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Nag Panchami is not only a public display of wrestling as a particular way of life, but also a general celebration of exercise, physical fitness, and strength. In Banaras on Nag Panchami akharas sometimes put on demonstrations of strength. Wrestlers lift heavy weights and swing large joris and gadas. In the context of this discussion of snakes, milk, and fertility, one may interpret the exercises which wrestlers do in terms of contained sexuality and displaced passion.
A gada is a large round rock fixed to the end of a meter-long bamboo staff which is lifted and swung for exercise. It may weigh as little as five or as much as fifty to sixty kilograms. In the Ramayana and Mahabharata the gada is often mentioned as a weapon. In popular religious art and iconography Hanuman is almost never depicted without one. It is not only the symbol of his strength but also of his countenance. The gada he carries is highly decorated and made of gold. At championship bouts wrestlers are awarded gadas made of silver. The gada is, then, clearly the mark of a wrestler's prowess. Given the preponderance of phallic symbols in the akhara and the gada's general shape it is evident that swinging a gada has clear symbolic overtones of sexual potency and virility. Each time the gada is swung it is brought to a balanced position, erect from the wrestler's waist.
The phallic aspect of the gada is also evidenced by its association with snakes. In the Harivamsa(chap. 83) Akrura dives into the serpent world where he sees Ananta asleep on top of a mace (Vogel 1926: 92). As the manifestation of Baladev, "the mace carrier," Shesha Nag is also often depicted carrying a mace in one of his four arms (ibid: 196).
In shape a gada resembles the churning stick used to make butter and buttermilk. A parallel between churning and sexual energy has been drawn above. By swinging the gada one might say that a wrestler is churning his body to increase his store of semen.
Joris are swung like gadas but they come in pairs weighing between ten and forty kilograms each. Joris are often decorated with colorful designs, and many akharas have special pairs which are brought out only on such occasions as Nag Panchami and Guru Puja. In contrast to gadas, joris are named—the "white pair," the "shiny ones," the "thorny ones," the "flowery ones," the "mountainous ones" (many are named after a particular person who either made them, commissioned them to be made or swung them the most number of times). While gadas have clear phallic qualities, joris symbolize breasts (recognizing, of course, that breast and phallic symbols are highly mutable and multivocal to the point of being almost interchangeable). Not only do joris come in pairs, they are also swung from an inverted position with the wrestler holding firmly onto the titlike handle-grip as though he were milking a cow or buffalo. If churning is the dominant metaphor of swinging a gada, milking is associated with swinging a pair of joris.
Most of the wrestlers in Banaras are dairy farmers, and so the motifs of milking and churning are particularly appropriate. In fact, milking itself is referred to as an exercise by many young wrestlers who brag that they can milk ten or fifteen buffalos without tiring. In this instance the motif clearly refers to milk as a female substance which contributes to the development of male semen.
One of the most important exercises in a wrestler's regime involves digging the pit. The wrestling pit is dug with a pharsa (a short, heavy hoe) in much the same way that a field would be plowed. That is, a person digs the pit into furrows. A great deal of emphasis is placed on making the pit look like a well-cared-for field. I asked a number of wrestlers if there was not a contradiction in the fact that digging is prohibited on Nag Panchami while it is an integral part of pit preparation for the akhara festivities. I was told that there was no contradiction; the implication being, I think, that plowing is an overt act of planting or putting seed into the earth so as to take substance out. Digging the pit, on the other hand, enriches the soil by mixing things in. It is true that wrestlers draw strength from the soil but they are never seen as violating the earth. On a symbolic level they never pose a threat to the snake's potency. The wrestler is to the earth as a child, while the snake—as cloud, rain, and lightning—is emblematic of the sky father. A wrestler never challenges the virility of the snake but turns instead as a child to his mother's lap. All feelings of sexual attraction, either towards the mother or against the father, are sublimated beneath a symbolic cloak of non-sexual virility. It is not a question of who has sexual access to (or repressed desire for) whom, but of how sex itself can be held in check. The digging of the earth, as with many of the other symbols discussed here, represents the potential of sexual power turned into nurturing growth.
Once the earth of the akhara pit is dug it is smoothed out by harnessing a wrestler to a flat log which he drags around the pit behind him. In this exercise wrestlers are compared, through association with draft oxen, to bulls (see plate 15). Bulls are ubiquitous in Banaras and although they go on rampages and can be dangerous they are generally regarded as non-aggressive. They are, however, the very embodiment of strength and brute force.
While associated with Shiva, the bull in Hindu mythology is not a symbol of phallic aggression or erotic desire. As O'Flaherty points out, the bull represents controlled, passive sexuality: the inverse of Shiva's potent sexuality. The bull is "virility held in check" on two fronts: by Shiva's ascetic power on one hand and on the other by the mother (cow) who "overwhelms and blocks" the impulses of the bull (1980: 253). The bull is, then, the perfect image of the wrestler whose passion, like that of the snake, is cooled by mother milk, and whose seed is never spent.
One of the most common metaphors used to describe a wrestler's strength is to compare him to the oxen who draw huge leather buckets of water out of rural irrigation wells. These wells are sunk deep into the ground. An incline is built for the oxen to walk up and down as they pull the water up on a cantilevered pulley. Again, the motif of the impregnating bull is reversed, as it were, and instead the bull-like wrestler harnesses himself to the rope and draws out the life-giving milk/water fluids of the earth. Not coincidentally, the ox, as a castrated bull, is here associated with fertility and strength but not sexuality.


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Formal strategic planning, operating environment, size, sector and performance: evidence from the UK's manufacturing SMEs
Ghobadian, A., O'Regan, N., Thomas, H. and Liu, J. (2008) Formal strategic planning, operating environment, size, sector and performance: evidence from the UK's manufacturing SMEs. Journal of General Management, 34 (2). pp. 1-20. ISSN 0306-3070
Full text not available from this repository
Publisher's URL: _URL_
The relationship between strategic planning and firm performance has long interested strategic management researchers. In the past decade, this research effort has slowed down, while strategic planning has gained greater popularity among managers. However, some academics dispute the usefulness of strategic planning, particularly in turbulent environments. This paper examines the following key research questions that are relevant to both practice and theory. First, the relationship between the formality of strategic planning (conceptualised by considering whether firms have written strategic plans and the level of correspondence between the written strategic plan and the normative planning process) and a wide range of performance measures. Second, the relationship between three contingency factors - size, sector and environment, in addition to the incidence of formal planning and the level of formality. Of great interest are the effects of munificence and turbulence. The results suggest that the link between strategic planning formality and performance is tenuous. Nevertheless, managers tend to deploy strategic planning widely in difficult market environments. The conclusion is that strategic planning is perceived to enhance a firm's survival chances, but not necessarily its short-term performance.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


The power of Microsoft Configuration Manager (SCCM) makes it possible for Administrators to deploy software, protect data, monitor health, and enforce compliance across all devices in an organization. But with great power comes challenges and frustrations for management, maintenance, and delegation. Collaborating with industry leaders and Microsoft MVPs, including Kent Agerlund, Niall Brady, Wally Mead, and Anoop Nair, we compiled some of the top frustrations that SCCM Administrators face on a daily basis.
For instance, according to Kent Agerlund:
"With Configuration Manager managing 170 million devices, there is a wealth of information in the system. However, many organizations can't correlate data and truly benefit from the wealth of performance, security and compliance information derived from clients."
How many of these challenges resonate with you?
 1. Frequent Upgrades
 Between SCCM and Windows updates, many organizations struggle with not having enough resources to successfully complete migration projects in a timely fashion.
 Example: Patch Tuesday
 Microsoft introduced a range of issues causing many environments to flood WAN traffic.
 Example: Windows 10
 Organizations find it difficult to keep up with the many new versions of Windows 10. The upgrades have proven to be much more involved than running a 'typical' software update or upgrade, and they also involve UX changes that impact each user in the organization.
 2. Lack of Checks & Balances
 When performing a deployment, while a summary of the deployment settings is presented, there is no message before the deployment is created to confirm the action, the software, and the target collection, making it harder to verify accuracy before committing to the deployment.
 3. Data Overload
 There is a wealth of information in Configuration Manager, however many organizations can't correlate data and truly benefit from the performance, security and compliance information derived from clients.
 4. Inconsistency with Dashboards & Reports
 There often is a difference between what the native SCCM Console shows for report values (such as deployment states) and what is shown in a report for the same deployment, making it difficult to know which is accurate.
 5. Inability to Initiate Client Notification Actions on Individual Clients
 If you go to the Devices node and select a client, you won't see the Client Notification menu and actions as you do on a Collection. However, if you right-click a Collection, then click Show Members, a new sticky node is created under Devices. From there, you can use the Client Notification actions on individual clients.
 6. SQL-Based Replication Troubleshooting
 SCCM uses Database Replication Service (DRS) to replicate data between sites. The DRS intern uses SQL Server Service Broker (SSB) to replicate data between the sites. DRS troubleshooting is problematic for SCCM Admins as it requires SQL troubleshooting skills, which many Admins struggle with.
 7. Opening Firewall Ports in Global Organizations
 Firewall rules in SCCM 2007 are very straightforward. However, SCCM CB is a bit more confusing and may require additional coordination with security teams.
 8. Reactive vs Proactive Client Health
 In most organizations, SCCM Admins are reactive in fixing issues that arise with clients within SCCM. Having the data to be proactive to ensure clients are working correctly would be extremely beneficial.
 9. Failed Deployments
 When a deployment fails due to client-side issues, it falls back on the SCCM Admin to fix it.
 10. ConfigMgr Environment
 The overall quality of the new ConfigMgr versions are good and upgrades very seldom go wrong. However, many organizations do rely on third-party software vendors to keep their versions up-to-date and that has proven to be a challenge and often delays projects.
Download the PDF here
Check out more helpful Microsoft Configuration Manager resources in the Cireson Community. Join the discussion and share your frustrations, tips, and more!


