Migrating from SpamAssassin to Rspamd
This guide provides information for those who wants to migrate an existing system from SpamAssassin to Rspamd. You will find information about major differences between the spam filtering engines and how to deal with the transition process.
Why migrate to Rspamd
Rspamd runs significantly faster than SpamAssassin while providing approximately the same quality of filtering. However, if you don't care about the performance and resource consumption of your spam filtering engine you might still find Rspamd useful because it has a simple but powerful web management system (WebUI).
On the other hand, if you have a lot of custom rules, or you use Pyzor/Razor/DCC, or you have some commercial 3rd party products that depend on SpamAssassin then you may not want to migrate.
In short: Rspamd is for speed!
What about DSPAM/SpamOracle…?
You could also move from these projects to Rspamd. You should bear in mind, however, that Rspamd and SA are multi-factor spam filtering systems that use three main approaches to filter messages:
 - Content filtering - static rules that are designed to find known bad patterns in messages (usually regexp or other custom rules)
 - Dynamic lists - DNS or reputation lists that are used to filter known bad content, such as abused IP addresses or URL domains
 - Statistical filters - which learn to distinguish spam and ham messages
DSPAM, SpamOracle and others usually implement the third approach, only providing statistical filtering. This method is quite powerful but it can cause false-positives and is not very suitable for multi-user environments. Rspamd and SA, in contrast, are designed for systems with many users. Rspamd, in particular, was written for a very large system with more than 40 million users and about 10 million emails per hour.
Before you start
There are a couple of things you need to know before transition:
 1. Rspamd does not support SpamAssassin statistics so you'd need to train your filter from scratch with spam and ham samples (or install the pre-built statistics). Rspamd uses a different statistical engine - called OSB-Bayes - which is intended to be more precise than SA's 'naive' Bayes classifier
 2. Rspamd uses Lua for plugins and rules, so basic knowledge of this language is more than useful for playing with Rspamd; however, Lua is very simple and can be learned very quickly
 3. Rspamd uses the HTTP protocol to communicate with the MTA or milter, so SA native milters might not communicate with Rspamd. There is some limited support of the SpamAssassin protocol, though some commands are not supported, in particular those which require copying of data between scanner and milter. More importantly, Length-less messages are not supported by Rspamd as they completely break HTTP semantics and will never be supported. To achieve the same functionality, a dedicated scanner could use, e.g. HTTP chunked encoding.
 4. Rspamd is NOT intended to work with blocking libraries or services, hence, something like mysql or postgresql will likely not be supported
 5. Rspamd is developing quickly so you should be aware that there might be some incompatible changes between major versions - they are usually listed in the migration section of the site.
 6. Unlike SA where there are only spam and ham results, Rspamd supports five levels of messages called actions:
 - no action - ham message
 - greylist - turn on adaptive greylisting (which is also used on higher levels)
 - add header - adds Spam header (meaning soft-spam action)
 - rewrite subject - rewrite subject to *** SPAM *** original subject
 - reject - ultimately reject message
Each action can have its own score limit which could also be modified by a user's settings. Rspamd assumes the following order of actions: no action <= greylist <= add header <= rewrite subject <= reject.
Actions are NOT performed by Rspamd itself - they are just recommendations for the MTA agent, rmilter for example, that performs the necessary actions such as adding headers or rejecting mail.
SA spam is almost equal to the Rspamd add header action in the default setup. With this action, users will be able to check messages in their Junk folder, which is usually a desired behaviour.
First steps with Rspamd
To install Rspamd, I recommend using one of the official packages that are available for many popular platforms. If you'd like to have more features then you can consider the experimental branch of packages, while if you would like to have more stability then you can select the stable branch. However, normally even the experimental branch is stable enough for production use, and bugs are fixed more quickly in the experimental branch.
General SpamAssassin rules
For those who have a lot of custom rules, there is good news: Rspamd supports a certain set of SpamAssassin rules via a special plugin that allows direct loading of SA rules into Rspamd. You just need to specify your SA configuration files in the plugin configuration:
spamassassin {
 sa_main = "/etc/spamassassin/conf.d/*";
 sa_local = "/etc/spamassassin/local.cf";
On the other hand, if you don't have a lot of custom rules and primarily use the default ruleset then you shouldn't use this plugin: many SA rules are already implemented natively in Rspamd so you won't get any benefit from including such rules from SA.
If you have your SA up and running it is usually possible to switch the system to Rspamd using the existing tools. However, please check the integration document for further details.
Rspamd statistics are not compatible with SA as Rspamd uses a more advanced statistics algorithm, described in the following article, so please bear in mind that you need to relearn your statistics. This can be done, for example, by using the rspamc command: assuming that you have your messages in separate files (e.g. maildir format), placed in directories spam and ham:
rspamc learn_spam spam/
rspamd learn_ham ham/
(You will need Rspamd up and running to use these commands.)
Learning using mail interface
You can also setup rspamc to learn via passing messages to a certain email address. I'd recommend using /etc/aliases for this purpose and a mail-redirect command (e.g. provided by Mail Redirect add-on for Thunderbird MUA). The desired aliases could be the following:
learn-spam123: "| rspamc learn_spam"
learn-ham123: "| rspamc learn_ham"
(You would need to use less predictable aliases to avoid the sending of messages to such addresses by an adversary, or just by mistake, to prevent statistics pollution.)


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Definition of Rootworm
1. Noun. A worm that tunnels through the roots of young plants. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Rootworm
1. a beetle whose larvae feed on the roots of crop plants [n -S]
Click the following link to bring up a new window with an automated collection of images related to the term: Rootworm Images
Lexicographical Neighbors of Rootworm
Literary usage of Rootworm
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Pathogens of Maize Seeds: Bibliographyby Andrew Kalinski by Andrew Kalinski (1994)
"Mating behavioral studies of corn rootworm beetles are underway.... Additional studies examined the interactions of rootworm insecticides with post..."
2. Legumes in Crop Rotations--Bibliography, January 1990-December 1993 by Mary V. Gold (1994)
"The incidence of corn rootworm larval damage in corn after soybeans was greatest in the central, northeastern, and eastern regions of Illinois, where annual..."
3. Conservation Tillage by Jane P. Gates (1994)
"Corn rootworm infestations were applied at 0, 1650, 3300, or 6600 viable eggs m-1.... 4.1 Mg ha-1 with no rootworm eggs; 4.3 vs. 3.1 with 1650 eggs m-1;..."
4. Productive Soils: The Fundamentals of Successful Soil Management and by Wilbert Walter Weir (1920)
"Corn rootworm.—Corn growers in the Southern states, particularly, suffer much damage from the corn rootworm or "budworm." In some seasons it is difficult to..."
5. The Corn Crops: A Discussion of Maize, Kafirs, and Sorghums as Grown in the by Edward Gerrard Montgomery (1913)
"There are two insects that are most troublesome where continuous corn culture is practiced — the corn rootworm and the root-louse. Corn rootworm There are..."
6. IPM and Biological Control of Plant Pests: Field Crops: Bibliography January by DIANE Publishing Company (1995)
"... Feeding and toxic effects of floral sesquiterpene lactones, diterpenes, and phenolics from sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) on western corn rootworm...."
7. Farm Friends and Farm Foes: A Text-book of Agricultural Science by Clarence Moores Weed (1910)
"Consequently this Corn rootworm has been a blessing in disguise,... The discovery of the life history of the Northern Corn rootworm and the pointing out of..."

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


Yancy Fry Jr.
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Secondary character
Deceased character
Yancy Fry Jr.
Yancy Fry, Jr.JPG
Together with his wife and son.
Date of birth4 September, 1971
Planet of originEarth
RelativesSee Family section
First appearance"The Luck of the Fryrish" (3ACV04)
Teenager, AdultTom Kenny
ChildLauren Tom
Yancy Fry Jr. (born c. 1971) is the elder son of Yancy Fry Sr. and Mrs. Fry, and brother to Philip J. Fry.
Early years
Yancy frequently belittled his three years younger brother Philip from birth, partly because of the attention their parents spent on their new baby instead of him, and partly because he wanted his brother's name instead of his own.
In their teens, Philip was talented at both basketball and break dancing, while Yancy was always mediocre. Due to jealousy, Yancy would steal Philip's original moves and claim them as his own. After his brother found a seven-leaf clover and succeeded in pulling off an impossible move, Yancy tried to steal the clover, forcing Philip to hide it in his Ronco Record Vault.
Adult life
On 1 January, 2000, Yancy's brother goes missing. Unbeknown to the family, he has accidentally been frozen. While his parents seem neutral to the disappearance, Yancy was surprisingly more concerned. After finally giving up the search, he continued his life.
Before Yancy's wedding several years later, while looking for records in Philip's old Ronco Vault, he found the seven-leaf clover, but decided not to use it, but keep it as a reminder of his brother.
When his wife gave birth to a child, they agreed to name him Philip J. Fry after his brother, and Yancy gave him Philip's old seven leaf clover, thus ensuring his future success.
Yancy's son did grow up with great luck, and, among other accomplishments, had a series of hit songs with his band Leaf Seven, and was the first man to walk on Mars.
Yancy's brother woke up from the accidental freezing a thousand years later, long after Yancy had passed on. After finding a statue in the ruins of Old New York with his (and his nephew's) name on it three years after the freezing, he believed that Yancy had stolen his clover and his life, and he planned to rob his brother's grave of the clover, which he had been buried with. Reaching the grave, however, he realized that it was of his nephew and not his brother, and he left the clover there.
Time paradox duplicate
These events were slightly altered when time paradox created a duplicate of Philip J. Fry I which lived for another twelve years in the 21st century after the original Philip was frozen before going missing again. However, despite his brother technically not being frozen, Yancy still named his son after him.
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text: that the orbital ejecta of the Stickney crater that reimpact Phobos could be responsible for a particular subset of the observed grooves on Phobos. We adopt impact hydrocode iSALE-2D (impact-Simplified Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian, two-dimensional) to simulate the formation of the Stickney crater and track its impact ejecta, with a focus on orbital ejecta with launch velocities greater than the escape velocity of Phobos. The launch velocity distribution of the ejecta particles is then used to calculate their trajectories in space and determine their fates. For orbital ejecta reimpacting Phobos, we then apply the sliding boulder model to calculate the ejecta paths, which are compared with the observed groove distribution and length to search for causal relationships. Our ejecta trajectory calculations suggest that only ~1% of the orbital ejecta from the Stickney crater can reimpact Phobos. Applying the sliding boulder model, we predict ejecta sliding paths of 9−20 km in a westward direction to the east of the zone of avoidance, closely matching the observed grooves in that region. The best-fit model assumes an ejecta radius of ~150 m and a speed restitution coefficient of 0.3, consistent with the expected ejecta and regolith properties. Our calculations thus suggest the groove class located to the east of the zone of avoidance may have been caused by reimpact orbital ejecta from the Stickney crater.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Knife, Fork, and Plate from Libby Prison
Grade Range: 5-12
Resource Type(s): Primary Source, Artifacts
Date Posted: 12/28/2010
During the Civil War, Libby Prison held over 125,000 men, mostly Union officers. This knife, fork, and plate was issued to prisoner of war Colonel John S. Crocker, 93rd Infantry Regiment, New York Volunteers, by the commandant of Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, and used by him at Libby and Salisbury prisons, 1862.
Historical Thinking Standards (Grades 5-12)
United States History Standards (Grades 5-12)


