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MSc Migration Studies alumnus Jonathan Paul Katz examines the role of plain language in communication and its importance in communicating with people with disabilities, including migrants with disabilities – especially in interactions with local government
In the last decade, there has been growing interest from both policy and academic communities in understanding why people migrate. The focus, however, remains biased towards understanding mobility, while the structural and personal forces that restrict or resist the drivers of migration, leading to different immobility outcomes, are much less understood. This paper offers the first global analysis of staying preferences, enhancing knowledge about the factors associated with voluntary immobility, defined here as the aspiration to stay in one's country of residence. We make use of the unique Gallup World Polls which provide information on aspirations to stay (as opposed to migrating abroad) as well as on individual characteristics and opinions for 130 countries worldwide between 2010-2016. Staying aspirations are far more common than migration aspirations, and we uncover important 'retain factors' often overlooked in research on migration drivers – related to social ties, local amenities, trust in community institutions, and life satisfaction. Overall, those who aspire to stay tend to be more content, socially supported and live in communities with stronger institutions and better local amenities. We further explore differences in the relative importance of retain factors for countries at different levels of urbanization, and for different population groups, based on gender, education, rural/urban location, migration history, religiosity, and perceived thriving. Our findings contribute to a more holistic understanding of migration decision-making, illuminating the personal, social, economic, and institutional retain factors countering those that push and pull.
Mobilization trajectories as a tool to study migration and protest intentions: An illustration from Morocco
When dissatisfied with socioeconomic and political conditions, why do some people migrate, others protest, and others do neither? While existing literature shows that migration and protest are both responses to discontent, and that migrants and protesters have similar sociodemographic profiles, the initial choice between these two behaviors and their relationship at the individual level need further investigation. In this conceptual paper we introduce mobilization trajectories, an original analytical conceptual device that allows a combined analysis of migration aspirations and protest intentions as alternative, but not always equally available, strategies that individuals can adopt when dissatisfied with socioeconomic and political conditions. We argue that mobilization trajectories as an analytical tool offers three contributions: it (1) uncovers individuals' negotiations between multiple possible courses of action and inaction, (2) illuminates how intentions are shaped by changing socioeconomic and political conditions at home and abroad, networks, previous experiences with protest or migration, and gender, and by doing so (3) aids our understanding of why aspirations may or may not lead to actual migration. We illustrate the working of mobilization trajectories as an analytic tool for the combined analysis of migration and protest intentions with vignettes from interviews conducted in 2020 and 2021 with Moroccan youth aged 18-35.
Migration aspirations and preferences to stay in a Brazilian frontier town: Tranquility, hope and relative endowment
What happens to migration when a town undergoes economic decline? Do residents migrate or do they stay? And what motivates this decision? This article answers these questions by analyzing the life and migration aspirations of young people – 17-39 age group – in Caracaraí, a large frontier Brazilian town on the edge of the Amazon forest that has experienced economic decline and stagnation since its heyday in the 1970s-80s. The analysis relies on 41 in-depth interviews (17-91 age group) and a survey with 267 respondents in the 17-39 age-group – who are frequently children of migrants who arrived during the economic boom. The article examines their view of the town, their life aspirations and prospects, and their aspirations to stay or to leave Caracaraí. While we observe 'conditional' migration aspirations, many young people show a preference to stay. Three interconnected factors shape this preference: life aspirations, the meaning of a 'good life', and hope in local development. Life aspirations often entail the pursuit of education within Brazil to take up public sector employment in Caracaraí. A 'good life' frequently involves closeness to family, the town's natural environment and its peacefulness. Many young people also hold hope for the town's development in the future. This article introduces the concept of relative endowment to describe how young people in Caracaraì feel privileged in relation to their parents' upbringing and to people in more peripheral areas, in big Brazilian cities and abroad, thus in relation to diverse reference groups. Moreover, relative endowment can be shaped by non-economic factors, such as what is a 'good life' and perceptions of development. This might explain why, even in times of economic decline, many young people may prefer to stay, despite the financial gains that migration could provide.
Managing Migration through Detention and Information-Giving Practices: the Case of the Italian Hotspot and Relocation System
The article explores the relation between detention and information-giving practices and investigates its contribution to migration control and (re)bordering processes at the southern European border. By focusing on the case of the hotspot system implemented in Sicily, the paper explores two main issues: a) the role played by detention practices and their relation with processes of migrant selection and migrants' rights stratification; b) the link between authorities' detention practices and information-giving practices carried out by intergovernmental organisations such as the UNHCR and the IOM, and the contribution of this relation to processes of migrant differential inclusion. The research methodology is built on ten months of fieldwork carried out in eastern Sicily between 2017 and 2018, on document analysis and on semi-structured interviews conducted with seventeen key informants. The article argues that the intergovernmental organisations information-giving practices about asylum, identification and relocation procedures a) contributed to perpetuating subtle and indirect forms of migration control and b) were linked, more or less directly, to detention practices carried out by authorities, and this relation contributed to reinforcing the stratification of migrants' access to mobility and rights.
A Transnational Social Contract: How the South Indian State of Kerala justifies Social Protection Policies towards Non-Resident Keralites
The migration process raises a set of migration-related risks and vulnerabilities that governments first need to recognize as collective problems before formulating public policy responses. The South Indian state of Kerala is among the first subnational states globally to institutionalise various social protection policies towards emigrants and returned migrants, specifically through the department of Non-Resident Keralites' Affairs (NORKA) and its implementation agency, NORKA ROOTS. This article focuses on Kerala to investigate why migrant-origin states assume collective social responsibility for emigrants and include them in social protection policies. By drawing on original data, the analysis shows that (returned) emigrants' access to social protection schemes is built on the state government's understandings of deservingness. Kerala bases deservingness on a combination of instrumentalist and ideational rationales that are rooted in the state's specific developmental and identity discourse. These findings contribute to debates on the social policy-migration nexus, and particularly transnational social protection, in two ways. First, Kerala's approach highlights migration's role in welfare-state expansion and shows that positive discourses on migration can facilitate policy change, especially compared to negative discourses and welfare retrenchment in European destination countries in recent years. Second, the Kerala example underlines the importance of studying subnational governments to understand how transnational labour migration and social policies are made and how these subnational governments shape emigrants' access to social protection.
Research suggests that rising levels of 'development' lead to rising levels of migration. However, little is known about large variations in the way development has shaped human mobility across different societies and periods. To improve understanding on the drivers of migration, the MADE project explored: How do processes of development and social transformation shape human migration? More specifically, how does fundamental societal change affect the direction, timing, selection, and volumes of internal and international migration? To answer these questions, MADE elaborated new theoretical and empirical approaches for migration research. While prior analyses focused on how a limited number of economic and demographic factors affect short-term fluctuations in international migration, we examined how political, economic, technological, demographic and cultural change shape long-term trends and patterns of internal and international mobility.
This paper analyses how fundamental transformations of Moroccan society over the past century have shaped Morocco's mobility complex and how migration has affected and accelerated these transformation processes in its own right. Economic transitions and the concomitant demise of subsistence-based agrarian livelihoods, urbanization processes and demographic transitions, increasing education and rapid cultural change have increased all forms of migratory and non-migratory mobility within and from Morocco, particularly through large-scale rural-to-urban migration as well as rapidly increasing emigration to Europe. While earlier patterns seem largely consistent with mobility transition theory, the predicted decrease in emigration levels has not occurred, as, since the 1990s, Morocco has entered a migration plateau of persistently high emigration despite significant increases in living standards, a slowing down of internal migration and increasing immigration. Continuously high levels of emigration can be explained by a growing disjuncture between sluggish and uneven economic development that has mainly benefitted certain regions and economic elites on the one hand, and fast sociocultural change across all social classes and regions on the other. This disjuncture has rapidly increased youth's aspirations for lifestyles and freedoms that they find difficult to imagine in Morocco, but at the same time reshapes Morocco's internal mobility patterns and attracts growing numbers of immigrants.
Welfare and Migration: Unfulfilled Aspirations to "Have Rights" in the SouthMoroccan Todgha


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Now in its fourth year, Imagine Cup Junior is an exciting opportunity for students aged 13-18 years old to learn about technology and how it can be used to solve some of the world's biggest challenges while participating in a global student challenge. It's a great introduction to technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and cybersecurity, and is suitable for all levels, especially beginners.
The Imagine Cup is full of opportunities to gain new skills, access exclusive training, unlock mentorship opportunities, and have a chance to win great prizes and make a difference in the world. The Imagine Cup is full of opportunities to further gain new skills, develop your existing skill set, receive mentorship, and collaborate with students who are just as passionate as you about making a difference in the world.
Participation in Imagine Cup Junior for students is via a Team Leader (educator, instructor, parent, or guardian – over the age of 18). Team Leaders register on behalf of students and gain access to the Imagine Cup Junior resource pack outlined below to facilitate learning and the challenge. Students work in teams of one (1) to six (6) to develop an original concept addressing Microsoft's AI for Good Initiatives and complete the Imagine Cup Junior PowerPoint submission template.
At Microsoft, their mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. They believe that students today will be the changemakers of tomorrow, so they need to empower them with the tools, resources, and opportunities to learn new skills and prepare for the future workforce.
Applicants can draw inspiration from the 10 global winners for 2022 who came up with incredible concepts to address Microsoft's AI for Good initiatives. Use your imagination and passion to create a technology solution. Create something that matters and develop your skills at the same time with resources from Microsoft.
Once registered for Imagine Cup Junior, Team Leaders can access all the materials needed to educate students and run a great Imagine Cup Junior challenge. These resources include:
- Beginners Kit – six (6) 45-minute lesson modules. New this year are additional AI lessons in Minecraft: Education Edition as well as an option for students to create a prototype of their concept using Microsoft Azure for Students
- Deep Learning Modules – 6 sets of in-depth content
- Team Leader Toolkit – get students excited about participating in Imagine Cup Junior with participation resources including social media templates, certificates, posters, and t-shirt templates
- Submission Template
- Judging Criteria and Rubric
- Rules and Regulations
- Team Leaders can also access hackathon materials to run a hackathon in their classroom to help further understand best practices for running Imagine Cup Junior and facilitate additional learning for students.
- Global competition for students aged 16+
- You're welcome to imagine any solution that you're passionate about, but must include a Microsoft Azure component and take into consideration diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
- Maximum four (4) members per team
- If you are a student at a university, community college, vocational or trade school, or high school, you are eligible to participate in Microsoft Imagine Cup.
- All students at accredited schools in countries around the world are eligible.
- Teams can consist of members from multiple countries and/or universities, but the team can only represent one country in the competition.
- If you are a resident of an eligible country, you can compete representing that country even if your citizenship is elsewhere.
- Teams may change their name and add or update team members, but they would have to do this before the submission deadline.
- A team must be created prior to or during project submission.
- You and your team will make an original technology project from start to finish—come up with a great idea, plan, build your project, and submit it!
- Imagine Cup teams are made of up to four eligible students.
- You can create a team from your Account page. If a friend creates a team, they can invite you and a notification will show up in your account.
For the submission to qualify for the 2023 Imagine Cup Junior, each application must comply with the challenge rules and regulations.
Application Deadline: May 10, 2023 (50 Days Remaining)Apply nowOfficial link