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On the basis of the quantum Zeno effect, it has been recently shown [D. K. Burgarth, Nat. Commun. 5, 5173 (2014)2041-_PHONE_/ncomms6173] that a strong-amplitude-damping process applied locally on a part of a quantum system can have a beneficial effect on the dynamics of the remaining part of the system. Quantum operations that cannot be implemented without the dissipation become achievable by the action of the strong dissipative process. Here we generalize this idea by identifying decoherence-free subspaces (DFSs) as the subspaces in which the dynamics becomes more complex. Applying methods from quantum control theory, we characterize the set of reachable operations within the DFSs. We provide three examples that become fully controllable within the DFSs while the control over the original Hilbert space in the absence of dissipation is trivial. In particular, we show that the (classical) Ising Hamiltonian is turned into a Heisenberg Hamiltonian by strong collective decoherence, which provides universal quantum computation within the DFSs. Moreover, we perform numerical gate optimization to study how the process fidelity scales with the noise strength. As a by-product, a subsystem fidelity that can be applied in other optimization problems for open quantum systems is developed.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics


Justice On Planet Earth
The following story took place in Turkey, but it could have happened in virtually any nation on this planet. We humans are strange life forms. An individual steals money from millions and causes thousands to become ill and several to die of grief, but the individual will undoubtedly be sent to jail for a few years in a nice pleasant prison which provides amenities for those with money. A 13 year old boy in Turkey committed the heinous crime of stealing a packet of cigarettes. There is scant doubt such crimes threaten the foundation of societies. The boy somehow sent a letter to Riza Eertemur, an MP in the Turkish parliament.
As Ms. Eretemur notes, O.G., is serving a seven year sentence while many who commit murder or engage in terrorism receive lighter sentences. When was the last time an "honor murderer" received a seven year prison sentence in an Arab country?"
Any room left on Avatar?


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How to Submit A Part That You've Created
- Create a new library using your user name. (example username.lib, daya.lib)
- Copy your parts into the new library using Library Manager.
- Copy the new library to the EECAD folder located at \\jlabgrp\eecad\PCAD\Inbox or send it as an email attachment to Roger.
- E-mail Roger to let him know the parts are there and to give himg a description of what you have sent.


10 Ways to Be a Body-Positive Parent — Jeana Cost
Eating disorders, laxatives and muscle-building drugs are common in today's teenagers. Here are 10 ways to overcome these harmful trends.
Friends siting
I have a six-year-old son. He loves art and music and he wants to be a DJ when he gets older. About once a week, someone asks him to "show his muscles."
I also have an eleven-year-old daughter. She is active and carefree and always confides in me. One of her last confessions was "candy makes your butt look big." (She learned that at school).
So what have I learned from being a parent? That no matter how "body positive" I try to make my household, I can never control the outside world.
Laxative and muscle-building drug use by teens
I read a recent New York Times article by Perri Klass, MD, describing the increased use of laxatives and muscle-building products by adolescents. Usage is, sadly, common in adolescents and adults, and we are seeing it in young children as well.
The fact that laxative use is increasing in young females is terrifying. These substances, when used for the purpose of altering one's weight or shape, are just as dangerous as drugs and alcohol. Not only are there short-term dangers like dehydration and electrolyte imbalances, but there are also long-term dangers associated with use like severe eating disorders, internal organ damage and cancer (Source: National Eating Disorder Association).
And let's not forget about the boys. Eating disorders in males are skyrocketing and the use of muscle-building drugs in adolescence can put someone on the fast track to having disordered eating or body image issues.
We tend to focus on the striving for thinness and weight loss when we think about eating disorders, but we also need to consider the strive for weight gain via muscle mass. From a young age, boys learn that they are supposed to be "big and strong" — but why? My little artist son told me last week that he is only going to drink milk from here on because milk will make his muscles big. I kindly reminded him that big muscles aren't a pre-requisite for being a DJ.
As parents, we can feel powerless. But there are small steps we can take that might make a huge difference for our kids. Here's how.
Teach body-positive messages to your kids
 1. Model good behavior.
 Don't talk about diets with your kids. Don't complain about your weight, shape or size, and don't talk about theirs, either. Talk about calories as fuel and energy and redirect the "F" word (fat).
 2. Focus on what your body DOES for you.
 Think about all the amazing things our bodies do each and every day and how different our lives would be if our bodies didn't work.
 3. Focus on who you are, not what you are.
 It's important to identify and nurture the foundational elements that characterize us as individuals. Rather than strength of body, encourage your children to strive for strength of character. Instead of tirelessly pursuing a lean physique, exercise your intellect. Consider this: If you asked your children to describe themselves without using physical terms, what would they say? Would they talk about their compassionate heart or sense of humor? Are they proud of their integrity, passion or spirituality?
 4. Be open and intentional about the physical changes that are inevitable during puberty.
 Many kids are scared about the changes they are seeing and they don't understand the big picture or how they will continue to transform past those initial stages. It is also important to remember that no two kids are alike and therefore comparing themselves to their peers isn't helpful.
 5. Emphasize health -- physical, emotional and spiritual.
 Our culture widely equates health with desirable physical attributes -- specifically thin, lean, toned and muscular bodies. In reality, health spans physical, emotional and spiritual aspects and does not have a singular size or shape.
 6. Be open about social media.
 Sometimes it is inevitable that our kids will see unrealistic or inappropriate images in the media, especially as social media becomes more and more popular. Instead of avoiding these images, use them as a teaching moment about unrealistic expectations. Talk about Photoshop, health and values.
 7. Encourage your children to have passions.
 It is always sad when someone doesn't know the answer to the questions: "What are you passionate about? What do you enjoy spending your time on?" Encouraging your children to focus on their values and passions gives them a direction and identity outside of their physical appearance.
IF your child is using laxatives or muscle-building formulas:
 1. Talk to them.
 Come from a place of love and concern, not anger or discipline. Ask them how they feel about their bodies and whether or not they've ever thought about altering their weight or shape. Make sure they know they have a safe place to be honest if they need to talk about anything.
 2. Have them evaluated by a medical provider.
 Regular checkups to monitor weight, bloodwork and other physical tests are an important piece to determining whether or not something dangerous is going on.
 3. Remember that you are their parent, not their friend.
 I frequently hear parents say they are scared to upset their child and therefore tip-toe around important issues. These can be life or death issues and your child's safety and health needs to come first.
Professional help is available
As much as we hate to admit it, we as parents can't do or be everything and sometimes we need to call in some help. Don't hesitate to have an evaluation done by a professional if you suspect your child is in danger.
If you would like to talk to someone, please call us here at Eating Recovery Center at _PHONE_. We are happy to help.
Jeana Cost, MS, LPC, NCC, CEDS is the Admissions Director at Eating Recovery Center.
body positivity
child & adolescent
jeana cost
Joint Commission Seal


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'Traditional Music of Notional Species Vol. I' is a devastating display of potential which ensures a journey unlike any you have encountered. In the vast world of electronic music, where sounds, signifiers and gesture's are recontextualized to a numbing degree it is increasingly rare and refreshing to encounter a release as perspective distorting as the debut full length release by Rashad Becker. The album is a masterpiece of focussed non-referential electronic environments. It is is both warm, alien, paranoid and exhilarating. Sounds are stretched in the most unusual manner, foreign bodies are frequent and the structure is simply bewildering. Split into 'Themes and Dances', the 8 tracks guide the listener through Becker's brave new world. Despite being entirely synthetic there are sounds which appear like a distortion of the world around us, on occasion 'voice-like' sounds are present, elsewhere there appears the sound of cicada's, only these cicada's are made of mercury and swim through time. The end result is beautiful in a way only a unique work of art can be. PAN is proud to present the outside from within.
The LP is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, pressed on 140g vinyl. It is packaged in a pro-press color jacket which itself is housed in a silkscreened pvc sleeve with artwork by Bill Kouligas.
Rashad Becker creates precise, phantasmic computer sound designs encouraging audiences to focus their hearing. His carefully constructed, sparse improvisations, have unexpected qualities, and have been called conversational not only for his sampling of dissected human voices, but for the way these samples integrate with the timbre of his electronics. "It sounded like a long stream-of-consciousness sentence made up short syllables, electronic oohs and wahs, sections of muttering, and occasionally bickering. Whatever he does, it seems Becker has the knack of giving sound its voice." (Scott McMillan in the Liminal)
© Copyright PAN 2013 | Design by Qubik | Developed by oioioi.io


