes to public use ramps that are open to all citizens;
 2. Then priority goes to restricted use ramps only open to citizens of a particular area or organization;
 3. And finally priority goes to to private use ramps for only one citizen or family.
 7. If private use is necessary, the ramp must, whenever feasible, be located where the least environmental impact will accrue and cannot be wider than 12 feet.
 8. (S.C. Code Regs. 30-12(B))
Last Updated October 29, 2010


What are some of the allusions in parts 3 and 4 of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief?
Expert Answers
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As the other educator has correctly mentioned, allusions are indirect references to people, places, and things of historical, political, or social significance.
In Part Three, an example of allusion is a name uttered by Arthur Berg, the fifteen-year-old leader of a fruit-stealing gang:
Arthur had moved on to Rudy. "And you're the Jesse Owens one, aren't you?"
Jesse Owens was an American runner known for his speed: he won four Gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in Germany. Through his amazing feats as an athlete, Jesse Owens, a black man, invalidated the basic tenets of Hitler's Aryan supremacist ideology. In the reference above, Rudy is said to be as fast as Jesse Owens. Liesel argues that Rudy is fast enough to be a part of Arthur Berg's fruit-stealing gang, alluding to Rudy's great speed.
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An allusion is defined as any reference to another literary work, figure, or historical event. Given the context of Zusak's novel, set as it is in Germany during the Second World War, the majority of the allusions refer to real life characters and events, such as Hitler and the Munich Olympic Games. The one text that is alluded to repeatedly is Mein Kampf, Hitler's own book translated as "My Struggle." Note how Hans Huberman in Part 3 gets hold of this book:
He knocked on the door of the Nazi Party office in Molching and took the opportunity to ask about his membership application. Once this was discussed, he proceded to give them his last scraps of money and a dozen cigarettes. In return, he received a used copy of Mein Kampf.
Such allusions become incredibly important to the novel, as remember it is the pages of Mein Kampf that Max paints white and blanks out so that he can populate them with his own story, which allows him to recreate reality and present an alternative version of events where he triumphs over Hitler in a boxing match. The repeated historical allusions in this novel therefore serve to establish the context in which it is set and are used by the author to show how the characters he has created fight against that context to imagine alternative realities and dream different lives for themselves.
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Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI: Has broken his self-imposed silence. Photo: Getty Images
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has broken his self-imposed silence with a lengthy letter to a prominent atheist in which he defended himself from accusations that he did not do enough to bring to justice sexually abusive priests.
The former pontiff spoke of his ''profound consternation'' that ''evil'' had entered so deeply into the Roman Catholic faith. But he denied that he had, either as pope or previously as head of the Vatican office dealing with abuse cases, tried to cover up the scandals that tarnished the Church's reputation around the world.
''I never tried to cover these things up,'' he wrote.
''Neither is it comforting to know that, according to research, the percentage of priests who commit these crimes isn't any higher than the percentage of other similar professions.
''Regardless, one shouldn't present this deviation as if it were something specific to Catholicism.''
The letter was sent to Piergiorgio Odifreddi, an atheist mathematician, who in 2011 wrote a book titled, 'Dear Pope, I'm Writing to You'.
The letter was reprinted by the leading Italian newspaper La Repubblica, and was the first published statement from Benedict since he said on retirement that he would live out his years ''hidden from the world''.
It discussed topics such as the nature of Catholic belief, the conflict between good and evil, and evolution, came two weeks after La Repubblica published a similar letter from his successor Pope Francis on atheism and agnosticism.
The Vatican said the timing of the two documents was a coincidence, rather than a concerted attempt by the two pontiffs to launch a fresh engagement with non-believers.
But the fact that a former pontiff and his successor wrote letters on the same issue within days of each other underlined the peculiarity of a situation in which, for the first time in centuries, two popes live virtually under the same roof.
While Pope Francis lives in a Vatican guesthouse called the Casa Santa Marta, his predecessor is living out his retirement in a former convent a few hundred yards away. It is not known how often the two men meet as they move around within the walls of the tiny sovereign state but they share the same private secretary - Archbishop Georg Ganswein.
Benedict's assertion that he had done what he could to end sexual abuse by priests was disputed by groups representing the victims of paedophile clergy.
''Over a clerical career that lasted more than six decades, we can't think of a single child-molesting bishop, priest, nun, brother or seminarian that Benedict ever exposed,'' said Barbara Dorris of the United States-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.


