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As Elsa heralds a busy hurricane season, Caribbean states count on resilience plans
After the devastating impacts of Hurricane Maria in 2017, Caribbean islands invested in measures to help communities bounce back from extreme weather
Roseau, the capital of the Caribbean island of Dominica, seen from the window of a government building the day after Hurricane Maria struck in 2017 (Photo: CREDIT/Flickr/Russell Watkins/DFID)
By Isabelle Gerretsen
As tropical storm Elsa races towards the Caribbean, island states are bracing for dangerous winds and heavy rainfall.
The National Hurricane Centre has said Elsa could develop into a category two hurricane over the next few days. It has broken the record for the earliest fifth-named storm of the year, likely heralding a busy Atlantic storm season.
After the devastating impacts of hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Maria in 2017, Caribbean countries have invested heavily in resilience to weather extremes.
When Matthew hit Jamaica, it caused severe flooding, destroyed roads and cut off entire communities, said Lehome Johnson, who leads the country's climate data and information project, which was launched in 2015 to improve forecasts for extreme events such as hurricanes.
Five years on, despite enormous pressures created by the pandemic, he said the country is better prepared for such major storms.
"The country is in a better place to be able to act more quickly," Johnson told Climate Home News. This is partly because of more reliable weather forecasts and early warning systems, but also the government prioritising insurance schemes to cover extreme weather damage.
"We are waking up to the fact that we are in this hurricane belt and becoming more aware of what we have to do," said Johnson.
With #Elsa on the board, the 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season is now ahead of not just 2020's record named storm formation pace — but also well ahead of the 1991-2020 climatology. pic.twitter.com/YRrl9ZlanK
— Steve Bowen (@SteveBowenWx) July 1, 2021
This month the Jamaican government is expected to launch a catastrophe (CAT) bond to increase its financial resilience to climate shocks.
Catastrophe bonds are financial instruments used by the insurance industry to transfer extreme risks from disasters to capital investors.
Facilitated by the World Bank and funded by the UK, Germany and US, the CAT bond will help cover economic losses in the case of a major catastrophic event, such as a hurricane. According to financial news outlet Artemis, the launch of the CAT bond is "imminent."
In recent years "Jamaica has put a lot of thought into developing a disaster risk financing strategy and financial mechanisms that will help protect the country in the case of an extreme event," Anaitee Mills, a climate consultant with the Jamaican government, told Climate Home News.
A member of a USAID-DART team surveys damage from Hurricane Matthew in Bag Bay in eastern Jamaica (Photo: Flickr/USAID-DART)
Financial support to help island states recover from climate-linked disasters is urgently needed, Mills said.
"Many Caribbean countries find themselves in a vicious cycle of climate impacts and debt," she said. After disasters, many countries take out loans, plunging them into more debt. "Then when another event happens, they cannot access the resources they need to recover."
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated this situation, causing tourism revenues to plummet and debt to skyrocket in the Caribbean.
Small Caribbean states are excluded from a debt repayment holiday, which G20 nations have agreed to extend until December 2021, because they are designated middle-income countries. They have called for more support, arguing that the twin crises of coronavirus and climate change have left them "squeezed on all sides."
Kristalina Georgieva, head of the International Monetary Foundation, has said debt relief should be extended to countries that are highly vulnerable to climate shocks.
Without it, most Caribbean governments are not in a position to prioritise long-term investments in resilience. "They are very reactive to what happens – that is all they are able to do," said Mills.
But that is starting to change. Since category 5 hurricane Maria pummeled the Caribbean in 2017, many island states have got serious about resilience planning.
"2017 marked a big turning point and was really important in terms of changing mindsets," said Emily Wilkinson, a senior researcher at the UK Overseas Development Institute who specialises in global risks and resilience.
Before hurricane Maria hit, most Caribbean countries were primarily focused on emergency responsiveness, ensuring that evacuation routes and shelters were set up, Wilkinson told Climate Home News.
"The focus has shifted towards looking at the long term and securing the viability of these islands," she said. "Finance ministers now see the issue of resilience and reducing disaster risk as critical to their economic strategies."
One of the Caribbean nations worst hit by hurricane Maria was Dominica. The small island state, which has just 70,000 residents, lost the equivalent of 226% of its GDP following Maria. Over 90% of homes were destroyed or damaged.
China's biggest bank is ditching Zimbabwe coal plant, campaigners say
Dominica's government was determined to prevent future devastation of a similar scale. In 2018, it passed the Climate Resilience Act and set the goal of becoming the world's first climate resilient nation, which is able to withstand hurricanes and other weather-related disasters, by 2030. To implement this, the government launched the Climate Resilience Execution Agency (CREAD).
90% of homes on Dominica were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Maria (Photo: Flickr/USAID-DART)
"Climate resilience is critical for the survival of Dominica," Francine Baron, CEO of CREAD and the country's former minister for foreign affairs, told Climate Home News.
Since 2015, Dominica has been building hurricane resilient homes which have concrete roofs, shatterproof windows and underground foundations. These homes did not suffer severe damage during hurricane Maria in 2017, said Baron.
The aim is to ensure communities can be self-sufficient for 14 days after a hurricane by supplying them with enough food, water and access to electricity.
Much of Dominica's population lives in physically vulnerable locations, such as near an eroding coastline or volcano. CREAD is looking at building new homes in less vulnerable areas.
Hurricane-proof homes in Dominica (Photo: CREAD)
To achieve the 2030 goal, Dominica must ensure resilience lies at the heart of every sector and diversify its economy so that it "bounces forward after a catastrophic event," said Baron.
"Resilience is not just about buildings and infrastructure," said Wilkinson, who serves as an advisor to CREAD. "It's about the long-term, socioeconomic development of the country and ensuring that a hurricane cannot wipe out everything."
India's biggest oil refiner to invest $10bn in clean energy 'gigafactories'
Dominica is piloting a blockchain insurance scheme that will pay out premiums to people when a storm hits. The country is also investing in high value agricultural exports, such as essential oils, to generate extra revenue, said Wilkinson.
Investing in nature is also an important part of CREAD's strategy. By 2030, Dominica aims to increase its forest cover to 67% and increase its healthy coral reef coverage by 50% to protect its coastline and boost fish stocks.
Dominica needs an estimated 8.2-9.8 billion eastern Caribbean dollars (ECD) ($3-3.6 billion) to become climate resilient by 2030. Since Hurricane Maria, the government has spent 2 billion ECD ($740 million) on critical infrastructure and other resilience measures.
There is an estimated finance gap of around 2.5-3.5 billion ECD ($925million-$1.3 billion).
Becoming climate resilient is a very expensive undertaking," said Baron. "We rely on support from the international community." Dominica has received some funding from the Canadian government and the UK department for international development. But it relies on much more international support to achieve its 2030 goal.
The pandemic has impacted CREAD's operations, with travel restrictions temporarily halting construction projects. "We have not been able to move as fast as we would have liked," said Baron. But work continues and, despite pandemic challenges, Dominica has no plans to backtrack on its resilience plans. "It is not an option for us to become resilient, it is a must," said Baron.
Read more on: Central America | Climate finance | Caribbean | Hurricane Central America


Decorative word "STOP SAYING I WISH START SAYING I WILL" to hang or stick on the wall. Now is the time to start to make dreams come true. Inscriptions on walls is a way to express yours emotions, to adding character and modernity of interiors.