Knowledge Sharing > Flagship Initiatives >
EFA Flagship Initiatives
HIV/AIDS & Education
Early Childhood
Persons with Disabilities
Rural People
Emergency and Crisis
>>Full brochure (PDF)
The World Education Forum held in Dakar (April, 2000) re-emphasized and reiterated the importance of inter-agency partnerships, collaboration and coordination in pursuance of the EFA goals. This facilitated the launching of a number of multi-partner initiatives that focused on specific EFA-related areas and problems requiring special attention as well as the reinforcing of existing ones. EFA flagship initiatives were considered to constitute, among others, one of the mechanisms that would contribute in enhancing and strengthening multi-agency partnership and coherence on EFA related goals.
Three years after Dakar, the EFA flagships continue to expand in terms of number of initiatives launched as well as their scope and membership. At present, nine initiatives have been established, involving United Nations organizations, bilateral and multilateral agencies and NGOs.
What is an EFA flagship initiative?
An EFA flagship initiative is a structured set of activities carried out by voluntary partners, under the leadership of one or more United Nations specialized agencies and NGOs, that seeks to address specific challenges in achieving the EFA goals. There is a variation in the structure of these flagship programmes depending to a large extent on the way they were initiated. The common denominator is a partnership platform.
The EFA flagships address specific problems from an interdisciplinary perspective, taking into account the interaction between education and other factors (for example, health, nutrition and rural development). Programmes and activities differ between flagships, but most involve advocacy and communication, exchange of experience, institutional capacity development, technical advice and monitoring of progress. EFA flagship initiatives perform the following three major roles: (1) assist countries to achieve the EFA goals; (2) provide special focus on a related aspect of EFA that poses particular problems; and 3) strengthen partnerships among stakeholders.
How are they organized?
Each EFA Flagship initiative is organized slightly differently. There are some key features that are, however, common:
An organization (i.e. United Nations agency, Bilateral donor, NGO), as part of its commitment to EFA, undertakes to lead and fund most of the associated costs (administrative as well as programme) of the initiative;
A meaningful number of partners is voluntarily associated, based on interest and commitment, to the specific issue being addressed by the flagship;
An institutional/organization focal point ensures coordination of the partnership and may also provide leadership.
Clear communication lines and structures are established;
A built-in mechanism that regularly monitors and assesses the Flagship programmes;
A mechanism to review achievements annually and to plan an annual, or longer, work programme;
A willingness to work and co-ordinate with other Flagship Programmes to ensure coherence and to prevent duplication of effort.
Each EFA Flagship addresses a specific challenge. Although they share the common underlying goal of achieving Education for All, each flagship is different in terms of objectives, activities and partnerships. The following section highlights each initiative and presents details about each one of them.
The Initiative on the Impact of HIV/AIDS on Education
Early Childhood Care and Education
The Right to Education for Persons with Disabilities: Towards Inclusion
Education for Rural People
Education in Situations of Emergency and Crisis
Focusing Resources on Effective School Health (FRESH)
Teachers and the Quality of Education
The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI)
Literacy in the Framework of the United Nations Literacy Decade


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July 14, 2009
Bird Population Declines In Northern Europe
Wild birds of several species are dying in large numbers from a paralytic disease with hitherto unknown cause in the Baltic Sea area. A research team at Stockholm University, Sweden, led by Associate Professor Lennart Balk, has demonstrated strong relationships between this disease, breeding failure, and advanced thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency in eggs, young, and adults. The results are presented in the article "Wild birds of declining European species are dying from a thiamine deficiency syndrome", published in the on-line Early Edition of the well-reputed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA (PNAS).
Thiamine is an essential nutrient for birds and other vertebrates. In the living cell, its phosphorylated form acts as a cofactor for several life sustaining enzymes, which are non-functional if the cofactor is missing. Thiamine is also necessary for the proper functioning of the nerves. Thiamine deficiency was demonstrated in the egg, liver, and brain as reduced thiamine concentrations, and in the liver and brain as reduced activities of the thiamine-dependent enzymes. In the liver and brain, there were also elevated proportions of these enzymes without the thiamine cofactor. Moreover, paralyzed individuals were successfully remedied by thiamine treatment. The excess mortality and breeding failure are part of a thiamine deficiency syndrome, which most probably has contributed significantly to declines in many bird populations during the last decades.
The authors' primary aim has been to demonstrate the relationship between the paralytic disease and thiamine deficiency. Also important has been to form an idea about the geographical distribution of the thiamine deficiency syndrome and its distribution among species. Advanced thiamine deficiency was demonstrated in the Baltic Sea area, but incipient thiamine deficiency was found also in Iceland.
The paralytic disease was observed in 78% of the investigated bird species (28 of 36). In some species, such as the herring gull, thiamine deficiency results in a reduction of the number of eggs, whereas in other species, such as the common eider, the females seem to be capable of producing eggs essentially devoid of thiamine. As a result, many herring gulls in the Baltic Sea area do not produce any eggs at all, and the excess mortality among common eider young is immense.
The many observations of advanced thiamine deficiency strongly suggest that also varying degree of moderate thiamine deficiency occurs among the affected species. One effect of moderate thiamine deficiency is altered behavior. The authors report plenty of observations of reduced aggressiveness and low noise level in herring gull colonies, as well as incomplete nest building in several species. Another effect of moderate thiamine deficiency is immune suppression. The avian influenza is just one example of a disease that may spread more easily among thiamine-deficient birds. Moreover, thiamine deficiency may weaken the blood-brain barrier, which normally protects the brain from many toxic substances.
The occurrence of paralysis among birds has received some attention previously, but has usually been attributed to botulinum poisoning, which is caused by a bacterium. The authors demonstrate that thiamine deficiency is the actual cause. The problem of excess mortality and breeding failure among birds has also received some attention previously, and has routinely been attributed to lack of food, even when reliable information concerning the food supply has been limited. The authors show that thiamine deficiency causes starvation as a consequence of loss of appetite, whereas starvation itself does not result in thiamine deficiency.
The authors stress the urgent need of further investigations focusing on causation. The thiamine deficiency may be induced either by a causative agent(s) acting directly on the affected individual, and/or by insufficient transfer of thiamine between the trophic levels in the food web. Classical persistent organic pollutants are not primarily suspected, since the affected species occupy a wide range of ecological niches and positions in the food web. Last but not least, the authors stress that they are open to the possibility that other wildlife may suffer from thiamine deficiency as well.
Image Caption: Associate Professor Lennart Balk, Credit: Stockholm University
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User functions
Inline functions
Functions ca be defined inline in the same script from where they are called.
Programming a function is demonstrated in the following example of a function examples(x), which multiplies its argument by 2. After the definition it can be used like any other function.
function y=example(x) y=2*x; end
printf('%f',example(3.123) )
Here is a more standard way to format a function:
function y=test1(x)
which multiplies the value 10 by 2 and print it.
Functions in files
If functions are to be reused later, they should be written to a text file and saved somewhere in search path. The filename must be the function name extended by ".m", in the present example ttwo.m. In subsequent sessions the function ttwo can be used without separately loading the file. Several installed functions are provided using this mechanism.
You can list all functions which come with the program executing this statement:
It print all modules and functions. Functions typically ends with ".m" (MatLab scripts) or ".java" (Java-implemented functions). You can get help and examples on a particular function as: You can add a new directory with your ".m" files using addpath methods.
where "acosh" is the name of the function. This will generate a dialog which shows how to use this function.
Exercise: Try to see what "help" function is doing by replacing "acosd" with "help"
Passing functions to other functions
Functions can be created in the same macro, and can be passed to other functions as arguments
function y=fit(a,x) % build function to fit data
d=fit([1 4 5],5) % testing function
% this is another function which can take any function as argument
function y=newtest(ff,a,x)
a = newtest(_USER_,[10,20,30],10)
a = newtest(_USER_,[20,2,30],10)
In this example we pass the function "fit" to the function "newtest". Note we use the symbol "@" to tell the program that the type is "user function". Then we evaluated the function using 3 parameters and one argument x=10.
jmathlab/functions/user.txt · Last modified: 2015/05/10 17:18 (external edit)
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Past education work
Experiences of BME Teachers & Support Staff
In 2004 Runnymede developed a project to examined the experiences of teachers and other staff members from Black and minority ethnic communities in schools.As a precursor to this project there will be a joint meeting with teachers from East London and the General Teaching Council for England to discuss some of the major issues facing these groups. A briefing paper has been prepared for this meeting and is available here.
School Policies for Race Equality and Cultural Diversity
You can download a discussion paper issued jointly by the journal Multicultural Teaching and the Uniting Britain Trust which contains:
- A draft school policy statement on race equality and cultural diversity, for discussion and improvement.
- Background notes about the draft statement.
- Notes towards a school action plan.
Further help on downloading and opening pdf files is available from our help page.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


