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These terms have become common in Lie theory and related algebraic geometry and combinatorics, as seen in many questions posted on MO, but it's unclear to me where they first came into use. Probably the concrete notion of (complete) flag of subspaces $0 \subset V_1 \subset \dots \subset V_n =V$ with $\dim V_k = k$ in an $n$-dimensional vector space $V$ occurs very early in the literature (Grassmann?), though I'm not sure whether a specific national flag (drapeau, Flagge,... ) is supposed to come to mind. Those wanting to visualize the simplest case may find the picture here useful (or not).
At some point in the development of Lie groups and their homogeneous spaces, the notion of flag manifold got attached to the set of all complete flags in $\mathbb{C}^n$ or $\mathbb{R}^n$: this is realized as the quotient of the corresponding general linear group $G$ by the isotropy subgroup $B$ of a standard flag (say the group of upper triangular nonsingular matrices). In the 1950s such connected maximal solvable subgroups became known as Borel subgroups, while the notion of flag manifold came to mean the quotient $G/B$ for an arbitrary connected reductive Lie group $G$ and a Borel subgroup $B$. In the setting of real compact Lie groups, the analogue takes the form $G/T$ for a maximal torus 'T$: this is apparently the earliest version of the flag manifold.
The work of Borel and Chevalley led to parallel developments for reductive algebraic groups over fields of arbitrary characteristic, with algebraic geometry replacing differential geometry and the term flag variety becoming common.
While the people I've mentioned certainly deserve most of the credit for recognizing the essential role of flag manifolds or varieties in the study of geometry and representation theory associated to reductive groups, I'm still left with some uncertainty:
What are the earliest sources in the literature for these terms?
ADDED: The original reason for using the word "flag" in this context is a minor though interesting part of my question; but as the comments here indicate there is some variation in the folklore. In old literature on traditional projective geometry a "flag" is sometimes defined as a pair consisting of a point and a line through it, but that doesn't help much with the etymology. Is there more than folklore?
Following the answer by Charles, I've looked further at the thesis of Ehresmann and the May 1951 Bourbaki talk by Borel (which like other expository talks is not included in his collected papers). I see more clearly how the notion of flag variety or flag manifold evolved from the older and still somewhat mysterious use of the term flag (Flagge, Fahne,...) in projective geometry, for instance to refer to an incident point-line pair. Near the end of Borel's talk he notes: Cela permet en particulier de montrer que les "varietes de drapeaux" complexes considerees par EHRESMANN dans sa these sont sans torsion.... His use of quotation marks suggests to me that this might actually be the first time that label was applied to what later became known as the flag variety $G/B$ of a reductive Lie or algebraic group. (I wish I had thought to ask him at the right time.)
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During a Lie theory class, the professor (Siddhartha Sahi, I believe?) identified Israel Gelfand as the person who coined the term 'flag'. This could have been Rutgers-based favoritism, though. – Greg Muller Mar 13 '11 at 15:15
The points of the flag variety are supposed to actually look like flags. A flag that you see in front of a high school (see typically has a roughly 0-dimensional ball at the top, with a roughly 1-dimensional pole coming out of it and sticking into the ground, with a roughly 2-dimensional cloth sharing a dimension with the pole, with a roughly 3-dimensional space surrounding the cloth, all in a roughly 4-dimensional space-time. – Anton Geraschenko Mar 13 '11 at 17:15
The earliest mention of "flag" in this sense in JSTOR seems to be a 1957 paper by Kuranishi in the American Journal of Mathematics, on Cartan's prolongation theorem for exterior differential systems. This is clearly not the earliest, though. – José Figueroa-O'Farrill Mar 13 '11 at 17:32
_USER_, that is an interesting way of seeing it. For me it was always obvious why flags are called flags, but my visualization is completely different :) – Mariano Suárez-Alvarez Mar 13 '11 at 19:36
_USER_: What is your visualization? I always assumed the one I posted is what everybody else had in mind. – Anton Geraschenko Mar 13 '11 at 20:08
4 Answers 4
up vote 18 down vote accepted
Armand Borel's Bourbaki Seminar 121 Groupes algébriques is from 1955, and uses "drapeau" (page 7). (It's online at This may not be the earliest occurrence, but there is a good reason for attention to the full flag variety in this context (the theory of Borel subgroups).
The concept traces back some way, to Ehresmann's thesis in the 1930s; Kolchin's work (the Lie-Kolchin theorem) uses the non-intrinsic language of upper triangular form. Hodge & Pedoe talks about Schubert spaces in general, which would be natural in the enumerative geometry tradition, for which full flags is just one of the cases.
Edit: A further data point is Chern's paper On the Characteristic Classes of Complex Sphere Bundles and Algebraic Varieties (1953), which relies on Ehresmann's work to some extent. The word "flag" is absent (though used by Chern discussing it in his Selected Papers).
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Thanks for going back farther into the literature. The long 1934 Annals of Mathematics paper by Ehresmann based on his thesis work (influenced by E. Cartan and Lefschetz) essentially studies flag manifolds as homogeneous spaces, even without using the term "drapeau". The word seems to have become common by the time of Borel's Bourbaki seminar, but I haven't been able to track it down earlier in his own work. French origins seem most likely. – Jim Humphreys Mar 16 '11 at 13:49
P.S. I went back to Borel's first Bourbaki talk (no. 45) in 1951, Cohomologie des espaces homogenes, for an even earlier use of "drapeau". – Jim Humphreys Mar 17 '11 at 18:10
_USER_, I always asked myself the same question. You say that the "notion of flag variety or flag manifold evolved from the older and still somewhat mysterious use of the term flag in projective geometry, for instance to refer to an incident point-line pair." Once I saw a drawing in an expository article that solved that mistery for me: picture a point in the projective plane as the corresponding line in space, and a projective line as the corresponding plane in space, then an incident point-line becomes a line waving a plane in space, like a flag :)
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One way to visualize the meaning of the word, "flag" is to think of those pennant-like tapering flags (cloth part only), starting at 0 width, to higher intermediary widths, to width n. Somewhat like various dimensions comprising a mathematical flag. Maybe the french word means this particular type of flag.
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Looking at the Wikipedia page of "drapeau" one sees some images; I am not sure this corresponds to what you mean. – quid Jan 20 at 11:50
Interesting that you came up with the same idea as my comment a day before your post. The idea must be in the air, I suppose. – Tom Copeland Jan 22 at 6:09
View the Wiki article on pennant and note flags for naval ships. See etymology of pennant from perhaps pennon – Tom Copeland Jan 22 at 6:17
Regarding visualization, I see it as those flags which are all sewed together and become a very long line when we want and take them out to the wind.
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What is the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony?
The biggest difference between a misdemeanor and a felony is the potential punishment associated with each one. For a misdemeanor, you cannot serve more than one year, and you cannot be sent to prison, only jail. For a felony, you can serve more than a year, and the judge can sentence you to serve time in prison or jail.
The difference between a misdemeanor and a felony is also seen outside of the criminal court process. For example, some employers will specifically ask you if you have been convicted of a felony (they may ask you about misdemeanors as well). Convicted felons can be prohibited from owning weapons, receiving government aid, and living certain places. Also, it is more difficult and will take more time to get an expungement for a felony.
Utah Criminal Classifications
The Utah State Legislature determines what actions are considered criminal and whether a crime is a misdemeanor or a felony under State law. The Legislature also determines how serious a crime is. Below is a list of criminal classifications and examples of each class:
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Water for Life in Africa
Summers Drilling Ltd, a water well drilling company in Alberta, has been offering well drilling and pump repairs in the Stony Plain or Edmonton regions for years. Water for Life in Africa (WFLA) was founded in 2002 by Dave's parents, Jim and Regina, and his brother, Robert, a licensed well driller and professor in the University of Alberta's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
WFLA relies on advanced drilling methods to tap into the water table only when the hydrogeology of an area requires it to. We drill wells that villagers can maintain themselves without investing in lots of high-tech equipment that may require regular maintenance or repair. The family-owned and -operated business recently completed more than 6 wells near the capital of Malawi, not far from Lilongwe. Call us today to learn more about our services or about the project we are associated with.
Who are we?
We are Regina Summers, Jim Summers and Robert Summers. WFLA is a charitable organization dedicated to improving the water supply situation of poor villages in rural Africa. WFLA is based out of Stony Plain, Alberta
How did WFLA come about?
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After floods, trauma haunts survivors
New Delhi, June 24 (IANS) They may have escaped death but witnessed hundreds, including their loved ones, die in front of their eyes. The victims of the Uttarakhand floods may need more than medical care for their bruises, they would need psychological counseling as well, say experts.
The tales of horror from the devastating floods include that of 13-year-old Harmanpreet, who was reduced to eating from garbage cans after starving for over 43 hours.
People recounted sleeping on deadbodies and family members seeing their loved ones being washed away.
Doctors say the trauma remains for very long with those who survive such disasters and medical help is needed to deal with this.
"The victims of incidents like these suffer psychological trauma. We call it Post Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD) in medical terms," said Mitali Srivastava, Head, Department of Clinical Psychology, Delhi Psychiatry Centre, Cosmos Hospitals.
"The post-disaster trauma occurs when someone experiences a direct or indirect loss," said Sunil Mittal, Chairman, Delhi Psychiatry Centre.
"It may occur due to loss of some dear one, or loss of poperty, or even if someone has just witnessed the incident. In case of a family member being lost, people also suffer from survivor's guilt. The impact is huge and professional intervention is must," he said.
Sameer Kalani Consultant Psychiatrist, Cosmos Institute of Mental Health & Behavioral Sciences (CIMBS), said it is the replaying of the trauma that gets blocked in the victim's brain that leads to anxiety and other problems.
"After a situation that posed a threat to ones life and integrity, this is how the human brain reacts. Someone may have seen the floods, someone may have seen dead bodies. After the incident is over, they get flashbacks and they get anxiety attacks," Kalani told IANS.
"It happens because a of lack of Serotonin, a nuero-chemical. A person may be sitting quietly and suddenly a flashback may occur and he would have an anxiety attack," Kalani explained.
"The patients have depression, high distress levels, anxiety attacks, nightmares and flashbacks," Srivastava added.
"It's a devastating condition and people need some kind of solace," she said.
Doctors say expert help is needed to avoid further damage.
