text:
Blowing stuff up
It was for a class, no really, there was actual scientific research being performed when Dr. Henry Kowalski and four students, blew stuff up at the end of last semester (the students got actual credit for it too).
Doc K used students as an excuse to blow something up again. This time he did it with the blessing, and help, of the Michigan State Police Bomb Squad. (KetteringUniversitywhere you can blow stuff up in the name of scientific research!)
In truth, Doc K, also known as Dr.Henry Kowalski, professor of Mechanical Engineering, and four senior students in his Experimental Mechanics class, performed research on detonator cord for the Bomb Squad as the students' final class project.
They tested the commonly held theory that when blowing up something to open it or crush it (to reduce its danger potential), having water behind the detonator creates a more powerful explosion.
The testing they did on detonator cord (a la the popular Discovery Channel TV show Mythbusters) attempted to prove or disprove the theory. The State Police Forensic Science Division operated on the theory without knowing if it was true or not.
Ryan Gebs, of Preston, Idaho, Kay Bareiss, of Wesensteig, Germany, Michael Pedigo, of Hartland, Mich., and Kyle Kibbey, of Mason, Mich., blew up force plates with detonator cord on Friday, June 12 on the Kettering baseball diamonds.
"Force plates measure the force of an explosion, similar to a scale. Strain gauges inside measure tension or compression," said Gebs. The students attached the force plates to an oscilloscope to log data for analysis and used a high speed video camera to capture the results visually.
Detective Sergeant Rick Bekemeier, bomb technician and Sergeant Scott Hasse, bomb squad, assisted the students in setting up the tests and managed the detonator cord and explosions.
To test whether water behind the explosion increased the force of the blast, the group fired detonator cord without water and with IV bags lying on top of the cord. The IV bags were used because they provided a compact portable source of water.
"The IV bag holds down the detonator cord," explained Gebs, "without it the blast goes out in a 360 degree radius. Because the IV holds down the detonator cord it concentrates the blast downward onto the board, intensifying it in that direction," he added.
According to the data collection equipment, the first blast, without water, exerted about 4,000 pounds of force. The first blast with water was estimated to exert more then 10,000 pounds of force on the board.
The cord without water ripped through the first few layers of the plywood sheet used to protect the force plates, cutting through a few layers. The explosions with water behind them penetrated through four or more layers of the plywood and actually cracked a cement cinder block in half during one blast. Theory proved – there was about six times the penetration into wood with water behind the blast and much better penetration into the cinder block.
Doc K said he would like to secure the donation of a newer high speed video camera because he wants to see how paint balls explode. He'll probably claim THAT'S in the name of scientific research, too.
Written by Dawn Hibbard


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Mobile app analytics is an essential tool for understanding how users interact with your app, what features they use most, and where they struggle. By collecting and analyzing this data, you can identify opportunities for improving the user experience, increasing engagement, and ultimately driving more revenue.
Here are some best practices for implementing mobile app analytics:
- Define your goals and metrics: Before you start collecting data, it's important to know what you want to achieve and how you'll measure your progress. Define your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) up front, and choose the right metrics to track your progress. Some common metrics for mobile apps include active users, retention rate, average session length, and conversion rate.
- Choose the right analytics tool: There are many mobile app analytics tools available, ranging from free options like Google Analytics to more advanced paid platforms like Mixpanel. Choose the tool that best meets your needs and budget, and be sure to integrate it into your app early on to start collecting data as soon as possible.
- Track the right events: To get the most value out of your mobile app analytics, you'll need to track the right events and actions within your app. This might include things like button clicks, form submissions, in-app purchases, or other actions that indicate user engagement or progress. Be sure to track events that are relevant to your business goals and KPIs.
- Use segmentation to understand your users: Segmentation allows you to break down your data into smaller groups based on common characteristics, such as location, device type, or demographic information. This can help you understand how different groups of users are interacting with your app and identify opportunities for improvement.
- Use A/B testing to optimize your app: A/B testing is a powerful tool for optimizing your app by comparing the performance of two or more variations of a feature or design element. By running A/B tests, you can see which version performs better and make data-driven decisions about which features or designs to prioritize.
- Monitor and analyze your data regularly: Mobile app analytics is not a one-time activity; it's an ongoing process. Monitor your data regularly, and use it to make informed decisions about how to improve your app and drive more value for your business.
By following these best practices, you can effectively use mobile app analytics to understand your users, optimize your app, and drive more success for your business.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Boost logo
Boost :
Subject: Re: [boost] [serialization] How are floating point values handled?
From: John Maddock (john_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-08-07 13:38:13
> This actually raises a problem when using text archives with floating
> point data - if you want to be able to round trip the values, then how
> many digits precision should you set the stream to? Particularly if
> you're saving a complex structure containing different floating point
> types of differing precisions?
Let me rephrase this somewhat: if I'm the author of a complex data structure
that contains floating point data and I make it serializable, I have no way
to ensure serialization proceeds correctly: instead that burden falls on the
person creating the archive. For sure in small projects these will be the
same person, but clearly not when "library writing". And yes, I realize
that many compilers don't round trip floating point values even when you
print "enough" digits, but at least they get close. The current default
situation is to print just 5 digits, and that certainly doesn't get close!
But, rant over for now ;-)
Cheers, John.


text:
The Koninklijke Nederlandse Politiehond Vereniging (KNPV) is a dog sport originating in Holland that uses a number of exercises in an attempt to mimic situations encountered by police k9 units. One such exercise is centered around a search for small articles.
The KNPV small articles search takes place in a square section of grassy field. Three small objects, such as a key, a ring, a bullet casing, or a coin, are placed on the field. The dog then has 10 minutes to search the field and retrieve the objects. The handler is permitted to give basic commands instructing the dog to search, stay or release the retrieved object. A retrieval time of under 3 minutes is required to obtain a perfect score, while the dog is also graded on general obedience, the manner in which it searches the field, and how it handles the objects during the retrieval stage.
The intent of this exercise is to train the dog to act in a manner that mimics a police search for evidence. Unfortunately, the way this exercise is performed by the KNPV presents a number of problems when compared against what would be required of a search conducted by actual police forces. One of the biggest problems is that the dog is trained to mouth the object, pick it up and bring it back to the handler. In a real police search, investigators wear latex gloves to avoid disturbing the evidence any more than absolutely necessary. To have the dog mouth a piece of evidence might completely ruin it. The correct action for the dog to take would be to indicate passively by sitting next to the found article. Secondly, because KNPV is a sport, the exercises are performed with specific regulations concerning the search area. During a search, an officer can almost never rely on evidence being simply dropped in a perfectly square patch of grassy field.
The most important thing to remember is that KNPV, like all other dog sports, is just a sport. Police dogs, protection dogs and guard dogs alike need to be trained to handle real situations from the very beginning. Training for sport just isn't good enough for work in the real world.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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Aishah – 3 Sequoia
Aishah has received this award for demonstrating excellent enthusiasm in all of her science lessons. She is very inquisitive and showcases her investigative skills with a strong passion. Aishah is an excellent scientific role model to all children in the class! This term she has developed a great understanding of different rocks and their uses. During observation lessons, Aishah has ensured she uses scientific vocabulary to describe properties in detail. She can also record her observations using a table to organise her data and make sensible scientific conclusions from this. Well done for all your hard work in Science this term and continue to be a super scientific explorer!