Has time travel ever been discussed before in terms of Judaism? According to Judaism would (should) it be possible to travel through time?
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 _USER_ hmm. What do you mean by that question? – yydl Aug 3 '11 at 16:42
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 Would your question be intelligible to a "traveler through time" or would the answer to such a person be "obviously yes" or "obviously no"? – WAF Aug 3 '11 at 16:53
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 ...but the real question is what happens when you time travel during sefirah? Do you celebrate Shavuot on a different day than everyone else? – Charles Koppelman Jul 18 '12 at 15:39
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 We are always traveling through time. – Daniel Apr 24 '13 at 4:49
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 It was discussed at length in Marvelous Middos Machine 3! – Y e z Jan 10 '18 at 19:20
10 Answers 10
In Menachot 29B, the following story is told (English taken from page 112 of here):
'Lord of the Universe', said Moses; 'permit me to see him'. He replied, 'Turn thee round'. Moses went and sat down behind eight rows [and listened to the discourses upon the law]. Not being able to follow their arguments he was ill at ease, but when they came to a certain subject and the disciples said to the master 'Whence do you know it?' and the latter replied 'It is a law given unto Moses at Sinai' he was comforted.
Thereupon he returned to the Holy One, blessed be He, and said, 'Lord of the Universe, Thou hast such a man and Thou givest the Torah by me!' He replied, 'Be silent, for such is My decree'. Then said Moses, 'Lord of the Universe, Thou hast shown me his Torah, show me his reward'. 'Turn thee round', said He; and Moses turned round and saw them weighing out his flesh at the market-stalls. 'Lord of the Universe', cried Moses, 'such Torah, and such a reward!' He replied, 'Be silent, for such is My decree'.
It could very easily be argued that the whole thing was a vision, but it does say that Moshe went and sat behind the 8th row and that he returned to G-d afterwards.
Shivchei HaBesht records an episode where the Baal Shem Tov wrote a letter to his brother-in-law R' Gershon of Kitov, telling him how he had been taken to task by the Heavenly Court for excommunicating a Torah scholar without sufficient cause. R' Gershon wrote back to say that this indeed had happened, but only after the date of the Baal Shem Tov's letter - in other words, he "time-traveled" and saw the incident before it occurred.
The Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch points out (Derech Mitzvosecha, Mitzvas Haamanas Elokus) that the Divine flow of energy to the world - both its spatial and temporal aspects - gets divided progressively finer during its "evolution" through the spiritual "worlds" leading down to our own. There is a level, he says, at which one moment contains ten to fifteen years' worth of events in our realm; it is this level, he says, that the Baal Shem Tov reached and thereby foresaw what was to happen.
Somewhat unconventional, but:
While commenting on a different point in the gemara (Chulin 91b), R' Yitzchok questions how Yaakov was "vayifga bamakom"- he chanced upon the place (Beis El/Yerushalayim) if the pasuk implied that he already reached Charanvayelech Charana. R' Yitzchok answers that the land shrunk for him. Assuming space and time are interwoven, Yaakov would have traveled ahead in time as well.
The gemara continues the above by questioning why the Torah wrote "ki va hashemesh"- Yaakov lodged because the sun had setimplying that it set prior to its normal time. If not for the gemara's answer (that Hashem wanted the tzadik to lodge by Him and so made the sun set early so that Yaakov would be unable to depart), it's possible to say that for Yaakov, the sun set early because time bent for him along with the land.
Note: I have no clue if the math works out.
Time-travel into the past, according to Stephen Hawking's latest Scientific-Theory, is inherently a paradox. Paradoxes cannot exist in nature and as such, reverse-time-travel is physically impossible.
According to the Rambam, Hashem only does possilbe-miracles, where Hashem uses His direct-control of the physical world to perform natural-wonders. The Rambam addresses the classic question 'could Hashem create a square-triangle' (can God do anything impossible)? The Rambam's revelation is that Hashem can't make a square-triangle (he can't do something physically-impossible), but that's not a limit of Hashem's power, since He made the restrictions of our physical world. He said something along the lines of 'let the goyim have impossible-miricles, we'll have possible ones' (their miracles can't happen, ours can and do).
Accordingly, the Rambam would hold that reverse-time-travel, as a paradox of nature, would not be a miracle Hashem could perform.
Hawking's theory, that traveling to the past is a paradox and impossible, is also supported by a halacha from Talmud Bruchos, that it's assur to pray to change the past.
If you hear that there is a fire in your town, you shouldn't pray that it wasn't your house, it's too late if your house is on fire, and Hashem isn't going to go back and change it. instead you can pray that it won't spread to your house if it wasn't your house, or that they will be able to put it out quickly.
Also along those lines, expecting parents shouldn't pray that their baby be a certain sex after the first 40 days of pregnancy, since after 40 days the fetus already formed its sex-organs and Hashem's not going to go back and change it. (Berachot 60A)
Another quantum-halacha is once something observed, it can't be changed. (once it's seen it can't be un-seen)
I don't know where this halacha is from, but I was taught that you shouldn't count your money because, if you know how much money you have (you've observed it) then Hashem can't slip you more without your knowing (Hashem can't change it once you've observed it).
This would mean that since the past was observed by the people living in it, Hashem cannot send you back to change it.
Scientifically, observations effecting reality relate to Schrödinger's cat & Relational quantum mechanics.
 - 1
 I think the last concept is called "Blessing is only found in the hidden", I'm not sure where it's written. – chaimp Nov 24 '11 at 8:25
 - -1 Hawking's theories, as brilliant as they are, have no bearing on halacha. The concept that one ought not pray about past events has no connection to the feasibility of time travel. I don't have enough halachic source material on this for an answer, except to say that time is, in and of itself, a creation. If G-d wants to allow people to travel through time, nothing that Hawking or any other human being observes in the physical world can stop G-d from allowing it. – user1095 Jan 9 '12 at 17:23
 - @ will, One shouldn't pray to change past events because Hashem won't change the past. I think that's very connected to time-travel. -- While I agree that time is a creation, that doesn't mean that Hashem can do 'whatever he wants with it', at least according to the Rambam. A square cannot be a triangle, it's illogical, and Hashem can't make one in our physical world due to the restrictions that Hashem set. So if reverse-time-travel is also illogical, then according to the Rambam it would be impossible for Hashem to perform. – zaq Jan 9 '12 at 20:19
 - This doesn't address the first part of the question - has it been discussed? RaMBa"M was not discussing time travel (even though you are applying his comments that way). – Seth J Jul 18 '12 at 18:48
 - 2
 _USER_ It's in BM 42a. וא״ר יצחק אין הברכה מצוייה אלא בדבר הסמוי מן העין שנאמר יצו אתך את הברכה באסמיך תנא דב


text:
Big Harp Little Harp Sign
The first known serial killers in American history were the Harp boys. During the years of the Revolutionary War, the two cousins went on an indiscriminate killing rampage, killing anyone who got in their way. They killed infants, including their own, children, women and numerous men. They killed for the sake of killing.
by Doris Lane
Harp's Hill is near the Pond River in western Muhlenberg County, Ky., not far from Highway 62. There is a crossing in the road near Dixon named Harp's Head and one of the crossing roads is named Harp's Head Road. Some miles away, the precise location lost to time, there is a cave known as Harp's House. To tell how these places earned their names is to tell the story of Micajah (Big) and Wiley (Little) Harp, America's first known serial killers.
They passed for brothers, but were cousins, sons of brothers John and William Harpe, Scottish immigrants to Orange County, N.C. The boys were named William (Micajah/Big), son of John, and Joshua (Wiley/Little), son of William. Big Harp and Little Harp left home as young men in 1775, aiming to become overseers of slaves in Virginia. Career plans diverted by the American Revolution, the Harps instead became Tory outlaws in a gang that roved the North Carolina countryside, raping farmers' daughters, pillaging livestock and crops, and burning farmhouses. In the attempted kidnapping of one young girl by a Tory rape gang, Little Harp was shot and wounded by local Patriot Captain James Wood.


text:
Inflator-Based Submerged Missile Ejection System (ISMES)
Small Business Information
62 Johnny Cake Hill, Aquidneck Corporate Park, Middletown, RI, -
AbstractSince the advent of impulse launching various payloads from Navy and other military combatants, the source of the impulse energy has been either an explosive gas generator (propellant) or stored high pressure gas in a flask. Both of these methods have high maintenance and/or clean-up costs and are typically limited to one type or size of payload per launcher device. This limits operational flexibility and increases logistical complexity and cost. SEA CORP has developed a family of impulse launchers that use COTS automotive air bag inflators that significantly expands the capability and flexibility of any single launcher design to employ a number of payloads. The inflators, widely used in the automotive industry, are small cylinders containing a highly compressed inert gas that is released when a small initiator is electrically actuated. By changing the number, size, and initiation timing of the inflators, the launcher can be adjusted to accommodate various payloads that have different impulse requirements. The technology was originally developed under a NAVSEA SBIR to launch light weight torpedoes up to 740lbs from surface ships. In the proposed application, SEA CORP will adapt the technology to provide the impulse energy to eject missiles from submerged submarines.
* information listed above is at the time of submission.


