text:
Q: Shaking effect - Flash CS6 ActionScript3.0 This question is related to ActionScript 3.0 and Flash CS6
I am trying to make an object shake a bit in a certain for some seconds. I made it a "movieclip" and made this code:
import flash.events.TimerEvent;

var Machine_mc:Array = new Array();

var fl_machineshaking:Timer = new Timer(1000, 10);
fl_machineshaking.addEventListener (TimerEvent.TIMER, fl_shakemachine);
fl_machineshaking.start ();

function fl_shakemachine (event:TimerEvent):void {

 for (var i = 0; i < 20; i++) {

  Machine.x += Math.random() * 6 - 4;
  Machine.y += Math.random() * 6 - 4;
 }

}

When testing the movie I get multiple errors looking exactly like this one:
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
    at Historieoppgave_fla::MainTimeline/fl_shakemachine()
    at flash.utils::Timer/_timerDispatch()
    at flash.utils::Timer/tick()

Also, the object doesnt shake, but it moves steadily upwards to the left a bit every tick.
To the point:
I wish to know how I stop the script after the object is not in the stage/scene anymore and also how to make it shake around, as I do not see what is wrong with my script, please help, thank you ^_^

A: AStupidNube brought up a great point about the original position. So adding that to shaking that should be a back and forth motion, so don't rely on random values that may or may not get you what you want.  Shaking also has a dampening effect over time, so try something like this:
Link to working code
• http://wonderfl.net/c/eB1E - Event.ENTER_FRAME based
• http://wonderfl.net/c/hJJl - Timer Based
• http://wonderfl.net/c/chYC - Event.ENTER_FRAME based with extra randomness
**1 to 20 shaking items Timer Based code - see link above for ENTER_FRAME code••
package {
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
import flash.events.TimerEvent;
import flash.geom.Point;
import flash.text.TextField;
import flash.utils.Timer;

public class testing extends Sprite {

    private var shakeButton:Sprite;
    private var graphic:Sprite;
    private var shakerPos:Array;
    private var shakers:Array;
    private var numShakers:int = 20;
    private var dir:int = 1;
    private var displacement:Number = 10;
    private var shakeTimer:Timer;

    public function testing() {
        this.shakers = new Array();
        this.shakerPos = new Array();
        this.addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, this.init);
    }
    private function init(e:Event):void {
        this.stage.frameRate = 30;
        this.shakeTimer = new Timer(33, 20);
        this.shakeTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, this.shake);
        this.graphics.beginFill(0x333333);
        this.graphics.drawRect(0,0,this.stage.stageWidth, this.stage.stageHeight);
        this.graphics.endFill();

        this.createShakers();

        this.shakeButton = this.createSpriteButton("Shake ");
        this.addChild(this.shakeButton);
        this.shakeButton.x = 10;
        this.shakeButton.y = 10;
        this.shakeButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, this.shakeCallback);
    }
    private function createSpriteButton(btnName:String):Sprite {
        var sBtn:Sprite = new Sprite();
        sBtn.name = btnName;
        sBtn.graphics.beginFill(0xFFFFFF);
        sBtn.graphics.drawRoundRect(0,0,80,20,5);
        var sBtnTF:TextField = new TextField();
        sBtn.addChild(sBtnTF);
        sBtnTF.text = btnName;
        sBtnTF.x = 5;
        sBtnTF.y = 3;
        sBtnTF.selectable = false;
        sBtn.alpha = .5;
        sBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, function(e:Event):void { sBtn.alpha = 1 });
        sBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, function(e:Event):void { sBtn.alpha = .5 });
        return sBtn;
    }
    private function createShakers():void {
        var graphic:Sprite;

        for(var i:int = 0;i < this.numShakers;i++) {
            graphic = new Sprite();
            this.addChild(graphic);
            graphic.graphics.beginFill(0xFFFFFF);
            graphic.graphics.drawRect(0,0,10,10);
            graphic.graphics.endFill();
            // add a 30 pixel margin for the graphic
            graphic.x = (this.stage.stageWidth-60)*Math.random()+30;
            graphic.y = (this.stage.stageWidth-60)*Math.random()+30;
            this.shakers[i] = graphic;
            this.shakerPos[i] = new Point(graphic.x, graphic.y);
        }
    }
    private function shakeCallback(e:Event):void {
        this.shakeTimer.reset();
        this.shakeTimer.start();
    }
    private function shake(e:TimerEvent):void {
        this.dir *= -1;
        var dampening:Number = (20 - e.target.currentCount)/20;
        for(var i:int = 0;i < this.numShakers;i++) {
            this.shakers[i].x = this.shakerPos[i].x + Math.random()*10*dir*dampening;
            this.shakers[i].y = this.shakerPos[i].y + Math.random()*10*dir*dampening;
        }
    }
}

}
Now this is a linear dampening, you can adjust as you see fit by squaring or cubing the values.

A: You have to remember the original start position and calculate the shake effect from that point. This is my shake effect for MovieClips. It dynamically adds 3 variables (startPosition, shakeTime, maxShakeAmount) to it. If you use classes, you would add them to your clips.
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.geom.Point;

function shake(mc:MovieClip, frames:int = 10, maxShakeAmount:int = 30) : void
{
    if (!mc._shakeTime || mc._shakeTime <= 0)
    {
        mc.startPosition = new Point(mc.x, mc.y);
        mc._shakeTime = frames;
        mc._maxShakeAmount = maxShakeAmount;
        mc.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, handleShakeEnterFrame);
    }
    else
    {
        mc.startPosition = new Point(mc.x, mc.y);
        mc._shakeTime += frames;
        mc._maxShakeAmount = maxShakeAmount;
    }
}

function handleShakeEnterFrame(event:Event):void
{
    var mc:MovieClip = MovieClip(event.currentTarget);
    var shakeAmount:Number = Math.min(mc._maxShakeAmount, mc._shakeTime);
    mc.x = mc.startPosition.x + (-shakeAmount / 2 + Math.random() * shakeAmount);
    mc.y = mc.startPosition.y + (-shakeAmount / 2 + Math.random() * shakeAmount);

    mc._shakeTime--;

    if (mc._shakeTime <= 0)
    {
        mc._shakeTime = 0;
        mc.removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, handleShakeEnterFrame);
    }
}

You can use it like this:
// shake for 100 frames, with max distance of 15px
this.shake(myMc, 100, 15);

BTW: In Flash, you should enable 'permit debugging' in your 'publish settings' to have more detailed errors. This also gives back the line numbers where your code is breaking.

update:
Code now with time / maximum distance separated.

A: Here is a forked version of the chosen answer, but is a bit more flexible in that it allows you to set the frequency as well. It's also based on time as opposed to frames so you can think in terms of time(ms) as opposed to frames when setting the duration and interval.
The usage is similar to the chosen answer :
shake (clipToShake, durationInMilliseconds, frequencyInMilliseconds, maxShakeRange);
This is just an example of what I meant by using a TimerEvent as opposed to a ENTER_FRAME. It also doesn't require adding dynamic variables to the MovieClips you are shaking to track time, shakeAmount, and starting position.
    public function shake(shakeClip:MovieClip, duration:Number = 3000, frequency:Number = 30, distance:Number = 30):void
    {
        var shakes:int = duration / frequency;
        var shakeTimer:Timer = new Timer(frequency, shakes);
        var startX:Number = shakeClip.x;
        var startY:Number = shakeClip.y;

        var shakeUpdate:Function = function(e:TimerEvent):void
            {
                shakeClip.x = startX + ( -distance / 2 + Math.random() * distance);
                shakeClip.y = startY + ( -distance / 2 + Math.random() * distance);
            }

        var shakeComplete:Function = function(e:TimerEvent):void
            {
                shakeClip.x = startX;
                shakeClip.y = startY;
                e.target.removeEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, shakeUpdate);
                e.target.removeEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER_COMPLETE, shakeComplete);
            }

        shakeTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, shakeUpdate);
        shakeTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER_COMPLETE, shakeComplete);

        shakeTimer.start();
    }

A: -4 <= Math.random() * 6 - 4 < 2
You add this offset to Machine.x 20 times, so chances for moving to the left is greater, than to the right.
It seems that you looking for something like this:
for each (var currentMachine:MovieClip in Machine_mc)
{
     currentMachine.x += Math.random() * 6 - 3;
     currentMachine.y += Math.random() * 6 - 3;
}


What are alternatives to Rocketium?
There is no universal Video Editing Software product. A good software like Rocketium can have great features but it may not match your individual business expectations. In order to you select the best solution, take a look at the other Rocketium alternatives listed below and investigate their features and options. It is also possible compare them with each other to get the best deal.
Our group of independent experts have evaluated Rocketium with a total rating of 8.7/10 after a run of detailed tests. Actual clients of Rocketium have an average satisfaction rating with the product at 100% which shows their experience with this solution. If you spend some time analyzing other Rocketium alternatives you will surely find other services with similar or even better ratings.
It may sometimes be a real challenge to get a reliable Video Editing Software solution that will not only fit your expectations but will also be in accord with your budget limits. When you research various alternatives to Rocketium you should pay attention not simply to offered tools but also to a variety of elements including price, quality of client support, supported mobile devices and offered integrations. With sufficient research you should be able to get a software that will include all the variables you want at a reasonable price.
If you need more information about Rocketium or you simply have a question let us know what you need and we'll forward your request directly to the vendor.


