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On 9 August 2009, Typhoon Morakot struck China's south-east coast, affecting more than 3.4 million people across China, Taiwan and Philippines. The death toll from the disaster reached 126 with hundreds more people missing. World Vision was able to provide assistance to affected families in Taiwan and the Philippines.
How you can help:
Donate: Emergency & Preparedness Fund
Subscribe to Action News Online
On 9 August 2009, Typhoon Morakot struck China's south-east coast destroying hundreds of houses and flooding farmland. Almost one million people were forced to evacuate ahead of the storm, which hit with winds of up to 119km/h.
Typhoon Morakot caused wide-spread damage in southern and eastern Taiwan. Massive flooding damaged transportation infrastructure and submerged many homes forcing residents to evacuate and stay in shelters or find temporary housing with friends and relatives.
The death toll climbed to more than 120 people in Taiwan.
In China, Typhoon Morakot affected 8.8 million people across Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces. Reports indicate that six people were killed, and 1.4 million people were evacuated to safety.
In the Philippines, a reported 13,000 people were displaced in Zambales.
World Vision's Response
World Vision provided immediate relief to affected families in Taiwan and the Philippines. In China, World Vision monitored the situation and decided a response was not necessary in the well-resourced coastal province.
World Vision's response effort in Taiwan assisted over 8,700 people, with activities including:
- The provision of food, clean water and cleaning materials to households
- The distribution of relief kits including food, wter, clothing, cleaning appliances and items for children to over 5,000 families
- The provision of shelter materials
- The establishment of 10 Child Friendly Spaces to care for more than 4,451 children
The response effort in the Philippines included:
- Provision of food aid to nearly 2,000 displaced families
- Distribution of bread and water to almost 800 people, including 264 children in two evacuation centres
Children Sponsored by Australians
In the Philippines, some families from sponsorship programs took refuge in evacuation centres or with relatives. No sponsored children were reported injured.
No Australian funded projects were affected in China and Taiwan.


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HL-FM1000B/1200B Water-soluble glue paper laminating machine USE: Water-soluble laminating machine is full environment-friendly laminating machinery, it use environmental protection of water-soluble glue, can be put film (BOPP) or polyester film and print Lamination. Products with a high degree of transparency, three-dimensional sense of strong, sticky all performance is good, there is no snow, the non-foaming, non-toxic, tasteless and so on. Widely used textbooks, book cover, Pictures, calendars, product samples, packaging carton mounted plastic, improve print quality are the ideal equipment.
HL-FM1000B/1200B Water-soluble glue paper laminating machine
1. The machine used imported inverter, with stable performance.
2. It equips with the automatic stopping for stacking paper, paper counting, automatic film cutting, treatment of finished product fast pushing etc. systems.
3. This machine has a compact structure and reasonable, with high-speed and energy-saving.
4. adopts immersion coating method, the pump automatic purvey glue.
5. Power supply for 220V, 50HZ.
6. The machine adopts Cast-iron structure, long service life, no deformation.
7. The machine using four rollers double pressure Lamination, product quality is stable and reliable.
|Power||220V 50HZ||220V 50H|

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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Community Food Economy: The community food economy map is a platform for adding information about individuals' experiences within the food economy. It is ultimately up to community organizations and their members what information they would like to have displayed on this map. The information added to this map could include economic activity that is accounted for in the "community economy", such as bartering, trading, sharing of food; as examples, the map could include backyard garden or rooftop food production, informal catering services, gardening activities and workshops, or information about free meals. Clicking on any of the maps below will bring you to the dynamic map in Google Fusion. At the bottom of the page are links to the editable versions of each of these maps.
The Google Fusion Table User's Guide will help with navigating and editing the maps.
Food Economy Maps:
Editable Map Links:


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Dry screw vacuum pump operation within the pump chamber completely has no oil or water, because it is direct gas circuit design, can dry screw vacuum pump out the processing of condensable vapor and gas containing small particles without residual gas in the pump. Because the pump cavity there is no contact between metal and metal, the wear is greatly reduced. Dry screw pump is water cooling system, air system to provide choice.
Is equal pitch design, such as dry screw vacuum pump can began under atmospheric pressure suction to pressure at full speed to 1 Torr (1.3 mbara), limiting vacuum of 0.05 Torr (0.08 mbara) in the process of running without oil or water, the pump cavity without some contact, simple, strong design work can handle a by-product of the liquid, condensate, even small particles, dispirited channel can make the pump discharge rapidly, direct drive or V belt by long rotor, quiet operation, less than 85 decibels. Dry screw vacuum pump chamber completely oil-free water, straight air design, dry screw vacuum pump can handle the gas containing condensable vapor and containing small particles without remaining in the pump gas.
Dry screw vacuum pump five types of combination
I. combined type (logi + jaw)
Combined (luo times + claw) screw vacuum pump, with roots to develop the vacuum thermal efficiency under lower water pressure, with claws to develop the vacuum thermal efficiency under higher water pressure
The basic concept of it is the same as that of the circular lobe type. Some also change the final stage of the screw vacuum pump to a star stroke, so that the steam can be divided into five parts during the rotation of the entire circle, just as the three-lobe stroke can be divided into three parts
Two, internal tightening screw type
The continuous reduction of the capacity between the screw leads to the tightening of the screw vacuum pump. In many processes, this type of internal tightening, like a multistage centrifugal pump, simply causes the physical transformation of the vapor in the screw vacuum pump resulting in dry solids or vaporization
Three, double circular lobe type
The two-lobed multistage reclassification makes the steam loop equal to chaos, and each stage requires a large amount of hydrogen to have the effect of water mixing and isolation. In order to reach a good vacuum, there are very strict rules on the clearance. This classification increases the internal tightening ratio and makes the screw vacuum pump lower power consumption
Four or three circular lobes
The mechanism of three circular lobes classification is the same as that of the method described. The steam is divided into three parts only when rotating the whole circle, but not into two parts as in the double circular lobes classification. In order to further reduce the power consumption, some will use two dc motors in the gearbox, but this will also reduce the torque and potential for restart
Five, external tightening screw type
Two equal – distance screw rods are used in the drawing of external tension screw. This makes the screw vacuum pump internal tightening reduction, so that the steam loop is simple. In that way, the vapor body in the screw vacuum pump body retention time is short. This classification is very reliable in the chaotic process of photoelectric devices


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Publication: Research - peer-review › Journal article – Annual report year: 2008
This paper reports the formation of Ge nanoclusters in a multi-layer structure consisting of alternating thin films of Ge-doped silica glass and SiGe, deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and post annealed at 1100 °C in N2 atmosphere. We studied the annealed samples by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy. As-deposited and annealed samples were analyzed by secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). TEM investigation shows that Ge nanoclusters were formed in the as-deposited SiGe layer and the SiGe layer was transformed into a silicon dioxide layer embedded with Ge nanoclusters after annealing. These nanoclusters are crystalline and varied in size. There were no clusters in the Ge-doped glass layer. Raman spectra verified the existence of crystalline Ge clusters. The positional shift of the Ge vibrational peak with the change of the focus depth indicates that the distribution of the stress applied to the Ge clusters varies with depth. SIMS measurements show clearly the dramatic O increase in the as-deposited SiGe layer after annealing. The creation of Ge nanoclusters by the combination of PECVD and annealing makes possible the application in complicated waveguide components.
|Citations||Web of Science® Times Cited: 3|


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8 oz Natural HDPE Plastic Spray Bottles (Red/White Trigger Sprayer) - 32108-X301R
- 8 oz Natural HDPE Plastic Spray Bottles
- Includes Red/White Trigger Sprayer
- FDA Compliant, BPA Free*
Item # 32108-X301R
Our 8 oz. Natural (HDPE) Plastic Spray Bottle is ideal for many uses. Great for household and industrial-strength cleaners, air and fabric fresheners, just plain water and much more. This Natural color bottle comes with a well-constructed Red/White trigger sprayer.
*Bisphenol A is a chemical sometimes used in the manufacture of certain plastics. Bisphenol A was not used in the manufacture of this item.
- Container withstands autoclaving - sterilizing by achieved through high-pressure saturated steam and heat.
- BPA Non-Intent means BPA was not an intentionally added substance to the manufacturing process.
- Case Packed in a convenient re-shipper carton with carboard dividers, reducing damage and ideal for reuse.
- Child-resistant items are engineered & tested to reduce risks of children under 5 accessing harmful amount of contents, while being user-friendly for seniors.
- Dishwasher safe containers withstand high temperatures, water pressure, and detergents present in dishwashers.
- Products engineered to reduce negative environmental & economic impacts over their life cycle, from the raw materials to the final disposal.
- Constructed of FDA-compliant materials suitable for contact with food.
- Factory Mutual has tested & certified this product to ensure it meets rigorous loss prevention standards.
- Product is suitable for storing in freezer.
- Product has the ability to resist degradation under extreme heat.
- Container is suitable for high pressure processing.
- Containers engineered to prevent leaks and unplanned evacuation of contents. Must be used with cap provided to ensure leakproof performance.
- Product is suitable for microwave use.
- National Sanitation Foundation certifies this product & its manufacturing process comply with standards for safety, quality, sustainability or performance.
- Product is 100% recyclable.
- A tamper-evident container has one or more barriers to entry which if missing shows visual evidence the container was tampered with.
- Packaging engineered & rigorously tested to meet government standards for the shipment of regulated substances. Consult 49 CFR for proper use & labelling.
- US Dept. of Agriculture Approved. Visit _URL_ for more information.
- Provides varying degrees of protection from UV light. Test to ensure packaging meets product protection requirements.
- Learn about the Benefits of E-Commerce Ready Packaging