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UNESCO's Slave Route Project inspires international seminar
Experts, scholars and authorities on black culture from different countries participate in the international seminar "Heritage, identity and culture: management of sites and places of memory related to the slave trade and slavery", in Brasília, which will last until 23 August. The opening of the seminar, inspired by UNESCO'S Slave Route Project, took place at the National Museum of the Republic, on Monday, 20 August, with the participation of two Ministers of State - Ana de Hollanda, Culture, and Luiza Bairros, the Secretariat for Policies to Promote Racial Equality – besides government secretaries, ambassadors of African countries, parliamentarians, jurists and diplomats.
During the opening ceremony, the president of Palmares Fundação Cultural, Eloi Ferreira de Araújo, launched the idea of the inscription of Cais do Valongo (Valongo Wharf), in Rio de Janeiro, in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Recently discovered, Cais Valongo was the main arrival gate for slaves in Brazil, where more than half a million Africans disembarked. Excavations of the wharf are allowing a rediscovery of Brazilian black culture and a reformulation of its origin. Over a hundred thousand artifacts have been cataloged, so far.
"Cais do Valongo was the largest port of entry of Africans in Brazil. It is a historical site, rich in memory that ought to be shared with everyone and, therefore, it should become a World Heritage Site, "said Eloi Araújo.
The Minister Luiza Bairros, the Secretariat for Policies to Promote Racial Equality, also defended the inscription of Cais Valongo in the World Heritage List of UNESCO. "The centre of Rio de Janeiro is home to concrete elements of the African contribution to the formation of Brazil, besides Cais do Valongo; anywhere with this history should be an international site," said the Minister.
The UNESCO Brasília Director, Lucien Muñoz, said that "the seminar is the concrete example of how a theme that is cultural in origin, can reach enormous size in social policies and development". Muñoz noted that the memory of the slave trade and slavery around the world can help to "educate the new generations to ethnic-racial relations based on the human respect and well-being provided by diversity".
The tourism related to the memory of slave trade and slavery was also at the seminar agenda. Ali Moussa-Iye, who is in charge of UNESCO'S Slave Route Project, delivered an intriguing lecture on the subject. Moussa stressed the need for conservation and management of historical sites worldwide that sustain any connection with slavery. According to him, "the sites provide, above all, a tribute to those who died as a result of the slave trade." Moussa recalled that hundreds of sites are forgotten and without protection. An initial mapping indicates that there are more than 800 places in the world that may be related to the history of slavery. From these, only a few are considered World Heritage sites, which provides them greater care and preservation appeal.
The Slave Route Project attempts to shed light on other sites still ignored. "The Project perceives the importance of this heritage and keeps us sensitive to the history," said Moussa, during the lecture. Moussa also noted that "UNESCO is the only UN agency to develop projects and policies for the conservation of slavery heritage sites ".
The Slave Route Project
The transatlantic slave trade is among the most extreme human rights violations in history. The length, breadth and magnitude of this enterprise of dehumanization led to its universal condemnation.
UNESCO plays an important role in fostering understanding and appreciation of history. Since the establishment of the Slave Route Project in 1994, UNESCO has endeavored to break the silence about the slave trade and slavery. The Organization assists States with additional research and enrichment of their national history and encourages the exchange of memories.
The Slave Route Project is an intersectoral and interdisciplinary project of UNESCO, which is connected to all areas of competence of the Organization. To meet this particular feature of the project, the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has composed a special team to deal with the activities of UNESCO concerning the study of the slave trade and its implications.
The international seminar "Heritage, identity and culture: management of sites and places of memory related to the slave trade and slavery", which aims to boost tourism at places of memory related to the slave trade and slavery, is a partnership between the Palmares Fundação Cultural and UNESCO, with the support of the Ministries of Culture, Education, Tourism and External Relations.
By the end of the seminar some partnerships, projects and agreements are expected to be signed by the representatives from the most important black culture foundations in the country and the world. Attendants participate in thematic discussions until this Thursday, 23 August.


(session_info)
Registering Strategies
Intended for plugin developers as a way to make it easy to use
strategies there is the possibility to register a strategy without loading it.
 Authentication.register(:my_strategy, "/absolute/path/to/strategy.rb")
This then allows developers to use
Providing feedback to users (Error Messages)
There's at least 4 ways to provide feedback to users for failed logins.
 - Overwrite Merb::Authentication#error_message The return of this method is
 the default message that is passed to the Unauthenticated exception. Overwrite
 this to provide a very basic catch all message.
 - Provide a default message when you declare your before filter.
 before :ensure_authenticated, :with => [Openid, :message => "Could not log you in with open ID"]
 - OR
 before :ensure_authentication, :with => {:message => "Sorry Buddy… You Lose"}
 When you pass a message, it will replace the Merb::Authentication#error_message default for this
 - Use an after filter for your login action. This can be used to set your messaging system. For example:
 after :set_login_message, :only => [:create]
private def set_login_message if session.authenticated? flash[:message] = "Welcome" else flash[:error] = "Bad.. You Fail" end end
 - Use the authentications error messaging inside your strategies to set error messages there.
 You can add to these errors just like adding to DataMappers validation errors.
session.authentication.errors.add("Label", "You Fail")
Add as many as you like, ask session.authentication.errors.on(:label) to get specific errors etc Really… They're just like the DataMapper validation errors. The bonus of using this system is that you can add messages inside your Strategies, and then in your views you can do this:
<%= error_messages_for sessions.authentication %>
Additional checks / actions to perform after the user is found
Sometimes you may need to perform additional operations on the user object
after you have found a valid user in the strategy. There is a hook method
Merb::Authentication.after_authentication which is designed for this.
Here's an example of checking that a user object is active after it's been
Merb::Authentication.after_authentication do |user, request, params|? user : nil end
Pass the user model on if everything is still ok. Return nil if you decide in the
after_authentication hook that the user should in fact not be allowed to be authenticated.
By default this plugin doesn't actually
authenticate anything ;) It's up to you to get your model going, and add an
authentication strategy.
To logout use
session.abandon! and to force a login at any time use
raise Unauthenticated, "You Aren't Cool Enough"
 1. Adam French –
 2. Daniel Neighman –
 3. Ben Burket –
Something went wrong with that request. Please try again.


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Data Science Studio can both read and write datasets directly on FTP servers.
DSS also features a cached FTP dataset which can provide better performance if you only need to read a FTP file and don't mind the copy of the data which is made locally.
A cached FTP dataset will still check the FTP server for updates when it is rebuilt.
Defining the remote FTP connection¶
Accessing remote files stored on FTP servers first requires the definition of a connection to the remote server, as follows:
- Go to Administration > Connections
- Click the "New connection" button and select the FTP connection
- Enter a name for the new connection, and the required connection parameters
- Save the new connection
FTP connection parameters¶
|Host||Host name or IP address of the FTP server to access (Mandatory)|
|User||FTP username to use, or empty for an anonymous FTP connection|
|Password||FTP password to use, or empty for an anonymous FTP connection|
|Use passive mode||Check to use FTP "passive" data transfer mode (default). Using FTP passive mode is often mandatory when there is a firewall between the Data Science Studio server and the FTP server.|
|Path||Path to the remote folder to use once connected to the FTP server.
Start with a
|Writable||Check to allow DSS to write datasets on this server.
Those datasets will be written in a subfolder or the
|Allow managed||Check to allow DSS to write
managed datasets on this server.
|Use global proxy||When checked, use the global proxy for this connection. Uncheck this if the FTP server is directly accessible. If you have an HTTP proxy, passive mode is mandatory.|
Defining a FTP Dataset¶
After setting up a FTP connection, simply add a new dataset to your project, choosing the "Uncached FTP" type. Select your FTP connection.
If necessary, specify a path (subpath of the connection's path if it is not empty) or click "Browse" and select a file or directory.
If the final path a directory, the data is the union of all the data in all the files in that directory (including sub-directories). The sample displayed will only present data from the first non-empty file.
Use the FTP dataset for writing¶
Two cases are supported:
- In a folder:
- the data will be written in possibly multiple files
- the content of the folder is wiped before writing
- writing a managed dataset requires a directory
- In a file:
- you must create the file beforehand (it may be empty)
- the file is emptied before writing


