text:
Comedy Topics
You can switch topic from Comedy to anything else by clicking here
The Empty Threat of Dragging Justice Nwabunike Before the NJC
By Uchem Obi, Awka
The trending news that a faceless and unknown group calling itself, Concerned Lawyers In Anambra State, has threatened to report Honourable Justice Nwabunike to the Nigeria Judicial Council, NJC, for hearing a motion ex parte, is a poorly scripted comedy acted by charlatans, who are merely out to exploit the ignorance of desperate and frustrated politicians to make quick money.
Even a fresh law graduate knows, that in civil procedures, ex parte is used to refer to motions for orders that can be granted without waiting for response from the other party. These orders are only in place until further hearings can be held, such as in present matter, a temporary restraining order. It does not stop the other party from challenging the order in court or continuing a substantive matter, and it does not amount to a judgement. In the absence of mischief, no ethical legal practitioner would in the present circumstances question the hearing of a motion ex parte.
Ex parte proceedings are permitted in law when a party needs urgent relief that cannot wait until the other party is informed and given opportunity to respond.
In the instant case, a candidate's right to enjoy the benefits of a fairly won primary election was in danger of absolute infringement, if urgent legal reliefs were not granted. In simple language, Senator Ugochukwu Uba's hard won victory at the PDP's primary election on June 26, 2021 was in danger of being torpedoed by premeditated efforts that were both illegal and unlawful, championed by unscrupulous individuals.
Given the urgency required to stop the illegal and unlawful attempts to sabotage the Senator's victory, the option of ex parte motion was the most germane legal step to follow.
Moreover,the right to hear an ex parte application is entirely at the discretion of the judge, who is trusted by law to make wise decisions.
How come that this exercise of lawful discretion has come under attack. Are these truly lawyers, "contractors" or outright renegades?
Their threat of dragging the Honourable Judge before the NJC is laughable, infantile and dubious. Sound lawyers do not exhibit such embarrassing ignorance of elementary legal procedure. Their empty threat is more like the Shakespearean tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury but signifying nothing.
Uchem Obi, a lawyer, writes from Awka
Woman in Hong Kong gets married without knowing it
A job scam was used to trick this woman into marrying a total stranger. Sounds funny buy she signed a marriage document thinking she was role playing and proving she could work as a wedding planner.
The woman has said she was told that she had to play the role of a bride in a simulated wedding as part of her training to be a wedding planner.
During the ceremony she and the man signed a genuine marriage document.
She only realised she was actually married after returning to Hong Kong, where she sought legal help.
Local police were unable to help due to a lack of evidence that a crime had taken place, so she approached the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU).
"It's a new form of marriage scam," Tong Kamgyiu, director of the Rights and Benefits Committee of FTU, told the BBC.
"I feel disappointed and cannot believe it's even happening in modern Hong Kong."
She remains married for now and may have to apply for a divorce. It is unclear who the man she married is, or if he entered Hong Kong after the marriage.
"The 21 year-old lady was taken advantage of while she knew nothing about the circumstances," said Mr Tong.
"Her biggest loss is to have a marriage record and it has caused her psychological damage."
Each year, Hong Kong police see an average of 1000 cross-border marriage scam cases.
Chinese residents who are married to a Hong Kong partner are able to apply to reside in the city.
There is only one legal way to cheat a bank and get away with it
Imagine yourself out on a very hot and sunny day. You are exhausted, thirsty and sweating. You decide you need to drink cold water, need air conditioner, need to pee and even sit for a while to relax while using a WiFi to surf the internet. But you are out of cash.
There is a bank close to you. What do you do? I bet some banks might start watching out customers who are inside the banking hall not for any real transactions, but to use free facilities.
THE GLORY IN SPILLED WORDS
Oriasotie Emmanuel, Writer, and Everything else I wish to be
Often times I have had to ponder the essence of literature. Not the words themselves but the genres in which they come. Their forms.
Tragedy, Comedy, Science Fiction, Satire; Are all these of benefit to the world we live in OR do they merely entertain.
And if they merely entertain what value should we place on them. Should we glorify them as we do more honourable works. Or keep them at a lower pedestal from those that hope to make a point, prove an idea.
How is glory earned?
Writers are problem solvers
9jaBooks, Ebook Publishers
Sadly, only a few care about writers,
Yet many lives are testimonies of their letters.
A word can be as fragile as a bubble,
Yet strong to lift one out of trouble.
Many a times I'm on doomed missions,
But words help me make right decisions.
When I can't think of what I love,
You write about what I love.
You stir up laughter and smile.
Your place is with stars in the sky.
The most valuable of all skills is that of using two or more words to end one's strife.
Words are not enough to tell how your words changed my life.
South East Celebrity Nite is an annual social event designed to bring together, sons and daughters,and also an interactive section for the nite
celebrate sons and daughters of South East origin who have made names in the world of music, comedy, acting, modeling and athletic.
The event will also be a relaxed forum for interaction with the celebrities on Socio-Economic issues for the benefit of the people of South East and their youths in particular. The discussions will revolve around sharing knowledge, experiences, ideas and suggestions in developing and enhancing progress on entertainment business for our youths. This type of interactive section will sharpen skills, encourage and build confidence in the upcoming entertainers because they have heard directly from their brothers and sisters who had undergone the same struggle on their way to the top.
The South east Celebrity Nite is slated to hold at Crown Tent Hall, Nike Lake Resort Hotel, Enugu on November 6, 2015. The event will be most exclusive and high profile night for top celebrities and special invited guests. Coming Soon........50% Loading
This book published in 1975 by Danish writer, teacher and psychotherapist Per Holm Knudsen was an object of social media ridicule some days back. How can you teach a kid how a baby is made? Well, the book has gone viral and according to reports, How a Baby is Made book is sold for more than $600 per copy on Amazon US now and over �1000 on Amazon UK
Find the book review here http://9jabooks.com/books/?id=31
A signboard outside a restaurant said:
"Eat as much as you can and let your grandchildren pay the bill".
A man entered the restaurant, ate as much as he can and when the waiter gave the bill he pointed to the signboard, "Don't you see, only my grandchild needs to pay for this bill".
The waiter said, "Sir, this is not your bill. This is your grandfather's bill".
Reply · Share · 9k Views · Report
Chinua Achebe is dead, but his memory lives here
Chinua Achebe, who died in Boston today at the age of eighty-two, was a few weeks shy of thirty years old when Nigeria was granted independence from the British Empire, on October 1, 1960, and he was already acclaimed, worldwide, as the preëminent novelist of black Africa. The British publisher Heinemann had brought out Achebe's first novel, Things Fall Apart, only two years earlier, and it had to have been the first African novel that many of his admirers on the continent and off had read. The sure tragedian's authority with which Achebe tells the story of Okonkwo, an Igbo elder of immense strength and pride, a figure of heroic qualities within the traditions of his culture, who is ill-served, brought low, and undone by those same qualities in his first violent encounters with colonial power, has ensured that still today, with more than ten million copies sold, Things Fall Apart remains the best-known work of African literature.
The great African novel? The book could as truly be called a great novel, period. Many writers would prefer to carry that badge of universality, but Achebe who has gone to his grave without ever receiving the Nobel Prize he deserved as much as any novelist of his era has said that to be called simply a writer, rather than an African writer, is a statement of defeat. Why? Because his project has always been to resist emphatically the notion that African identity must be erased as a prerequisite to being called civilized. Growing up as what he called a British-protected child in the colonial order, the young writer came to see that the Empire's claim that Africans had no history was a violent, if at times ignorant or unconscious, counter-factual effort to annihilate the history of his continent's peoples.
Achebe made his case in many forms essays and lectures, interviews and acts of protest, and as an ideologue and propagandist for the failed Igbo-nationalist secessionist state of Biafra but he made it most cogently on the final page of Things Fall Apart. With the reader in the full emotional grip of the many dimensions of Okonkwo's epic fate, the author boldly and deftly adds another, shifting to the perspective of a colonial governor who considers Okonkwo's story good material perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph for the book he is planning to write: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
Having, with his first effort, created a permanent place for the African novel in the world literary canon, Achebe continued to be a prolific imaginative writer, producing novels and stories that evoked, in a range of voices, the trials of Nigeria's pre-colonial and colonial history, and the traumas of its post-independence ordeals: from No Longer at Ease and A Man of the People in the sixties to Girls at War and Anthills of the Savannah in the aftermath of the Biafran war. But the fact that he must be remembered as not only the father but the godfather of modern African literature owes at least as much to the decades he spent as the editor of Heinemann's African Writers Series. In that capacity, Achebe served as the discoverer, mentor, patron, and presenter-to-the-world of so many of the now-classic African authors of the latter half of the twentieth century. The series's orange-spined, generously inexpensive paperbacks carried a stamp of excellence that drew readers everywhere to essential works by writers as varied as Kenneth Kaunda, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Dennis Brutus, Tayeb Salih, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Ousmane Sembène, Wole Soyinka, and Nadine Gordimer, to name but a few: it is an extraordinary legacy.
As a storyteller, as a voice of his nation, as a cultural impresario, an intellectual combatant and provocateur, Achebe gained with age the status in Nigeria of a bard and a sage that the modern world rarely affords to writers. After suffering terrible injuries in a car crash, he spent much of his time in the last decades of his life in America, where he settled into long-term professorships at Bard College and Brown University. But when he returned to Nigeria he was received as a national hero. Crowds of thousands sometimes tens of thousands gathered to pay tribute to him. The adoration hardly softened him, though. He was, in his old age, as much a scold to his compatriots as he had ever been in his youth.
I met Achebe a few times in his wheelchair-bound American years. When he gave you his hand it was at once firm and soft and notably warm. He had a gentle presence a man fully capable of wit and mischief and open laughter, but whose default expression, at ease, was one of sympathetic melancholy. His voice was another matter: low-pitched and rich and adamant. When he spoke, it was with great command and unmistakable music. In Boston, in 1999, at a celebration of the centennial of Ernest Hemingway s birth, I had the honor of sitting on a panel with Achebe, on the subject of writing about Africa. He was as cogently withering about Hemingway's Africa a place he could not recognize because there were no speaking Africans there as he was, in one of his most famous essays, about Joseph Conrad s. At the end of the session, the floor was opened to questions. An evidently confused woman in the audience took the opportunity to ask In what sense are you writers about Africa? The other panelists Nadine Gordimer and Kwame Anthony Appiah were too baffled to respond. Not Achebe. He leaned into his microphone, and very slowly and melodically, with rolling Rs and drawn out Os, roared: Read. Our. Books. The woman said, But I'm asking you. And Achebe said, I'm telling you: Read. Our. Books.
What better epitaph for the man, and what better way to remember him today: read his books.


