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Epigenetics and Speculative Research: In Conversation With Larissa Sansour
The Palestinian artist reflects on how inherited trauma can be used as a tool to shape the future in the image of the past.
A still from Larissa Sansour's film "In Vitro."
By: Anthony Downey
The premise of Larissa Sansour's post-apocalyptic film "In Vitro" is simple and yet wholly original. It involves two people — one having seen the world before an apocalypse, while the other having been born in its wake — in dialogue with one another about the inherited nature of trauma. This conversation takes place in a bunker underneath the town that the younger of the two is destined to rebuild, but has never experienced firsthand. Like Sansour's other work, the film — part of a larger installation called "Heirloom" that was presented at the Venice Biennale in 2019 — explores themes of collective and personal loss, cultural erasure, and the effects of trauma on the national psyche. In sum, it's a multifaceted and extensively researched project that unfolds across different time zones and discrete spaces.
A longer version of this conversation appears in "Heirloom," published by Sternberg Press.
It was with this often eclipsed level of research in mind that I began to develop Research/Practice, a series of books that explores artists' materials and their approaches to developing projects. One of the first volumes in the series is dedicated to "Heirloom" and the specific practices that went into its development over an extended period of time. On the surface, Sansour's methodologies appear to be informal, but they prove to be more structured than that, focusing as they do on multidisciplinary approaches (with people from different disciplines working together), interdisciplinary approaches (where knowledge and methods from different disciplines are integrated), and transdisciplinary approaches (where you get a unity of frameworks beyond the disciplinary perspectives).
I spoke with Larissa about the research elements that went into "In Vitro," the allure of sci-fi, what it means to grapple with complex issues of national representation, and how epigenetics, or inherited trauma, can be used as a tool to shape the future in the image of the past. A longer version of the conversation featured below can be found in "Heirloom."
Anthony Downey: This has been a long-term project in terms of its gestation period. Can you talk a little about how the idea came about in the first place?
Larissa Sansour: Yes, although the works for "Heirloom" were produced on relatively short notice—in eight months total—the research and conceptual framework was established before I was appointed by the Danish Arts Foundation to represent Denmark at the Venice Biennale. It usually takes me about two years to complete a project of this magnitude, and luckily I was already in early development on a feature film when I was appointed. All basic research had been completed, and my artistic collaborator, Søren Lind, had written several drafts of the manuscript. As the deadline for Venice was so short, we decided to keep the existing conceptual framework and scale the increasingly plot-driven script back to its origins as a short art film, identify the core philosophical argument, and experiment formally in ways that aren't possible with the feature-length format.
What is left when everything vanishes? What part of the past do we rely on for survival? | A trailer for Larissa Sansour's film "In Vitro."
Set in Bethlehem, In Vitro is a postapocalyptic film that takes place thirty years after an eco-disaster. In previous projects, I had been using science fiction to explore the concepts of collective and personal loss, cultural erasure, and the effects of trauma on the national psyche. The conceptual framework for the feature continued this line of research by accelerating the climate dystopia we are all currently facing, with a focus on the local factors further aggravating the ecological crisis in a Palestinian context. As we started editing the script down for the film, it became clear that the most crucial aspects to explore were the psychological implications of this potentially complete erasure, a tabula rasa. What is left when everything vanishes? What part of the past do we rely on for survival? So the script for In Vitro was written as a dialogue between two scientists, a generation apart: one having seen the world before the apocalypse and the other being born in a bunker underneath the town she's destined to rebuild, but that she's never experienced firsthand. So the climate disaster eventually became a pretext for a debate about the effects of memory, nostalgia, and inherited trauma on personal and collective identity.
AD: Could you talk more about the role of your research into sci-fi tropes and how it works as a conceptual gambit—how it allows you to do things that relate to both historical speculation and historical fact. There is also an impending sense of catastrophe (imminent and past) in science fiction as a genre, specifically around ecological disaster.
LS: For me, the allure of sci-fi is to be able to talk about the present without being dictated by the current political jargon. By getting rid of the present-day context, the past and its consequences can be reframed. This is particularly helpful when dealing with the Palestinian question, I think. The distance provided by the imagined future grants an immediate and quite liberating perspective. It gives me the chance to single out neglected or overlooked details, enlarge them, and emphasize their importance. I can treat these details in as much of a vacuum as they deserve, cleanse them of their current meaning, so to speak. And I guess the ambition is to refine them and eventually return them to their present context, hoping they will add new meaning.
With no viable present to speak of, the Palestinian psyche is suspended between the traumas of the past shaping the ambitions for the future.
Sci-fi also lends itself well to the Palestinian situation in terms of modes of temporality. With no viable present to speak of, the Palestinian psyche is suspended between the traumas of the past shaping the ambitions for the future. This suspension is key to In Vitro's dialogue.
While the older scientist, Dunia, hopes to shape the future in the image of the past and relies on her memories and nostalgia, the younger scientist, Alia, rebels against this thought, suggesting that the very idea is flawed and relies on, as she says, a history reduced to reductive symbols and iconography, a future built on nostalgia.
As for the eco-disaster aspect, sci-fi frequently turns to apocalyptic tropes to facilitate the clean slate, the tabula rasa, which clears the way for new structures and systems to emerge. Climate change presents the most imminent threat to our civilization at this point, and that makes the setting relatable, which is why it is important for the world-building element of sci-fi not to appear too farfetched and get in the way of the conceptual reworking I set out to accomplish.
The first three volumes in "Research/Practice," a series of books that draw on preliminary materials such as diaries, notebooks, audiovisual content, digital and social media, informal communications, and abandoned drafts of projects to examine the interdisciplinary methods that artists employ in their practices.
AD: You spoke earlier of the main body of research that precedes this project: Could you expand on that? I am particularly interested in the science of epigenetics and how it differs from genetics. How do such ideas inform your understanding of historical trauma?
LS: Epigenetics studies genetic inheritance not associated with alterations in the DNA sequence, meaning changes passed on genetically through generations in addition to what is delivered by DNA. One item that epigeneticists are studying as potentially inheritable is trauma. So although trauma has no impact on the DNA sequence, it can still be passed on genetically, meaning that children born of parents having experienced significant trauma could themselves carry this trauma. I find this fact particularly interesting in a Palestinian context. One thing is the narrative of trauma and the natural impact of such a narrative on future generations.
This makes trauma a psychological factor. But if trauma is passed on genetically, it is present from birth. In "Heirloom," this inescapability of trauma is taken one step further, now not only limited to trauma itself, but the burden of a troubled history in a wider sense. What is usually seen as nurture in terms of oral delivery of a historical narrative in a specific cultural or national context is now genetically manifest. In the film this is, of course, a sci-fi twist on advanced scientific research, and it is implemented in the film as a means to present history as a genetically inescapable circumstance. If the total sum of your ancestors' accomplishments, traumas, ambitions, errors, and experiences is already with you from birth, what are the options for breaking away from this heritage and carving out a new direction? It's the classic battle between determinism and free will played out in genetic terms, and it further accentuates the obstacles for the younger generations in their attempts to forge a better future.
If the total sum of your ancestors' accomplishments, traumas, ambitions, errors, and experiences is already with you from birth, what are the options for breaking away from this heritage and carving out a new direction?
AD: Do you see epigenetics as a potential tool in forging precisely that future, or does it suggest a degree of fatalism?
LS: I'm certain that the potential of epigenetics will have far-reaching consequences, but I am as of yet not aware of the scope of the discipline's ability to forge actual futures. Engineering genetic heritage to not only pass on trauma but also memories is something I utilize in In Vitro. In a crucial part of the film's fiction, epigenetics is used as a tool to shape the future in the image of the past. It is a rational attempt to preserve what is worth preserving and to prevent repetition of past mistakes. Dunia argues that no viable future is possible without an intact past as its foundation. The entire argument unfolding between her and her younger successor revolves around this issue. While insisting on the importance of the past, Dunia also refutes all claims of fatalism by suggesting that it's not only a matter of restoring what was lost, but also a case of rectifying past errors. Alia disagrees. She finds this historical baggage a deterministic hindrance for shaping a new and more fertile future.
AD: Could you describe the other elements of research that went into "Heirloom," not just the epigenetic elements but the literary, historical, and filmic elements too?
LS: As is the case with most of my projects, "Heirloom" is part of a continuum of research accumulated and partially explored in previous works. Specifically, my focus is on the interplay between history, documentary, myth, and fiction, and has been evolving throughout the past decade and the three sci-fi films preceding In Vitro. National identity, historical, nationalist, and colonial narratives, nation-building, regional symbolism, and iconography have all played a major part in my work. The research going into these topics over the years is multifaceted, with the extensive syllabus counting key works by historians like Ilan Pappé's The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2013) and the more discipline-specific Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (2001) by Nadia Abu El-Haj. On a related note, I have always been very interested in the academic research and writing on my own and related practices, as the academic treatment of the topics at stake often uncovers new and exciting aspects and helps me crystallize evolving ideas for future projects. Chrisoula Lionis's brilliant book Laughter in Occupied Palestine: Comedy and Identity in Art and Film (2016), for instance, inspired some of the ideas for the In Vitro script.
I have always been very interested in the academic research and writing on my own and related practices, as the academic treatment of the topics at stake often uncovers new and exciting aspects and helps me crystallize evolving ideas for future projects.
I was never really interested in science fiction in my younger years, so my transition into it came with a steep learning curve based on literary sci-fi classics by authors like J. G. Ballard, William Gibson, and China Miéville, and more recent books like Don DeLillo's Zero K (2016), as well as a wide selection of films like Blade Runner (1982), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Solaris (1972), to more recent films such as Ex Machina (2014), as well as the increasing use of sci-fi in the art world, as seen in Afrofuturism and more recent productions. In terms of film directors, the influence of Stanley Kubrick always finds its way into my projects, whether I intend it to or not. His one-point perspective has inspired my own image composition, just as I often end up referencing one or more of his most iconic scenes in my own films, like the twin girls from The Shining (1980). But the two main cinematic inspirations were always Andrei Tarkovsky and Ingmar Bergman, most notably Stalker (1979) and The Mirror (1975) by the former and Persona (1966) by the latter. I am particularly intrigued by the intensity of the dialogue between the two main characters in Persona, and the suggestive imagery in The Mirror, the nostalgic scenes in the summerhouse and the burning flames in the middle of the forest.
Talking more specifically about "Heirloom," the first thing we developed was the narrative framework for In Vitro. The apocalyptic setting of the film took its initial cue from the looming climate catastrophe and its regional implications for Palestinian agriculture. Early research into preservation of native crops and heirloom seeds was followed by an interest in contemporary practices like aquaponics. This in turn led to the shaping of In Vitro's underground orchard where high-tech botanists work to keep the regional vegetation alive for future replanting of the soil above ground.