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Czech - Medaile - Stříbrné medaile
Ag 999 / 1000
Jan Petr, DiS.
Judoka Lukáš Krpálek, the sole athlete to bring back a gold medal from Rio de Janeiro, is also our only Olympian in 2016, to which the Czech Mint pays a tribute with the silver commemorative Smart coin. Lukáš Krpálek has been the most visible participant in the Brazilian Olympics since the very beginning. It was because of his imposing figure with a height of 198 cm as well as the fact, that the Czech athletes have chosen him as the flag bearer at the expedition. Many colleagues and experts, moreover, have predicted him to gain the Olympic medal. His coach Petr Lacina once called Lukáš the "intelligent monster" - the judoka benefited primarily from his physical condition and natural abilities in his professional beginnings, but he also works hard on his technique and mental strength, and his tactics has matured as well. Thanks to the combination of all these factors he proved himself a rival in Rio, imposing his own pace and dominating the Olympics to achieve a dream gold medal. On the reverse side of the silver coin has an academic sculptor Jiří Dostál portrayed Lukáš Krpálek from the profile with his hands clenched at the level of his chin. Wondering what judo posture it is? "It's not so much of a fighting stance, but rather a gesture of joy" says with a smile Lukáš Krpálek, who personally met with the medalist, in order to make his small sculpture as faithful as possible. The portrait complements the Czech flag and the description RIO DE JANEIRO 2016 along with a number of dynamic inscriptions, which follow the athlete's kimono: LUKÁŠ KRPÁLEK – JUDO – ZLATÁ MEDAILE. /GOLD MEDAL/ The obverse side of this mintage belongs to the issuer, which gives a license to issue Smart coins dedicated to a living celebrities for the Czech Mint. The exotic emblem of the archipelago FIJI is complemented by the nominal value ONE DOLLAR (FJD) and the year of issue of the coin 2016. Expand your collection of Smart coins with motives of our golden Olympians from London 2012 and Sochi 2014, or create a completely new one!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Smith Family Tree
The History and Family Tree of
Dianne Gebhardt and Larry Smith
Larry's Side
Dianne's Side
Andrew Jackson Nipps
1847 - 1917 (~ 69 years)
Personal Information | Media | Sources | Event Map | All | PDF
Name Andrew Jackson Nipps [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
Born Jul 1847 Arkansas, USA [1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
Died 27 Mar 1917 Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas, USA [3, 4, 6]
National Military Home
Buried Leavenworth National Cemetery, Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas, USA [3, 4, 6]
Person ID I24337 Smith
Father Thomas Boatright, b. Abt 1828, Tennessee, USA , d. 3 Dec 1887, Iron County, Missouri, USA (Age ~ 59 years)
Mother Lucinda Coker, b. Abt 1826, Arkansas, USA , d. Abt 1863, Missouri, USA (Age ~ 37 years)
Married 1851 Arkansas, USA
Father Henry Nipps, Sr, b. Abt 1821, Tennessee, USA , d. Bef 1850 (Age ~ 28 years)
Family 1 Mary 'Mollie' Highfield, b. Feb 1847, Tennessee, USA , d. Aft 1920 (Age ~ 74 years)
Married Nov 1890 Oregon County, Missouri, USA
Family 2 Sarah Brock, b. Abt 1848, Indiana, USA , d. Aft 1880 (Age ~ 33 years)
Born - Jul 1847 - Arkansas, USA
Married - Nov 1890 - Oregon County, Missouri, USA
Died - 27 Mar 1917 - Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas, USA
Buried - - Leavenworth National Cemetery, Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas, USA
Military-NIPPS Jackson
Cemetery-Leavenworth National
Also known as Old Soldiers Cemetery
Leavenworth, Leavenworth KS
[S2874] 1850 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2009;), Year: 1850; Census Place: Marion, Arkansas; Roll: M432_28; Page: 319B; Image: 27.
[S2882] 1860 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2009;), Year: 1860; Census Place: Sugarloaf, Marion, Arkansas; Roll: M653_46; Page: 670; Family History Library Film: 803046.
[S2609] U.S. Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2006, National Cemetery Administration, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006;).
[S386] U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current, Ancestry.com, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2012;).
[S2875] U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, National Archives and Records Administration, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2000;), The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Record Group Title: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773 - 2007; Record Group Number: 15; Series Title: U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934; Se.
U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934
[S2887] U.S., Burial Registers, Military Posts and National Cemeteries, 1862-1960, Ancestry.com, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2012;).
U.S., Burial Registers, Military Posts and National Cemeteries, 1862-1960
[S2804] U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, Ancestry.com, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2015;).
[S2888] Early Members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Ancestry.com, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2013;).
[S2868] 1880 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Lehi, UT, USA; Date: 2010;), Year: 1880; Census Place: Warm Springs, Randolph, Arkansas; Roll: 55; Page: 28B; Enumeration District: 252.
[S2872] 1870 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2009;), Year: 1870; Census Place: Little Black, Randolph, Arkansas; Roll: M593_63; Page: 491A; Family History Library Film: 545562.
[S2890] U.S., Union Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865, Ancestry.com, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2011;), National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Record Group Title: Records of the AGO, 1780s-1917; Record Group #: 94; Series Number: M405; Roll #: 0543.
[S2870] 1900 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2004;), Year: 1900; Census Place: Black Rock, Lawrence, Arkansas; Page: 11; Enumeration District: 0065; FHL microfilm: 1240064.
Maintained by SmithLC.com.


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Beat the Heat: Mission H2O Returns in August!
During a summer season where you can't step outside without hearing a complaint about the sweltering & relentless heat, our 5th & Church location is partnering with Nashville Rescue Mission for the third consecutive "Mission H2O" campaign. Last year we were able to donate nearly 20,000 water bottles to the Mission, and our goal this year is to provide 25,000 bottles of water to the local homeless community during the month of August!
From August 1 to August 31, diners at our 5th & Church location will have the option to add a donation of a dollar or more to the total of their bill. For each dollar donated, two bottled waters will be given to the Mission. In an effort to make an even larger impact for the organization and surrounding community, our parent company, A. Marshall Family Foods Inc., will match the amount y'all donate.
Cheryl Noe, senior director of development for Nashville Rescue Mission, has been amazed by the continued growth and success of the Mission H2O drive.
"The nearly 20,000 water bottles donated as a result of last year's Mission H2O were absolutely crucial to the Mission during both the summer and fall months," Noe said. "Once the heat slacks off, people stop thinking about the need for water. But the need is still there."
The Mission ramps up efforts to keep members of Nashville's homeless community hydrated during summer months by sending out "Hot Patrol" teams to traverse the city handing out water bottles when the temperature exceeds 92 degrees, in addition to encouraging those without shelter to come back to the Mission with them.
"Donating to Mission H2O is no trivial act, particularly because we see an increase in the number of women and children we serve during the summer months, " Noe said. "You are making a difference in the lives of countless individuals and families by contributing."
The water bottles, supplied by Kimbro Water Company, are delivered to the Mission on a weekly basis throughout August to help meet the demand the summer months create.
In order to magnify the impact of Mission H2O, Kimbro takes on a partial sponsorship by lowering the cost of the water bottles so that $1 covers the purchase of two bottles.
Mission H2O has become an annual endeavor that the entire Puckett's family looks forward to.
"We feel incredibly fortunate to be able to rally the Nashville community in support of a cause that has a direct and meaningful impact on the lives of individuals who need support the most," said Rachel Layton, director of marketing for A. Marshall Family Foods. "Nothing is more rewarding to us, and our team's enthusiasm is illustrated through the success of this campaign in the past two years."
We could not have made our past Mission H2O drives so successful without the help of our amazing guests and our giving, thoughtful community. What do y'all say? You wanna join us in making this year's Mission H2O the best one yet?!
To learn more about Nashville Rescue Mission and all the great things they do for Nashvillians, visit www.nashvillerescuemission.org.


There are many arguments concerning why the UK should remain a member of the European Union that I have been waiting for David Cameron to use for months now. But he finally used one in particular yesterday for the first time. It's a simple one: if we voted to leave in the referendum, it wouldn't be us out of the whole thing and clear the next day. What would begin instead at that point is a two-year period of renegotiation with the EU on what Brexit actually would mean in practice.
It spells out just how much voting to leave is neither simple nor straightforward. Imagine two years of parliamentary backlog while the House of Commons is completely taken up with working out which bits of law inherited from the EU stays and which bits go; having to talk through what the new deals would look like; having to figure out a way past the whole, "single market = freedom of movement" conundrum some way or another.
When I myself have used the two year argument in business circles, it has proven remarkably effective. Are you dreading the prospect of the next four months being taken up with nothing but the European Union? Well if we vote to leave, the next two years and four months will be like that – at the very least.
There are lots of reasons why Britain staying in the EU is a good idea. But using one that is easy to understand and works extremely well on the English mentality in particular ("Two further years of bother? Sod that.") is a very good ploy. I'm glad someone advised the prime minister to start using it. While I'm here, he also needs to start pointing out that the Norway option includes freedom of movement in it given the Brexiteers always leave that very crucial detail out, but hey, he's only just started so hopefully he'll pick up that one as well.
That adage can be equally well used by Leave in reference to a time when we had Parliamentary sovereignty and it mattered a damn who we elected to Westminster.
And after all that I bet we'd opt back into much anyway! However very useful that this argument has traction in business circles. Will definitely use!
But… 'we've been heading in the wrong direction for so long that it would be really tedious to turn around, so let's keep going even farther in the wrong direction' is not a very good argument?
The argument won't convince anyone who hates the EU with every fibre of their being. But I think he's aiming for soft and undecided voters.
That's not the argument, but let's assume you're right, that we're heading in the wrong direction inside the EU, then please offer a viable and trustworthy alternative direction, because leaving with incalculable costs, short, medium and long-term, is irresponsible at best. We're in the EU; let's get on with it. Leaving is no alternative.
The Parliamentary overhead for leaving is just one aspect. What about the leaving negotiations with the European Union? They will make it hard for UK to prevent others trying the same.
Two years? Totally worth it. If this is the best argument for Remain, that the process of Leave is 'boring', I suggest the campaign is pretty intellectually bankrupt.
It all boils down to the money wasted and channelled to the EU coffer, just way too big, that instead be substantial to be used in local projects.
However, it contradicts world globalisation as a mean to progress. Leave voters seem to admit to regression! Or simply again the superiority complex that is inherent in being British?Is it? Justify!