A beautiful toned black and white Giclee print of a Quiver tree in the Golden Gate National Park, South Africa.
The tree is found in very dry habitats in Namibia and South Africa and provides food and shelter for many insects, mammals and birds. It has a striking appearance and yellow flowers in the summer. These trees are used for various purposes.
Print Size - 16 x 20 inch / Price £139.00 / Open Edition.
A High Quality Giclee print on Luxurious looking Harman Warm tone paper.
use London's premiere lab for all prints.


text:
Vista-based company TetraVue, a developer of high-definition 4D LIDAR technology, said it has received additional funding to accelerate the commercialization of its long range, high-resolution 4D camera.
The camera could play a role in the markets of autonomous vehicles, machine vision and factory automation because of its ability to process more real-time data describing object location and motion in the surrounding environment than other cameras, the company said.
TetraVue is initially focused on the automotive market.
The new funding, terms of which were not disclosed, came from Silicon Valley-based semiconductor equipment makers KLA-Tencor Corp. and Lam Research Corp. and Chinese clean-tech venture capital firm Tsing Capital.
"We were impressed with the novel approach that TetraVue brings to solving the high-resolution depth sensing problem currently facing automotive makers who plan to deploy autonomous vehicles," said David Fisher, KLA-Tencor's senior vice president of corporate business development. "Their uniqueness convinced us to bring both our financial and engineering resources to bear to help them realize the vision."
The new investors joined existing investors Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH, the corporate venture company of sensor manufacturer Robert Bosch; Samsung Catalyst Fund, Samsung Electronics' early-stage VC fund; and Silicon Valley VC firm Nautilus Venture Partners, founded in 2015 by former corporate investors with Samsung and Foxconn Technology Group.
TetraVue raised $10 million in Series A funding in February in a round led by Robert Bosch and Nautilus.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A dentist is a specialist who works to diagnose, treat, and prevent oral health problems. Dr. Bergman and Dr. Meeks have completed at least eight years of schooling to obtain their Doctorates of Dental Medicine. If a doctor is a pediatric dentist, this means that he or she specializes in caring for children from infancy through their teen years. A pediatric dentist has received the proper education and training needed to work with young kids.
Children, teens, and adults should all see us for a regular checkup at least once every six months. Patients who are at a greater risk for oral cancer or gum disease may be required to come in more than just twice a year. Dr. Bergman and Dr. Meeks will help determine how often you should visit our office for regular checkups.
According to Dr. Meeks, Dr. Bergman, and the American Dental Association, you should brush your teeth at least two times a day. Brushing keeps your teeth, gums, and mouth clean and healthy by removing bacteria-causing plaque.
It is also recommended that you use a soft-bristled toothbrush and toothpaste that contains fluoride when you brush. You should spend at least a minute on the top teeth and a minute on the bottom, and remember to brush your tongue; it will help keep your breath smelling fresh!
Yes! In fact, it's even more essential that patients receiving orthodontic treatment visit us regularly. With braces, food may be caught in places your toothbrush can't reach. This causes bacteria to build up and can lead to cavities, gingivitis, and gum disease. We will work closely with your orthodontist to make sure your teeth stay clean and healthy while you're wearing braces.


Reads the next sample from the media source.
The stream to pull data from. The value can be any of the following.
The zero-based index of a stream.
Get the next available sample, regardless of which stream.
A bitwise OR of zero or more flags from the MF_SOURCE_READER_CONTROL_FLAG enumeration.
Receives the zero-based index of the stream.
Receives a bitwise OR of zero or more flags from the MF_SOURCE_READER_FLAG enumeration.
Receives the time stamp of the sample, or the time of the stream event indicated in pdwStreamFlags. The time is given in 100-nanosecond units.
Receives a pointer to the IMFSample interface or the value NULL (see Remarks). If this parameter receives a non-NULL pointer, the caller must release the interface.
The dwStreamIndex parameter is invalid.
A flush operation is pending. See IMFSourceReader::Flush.
If the requested stream is not selected, the return code is MF_E_INVALIDREQUEST. See IMFSourceReader::SetStreamSelection.
This method can complete synchronously or asynchronously. If you provide a callback pointer when you create the source reader, the method is asynchronous. Otherwise, the method is synchronous. For more information about setting the callback pointer, see MF_SOURCE_READER_ASYNC_CALLBACK.
All of the [out] parameters must be NULL. Otherwise, the method returns E_INVALIDARG.
When the operation completes, the application's IMFSourceReaderCallback::OnReadSample method is called.
If an error occurs, the method can fail either synchronously or asynchronously. Check the return value of ReadSample, and also check the hrStatus parameter of IMFSourceReaderCallback::OnReadSample.
The pdwStreamFlags and ppSample parameters cannot be NULL. Otherwise, the method returns E_POINTER.
The pdwActualStreamIndex and pllTimestamp parameters can be NULL.
The method blocks until the next sample is available.
In synchronous mode, if the dwStreamIndex parameter is MF_SOURCE_READER_ANY_STREAM, you should pass a non-NULL value for pdwActualStreamIndex, so that you know which stream delivered the sample.
This method can return flags in the pdwStreamFlags parameter without returning a media sample in ppSample. Therefore, the ppSample parameter can receive a NULL pointer even when the method succeeds. For example, when the source reader reaches the end of the stream, it returns the MF_SOURCE_READERF_ENDOFSTREAM flag in pdwStreamFlags and sets ppSample to NULL.
If there is a gap in the stream, pdwStreamFlags receives the MF_SOURCE_READERF_STREAMTICK flag, ppSample is NULL, and pllTimestamp indicates the time when the gap occurred.
This interface is available on Windows Vista if Platform Update Supplement for Windows Vista is installed.


text:
Asite announces ISO 27001 security certification across all its products, services, offices, and operations globally
Tom Coleing
The International Standard Organization (ISO) 27001 designation is considered the global gold standard in information security
London, United Kingdom (October 2020) – Asite is delighted to announce it has received the International Standards Organization (ISO) 27001 security certification across all its products, services, offices, and operations globally.
The ISO 27001 designation is considered the global gold standard in information security. The international standard outlines best practices for an information security management system (ISMS), which is a framework of policies and procedures that includes all legal, physical, and technical controls involved in an organization's information risk management processes.
The new certification highlights Asite's longstanding commitment to ensuring unparalleled security and reliability to its clients.
Ian Pittam, Asite Head of Security said:
"I am proud to announce International Standards Organization (ISO) 27001 security certification across our entire platform globally. This certificate is the result of years of working with our customers to ensure the Asite Platform meets the high standards of security we set out for ourselves – and that our customers expect.
At Asite, we are committed to providing our clients with a secure platform they can rely on to be the single source of truth for their capital project and asset data. Security is of the utmost importance to the team, and we remain wholly dedicated to delivering a world-class Software as a Service Platform and to helping the world build better."
The attainment of the new certificate follows a six-month assessment process by independent experts, and builds on Asite's existing information security controls which ensure all areas of the network are protected. It guarantees that Asite's clients can expect precise and continuous management of information security risks.
Implemented controls include security-by-design product development, data encryption, vulnerability management, business continuity and disaster recovery plans, and much more.
This new certification is in addition to the long-standing ISO 27001 certifications of Asite's global data center partners, reflecting the quality of operations and excellence of the Asite service. The Asite team manages a global platform with underlying data centers spread across the UK, EU, USA, Middle East, and Australia-Pacific regions.
Asite's vision is to connect people and help the world build better.
Asite's open construction platform enables organizations working on capital projects to come together, plan, design, and build with seamless information sharing across the entire supply chain.
Asite's comprehensive range of solutions connect dispersed teams across the lifecycle of capital assets, enabling them to build better and build resilience. With Asite, capital project owners stay at the forefront of innovation, maintaining a golden thread of information throughout a project to facilitate the creation of digital twins.
Asite is headquartered in London's Tech City with regional offices in New York, Houston, Dubai, Riyadh, Sydney, Hong Kong, and Ahmedabad.
For more information about Asite, please contact sales@asite.com
Northern Natural Gas agrees to new multi-year extension with Asite to support Engineering Project Management Initiative
The Asite Platform supports the maintenance of the largest natural gas pipeline in the United...
The RICS Tech Affiliate Partner Programme is intended to increase awareness and adoption of...
UK's leading Facilities Management Company, Mitie, to embed Asite across its Projects business
As part of Mitie's ongoing digital transformation, the Asite Platform will introduce new...


"From start to finish, I'm giving these first-time flippers everything they need to score a profitable deal and not a bank-breaking flop," Tarek said in a statement.
The solo project is slated for premiere sometime in 2019. This summer, look for Tarek to appear in a web series about his life as a single dad. "With a new home and a new outlook on life, fans can watch Tarek as he works hard, plays hard and then goes home to spend quality time with his kids," HGTV said in a release.
In June 2018, HGTV announced Christina El Moussa, Tarek's ex-wife, would be getting her own series Christina on the Coast.
"Design is my favorite part of the house-flipping process and I can't wait to be able to now work directly with clients and create a space they've always dreamed of having," Christina said in a statement.
Christina's new eight-episode series will follow her as she expands her design business, as well as chronicle her personal life, including the search for a new home. Christina got married to Ant Anstead in December 2018.
"The past few years have brought a lot of change into my life and I am so excited to see what the next stage has in store for me both professionally and personally, there is so much to look forward to and this is only the beginning," Christina said in a statement when her show was announced.


