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Project acronym AlchemEast
Project Alchemy in the Making: From ancient Babylonia via Graeco-Roman Egypt into the Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic traditions (1500 BCE - 1000 AD)
Researcher (PI) Matteo MARTELLI
Host Institution (HI) ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Summary The AlchemEast project is devoted to the study of alchemical theory and practice as it appeared and developed in distinct, albeit contiguous (both chronologically and geographically) areas: Graeco-Roman Egypt, Byzantium, and the Near East, from Ancient Babylonian times to the early Islamic Period. This project combines innovative textual investigations with experimental replications of ancient alchemical procedures. It uses sets of historically and philologically informed laboratory replications in order to reconstruct the actual practice of ancient alchemists, and it studies the texts and literary forms in which this practice was conceptualized and transmitted. It proposes new models for textual criticism in order to capture the fluidity of the transmission of ancient alchemical writings. AlchemEast is designed to carry out a comparative investigation of cuneiform tablets as well as a vast corpus of Greek, Syriac and Arabic writings. It will overcome the old, pejorative paradigm that dismissed ancient alchemy as a "pseudo-science", by proposing a new theoretical framework for comprehending the entirety of ancient alchemical practices and theories. Alongside established forms of scholarly output, such as critical editions of key texts, AlchemEast will provide an integrative, longue durée perspective on the many different phases of ancient alchemy. It will thus offer a radically new vision of this discipline as a dynamic and diversified art that developed across different technical and scholastic traditions. This new representation will allow us to connect ancient alchemy with medieval and early modern alchemy and thus fully reintegrate ancient alchemy in the history of pre-modern alchemy as well as in the history of ancient science more broadly.
The AlchemEast project is devoted to the study of alchemical theory and practice as it appeared and developed in distinct, albeit contiguous (both chronologically and geographically) areas: Graeco-Roman Egypt, Byzantium, and the Near East, from Ancient Babylonian times to the early Islamic Period. This project combines innovative textual investigations with experimental replications of ancient alchemical procedures. It uses sets of historically and philologically informed laboratory replications in order to reconstruct the actual practice of ancient alchemists, and it studies the texts and literary forms in which this practice was conceptualized and transmitted. It proposes new models for textual criticism in order to capture the fluidity of the transmission of ancient alchemical writings. AlchemEast is designed to carry out a comparative investigation of cuneiform tablets as well as a vast corpus of Greek, Syriac and Arabic writings. It will overcome the old, pejorative paradigm that dismissed ancient alchemy as a "pseudo-science", by proposing a new theoretical framework for comprehending the entirety of ancient alchemical practices and theories. Alongside established forms of scholarly output, such as critical editions of key texts, AlchemEast will provide an integrative, longue durée perspective on the many different phases of ancient alchemy. It will thus offer a radically new vision of this discipline as a dynamic and diversified art that developed across different technical and scholastic traditions. This new representation will allow us to connect ancient alchemy with medieval and early modern alchemy and thus fully reintegrate ancient alchemy in the history of pre-modern alchemy as well as in the history of ancient science more broadly.
Project acronym APOLOGY
Project Political Apologies across Cultures
Researcher (PI) Juliëtte Schaafsma
Summary In the past decades, there has been a considerable rise in the number of apologies offered by states for injustices and human rights violations. Among transitional justice scholars, there is significant debate about how useful such apologies are. Whereas some have applauded these gestures as an important step in peacemaking processes, others have argued that they may not fit in all cultures and may even be a risky tool for peacemaking. Unfortunately, theorizing and research in the field of transitional justice is still in its infancy and has not systematically addressed questions of cross-cultural variability yet. So, at present, we do not know whether political apologies are a universally viable way to restore justice and harmony. My project addresses this challenge. Using an innovative, interdisciplinary, and multi-method approach with in-depth interviews, (experimental) surveys, and content analyses of apologies, I analyze whether there are universals in how political apologies are valued, expressed, and interpreted or whether this varies as a function of cross-cultural differences in key values (collectivism and individualism) and norms (face and honor). Based on these findings, I build a theoretical framework that will fundamentally advance our understanding of the potential value and role of apologies in transitional justice processes. This project breaks new ground because it is the first to take the difficult step to collect cross-cultural data to examine whether key assumptions regarding political apologies hold across cultures. It is also the first in this area to use a multi-method approach, which makes it possible to take into account the complex reality of political apologies. Combining insights from transitional justice, cross-cultural psychology and anthropology, this project places theorizing on transitional justice on a much firmer footing and paves the way to more cross-culturally valid models to restore justice and promote reconciliation.
In the past decades, there has been a considerable rise in the number of apologies offered by states for injustices and human rights violations. Among transitional justice scholars, there is significant debate about how useful such apologies are. Whereas some have applauded these gestures as an important step in peacemaking processes, others have argued that they may not fit in all cultures and may even be a risky tool for peacemaking. Unfortunately, theorizing and research in the field of transitional justice is still in its infancy and has not systematically addressed questions of cross-cultural variability yet. So, at present, we do not know whether political apologies are a universally viable way to restore justice and harmony. My project addresses this challenge. Using an innovative, interdisciplinary, and multi-method approach with in-depth interviews, (experimental) surveys, and content analyses of apologies, I analyze whether there are universals in how political apologies are valued, expressed, and interpreted or whether this varies as a function of cross-cultural differences in key values (collectivism and individualism) and norms (face and honor). Based on these findings, I build a theoretical framework that will fundamentally advance our understanding of the potential value and role of apologies in transitional justice processes. This project breaks new ground because it is the first to take the difficult step to collect cross-cultural data to examine whether key assumptions regarding political apologies hold across cultures. It is also the first in this area to use a multi-method approach, which makes it possible to take into account the complex reality of political apologies. Combining insights from transitional justice, cross-cultural psychology and anthropology, this project places theorizing on transitional justice on a much firmer footing and paves the way to more cross-culturally valid models to restore justice and promote reconciliation.
Project acronym B Massive
Project Binary massive black hole astrophysics
Researcher (PI) Alberto SESANA
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA' DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO-BICOCCA
Summary Massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) are the most extreme, fascinating yet elusive astrophysical objects in the Universe. Establishing observationally their existence will be a milestone for contemporary astronomy, providing a fundamental missing piece in the puzzle of galaxy formation, piercing through the (hydro)dynamical physical processes shaping dense galactic nuclei from parsec scales down to the event horizon, and probing gravity in extreme conditions. We can both see and listen to MBHBs. Remarkably, besides arguably being among the brightest variable objects shining in the Cosmos, MBHBs are also the loudest gravitational wave (GW) sources in the Universe. As such, we shall take advantage of both the type of messengers – photons and gravitons – they are sending to us, which can now be probed by all-sky time-domain surveys and radio pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) respectively. B MASSIVE leverages on a unique comprehensive approach combining theoretical astrophysics, radio and gravitational-wave astronomy and time-domain surveys, with state of the art data analysis techniques to: i) observationally prove the existence of MBHBs, ii) understand and constrain their astrophysics and dynamics, iii) enable and bring closer in time the direct detection of GWs with PTA. As European PTA (EPTA) executive committee member and former I International PTA (IPTA) chair, I am a driving force in the development of pulsar timing science world-wide, and the project will build on the profound knowledge, broad vision and wide collaboration network that established me as a world leader in the field of MBHB and GW astrophysics. B MASSIVE is extremely timely; a pulsar timing data set of unprecedented quality is being assembled by EPTA/IPTA, and Time-Domain astronomy surveys are at their dawn. In the long term, B MASSIVE will be a fundamental milestone establishing European leadership in the cutting-edge field of MBHB astrophysics in the era of LSST, SKA and LISA.
Massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) are the most extreme, fascinating yet elusive astrophysical objects in the Universe. Establishing observationally their existence will be a milestone for contemporary astronomy, providing a fundamental missing piece in the puzzle of galaxy formation, piercing through the (hydro)dynamical physical processes shaping dense galactic nuclei from parsec scales down to the event horizon, and probing gravity in extreme conditions. We can both see and listen to MBHBs. Remarkably, besides arguably being among the brightest variable objects shining in the Cosmos, MBHBs are also the loudest gravitational wave (GW) sources in the Universe. As such, we shall take advantage of both the type of messengers – photons and gravitons – they are sending to us, which can now be probed by all-sky time-domain surveys and radio pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) respectively. B MASSIVE leverages on a unique comprehensive approach combining theoretical astrophysics, radio and gravitational-wave astronomy and time-domain surveys, with state of the art data analysis techniques to: i) observationally prove the existence of MBHBs, ii) understand and constrain their astrophysics and dynamics, iii) enable and bring closer in time the direct detection of GWs with PTA. As European PTA (EPTA) executive committee member and former I International PTA (IPTA) chair, I am a driving force in the development of pulsar timing science world-wide, and the project will build on the profound knowledge, broad vision and wide collaboration network that established me as a world leader in the field of MBHB and GW astrophysics. B MASSIVE is extremely timely; a pulsar timing data set of unprecedented quality is being assembled by EPTA/IPTA, and Time-Domain astronomy surveys are at their dawn. In the long term, B MASSIVE will be a fundamental milestone establishing European leadership in the cutting-edge field of MBHB astrophysics in the era of LSST, SKA and LISA.
Project acronym BEHAVE
Project New discrete choice theory for understanding moral decision making behaviour
Researcher (PI) Caspar Gerard CHORUS
Summary Discrete choice theory provides a mathematically rigorous framework to analyse and predict choice behaviour. While many of the theory's key developments originate from the domain of transportation (mobility, travel behaviour), it is now widely used throughout the social sciences. The theory has a blind spot for moral choice behaviour. It was designed to analyse situations where people make choices that are optimal given their consumer preferences, rather than situations where people attempt to make choices that are right, given their moral preferences. This neglect of the morality of choice is striking, in light of the fact that many of the most important choices people make, have a moral dimension. This research program extends discrete choice theory to the domain of moral decision making. It will produce a suite of new mathematical representations of choice behaviour (i.e., choice models), which are designed to capture the decision rules and decision weights that determine how individuals behave in moral choice situations. In these models, particular emphasis is given to heterogeneity in moral decision rules and to the role of social influences. Models will be estimated and validated using data obtained through a series of interviews, surveys and choice experiments. Empirical analyses will take place in the context of moral choice situations concerning i) co-operative road using and ii) unsafe driving practices. Estimation results will be used as input for agent based models, to identify how social interaction processes lead to the emergence, persistence or dissolution of moral (traffic) equilibria at larger spatio-temporal scales. Together, these proposed research efforts promise to generate a major breakthrough in discrete choice theory. In addition, the program will result in important methodological contributions to the empirical study of moral decision making behaviour in general; and to new insights into the moral aspects of (travel) behaviour.
