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Game Review
Mahjong 3D - Warriors of the Emperor Review
USA USA Version
Posted by Ron DelVillano
Not your 奶奶's Mahjong
If you've ever played any iteration of Mahjong before, then there's a good chance that you know how the tile-matching gameplay works. While the core experience remains unchanged, it's what Mahjong 3D - Warriors of the Emperor does with the system that makes this one stand out. Rather than simply finding all of the matching tiles on a particular board and moving right along to the next one, Warriors of the Emperor adds a story and characters, making completing levels much more rewarding and giving players a reason to look forward to advancing towards the next stage.
Loosely based on Chinese history, you take on the role of a young Qin Shi Huangdi, king of the State of Qin, as he attempts to conquer, and thus unite, China. If you don't know anything about Chinese history then you shouldn't expect to learn from this game, but the historical elements mixed into the fictional plot are an amusing detail that shouldn't go unnoticed. The game's map is divided into different Chinese territories, with each territory housing multiple stages to play. Completing all of the stages in a particular territory will mean that you've conquered that part of the map, therefore expanding your empire. Because the stages are set up this way rather than in a more linear fashion, you're able to skip around from place to place and complete the game in whatever order you see fit.
Not only is there an interesting and often comical story squeezed into this package, but there are also a variety of power-ups to aid in your puzzle solving, and different types of levels to play through. As you complete stages, your character will gain experience points and gradually level up. There isn't a very refined levelling system, but instead of stat boosts you will gain new power-ups that allow you to perform actions such as blowing up certain tiles or freezing time. As the story progresses, you will become allies with various other figures from ancient China who you can then select to lend their power-ups to you during gameplay. There are also special tiles that you can match in order to perform actions similar to the power-ups, such as swapping one tile's location for another.
Different types of levels include battle stages, building stages, and debates. While battles and building stages don't differ from each other and stick to the standard format, debates add a bit of suspense to the gameplay. Rather than simply finding matching tiles, in debate stages you'll actually be competing directly against a computer opponent to find matches on the same game board. Find more matches than your computer opponent by the time the board is cleared and the debate is yours.
Beyond the main campaign, there are also quick play modes and even a level creator. As you move along through the story, more quick play levels will be unlocked, each with varying difficulty. The level creator is very intuitive and easy to use, and it even offers StreetPass features; when you pass by another gamer with Mahjong 3D - Warriors of the Emperor, you'll actually be able to send your original levels over to them, along with your high scores.
As the title implies, all of your game boards are displayed in 3D, and the developer has done a fantastic job of it. The 3D effect is used to give actual depth to the board, making it very easy to see which tiles are on top and ready to be played. The audio is done just as well, with a soundtrack that matches the traditional Chinese theme that the game is clearly aiming for. The story elements, which are told through a series of barely animated character heads with dialogue printed underneath them, are the only visual element that tends to be lacking any panache; while more effort could have been spent on animation or voice-acting for these scenes, they still get the job done in conveying the story.
As per the game's insistence on displaying 3D visuals, all of the action takes place on the 3DS's top screen with the bottom screen being used as a control pad. Sliding and tapping your stylus around on the bottom screen will cause a cursor to move on the top screen, mimicking your actions. While the disconnect between touch and motion may be uncomfortable at first, the movements quickly become second nature. You are unable to control the game using the 3DS's buttons rather than the touchscreen, but you can use the Circle Pad to pan the camera and the Y button is used to open your power-up menu. Though unorthodox, the controls are easy to master and quite effective once you get the hang of them.
There are a lot of different Mahjong releases available on a number of different gaming platforms, but it's rare and refreshing to see a version that takes the classic game and does something special with it. The price-point may be a little steep, but Mahjong 3D - Warriors of the Emperor shouldn't be thought of as a re-hashed budget game, but instead as an entirely new and story-driven experience. The gameplay may be familiar, but the effort that was put into making this one stand out from the rest ensures that there's something to be found for both casual and hardcore gamers.
From the web
User Comments (17)
Sir_Teabag said:
great review, i really like this game a lot, price point is high but its a very fun game and im glad i picked it up.
zipmon said:
"Not your nainai's Mahjong" - awesome! Thanks for my first Mandarin fix on Nintendo Life, and a great review. This looks like a blast!
shimage said:
Never understood why tile games have always been more popular than actual mahjong games. I guess I still don't understand why tile-matching games are popular at all.
NImH said:
So is this superior to 3D Mahjong? I like a straightforward Mahjong game... which is why I disliked the "rivers" mode in 3D Mahjong. Is this game distracting from the core experience?
Freelance said:
I dunno. Story is never needed for Solitaire Mahjong. A story would probably distract me too since all I want to do is play S. Mahjong, not to read through a silly story beforehand before I can play.
I'll just stick to 3D Mahjongg. It does what it sets out to do and doesn't have a story.
_USER_, you can turn off "Rivers" mode in 3D Mahjongg you know. Change it to 'Classic' and you'll never see "Rivers" again.
Shining-Void said:
Ah, this reminds me of the anime Saki. It made mahjongg look pretty interesting. Yes...I must try this. (evil plotting)
Froggievilleus said:
Dodger said:
Hey, I was thinking of getting the other Mahjong game on the Eshop but I think I'll get this instead.
Froggievilleus said:
I went ahead and got it last night. It is a good game but the control scheme is a bit odd to what I'm used to.
Sir_Teabag said:
_USER_, i also thought the control scheme is odd as well, but after some time i got used to it and dont mind it, love the game tho
deKay said:
Windy said:
Im just waiting for a comical MahJong game to hit the shop. an addition of some anime Characters doing funny stuff during a match would be cool and some online matches with some sort of communication. When that happens im in. And no not the Strip variety MahJong. just comical. Heck Pokemon Mahjong would be cool if done right
Freelance said:
Well, real Mahjong isn't popular/well known outside of Asia so good luck waiting for a game that won't come. Why localize a game when nobody is going to buy it? Why don't you just import a DS game? Japan has tons of Mahjong games. China probably has lots too.
Solitaire Mahjong is only called that because the game uses Mahjong tiles. I honestly don't know why some people are apparently upset this game is called Solitaire Mahjong (or just Mahjong as a shortened version).
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Create a WordCloud
How to Create a WordCloud? Display in 3 Steps using NLTK
Popular Domains for just 99 Cents at Namecheap!
You must have heard about the word cloud in text analytics. It is a graphical display of the words that are present in a corpus. Size of the words depends upon occurrences of it. More the number of times a word comes in a corpus more will be its size. You can use the word cloud to show the most popular words inside the corpus. In this tutorial on "how to ", you will know how to create a wordcloud from a corpus.
Before going the coding parts of the wordcloud let's know some of the use cases of it.
 1. Popular Hashtags
 2. Most Popular players Name
 3. Presenting a Qualitative Survey Data
 4. Analyzation of SEO keywords
Steps by Steps to create a word cloud
Step 1: Load the text corpus
First of all import your text data, you want to create wordcloud. Here I am taking text data from the directory itself for learning purpose. However, you can use url also for reading of the text. I am using the python os module for getting the path of the text file. You can download the text file from the GitHub URL.
import os
path = os.path.join(os.getcwd(),"sample_corpus.txt")
with open(path,"r") as fh:
 file_data =
reading of the text corpus
os.getcwd() will return the current working directory and os.path.join() will give the full path for the sample_corpus.txt. Now open the file from the defined path stored in the memory using the file_data.
Step 2: Import the WordCloud and stopwords
In this step, you will import the wordcloud and stopwords from the word cloud module. After that, you will call the WordCloud() constructor and pass the following arguments into it that are stopwords, max_words, background_color. Like in this example I am taking max_words = 25, and backgorund_color = " white". And generate wordcloud on the text file file_data.
from wordcloud import WordCloud,STOPWORDS
_TAG_ stop words
stopwords = set(STOPWORDS)
_TAG_ the wordcloud Constructor
WC = WordCloud(stopwords=stopwords,max_words=25,background_color="white").generate(file_data)
Step 3: Display the Wordcloud
You can use any python visualization packages for displaying the wordcloud. Here I am using the popular and open source matplotlib.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib import rcParams
rcParams["figure.figsize"] = (10,5)
displaying of the wordcloud before enhancing
Here you are importing the matplotlib packages as plt. The statement plt.imshow() display the image in the axes. The figure will not look good if you are showing wordcloud with the axes. Therefore I write the statement plt.axis("off").
Enhancing the Wordcloud Display
Sometime in the wordcloud words come that you do not want to consider. Therefore to remove it from the wordcloud you will update the stopwords. For example, I don't want these words to consider in the wordcloud that are article, will, becomes, word, document. This I will update it with stopwords. Following is the full code for enhancing the wordcloud.
End Notes
Wordcloud is very useful for visualization of the text data. It tells you the words that are more important and lies. You can use it many applications like what are the words are focusing on a given statement and take find the importance of the word. For example, I want to read the monetary policies of a country. Then I will use the text data and find the most focusing area by the banks like employment, inflation, interest rate. There are other cases also you can search on the internet.
We hope that you must have liked the wordcloud tutorial. If you have any query on this. Then you can contact or message us on the official Data Science Learner Facebook Page.
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poppycock meaning in hindi
Pronunciation of poppycock
poppycock Definitions and meaning in English
 1. senseless talk
 2. nonsense
poppycock Sentences in English
 1. ऊटपटांग = nonsense
 You're talking complete poppycock!
Tags: poppycock meaning in hindi, poppycock ka matalab hindi me, hindi meaning of poppycock, poppycock meaning dictionary. poppycock in hindi. Translation and meaning of poppycock in English hindi dictionary. Provided by KitkatWords.com: a free online English hindi picture dictionary.


