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the classic British curry
Did the British invent curry? No. Is there such a thing as a British curry? Yes.
When I say "British curry" I don't mean something like Chicken Tikka Masala which is a restaurant invention created by British Asian restaurateurs to satisfy the British taste for curries. What I'm talking about goes way further back than the 1970's when Chicken Tikka Masala was first concocted. I am talking about the sort of curry which was served by British memsahibs in colonial India in the 19th century and which subsequently became as British as roast beef.
So let's look at the dish that fuelled an empire.
Firstly let me explain why I am describing the curry as British rather than just English. The British Empire was exactly that, British. The Scots in particular played an important part in shaping the empire and many Scots saw service in India. It was the British as a whole who adopted the curry as their own not just the English.
When the British first established trading posts in India in the mid 17th century they were simply trading partners. The food eaten by the employees of the East India Company would have been largely the same as the food eaten by the local Indian population. And there appears to have been plenty of choice; one East India Company employee wrote in 1759 "The currees are infinitely various". By the time the British had become the colonial rulers of India in the mid 1800's there had been a huge influx of British nationals into India to administer British affairs. The British colonials were by now eating predominantly British-style food although they found that they had to adapt to local conditions and use local produce. Numerous books were written to help newly arrived young British wives advising them how and what to cook and how to manage a household in India.
My favourite author of the time was a cavalry officer named Colonel Arthur Kenney-Herbert who, on his eventual return to England, became a "celebrity chef" of his day. While he was in India he wrote a best selling cookery book under the pseudonym Wyvern entitled Culinary Jottings For Madras first published in 1878. In his introduction Wyvern explains "Our dinners of to-day would indeed astonish our Anglo-Indian forefathers". He continues "Quality has superseded quantity, and the molten curries and florid oriental compositions of the olden time - so fearfully and wonderfully made - have been gradually banished from our dinner tables."
Wyvern's book is mainly concerned with how to cook British and European dishes under Indian conditions but, even so, there is an enlightening chapter entitled Our Curries. He did not write this chapter to describe local Indian dishes nor to give recipes for those "molten curries" of earlier generations of British colonials who had "gone native" in their eating habits. No, he is writing about the Anglicised curries of the Raj and they are ours. They are British curries. The Indian staff of British households may have cooked them but I don't expect they eat them any more than the Bangladeshi staff at your local curry house eat the Chicken Tikka Masala off the menu. Wyvern's curries from Madras are made with a home-made curry powder, onions and garlic cooked in butter, a sweet-sour agent (his favourite was redcurrant jelly), coconut milk and meat stock. He uses additional aromatic spices like cloves, cinnamon and cardamoms and flavourings like fresh ginger and herbs to give each curry an individual flavour. Wyvern considers his curries to be on a par with the best British and French food. But he was an old India hand and laments the trend where "curries now-a-days are only licensed to be eaten at breakfast, at luncheon, and perhaps at the little home dinner". By the time Wyvern was writing a memsahib wouldn't dream of serving curry at a dinner party.
Curry recipes were commonly taken home by returning colonials but in Britain the fresh ingredients were either hard to find or were too expensive for ordinary households in Britain. Eliza Acton wrote in 1845 "The great superiority of the oriental curries over those generally prepared in England is not, we believe, altogether the result of a want of skill or experience on the part of our cooks, but is attributable in some measure to many of the ingredients, which in a fresh and green state add so much to their excellence, being here beyond our reach". The lack of fresh curry ingredients fuelled a huge demand for curry powder and a lucrative export industry built up centred around Madras (now Chennai). Mrs Beeton includes the recipes for a dozen curries in her famous Book of Household Management of 1861 and the sauces are all made with curry powder, thickened with flour and can include some chopped apple for a sweet-sour flavour. Her main ingredient is often re-heated meat or fish left over from other meals. Even though Mrs Beeton's curries would all taste much the same they were economical to make and became extremely popular in Britain as away of using up meat from the traditional Sunday roast dinner. This type of recipe became the Classic British Curry for the next 100 years.
The decline in popularity of the traditional roast dinner and the relative affluence of a society that doesn't need to make the most of leftovers has meant that the Classic British Curry has steadily fallen out of favour since the early 1970's. So does that mean that the British love affair with curry has ended? Not a bit of it. We eat more curries than ever before. It's just their style that has changed. Curries are now made in the style of the Indian restaurants which spread throughout Britain in the 1970's and 80's. In any British supermarket you can buy a great variety of ready made curries or jars of curry sauce to add to the fresh meat or vegetables of your choice. Curiously, Chicken Madras is still one of the best selling curries but it's gone back to being more like Wyvern's version rather than Mrs Beeton's.
recipe for Classic British Curry
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Assessing the Evidence: The Effectiveness and Impact of Public Governance-Oriented Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives
Transnational multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) – voluntary partnerships between governments, civil society, and the private sector – are an increasingly prevalent strategy for promoting government responsiveness and accountability to citizens. While most transnational MSIs involve using voluntary standards to encourage socially and environmentally responsible private sector behavior, a handful of these initiatives – the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST), the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the Global Initiative on Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) and the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) – focus on information disclosure and participation in the public sector. Unlike private sector MSIs, which attempt to supplement weak government capacity to enforce basic social and environmental standards through partnerships between businesses and civil society, public sector MSIs ultimately seek to bolster public governance. But how exactly are these MSIs supposed to work? And how much has actually been achieved?
The purpose of this study is to identify and consolidate the current state of the evidence for public governance-oriented MSI effectiveness and impact. Researchers collected over 300 documents and interviewed more than two-dozen MSI stakeholders about their experiences with five public governance oriented multi-stakeholder initiatives.
This report provides a 'snapshot' of the evidence related to these five MSIs, and suggests that the process of leveraging transparency and participation through these initiatives for broader accountability gains remains uncertain. The report highlights the ongoing process of defining MSI success and impact, and how these initiatives intersect with other accountability actors and processes in complex ways. The study closes with key recommendations for MSI stakeholders.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
The amount of units in closing stock is calculated as follows:
Opening units + Actual units produced – Actual units sold.
Therefore closing stock equals = 3,500 + 64,000 + 62,000 = 5,500 units.
Under Marginal costing each unit of orange juice will be valued at the variable cost of production. This is calculated as follows:
Total variable production cost divided by the number of actual units produced.
Variable cost per unit = $3,200,000/64,000 units = $50 per unit.
Therefore the value of the closing stock under marginal costing would be $50 x 5,500 unit = $275,000.
The value of the opening stock under marginal costing would be the total of opening inventory given minus the value of the fixed production overheads included:
Therefore the opening stock = $210,000 - $35,000 = $175,000.
Now that all of the workings have been completed the Marginal Costing Income Statement of Aqualead for the year ended 31st March, 2011 can be prepared.
Below is the Absorption Costing Income Statement of Aqualead for the year ended 31st March, 2011.
Now that the Absorption and Marginal Costing Income Statements have been prepared the reconciliation between the Net Operating Incomes calculated under each method can be completed.
I hope that you found this proposed solution helpful! If you did please share it! Also, feel free to ask any questions or to comment below. Best of luck!
The author holds a Bsc (Hons) Degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University, England and enjoys a successful career as an Accounting Supervisor and a private tutor.


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Solving a Ratio Problem
Date: 02/06/2006 at 20:21:39 From: Jennifer Subject: How do you solve a ratio? There are 33 red and yellow counters in a container. The ratio of red to yellow is 3 to 8. How many red and yellow counters are there? I know there are 33 and that for every three red there are eight yellow.
Date: 02/06/2006 at 22:08:44 From: Doctor George Subject: Re: How do you solve a ratio? Hi Jennifer, Thanks for writing to Doctor Math. I'll show you two ways to think about this problem, one using algebra and one without it. One of my high school teachers showed me a clever way to solve this problem using algebra. If we use R and Y for the number of red and yellow counters then let R = 3x Y = 8x for some unknown value x. We can see immediately that R/Y has the correct ratio of 3/8. Now find the sum. R + Y = 33 Can you finish it from here? When you take the next step you should see the reason for introducing the new variable x. Another way to think about this, which is very similar but doesn't use the variable, is to think about groups of the counters. You know that for every 3 red there are 8 yellow, so together that would make a group of 11 counters. How many of those groups of 11 are there if there are 33 counters in the container? Can you use that information to figure out how many of each color there are? Write again if you need more help. - Doctor George, The Math Forum _URL_
Search the Dr. Math Library:
Ask Dr. MathTM
© _PHONE_ The Math Forum