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Black history month
This Week in History
West Palm Beach
World War II
One of the more popular landmarks in Palm Beach County is the Little Red Schoolhouse, the first in southeast Florida (1886), which was restored and sits in Phipps Ocean Park in Palm Beach.
But Martin County has its own landmark: the New Monrovia One-Room Schoolhouse, believed to be the only remaining one on the Treasure Coast.
Built around 1930, the 25-by-30 wood-frame structure was one of the first schools built in Martin County to educate black children.
On March 9, county officials, former students and historians cut the ribbon on the newly-restored structure.
The schoolhouse is in what is now Port Salerno. Plats called it Salerno Colored School, but students remembered it as Mrs. Williams' School, for Costella Hannibal Williams, who moved to the area in 1929 and taught at the school until around 1960.
Warmed by a pot-belly stove, their way lit by kerosene lamps, black children looked to Williams as a mother figure.
Those children include retired Indian River Community College administrator David "Doc" Anderson, the first black elected to the Martin County School Board. He served 32 years on the panel, including stints as its chairman.
Anderson was a student in first through fourth grades, 1946 to 1950.
He said the four grades shared the one room, and one teacher: Williams.
"She was something else. She was quite a person. I don't know how she did it," Anderson said.
Williams — described as the "Matriarch of New Monrovia" in the 2000 Palm Beach Post book Our Century — retired from Martin County Schools in 1975. According to the Stuart News, she died at 97 in Palm City on April 19, 2003.
The schoolhouse eventually closed and the county used the building as a community center, then closed that in 1998 after building a civic center next door that bore Williams' name.
The schoolhouse fell into disrepair and was damaged by hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004.
Martin County spent $115,000 to restore the schoolhouse; it received a roof, floor and ceiling, windows and doors, and a fresh coat of paint.
Three of the original walls were saved.
Inside, green chalkboards hang from the original locations on the wall, and replicas of the students' original wooden desks, built by South Fork High School carpentry students, line the room.
And there's even a potbelly stove.
Visitors view the interior of the renovated Monrovia One-Room Schoolhouse during its re-dedication March 9. The building, believed to be Martin County's last surviving one-room schoolhouse, was one of the first schools built in the county for black children. (Photo courtesy Martin County)
Tags: African Americans, Martin County, schools
Valentine's Day isn't the only thing around here that's red. Palm Beach's "Little Red Schoolhouse," the only school in all of southeast Florida when it opened March 1, 1886, reopened this month after being closed for nearly a year.
Once again, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach will host its "living history" program, which takes fourth-graders back in time for a mini-day in a one-room school of the 1890s.
The schoolhouse, in Phipps Ocean Park, was closed during a yearlong soil-remediation project in the park. The Foundation took advantage of the down time to renovate and update it.
When it opened, it was the only schoolhouse in what was then Dade County, which was a swath of scattered settlements stretching north to Stuart and covering an area the size of Massachusetts.
A county grant of $200 paid for lumber for the 22-by-40-foot building. Laborers donated time.
The Ladies Aid Society raised another $200 from the sale of embroidery and quilts to pay for furniture and supplies.
The first class had seven students ranging from 7 to 17 years old.
The teacher was Hattie Gale, from Kansas. She was all of 16, younger than some of her charges.
She was the daughter of the Rev. Elbridge Gale, a minister, educator and professor of horticulture, who retired to the area from Kansas in November 1884 and became one of the first to build a cabin on the west side of Lake Worth (the Intracoastal Waterway).
Hattie, who arrived in 1885, taught for only three months before the area hired a teacher for $100.
In 1901, the schoolhouse closed and a boat ferried the children to the new four-room school at Clematis Street and Poinsettia Avenue, now Dixie Highway, in West Palm Beach.
The original building was moved to Casa Bendita, the Palm Beach estate of John Phipps. It sat there for four decades, where it was used as a potting shed.
In 1960, shortly before Casa Bendita was razed, the schoolhouse was dismantled and moved to Phipps Ocean Park. In 1990, the Preservation Foundation restored the building to look like a one-room schoolhouse.
The building is closed to the public, except for the "living history" program.
The first schoolhouse (left) in Palm Beach County is shown in 1886 in Palm Beach. The first school teacher was 16-year-old Hattie Gale (in doorway). (Courtesy of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County)
Tags: buildings, Palm Beach, schools
This is Black History Month. More than one person over the years has wished for a time when we don't need a special day to single out one ethnic group's accomplishments. Until then, this column will endeavor to point out the long struggle of all minority groups — and to honor that struggle's many heroes.
One of our most unsung heroes might well be Charles H. Stebbins, Jr. Here's more from columns in 2004 and 2007:
His legacy was continued partly through the accomplishments of his niece, Freddie Lee Stebbins Jefferson, an educator, community leader and Palm Beach Post columnist who died at 71 in October 2007. And through Freddie's husband, retired educator and activist James Julius "Jeff " Jefferson, who died at 80 in 2011.
Charles Stebbins wanted to be paid the same as white teachers. But he never benefited from the victory he helped achieve. Long since fired from his teaching job, he was waiting tables in New York the day in 1941 when a federal judge's ruling set a stunning precedent. It was a step toward the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
White teachers with five years of experience had received a $25 raise. Furious black counterparts, who got no raise, founded the Palm Beach County Teachers Association and about 85 percent of the county's 115 black teachers joined.
The group brought in Thurgood Marshall, later the Supreme Court's first black justice. They needed a name to put on the lawsuit against the county school board. Charles Stebbins volunteered.
The Arcadia native taught social studies at West Palm Beach's Industrial High School until he was fired. A school board official offered him $500 and his job back to drop the case. His wife was ill — she would die in a year and a half — but he declined.
"He was blackballed throughout the state," Freddie Jefferson said in 1999. "He was the troublemaker." Also, the black union failed to honor a promise to pay him a year's salary if he was fired.
Stebbins moved to New York, then served in the Navy, where he filed two discrimination suits. He worked 32 years for the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, where he sued for promotions, but failed. He never returned to education, and died in 1991.
Charles Stebbins, Jr. (Palm Beach Post file photo)
Freddie Lee Stebbins Jefferson (Palm Beach Post file photo)
Tags: African Americans, Black history month, schools
Thanksgiving and football may mean watching the NFL on TV today, but Palm Beach County fans of a certain age will recall when THE Thanksgiving game was Palm Beach High vs. Lake Worth — a long-time rivalry played on the eve of Thanksgiving. The annual holiday game began in 1928 and continued through the 1960s, when the Forest Hill Falcons stood in for the Lake Worth Trojans.
The 1964 game has been described as the one of the most publicized football games in Palm Beach County history. Both teams — the Palm Beach Wildcats and the Forest Hill Falcons — were unbeaten. The preview story in The Palm Beach Post began, "Tonight's the night when the hopes and dreams of an unbeaten-untied football season are wrapped up in 48 violent minutes of combat."
The Palm Beach High football team as pictured in the Nov. 25, 1964 game preview story in The Palm Beach Post.
The Wildcats won that 1964 game 25-6.
The 1946 game between Palm Beach and Lake Worth drew what The Palm Beach Post called "the largest crowd in the history of Palm Beach County football," with estimates ranging up to 10,000.
The cover art on the program from the 1946 game was by Lon Keller, an artist from Pennsylvania whose work was featured on high school and college football game-day programs from 1938-70.
The 1946 Palm Beach High football team, from the annual Thanksgiving game program.
The 1946 Lake Worth Trojans, as pictured in the annual Thanksgiving game program