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Funerary sculpture from the Eastern Han period (25-220)
A Bixie (Chinese: 辟邪; pinyin: bìxié, Wade-Giles: Pi-hsieh; Japanese: 辟邪, へきじゃ, Hekija) is a type of lion-like mythological Chinese creature, or chimera. It is considered as an exorcising animal (辟邪 literally means "Avoid Evil") and is usually hornless.[1][2] See also Pixiu.
The Bixie can have a pair of wings, which makes it rather similar to the Tianlu (Chinese: 天禄, Japanese: 天禄, てんろく, Tenroku) in following early Chinese sculptural traditions of winged celestial beasts.[1]
The Bixie may have been an adoption from Mesopotamian art, through Persia and Bactria, as a consequence of extensive trade relations initiated by Emperor Han Wudi during the Han period.[3]
Some western scholars of Chinese art use the word "chimera" generically to refer to the bixie, qilin, and tianlu.[4]
See also[edit]
 1. ^ a b Chinese sculpture By Angela Falco Howard p.56
 2. ^ Text and ritual in early China By Martin Kern p.56
 3. ^ China: a history By Harold Miles Tanner p.129


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The COSC project is focused on the mid Paleozoic Caledonide Orogen in Scandinavia in order to better understand orogenic processes, both in the past and in today's active mountain belts. It relates to two of ICDP's main themes - the fundamental physics of plate tectonics and heat, mass and fluid transfer through Earth's crust, and on improving interpretation of geophysical data used to determine the structure and properties of the Earth's crust. Lateral transport of Caledonian allochthons over distances of several hundreds of kilometers in the Scandes, by a combination of thrusting and ductile extrusion, is comparable to that recognized in the Himalayas. The Caledonides in Scandinavia provide special opportunities for understanding Himalayan-type orogeny and the Himalayan Orogen itself, thanks to the deep level of erosion and the paucity of superimposed post-Paleozoic deformation. The surface geology in combination with the seismic, magnetotelluric, magnetic and gravity data provide control of the geometry of the Caledonian structure, both of the allochthon and the underlying parautochthon-autochthon, and define the locations for drilling. The latter will investigate both the high-grade, ductile Caledonian nappes and the underlying allochthons and basement, with two c. 2.5 km deep boreholes, located near are and Järpen in western Jämtland. The two boreholes will also provide unique information about other important aspects of the Scandinavian bedrock, including the heat flow and potential for geothermal energy, mineralization in the Seve nappes and alum shales, the uplift history of the Scandes, the Holocene paleoclimatological changes and the deep biosphere.
- Caledonide Orogen
- Geothermal energy
- Reflection seismics
- Seve ductile extrusion
- Swedish Deep Drilling Programme


text:
There are lots of different types of paintings. Portrait paintings are of people who the artist knows or who have asked to be painted. Landscape paintings are of the countryside. Seascapes are of the coast and seaside. Still Life paintings are paintings of objects, most of the time found around the house, such as fruit, bottles, books, flowers, vases and many other things.
Artists have been painting the still life for hundreds of years and an artist received greater praise the more realistic the objects in the still life appeared. There is a story of a painter in ancient times whose painting of grapes was so realistic that even the birds were fooled and they tried to eat them!
Garden Green is a still life painting by the Irish artist Norah McGuinness. The objects on the table are everyday items of a cup and saucer, a large black pot, two bottles, a spoon, a white cloth and two pieces of fruit. But there is something strange about the way these objects appear. It looks as though they are sliding off the table! That is because Norah McGuinness is painting in a Cubist style.


Hand Drawn Animation for Beginners (Rough Animator) | Patrick Davidson | Skillshare
Hand Drawn Animation for Beginners (Rough Animator)
Patrick Davidson, Expat Animator
Hand Drawn Animation for Beginners (Rough Animator)
Patrick Davidson, Expat Animator
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13 Lessons (37m)
 - 1. Class Trailer
 - 2. Setting Up a New Project
 - 3. Overview of Tool Palettes
 - 4. Using the Drawing Tools
 - 5. Rough Animation
 - 6. Clean Up Drawings
 - 7. Animation Timing
 - 8. Animate a Cycle
 - 9. Fixing Your Drawings
 - 10. Saving Your Work
 - 11. Adding Sound Effects
 - 12. Export Options
 - 13. Recap
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About This Class
Do you like to draw? Have you ever wanted to see your drawings come to life? This class will teach you how to make a 5-second animation with as little as 12 drawings! This class is for beginners or animators looking for an easy to learn program for 2D hand-drawn animation. If you can draw stick figures, you can take this class.
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1. Class Trailer: do you like to draw? Have you ever wanted to see your drawings come to life? This class will teach you how to make a five second animation with as little as 12 drawings For our class project, you will learn how to animate a dog howling, complete with sound effects. Class requirements are that you will need to purchase a program called Rough Animator, which is $5. It runs on a Mac PC or a tablet running IOS Android or Kindle Fire. This class is for beginners or animators looking for an easy to learn program to get into two D hand drawn animation. If you can draw stick figures, you can take this class. Hi there. My name is Patrick Davidson, demographics freelancer and part time animator. I've been animating for over 20 years now, and I've worked on projects from TV commercials to feed your family. I worked mainly in two D or hand drawn animation. My favorite personal animated projects are the Web comedy series Traveling Green Goes and My Action, Siri's Trap. I'm also an ex pats in California living in my new adopted country of Costa Rica, but enough about me. Let's get into this class 2. Setting Up a New Project: Welcome to our class. Let's get started. But switch over here too. Rough animator. And we're gonna hit Start a new project. I'm going to keep the resolution at 7 20 p. 24 frames, so you could do larger if you want. That's what I'm gonna work at and just get situated here. Zoom out with up with command minus man Plus goes larger. Hold the space bar down and you get the hand and you can move the whole canvas around. 3. Overview of Tool Palettes: Here's our timeline up here to give ourselves a more room. And let's just look at the tools real fast. So we came up here to window. We can see there's Maybe there's five main tool palettes. So we've got tools which are your drawing tools, razor etcetera. And we'll get into that tool options, which is this in the bottom right corner here. And you'll see that this will change depending on what? To your in on the right. And then we've got timeline, which is this up top here, and we'll get into that what that's got, then we've got preferences, and this I only use occasionally. So we'll we'll pull that up when we need it. Not needed. Open right now and then. Color palette. We can use that as well, but I'm gonna close it for now. We want black for now. 4. Using the Drawing Tools: So I'm gonna grab the breast tool, and I'm a switch from my house to my pen on my my tablet here. And I just want to do a rough sketch of our dog here. So I'm gonna start making some surks, um, shapes triangle for the nose oval for the ears, and we're gonna do an oval for the body here, give a little tail, and what we want to do is gonna give him a couple of feed in the back and some feet in the front here. We're gonna get him some eyes, couple of circles there, and my eyebrows gonna give him a triangle nose. And at this stage, I just want to sketch quickly We're not doing Then we're not doing going for the world's best drawing right now. We can do that. And later, this is our roofs basically, and that's a good time to come up here. And we're gonna name this layer because that's what we're drawing on here by by default. Gonna call this refs and come back here actually want these, uh, legs to be a little longer. There's a few ways to do that. I'm gonna grab the eraser tool and just erase what I've drawn here. And actually, I want a bigger eraser. So let's go ahead and let's double that up to 50 and you can see that it gets bigger. Let's go ahead and go to 100 and even bigger Still back over to our brush. And let's just give this little port dog Isam feet here, okay? I'll give him a spot on his back. So for the time being, I'm just going to sketch things in. I'm not gonna spend too much time on detail. And was again the Zahra refs. Uh, she was giving lip there. Okay, Um actually, I don't know if I like that years, so let's erase that clean about just a little bit here, My bottom lip. All right, so let's let's go with that. Okay, Now we've got our rough drawing the next. What I want to do is I want to basically do all of my animation as Ruff's, and then we're gonna go back over when we're going to create a new layer on top of the Ruff's and we're gonna do cleaner drawings. What I want to do is just come up here and click Add drawing. Now we're gonna add after or we could duplicate after these air the options it's giving us, Uh, let's try duplicate after, actually. So now you see here we've got two frames and they're the same frame. But what I want to do on the second frame is we're gonna come over here, we're gonna race, and when I raise his whole head and I'm gonna redraw it that way down to redraw the body, go back to my brush and let's draw s'more shapes here a couple of ovals and let's keep drying. So what we're drawing here is we're drawing a dog howling. And as our little guy here is howling, we're gonna have some animation happened. Meantime, let's just do a quick little drawing here. Now we can see is back or his front paw here. Okay, so now we've actually got some animation. You were just the two drawing so we can kind of flip back and forth and you can see the animation. One thing I notice is that kind of drawn him a little bit high. So if I want to move this drawing, I want to move all of my drawings. So the move Multiple drawings. When a center this a little bit Drop him down a little bit. So we hit Edit multiple. When we get our little bounding box here, it looks like you can click and drag this and select. Now we've got both selected as they both have highlighted. So now I want to grab him over here and grab the lasso tool, and we're just gonna grab all of the drawing. And then we could just click and drag and drop him down in the center where we want him. And I believe we can scale up and down ones were in this as well. So when we're done, we just click outside of that and you can see we still got both or all of the frames selected. So we're just going to come up here and select one, and now you can see we've moved all of our drawings at one time, so that's how to do that. 5. Rough Animation: to go back to our brush because what we want to do is at a few details of animation here. And one thing I want to do in the second drawing is I want to add some animation to his tail. So let's come here and let's erase the tail. And then I'm gonna go back to my brush, and then