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Can chinchillas eat peanuts?
Can Chinchillas Eat Peanuts?
Wild chinchillas likely eat nuts and seeds, when they find them. So should you feed a pet chinchilla peanuts? And if not, why not?
Can chinchillas eat peanuts? They can, but peanuts of all kinds are nutritionally unsuitable for chinchillas. That includes roasted nuts, raw peanuts, unsalted and salted, and even monkey nuts still in their shells. They are too high in fat and calories so can make chinchillas overweight. They also don't contain enough fiber or carbohydrate for your chinchilla's gut, so may cause bloating. Feed your chinchilla safe snacks like rose hips, sweet hay or shredded wheat instead.
The guide below details exactly why chinchillas shouldn't eat peanuts, by looking at their nutritional content vs. the nutrients a chinchilla needs. We'll also look at some of the side effects that peanuts are likely to cause (and they aren't pretty). And for anybody who is going to insist on giving their chinchilla peanuts, we've also made recommendations on serving sizes that, while not good for your chinchilla, at least aren't likely to cause it significant harm.
Can Chinchillas Eat Peanuts?
Chinchillas can physically eat peanuts. They have big, strong teeth that can easily break them apart. And chins aren't stupid, so won't try swallowing peanuts whole—they know to chew them first. But while a peanut won't immediately poison or choke your chinchilla, it won't be good for its health, so we don't recommend feeding them.
Do Chinchillas Like Peanuts?
Can chinchillas eat peanuts?Chinchillas enjoy eating anything new, sweet and/or fatty. They're naturally inclined to eat high-calorie foods because these are hard to find in the wild—the same instinct that we have. So, if you offer your chinchilla a peanut, it will eat it.
The problem is that your chin doesn't know what's best for it. It's in the wild, and it has unlimited access to hay and pellets. It doesn't need to gorge on dense foods like peanuts. In that sense, peanuts are a lot like the chinchilla equivalent of the snacks and fast food that we enjoy eating (but probably shouldn't).
Why Can't Chinchillas Eat Peanuts?
Peanuts are nutritionally unsuitable for chinchillas. If fed regularly, they will make your chinchilla gain weight. And because your pet isn't used to them, they could cause digestive issues like bloating, too.
Nutrients in Peanuts
To fully understand why peanuts have the effect that they do, you have to look at the specific amounts of each nutrient they contain. The table below uses data from These data relate generically to unsalted peanuts, not one brand or another.
NutrientsAmount per 100gRequirements
It should be immediately obvious that peanuts don't give chinchillas some of what they need, and give far too much of things they don't need much of.
Carbohydrate, Protein & Fat in Peanuts
The key issue with peanuts is that they contain far too much fat for chinchillas.
Contrary to popular belief, no one nutrient is the 'enemy'. You shouldn't entirely cut out carbs, fat, or anything else. Rather, the issue here is that fat contains more calories per gram than protein and carbohydrates (roughly double). As such, peanuts have almost three times as many calories as chinchillas need. This means that your pet will quickly gain weight if you feed it peanuts, even as a snack. The fact that peanuts have around 20-40% more protein than chinchillas need makes this problem even worse.
What else makes peanuts unsuitable is that they contain little fiber, or at least, less fiber than chinchillas need. Chins need a very high fiber diet, perhaps up to 30g per 100g. Their digestive systems are tailored to just such a diet. If your chin doesn't get enough fiber, its stools may be soft or even runny.
Vitamins & Minerals in Peanuts
Peanuts have lots of vitamins and minerals compared to other foods, both in terms of the number of different micronutrients they contain, and the amounts of each. Here is a table, again with data from, that lists each micronutrient that peanuts contain high amounts of:
Vitamin/MineralAmount per 100g
Vitamin B10.64mg
Vitamin B20.135mg
Vitamin B312.066mg
Vitamin B51.767mg
Vitamin B60.348mg
Vitamin E8.33mg
This table may seem like a plus-point in favor of peanuts, but it's not.
Chinchillas can thrive on a diet of hay and hay alone. That's because hay contains every vitamin and mineral that chinchillas need to live healthy lives. That may seem surprising, but many animals don't need a varied diet like we do.
If your chinchilla is deficient in something, peanuts aren't an effective 'supplement'. Rather you should talk to your vet about actual supplements. Take calcium, for example: timothy hay doesn't contain quite enough, which is why chinchilla pellets often contain alfalfa, which contains lots. If your chin isn't getting enough, the vet can recommend a suitable supplement. Or, you can give your chinchilla a cuttle bone as a chew toy. Both of these options are better than peanuts because they don't make your pet gain weight or have digestive issues.
Are Peanuts Poisonous to Chinchillas? (Digestive Issues)
Peanuts aren't poisonous for chinchillas. Your chin can eat one, and it won't immediately get sick, let alone pass away.
Rather, they cause digestive issues. These take longer to appear than a poison would take to take effect. Peanuts, and any food your chinchilla is unfamiliar with, can cause bloating which is a dangerous problem for a chinchilla to face.
This occurs because a chinchilla's digestive system is set up perfectly to digest rough fibers like those found in hay. The chinchilla digests its food twice over to extract as much nutrition from it as possible, and its gut bacteria and enzymes specialize in breaking down fibrous foods. While peanuts are reasonably fibrous, they are nowhere near as fibrous as hay.
When the chinchilla's gut has to digest something it isn't used to, the food can ferment. When this happens, it produces lots of gas, and since chins can't pass gas easily, this gas gets trapped. So much can get trapped that the chinchilla's gut or stomach lining can burst. While this won't happen if you feed your chinchilla just one peanut, peanuts and other unsuitable snacks can contribute to an existing issue, or create an issue from nothing if fed regularly.
Can Chinchillas Eat Raw Peanuts?
Can chinchillas eat peanuts?
Peanuts grow in the ground!
The statistics above relate to raw, unsalted peanuts. Every peanut has this much fat in it, that many calories in it (if not more), and isn't suited to your chinchilla's diet. That applies to peanuts you get in packets, peanuts you get in tubs, or monkey nuts that you get with their shells still on.
Can Chinchillas Eat Salted Peanuts?
Salted peanuts are worse for your pet than raw peanuts. That's because of all the sodium (salt) they contain/have on their surface. Sodium has negative health effects like raising blood pressure. It's proven to increase the risks of kidney disease, stomach cancer and heart failure too. While these effects haven't been proven in chinchillas specifically, they have been observed in other rodents, so are likely to occur in chinchillas too.
Can Chinchillas Eat Peanut Shells?
While peanuts aren't suitable for chinchillas, peanut shells are.
Peanut shells are too tough and fibrous for us to eat. But it's these qualities that make them the perfect chew toy for chinchillas. Chins need a chew toy to keep their teeth from growing overlong. Apple wood sticks are a common choice, and there's no reason not to give these. But chinchillas enjoy having new toys and new treats: it keeps them entertained.
Peanut shells are a good choice because when chinchillas gnaw on things, they can accidentally ingest some by accident. That's why it's best to offer chew toys made from natural materials like wood. Peanut shells don't contain the same high levels of fat and protein that peanuts do, which means they're safe to ingest.
Can Chinchillas Eat Peanut Butter?
Peanut butter is tasty, but doesn't make a good chinchilla treat.
The same issues that apply to regular peanuts apply to peanut butter, too. Peanut butters have the same, if not higher, levels of fat and protein than raw peanuts. They have lots of salt added, too.
And besides nutrition, peanut butter poses other problems. If you got any peanut butter in your chinchilla's fur, it would be a nightmare to clean out.
How Many Peanuts Can Chinchillas Eat?
We would recommend against feeding your chinchilla any peanuts, for the reasons covered above. On top of that, though, there are snacks that are perfectly suitable for chinchillas that won't have these effects. Chinchillas enjoy these snacks just as much as fatty, sugary or generally unhealthy ones. There's therefore no logical justification for offering unhealthy peanuts when healthy rose hips or herbs will suffice.
And besides that, ch