.
This is because the grease tends to create holds in the welds themselves that can penetrate the metal.
The same is true of zinc, so neither substance is recommended to cover an area that has been welded.
In addition, while traditional paint now has a rougher surface to stick, it is usually too deep to be any good.
This is because moisture can now form underneath the paint which causes it to slide off and creates areas for the rusting process to begin.
There are two methods that can keep welded metal from rusting.
The first is dipping the welded area into a bath consisting of molten zinc.
While this can create a rust-proof coating for the metal, it often does not fill in all the rough areas.
This means that there will be some spots where rust can form even if the metal itself has been fully coated.
Another way to protect the welded railings from rust and corrosion is by applying powder coating.
Powder coating as the name implies is a powdery substance that can coat metal effectively without the downsides of grease or pre-galvanization.
It sticks to the surface thanks to an electrical charge which causes the powder to bond effectively.
Plus, it can be applied in an even coat and when baked into the metal it will become smooth and resilient to the weathering process.
Overall, there are several advantages that powder coating has over traditional paints thanks to its flexibility which resists cracking.
While it is difficult to touch up if imperfections appear, that does not happen with the high-quality applications of powder coating.
The Bottom Line
Choosing the right paint is a key to success when you want to paint your outdoor wrought iron fence, handrailings, palisade, or paling.
No matter you are painting them in your backyard garden or near your driveway, you should also know how to start the painting, what other products to use and what are the exact steps you will need to follow.
The above guide will hopefully help you out – the next time you want to refinish them to make them look new.
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Read the "It is the east" Romeo & Juliet quote below with modern English translation & analysis:
Spoken by Romeo, Romeo & Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2
"It is the east, and Juliet is the sun"
"It is the east" Quote Translation
Romeo is looking up at Juliet's window and the light comes on. He is saying that he is looking eastwards and seeing Juliet would be seeing the sun coming up in the east. He is referring to her beauty and all those things associated with the sun. This line is part of the longer "What light from yonder window breaks" soliloquy spoken by Romeo.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


Copyright © 2016 Hail Science
Hail Science
Q&A: Markus Buehler on setting coronavirus and AI-inspired proteins to music
The proteins that make up all living things are alive with music. Just ask Markus Buehler: The musician and MIT professor develops artificial intelligence models to design new proteins, sometimes by translating them into sound. His goal is to create new biological materials for sustainable, non-toxic applications. In a project with the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, Buehler is searching for a protein to extend the shelf-life of perishable food. In a new study in Extreme Mechanics Letters, he and his colleagues offer a promising candidate: a silk protein made by honeybees for use in hive building.
In another recent study, in APL Bioengineering, he went a step further and used AI discover an entirely new protein. As both studies went to print, the Covid-19 outbreak was surging in the United States, and Buehler turned his attention to the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the appendage that makes the novel coronavirus so contagious. He and his colleagues are trying to unpack its vibrational properties through molecular-based sound spectra, which could hold one key to stopping the virus. Buehler recently sat down to discuss the art and science of his work.
Q: Your work focuses on the alpha helix proteins found in skin and hair. Why makes this protein so intriguing?
A: Proteins are the bricks and mortar that make up our cells, organs, and body. Alpha helix proteins are especially important. Their spring-like structure gives them elasticity and resilience, which is why skin, hair, feathers, hooves, and even cell membranes are so durable. But they're not just tough mechanically, they have built-in antimicrobial properties. With IBM, we're trying to harness this biochemical trait to create a protein coating that can slow the spoilage of quick-to-rot foods like strawberries.
Q: How did you enlist AI to produce this silk protein?
A: We trained a deep learning model on the Protein Data Bank, which contains the amino acid sequences and three-dimensional shapes of about 120,000 proteins. We then fed the model a snippet of an amino acid chain for honeybee silk and asked it to predict the protein's shape, atom-by-atom. We validated our work by synthesizing the protein for the first time in a lab — a first step toward developing a thin antimicrobial, structurally-durable coating that can be applied to food. My colleague, Benedetto Marelli, specializes in this part of the process. We also used the platform to predict the structure of proteins that don't yet exist in nature. That's how we designed our entirely new protein in the APL Bioengineering study.
Q: How does your model improve on other protein prediction methods?
A: We use end-to-end prediction. The model builds the protein's structure directly from its sequence, translating amino acid patterns into three-dimensional geometries. It's like translating a set of IKEA instructions into a built bookshelf, minus the frustration. Through this approach, the model effectively learns how to build a protein from the protein itself, via the language of its amino acids. Remarkably, our method can accurately predict protein structure without a template. It outperforms other folding methods and is significantly faster than physics-based modeling. Because the Protein Data Bank is limited to proteins found in nature, we needed a way to visualize new structures to make new proteins from scratch.
Q: How could the model be used to design an actual protein?
A: We can build atom-by-atom models for sequences found in nature that haven't yet been studied, as we did in the APL Bioengineering study using a different method. We can visualize the protein's structure and use other computational methods to assess its function by analyzing its stablity and the other proteins it binds to in cells. Our model could be used in drug design or to interfere with protein-mediated biochemical pathways in infectious disease.
Q: What's the benefit of translating proteins into sound?
A: Our brains are great at processing sound! In one sweep, our ears pick up all of its hierarchical features: pitch, timbre, volume, melody, rhythm, and chords. We would need a high-powered microscope to see the equivalent detail in an image, and we could never see it all at once. Sound is such an elegant way to access the information stored in a protein.
Typically, sound is made from vibrating a material, like a guitar string, and music is made by arranging sounds in hierarchical patterns. With AI we can combine these concepts, and use molecular vibrations and neural networks to construct new musical forms. We've been working on methods to turn protein structures into audible representations, and translate these representations into new materials.
Q: What can the sonification of SARS-CoV-2's "spike" protein tell us?
Q: What did you learn?
Q: Can any of this address Covid-19, and the virus that causes it?
A: In the longer term, yes. Translating proteins into sound gives scientists another tool to understand and design proteins. Even a small mutation can limit or enhance the pathogenic power of SARS-CoV-2. Through sonification, we can also compare the biochemical processes of its spike protein with previous coronaviruses, like SARS or MERS.
In the music we created, we analyzed the vibrational structure of the spike protein that infects the host. Understanding these vibrational patterns is critical for drug design and much more. Vibrations may change as temperatures warm, for example, and they may also tell us why the SARS-CoV-2 spike gravitates toward human cells more than other viruses. We're exploring these questions in current, ongoing research with my graduate students.
We might also use a compositional approach to design drugs to attack the virus. We could search for a new protein that matches the melody and rhythm of an antibody capable of binding to the spike protein, interfering with its ability to infect.
Q: How can music aid protein design?
A: You can think of music as an algorithmic reflection of structure. Bach's Goldberg Variations, for example, are a brilliant realization of counterpoint, a principle we've also found in proteins. We can now hear this concept as nature composed it, and compare it to ideas in our imagination, or use AI to speak the language of protein design and let it imagine new structures. We believe that the analysis of sound and music can help us understand the material world better. Artistic expression is, after all, just a model of the world within us and around us.
Co-authors of the study in Extreme Mechanics Letters are: Zhao Qin, Hui Sun, Eugene Lim and Benedetto Marelli at MIT; and Lingfei Wu, Siyu Huo, Tengfei Ma and Pin-Yu Chen at IBM Research. Co-author of the study in APL Bioengineering is Chi-Hua Yu. Buehler's sonification work is supported by MIT's Center for Art, Science and Technology (CAST) and the Mellon Foundation.
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Any-side-up diagrams for representing scientific disciplines were
introduced by Herbert Walter in his textbook, Genetics, in
1928. Walter's diagram has been adapted here for the discipline
of molecular evolution.
Any-side-up diagrams capture multiple perspectives on a discipline
while not privledging any single perspective by virtue of the orientation
of the text. The concentric circles of the diagram for molecular
evolution are framed by the four major perspectives informing the
study of molecular evolution: systematics, evolutionary genetics,
molecular biology, and genomics. Text in the outer layer of the
concentric circles represent important subjects of inquiry within
molecular evolution. They are placed near perspectives that have
influenced them. Many entries could easily fill this part of the
diagram; only a small subset of subjects are represented here. The
inner circle of the diagram represents the material or objects of
inquiry of molecular evolution: DNA, RNA, and proteins. While this
may seem to include most biologically important molecules, it does
not include all biologically important molecules.
This diagram provides an overview of the many issues under investigation
in molecular evolution. It also posits molecular evolution as a
discipline at the nexus of several others. While the transdisciplinary
nature of molecular evolution is captured in the any-side-up diagram,
the history of this field is not. A historical overview of the study
of molecular evolution is presented in the General
Timeline avaliable here.
This page was written by Michael Dietrich. It was last updated
on May 15, 2004.


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Inner and Outer Corners
The next thing we need to take note of it the idea of an "inner corner" and an "outer corner" of a Ferrers diagram, and thus of a partition.
An inner corner of a Ferrers diagram is a cell that, if it's removed, the rest of the diagram is still the Ferrers diagram of a partition. It must be the rightmost cell in its row, and the bottommost cell in its column. Similarly, an outer corner is one that, if it's added to the diagram, the result is still the Ferrers diagram of a partition. This is a little more subtle: it must be just to the right of the end of a row, and just below the bottom of a column.
As an example, consider the partition, with Ferrers diagram
We highlight the inner corners by shrinking them, and mark the outer corners with circles:
That is, there are three ways we could remove a cell and still have the Ferrers diagram of a partition:
And there are four ways that we could add a cell and still have the Ferrers diagram of a partition:
If the first partition is, we write a generic partition that comes from removing a single inner corner by. Similarly, we write a generic partition that comes from adding a single outer corner by. In our case, if, then the three possible partitions are,, and, while the four possible partitions are,,, and.
Now, as a quick use of this concept, think about how to fill a Ferrers diagram to make a standard Young tableau. It should be clear that since is the largest entry in the tableau, it must be in the rightmost cell of its row and the bottommost cell of its column in order for the tableau to be standard. Thus must occur in an inner corner. This means that we can describe any standard tableau by picking which inner corner contains, removing that corner, and filling the rest with a standard tableau with entries. Thus, the number of standard -tableaux is the sum of all the standard -tableaux:


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Star of David
Why does the Jewish star have six points? The Encyclopedia of Judaica explained it is from King David's time, and that it was shaped like the hexagon. This answer did not sit well with me. Perhaps you have other sources that explains it better?
The Aish Rabbi Replies:
In modern times, the Star of David has become a premier Jewish symbol. This six-pointed star (hexagram), made of two interlocking triangles, can be found on mezuzahs, menorahs, tallis bags and kippahs. Ambulances in Israel bear the sign of the "Red Star of David," and the flag of Israel has a blue Star of David planted squarely in the center.
What is the origin of this six-pointed symbol?
Through the Jewish people's long and often difficult history, we have come to the realization that our only hope is to place our trust in God. The six points of the Star of David symbolize God's rule over the universe in all six directions: north, south, east, west, up and down.
Originally, the Hebrew name Magen David -- literally "Shield of David" -- poetically referred to God. It acknowledges that our military hero, King David, did not win by his own might, but by the support of the Almighty. This is also alluded to in the third blessing after the Haftorah reading on Shabbat: "Blessed are you God, Shield of David."
Various other explanations exist on the meaning behind the Star of David.
One idea is that a six-pointed star receives form and substance from its solid center. This inner core represents the spiritual dimension, surrounded by the six universal directions. (A similar idea applies to Shabbat -- the seventh day which gives balance and perspective to the six weekdays.)
In Kabbalah, the two triangles represent the dichotomies inherent in man: good vs. evil, spiritual vs. physical, etc. The two triangles may also represent the reciprocal relationship between the Jewish people and God. The triangle pointing "up" symbolizes our good deeds which go up to heaven, and then activate a flow of goodness back down to the world, symbolized by the triangle pointing down.
A more practical theory is that during the Bar Kochba rebellion (first century), a new technology was developed for shields using the inherent stability of the triangle. Behind the shield were two interlocking triangles, forming a hexagonal pattern of support points. (Buckminster Fuller showed how strong triangle-based designs are with his geodesics.)
One cynical suggestion is that the Star of David is an appropriate symbol for the internal strife that often afflicts Jewish nation: two triangles pointing in opposite directions!
The Star of David was a sad symbol of the Holocaust, when the Nazis forced Jews to wear an identifying yellow star. Actually, Jews were forced to wear special badges during the Middle Ages, both by Muslim and Christian authorities, and even in Israel under the Ottoman Empire.
So whether it is a blue star waving proudly on a flag, or a gold star adorning a synagogue's entrance, the Star of David stands as a reminder that for the Jewish people... in God we trust.


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, Guy Nevada State Archives Historical Myth a Month: Myth #28, Las Vegas: Nevada's Next State Capital. Updated July 14, 2003. Accessed June 9, 2005; originally published as Sierra Sage, Carson City/Carson Valley, Nevada. May 1998 edition.
- New Hampshire Senate Page For Kids. New Hampshire General Court. Accessed June 9, 2005. New Hampshire History in Brief. New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources. Created 1989. Accessed June 9, 2005.
- Oregon Legislative Assembly History. Oregon State Archives. Accessed February 17, 2012.
- The History of Pennsylvania's Capital. Pennsylvania Department of Education. Accessed July 24, 2006.
- Capital Cities. Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. 2002. Accessed March 12, 2006.
- Early History of Montpelier, Vermont. Vermont Historical Society. Accessed June 9, 2005; adapted from Esther Munroe Swift, Vermont Place-Names: Footprints of History, 1977, 1996, and Montpelier Heritage Group, Three Walking Tours of Montpelier, Vt., 1991.
- About Our Capital. Virginia General Assembly. Accessed July 20, 2006.
- The History of Olympia. City of Olympia. Accessed June 9, 2005.
- Cravens, Stanley H."Capitals and Capitols in Early Wisconsin". Wisconsin Blue Book, 1983–1984 edition.
- Saban, Mary Thompson, Wyoming Sage: Brief History of Wyoming. Updated January 17, 2004. Accessed June 10, 2005.
|Find more about state capital at Wikipedia's sister projects|
|Definitions and translations from Wiktionary|
|Media from Commons|
|Learning resources from Wikiversity|
|News stories from Wikinews|
|Quotations from Wikiquote|
|Source texts from Wikisource|
|Textbooks from Wikibooks|
- Florida Facts - The Capitol
- The Capitalization of Georgia
- The State Houses of Louisiana
- Las Vegas: Nevada's Next State Capital?
- New Hampshire Senate for Kids - Capitals
- Handbook of Texas Online – Capitals
- Colonial Capitals of the Dominion of Virginia
- Utah History To Go - Utah's Capitols


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SAGE Publications Inc.
School of Medical and Health Sciences/ Centre for Exercise and Sport Science Research
Accuracy of a projectile is typically quantified as the proportion of successful target hits, or the distance an object finishes from the target. Serving in sports such as badminton differs since the shuttlecock is usually intercepted by the opponent before landing on the target (i.e. court surface). Therefore, landing accuracy measures are inappropriate and a new method of determining accuracy of the serve is needed. During interviews, elite coaches and players described an accurate short serve as crossing the net with low clearance and having an apex before the net. Three-dimensional trajectory of the shuttlecock was therefore tracked from eight national-level players who performed 30 short serves in simulated match conditions (i.e. with an opponent); 27% of all serves were classified as 'accurate', 27% of serves as 'inaccurate', 21% with a 'good apex' position, and 25% with a 'good clearance' height. The proposed method of assessing shuttlecock trajectory as a measure of accuracy could be adopted by coaches and players to assess and improve short serve accuracy. Furthermore, this method is more representative of a match environment since the shuttlecock rarely lands because the opponent returns the serve.


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On the island of Flores in Indonesia, villagers have long told tales of a diminutive, upright-walking creature with a lopsided gait, a voracious appetite, and soft, murmuring speech.
They call it ebu gogo, "the grandmother who eats anything." Scientists¿ best guess was that macaque monkeys inspired the ebu gogo lore. But last October, an alluring alternative came to light. A team of Australian and Indonesian researchers excavating a cave on Flores unveiled the remains of a lilliputian human--one that stood barely a meter tall--whose kind lived as recently as 13,000 years ago.
This article was originally published with the title The Littlest Human.


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Technology Transfer Sponsored by
Most consumer attention to oysters and mussels has centered on their taste, beautiful by-products or aphrodisiac effects; however, their adhesive properties are what caught the attention of Jonathan Wilker, PhD, associate professor of chemistry, and his research team at Purdue University. Wilker's team has been studying marine biological adhesives for years and has found that the two mollusks produce adhesives that form a non-toxic, strong bond in wet environments. Although Wilker mainly has worked to develop synthetic versions of the adhesives for medical use, he is investigating other applications, which may include personal care.
Wilker has studied the adhesives produced by various marine entities, including Mytilus edulis (the blue mussel) and Crassostea virginica (Eastern oyster)—an oyster popular in the human diet. He notes one similarity. "Mussels, oysters and barnacles all use cross-linked proteins, (long biological polymers), to make their adhesive," said Wilker. The difference, however, is in the composition of the adhesive.
To study the adhesive, Wilker and his team cut open the shells of oysters and observed the interface where they were attached; he compared this with separate, unattached portions of shell as a control. "[Since] the oyster's adhesive is comprised of materials similar to the shell, we speculate the cement comes from the same place, system or organ as the shell," he furthered.
Both the oyster shell and adhesive consist of calcium carbonate and protein as starting materials but the shell is mostly calcium carbonate with a small amount of protein, whereas there is more protein and less calcium carbonate in the adhesive. "In the cement, the extra reactivity is added to the proteins so they crosslink together," Wilker explained. The adhesive produced by oysters is 10-15% protein and 85-90% calcium carbonate (chalk), which according to Wilker results in a hard inorganic, cement-like material.
Unlike oysters, Wilker notes that mussels separately produce their adhesive and shell. "If you crack open a mussel, a separate organ [is present that] produces the adhesive," said Wilker. He added that the adhesive produced by mussels is about 99% proteins and more like soft organic glue.


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Study of Mole Astrology for Men and Women
If we look at it normally then moles are nothing but simple pigmentation on the skin due to some reason. But astrologically when we study them, they all have a certain characteristic attached with them which influences our lives. Moreover, their placement has different significance based on the gender. This post studies the significance of placement of moles on different body parts for men and women. So let us explore this interesting topic to find out the science behind it [...]
Moles on Body To Worry About
We all have moles on our body but as a matter of fact, it is not necessary that all these moles are something that have relation with our destiny or define our character. Rather there are a few which are a matter of concern for us. Skin cancer has become one of the most common forms of cancer, especially in the United States of America and if something is not done immediately to prevent it then 20% of the United [...]
Relationship Between Zodiac and Moles
When we talk about astrology, we discuss stars and planets; their effect on our lives and how change in their position and equation completely changes our lives. It is believed in astrology that different parts of the human body are influenced by different stars. In the study of moles i.e. Moleoscopy, all these mysteries are deeply studied. This post unfolds the connection between zodiac signs and moles. But before studying that let us have a look at the relationship between [...]
Unfold Your Destiny with Clues Given by Moles
Moles are dark colored marks present on the skin. These pigment concentrations have interesting significance in Indian and Chinese astrology. They are considered important in predicting the future of a person. These are clues of your destiny which reflect your destiny which emerge as a result of planetary positions and signs in your life. The interpretation of moles depends upon their shape, size and color along with their placement on the body. Red, homey and green colored moles are considered [...]