text:
The Hell's That: Fast Fashion vs. Slow Fashion
Apr 18, 2018 Haley Martin
We know as well as anyone; in the sustainable marketplace, there is quite a bit of jargon getting thrown around. Though consumers often use terms like they're interchangeable, much of this vocabulary isn't––so it can get kind of confusing! Well, we're going to make it easy for you with our new series: "The Dictionary of Faire: The Hell's that?" We informally debuted this series a few weeks ago with sustainability. Now, we're moving on to Fast Fashion vs. Slow Fashion. At this point, we likely all understand Fast Fashion. But, if you are new, here's a refresher!
/fast/ˈfaSHən/
the cyclical, uber-trendy, market for clothes that are pushed from the design board, into factories, malls, closets—–and, all too often into the trash––in a matter of months.
The word may as well be synonymous with brands like Zara, H&M, Topshop, and Forever 21. Many of these companies, and brands like them, produce close to one million garments per day. *pause for gasp* Not so coincidentally, these brands are the staple of many Western wardrobes.
Our relationship with fashion has changed drastically throughout history. Whereas we once made our own clothes, and wore hand-me-downs, we now opt for cheap and fleetingly stylish garments made to meet the demands of an arbitrary 52-week-per-year trend cycle. Once we decide that apparel X has run its course across the rapid style radar, we throw it out, and immediately move onto apparels Y and Z (aka whatever's new).
You might be wondering: If everyone does it, is it really so bad? Yes. Low prices drive us to consume more, but our purchases come at a higher price for garment workers and the environment. According to EcoCult, Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world, tied with cow farts (livestock), at number five. The garment industry is responsible for poisoning rivers (literally dyeing them), ravishing farm land and habitats, and producing astronomical amounts of water and solid waste. The same processes that damage our environment can also harm the more than one billion workers across the garment industry's supply chains. Furthermore, most workers do not earn enough to pay for basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter–-and those unbelievably low wages aren't a mistake. They're part of a production strategy that has managed to transform itself into a global, systemic nightmare through maximized consumer spending. That sucks!
But, like, is there another way? Of course, there is! Introducing–– *drum-roll please*––Slow Fashion.
/slō/ˈfaSHən/
and long-lasting clothing consumption which resists the persistent speed of seasonal fashion trends and cycles.
By changing the qualifier of our mainstream fashion dialogue from fast to slow, designers and consumers are harnessing the power to change the marketplace one brand, one consumer, at a time. We slow down the fashion cycle and demand clothes that resist the persistent speed of tradition retail.
Slow Fashion is not just about the lifespan of your clothing. The concept combines sustainability and ethical standards in the production, use, and disposal of our garments. As much as we would love to take credit for this powerful movement, we did not make this stuff up, y'all. Brands and artists both inside and outside the sustainable industry have paved the way to making this idea the norm.
The term was coined by Kate Fletcher from The Centre for Sustainable Fashion, when garments were compared to food across their supply chains and effects. For instance, when we really think about our food, we would like our farmers to take their time, to ensure quality in production, and to be mindful of the environment––not only because the food we eat affects us, but because how it comes to us does too...hence, the Slow Food movement. And, out of this reasoning, the Slow Fashion concept (and movement) was born.
Loved Clothes Last is the title of the recent zine published by Fashion Revolution. Its creators dive deep into issues like waste, mass-consumption and their effects on the environment. But, most importantly, the magazine urges its readers to, "buy less, care more, and know how to make the clothes you love last for longer." Even the big names have caught on. Alessandro Michele, the creative director at Gucci, gives us all a powerful call to action: "Resist the mantra of speed that violently leads to losing oneself. Resist the illusion of something new at any cost."
We urge you to take this call to heart! We love the Earth, and, even more, we love the people on it. The garment workers, the artisans, and the consumers (you). So, slow down. Consume carefully. Many brands (including ours) offer garments that can empower you to take the first step. So, go ahead—demand clothes to love, and that are made with love. Clothes to cherish. And, most importantly, clothes to last.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Entries from April 2014
Friday, April 25. 2014
Forget Flying Cars – Smart Cities Just Need Smart Citizens | #smart?
Via ArchDaily via The European
This article by Carlo Ratti originally appeared in The European titled "The Sense-able City". Ratti outlines the driving forces behind the Smart Cities movement and explain why we may be best off focusing on retrofitting existing cities with new technologies rather than building new ones.
What was empty space just a few years ago is now becoming New Songdo in Korea, Masdar in the United Arab Emirates or PlanIT in Portugal — new "smart cities", built from scratch, are sprouting across the planet and traditional actors like governments, urban planners and real estate developers, are, for the first time, working alongside large IT firms — the likes of IBM, Cisco, and Microsoft.
The resulting cities are based on the idea of becoming "living labs" for new technologies at the urban scale, blurring the boundary between bits and atoms, habitation and telemetry. If 20th century French architect Le Corbusier advanced the concept of the house as a "machine for living in", these cities could be imagined as inhabitable microchips, or "computers in open air".
Read on for more about the rise of Smart Cities
Wearable Computers and Smart Trash
The very idea of a smart city runs parallel to "ambient intelligence" — the dissemination of ubiquitous electronic systems in our living environments, allowing them to sense and respond to people. That fluid sensing and actuation is the logical conclusion of the liberation of computing: from mainframe solidity to desktop fixity, from laptop mobility to handheld ubiquity, to a final ephemerality as computing disappears into the environment and into humans themselves with development of wearable computers.
It is impossible to forget the striking side-by-side images of the past two Papal Inaugurations: the first, for Benedict XVI in 2005, shows the raised hands of a cheering crowd, while the second, for Francesco I in 2013, a glimmering constellation of smartphone screens held aloft to take pictures. Smart cities are enabled by the atomization of technology, ushering an age when the physical world is indistinguishable from its digital overlay.
The key mechanism behind ambient intelligence, then, is "sensing" — the ability to measure what happens around us and to respond dynamically. New means of sensing are suffusing every aspect of urban space, revealing its visible and invisible dimensions: we are learning more about our cities so that they can learn about us. As people talk, text, and browse, data collected from telecommunication networks is capturing urban flows in real time and crystallizing them as Google's traffic congestion maps.
Like a tracer running through the veins of the city, networks of air quality sensors attached to bikes can help measure an individual's exposure to pollution and draw a dynamic map of the urban air on a human scale, as in the case of the Copenhagen Wheel developed by new startup Superpedestrian. Even trash could become smarter: the deployment of geolocating tags attached to ordinary garbage could paint a surprising picture of the waste management system, as trash is shipped throughout the country in a maze-like disposal process — as we saw in Seattle with our own Trash Track project.
Afraid of Our Own Bed
Today, people themselves (equipped with smartphones, naturally) can be instruments of sensing. Over the past few years, a new universe of urban apps has appeared — allowing people to broadcast their location, information and needs — and facilitating new interactions with the city. Hail a taxi ("Uber"), book a table for dinner ("OpenTable"), or have physical encounters based on proximity and profiles ("Grindr" and "Blendr"): real-time information is sent out from our pockets, into the city, and right back to our fingertips.
In some cases, the very process of sensing becomes a deliberate civic action: citizens themselves are taking an increasingly active role in participatory data sharing. Users of Waze automatically upload detailed road and traffic information so that their community can benefit from it. 311-type apps allow people to report non-emergencies in their immediate neighborhood, from potholes to fallen tree branches, and subsequently organize a fix. Open Street Map does the same, enabling citizens to collaboratively draw maps of places that have never been systematically charted before — especially in developing countries not yet graced by a visit from Google.
These examples show the positive implications of ambient urban intelligence but the data that emerges from fine-grained sensing is inherently neutral. It is a tool that can be used in many different applications, and to widely varying ends. As artist-turned-XeroxPARC-pioneer Rich Gold once asked in an incisive (and humorous) essay: "How smart does your bed have to be, before you are afraid to go to sleep at night?" What might make our nights sleepless, in this case, is the sheer amount of data being generated by sensing. According to a famous quantification by Google's Eric Schmidt, every 48 hours we produce as much data as all of humanity until 2003 (an estimation that is already three years old). Who has access to this data? How do we avoid the dystopian ending of Italo Calvino's 1960s short story "The Memory of the World," where humanity's act of infinite recording unravels as intrigue, drama, and murder?
And finally, does this new pervasive data dimension require an entirely new city? Probably not. Of course, ambient intelligence might have architectural ramifications, like responsive building facades or occupant-targeted climates. But in each of the city-sensing examples above, technology does not necessarily call for new urban space — many IT-infused "smart city initiatives" feel less like a necessity and more like a justification of real estate operations on a massive scale – with a net result of bland spatial products.
Forget About Flying Cars
Ambient intelligence can indeed pervade new cities, but perhaps most importantly, it can also animate the rich, chaotic erstwhile urban spaces — like a new operating system for existing hardware. This was already noted by Bill Mitchell at the beginning of our digital era: "The gorgeous old city of Venice […] can integrate modern telecommunications infrastructure far more gracefully than it could ever have adapted to the demands of the industrial revolution." Could ambient intelligence bring new life to the winding streets of Italian hill towns, the sweeping vistas of Santorini, or the empty husks of Detroit?
We might need to forget about the flying cars that zip through standard future cities discourse. Urban form has shown an impressive persistence over millennia — most elements of the modern city were already present in Greek and Roman times. Humans have always needed, and will continue to need, the same physical structures for their daily lives: horizontal planes and vertical walls (no offense, Frank O. Gehry). But the very lives that unfold inside those walls is now the subject of one of the most striking transformations in human history. Ambient intelligence and sensing networks will not change the container but the contained; not smart cities but smart citizens.
This article by Carlo Ratti originally appeared in The European Magazine
Carlo Ratti @ MIT Media Lab
Posted by Patrick Keller in Architecture, Culture & society, Interaction design, Science & technology, Sustainability at 07:51
Defined tags for this entry: architecture, citizen, culture & society, data, interaction design, monitoring, participative, science & technology, sustainability, urbanism, users
Thursday, April 24. 2014
Les-tuh skwair | #algorithm
Via The New Aesthetic
algopop:
"As algorithmic systems become more prevalent, I've begun to notice of a variety of emergent behaviors evolving to work around these constraints, to deal with the insufficiency of these black box systems…The first behavior is adaptation. These are situations where I bend to the system's will. For example, adaptations to the shortcomings of voice UI systems — mispronouncing a friend's name to get my phone to call them; overenunciating; or speaking in a different accent because of the cultural assumptions built into voice recognition. We see people contort their behavior to perform for the system so that it responds optimally."
Alexis Lloyd (NYTimes R&D) shares some interesting views under the title In the Loop: Designing Conversations with Algorithms.
Posted by Patrick Keller in Culture & society, Interaction design, Science & technology at 14:27
Defined tags for this entry: behaviour, code, communication, culture & society, interaction design, interferences, language, science & technology, social
Snowden's mediated mobility | #tele-
Via algopop
More about Snowden's new mobility (mediated by Google) HERE.
Posted by Patrick Keller in Culture & society, Interaction design at 08:31
Defined tags for this entry: culture & society, interaction design, mediated, presence, robotics, tele-
Wednesday, April 02. 2014
Computers dethrone humans in European stock trading | #algorithms
Meanwhile ...
Makes me think about this interview with Bill Gates about software substitution.
Via algopop (via Reuters)
Computers dethrone humans in European stock trading - via reuters
European equity investors are placing more orders via computers than through human traders for the first time as new market rules drive more money managers to go high-tech and low cost. The widespread regulatory changes has made electronic trading spread across the industry.
Last year, European investors put 51 percent of their orders through computers directly connected to the stock exchange or by using algorithms, a study by consultants TABB showed. The TABB study revealed that of 58 fund managers controlling 14.6 trillion euros in assets, a majority intended to funnel much more of their business through electronic "low touch" channels, which can cut trade costs by two-thirds. Pioneer Investments, which trades 500 billion euros ($695 billion) worth of assets every year and has cut the number of brokers it uses from 300 to around 100. Thats a lot of money in the non-hands of algorithms.
Posted by Patrick Keller in Culture & society, Science & technology at 09:01
Defined tags for this entry: code, computing, culture & society, economy, science & technology
Why Her will dominate UI design ... (as an anti Minority Report) | #interaction #interface #ai
Via Wired
By Kyle Vanhemert
The future we see in Her is one where technology has dissolved into everyday life.
A few weeks into the making of Her, Spike Jonze's new flick about romance in the age of artificial intelligence, the director had something of a breakthrough. After poring over the work of Ray Kurzweil and other futurists trying to figure out how, exactly, his artificially intelligent female lead should operate, Jonze arrived at a critical insight: Her, he realized, isn't a movie about technology. It's a movie about people. With that, the film took shape. Sure, it takes place in the future, but what it's really concerned with are human relationships, as fragile and complicated as they've been from the start.