Discrete choice theory provides a mathematically rigorous framework to analyse and predict choice behaviour. While many of the theory's key developments originate from the domain of transportation (mobility, travel behaviour), it is now widely used throughout the social sciences. The theory has a blind spot for moral choice behaviour. It was designed to analyse situations where people make choices that are optimal given their consumer preferences, rather than situations where people attempt to make choices that are right, given their moral preferences. This neglect of the morality of choice is striking, in light of the fact that many of the most important choices people make, have a moral dimension. This research program extends discrete choice theory to the domain of moral decision making. It will produce a suite of new mathematical representations of choice behaviour (i.e., choice models), which are designed to capture the decision rules and decision weights that determine how individuals behave in moral choice situations. In these models, particular emphasis is given to heterogeneity in moral decision rules and to the role of social influences. Models will be estimated and validated using data obtained through a series of interviews, surveys and choice experiments. Empirical analyses will take place in the context of moral choice situations concerning i) co-operative road using and ii) unsafe driving practices. Estimation results will be used as input for agent based models, to identify how social interaction processes lead to the emergence, persistence or dissolution of moral (traffic) equilibria at larger spatio-temporal scales. Together, these proposed research efforts promise to generate a major breakthrough in discrete choice theory. In addition, the program will result in important methodological contributions to the empirical study of moral decision making behaviour in general; and to new insights into the moral aspects of (travel) behaviour.
Project acronym BiT
Project How the Human Brain Masters Time
Researcher (PI) Domenica Bueti
Summary If you suddenly hear your song on the radio and spontaneously decide to burst into dance in your living room, you need to precisely time your movements if you do not want to find yourself on your bookshelf. Most of what we do or perceive depends on how accurately we represent the temporal properties of the environment however we cannot see or touch time. As such, time in the millisecond range is both a fundamental and elusive dimension of everyday experiences. Despite the obvious importance of time to information processing and to behavior in general, little is known yet about how the human brain process time. Existing approaches to the study of the neural mechanisms of time mainly focus on the identification of brain regions involved in temporal computations ('where' time is processed in the brain), whereas most computational models vary in their biological plausibility and do not always make clear testable predictions. BiT is a groundbreaking research program designed to challenge current models of time perception and to offer a new perspective in the study of the neural basis of time. The groundbreaking nature of BiT derives from the novelty of the questions asked ('when' and 'how' time is processed in the brain) and from addressing them using complementary but distinct research approaches (from human neuroimaging to brain stimulation techniques, from the investigation of the whole brain to the focus on specific brain regions). By testing a new biologically plausible hypothesis of temporal representation (via duration tuning and 'chronotopy') and by scrutinizing the functional properties and, for the first time, the temporal hierarchies of 'putative' time regions, BiT will offer a multifaceted knowledge of how the human brain represents time. This new knowledge will challenge our understanding of brain organization and function that typically lacks of a time angle and will impact our understanding of how the brain uses time information for perception and action
If you suddenly hear your song on the radio and spontaneously decide to burst into dance in your living room, you need to precisely time your movements if you do not want to find yourself on your bookshelf. Most of what we do or perceive depends on how accurately we represent the temporal properties of the environment however we cannot see or touch time. As such, time in the millisecond range is both a fundamental and elusive dimension of everyday experiences. Despite the obvious importance of time to information processing and to behavior in general, little is known yet about how the human brain process time. Existing approaches to the study of the neural mechanisms of time mainly focus on the identification of brain regions involved in temporal computations ('where' time is processed in the brain), whereas most computational models vary in their biological plausibility and do not always make clear testable predictions. BiT is a groundbreaking research program designed to challenge current models of time perception and to offer a new perspective in the study of the neural basis of time. The groundbreaking nature of BiT derives from the novelty of the questions asked ('when' and 'how' time is processed in the brain) and from addressing them using complementary but distinct research approaches (from human neuroimaging to brain stimulation techniques, from the investigation of the whole brain to the focus on specific brain regions). By testing a new biologically plausible hypothesis of temporal representation (via duration tuning and 'chronotopy') and by scrutinizing the functional properties and, for the first time, the temporal hierarchies of 'putative' time regions, BiT will offer a multifaceted knowledge of how the human brain represents time. This new knowledge will challenge our understanding of brain organization and function that typically lacks of a time angle and will impact our understanding of how the brain uses time information for perception and action
Project acronym CHILDROBOT
Project Children and social robots: An integrative framework
Researcher (PI) Jochen Peter
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Summary Robots used to be made for labor; now, they are increasingly also made for relationships. Social robots can learn from us, teach us, play with us, and assist us. With the market for social robots expected to grow substantially in the next 20 years, social robots are likely to become a life-changing technology similar to personal computers or smart phones. Still, we still know little about one of the most intriguing, relevant, and timely issues in this process – children's interaction with social robots. Children are not only increasingly recognized and targeted as early adopters of new technologies; they may also be more susceptible to potential effects of interacting with robots than are adults. As research on child-robot interaction (CRI) is still a fragmented field, the main aim of the proposed project is to develop an integrative framework of CRI. This framework synthesizes theories and concepts from communication research, human-robot-interaction, as well as developmental and social psychology in an entirely new way. It will focus (1) on the antecedents of children's acceptance of social robots; (2) the con-sequences of CRI for children's learning of social skills from social robots and their relationship formation with them; and (3) the processes that explain why such effects emerge. The project combines survey and experimental research, thereby bringing an unprecedented, but much needed multi-methodological approach to the field of CRI. Focusing on 8-9 year-old children, the project will also provide two crucial methodological innovations: (a) the creation an inventory of standardized measures for CRI and (b) new procedures and research designs to study long-term CRI. In its pioneering focus on a disruptive new technology, its theoretically unifying character, and its original methodological contributions, the project will not only define the field of CRI, but will also present a completely new agenda for it.
Robots used to be made for labor; now, they are increasingly also made for relationships. Social robots can learn from us, teach us, play with us, and assist us. With the market for social robots expected to grow substantially in the next 20 years, social robots are likely to become a life-changing technology similar to personal computers or smart phones. Still, we still know little about one of the most intriguing, relevant, and timely issues in this process – children's interaction with social robots. Children are not only increasingly recognized and targeted as early adopters of new technologies; they may also be more susceptible to potential effects of interacting with robots than are adults. As research on child-robot interaction (CRI) is still a fragmented field, the main aim of the proposed project is to develop an integrative framework of CRI. This framework synthesizes theories and concepts from communication research, human-robot-interaction, as well as developmental and social psychology in an entirely new way. It will focus (1) on the antecedents of children's acceptance of social robots; (2) the con-sequences of CRI for children's learning of social skills from social robots and their relationship formation with them; and (3) the processes that explain why such effects emerge. The project combines survey and experimental research, thereby bringing an unprecedented, but much needed multi-methodological approach to the field of CRI. Focusing on 8-9 year-old children, the project will also provide two crucial methodological innovations: (a) the creation an inventory of standardized measures for CRI and (b) new procedures and research designs to study long-term CRI. In its pioneering focus on a disruptive new technology, its theoretically unifying character, and its original methodological contributions, the project will not only define the field of CRI, but will also present a completely new agenda for it.
Project acronym ChinaCreative
Project From Made in China to Created in China - A Comparative Study of Creative Practice and Production in Contemporary China
Researcher (PI) Bastiaan Jeroen De Kloet
Summary With its emergence as a global power, China aspires to move from a "made in China" towards a "created in China" country. Creativity and culture have become a crucial source for innovation and financial growth, but are also mobilised to promote a new and open China to both the citizenry as well as the outside world. They are part of what is termed China's "soft power." What does creativity mean in the context of China, and what does it do? When both the state and profoundly globalised creative industries are so deeply implicated in the promotion of creativity, what are the possibilities of criticality, if any? Whereas creativity has been extensively researched in the fields of psychology, law and neurosciences, scholarship in the humanities has by and large side-tracked the thorny issue of creativity. Yet, the worldwide resurgence of the term under the banner of creative industries makes it all the more urgent to develop a theory of creativity. This project understands creativity as a textual, a social as well as a heritage practice. It aims to analyse claims of creativity in different cultural practices, and to analyse how emerging creativities in China are part of tactics of governmentality and disable or enable possibilities of criticality. Using a comparative, multi-disciplinary, multi-method and multi-sited research design, five subprojects analyse (1) contemporary art, (2) calligraphy, (3) independent documentary cinema, (4) television from Hunan Satellite TV and (5) "fake" (shanzhai) art. By including both popular and high arts, by including both more Westernized as well as more specifically Chinese art forms, by including both the "real" as well as the "fake," by studying different localities, and by mobilising methods from both the social sciences and the humanities, this project is pushing the notion of comparative research to a new level.