text:
The makeup of the federal workforce has been changing along with that of the American workforce as a whole over the last decade, although some differences between the two have remained fairly constant, according to data the government released Friday.
In comparison with the overall workforce, the federal workforce is slightly more male and slightly less white: The federal workforce is 43.6 percent female and 65.9 percent white, compared with 46 and 70 percent respectively in the overall workforce.
Among demographic groups, Hispanics remained the most under-represented in federal jobs as of fiscal 2011, which ended Sept. 30. Hispanics made up 8.1 percent of the federal workforce, compared with 13.6 percent in the overall workforce, a gap that has been consistent for years. In 2002, 6.9 percent of the federal workforce was Hispanic compared with 12.2 percent of the overall workforce, and in 2007 the figures were 7.8 percent and 13.3 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the percentages of blacks in the federal workforce and in the overall workforce have held roughly steady. Currently, African Americans make up 17.8 percent of the federal workforce, the same as in 2007 and up from 17.6 percent in 2002. The percentage in the overall workforce was 10.4 in 2002 and 10.1 in both 2007 and 2011.
The percentage of Asian/Pacific Islanders in the federal workforce rose from 4.5 to 5.3 to 5.6 percent in that time, while the percentage in the overall workforce rose from 4 to 4.3 to 4.4 percent.
Native Americans make up about 2 percent of the federal workforce, more than double their representation in the overall workforce, ratios that have changed little over a decade. Non-Hispanic multi-racial employees account for the rest, about 1 percent.
The numbers changed relatively little from 2010 to 2011, with the percentage of men rising — and the percentage of women dropping — by 0.3 percentage points. The white percentage also dropped by 0.3 percentage points, while there were 0.1 percentage point increases among blacks, Hispanics and non-Hispanic multi-racial employees.
The report notes that the government has several initiatives under way, including a government-wide program to promote diversity and inclusiveness, a council to promote hiring, retention and advancement of Hispanics, and programs that seek to boost the hiring of the disabled and veterans. Programs for recruiting students and recent graduates also were overhauled recently.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
'Microban' washing-up liquid, Europe, 1999
Sainsbury's introduced a range of household products containing Microban® in 1997. Microban, made by Microban International, is an antibacterial agent proven to kill 99.9 per cent of household bacteria, including the bacteria that cause food-poisoning. The products were introduced at a time of growing public concern over food hygiene. The antibacterial agent has also been used in shampoos and medical equipment.
Related Themes and Topics
There are 501 related objects. View all related objects
Vessels having a neck and mouth considerably narrower than the body, used for packaging and containing liquid and dry preparations
Glossary: washing-up liquid
a liquid soap for washing plates, knives etc


text:
**NEW** this year, the MICCAI workshops AE-CAI, CARE will join forces with MIAR will join forces to host a joint 2-day event in Shenzhen, China!
MIAR 2019 will build on the success of the 7th conference in 2016, joining with the 13th AE-CAI and 6th CARE workshop to bring together researchers, clinicians, and medical companies advancing the field of Medical Imaging and Augmented Reality, Augmented Environments for Computer Assisted Interventions (AE-CAI), and Computer Assisted and Robotic Endoscopy (CARE). This workshop will feature high-quality, original papers and invited keynote presentations on the latest scientific, technical and translational advances in developing the next generation of MIAR, AE-CAI, and CARE systems.
Paper Submission Deadline: June 16th
Author Notification: July 20th
Camera-ready Papers: August 12th
***We're happy to announce that this year's workshop proceedings will be published in a Special Issue of the IET's HealthCare Technology Letters Journal (IET HTL).
For more information about submitting your paper click here.
The focus of this workshop is on novel scientific contributions that offer solutions to the technical problems in computer-assisted intervention systems and robotics, visualization and interaction, and medical image computing, as well as papers describing complete systems and clinical applications. The potential clinical benefit is a core subject and contributors will be expected to place their work within this context by describing necessary developments, research questions and any potential obstacles that must be overcome before the clinical introduction of their technologies.
Topics within this theme include:
- Medical Augmented and Virtual Reality
- Surgical Simulation and Training
- Multimodal Data Visualization and Image Fusion
- Image-guided Surgical Navigation and Robotics
- Display Technology for Medical Imaging and Visualization
- Image Guided Intervention System and Platforms
- Human-Computer Interaction and Information Display (visual, auditory, tactile)
- Medical Image Formation, Analysis, and Interpretation
- Computer Assisted Intervention, Interventional Imaging
- Image-guided Robotics, Image-guided Intervention
- Surgical Planning and Simulation
- Systematic Extraand Intra-corporeal Imaging Modalities
- General Biological and Neuroscience Image Computing
- Patient-Specific Modeling and Medical Image Understanding
- Robotic and navigated endoscopy
- Stereoscopic endoscopy
- Ultrasound endoscopy
- Endoscope tracking and navigation
- Endoscopic video computing
- Computer vision for endoscopic applications
- Endoscopy planning and simulation
- Endoscopy skill training and evaluation
Please register for this conference through the MICCAI registration site:
*Note: At least one author per accepted paper must register to the workshop.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Statistics and Its Interface
Volume 7 (2014)
Special Issue on Modern Bayesian Statistics (Part I)
Guest Editor: Ming-Hui Chen (University of Connecticut)
Fully probabilistic knowledge expression and incorporation
Pages: 503 – 515
An exploitation of prior knowledge in parameter estimation becomes vital whenever measured data is not informative enough. Elicitation of quantified prior knowledge is a well-elaborated art in societal and medical applications but not in the engineering ones. Frequently required involvement of a facilitator is mostly unrealistic due to either facilitator's high costs or complexity of modelled relationships that cannot be grasped by humans. This paper provides a facilitator-free approach based on an advanced knowledge-sharing methodology. It presents the approach on commonly available types of knowledge and applies the methodology to a normal controlled autoregressive model.
Bayesian estimation, automatised knowledge elicitation, just-in-time modelling, controlled autoregressive model
2010 Mathematics Subject Classification
Primary 62C10, 62F15. Secondary 62M10.


;
 if (order[i] > total){
 order[i] -= total;
 order[i] += 1;
// apply the new order
Now, some explanation:
As stated in the comment, in order to reorder the pages, you will need to know on what page number your table of contents starts. In order to do that, you need to store the page number as a variable when you add the table of contents:
int toc = writer.getPageNumber();
Once you have finished adding all your content to the PDF, call:
If you are reordering pages, it is a requirement to add a new page. The page will not actually be inserted into your document.
To grab the total number of pages in the document run:
int total = writer.reorderPages(null);
Then we are going to create an array of integers:
int[] order = new int[total];
These integers are going to be our page numbers.
We are going to loop through each page. To keep the title page as page one, we will set the first integer in the array to 1 (page 1).
 if (i == 0){
 order[i] = 1;
Next, we will make the second integer in the array the first page of the table of contents.
else if (i == 1){
 order [i] = toc;
Essentially, we are saying, if we are at page 2, set it to page x (x being the first page of the table of contents).
For each subsequent page, we have to check if it is an additional page in the table of contents section, or if it is the rest of the actual document.
else {
 if (order[i] > total){
 order[i] -= total;
 order[i] += 1;
What we are doing here is looking at the index of the array, subtracting one so the pages of the table of contents will remain sequential. Imagine we have ten pages, and the last three pages are the generated table of contents. Index 0 is page 1. Index 1 is page 8. Now, the next index is 2 (what will be the third page), so we are going to add the index to the table of contents page number to increment through the table of contents. 2 +8 is 10, not 9. So until we have finished going through the table of contents, we have to subtract 1 from the index. Otherwise we skip a page, and we will end up missing a page in the end. Actually, the code will just fail.
We check to see if the table of contents is finished by asking if the page number at index "i" is greater than the total number of possible pages. The last page of the document is the last page of the table of contents. So if the page number exceeds the total, then we are going to subtract the total from the current page number. Again, in our ten page PDF example: Index 4 - 1 is 3. Then we add the toc page number (8) to get 11. That is now the current page number of index 4. When we check to see if that page is outside the total possible pages, we find that it is. So we subtract the total possible pages (10). Then we are left with index 4 equalling page number 1. But we are already referencing page 1 in index 0. Remember we subtracted one from the index in the previous operation? Well, we are just going to add that back now that we are finished iterating through the table of contents. So index 4 is now correctly referencing page 2.
Once we have iterated through the entire array, we set this new order (using our 10 page example, the new order would be: 1, 8, 9, 10, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) as the order of the document using this method:
Then we close the document and go about our merry way.
 2010-09-21T07:01:54-04:00 _URL_ When I was 9, I pictured my life very differently at this point. According to my nine year-old desires, my daily activities should include preforming heart surgery in the morning, teaching a class of fifth graders in the afternoon, and polishing off the next great American novel. As I age, I constantly think my years of creation and productivity are gone. I know, I know. This is naive of me, and completely unfounded. In fact, it's somewhat insulting to those I admire and respect around me. The world is replete with examples of individuals who stretched themselves well into adulthood. Maybe it's Hollywood, but I have this misconception that has been percolating in my subconscious that the only time I will do anything truly groundbreaking and lasting is in my twenties. Oh, how awful this world would be if that single decade of transitioning adult years was the only time we could follow our passions.
Television shows like American Idol and others show the young phenoms out there. We drool over individuals who are preternaturally gifted at a young age. The three year-old who can play the drums like John Bonham. Or the 10 year-old opera singer. We shower praise on the golfer who has been playing since he was three, and many are left in the shadow of the 18 year-old drafted to the NBA straight out of high school. And of course, who can forget the 23 year-old billionaire? Seeing the many examples of early stardom, I sometimes get stuck with this feeling that if I didn't steel/invent Facebook by the time I was 20, then I should settle down as a happy cog in someone else's world.
We don't have to settle for who we have become, because we have complete control over who we are going to be.
But the world is also filled with examples of people who are more like the rest of us. As Marge Simpson says, "Slow and steady wins the race." Don't pay attention to the 14 year-old phenom– get out there and make it happen! Who do you look up to who had a "late start" in their new careers?
At 37Signals, there was an article that mentioned Vincent Van Gogh. They pointed out that:
He wasn't some child prodigy (he was 27 when he started painting), he learned his craft by hard work.
He only practiced art for the last 10 years of his life. Granted, at that point, he suffered from mental illness and died penniless. So I am not saying we should emulate every aspect of the guy's life, but look at what he was able to achieve. This really struck me because growing up in Holland, I always pictured this man painting and drawing obsessively as a child, but that was not the case. He worked at his craft, poured his soul into it, but not until he was older. Do you have to be insane, though, to do what Van Gogh did? No.
How many of us can say we have truly poured ourselves into a craft with same gusto as Van Gogh? Whether it be academic study, or learning to sew, or becoming more focused, or learning to program? Is it ever too late to start? No. It's not.
 2010-03-02T23:46:16-05:00 _URL_
I find myself consuming far more than I produce. We live in a world, or a nation at least, of constant intake. It would be interesting to personally figure out how much time I (not a statistical model of me) spend looking at the television screen watching movies, TV shows, reading blogs or books, playing games. You could even boil it down to how much time do I spend in front of a screen. In fact, as I write, I am watching Caprica on the screen behind the screen on which I am typing.
I wake in the morning and open a laptop screen on which I can spend upwards of an hour or two reading about what other people are doing: retro video game decorations for your bedroom, game design articles, video processing algorithms, insurgent militia actions in the Middle East, death squads in Dubai, using the telephone wires in your home to make a whole-house stereo system, geeky comics about math and computers, finding movies to watch online. Since I work during the day and have a 3-month old in the house, my time in the morning is pretty much the only time I have to pursue my personal dreams and interests (and that time will become increasingly more valuable and precious as my family grows). Yet I spend ALL THAT TIME consuming other people's ability to do, while letting mine languish in the lost time of an ever-increasing digital diet. I suffer from media obesity.
Taking in more calories than you burn will cause your body to become soft. Does consuming more content than you produce make your brain soft?
I hate those people that tell me that television shows are pointless or movies a waste of time, I don't believe that at all. If I spend my time ingesting a lot of junk-food content, however, I essentially fill up faster on empty calories. I remember listening to an interview with director Edgar Wright of Shuan of the Dead fame (