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O-1 Self Petition / Entrepreneur
If an applicant does not have an employer / job offer, they can still apply for an O-1. Instead of self-petitioning, which is not permitted by the USCIS, applicants can create a company that will petition for them in an Employee-Employer Relationship.
The key to "self-petitioning for an O-1", or having a company the beneficiary owns to petition for the beneficiary, is to establish employee-employer relationship.
The Neufeld Memo of 01/08/2010 redefines an employee-employer relationship for U.S. employers. Under this memo, if the beneficiary is "the sole operator, manager, and employee", the beneficiary cannot be fired since he cannot fire himself and has no other entity to do so. If the applicant cannot be fired, then an employee-employer relationship cannot exist.
On the other hand, the beneficiary can still be the "sole stockholder of a corporation" and be employed by the corporation they have majority ownership as long as there are entities that can fire, hire, pay, or otherwise control the beneficiary (i.e. a Board of Directors). To check if such a relationship exists, the beneficiary should consider the following:
- Do you have evidence of other investors (i.e. purchase agreements)?
- Do you have bylaws that list board members' names and responsibilities?
- Do the bylaws specifically state that the board has the right to fire you?
- Do other investors supervise your work on-site?
- Are there performance reviews done for you? What is your level of supervision?
- How is your day-to-day task determined?
Factors that USCIS will consider
When the USCIS receives a "self-petitioning" case, they look at a number of factors to determine if the petitioner (company) has the right to control the beneficiary. None of the following factors are decisive, but will affect the final determination.
- Does the petitioner supervise the beneficiary and is such supervision off-site or on-site?
- If the supervision is off-site, how does the petitioner maintain such supervision, i.e. weekly calls, reporting back to main office routinely, or site visits by the petitioner?
- Does the petitioner have the right to control the work of the beneficiary on a day-to-day basis if such control is required?
- Does the petitioner provide the tools or instrumentalities needed for the beneficiary to perform the duties of employment?
- Does the petitioner hire, pay, and have the ability to fire the beneficiary?
- Does the petitioner evaluate the work-product of the beneficiary, i.e. progress/performance reviews?
- Does the petitioner claim the beneficiary for tax purposes?
- Does the petitioner provide the beneficiary any type of employee benefits?
- Does the beneficiary use proprietary information of the petitioner in order to perform the duties of employment?
- Does the beneficiary produce an end-product that is directly linked to the petitioner's line of business?
- Does the petitioner have the ability to control the manner and means in which the work product of the beneficiary is accomplished?
Establishing Extraordinary Ability as an Entrepreneur
1. Receiving a major, internationally-recognized award (i.e. Nobel Prize)
Funding from outside investors (including venture capital funding and angel investors) qualifies as a major award. The investor must be a reputable source and have a history of selecting quality investments.
2. Fulfilling 3 of the following:
- Memberships that require outstanding achievements as judged by experts: There are many available associations that entrepreneurs can join for this O-1 qualification. Research should be done prior to starting an O-1 so that applicants can fulfill any necessary requirements for membership.
- Receive nationally or internationally recognized prizes/awards: Other sources of funding for the company may be used for this criteria.
- Publications in professional or major media such as newspapers: Any press about the company could qualify as a publication; however, it must be a reputable or professional major media (i.e. Business Today, Fortune).
- Original and major professional contributions: The company's product can be considered an original and major contribution. The impact or significance of this product can be shown through letters and other media.
- Employment in critical role for distinguished organizations: If the applicant founded the company, this criteria is usually easily fulfilled through role description, letters, and other evidence.
- Judged the work of others in field (such as pitch competitions)
- High salary in field (depends on the individual field)
- Author of articles in professional journals or other major media (if applicable)
3. Providing other evidence that shows that applicant is the top in their field
In addition to the regular O-1 process of packaging your entire case file from start to finish and training you for the mock interview, we provide additional services for clients who have not created or is in the process of creating a business for the purpose of an O-1.
We will help you create a business tailored to the factors that the USCIS will examine. This includes creating and/or examining your bylaws, articles of incorporation, minutes of the board of directors, articles of association, business hierarchy charts, and other relevant materials.


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British Columbia Geological Survey geoscientists carry out the systematic inventory and assessment of British Columbia geology. They provide raw data, analysis, and new concepts to guide geological, mineral resource, and environmental decisions. Integrating historical data with active research programs, our geoscientists draw on continuously advancing concepts and technologies to create new knowledge.
Here is our current team of professional geoscientists. To find a summary of their expertise and how to contact them click on their name.


) (\x. x);
 laver = \mx.
 -- swap argument order to simplify iterated laver
 let laver = \b\a. a (\_. mx (b (laver (pred a))) 0) b
 in laver;
 dblp1 = \n\f\x. n f (n f (f x)); -- map n to 2*n+1
 find0 = \mx\i.laver mx i mx (\_.find0 mx (succ i)) i;
 period = \n.let mx = pred (n 2) in find0 mx 1
compiles down to the 237 bits
This function grows to infinity assuming large cardinal axiom I3, which I believe is what Peter Taylor was hinting at. It grows way slower than any sort of inverse Ackerman.
 - \$\begingroup\$ Do you have a source for your claimed properties of 16th column? The paper you cited mentions these properties for the sequence of periods \$\pi_n(p)\$, not for the columns of the table itself. \$\endgroup\$ – Anders Kaseorg Apr 30 '20 at 0:15
 - \$\begingroup\$ I have rewritten the program to compute the periods of rows 2^n-1, which are monotonically nondecreasing. \$\endgroup\$ – John Tromp May 1 '20 at 8:07
Your Answer


text:
|« Back to Article|
Texas drought killed 301 million trees
By Kathy Huber | September 25, 2012 | Updated: September 26, 2012 7:52am
The numbers are ugly. A whopping 301 million trees have died across state forestlands as a result of the 2011 drought, the Texas A&M Forest Service reported Tuesday.
The latest count was determined after a three-month, on-the-ground study of hundreds of forested plots, as well as satellite imagery from before and after the drought. It includes trees killed directly by the drought and those so weakened that they succumbed to insects and disease.
The Brazos Valley region took the heaviest hit, losing nearly 10 percent of its trees on forested land. North Texas and western northeast Texas lost 8.3 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively.
Harris County is included in the 6.5 percent loss in the western section of southeast Texas. That's nearly 19 million fewer trees than the near 290 million live tree count before the drought. Far east stretches of southeast Texas got better news: a 1.3 percent loss, down 7.5 million trees from pre-drought 597.1 million live trees.
The 301 million count falls about midway of the forest service's previous estimates of 100 to 500 million drought-related tree deaths.
Although still a huge toll, the good news is the forest is resilient, says Burl Carraway, department head for the Texas A&M Forest Service Sustainable Forestry department. Young, new trees eventually grow in the place of fallen dead trees.
"Tree death is a natural forest process," he said in a news release. "We just had more last year than previous years."
Most of the dead trees will stand until they fall, says Forest Service analyst Chris Edgar. This benefits wildlife and helps prevent soil erosion.
The dead trees, however, could become hazards in fire conditions.
The 301 million does not include trees that shade our home gardens, city parks and streets. Another 5.6 million urban trees have died from the drought, according to an earlier study done by the service's Urban Forest program.
Houstonians have been shaken by the drought-related gaps in our urban forest.
Forester Mickey Merritt roughly estimates the drought has taken 50 percent of the trees in the city's Memorial Park.
Nature will also gradually help re-green urban canopies. More help will come from those that residents are eager to replant.


text:
From the board and C-suite to the facilities staff, everybody at Domo uses Domo. They know Domo makes them more productive, their work more enjoyable, and their workdays less stressful. That, in a nutshell, is what's unique and compelling about Domo—both the product and the company.
This article explains how:
- Domo empowers individuals, teams, and departments.
- Domo encourages productive use of valuable time and resources.
- Domo increases trust, accountability, and reduces tribalism and finger-pointing.
- Domo encourages fact-based, democratized decision making.
- Domo creates a virtuous feedback loop.


Bill summaries are authored by CRS.
Shown Here:
Passed Senate without amendment (02/06/2014)
Urges the Department of State to renegotiate with the government of Iraq the provisions of the original agreement that was signed between the National Archives and Records Administration and the Coalition Provisional Authority in order to ensure that the Iraqi Jewish Archive be kept in a place where its long-term preservation can be guaranteed.
Recognizes that: (1) the Iraqi Jewish Archive should be housed in a location that is accessible to scholars and to Iraqi Jews and their descendants, and (2) the agreement was signed before knowing the Archive's complete history.
Reaffirms the U.S. commitment to cultural property under international law and to ensuring justice for victims of ethnic and religious persecution.