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


Book a recurring diary appointment
The steps below outline how to book an appointment in the diary for a task you carry out regularly.
 1. Click Diary on the main homebar
 2. From Choose View, click the correct diary view and find the column with the initials of the person for whom you want to book the appointment
 - If the appointment is for yourself, click My Diary
 - If the appointment is for someone else, click My Office
 3. Toggle between Day, Week, Month or Agenda as required
 4. Click the start time in the relevant days column. This opens the New Event window
 5. Click the relevant Event Type
 6. Complete all of the relevant information, including the Appointment Details and Event Details
 - If you don't want others to see the content of the appointment, tick Is Private in Appointment Details. If anyone tries to open it, they'll receive the message This appointment is private and can only be viewed and edited by attendees of the appointment
 - If you tick Record Locked in Appointment Details, this means that others can view the appointment but not make changes. The lock can only be removed by the record owner
 1. In Appointment Details, change the Record Owner if required by selecting another name from the dropdown menu
 2. In the Choose Property (Optional) section, you can select a particular Property Address for the appointment. Type the address in the search field and click Select to automatically pull it into the appointment record. The same process applies for adding a person in the Choose Person (Optional) section
 7. At the bottom of the New Event window, you can set the Recurrence
 1. If you click DailyWeekly or Monthly, it'll provide you with more options to determine how frequently the appointment is to reoccur
 2. Set the Recurrence Pattern
 3. Set the Recurrence Range
 8. Once finished, click Save and the appointment and any recurring appointments will be populated into your diary
Related articles:
Adding a general appointment
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Parliamentary Question
Annotation of PSLE Certificates
05 October 2020
Mr Don Wee, Chua Chu Kang GRC
To ask the Minister for Education whether the Ministry will consider removing the annotation symbol from the PSLE certificates of those candidates who have been granted access arrangements during the PSLE such as extra time allowance.
1. Examinations are meant to certify the academic achievements of candidates and are administered under a set of standardised conditions. This is to ensure a fair examination and that examination results can be compared meaningfully across candidates.
2. For students with Special Educational Needs or medical conditions, standardised testing conditions may result in them being given an inadequate assessment of their abilities or being unable to take the examinations altogether. To cater to these candidates, the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) provides access arrangements, which may range from exemption from specific components of the examination and provision of extra time, to provision of a separate room or enlarged print.
3. When access arrangements have been granted, SEAB's policy is to annotate on the examination certificate only when there are significant modifications of the examination. This is done to indicate factually that the candidate has taken the examination under conditions that are different from the standard prescribed conditions, and to uphold the integrity and fairness of the examination.
4. A student's progression to secondary education will not be affected by the annotation, as school postings do not take such annotations into account.


text:
Definitions for edomˈi dəm
Random House Webster's College Dictionary
an ancient country between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, bordering ancient Palestine.
Category: Geography (places), Ancient History
The name given to Esau in the Hebrew Bible.
The nation that purportedly traced their ancestry to Esau.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia
or Idumæa, a mountainous but not unfertile country, comprising the S. of Judæa and part of the N. of Arabia Petræa, 100 m. long by 20 m. broad, peopled originally by the descendants of Esau, who were ruled by "dukes," and were bitterly hostile to the Jews.


Article Text
Unusual presentation of more common disease/injury
Can gout mimic a soft tissue tumour?
 1. Leong Wan Hee1,
 2. Vivek Ajit Singh1,
 3. Pailoor Jayalakshmi2
 1. 1University Malaya, Orthopaedics, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia
 2. 2University Malaya, Pathology, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia
 1. Correspondence to Vivek Ajit Singh, drvivek69{at}
Gout is a disease where an abnormal collection of uric crystals (gouty tophi) can often be found in the foot and ankle. Occasionally such tophies are found at unusual sites and this can pose a challenge to the clinician where diagnosis and treatment is concerned. We describe a patient who presented to our oncology department with a swelling on his right thigh which was clinically diagnosed to be a soft tissue sarcoma, but after further investigations it turned out to be a gouty tophi. The purpose of this case report is to emphasise the variable presentation of gout and the challenges that can be faced by clinicians in diagnosing a soft tissue swelling.
Statistics from
 - Competing interests: None.
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text:
Contenuto scaricabileScarica il pdf
Real-time Synchronous Slideshow Presentation Access Technology for the Blind
This research has developed a prototype software package called SPARC (Slideshow Presentation Access with Real-time Communication) that enables people with blindness or visual impairments to have synchronous access to slideshow presentation made with Microsoft Office PowerPoint, using cloud computing as a core Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The SPARC consists of three inter-related system components: a presenter add-in, a cloud service, and a user terminal application program. Once the slideshow starts, the presenter add-in automatically analyzes the current slide and convert it into accessible text format. Then, it publishes the converted text to the SPARC cloud service along with some metadata including a slide number, information on slide layout, and non-textual object properties in the current slide. The SPARC cloud service is a message-oriented middleware empowered by IoT technology and enables real-time communication between the presenter and the audience. The SPARC user terminal software is an application program that receives the slide information from the cloud service and displays it on user's assistive devices. In the lab trial where there were one computer on the presenter side and five different devices on the audience side, it was demonstrated that all the audience-side devices had successful real-time access to the current slide information synchronized with the active presentation on the presenter compute without any missing data and perceptible delays.


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You are strongly advised not to use this legacy feature on any axis where there is another offset applied.
To make the current point have the coordinates you want (without motion), program:
G92 X~ Y~ Z~ A~, where the axis words contain the axis numbers you want. All axis words are optional, except that at least one must be used. If an axis word is not used for a given axis, the coordinate on that axis of the current point is not changed.
It is an error if all axis words are omitted.
G52 and G92 use common internal mechanisms in the CS and may not be used together.
When G92 is executed, the origin of the currently active coordinate system moves. To do this, origin offsets are calculated so that the coordinates of the current point with respect to the moved origin are as specified on the line containing the G92. In addition, parameters 5211 to 5214 are set to the X-, Y-, Z-, A-axis offsets. The offset for an axis is the amount the origin must be moved so that the coordinate of the controlled point on the axis has the specified value.
Here is an example. Suppose the current point is at X=4 in the currently specified coordinate system and the current X-axis offset is zero, then G92 X7 sets the X-axis offset to -3, sets parameter 5211 to -3 and causes the X-coordinate of the current point to be 7.
The axis offsets are always used when motion is specified in absolute distance mode using any of the fixture coordinate systems. Thus, all fixture coordinate systems are affected by G92.
Being in incremental distance mode has no effect on the action of G92.
Non-zero offsets may already be in effect when the G92 is called. They are in effect discarded before the new value is applied. Mathematically the new value of each offset is A+B, where A is what the offset would be if the old offset were zero and B is the old offset. For example, after the previous example, the X-value of the current point is 7. If G92 X9 is then programmed, the new X-axis offset is -5, which is calculated by [[7-9] + -3]. Put another way the G92 X9 produces the same offset whatever G92 offset was already in place.
To reset axis offsets to zero, program: G92.1 or G92.2 G92.1 sets parameters 5211 to 5214 to zero, whereas G92.2 leaves their current values alone.
To set the axis offset values to the values given in parameters 5211 to 5214, program: G92.3
You can set axis offsets in one program and use the same offsets in another program by programming G92 in the first program. This will set parameters 5211 to 5214. Do not use G92.1 in the remainder of the first program. The parameter values will be saved when the first program exits and restored when the second one starts up. Use G92.3 near the beginning of the second program. That will restore the offsets saved in the first program.


