Breakthrough in Math Literacy could have implications for understanding climate science.
WASHINGTON—In what experts are describing as the most marked improvement in American academic performance in decades, a study released Friday by the U.S. Department of Education has found that the majority of the nation's students have attained the skills necessary to recognize math.
"We were encouraged to find that when presented with a series of numbers, mathematical symbols, or even fairly complex equations, more than half of our young people were able to correctly identify math as the academic subject before them," said Undersecretary of Education Ted Mitchell, who noted that for the first time on record, over 50 percent of the country's first- through 12th-grade students are readily able to distinguish math from other areas of study when it appeared alongside English, social studies, foreign languages, or history on a standardized test.
A related Education Department study found that a majority of American eighth-graders are now able to look at a map of the earth and point to where the world is.
At the DNC this week, the symbolism was perfect when Hollywood introduced a film presentation on climate change. The classic movie drama arises from one fundamental predicament: the hero confronts the villain threatening the town. It is all make-believe, as when actor Gary Cooper at high noon went out on a stage set to meet his scripted destiny, with the cameras rolling.
Of course, the retelling of the same story requires adding twists and expanded stakes, along with special effects. Now it is the global village at risk, and nature itself turning cancerous because of us. Good people want to stop the industrial poisonous machine, but evil deniers stand in the way. It is a cause for all time, to save the future for our children, and get people into the streets to make the difference.
But it is not science, it is fantasy. Nothing unusual is happening with the weather. There will be cooling as well as warming in the future, and we will need affordable reliable energy, as well as robust infrastructures, to survive and prosper. That will take sustained effort and practical, day-in, day-out attention to details. Not very dramatic stuff.
There is a word for the mental state of confusing make-believe with reality: It is called Delusion. It works as entertainment, but It is not a good frame of mind for policymakers.
A series of posts here apply reality filters to attest climate models. The first was Temperatures According to Climate Models where both hindcasting and forecasting were seen to be flawed.
Following an alert posted by Lubos Motl, I upgraded my windows operating system from #7 to #10, since the grace period is ending August 1. And it went quite smoothly in retrospect, but with much anxiety in the process. It seems that Windows Defender latest version doesn't play as nice with other anti-malware programs. Also some head-scratching as to the usage of cpu by strangely named programs that may or may not be malware. And there are the inevitable hiccups and tweaks needed to restore operations as before.
It occurred to me in this process that the internet and the associated tools have become for us a kind of utility, like electricity. When we flip the light switch, the room should light up. And when we boot up our home computers, we expect to be on line and wired in. Any upgrade introduces uncertainty into that dependency, and is uncomfortable.
It also reflects on how much we modern urban dwellers exist within a cocoon of man-made structures, both physical and cyberspace. Extrapolating from our daily experience, it is a small step to thinking that the larger environment beyond our cocoons, if not entirely man-made, is at least hugely subject to human influence. And from that premise comes the climatism faith: the belief that mother Nature is being ruined by humans burning fossil fuels, that the planet will burn up, glaciers will melt, cities and islands will submerge, etc. etc. etc.
For centuries those who farm or otherwise make a living from the land or ocean have accepted and adapted to the uncertainties of weather and variable harvests. They are among the most skeptical concerning man-made climate change.
Stop Rising CO2: Support 350.org.
Save Animals from extinction: Support WWF.
These and other variations of "fighting Climate Change" give the illusion of "making a difference", and thus feeling good about doing good. It is truly not about Science any more, it is about being Virtually Virtuous.
That full interview is the best summary of McLuhan's views and is here.
For a change, note the Arctic ice chart above from AARI, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia. Based upon such information, they are holding up the Polar Ocean Challenge exploration ship at Murmansk because of too much ice in the Northern Sea Route. Any excessive delay puts at risk their plan to circumnavigate the North Pole counterclockwise, starting in Bristol, UK.
So what is going on with Arctic ice, and what is the outlook?
Half of the maximum ice extent is gone as of yesterday, and in a typical year, one third will remain when melting stops in September. Remember that the days are already shortening while the warming momentum will take 2 more months to cease. So 2016 started with about 15M km2 of ice, is now at 7.5M and is likely to end up about 5M km2.
The Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) gathers forecasts using various methods and in June provided their first of three estimates of the September monthly average Arctic ice extent, as reported by NSIDC Sea Ice Index (produced by NOAA).
The median Outlook value for September 2016 sea ice extent is 4.28 million square kilometers with quartiles of 4.10 and 4.63 million square kilometers (See Figure 1 in the full report, below). Contributions are based on a range of methods: statistical, dynamical models, estimates based on trends, and two informal polls.
At the present pace of declining ice extents, 2016 is running five days ahead of the ten-year average, and seven days ahead of 2015. By the end of July, both the average and 2015 ice extents will be about 7M km2, so a loss of 1M or more in the next 10 days.
Comparing the Arctic ice extents with their maximums shows the melting is occurring mostly in the marginal seas, now including Kara Sea as expected in July.
It is clear from the above that the bulk of ice losses are coming from Okhotsk, Barents and Bering Seas (100% melted), along with Kara Sea, Hudson Bay and Baffin Bay-St. Lawrence (67+% melted). All of them are marginal seas that will go down close to zero by September. Note: Some seas are not at max on the NH max day. Thus, totals from adding losses will vary from NH daily total.
CPC shows the Arctic Oscillation waffling between positive and negative values, recently positive and forecasted to near neutral. Generally, positive AO signifies lower pressures over Arctic ice, with more cloud, lower insolation and less melting. The outlook at this point is mixed.