With its emergence as a global power, China aspires to move from a "made in China" towards a "created in China" country. Creativity and culture have become a crucial source for innovation and financial growth, but are also mobilised to promote a new and open China to both the citizenry as well as the outside world. They are part of what is termed China's "soft power." What does creativity mean in the context of China, and what does it do? When both the state and profoundly globalised creative industries are so deeply implicated in the promotion of creativity, what are the possibilities of criticality, if any? Whereas creativity has been extensively researched in the fields of psychology, law and neurosciences, scholarship in the humanities has by and large side-tracked the thorny issue of creativity. Yet, the worldwide resurgence of the term under the banner of creative industries makes it all the more urgent to develop a theory of creativity. This project understands creativity as a textual, a social as well as a heritage practice. It aims to analyse claims of creativity in different cultural practices, and to analyse how emerging creativities in China are part of tactics of governmentality and disable or enable possibilities of criticality. Using a comparative, multi-disciplinary, multi-method and multi-sited research design, five subprojects analyse (1) contemporary art, (2) calligraphy, (3) independent documentary cinema, (4) television from Hunan Satellite TV and (5) "fake" (shanzhai) art. By including both popular and high arts, by including both more Westernized as well as more specifically Chinese art forms, by including both the "real" as well as the "fake," by studying different localities, and by mobilising methods from both the social sciences and the humanities, this project is pushing the notion of comparative research to a new level.
Project acronym CHRONOS
Project A geochemical clock to measure timescales of volcanic eruptions
Researcher (PI) Diego Perugini
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE10, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary "The eruption of volcanoes appears one of the most unpredictable phenomena on Earth. Yet the situation is rapidly changing. Quantification of the eruptive record constrains what is possible in a given volcanic system. Timing is the hardest part to quantify. The main process triggering an eruption is the refilling of a sub-volcanic magma chamber by a new magma coming from depth. This process results in magma mixing and provokes a time-dependent diffusion of chemical elements. Understanding the time elapsed from mixing to eruption is fundamental to discerning pre-eruptive behaviour of volcanoes to mitigate the huge impact of volcanic eruptions on society and the environment. The CHRONOS project proposes a new method that will cut the Gordian knot of the presently intractable problem of volcanic eruption timing using a surgical approach integrating textural, geochemical and experimental data on magma mixing. I will use the compositional heterogeneity frozen in time in the rocks the same way a broken clock at a crime scene is used to determine the time of the incident. CHRONOS will aim to: 1) be the first study to reproduce magma mixing, by performing unique experiments constrained by natural data and using natural melts, under controlled rheological and fluid-dynamics conditions; 2) obtain unprecedented high-quality data on the time dependence of chemical exchanges during magma mixing; 3) derive empirical relationships linking the extent of chemical exchanges and the mixing timescales; 4) determine timescales of volcanic eruptions combining natural and experimental data. CHRONOS will open a new window on the physico-chemical processes occurring in the days preceding volcanic eruptions providing unprecedented information to build the first inventory of eruption timescales for planet Earth. If these timescales can be linked with geophysical signals occurring prior to eruptions, this inventory will have an immense value, enabling precise prediction of volcanic eruptions."
"The eruption of volcanoes appears one of the most unpredictable phenomena on Earth. Yet the situation is rapidly changing. Quantification of the eruptive record constrains what is possible in a given volcanic system. Timing is the hardest part to quantify. The main process triggering an eruption is the refilling of a sub-volcanic magma chamber by a new magma coming from depth. This process results in magma mixing and provokes a time-dependent diffusion of chemical elements. Understanding the time elapsed from mixing to eruption is fundamental to discerning pre-eruptive behaviour of volcanoes to mitigate the huge impact of volcanic eruptions on society and the environment. The CHRONOS project proposes a new method that will cut the Gordian knot of the presently intractable problem of volcanic eruption timing using a surgical approach integrating textural, geochemical and experimental data on magma mixing. I will use the compositional heterogeneity frozen in time in the rocks the same way a broken clock at a crime scene is used to determine the time of the incident. CHRONOS will aim to: 1) be the first study to reproduce magma mixing, by performing unique experiments constrained by natural data and using natural melts, under controlled rheological and fluid-dynamics conditions; 2) obtain unprecedented high-quality data on the time dependence of chemical exchanges during magma mixing; 3) derive empirical relationships linking the extent of chemical exchanges and the mixing timescales; 4) determine timescales of volcanic eruptions combining natural and experimental data. CHRONOS will open a new window on the physico-chemical processes occurring in the days preceding volcanic eruptions providing unprecedented information to build the first inventory of eruption timescales for planet Earth. If these timescales can be linked with geophysical signals occurring prior to eruptions, this inventory will have an immense value, enabling precise prediction of volcanic eruptions."
Project acronym CoAct
Project Communication in Action: Towards a model of Contextualized Action and Language Processing
Researcher (PI) Judith HOLLER
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT
Summary Language is fundamental to human sociality. While the last century has given us many fundamental insights into how we use and understand it, core issues that we face when doing so within its natural environment—face-to-face conversation—remain untackled. When we speak we also send signals with our head, eyes, face, hands, torso, etc. How do we orchestrate and integrate all this information into meaningful messages? CoAct will lead to a new model with in situ language processing at its core, the Contextualized Action and Language (CoALa) processing model. The defining characteristic of in situ language is its multimodal nature. Moreover, the essence of language use is social action; that is, we use language to do things—we question, offer, decline etc. These social actions are embedded in conversational structure where one speaking turn follows another at a remarkable speed, with millisecond gaps between them. Conversation thus confronts us with a significant psycholinguistic challenge. While one could expect that the many co-speech bodily signals exacerbate this challenge, CoAct proposes that they actually play a key role in dealing with it. It tests this in three subprojects that combine methods from a variety of disciplines but focus on the social actions performed by questions and responses as a uniting theme: (1) ProdAct uses conversational corpora to investigate the multimodal architecture of social actions with the assumption that they differ in their 'visual signatures', (2) CompAct tests whether these bodily signatures contribute to social action comprehension, and if they do so early and rapidly, (3) IntAct investigates whether bodily signals play a facilitating role also when faced with the complex task of comprehending while planning a next social action. Thus, CoAct aims to advance current psycholinguistic theory by developing a new model of language processing based on an integrative framework uniting aspects from psychology , philosophy and sociology.
Language is fundamental to human sociality. While the last century has given us many fundamental insights into how we use and understand it, core issues that we face when doing so within its natural environment—face-to-face conversation—remain untackled. When we speak we also send signals with our head, eyes, face, hands, torso, etc. How do we orchestrate and integrate all this information into meaningful messages? CoAct will lead to a new model with in situ language processing at its core, the Contextualized Action and Language (CoALa) processing model. The defining characteristic of in situ language is its multimodal nature. Moreover, the essence of language use is social action; that is, we use language to do things—we question, offer, decline etc. These social actions are embedded in conversational structure where one speaking turn follows another at a remarkable speed, with millisecond gaps between them. Conversation thus confronts us with a significant psycholinguistic challenge. While one could expect that the many co-speech bodily signals exacerbate this challenge, CoAct proposes that they actually play a key role in dealing with it. It tests this in three subprojects that combine methods from a variety of disciplines but focus on the social actions performed by questions and responses as a uniting theme: (1) ProdAct uses conversational corpora to investigate the multimodal architecture of social actions with the assumption that they differ in their 'visual signatures', (2) CompAct tests whether these bodily signatures contribute to social action comprehension, and if they do so early and rapidly, (3) IntAct investigates whether bodily signals play a facilitating role also when faced with the complex task of comprehending while planning a next social action. Thus, CoAct aims to advance current psycholinguistic theory by developing a new model of language processing based on an integrative framework uniting aspects from psychology , philosophy and sociology.
Project acronym COAT
Project Collapse Of Atmospheric Turbulence
Researcher (PI) Bas Johannes Henricus Van de wiel
Summary This project aims to predict the cessation of continuous turbulence in the evening boundary layer. The interaction between the lower atmosphere and the surface is studied in detail, as this plays a crucial role in the dynamics. Present generation forecasting models are incapable to predict whether or not turbulence will survive or collapse under cold conditions. In nature, both situations frequently occur and lead to completely different temperature signatures. As such, significant forecast errors are made, particularly in arctic regions and winter conditions. Therefore, prediction of turbulence collapse is highly relevant for weather and climate prediction. Key innovation lies in our hypothesis. The collapse of turbulence is explained from a maximum sustainable heat flux hypothesis which foresees in an enforcing positive feedback between the atmosphere and the underlying surface. A comprehensive theory for the transition between the main two nocturnal regimes would be ground-breaking in meteorological literature. We propose an integrated approach, which combines in-depth theoretical work, simulation with models of various hierarchy (DNS, LES, RANS), and observational analysis. Such comprehensive methodology is new with respect to the problem at hand. An innovative element is the usage of Direct Numerical Simulation in combination with dynamical surface interactions. This advanced technique fully resolves turbulent motions up to their smallest scale without the need to rely on subgrid closure assumptions. From a 10-year dataset (200m mast at Cabauw, Netherlands) nights are classified according to their turbulence characteristics. Multi-night composites are used as benchmark-cases to guide realistic numerical modelling. In the validation phase, generality of the results with respect to both climate and surface characteristics is assessed by comparison with the FLUXNET data-consortium, which operates on a long-term basis over 240 sites across the globe.
This project aims to predict the cessation of continuous turbulence in the evening boundary layer. The interaction between the lower atmosphere and the surface is studied in detail, as this plays a crucial role in the dynamics. Present generation forecasting models are incapable to predict whether or not turbulence will survive or collapse under cold conditions. In nature, both situations frequently occur and lead to completely different temperature signatures. As such, significant forecast errors are made, particularly in arctic regions and winter conditions. Therefore, prediction of turbulence collapse is highly relevant for weather and climate prediction. Key innovation lies in our hypothesis. The collapse of turbulence is explained from a maximum sustainable heat flux hypothesis which foresees in an enforcing positive feedback between the atmosphere and the underlying surface. A comprehensive theory for the transition between the main two nocturnal regimes would be ground-breaking in meteorological literature. We propose an integrated approach, which combines in-depth theoretical work, simulation with models of various hierarchy (DNS, LES, RANS), and observational analysis. Such comprehensive methodology is new with respect to the problem at hand. An innovative element is the usage of Direct Numerical Simulation in combination with dynamical surface interactions. This advanced technique fully resolves turbulent motions up to their smallest scale without the need to rely on subgrid closure assumptions. From a 10-year dataset (200m mast at Cabauw, Netherlands) nights are classified according to their turbulence characteristics. Multi-night composites are used as benchmark-cases to guide realistic numerical modelling. In the validation phase, generality of the results with respect to both climate and surface characteristics is assessed by comparison with the FLUXNET data-consortium, which operates on a long-term basis over 240 sites across the globe.