The first thing we developed was the narrative framework for In Vitro. The apocalyptic setting of the film took its initial cue from the looming climate catastrophe and its regional implications for Palestinian agriculture.
Soon, the focus shifted from the apocalyptic foundations to the question of the psychological, political, and social implications of a people having undergone an all-erasing trauma. I then became interested in the nature of personal and collective memory along with an increasing fascination with the idea of inherited trauma, which led us to recent discoveries in epigenetics. While trying to get all of these topics and ideas to make sense as a manuscript, there were multiple research detours as well, at some point trying to understand the concepts of nothingness, voids, and absences through the properties of black holes.
A spread from the book showing a selection of the research and production material accumulated in the early stages of development of "In Vitro."
AD: Could you talk about the production research; your trip to Bethlehem, for example?
LS: The preproduction stage of the film was very condensed and comprehensive. During the few months available to us before going into production, we had to formulate the overall aesthetics, which had implications for our choice of shooting locations, costumes, set design, and director of photography.
We explored a lot of different options for the costumes, from contemporary avant-garde designers with a postapocalyptic edge to steampunk and historical sci-fi designs. Since In Vitro consciously blurs temporalities, and sci-fi has a tendency to stop looking like sci-fi if you deviate too much from a retro-futuristic approach, we decided to appropriate design trends from the 1960s and '70s, not only in terms of costume, but also hospital equipment and furniture design. For the underground compound, we landed on a Brutalist approach and spent a long time location-scouting, first online and then on actual recces to potential shooting locations. We went through a lot of Brutalist building options for the main location, but ended up choosing this amazing pyramid-shaped former art gallery at an abandoned boarding school in Oxfordshire. The place was vacated twenty years ago and looks completely postapocalyptic, with an empty indoor swimming pool, paint peeling off the pipes everywhere, and then this highly photogenic pyramid that we knew would make the perfect setting for In Vitro.
An early recce to Bethlehem with our director of photography and visual-effects (VFX) supervisor was also carried out. This was a crucial step because we needed to determine shooting locations and accessibility for camera crew, dolly tracks, and equipment, and our VFX supervisor had to map out the problems of each shot to determine the clean-up work needed in postproduction. Another vital task carried out in Bethlehem was the casting of the film's young girl, who had to be local in order to avoid any logistical issues during the filming. We interviewed about ten girls, all extremely sweet and nice, but lacking in acting experience. On the final day in Bethlehem, we came across this young girl, Mimi, who had a passion for acting and her own YouTube channel. She blew us away immediately.
Developing sketches and approaches to the special effects was also an intense focus. We sat through endless simulations of liquid and researched 3-D explosions, fires, flames, insect plagues, draughts, DNA strings, egg cells, and other material for potential inclusion in the final edit. Another very interesting but time-consuming area of research was sorting through historical footage for the film in the archives of Imperial War Museum, British Pathé, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
A crucial aspect of preproduction was the casting process. With two actors already in mind from the early stages of the script, we still sat through a lot of recent Palestinian and Arabic films to get a full picture of available talent. Listing multiple candidates along the way, we still ended up with our original selection, Hiam Abbass and Maisa Abd Elhadi, and fortunately they both agreed to participate. Once we had contracted them, we watched a lot of their previous performances to better identify which of their strengths to play to in the filming process.
A selection of the storyboard for "In Vitro."
While working on other aspects of the production and postproduction, including music composition and development of an overall sound approach and editing style, we were also involved in the production of the exhibition's two other elements, namely, the hand-painted tiles from the tile maker in Nablus in the West Bank and the large-scale sculpture developed by the art production company Factum Arte in Madrid, with the latter element requiring significant research into sculptural materials, manufacturing processes, and, most importantly, the light-absorbing black paint to be applied to the sculptural surface to simulate a loss of its three-dimensionality. Further areas of research for the sculptural installation included cement-flooring options, casting procedures, tile laying, and lighting options. Overall, the short production period meant that there were many parallel dialogues and research efforts going on at the same time, but luckily I had a very solid core team to assist me throughout the process.
AD: Is a research-based methodology always relevant to your practice? I am particularly interested in the methodologies employed by artists. They tend, on the surface at least, to appear to be informal, but I think they are more structured than that, focusing as they do on multidisciplinary approaches (with people from different disciplines working together), interdisciplinary approaches (where knowledge and methods from different disciplines are integrated), and transdisciplinary approaches (where you get a unity of frameworks beyond the disciplinary perspectives). Do any of these define particular approaches in your work?
LS: It is probably a combination of them all. Despite merging film, sculpture, music compositions, installation, and architectural intervention, "Heirloom" sits quite comfortably within a contemporary art practice. Over the years I have gathered a core team of specialists from various disciplines: producers, VFX experts, composers, designers, and so on. I recently worked with an antique clock restorer, Julius Schoonhoven, who helped me devise a locking mechanism for a series of bronze sculptures, and I was very impressed by his skills. His workshop was full of old clocks, and while we were working together, he was also casting the missing pieces for the intricate clockwork in an eighteenth-century clock. It was very inspiring. The special-effects supervisor I work with on my films, Henrik Bach Christensen, has abilities reaching far beyond VFX, including 3-D modeling and printing. He's a jack-of-all-trades and a tremendous resource. Like Søren, he has a background in philosophy, which also makes him a great partner for the conceptual aspects of the work we do. I also find it very inspiring to work with composers, and that feeling tends to be mutual because working with a visual artist often poses new challenges and gives them a freedom they are not used to when composing for theater or mainstream film. I've often worked with Iraqi electronica musician Aida Nadeem, and for "Heirloom" I teamed up with the Danish composer Niklas Schak, who does a lot of film and theater compositions. He searched long and wide for the right instrument to use for the film and the sculptural installation and finally found the amazing Cristal Baschet, a very distinct and bizarre wind instrument that has a deep trombone-like sound and was developed a half century ago by two French brothers. Schak played the instrument in a Paris sound studio and got the recordings he needed to compose the score for the film and the sound piece for the sculpture.
Despite merging film, sculpture, music compositions, installation, and architectural intervention, "Heirloom" sits quite comfortably within a contemporary art practice.
This gives me the freedom to conceptualize a project without the fear that it can't be realized. I always have someone to go to for implementation, and it is always very inspiring for me to work with highly trained specialists in fields I personally have no practical skills in, like VFX, for instance, although I am getting more of an understanding of its possibilities and limitations, with the latter more often than not being financial.
Not only do I learn a lot from these people. Having access to their knowledge and insight also lets new ideas wander and develop more freely, as I don't have to worry about transitioning them from idea to actual work. In that way, it's sometimes a blessing not to know what can and cannot be done. I get to ask silly questions and suggest new ideas without knowing about the practical constraints, but somehow there's always a solution. For "Heirloom," for instance, we were inspired by Nessa Carey's introduction to epigenetics, The Epigenetics Revolution (2012), and asked Bach Christensen for a very abstract visual representation of genetic material, which would also merge with the overall aesthetics of the film, and he came up with this amazing black-and-white DNA string gently twisting its way through dense liquid. It's a really nice shot.
Sansour and Søren explored a variety of options for costumes for "In Vitro," from contemporary avant-garde designers with a postapocalyptic edge to steampunk and historical sci-fi designs.
AD: There is also a level of serendipity involved in the research, isn't there?
LS: Yes, of course. "Heirloom" was a major group effort with approximately 120 people contributing at various stages of the production, and this is not even counting all those involved in the formative stages. These are not always scheduled or targeted conversations, but often occur when I least expect it. When working on the early draft for In Vitro, for instance, a person introduced herself to me at a party and said that she had previously auditioned for a role in one of my films, so she wanted to offer her help for any future projects. I said that right now we weren't looking for actors, but were in desperate need of a geneticist. She asked me if this was a joke, because she just happened to be a geneticist herself! Our conversation that afternoon led to new discoveries, specifically the idea of genetically inherited trauma, which is now key to In Vitro's storyline.
Before that, the film project found its conceptual footing as part of a research collaboration with the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library. I was very interested in the impact of occupation on Palestinian agriculture and teamed up with my cousin Vivien Sansour, who does amazing work in Palestine and abroad with preservation of heirloom seeds. The vanishing of original Palestinian crops helped shape the overall approach to the kind of climate apocalypse I wanted to address in In Vitro, and it also defined the development of the film's underground orchard. This line of research continued deep into postproduction of the film, as the design of the underground orchard relied on local crops, plants, and flowers, so I was in extensive botanical dialogue with our VFX team throughout that period.
The writing of the script also involved a lot of unexpected areas of research and interdisciplinary dialogues. Søren and I are both involved in the research and conceptualization stages. He then writes a first draft while I visualize the ideas, and that process is repeated until we're both satisfied. Søren has a background in philosophy of the mind, and often revisits old philosophical texts or explores new ones in the process. For In Vitro, he spent a long time exploring memory and trauma, just as he got interested in philosophical, psychological, and astronomical approaches to the concepts of void, nothingness, and time. Sometimes a week of research ends up producing a single line of dialogue, while other times the tiniest of insights can suddenly inspire entire chapters. All of this accumulated knowledge stays with me and invariably forms the foundation for future projects. Epigenetics being one of the topics In Vitro generated an interest in, I am now involved in a new project continuing that line of research.
AD: Can we talk more about that new project?
LS: Søren and I are in early stages of a sci-fi opera on epigenetics commissioned by two art institutions and scheduled to premiere in the UK in late 2020. The opera will be presented as a three-screen installation featuring a single aria on inherited trauma performed in Arabic by a renowned opera singer. Her performance will be accompanied by VFX visuals and manipulated archival footage from Palestine. I was always intrigued by the idea of making an opera, the pathos, drama, and poetry of it. The primary commissioner of this new piece was interested in creating a dialogue between artists and geneticists, which I found really inspiring and just the right setup for the opera project that I had been contemplating for so long. So we are currently trying to familiarize ourselves with opera as a discipline and trying to understand how best to convert the scientific research into an aria.
Larissa Sansour (b. 1973, East Jerusalem) is an award-winning artist who lives and works in London.
Anthony Downey is Professor of Visual Culture in the Middle East and North Africa, within the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media at Birmingham City University. He is the series editor for Research/Practice, published by Sternberg Press, and the author of several books on the politics of visual culture.
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Q: flash as3 best way to create multidimensional array I have an array of movie clips (representing band members) which have various properties, among them them a property which tells where the band member went to after they left their current band. For those who formed a new group, I want to create an array. Within that array, I want to group all the ones that left for the same group into secondary arrays. So, if you had five band members and 2 of them left for group X and 3 left for group Y. What's the best way to do this? This is, roughly, my code:
var newGroupArr:Array = new Array() //this will hold all members leaving for a new group

