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The Efficacy of the RUK AM Condition
In a study using real wind farm noise data exhibiting significant Amplitude Modulation (AM) we have been able to test the efficacy of the AM noise condition proposed by RenewableUK. The summary of the findings are :
1.1. The proposed RUK AM condition would not be breached by recorded wind farm noise data with high levels of AM measured at Askam, a site widely recognised to be producing severe AM problems, and at Swaffham, from data where the AM is clear and significant in magnitude. By comparison, data from both the Askam and Swaffham sites would be in breach of the Den Brook AM condition.
1.2. We conclude from these facts that the RUK AM condition is manifestly inferior to the Den Brook condition and does not offer to wind farm neighbours any realistic or significant protection against AM disturbance.
1.3. The RUK AM condition is too complex and computationally intensive to provide a reasonably accessible and transparent methodology for assessing excessive AM noise. Even acoustic professionals will struggle with this method, and Local Authority Environmental Health Officers are extremely unlikely to have either the resources or the training to undertake such compliance tests. This is unacceptable, particularly when more effective alternatives, such as the Den Brook method, suffer no such defects.
1.4. The RUK condition method results in an understated value of the true peak-to-trough levels of the AM noise. This is obviously unacceptable.
1.5. The RUK AM condition is limited to a maximum penalty of 5dB linked to overall noise levels, so where there is 5dB headroom – which is often the case at night-time when ETSU-R-97 wind farm noise limits are higher, background noise levels lower and AM more likely to be a nuisance – there is no sanction against AM of any level or duration.
1.6. It is unreasonable to treat the annoyance arising from the beating noise character of wind farm AM noise as an adjunct to the total sound levels rather than as a distinct problem in its own right. Applying a correction to the measured sound levels will not address the issue of noise complaints arising from excess AM noise; it should be treated as a standalone problem. This is because annoyance is not linked to overall noise level, but to its modulation even at low noise levels. It is AM that has to be removed not just compensated for in a way which is demonstrably ineffective.
2.1. The distinctive and repetitive blade swish noise of wind turbines, known as amplitude modulation (AM), is the cause of most wind farm noise complaints. In December 2009 a specific AM noise condition was included by a planning inspector in the permission for the Den Brook wind farm. REF published a note in October 2011 demonstrating that this Den Brook Amplitude Modulation condition could be applied in a straightforward and transparent way to actual wind farm noise data and employed to demonstrate the presence of excess AM likely to cause complaints.
2.2. The wind industry has fiercely resisted the Den Brook condition, but in 2010 acknowledged that AM could not be ignored, and as a consequence Renewable UK (RUK), the wind industry trade lobby, set up a working group to investigate the issue. This working group published a number of reports in December 2013, including an alternative AM noise condition [1].
2.3. This current note is a companion piece to our investigation of the Den Brook noise condition and carries out the analogous exercise of applying the RUK AM condition to real wind farm data.
3. The RUK AM condition
3.1. The proposed RUK AM noise condition is not accompanied by any evidence demonstrating its efficacy. It is complex, computationally intensive and compliance or breaches cannot be transparently demonstrated. In fact, such is the level of complexity that testing compliance with the condition requires a bespoke computer program written by a wind energy company, and whose underlying source code is commercially confidential.
3.2. It was proposed by the RUK in December 2013 that software would be provided (see Question 2) in the form of a 'black box' program. By 'black box' we mean software where the underlying code is not available and so cannot be validated or easily replicated in free, open-source software. This 'black box' was not provided in December 2013 with the rest of the material but is now available on the RUK website.
3.3. Like the Den Brook AM condition the threshold depth of AM deemed to be unacceptable is 3dB. However, unlike the Den Brook AM condition, the RUK condition does not treat AM noise as a distinct problem related to the annoyance produced by the beating character of the noise and requiring a standalone noise condition. Instead, it defines a maximum penalty of 5dB to be linked to the overall wind farm noise level. This means that where there is 5dB headroom between turbine noise and noise limit, AM noise of any magnitude and for any duration is permitted.
3.4. The choices of a penalty mechanism and its range of 3dB to a maximum of 5dB were apparently based on the results of listening tests carried out by the University of Salford and described in Work Package B2. We believe the logic linking the test results to the AM condition is flawed and the tests themselves inadequate. A commentary on the Salford testing is covered in Appendix 1.
3.5. As we demonstrate in the following section, the multiple steps required by the proposed condition involve repeated averaging of the blade swish noise resulting in a final scaled-down result that bears little resemblance to the actual magnitude of the blade swish noise experienced in reality, and is consequently highly unlikely ever to be breached. For this reason alone, we believe the RUK AM noise condition is not fit-for-purpose.
4. Noise data used in testing the RUK AM condition
4.1. We have used data from two separate wind farms to test the proposed RUK AM condition: the single E66 1.8 MW turbine known as Swaffham II located at Sporle Road, Swaffham, Norfolk; and the seven Vestas V47 660/200 kW turbines installed at Askam in Cumbria in August 1999.
4.2. The Askam data formed part of a Government sponsored study into wind turbine noise carried out by the Hayes Mackenzie Partnership (HMP) and released following a Freedom of Information request. Askam is a key example for benchmarking the efficacy of any AM noise condition because a greater number of noise complaints concerning the beating noise of the turbines have been made for that site than at any other site in the UK. Following early complaints, the owners of the wind farm implemented a Noise Reduction Management System involving the reduction of turbine output for selected wind directions and wind speeds [2]. However, these measures do not appear to have been successful since neighbours are still complaining of excess and unacceptable noise.
4.3. The 2006 study by HMP for the DTI reported that the audibility of the high levels of AM with peak-to-trough levels of up to 5-6dB inside dwellings caused sleep problems at night for the Askam neighbours. This resulted in a recommendation that overall wind farm noise levels should be reduced at night with additional penalties where noise contained high levels of AM.
4.4. The complaints about and measurements of AM at Askam were the trigger for subsequent Government and industry work on the impacts of AM and thus it is obvious that a reasonable test of a proposed AM noise condition is whether it is breached by the Askam noise data collected for the 2006 DTI report. In other words, if the Askam data does not breach the condition, the condition can hardly be expected to offer any significant degree of protection to residents.
4.5. The Swaffham dataset containing AM noise was measured in September 2013 by the acoustician Mike Stigwood as part of the evidence presented at the fourth Shipdham wind farm public inquiry. This data has the advantage of being measured 487 metres from a single turbine at a time of high wind shear when the turbine noise displayed very large AM peak to trough variations of 10dB and above, and consequently would also be expected to breach the RUK AM noise condition.
5. Worked example of the RUK AM condition
5.1. The detailed procedures for the RUK AM condition are described in Guidance Note 4 of the condition and are complex, involve multiple steps and are computationally intensive.
5.2. The condition seeks to obtain a value of parameter A, which is described as the "overall, objective measure of the level of amplitude modulation". The value of parameter A is related to the peak-to-trough level of the blade swish noise but by virtue of the processing needed to obtain the value understates the true peak-to-trough levels, as will be subsequently demonstrated in this section.
5.3. In summary, there are four fundamental problems with the condition:
• The use of a succession of averages scales down the impacts
• The condition is extremely complex and precludes the Local Authority from testing for compliance
• The particular use made of the mathematical Fourier transform technique understates the true peak-to-trough of the AM noise
• The use of a small sliding penalty, derived from the averaged Fourier transform data and tied to the overall noise levels, means breaches of the condition will be highly unlikely even for very high levels of AM.
5.4. In the following sections these problems will be considered in turn and in greater detail from various perspectives and under a variety of headings.
The RUK Condition averages AM over long time intervals understating the true impact
5.5. Guidance Note 4(b) (via the reference back to Guidance Note 2) prescribes a minimum length of time of 200 minutes for compliance testing. There is no maximum length of time specified and this means that it is possible, by measuring over a sufficiently long period of time, to obtain an average AM level that will inevitably fall below the threshold at which the condition would be breached.
The Complexity and size of datasets required preclude Local Authority (LA) testing for compliance
5.6. The condition requires the minimum 200 minutes (or greater) noise sample to be broken down into its constituent ten minute periods. Each ten minute period out of the minimum of twenty such periods, is further broken down into ten second chunks, each consisting of 100 LAeq noise levels measured every 0.1 of a second. Thus, a minimum of 120,000 measurements must be analysed to determine compliance [3]. This clearly precludes a simple semi-manual analysis as is possible with the Den Brook AM condition.
Figure 1. A sample of 1 minute of AM data measured at 02:06 on 30 September 2013 at Swaffham. The RUK AM condition requires this one minute sample to be split into 10 second chunks as identified by the vertical bars. The dotted lines show the amplitude of 3dB amplitude peak-to-trough to give a sense of the level of AM present.
The succession of mathematical manipulations results in understated peak-to-trough values
5.7. The RUK AM condition then specifies at Guidance Note 4(c)(iii) that each 10 second section of the data should be transformed by the mathematical procedure known as a Fourier transform (which is explained below). However, this procedure requires that the oscillations typical of the AM need to be adjusted such that they fluctuate about zero rather than the actual noise level. To achieve this, the condition requires a 5th order polynomial (4(c)(ii)) to be fitted to the data, and this is used to approximate the midpoint of the oscillations. Figure 2 shows this stage of the condition using the first ten seconds of the example in Figure 1 above.
Figure 2. The first 10 seconds of data from Figure 1 with the dotted line showing the best fit 5th order polynomial as required by the RUK AM condition for the 'de-trending'. Guidance Note 4(c)(ii)
5.8. The RUK AM condition uses the word 'de-trending'; this means subtracting the dotted line in Figure 2 from the noise data to yield a plot as in Figure 3, where the AM noise is supposed to oscillate evenly about zero. However, it is clear that the peaks extend further above the horizontal axis than below, indicating that the detrending process has not been successful. This is probably a result of the peaks being sharper than the troughs, and indicates flaws in the 'de-trending' methodology.
Figure 3. The first 10 seconds of data from Figure 1 after 'de-trending' (subtracting the best fit 5th order polynomial). Guidance Note 4(c)(ii)
5.9. The next step, 4(c)(iii), requires the data above to be 'Fourier-transformed' and scaled. This is described in very general terms in Guidance Note 4(c)(iii), (v) and (vi), but the actual methodology can be gleaned from the RUK Matlab script [4]. To aid explanation, it is useful to see the output of this stage, which is shown in Figure 4. The output consists of the constituent frequencies of the oscillating noise levels in Figure 3. The peak shows the frequency of the turbine blade swish beats per second.
Figure 4. The results of the Fourier transform of the data in Figure 3 after scaling according to the RUK AM condition software. The main peak indicates a blade passing frequency of 0.98 Hz and a peak-to-trough depth of 7.2dB.
5.10. A Fourier-transform is a mathematical technique to convert data that varies periodically with time into its constituent frequency components. In other words, when Fourier-transformed, the oscillating data in Figure 3 yields the main peak in Figure 4 at 0.98 Hz. This is marked with the vertical line in the figure. This indicates that the turbine at Swaffham was emitting AM noise with beats at the rate of 0.98 per second or roughly 1 per second. This is equivalent to 60 beats per minute, which is also equivalent (since there are 3 blades contributing to the beating noise) to the turbine rotating at approximate 20 rpm (60/3). This agrees with what we see in the raw data at Figure 2 where there are ten peaks or 'beats' in the 10 seconds.
5.11. The RUK AM condition specifies that the estimate of the peak-to-trough of the AM noise is the area under the main peak in the dotted line in Figure 4, including frequencies from 10% below the peak frequency to 10% above the peak frequency. The solid line in the figure is a cumulative total of a window 20% wide and its peak gives the quantity required in the RUK AM condition (i.e. the value of A referred to in Guidance Note 4(c)(vi) is 7.2dB in this example).
The RUK AM condition calculation significantly understates true peak-to-trough values
5.12. The following figure is a plot of the RUK value for the AM level superimposed onto the original time plot of the data. The dotted lines at +3.6 dB and –3.6 dB (i.e. a peak-to-trough value of 7.2 dB) show how the RUK condition figure understates the true amplitude modulation with the majority of the peaks and troughs exceeding the RUK result. This is a classic instance of averaging tending mask reality.