Of course on another level Her is very much a movie about technology. One of the two main characters is, after all, a consciousness built entirely from code. That aspect posed a unique challenge for Jonze and his production team: They had to think like designers. Assuming the technology for AI was there, how would it operate? What would the relationship with its "user" be like? How do you dumb down an omniscient interlocutor for the human on the other end of the earpiece?
When AI is cheap, what does all the other technology look like?
For production designer KK Barrett, the man responsible for styling the world in which the story takes place, Her represented another sort of design challenge. Barrett's previously brought films like Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, and Where the Wild Things Are to life, but the problem here was a new one, requiring more than a little crystal ball-gazing. The big question: In a world where you can buy AI off the shelf, what does all the other technology look like?
In Her, the future almost looks more like the past.
Technology Shouldn't Feel Like Technology
One of the first things you notice about the "slight future" of Her, as Jonze has described it, is that there isn't all that much technology at all. The main character Theo Twombly, a writer for the bespoke love letter service BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com, still sits at a desktop computer when he's at work, but otherwise he rarely has his face in a screen. Instead, he and his fellow future denizens are usually just talking, either to each other or to their operating systems via a discrete earpiece, itself more like a fancy earplug anything resembling today's cyborgian Bluetooth headsets.
In this "slight future" world, things are low-tech everywhere you look. The skyscrapers in this futuristic Los Angeles haven't turned into towering video billboards a la Blade Runner; they're just buildings. Instead of a flat screen TV, Theo's living room just has nice furniture.
This is, no doubt, partly an aesthetic concern; a world mediated through screens doesn't make for very rewarding mise en scene. But as Barrett explains it, there's a logic to this technological sparseness. "We decided that the movie wasn't about technology, or if it was, that the technology should be invisible," he says. "And not invisible like a piece of glass." Technology hasn't disappeared, in other words. It's dissolved into everyday life.
Here's another way of putting it. It's not just that Her, the movie, is focused on people. It also shows us a future where technology is more people-centric. The world Her shows us is one where the technology has receded, or one where we've let it recede. It's a world where the pendulum has swung back the other direction, where a new generation of designers and consumers have accepted that technology isn't an end in itself–that it's the real world we're supposed to be connecting to. (Of course, that's the ideal; as we see in the film, in reality, making meaningful connections is as difficult as ever.)
Theo still has a desktop display at work and at home, but elsewhere technology is largely invisible.
Theo Twombly still sits at a desktop computer when he's at work, but otherwise he rarely has his face in a screen.
Jonze had help in finding the contours of this slight future, including conversations with designers from New York-based studio Sagmeister & Walsh and an early meeting with Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, principals at architecture firm DS+R. As the film's production designer, Barrett was responsible for making it a reality.
Throughout that process, he drew inspiration from one of his favorite books, a visual compendium of futuristic predictions from various points in history. Basically, the book reminded Barrett what not to do. "It shows a lot of things and it makes you laugh instantly, because you say, 'those things never came to pass!'" he explains. "But often times, it's just because they over-thought it. The future is much simpler than you think."
That's easy to say in retrospect, looking at images of Rube Goldbergian kitchens and scenes of commute by jet pack. But Jonze and Barrett had the difficult task of extrapolating that simplification forward from today's technological moment.
Theo's home gives us one concise example. You could call it a "smart house," but there's little outward evidence of it. What makes it intelligent isn't the whizbang technology but rather simple, understated utility. Lights, for example, turn off and on as Theo moves from room to room. There's no app for controlling them from the couch; no control panel on the wall. It's all automatic. Why? "It's just a smart and efficient way to live in a house," says Barrett.
Today's smartphones were another object of Barrett's scrutiny. "They're advanced, but in some ways they're not advanced whatsoever," he says. "They need too much attention. You don't really want to be stuck engaging them. You want to be free." In Barrett's estimation, the smartphones just around the corner aren't much better. "Everyone says we're supposed to have a curved piece of flexible glass. Why do we need that? Let's make it more substantial. Let's make it something that feels nice in the hand."
Theo's smartphone was designed to be "substantial," something that first and foremost "feels good in the hand."
Theo's phone in the film is just that–a handsome hinged device that looks more like an art deco cigarette case than an iPhone. He uses it far less frequently than we use our smartphones today; it's functional, but it's not ubiquitous. As an object, it's more like a nice wallet or watch. In terms of industrial design, it's an artifact from a future where gadgets don't need to scream their sophistication–a future where technology has progressed to the point that it doesn't need to look like technology.
All of these things contribute to a compelling, cohesive vision of the future–one that's dramatically different from what we usually see in these types of movies. You could say that Her is, in fact, a counterpoint to that prevailing vision of the future–the anti-Minority Report. Imagining its world wasn't about heaping new technology on society as we know it today. It was looking at those places where technology could fade into the background, integrate more seamlessly. It was about envisioning a future, perhaps, that looked more like the past. "In a way," says Barrett, "my job was to undesign the design."
The Holy Grail: A Discrete User Interface
The greatest act of undesigning in Her, technologically speaking, comes with the interface used throughout the film. Theo doesn't touch his computer–in fact, while he has a desktop display at home and at work, neither have a keyboard. Instead, he talks to it. "We decided we didn't want to have physical contact," Barrett says. "We wanted it to be natural. Hence the elimination of software keyboards as we know them."
Again, voice control had benefits simply on the level of moviemaking. A conversation between Theo and Sam, his artificially intelligent OS, is obviously easier for the audience to follow than anything involving taps, gestures, swipes or screens. But the voice-based UI was also a perfect fit for a film trying to explore what a less intrusive, less demanding variety of technology might look like.
The main interface in the film is voice–Theo communicates to his AI OS through a discrete ear plug.
Indeed, if you're trying to imagine a future where we've managed to liberate ourselves from screens, systems based around talking are hard to avoid. As Barrett puts it, the computers we see in Her "don't ask us to sit down and pay attention" like the ones we have today. He compares it to the fundamental way music beats out movies in so many situations. Music is something you can listen to anywhere. It's complementary. It lets you operate in 360 degrees. Movies require you to be locked into one place, looking in one direction. As we see in the film, no matter what Theo's up to in real life, all it takes to bring his OS into the fold is to pop in his ear plug.
Looking at it that way, you can see the audio-based interface in Her as a novel form of augmented reality computing. Instead of overlaying our vision with a feed, as we've typically seen it, Theo gets a one piped into his ear. At the same time, the other ear is left free to take in the world around him.
Barrett sees this sort of arrangement as an elegant end point to the trajectory we're already on. Think about what happens today when we're bored at the dinner table. We check our phones. At the same time, we realize that's a bit rude, and as Barrett sees it, that's one of the great promises of the smartwatch: discretion.
"They're a little more invisible. A little sneakier," he says. Still, they're screens that require eyeballs. Instead, Barrett says, "imagine if you had an ear plug in and you were getting your feed from everywhere." Your attention would still be divided, but not nearly as flagrantly.
Theo chops it up with a holographic videogame character.
Of course, a truly capable voice-based UI comes with other benefits. Conversational interfaces make everything easier to use. When every different type of device runs an OS that can understand natural language, it means that every menu, every tool, every function is accessible simply by requesting it.
That, too, is a trend that's very much alive right now. Consider how today's mobile operating systems, like iOS and ChromeOS, hide the messy business of file systems out of sight. Theo, with his voice-based valet as intermediary, is burdened with even less under-the-hood stuff than we are today. As Barrett puts it: "We didn't want him fiddling with things and fussing with things." In other words, Theo lives in a future where everything, not just his iPad, "just works."
Theo lives in a future where everything, not just his iPad, "just works."
AI: the ultimate UX challenge
The central piece of invisible design in Her, however, is that of Sam, the artificially intelligent operating system and Theo's eventual romantic partner. Their relationship is so natural that it's easy to forget she's a piece of software. But Jonze and company didn't just write a girlfriend character, label it AI, and call it a day. Indeed, much of the film's dramatic tension ultimately hinges not just on the ways artificial intelligence can be like us but the ways it cannot.
Much of Sam's unique flavor of AI was written into the script by Jonze himself. But her inclusion led to all sorts of conversations among the production team about the nature of such a technology. "Anytime you're dealing with trying to interact with a human, you have to think of humans as operating systems. Very advanced operating systems. Your highest goal is to try to emulate them," Barrett says. Superficially, that might mean considering things like voice pattern and sensitivity and changing them based on the setting or situation.
Even more quesitons swirled when they considered how an artificially intelligent OS should behave. Are they a good listener? Are they intuitive? Do they adjust to your taste and line of questioning? Do they allow time for you to think? As Barrett puts it, "you don't want a machine that's always telling you the answer. You want one that approaches you like, 'let's solve this together.'"
In essence, it means that AI has to be programmed to dumb itself down. "I think it's very important for OSes in the future to have a good bedside manner." Barrett says. "As politicians have learned, you can't talk at someone all the time. You have to act like you're listening."
AI's killer app, as we see in the film, is the ability to adjust to the emotional state of its user.
As we see in the film, though, the greatest asset of AI might be that it doesn't have one fixed personality. Instead, its ability to figure out what a person needs at a given moment emerges as the killer app.
Theo, emotionally desolate in the midst of a hard divorce, is having a hard time meeting people, so Sam goads him into going on a blind date. When Theo's friend Amy splits up with her husband, her own artificially intelligent OS acts as a sort of therapist. "She's helping me work through some things," Amy says of her virtual friend at one point.
In our own world, we may be a long way from computers that are able to sense when we're blue and help raise our spirits in one way or another. But we're already making progress down this path. In something as simple as a responsive web layout or iOS 7′s "Do Not Disturb" feature, we're starting to see designs that are more perceptive about the real world context surrounding them–where or how or when they're being used. Google Now and other types of predictive software are ushering in a new era of more personalized, more intelligent apps. And while Apple updating Siri with a few canned jokes about her Hollywood counterpart might not amount to a true sense of humor, it does serve as another example of how we're making technology more human–a preoccupation that's very much alive today.
Personal comment:
While I do agree with the idea that technology is becoming in some ways banal --or maybe, to use a better word, just common-- and that the future might not be about flying cars, fancy allover hologram interfaces or backup video cities populated with personal clones), that it might be "in service of", will "vanish" or "recede" into our daily atmospheres, environments, architectures, furnitures, clothes if not bodies or cells, we have to keep in mind that this could (will) make it even more intrusive.
When technology won't make debate anymore (when it will be common), when it will be both ambient and invisible, passively accepted if not undergone, then there will be lots of room for ... (gap to be filled by many names) to fulfill their wildest dreams.
We also have to keep in mind that when technology enters an untapped domain (let's say as an example social domain, for the last ten years), it engineers what was, in some cases and before, a common good (you didn't had to pay or trade some data to talk with somebody before). So to say, to engineer common goods (i.e. social relationships, but why not in the future love, air, genome --already the case--, etc.) turns them into products: commodification. Not always a good thing if I could say so... This definitely looks like a goal from the economy: how to turn everything into something you can sell, and information technology is quite good in helping do that.
And btw... even so technology might "recede", I'm not so keen with the rather "skeumorph" design of the "ai cell phone" in the movie so far (haven't seen the movie yet)..;). and oh my, I definitely hope this won't be our future. It looks like a Jobs design!
Defined tags for this entry: artificial reality, culture & society, interaction design, interface, movie, narrative, presence, psychological, social, speculation, users
fabric | rblg
This blog is the survey website of fabric | ch - studio for architecture, interaction and research.
We curate and reblog articles, researches, writings, exhibitions and projects that we notice and find interesting during our everyday practice and readings.
Most articles concern the intertwined fields of architecture, territory, art, interaction design, thinking and science. From time to time, we also publish documentation about our own work and research, immersed among these related resources and inspirations.
This website is used by fabric | ch as archive, references and resources. It is shared with all those interested in the same topics as we are, in the hope that they will also find valuable references and content in it.
Culture & society (425)
| rblg on Twitter


