text:
Dunant's New Novel Reveals The Secret Lives Of Nuns
Published August 2, 2009 at 12:03 AM EDT
Sarah Dunant's latest novel, Sacred Hearts — the third in her triptych of books set in the Italian Renaissance — delves into the hidden lives of 16th-century Benedictine nuns. Set in 1570, the book takes place at the Santa Caterina convent, a fictional community based on a real convent outside Ferrara.
Dunant describes the period as "a really good cusp moment for politics and the [Catholic] Church," adding that "it's also, probably more powerfully, the moment when most women were going into convents." At the time, the cost of a dowry had risen so astronomically that most noble families could only afford to marry off one daughter respectably. Other female children would be shipped off to convents to be "married to Christ."
The book centers around two nuns. Serafina is a teenage novice whose family has shipped her off for virtual imprisonment at Santa Caterina to put a stop to a romantic affair. The convent — which, like many others at the time, could market its choir as a kind of tourist attraction — values Serafina for her beautiful voice, but she refuses to sing.
Zuana, a middle-aged nun with an extensive education, practices medicine within the convent's walls. Zuana's existence might seem painfully restrictive to modern readers, but, Dunant tells Liane Hansen, "the interesting thing about writing in the past is you cannot enter it with your '21st' mind. Me as a 21st-century woman being angry for them doesn't make for a real understanding of the past."
In context, then, Zuana has more autonomy as a doctor than she could have had anywhere else.
"That's kind of the wonderful irony of studying history," Dunant says.
When she began research for Sacred Hearts, Dunant spent a week living in a Benedictine convent near Milan. She says she found the quiet of the cloister a welcome respite from the pace of modern life, and she was impressed by "the power of ritual and rhythm and routine."
But, Dunant adds, "I think I really, really understood that I had picked the right profession by not being a nun."


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text:
News Release 2-Dec-2020
Satellite-tagged bottles show promise for tracking plastic litter through rivers
Researchers successfully track 'bottle tags' through Ganges River system into Bay of Bengal
A new study demonstrates the potential for plastic bottles tagged with tracking devices to deepen our understanding of how plastic pollution moves through rivers. Emily Duncan of the University of Exeter, U.K., and colleagues present this research in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on Dec 2, 2020.
Plastic pollution threatens natural ecosystems and human health worldwide. Previous research suggests that rivers transport up to 80 percent of the plastic pollution found in oceans. However, while ocean modeling and tracking technology have revealed detailed insights into how plastic litter moves and accumulates within oceans, river transport of plastic pollution remains poorly understood.
To help address this knowledge gap, Duncan and colleagues developed a new, low-cost, open-source tracking method that uses reclaimed 500 mL plastic bottles to house custom-designed electronics, allowing the bottles to be tracked via GPS cellular networks and satellite technology. These "bottle tags" mimic plastic beverage bottles, in the hopes that they realistically replicate the path of plastic pollution down a river.
As part of the National Geographic Sea to Source Ganges Expedition, the researchers released 25 bottle tags at various sites along the Ganges River. They successfully tracked several of them through the river and into the Bay of Bengal. They also released three bottles directly into the Bay of Bengal to mimic paths followed by litter once it reaches the sea. The farthest distance traveled by any of the bottles was 2,845 kilometers, which took 94 days.
This study demonstrates that future research could use bottle tags to significantly boost understanding of plastic litter's movement through rivers and into oceans. These devices could reveal new insights into areas where plastic litter is likely to accumulate and periods when large amounts of plastic pollution are moving through the waterways.
The authors also highlight the potential for bottle tags to engage the public--such as by enabling people to follow the bottles' journeys for themselves--potentially boosting awareness, discouraging littering, and informing changes to pollution policy.
The authors add: "Our 'message in a bottle' tags show how far and how fast plastic pollution can move. It demonstrates that this is a truly global issue, as a piece of plastic dropped in a river or ocean could soon wash up on the other side of the world."
Peer reviewed; Experimental study; People
Citation: Duncan EM, Davies A, Brooks A, Chowdhury GW, Godley BJ, Jambeck J, et al. (2020) Message in a bottle: Open source technology to track the movement of plastic pollution. PLoS ONE 15(12): e0242459. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242459
Funding: This study was conducted as part of the Sea to Source: Ganges Expedition run and funded by the National Geographic Society which played a role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, and preparation of the manuscript as well supporting EMD, AD, GWC, JJ, IN, AB, SEN, HK, TM. Arribada contracted Icoteq Ltd as consultants to cover authors CR contribution. CR did contribute to the design and building of the tracking equipment and preparation of methods section in the manuscript but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish. INDICIT II (11.0661/2018/794561/SUB/ENV.C2), European Commission provided support in the form of salaries for authors EMD & SEN, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Shuttleworth Foundation provided support in the form of salaries for authors AD but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Department of Fisheries (DoF) and Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI), Chandpur, Bangladesh provided support in the form of salaries for authors GWC, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The University of Exeter Multidisciplinary Plastics Research Hub (ExeMPLaR) 685 [EPSRC EP/S025529/1] provided support in the form of salaries for authors SEN and BJG, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the 'author contributions' section.
Competing Interests: The author CR is employed by a commercial company: Icoteq Ltd, who were hired as subcontractors to develop elements of the hardware used in this project. All hardware and software developed by Icoteq Ltd is licenced under GPLv3 & CERN 1.2, both open source licensing agreements. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0242459
Emily Duncan
ed291@exeter.ac.uk
http://www.plos.org
HYDROLOGY/WATER RESOURCES
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242459
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I've always admired gorgeous thread portraits, but never felt like I had the right eye for color and shadow to pull one off myself. Luckily for me, Photoshop and printers significantly reduce the amount of artistic talent necessary to make your own custom portrait. This Instructable will take the difficulty of a thread portrait from Van Gogh to a paint-by-number.
I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 to make my design before starting to stitch. GIMP is a free alternative that can create similar effects. Also, remember that you can use Adobe at many public libraries. The other materials you will need are thread, fabric, an embroidery hoop, a printer, and freezer paper. Let's get started!
Start by choosing the subject of your portrait. Teeth are hard to replicate in thread; I recommend choosing an image that doesn't show them. I found the best pose to be at a slight angle in a well-lit room. Three-quarter angles shade a little more nicely than head-on or side angles.
First, remove the background by using the Quick Selection tool to select everything besides the subject. Press delete to remove the selection.
Use the eraser tool to clean up the neck however you'd like.
Now let's break the image into simpler blocks of color. Select Filter > Filter Gallery, and choose Cutout. The number of levels is up to you and the amount of thread colors you're willing to work with. I found 6 to work well. Edge simplicity and edge fidelity can stay at their defaults.
Next, create a New Adjustment Layer on top of Layer 1 by selecting the semicircle icon. Select "Gradient Map".
Click on the gradient map in the adjustment layer tab to open the gradient editor. Choose the blue, red, yellow preset. The boxes of color along the strip are called stops. Double click on each stop and set the saturation to 50% (or whatever you'd like -- these numbers are just instructions on replicating my look exactly). Notice that you can slide the stops. Slide the rightmost stop in towards the middle, then double click where that stop used to be to add a new color. Set this new color to white. Now, readjust all stops however you'd like.
From left to right, my locations were 0%, 38% 71%, and 100%. When you're happy with your arrangement, click OK.
Next, go to Image > Mode > Color Table. These will be your thread colors. Notice that several colors may be almost identical, and it's okay to remove the duplicates.
Remember that your printed image will need to fit inside an embroidery hoop. I was using a 6" hoop, so I resized my Photoshop canvas to 6", drew a circle on it, and manually adjusted the size of my model until I was happy with her placement inside the hoop. I also used the eraser tool to remove her hair, because I knew I wanted a ponytail instead of a bun, but this is totally up to you.
Freezer paper can stick to fabric and act as a stabilizer, making it perfect for convincing your printer that you're using a regular sheet of paper. Trace the outline of a standard 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper onto both your freezer paper and your fabric and carefully cut them out. The fabric should be slightly smaller than the full page so that it doesn't jam your printer. Next, iron your fabric onto the shiny side of the freezer paper, placing your iron on the fabric side. Make sure that the edges are adhered as well as possible. Trim any stray fabric threads.
It's a good idea to do a test print of your image onto a regular sheet of paper to make sure everything looks right. You can see that my real paper print was brighter than the fabric print on the right. When you're ready to print, put your fabric/paper hybrid in your printer, keeping in mind that some printers flip your page upside down. Orient the paper so that the printer will print onto the fabric, not the freezer paper.
Once your image is printed, peel the freezer paper off of the fabric.
Start to fill in the image with one color at a time. Try to follow the natural curvature of the face with your stitches. For finer details like the lips and eyelids, I used only 1-3 strands of thread. If you choose to add hair, fill in as much of the scalp as possible by tacking down long threads to follow the curve of the head. I used a fine tooth comb to brush out the threads of my hair, and it really helped separate the six stranded chunks.
My preferred hoop finishing method is gathering. Trim your fabric about an inch away from the hoop and use a single piece of thread to add long stitches along the circumference. Pull the thread taut to gather the fabric and knot off. If you'd like, you can also cut a circle of felt slightly smaller than the hoop and whipstitch it to the back for a very professional finish.
Step 9: Display With Pride!
I would buy somthing like this!