Figure 5. The dotted lines at +/- 3.6 dB show the RUK assessed level of AM plotted against the real AM oscillations revealing that the RUK value understates the true value.
The RUK AM condition results are less than peak-to-trough values used in RUK listening tests
5.13. Using the Salford University methodology of averaging peaks and troughs, as in Work Package B2, yields a peak-to-trough value of 9 dB (i.e. some 2dB greater than the RUK AM condition methodology which relies on the results of that work package).
5.14. This understatement of the true level of AM by the RUK condition methodology is not surprising because it only takes into account the size of the fundamental frequency component and neglects any harmonics occurring at two and three times the fundamental frequency [5].
The condition requires very large numbers of calculations to test compliance
5.15. We have already noted the process for a single 10 second sequence of data. This process has to be repeated a minimum of 1,200 times to obtain 60 values of the RUK condition value of A (as defined at 4(c)(vi)) for each of the minimum of 20 ten minute periods. The twelve highest values of A in each ten minute period are averaged, and if the frequency obtained at the Fourier-transform stage is plausibly that of the blade rotational frequency of the wind turbine(s).
The RUK AM condition prescribes two further averaging steps
5.16. These average values are then plotted against the wind speed during that ten minute period (4(g)). (However, the condition does not specify how that wind speed measurement should be taken: is it 10m measured wind speed, hub height wind speed, or 10m standardised wind speed?)
5.17. A least squares line is fitted to the data to find the average of these averages (4(h))
5.18. Carrying out this process for the Swaffham dataset gives the results shown in the following graph.
Figure 6. A plot of the average RUK amplitude A values as determined by the RUK AM condition with a "best fit" linear regression line to find the average of the averages following 4(h) and 4(g) of the proposed RUK AM condition.
The result of the RUK AM condition processes is the minimum possible penalty
5.19. The final result of all these calculations is that the average of the average peak-to-trough AM at Swaffham on the night of 29/30 September 2013 is 4dB for a wind speed of 6m/s. The condition at 4(i) indicates that this level attracts a penalty of 3dB.
The RUK Condition's minimum penalty with increased headroom means no breach
5.20. This penalty is applied to the ordinary noise levels. The measured ordinary noise level at Swaffham was approximately 36dB, so a 3dB penalty would raise that level to 39dB. The minimum ETSU-R-97 night time noise limit is normally 43dB, so it can be seen that this high level of AM, when subjected to the series of successive averages prescribed in the RUK AM noise condition, will fall a long way short of breaching that condition.
5.21. The conclusion is that the very high level of AM recorded at Swaffham is still not high enough to trigger a breach of the proposed RUK AM condition. It follows that such a condition will not protect neighbours from AM noise nuisance.
6. Results for the Askam dataset
6.1. The same procedure as described above in relation to the Swaffham data was applied to Askam dataset, namely to the measured noise levels at Location 1, Site 1 for the 14 May 2005 from midnight until 4am. This cut-off was chosen because of the onset of the dawn chorus.
6.2. Although AM noise is clearly audible in the measured data and visible in the plotted data over these 4 hours, the data contained a contaminating intermittent 'squeak'. The presence of this intermittent contaminant combined with the RUK AM methodology requiring the average of so many consecutive periods of data reduced the number of valid periods for analysis.
6.3. Furthermore, it is clear that the multiple turbines result in periods of elevated AM when the rotational rate of several turbines are synchronised followed by periods of reduced AM as the turbines move out of synchronicity. The RUK AM condition is poor at addressing this situation for two reasons. Firstly, the varying rpm of the turbines result in a spread-out Fourier transform with extra energy in the second and higher harmonics exacerbating the understatement of the peak-to-trough values. Secondly, neighbours specifically complain that the way that AM noise levels rise and fall is a particular irritant, whereas the RUK AM condition offsets rises against falls via the averaging process.
6.4. The following graph shows the measured parameter A for the Askam data plotted against wind speed from the on-site anemometer.
Figure 7. A plot of the average RUK amplitude A values for the Askam data measured between 00:00 and 03:00 on 14 May 2005 as determined by the RUK AM condition with a "best fit" linear regression line to find the average of the averages following 4(h) and 4(g) of the proposed RUK AM condition.
6.5. The RUK AM condition requires the fitted line in Figure 7 at any integer wind speed to be equal or greater than 3dB before any penalty for AM noise is deemed necessary. Thus Figure 7 shows that the noise levels at Askam do not breach the RUK AM condition.
6.6. If the RUK AM condition is incapable of protecting the neighbours at Askam from AM problems that are generally recognised to be severe, and which have been the trigger of successive reports and investigations since 1999, it is clear that the condition is unlikely to be generally fit for purpose. In other words, no wind farm neighbours where the RUK AM condition is applied can have any confidence that they are protected from conditions such as those at Askam, which are acknowledged to be severe.
7.1. We have shown that the proposed RUK AM condition would not be breached by recorded wind farm noise data with high levels of AM measured at Askam, a site widely recognised to be producing severe AM problems, and at Swaffham, from data where the AM is clear and significant in magnitude. By comparison, data from both the Askam and Swaffham sites would be in breach of the Den Brook AM condition.
7.4. Furthermore the process prescribed by the condition results in an understated value of the true peak-to-trough levels of the AM noise. This is obviously unacceptable.
Appendix 1.^ Commentary on RUK's Justification for their AM Metric
1. Accompanying the released RUK material is an unattributed document entitled 'The Development of a Penalty Scheme for Amplitude Modulated Wind Farm Noise: Description and Justification' which explains the claimed rationale for the noise levels selected in the proposed AM penalty scheme and purports to be based on the results of listening tests carried out at Salford University.
2. In our view the logic used is flawed, as are the results on which it is based.
3. The University of Salford testing is described in RUK Work Package B. There are a number of problems with the results of this testing:
a. The age, number and representativeness of the participants is questionable
b. The benchmarking of the responses is flawed
c. Synthetic noise data is used rather than real-world recordings
d. Flawed error test results have been relied upon for the RUK condition
e. RUK AM noise condition AM not comparable to Listening Test AM
4. We will discuss each of these concerns in turn, as follows:
a. Age, Number and Representativeness of Participants
5. Firstly, the participants chosen to carry out the listening tests were few in number and consisted largely of students and young people attached to the University; for example, five of the participants were from the local secondary school on work placement. In the case of the tests particularly relied upon in setting the AM condition metric, there were only 20 participants, 15 of whom were aged 30 or under. The two oldest participants were under 55 years of age.
6. The authors were obviously conscious that the participants were not representative of a rural community. At page 86, it states 'To widen the age range and background we also attempted to recruit participants from a rural area away from existing wind farms to avoid pre-sensitisation bias.' It is not made explicit whether this attempt was successful.
7. We see at page 112 that one of the participants did not understand the word 'annoyance'. In such a small sample size, such problems with individual participants undermine the validity of the conclusions drawn.
b. Benchmarking of responses flawed
8. Among the tests, the participants were asked to listen to a synthesised noise designed to represent garden noise through headphones in a computer music room and to set the volume to the level "that you would hear in your garden (imagine your garden has trees and/or bushes in it, even if it doesn't in reality)". (page 110, Work Package B2)
9. The response to this garden noise became the reference to which all other responses could be compared (page 36, Work Package B2). This is clearly problematical because it seems highly unlikely that young people based at a university in metropolitan Manchester have access to a garden with background noise levels comparable to a rural garden, and thus the benchmarking from the outset is flawed.
c. Synthetic data used instead of real wind farm AM noise
10. The testing was carried out using mathematically synthesised wind turbine AM (and garden) noise, not real noise. The sample plots of this artificial noise shown at page 101 and 102 of Work Package B are too regular in amplitude to be typical of real AM noise.
11. Participants listened to samples of the synthesised data of twenty seconds in duration, and could loop these if required. Quantifying annoyance based on such short samples cannot be considered comparable to the annoyance experienced by real-life neighbours who complain of AM noise occurring for many hours/days and particularly through the evening and night hours. It is a well-known attribute of wind farm AM noise that it becomes increasingly annoying over time due to exposure.
d. Flawed Error Test results relied upon for RUK AM condition
12. There were two types of test carried out in a controlled listening room environment. The first was used to rate the annoyance of the noise samples on a scale of 0 to 10. This showed that noise with AM is more annoying than noise without an AM component. It also found that the greater the peak-to-trough levels, the more annoying is the noise.
13. The second test, on which the RUK AM condition is based, asked the participants to adjust a sound sample without AM noise to the level that was as annoying as noise containing AM with various peak-to-trough levels. This is obviously inappropriate as the participants being asked to adjust the noise level of a waterfall until it is as annoying as the beat of a neighbours hi-fi playing rock music. Unsurprisingly, the participants found this adjustment task difficult (page 56, Work Package B2).
14. Such was their difficulty, that when asked to compare two noise samples where neither contained AM noise, they still adjusted the first sample to higher or lower levels. This should have been interpreted as indicating the test had failed, but instead it is these results in particular that have been used to justify the RUK AM condition [6].
e. The RUK AM noise condition AM is not comparable to Listening Test AM
15. Thus, although the final listening test in Work Package B produced acknowledged error results and, with no valid or indeed scientifically coherent justification, it was used to set the parameters of the RUK AM penalty levels.
16. In addition to concerns at the validity of the listening test results, the peak-to-trough values used for the listening tests are not the same as the peak-to-trough levels obtained by following the RUK AM condition procedures.
17. This can be seen by examining the Figures on pages 101 and 102 of Work Package B. This shows that the measurement of the peak-to-trough for the listening tests was done straightforwardly by measuring the difference between peaks and troughs.
18. It is demonstrated above that a smaller peak-to-trough measurement would be obtained from the RUK AM procedure involving the Fourier transform methodology. Thus, the scale of the penalty devised is not accurately linked to the results of the erroneous listening test.
19. Nor can the average of 200 minutes of noise data containing a variable amount of AM as specified by the RUK AM condition be fairly compared with a 20 second listening test of synthesised and unvarying AM.
1.^ See reports dated 16 December 2013 at http://www.renewableuk.com/en/publications/reports.cfm . There are separate publications for the RUK AM condition and the Rationale for the RUK AM condition. High resolution copies of the 8 research papers are available via the following links.
Work Package A1: Source generation effects modelling;
Work Package A2 Fundamental Research into Possible Causes of Amplitude Modulation;
Work Package B1 Development of an Objective AM Measurement Methodology;
Work Package B2 Development of an AM Dose-Response Relationship;
Work Package C Collation and Analysis of Existing Acoustic Recordings
Work Package D Measurement and Analysis of New Acoustic Recordings
Work Package F Collation of Work Package Reports and Final Reporting
Work Package G Mechanism and Causes of AM
2.^ The Salford Report on AM http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file40570.pdf . Askam is Site D. Also, see http://www.ref.org.uk/publications/151-ref-publishes-data-on-wind-farm-noise-obtained-under-the-freedom-of-information-act
3. ^ 120,000 = 20 ten minute periods x 10 minutes per period x 60 seconds per minute x 10 measurements per second as specified in the condition
4. ^ Matlab is proprietary computer software useful for complex mathematical and statistical processing. The RUK 'black box' code for the AM condition is written in Matlab script. The actual code underpinning the Matlab script is commercially confidential. However, we can provide copies of the Matlab script on request.
5.^ If the AM noise was a pure tone there would be a single peak in the Fourier-transformed plot. However, because the AM noise is distorted with sharp rises the Fourier transformed plot has peaks at the fundamental blade passing frequencies and peaks at integer multiples of that frequency. Only by including the amplitude contributions from these higher order harmonics does one get close to accurately deriving the true peak-to-trough values of the AM.
6. ^ Figure 9.4 page 59, Work Package B2. The figure shows that tests for all noise levels on the y axis, were wrongly adjusted by the participants when the Modulation Depth equalled 0. i.e. when the source noise level was 25dB it was increased by participants when they attempted to match it to another source noise of 25dB. The data in Figure 9.4 and Figure 9.5 is the basis for the justification of the metric set in the RUK AM condition – see page 4 of "The Development of a Penalty Scheme".
REF Info Note on RUK AM Condition