Fill up your ears as well as your belly at this year's Eat the Street food festival and head to the Southern Cross University music stage to be entertained all day and late into the evening.
The 2019 Eat the Street music line-up includes performances by the Youth Jazz Orchestra, Tom Mwansa, Sara Tindley and Ash Bell, The Romaniacs, Jimmy Willing & The Real Gone Hick-Ups and Timbuktu.
Headlining this year is popular dance group Wild Marmalade, who are known for their high-energy didgeridoo and drum dance music and their ability to get a crowd dancing anywhere, anytime.
From their humble origins as street entertainers in the late 90s, Wild Marmalade have toured to stages, clubs and festivals the world over.
Lismore will be treated to an extra special show, as Eat the Street serves up the Wild Marmalade big band. Featuring the original Wild Marmalade line-up alongside Paul George from Tijuana Cartel and legendary percussionist Ben Walsh this show promises to take things to the next level.
With a strong following in Japan, Australia and Europe, Wild Marmalade regularly play at electronic dance music festivals such as Boom and Ozora and they have toured Japan and Europe every year since 2000.
Every performance is a unique journey crafted specifically for the time, place and audience. The band starts every show empty-handed, with no set list and no plan whatsoever, so it remains to be seen just what the Eat the Street gig will produce.
Eat the Street will come alive on Saturday, 9 March from 12pm to 9pm in the heart of Lismore. There will be more than 50 stalls offering tasting plates, plus boutique drinks and beverages, home-grown produce and locally made products.
The popular cooking stage will return with celebrity chef Matt Golinski holding two ticketed masterclasses on Saturday as well as a free live demonstration and Q&A.
There are several other ticketed events happening in the lead-up to the festival.
On Thursday, 7 March there will be a Progressive Dinner around Lismore with diners enjoying five courses over five spectacular venues.
On Friday, 8 March bushfood expert Peter Hardwick will lead a Food Expedition and teach people how to pickle, preserve and ferment with local native ingredients.
If drinks are more to your taste, join Howard Johnson from The Loft for a Mixology Masterclass using award-winning local spirits from Cape Byron Distillery and Husk Distillery.
For more information or bookings for the ticketed events, visit www.eatthestreetlismore.com.au.
Image: Wild Marmalade will headline the Southern Cross University music stage at Eat the Street.
As part of Christmas in the Heart celebrations in Lismore's city centre this year, a special Santa's Wonderland will be open every day of December until Christmas Eve at 100 Molesworth Street.
Lismore City Council will not be required to pay compensation to a Nimbin café after it successfully defended its decision to close the premises while improvements to food health and safety standards were made.
A new artwork by Nimbin-based artist Papillon (aka Dr Patrick Smith) uses recycled glass from the Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre to question the costs of our consumer culture. Using recycled glass and construction adhesive, the former CSIRO scientist has created a suspended installation of a crumbling Earth which sends a poignant message about humanity's inability to effectively recycle the waste we create.
Visitors from Lismore's Sister City Yamato Takada, Japan will walk in the Lismore Lantern Parade next week for the first time in history. The delegates are here to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Sister City relationship between Lismore and Yamato Takada, which began in 1963 and was the first ever Sister City relationship between Australia and Japan.
Free landholder field days are coming up in July and September as part of Lismore City Council's Rural Landholder Initiative.


text:
Science Video
Unethical scientific experiments: going to extremes
Most scientists will assure you that there is always an ethical way to test an important hypothesis. But ask them in private and they'll confess that the dark, unethical side has its appeal.
Newborn twins. Separating them at birth would give fascinating insights into genetics: but at an ethical cost. Photo: PA
8:00AM BST 16 Aug 2011
Bend the scientific rules, and our deepest conundrums could be resolved. We list seven experiments that show the potential advances if scientists were to toss away their moral compasses.
Separating Twins
The experiment: Splitting up twins after birth – and then controlling every aspect of their environment.
The premise: In the quest to tease out the interplay of nature and nurture, researchers have one obvious resource: identical twins, whose genes are nearly 100 per cent the same. Twins almost always grow up together in essentially the same environment. A few studies have been able to track those separated at a young age, usually by adoption, but it's impossible to control or analyse all the ways that their lives differ. If scientists could control the siblings' environment from the start, they could construct a rigorously designed study. It would be one of the least ethical imaginable, but it might be the only way (short of cloning humans for research) that we'd ever solve some big questions about genetics and upbringing.
How it works: Expectant mothers would need to be recruited ahead of time, so that the children's environments could differ from the moment of birth. After choosing the factors to investigate, researchers could construct test homes, ensuring that every aspect of the children's upbringing, from diet to climate, was controlled and measured.
The payoff: Several disciplines would benefit enormously, but none more than psychology, in which the role of upbringing has long been particularly hazy. Developmental psychologists could arrive at some unprecedented insights into personality – finally explaining, for example, why twins raised together can turn out completely different, while those raised apart can wind up very alike.
Erin Biba
Toxic Heroes
Lab mice: but could humans do a better job? (Photo: PHOTOLIBRARY)
The experiment: Testing each new chemical on a wide range of human volunteers.
The premise: To comply with the law, manufacturers of products involving toxic chemicals evaluate them in the lab, exposing animals – usually rodents – to high levels of the chemical in question. But just because a mouse survives a test, it doesn't mean a human will. The only studies we can perform on people are observational: tracking the incidence of adverse effects in those exposed in real life. But these are fraught with problems. Where researchers can find high levels of exposure – for example, in factories that make or use the chemical – the number of subjects is often too small to yield reliable results. And with broader studies, it becomes difficult to tease out one chemical's effect, since we're all exposed to so many every day.
How it works: Perform all the standard safety tests, but on humans instead of animals. To do so, we'd need to recruit volunteers of varying races and health levels – ideally, hundreds for each substance.
The payoff: Toxicology is currently a guessing game. Just think of the controversy over bisphenol A, about which the studies of effects in humans are maddeningly inconclusive: while used in many plastics, it has been banned in baby bottles in the European Union. Testing chemicals extensively on humans would provide a much more accurate picture. An ancillary victory: there would be no more conflicting news reports about what is and isn't good for you.
Brain Sampling
The human brain: worth slicing up a bit? (Photo: CORBIS)
The experiment: Removing brain cells from a live subject.
The premise: You might donate blood or hair for scientific research, but how about a tiny slice of your brain – while you're still alive? Doctors wouldn't let you consent, even if you wanted to, and for good reason: it's an invasive surgery with serious risks. But it would certainly be useful: although scientists recognise in principle that our environment can alter our DNA, they have few documented examples of how these so-called epigenetic changes happen, and with what consequences. Studies in animals have suggested that the consequences could be profound: in 2004, it was found that certain maternal behaviours in lab rats can silence a gene in the hippocampus of their pups, leaving them less able to handle stress hormones. In 2009, we got a hint of a similar effect in humans: in the brains of suicides who had been abused as children, the analogous gene was largely inhibited. But when does the shift happen? With brain sampling, we might come to understand the real neurological toll of child abuse, and potentially much more.
How it works: Researchers would obtain brain cells just as a surgeon does when conducting a biopsy: after lightly sedating the patient, they would attach a head ring with four pins, using local anaesthetic. A surgeon would make an incision a few millimetres wide, drill a small hole through the skull, and insert a needle to grab a tiny bit of tissue. A thin slice would be sufficient, since you need only a few micrograms of DNA. Assuming no infection or surgical error, damage to the brain would be minimal.
The payoff: Such an experiment might answer questions about how we learn. Does reading turn on genes in the prefrontal cortex, the site of higher-order cognition? Does spending lots of time playing tennis alter the epigenetic status of genes in the motor cortex? Does watching reality TV alter genes in whatever brain you have left? By correlating experiences with the DNA, we could better understand how life tinkers with the genes we inherit.
Sharon Begley
Embryo Mapping
A three-day human embryo. (Photo: PA)
The experiment: Inserting a tracking agent into a human embryo to monitor its development.
The premise: These days, expectant mothers undergo elaborate tests to make sure their foetus is normal. Would any of them allow scientists to treat their offspring as a science project? Not likely. But without that sort of radical experimentation, we may never fully understand the great remaining mystery of human development: how a tiny clump of cells transforms into a fully formed human being. Researchers have the tools to answer in principle, thanks to new technology that allows for the tracking of cells' genetic activity over time. If ethics weren't an issue, all they would need was a willing subject – a mother who would let them use her embryo as a guinea pig.
How it works: To trace the activity of different genes within an embryonic cell, researchers could use a synthetic virus to insert a visually detectable "reporter" gene (a green fluorescent protein). As that cell divided and differentiated, researchers could observe how genes turned on and off at various points in development. This would let them see which switches transform embryonic stem cells into specialised adult cells – lungs, liver, heart, brain, and so on.
The payoff: A fully mapped embryo would give us a front-row seat for the making of a human being. That could help us direct the evolution of stem cells to repair cellular damage and treat disease (say, by inserting a healthy pool of neurons into the brain of a patient with Parkinson's). Comparing the details of human development to other species might also reveal the differences in genetic expression that contribute to complex attributes such as language. Sadly, the risks are too great even to consider it: not only would the mapping process risk terminating the pregnancy, but inserting the reporter gene might disrupt the embryo's DNA and lead to developmental defects.
Jennifer Kahn
Firing fibre-optic cables into a specially prepared brain could answer difficult questions about consciousness. (Photo: GETTY)
The experiment: Using beams of light to control the brain-cell activity.
The premise: May I cut open your skull and implant some electronic gizmos? Before you say no, listen to what science might get out of the deal. The brain is a nearly infinite knot of electrical connections, and figuring out the purpose of any given circuit is a major challenge. Much of what we do know comes from studying brain injuries, which let us crudely infer the function of various areas based on the apparent effects of the wounds. Conventional genetic approaches, in which particular genes are chemically disabled or mutated, are more precise – but take hours or days to influence activity, making it hard to trace the impact on mental processes.
How it works: Optogenetics is an experimental method used with success in mice. Researchers have engineered a benign virus that, when injected into the brain, makes the ion channels – the switches that turn cells on and off – responsive to light. By flashing focused beams into brain tissue (usually via fibre-optic strands), researchers can increase or decrease the firing rate of cells and watch how subjects are affected. Unlike conventional genetic approaches, the flashes alter neural firing in milliseconds. And by aiming at specific circuits in the brain, it's possible to test theories with precision.
The payoff: Just one human brain, when decked out for optogenetic research, would yield unparalleled insight. Just imagine if we could silence a few cells in the right prefrontal cortex and make your self-awareness disappear, or shine a light into the visual cortex and prevent you from recognising the face of a loved one. The effects could be only temporary: once the light was turned off, the defects would disappear. And such experiments would give us our first understanding of causality in the cortex, revealing how 100 billion neurons work together to endow us with talents that we take for granted.
Womb Swapping
Switching foetuses between mothers would give insight into the nature of epigenetic processes. (Photo: ALAMY)
The experiment: Switching the embryos of fat and thin women.
The premise: In vitro fertilisation is expensive and risky, so it's hard to imagine that any mother in an IVF programme would be willing to entrust her progeny to another womb while gestating someone else's child. But such an act of selflessness could spawn some truly significant breakthroughs. Many of the most important epigenetic influences – the ways in which our genes are altered by our environment – happen while we're in the womb. A classic example is obesity: obese women tend to have overweight children, even before dietary factors kick in. The trouble is, nobody knows how much is a product of epigenetics, and how much your original genetic inheritance.
How it works: The experiment would be the same as regular in vitro fertilisation, except that the fertilised eggs would be transferred between mothers.
The payoff: We would know with more certainty whether the roots of obesity were genetic or epigenetic – and similar studies could probe other traits. For example, a Canadian team is undertaking a project to isolate the effects of in utero exposure to toxins. With embryo swaps at scientists' disposal, that wouldn't require guesswork. The answer would be clear as day – even if the ethics were profoundly murky.
Ape Man
Humanity's closest surviving relative. (Photo: REUTERS)
The experiment: Cross-breed a human with a chimpanzee.
The premise: The biologist Stephen Jay Gould called it "the most potentially interesting and ethically unacceptable experiment I can imagine". The idea? Mating a human with a chimp. His interest grew out of his work with snails, where related species can display wide variation in shell architecture. Gould attributed this diversity to a few master genes which turn on and off the shared genes responsible for constructing the shells. Perhaps, he speculated, the differences between humans and apes were also a factor of developmental timing: after all, adult humans have physical traits, such as larger craniums and wide-set eyes, that resemble infant chimpanzees. This phenomenon is known as neoteny – the retention of juvenile traits in adults of later generations. Gould theorised that over the course of evolution, a tendency toward neoteny might have given rise to human beings. By watching the development of a half-human, half-chimp, researchers could explore this theory in detail.
How it works: It would be frighteningly easy: the same techniques used for in vitro fertilisation would likely yield a viable hybrid human-chimp embryo. Researchers have already spanned a comparable genetic gap between a baboon and a rhesus monkey, and even though chimps have 24 pairs of chromosomes, and we have 23, this is not an insuperable barrier (although the hybrid would likely have an odd number of chromosomes, and be unable to reproduce). As for the gestation and birth, it could be done the natural way. Chimpanzees are born slightly smaller than humans, so it would make sense to grow the embryo in a human uterus.
The payoff: Gould's idea about neoteny remains controversial, to say the least. This experiment would help to resolve the debate – and, more broadly, illuminate how two species with such similar genomes could be so different. Its outcome would give biologists insights into the origin of our own species. Let's hope they can find a less disturbing route to get there.
Jerry Adler
The full version of this article can be seen in the September issue of WIRED, on sale now
© The Condé Nast Publications Ltd
Health News »
Evolution »
In Science News
Total eclipse, in pictures
Scott Kelly returns to Earth
The remote economy of the Svalbard archipelago
Wellcome Image Awards
The first space 'selfie'
Named after Sir David
Pictures of the year- part 4