for (k=0;k<memberClips.length;k++){
    if (memberClips[k].outcome == "new"){
        //for all groups where memberClips[k].group is the same, create a new array within newGroupArr for those similar members.
    }
}

Alternatively I suppose if I could do without a multidimensional array and just loop through all the members and say - for those members whose group is the same, perform this function, with the name of that same group passed as the parameter for the function. I guess the trouble I'm having is identifying who's the same.

A: Unless there's a reason why you need to use an array, I'd use a Dictionary, like so
var bands:Dicionary = new Dictionary();

for (k=0;k<memberClips.length;k++){
    if(memberClips[k].outcome=="new"){
        var newGroup:String = memberClips[k].group;
        if(!bands[newGroup]){
           bands[newGroup] = new Array();
        }
        bands[newGroup].push(k);
    }
}

Now each array in bands will contain the members that left their previous band

A: Using AS3, look at
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=10_Lists_of_data_5.html

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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The goal of Seeing Scientifically is to prototype an innovative microscope exhibit in a science museum that helps visitors in scientific observation of live, dynamic specimens and their biological processes. By adapting and deploying existing computational imaging techniques, the project aims to encourage and support museum visitors in observing scientifically, i.e., asking productive questions, interpreting image-rich information, and making inferences from visual evidence that increasingly characterizes current biological research.
I really enjoyed watching this video and thinking about when I have gone to a museum and what I have liked in exhibit. For me, interactive exhibits have always been my favorite. I really think it is important and am glad you all are pursuing how to best encourage people to think and see in a scientific way. For this project are you hoping to target across age groups or one age group in particular?
Such a beautifully crafted series of actions to deepen visitors' understandings - and not easy to achieve!! Is the interactive experience functionally decoupled from the live specimens? (ie. the live fish provide context but the interactive experience could be made online). If so, what a great chance to compare impacts. Or is the visitor really navigating their own live specimen? And if so, how does the system know how to read the screen and find the heart, say?
May 15, 2018 | 12:24 p.m.
Thank you for taking the time to watch our video and for your questions.
Seeing Scientifically does not decouple the interactive scaffolding from the living (and ever changing) specimen visible to visitors at the exhibit. In fact, it is quite the opposite. The scaffolding we are trying is highly domain specific and dynamic to what is immediately in view.
The exhibit is 'smart' in the sense that it can derive the age of the specimen based on initial values the biology lab enters at the beginning of the day when they prepare the slide and exhibit. Based on what the staff inputs and because zebrafish development is so well studied and progresses in a very predictable manner, the computer can somewhat accurately guess what is visible at a certain microscope position and time and, therefore, what is visible to the visitor --- although occasionally the zebrafish can move to obscure key structures from visitor view, and they can hatch as well! Areas of special interest, such as the heart, are detected through image processing algorithms, but none of these 'algorithms' are 100% accurate.
One of our challenges is to figure out is how to make the computer's guess useful to visitors and how to establish the appropriate tone and experience flow that encourages visitors to use their own scientific eyes to observe closely without resorting to a (computer's or staff's) voice of authority.
Really great project and so timely. What would success look like for you? What are the takeaways that audiences should have ideally?
Hi Priti - Thanks for your comments & watching our presentation. Since this is a Pathways project, we'd be very pleased if we were able to shed light on some basic practices that would support observation in this particular exhibit that might be extensible to other types of exhibit and even disciplines beyond biology. In terms of takeaways for the visitor, since we are focused on process, we would like them to feel that they have used an accessible tool to explore something of interest to them and that they became more and more curious the more they looked.
Thank you for this illustrative video, Kristina. It seems that you have iterated a thoughtfully scaffolded experience through prototyping and formative evaluation that has clearly informed exhibit design decisions. How important to you is it that visitors are aware that they are using the tools that scientists might employ when they carry out their investigations? i.e. the authenticity of that seems key to the experience here?
May 15, 2018 | 12:41 p.m.
We have not specifically looked at the role authenticity has in visitors' engagement with our prototypes. At this point, our primary challenge has been to help visitors make close observations. We have not worked as hard at building an awareness that they are doing so with tools and skills scientists use. Instead, we are depending on past evaluations that show that visitors are aware that they are manipulating a 'scientific-looking' microscope in the lab behind the glass partition.
May 15, 2018 | 09:24 p.m.
Thanks Joyce, that focus makes sense and indeed I realize can be challenging enough in itself. Kudos for working thoughtfully to support this important skill. I wonder if you have considered the exhibit surrounds or adjacencies with regard to enhancing an environment that fosters close observation. I'm thinking of something like the Experiment Benches as the Science Museum of Minnesota or the "half walls" at Explora in Albuquerque.
May 18, 2018 | 02:15 p.m.
Yes, we have been thinking about the larger exhibit environment. Sadly, we cannot do very much when it comes to the location (along a corridor not conducive to close observation); the exhibit kiosk needs to be right next to the microscope that is in the larger lab that flanks that hallway. We are, however, thinking about making the kiosk more comfortable for small groups to encourage visitors to stop and spend time looking. Cushy love seats may be in its future.
i really like how this exhibit project is focused on science skills and the process of science more than science facts (although I am guessing that visitors are also learning about fish embryo hearts). Do you have any way to tell if the scientific observation skills are being applied by visitors to other exhibits or experiences?
Hi Vicki - Thanks for your interest in our project. And you're right - although we are focusing on process, we do provide a fair amount of content to set context and pique interest in the sample. The scope of the project is such that we are only evaluating the visitor's experience at this particular prototype, so no, we haven't looked at skill transfer to other exhibits. That said, we are looking at how visitors apply their newly learned skills to other zebrafish embryos in the exhibit after they have spent time on their first sample.
May 14, 2018 | 08:36 p.m.
How do you define "scientific observation"? What are the key elements of this type of observation?
I am very interested in your work and look forward to hearing about the results. I can see possible applications to astronomy, another field that relies heavily on visual information to expose another type of hidden world!
Do you have thoughts on how your work can be applied to other fields?
May 15, 2018 | 06:58 p.m.
Moving fluidly between what is seen and knowledge of the biological process and system being observed, having an understanding of the underlying principles and the research question being studied, having an awareness of the limitation of the technology used to make observation, and partaking in systematic recording of one's observation.
Since then, we have been thinking about how scientific observation can really manifest on the museum floor. For example, can we really expect visitors, during their short time an exhibit, to formulate and own a research question and to then systematically record data?
Currently, our working definition for visitors seeing scientifically are that: (1) they ask productive questions (i.e., answerable with visual inspection of the specimen) and (2) they interpret what they see (i.e., what features are salient and why, how systems and structures change over time).
We hope that we can come to a more refined understanding for what makes for scientific observation on the museum floor by the end of this grant as well as how to better support close observation. Although the biology content area has been our focus, we also hope that we can shed light on some strategies that would be applicable to other fields that are based in careful observation of detailed, changing images such as astronomy. We should definitely talk more to think through: what is extensible? --- and how, across disciplines?
May 15, 2018 | 10:16 p.m.
These are all very intriguing questions! Thank you, Kristina.
If you ever want to get together with some astronomers to ponder how your techniques and findings might apply to our similar-but-different field, the ASP is your neighbor in San Francisco!
Exciting work. This is a step in the right direction to help the field understand how to support scientific observation. I hope your findings are broadly disseminated to the museum and research communities. I think you pose a good question about how much we can learn from a given project that can be extended to other disciplines or other settings.