text:
Yao Ming and the froghopper
Just a few days after a tough and inspiring performance against the Lakers, Yao Ming is injured again, with a stress fracture in his foot. Lakers coach Phil Jackson commented on Yao's fragility by saying "A person in physics once told me if man was 60 feet tall, the first step he'd take, he'd completely crumble … Gravity's a bitch."
But is it true? Certainly larger people have heavier bodies, but they also have thicker bones and larger muscles. So why are tall people more prone to injury? This post examines that question using one of the simplest and most powerful ideas in physics: the scaling argument. I will also try to make a prediction for the "injury prone-ness" of a person as a function of their height.
Before I get to Yao Ming, allow me to discuss a simple example using what is arguably the best athlete in the animal kingdom: the froghopper. The froghopper is a little insect, barely half a centimeter long, but it has about a 27″ vertical jump. That's about 140 times its own body length, so in a certain sense it would be like me jumping 840 vertical feet. Pretty impressive. But if we put the froghopper in an enlarging ray, and blew it up 365 times so that it was the same size as me, would it really be able to jump 840 feet?
The answer is no. That's because an object's weight is proportional to its body volume, which is proportional to the cube of its size. So making the froghopper 365 times larger would make it million times heavier. The froghopper's ability to jump depends on the volume of its muscles, which also increase by times after it gets put through the enlarging ray. So the ability of the froghopper to jump remains the same: it gets a lot stronger, but also proportionally heavier. Therefore, a 6-foot froghopper could jump the same height as a half-centimer froghopper: 27 inches. It just looks much less impressive.
Now let's think about Yao Ming, who is sort of like a normal person put through an enlarging ray. The propensity for one of Yao's bones to fracture depends on the stress he puts on them. Stress can be defined as weight divided by cross-sectional area. So if weight depends on volume (size^3) and the cross-sectional area of his poor foot bones depends on size^2, then the stress grows as (volume / area) = (size^3 / size^2), or in other words, the stress increases directly with size. You can think of it this way: by virtue of his great height, Yao's bones are about 1.7 times thicker than the average person's, but he weighs about 2.2 times more. Thus, his bones have a harder time than yours do.
So how much more likely is he to get injured than the average man (height 5'8″)? Well, there are people out there who break bones for a living and have addressed this very question. They found that the frequency of stress fracture in bone grows as the stress it is under to the power
0.06. Putting together their conclusions, along with the observation that Yao gets some kind of stress fracture every year or so, we can estimate how many years it would take for athletes of various heights to come down with a stress fracture:
Of course, this chart is just a general prediction and is not meant to be completely accurate. Some people will be hardier than others, and those people tend to be athletes (no stress fractures yet for a 7'1″ Shaquille O'Neal). But the shape is important. It suggests that if you're under 6 feet tall (hooray, most of the world!) there is really not much risk of a stress fracture. You can have a 20-year career as an athlete without too much worry. But for those above 7 feet tall, your chance of a fracture is about 10 times greater than for your 6-foot brethren.
So finally, was Phil Jackson right about the collapse of a 60 foot man? Actually, by my estimate, he was quite conservative. As far as I can tell, a 16'3″ man would fracture his tibia the first time he took a step.
There is a sad and interesting footnote to this story. The depressing far-right side of the graph above corresponds to the 8'11″ Robert Wadlow, the tallest man in recorded history who suffered from an overactive pituitary gland. By his late teens he was already incapable of walking without leg braces, and he continued to grow until his death at age 22.


text:
Robert M Watson Jr
Here 'Xin' must mean mind/spirit/heart? I don't quite understand the difference between 'desire' and 'intent' in this context.
My experience is it's best to take each term on a case by case basis as opposed to translating any of them directly as often times they won't make any sense or won't be in the proper context, which is why its important to have a good teacher to guide you.
For instance we can look at the term xin fa, which would translate literally as 'heart technique', which either doesn't make any sense or would give the reader entirely the wrong idea.
My Sifu calls it the 'heart method', which still sounds a bit vague, but he explains it like this;
The heart method is the essence of the teachers experience over their life time, transmitted to the student. It's the fine details that make the difference between just waving your hands around in the air and actually getting some tangible results from your nei gong. So the implied meaning behind the term xin fa is more like 'the secrets of the practice which only an experienced teacher can impart'. In many cases these terms are very contextual to martial arts practice and wouldn't even make sense to native speakers without a teachers guidance.


Rodeta" (banding wheel)
Sexual division of labour
Gender and space
A banding wheel is a work tool made for use in the workroom of a factory or a ceramics workshop during the process of decorating ceramic objects.
It is a necessary implement to divide up the decoration of the piece over its entire surface using fine and thick lines, between which the artist would create decoration that was either similar to or differentiated from the other decorative elements framed within them. Applying these lines also enclosed the decoration as a whole, both to complete the ornamentation along the edge of the mouth of the piece and to enclose it at the base.