We are well into the melt season, and the resulting minimum will depend upon the vagaries of weather between now and September. Early on, 2016 was slightly higher than 2015 in March, lower in May and now tracking slightly below the past. Note: 2016 melt season is starting without the Blob, with El Nino over, and a cold blob in the North Atlantic. The AO has been hovering around neutral, now possibly indicating cloud cover reducing the pace of melting.
Looking into the details, some marginal seas are melting earlier than last year, while the central, enduring ice pack is relatively unaffected. Despite greater losses in Okhotsk, 2016 ice extent in June is fairly ordinary with slight differences across the regions. At the present pace of declining ice extents, 2016 is running three days ahead of the ten-year average, and seven days ahead of 2015.
As the chart below shows, the seas most down from average this year are Kara, Barents, Greenland Sea and Baffin Bay. Meanwhile higher extents are showing in Chukchi, Laptev, and Hudson Bay, resulting in 2016 slightly below average. Beaufort Sea has returned to average after a weather event in June reduced ice by more than 150k km2.
Region 2016197 Day 197 Average 2016-Ave.
It is clear from the above that the bulk of ice losses are coming from Okhotsk, Barents and Bering Seas (100% melted),along with Kara Sea, Hudson Bay and Baffin Bay-St. Lawrence (65+% melted). All of them are marginal seas that will go down close to zero by September. Note: Some seas are not at max on the NH max day. Thus, totals from adding losses will vary from NH daily total.
I disagree with the comments that clouds at the poles should cause cooling.
In general the earth absorbs heat from the sun near the equator and expels it near the poles via up welling radiation. A low humidity clear sky near the poles allows most gray body radiation from the ice/oceans/land to emit directly to space. Clouds at the poles would interfere with that process and the poles would warm thus melting the ice faster. And in a general sense, that is what we've seen over the last 40 years. (linked to a graph of declining ice extent since 1979).
It takes some work to untangle the problems with this statement. Because it is true that earth's climate system takes in solar energy mostly at the equator, which is then transported and expelled mostly at the poles. The myopia is in the notion that this is a purely radiative heat transfer. The misconception arises from confusing the view from the top of the atmosphere (TOA) with the view at the surface where we live. The TOA energy balance is purely radiative. Incoming: Short Wave (SW) in, minus Outgoing: (SW) reflected/scattered out, and minus Long Wave (LW, mostly Infrared) emitted out.
Nearer the surface, the movement of energy is dominated by other more powerful heat transfers: Conduction (from warm to cool by direct contact), Convection (air moving from warm to cool objects) and Latent Heat (water changing phases from ice to liquid to gas and back again). These processes move massive amounts of energy upward from the surface toward the nearly absolute cold of space. IR active gases, mainly H2O and the minor trace gas CO2, do absorb and re-emit some LW energy, but at a scale orders of magnitude less.
The comment above attributes warming in the Arctic to the radiative properties of H20 in clouds. There is no claim that CO2 is a factor, since it acknowledges that clear dry skies offer no significant impediment to the cooling processes. But do water vapor and clouds delay cooling in the Arctic?
While it is true that moist air in the tropics makes for mild evenings after sundown, the Arctic situation differs. There is a short season when the summer sun shines, and most of the year is dark and extremely cold.
Most people fail to appreciate the huge heat losses at the Arctic pole. Mark Brandon has an excellent post on this at his wonderful blog, Mallemaroking.
By his calculations the sensible heat loss in Arctic winter ranges 200-400 Wm2.
As the diagram clearly shows, except for a short time in high summer, the energy flow is from the water heating the air. Transfers by latent heat are in addition to the above.
Those are air temperatures, and if they are above average, it means that the water is losing more heat than past normals. It's not that warmer air causes ice melt, but the other way around: Oceans are always moving heat, and more open water means more heat loss into the air, resulting in higher air temperatures, though still way below zero most of the year.
So if there is to be any warming effect on ice formation from clouds, it can only happen in peak summer, the precise time when their shading effect exceeds any radiative warming. And the existence of clouds indicates moisture in the air which came from the ocean evaporating.
A closed system that performs work through a conversion of heat that is absorbed by it is a heat engine. Conversely, a system that rejects heat through a conversion of work that is performed on it is a refrigerator.
In Chap. 6, we will see that individual air parcels comprising the circulation of the troposphere behave as a heat engine. By absorbing heat at the Earth's surface, through transfers of radiative, sensible, and latent heat, individual parcels perform net work as they evolve through a thermodynamic cycle (2.13). Ultimately realized as kinetic energy, the heat absorbed maintains the circulation against frictional dissipation. It makes the circulation of the troposphere thermally driven.
In contrast, the circulation of the stratosphere behaves as a radiative refrigerator. For motion to occur, individual air parcels must have work performed on them. The kinetic energy produced is eventually converted to heat and rejected to space through LW cooling. It makes the circulation of the stratosphere mechanically driven. Gravity waves and planetary waves that propagate upward from the troposphere are dissipated in the stratosphere. Their absorption exerts an influence on the stratosphere analogous to paddle work. By forcing motion that rearranges air, it drives the stratospheric circulation out of radiative equilibrium, which results in net LW cooling to space.
A new study from Scripps at UC San Diego claims proof of greenhouse gas warming by means of changes to the clouds. The paper is behind a paywall, so the reasoning is not accessible, but the media releases will ensure wide repetition.
The report above violates basic physics, resulting in a gross distortion. Two points are critical. When it comes to clouds, the greenhouse gas that matters is H2O, not CO2. Any IR effects are 96% due to the presence of water vapor and the droplets in the clouds.
And even more importantly, as Dr. Salby illustrated (here), the net effect from clouds is cooling, not warming.
This is confirmed by other researchers, such as I. Koren, G. Dagan, and O. Altaratz. From aerosol-limited to invigoration of warm convective clouds. Science, 2014; 344 (6188) here.
Once again, atmospheric physics is willfully distorted in order to get a headline and burnish credentials in support of man-made climate change. They promote a myopic and lop-sided picture to frighten a public mostly ill-equipped to see through their mumbo-jumbo.