text:
package de.fct.companian.model.uml;

import junit.framework.Assert;
import junit.framework.TestCase;

import org.eclipse.emf.common.util.URI;
import org.eclipse.uml2.uml.StateMachine;

import de.fct.companian.model.binding.umlpsc.UMLProtocolDlProxy;
import de.fct.companian.model.binding.umlpsc.UMLStateMachineLoader;
import de.fct.fdmm.hotspot.HookCall;
import de.fct.fdmm.protocoldl.HookProtocolState;
import de.fct.fdmm.protocoldl.MessageType;
import de.fct.fdmm.protocoldl.ProtocolHook;

public class UMLStateMachineTest extends TestCase {

    private static final String MODEL_FILE = "../testdata/statemachines/example1/ProtocolExample.uml";

	public void testLoadStateMachine() {
		URI modelUri = URI.createFileURI(MODEL_FILE);
		StateMachine umlStateMachine = UMLStateMachineLoader.loadStateMachine(modelUri);
		Assert.assertNotNull(umlStateMachine);
	}

	public void testInitProxy() throws Exception {
		java.net.URI modelUri = new java.net.URI(MODEL_FILE);
		Assert.assertNotNull(modelUri);
        UMLProtocolDlProxy proxy = new UMLProtocolDlProxy();
        de.fct.fdmm.protocoldl.StateMachine sm = proxy.getStateMachine(MODEL_FILE);
		Assert.assertNotNull(sm);
	}

	public void testGetStartState() throws Exception {
		UMLProtocolDlProxy proxy = new UMLProtocolDlProxy();
		de.fct.fdmm.protocoldl.StateMachine sm = proxy.getStateMachine(MODEL_FILE);

		HookProtocolState startState = sm.getStartState();
		Assert.assertNotNull(startState);
		Assert.assertNotNull(startState.getId());
		Assert.assertEquals("example1", startState.getId());
		Assert.assertNotNull(startState.getSubsequentHooks());
		assert startState.getSubsequentHooks().size() == 1;
	}

	public void testTransition() throws Exception {
        UMLProtocolDlProxy proxy = new UMLProtocolDlProxy();
        de.fct.fdmm.protocoldl.StateMachine sm = proxy.getStateMachine(MODEL_FILE);

        HookProtocolState startState = sm.getStartState();
		ProtocolHook creationMsg = startState.getSubsequentHooks().iterator().next();
		Assert.assertNotNull(creationMsg.getTarget());
		assert creationMsg.getMessageType() == MessageType.CREATION;
		assert creationMsg.toString().equals(MessageType.CREATION.name());
		HookCall hook = creationMsg.getHookCall();
		Assert.assertNull(hook);

		HookProtocolState constructed = creationMsg.getTarget();
		Assert.assertNotNull(constructed);
		assert constructed.getId().equals("Constructed");

		ProtocolHook configureMsg = constructed.getSubsequentHooks().iterator().next();
		Assert.assertNotNull(configureMsg);
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Many of us make this mistake. We spell GeneAlogy like this; GeneOlogy. In fact, before I started doing GeneAlogy, I spelled it with an "O". So, the next time you want to write this word, remember there's only one "O" and one "A" in GeneAlogy.


Ayurveda is an old system of Hindu traditional medicine. It emphasises the importance of an individual and their uniqueness. Its three elemental substances, the doshas (Vata, Pita, Kapha), describe the state of the spirit and are used to establish the causes of body imbalance of an individual person. When this is established, a gentle, yet effective and most of all natural healing process of such person can start. Ayurveda helps reach the harmony of the spirit and the body.