iLCP Affiliates are individuals who have complementary skills to iLCP's Photographers and mission. Affiliates include, but are not limited to, writers, photo editors, publication editors, videographers, video producers, media experts, bloggers or program partners. We look to our Affiliates to help us deliver great content to our Conservation Partners and as advisers on matters large and small.


Dr. Alfonso T. Lagaya believes that all professionals should "pay-it-forward". Being blessed with knowledge and skills in his field of study, Dr. Lagaya shares his God-given blessings by offering his services to others.
"The enthusiasm that I have seen from Mr. Henry Sy, his family, and his SM Foundation staff, particularly Ms. Connie Angeles and Dr. Rorie Siasoco, has inspired me to join the medical missions that they regularly organize," declared Dr. Lagaya.
As one of the leading doctors in medical acupuncture and wellness, Dr. Lagaya believes that there should be a strategic approach in meeting the healthcare needs of the middle and lower socio-economic sectors of the Philippines. Apart from providing free treatments and medicines, he believes that it is important to provide orientations on proper health habits to prevent illnesses as well provide basic safe and effective home remedies that can save one's family in emergency cases. He saw this to be true in all the SM Foundation Medical Missions. Patients are not only provided medicines but also oriented in proper hygiene and proper health care. There are also adequate equipment to do laboratory work, x-ray, ECG diagnosis, dental surgery and, at times, even medical acupuncture. Among all these available services, it is acupuncture that is closest to Dr. Lagaya's heart as it is very much in line with his vision in creating an Integrative Medical Acupuncture Clinic.


text:
You are at:Home»Category: "Russia"
Browsing: Russia
NATO affirms Russia violated decades-old treaty
By Oriana Pawlyk on	 July 30, 2014 Russia
Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen released a statement Wednesday on Russia's alleged violation of the 1988-enforced Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, stating that Russia must now work "constructively to resolve this critical Treaty issue." "The United States has briefed the North Atlantic Council on its determination that the Russian Federation is in violation of its obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty not to possess, produce, or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles," the statement read. The Russian Foreign Ministry released a…
Tracking unrest: Mapping the latest in Ukraine
By Oriana Pawlyk on	 June 16, 2014 Russia, Uncategorized
The gas flow to Ukraine halted Monday in Russia's latest move to stun its former ally. Russia's Gazprom — one of the largest extractors of natural gas headquartered in Moscow — claims Ukraine missed the deadline to pay its delinquent bills and negotiators failed to reach a deal on gas prices. Analysts said that the gas supply to Europe will continue as planned, but this could disrupt "the long-term energy supply to the region if the issue remains unresolved," USA Today reports. This is one of many disagreements Russia and Ukraine have had over gas lines in the last 20…
NORAD prepared for war during Cuban Missile Crisis
By Jeff Schogol on	 October 17, 2012 Air Force, History, Russia, Uncategorized
The Cold War nearly exploded 50 years ago this week when the U.S.learned that the Soviet Union was placing nuclear missiles in Cuba. On Oct. 22, 1962, North American Aerospace Defense Command went on alert for more than 36 days, the longest air defense alert since the wend of World War II, according to a NORAD news story. NORAD's role would have been to support any invasion of Cuba and defend air bases in Florida, the news story says. "About 150 NORAD fighter jets were stationed in Florida on a five-minute alert along with 12 Army air defense batteries, 18…
Low-flying Russian fighter jet
By Karen Small on	 September 5, 2012 Air Force, Airframes, Offbeat, Russia, Video
Wait for it … about 25 seconds into this video, the fun begins. Agence France-Presse reports that the video was recorded by a camera on a car dashboard. The car was reportedly traveling on a highway in southern Russia.
Let's think of a new plot twist, Russia
By David Larter on	 November 30, 2011 Afghanistan, Politics, Russia, Uncategorized
I've seen this movie before. It's the one with all the harsh Massachusetts accents and Kevin Costner. The Russians start sending arms to Cuba and all the sudden the world is on the brink of total annihilation. Gen. Curtis LeMay even graces the scene as one of the main agitators trying to push that Kennedy guy to bomb Cuba and their commie allies back to the stone age. Russia Today reports that Russia and Cuba are starting to rekindle the old flame. Russia, according to the State-funded news outlet, is sending arms to Cuba and it seems like they are…