Off-the-Wall: ToCs, Indexes and Bibliographies in OOo Writer
A new way of thinking about and tagging a document's table of contents and other supporting features makes sense and is more convenient.
Indexes and tables is the phrase that Writer uses for tables of contents (ToCs), indexes and bibliographies. The term also covers ToC variants, such as lists of illustrations or tables. At first, the need for the phrase seems momentarily puzzling. If you're like most people, you probably are used to thinking of ToCs, indexes and bibliographies as separate pieces with no relation to one another. That's how most word processors treat them. Roughly half the time, that's how the Writer interface treats them, too.
However, the term exists because Writer doesn't distinguish between these pieces of contents. Lists of figures, tables of contents, indexes, bibliographies--in Writer, all indexes and tables are treated as variations on the same structure. No matter what particular type you are creating, the procedure is identical:
 - Tag contents in the body of a document for inclusion.
 - Format the index or table.
 - Move the cursor to the position for the index or table and create it.
Each step has variations, depending on the type you are creating and, at times, your own preferences. But in each case, the basic procedure is the same.
Tagging Contents
The first step in creating an index or table in an OOo Writer document is to tag its content in the body of the document. The includes titles that appear in a ToC, the words that appear in an index or the scholarly references that appear in the bibliography. In each case, entries can be tagged automatically or manually.
If a document uses styles throughout, then tagging contents for a ToC is easy. By default, Writer ToCs treat all of the outline levels defined in Tools -> Outline Numbering as tagged content. You can select additional styles to be tagged automatically on the Styles tab of Insert -> Indexes and Tables -> Indexes and Tables. Lists of figures and similar ToC variants also have options on the Index/Table tab, many of which also also based on styles. As always, Writer pays dividends to those who use styles. You don't have to use styles to create a ToC, but doing so is by far the simplest choice.
If a document doesn't use styles or if you have a particular style you want to use for a List of Figures or Tables, ToC entries can be tagged manually by selecting Insert -> Indexes and Tables -> Entry. This is the same technique used to add words manually to an index. The main difference is the type you select from the Index field of the dialogue box. Whether you're doing the grunt work for a ToC or an index, you still need to provide the text for the entry, which is the text in the actual body of the document. This entry can be added by selecting text before opening the dialogue box or by typing within the box. You also can select the level of the entry and whether all entries with the same text also should be tagged.
For index tags, you can make the entry a sub-entry. For example, if you already had tagged GNU/Linux, you could make Debian a subentry beneath GNU/Linux. Index contents also can be automated by selecting Alphabetical Index as the Type when you select Insert -> Indexes and Tables -> Indexes and Tables -> Index/Table. From there, select the Concordance file option. A concordance is a list of key words to tag automatically. Setting up a concordance in a manner that is useful takes more planning than you might think at first, but it is an ideal way to index a long project.
Bibliographical entries are added by selecting Insert -> Indexes and Tables -> Bibliography Entry. A bibliographical entry, however, is the citation that appears in the text. For instance, in the APA citation style, the entry in the body of the document might be (Smith: 1999). Unfortunately, the sample bibliographical database that comes with Writer offers misleading examples, but this citation is the short name for the item. Other information can be filled in according to the citation style and whether the source is a book, journal item or some other medium. You don't need to use--and in many cases, can't use--all the fields available for a bibliographical entry. This information can be stored within the document or within a separate bibliographical database.
-- Bruce Byfield (nanday)
Comment viewing options
Reopen the file........... all changes gone
faisal's picture
i craated a ToC with a level upto 3
The ToC get updated
Now i saved the document
But when re opened the same
again the ToC is been evaluavted upto level 9
Why this?
multiple indexes?
Anonymous's picture
If i add one index, and the an index for images only, i get everything messed up. as soon as i edit the second index, the first one gets shitted all over.
i tried creating one of "user specific" type instead of "table of content", but then, i'd need at least three user specific categories, since i have images, tables and graphics. and OO only fives me one.
deleting entries
David Paenson's picture
I find your explanations very helpful.
I do however have a question: Is there a way of deleting all the entries in the text body itself in one go?
Plaese help.
For a better write up on OOo Writer
Ed Matthews's picture
To read a book written by a writer for writers, check out a resources page by Jean Hollis Weber, of Australia. Her book on OOo Writer gives you a great how-to on using the advanced features of OOo described in this article.
Just wanted to clarify "bette
Ed Matthews's picture
Just wanted to clarify "better".
First, I'm very glad to see an article about these features in something besides MS Office Word, b/c while there are a lot of features in MS Word, they are pretty darn kludgy.
Jean's book is just that, a book, a bit more complete and structured than the article. My use of "Better" just means more in depth, a good jumping off place if this article has piqued your interest. Thanks for helping spread the word about OOo.
cheers. no offense meant.
Anonymous's picture
I love these OpenOffice articles to death, and hope they keep coming, but this one needed some serious proofreading something fierce.
pretty unhelpful
Anonymous's picture
As someone with experience beyond the beginner's level using computers and word processors, I would never guess I could find an article on using a word processor so confusing. Is this an example of the notion that *any* documentation is better than none, regardless of how unhelpful it may be? Too bad the apparently useful features of this program cannot be better disambiguated than this. I really, really need to learn better how to use OOo Writer and its advanced features, but articles like this make me just throw up my hands in exasperation. It's almost as if I read nothing at all.
pretty unhelpful: How, specifically?
Randy Kramer's picture
I found the article quite readable but possibly because I was very familiar with the (very) similar features in Word (97 for example).
You would do a lot of us a service if you could go into more detail about what was difficult to understand, and, if possible, why.
Aside: Some articles I find difficult to understand because a lot of time is spent on the details without enough time on the overall pieces and how they fit together. I thought this author did an adequate overview in the first section of the article.
Besides: If you have specific things you don't understand, maybe someone can help you.
Just for the heck of it, here's how I'd summarize a few of the high spots of the article:
* OOWriter can create TOCs, indexes, tables of figures, etc.
* The approach is to go through the document and tag what you want to be included in those tables, then do some processing to create the tables. (Except that headings can automatically be included in the TOC (did it say or am I guessing:) by virtue of an attribute in the styles for various level headings.
* There are no built-in styles for the resulting tables--you have to do some amount of formatting of the tables, especially if you want a result different than the default.
Then there are some detailed instructions of how to do at least some of those steps in the document.
What more could you want?
Try the other way
Anonymous's picture
If you complain about the explaination that someone FOR FREE gives you, and you're not forced to read it, then I suggest you to try the other way: learn it by yourself and write a bettere article... :)
Then you'll acquire the right to complain, but NOT before... :)
Terrible response
Anonymous's picture
That is the most ludicrous, bullshit reasoning I think I've ever heard. If something is crap, then it's crap. Free has nothing to do with it. If your logic is that if you think the article is shit then you should write a better one defeats both the language of criticism and the fact if you don't know how to do something just how are you going to write it? What your saying is that because something is free negates criticism is the key reason free software will never be taken seriously.
I thought it was me, but afte
Anonymous's picture
I thought it was me, but after I read you response, I felt much better.
The author just learned this


Did you know about bound-fn?
Clojure provides a lot of different facilities to handle concurrency. One of these are Vars. They can be used to store thread-local information, eg. with binding. A different thread cannot see the value „modified" with binding. And exactly there lies the rub…
A Guinea Pig
Let's start with some setup, which we can use later on.
(def *increment* 1)
(defn incr
 (+ x *increment*))
This is basically a function similar to inc which increments a given number. Compared to inc it provides a knob by which we can change the increment step.
It works!
So. Now let's try our function.
user=> (map incr [1 2 3])
(2 3 4)
Ok. Nothing exciting so far. But now let's play with our knob. We use binding to change the value of *increment* temporarily.
user=> (binding [*increment* 3]
 (doall (map incr [1 2 3])))
(4 5 6)
Yeah! It works!
It works! … Really?
As I said in the introductory paragraph: Clojure provides several facilities to handle concurrency. Besides Vars there is for example pmap. pmap is basically a drop-in replacement for map which distributes the computation of the output seq on several threads. So each map can be easily turned to parallel construct by simply adding a single character. (Whether this makes sense in every case is a different question!)
So, let's try pmap for fun and profit!
user=> (binding [*increment* 3]
 (doall (pmap incr [1 2 3])))
(2 3 4)
Huh? Argh! We got caught by the thread-localness of Vars. The changed value of *increment* established with binding is not carried over to the new thread, where the actual computation is done. There the root binding is in effect and we get the original value of *increment*.
To fix this situation we could take a hands-down approach and simply re-establish the binding in the target thread.
user=> (binding [*increment* 3]
 (doall (pmap (let [step *increment*]
 (fn [x] (binding [*increment* step] (incr x))))
 [1 2 3])))
(4 5 6)
This looks a bit silly, but imagine the binding being somewhere else in the code in a real-world project. So what do we do? We capture the thread-local binding in a local and pass a closure to pmap. This closure sets up the binding on the new thread before invocing incr.
This works but is quite a bit of tedious boilerplate. But luckily Clojure provides a helper utility for this scenario!
user=> (binding [*increment* 3]
 (doall (pmap (bound-fn [x] (incr x)) [1 2 3])))
(4 5 6)
bound-fn defines a function – similar to fn. However with the difference that it restores any thread-local bindings before executing the body of the function. So it is basically an extended approach to the above let solution.
In our case we can simplify things even more: we already have a function. We should be able to turn this function into a different one with the desired properties – similar to how memoize works. And in fact we can do that!
user=> (binding [*increment* 3]
 (doall (pmap (bound-fn* incr) [1 2 3])))
(4 5 6)
A combination of Vars and binding can be a way to modify the environment of the code, eg. by rebinding *out*. However one has to take care when crossing thread boundaries. The bound-fn and bound-fn* utilities help in such a situation.
 - binding binds in parallel, while let binds sequentially.
 - The astute reader might have noticed several doalls. Why this is necessary is explained in a previous post.
Published by Meikel Brandmeyer on.


text:
The Fowler Museum at UCLA presents a photographic exhibition by Gil Garcetti, with images that underscore the link between water and human health in West Africa. The photographs will be on display from September 9 through November 25, 2007. Acclaimed Ghanaian recording artist Rocky Dawuni will be performing on Sept. 9.
In 2001, Gil Garcetti traveled to West Africa for the first of several visits to the continent. Enthralled by the land and the people, Garcetti became deeply committed to raising awareness of and funds for safe water in the region. Thus was born 'Women, Water and Wells: Photographs of West Africa by Gil Garcetti,' a selection of sixty-two striking images on display at the Fowler Museum at UCLA from Sept. 9–Nov. 25, 2007. Garcetti's rich black-and-white photographs underscore the link between water and human health in West Africa, as well as the dramatic economic and public welfare successes that can be achieved when safe water is delivered to villages.
'Women, Water and Wells' reveals the challenges, hopes, and triumphs experienced by people throughout West Africa who are faced with the daily task of providing safe water for their families and communities. For men, the lack of safe drinking water and sanitation means that they are less productive as a result of more illness. But women and girls in West Africa bear more of the consequences of poor water, because they are typically charged with fetching water, trying to maintain household hygiene without easy means to do so, and caring for family members who fall sick from water-related diseases. The attendance of girls at school is also compromised by the amount of time that must be spent traveling long distances to obtain water for their families and by the lack of school water and sanitation facilities.
The exhibition commences with landscapes from rural Niger, Ghana, Mali, and Burkina Faso. The next section chronicles the important work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the struggle to provide healthy drinking water and to eradicate a variety of diseases linked to unsafe water. Later sections show the joy that results from locating safe water sources and the ways that they benefit people through improved sanitation and health, enhanced educational and economical activities, and new agricultural possibilities.
Known for his long career as a prosecutor and a Los Angeles District Attorney, Garcetti has spent more than forty years as an urban photographer. His photography books Iron: Erecting the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Frozen Music have received critical praise in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Oregonian, The Washington Post and other publications. In 2006 the Fowler Museum exhibited his work in 'Dance in Cuba: Photographs by Gil Garcetti.'
'Women, Water and Wells' is presented in conjunction with the publication of the forthcoming book, Water is Key (Edited by Peter Gleick, Pacific Institute; Published by Balcony Press) and made possible by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Manus, the support group of the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Proceeds from the sales of Water is Key will benefit the Pacific Institute, an Oakland, California-based think tank dedicated to protecting the natural world, encouraging sustainable development, and improving global security. The Pacific Institute will use 100% of the money raised to benefit NGOs working on safe-water initiatives in West Africa.
'Women, Water and Wells: Photographs of West Africa by Gil Garcetti' will be on view in the Fowler Museum's Goldenberg Galleria.
Related Program -- Sunday, September 9
Exhibition Opening Day and Book Launch -- Sunday, September 9, 2007
Acoustic performance by acclaimed Ghanaian recording artist Rocky Dawuni
Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: Free and open to the public; parking is available in lot 4.
Fowler Museum at UCLA Tel: _PHONE_
Sponsor(s): Fowler Museum at UCLA
© 2013. The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.