Top Five Problems with Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer – And they have nothing to do with the nose
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is cherished holiday favorite, but the song has several problems that have nothing to do with the nose.
Frankly, the shiny red nose seems plausible to me. If deep sea creatures and fireflies have parts that light up, why couldn't a reindeer?
No, our judges are concerned by several other parts of the song, so they put together this important list of the Top Five Problems With Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.
First, we have one Honorable Mention:
You'll go down in history – He is not in any history books that I know of, so he definitely didn't go down in history. That part of the song is just wrong. Also, maybe Rudolph doesn't want to go down in history just for his nose. He has a mind, too, you know.
5. The most famous reindeer of all – The song begins, "You know Dasher and Dancer….." and then it gets to, "But do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer." That makes no sense. If we all know Dasher Dancer and the rest, but the narrator is asking us if we remember Rudolph, then there is no way he could be "The most famous reindeer of all." Dasher, Dancer and the others are clearly more famous than Rudolph, according to the song.
4. The red nose needed to guide the sleigh through fog – I fail to see how someone's glowing or shiny nose is able to make that much of a difference in the fog. Why can't Santa just fly above the fog? What is Santa worried about running into, other flying reindeer? And if the nose really is super bright, wouldn't that be a detriment in the fog? If you are driving in fog, you never use your bright lights because they just make it harder to see.
3. Then all the reindeer loved him – Reindeer sound like jerks. They made fun of Rudolph because he was different, but now they love him just because he saved Christmas? What kind of a message is that? You have to either conform to society or save Christmas? If I were Rudolph's father, I would first get myself tested to find out why my son is glowing, but right after that I would tell Rudolph that those other reindeer aren't really his friends, they just seem like posers. You heard me, Dasher is a poser.
2. How is the fog any different from just flying at night in total darkness? – How did Santa see in the years before the fog? Shouldn't he have had some sort of light for his sleigh since he flies in the dark of night? Why is the fog so much different? Couldn't Santa's elves just build him a light for the sleigh? Who is licensing these sleighs?
1. The song gets stuck in my head – Whenever I hear it, see a commercial for the TV special or just read about Rudolph, that song gets stuck in my head and drives me crazy constantly hearing it over and over in my mind. I often wonder if other people are constantly hearing it, too. At least I finally know I'm not alone because now it's stuck in your head, too. Merry Christmas.
12 thoughts on "Top Five Problems with Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer – And they have nothing to do with the nose
 1. I don't even know who Dancer and Dasher are.
 Great points about the fog!
 The song has been translated into Greek. So I got it stuck in my head in two languages. Dancer and Dasher didn't make it into the translation. Because no one has ever heard of them. History couldn't care less. Ho ho ho!
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 2. Going down in history is overrated. For every Mother Teresa there is a Benito Mussolini, or, even worse, Santa Claus himself, who is viewed by some as the embodiment of goodness and by others as a distraction from the "True meaning of Christmas". Then there's one Linus van Pelt, who shoots it straight from the gospel of Luke at Christmas but only after bowing down to the heathen Great Pumpkin not two months earlier. No thanks. I wouldn't want to be remembered by anyone who didn't know me.
 Now, if the song had verses about bouncing bumbles, elf dentists and Yukon Cornelius, that might be awesome.
 Thanks once again for yet another look beneath the surface of things so often taken for granted. Go Panthers (Just don't go away). Merry Christmas!
 Liked by 1 person
 1. Excellent points Kenny, especially about going down in history. It's not always so great. And I never thought about that with Linus before, that is kind of odd. It's funny, too. And that tv special on Rudolph is fun, but it's a little nuts, too. I do remember that Bumbles Bounce, or something like that from the tv show. Thanks for the comments, and I'll be cheering for your Panthers, too. Merry Christmas.
 3. I'm pretty sure at one point in time almost *all* deer had glowing noses. Due to the advantage that gave hunters these got selected out and the jerk-deer became the dominant deer. True story. You won't see that in the history books, either. *sigh*
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 1. That is awesome Jeff. Great points all around, and it makes perfect sense. Just another example of facts that are not going down in history. Thanks for the comment, too!
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Lauren Winner Addresses the Trinity and Sex in Nyvall Lectures
Author Lauren Winner
CHICAGO, IL (April 30, 2007) – Noted author Lauren Winner admitted her two lectures at North Park Theological Seminary on Thursday were incongruous: the first on the Trinity, and the second on sex.
Still, Winner's humor and breezy style captivated the packed audience at both presentations when she delivered the Nyvall Lectures in the Isaacson Chapel.
Churches often avoid speaking about the Trinity other than as a theological idea because it is so elusive. "Don't you just feel like you're nailing Jell-O to the wall?" she asked. At her Episcopal Church on Trinity, "The rector is always mysteriously out of town," leaving the sermon to a guest speaker, she quipped.
But incorporating a proper understanding of the Trinity into people's lives enriches their faith and communal relationships, she said. She spoke about three characteristics of the Trinity:
--The Trinity always is participating in an ongoing conversation about God's redeeming love.
--The Trinity models distinction without subordination.
--The Trinity means God is defined by relationships.
Understanding that the Trinity already is in conversation should shape how people understand prayer, Winner said. "We are being invited into a conversation that already is happening," Winner said. Therefore, Christians should not think of prayer as something they initiate.
The ongoing conversation also means that prayer includes silent listening. "Silence is probably more urgently needed now than perhaps any time in our Christian history."
The lack of subordination in the Trinity demonstrates an "ontology of peace," Winner said. "We are bid to a politics of peace because the Trinity is a relationship without violence."
She pointed to John 14 in which Jesus tells his disciples, "My peace I give to you." "Calm is not the only kind of peace," Winner said. "My peace," she explained, also means a life of reconciliation. The early church practiced pursuing peacemaking and reconciliation as a fruit of the Holy Spirit, she added.
Winner said it is easier for people to call for peace in Iraq, where they are not involved in an ongoing, intimate fashion, than it is to live peaceably in households and churches.
Those households and relationships are characterized by a commitment to hospitality because God is defined through relationships, Winner said. "The persons of the Trinity don't exist by themselves. They are defined by their relationships with one another."
She added that Christian hospitality means involving people more deeply in one another's lives and "not just inviting people into our homes occasionally."
In her second lecture, Winner drew from her book, Real Sex: The Naked Truth about Chastity. She told the gathering that the church has engaged in four myths about sex that ultimately are damaging to people:
--People will necessarily feel bad about having premarital sex.
--Men have uncontrollable libidos and women have none.
--Sex is necessary for fulfillment.
--Sexual sin is the unforgivable sin.
Telling young people they will feel bad if they have premarital sex ultimately will undercut trust of pastoral authority, Winner said, because not everyone feels regret or guilt. "Scripture is clear that sin works because what is corrosive actually feels fantastic."
Talking about sex cannot be isolated from the larger context of sin in general, Winner said, adding that the church often tells people they will be permanently damaged by having premarital or extramarital sex. As with any sin, people will be affected by their actions and will need to deal with its repercussions, she explained, but, "Saying reformation is a long process is not the same as saying someone is scarred for life."
Winner also told the gathering that the church's discussion of sex also demeans singleness. "The way the church says sex is necessary is to say marriage is necessary," Winner said. That attitude "explicitly or tacitly says that singleness doesn't count." Winner noted that Paul preferred singleness and Jesus remained single.
The church also causes harm when it tells the lie that men have raging libidos and women are not interested in sex. She drew laughter from the audience as she read from a contemporary Christian book on sex that highlighted that view.
Women, she added, are told to be chaste before marrying and then to become an entirely different person overnight. That is an impossible burden.
To say someone is waiting until they get married also is to assume that someone will get married. People must realize that they may never get married. "This is accepting that discipleship is not hard, and that following Jesus will always make you happy."
The church needs to speak better about marital sex, as well. "The church has not answered the question, 'Why is sex in marriage the best kind of sex?'"
The answer, she said, was the power of commitment and stability in a relationship.
The Nyvall Lectures are delivered each spring at North Park Theological Seminary and are named in honor of the school's founder, David Nyvall.


Performance Problems - Not Where You'd Expect
The new rendering system in Woopsi is coming along nicely. In most areas it increases rendering speed and reduces flicker. In one area, though, it hasn't been an improvement at all. Scrolling has become a problem.
In the old system, scrolling regions were extremely quick, mainly because most of the scrolling is done by just using the DMA to copy the existing pixels to a new location. In the new system, however, scrolling is sluggish and annoying. It seems to take more than one frame to perform a single scroll operation, which results in the display lagging behind the stylus and the system appearing to be, well, a bit rubbish.
I've already made one major optimisation. Instead of asking every gadget to draw every damaged rectangle until there are no rectangles left (which results in dozens of pointless, complex clipping operations), Woopsi uses the hierarchy of the gadgets to its advantage. If a parent gadget does not intersect a damaged rectangle, there is no way for its children to intersect it either. In avoiding trying to draw those children we save a lot of time.
However, this did not solve the scrolling problem. So what could it be? More to the point, how can it have happened, as the scrolling code hasn't actually changed?
I had a few guesses. Perhaps the scrolling operation was running more than once. Putting break points into the Xcode version of Woopsi quickly killed that idea. Perhaps I need to cache the contents of ScrollingPanels in some sort of off-screen bitmap - maybe it's all the redrawing that is a problem. But it couldn't be that - there weren't any problems before. Perhaps the list of newly-revealed rectangles that need to be redrawn that is returned by the scrolling routine is inaccurate. Testing it overturned that idea.
So I turn to Xcode's "Instruments", something that I wish Visual Studio would copy. Running Woopsi through the CPU Sampler suggests that the only thing Woopsi is doing is creating Rect objects. Creating rectangles is making Woopsi's scrolling rubbish? That makes no sense.
Except, perhaps it does.
All of the new rendering functions create WoopsiArrays of Rect objects. As the inital size of a WoopsiArray is 100, and as they store objects, not pointers to objects, that means that each function call to one of these methods creates hundreds of Rect objects. Worse, these functions are recursive. There are probably tens of thousands of Rect objects being created every time the screen redraws.
I tried switching to arrays of pointers-to-rect objects, but quickly got bogged down in recursive memory allocation hell. Instead, I altered the WoopsiArray class so that it accepts an initial reserved size parameter. In most cases, none of the methods needs more than 4 rects in a list, so I've gone with that as the initial size. I've also changed the way that the array class resizes itself; it now doubles in size every time it needs to allocate more space instead of increasing by 100 elements. I believe this is the behaviour of the STL's vector class.
Surprisingly enough, these very minor changes fixed the scrolling problems and boosted the speed of Woopsi everywhere else. I'm not sure I can remember it being this quick.
It's a very old programmer's cliche, but it's true. Performance problems aren't always where you'd expect.
Happy Belated Birthday, and More Event Stuff
It was the blog's birthday on April 11th. I'd intended to put up a birthday post like I did last year, and maybe a celebratory Woopsi app, but exam work got in the way. Ah well.
Anyhoo, I made some more Woopsi changes nearly a month ago that I haven't been able to post about yet, so here's some info on those.
One of the lingering problems with the Gadget class has been the way it overloads the draw() method. There are two draw() methods, one without parameters, and one with a single parameter (a Gadget::Rect). The first method works out which parts of the gadget are visible, whilst the second actually draws those visible parts. Sounds good, but in practice it causes problems.
There is a bug in GCC (or a weird C++ behaviour; let's assume it's a bug in the compiler and not a design flaw in the language) that prevents this arrangement from working. If we create a subclass of gadget (let's call it "SubGadget"), we want to override the draw(Rect) method so the gadget can define how to draw each visible region. However, we don't want to override the draw() method, as this is identical for all gadgets. Unfortunately, we can't override one without also overriding the other. The compiler complains. As a workaround for this I have been overriding draw() with a method that just calls the base method, but this is clunky.
As a proper fix, the draw() method is now called "redraw()". This change will probably break your code if you have created your own gadgets.
There are a few more changes in the event system. Previously, whenever a selection was made in the context menu, the gadget that "owned" the menu raised an event indicating the selection. It was then the programmer's responsibility to check the context menu gadget itself to determine which value had been chosen. This is no longer the case - the handleContextMenuSelectionEvent() method now receives a reference to a "ContextMenuEventArgs" object that contains a pointer to the menu item that was selected. Much simpler to work with.
In other changes, the WoopsiArray and LinkedList classes no longer contain the "begin()" methods. This was left over from when Woopsi switched from the STL vector class to the WoopsiArray, a change in which I'd purposely made the WoopsiArray a drop-in replacement for the vector. The "begin()" was just a stub method, though - the WoopsiArray does not implement the STL iterator code, and begin() simply returned a zero. The WoopsiArray uses indexes internally, not pointer arithmetic, to navigate its contents.


