Removing the Blue Lines in Forwarded Emails
Ever try to forward a really funny or thought provoking e-mail, only to have the forward appear horribly mis-formatted due to a bunch of weird, commonly blue, vertical lines streaking down the left side of your e-mail? Well, you can take a small amount of comfort knowing you are definitely not alone. An odd anomaly generated by some e-mail clients/services when a message is forwarded, these colored lines are not only annoying, but typically a pain to get rid of as well. However, there are a few tricks that can speed up your ability to remove these annoyances without resorting to using a third party "e-mail cleaner" program. Here are the top three methods to remove vertical lines in some of the most common e-mail programs and services...
Microsoft Outlook:
Despite possibly having the most options for formatting e-mail of any e-mail program or service available, Outlook has, surprisingly, the simplest method of removing vertical lines from forwarded e-mails:
Step 1. Open the e-mail you wish to forward, select the content directly in front/to the right of your vertical line(s) in the body of the e-mail message, and press Ctrl+C to copy the highlighted contents to your clipboard.
Step 2. Create a new blank e-mail message.
Step 3. Paste (press Ctrl+V) your copied e-mail into the new e-mail message. Your e-mail message will be pasted into the new message window sans most, if not all, vertical lines.
Step 3-1. If any vertical lines remain, simply copy any text and images with said vertical lines still attached, and paste the copied content into the same e-mail just above the content you just copied.
Step 3-2. Repeat Step 3-1 until all vertical lines are gone.
Step 4. Delete any duplicate or unnecessary text/images beneath your newly cleaned content, and send your e-mail.
Quick, simple, and easy!
Windows Live Mail
For those needing to remove vertical lines in the latest evolution of Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail offers a push button solution to removing these email annoyances:
Step 1. Select your e-mail and press the forward button to open it in the standard "Send E-mail" editor.
Step 2. Place your cursor directly in front of (to the right of) the vertical line you wish to remove.
Step 3. At the top of your e-mail editor, select the Message tab if it is not already selected. Various message formatting options will appear.
Step 4. Find and click the Clear formatting button just next to the font size and style fields.
Step 5. Voila! The vertical line will instantly disappear. Repeat Step 4. as needed to remove any additional vertical lines.
Step 6. Once all vertical lines have been cleared, you will likely be left with a bit of margin space to the right of your e-mail content. To remove this, simply select the message content you wish to forward, copy it (Ctrl+C), and paste it (Ctrl+V) at the beginning of your message. Delete the old content beneath your freshly formatted message, and hit Send.
And that's it!
~J. Conboy


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Smartphone assistants guide - everything you need to know
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In this guide we explain how your smartphone's AssistiveTouch, Assistant Menu and Accessibility Menu can help you use your phone without the need for physical buttons or complicated hand gestures. We also touch on how virtual assistants like Google Assistant and Siri can help in this area.
What is AssistiveTouch, Assistant Menu and Accessibility Menu?
AssistiveTouch, Assistant Menu, and Accessibility Menu may sound similar to virtual assistants like Siri and Google Assistant, but they provide a different yet no less useful service.
These tools offer alternatives to having to press physical buttons and perform certain finger gestures. This comes in the form of a menu, which offers single tap or single finger options for many of your phone's functions.
A single tap or finger alternative may include, accessing the power off menu, increasing/decreasing brightness, taking a screenshot, and rotating the screen.
Who is AssistiveTouch, Assistant Menu and Accessibility Menu for?
AssistiveTouch, Assistant menu, and Accessibility Menu are designed to help people who struggle to trigger settings and functions with the pre-set finger gestures or physical buttons. Once enabled you gain access to a straightforward menu, which provides one tap or one finger alternatives.
If you use an iPhone then AssistiveTouch is waiting for you. If an Android phone is more your cup of tea, then Accessibility Menu is for you.
If you own a Samsung phone, you are in luck. This is because the Korean tech company includes its own software called the Assistant Menu.
This does the same job as the stock Google counterpart, but with a few more tricks up its sleeve.
How to set up AssistiveTouch on iPhone
 1. Choose the settings app which should be located on the first home screen.
 2. Scroll down and Choose Accessibility.
 3. Scroll down to Physical and Motor then choose Touch.
 4. Select AssistiveTouch, which you can find at the top of the page.
 5. Finally, toggle AssistiveTouch on.
Alternatively, you can just say "Hey Siri turn on AssistiveTouch".
How to set up Accessibility Menu on Android
 1. Pull down the notifications bar and select the settings icon.
 2. Scroll down the settings menu and choose Accessibility.
 3. If you do not see Accessibility listed on your phone's settings menu then it may be found within Additional Services
 4. Next look for a heading or option resembling Interaction and dexterity. This may not match your device exactly, but keep an eye out for words along these lines. Better yet, keep your eyes peeled for Accessibility Menu itself, as features aren't always placed where you would logically expect them to be.
 5. You should now see the Accessibility Menu. Tap it.
 6. Toggle the shortcut on.
Accessibility Menu and Assistants for Android: the basics
Once triggered, the Accessibility Menu offers choices such as activating the power off screen, turning the volume up or down, showing recent tabs and taking screenshots.
How the Accessibility Menu is triggered depends on how you have set up your phone.
If you are using gesture controls, then swipe up from the bottom of the screen with two fingers. Alternatively, if you are using the three button controls, then tap the extra button that appears at the bottom of the screen.
Once you have opened Accessibility Menu, you will see that it offers a straightforward menu interface.
Simply scroll through the pages, via the arrows at the bottom of the menu, until you see the option that you need. Tap the option you want, and the phone will oblige.
If you would like to increase the Accessibility Menu's buttons size, then you can turn the large size on in the feature's settings.
Accessibility Menu is simple and easy to use. If for some reason your phone does not have it installed, then it can be downloaded from the Google Play store. Look for Android Accessibility Suite.
If you don't see the feature in the appropriate Accessibility section after installation, then make sure to check Installed Services. You should see this within Accessibility.
Assistant Menu
It should be noted that Samsung has its own version of Accessibility Menu, called Assistant Menu. This performs the same role as the other helper, but with a more flexible interface and a few more useful tools.
Assistant Menu appears as a circle which can be dragged around the screen. Changing positions can be done by holding your finger down on the circle and moving it where you wish. To open the options, just tap the circle.
As well as performing the features mentioned above, the Assistant menu allows you to use Screen control, Pinch zoom and use a Cursor.
The Cursor has several tricks up its sleeve.
Much like the Screen control, you can use a single tap to swipe left or right, up, or down. Just tap the arrows on screen.
The Cursor lives up to its name, by introducing a mouse to your phone's screen.
You can use the cursor interface as you would a touchpad on a laptop. If this isn't to your preference, then having the cursor activated doesn't prevent you from tapping apps and options as you normally would.
Also included within the Cursor setting is a Magnifier Window tool. Once you have enabled Cursor in the Assistant menu, you should see the magnifier symbol above the virtual mouse pad.
Once the symbol has been tapped, a window appears which can be controlled by the virtual pad. Anything in the window will be magnified for you.
When you have finished with the window, tap the X above the virtual pad.
You can also simulate a Pinch zoom motion. This might come in handy while surfing the web.
To Pinch zoom, choose the option from the Assistant menu and then look for a small blue circle on your screen. Move this circle to the section of the page you want to get a better look at. After the target is in position, you can use the on-screen slider to zoom in and out.
The Assistant menu can also offer contextual options based on the app you're currently in. For example, when in the Samsung web browser, the menu provides options like opening a new tab or showing existing tabs.
Contextual options appear to be limited to certain Samsung apps such as, camera, contacts, email, messages, and phone.
To make sure contextual options are available to you, choose "Select apps to show contextual menus with", from the Assistant Menu page. We recommend you toggle on the all apps option.
Google Assistant, meanwhile, is the main virtual assistant on most Android phones. You can ask it to, dial people from your contact list, send texts, play music, and tweak settings like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
The Assistant can usually be called upon by either saying the activation phrase 'okay Google' or long pressing the home button on your phone's screen.
Sadly, while the mobile assistant will open key menus like Accessibility or the general menu, it can't manage every aspect of your phone. The assistant is a particularly useful tool though, and it's worth spending some time with it to discover the extent of its uses.
Make sure your data or Wi-Fi is switched on otherwise it won't work.
Bixby is a Samsung exclusive feature which does a similar job to Google Assistant. You may find that it can manage certain options or menus that Google Assistant cannot. For example, when we tried to turn on dark mode with Google Assistant on an S20, it couldn't manage it. Bixby meanwhile, did it with one simple request.
Like Google, Bixby can't handle every settings request, but as a system built for the device it should be able to handle more phone specific requests for Samsung devices.
According to Samsung's website Bixby can be found on the Samsung S8 + and upwards. Some devices have a designated Bixby button, while others use the power on button to call the assistant.
Bixby also requires Wi-Fi or mobile data to work.
IPhone AssistiveTouch and Siri: the basics
Once enabled, the AssistiveTouch interface will appear as a small circle on the screen. You might have to look carefully as it fades into the background.
You may move it anywhere on the screen you'd like, just by placing your finger upon it and dragging it in the direction you would like to go.
To make use of the AssistiveTouch just tap the circle. This will bring up a host of options. By default, these are divided into six choices.
The options: are, Notification Centre, Custom, Siri, Home, Control Centre and Device.
When you press Notifications Centre, the iPhone will pull down Notifications without you having to perform the traditional gesture.
This is also the case for the Control Centre. From the control centre you can turn certain settings on or off, like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
The Custom option of AssistiveTouch allows you to mimic certain touch gestures, such as a Double Tap, Pinch and Rotate, Long Press and Hold and Drag.
As an example, if you select Pinch and Rotate, a bar with two circles on the end appears on your screen, in place of where your fingers would normally go.
If you are on a webpage you can use this tool to zoom in or out. Place your finger on one of the circles, and move your finger up or down, depending on whether you want to zoom in or out.
Certain one-finger gestures will take some getting used to, but they do allow you to accomplish tasks like selecting text. If you get stuck at any point, just tap the AssistiveTouch button which cancels the original tool you selected.
Meanwhile, Assistive Touch's device sub menu offers a myriad of options related