GO:_PHONE_ » Neuromuscular process controlling balance
Gene Ontology biological process » GO:_PHONE_
Any process that an organism uses to control its balance, the orientation of the organism (or the head of the organism) in relation to the source of gravity. In humans and animals, balance is perceived through visual cues, the labyrinth system of the inner ears and information from skin pressure receptors and muscle and joint receptors.
There are 56 proteins involved in this molecular process in the human proteome.
Relevant for


The Beginnings of the Political Agrarian Movement in Slovenia
A Contribution to the Pre-History of the Establishment of the Independent Agricultural Party
 - Nina Steinbacher Univerza v Mariboru, Filozofska fakulteta
Keywords: Political agrarian movement, Independent Agricultural Party, Slovenian People's Party, Inner Carniola, Goriška region
The article deals with the beginnings of the modern political agrarian movement in Slovenia. Based on the newspaper reports and other relevant sources, the pre-history of the establishment of the Independent Agricultural Party in the newly-formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is presented. A special emphasis is placed on the developments in Inner Carniola and the Goriška region, where, on the eve of World War I in what was then the Habsburg Monarchy, the first Slovenian agrarian political formations were established.


Forward time machine
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Forward time machine
Forward Time Machine.png
TypeTime machine
InventorProfessor Farnsworth
The forward time machine is a time machine invented by Professor Farnsworth. It is able to go forwards in time, but is unable to travel backwards. The Professor, along with Fry and Bender were originally supposed to test drive the machine by going forward one minute into the future. However, they accidentally end up going forward 6,990 years and are forced to use the machine to keep going forward to try and find a time wherein mankind has invented a backwards time machine. Eventually they reach the end of the world and decide to proceed forward to the end of the universe itself.
To their surprise, they discover that time runs in a repeating loop as after the universe ends, a 2nd Big Bang occurs and an identical universe is created. They proceed to travel forward to the year 3010, but miss it the first time and are forced to circle around again. Finally, after time traveling the entire length of existence again, they make it "back" to 3010. Though the 'new' universe is apparently 10' higher than the original one and the time machine materializes above the new timeline's Professor, Fry and Bender, squashing them beneath it as it falls to the ground and thus eliminating the paradox of time travel duplicates.
Additional info
 - There are now two forward time machines in the current universe.
 - It has enough power to go forward in time to the end of the universe at least twice.
 - It is possibly indestructible, seeing how it survived the destruction of the universe and the Big Bang twice.
 - It can travel forward in time in the fourth dimension.
 - Its design is based off of the description of the time machine in the novel by H. G. Wells.
 Farnsworth: Behold, a time-traveling machine!
 Bender: Time?! I can't go back there!
 Farnsworth: Ah, but this machine only goes forward in time, so you won't be able to change history or do something disgusting like sleep with your own grandmother.
 Fry: I wouldn't wanna do that again.
See also


- FirefoxInstall the new Firefox »
 - grow
 Behavior to avoid to get big ideas off the ground
 By Les McKeown | Yahoo Small Business
 Feel like nothing ever gets done? Here's how you can figure out what's slowing you down.
 Stop and think for a moment.
 How many great decisions have you made this year that never got off the ground? Do you feel that you and your team are coming up with smart, competition-beating ideas, but you've lost the ability to execute on those ideas?
 If you're missing the sense of achievement that comes from translating ideas into results-delivering reality, then chances are, it's because of one or more of these four reasons:
 1. You have no idea how decisions are really made. Whether you manage a business, division, department, project, or team, you have to understand the path of information. How does information arrive into the group, how is it processed, and how is it turned into action? Understanding this process is the single most crucial determinant of your ability to execute.
 Once you understand the process, ask yourself: Does the information flow get snarled? Does a decision have to be run by three different people before being approved? Or does your accounting software fail to give you high-quality data in a timely fashion? These examples are gaps in the process--gaps that will come between the ability of your group to make a decision.
 You may want to really map out this process. Trace the path of the last two or three decisions your team made that weren't effectively and efficiently executed. Map where the necessary information came from, the main communication lines and key decision points.
 When you're done, if you can easily make sense of what you see, all is good. If it looks like a rat's nest of intertwined, overlapping, dead-end-reaching lines, then you need to simplify your group's decision-making process.
 2. You're a micromanager (Yes, you!). The ability of a group to execute effectively can be crushed by just one micromanager.
 You know the type: The person that insists everything is 'run by them' and then becomes so overwhelmed by the volume of stuff being 'run by them' that they can barely come up for air.
 Look around. Can you see the micromanager in your group? They're easy to spot. Find them and make them stop.
 But if you can't find one, here's the thing: It's probably you. Micromanaging is so easy to see in others, but is much harder to see in ourselves.
 Here's a full-proof test: Pick out the single most productive person in your group. Watch closely at how they get things done. If it includes finding multiple innovative ways to bypass you, then you're the problem.
 3. You're rushing the decision. Remember when your business was small and life was simple? When a board meeting was a ride up in the elevator? When you could make three great decisions before breakfast and have them implemented by lunch? When communicating a decision was as simple as saying it out loud, because everyone was within hearing distance?
 Now, life isn't that simple. Your business has grown and now has many more moving parts. And, chances are that the growth in complexity happened iteratively, over time, and like the proverbial frog in slowly heated water, you haven't noticed the effect on your decision-making.
 Here's the difference: In the smaller, simpler business, you can make a decision fast, and implement it quickly. Now you have a larger, more complex business, making decisions fast actually slows down the implementation process--sometimes crippling it entirely.
 Why? Because you made the decision so fast you didn't take into account all the variables (people, customers, systems) involved in your now more complex business.
 Once a business has grown beyond infancy, speedy and effective implementation depends on slower decision-making. Not slow--you don't need to descend into to paralysis by analysis--just slower. Take a little longer to make the initial decision, and watch the rate of implementation rise.
 4. You've worn everyone out. You're a passionate, engaged leader. You're intellectually curious, innovative, and not afraid of risk. You're full of great ideas and keen to implement them. Your people respect and admire you... and they're exhausted.
 Do your team members avoid you on Monday mornings? Do they look apprehensive when you return from a two-week vacation?
 If so, it's because they know weekends and holidays are dangerous times because that's when you come back to the office with five brilliant, must-do projects--even though they haven't finished implementing last month's brilliant, must-do projects.
 If you suspect this might be you, then do yourself and your team a favor. Keep a list of all current projects. When you have a blinding flash of creativity which produces a new project, instead of simply adding it to the list, make a conscious, explicit decision about which existing project to drop off the list in return.
 You'll find that compared with your existing priorities, many of those 'brilliant must-do's' just aren't that important, and those that do make the list will stand much more chance of actually being implemented.
 More from Inc.com:
 Yahoo Small Business Services


text:
Analyzing Cost and Revenue
Use the Cost Analysis view to analyze cost and revenue on each stage
of the project. The Cost Analysis view has up to three cost
You may use the slider to determine:
- Cost Variance (actual vs. budgeted cost)
- Cost with Risks and uncertainties vs. Current schedule
- If income is defined for at least one task, the cost analysis
diagram will show the project revenue calculated based on the
formula: Revenue = Income – Cost.
- If Cost exceeds Income in any given period of time Revenue will be
- If income is not defined, Cost will be always positive.
the shortcut menu to manipulate with chart. In particular, instead
of presenting a line chart of current schedule, result, and actual
cost, you can present an area chart by choosing Fill Chart
from the shortcut menu.


text:
I have two missions as an artist:
- To ensure that the traditional craft of Bentwood Willow Furniture is passed from one generation to the next. Only about twenty people in the world practice this lost craft and way of life. Like the generations before, I forage the land for willow with a machete in hand. Willow is a sustainable resource that is found worldwide, making the craft accessible to anyone who has the will and dedication to learn.
- To educate the general public about ecology, biology, and sustainability through a series of Eco-art sculptures and Creative Community Projects inspiring positive change in the way our society views, values, and interacts with the natural world.