text:
|Pan American Sanitary Code|
Pan American Sanitary Code
The code was signed in Havana, Cuba, on 14 November 1924, at the VII Pan American Sanitary Conference and ratified by the Governments of the twenty-one American Republics (see Appendix I). The Code was amended by the Additional Protocol to the Pan American Sanitary Code (1952), to abrogate Articles 2, 9, 10, 11, 16 to 53 inclusive, 61, and 62, which were extracted in full infra. For a complete text of the Code, please refer to Publication 193 of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau (March 1943).
Objects of the Code and Definitions of Terms Used Therein
Article 1. The objects of this code are:
SECTION 1. NOTIFICATION AND SUBSEQUENT COMMUNICATIONS TO OTHER COUNTRIES
Article 3. Each of the Signatory Governments agrees to transmit to each of the other Signatory Governments and to the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, at intervals of not more than two weeks, a statement containing information as to the state of its public health, particularly that of its ports.
Article 4. Each Signatory Government agrees to notify adjacent countries and the Pan American Sanitary Bureau immediately by the most rapid available means of communication, of the appearance in its territory of an authentic or officially suspected case or cases of plague, cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, typhus, or any other dangerous contagion liable to spread through the intermediary agency of international commerce.
Article 5. This notification is to be accompanied, or very promptly followed, by the following additional information:
Article 6. The notification and information prescribed in Articles 4 and 5 are to be addressed to diplomatic or consular representatives in the capital of the infected country, and to the Pan American Sanitary Bureau in Washington, which shall immediately transmit the information to all countries concerned.
Article 7. The notification and the information prescribed in Articles 3, 4, 5, and 6 are to be followed by further communications in order to keep other Governments informed as to the progress of the disease or diseases. These communications will be made at least once weekly, and will be as complete as possible, indicating in detail the measures employed to prevent the extension of the disease. The telegraph, cable, and radio will be employed for this purpose, except in those stances in which the data may be transmitted rapidly by mail. Reports by telegraph, cable, or radio will be confirmed by letter. Neighboring countries will endeavor to make special arrangements for the solution of local problems that do not involve widespread international interest.
Article 8. The Signatory Governments agree that in the event of the appearance of any of the following diseases, namely, cholera, yellow fever, plague, typhus fever, or other pestilential diseases in severe epidemic form in their territory, they will immediately put in force appropriate sanitary measures for the prevention of the international carriage of any of the said diseases therefrom by passengers, crew, cargo, and vessels, and mosquitoes, rats, and vermin that may be carried thereon, and will promptly notify each of the other Signatory Governments and the Pan American Sanitary Bureau as to the nature and extent of the sanitary measures which they have applied for the accomplishment of the requirements of this article.
SECTION 3. MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY STATISTICS
Article 12. The International Classification of the Causes of Death is adopted as the Pan American Classification of the Causes of Death, and shall be used by the signatory nations in the interchange of mortality and morbidity reports.
Article 13. The Pan American Sanitary Bureau is hereby authorized and directed to republish from time to time the Pan American Classification of the Causes of Death.
Article 14. Each of the Signatory Governments agrees to put in operation, at the earliest practical date, a system for the collection and tabulation of vital statistics which shall include:
Article 15. The Pan American Sanitary Bureau shall prepare and publish standard forms for the reporting of deaths and cases of communicable disease and all other vital statistics.
The Pan American Sanitary Bureau: Functions and Duties
Article 54. The organization, functions, and duties of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau shall include those heretofore determined for the International Sanitary Bureau by the various international sanitary and other conferences of American Republics, and such additional administrative function and duties as may be hereafter determined by Pan American Sanitary Conferences.
Article 55. The Pan American Sanitary Bureau shall be the central coordinating sanitary agency of the various member republics of the Pan American Union, and the general collection and distribution center of sanitary information to and from said republics. For this purpose it shall, from time to time, designate representatives to visit and confer with the sanitary authorities of the various Signatory Governments on public health matters, and such repesentatives shall be given all available sanitary information in the countries visited by them in the course of their official visits and conferences.
Article 56. In addition, the Pan American Sanitary Bureau shall perform the following specific functions:
Article 57. The Pan American Sanitary Bureau shall advise and consult with the sanitary authorities of the various Signatory Commissions relative to public health problems, and the manner of interpreting and applying the provisions of this Code.
Article 58. Officials of the National Health Services may be designated as representatives, ex-officio, of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, in addition to their regular duties, and when so designated they may be empowered to act as sanitary representatives of one or more of the Signatory Governments when properly designated and accredited to so serve.
Article 59. Upon request of the sanitary authorities of any of the Signatory Governments, the Pan American Sanitary Bureau is authorized to take the necessary preparatory steps to bring about an exchange of professors, medical and health officers, experts or advisers in public health of any of the sanitary sciences, for the purpose of mutual aid and advancement in the protection of the public health of the Signatory Governments.
Article 60. For the purpose of discharging the functions and duties imposed upon the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, a fund of not less than $50,000 shall be collected by the Pan American Union, apportioned among the Signatory Governments on the same basis as are the expenses of the Pan American Union.
Be it understood that this Code does not in any way abrogate or impair the validity or force of any existing treaty, convention, or agreement between any of the Signatory Governments and any other Government.
Article 63. The Governments which may not have signed the present Convention are to be admitted to adherence thereto upon demand, notice of this adherence to be given through diplomatic channels to the Government of the Republic of Cuba.
2. ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE PAN AMERICAN SANITARY CODE (1927)
Approved ad referendum by the VIII Pan American Sanitary Conference, held at Lima, Peru, from 12 to 20 October 1927.
The ratifications of the Pan American Sanitary Code shall be deposited in the office of the Secretary of State of the Republic of Cuba and the Cuban Government shall communicate these ratifications to the other Signatory States, which communication shall constitute exchange or ratifications. The convention shall become effective in each of the Signatory States on the date of ratification thereof by said State, and shall remain in force without limitation of time, each one of the Signatory States or Adherent States reserving the right to withdraw from the convention by giving in due form a year's notice in advance to the Government of the Republic of Cuba.
3. ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE PAN AMERICAN SANITARY CODE (1952)
Adopted Resolution XLVI by the Directing Council at its VI Meeting held in Havana, Cuba, from 15–24 September 1952.
The Representatives of the Governments Signatories to the Pan American Sanitary Code, being duly authorized by virtue of the full powers which have been accorded to them and which have been found to be in good and due form, sign the present Protocol, in the name of their respective Governments, in the English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French languages, on the date and at the place appearing below their signatures.
It is agreed to abrogate Articles 2, 9, 10, 11, 16 to 53 inclusive, 61, and 62 of the Pan American Sanitary Code, signed at Havana on 14 November 1924 at the VII Pan American Sanitary Conference, all of which relate to international traffic.
Henceforth, any periodic amendment that it should be appropriate to make in the titles, sections, or articles of the Pan American Sanitary Code shall be the responsibility of the Pan American Sanitary Conference; for any such amendment to be valid, the provisions of the Constitution of the Pan American Sanitary Organization (renamed "Pan American Health Organization" by decision of the XV Pan American Sanitary Conference, September–October 1958) shall be carried out.
The original of the present Protocol shall be deposited with the Pan American Union, which shall transmit certified copies to the Governments for purposes of ratification.
The present Protocol shall be ratified by the Signatory States in accordance with their respective constitutional procedures. The instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Pan American Union, which shall notify the Signatory Governments of such deposit.
This Protocol shall become effective on the first of October 1952 for those States which ratify this instrument before the said date. It shall become effective with respect to the remaining States on the date of ratification thereof.


Sailor's Life at Sea & A Little Poetry
Lesson Plan
 1. Students learn about sailors' everyday life around 1900 by analyzing a poem and recruiting poster.
 2. Students interpret poems and poster art as historical evidence.
 1. Read background sheet, poem, and poster.
 2. Discuss question sheet in groups or complete answers individually.
 3. Classroom discussion to follow.
 4. Students use the historical poem as a model to compose their own poems.
 These poems may be e-mailed to the Museum.
These materials may be reproduced.


text:
3 entries found for bore.
To select an entry, click on it.
Main Entry: 1bore
Pronunciation: b()r, b()r
Inflected Form(s): bored; bor·ing
Etymology: Old English borian "to bore" 1: to make a hole in especially with a drill 2: to make (as a hole shaped like a cylinder) by boring or digging away material 3: to move forward steadily especially by overcoming an opposing force


text:
Sorry Guys, But Women's Brains Mature Faster
A new study discovers brain networks reorganize their connections throughout life to improve efficiency. Investigators discovered the process begins earlier in girls, which may explain why they mature faster during the teenage years.
Newcastle University scientists studied individuals 40 and younger and found that the brain re-organizes connections throughout our life. Dr. Marcus Kaiser and Sol Lim found that while overall connections in the brain get streamlined, long-distance connections that are crucial for integrating information are preserved.


text:
ARCHIVE: Exotic animal disease risks
Defra is responsible for the management and co-ordination of the response to outbreaks and incidents of exotic animal disease such as Foot and Mouth Disease, Avian Influenza, Bluetongue, Classical Swine Fever and Rabies in England at the local and national level, working closely with partners from other government departments, operational partner and stakeholder organisations.
Detailed information is set out in Defra's Contingency Plan for Exotic Animal Diseases.
In the event of an outbreak or incident in Wales or Scotland, Defra, and Animal Health as the main delivery body, work closely with policy officials in the devolved administrations to ensure a consistent and co-ordinated disease control response throughout GB.
Further information can be found on the Defra website:
Page last modified: 29 October 2008
Page published: 13 February 2008


text:
Suicide Prevention Campaign
Public Health Liverpool, in collaboration with the Liverpool CAMHS – Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and Alder Hey Children's Foundation Trust, has launched a city-wide 'Reach Out Liverpool' campaign to raise awareness of suicide prevention.
It aims to raise awareness that suicide is preventable and to remove the stigma surrounding suicide – something which prevents people in crisis from reaching out, and those around them from even mentioning the word.
The REACHOUT campaign is made up of three parts:
See the problem – raising awareness of what to look out for, including the signs, behaviours and emotions a person in crisis might be displaying.
Say the words and start a conversation – we have partnered with the Zero Suicide Alliance who offer a 20-minute training video that provides people with the skills and confidence to reach out to someone in crisis.
Signpost to support – providing information on local services that offer 24/7 crisis support.
The campaign also reaches out to people in crisis, encouraging them to speak to friends, family or professionals and letting them know change is possible, and that they can feel better.
The campaign is aimed at two audiences:
1. People who may be concerned about someone who is in crisis or could be contemplating suicide.
The message is to encourage people to reach out and start a conversation with the person they are concerned about. This conversation could save a life. The campaign aims to:
- Raise awareness of the warning signs thus giving permission to intervene.
- Increase confidence in what to say and do by signposting to the Zero Suicide Alliance 20 minute training.
- Raises awareness of services that can provide immediate help
2. People in crisis or contemplating suicide.
This message is to:
- Acknowledge feelings and encourage people to talk to friends/family/someone they trust and explains how this could change their life.
- Raise awareness of services that can provide immediate help.
For both audiences, the campaign dispels myths and breaks taboos around talking about suicide and gives information and resources of help available.
How has the campaign been developed?
The campaign has been co-created with:
- People who have contemplated/attempted suicide
- People bereaved or affected by suicide
- The general public
- Expert subject matters
Where will the campaign be promoted?
The campaign will be promoted in two bursts – Dec 2021 – Jan 2022 and March 2022 – May 2022 and will be promoted via:
- Targeted digital and social advertising through sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Google Display and YouTube
- Outdoor advertising including billboards, busses, railway stations, phone kiosks
- Radio advertising plus targeted digital radio and Spotify
- Promotion of campaign materials in health centres, hospitals, children's centres, Universities, GPs etc.