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Q: Is there a way to create an sjcl.js bignum (bn) from an integer string? sjcl.js provides codecs for reading in hex strings and utf8Strings, but it doesn't provide a codec for reading in base-10 integer strings. I'm trying to read in private keys for ECC point generation that are from another program (going from codec to bitArray then from bitArray to bn). Seems like an odd oversight which leads me to believe it is in there somewhere, just missing it.
Thanks,
PeterT

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Make Your Home More Eco-Friendly With These Appliances
by Lucy Xiong
Does buying a slightly more expensive clothes dryer with an Energy Star on it really make that much of a difference to the environment?
Energy efficiency measures such as The Energy Star label have contributed to the fact that, despite economic growth of about 30%, energy use in the U.S. is still about the same as it was in 2000. Over the past four decades, these efficiency measures have actually contributed more to meeting America's energy needs than oil, gas and nuclear power. The Energy Star program is estimated to have saved $430 billion on energy bills and curbed carbon pollution by 2.7 billion metric tons in the 30 years of its operation.
The NRDC notes that widespread use of efficient appliances, electronics, lighting, better insulation and equipment, could reduce carbon pollution by 550 million metric tons a year by 2050 (based on 1990 levels). This figure is equal to the electric power emissions produced by Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Virginia and California combined in 2016.
Energy efficiency or clean energy production has also created 2.2 million American jobs, five times the number created by the fossil fuel energy industry. Energy-efficient appliances can save a U.S. household up to $500 a year on utility bills. That number could increase to $840 by 2030.
So, what are the most eco-friendly, energy-efficient large appliances for your home out there today?
According to Energy Star, the Beko BFBF2412SS has the lowest annual energy use of all its certified refrigerators. The appliance uses only 294 kWh a year, which is less than half of the 657 kWh the U.S. Department of Energy estimates as the yearly American average.
However, there's also a solar powered option from a company founded by the leader of NASA's Advanced Technology Refrigeration Project. SunDanzer created the world's first battery-free solar powered refrigerator, originally designed for off-grid consumers. Now it also carries the 15 cu. ft. DCRF450 and 10.2 cu. ft. DCRF290 that are more familiar designs for the average American home.
SunDanzer's high-efficiency refrigerators and freezers have exceptionally low energy consumption that allows them to be powered by alternative energies such as solar, wind, fuel cells or batteries. They are made with a zero-maintenance, brushless, thermostatically controlled DC compressor and a low-frost system that reduces frost and moisture build up. The 15 cu. ft. DCRF450 uses only about 347 kWh of energy per year, so a single 250-350W solar panel is enough to power it in most cases.
Energy Star reports that the Electrolux EFLW427 clothes washer uses the least energy at only 60 kWh per year, and the Samsung WW22N6850Q uses the least water at 2,401 gallons per year. For dryers, Energy Star named the Samsung DV22N685H the most energy-efficient, with an estimated annual energy use of 145 kWh per year.
Samsung also has a new technology called "ecobubble" that allows detergent to penetrate fabric fibers without the use of hot water. This machine can use 40% less energy than a traditional motor does.
Is there such a thing as an eco-friendly air conditioner? Not really.
But the LG Art Cool Mirror is trying its best. It comes with built-in WiFi so you can control your AC with smart enabled devices. Of course, it's got the Energy Star badge. It has LG's unique skew fan and DUAL Inverter Compressor, which are both must-haves for energy efficiency and low noise.
"Air conditioner" has yet to become compatible with sustainability. In the meantime the LG Art Cool Mirror is better than most.
Toward True Sustainability
Household appliances have come a long way since Frigidaire introduced the first self-contained refrigerator in 1923. The trajectory for appliances continues to face increasing efficiency in all facets — energy, design and ease of use. Perhaps one day soon we'll have an air conditioner that's truly eco-friendly. We can only hope.
8 Philanthropists Who Contribute to Sustainable Causes
A Quick Ecotourism Guide for Zeus Seattle Guests
Sustainable Travel: Our Review of Zeus Living's New Seattle Homes