"The mind tries to suppress the trauma and in an attempt to avoid it, flashbacks are created. The most important thing is a ventilation; talking about the trauma helps a lot," Kalani said.
"In the counseling we did after the (26/11) Mumbai terror attack, we realised psychological help for a few weeks will help prevent further illness and disorders," he added.
Srivastava said a technique called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) can help a victim in releaseing the blockages that cause the disorder.
"EMDR is one of the most researched psychological techniques used on such patients. In this technique, movement of the eyes in a defined way is used to reprocess the whole trauma and release it by removing the blockage," she said.
Mittal addeed hypnotic-therapy is also useful.
"In this technique, hypnotism is used to reach the back of patient's mind and clear the blockages," he added.
Doctors in the national capital are also helping the patients through a helpline - _PHONE_.
"We are mostly getting calls from people whose family members are missing. These people have a sense of hopelessness. There are others whose family members have come home, or some family members have come while some are missing. The common problems these people are facing are a sense of anxiety, sleep disorders and depression," Kalani added.
(Anjali Ojha can be contacted at
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Comment on
You know that strategy classes are easy to make and use. For example, you want to encapsulate your output formats in such a way that you can select the appropriate wrapper without affecting client code.
package Output_Strategy::HTML; package Output_Strategy::CSV;... my $output_strategy = $opt{'html'}? 'Output_Strategy::HTML' : 'Output_Strategy::CSV'; $output_strategy->preamble; $output_strategy->render(_USER_); $output_strategy->postamble; # whatever
One of the nice aspects of this technique is that it is run-time dynamic: you can reassign (or re-bless, if the strategy classes don't differ by data) the strategy object ($output_strategy) at any time, to select a different strategy.
Now, this technique makes the following assumption (or, more accurately, imposes the following constraint): the entity to be strategized (output format, in the example above) is a stand-alone class or object. It could even be a delegate within another object.
But, suppose you are extending the capabilities of a class via inheritance rather than delegation/composition. How can you apply a strategy pattern in the inheritance?
My answer is quite simple, and, again, it exploits Perl's highly dynamic nature. It involves modifying the inheritance tree at run time. And to make it more flexible, I insert a level of indirection in the inheritance chain, so that the "end user" classes don't need to be affected.
Suppose we have a set of classes (e.g. Foo) that want to "mix in" the methods of our output interface. Let Foo and Bar inherit from Output_Strategy; and let Output_Strategy inherit — based on a run-time setting — from one of the actual strategy classes.
package Foo; use base 'Output_Strategy'; # this is a'strategy handle class'... # set the inheritance path at run time: _USER_::ISA = ( $opt{'html'}? 'Output_Strategy::HTML' : 'Output_Strategy::CSV' );
And any time you need to change the strategy, you don't have to change the inheritance list (_USER_) of the "end user" classes (e.g. Foo).
Note: I'm not saying this is better than delegation. I just think it's a potentially interesting alternative technique.
Update: I have referred to this "double-indirection" of classes as "handles" because the technique reminded me of the double-indirection of memory management, used in some operating systems. In Windows, these are called handles, and it makes sense; it's the same idea as file handles, and in fact (IIUC), Windows handles are an abstraction over all of the system resources a process can access. Wikipedia has an article on Handles, and it says a handle is "an abstract reference to a resource". But that doesn't really describe what I'm doing here, which is more accurately called a bridge. Wikipedia's article on Opaque pointers helpfully/confusingly refers to both handles and the Bridge pattern. :-)
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State of Somaliland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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State of Somaliland
Independent state
Location of the State of Somaliland.
Capital Hargeisa
Languages Somali
Religion Islam
Political structure Independent state
Prime Minister Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal[1]
 - Independence from the United Kingdom June 26, 1960
 - Unification with the Trust Territory of Somaliland to form the Somali Republic July 1, 1960
Currency Somali shilling
The State of Somaliland was a short-lived independent state in the territory of present-day northwestern Somalia.[1] It was the name assumed by the former British Somaliland protectorate in the five days between independence from the United Kingdom on 26 June 1960 and union with the Trust Territory of Somaliland which was under Italian administration on 1 July 1960 to form the Somali Republic.
In May 1960, the British government stated that it would be prepared to grant independence to the then protectorate of British Somaliland, with the intention that the territory would unite with the Italian-administered Trust Territory of Somaliland under Italian Administration (the former Italian Somaliland). The Legislative Council of British Somaliland passed a resolution in April 1960 requesting independence and union with the Trust Territory of Somaliland, which was scheduled to gain independence on July 1 that year. The legislative councils of both territories agreed to this proposal following a joint conference in Mogadishu.[2]
On June 26, 1960, the former British Somaliland protectorate briefly obtained independence as the State of Somaliland, with the Trust Territory of Somaliland following suit five days later.[3][4] The following day, on June 27, 1960, the newly convened Somaliland Legislative Assembly approved a bill that would formally allow for the union of the State of Somaliland with the Trust Territory of Somaliland on July 1, 1960.[2]
According to the Chinese government, all state activity in the Somali territories during this five day transitional period was geared toward preparing to unify the two partitioned Somalilands, as had previously been negotiated.[5] Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal, who had previously served as an unofficial member of the former British Somaliland protectorate's Executive Council and the Leader of Government Business in the Legislative Council, became the Prime Minister of the State of Somaliland during its brief period of independence until the union with the Trust Territory of Somaliland.[6]
On July 1, 1960, five days after the former British Somaliland protectorate obtained independence as the State of Somaliland, the territory united as scheduled with the Trust Territory of Somaliland to form the Somali Republic (Somalia).[3][4]
A government was formed by Abdullahi Issa, with Haji Bashir Ismail Yusuf as President of the Somali National Assembly, Aden Abdullah Osman Daar as President and Abdirashid Ali Shermarke as Prime Minister, later to become President (from 1967–1969). On July 20, 1961 and through a popular referendum, the people of Somalia ratified a new constitution, which had been first drafted in 1960.[7] 90.59% of voters (1,760,540) voted in favor of the constitution.[8]
Republic of Somaliland[edit]
The Republic of Somaliland is a self-declared sovereign state that is regarded as an autonomous region of Somalia by the international community.[9][10][11] Established in 1991, its government regards the territory as the successor state to the State of Somaliland,[12][13] and seeks self-determination under the name Republic of Somaliland.[14][15][16]
The administration the self-declared Republic of Somaliland claims that 35 countries diplomatically recognised a State of Somaliland during the five-day period of independence between 26 June and 1 July 1960, including all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the Republic of China, the French Republic, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America).[17] The Northern Somali Unionist Movement, a unionist group hailing from the northwestern region of Somalia coextensive with the former British Somaliland protectorate, disputes this claim; it asserts that no such records exist and that these nations instead only diplomatically recognized the Somali Republic (Somalia) as a whole.[18] Additionally, the US Department of State indicates in its Document 62 that the United States did not extend formal recognition to a state of Somaliland in 1960, as the enclave's brief independence from Britain was intended to allow it to unite with the Trust Territory of Somaliland a few days later. Secretary of State Christian Herter instead sent a congratulatory message to the Somaliland Council of Ministers on June 26, 1960.[19] Upon union of the two Somalilands, the United States recognized the Somali Republic on July 1, 1960, in a congratulatory message from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower to President of Somalia Aden Abdullah Osman Daar.[20] In 2007, the Government of China issued an affidavit on behalf of the Somali Republic at the International Court of Justice, which similarly indicates that the international community recognized the Somali Republic when it was accepted into the United Nations on September 20, 1960. The Chinese government therein also notes that the sole purpose of gaining independence from Britain was to unite the former British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland territories.[5]
 1. ^ a b Somalia - British Somaliland and Somaliland
 2. ^ a b
 3. ^ a b Somalia
 4. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica, (Encyclopædia Britannica: 2002), p.835
 5. ^ a b "MEMORIAL SUBMITTED BY THE EXPERT, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA" (PDF). Expert from the People's Republic of China. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
 6. ^ Paolo Contini, The Somali Republic: an experiment in legal integration, (Routledge, 1969), p.6.
 8. ^ "20 June 1961 Constitutional Referendum". African Election Database. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
 9. ^ Lacey, Marc (2006-06-05). "The Signs Say Somaliland, but the World Says Somalia". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
 10. ^ "The Transitional Federal Charter of the Somali Republic" (PDF). University of Pretoria. 2004-02-01. Retrieved 2010-02-02. "The Somali Republic shall have the following boundaries. (a) North; Gulf of Aden. (b) North West; Djibouti. (c) West; Ethiopia. (d) South south-west; Kenya. (e) East; Indian Ocean."
 11. ^ UN in Action: Reforming Somaliland's Judiciary
 12. ^ "Somaliland Marks Independence After 73 Years of British Rule" (fee required). The New York Times. 1960-06-26. p. 6. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
 13. ^ "How Britain said farewell to its Empire". BBC News. 2010-07-23.
 14. ^ "Country Profile". Government of Somaliland. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
 15. ^ Schoiswohl, Michael (2004). Status and (Human Rights) Obligations of Non-Recognized De Facto Regimes in International Law. University of Michigan: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 351. ISBN 978-90-04-13655-7.
 16. ^ "Regions and Territories: Somaliland". BBC News. 2009-09-25. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
 17. ^ "Somaliland: An Oasis of Stability Makes Its Case for Independence". Halbeegnews. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
 18. ^ "The Consequences of Somaliland's International Recognition" (PDF). Northern Somali Unionist Movement. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
 19. ^ Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State. "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960 Volume XIV, Africa, Document 62". US Department of State. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
 20. ^ Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State. "A Guide to the United States' History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Somalia". US Department of State. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
External links[edit]