Five Takeaways from the Inaugural Foundations for Employment and Housing Meeting in Houston, TX
In March, Funders Together's Foundations for Employment and Housing community members came together in Houston to learn about how the city integrated its homeless services system with the public workforce system to ensure all people receiving homeless services can access both employment and housing. In addition to learning from our hosts, community members spent time getting to know one another and sharing their current work – including opportunities and challenges.
At the end of the three days, the group started a process that will ultimately help members identify collective action they will take in Year 2 of the community. The first step in this process was defining the current state and problem. The following statement was what attendees agreed would serve as the problem statement, ultimately helping to determine the group's collective action.
Later this year, community members will meet in-person again to identify possible solutions that could address this problem and serve as an action item for the community.
In addition to the collective problem statement the group createdcommunity members named five items as their biggest takeaways from the visit.
1. It is possible.
While it may be difficult, and sometimes seem impossible, it is possible for the public workforce system to work with the homeless services system to serve individuals experiencing homelessness.
Public workforce systems are already serving individuals experiencing homelessness, albeit not always well. We, the homeless services system, can work with the workforce system to help them better serve individuals experiencing homelessness that are already entering their system. Stronger relationships and partnership will also allow us to connect individuals in the homeless services system to support and opportunities through the public workforce system.
Houston's homeless services system has an income assessment and triage tool to ensure all people receiving homeless services can access both employment and housing.
They have also led the charge to ensure that homeless services and workforce development stakeholders understand how employment can help prevent and end homelessness and that they are well-equipped to connect homeless jobseekers to work.
2. Working with your CoC AND Workforce Boards is imperative.
To be successful, the Continuum oCare (CoC) and workforce boards must have the right makeup and be willing to listen and learn. These boards will have the ultimate power to make or break this work. Boards that are educated and understand both how employment can help prevent and end homelessness and how stable housing can improve employment outcomes will be able to better support effective partnerships.
In Houston, Mike Temple, Director of Workforce Matters is also the Chair of the CoC Board. Mike joined the CoC Governance Committee and saw the need for more targeted support for individuals experiencing homelessness. He was also in a position to help facilitate partnerships and make changes to both systems.
Our hosts in Houston pointed out that it must be the right board to ask someone like Mike to join. The board must already be strong and coordinated. They must also have the right members. People who are ready to do the work and have the power to make it happen.
3. Just Try It! You have to start somewhere.
While it is important for the systems to be ready, you have to start somewhere. This can mean different things for different communities, but success will depend on relationships between systems and the data and information to make the case.
In Houston, they started by creating an effective homeless response system and identified employment and income as key components. Once they could show the importance of work and employment, they brought in the right people from the public workforce system to help make changes and be successful.
While they still have work to do, they started by trying. Along the way they continue to make changes based on what they learn. Their message: stop talking and planning and start!
Data is essential to any work. The right data can help make the case for partnership or investment and help identify effective models and programs. The intersection between the homeless services system and workforce system is an area where there is room for improvement in every community.
To really understand how your system works, you need to know how many people are entering the homeless services system and asking for employment and how many people are entering the workforce system that are not stability housed. Then, you need to know how many people are referred and if they actually follow-up on that referral. By collecting and evaluating data, we can design more effective systems and better serve job seekers experiencing homelessness.
In Houston, they are collecting new data, and starting evaluation. While they still have work to do, they now know how many people are referred to the workforce system from the homeless services system and how many of those people find employment. As they continue to collect and evaluate data they hope to have a better understanding of what services people are receiving and outcomes based on those services.
5. Funders can play an important role in both preparing and connecting systems.
We know that in addition to funding, philanthropy can help with education and advocacy, support coordination and collaboration, and serve as conveners. All of these things can help workforce and homeless services systems work together and better serve individuals experiencing homelessness.
In Houston, private funders were leaders and influencers that helped move this work forward and change the mindset of other funders, both public and private. Big funders being part of the leadership group gave the work credibility and brought other funders and partners to the table. Private funders also aligned their funding with public dollars which helped eliminate duplication and support the creation of one, more effective system.
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-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation
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For centuries, courts invalidated the desire of people to care for their pets after their death. Judges would strike provisions in a will or a trust having to do with providing financial care for a pet saying that a person can't leave money to a dog. But, attorneys kept chipping away and finding ways to convince courts that for some, animals are part of the family and that there needed to be some formal and legal way to protect them when their human family was no longer able to. Over time, courts began acknowledging how important it was to honor the desire of people to care for their pets when they were unable to so they began recognizing pet trusts, but they deemed the trusts "honorary." By considering pet trusts only honorary, a person could take such care in leaving provisions and instructions for their beloved pet, but the people named in the trust to take care of them could choose not to – and there was nothing anyone could do about it. The court would not intervene to name successor trustees or caretakers and no one else had standing to enforce the terms of the trust. So, the pets were vulnerable even after their owner took time creating a plan for them.
With further evolution and landmark cases, including Leona Helmsley's $12 million dollar Pet Trust for her dog Trouble, pet trusts have evolved through the ins and outs of the legal system and emerged as a legally enforceable document. All 50 states and the District of Columbia have enacted pet trust laws (although content and duration may be different in each jurisdiction) and individuals and organizations who have an interest in the welfare of an animal have standing to enforce them.
A living pet trust will generally take effect when the pet owner cannot care for the pet (either due to incapacity or death) and terminate when the last pet dies. The people involved are a caretaker (who oversees the physical well-being of the pet – sometimes for compensation); a trustee (who is willing to administer the trust's funds for the benefit of the pet); and, a trust protector for larger trusts (one financially skilled to oversee and invest funds).