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KYsearo is one of the specially authorised partner of TOYOBO in China. We use TOYOBO hollow fiber RO membrane to desalinate water in large systems of above 200TPD.TOYOBO hollow fiber RO membrane is the latest technological reverse osmosis membrane,its fresh water production capacity is 10 times than usual spiral wound membrane,so many seawater desalination successful huge projects are using this kind of membrane in Middle East area, and have kept 7 to 11 years working without replacing membranes. Kysearo takes 2000 TPD seawater desalination system as a group, all larger tons systems are designed upon this group, for example, 10000 TPD would be consisted of 5 groups of 2000 TPD system.
|The differences between Hollow Fiber and Spiral Wound RO Membrane|
1. More Simple Process Than Before
2. Membrane structure
3. Water production capacity
Hollow Fiber RO Membrane : Spiral Wound RO Membrane = 10:1
Hollow Fiber RO Membrane is wound efficiently in a cross-wound way without using additional base materials, The cross winding increases the hollow fiber spacing and improves its fouling resistance to achieve minimum pressure loss and uniform water flow, this way provide about 10 times the surface area compared to spiral wound elements.
This greater surface area is a key factor to product water capacity, therefore, hollow fiber RO membrane product about 10 times water capacity compared to spiral wound RO membrane.
4. How often change the RO membranes
Spiral Wound RO Membrane: 2~3 years
Hollow Fiber RO Membrane : 7~11 years
Here is average life comparison table of some large projects use Hollow Fiber RO Membrane.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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Scheduled 3-D Recording with MATLAB
This topic describes how to schedule the recording of a 3-D animation using the MATLAB® interface for a virtual world that is associated with a Simulink® model. You control the animation file recording by presetting a time interval. The Simulink 3D Animation™ software records the animation during this interval in the simulation. In this example, the timing of the recorded animation file derives from the simulation time. One second of the recorded animation time corresponds to one second of Simulink time.
This procedure describes how to create a virtual world 3D animation file name with the default name format.
Run the Simulink model for associated with the virtual world.
The Simulink 3D Animation Viewer for that model is loaded and becomes active. If the viewer is not displayed, double-click the Simulink® 3D Animation block in the Simulink model.
To work with the virtual world associated with model, from the MATLAB interface, retrieve the virtual world handle. Use the
If the result indicates that only one
vrworldobject is in the workspace, assign its handle directly to a variable. Type
myworld = vrwho;
If multiple virtual worlds are listed, select which of these virtual worlds you want to manipulate. To select the virtual world, you can use indexing or a selection method using a string comparison of virtual world descriptions. For the indexing method, type
worlds = vrwho; myworld = worlds(1);
Direct the Simulink 3D Animation software to record the animation on a schedule by setting the
Direct the Simulink 3D Animation software to record the animation in a virtual world 3D format file.
Select the start and stop times during which you want to record the animation. For example, enter
5as the start time and
15as the stop time.
Ensure that the recording start time value is not earlier than the start time of the Simulink model; the recording operation cannot start in this instance. If the stop time exceeds the stop time of the Simulink model, or if it is an out of bounds value such as a negative number, the recording operation stops when the simulation stops. The recording can be slow.
Run the Simulink model. From the Simulation menu, select Mode > Normal, then click Simulation > Run. Alternatively, if you are using the Simulink 3D Animation default viewer, you can run the Simulink model with one of the following from the viewer.
From the menu bar, select the Simulation menu Start option to start the simulation.
From the toolbar, click Start/pause/continue simulation to start the simulation.
From the keyboard, press Ctrl+T to start the simulation.
The simulation runs. The Simulink 3D Animation software starts recording when the simulation time reaches the specified start time. The software creates a file
.x3din the current working folder when finished, where
Nis either 1 or more, depending on how many file iterations you have.
When you are done, stop the simulation. You can use one of the following from the viewer.
From the menu bar, select the Simulation menu Stop option to stop the simulation.
From the toolbar, click Stop simulation to stop the simulation.
From the keyboard, press Ctrl+T to stop the simulation.
Close and delete the objects if you do not want to continue using them.
- Manual 3-D Recording with MATLAB
- Manual 2-D AVI Recording with MATLAB
- Scheduled 2-D AVI Recording with MATLAB
- Record Animations for Unconnected Virtual Worlds
- Play Animation Files


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Crystals and minerals of Wales
[image: Wesh mineral]
Minerals have played a major role in the economic and social development of Wales since the Bronze Age. Since these ancient times, mineral outcrops and mines have been worked throughout Wales; by Romans and Cistercian Monks, and on into the heyday of Welsh metal mining in the mid nineteenth century, when virtually every outcropping vein or fault was tried by the drivage of adits or the sinking of shallow shafts.
There are currently around 4,000 officially recognized mineral species known to occur globally, of which, 365 have been confirmed from Wales.
Here we present a gallery of Welsh minerals for you to enjoy the incredible colours, forms and lustre of these magnificent museum specimens.
Please click on the images below for more information.
Crystals and Minerals
- 1 July 2009
Over 400 different mineral species occur in Wales, approximately ten percent of all those known. Ten minerals were first discovered in Wales and have been named after famous Welsh geologists, mineralogists, places and even the Museum itself.
- 25 October 2008
- 21 August 2007

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
The average life span for African-Americans in Louisiana today (72.2 years) is shorter than that of Colombians, Vietnamese and Venezuelans. The average life span of an African-American in New Orleans is 69.3 years, nearly as low as life expectancy in North Korea.
African-Americans in Tangipahoa Parish have well-being levels of the average American in the early 1950s.
From the American Human Development Project's "Portrait of Louisiana," released today. More data on the state, like food stamp usage by parish, here.
Hurricane Katrina destroyed cities, jobs and lives. But for some children, the storm may have resulted in an unforeseen upside: better schooling.
A new working paper from Prof. Bruce Sacerdote at Dartmouth University notes that when families fled New Orleans, they were forced to abandon its failing school system. Professor Sacerdote used data on Louisiana students' test scores and college attendance, both before and after the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, to calculate what effect leaving a failing school district had on academic achievement.
In the first year after the 2005 evacuation, students' standardized test scores fell — which is probably not surprising, given the disruption in their lives. Within a couple years, students originally from Orleans Parish schools saw their scores recover and then eventually surpass their prehurricane levels.
But this was not true for Katrina evacuees from nearby Jefferson and Rita evacuees from Lake Charles. In those areas, where the schools were better than those in New Orleans, the decline in test scores for displaced students persisted into 2007 and started to recover by 2008. Similar results were seen for college enrollment. Evacuated students from New Orleans saw a modest increase in four-year college enrollment, whereas their counterparts from the suburbs initially saw a negative effect on college enrollment (which disappeared within about a year). Read more…


"Add powdered moonstone, stir three times counter-clockwise, allow to simmer for seven minutes then add two drops of syrup of hellebore."
-- Instructions for the Draught of Peace on Snape's blackboard (OP12)
Hellebore is a mundane flowering plant used in some potions.
 - A potion ingredient in the form of a syrup, two drops of which are used in the making of the Draught of Peace (OP12).
 - Hellebore was the ingredient which Harry forgot to put in his Draught of Peace.
 - According to Snape, often included on the O.W.L. exams (OP12)
Potions Connection
Important ingredient in the Draught of Peace
Greek 'elein' (to injure) and 'bora' (food)
There are several kinds of hellebore. The name comes from the Greek words 'elein' (to injure) and 'bora' (food), indicating that hellebore is poisonous. In some belief systems, it's been believed to be a purgative, sometimes of bad things generally, used for things like protecting livestock from evil spells, and (in powdered form) for invisibility.
According to herb lore, the roots of the hellebore plant are are used to treat melancholy diseases and madness.
The original name for Hellebore was " Melampodium." According to the Greek historian Pliny, the plant was named for the soothsayer Melampus who used it to cure depression in ancient times. On a happier note and in spite of poisonous nature of the plant, it is often called the "Christmas Rose" or "Christ herbe" because it blooms in winter. source: Botanical.com
Pensieve (Comments)
Tags: flower ingredients mist plant plants silver


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Coexister Coperation Circle (CC) is a youth-led organization located in Paris, France. Coexister CC's main focus is the promotion of religious equality with respect to each person's belief. They inspire individuals and organizations not to engage in evangelism, discrimination, and proselytization. Their activitiesAnnual Festiv'All Together and InterFaith Tourpromote civil secularism and unite societies.
"Our purpose is to promote the Youth Interfaith Movement through dialogue, solidarity, education, awareness and travel to enhance social cohesion."
Agnostic, Baha'i, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism
Number of Members
Joined URI Network


Hen shoots farmer in Monaghan
Published: 7 March 1914
A farmer has died following a bizarre shooting incident at a farmhouse between Ballybay and Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan.
The farmer, Laurence Connolly, was taking out his gun to shoot magpies that had been taking eggs from the hen roosts when a hen ran across him. The gun struck the hen and discharged itself into the body of Mr. Connolly. He died several hours later.
Mr. Connolly had amassed considerable wealth in his youth in America. He married following his return to Ireland but his new wife died suddenly shortly afterwards.
He subsequently lived with his brother and it was at their farm that the incident occurred.
Century Ireland


You are here
Number Theory
The research interests of the number theory faculty at UMass Amherst include algebraic number theory (the study of the arithmetic of finite extensions of the rational numbers), analytic number theory (the study of prime numbers and their distribution), arithmetic algebraic geometry (the study of solutions of polynomial equations over the rational numbers and related fields), Galois representations (the study of matrix representations of Galois groups) and automorphic forms (the study of arithmetic via objects from geometry and representation theory).
The Five College Number Theory Seminar meets weekly at Amherst College. The seminar features talks from prominent number theorists from across the country as well as talks on seminar members on their current research.