text:
Mexican rice borers have crawled into southwestern Louisiana rice plants and are heading for the nation's sugar bowl, where the inch-long moth grubs are a much bigger threat.
Although they can do serious damage in rice fields, crawling in and out of the narrow stalks makes the caterpillars vulnerable to pesticides, while fat sugar canes give them permanent shelter, LSU Agricultural Center entomologist Gene Reagan said.
Louisiana grows about 40 percent of the nation's sugar, with another 45 percent or more grown in Florida. It's the nation's third-biggest rice-growing state, behind Arkansas and California.
The one Louisiana rice paddy where Mexican rice borers have been found so far was near Vinton, though they probably are in others, AgCenter rice expert Johnny Saichuk said Tuesday.
"It causes what farmers call a whitehead.... Grains are blanked out because there's no nutrients being carried up" the injured stem, he said.
He said the Vinton-area farmer had planted his other rice fields with insecticide-treated seeds, and they were fine. The infested field is one where he raises crawfish after harvesting rice, Saichuk said. To keep from poisoning his crawfish, he used untreated seed.
As the moth's range expands, it will become a problem for more farmers who rotate rice and crawfish, Saichuk said -- though even before its arrival, "the marriage between rice and crawfish production turned out not to be as good as people first envisioned."
The grubs, which hatch into brown moths about a half-inch to three-quarters of an inch long, eat a wide variety of grains and grasses.
U.S. entomologists found them in Arizona in 1917 and in California in the 1920s. But the threat to Louisiana's sugar became apparent only in the 1980s, when they reached some experimental sugarcane fields in Texas, Reagan said.
Reagan went to some of those farms. At that time, farmers still set fire to their fields just before harvest to burn the leaves from the stalks.
"There were more than a few fields that the farmers could not harvest at all. There was nothing to carry to the mill. They'd try to burn the trash and the field would just completely burn up," he said.
Reagan said it will probably take them another year or so to reach commercial sugarcane fields in Louisiana.
He and Texas A&M entomologist M.O. "Mo" Way have been studying ways to control the bug in sugarcane since the 1980s. Their list is topped by irrigation. Though the moths lay eggs on some green foliage in rice, "on sugarcane we've never found them on anything but brown and dying foliage," Reagan said.
Many pests tend to lay more eggs in stressed plants, and dry sugarcane leaves provide extra protection from weather and predators, he said: as the leaves wilt they fold, and eggs touch both sides of the fold.
Because Louisiana gets more rain than the Rio Grande Valley, the cane may be less attractive to the moths, he said. Agronomists also have been working to breed varieties of sugarcane that are resistant to the grubs -- and one of Reagan's students recently worked out why pesticides don't control the rice borer well in sugarcane. "The insect goes into the plant very quickly" after hatching, Reagan said.
He said the student, Blake Wilson, also has been working on how to time the pesticide. When traps baited with the sex attractant of female moths catch 20 to 25 male moths a week, pesticide residue is most likely to poison grubs as they hatch, he said.
All of that research has been done in the Rio Grande Valley and Beaumont areas. "We wouldn't even think of studying the live insect here at LSU until the insect is already here," he said.
"We've learned a lot about the ways we're going to try to manage the insect and get ready for it."
By Janet McConnaughey, Associated Press


Table of Contents
hashdeep - Compute, compare, or audit multiple message digests
hashdeep -V | -h
hashdeep [-c [,]] [-k ] [-i ] [-f ] [-o ] [-amxwMXrespblvv] [-F] [-j ] [FILES]
Computes multiple hashes, or message digests, for any number of files while optionally recursively digging through the directory structure. By default the program computes MD5 and SHA-256 hashes, equivalent to -c md5,sha256. Can also take a list of known hashes and display the filenames of input files whose hashes either do or do not match any of the known hashes. Can also use a list of known hashes to audit a set of FILES. Errors are reported to standard error. If no FILES are specified, reads from standard input.
-c [,...]
Computation mode. Compute hashes of FILES using the algorithms specified. Legal values are md5, sha1, sha256, tiger, and whirlpool.
Load a file of known hashes. This flag is required when using any of the matching or audit modes (i.e. -m, -x, -M, -X, or -a) This flag may be used more than once to add multiple sets of known hashes.
Loading sets with different hash algorithms can sometimes generate spurrious hash collisions. For example, let's say we have two hash sets, A and B, which have some overlapping files. For example, the file /usr/bin/bad is in both sets. In A we've recorded the MD5 and SHA-256. In B we've recorded the MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-256. Because these two records are different, they will both be loaded. When the program computes all three hashes and compares them to the set of knowns, we will get an exact match from the record in B and a collision from the record in A.
Audit mode. Each input file is compared against the set of knowns. An audit is said to pass if each input file is matched against exactly one file in set of knowns. Any collisions, new files, or missing files will make the audit fail. Using this flag alone produces a message, either "Audit passed" or "Audit Failed". Use the verbose modes, -v, for more details. Using -v prints the number of files in each category. Using -v a second time prints any discrepancies. Using -v a third time prints the results for every file examined and every known file.
Due to limitations in the program, any filenames with Unicode characters will appear to have moved during an audit. See the section "UNICODE SUPPORT" below.
Positive matching, requires at least one use of the -k flag. The input files are examined one at a time, and only those files that match the list of known hashes are output. The only acceptable format for known hashes is the output of previous hashdeep runs.
If standard input is used with the -m flag, displays "stdin" if the input matches one of the hashes in the list of known hashes. If the hash does not match, the program displays no output.
This flag may not be used in conjunction with the -x, -X, or -a flags. See the section "UNICODE SUPPORT" below.
Negative matching. Same as the -m flag above, but does negative matching. That is, only those files NOT in the list of known hashes are displayed.
This flag may not be used in conjunction with the -m, -M, or -a flags. See the section "UNICODE SUPPORT" below.
-f
Takes a list of files to be hashed from the specified file. Each line is assumed to be a filename. This flag can only be used once per invocation. If it's used a second time, the second instance will clobber the first.
Note that you can still use other flags, such as the -m or -x modes, and submit additional FILES on the command line.
When used with positive matching modes (-m,-M) displays the filename of the known hash that matched the input file. See the section "UNICODE SUPPORT" below.
-M and -X
Same as -m and -x above, but displays the hash for each file that does (or does not) match the list of known hashes.
Enables recursive mode. All subdirectories are traversed. Please note that recursive mode cannot be used to examine all files of a given file extension. For example, calling hashdeep -r *.txt will examine all files in directories that end in.txt.
Displays a progress indicator and estimate of time remaining for each file being processed. Time estimates for files larger than 4GB are not available on Windows. This mode may not be used with th -p mode.
-i
Size threshold mode. Only hash files smaller than the given the threshold. Sizes may be specified using IEC multipliers b,k,m,g,t,p, and e.
-o
Enables expert mode. Allows the user specify which (and only which) types of files are processed. Directory processing is still controlled with the -r flag. The expert mode options allowed are:
f - Regular files
b - Block Devices
c - Character Devices
p - Named Pipes
l - Symbolic Links
s - Sockets
d - Solaris Doors
e - Windows PE executables
Enables silent mode. All error messages are supressed.
Piecewise mode. Breaks files into chunks before hashing. Chunks may be specified using IEC multipliers b,k,m,g,t,p, and e. (Never let it be said that the author didn't plan ahead.)
Enables verbose mode. Use again to make the program more verbose. This mostly changes the behvaior of the audit mode, -a.
Controls multi-threading. By default the program will create one producer thread to scan the file system and one hashing thread per CPU core. Multi-threading causes output filenames to be in non-deterministic order, as files that take longer to hash will be delayed while they are hashed. If a deterministic order is required, specify -j0 to disable multi-threading
Output in Digital Forensics XML (DFXML) format.
Quote Unicode output. For example, the snowman is shown as U+C426.
Specifies the input mode that is used to read files. The default is -Fb (buffered I/O) which reads files with fopen(). Specifying -Fu will use unbuffered I/O and read the file with open(). Specifying -Fm will use memory-mapped I/O which will be faster on some platforms, but which (currently) will not work with files that produce I/O errors.
Show a help screen and exit.
Show the version number and exit.
Unicode Support
As of version 3.0 the program supports Unicode characters in filenames on Microsoft Windows systems for filenames specified on the command line with globbing (e.g. *), for files specified with the -f of files to hash, and for files read from directories using the -r option.
By default all program input and output should be in UTF-8. The program automatically converts this to UTF-16 for opening files).
On Unix/Linux/MacOS, you should use a terminal emulator that supports UTF-8 and UTF-8 characters in filenames will be properly displayed.
On Windows, please note that the onsole is not capiable of displaying Unicode characters. You must either redirect output to a file and open the file with Wordpad (which can display Unicode), or you must specify the -u option to quote Unicode using standard U+XXXX notation.
Currently the file name of a file containing known hashes may not be specified as a unicode filename, but you can specify the name using tab completition or an asterisk (e.g. md5deep -m *.txt where there is only one file with a.txt extension).
Return Value
Returns zero on success, one on error.
hashdeep was written by Jesse Kornblum,, and Simson Garfinkel.
Known Issues
Using the -r flag cannot be used to recursively process all files of a given extension in a directory. This is a feature, not a bug. If you need to do this, use the find(1) command.
The program will fail if you attempt to compare 2^64 or more input files against a set of known files.
Reporting Bugs
We take all bug reports very seriously. Any bug that jeopardizes the forensic integrity of this program could have serious consequences on people's lives. When submitting a bug report, please include a description of the problem, how you found it, and your contact information.
Send bug reports to the author at the address above.
This program is a work of the US Government. In accordance with 17 USC 105, copyright protection is not available for any work of the US Government. This program is PUBLIC DOMAIN. Portions of this program contain code that is licensed under the terms of the General Public License (GPL). Those portions retain their original copyright and license. See the file COPYING for more details.
There is NO warranty for this program; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See Also
More information and installation instructions can be found in the README file. Current versions of both documents can be found on the project homepage:
The MD5 specification, RFC 1321, is available at
The SHA-1 specification, RFC 3174, is available at
The SHA-256 specification, FIPS 180-2, is available at
The Tiger specification is


User Defined Opcodes (UDO)
Csound allows the definition of opcodes inside the orchestra header using the opcodes opcode and endop. The defined opcode may run with a different number of control samples (ksmps) using setksmps.
To connect inputs and outputs for the UDO, use xin and xout.
An UDO looks like this:
 opcode Lowpass, a, akk
 setksmps 1 ; need sr=kr
ain, ka1, ka2 xin ; read input parameters
aout init 0 ; initialize output
aout = ain*ka1 + aout*ka2 ; simple tone-like filter
 xout aout ; write output
This UDO called Lowpass takes 3 inputs (the first is a-rate, and the next two are k-rate), and delivers 1 a-rate output. Notice the use of xin to receive inputs and xout to deliver outputs. Also note the use of setksmps, which is needed for the filter to work properly.
To use this UDO within an instrument, you would do something like:
afiltered Lowpass asource, kvalue1, kvalue2
See the entry for opcode for detailed information on UDO definition.
You can find many ready made UDO's (or contribute your own) at's User Defined Opcode Database.