forward, and if you apply pressure on the inward stroke, the plug will be pushed back.
The problem with a loose plug is that the driver pins tend to set on the back of the plug holes rather than on the sides of the holes. When you push the plug in, the drivers will unset. You can use this defect to your advantage by only applying pressure on the outward or inward strokw of the pick. Alternatively, you can use your finger or torque wrench to prevent the plug from moving forward.
Figure 9.2: Driver pin false set by elastic deformation
Figure 9.2: Driver pin false set by elastic deformation
9.7 Pin Diameter
When the pair of pins in a particular column have different diameters, that column will react strangely to the pressure of the pick.
The top half of Figure 9.3 shows a pin column with a driver pin that has a larger diameter than the key pin. As the pins are lifted, the picking pressure is resisted by the binding friction and the spring force. Once the driver clears the sheer line, the plug rotates (until some other pin binds) and the only resistance to motion is the spring force. If the key pin is small enough and the plug did not rotate very far, the key pin can enter the hull without colliding with the edge of the hull. Some other pin is binding, so again the only resistance to motion is the spring force. This relationship is graphed in the bottom half of the Figure. Basically, the pins feel normal at first, but then the lock clicks and the pin becomes springy. The narrow key pin can be pushed all the way into the hull without loosing its springiness, but when the picking pressure is released, the key pin will fall back to its initial position while the large driver catches on the edge of the plug hole.
The problem with a large driver pin is that the key pin tends to get stuck in the hull when some other pin sets. Imagine that a neighboring pin sets and the plug rotates enough to bind the narrow key pin. If the pick was pressing down on the narrow key pin at the same time as it was pressing down on the pin that set, then the narrow key pin will be in the hull and it will get stuck there when the plug rotates.
The behavior of a large key pin is left as an exercise for the reader.
9.8 Beveled Holes and Rounded pins
Some lock manufacturers (e.g., Yale) bevel the edges of the plug holes and/or round off the ends of the key pins. This tends to reduce the wear on the lock and it can both help and hinder lock picking. You can recognize a lock with these features by the large give in set pins. See Figure 9.4. That is, the distance between the height at which the driver pin catches on the edge of the plug hole and the height at which the key pin hits the hull is larger (sometimes as large as a sixteenth of an inch) when the plug holes are beveled or the pins are rounded. While the key pin is moving between those two heights, the only resistance to motion will be the force of the spring. There won't be any binding friction. This corresponds to the dip in the force graph shown in Figure 5.5.
A lock with beveled plug holes requires more scrubbing to open than a lock without beveled holes because the driver pins set on the bevel instead of setting on the top of the plug. The plug will not turn if one of the drivers is caught on a bevel. The key pin must be scrubbed again to push the driver pin up and off the bevel. The left driver pi in Figure 9.6a is set. The driver is resting on the bevel, and the bottom plate has moved enough to allow the right driver to bind. Figure 9.6b shows what happens after the right driver pin sets. The bottom plate slides further to the right and noe the left driver pin is scissored between the bevel and the top plate. It is caught on the bevel. To open the lock, the left driver pin must be pushed up above the bevel. Once that driver is free, the bottom plate can slide and the righ driver may bind on its bevel.
If you encounter a lock with beveled plug holes, and all the pins appear to be set but the lock is not opening, you should reduce torque and continue scrubbing over the pins. The reduced torque will make it easier to push the drivers off the bevels. If pins unset when you reduce the torque, try increasing the torque and the picking pressure. The problem with increasing the force is that you may jam some key pins into the hull.
Figure 9.3: Driver pin wider than key pin
Figure 9.3: Driver pin wider than key pin
Figure 9.4: Beveled plug holes and rounded key pins
Figure 9.4: Beveled plug holes and rounded key pins
9.9 Mushroom Driver Pins
A general trick that lock makers use to make picking harder is to modify the shape of the driver pin. The most popular shapes are mushroom, spool and serrated, see Figure 9.7. The purpose of these shapes is to cause the pins to false set low. These drivers stop a picking technique called vibration picking (see section 9.12), but they only slightly complicate scrubbing and one-pin-at-a-time picking (see chapter 4).
Figure 9.5: (a) Driver sets on bevel
Figure 9.5: (a) Driver sets on bevel
Figure 9.6: (a) Driver jams on bevel
Figure 9.6: (a) Driver jams on bevel
If you pick a lock and the plug stops turning after a few degrees and none of the pins can be pushed up and further, then you known that the lock has modified drivers. Basically, the lip of the driver has caught at the sheer line. See the bottom of Figure 9.7. Mushroom and spool drivers are often found in Russwin locks, and locks that have several spacers for master keying.
You can identify the positions with mushroom drivers by applying a light torque and pushing up on each pin. The pins with mushroom drivers will exhibit a tendency to bring the plug back to the fully locked position. By pushing the key pin up you are pushing the flat top of the key pin against the tilted bottom of the mushroom driver. This causes thedriv er tostraigh ten up which in turn causes the plug to unrotate. You can use this motion to identify the columns that have mushroom drivers. Push those pins up to sheer line; even if you lose some of the other pins in the process they will be easier to re-pick than the pins with mushroom drivers. Eventually all the pins will be correctly set at the sheer line.
One way to identify all the positions with mushroom drivers is to use the flat of your pick to push all the pins up about halfway. This should put most of the drivers in their cockable position and you can feel for them.
To pick a lock with modified drivers, use a lighter torque and heavier pressure. You want to error on the side of pushing the key pins too far into the hull. In fact, another way to pick these locks is to use the flat side of your pick to push the pins up all the way, and apply very heavy torque to hold them there. Use a scrubbing action to vibrate the key pins while you slowly reduce the torque. Reducing the torque reduces the binding friction on the pins. The vibration and spring force cause the key pins to slide down to the sheer line.
The key to picking locks with modified drivers is recognizing incorrectly set pins. Mushroom driver set on its lip will not have the springy give of a correctly set driver. Practice recognizing the difference.
9.10 Master Keys
Many applications require keys that open only a single lock and keys that open a group of locks. The keys that open a single lock are called change keys and the keys that open multiple locks are called master keys. To allow both the change key and the master key to open the same lock, a locksmith adds an extra pin called a spacer to some of the pin columns. See Figure 9.8. The effect of the spacer is to create two gaps in the pin column that could be lined up with the sheer line. Usually the change key aligns the top of the spacer with the sheer line, and the master key aligns the bottom of the spacer with the sheer line (the idea is to prevent people from filing down a change key to get a master key). In either case the plug is free to rotate.
In general, spacers make a lock easier to pick. They increase the number of opportunities to set each pin, and they make it more likely that the lock can opened by setting the all the pins at about the same height. In most cases only two or three positions will have spacers. You can recognize a position with a spacer by the two clicks you feel when the pin is pushed down. If the spacer has a smaller diameter than the driver and key pins, then you will feel a wide springy region because the spacer will not bind as it passes through the sheer line. It is more common for the spacer to be larger than the driver pin. You can recognize this by an increase in friction when the spacer passes through the sheer line. Since the spacer is larger than the driver pin, it will also catch better on the plug. If you push the spacer further into the hull, you will feel a strong click when the bottom of the spacer clears the sheer line.
Thin spacers can cause serious problems. If you apply heavy torque and the


Degrees
Stage 4 On-88 Degrees Off 86 Degrees
Stage 5 On-92 Degrees Off 88 Degrees
So let's see what happens during a typical summer day. Early in the morning, the temperature is normally in the low to mid sixties, which means we're at setpoint, or stage 1. The only equipment operating is the HAF circulation fans. (See the Greenhouse Circulation Section for details) Once the sun rises, the temperatures start increasing. As soon as it reaches 78 degrees, we enter stage 2 is enacted. Stage 2 opens both the shutter vent over the front door, and the main vent in the back of the greenhouse. During the early morning hours, the temperatures outside may still be cool, therefore venting may drop the temperature below 70 degrees. If this happens, then both vents will close and we fall back to stage 1. If the temperature exceeds 88 degrees, then we enter stage 3, and stage 4 simultaneously. Stage 3 turns on the exhaust fan. But because we dont want the exhaust fan to pull in dry air from the outside, we also turn on the swamp cooler. Therefore, at 88 degrees, we go straight to stage 4. The exhaust fan and swamp cooler turn on, and the circulation fans turn off. The front vent over the door also shuts. This is because we want the exhaust air to pull in air only through the swamp cooler, and not dry air from the door vent. Once the temperature lowers to 86, we fall back to stage 3. This causes the swamp cooler to turn off, but leaves the exhaust fan on. The reason I do this is because the cooler pads are now wet, and I dont need to continue to use electricity running the powerful pad pump. The exhaust fan will continue to pull air through the wet pads, which will cause them to start to dry out. And as the temperature drops to 82 degrees, we fall back to stage 2 and the exhaust fan shuts off. At stage 2, the door vent re-opens and the circulation fans turn back on. During the rest of the day, we will constantly see the temperature rise to 88, the exhaust fan and swamp cooler turn on, and the temperatures drop back to 82. This is repeated until the sun begins to set. Eventually, the temperature drops back to setpoint, and the two vents shut. There are occasions on very hot and sunny days that even with the low speed exhaust fan and swamp cooler running, the temperatures keep climbing. As soon as the temperatures reach 92 degrees, the exhaust fan switches to high speed. This causes the neighbors lights to dim, as the exhaust fan produces an equivelant thrust to that of an airliners jet engine. Ok, not quite, but at high speed he exhaust fan can produce enough suction to make it difficult to open the greenhouse door. It moves volumes of air through the swamp cooler, causing extensive evaopration, thereby cooling the greenhouse down. Once the temperatures drop to 88 degrees, the exhaust fan switches back to low speed, as we enter back into stage 4.
Now that you see how I schedule cooling equipment during challenging summer days, the following chart shows how I schedule winter days.
Stage 0 Heater On Below 70 Degrees Off 80 Degrees
Stage 1 Setpoint
Stage 2 On-88 Degrees Off 86 Degrees
Stage 3 On-90 Degrees Off 88 Degrees
Stage 4 On-90 Degrees Off 89 Degrees
Stage 5 On-92 Degrees Off 90 Degrees
The main difference here is that the heater is operational. On cold winter days with no sun, the heater will have to run. Otherwise the sunlight will keep the greenhouse heated. If the temperaturesd exceed 88 degrees, the vents open. This will let in air that is usually substantailly colder (30-60 degrees normally) and is usually all thats required. If the temps continue to rise, the exhaust fan and swamp cooler will switch on. If you think standing in front of the swamp cooler is cold during the summer, try doing it with the water and ouitside air temperature at 50 degrees. You might as well walk into a freezer. The temperatures usually drop so fast that these devices only run for about a minute. In fact, the vents alone may only be open for minutes. I try to reatin as much heat as possible into the nighttime, thereby reducing heating requirements.
The computer has separate settings for nights. Highland Nepenthes need cool nights, so a different schedule is needed. The below chart shows my winter night schedule.
Stage 0 Heater On Below 50 Degrees Off 64 Degrees
Stage 1 Setpoint
Stage 2 On-88 Degrees Off 86 Degrees
Stage 3 On-90 Degrees Off 88 Degrees
Stage 4 On-90 Degrees Off 89 Degrees
Stage 5 On-92 Degrees Off 90 Degrees
The change between day and night is the heating schedule. With no sun at night, winters will never see temperatures above 80 degrees, so cooling isnt needed. The heater is set to turn on at 50, and shuts off at 64 degrees.
By looking at these schedules and all the equipment involved, you can see why its important to have your cooling system automated. The greenhouse computer (see details in the Greenhouse computer section) can keep your system cooled to the optimum temperatures continuously, which is needed for optimum growth.
Misting systems can also be used to lower the temperatures, as cool water mist in the air will cool the greenhouse while raising the humidity level at the same time. Misting eqipment can be controlled by the main computer, and can be set to turn on at a certain temperature, or when the humidity drops below a certain level. Misters can also be set to turn on at certain times during the day. Again, computer automation makes this operation much easier.