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liberum vetoArticle Free Pass
liberum veto, in Polish history, the legal right of each member of the Sejm (legislature) to defeat by his vote alone any measure under consideration or to dissolve the Sejm and nullify all acts passed during its session. Based on the assumption that all members of the Polish nobility were absolutely equal politically, the veto meant, in practice, that every bill introduced into the Sejm had to be passed unanimously. It was first used to dissolve a session of the Sejm in 1652. Subsequently, it was used extensively, often paralyzing the government, making a centralization of power (opposed by nobles jealous of their independence) impossible, and leaving Poland vulnerable to the influence of foreign powers, which habitually bribed delegates to the Sejm to force the adjournment of sessions that threatened to pass legislation contrary to their interests.
Although King Stanisław II August Poniatowski (ruled 1764–95) attempted to make constitutional reforms, among them a limitation upon the right of liberum veto, he succeeded only in provoking a civil war and Russian military intervention (1767), which culminated in the First Partition of Poland (1772). Only after Poland suffered these misfortunes did its political leaders adopt the Constitution of May 3, 1791, which abolished the liberum veto.
What made you want to look up "liberum veto"? Please share what surprised you most...


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Buddhist Monastic Code II
A bhikkhu should be clean, neat, and unostentatious in his appearance, as a reflection of the qualities he is trying to develop in his mind.Bathing.
Although Pc 57 forbids a bhikkhu from bathing at intervals of less than half a month, we noted in the discussion of that rule that it was apparently intended as a temporary disciplinary measure for bhikkhus who had inconvenienced King Bimbisāra when he wanted to bathe in the hot spring near Rājagaha. When the Buddha later added exemptions to the rule, he so relaxed it that he virtually rescinded it. In addition, Mv.V.13 explicitly rescinds the rule in all parts of the world outside of the central Ganges Valley.
In the time of the Buddha, bathing was done in a river, a bathing tank, a sauna, or a showering place. Instead of soap, people used an unscented powder called chunam, which was kneaded with water into a dough-like paste. Bhikkhus are explicitly allowed to use powdered dung, clay, or dye-dregs; according to the Commentary, ordinary chunam would come under "dye-dregs." A bhikkhu with an itching rash, a small boil, or a running sore, or whose body smells bad (in the words of the Commentary, "with a body odor like that of a horse") may use scented fragrant powders. At present, the Great Standards would allow soap under the allowance for clay, and scented soaps or deodorants under the allowance for scented powders for a bhikkhu with a strong body odor. Otherwise, the use of scents is listed among the bad habits prohibited by Cv.V.36 (see Chapter 10).
The etiquette when bathing in a group is that a junior bhikkhu should not bathe in front of an elder bhikkhu or, if bathing in a river, upstream from him. If one is able and willing (and, of course, if the elder bhikkhus are amenable), one may look after the needs of elder bhikkhus while they are bathing. An example of this, given in the Commentary, is scrubbing them. When scrubbing another or oneself, one may use one's hand or a rope or pad of cloth. Sponges, which apparently were not known in the time of the Buddha, would probably be included under pad of cloth.
One is not allowed to rub one's body with a wooden hand, a string of red powder beads — according to the Commentary, this means bathing powder mixed with powdered stone (cinnabar?) and formed into beads — or with a scrubber incised with a "dragon-teeth" pattern. A bhikkhu who is ill, however, may use an unincised scrubber. In the time of the Buddha, young men while bathing would rub their bodies against trees, against walls, against one another (this was called a "fully immersed massage"), or against rubbing posts (aṭṭhāna, which according to the Commentary, took their name from their being incised with a pattern like a chess board (aṭṭhapada)) in order to toughen their muscles. Bhikkhus are explicitly forbidden from rubbing their bodies in any of these ways. However, they are allowed to massage themselves and one another with their hands.
In another context — cleaning one's feet before entering a dwelling — one is allowed to step on foot wipers made of stone, stone fragments, and pumice ("sea-foam stone"), so it would seem reasonable that the use of pumice or other stones to scrub off stubborn dirt while bathing would also be permitted.
When leaving the water after bathing, one should make way for those entering the water.
One is allowed to dry oneself with a water wiper — which the non-offense clauses for Pc 86 say may be made of ivory, horn, or wood — or with a piece of cloth.http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth....ch01.html


Building an Innovative Research Community at the UW Madison – Poster Session I (Day 1)
Poster Session I is an opportunity for the research community to both request and share expertise and innovation. Similarly to the lightning talks, posters for this session should focus on the following topics:
 - Finding resources and/or establishing collaborations with others to fill technical gaps or add new dimensions to your work,
 - What is the data science is in your science: How has your science evolved because of data science? How do you think it will evolve?
 - What has been the approach of applying data science to your work? What have been the challenges and successes?
 - Providing resources (e.g., tools or expertise) or advertising services your core facility or group has to offer,
 - Sharing your data science work to raise awareness in the campus community and generate ideas for collaboration.
HAVE A GREAT IDEA FOR A poster for the research community?
 - Submit your proposal here.
Return to the Call for Submissions page


