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Green-fingered children and helpers from five local schools and a pre-schools have been busy planting up flower tubs to help brighten up the town and help Congleton's entry into the North West, Britain in Bloom and Community Pride Awards.
By the summer the pots should be blooming with a mixture of red and yellow plants to brighten up the bus station and parts of the town centre. The children's tubs will be given another couple of weeks in the poly tunnels to get established before being placed in the town.
All the children will receive a certificate of thanks from the Town Council and In Bloom group.
The next Congleton in Bloom community event is a volunteer morning on Saturday 12th May from 10-12 noon, meeting at Community Garden in Lawton Street. There will be a mixture of litter picking, gardening and tidying.
Congleton is entered for the North West in Bloom, Britain in Bloom and the Cheshire Community Pride Awards this year. Unannounced visits for Cheshire Community Pride judging can take place at any time from Mid-May until end of July, the North West in Bloom judging will be late July and the Britain in Bloom judging on Thursday 2nd August. The In Bloom team is asking for everyone's continued co-operation in keeping the town clean and tidy.


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Q: Facing Null Pointer exception while calculating distance between two location points using GoogleMaps api I am trying to get the distance between two places my origin place latitudes and longitudes are hard coded in the program and the destination latitudes and longitudes are retrieved by geocoding the user entry in the search box
But when i click the button which executes onClick() method in MapsActivity.java the following error is showed:
java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'int java.lang.String.length()' on a null object reference
    at org.json.JSONTokener.nextCleanInternal(JSONTokener.java:116)
    at org.json.JSONTokener.nextValue(JSONTokener.java:94)
    at org.json.JSONObject.<init>(JSONObject.java:156)
    at org.json.JSONObject.<init>(JSONObject.java:173)
    at com.example.itachi.com.mmaps.DataParser.parseDirections(DataParser.java:55)
    at com.example.itachi.com.mmaps.GetDirectionsData.onPostExecute(GetDirectionsData.java:30)
    at com.example.itachi.com.mmaps.GetDirectionsData.onPostExecute(GetDirectionsData.java:9)
    at android.os.AsyncTask.finish(AsyncTask.java:651)
    at android.os.AsyncTask.-wrap1(AsyncTask.java)
    at android.os.AsyncTask$InternalHandler.handleMessage(AsyncTask.java:668)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:148)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5461)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:726)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:616)

MapsActivity.java:
    public class MapsActivity extends FragmentActivity implements OnMapReadyCallback, GoogleApiClient.ConnectionCallbacks,
        GoogleApiClient.OnConnectionFailedListener, LocationListener {

    private GoogleMap mMap;
    //Google Api
    private GoogleApiClient client;
    //Location Request Object
    private LocationRequest locationRequest;
    //Location
    private Location lastLocation;
    //Marker
    private Marker currentLocation;
    //Request Location Code
    public static final int REQUEST_LOCATION_CODE = 99;
    //Origin lat lang
    double latitude,longitude;
    //destination lat lang
    double end_latitude, end_longitude;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_maps);
        if(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M){
            checkLocationPermission();
        }

        // Obtain the SupportMapFragment and get notified when the map is ready to be used.
        SupportMapFragment mapFragment = (SupportMapFragment) getSupportFragmentManager()
                .findFragmentById(R.id.map);
        mapFragment.getMapAsync(this);
    }

    @Override
    public void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode, @NonNull String[] permissions, @NonNull int[] grantResults) {
        switch(requestCode){
            case REQUEST_LOCATION_CODE:
                if(grantResults.length > 0 && grantResults[0] == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED){
                    //WHEN PERMISSIONS ARE GRANTED
                    if(ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED){
                        if(client == null){
                            buildGoogleApiClient();
                        }
                        mMap.setMyLocationEnabled(true);
                    }
                }
                else {
                    Toast.makeText(this, "Permissions Denied", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                }
                return;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onMapReady(GoogleMap googleMap) {
        mMap = googleMap;
       if(ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(this,Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED){
           buildGoogleApiClient();
           mMap.setMyLocationEnabled(true);
       }

    }

    protected synchronized void buildGoogleApiClient() {
        //Here we build out Google api and then connect

        client = new GoogleApiClient.Builder(this)
                .addConnectionCallbacks(this).addOnConnectionFailedListener(this)
                .addApi(LocationServices.API).build();
        client.connect();
    }

    @Override
    public void onConnected(@Nullable Bundle bundle) {

        //Here we request the location regularly and update the location for a specific interval

        locationRequest = new LocationRequest();
        locationRequest.setInterval(1000);
        locationRequest.setFastestInterval(1000);
        locationRequest.setPriority(LocationRequest.PRIORITY_BALANCED_POWER_ACCURACY);

        if (ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED && ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
            //noinspection deprecation
            LocationServices.FusedLocationApi.requestLocationUpdates(client, locationRequest, this);
        }

    }

    @Override
    public void onConnectionSuspended(int i) {

    }

    @Override
    public void onConnectionFailed(@NonNull ConnectionResult connectionResult) {

    }

    @Override
    public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
        lastLocation = location;
        //Checking if there is any previous location shared
        if(currentLocation != null){
            //if there is any other location shared remove it
            currentLocation.remove();
        }
        //getting the lat and lang of the location and saving them to LatLang
        LatLng latlng = new LatLng(location.getLatitude(), location.getLongitude());

        //Setting the marker like its properties , position and etc,.,.
        MarkerOptions markerOptions = new MarkerOptions();
        markerOptions.position(latlng);
        markerOptions.title("Current Location");
        markerOptions.icon(BitmapDescriptorFactory.defaultMarker(BitmapDescriptorFactory.HUE_BLUE));
        //Appending these properties to the marker
        currentLocation = mMap.addMarker(markerOptions);
        //Move the screen as per the locations saved
        mMap.moveCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newLatLng(latlng));
        mMap.animateCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.zoomBy(10));
        //After getting the location and updating the marker we have to stop requesting
        if(client != null){
            //removing the location updating api
            //noinspection deprecation
            LocationServices.FusedLocationApi.removeLocationUpdates(client, this);
        }

    }

    //Create a method to check the permissions
    public boolean checkLocationPermission(){
        if(ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED){
            if(ActivityCompat.shouldShowRequestPermissionRationale(this,Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION)){
                ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(this, new String[]{Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION},REQUEST_LOCATION_CODE);
            }
            else{
                ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(this, new String[]{Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION},REQUEST_LOCATION_CODE);

            }
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    }

    public void onClick(View view){
        if(view.getId() == R.id.B_search){
            mMap.clear();
            //Collecting the distance using api
            Object dataTransfer[] = new Object[2];
            String url = getDirectionUrl();
            GetDirectionsData getDirectionsData = new GetDirectionsData();
            dataTransfer[0] = mMap;
            dataTransfer[1] = url;

            getDirectionsData.execute(dataTransfer);