Adult Acne: Prevalence and Portrayal in Primary Healthcare Patients, in the Greater Porto Area, Portugal
Diogo Semedo, Filipa Ladeiro, Mariana Ruivo, Carlos d'Oliveira, Filipa de Sousa, Mariana Gayo, Clara Lima, Frederico Magalhães, Rui Brandão, Maria Branco, Isabel da Silva, Joana Batista, João Amado, António Massa, João Neves-Amado
Introduction: Though typically found in adolescents, acne frequently affects the adult population. In Portugal, no representative studies about acne prevalence in greater populational areas are known. This study had the following objectives: calculate acne prevalence in primary healthcare patients; its characteristics, including risk factors for onset and worsening; collect information concerning selfmedication and/or prescribed treatment.
Material and Methods: Application of a questionnaire and physical examination into a convenience sample, composed by adults from
20 - 60 years old that visited, in random days, five primary healthcare centers of the Greater Porto area.
Results: From the 1,055 evaluated adults, acne prevalence was estimated at 61.5%. Only 36.8% of acne suffering adults was aware
of their condition. More than half of tobacco users (62.3%) had acne. Just 25% of acne sufferers sought treatment. The most affected areas were the malars, differing from the younger disease form.
Discussion: Acne prevalence was relatively higher than other studies. The results of this study have confirmed that acne seems to be related with increased calorie intake, tobacco smoking, whole milk and fat-reduced milk consumption, hirsutism, alopecia and seborrhea.
Conclusion: In the primary healthcare set, more than half of adults were acne sufferers. These numbers show how important primary healthcare services can be in preventing and intervening when managing acne-related risk factors and psychosocial consequences.
Acne Vulgaris/epidemiology; Adult; Portugal; Prevalence; Primary Health Care.
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Modern slavery
We are committed to improving our practices to combat slavery and human trafficking. In order to achieve this we are committed to understanding modern slavery risks and ensuring that there is no modern slavery in our own business and supply chains.
Learn about our supply chains, policies and processes in the following statement:
2020 Modern Slavery Act Statement.pdf
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31/07/2020.
TISC Report
The is the World's largest Open Data platform committed to ending corruption, supply chain labour abuses and modern slavery, joining up Transparency In Supply Chains (TISC) reporting globally. As an open data initiative, it meets the compliance requirements of section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Cardiff University are an approved organisation and as such are entitled to use the logo to signify our commitment to complying with the Modern Slavery Act.
The logo for the TISC Report


Kellies Castle
The 100-years-old castle
Kellies Castle
Somewhere near Batu Gajah, suburb of Ipoh, stood the Kellies Castle surrounding by river.
It was intended to be the hub of social life for the area's wealthy colonial planters and administrators - a grand mansion with a six-storey tower, wine cellar, and stately columns. Moorish arches and walls embellished with Greco-Roman designs.
There was to be a rooftop courtyard for parties, a helicopter landing space and even the first shaft lift in the country to connect the underground tunnel up to the top floor.
History of the never completed castle...
William Kellie Smith, born in Dallas, North-Eastern Scotland to a farmer and his wife on 1st of March, 1870. At the tender age of 20, he traveled to Malaya (old name of Malaysia) to seek for his fortune.
This had proven to be a wise choice, since he was soon engaged by an estate owner to help in the construction of public roads in South Perak and gathered some fortune from his share of the venture's profits. With this capital, he bought over nearly 1000 acres of jungle land in the Kinta District, and cleared it to become rubber estate named.
Kellie's Castle
Followed by his success in rubber plantation, the Smith brought over his family to stay at his first mansion in Malaya, Kellas House which built in 1905 as symbol of his prospering rubber estate venture.
Later in 1915 with the birth of a son and heir, Smith decided to build the Kellies Castle (just in front of the Kellas House). It is believed to be a gift for his wife or for the birth of his son - Anthony.
Halt of the construction...
70 tough workers, mostly from Madras, were employed. Bricks and marble were imported from India. But the construction work was not smooth, a mysterious illness (Spanish Flu) broke out and killed many of the workers.
The superstitious Smith was told that a temple must be built to appease the gods. He immediately transferred his workers to build a Hindu temple nearby, and there is an underground tunnel lying beneath the castle to the temple.
This tunnel was discovered accidentally during a road widening exercise at the 6th kilometer stretch of the Gopeng-Batu Gajah road in 2003. An excavator broke through the timber structure and revealed a section of a tunnel. The passageway is about 1.5m height and 1m wide. The tunnel is believed to go under the river and connecting the castle to the Hindu temple.
Anyway, this tragedy didn't stop the construction of the castle. But the sudden death of Smith on a visit to Lisbon in 1926 had made a halt to it. He was died of pneumonia. His wife, Agnes, with a broken heart made the decision to sell out all of the Smith's properties in Malaya and moved back to Scotland sadly.
Me at the Kellies Castle roof top, which suppose to be a courtyard
Myths... legends... rumors...
There have been many myths or legends or rumors spreading around about the mysterious castle.
Some say that the Smith's spirit still wandering inside the castle, especially along the corridors, guarding his great mansion. And that's why much of the structure still intact after so many years.
Some say there are lots of "spirits" wandering around the castle since workers died during the construction and people died during the 2nd world war.
It is believed that there are 4 underground tunnels. One is connecting the Kellies Castle to the Hindu temple 500m in the west, one is connecting to the main gate garage in the south and one is connecting to the road in the east.
How about the last one? It's still undiscovered. There are rumors about this secret tunnel had been used as an execution hub of the Japanese army in World War II. And some say it was the secret tunnel being used by Chen Ping (the famous communist leader in Malaya) in between 50s to 60s.
Some say the Smith's car is parked in one of the tunnels.
The mysterious corridor where Smith's spirit said to be wandering along
All these years faded into memory, the castle has been reconditioned to serve as a visitor spot. It's just about 20 minutes drive from Ipoh.
I just went to Kellies Castle for the third time during Chinese New Year holiday in 2009 to update information for you, such as the ticket price. And I found that I really enjoy the scenery and breeze at the rooftop.
Anyway, just as a reminder, don't forget to look for the information tag on the walls.
Visiting Time: Everyday 9am to 6pm
Ticket Price: Foreign Tourist - RM5
 Adults - RM4
 Students/Children - RM3
Return from Kellies Castle page to Perak Attractions
Return to Explore Ipoh


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Nautical Archaeologists have recently discovered a Roman era shipwreck off of the coast of Albania. The wreck, which dates to the 1st century BCE was filled with amphorae used to store wine. Archaeologists believe that merchants were transporting the wine from Albania's vineyards to be sold throughout the Mediterranean.
In spite of its age and relatively shallow depth (50 m below sea level), the wreck is remarkably well preserved and nearly all of the vessel seem to be in tact. Both American and Albanian archaeologists will work together to excavate the findings and are excited about the potential for insight it provides about this period in Roman history.
To read more about the wreck and its findings, see this article on MSNBC.


I thought this might be a helpful resource from someone whose work I really admire (also, check out a great she is in on called Her bio and pitch follow:
Carmen Van Kerckhove, president of the diversity education firm New Demographic, specializes in working with corporations to facilitate relaxed, authentic, and productive conversations about race. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and has visited as a guest lecturer at Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia, among many other colleges and universities across the country. If you want to learn how to boost your career by mastering the changing dynamics of race in today's workplace, get your FREE TIPS now at
How to Respond to a Racist Joke
By Carmen Van Kerckhove
Figuring out how to react when a co-worker makes a racist joke can be extremely difficult. If you don't call the person out on her racism, you seem to be condoning the behavior. But if you do say something, you risk alienating him and sabotaging your working relationship.
The best response to a racist joke should accomplish 3 things:
1. Communicate that you find this behavior unacceptable.
2. Demonstrate that the joke is racist.
3. Inflict as little damage as possible to your working relationship with the joker.
Before I explain the response I would recommend, let's look at some of the other possible reactions available to you and why they are not ideal.
You don't laugh.
Withholding your laughter is a way to avoid personally colluding in this kind of racist behavior without damaging your relationship with the joker. However, by staying silent, you do not necessarily make it clear that you find this kind of humor unacceptable and that the joke is racist.
You walk away.
People who tell racist jokes assume that you will agree with and appreciate this kind of humor. By walking away, you communicate that their behavior is unacceptable. However, the act of walking away does nothing to demonstrate the racism inherent in the joke, and the gesture is likely to anger the joker.
You say that you find the joke offensive because it is racist.
This is the most straight-forward to respond to a racist joke. With this reaction, you convey that the joke is unacceptable to you and that it is racist. However, by criticizing your co-worker in front of others in such a blunt manner, you are likely to damage your working relationship and put her on the defensive. She will likely fire back by making it seem as if you are the one with the problem. She will say that "it's just a joke," that you need to "loosen up," and that you're "just too sensitive."
I've established why the above responses are not particularly effective. So how should you react if your co-worker tells a racist joke in front of you?
The best strategy is to play dumb.
Put on a bewildered expression, act as if you don't understand the joke, and ask your co-worker to explain it to you. He will not be able to explain why the joke is funny without evoking a racist stereotype. You can then question the veracity of this stereotype, thus pointing out the racism of the joke, without being confrontational and without humiliating your co-worker.
Here's how it would play out.
Co-worker: Did you hear that Angelina Jolie adopted another kid, this time from Vietnam?
You: Oh really?
Co-worker: Yeah. The poor kid probably doesn't even know he's Asian yet. He certainly doesn't know he's going to be a horrible driver. Or that he's going to be amazing at doing nails. He has no idea! [Laughs heartily.]
You: [Look perplexed.] Sorry, I don't get it.
Co-worker: What do you mean?
You: I guess I'm missing something. Why is that funny?
Co-worker: [Looks embarrassed.] Um, well you know how people say that Asians are bad drivers. And a lot of people who work at nail salons are Asian.
You: But those are just stereotypes, aren't they?
Co-worker: Well, all stereotypes have some truth to them.
You: So you actually believe that all Asians are bad drivers and are good at doing nails?
Co-worker: No, no, it's just… Never mind.
Racist jokes rely on an unspoken, shared knowledge of racist stereotypes. Without the stereotypes, there is no humor.
When you play dumb and ask someone to explain the joke, you are able to draw the racist stereotype out into the open, address it directly, and demonstrate how absurd and offensive it is. But because you are feigning ignorance, you can accomplish all of this without alienating your co-worker and putting your working relationship in jeopardy.
(By the way, the joke I used in this scenario is an actual joke told on The Tonight Show by a comedian named Chelsea Handler. Of course, nobody on the show bothered to point out how racist it was.)
© 2004-2009 New Demographic.