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Delivery across the blood-brain barrier: nanomedicine for glioblastoma multiforme
Lynn Jena, Emma McErlean, Helen McCarthy
The malignant brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is heterogeneous, infiltrative, and associated with chemo- and radioresistance. Despite pharmacological advances, prognosis is poor. Delivery into the brain is hampered by the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which limits the efficacy of both conventional and novel therapies at the target site. Current treatments for GBM remain palliative rather than curative; therefore, innovative delivery strategies are required and nanoparticles (NPs) are at the forefront of future solutions. Since the FDA approval of Doxil® (1995) and Abraxane (2005), the first generation of nanomedicines, development of nano-based therapies as anti-cancer treatments has escalated. A new generation of NPs has been investigated to efficiently deliver therapeutic agents to the brain, overcoming the restrictive properties of the BBB. This review discusses obstacles encountered with systemic administration along with integration of NPs incorporated with conventional and emerging treatments. Barriers to brain drug delivery, NP transport mechanisms across the BBB, effect of opsonisation on NPs administered systemically, and peptides as NP systems are addressed.
Drug Delivery and Translational Research
Early online date - 14 Nov 2019
Jena, L., McErlean, E., & McCarthy, H. (2019). Delivery across the blood-brain barrier: nanomedicine for glioblastoma multiforme. Drug Delivery and Translational Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13346-019-00679-2
Jena, Lynn ; McErlean, Emma ; McCarthy, Helen. / Delivery across the blood-brain barrier : nanomedicine for glioblastoma multiforme. In: Drug Delivery and Translational Research. 2019.
@article{df8eaed5bbfb4f58ac661692fd03052d,
title = "Delivery across the blood-brain barrier: nanomedicine for glioblastoma multiforme",
abstract = "The malignant brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is heterogeneous, infiltrative, and associated with chemo- and radioresistance. Despite pharmacological advances, prognosis is poor. Delivery into the brain is hampered by the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which limits the efficacy of both conventional and novel therapies at the target site. Current treatments for GBM remain palliative rather than curative; therefore, innovative delivery strategies are required and nanoparticles (NPs) are at the forefront of future solutions. Since the FDA approval of Doxil{\circledR} (1995) and Abraxane (2005), the first generation of nanomedicines, development of nano-based therapies as anti-cancer treatments has escalated. A new generation of NPs has been investigated to efficiently deliver therapeutic agents to the brain, overcoming the restrictive properties of the BBB. This review discusses obstacles encountered with systemic administration along with integration of NPs incorporated with conventional and emerging treatments. Barriers to brain drug delivery, NP transport mechanisms across the BBB, effect of opsonisation on NPs administered systemically, and peptides as NP systems are addressed.",
author = "Lynn Jena and Emma McErlean and Helen McCarthy",
journal = "Drug Delivery and Translational Research",
publisher = "Springer Publishing Company",
Jena, L, McErlean, E & McCarthy, H 2019, 'Delivery across the blood-brain barrier: nanomedicine for glioblastoma multiforme', Drug Delivery and Translational Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13346-019-00679-2
Delivery across the blood-brain barrier : nanomedicine for glioblastoma multiforme. / Jena, Lynn; McErlean, Emma; McCarthy, Helen.
In: Drug Delivery and Translational Research, 14.11.2019.
T1 - Delivery across the blood-brain barrier
T2 - nanomedicine for glioblastoma multiforme
AU - Jena, Lynn
AU - McErlean, Emma
AU - McCarthy, Helen
N2 - The malignant brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is heterogeneous, infiltrative, and associated with chemo- and radioresistance. Despite pharmacological advances, prognosis is poor. Delivery into the brain is hampered by the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which limits the efficacy of both conventional and novel therapies at the target site. Current treatments for GBM remain palliative rather than curative; therefore, innovative delivery strategies are required and nanoparticles (NPs) are at the forefront of future solutions. Since the FDA approval of Doxil® (1995) and Abraxane (2005), the first generation of nanomedicines, development of nano-based therapies as anti-cancer treatments has escalated. A new generation of NPs has been investigated to efficiently deliver therapeutic agents to the brain, overcoming the restrictive properties of the BBB. This review discusses obstacles encountered with systemic administration along with integration of NPs incorporated with conventional and emerging treatments. Barriers to brain drug delivery, NP transport mechanisms across the BBB, effect of opsonisation on NPs administered systemically, and peptides as NP systems are addressed.
AB - The malignant brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is heterogeneous, infiltrative, and associated with chemo- and radioresistance. Despite pharmacological advances, prognosis is poor. Delivery into the brain is hampered by the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which limits the efficacy of both conventional and novel therapies at the target site. Current treatments for GBM remain palliative rather than curative; therefore, innovative delivery strategies are required and nanoparticles (NPs) are at the forefront of future solutions. Since the FDA approval of Doxil® (1995) and Abraxane (2005), the first generation of nanomedicines, development of nano-based therapies as anti-cancer treatments has escalated. A new generation of NPs has been investigated to efficiently deliver therapeutic agents to the brain, overcoming the restrictive properties of the BBB. This review discusses obstacles encountered with systemic administration along with integration of NPs incorporated with conventional and emerging treatments. Barriers to brain drug delivery, NP transport mechanisms across the BBB, effect of opsonisation on NPs administered systemically, and peptides as NP systems are addressed.
JO - Drug Delivery and Translational Research
JF - Drug Delivery and Translational Research
Jena L, McErlean E, McCarthy H. Delivery across the blood-brain barrier: nanomedicine for glioblastoma multiforme. Drug Delivery and Translational Research. 2019 Nov 14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13346-019-00679-2
10.1007/s13346-019-00679-2Licence: CC BY
Copyright 2019 the authors. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.
Final published version, 823 KBLicence: CC BY


Attorneys are required to submit all proposed Orders for the Probate, Guardianship & Trust Division in PDF format via the JAWS system.
Directions for uploading Probate/Guardianship and Trust Division proposed orders.
1.) Select a case either through the "My Cases" link or "Case Search"
3.) Verify that the selected division for the file upload is the correct division. Please make sure you select East Circuit Division U in the drop down box, otherwise it will not reach Judge McNeil for signing.
4.) Fill in the document title box and change the Select Upload Destination dropdown to Judge's Work Queue for Signing (Proposed Orders).
5.) If this is in a civil or probate division, you must select whether the order was agreed upon or opposing counsel disagrees.
6.) If you are not yet associated to the case, you will need to select which side you are associated to in order to continue.
7.) Click on the browse button, locate the file and click on the Upload File Button.
8.) Optionally, you can check off the "Include Cover Letter" box and then click the browse button to upload a cover letter along with your proposed order.
UMC dates and times for Probate/Guardianship are now available on JAWS for attorneys. No longer than 15 minute hearings.
For lengthier hearings, please call or email the Judicial Assistant, Cissy Hill at 813-272-6160 or hillck@fljud13.org.
For all other Divisions P, Q, and S, please contact the Judicial Assistant for scheduling.
If the decedent died less than two years before the date of filing, the petition for administration must be accompanied by a paid funeral bill or other satisfactory proof that the funeral expenses have been paid.	All petitions for administration in intestate estates must be accompanied by an affidavit of heirs.


Leather Corkscrew. Matching bottle opener available as a pair | Life of Riley (Retail) Ltd.
Add a matching leather bottle opener and save. Please note this is not the gift set which includes a leather gift tag and box.
A really useful leather utensil. Open a bottle of wine with a beautifully made stainless steel and leather corkscrew and serve your drinks on one of our leather trays too. A lovely gift for a new home, celebratory gift or third wedding anniversary where leather is traditionally given.
The perfect gift for a wine afficinado on a birthday.


text:
La lengua rukai pertenece al grupo formosano de lenguas austronésicas y se habla en el sur de Taiwán por unas 6.000 personas (censo de 1989).

La lengua rukai tiene dos grupos dialectales: el rukai propiamente dicho con el budai, tanan y labuan y el de los tres pueblos bajos, maga, tona y mantauran. El primero se localiza en el oeste y el este mientras que el segundo tiene presencia en el norte. Esos grupos dialectales difieren no sólo geográficamente sino también cultural y lingüísticamente.

En lo que se refiere a cambios fonológicos, el budai es el más conservador, mientras que en el mantauran se observan grandes cambios fonéticos y en menos medida en maga.

Rukai
Rukai

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


What would you do if you won the $759M Lottery?
Invest some, ensure my fam is set up for life generations too come. I would by a mansion, on a lot of land with a ranch and take care of the fam. Then I would of course donate 100k every month to select charities.
I could live off 20k a month. Lol. True about the investing.
You could educate yourself by traveling to other countries. Live your life, that's the best education.


text:
package org.teavm.incremental.data.lambda;

public class Main {
    private Main() {
    }

    public static String run() {
        return Bar.call();
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The Shepherd Centre are pleased to announce that this May we'll be part of the Sydney Disability Expo…..
Where: BOOTH 44 The Southee Complex, 1 Showground Rd, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW 2127.
When: Friday 25th & Saturday 26th May 2018, 9am – 3pm.
for people with a disability to find out about the latest products, services, technology, aids and equipment.
for product and service providers to connect with people with a disability, their families & carers.
for service providers to build networks with other providers, organisations & agencies in the region.
to bring together everyone in the Sydney Disability sector, with the aim to enhance the lives of people with a disability.
a variety of exhibiting service & product providers from the greater Sydney region.
workshops, demo's and speakers from the NDIS, government agencies and disability organisations.
cafe & break out room.
live performances from disability groups.
If you would like to attend the great news is that entry is FREE, but you will need to register your attendance here.