Took off at 9:00, went Rosales and Nichols. Alert at N.F. Patrol there, just coming in when Nips hit. Didn't stay long, landed out of gas at Cabanatuan Field covered with barrels, wrecked plane.
Burns and squadron mate Gus Williams were flying a patrol over Nichols Field in late morning and low on gas were coming in to land about 12:40 when Zeros began to strafe. Williams managed to land and escape the attack, while Burns opted to head for Maniquis Field, at Cabanatuan, 60 miles north of Manila, instead. Out of gas, Burns did not wait for Filipinos to clear the field of obstacles–set up to deter a feared Japanese landing–and crashed through the drums. He was unhurt, but his ship was a complete wreck. Dyess had flown down to Manila and spotted the bombers unloading on the dock area, but his guns were not working and he landed at an auxiliary field. Lack of documentation leaves us in the dark about the activities of the other 21st Pursuiters this day.


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text:
Testimony: A.M.Y.W.
Name: A.M.Y.W.
Accusation: Weapon possession
On 14 November 2020, a 15-year-old minor from Beit Fajjar is arrested at an Israeli police station in the West Bank. He reports being interrogated several times without first consulting with a lawyer or being informed of his right to silence.
About 10 Israeli military vehicles came to the bakery where I was working the night shift. It was around 2:30 a.m. The soldiers told the owner of the bakery that they were looking for someone who had a similar name to me. The soldiers then asked me for my name and then they left. I was terrified and so was the bakery owner and he drove me home.
After the soldiers left the bakery they went to my house and searched it causing a lot of damage to the furniture. They told my parents they were looking for the same person they told the bakery owner. When they did not find anyone with that name they arrested my older brother. When I arrived home the soldiers had already left with my brother. My mother was in a very bad shape, shaking and crying and the house was a total mess.
Later that day the area commander phoned my father at around noon and told him to bring me to the police station. He said if I was brought to the police station they would release my brother. I went with my father to the police station as requested; we arrived there at around 3:30 p.m.
We waited a short while at the gate and then a soldier took me inside and told my father to go home. Inside the police station my hands were tied behind my back with one plastic tie which was tight and painful. I was also blindfolded. Then I was left on a chair in an outdoor area for about two hours.
After about two hours I was taken in a vehicle to the police station in Kiryat Arba settlement. I arrived there in the evening. At around 8:00 p.m. a soldier cut my wrist when he tried to cut off the tie with a blade. The tie was so tight that he could not cut it off without injuring my wrist. Then I was taken for interrogation.
The interrogator started to question me without removing the blindfold. As soon as I entered the interrogation room he yelled at me and asked me to tell him where I had hidden the weapons. When I told him I had no weapons he hit me on my shoulder. When I asked him to give me evidence for his allegations he told me to shut up because "the evidence is none of your business". He also threatened to arrest all my family and revoke their work permits. I continued to deny the accusation. He questioned me without informing me of my rights and I did not speak to a lawyer. At the end he showed me documents written in Hebrew and asked me to sign them and I did without understanding what they said.
I was interrogated until around 10:00 p.m. and then I was left outdoors in the rain for about three hours.
At around 1:00 a.m. I was tied again and taken to Al Mascobiyya police station in Jerusalem where I was interrogated again. This time the blindfold was removed but not the tie. The interrogator did not inform me of my right to silence but half way through the interrogation he told me I could consult with a lawyer. He then phoned a lawyer and allowed me to speak to him. The lawyer told me not to confess. The conversation lasted for about a minute and the interrogator was listening.
The interrogator was aggressive and yelled at me all the time. He accused me of possessing weapons and wanted me to confess and to tell him where I had hidden the pieces. I denied the accusation and told him I did not have any weapons. He thumped the table and raised his voice wanting me to confess but I did not.
He questioned me for about two hours, from 1:00 a.m. until around 3:00 a.m. At the end he made me sign documents written in Hebrew which I did not understand. Then I was left in a corridor for about two hours before being taken to a cell where I was strip searched.
Later that morning I had a military court hearing on video. My lawyer was there and the hearing was adjourned. After the hearing I was taken back to the cell which was small and did not have any windows. I could not tell day from night and I barely had space to sleep. There were no blankets for me and the three other detainees who were with me. The air conditioner was turned on cold all the time making it freezing cold. The food was not good; they brought us jam and yogurt.
On 19 November 2020 I was told I was going to be interrogated again before the next court hearing the following day but instead I was released without charge that day. I was very happy. A military jeep dropped me off at a checkpoint near Hebron. I took a taxi home and my father paid the driver when I arrived. I arrived home at around 7:00 p.m.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Arts + Culture, Central Northside, Latest Northside News, Summer Hill and Northview Heights
admin, on
Poetry provides creative release for women's group
Photo by Anthony Amato
By Donnie Mangino
In the sultry summer heat, beneath the golden evening light of June 21st, at the Alphabet City tent, 318 Sampsonia Way, the Women Writers of Northview Heights gathered for their second public reading.
Inside the large white tent were rows of chairs, a stage, a single microphone, and the murmur of exchanged conversation and laughter between the motley crowd. The stage was flanked by two flat screen televisions, in the center of the screens was a picture of the Women Writers of Northview Heights and a quote, which stated, "We provide sanctuary to endangered literary writers so that the writers can continue to write and their voices are not silenced."
July will mark a year since the beginning of the Women Writers of Northview Heights, but the group's direction still rings loud and clear. Before introducing the first reader of the evening, Ms. Hudson Rush—social worker and self-proclaimed artist—expressed her pride and joy in the accomplishments and progress of the women, and described the group as a "bright spot that I can look forward to."
The Women Writers of Northview Heights emerged from a therapy group at Northview Heights Family Support Center, and provides the women a creative outlet and freedom to their personal issues, reflections, and inspirations. Rush introduced each writer with aplomb and enthusiasm for their work, dedication, and continual creative outpouring.
The women read their work with undeniable bravery. The subjects of their work fell along a wide spectrum of love, heartbreak, failure, religious faith, and self-affirmation. One reading left the audience wiping tears from the corners of their eyes, another reading left the audience with nothing but laughter and grins that stretched from ear-to-ear. Each of the women's pieces contained a variety of confessional subject matter, but the audience and the members of the writing group responded with absolute adoration and acclaim.
Writing is a means for the writer to translate ideas onto a page that are oftentimes too challenging to express in everyday conversation or rumination. The women writers approached the stage with confidence—clutching notebooks and papers in hand—and gave individual voice and freedom to their personal works of poetry and prose. With faith and excitement filling every word, Rush expressed her hope in the future of the Women Writers of Northview Heights, and proclaimed the group is "never going to stop."
An astounding feeling of strength and courage radiated from Rush and the women writers as they gathered on the stage at the closing of the event. With gratitude, the women thanked the audience in attendance, and with song and clapping boisterously chanted the lyrics to the well-known Sister Sledge song "We Are Family." The women originate from different backgrounds, childhoods, and stories, but the Women Writers of Northview Heights is a sisterhood that nurtures and takes pride in their atmosphere of acceptance and camaraderie. Writing is a solitary act, but that evening the women writers emerged as a singular unit of unfailing support and solidarity. The women approached the stage with their individual works heavy as stones, but behind all of this, one can hope they returned to their respected homes feeling light as the summer air. After all, that is the blessing of art: it gives the artist a brief reprieve and relief from a too oftentimes unforgiving and cruel world.
For more information about the Women Writers of Northview Heights visit hudsonrushworx.com.


text:
Craig Wilkinson
Craig is a South African who has pioneered socio-economic programmes in communities throughout the country. He founded and runs the NPO, Father A Nation, which equips men to be fathers, mentors and role models. He believes that if we can heal men we can heal the world. He is the author of two books on fatherhood, "DAD – The Power and Beauty of Fatherhood" and "It's a Dad". Craig has two adult children and lives in Johannesburg, South Africa with his wife Martinique.
Khalil Osiris
Khalil grew up in America, was recruited into the Black Panther movement as a young man and spent 20 years in prison during which he wrote the manuscript for "The Psychology of Incarceration". His writings were subsequently developed into a book and an 8-part DVD series and is now a popular course at Wright State University where Khalil is an associate professor. Khalil presents a weekly television show on SABC called Each One Teach One and is a patron of the Arts. He has three adult children and lives in Johannesburg, South Africa with his wife Penny.
© Copyright Man to Man 2017


text:
Company counts the cost of mistake when drawing up deeds
Posted: 2nd November 2011 In: Corporate Commercial
When drawing up deeds it is vital to meet all the legal requirements – otherwise the document could prove invalid and cost you thousands of pounds, as one firm found recently.
The case involved a financial services company that entered into an invoice discounting facility with two directors of a client firm.
A deed was drawn up providing guarantees and warranties that the directors would be liable for outstanding debts if their firm ceased trading. The directors signed the documents in front of witnesses and then handed them over.
Later, the directors' firm did go out of business and the finance company sought to recover some of its money.
The directors refused to pay so the case went before the High Court. It ruled that the deed could not be enforced because it had not been properly "delivered".
Deeds are a more formal agreement than contracts. It is not enough that they are signed and witnessed. They also have to be "delivered" to the other party, which in practice means the other party has to make it clear that they wish to be bound by the agreement.
That did not happen in this case. The court found that the document the directors signed contained notes saying that changes would be made. From this, the directors were entitled to expect that an updated version of the deed would be drawn up for them to sign.
This did not happen and so the deed could not be said to have been "delivered".
The ruling said: "The critical thing is that the person who has signed the deed must have separately indicated that he intends to be bound by the deed.
"Mere signature is not enough. Nor is it enough that what looks like a deed has been given to the person who appears to be the beneficiary of it – the issue is not whether the document has been physically handed over to the beneficiary, but whether the person whose deed it is supposed to be intended to be bound by it."
Please contact us if you would like more information about the issues raised in this article or any aspect of deeds and contract law.
Court ruling enables company to remove estranged director
Posted: 16th July 2019 In: Corporate Commercial
Pharmaceutical companies accused of breaking competition law
Buyer of insurance firm compensated for warranty breach
Brokerage firm fined £400,000 after breach of market abuse laws
Posted: 26th June 2019 In: Corporate Commercial
Directors suspended for taking part in secret cartel


text:
Q: Chromebook BLE characteristic notifications issue I am developing a packaged app for chromebook. I am using BLE APIs to communicate with BLE devices. One of the modes of communication is request-response. Request is sent on a write characteristic and its response is received on another read characteristic. If multiple consecutive requests elicit same response then the notification is received only once.
For example consider request data bytes are [2, 5, 0] and its response is [3, 5, 0]. If I send [2,5,0] multiple times to the BLE device, and the device sends its response same number of times, in the chromebook app I see the characteristic notification only once.
Notification listener function:
chrome.bluetoothLowEnergy.onCharacteristicValueChanged.addListener(function (chrc) {
  logger.info("char value changed " + chrc.uuid + " value  " + chrc.value.byteLength + " address " + chrc.service.deviceAddress);
  var data = new Uint8Array(chrc.value);
  logger.info("Got char data " + data);
});