The articles that are posted here are solely the opinion of Nick Lincoln. It is not individual financial advice and should never be taken as such. If you wish to discuss the issues raised in more detail, please make contact with Nick.
If you ignore this small print and act on his opinion(s) without first seeking financial advice or reading at least 100 pages of Key Features Documents containing numerous risk warnings, you may well be struck down by lightning.


text: Q: firebase and php hosting problems I develop an applicaion using php and firebase database and I finish it. everything is going well but after I finish the project I can't find any free host that support gRPC extention. if anyone can help me how to host my website for free like 000webhost or any other host service i don't know if google cloud can help me or not. hope someone help me quick as possible.

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Erika Brown (curlingspeelster) (1973), Amerikaans curlingspeelster
 Erika Brown (zwemster) (1998), Amerikaans zwemster

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Redistricting Commission Narrows Choice to Two Final Maps
Credit: MyDistricting Montana, Citygate GIS
The 2020 U.S. Census made history for Montana, in that the state increased its population to the point that a second Congressional district could be restored after being lost over 30 years ago.
A five person Montana Redistricting Committee was empanelled to draw the boundaries of the new district in a process that has taken several months. Two are Republicans, two are Democrats and the Commission chair was selected by the Montana Supreme Court.
Dan Stusek is one of the Republican members of the Montana Redistricting Committee and spoke to KGVO News about the process.
Nine maps were drawn and there was a great deal of public comment, however, the chairperson, presiding officer Maylin Smith rejected all nine and added two more, maps 10 and 11.
"Our population grew large enough to regain a second congressional seat," said Stusek. "Montana had lost its second seat in the 1990 census and we regained it now 30 years later, so it's pretty exciting. Montana actually went from the least represented state in the US House of Representatives per capita to the most represented state in the US House per capita by virtue of going from one congressional seat to two."
Stusek said the commission members were all well aware of the political advantages and disadvantages represented in the district maps.
"The Republican map actually gave the Democrats their coveted town of Bozeman which they have desired throughout this whole process," he said. "In addition, the Republican proposal gave 87% of the population of Gallatin County including all the I-90 corridor from Three Forks to Manhattan to Belgrade to Bozeman including all the city limits to the Democrats."
Stusek said Lewis and Clark County, home of the State Capitol of Helena was also strategic in the maps.
"All of the Republican proposals initially had included Helena in a Western District, thinking that that made more sense because Helena is further west than Bozeman and Gallatin County. However, it was clear that our colleagues wanted Gallatin County and Bozeman in their proposal in the West, and so in order to reach a spirit of compromise we gave them that, but because we did, then you have to move one significant population center to the East and the most easterly next location was Lewis and Clark County."
Stusek said every effort will be made to make the new district as neutral as possible, but he did not rule out a possible court case.
"I do know that there has been an increasing trend nationally over the last decade to alter maps that have been proposed that are seen as a little bit too gerrymandered," he said. "I can't speak for what people may do, but I do believe that our map better meets the legal requirements and expectations, and better meets the eye and smell tests that Montanans expect and would probably hold up better if challenged, then the Democratic proposal."
There will be a final public meeting in Helena on Saturday, October 30 to offer comments before the decision will be made.
The Best Country Singer From Every State
Some states, like Oklahoma and Texas, are loaded with famous country singers. Others, like Nevada and Maine, are still looking for a real breakthrough artist. See the best and most successful country music artist from all 50 states, starting with Hank Williams and Alabama.
Filed Under: 2020 Census, Congressional District, Gerrymandering
Time to Get Your Moderna and Johnson and Johnson Booster Shots
Brian Laundrie Found Dead, FBI ID'd Human Remains Found in Search
UM Athletes Profiting from NCAA Name Image and Likeness Program
Montana Man in Trouble For Almost 5,000 Harassing Robocalls
Will Monoclonal Antibody Treatments be Available in Missoula?
Commissioner Slotnick – Hey, Larry Anderson – This One's for You
Montana Grizzlies Look to Rebound This Week Against an Old Rival
A Hamilton Guy is New West Fork Ranger in Bitterroot
This TikToker Created the Most Impressive 'Squid Game' Halloween Light Display for Their House

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Home > Fashion > Sneakers & Shoes
Kanye West Sues Walmart Over 'Fake' $25 Yeezy Foam Runners
Ben McKimm, 30 Jun 2021 | News
Ok, we'll be honest, we're a little late with this one. But spare us a moment as we try and make sense of Kanye West for what feels like the 100th time this year. Mr West filed a lawsuit last Thursday against retail giant Walmart for selling what he claims are 'fake' Yeezy Foam Runners. Now, we always side with the creator here at MoM, and the claim certainly seems valid on Kanye's end. But we've sat here asking a few serious questions over the last few days "can you actually be mad at Walmart for making the Foam Runner affordable?" and "are the Walmart pairs actually 'fake' if they're from the same factory?"
Style Guide: How to Dress Like Kanye West
Kanye's $1.8m 'Grammy Worn' Yeezys Destroy World Record for Sneaker Sale
Netflix Reportedly Buys Kanye West Documentary for $30 Million
Image: TMZ
Ever since the real Yeezy Foam Runners were introduced back in June 2020 for $75, they've become the house shoe of choice for sneakerheads. And in usual Kanye fashion, the shoes sold out after immediately their release. That's where Walmart steps in.
"The product referenced in the complaint is not sold by Walmart, but rather by third-party marketplace sellers," said a Walmart spokesperson to TMZ.
Allegedly, the Walmart fakes were being sold by a trusted third party seller (like Amazon does) and they've since been removed from the site. But just to play devil's advocate, we'll make a case for Walmart essentially taking Kanye's design.
Image: Sneaker Freaker
Walmart is selling the fakes for around $25, which's around $350 less than Kanye's fetch on the secondary market. An exorbitant price that is driven by sneaker "cook-groups" and resellers who completely control the market and manipulate it in their favour. The result? Well, your average person simply won't be able to get a hands-on them without paying their prices. But what makes this even stranger, is that the shoes appear to be almost indistinguishable from the 'real' pair. So it begs the question, did the third party (Walmart) seller simply find the factory in China and start producing their own pairs?
This isn't the first time we've heard about this scenario either. Many sneaker outlets reported the aftermath of the Travis Scott Jordan 1 release which saw a number of 'fakes' slip through the secondary marketplaces 'authenticity' checks because the shoes were a 1-for- 1 replica made in the same factory as the original.
Image: Footwear News
Shoes (if that's what you want to call them) that are this simple to manufacture are also very easy to replicate. In fact, these Foam Runners are so easy to replicate that the Yeezy Brand is suing Walmart on the basis that "Consumers are purchasing the imitation Yeezy Foam Runner footwear from Walmart on the mistaken belief that the shoes are associated with West and the Yeezy brand". And let's not even try to have a dig at Kanye for this shoe essentially 'ripping off' the infamous Merrell Hydromoc.
But enough of playing devil's advocate with hypothetical ideas. Let's hope Kanye West, who has a net worth of 1.8 billion USD, doesn't miss out on the "hundreds of millions of dollars" in sales as the lawsuit filings suggest. You can check out one of the millions of 'fake' Yeezy Foam Runners via the link below.
Kanye West, Yeezy
Ben McKimm
Ben lives in Sydney, Australia. He has a Bachelor's Degree (Media, Technology and the Law) from Macquarie University (2020). Outside of his studies, he has spent the last decade heavily involved in the sneaker, automotive, technology and fashion world. Turning his passion and expertise into a Staff Writers role at Man of Many where he continues to write about everything that interests the modern man. Conducting car reviews on both the road and track, hands-on reviews of cutting-edge technology and employs a vast knowledge in the space of fashion and sneakers to his work. One day he hopes to own his own brand.
Read more about Ben About Man of Many
Movies & TV, Music
Netflix Drops New Trailer for Kanye West Documentary 'JEEN-YUHS', Confirms Release Date
We Couldn't Design a Shoe Uglier than the Yeezy NSLTD If We Tried
Sneaker News #45 - Nike, Sacai and KAWS Create 'Wearable Art'
Drive Slow: Kanye West's Fleet of Blacked-Out Trucks is Up for Grabs
Sneaker News #43 - Nike's Spooky Air Force 1 Arrives