We have been thinking about scientific observation as one of the science practices preschool-age children engage with in the My Sky Tonight project. My research team has been analyzing video of programs (mostly in museums/science centers) to look at how we are supporting their use of scientific observations in ways that move them towards sense making about astronomical phenomena (I wouldn't say observations are our focus, but they are a key practice used in the programs).
May 15, 2018 | 10:12 a.m.
Hi Rachel - thanks for your comments. For this project, we're focusing on museum visitors 10 years old and up.
Hi Kristina and team, thanks for sharing your project! At my science center, we are definitely thinking of new ways for our visitors to engage with technology and data visualizations. Interactive technology can be such a fun, engaging, powerful tool for learning, but many of the coolest things we've tried have only engaged one visitor at a time (VR headsets, for example). So, I'm always looking for ways to employ technology to support learning in family or small group settings I am curious to know if visitors tend to interact with the microscope individually, or in small groups. Also, do you have any data on the amount of time that visitors spend at the microscope, and if that changes depending on the group size?
May 15, 2018 | 07:34 p.m.
We designed the interactive kiosk for Seeing Scientifically to comfortably accommodate 2-3 visitors at a time. Typically, one visitor controls the microscope, but the touchscreen is large enough for multiple folks to look at the specimen, to clearly see how the microscope is being controlled, and to talk with each other about what they notice about the organism. We think this all helps in establishing common ground for the users. In fact, very early on, we experimented with different layouts and found, through evaluation, that a horizontal (vs a vertical) layout of the screen and controls encouraged more groups to stop and use the microscope exhibit. So, we went with that physical design.
We also have a large screen over the kiosk so visitors standing a little bit a ways from the kiosk can still see the specimen under the scope, although, of course, this is a very different experience from being at the kiosk and controlling the scope and interacting with the scaffolding and tools.
Compelling work. Any chance you can help visitors quantify their understanding? Can they estimate say ratio of heart volume to body volume or pulse rate or ... and contrast these with other organisms, or perhaps use these to identify irregularities?
May 17, 2018 | 12:50 a.m.
Yes! We have been very interested in offering tools built into the exhibit that enable visitors to take measurements or record what they see. One of the tools we are experimenting with is in fact a pulse counter, so that visitors can take their own pulse and compare it to the zebrafish's or compare pulse rates between samples. We also have capabilities that will let us offer an annotation/drawing tool and let visitors record video & photos. Designing an interface so that we can offer these tools in the right context and make them meaningful in a stand-alone exhibit has been an interesting challenge.
May 16, 2018 | 08:17 p.m.
Have you added the element of the human facilitator yet or are you strictly keeping them away from the exhibit to see if the exhibit as a stand-alone can get visitors to the goals you have set forth for them? Another idea I am thinking of ....a lot of times..the learning or the impact is not immediate. When they experience the exhibit there are so many things going on in their head. However, a few days later, how are they thinking about what they got at the exhibit? Could follow-up interviews be part of your study?
Seeing Scientifically is experimenting with scaffolding observation at a standalone exhibit --- no human facilitators for now. We have conducted interviews with microscopists while they guided novices in visually examining living specimens, and that has been helpful in informing our work with the exhibit scaffolding. But, beyond that, we have not experimented with translating strategies used by human facilitators to the standalone exhibit, nor we have looked at how humans can become better at supporting observations at the microscope.
We have, also, been solely focused on the immediate experience and have not thought about gauging the residual learning after their visit. Seeing Scientifically, is a pathways; so, perhaps the next project? We are curious --- what would you be interested in knowing in a follow-up interview with visitors?
May 17, 2018 | 01:42 p.m.
As a former explainer, I would love the challenge of hovering near this exhibit and practicing vigilance and attentiveness to potential entry points for asking a question or making a suggestion. Yet, as Preeti implies, there is also period during prototyping in which as designers of experiences we want to see how far an exhibit can go on its own. This balance and tension has always fascinated me and perhaps at some point it might be interesting to explore what further facilitation would generate (or not) here.
May 17, 2018 | 05:08 p.m.
I love the approach, and thought the video does a great job communicating your work. It reminded me of the times I've been to the doctor and when they show me my x-rays or other scans - it's like they have an entirely different sensory system! I can't even begin to see the things they do. It's a cool idea to challenge people to understand this sort of observational skill (to see as a scientist does) takes practice, but is something within all of us. Thanks!
I love this project. I think the video does a great job of communicating the process of exhibit development. Every informal science exhibit involves scaffolding concepts into a clear conceptualization for the visitor. A beating heart always seems to grab a visitors attention, and probably harkens to the very dawn of humans. Sometimes visitor involvement begins with accepted misconceptions. Here it's great to see the integration of technology in a thoughtful application to common problems associated with microscope use.
One of the real driving questions in all of this becomes it's overall usefulness. Do people come to use microscopes with more ease? Do they see more and feel more confident with their observations? Do they need to? Here I think the answers are less clear. In any case, I think informal exhibits and exhibitions are really about inspiration and encouragement, and a feeling that things are understandable. It's really great to see an application of sophisticated optical instruments, some of the most recent advances in specimen definition (through the use of green fluorescent markers), and technology at the very cutting edges of what is possible in a museum setting.
May 17, 2018 | 11:04 p.m.
This research is a such an interactive way to celebrate and learn about the intricacies of science all around us. Do you see an appreciation building for science as a result of your project?
May 18, 2018 | 08:27 p.m.
We hope that visitors do gain a deeper appreciation of the intricacies of science as they explore with the Seeing Scientifically exhibit (as well as with the other exhibits in the museum). We think that that type of awareness is likely hard to effect with one experience, but instead accumulates with varied and repeated interactions with science. So, we haven't done anything to specifically look at that, but hope that we are contributing to that appreciation, nonetheless.
May 18, 2018 | 01:01 p.m.
As always, the Exploratorium is doing amazing things! How do you think we might use this kind of approach in a K-12 classroom? Thanks!
May 18, 2018 | 07:03 p.m.
Thanks for the kind words and question. As a proof-of-concept project, we've primarily been focused on the stand-alone, unmediated exhibit experience. We suspect that some of what we learn might apply to the classroom, but we've not sat down and done that mapping yet. Our best guess, at this point, is that some of the design guidelines we've been honing (e.g., focus on what is immediately visible, give learners practice with observation tools which can be applied to seeing many different things, supporting comparisons to build visual literacy) can find some resonance to observation in the classroom context.


KOCHI: The Kerala high court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation seeking a directive to the state government to prohibit donation of vital organs.
A division bench of Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar dismissed the petition filed by advocate V N Mohan Raj of Kochi as party-in-person during its admission hearing. The petitioner had alleged that the trend of removing organs from a body results in inflicting grievous hurt that could shorten the life period of the donor.
He had also challenged the system of donating organs upon being declared brain dead and alleged that various provisions of Indian Penal Code are violated by such acts. He also said poor people were becoming victims of the commercialisation of organ donation.


text:
Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (kurz Brew) ist eine von Qualcomm entwickelte Anwendungsplattform für Smartphones. Sie unterstützt alle verbreiteten Mobilfunkstandards wie beispielsweise GSM/GPRS, UMTS und CDMA. Brew wird hauptsächlich zur Entwicklung von Spielen verwendet und konkurriert damit direkt mit der Java-ME-Plattform.

Entwicklung
Brew-Anwendungen werden mit dem Brew-SDK in C oder C++ entwickelt. Das SDK enthält den Brew Emulator. bzw. ab Version 3.0 den Brew-Simulator zum Testen einer Anwendung. Brew stellt eine vollständige API zur Entwicklung von Anwendungen bereit.

Im Gegensatz zur JavaME-Plattform können auf einem Endgerät nur zertifizierte Anwendungen gestartet werden. Dazu muss die Anwendung vom Entwickler digital signiert werden und das TRUE BREW Testing-Programm durchlaufen.