Explore the moo:
Welcome to: Cosmic rage!
By Nathan Tech!
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Viewing category activity..
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activity help: Drama Shows
Have you ever wanted to perform on Cosmic Rage? Well now you can with theaters!
Theaters are a great way for you to express yourself in a cool and creative way!
Now lets get started!
In acting everything is done from an actors point of view so the directions are going to be a little different than your normal north, south directions.
Here are the most common stage directions.
Stage left: The actors left if facing the audience.
Stage right: The actors right when facing the audience.
Down stage: Moving towards the audience.
Up stage: Moving away from the audience
Center stage: The center of the stage
You can combine these into all sorts of different combinations for example
Down stage right: The right side closest to the audience.
The action command
The action command is used to either make a backdrop or change a light or group of lights.
Here are some examples there will also be the syntax for how you right them down.
Command: Action a spotlight lights up center stage
you see: A spotlight lights up center stage.
Command: action the scene changes to show a field with flowers and a puffy sky
you see: The scene changes to show a field with flowers and a puffy sky
Command: action a red light appears on stage left
You see: A light appears on stage left
Note: The action command is not to be used to manipulate actors on stage you should use normal emoting for that.
How would I be able to use the theater on Panaxes?
There are a lot of theaters and stages on Cosmic Rage but the most commonly used one is Panaxes.
If you would wish to use this stage in particular please send a mail to Bob gun under the mail a position holder menu.
Please include your name, the date and time for your performance, and if you need any sort of props or furniture.
Note: please feel free to bring your own furniture, costumes, and props to enhance your experience.
You can also act with your friends you don't have to be alone!
Recommended help files: aHelp Recreational Temptations
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Back to help file list
Why not explore the moo!
Explore the moo:


St Louis Pest Control Blog
Where Do MOLES Go When It Gets Cold
Where do moles go when it gets cold outside? In the St. Louis region, no where, they just go where the cold isn't. And since they live below the surface of your yard, they can only go one direction, down. This is very easy for moles to do since they already have main (permanent) tunnels located deep below the surface. That is how they can easy pop up in different parts of your yard without making any surface damage from one spot to another.
As it gets colder, insects that they feed on also tend to dig down deeper, somewhere below the frost line. And since moles stay active all winter long, they need to go where the food is.
The colder weather also makes it harder for you to control mole activity. Since the insects are moving downward, moles will not find as many insects as they would like, so they tend not to return to a newly dug feeder run in your yard like they would during warmer months. This doesn't mean you can't get them, it just means you need to have more patience.
Ask our experts!


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We present a UML 1.5 profile named TURTLE (Timed UML and RT-LOTOS Environment) endowed with a formal semantics given in terms of RT-LOTOS. TURTLE relies on UML's extensibility mechanisms to enhance class and activity diagrams. Class diagrams are extended with specialized classes named Tclasses, which communicate and synchronize through gates. Also, associations between Tclasses are attributed by a composition operator (Parallel, Synchro, Invocation, Sequence, or Preemption) which provides them with a formal semantics. TURTLE extends UML activity diagrams with synchronization actions and temporal operators (deterministic delay, nondeterministic delay, time-limited offer, and time-capture). The real-time dimension of TURTLE has been further improved by the addition of two composition operators, periodic and suspend, as well as suspendable delay, latency, and time-limited offer operators at the activity diagram level. Core characteristics of TURLE are supported by TTool - the TURTLE toolkit - which includes a diagram editor, a RT-LOTOS code generator and a result analyzer. The toolkit reuses RTL, a RT-LOTOS validation tool offering debug-oriented simulation and exhaustive analysis. TTool hides RT-LOTOS to the end-user and allows him/her to directly check TURTLE modeling against logical errors and timing inconsistencies. Besides the foundations of the TURTLE profile, this paper also discusses its application in the context of space-based embedded software.


Definition:Undefined Term
From ProofWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
For a definition to not be circular, the definer must use already defined terms.
However, this process cannot go on indefinitely. If we were to insist on everything being defined only using previously defined terms, we would enter an infinite regress.
Concepts that are not defined in terms of previously defined concepts are called undefined terms.
An undefined term is frequently explained by using an ostensive definition: that is, a statement that shows what something is, rather than explains.
Also known as
Undefined terms are also known as primitive terms, or primitive notions.
Also see


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The IRIS Data Management System (DMS) invites individuals at IRIS member institutions to submit Letters of Interest that outline new data product types and related development plans. Authors of selected data product descriptions will be requested to submit full proposals to acquire funding from the IRIS DMS to support the development of the completed product. This is an excellent opportunity for researchers to put forward unique and useful data product ideas, receive funding for their development, and collaborate with the IRIS Data Management Center (DMC) on their presentation and long term management. Typically derived from raw data, these data products can serve many purposes including as a foundation for future research.
The deadline for submitting Letters of Interest for data product development is April 30, 2013.
The goal of our product development effort is to create data products that complement the raw time series data traditionally managed by the IRIS DMC. The development effort is guided by the IRIS community through the IRIS Data Products Working Group. The DMC currently manages more than a dozen data product types produced either by the community or by the DMC as a result of this relatively new effort. A list of these product types is available at _URL_
The purpose of this call for Letters of Interest is to solicit data product ideas from our community of users. After reviewing all submitted Letters, the selection committee will request selected authors to submit proposals for funding the development of the data product. We anticipate individual development awards to range between $10,000 and $25,000. All products developed under this agreement will ultimately be hosted and managed at the IRIS DMC.
The types of data products that might be proposed include:
- Products which serve as stepping stones to further processing, i.e., pre-processing for more advanced processing. Examples include the calculation of envelope functions and the calculation of receiver functions for data in the DMC archive.
- Visualizations of the data in ways that provide insight to geophysical processes and/or the data set. Examples include the DMC's Event Plot suite and USArray Ground Motion Visualizations.
- The "productization" of research results that are useful to a broad range of the scientific community. For example, a database of shear-wave splitting measurements.
- Educational products that increase accessibility to data and information for students and future researchers.
- Modernization and availability of data sets. For example, the conversion of processed geodetic data to formats readily usable to the seismic research community.
Examples of data product development previously funded include:
- Ambient noise cross correlations for the Western US (M. Ritzwoller, et. al.)
- SeisSound, an audio/visual illustration of seismic frequency and amplitude (D. Kilb)
- Earthquake energy and duration tools, in progress (A. Newman, et al.)
- EMERALD software release, in progress (M. Fouch and J. West)
- Development of XML standard and tools for MT data, in progress (G. Egbert, et al.)
Letters of Interest should include:
- A statement of the impact and range of potential uses for the product type.
- Estimates of the resources required to initially generate the product(s).
- Enough detail to help determine IRIS DMC resources required to manage the product type over an extended period of time.
Letters of Interest should be submitted in electronic form (as MS-Word or PDF) to _EMAIL_ by April 30, 2013. Letters should not exceed two pages in length, with two additional pages allowed for associated figures. Authors will be notified of their selection status by May 10. Selected authors will be requested to submit a proposal for product development due by June 17. Funding for the data product development awards and the data product effort at the IRIS DMC is supported by the USArray component of the NSF's EarthScope program.
Dr. Timothy Ahern
Director of Data Services


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Discolored Leaves of Peace Lily
My peace lily is not doing well. The leaves are discolored and the plant just doesn't seem to be getting bigger. Any ideas?
Peace lilies are very intolerant of dry soil. Make sure the soil stays moist but not soggy wet. Once allowed to go dry the plant will wilt, recover when watered and do this several times before showing signs of stress. Moisture stressed plants have yellow and brown leaf edges and sometimes spots.
On the other extreme, overwatering can lead to leaf spot fungal disease. This often happens when plants are allowed to sit in water that collects in the saucer or when plants are moved to a much larger container. The increased soil volume holds more moisture and can increase the risk of root rot. This fungal disease not only kills roots but can cause brown spots to develop on the leaves with minimal or no browning on the leaf edges. Adjust your watering frequency and solve either one of these problems..
Spider mite feeding starts as a bronzing that can eventually lead to wilting and browning of the leaves. A strong blast of water will help dislodge these. Several weekly applications of insecticidal soap will help control these pests. Just make sure this is the problem before treating.


Another word for big
Example:- a large city
bad, big - very intense
Example:- a bad headache
big - significant
Example:- graduation was a big day in his life
big, heavy - prodigious
Example:- big spender
big - marked by intense physical force
Example:- a big wind
big - loud and firm
Example:- a big voice
big, enceinte, expectant, gravid, great, heavy, large, with child - in an advanced stage of pregnancy
Example:- was big with child
big, bighearted, bounteous, bountiful, freehanded, giving, handsome, liberal, openhanded - given or giving freely
Example:- was a big tipper
big, large, magnanimous - generous and understanding and tolerant
Example:- a heart big enough to hold no grudges
big, swelled, vainglorious - feeling self-importance
Example:- too big for his britches
big, boastful, braggart, bragging, braggy, cock-a-hoop, crowing, self-aggrandising, self-aggrandizing - exhibiting self-importance
Example:- big talk
big, large, prominent - conspicuous in position or importance
Example:- a big figure in the movement
adult, big, full-grown, fully grown, grown, grownup - (of animals) fully developed
Example:- an adult animal
big - on a grand scale
Example:- think big
big - in a major way
Example:- the play failed big at the box office
big, boastfully, large, vauntingly - in a boastful manner
Example:- he talked big all evening
big - extremely well
Example:- his performance went over big
Tweets containing the word big
Source : WordNet


Today on Blogcritics
Home » Books » Book Reviews » Book Review: The Shipwreck Of A Nation by H. Peter Nennhaus
Imagine for a moment you were born in 1929, the youngest of a loving family in Germany. Hitler came to power when you were five, and you would have reached the age of conscription, which was 16, a mere two months before the end of World War II.
The Shipwreck Of A Nation is unlike any history of World War II I have ever read. Author H. Peter Nennhaus became a US citizen in 1961, and is a retired surgeon. He has no real political axe to grind, and his story is a fascinating one.
What makes this book so unique to me is Nennhaus' vivid descriptions of even the most banal events of his young life. Although his country, and indeed his own family were being ripped apart during these years, he remembers such small things as going fishing, and trading found pieces of shrapnel with his friends.
It sounds as if his family were a typical working class family of the time. Unaware of the true horrors of the Holocaust, and helpless to stop anything from happening in any case. The Shipwreck Of A Nation is no revisionist text, but rather an honest account of one little boy growing up amidst one of the worst chapters of human history.
The book certainly provided cause for reflection on my part. What would my life have been like under such circumstances? How could a 12 year old boy know what was really occurring in the world in 1941? What would one make of the air raids over Berlin?
If there is a political contention to The Shipwreck Of A Nation, it is in Nennhaus' oft repeated statements that the average German thought they were fighting a war against Stalin, and the threat from the East. In numerous cases he quotes his peers, and elders wondering why the West were interfering in "their" war at all.
Of course, this is qualified later, when the world learned the truth about the Final Solution. But Nennhaus contends that the death camps really were kept from the general population at the time, and the average German was ignorant of them.
For those interested in a view from the inside of Germany during those fateful years, The Shipwreck Of A Nation is highly recommended.
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About Greg Barbrick