text:
The field survey form rated battlefield integrity through the eyes of the survey team. While these observations are valuable in terms of how the battlefield landscapes are perceived subjectively, for the purposes of this study it was deemed important to find a more objective measure of the loss or retention of integrity. For this we turned to the Cultural Resources GIS Facility for a computer analysis of land use within the battlefield study and core areas. Computer mapping and analysis software, collectively known as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used in this study to create a mosaic map by combining many different modern and historic maps; to document study and core areas, to assess current land uses within defined areas; and to calculate statistics for land parcels.
The battlefield study and core areas were reduced to a computer format to enable various comparisons. The average size of study areas of the fifteen battlefields was 5,727 acres, ranging from 3,082 acres at Front Royal to 22,274 acres at Second Winchester. The size of the Front Royal study area accurately reflects the smaller numbers of troops engaged and their restricted deployment along the main roads. Second Winchester, on the other hand, involved a larger force, a network of Union entrenchments, two sweeping flank marches by Confederate forces that literally encircled the town of Winchester, and three days of fighting and maneuvering. The study areas of the Valley's two major battles (in terms of forces engaged and casualties) at Opequon and Cedar Creek were 11,670 acres and 15,607 acres respectively.
Because the study areas of several battlefields overlap, the total acreage for the study areas of the fifteen battlefields was 85,909 acres, 3.4 percent of the area of the Shenandoah Valley under consideration. Battlefield core areas ranged in size from 944 acres at Front Royal to 6,252 acres at Cedar Creek. The mean size of the core areas was 2,415 acres. Total acreage included in the battlefield core areas was 33,844 acres, 1.4 percent of the Valley's land area.
Figure 14 presents the integrity of the battlefields as determined by the GIS analysis. The percentage of built-up lands was computed for the battlefield study and core areas, using available 1973 land use data. These figures were then updated by on-site field inspections. In general, built-up lands, new roads, and quarries were subtracted from study and core area acreage, to achieve an integrity rating. One exception was built-up areas that were residential at the time of the Civil War and that still retain a similar scale and density, such as the old towns of Winchester, New Market, and McDowell. These districts were felt to support battlefield integrity. Retention of 75-100 percent natural and agricultural lands rated ''Good,'' 50-74 percent rated ''Fair,'' 25-49 percent rated ''Poor,'' and less than 25 percent rated ''Lost.'' As presented, the GIS analysis reflects the relative integrity of the battlefields as of 1991.
Figure 15 compares the findings of the field survey with the GIS integrity assessment. The field surveyors were more critical of visual intrusions, particularly of highways, bridges, powerlines, and construction within the battlefield cores. Four battlefields ranked good by GIS were ranked fair by the field survey team: Cedar Creek, Fisher's Hill, Cool Spring, and Tom's Brook. Four battlefields ranked fair by the GIS methodology, were ranked poor by the field survey: Second Winchester, Second Kernstown, and New Market. Both methods agreed on the goodintegrity of McDowell, Cross Keys, Piedmont, and Port Republic, on the fair integrity of First Kernstown, on the poor integrity of Opequon and Front Royal, and the lost condition of First Winchester. Although the integrity ranking derived through GIS differed in these instances from the field survey rating, both methods cluster the battlefields similarly toward the top and bottom of the scale.
The GIS method generates a gross ratio between land of high and low integrity and does not measure many visual intrusions that are apparent in the field. A minor intrusion in terms of acreage might appear as a major visual intrusion, depending on the location and setting. In this sense, the computer is more forgiving than the critical observer. This reference data is crucial, however, for obtaining a more objective view of the current status of the battlefields. Where the GIS rating is considerably higher than the field survey rating, perhaps, visual intrusions could be removed or masked to improve integrity. The GIS assessment will provide a reference point for monitoring further loss of integrity.
Several interesting facts emerged from a regional analysis of the battlefield study areas. The study areas contain a higher proportion of agricultural land (63 percent) than is the case for the Valley as a whole (37 percent). Due to this, changes in agricultural patterns or loss of agricultural land tend to have a higher impact on the battlefields than on the overall Valley landscape. Forests make up more than 56 percent of the Valley's acreage but only about 21 percent of battlefield acreage. This is accounted for by the fact that the Valley's forests are more concentrated in the higher elevations, while battles typically were fought on lower, flatter ground. In addition, built-up lands are more concentrated in the battlefield study areas (14 percent) than in the Valley as a whole (6 percent), reflecting the location of battlefields on or near important towns and transportation nodes. A relatively high level of existing residential development within a battlefield study area indicates that further development in the vicinity is probable due to current zoning and continued growth. Figure 5 shows the pattern of agricultural land use in the Shenandoah Valley.
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Creation Date: 3/10/95


Advantco KAFKA adapter for SAP HANA Smart Data Integration (SDI)
SAP HANA smart data integration and SAP HANA smart data quality load data, in batch or real-time, into HANA (on premise or in the cloud) from a variety of sources using pre-built and custom adapters. The Kafka adapter is an example of a custom adapter made available by Advantco.
Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed event streaming platform for high-performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission-critical applications.
In this blog, we discuss a solution to consume data from a KAFKA topic and to publish data to a KAFKA topic.
KAFKA topic setup
We create a topic on the KAFKA broker with two partitions. We publish a simplified DEBMAS to this topic. This topic has two partitions.
An Avro schema, defining the structure of the data, is associated for the topic value. This schema will define the table schema in HANA.
The Kafka adapter installation.
The Kafka adapter is deployed in the hosting environment where the Provision Agent was installed. After the deployment, we register the Kafka adapter to the HANA server which can be on premise or in the cloud. Note that each agent has an Agent Name.
HANA Development Workbench.
In this blog, we use the HANA Cloud instance. We use the HANA Workbench to define the connection to KAFKA broker by creating a Remote Source. We will also use the Workbench to create a replication task to consume data from a KAFKA topic into a real HANA table.
KAFKA Remote Source.
The Remote Source uses the registered KAFKA adapter that we deployed on the Provision Agent to create a connection to the KAFKA broker. To create the Remote Source, select the KAFKA adapter and the Agent Name. Specify the KAFKA broker hosts and ports, configure the parameters and do the connection test.
Virtual Table
Once the Remote Source is created, you should see the topics that were defined on the KAFKA broker. You can create a Virtual Table by right-clicking on a topic.
The Virtual Table schema is based on the Avro schema defined for the topic on the KAFKA broker side.
The Virtual Table is a direct connection to a topic, when querying the Virtual Table, you act like a KAFKA consumer. When inserting into the Virtual Table, you act like a producer.
Replication Task
In this step, we will create a task to replicate data from the KAFKA topic into a Real Table in HANA. This is done in the Editor section of the HANA workbench.
We select the Remote Source we defined above, specify the Target Schema and click on Add Objects to choose one or more topics that we want to replicate.
Once the topic is added, you can edit the column properties if needed.
Executing the task to start the replication task. You can monitor the progress with the Data Provisioning Design Time Object Monitor.
On the KAFKA broker side, you can see that the messages are being consumed.
The KAFKA adapter for SAP HANA SDI (Smart Data Integration) provides a very convenient way to replicate data from a KAFKA topic to a HANA table. The KAFKA adapter also supports publishing data from HANA to a KAFKA broker.


Take the 2-minute tour ×
Consider the sentence:
You didn't leave the dog in the car, did you?
In spoken English, this statement may be spoken with a rising intonation or a falling one. If the former, it suggests that leaving the dog in the car is a bad thing, and might even suggest incredulity and consternation on the part of the person asking.
In the latter case, when the sentence ends with a falling intonation, the speaker probably believes that the dog should have been left in the car, and that the person being addressed fell short. It amounts to an accusation.
Now, given that question tags are always questions, it seems they ought to be punctuated with a question mark. But in written form, especially dialogue, it feels to me that question tags meant to be spoken with a falling intonation might get by with just a period:
You didn't leave the dog in the car, did you.
I've tried Web searches but haven't gotten close to a set of search terms that point me toward an appropriate source. Anybody know of a definitive answer to this question?
Further Reflection
One of the reasons I ask this is that any declarative statement may be changed into a question by means of a rising intonation at the end.
You left the dog in the car.
becomes a question if your voice modulates upward at the end. In written English, it is customary to show that by means of a question mark:
You left the dog in the car?
I include this information because _USER_ asserts that "punctuation may not be used to differentiate [someone's] two intonations." Yet clearly there are cases in which punctuation is used in precisely that way (though in this case involving the opposite modulation from what I'm suggesting). So I wonder if it might not be possible to move the needle in the other direction.
If not, why not?
Note: I almost accepted my own answer to this question, but retracted it. If someone comes up with a better one I'll certainly consider awarding that one the checkmark. I think this question touches on an important concept, despite the scant attention it has received.
share|improve this question
Traditional punctuation prescribes a question mark even if the tone does not go up; it is not a direct representation of tone, but of the grammatical status of the sentence (direct question or no). See Fowler. – Cerberus Jun 15 '12 at 15:24
Possible duplicate: english.stackexchange.com/questions/67355/… – Elberich Schneider Jun 15 '12 at 15:47
_USER_ they're not asking about the same things. – Matt Эллен Jun 15 '12 at 15:48
_USER_: They are not even remotely similar, except that both concern question tags. – Robusto Jun 15 '12 at 15:48
I might punctuate #2 like this: "You didn't leave the dog in the car – did you." (BTW, your question has me wondering if you should have ended the title of your question with a question mark... A question mark is always required – isn't it.) – J.R. Jun 15 '12 at 15:50
6 Answers 6
up vote 20 down vote accepted
The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition (2003) has this entry under "Exclamation Point":
6.77 Exclamation rather than question. A question that is essentially an exclamation usually ends with an exclamation point.
How could you possibly believe that!
When will I ever learn!
If we take this guidance seriously, it seems to me, then for like reasons we ought to find it acceptable for a question that is essentially a statement to end with a period.
Consider this lyric from Lisa Germano's song "Bad Attitude": "But if life was easy, you wouldn't learn anything, now would you." I certainly wouldn't criticize a writer for complying with the standard approach of ending that statement with a question mark—and in fact I believe that Ms. Germano does use that punctuation. Nevertheless, given that her more-speaking-than-singing voice drops by more than an octave between "now" and "would you," I wouldn't think it misleading to end the sentence with a period.
In addition, Chicago 15 has an entry under "Question Mark" for what it calls "courtesy questions":
6.74 Courtesy question. A request courteously disguised as a question does not require a question mark.
Would you kindly respond by March 1.
Will the audience please rise.
That gives us two instances in which a widely influential U.S. reference work endorses using punctuation other than a question mark to end a phrase otherwise structured as a question.
I tend to agree with Robusto that strict adherence to the rule requiring all statements that are laid out in a form that would normally identify them as questions to end in question marks prevents writers from indicating, as they otherwise might, whether the intonation of the speaker's voice is rising or falling. The bad aspect of any widespread effort to differentiate intonation by punctuation is that it invites countless instances where authors choose punctuation mismatched to their intended intonation, and readers—newly alert for clues to intonation in the punctuation—consequently misinterpret the sentence.
share|improve this answer
Good answer. +1. – Robusto Feb 20 '13 at 12:50
By "mismatched to their intention," I mean "mismatched to their intended intonation." – Sven Yargs Feb 21 '13 at 2:49
I edited that for you, but you could have done that yourself by clicking the edit link underneath your text. – Robusto Feb 21 '13 at 3:02
I basically agree with FumbleFingers, I say you should always use a question mark, but you can't derive the intonation from the text so written.
But why would you restrict yourself when using the written word? Something like:
"You didn't leave the dog in the car, did you?", she asked incredulously...
or a slight rephrasal:
"You left the dog in the car, didn't you?", she asked incredulously...
would provide further context, which would then inform the reader regarding intonation (were they to read the written text aloud for instance).
Short answer - the written word requires more context, what stops you from providing it?
share|improve this answer
I won't downvote, because it's a sensible answer, but I must disagree. You are sacrificing economy of expression because you can't bring yourself to punctuate sensibly. – Pitarou Feb 20 '13 at 4:08
Sorry, but in what way can you punctuate this to unambiguously delineate all the possible meanings spoken inflection could convey? I don't think it is possible - but why would you try? Punctuation isn't the correct tool for the job in this case. – Kyudos Feb 20 '13 at 21:09
Of course punctuation can't convey EVERY nuance, but in the case of tag questions, there are clearly two distinct types, with distinct meanings and distinct intonations, and it seems that punctuation is the perfect tool for distinguishing them. – Pitarou Feb 21 '13 at 12:41
One punctuation mark is enough, and the comma after the quotation mark is incorrect. Also, incredulously is spelled wrong. – shipr Feb 21 '13 at 22:13
There are more than two types of tag questions; punctuation could never represent them all. And by the way, regarding the question mark followed by a comma, we already have an "interrobang" (question mark combined with exclamation point) although it is almost never used. Why not create a combination question mark and comma (replacing the period under the squiggle)? I think it would be wonderfully useful, and graphically easy to understand, in exactly such cases as the example sentences Kyudos gives here. – John M. Landsberg Feb 24 '13 at 8:45
I think there's no way for punctuation alone to represent with absolute fidelity what the speaker's tone, intention, and exact meaning are in such a case. That would be expecting far too much of a simple graphical dot or squiggle.
The writer must decide just how important it is to convey one and only one particular precise tone and intention. The more important it is to convey the exact intended meaning, the more important it becomes to use contextual clues to get that meaning across to the reader.
Creative writing gives you license to describe the setting, the demeanor of the participants in the scene, the exact circumstances surrounding the statement at the moment it is spoken, and much more, in order to give a clear sense of how the statement and its tag question are being delivered. You could even explicitly describe the tone of the person's voice if necessary.
So, no, you are not required to use a question mark, but you are free to utilize all a writer's tools to make the sentence work the way you want it to.
share|improve this answer
I really hate it when people downvote without explaining why. – Pitarou Feb 24 '13 at 23:10
+1 You basically said what I was thinking, John - that with all the writing tools at one's disposal, why box the dialog into needing to depend on the question mark. However, if one is reporting, not creating, it becomes slightly more difficult since the actual quoted words are limited to what was