text:
Electrostatics of polymer translocation events in electrolyte solutions
journal contributionposted on 19.01.2018, 14:10 authored by Sahin Buyukdagli, Tapio Ala-NissilaTapio Ala-Nissila
© 2016 Author(s).We develop an analytical theory that accounts for the image and surface charge interactions between a charged dielectric membrane and a DNA molecule translocating through the membrane. Translocation events through neutral carbon-based membranes are driven by a competition between the repulsive DNA-image-charge interactions and the attractive coupling between the DNA segments on the trans and the cis sides of the membrane. The latter effect is induced by the reduction of the coupling by the dielectric membrane. In strong salt solutions where the repulsive image-charge effects dominate the attractive trans-cis coupling, the DNA molecule encounters a translocation barrier of ∼10 kBT. In dilute electrolytes, the trans-cis coupling takes over image-charge forces and the membrane becomes a metastable attraction point that can trap translocating polymers over long time intervals. This mechanism can be used in translocation experiments in order to control DNA motion by tuning the salt concentration of the solution.
- Mathematical Sciences

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text:
The thickened crust scenario is favored by the team's model, according to study co-author Jean-Alix Barrat, of the University of Western Brittany in France. Such a crust would account for the wealth of samples from deep within the crust.
The scientists' model correctly predicted the basic shape of the basins, although some of the details were slightly off. For instance, their model predicted higher elevations in the southwestern region of the asteroid, but such elevations are instead found in the opposite area. Such differences could be explained by slight variations in the angle of impact, according to the team, but should have minimal effect on how material ejected by the impacts was distributed.
The results were published online today (Feb. 13) in the journal Nature.
- Asteroid Vesta Revealed: Dawn Probe's Greatest Hits | Video
- How NASA's Dawn Asteroid Mission Works (Infographic)
- Planetfall: Wonders of the Solar System (Photos)
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Myst V: End of Ages
Platform(s): PC
Genre: Adventure
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Cyan
About Rainier
'Myst V: End of Ages' Developer Interview
by Rainier on July 22, 2005 @ 1:19 a.m. PDT
WP : What influenced your decision of bringing real-time 3D into the Myst series?
JS : Perhaps the trademark of the Myst series is its immersive quality, achieved through the exploration of fantastic (but believable) worlds. Until now, navigation through these worlds was constrained to still images (sometimes projected onto "virtual bubbles") with dynamic elements over-layed to give the illusion of movement and life. By using real-time 3D, Myst V raises the bar dramatically by bringing the first truly dynamic 3D environments to the Myst series and provides the most immersive experience yet.
WP : Gameplay-wise, what does real time 3D bring to the series?
JS : Real-time 3D enhances the game-play experience by allowing us to integrate dynamic elements into the game-play itself via animated/dynamic object interaction, creatures, and environmental effects. Additionally, navigation is un-tethered and fluid which provides unique (and sometimes unpredictable) player perspectives and views that open up game-play opportunities as well.
WP : How alive will the Ages be compared to previous Myst episodes? Can you give examples?
JS : Utilizing real-time 3D allowed us to abundantly populate the Ages with environmental effects - rain, snow, ocean water, day/night cycles, moving clouds, wind-storms, shooting stars, etc., which would have been difficult (if not impossible) to incorporate using the technology used in previous Myst products.
WP : Will the characters also be in 3D or live-action like previous Myst games?
JS : In order to seamlessly integrate the characters into our real-time 3D environments we decided early on to create them as 3D models instead of using live-action video. To this end, we used a technique we call "face-mapping" - a process by which video captured sequences are "mapped" onto the characters faces thus providing more realistic character expression and emotion than we could have achieved otherwise. In addition, because the characters are physically in the environment, they can affect and be affected by that environment - for example, they are dynamically lit by the lights in the scene, and also cast and receive shadows. To further enhance the realism of the characters we utilized cloth simulation techniques to make their clothing drape and flow realistically when the characters move.
WP : People could be worried of higher technical requirements due to real-time 3D? What are they?
JS : Well, the most basic requirement is a 3D-Graphics Card. We've worked very hard to create a game that looks great and runs smoothly on a gamut of graphic cards, but obviously, higher performance cards will be able to run the game at the highest level of quality and speed. Likewise, a good quality Audio card will provide players with the optimum audio experience which greatly enhances the immersive feel of the worlds.
More articles about Myst V: End of Ages
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The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Main menu:
June 25, 2007
Justices of Texas 1836–1986: Online resource spotlights the Texas judiciary
The Tarlton Law Library brings 150 years of the Texas judiciary to life with a new online resource for students, scholars, or anyone with an interest in Texas legal history. Justices of Texas 1836–1986 includes detailed information on the 160 people who served on the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals during that period, making it easier than ever before to delve into the fascinating lives and fateful decisions that shaped two centuries of Texas history.
The resource features a simple interface that allows users to search in chronological or alphabetical order, or by typing in keywords and names. The justices' entries include biographies, photographs, research sources, and links to further information.
In addition to the searchable database, a detailed timeline of the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals depicts milestones in the history of these organizations, from the establishment of the Texas Supreme Court in 1836 to the renaming and restructuring of the Courts of Civil Appeals into the modern Courts of Appeals in 1980.
Visit the Justices of Texas 1836–1986 site at:
Related links:
Tarlton Law Library
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Assessing the Evidence: The Effectiveness and Impact of Public Governance-Oriented Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives
Transnational multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) – voluntary partnerships between governments, civil society, and the private sector – are an increasingly prevalent strategy for promoting government responsiveness and accountability to citizens. While most transnational MSIs involve using voluntary standards to encourage socially and environmentally responsible private sector behavior, a handful of these initiatives – the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST), the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the Global Initiative on Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) and the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) – focus on information disclosure and participation in the public sector. Unlike private sector MSIs, which attempt to supplement weak government capacity to enforce basic social and environmental standards through partnerships between businesses and civil society, public sector MSIs ultimately seek to bolster public governance. But how exactly are these MSIs supposed to work? And how much has actually been achieved?
The purpose of this study is to identify and consolidate the current state of the evidence for public governance-oriented MSI effectiveness and impact. Researchers collected over 300 documents and interviewed more than two-dozen MSI stakeholders about their experiences with five public governance oriented multi-stakeholder initiatives.
This report provides a 'snapshot' of the evidence related to these five MSIs, and suggests that the process of leveraging transparency and participation through these initiatives for broader accountability gains remains uncertain. The report highlights the ongoing process of defining MSI success and impact, and how these initiatives intersect with other accountability actors and processes in complex ways. The study closes with key recommendations for MSI stakeholders.