MDFA-DeepLearning is a library for building machine learning applications on large numbers of multivariate time series data, with a heavy emphasis on noisy (non)stationary data. The goal of MDFA-DeepLearning is to learn underlying patterns, signals, and regimes in multivariate time series and to detect, predict, or forecast them in real-time with the aid of both a real-time feature extraction system based on the multivariate direct filter approach (MDFA) and deep recurrent neural networks (RNN). The feature extraction system utilizes the MDFA-Toolkit to construct K multivariate signals in real-time (the features) where each of the K features targets a certain frequency range in the underlying time series. Furthermore, each (or some) of these features can also be forecasted multiple steps ahead, or smoothed, creating many possibilities of signal or regime learning in time series.
For the deep learning components, in this package we focus on two network structures, namely a recurrent weighted average network (RWA Ostmeyer and Cowell) and a standard long-short term memory network. The RWA cell is a type of RNN cell that computes a recurrent weighted average over every past processing timestep, unlike standard RNN cells which only process information from previous timesteps.
The overall general architecture of the proposed network is given in Figure 1 in the case of an RWA network, which we will discuss in more detail below. For a given sequence of N multivariate time series values which have been transformed appropriately to a stationary sequence, which we denote Y_1, Y_2, …, Y_N, a real-time feature extraction process is applied at each observation which is then used as input to an RWA (or LSTM) network, where the univariate output is a targeted signal value (regression) or a regime value (classification)..
The MDFA-DeepLearning approach differs from most machine learning methods in time series analysis in that an emphasis on real-time feature extraction is utilized where the features extractors are build using the multivariate direct filter approach. The motivation behind this coupling of MDFA with machine learning is that, while many time series decomposition methodologies exist (from empirical mode decomposition to stochastic component analysis methods), all of these rely on either in-sample decompositions on historical data (useless for future data), and/or assumptions about the boundary values, neither of which are attractive when fast, real-time out-of-sample predictions are the emphasis. Furthermore, simply applying standard recurrent neural networks for step-ahead forecasting or signal extraction directly on the original noisy data is a useless exercise – the recurrent networks typically will only learn noise, producing signals and forecasts of little to no value (in most cases, the latter).
Observational labeling: every time series observation is labeled by a signal value (for example a target value computed by a symmetric target filter). This is sequence-to-sequence labeling for time series regression.
Fixed Period labeling: every period (day, week, etc) is labeled, typically by a one-hot vector. This is sequence-to-value labeling. The end of the period is labeled and the rest of the values are not (masked by nonvalues in the code).
Regime labeling: every value in a specific regime is labeled, either by a one-hot vector (for example, long (1,0) short (0,1) neutral (0,0), or trend (1,0) and mean-reverting (0,1)). This is another example of sequence-to-sequence, but using one-hot vectors and now in the form of sequence classification.
Other labeling strategies can certainly be used, but these are the three most common. We will give an outline on how to create a custom labeling strategy in a future article.
The package contains a feature extraction class called MDFAFeatureExtraction which, when instantiated, is used as the input to the a DataSetIterator. The MDFAFeatureExtraction contains a default automated feature extraction builder where a value of K is given as the number of features and a lag to indicate smoothing or forecasting steps-ahead.
One application of the MDFA feature extraction tool is to decompose a multivariate time series into K components in real-time which are close to being "orthogonal", meaning in this sense that the frequency information from each of the components are relatively disjoint. A precise mathematical formulation of this property and examples of the MDFAFeatureExtraction to follow. Another example used for turning-point detection in trends is to decompose the multivariate series into K number of low-frequency components with different speeds and forecast/smoothing characteristics.
The DataSetIterator is an interface for ND4J that handles fast N-d array manipulation akin to numpy in Python. More specifically, the DataSetIterator handles traversing through a dataset and preparing data for a recurrent neural network. Our datasets in this package are outputs from the TimeSeries through the MDFAFeatureExtraction objects which then become the input to the RNN network. The DataSetIterator also performs the labeling and how output will be arranged. Thus it is essentially the communication from the underlying time series to the extraction process and then how it is treated as input and output to the RNN. In the package, we have designed two examples of DataSetIterators, one for regression and one for classification, that will be described in more detail in a later article.
Finally, the learning interface is where the final network is defined, all the parameters of the network, the activation and loss functions, and number/type of layers (LSTM, FeedForward, etc). The underlying computational framework for this component uses DeepLearning4J.
MDFA-DeepLearning requires both the MDFA-Toolkit package for constructing the time series feature extractors and the Eclipse Deeplearning4j (dl4j) library for the deep recurrent neural network constructors. The dl4j library is freely available at github.com/deeplearning4j, but is included in the build of this package using Gradle as the dependency management tool.
The back-end for the dl4j package will depend on your computational hardware, but is available on a local native basis using CPUs, or can take advantage of GPUs using CUDA libraries (CUDA 8.0 was used to test current version of MDFA-DeepLearnng). In this package I have included a reference to both versions (assuming a standard linux64 architecture).
The back-end used for the novel feature extraction technique, as mentioned, is the MDFA-Toolkit (available here), which will run on the ND4J package. The feature extraction begins by defining K MDFA objects, called MDFABase from the MDFA-Toolkit, with the fixed parameters set for each MDFA object. For example, here we define K=4 MDFABase objects, that will be used to extract different types of trends at different speeds in a fractionally differenced time series. Please refer to the MDFA-Toolkit documentation for more information on the definition of each MDFA parameter.
More concrete, in-depth step by step examples and tutorials will be given in the source code on github and in this blog, but here we will just give a brief overview on an example main program using these features.
The .csv time series data file from which the DataIterator will extract the time series data for both labeling and learning. Two data sets will be created from this, a train set and a test set. Referrencing to multiple files from which to extract training and test sets is also possible. In dl4j, training and test data is built in the form of a DataSetIterator interface (org.nd4j.linalg.dataset.api.iterator). In the package, we have defined a MDFADataSetIterator and a MDFARegressionDataSetIterator. More DataSetIterators for various applications will be added on an ongoing basis.
The network RecurrentMdfaRegression is initiated, and needs to contain the feature signal extractors. Any set of feature extractors can be added, here we used the ones defined above as an example.
Finally, the LSTM (or recurrent weighted average) network parameters need to be defined, this will then be used to construct the layers of the recurrent network.
With these three steps defined the network should be ready to train and test. The challenge is of course defining the feature extraction parameters. In later articles, we will give tips and tricks into what works best for what type of learning applications in large time series.
The multivariate direct filter approach (MDFA) is a generic real-time signal extraction and forecasting framework endowed with a richly parameterized interface allowing for adaptive and fully-regularized data analysis in large multivariate time series. The methodology is based primarily in the frequency domain, where all the optimization criteria is defined, from regularization, to forecasting, to filter constraints. For an in-depth tutorial on the mathematical formation, the reader is invited to check out any of the many publications or tutorials on the subject from blog.zhaw.ch.
A fractional differencing optimization tool for transforming nonstationary time-series into stationary time series while preserving memory (inspired by Marcos Lopez de Prado's recent book on Advances in Financial Machine Learning, Wiley 2018).
Generalization of optimization criterion for the signal extraction. One can use a periodogram, or a model-based spectral density of the data, or anything in between.
Build a filtering process from simpler user-defined filters, applying customization and reducing degrees of freedom.
To start the most basic signal extraction process using MDFA-Toolkit, three things need to be defined.
In the current version, time series data is providing by a streaming CSVReader, where the time series index is given by a String DateTime stamp is the first column, and the value(s) are given in the following columns. For multivariate data, two options are available for streaming data. 1) A multiple column .csv file, with each value of the time series in a separate column 2) or in multiple referenced single column time-stamped .csv files. In this case, the time series DateTime stamps will be checked to see if in agreement. If not, an exception will be thrown. More sophisticated multivariate time series data streamers which account for missing values will soon be available.
A Box-Cox transform, one of the more common transformations in financial and other non-stationary time series.
(fractional)-differencing, defined by a value d in [0,1]. When d=1, standard first-order differencing is applied.
For stationary series, standard mean-variance normalization or a more exotic GARCH normalization which attempts to model the underlying volatility is also available.
Filter constraints i1 and i2: Constrains the filter coefficients to sum to one (i1) and/or the dot product with (0,1…, L) is equal to the phase shift, where L is the filter length.
Phase-shift: the derivative of the frequency response function at the zero frequency.
All these parameters are controlled in an MDFABase object, which holds all the information associated with the filtering process. It includes it's own interface which ensures the MDFA filter coefficients are updated automatically anytime the user changes a parameter in real-time.
As shown in Figure 1, the main components that need to be defined in order to define a signal extraction process in MDFA-Toolkit. The signal extraction process begins with a handle on the data streaming process, which in this article we will demonstrate using a simple CSV market file reader that is included in the package. The CSV file should contain the raw time series data, and ideally a time (or date) stamp column. In the case there is no time stamp column, such a stamp will simply be made up for each value.
Once the data stream has been defined, these are then passed into a time series transformation process, which handles automatically all the data transformations which new data is streamed. As we'll see, the TargetSeries object defines such transformations and all streaming data is passed added directly to the TargetSeries object. A MultivariateFXSeries is then initiated with references to each TargetSeries objects. The MDFABase objects contain the MDFA parameters and are added to the MultivariateFXSeries to produce the final signal extraction output.
To demonstrate these components and how they come together, we illustrate the package with a simple example where we wish to extract three independent signals from AAPL daily open prices from the past 5 years. We also do this in a multivariate setting, to see how all the components interact, yielding a multivariate series -> multivariate signal.
In the first line, we reference three data sources (AAPL daily open, GOOG daily open, and SPY daily open), where all signals are constructed from the target signal which is by default, the first series referenced in the data market feed. The second two series act as explanatory series. The filter coeffcients are computed using the latest 400 observations, since in this example 400 was used as the insample setSeriesLength, value for all signals. As a side note, different insample values can be used for each signal, which allows one to study the affects of insample data sizes on signal output quality. Figure 2 shows the resulting insample signals created from the latest 400 observations.
We now add 600 more observations out-of-sample, chop off the first 400, and then see how one can change a couple of parameters on the first signal (first MDFABase object).
After adding the 600 values out-of-sample and plotting, we then proceed to change the lowpass cutoff of the first signal to PI/6, and the lag to -3.0 (forecasting three steps ahead). This is done by accessing the MDFAFactory and getting handle on first signal (index 0), and setting the new parameters. The filter coefficients are then recomputed on the newest 400 values (but now all signal values are insample).
In the MDFA-Toolkit, plotting is done using JFreeChart, however iMetricaFX provides an app for building signal extraction pipelines with this toolkit providing the backend where all the automated plotting, analysis, and graphics are handled in JavaFX, creating a much more interactive signal extraction environment. Many more features to the MDFA-Toolkit are being constantly added, especially in regard to features boosting applications in Machine Learning, such as we will see in the next upcoming article.
We also implement in MDFA-Toolkit an interface to Apache Spark-TS, which provides a Spark RDD for Time series objects, geared towards high dimension multivariate time series. Large-scale time-series data shows up across a variety of domains. Distributed as the spark-ts package, a library developed by Cloudera's Data Science team essentially enables analysis of data sets comprising millions of time series, each with millions of measurements. The Spark-TS package runs atop Apache Spark. A tutorial on creating an Apache Spark-TS connection with MDFA-Toolkit is currently being developed.
My first open-source release of iMetrica for Linux Ubuntu 64 can now be downloaded at my Github, with a Windows 64 version soon to follow. iMetrica is a fast, interactive, GUI-oriented software suite for predictive modeling, multivariate time series analysis, real-time signal extraction, Bayesian financial econometrics, and much more.
The principal use of iMetrica is to provide an interactive environment for the numerical and visual analysis of (multivariate) time series modeling, real-time filtering, and signal extraction. The interactive features in iMetrica boast a modeling and graphics environment for analysts, practitioners, and students of econometrics, finance, and real-time data analysis where no coding or modeling experience is necessary. All the system needs is data which can be piped into the system in many forms, including .csv, .txt, Google/Yahoo Finance, Quandle, .RData, and more. A module for connecting to MySQL databases is currently being developed. One can also simulate their own data from a one or a combination of several different popular data generating models.
With the design intending to be interactive and self-enclosed, one can change modeling data/parameter inputs and see the effects in both graphical and numerical form automatically. This feature is designed to help understand the underlying mechanics of the modeling or filtering process. One can test many attributes of the modeling or filtering process this way both visually and numerically such as sensitivity, nonlinearity, goodness-of-fit, any overfitting issues, stability, etc.
Random number generators from several different types of parameterized distributions to create shocks, outliers, regression components, etc.
Construct mulitvariate MA filter designs, classical ARMA ZPA filtering designs, or hybrid filtering designs.
Analyze all components of the filtering and signal extraction process, from time-delay and smoothing control, to regularization.
Applies a fast adaptive EMD algorithm to decompose nonlinear, nonstationary data into a trend and instrinsic modes.