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From Ohio History Central
An image of the Viceroy Butterfly
Viceroy butterflies (Limenitis archippus) look almost identical to the monarch butterfly. The identifying difference is that viceroys have a black line across the hindwing and white dots in the black band along the edge. Their wingspan reaches two and a half to three and three-eighths inches. Because they resemble the foul-tasting monarch it has few, if any, predators.
Viceroys are found in habitats that include moist open or shrubby areas such as willow thickets, wet meadows, and lake and swamp edges Males perch or patrol for females around caterpillar host plants, including willow, poplar and cottonwood trees. Females will lay eggs on the tip of the leaves. They will lay only two or three eggs per plant. When the caterpillars emerge, they will eat the eggshell and then begin at night to feed on catkins and leaves of the host trees.
Young caterpillars construct a ball made of leaf bits, animal waste and silk, hanging off the leaf on which they are feeding. Scientists believe this hanging ball may distract predators because they look like bird droppings. Older caterpillars will roll a leaf tip in order to make a shelter for the winter.
After the completion of metamorphosis, adult viceroys emerge and begin to feed.In the spring, before flowers are available their food consists of aphid honeydew, carrion, animal waste and rotting fungus. Later, asters, goldenrod, joe-pye weed, and thistle make up their diet.
Viceroy butterflies can be found throughout most of Ohio. However, in other areas of the United States, it is threatened because of a loss of habitat.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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Birth of Fatmawati Soekarno
Edwin Solahuddin Kamis, 5 Februari 2009, 00:02 WIB
VIVAnews – 86 years ago today, on 5 February 1923, Fatmawati Soekarno, the third wife of the first president of Indonesia, Soekarno, was born.
Fatmawati was born in Bengkulu into a religious family. Her father, Hassan Din, was one of the most prominent figures of Muhammadiyah in the province.
In March 1938, Soekarno, who was already famous as the leader of the nationalist movement at the time, was exiled by the Dutch to Bengkulu. The house where Soekarno was held was not far away from Fatmawati's house. Since the Dutch government allowed him to interact with the local people, Soekarno soon became acquainted with the local leaders, including Hassan Din, Fatmawati's father.
Soekarno married Fatmawati on 1 June 1943. The couple had five children including Megawati, their first daughter, who later became the fifth president of Indonesia.
Fatmawati is famous in Indonesian history as the person who knit the Indonesian flag used during the proclamation of independence in 1945. She was known to her family and friends as a kind, cheerful and modest person. She was not ashamed of washing her family's clothes in Kali Code (a river in Yogyakarta) when she and her family took refuge in Yogyakarta in 1949.
Fatmawati Soekarno died on 14 May 1980 in Kuala Lumpur and was buried at Karet Bivak Cemetary in Jakarta. To commemorate her struggle, a hospital in South Jakarta was named after her. Later, a street and an airport in Bengkulu were also named after her. In 2000, the Indonesian government made Fatmawati a national hero.
© VIVA.co.id


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From late Middle English saggen, probably of Scandinavian/Old Norse origin (compare Norwegian sagga ("move slowly")); probably akin to Danish and Norwegian sakke, Swedish sacka, Icelandic sakka, Old Norse sokkva. Cf. also Low German sacken, Dutch zakken.
sag (plural sags)
- The state of sinking or bending; sagging.
- The difference in elevation of a wire, cable, chain or rope suspended between two consecutive points.
- The difference height or depth between the vertex and the rim of a curved surface, specifically used for optical elements such as a mirror or lens.
- To sink, in the middle, by its weight or under applied pressure, below a horizontal line or plane; as, a line or cable supported by its ends sags, though tightly drawn; the floor of a room sags; hence, to lean, give way, or settle from a vertical position; as, a building may sag one way or another; a door sags on its hinges.
- (figuratively) To lose firmness, elasticity, vigor, or a thriving state; to sink; to droop; to flag; to bend; to yield, as the mind or spirits, under the pressure of care, trouble, doubt, or the like; to be unsettled or unbalanced.
- To loiter in walking; to idle along; to drag or droop heavily.
- (transitive) To cause to bend or give way; to load.
- (informal) To wear one's trousers so that their top is well below the waist.
- For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.
From Dutch zacht.
- IPA: /sɐχ/
- IPA: /saːɡ/, [sæːˀj]
From the verb saga ("to saw").
From Latin sagum.
- IPA: /sâːɡ/
sȃg m (Cyrillic spelling са̑г)
|vocative||sagu / saže||sagove|


Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Why Does Old Ice Cream Get Crunchy?
This was originally posted on Sustainable Nano, which is my new project. You should go check it out! Science Minus Details will live on though! Poop posts will come, have faith!!!!
As with all good meals of information, let's start this one off with ice cream!
In an effort to grow out of my "slim fit" clothes, I've begun an ice-cream-after-every-dinner diet.
Even the cat likes my diet!
An added bonus is that I go through jugs of ice cream so quickly that I NEVER have to deal with old, gross, crunchy ice cream! You know what I'm talking about. You reach into the back of your freezer, find that jug of 6-month-old ice cream, only to discover that it tastes like the perfect mixture of sugar, fat, and sand.
In order to understand this gritty phenomenon, let's talk first about what gives freshly purchased ice cream that wonderfully non-gritty texture. The ice cream manufacturing process is controlled very carefully, such that the ice in ice cream comes in the form of lots of super-tiny ice crystals. These ice crystals are usually around 10 to 100 micrometers in size, which is so small that our tongues can't even detect them as crystals, which is one reason ice cream is so smooth! However, if their size increases significantly, our tongue notices the crystals and the ice cream tastes gritty. But how do the crystals get bigger? Well, as we talked about in the previous post, small crystals have more surface area compared to an equal mass of large crystals. This means that lots of the atoms that make up small crystals are stuck out on the surface of those crystals, instead of being nestled on the inside. Those surface atoms would much rather be on the inside of the crystal, surrounded by other identical atoms. We scientists would say the surfaces of crystals have extra energy, relative to the insides of crystals.
Water molecules on the surface of ice crystals have extra "surface energy" because they aren't fully surrounded by other water molecules.
As a consequence of this, small crystals are always looking for a way to grow larger so that a smaller percentage of their atoms will have to live on the crystal surface. That is exactly what happens over time as ice cream sits in the freezer—the ice crystals find a way to grow larger—leading to that oh-so-disappointing gritty texture. One way this crystal size growth can happen is when small crystals clump together to make larger crystals. This turns some of the unhappy surface atoms into happy interior atoms.
An even cooler way crystals can grow larger is by stealing individual unhappy surface atoms from other crystals. Basically, the surface atoms are so unhappy, they simply "abandon ship" and wash up on the shores of another crystal, making that second crystal larger. This process results in larger crystals growing and smaller crystals shrinking. This can continue to happen until the small crystals disappear completely! Cool!
What in the world does this have to do with nanotechnology? Well, if we shrunk the smooth-tasting ice crystals to be around 1,000 to 100,000 times smaller, they would be nano-ice crystals. We scientists would then call them "nanoparticles," and we can make them from lots of different materials. Nanoparticles are so tiny that their surfaces have WAY MORE extra energy, and this energy can be harnessed to do some amazing things! To choose one example of many—big chunks of gold can't do much for a chemist except buy her lots of late-night meals and maybe a new car bike (we're sustainable here, remember!). However, nano-sized chunks of gold have such energetic surfaces that they can link two different chemicals together—where nothing at all happens without the nano-gold.
Gold nanoparticles can act as "catalysts" in chemical reactions.
The surfaces of nanoparticles can also be harnessed to degrade pollutants, turn fuels into electricity in fuel cells, and tons of other great stuff! Their surfaces are also largely responsible for how these materials behave in the environment and in organisms' bodies (more on that soon!). So, the more we understand about these special surfaces, the better we can predict where nano-pollutants might end up and how toxic or non-toxic they might be. We can then hopefully use this information to design nanoparticles that are "benign by design." So, to stretch the ice cream analogy to its limits, it's best to understand as much as we can about nanoparticle surfaces in order to avoid any gritty-tasting negatives, but there are still plenty of smooth-tasting positives!
 1. glad the cat enjoys the ice cream.
 1. haha, yeah. me too! She didn't like it as much as she likes leftover cereal milk tho.
 2. :-) NOt dead, just trying my best to get paid to talk about science, rather than do it for free, so focusing my efforts on helping scientists learn how to communicate with the public, at I swear I'll come back to science minus details. Have faith. I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've posted an update. Thanks for checking in!!!!!!!!!!!!
 2. Brazilian food tech student here. Just curious about re-crystallization.
 Thanks for the info ;)
 1. This isn't quite "recrystallization" as a chemist would use the term. Perhaps food scientists have another use for it. Recyrstallization usually purifies things by allowing you to rinse away impurities. The water isn't becoming any more or less pure here, just changing the size of its crystals. I'm glad you found it useful though!!!