text:
Professor Dae Kim
MBChB, BDS, MSc, FRCS (ORL-HNS), PhD
10 years as a specialist
Top feedback
"Prof Kim was able to reassure me during what was a very scary experience initially and gave me total understanding of my situation. He explained the options and gave me the confidence to make the right decision for my treatment. 8 months later and my scar is hardly visible and all is well!"
Adult Ear, Nose & Throat Surgery
New appointment: £200
Follow-up appointment: £140
Professor Dae Kim is a leading consultant ENT and thyroid surgeon based in London. As a well-trained ENT surgeon, he treats a wide range of ear and hearing problems, as well as nasal and sinus problems. He has special expertise and interest in thyroid cancer and thyroid surgery, as well as complex head and neck problems including neck lumps, cancer, throat problems, and hoarseness.
Professor Kim is based both at the Royal Marsden Hospital and St George's University Teaching Hospital, London. Unusually, he is 'dual-qualified' in both medicine (Edinburgh University) and dentistry (Birmingham University). He subsequently trained at Edinburgh and Cambridge teaching hospitals. In the latter stages, he completed a specialist ENT surgery program within the West Midlands, and an Advanced Fellowship in both head and neck oncology and endocrine surgery.
He has a clinical interest in minimally-invasive 'scarless' robotic and endoscopic thyroid surgery.
After an an advanced thyroid and parathyroid surgery fellowship at the Toronto General Hospital and the Mount Sinai Hospital, under the tutelage of the world's most renowned surgeons and oncologists, he further trained to perform minimally-invasive 'keyhole' thyroid and parathyroid surgery under the pioneers of this technique; Professors David Terris (USA) and Paulo Miccoli (Italy), In addition, he completed a dedicated 'Robotic and Endoscopic Thyroid Surgery Fellowship' at the prestigious Severance Endoscopic and Robotic Institute (Seoul). He was mentored by the world-famous Professor Chung, who has pioneered the transaxillary 'scarless' robotic and endoscopic thyroidectomy. More recently, Professor Kim aims to develop and offer the latest 'Scarless Trans-oral Thyroid Surgery'.
Professor Kim is an academic 'surgeon-scientist', and after comprehensive research training at Harvard University and Birmingham University (for which he was awarded a PhD doctorate and the prestigious 'Syme Medal' by the Royal College of Surgeons), he continues to undertake an active research program in thyroid cancer/surgery. This includes studies into the role of immunotherapy in aggressive thyroid cancers, circulating DNA as a novel biomarker, qualitative research in surgical outcomes and patient experience. He supervises several MD/PhD research fellows as part of a wider research program at the Institute of Cancer Research, working closely with Dr Kate Newbold and Professor Kevin Harrington. He has been awarded more than £2.5 Million in research funds, and furthermore, he recently was successful in being awarded a major NIHR HTA grant for a multi-center clinical trial in thyroid cancer (Chief Investigator - HoT Trial).
He contributes to several international textbooks in head & neck and thyroid surgery. He is an invited faculty member in several international training courses and surgical societies including the World Thyroid Congress, International Robotic Surgery Symposium and the Asia-Pacific Society Thyroid Surgery. He is currently a Council member of the Royal Society of Medicine (Laryngology & Rhinology), National Institute of Cancer Research (Thyroid group) and advises the National Institute of Clinical Excellence.
Specialising in Head and Neck surgery
Minimally invasive 'keyhole' (endoscopic) & robotic surgery
Parotid & Submandibular gland surgery
Pharyngeal pouch stapling
Barium swallow tests
Microlaryngoscopy
Panendoscopy
Key-hole thyroid and parathyroid surgery (Specialist advisor for NICE)
Thyroidectomy
Thyroglossal Duct Surgery
Microsuction (ear wax removal)
Functional nasal surgery
Grommet insertion
laser treatment for nasal blockage & polyps
Stopping nose bleeds (Nasal Cautery)
Vocal Fold/Laryngoscopy
Head and neck cancer surgery
Functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS)
Microscopic minimally invasive surgery of the vocal cords
Surgery of the larynx for cancer
Full range of general adult ENT problems
Nasal and sinus problems
Sinus problems
Deviated septum
Nasal blockage or injury
Allergy problems
Post-nasal drip
Ear & hearing problems
Blocked ears
Voice and throat problems
Throat lumps
Throat obstructions
Thyroid & Parathyroid disorders
Microscopic Laryngeal Surgery
Surgery for Nasal Blockage & Polyps
Allergic Rhinitis (Hayfever)
Epistaxis (Nose Bleeding)
Facial Palsy
GORD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease)
Head & Neck Tumours
Nasal Blockage
Neck Lumps
Otitis Media (Glue Ear)
Smell Disorders
Snoring Problems
Swallowing Disorder (Dysphagia)
Tonsil and Adenoid Infections
Vestibular Neuritis
Vocal Cord Disorders
Degrees & Qualifications:
MBChB 1995 University of Edinburgh
FRCS (Orl-HNS)
- Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, Edinburgh University
- Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Birmingham University
- Advanced Fellowship in Head and Neck Oncology at the Toronto General Hospital and the Mount Sinai Hospitals
- Robotic Surgery Fellowship, Institute of Robotic & Minimally-Invasive Surgery, Severance Hospital, Seoul, South Korea
Committee Roles:
- Council Member, Royal Society of Medicine (Laryngology section)
- National Cancer Research Institute (Thyroid CSG)
- Associate Editor, Clinical Otolaryngology Journal
- Asia Pacific Society of Thyroid Surgery, Scientific Committee
- Faculty, World Thyroid Congress


text:
Don't panic! Headshave in a good cause
Ian Clarke
Published: 11:32 AM September 13, 2009 Updated: 7:14 AM October 7, 2020
Ian ClarkeOne minute the 61-year-old councillor and postman was sporting a full head of hair which men several years younger would have been proud of.However, a couple of pairs of scissors and a trimmer left Keith Gilbert with just a few strands at the back and sides.Ian Clarke
One minute the 61-year-old councillor and postman was sporting a full head of hair which men several years younger would have been proud of.
However, a couple of pairs of scissors and a trimmer left Keith Gilbert with just a few strands at the back and sides.
But 'Don't Panic' Captain Mainwaring!
The new look for the well known postie and member of Watton and Breckland councils was done so he could resemble the captain of the Home Guard for his role in the forthcoming production of Dad's Army by the Boo and Hiss group at the town's Queen's Hall.
Mr Gilbert is also raising money for the armed forces charity Help For Heroes from the sponsored head shave.
A crowd gathered outside the Post Office in Watton High Street on Saturday afternoon as Mr Gilbert's partner Rita Lake and sub-postmistress Jacky Welsh started the cut and then fellow postman Colin Morton completed the job with the trimmer.
'Oh no, where has it gone?' joked Mr Gilbert, as he felt his shaved head.
'It's all for sale!' he told passers-by and as the cutting went on he said: 'It is the most attention I have had from two women for years!'
Mr Gilbert said: 'I have always had a good head of hair since I was 18 months old. To get to 61 and still have a full head of hair is pretty and people a lot younger would be proud of it.'
He said he was very keen to support HFH.
'It ties in with Dad's Army which was set in the war and we are now at war again. A lot of people are doing a lot of things beyond the call of duty and it is good that we can do something for them.'
Mrs Lake said: 'I have got to live with it and I will be glad when it grows back! It is all for the sake of the play and it will be worth it.'
Mrs Welsh said: 'I think he is very community spirited and I love his sense of humour and the fact it is being done for the charity.'
Mr Gilbert only stepped in to play the part of Captain Mainwaring when another actor had to pull out less then a month before the opening night.
*The Boo and Hiss production of Dad's Army is on from Thursday September 24 to Saturday September 26, 7.45pm. Tickets are available from Mullenger & Co in Watton High Street or by calling 01953 883474.