            // collecting the text entered by the person
            EditText tf_location = findViewById(R.id.TF_Location);
            String location = tf_location.getText().toString();
            List<Address> addressList = null;
            MarkerOptions mo = new MarkerOptions();

            if(location != ""){
                //create an object for geocoding the location
                Geocoder geoCoder = new Geocoder(this);

                try {
                    addressList = geoCoder.getFromLocationName(location, 5);
                } catch (IOException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }

                for (int i=0; i<addressList.size();i++){
                    Address myAddress = addressList.get(i);
                    LatLng latLng = new LatLng(myAddress.getLatitude(),myAddress.getLongitude());
                    end_latitude = myAddress.getLatitude();
                    end_longitude = myAddress.getLongitude();
                    Log.d("lat by pavan gadu",String.valueOf(end_latitude));
                    Log.d("lon",String.valueOf(end_longitude));
                    mo.position(latLng);
                    mo.title("search results");
                    mMap.addMarker(mo);
                    mMap.animateCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newLatLng(latLng));
                }
            }
        }
    }
    private String getDirectionUrl(){
        latitude = 15.5997300;
        longitude = 79.6064320;
        StringBuilder googleDorectionsUrl = new StringBuilder("https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?");
        //append the origin(tghis is of three ways -1.)send the place name , 2.)send the place lat lang 3.)send the place id
        googleDorectionsUrl.append("origin"+latitude+","+longitude);
        //append the destination
        googleDorectionsUrl.append("&destination"+end_latitude+","+end_longitude);
        //append the key
        googleDorectionsUrl.append("&key="+"AIzaSyCAcfy-02UHSu2F6WeQ1rhQhkCr51eBL9g");
        //return the url
        Log.d("Url sending pan gadu:",googleDorectionsUrl.toString());
        return  googleDorectionsUrl.toString();

    }
}

GetDirectionsData.java class:
public class GetDirectionsData extends AsyncTask<Object, String, String> {
String url;
GoogleMap mMap;
String googleDirectionsData;
@Override
protected String doInBackground(Object... objects) {
    mMap = (GoogleMap) objects[0];
    url = (String)objects[1];
    DownloadUrl downloadUrl = new DownloadUrl();
    try {
        googleDirectionsData = downloadUrl.readUrl(url);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    return googleDirectionsData;
}
@Override
protected void onPostExecute(String s) {
    HashMap<String, String> directionsList = null;
    DataParser parser = new DataParser();
    directionsList = parser.parseDirections(s);
}

}
DataParser.java class :
public class DataParser {
private HashMap<String, String> getPlace(JSONObject googlePlaceJson){
    //Detailos about the place are being stored in the hashmap
    HashMap<String, String> googlePlacesMap = new HashMap<>();
    //Declaring all the primary data of the place to strings
    String placeName = "-NA-";
    String vicinity = "-NA-";
    String latitude = "";
    String longitude = "";
    String reference = "";
    //fetching dta from the given JSON object and parsing to string
    try{
        if(!googlePlaceJson.isNull("name")){

            placeName = googlePlaceJson.getString("name");

        }
        if(!googlePlaceJson.isNull("vicinity")){

            vicinity = googlePlaceJson.getString("vicinity");
        }
        latitude = googlePlaceJson.getJSONObject("geometry").getJSONObject("location").getString("lat");
        longitude = googlePlaceJson.getJSONObject("geometry").getJSONObject("location").getString("lng");

        reference =  googlePlaceJson.getString("reference");

        googlePlacesMap.put("place_name", placeName);
        googlePlacesMap.put("vicinity", vicinity);
        googlePlacesMap.put("lat", latitude);
        googlePlacesMap.put("lng", longitude);
        googlePlacesMap.put("reference", reference);

    }
    catch (JSONException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    //finally return the data
    return  googlePlacesMap;
}
public HashMap<String, String> parseDirections (String jsonData){
    JSONArray jsonArray = null;
    JSONObject jsonObject;
    try {
        jsonObject = new JSONObject(jsonData);
        jsonArray = jsonObject.getJSONArray("routs");

    } catch (JSONException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return  getDuration(jsonArray);
}

private HashMap<String, String> getDuration(JSONArray googleDirectionsJson){
    HashMap<String, String> googleDirectionsMap = new HashMap<>();
    String duration = "";
    String distance = "";
    Log.d("Json response",googleDirectionsJson.toString());

    return googleDirectionsMap;
}

}
DownloadUrl.java  is:
    public String readUrl(String myUrl){

    String data ="";
    InputStream inputStream = null;
    HttpURLConnection urlConnection = null;
    try {
        //getting the url
        URL url = new URL(myUrl);
        //open connection
        urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
        //connect the url
        urlConnection.connect();
        Log.d("message",":in urldownload");

        //Read the data
        inputStream = urlConnection.getInputStream();
        //feed it to BufferReader
        BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream));
        //open a string buffer
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();

        String line = "";
        while((line = br.readLine()) != null){
            //append all the data present in the string buffer in line(which is the string object)
            sb.append(line);
        }
        //parse the string buffer to actual string and save in data variabke
        data = sb.toString();
        //close the buffer
        br.close();

    } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    finally {
        try {
            //close the streem buffer and url connection
            inputStream.close();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        urlConnection.disconnect();
    }

    return data;