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Soccer-Bundesliga top spot up for grabs as Dortmund face Bayern
Soccer-Haaland says being pressed by Dortmund to make decision on future
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Bundesliga - Borussia Dortmund v Bayern Munich - Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany - November 7, 2020 General view of empty seats inside the stadium before the match Pool via REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler
BERLIN (Reuters) - The timing of Saturday's clash between hosts Borussia Dortmund and Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich could not have been better, with a point separating the teams and top spot up for grabs.
With fans across Germany relishing a more competitive season than the previous nine and with Bayern gunning for a 10th consecutive Bundesliga crown, Dortmund are the only team left within striking distance of the Bavarians.
Bayern are top on 31 points from 13 games, with Dortmund on 30 and Bayer Leverkusen in third a further six points behind.
Dortmund have not enjoyed a good run against Bayern in recent seasons, having lost their last five league matches against them.
Even though the Signal Iduna Park will not be full due to renewed COVID-19 rules, the Ruhr valley club will look to break that run, with youngsters Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland leading the charge.
England midfielder Bellingham has been in stellar form this season, carrying the Dortmund game forward with a maturity well beyond his 18 years, with two goals and three assists so far this season.
The 21-year-old Norway striker Haaland may only have come back from a six-week injury break last week but he needed just nine minutes after coming on as a substitute to score and wrap up a 3-1 win at VfL Wolfsburg.
Dortmund had struggled to replace him in attack, with Haaland having netted 10 times and fired 32 shots on goal in seven league appearances this season.
"When Erling is in the squad it triggers something with the team," Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke told Sky television.
"With his positive attitude and his positive craziness he triggers something with the opponents and something in his own team as well."
However, Bayern are not short on firepower themselves.
Bundesliga top scorer Robert Lewandowski, freshly crowned the world's best striker in the Ballon D'Or vote this week, has already bagged 14 goals in 13 league games this term.
He missed out on the big prize of the world's best player to Lionel Messi in the vote by journalists, but there is arguably no striker who is currently in better form than the Pole.
Lewandowski is equally deadly when facing his former club, having scored 20 goals in 14 league games against Dortmund - more than any Bundesliga player against a former team.
With players gradually returning from their COVID-19 quarantines, the champions will look for the win that could keep them top until the winter break later this month.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
Soccer-In-form Immobile fires Lazio into sixth place at depleted Salernitana


BETHALTO | The Bethalto School District will hold free preschool screenings to fill preschool classes for the 2018-19 school year.
The screenings are scheduled for Thursday, May 3, at Bethalto East Primary School, 309 Albers Place. The screening is open to any child in the Bethalto District 3-5 years old (child's third birthday must fall on or before July 3, 2018).
If you are interested in the Bethalto Preschool program, call for more information or to make a screening appointment for your child. You can contact Laura at 377-7250, ext. 13304, or email lwinter@bethalto.org.
Free developmental screenings are also available for children 0-3 years old.
Bethalto East Primary is registering kindergarten students for the 2018-2019 school year.
Walk-ins are welcome in the Bethalto East office from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. or call (618) 377-7250. For more information, visit bethaltoeast.bethalto.org and click on the kindergarten registration tab.


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Q: Sum duplicate values from two arrays I have two arrays that I create dynamically. The number of cells in both is the same (array.length is the same, its like key and value association). Here they are:
barData.labels["Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Phone"]

barData.datasets[0].data["2", "8", "20", "200", "1", "300", "400", "500", "77", "7", "99"]

I need to check if there are duplicate values in barData.labels, if so I need to sum the values in the barData.datasets[0].data and delete them. For example if have 2 Food entries I need to sum the values and then delete one of them.
How can I achieve that?

A: Maybe you could go with a Javascript object here, instead of using two arrays. Also, doing it at the time of creation could be more efficient.
You would have something like this:
barData = {
  "Food": ["2", "8", "20", "200", "1", ...]
}

Therefore, if you have to insert another Food key, you can check if Food is already defined in the object barData and, if not, you create it otherwise you just add an element in the array corresponding to the Food key.

A: you can use a array.filter function
have a look here
jQuery function to get all unique elements from an array?

A: Lets consider you have two arrays like below:
var labels = ["Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Phone", "Phone", "Status", "Status"];
var barData = ["2", "8", "20", "200", "1", "300", "400", "500", "77", "7", "99", "1", "333", '77'];

Now you want an output like below:
var result = {
  "Food": ["2","8","20","200","1","300","400","500","77","7"]
  "Phone": ["99","1"],
  "Status": ["333","77"]
}

Following code will do that:
var tempArr = []
var result  = {};
for(index in labels){
   var elm    = labels[index];
   if(tempArr.indexOf(elm) > -1){
      result[elm].push(barData[index])
   }
   else{
      tempArr.push(elm);
      result[elm] = [barData[index]];
   }
}
console.log(result);

Again if you want to sum them up then you can change a bit like below:
var tempArr = []
var result  = {};
for(index in labels){
   var elm    = labels[index];
   if(tempArr.indexOf(elm) > -1){
      result[elm]= parseInt(barData[index]) + parseInt(result[elm]);
   }
   else{
      tempArr.push(elm);
      result[elm] = barData[index];
   }
}
console.log(result);

A: This is a straightforward application of using a map to keep track of duplicates, so you know when to add and where to sum.
Something like this:
var ls = [ ... ];
var vs = [ ... ];
var dups = {};
var lls = [];
var vvs = [];
for(var i = 0, len = vs.length; i < len; i++) {
    var l = ls[i];
    var v = vs[i];
    if(dups.hasOwnProperty(l)) {
        var ii = dups[l];
        vvs += vs[ii];
    } else {
        var ii = vvs.length;
        dups[l] = ii;
        lls[ii] = l;
        vvs[ii] = v;
    }
}

A: What you could do is add your values to a temporary object, summing your values as you go, and then convert it back into the format of your original array.

// Creating your original array
var barData = {};
barData.labels = ["Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Phone"];
barData.datasets = [];
barData.datasets[0] = {};
barData.datasets[0].data = ["2", "8", "20", "200", "1", "300", "400", "500", "77", "7", "99"];
// Display original object
$("#original").text(JSON.stringify(barData));
var newBarData = {};
for (var i = 0; i < barData.labels.length; i++) {
  if (newBarData[barData.labels[i]] === undefined) {
    newBarData[barData.labels[i]] = {};
    newBarData[barData.labels[i]].labels = barData.labels[i];
    newBarData[barData.labels[i]].value = parseInt(barData.datasets[0].data[i]);
  } else
    newBarData[barData.labels[i]].value = newBarData[barData.labels[i]].value + parseInt(barData.datasets[0].data[i]);
}
//Convert back to original format
barData = {};
barData.labels = [];
barData.datasets = [];
barData.datasets[0] = {};
barData.datasets[0].data = [];
$.each(newBarData, function(index, me) {
  barData.labels.push(me.labels);
  barData.datasets[0].data.push(me.value);
});

$("#result").text(JSON.stringify(barData));

A: I suggest to build an object with the distribution of the items and then recreate the labels and count.

var labels = ["Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Food", "Phone"],
    data = ["2", "8", "20", "200", "1", "300", "400", "500", "77", "7", "99"],
    distribution = labels.reduce(function (r, a, i) {
        r[a] = (r[a] || 0) + +data[i];
        return r;
    }, {});