1 noun
ref‧er‧ence1 S3 W1
1 [uncountable and countable] part of something you say or write in which you mention a person or thing
reference to
There is no direct reference to her own childhood in the novel.
The article made no reference to previous research on the subject.
The governor made only a passing reference to the problem of unemployment (=he mentioned it quickly).
2 [uncountable] the act of looking at something for information
for easy/quick reference
A vocabulary index is included for easy reference.
Keep their price list on file for future reference (=so that it can be looked at in the future).
The book will become a standard work of reference (=a book that people look at for information).
reference point
also point/frame of reference
a) an idea, fact, event etc that you already know, which helps you understand or make a judgment about another situation:
Lee's case will be the reference point for lawyers in tomorrow's trial.
She used her work experience as a frame of reference for her teaching.
b) something that you can see that helps you to know where you are when you are travelling in an area
in/with reference to something
formal used to say what you are writing or talking about, especially in business letters:
I am writing to you in reference to the job opening in your department.
5 [countable]
a) BE also letter of reference a letter containing information about you that is written by someone who knows you well, and is usually intended for a new employer:
We will need references from your former employers.
b) BESE a person who provides information about your character and abilities [= referee]:
Ask your teacher to act as one of your references.
6 [countable]TCN a book, article etc from which information has been obtained:
a comprehensive list of references
7TCNSG [countable] a number that tells you where you can find the information you want in a book, on a map etc:
a list of towns, each with a map reference
➔ terms of reference
at term1 (10)
Explore EMPLOYMENT Topic
Word of the Day
The EMPLOYMENT Word of the Day is:
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text:
Program Name: Tell-a-Story
Approximate Duration: Ongoing. Each story lasting approximately 2-4 months.
Intended Audience: Ages 11 and under
Supplies Needed: Ability to submit a form via library website.
Interactive, child-driven online story. A first line is provided on the Tell-a-Story library website. _URL_ Children read the line and use a form on the site to submit the next line. All submissions are sent to a staff member who chooses the next line from the submissions and posts it on the site. Thus, the story unfolds. Optional: Host a drawing contest (theme to match the story's theme) with the winning drawing used as a background for the story. Honorable Mentions can also be linked.
Develop narrative and literacy skills. Increase children's use of the library website.
How will outcomes be measured? By the amount and quality of submissions.
Tasks/Timeline: Post artwork and first line to the Tell-a-Story page. Enable form and staff recipient of submissions. The quality and quantity of submissions help determine how often new lines are posted by staff member, as well as when the story ends. Once a story ends, the process repeats and finished stories may be archived on the site.
Name: Michelle Alleman, Public Services Librarian II, Cuyahoga County (OH) Public Library
Return to Great Technology Programs for Children
Return to ALSC ChildTech Wiki main page.


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Could you ever conceive the idea that even though a web site is not human, it has specific structures, which allow it to function both independently and with interdependence at the same time? The purpose of this article is to enlighten readers about important features of a website structure, which determines the way it functions according to the designer's intentions.
Interestingly experts have said that websites consist of a Designers DNA; Skeletal Structure; Mechanical Muscles; Nervous Reactions; The Heart; The Blood Vessels and Brain Retain. Finally, an explanation on how important is the nature of a website will also be given some attention.
Designers' DNA-Schemas and DTD's
As how humans develop characteristic based on genetics, in the same way computers derive their distinctive features from Schemas. These emerge from the DTD's elements of website structure. These are considered as the building blocks of the website.
It has been projected that the inclusion of DTD's to a website culture ensures that code setting is efficient. It also avoids web browser reactions.
Skeletal Structure-Structural Markup
The Structural Markup defines the shape of the website. Many web documents are designed using languages encoded in HTML, XML and RSS. From these markups, the website takes its shape.
Structural Markups enhances the recognition of descriptive elements such as micro formats that really shape the website.
Mechanical Muscles—Client side scripting
Nervous ReactionsThe Web Browser
This has to do with sending and receiving information on your web site. It is very important to control these interactions so that correct message can be sent and received through the relay system. In this case, it is the web browser.
Experts have posited that engines which correlate with browser activity control the way messages are sent and received during each interaction. Flash websites are an excellent example depicting how info is transferred to progress effects.
The Heart-Content and the Community
What is the purpose of a website if there is no content neither community intervention? It is just as good as dead. Therefore, this is likened to the heart of a human organism with reference to computer web technology. As such the quality uploaded content is the oxygen that infuses the arteries and blood vessels of the programs installed.
Traffic control is equally important to heart sustenance. Therefore, content and community interaction ought to be updated to create a balance.
Blood Vessels-Information Architecture
Blood vessels are nutrient transmitters; therefore, in web designing, besides nervous transmission, there is this other aspect of the mechanism. Getting visitors to information you want them to see using appropriate links is the key to successful wed designing.
Hindrances in usability and accessibility when visitors browse a site are as damaging as hemorrhage. Careful monitoring of this feature makes a site more user-friendly. If your site's pages are not linked together properly, it can lead to decline of your website visitors.
Nature and Nurturing
This is the maintenance part of the anatomy. No machines neither human bodies can continue without updates neither check ups.