}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Americans are in more debt than ever these days. While some of it is unavoidable due to the recent recession, some of it could have been avoided with smart spending. Whether you currently have debt and are looking to better your situation or you currently do not have debt and are looking to keep it that way, here are four smart spending tips to help you get out of and stay out of debt.
The first step to staying out of debt is creating a budget. It is impossible to know how much you can afford to spend if you do not know what you are bringing in each month or where your money is going. You may be surprised at your financial situation once you see it all laid out on paper. A well-crafted budget will give you a roadmap for your own personal financial success.
Once you know how much you can spend each month, commit to spending only that much or a little less. Even if an item is a "must have" or a great deal, if you cannot afford it, you should not be buying it. This does not mean you have to go without any extras, only that you should prioritize so you can purchase the items that are most important to you.
Having a well-funded emergency fund is a great way to stay out of debt. Then, when unexpected bills and expenses come your way, you will already have the money set aside to pay for them. Totaled cars and hospital bills do not have to send you into large amounts of debt when you are already prepared to deal with them.
Lastly, when you do find yourself in debt for whatever reason, commit to getting out of debt as quickly as possible. Pay off smaller balances first to gain momentum or balances with the highest interest rates first to save yourself the most money in the long run. Consider consolidation loans in Houston for lowering your interest rates and reducing the number of separate debt payments you make each month.
While some debt is almost unavoidable, you certainly do not have to settle for a life full of creditors. Use these four tips to minimize your debt and maximize your financial freedom. You should be in charge of your money—not the other way around.
This entry was posted in personal finance on September 27, 2013 by admin.
If you want to gain control over your finances and break unhealthy habits, follow the following five tips.
Some people spend a lot of money because they associate certain items with an emotion or experience. For example, a person may buy dolls because she associates them with her childhood and happy memories. It is a bad idea to let emotions dictate what you do with your money. Remove your emotions and you can work something out for the future.
Frugal does not have to take on a negative connotation. You do not have to dine on cardboard boxes and eat somebody's leftovers. You simply have to pay attention to what you spend and cut off costs as much as possible.
It is easy to throw out bad financial habits when you choose to think about the future. It is not unusual for a person to spend money with careless abandon. They may not think about what they will do in a year or two when their bank account shrinks.
Never overestimate the money that you have in your bank account. Never assume that you have plenty of money available for buying frivolous items for your home or friends. Ensure that you know about how much money you have available, and remember to find methods that will help you keep track.
Though this option may appear to be obvious, some people do not think to ask people whom they know for assistance. It can be difficult to keep track of money and stay in the green without an outside source for understanding and support. If you find yourself scared or worried, call a friend on the phone. If this is not an option, go on the Internet and interact with people whom you trust on a website. Do not forget that you can also look for the best investment newsletters by conducting a search. These newsletters can keep you informed and provide you with tips and ideas.
It is vital for you to spend within your means. Do not believe that you are immune to the general pratfalls that reach people on a daily basis. The information above may help you reach your goals, and you may talk to loved ones to learn more.
This entry was posted in personal finance on September 26, 2013 by admin.
Looking for a way to make extra cash? Try selling some of your unwanted items. So start searching around the house. Check out your closet, drawers, in the attic, garage and spare rooms for items you no longer use or haven't used in years. Here are a few of the more popular items people have sold for extra cash.
Everyone has at least one old cell phone sitting in a drawer or closet just getting old and dirty due to cell phone companies offering upgrades to their customers. However that leaves the old cell phone abandoned and never used again. You can search online to find websites where you can sell your old cell phone for cash whether it is a functioning phone or not.
Wondering what to do with old movies and music CD;s? Now there are websites where you can scan your DVD or CD to find out how much it's worth. Send as many as you want in one envelope and when the company receives them you get the cash.
There are websites that will buy your old clothes for cash. If you have items that are name brands you can get even more cash. So search through your closets and check for name brands, box them up and send them to these companies. Again once they receive the items you get the cash.
There are several companies online that will buy your old gold jewelry. This is a great way to get rid of old jewelry that you haven't worn for a while or is broken or is missing a part. Be advised that if you have old gold jewelry that is a higher grade of gold your best option is to take it to a jeweler or sell it privately. Most gold companies are prone to offering a very low price for gold jewelry and you would not get the price that is deserved for more expensive old gold jewelry.
If you have a lot of old books whether they are hardbacks or paperbacks you can sell them online. There are websites that specialize in old books and have hundreds of customers that have a keen eye and will pay any price. You can also go to websites where they will offer you a space on their website where you can sell your books as well.
Many websites buy old cartridges from printers and copiers for cash. There are also websites where instead of cash they offer reward points and will make a donation to your favorite cause.
These are just a few items you can sell for extra cash. If you have other items just search online under the name of the item to find websites that will buy the item for cash. For example if you have old golf shoes just search online under "sell old golf shoes" to find websites that will buy them for cash. You can also find websites that will buy old toys, sporting equipment and a variety of other items as well.
This entry was posted in personal finance on September 21, 2013 by admin.