Char write function:
var myBytes = new Uint8Array([50, 20, 1]);
chrome.bluetoothLowEnergy.writeCharacteristicValue(charToWrite.instanceId, myBytes.buffer, function () {
  if (chrome.runtime.lastError) {
    logger.error("Failed to write value: " + chrome.runtime.lastError.message);
     return;
  }
  logger.info("First char write done");

  chrome.bluetoothLowEnergy.writeCharacteristicValue( charToWrite.instanceId, myBytes.buffer, function () {
    if (chrome.runtime.lastError) {
      logger.error("Failed to write value: " + chrome.runtime.lastError.message);
      return;
    }
    logger.info("Second char write done");
  });
});

In above example, the notification response for second char write is never received (since the command is the same, the response is also the same).
If I send another command which elicits different response, then notification is received correctly.
Same BLE communication works fine on other platforms like Windows, MacOS. Thus we know that there is no device side issue. Chromebook seems to suppress notifications if same data is received on characteristic again and again.
I could not find a way in chromebook BLE API to change this behavior.
Has anybody else also seen this issue?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: How to retrieve the last table cell within each table row using the .each() and .last() methods? How can I retrieve a jQuery object containing the last table cells of each row using the .each() and the .last() methods?
I tried the following code, but it's returning me all the table rows and not table cells, and I really can't figure out what is wrong with it.
const $lastCells = $('tr').each((i, element) =>
  $(element).children().last()
);
console.log($lastCells);

- UPDATE -
After scratching my head for a while I found the error in my reasoning: I was thinking you could return the operations inside an .each() method, but as Rory McCrossan pointed out (thank you!), the .each() method always returns the object on which it is called. If I want to return a new object with the last cells of each row I need to use the .map() method instead, for example:
const $lastCells = $('tr').map((i, element) =>
  $(element).children().last()[0]
);
console.log($lastCells);

A: Loop through each tr and get the last td with :last
$('table tr').each(function() {
  var lasttd=  $(this).find(':last-child')
  //your code
});


text:
The Players Championship Prize Money – $15m Up For Grabs
Elliott Heath
A massive $2.7m will go to this week's Players Championship winner
Getty Images	Credit: Getty Images
The Players Championship is known as golf's unofficial fifth Major, and its prize fund is now the biggest in golf for a single tournament.
This week's event offers up of a huge $15m, making it significantly more lucrative than the four Majors in terms of prize money.
That is going by last year's Major purses, which could be increased this year in reply to Sawgrass.
Last year's Masters purse was $11.5m, the USPGA's was $11m, the US Open's was $12.5m and the Open Championship's was $10.75m.
The US Open's first-place cheque of $2.25m was the biggest in golf, until the European Tour Final Series usurped it with $2.5m to the Nedbank Golf Challenge winner and $3m to the DP World Tour Championship winner.
The victor at Sawgrass this week will pick up a tidy $2.7m, up $450,000 on the $2.25m that Rory McIlroy won last year.
Related: The Players Championship Betting Tips
In 2019, runner-up Jim Furyk collected $1.35m, so this week's runners-up prize, assuming it has also been significantly bumped up, is likely to be bigger than many PGA Tour winner's cheques.
The PGA Tour announced a new nine-year domestic TV deal after the Arnold Palmer Invitational, with commissioner Jay Monahan saying that player earnings are set to increase.
"The nine-year deals will put us in a position to significantly increase player earnings, deliver more value to our tournaments and sponsors, and ultimately allow us to continue to grow our charitable footprint," Monahan said.
This is thought to be direct retaliation to the newly-proposed Premier Golf League, a new 48-man 18-tournament league hoped to begin in 2022.
The PGL is set to be very lucrative for players, with money coming from the likes of New York investment bank the 'Raine Group' as well as the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
For all the latest golf news, check the Golf Monthly website and follow our social media channels @golfmonthlymagazine on Facebook and @golfmonthly on Twitter and Instagram
Two-Time Major Winner Angel Cabrera Arrested In Brazil
Sony Open Live Stream
Callaway Epic 21 Drivers


text:
Sex, violence and swearing
Something I've been meaning to blog about for a while.
Personally I'm not a fan of any of them in scripts, though I've written characters that swear, characters that commit horrendous acts of violence and sex scenes (the latter two in unpublished novels rather than scripts). I mention that I have written such things because I don't want you to think that I am, perhaps, a prude.
I have a mantra that I'm apt to vocalise whenever the subject comes up in conversation:
"Sex (or violence, or swearing) is completely unnecessary - except when it's essential."
Just because the majority of people swear does not mean there's any value in having characters swear because if they do it all the time then it has no value. But if they don't do it normally it becomes a significant character point when they do. (Having said that there is a character Tec who uses the F word casually on two occasions but then he's not a nice person and it adds emphasis because no one else does.)
I think most people agree that gratuitous violence is - well - gratuitous. I don't tend to watch particularly violent TV or movies (I'll never watch a slasher horror). But let's take Wallander that was on the TV last night **SPOILER COMING** a character kills himself by throwing himself under the tracks of a tank. I did not need to be shown the result but I was - the only thing I didn't like about the show.
People's imagination's are far better than reality (or any illusory version thereof) at scaring them. On the other hand the violence done to the victims in the same programme were relevant to the plot and were far more horrifying even though only the result was shown (because the crime had to be imagined, very un-nice). **SPOILER GONE**
Sex is the worst, in my opinion, unless it is absolutely essential it just kills any narrative drive for the sole purpose of audience titillation and an attempt to boost viewing figures. (Screen sex seldom bears any relation to what it's really like and when it does it's usually a comedy scene.)
That title is going to do wonders for the hit rate on this blog...
What's on the turntable? "Cruel Sister" by Pentangle from "Light Flight"
It's all about: scriptwriting, writing
Mayhem mayhap
Definition of Tragedy
Waylaid by Pirates
There's exciting
Movie meme
Tec-nology
Land of My Fathers
Getting personal
James Moran is...
It's not SF if it's good.
My kind of blog
I love the smell of yoghurt in the morning
The Editor's Pen
Resumption of Normal Service
Searchamafaction #4
Testing 1-2-3


Betting on one's favorite sports team just got a whole lot easier with the Supreme Court's ruling against federal prohibitions on states that allow gambling on sporting events. While good news for wagering types, that decision will help lift the stocks of several gambling companies, especially established U.K.-based firms with considerable U.S. operations, like William Hill (WMH.UK), GVC Holdings (GVC.UK) and 888 Holdings (888.UK). But U.S. firms Boyd Gaming Corp. and Penn National Gaming Inc. will also be big beneficiaries "given their smaller market caps and exposure to numerous states," according to Morgan Stanley equity analyst Thomas Allen, as reported by Barron's.