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Poultry LED Lighting
In the poultry industry, light source selection plays a critical role for poultry growers. The light we percieve affects our mind and a wide array of metabolic processes within our body. The same holds true in animals, including poultry, though with one significant difference. The spectral sensitivity and visible spectrum of poultry, or whatever they literally see, is not the comparable to humans. Aside from retinal light perception, poultry can sense light via the pineal gland commonly known as the "third eye" found on the dorsal surface of the brain. The avian pineal gland is particularly active in the control of circadian rhythms and sexual activity. Poultry houses may be built for manipulating the light that enters into the poultry house to supplement the natural light entering the poultry house with artificial light. Light entering a poultry house may affect a chicken in two ways. In the beginning, the time frame where a chicken becomes sexually mature can be affected by the seasonal cycles the chicken experiences. Furthermore, the psychological wellbeing, and consequently the physical development, of the chicken can be influenced by the quantity and concentration of light it is exposed to. Turkeys or other animals are also frequently kept in such houses, and may be in the same way sensitive to light variation. A poultry lighting system generally has three characteristics: color of the light (wavelength), intensity of the light, and the amount of time the lights are on each day (daily photoperiod). Advantages of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting equipment makes it possible for solving vitally important problems in poultry farming because illumination has an effect on directly poultry growth, amount of feed being consumed, maturation, reproduction, sexual activity, behavior, egg production, aggression, feather picking, etc. Traditionally, poultry lighting has been limited to incandescent, fluorescent or high pressure sodium lamps. These lamps have fixed intensity and fixed color. Application of LEDs with appropriate spectral and power characteristics enables the development of light sources with characteristics in close proximity to optimum. LED lights are extraordinarily long-lasting and now are available in a number of colors and options.


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In the middle of industrial Grangemouth, Jupiter is a fantastic example of how wasteland can be transformed into an urban green space that provides a rich habitat and haven for wildlife. The centre is open all year and there are lots of ideas for improving gardens for wildlife.
Address: Jupiter Urban Wildlife Centre, Grangemouth FK3 8LH
Changes to visiting
We have put a few temporary changes in place to keep our staff and visitors safe:
- Visits will be limited to walks and self-led activities, including pond dipping, for the time being. We are exploring how we can restart our ranger-led events as soon as it is safe to do so.
- To allow our visitors and staff to physically distance while visiting, we may temporarily pause entry to the reserve if our visitor numbers have reached capacity. If this is the case, we will place signage at the entrance gate.
- To allow for physical distancing on our pond boardwalk we will be limiting the number of groups/families which can pond dip at one time.
- Entry to the building will be limited to essential access to our public bathroom. If possible, please "Go before you go"!
We have achieved Good to Go certification and have also implemented some new features, including:
- Increased hygiene measures, including hand sanitiser dispensers and an outdoor sink for hand washing
- Increased cleaning
- Regular wiping down of common touch surfaces
- Increased signage
- New risk assessments
- Visit an urban wildlife oasis
- Introduce children to wildlife
- A wasteland returned to nature
- Plenty of variety in a small area
- Pond dipping
Best time to visit?
- Mar to May for woodland birds
- May to Aug for wildflowers
- Aug for dragonflies & damselflies
- Sept to Oct for fungi
Our events are currently on hold due to Covid-19. Please check back soon for more information.


text:
Quality of Life Model
Quality of Life (QoL) refers to the experiences one has on a daily
basis. High quality refers to being engaged with others in meaningful
daily activities and having a positive experience.
of Life is a subjective image that differs for everyone.
How you define quality in your life may be different than how I
define quality in mine. However,
each of us has the opportunity to define and
carry out our own values—which enables us to experience a high quality of life.
This right is overlooked in the lives of many of the
Individuals we serve. The Quality of Model was developed to
implement the principles of Gentle Teaching, giving Individuals with
disabilities the right to define and carry out their own values.
At Globe Star, we aim to mentor Individuals with disabilities
in achieving a quality of life that fosters interdependence, or the quality of
one's life with help.
The QoL of the Individual
of Life Values
Companionship and Community
of Life Elements
of Life Assets
The QoL of the Caregiver
a Spirit of Gentleness
The QoL of the Community
the Power of the Heart
Overview of the QoL Model
State Model 460


1. Add the PushipNotification.js script to the assets/www folder and include it to the index.html file
 2. Add the following code to the OnDeviceReady method:
 Puship.PushipAppId = puship_id; // an example of puship_id might be: "h1mCVGaP9dtGnwG"
 var serverUrl = ""; // the url of production or development provided by blackberry
 var appId = "396-577a13e9r57070Mnn75549ii0ch2r9l41808"; // this appid is provided by blackberry with the url
 var port = 32200;
 Puship.BPNS.Register(port, serverUrl, appId,
 successCallback: function (pushipresult){
 navigator.notification.alert("device registered with DeviceId:" + pushipresult.DeviceId);
 failCallback: function (pushipresult){
 navigator.notification.alert("error during registration: "+ JSON.stringify(pushipresult));
 3. Add these permission to config.xml:
 4. Create a new folder in the www one and name it resources. Once done it copy into it this icon (note that can be overwritten with a custom one).
 5. In case you didn't have the serverUrl and the appId, follow this guide and replace the example values in the previous script.
 6. Create a new application using the Puship Manager to get the Puship App ID and replace all the occurrences of "puship_id" with the actual one.
It's now possible to connect to the Puship Manager and start sending push notification to your devices!
Download a complete example using the link below to better understand the whole process
Adding tags, geolocations management and all the other api are described in the guide common to all the platform that can be consulted at the following link:


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Definition of Flowers of zinc
1. Noun. Oxide of zinc; a white powder used as a pigment or in cosmetics or glass or inks and in zinc ointment.
Generic synonyms: Oxide
Substance meronyms: Chinese White, Zinc White
Medical Definition of Flowers of zinc
Flowers Of Zinc Pictures
Click the following link to bring up a new window with an automated collection of images related to the term: Flowers Of Zinc Images
Lexicographical Neighbors of Flowers Of Zinc
Literary usage of Flowers of zinc
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Monthly Magazine by Richard Phillips (1799)
"Though tlie flowers of zinc may contain fome oxygen, I have not been... But I did not find this to be the reluit of an attempt to revive flowers of zinc in..."
2. The Commercial Hand-book of Chemical Analysis; Or, Practical Instructions by Alphonse Normandy (1850)
"flowers of zinc.—See Oxyde of Zinc. FRANKINCENSE.—See Benzoin. FUMING SULPHURIC ACID.—See Sulphuric Acid of Nordhausen...."
3. Encyclopædia Britannica: Or, A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and by Colin MacFarquhar, George Gleig (1797)
"... by Dr Hart at Leyden, the medical virtues of the flowers of zinc are... had continued fix days, fhe began to take the flowers of zinc,..."
4. A Treatise on Metallurgy: Comprising Mining, and General and Particular by Frederick Overman (1855)
"Pure oxide of zinc— flowers of zinc—consists of 81 parts of the metal, and 19 parts of oxygen, which in the native oxide is more or less mixed with other..."


Counterproliferation Program Review Committee
CPRC Annual Report To Congress 1997
Summary of Key DoD Activities and Programs Strongly Related to Counterproliferation
Introduction. In the tables that follow, the Counterproliferation Support Program (Table C. 1) and the Chemical and Biological Defense Program (Table C. 2) are summarized along with other key Service (Tables C. 3 - C. 5), DoD Agency (Tables C. 6 - C. 8 and C. 10 - C. 12), OSD (Table C. 9), and Joint Staff (Table C. 13) activities and programs strongly related to counterproliferation. The summaries include: program/ project title, program description, program accomplishments, key program milestones, relevant DoD counterproliferation ACE priorities, program/ project executing agencies, FY 1998 budget figures, and Program Element (PE) number.
It should be noted that detailed program descriptions, including project accomplishments, milestones, and plans are provided to Congress annually as part of the President's Budget. Accomplishments and milestones cited in the following tables represent selected highlights rather than an exhaustive characterization of counterproliferationrelated activities and programs.
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Overwriting a file in python do i always have to type
If you read the file back and print the first 20 values of the dataset, you will see that they are all zeros except for the indexes 10 to For more functions, please refer to standard Python documentation. We open a file called random. Even if you seek back, every write will append to the end of the file: Besides the length of the data you want to store, you may want to specify the type of data in order to optimize the space.
Method overriding in Python
Reading Keyboard Input Python provides two built-in functions to read a line of text from standard input, which by default comes from the keyboard. When you override you have to think if you want to filter the arguments for the original implementation, if you want to filter its results, or both.
In theory a well designed API should make it always possible but we know that boundary cases exist: The GitHub issues page is the best place to submit corrections. You can read the values back and see what was actually stored.
When in need of skipping the call be sure to document the reasons. Even if there is an error within the with, the file is going to be closed. In those cases you may prefer to skip the call to the original implementation of the method; Python does not make it mandatory, so feel free to walk that path if you think the situation requires it.
Let's start by creating a new file and storing data; that part is the easiest one: This respects the resolution order in case of multiple inheritance and, for Python 3.
Many other guides stop at these sort of examples, without ever really showing the full potential of the HDF5 format with the h5py package. Let's go straight to using the HDF5 library. This meakes the underlying API work as expected.
How to use HDF5 files in Python
We will store the same data to them and then we can compare their sizes. In theory a well designed API should make it always possible but we know that boundary cases exist: The important thing to remember is that the number of bytes tells you how many different numbers you can store.
We create a dataset called default and we set the data as the random array created earlier.
How to write file versions instead of overwriting file in python?
For an insight on this mechanism check this post. So, by calling the original implementation, you get the result you later want to improve. In our example, each element is just a number, but it could have been anything, from a text to an image or a video.
For many applications, however, you need to save data while it is being generated. If the file does not exist, it creates a new file for writing.
If the file does not exist, creates a new file for reading and writing. That is, the file is in the append mode. In the example above, you can use data as an array. Be sure to know what you are doing, however, and document why you are completely overwriting the method. To read the data back, we can do it in a very similar way to when we read a numpy file: If the file does not exist, creates a new file for writing.
We don't append data when creating it, we just create an empty dataset able to hold up to elements. Python for key in f. First, let's see how this works with a simple example.
Bevor Sie fortfahren...
Hello Python Received input is: To use the dataset, we can use the same syntax as before, but taking into account the second dimension: The file Object Attributes Once a file is opened and you have one file object, you can get various information related to that file.
This surely follows the Python idea that "Explicit is better than implicit" The Zen of Pythonbut this advice is not just a matter of taste or some sort of programming mannerism. We can try to do something like this:.
If you would open this file, it would have following content. Python is a great language. Yeah its great!! The read() Method. The read() method reads a string from an open file. It is important to note that Python strings can have binary data. apart from text data. Syntax.
By overwriting list, I no longer have access to the list function until the program is closed. This can be dangerous, especially if you have code in a completely different module that depends on this function.
Using HDF5 Files with Python; When dealing with large amounts of data, either experimental or simulated, saving it to several text files is not very efficient. Sometimes you need to access a very specific subset of data and you want to do it fast.
In these situations, the HDF5 format solves both issues thanks to a very optimized underlying library. I have a directory, 'Dst Directory', which has files and folders in it and I have'src Directory' which also has files and folders in it.
What I want to do is move the contents of'src Directory' to 'Dst Directory' and overwrite anyfiles that exist with the same name.
Method overriding in Python
So for example 'Src Directory\douglasishere.com' needs to be moved to 'Dst Directory\' and overwrite the existing douglasishere.com Unfortunately there is no way to insert into the middle of a file without re-writing it.
As previous posters have indicated, you can append to a file or overwrite part of it using seek but if you want to add stuff at the beginning or the middle, you'll have to rewrite it. Oct 07, · As the title goes, how do I write something to a file, overwriting file contents in the process in Python?Status: Resolved.
Overwriting a file in python do i always have to type
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Overwriting a file in python - Stack Overflow