The Indian Constitution embodies the principle of federalism for the governance of the country but fails to adhere to the pious contents of the federalism. History speaks of the blatant encroachments made by successive governments to defeat the principle of federalism. Till 1980, the party in power at the Centre has used Article 356 beyond Constitutional limitations. It can easily be remarked that, the life of government of a party in a State, different from one in power at the Centre, has always been vulnerable.
But, with the end of 'one-party dominance system', the regional identities (States) have gained tremendous influence and became assertive, vocal and entrenched. The space for the State regional parties to assert themselves at the national level opened up as a result of increasing regionalization of Indian politics. The article focuses on the political instability of regional political parties and inherent fear to their existence in the light of Article 356 of the Constitution. Further, the article analyses the impact of coalition politics over the re-birth of sub-national units and finally, consolidates the efforts of various committees and the Supreme Court of India, to properly channelize the invocation of Article 356 of the Constitution.
Keywords: Article 356, Constitution, Centre, Emergency, Federalism, Governor, President.
Federalism has been part of the public discourse in India for many decades before and after independence in 1947, but it has gained greater importance since the 1990's when the country's national polity saw the advent of the 'coalition era'. With the Subnational Units (states) now asserting their position in areas which were considered the prerogative of the Centre, the federalism in India has come under considerable strain. The role of sub-national units in international affairs is a growing subject in the literature on federalist affairs. Scholars of law and political science have traditionally seen the conduct of foreign policy as the exclusive domain of the national government. The Indian Constitution has given the Centre particularly strong powers – so strong, in fact, that some have described it as "quasi federal" because of the lack of autonomy it affords to the states. Yet there is an increasing consensus that the states have not been shy of foreign policy advocacy. The nation has been witnessing the emergence and growth of regionalism and strong identity politics. States are increasingly assuming significance in the backdrop of more and more political parties occupying the political space which till 1967 was primarily the turf of Indian National Congress. Federalism in India has a strong bias towards the Union Government/Centre. For instance, there is no equality of state representation in the Parliament and representation can vary widely from one state to another depending on a number of factors including demography and total land area, the vesting of residuary powers with the Centre, priority to national Parliament laws over state laws under the Concurrent list, the over-centralization of power in case of emergency, etc.
"… the amendment is responsive to the aspirations of the people and reflects the realities of the present time and the future".
'D'Ocracy – D.E.M., beloved husband of T.Ruth, loving father of L.I. Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope, Justice, expired on 26th June.
In Delhi, everyone knew. The Tonga-wallahs clucking to gaunt horses knew. The autorickshaw drivers dodging through traffic knew. The push-cart seller with their mounds of oranges knew. The stringers of marigold blossoms before the temples, and the men, haunches on heels, puffing their bidis knew. That is, everyone knew except the Prime Minister and her followers. They knew that Indhira Gandhi would be defeated in the elections called for March 1977 and that her son, his coterie and his bullies would go with her.
On 24th March, 1977, the Janata Part after feeling the pain in the jails promised to restore the constitution and democratic practices under it. Morarji Desai took the oath as Prime Minister. At a later press conference with Jayaprakash Narayan beside him, he promised to accept Narayan's advice and said that, "Janata – would make the people fearless and preserve democracy". But the fact remained that both the parties resorted to ill use of Article 356 against each other and also used it as a tool to deprive one another of the power. The Prime Minister's defeat laid the foundation, in the country, for the first national coalition government.
Article 356 (Provisions in case of failure of Constitutional machinery in states) has been invoked more than 108 times since India's republican Constitution was adopted in 1950. Article 356, which empowers the Centre to dismiss a state government and impose 'Presidents Rule' in the event of a 'breakdown of constitutional machinery', is based overwhelmingly not on a point of principle but on contingent historical circumstances. Imposition of Presidents Rule (Article 356) negates the federal character of the Indian Political System and it also militates against the democratic doctrine of 'popular sovereignty' since an elected government is suspended. A proclamation by the President under Article 356 has the effect of vesting with the Parliament all the functions of the Legislative Assembly of the given State and the effect of vesting the complete executive power of the State Government with the President.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly, expressed a hope that, "… such article (Article 356) will never be called into operation and that it will remain a dead letter".
He also pointed out that, 'if at all the power was required to be exercised it should be done sparingly and the cause must be failure of constitutional machinery in a state'. I hope the President, who is endowed with these powers, will take proper precautions before actually suspending the administration of the provinces.
'I hope the first thing he will do would be to issue warning to a Province that has erred, that things were not happening in the way in which they were intended to happen in the Constitution. If that warning fails, the second thing for him to do will be to order an election allowing the people of the province to settle matters by themselves. It is only when these two remedies fail that he would resort to this Article'.
Unfortunately, Dr. Ambedkar's hopes and assurances have been sadly belied. History has testified to the flagrant misuse of Article 356. Sadly every party at the Centre has succumbed to its fatal fascination.
Previously, Centre was strong because of 'single-majority party' in power and the Centre was in no mood to accommodate the aspirations of the other regional parties. If a circumstance did exist, wherein the attitude of regional party at State level seems to hurt the Centre's ego, the State Government was to face the wrath of Article 356. And as a consequence of following the same line of attitude, Article 356 was subject to indiscriminate misuse. It has been repeatedly used with a vengeance by the ruling party at the Centre against opposition-ruled states.
After 1975, the custom of forming 'single party government' at national level seem to slack its grip. As a result of abuse of power at Centre by 'single party government', the pride of sub-national parties got hurt. The growth and emergence of Subnational/regional parties came to the front and they became assertive, vocal and entrenched. After 1967 General elections when the Congress party lost its power in a number of states, it became reasonably clear that the days of single party government were numbered.
The Governor makes his report under Article 356(1) of the Constitution in his discretion. On the face of it, it may seem to be somewhat incongruous that the Governor, who as the constitutional head of the State, acts on the aid and advice of his Ministers, also reports against them to the President. This is a case of Governor reporting against his own Government. But, under Constitution, the Governor besides being Centre's representative is under constitutional obligation to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. It is this obligation which requires him to report to the President. The Sarkaria Commission report recommends appropriately amending Article 356 to include in a Proclamation 'material facts and grounds' on which Article 356(1) is invoked. This, it is observed in the report, would make the remedy of judicial review on the grounds of mala fides more meaningful and the check of Parliament over the exercise of this power by the Union Executive more effective.
The Governor's report, which moves the President to action under Article 356, should be a 'speaking document' containing a precise and clear statement of all material facts and grounds on the basis of which the President may satisfy himself as to the existence or otherwise of the situation contemplated in Article 356. But it is unfortunate that principles and recommendations given are disregarded in the present day and that actions have been taken that are prima facie against the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India.
With the rise of the regional parties with different political ideology from the party or coalition ruling at the Centre, there is always the risk of Governor's becoming or being seen as agents of the Centre. For instance, in 1952 (Madras) and 1968 (Bihar), the Congress was invited to form the government despite lacking a majority. Recently, in August, 2013, the Governor of Madhya Pradesh, Ram Naresh Yadav, was on a collision course with the State Government. The opposition Congress Party has brought a motion of no confidence against the government. On 3rd December, 2013, the Congress urged Madhya Pradesh Governor to bar Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan (currently under caretaker charge) from holding meet before counting. The counting will take place on 8th December, 2013. The caretaker Ministry alleged the Governor of satisfying the ill motives of the Congress and attempting to bring the governance of the State under the Centre's rule.
The issue came to the fore in 1969, when at the instance of Chief Minister, M. Karunandihi, a three-member expert committee was formed by the Government of Tamil Nadu under the chairmanship of Dr. P.V Rajamannar to examine the working of India's Constitution and to recommend the re-allocation of powers between the Central Government and the States. The Rajamannar Commission called for the abolition of Article 249, 356 and 357 of the Constitution, which gives Parliament the power to legislate with respect to a matter in the State List and also to determine and act on a failure of the constitutional machinery of a State due to emergencies.
The pro-State argument received a further boost in 1977, when the Government of West Bengal released a 'Memorandum on Centre-State relations'. The West Bengal Memorandum followed in the footsteps of the Rajamannar Commission by arguing that, 'the advocacy for strong states is not necessarily in contradiction to that of a strong Centre, once the respective spheres of authority are clearly marked out'.
" although the passage, '…the government of the State cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution…' is vague, each and every breach and infraction of constitutional provision, irrespective of their significance, extent, and effect, cannot be treated as constituting a failure of the constitutional machinery".
According to the Commission's report, these alternatives may be dispensed with only in cases of extreme emergency, where failure on the part of the Union to take immediate action under Article 356 would lead to disastrous consequences.
In 2000, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) setup by BJP-led NDA Government observed that, 'It is felt that the real source of many of our problems is the tendency of centralization of power and misuse of authority'.
'with the ever growing aspirations of the States and in some cases the concerns of the Central Government, it was felt by the Government of India that time had come to have another comprehensive look at the entire gamut of centre-state relations so that a further positive headway can be made on this important subject'.
Ÿ President's Rule was imposed in 13 cases even though the Ministry enjoyed a majority support in the Legislative Assembly. These cover instances where provisions of Article 356 were invoked to deal with intra-party problems or for considerations not relevant for the purpose of that Article. For instance, President's Rule in Punjab in June 1951, Andhra Pradesh in January 1973, Tamil Nadu in 1976 and Manipur in 1979.
Ÿ In as many as 15 cases, where the Ministry resigned, other claimants were not given a chance to form an alternate government and have their majority support tested in the Legislative Assembly. For instance, Proclamation of President's Rule in Kerala, in March 1965 and in Uttar Pradesh in October 1970.
Ÿ In 3 cases, where it was found not possible to form a viable government and fresh elections were necessary, no caretaker Ministry was formed.
Ÿ In as many as 26 cases, it would appear that President's Rule was Inevitable. In 18 cases, the wholesale dismissal of State Governments and State Legislative Assemblies in 1977 and 1980 by the Congress and Janata Party on the ground of people having lost faith in the parties which were holding office in those States.
It follows from the facts stated above that more often than not power under Article 356 was exercised wrongly. The Supreme Court proceeded to precisely check this abuse through its decision in S.R Bommai case. Though, in the said decision no effective relief could be given to the State Governments and Legislative Assemblies which were wrongly dismissed/dissolved.
S.R Bommai v. Union of India was a landmark in the history of Indian Constitution. It was in this case that the Supreme Court marked out the paradigm and limitations within which Article 356 was to function.
"After the Supreme Court's judgment in the S.R. Bommai case, it is well settled that Article 356 is an extreme power and is to be used as a last resort in cases where it is manifest that there is an impasse and the constitutional machinery in a State has collapsed".
(1) The 'satisfaction' contemplated by the Article 356 is subjective in nature.
(2) The power conferred by Article 356 upon the President is a 'conditioned power'.
(3) The President, pending an approval from the Parliament, cannot dissolve the Legislative Assembly but can only suspend it.
(4) After invocation of Article 356, the Government in power has to go.
(5) If the Parliament disapproves the Proclamation, the Proclamation lapses at the end of the two-month period. In such a case, Government which was dismissed revives.
(6) The Proclamation under Article 356(1) is not immune from judicial review.
(7) If the Court strikes down the proclamation, it has the power to restore the dismissed Government to office and revive and reactivate the Legislative Assembly.
Thus, it can be seen from the above conclusions of the Supreme Court that the President's power under Article is not absolute or arbitrary. The President cannot impose Central rule on a State at his whim, without reasonable cause. In spite of such bold and illustrious judgement delivered by the Supreme Court, people criticized that the Court took such a long time to deliver the verdict and allowed, in the cases of Karnataka and Meghalaya, the illegality to be perpetuated and ultimately deprive the citizens of those states to be governed by their chosen representative. Still, the judgement delivered by the Supreme Court put a check on arbitrary dismissal of state governments in future and strengthen the federal structure of Indian polity which had hitherto been damaged on several occasions particularly when different political parties were in power at the Centre and the State.
Further in this Case, Supreme Court held that, 'Secularism is one of the basic features of the Constitution'. Secularism is a positive concept of equal treatment of all religions. Any State Government which pursues non-secular policies or non-secular course of action acts contrary to the constitutional mandate and renders itself amenable to action under Article 356. Thus, Supreme Court has declared 'secularism' as one of the grounds for invoking Article 356.
Two possible remedies may be resorted to in such a contingency, one Judicial Review and the other being Public Opinion. The susceptibility of such action to judicial review is beyond dispute. In the exercise of the power of Judicial Review, the Court is entitled to examine such action on the ground of mala fides or based on wholly irrelevant or extraneous considerations. In a democracy, the government operates according to the consent of people and it is the leader's obligation to attend to public opinion. The public opinion can have at least, two effects on the governance. Firstly, public opinion tends to create major shifts in the government. In the recent elections in Delhi, the outcome reflects the change in the national mood or opinion. The AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) coming so close to power in a State of such immense political significance would have been unthinkable. A new-born with almost no resources, what the party did offer instead was idealism in dollops and a promise to deliver clean, corruption free governance. The message caught the imagination of public (Voters) cutting across social backgrounds. Secondly, the population at national level is more heterogeneous than at state level. To motivate public opinion for all wrongs and sins is extremely difficult at national level.
More importantly, modify or re-assert the whole set of Center-State relations under the Constitution.
Further, federal system is not an immutable one but needs to undergo re-examination at intervals, the aim being to re-adjust or at any rate, re-confirm the equilibrium in the light of emerging situational compulsions. Where this re-examination is delayed or avoided, clashes inevitably arise and inter-governmental harmony comes under strain. The aspirations of the State must be accommodated rather than keeping them coercively intact. Non-accommodation of aspirations may develop within a State sense of vulnerability and alienation. To avoid the consequences of cessation, national aspirations must accommodate and adjust the regional aspirations. Lastly, scrapping down Article 356 is not going to serve any purpose rather, such removal will lead to majoritarianism at State level.
 Brain Hocking, ed., Foreign Relations and Federal States, (London: Leicester University Press, 1993); and Jans J. Michelmann and Panyotis, Federalism and International Relations – The Role of Subnational Units, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990).
 U.C. Jain and Jeevan Nair, Encyclopedia of Indian Government and Politics, vol. 7, Centre-State Relations, (Jaipur: Pointer Publishers, 2000); and Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr. And Stanley A. Kochanek, India – Government and Politics in a Developing Nation, 4th ed., (San Diego: Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, 1986), p.44.
 Surendra Singh and Satish Mishra, Federalism in India: time for a Relook?, Realpolitik, vol. 8 Issue 10, May, 2013.
 M.G Khan, Coalition Government and Federal System in India, The Indian Journal of Political Science, vol. 64, no. 3-4, July-December, 2003.
 Jain and Nair, Encyclopedia of Indian Government and Politics, p. 48.
 For the text of the Forty-second Amendment, see Constitution Amendment in India, Lok Sabha Secretariat, pp. 290-320.
 Lok Sabha Debates, Fifth Series, vol. 65, no.3, cols. 141-2. Speech reprinted under the title 'Parliament Has Unfettered Right' in Indhira Gandhi, Selected Speeches and Writings, vol. 3. Pp. 283-91.
 Granville Austin, Working A Democratic Constitution – A History of the Indian Experience, 11th edn., 2013 (Oxford University Press), p. 295.
 We Need Article 356, But as Last Resort, The Times of India, published on 19th May, 2003.
 T.K. Tope, Dr. Ambedkar and Article 356 of the Constitution, (1993) 4 SCC (Jour) 1.
 C.A.D., Vol. IX, p. 177. This warning as cautioned by Dr. Ambedkar was not resorted to even in a single instance.
 See, Article 159 of the Constitution of India.
 Prof. M.P Jain, Indian Constitutional Law, Fifth Edition (2008) at p. 687.
 M.N Buch, Governors as Centre's Agent, The New India Express, published on 3rd August, 2013.
 The Committee consisted of three members i,e P.V Rajamannar (Chairman), A.L. Mudaliar, and P. Chandra Reddy.
 This memorandum adopted the position that the Constitution itself had been altered, such as the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed transfer of education from the State List to the Concurrent List to the exclusive benefit of Centre.
 The Sarkaria Commission Report (1987).
 Report of the CCSR, Vol. I (Evolution of the Center-State Relations in India), 2010.
 Pandit Nehru kept the Punjab Assembly in suspension for 9 months and 28 days to help the state Congress government get its act together.
 Breakdown of Law & Oder due to Jai Andhra Agitation, In P.V Narasimha Rao's Tenure.
 Government dismissed in spite of Karunanidhi enjoying majority support in Assembly.
 Discontent within Janata Party Government and Corruption charges led to dismissal of government and dissolution of Assembly.
 Charan Singh Ministry supported by Congress collapsed following split in Congress Party.
 See, A Consultation Paper on Article 356 of the Constitution, National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (May 11, 2001).
  2 SCR 644: AIR 1994 SC 1918: (1994) 3 SCC 1.
 Soli Sorabjee, Constitutional Morality Violated in Gujarat, Indian Express, PUNE, INDIA, Sept. 21, 1996.
 Article 356 of the Constitution confers a power upon the President to be exercised only where he is satisfied that a situation has arisen where the Government of a State cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. Under our Constitution, the power is really that of the Union Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at its head.
 The existence of material – which may comprise of or include the report(s) of the Governor – is a pre-condition.
 Though the power of dissolving of the Legislative Assembly can be said to be implicit in clause (1) of Article 356, it must be held, having regard to the overall constitutional scheme that the President shall exercise it only after the Proclamation is approved by both Houses of Parliament under clause (3) and not before.
 There is no room for holding that the President can take over some of the functions and powers of the State Government while keeping the State Government in office. There cannot be two Governments in one sphere.
 Since the Proclamation lapses— and is not retrospectively invalidated – the acts done, orders made and laws passed during the period of two months do not become illegal or void. They are, however, subject to review, repeal or modification by the Government/Legislative Assembly or other competent authority.
 The deletion of clause (5) [which was introduced by the 38th (Amendment) Act] by the 44th (Amendment) Act, removes the cloud on the reviewability of the action.
 K. Jayasudha Reddy and Joy V. Joseph, Executive Discretion and Article 356 of the Constitution of India: A comparative critique, Electronic Journal of Comparative Law, Vol. 8.1 (March, 2004).
 Prasad, R.J Rajender, 'Bommai Verdict has Checked Misuse of Article 356' Frontline, Vol. 15, No. 14, July-August, 1998.
 T.N. Srinivasan, The Future of Secularism, 3rd Impression 2011, (Oxford University Press) at. p.5.
 A.B. Vajpayee, 'Dogma and Dilemma' published in Coalition Politics in India, (1971), pp. 70-72 by N.S. Sahni.
 Smita Gupta and Vidya Subrahmaniam, A Change in National Mood, The Hindu, published on 9th December, 2013.