OP Home > How-To > Shooting > Chasing Rainbows
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Chasing Rainbows
How to predict where a rainbow will be and how to set up your DSLR to photograph it to create dramatic rainbow-scapes
One practical conclusion from all this theory is that, in level country, rainbows can't appear unless the sun's altitude (its angle above the horizon) is less than 42º. At higher solar altitudes, the "rainbow" is below the horizon. In other words, don't bother chasing rainbows at noon. Realistically, you're most likely to see a photogenic rainbow when the sun is less than 20º or so above the horizon. In the mid-latitudes, that means rainbows are most often seen in the last (or first) two hours of the day.
If you can see the shadow of your head, you can quickly estimate where a rainbow will appear using a measuring tool built right into your body. Extend your arms straight out and touch thumb tip to thumb tip. Spread the fingers of both hands as wide as possible, and place the tip of your left little finger on the shadow of your head. Sight toward the tip of your right little finger and scribe an arc in the air, keeping the tip of your left little finger on the shadow of your head. That arc is where a rainbow will appear because, for most people, a double hand span covers an angle of roughly 42º.
Predict, Position And Shoot
Many of the best rainbow photographs show the rainbow arcing up and over something photogenic in its own right. You probably won't have time to move to such a location once a rainbow appears, so you should plan where you want to be in advance. To do that, you need to know where a rainbow will intersect a level horizon. First, determine the direction of the sun. If the sun is visible, measure its bearing with a compass. If it's hidden in clouds, you can consult an app on your smartphone. I like Sun Surveyor (iPhone and Android, _URL_) and The Photographer's Ephemeris (iPhone and Android, _URL_). Or you can consult a printout of sun positions you made before your trip (Figure 3). I like the inexpensive Heavenly-Opportunity software package (Windows, ho.fossilcreeksoft.com).
Figure 3
However you get the sun's position, the next step is to subtract 180º from the sun's bearing. The result is the direction of the antisolar point, or to be more precise, the direction to the point on the horizon directly above the antisolar point (which usually will be below the horizon). Let's call this point the "horizon antisolar point."
If the sun is about to set, the problem is simple. The right limb of the primary bow will intersect the horizon 42º to the right of the horizon antisolar point. The left limb will intersect the horizon 42º left of the horizon antisolar point. This calculation is exact if the sun is right on the horizon and is still a reasonable approximation at any sun altitude less than 10º, or about an hour or less before sunset.
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The Barbary stag (Cervus elaphus barbarus), or Atlas deer is a subspecies of red deer that is native to North Africa.
The Barbary stag is smaller than the typical red deer. Its body is dark brown with some white spots on its flanks and back. The antlers lack the bez (second) tine.
The Atlas deer is the only member of the deer family that is native to Africa. It thrives in forested areas of northeastern Algeria and western Tunisia.
The Barbary stag have or had predators like the Barbary lion
, the Atlas bear
, and the Barbary leopard
but they're either became extinct


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Takatāpui (also spelt takataapui) is the Māori word meaning a devoted partner of the same sex. In modern terminology, a person that identifies as takatāpui is a Māori individual that is queer, in other words gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender or transsexual.
The term is not new, but the application of it is very recent. In the 1980s, there was a desire for a label to describe an individual that is both Māori and non-heterosexual. The word takatāpui was found to have existed in pre-colonial New Zealand to describe relationships between people of the same sex. The existence of this word kills the conservative Māori argument that homosexuality did not exist in Māori society prior to the arrival of Europeans. Derivatives of takatāpui include takatāpui kaharua for bisexual, takatāpui wahine for lesbian and takatāpui wahine ki tāne or takatāpui tāne ki wahine for transmen or transwomen.
- LGBT New Zealand
- List of gay-related topics
- List of transgender-related topics
- Homosexuality and transgender
|This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Takatāpui. The list of authors can be seen in the. As with LGBT Info, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0.|


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A cow/goat/donkey is tethered to a building/fence/post in a field...Answers to a number of similar questions can be found in the Dr. Math archives (see below for a list). We'll show you a few of them and we encourage you to explore the others.
From: Doctor Anthony
This problem comes up from time to time in the guise of the length of the rope required to tether a goat (instead of a donkey) on the boundary of a circular field such that the goat can eat exactly half the grass in the field.
Here is a diagram to refer to while we go through the working:
Draw a circle with suitable radius r.
Now take a point C on the circumference and with a slightly larger radius R draw an arc of a circle to cut the first circle in points A and B. Join AC and BC.
Let O be the centre of the first circle of radius r. Let angle OCA = x (radians). This will also be equal to angle OCB.
The area we require is made up of a sector of a circle radius R with angle 2x at the centre, C, of this circle, plus two small segments of the first circle of radius r cut off by the chords AC and BC.
The area of the sector of circle R is (1/2)R^2*2x = R^2*x
The area of the two segments
= r^2[pi - 2x - sin(2x)]
We add the two elements of area and equate to (1/2)pi*r^2
4x*cos^2(x) + pi - 2x - sin(2x) = (1/2)pi
4x*cos^2(x) + (1/2)pi - 2x - sin(2x) = 0
Newton-Raphson is a suitable method for solving this equation, using a starting value for x at about 0.7 radians.
The solution I get is x = 0.95284786466 and from this cos(x) = 0.579364236509
and so finally R/r = 2cos(x) = 1._PHONE_
From: Dr. Ken
I have made a sketch of this problem using The Geometer's Sketchpad:
Basically, the shape of the grazing area is circular with a little chunk out of it. In my drawing, the barn looks like this:
COW / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / ____________/ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |____________|With this setup, the chunk that's missing from the grazing circle is in the lower lefthand corner. The right half of the grazing area, then, is just the area of the semicircle, which is 1250. To find the area of the remaining grazing area (including the area of the barn, which you subtract later), you use integration.
Do you see how the grazing area in the lower lefthand corner is the intersection of two circles? You need to find that intersection point, integrate to find the area of the grazing area to the left of the intersection point, and then do the same to the area to the right of the intersection point.
From: Dr. Peterson
Let's say that the cow is x feet from one end of the longer wall of the barn and y = 20-x feet from the other:
The heavy curve in the figure shows the maximum extent of the cow's range, which consists of several arcs of circles. First there is an arc of radius 50 centered at the tether point P; then when the rope wraps around either corner of the barn, it follows an arc of 50-x or 50-y feet respectively, centered at that corner (A or D); when it wraps around another corner (B or C) the radius becomes 50-x-10 or 50-y-10 respectively.
We don't need to worry about all these arcs, because the last few overlap and do not add any area to the region that can be grazed. (You'll have to be careful to determine which arcs intersect for a given location of P.) The total area consists of:
So how do we find where the circles intersect? Applying the Law of Cosines to triangle BQD, we can find angles BDQ and DBQ; and since we know angles ADB and ABD, we can determine the angles we need for the two sectors. There's some work left to do, but it's all doable, and it will be easier if x is a constant rather than a variable.
Finally, if the rope is short enough (less than half the perimeter of the barn), the problem simplifies immensely. With no overlap to consider, the area is merely the sum of halfand quarter-circles:
More from the Dr. Math archives:
Math Forum Home || Math Library || Quick Reference || Math Forum Search