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The Moon is Upside Down
When you are in the southern hemisphere, the moon looks upside down.
When I came back to the US from living in Australia for 4 years, I published a poster with a picture of the moon on in and I placed it "upside down" – someone pointed it out and I looked at the moon and said "the moon is upside down." This was true – in the Northern Hemisphere – but to people living in the Southern Hemisphere the moon appears "upside down."
I was shocked, but the claim was true – in the Northern Hemisphere! But to Australians and other people living in places in the Southern Hemisphere the moon appears "upside down."


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- Chakra Number:
- 7: The number of the Crown Chakra "Sahasrara"
Violet is the color of the crown chakra and it is the color of cosmic awareness and cosmic consciousness. It is a unifying color, the color of oneness and spirituality. The energy of this color is very healing and can soothe away pain. Learn more about this powerful spiritual color.
- Color meaning:
The color violet relates to the imagination and spirituality. It stimulates the imagination and inspires high ideals. It is an introspective color, allowing us to get in touch with our deeper thoughts. The difference between violet and purple is that violet appears in the visible light spectrum, or rainbow, whereas purple is simply a mix of red and blue. Violet has the highest vibration in the visible spectrum.


text: Archaea are ubiquitous in mesophilic and extremophilic environments. Variations in lipid composition of their unique tetraether membrane allow them to maintain integrity and permeability in moderate to extreme environmental conditions. The change in the number of cyclic moieties in their membrane lipids is argued to be an adaptation to ambient temperatures, which is used to estimate past water surface temperature via the TEX86 index. A new class of GDGTs with a hydroxylation in one of the alkyl chains has recently been described in marine sediments. Here we report that these hydroxy-GDGTs are widespread and abundant in mesophilic marine and lacustrine environments. Moreover we observe increasing hydroxy-GDGT contributions towards higher latitudes and lower water temperatures. A significant correlation between the relative abundance of hydroxy-GDGTs and temperature is observed in surface sediments. As these compounds are found both in modern and downcore samples we suggest that the hydroxy-GDGTs could be included in the GDGT paleoproxy tool kit. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.


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Aquatint by Fumagalli showing indigo being made. Until the end of the 19th century, indigo was extracted from woad (Isatis tinctoria) and Dyer's Knotweed (Polygonum tinctorum). The plant is covered with water and left to ferment in vats for 10-15 hours. The resulting yellow liquid is then beaten by hand or machinery. The colour of the liquid deepens from green to blue, and gradually the indigo separates out as flakes. It is allowed to settle, and the liquid is then drawn off. The indigo pulp is then boiled to remove impurities, filtered and presed. Finally, it is cut into cubes and dried. It is now posible to make indigo synthetically. Men are shown working with the indigo carrying it in sacks to the uppermost vat and tending to the drying racks.
© Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library


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Low-fat, low-allergenic dairy replacement. nzpurehealth Goat Milk tablets are a rich source of calcium and protein. Low in fat and easily digested, it is a great way to support bone health and energy for those who are allergic to cow milk.
Goat milk has long been considered a nutritious alternative to cows milk. It is naturally rich in calcium and protein and is easily digestible. The smaller globule size of the fat content makes goat milk naturally low in fat. newzealandpurehealth Goat Milk tablets are both convenient and nutritious. Vanilla flavoured, these chewable tablets are pleasant to taste.
Each newzealandpurehealth Goat Milk tablet contains:
700mg Goat Milk and other tableting aids.
This product contains to artificial flavourings, colourings or preservatives.
Chewable Goat Milk tablet
Take four (4) to six (6) tablets daily as a dietary food supplement or as professionally advised.
About goat milk
Long recognised as a very nutritional alternative to cow's milk, goat milk production has developed strongly from a fledgling industry 15 years ago. Owing to the size of its molecules, goat milk is more like human milk and therefore much more readily digested by babies and suitable for a range of dairy products.
Goat milk offers superior digestibility to cows milk, due to the following factors:
- The fat globules of goat milk are finer than those of cows milk, allowing for a greater surface to volume ratio for enzymatic attack. This enables the fat of goat milk to be broken down and digested more easily.
- Goat milk has more MCT (Medium Chain Triglycerides)'s than cow milk. MCT's are metabolically unique in that they can be absorbed by a simpler mechanism than other fatty acids. MCT's, which are higher in goat milk than cow milk, have a unique ability to provide energy to the human metabolism, as well as an ability to lower, inhibit and dissolve cholesterol deposits.
- Goat milk casein forms a less tough and more friable curd than the casein of cow milk. This means the digestive enzymes can break it down more rapidly.
Health benefits of goat milk
Goat milk reduced allergenicity
Goat milk is a natural alternative to cow milk. It is widely used by people who seek to avoid cow milk products. However, individuals who are highly sensitive to cow milk proteins, or other food allergens, are recommended to consult their allergy specialist prior to consuming goat milk.
Enhanced micronutrient absorption
Several recent studies have shown that micronutrients in goat milk can be absorbed better than cow milk. They found that goat milk enhanced calcium content of femur, sternum and Longissimus dorsi muscle over cow milk. In addition, they found a beneficial effect of goat milk on iron uptake.
Maintainence of gastro-intestinal health
The gastro-intestinal epithelium peforms an important barrier function to keep micro-organisms from passing in to the blood. Breakdown of this barrier results in an increase in permeability which can lead to various problems. Studies have shown that consumption of goat milk can prevent the loss of intestinal barrier function that follows stress from heat or other sources.
Enhanced buffering capacity
Goat milk has a higher buffering capacity than cow milk at the pH conditions which exist in the stomach.


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Compact 2.45 GHz ECR Ion Source for generation of singly-charged ions
Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP), 117218, Moscow, Russia
2 Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (FLNR JINR), 141980, Dubna, Moscow region, Russia
* Corresponding author: _EMAIL_
Published online: 18 April 2018
2.45 GHz ECR ion sources are widely used for production of protons, single charged heavy ions and secondary radioactive ion beams. This paper describes the development of a compact ECR ion source based on 2.45 GHz coaxial resonator. The first results of extracted current measurements at different resonator configuration as a function of UHF frequency, power and gas flow are presented.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2018
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (_URL_


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The People HR modules enable you to monitor events in your People HR account.
Getting Started with People HR
- A People HR account
- API license activated in your People HR account
In order to use People HR with Integromat, it is necessary to have a People HR account. If you do not have one, you can create a People HR free trial account at _URL_
Connecting People HR to Integromat
To connect your People HR account to Integromat you need to generate an API Key in your People HR account.
1. Log in to your People HR account.
2. Go to Settings > API.
3. Click the PLUS (+) button to generate a new API Key.
4. Enter the name for the API Key and select applications you want to access using the API Key, then click Save.
5. Click the copy icon () to copy the generated API key.
6. Go to Integromat and open the People HR module's Create a connection dialog.
7. Enter the API Key you have copied in step 5 to the respective field, enter your People HR login credentials, and click the Continue button to establish the connection.
The connection has been established. You can proceed with setting up the module.
Triggers when an action is performed in your People HR account.
The webhook URL needs to be generated in Integromat and then added to People HR API settings.
1. Add the Watch Events module to your Integromat scenario.
2. Generate and copy the webhook URL.
3. Log in to your People HR account.
4. Go to Settings > API.
5. Paste the webhook URL you have copied in step 2 above to the Webhook URL field.
Now, every time the action is performed, the Watch Events module in your Integromat scenario is triggered.