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IVSA Brazil, São Paulo
1 The IVSA São Paulo, Brazil
2 Our School
3 2020-2021 team
4 Contact us
The IVSA São Paulo, Brazil
In August, 2020, the students from the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University of São Paulo were approved as a new Member Organization (MO) within the International Veterinary Students' Association (IVSA), since then the MO has been recognized as IVSA São Paulo – Brazil.
In 6 months as an official MO, the IVSA USP – São Paulo has played an important role in the IVSA Global, and more specifically within The Americas Region. The Americas Regional Team is composed by 6 members, being 3 of them from our MO: Gabriel de Assis Duarte (The Americas Recruitment Officer), Yuri Victor Calvo (The Americas Project Manager) and William Nunes Vilany (The Americas Committee Liaison).
Some members of IVSA USP – São Paulo have also integrated the committees as officials: Jade Li (Public Relation Coordinator and Social Media Manager of the Standing Committee on Career Attributes) and Arthur Cobayashi Guerra (Social Media Manager of the Standing Committee on Animal Welfare). Currently our MO includes almost 70 students, and despite the pandemic and the other external factors, the IVSA São Paulo – Brazil has proved to be an exponent group and improved our international integration with students from all around the world.
Our MO has also been select to host the 71th IVSA Congress in 2022. We are looking foward to welcome everyone here!
The Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia da Universidade de São Paulo (FMVZ USP) is a public institution founded in 1919, and ever since then has been a protagonist in veterinary science, producing relevant scientific research and graduating excellent professionals. Thanks to its team of professors, students and employees, the FMVZ USP is recognized as the best veterinary school from Brazil and also from South America.
Graduate and improve professionals on the most diverse areas of Veterinary Science, with courses of graduation and post-graduation
Develop scientific and technological researches of national interest in the area of Veterinary Science
Support with scientific collaboration public institutions, private companies and national and international scientific centers.
Structure of the FMVZ USP:
Our school is based at the University City "Armando Salles de Oliveira", on São Paulo city, which has a built area of 65,559m², with excellent infrastructure. There are many activities the students and visitors can enjoy in the University, among them, The USP Sports Practice Center (CEPEUSP) that offers several sporting modalities for USP. Besides that, we also have activities at the campus "Fernando Costa", on Pirassununga, a farm with an area of 2,269 hectares, is the largest of USP in territorial extension, with an incredible infrastructure in the area of animal production in Brazil, where part of the practical classes of the course are held.
São Paulo:
São Paulo is the most multicultural city in Brazil and one of the most diverse in the world. Since 1870, approximately 2.3 million immigrants have arrived in the state from all over the world, in 2016, it had native residents from 196 different countries.
Like the cultural variety in São Paulo, there are several religious manifestations present in the city. Although it developed on an Catholic social matrix, it is possible to find dozens of different Protestant denominations in the city today, as well as the practice of Islam, spiritism, among others.
It has important monuments, parks and museums, such as the Latin America Memorial, the Portuguese Language Museum, the Ipiranga Museum, MASP, Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo Botanical Garden and Paulista Avenue, and events of great repercussion , such as the International Art Biennial, the Brazilian Grand Prix of Formula 1, São Paulo Fashion Week and the LGBT Pride Parade.
The diversity of peoples and cultures that built the city also makes the region's cuisine a great tourist attraction in itself. This statement can be confirmed through the wide gastronomic variety of the city, which covers more than 50 types of cuisine.
To sum up, occupies the 12th position in the world in the accomplishment of international events and offers great gastronomic diversity and nightlife, numerous possibilities of leisure, entertainment and cultural activities.
Departments: -Surgery (VCI)
-Medical Clinic (VCM)
-Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Animal Health (VPS)
-Pathology (VPT)
-Animal Reproduction (VRA)
Veterinary Teaching Hospital (HOVET)
Virginie Buff D'Ápice Library
Veterinary Anatomy Museum (MAV)
Pirassununga:
Pirassununga is a city in the interior of São Paulo, 207 km away from São Paulo and with a little more than 70 thousand inhabitants. It offers several restaurants specializing in freshwater fish, ecotourism, parks, waterfalls and excellent leisure structure. It is one of the best cities in Brazil in quality of life.
-Animal Production and Nutricion (VNP)
-Center of Biotechnology and Animal Reproduction (CBRA - VRA)
-Experimental Center on Toxicologic Researches (Ceptox - VPT)
-Support Center for Teaching and Research (Caep - VCI and VCM)
Get more informations about our school here.
2020-2021 team
- President: Gabriel de Assis Duarte
- Exchange officer: Yuri Victor Calvo and Beatriz Leme do Carmo
- Financier: Júlia da Mata Góes Silva and Júlia Silveira Queiroz
- Secretary: Conrado Henrique Hackmann and Giulia Martinez Cunha
- Events: Sara Altíssimo Pacito, Lívia de Arruda Garcia, Leticia Huggler Ribeiro, Paola Polesi Bonaldi and Larissa Fonseca Monteiro
- Marketing: Arthur Cobayashi Guerra, Amanda Fernandes Gimenez, Isabelle Gonçalves de Lima and Natalia Miranda Oliveira
E-mail: ivsa.brazilusp@gmail.com
Our Linktree
Retrieved from "http://wiki.ivsa.org/index.php?title=IVSA_Brazil,_São_Paulo&oldid=1671"