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Villanova Launches Sustainable Engineering Research Center
The new center of research will aim to bring concepts of sustainability within the study and practice of engineering to life.
Villanova's College of Engineering has launched a new center of research that brings concepts of sustainability within the study and practice of engineering to life. The new Villanova Center for the Advancement of Sustainability in Engineering (VCASE) will house multi-disciplinary research and teaching in a number of emerging areas and seeks to protect and restore the environment through the systems-based integration of sustainability principles into engineering solutions.
"In the 21st century, engineering innovations will be judged not only on how effectively they solve a particular problem, but also on the net impact they leave on the planet. The importance of working across disciplines to mitigate that impact, while respecting the complexity of our environment, cannot be overstated," says Dr. Robert Traver, professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of VCASE. Traver is also the director of the Villanova Urban Stormwater Partnership and recently served on the National Academy of Sciences panel tapped to review the White House Council on Environmental Quality's proposed revisions to federal principles and guidelines for water resources planning.
VCASE draws together faculty and students from the college's four academic departments (chemical, mechanical, electrical and computer, and civil and environmental), whose research efforts are organized into five main research focus areas:
- Biomass resources and conversion technologies,
- Alternative and renewable energy,
- Environmental sustainability,
- Infrastructure materials and transportation systems, and
- Villanova Urban Stormwater Partnership, which has promoted a partnership approach to sustainable stormwater management for more than 10 years
In addition to the college of engineering's laboratories, VCASE student and faculty researchers also leverage Villanova's campus infrastructure, which serves as a living laboratory for conducting real-world experimental studies. The on-campus research sites include: stormwater wetlands; bio-infiltration and bio-retention basins; bio-swale; green roof; geothermal wells; rain barrels; pervious concrete and porous asphalt; and solar panels.
Recent VCASE research initiatives include:
- Continuing studies on the long-term performance of stormwater control measures funded through Pennsylvania's Growing Greener and 319 NonPoint Source Pollution program.
- Converting wastewater byproducts such as fats, oils, and grease into renewable energy sources such as methane gas for the Philadelphia Water Department.
- Design of extremely efficient micro-scale heat exchangers to keep electronics, such as computer chips, cool.
- Three university studies into the science of bioretention funded by The Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology.
- An exploration of how pervious concrete and porous asphalt – both alternatives to conventional paving materials – can reduce negative stormwater runoff effects.
- An investigation of the long-term performance of mature stormwater abatement systems to determine how well they reduce the toxicity of stormwater runoff and how long these systems can properly remove contaminants before maintenance will be required for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In addition to conducting research, VCASE faculty researchers also host industry and community outreach activities, collaborate across Villanova's other colleges, and build partnerships with other universities, engineering firms, and manufacturing organizations. In addition, VCASE members also serve in a counseling capacity to Villanova's facilities management office as it stewards changes according to the campus master plan. A recent result of this partnership was the retro-fitting of Fedigan Hall, an 80-year-old residence hall, which now boasts green amenities such as geothermal wells, porous asphalt, rain barrels, and rain gardens, among other environmental upgrades.


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HURRICANE, W.Va. - Sporting black tape below each eye - one piece reading "Go!" and the other "49ers!" - 8-year-old Caleb Allawat left no doubt that he's a football fan.
His level of engagement during math class Monday might have been a little misleading as to his fondness for the subject.
Thanks to the Super Bowl statistics used during the lesson, the third-grader was finding math more fun.
"Because it's about football," Caleb said.
This is the sixth year Sue Pate has incorporated statistics from the NFL championship game into her math lessons.
An avid football fan herself - one of her sons plays for Fairmont State University and the other for Hurricane High School - Pate said she already was following the statistics in the newspaper.
In a "light bulb moment," she realized the statistics could be a new way to engage her students.
"It's just using math outside their textbooks in a fun and exciting way." She usually presents the themed lesson the Friday before the big game. Because last week ended with a snow day, she had to settle for a little post-game analysis.
Handing out the Super Bowl informational graphic published in the Daily Mail, she asked students to look at the yearly statistics from the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers, the two teams that played in the Super Bowl.
Students added up passing yards, determined the dimensions of the playing field and figured out how many touchdowns players scored per game.
Gianna Muto, 9, was one of two students in the class not wearing the purple of the Ravens or red of the 49ers. Sporting her Pittsburgh Steelers gear, Gianna said she's also a big math fan. Lessons usually focus on one basic concept, but the football exercise required students to use several different techniques.


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Research from the European Space Agency has helped to develop an aircraft-grade titanium-aluminum alloy that's half the weight of conventional nickel superalloys but has similar properties. This alloy could make jet turbine blades (such as this one shown in flight) 45 percent lighter. (Source: Creative Commons–A. Rueda)
Russia isn't the only country supplying titanium: it also comes from South Africa, currently the second largest supplier, and elsewhere: _URL_
One problem I have with this whole thing is that Russia controls titanium. We could gear up for a new titanium world and Russia could cut us off. Look at the threats to the E.U. over natural gas? I would hate to be beholdin' to a belligerent government for my supplies. Remember tantalum just a few years ago?
Dave, thanks for weighing in on the discussion with your expertise in metals and casting processes. That's interesting to hear that the acceleration levels used in the ESA hypergravity research aren't actually as high as what's already being done in typical centrifugal casting.
_USER_ McDermott: Casting in microgravity eliminates convective flows that normally occur due to density gradients in the solidifying metal. This could eliminate macrosegregation. On the other hand, I wouldn't expect macrosegregation to be a serious problem in ordered intermetallics like titanium aluminide.
Most of the microgravity casting research I've heard about is focused more on understanding the solidification process, rather than improving the microstructure per se. By eliminating convection currents, it's easier to observe the effects of other variables, such as magnetic fields, on solidification.
20-g acceleration is actually a lot less than is typically used in centrifugal casting. A typical centrifugal casting machine might produce something on the order of 75-g acceleration. On the other hand, ESA's Large Diameter Centrifuge is very different from a typical centrifugal casting machine.
For the forseeable future, I would expect titanium aluminide parts to be made by either investment casting, forging, or powder metallurgy.
TJ, I'm not sure I understand your question. Previous research on casting metals in space was apparently done only with microgravity, and definitely aimed at improving the microstructure. But this research, with a similar aim, uses hypergravity and results in a much lighter alloy. Given this context, can you clarify your question?
The hypergravity casting process sounds like spin casting writ large. But wouldn't one expect the molten alloy to begin separating by density? I thought that was one reason for doing metallurgy in space, that eliminating gravity from the equation made for a better microstructure?
I agree, Dave, about the relative costs. I also agree with you and Lou: the big hurdle here is figuring out how an economical manufacturing method can be devised using that big centrifuge, or somehow duplicating its effect.
_USER_: The cost of raw titanium and raw aluminum are probably only a small part of the cost of making a turbine blade out of titanium aluminide. As your article points out, titanium aluminide is difficult to process, and these processing difficulties are a big cost driver.
Centrifugal casting is a common way of casting hollow cylinders (such as pipes), but it sounds like ESA's Large Diameter Centrifuge is very different. It would be interesting to know whether an economically feasible manufacturing method could be developed based on this work.
Lantronix Inc. has expanded its line of controllers for sensor networks with the release of a rugged controller that improves management of automation systems used in a number of industries, including manufacturing, oil and gas, and chemicals.
Inspired by the hooks a parasitic worm uses to penetrate its host's intestines, the Karp Lab has invented a flexible adhesive patch covered with microneedles that adheres well to wet, soft tissues, but doesn't cause damage when removed.
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is