Bell: People with training, who can use judgment and context can make decisions on the spot on Mars or on asteroids, or back on the moon.
Steve: That's Jim Bell, an astronomer and planetary scientist at Cornell University. We'll talk to him this week, plus we'll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news. Jim Bell is intermittently involved in the Mars Rovers mission and he has an opinion piece in the Forum section of the August issue of Scientific American about "Robotic Versus Human Spaceflight". To find out more about both subjects, I called Bell at his office at Cornell.
Steve: Hi Professor Bell. How are you doing today?
Bell: I am fine Steve. It's great to be here.
Steve: Good to talk to you. So first of all, you are the leader of the Pancam Team on the planet Mars right now. Tell us about that and how long has that taken out of your life and what have been some of the real challenges and rewards of working on that?
Bell: Well, the Pancams are the color cameras on the Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity; and we have a team of about 20 or so people here at Cornell and dozens and dozens of other people at JPL and around the country who have been working with the rovers everyday for more than three and a half years now, collecting the camera pictures and other data from the surface of Mars. We use the camera data, of course, to learn about the geology; to help to drive the rovers from place to place—the robot driver's at JPL; to figure out where to put the arm down; and make detailed chemical measurements of the surface; and of course to take the spectacular and often times very beautiful photos of Mars. The cameras were designed and built to try to simulate what we would see if we were there. It's sort of 20/20 human vision—they can see in color, they can also see in the ultraviolet and the infrared, so they are a little better than human vision in many ways—but they provide our best view so far of what Mars would look like if we were there ourselves.
Steve: Talk a little bit about the book you have with some of those amazing images.
Bell: Yeah! The book is a sort of a typical kind of coffee table book called Postcards From Mars,and it is an attempt to showcase sort of the best 150 or so photos—including some large foldout panoramas—from what are now, more than, almost 200,000 photos from the mission. So, it's really an attempt to kind of capture the greatest hits, both from the standpoint of science, but also just beauty. Some of the shots these rovers have taken on Mars are just absolutely beautiful, provocative, poetic, desolate—I mean, so many adjectives. I would run out of adjectives to describe these photos.
Steve: Well, you know, a picture is worth at least a thousand words, probably more when you have pictures of an alien landscape there.
Bell: At least a thousand kilobytes. I am not sure about that.
Steve: (laughs) Okay, tell me about what's going on, on Mars right now. I've heard about this gigantic dust storm—and where does that put the rovers?
Bell: Right! Well Mars has dust storms all the time. Most of them are relatively small but occasionally—like right now—they grow to be larger and they spread over large parts of the planet. So there's a large region of the southern hemisphere and the equatorial region of Mars that's being covered by this dust storm, and the dust storms don't really provide any physical danger to the rovers, they don't shake the rovers around or [damage](unclear 4:00) them, things like that. What the danger [is,] is that they block the sunlight. They produce these dusty clouds in the atmosphere. The scenery gets very dark, the terrain gets very dark because the sun gets blotted out and these rovers are—they live by sunlight. They need solar power on their solar panels to recharge the batteries to run the instruments every day and so as the dust is blocking out the sun, they are sort of chocking off our lifeline to power, and that's the risk. Now so far, they've been able to sort of survive quite well, even though the dust is very high. We basically put them into a sort of a survival mode. We don't do any driving, we don't do a lot of activities; we just monitor the sunlight and just keep track of the variations from day to day as the storm is going on. However, if the storm continues or gets even more intense, and blocks out even more sunlight and maybe even some of that dust might settle onto the solar panels blocking out even more sunlight—then we could be in a very, very risky situation, and that we might not have enough power generated each day to recharge the batteries to run the heaters at night. And so we would have to dip into the batteries more and more and more everyday, and we would eventually discharge them entirely. But we don't anticipate that happening. We of course don't know how long that would really take to go into that sort of so-called death spiral with the rover, but you know that's a potential thing. This could happen, so we are obviously watching the storm very closely.
Steve: So the rovers are like professional athletes such as you hear about who are about slightly injured, they are day to day.
Bell: They are day to day. (laughs) That's terrific. They are day to day, and they do have some, you know, little bumps and small or minor ailments here and there. The right front wheel has stopped working on Spirit rover, the arm on the Opportunity rover is flaky—works on some days, doesn't work on other days. So they are showing their signs of age, but they still are definitely in the major leagues and still are pitching again.
Steve: And let's remind everybody that these things were designed for a useful life of, what is it again, 90 days?
Bell: They were designed for, right, 90 days on Mars, and right now we are at 1,256 on Spirit.
Steve: So you've done pretty well so far. Is there any kind of a system in place to get dust off of the collection panels, off of the solar panels?
Bell: No, not intentionally at least. We thought about designing you know some kind of a wiper or something like that, but you know it's a shell game. If you put something on like that, you have to take something out of, because you can only get so much mass volume into the rocket and we decided to not put a system like that on and just take the chance that we will able to survive at least 90 days. And we obviously, you know, won that bet, had no problems surviving 90 days and much longer.
Bell: It turns out that Mars itself has helped us a lot. When we get up to a windy ridge, the wind has blown the dust off the solar panels. It happened during our first Martian summer, several years ago. It's happened right now. We are in Martian summer again. It happened a month and half ago on Spirit, it happened just in the last few days on Opportunity. Wind comes along, blows the dust off, our power goes up.
Steve: It reminds me, there is a punch line to an old joke, you know: "If I'd known I was to going to live this long, I would've taken better care of myself."
Steve: If you had known it was going to last 1,200 days, maybe would have put a wiper on it.
Bell: I don't know, maybe.
Steve: So lets talk about your Forum piece in the current issue of Scientific American—it's called "Have Brain, Must Travel", and it's an interesting take from somebody who is so intermittently involved in unmanned missions into space. But why don't you tell us what your opinion is on this whole issue?
Bell: Steve, I think the common assumption is that there are sort of two camps: There is the robot people who do robotic exploration, and then there is the human astronaut, people who work on that side of NASA; and that you have to have—If you support robots, you are against human exploration and vice versa. And one of the points of my piece is that just isn't so. There are plenty of people who do robotic exploration work like myself, who are very strong supporters of human exploration. I mean that's what got me and many of my colleagues into the business in the first place. You know, watching guys bounce around on the moon, watching people in Skylab and in space shuttle. And you know those are the adventures, those are the human interest stories, those are the dramas that capture the attention of the public and the kids who eventually are going to go on to get into these kinds of science and engineering fields. And so the first premise is that just because you are for robotic exploration, doesn't mean you are against human exploration. But even more importantly than that, I try to make the case that, I think—if you are a supporter of robotic exploration—I think you ought to be a supporter of human exploration, because they are very intimately linked. One of the reasons why we have this very successful robotic exploration program—and it is phenomenally successful; I mean just if you think about the places that we've sent these robotic emissaries in the past few decades, it's absolutely incredible. Some of the greatest achievements of NASA in the last few decades have been made through robotic program. But the reasons that we have this successful robotic program is—in my opinion—has a lot to do with the public support and enthusiasm for the human exploration program. And that of course was at its apex during the Apollo when the entire point was to beat the Soviet Union to the moon, show the power of freedom and democracy—it was really a political statement that had some wonderful scientific exploration side effects to it. And the success of the robotic program really started during the Apollo mission since in—the robotic program is very, very successful in support of and even in some sense dragging the coat tails of the Apollo program. One of the things that I worry about, more recently, is that there is less and less support in the public for the human exploration program. Certainly the shuttle and the space station haven't turned out to be a kind of program that really captures public interest, They[that] capture[s] the imagination of kids, and that really inspire the public. That hasn't happened, and so I worry if that doesn't happen, if there is an invigorated program or a long-term effort to say, send astronauts to the moon and near-Earth asteroids, or Mars, or make some exciting compelling destination-driven human exploration program; if that doesn't happen, then I worry that the robotic program is going to whither as well because robotic programming, I believe, is just as dependent upon that public support to for the space program overall.
Steve: I was going to ask what you thought the primary places that we should send people were, and I guess you covered it—the moon, Mars and near-Earth asteroids.