Literature: The Bone Season
The Bone Season is the 2013 debut novel of author Samantha Shannon. Set in a Dystopian, Alternate History England, the story follows a magic-user (called "voyants", short for clairvoyant, in the book) named Paige Mahoney. Since 1859, when the voyant phenomenon first became public knowledge, England has operated under an oppressive and strongly anti-voyant government known as Scion. Paige belongs to a class of criminal voyants who use their contact with spirits and the spirit world (known as the aether) to commit crime while avoiding the government forces charged with rounding up any voyants. Paige herself is a special kind of voyant known as a "dreamwalker", capable of separating her spirit from her physical body and entering others' bodies through their "dreamscapes."
Paige is captured by the government after using her powers to kill several government agents. She is then transported to the city of Oxford, now a penal colony known as Sheol I. The penal colony is run by a magical race known as the Rephaim. In 1859 the Rephaim arrived on Earth through a rift in the aether, along with a man-eating race known as the Emim. In exchange for the Rephaim protecting Earth from the Emim, the Rephaim have required a tribute of young voyants each decade known as a "Bone Season." The voyants are held in the penal colony and are used a beacon to attract the Emim, as well as a makeshift army to fight the Emim incursions. Voyants are assigned to a Rephaite "keeper" and are kept essentially in slavery. Those who display cowardice or refuse to fight the Emim are forced to perform for the Rephaim as poor and mistreated "harlies."
Paige is chosen by the Rephaite Arcturus Mesarthim, known as the Warden, who has never previously chosen a human. She must learn from the Warden the basics of how to survive in her new environment, all while trying to escape back to her home in London.
The book has met with considerable success. Many media sources have compared the book to the Harry Potter series, due to the similarity of Shannon to J.K. Rowling, including sharing the same publisher. The book has also drawn comparisons with The Hunger Games series, due to its shared nature as a dystopian novel with a female protagonist. The film rights to the book have already been picked up by Andy Serkis' Imaginarium Studios. A sequel is also currently in the works.
This novel provides examples of:
 - Aura Vision: "Sighted" voyants can see the aura given off by other voyants.
 - Alternate History: Splits off with the main timeline around the Victorian Era. In 1859, the rift opens in the aether due to a build-up of dead spirits, allowing the Rephaim and Emim to enter Earth. Edward VII is blamed for the Jack the Ripper murders and accused of being a voyant. He is deposed as King and the government of Scion is established.
 - Big Bad: Nashira.
 - Color-Coded Wizardry: Each voyant gives off an aura, which has a different color depending on the voyant's gift.
 - Eldritch Abomination: The Emim seem to be an example of this.
 - Fate Worse Than Death: Nashira's victims are forced to become "fallen angels," spirits which protect her and which grant her their former powers.
 - Future Slang: Played with, in that the book is set 50 years in the future but much of the slang comes from Victorian English.
 - Incompatible Orientation: Nick and Paige.
 - Mayfly-December Romance: the Warden and Paige.
 - Our Vampires Are Different: While the Warden explicitly states in-book that the Rephaim aren't vampires, there are still a number of similarities. They're nearly immortal, feed on human auras, and drinking human blood can heal them.
 - Oxbridge: Sheol I is what remains of Oxford.
 - Psychic Link: the Warden and Paige inadvertently form one because of their bad habit of saving each other's lives. Oops.
 - Psychic Nosebleed: Paige caused these in people she was angry at before she fully understood her gift.
 - The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The Seven Seals are set up as a badass criminal gang, but they don't seem to do any actual crime aside from selling sketchy paintings.
 - United Europe: SCION controls nine European nations, not all of them named (Britain, Ireland, France, Greece, Serbia and Sweden are). How much autonomy the various countries governments have isn't really gotten into although Britain and Ireland are completely under its control.


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10 things about the vuvuzela
The Vuvuzela has become the unofficial symbol of the 2010 World Cup - and seems to be loved and hated in equal measure. Here are 10 things you might not know about the tuneless horn.So what exactly is a vuvuzela?
It is plastic horn, brightly coloured, and seen in abundance at sporting events in South Africa. The first vuvuzelas seen at sporting events in the early 90s were made from a sheet of metal. A standard vuvuzela is 65cm long but some can be up to a metre long.Where do they originate?
No-one really knows. The most commonly-held belief is that it is related to the kudu horn that was blown to summon African villagers to meetings.
However, earlier this year, the Nazareth Baptist Church claimed the vuvuzela as its own - used by its members on pilgrimages - and threatened legal action to stop them being used at the World Cup.What does "vuvuzela" mean?
Again, it appears to be a matter of debate. Some think it comes from the Zulu word for "making noise". Others say it is township slang for "shower" because it "showers people with music". Many believe it means "pump up".How did it end up as a fixture of the football stadium?
The Nazarath Baptist Church says it "lost" the vuvuzela back in the 1990s when a supporter of South Africa's biggest football team visited the church. Unable to take the long metal trumpet inside the football grounds, he re-modelled it in plastic.
Vuvuzela-makers say they began to mass-produce the instrument in plastic when the original tin version began to make appearances at games during the 1990s.So describe the sound?
The typical pitch of a vuvuzela is said to be B flat below middle C.
On its own, it has been compared unflatteringly to an elephant passing wind. When there is a football terrace full of the instruments, the sound has been likened to a swarm of angry wasps.Annoying possibly, but harmful?
Recent tests found noise levels from a vuvuzela, at full volume and when pressed against your ear, equates to 127 decibels.
This is louder than a drum at 122 decibels, a chainsaw at 100 decibels and a referee's whistle at 121.8 decibels.
The Hear the World Foundation - set up by Swiss hearing products group Phonax to raise awareness about hearing loss - has warned that extended exposure to such noise risks permanent hearing loss.
They have been urging fans to use protection, such as ear plugs and ear muffs.
Some South African shopkeepers say they have run out of ear plugs called Vuvu-Stops.
Neil van Schalkwyk of Masincedane Sport - a vuvuzela-maker - says his firm has now produced an instrument that is 20 decibels lower than the older version.Any other health issues?
Well, a London doctor is warning that the vuvuzela could also spread colds and flu germs.
Dr Ruth McNerney, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told The Associated Press that the instrument has the potential to infect those seated near a person blowing a vuvuzela because a "lot of breath goes through" it.
She said a recent study found that aerosols, tiny droplets which can carry flu and cold germs, were formed at the bottom of a vuvuzela after people had blown into them.
Those particles are small enough to stay suspended in the air for hours, and can enter into the airways of a person's lungs, Dr McNerney said.So what are people saying about the vuvuzela?
Several players complained about the vuvuzela when they were first heard during the Confederations Cup last year, a World Cup dress rehearsal.
Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk has banned them from his team's training sessions, and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo admitted this week: "It is difficult for anyone on the pitch to concentrate."
Even some fans watching matches on their television have reported having to put the sound on mute to escape the cacophany.Surely some people other than South Africans must like them?
Yes. They've had a ringing endorsement from Fifa President Sepp Blatter who says they will not be banned.
He said on Twitter that "Africa has a different rhythm, a different sound" and it is an important tradition among South African fans that should be celebrated.
England player Jamie Carragher says he will be taking some vuvuzelas home with him. "My kids have been on the phone and they want two. I've got two in my bag already".Has the controversy affected sales?
On the contrary. Neil van Schalkwyk says his firm has sold 1.5m vuvuzelas in Europe since October and expects sales of up to 20 million rand ($2.6m; £1.7m) over the course of the tournament.
Brandon Bernardo of the vuvuzela.co.za website told Reuters news agency they could churn out at least 10,000 instruments a day. "We're completely sold out," he said.
Furthermore, a Dutch designer firm has released a Vuvuzela 2010 app. According to its website, they have had 750,000 downloads of the application.
Even without the World Cup, South Africa's vuvuzela industry is said to be worth around 50 million rand ($6.45m; £4.4m).