text:
Disinfo: British Round Table Movement has infiltrated America
While there has been a long-standing narrative promoted for over 70 years that the British Empire disappeared after World War II having been replaced by the "American Empire", it is the furthest thing from the truth. Henry Kissinger's takeover of the State Department ushered in a new era of British occupation of American foreign policy, whereby the republic increasingly became the "Dumb Giant" acting as "American Brawn for the British brains" using Churchill's words. The policy of Anglo-Saxon imperialism had been promoted subversively by British-run think tanks known as the Round Table Movement and Fabian Society, and the seeds had already been laid for the anti-Russian cold war by those British-run American fascists. While a nihilistic generation of youth were tuning in on LSD, and an old guard of patriots surrounding Wallace and Kennedy had fallen to the "red scare" witch hunt, geopolitical theory was fed like a sweet poison down the throat of a sleeping nation, replacing a policy of peace and "win-win cooperation" with an imperial clone masquerading as a republic.
Disproof
Conspiracy theory, presented without any evidence. A pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative linking Britain and Russophobia. This message is consistent with a recurrent pro-Kremlin narrative that the "deep state" and "shadow government" control the work of democratic institutions in the United States. Here are some other examples of this narrative: "Deep state" fighting with Trump (here and here); "Deep state" shaping the US foreign policy (here).
No reputable political scientists and researchers confirm the existence of a "deep state" in the United States.
British Round Table Movement has infiltrated America
publication/media
orientalreview.org
Reported in: Issue 157
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 06/07/2019
Outlet language(s) English
Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: UK, US
Keywords: Deep state, Conspiracy theory
Disinfo: The US is a dictatorship
The American Government is not responsive to what the public wants; it is responsive only to what the politically involved super-rich — the people who mainly fund politics — want. And those billionaires also control, or even own, all of the major 'news' media, and so their propaganda filters-out such realities as that the country is a dictatorship, no democracy at all.
Conspiracy theory, presented without evidence. Claiming the media and government is under total control by shadowy rulers is a common trope in pro-Kremlin disinformation.
Disinfo: Anti-Russian protests in Georgia provoked by the George Soros' Open Society Foundation
The foundation of the well-known philanthropist George Soros Open Society is to blame for the anti-Russian protests in Georgia. On 20 June, the organisation openly called on Georgians to protest. After that, provocations against Russia began in Tbilisi.
This is another conspiracy theory followed by the Russian media. Western non-governmental organisations are often targeted by pro-Kremlin disinformation. Propaganda often accuses George Soros of organising anti-Russian protests because of his support for democracy and human rights in dozens of countries around the world. Protests in Georgia began on the night of 21 June; discontent in Georgia was provoked by the visit of a Russian delegation to Tbilisi to participate in the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy. Following this, indignant civilian activists who accused Russia of occupying Georgian territories gathered outside the Georgian parliament. The Soros Open Society Foundation has nothing to do with the protests in Tbilisi.
Disinfo: Ukraine is under external control
During the last five years, Ukraine has been under external control.
No evidence given. Recurring Kremlin narrative about Ukraine, which they claim is under external control from the US or EU. Ukraine is a sovereign state, not controlled by any foreign government. Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected by almost the whole world, including the EU. You can find several disinformation cases on Ukraine being under foreign control here.


text:
Transformational Processes in Clinical Psychoanalysis
Dreaming, Emotions and the Present Moment
Lawrence J. Brown
Published October 9, 2018 by Routledge
Transformational Processes in Clinical Psychoanalysis: Dreaming, Emotions and the Present Moment
In this book, Lawrence J. Brown offers a contemporary perspective on how the mind transforms, and gives meaning to, emotional experience that arises unconsciously in the here-and-now of the clinical hour. Brown surveys the developments in theory and practice that follow from Freud's original observations and traces this evolution from its conception to contemporary analytic field theory.
Brown emphasizes that these unconscious transformational processes occur spontaneously, in the blink of an eye, through the "unconscious work" in which the analyst and patient are engaged. Though unconscious, these processes are accessible and the analyst must train himself to become aware of the subtle ways he is affected by the patient in the clinical moment. By paying attention to one's reveries, countertransference manifestations and even supposed "wild" or extraneous thoughts, the analyst is able to obtain a glimpse of how his unconscious is transforming the ambient emotions of the session in order to formulate an interpretation.
Brown casts a wide theoretical net in his exploration of these transformational processes and builds on the contributions of Freud, Theodor Reik, Bion, Ogden, the Barangers, Cassorla, Civitarese and Ferro. Bion's theories of alpha function, transformations, dreaming and his clinical emphasis on the present moment are foundational to this book. Brown's writing is clear and aims to describe the various theoretical ideas as plainly as possible. Detailed clinical material is given in most chapters to illustrate the theoretical perspectives. Brown applies this theory of transformational processes to a variety of topics, including the analyst's receptivity, countertransference as transformation, the analytic setting, the paintings of J.M.W. Turner, "autistic transformations" and other clinical situations in the analysis of children and adults.
Transformational Processes in Clinical Psychoanalysis will be of great interest to all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.
Series Editor Foreword by Gabriela Legorreta Preface by Giuseppe Civitarese Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: From Countertransference to Transformations Chapter 3: Bion's Discovery of Alpha Function: The Engine of Transformations Chapter 4: Bion's Transformations and Clinical Practice Chapter 5: The Analyst's Receptivity: Evolution of the Concept and Its Clinical Application Chapter 6: Ruptures in the Analytic Setting and Disturbances in the Transformational Field Dreams Chapter 7: The Unbearable Glare of Living: The Sublime, Bion's Theory of 'O' and J. M. W. Turner, 'Painter of Light'" Chapter 8: Three Unconscious Pathways to Representing the Analyst's Experience: Reverie, Countertransference Dreams and Joke-Work Chapter 9: Autistic Transformations I: From Ashes to Ashes: The Heroic Struggle of an Autistic Boy Trying to be Born and Stay Alive Chapter 10: Autistic Transformations II: The Capacity to Tell a Joke: Reflections from Work with Asperger's Children Chapter 11: "Notes on Memory and Desire": Implications for Working Through Chapter 12: Conclusion: On Freud's "The Question of a Weltanschauung" – A World of Perpetual Transformation?
Lawrence J. Brown trained in adult and child psychoanalysis and is a faculty member and supervising child analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute (BPSI), USA. He is also a supervising and personal analyst at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis. Brown has lectured internationally and published papers on a variety of topics, including the Oedipal situation, Bion, intersubjectivity, field theory and autistic phenomena.
"This book, by one of the leading North American psychoanalysts, shows us, in a clear and profound way, the vicissitudes of the transformation processes that occur in the intersubjective analytic field… The reader will be charmed by his original ideas…The richness of the text, his fascinating writing and the illustration with very interesting clinical situations make the reader feel included in creative relationships with the author and the characters of the text…."-Roosevelt Cassorla, author of The Psychoanalyst, The Theater of Dreams and the Clinic of Enactment, Siguorney Award Winner, 2017
"This outstanding book is one of the most original and valuable contributions to appear in the field of psychoanalysis for many years. In a remarkably instructive, perceptive and lucid way, Lawrence Brown explores the instantaneous unconscious communications between patient and analyst that have transformative power and that lie at the heart of the analytic process and its capacity to effect change. This is groundbreaking work that should be required reading for therapists of every persuasion."-Theodore Jacobs, author of The Possible Profession: The Analytic Process of Change, and The Use of the Self: Countertransference and Communication in the Analytic Situation
The International Psychoanalytical Association Psychoanalytic Ideas and Applications Series


Nesmuk JANUS – unmistakable by the black blade – is crafted from a high performance steel containing niobium and finished with a high quality diamond-like carbon coating (DLC) improving the functionality of the blade. The chef's knife with the 180mm long and 4mm thick, one-sided hollow grind blade is the classic all-rounder and as the "basic knife" indispensable in every kitchen. The polished edge guarantees the finest possible cut: The unique Nesmuk steel makes it possible to have an extremely fine steel mix and high rust resistance at the same time. It also increases the mechanical density, making the blade tougher and stronger. The result is an extreme sharpness as well as better blade lifetime and edge holding ability.
Karelian Birch Burl is a small birch species native to northern Europe, mainly in the border region between Finland and Russia. Due to the slow growth, the light gray to light brown wood shows the strong, high-contrast grain. Karelian curly birch is a typical knife handle of traditional Scandinavian knives and unmistakable due to the very eye-catching grain.


text:
Q: SS5  limitation issue with  Have an SS5 Socks proxy server running with SS5_RADIUS_AUTH
I want to set a max connections users but have run in to a problem.
SS5 want's me to define user group for it.
<group>
define a filename in the configuration directory containing one or more usernames for
which limit bandwidth or number of connections.
note: if you add/remove a user from group file, ss5 requires reload.

Can't this be done without this file ? Just limitit it towards all users with * or something ? Users will come and go so restarting it every time is not optimal.
Did try this but it did not limit the maxcons but was not successful
 bandwidth - 100 - -

Would need to advice here.

A: Users must be put in a file
Create a file in the same directory that contain ss5.conf and call it users and in it add one username on ever row
userA
userB
userC

Then you need to add this line in your ss5.conf
bandwidth   users           60           -           -

To not need to stop and start your ss5 your don't want to use
service ss5 restart

What you wan't to use is
service ss5 reload

There is not really any other good solution right now. If it is i would like to know ab