Building an Innovative Research Community at the UW Madison – Poster Session I (Day 1)
Poster Session I is an opportunity for the research community to both request and share expertise and innovation. Similarly to the lightning talks, posters for this session should focus on the following topics:
 - Finding resources and/or establishing collaborations with others to fill technical gaps or add new dimensions to your work,
 - What is the data science is in your science: How has your science evolved because of data science? How do you think it will evolve?
 - What has been the approach of applying data science to your work? What have been the challenges and successes?
 - Providing resources (e.g., tools or expertise) or advertising services your core facility or group has to offer,
 - Sharing your data science work to raise awareness in the campus community and generate ideas for collaboration.
HAVE A GREAT IDEA FOR A poster for the research community?
 - Submit your proposal here.
Return to the Call for Submissions page


text:
On this page:
Definition of the noun Aganippe bancrofti
What does Aganippe bancrofti mean as a name of something?
Aganippe bancrofti is a species of Aganippe, described by Rainbow in 1914.
- synonyms: species Aganippe bancrofti / Blakistonia bancrofti / species Blakistonia bancrofti
- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Arthropoda
- class: Arachnida
- order: Araneae
- family: Idiopidae
- genus: Aganippe
Online dictionaries and encyclopedias with entries for Aganippe bancrofti
Click on a label to prioritize search results according to that topic:
Share this page
Go to the thesaurus of Aganippe bancrofti to find many related words and phrases!


text:
ALPS - Analyzing and Modeling Transitions of Common Property Pastures in the Swiss Alps
The common property pastures in the Swiss Alps provide significant services to the mountainous regions, such as income sources for farmers and tourism industry, protection from soil erosion, water-run-off, landslides, and high biodiversity. These services are highly dependent on continuous management of the alpine pastures. In Switzerland, most alpine summer pastures are common property and have been managed by local governance systems since the Middle Ages in order to avoid over-use of the scarce resources. Societal changes, like industrialization, rapid economic growth, and new agricultural policies, induced major transitions of the pasture management system, which led to abandonment of marginal land or intensification of productive areas ensuing reduction of biodiversity on the long-term.


Back to Kemp Acoustics Home next up previous contents
Next: Introduction to the study Up: thesis Previous: List of Figures Contents
List of Tables
 1. Trumpet section dimensions
 2. Thermodynamic constants
 3. MLS element sequence for $m=4$
 4. Recursion relations for MLS of length $2^m-1$
 5. Zeros of the Bessel function $J_1$ to 7 decimal places
Jonathan Kemp 2003-03-24


9520. Overpayment and Underpayment Identification and Recovery
 1. Purpose and Scope
 1. These procedures establish guidelines for CA staff in the resolution of vendor or foster parent disputes regarding payments through an administrative hearing and pre-hearing process. It provides direction when staff determines that an overpayment to a vendor or foster parent exists, for staff participation in steps to recover the overpayment, and for staff participation in the settlement of any overpayment disputes. The procedures also provide direction for pre-hearing efforts to mediate and resolve payment disputes prior to proceeding to hearing.
 2. Contracted and non-contracted service providers, including foster parents, may seek dispute resolution through these procedures, under the Administrative Procedure Act and RCW 43.20B.675, with respect to overpayments. However, the following limitations apply:
 1. The right of vendors or foster parents to seek an administrative hearing to contest alleged overpayments applies only to overpayments for goods or services provided on or after July 1, 1998.
 2. These procedures do not create a right to a hearing where no dispute right previously existed except as provided in RCW 43.20B.675. These procedures and department policy limit disputes for foster family and child day care providers to:
 1. Alleged overpayments;
 2. Perceived failure of the department to pay for services actually provided under an agency service authorization; and
 3. Licensing actions taken under WAC 388-73-036 or WAC 388-155-090, as applicable.
 3. Adoptive parents who receive assistance through the Adoption Support Program are not vendors within the meaning of the law. They have hearing rights under other provisions of law and WAC. Accordingly, payment disputes involving the Adoption Support Program do not fall within the scope of these procedures.
 3. Discovery or recovery of overpayments has no time limit. The department may identify and initiate recovery of overpayments without regard to the length of time that may have elapsed since the overpayment actually occurred or was discovered.
 4. CA employees do not have authority to forgive or waive overpayments, nor to offset overpayments from future payments. All such authority rests with the Office of Financial Recovery (OFR). Designated CA staff may mediate a disputed payment with the vendor, but final approval for any negotiated proposed settlement rests with OFR.
 5. Governmental entities, including Indian Tribes, with an Inter-local Agreement with the department do not have the right to an adjudicative hearing through the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH). The dispute process described in the agreement between the entity and the department governs the resolution process.
 2. Policy
 1. RCW 43.20B.675 and DSHS Administrative Policy 10.02 provide that all vendors have the right to request an adjudicative proceeding if they have a bona fide dispute. Disputes involving rates set in rule or Washington Administrative Code (WAC) are not subject to resolution through an adjudicative hearing held by OAH. The responsible CA organizational unit must routinely offer a pre-hearing conference to all clients and vendors that request an administrative hearing.
 2. The department and CA must, when undertaking activities relating to overpayment identification and recovery as well as adjudicative proceedings, comply with:
 1. DSHS Administrative Policy 7.02, Equal Access to Services for Individuals with Disabilities;
 2. DSHS Administrative Policy 7.20, Communication Access for Persons Who Are Deaf, Deaf/Blind, and Hard of Hearing; and
 3. DSHS Administrative Policy 7.21, Provision of Services to Limited English Proficient (LEP) Clients
 3. Procedures
 1. Regional and Headquarters Procedures:
 1. Each DCFS Regional Administrator, DLR Regional Manager, or division Director, as applicable, must establish procedures to provide for consistency in the handling of vendor/contractor disputes in accordance with the Children's Administration Pre-hearing Procedures. Procedures must include:
 1. Methods to informally notify vendors of their right to request a formal adjudicative proceeding if they have a bona fide contract dispute and to provide all appellants with a copy of the CA written pre-hearing process. (OFR provides formal notification of overpayments.) The department limits adjudicative disputes for foster parents to those issues identified in paragraph 1.B., above;
 2. Pre-hearing/alternative dispute resolution that incorporates routine offers of a pre-hearing conference to all clients or vendors who have requested an administrative hearing;
 3. Identification of overpayments and steps to initiate recovery of amounts due to the department as a result of overpayments;
 4. Designation of staff to represent CA in behalf of the department in pre-hearing/alternative dispute resolution and administrative hearings for disputes resulting from activities or actions of the applicable organizational unit;
 5. Identification of staff to mediate overpayment and other disputes prior to a formal administrative hearing;
 6. A system to identify overpayments in a timely manner;
 7. A method to document that an overpayment has occurred;
 8. A method to notify the vendor/provider that an overpayment has occurred and to determine the vendor's agreement or disagreement with that determination; and
 9. Identification of staff assigned to review overpayments and to refer them to OFR for collection.
 2. CA expects disputes to be resolved at the lowest possible level in the organization. Therefore, CA staff will handle disputes at the following organizational levels:
 1. The DCFS Regional Administrator is responsible for the dispute resolution process for all payments authorized by local office social workers and all payments authorized under regionally managed contracts and service agreements. Regional DCFS staff will coordinate pre-hearing conferences, mediation activities, and administrative hearings for regionally-managed contracts.
 2. Assigned CA Division of Program and Policy Development or Office of Foster Care Licensing (OFCL) headquarters staff, as applicable, will handle pre-hearing conferences, mediation activities, and administrative hearings arising from headquarters-managed contracts and service agreements.
 2. Determination of Existence of an Overpayment and Documentation of Referral
 1. If any CA employee has reason to believe that the department has overpaid a contractor or vendor, that employee must contact the employee who authorized the payment and the authorizing employee's supervisor by written memo or e-mail.
 1. The CA employee identifying the overpayment must inform the authorizing employee and that employee's supervisor that the employee has reason to believe an overpayment has occurred and must provide the information that led the employee to that conclusion.
 2. If the authorizing employee identifies an overpayment, that employee must inform and provide supporting information to the supervisor.
 2. The authorizing employee, or other employee designated in DCFS or DLR regional procedures or CA headquarters procedures must contact the vendor/provider directly to inform the vendor/provider of the identified overpayment and the reason the payment constitutes an overpayment.
 1. This contact provides the CA employee and the vendor/provider an opportunity to identify any errors in the conclusion that an overpayment occurred and to enable the CA employee to discontinue overpayment procedures if CA incorrectly identified an overpayment.
 1. This contact serves as an opportunity for CA to educate the vendor/provider in correct methods to complete invoices in order to prevent overpayments from recurring.
 2. In addition, the CA employee can support the vendor/provider in continuing to offer services to CA and its clients.
 2. If the vendor/provider is a foster parent who disagrees with CA determination of an overpayment, the CA employee informs the foster parent of the foster parent liaison program and provides the contact telephone number for the CA office's liaison.
 3. If the CA employee, after contact with the vendor/ provider, continues to believe that an overpayment occurred, the authorizing worker or other employee designated by regional procedures informs the vendor/ provider that the employee will notify OFR of the overpayment. OFR will send an official notice of overpayment to the provider/vendor. This notice will include instructions for the vendor/provider to return the overpaid funds to the department and information on steps to dispute the overpayment.
 3. The employee who originally authorized the payment gathers written documentation of the overpayment. This may include gathering payment records through the SPAYMENT procedure in FamLink.
 4. The authorizing employee refers to the regional designee any overpayments, with supporting documentation. This information will include documentation of the vendor/ provider's agreement or disagreement with the determination of overpayment. The regional designee reviews the referral information to ensure that supporting documentation adequately supports the conclusion that an overpayment in the amount stated did occur.
 3. Referral to the Office of Financial Recovery
 1. The applicable CA designee sends the completed SSPS Overpayment Notice, DSHS 18-398A, (dated 7/1998) along with the documentation of the overpayment, to OFR.
 2. OFR then issues formal notice of the overpayment by certified mail to, and tracks responses from, the vendor/provider. If the vendor/provider wants to formally dispute the overpayment, the vendor/provider must respond to OFR within 28 days of the notice of overpayment.
 3. If the vendor/provider does not dispute the overpayment, OFR establishes a schedule for repayment with the vendor/provider. In accordance with RCW 43.20B.695, interest will not accrue when the overpayment results