text:
Writings: 2019
Writings: 2017-2018
Writings Archived
Where is the left on the Canadian Prairies?
How a weak, fragmented, unorganized Prairie left can reignite its combative energy
by David Camfield Apr 30, 2018
published in Briarpatch Magazine, May/June, 2018
There's no point in pulling any punches: the left on the Prairies is very weak. True, it's not much better than in most other regions of Canada today – but it's weaker than the left in B.C., Ontario, and Quebec, at the least. This wasn't always the case: the New Left on the Prairies in the 1960s and 1970s didn't lag behind. Briarpatch and Canadian Dimension, two of the remaining handful of left-wing print magazines in Canada, both developed out of the New Left, and they have survived in part thanks to the left in Regina and Winnipeg, respectively.
But today radical left voices are few and far between in the region's unions. There's little left activism happening among university and college students on Prairie campuses, and not much left-wing community organizing. Who is challenging the NDP government in Alberta from the left? Where is the fight against austerity in Manitoba? In Saskatchewan, the Stop the Cuts coalition has made some advances against the right-wing Sask. Party's austerity budget, but still doesn't have leverage over the agenda.
The Indigenous resurgence that's underway in the region gives me hope. Yet what I call the "radical left" in a broad sense – stretching from people who demand far-reaching reforms like those proposed in the Leap Manifesto, to people like me who aim for a rupture that drives a process of social and ecological transformation and liberation – is weak. We exist, but we're too few, fragmented, and unorganized.
As Stephen D'Arcy wrote in a must-read 2014 blog post, "The Intractable Marginality of the Activist Left," "self-organized struggles of broad masses of people for social and environmental justice" are indispensable generators of "infusions of enthusiasm, critical insights about the nature of the systems we oppose and how to defeat them, and what Rosa Luxemburg called 'the forward-storming combative energy' of broad popular movements." That combative energy is what's missing on the Prairies today.
We exist, but we're too few, fragmented, and unorganized.
Other than Idle No More in 2012–2013, it's been a long time since we've experienced such struggles on the Prairies – and we can't manufacture them "by force of will or by sheer organizing prowess," says D'Arcy.
Years with so little social struggle have left us without much of what Alan Sears in The Next New Left calls the "infrastructure of dissent": "the means through which activists develop political communities capable of learning, communicating, and mobilizing together." For example, there are few forums where radicals regularly talk in person with each other and with people curious about radical ideas, and few networks of activists.
But we can, as D'Arcy puts it, "cultivate a capacity to recognize [struggles] when they do appear" – which means embracing even small opportunities. One of the lessons I've learned from my years as an active socialist is the importance of being open to the unexpected – who would have guessed that, in 2017, the lacklustre Democratic Socialists of America would see thousands of radicalizing people in the U.S. join it and push it to the left?
In the meantime, we should make it our priority to build power by working with people who aren't radicals, in our communities, workplaces, and campuses. We must organize against austerity measures like the elimination of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company, racism, and pipelines like Line 3; in support of land defence, climate justice, a $15 minimum wage, or freedom from gender oppression. Whatever the focus, organizing, as Jane McAlevey puts it in No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age, "places the agency for success with a continually expanding base of ordinary people, a mass of people never previously involved, who don't consider themselves activists at all."
But organizing with a broad base of support isn't enough – radicals also need our own political organizations, so that we can clarify our politics in order to better promote them to other people, and to help us co-operate across different fields of activity. The radical left on the Prairies is lacking in organizations of its own – and most of the handful that do exist are branches of micro-sects with dubious politics. We need groups that are non-sectarian, united around clear positions on key questions that confront radicals globally, yet are grounded in local realities. The top priority of such organizations should be constructively advancing social struggles. Solidarity Winnipeg,with which I've been involved, has been trying to lay the basis for such a group.
In the meantime, we should make it our priority to build power by working with people who aren't radicals.
Building a group like this from scratch is never easy; it requires a confident political vision. Radicals today are often clearer about what we're against than what we're for, or how to work toward the kind of change we want to see. This makes political education activities an essential first step toward starting new radical left political organizations.
The urgent challenges we face and our own impatience to see change don't dispel the need to learn from history and foster political relationships through broader organizing efforts. As we organize around what we face in the here and now, let's also strive to build a new left in a region where left radicalism was once a vital force.
Articles on this "archived"/blog format page are also posted on the Writings pages where you will find links to where they were originally published as well as PDF versions.


Tin (chemical symbol Sn, atomic number 50) is a silvery, malleable metal that is not easily oxidized in air and resists corrosion. It is obtained chiefly from the mineral cassiterite, in which it occurs as an oxide.
This metal is an important component of many alloys, including bronze, pewter, bell metal, and solder. In addition, it is used to coat items made of steel, lead, and zinc to prevent corrosion. As the most tonally resonant metal, tin is used in manufacturing organ pipes. The flat surface of window glass can be made by floating molten glass on molten tin. Also, glass can be given an electrically conductive coating by spraying it with certain tin salts. Tin(II) chloride is used as a mordant (dye-fixing agent) in the calico printing process, and a niobium-tin compound is used in wires for superconducting magnets.
Tin (Anglo-Saxon tin, Latin stannum) is mined in about 35 countries throughout the world. Nearly every continent has an important tin-mining country. This metal is a relatively scarce element, with an abundance in the Earth's crust of about two parts per million, compared with 94 parts per million for zinc, 63 parts per million for copper, and 12 parts per million for lead. Most of the world's tin is produced from placer deposits; at least one-half comes from Southeast Asia. Tasmania hosts some important deposits of historical importance, most importantly Mount Bischoff and Renison Bell.
The only mineral of commercial importance as a source of tin is cassiterite (SnO2). Tin is produced by reducing the ore with coal in a reverberatory furnace. In addition, small quantities of tin are recovered from complex sulfides such as stannite, cylindrite, franckeite, canfieldite, and teallite. Secondary (scrap) tin is also an important source of the metal.
Tin is one of the earliest metals known and was used as a component of bronze from antiquity. Given its hardening effect on copper, tin was used in bronze implements as early as 3500 B.C.E. Tin mining is believed to have started in Cornwall and Devon (especially Dartmoor) in classical times, and a thriving tin trade developed with civilizations of the Mediterranean. The pure metal, however, was not used until about 600 B.C.E. The last Cornish tin mine, at South Crofty near Camborne, closed in 1998, bringing four thousand years of mining in Cornwall to an end. Tradition has it that Joseph of Arimathea was a tin trader and that he brought his nephew Jesus with him to Cornwall on some of his journeys.
The word "tin" has cognates in many Germanic and Celtic languages. The American Heritage dictionary speculates that the word was borrowed from a pre-Indo-European language.
In modern times, the word "tin" is often (improperly) used as a generic phrase for any silvery metal that comes in thin sheets. Most everyday objects that are commonly called tin, such as aluminum foil, beverage cans, and tin cans, are actually made of steel or aluminum, although tin cans do have a thin coating of tin to inhibit rust. Likewise, so-called "tin toys" are usually made of steel and may or may not have a thin coating of tin to inhibit rust.
Tin is located in group 14 (former group 4A) of the periodic table, between germanium and lead. In addition, it lies in period 5, between indium and antimony. It is sometimes known as a "poor metal," a name given to metals that come after the transition metals in the periodic table.
This silvery-white metal is malleable, ductile, and highly crystalline. When a bar of tin is bent, a strange crackling sound known as the "tin cry" is produced, caused by breakage of the crystals. The metal resists corrosion from distilled water, seawater, and soft, tap water, but it can be attacked by strong acids, alkalis, and acid salts. It acts as a catalyst when oxygen is in solution and helps accelerate chemical attack.
When heated in the presence of air, tin forms the dioxide (SnO2). The dioxide, in turn, is feebly acidic and forms stannate (SnO3-2) salts with basic oxides. Tin can be highly polished and is used as a protective coat for other metals, to prevent corrosion or other chemical action. This metal combines directly with chlorine and oxygen and displaces hydrogen from dilute acids. It is malleable at ordinary temperatures but is brittle when heated.
Tin becomes a superconductor below 3.72 Kelvin (K). In fact, tin was one of the first superconductors to be studied. The Meissner effect, one of the characteristic features of superconductors, was first discovered in superconducting tin crystals. A superconducting magnet weighing only a couple of kilograms is capable of producing magnetic fields comparable to a conventional electromagnet weighing tons.
Tin has ten stable isotopes (listed in the box), making it the element with the highest number of stable isotopes. Many additional, unstable isotopes are known.
Solid tin has two allotropes at normal pressure. At low temperatures, it exists as gray or alpha tin, which has a cubic crystal structure, similar to that of silicon and germanium. When warmed above 13.2 °C, it changes into white or beta tin, which is metallic and has a tetragonal structure. When cooled, it slowly returns to the gray form, a phenomenon called tin pest or tin disease. This transformation, however, is affected by impurities such as aluminum and zinc and can be prevented from occurring by the addition of antimony or bismuth.
Tin(II) chloride, or stannous chloride (SnCl2): It is a white, crystalline solid that forms a stable dihydrate. It can dissolve in less than its own mass of water without apparent decomposition, but as the solution is diluted, hydrolysis occurs to form an insoluble, basic salt. Therefore, to maintain tin(II) chloride as a clear solution, hydrochloric acid must be added. A solution of this chloride containing a little hydrochloric acid is used for the tin-plating of steel, to make tin cans. It is also widely used as a reducing agent, such as for silvering mirrors, where silver metal is deposited on glass. In addition, it is used as a catalyst in the production of the plastic polylactic acid (PLA).
Tin(IV) chloride, tin tetrachloride, or stannic chloride (SnCl4): At room temperature, it is a colorless liquid that reacts violently with water and is extremely corrosive to the skin. On contact with air, it releases severely irritating fumes of hydrogen chloride. It forms a white pentahydrate, formerly known as butter of tin because of its consistency. It was used as a chemical weapon in World War I. It is also used in the glass container industry for making an external coating containing tin(IV) oxide, which toughens the glass. It is a starting material for organotin compounds.
Stannic acid or stannic hydroxide (Sn(OH)4): It refers to hydrated tin dioxide (SnO2). Despite the name stannic acid, this compound is amphoteric—it can behave as an acid and as a base. For example, it dissolves in base to form the stannate ion, Sn(OH)62-, which can then form stannate compounds. In strongly acidic conditions, Sn(OH)4 releases the tin(IV) ion, Sn4+. Stannic acid is a poor oxidizer. Combined with a good reducing agent, it can form stannous hydroxide, Sn(OH)2, but it is as likely to form metallic tin.
Tributyltin oxide (TBTO) or bis(tri-n-butyltin)oxide (C24H54OSn2): This pale yellow liquid is an organotin compound that was chiefly used as a biocide (fungicide and molluscicide), especially as a wood preservative. It is a potent skin irritant. Tributyltin compounds were once used as marine anti-biofouling agents. Concerns over toxicity of these compounds (some reports describe biological effects to marine life at a concentration of 1 nanogram per liter) have led to a worldwide ban by the International Maritime Organization. It is now considered a severe marine pollutant.
Tin bonds readily to certain metals, particularly iron, and has been used to coat steel, lead, or zinc to prevent corrosion. Tin-plated steel containers are widely used for food preservation, and this forms a large part of the market for metallic tin. Americans call these containers "tin cans" or just "cans," and those who speak British English call them "tins."
Some important tin alloys are: bronze, bell metal, Babbitt metal, die casting alloy, pewter, phosphor bronze, soft solder, and White metal.
The most important salt of tin is tin(II) chloride (stannous chloride), which is used as a reducing agent and as a mordant in the calico printing process.
Electrically conductive coatings are produced when tin salts are sprayed onto glass. These coatings have been used in panel lighting and in the production of frost-free windshields.
Window glass is most often made by floating molten glass on top of molten tin (creating float glass), to make a flat surface. This is called the "Pilkington process."
Tin is one of the two fundamental elements (the other being lead) used since the Renaissance in the manufacture of organ pipes. The proportion between the two metals may vary, but the most common mix is 50:50. The amount of tin in the pipe defines the pipe's tone, tin being the most tonally resonant of all metals. When the tin/lead alloy cools, the lead cools slightly faster and makes a mottled or spotted effect, and the alloy is therefore referred to as spotted metal.
Tin is also used in solders for joining pipes or electric circuits, in bearing alloys, glass-making, and a wide range of tin chemical applications. The use of pure tin or tin alloyed with other metals in these applications is rapidly supplanting the use of lead-containing alloys, to eliminate the problems of toxicity caused by lead.
Tin foil was once a common wrapping material for foods and drugs. It was replaced in the early twentieth century by the use of aluminum foil, which is still commonly called tin foil. Hence the slang term "tinnie" or "tinny" is used for a small retail package of a drug such as cannabis or a can of beer.
A niobium-tin compound (Nb3Sn) is commercially used as wires for superconducting magnets, because of the material's high critical temperature (18 K) and critical magnetic field (25 tesla).
The small amount of tin found in canned foods is not harmful to humans. Certain organic tin compounds, such as triorganotins, are toxic and are used as industrial fungicides and bactericides.
Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 71st ed. Ann Arbor, MI: CRC Press, 1990.
Tin. Los Alamos National Laboratory. Retrieved July 16, 2007.
March, J. 1992. Advanced Organic Chemistry. 4th ed., p. 723. New York: Wiley.
The Merck Index, 7th ed. Rahway, NJ: Merck & Co, 1960.
This page was last modified on 9 December 2015, at 17:17.