Take the 2-minute tour ×
I recently realized that a mixed-model with only subject as a random factor and the other factors as fixed factors is equivalent to an ANOVA when setting the correlational structure of the mixed model to compound symmetry.
Therefore I would like to know what does compound symmetry mean in the context of a mixed (i.e., split-plot) ANOVA, at best explained in plain English.
Besides compound symmetry lme offers other types of correlational structures, such as
corSymm general correlation matrix, with no additional structure.
or different types of spatial correlation.
Therefore, I have the related question on which other types of correlational structures may be advisable to use in the context of designed experiments (with betweenand within-subjects factors)?
It would be great if answers could point to some references for different correlational structures.
share|improve this question
Since it would be hard for me to explain CS in plain English, just a comment: I like chapter 7 "Examining the Multilevel's Error Covariance Structure" in Singer/Willett's (2003) "Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis". It gives a great overview. – Bernd Weiss Sep 2 '11 at 12:18
I'll second the advice of getting a good textbook. Singer/Willett is good; I also like Weiss (2005) "Modeling Longitudinal Data"; chapter 8 "Modeling the Covariance Matrix" has this specific information. – Aaron Sep 2 '11 at 13:16
1 Answer 1
up vote 22 down vote accepted
Compound symmetry is essentially the "exchangeable" correlation structure, except with a specific decomposition for the total variance. For example, if you have mixed model for the subject $i$ in cluster $j$ response, $Y_{ij}$, with only a random intercept by cluster
$$ Y_{ij} = \alpha + \gamma_{j} + \varepsilon_{ij} $$
where $\gamma_{j}$ is the cluster $j$ random effect with variance $\sigma^{2}_{\gamma}$ and $\varepsilon_{ij}$ is the subject $i$ in cluster $j$ "measurement error" with variance $\sigma^{2}_{\varepsilon}$ and $\gamma_{j}, \varepsilon_{ij}$ are independent. This model implicitly specifies the compound symmetry covariance matrix between observations in the same cluster:
$$ {\rm cov}(Y_{ij}, Y_{kj}) = \sigma^{2}_{\gamma} + \sigma^{2}_{\varepsilon} \cdot \mathcal{I}(k = i) $$
Note that the compound symmetry assumption implies that the correlation between distinct members of a cluster is $\sigma^{2}_{\gamma}/(\sigma^{2}_{\gamma} + \sigma^{2}_{\varepsilon})$.
In "plain english" you might say this covariance structure implies that all distinct members of a cluster are equally correlated with each other and the total variation, $\sigma^{2} = \sigma^{2}_{\gamma} + \sigma^{2}_{\varepsilon}$, can be partitioned into the "shared" (within a cluster) component, $\sigma^{2}_{\gamma}$ and the "unshared" component, $\sigma^{2}_{\varepsilon}$.
Edit: To aid understanding in the "plain english" sense, consider an example where individuals are clustered within families so that $Y_{ij}$ denotes the subject $i$ in family $j$ response. In this case the compound symmetry assumption means that the total variation in $Y_{ij}$ can be partitioned into the variation within a family, $\sigma^{2}_{\varepsilon}$, and the variation between families, $\sigma^{2}_{\gamma}$.
share|improve this answer
(+1) Of possible interest also: An introduction to sphericity. – chl Nov 22 '12 at 10:37
I think you mean "where $\gamma_j$ is the cluster $j$ random effect"... What's the bit that goes $I(k=i)$? – Jack Tanner Nov 22 '12 at 13:07
Yes, thank you for the correction, _USER_. – Macro Dec 1 '12 at 20:32
Great answer, _USER_! – Kyle. Dec 1 '12 at 21:18
Thank you Kyle! Btw, _USER_, the $\mathcal{I}(k=i)$ bit was just a compact way of writing that, if you're talking about the same individual, then you have perfect correlation (i.e. the covariance is equal to the total variance); i.e. you have $\sigma_{\varepsilon}^2 + \sigma_{\gamma}^2$ down the diagonal and $\sigma_{\gamma}^2$ everywhere else. Does this clarify? – Macro Dec 1 '12 at 22:56
Your Answer


text:
Production Evaluation of Automated Reticle Defect Printability Prediction Application
Konferenz: EMLC 2007 - 23rd European Mask and Lithography Conference
22.01.2007 - 26.01.2007 in Grenoble, France
Tagungsband: EMLC 2007
Seiten: 7Sprache: EnglischTyp: PDFPersönliche VDE-Mitglieder erhalten auf diesen Artikel 10% Rabatt
Howard, William B.; Pomeroy, Scott (KLA-Tencor, 8834 N. Capital of Texas Highway, Suite 301, Austin, TX 78759 USA)
Moses, Raphael; Thaler, Thomas (Advanced Mask Technology Center, Rähnitzer Allee 9, 01109 Dresden, Germany)
The growing complexity of reticles and continual tightening of defect specifications causes the reticle defect disposition function to become increasingly difficult. No longer can defect specifications be distilled to a single number, nor can past simple classification rules be employed due to the effects of MEEF on actual printing behavior. The mask maker now requires lithography-based rules and capabilities for making these go/no-go decisions at the reticle inspection step. We have evaluated an automated system that predicts the lithographic significance of reticle defects using PROLITH(TM) technology. This printability prediction tool was evaluated and tested in a production environment using both standard test reticles and production samples in an advanced reticle manufacturing environment. Reference measurements on Zeiss AIMS(TM) systems were used to assess the accuracy of predicted results. The application, called the Automated Mask Defect Disposition System, or AMDD, models defective and non-defective test and reference images generated by a high-resolution inspection system. The results were calculated according to the wafer exposure conditions given at setup such that the reticle could be judged for its 'fitness-for-use' from a lithographic standpoint rather than from a simple physical measurement of the film materials. We present the methods and empirical results comparing 1D and 2D Intensity Difference Metrics (IDMs) with respect to AIMS and discuss the results of usability and productivity studies as they apply to manufacturing environments.


text:
Por Nora Dudwick, Kathleen Kuehnast, Veronica Nyhan Jones, and Michael Woolcock (World Bank)
Social capital, defined most practically as social networks and norms, mediates development opportunities and outcomes. As such, social capital research increasingly informs the design and evaluation of World Bank-supported projects and policies across diverse regions and countries, from Albania, Guatemala, and Indonesia to Nigeria, India, and the Kyrgyz Republic. While robust conclusions regarding correlations between development impacts and social capital can be gained through quantitative research alone, this is far from an ideal approach. Because social capital exists between individuals and groups, it is preferable to employ some qualitative and participatory methods to understand the causes and nuances of relationships and the contexts within which they exist.


Writing Exciting Sentences (Paperback)
by Alan Peat
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Many pupils already know how to write simple sentences. Writing Exciting Sentences: Age 7 Plus will help pupils to write more varied sentences which engage and captivate the reader. Twenty-five different sentence types are described in the book. They have all been used, successfully, with pupils aged between seven and 14. Each sentence type is given a title, which should be used regularly with pupils, as it is one of the keys to remembering the sentence types. This is followed by some examples for class use, a brief explanation of the sentence type and a range of teaching 'tips' which have worked for teachers piloting the approach. The range will help pupils to use a varied range of sentence types at appropriate points in both their fiction and non-fiction writing.
Book details
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What it is
CLNUPlot lets you manipulate plots in Lisp and then write out a command file that can executed in GNUPlot. The basic model is one of plots and data-sets. A plot contains information for the entire information display; for example, the title, the axis labels and so forth. Each data set contains information about how to display a single group of data in some format; e.g., the data, the display style, the name of the data in the legend and so forth. A plot contains one or data sets. For example, this
 '((1 2) (2 2.5) (3 3.1) (4 3.4) (5 4.2))
 :pointsize 2.0
 :linewidth 3.0
 :filename "simple-example"
 :xlabel "Bin Number"
 :ylabel "Dance Partners"
 :x-coord #'first
 :y-coord #'second
 :title "Bin Number versus Dance Partners"
 :ymin 0.0)
Mailing Lists
Where is it
CLNUPlot is on the CLiki. A darcs repository is available. The command to get it is below:
darcs get _URL_
CLNUPlot is also ASDF installable (and here is my GPG Key). This is probably a better way to get it since it has several dependencies. There's also a handy gzipped tar file.
What is happening
10 June 2008 - CLNUPlot finally reaches for its own home on common-lisp.net.
19 October 2007 - Mostly minor housecleaning; added trivial-shell dependency to make things easier.
3 January 2006 Just getting things set up here.