Dragon Saga Movement Speed Calculations
Dragon Saga Movement Speed Calculations by SharpEye
Disclosure: If you have a high school education, you should be able to understand the simple math involved in this.
The Method
From the simple equation V = dP/dt, we can derive Vt = (P1? P0) assuming V is constant.
This leads to V = D/t, D being the displacement from Position 0 to Position 1. Since we?re going to be traveling in a straight line in ONE direction, D is also distance.
Now this equation isn?t that useful, so we?ll put it in a ratio: V2/V1 = t1/t2. (The distances cancel out)
This is equivalent to two objects traveling across the same distance D with object 1 moving at velocity V1 and taking time t1 to get across the distance and object 2 moving at velocity V2 and taking time t2 to get across the distance. This simple ratio is what we?ll be using to empirically determine BASE movement speed.
I?ll be using a grenadier with +50 mspeed (and none from equipment/cash bonuses) and a harlequin (haha rogue, no) with +0 mspeed (same deal-o). I?ll explain my character choice in a bit.
Assuming x is base movement speed:
The grenadier?s mspeed will be (x + 50)
and the harlequin?s will be x
So (x+50)/x = t2/t1
Using frames as a measure of time, we can almost precisely determine the ratio of velocities; the only possible errors in calcuation is the estimation of when a character?s movement actually begins and when it has stopped. I will explain how I minimized these later on.
The Data
Here are two videos (I encourage you non-believers to download each one and analyze the frames yourself if you don?t trust my calculations).
The harlequin starts running between frames 776 and 777
The harlequin stops running between frames 1314 and 1315
The grenadier starts running between frames 601 and 602
The grenadier stops running between frames 1005 and 1006
The calculations
The harlequin takes t2 = 538 frames to go distance D
The grenadier takes t1 = 404 frames to go distance D
This arrives at the equation of one variable: (x+50)/x = 538/404
Now we?ll look at the fraction 538/404. If you divide it out, the value turns out to be 1.33168??. We?ll approximate this with 4/3. This approximation could be risky in that the ratio isn?t that solid, however I want it to be. By simple math we know 4/3 = 200/150. Given that (x+50)/x = 200/150, we quickly
determine x to be 150 movement speed.
The conclusion
The conclusion here is surprisingly that there is no conclusion yet. (WHAT A TWIST? M. NIGHT SHAMAMALSYALYN)
We have to determine if different classes have different base movement speeds.
The data, part 2
We?ll be using two different archers this time.
Archer 1 has mspeed x + 20
Archer 2 has mspeed x
If the calculated movespeed from this is the same as that of the first part, we have evidence that the base movement speed is the same across all classes. If not, f me in the butt.
Archer 1:
Archer 2:
Archer 1 begins moving at frame 808 and ends at 1079
Archer 2 begins moving at frame 569 and ends at 876
The calculations, part 2
(x+20)/x = 307/271
If we?re right about a mspeed of 150, x+20 = (307/271) * x. We plug in x = 150 and we have?.
170 = 169.92619926199261992619926199262.
Now i?ll be darned. I don?t get a buttf-ing tonight 😀
Minimization of error
The first possible source of error is the starting position. This is simple to minimize.
I use moonwalk/backdash with HQ/Archer respectively to go as close to the edge as possible. (I don?t want to factor in turning time if there is any)
The second possible source of error is the ending position. This is hard to minimize.
The first thing I did to minimize this is using frames. A large amount of frames will make the error (in frames) almost insignificant.
The second thing I did was use the little circle thing?s position relative to the wall. If two frames have the same circle position, I recorded the first frame as the ending frame.
Video files
Archer 1: http://www.mediafire?13eskr1a4kqxeoq
Archer 2: http://www.mediafire?ax58g7bqdrz4ugp
Gren : http://www.mediafire?tjkbpzfbyw04c05
HQ : http://www.mediafire?axizk1sy9n1a0a6
Effect of +% mspeed on movement speed
We?re going to assume a character moving with 0 bonus mspeed and 0% bonus mspeed moves with 150 movement speed. The previous calculations have assumed bonus mspeed is additive to movement speed. That is, given X bonus mspeed and 0% bonus mspeed, a character moves with 150 + x mspeed. We?ll assume this is correct for the next part, the effect of +% mspeed on movement speed.
Now I can see two ways this will work. Assuming X bonus mspeed and Y% bonus mspeed:
movement1 = 150*(1 + Y/100) + X
movement2 = (150 + X)*(1+Y/100)
= 150*(1 + Y/100) + X + XY/100
We can see by substitution that:
movement2 = movement1 + XY/100
These three equations will be used later on in the calculations.
We will also use the ratio from the previous run: V2/V1 = t1/t2
V1 will be the velocity of the character WITHOUT any bonus mspeed
V2 will be calculated from V1*t1/t2, and compared to theoretical values calculated from movement1 and movement2
The Data
We?ll be using:
HQ with 10% mspeed vagabond boots (and no other equips)
Gren with 10% mspeed vagabond boots and +50 mspeed (from skill tree)
Gren with 10% mspeed Vagabond boots, +50 mspeed (from skill tree), and +24 mspeed from set
The third scenario is just to determine if bonus mspeed from skill tree differs from mspeed from set
Gren #1:
Gren #2:
The Calculations
HQ starts at frame 851 and ends at frame 1341
Gren #1 starts at frame 773 and ends at frame 1149
Gren #2 starts at frame 1006 and ends at frame 1344
From the previous run, the HQ took 538 frames to travel distance D.
In this run, the HQ took 490 frames to travel distance D.
V2 = V1*t1/t2 = 150*538/490 ~= 165
movement1 = 150*(1 + 0.1) + 0 = 165
movement2 = 165 + 0*10/100 = 165
This runthrough was just a sanity test 🙂
From the previous run, the Gren took 404 frames to travel distance D.
In this run the Gren #1 took 376 frames to travel distance D.
V2 = v1*t1/t2 = 200*404/376 ~= 215
movement1 = 150*(1 + 0.1) + 50 = 165 + 50 = 215
movement2 = movement1 + 50*10/100 = 220
This runthrough gave more evidence to movement1 (that % bonus mspeed is only applied to base mspeed)
and then?
Gren #1 took 376 frames to travel distance D
Gren #2 took 338 frames to travel distance D
If we?re correct about the assumption that both mspeed from skill tree and mspeed from equipments are treated equally, then
(1.1*150+74)/(1.1*150+50) = t1/t2
239/215 = t1/t2
(1.1*150+74+7.4)/(1.1*150+50+5) = t1/t2
246.4/220 = t1/t2
t1/t2 = 376/338 = 1.1124260355029585798816568047337
239/215 = 1.111627906976744186046511627907
246.4/220 = 1.12
The Conclusions
It still may be too early to conclude which equation describes movement MORE correctly, however I would put my money on movement1.
The complete movement equation would then be:
Variable X? Bonus + movement speed
Variable Y? Bonus % movement speed
Movement Speed = 150*(1+Y/100) + X
Video files
HQ: http://


text:
Strategic Resource Allocation
SRA is a process by which to examine the ways our resources are being invested and addresses all institutional costs that will provide a plan to rebuild EWU financial health & sustainability.
The overall approach to strategic resource allocation (SRA) entails a systematic, collaborative, and transparent process to examine the ways our resources are being invested. The process is modeled after Robert C. Dickeson's book Prioritizing Academic Programs and Services (free access through EWU Library), and it will be used to address all institutional costs—both academic programs and support functions.
The effort is divided into several phases and will be conducted in a transparent manner. The campus community will be informed of all process elements and have the opportunity for input to ensure that all institutional activities are treated fairly.


text:
The CVOR is the registration system for operators of commercial trucks and buses on Ontario's road ways.
The Commercial Vehicle Operator's Registration (CVOR) system and the Carrier Safety Rating (CSR) program were developed by the Ministry of Transportation as part of Ontario's ongoing commitment to road safety. Together they promote the safe operation of trucks and buses on Ontario's roadways for operators of commercial motor vehicles.
This includes trucks that have a registered gross weight of over 4,500 kilograms, and buses that can carry ten or more passengers. Owners/operators of these vehicles must apply for, obtain and renew a CVOR certificate.
Every carrier is responsible for monitoring its CVOR record and the performance information it provides, including violation rates, thresholds, audit scores and resulting carrier safety rating. As a result, it is important that you identify and address problem areas in order to improve your commercial motor vehicle safety performance.
The CVOR system is part of the carrier safety rating program. The Ministry of Transportation monitors carriers and assigns each a safety rating based on several factors, including:
- Facility audit results
To operate in Ontario, carriers must follow the laws and regulations that apply to the operation of trucks and buses, which includes, but is not limited to:
- The Highway Traffic Act
- Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act
- Public Vehicles Act
- Motor Vehicle Transport Act
- Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act
- Fuel Tax Act
Get A Free Quote
Don't take your chances fighting alone.
Get Canada's leading defence team working for you.


text:
Animal Species:Cape York Sheathtail Bat
Very little is known about Cape York Sheathtail Bats in Australia. They are also found in Papua New Guinea.
Cape York Sheathtail Bats seem to roost in tree hollows in Australia, but in New Guinea they are known from limestone caves.
Feeding and Diet
Cape York Sheathtail Bats eat beetles, flying ants, grasshoppers and moths. They fly high and straight over the top of trees in open forests hunting for prey.
Cape York Sheathtail Bats are vulnerable to destruction of roost sites in hollows trees by clearing for agriculture and changes to feeding areas by agricultural activities.