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Four Days' Battle
||This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (March 2011)|
|Four Days' Battle|
|Part of the Second Anglo–Dutch War|
The Four Days' Battle, 1–4 June 1666 (Pieter Cornelisz van Soest), c. 1666.
|Commanders and leaders|
|George Monck||Michiel de Ruyter|
|79 ships||84 ships|
|Casualties and losses|
|10 ships lost,
|4 ships lost,
The Four Days' Battle was a naval battle of the Second Anglo–Dutch War. Fought from 1 June to 4 June 1666 in the Julian or Old Style calendar then used in England (11 June to 14 June New Style) off the Flemish and English coast, it remains one of the longest naval engagements in history.
In June 1665 the English had soundly defeated the Dutch in the Battle of Lowestoft, but failed to take advantage of it. The Dutch Spice Fleet, loaded with fabulous riches, managed to return home safely after the Battle of Vågen. The Dutch navy was enormously expanded through the largest building programme in its history. In August 1665 already the English fleet was again challenged, though no large battles resulted. In 1666, the English became anxious to destroy the Dutch navy completely before it could grow too strong and were desperate to end the activity of Dutch raiders as a collapse of English trade threatened.
On learning that the French fleet intended to join the Dutch at Dunkirk, the English decided to prevent this by splitting their fleet. Their main force would try to destroy the Dutch fleet first, while a squadron under Prince Rupert was sent to block the Strait of Dover against the French – who did not appear.
At the start of the battle the English fleet of 56 ships commanded by George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle who also commanded the Red Squadron, was outnumbered by the 84-strong Dutch fleet commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter. The battle ended with a successful English disengagement after both fleets had expended most of their ammunition.
The Dutch inflicted significant damage on the English fleet. The English had gambled that the crews of the many new Dutch ships of the line would not have been fully trained yet but were deceived in their hopes: they lost ten ships, with slightly over 1,000 men killed including two Vice-Admirals, Sir Christopher Myngs and Sir William Berkeley, while about 2000 English were taken prisoner. Dutch losses were four ships destroyed by fire and over 1,550 men killed, including Lieut-Admiral Cornelis Evertsen, Vice-Admiral Abraham van der Hulst and Rear-Admiral Frederik Stachouwer.
First Day
On the first day Monck, sailing in the van with George Ayscue's white squadron behind him and Thomas Teddiman's blue squadron forming the rear, surprised the Dutch fleet at anchor near Dunkirk. Despite disadvantageous weather conditions Monck decided to attack the Dutch rear under Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Tromp hoping to cripple it before the Dutch centre and van could intervene. After sending a message to Rupert to join him if possible, Monck aggressively attacked Tromp who fled over the Flemish shoals. Monck then wore to the northwest, to meet the Dutch centre (under De Ruyter) and van (commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Elder). Tromp again turned, but his ship Liefde collided with Groot Hollandia. Vice-Admiral Sir William Berkeley saw this and closed in with HMS Swiftsure. Immediately Callantsoog and Reiger came to the rescue of their commander, destroying the rigging of the English ship with chain shot; the Reiger then managed to board the Swiftsure. Berkeley challenged the Dutch sea soldiers, shouting: You dogs, you rogues, have you the heart, so press on board! but was fatally wounded in the throat by a musket ball, after which the Swiftsure was captured. In the powder room the constable was found with his throat cut; he had tried to blow up the ship but his own crew killed him first and drenched the powder, claiming afterwards the man had cut his own throat from pure frustration. The damaged HMS Seven Oaks (the former Sevenwolden) was captured by the Beschermer while HMS Loyal George tried to assist the Swiftsure but this only resulted in the capture of both ships. The embalmed body of Berkeley, after being displayed in The Hague, was later returned to England under a truce, accompanied by a letter of the States-General praising the Admiral for his courage. HMS Rainbow, one of the two scouts who had first spotted the Dutch fleet, got isolated and fled to neutral Ostend, chased by twelve ships from Tromp's squadron while the other, the Kent, left the battlefield in search of Rupert's squadron.
Both fleets bombarded each other in a line of battle. The Hof van Zeeland and the Duivenvoorde were hit by fire shot and burnt. The Dutch didn't know of the existence of this type of ammunition, consisting of hollow brass balls filled with a flammable substance, so they were greatly surprised. Luckily for them the English had only a small supply because of the high cost of production.
Monck retreated for the night, but the ship of Rear-Admiral Harman, HMS Henry, drifted to the Dutch lines and was set aflame by two fireships. The parson asked Harman what could save them; when the latter sarcastically replied that the good parson could always jump overboard, to his horror the panicked clergyman at once followed his advice together with a third of the crew. All drowned. Harman made an end to the panic by threatening with a drawn sword to run through anyone showing the slightest inclination to abandon ship. Evertsen now closed in and inquired whether Harman would perhaps like to surrender; it came as no surprise to him the renowned fighter respectfully declined, yelling "I'm not up to it yet!". Despite repeated Dutch attacks and the loss of two masts, one in its fall crushing Harman's leg, the fire was put out and the Henry escaped, with its last shot shooting Evertsen in two.
Second Day
On the morning of the second day Monck decided to destroy the Dutch by a direct attack and sailed to them from the southwest; but De Ruyter in the De Zeven Provinciën crossed his line sailing to the southeast, heavily damaging the English fleet and gaining the weather gauge. HMS Anne, HMS Bristol and HMS Baltimore had to return to the Thames. After a calm used for repairs he turned to attack the English from the south with the red flag raised, the sign for an all-out attack, but just when he approached the enemy line he noticed to his dismay that part of the rear squadron under Tromp had got separated and now was positioned to the other side of the English line who had surrounded Tromp and were giving him his belly full. Often this is explained by assuming Tromp had not followed orders, but although he is indeed infamous for his usual insubordination, this time he simply had not seen the sign flags and the look-out of the centre mistakenly reported a confirmation sign. De Ruyter took in the red flag and broke through the enemy line with Vice Admiral Johan de Liefde, while the rest of the Dutch fleet under Aert van Nes headed south. He secured all of Tromp's ships except the burnt Liefde and the sinking Spieghel on which Vice-Admiral Abraham van der Hulst had just been killed by a musket shot in the breast and returned to join van Nes and the main force by again breaking through, noticing somewhat smugly that the second time the English ships at once gave way.
Tromp, switching to his fourth ship already, then visited De Ruyter to thank him for the rescue. Both men were in a dark mood. Rear-Admiral Frederick Stachouwer had also been killed. The previous day the damaged Hollandia had been sent home together with the Gelderland, Delft, Reiger, Asperen and Beschermer to guard the three captured English vessels; now also the damaged Pacificatie, Vrijheid, Provincie Utrecht and Calantsoog had to return and only a handful of the rear squadron remained. Besides, the enemy had again gained the weather gauge, the dangers of which became immediately clear as George Ayscue, seeing the two Admirals together in a vulnerable position, tried to isolate them; with great difficulty they managed to return to their main force.
Both fleets now passed three times in opposite tack; on the second pass De Zeven Provinciën got damaged and De Ruyter retreated from the fight to repair his ship. Later some historians would accuse him of cowardice, but he had strict detailed written orders from the States-General to act exactly so, to prevent a repeat of the events of the Battle of Lowestoft when the loss of the supreme commander had wrecked the Dutch command structure. Lieutenant-Admiral Aert van Nes led the third pass.
As the Dutch were in a leeward position their guns had a superior range and some English ships now took dreadful damage. HMS Loyal Subject turned for the home port and had to be written off on arrival. HMS Black Eagle (the former Groningen) raised the distress flag but simply disintegrated before any ships could assist.
Then, at three in


text:
Young eyes are watching you
Sometimes adults do things they aren't proud of—swear, watch too much television, argue. Making
mistakes is understandable, but remember young people look up to adults. They see you—especially if
you're a parent—as the type of person they want to become someday. They want heroes. That's why it's so
important to be the best person you can be. Adult Role Models is Asset 14 of Search Institute's 40
Developmental Assets, the qualities, experiences, and relationships that help young people grow up
healthy, caring, and responsible.
Here are the facts
Research shows that young people are more likely to exhibit positive, responsible behavior when they have
parents and other adults in their lives who model positive, responsible behavior. Having good role models
is one of the greatest desires of most young people. However, only 27 percent of young people, ages 11–18,
say their parents and other adults model positive, responsible behavior, according to Search Institute
surveys. Let's all try a little harder to "practice what we preach."
Tips for building this asset
According to experts, what most young people need more than anything else in their lives is positive social
interaction with adults. These interactions expose young people to real-life heroes. Be a role model for the
young people around you, and help them find other responsible adults to be part of their lives as well. The
more positive role models young people have, the better!
Also try this
In your home and family: Do your best to model appropriate behavior at all times. When you make
mistakes, admit them. Apologize for missteps.
In your neighborhood and community group: Don't be afraid to start a conversation with a young
person in your neighborhood. Begin by asking: How did you meet your best friend? What is your
favorite family tradition?
In your school or youth program: As a group, list questions young people can ask their adult role
models to learn more about choices they made. Then, have students or participants interview that
person. Discuss their findings.


text:
Less-than-optimal designs seem to fit better with an evolutionary explanation. But as a new report on the human pupil demonstrates, most supposed shoddy mechanisms turn out to be optimally designed upon closer inspection.
Each day new discoveries provide more evidence for God's existence and the Bible's reliability—but the research often remains buried in the academic journals.
For example, a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about the human pupil's response to light can help Christians respond to a common challenge leveled by skeptics; namely, bad designs exist throughout nature. In this case, common knowledge says pupils constrict when exposed to bright light, but dilate in dim light. Pupils also dilate when exposed to eye-catching stimuli.
Researchers from the University of Oslo were interested in understanding the neural pathways involved in these pupillary responses. They observed that the human pupil's reflexive response to light generates a false positive (constriction) when presented with an optical illusion of brightness. This was a surprise. Because the optical illusions were eye-catching stimuli, the researchers expected them to cause dilation, which would have been the "best" response.
This is the type of discovery that skeptics often point to as an example of a poor design. Some skeptics argue that seemingly less-than-optimal systems in nature fit better with an evolutionary worldview. They say it's inconceivable that the biblical God would use substandard designs. On the other hand, evolutionary processes are expected to produce "kluge jobs," biological structures that are just good enough to ensure survivability, but aren't necessarily optimal.
Yet, closer examination suggests that this unexpected pupillary response is a good thing. Damage to the retina is permanent. So, it's better for the pupils to constrict inappropriately when presented with illusions of brightness than run the risk of retinal damage. Plus, as the researchers discovered, the pupils dilated quickly after the initial constriction in response to the optical illusions. It appears that higher-order processes in the brain associated with the interpretation of visual stimuli function as compensatory designs that override the pupillary reflex when it responds incorrectly.
As is often the case, careful consideration or more information show that so-called "bad" designs are, in fact, elegant and highly optimized systems—a conclusion that fits better with the existence of a thoughtful Creator.
This spring, we're launching Creation Update 2.0, a new podcast dedicated to shining a spotlight on unsung discoveries like this one. Each week Hugh Ross, Jeff Zweerink, and yours truly will record short descriptions of recent but underreported scientific findings and explore their implications for the Christian faith.