Object.keys(distribution).forEach(function (k, i) {
    if (!i) {
        labels = [];
        data = [];
    }
    labels.push(k);
    data.push(distribution[k]);
});

document.write('
' + JSON.stringify(labels, 0, 4) + '
');
document.write('
' + JSON.stringify(data, 0, 4) + '
');


I am making a world to be the setting of my future fantasy works, which is to say I really have no story planned but I want to have a world for it when I do and I want said world to be likely give me story ideas.
I want to make things look different but be functionally similar to earth's own circumstances for the purposes that I like science and just because magic is a thing doesn't mean that it is a thing I want to use to hand wave physics. As such I have done a lot of math to determine how this system would work.
As of now the system is a binary star system made up of a main sequence star with a mass of about .5 solar masses and a radius of .8 that of the sun's, and a white dwarf with the mass of .5 solar masses and a radius of 10,000 km. The surface temperatures of both is such that their total luminosity is equal to that of the sun's.
The planet on which my stories will take place is on a double planet, with two planets slightly larger than that of Earth that orbit around the stars while orbiting around a central point between the two of them. This is where my question comes in: how big would the tides be if the distance between them is about 3 times that of the distance between the earth and the moon so about 981,540 km apart from each other.
I am having a hard time of finding any math about that so I could just calculate it myself. Also these planets are not old enough to be tidally locked yet, and the orbit around their common center of gravity is about 28 days (cause even numbers are my friend).
To restate my question: How large would the difference between low tide and high tide on this planet be?
where $T$ is the tidal acceleration, $M$ is the mass of the body that exerts the tide, and $R$ is the distance between the two bodies. It is assumed that $R$ is much greater than the size of the bodies themselves.
That is, the tides produced in each of your planets by the other planet will be roughly three times as strong as those exerted on Earth by the Moon. Incidentally, if they're not tidally locked yet, this would be massaging their interiors quite forcefully.
To these mutual planetary tides you should add the solar tides. The Sun produces tides on Earth which are about 45% as strong as those produced by the Moon.
P.S. You actually asked about the difference between low and high tide. That's a tricky one, since even on Earth there are extremely different ranges. Tidal acceleration is not that difficult to calculate but how that plays out on on actual physical body depends on the overall shape and distribution of the continents and seas, the winds, the ocean currents, and even the shape of the coasts. I suppose you can hand-wave most of the fine detail here and go for whatever is useful for your story, within reason.
What if two planets orbited each other and also a star?
Is it possible for one star to orbit another?
Is the planet Sentia realistic?
What factors might create a habitable tidally locked desert planet around a G-type star?
How bright does this planet look from its neighboring planet?


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text:
Case study: LEDS C4 lights up design studio in Barcelona • Hotel Designs – Hotel Designs
The project involved refurbishing the street-level premises of the design studio Six N five. Made up of a multi-purpose space, mainly used as an office, but also as a showroom, with an area for presentations, a small workshop for creating small prototypes, a leisure and virtual reality zone, and a café area. All in all, a multidisciplinary space open to the city with small cultural activities, and one which required lighting up to the all of the tasks.
"The diverse spaces to be allocated and the imposing heights made it possible to create a space in the top section to house the workshop and a storage area," said Iserm Serra, the interior designer on the project. "This mezzanine also enables us to separate the public area from the more private ones."
The mezzanine can be closed off with curtains at both the top and the bottom, thus making it possible to not only offer different levels of privacy, but also provide an element for dividing the different areas. The space was devised to be a large architectural sanctuary with a strong artisanal feel. Earth colours were chosen to reinforce the idea of materiality, opting for a smooth finish cement floor with building elements, along with walls in the same tone with uneven plasterwork. The lighting brief was to reinforce these elements while providing different levels of lighting appropriate to the defined areas.
Image credit: LEDS C4
With the aim of designing a multidisciplinary space that encourages creativity, the decision was made to show off the reality of construction, leaving all the original structure uncovered while providing warmth and serenity by means of the materials, earthy tones and light. LEDS C4's lighting, with Atom Track 52 spotlights and Play High Visual Comfort Adjustable downlights, blends into the architecture of the space and helps to create a cosy, relaxed environment. In addition, Cocktail, Simply, Big and Nude light fixtures from the Decorative Collection help to create sources of light in the creative space, while relating to the monochromatic design scheme of the space.
The end result is a serene, harmonious space defined by subtlety and simplicity. The project is functional, yet also draws attention to the materials of the scheme and relates back to the work of Six N Five with an emphasis on technology and space. In this project the lighting is integral to drawing all these strands together to complete the story.
LEDS C4 is one of our Recommended Suppliers and regularly features in our Supplier News section of the website. If you are interested in becoming one of our Recommended Suppliers, please email Katy Phillips.
Main image credit: LEDS C3
Source: https://hoteldesigns.net/industry-news/case-study-leds-c4-lights-up-design-studio-in-barcelona/


If you're the lucky owner of a ski property in a stunning location, read our tips for attracting more snowsports-mad guests in ski season with just a few updates to your listing.
To make these changes to your Holiday Lettings listing, log in to your account and go to Properties.
When it comes to skiing, exterior shots are essential for inspiring outdoorsy types.
Show a snowy outdoor shot, pistes and mountain views – particularly if they're taken from the property itself. Add helpful info to your captions, such as 'View of Mont Blanc from the master bedroom'.
Images of piste maps may not be as attractive, but some guests find them helpful.
Après-ski is almost as important as the skiing itself, so it's worth uploading a shot of the local entertainment/nightlife, or even other activities for non-skiers such as ice skating.
When organising your interior shots, depict the warming scenes you'd like to see if you were booking the trip.
Show warmly lit bedrooms, a blazing log fire, hearty food and drink on the table – especially if the home is catered.
If you've got a hot tub, sauna or other facilities on site, snap them and show them off!
Skiers, especially those with families, need to plan far in advance. Make sure your prices are updated for at least 18 months ahead so you'll appear in all the right searches.
If the ski lift is outside or within walking distance, mention this in your search results summary to attract instant clicks.
Pin your property's location on the map so guests can see where the home is in relation to the resort. Your location will appear on your advert and also on the map view in the search results.
Use the various text sections in your account to provide all the vital practical info.
Use your main description to give details of the piste opening times, available levels, recommended ski hire shops and distance to the ski lifts from the property.
Mention air lines, car hire companies and any ski shuttles nearby to make travel to and fro seem simple.
Include après-ski activities and events, for example any Christmas or New Year parties, in the area info under location details.
If you can offer your guests a ski pass, add this to the notes section under your prices and mention it in the search results summary and main description too.
Some skiers/snowboarders keep an eye on the weather for most of the year and plan well in advance, whereas others book at the last minute. Consider adding deals to give both early and late bookings a boost for peak seasons.
Use an Early Deal in October for stays in January/February to grab bookings from forward-thinking families and large groups.
Use a Late Deal in early December to attract bookings for the end of the month and early January.
Add a Spotlight to put your property right under the guest's nose at the top of our search results. These can be really effective, as long as your photos are striking and, above all, snowy!
To invest in some extra marketing, log in and go to Account > Add deals and spotlights.