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The Philosophy of Games: C. Thi Nguyen on the Philosophy vs. Improv Podcast
in Games, Philosophy, Podcasts	| January 18th, 2022
https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/partiallyexaminedlife/PvI_024_12-6-21_Public.mp3
Thi Nguyen (pronounced "TEE NWEEN") teaches at the University of Utah, and his first book, 2020's Games: Agency as Art, makes a case for games being treated as a serious object of study for philosophy. Thi sees game analysis as not just a sub-division in the philosophy of art (aesthetics), but in the philosophy of action. How do games relate to other human activities with constraints, like customs, language, and more specifically performative acts within language (like saying "I do" during a marriage ceremony, where you're not just describing that you do something, but actually taking action)?
On this recording (episode 24 of the podcast), Thi joins philosophy podcaster Mark Linsenmayer of The Partially Examined Life and improvisational comedy coach Bill Arnett of the Chicago Improv Studio to talk about games and improv, and to engage in a couple of improv scenes that explore the connection between the two.
This is the third philosophy guest for the Philosophy vs. Improv podcast, which alternates between guests from the improv world, guests from the philosophy world, and no guest at all. The overall format involves a lesson from each host, which they teach to each other (and the guest) simultaneously. This often results in unexpected synchronicity given the connections between two disciplines that stress the analysis of language, living deliberately, and quick thinking.
For another philosophically rich episode, see episode #20 in which St. Lawrence University's Jennifer L. Hansen appeared to discuss the many aspects of the concept of "The Other" in philosophy.
Philosophy vs. Improv is a podcast hosted by Mark Linsenmayer, who also hosts The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast, Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast, and Nakedly Examined Music.
Board Game Ideology — Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast #108
in Games, Podcasts, Pretty Much Pop	| November 8th, 2021
https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/partiallyexaminedlife/PMP_108_10-7-21.mp3
As board games are becoming increasingly popular with adults, we ask: What's the relationship between a board game's mechanics and its narrative? Does the "message" of a board game matter?
Your host Mark Linsenmayer is joined by game designer Tommy Maranges, educator Michelle Parrinello-Cason, and ex-philosopher Al Baker to talk about re-skinning games, designing player experiences, play styles, game complexity, and more.
Some of the games we mention include Puerto Rico, Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, Sorry, Munchkin, Sushi Go, Welcome To…, Codenames, Pandemic, Occam Horror, Terra Mystica, chess, Ticket to Ride, Splendor, Photosynthesis, Spirit Island, Escape from the Dark Castle, and Wingspan.
Some articles that fed our discussion included:
"The Board Games That Ask You to Reenact Colonialism" by Luke Winkie
"Board Games Are Getting Really, Really Popular" by Darron Cummings
"8 Historical Board Games, from Diverse Designers, That Show Great Promise" by Charlie Hall
"How a Board Game About Birds Became a Surprise Blockbuster" by Dan Kois
"How Classic Board Games Are Bringing Families Closer During the Pandemic" by Drew Weisholtz
"Keep Your Game Night Rolling (At A Safe Distance) With These 3 Online Services" by Petra Mayer
The two games Tommy created that we bring up are Secret Hitler and Inhuman Conditions.
This episode includes bonus discussion you can access by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop or by choosing a paid subscription through Apple Podcasts. This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network.
757 Episodes of the Classic TV Game Show What's My Line?: Watch Eleanor Roosevelt, Louis Armstrong, Salvador Dali & More
in Games, Music, Politics, Science, Television	| July 30th, 2021
What would the host and panelists of the classic primetime television game show What's My Line? have made of The Masked Singer, a more recent offering in which panelists attempt to identify celebrity contestants who are concealed by elaborate head-to-toe costumes and electronically altered voiceovers.
One expects such shenanigans might have struck them as a bit uncouth.
Host John Charles Daly was willing to keep the ball up in the air by answering the panel's initial questions for a Mystery Guest with a widely recognizable voice, but it's hard to imagine anyone stuffing former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt into the full body steampunk bee suit the (SPOILER) Empress of Soul wore on The Masked Singer's first season.
Mrs. Roosevelt's Oct 18, 1953 appearance is a delight, especially her pantomimed disgust at the 17:29 mark, above, when blindfolded panelist Arlene Francis asks if she's associated with politics, and Daly jumps in to reply yes on her behalf.
Later on, you get a sense of what playing a jolly parlor game with Mrs. Roosevelt would have been like. She's not above fudging her answers a bit, and very nearly wriggles with anticipation as another panelist, journalist Dorothy Kilgallen, begins to home in on the truth.
While the roster of Mystery Guests over the show's original 17-year broadcast is impressive — Cab Calloway, Judy Garland, and Edward R. Murrow to name a few — every episode also boasted two or three civilians hoping to stump the sophisticated panel with their profession.
Mrs. Roosevelt was preceded by a bathtub salesman and a fellow involved in the manufacture of Bloodhound Chewing Tobacco, after which there was just enough time for a woman who wrote television commercials.
Non-celebrity guests stood to earn up to $50 (over $500 today) by prolonging the revelation of their professions, as compared to the Mystery Guests who received an appearance fee of ten times that, win or lose. (Presumably, Mrs. Roosevelt was one of those to donate her honorarium.)
The regular panelists were paid "scandalous amounts of money" as per publisher Bennett Cerf, whose "reputation as a nimble-witted gentleman-about-town was reinforced by his tenure on What's My Line?", according to Columbia University's Oral History Research Office.
The unscripted urbane banter kept viewers tuning in. Broadway actor Francis recalled: "I got so much pleasure out of 'What's My Line?' There were no rehearsals. You'd just sit there and be yourself and do the best you could."
Panelist Steve Allen is credited with spontaneously alighting on a breadbox as a unit of comparative measurement while questioning a manhole cover salesman in an episode that featured June Havoc, legend of stage and screen as the Mystery Guest (at at 23:57, below).
"Want to show us your breadbox, Steve?" one of the female panelists fires back off-camera.
The phrase "is it bigger than a breadbox" went on to become a running joke, further contributing to the illusion that viewers had been invited to a fashionable cocktail party where glamorous New York scenemakers dressed up to play 21 Professional Questions with ordinary mortals and a celebrity guest.
Jazz great Louis Armstrong appeared on the show twice, in 1954 and then again in 1964, when he employed a successful technique of light monosyllabic responses to trick the same panelists who had identified him quickly on his initial outing.
"Are you related to anybody that has anything to do with What's My Line?" Cerf asks, causing Armstrong, host Daly, and the studio audience to dissolve with laughter.
"What happened?" Arlene Francis cries from under her pearl-trimmed mask, not wanting to miss the joke.
Television — and America itself — was a long way off from acknowledging the existence of interracial families.
"It's not Van Clyburn, is it?" Francis ventures a couple of minutes later….
Expect the usual gender-based assumptions of the period, but also appearances by Mary G. Ross, a Cherokee aerospace engineer, and physicist Helen P. Mann, a data analyst at Cape Canaveral.
If you find the convivial atmosphere of this seminal Goodson-Todman game show absorbing, there are 757 episodes available for viewing on What's My Line?'s YouTube channel.
Allow us to kick things off on a Surreal Note with Mystery Guest Salvador Dali, after which you can browse chronological playlists as you see fit:
Salvador Dalí Gets Surreal with 1950s America: Watch His Appearances on What's My Line? (1952) and The Mike Wallace Interview (1958)
How American Bandstand Changed American Culture: Revisit Scenes from the Iconic Music Show
How Dick Cavett Brought Sophistication to Late Night Talk Shows: Watch 270 Classic Interviews Online
Ayun Halliday is an author, illustrator, theater maker and Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine. Follow her @AyunHalliday.
by Ayun Halliday | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 1 ) |
Sylvia Plath's Tarot Cards (Which Influenced the Poems in Ariel) Were Just Sold for $207,000
in Games, Life, Literature, Poetry	| July 23rd, 2021
We celebrated my birthday yesterday: [Ted] gave me a lovely Tarot pack of cards and a dear rhyme with it, so after the obligations of this term are over your daughter shall start her way on the road to becoming a seeress & will also learn how to do horoscopes, a very difficult art which means reviving my elementary math.
– Sylvia Plath, in a letter to her mother, 28 October 1956
Sylvia Plath's Tarot cards, a 24th birthday present from her husband, poet Ted Hughes, just went for £151,200 in an auction at Sotheby's.
That's approximately £100,000 more than this lot, a Tarot de Marseille deck printed by playing card manufacturer B.P. Grimaud de Paris, was expected to fetch.
The auction house's description indicates that a few of the cards were discolored — evidence of use, as supported by Plath's numerous references to Tarot in her journals.
Recall Tarot's appearance in "Daddy," her most widely known poem, and her identification with the Hanging Man card, in a poem of the same name:
By the roots of my hair some god got hold of me.
I sizzled in his blue volts like a desert prophet.
The nights snapped out of sight like a lizard's eyelid :
A world of bald white days in a shadeless socket.
A vulturous boredom pinned me in this tree.
If he were I, he would do what I did.
This century has seen her collection Ariel restored to its author's intended order.
The original order is said to correspond quite closely to Tarot, with the first twenty-two poems symbolizing the cards of the Major Arcana.
The next ten are aligned with the numbers of the Minor Arcana. Those are followed by four representing the Court cards. The collection's final four poems can be seen to reference the pentacles, cups, swords and wands that comprise the Tarot's suits.
Ariel's manuscript was rearranged by Hughes, who dropped some of the "more lacerating" poems and added others in advance of its 1965 publication, two years after Plath's death by suicide. (Hear Plath read poems from Ariel here.)
Daughter Frieda defends her father's actions and describes how damaging they were to his reputation in her Foreword to Ariel: The Restored Edition.
One wonders if it's significant that Plath's Page of Cups, a card associated with positive messages related to family and loved ones, has a rip in it?
We also wonder who paid such a staggering price for those cards.
Will they give the deck a moon bath or salt burial to cleanse it of Plath's negative energy?
Or is the winning bidder such a diehard fan, the chance to handle something so intimately connecting them to their literary hero neutralizes any occult misgivings?
We rather wish Plath's Tarot de Marseille had been awarded to Phillip Roberts in Shipley, England, who planned to exhibit them alongside her tarot-influenced poems in a pop up gallery at the Saltaire Festival. To finance this dream, he launched a crowd-funding campaign, pledging that every £100 donor could keep one of the cards, to be drawn at random, with all contributors invited to submit new art or writing to the mini-exhibition: Save Sylvia Plath's cards from living in the drawers of some wealthy collector, and let's make some art together!
Alas, Roberts and friends fell £148,990 short of the winning bid. Better luck next time, mate. We applaud your graciousness in defeat, as well as the spirit in which your project was conceived.
via Lithub
The Artistic & Mystical World of Tarot: See Decks by Salvador Dalí, Aleister Crowley, H.R. Giger & More
Why Should We Read Sylvia Plath? An Animated Video Makes the Case
Hear Sylvia Plath Read 18 Poems From Her Final Collection, Ariel, in 1962 Recording
Watch Artisans Make Hand-Carved Championship Chess Sets: Each Knight Takes Two Hours
in Games, History	| July 7th, 2021
Whether because of the popularity of Netflix's The Queen's Gambit or because of how much time indoors the past year and a half has entailed, chess has boomed lately. Luckily for those would-be chessmasters who've had their interest piqued, everything they need to learn the game is available free online. But the deeper one gets into any given pursuit, the greater one's desire for concrete representations of that interest. In the case of chess players, how many, at any level, have transcended the desire for a nice board and pieces? And how many have never dreamed of owning one of the finest chess sets money can buy?
Such a set appears in the Business Insider video above. "You can pick up a plastic set for $20 dollars, but a wooden set certified for the World Chess Championship costs $500," says its narrator. "Much of the value of a high-quality of the set comes down to how well just one piece is made: the knight."
Properly carved by a master artisan, each knight — with its horse's head, the only realistic piece in chess — takes about two hours. Very few are qualified for the job, and one knight carver appears in an interview to explain that it took him five or six years to learn it, as against the four or five months required to master carving the other pieces.
The workshop introduced in this video is located in Amritsar (also home to the Golden Temple and its enormous free kitchen, previously featured here in Open Culture). To those just starting to learn about chess, India may seem an unlikely place, but in fact no country has a longer history with the game. "Chess has been played for over 1,000 years, with some form of the game first appearing in India around the sixth century," says the video's narrator. "Over the past two centuries, high-level competitions have drawn international interest." For most of that period, fluctuations in public enthusiasm for chess have resulted in proportionate fluctuations in the demand for chess sets, much of which is satisfied by large-scale industrial production. But the most experienced players presumably feel satisfaction only when handling a knight carved to artisanal perfection.
Learn How to Play Chess Online: Free Chess Lessons for Beginners, Intermediate Players & Beyond
A Brief History of Chess: An Animated Introduction to the 1,500-Year-Old Game
Man Ray Designs a Supremely Elegant, Geometric Chess Set in 1920–and It Now Gets Re-Issued
Marcel Duchamp, Chess Enthusiast, Created an Art Deco Chess Set That's Now Available via 3D Printer
The Bauhaus Chess Set Where the Form of the Pieces Artfully Show Their Function (1922)
A Beautiful Short Documentary Takes You Inside New York City's Last Great Chess Store
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the Substack newsletter Books on Cities, the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.
by Colin Marshall | Permalink | Make a Comment ( None ) |
The Pulp Tarot: A New Tarot Deck Inspired by Midcentury Pulp Illustrations
in Art, Creativity, Design, Games	| June 29th, 2021
Graphic artist Todd Alcott has endeared himself to Open Culture readers by retrofitting midcentury pulp paperback covers and illustrations with classic lyrics from the likes of David Bowie, Prince, Bob Dylan, and Talking Heads.
Although he's dabbled in the abstractions that once graced the covers of psychology, philosophy, and science texts, his overarching attraction to the visual language of science fiction and illicit romance speak to the premium he places on narrative.
And with hundreds of "mid-century mashups" to his name, he's become quite a master of bending existing narratives to his own purposes.
Recently, Alcott turned his attention to the creation of the Pulp Tarot deck he is funding on Kickstarter.
A self-described "clear-eyed skeptic as far as paranormal things" go, Alcott was drawn to the "simplicity and strangeness" of Pamela Colman Smith's "bewitching" Tarot imagery:
Maybe because they were simply the first ones I saw, I don't know, but there is something about the narrative thread that runs through them, the way they delineate the development of the soul, with all the choices and crises a soul encounters on its way to fulfillment, that really struck a chord with me. You lay out enough Tarot spreads and they eventually coalesce around a handful of cards that really seem to define you. I don't know how it happens, but it does, every time: there are cards that come up for you so often that you think, "Yep, that's me," and then there are others that turn up so rarely that, when they do come up, you have to look them up in the little booklet because you've never seen them before.
One such card for Alcott is the Page of Swords. In the early 90s, curious to know what the Tarot would have to say about the young woman he'd started dating, he shuffled and cut his Rider-Waite-Smith deck "until something inside said "now" and he flipped over the Page of Swords:
I looked it up in the booklet, which said that the Page of Swords was a secret-keeper, like a spy. I thought about that for a moment; the woman I was seeing was nothing like a spy, and had no spy-like attributes. I shrugged and began the process again, shuffling and cutting and shuffling and cutting, until, again, something inside said "now," and turned up the card again. It was the Page of Swords, again. My heart leaped, I put the deck back in its box and quietly freaked out for a while. The next day, I asked the young lady if the Page of Swords meant anything to her, and she said "Oh sure, when I was a kid, that was my card." Anyway, I'm now married to her.
The Three of Pentacles is another favorite, one that presented a particular design challenge.
The Smith deck shows a stonemason, an architect and a church official, collaborating on building a cathedral. Now, there are no cathedrals in the pulp world, so I had to think, well, in the pulp world, pentacles represent money, so the obvious choice would be to show three criminals planning a heist. I couldn't find an image anything close to the one in my head, so I had to build it: the room, the table, the map of the bank, the plan, the people involved, and then stitch it all together in Photoshop so it ended up looking like a cohesive illustration. That was a really joyful moment for me: there were the three conspirators, the Big Cheese, the Dame and The Goon, their roles clearly defined despite not seeing anyone's face. It was a real breakthrough, seeing that I could put together a little narrative like that.
Smith imagined a medieval fantasy world when designing her Tarot deck. Alcott is drawing on 70 years of pop-culture ephemera to create a tribute to Smith's vision that also works as a deck in their own right "with its own moral narrative universe, based on the attitudes and conventions of that world."
Before drafting each of his 70 cards, Alcott studied Smith's version, researching its meaning and design as he contemplates how he might translate it into the pulp vernacular. He has found that some of Smith's work was deliberately exacting with regard to color, attitude, and costume, and other instances where specific details took a back seat to mood and emotional impact:
Once I understand what a card is about, I look through my library to find images that help get that across. It can get really complicated! A lot of times, the character's body is in the right position but their face has the wrong expression, so I have to find a face that fits what the card is trying to say. Or their physical attitude is right, but I need them to be gripping or throwing something, so I have to find hands and arms that I can graft on, Frankenstein style. In some cases, there will be figures in the cards cobbled together from five or six different sources.
These cards are easily the most complex work I've ever done in that sense. The song pieces I do are a conversation between the piece and the song, but these cards are a conversation between me, Smith, the entire Tarot tradition, and the universe.
Visit Todd Alcott's Etsy shop to view more of his mid-century mash ups, and see more cards from The Pulp Tarot and support Kickstarter here.
All images from the Pulp Tarot used with the permission of artist Todd Alcott.
Classic Songs Re-Imagined as Vintage Book Covers During Our Troubled Times: "Under Pressure," "It's the End of the World as We Know It," "Shelter from the Storm" & More
David Bowie Songs Reimagined as Pulp Fiction Book Covers: Space Oddity, Heroes, Life on Mars & More
Songs by Joni Mitchell Re-Imagined as Pulp Fiction Book Covers & Vintage Movie Posters
Four Classic Prince Songs Re-Imagined as Pulp Fiction Covers: When Doves Cry, Little Red Corvette & More
in Art, Games, History	| June 24th, 2021
The tarot goes back to Italy of the late Middle Ages. Every day here in the 21st century, I see undeniable signs of its cultural and temporal transcendence: specifically, the tarot shops doing business here and there along the streets of Seoul, where I live. The tarot began as a deck for play, but these aren't dealers in card-gaming supplies; rather, their proprietors use tarot decks to provide customers suggestions about their destiny and advice on what to do in the future. Over the past five or six centuries, the purpose of the tarot many have changed, but its original artistic sensibility — dramatic, symbol-laden, and highly subject to counterintuitive interpretation — has remained intact.
You can get an idea of that original artistic sensibility by taking a look at the the Sola-Busca, the oldest known complete deck of tarot cards. Dating from the 1490s, it holds obvious historical interest, but it's hardly the only tarot deck we've featured here on Open Culture.
Artists of subsequent eras, up to and including our own, have created special decks in accordance with their distinctive visions. The unstoppable surrealist Salvador Dalí designed his own, a project embarked upon at the behest of James Bond film producer Albert Broccoli. Later, the master of biomechanism H.R. Giger received a tarot commission as well; though his deck uses previously unpublished rather than custom-made art, it all looks surprisingly, sometimes chillingly fitting.
The world's most popular tarot deck was designed not by a famous artist, but by an illustrator named Pamela Coleman-Smith. Many more have used and appreciated her work than even, say, the Thoth deck, designed by no less renowned an occultist than Aleister Crowley, "the wickedest man in the world." If you won't take his word for it, perhaps the founder of analytical psychology can sell you on the merits of tarot: for Carl Jung, the deck held out the possibility of the "intuitive method" he sought for "understanding the flow of life, possibly even predicting future events, at all events lending itself to the reading of the conditions of the present moment." (See his deck here.) Even if you're not in search of such a method, few other artifacts weave together so many threads of art, philosophy, history, and symbolism. Of course, no few modern enthusiasts find in it the same appeal as did those early tarot players of the 15th century: it's fun.
Meet the Forgotten Female Artist Behind the World's Most Popular Tarot Deck (1909)
Salvador Dalí's Tarot Cards Get Re-Issued: The Occult Meets Surrealism in a Classic Tarot Card Deck
The Thoth Tarot Deck Designed by Famed Occultist Aleister Crowley
H.R. Giger's Tarot Cards: The Swiss Artist, Famous for His Design Work on Alien, Takes a Journey into the Occult
Behold the Sola-Busca Tarot Deck, the Earliest Complete Set of Tarot Cards (1490)
Divine Decks: A Visual History of Tarot: The First Comprehensive Survey of Tarot Gets Published by Taschen
Modernizing Table-Top Role-Playing Games — Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast #96
in Games, Podcasts, Pretty Much Pop	| June 21st, 2021
https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/partiallyexaminedlife/PMP_96_5-15-21.mp3
What's the current status of table-top role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons in pop culture? Thanks to D&D's recent depiction in Stranger Things and the enormous popularity of fantasy properties like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings, interest in elves and magic and such is no longer fodder for Satanic panic, but the idea of actively pretending to be a character in this genre to engage in collaborative story-telling still seems foreign to many.
Your Pretty Much Pop hosts Mark Linsenmayer, Erica Spyres, and Brian Hirt are joined by Amanda McLoughlin, the host of Join the Party, a beginner-friendly, purposefully inclusive D&D real-play podcast, to go over some D&D basics, the dynamics of playing vs. spectating (by listening to her podcast, for instance), and the racism and imperialism built into the setting (adventure = going into a foreign land to kill often intelligent creatures and take their stuff). What is it to "act out your fantasy" in this way?
Some of the ways of witnessing others playing that we refer to include Critical Role, The Adventure Zone, and Dimension 20.
The Join the Party game master Eric Silver wrote the article "Dungeons & Dragons Has an Antisemitism Problem." You can also look at Wikipedia's "Dungeons and Dragons in Popular Culture" entry or get a flavor of the range of options by looking at Dicebreaker's list of "10 Best Tabletop Roleplaying Games Out Right Now", this list of "The 12 Best Actual Play Podcasts," or this video of "Top D&D Channels that Aren't Critical Role."
Follow Amanda's podcast @jointhepartypod on @MultitudeShows. She also hosts the Spirits Podcast about folklore and urban legends.
Hear more of this podcast at prettymuchpop.com. This episode includes bonus discussion that you can access by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop. This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network.
More in this category... »