Bell: Well those are the, I mean, more than the primary places, those are the only places right now, I mean. Nobody is really thinking hard about sending humans to the outer solar system. For example, it's a fundamentally different scale of problem. If you get farther from the sun, you need different power sources, the travel times are enormous, so that dictates a very different kind of vehicle as opposed to a few day trips to the moon or maybe a six-month or nine-month trip to Mars. Those seem to be manageable within sort of current technologies and current thinking about long-duration space flight. But now sending people [way] out way into the outer solar system, we're not there yet. It's coming, that day is coming, but we are not there yet, so the near-term destinations are, you know, close to home—the moon, near-earth asteroids; and then the closest place that we can get to easily that's not within near-earth environment is Mars. I mean Venus is close too, but that's a hellish environment on the surface, and we just don't have the technology to get people down there and survive in that environment yet.
Steve: What do we mean by near term?
Bell: What I mean by near term is in the next several decades. And a lot of my thinking on this was framed by a very interesting authored piece that NASA administrator, Mike Griffin, wrote recently for, I think, it was for Space News, where he tried to think about the next 50 years of NASA. I mean this is the time to do it because this is the 50th anniversary year of NASA, so [we've] had a half century of space exploration—what could the next half century look like? And, you know, he tries to lay out, you know, how this proposed program for [the] moon and Mars could evolve over the next few decades. If it has—and I think this is the key—it just has constant public support and, you know, if you look back throughout NASA's first 50 years, there is sort of a historical level, budget level of support; and public support often expresses itself as the budget level granted to a program by Congress. The Congress is representing the public after all. And he makes the case—which I think is a very compelling one, and I wanted to learn more about this myself—he makes the case that if NASA is just funded at the same level that it has been, in the next 50 years, [the] same level of what it has been for the past 50 years then we should be able to do things like sending people to the moon, perhaps even sending them onto Mars within the next several decades. If we can just maintain our focus, we can take this gift of the taxpayers to spend on this enterprise and just apply it towards a focussed, well-directed sort of destination-driven modular kind of program to get people reliably back into space and out of lower orbit. Now there is, you know, [a] lot of assumptions that go into that, and there is a lot of hopeful thinking about, you know, what the national budget is going to be like and whether, you know, the country will head down some different task that we'll see less and less support for human space exploration, but I want to remain optimistic. So in my optimistic view point, I think we are talking about the next several decades.
Steve: What do you get by sending people to a near-Earth asteroid or to Mars that you don't get with a robotic mission in addition to the actual experience of having human beings there and the inspiration that, that carries—I mean what do you actually get, from a scientific view point? What do you get to do that you can't do robotically?
Bell: Well there is no specific, one specific answer to that question; but I can give you an example that I sort of talk about in the opinion piece in Scientific American and that has to do with the ability of scientists, say geologists for example, to use judgment to react to a situation—and this is something that we actually saw in some of the Apollo missions, like the Apollo 17 for example. Harrison Schmidt is a geologist, and he was on the ground and turned and saw something that in his judgment was important. It was not clear that it would have been picked out by a robotic algorithm or even seen by a robotic mission, even sort of joysticked by people from the Earth. This was different kinds of gasses with different chemical compositions that he could spot from his training, his experience, his context. Well I think the same kinds of things are going to happen on Mars or on asteroids or back on the moon; in that people with training who can use judgment and context can make decisions on the spot for what kinds of samples to acquire or how to dig, or where to acquire samples, that just can't be put into a computer program, that can't be processed autonomously by a robotic mind. Robotic brains are good, they are getting better all the time, but I don't know if it will ever pass that threshold where they will have the same kind of judgment and learn from experience, learn from context, capabilities that human scientists do. I mean this is why we do our fieldwork on the Earth, we go to these places, we study them in person wherever we possibly can, and so that kind of experienced, context judgment, it's impossible to quantify, right? I can't tell you, well we are going to get 18 percent more science because of this. It's impossible to put it in that kind of framework. But will people be able to discover things, notice things, take a hunch and head down a path that leads to something entirely new and unexpected? Absolutely and I think that's one of the reason why it is critical to send people.
Steve: It's interesting you mentioned Harrison Schmidt. I was going to tell you a story about Harrison Schmidt. I was on an eclipse trip in 1991 and Harrison Schmidt was also on the trip to see a total solar eclipse; and Schmidt gave a talk in which he actually expressed the kind of existential view point of the reason to do things—just in terms of the most, I think it was, he said something like, the most important aspect of all of this—and he was talking about both going to the moon and seeing the solar eclipse, is the human experience that you get from it. So Schmidt who, as you just pointed out, brought his scientific training to bear on the moon, still thought that the most important aspect of his trip was as a representative of humanity experiencing this for us and for himself.
Bell: Well look, I would agree with you. You framed the question. You told me not to include inspirational kind of stuff, but I would completely agree with you. I think that probably number one is that inspirational, motivational, educational, non-quantifiable aspect of people pushing the edge that you know that we can experience—what's it like being there by having some of our colleagues from this planet being there for us or seeing that place through their eyes, or experiencing it through their emotions—and that is a huge driver, and [a] much, much more important driver in my opinion than most of the scientific goals that you can come up with; and maybe finding life on Mars would be a pretty big drive—okay, so that might be that one exception—but for most sort of the average everyday people who support the space program, it is that feeling of projecting ourselves through our colleagues, through our friends, through these very brave people who are themselves on the top of the rocket and experiencing space for us. I think that's a huge, huge factor; and that kind of enthusiasm we've seen to trickle down in the robotic program too. The way that these rovers are anthropomorphized to where the people relate to them, partly because they give us a humanlike experience of seeing through human-like eyes, of driving around, moving from place to place, of touching the ground with an arm and making some detailed measurements and sensing it. I think that kind of emotional connection trickle-down comes through the human exploration program.
Steve: The piece is in the August Scientific American is called "Have Brain, Must Travel", by Jim Bell. Professor Bell, thanks very much.
Bell: Thanks so much Steve. It's been a great time.
Steve: Jim Bell's article is also available free on our Web site; just go to www.SciAm.com and scroll all the way down to the Forum section for the piece, titled again, "Have Brain, Must Travel". Speaking of traveling, we'll be right back.
Male voice: Send your science videos to Scientific American and see if yours becomes a featured video. Follow the simple instructions at SciAm.com/videosubmit.
Steve: Now it's time to play TOTALL.......Y BOGUS. Here are four science stories; only three are true, see if you know which story is TOTALL.......Y BOGUS.
Story number 1: Teenage girls' willingness to discuss their personal problems with friends helps them compared with more sullen and solitary teenage boys.
Story number 2: Reformed wildlife poachers in Zambia are selling jewelry made from the wire snares once used to catch the animals.
Story number 3: Brightly colored birds around Chernobyl are more affected by the toxic environment than our drab birds.
And Story number 4: Earthquakes along the ocean floor are smaller than you'd expect because sea floor faults are different than theory would have them.
Story number 4 is true. Many earthquakes in the deep ocean are much smaller than expected and researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, writing in the July 12th issue of the journal Nature think they know why. Plate tectonic theory says that transformed faults should be long fault lines on the sea floor, but the faults are in fact much more segmented and show signs of recent or current volcanism and with the falls busted up, the earthquakes are damped down.
Story number 3 is true. Drab birds are doing better in Chernobyl possibly because brightly colored birds expend their antioxidant molecules on flashy pigments while drab birds can use antioxidants to detox. For more, check out the July 18th episode of the daily SciAm podcast, 60-Seond Science.
And Story number 2 is true. Former poachers in Zambia are selling necklaces and bracelets made from the wire snares formerly used to trap wildlife. It's part of a program by the Wildlife Conservation Society in which poachers can turn in snares and guns in exchange for training in farming, carpentry and jewelry making. Over 40,000 snares and 800 firearms have been turned in with thousands of animals estimated to have been saved. For more, check out www.itswild.org.
All of which means that story number 1 about teen girls being better off because they talk to their girlfriends about personal problems is TOTALL.......Y BOGUS. Because teenage girls ruminating together about problems may actually help contribute to emotional difficulties. That's according to a study in the July issue of the journal Developmental Psychology. Researchers found that girls are more likely than boys of the same age group to develop anxiety and depression as a result of extensive conversations with their friends about their problems. Researchers call such conversations co-rumination, and for girls co-rumination did indeed help the friendship but the study also found an increase in depressive and anxiety symptoms, which in turn contributed to greater co-rumination. Interestingly for boys, co-rumination seemed to help the friendship but did not increase depression and anxiety. For college kids, co-rumination usually begins as soon as they move off campus.
Well that's it for this edition of the weekly Scientific American podcast. You can write to us at podcast@SciAm.com; check out news articles at our Web site, www.SciAm.com' the daily SciAm podcast, 60-Second Science, is at the Web site and at iTunes. For Science Talk, the weekly podcast of Scientific American, I am Steve Mirsky. Thanks for clicking on us.