Visualize all time-frequency components with automatically generated 2D heat maps.
Automatically optimize certain components of the signal extraction on in-sample data.
Tutorials on how to use iMetrica can be found on this blog and will be added on a weekly basis, with new tools, features, and modules being added and improved on a consistent basis.
Please send any bug reports, comments, complaints, to clisztian@gmail.com.
Figure 1: The TWS-iMetrica automated financial trading platform. Featuring fast performance optimization, analysis, and trading design features unique to iMetrica for building direct real-time filters to generate automated trading signals for nearly any tradeable financial asset. The system was built using Java, C, and the Interactive Brokers IB API in Java.
I realize that I've been MIA (missing in action for non-anglophones) the past three months on this blog, but I assure you there has been good reason for my long absence. Not only have I developed a large slew of various optimization, analysis, and statistical tools in iMetrica for constructing high-performance financial trading signals geared towards intraday trading which I will (slowly) be sharing over the next several months (with some of the secret-sauce-recipes kept to myself and my current clients of course), but I have also built, engineered, tested, and finally put into commission on a daily basis the planet's first automated financial trading platform completely based on the recently developed FT-AMDFA (adaptive multivariate direct filtering approach for financial trading). I introduce to you iMetrica's little sister, TWS-iMetrica.
Coupled with the original software I developed for hybrid econometrics, time series analysis, signal extraction, and multivariate direct filter engineering called iMetrica, the TWS-iMetrica platform was built in a way to provide an easy to use yet powerful, adaptive, versatile, and automated trading machine for intraday financial trading with a variety of options for building your own day trading strategies using MDFA based on your own financial priorities. Being written completely in Java and gnu c, the TWS-iMetrica system currently uses the Interactive Brokers (IB) trading workstation (TWS) Java API in order to construct the automated trades, connect to the necessary historical data feeds, and provide a variety of tick data. Thus in order to run, the system will require an activated IB trading account. However, as I discuss in the conclusion of this article, the software was written in a way to be seamlessly adapted to any other brokerage/trading platform API, as long as the API is available in Java or has Java wrappers available.
The first step to building an intraday trading environment is to construct what I call an MDFA portfolio (which I'll define in a brief moment). This is achieved in the TWS-iMetrica interface that is endowed with a user-friendly portfolio construction panel shown below in Figure 4.
With the desired MDFA portfolio, selected, one then proceeds in connecting TWS-iMetrica to IB by simply pressing the Connect button on the interface in order to download the historical data (see Figure 3).
With the historical data saved, the iMetrica software is then used to upload the saved historical data and build the filters for the given portfolio using the MDFA module in iMetrica (see Figure 2). The filters are constructed using a sequence of proprietary MDFA optimization and analysis tools. Within the iMetrica MDFA module, three different types of filters can be built 1) a trend filter that extracts a fast moving trend 2) a band-pass filter for extracting local cycles, and 3) A multi-bandpass filter that extracts both a slow moving trend and local cycles simultaneously.
Once the filters are constructed and saved in a file (a .cft file), the TWS-iMetrica system is ready to be used for intrady trading using the newly constructed and optimized filters (see Figure 6).
Figure 2: The iMetrica MDFA module for constructing the trading filters. Features dozens of design, analysis, and optimization components to fit the trading priorities of the user and is used in conjunction with the TWS-iMetrica interface.
In the remaining part of this article, I give an overview of the main features of the TWS-iMetrica software and how easily one can create a high-performing automated trading strategy that fits the needs of the user.
The main TWS-iMetrica graphical user interface is composed of several components that allow for constructing a multitude of various MDFA intraday trading strategies, depending on one's trading priorities. Figure 3 shows the layout of the GUI after first being launched. The first component is the top menu featuring TWS System, some basic TWS connection variables which, in most cases, these variables are left in their default mode, and the Portfolio menu. To access the main menu for setting up the MDFA trading environment, click Setup MDFA Portfolio under the Portfolio menu. Once this is clicked, a panel is displayed (shown in Figure 4) featuring the required a priori parameters for building the MDFA trading environment that should all be filled before MDFA filter construction and trading is to take place. The parameters and their possible values are given below Figure 4.
Figure 3 – The TWS-iMetrica interface when first launched and everything blank.
Figure 4 – The Setup MDFA Portfolio panel featuring all the setting necessary to construct the automated trading MDFA environment.
Portfolio – The portfolio is the basis for the MDFA trading platform and consists of two types of assets 1) The target asset from which we construct the trading signal, engineer the trades, and use in building the MDFA filter 2) The explanatory assets that provide the explanatory data for the target asset in the multivariate filter construction. Here, one can select up to four explanatory assets.
Exchange – The exchange on which the assets are traded (according to IB).
Asset Type – If the input portfolio is a selection of Stocks or Futures (Currencies and Options soon to be available).
Expiration – If trading Futures, the expiration date of the contract, given as a six digit number of year then month (e.g. 201306 for June 2013).
Shares/Contracts – The number of shares/contracts to trade (this number can also be changed throughout the trading day through the main panel).
Observation frequency – In the MDFA financial trading method, we consider uniformly sampled observations of market data on which to do the trading (in seconds). The options are 1, 2, 3, 5, 15, 30, and 60 minute data. The default is 5 minutes.
Historical Data – Selects how many days are used to for downloading the historical data to compute the initial MDFA filters. The historical data will of course come in intervals chosen in the observation frequency.
Once all the values have been set for the MDFA portfolio, click the Set and Build button which will first begin to check if the values entered are valid and if so, create the necessary data sets for TWS-iMetrica to initialize trading. This all must be done while TWS-iMetrica is connected to IB (not set in trading mode however). If the build was successful, the historical data of the desired target financial asset up to the most recent observation in regular market trading hours will be plotted on the graphics canvas. The historical data will be saved to a file named (by default) "lastSeriesData.dat" and the data will be come in columns, where the first column is the date/time of the observation, the second column is the price of the target asset, and remaining columns are log-returns of the target and explanatory data. And that's it, the system is now setup to be used for financial trading. These values entered in the Setup MDFA Portfolio will never have to be set again (unless changes to the MDFA portfolio are needed of course).
Figure 5 – The main control panel for choosing and/or modifying all the options during intraday trading.
In contracts/shares text field, one enters the amount of share (for stocks) or contracts (for futures) that one will trade throughout the day. This can be adjusted during the day while the automated trading is activated, however, one must be certain that at the end of the day, the balance between bought and shorted contracts is zero, otherwise, you risk keeping contracts or shares overnight into the next trading day.Typically, this is set at the beginning before automated trading takes place and left alone.
The data input file for loading historical data. The name of this file determines where the historical data associated with the MDFA portfolio constructed will be stored. This historical data will be needed in order to build the MDFA filters. By default this is "lastSeriesData.dat". Usually this doesn't need to be modified.
The stop-loss activation and stop-loss slider bar, one can turn on/off the stop-loss and the stop-loss amount. This value determines how/where a stop-loss will be triggered relative to the price being bought/sold at and is completely dependent on the asset being traded.
The interval search that determines how and when the trades will be made when the selected MDFA signal triggers a buy/sell transaction. If turned off, the transaction (a limit order determined by the bid/ask) will be made at the exact time that the buy/sell signal is triggered by the filter. If turned on, the value in the text field next to it gives how often (in seconds) the trade looks for a better price to make the transaction. This search runs until the next observation for the MDFA filter. For example, if 5 minute return data is being used to do the trading, the search looks every n seconds for 5 minutes for a better price to make the given transaction. If at the end of the 5 minute period no better price has been found, the transaction is is made at the current ask/bid price. This feature has been shown to be quite useful during sideways or highly volatile markets.
The middle of the main control panel features the main buttons for both connecting to disconnecting from Interactive Brokers, initiating the MDFA automated trading environment, as well as convenient buttons used for instantaneous buy/sell triggers that supplement the automated system. It also features an on/off toggle button for activating the trades given in the MDFA automated trading environment. When checked on, transactions according to the automated MDFA environment will proceed and go through to the IB account. If turned off, the real-time market data feeds and historical data will continue to be read into the TWS-iMetrica system and the signals according to the filters will be automatically computed, but no actual transactions/trades into the IB account will be made.
Finally, on the right hand side of the main control panel features the filter uploading and selection boxes. These are the MDFA filters that are constructed using the MDFA module in iMetrica. One convenient and useful feature of TWS-iMetrica is the ability to utilize up to three direct real-time filters in parallel and to switch at any given moment during market hours between the filters. (Such a feature enhances the adaptability of the trading using MDFA filters. I'll discuss more about this in further detail shortly). In order to select up to three filters simultaneously, there is a filter selection panel (shown in bottom right corner of Figure 6 below) displaying three separate file choosers and a radio button corresponding to each filter. Clicking on the filter load button produces a file dialog box from which one selects a filter (a *.cft file produced by iMetrica). Once the filter is loaded properly, on success, the name of the filter is displayed in the text box to the right, and the radio button to the left is enabled. With multiple filters loaded, to select between any of them, simply click on their respective radio button and the corresponding signal will be plotted on the plot canvas (assuming market data has been loaded into the TWS-iMetrica using the market data file upload and/or has been connected to the IB TWS for live market data feeds). This is shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6 – The TWS-iMetrica main trading interface features many control options to design your own automated MDFA trading strategies.
Figure 8 – The plots for the trading interface. Features price, log-return, account cumulative returns, signal, buy/sell lines, and up to two additional auxiliary signals.
Price – Plots in real-time the price of the asset being traded, at the specific observation frequency selected for the MDFA portfolio.
Log-returns – Plots in real-time the log-returns of the price, which is the data that is being filtered to construct the trading signal.
Account – Shows the cumulative returns produced by the currently chosen MDFA filter over the current and historical data period (note that this does not necessary reflect the actual returns made by the strategy in IB, just the theoretical returns over time if this particular filter had been used).
Buy/Sell lines – Shows dashed lines where the MDFA trading signal has produced a buy/sell transaction. The green lines are the buy signals (entered a long position) and magenta lines are the sell (entered a short position).
Signal – The plot of the signal in real-time. When new data becomes available, the signal is automatically computed and replotted in real-time. This gives one the ability to closely monitory how the current filter is reacting to the incoming data.
Aux Signal 1/2 – (If available) Plots of the other available signals produced by the (up to two) other filters constructed and entered in the system. To make either of these auxillary signals the main trading signal simply select the filter associated with the signal using the radio buttons in the filter selection panel.
Along with these plots, to track specific values of any of these plots at anytime, select the desired plot in the Track Plot region of the panel bar. Once selected, specific values and their respective times/dates are displayed in the upper left corner of the plot panel by simply placing the mouse cursor over the plot panel. A small tracking ball will then be moved along the specific plot in accordance with movements by the mouse cursor.
With the graphics panel displaying the performance in real-time of each filter, one can seamlessly switch between a band-pass filter or a timely trend (low-pass) filter according to the changing intraday market conditions. To give an example, suppose at early morning trading hours there is an unusual high amount of volume pushing an uptrend or pulling a downtrend. In such conditions a trend filter is much more appropriate, being able to follow the large-variation in log-returns much better than a band-pass filter can. One can glean from the effects of the trend filter on the morning hours of the market. After automated trading using the trend filter, with the volume diffusing into the noon hour, the band-pass filter can then be applied in order to extract and trade at certain low frequency cycles in the log-return data. Towards the end of the day, with volume continuously picking up, the trend filter can then be selected again in order to track and trade any trending movement automatically.
I am in the process of currently building an automated algorithm to "intelligently" switch between the uploaded filters according to the instantaneous market conditions (with triggering of the switching being set by volume and volatility. Otherwise, for the time being, currently the user must manually switch between different filters, if such switching is at all desired (in most cases, I prefer to leave one filter running all day. Since the process is automated, I prefer to have minimal (if any) interaction with the software during the day while it's in automated trading mode).
As I mentioned earlier, the main components of the TWS-iMetrica were written in a way to be adaptable to other brokerage/trading APIs. The only major condition is that the API either be available in Java, or at least have (possibly third-party?) wrappers available in Java. That being said, there are only three main types of general calls that are made automated to the connected broker 1) retrieve historical data for any asset(s), at any given time, at most commonly used observation frequencies (e.g. 1 min, 5 min, 10 min, etc.), 2) subscribe to automatic feed of bar/tick data to retrieve latest OHLC and bid/ask data, and finally 3) Place an order (buy/sell) to the broker with different any order conditions (limit, stop-loss, market order, etc.) for any given asset.
If you are interested in having TWS-iMetrica be built for your particular brokerage/trading platform (other than IB of course) and the above conditions for the API are met, I am more than happy to be hired at certain fixed compensation, simply get in contact with me. If you are interested seeing how well the automated system has performed thus far, interested in future collaboration, or becoming a client in order to use the TWS-iMetrica platform, feel free to contact me as well.