Endgeräte
Eines der allerersten Geräte war das BenQ Siemens EF81, welches im Dezember 2005 erstmals der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt wurde.

Das erste aktuelle im Jahr 2010 unter Brew laufende Smartphone ist das HTC Smart. Dieses verfügt neben Brew noch über die HTC-eigene Benutzeroberfläche Sense.

Weblinks
 Offizielle Website (englisch)

Einzelnachweise

Mobiltelefon

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


In the early decades of the last century, Erskine's conception of a General Honors course in classic texts spawned the Colloquium on Important Books and later Humanities A. Though he never taught in a freshman core course, Erskine's influence on general education courses extended beyond the College to affect all of American education. Erskine published his first poem at the age of 21, but his literary career didn't take off until the publication of the novel The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1925). He also published important essays, criticism, and two volumes of autobiography. An accomplished composer and musician, Erskine served as the first president of the Juilliard School of Music from 1928 to 1937, was a director of the Metropolitan Opera Association, and wrote several books on music.
As both a student and teacher, John Erskine's association with Columbia spanned nearly forty years. He received his bachelor's degree from Columbia in 1900, his master's degree the following year, and his doctorate in 1903. After teaching English at Amherst College, he returned to Columbia in 1909 as a professor of literature, a position he kept (except for a short stint teaching soldiers during World War I) until he left the University in 1937. Although he was a gifted teacher, Erskine seems to have lacked a traditional scholarly disposition. His flamboyance, eccentricities, and literary ambitions set him apart from most of his more staid colleagues at the College. Nevertheless, what he lacked in academic formality he made up in humanity and purpose. Erskine's expectations of a true education are embodied in the title of his most important essay, "The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent," and he infused his students with this zeal. His successful promotion of the General Honors course in 1920 was a pivotal event in twentieth-century American education.


I don't eat meatpies, especially after watching this play from the UK called "Sweeney" back in 7th grade. If I remember correctly, I've only eaten a meat pie once, but I kept thinking about the play at the time :rolleyes:. My favorite pie of all is pumpkin pie, store bought, of course, b/c my mom has never made a cake or pie ever :(.
suscatchuwan meat and potato pie.........mmmmmmmm now i'm hungry!
I've honestly never eaten a pie before. :o They really just don't look too good to me.
My Great Aunt makes the best homemade pies ever! She even makes up her own recipies, like mixing peaches and blueberries!
chiken pot pie and apple pie :D the home-made kind, not store bought!
Nah - sorry!!! It's got to be store bought for me. In the UK we have a brand called Hollands Pies, they are fantastic - I especially love the Cheese & Onion one served with chips, peas and gravy, add loads of salt - yummmmmmmy!!!!!
A Cornish and a cheese and onion from Gregg's, thank you very much.
Apple Pies from any fast food place. The perfect ending to a mediocre meal.


Happy Lunar New Year of the Goat! Whether you celebrate the occasion or not, we wish you continued success in all your business and personal endeavours. Why not take the opportunity of a New Year to gain a fresh perspective on your existing marketing channels? Enter the concept of paid, owned, and earned.
Chances are, your business is already applying the concepts of paid, owned, and earned. How do you keep your brand consistent across all channels, and what risks do you run by ignoring this concept?
What is paid, owned, earned?
The paid, owned, earned model is the marketing concept that each of your business touch points can be categorized as something you own and control (owned), an advertising medium you paid for (paid), or an advocate that you gained through an exceptional product or service (earned).
Paid – Traditional advertising mediums (web banners, television ads) that serve to promote your product.
Owned – Controlled channels (official webpage, blog) that serve to inform customers about your product.
Earned – Uncontrolled channels (discussion boards, word of mouth) that serve to discuss products and services in your industry.
Every business has their own ratio of paid, owned, and earned media. Some businesses focus more on their own paid and owned media, while others surf on the positive vibes found in earned social media. The power of these marketing mediums is unleashed when a consistent message is delivered in primary (paid, owned) channels, and endorsed by a third party in earned media.
Your business has a beautiful website and a plethora of advertisements touting the superior quality of your product. However, product review sites and consumer forums dismiss your product as a "cheap alternative." You need to focus more on your "earned" media or else all your marketing budget will have been spent in vain.
Your business has been generating a lot of buzz recently due to some successful advertisements and product reviews. However, skeptical users that visit your site are disappointed that they cannot find the information they want. After some research, they decide to purchase a competitor's product instead. You need to update your website to include relevant information and showcase the quality of your product.
Your business has a great website and an equally awesome product. Every customer that you sell to raves about your product. The problem is that your competitor is a lot more popular than you, because they seem to own the airwaves with their new commercial. You need to focus on your paid media to leverage your awesome product and reviews.
A business that excels in paid, owned, and earned media will find few issues in selling their product, and will ensure that potential customers are not turned away. The "correct" ratio of paid, owned and earned plays on the strengths of each business, which is why we here at Cucumber offer different marketing solutions for each firm. Depending on your strengths and weaknesses, we may prescribe an update to your website, a boost in social media marketing, or a targeted AdWords campaign. Every brand is different, so why shouldn't your marketing strategy be different as well?
Want to talk more about marketing? Give us a call, or visit our agency in Vancouver in person! We would love to chat about your business and how we can help. And by the way, we always have chocolate. Always.
Will your marketing strategy bring you sales this quarter?


text:
Experienced With Investing
Responsible Investing: How can climate change impact your investments?
Can't decide between active and passive investing? Try core and explore
Bear market blindsides the banks
By John Authers, Financial Times | February 09, 2016
It was not in the script for bank stocks in the US and western Europe to fall into a bear market. Coming from a low base, as a wave of regulatory fines are put behind them, they were supposed to surf on a steady economic revival and on higher rates.
And yet banks are back in a bear market. The US KBW banks index, covering the biggest commercial banks, is down 18.5 per cent for this year alone. The FTSE-Eurofirst 300 banks index has fallen even more precipitately, down 26.74 per cent. This has brought them back to valuations so cheap that they only make sense if their existence is imperilled. The KBW index now trades at slightly less than 90 per cent of book value, while in Europe banks are trading at only 62 per cent of book. They were trading at book value less than a year ago.
Meanwhile, credit default swaps are back on the agenda, as they show a greater risk of default for Deutsche Bank than at any time during the 2008-09 financial crisis.
A sell-off for banks seems a long way from the concerns around China and the oil market that triggered the sell-off for world markets at the beginning of the year. But there is a common link: a rise in concern about central banks.
Markets do not believe that the Federal Reserve will follow through with its four rate rises forecast for this year, and instead believe the tightening that has already happened will intensify deflationary pressures. Hence inflation break-evens — the implicit forecast for inflation over the next decade, derived from the bond market — have fallen to their lowest since 2009.
This manifests its worst effect on the banks through the so-called yield curve — the extra yield available on long-term bonds compared with short-term bonds. Long-dated bond yields have fallen far more sharply than shorter term interest rates as markets have given way to deflation fears. Yields on 10-year treasuries now exceed yields on two-year notes by only 104 basis points, less than at any point during the crisis year of 2008. The yield curve is at its flattest in almost nine years.
This is dreadful news for banks, which make their money by lending at high interest rates over the longer term while borrowing at lower rates in the short term. A steeper yield curve, which is what central banks wanted to achieve, was a recipe for boosting their profits and allowing them steadily to rebuild their capital. Now their profit outlook has sharply worsened.
An extra factor comes from the Bank of Japan's decision at the end of January to move to negative interest rates on some reserves. This was meant as a signal that it would do whatever it took to weaken the yen. But the yen is now stronger than it was before the BoJ's announcement, and indeed stronger than it was at any time in 2015.
The message the market appears to have heard is that not only the BoJ but any central bank can keep stimulating the economy by cutting rates further into negative territory. Mainstream research is feeding into this, with the economics team at JPMorgan producing on Tuesday a research paper titled: "Negative policy rates: The bound is lower than you think". Based on experience in Japan, it suggested rates could drop as low as -4.5 per cent in the Eurozone, and -1.3 per cent in the US. As rates this negative would be surpassingly hard for banks to pass on to consumers, that damages their profit outlook further.
All of this damages banks because other potential sources of profits have been closed off. US regulators have clamped down on big banks making money through trading on their own account. And the latest survey of senior loan officers by the Federal Reserve, which alarmed markets by showing that banks were tightening their lending standards, also showed reduced demand for commercial and industrial loans, while demand for other loans stagnated.
If the US were to slip into recession, as many now speculate, this would be bad for banks' profits.
Finally, another central bank, the Bank of Portugal, injected greater uncertainty last month with a restructuring of the debt of Novo Banco that many felt discriminated against foreign bondholders. That set off a new round of attempts to hedge against such a risk, such as buying protection in the credit default swap market - which served to undermine the equity.
Is there an opportunity here? Probably. Banks in the US had done much to repair their balance sheets. The kind of buyers' strike that has seen them fall to such deep discounts to their book value is hard to justify. After such a sharp fall, some short-term rebound at some point soon is likely.
But in the longer term, the sell-off reflects risks that are real and difficult to measure. While the direction of central bank policy remains unclear and while the nerves about the US economy stay elevated, buying bank stocks remains a bet on factors beyond the investor's control. There will be profits to be made from this scare at some point in the future, but there is no harm in waiting for them.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
<?php

namespace DataSift\Storyplayer\Cli;

use DataSift\Stone\ExceptionsLib\Exxx_Exception;