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University of dundee kiss of death
A kiss of death to drug the 'undruggable'
Scientists at the University of Dundee have reported a major breakthrough in targeting the causes of many diseases, using a 'kiss of death' to destroy proteins which had previously been regarded as 'undruggable'.
Much is known about proteins such as Ras and Myc, which are known to be culpable in human cancer, and Huntingtin, which causes Huntingdon's disease, but as yet they have proved stubbornly resistant to efforts to find ways of tackling them with drugs.
Now researchers led by Professor Alessio Ciulli in the School of Life Sciences at Dundee have found a way of targeting similar proteins, using a small-molecule approach in an unconventional way to target 'bad' proteins by binding them to neutralising agents to start a process of degradation, and thereby removing them entirely.
"We know of many proteins which are active in causing diseases, but which we have been unable to block from going 'rogue' or to stop them when they do," said Professor Ciulli.
"The major problem is that we have been unable to find the small molecules which can successfully bind to these proteins and at the same time hamper their function. It is a highly complex area – these proteins can often fool regulators within the cell and be extremely difficult to pin down with inhibitors.
"Research in our lab in the past few years has contributed towards establishing a different approach, one that has been theorised for many years but which is only now fully realised by this latest work. Instead of using the small molecule to try and disable the bad protein, we have developed a way of modifying it so that it can be used to attract the neutralising proteins, which then bind to their bad neighbour and act against it, starting a cascade process of degradation.


text:
split step is a very important part of a tennis
player's ability to play an all court game, particularly
when you are closing into the net.
The most important part of the split step is to
be sure that you are stepping forward and that your
weight is going in the direction of the ball coming
towards you. You should split as your opponent's
about to hit the ball, quickly assess the direction
of the ball, and come down moving towards it with
your racket extended. If you have served and are
about to volley, a split step helps you balance
yourself to make an effective shot, and keep moving
in. Good players are constantly making small splits
to help change direction.


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OBJECT and SUBJECT, inphilosophy, the terms used to denote respectively the
See also:world and consciousness. The
See also:term " object " (from
See also:Lat. ob, over against, and jacere, to throw) is used generally in philosophy for that in which an activity of the mind ends, or towards which it is directed. With these may be compared the ordinary uses of the term for " thing " simply, or for that after which one strives, or at which one aims. " Subject," literally that which is " thrown under " (sub), is originally the material or content of a discussion or thought, but in philosophy is used for the thought or the thinking
See also:person. The relation between the thinking subject and the object thought is analogous to the grammatical antithesis of the same terms: the " subject " of a verb is the person or thing from which the
See also:action proceeds, while the " object,"
See also:direct or indirect, is the person or thing affected. The true relation between mind or thought (subject) and
See also:matter or extension (object) is the chief problem of philosophy, and may be investigated from various standpoints (see PSYCHOLOGY and
See also:METAPHYSICS). It should be observed that the philosophical use of " subject " is precisely the opposite of the
See also:common use. In ordinary language the " subject " of discussion, of a poem, of a
See also:work of
See also:art, is that which the
See also:speaker, author or artist treats.
OBJECTIVE, or OBJECT GLASS
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text:
How Music Changed The Look Of American Youth
Cynthia Rose, History of Rock, The, 1982
By 1962, rock'n'roll was no longer the pressing issue it had appeared in the days of Teddy Boys and juvenile delinquency. Music had given way to merchandising, and the focus was on clean-cut 'teen idols'.
Total word count of piece: 1828