text:
Begin Again Toys Dinosaur A-Z Puzzle
Click Image for Gallery
The 26 piece friendly Stegosaurus teaches letters with fun puzzle play. Once built this stegosaurus can stand on his own for more play fun. This brightly stained puzzle is carefully crafted from plantation grown rubber wood and is sure to bring hours of fun and learning to your preschooler. The Dinosaur A to Z Puzzle comes with an easy clean up storage box made from Beech wood.
- 2 puzzles in 1
- Teaches alphabet and letter recognition: both upper and lower case
- Made from eco friendly materials: Natural Rubber wood stained with child safe stains, box made from Beech wood


text:
Over deze norm
1.1 This practice describes a solvent rub technique for assessing the solvent resistance of an organic coating that chemically changes during the curing process. This technique can be used in the laboratory, in the field, or in the fabricating shop. Test Method is the preferred method for ethyl silicate zinc-rich primers.
1.2 This practice does not specify the solvent, number of double rubs, or expected test results.
1.3 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as the standard. The values given in parentheses are for information only.
1.4 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use. Consult the supplier's Material Safety Data Sheet for specific hazard information relating to the solvent used.
|Nederlandse titel||Standard Practice for Assessing the Solvent Resistance of Organic Coatings Using Solvent Rubs|
|Engelse titel||Standard Practice for Assessing the Solvent Resistance of Organic Coatings Using Solvent Rubs|


text:
Create Your Own RANDBETWEEN Function in T-SQL
There are several functions that are included with Excel that I use on a regular basis that are not included with SQL Server. The RANDBETWEEN function is one of these. Is there a way to recreate this functionality in T-SQL code?
In this tip, we will demonstrate how to create a RANDBETWEEN function and discuss one of the challenges to using the T-SQL RAND() function within a user-defined function.
The RANDBETWEEN function in Excel has two parameters, the bottom inclusive boundary and the top inclusive boundary, and it returns a random integer within these inclusive boundaries.
We can write a SELECT query in T-SQL to return an integer between 25 and 75 inclusive as shown here.
It would seem straightforward to take the query above and place it inside a CREATE FUNCTION statement. However, as we see below we get an error message stating "Invalid use of a side-effecting operator 'rand' within a function."
So why is RAND() a side-effecting operator? This is because the last random number issued must be tracked internally, thus the side-effect. Fortunately, there is a workaround for this problem. We can create a view that contains a random number as a column, and then within our function we can select that random number column from the view as shown here.
Before we declare that we are finished, we need to test this new function over a sizable volume of data to make sure our function is working correctly. In the T-SQL code below, we will create a table named tblRandBetweenTest and populate it with 10,000 rows. The GeneratedRandomValue column will be populated using our new RANDBETWEEN function.
After populating the table, we can run a query to get the minimum, maximum and average values for the GeneratedRandomValue column. We see that the minimum is 25, the maximum is 75 and the average is 50 which indicates our function is working correctly.
We can also run a query to get counts per value generated by the function.
The complete T-SQL code for this tip is displayed here.
-- create the view to store a random number create view dbo.vRandomNumber as select rand() as RandomNumber go -- create the function create function dbo.randbetween(_USER_ integer, _USER_ integer) returns integer as begin return (select cast(round((@[email protected])* RandomNumber [email protected],0) as integer) from dbo.vRandomNumber) end go -- test the function select dbo.randbetween(25,75) -- create a table to store values generated by the function CREATE TABLE dbo.tblRandBetweenTest( pkRandBetweenTest int identity (1,1) primary key, GeneratedRandomValue integer NOT NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GO SET NOCOUNT ON go -- test the function 10,000 times declare _USER_ as integer set _USER_=1 while _USER_<=10000 begin insert into dbo.tblRandBetweenTest values (dbo.randbetween(25,75)) set @[email protected]+1 end -- select the min, max and average select min(GeneratedRandomValue) as min_x, max(GeneratedRandomValue) as max_x, avg(GeneratedRandomValue) as avg_x from dbo.tblRandBetweenTest go -- get the population of the values select GeneratedRandomValue, count(GeneratedRandomValue) as qty from dbo.tblRandBetweenTest group by GeneratedRandomValue order by GeneratedRandomValue
You can test what happens with different seed values for the RAND() function. Also, the RANDBETWEEN function created above can be modified to return decimal values instead of integers. Finally, read more about using random data and SQL Server in the following tips from MSSQLTips.com.
- Different ways to get random data for SQL Server data sampling
- SQL Server random numerics data generation using CLR
- SQL Server stored procedure to generate random passwords
- Retrieving random data from SQL Server with TABLESAMPLE.
Last Updated: 2014-08-04
About the author
View all my tips


text:
Low levels on Mississippi River expose fossils & thrill local fossil hunters
POSTED: Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 3:00pm
UPDATED: Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 3:04pm
NBC NATIONAL NEWS — The water level on the Mississippi river has been unusually low this year due to the drought in the nation's heart land.
While the low water is a problem for the shipping industry, there is at least one group who loves it when the river is down.
People are out combing the normally water covered bottom that has been exposed, for a rarity, fossils.
John Moore, known better by his nickname of Puddin', has been searching the river for decades and has piles of bones in his shop on south walnut street in Greenville.
George Phillips, Paleontology Curator with the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, says most of the fossil bones found in the Mississippi river are from the late ice age.
It has been a great fossil hunting season for the hunters.
"This year more than the other years because of the low water," said Phillips. "You look for the gravel bars. That's where you find most of it, in the gravel bars. Very seldom you find anything in the sand."


text:
Snapshot: NASA Fires Twin Lasers at the Moon
Hundreds of moon lovers flocked to skywatching weekend skywatching events to gaze at Earth's nearest neighbor, but only at one gathering did visitors get a chance to see NASA fire lasers at the moon.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., opened the doors of its Laser Ranging Facility to the public Saturday (Sept. 18) in a rare night of tours to show visitors how it tracks the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter around the moon. The event was one of nearly 400 gatherings around the world making up International Observe the Moon Night aimed at spurring public interest in the moon.
This photo was taken by photographer Wade Sisler at the Goddard Space Flight Center.
At the Laser Ranging Facility, engineers fire a laser 28 times per second across nearly 250,000 miles at the minivan-sized Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a spacecraft moving at nearly 3,600 miles per hour as it orbits the moon.
By knowing the precise location of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists are able to ensure the accuracy of the moon maps the probe generates. The spacecraft recently completed its first year at the moon and, last week, finished its initial exploration mission to support future NASA flights to the moon. The probe is now switching to a pure science mission to help researchers to better understand the moon and its history.
- 10 Coolest New Moon Discoveries
- A Night With the Moon: Skywatchers Savor Lunar Views In Global Event
- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Gets New Moon Mission
- Telescopes For Beginners
- Poll: Where Should Humans Land on the Moon Next?
This story was updated to reflect that photographer Wade Sisler took this photo.
MORE FROM SPACE.com


text:
Title: Bayesian analysis of Home Care longitudinal data
Abstract: Estimation of uncertain future patients' demands is a key factor for appropriately planning human and material resources in health care facilities, where unplanned demand variations may deteriorate the quality of schedules and, consequently, of the provided service. This issue is even more important for health services provided outside hospitals, e.g., for home care services, where patients are assisted for a longer period and additional planning decisions related to service delivery in the territory must be taken. With the goal of helping home care management to take robust decisions, in this paper we propose a Bayesian model for estimating and predicting both the demand for care and the history of health conditions for patients in the charge of a home care service. In particular, we jointly model the temporal evolution of patients' care profile and the weekly number of visits required to nurses, and use a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm to compute posterior inference and prediction. The model is applied to data of one of the largest Italian home care providers, obtaining small prediction errors.
Author: Inad Nawajah
Advisors: A. Guglielmi, R. Argiento, E. Lanzarone
University: Politecnico di Milano
PDF (Link alla tesi possibilmente)


Why Is Pink Tax Bad?
What has pink tax?
The pink tax is the extra amount that women pay for everyday products like razors, shampoo, haircuts, clothes, dry cleaning, and more.
This "tax" applies to items that span a woman's entire life, from girls toys and school uniforms to canes, braces, and adult diapers..
Who invented Pink tax?
The pink tax isn't new; in fact, it's been around for decades, when the U.S. drafted the sales tax system between the 1930s and the 1960s. "It was a very different world at a time when [legislators] were figuring out which products to tax and which to exempt," said Laura Strausfeld, co-founder of PeriodEquity.org.
Why is there a Pink tax?
Research shows that toys, clothing and personal hygiene products such as shampoo, deodorant and razors cost more if they are marketed to females than men. The discrepancy in the costs is called the 'pink tax' as sometimes the only difference between products is the colour.
Why do pink products cost more?
Tariffs and the Pink Tax Tariffs are taxes that are imposed by the federal government on products imported to the United States. Consumers in the United States pay for the cost of these tariffs because retailers raise the cost of their merchandise to offset import taxes.
Why do women's razors cost more than men's?
Personal care items are pricier for women. Razors, for instance, are more expensive due to the "pink tax." … The disparity — often labeled the "pink tax," since women's products come in "feminine" colors — means that female consumers are charged more for products like razors simply on the basis of their gender.
Are men's hygiene products taxed?
The tax compares the prices of female products to that of gender-specific products or male products, mainly in the categories of apparel, toys, and personal care. Even something as necessary as tampons that is a must for hygiene is charged sales tax because it's considered a "luxury item".
Do men's razors have tax?
The study found, on average, women's products cost 7% more than men's products. There are only five states which don't tack on an additional tax for any women's products—Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon. … That's about 75 cents per women's razor and about 60 cents per men's razor.
What is the Pink law?
The new law mandates that any individual or entity, including retailers, suppliers, manufacturers or distributors, are prohibited from charging a price for two "substantially similar" goods or services, if the goods or services are priced differently based on the gender for whom the goods or services are marketed.
What states have no feminine tax?
Five states do not have a state sales tax (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon), and as of June 2019, thirteen US states specifically exempted essential hygiene products: Utah, Ohio, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, …
Are pads a luxury item?
Their taxation codes consider menstrual products a medical supply, exempting pads and tampons from sales tax and making these necessities more accessible to low-income communities. … Menstrual care and hygiene products aren't luxury items. They're necessary to lessen the hassle and discomfort of periods.
Why are mens razors cheaper?
Because men's razors are made to navigate around the chin, neck, nose, and cheekbones, they tend to be more sensitive to the curvature of your body so every hair can be easily reached. … Not to mention, men's razors are generally cheaper than women's razors. So you'll save a few bucks and feel fabulous, too.
How do I stop the Pink tax?
How To Avoid Paying MoreSupport companies who are taking a stand against the pink tax with gender-neutral pricing.Buy more gender-neutral items when shopping for toys, razors, shampoos, deodorant, etc.Avoid the dry cleaners as much as possible.Price compare when shopping.More items…
What states have a pink tax?
Ten states across the US have all already nixed the tampon tax: Minnesota, Illinois, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and, most recently, Nevada.
Is the Pink tax a real thing?
Gender-based pricing, also known as "pink tax," is an upcharge on products traditionally intended for women which have only cosmetic differences from comparable products traditionally intended for men. In other words, it's not actually a tax. … Yet pink tax is not a new phenomenon.