Remember the Turret Guns on Star Wars IV Battle Star? Well, South Korean Engineering has (kind of) caught up.
South Korean defence firm DoDaam just introduced the Super Aegis 2. The system features an automated turret that can target a human from 3-kilometers using special thermal imaging cameras.
Wish I'd though of the title above. The whole idea of inventing innovation as a packaged concept to sell is, well, clever Rita.
And that is what the late E. Ralph Biggadike's was all about. But he past on last month. I'm sad cos I got to meet him back in the 1970s as kid when visiting my Dad at work at the Bank of America.
Ralph, told me to think sideways and always package ideas in a way that people can touch both mentally and emotionally (I try).
'With today's breathless enthusiasm for innovation, it's hard to remember when, as far as the management literature was concerned, innovation was something that guys in white coats who worked for companies like DuPont did in the R&D lab. Expanding an existing business into new corporate territory, or corporate venturing, was called "diversification," not innovation. It is also hard to remember that before the 1980s, very little in the way of empirical evidence existed as to what companies should expect when they ventured into new territory. We had little theory and even less evidence to guide us. Most decisions executives made were based on their own experience or intuition (to be charitable) or on the basis of their pet projects and personal biases (to be a little less charitable).
E. Ralph Biggadike's breakthrough research on the realities of corporate venturing, reported in his 1979 HBR article, "The Risky Business of Diversification," therefore broke new ground by collecting actual data about what companies could expect as they explored new markets or extended their reach to new product categories. It was in the mold of many classic HBR pieces of the day — using rigorous academic research to inform an interesting managerial question. Ralph used the then-newProfit Impact of Market Strategies (or PIMS) database and his own original research to create a sample of 68 ventures launched by 35 companies, mostly in industrial goods businesses. He examined the fates of these ventures (which had all survived for some time) to try to determine how long a company could expect to wait for them to be profitable, and how well they would ultimately do financially. One of his most significant conclusions was that "new ventures need, on the average, eight years before they reach profitability." Further, that it took another two to four years before the return on investment of the new businesses equated to returns from the existing businesses. At the time, interestingly, as now, executives often gave a fledgling business three years or so to prove themselves, after which they lost interest. It didn't make sense then, and makes even less sense now.
I first read Ralph's article about ten years after it was first published. I had gone back to school after eight years in management to begin my own Ph.D. program at the Wharton School. I was fascinated by what I'd seen of just how hard it is to get large-scale organizations to adapt. This was an era in which the leaders of American businesses were first being confronted with forces which would cause barriers to entry to erode, technologies to move faster, and competitors to come from unexpected places. Japanese companies were only the first of many that had expanded into U.S. markets with devastating impacts on American industries as varied as automobiles, steel, textiles, and heavy manufacturing. Innovation, or venturing, was slowly working its way onto the leadership agenda. Ralph's article set me on a path of trying to understand the quirky, often completely irrational, and of course uncertain, process of corporate venturing. It was one of the foundational pieces for my own longitudinal dissertation work on how companies build new capabilities.
A lot has changed since that article was published, and I had to smile upon re-reading it to revisit ideas that have evolved since then in their original, fresh, new-to-the-world form. One is the primacy of market share. For instance, Ralph was critical of what he called "timid" target-setting by venture leaders which caused them to target relatively modest market shares in their launch plans. He argued that his data suggested that aggressive entry would lead to more rapid profitability, as long as growth in revenue exceeded growth in expenses. Today, we might be more forgiving of an experimental approach to new markets, often under the rubric of a learning or options view. Our vocabulary has also changed. Today, we talk about venturing, new business development, and innovation and we don't limit ourselves to industrial firms extending their reach into new product categories, but to all kinds of companies exploring new business models. Today, the creation of entirely new categories is taking place at a clip that was unthinkable then.
Years after I first encountered his work, I encountered the man. After a successful career as an academic, and then a senior executive at Becton Dickinson, Ralph decided to explore rejoining academia and teaching at Columbia Business School for his next act. I was thrilled to be one of the faculty members selected to speak with him to see if there could be a good fit. Our conversation took place in 1994, the year after I myself joined the Columbia faculty.
Rita McGrath.Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath studies innovation, corporate venturing, and entrepreneurship. Her latest book is Discovery-Driven Growth.
THIS BOOK WON'T MAKE YOU SMARTER!
But it is one of the best scientific anthologies I read for years.
It is a collection of the best scientific mind's ideas around today in one place and for a mere 10 quid!
This book – I think – won't make you smarter.
But it will take your mind to highly refreshing places.
And come to think about it, that would improve your mental focus anyhow.
Is Skynet Next Nexus or Next Vex-Us?
It's the idea that an artificial intelligence, created by our own need to innovate and push the envelope of machine capability, will one day develop on its own in ways.
I guess that depends on your perspective and how far into the future you can see. But either way, there are some truly amazing projects happening today that can only make you excited about the possibilities for the future and maybe just a little weary at the same time.
Something to think about: Integrate project glass's ability to process the context of what a device sees with the innovative industry of robotics.
Carrier IQ's technology provides the capability of monitoring keystrokes, calls, text messages, and location. It's purpose is purely analytical and to provide service providers the feedback necessary to improve the user experience and troubleshoot issues.
The concern with this technology? Carrier IQ's tools run in the background, often without the user's knowledge and what actually gets analyzed is at the discretion of the service provider.
Very powerful and valuable technology but the concern is that at the flip of the switch this capability could create a personalized Big Brother right in your pocket or case.
Read more on Carrier IQ: Engaget provided an informative piece on CarrierIQ.
Gimbal is leading the drive for context aware applications. Gimbal is the context awareness platform developed by Qualcomm, a leader in mobile chipset technology. More than likely you either own or have owned a smart phone powered by a Qualcomm chip.
The Gimbal SDK allows developers of Android and iOS apps to provide a more contextual experience for their users based on the user's location, habits, and preferences.
Gimbal and similar technologies will allow innovative developers to provide more convenient and intuitive services as well as gain more insight to their user base.
10 Amazing Inventions that You Didn't Know Existed.
I've been looking at breakthroughs in science, technology and innovation since I was young kid. When I was 7 Dr Who Ruled!
I used to wonder if the Si-Fi I watched on TV would ever happen in my life time. But the more I search these days, the more I find the real-world technological breakthrough are going ahead of what I could have imagined back then.
And the more I'm convinced that the Technological Singularity is on its way!
Q-Teleportation has been successful on smaller objects according to a Study. "We were able to perform a quantum teleportation experiment for the first time ever outside a university laboratory," said Rupert Ursin, a researcher at the Institute for Experimental Physics at the University of Vienna in Austria. In q-Teleportation it is the quantum states of the objects that are destroyed and recreated, and not the objects themselves. Therefore, q-Teleportation cannot teleport animate or inanimate matter (or energy) in its physical entirety. The device thus creates a replica of an original thing at a new position and the original thing ceased to exist once the replicas were created.
The conference TED (the name stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design) the guys from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology revealed something unbelievable, a working prototype of a multifunctional device that can become part of our lives in five years to ten. Set named "sixth sense" consists of only wearing colorful caps, perceived by a multifunctional device. See the video to understand how it works. Seeing is believing!
The Military exoskeleton is a completely un-tethered, hydraulic-powered anthropomorphic exoskeleton that provides users with the ability to carry loads of up to 200 lbs for extended periods of time and over all terrains. Its flexible design allows for deep squats, crawls and upper-body lifting. There is no joystick or other control mechanism. The exoskeleton senses what users want to do and where they want to go. It augments their ability, strength and endurance.
It's called "The Highway in the Sky," and here's how it works: Every time you're stuck in traffic, you can flip a switch and swoop into the sky (via CBS News).
Last time I saw a flying saucer being engineered to take to the skies was with a Moller's prototype. Since then and till very recently – perhaps till the moment I came across this, I never thought lethal drones could also take a leaf from the extraterrestrial flyers. A British drone company called Aesir, however, thinks it's feasible, and is thus creating models of unmanned aerial vehicles in the shape of flying saucers. (Via gizmowatch).
Technology has brought virtual worlds into our computers for many years. Now, virtual reality (VR) will be in our living rooms. The underground effort that has been an experimental fantasy for decades has become reality now (Via Softpedia News).
There is great news for diabetics. A revolutionary technology has came into being to help them measure blood sugar levels without drawing blood daily. It uses extremely small nanoparticles embedded into the hydrogel lenses. These engineered nanoparticles react with glucose molecules found in tears, causing a chemical reaction that changes their colour. Developed by biochemical engineering professor Jin Zhang at the University of Western Ontario. (Via ImpactLab).
Inventor of the Windup Radio.
'The NeuroAD system by Neuronix is an innovative, safe and effective non-pharmaceutical treatment alternative with technology that is CE-approved for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer's Disease.
It is the first medical device technology in the world cleared for this indication and has shown to deliver lasting improvement in cognitive ability of patients, as well as modify disease progression.
See link for full description.


text:
@import Foundation;

@interface BYAPriceFormatter : NSNumberFormatter

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Our client, a well established financial services company are seeking to hire a Business Analyst with experience working the Insurance industry to help as they continue to innovate, develop and launch new products and services to help their clients make the most of their savings and investments.
You will provide the vital link between the business owners across the company and IT, working in partnership to deliver change of real value to the company and their clients.
Engaging with stakeholders at all levels of seniority to define and document high level and detailed requirements for a project.