Apple examining ways to detect light through a display for Face ID, Touch ID
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Apple is continuing to refine its work on light sensors that could work through a display, likely for use in a future version of Face ID or Touch ID on an iPhone.
Current iPhone models, like the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro series, house their Face ID system and sensor suite in a notch at the top of the display. Apple, however, is working on a system that could ultimately allow it to minimize or nix the notch entirely.
In a patent application published March 4 and titled "Sensing System for Detection of Light Incident to a Light Emitting Layer of an Electronic Device Display," Apple lays out a system to embed a light detection layer in the display stack. "In particular, light sensors associated with the light sensing system can be distributed around or within an active display area of the display," the patent reads.
The patent gives two immediate examples, claiming that the light sensors could "assemble an image of an object touching the display." That could work for in-display Touch ID based on an optical imaging system. The patent also contends that the iPhone's ambient light sensor could also be included.
An array of light sensors embedded between pixel areas of a display. Credit: Apple
More specifically, the system itself could include an array of photodiodes or solar cells integrated between pixels regions or the perimeter of a light-emitting display. The system could use electrical signals from the photodiodes or solar cells to "sense a color" or the "intensity of light incident to the display stack."
The patent notes that it mostly covers use of the system for an ambient light sensor, but adds that its value doesn't stop there.
"[An ambient light sensor] is merely one example and in other implementations the light sensing system can be suitably configured to be used as, or with: an optical imaging system (e.g. camera, light field sensor, depth sensor, fingerprint imaging sensor, iris or retina imaging system, and so on); a touch input sensor; a force input sensor; a biometric measurement system (e.g., photoplethysmogram sensor, blood oxygenation sensor, respiration sensor, and so on); and so on," the patent claims.
Most of the patent's descriptions focus on the ambient light sensor. Even if it's only used for an ambient light sensor, the system could be used to reduce the size of the notch in future iPhone models since the light sensor is currently embedded in the notch.
However, given rumors that Apple is looking to minimize the notch or bring back Touch ID on a future handset, it's likely that the patent application is part of a growing body of technology that could make that happen.
The patent application lists Mohammad Yeke Yazdandoost; Lun Tsai; Meng-Huan Ho; Niva A. Ran; Akshay Bhat; Volodymyr Borshch; Anand K. Chamakura; and Giovanni Gozzini as its inventors. Many of them have been previously credited on patent applications related to display-embedded components, including cellular or Wi-Fi antennas or under-display Touch ID.
Apple files numerous patents on a weekly basis, so an individual patent application isn't a good indicator of the timing or likelihood of a product release.
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Asynchronous MySQL Queries in Perl Using DBD::mysql and AnyEvent
A lot of people use MySQL, and these days, asynchronous-style programming has really taken off. If you're involved in both of these camps, you may be wondering
for each connection, and exchange data using IPC. However, if you're using Perl and DBD-mysql 4.019 or better, you have an alternative: the new asynchronous interface.
Using the new ="pr…
At INOC, my place of work, I work on a lot of web applications with the backend written in Perl using Catalyst, and the frontend written in Javascript using ExtJS. With a UI written completely in Javascript, I often encounter bugs of the following form:
 1. Fire up Catalyst.
 2. Login.
 3. Click through half a dozen controls in the UI.
 4. Enter some data.
 5. Click "submit".
 6. Watch the web application give you an angry error.
As you can imagine, the ti…
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A crowbar, also be known as a pry bar, wrecking bar, gorilla bar or pinch bar, is a metal bar tool that has flatted points at each end, often with a small fissure to help remove nails or prise two materials or objects apart. One end of the bar is curved into a hook shape, which is a first-class lever and is usually the end most commonly used, and the straighter flat end is a second-class lever. (It is commonly believed this hooked end is where the tool gets its name from, as it resembles the beak of a crow.)
Crowbars are usually made from medium carbon steel to offer sustained strength and durability, but can also be made from titanium, which creates a lighter tool. They are forged from long steel products, such as rods and rails, and commonly have either cylindrical or hexagonal shapes to their bodies.
Our range of crowbars features products from industry leading brands, such as Bahco, GearWrench and RS PRO, and has tools ranging from 200mm to 1000mm or 8in to 48in.
The simplicity of a crowbar allows it to be considered a very versatile tool, enabling a wide range of work to be performed across multiple industries and their varied environments. The most common applications for crowbars are prising open nailed wooden crates, separating materials, such as boards, and can sometimes be used to remove nails from wooden surfaces.
Crowbars can be used in a vast multitude of projects that require a tool that can help exact leverage to separate materials, such as opening crates and pallet breaking in warehousing. They are also used commonly in renovation projects, used to remove panelling or lift flooring boards.
You might expect to see crowbars being used by any of the following industries:


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Wet vents are typically installed in bathrooms to allow water to drain from showers and baths. They also come in handy when you want to wash your dishes, since they can be used as a dishwasher and hand basin. While some people refer to them as shower drains, the official term is "drain assembly" or "vent assembly."
What is a Wet Vent?
A wet vent is a device that connects the drain of your shower or bathtub to the main drainage system. In other words, it allows water to flow from your tub and down into the sink or toilet bowl. The most common types are listed below:
- Tub spout – a flexible drain assembly that fits over the tub spout.
- Tub stopper – a device that sits inside your tub and prevents water from flowing into it.
- Toilet vent – a hose or pipe installed in your toilet to allow water to flow out of the bowl and down into the sink or drain.
- Shower head – a shower head that can be mounted on the end of a hose or pipe to allow water to flow from your tub into the sink or toilet bowl.
Wet Vent Installation Rules
Several rules and tips for installing a wet vent:
- Ensure that the vent is installed in a location where it won't block other drains or lines, such as the sink drain.
- The vent should be installed at least 4 inches away from walls and under any sinks to prevent flooding when water flows through it.
- Use a wet vent hose that is at least 4 inches in diameter.
- Wet vents should be installed with a maximum flow rate of 5 gallons per minute, which is the same as most sinks and toilets.
- Install a gasket between the sink or toilet and the pipe or hose to prevent leaks.
- Place the wet vent pipe or hose on a flat surface that is easily accessible, such as a countertop or shelf in your bathroom.
- Use the correct size gasket for your sink and toilet and install it before connecting the drain assembly to the pipe or hose.
- Install the drain assembly in a position that allows water to flow from your tub into the sink or toilet bowl.
- Always make sure there are no kinks, leaks, and debris in your wet vent line before using it for any purpose.
What are the Advantages of Using a Wet Vent in Plumbing?
A wet vent allows you to install a pipe or hose directly into your tub. This means that you can connect it to the drain assembly without having to use any other pipes or hoses, which saves time and money.
It also makes installation easier because there are no plumbing humble TX lines that need to be connected. You can install a wet vent in almost any location, including inside the tub or shower stall, so you don't have to drill holes into your walls.
A wet vent also lets you adjust water flow with less effort than using an existing drain pipe. You can control the water flow rate by simply opening or closing the valve.
It can help you prevent back-flow, which is when water backs up into your tub from another drain pipe or hose. This can cause clogs and other problems that are expensive to fix.
There are many reasons why a wet vent might be present in your home. For instance, if you have a washing machine that is connected to the drain system, it can cause water to leak out of the pipe and into the wall. If this happens, there could be mildew buildup on the walls. This type of plumbing problem can be fixed with ease using these simple DIY steps.


One Year After Sandy, Fires Plague Boardwalks and Homes That Flooded
Wiring corroded by saltwater remains a hazard, experts say.
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Firefighters work to extinguish the fire that destroyed the Seaside Heights boardwalk. Corroded wiring could have been a factor in the fire's outbreak.
When a massive fire destroyed six blocks of boardwalk in Seaside Park and neighboring Seaside Heights in northern New Jersey last month, blame was placed on an event that had happened 11 months earlier: Superstorm Sandy.
How could last year's storm spark a fire that burned whole blocks of boardwalk and destroyed more than 50 businesses?
The answer lies in the invisible damage that floods can wreak on electrical wiring, experts say.
Even pinhole-size damage to an electrical wire's insulation can lead to the wire heating up over 200 degrees. This can spark a fire that can burn down homes, businesses, or, in this case, a beloved boardwalk that had just gotten back in business.
Using an electrical wire with damaged insulation under a boardwalk or in a home is "like driving a car on bald tires. It doesn't mean the car is going to fail, but it could," said Dave Brender, national program manager of electrical applications for the Copper Development Association, a trade group for the electrical industry. "You're asking for trouble."
Anatomy of a Wire
A typical electrical wire is made up of two components: The first is the metal that carries the electricity, which is commonly copper but can also be copper wound around an aluminum core. The second is the insulation, which is usually made out of polyvinyl chloride, also known as PVC.
PVC is a common insulator, but it's not perfect, said John Destasio, a machinery technician in Seaside Park.
"Because we need wiring to be flexible, we must make it out of a flexible material," he said. But that means it's "vulnerable to breakdown through time, erosion, and heat."
Windblown sand can cut tiny holes in the wiring's insulation, Destasio said. That allows water to seep in and come in contact with the metal of the wire's core.
Freshwater alone can corrode the metal (think about an old car rusting in the rain), but saltwater residue acts as an enhancer and speeds up the process (as does water tainted by gasoline from a flooded gas station, oil from a flooded car, or sewage from a burst sewer main).
That situation can create a dangerous feedback loop, Destasio said. Corrosion of the wire creates resistance to the electricity moving through it, which then generates more heat. Heat quickens corrosion on the wire, which further increases resistance, which generates even more heat.
Eventually, the hot wire reaches a temperature at which it breaks down more of the insulation. At that point, arcs of electricity can pass through the air from one wire to another, like little bolts of lightning.
"If that arc were hot enough, and [if it] comes into contact with something flammable, you get fire," said Destasio.
Salty Trouble
After a storm like Sandy, it can be hard to tell which wires inside structures were affected by water, and even harder to tell if insulation suffered small-scale damage.
The same problem emerged after the major flooding in Colorado in September and in North Dakota in April.
Even if the lights still work, there could be wire damage that leads to fires months or even years later, Brender said.
Technicians use ohmmeters to measure how much resistance is in a wire, Destasio said. If they find a great deal, it can suggest a wire is compromised, but wires with minimal damage often check out fine but can have problems later.
Much of the wiring used up and down the East Coast is decades old and may not be up to current codes. Some storm-damaged wiring may have had worn or substandard insulation to begin with.
Much of the wire used on boardwalks or in seaside structures was never intended to be flooded by seawater, because large storm events like Sandy have been relatively rare until recently.
Fires Spread
The Seaside fire was a big, visible example, but post-Sandy fires have been affecting homes and businesses along the Jersey Shore for months.
In March, the town of Strathmere—which has a year-round population of 158 people and is about 70 miles (113 kilometers) south of Seaside Park—saw two fires within 18 hours of each other. One was in an office and the other was in a home; both were determined to be linked to Sandy's flooding of internal wiring.
The official cause of the Seaside fire was the failure of electrical wiring that ran under the boardwalk. Officials attributed it to both the age of the wiring, some of which dated back to the 1970s, and to exposure to saltwater during Superstorm Sandy.
The danger doesn't stop with boardwalk wiring, though. Anything with a motor that was flooded by saltwater—like a garage refrigerator that started working again when the power came back on—poses a risk, said Brender.
The safest thing to do is replace any wiring that might have been affected by floodwater.
"That light bulb might light, but it's like a ticking time bomb, and you don't know it," Brender said.
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Modern RF/microwave integrated circuits are getting denser and/or compact in terms of number of circuit elements per unit area thereby leading to increased parasitic EM coupling. An efficient and recent CAD model for EM coupling based on circuit theory and deembedding concepts previously applied to passive EM circuit simulation is considered. For the first time, this new CAD technique is applied to EM coupling modeling of a nonlinear RF integrated circuit consisting of both active and passive components. The resulting circuit-level model is shown to be efficient for circuit simulation in terms of CPU-time.