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August 12, 2015 August 12, 2015 dawg417
Dipshit of the day: Another Asshole Judge
Summary: A judge ordered a couple to get married or else a young man would face jail time for an assault charge.
According to 19ActionNews.com, a Smith County, Texas judge issued a different kind of ruling last month. Josten Brundy was ordered to marry Elizabeth Jaynes, his 19-year old girlfriend, as part of his probation. The judge also ordered him to write Bible verses and receive counseling.
The case centered on a February altercation between Bundy and Jaynes' ex-boyfriend. Bundy recalled, "[The ex-boyfriend] had been saying disrespectful things about Elizabeth, so I challenged him to a fight. He stepped in and I felt like it was on and I hit him in the jaw twice." Bundy said that the ex-boyfriend did not need medical attention, but that he did press assault charges. Bundy said, "I took matters into my own hands and I know that's wrong. I know I was raised better, but it happened."
Court transcripts reveal that Judge Randall Rogers
asked Bundy about the fight, and said, "Is she worth it?" Bundy said that the responded, "I said, well to be honest sir, I was raised with four sisters and if any man was talking to a woman like that, I'd probably do the same thing." The judge then asked if Bund was married to Jaynes and then stated, "You know, as a part of my probation, you're going to have to marry her…within 30 days." If Bundy decided not to do probation, he would have to serve 15 days in jail. A drug smuggler was unable to remove heroin she had hidden in her "private area." Bundy commented, "He offered me fifteen days in jail and that would have been fine and I asked if I could call my job [to let them know]. The judge told me 'Nope, that's not how this works.'" Jaynes said she was embarrassed by the judge's order. "My face was so red, people behind be were laughing. [The judge] made me stand up in court." The couple was afraid that Bundy would lose his job if he served two weeks in jail, so they applied for a marriage license and scheduled a wedding date with the justice of the peace. Jaynes said, "It just felt like we weren't going to be able to have the wedding we wanted. It was just going to be kind of pieced together, I didn't even have a white dress." Jaynes added, "I used to watch Say Yes to the Dress and all those shows and all the dresses and think about what kind of dress I would have. I would have liked a spring wedding when it's not too hot and hot too cold." Bundy said that the couple began talking about marriage about six months after they started dating. He recalled, "We were strung over each other and really were in love. [At our wedding] I would have worn a black tux with some yellow under it because I'm a Steelers fan."
However, the couple only had 18 days to put together a wedding ceremony. Some of their closest relatives were unable to attend. Bundy said, "My father didn't get to go, and that really bothers me, I know he would have liked to be there. None of my sisters got to show up, it was such short notice, I couldn't get it together." An employee was demoted for a comment about a sex toy purchase. Kenneth Jaynes, Elizabeth's father, was angry at the ruling. "[I felt] anger; I was mad. [The judge] can't do this by court ordering somebody to be married. I contacted a couple of lawyers but they told me someone was trying to pull my leg…that judges don't court order somebody to get married." Constitutional law attorney Blake Bailey said that ordering a couple to marry is illegal. He said, "To say you're not going to be criminally punished if you get married is way out of left field. It sounds like the old days of shotgun weddings, but not even the judge is capable of enforcing, what he thinks is best for some people in his court." Bailey Although Bundy and Jaynes do not regret getting married, they do regret not having the wedding they dreamed of. Jaynes said, "What if we [had said to the judge] we don't' want to get married right now and we're not ready? Is he going to go to jail? It scared us, a little bit." According to Newsmax, Jaynes also said, "We live paycheck to paycheck. If he had gone to jail, I wouldn't have been able to make the rent by myself."
Bailey said the sentence would have probably been struck down if it had been appealed.
Bundy and Jaynes do plan to have a larger ceremony in the future when they can afford it.
Another Idiot in a robe who abused his authority, Judges, when on the bench, Are immune from any liability or accountability and that is why we see these happening.
Embarrassing a young couple into marriage, in a short period of time, causing family members to miss the wedding, or he goes to jail. In addition he is ordered to read bible verses and what if that is against any personal belief or faith he may have. Anybody hear of separation of church and state?
And all this happened because he defended his girlfriend against a former boyfriend bad mouthing her, as most of us would have done the same thing. In addition it sounds like the boyfriend was an instigator in the incident.
Personally I would have told the judge to go FUCK himself…….
#CALL IT AS I SEE IT
DIPSHIT OF THE DAY
Palm to forehead moment
Elizabeth Jaynes
Jaynes
Judge randall rogers
Kenneth Jaynes
Ordered young couple to get married
Published by dawg417
I am the guy people love because I am so honest, But then they get pissy when I do the same with them.	View all posts by dawg417
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Villanova has a chance to win March Madness
Naomi Korn, Eastside StaffMarch 7, 2017Leave a Comment
More stories from Naomi Korn
The Hamilton of 2017? The New Broadway Musical, Dear Evan Hansen, has got everyone talking
Students at Cherry Hill East support Villanova.
With March here, that means one thing for men's college basketball—March Madness, the annual NCAA college basketball tournament. March Madness brackets will come out on March 12, while the first games of the tournament start on March 14.
In this college basketball season, the Top 25 teams have been shuffled around a lot, and no one team has totally dominated the court. This season has been filled with upsets, and epic buzzer beaters.
One team that is on most people's minds in this area, and also around the country, is currently number two-ranked Villanova. As reigning NCAA champs, Villanova is looking to defend their championship this year. Last year, Villanova beat UNC in the championship with a three-point shot by Kris Jenkins in the final seconds of the game.
With Villanova being so close by, many students at Cherry Hill East are Villanova fans, or at least root for Villanova when the tournament comes around. Whether their parents or siblings attended the school, or they are just fans of the team, many students are excited for the tournament.
Sean Coen ('20), a big time Villanova fan, said, "Last year Villanova winning the tournament was amazing, and I want to see them do it again."
The loss of Villanova seniors Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu this year forced other players to step up. Josh Hart, Jalen Brunson, and Kris Jenkins did just that. They are the three leading scorers on the team and were dominant threats on the court throughout much of the season.
For families with a sibling or child playing in the tournament, March Madness is even more of an emotional rollercoaster with many ups and downs.
Erica Brunson ('19), sister of Villanova sophomore guard, Jalen Brunson, said, "I think Villanova has a great chance of winning back to back titles. March is a crazy month and I certainly enjoyed last year."
Brunson said "I personally just take one game at a time and don't let the nerves get to me. Of course I'm not playing but it's just as nerve racking for the families."
The other Philadelphia teams like Temple, Saint Joseph's, La Salle, Penn and Drexel are not performing as well as Villanova this season and most likely will not make the tournament. However, if any one of the other City 6 teams wins its conference tournament, they will have an automatic bid to the tournament. After beating Harvard last weekend, Penn clinched the fourth slot in the first-ever Ivy League Tournament that will take place this weekend.
Nationally, Kansas, UCLA, Gonzaga, and Oregon have also been some of the top teams in the regular season. People will definitely keep their eyes out for these teams during the tournament.
However, in the tournament, anything is possible, and there could always be an underdog team that takes the victory.
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Instruction manuals, y'know, that pile of booklets you've got stashed away in that drawer for when you forget how to defrost the fridge !!! Well they may be many things, but they aren't 'funny', or are they ? Well some of them are funny (unintentionally of course), and below is a small selection of funny manuals I have come across. Please email me if you have any more I could add.