text:
Developing a Framework for Assessing and Fostering the Sustainability of Manufacturing Companies
Konferensbidrag (offentliggjort, men ej förlagsutgivet), 2017
The concept of sustainability encompasses economic, environmental, social and institutional considerations. Sustainable manufacturing (SM) is therefore a
multi-faceted concept. It broadly implies the development and implementation of technologies, projects and initiatives that are concerned with the life cycle of products and services, and are able to bring positive impacts to the environment, company stakeholders and profitability. Because of this,
achieving SM-related goals requires a holistic, life-cycle-thinking approach from manufacturing companies. Further, such an approach must rely on a logic of continuous improvement and ease of implementation in order to be effective.
Currently, there exists in the academic literature no
comprehensively structured frameworks that support
manufacturing companies in the identification of the issues and the capabilities that can either hinder or foster sustainability. This scarcity of support extends to difficulties in obtaining quantifiable measurements in order to objectively evaluate solutions and programs and identify improvement areas within SM for standards conformance.
To bridge this gap, this paper proposes the concept of a
framework for assessing and continuously improving the
sustainability of manufacturing companies. The framework
addresses strategies and projects for SM and operates in three sequential phases: analysis of the issues, design of solutions and continuous improvement. A set of interviews, observations and questionnaires are the research methods to be used for the implementation of the framework. Different decision-support methods - either already-existing or novel ones - can be "plugged into" each of the phases. These methods can assess anything from business capabilities to process maturity. In particular, the authors are working on the
development of a sustainable manufacturing maturity model
(SMMM) as decision support within the phase of "continuous improvement". The SMMM, inspired by previous maturity models, is made up of four maturity levels stemming from "non-existing" to "thriving". Aggregate findings from the use
of the framework should ultimately reveal to managers and CEOs the roadmap for achieving SM goals and identify the
maturity of their companies' processes and capabilities. Two cases from two manufacturing companies in Australia are currently being employed to develop and test the framework. The use of this framework will bring two main benefits: enable visual, intuitive internal sustainability benchmarking and raise awareness of improvement areas that lead companies towards an increasingly developed SM.


text:
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU)Article Free Pass
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), former industrial union in the United States and Canada that represented workers in the women's clothing industry. When the ILGWU was formed in 1900, most of its members were Jewish immigrants employed in sweatshops—i.e., small manufacturing establishments that employed workers under unfair and unsanitary conditions. Successful strikes in 1909 and 1910 in New York City by the ILGWU resulted in a "protocol of peace" between the women's clothing industry and labour. The protocol greatly improved conditions for the garment-makers; wages were increased, working hours were reduced, the union was recognized by the clothing manufacturers, and a board of arbitration was established to handle labour-management disputes. David Dubinsky, who later served as the union's president from 1932 to 1966, led a successful battle against a communist attempt to gain control of the ILGWU in the 1920s. When resolutions that would have allowed craft unions to organize the workers in mass-production industries were defeated at the convention of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1935, the ILGWU and seven other AFL unions formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO). All eight were expelled from the AFL in 1937. When the CIO became the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1938, the ILGWU withdrew and two years later returned to the AFL.
Under Dubinsky's leadership the union grew from 45,000 members in 1932 to 450,000 in the 1960s. He transformed the ILGWU from a faction-ridden, insolvent regional union into a strong and progressive international organization that succeeded in improving the pay and working conditions of its members. The union was also a founder of the Liberal Party in New York state.
From the 1970s the ILGWU's membership shrank as firms in the United States shifted much of their apparel production to Asia and Latin America to take advantage of lower labour costs. In 1995 the ILGWU merged with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers' Union to form a new union, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.
What made you want to look up "International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU)"? Please share what surprised you most...


text:
How to effectively remove exhaust gas from fire engines with special exhaust pipes? While needing a flexible solution that disconnects the system from the fire truck at call-out? This question Geovent receive from a customer.
The British Air Force uses American fire engines at their airports and these require a special solution to remove exhaust gas when the fire engines are started on call-out. This avoids the firefighters being exposed to the polluting exhaust gas.
Both the design of the nozzle and the position of the exhaust pipe were a challenge, but also that the nozzle has to be flexible during the call-out. At the same time, the customer wanted the solution to be operable from the ground, despite the size of the fire engines.
In a close cooperation with the customer, Geovent developed an arm on which the special suction head is mounted. The length of the arm allows the solution to be operated from the ground. An electromagnet is placed on the arm and is connected to the fire truck. When the fire truck leaves the fire station, the power to the magnet is switched off and the system is disconnected. This makes the solution both efficient and flexible, and solves the customer's challenges to full satisfaction.


text:
Author(s): Abbas MI
Abstract Share this page
Abstract Knowledge of the solid angle (and consequently, the geometrical efficiency) is essential in all absolute measurements of the strengths of radioactive materials and to calibrate detectors. The method of high-efficiency gamma counting by means of well-type HPGe and NaI (Tl) detectors is widely used and has proved a powerful tool, particularly when low-activity, small-volume environmental samples are to be analyzed by gamma-ray spectrometry. In the present work, we introduce a direct analytical method for calculating the solid angle subtended by a well-type detector at axial point, non-axial point, extended circular disk and cylindrical sources. The validity of the derived analytical expressions was successfully confirmed by the comparisons with some published data (experimental and Monte Carlo).
This article was published in Appl Radiat Isot
and referenced in Journal of Physical Mathematics


text:
All photographs are copyrighted and are the property of E. Brunner.
Native or Introduced to Illinois: native
Natural Habit in Illinois: along streams; around lakes and pondsLeaf: The leaves are simple, alternate, deciduous, elongated and slender, with smooth edges; they are light green and shiny above, dull and paler below with distinct venation.
Flower: Brown, faded flower color.
Fruit: The small, round, brown acorns are usually produced singly or in pairs with a shallow, saucer-shaped cap. The overlapping scales that make up the cap are thin, hairy, and dark red. There are about 462 acorns per pound.
Bark/Twig: It has thick, smooth, light-reddish bark when young; which becomes roughened and divided into narrow ridges on older trees.
Size/Form/Shape: Willow oak is a medium to large-sized tree that grows up to over 100 feet tall, with a trunk 3 to 6 feet in diameter.
Wildlife: Its acorn is relished by game animals and birds such as ducks, squirrels, deer, and turkey, blue jays and red-headed woodpeckers. Grackles, flickers, mice and flying squirrels utilize the tree itself.
Timber: The wood is used for lumber, crossties, construction and pulp.
Recreation and Beautification: Willow oak is widely planted as an ornamental and shade tree.
County Distribution Map for Illinois:
Sources for the Sullivan Middle School Tree Identification Guide were obtained though the use of the following sites:
- Illinois Plant Information Network (ILPIN) @ _URL_
- List of Woody Plants Native or Naturalized in Illinois @ _URL_
- Tree Species @ _URL_
- Index to Eastern/Central Trees @ _URL_
- ISU Forestry Extension Identification of Common Trees of Iowa @ _URL_
- Key to Leaves of Virginia Trees @ _URL_
- List of Native Trees for Use Along Roadsides in Illinois @ _URL_
- The PLANTS Database @ _URL_
The information below is from the National Arbor Day Foundation. This information can be viewed in the original (source) form by visiting The National Arbor Day Foundation at _URL_.
Sun Exposure: This oak does well in Full sun.
Soil Type: The Willow Oak grows in acidic, loamy, moist, clay, sandy, wet, well-drained soils. This tree is drought tolerant.
Moisture: Normal moisture requirement, but with some drought tolerance.
Growth Rate: This tree grows at a medium growth rate.
Hardiness Zones: 5 - 9
This oak can be expected to grow in the zones shown in color in the arborday.org zone map.