I was at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD yesterday, at the Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference, a remarkable institution that I confess I knew nothing about before accepting an invitation to speak here. For 51 years, the Academy has opened its doors to students from the other service academies, political science students from non-military institutions, and to military cadets from other countries for annual discussions about foreign policy and international affairs. The conference is organized primarily by the naval midshipmen and it's one of the best-run academic conferences I've attended. I had the great pleasure of delivering the opening keynote for the conference Tuesday morning – I'll try to post those notes later this week – and these notes reflect my liveblogging from the audience of a very interesting conversation.
Evgeny Morozov has emerged as one of the leading critics of the idea that the internet is a useful tool for social change, suggesting in his provocative book "The Net Delusion" that the internet can be more useful for dictators than for activists. He's found himself answering some sharp questions in the wake of the Arab Spring protests, which appear to have used social media quite productively in changing governments in Tunisia and Egypt. One of the leading commentators who's tried to unpack what effect the internet has and hasn't had in the Arab Spring is Zeynep Tufekci, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She's been doing some of the most important work in unpacking theory around social networks and examining those theories about network effects in connection to events in Egypt and Tunisia.
Their conversation is moderated by technology journalist Brendan Greeley. Brendan now writes for Bloomberg Businessweek, and formerly wrote on technology for the Economist, the New York Times and pretty much an all-star list of US journalism outlets. Brendan suggests that theorists about political change are no longer looking to Clausewitz, but to Star Trek for their inspiration. We're in an age of algorithmic culture – we want to know specifically how something, like the Arab Spring protests, transpired and we care about the details of which tools, which actors and which legal jurisdictions, because these details have consequences for those who'd try to use the same methods in different circumstances. He suggests that it's not insignificant that Zeynep and Evgeny are from outside the US (he's from Belarus, she from Turkey), because we're seeing a shift in media from questions about what the world thinks of America to questions about what the world thinks about itself.
Evgeny opens his remarks noting that the question, "How does the Internet affect democracy?" leads to answers that are very abstract. It's difficult to quantify democracy. The internet is bound to have different impacts on democracy in the US, versus Thailand or Kyrgyzstan.
Evgeny rejects deterministic explanations, assertions that the internet will lead to a particular outcome based on a rigid, theoretical understand of design and architecture. There's an assumption, he argues, that because the internet runs on decentralized networks and protocols, it will lead to a decentralized political culture. This argument disregards the context, the political environments, which can differ radically country to country. Russian nationalists are taking advantage of the internet to promote their views, more than the liberals. It's the opposite in Belarus, despite the fact that the nations share a border. The political and social effects of the internet are rooted in political and social environments. Notions like internet freedom tend to disregard the specifics of local political situation and culture.
He warns that we have a tendency to disregard adaptability of authoritarian states. We've tended to assume that they would either need to shut down the internet and experience severe economic consequences, or open it up: the dictator's dilemma. This model fails to consider the ways dictators can use the internet for their own ends. They won't use it successfully in every single situation, but we need to be open to the idea that certain features of the contemporary internet make it easier for authoritarian governments to increase control of cyberspace through surveillance, censorship, and propaganda. Governments can use DDoS as a tool for censorship. They can surveil traffic via social networks, and use the information users reveal to make maps of connections between activists. This isn't to say that the dictators are bound to win – instead, his goal is to make policymakers alert to the ways in which the internet is used to surpress democracy.
Who wins – the activists or the dictators – won't be clear for decades to come, he asserts. It's a mistake to argue that you can't achieve anything useful towards a democracy agenda on Facebook. There are useful things the Internet can deliver. But if we take the long-term view, we need to ask what services like Facebook are doing to our political culture. The solution to the problem of dictatorship in Belarus is not to create an online opposition that's separate from the existing opposition. Online activists deface pictures of the president and publish them online – it can be funny, and maybe it's building a culture of resistance. But these developments seem to be separate from the offline, mainstream political organizations working for change in Belarus. And ultimately, he believe change will come from the streets, not from online.
In the Middle East, we're lucky that people weren't just turning their Twitter avatars green or joining Facebook groups. We don't need to give credit to Facebook for bringing people into the streets. Online activism can be effective, he argues, but we need to find ways to ensure it happens in conjunction with offline politics. We don't want to turn the internet into a ghetto where the youth blow off steam, which makes the government happy, as it's not leading to real change. Our challenge is to design policies that connect the internet to more substantive political change, bridging between these two worlds.
Brendan points out that Evgeny was one of the first thinkers to challenge the idea that the most important controls to online speech were technical. What does it mean that key blocks to discourse are social as well as technical?
Evgeny suggests that, in the Middle East, there's very little tolerance from governments for alternative opinions expressed online. In China and Russia, there's more of an attempt to defend and shape positions online. Bloggers in China paid by the government try to legitimate the government's positions. In some countries, the government is trying to limit the utility of tools like Facebook by infiltrating groups used by the opposition. One tactic is to join those groups, upload pornographic content then report the group and get it banned. Attacks that make a website unavailable, even for a few days at a time, will over time break down the communities that would develop around those tools.
Brendan mentions that Evgeny considers himself a reformed cyberutopian. What was his conversion experience?
Earlier in his career, Evgeny explains, he worked for an eastern European NGO that worked for political change through the internet. His work as an internet evangelist helped him understand how well-intentioned projects can cause more harm than good. US government projects come into countries like Belarus, hired the local talent, distorted the economy and had little impact on real political change. He began systematically doubting the NGO mindset. So much attention was being paid to the Chinese firewall, and not enough attention to how governments were controlling online space through creating entertainment content to distract from political content.
Zeynep introduces herself as a former software developer, "a lifetime ago". She paid her way through college taking care of legacy technical systems. In the 1990s in Turkey, there were a lot of technology managers who didn't understand how these things worked. She tells the story of a boss who came to her and asked "Can it tell if I'm lying?", pointing to the computer in the corner. She gave him the irresistible answer: "Yes." People who look inside the black box, she explains, don't ask these questions – people who don't understand them do.
As a careful academic, Zeynep explains, she's reluctant to make broad generalizations about what kind of world we might be living in one or two decades from now. But she promises to put some of that nuance aside and offer more forceful predictions than she might in a peer-reviewed paper.
The first of these predictions is that we're now likely looking at a world where promiting other people's democracy is no longer on the agenda – they're promoting their own agenda. She references a tweet a friend posted from Cairo: "The people in Tahrir Square greet themselves as liberators." The question of how best to promote democracy may be an archaic question. Instead, we may need to focus on understanding the changing media ecology and the ways in which it's changing social relationships.
Zeynep mentions that she was reviewing a pre-released copy of Evgeny's book in November, when Wikileaks became a dominant news story. The argument in the first half of his book about the US State Department's enthusiasm for the internet looked less germane now that the State Department seemed to be having second thoughts about the utility of the internet when used by leakers of government documents. The second half of the book is about dictators using the internet, and then Tunisia and Egypt dominated the news agenda. She wonders whether this was the best timing an author's ever experienced.
Responding to the core argument in Evgeny's book, Zeynep wonders whether the analogy of the printing press is a helpful one. The first two major uses for the printing press were printing bibles and dispensations and indulgences. One might have assumed that the new technology would empower the Catholic church. But a technology that threatened the monopoly on the written word threatened those monopolists, in the long term.
She suggests that we're seeing two major changes brought about by internet adoption. First, the shape of our connectivity networks is changing. There are two major types of networks in modern, mass-media societies. There's a person to person social network, and the one to many network of broadcast media. What's emerging now is many to many connectivity, which lets people talk to each other in ways that didn't exist previously. There were some ways in the past that individuals could spread ideas to a mass of people, but they were much more difficult and much smaller in scale than the tools we're exploring now.
Second, the speed of information diffusion has implications for the efficacy of protest movements. The recent Koran burning in Florida led, as we all know, to riots in Afghanistan. But it took four days from the burning to the riots. In part, this is because fewer than 1% of all Afghans are online. The protests didn't break out until President Karzai condemned the Florida pastor's actions on television.
Zeynep tells us that there's reason to think that the rapid spread of information via social media could be changing political outcomes in the Middle East. In Tunisia in 2008, corruption around an exam designed to hire mining engineers led to a massive trade union protest. The Ben Ali government engaged in one of their favorite tactics: "Whack-A-Protest". They surrounded the town, kicked out the journalists and arrested the trade unionists. Some women and children remained protesting, but it's very hard to sustain a protest without attention, support or a sense that your actions could lead to change. The protest fizzled out, just as the Ben Ali regime had planned.
At that time, Zeynep reminds us, fewer that 28,000 Tunisians were on Facebook. Two years later, the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi triggered protests in Sidi Bouzid and a near-identical response from the Ben Ali government. But Tunisia had 2 million Facebook users by January of 2011, and cellphone video cameras were pervasive. While no journalists were allowed into Sidi Bouzid, citizen media was able to document the protests, and disseminate their reporting to activist networks that had been working to challenge the regime. Those networks were able to disseminate the information before Whack-A-Protest was successful. States are resource-constrained actors, Zeynep continues. When protests spread rapidly through social media, they may not be able to react in time.
The effectiveness of a government crackdown has a great deal to do with whether a regime can rely on any support from citizens, or whether they are universally despised. By the end of his reign, Mubaak was so unpopular, he couldn't even pay people to say positive things about him. It's different in Bahrain or Syria, she posits, where regimes have more indigenous support. In a situation where there is unity against a dictator, social media may sweep away a dictator. In a polarized society, social media might lead to increased tensions. Social media doesn't lead inexorably to democracy – it does lead to participation, which can be divisive in an already divided society.
Brendan acknowledges that a particular media narrative has emerged around Evgeny's book: "It was cyberutopians versus Evgeny. Several revolutions later, Evgeny is wrong." It's rare that academics get a test case like the Arab Spring – what have we learned and what's been a surprise since January 1?
Brendan pushes further, asking whether Evgeny was surprised that Tunisia, which has displayed high levels of technical sophistication in censoring the internet, was unwilling or unable to control the internet in the face of protests. Evgeny argues that technological sophistication doesn't determine political outcomes. He explains that he was surprised that Egypt's government didn't attack the Khaled Said Facebook group, noting that Chinese or Russian authorities might have. But his general argument is that technology is a less effective sphere of analysis than analyzing politics and economics.
Zeynep notes that she had just offered an example where similar protests in Tunisia were crushed in 2008 and succeeded in 2010. That example doesn't deny that the revolution was a people's movement, but it does suggest that technology was a factor. Evgeny retorts that it's unreasonable to pick an anecdote and make the broader argument that technology was a key factor. Zeynep clarifies: she's not arguing that technology is sufficient to lead to change, but it is a significant factor. In Egypt, activists have been developing online skills since 2005. Tunisian activists have developed great unity around the topic of anti-censorship. In both cases, we've seen the development of a digital public sphere that's had an influence in recent events.
She explains that her surprise in 2011 is that people continue to refer to Iran's Green Revolution as a failure. For people in the middle east, she argues, the Green Revolution was an "aha" moment. People could portray their dissent to the rest of the world. The movement was crushed, but it continues to be an inspiration.
Brendan suggests that the debate has shifted from whether the internet can have an effect on democracy to whether we can generalize those effects or whether we have to consider each country as a separate case. Are there generalizations that are safe to make?
Evgeny suggests that Zeynep's view is internet-centric. He agrees that the era of the dictator is over, but suggests that this isn't due to technology, but due to discourses of human rights, the rise of globalization and other factors. He suggests her example of the printing press – talking about the printing press and not about Martin Luther – was technocentric.
At this point, I had to duck out and join a conference call – I'm sorry to have missed questions from the audience.
I was grateful for the chance to hear these two thinkers engage in a debate, though I feel like the points of disagreement in this discussion were harder to identify than in Zeynep's review of Evgeny's book. I think Evgeny's presentation of his arguments has become softer and more careful in the wake of recent events than it was in his book. While I don't think the Arab Spring invalidates all of Evgeny's points – I agree strongly with his critique of technocentrism – I think it's harder to make the case that technology is likely to favor dictators over activists. Evgeny has wisely shifted and now argues that technology doesn't necessarily favor dictators or democrats and that we need to consider both options. That's a wiser stance, in my opinion, but perhaps one less likely to draw the widespread attention some of his more confident assertions have garnered.
I thought Zeynep's analysis regarding participation was extremely helpful. In a case like Egypt, where there was little support (at least in online circles) for Mubarak, a participatory space quickly became an activist space. In Bahrain, where there's support and opposition to the government online, participation may be increasing polarization and conflict. I'll be fascinated to see whether her argument that "speed is different" holds up – will governments be able to catch up and play Whack-a-Mole against new, network enabled protests? The Arab Spring may give us one set of test cases, and recent Chinese crackdowns on online dissent, another set.
One way or another, it was great to see three smart folks onstage trying to work through these issues. Thanks to NAFAC for making it happen.
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Thanks for this write-up, Ethan – great as always. I am not sure I have actually ever made the deterministic argument that "technology favors dictators over activists"; what I've argued is that there is nothing about technology that IS bound to favor activists or democratic outcomes (i.e. that it's indeterminate doesn't mean that it favors the other side). There is a sea of difference between these two positions and I can't find anything in my writings that made you think that I somehow endorse the "technology makes dictators win" view. If you take the lesson of the Arab Spring to be that "technology favors activists", then I am afraid you are falling into the same technocentric trap that I've been so concerned about.
Evgeny Morozov's highly subjective particularist experience with apparently one bad USAID training caper in Belarus, and whatever peculiar experience he had being impatient for change with Transitions Online, cannot be allowed to go on infecting the entire global mindshare on this topic, it's just absurd.
I probably know more than he does about the outrages of US assistance to Belarus especially in the 1990s and early 2000s. I probably know more than he does about the ineffectiveness of NGOs. But it's ok to go on working in them and promoting their causes without such malicious glee about the temporary victories of the Kremlin or Lukashenka.
There were many stupidities and many bad actors — and we probably don't agree about which was which. But it doesn't matter. The main thing is that despite that, many people were helped and have fought valiantly. The assistance kept some people kept alive, some groups helped, an opposition was sustained, the news was got out, and that's fine. There was few others to do it besides the US — maybe a Swedish or German or Czech institute or political party or two, but nothing on the level of the US.
Morozov's claim that instead of obsessing about the Internet, would-be assisters should focus on building parties and other organizing activities is absurd — there's been tons of that already, and of course, no organizing activity could be done without the Internet so it's absurd. In his book, Morozov dumps on groups who put up stickers and graffiti as if they are superficial. Yet that works to raise consciousness and solidarity, and it worked in Poland and Serbia — along with a lot of other things that aren't persent in Belarus because of its history of savage oppression — but it simply may take longer, that's all. It's not reason to trash this sort of organizing.
The Internet is *not* more useful to dictators. If it was, then they wouldn't have to attack Live Journal in Russia, they could just let it wither away and infiltrate and subvert it all. But it's a fight, and a struggle, and not one they necessarily win. Morozov's quietism and defeatism on this is always suspect because at the end of the day he's doing the dictators' work for them when he constantly makes their cynical arguments and basically calls on all of us to do nothing — while those lovely autocrats come to power untrammelled.
On the other side of the argument, the fact is, those Middle Eastern governments didn't change yet. Have you looked at the dismal situation in Egypt, really? The army is still in charge and that's not a good thing for a country. People have trouble making parties and the Muslim Brotherhood will get their way merely by being organized and aggressive, and that's a threat to women's rights and human rights. Liberals here constantly hectoring us not to worry about the Muslim Brotherhood aren't listening to people in Egypt that are — and of course that might not be Jillian's and your friends but then, they're not the only global voices on the globe.
The online opposition in Belarus got started without Morozov; it continued without him; and even if shut down it will go on despite his predictions. In fact, it persists no thanks to Global Voices, which carried no blogs after December 19 and left up a hateful comment slamming the main independent website as "KGB". Disgraceful.
No one knows who Morozov is in Belarus. It's an utter falsehood to claim that there are some sort of "different" or "better" "offline organizations" that are "working for change" in Belarus that aren't already doing this online. The Internet in Belarus has been a significant factor for organizing social movements and this is readily seen by looking at the traffic to the sites. Morozov must not be familiar with this information.
And really, when you think of it…Where the hell has Zhenya been?! As he himself tweeted December 19, he was many kilometers from the action. He was busy snarking that "electby" was only a trending hashtag in Washington (a "fact" I continue to dispute, and even if true, irrelevant to the realities of real people doing real organizing that he can't admit exist).
40,000 people *did* go out on the streets — he was not among them. 600 of them arrested and now some 50 are going to face serious trials — where is he? I don't require that people in exile go home and get jailed to be moral. What I do require is that they not piss on those who *do* go to jail and spout patent nonsense about "offline organizations" that are "working for change".
Zeynep is simply too much default anti-American up and down to realize the many things the US government did and does in Egypt, and not all of it public. One helpful thing the US has done all this time is stay in touch with the army, which, like it or not, is in power and participated in getting rid of Mubarak. The other helpful thing was supply a subsidy of a good percentage of the Egyptian food supply.
I'm glad Zeynep seems to be challenging that reductive Shirkyism (repeated by Morozov) to the effect that the printing press "killed" the Catholic Church. In fact, the printing press was used by the Catholic Church as much as anybody. It used it to print its books and those indulgences that were so hated, remember? And she seems to admit that. Without hearing more of the precise text of this talk, it's hard to know what her ultimate point was. But whatever demonopolizing that went on, went on for other reasons as well, not merely due to the artifact of the printing press, and it didn't happen in any rapid fashion, in the way that the Shirkys of the world insist that technology happen now.
The most useful thing to come out of Zeynep's talk are these hard numbers (and it's not clear how they are obtained) — 28,000 Tunisians, and then 2 million Tunisians on Facebook — plus cell phone cameras, which are, of course, the real star of the show and usually overlooked by analysts still focused on the typed word on Twitter and even Facebook.
"Governments" aren't getting better at creating "semi-governed public spheres" — corporations are. And those governments that are doing this are…Russia and some others, and not everybody. And even in Russia, it's a struggle. Is Navalny a project of the FSB, asks Kashin, fancifully? Did he not begin one, but will end as one, I ask? These are open questions, openly debated on an Internet that isn't shut down yet.
Nobody is "fetishizing" cyberactivism. They are appreciating it and supporting it. It's Morozov who is deliberately diminishing and denegrating it — for reasons that still remain opaque.