text:
The Church Under Siege
Not long ago in Sudan a mother sent her nine-year-old son, Peter, to the market to buy tomatoes. But Peter never made it. Police officers of the Muslim government grabbed Peter, threw him into a truck, and drove him to a concentration camp for children. There camp officials beat the little boy brutally until he renounced Christ and converted to Islam. Peter's story is just one of millions about Christians who were persecuted last year for their faith in Christ. The list of afflictions they suffer reads like an alphabet soup of cruelty: amputation, bombing, crucifixion, displacement, flogging, kidnapping, murder, prison, rape, slavery, and torture. The sheer dimensions of the problem are mind-boggling. More Christians have been martyred for their faith in this century alone than in the previous 19 centuries combined. A human rights group called Freedom House documents abuses against believers in a white paper called "In the Lion's Den." For example, in Saudi Arabia, since the Gulf War, police have arrested and abused hundreds of Christians--believers whose only crime was engaging in religious activities. In Pakistan, Christians have been driven from their villages by Muslim mobs, their possessions looted, their homes and churches destroyed. In Vietnam, Christians are subject to arrest, threats, and confiscation of their homes. In North Korea, Christians are forced to meet secretly in private homes, and they have no access to Bibles or religious materials. In the Sudan, Christians are bought and sold in open-air slave markets. In China, up to 100 million Christians risk their lives daily by defying government orders banning free worship. In Egypt, Islamic converts to Christianity are arrested, tortured, and murdered. The list goes on and on. In response to this staggering increase in persecution, believers around the world are observing the first International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church on Sunday, September 29. The event is being coordinated by World Evangelical Fellowship, and Christians in more than 95 countries will take part. Dwight Gibson of World Evangelical Fellowship says the purpose of Persecution Sunday is to set aside a day to "ask divine guidance and request political intervention on behalf of those facing religious persecution." Our suffering brethren in faraway lands will never forget our prayers and our public expressions of concern for them. The Soviet dissident and poet Irena Ratushinskaya spent seven years imprisoned in the former Soviet Union's notorious Gulag. She told me that she endured deprivation and all kinds of abuse because she knew that people around the world were praying for her. I wonder what God would do if all his people were on their knees begging for mercy for their persecuted brethren on one day. And who knows what impact we can have on our government officials, who have done so little to help the persecuted church overseas? At the very least, we'll be letting the church worldwide know that American Christians are not a self-indulgent, uncaring people. That we really do care about our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Freedom of Religion/Speech
Human Rights & Persecution
← Poor Little Me
Dopey Logic →


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Man Accused of Impersonating Police, Enticing Young Girls
by Racine County Eye November 10th, 2014
Racine police say a 28-year-old Sturtevant man impersonated a police officer and may have been trying to take young girls from a local playground.
Benjamin Ogas was charged in Racine County Circuit Court Monday with one felony count of impersonating a peace officer and four felony counts of attempted false imprisonment as well as 14 misdemeanor counts of bail jumping. If convicted, he faces more than 25 years in jail and/or more than $175,000 in fines.
According to the criminal complaint, Racine police were called at 4:24 p.m. Sunday to the area of Goold and Erie Streets for a report of a man on bicycle taking pictures of girls. He was described as a white male with a camera, riding a silver Trek bicycle wearing black jeans and a grey or black jacket.
The mother of one of the girls on the playground said Ogas approached the girls and tried to get them to go with him, police say. The girls told officers they could see flashes from the camera and when the defendant approached them, they ran down the street to one of their houses.
The mother told police she confronted Ogas and asked him what he thought he was doing, the complaint reads. To try and convince the woman he was really a police officer, he showed the mother his handcuffs and that's when she said she was calling "the real police."
Officers say they located Ogas and ordered him to stop his bike, but Ogas refused and told police he was "one of them," "helping them bust the drugs" and other phrases to try and convince officers he was a police officer. After following Ogas down several streets and through alleys, police apprehended the defendant.
While being taken into custody, Ogas claimed to an officer in Racine, Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant, the complaint reads. A pat-down search of Ogas turned up an old pair of tin handcuffs, small empty bottles of liquor and miscellaneous papers. Police report the defendant smelled of alcohol and seemed to have not slept in days. He continued to claim that he was a police officer and was trying to help officers find a drug house.
Returned dispatch reports indicate that Ogas is accused of taking a Racine County Sheriff's squad from a repair shop and he has several open cases in Racine County Circuit Court.
Ogas was assigned a $2,500 cash bond during his initial appearance Monday. He will next be in court for a competency hearing Dec. 8.


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Home » Agri-Pulse Daybreak for May 6, 2016
Agri-Pulse Daybreak for May 6, 2016
05/06/16 8:00 AM By Philip Brasher and Whitney Forman-Cook
WASHINGTON, May 6, 2016 - With the U.S. Senate still at work on an agreement on biotech labeling, a major food company is rushing ahead with research on possible labeling language that could serve as an alternative to the wording required by a Vermont law. The Campbell Soup Co. is testing as many as nine to 10 different labeling combinations with consumers to see which one would satisfy their needs while also conveying the safety of the technology.
The company plans to share its research with other companies with the goal of having a label to propose to the federal government should Congress preempt the Vermont law and mandate development of new language, company officials say. If Congress fails to agree on a preemption bill, the company may ask Vermont to adopt the language, the company's chief lobbyist, Kelly Johnston, tells Agri-Pulse.
Campbell broke ranks with the rest of the food industry in January and announced that it was going to voluntarily label its biotech products. For the time being, the labels use the language required by Vermont: "Partially produced with genetic engineering." But company officials say there are a number of problems with that language. One is that consumers prefer the term "GMO." Another is the lack of information about biotechnology.
One of the labeling versions that Campbell Soup is testing says this: "Partially made with GMOs. GMOs are ingredients derived from genetically engineered crops. The FDA considers genetically engineered crops safe."
Steve Armstrong, chief food law counsel for Campbell, briefly outlined the company's plan to a conference of industry attorneys Thursday. "No matter what happens in Congress, or the other states, we are going to label for GMO,s and I would argue we're going to come up with best GMO label out there," Armstrong said.
His company also will be studying consumer reaction to the Vermont labeling to gauge whether there is resistance to the products.
As the food industry lobbies for a GMO preemption bill, officials also continue to prepare for the Vermont law taking effect in July. One glimmer of good news is that the state legislature is moving legislature that would prevent private rights of action against companies until next year, says Karin Moore, general counsel for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. Under the law, consumers are allowed to file complaints over products they think are mislabeled.
CRP expansion raises cost, industry concerns. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has added his voice to calls to expand the Conservation Reserve Program. But the idea is certain to get push back from grain traders, and it also raises the issue of how to pay for it. The 2014 farm bill cut the cap on CRP from 32 million to 24 million acres to help fund other programs.
Sportsmen's groups are likely to call for a "significant" increase in CRP in the 2018 farm bill, says Ariel Wiegard of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
But the National Grain and Feed Association, whose member companies worry about the impact of idling land on commodity prices, says in a statement to Agri-Pulse that the CRP cap should not be adjusted in response to market prices or fluctuations in landowner demand. The program should instead be focused on "demonstrable environmental benefits while still allowing U.S. agriculture to continue to grow and compete."
One way to address the cost of expanding CRP is to shift from the temporary set-aside approach to longer-term easements, says Ferd Hoefner, policy director for National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. "Over time, that would reduce the cost of the program to the taxpayer while increasing the environmental value of the program for soil, water, wildlife, and climate improvements," Hoefner says.
Agri-Pulse Daybreak for April 6, 2016
Agri-Pulse Daybreak for July 6, 2016
Agri-Pulse Daybreak for Oct. 6, 2016
USDA will enroll about 800,000 acres in the program this year. About 23.8 million acres are currently erolled, but 1.7 million acres are in contracts expiring this year.
FAO: Food prices trending up. Global prices for key food commodities have risen for the third month in a row after four years of decline, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization reports. FAO's Food Price Index rose 0.7 percent in April largely because of a 4.1 percent in the average price for vegetable oils. Palm oil prices are surging because of forecasts for low production this year.
Grain prices rose 1.5 percent in April because of strengthening prices for corn. Meat prices rose 0.8 percent because of growing U.S. demand for Australian beef, according to FAO. Even with the recent increases food prices are still down 10 percent below the level a year ago and more than one-third below the highs in 2011.
Biodiesel industry leader stepping down. Joe Jobe is stepping down as CEO of the National Biodiesel Board after 17 years. Jobe started with NBB in 1997 and took over the top job two years later. During his tenure there, industry production has grown from 200,000 gallons to a projected 2 billion gallons this year.
She said it. "Many of the foods that we really emphasize, and we encourage Americans to consume for the prevention of chronic diseases, are high-risk foods from a food-safety point of view." - Susan Mayne, director of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, on the importance of the new produce safety rule to nutrition.
Philip Brasher