text:
tpy) of LNG.
Fig. 5. The evolution of baseload LNG train
capacity over time.
The continual increase in LNG single-train capacity has been driven by strong demand, and by the industrys efforts to reduce specific investment and operating costs and to take advantage of larger equipment sizes and improvements in efficiency and technology, including:
- New refrigerant cycles
- Larger, more efficient refrigerant compressor drivers
- Cooling systems that strike a balance of efficiency, cost, reliability and environmental impact
- Integration of heat and power systems.
Table 1 depicts key features of baseload LNG plants developed over the last 50 years. In the early years of baseload LNG export plants, steam turbines were the drivers of choice for refrigerant compressors, since large turbines were previously developed for the power generation industry and were already widely used in the HPI.
A major breakthrough was achieved in the 1980s with the adaptation of the large, heavy-duty gas turbines used in power generation for mechanical drive, a change that introduced new opportunities for the LNG industry. These heavy-duty gas turbines allowed for high power output, better overall efficiency and reduced capital cost by avoiding excessive water use for steam condensation. At the same time, the use of air cooling for heat rejection appeared as a viable and lower-capital-intensive solution for plants with difficult or no access to seawater cooling, such as the North West Shelf plant in Australia. This trend was maintained in the 1990s and afterward with the use of more powerful gas turbines, which has been a key factor in boosting individual LNG train capacity.
The first decade of the new millennium saw the introduction of large electrical motorsa driver solution with high reliability and good efficiency when power generation is based on a combined cycle. Even though the capital expenditure for such a system can appear quite high, it reflects an industrial vision increasingly focused on reliability and the monitoring of atmospheric emissions. This configuration for large-capacity plants has been applied once, in the Snøhvit LNG plant in Norway.
Of course, the evolution of compressor driver technology is not the sole focus point of the LNG industrys remarkable progress. The sector also has benefited from continual technology improvements in a number of other areas:
- Optimization of process configuration and energy integration, which reduces overall cost while improving efficiency
- Developments in gas processing technologies applicable to the LNG industry, such as high-performance sour gas sweetening solvents, and zeolites and adsorbents for gas contaminant removal to trace levels; these technologies make compliance with stringent product specifications and environmental regulations possible
- Improvements in the capacity and efficiency of refrigerant compressors
- Progress in metallurgy and the ability to manufacture, transport and install heavy pieces of equipment, such as the amine absorbers in Qatargas Trains 4 and 5; each absorber weighs 1,450 tons, is 7.4 m in diameter, and rises 46 m high (Fig. 6)
- Improvements in heat exchanger technologyincluding large spool-wound exchangers; high-pressure aluminum plate-fin exchangers of large capacity; and high-flux heat exchangers involving special tube design, such as the enhanced tubes, which allow for very low temperature approaches4
- Progress in CAD (process and thermal design simulation software, dynamic simulation tools, 3D modeling, etc.) allows designers to optimize and check solutions for process configuration, pipe routing and equipment layout.
Fig. 6. Amine absorber shell for Qatargas II
Trains 4 and 5.
To conclude this overview of the evolution of LNG base-load plants, it is worth noting that, while energy efficiency has made significant progress over the past 50 years, this can be mainly attributed to the better integration of power and heat facilities. Improvements in equipment and process configuration represent only 30%, as illustrated in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7. Contributions to energy efficiency
Another interesting feature of LNG baseload plants is that most of the project costs are dictated by site-related parameters (e.g., quality of feed gas, climatic conditions, site topography, extent of marine works, local construction environment, accessibility and availability of infrastructure, economic and political conditions, environmental constraints, etc.). The technical design has no influence on these parameters and can only adapt to them. Although technology selection does not have the weight in the total project cost that might be expected, it remains a key parameter for the operation and efficiency of the plant.
Same-capacity LNG trains, separated 50 years
Nearly five decades lie between the 1964 construction of the Camel LNG plant in Algeria and the 2012 startup of the Ningxia Hanas mid-scale LNG plant in China. Both plants have approximately 400,000-tpy individual train capacities (Fig. 8).2
Fig. 8. The Camel plant (left) and the Ningxia
Hanas SSLNG plant (right).
Despite the industrys tendency to design and build individual liquefaction trains of ever-increasing capacity to improve plant economics, there is a renewed interest in small-scale LNG (SSLNG) plants for monetizing small gas reserves and for supplying isolated communities or areas where the installation of a natural gas distribution grid is too costly. China, India and Brazil have implemented or are planning to install SSLNG plants like the one developed at Ningxia Hanas.
While the Camel plant was designed to process raw natural gas from a field and is dedicated to overseas LNG export via tanker, the Ningxia Hanas plant processes pipeline gas that is already pretreated for contaminants and NGL recovery. The facilitys feed gas requires compression prior to liquefaction, and production is delivered via road tanker. Thus, besides the similarity in capacity, the processing schemes and plant features of the Camel and Ningxia Hanas LNG trains have little in common, as illustrated in Table 2.
This comparison reflects the way the LNG industry has evolved, driven by the need to minimize equipment count and processing steps to reduce capital investment while at the same time obtaining the highest possible efficiency to preserve resources.
A giant leap from Skikda to Qatargas II
An interesting comparison also can be made between the Skikda and Qatargas II LNG projects (Fig. 9). Each one was a pioneering development in its time, but the plants were built and commissioned 36 years apart. Table 3 shows a comparison of the two facilities, which were built in 1972 and 2009, respectively.
Fig. 9. The Skikda plant (left) and Qatargas II
Trains 4 and 5 during construction (right).
Between the first trains of the Skikda plant and the mega-trains of Qatargas II, the individual LNG throughput per train has multiplied by a factor of close to 8, and the overall plant capacity by a factor of 5, leading to a proportional increase in terms of construction quantities. However, fuel gas consumption has been multiplied by only 2.8, reflecting the significant increase in energy efficiency achieved over the period.
The overall duration of the construction and commissioning phases also has been reduced despite the increased workload, the number of simultaneous construction projects in the Ras Laffan area, and the more complex configuration of the Qatargas units due to the presence of H2S and organic sulfur components in the feed gas. The excellent overall efficiency of Qatargas II is due to the use of gas turbines and the deep integration of heat and power systems that recover heat energy from gas turbine exhaust and also use excess compressor driver output for electric power generation.
The industrys next challenge: FLNG
In recent years, progress in exploration and subsea production technologies has enabled the development of LNG projects that monetize gas reserves located in difficult-to-reach offshore and deepwater locations. An FPSO can be used when oil is discovered, but the associated gas usually must be reinjected because export by pipeline is not economical.
The concept of floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) is now seen as a leading solution to monetize these types of gas resources. Shell was the first company to invest in FLNG, for the development of its Prelude field offshore Australia. Today, practically all major oil and gas companies have launched FLNG programs. The development of FLNG technology has built on the combination of expertise gained from large oil FPSOs, the latest developments in liquefaction processes, experience with production on floating platforms and LNG storage, and innovation in new offloading technologies. Challenges to LNG development in a marine setting include:
- LNG tank sloshing
- Offloading LNG between two vessels in the open sea
- Importing large quantities of high-pressure feed gas through a swivel.
The adaptation of large gas processing facilities to marine environments includes:
- Compact designs
- Development of equipment for motiona challenge for large columns and separation equipment
- Stringent environmental regulations
- High reliability and reduced maintenance
- High flexibility and turndown.
Several FLNG projects are at conceptual or advanced FEED stages for various locations around the world (Fig. 10). Shells Prelude FLNG (Fig. 11), one of the first FLNG projects, will be operating 200 km offshore Australia.3 Prelude is designed to produce 3.6 MMtpy of LNG from sulfur-free natural gas, along with LPGs and C5+ condensate.
Fig. 10. FLNG project regions and incentives.
Fig. 11. Shell Prelude FLNG 3D model.
The Fischer-Tropsch (FT) conversion process is a technology for the production of long-chain paraffins from a syngas mainly composed of H2 and CO. The liquid products from FT conversion can be processed into high-value liquid fuels, lube oils and specialty waxes. The sy


toronto history
How Toronto got its name
The name Toronto was first applied to a narrow stretch of water between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching.
The word, Anglicized from Mohawk, was spelled tkaronto and taronto and used to describe an area where trees grow in shallow water.
lake toronto map
Evidence of early usage of the Taronto.
The name, misunderstood and confused by various old-world explorers, bounced around the area between Lake Simcoe and Lake Huron. On various early maps it was applied to a canoe trail on the Humber River and Lake Simcoe itself.
Later, the Humber River, before it was named by John Graves Simcoe after a tidal estuary in northeast England, was called Rivière Taronto after the Portage Trail.
As the Humber carried south the water of countless creeks and streams, it also brought the Toronto name to the Lake Ontario shore.
toronto lac
The word Toronto essentially traveled down the Portage Trail to the area that now bears its name.
The first colonial settlement on this part of Lake Ontario was Fort Rouillé, a French trading post depicted in drawings with a high wooden fence at what is now Exhibition Place, just beyond the foot of Dufferin Street.
The Seneca-Mohawk villages of Teiaiagon and Ganatsekwyagon (precise English spellings vary) were within today's city limits at the mouths of the Humber and Rouge rivers respectively.
The small complex - alternatively known as Fort Toronto - was founded in 1750 and contained a soldier's quarters, kitchen, a forge, and an ammunition store.
It and Magasin Royale, another earlier fortification on the Humber River near Old Mill, were built to attack vessels servicing a rival British trading post at Oswego, N.Y..
Rouillé was abandoned and burned by its own troops retreating at the end of the Battle of Quebec in 1759, a key battle that led to France ceding much of its land claims in North America.
fort rouille
Early view of the Garrison at Toronto.
34 years later, John Graves Simcoe, ordered a garrison built at what is now Fort York at the mouth of Garrison Creek. The English military leader believed the location inside the enclosed Toronto harbour would be easy to defend.
The Islands wouldn't become separated from the mainland for another 65 years.
The town of Dublin, renamed York by Simcoe for Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, the second son of then-King George III, developed on the waterfront to the east of the military base.
toronto fort york
View of the Garrsion prior to what survives at present day Fort York.
Prior to the construction of Fort York, a second encampment would be built on the other side of Garrison Creek. This short-lived base was destroyed in 1813 during the Battle of York. During the fight, the British army were forced to retreat to Kingston, leaving its armed citizens in the streets.
Before abandoning their garrison, the British set light to their artillery storage area and a ship, the HMS Sir Isaac Brock, under construction at the docks. The gigantic explosion that tore through the fort as the gunpowder ignited killed 38 soldiers, including American leader Zebulon M. Pike, and wounded 222 more.
The Americans occupied York for less than a week before deciding to leave with goods looted from across the town. Despite the wishes of their leader, the Americans raided and burned several buildings, including the town's printing press and Legislative Assembly building for Upper Canada, located on Front Street between Berkeley and Parliament streets.
The town was retaken by the British when the Americans departed for their original position further down the shore. The returning troops built what is present day Fort York near the destroyed garrison and repelled several raids in 1813 and 1814.
toronto front street
The modest beginnings of the town of York.
The town of York recovered from its temporary occupation and grew to surround the old fort. In 1834 the province's legislative council, the leaders of the area around what had become the largest city in Upper Canada, voted to incorporate the community as a city.
A group of local citizens thought then was as good a time as any to re-brand the community. The name Toronto, then recognized as an alternative name for the region, was favoured over York partly because the original York in England was considered so grim.
William Bent Berczy, a member of the Legislative Committee representing Kent, said Toronto had a "musical sound" and was " in every respect much better" than the original title. The others largely agreed, and the city of Toronto was officially founded that same year.
The York name lives on in East York, North York, York Region and the countless other York-related streets and communities in the GTA, while Toronto has continued to travel.
Cities named Toronto in the United States, Australia, and U.K. all derive their name from that narrow stretch of water near Orillia.
Lead photo by
_USER_. Writing by Chris Bateman.
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text:
Administrators can configure the following features for learning playlists via the Playlist Preferences page:
- Creator Information
- Follower Information
- External Content
To access the Playlist Preferences page, go to:and click the link.
Important: Learner Home must be enabled in the portal in order for Playlist and External Content functionality to be available.
|PERMISSION NAME||PERMISSION DESCRIPTION||CATEGORY|
|Playlist Preferences||Grants access to the Learning Playlist Preferences, where administrators can configure settings for the Playlist feature.||Learning - Administration|
In the Creator Information section of the Playlist Preferences page, administrators can use the Display creator information toggle switch to enable or disable the display of creator information on playlists. To allow the playlist creator's image and biography summary to display with their playlists, leave the switch in the On (green) position. To prevent the playlist creator's image and biography summary from displaying with their playlists, toggle the switch to the Off (gray) position.
The Display Follower Information setting determines whether or not follower information displays on the Playlist Details page of a playlist. Information included about followers includes the followers' names, profile photos, and positions. To allow follower information to display on the Playlist Details page for playlists, leave the Display Follower Information switch toggled to the On position. To prevent follower information from displaying, toggle the switch to the Off position. Note: The number of followers displays on the Playlist Details page and playlist tiles regardless of this preference setting.
External content can be added to playlists. Using the Enable Duration Fields setting, external content can be accompanied by Duration fields, which playlist creators can use to indicate the duration time of the external content. To allow creators to populate the duration for external content they have added to playlists, leave the Enable Duration Fields switch toggled to the On position. To hide the Duration fields for external content, toggle this switch to the Off position.
You can select default providers for both playlists and playlist external content in the Define Providers section. To set a default provider for either content type:
- Select the drop-down menu for the content type for which you want to define a default provider.
- Scroll through the system providers until you find the desired provider, then click the provider name.
- Click the button at the bottom of the page to save your changes. Your chosen default provider will be applied to the content type to which you made changes.
Define Playlist Max Item Limit
In the Define Playlist Max Item Limit section, enter a value between 20 and 50. The specified value will be treated as the maximum number of items which playlist creators can add to their playlists.
If a playlist creator attempts to add more than the specified maximum number of items to a playlist, they receive an error stating, "You reached the maximum number of items for a playlist. Remove a few before adding more." The playlist creator will not be able to add more items to the playlist until they have removed enough items to be at or below the maximum value set via Playlist Preferences.
Select this option to overwrite custom settings for child division OUs. If you overwrite custom settings for child division OUs, the selected settings are applied to both new and existing child OUs. Any previously customized child OUs are updated with the selected settings.
- If this option is unselected, then only the child OUs that do not have customized settings are updated, as well as any OUs that are added in the future.
- A child OU that has not been customized always inherits from the parent, regardless of whether this option is selected.
- An OU is considered customized if its preferences or settings have been changed.
Click thebutton at the bottom of the page to save any changes you have made to Playlist Preferences.