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Bahrain: the Tear Gas Regime
Bahrain finds an off-label use for tear gas as chemical warfare.
Cross-posted from Scramble for Africa.
Physicians for Human Rights just released a report on the Bahraini government's pervasive use of tear gas to repress its restive civilian population. Bahrain has raised the global bar on the usage of tear gas to unprecedented heights. It has become the Tear Gas Regime.
Consider this excerpt from the PHR report:
"PHR investigators visited one home in which residents provided "guest gas masks" to visitors exposed to toxic chemical agents in and around the home. "We've been exposed to tear gases almost every day," said one resident of a Shi'a neighborhood. "We've had canisters shot in the house, on the doorstep, and on the roof. We've had so many attacks, I can't count the number of times. You don't need to go outside to smell the 'tear gas.'"
The report continues:
"Preliminary analysis of data suggests that the majority of Shi'a neighborhoods (comprising 80% of all neighborhoods in Bahrain) have been exposed to toxic chemical agent attacks at least once per week since February 2011."
That is a remarkable record of sustained gassing. What does this mean for the neighborhoods and villages affected? As PHR details:
"Symptoms of CS [the most commonly used chemical agent in contemporary 'tear gas' worldwide] exposure include severe tearing, burning in the nose and throat, eye spasms, chest tightness, coughing, and wheezing among other signs of oral and respiratory distress."
Imagine encountering that on a daily or weekly basis as many Shia neighborhoods in Bahrain now are.
There is plenty of reason to question the legitimacy of tear gas usage in virtually any context. PHR medical investigators noted in a report published the AMA's journal in 1989 that:
"[T]he evidence already assembled regarding the pattern of use of tear gas, as well as its toxicology, raises the question of whether its further use can be condoned under any circumstances… [T]here is an important role for the independent [health] professional: to study, document, analyze, and report on such hazards and to advise government on what does and does not carry an acceptable risk. If a weapon is found to present too serious a risk, it is then the responsibility of those in charge of public safety to decide on alternatives."
Note the 'pattern of use' analysis from even the late '80s. When is 'tear gas' used in an appropriate and proportionate manner? Can a protestor or bystander among us think of an instance? International law permits its use under the category of 'riot control'. Thus, it is properly deployed to disperse 'riots', not nonviolent gatherings, and not some scattered projectile throwing and minor property destruction.
The very label 'tear gas' is a euphemism which obscures that its use on humans: "poses serious health risks and even causes death." The proper term for 'tear gas' is 'toxic chemical agent' as PHR employs. As PHR notes, ""Tear gas," implying that these chemical agents merely cause tearing, is a misnomer."
Perhaps the roots of the crowd control method should give us pause. The origin of tear gas derives from chemical weapons that became so infamous in WW1.
Lest anyone continue to regard 'tear gas' as a mere inconvenience, it has also been implicated as a carcinogen, and may even damage DNA, thus impacting one's future children and family lineage.
PHR describes the effects of the toxic gas:
"In addition to wounds due to the impact of toxic chemical agent canisters, PHR investigators also documented severe tearing, burning eyes, throat irritation, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and vomiting in individuals exposed to toxic chemical agents. Because chemicals in toxic lachrymatory agents can destroy membranes of the throat, esophagus, and mouth, such vomiting can become dangerous. Even if an exposed person quickly leaves the chemical-saturated area, symptoms of exposure can last hours. …. Sustained exposure to toxic chemical agents can also burn skin and the cornea of the eye. A physiotherapist reported that she developed shortness of breath, wheezing and severe coughing, turned red, and felt hot after being exposed to tear gas that was yellow in color. A doctor at private hospital treated her with Atrovent and Symbicort, but she reported having continued difficulty breathing at night and difficulty speaking for approximately two weeks."
In the U.S. water hosing crowds fell out of favor due to the illegitimacy it acquired after becoming indelibly associated with the repression of the black Civil Rights movement. By almost any measure, tear gas is far worse. Note that outside the U.S. high pressure water is still utilized. Israel retains the water cannons technique in their crowd control repertoire but has added an extra fillip -- lacing the water with sewage-scented malodorous elements.
Historically, tear gas usage has been associated with less than reputable purposes. The South Korean dictatorship (Washington backed by the way) employed it against the democracy movement. PHR:
"Twenty-five years ago, PHR documented the deleterious and long-term health effects of tear gas used indiscriminately in South Korea against civilian protesters, including toxic pulmonary damage and death, as well as possible miscarriages. As physicians we were then compelled to question whether the further use of these toxic chemical agents could be condoned under any circumstances.
The extensive and persistent use of this so-called nonlethal chemical agent now in Bahrain—unprecedented in the 100-year history of tear gas use against civilians throughout the world—compels PHR once again to call the world's attention to the known and still unknown serious health consequences of tear gas, including death."
Bahrain is also joined in its distinguished company by the Khartoum regime which along with more lethal means, has employed tear gas in Darfur to quell a recent upsurge in nationwide protests seeking to join their international brethren in the Arab Spring.
Israel has also made a habit of using tear gas, not uncommonly in particularly dangerous or lethal manners by directly firing the canisters at people and vulnerable points, virtually ensuring serious injury or death.
In the U.S., victims of police 'riot control' include Scott Olsen, who was hit by a 'bean bag round', though the consequences of a tear gas canister no doubt would have been similar.
The PHR report clearly establishes that Bahrain is violating international law in its usage of toxic chemical agents:
"While current international law allows governments to use some chemical agents for crowd control purposes, Bahraini law enforcement officials routinely violate every U.N. principle of their use. Specifically, PHR documents in this report that Bahraini authorities:
(1) Fail to exercise restraint before resorting to force;
(2) Use disproportionate force when responding to protesters; and
(3) Fail to minimize damage and injury to demonstrators."
We might ask why international law permits chemical weapons in civilian use but not military. PHR ventures that internal use against civilian populations was not a primary concern of conference that drafted the international law guiding the use of chemical weapons and that a lack of consensus (surprise, surprise) among the delegates may have been a factor. While few governments can be properly said to abide by international law on crowd control procedures listed, Bahrain has gone well beyond the normal abuses.
The U.S. of course is deeply complicit in the repression in Bahrain. Though it is not currently supplying the regime with tear gas, the PHR report identifies two of the four main toxic chemical manufacturers that produced the weapons that have been deployed against Bahrain's citizens are U.S.-based: Nonlethal Technologies, Inc. (based outside of Pittsburgh, PA in Homer City; Nicholas Kristof (to his credit) reported late last year that Nonlethal Technologies tear gas shells were "being swept off the street each morning" in Bahrain.) and Federal Laboratories/Defense Technology in Casper, WY.
Beyond Bahrain, "US-based company Combined Systems Inc., which exports riot-control equipment to armies around the world. The company has yet to address allegations that it has been a primary riot control agent (RCA) supplier to MENA governments embroiled in the Arab Spring." CSI is located not far from Nonlethal Technologies, in Jamestown, PA. Western Pennsylvania seems on its way to cornering the global market on the production of toxic chemical agents designed for use against civilian demonstrators.
On August 1st the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Capitol Hill held a hearing on Bahrain's record. To his credit Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) testified to oppose Washington's alliance.
By contrast, Michael H. Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (ha!) testified:
"King Hamad deserves great credit for initiating this commission and for allowing an independent body to take a critical look at Bahrain's human rights record and to report so extensively on its findings. We also commend the King for accepting and committing to implement the recommendations of the BICI report. And after a worrying period of rising violence in the streets by both demonstrators and police, violence has subsided this summer."
He of course also added some anodyne criticism to ensure a modicum of credibility for his words.
The U.S. Fifth Fleet gives Bahrain no small strategic significance to the U.S. Democracy would endanger the Fleet -- the people might want to evict the Fleet, but we can surely count on the ruling regime. Tellingly, the Fifth Fleet's home base was take over from the British in 1971 as they relinquished their colonial possessions. You can


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Editor's note: This article has been retracted at the request of the authors. Their retraction notice in the journal Current Biology is below:
In our paper, we reported cross-cultural differences in how the religious environment of a child negatively impacted their sharing, their judgments of the actions of others, and how their parents evaluated them. An error in this article, our incorrect inclusion of country of origin as a covariate in many analyses, was pointed out in a correspondence from Shariff, Willard, Muthukrishna, Kramer, and Henrich. When we reanalyzed these data to correct this error, we found that country of origin, rather than religious affiliation, is the primary predictor of several of the outcomes. While our title finding that increased household religiousness predicts less sharing in children remains significant, we feel it necessary to explicitly correct the scientific record, and we are therefore retracting the article. We apologize to the scientific community for any inconvenience caused.


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reprogrammable logic on the boards
In-System Configuration (also known as In-System Programming (ISP) or on-board programming) is the process of programming CPLDs (complex programmable logic devices) after they have been soldered to a board. ISC is accomplished using tools provided by programmable device vendors, on ATE/ICT testers, or by PC-based tools designed for boundary-scan test such as ASSET.
Device-vendor tools support only devices from that vendor and have limited scan path management support. Each tool has a unique user interface to learn and a unique connection to the board. These tools use the PC parallel port for access to the board. As a result, designs that use more than one device type require you to switch between vendor tools to program each device type.
ISC with ATE/ICT allows ISC to be integrated with test operations, but it is expensive. Time on ATE/ICT systems can cost as much as $1.00 per second and programming times typically range between 5 seconds and two minutes. Programming file sizes for ATE/ICT can also be very large, exceeding the capability of the testers.
Implementing ISC with PC-based tools solves many of the problems associated with your other options. This is a universal solution, supporting devices from all major vendors via one user interface and one connection to the board. This also allows the integration of ISC and test on a low cost test platform (typical costs - $0.05 per second).
With sophisticated scan path management capabilities, the system provides safer scan path integrity testing and is able to maintain a board state that is safe for programming. It also enables ISC across complex scan paths such as system backplanes. Finally, using hardware optimized for boundary-scan application enables significant reduction in programming times.