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Excel LARGE Function (Example + Video)
When to use Excel LARGE Function
Excel LARGE function can be used to get the Kth largest value from a range of cells or array. For example, you can get the 3rd largest value from a range of cells.
What it Returns
It returns the value which is the Kth largest value from a range of cells.
- array – the array or range of cells from which you want to fetch the kth largest value.
- k – the rank or position (from the top) of number that you want to fetch.
- If array is empty, LARGE returns the _TAG_! error value.
- If k ≤ 0 or if k is greater than the number of data points, LARGE returns the _TAG_! error value.
- If n is the number of data points in a range, then LARGE(array,1) returns the largest value, and LARGE(array,n) returns the smallest value.
Examples – Excel LARGE Function
Here are six example of using Excel LARGE Function:
#1 Getting the largest value from a list
If you have a list of numbers (A2:A4) and you want to get the largest number from the list, you can use the following LARGE function: =LARGE(A2:A4,1)
Here the Kth value is 1, which would return the largest number from the range of numbers.
#2 Getting the second largest value from a list
To get the second largest value from the list (A2:A4), use the following formula: =LARGE(A2:A4,2)
Since the Kth value in the formula is 2, it returns the second largest values from the range of numbers.
#3 Using LARGE function when there are blank cells in the range
If there are any blank cells in the range, it is ignored by the LARGE function.
For example, in the above example, while we take the range of cells as A2:A5, the blank cell is ignored by the LARGE function while returning the largest value from this list.
#4 Using LARGE function when there are cells with text
Similar to blank cells, Excel LARGE function also ignores cells with text, alphanumeric characters, special characters, and logical values.
#5 Using LARGE function when there are cells with duplicates
If there are duplicates in the range used in the LARGE function, it will treat those duplicates as consecutive values. In the above example, two cells have the value 7. Now when you use LARGE function to return the largest and second largest value, it returns 7 in both the cases.
#6 Using LARGE function when there is Error in the cells
If there is an error in any of the cells used in the LARGE function, it will return an error.
Excel LARGE Function – Video Tutorial
Related Excel Functions:


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Profound impacts are already being felt by students－and parents and teachers－due to closure of schools in Asia in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and urgent action is needed to limit further damage to students and the broader economy.
School closures have affected more than 1.5 billion students in 195 countries, and could potentially impact their employment opportunities and future earnings, according to UNESCO. The learning and earning losses will also have long-term impacts on economic growth, poverty alleviation and reducing inequality. A recent study I co-authored estimates that school closures could cost the global economy $943 billion by 2030.
The loss of earnings due to school closures, which reduces labor productivity, will cause GDP to fall in almost all countries.
In societies where school…


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Rhenium-osmium systematics of orogenic gold deposits through geologic time
AuthorKirk, Jason Donald
MetadataShow full item record
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
AbstractHere we report new and previously published Re-Os and trace elemental data on gold as well as coeval sulfides and oxides from various Archean to Alphanumeric gold deposits. When possible, measured concentrations and isotopic ratios were used to determine geochronology as well as the likely source reservoir of the gold mineralization. Rhenium-osmium ages of some gold and related minerals are consistent with existing geochronology and in some cases better constrain genetic models of mineralization. The initial Os isotopic composition is also preserved within some ore minerals and reflects the importance of both crustal and mantle material in the generation of specific deposits. However, many of the gold deposits show evidence of post-crystallization Re-Os disturbance, and so age and source information are not preserved. In these cases, it is likely that hydrothermal fluids added or removed Re or Os subsequent to primary mineralization. Preservation of age favors minerals with high Re and Os concentrations and/or minerals from monocyclic gold deposits without multiple influxes of fluids. More specifically, gold and pyrite from the 2890--2710 Ma Witwatersrand basin, typically form ca. 3000 Ma isochrons with chondritic initial 187Os/188Os values. The Os concentrations of the gold range from approximately 2 to over 4000 ppb and are significantly elevated compared to other gold deposits. The older age, mantle source and high concentration of the gold support modified paleo-placer models with minor hydrothermal modification but not significant deposition of gold via hydrothermal fluids of any age. Other gold deposits have low average Os concentrations ranging from approximately 20 ppt to 1 ppb and Re/Os ratios generally similar to average continental crust. The initial 187Os/188Os of these deposits vary but seem to have more crustal signatures than the Witwatersrand deposits. Data support gold deposition from leaching of gold and Os via hydrothermal fluids from crustal lithologies. Os concentration and Re/Os data of gold show systematic variation with the age of the deposit. These trends may result from a decrease in the efficiency of partial melts to extract juvenile gold and Os from the cooling mantle and the increasing importance of recycling gold from pre-existing continental crust.
Degree ProgramGraduate College


Create, Edit, or Remove PDF Annotations in UWP
Once PSPDFKit for Windows has loaded annotations from a PDF, these annotations will be made available via the Document API.
The API will return a List of IAnnotations. This interface allows you to determine the AnnotationType and several other properties and methods common to all annotations, such as BoundingBox, Id, PageIndex, and ToJson().
The BoundingBox describes the annotation's location and size on the page. This property is represented by a Rect, with X and Y describing the top-left coordinate of the annotation on the page, and the Width and Height describing the size of the annotation.
PSPDFKit for Windows and PSPDFKit for Web use Instant JSON coordinates. In other words, the origin of the page, "0,0," is at the top left, with the Y axis value increasing as you move down the page. If you need to convert between these coordinates and PDF coordinates — which have their origin, "0,0," at the bottom left, with the Y axis value increasing as you move up the page — you can use the conversion utility methods here.
Using the AnnotationType property, you can cast to a specific annotation type to work with its specific APIs:
if (annotation.AnnotationType == AnnotationType.Ink)
 var ink = annotation as AnnotationType.Ink;
 return ink.IsSignature;
Creating, Updating, and Deleting Annotations
To create an annotation on a page, instantiate the type you want:
var textAnnot = new Text
 Contents = "A new text annotation",
 HorizontalAlign = HorizontalAlign.Right,
 VerticalAlign = VerticalAlign.Center,
 BoundingBox = new Rect(10, 10, 300, 300),
 FontSize = 48,
 Bold = true,
 Italic = true,
 FontColor = Colors.Cyan
Then you can add it to a page like this:
var createdTextAnnotation = await pdfView.Document.CreateAnnotationAsync(textAnnot);
After it's added to a page, the new annotations will have a unique Id.
If you wish to update an existing annotation, this can be done like so:
createdTextAnnotation.VerticalAlign = VerticalAlign.Top;
createdTextAnnotation.Opacity = 0.5f;
await pdfView.Document.UpdateAnnotationAsync(createdTextAnnotation);
To delete an annotation, you only need its Id:
await pdfView.Document.DeleteAnnotationAsync(createdTextAnnotation.Id);


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In 1860 John Pyle, a white widower farmer of 65 in Kaufman Co, TX, held two enslaved women and four boys. The women, ages 38 and 28, were classified by the census enumerator as black. Their boys, ages 19, 14, 6 and 2 months old, were all classified as mulatto. I believe all those boys were Pyle's natural sons. John Pyle had been widowed since 1851.
In the 1870 census, after Pyle's death, a 10-yr-old black boy named Tom Pyle was included in the household of John's oldest son Samuel Pyle, also in Kaufman Co, TX. Tom was listed "at home". No mother was listed with him. I think this is the last son of John Pyle. Samuel Pyle was his white half-brother and took care of him. Other white half brothers in Kaufman County were James and Jonathan Pyle. In 1880 in the town of Kaufman, TX, a young black man of 20, named Jefferson Pyle, was listed as boarding with a black couple and going to school. I believe he was the same person as Tom Pyle. Perhaps his full name was Thomas Jefferson Pyle, or perhaps he named himself Jefferson as a young man. It was exciting to see that he went on to school.


oluble pen
Draw it on the back of the leather,
4: This is the case after drawing, the red pen can still be used
You can see the shape. (I do a demonstration, do it
It's rough, so be careful when you do it.
The line drawing is smooth)
5: Draw and cut off the whites of the eyes
6: Use alcohol glue to glue the whites of your eyes carefully
On black leather.
Place the eyes on the doll, and then carefully glue them with alcohol glue
Do this, the doll is almost finished, don't forget to put on blush
Bag tutorial
1: Prepare to make the leather of the bag. I will use red as a demonstration here. Please be careful when you do it.
2: Fold in half, stitch the left and upper edges together
3: I used glue to bond, but it is easy to crack
4: Turn over after sewing
5: Cut out two shoulder straps
6: Glue it on the bag
7: Use the hot melt glue gun to draw the pattern you like
8: Sprinkle the prepared glitter quickly
9: After the hot melt adhesive dries, remove the excess glitter
10: The pattern is out, hehe
11: According to this method, make your own logo
12: Different colors of glitter can also be used
It's done, hurry up and try it on Lele's back
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Associazione Copernicani is an Italian independent and nonprofit organization, aimed to contribute to promoting the culture of innovation as a key change for the country system.
Blending the voluntaristic contribution of over 220 women and men with different cultural backgrounds and expertise, the Copernicani engage policymakers and stimulate public decision process in re-shaping Italy's social, cultural, political and economical framework through digital and social innovation.
To put ideas into action and to establish itself as an influential reference in the digital innovation field, Copernicani acts in 3 directions:
 - Elaborate position papers and policy proposals
 - Develop open-source software: among the achievements "Made in Copernico" there is:
 1. Giudizio Maggioritario: a computer-aided election process
 2. a perceptive visual representation of complex data
 - Information and lifelong formation
Technology offers challenges which, if not faced, become problems.
Our slogan is "in love with the future". Let's shape the vision of the future.


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This book presents fundamentals and the latest techniques of electrical spectrum analysis. It focuses on instruments and techniques used on spectrum and network analysis, rather than theory. The book covers the use of spectrum analyzers, tracking generators, and network analyzers. Filled with practical examples, the book presents techniques that are widely used in signal processing and communications applications, yet are difficult to find in most literature.
- Presents numerous practical examples, including actual spectrum analyzer circuits
- Instruction on how to use spectrum analyzers, tracking generators, and network analyzers
- End-of-chapter questions, which make the book suitable as a college-level text earthquakes
Electrical engineers and high-level electronics technicians
Spectrum and Spectrum Analysis. Methods of Spectrum Analysis. Frequency Control: Phase Lock and Microprocessor Controlled Spectrum Analyzers. Spectrum Analyzer Applications. Advanced Spectrum Analyzer Applications. The Tracking Generator and Scalar Network Analysis. A Practical Spectrum Analyzer. Spectrum Analyzer Performance Determination. The Network Analyzer. Bibliography. Index.
- No. of pages:
- © Academic Press 1991
- 2nd December 2012
- Academic Press
- eBook ISBN:
- Hardcover ISBN:


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It is hardly to believe that Russia has its own Indian tribes but that fact is true. There is a population of about 1500 people who are originally Indians who live in Kamchatka peninsula. They are some kind of mix between Indians and Eskimos. They are called Itelmens. Some scientific studies have revealed that Itelmens are related to a Tlingit tribe in Alaska and they also have some common customs and tradition.
Itelmens are not only indigenous tribe which lives in Russia but they are considered as most authentic one. Their community of about 1500 people is better educated than the other indigenous communities but their life still remains pretty primitive. Here you are watching a photos of an exhibition in a Moscow based photo centers which was made in order to improve the knowledge about existence of Indian culture on Russian soil.