What is Loopback Interface in a Cisco Router
What is loopback interface in a Cisco Router?
A Loopback interface is a virtual interface which is logical and not like normal physical interfaces (Ethernet or Gigabit).
The loopback interface is really helpful as it is never down. It is popularly used in OSPF configurations where, the loopback IP address is used for OSPF Router ID. Since this loopback interface is always up, it is also used with BGP (Border Gateway Protocol). Even if there is some physical outbound interface is down, the logical interface (loopback) helps maintain the neighbor ship to be up.
The loopback interface is basically a software interface that acts similar to a physical interface where IP address can be assigned.
The loopback interface needs to be created manually on the router.
See the below output, there are no loopback interfaces.
no loopback interfaces
Now we will create a loopback interface, using the command "int loopback1"
int loopback1
Now we assign the IP address to the loopback interface, this is similar to assigning IP to a normal physical interface.
physical interface
We check again using "show ip int brief" and see the loopback created.
show ip int brief
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January Expeditions to Antarctica, Falklands, and South Georgia
Ashton Palmer
January Expeditions to Antarctica, Falklands, and South Georgia
Ashton Palmer
For most travelers, visiting the 'White Continent' is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So, why not do it right the first time and include South Georgia—our travelers never regret it!
Top 5 Reasons to visit Antarctica, Falkland Islands, and South Georgia in January:
1. Best time of year: January is mid-summer in Antarctica, when weather, ice conditions, and wildlife viewing are most conducive to exploration. This is by far the BEST time of year to visit both South Georgia and Antarctica.
A January expedition that includes South Georgia is rare and quite special in our books! Generally speaking, there are very few Antarctica, Falklands, and South Georgia trips in January. Reason being, it is more profitable for shipping companies to schedule in multiple Antarctica Peninsula-only voyages during prime season (January) rather than one or two longer programs that include South Georgia. Voyages to South Georgia are therefore typically early or late in the season, when conditions are not at their most advantageous for several activities.
2. Penguin chicks on Antarctic Peninsula: Your heart will undoubtedly melt at the first sight of these precious baby animals! During January, the chicks are still with their mothers in the rookeries, so you will see hundreds of penguin chicks throughout your expedition. Comical and naturally photogenic, these sweet creatures are hands-down one of the most entertaining highlights on these voyages.
3. Sea ice level: You will see sea ice in Antarctica, but there should not be so much to hinder exploration plans by the captain and expedition leader. Less sea ice also means the start of whale season! The whales cannot feed if there is too much ice. Enjoy spectacular whale watching from the ship or at close proximity from your Zodiac--amazing!!
4. Time to relax and acclimate: It takes a few days to get into a trip and over the jetlag. By doing the longer trip (17/18 days) you will have more than adequate time to rest and acclimate yourself, allowing you to better enjoy the experiences of each destination.
5. Elephant Island: You may have an opportunity to visit Elephant Island where Shackleton and his men were stranded after their ship, The Endurance, was trapped by the ice. January is the best month to attempt a landing here, as conditions during other months are often too dangerous to visit the island. For many travelers, this is truly a wonderful highlight!
My friend Brent Houston, one of the leading seabird biologists in the world, once said that if he only had five days left to live he would spend two of them on South Georgia. Of course, people always ask him where he'd spend the other three. "Getting there!" he answers.
It's true that reaching South Georgia is no easy feat. However, the reward is undisputable. A spectacular wildlife hotspot, those who have visited South Georgia have described it as "an experience of a lifetime," and "beyond imagination..." and even "a different realm." You may ask why there are not more trips going there then? The reality is that most people find it too difficult to be away for 3+ weeks. The shorter trips to the Antarctic Peninsula, therefore, operate more frequently and appeal to more travelers. Plus, simply put, the shipping companies make more money by doing several Antarctica-only trips verses just a few Antarctica, Falklands, South Georgia trips.
So why is South Georgia so special? In my experience, there are only a handful of places on the planet that offer such an incredible wildlife experience, and South Georgia is one of those places. Imagine stepping onto a sandy beach and being welcomed by tens of thousands of king penguins as far as the eye can see....none of them the least bit bothered by your arrival. If anything, you are somewhat of a novelty. South Georgia offers the chance to see several wildlife species that you will not likely see in Antarctica: king penguins, macaroni penguins, thousands of fur and elephant seals, nesting wandering albatross, light mantled sooty albatross, and the list goes on.
Not only is the wildlife abundant, fearless and absolutely stunning, but it inhabits one of the most visually spectacular places on earth. Imagine the jagged peaks of the Swiss Alps, laced with the massive glaciers of Alaska's Glacier Bay, surrounded by Hawaii's verdant green valleys, and you might start to understand the visual topographic feast that is South Georgia. Sparkling sandy beaches and black rocky coastline, this island truly is a jewel of the Southern Ocean.
South Georgia has a rich history, and was home to whalers of the Southern Ocean. Today, there are still a few locations where the hulking whale processing factories and a few retired whaling ships now rest, abandoned. Famed explorer Ernest Shackleton is buried at the former whaling station of Grytviken, a popular landing stop for visitors.
Following are a few memories I have of my time visiting...
- Experiencing the thrill when standing in amongst 100,000 king penguins...The sound, sight, even smell takes your breath away. It's like starring in your own National Geographic documentary!
- Traveling by Zodiac around the rocky coastline to watch young fur seal pups playing in the seaweed. The sea lions are so numerous that at times it seems the water is boiling with these playful marine mammals!
- Hiking up to see the wandering albatross on their nests. These birds often spend years at sea and only occasionally return to the place they were born to nest. Seeing these birds on land gives you incredible perspective on their size. Their wing span measures about 12 feet—the largest of any bird in the world.
- Toasting Sir Ernest Shackleton who was laid to rest in the cemetery in Grytvicken Harbor. It's hard not to be impressed by the accomplishments of 'The Boss' as you retrace his footsteps and voyages throughout the region.
- Hulking elephant seals belching and wallowing, fighting and grunting. These massive marine mammals may seem awkward on land but exhibit some of the most impressive deep diving and swimming techniques of any animal on the planet. And, while the adults may not be described as the most attractive animals, their offspring are adorable little sausage packages with big curious eyes. Who could not be moved by the gaze of an elephant seal pup!
- The graceful courting flights of the light mantled sooty albatross gliding over the tussock grass. These birds mate for life and court by flying in unison. Truly one of the most beautiful things to see, their light brown and white plumage are like a watercolor artist's masterpiece.
- Experiencing nature at its most raw and primal state—huge glaciers gouging smooth valleys, jagged snowy peaks, clouds, sun, wind. Feel the elements, breath in the majestic scenery...get in touch with nature.
- Watching the king penguins for hours, whether the young courting pairs, the fuzzy chicks, or the strutting show-offs. The king penguins breeding cycle is a year and a half and it overlaps year-round. The result is visitors will always have opportunities to see chicks, courting, nesting, and fledging.
- A myriad of colors, South Georgia boasts a rainbow of green, red, and yellow that you will not find in Antarctica. These vibrant colors offer a dramatic contrast to the ice of the Antarctic Peninsula.
South Georgia is a pinch yourself, "am I really here?", life-changing experience. As one of our travelers put it: "Knowing what I do now, this was easily the best travel experience I have ever had. No matter where I travel, I probably will never surpass the experience." – Louise Traige; Los Angeles, CA


A Document Of Public Communication
In August 2017 British Telecom announced they were going to remove 20,000 phones boxes from throughout the UK in the next 5 years which is around half of all remaining installations, citing that usage has declined by more than 90% in the last decade. Around a third are used only once a month with many never being used at all. Due to the rise in mobile phone usage and BT's reduction plan, it seems reasonable to assume that the iconic red phone box will be extinct from the public domain in the near future, with only a few re-appropriated boxes existing as cafe's or art installations.
The aim of this project was to document a dying form of public communication; to create a visual historical record in a geographical context. Clearly many phone boxes are used for things other than making calls, they have become something closer to civic closets, often providing a completely enclosed environment, they provide a private space in the communal sphere, but still retain the ability to display to the public.
Click a phone box to view inside.
_PHONE_ 5265
_PHONE_ 9738
_PHONE_ 8455
_PHONE_ 3349
_PHONE_ 1549
_PHONE_ 8448
_PHONE_ 8454
_PHONE_ 4290
_PHONE_ 0236
_PHONE_ 2735
_PHONE_ 5972
_PHONE_ 5035
Using Format