San Francisco Public Library
The Sisters Brothers Read-Alikes
If you enjoyed The Sisters Brothers, you might like some more intense historical fiction. Check out:
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Lyndsay Faye
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Gerald Kolpan
Kolpan envisions the remarkable life of beautiful, elusive, and refined Etta Place, who captivated the nation at the turn of the last century as she dodged the law with the Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Her true identity and fate have remained a mystery that has tantalized historians for decades.
book cover
Dennis Lehane
In 1926, during the Prohibition, Joe Coughlin defies his strict law-and-order upbringing by climbing a ladder of organized crime that takes him from Boston to Cuba where he encounters a dangerous cast of characters who are all fighting for their piece of the American dream.
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Lois Leveen
Based on a remarkable true story of Mary El, the tenacious Virginian slave turned spy, The Secrets of Mary Bowser is an inspiring tale of one daring woman's willingness to sacrifice her own freedom to change the course of history.
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Lloyd Shepherd


text:
Property Registration System in China: Theory, Practice and Future Challenges
27 Pages Posted: 14 Oct 2013
Date Written: October 14, 2013
This article aims to provide a general understanding of Chinese property registration system combining an institutional analysis with a selected case study. By conducting a case study, it attempts to assess the extent to which the property registration system is considered appropriate and effective by the market users and legal actors responsible for enforcing it. However, this article is not a quantitative study in the sense that collecting empirical data to examine black-letter provisions' application relative to objective performance indicators. It attempts to depict a general picture of the system by answering the following questions: whether Chinese property registration system is a mandatory registration system or voluntary recordation system? What is its property transfer theory underpinning the system of land registration? How close it is related to Torrens system? The answers will be provided in Part B and C of this paper. In the remaining sections, a survey carried out in Qingdao on Qingdao's registration system will be presented with the aim to illustrate the functionality of the property registration system in China.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation


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29th June 2016
Crops grown in Mars-like soil are safe to eat
Dutch scientists have announced that crops of four vegetables and cereals grown in soil similar to that on Mars are safe to eat.
Credit: Joep Frissel, University of Wageningen
Scientists at Wageningen University & Research Centre in the Netherlands are working on growing crops in Mars and Moon soil simulants. Just like the real Mars and Moon soil, these contain heavy metals in the same quantities. Four of the crops grown were tested for heavy metal content, and none were found to have concentrations that would be dangerous for human health. The plants are therefore safe to eat and, for some heavy metals, the concentrations were even lower than in crops grown in normal potting soil.
Earlier research by the Wageningen scientists had already demonstrated that crops are able to grow quite well on Mars and Moon soil simulants if organic matter is added to the soils. Heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and copper are known to be present in the soils. If they are taken up in the parts of the crops that may be eaten, they can make the vegetables inedible for humans.
"For radish, pea, rye and tomato we did a preliminary analysis and the results are very promising," says ecologist Wieger Wamelink. "We can eat them and I am very curious as to how the tomatoes will taste. Unfortunately, we have not been able to test all ten crops yet, which is why we set up a crowdfunding campaign through which people can feel a genuine participation in this research. Donors will receive a variety of potential gifts of which my personal favourite is a dinner based on the harvest that will include potatoes grown on Mars soil simulant."
Nearly €13,000 has been raised so far. A total of €25,000 is needed to test the remaining six crops, including potatoes. With additional funding, the team will not only look at heavy metals, but also vitamins, flavonoids (they play a big role in determining the taste) and alkaloids that may be poisonous.
"It's important to test as many crops as possible, to make sure that settlers on Mars have access to a broad variety of different food sources," adds Wamelink.
In these latest experiments, the radishes had the highest amount of metals overall, with a relatively high amount of aluminium, iron and nickel. It is still unknown if the contamination only comes from the outside of the plant or also from the inside. If the radishes were properly washed, the content would probably be lower. It was very odd that the crops grown in Earth potting soil had higher contents of lead, arsenic and copper than the Martian soil simulant in particular.
It is still unknown if the take up of heavy metals is the same on Earth as it would be under the lower gravity conditions found on Mars and the Moon. Only research 'on site' is likely to solve that question. NASA is planning to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, while billionaire Elon Musk hopes to achieve that during the 2020s.
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12th May 2016
NASA confirms largest ever haul of exoplanets
NASA's Kepler space telescope has verified 1,284 new exoplanets – the single largest finding of planets to date.
NASA's Kepler mission has verified 1,284 new planets – the single largest finding of planets to date.
"This announcement more than doubles the number of confirmed planets from Kepler," said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star much like ours, we can eventually discover another Earth."
Analysis was performed on Kepler's July 2015 planet candidate catalogue, which identified 4,302 potential planets. For 1,284 of the candidates the probability of being a planet is greater than 99 percent – the minimum required to earn the status of "planet." An additional 1,327 candidates are more likely than not to be actual planets, but they do not meet the 99 percent threshold and will require additional study. The remaining 707 are more likely to be some other astrophysical phenomena. This analysis also validated 984 candidates previously verified by other techniques.
"Before the Kepler space telescope launched, we did not know whether exoplanets were rare or common in the galaxy. Thanks to Kepler and the research community, we now know there could be more planets than stars," said Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director. "This knowledge informs the future missions that are needed to take us ever-closer to finding out whether we are alone in the universe."
Kepler captures the discrete signals of distant planets – decreases in brightness that occur when planets pass in front of, or transit, their parent stars – much like the recent Mercury transit of our Sun. Since the discovery of the first planets outside our Solar System over two decades ago, researchers have resorted to a laborious, one-by-one process of verifying suspected planets.
This latest announcement, however, is based on a statistical analysis method that can be applied to many planet candidates simultaneously. Timothy Morton, associate research scholar at Princeton University in New Jersey and lead author of the scientific paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, used a method to assign each Kepler candidate a planet-hood probability percentage – the first such automated computation on this scale, as previous statistical techniques focused only on sub-groups within the greater list of planet candidates identified by Kepler.
"Planet candidates can be thought of like bread crumbs," said Morton. "If you drop a few large crumbs on the floor, you can pick them up one by one. But, if you spill a whole bag of tiny crumbs, you're going to need a broom. This statistical analysis is our broom."
In the newly-validated list of planets, nearly 550 could be rocky planets like Earth, based on their size. Nine of these orbit in their sun's habitable zone, which is the distance from a star where orbiting planets can have surface temperatures that allow liquid water to pool. With the addition of these nine, 21 exoplanets are now known to be members of this exclusive group.
"They say not to count our chickens before they're hatched, but that's exactly what these results allow us to do based on probabilities that each egg (candidate) will hatch into a chick (bona fide planet)," said Natalie Batalha, co-author of the paper and a Kepler mission scientist. "This work will help Kepler reach its full potential by yielding a deeper understanding of the number of stars that harbour potentially habitable, Earth-size planets, a number that's needed to design future missions to search for habitable environments and living worlds."
Of the nearly 5,000 total planet candidates found to date, more than 3,200 have now been verified, and 2,325 of these were discovered by Kepler. Launched in March 2009, Kepler is the first NASA mission to find potentially habitable Earth-sized planets. It has monitored 150,000 stars over a range of 3,000 light years, measuring the tiny, telltale dip in the brightness of a star that can be produced by a transiting planet.
In 2018, NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will use the same method to monitor 200,000 bright nearby stars and search for planets, focusing on Earth-sized and Super-Earth-sized.
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3rd May 2016
Are we alone? Setting some limits to our uniqueness
A new paper suggests a way to simplify the famous Drake equation, based on observations of exoplanets discovered in the past two decades.
Are humans unique and alone in the vast universe? This question – summed up in the famous Drake equation – has for a half-century been one of the most intractable and uncertain in science. A new paper, however, shows that the recent discoveries of exoplanets combined with a broader approach to the question makes it possible to assign a new empirically valid probability to whether any other advanced technological civilisations have ever existed.
The authors show that, unless the odds of advanced life evolving on a habitable planet are astonishingly low, then humankind is not the universe's first technological, or advanced, civilisation. The paper, published in Astrobiology, also shows for the first time just what "pessimism" or "optimism" mean when it comes to estimating the likelihood of extraterrestrial life.
"The question of whether advanced civilisations exist elsewhere in the universe has always been vexed with three large uncertainties in the Drake equation," said Adam Frank, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester and co-author of the study. "We've known for a long time approximately how many stars exist. We didn't know how many of those stars had planets that could potentially harbour life, how often life might evolve and lead to intelligent beings, and how long any civilisations might last before becoming extinct."
"Thanks to NASA's Kepler satellite and other searches, we now know that roughly one-fifth of stars have planets in habitable zones where temperatures could support life as we know it. So one of the three big uncertainties has now been constrained."
The third big question – how long civilisations might survive – is still completely unknown. "The fact that humans have had rudimentary technology for roughly ten thousand years doesn't really tell us if other societies would last that long, or perhaps much longer," he said. But Frank and co-author, Woodruff Sullivan at the University of Washington, found they could eliminate that term altogether by simply expanding the question.
"Rather than asking how many civilisations may exist now, we ask 'Are we the only technological species