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The Old English Exodus
|The Old English Exodus
|Oxford University Press
|28 January 1982
The Old English Exodus is a book collecting J.R.R. Tolkien's text and prose translation of the Old English poem Exodus, accompanied by a commentary which was organized from a series of Tolkien's lecture notes from the 1930-40s. The editor is Joan Turville-Petre.
This Exodus does not refer to the book in the Bible, but a 10th-century alliterative poem, it contains 590 lines. It re-tells the story of the Israelites' flight from Egyptian captivity and the Crossing of the Red Sea in the manner of a "heroic epic", similar in style to Beowulf.
The book was printed 3000 copies in 1982 (though dated 1981), so far has not been reprinted.
Contents[edit | edit source]
- Editor's Preface
- Select Bibliography
- Treatment of the Manuscript
- Index to Commentary
From the editor[edit | edit source]
The Old English Exodus is based on full notes for a series of lectures delivered to a special class in Oxford in the 1930s and 1940s; the notes were retouched in the following decade. It was never intended to be an edition, although the lecturer scrupulously drew up and edited text as basis of his commentary. It is an interpretation of the poem, designed to reconstruct the original (as far as that is possible), and to place it in the context of Old English poetry.
[edit | edit source]
- The Old English Exodus on Archive.org


Restarting on a Clean Sheet of Paper
When you find yourself bogged down in a quagmire of complexity with no obvious positive paths forward, you may be tempted to throw out the mess and start over again. A "green field", or a "clean sheet of paper" promises a fresh new start with bold new ideas uncluttered by the mess of the previous exercise. Chances are, you will quickly clutter up this new sheet of paper in much the same way as you did the previous one. The reasons for this are simple, but the solution requires a fresh perspective on the problem or challenge itself.
Of course, there is a difference between overcoming challenges that may all be anticipated in the normal course of business and blazing new trails in the course of invention where nobody seems to have a clue what to do next. In the former case, the advice of a seasoned expert who has been through cycles such as these can be invaluable. In either case, the wrong place to start is where people often start in problem-solving exercises, and that is by making a list of current assumptions or answering the question, "What do we know?"
Starting all over while your head is filled with the same assumptions and processes that did not work is likely to lead you to repeating the pattern that put you in the quagmire in the first place. Why would these assumptions be any different from the ones that were used for the plan you just threw out? One thing you learned for certain from that exercise is that the assumptions and choices you made did not lead you to the desired outcome. The best you can hope for is a marginally improved plan as you make adjustments to avoid certain pitfalls along the way.
You'll convince yourself that this is now the best new plan because you started over from scratch on a clean sheet of paper. But, is it truly the best new plan? What if you truly started over and began, not with assumptions, but with the end in mind. Start with the final outcome that you want to achieve and explore the alternate paths you might take to get there. Be creative in exploring different ways to achieve the goal without relying to heavily on built-in assumptions on how you might execute each option.
Look outside for experts, leaders, gurus and potential partners that may provide expertise or resources to accomplish or accelerate your plans. The assumptions you make for each path will differ, but you should not use these assumptions to make the choices ahead of time until the best path to the end state is clear. Analyze the effectiveness and the risks of each potential pathway and narrow your choices based on the ones that will get you to your goals with the least resistance, cost and complexity. Sometimes the best solutions come not from being stuck in problem-solving mode on the path to your destination, but from analyzing the objective or desired end-state in entirely new ways. A little creativity might produce an entirely different and more successful path, even if it initially seems unfamiliar. Pioneering is not only for the brave; it is the essence of necessity.
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Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds in MakeCode for Minecraft
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was a popular 1960s Beatles tune. Before you ask, yes, I am old enough to have been there. The screenshot below is from a little MakeCode chat command using a print block with text "Lucy" and diamonds to do the printing.
lucy code 2There are a few things we can learn from this code about blocks, positions and directions.
Which blocks (e.g., diamonds, grass) can be used to write in the sky?. Change diamonds to sunflowers. What happens? Lava? Water?
The position position means 50 blocks east, 5 blocks high and 0 blocks south relative to the player; that is, from where the player is standing.
The phrase along gives the direction to print. I think of the player as facing east, so printing along South means printing left to right. What happens if the along phrase is changed to each of the following:
 - along north?
 - along west?
 - along east?
Keeping Score in the Sky
field scoreIn Grandma's Chickens, I used a similar function to keep score of how many chickens the player zapped.
The "run" chat command is for testing the function printScore
The first say block signals that the program is actually running. The last say block indicates when it is complete. Why are these needed? Sometimes when "run" is typed into the command line, the program does not start. This may be because start button, the start button, was not pressed. Other times are more mysterious, but I have found that when repeated attempts to start a program fail, restarting Minecraft and MakeCode solves the problem once again proving the old adage "When in doubt, reboot."
In the chat command "run," the original player world position is saved in the variable "center." This allows the player to move while the program is running. This is desirable because the view of the what's happening in Minecraft is often better if the player is allowed to move to a different vantage point rather than being required to stay in one place because all positions are relative to the player and change as the player moves.
The repeat loop in "run" calls the printScore function 5 times to test randomly selected values for score..
printScore Func
The function printScore performs as its name indicates. It first converts the number variable score to text, which is required by the print block. The say block outputs the score to the log window.
In the print block, by joining txtScore with trailing spaces, the digits of any longer number that had been previously printed to the same location are erased.
Pay particular attention to the manner in which position is specified by the at phrase. The position is not specified as relative to the current player world positon but, rather, as relative to the original player world position, which was saved in the variable "center." Notice that printScore coord is a world position, not relative. The print position is center X plus 40, center Y plus 5, center Z minus 5. The value of these coordinates were determined by trying various numbers to find a visually appealing positon.
Demo of App and Code
Get the Code
The code for Print Score and Lucy is shared at. It can be downloaded and run in MakeCode for Minecraft.
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The rich culture of Vietnam was represented through fairy tales at a two-day festival that opened in Long Island Children's Museum (LICM) in New York on Nov. 5.
The event was co-organised by the New York Humanitarian Science Council and the Vietnamese Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
The festival brought visitors back in time to early days in the history of the Vietnamese nation when Au Co, a mountain fairy got married to a dragon, Lac Long Quan, and gave birth to a sac containing 100 eggs. The eggs hatched 100 children who were the ancestors of the Vietnamese. They then travelled through tales about the uprising led by the Trung sisters against northern aggressors and legendary hero Thanh Giong's victory against An aggressors and learnt about the nation's traditions and customs, also through stories that have been passed down many Vietnamese generations.
Dr. Ngo Thanh Nhan, a researcher at the New York-based Centre for Vietnamese Philosophy, Culture and Society, performed the traditional "dan tranh" (16-string zither) at the event.


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(3.4 hours to learn)
Hopfield networks are a kind of recurrent neural network which implements an associative memory. The behavior of the network can be modeled in terms of minimizing an energy function.
-this concept has no prerequisites-
- Know the rules for
- learning the weights of a Hopfield net
- finding a low energy configuration
- Understand why the dynamics of the network can be described in terms of an energy function.
- What happens if you try to store too many memories in a Hopfield net?
- Know how Hopfield nets can be applied to optimization problems (e.g. image interpretation, Traveling Salesman)
Core resources (read/watch one of the following)
→ Coursera: Neural Networks for Machine Learning (2012)
→ Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms
A graudate-level textbook on machine learning and information theory.
- The argument about variational energy and the mathematical analysis of Section 42.7 are optional.
- create concept: shift + click on graph
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- link together concepts: shift + click drag from one concept to another
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Once sniffed at by literary critics, the short story has undergone a renaissance in recent years as reading patterns change and writers' centres fill courses on the art of short-story writing. Technical aspects of short stories have been well examined, yet few writers have looked at how individual stories are written. Cracking The Spine goes a long way towards answering this by inviting the Australian authors of a series of short stories to discuss how and why they wrote their included piece.
Consisting of ten stories chosen by editors Julie Chevalier and Bronwyn Mehan, with accompanying analyses by their respective authors, Cracking The Spine is a book for readers and writers. The opening entry, 'An Australian short story' is one that many may be familiar with; it's made up entirely of sentences extracted from stories by authors such as Kate Grenville, Frank Moorhouse and Elizabeth Jolley. The accompanying piece by author Ryan O' Neill, in which he details his experiences of the Australian short story from his first arrival in Australia to the present day, is an appropriate introduction to this collection.
Nine stories follow: these deal with personal and unknown experiences, are set in both the past and present, and evoke a range of emotions. The essays after each are varied, honest and insightful. Some authors hit upon points for discussion easily; others, such as Michael Giacometti, describe how they struggled to unearth the method and inspiration for their stories. Some of the questions answered are so appropriate it feels akin to being in a Q & A session with the author.
In 'Cartography' by Tony Birch, for example, some readers may query the abrupt ending. Birch later discusses it in his essay:
'I thought about the possibility of Tom offering his hand of friendship to Morgan. Initially this approach seemed obvious — the hand of the host offering sanctuary to the outsider. But it troubled me'.
Other writers describe how they broke traditional short story writing 'rules'. Andy Kissane (whose story 'Good Rubbish' is based in Cambodia and written from the point of view of a 10-year-old living in a rubbish dump) titled his essay, 'Writing what you do not know'. In it, he hypothesises:
'If you write about lives that you are inherently ignorant of, then your writing has the potential to represent the depth, richness and complexity of the world'.
As a book that packs a lot of inspirational information into a small volume, Cracking the Spine is more than an educational resource and will appeal to lovers of fiction and the short-story form. The personal, revealing analyses provided by the featured authors are entertaining and easily accessible. The stories and essays illustrate the anatomy of a short story, yet through their use of landscape, emotion and experience, they show even more uniquely the anatomy of Australian stories.
Suzanne Rath is a writer, producer and co-founder of Idle Wrath Films (_USER_), who are currently in pre-production on a short film, 'Fairy Fort'. Their crowd-funding campaign, running for the month of July, offers lots of fun rewards for lovers of fairytales, fantasy and magical realism, and can be seen on _URL_ Suzanne tweets as _USER_.