Here is the second big batch of my Utopia drawings!
- - I'm planning to assemble these frist 60 drawings into some sort of book - These are all 4x6" postcard size drawings - the next batch'll be much larger - 18x24!
afternoon show for kids this saturday!
BECKY will be giving a little afternoon concert & performance for children, parents & friends - THIS SATURDAY - JUNE 28 - at THE HOPE GALLERY - 1547 Echo Park - around 2PM? 3? What time?
and then - around 8:30 or so, as the sun sets - we'll be having one last Mystical Unionists performance! Come visit!
A nice review w/ more pictures of our show!


text:
Babin Introduces the SCOTUScare Act; Legislation Requiring Supreme Court Justices to Sign Up for Obamacare
Washington, June 25, 2015
Washington, DC – U.S. Representative Brian Babin (TX-36) issued the following statement today after introducing the SCOTUScare Act (H.R. 2905), which finally eliminates their exemption and requires all U.S. Supreme Court Justices and their employees to sign up for Obamacare:
"As the Supreme Court continues to ignore the letter of the law, it's important that these six individuals understand the full impact of their decisions on the American people. That's why I introduced the SCOTUScare Act to require the Supreme Court and all of its employees to sign up for Obamacare. By eliminating their exemption from Obamacare, they will see firsthand what the American people are forced to live with!"
To view the full text of the SCOTUScare Act, please click here.


In June 2017 I was injured during a power lifting competition. Long story short, a negligent spotter dropped 245lbs on me and my left shoulder did not do to well with slowing it down. That WAS going to be the day I was going to lift over 900 lbs(+315 squat +245 bench +345 deadlift). I had been working all summer towards this, not much else to do when deployed, 2 hours a day, 4-5 days a week, I was making huge strides but it all went away in that very moment.
It was nothing "serious" doctors said. Just a bad strain, nothing torn, nothing apparently damaged it just really hurt. I took a few weeks off and then tried some lifting at less than 50% of my normal weights, it hurt and so I throttled back to 10% on chest days and just went through the motions with easy weights until it was time to return home. By the end of 2017 I had given up, I couldn't push myself without pain and I would just get mad doing 10% so I just quit for a year.
End of 2018 I decided to get back into it AND I discovered the NF quest page! I've been ramping up, carefully but I feel like its finally ON!
Yesterday I Just had the most intense Chest day I've had in over 1.5 Years. I just wouldn't quit the bench until I was burned out!
8 sets bench No pain!
3 sets of Dumbbell Flies ramping up to 45's I dropped the weight on the last set cautions of minimal discomfort but no real pain!
Cable Tricep extensions until I trembled, No Pain.
Dips... still weary of those but I got through it.
It's been 24 hours and no injury-type-pain feelings but do I feel DOMS starting to set in and the good-soreness intense by tomorrow.
Way to go!!! Getting injured is one of the toughest things to come to terms with, and recovery is such a long slow process. I totally get where you're coming from with the euphoria, I'd be exactly the same, lol! Well done.