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Q: Ajax & JQUERY formData not appending to PHP I need some assistance as im not sure what's going on, i have tried this same code on other opportunities and it worked, but for some reason now it is not, i need to upload a file via JQuery and Ajax, here is the html form:
<form  enctype="multipart/form-data" id="formulario">
                                <input  type="text" id="atributo1" placeholder="Ingrese atributo 1...">
                                <input  type="text" id="atributo2" placeholder="Ingrese atributo 2...">

                                SELECT:
                                <select id="atributo3">
                                    <option value="opcion1" selected>Opcion 1</option>
                                    <option value="opcion2">Opcion 2</option>
                                    <option value="opcion3">Opcion 3</option>
                                </select>

                                <input  type="file" id="atributon">
                                <button type="button" onclick="Alta()">Crear</button>
                                <button type="button" onclick="Listar()">Volver</button>
                            </form>

Below it's the receiving end from the js:
function Alta(){

    var form = new FormData($("#formulario")[0]);

    form.append("queHacer","Alta");

    console.log(form);

    $.ajax({url: "nexo.php", type: "POST", data: form, contentType: false, processData: false})
    .then(function(exito){

                 $("#contenidoinner").html(exito);

                },function(error){

                 $("#contenidoinner").html(error);

               });
}

The PHP code its a simple var_dump to verify:
switch($_POST['queHacer']){

            case "Alta":

                echo var_dump($_FILES).var_dump($_POST);
            break;
}

But when i do both VAR_DUMPS the $_FILES is empty:
"array(0) { } array(1) { ["queHacer"]=> string(4) "Alta" }"
Not sure what i'm doing wrong as i have another program with this same code and it's working.


Anyone who has grown up in Delhi will agree that the most important all-school painting competition was Shankar's. It was mandatory for everyone from my school to participate.
I was in standard five. We weren't very well off. My father bought me a 24-set watercolor box. Although I wasn't much of an artist, I felt like one with these new colors.
The school bus took us to the venue.. the huge playground of a reputed school. It was a scene of utter chaos. Hundreds of parents and teachers were shouting out last-minute instructions. Participants with paintbrushes in every shape and size and exotic color palettes were milling around. Suddenly I felt unsure!
We were escorted to our enclosure. The competition started. It would last for an hour. The topic was, 'A rainy day'. I reached into my bag for the colours. They weren't there. I must have dropped it on the way. I couldn't control my tears as my head buzzed with images of a thrashing. And I sat there, staring blankly at the white paper.
After a while, a girl sitting next to me from another school, asked me why I wasn't painting. I told her sheepishly that I'd lost my watercolor set. She told me she'd share her paints with me, only I shouldn't use the red and the yellow much because she needed them.
I started painting. The girl soon began taking more interest in my work instead of concentrating on hers. She suggested what shade of green I should use for the tree, how many raindrops to draw and wondered why the car I had drawn did not have a driver.
I was getting quite irritated but since I was using her paints, I chose to keep my lips sealed. And she obviously thought she owned a part of my creation. I had managed a decent painting by the end of the hour.. the girl's was however far better even though she had been so distracted. I thanked her and offered her a sandwich.
As she got up to hand over her painting, she accidentally knocked a glass of water on my painting. I couldn't believe it! Two consecutive blows on one day! God definitely had objections to me becoming an artist. The girl apologised profusely. With tears in my eyes I told her not worry because it hadn't been a good painting anyway. It was dusty, noisy and sunny. I wanted to return home and forget this ordeal.
What happened when I reached home, I'm not keen to write about. But to my amazement, after a month I got a letter informing me that I had come third in the competition. My painting was being displayed in a reputed government building along with those of the other winners.
My parents were very excited and I still remember their confused expressions when they saw my painting. They thought the washed out effect was a brilliant interpretation of a rainy day. If only they had known.


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Fay, Anna Class: 2012 Team: Keene Other Sports: Track & Field
11/05/11 N.H.I.A.A. State Meet of Champions Women's 5k 19:08
10/29/11 N.H.I.A.A. Cross Country Divisional Championships Women's 5k Division 19:42
10/14/11 CVC 10-14-2011 Varsity Women's 5k 20:40
10/30/10 N.H.I.A.A. Cross Country Division Championships Girls 5k Run CC Division I 19:34
10/31/09 N.H.I.A.A. Cross Country Class Meets Girls 5k Run CC Class L 20:04
10/17/09 2009 CVC Championships Girls 5k Run CC JV/Varsity G 20:50
11/01/08 NHIAA State Meet of Champions Girls 5k Run CC 19:25
10/25/08 NHIAA Cross Country Class Meet Championships Girls 5k Run CC Class L 20:33
10/11/08 CVC XC 2008 Championships Women 5k Run CC JV/Varsity 21:35
09/27/08 34th Manchester Invitational Nike Cross Country Classic Girls 2.1 Mile Run CC Freshman 14:28


Just Labels has been supplying personalised labels to families throughout South Africa since 1996. All our products are fully guaranteed. Our customers return to us year after year for our high quality products and excellent service. Just Labels' products include: Plastic labels for marking school stationery and shoes, Iron-on and sew-on name labels for clothing, Personalised gift labels for all those birthday parties. Address labels, Brightly coloured motivational stickers. Our efficient online ordering system makes life easy and you can track your order from time of order to dispatch.
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Personlised address labels Labels available in black, white and gold.
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You can customise your own birthday stickers and Christmas stickers.


Attention to the TOMMY HILFIGER brand shoes. Uppers made of natural leather (leather) - suede, ecological leather - ecological leather, substance - fabric. Inner part of eco-leather, textile material. Insole of textile material. Sole of high-quality synthetic material. Stylish and comfortable to wear.


This exhibit is a photographic essay of life from 1880-1932 on the campus of Mississippi State University. The University was founded as Mississippi A&M College in 1878 and campus operations began in 1880. In 1932 the name was changed to Mississippi State College, and in 1958 to Mississippi State University.
MSU cadet corps and cadet band on drill field, ca. 1906. Note Mobile and Ohio passenger train in background. The railroad was eventually abandoned; the track through campus was torn up in 1967.
MSU Dramatic Club during the A&M days, ca. 1914.
Interior of George Hall, which during the early 1900s served as the campus clinic. This photograph was taken during a measles epidemic in 1904.
1915 photo of Maroon Band.
Chapel service in old administration building, 1909.
Inoculating short-horn cattle, early 1900s.
Meeting in dining room of first home built to house MSU presidents and their families.
Interior scene of library, 1901, located in Montgomery Hall at the time.
Interior photo of students rough-housing in a room of Old Main dormitory, ca. 1905.
Summer class in Greenhouse, early 1900s.
Mobile and Ohio train entering campus, early 1900s.


What's the Best Air Conditioner for You?
A Rundown of the Coolest Options.
It's great to have options—until you go to shop for, say, an air conditioner and are utterly overwhelmed by shelves and shelves (or pages and pages) of different models, each with their own unique advantages—and challenges—in installation, energy efficiency, and other factors.
To help you find the best air conditioner for you and your home, check out this rundown of types of air conditioners, along with the pros, cons, and average cost of each.
Description: This is one of the simplest ways to cool your home. You install the air conditioner in a partly opened window, sealing the space around it. Plug it into an ordinary outlet, set your desired indoor temperature, and hit the power. The unit then cools and dehumidifies the air, sending heat and moisture out.