/**
 * Exception thrown when we attempt to build the config for an environment
 * that does not exist
 *
 * @category  Libraries
 * @package   Storyplayer/Cli
 * @author    Stuart Herbert <stuart.herbert@datasift.com>
 * @copyright 2011-present Mediasift Ltd www.datasift.com
 * @license   http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php  BSD License
 * @link      http://datasift.github.io/storyplayer
 */
class E4xx_NoSuchTestEnvironment extends Exxx_Exception
{
    public function __construct($envName)
    {
        $msg = "Unknown test environment '{$envName}'; we have no config for it" . PHP_EOL . PHP_EOL
             . "Use 'storyplayer list-test-environments' to see the list of known test environments";
        parent::__construct(400, $msg, $msg);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: rails association callback AFTER association saves I have a Conversation with messages and participants
in a controller i'm building and saving
conversation = Conversation.new(params)
conversation.participations.build(params)
conversation.messages.build(params)
conversation.save

My Message.rb has an after_create callback.
on save i would expect all the objects to be persisted, And then all their callbacks to be triggered.
What i'm finding is the message callback is firing before the participations have persisted.

A: Don't forget commit won't be run till the whole transaction is complete - that happens after the after_create callback. Thus your objects won't be fully persisted to the database until the successful completion of conversation.save
Perhaps you want to be using after_commit instead - difficult to say if this would resolve your question as its not clear from your question what the motivation is or where you are experiencing any issues.


Anstr Davidson takes good photos — at about mile 18 he catches me at the Fountainhead aid station of the VHTRC's Magnus Gluteus Maximus, a trek along the Bull Run Trail in northern Virginia. My GPS, in the full-res version of this photo, shows an elapsed time 4:28:34 at a 15:10 min/mi pace. The bottle of "Evan Williams Honey Reserve" bourbon is tied to a tree limb with a red string. Anstr apologizes for forgetting to bring the Bull Run Run "I" pin that he intended to give me, to replace the one I lost; I apologize for failing to remind him as I promised to do.
This morning I arrive at Hemlock Overlook about 0645 and meet Bill Wandel, who advises me on the "official" route for this low-key fun-run. At 0700, an hour ahead of the normal start, I set off. Icicles form on my moustache. Three deer bound across the path in front of me. Geese honk and ducks paddle in formation. Little Rocky Run, a tributary stream, is partially covered with ice, as is the surface of the Occaquan reservoir.
I pass Carolyn Gernand and meet multiple small groups of Asian hikers who greet me politely as I trot past. The ground is covered with a thick blanket of fallen leaves, but although I repeatedly stumble I manage not to fall. Ten miles in I experience a twinge in my left heel, perhaps an achilles tendon strain? It doesn't bother me during the run, but the next morning and several days thereafter it feels tight.
The fastest runners begin to pass me about mile 12, as I approach Fountainhead. For a change I don't get lost in the "Do Loop" maze of horse trails at the southern end of the course — or rather, I only go astray briefly, for a few dozen yards. Caroline Williams meets me and gives me a hug as I congratulate her on her recent ultramarathon successes.
I'm a mobile pharmacy: about mile 19 I pause to give 4 ibuprofen tablets to a young runner who is suffering from knee and ankle pain. A few miles later I catch up with Mike Hannon, who remembers me from the Bull Run Run earlier this year. Mike is suffering from leg cramps, so I give him a couple of Succeed! electrolyte capsules.
Cheerful Rob Colenso and his fast friend Amy Lane zip by me, as do Gary Knipling, Michele Harmon, and countless other speedsters. Between miles 23 and 26 I accidentally stop my GPS, but since the course is an out-and-back that doesn't affect the map. About mile 29 Andrea Varea whistles to get my attention and asks what route we need to follow. I show her the path back up to Hemlock Overlook and we finish together. I snag the last slice of veggie pizza.


I am a visionary, strategic, and digitally informed thought leader, leaning on 25+ years of business technology leadership in professional services within the building design and construction industry.
My expertise and experience guides building industry stakeholders - building owners, design firm owners, construction firm owners - on their ongoing growth and success based in an evolving digital strategy for their processes of design, delivery, operations, and management.
In many organizations, digital technology is viewed as both a challenge and an opportunity. This reflects the fact that while effective digital technology has become an absolute prerequisite for organizational growth and success, many business owners and executives are still looking to get a firmer grip on digital technology matters.
In short, organizations need to bring digital technology into the business mainstream.
I will show you and your organization how to better understand, align and integrate digital technology capabilities with your strategic and operational goals. I will focus on how to maximize the value of your digital technology investments.
I will help you build a strategic digital technologies playbook based on the strategic direction of your business. I will work with you and your team to define and drive the engagement.


text:
In marketing, geomarketing (also called marketing geography) is a discipline that uses geolocation (geographic information) in the process of planning and implementation of marketing activities. It can be used in any aspect of the marketing mix — the product, price, promotion, or place (geo targeting). Market segments can also correlate with location, and this can be useful in targeted marketing.

Geomarketing is applied in the financial sector through identifying ATMs traffic generators and creating hotspots maps based on geographical parameters integrated with customer behavior.

Geomarketing has a direct impact on the development of modern trade and the reorganization of retail types. Site selection becomes automated and based on scientific procedures that saves both time and money. Geomarketing uses key facts, a good base map, Whois data layers, consumer profiling, and success/fail criteria.

GPS tracking and GSM localization can be used to obtain the actual position of the travelling customer.

Software
GIS software is used to display data that can be linked to a geographic region or area. It can be used to:
 Recommend nearby social events.
 Determine where the customers are (on country, city, street or user level).
 Determine who the customer is (on organisation or user level), or make a guess on it based on earlier encounters by tracking IP address, credit card information, VOIP address, etc.
 Visualize any data in a geographic context by linking it to a digital map.
 Locate a web client's computer on a digital map.
 Calculate summary information for specific areas.
 Select customers within specific areas.
 Select customers within drive times of a point.
 Select customers with a certain radius of a point.
 Using micro-geographic segmentation select customers similar to a specific type in the rest of the country.

Applications

Different content by choice
Location-based social media marketing uses geo-specific tools to draw imaginary perimeters that will display all of the social content posted by users in that particular area.
A typical example for different web content by location is the FedEx website at FedEx.com where users have the choice to select their country geo — location first and are then presented with different site or article content depending on their selection.

Automated different content
Individuals can deliver different content in internet marketing, and mobile app marketing through paid or organic search results, based on the geographical geolocation of the targeted audiences.

Other applications
 Solve problems regarding location of a new retail outlet
 Map consumer demand trends to best distribute products and advertising. This links with trade zone management.
 Scope digital advertising towards individual consumers and producers.
 Research consumer shopping patterns and observe traffic within shopping centers and between retail outlets. It also helps in visualisation of market research findings and help improve the overall planning ability of organisations.
 Improve customer cooperation.
 Creation of sales territories

We can define the geo-marketing as a strategy and mechanism that provides valuable information that helps in the process of making business decisions using geographical information. The functions of this to search and evaluate marketing opportunities, analyzing geographical information such as location residential areas, topography, it also analyzes demographic information such as age, genre, annual income and lifestyle. This information can be segmented as primary data and sub-segmented as secondary data; in addition, it helps us to develop successful promotional campaigns achieving our marketing goals. This also works with retail chain stores in the sales industry, real estate, and renewable energy, among others.

With geomarketing, the general data of a company changes to be more specific regarding their customers and market trends. This allows companies to use secondary data wisely, providing excellent results at low cost compared with traditional market research methods. All data is acquired accurately with GPS equipment and geographical information software, once the data is acquired, this information is processed by professionals in the field.

Geomarketing has helped companies to acquire valuable information such as transit behaviors, most visited places or areas, etc., this information will help these companies to deliver the right message (or promotion), at the right time and place. Most companies use their mobile apps to obtain this information. Mobile apps became more sophisticated using GPS, Bluetooth, and also social networks to obtain their market information, this information helps to improve their promotional campaigns. According to comScore, about 60 percent of all Internet activities in the U.S. originates from mobile devices and about half of total Internet traffic flows through mobile apps.

One example of Geo Location is Google Maps — you can search in Google Maps Restaurants near me and it will show different options around your location. One important factor that companies (in this case restaurants) is that they must be sure to optimize their business in Google's directory list.

See also
Digital marketing
Geotargeting
GSM localization
Local advertising
Location-based advertising
Location-based service
Location intelligence

References

Bibliography
 Amaduzzi S., Geomarketing. I sistemi informativi territoriali SIT - GIS a supporto delle aziende e della pubblica amministrazione, Roma, EPC editore 2011, , https://web.archive.org/web/20120408195416/http://www.amaduzzi.it/geomarketing/
 Maguire D., Kouyoumjian V., Smith R., The Business Benefits of GIS - An ROI Approach, ESRI Press, 2008.
 Peterson K., The power of place - Advanced customer and location analytics for market planning, Integras, 2004
 Cliquet G., Geomarketing - Methods and Strategies in Spatial Marketing, Iste, 2002.