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|All photos by Matt Ball 2/29/2016|
Most flowering plants have both male and female reproductive parts in the same flower (so called "perfect" flowers); others have male flowers and female flowers on entirely separate plants (e.g., Four-winged Salt Bush). Still others, like Canyon Ragweed (Ambrosia ambrosioides) have separate male and female flowers on the same plant.
|Click photo for larger view|
The male flowers produce all that lovely yellow pollen, of course; that's what you're allergic to. The male flowers in bloom look like mini-sunflowers. (And, wouldn't you know, this plant is in the sunflower family : -) The female flowers are those lime-greenish things located below the male flowers. With a bit of a wind assist, the pollen just falls right into the waiting female flower. The fruit (only the female can produce fruit) looks like a little cocklebur.
When you get a chance, take a closer look at these fancy plants!
Retroactively, currently, and henceforth: All photos on this blog are the property and copyright of the photographer. (Thanks, Gene, for the reminder to make this clear.)


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This article describes the cause and possible solution for the error: STC failure occurred mid transfer.stcx.SnapshotError: Snapshot returned error code -1450 for STC.
The error code -1450 is an official Microsoft System Error Code for "Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service."
Causes for this error message to occur can vary and typically need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis.
Commonly seen underlying conditions include:
- Insufficient available RAM.
- Insufficient buffer space.
- Insufficient available space on hard disk for shadow storage to occupy.
- Significant fragmentation.
Follow these steps to solve the problem:
- Rule out any processes that are taking up large amounts of resources. A minimum of 20% free space per protected volume, and 1 GB of RAM, need to be available on the production machine. If resources fall below these thresholds, backups will fail.
0 – 70%
Utilization is good.
71 – 80%
Utilization is outside optimal limits. Monitor the volume growth and look at cleaning up unnecessary files and moving non-essential data to other storage.
81 – 100%
Volume is becoming critical. Snapshots will start to fail, disk queue lengths will increase. Create space.
Figure 1: StorageCraft utilization best-practices.
- Make sure the ShadowSnap agent version is 3.0 or newer, as this release has better resource utilization.
- Increase the paging buffer size on the server, and if possible, move the page file to a data volume.
- Make sure the drive has no significant level of fragmentation.
- Review the ShadowProtect server tuning guide and make the recommended registry changes.
StorageCraft Troubleshooting tips for reducing Disk I/O:
From VSS Errors 12293 and 12298: What does it all mean? (external link):
Apply the following Microsoft KB patches to the production machine. If your production machine is running Microsoft Server 2003, you may not see the patches listed in Windows Updates. If they do not appear, you will need to download them directly from the Microsoft Support website.


Banff grizzly spotted eating another grizzly
The discovery of a grizzly bear eating another bruin of its kind in Banff National Park could signal tough times for the animals, said a federal official.
On Oct. 29, Parks Canada staff were checking on a GPS collar that had fallen off Grizzly No. 136, rubbed off on a small tree.
What they found at the site at Mystic Pass was the nearly fully eaten carcass of another grizzly -- apparently a meal for bear 136, said Steve Michel, a human-wildlife conflict specialist.
It's not clear if the smaller bear was killed by the 225-kg. No. 136, said Michel.
"Its remains were fully consumed, all we know is another grizzly bear fed on him," he said.
It's possible a poor buffalo berry crop in the park this summer led to the cannibalistic behaviour.
"That's particularly so if it was a predatory event," said Michel.
A graver consequence of that small crop might not be felt until the spring, added Michel.
"The bigger impact would be on cub production," he said.
"It underscores how difficult it is to make a living as a bear and how vulnerable a population it is."
Bears eating other bruins is not unheard of, he noted.
In August 2013, notorious grizzly bear No. 122 was found eating a black bear in Banff National Park.
Research using the GPS collars conducted by Parks Canada and the University of Alberta to gauge human impact on grizzly populations is now winding down.
One of its findings was that major forest fires had revitalized pockets of Banff and Kootenay National Parks, resulting in bumper crops of buffalo berries far from human threats of trains and roads.
"Grizzly bears congregated there, it's a good thing," he said.
The grizzly population in and around Banff National Park has likely decreased slightly in recent years, to about 65, said Michel.
Story continues below
This Week in Flyers


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Wireless optical networks could make vehicles lighter
COVENTRY, UK – LED-based wireless optical networks in vehicles could significantly cut the weight of wiring under the hood, not only saving on fuel, but also allowing passengers to tap into visible or infrared spectrum bands in overhead lighting to watch movies or play music.
Radio-frequency (RF) signals are used for smartphones, for hands-free headsets for the driver and passengers, and for multimedia-related applications such as tablet PCs, but RF communication suffers from a congested bandwidth. In contrast, wireless systems benefit from an unlimited and unregulated spectrum.
The University of Warwick's Roger Green is working to create LED-based optical wireless networks.
Although optical wireless has been explored for some time in aviation, scientists in the University of Warwick's engineering department are exploring its use in private vehicles. It can be used to communicate between parts inside a car's engine compartment, such as between temperature sensors and the engine management system, or between the brake and speed-control systems.
Optical wireless can simply use a basic LED, such as those used in flashlights, to send data. In situations where it is best for the beam to be invisible, infrared light can be used instead. It can be installed in the overhead lights for in-car entertainment.
The major advantage of optical wireless is the weight of wiring it can remove from cars, translating into significant fuel savings over the lifetime of a vehicle, the researchers say. But it also reduces manufacturing costs, as LED and infrared light sources are not expensive to make, and it cuts back on the expense of maintaining and repairing wires.
Combined, all these factors spell significant advantages over the current systems for in-car data, which, in the engine, are generally copper wire-based or carbon fiber.
"Optical wireless is relatively unknown at the moment. But it's not hard to imagine a day when passengers can watch TV streamed through a beam coming from their overhead light, or when parts of the engine can 'talk' to each other without wires," said UW professor Roger Green. "We believe that this technology is poised to come into its own."
Other benefits include its lack of electromagnetic interference, he said.
The engineers presented their work at the International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks this summer at the university.


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Early fire-farmers switched off monsoon
Fire could have led to a rapid change in Australia's interior landscape (Image: Gifford Miller, University of Colorado)
Early humans' use of fire in Australia could have switched off the monsoon in the continent's interior causing deserts to form, scientists say.
US researcher Professor Gifford Miller of the University of Colorado and colleagues publish their theory in the January issue of the journal Geology.
Their theory also supports the idea that early humans were indirectly responsible for extinction of the Australian megafauna.
Previous research by the team at Lake Eyre in South Australia found that something stopped monsoonal rains from reaching Australia's interior regions 12,000 years ago.
At this warming interglacial time the planet's monsoonal system was being switched on after the long, cold and dry glacial period.
While the inland areas of Africa were getting a watering, the monsoon rains were not getting past the coastal areas of north and western Australia.
They were not penetrating, as they had in the past, inland parts of the continent, including the headwaters that feed Lake Eyre.
Once a permanent lake
Co-author Dr John Magee of the Australian National University in Canberra, says in previous interglacials Lake Eyre was a permanent lake up to 25 metres deep. But now it is mainly a dry salt lake that is only occasionally flooded with no more than 6 metres of water.
"The obvious thing that's happened in between those two interglacials is that the continent was first colonised by humans," says Magee, who also worked on the previous study.
The researchers theorised that the failure of monsoon rains to penetrate the continent could have been a delayed reaction to changes in vegetation brought about by the use of fire by humans, who arrived in the area about 50,000 years ago.
By suddenly interrupting the natural fire regime, humans would have likely changed the dominant forest to grassland, says Magee. This type of vegetation has a lower ability to recycle water into the atmosphere and thus could have reduced rainfall.
"Our argument would be that if you have a system that's dominated by savannah and spinifex grasslands, a lot of that rainfall runs off back to the coast and doesn't penetrate into the continent," he says.
Estimating rainfall
To see if a change in vegetation could have switched off the monsoon in interior Australia, the researchers used a climate model to give rainfall output for different vegetation types.
They found that although a change from a forest to grassland reduced rainfall by a few millimetres a day, this would have been enough to stop monsoon rains from reaching the interior.
"We also believe the same change was responsible for the extinction of the Australian megafauna," says Magee.
Rather than directly killing megafauna by hunting, Magee thinks humans may have been indirectly responsible for the extinction through transforming the landscape.
To support this theory Magee is analysing isotopes in giant bird fossils that give clues to the type of vegetation they relied on for food.
Not convinced
Dr Stephen Wroe of the University of Sydney agrees with the conclusion that the monsoon has retreated from inland areas of Australia.
But he is not convinced that humans were responsible for such widespread effects on the ecosystem.
"Australia's been getting drier for at least 300,000 years. Long before humans arrived," says Wroe. "They cannot discount this trend as the cause of the change."
He says scientists also don't know whether the earliest Australians used fire in the same way as Aboriginal people did when the Europeans arrived.
"There is absolutely no strong evidence that the first human Australians deployed firestick farming," says Wroe.
He says even if fire was involved, it is highly unlikely that it alone was responsible.
Wroe says theories like this may be based on the erroneous assumption that early humans had as much power as current day humans to destroy the environment and is concerned about the political implications of such ideas.
"If it's a solid argument, fine," he says. "That's science, those are the results, put it on the table. As it is, it's a circumstantial case that can be seriously misused by special interest groups in society from environmentalists to people opposed to Aboriginal control of land."
"I'm not saying that they might not be right in the end, but why draw this long bow between results and explanation at this point?"