Got a sweet tooth? Yeah, so have we.
This key lime pie recipe is vegan, raw, gluten-free and soy-free – you name it, it's the best of the bunch.
Our take on this American classic is filled with a smooth, creamy cashew based filling that is bonded with ripe avocados and mango and a choice of sweetener (we opted for maple syrup, it's our favourite!) and of course, lots of fresh lime juice!
It sits perfectly on our raw base that consists mainly of walnuts, dates with subtle notes of coconut and chocolate.
Please, give our recipe a try and tell us what you think – it's gonna knock your socks off!
GOOOOO PIE! (or whatever they say in the USA).
Enjoy a slice of our raw, gluten-free and 100% vegan key lime pie with this simple yet delicious recipe.
1.5 avocados ripe & ready!
1 small mango ripe & ready!
Add all of the pie crust ingredients to a food processor and blitz. Transfer to a cake tin and use your fingers to massage the mixture evenly into the base.
Add all the pie filling ingredients to your food processor/blender on high speed and pulse until well combined and the texture is smooth and creamy.
Pour the blended filling over the lovely raw base and spread evenly with a rubber spatula.
Decorate with lime zest and a few slices of lime (if you like!). Chill for a minimum of 4 hours - but for best results, chill overnight.
You can freeze this pie for up to 2 months.
It will keep for 7 days when defrosted in the fridge.