Here are some toursm map pics which was covered by judecelestin2010. We have hundreds of rhode island map for you. This post#2696 consists of 10 awesome pics and I hope you like it.
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text:
More utility competition was supposed to drive down prices, but many Marylanders are paying more for energy
By Scott Dance
Dec 07, 2018 | 5:00 AM
Years ago, state lawmakers welcomed an influx of energy companies believing that opening up utility monopolies to competition would drive down prices. But for most residents who have signed up for those deals, energy costs have not fallen.
Marylanders were supposed to be saving money on their gas and electric bills.
Almost two decades ago, state lawmakers welcomed an influx of energy companies offering contracts in mailings and door to door. They said opening up utility monopolies to competition would drive down prices.
But for most residents who have signed up for those deals, energy costs have not fallen. Instead, data compiled by consumer advocates show they have spent hundreds of dollars a year more than they would have if they stuck with standard utility rates.
Energy industry officials say customers choose to pay more, in some cases for renewable energy or for perks such as smart thermostats. But in two new reports, consumer advocates say confusing terms, teaser rates and in some cases deceptive marketing tactics have sent bills soaring by as much as 50 percent to 75 percent.
The advocates worry much of those costs are falling regressively on low-income Marylanders — many of whom receive utility bill assistance to keep the heat on in the winter.
And they are calling on the General Assembly and Public Service Commission to improve transparency, public education and law enforcement to better protect consumers at a time when other states are calling companies out for deceiving customers who struggle to afford to keep the lights on.
Shopping for electricity just a PointClickSwitch away
PointClickSwitch.com was founded two years ago by a trio of real estate development professionals in Baltimore who saw a need to offer a website that allows easy price comparison — and bill-switching — for Maryland residents.
By By Gus G. Sentementes and The Baltimore Sun
"Something has to be done," said Rachael Neill, who every month helps dozens of people find a way to pay utility bills as director of community services for the Govans Ecumenical Development Corp. "People are getting their power turned off over this."
'Efficient pricing'
Amid a wave of energy deregulation across the country, the General Assembly voted in 1999 to revamp the sale of gas and electricity to state residents.
Before that, utilities like Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. enjoyed a monopoly on the sale and distribution of electricity and natural gas. They also owned the power plants. The monopolies were granted to encourage companies to make the long-term capital investment to build those expensive plants and distribution networks.
Deregulation meant that, after decades of reaping profits off that investment, BGE would no longer be consumers' sole source of energy. BGE would however retain ownership of and remain responsible for the distribution and delivery of energy — the power lines and natural gas pipes.
In other words, while Marylanders still have their power delivered by BGE and other utilities, they now can choose between continuing to buy energy from BGE or opting to buy it from private companies that own power plants or buy power from the grid on the wholesale market.
About a quarter of BGE customers, and one in five utility customers statewide, are signed up to buy energy from companies such as Constellation, WGL Energy and Direct Energy, the largest and most established third-party energy suppliers in Maryland, according to state and federal data.
BGE proposes rate increase for natural gas delivery
Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. is proposing a rate increase that would boost the average residential gas and electric customer's total bill by $5.77 per month and cover costs of replacing aging natural gas pipelines, updating meters and other work.
The idea was that competition would foster more innovation and drive down prices for energy.
Matt White, president of the Retail Energy Supply Association, said that while energy companies' prices might not always beat the prices BGE and other utilities offer, deregulation is working as intended. The companies can't control what happens in volatile international energy markets, he said.
"It's created more efficient pricing," said White, who is also general counsel for IGS Energy, a supplier that serves BGE customers. "Sometimes it's higher, sometimes it's lower, but when the price is higher, that sends a price signal to the companies to become innovative."
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On average, energy companies operating in Maryland charged less than 10 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity in the early 2000s, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Those rates have risen to between 13 cents and 15 cents per kilowatt hour, on average, in the 2010s.
The energy industry suggests deregulation has prevented prices from rising higher. Citing a report compiled for the Retail Energy Supply Association, officials at Baltimore-based Constellation noted that energy prices have risen faster in states without competitive markets.
Rising energy prices have meant tens of millions of dollars a year in higher costs on utility bills, according to researchers commissioned by the Abell Foundation and the Maryland Office of the People's Counsel, a state agency that advocates for utility customers.
Consultants hired by the people's counsel compared the rates energy companies advertise with the standard rates offered by BGE and other utilities. They found that customers opting to buy from a private supplier are paying about $55 million more each year for natural gas and electricity, according to a report released last month.
BGE customers will see a decrease of $11 per month
The average BGE residential customer will pay $11 less per month starting June 1 thanks to low electric commodity prices and federal tax reform, the utility said Wednesday.
A forthcoming report from the Abell Foundation, provided in advance to The Baltimore Sun, finds that federal data show the overpayments to be even higher — $255 million for electricity alone from 2014 through 2017.
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That means extra annual costs of anywhere from $50 to a few hundred dollars for nearly 400,000 households across the state, the Abell report says. The report found that just 3 percent of utility customers who buy power from a supplier are saving money.
"This isn't a small issue happening to 10,000 households," said Laurel Peltier, a journalist who spent two years researching and writing the Abell report. "This is happening to a lot of households."
The researchers said they suspect many customers sign up for teaser rates and then don't notice when those promotions end, and companies are free to impose variable rates, like going from a fixed-rate to an adjustable-rate mortgage.
Paula Carmody, the Maryland people's counsel, said it's a difficult industry for even the most savvy consumers to navigate.
White called the analyses flawed because they aren't based on actual billing data and don't account for what the energy industry calls "value adds" — gift cards, airline miles or smart thermostats that often come along with contracts to buy gas or electricity. Many customers sign up with full knowledge that they're paying more, because they want to buy wind or solar power, he said.
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And, he said, it's no more difficult to shop for energy than it is for a cellphone, cable television or car insurance.
Maryland launches community solar program, creating new green energy opportunities — but also potential conflicts
Maryland has launched a pilot program allowing anyone to power their home with solar energy — even if they rent their home or live in an apartment or condo.
"I would say they're not giving customers enough credit," White said. "The beautiful thing about the market is you can choose. There's never really any instance where people are being forced to take gas or electricity that they don't want to receive."
Consumer advocates say that might not always be the case.
George Evans was looking for help preventing BGE from shutting off his electricity last year when a salesperson for another supplier walked up to him on York Road in Govans offering a $250 bonus to sign up for an energy contract.
"That sounds too good to be true," he responded, intending to decline the offer.
The 42-year-old Charles Village resident is legally blind and lives on disability income. His BGE bills show that he was signed up anyway, and charged $233 more than he would have been otherwise over five months, according to an analysis Peltier conducted.
The Govans community group where Neill works, known as GEDCO, was able to get the supplier to promise him a refund, for which Evans said he's still waiting.
Consumer advocates say his isn't a unique case. Most if not all of the residents who visit GEDCO's CARES Center for utility bill assistance buy energy from private suppliers, Neill said. Most have been approached at their homes or outside places like Walmart, public housing high rises, or city offices where residents come for social services or utility assistance.
Electricity market brings choices, deals — and scams
As more customers and companies jump into Maryland's electricity-purchase market, problems and outright scams are mounting. But the options for getting a good deal on power are rising, too.
By By Jamie Smith Hopkins and The Baltimore Sun
Nov 03, 2013 | 2:00 AM
"It seems like they're being taken advantage of because they don't understand what they've signed up for," Neill said.
And it's not just utility customers being affected, she said. The CARES Center also works with job seekers, some of whom excitedly accepted positions selling energy contracts only to find they only get paid on commission.
Jason Stanek, whom Gov. Larry Hogan appointed as chairman of the Public Service Commission in June, said even he has been shocked by an unexpected jump in his electricity rate. He recently noticed he was paying 70 percent more to an energy supplier than he would to Pepco, the utility that covers the Washington region, and switched to another company. He said he doesn't see that as a policy problem, but rather an example of the competitive marketplace working as it's meant to.
While he said more could be done to improve a page on the commission's site where people can compare rates and shop for electricity, he said he hasn't heard of instances in which customers couldn't find information about the rates companies charge, if they're looking for it.
"It's the policy of the state to promote retail choice," he said.
Government's role?
Consumer advocates are calling on the state to do more to protect energy customers, for example, by prohibiting variable rates.
They argue that the state should at least force companies to be more transparent about the rates they charge. Regulators in Massachusetts provide ZIP code-level billing data that have shown some companies target low-income neighborhoods, and Maryland advocates suspect data from this state would show the same thing.
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By Scott Dance and Michael Dresser
And they suggested the commission should be more proactively enforcing consumer protections that should prevent some of the problems utility customers are seeing.
Carmody pointed to recent steps in Massachusetts and Illinois to root out unfair practices by some of the same suppliers that operate in Maryland. In a settlement IDT Energy reached with the Illinois attorney general last month, the company agreed to refund $3 million to customers, while denying charges that it employed deceptive marketing tactics in predominantly black Chicago neighborhoods.
"This is an essential service; this isn't some consumer product," Peltier said. "This is, I think, where government makes a stand."
Stanek said the commission's staff has long been capped under the state budget, and does not have the resources to launch proactive investigations into energy suppliers. He said each one is vetted before it's allowed to start selling in Maryland. If the commission gets a lot of complaints about one company, he said, it will act as needed.
"The public is not shy about reaching out to us and letting us know if they think they've been scammed," Stanek said.
A spokeswoman for the Maryland Attorney General's Office, which handles other consumer issues, said it passes any complaints related to energy sales to the commission, and can only pursue prosecution if the regulatory panel refers a case.
The retail energy group's White acknowledged that there might be instances of misbehavior in the industry, but said he thinks there already are proper mechanisms in place to respond in those cases.
Constellation officials said their internal sales policies are stringent, and agreed the industry "can and should do all it can to protect vulnerable consumers from bad actors and from paying more for energy than they can afford." The company serves 113,000 electricity customers and 21,000 gas customers in Maryland.
White suggested the new research in Maryland, and similar reports in Massachusetts and other states, began with preordained conclusions.
"They've already determined that they don't like the market, that they'd rather customers not have a choice," he said.
Lawmakers said they could begin exploring the issues for themselves soon.
Neither Del. Dereck Davis nor Sen. Delores Kelley, who lead the Maryland General Assembly committees that handle utility issues, said they were familiar with the issues raised in the report. But both Democrats said they would be willing to explore them when the legislature convenes for its annual session in January.
Del. Mary Washington, a Baltimore Democrat who was elected in November to move to the Senate, has in the past focused on efforts to ensure residents have fair and affordable access to public drinking water and that they don't lose their homes over unpaid water bills. The new research suggests there could be similar problems with another basic necessity — gas and electricity.
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"Our constituents rely on fair billing for what they consume," she said. "If that's not happening, then we need to fix it."
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This rowhouse in Baltimore's Fells Point comes with a surprise: an indoor pool and a $160,000 asking...