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the long-term goal of this research is to develop multimedia technology and interactive instructional strategies to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of obtaining informed consent for human DNA and tissue biorepositories. Studies suggest that individuals do not sufficiently understand the information presented during biorepository consent processes, and that traditional consent processes pose resource challenges for large-scale biorepositories. Based on experiments testing multimedia presentations for patient education purposes, multimedia has the potential to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of obtaining biorepository informed consent by increasing participant understanding and recollection of information presented. Yet, this potential has not been systematically investigated in the unique context of biorepository consent. In particular, there is a need to understand the separate effects of interactivity (i.e., question asking, feedbac provided to subjects) and multimedia (i.e., multiple information delivery formats) on participant knowledge, understanding, and decision to participate. This study will compare a standard paper-based consent process (control) to multimedia and interactive consent processes, using an experimental design with random assignment, integrated into actual recruitment at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics'(UIHC) comprehensive DNA and tissue biorepository. To assess the separate effects of interactivity and multimedia, low and high interactivity conditions will be tested for both the paper and the multimedia conditions. In the high interactivity conditions, participants will be asked questions about the information presented and provided feedback on their responses. Interactivity and multimedia are expected to significantly improve subject knowledge and understanding when compared to the paper-based control. High interactive multimedia is expected to decrease staff time devoted to obtaining informed consent. Two hundred (200) patients will participate in the study from the Dermatology and Immunology/Rheumatology Clinics at the UIHC. Participants will be enrolled into the UIHC biorepository via one of the four study conditions. Results of the study will be used to develop a multisite comparative study designed to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of interactivity and multimedia consent under different environments, forms of media, and informed consent protocols. This research has the potential to improve on current paper-based informed consent processes and to establish the feasibility of alternative, and more effective, multimedia consent processes for human DNA and tissue biorepositories and other research-driven efforts in genetics and genomics.
Biorepositories may ask thousands of people a year to donate biological samples, allow access to their health information, and participate in research. Yet, there is little research on the best ways to deliver informed consent information to individuals so that they can make an informed decision about participating in biorepositories. This study will test an interactive, multimedia tool for delivering informed consent information about biorepositories to individuals in an understandable and effective way.
|Simon, Christian M; Klein, David W; Schartz, Helen A (2016) Interactive multimedia consent for biobanking: a randomized trial. Genet Med 18:57-64|


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Metabolic theory of ecology
The metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) is an extension of Kleiber's law and posits that the metabolic rate of organisms is the fundamental biological rate that governs most observed patterns in ecology.
MTE is based on an interpretation of the relationships between body size, body temperature, and metabolic rate across all organisms. Small-bodied organisms tend to have higher mass-specific metabolic rates than larger-bodied organisms. Furthermore, organisms that operate at warm temperatures through endothermy or by living in warm environments tend towards higher metabolic rates than organisms that operate at colder temperatures. This pattern is consistent from the unicellular level up to the level of the largest animals on the planet.
In MTE, this relationship is considered to be the single constraint that defines biological processes at all levels of organization (from individual up to ecosystem level), and is a macroecological theory that aims to be universal in scope and application.
Theoretical background
Metabolic rate scales with the mass of an organism of a given species according to Kleiber's law where B is whole organism metabolic rate (in watts or other unit of power), M is organism mass (in kg), and Bo is a mass-independent normalization constant (given in a unit of power divided by a unit of mass. In this case, watts per kilogram):
At increased temperatures, chemical reactions proceed faster. This relationship is described by the Boltzmann factor, where E is activation energy in electronvolts or joules, t is absolute temperature in kelvins, and k is the Boltzmann constant in eV/K or J/K:
While Bo in the previous equation is mass-independent, it is not explicitly independent of temperature. To explain the relationship between body mass and temperature, these two equations are combined to produce the primary equation of the MTE, where bo is a normalization constant that is independent of body size or temperature:
According to this relationship, metabolic rate is a function of an organism's body mass and body temperature. By this equation, large organisms have proportionally higher metabolic rates (in Watts) than small organisms, and organisms at high body temperatures have higher metabolic rates than those that exist at low body temperatures.However specific metabolic rate (SMR, in Watts/kg) is given by
Hence SMR for large organisms are lower than small organisms.
Controversy over exponent
There is disagreement amongst researchers about the most accurate value for use in the power function, and whether the factor is indeed universal. The main disagreement is whether metabolic rate scales to the power of 3/4 or 2/3. The majority view is currently that 3/4 is the correct exponent, but a large minority believe that 2/3 is the more accurate value. Although a rigorous exploration of the controversy over choice of scaling factor is beyond the scope of this article, it is informative to understand the biological justification for the use of either value.
The argument that 2/3 should be the correct scaling factor is based on the assumption that energy dissipation across the surface area of three dimensional organisms is the key factor driving the relationship between metabolic rate and body size. Smaller organisms tend to have higher surface area to volume ratios, causing them to lose heat energy at a faster rate than large organisms. As a consequence, small organisms must have higher specific metabolic rates to combat this loss of energy over their large surface area to volume ratio.
In contrast, the argument for a 3/4 scaling factor is based on a hydraulic model of energy distribution in organisms, where the primary source of energy dissipation is across the membranes of internal distribution networks. This model is based on the idea that metabolism is essentially the rate at which an organism's distribution networks (such as circulatory systems in animals or xylem and phloem in plants) deliver nutrients and energy to body tissues. It therefore takes longer for large organisms to distribute nutrients throughout the body and thus they have a slower metabolic rate. The 3/4 factor is then derived from the observation that selection favors a fractal or near-fractal distribution network for space-filling circulatory systems. All fractal networks terminate in identical units (such as capillary beds), and the number of such units in organisms is proportional to a 3/4 power relationship with body size.
Kolokotrones et al. 2010 showed that relationship between mass and metabolic rate has a convex curvature on logarithmic scale. The curvature explains the variations in the power law exponent.
Despite the controversy over the value of the exponent, the implications of this theory might remain true regardless of its precise numerical value.
Implications of the theory
The metabolic theory of ecology's main implication is that metabolic rate, and the influence of body size and temperature on metabolic rate, provide the fundamental constraints by which ecological processes are governed. If this holds true from the level of the individual up to ecosystem level processes, then life history attributes, population dynamics, and ecosystem processes could be explained by the relationship between metabolic rate, body size, and body temperature.
Organism level
Small animals tend to grow fast, breed early, and die young. According to MTE, these patterns in life history traits are constrained by metabolism. An organism's metabolic rate determines its rate of food consumption, which in turn determines its rate of growth. This increased growth rate produces trade-offs that accelerate senescence. For example, metabolic processes produce free radicals as a by-product of energy production. These in turn cause damage at the cellular level, which promotes senescence and ultimately death. Selection favors organisms which best propagate given these constraints. As a result, smaller, shorter lived organisms tend to reproduce earlier in their life histories.
Population and community level
MTE has profound implications for the interpretation of population growth and community diversity. Classically, species are thought of as being either r selected (where population size is limited by the exponential rate of population growth) or K selected (where population size is limited by carrying capacity). MTE explains this diversity of reproductive strategies as a consequence of the metabolic constraints of organisms. Small organisms and organisms that exist at high body temperatures tend to be r selected, which fits with the prediction that r selection is a consequence of metabolic rate. Conversely, larger and cooler bodied animals tend to be K selected. The relationship between body size and rate of population growth has been demonstrated empirically, and in fact has been shown to scale to M-1/4 across taxonomic groups. The optimal population growth rate for a species is therefore thought to be determined by the allometric constraints outlined by the MTE, rather than strictly as a life history trait that is selected for based on environmental conditions.
Observed patterns of diversity can be similarly explained by MTE. It has long been observed that there are more small species than large species. In addition, there are more species in the tropics than at higher latitudes. Classically, the latitudinal gradient in species diversity has been explained by factors such as higher productivity or reduced seasonality. In contrast, MTE explains this pattern as being driven by the kinetic constraints imposed by temperature on metabolism. The rate of molecular evolution scales with metabolic rate, such that organisms with higher metabolic rates show a higher rate of change at the molecular level. If a higher rate of molecular evolution causes increased speciation rates, then adaptation and ultimately speciation may occur more quickly in warm environments and in small bodied species, ultimately explaining observed patterns of diversity across body size and latitude.
MTE's ability to explain patterns of diversity remains controversial. For example, researchers analyzed patterns of diversity of New World coral snakes to see whether the geographical distribution of species fit within the predictions of MTE (i.e. more species in warmer areas). They found that the observed pattern of diversity could not be explained by temperature alone, and that other spatial factors such as primary productivity, topographic heterogeneity, and habitat factors better predicted the observed pattern.
Ecosystem processes
At the ecosystem level, MTE explains the relationship between temperature and production of biomass. The average production to biomass ratio of organisms is higher in small organisms than large ones. This relationship is further regulated by temperature, and the rate of production increases with temperature. As production consistently scales with body mass, MTE predicts that the primary factor that causes differing rates of production between ecosystems is temperature and not the mass of organisms within the ecosystem. This suggests that regions with similar climatic factors would sustain the same primary production, even if standing biomass is different.
See also
- Constructal theory
- Dynamic energy budget
- Evolutionary physiology
- Occupancy-abundance relationship
- Brown, J. H., Gillooly, J. F., Allen, A. P., Savage, V. M., & G. B. West (2004). "Toward a metabolic theory of ecology". Ecology 85 (7): 1771–89. doi:10.1890/03-9000.
- Agutter, P.S., Wheatley, D.N. (2004). "Metabolic scaling: consensus or controversy?". Theoretical biology and medical modelling 1: 13. doi:10.1186/_PHONE_-1-13. PMC 539293. PMID _PHONE_.
- West, G.B., Brown, J.H., & Enquist, B.J. (1999). "The fourth dimension of life: Fractal geometry and allometric scaling of organisms". Science 284 (5420): 1677–9. doi:10.1126/science._PHONE_.167. PMID _PHONE_.
- Kolokotrones, T., Van Savage, Deeds, E. J. (2010). "Curvature in metabolic scaling". Nature 464 (7289): 753–756. doi:10.1038/nature08920.