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The Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders are the official cheer squad for the Minnesota Vikings. The squad performs at every home game at the U.S. Bank Stadium, the home stadium of Minnesota. Before the squad's introduction in 1984, The Vi-Queens (1961–63) and the St. Louis Park High School Parkettes performed (1964-65, 67–83) Edina High School Hornettes and Minneapolis Roosevelt High School Rockettes in 1966. In 1984, the MVC were started.  The group currently has 35 members. The squad, like other groups in the league, releases a swimsuit calendar annually since 2001. The squad also makes off-field appearances at parades, schools, and charity events. Like other NFL cheerleading squads, the MVC also has a "Junior Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders" program, which has various divisions: Junior Angel Division is for girls aged 3–5, and Junior Cheerleader Division is for girls aged 6–14. The MVC also helps mentor the Junior Cheerleaders by enriching their interests.  In April, the MVC hosts tryouts at Winter Park. From when the division was founded in 2002 to 2016, when the Detroit Lions Cheerleaders were re established, the Vikings were the only team in the NFC North with a cheerleading squad.

Gallery

References

External links

 Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders official page
 MVC Facebook Page
 MVC Twitter Page

Minnesota Vikings
National Football League cheerleading squads
Women's sports in Minnesota

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
  Saint-Éliph est
       un village
       localisé dans le département de l'Eure-et-Loir en Centre. On dénombrait 800 habitants en 2008.

À Saint-Éliph, la valeur moyenne à l'achat d'un appartement s'évalue à zero € du m² en vente. Le prix moyen d'une maison à l'achat se situe à 1 269 € du m². À la location la valorisation moyenne se situe à 0 € du m² mensuel.

Le parc de logements, à Saint-Éliph, était réparti en 2011 en un appartements et 451 maisons soit
 un marché plutôt équilibré.

À coté de Saint-Éliph sont localisées les communes de
Belhomert-Guéhouville à 6 km, 800 habitants,
La Loupe située à 2 km, 3 506 habitants,
Vaupillon à 2 km, 461 habitants,
Montireau à 4 km, 115 habitants,
Fontaine-Simon à 6 km, 866 habitants,
Champrond-en-Gâtine localisée à 6 km, 459 habitants,
 entre autres. De plus, Saint-Éliph est située à seulement 20 km de Nogent-le-Rotrou.

Si vous pensez demenager à Saint-Éliph, vous pourrez facilement trouver une maison à vendre.

La commune propose de multiples  aménagements, elle propose entre autres un terrain de tennis, un centre d'équitation, un terrain de sport et une boucle de randonnée.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Jesus' Last Passover Seder
By Deena Levenstein, tour by Phil
Phil, the Touring Israel guide, took me around the Old City of Jerusalem for a day on a fascinating tour of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Jerusalem.
Part I: Jaffa Gate – Two Stories Behind Every Stone
Part II: Christ Church – Saving the Jews in Unintended Ways
This is Part III.
Room of the Last Supper
This large, mostly empty room with decorated pillars and and arched ceilings, sits on Mount Zion, just outside Zion Gate. We sat in the cool space and discussed Passover since it's possible that Jesus' final meal took place on the eve of Passover. We discussed the origins of the traditions kept at the Passover seder today as Phil explained that it's very possible some of the elements of the seder, like drinking lots of wine and asking (but not answering questions), are actually taken from the Greek symposium.
The Room of the Last Supper, Mount Zion, Jerusalem
There were so many stories and ideas Phil told me as we sat there. He'd point out the decorative windows and the niche next to them which faces towards Mecca, explaining that they are from the period of time that the room functioned as a mosque from around 1500. He pointed out how it has become a tradition for people to leave notes in the room, just like Jews do at the Western Wall.
The current building is from the time of the crusaders, around 850 years ago. There were probably structures there before – it is said there are Byzantine and Roman remains underneath – and, as mentioned above, it was converted into a mosque around 1500 since the Crusader period.
The above pillar found in the Room of the Last Supper, has pelicans engraved in it. These birds feed their young from their own bodies and thus symbolize feeding from Jesus' flesh and blood.
The tree above was given as a gift by Pope John Paul II to sit in this room. It is an olive tree with three trunks symbolizing the peace between the three religions and a vine and shaft of wheat representing the wine and bread eaten at the Final Supper.
People come from all over the world to visit this room, reliving the Last Supper and speaking in tongues. It is full of stories seeped in the history of the building and it is definitely worth experiencing for yourself.
Below the main room considered to be the Room of the Last Supper is a functioning synagogue where some say King David is buried. As Phil said, out of all the theories, stories and ideas he told me that day, this is the least probable. The Bible says that King David was buried in the city and this area is situated outside where the City of David sat.
King David's Tomb (maybe…)
Please meet Phil
Meet Phil (on the right:)
Phil is a lively, fun tour guide, originally from Chicago. He truly believes being a tour guide in Israel is the best job there is, he is friendly and respectful towards everyone along the way and he takes it on as his duty to entertain and educate with enthusiasm for as long as his guests have energy.
Phil is not only knowledgeable – he has studied comparative religion in the past – Phil is a wonderful guide for families with kids because he's an expert at making most anything fun. He did this for me and not only did I laugh, I also was finally able to learn things I've had trouble with in the past.
Be in touch with us to find out more about our guides and our luxury tours to Israel.
Photos by Deena Levenstein
Deena Levenstein
Deena Levenstein is a writer and social-cultural entrepreneur in Jerusalem. She creates and hosts events and runs "Things to do in Jerusalem," a Facebook group of handpicked cultural events in the city. In her spare time she blogs at http://deena.co/.
Cooling Off In The Hot Israeli Summer
Summer is here, with its warm temperatures and intense rays. In Israel, you learn to embrace the heat, and find your…
A meteor-gazing Negev adventure
By Deena Levenstein This week I went down to the Negev, Israel's largest desert in the south which is sort of in…
Israeli Films
The summer always brings the Jerusalem Film Festival, an annual event hosted by the Jerusalem Cinematheque, a beloved local art house…
Beit Shean – Stunning Springs and Fascinating History
Spend a day in this relaxing spot where you can enjoy nature at Nahal Hakibbutzim and Mount Gilboa, experience history at the Beit Shean National Park and get really wet at the Sachne.
The Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem
The Biblical Zoo reminds us that Jerusalem is actually a city that seamlessly integrates the old into the new. The beautiful modern zoo takes us back to ancient times and reminds us of the continuity of the history of this land.
When it comes to Israel's urban landscape, it's all in the details
It's been said that if you really want to see something, it's all about looking at the details. That's true of…
City of David – Of Kingdoms and Water – Part II
Entire kingdoms and stories are built around water sources. Where there's water, there is potential for civilization. And so we headed down to see the Gihon Spring, the major water source in ancient Jerusalem, and hear how it was used and manipulated in order to win wars.
33 Flavors at the Mahane Yehuda Market – Part I
Walking through Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda Market with Chef Tali Friedman is like walking through a toy store with a child who has learned the toys off by heart and knows exactly which are his favorites and why.
And the Walls Came Crumbling Down
By Joe Yudin, CEO of Touring Israel It was hot yesterday. Africa hot if you know what I mean (Thanks Neil…