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Performing the Documentary, or Making It To the Other Bank
Adrian Danks
"Godless Mysticism": An Interview with Amiel Courtin-Wilson
Mann, Michael
Spotlight on 49th Melbourne International Film Festival: Daily Reports: Part 2
Thinking in Images: Film Theory, Feminist Philosophy and Marlene Dietrich by Catherine Constable
Kitsch, Sensation – Kultur und Film: Die Spinnen
Death Comes as an End: Temporality, Domesticity and Photography in Terrence Malick's Badlands
This is a version of the annotation published in CTEQ Annotations No.1, 1998, in Metro 113/114, 1998.
"While taking a look at some vistas in Dad's Stereopticon it hit me, that I was just this little girl born in Texas, whose father was a sign painter, who had only just so many years to live." (from Holly's voiceover in Badlands)
"I guess there's just a meanness in this world." (Bruce Springsteen, "Nebraska", 1982)
Badlands (1973) is undoubtedly one of the great first films of the cinema, and it is also one of the most influential works of the early 1970s, a golden period of American filmmaking. It documents a short killing spree carried out by a young couple, Holly and Kit, in the 1950s as they travel from Fort Dupree across the South Dakota Badlands. Loosely based upon Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate's 1958 murder spree, Terrence Malick's film is in turns elegiac and dispassionate, presenting a fascinating portrait of opaque, vaguely motivated characters drifting across an ethereal landscape. While relying upon the basic framework and preoccupations of an established genre, the road movie, Badlands twists, defamiliarises and critiques its familiar coordinates. The film presents a potent but immaterial portrait of its period. Like Malick's subsequent films, Days of Heaven (1978) and The Thin Red Line (1998), it presents characters who are mired in their society, their moment in history, and who react in keeping with the stereotypes, clichés and constricting social, philosophical and moral conditions they exist within. Unlike in Oliver Stone's infinitely more strident and simplistic Natural Born Killers (1994), society (and cinema) only provides a framework for the characters to exist within, not a means to justify their murderous actions (Badlands never really motivates or justifies its characters' actions, but neither does it condemn them). The film's unusual tone, always distanced and never quite immediate, is supported by Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen's incisive but impenetrable characterisations. This combination of incisiveness and impenetrability is equally characteristic of the multiple characters, points of view and perspectives formulated in the myriad and overlapping narratives of The Thin Red Line. And yet it is the multiplicity of temporality and the multitudinous ways in which it is experienced that is most emblematic of Malick's films.
Essentially, Badlands, like They Live by Night (Nicholas Ray,1949), Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) and Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1949), is a film preoccupied with the fate of its doomed couple. This inescapable fate is most hauntingly captured in the sequence where Holly looks at and narrates over some stereoscope images she stumbles over on one 'ordinary' afternoon. This sequence, one of the most moving and strange in all cinema, has an otherworldly quality. Framed and narrativised by the (im)possibility of the couple's domestic life together, it also stands in for the organisation and thematics of the film on a broader level. As a series of images flick by, Holly disconnectedly narrates the awakenings of her ostensibly conventional sexual and social consciousness. At times, the rather banal voiceover and the images fix together (as they do throughout the film) as Holly's specific comments are 'universalised' by our syncopated reading of the image. Yet, the old-fashioned scenes of lovers, pyramids, steamships, a canal, perhaps a mother, a traveller, are themselves beyond understanding in any explicitly narrativised or purely representational sense. It is simply possible to say that these scenes, people and places existed. Their 'strangeness' is somehow familiarised, 'familialised' and lent continuity by Holly's chilling but homely voiceover.
Not unlike Max Ophüls' Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) the grounding of this storytelling function within the female character has significant, explicitly critical, effects. She 'transforms' the film's otherworldly imagery, its deeply troubling and inexplicable events into a simplistic, conventional and ostensibly 'negative' narrative of the self. Holly's naive, personalised and overly narrativised reading of the images and events in general helps foreground the film's self-conscious and critical 'quotation' of a series of conventions and archetypes. A series of conventions, poses and archetypes that seal the fates of these characters. Despite this, and this is typical of the film's duality, Holly's relation to the events of the film is equally multifarious and strange. Badlands has a matter-of-fact beauty that is complimented by and contrasted to the beautiful but colourless pallor of Spacek's voice.
The film, I think, is essentially interested in dealing with archetypes and established and archaic systems of representation. Whereas Holly's narrative is presented as a minor break from the repetition of small-town life, Kit's is a linear spiral to death indicative of the 'genre'. Kit's reference points are more ephemeral, modern, and relate to his aping of various movie stars and popular singers. He does not attempt to place himself in a continuum of 'universal' images as Holly does. His 'images' are somewhat reflexive, obscure, cinematic and blank. For Kit these images represent a microcosm of his attempt to make a mark on the world, his stab at a kind of iconic immortality. Unknown and lost in a small backwater town at the start of the film, Kit consistently attempts to record or mark their murderous adventure: on a recorded 45; on a Dictaphone; by a monument of rocks at his roadside capture; in a book belonging to Holly; in a time capsule buried roadside or floated high into the air by a balloon; in a suicide note; by leaving his body to science; and by his unemployment registration and his criminal record. Struggling to forge his own identity, he attempts to paraphrase the attitudes and appearances of marked celebrity, such as the look of James Dean and the voice of Nat King Cole (in a move typical of many such rebels without a cause). Thus, we can only understand Kit as an emanation and reflection of the image culture he emerges from. Equally, Holly's voiceover, which conventionally would be analytical and explanatory, fails to penetrate Kit's psychology and explain his actions.
Ultimately, Badlands is a film full of strange and transfixing moments. Any reading of the film will ultimately fail when trying to communicate its subtlety, its opacity and its always questioning lyricism. Its characters are given no sense of distance, nor placed in a position that can possibly transcend their limited understanding of the world. Badlands is, in the end, a paean to identity, lost motivations, of what it means to be in the world and the difficulty of making a mark. It is only here, in this series of grisly but only vaguely felt killings and on this melancholy and haunting strip of celluloid that these characters register their existence.
"Ultimately, what I am seeking in the photo taken of me… is Death." (1)
Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, Trans. Richard Howard, London, Flamingo, 1984, p. 15.
Welcome to Issue 7 of our monthly journal!
His Kind Of Woman
Adrian Danks is Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and Media in the School of Media and Communication, RMIT University. He is also co-curator of the Melbourne Cinémathèque and was an editor of Senses of Cinema from 2000 to 2014. He has published hundreds of articles on various aspects of cinema and is the editor of A Companion to Robert Altman (Wiley-Blackwell) and American-Australian Cinema: Transnational Connections (Palgrave).
On Malick's Subjects
Michael Filippidis
The Shape of Fear: Thoughts after The Thin Red Line
Bill Schaffer