text:
Paul Kimmage
Paul Kimmage Biography
First published on:January 17, 2019
by Jorge
Facts of Paul Kimmage
Raphael and Kevin
5 feet 9 inches (1.78 meters)
Currently Working For
Graduated year
Currently Married
Affair with
soygigio
Paul Kimmage is an Irish sports journalist and former amateur and professional road cyclist who was Ireland's road race champion in 1981 and participated in the Olympic Games in 1984. Further, he has published several books and also wrote for The Sunday Times newspaper and others.
As of 2019, he has an estimated net worth of over $10 million. He is currently married to his wife Ann and has 2 children with her. Further, the details about his salary are not disclosed in the media yet.
Paul Kimmage Early Life and Educational History
Paul Kimmage was born on 7 May 1962 in Dublin, Ireland to Christy and the details about his mother is not in the media yet. He holds an Irish nationality and belongs to White ethnic group. Further, Paul Kimmage grew up with his 2 siblings named Raphael and Kevin.
Similar Bio: Apolo Ohno
Kimmage was born into a family for cycling. His father, Christy, cycled with the Dublin Wheelers and his brothers Raphael and Kevin were also active.
Further, the details about his educational background are not disclosed in the media yet. The boyhood dreams of Paul Kimmage were the glory of cycling: wearing the yellow jersey, cycling the Tour de France and becoming a national hero. He knew it wasn't going to be easy, but he was ready to put in the graft from his early age.
Paul Kimmage Net worth and Salary
Paul Kimmage is a veteran cyclist who has invested his 20 years of life in cycling. With such a determination and hard work, he has managed to collect hefty net worth. Further, the details about his career earnings are yet to be disclosed in the media.
Cycling is considered to be one of the hardest outdoor sports. Few sports require participants to dig deep and push through their legs for hours with lactic acid pumping. Is the money worth the pain?
Read More: Dudi Sela Biography
For the reference, There are a few riders in the peloton who pull wages worth of envy. The major team captains who have a real chance to take part in the top three of the big stage tours, including the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, are generally able to secure salaries of $3 million per year.
Apart from his cycling career, he is involved in the field of journalism after his retirement. However, there isn't exact information about how much he earns from his journalism career. So with all the references and assumptions, we concluded that he has been living a lavish life with his wife and daughter.
Paul Kimmage cycling Career
Kimmage had a prominent amateur career, notably his sixth place in the world road race amateur championship. His brothers also enjoyed the spotlight: in 1984, Raphael finished second, while in 1991 Kevin won the race.
Similar Bio: Svetlana Khorkina Salary, Net worth, and Personal Life
His remarkable performance as an amateur included on 5 July 1981, where he became the national road race champion ahead of the old but still competitive Paddy Flanagan. He was sixth in the world road amateur championships in 1985. He was also ninth in a professional race, the Bordeaux-Paris, behind René Martens from Belgium in 1985.
In addition, he almost invested his 20 years of life in cycling and within this period he has managed to win many tournaments, including National Road Race Champion in 1981.
Paul Kimmage Journalism and publishing Career
In May 1990, Kimmage published Rough Ride, explaining his experiences as a domestic servant, including his own references to drug use. Kimmage admitted that he used amphetamines to non-controlled criteriums and suppositories of caffeine on a few occasions, but said that he stayed away from more powerful and dangerous drugs used by other cyclists.
Kimmage wrote a biography of Matt Hampson entitled Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson. It was published in August 2011 and won the 2012 British Sports Book Award in the category Autobiography / Biography.
Kimmage was a sports journalist in Ireland with the Sunday Independent. He left for the Sunday Times shortly after an incident in 2002, when the paper misrepresented an article about Roy Keane.
In 2012, Kimmage was named by the UK Press Gazette, one of the top ten most influential sportswriters in Britain. Kimmage is a panelist on Newstalk 106 Sunday Sports radio and a regular contributor to Today FM's The Last Word.
Paul Kimmage Personal Life
Exploring his personal life, Paul is a married man and currently married to his wife Ann. Further, the couple is blessed with a daughter named Evelyn Kimmage and a son whose name has not been disclosed yet.
A proud day for the family. pic.twitter.com/qiZyg4shLk
— Paul Kimmage (@PaulKimmage) June 26, 2014
Additionally, Ann has been working for Walsh taking notes for the journalist after a cycling tour, which finished in the Phoenix Park.
CAPTION: Former cycling pro-Paul Kimmage and his daughter SOURCE: Irish Hospice Foundation
Talking about his body measurement, there isn't much information about it. However, he has a perfectly built body with decent height and weight.
Sports Journalist Paul Kimmage road cyclist The Sunday Times newspaper