_TAG_ Caves
The sandy and rocky beaches hold a special place in the heart of the visitor to Pegeia. The caves have a unique beauty, created by marine erosion, and seals are resting and procreating occasionally. Pegeia's sea caves with the unique sculpted rocks, formed in thousands of years by earth and sea, are a unique marvel of natural beauty, impressing all visitors.
Step by step, the visitor can investigate the entire Sea Caves region, with its rock aisles, its coastal formations and caves, as well as look upon the water element. The corrosive activity of the sea has managed to penetrate and 'eat through' the rocks in time, and create an important natural mosaic.
The landscape is of unique beauty, geological and biological interest, while high, rocky beaches have been formed at some points of the bay, sometimes reaching a height of 20 meters.
The dispersed islets make the visitor's gaze wander between the land, the rock and the sea…


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Jahn-Teller distortions in the electronically excited states of sym-triazine
Electronic structure of the low-lying excited states of sym-triazine is analyzed. Excitation energies are computed at the equilibrium ground state geometry and at the geometry of the cation. Full geometry optimizations of the selected excited states were performed, and the magnitude of the Jahn-Teller distortions in these states was quantified. Analysis of the electronic structure of these states offers a simple recipe for predicting the symmetry of th equilibrium geometries by a single point calculation of the vertical excitations. Whereas the states derived from excitations between a degenerate pair and a non-degenerate orbital form a familiar two-state conical intersection and are always distorted by virtue of the Jahn-Teller theorem, the states derived from the excitations between two pairs of degenerate orbitals form more complicated glancing-like manifold characterized by negligible Jahn-Teller linear terms. Our analysis shows that regardless of the degeneracy pattern in these four-state manifolds, the top two states are always nearly-symmetric. Particular shape of the potential energy surfaces in a glancing intersection depends on the relative ordering of the states within the manifold, and different topologies of both types of intersections around D3h geometry are discussed. Predicted symmetry of the excited states is compared to the optimized structures of the selected sym-triazine electronic states.


text:
The question we often get is 'Can Razor Bumps or Ingrown Hairs be avoided?'
To get straight to the point, yes, razor bumps can be prevented. The problem of razor bumps or ingrown hair is one faced by many, if not all black men who shave. It occurs when the hair curls back on itself and essentially grows back into the skin. The consequence is an inflammatory response that causes bumps, pus and in some cases discolouration.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to minimise the risk of developing painful and itchy razor bumps.
Things to do before, during and directly after shaving:
- Exfoliate before hand to get rid of dead skin cells and product build up etc.
- Avoid shaving too closely to the skin. You can look clean shaven without necessarily feeling "silky smooth". About a millimetre in length is enough to look clean and professional while avoiding razor bumps.
- If you choose to use a razor, try to make sure its a single blade razor as this helps reduce the chances of you shaving too close to the skin
- Do not go over the same area of skin repeatedly and do not stretch or pull your skin while shaving
- Shave with the grain and not against it. Cutting your hair this way changes the way it grows back, potentially leading to razor bumps
- When you do shave, do so while the hair is still wet and use a moisturising shaving cream or gel. Soft and hydrated hair allows for the razor to cut cleanly and with less force.
- If you can, avoid shaving daily. Try instead to shave every 3 days or if you hair does not grow as fast. every 4 days
- Always ake sure you moisturise after
Of course, with all the measures you may take to avoid getting ingrown hair, there may be the odd occasion that it still happen. The most important thing to do is to make sure you are following a good skincare routine on a consistent basis.


text:
As the subtitle indicates, Lussier's Human Relations in Organizations: Applications and Skill Building employs an applications and skill building approach. It's the most "how to" work with people textbook. This style is perfect for professors that want to incorporate activities and exercises into the classroom, and benefits students who want to understand concepts as well as apply and develop skills that they can use in their daily and professional lives. The text has also been successfully used for online courses.
The book and test bank provide a balanced, three-pronged approach:
- A clear concise understanding of human relations/ organizational behavior concepts;
- The application of HR/OB concepts for critical thinking in the business world;
- The development of HR/OB skills.


Dialogical argument as an interface to complex debates
Chris Reed, Simon Wells
 Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review
 19 Citations (Scopus)
 The Magtalo prototype environment harnesses dialogue protocols to support flexible, intuitive interaction with data in complex, contentious domains and provides mechanisms for eliciting structured knowledge. Magtalo represents the first example of an implemented online system that uses a closely specified argument-based dialogue protocol combined with a rich language for representing monologic argument to provide a tool for intuitive user exploration of a disagreement space. This approach also enables the expansion of argument resources through knowledge elicitation, which is structured by the argument dialogue protocol. The continuing aim of our research is to use advances in argumentation theory to push the practice of argumentation technology in providing tools and interfaces that have wide appeal.
 Original languageEnglish
 Pages (from-to)60-65
 Number of pages6
 JournalIEEE Intelligent Systems
 Issue number6
 Publication statusPublished - Nov 2007
 Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Dialogical argument as an interface to complex debates'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
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What is the Practicum Administration System (PAS)?
The PAS is an online database which uses an algorithm to match students with interviews and practicums based on student selections from the available opportunities. Each student has a profile on the PAS. Students use the PAS to view descriptions of available practicums, make their interview selections, view finalized practicum assignments and submit their self-evaluation. Field instructors use the PAS to provide information about their practicum, view assigned student names, and submit evaluations.


Definition of:multiplayer gaming
multiplayer gaming
Two or more people playing a game on the computer and competing with each other over the Internet or inhouse local network (LAN). The traditional card games such as bridge and poker emulate a deck of playing cards. However, video games also allow players to compete within a simulated environment that takes them into a fantasy world. See MMOG, MMORPG and gaming.
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text:
Scholastic First Discovery: The Forest
Explore the wonder and majesty of the natural world with First Discovery: The Forest! First Discovery: The Forest is an interactive, fully narrated, fun and beautifully illustrated new app in a series designed to help your child learn more about their world.
For iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
Your child will learn about:
- Different types of forests and trees – touch the leaves!
- The seasons – your child can change the seasons!
- Animals that live in the forest – Furry friends are hiding in the forest. Can you find them?
- Plants that grow in the forest – Put the plants in your basket to learn more about them.
- And much more!
Shop the Scholastic Store Online for your one stop shop The Infinity Ring books, card sets and more.


text:
Access to Culture in Brazil
The links between Culture and human rights, as well as the role of Culture in fighting discrimination, are issues Brazil has been trying to face. Nevertheless, the integration of Culture with other social policies is a recent experience which still calls for improvement.
It is now time to recognize cultural rights as a basic need and a right of citizens and that indicates the need to pursue an agenda integrated to social policies and development policies.
Despite the recent trends, the impacts have not been sufficient to reduce inequalities regarding access to cultural production and, hence it is crucial to pay extra care to prevent economic growth from exacerbating such inequalities even further.
Inequalities in access to cultural production:
- Entertainement: the minority of Brazilians go to the cinema at least once a year. Almost all Brazilians have never been to a museum nor have ever visited an art exhibition. More than 70% to Brazilians have never watched a dance show, although many go out for dancing. The majority of the municipalities do not have a cinema, theatre, museum or multiuse cultural spaces.
- Books and Libraries: Brazilians barely have reading habits. Most of the books are in the hands of only few. Book prices are high if compared to the income of Brazilians belonging to C/D/E social classes. Many Brazilian municipalities have no library, almost all of these are located in the Northeast region of the country, while only two are in the Southeast.
- Access to Internet: A very high percentage of Brazilians have no PC at home, and within that group the majority have absolutely no access to Internet (either at work, or in school).
- Cultural Professionals: Half of the population working in the field of culture are not in regular employment or are self-employed. (Source: Ministry of Culture – IBGE - IPEA).
By focusing cultural policies on the state and local levels, it could be possible to have an assistance in overcoming the inequality on the access to culture and in reinforcing cultural diversity as a relevant factor in the sustainability of development.


text:
- Carbohydrate composition
- Stereochemistry of sugar residues
- Polysaccharide linkage analysis
GC is the method of choice for glycosyl-residue identification (i.e., the sugar components that make up polysaccharides and oligosaccharides). Two basic derivitization techniques allow for the necessary volatilization and ultimate separation of each glycosyl residue that is released from the polymers by the initial acid hydrolysis. The standard alditol acetate derivitization (or acetylation) technique is highly reproducible and enables the identification of neutral sugar components. A TMS-methyl glucoside techniques expands the analysis to the acidic components, such as the galacturonic acid residues that constitute common pectin. A variation of this second technique is used to determine the d or l configuration of each sugar component.
In addition to glycosyl-residue identification, the methylation of polysaccharides prior to acid hydrolysis and acetylation facilitates the identification of the glycosyl residue linkage points. This is essential to understanding the nature and identity of the polysaccharides.


text: Many products and processes have multidimensional characteristics and criteria. As these responses involve common parameters and processes, the response data are correlated. The quality and reliability improvement of such products and processes will typically involve multiple-response optimizations to find optimal operating conditions. Many of the current multiple-response optimization approaches assume a single-response uncertainty in the response models, and the uncertainty in the parameter estimates of the models. In this paper, we consider a Bayesian Model Average (BMA) approach to the modeling and optimization of variability of the predictions and the uncertainty of the model parameters. We further propose a Mahalanobis distance (MD) approach to account for the correlations among the response and the variation in the estimation of the response model.


For Motorcycle
hit-air airbag system
hit-air airbag system
Testing Institution
Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI)
World-famous JARI was established in April 1969 to engage in general research on automobiles. They do test-research, consultation, joint study etc. related to automobiles and have been expanding into a wider field of industrial activity.
Outline of the Test
This study was conducted to evaluate the performances of airbag jackets developed for the crash protection of motorcycle riders. The items of evaluation were: the rider protection performance against impact for the airbag jacket to fully inflate. A biofidelic dummy capable of measuring impacts on the human body was employed. Impacts were applied by a 23kg-mass impactor to the dummy fitted with an airbag jacket, and the impacts on the neck and chest of the dummy were measured in order to evaluate the rider protection performances of various airbag jackets.
Impact Test on Airbag Jackets
In the neck impact test the target impact speed was set at 5.6 m/s (20 km/h). The dummy was set in the targeted impact position so that the upper end of the impactor's impact face would come as close as possible to but not in contact with the rear lower end of the helmet, while the vertical centerline of the impactor would overlap with that of the dummy. The airbag jacket was manually inflated before each test round.
Neck Impact Test
Table 1 Results of neck impact test
Airbag jacket
Impact speed
Neck shear
Neck tension force (N)
Neck flexion
bending moment (Nm)
POLICE 5.6 -_PHONE_ 87
FRANCE 5.6 -_PHONE_ 49
NW 5.6 -_PHONE_ 58
Race Model
5.6 -_PHONE_ 59
MC2 5.6 -_PHONE_ 72
MLV 5.6 -_PHONE_ 59
Table 1 shows the results of the neck impact test. The test results were evaluated according to the injury criteria provided in the US FMVSS 208 on occupant crash protection.
The criteria adopted in the neck impact test were: fore-and-aft shear 3,100 N, vertical tension force 4,170 N, and forward flexion bending moment 190 Nm. It was found that except for the 4,330 N tension force recorded in N-10 test round, all the test results clearly satisfied the neck injury criteria.
While injury criteria provided in various regulations are judged in relation to maximum values, there are proposals to adopt the duration of a generated force as an additional criterion whereby the values of a generated force are judged in relation to the duration of the same force.Figure 2 shows the protection standard values of neck shear; similarly, Figure 3 shows the protection standard values of neck tension force. In both of the graphs, the measurement results are plotted in relation to the duration of neck shear or neck tension force. It was found that the measured shear and tension force values in all but SKV test rounds fell in the "small possibility of serious injury" zone. Therefore, it can be deduced that if a rider is to receive an impact equivalent with the impacts applied in this study (by a 23 kg mass at a 20 km/h impact speed), the rider will be able to reduce the severity of neck injury to less than serious injury by wearing an airbag jacket.