32, Uzbekistan Str., Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
The hotel has 15 rooms: single and double.
The hotel complex is located near the center, not far from the railway station and bus station. The hotel is situated in walking distance to Central Park of culture and rest named after Alisher Navoi. For some minutes you can get into the old part of the city where you will have an excellent opportunity to see the main sights and ancient monuments of Samarkand. The rooms are equipped with everything necessary for a great holiday. In the hotel «Shaxzoda Lux» there is an Art Club with its own bar «Da Vinci» where you can taste delicious dishes of national, European and Italian cuisines.


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by admin | Apr 10, 2020 | Blog | 0 comments
Monoclonal antibody (mAb) drugs are one of the fastest-growing biotherapeutics in the pharma market. The majority of mAbs are for the treatment of cancers.1 The investment during the discovery, development, manufacturing, and clinical trials is huge for innovator mAb drugs. As a result, the cost of innovator drug treatment is usually high for patients. Therefore, more affordable generic versions of innovator drugs, called biosimilars, are in high demand. The first biosimilar was approved for the European market in 2006, and the U.S. market opened nine years later after the introduction of the Affordable Care Act in March 2010. The development of biosimilars is gaining traction due to the patent expiry of innovator molecules.
For biosimilars to be approved by regulatory agencies, manufacturers need to demonstrate that there are no clinically meaningful differences between the biological product and the reference product in terms of the safety, purity, and potency.2 A critical part in this process is an extensive comparative analytical study to understand the physicochemical similarities between the innovator and biosimilars. Aggregates, truncation, and other modified forms (deamidation, isomerization, and so forth) are product‑related impurities that arise during the manufacturing process or storage. Their presence in the drug negatively impact drug stability, activity, and efficacy. Therefore, they are usually considered CQAs and are closely monitored and tested throughout the manufacturing process.
This Application Note uses two analytical workflows to demonstrate a comparison between two biosimilars of rituximab and their reference innovator in terms of aggregate and charge variant profiles. Rituximab is a well-known biotherapeutic drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, vasculitis, and dermatomyositis. The two biosimilars were obtained from two manufacturers in different geographical locations. Both workflows are based on the 1260 Infinity II bio-inert LC system together with advanced Bio columns and OpenLab CDS. Charge variants were separated on a weak cation exchange (WCX) column, while aggregates were separated on a size exclusion (SEC) column. Figure 1 shows the two workflow details. Good reproducibility on intraday and interday results ensured reliability of the workflows and demonstrated clear similarities or differences between the innovator and biosimilars.
The systems were composed of the following modules:
Agilent 1260 Infinity II Bio-inert Pump (G5654A)
Agilent 1260 Infinity II Bio-inert Multisampler (G5668A) with sample cooler
Agilent 1260 Infinity II Multicolumn Thermostat (G7116A) with bio-inert heat exchanger
Agilent 1260 Infinity II Diode Array Detector WR (G7115A) with bio-inert flow cell
Agilent 1260 Infinity II Bio-inert MultiDetector Suite (MDS) (G7805A) featuring dual-angle static and DLS detection (G7809A)
Agilent Bio mAb, nonporous, 2.1 × 250 mm, 5 µm HPLC, PEEK (p/n 5190-2411) for charge variants analysis
Agilent AdvanceBio SEC 300Å, 7.8 × 300 mm, 2.7 µm (p/n PL1180‑5301) for aggregation analysis.
Agilent OpenLab CDS Version 2.3
Agilent Buffer Advisor A.01.01 [009]
Agilent Bio-SEC Software version A.02.01 Build 9.34851[21]
LC instrument control as well as LC data analysis was carried out using Agilent OpenLab CDS Version 2.3. It provides a smooth user interface with customized and interactive reporting with drag-and-drop template creation. The peak explorer feature of the software was used to compare the results between the innovator and biosimilars.
Chemicals and samples
All solvents used were LC grade. Fresh ultrapure water was obtained from a Milli-Q Integral system equipped with a 0.22 µm membrane point-of-use cartridge (Millipak). Sodium phosphate monobasic, sodium phosphate dibasic, and sodium chloride were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, USA. The mAb drugs, including the innovator and two biosimilars, were purchased from a local distributor. Before analysis in the DLS system, the mobile phase was triple filtered through a 0.1 μm hydrophilic PTFE membrane filter (Merck Millipore). Samples were taken from the original container and centrifuged at 13,000 g for two minutes. Supernatant was aliquoted to an LC sample vial for analysis.
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The Post's View
Senate should use confirmation hearings to debate Mr. Obama's foreign policy
By Editorial Board
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S choices for his national security team could help him consolidate some of the signature policies he developed in his first term, from his strategy for ending the war in Afghanistan to his dependence on drone strikes in the fight against al-Qaeda. They will raise important questions about others, including his stated determination to prevent Iran's acquisition of a nuclear weapon by military means if necessary. Consequently, the confirmation hearings of Chuck Hagel for the Defense Department, John Brennan for CIA director and John F. Kerry for the State Department could provide a needed debate on the direction of U.S. national security policy — provided that senators can avoid distractions.
Chief among the distractions would be charges that Mr. Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, is hostile to Israel or even anti-Semitic. There is no serious evidence to support either allegation. Certainly Mr. Hagel's views about the Middle East have often been outside the mainstream — except on the Iraq war, where he was anything but the savant that the White House describes. (Having voted to authorize the invasion in 2002, Mr. Hagel denounced the 2007 surge as "the biggest foreign policy blunder since Vietnam.") But there's no reason to believe Mr. Hagel would not, as Pentagon chief, continue the close military cooperation with Israel maintained by predecessors Leon Panetta and Robert Gates — who were also publicly critical of Israeli policies at times.
The real issues raised by Mr. Hagel's nomination are his past support for a quick-as-possible withdrawal from Afghanistan, a further downsizing of what he described as a "bloated" Pentagon and his resistance to foreign interventions.
To a large degree, these views are shared by Mr. Kerry, a fellow Vietnam veteran, and coincide with Mr. Obama's plans for his second term. So the Senate ought to explore and debate their potential benefits and risks. Can defense spending sustain large cuts beyond the more than a half-trillion dollars Mr. Obama sliced during his first term? Can Afghanistan avoid another civil war if U.S. troops are rapidly withdrawn in favor of a minimal stay-behind force — or none at all? Is it wise for the United States to remain passive as the civil war in Syria intensifies and threatens to spread to its neighbors?
Then there is the challenge of Iran: In contrast to Mr. Obama, Mr. Hagel has suggested that containment of an Iranian nuclear weapon could be an acceptable policy, and he has opposed both military action and unilateral U.S. sanctions. In Tehran, his appointment might be taken as evidence that the Obama administration would not act if Iran refused to brake its steps toward a bomb. But is it? Or would Mr. Hagel support the president's choice of military measures if negotiations fail? The question is far from academic: Israel's government believes that Iran's pursuit of a nuclear capacity could reach the point of no return by the middle of this year, and Israel may strike on its own if it concludes that U.S. intervention cannot be relied upon.
We argued that Mr. Hagel was not the best choice for defense secretary because of his views on the budget and Iran, and because superior candidates were available. We've also made the case that the administration's current strategy of countering al-Qaeda in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia with drone attacks is unsustainable. The architect of that policy is Mr. Brennan, who as the White House's counterterrorism czar has overseen and personally approved kill lists for drones.
To his credit, Mr. Brennan has reportedly resisted efforts by the Pentagon to expand targeting lists in Yemen and has insisted that attacks center on al-Qaeda activists who pose a direct threat to the United States. The strikes are certainly legal under U.S. and international law, yet the secrecy with which the target lists are drawn up, and the strikes' frequent execution by the CIA rather than military forces, are problematic — as is the political backlash they have caused in Pakistan.
Mr. Brennan's prospective move to the CIA offers Congress the opportunity to reconsider and adjust the drone program. A central question is whether drone strikes and other paramilitary action should continue to be a CIA responsibility: As acts of war, they would best be carried out by military forces and subjected to the review and disclosure of other military operations. As important, the process for developing targets should be brought out into the open and authorized by Congress, just like the rules for military detention and interrogation. Mr. Brennan should be pressed to explain the current system and asked why the CIA under his tenure should not be refocused on the job of intelligence collection.
A larger question is whether Mr. Obama's combination of troop withdrawals, non-interventionism and the heavy use of drones will protect U.S. interests in the roiling Middle East. Mr. Brennan himself has said that drone attacks alone will not end the threat of al-Qaeda; policies that bolster fragile governments like that of Yemen, and prevent the disintegration of others — think Iraq or Pakistan — are also needed. While serving in the Senate, Mr. Kerry has been a proponent of such policies, but in the last year Mr. Obama has appeared to back away from them in favor of "nation-building here at home."
Presidents are entitled to have their Cabinet picks confirmed if they are qualified, and nothing disqualifying has emerged about these three. But their confirmation hearings offer an opportunity for the Senate to weigh Mr. Obama's strategy. It's certainly tempting to think that the United States can withdraw all but a few thousand troops from Afghanistan, stand on the sidelines in Syria, contain Iran with U.N.-approved sanctions, pivot U.S. resources to Asia and ward off any lingering terrorist menace with drones. Whether that is a realistic strategy for Mr. Obama's second term ought to be the overriding subject of the upcoming hearings.
Read more on this issue:
The Post's View: Hagel is not the right choice for defense
The Post's View: Pulling the U.S. drone war out of the shadows
The Post's View: Striking hard at terrorists in Yemen