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The name Parry originates from Welsh. It originated as a surname and is derived from "ap Harry," which can be translated to "son of Harry." Parry is a common name in Wales.
Similar Names: Parrie, Pary
Famous Parry Names: Parry Shen (actor), Parry Wayne Humphreys (politician)


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Queen's University
Meeting 7: Round Up
In this meeting, we discuss freedom of speech, family status, racial discrimination, religious accommodation and sexual harassment Investigation
Freedom of Expression
What happened when a University disciplines students for criticizing their prof on Facebook? (Prigden)
Family Status
What happens when an employer refuses to accommodate an employee with childcare issues? (Johnstone)
Can an Arbitration board hear the complaint of a probationary employee dismissed after her maternity leave? (Parry Sound)
What happens when you fire an employee after she announces that her child-care arrangements have changed? (Cavanaugh)
Racial Discrimination
Does a Human Rights tribunal have the power to remove a university dean and order the instatement of another candidate who was denied the position due to racism? (Seneca)
Can a complainant use employer attrition data to support an individual complaint of racial discrimination? (Carasco)
Can an employer offer benefits to non-aboriginal employees and not to aboriginal employees? (Malec)
What happens when a service provider singles out racialized minorities for identity checks? (Tahmourpour)
What happens when a deputy minister, to whom specific Tribunal orders to produce documentation have been directed, fails to comply with those orders? (Pieters)
Religious Accommodation
What happens when an insubordinate employee's religious beliefs are not accommodated? (Communications)
What happens when a religious accommodation policy violates provisions of the Collective Agreement? (Seneca)
Sexual Harassment Investigations
What happens when an employer fails to investigate when a male employee claims he is being harassed by his female subordinate? (Frolov)
At what point has a university fulfilled its substantial and procedural duties to investigate the sexual harassment? (Ford)
Kingston, Ontario, Canada. K7L 3N6. _PHONE_


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Remote diagnosis to optimize field service
Waylay's technology collects data from connected assets using sensors and monitoring systems, integrates and analyzes the data to increase operating efficiency, optimize energy usage, maximize yield, report anomalies, improve safety etc. Waylay adds an additional layer of intelligence to tie all data together by providing remote diagnosis to optimize field service, maintenance and alarm escalation.
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Waylay provides automated data processing and analysis for higher alarm accuracy, reducing false positives. Domain experts are empowered to implement automated data cleansing, data quality flagging and alarm handling rules to determine root cause issues across systems.
Applicable Industries


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Garbage Collection and TRIM in SSDs Explained – An SSD Primer
'Garbage Collection in SSDs' is a contributed article that was submitted by LSI and authored by Kent Smith, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Flash Components Division, LSI Corporation. It's importance cannot be understated for anyone venturing into today's world of SSDs.
Garbage collection (GC) is a fundamental process with all solid state drives (SSDs), but it can be implemented in different ways that can impact the overall SSD performance and endurance. In this article, we'll look at how GC works, how it can be implemented, and how it relates to the TRIM command and over provisioning.
Unlike hard disk drives (HDDs), NAND flash memory cannot overwrite existing data they must first erase old data before writing new data to the same location. With SSDs, GC is the name for the process of relocating existing data to new locations and allowing the surrounding invalid data to be erased. Flash memory is divided into blocks, which is further divided in pages. Data can be written directly into an empty page, but only whole blocks can be erased. Therefore, to reclaim the space taken up by invalid data, all the valid data from one block must be first copied and written into the empty pages of a new block. Only then can the invalid data in the original block be erased, making it ready for new valid data to be written.
The process is illustrated in Figure 1. Column one shows pages A-D are written to block X. Sometime later that data is changed, so pages A-D are written and the original pages A-D are marked invalid (shown in column two). At the same time, additional data is written to pages E-H. Column two shows these changes and now block X is full, but is holding space for now invalid data (A-D) which cannot be reclaimed until the whole block is erased.
To achieve this objective, the valid data in block X must be moved to a new block so that the original block can be erased to start over. Column three shows the data from pages A-D as well as E-H being written to a new block (Y), so the space from block X can be reclaimed by erasing it. The writes from this step are not from the host system and are the source for increased write amplification in an SSD, meaning the flash in the SSD is being written more than what came from the host originally. Since flash memory has a limited number of erase and write cycles this operation should be minimized when possible, but it is still a necessary part of an SSD's operation.
Figure 1: The garbage collection process. Source: Wikipedia
Note that wear leveling typically occurs during GC, as data is written to a variety of new blocks in order to spread wear around over the breadth of the SSD. Since there are a limited number of writes the flash can sustain over its lifetime, if data was always written to the same block, its life of write cycles would be exhausted prematurely compared to all other blocks. This continued early block retirement would eventually reduce the available capacity of the drive and prevent it from performing at its full capability. Ideally, all of the blocks of the SSD need to be worn at the same rate throughout the life of the drive.
OS AWARENESS VS DRIVE AWARENESS
In an HDD system, the Operating System (OS) can simply request that new data be written to the same location where the older, now invalid data, is stored, and the HDD will directly overwrite the old data. In an SSD, however, the page must first be erased before it can be written to locations previously holding data the SSD cannot directly overwrite existing data as stated earlier.
The OS understands the files, their structure, and the logical locations where they are stored, but does not understand the physical storage structure of the storage device. In any storage system, the storage device doesn't know the file structure it simply knows that there are bytes of data written in specific sectors. The storage system, whether SSD or HDD, returns the data from physical locations when the OS asks for data in the corresponding logical locations.
When the OS deletes the file, it simply marks the space used for that data as free in its logical data table. With HDDs, the OS does not need to tell the storage device anything about the deletion because it would simply write something new into that same physical location in the future. In the case of an SSD, it only becomes aware that the data is deleted (or invalid) when the OS tries to write to that location again. At that time the SSD marks the old data as invalid and it writes the new data to a new physical location. It may also perform GC at that same time, but that varies between SSD architectures and other conditions at that moment.


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While employers are allowed to withhold taxes, Social Security contributions, and your share of certain benefits from your paycheck, they cannot make deductions prohibited by law. You could have a claim for improper paycheck deductions if your employer has made any of the following prohibited deductions:
- Deducting money from your paycheck to cover a cash shortage, breakage, or "shrinkage" (theft or shoplifting);
- Making deductions for unidentified returns from commission sales;
- Reducing the bonus paid to you (if you are a manager) to cover losses in another department or division;
- Taking back a commission (if you are a salesperson) because a customer has defaulted on a payment installment;
- Charging employees for lost keys, tools, supplies or other company materials;
- Deducting any amount at all from a tip left for an employee; or,
- Deducting the cost of work-related expenses for items provided by the employer, including a required photograph, bond, uniform, work-related expenses or any pre-employment physical or medical examination that is a condition for employment.
If you believe that your employer has attempted to make you pay for business expenses that are by law properly the employer's responsibility you could have a claim.