Each 3DMark benchmark is rendered at a fixed resolution regardless of hardware. This is the rendering resolution. The rendered frames are then scaled to fit your system's Windows desktop resolution. This scaling has a negligible effect on the benchmark in most cases, and scores are comparable regardless of the desktop resolution you use.
Benchmark rendering resolution and Windows desktop display resolution are independent. You don't need to have a 4K monitor to run a 4K benchmark like Time Spy Extreme or Fire Strike Ultra. The benchmark will render at 4K then scale the frames to your PC's desktop display resolution.
Impact on CPU-limited systems
When a benchmark is limited by the CPU, or when the frame rate is very high, image scaling may have a small impact on the benchmark score. Both scenarios can be avoided, however, by choosing the right benchmark for your system.
Impact of 4K and other ultra-high resolutions
If you have a 4K desktop resolution but your GPU is not very powerful, the image scaling may require a considerable amount of GPU resources and video memory. Running with integrated graphics or a low-end discrete GPU at 4K desktop resolution or higher is not recommended. Your score may be degraded by the performance penalty of image scaling.
As a workaround, you can override the output resolution with the Scaled Resolution setting on the Options screen. For most benchmarks, choosing 1920 × 1080 (1080p) for the output resolution will be fine.
Scaling options
The Scaling Mode setting on the Options screen lets you choose between Centered and Stretched Scaling.
Centered scaling preserves the original aspect ratio. It adds a letterbox effect if your desktop resolution does not have a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Stretched scaling will stretch the image to fill the display without preserving the original aspect ratio. You could use stretched scaling to fill a triple-monitor setup, for example. Stretched scaling does not change the workload. The benchmark still renders to the internal rendering resolution, it is just scaled differently to your display.
How to change a benchmark's rendering resolution
In 3DMark Advanced Edition and 3DMark Professional Edition, you can use custom benchmark settings to change the internal rendering resolution. Please remember that custom runs do not produce an overall score and the sub-scores cannot be compared with scores obtained with default settings.
How to change a benchmark's scaled resolution
You can use the Scaled Resolution setting on the Options screen to set the scaling resolution to something other than your current desktop display resolution. This option does not affect your score.
Optimal settings for overclockers
If you're aiming for the highest possible score in a benchmark—for an overclocking contest, for example—matching your desktop resolution to the benchmark's internal rendering resolution may provide a very slight performance gain.


Environment perception for autonomous cars
Monday, October 17, 2016
Hossein Darai advanced to candidacy with a Ph.D. thesis proposal focusing on sensing technologies for autonomous cars.
Good job Hossein! Here is the abstract of his thesis proposal:
Environment Perception Using Lidar And Camera Fusion For Autonomous Driving
Autonomous vehicles need sensors of different modalities in order to understand the environment that contain multiple rigidly moving objects. Segmenting the scene, accurate localization of each object, and estimating their motion are all necessary for prediction and planning. At each time instance and based upon raw sensor measurements in a short time window, we are interested in an object list with position, shape model, and velocity vector. In this work, we propose to combine a sparse 4-layer LiDAR with a front-facing camera to perform a low-level (raw measurement level) fusion.
There are several challenges in segmentation and motion inference, mainly due to imperfections of these sensors. LiDAR measures depth at various angles, but the measurements are sparse, have very low resolution, suffer from noise, include erroneous reflections, and contain missing data. Camera images, on the other hand, are dense and rich, but lack depth information. In addition, they contain noise and are adversely affected by lighting conditions, e.g. sun, overcast, night. There are yet more challenges that make fusion of these two sensors very difficult; for instance, they have completely different natures, different timestamps, and even different sampling rates.
The main objective of this work is, then, to overcome these challenges and build an environment perception module which performs joint segmentation, estimation, and tracking through sensor fusion. The proposed estimation method addresses the problem in terms of a joint intermediate model, and then minimizes a robust energy function that considers both visual data (optical flow term) and point cloud data (geometric term), while enforcing a smooth motion field over time.


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Hey! Directory Localizer
Directory Localizer helps you localize directories.
Periodically, you'll want to know where a Python source file is actually located on disk. You might want this for all sorts of reasons, and it's always a bit messy when you do want to know.
DirectoryLocalizer solves two problems:
- it lets you know where you are on disk, assuming you're not anywhere crazy, like in a zip import, and
- it lets you pass that location to other code that might want to know where you are.
Usage is extremely simple:
- Make a DirectoryLocalizer object, dl (or whatever).
- Call dl.set() from the file you want to locate on disk.
- Any code that can access dl can now call:
- dl.dir(): for the directory of the file where dl.set() was called,
- dl.path(fn): for the filename of a file in the directory where dl.set() was called,
- dl.file(fn): for a file object of the file in dl.path(fn), and
- dl.read(fn): to get a read of the file in d.file(fn).


Country Listing
Austria Table of Contents
The Protestant Reformation in the Habsburg Lands
From the beginning of the Protestant Reformation in the 1520s, Protestant doctrines were welcomed by the people living in the areas under Habsburg domination. By the middle of the sixteenth century, most inhabitants were Protestant. Lutherans predominated in German-speaking areas, except in Tirol, where the Anabaptists were influential. Nevertheless, the Roman Catholic Church retained the support of the Habsburg Dynasty and was able to maintain a strong presence throughout the area.
Religious violence and serious persecution were rare after the 1520s, and an uneasy coexistence and external tolerance prevailed for most of the sixteenth century. Ferdinand pressed Rome for concessions that would bridge the positions of moderate reformers and Catholics, but at the Council of Trent (1545-63), the Catholic Church chose instead a vigorous restatement of Catholic doctrine combined with internal reforms. The council thus hardened lines of divisions between Catholicism and Protestantism and laid the foundation for the Counter-Reformation, which the Habsburgs would pursue aggressively in the 1600s.
Data as of December 1993


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Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition
Mission of the Center
The mission of the Center for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition is to delineate brain functioning during higher stages of human development.
We have focused our research on practice of the Transcendental Meditation® technique because it quickly leads to the the state of Transcendental Consciousness, pure self-awareness, and with regular practice leads to higher states of consciousness. This research program has focused on:
- Sub-stages within a Transcendental Meditation session
- Brain patterns and subjective experience of Transcendental Consciousness, or pure self-awareness free from the processes and contents of knowing, a proposed fourth state of consciousness
- Brain patterns and subjective experience of Cosmic Consciousness — the integration of Transcendental Consciousness with waking, dreaming and sleeping, a proposed fifth state of consciousness.
"If the purpose of higher education is to enable an individual to think and act successfully, then education is significant only when it enlivens the whole brain. Therefore, the level of integrated brain functioning is a reliable gauge of the success of a student's educational experience."
— Dr. Fred Travis