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Why do we need terracotta?
The porous nature of terracotta allows for air and water to move through the walls, preventing soil disease and root rot. Terracotta pots can be used for indoor plants and outdoor container gardening. They're great for Cacti, Succulents, and other plants that prefer drier soil. Terracotta is great for colder climates. The walls of the pots draw the water out of the soil to help the soil dry quicker. They make a beautiful patina that just gets better with age. The patina is actually mineral deposits that are pulled through the walls of the pots. It's not harmful and can be left or washed off with soap and water. Terracotta is eco-friendly, beautiful. And more importantly, buying terracotta is actually supporting the people of India.
This Terracotta Hanging Shell Shape Planter #16676 was crafted by villagers of India. Terracotta is a type of ceramic pottery. It is one of the most distinct types of clay you'll find, given its rich, rust reddish-orange colouring. The iron content in terracotta clay body reacts with oxygen and gives it a hue that ranges through reds, oranges, yellows and even pinks. It is washable but breakable, so please handle it with care.


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15 W. Kellogg Blvd.
St. Paul, MN
- View Map:
St. Paul's first courthouse was a small, two-story, brick, Greek Revival style building with a classic portico and Tuscan columns. Dr. David Gray, a physician serving as county clerk, designed the building in 1851. The total cost of construction was $9,000.
The second courthouse was built in 1885 and, like the old one, was combined with the city hall. Local architect Edward P. Bassford designed the Romanesque Revival style building built of Kasota stone at a cost of $600,000. It resembled the Hennepin County Courthouse and the old federal courthouse, now the Landmark Center, in downtown St. Paul.
The exterior of the current Ramsey County Courthouse, which opened in 1932, is pictured above and its interior is pictured below. The projected $4 million cost of the building had been secured through a bond issue approved in 1928. However, by the time construction began, prices of materials had dropped significantly. The contract required that the Foley Brothers of St. Paul pay 12.5 percent above the prevailing wage to secure the most skilled workmen, which meant 45 cents an hour. As a result, "the commission was able to afford construction materials and decorative details of unparalleled opulence."
The 18-story Perpendicular Moderne style building was designed by Thomas Ellerbe & Co. of St. Paul and Holabird & Root of Chicago. It is built of smooth Indiana limestone and was dedicated in December 1932 by William D. Mitchell, U.S. Attorney General and son of Minnesota Supreme Court Justice William Mitchell.
Inside, the building is finished in the Art Deco style. Twenty-three different kinds of wood are used in the woodwork, furniture, and paneling. Five kinds of imported marble walls and floors were cut and dressed by local artisans. The entrance relief sculpture was carved by Lee Lawrie, whose larger figures can be found at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Four vertical murals in the council chamber were done by John Norton of Chicago, an associate of Frank Lloyd Wright. The six bronze elevator doors were made by Albert Stewart of New York.
Dominating the dark marble, three-story, memorial concourse along the Fourth Street entrance is Carl Milles' creamy white onyx Indian God of Peace. The statute stands 38 feet tall and is placed on a base that turns the figure 132 degrees every 2.5 hours. The 60-ton Native American and his peace pipe are a memorial to the war dead.
The second of Ramsey County's courthouses was built in 1885 at Fourth and Wabasha Streets in St. Paul.
- Historical information adapted from "The First 100 Years... The Minnesota State Bar Association."
Return to Courthouse List


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Weisbach, Principles of the mechanics of machinery and engineering (Vol.1), 1849.
Table of Contents
Click Adobe PDF icons to download book sections.
- (2.9 MB) Section I. Phoronomy; or The Pure Mathematical Science of Motion.
- Chapter I. Simple Motion
- Chapter II. Compound Motion
- (3.3 MB) Section II. Mechanics in the Physical Science of Motion in General
- Chapter I. Fundamental ideas and fundamental laws of mechanics
- Chapter II. The mechanics of material point
- (8.9 MB) Section III. Statics of Rigid Bodies. Chapters I through IV
- Chapter I. General laws of the statics of rigid bodies
- Chapter II. Centre of gravity
- Chapter III. Equilibrium of bodies rigidly connected and supported
- Chapter IV. Equilibrium in funicular machines
- (10.3 MB) Section III. Continued / Statics of Rigid Bodies. / Chapters V and VI
- Chapter V. On the resistances of friction and rigidity
- Chapter VI. Elasticity and rigidity
- (9.8 MB) Section IV. Dynamics of Rigid Bodies.
- Chapter I. On the equilibrium and pressure of water in vessels
- Chapter II. On the equilibrium of water with other bodies
- Chapter III. On the equilibrium and pressure of air
- Chapter I. The general laws of the efflux of water from vessels
- Chapter II. On the contraction of the fluid vein by the efflux of water through orifices in a thin plate
- Chapter III. On the efflux of water through tubes
- Chapter IV. On the resistance of water in passing through contraction
- Chapter V. On the efflux of water under variable pressure
- Chapter VI. On the efflux of air from vessels and tubes
- Chapter VII. On the motion of water in canals and rivers
- Chapter VIII. Hydrometry or the doctrine of the measurement of water
- Chapter IX. On the impulse and resistance of fluids


Will Chickens Die Without a Heat Lamp
Will Chickens Die Without a Heat Lamp? (Ideal Temperatures Explained)
Generally speaking, adult chickens are incredibly hardy and well-prepared to survive in sub-zero temperatures without the need for heat. Baby chicks, on the other hand, are fragile when born and usually require a heat lamp for the first few weeks.
Whether or not you'll need a heat lamp for your chicks depends on how consistently you can keep the temperature within the ideal range for them. It typically makes raising chicks a lot easier for those first few weeks in most cases.
Should You Use a Heat Lamp in a Chicken Coop?
If you browse Amazon you'll see all kinds of heat lamps and heaters designed for chicken coops to help keep your chooks nice and warm.
Personally, I've never known someone to use a heater in their coop. I've known people that have raised chickens in some pretty cold places, too, like Alaska and northern Canada.
Whenever the topic of heating a coop comes up within the backyard chicken community, there are always raised eyebrows due to the potential risks.
Assuming you're going to have the heater on overnight, there is always the risk of an electrical fault or something else causing a fire while you're sleeping.
I'm not suggesting any of these products are anything less than safe! I'm just repeating what I hear when I speak with other chicken owners.
Chickens (most breeds) are well equipped to deal with sub-zero temperatures. Their plumage traps air in between their feathers, and they will cozy up together when roosting to stay warm.
There is rarely the need to insulate a coop at all, let alone heat it.
The key things that you should always keep in mind in regards to keeping your chickens warm enough are moisture and wind chill. Those are the two things that will lower that core temperature to dangerous levels.
Coops need good ventilation to remove the ammonia and keep fresh air flowing through. But your chicken's roosting bar, nesting boxes, and some other areas should be free from wind blowing through.
If your chickens get wet during the day, you shouldn't leave them all soggy in a cold coop. Just think how you'd feel!
RelatedCan chickens really drown in the rain?
Do Chicks Need a Heat Lamp?
Chicks need to be kept warm when they first hatch. They don't have any feathers yet and aren't able to regulate their own temperature at a safe level.
In the wild, this would be mother hen's job. She will have sat on those eggs for around 21 days to hatch them and will continue to allow her baby chicks to bury themselves in her plumage to keep warm.
When hatching chicks at home, however, you'll use an incubator to mimic those 21 days. Incubators keep eggs within the optimal temperature range of 35 to 40.5°C (84.5 – 104.9°F).
When chicks hatch, they can be moved into a brooder. A brooder is essentially a safe place where baby chicks can be kept warm, fed, and looked after.
Most brooders either come with a lamp, or it's recommended you use one. This is because you need to keep the temperature between 35 to 37.8°C (95 – 100°F) for the first couple of weeks of baby chicks' lives.
You can then start to lower the temperature by 5 degrees a week for around 6 weeks until you've lowered the temperature to around 80-75 degrees.
By then, chicks are usually ready to survive the outdoors. It depends on how developed their feathers are and what the weather is like. Different breeds will be fully feathered at different ages, always act on the side of caution.
Here's an overview of the recommended temperature ranges to keep baby chicks at:
Age of Chick (weeks)Temperature (F)
So, the answer as to whether or not you need a heat lamp for chicks is whether or not you can keep them at or around those temperatures.
There are other ways you can provide warmth. I've heard of people using hot water bottles and keeping a brooder in a warm place and their chicks grew up just fine.
However, if you're new to raising chicks, using a heat lamp is by far the easiest way to ensure they're going to be kept nice and warm around the clock.
RelatedWondering if you can hatch supermarket eggs? Read this!
What Temperature Is Too Cold for Chickens?
This is also a tough question to answer with a one-size-fits-all answer, because, again it depends on what breed of chicken we're talking about.
Some chickens are much more equipped to deal with cold temperatures than others. As you can probably guess, generally speaking, bigger hens with a thicker plumage are considered more cold-weather hardy.
This would include breeds like the Brahma, Wyandotte, Sussex, and Cochin. All large, well-feathered birds with plenty of insulation.
You do have to be mindful of frostbite though. Chicken's combs, in particular, are prone to frostbite in extreme conditions. The first sign of frostbite is usually blackening at the tips of the comb.
On the other hand, small chickens like bantams, and some breeds like the Polish, Old Game Fowl, and Fayoumi are not cold weather chickens.
They are lacking the body mass and thick coats to deal with sub-zero temperatures!
RelatedRead more about chicks and what temperatures they need here.
In Summary
If you've been worried about your chickens freezing out there in the cold while you're tucked up all nice and warm in your bed, hopefully, I've reassured you that they'll be just fine.
Using heat lamps for baby chicks to ensure they're warm during their first few weeks it's important. After that, most chickens are fine to be outside in all temperatures and weather conditions and will do just fine.
As long as you're keeping all their basic needs met; adequate housing, plenty of food, and fresh drinking water, you'll be pleasantly surprised how hardy chickens are.
Image credits – Header photo by Sarah Halliday on Unsplash