The 2007 Mozambican flood began in late December 2006 when the Cahora Bassa Dam overflowed from heavy rains on Southern Africa. It worsened on February 22, 2007 when the Category 4 Cyclone Favio made landfall on the central province of Inhambane; experts tracking the cyclone predicted that it would worsen flooding in the Zambezi River valley. The Zambezi River broke its banks, flooding the surrounding areas in Mozambique. The Chire and Rivubue rivers also flooded.80,600 people had been evacuated from their homes in the Tete, Manica, Sofala and Zambezia provinces by February 14. By February 22, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that approximately 121,000 people had been displaced by the flooding. Some people refused to leave their homes and livestock. There were 29 confirmed casualties and a further 10 unconfirmed deaths.In early February, the Mozambican authorities did not think the flooding would be as devastating as the 2000 and 2001 floods. Paulo Zucula, head of Mozambique's national relief agency, said "We expect more water than we had in 2001. The situation is deteriorating and it will get worse but this time we are better prepared than in 2001". The World Food Program (WFP) estimated that up to 285,000 people may require food aid. Delivery of food aid by the WFP began on February 15. A single UN helicopter was made available for the delivery of aid to evacuation centres. However, thousands of people had not yet received food or drinking water, and the threat of disease outbreaks had also increased; Paulo Zucula retracted his earlier comments about readiness, saying "We were not prepared... it's another disaster".
The 2010 Guangxi Wildfire occurred in western Guangxi, China during that year's spring season.
The 2016 North Korean floods began in late-August 2016 as a consequence of Typhoon Lionrock, killing at least 525 people, and destroying more than 35,000 homes, leaving over 100,000 people homeless, mainly in the North Hamgyong Province as a result of the Tumen River, near the borders with China and Russia, breaking its banks, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Red Cross.A UN official in North Korea said the scale of the disaster was "beyond anything experienced by local officials".
According to a statement published on 11 September, 2016, by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea's official state media, the country's northeast has been affected by the "heaviest downpour" since 1945, with "tens of thousands" of buildings destroyed and people left homeless and "suffering from great hardship".
Cyclonic Storm Sagar was the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in Somalia in recorded history, and the first named cyclone of the 2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. Forming on May 16 east of the Guardafui Channel, Sagar intensified a cyclonic storm the next day as it gradually organized. The storm turned to the west-southwest and traversed the entirety of the Gulf of Aden, making landfall over northwestern Somalia farther west than any other storm on record in the North Indian Ocean. Sagar weakened into a remnant low on May 20.
The storm first affected Yemen, brushing the coast with heavy rainfall and gusty winds. One person was killed when her house caught fire. In Somalia, Sagar dropped a years' worth of rainfall, or around 200 mm (7.9 in). The rains caused deadly flash flooding that washed away bridges, homes, and thousands of farm animals. Sagar killed 53 people throughout Somalia – 3 in Puntland, and 50 in Somaliland. In neighboring Djibouti, heavy rainfall killed two people and damaged 1,800 houses, forcing 3,000 people to leave their houses. Damage in the country reached US$30 million. Sagar's rainfall extended into eastern Ethiopia, damaging schools and houses, and causing a landslide that killed 23 people.
Djougoun is a village and rural commune in the Cercle of Kita in the Kayes Region of south-western Mali. The commune contains 5 villages and in the 2009 census had a population of 8,622.
The Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) is a joint initiative of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the European Commission that serves to consolidate and improve the dissemination of disaster-related information, in order to improve the coordination of international relief efforts. It was established in 2004 and is a multi-hazard disaster monitor and alert system for earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, volcanoes, and tropical cyclones. It was created to reduce the various monitor websites for the different disaster types. It started as GDAS, but was later coupled with the coordination information system of OCHA (the OCHA Virtual OSOCC). GDACS collects near real-time hazard information and combines this with demographic and socio-economic data to perform a mathematical analysis of the expected impact. This is based on the magnitude of the event and possible risk for the population. The result of this risk analysis is distributed by the GDACS website and alerts are sent via email, fax, and SMS to subscribers in the disaster relief community, and all other persons that are interested in this information.
The Head of the OCHA Office in Central African Republic is the highest post in the tiny African country for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, nevertheless a key post in light of the country's current humanitarian emergency.
A Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) was a common service to the humanitarian community managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). HICs were operated in coordination with a number of partners which may include the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC), the Swedish Rescue Services Agency (SRSA), the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), and the NGO MapAction.
According to the archived HICs website, the last time a HIC was set up was during the conflict in Myanmar. It remained operational between May and December 2008.
IRIN (formerly Integrated Regional Information Networks) is a news agency focusing on humanitarian stories in regions that are often forgotten, under-reported, misunderstood or ignored.Until 1 January 2015, IRIN was a project of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). IRIN aims to create greater awareness and understanding of regional issues and events, and to contribute to better-informed and more effective humanitarian action, media coverage and advocacy.
The International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) is a network of disaster-prone and disaster-responding countries and organizations dedicated to urban search and rescue (USAR) and operational field coordination. It aims to establish standards and classification for international USAR teams as well as methodology for international response coordination in the aftermath of earthquakes and collapsed structure disasters. The INSARAG Secretariat is located in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The Juba Initiative Project is an ad hoc funding mechanism funded by several world donors, to support the peace talks between the Government of Uganda and the opposition group Lord's Resistance Army, which resumed in Juba, Southern Sudan, in May 2007.The revived talks, mediated and hosted by the Government of Southern Sudan, are supported by the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for LRA-affected areas, Joaquim Chissano. Logistic support is provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, whose Juba office is headed by Eliane Duthoit. OCHA manages the fund on behalf of the Southern Sudan Government.
Nad Ali or Nad-e Ali is a district in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Marja is an unincorporated agricultural district in Nad Ali. The area is irrigated by the Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority. A small town of the same name lies 11km to the west of the Helmand River, at the coordinates shown at the top of the page.
The village of Shin Kalay has made advances in the education of children that was recognized and published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
ReliefWeb is the largest humanitarian information portal in the world. Founded in 1996, the portal now hosts more than 720,000 humanitarian situation reports, press releases, evaluations, guidelines, assessments, maps and infographics. The portal is an independent vehicle of information, designed specifically to assist the international humanitarian community in effective delivery of emergency assistance. It provides information as humanitarian crises unfold, while emphasizing the coverage of "forgotten emergencies" at the same time. Its vision and strategy aim to make ReliefWeb a "one-stop shop for the global humanitarian community."
Souleymane Beye (born 1971) is a Senegalese official with the United Nations.
Beye has spent most of his life in Rome and London.The first part of his career was with the World Food Programme, for which he worked in Guinea and the Sudan.
In 2005, he joined the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and became head of the OCHA office in Bangui, Central African Republic, until December 2006.
In 2008 he took on the position of Humanitarian Affairs Officer with the United Nations Integrated Office in Burundi.He is the son of Gora Beye, United Nations Retiree (Head, FAO. Research and Technology Development Service, Rome) and author of Impact of Foreign Assistance on Institutional Development of National Agricultural Research Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Telecommunications for Disaster Relief (TDR) is a proposal by the International Telecommunications Union to establish worldwide standards of interoperability and availability of emergency communications. The notion of establishing such standards was spurred in part by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami which devastated Indonesia.
The ITU assigned country code +888 for TDR, administered by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Numbers are assigned for the duration of a particular relief activity only, and may be reused for a future event.


Facing the decision to move your mom or dad into an assisted living community can be difficult for any family. Siblings may disagree about the type of care that your parent needs. Your parent may not want to move from their family home. And you may feel guilty or insecure about your decision. Some Asian American families often feel even more conflicted when the very concept of moving a parent into a retirement or assisted living community clashes with their cultural expectations.
Due to this specific dilemma facing many Asian families, Aegis Living created a community specifically designed for seniors celebrating Chinese culture in Fremont, California. With the great success of the California community and the changing attitude of immigrant families regarding assisted living, Aegis Living opened a second Chinese culture community in Newcastle, Washington. Aegis Gardens brings together residents and families with an emphasis on Chinese culture, traditions, and food. When residents are able to easily relate to their neighbors' background and upbringing, they find an instant sense of community, belonging, and commonality within this type of community.
Aegis Gardens' Life Enrichment staff schedules activities that are familiar such as mah jong, calligraphy, and tai chi classes (or "chair tai chi" for those with limited mobility). Surrounded by feng shui design and traditional décor, like a Zen garden, residents feel at home in a comfortable environment. Chefs prepare Chinese cuisine in the Peking duck oven and within the fine dining restaurant that reminds them of childhood meals. The tea rooms soothe with authentic blends reminiscent of home. These unique details and customized amenities provide residents and their families, from all backgrounds, with a community that feels familiar.
It is essential to understand the needs of senior residents and they are able to clearly communicate with the assisted living care staff. Residents are cared for by multilingual staff. For residents with dementia, the memory care wing, Life's Neighborhood, provides the care your loved one needs in an intimate setting with specifically-trained dementia care staff.
Change can be difficult for anyone, but particularly hard for seniors who are moving into an assisted living community. They may feel nervous about making new friends and finding where they fit. Creating a home that is comfortable and familiar is key to making them feel at home. For Asian American seniors, a home where they speak their native language, honor their traditions, offer familiar cuisine, and provide exceptional care will allow your parent to adjust quickly and feel a part of their community.
Contact an Aegis Gardens marketing director to learn more about this unique community and schedule your tour.


Bright and Breezy Crafts: A new year - a new design team!
A new year - a new design team!
this image was a delight to colour - and glitter!
I diecut the frame and "happy"
and punched the birds, butterflies and the hand-coloured blue borders.
and I made this card to give to her.


text:
Tag Archive: Josh Papalii
Josh Papalii Throws 1 Litre Bottle Of Moisturiser In Road Rage Incident
Jul 18, 2014 League Freak Canberra Raiders 0
Canberra Raiders forward Josh Papalii has been caught up in a road rage incident in which he threw a 1 litre bottle of moisturiser at another car. Papalii cut another driver off and then got angry...
Daniel Nichols – Canberra Raiders Season Review
Oct 19, 2013 League Freak Featured Guest Writers 0
Daniel Nichols looks back at the 2013 NRL season for all 16 clubs. Today he looks backs at the Canberra Raiders season. Finished: 13th Predicted: 9th Fan Prediction: Top 8 What Went Wrong: Canberra...
The Incredible Reaction To Ricky Stuart Leaving The Parramatta Eels
Sep 12, 2013 League Freak Parramatta Eels 0
Universal condemnation. That was the response to news that Ricky Stuart has decided to walk out on the Parramatta Eels to take up a lucrative 3 year deal with the Canberra Raiders. Having sold Eels...
League Freaks State Of Origin Game Two Preview
Jun 25, 2013 League Freak Rugby League State Of Origin 0
It feels like a long time ago that New South Wales won game one of the 2013 State Of Origin series in Sydney. Unfortunately it didn't take too long for the Blues to go from being on a high...
The Queensland Lineup For Game Two Of The 2013 State Of Origin Series
The Queensland Rugby League team have made a few changes to the team that lost the first game of the 2013 State Of Origin series. Ashley Harrison and David Shillington have been dropped in a strong...
Brad Eveleigh – Assessing The Negatives Of Origin Football
Jun 04, 2013 League Freak Featured Guest Writers 0
It is the eve of Game 1 in the 2013 Rugby League State of Origin series. Dubbed as the most anticipated series ever – which is what it is labeled as every year. New South Wales have the double home...
Daniel Nichols – What Is The Point Of Signing A Contract?
May 30, 2013 League Freak Featured Guest Writers 3
With reports circulating that English prop Gareth Hock is about to pull out of his deal with the Parramatta Eels, two questions come to mind: 1) Why do players sign for clubs before they are...
Another Eligibility Farce As Queensland Recruits Another Kiwi
Sep 24, 2012 League Freak Australian Rugby League News 0
Canberra Raiders youngster Josh Papalii has turned his back on New Zealand after being recruited by Queensland coach Mal Meninga to represent a state he once used to live in. Meninga has openly...


text:
UN nuclear watchdog chief Amano dies at 72
Listen | Print
By AFP Jul 22, 2019 in World
The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Yukiya Amano, has died after suffering poor health for some time, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday, as international tensions run high over Iran's nuclear activities.
The longtime Japanese diplomat, who was 72, held the IAEA's top job since December 2009.
"The secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency regrets to inform with deepest sadness of the passing away of Director General Yukiya Amano," the IAEA said in a statement, without saying when he died.
During his tenure, Amano oversaw the signing of a landmark deal in 2015 between Iran and six major powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- under which the Islamic republic agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
But international tensions with Iran have been rising since US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the deal in May 2018.
Amano's third term as IAEA chief had originally been due to expire in November 2021, but he had been expected to announce his intention to step down early because of health reasons.
The IAEA said its flag over its headquarters in Vienna had been lowered to half-mast.
More about Un, Nuclear, amano
Un Nuclear amano