Digital Twins and the Future of Practical Education
Project Description
How can digital twins facilitate practical, hybrid education of the future?
COVID has accelerated the adoption of digital and online education. This has opened a Pandora's box of opportunities, challenges, and dilemmas when considering the future of practical, "hands-on," education ("praktijk onderwijs"). Moving into a post-COVID world will mean a new blend of digital and in real life (IRL) interactions. Digital twins can play a role in bridging the physical and digital worlds, as digital twins are digital representations of real life objects, people, processes, etc. that also interact with the real world. In this project, we identified and explored several levels on which digital twins could play a role in practical education: 1) students/educators, 2) campus, and 3) curriculum. We also explored the potential of today's technologies through a series of concepts and experiments when speculating about the role of digital twins in the future of blended education.
We aimed to answer the following questions:
 - What added value can digital twins bring to practical education?
 - How can digital twins facilitate what's missing from many digital interactions such as sense of place, embodiment, or connection?
 - How can digital experiences be elevated to create novel but meaningful experiences?
 - What parts of experience can be and should be IRL versus virtual?
 - What can we learn from experimenting with current technologies including AR/VR solutions?
This project focuses on the Sustainable Development Goals:
Concept 1: Student avatars – adding context to online interactions
The college years are a time for students to experiment with their current and future identities, both on personal as well as professional levels. In practical education, students must learn social skills to effectively interact with their future colleagues, customers, or patients, for example. While representation exclusively through digital means, e.g. video calls, limits interactions, new technologies also offer new ways of expressing and experimenting with identity.
The concept, student avatars, explores how digital technologies can support students to step into, and experiment with, the different professional roles and personal identities they will need to be successful in work and life. Taking a page from gaming, what if students could use avatars to express their creativity or experiment with their persona? Digital twins don't need to track or represent the real identities or features of individuals. These digital twins could be experimental representations or projections of potential selves that can play a crucial role in self-reflection within learning processes.
 - Developing De Bono's hats in Augmented Reality (AR)– We experimented with using Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats framework, to inject additional context and self-reflection into video call, team discussions. We worked together with AR artist, Sander Veenhof, to develop custom hat filters that triggered visual awareness and self-reflection on individual and team roles.
 - Experimenting with Gather and Mibo – In addition, we experimented with available platforms such as Gather and Mibo. In these platforms, we explored how the experience of online presence is mediated via alternative digital spaces and self-representations.
Concept 2: The hybrid campus – uniting the physical and digital campus
This concept explores the potential of the hybrid campus. The hybrid campus unites and goes beyond both digital and physical campuses to facilitate a sense of place, shared embodied experiences, and serendipitous encounters toward developing a sense of belonging. The digital twin of a campus is just part of the potential offered by digital spaces. The potential of extending "the real space," e.g. to have infinite meeting spaces or to be able to teleport to alternative locations are all opportunities offered by digital spaces. But, how can participation be equalised whether connecting in person, in virtual reality or via a laptop? For example, to organise future graduation ceremonies so that they can carry a similar weight as in-person ceremonies of the past.
Experiment – Exploring Amsterdam across digital twins of the HVA, Felix Meritus and het Scheepvaartmuseum in (VR) – Together with The New Base, we developed a digital twin of HVA square. There, and in two other locations across Amsterdam, we hosted an event and experiments in VR bringing together some of our teams to meet "in-avatar." In the half-day event, we explored ice-breaking, pitch training, lectures, and VR experiments. Highlights included a dance off and Ethics in XR lecture by Anna Valeri Jelezovskaia.


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Masturbasi cause blindness
Myth says masturbasi can cause blindness, male impotence or psychosis. Meanwhile, the woman could have been a lost virginity, not fertile, and not forceful weak. While not entirely correct. In fact masturbasi is a universal activity and has been done since the era of human first. But many do not confess.
Masturbasi according to experts seksologi also reasonably be women. Especially since the emergence of phenomena that make women's freedom over respect body. In principle, do indeed masturbasi can cause feelings of guilt and is seen as weakness.
But on the other hand research shows that they bermasturbasi four times a day for several years will not be suffering from the disease pun.Bahkan what many married men and women also do so. Not because they were not satisfied with the party, but occasionally want fun with the self masturbasi.
However the experts do not recommend very often. All that would be less abundant good. There is no reason to feel guilty doing masturbasi, although already married.
Research has proven that they are often bermasturbasi will have sex more often and the spouse. Often the men and women to feel pleasure as orgasme release stress or just because it does not want to inflame but to the whole process of sex.
Experts think masturbasi is also learn how to create a body including sex couples together so well. Men can use as a way masturbasi control orgasme. Meanwhile, women can learn how easy orgasme. However, opinion is not necessary when masturbasi already perfect in sex is mistaken. In fact, many couples masturbasi together and enjoy.
When Si Small Bermasturbasi
Children, sometimes even five practices have held kelaminnya tool. This phase, known as genital phase. There are two causes of why children often hold kelaminnya tool. Can itch or the lack of hygiene are delicious taste of the tool kelaminnya.
When you left, will take a long time so habit. Some suggestions that parents can do include:
1. Check with the soft. With the parents ask why can mengedukasi what the child is not good.
2. Cuddle and give attention. When the children get enough attention and intimate interaction with their parents, it will be practical teralihkan of the habit. Love of parents is more effective in children than menasehati emphatic way.
3. Ajak play. Divert attention with a toy the child is a rare delight effective. Of course parents should assist so that it does not repeat kebiasaannya.
Avoid errors when some warn that the small holding kelaminnya like:
1. Mempermalukan children. Memarahinya or ridicule in front of other people so that children would be ashamed to do will not make a child stop kebiasaannya. In fact, we can build a false perception on the matter of child sex.
2. Refuse hands of children. No verbal explanation or just turn your hands so that children do not hold kelaminnya tool will not make them understand the location of the error.
3. Bristle with high emotion. When a small tool like holding kelaminnya, most oangtua ashamed and want to show superioritasnya with memarahinya. This would make communication patterns of parents and children become damaged and is not likely the child will bermasturbasi secretly.
Minggu, 25 Januari 2009
Masturbasi cause blindness


What Are Three Examples Of Medieval Art?
What is the importance of medieval art?
What was the theme of most medieval art?
Most art forms in the middle ages were considered to be medieval religious art. Common themes for art pieces were about God and the saints, and were made primarily for the church. However, it was during the Late Antiquity, when Christianity became integral to the European culture.
Why is there no perspective in medieval art?
It was largely because creating too realistic of art was considered to be "offensive" to mimic God's creations. Artists at the time also were denying realistic art styles because Christianity had an emphasis on the spiritual world as opposed to the earthly world.
Why is medieval art so weird?
Medieval art was more about adornment (eg the incredibly intricate art of the Book of Kells or the Lindesfarne Gospels) and about symbolism (eg most manuscript illuminations). … This is why medieval art was derided as being "barbaric", or "primitive" or just plain "bad" in the nineteenth century.
Why are medieval paintings so creepy?
What are examples of medieval art?
Why were medieval times so brutal?
How did religion influence medieval art?
During the Middle Ages, art was more religious because it had a very religious influence from the church having such great power in the community. … Art with biblical themes were popular in the Middle Ages because the artists were also focused on theology. Jesus and Mary were usually the main focus in most paintings.
What were the three forms of medieval art?
However, in general, Middle Age art can be divided up into three main periods and styles: Byzantine Art, Romanesque Art, and Gothic Art. Much of the art in Europe during the Middle Ages was religious art with Catholic subjects and themes.
What defines medieval art?
A time of artwork that was characterized by iconographic painting illustrations of Biblical scenes. The work emerged from the early Christian church influence as well as the Roman Empire heritage. During this time art made from Eastern-European and Germanic peoples emerged. …
What are pietistic paintings in medieval art?
What does medieval art look like?
Where is medieval art mostly found?
Medieval art was prominent in European regions, the Middle East and North Africa, and some of the most precious examples of art from the Middle Ages can be found in churches, cathedrals, and other religious doctrines.
What are the types of medieval?
Why are medieval cats weird?
All cats are a little demonic, as their humans would probably attest to. It turns out Medieval scribes were maybe just a little more on the nose about it. … "Sources emphasize the rather unruly nature of cats," Kempf said. "Unlike dogs, cats cannot be trained to be loyal and obedient.
Why medieval period is called Dark Ages?
Some scholars perceive Europe as having been plunged into darkness when the Roman Empire fell in around 500 AD. The Middle Ages are often said to be dark because of a supposed lack of scientific and cultural advancement. During this time, feudalism was the dominant political system.
What are the three types of medieval drama?
There are three types of Medieval Drama: Mystery Play, Miracle Play, and the Morality Play. Each play depicts different things.
Who started medieval art?
The medieval period of art history began at the time of the fall of the Roman Empire in 300 CE and continued until the beginning of the Renaissance in 1400 CE. There were three major periods of medieval art: Early Christian, Romanesque, and Gothic. During the Early Christian age, the Catholic Church was gaining power.


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Health officials at the University of Virginia are working to stop the spread of a deadly bacteria that has already infected one student. Bacterial meningitis is fatal for 15 percent of the people who get it.
The infected student is expected to recover. The student health office has contacted all of the student's family and close friends to make sure they are not showing any symptoms of bacterial meningitis.
The disease is contagious and can be spread through physical contact. Health officials say it is especially dangerous on college campuses, because students live and study in close proximity to each other. They warn students to not share utensils or drinking glasses.
Bacterial meningitis starts out feeling very much like the flu, with a fever and body aches. Hundreds of UVa students are battling the flu right now which makes it hard for health officials because they need to check all of them to make sure they don't actually have bacterial meningitis.
"It's the only infection I know of that can take an otherwise healthy 18 or 19-year-old person, and they can come into your office at eight o'clock in the morning, and by five in the afternoon they're on a ventilator in intensive care, in shock, clinging to life," said Dr. James Turner with the UVa Department of Student Health.
A vast majority of students are vaccinated against bacterial meningitis, but health officials are worried that the student who got infected has a strain that's immune to the vaccine.
Turner says patients with bacterial meningitis will often get a fever, then a very severe headache. Some of them also get a rash.
If you suspect that you have the disease, go to the doctor or the emergency room immediately.


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Application Note: Automated Extraction of DNA from Various Food Samples
6 November 2018
Quality food and its impact on health is becoming more important to costumers. This aspect together with food scandals of the recent past push the food industry to make their products more transparent. One important issue is the origin of raw materials. This point touches topics like the use of materials derived from genetically modified organisms as well as the use of the correct materials indicated on the list of ingredients. An effective method to investigate the origin of materials and genetic background of ingredients in processed food are technologies based on Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), as these methods are very sensitive. In order to use PCR-based technologies for the analysis of food, a certain amount and quality of DNA is required. Some sample materials (e.g. plant samples, processed food) contain significant levels of inhibitors, which inhibit PCR-based downstream applications and therefore interfere with analysis.