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A.Word.A.Daywith Anu Garg
Blood may be the best-known fluid in the human body, but it's not the only one. And it's not the largest either (there's about twice as much lymph). There are dozens of fluids in the human body and they all have their purposes in life. Even the lowly cerumen (that's a highfalutin word for earwax) helps to protect the ear from bacteria.
This week we'll be exchanging bodily fluids with you, metaphorically speaking. All five words we've picked this week are coined from fluids that make our body work.
noun: Calmness, especially under stress.
From French sang-froid (cold blood). Earliest documented use: 1750.
"We can take a lot more, we the stoic nation with its legendary sang-froid."
S. Prasannarajan; Shame el-Sheikh; India Today (New Delhi); Aug 3, 2009.
Explore "sang-froid" in the Visual Thesaurus.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:There are two kinds of light -- the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures. -James Thurber, writer and cartoonist (_PHONE_)
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© 2013 Wordsmith


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The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is an organization established in 1866 by Henry Bergh, who believed animals were "entitled to kind and respectful treatment at the hands of humans, and must be protected under the law." The ASPCA was the first humane society established in North America and is now one of the largest in the world. ASPCA is privately funded and is a not-for-profit organization.
What's the difference between local SPCA centers and ASPCA? Many states and communities have local SPCA institutions, and although they share the goal of providing humane treatment to animals, the organizations are not necessarily interconnected. If you want to be involved in local animal rights issues, contact your local SPCA organization. If you wish to get involved on a national level, contact ASPCA.
What is the purpose of the ASPCA? Henry Bergh stated the organization's mission in 1866 when it was founded: "to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States." It was the first animal organization authorized to investigate crimes and make arrests for cruelty to animals. The organization and its members are dedicated to animal protection through non-violent means. Their three keys for accomplishing this goal include "caring for pet parents and pets, providing positive outcomes for at-risk animals and serving victims of animal cruelty."
What does the ASPCA do? The ASPCA is involved in community outreach, animal health services and the prevention of cruelty to animals. Community outreach experts include animal welfare professionals, veterinarians, animal behaviorists, dog trainers, animal care technicians, adoption specialists and humane educators. Animal health services include an animal poison control center, animal hospitals, spay and neuter clinics, grief counseling and veterinary outreach. Anti-cruelty efforts involve field service, government relations and humane law enforcement.
How can you get involved in the ASPCA or a local SPCA center? ASPCA, as well as most local organizations, rely on private funding. Your donation can help the organization fund SPCA initiatives and establish animal treatment and animal parent educational centers. Other ways of participating include adopting a pet or volunteering at an animal shelter. Contact your local SPCA or ASPCA to discover more ways you can help animals receive humane treatment.


Geolocation and Geoblocking
Community Team Member
Geolocation and GeoblockingGeolocation and Geoblocking
Palo Alto Networks dives into how your firewall can perform Geolocation and Geoblocking to help you keep your network safe in different regions. Learn how to set security policies, decryption policies, and DoS policies for your firewall.
What are Geolocation and Geoblocking?
Geolocation is the estimation of the real-world geographic location of an object. In our specific use case, I am referring to the physical location of your PC, laptop, mobile device, or from the servers you are trying to reach.
Geoblocking is when you start restricting or allowing access to content based on the geolocation.
The next-generation firewall supports creation of policy rules that apply to specified countries or regions. The region is available as an option when specifying source and destination for security policies, decryption policies, and DoS policies. You can choose from a standard list of countries or use the region settings described in this section to define custom regions to include as options for security policy rules.
As a very simple example, let's assume you are located in the United States and would like to only allow access to addresses that are located in that country. First, you'll need to allow this access through a security rule.
You do this simply by adding the desired region or country to your security rule with an allow action.
Country Allow Security RuleCountry Allow Security Rule
Through geolocation, the firewall will identify that the IP address you are trying to access is located in the US, and the policy will grant you the access.
If you want to deny access to all other regions, then you can just let the default-deny rule handle it. Alternatively, if you want to catch it earlier, then you can add a rule that excludes all the US traffic and blocks it. The negate option is very useful in this specific use case. Any IP address that isn't part of the US region will hit this rule and follow the configure Action Setting (Deny for example).
Security Policy for NegateSecurity Policy for Negate
Sounds very simple doesn't it? It is indeed very easy to set up.
With that said, did you know that there's a way to trick certain devices into believing you are from a totally different region?
You can easily do this through online proxies and/or anonymizers. These are tools that are freely available online, and as the name indicates, proxies or anonymizers anonymize your traffic.
What happens is that you connect to these servers and they in turn make a connection in your name to the destination server. This destination server sees an incoming connection from the proxy server, not knowing the request is actually coming from you.
Often, these tools are used for shady practices or to hide what you're doing. Don't want your users to use these tools? Just block the access to them by blocking the URL-category 'proxy-avoidance-and-anonymizers'.
URL CategoryURL Category
NOTE: This URL-category is only useful for outbound sessions and will not protect you from inbound connections using these proxies. I recommend researching EDL (External Dynamic Lists) for this instead.
Check out the links below if you want to know more about geolocation or geoblocking on the Palo Alto Networks firewall!
Objects > Regions
How to Block Traffic Based Upon Countries
How to Verify PAN-OS IP Region Mapping
Thanks for taking time to read the blog.
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As always, we welcome all comments and feedback in the comments section below.
Stay Secure,
Kiwi out!
L0 Member
Nice post, thanks.
In the link
How to Verify PAN-OS IP Region Mapping
is given a site about ip to country relation, is this site used by PaloAlto?
I ask this because I am searching for a solution to what you explained what will not be blocked:
Because then you need a website/partner that keeps track of the ip addresses that are given out by such anonymizer providers.
Hopefully you have a example about EDL which can be used.
Community Team Member
L0 Member
Nice article and I do like this GEO feature. What would it cost to add Regions to NAT rules? I'm currently using a third party hardware with GEO capabilities to return different DNS resolution based on the client's IP address.
That would save me several DNS delegations if I could specify the incoming region of a request and determine the NATed IP destination address + possibily alternative destinations in case of unreachability of the NATed IP.
Best regards,


German Dharmaduta Society (in Sri Lanka)
Founded in 1952 by Asoka Weeraratna to propagate Buddhism and establish the Buddha Sasana in Germany and other Western countries, like Arahant Mahinda did it in Sri Lanka 2300 years ago. The GDS sponsored the first Buddhist Mission to Germany in 1957, and continues to send monks to reside and conduct Dharmaduta work at the Berlin Buddhist Vihara in Germany. The GDS administers the Berlin Vihara which was founded in 1957 by Asoka Weeraratna ( later known as Mitirigala Dhammanisanthi Thero ).


Palace of Parliament
Palace of Parliament
The construction of the colossal Parliament Palace (formerly known as the People's Palace) was started in 1984 under the direct supervision of the Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu. This building was supposed to be his personal residence and also the home of several state institutions of that time.
The building was designed by a team of 200 architects led by the main architect Anca Petrescu and it took 20.000 workers to build it. In 1989, when Ceausescu regime was overthrown, the building was almost finished, except some interiors and the furniture for some rooms. The project has never been completed.
The building is 86 m in height and 92 m underground and the interiors are simply amazing. This is a must-see attraction when you are in Bucharest. There are English speaking organized tours. You must bring your ID or passport with you.
Now, the building is used by the Parliament of Romania, the National Museum of Contemporary Art and several other institutions. Also, the building serves as an international conference and meeting centre.
The Palace of Parliament set some world records:
- The largest administrative building for civilian use;
- The heaviest building;
- Second largest building in the world in surface after the Pentagon;
Other interesting facts:
- There is a crystal chandelier in the Hall of Human Rights that weights 2.5 tons.
- There are chandeliers that have as much as 7000 bulbs.