text:
Pannal railway station
Find sources: "Pannal railway station" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Pannal
53°57′31″N 1°31′58″W / 53.9585°N 1.5327°W / 53.9585; -1.5327Coordinates: 53°57′31″N 1°31′58″W / 53.9585°N 1.5327°W / 53.9585; -1.5327
Station code
Number of platforms
DfT category
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
0.140 million
Passenger Transport Executive
West Yorkshire (Metro)
Opened 1848 (1848)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Pannal from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
Pannal railway station serves the villages of Pannal and Spacey Houses in the southern suburbs of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, equidistant from both. It also serves the village of Burn Bridge, on the opposite side of Pannal. It is located on the Harrogate Line 15 miles (24 km) north of Leeds and operated by Northern who provide all passenger train services.
It is a busy station considering the size of the village it serves. This is due to the large number of commuters using the station, from surrounding villages, for journeying into Leeds every weekday before 09:00.[1]
2 Former layout
3 Current layout
5 Birdwatching at the station
It was built by the Contractors, James Bray, who had been appointed by the Leeds & Thirsk Railway on 26 April 1846 to build the Pannal section between Weeton and Starbeck. This was opened on 13 September 1848, when the section of line between Weeton and Ripon via Starbeck commenced operation from Starbeck only as a single line until at least February 1849 (the other line was used to convey Contractors materials for building the line south of Weeton), and services throughout to Leeds commenced on 9 July 1849. The Leeds & Thirsk Railway changed its name to the Leeds Northern Railway in August 1851. On 31 July 1854 the Leeds Northern Railway amalgamated with the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway and the York & North Midland Railway becoming the North Eastern Railway.
Trains began running directly to Harrogate on 1 August 1862 when the North Eastern Railway completed a short line (Pannal Loop) from Pannal Junction to Crimple Junction via a very tight curve to take trains over the Crimple Valley Viaduct and into the new central Harrogate Station, built to replace Harrogate Brunswick station. When built Pannal Junction had its own separate signalbox.
On 1 January 1923, the railways were Grouped and it became the London & North Eastern Railway. The signalbox at Pannal Junction was closed in 1927 and the points and signals at this location were operated from the signalbox at Pannal station.
On 1 January 1948, under the Transport Act, the railways were Nationalised becoming British Railways. The original line between Pannal Junction and Starbeck was closed on 7 October 1951 leaving the later Pannal Loop as the only line north of Pannal.
Goods traffic was withdrawn from Pannal in 1954 but the sidings remained until the closure of the signalbox and removal of the signals in 1969, when they were all lifted. The station was staffed until 15 June 1969 when it became an unstaffed halt with no facilities other than basic small shelters provided for passengers. Tickets have to be obtained from the Guard/Conductor on the train. In 2011 an automated ticket machine accepting only debit and credit cards was installed in the waiting shelter on the Up (Leeds) platform in an attempt to alleviate the problems the Conductor/Guard has collecting all the fares in peak periods. The ticket machine is still in use here, as of 2016.[2]
In 1983, British Rail was sectorised and the services operated by British Rail Provincial later becoming British Rail Regional Railways until privatisation in 1997. Since privatisation the services have been operated by private companies as a train operating company under fixed term franchises with Arriva Trains Northern from 1997 to 2004 and Northern from 2004 and now, with three extensions, until 31 March 2016[3] (the term has been extended three times, two years, six months and two years respectively) the latter extension being due to the rail franchising process being found to be legally fundamentally flawed.
During 2012 Network Rail commenced resignalling the line between Armley Junction and Harrogate leading up to the signalling being commissioned and all coming under the control of the Harrogate signalbox during the period of 27–29 October 2012. A trench was dug along the Up platform for a cabling duct and access manholes to be installed to carry the signalling cables. Shorter block sections to allow for greater line capacity were installed and, for the first time since the rationalisation of 1969 ironically with longer block sections, signals can once again be seen from the station.
Former layout[edit]
The station buildings were located on the down platform (to Harrogate) and there was a timber waiting shelter, with a store, on the up platform (to Leeds). There was a signal box of standard North Eastern Railway design located at the south end of the down platform. The station had a cattle dock siding, adjacent to the up line, at the south end of the up platform, opposite the signalbox, with a ramp up to the road from this siding.
The cattle, often from Ireland, used to be driven up the ramp onto the road and the very short distance up Station Road to the former Auction Mart that was located in Spacey Houses on the opposite corner of the junction of Princess Royal Way (A61) and Follifoot Road. The goods yard had three lines of sidings accessed from a headshunt on the side of the down line. This included a coal depot on two of the sidings furthest away from the station and a small warehouse on the other siding nearest the station buildings.
Current layout[edit]
There are just the two platforms, the up line (platform 1) to Leeds and the down line (platform 2) to Harrogate with bus type waiting shelters. Digital information screens are in place on each platform and an automated public address system is also installed to offer train running information. Both platforms have access ramps from the main road for use by disabled passengers.[2]
The former station buildings have been extensively extended and were converted into a public house in the early 1980s. It was first named Platform One (despite this being located on what is actually now platform 2) but, after another extensive renovation, was renamed The Harwood.[4] In 2014, it was again converted, this time into a Co-operative shop.[5]
When first converted as Platform One a Pullman kitchen second class parlour carriage built in 1960 as number 332, formally on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, was incorporated into the public house as a dining room. This carriage was renamed "Mae" (after the mother of the first Landlord, Paul Eckart) but was removed and scrapped by Booths of Rotherham when the public house underwent the second renovation due to it containing extensive blue asbestos insulation.
The former goods yard on the down side is now the extensive station car park also doubling as the car park for the shop. The ramp from the former cattle dock on the up side can still be seen as a strip of inclined unused land between the station and the former Dunlopillo factory (closed in 2008). This ramp was cleared of undergrowth in 2009 in order to allow vehicular access for track maintenance and again in 2012 to allow access for the resignalling scheme.
The up track (to Leeds) is currently laid with continuously welding track on concrete sleepers and the down track (to Harrogate) is currently laid with continuously welded rails with steel sleepers.
Services[edit]
The station in the snow.
During Monday to Saturday daytimes, there is generally a half-hourly service southbound to Leeds and a half-hourly service northbound to Harrogate and Knaresborough with one train per hour onwards to York. In the evenings and on Sundays there is generally an hourly service in each direction.[6]
Birdwatching at the station[edit]
The summer image at top right of the page shows the station before the big trees at the Dunlopillo factory (on the left in that image) were pruned back to the trunks.[7] The trunks of these trees were felled in 2012 giving an open feel to that side of the station not seen for many years. At that time, in early mornings in spring, you could watch buzzards trying to snatch eggs from the rooks' nests in those trees. Since the trees were pruned (on the left in the snowy image) the buzzards have stopped coming, but in spring you can still watch jackdaws attempting to nest in the chimneys of the shop. The once rare and threatened red kites can now regularly be seen riding on the thermals above the station. During summer, house martins and swifts may sometimes be seen over the station. Goldfinches and bullfinches used to graze on the weed-seeds between the station and Dunlopillo car-park, but are no longer to be seen due to mowing of this area. Blackbirds are regularly heard in the few remaining trees.
[8] [9] [10] [11]
^ "Rail misery for commuters". Harrogate Advertiser. 22 February 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
^ a b Pannal station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 30 November 2016
^ http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2014/03/27-direct-award-extends-northern-franchise.html
^ The Harwood pub website Archived 25 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine
^ Booth, Chris (December 2016). "Exlploring the Harrogate loop". Today's Railways. No. 180. Sheffield: Platform 5. p. 55. ISSN 1475-9713.
^ Table 35 National Rail timetable, December 2016
^ The image is incorrectly dated on its filepage: the picture was taken before 2005.
^ The Railways of Harrogate and District by James Rogers published by North Eastern Railway Association (2000) - ISBN 1-873513-33-X
^ The Railways of Harrogate and District a History by James Rogers published by James Rogers (1986)
^ Railways Around Harrogate by Martin Bairstow published by Martin Bairstow (1986) - ISBN 0-9510302-3-X
^ Railways Around Harrogate Volume Three by Martin Bairstow published by Martin Barstow (1998) - ISBN 1-871944-18-X
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pannal railway station.
Train times and station information for Pannal railway station from National Rail
Preceding station
Following station
Weeton Northern
Harrogate Line Hornbeam Park
Railway stations in North Yorkshire
(London Kings Cross) → → York
Northallerton → → (Edinburgh Waverley)
Northallerton–Eaglescliffe line
Yarm → (Eaglescliffe)
Tees Valley line
(Bishop Auckland) → → Thornaby
Redcar British Steel
Redcar Central
Redcar East
Longbeck
Marske
Esk Valley line
James Cook
Nunthorpe
Great Ayton
Kildale
Commondale
Castleton Moor
Leaholm
Glaisdale
Egton
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Sleights
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York–Scarborough line
Hull–Scarborough line
(Hull) → → Hunmanby
Harrogate line
Poppleton
Hammerton
Cattal
Starbeck
Hornbeam Park
Weeton → → (Leeds)
Leeds–Morecambe line
(Leeds) → → Skipton
Hellifield
Long Preston
Giggleswick
Bentham → → (Morecambe)
Settle–Carlisle line
Horton-in-Ribblesdale
Ribblehead → → (Carlisle)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pannal_railway_station&oldid=895224184"
DfT Category F1 stations
Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations
Railway stations opened in 1848
Railway stations served by Northern (train operating company)
Use British English from December 2016
Articles with OS grid coordinates


text:
Released by Sage in April 2016, Social Media for Academics provides clear guidance on effectively and intelligently using social media for academic purposes across disciplines, from publicising your work and building networks to engaging the public with your research. It is supported by real life examples and underpinned by principles of good practice to ensure you make the most of social media.
See below for some early endorsements of the book. You can find a full table of contents on the publisher's website.
You can get 25% off if you order it from Sage using the code UK15AUTHOR.
Mark Carrigan understands academic engagement with social media to require more than enthusiastic exhortations or dumbed down lists of rapidly out-of-date apps. Social Media for Academics offers a rich mix of research, scholarly commentary, discussion of key debates and potential pitfalls, personal experience and practical guidance which focuses not just on the how, but also the why of digital scholarship.
Pat Thomson, Professor of Education
University of Nottingham @ThomsonPat patthomson.net.
Carrigan has achieved what I thought to be impossible – produced a clear cut, incisive guide for the contemporary academic who is confused (as most of us are) about how to engage fruitfully with social media. One of the most difficult things about social media is finding a way to be true to your own personal style, while projecting an appropriate academic identity. Carrigan manages this by organising the types of social media options in what I think is a way that won't date quickly. I highly recommend this book to my colleagues and to PhD students contemplating an academic career in a world that increasingly values public engagement and impact.
The Australian National University
IF you'd asked me in 2009 what the future would be in academia for a messaging/micro-blogging system limited to 140 characters, I'd have said – zilch. Yet Twitter + blogs and many other social media have transformed science and academic practice in the interim. Mark Carrigan gives the first book-length and in-depth advice on the many ways in which scientists and academics are developing new paradigms of collective thought, writing and scholarly practice using social media. If you're still hesitating, get involved by starting here.
Patrick Dunleavy
Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, London School of Economics
There is no one in the world better placed than Mark Carrigan to offer advice to academics on how to operate in the new informational environment. This book is brimming with ideas and practical tips for how academics might communicate better in the Twitter age. Brilliant, thoughtful and entertaining.
Les Back
Goldsmiths, University of London