In the New testament the term "Elder" refers to leaders in general – see 1 Timothy 5:17 which implies that not all elders preach and teach but some are primarily involved in other areas of church governance. "The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honour, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching." 1 Timothy 5:17 (NIV) The Greek word used for elder is presbuteros see Acts 11:30, 14:23, 20:17 and Luke and Paul seem to use this word when talking generally about those in leadership positions within the church. However there are two other words used to describe leaders in the New Testament and these are diakonos and episkopos. Scholars believe these to be two distinct roles within the broad category of church leadership.
The word deacon is derived from the Greek word diakonos, which simply means "servant" so Deacons literally serve the congregation. Traditionally Deacons are given service / administrative roles in church government as opposed to upfront teaching ministry roles. But as 1 Timothy 3:9 states these men must also be clear on the central beliefs of the faith. Indeed the men called to serve at tables (literally to diakonos) in Acts 6:1-7 were also able to teach, evangelise and perform wonders among the people (see Acts 6:8, 8:6; 8:12).
Settle disputes and or questions relating to belief and practice – in other words must be able to teach and discipline the church. See Acts 15:1-2 and 1 Timothy 3:2.
When appointing anyone to a position of leadership in the church it is essential that their character matches the qualifications found in the New Testament. However some will be more gifted to serve through tasks such as administration rather than more public activities such as preaching. In comparing the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 for overseers, in verses 1-7 and for deacons in verses 8-13, there doesn't seem to be much difference. This is because the qualifications speak more to the issue of character than they do of role. The characteristics required for church leaders are set out in 1 Timothy 3:1-13, Titus 1:1-9 and 1 Peter 5:1-3.


text:
Lithosphere GameFi Project Jot Art Raises $55M Round To Launch Cross-Chain Metaverse
• September 2, 2022
• Press Releases
Insider Brief:
KaJ Labs has announced that it will award $35 million in grants to the Jot Art (JOT) Metaverse Project.
Jot Art is Lithosphere's metaverse and the infusion will aid in launching the cross-chain metaverse for the Jot Art play-to-earn (P2E) "Finesse" game.
The multi-player platform features high-adventure gameplay with mixed RPG elements.
PRESS RELEASE — Seattle, WA/September 1, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — KaJ Labs announced that it will award $35 million in grants to the Jot Art (JOT) Metaverse Project. The Jot Art team, led by project supervisor, Raj Kumar, have raised an additional $20 million from Psalms Capital, & ACP.
Jot Art is Lithosphere's metaverse and the infusion will aid in launching the cross-chain metaverse for the Jot Art play-to-earn (P2E) "Finesse" game. The game series has two chapters, "Shadow Warriors" and "The Kingdom," that takes place in the same metaverse.
The multi-player platform features high-adventure gameplay with mixed RPG elements. Players upgrade abilities with items from enemies and the environment. The "Finesse" RPG game is now live. Players can access and play the "Finesse: Shadow Warrior Preview Season" via Android and WebGL (browser).
Jot Art will also release a "Finesse" Samurai Genesis NFT Warriors collection with 100,000 unique characters and collectibles, each with different rarity levels on October 1st at 00:00 UTC. Warriors from the Samurai Genesis collection can be used for NFT staking and NFT wrapping. Characters are evenly divided between male and female and into five rarity categories: original, rare, super rare, very super rare and mythic. Only 25,000 characters of the Genesis collection will be available for minting on 2 public chains in the first batch.
A select group of whitelisted addresses will be able to mint one character for free, with minting fees ranging from $25 and up.
Jot Art and Lithosphere are no strangers to the creation of P2E games or NFTs. KaJ Labs has been active in the mobile gaming industry for many years through Jot Art and the transition to Lithosphere's unique blockchain allows for greater creativity and innovation. The financial infusion enables the "Finesse" metaverse to grow, evolve, and expand in multiple directions for the future of entertainment.
— — — — — —
About KaJ Labs
KaJ Labs is a decentralized research organization focusing on AI and blockchain technology. We're driven to create innovative products that work for the greater good around the globe.
Website: https://kajlabs.org
About Lithosphere
Lithosphere is the next-generation network for cross-chain applications powered by AI and Deep Learning.
Website: https://lithosphere.network
About Psalms Capital
Psalms capital is a research company & advisor of innovative blockchain projects.
SOURCE: KaJ Labs
funding round, gamefi, Jot Art, KaJ Labs, Lithosphere, metaverse


text:
Bright Spots: Providing free glasses to strengthen children's learning in Los Angeles, California
Posted by Betsy Rubiner on September 12, 2014 at 9:00am in School Readiness
Bright Spots are written and produced by the Campaign to showcase the work in Grade-Level Reading communities to make progress on school readiness, school attendance and summer learning by 2016. Continue reading below or download a PDF version.
Can something as simple as providing glasses improve a young child's academic performance?
Yes, according to research underpinning an effort started by California philanthropist Austin Beutner that has provided thousands of elementary-school students in low-income communities with free eye exams and glasses.
"He insisted on the research piece to make sure it was having an impact," says Gaye Williams, executive director of Vision To Learn, which was launched by the Beutner Family Foundation to address a problem affecting as many as 1.5 million children nationwide, especially those who are minorities and live in low-income families.
Independent evaluation by UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) researchers found improved grades for children served and an improved learning environment for all children. "Kids who were trending downward academically, started trending upward after they got glasses — especially for boys and for math," says Williams, adding that "the ability to read and understand what you're reading is crucial for math."
Since 2012, the program has screened more than 125,000 elementary-school children in Los Angeles, Oakland and Sacramento, and provided over 22,000 with eye exams and more than 17,000 free glasses. The program is expanding within California and into Delaware, Michigan and Virginia.
"Because of Vision To Learn, the prospects for these children, like the words they now see on the page, are clearer and brighter," Ralph Smith, managing director of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, told a recent national gathering. Honoring Vision To Learn as a GLR Campaign Pacesetter Program, Smith added: "The Beutner Family Foundation has offered a model that can inspire funders and communities across the nation to tackle and solve an eminently solvable problem."
In the Vision To Learn mobile eye clinic that travels to schools, optometrists and opticians provide services to children identified through preliminary screening. Children choose from a kid-friendly selection of glasses. "The critical piece is to make sure they wear them," says Williams. "Having the kids pick out their frames and then all of them getting glasses on the same day helps."
Providing the services in bulk, only to schools demonstrating a critical mass of need, keeps the cost below $100 per child. "The more we can get through in a day, the more the cost goes down. We have to be efficient and effective," says Williams.
California and Delaware plan to soon address another issue — state government health insurance programs for low-income people that do not cover mobile health clinic services. A broad group of philanthropic supporters fund Vision To Learn but "our long-term sustainability plan is that it would be a mixture of say, 70-75 percent Medicaid, 20-25 percent philanthropy," says Williams.
Recent Vision To Learn evaluations involved focus groups with students, parents and teachers plus an analysis of students' grades. Findings include:
Glasses improved reading grades but had a significant impact on math grades.
Before getting glasses, students struggled to participate in class and complete work. After glasses, they could pay better attention, were more engaged and willing to finish work, contributing to better performance.
Serving students in school increased access to and use of glasses because glasses were easier to obtain and school culture changed, decreasing the stigma of wearing glasses. Ninety-two percent of teachers and 90 percent of parents reported that the children would not otherwise have access to glasses.
Teachers could better control their classrooms because they learned which children do and do not have legitimate vision issues. "This helped them place the kids in the classroom, keep everyone in their seats and have less distractions," says Williams.
The eye exams detected additional health issues such as glaucoma, cataracts and strabismus (crossed eyes) for children who were then referred for other services.
Children's classroom behavior, self-esteem and family quality of life improved. Parents reported arguing less with their children to finish their homework.
"Kids talked about the ability to see and what a difference that makes in their lives," says Williams.
For more information, contact Jamie Staugler, at 917-974-8494 or jstaugler@visiontolearn.org
Photos: Vision To Learn; Publication Date: Fall 2014
To nominate a community to be featured as a Bright Spot, please contact Betsy Rubiner at brubiner@gradelevelreading.net.
Tags: visiton to learn, los angeles, california, glasses, health, foundation, school readiness