External links


text:
Campaigns and Elections
Palin in Iowa, Palin in Iowa… 'Oh My Goodness!' Is This a Caucus State?
Maybe a presidential candidate, maybe not, but definitely spending a lot of time in the first-caucus state.
By John Nichols
Sarah Palin may still be a presidential tease.
But she is deadly serious about how and where she does her teasing. Just ask any Iowan.
The former governor of Alaska says she might run for the Republican Party's 2012 presidential nomination—in a process all but certain to begin with Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses.
And Palin says she thinks she would win.
But Palin isn't running. Not really. Not yet.
She's just spending a lot of time in, um, Iowa.
To be fair, she is lauching a national tour for her new just-in-time-for-Christmas tome—America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag (Harpers)—and she has to start somewhere. So why not Des Moines? And, um, Spirit Lake?
The 2008 Republican nominee for vice president spent three hours hawking books to Hawkeyes at a Des Moines Borders store last week.
She'll be back in Iowa for this week for that stop at the Walmart Superstore out on Highway 9/71 in Spirit Lake.
Not many authors make it all the way to Spirit Lake, population 4,261.
But a presidential candidate, well, yes, presidential candidates do find their way to Spirit Lake, which happens to be in the rich Republican heartland that sends ultra-conservative Republican Congressman Steve King to Washington.
But ask if this has anything to do with the fact that Iowa is the first-caucus state and you don't get much.
All Palin gave reporters in Des Moines was a quick: "Oh my goodness!"
So she is not running. Not really. Not yet.
But she is beating the GOP's other presidential teases—at least at the cash registers. According to the manager of the Des Moines Borders store, Palin far outdrew former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who won the 2008 GOP caucuses in the state, and former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who pioneered the "I-might-run-for-president-so-you-better-up-my-lecture-fee" schtick that some think Palin had adopted.
But book-selling is one thing—and Palin's book is better than Newt's, even if it is not quite as good as Huckabee's new kid's book.
What about the polls?
The serious polling of Iowa has yet to get going.
But we've got some data.
For instance, the usually quite reliable Iowa Poll by the Des Moines Register has never put Palin in first place among Iowa Republicans.
But they like her.
An older Iowa Poll, which compared favorables and unfavorables, found that 68 percent of Iowa Republicans viewed Palin avorably, while 24 percent had an unfavorable take on the hockey mom/millionaire media maven.
That, argued the Register, made her "a credible candidate for the 2012 caucuses should she decide to run for president."
But Iowa Republicans still prefer Huckabee. His ratings in the same poll were 70 percent favorable to just 12 percent unfavorable.
An Iowa Republican website straw poll, conducted over the summer, had Huckabee besting Palin by a 2-1 margin.
Even Gingrich and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney ran better than Palin.
"Oh my goodness!"
Like this blog post? Read all Nation blogs on the Nation's free iPhone App, NationNow.
John NicholsJohn Nichols is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and the author of the new book The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace's Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics (Verso). He's also the author of Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America, from Nation Books, and co-author, with Robert W. McChesney, of People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy.


Our Internet Value Pricing Mission at Dave Wright Auto of Marshalltown is to present Value Pricing to all of our clients. Pre Owned Internet pricing is achieved by polling over 70,000 Pre Owned websites hourly. This ensures that every one of our clients received real time Value Pricing one every Pre Owned vehicle we sell. We do not artificially inflate our Pre Owned prices in the hopes of winning a negotiating contest with our clients! We do not play pricing games. After being in business for over 50 years, we realize that Internet Value Pricing is by far the best approach for our clients.
Our Internet Value Pricing Mission at Dave Wright Honda of Marshalltown is to present Value Pricing to all of our clients. Pre Owned Internet pricing is achieved by polling over 70,000 Pre Owned websites hourly. This ensures that every one of our clients received real time Value Pricing one every Pre Owned vehicle we sell. We do not artificially inflate our Pre Owned prices in the hopes of winning a negotiating contest with our clients! We do not play pricing games. After being in business for over 50 years, we realize that Internet Value Pricing is by far the best approach for our clients.


Fitness is my passion and as such, I always strive to learn more and add things to my repertoire. Recently I began teaching a boot camp at my neighborhood clubhouse.
Boot camp classes are a great way to push people beyond their limits. The camaraderie is great and team effort really helps people work harder than they might during a normal routine at the gym.
During my boot camp classes, we strive to boost conditioning as well as strength training. I've applied many of the techniques I've learned over the years from my studies including circuit training, TRX, stretching, plyometrics and more.
One of things I really like about leading boot camp classes is that I can change up the routines and bring variety to each session. I love creating circuits that include both cardio and strength training exercises. This challenges the entire body.
Typically my circuits will include a plyo box to work the legs, a TRX trainer and a speed and agility ladder. But sometimes all we need to get a great workout is our bodyweight so push ups, squats, mountain climbers and burpees can add to the fun!
Boot camp classes can look intimidating, but you can always work at your own level. And remember, it doesn't get easier, you just get better!


text:
Q: Unable to display a multi-line equation annotation in plotly (Python) I'm attempting to create an annotation that consists of a fit equation and optimal parameters. I've used a string label that was also used to generate a similar output using matplotlib. The label has mathematical symbols/notation.
A minimum example:
import plotly.graph_objects as go

# make up some points
xpts = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
ypts = [0, 2, 4, 6, 8]

# the annotation to display
func_label = "".join(["$f(x) = mx + b$\n",
                      f"$m = 2.0$ \n",
                      f"$b = 0.0$\n",
                      f"$R^2 = 0.99$\n",
                      f"$RMSE = 0.01$",])

fig = go.Figure(
    data=[go.Scatter(x=xpts,
                     y=ypts,
                     mode='markers',
                     name="Data"
                     ),
          ],
    layout=go.Layout(title="Plot Title",
                     xaxis_title="X-axis",
                     yaxis_title="Y-axis")
)

# add the annotation
fig.add_annotation(x=0.25, y=6, text="
".join(func_label.split('\n')), showarrow=False)

fig.show(renderer="browser")

The resulting plot output only shows the first line of the annotation:

It seems like the $ may be causing an issue, as when I remove them it prints all lines. Is there a way to do this while preserving the math rendering?

A: OK,
I seem to have found a solution. In mathjax a newline is denoted by \\ (see here https://stackoverflow.com/a/32507429/13752965 for example). In order to use this with Python + plotly, I have to add an extra escape character \ (although I haven't quite worked out why).
So using
func_label = '$f(x) = mx + b \\\ m = 2.0 \\\ b = 0.0 \\\ R^2 = 0.99 \\\ RMSE = 0.01$'

I'm able to get the multi-line annotation with equation formatting that I want.

I'm still tinkering with whether I can use the split and join approach in the question, but this is a reasonable alternative.

A: In this case $ means start and end, so starting and ending the string would solve the problem. It may be possible to do this with newlines in string creation, although I have not verified this due to lack of time.
# the annotation to display
func_label = f"
".join([f"$f(x) = mx + b",
                      f"m = 2.0 ",
                      f"b = 0.0",
                      f"R^2 = 0.99",
                      f"RMSE = 0.01$",])

fig = go.Figure(
    data=[go.Scatter(x=xpts,
                     y=ypts,
                     mode='markers',
                     name="Data"
                     ),
          ],
    layout=go.Layout(title="Plot Title",
                     xaxis_title="X-axis",
                     yaxis_title="Y-axis")
)

# add the annotation
fig.add_annotation(x=0.25, y=6, text=func_label, showarrow=False)

fig.show(renderer="browser")
#fig.show()


text:
Jay-Z explains why he and Beyoncé sat during national anthem (video)
Jay-Z accepts the President's Award onstage at the 50th NAACP Image Awards at Dolby Theatre. (Photo credit: Earl Gibson III/Getty Images for NAACP/Bang Media)
Telling his detractors to relax, Jay-Z has explained that he and Beyoncé were not protesting when they were filmed sitting during the national anthem at Super Bowl LIV in Miami on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020.
The Roc Nation mogul told a crowd at Columbia University in New York City on Monday, Feb. 3, that he was actually working. His deal with the NFL put Jay-Z in charge of all entertainment during the Super Bowl, including Demi Lovato's rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner" before the game.
When a Columbia University professor asked him if he remained seated to "convey a signal," Jay retorted, "It actually wasn't. Sorry."
Just before the national anthem began, Jay-Z said he started working.
"We immediately jumped into artist mode," he revealed about his and Bey's actions.
"I'm really just looking at the show. The mics start, was it too low to start?" Jay also said he was on edge throughout the start of the program, which included Lovato singing the national anthem and Yolanda Adams performing "America the Beautiful." He was also tense during the halftime show that featured Shakira and Jennifer Lopez.
Instead of kneeling, Jay said he was "making the biggest loudest protest of all" by handpicking some of the most diverse acts to ever perform at a Super Bowl.
Furthermore, TMZ said they've obtained video that shows that Jay and Bey did stand for the national anthem during Brooklyn Nets games. Jay was a minority owner of the NBA franchise. Jay and Bey's behavior at NBA games lends credence to his version of the events at the Super Bowl.
Flip the page to listen to Jay explain this in full.
Beyonce, featured, Jay-z, National Anthem, Super Bowl


Thanks to the very accurate decision support system developed in the framework of the Rio 2016 Austrian Sailing Federation project, TriM athletes got three medals during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The decision support tool was developed during a three years participatory project conducted both in Brazil and in Europe, involving different actors such as science and technology experts, social science specialists, sailors and coaches. The tool is able to integrate the reliable wind and current forecasts issued by TriM experts together with quantitative and qualitative analysis, including visual signs on the racing area. This makes the output meaningful and immediately understandable, resulting in a very effective system for planning winning strategies.