Stay informed with Google Alerts
Andy Wolber explains how to use Google Alerts as a contemporary digital version of the old-fashioned clipping service.
If you publish my name publicly online, I'll know. Or, more precisely, when Google indexes the character string "Andy Wolber", I'll know. Google Alerts is a contemporary digital version of the old-fashioned clipping service. Choose your search queries and get notified when Google finds a match. Unlike clipping services, Google Alerts is free.
Google Alerts has hundreds of uses. Know when your company's name - or your own name - appears online. Receive alerts containing specific product or service names. Set a Google Alert for "Nexus 7" to learn whenever that term appears online, or to get the latest news on "Windows Server 2012". Google Alerts also helps track much broader tech topics. For example, I have Google Alerts set for the search terms "Google Apps" as well as "Cloud Computing".
People who work in marketing, sales, or politics should use Google Alerts. There's no better way to stay up-to-date on what your customers, potential customers, or political opponents are publicly up to online. Nonprofit leaders might set up Google Alerts to track the names of their funders, board members or prominent volunteer leaders.
Google Alerts can't find everything, though. The information has to be publicly indexed on the web. Notably, Google's search results do not include major data streams from Facebook or Twitter. Twilert.com provides a free service similar to Google Alerts for search terms on Twitter, while HyperAlerts.no provides a similar service for terms on Facebook.
Set up an alert
Setting up a Google Alert for a keyword (or words) is easy.
 1. Go to _URL_ in your browser.
 2. Enter your search query. Use quotation marks to search for specific nouns. You can also use the "-" to exclude specific results. For example, use the search "Chromebook -Chromebox" to search for articles where the term Chromebook appears and the Chromebox is not mentioned.
 3. Choose the result type. Typically "everything" is just fine. You may also limit the results to news, blogs, video, discussions or books.
 4. Choose how often you wish to receive an alert. The "As-it-happens" setting is best if you need immediate notification. I typically recommend this for marketing or public relations professionals. I'd guess that folks in both the Obama and Romney campaigns use the "as-it-happens" notification setting. For most of us, though, "once a day" or "once a week" will suffice.
 5. Choose whether to receive "only the best results" or "all results". If your search terms are frequently used or return hundreds of results, choose "only the best results".
 6. Choose to receive the results by email or an RSS feed. If you're likely to receive an alert containing a keyword that will require urgent action, send it to email. If you receive the results in Gmail, you might set up a filter to automatically sort or process the alert. I recommend you send non-urgent, non-actionable alerts to your RSS reader.
Start now
When you have five minutes free, choose five keywords. Go to _URL_ and setup an alert for each keyword. After a week, go to _URL_ to manage your Alerts. Drop those that aren't useful; add new ones as needed.
Also read:
Editor's Picks


Bivouac of the Dead
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A plaque quoting the poem at Golden Gate National Cemetery
A plaque at Cave Hill Cemetery quoting the Bivouac of the Dead
The Bivouac of the Dead is a poem written by Danville, Kentucky native, Theodore O'Hara to honor his fellow soldiers from Kentucky who died in the Mexican-American War. The poem increased its popularity after the Civil War, and its verses have been featured on many memorials to fallen Confederate soldiers in the Southern United States, and are even to be found on many memorials in Arlington National Cemetery, including Arlington's gateway.[1]
When war against Mexico was declared in May 1846, O'Hara left Washington, D.C. to return to his native Kentucky in order to enlist. Within a month, he was appointed Captain of the Kentucky Volunteers, and served as their assistant quartermaster. Before he returned to Kentucky in 1847, he was made a brevet major. After hearing of the severe losses that the 2nd Kentucky Infantry and Kentucky cavalry suffered from the Battle of Buena Vista, O'Hara wrote the Bivouac of the Dead in dedication of the fallen troops. When many of the fallen Kentuckians were buried in Frankfort Cemetery on July 20, 1847, future congressman and U.S. Vice President John C. Breckinridge spoke for an hour at the event. Whether or not O'Hara spoke Bivouac of the Dead is disputed, but it is commonly believed that he did. It is agreed he spoke the poem in 1850 at the same cemetery, for the interment of William T. Barry and General Charles Scott. Bivouac of the Dead would later be called "a worthy contribution to American Literature." It was first published in the Frankfort Yeoman in 1850. However, modern historians have also claimed it was not written until 1851, after Narciso López's failed attempt to remove Cuba from Spanish control.[1][2][3][4]
O'Hara was known to change the lyrics to Bivouac. Alternations included removing mentions of specific places, and removing various stanzas. In 1858 the Mobile Register published what is believed to be the original version, with the Louisville Courier publishing the original with an introduction stating it was the version spoken at the 1847 ceremony, reflecting the changes in the poem. In 1900 The New York Times devoted an article decrying all the alterations to the poem, and stressed returning to the original version.[2][5]
When O'Hara was reinterred at Frankfort Cemetery, a friend used Bivouac as the eulogy.[2]
The first monument to the fallen Confederate States of America in Kentucky, the Confederate Monument in Cynthiana, used a verse from the Bivouac of the Dead. Six other monuments in Kentucky also used parts of the poem on memorials to fallen Confederates.[6] Portions of the poem are also displayed on 7 plaques at Finn's Point National Cemetery in Pennsville, New Jersey, where a significant number of Confederate Soldiers who died in captivity during the American Civil War are buried.
It was Montgomery C. Meigs who chose to quote Bivouac of the Dead for the entrance into Arlington, due to its solemn appeal. However, at Arlington and many other national cemeteries, O'Hara was not credited due to having fought for the Confederacy.[2]
During the late 1920s and 1930s, instances of Bivouac on markers throughout national cemeteries were removed, leaving only fourteen with Bivouac verses on tablets. In 2001, the National Cemetery Administration began returning the first stanza to any national cemetery in which the poem is missing.[2]
Parts of the poem may be found at Marye's Heights in Fredericksburg, Virginia Also, The national cemetery (Union soldiers only) at Antietam in Sharpsburg MD has phases from the first stanza on markers at various points.
 1. ^ a b Bivouac of the Dead - Arlington National Cemetery
 2. ^ a b c d e Bivouac of the Dead - Burial & Memorials
 3. ^ Dixon, Susan Bullitt. THEODORE O'HARA.; His "Bivouac of the Dead" -- The Correct Version and the Incorrect Ones. The New York Times August 11, 1900
 4. ^ Kleber, John E. Encyclopedia of Louisville. (University Press of Kentucky). pg.666.
 5. ^ Dixon, August 11, 1900
 6. ^ Civil War in Kentucky


text:
The dictionary defines "pervert" as
1 a: to cause to turn aside or away from what is good or true or morally right : corrupt b: to cause to turn aside or away from what is generally done or accepted : misdirect
2 a: to divert to a wrong end or purpose : misuse b: to twist the meaning or sense of : misinterpret
Likewise, "perverse" is defined:
1 a: turned away from what is right or good : corrupt b: improper, incorrect c: contrary to the evidence or the direction of the judge on a point of law
2 a: obstinate in opposing what is right, reasonable, or accepted : wrongheaded b: arising from or indicative of stubbornness or obstinacy
3: marked by peevishness or petulance : cranky
4: marked by perversion : perverted
So when I read today at LifeSiteNews that Brazilian President Luiz Lula said that opposition to homosexuality was "perverse," in addition to recalling sayings like "the pot calling the kettle…", a passage from the Bible came to mind.
Here's what the LifeSiteNews article said:
After calling for a universal embrace of the homosexual movement, the president affirmed that "homophobia" is perhaps "the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head."
Homosexuality fits the definition of "pervert" and "perverse" because it perverts (to divert to a wrong end or purpose; misuse; turns aside from what is good and morally right) God's design–and the apparent natural function–for human sexuality and is perverse in that the act and those who promote it are being "obstinate in opposing what is right, reasonable, or accepted" and are often "marked by peevishness or petulance."
That Bible verse that came to mind? Isaiah 5:20, which says
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light
I guess those words can also simply describe the kind of world we've come to live in.
Try us out at the new location: American Clarion!


text:
Kelleher, Luke and Smyth, Austin (2008) Increasing school choice: sustainability paradox. In: Transportation Research Board 87th Annual Meeting, 13 - 17 Jan 2008, Washington DC.
Full text not available from this repository.
Official URL: _URL_
The UK government wants school travel to be safer, healthier and more environmentally friendly-with more pupils walking and cycling. In addition in 2005, it published the 14-19 Education and Skills White Paper. One of the key aims of the paper was to improve school choice for all pupils. This is to be achieved by giving more choice to disadvantaged children; and promoting fair admissions in order to give parents access to a wider range of schools. Allowing parents to look further than their local catchment area school is likely to result in greater numbers of children traveling longer distances. Therefore, as this paper illustrates, if school choice is really to be open to all, school transport must be included as part of the tool kit promoting choice and targeted at those who need it most.
|Item Type:||Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)|
|Research Community:||University of Westminster > Architecture and the Built Environment, School of|
|Deposited On:||16 Apr 2009 12:45|
|Last Modified:||16 Apr 2009 12:45|
Repository Staff Only: item control page