Norman Reedus takes over as No. 1 on the call sheet as Danai Gurira was in talks for a new deal to return.
AMC's undead will continue their walk into 2020.
The basic cable network has renewed The Walking Dead for a 10th season, showrunner Angela Kang announced Monday in a video on her verified Instagram feed. The news comes amid a wave of changes in the current ninth season, which returns for its second half on Sunday.
This season featured the departure of series lead Andrew Lincoln, whose character was sent off into a new franchise-building world consisting of three feature-length made for TV movies likely airing on AMC (and possibly another outlet). Showrunner turned Walking Dead chief content officer Scott M. Gimple will oversee the telepics. Gimple's replacement, Kang, will continue on as showrunner for season 10.
With Lincoln's exit from the flagship, Norman Reedus (who plays Daryl) becomes the new No. 1 on the call sheet after the actor — and co-star Melissa McBride (Carol) — inked what sources describe as "franchise/universe" deals. Those pacts cover three years of the Walking Dead franchise as a whole, meaning if their characters are written off the flagship and relocated to another property in the universe — or depart completely — they will continue to be paid.
Sources say Reedus — who also hosts and executive produces AMC's unscripted motorcycle series Ride With Norman Reedus — will make $350,000 per episode on top of additional guarantees and advances in a deal that sources say could be worth anywhere from $50 million to $90 million. McBride's deal, which is said to include a sizable pay bump, will see the actress score an estimated $20 million over three years. Danai Gurira, meanwhile, was in prolonged negotiations with AMC that were further complicated by her status as a breakout actress with hits under her belt including Black Panther. It's unclear if she has signed a new deal to return. AMC did not immediately respond to The Hollywood Reporter's request for comment about Gurira's status for season 10.
The new pacts are described as groundbreaking in that they stretch beyond traditional series/overall deals and allow both Reedus and McBride — who started as recurring on season one and have been regulars since season two when they made $8,500 per episode — to move freely among new projects in the Walking Dead universe. That expansion, which is being overseen by Gimple, started in November when AMC spun off Lincoln — whose Rick Grimes has been the focus of both the comic book source material and the series itself — to a trio of big-budget, feature-length movies to air on AMC. The pacts for Reedus and McBride allow both to move freely among the franchise as Gimple charts a course that includes revisiting characters who have come and gone with anything from new series, digital offshoots and miniseries, among others.
"We do look at this as a universe where we're trying to expand into as many different places as the show fits," AMC programming president David Madden told The Hollywood Reporter in November. "We think this is a franchise that could live across formats. So we want to do it carefully; we want to be strategic; we want to try to do it right. But there is a multiyear plan that could include additional series, digital content and specials."
Gurira, meanwhile, officially joined the series in season three as iconic katana-wielding badass Michonne. As Lincoln segues to the TV movie side of The Walking Dead, Gurira's Michonne — Rick's love interest — becomes the heir-apparent leader on the flagship. Lincoln was No. 1 on the call sheet, followed by Reedus (the show's new male lead), Lauren Cohan (whose Maggie also exited in November as the actress had her own salary standoff with AMC), Gurira and McBride.
"She has been very vocal about saying that she loves the show. We love Danai; we love that character. Right now, she's got a lot of opportunities and she needs to weigh what she feels is best for her. But we certainly would want her on the show as long as she wants to be on it," said Madden. "We really want her to stay. She is an incredibly valuable character and I'm really hoping she stays. Obviously, the lesson of Andy is that the show can survive anybody's departure if need be but that's not our goal. The goal is to have Danai continue on whatever basis she can make work, given the other things that she has going on in her life."
The Walking Dead is the centerpiece of AMC's scripted roster, which also includes the spinoff Fear the Walking Dead, Better Call Saul, Lodge 49, McMafia, Preacher, The Son, The Terror, Humans, Into the Badlands and the forthcoming NOS4A2. The latter drama, starring Zachary Quinto, is due later this year.


Writing an absolute persuasive essay or dissertation related to to turn into a legal representative arguing a situation sooner than a definite the jury. The author needs a stand on your issue-either "for" together with "against"-and implements the strongest viable question in order to really wow people.
In their riveting article, it's most of the writer's performance with regard to motivate the reader to acknowledge a certain point regarding perspective or even a drink a desired methods. Riveting articles requirement decent knowledge, awareness of ones reader's dispositions, together with powerful perception of both sides during the issue. The perfect engaging dissertation echos only reasons my writer's counsel is true, but in addition why the exact opposite view is inaccurate.
At Time4Writing, we predict its five-step sending program is the easiest approach to studying to build their convincing report. A few influential report points to consider for each track within work endeavor.
Choose scenario. Graduates should look at the condition combined with opt for negative they need to strongly recommend.
Understand listeners. To be able to compose a prosperous soul searching dissertation, the creator must realize all of the reader'exercise outlook on life. May be the ebook reader unclear angling directly to decide on one side or another?
Do the data. Each convincing dissertation rrs determined by secure, simpler immune. Don't extensively use 1 particular primary element. Navigate to the archives as well enlist some help from this particular librarian. Seek advice from place professional as well teachers. Comprehend while spend ideas. Isn't really replacement for an understanding of both parties of the classic edition.
Identify the maximum powerful proof of, fat loss selling points around the opponent consider.
Extend a review of the very dialogue.
Close which has a thesis sentence through which disclose the career to become or stay quarreled.
Either body shape part will have to look closely at i type of immune.
Within all the part, carry appropriate recruiting describe.
Clarify and subsequently refute will be the rewards belonging to the opposing vision.
Restate combined with boost currently the thesis important info.
The thesis epitome of fashion need walk out no way fears towards the writer's location.
Each figure paragraph have to have talk about various location, the phrases for each passage should probably offer up decent proof with respect to truths, google analytics, loan quotations by trainers, then real-life some examples.
Consider different ways to help make the post, making use of could be comparison, drawing critiques, perhaps illustrating that have theoretical environment (e.he., what if, suppose that…).
Don't reckon the people has now in-depth comprehension of the. State lingo and hand history.
The finishing section may want to sum it up the most important proof not to mention encourage the reader to bring the location quite possibly make a change. ending sentence in your essay is mostly a remarkable asking, a meaningful idea that suggests essential behaviour is essential, an issue your provokes devices to take into account very seriously in regard to the factor, or just a tip offering site visitors distinct just what it whatever undertaking.
Does typically the essay or dissertation create firm put on his or her challenge, based on crucial data, 1 / 2, estimates, and then good examples?
Does your current composition open up up with the the best "hook" that many intrigues respondents in addition to the provides themselves analyzing?
Does both part existing riveting research focused on distinct sustaining item?
Is your enemy standpoint released in addition , convincingly refuted?
Is some syntax several? Will likely be the concept of taste certain? Will the transitions regarding essay sentences grammatical construction conserve the reader's being familiar with?
Does its ending section transport the necessity of some sort of writer's profession not to mention impulse individuals to think about on top of that turn?
If the very composition remains neglected the objective, assume an extra overall look a person's dissertation. Ultimately demonstrate the most effective discussion? Test drive it near articles a trustworthy dissertation account to your opposite view. Likened, does the new dissertation demand toning? When the dissertation supplies a major well-built debate making use of transparent adversarial attitude, the rest of the paper if number set with less difficulty.
Next, double read and correct discrepancies appearing in grammar and / or repair, and moreover reword increase kind as well transparency. Setting up a girly friend treatment composition allows to author`s update which included a delicious view.
Sharing their convincing paper along with the rest around the kind may be all appealing with violent. Gain knowledge from the training usage of some of the information to help make the the next step report the best part is.
Time4Writing report drafting courses have access to a extremely valuable methods for find out how to submit the kinds of documents you will schools, regular tries, together with a college education choices. These web based content articles courses of instruction for simple, middle school, and high schools grad students, dysfunction unquestionably the drafting experience instantly into controllable chunks, very easily broken down by means of innovative copy writers. Classmates slowly and gradually start building ability as a copywriter and even reassurance with every on the net creating articles way, instructed just one-on-one educating that have a specialized, proficient instructor. The author's middle school around the internet content products, Welcome to a Essay and as well as Advanced Essay, practice higher education the actual fundamentals having to do with penning works, just like the engaging report. The high school the web posting lesson, Exciting Essay or dissertation Writing, concentrates more detailed with a paper content technique from groundwork for faculty like the unbiased. Press announcements posting classes for kids besides that conceal how you comprehend providing prompts during diagnostic emploi. Read something that mother and father assert relating to children'verts improve suffering from Time4Writing'erinarians online posting online classes.


HRIS Manager working for a Logistics company as their LMS manager and course designer. I work with many different software programs and love graphic design as well as working with my company to create exciting courses for our employees. I have a Masters in Human Resource Management and have 10 years experience in HR and just about two years working specifically in HRIS as a course designer.
Who does your company buy courses from (licenses)?