create a grid of points by writing nested DO loops. For example, suppose that there are three factors: X with discrete values {–2, –1, 0, 1, 2}, Y with values {–1, 0, 1}, and Z with values {–1, 1}. The following DATA step creates data for each combination of the three factors:
data grid;
do x = -2 to 2;
 do y = -1 to 1;
 do z = -1, 1;
proc print data=grid; run;
In this data set, the Z variable changes the fastest and the X variable changes the slowest as you read through the observations. This corresponds to the fact that the Z variable is the innermost of the nested DO loops in the DATA step. By changing the order of the DO loops, you can change which variable varies the fastest. The data set contains 5*3*2 = 30 observations, and each observation is a unique combination of the levels of the three variables.
In the DATA step, a grid that involves k variables requires k nested DO loops. In a matrix language such as SAS/IML, vector operations and calls to built-in functions are more efficient than DO loops. In SAS/IML 12.3 (released with SAS 9.4), you can use a single call to the EXPANDGRID function to generate a grid of points for up to 15 variables. The following SAS/IML program creates a matrix with three columns and 30 rows. The values of the matrix are identical to the values that are generated by the DATA step. In particular, the first variable changes the slowest and the last variable changes the fastest as you move down the rows of the matrix.
proc iml;
/* varies SLOW <-----------------> FAST */
/* values for x y z */
m = expandgrid(-2:2, -1:1, {-1 1});
The EXPANDGRID function is very useful. If you have a function of k variables, each row of m is a valid ordered k-tuple for the function. (k = 3 for this example.) If you evaluate the function at each point of the grid, you obtain a grid of function values. This enables you to obtain a feeling for where the function is large and where it is small within the range of the grid. For example, the following statements define the mulitvariate quadratic function f(x) = (x-1.8)2 + (y-1.1)2 + z2 and evaluates the function at each of the points that make up the 30 rows of m:
start Func(x);
 return( (x[,1]-1.8)##2 + (x[,2]-1.1)##2 + x[,3]##2 );
f = Func(m);
print m[c={"x" "y" "z"}] f;
You can use the EXPANDGRID function in many ways. When k equals 2 or 3, you can visualize a function by evaluating it on a uniform grid of points and plotting the result. When performing nonlinear optimization, you can use the EXPANDGRID function to obtain an initial guess for the optimal parameter value. I will demonstrate these techniques in my next blog post.
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Simulate lognormal data with specified mean and variance
In my book Simulating Data with SAS, I specify how to generate lognormal data with a shape and scale parameter. The method is simple: you use the RAND function to generate X ~ N(μ, σ), then compute Y = exp(X). The random variable Y is lognormally distributed with parameters μ and σ. This is the standard definition, but notice that the parameters are specified as the mean and standard deviation of X = log(Y).
Recently, a SAS customer asked me an interesting question. What if you know the mean and variance of Y, rather than log(Y)? Can you still simulate lognormal data from a distribution with that mean and variance?
Mathematically, the situation is that if m and v are the mean and variance, respectively, of a lognormally distributed variable Y, can you compute the usual parameters for log(Y)? The answer is yes. In terms of μ and σ, the mean of Y is m = exp(μ + σ2/2) and the variance is v = (exp(σ2) -1) exp(2μ + σ2). You can invert these formulas to get μ and σ as functions of m and v. Wikipedia includes these formulas in its article on the lognormal distribution, as follows:
Let's rewrite the expression inside logarithm. If you let φ = sqrt(v + m2), then the formulas are more simply written as
μ = ln(m2 / φ), σ2 = ln(φ2 / m2 )
Consequently, you can specify the mean and the variance of the lognormal distribution of Y and derive the corresponding (usual) parameters for the underlying normal distribution of log(Y), as follows:
data convert;
m = 80; v = 225; /* mean and variance of Y */
phi = sqrt(v + m**2);
mu = log(m**2/phi); /* mean of log(Y) */
sigma = sqrt(log(phi**2/m**2)); /* std dev of log(Y) */
proc print noobs; run;
For completeness, let's simulate data from a lognormal distribution with a mean of 80 and a variance of 225 (that is, a standard deviation of 15). The previous computation enables you to find the parameters for the underlying normal distribution (μ and σ) and then exponentiate the simulated data:
data lognormal;
call streaminit(1);
keep x y;
m = 80; v = 225; /* specify mean and variance of Y */
phi = sqrt(v + m**2);
mu = log(m**2/phi);
do i = 1 to 100000;
 x = rand('Normal', mu, sigma);
 y = exp(x);
You can use the UNIVARIATE procedure to verify that the program was implemented correctly. The simulated data should have a sample mean that is close to 80 and a sample standard deviation that is close to 15. Furthermore, the LOGNORMAL option on the HISTOGRAM statement enables you to fit a lognormal distribution to the data. The fit should be good and the parameter estimates should be close to the parameter values μ = 4.36475 and σ = 0.18588 (except that PROC UNIVARIATE uses the Greek letter zeta instead of mu):
ods select Moments Histogram ParameterEstimates;
proc univariate data=lognormal;
 var y;
 histogram y / lognormal(zeta=EST sigma=EST);
The histogram with fitted lognormal curve is shown at the top of this article. The mean of the simulated data is very close to 80 and the sample standard deviation is close to 15.
Is this a good way to simulate lognormal data? It depends. If you have data and you want to simulate lognormal data that "looks just like it," I suggest that you run PROC UNIVARIATE on the real data and produce the maximum likelihood parameter estimates for the lognormal parameters μ and σ. You can then use those MLE estimates to simulate more data. However, sometimes the original data is not available. You might have only summary statistics that appear in some journal or textbook. In that case the approach in this article enables you to map the descriptive statistics of the original data to the lognormal parameters μ and σ so that you can simulate the unavailable data.
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About Us
In the Name of God
IQNA, a window to the world of spirituality
The International Quran News Agency (IQNA) is the first and only specialized Quran news agency in the Islamic world.
It was inaugurated on the 15th of Ramadan, 1424, (November 11, 2003) during a ceremony attended bythe then president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The news agency started its activity by publishing 7 news items in Persian every day and now, 15 years on, with the blessings of God, is publishing 850 daily news items in 19 languages, and the total number of the news items so far produced has exceeded 1,300,000.
· Bringing Quranic and religious news and reports accurately and promptly to its Iranian and foreign audiences
· Making endeavors for realization of the Quranic culture in Islamic Iran and elsewhere in the world
· Promoting the Quranic style of life in society
· Making efforts to end the isolation of the Quran in different fields
· Discrediting baseless assertions that the Islamic Republic of Iran's Establishment does not pay enough attention to the Quran and Quranic activities
IQNA's Languages:
Currently, the International Quran News Agency on a daily basis publishes news and reports in 19 languages: Persian, Arabic, English, French, Urdu, Italian, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Bengali, Hausa, Pashtu, Hindi, Turkish, Swahili, Azeri, Filipino, Indonesian, and German.
IQNA's Branches
In order for covering Quranic and religious events better and more effectively, IQNA has launched provincial and international branches in 30 provinces of the country and 6 regions of the world.
1. IQNA's provincial branches are in the provinces of West Azarbaijan, East Azarbaijan, Ardebil, Alborz, Isfahan, Bushehr, Sistan and Baluchestan, Charmahal and Bakhtiari, Khuzestan, Razavi Khorasan, Semnan, Qazvin, Lorestan, Zanjan, Qom, South Khorasan, Kerman, Kordestan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad, Golestan, North Khorasan, Kermanshah, Gilan, Fars, Mazandaran, Markazi, Hormozgan, Hamedan and Yazd.
2. Foreign Regions:
West Asia
East Asia
Central Asia
Since IQNA's mission is to disseminate the Quranic culture in different social, political, cultural, arts, economic, literary, … fields, the news agency's news desks have been formed on the basis of the need of its audience.
IQNA currently has 8 news desks as follows: 1. Quranic Activities 2. Politics and Economy 3. Islamic Teachings 4. Society 5. Literature and Arts 6. International 7. Provincial Branches 8 Multimedia and Photos
Moreover, IQNA's Honorary Correspondents section was established in 2004 with the purpose of better covering Quranic and religious news. Currently, IQNA has more than 7000 registered honorary correspondents. On average, they send some 120 reports daily.
In addition to the above-mentioned activities, the International Quran News Agency (IQNA) organizes expert forums, publishes the Rayaheh Quranic magazine, and holds or cooperates in holding Quranic forums and conferences.