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More Than Half Omicron Infections In England Are Double Vaccinated
Graeme Demianyk
Lisa Scott-Lee, Claire Richards, Faye Tozer and Ian
(Photo: Joseph Okpako via Getty Images)" data-caption="Lisa Scott-Lee, Claire Richards, Faye Tozer and Ian "H" Watkins of Steps perform at London's The O2 Arena last month. (Photo: Joseph Okpako via Getty Images)" data-rich-caption="Lisa Scott-Lee, Claire Richards, Faye Tozer and Ian "H" Watkins of Steps perform at London's The O2 Arena last month. (Photo: Joseph Okpako via Getty Images)" data-credit="Joseph Okpako via Getty Images" data-credit-link-back="" />
A Steps concert in Glasgow is among the sources of new Omicron cases in the UK, it has emerged, as health officials revealed more than half of England's infections of the new variant were in double-vaccinated people.
A UK Health Security Agency analysis showed 12 of the 22 known cases up to November 30 — 55 per cent — were in people who had at least two doses.
Six were unvaccinated, two were partially vaccinated with one dose and the vaccination status of the remaining two is not known.
None of the cases are known to have been hospitalised or died, but the HSA said that "most of the cases have a specimen date that is very recent and that there is a lag between onset of infection and hospitalisation and death".
Cases of Omicron in the UK have risen to 59 since. The variant has been detected in more than 30 countries.
Meanwhile, six cases are understood to be linked to the Steps concert at the Glasgow Hydro on November 22, Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon said. Risk to those who attended is said to be low and those who may have come into contact with the new variant at the event are being contacted. Omicron cases in Scotland have jumped by 16 in the past 24 hours to 29.
The news comes as:
Ireland will reintroduce some Covid-19 restrictions for the Christmas period, following "very stark" advice from health officials, Taoiseach Micheal Martin has said. A range of restrictions will be in place from December 7 to January 9, including the shuttering of nightclubs and new limits on household gatherings.
The ramped-up rollout of Covid booster jabs will be in place by December 13, NHS England has said. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said that all adults should become eligible for boosters and that the time between a second dose and booster should be reduced from six months to three months, in a move designed to help protect against the new Omicron variant of Covid.
The first case in Wales of the Omicron coronavirus variant has been confirmed. The case is in the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board area and is linked to international travel, the Welsh Government said.
The Omicron variant would likely be capable of causing a new wave of coronavirus infections that could be even bigger than previous waves, government scientists warned. A note of the meeting of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) subgroup on Sars-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.529 on November 25, was released by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) on Friday. In it the scientists conclude: "We cannot exclude that this wave would be of a magnitude similar, or even larger, than previous waves."
The UK government said as of 9am on Friday, there had been a further 50,584 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK.
The government also said a further 143 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Friday.
Despite concerns about the Omicron variant, Boris Johnson has said Christmas should go ahead "as normally as possible" this year.
Speaking during a by-election campaign visit to Oswestry in North Shropshire, the prime minister said that people did not need to cancel parties or nativity plays.
Asked what he had to say to bereaved families following claims Number 10 had held parties last year in breach of restrictions at the time, Johnson said: "What I've said throughout, since this thing was brought up, was that's not true, we've followed the guidance throughout and continued to follow the guidance.
"And on the subject of Christmas parties, I've noticed there's been quite a lot of to-ing and fro-ing about it, people concerned that they need to cancel their Christmas parties. That's not right, we're not saying that and we're not saying that nativity plays have to be cancelled.
"I believe very strongly that kids should be in school and I also think that Christmas should go ahead as normally as possible. But the key point, the key point is that whatever the risk Omicron may pose, or may not pose, the booster is everywhere and always, vaccination is going to be your best protection, so everybody should get it."
Asked again repeatedly if he did have a party or gathering, the prime minister repeated the phrase: "We followed the guidance."
This article originally appeared on HuffPost UK and has been updated.
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UK backs Britishvolt battery plant, enabling $2.3bln in private funding
Electric vehicle (EV) battery startup Britishvolt has secured UK government backing for a battery plant in northern England, enabling 1.7 billion pounds ($2.31 billion) in private funding and boosting national efforts to build zero-emission cars. Logistics real estate investor Tritax and investment firm abrdn plc will provide the private funding for a 30 gigawatt-hour (GWh) plant in Blyth, Britishvolt said on Friday. The government will deliver its finances through its Automotive Transformation Fund.
TotalEnergies tells rights group it backs sanctions on payments to Myanmar junta
The French energy giant's gas venture is one of the top sources of income for the junta and, along with other global companies, it has faced pressure from rights groups and a shadow civilian government to curb payments since the army seized power. In the transcript of the letter to Human Rights Watch dated Jan. 18, TotalEnergies Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said talks had taken place with French and U.S. authorities about targeted sanctions.
German gas imports fell 7% in Jan-Nov, bill jumped 78.5%
Germany imported 7% less natural gas in the period from January to November 2021 than a year earlier, but its bill rose 78.5% as prices surged, official data from trade statistics office BAFA showed. However, there is concern over when flows will arrive through the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia, and about escalating tensions on the Russia/Ukraine border, which could disrupt or curtail shipments. BAFA's monthly figures showed Germany's imports in the first eleven months of last year totalled 4.546 million terajoules (TJ), equivalent to 129.3 billion cubic metres (bcm), compared with 4.888 million TJ a year earlier.
Return of office workers a 'boost' for hospitality, says City Pub boss
Clive Watson, chief executive of the pub group, told the PA news agency that it has been 'coming through the worst of it' in recent weeks.
Mortgages getting cheaper amid growing competition among UK banks
Fierce competition between banks is driving down mortgage interest rates, says the Financial Conduct Authority.
Activision Blizzard employees form first of its kind Game Workers Alliance Union
Activision Blizzard employees form first of its kind Game Workers Alliance Union. The announcement, in an industry where unions are rare, came on the heels of Microsoft's acquisition of the company
Serbia backs out of controversial Rio Tinto lithium mine: PM
Serbian authorities have abandoned plans to build a controversial lithium mine, the prime minister said Thursday, following weeks of protests against the project set to be built by Rio Tinto.
One day after shares of at-home fitness company Peloton tumbled, Netflix found itself in Wall Street's hot seat Friday as markets reassess the diminishing growth prospects of so-called "pandemic stocks."
German govt to cut 2022 growth forecast to 3.6% - draft
BERLIN (Reuters) -The German government will cut its economic growth forecast for this year to 3.6% from its October estimate of 4.1%, according to a draft of the annual economic report seen by Reuters on Friday. The coalition government of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals, in power since December, expects the pandemic to further strain businesses and supply bottlenecks for products such as semiconductors to persist, further limiting companies' growth, according to the draft. Most economists expect Europe's largest economy to shrink again in the first three months of 2022 after a fourth-quarter contraction, driving it into another technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of declining output.


An upscale, yet casual, wine bar and bistro proud to source food locally whenever possible. We offer a selection of wines for everyone, from the beginner to bold drinker. Our beer selection tops out at over 40 different bottled beers, including all your favorite Michigan brews.