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Myth: Child sexual abuse is a rare experience.
Fact: Child sexual abuse is not rare. Retrospective research indicates that as many as 1 out of 4 girls and 1 out of 6 boys will experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 18.1 However, because child sexual abuse is by its very nature secretive, many of these cases are never reported.
Fact: Numerous educational programs are available to teach young children about body safety skills and the difference between "okay" and "not okay" touches. These programs can help children develop basic safety skills in a way that is helpful rather than frightening. For more information on educating young children, see Let's talk about taking care of you: An educational book about body safety for young children, available at www.hope4families. com/Lets_Talk_Book_Information.html.
their parents or caregivers, children can and do recover from such experiences.
is unhealthy and abusive. Both the abuser and the victim can benefit from counseling.
Fact: Although children often choose not to talk about their abuse, there is no evidence that encouraging children to talk about sexual abuse will make them feel worse. On the contrary, treatment from a mental health professional can minimize the physical, emotional, and social problems of these children by allowing them to process their feelings and fears related to the abuse.


text:
VSDB boys 2nd in goalball finale
The win against Overbrook put the Chiefs in the gold-medal round for the first time in school history.
VSDB boys 2nd in goalball finale The win against Overbrook put the Chiefs in the gold-medal round for the first time in school history. Check out this story on newsleader.com: http://www.newsleader.com/story/sports/high-school/2015/03/25/goalball-vsdb-boys-nd-season-ending-tourney/70461956/
Staunton Published 10:38 p.m. ET March 25, 2015
File(Photo: File)
BALTIMORE – The Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind's boys' goalball team finished second Saturday at the two-day Eastern Athletic Association for the Blind tournament played at the Maryland School for the Blind.
The seven-team, season-ending tournament also featured Perkins (Boston), Overbrook (Philadelphia), New York, Maryland, West Virginia and Florida.
VSDB's boys were undefeated going into the tournament. The Chiefs opened play Friday with an 11-1 romp over West Virginia. Sean Walker had four goals and seven blocks. Zion Walker tallied one goal, while Hunter Johnson had one goal and four blocks, including a penalty shot. Tyrone Brotherton scored five goals and added 12 blocks.
The Chiefs matched their rout in their second game by the identical 11-1 score over Perkins School for the Blind in Boston. Zion Walker scored three goals and made two blocks. Johnson had one goal and one block, while Brotherton again scored five goals and registered 13 blocks. Josh Angelo scored two goals and had four blocks.
VSDB continued its winning ways Saturday by beating New York 7-3. Sean Walker had two goals and 17 blocks, while Johnson also scored two goals and made eight blocks. Brotherton tallied three goals along with 15 blocks.
Then in a cross-pool game against Overbrook, the Chiefs posted a 9-6 victory. Sean Walker had four goals and 22 blocks, while Zion Walker added one goal and one block. Brotherton scored two goals and had 15 blocks. Johnson scored twice and made 11 blocks.
The win against Overbrook advanced the Chiefs to the gold-medal round to play for first place for the first time in school history.
Unfortunately, VSDB's unbeaten streak came to an end as Florida won the championship with a 10-7 decision. Sean Walker tallied four goals and 33 blocks, and Zion Walker made one block. Brotherton scored twice and had 17 blocks. Angelo added three blocks.
In the girls' tournament, VSDB opened play Friday against defending champion Florida and lost 10-0. Shyanne Racey had 11 blocks, while Ravern Turner and Mausam Mehta each collected three. Princess Wells made one block.
Then on Saturday, the Chiefs fell 9-5 to Perkins. Racey had two goals and 17 blocks, while Turner contributed two goals and two blocks. Mehta tallied once and made four blocks.
In cross-pool play, the girls faced Maryland, a team they had beaten, lost to and tied this season, and suffered a 10-4 setback to end their tournament play in sixth place.
Racey had two goals and 21 blocks. Turner had one goal and one block, while Mehta scored once and registered 11 blocks. Wells made one block.
The Chief girls earned the sportsmanship trophy for the fourth consecutive year.


TV: 8:30 p.m. Thursday, CBS/NFLN (airing in South Florida).
NFL's Week 7 kickoff offers league's most venerable matchup with these teams' 191st meeting, the most between any two franchises. Now here's a sentence I never imagined writing: "Brian Hoyer has been better than Aaron Rodgers this season." It's true. And, compounding that, Packers' injury-racked, cobbled-together secondary makes a fifth consecutive 300-yard game by Hoyer a strong possibility. Also, Rodgers' top running backs (Eddie Lacy, James Starks) are both out; hence this week's trade with KC for Knile Davis. All of this makes it seem I might like Chitown in an NFC North upset, right? Nope. Bears have a ton of trouble scoring despite Hoyer's big stats, and I cannot see Cheesers losing a second in a row at Lambeau. Also, this is perfect timing for Rodgers to find his missing mojo. He has 14 TDs, one pick and a 127 rating his past four starts vs. the Windy boys.


text:
Davenport to decide on $8.5 million in school cuts
Posted 2:24 pm, February 12, 2015, by John David, Updated at 04:45PM, February 12, 2015
This is a case of economics, education and urgency.
"It means that right now we have to act," said Dr. Art Tate, Davenport superintendent.
As salaries go up and state funding goes down, something's got to give.
In Davenport, that figure could tally $8.5 million over two years.
Dr. Tate describes the situation as devastating.
"You cut out people," he said. "You cut out programs. You stop doing the things next year that you're doing this year."
The Davenport School Board will hold a special meeting on Friday to consider lowering the requirements for early retirement.
"The times have changed," said Davenport School Board Vice President Rich Clewell.
Among other things, the district must consider closing a yet-unnamed school, dropping dozens of jobs through attrition and changing from a block to traditional schedule to save money.
"We're going to have to look at things that we never intended to have to look at," Clewell said.
Dr. Tate's goal is to spread the cuts evenly as possible while trying to minimize the impact on classrooms.
The district wants to boost its dwindling reserves to $5 million at the end of the two years.
Education enhances economic development. Still, a private-public partnership like the Creative Arts Academy might be on the bubble.
Dozens of the district's unique features must also be on the chopping block.
"We've just got to look and see if we can afford that unless we get more help from the state," Dr. Tate said.
The school board will likely take up the full cut proposal by mid-March.
"We are going to get into the classroom," Clewell warned. "There's no doubt about it."
The clock is ticking.
Davenport must deliver a budget by April 15, even if state funding is not secure.
Dr. Tate doesn't like what he hears coming from Des Moines.
"Offering 1.25% to districts when everyone knows that personnel costs go up 3-4% a year is absolutely irresposible, illogical and disrespectful."
For Davenport, tough choices looming over economics and education.
Filed in: Education, News
Topics: cuts, Dr. Art Tate, Rich Clewell, school
Start date delayed again for newly hired Davenport superintendent
WIU president will step down on June 30th
Family speaks out on Davenport's treatment of child with special needs
Longtime Putnam Museum director celebrates retirement
Colorado school officials consider tearing down, rebuilding Columbine High School
Nearly half of Illinois students leave the state for college, QC to curb outgoing traffic
City of Davenport looking to update flood plan after historic flooding
Summer camps are requiring children get vaccinated amid measles fears
New York high school student granted nearly $60 million for injuries after failed chemistry experiment
On-Air Your Health
YOUR HEALTH: Very real ways to deal with "phantom" pains
Mother says school bus aide forced "screaming bucket" over the head of her 7-year-old autistic son


JS Hayes has its origins as a cleaning contractor in the 1970's. The knowledge and expertise gained from working in the cleaning industry enabled the company to later diversify its interests and become a leading supplier of cleaning, janitorial and healthcare products across Australia.
Our business is to provide you with a national distribution service via our interstate branch warehouses for a highly competitive range of washroom, cleaning, janitorial and healthcare products. This includes a 'next day' delivery service in metropolitan areas in most cases. For almost all of your cleaning and hygiene consumables needs we provide a one-stop-shop range of products to match your preferred requirements.
We concentrate entirely on product sourcing, warehousing & distribution and are recognized as a major national supplier of washroom paper, cleaning & janitorial consumables and healthcare products.
We service a vast network of commercial and industrial clients. These include contract cleaners, property managers, office & business suppliers, resellers and services companies. We specifically focus on the Health & Aged Care sector for our range of healthcare products.
The experienced and professional team at JS Hayes constantly monitors new product and industry developments for opportunities to reduce costs and improve benefits to clients.
We are a client focused business, and are proudly Australian owned.