text:
by Staff Writers
Chicago IL (SPX) Jan 11, 2013
Technologically valuable ultrastable glasses can be produced in days or hours with properties corresponding to those that have been aged for thousands of years, computational and laboratory studies have confirmed.
Aging makes for higher quality glassy materials because they have slowly evolved toward a more stable molecular condition. This evolution can take thousands or millions of years, but manufacturers must work faster. Armed with a better understanding of how glasses age and evolve, researchers at the universities of Chicago and Wisconsin-Madison raise the possibility of designing a new class of materials at the molecular level via a vapor-deposition process.
"In attempts to work with aged glasses, for example, people have examined amber," said Juan de Pablo, UChicago's Liew Family Professor in Molecular Theory and Simulations. "Amber is a glass that has been aged millions of years, but you cannot engineer that material. You get what you get." de Pablo and Wisconsin co-authors Sadanand Singh and Mark Ediger report their findings in the latest issue of Nature Materials.
Ultrastable glasses could find potential applications in the production of stronger metals and in faster-acting pharmaceuticals. The latter may sound surprising, but drugs with the amorphous molecular structure of ultrastable glass could avoid crystallization during storage and be delivered more rapidly in the bloodstream than pharmaceuticals with a semi-crystalline structure. Amorphous metals, likewise, are better for high-impact applications than crystalline metals because of their greater strength.
The Nature Materials paper describes computer simulations that Singh, a doctoral student in chemical engineering at UW-Madison, carried out with de Pablo to follow-up some intriguing results from Ediger's laboratory.
Growing stable glasses
Several years ago, he discovered that glasses grown this way on a specially prepared surface that is kept within a certain temperature range exhibit far more stability than ordinary glasses. Previous researchers must have grown this material under the same temperature conditions, but failed to recognize the significance of what they had done, Ediger said.
Ediger speculated that growing glasses under these conditions, which he compares to the Tetris video game, gives molecules extra room to arrange themselves into a more stable configuration. But he needed Singh and de Pablo's computer simulations to confirm his suspicions that he had actually produced a highly evolved, ordinary glass rather than an entirely new material.
"There's interest in making these materials on the computer because you have direct access to the structure, and you can therefore determine the relationship between the arrangement of the molecules and the physical properties that you measure," said de Pablo, a former UW-Madison faculty member who joined UChicago's new Institute for Molecular Engineering earlier this year.
There are challenges, though, to simulating the evolution of glasses on a computer. Scientists can cool a glassy material at the rate of one degree per second in the laboratory, but the slowest computational studies can only simulate cooling at a rate of 100 million degrees per second. "We cannot cool it any slower because the calculations would take forever," de Pablo said.
"It had been believed until now that there is no correlation between the mechanical properties of a glass and the molecular structure; that somehow the properties of a glass are "hidden" somewhere and that there are no obvious structural signatures," de Pablo said.
Creating better materials
Ultrastable glasses achieve their stability in a manner analogous to the most efficiently packed, multishaped objects in Tetris, each consisting of four squares in various configurations that rain from the top of the screen.
"This is a little bit like the molecules in my deposition apparatus raining down onto this surface, and the goal is to perfectly pack a film, not to have any voids left," Ediger said.
The object of Tetris is to manipulate the objects so that they pack into a perfectly tight pattern at the bottom of the screen. "The difference is, when you play the game, you have to actively manipulate the pieces in order to build a well-packed solid," Ediger said. "In the vapor deposition, nature does it for us."
But in Tetris and experiments alike, when the objects or molecules descend too quickly, the result is a poorly packed, void-riddled pattern.
"In the experiment, if you either rain the molecules too fast or choose a low temperature at which there's no mobility at the surface, then this trick doesn't work," Ediger said. Then it would be like taking a bucket of odd-shaped pieces and just dumping them on the floor. There are all sorts of voids and gaps because the molecules didn't have any opportunity to find a good way of packing."
"Ultrastable glasses from in silico vapor deposition," by Sadamand Singh, M.D. Ediger and Juan J. de Pablo," Nature Materials. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
University of Chicago
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text:
What would it be like to devote your entire life to creating an attractive piece of art? Just ask the Bowerbird
, a group of unique birds found in Australia and New Guinea. Why are they unique? Well, like you, they like to show off and impress others. Like you, they spend a lot of time collecting things. And like you, they decorate their homes and dance around when someone comes to visit. Okay, maybe you don't exhibit all of those behaviors, but humans do like to accessorize themselves and decorate their homes and belongings. Just think about your bedroom, living room or front yard. Instead of ornamenting these types of living spaces, Bowerbirds decorate their bowers. A bower is a structure built by a male bird for attracting a mate. Bowers are not for nesting or shelter. Their sole use is to attract female bowerbirds. A bower is an extended phenotype
, which is an external structure that can be altered through natural selection, in this case sexual selection.
The females select males based on many criteria, one of which is a dance
. Yep, the males show off their best dance routine. Some of those dance moves could even upstage our pop icons. But it takes more than dancing to win a mate. These Bowerbirds have certain cognitive abilities like spatial awareness and problem solving that allow them to build complex bowers. Humans share these cognitive abilities with bowerbirds, which explains why these actions sound so familiar. As scientists learn more about animal behavior, they see we share many cognitive abilities with animals.
At OMSI, Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think
is an exhibition that explores these concepts of animal cognition. The other part of the exhibition is at the Oregon Zoo, where you can observe the magnificent animals and see animal cognition in action. The exhibition, developed by the New York Hall of Science, was made possible by the National Science Foundation (NSF,) and allowed OMSI and the Oregon Zoo to partner in bringing the message of animal cognition to the public. You will find demonstrations and exhibit pieces at both institutions. At OMSI, the exhibition is in the Life Hall and is accompanied by daily demonstrations, usually between 10am-1pm. The exhibition will be on display until August 19.
One such demonstration is of course about Bowerbirds! Using the same cognitive abilities of Bowerbirds, we gathered a bunch of local items and let visitors design and build bowers based on what they think is attractive. Dancing is optional during the demonstration, but hilarious when it happens. We will send along a binder full of these photos (examples below) to other museums that will eventually showcase the Wild Minds exhibition. Visitors at these museums will be able to add to the collection, so we might see what bowers look like from "habitats" across the country.
Let us know how you would decorate your bower, better yet, show us!