Set it to None if you don't want
# this feature. Overridden by command line option "-s" / "--stub-track".
USE_STUB_TRACK = u'00 Stub Track'
# Number of playlists processed between basic processing reports. (Use "-q"
# / "--quiet" option to inhibit these reports.)
# Character to commonly use between song-name path elements. Ommitted when
# the MAGIC_LEADING_DELIMITER, which see, is at the front of a path element.
# = False - create/sync m3u playlist files to target folder
# = True - skip creating m3u playlist files, eg if you're using Google
# Music to sync your playlists, and use this script just to keep a
# fallback stash of music files.
# = False - use the subject playlist names for the target
# = True - synthesize target playlist names based on subject names,
# transforming leading characters according to MAGIC_LEADING_DELIMITER.
# The names of the subject playlists, themselves, are not altered.
# If not empty and COMPOSE_PLAYLIST_NAMES is True, playlist names
# that start with MAGIC_LEADING_DELIMITER's first character are handled
# specially. Here are the alternatives:
# - Empty string: always prepend PLAIN_SEPARATOR to the playlist name when
# creating the full playlist folder path name.
# - One character: when a playlist name's leading character matches
# MAGIC_LEADING_DELIMITER's first (and, in this case, only) character,
# then that character is removed from the playlist name when constructing
# the playlist folder path name, and no additional delimiter is prepended.
# (Thus the playlist name's second character serves as the delimiter.)
# - Two or more characters: like the one-character case, but the
# MAGIC_LEADING_DELIMITER's second character is prepended to matching
# playlist names, to serve as the delimiter when constructing the playlist
# folder path name.
# Lexical precedence in Google Music player: _-,.+=[A-Za-z]
# Lexical precedence in old android Music player: +,-.[A-Za-z]_~
## Value that sorts higher for the old, standard android player:
# Value that sorts higher for the new google-music player ("_," works, too):
## Value that uses characters after the leading magic char, on the playlist
## names, themselves:
# When True, marginal blather() activity messages will be emitted. Can be
# set using the --verbose command line option, and is overridden by QUIET.
# Inhibit all blather() informational messages, even when VERBOSE is set.
# Error messages are still emitted via whoops().
QUIET = False
# Inhibit actually changing any state/filesystem/etc if True. Progress
# report lines will be prefixed with '# '.
DRYRUN = False
 # ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Customization above ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ #
 # vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Operational config below vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv #
 # (and/or some obscure customization options - caveat emptor) #
# These things can be changed, but you less likely need to, and can more easily
# break things than the common user customizations, above.
# Sequences of extensiosn of filename to be removed from the target
# directory hierarchy if the files have no corresponding playlist or
# playlist track. Other files will be left alone, but directories left
# empty after tracked file deletions will be removed.
# The first PLAYLIST_EXTENSIONS entry will be appended after a '.' to the
# playlist names as part of forming the playlist filename.
PLAYLIST_EXTENSIONS = ('m3u', 'M3u', 'M3U')
TRACK_EXTENSIONS = ('mp3', 'MP3','m4p', 'M4P','m4a', 'M4A')
# Adjust this regular expression to specify characters to to be replaced in
# playlist names for their filesystem file name. (By default we specify the
# negation of the set of allowed characters.) The elided characters are
# replaced by the value of SUBSTITUTION_CHARACTER.
PLAYLIST_FILE_NAMES_REGEXP = '[^- _A-Za-z0-9:%,.'~!@^=*+%()]'
# Used for the mathematical fingerprint (python hash) of track files used
# to detect non-size-changing track audio and metadata edits.
# The logarithmic base for biasing the play density so continued plays as a
# track ages have more importance, or conversely, so the earlier rush to
# play a new track doesn't obscure the staying power of older favorites.
# The tuning of this setting is by feel, but in my (very slight) exploration
# doesn't seem to make a lot of difference except maybe in the low "play
# densities" (see Track.get_play_density()).
 # ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Operational config above ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ #
import appscript
import sys, os, time, shutil, re, optparse, datetime, math
re_playlist_file_names = re.compile(PLAYLIST_FILE_NAMES_REGEXP)
# SingletonByLabelAndClass belongs in a separate module, but by including it
# here we can deliver this application as a single script, so for now:
class SingletonByLabelAndClass(object):
 """Inherit for classes that have distinctly labelled unique instances.
 The distinguishing label is taken from a keyword argument named 'label'.
 >>> class DistinctService(SingletonByLabelAndClass):
 ... counter = 0
 ... def __init__(self, label='default'):
 ... self.counter += 1
 >>> first = DistinctService(label='first')
 >>> first_too = DistinctService(label='first')
 >>> second = DistinctService(label='second')
 >>> first.counter == first_too.counter
 >>> first.counter!= second.counter
 >>> id(first) == id(first_too)
 >>> id(first)!= id(second)
 >>> class DifferentDistinctService(SingletonByLabelAndClass):
 ... counter = 0
 ... self.counter -= 1
 >>> other_first = DifferentDistinctService(label='first')
 >>> id(other_first)!= id(first)
 >>> first._SingletonReset()
 __instances = {}
 # avoid classes colliding by using class-name/specified-name combo:
 name = (cls.__name__, kwargs['label'])
 got = cls.__instances.get(name, None)
 if got == None:
 got = cls.__instances[name] = object.__new__(cls)
 return got
 def _SingletonReset(cls):
 """Development-mode - clear the established instances.
 Use for fresh instances during incremental development of
 singleton-based classes."""
 for i in cls.__instances.values():
 del i
 cls.__instances = {}
class Playlist(SingletonByLabelAndClass):
 """Encapsulation of an iTunes playlist object.
 Playlists within the sync subject playlist must be initted with their
 dotted name, reflecting the containment.
 >>> library = Playlist(label='Library')
 >>> subject = Playlist(label=SUBJECT_PLAYLIST)
 label = None
 # Short-circuit redundant visits and accounting distortion after
 # appscript-timeout restarts:
 _already_done = None
 _is_terminal = None
 _pedigree = None
 _contained_tracks = None
 _children_playlists = None
 _playlist_file_string = None
 _playlist_file_name = None
 def __init__(self, label=None, ref=None):
 """Realize playlist for string LABEL, passed in as a keyword argument.
 To disambiguate playlists with the same terminal names, LABEL must be
 the dotted playlist containment path from the subject playlist.
 REF is for internal use on contained playlists, to disambiguate."""
 if self.label is not None:
 # we're a singleton that's already been initted.
 self.label = label
 self._mgr = mgr = PlaylistSyncManager(label=SUBJECT_PLAYLIST)
 if not ref:
 ref = mgr.get_playlist_refs(label)
 if not ref:
 raise ValueError, ("No playlists labelled '%s' found" % label)
 elif type(ref) == appscript.reference.Reference:
 self._ref = ref
 if len(ref) > 1:
 raise ValueError, ("%s ambiguous - mutiple found" % label)
 self._ref = ref[0]
 def __repr__(self):
 return "<%s.%s instance '%s'>" % (self.__module__,
 def is_terminal_playlist(self):
 if self._is_terminal is None:
 self._is_terminal = (self._ref.special_kind.get()
 == appscript.k.none)
 return self._is_terminal
 def sync_to_directory(self, target_dir_path):
 """Sync our playlist constituents to TARGET_DIRECTORY_PATH.
 A playlist file will not be created for this encompassing playlist,
 itself, but will be created for its constituents."""
 # Employ helpers, including._sync_to_directory(), to do actual work.
 fldr_mgr = PlayfolderManager(label=target_dir_path)
 self._sync_to_directory(fldr_mgr, save_playlist=False)
 def _sync_to


text:
Belonging to the Erodium genus, Erodium has a botanical name of Erodium. a Perennial grower, it grows best over a period of time (3 years and greater). Keep in mind when planning your garden that Erodium is known for growing to a ground covering habit.
This plant info is provided by the myfolia gardener's wiki. All details about Erodium have been kindly provided by our members.
These plants have been known to grow well alongside Erodium so consider planting:
These plants will not grow well with Erodium so avoid planting these within close proximity:
These problems, diseases and pests are known to affect Erodium plants:
Erodium L'HÈr. ex Aiton


How does a dollar bill changer work?
Creating a good bill changer is a tough problem. The device has to work with all sorts of bills, from crisp new ones to ragged old ones, and it has to be reasonably good at telling real bills from fakes. In many cases, the changer also has to be able to sense the denomination of the bill. In order to accomplish these tasks, dollar bill changers use a variety of technologies. Several different patents listed below discuss techniques that people have employed. Some of these techniques have changed over the years as microprocessors have allowed more capability in the device.
Here are several of the techniques that have been tried:
 - Many of the early bill changers took advantage of the fact that U.S. bills are printed with magnetic ink. They could therefore use magnetic heads (like the ones in a cassette tape recorder) to pick up signals from the bills. Areas of the bill (like the background behind the president's face) would generate signals at a specific frequency, and the detection of this frequency would validate the bill. Different bills generate different frequencies, so the frequency can also help determine what the denomination is.
 The backgrounds from behind the president's face on a $1, $5 and $10 bill: Note the different spacing used in each one. The spacing can help determine the denomination.
 - Genuine dollar bills have a certain conductivity, and checking for the resistance of a bill can authenticate it.
 - Inks and papers have different fluorescent properties, and these properties can help tell real from counterfeit bills.
 - The optical properties of a bill, or a strip of a bill, can be sensed with a photocell or a camera and compared to valid patterns stored in memory. Different patterns from different bills can determine the denomination.
A good bill changer will use several of these techniques because people seem to have a very strong desire to outwit bill changers. If you read the patents listed below, you will find that they handle such things as people inserting just half of the bill, people inserting bills with strings attached so they can jerk them back out, people who try unplugging the machine with the bill half-inserted...
These links will help you learn more:


text:
IBN has successfully
developed a novel electronic sensor array for more rapid, accurate and cost-efficient
testing of DNA for disease diagnosis and biological research. This study by
IBN Group Leader Dr Zhiqiang Gao and his team was published in the leading international
chemistry journal, Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Called the "Nanogap Sensor Array", IBN's new device has a
unique, vertically aligned nanostructure design and a two-surface configuration
based on electronic transduction. The sensor comes with a pair of micron-sized
metal electrodes separated by a nanogap (5–20 nm). The biosensor will
translate the presence of DNA into an electrical signal for computer analysis.
"By saving time and lowering expenses, our Nanogap Sensor Array offers
a scalable and viable alternative for DNA testing.
here to read the full article.
Posted February 24th, 2010