Get ready for the Lucky in Love Blog Hop coming March 15 - 18. To stick with the theme of the St. Patrick's Day holiday (and my part Irish heritage...like you couldn't tell by my first name!), I'll be giving away a beautiful Swarovski Crystal 4-Leaf Clover necklace (US residents only. I'll have another giveaway open for international residents).
So come back during the blog hop and learn how you can enter to win. It'll be easy, I promise!


text:
The Benefits of Heritage Designation
Economic and Financial Advantages
Research has shown that designation has not adversely affected property values; in fact, it has shown that heritage buildings have been less affected where there has been a general downturn in property values
Grants, loans and other provisions may be available for designated properties
Heritage Restoration Improvement Grant Program Requirements
Heritage Restoration Improvement Grant Program Guide
Heritage Restoration Improvement Grant Application
Designation of heritage properties enhances community renewal and development objectives and contributes to local quality of life and economic development
Designated properties can take on renewed life by being thoughtfully restored and used for contemporary purposes, creating employment and income within the community
Restoring or maintaining heritage homes can increase tourism, thereby generating revenue for local business and the community as a whole
Individual and Community Advantages
Our heritage is a precious resource, a cultural or natural asset often visible to everyone, which gives identity and distinction to a community
Designation is a tangible expression by the community of their appreciation of the value of special properties or events
Designation does not restrict use of the property, but the protection it affords may prevent unsympathetic changes or delay demolition while practical options are explored and advice provided
Designation does not oblige an owner to restore a property to its original condition or its appearance in an earlier period
Planning Staff and the Heritage Committee offer advice on heritage conservation and protection matters
Conservation of designated property has less impact on the environment than new construction in terms of energy required for renovation, land fill requirements and the recycling of material


text:
Idioblasta isoterma is a moth in the family Crambidae. It was described by Edward Meyrick in 1935. It is found on the Marquesas Archipelago in French Polynesia.

References

Crambinae
Moths described in 1935

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Cosmos » Birds » The most potent symbol of our time? The chicken
12 December 2018 /
Andrew Masterson
The most potent symbol of our time? The chicken
Modern broilers are a wholly technology-dependent species.
Modern chickens, arguably in their natural state and in their natural environment. Credit: Alessandro0770/ Getty Images
Chickens are the actual and symbolic product of humanity's influence on the planet, scientists have established.
The sheer numbers of the bird (Gallus gallus domesticus) as well as changes to its height and mass brought on by specialised breeding programs initiated in the 1950s "vividly symbolise the transformation of the biosphere to fit evolving human consumption patterns".
That's the conclusion reached by researchers headed by Carys Bennett from the UK's University of Leicester and published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
The scientists suggest that the modern domesticated chicken serves as solid evidence for the classification of the current period in world history as the "Anthropocene".
First popularised in 2000 by Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen, the term denotes a time in which the Earth is totally dominated and largely reconfigured by humans. Among scientists, the term is a controversial one, with many feeling it has more to do with pop-culture than empirical evidence.
Even among those who feel it has some merit, debate rages over when the period took over from the Holocene, which is universally agreed to have kicked off 11,700 years ago at the conclusion of the most recent ice age.
Estimates for the start of the Anthropocene range from 900CE to 1950.
Bennett and her colleagues tend to favour the more recent end of the spectrum, and indeed cite as a key marker the post-war advent of a competition launched by the US Atlantic and Pacific supermarket chain to encourage farmers to breed a fatter bird. The competition was called Chicken of Tomorrow.
The results of the quest – and other similar efforts particularly in industrialised nations faced with growing populations and (for a while at least) improving household incomes – were spectacular.
Today, the scientists report, chickens are by far the most numerous bird on the planet, with a standing population of 21.4 billion. This compares to house sparrows at half a billion, and ducks at 1.1 billion.
"In Europe," write the researchers, "the population of domesticated chickens in 2009 (1.9 billion) was greater than the combined population of the 144 most numerous wild bird species (1.6 billion). It is likely to be the largest standing population of a single bird species in history."
But it's not just numbers in play when it comes to chicken dominance; it's heft as well.
Since the Chicken of Tomorrow program, the researchers write, "chickens have undergone extraordinary changes. From the mid-twentieth century to the present, broiler growth rates have soared, with up to a fivefold increase in individual biomass."
The modern chicken is, in fact, a wholly anthropogenic species, with its survival utterly dependent on the technology of intensive meat production. In the US 97% of broiler hens are reared in factory farms, and worldwide the figure drops only to 72%.
The chickens in turn are the bedrock of a massive worldwide industrial chain, running from battery facilities to KFC outlets that account for billions of dollars in trade, millions of jobs and which forms a central element of the lifestyle choices of much of the world.
The numbers are mindboggling. Bennett and colleagues report that just one US chicken producer, Tyson Foods, slaughters 35 million birds every week.
The company kills them when they are five weeks old. The modern species is so much a product of technology and factory-breeding that allowing the birds to live longer could conceivably be described as an act of cruelty.
"If left to live to maturity, broilers are unlikely to survive," the scientists note.
"In one study, increasing their slaughter age from five weeks to nine weeks resulted in a sevenfold increase in mortality rate: the rapid growth of leg and breast muscle tissue leads to a relative decrease in the size of other organs such as the heart and lungs, which restricts their function and thus longevity."
From that perspective, then, it is reasonable to designate the modern chicken as a species that typifies the overwhelming influence of humanity on the modern world.
Bennett and colleagues, however, also cite another. Chicken bones, in the past, have not played a huge role in the fossil record, because they are light and hollow and tend to either rot or be eaten. Today's chickens, however, constitute a different set of potentials – not least because from time to time disease outbreaks necessitate the on-farm slaughter and mass burial of millions of birds.
Entombed thus, in oxygen-free conditions, the bones are likely to remain, perhaps for millions of years.
"The broiler chicken is therefore likely to leave a widespread and distinctive biostratigraphic signal in the sedimentary record, as a key fossil index taxon of the Anthropocene," the researchers conclude.
Originally published by Cosmos as The most potent symbol of our time? The chicken
Andrew Masterson is a former editor of Cosmos.
Sea otter problems predate the fur trade
Pretty boys have ski-slope noses
Meet the robot fish with battery fluid blood
Red dwarf stars 'too young' to host ET planets
Marriage doesn't cure reckless spending
How young do baby birds recognise family?
Putting a price on undiscovered Australian species
Wired for sound: The observatory that's always listening
Snails carrying tiny computers solve survival mystery
The quantum microscope revolution is here


text:
Limi Feu (born in 1974 as Limi Yamamoto) is a Japanese fashion designer. She started her label in 2000 and showed her clothes at Tokyo Fashion Week between 2000 and 2007. She made her Paris Fashion Week debut in October 2007 and was greeted with praise from fashion critics.

Feu was educated at the Ecole D'Humanité, a Swiss International boarding school in the Bernese Alps.

Feu is the daughter of designer Yohji Yamamoto. (She took a new name after stumbling upon the word "feu" in a French dictionary.)

Fashion writers have pointed to similarities between the aesthetics of Feu and her father: they both employ dark colors, large volumes, layering, and asymmetry in their designs.   They have also noted, however, that her designs are streetwise and have a rock attitude, whereas her father's designs were typically romantic. To celebrate Limi Feu's 10th Anniversary, Limi Yamamoto held a special showing in Tokyo that featured seven previously unseen looks: these designs paid homage to the old fashion guard, the father of modern-day couture, Christian Dior.

References

External links
 http://limifeu.com

Japanese fashion designers
Japanese women fashion designers
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
1974 births
Ecole d'Humanité alumni


text:
Pastor Arrested at Home in Front of His Children For Holding Church Service During Lockdown
International | Steven Ertelt | Jun 22, 2021 | 3:52PM | Calgary, Canada
Churches in the United States are open partially or fully in most states — and have returned to 100% capacity in most locations. Some have even gotten rid of mask mandates as Americans have gotten vaccinated and COVID case numbers and deaths decline rapidly.
But that's not the case in Canada. There's not only are lockdowns continuing in some locations but churches are not free to hold worship services. And one pastor in Calgary was recetnyl arrested at home, in front of his children, for the crime of praising God in church.
As the Spectator reports:
The most recent Canadian religious leader to face fines and jail time for defying COVID lockdowns is Tim Stephens, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Alberta. Stephens was accused of holding a large, maskless, and non-socially distanced worship service and was arrested by Calgary police. After a police helicopter discovered Stephens' congregation meeting for a secret outdoor service on June 13, Stephens was apprehended the next day. In front of his home, his eight children cried as Stephens embraced the family before peacefully complying with the arrest.
Stephens' wife, Raquel, questioned an officer, saying, "No other jurisdiction is imprisoning pastors for breaking health orders … Are you going to take me away from them [her children] too?"
Please follow LifeNews.com on Gab for the latest pro-life news and info, free from social media censorship.
Stephens' purported crimes are violations of Alberta's still-enforced COVID restrictions. As of June 10, Alberta entered their "stage two" of reopening with most buildings capped at 33 percent occupancy. Dining in a restaurant, attending church services, and having indoor gatherings remain prohibited in Alberta.
This is the second time Alberta Health Services has served Stephens a charge. Last month, they failed to provide a court order he was accused of violating. Stephens currently remains in custody after denying a Justice of the Peace's bail condition, which was agreeing to cease holding worship services. His next court appearance is scheduled for June 28. He will be represented by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which is advocating for his immediate release. Raquel Stephens organized a peaceful rally for her husband and for religious liberty in Canada on Saturday.
This is not the first time a pastor has recently been arrested for holding a church service in violation of strict government mandates.
Just last month, a "[h]eavily-armed SWAT police" team arrested and dragged off a Christian pastor in the middle of a highway after he had held his church service because he was "inciting" people to go to church. As you can see from video evidence of the arrest, Artur Pawlowski is made to kneel on the road, with his hands behind his head, as he's been handcuffed. It appears to have been raining.
Rebel News, which has been following Pastor Pawlowski's legal plight, reported on the update, complete with video evidence. The breaking news article aptly noted that "Arresting Christians for holding church services is what police states do, not liberal democracies. This has to stop." They are also promoting a legal defense fund for the pastor.
A third Canadian pastor was also arrested:
Another pastor in Alberta, James Coates, spent a month in jail and was issued a $1,500 fine in March after breaching bail by refusing to comply with the Canada's COVID laws. Before his arrest, Coates's GraceLife Church was surrounded by security cars and police put up wire fencing around the building to prevent entry.
Coates said to the judge, "I'm simply here in obedience to Jesus Christ, and it's my obedience to Christ that has put me at odds with the law. The court is aware that I'm contesting the legitimacy of that law but please, make no mistake … I'm not trying to make a point. I'm not a political revolutionary."