text:
Mount Vinson lies in the southern portion of the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. At nearly eighty degrees South, it is a mere eight hundred miles from the South Pole. Mount Vinson, at 16,067 feet, has the distinction of being the highest point in our planet's last great wilderness, as well as being in one of the most inaccessible ranges in the world. In fact, until recently, climbing Mount Vinson was logistically almost impossible.
It was not until 1985, when Adventure Network International started providing full logistical support for expeditions to the Antarctic interior, that Mt. Vinson was considered more accessible. Aventuras Patagonicas Expeditions to Mt. Vinson will be supported by ANI aircrafts.
We have been successfully guiding Mt Vinson since we began this program several seasons ago.
Climbing Vinson is challenging! The expedition requires a sincere commitment, considering the remoteness of the region. The climate poses a great challenge as well. Mt. Vinson is located in one of the coldest climates on earth, with temperatures ranging from -30F and even -40F below zero. Participants must have experience with winter mountaineering and be in excellent physical condition.


text:
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Tweed (river)
|←Twachtman, John Henry||Collier's New Encyclopedia
|disclaimer.Edition of 1921;|
TWEED, a river of Scotland, which rises in the S. part of Peeblesshire, passes by or near to Peebles, Melrose, Kelso, Coldstream, from near which place it forms the boundary line between England and Scotland for 16 miles, runs through England for a short distance, and then enters the North Sea at Berwick; total length, 97 miles. Its tributaries include the Ettrick, Gala, Leader, Teviot, Eden, and Till. Its waters abound with salmon and trout, and its name is celebrated in connection with some of the best literature of Scotland.


text:
Suppose that a priori X has probability p of being true. We now look for evidence for X of a certain type. Suppose that there is a probablity q that we find this evidence if X is true and probability q' that we find this evidence if X is false. We will assume p<1 (otherwise we wouldn't bother looking for evidence) and that q>q' (otherwise it couldn't be said that the evidence we're looking for is evidence for X).
So we have four possibilities:
- X is true and we find evidence for X: probability pq
- X is true and we don't find evidence for X: probability p(1-q)
- X is false and we find evidence for X: probability (1-p)q'
- X is false and we don't find evidence for X: probability (1-p)(1-q')
Under the hypotheses above, the conditional probability that X is true given that we failed to find the evidence is p(1-q)/(p(q'-q)+1-q').
Use Bayes' Theorem.
Some elementary rearrangement shows this is always less than p given the above hypotheses. It doesn't matter if we are unable to assign an a priori probability, this holds whatever value p has as long as it's less than 1. And if we don't know that q>q' then we shouldn't be in the business of looking for evidence. If the experiment we're doing is any good then q'=0 but as I have shown, the result holds even if we relax this condition.
So clearly failing to find evidence for X should lower our estimate of the probability that X is true.
I wonder what made Sagan say this. I think that maybe he meant to say "absence of evidence is not proof of absence". The theorem shows that under the original hypotheses the conditional probability is never 1, and so while we have evidence of absence, we don't have a proof. But if we can look for enough independent types of evidence it's quite possible for the conditional probability to get close to 1.
Update: The first paragraph was badly written and so I've edited it slightly. The main argument is unchanged. The argument stands or falls regardless of what Sagan actually said, but read the comments below on some context for this quotation. (02 Jan 09)