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Date: 31-Aug-2005 From: Elizabeth Gangeri Subject: Dimensions of Literacy: Kucer
Title: Dimensions of Literacy
Subtitle: A Conceptual Base for Teaching Reading and Writing in School Settings,
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Author: Stephen B Kucer, Fordham University
Hardback: ISBN: _PHONE_ Pages: 368 Price: U.S. $ 99.95
Paperback: ISBN: _PHONE_ Pages: 368 Price: U.S. $ 39.95
This popular text examines literacy from a multidimensional and interdisciplinary perspective. It "unpackages" the various dimensions of literacy--linguistic, cognitive, sociocultural, and developmental--and at the same time accounts for the interrelationships among them. The goal is to provide a conceptual foundation upon which literacy curriculum and instruction in school settings can be grounded.


text: Separation of wavefields into directional components can be accomplished by an eigenvalue decomposition of the accompanying system matrix. In conventional pressure-normalized wavefield decomposition, the resulting one-way wave equations contain an interaction term which depends on the reflectivity function. Applying directional wavefield decomposition using flux-normalized eigenvalue decomposition, and disregarding interaction between upand downgoing wavefields, these interaction terms were absent. By also applying a correction term for transmission loss, the result was an improved estimate of the upand downgoing wavefields. In the wave equation angle transform, a crosscorrelation function in local offset coordinates was Fourier-transformed to produce an estimate of reflectivity as a function of slowness or angle. We normalized this wave equation angle transform with an estimate of the plane-wave reflection coefficient. The flux-normalized one-way wave-propagation scheme was applied to imaging and to the normalized wave equation angle-transform on synthetic and field data; this proved the effectiveness of the new methods.


Moving Teachings: Crowdsourced Learning from Fellow Commuters
PARK AND RIDE... AND LEARN: Here's an interesting alternative to reading the Kindle or plugging into your smartphone on that next bus ride. Moving Teachings is a web app that allows bus riders to offer or register for "mini-classes" around whatever collective knowledge exists among riders on a given route. It strikes us as a web 2.0 tool for scheduling intelligent conversations with fellow commuters but you get a little more say over who's talking about what. So far the offerings -- limited to Portland, OR riders -- include conversational Portuguese from a Brazilian expat and breathing techniques from a yogi. There's even prerequisite suggested reading. The alpha site isn't quite ready to accommodate a group of 7th grade urbanites, but offering learning opportunities in everyday public spaces is a major step towards meaningful learning in and outside of the classroom.
Who we are


Classic read: A Scots Quair
Issue section:
Lewis Grassic Gibbon, First published 1932
In a small village near Stonehaven in north east Scotland is a museum dedicated to the writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon.
The centre, near the farm in Arbuthnott where he grew up, is surrounded by the Mearns, the area Grassic Gibbon immortalised through his portrayal of its distinctive speech and culture.
Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pen name used by James Leslie Mitchell, a revolutionary Marxist until his death.
The trilogy A Scots Quair, written between 1932 and 1934 and made up of Sunset Song, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite, is his best known work - and greatest achievement.
Following the life of its heroine Chris Guthrie, the three novels take the reader through changing times with the rise of the working class from the Great War to the growing influence of communism in the 1920s. The novels are also highly innovative in style, language and thought.
Mitchell, born in 1901 in Aberdeenshire, the son of an impoverished crofter, became a prolific writer, publishing 17 books in seven years.
His family moved to the Mearns in much the same way as Chris Guthrie's did in Sunset Song. After only one year of secondary schooling, he moved to Aberdeen to become a cub reporter on the Aberdeen Press and Journal.
Aged 16 he became a committed revolutionary in 1917 after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and he and a junior reporter from another paper were elected to the Aberdeen "soviet council."
Moving to Glasgow in 1919 he worked as a journalist before being sacked for his Marxist views. Forced through poverty to enlist in the armed forces, he left to write full time, though was financially unsuccessful.
His groundbreaking style, particularly in the Prelude of Sunset Song, is difficult at first, with familiar rules of grammar and syntax cast aside. But after a while you begin to hear the voice of the storyteller and the language becomes mesmerising.
Its combination of realist narrative and lyrical use of dialect is considered to be among the defining works of 20th century Scottish literature.
The trilogy is written in the vernacular, showing Grassic Gibbon's extraordinary ability to reflect the language of ordinary Scottish people.
As Paul Foot wrote, "He captures the music and the irony of the language, conveying his political message not by dreary (or even subtle) propaganda, but chiefly by means of a gentle, searing mockery.
"He manages without humiliating his characters to detect and untie the knots in their thinking. His characters are so subtly blended and balanced, their thoughts and expressions so riddled with dialectic and larded with humour that the reader cannot help being absorbed in them."
The period in which Grassic Gibbon wrote the trilogy was the aftermath of the betrayal by Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government. He also raised questions about the early CP in his search for a way forward.
Tragically, Gibbon worked himself into ill health. Shortly after Grey Granite was published he died of a perforated ulcer just before his 34th birthday in 1935.


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In theory, a 5-gallon jug filled completely with $100 bills can contain a total of $980,000. If the jug is filled with $1 coins, it could hold a total of $33,333. The amount varies widely depending on the combination of coins and bills used to fill the jug.
Based on measurements, a stack of 100 $100 bills is 6 inches long by 2.5 inches wide by 0.43 inches tall, giving the stack a volume of 11.785 cubic centimeters. A 5-gallon jug contains the equivalent of 1,155 cubic inches. Dividing 1,155 cubic inches by 11.785 cubic inches per stack of bills gives a total of 98 stacks of $10,000. Multiplying 98 stacks by $10,000 gives a total of $980,000. The same process can be used to find the volume of $1 coins contained in a 5-gallon space.


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Let $x(n)$ be the solution to the following equation $$ x=-\frac{\log(x)}{n} \quad \quad \quad \quad (1) $$ as a function of $n,$ where $n \in \mathbb N.$ How would you find the asymptotic behaviour of the solution, i.e. a function $f$ of $n$ such that there exist constants $A,B$ and $n_0\in\mathbb N$ so that it holds $$Af(n) \leq x(n) \leq Bf(n)$$ for all $n > n_0$?
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Call $u_n:t\mapsto t\mathrm e^{nt}$, then $x(n)$ solves $u_n(x(n))=1$. For every $a$, introduce $$ x_a(n)=\frac{\log n}n-a\frac{\log\log n}n. $$ Simple computations show that, for every fixed $a$, $u_n(x_a(n))\cdot(\log n)^{a-1}\to1$ when $n\to\infty$. Thus, for every $a\gt1$, there exists some finite index $n(a)$ such that $x(n)\geqslant x_a(n)$ for every $n\geqslant n(a)$, and, for every $a\lt1$, there exists some finite index $n'(a)$ such that $x(n)\leqslant x_a(n)$ for every $n\geqslant n'(a)$. Finally, when $n\to\infty$, $$ nx(n)=\log n-\log\log n+o(\log\log n). $$ The assertion in your post holds with $f(n)=(\log n)/n$, $n_0=\max\{n(A),n'(B)\}$, $B=1$ and every $A\lt1$.
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The solution can be written as $x_n=W(n)/n$, where $W$ is Lambert's function. – Julián Aguirre Mar 8 '12 at 9:21
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Patients with chronic illness can benefit when their families support them in managing their care. This report provides information and resources for enhancing family involvement.
Family members can play a valuable role in helping to manage the care of individuals with one or more chronic illnesses. This report draws together a broad range of research findings, case studies, and resources to assist patients, their families, and health care providers to maximize the benefits of family involvement in chronic care support.
As more Americans are diagnosed with chronic illness, interest in family involvement in care support is growing. A variety of family intervention programs is available, and three of these are described in the report:
- A couples-oriented education and support program focused on setting goals for osteoarthritis self-help and care
- A program stressing communication techniques that support autonomy for patients with heart failure
- A technology-enabled program that helps distant family members in the monitoring of heart failure patients' symptoms and test results
These and other programs offer strategies for handling challenges, improving communications, and maximizing the benefits of family involvement in chronic illness care.
The complete report is available under Document Downloads.