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Some bats keep flying in a light drizzle, but they take shelter when there's serious rain. A new study published online today in Biology Letters
finds one reason why: Bats have to work harder to fly when their fur and wings are wet. In a series of trials in Costa Rica, scientists studied
Sowell's short-tailed fruit bats as they flew around a large octagonal cage. Sometimes they first dampened the bats with tap water; sometimes the bats
flew wet and in the rain.
Bats used about twice as much energy when they were wet as when they were dry, the team found. Flying in the rain didn't make a difference, which ruled out some kind of mechanical problem caused by raindrops hitting wings, nor
did the actual weight of the water. The scientists think that wet bats, like most wet mammals, are cold, so they have to work harder to stay warm. And
with water mussing their silky fur and dampening their wings, bedraggled bats might also be less aerodynamic.
See more ScienceShots.


Unique Differences Between Historical Dramas In China, Japan And Korea
The 3 countries have major differences.
There are lots of fun traditional dramas that have come out of China, Japan, and Korea. Check out some of the subtle differences between them!
1. China
Most of them are pre-produced, so sometime entire scenes must be re-filmed even if the drama has entered the editing process.
Korean dramas tend not to do this as it raises the cost of production. It's possible for Korean dramas to be finished editing mere hours before the episode airs.
For dramas set in the Qing Dynasty, actors must shave their heads for the role.
Though costume makeup has developed, many actors still shave their heads to make the drama more realistic.
2. Japan
Japanese dramas about the Edo period also require male actors to shave parts of their head.
Supposedly, this hairstyle made it easier for samurai to wear their helmets and was a sign of honour.
On NHK, they have an annual historical drama called "Taiga dramas" that broadcast every Sunday, from January to December.
Each story changes every year, and the tradition began back in 1963. At the end of the year, they broadcast a special 3 to 4 hour version of the full story.
3. Korea
Many actors in Korean traditional dramas decide to forgo the hairstyle of their ancestors, and simply cover their heads with traditional headgear.
According to ancient texts, this is how their ancestors styled their hair.
It's understandable that Korean actors decided to avoid this unique hairstyle.
Source: Dispatch


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FFI photo by Zhao Chao
"With only about 100 cao vit gibbons remaining in the world, the recent birth of this baby has extra significance," Fauna & Flora International said today.
"This species is only found in one location in the world, on the international border between Vietnam and China," the UK-based conservation charity said in a news release. "This birth is a sign of hope for the species' long term recovery."
The gibbon was born in Bang Liang Nature Reserve in Guangxi province, China.
Fauna & Flora International's conservationists in Vietnam and China are working with local government and communities to reduce the threats to the population of cao vit gibbons, the world's second rarest ape species.
Gibbons have the longest arms of any primate, relative to body size, according to the FFI species profile about the cao vit gibbon. "Their hand-over hand method of swinging from branch to branch, known as brachiation, enables them to move at breathtaking speed. With its spectacular locomotion and haunting, bird-like calls, the cao vit gibbon is a real show-stealer." Watch the FFI video below to see and hear the cao vit gibbon.
Although classified as "lesser apes," cao vit gibbons are highly intelligent and show complex social behavior, the species profile adds. Males and females proclaim and protect their family territory with "duets," which can be heard 2 kilometers [1.6 miles] away.
They have also evolved a highly specialized diet of flowers, fruit and young leaves.
"The narrowness of its ecological niche, combined with its ostentatious behavior has, however, helped to precipitate the cao vit gibbon's sharp decline. Though no longer a significant factor today, hunters posed a serious threat to the gibbons in the past, easily locating them in the forest.
"Such pressures have been compounded more recently by environmental changes to which the gibbon is unable to adapt; livestock overgrazing, firewood collection and encroaching agriculture are all contributing to the ongoing loss and fragmentation of its traditional habitat, jeopardizing the cao vit gibbon's survival."
Watch this FFI video to see and hear the cao vit gibbons in their habitat:
Along with the Hainan gibbon, the sister species from which it has recently split, the cao vit gibbon is one of the two most endangered apes in the cao vit gibbon world, FFI says.
The species formerly ranged across much of China and Vietnam. Today only an estimated 110 individuals remain, confined to the karst limestone forest along the China-Vietnam border.
The species was considered extinct until an FFI-led team discovered a small remnant sub-population in Vietnam's Cao Bang Province in 2002.
FFI has been working to conserve the species since that first group was found. "We have established community groups on both sides of the border to patrol and protect the gibbon's habitat. In addition, by working with local people, we are identifying and implementing simple and cost-effective measures to relieve pressure on the forest, such as providing villagers with fuel-efficient stoves," the charity says.
"In fact, the cao vit gibbon is acting as a valuable flagship species, helping to secure protected area designation for the biologically rich, but threatened, karst limestone forest on which its survival depends."
25 Most Endangered Primates Named (National Geographic News picture gallery)
Extinction Risk for 1 in 3 Primates, Study Says (National Geographic News)


Constraint Propagation Algorithms for Temporal Reasoning
Marc Vilain, Henry Kautz
This paper considers computational aspects of several temporal representation languages. It investigates an interval-based representation, and a point-based one. Computing the consequences of temporal assertions is shown to be computationally intractable in the interval-based representation, but not in the point-based one. However, a fragment of the interval language can be expressed using the point language and benefits from the tractability of the latter.


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The Castillo de la Mota (English: Castle of the Butte) was a formidable fortress-turned-prison in existence during the turn of the 15th century. It was situated in the region of Aragon, Spain, where it dominated the plateau, or butte, it was situated on. Originally constructed to defend the region from Moorish advances, a small town grew to surround the castle, which in turn enveloped the village in an outer wall.
From 1504 to 1506, following his attempted escape from the Castel Sant'Angelo, the Castillo de la Mota acted as a prison for Cesare Borgia. Cesare's location was kept a closely guarded secret between Pope Julius II and King Ferdinand II of Aragon; not even the Mentor of the Italian Assassins – Ezio Auditore – was allowed to know of Cesare's whereabouts.
Eventually, Cesare escaped the castle with aid of Micheletto Corella and a bribed prison guard. Having had rope smuggled in for him, Cesare climbed down from his window and snuck past the main gate in his stolen guard uniform. Not long after his escape, the Assassins Ezio Auditore, Niccolò Machiavelli and their friend Leonardo da Vinci arrived at the fortress in pursuit of Micheletto, only to learn of Cesare's escape.