text:
Home » News » Aichi News » airweave will supply mattresses to U.S. Ski & Snowboard's athletes to help them maximize performance throughout the year ahead
airweave will supply mattresses to U.S. Ski & Snowboard's athletes to help them maximize performance throughout the year ahead
JAPAN PRODUCTS | Aichi News, News, Sports and Health News | 01/17/2018
U.S. Ski & Snowboard Announces Global Partnership With airweave
Source: airweave
NEW YORK, Jan. 17, 2018 – U.S. Ski & Snowboard has today announced that airweave is the latest world class brand to join the Olympic sports organization's growing roster of partners as the Official Bedding Supplier. As a primary element of the partnership, airweave will supply mattresses to U.S. Ski & Snowboard's athletes to help them maximize performance throughout the year ahead.
Select US Ski & Snowboard High Performance Athletes competing worldwide this season will be sleeping on airweave. Pictured here with their airweave Portable mattresses is US Ski Team athlete, Alice McKennis (L), and US Snowboard Team athlete, Alex Deibold (R).
Frequent travelers and fans of airweave love the Portable because they can get a consistent, quality sleep wherever they may be. Our one-size topper is lightweight, can be checked as luggage, and great for road trips.
"We strive to create technologically advanced products for the most comfortable sleep environment possible," said airweave Founder and CEO, Motokuni Takaoka. "The Hyperdown Duvet is the perfect wintertime complement to our line of mattresses."
"We are proud to continue our history of supporting U.S. national team athletes and their performance," said airweave CEO and President Motokuni Takaoka. "We look forward to watching the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team compete knowing they are well-rested thanks to airweave."
"Sleeping well is an incredibly important part of an athlete's preparation and recuperation in training and competition," said Troy Taylor, U.S. Ski & Snowboard's High Performance Director. "Having airweave on board with our team is a vital part of the intricate planning that we do with our athletes in competition throughout the year and we are delighted to welcome airweave into our U.S. Ski & Snowboard family."
The Sponsorship includes airweave's total sleep solution of mattresses, toppers, pillows, duvets, and a limited edition travel blanket for use while U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes are competing internationally and at the Sleep Center at their Center of Excellence in Park City, Utah. In addition, airweave will be utilizing individual athletes from their High Performance Team as brand ambassadors on social media.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard joins airweave's list of global partners which includes The Ritz Paris, IMG Academy, and Japan Airlines.
About U.S. Ski & Snowboard
U.S. Ski & Snowboard is the Olympic sports organization based in Park City, UT providing leadership and direction for elite athletes competing at the highest level worldwide and for tens of thousands of young skiers and snowboarders in the USA, encouraging and supporting all its athletes in achieving excellence wherever they train and compete. By empowering national teams, clubs, coaches, parents, officials, volunteers and fans, U.S. Ski & Snowboard is committed to the progression of its sports, athlete success and the value of team. One of the oldest and most established sports organizations worldwide, directly tracing its roots back to 1905, U.S. Ski & Snowboard receives no direct government support, operating solely through private donations from individuals, corporations and foundations to fund athletic programs that directly assist athletes in reaching their dreams.
You can purchase their bedding products link below.
airweave products on Amazon.com
airweave products on Amazon.co.jp
airweave products on Rakuten


While an argument can be made that Army Aviation began with the use of observation balloons during the Civil War, the Army's initial foray into modern aviation came with the acquisition of its first aircraft from the Wright brothers in 1909. Over the next several years, the American aircraft industry developed slowly; when the United States entered World War I, the Army Air Service had no modern aircraft and was forced to rely on French and British planes in the skies over Europe.
During the postwar years and into World War II, the Army Air Corps, and later, the Army Air Forces, became increasingly independent; by the end of World War II, the Army Air Forces, the most powerful air force in the world, was essentially a separate service from the rest of the Army. The National Security Act of 1947 finally created an independent Air Force.
Despite the establishment of the U.S. Air Force, the Army continued to develop aircraft under the Transportation Corps, with a focus on rotary-wing assets, or helicopters, but still maintaining small numbers of fixed-wing airplanes for transport and reconnaissance. Army Aviation became increasingly important with advances in helicopter technology, leading to the UH-1 Iroquois (popularly known as the Huey) and the CH-47 Chinook transport and the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters. All three of these saw extensive action in the Vietnam War and led to a revolution in tactics. The emphasis on helicopters became even more pronounced during the 1970s and 1980s, as Army planners increasingly saw the value of helicopters in a possible war against the Warsaw Pact. In recognition of aviation's importance, the Army established the Aviation Branch on 12 April 1983.
During the 1980s, the Army introduced new, more capable helicopters, such as the UH-60 Black Hawk transport and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, both of which saw extensive service in Operations Just Cause and Desert Storm. More recently, Army aircraft have been important assets in both Iraq and Afghanistan, transporting troops and supplies, evacuating the wounded, performing reconnaissance, and providing close air support to ground troops.


text:
Masonic Order
Royal Ark Marniers
Knights Templar Priest
St. Thomas of Acon
Scarlet Cord
Athelstan
Knights Mason of Ireland
Lady Masons
Collar Jewels
Regalia Sets
Breast Jewels
Collarette Jewel
Collarette
Ars Quator Coronatorum
Constitutions and Yearbooks
Talks and Speeches
Invisibles : The True History of the Rosicrucians
For delivery on 01/02/2021, order this item in the next
400 years ago a document was published by an order calling themselves the Rosicrucians. A secret society of Christians who claimed to know the true teachings of Christ and that through this knowledge they had become immortal and gained divine powers. Jesus told his disciples that with faith they should be able to work miracles greater than him.
Since then, incredible myths and stories have been woven about the 'invisible' Brothers of the Rose Cross, the so-called 'Rosicrucians'. The men who know what it truly means to be a Christian. Indeed, in 1623, philosopher René Descartes was accused in Paris of being a Rosicrucian. 'How can that be possible?' replied Descartes. 'Everyone knows... they are invisible.'
It has been said that Rosicrucians possess the secrets of Man, God and Nature, that they can turn lead into gold, that they govern Europe in secret, that they enjoy the elixir of life, that theirs is the true philosophy of Freemasonry, that they can save – or destroy – the world.
Most amazing of all perhaps is the Rosicrucian vision of an invisible, inviolable and utterly secret body – the Hidden Guardians of the planet. This is the 'secret society' behind all mystical and magical secret societies. Only they, it is alleged, possess the true key to understanding the spiritual and material essence of all religion.
The story of how a young German nobleman, Christian Rosycross, escaped his boring cloister and sped to the east in search of wisdom about a century before Columbus sailed west, has been told many times since it first appeared in a booklet in 1614. For much of the time between that date and today, the story of the genesis of the Rosicrucian movement - the founding of the 'invisible fraternity' and the discovery of the founder's extraordinary tomb in 1604 - has been taken literally in many quarters. The Fama Fraternitatis, the document in which the story first appeared, has been taken for historical fact and even more than that.
From the dreams of a brilliant young student at Germany
Tobias Churton
Copyright © 2020-present Redcliffe Regalia. All rights reserved.


text:
using Lucene.Net.Support;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis;
using System.Text;

namespace Lucene.Net.Util.Automaton
{
    /// <summary>
    /// <see cref="Automaton"/> state.
    /// <para/>
    /// @lucene.experimental
    /// </summary>
    public class State : IComparable<State>
    {
        internal bool accept;
        [WritableArray]
        [SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Performance", "CA1819", Justification = "Lucene's design requires some writable array properties")]
        public Transition[] TransitionsArray
        {
            get { return transitionsArray; }
            // LUCENENET NOTE: Setter removed because it is apparently not in use outside of this class
        }
        private Transition[] transitionsArray;
        internal int numTransitions; // LUCENENET NOTE: Made internal because we already have a public property for access

        internal int number;

        internal int id;
        internal static int next_id;

        /// <summary>
        /// Constructs a new state. Initially, the new state is a reject state.
        /// </summary>
        public State()
        {
            ResetTransitions();
            id = next_id++;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Resets transition set.
        /// </summary>
        internal void ResetTransitions()
        {
            transitionsArray = new Transition[0];
            numTransitions = 0;
        }

        private class TransitionsIterable : IEnumerable<Transition>
        {
            private readonly State outerInstance;

            public TransitionsIterable(State outerInstance)
            {
                this.outerInstance = outerInstance;
            }

            public virtual IEnumerator<Transition> GetEnumerator()
            {
                return new IteratorAnonymousInnerClassHelper(this);
            }