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India: Mining policy destroying biodiversity
October 11th 2012
The Indian government's mining policy is destroying the country's biodiversity and tiger habitats, an NGO on Sunday [7 October] claimed and sought a re-look into the 'massive' expansion plan of coal fields in forest areas. Hours before the start of the UN biodiversity conference in Hyderabad, Greenpeace asked the government to 'demonstrate leadership' by protecting the rich biodiversity that lies within its own borders. 'The government's present policy of increasing coal mining is destroying the environment including the habitat of the endangered Indian tiger. It is also forcing tens of thousands of its own citizens to leave their homes,' a Greenpeace statement said. 'The Indian government must stop the destruction of vital biodiversity,' it said ahead of the UN's 11th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) to be inaugurated by environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan tomorrow, seeking a halt in the 'massive expansion plan' of coal fields.
[Greenpeace] said its mapping study shows that 13 coalfields in the central Indian landscape alone will destroy more than 1.1 million hectares of pristine woodland. 'As a consequence of this environmental vandalism, over 14,000 tribal people in one region alone will lose their homes and livelihoods, with many indigenous communities being forcibly removed and placed into so called 'rehabilitation centres' with no way to earn a living,' it said.
Source: Times of India
More about biodiversity


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FAST & SLOW RELEASE PHOSPHORUS
Phosphorus [P] Release over Time
As a % of Total P
The above graph has been created to give a visual indication of how the phosphorous [P] in the Guano Gold® product is released into the soil medium.
A laboratory experiment was conducted by SWEP to try and replicate the way, over time, the soil around the plant's root zone changes due to growth of the plant and exudates secreted by the plant roots.
The first reading of 40% is the amount of P released instantly once Guano Gold-Kwik Start® is exposed to a 2% citric soluble solution. This equates to 5.5kg per 10kg of P private. The citric soluble solution was then increased by 0.5% gradients. This increase is an indicator to the time that P becomes available after sowing or top dressing. The time would be influenced by soil temperature, type of crop and other soil chemistry, however the graph gives a fair indication of the P release, so it can be used as a tool by farmers and agronomists to predict release of phosphorous.
In individual farming situations, overall the graph indicates 80% of the applied P is released over the crop cycle with 40% of that being quick and the remaining P as shown by the graph constantly drip feeding into the soil.
Taking this information and applying to a cropping program if 10kg of P is required per hectare for a crop then 90kg of Guano Gold-Kwik Start® would supply this amount of P and provide 2.5 kg/hectare of carryover residual P into the next crop.


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Metaphysics and the Representational Fallacy
By Heather Dyke
Routledge – 2008 – 200 pages
This book is an investigation into metaphysics: its aims, scope, methodology and practice. Dyke argues that metaphysics should take itself to be concerned with investigating the fundamental nature of reality, and suggests that the ontological significance of language has been grossly exaggerated in the pursuit of that aim.
Introduction 1. Metaphysics and the Origins of the Representational Fallacy 2. A New Metaphysical Strategy: Lessons Learned from the Philosophy of Time 3. The Representational Fallacy: Or How Not to do Ontology 4. The Relationship Between Language and Reality 5. The Methodological Map 6. The Overlooked Strategy in Practice: Moral Discourse 7. Some Further Applications of the Overlooked Strategy
Heather Dyke is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Otago in New Zealand. She is the editor of Time and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003) and author of several journal articles on metaphysics and the philosophy of time.


Test steps are very important in manual testing because they provide the detailed semantics on how each test case is to be validated and ultimately completed. That said, if you consider most manual test cases will have several steps each and most organizations will have a number of test cases, this results in a large number of steps to manage. Copying and pasting from popular tools like Microsoft Excel and Notepad reduces the time needed to properly manage, compose, and translate steps.
The test steps control inside the test case work item supports bulk copying and pasting of data from a variety of data sources, including other test steps, Microsoft Excel, Notepad, or any other tool that is capable of copying tab-delimited data onto the clipboard.
Copying steps from other data sources
Copying steps from Microsoft Excel requires that you use only two columns in your table of steps: the first column will map to "Action" and the second column will map "Expected Result" in the test steps work item control. Copy the range of two-column rows that you want to insert to the clipboard and paste them using either the context menu or keyboard (Ctrl-V):
You can also copy steps from the test steps control and paste them into either other test cases, or other data sources. Select a range of rows in the test steps control and either copy with the keyboard (CTRL-C), or use the context menu to copy the steps. Notice they are rendered in notepad as readable TAB-delimited rows:
Pasting the text above into a new test case provides you the same user experience as when working with Microsoft Excel:
Ryan Vogrinec


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The Poet and the Poem
photo by Javier Coleman
Featured Jeffrey Lamar Coleman
Click here for Jeffrey Coleman.mp3
Jeffrey Lamar Coleman is Professor of English at St. Mary's College of Maryland. His research areas include literature of the American Civil Rights Movement, music of social protest and resistance, and 20th and 21st century American literature. Coleman is the editor of Words of Protest, Words of Freedom: Poetry of the American Civil Rights Movement and Era (Duke University Press) and author of Spirits Distilled: Poems (Red Hen Press). He is also poetry editor and associate editor of The Journal of Hip Hop Studies, and a former editor of Delaware Poetry Review. His essay, "Singing is Swinging: The Soul Force of 20th Century Black Protest Music," is forthcoming in The Black Intellectual Tradition: African American Thought in the Twentieth Century (University of Illinois Press), edited by Derrick P. Alridge, Cornelius L. Bynum, and James B. Stewart.


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Google has been known to do some interesting things with the data it collects from users, and here is yet another example of that. The company has found a way to visualize the data collected from Play Music users and display it on a Google Music Timeline. This timeline offers a visual representation on the growth and decline of certain genres of music (via Google Operating System Blog).
The graph displays a colored stripe for each genre of music. The thickness of each stripe represents the popularity of that genre in a given year. The data is collected from the music uploaded to Play Music by users. For instance, the Jazz stripe is thickest in the 1950s because many users have Jazz content released in that time period in their library.
The Music Timeline shows genres of music waxing and waning, based on how many Google Play Music users have an artist or album in their music library, and other data (such as album release dates). Each stripe on the graph represents a genre; the thickness of the stripe tells you roughly the popularity of music released in a given year in that genre. (For example, the "jazz" stripe is thick in the 1950s since many users' libraries contain jazz albums released in the '50s.) Click on the stripes to zoom into more specialized genres.


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The modality of open education is being adopted strategically to reduce the deficit of teaching personnel in different areas, including chemistry. Because of this, educational materials were developed that aim to collaborate with the General Chemistry courses for Teaching Certificates in Chemistry, to be offered through the System of the Brazilian Open University (BOU). For this purpose, the situation of Education at a Distance (EaD) in some other countries was initially examined, to evaluate the dynamics of this teaching modality in universities considered as references in EaD and to present case studies involving chemistry. A survey was then carried out for Brazil with detailed research involving the BOU, where its situation, from its initial proposal (justification, target public, process of selection of the courses, etc.) up to the dynamics of the Centers of Actual Support of Education where the experimental lessons of chemistry, physics, biology, etc., would be given. Some studies of cases involving courses of chemistry in Brazilian universities have also been presented. However, the majority of the important government approved institutions that offer courses in this modality of education still do not make available complete information, such as curricular planning, course descriptions, the dynamics of the actual sessions, etc. Thus, as a strategy for the present work, we opted to utilize classical General Chemistry experiments (already known in some form) where it was possible to present the theoretical concepts and to provide them on the Internet as supporting material (at _URL_). All the content was written in a way that the student have an ample vision of the subject, not limited to the experimental description of the practical activities that would be carried out in the Teaching Laboratories.
Text in Portuguese
João Carlos de Andrade


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Accueil › UNITAR/UNEP e-Course - Introduction to a Green Economy: Concepts and Applications ›
UNITAR/UNEP e-Course - Introduction to a Green Economy: Concepts and Applications
The concept of a green economy is receiving increasing international attention, as countries explore new patterns of development that take into account economic, social and environmental sustainability considerations. The recent UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), June 2012, reaffirmed the role of a green economy in achieving sustainable development.
In order to provide interested stakeholders from government, business, civil society and academia with an introduction to the green economy concept the United Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are offering an interactive e-learning course from 8 October to 30 November 2012.
Participants will learn about different concepts and facets of the green economy, as well as global, national and sector-specific challenges and opportunities to advance low-carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive development. Additionally, participants will begin to develop basic skills for applying the green economy concept in a real world economic, policy and/or personal context.
Learning Methodology and Activities
The course pedagogy is adapted to professionals in full-time work. Participants are provided with the opportunity to learn through various experiences: absorb (read); do (activity); interact (socialize); and reflect (relate to one's own reality). The total number of learning hours is 40 over an 8 week period. During weeks 1-5 the reading of an e-book is complemented by a range of learning activities and experiences that include interactive exercises, discussion forums, and an applied case study. Weeks 6-8 are reserved for wrap-up and completing course assignments.
- Assessment tests appraise the comprehension of the key facts and concepts at the end of each module.
- Discussion forums foster interaction and reflection on a specific issue selected by the course moderator or course participants. Contributions will be directly posted in an online forum where they are available to all students.
- An applied case study provides participants with the opportunity to apply the green economy concept in the framework of a real world situation. Participants will identify the problem context, relevant issues, define appropriate measures, and develop a green action plan for a particular setting. Each case study is peer-reviewed by a group of course participants.
Registration and Additional Information
Please contact the UNITAR Environmental Governance Programme for details about fellowships and course registration at _EMAIL_. Additional information is also available in the Course Brochure (Click here to access the Brochure).
To register please visit our Online Event Section.
Certificate of Completion
A Certificate of Completion will be issued by UNITAR to all participants who complete the course-related assignments and assessments successfully.
Access to internet is an essential condition for participation. UNITAR also recommends the following as a minimum in hardware and software to take our e-Learning courses:
- Platform: Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT, ME, XP or superior; MacOS 9 or MacOS X; Linux
- Hardware: 64 MB of RAM, 1 GB of free disk space
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Adobe Flash Player
- Microsoft Office (Windows or Mac) or Open Office
- Browser: Internet Explorer 7 or higher or Firefox 3.6 or higher
- Modem: 56 K
Les dernières nouvelles