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I have an old Ultimate stand (which is now Feedback) and it's a trooper. Got it from a friend who didn't want to buy replacement parts thinking they were too expensive. Feedback still makes the parts and the part I needed was only ten bucks. It's honestly the best stand I've used. You guys should check them out!


The on-again, off-again relationship between defensive end Jamal Cooper and the Wisconsin football team is off-again.
Cooper has been suspended indefinitely from the program for conduct detrimental to the team.
Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said Cooper will have access to full academic support services, but will no longer be a part of the football program in any other way.


It's that time of year again… time for some serious trumpet-blowing, enthusiastic back-slapping and energetic chest-beating. Yes, that's right, the 2018 Conference Awards are coming, and it's time to get your entries in NOW!
Simply click on the category below you wish to enter, fill in the entry form, and upload your photos… Good Luck!
Photos must be: good quality - clear, well-lit, in-focus, etc.
Photos will not be used without your permission for any other reason than the AVA Pacific 2018 Conference Awards.
Your photos may be used on the evening during the presentation or as part of a photo slideshow.
Uploaded photos are limited to 100mb and maximum of 5, if you wish to share more with us then please send us a Dropbox link with the project reference.


McMahon-Coleman, K. (2013). Myriad mirrors: Doppelgangers and doubling in The Vampire Diaries. In S. George & B. Hughes (Eds.), Open Graves, Open Minds: Representations of Vampires and the Undead from the Enlightenment to the Present Day (pp. 210-224). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
As Samantha George notes in Chapter 4 above, mirroring is of fundamental importance in Gothic literature and film. It is also a prevalent trope in the CW network teen drama, The Vampire Diaries. The television series is itself a 'doubling' in that it is an adaptation of a series of novels by L. J. Smith, creating a situation wherein the same central characters inhabit the parallel townships of the novels' Fells Church and television's Mystic Falls, and consequently have histories which are, at times, contradictory.2 The television version also explicitly explores the concept of the doppelgänger, and thus the idea of reflection, even as it manipulates the historical and cultural contexts of the characters. Nuclear families are noticeably absent in the television series, yet significant emphasis is placed on the twin themes of brothers as foils to each other, and an ongoing focus on matrilineal power. The series focuses on the new, humanised vampire (as examined elsewhere in this book), but also explicitly attempts to reflect 'real' contemporary teenage society and adolescent relationships, albeit it through the lens of the supernatural.


Keep your best assets — your employees — on-site and comfortable in Porta Kleen's Mobile Bunkhouse. Featuring numerous convenient amenities like restrooms, showers, laundry and HVAC, our Mobile Bunkhouse provides the next best thing to home at any event site.
With a national footprint, we are proud to offer our customers the flexibility to move with their project or event. We service both short term, one location rentals or a long-term, multi-location rental. Our prompt and reliable team of industry experts will assess your needs and deliver a superior product and unmatched customer service from beginning to end. Our Mobile Shower Trailers are available for delivery in all of the United States and Canada.
and modern amenities of our Urban Elite Trailer.
Features 7 private flushing stalls.


The nomination committee's main duties are to propose candidates for the positions as chairman and other members of the board of directors, as well as to propose fees and other remuneration for each member of the board of directors. The nomination committee is also to make proposals on the election and remuneration of the statutory auditor. In accordance with a resolution passed by the extraordinary general meeting on February 1, 2018 the nomination committee shall consist of one representative of each of the four shareholders controlling the largest number of votes, which desires to appoint a representative. In addition to these four members, the chairman of the board of directors shall be a co-opted member of the nomination committee. The nomination committee shall be formed based on the shareholders which, as per the last banking day in August the year before the annual general meeting.
The following representatives of Epiroc AB's shareholders, together with the Chair of the Board, Ronnie Leten, will form the nomination committee for the Annual General Meeting 2019.
The Annual General Meeting of Epiroc AB will be held on May 9, 2019, at 16:00 in Aula Medica, Nobels väg 6, Solna, Sweden.
Shareholders who wish to submit proposals to the nomination committee can do so by e-mailing the secretary of the nomination committee at nominations@epiroc.com or by mailing Jörgen Ekelöw, Epiroc AB, P.O. Box 4015, SE-131 04 Nacka, Sweden. Proposals should be filed by March 21 2019, at the latest, to ensure that they are included in the notice.


Ogre is used different by certain applications and this puts stress on different parts of the subsystem. Because of this, profiling is extremely important when trying to determine the areas to target in Ogre 3D.
SIMD programming code has a tendency of being complex because SIMD instructions can be used to perform operations on four integer items simultaneously. Instead of writing the code yourself, you consider utilizing the Intel C++ Compiler. This toll will vectorize blocks of code and cover all the case of unaligned memory and an uneven number of iterations. However, it is important to note that, this compiler is not able to align the memory properly during allocation; therefore it is best to do this step annually.
When threading Ogre 3d, you will no longer be able to make API calls directly if you place the render on its own thread. Therefore, all commands must be issue through a synchronized access queue from the main code to the graphics API. When performing this step, it is important to note that the graphic resources that the render system is using should not be deleted until after the end of the frame.


text:
https://apnews.com/d4d8229e37894bef831d5973623fc412
Health expert: 'No point' testing water at Kennywood's Raging Rapids after parasite claim
by BEN SCHMITTDecember 3, 2017 GMT
The parasite that a Pittsburgh man claims wreaked havoc on his left eye following a Kennywood Park water ride is so common in the environment, county health officials opted not to test the water in the Raging Rapids ride when they learned about the incident.
The decision came because infections caused by the parasite are extremely rare, according to medical experts.
"It's called an environmental organism, meaning it's pretty much everywhere, in dirt and water," Dr. Karen Hacker, Director of the Allegheny County Health Department said Friday about the parasite microsporidia. "We do believe we will never be able to directly connect this situation to this particular source. This is quite a rare situation."
The health department is investigating the July 2 incident, in which Robert Trostle of Squirrel Hill claims water from the ride splashed in his left eye. He filed a lawsuit against Kennywood, claiming the incident caused a multitude of problems and he was forced to undergo surgery in his eye. The lawsuit says he was diagnosed with a condition called microsporidia keratitis. Trostle still suffers from inflammation, blurry vision, redness and pain, according to the lawsuit.
Hacker said her department consulted the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and determined that testing the water would not advance the case.
"The challenge for testing the water would be that if we did not find it (microsporidia) that doesn't mean it's not there, and it's not helpful if you do find it because you have to identify a specific species," she said. "There's no point."
The parasite in question has 1,200 species, and only 15 can cause any type of harm to humans, Hacker said.
"Though it may be possible to acquire this type of infection through exposure during an amusement park water ride, it is obviously very rare considering how many individuals are splashed with water on rides and how infrequent this type of infection occurs," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist in Pittsburgh and senior associate for Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. "In order to establish causation, it will be important to understand the patient's medical history, his other activities, whether he wears contact lenses — which is the most common means microsporida cause eye infections — and which specific microsporidia was isolated."
The majority of people contracting such a parasite wear contact lenses, according to the CDC.
Hacker said health department officials interviewed Trostle, but the investigation remains open in case the CDC can extract a specific species type from Trostle's eye.
"We have been talking to the CDC on and off since the summer," Hacker said.
Brittany Behm, a spokeswoman for CDC's Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, confirmed the consultation but declined further comment. She said the CDC does not have statistics on microsporidia keratitis infections because they are so uncommon.
Danielle Staresinic, an optometrist and owner of Lawrenceville Vision Care in Pittsburgh, said she's maybe seen one fungal eye infection in her entire career.
"That doesn't mean it's impossible, but it's incredibly rare," she said. "Nothing like this shows up at our practice."
After hearing about the Kennyood case, Dr. Peter Veldkamp, a UPMC infectious disease physician, said he did a bit of research and found review in a microbiology journal that cited 22 reported cases of microsporidia keratitis worldwide in one year about 10 years ago.
"This situation is very unfortunate but incredibly rare," he said. "It's most common in people with immunosuppressing medical conditions."
But Trostle's attorney, Alan Perer, said Friday that his client was in good health when he became afflicted.
"It's really upsetting," Perer said. "This is the county health department, and you have a victim of a potential disease, and they won't give us any concrete information."
Kennywood spokesman Nick Paradise said he cannot comment on pending litigation, adding, "We follow all regulations required by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture — the agency responsible for inspecting and certifying amusement rides — and often go above and beyond what is required by state law."
Ben Schmitt is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7991, bschmitt@tribweb.com or via Twitter at @Bencschmitt.


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