text:
Neuroimaging and Bayley-III correlates of early hand function in extremely preterm children
for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development Neonatal Research Network
Neonatal & Perinatal
Objective(s): Investigate associations between 18 and 22-month corrected age hand function, adverse findings on serial cranial ultrasound (CUS) and near-term brain MRI (ntMRI), and Bayley-III scores in extremely preterm (EPT) toddlers. Study design: Cohort analysis of Neonatal Research Network SUPPORT NEURO data. Associations between brain abnormalities, hand function, and Bayley-III scores were examined using chi-square and generalized linear mixed effect model analyses. Results: A total of 433 children were included. Sixteen percent had hand function deficits; these were associated with late CUS (p < 0.001) abnormalities, white matter abnormality (WMA) on ntMRI (p < 0.001), and Bayley-III scores. Six percent had CP. Fourteen percent of children without and 50% of those with CP had hand function abnormalities. Conclusions: Late CUS findings and severity of WMA were significantly associated with hand function deficits. Hand function deficits were nearly three times more common than CP and may be a useful marker of early brain insult and predictor of preterm birth effects on development.
Journal of Perinatology
for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development Neonatal Research Network (2019). Neuroimaging and Bayley-III correlates of early hand function in extremely preterm children. Journal of Perinatology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-019-0314-0
Neuroimaging and Bayley-III correlates of early hand function in extremely preterm children. / for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development Neonatal Research Network.
In: Journal of Perinatology, 01.01.2019.
for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development Neonatal Research Network 2019, 'Neuroimaging and Bayley-III correlates of early hand function in extremely preterm children', Journal of Perinatology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-019-0314-0
for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development Neonatal Research Network. Neuroimaging and Bayley-III correlates of early hand function in extremely preterm children. Journal of Perinatology. 2019 Jan 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-019-0314-0
for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development Neonatal Research Network. / Neuroimaging and Bayley-III correlates of early hand function in extremely preterm children. In: Journal of Perinatology. 2019.
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title = "Neuroimaging and Bayley-III correlates of early hand function in extremely preterm children",
abstract = "Objective(s): Investigate associations between 18 and 22-month corrected age hand function, adverse findings on serial cranial ultrasound (CUS) and near-term brain MRI (ntMRI), and Bayley-III scores in extremely preterm (EPT) toddlers. Study design: Cohort analysis of Neonatal Research Network SUPPORT NEURO data. Associations between brain abnormalities, hand function, and Bayley-III scores were examined using chi-square and generalized linear mixed effect model analyses. Results: A total of 433 children were included. Sixteen percent had hand function deficits; these were associated with late CUS (p < 0.001) abnormalities, white matter abnormality (WMA) on ntMRI (p < 0.001), and Bayley-III scores. Six percent had CP. Fourteen percent of children without and 50{\%} of those with CP had hand function abnormalities. Conclusions: Late CUS findings and severity of WMA were significantly associated with hand function deficits. Hand function deficits were nearly three times more common than CP and may be a useful marker of early brain insult and predictor of preterm birth effects on development.",
author = "{for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development Neonatal Research Network} and Duncan, {Andrea F.} and Bann, {Carla M.} and Dempsey, {Allison G.} and Ira Adams-Chapman and Heyne, {Roy J} and Hintz, {Susan R.}",
journal = "Journal of Perinatology",
T1 - Neuroimaging and Bayley-III correlates of early hand function in extremely preterm children
AU - for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development Neonatal Research Network
AU - Duncan, Andrea F.
AU - Bann, Carla M.
AU - Dempsey, Allison G.
AU - Adams-Chapman, Ira
AU - Heyne, Roy J
AU - Hintz, Susan R.
N2 - Objective(s): Investigate associations between 18 and 22-month corrected age hand function, adverse findings on serial cranial ultrasound (CUS) and near-term brain MRI (ntMRI), and Bayley-III scores in extremely preterm (EPT) toddlers. Study design: Cohort analysis of Neonatal Research Network SUPPORT NEURO data. Associations between brain abnormalities, hand function, and Bayley-III scores were examined using chi-square and generalized linear mixed effect model analyses. Results: A total of 433 children were included. Sixteen percent had hand function deficits; these were associated with late CUS (p < 0.001) abnormalities, white matter abnormality (WMA) on ntMRI (p < 0.001), and Bayley-III scores. Six percent had CP. Fourteen percent of children without and 50% of those with CP had hand function abnormalities. Conclusions: Late CUS findings and severity of WMA were significantly associated with hand function deficits. Hand function deficits were nearly three times more common than CP and may be a useful marker of early brain insult and predictor of preterm birth effects on development.
AB - Objective(s): Investigate associations between 18 and 22-month corrected age hand function, adverse findings on serial cranial ultrasound (CUS) and near-term brain MRI (ntMRI), and Bayley-III scores in extremely preterm (EPT) toddlers. Study design: Cohort analysis of Neonatal Research Network SUPPORT NEURO data. Associations between brain abnormalities, hand function, and Bayley-III scores were examined using chi-square and generalized linear mixed effect model analyses. Results: A total of 433 children were included. Sixteen percent had hand function deficits; these were associated with late CUS (p < 0.001) abnormalities, white matter abnormality (WMA) on ntMRI (p < 0.001), and Bayley-III scores. Six percent had CP. Fourteen percent of children without and 50% of those with CP had hand function abnormalities. Conclusions: Late CUS findings and severity of WMA were significantly associated with hand function deficits. Hand function deficits were nearly three times more common than CP and may be a useful marker of early brain insult and predictor of preterm birth effects on development.
JO - Journal of Perinatology
JF - Journal of Perinatology


Genetic analysis reveal significant and consistent pairwise interactions between common non-coding LOXL1 polymorphisms.
Mineo Ozaki, Takanori Mizoguchi, Satoko Nakano, Shinichi Manabe, Masaru Inatani, Kazuhisa Sugiyama, Susan Williams, Michele Ramsay, Trevor R Carmichael, Kazuhiko Mori, Yury S Astakhov, Sergei Y Astakhov, Michael Dubina, Toshiaki Kubota, Tin Aung, Chiea Chuen Khor; Genetic analysis reveal significant and consistent pairwise interactions between common non-coding LOXL1 polymorphisms.. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2018;59(9):5145.
Purpose : Common genetic polymorphisms within LOXL1 show the strongest evidence of association to date. However, the associations with these common variants (marked by rs1048661 encoding for p. R141L and rs3825942 encoding for p.G153D) are reversed in Japanese (for rs1048661) and Africans (for rs3825942). To this end, we suspected there could be non-additive interactions between genetic variants which may explain some of the allele reversal.
Methods : We performed genome-wide interaction analysis using GWAS data, by assessing for interaction between classical common LOXL1 variants and other loci genome-wide. As we also have deep re-sequencing data of the LOXL1 locus, we performed within-locus LOXL1 interaction analysis using deep sequencing data. This exercise was performed in representative ethnic groups (East Asians, represented by Japanese, South Africans, and Russians) where the reversal is clearly documented. The sample size for genome-wide interaction analysis was 3,061 cases and 2,968 controls from Japan, 387 cases and 674 controls from Russia, and 109 cases and 269 controls from South Africa. For the within-locus LOXL1 interaction analysis, a total of 2,827 cases and 3,013 controls from Japan, 476 cases and 859 controls from Russia, and 95 cases and 250 controls from South Africa.
Results : No evidence of association surpassing multiple-testing thresholds were observed in interactive tests between classical LOXL1 common variants and other loci in a genome-wide search using GWAS data. However, using targeted LOXL1 deep re-sequencing data, we observed genotypic combinations with pairs of LOXL1 common intronic variants that were consistently enriched in controls as compared to cases.
Conclusions : Our results suggests that at least part of the LOXL1 allele reversal phenomenon between Japanese, Europeans, and Africans could be explained by non-additive interactive effects. Further effort to study the biological underpinnings of these consistent associations are warranted, and to exclude statistical artifacts.


The Rallye Défi is a performance automobile rally on paved and gravel roads where rally cars reach speeds of more than 190 km/h. It all happens in 20 speed tests on the territory of the Papineau RCM. This internationally renowned event is the fourth round of the Canadian Rally Championship (CRC).