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Town and union council
Country Pakistan
Region Balochistan
District Lasbela District
 - Total 10,000
Time zone PST (UTC+5)
Gadani is a coastal village of Lasbela District located in the southern part of Balochistan along the Arabian Sea, Pakistan. It is also a Union Council of Hub Tehsil[1] and is just a 1 hour drive away from Karachi, Sindh. The population of Gadani was estimated to be around 10,000 in 2005. More than 97% of the population is Muslim with a small Hindu minority. The majority of population speaks Balochi and there is a small Sindhi speaking minority. In Gadani majority of the population speaks a language named Balochi, this language is derived from Iran. They belong to Sanghur, Kurd, Sajdi, Muhammad Hasni, and Bezinjo tribes.
Many prehistoric shell-midden sites were discovered along the shores of a small bay, near Gadani. They are characterized of heaps of fragments of marine and mangrove shells among which are flint and jasper tools and stone querns. The first radiocarbon dates obtained from these middens indicate they result from the activity of people who settled along the coast both during the seventh and the fifth millennium before present.
Gadani Energy Park is an ambitious project of the new Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Government (announced in August 2013) to establish 10 coal power plants of total capacity of 6,600 MW with technical and financial assistance from China. This will help in reducing the chronic power shortage problems being faced by Pakistan.[2]
Gadani Ship Breaking Yard[edit]
The world's third largest ship breaking yard, Gadani ship-breaking yard is located in Gadani. The yard consists of 132 ship-breaking plots located across a 10 km long beachfront at Gadani, Pakistan, about 50 kilometres northwest of Karachi.
Over 1 million tons of steel is scavenged per year, and much of it is sold domestically. In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, a record 107 ships, with a combined light displacement tonnage (LDT) of 852,022 tons, were broken at Gadani whereas in the previous 2008-2009 fiscal year, 86 ships, with a combined LDT of 778,598 tons, were turned into scrap.
Although, Gadani ranks as the world's third largest ship breaking yard after Alang and Chittagong in terms of volume, it is the world's leading ship breaking yard in terms of efficiency. At Gadani, a ship with 5,000 LDT is broken within 30 to 45 days, whereas in India and Bangladesh, it takes, on average, more than six months for breaking a vessel of the same size.
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
Coordinates: 25°07′10″N 66°43′55″E / 25.11944°N 66.73194°E / 25.11944; 66.73194


Skip to Content
Play with light and sound
A first for Australasia, the Antarctic Walkway is not just a functional piece of infrastructure to protect people from the weather but also an art installation, which reacts to your movement, speed and direction as you move through it.
Tip: the interaction happens both day and night, but you'll get the full experience when it's dark!
Antarctic Walkway – design rationale
The Antarctic Walkway follows an axis from Christchurch Airport to the International Antarctic Centre. It takes design cues from Antarctic pack ice and the Ellsworth Mountains.
Six frame modules make up the walkway, each with a different angle and height. These modules are stacked and flipped along the length of the walkway to create the superstructure from which the glass walls and roof attach. When read together the shifting angular forms give a rhythm that references the peaks and valleys of a mountain range.
Echoes – audio and lighting system
'Echoes' is an interactive experience which senses movement throughout the walkway and transfers it into sound and light. The speed and direction of the pulses is triggered by the visitor. Like ripples in the Southern Ocean, patterns form as multiple 'echoes' cross each other.


author Wuzzy
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 15:54:28 +0100
changeset 998 f6ed8749f20b
parent 749 db0eeafa0cdf
child 1422 a6f2064e67a5
permissions -rw-r--r--
GearTypes: Add gtDuck
_TAG_ Importing an SVG into Hedgewars
= Importing from SVG files =
== Introduction ==
This is a quick and dirty description of converting an SVG into hedgewars HWMAP format. It is not at all pretty. Hopefully someone will make a prettier process. It currently makes use of Inkscape, vim, perl, g++ and a bit of manual labour. It looks best in 0.9.18+ which makes use of the variable brush size (the examples below use the second smallest size, 16px wide)
== Details ==
Open Inkscape.
Go to File->Inkscape Preferences and make sure that
 * SVG Output->Allow relative coordinates is unchecked
 * Transforms->Store transformation is set to Optimized
Open an SVG. Ideally one of simple line art, without too much use of fill or filters.
1) Select all in the image and choose ungroup, then combine all paths in the drawing (select them, then choose Path->Combine).
Note. I had some difficulty doing that with some images even after repeated use of ungroup. I ended up just going into the SVG file and deleting all the groups. This usually happens if there are filters in place. Removing all the g tags but keeping the paths inside the groups in the SVG in a text editor might be faster than cleaning up in Inkscape.
Also, some paths might be worth eliminating altogether. In order to get a better idea of what it'll look like, try: View->Display Mode->Outline. To simulate occluding, you can try combining individual paths first, and using union to combine into larger groups. This takes a bit more work. If it still doesn't look right, you're going to have to go in and delete nodes, and generally rework the shape to simulate occlusion.
2) Go to File->Document Properties and specify 4096 for W and 2048 for H. You may want to then reposition the art to be more centred vertically or horizontally.
3) Click on the path, and choose dimensions for W and H that would look good in the game (no more than 4096 for W and 2048 for H). The Lock button may be helpful here. Generally resize it and reposition it using the document white area as a guide to how it will look on the in-game drawing area, then save and quit.
4) Open in a text editor and verify there is one path. Change sodipodi:namedview's ID attribute to id="base" - this is to work around a bug in the current stable Inkscape ( extensions tool which was crashing it. This is probably fixed in 0.48.4. Note that I haven't tested this workaround. su_v says this is the correct way to do it because apparently id="base" is a reserved name for namedview in sodipodi - which seems like a rather common and collision-likely name. I had misread him and changed the path's id to base, and that seemed to work fine. If changing namedview doesn't work, try renaming the path instead.
Make sure all those groups are removed.
5) Open the file in Inkscape again, Click on the path again, then go to Extensions->Modify Path->Flatten Beziers and flatten out the curves to your taste. Default of 10 seems fine most of the time, but for small curved objects you might want something like 5. Keep in mind, the more the approximation, the more points that Hedgewars has to draw, which can be rough on the engine and network communication, then save and quit.
6) Edit the file, and delete everything but the path data. You should have a one-line file starting with something like M1234.3 456.78L3298.3 9023.34 and so on.
If instead you have a format like M 1234.678,9875._PHONE_.0,123.45 - you'll want to convert if you want to try the crude script in (10) - otherwise a smarter script would be needed. Here's some Vim commands for that syntax {{{s/\(\d\) \(\d\)/\1 L\2/g}}} and {{{s/,/ /g}}} and {{{s/\([LM]\)\s*/\1/g}}}
The coordinates should now be rounded for use by the crude script in (10) unless you plan to handle that yourself in some way. Here is a vim one-liner to do it.
Also, it is probably a good idea to remove duplicate points. Here's a regex for that. {{{s/\(L\d\+ \d\+ \)\1/\1/g}}} - you should run that a couple of times, then {{{s/M\(\d\+ \d\+ \)L\1/M\1/g}}}. That just cuts down on a bit of redundancy. If these regexes match anything, you probably should rerun them.
Since this page is a mass of hacks, here's one more redundancy reducer, in bash this time.
{{{rm dupes.txt;PREVXY=(99999 99999);sed's/\([LM]\)/\n\1/g' inputfile | while read f;do read -a XY <<< "${f:1}";if [ "${f:0:1}"!= "M" ];then if((${XY[0]}-${PREVXY[0]}<3&&${XY[0]}-${PREVXY[0]}>-3&&${XY[1]}-${PREVXY[1]}<3&&${XY[1]}-${PREVXY[1]}>-3));then echo "$f" >> dupes.txt;else echo $f;fi;else echo $f;fi;PREVXY[0]=${XY[0]};PREVXY[1]=${XY[1]};done | xargs > inputfile.dedupe}}}
If dupes.txt has anything in it, you probably should run it again. Anyway, running these reduced a complex test trace from ~8800 points down to ~6500.
7) Convert the path data. Here is a crude script to do that. Note this one uses a line size of 1 (that's the 0x01 business).
If you want larger lines you can pick anything between 0x00 and 0x3F. That's 6-636. See the [DrawnMapFormat] wiki page.
# just a one-line list of points. at least, it had better be one-line
open FILE, $ARGV[0];
 s/([LM])(\d+) (\d+)\s*/point($1,$2,$3)/eg;
sub point
 ($t, $x, $y) = _USER_;
 $y+=0; # just in case
{{{script pointdata > hwpointdata}}}
8) qCompress the data.
{{{g++ -I /usr/include/qt4 -I /usr/include/qt4/QtCore qcompress.cpp -lQtCore}}}
_TAG_
_TAG_
using namespace std;
int main(int argc, char **argv)
 QFile fromFile(argv[1]);
 QFile toFile(argv[2]);
 if( &&
{{{./a.out hwpointdata hwpointdata.Z}}}
9) Convert to base64 and you're done! (whew)
{{{base64 -w0 hwpointdata.Z > mynewhedgewars.hwmap}}}
Here are some example hwmap files from the process above. They look better in 0.9.18+ due to the added size support, allowing thinner lines.


text:
Design and ASIC Implementation of Root Raised Cosine Filter
Raised cosine filter is a FIR filter that can be used to counter many problems of communication such as the Inter symbol interference. The rectangular pulse occupies a large bandwidth so an alternative to rectangular pulse is a sinc pulse, which reduces the bandwidth and inter symbol interference. The rectangular pulse is passed through the root cosine filter a set of FIR filters to pulse shape the pulses to sinc. The specification of the root raised cosine FIR filter considered in this design is sampling frequency of 15.36 MHz and the cutoff frequency of 1.92 MHz, which is suitable to 3G-WCDMA.