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The True Rotational Symmetry of Space
The following deep, elegant, and beautiful explanation of the true rotational symmetry of space comes from the late Sidney Coleman, as presented to his graduate physics class at Harvard. This explanation takes the form of a physical act that you will perform yourself. Although elegant, this explanation is verbally awkward to explain, and physically awkward to perform. It may need to be practised a few times. So limber up and get ready: you are about to experience in a deep and personal way the true rotational symmetry of space!
At bottom, the laws of physics are based on symmetries, and the rotational symmetry of space is one of the most profound of these symmetries. The most rotationally symmetric object is a sphere. So take a sphere such as a soccer—or basket-ball that has a mark, logo, or unique lettering at some spot on the sphere. Rotate the sphere about any axis: the rotational symmetry of space implies that the shape of the sphere is invariant under rotation. In addition, if there is a mark on the sphere, then when you rotate the sphere by three hundred and sixty degrees, the mark returns to its initial position. Go ahead. Try it. Hold the ball in both hands and rotate it by three hundred and sixty degrees until the mark returns.
That's not so awkward, you may say. But that's because you have not yet demonstrated the true rotational symmetry of space. To demonstrate this symmetry requires fancier moves. Now hold the ball cupped in one hand, palm facing up. Your goal is to rotate the sphere while always keeping your palm facing up. This is trickier, but if Michael Jordan can do it, so can you.
The steps are as follows:
Keeping your palm facing up, rotate the ball inward towards your body. At ninety degrees—one quarter of a full rotation—the ball is comfortably tucked under your arm.
Keep on rotating in the same direction, palm facing up. At one hundred and eighty degrees—half a rotation—your arm sticks out in back of your body to keep the ball cupped in your palm.
As you keep rotating to two hundred and seventy degrees—three quarters of a rotation—in order to maintain your palm facing up, your arm sticks awkwardly out to the side, ball precariously perched on top.
At this point, you may feel that it is impossible to rotate the last ninety degrees to complete one full rotation. If you try, however, you will find that you can continue rotating the ball keeping your palm up by raising your upper arm and bending your elbow so that your forearm sticks straight forward. The ball has now rotated by three hundred and sixty degrees—one full rotation. If you've done everything right, however, your arm should be crooked in a maximally painful and awkward position.
To relieve the pain, continue rotating by an additional ninety degrees to one and a quarter turns, palm up all the time. The ball should now be hovering over your head, and the painful tension in your shoulder should be somewhat lessened.
Finally, like a waiter presenting a tray containing the pi'ece de resistance, continue the motion for the final three quarters of a turn, ending with the ball and your arm—what a relief—back in its original position.
If you have managed to perform these steps correctly and without personal damage, you will find that the trajectory of the ball has traced out a kind of twisty figure eight or infinity sign in space, and has rotated around not once but twice. The true symmetry of space is not rotation by three hundred and sixty degrees, but by seven hundred and twenty degrees!
Although this excercise might seem no more than some fancy and painful basketball move, the fact that the true symmetry of space is rotation not once but twice has profound consequences for the nature of the physical world at its most microscopic level. It implies that 'balls' such as electrons, attached to a distant point by a flexible and deformable'strings,' such as magnetic field lines, must be rotated around twice to return to their original configuration. Digging deeper, the two-fold rotational nature of spherical symmetry implies that two electrons, both spinning in the same direction, cannot be placed in the same place at the same time. This exclusion principle in turn underlies the stability of matter. If the true symmetry of space were rotating around only once, then all the atoms of your body would collapse into nothingness in a tiny fraction of a second. Fortunately, however, the true symmetry of space consists of rotating around twice, and your atoms are stable, a fact that should console you as you ice your shoulder.


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M E M O R A N D U M O F U N D E R S T A N D I N G
The purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is to establish and promote a strategic and cooperative partnership between IBICT and euroCRIS.
euroCRIS is a not-for-profit, statutory association (_URL_), governed by Dutch law, dedicated to the development and implementation on an institutional, national as well as international level of top-quality research information systems and their interoperability, based on CERIF (Common European Research Information Format). One of euroCRIS's main objectives is the promotion of cooperation and exchange of expertise between stakeholders in the research information domain, in particular by setting up Strategic Partnerships with international organisations in the field of Research Information.
IBICT (http:// _URL_), the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology is a Research Unit linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI) and is responsible for information systems related to research and innovation in Brazil. Its main mission is to promote the competence, the development of resources and the infrastructure of information on science, technology and innovation (ST&I) in Brazil.
Both euroCRIS and IBICT share a vision of realising optimal research information infrastructures through the setup and support of Current Research Information Systems (CRIS), enabling the information management of research projects, researchers, research organisations, and research outputs, whereby a CRIS is regarded as the major tool in creating an overview of all data related to science, technology, and innovation be it on a Federal or State level. Both organisations acknowledge the importance of international standardisation in the setup of CRIS and research information exchange between systems and more specifically the key role for the Common European Research Information Format (CERIF) in this respect. Besides, IBCIT is of the opinion that the implementation of a CRIS-system is crucial in the further development and improvement of Research Information in Brazil.
The motivation for this MoU is to share knowledge and experience and to support each other's endeavours in the fields defined in the agreement.
The strategic partners will work together:
(a) To promote the setup of an optimal CRIS-infrastructure in Brazil, including the following aspects:
- Formulation of an appropriate Research Information Policy and Management Framework, both on a national and state level.
- Choice and implementation of appropriate CRIS software (CRIS systems).
- Realisation of compatibility between CRIS and related information systems based on international standards.
- Setup of an adequate support framework for the (use of the) CRIS infrastructure.
- Development of services based on the CRIS infrastructure for the various stakeholder groups.
- Organisation of trainings for the various user and stakeholder groups (researchers, research managers, policy makers, funders, etc...).
(b) To promote the realisation of optimal research information policies and practices, and in this respect to influence policies and policy makers on both a national (governmental) and international level (e.g. the EU and Latin America) on:
- The importance of CRIS and e-infrastructures based on CRIS as primary resource for research information.
- The importance of the use of international standards in research information and more specifically the implementation of CERIF, the Common European Research Information Format.
- The support to policy formulation for the conception and implementation of CRIS systems (through examples and good practices)
- The need to establish interoperability between information systems at various levels
(c) To make known and communicate each other's activities and accomplishments with their stakeholders and at each other's events.
In order to achieve the above mentioned objectives, both partners agree on the following concrete actions for collaboration:
Upon request by IBICT euroCRIS may provide support and assistance to IBICT concerning:
- policy formulation related to the conception and implementation of CRIS systems (e.g., examples and good practices);
- providing arguments in the convincing of decisions makers;
- the evaluation of new software options that could be used to implement CRIS systems in Brazil;
- the implementation of DSpace-CRIS as one of the software options;
- training in CERIF and in the establishment of CRIS services based on CERIF;
- the realization of compatibility between information systems; and
- general trainings and awareness raising concerning the meaning and importance of CRIS systems.
The support rendered by euroCRIS will be based on reimbursement of expenses for travel and hours spent. The concrete details of the support activities will be worked out in separate agreements between the partners.
- Representatives of euroCRIS shall be invited to conferences and seminars organised by IBICT
- Representatives of IBICT shall be invited to the euroCRIS annual Strategic Membership Meeting and to the CRIS biennial conferences. The person(s) attending will be designated by IBICT.
- IBICT agrees to participate in appropriate euroCRIS Task Groups to contribute to the development of the IBICT-CERIF roadmaps.
- Best practices in IBICT-implementation through CRIS will be specifically highlighted within the work of the euroCRIS Best Practice Task Group.
- A common distribution list will be created for the euroCRIS/IBICT joint group.
- Both organisations will periodically offer information on activities of the other partner in their respective communication channels.
- For reasons of efficiency in time and costs, communication will be through teleconference or webinar when appropriate.
The logo of both strategic partners will be placed on each other's website under the respective heading with a hyperlink to the homepage of the strategic partner. Both parties shall approve any public announcement regarding this MoU. Each party may suggest that its logo be used in accordance with provided guidelines.
Liabilities and Termination
This agreement does not define a financial relationship between the strategic partners, but does not exclude that such relationships could be negotiated. The agreement does not restrict the rights and responsibilities of each partner nor increase them. This agreement remains in force until terminated in writing by each party. Upon termination, both parties will remove the logo and hyperlink of the other party from their websites.
January, 8, 2016
For IBICT For euroCRIS
Cecília Leite Oliveira Ed Simons
Director Chair of Management Board


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gad rgyangs wrote:Acchantika wrote:This
and perhaps this
may be helpful to understand the kinds of statements I believe are being referred to.
Ok, according to the first page you link to, it says "An assertion is a speech act in which something is claimed to hold...in an assertion it is asserted that so-and-so"
- 2.1 Presupposition
A sentence such as
(4) Kepler died in misery
is not true unless the singular term 'Kepler' has reference.
If we consider this in terms of your examples, we remember that Nagarjuna spent the previous 23 chapters negating the possibility of a referent.
So taken in context, they cannot be said to be asserting something.


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RSJtravel Program's objective is to introduce Russian-speaking Jewish families to the contribution of the Jewish community to the local cultural, communal, and civic life of the communities through the immersive multi-day travel experience.
The trips are combined with the guided walking tours exploring historical sights & landmarks, peer-led discussions of Jewish-themed topics, and community-building exercises (often organized in partnership with the local Jewish communities). The trips are an informative and memorable experience for all ages. Participants are immersed in the Jewish culture of the city by visiting synagogues, important historical landmarks, and meeting local Jewish leaders.
A sample of the recent trip include:
- Washington D.C.
- Rhode Island
- Day trips (e.g., Harlem, Lower East Side)


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Definition of Hearing instrument
Hearing instrument: A synonym for a hearing aid that gained popularity to distinguish the device from AIDS. See: Hearing aid.Source: MedTerms™ Medical Dictionary
Last Editorial Review: 10/9/2012
Drug Medical Dictionary of Terms by Letter
Medical Dictionary Term:
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