Your golf clubs need a reliable mode of transportation. Not every golfer has the same needs when it comes to this essential piece of equipment. Some golfers prefer to walk, some to ride, and some use a push cart. It's important, therefore, for a company to offer a bag covering all of these needs. The TaylorMade FlexTech golf bag series offers that and then some. A closer look at each model reveals which bag is best for each type of golfer.
Each new FlexTech golf bag features a hinge in the solid bottom. This feature allows the bottom to flex when the bag is tilted, opening or closing the stand. The new stand system keeps your clubs from crowding each other, making it easier to pull the club out. This design also makes transitioning from walking to using a pull cart or riding virtually seamless.
The FlexTech Lite stand bag is designed for the golfer preferring to walk. Weighing 4.3 pounds with an 8.5-inch top, this bag has amenities geared toward the walker without any unwanted extras. A 4-way top allows clubs to be reasonably organized without the extra added weight of a 14-way system. Full-length dividers keep clubs from crowding together too. The FlexTech Lite has 8 pockets, including a water-resistant, micro-suede lined valuables pocket. An easily accessible, insulated water bottle pocket makes quenching your thirst a snap. Finally, added comfort and stability while carrying are provided thanks to the multi-material, dual density comfort strap.
The FlexTech Carry bag offers a few more options for the player who walks or uses a cart. The bag has a 9.5-inch top and is a slightly heavier 4.9 lbs, adding the convenience of a large internal insulated cooler pocket to hold extra beverages. The FlexTech Carry bag has a total of 11 pockets and a 5 way top for a little extra club organization. Full-length dividers and a water-resistant valuables pocket are also found on the FlexTech Carry bag. The FlexhTech Carry bag is the most versatile of the 3 FlexTech golf bag models. It performs well being carried or attached to a cart.
Do you prefer to ride or use a push cart when you play? Then the FlexTech Crossover bag is for you. The FlexTech Crossover does have stands for use during range sessions or when unloading the clubs from the car. With a 10" top and 14-way dividers, this bag is the heaviest FlexTech golf bag at 5.5lbs. More features of the Crossover include 10 pockets and quick release, dual density strap. A large, insulated cooler pocket and easily accessible water bottle pocket are also featured.
All three models are available now in a variety of colors. Check them out and get the best one for you.