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Tag Archives: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
To Make The Meaning of Life Come True / Significant Scientific Discoveries / Friday: Fossil Mania in Glenrose
Posted on October 21, 2019 by asgtc
To make the meaning of Life
come true,
and your precious Heart,
the Love you
Radiate the Love
you truly feel.
Open your Heart,
to the Loving energy
coming back to you,
in so very many
ways.
"He who abides in Love
and God in him."
There is Love
all around:
in every Leaf
that falls
from every Tree,
in every Ray of Sunlight
that falls every day,
in every drop of Rain
that falls from skies above,
and in every Prayer
you Pray.
Your place on
Earth,
is a Sacred Space.
Living the Truth.
dwells in the center
of your very Human Heart,
in your Love
and Compassion
for Yourself,
and every other
precious Living Being.
far beyond our greatest
in everything
has Created.
In every Ray of Sunlight.
My Dear Friend,
are beneath the
of our Sacred Existence.
Physicists have discovered
that the entire Universe
is pure energy,
and nothing is solid.
"Concerning matter,
we have been all wrong.
What we have called matter is energy,
whose vibration has been so lowered
as to be perceptible to the senses.
There is no matter."
Our True Nature is pure energy,
which is consciousness.
As Children of God
we are incarnated into this level of Reality.
But with our very limited senses,
we are in sufferance of physical illusions
and identify with material forms.
We are removed from awareness
of our Original Nature.
To experience our Ultimate Truth,
follow the advice
found in the Holy Word of God,
and look within yourself.
"Once you have gained knowledge
and start to experience the Truth
contained in the cosmic cycles of Time,
you can start to influence and change the Quantum field
with awareness and conscious observation.
You become aware of the Laws of Creation,
aware that you are the Creator of your experience
and you choose your destiny."
– Jay VonSpreck
All that we are is energy,
and that energy has no boundaries.
It is infinite,
it is the invisible force
that permeates all Space
and Time.
"You have little control
over the World around you,
but full control over the World
within you."
– Matshona Dhliwayo
The Kingdom of God,
the place where God resides,
is Truly within you.
God is within.
Anyone who has ever seriously
meditated,
knows that when you go deep enough within yourself,
you discover
Infinite Universal Consciousness.
you can become aware of yourself
as an Infinite and Eternal
Spiritual Entity,
a Child of God.
The more your awareness expands,
the more you live with an alertness
that stems from Love.
many, many people
have become aware.
With the Vibrations of Love,
we are resonating with the highest energy of Creation,
that of Universal, Infinite Consciousness.
With feelings of Love,
we align with that energy
and channel it through us
and expand and become that energy.
Everything, all matter, in our Universe vibrates.
Nothing is still.
Vibration rates are "frequencies".
And Human thought is a very high form of vibration
and is incomprehensible to our Human mind.
the center of your
Sacred Being,
is the uplifting Power
is within you."
– Luke 17:21
resides within
can become you.
Lead with your Heart
and you will know God.
Oct. 25 (Friday) Trip to Fossil Mania in Glenrose
Nov. 8 (Friday) Trip to F. W. Auto Show at Conv. Center
Nov. 25-29 Thanksgiving / Fall Break
To Be Announced Texas A. G. T. Conference
Dec. 21 – Jan. 6 Christmas / Winter Break Holidays
Jan. 7 (Thursday) Second Semester Begins
Feb. 7 (Friday) Trip to Playful Corporation
Significant Scientific Discoveries
by Victor Tangermann
The year 2017 catapulted us into a science-fiction future, from human cell regeneration for growing organs, to banishing genetic disease through breakthrough gene-editing techniques and recycling orbital rockets. A lot has happened; scientific breakthroughs have made our lives safer, easier and more enjoyable. And the scientific community is only getting started.
Researchers and scientists around the globe have worked tirelessly to bring us this future, so it's worthwhile to take a step back and applaud their tremendous efforts. The world of tomorrow is being shaped as you read this, so let's have a look at ten of the biggest stories in science of this year, so far.
Scientists Successfully Edited the First Human Embryo Ever in The U.S.
Researchers in Portland, Oregon have achieved a significant breakthrough in gene-editing technology. Taking advantage of the revolutionary gene- editing technique, CRISPR, a gene linked to heart conditions was successfully "deleted" from a human embryo.
Scientists Have Finally Created Metallic Hydrogen
For the first time in the wold, scientists created metallic hydrogen by applying almost five million atmospheres of pressure to liquid hydrogen. That's about five million times the pressure we experience at sea level, and 4,500 times that at the bottom of the ocean. It is the first time a state of hydrogen has existed in a metallic state on Earth. In its metallic state, hydrogen could act as a genuine superconductor and could revolutionize everything from energy storage to rocketry.
Scientists Discovered an Alien Planet That's The Best Candidate for Life As We Know It
Image Source: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle
Scientists at the European Organization for Astronomical Research (ESO) found the best candidate for extraterrestrial life so far. The super-Earth named LHS 1140b was found in the habitable zone of a dim star 40 light-years away from Earth. It receives about half as much sunlight from its star, LHS 1140, as the Earth does from the Sun.
"This is the most exciting exoplanet I've seen in the past decade," author Jason Dittmann of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in an ESO press release. "We could hardly hope for a better target to perform one of the biggest quests in science — searching for evidence of life beyond Earth."
A World First CRISPR Trial Will Edit Genes Inside the Human Body
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
In one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs, scientists used the gene-editing technology CRISPR (the most accessible gene-editing technique so far) inside the human body for the very first time. A new human trial aimed to remove the human papillomavirus (HPV) by applying a gel that carries the necessary DNA coding to the cervixes of 60 women to disable the tumor growth mechanism.
Breakthrough Initiative Will Grow Organs and Regenerate Human Tissue
Image Source: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
Major strides have been made in the field of regenerative medicine. The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is currently leading projects to speed up the development of artificially growing human tissue and even organs in a lab to help patients worldwide. These new initiatives may one day repair nerve damage and even grow entire limbs and organs.
DeepMind Has Taught an AI to Do Something Quite Remarkable
July 11, 2017: Google's artificial intelligence subsidiary DeepMind published a paper illustrating the way they are teaching AI computer agents to navigate complex environments. It may look funny to us, but it's a big step forward for autonomous AI movement.
SpaceX's Historic Launch Proves Recycled Rockets Are the Future of Space Exploration
March 30, 2017: SpaceX made space launch history in March by successfully relaunching and re-landing a used Falcon 9 rocket booster via rocket descent. This is the stuff of old-school scifi. Already having been the cheapest orbital rocket system, this breakthrough brought the affordability down even more — a saving of more than $18 million per launch.
This Fluid-Filled Bag Lets Lambs Develop Outside the Womb. Humans Are Next.
Image Source: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Physicians at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have managed to imitate a woman's uterus using a synthetic device in order to prevent mortality and disease of prematurely born children younger than 37 weeks.
A New Breakthrough in Quantum Computing is Set to Transform Our World
A 51-qubit quantum computer was unveiled to the world at the International Conference on Quantum Technologies in Moscow, paving the way for a number of new possible applications of the technology.
Google's AlphaGo Proves Its Mettle Against a Team of Five
After beating a human in the Computer Go game, Alphabet Inc.'s Google DeepMind computer took on five more of the world's best human professional Go players and defeated them in earnest.
Posted in Child, distant dreams, Divine, Divine One, e-News Update, firmament, Gifted and Talented Children, immensity, Life, Love, new tomorrow, poetry, Salvation, Schools, Shakespeare, Trips	| Tagged 1 John 4:16, Albert Einstein, anderson, Anderson Private School, anderson school, andersonschool.net, beauty, children, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, creative, CRISPR, DeepMind, education, educators, existence, Forgiveness, fort worth, Fort Worth Stock Show, freedom, gifted, gifted children, happiness, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, heart, hope, Jay VonSpreck, joy, love, loving, Luke 17:21, NASA, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, philosophy, play, poetry, Psalm 46:10, Scarborough Renaissance Festival, school play, Schools, Shakespeare, student, talented, Victor Tangermann, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, William Shakespeare, Wm. C. Anderson	| Leave a reply


Balakrishna, Vidya Balan, Sumanth, Rana.
NTR-Kathanayakudu is a good tribute to legend's cine life. It is a rarest occasion and memorable journey for NTR fans of all ages, a decent watch for others as well. Go and Watch this sincere attempt.
The film comes with sincere writing, focussed narration, able performances (by the main cast), and fine dialogues. On the flip side, many scenes are plain.
NTR Kathanayakudu is a fitting tribute to the biggest actor to have graced Telugu screens. Balakrishna lives in the role of NTR and gives Nandamuri fans a reason to rejoice. Terrific performances, honest portrayal of NTR and a good build-up for the second part are huge assets. If you ignore the slightly slower pace, the film ends as a good watch for the fans but the general audience will find the biopic a decent watch.
So, we have a film where the first half is passable and the second half is slightly better. The general feeling is that of a sincerely made movie that is a decent one-time watch. There is nothing bad per se but if one were expecting a classic and memorable outing, it is not the case.
An uneven narrative, slow pace, thin storyline and the refusal to humanise the great actor hold back the film from what it could've been. But not all is lost, for the stupendous performances make it worth a watch, so does the promise of delivering more in NTR Mahanayakudu.
All in all, "NTR Kathanayakudu" is a plain biopic that has many problems but can be watched as it tries to tell the story of one of the greatest actor and politician of Andhra Pradesh.
On a whole, NTR Kathanayakudu film is recommended for everybody.