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Scott Memorial Service, St. Paul's, by unknown artist, 1913
- Published by Underground Electric Railways Company Ltd, 1913
- Format: Double royal
- Dimensions: Width: 635mm, Height: 1016mm
- Reference number: 1983/4/296
From its first pictorial poster in 1908, the Underground and then London Transport have promoted sightseeing in the capital. Posters encouraged visitors and Londoners alike to either take a conducted tour or to explore the city themselves. Well known landmarks such as Nelson's Column and Buckingham Palace featured the most frequently, although lesser known places of interest were also publicised. Many posters focused on a specific sight, others simply encouraged visitors to 'See London by coach' or 'See London in summer'. Green line coach and country bus services allowed sightseeing to extend beyond the city.
Show all records with Sightseeing theme
Places of worship
London's historic churches have always been popular sightseeing destinations. Posters regularly featured St Paul's Cathedral or Westminster Abbey and occasionally smaller churches and chapels. To encourage leisure travel by Green line coach and country bus services, posters also depicted places of worship outside London. These ranged from St Albans and Waltham Abbey to Jordans Quaker Meeting House in Buckinghamshire.
Show all records with Places of worship theme


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The old part of Ptuj
The old part of Ptuj
Coat of arms of Ptuj
Coat of arms
Ptuj is located in Slovenia
Location of the city of Ptuj in Slovenia
Coordinates: 46°25′10″N 15°52′10″E / 46.41944°N 15.86944°E / 46.41944; 15.86944Coordinates: 46°25′10″N 15°52′10″E / 46.41944°N 15.86944°E / 46.41944; 15.86944
Country Slovenia
Traditional region Styria
Statistical region Drava
Municipality Ptuj
 - Mayor Štefan Čelan (LDS)
 - Total 25.6 km2 (9.9 sq mi)
Population (2013)
 - Total 17,972
 - Density 701/km2 (1,820/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+01)
 - Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+02)
Website Official site
Ptuj (pronounced [ˈptuːi̯] ( ); German: Pettau; Latin: Poetovium) is a town in northeastern Slovenia. Traditionally the area was part of the Styria region.
Ouroboros in a wall of the castle of Ptuj
Ptuj is the oldest city in Slovenia. There is evidence that the area was settled in the Stone Age. In the Late Iron Age it was settled by Celts.[2] By the 1st century BC, the settlement was controlled by Ancient Rome. In 69 AD, Vespasian was elected Roman Emperor by the Danubian legions in Ptuj, and the first written mention of the city of Ptuj is from the same year. The city of Poetovio was the base-camp of Legio XIII Gemina in Pannonia. The name originated in the times of Emperor Trajan, who granted the settlement city status and named it Colonia Ulpia Traiana Poetovio in 103. The city had 40,000 inhabitants until it was plundered by the Huns in 450.[2]
In 570 the city was occupied by Eurasian Avars and Slavic tribes.[2] Ptuj became part of the Frankish Empire[2] after the fall of Avar state at the end of 8th century. Between 840 and 874 it belonged to the Slavic Balaton Principality of Pribina and Kocelj. Between 874 and 890 Ptuj gradually came under the influence of the Archbishopric of Salzburg;[2] city rights passed in 1376 began an economic upswing for the settlement. As Pettau, it was incorporated into the Duchy of Styria in 1555.[2]
Ptuj as seen from the castle
Pettau was a battleground during the Ottoman wars in Europe and suffered from fires in 1684, 1705, 1710, and 1744.[2] Its population and importance began to decline in the 19th century, however, after the completion of the Vienna-Trieste route of the Austrian Southern Railway, as the line went through Marburg (Maribor) instead.
According to the 1910 Austro-Hungarian census, 86% of the population of Pettau's Old Town was German-speaking, while the population of the surrounding villages predominantly spoke Slovene. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I, Pettau was included in the short-lived Republic of German Austria, but after the military intervention of the Slovenian general Rudolf Maister, the entire territory of Lower Styria was included into the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (Yugoslavia). During the interwar period, the number and the percentage of those identifying as Germans in the city, which was renamed Ptuj, decreased rapidly, although a relatively strong ethnic German minority remained.
After the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Ptuj was occupied by Nazi Germany. From 1941 to 1944 the town's Slovenian population was dispossessed and deported. Their homes were taken over by German speakers from South Tyrol and the Gottschee County, who had themselves been evicted according to an agreement between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. These German immigrants, along with the native German Pettauer, were expelled to Austria in 1945; many later settled in North America.
Since 1945 Ptuj has been populated almost completely by Slovenians.
Neighborhood Population
Center 3681
Breg–Turnišče 3743
Ljudski Vrt 5903
Jezero 1581
Panorama 2072
Rogoznica 3867
Grajena 2390
Spuhlja 872
Ptuj Town Hall
The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint George and belongs to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Maribor. It is a three-naved Gothic building from the 13th and early 14th century, but the structure incorporates parts of a much earlier structure, dating to the mid-9th century.[3]
The Kurent or Korant Carnival[edit]
Kurenti in Ptuj
Ptuj is the center place of a ten-day-long carnival in the spring, an ancient Slavic pagan rite of spring and fertility, called Kurentovanje or Korantovanje. Kurent is believed to be the name of an ancient god of hedonism - the Slavic counterpart of the Greek Priapos, although there are no written records.
Kurenti or Koranti (singular: Kurent or Korant) are figures dressed in sheep skin who go about the town wearing masks, a long red tongue, cow bells, and multi-colored ribbons on the head. The Kurenti from Ptuj and the adjoining villages also wear feathers, while those from the Haloze and Lancova vas wear horns. Organized in groups, Kurents go through town, from house to house, making noise with their bells and wooden sticks, to symbolically scare off evil spirits and the winter.
The nearest airports are Ptuj Sport Airfield (Moškanjci), which is seven kilometers (4.3 miles) away, and Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport, which is eighteen kilometers (11 miles) away.
International relations[edit]
Twin towns — sister cities[edit]
Ptuj is twinned with:
 1. ^ "Ptuj, Ptuj". Place Names. Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
 2. ^ a b c d e f g "The History of Ptuj". Accessed November 8, 2006.
 3. ^ Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage reference number ešd 582
External links[edit]


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What Are Retroactive Payments?
The SSDI retroactive payments are payments made to disability applicants for the time passed between the onset of the disability to the date that the application was passed. Retroactive payments are paid for 12 months prior to the date of the application being passed.
Factors When Making Retroactive Payments
The Social Security Administration considers three factors when making retroactive payments:
- Date of onset
- Date of application
- Wait period
By default, the date of filing of application for your disability is considered the date of onset of your disability. This date is referred to as the alleged onset date (AOD), and all your retroactive payments are calculated back to this date.
If the disability began much before the date of application, it is mandatory to prove that in order to change the AOD and obtain a new established onset date (EOD).
All SSDI claims have a mandatory wait period of 5 months after the onset of the disability. No payments are made during this period. Therefore, your retroactive payments are made only at the beginning of the sixth month.
Are you eligible for retroactive payments?
An applicant for social security benefits is eligible for retroactive payments if:
- The disability claim has been approved
- Over 5 months have elapsed since the EOD
- The payments are not to be withheld for any reason
The SSDI allows retroactive payments for a maximum of 12 months prior to the date of application, subtracting the waiting period. That means that a minimum of 17 months that will have passed since the date of onset (EOD) and the date the application is approved.
In addition, no matter when the EOD may be, retroactive payments will be made for a maximum of only 12 months, meaning that the applicant will remain unpaid for any time before the considered 17 months.
How a Social Security Attorney Can Help
The process of applying for benefits and obtaining them is not only tedious, but also confusing. Besides a number of legalities beyond the comprehension of a general applicant, not all applicants receive a fair review, because not all applicants have knowledge about:
- The proper documentation and records to be submitted with the application
- The required presentation to be given before the judge
- The amount of benefits that can be requested
- The procedure to change the EOD from the AOD
Hiring an SSDI lawyer can ensure that your application receives a fair review and you are given the benefits you deserve for your disability.


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Fiona McNeill, Global Product Marketing Manager, SAS
Improving Machine Learning With
SAS® Contextual Analysis Webinar
If your organization is buried in too many text documents, one thing's for sure: You can't read your way out of it.
But there is a way to make sense of all your text data - SAS Contextual Analysis.
This webinar offers a clear, step-by-step walk-through of the software, and describes how it can improve your business. You'll learn how to:
- Categorize documents and understand sentiment.
- Define the type of data you're using.
- Interact with your data to update your models and extract information.
- Score a SAS data set.
- Answer questions on the fly with its embedded user assistance.


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Apr 11, 2012 / ENERGY GLOBE Award
Project presentation - "Solar houses for Siberia"
Low energy houses which do not require additional energy for heating are almost state of the art here in Austria. But how is the situation in the icy regions of the Russian Far East, like in Vadivostok, with records being minus 68 degrees, chilling winds and a soil that is always frozen?
People in Russia usually heat their homes with millions of tons of oil, gas, coal, and firewood, but still houses get no warmer than 14 degrees. On average, every Russian uses 50 % more energy than any citizen of the EU. Saving energy is an unknown concept.
An innovative architectural design developed by the Far Eastern Federal University of Vladivostok is tackling these challenges and brings a new quality of live into the living rooms of people: the "Eco House" for everyone has an overall heat insulation made of a special material not only for the roof and walls but also, and especially, for the foundations.
So the house stays warm even in the most icy winter, and no longer sinks into the ground, which normally happens when too much heat softens the permafrost soil. With its windbreak architectural form and thanks to solar collectors and heat storage systems now a comfortable 22 degrees can be reached and the house needs only very little energy from external sources even in very cold conditions.


onian. a serious disease that affects the lungs and makes it difficult to breathe
carriagen. a large vehicle with four wheels that is pulled by a horse and that carries people
drawingn. a picture, image, etc., that is made by making lines on a surface with a pencil, pen, marker, chalk, but usually not with paint
leafn. one of the flat and typically green parts of a plant that grow from a stem or twig
laddern. a device used for climbing that has two long pieces of wood, metal, or rope with a series of steps or rungs between them
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