French Grammar: Reciprocal Reflexive Verbs
French Grammar: Reciprocal Reflexive Verbs
Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project
French Grammar: Reciprocal Reflexive Verbs
la grammaire française: les verbes réfléchis réciproques
Reciprocal Reflexive Verbs in French help us identify actions done by two or more people – to each other!
Reciprocal Reflexive Verbs are a certain kind of Reflexive Verb in French. Be sure to review the lesson on Reflexive Verbs first before moving on to this lesson!
French Reciprocal Reflexive Verbs take the exact same pronouns as other French reflexive verbs. BUT, Reciprocal Reflexive Verbs are ONLY used in the plural – because the action always involves more than one person/subject.
Remember! The Reciprocal Reflexive Pronoun MUST match the subject(s) involved!
NOUS : ourselves/each other
VOUS : yourselves/each other
SE (or S') : themselves/each other
Note that the pronoun SE becomes S' before any verb that starts with a vowel (such as s'acheter and s'écrire).
Once you understand how to use Reflexive Verbs in French, learning how to use Reciprocal Reflexive Verbs is really easy! Just use the reflexive/reciprocal pronoun in front of the verb (action) that you want to express is mutual. Rule of thumb: If you would use the phrase 'each other' in English, then you'll use a Reciprocal Reflexive Verb in French!
Like Reflexive Verbs, a Reciprocal Reflexive Verb is identified by the reflexive pronoun SE that precedes it in its infinitive form. Here are some common French Reciprocal Reflexive Verbs:
s'acheter : to buy (something for) each other
s'adorer : to adore each other
s'aider : to help each other
s'aimer : to love each other
se comprendre : to understand each other
se connaître : to know each other
se détester : to hate each other
se dire : to tell/say to each other
s'écrire : to write to each other
s'envoyer (des courriels) : to send each other (emails)
se mentir : to lie to each other
se parler : to speak/talk to each other
se plaire : to like each other
se poser des questions : to ask each other questions
se promettre : to promise each other
se regarder : to look at each other
se rencontrer : to meet / to run into each other
se ressembler : to look like each other
se téléphoner : to phone/call each other
se voir : to see each other
See the ADAPT section for more examples!
Jacques et Marie se regardent.
James and Marie are looking at each other.
Les étudiants s'aident beaucoup.
The students help each other a lot.
Lucie et moi, nous nous voyons souvent.
Lucie and I see each other often.
Vous vous connaissez?
Do you all know each other?


McCrum, Robert
political writer psychological british
(British, 1953– )
McCrum was born in Cambridge, where he was educated at the University, before becoming an editor and writer. In the Secret State (1980), his first novel, is a good introduction to the unsettling world of political corruption and psychological isolation featured in much of his writing. As traditional values decay, the book's disenchanted bureaucrats cynically manipulate the political system in order to preserve their hold on power. Vividly depicting events during the Prague Spring of 1968, The Fabulous Englishman (1984) deals with a once-successful English author whose journey to Prague involves him in painful confrontations with his past. McCrum's other novels include The Psychological Moment (1993), dealing with a presidential speech-writer in retreat at Cape Cod who is beset by treacheries and painful personal choices when he learns of a British political conspiracy.
Piers Paul Read, Frederic Raphael, James Buchan. See ADVENTURE DH
McCullers, Carson [next] [back] McClure, James
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Events | Exhibitions
MEWO Kunsthalle Memmingen
an exhibition on accessibility
June 12 – November 1, 2021
With works by Emma Bolland, Daniele Buetti, Anna Coleman Ladd, Adi Hösle, Nikola Irmer, MASBEDO, Bruno Metra & Laurence Jeanson, Annegret Soltau and Marc Quinn
The exhibition 'imPERFEKT' tries to have an impact on different levels. On the one hand, 'imPERFEKT' is an exhibition about ideals of beauty. Beginning with the ancient torso of the Belvedere, which since the Renaissance has become the epitome of beauty that has been widely copied, 'imPERFEKT' examines the perception of perfection and the pursuit of perfection: How do we deal with the ideals presented by the media? How do we reconcile this with our own reality? How does this affect our view of disabilities?
On the other hand, the exhibition approaches the subject of accessibility and explores how a museum can be designed for everyone in the future. Orientation plans and floor guidance systems make it easier to navigate in the exhibition space. Individual exhibits can be seen, felt and heard. At the same time, related information is more easily accessible, as it is made available in print and via audio guides, in Braille, in sign language and in plain language.


text:
While fireworks delight celebratory crowds in the summer, for those experiencing PTSD, autism, or sensory-related triggers, these loud and illuminated events can be anxiety-inducing. Understanding how fireworks affect others can help us celebrate holidays safely and with compassion for those around us.
Fireworks & your brain
The loudness of fireworks isn't the only reason they can cause anxiety. According to Dr. Todd K. Favorite at the University of Michigan, the unpredictability of firework explosions can trigger your fight or flight response, increasing your heart rate and causing heavy breathing. The feelings we associate with this are ones where we sense imminent and immediate danger. This is why fireworks can induce anxiety in many individuals.
How to manage auditory anxiety
If you or someone you celebrate with has anxiety related to fireworks, ask your neighbors to alert you if and when they plan to set a few off. This will give you valuable time to prepare and make a plan to cope with your body's reaction, reducing the fear surrounding fireworks.
Here are some things that can be a part of that plan:
- Communicate when you are starting to feel uncomfortable
- Use noise-canceling headphones and distract yourself with music, a podcast, or an audiobook
- Try a grounding technique: hold a piece of ice, recite a memorized poem, sit with a pet, or visualize a favorite place
- Take deep breaths
- Check-in with yourself regularly and assess how you are feeling
There are many ways to handle auditory anxiety, and Valley Oaks Health can provide you with the stability and support needed to help you take steps toward better mental health.


How do you wash an old knitted blanket?
Can you wash a knitted blanket?
Knitted and crocheted blankets often need to be washed by hand. Washing a knitted or crocheted blanket is sometimes a simple matter of tossing it in the washing machine and then allowing it to air dry. Other times, you need to hand wash the item.
How do you wash a large knitted blanket?
Here's what to do:
 1. soak your blanket in cold water mixed with wool wash for approximately 30 minutes. …
 2. if it's required by your wool wash, rinse.
 3. drain the water from your blanket or scarf by gently lifting it and letting the water run out of it. …
 4. spread out some towels and lie your chunky blanket or scarf flat on it.
How do you wash a wool knit blanket?
Regular wool must be washed by hand in cold water to avoid felting and shrinking. Superwash wool can be handor machine-washed on the gentle cycle in cold water. Cotton, linen, and ramie yarn can be washed in the washing machine on a gentle cycle using either cold or warm water.
IT IS INTERESTING: Is it cheaper to buy curtains or make curtains?
Can you wash a wool blanket in the washing machine?
Wash Heavily Soiled Wool Blankets by Placing Them in the Washer with Cold Water and a Wool-Safe Detergent. Place blankets in the washing machine and allow them to soak for 15 minutes in the detergent-and-water mixture. Set the washer to the gentle cycle and let it run for two minutes. … Allow the rinse cycle to complete.
How do you dry a knitted blanket?
Other yarns, such as cotton, linen, and acrylic, can be machine-washed in cold water on the gentle cycle.
How to Wash Hand-Knit Clothes and Blankets
Detergent Gentle or wool wash
Water Temperature Cold
Cycle Type Do not machine-wash
Drying Cycle Type Do not machine-dry
How do you wash blankets in the washing machine?
Cleaning Steps:
 1. Pour the appropriate amount of laundry detergent into the washing machine for your blanket load.
 2. Place the blanket in the washing machine.
 3. Wash on the gentle cycle using cold water.
 4. During the rinse cycle, add the appropriate amount of liquid fabric softener.
 5. Hang the blanket and allow it to air-dry.
How often should blankets be washed?
Blankets will need to be washed depending on how they are used. Blankets that see a lot of direct use and skin contact should be washed every two weeks. Blankets that do not can be washed every few months.
Why is my blanket shedding after washing?
The excess fabric softener residue can cause the blanket to shed more. If little balls have developed on your blanket, that is what is known as pilling. Use a fabric shaver to remove them. … Toss an old garment made of one of these fabrics into the dryer with the shedding blanket.
IT IS INTERESTING: You asked: Where is the lot number on Bernat yarn?
How do you care for a knitted blanket?
If you're washing a knitted blanket made of plant fibre yarn such as cotton or linen, it's best to wash it in cold water and on a gentle cycle. In contrast, synthetic fibres such as acrylic can be washed as normal with your other items. Tumble-dry your knitted blanket.
Can wool blankets be washed and dried?
The General Rule for all pure wool blankets is to always wash in cold water and gently wring or roll. … Cold water and gentle washing will help retain the fiber and preserve condition if properly followed. Drying. Air Drying will provide the best results.
Will my wool blanket stop shedding?
No lukewarm or warm water; – WOOL(EN) option on washing machine must be selected; … – Washing your blanket will stop shedding and pilling.
Can I put my wool blanket in the dryer?
To dry wool blankets, it is best to hang them flat over a clothes line outside to support the weight of the wet blanket. … Avoid putting wool blankets in the dryer, as it can destroy the softness and shape of the wool blanket.
What happens if you wash wool in the washing machine?
What is the best detergent for wool?
IT IS INTERESTING: What is another name for stitch?
Are old wool blankets worth anything?
Wool blankets might have a high price tag, even at a thrift store if they are considered collectible. Hudson Bay blankets with their heavy fulled character and stripes are usually at the high end, along with Pendleton blankets.