Thanks to the clean profile, vitaMK7® shows excellent stability data – 4 years at room temperature - and remarkable assay recovery to short time light exposure (48h) of approximately 93%, the real stability issue.
Generally, impurities are characteristics of both synthetic-derived MK7 and poor production method of fermentation-derived MK7. The use of solvents in the production process can also degrade the product and produce further impurities.
As such, with a high level of impurities, K2-plus-mineral products are likely to miss K2 label claim.


This week we have been preparing the Christmas program. We are planning to combine a park visit and the Christmas program together. We will be organizing a separate fundraiser for the event.
For the first center we've had one new student and two students were absent for couple of days because they had a broken tyre in their donkey cart.
Here's a small story of the daily life at the schools. One of our families has three siblings, twin brothers and a sister. The brothers were complaining that we give more attention to their sister and she's learning better, but we told the brothers that since we are living in a male dominant society, we need to give special attention to the girls and that they also need to support their sister. The brothers took the message well.
We were asking people for donations for the computers for the third center and finally today we will be able to purchase the first computer. Thank you so much for all you wonderful people who were able to help us. The children have been waiting for a long long time, and finally they will get at least one computer. We are still waiting for the response from the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project, but we are hoping to get the computers from them soon.
We will be soon releasing the videos about our new voluntary teacher, who is working in a textile factory and wants to teach our students some practical skill and also we have another video coming about the Christmas preparations. Both will be with subtitles.


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Quantum Mechanics and Ontological Certainty
July 16, 2013 July 19, 2013 / Amyclae
The other day I was having an altogether uncivil conversation with a self-declared defender of science, America and reason itself. The poster was judge, jury and executioner. I was accused of being a 'TrueChristian,' written with ominous significance, and probably–worse–a Roman Catholic. They would deign to chat with me but there should be no confusion that I, in spite of my ostensible protestations to the contrary, or perhaps because of them, had no idea what science really was.
Inevitably the conversation turned towards some more philosophical considerations. One that came up was whether 'something can come from nothing.' I readily admit my favoritism for classical logic. Unsurprisingly Quantum Mechanics was conscripted into another cause. One day it'll be allowed to trundle its way from super hadron collider to super hadron collider. That's not today.
Luckily the conversation veered away from Solid State Theory. I have seen atheists declare, serenely and apparently unaware, that it has been completely dormant in recent years.
Everyone agrees on some underlying facts, or is at least familiar with them. QM is a deterministic theory and Schrödinger's equation gives a unitary evolution. Given a boundary condition and Schrödinger's equation, everything is set. The kicker is that the non-determinism lies in the measurement problem, since the collapse of the wave function is not a unitary process and is subject to randomness.
Yet we keep it around because it correctly predicts experiments. At least, we think it is able to predict experiments. There is not one scientist who is unaware of the limitations to what we are able to measure. Since it involves concepts that we're not able to measure directly (such as the 'wave function') and doesn't predict everything we might want it to (such as the outcome of a single measurement) it does seem to violate quite a few assumptions we have about the world.
The argument presented was based off a misconception but a popular one. The misconception, simply put, is that because scientists are not able to appropriately identify the creation and disappearance of particles then the particles themselves must appear and disappear. Thus 'something comes from nothing.' The universe, presumably, can then pop into existence or something marginally more banal.
The problem is that the statement commits a subtle but significant categorical error. Quantum mechanics concerns itself with probabilities (e.g. a particle has a 20% chance of appearing here, disappearing there; 'teleporting' from here to there). It is not expressed by statements, but is essentially a set of instructions that we accept when we accept the theory. Quantum mechanics does not tell scientists anything about probabilities. At best, it instructs them to assign probabilities in a certain way. Since instructions are neither true nor false, this part of quantum mechanics cannot be interpreted as ontological. It is not a description of the world as it is but of a world as we perceive it.
This may sound like splitting hairs, but it's quite significant to the field. It explains, in part, the defining contradiction between General Relativity and QM. Ultimately, the 'probabilities' associated with quantum mechanics are a problem because, as it has often been posed, how can one consider the logic of quantum mechanics when the mathematics used in quantum mechanics depends in such a thorough fashion on classical logic (e.g. 'nothing comes from nothing')?
Scientists in the field affirm the functional logic of events' probability must be defined, so every event of algebra must be assigned a probability but the algebra of events in quantum mechanics cannot be closed under the conjunction of events and satisfy 'every measure is defined' (a requirement of Boolean algebra). Yes, we are returning to the ole' can't know where it is and where it is going at the same time. Hence the algebra of events in quantum mechanics is not defined by a Boolean algebra, because every Boolean algebra is closed under conjunction.
Boolean algebra, for this who may need a refresher, is simply the 'type' of algebra that involves 'true' or 'false' statements. We're most familiar with it in binary coding: "10001101" is an expression of Boolean algebra.
The issue is, however, is that journalists and scientists–or, at least, a few of the former–sometimes produce soundbites that are misinterpreted. Yes, scientists do not use 'classical' logic in working with quantum mechanics (though, confusingly enough, classical logic is used as the foundation for quantum mechanics) **operationally**. But that is something altogether different from ontological certainty.
Yes, very few people who are in the field make the claim **ontologically**. Even though it is impossible to define (operationally) certain features of quantum mechanics with complete certainty it is still a far cry from 'knowing' certain features (ontologically). Thus, while scientists of that field will use as an operational precept 'something comes from nothing' they are not making an ontological claim because they do not have that sort of evidence. Most are not even considering it.
Turn back to the old cat metaphor, the one with a poor felix and poison. The point of the metaphor is not concerning itself with whether the cat is alive or dead. Saying 'the cat is dead' or 'the cat is alive' would be an ontological claim. Yet, if you notice, that is never defined because quantum mechanics is not (chiefly!) concerned with such statements. As the metaphor plays out the focus shifts to 'us' and how we, operationally, compensate for the lack of our ontological knowledge. To try and twist the metaphor into an expression of ontological certainty would explode it. Equally, to try and assert ontological principles (e.g. 'nothing comes from nothing') from QM would do a grave disservice to the field not to mention my patience.
apologetics, ontology, quantum mechanics, quick read, Schrodinger's cat, Science
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4 thoughts on "Quantum Mechanics and Ontological Certainty"
empathologism
Fun post. I like this kind of thing, but somewhere between trying to find it and going there I suffer some probability of doing neither.
writtenbyafloridian
In my mind, the persistent difficulty in understanding quantum mechanics has been understanding what it means for the world to have the structure that the mathematics seems to attribute to it.
As for Schrod's thought experiment, I quite agree. It was really just about refuting the Copenhagen interpretation, although, in Bohr's mind, Schrod's cat was a trivial objection because the cat would be either alive or dead long before the steel box was opened.
Amyclae
The contradiction you point out, in my mind at least, will be the defining facet of 21st Century 'science' and especially scientism. The hardest of the hard sciences are, suddenly, inhabiting a startling contradiction. I read E. P. Snow's criticism of the 'literary intellectuals' in his lecture about the "Two Cultures" and it's startling how much of it simply does not matter anymore. No one can say that physics is still in the business of providing absolute answers. We thought that post-modernist writers argued about the most obvious things? Get some QM experts to explain about the properties of a quark.
People still view the world as Newton's machine–it's not. People, not physicists, but many scientists, still view the world as this vast machine in which individual elements are externally related to each other in such a way that the functioning of any system or composite unit can be exhaustively described in terms of the aggregate effects of its component parts. To put it another way: Space and time are independent, objective absolutes in which particles endure and move. And this only seems to deal with commonsense notions of tiny particles moving in three-dimensional, Euclidean space. What has replaced the Newtonian scheme is difficult to describe in a few words, but I can assure you that little or nothing of the materialistic, deterministic, and mechanistic view of the world associated with Newtonian physics remains unchanged.
In my mind, I don't think the new view is materialistic since matter is conceived not as inert particles in motion but as patterns of pulsating energy. The mechanism has been modified in that it has become evident that external relations alone are not sufficient; internal relations are also necessary. In other words, wholes as well as parts must be taken into account. The old-school determinism, that is so prevalent amongst today's atheists, has been challenged, not in the sense that causality has been ruled out, but in the sense that there is an openness in events that allows for alternative outcomes of given states within certain parameters determined for preceding states.
The problem for the classical view was that it viewed certain abstractions derived from an examination of the world at its middle ranges as the concrete actuality. Relativity and quantum mechanics has suggested that the evidence derived from these macrocosmic and microcosmic dimensions of nature makes a new scheme necessary. Something that allows for creative advance I would think.


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Q: Find Maven repository where a dependency is stored I'm working on a project with several corporate remote Maven repositories, each hosting many dozens of dependencies.  The entire project uses hundreds of dependencies and I need a way to quickly determine which remote repository a dependency is stored on.
Does Maven provide an easy way to do this or do I need to search through each repository's dependency listing myself?

A: The project dependencies report has the information you want.  You can quickly generate just this report using
mvn project-info-reports:dependencies

and open the target/site/dependencies.html file.  Look at the last section in this report (dependency repository locations) for the info you want.
A sample of this report is here.


Print Media Ke Liye Mashwara is an Urdu column title. Print Media Ke Liye Mashwara Urdu column is written by Urdu columnist Lt Col Retd Ghulam Jilani Khan. Print Media Ke Liye Mashwara Urdu column was published on 11 February 2019.


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