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Are you a fan of the iconic VW Golf? Curious about its weight and how it contributes to its performance on the road? Well, look no further! In this blog post, we're going to delve into the world of automotive engineering and explore just how much a VW Golf weighs.
Buckle up and join us on this fascinating journey as we uncover the secrets behind one of Europe's most beloved compact cars!
The Evolution of the VW Golf's Weight
The Volkswagen Golf, commonly known as the VW Golf, has been a popular choice among car enthusiasts for over four decades. It is one of the most iconic and best-selling models by the German automaker Volkswagen.
With each new generation, the VW Golf has undergone significant changes in terms of design, technology, and performance. But one aspect that often goes unnoticed is its weight.
When it was first introduced in 1974, the VW Golf weighed around 1,800 pounds (816 kg). This was considered lightweight at the time compared to other cars in its class. However, with advances in technology and safety features over the years, the weight of the VW Golf has gradually increased with each new model.
In 1983, with its second generation release, the weight of the VW Golf jumped up to around 2,000 pounds (907 kg). This increase can be attributed to the addition of new features such as power steering and air conditioning. These added amenities improved driving comfort but also added extra weight to the vehicle.
As we moved into the third-generation models in 1991, there was another significant jump in weight. The base model now weighed around 2,500 pounds (1134 kg), almost a thousand-pound difference from its initial release just two decades prior. This increase can be attributed to advancements in safety features such as airbags and reinforced frames.
Factors Affecting Weight
Various factors determine the weight of a car and can vary significantly depending on the make and model. In this section, we will explore the different elements that contribute to the weight of a car, specifically focusing on the Volkswagen Golf.
- Size: One of the most significant factors affecting a car's weight is its size. Generally, larger cars tend to be heavier due to their increased dimensions and the need for more materials in construction. The VW Golf falls into the compact car category and is known for its smaller size compared to other models in its class. This compact design helps keep its weight relatively low.
- Materials Used: The materials used in a car's construction play a crucial role in determining its weight. Typically, heavier materials such as steel or iron are used in older models, while newer models tend to use lighter materials such as aluminum or carbon fiber to reduce weight without compromising strength and durability. The VW Golf uses high-quality lightweight materials in its construction, resulting in a lower overall weight.
- Engine Type: Another important factor that contributes to a car's weight is its engine type. Cars with larger engines tend to weigh more than those with smaller engines due to the added components needed for increased power output. The VW Golf comes equipped with various engine options ranging from small turbocharged three-cylinder engines to larger four-cylinder machines, all designed for fuel efficiency and performance without adding excessive weight.
Comparison to Other Cars in Its Class
The VW Golf has been a popular choice among car buyers for many years due to its reliability, practicality, and overall performance. One important factor that potential buyers often consider when purchasing a new car is its weight. In this section, we will compare the importance of the VW Golf to other popular vehicles in its class, such as the Honda Civic.
To start, let's take a look at the weight of the base model of each car. The VW Golf has a curb weight (the total weight of the vehicle without any passengers or cargo) of 2,943 pounds. On the other hand, the Honda Civic weighs slightly less, with a curb weight of 2,762 pounds. This means that the Honda Civic is about 181 pounds lighter than the VW Golf.
Moving on to their dimensions, both cars have similar lengths and widths. The VW Golf measures at 167.6 inches in length and 70.8 inches in width, while the Honda Civic comes in at 182.7 inches in length and 70.9 inches in width. However, it is worth noting that these measurements may vary depending on the specific model and trim level.
When it comes to engine options, both cars offer multiple choices for their customers. The base model of both vehicles comes equipped with a four-cylinder engine; however, there are also more powerful engine options available for those looking for an extra boost in performance.


Have you ever heard a mother talk about her breastfeeding journey? It can vary wildly. See how Dr. Shaw used chiropractic and naturopathic care to help her own child.
Mothers in Business
Making friendships that last and build your business
Adjusting babies
How would you adjust an infant?
 I adjust children because birth is traumatic, not just in difficult labors but all labors. After my own labor, I knew that it was hard on mother and child. Children's brains are growing and developing with their bodies, chiropractic makes it so there is clear communication between the two.
Every child needs to be screened to be sure their brain and body are indeed communicating well for optimal development. As parents, we do believe our children are smart and beautiful. Chiropractic can help with so many things because our brains control every tissue in the body.
Dr. Shaw tells us about a Patient Testimonial


text: This interesting and unusual name is of Medieval English origin and is a dialectal variant of a locational name yeat-on from a place so called in Shropshire. In the Subsidy Rolls of this county in 1327 the placename appears as "Eton" and is a derivation of the Old English pre 7th Century "Ea", meaning a river, and "tun", a farm, thus "the farm or homestead on the river, (in this case the river Perry). During the Middle Ages, when people began to migrate from their villages of birth to seek work elsewhere, they would often adopt the placename as a means of identification. Amongst the early recordings of christenings in London are, Launcellot Yatton, son of Henry Yatton, on April 15th 1573 and Margaret Yatton, the daughter of Edward Yatton on July 25th 1574, both at St. Dunstan's, Stepney. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Olief Yeaton (christening), which was dated November 23rd 1561, Ludlow, Shropshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.


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Asked by: Steven A Collins, by email
It's possible, but the hazard is often exaggerated. Even at midday, a normal eye will only let in enough light to heat the retina by about 4°C. You need at least 10°C to cause thermal damage. Looking at the Sun during an eclipse for more than a minute can cause damage, because your pupils are more dilated, but it doesn't result in total blindness and isn't usually permanent. If the Sun is within 10 minutes of setting below a sea-level horizon, the more dangerous short-wavelength light is absorbed by the atmosphere and it should be quite safe to look at the Sun.
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A collaboration between The University of Manchester, Edinburgh University, Essex University, Lancaster University and Leeds University with Fellowships based at Cardiff University, Queens University Belfast and The University of Salford
The Uses and Abuses of Community for Sustainable Development
Communities are complex, contested and conflict-ridden objects. And in order to involve them in sustainable development, we need to take a more realistic and critical approach to governing and understanding them.
SPRG researchers Fraser Stewart and Lucie Middlemiss organised a workshop that brought together 30 scholars from around the UK to the University of Leeds (21-23 March) to discuss and critically analyse recent governance strategies in the UK that position 'community' in contrasting ways. Despite the proliferation in recent years of community action and governance strategies aimed at achieving sustainable development there has been little critical attention directed to this issue. Framing the workshop were three key themes:
1. Developing a practice-oriented approach to community and sustainable development
2. Critically theorising the connections between community and sustainable development
3. Understanding the role of public scholarship in sustainable communities work
Together the papers questioned how, why and to whose ends community emerges as a vehicle for achieving sustainable development. They argue for a nuanced and context-specific interpretation of community in sustainable development work that is able to capture the diversity of those involved.
The workshop consisted of eleven oral papers and six poster presentations from within and beyond the SPRG and its sister project the SLRG. Papers were circulated to those attending beforehand to ensure insightful discussion amongst participants.
Key Issues & Reflections
A number of crosscutting issues and questions emerged from the papers and the resulting discussions:
- What is the imaginary of community in sustainable action and policy?
- How is community practiced for sustainable development?
- What does community mean at different scales?
- Is there is a tension between community as neo-liberalism or radicalism?
- What is the role of social difference?
- How do different definitions of community shape what is possible to achieve?
- Who legitimately speaks for or acts on behalf of the community?
- What is the role of social science in doing research 'on' or 'with' communities?
- How and in what ways should researchers/communities be attempting to influence policy?
A key theme that emerged from the workshop was the divide between understandings of community as a social process involving, among many other things, shared learning; and technical or instrumental applications in which people are passive recipients of policy directives devised and delivered by others.
Whilst theories of practice was not the organising theme of the workshop papers reflected practice theoretical traditions in their contributions There were a number of useful contributions from SPRG members that reflects the diversity of SPRG's programme of research. Isabelle Darmon and Alan Ward from the Changing Eating Habits project discussed the provision of sustainable food in poor communities. Gordon Walker from the Zero Carbon Homes project discussed communities, codification and zero carbon homes. Alex Franklin (SPRG Fellowship on 'Sustainable Communities, Social Enterprise and Local Food') offered a critical review of the Welsh Government Pathfinder Programme. And SPRG Fellow Lucie Middlemiss discussed the implications of individualization for sustainable development and her co-authored paper on doing sustainability in low-income communities.
To take just two examples from a very stimulating set of posters and papers:
Paul Chatterton described his involvement in LILAC, a radical new community, in Leeds attempting to change the social and environmental nature of living space was fascinating from a public scholarship and sustainability point of view. And Richard Hauxwell-Baldwin provided a fascinating and critical insight into how policy is modified to fit national government's goals, through looking at the transformation in the Low Carbon Community Challenge from Labour to Coalition governments.
Community and public policy
When it comes to achieving sustainable development, public policy tends to privilege rational choice or individualized approaches. However, does this mean that we, as enlightened social scientists, should offer an alternative? Some participants in the workshop thought that we should perhaps be making (normative) recommendations to policy. However, given the undercurrent of disaffection with all things neo-liberal, what sort of policy recommendations could be made other than changing the paradigm? Perhaps a critical approach to studying the uses and abuses of community can remain just that, presenting a challenge to policy without having to directly engage in trying to change it.
The range and depth of work being done at the community level offer significant 'windows of opportunity' for achieving more sustainable ways of living, however with that opportunity also comes risks. The state funding of communities can be a mixed blessing that opens up a whole plethora of tensions relating to community, including issues of power. Indeed, there were plenty of examples provided at the workshop of communities being worse off after funding or interventions being implemented at the community scale. This begs the question about whose vision of sustainable development is being privileged? This is important because 'sustainable development' is just as contested a term as 'community'.
Date: 21 Mar 2013 - 22 Mar 2013Location: University of LeedsTime: time TBA