text:
Sangho Ha and Heunghwan Kim+
Department of Computer Science
Asan 336-745, Korea
+ Department of Computer Science
Cheongju 360-742, Korea
Multithreading is attractive in that it can tolerate latency and synchronization by effectively overlapping communication with computation. While several compiler techniques have been developed to produce multithreaded codes from functional language programs, it is very difficult to find effective loop implementation for multithreaded computation. In this paper, we will suggest a loop unfolding scheme, KU-Loop. In this scheme, parallel loops can be implemented more efficiently than sequential loops by effectively overlapping loop-setup with loop execution. In addition, we suggest equations to statically approximate the optimal loop unfolding degree for each loop class using profile information. Finally, we will analyze our loop unfolding scheme by means of simulation over several benchmarks and compare simulation results with the results of the equations.
Keywords: multithreading, loop unfolding, loop unfolding degree, synchronization, communication
Received May 1, 1997; revised November 20, 1997.
Communicated by Chung-Ta King.
* This paper was supported by the Korea Science & Engineering Foundation.


text:
How do I get a free teacher account?
All verified teachers, including school, tertiary and pre-service teachers can get free accounts with access to all our resources for evaluation and professional development.
This grants access to:
- teacher notes and solutions to problems
- free access to all courses and competitions
- any professional development resources we publish.
If you are not currently teaching at a school
If you are currently teaching at a school
Follow these steps to become a verified teacher on Grok.
For more details on what becoming a verified teacher means, see What is teacher verification?


text:
The First Conditional
The first conditional is one of four types of hypothetical sentence in English, and it is probably the most commonly used. In which situations can we use it and why?
When to use the first conditional
The first conditional is used to express the future consequence of a realistic possibility now or in the future. For example,
If I miss the train, I'll take the next one.
There is a 50% chance that the first part of this sentence (the action following 'if') will happen. And if it happens, the second part is 100% certain.
Creating the First Conditional
To make a sentence in the first conditional, we use,
If + present simple, will/won't + verb.
If I pass this exam, I'll celebrate.
If I pass this exam, I won't have to do it again.
Like all conditionals we can also invert this structure:
Will + verb if + present simple.
I'll celebrate if I pass this exam.
I won't have to do this exam again if I pass it.
As an alternative to will, It's possible to complete the second part of a first conditional sentence with a modal verb or an imperative. For example,
If it rains, we can't play tennis.
If it rains, we must postpone our game.
If it rains, wear your waterproof clothing.
The important thing to remember with the first conditional is that we can never use will near if. Will can only come in the other part of the sentence. For example,
We'll be pleased if the client accepts our offer.
We'll be pleased if the client will accept our offer.
Here are some other examples of the first conditional:
If you practice frequently, you'll learn quickly.
If we don't win today, we'll be out of the competition.
Your teacher can help if you don't understand something.
Call me if you're late.
If she does well in this interview, she'll get the job.
If you're hungry, help yourself to whatever you want.
We won't miss the plane if we hurry.
Our boss will be really pleased if we get this contract.
As you can see, the first conditional is used in many different situations, both in and out of the workplace. So it's undoubtedly a structure that's worth learning and practicing. Start now by doing this fun quiz.


text: Desalination offers an opportunity for source diversification of water for many communities, along with possible defenses against security threats potentially affecting clean water supplies. The economic costs associated with constructing and operating desalination plants in South Texas are investigated. Primary data utilized in the analysis include engineering considerations and actual costs associated with existing and plants under construction in South Texas. Specific costs considered include raw water acquisition and transport, pretreatment, and purification. Sensitivity parameters include source and quality of raw water, energy costs, size of plant, and other heuristic aspects of plant design and development. Annuity equivalent costs are reported on a per ac-ft of finished water basis, f.o.b. desalination plant.


_PHONE_
Fighting Gravity Blog
Fighting Gravity: Assessing the True Cost of Lifting Decisions -Everything must come down, but needs some help to go up! The Fighting Gravity Series
Fighting Gravity:
Assessing the True Cost of Lifting Decisions
The Fighting Gravity Series
 The goal of the Fighting Gravity Series is to help operators, engineers and purchasers think through their requirements for lifting solutions, primarily in the lift range of loads of 1 tonne to 10 Tons, but many of the principles apply to all of your lifting decisions. Does a portable gantry solution make sense? What about an overhead gantry crane? When is a lightweight davit crane the appropriate tool?
In this edition of Fighting Gravity we will focus on a portion of your gantry crane planning: cost assessment. Having a framework to assess the costs is an important factor in arriving at the correct decision. There are a wide range of costs that aren't readily apparent at the time of purchase, so let's try and flush out a few of those hidden items below!
Assessing the Cost: Price vs Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Unfortunately most decisions start with the question "How much does that cost?" The correct question should really be "How much will this cost me over the life of the solution." It's often difficult to get an exact apples-to-apples comparison while evaluating competing products. Focusing exclusively on the up front price can miss the longer term cost of a solution. Rather than price, let's discuss the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of your lifting solution over the life span of the equipment. Products that appear slightly more expensive initially can often be very cost effective over the useful life of the equipment. Things to consider when assessing your TCO:
 - Cost to implement the solution
 - Annual costs
 - Product durability
 - Vendor reputation
 - Solution versatility
Costs to Implement the Solution
Certain solutions such as overhead gantry cranes will likely require extensive up-front planning, including engineering costs, a potential building review to ensure the structural integrity of the building, safety program planning, along with a number of other items depending on the situation. The number of service providers required to successfully implement the project can grow quickly, making organization and team management critical. You should also consider the cost of internal resources required to evaluate and manage the project. It can often require a diverse set of internal resources from engineering, finance, safety etc. to properly manage a project of that magnitude.
As a comparison, for lighter lifts, a 2 ton aluminum gantry crane would have no implementation costs aside from the purchase price, but different mobile gantry cranes come with different features. One question might be whether or not a beam trolley is included in the initial purchase price. Does it come with required safety documentation such as engineered stamped drawings or certificate of test? Is the manufacturer representing that it's been tested or will you need to that yourself (and take on that liability). These, plus other questions are important to consider at the outset of a purchase.
Annual Costs
Annual costs operating costs should be factored into the TCO calculation. These costs might involve annual maintenance or safety inspections, along with annual safety training or certification. It's critical for operator safety to know the Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard (OSHA) for each piece of equipment and operating environment.
While the upfront implementation cost might be less burdensome for portable gantry cranes, there are definitely hidden annual costs to evaluate. Legacy steel mobile gantry cranes may require large pieces of equipment such as a forklift or front loader to move them around a facility due to their heavy weights and limited mobility. The cost of an operator's time, the operating cost of the machinery, along with the opportunity cost of that piece of machinery not engaging in a higher value added activity should be seriously considered. With a forklift costing more than $30k and a front-loader at $100k the opportunity cost can become substantial. Many operators or purchasers are shocked at how high these hidden costs are on an annual basis, sometimes equaling the entire cost of a less than mobile gantry crane! A general rule of thumb is to multiply these annual operating costs by 10-20x to understand their true cost over a longer term time period (say 10+ years). So if you will incur an additional $3,000 per year in annual operating costs for one solution vs a competing solution, then over the life of the solution the cost is really closer to $30,000 to $60,000 greater than the alternative.
Lightweight, aluminum portable gantry cranes avoid the trappings of the older legacy steel gantry cranes. The aluminum portable gantry crane can be easily moved from location to location, due to its lightweight, either by quickly disassembling it to move it or by easily rolling it around a facility. As lifting capacity increases, the difference between the aluminum gantry crane and steel gantry crane can become significant. A 3 tonne to 10 ton aluminum gantry crane can be moved without additional machinery, such as the ones we produce at Easily Moved Equipment (eme). Avoiding the cost of specialized equipment to move or rig the portable aluminum gantry crane can result in substantial savings over the life of the product, reducing the TCO.
Product Durability
Most operators or purchasers will focus on direct repair costs. However, loss of productivity due to downtime is the real economic monster. Wasting time and resources to replace or repair a piece of lifting equipment that should be functional, can ripple its way through the production process or service workflow, costing multiples of the initial equipment cost.
You should also consider the environment that the equipment will be located. Is it outdoors where the elements will eventually cause degradation in either the structural or operating integrity of the asset? If so, then maybe a mobile solution has a lower TCO over the long-run.
Vendor Reputation
Understanding your equipment vendor is very important while analyzing the risk of hidden future costs. A poor assessment here regarding quality, service costs, etc. of the vendor could be costly down the road.
Understanding your equipment vendor's reliability track record is critical in this area. How quickly do they respond to service requests, if necessary? Can you obtain parts domestically or are they shipped in from overseas? What does the vendors track record of quality look like? Do they rigorously test the equipment before sending it out to a customer? These are important questions to ask of your equipment vendor to assess your TCO.
Is your vendor committed to your particular market? As an example, are you dealing with an overseas vendor that's new to your particular geography? Is there risk that vendor may decide to pack up and head home if it doesn't achieve the sales levels it requires to justify geographic expansion? What does that mean to you if you are in the unfortunate position of needing service or parts 2 or 3 years after purchasing the gear?
Understand your vendor's full product line-up. Is the model you are buying from them their core competency, or did they simply produce a couple of products for "marketing purposes" and aren't fully committed to that technology and type of product for their core lineup.
Has the ownership of your vendor changed? Sometimes this can put the historical track record such as service or quality levels at risk since new ownership may decide to focus on financial metrics rather than putting the customer first. In that situation you might not be factoring the risk and cost of repair correctly.
Solution Versatility
Certain solutions are likely purpose built, such as the overhead crane that we discussed above. You can't move it to other parts of the facility, but it's there to do a specific job!
 Other solutions can potentially serve multiple functions around a facility or worksite. If it's possible to substitute a mobile 10 ton gantry crane for a 10 ton overhead crane, the solution could have significantly lower TCO. A mobile gantry can take on many different forms. An older steel gantry crane, as discussed above, may have such limited mobility at heavier rated capacity loads of 3 tonne, 5 tonne, 7.5 tonne or 10 tonne, that it's effectively an overhead crane but on the ground. In order to use these gantry cranes at that rated capacity, you likely need to incur the cost of having multiple steel gantry cranes at each desired location, even if it has infrequent use. In contrast, the eme portable aluminum gantry crane at a 3 tonne, 5 tonne 7.5 tonne or 10 ton rated capacity can be disassembled and moved around a specific location or to another site. This may allow the operator to replace multiple legacy products with significantly fewer aluminum gantry cranes. Not only is this likely to save up-front costs, but it reduces the complexity of having to maintain or potentially certify a higher amount of equipment each year.
Lastly, understand if your equipment vendor's products are interoperable with other products in their lineup. For example, if your primary need is