            System.Collections.IEnumerator System.Collections.IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
            {
                return GetEnumerator();
            }

            private class IteratorAnonymousInnerClassHelper : IEnumerator<Transition>
            {
                private readonly TransitionsIterable outerInstance;
                private Transition current;
                private int i, upTo;

                public IteratorAnonymousInnerClassHelper(TransitionsIterable outerInstance)
                {
                    this.outerInstance = outerInstance;
                    upTo = this.outerInstance.outerInstance.numTransitions;
                    i = 0;
                }

                public bool MoveNext()
                {
                    if (i < upTo)
                    {
                        current = outerInstance.outerInstance.transitionsArray[i++];
                        return true;
                    }
                    return false;
                }

                public Transition Current
                {
                    get
                    {
                        return current;
                    }
                }

                object System.Collections.IEnumerator.Current
                {
                    get
                    {
                        return Current;
                    }
                }

                public void Reset()
                {
                    throw new NotSupportedException();
                }

                public void Dispose()
                {
                }
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns the set of outgoing transitions. Subsequent changes are reflected
        /// in the automaton.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns> Transition set. </returns>
        public virtual IEnumerable<Transition> GetTransitions()
        {
            return new TransitionsIterable(this);
        }

        public virtual int NumTransitions
        {
            get { return numTransitions; }
        }

        public virtual void SetTransitions(Transition[] transitions)
        {
            this.numTransitions = transitions.Length;
            this.transitionsArray = transitions;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Adds an outgoing transition.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="t"> Transition. </param>
        public virtual void AddTransition(Transition t)
        {
            if (numTransitions == transitionsArray.Length)
            {
                Transition[] newArray = new Transition[ArrayUtil.Oversize(1 + numTransitions, RamUsageEstimator.NUM_BYTES_OBJECT_REF)];
                Array.Copy(transitionsArray, 0, newArray, 0, numTransitions);
                transitionsArray = newArray;
            }
            transitionsArray[numTransitions++] = t;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Sets acceptance for this state. If <c>true</c>, this state is an accept state.
        /// </summary>
        public virtual bool Accept
        {
            set
            {
                this.accept = value;
            }
            get
            {
                return accept;
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Performs lookup in transitions, assuming determinism.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="c"> Codepoint to look up. </param>
        /// <returns> Destination state, <c>null</c> if no matching outgoing transition. </returns>
        /// <seealso cref="Step(int, ICollection{State})"/>
        public virtual State Step(int c)
        {
            Debug.Assert(c >= 0);
            for (int i = 0; i < numTransitions; i++)
            {
                Transition t = transitionsArray[i];
                if (t.min <= c && c <= t.max)
                {
                    return t.to;
                }
            }
            return null;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Performs lookup in transitions, allowing nondeterminism.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="c"> Codepoint to look up. </param>
        /// <param name="dest"> Collection where destination states are stored. </param>
        /// <seealso cref="Step(int)"/>
        public virtual void Step(int c, ICollection<State> dest)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < numTransitions; i++)
            {
                Transition t = transitionsArray[i];
                if (t.min <= c && c <= t.max)
                {
                    dest.Add(t.to);
                }
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Virtually adds an epsilon transition to the target
        /// <paramref name="to"/> state.  this is implemented by copying all
        /// transitions from <paramref name="to"/> to this state, and if
        /// <paramref name="to"/> is an accept state then set accept for this state.
        /// </summary>
        internal virtual void AddEpsilon(State to)
        {
            if (to.accept)
            {
                accept = true;
            }
            foreach (Transition t in to.GetTransitions())
            {
                AddTransition(t);
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Downsizes transitionArray to numTransitions. </summary>
        public virtual void TrimTransitionsArray()
        {
            if (numTransitions < transitionsArray.Length)
            {
                Transition[] newArray = new Transition[numTransitions];
                Array.Copy(transitionsArray, 0, newArray, 0, numTransitions);
                transitionsArray = newArray;
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Reduces this state. A state is "reduced" by combining overlapping
        /// and adjacent edge intervals with same destination.
        /// </summary>
        public virtual void Reduce()
        {
            if (numTransitions <= 1)
            {
                return;
            }
            SortTransitions(Transition.COMPARE_BY_DEST_THEN_MIN_MAX);
            State p = null;
            int min = -1, max = -1;
            int upto = 0;
            for (int i = 0; i < numTransitions; i++)
            {
                Transition t = transitionsArray[i];
                if (p == t.to)
                {
                    if (t.min <= max + 1)
                    {
                        if (t.max > max)
                        {
                            max = t.max;
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        if (p != null)
                        {
                            transitionsArray[upto++] = new Transition(min, max, p);
                        }
                        min = t.min;
                        max = t.max;
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    if (p != null)
                    {
                        transitionsArray[upto++] = new Transition(min, max, p);
                    }
                    p = t.to;
                    min = t.min;
                    max = t.max;
                }
            }

            if (p != null)
            {
                transitionsArray[upto++] = new Transition(min, max, p);
            }
            numTransitions = upto;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns sorted list of outgoing transitions.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="comparer"> Comparer to sort with. </param>
        /// <returns> Transition list. </returns>

        /// <summary>
        /// Sorts transitions array in-place. </summary>
        public virtual void SortTransitions(IComparer<Transition> comparer)
        {
            // mergesort seems to perform better on already sorted arrays:
            if (numTransitions > 1)
            {
                ArrayUtil.TimSort(transitionsArray, 0, numTransitions, comparer);
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Return this state's number.
        /// <para/>
        /// Expert: Will be useless unless <see cref="Automaton.GetNumberedStates()"/>
        /// has been called first to number the states. </summary>
        /// <returns> The number. </returns>
        public virtual int Number
        {
            get
            {
                return number;
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns string describing this state. Normally invoked via
        /// <see cref="Automaton.ToString()"/>.
        /// </summary>
        public override string ToString()
        {
            StringBuilder b = new StringBuilder();
            b.Append("state ").Append(number);
            if (accept)
            {
                b.Append(" [accept]");
            }
            else
            {
                b.Append(" [reject]");
            }
            b.Append(":\n");
            foreach (Transition t in GetTransitions())
            {
                b.Append("  ").Append(t.ToString()).Append("\n");
            }
            return b.ToString();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Compares this object with the specified object for order. States are
        /// ordered by the time of construction.
        /// </summary>
        public virtual int CompareTo(State s)
        {
            return s.id - id;
        }

        public override int GetHashCode()
        {
            return id;
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This very nice 3 bdr. 2 bath of app. 2000 sq. ft. with an office on 1 acre just finished construction in March of this year. 3 car garage, indoor laundry, granite countertops and much more. The beau. master suite with a separate garden tub, shower and walk-in closet is has it's own private wing apart from the other bedrooms. Spacious great room living area with fireplace and wood laminate flooring, well planned kitchen with beau. cabinetry plus a covered patio to enjoy the view from.


text:
College Admissions Officers Are Definitely Checking Your Facebook Page
Record numbers of college admissions officers admit they're checking out applicants' Facebook pages. Is it time to scrub your digital footprint?
Applicants to college or graduate school are always looking for ways to stand out from the crowd, but they might want to think twice about how their Facebook pages will impact their admissions chances. According to a recent survey by Kaplan Test Prep, 24 percent of college admissions officers admit to doing a little digging on an applicant's Facebook or other social networking page—up from 10 percent in 2008—and 20 percent have Googled them.
Martha Allman, dean of admissions at Wake Forest University, told U.S. News & World Report that "anything in the public domain is fair game for admissions counselors to look at," so she "doesn't consider that an invasion of privacy." Along with reviewing GPAs, essays and other information, her staff uses Facebook profiles to get to know applicants "prior to an admissions interview," so that they can "get a sense of who the student is."
Indeed, colleges are increasingly interested in a student's online life. Earlier this summer, the University of Iowa's Tippie School of Management garnered plenty of attention after a gimmick in which they decided to award a full scholarship to a Twitter applicant. Tippie encouraged including links to blogs, Facebook pages, and other social networking sites in the 140-application tweet—and of course, through applying, applicants revealed their personal Twitter handles to the school's admissions team.
Inviting a school into your personal life—whether voluntarily or involuntarily through admissions counselors' get-to-know-you efforts—could have disastrous results. Twelve percent of admissions counselors told Kaplan that what they found on social networks hurt an applicant's admissions prospects—particularly when it involved vulgarity, evidence of alcohol consumption or essay plagiarism, or proof of illegal activity.
As savvy high school guidance counselors frequently suggest during admissions season, it's a smart idea to lock down your Facebook account, untag yourself from your friend's photos, delete your Twitter feed, take your Tumblr underground, and generally scrub your digital footprint of anything that could be considered remotely questionable. Sure, it doesn't seem fair that schools are judging someone who has stellar grades, plenty of volunteer service, and sky-high SAT scores based on a few wild photos from homecoming, but it's happening—and probably more frequently than people were willing to admit to Kaplan. Besides, once those acceptance letters are firmly in hand, won't all that scrubbing seem worth the effort?
Photo via (cc) Flickr user James BonTempo
education social media college admissions


text:
The TRADE > News > Regions > Asia > Charles River adds Nomura's Asian algos to IMS
Asia, Equities August 6, 2009 3:15 PM GMT
Charles River adds Nomura's Asian algos to IMS
Buy-side trading technology provider Charles River Development has made Japanese broker Nomura's ModelEx suite of execution algorithms for Asia available to users of its Investment Management System (IMS).
The algorithms cover a number of key Asia-Pacific equity markets, including Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. More than 40 brokers now provide algorithms to buy-side clients via IMS.
"To address the Asia-Pacific region's market fragmentation, asset managers and institutional investors continue to demand electronic trading tools and strategies," said Cameron Field, managing director, Asia Pacific, Charles River, in a statement. "We help meet this demand by efficiently routing orders to the most liquid markets, providing integrated access to leading regional and global strategies, such as the ones offered by Nomura's ModelEx platform."
"Charles River is instrumental in helping buy-side firms gain fast, flexible and dependable access to ModelEx algorithmic strategies, both across Asia-Pacific and globally," added Sunny Chung, executive director of electronic trading services at Nomura.
Nomura developed the ModelEx platform from the direct market access and algorithmic capabilities of investment bank Lehman Brothers. Nomura acquired Lehman's European and Asian operations in September last year after the parent firm, Lehman Brothers Holding, filed for bankruptcy.
Charles River has also signed up a new South African client to IMS. The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), one of the largest investment managers in Africa with around $100 billion in assets under management, will use the system for its fixed income trading and portfolio management. The firm may expand the system to manage equities in the future.
"Like any government agency, we follow a very strict and extensive procurement process," said Leon Smit, head of fixed income, PIC. "Our clients are public sector entities who have varied investment mandates which have been approved by the Financial Services Board (FSB), so our trading and portfolio management environment is closely controlled. We needed an order and execution management system flexible enough to meet any client demand."?
Charles River's South African buy-side client base includes ABSA Capital, Metropolitan Asset Management, Prudential Portfolio Managers, Sanlam Prime Services and STANLIB Asset Management.
Tagged: algorithmic trading, Trading tools
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