SocrateOpen is developed by using the Eclipse IDE (Integrated Development Environment). The SocrateOpen sources in SVN BitSoftware are defined into Eclipse projects.
The sections below describe the required steps to follow in order to download the sources, upload them into Eclipse, and launch the SocrateOpen Client from Eclipse.
button or type in the path.
2. If the Welcome page is displayed, close it.
3. If the Subclipse plug-in wasn't previously installed, go to Help > Software Updates > Available Software and select Add site.... Enter the URL for the Subclipse plug-in (http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.4.x).
4. Select the Subclipse and Subclipse SVNKit Option plug-ins in the http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.4.x section.
5. Once the plug-ins are installed and Eclipse restarts, deselect (uncheck) the Build Automatically option in the Project menu.
6. Go to File > Import and choose Checkout Projects from SVN.
7. Select Create a new repository location.
8. For the URL write: https://svn.bitsoftware.ro:8443/dev/SocrateOpen/trunk.
9. Accept the SVN Server certificate (we recommend you to choose the Accept Permanently option).
10. Select the projects under https://svn.bitsoftware.ro:8443/dev/SocrateOpen/trunk.
12. When the download completes, the Eclipse window should look similar to the image below.
1. To load the libraries generated with the first build, select the lib project and click F5 or right-click and then select Refresh.
2. From the Build menu choose Build All or use the key combination Ctr+B.
3. At the end of the first build, several errors will be displayed.
4. Repeat the build several times until there is no error left, or a single error is displayed, as in the image below.
Choose Clean projects selected below and make sure that the Install project is selected.
5. Once the build completes, there should be no error messages (except warnings, which are ignored).
1. Go to Navigate > Open Type.
2. Search for and open the AMenu class.
4. Select Java Application > New.
5. Optionally, change the name as SocrateOpenClient.
6. In the Classpath tab, select User Entries and then click the Add Projects... button.
7. Select the following projects: ad, base, common, extend, install, print and xuom.
8. Next, in the same Classpath tab, click the Add JARs... button and select jbossall-client.jar from the jboss > client project.
9. Click the Run button in the Run Configurations window. Now, the SocrateOpen Client runs via Eclipse.
10. The error messages below (displayed in the Eclipse console) will be ignored.
11. Once the Client starts, you can select the Build Automatically option from the Project menu. Thus, any code change will automatically trigger a build.


Students have to identify where the monster is through prepositions of place: on, in, in front of, behind and under.
The above printable, downloadable handout is a great resource for high school students, elementary school students and kindergartners and nursery school students at Beginner (pre-A1) and Elementary (A1) level. It is a useful material for teaching Prepositions of place in English.


Q1. How would you summarise the impact of digital on financial services?
Q2. What distinctions of the Vanguard Method positively impact delivering benefit (from Digital)?
Vanguard taught me a very powerful way to go from 'doing things better' to 'doing better things', which means truly designing purpose and management thinking around the customer and for the customer. What really matters to customers is the North Star for the journey and the entire business. There are so many people – including me – talking about the outside-in approach, but I only saw what it truly means when we went through the whole process together with Vanguard.
Q3. Why did you agree to speak on May 16th?
First of all, I enjoyed working with Vanguard's team. I learnt a lot, and we achieved a lot. I spent 20 years in digital banking and digital transformation in different industries and in different countries. My team and I have been cooking in the 'digital kitchen' for a long time, we burnt our fingers many times and we learned how to prepare great recipes. I like to share my experiences, my learnings with the people on the same journey. I have seen magic, I learnt digital transformation is possible if it is approached with the right people and the right method – and with a strong heart and mind.
Meet Alessandro Colafranceschi and find out more about Standard Bank's digital transformation at 'Better Digital from Better Method,' on 16th May in London.


Impressive. I've been considering doing something similar. Do you know if silicone caulk (the stuff used to seal fittings in bathrooms) would work as a valve material. Would be handy as it's slightly easier to get hold of. Did you use any release agent when casting the silicone piece? or does it just stretch and pull out?
thanks so much! I doubt silicone caulk would work though, because A. the gasket of the valve needs to be very flexible and B. I've tried molding silicone caulk in 3D printed molds and it is impossible to demold without tearing the rubber. For my mold, I didn't need any release agent. Once cured, the gasket just slips right out.
Hmm, I was afraid of that. Thanks for the reply, I guess I'll be getting some silicone then!
3D Printed Check Valve by XYZAidan is licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution license.


text:
A group of nine geographers gathered in a dingy, high-ceilinged room in the Elgin Building in downtown Ottawa on August 29, 1950 to discuss the creation of the Canadian Association of Geographers. Serendipity had played her usual role in making this meeting possible. During the war Hugh L. Keenleyside, who held a doctorate in International Relations from Clark University, had served as a first secretary in the Department of External Affairs, and then as secretary to the Permanent Joint Board on Defence. He was also been a member of the Northwest Territories Council in the 1940's and, convinced of the value of geography to the conduct of politics and international affairs, saw to it that a geographer was contracted to undertake much-needed northern research. It was in this way that J. Lewis Robinson became the original professional geographer in the service of the Canadian federal government. But Keenleyside had a more profound impact on the discipline. Early in 1947 he was appointed Deputy Minister of the Department of Mines and Resources, and decided that a Geographical Bureau was needed within it. He enlisted the support of the indefatigable C.D. Howe (wartime Minister of Munitions and Supply, then Minister of Reconstruction, and finally Minister of Trade and Commerce), and in short order the necessary Order in Council was drafted and approved by Cabinet, and funds appropriated. Later that year the Bureau began work under the direction of Dr. Trevor Lloyd. In 1950 the Bureau was elevated to Branch status and Dr. J. Wreford Watson was appointed Director. The purpose of the Branch was to "collect, organize and make readily available, geographic data on Canada and foreign areas of importance to Canada". It had a staff of 10 geographers by 1950, and it was from this group that several of the founders of the CAG were drawn.
The members of the 'organizing committee' were Wreford Watson (Chair), Roman Gajda, Bernard Gutsell, Paul Laurendeau, Norman Nicholson, Lloyd Reeds, Lew Robinson, George Tatham and Bogdan Zaborski. Five of them (Watson, Gajda, Gutsell, Laurendeau and Nicholson) were full-time employees of the Branch. The remaining four were University faculty members at McMaster (Reeds), University of Toronto (Tatham), University of British Columbia (Robinson) and University of Ottawa (Zaborski). They established an executive committee consisting of Wreford Watson as President, Norman Nicholson as Vice-President, and Pierre Camu as Secretary-Treasurer. Tatham, Robinson and Zaborski were named counsellors. Robinson was given the specific responsibility of drafting a provisional constitution.
Over the following months, geographers across the country were contacted, and invited to attend an inaugural meeting of the proposed Association the following spring. This first meeting of the CAG was convened in Room 106 of the Physical Sciences Centre of McGill University on Wednesday, May 30, 1951. The precise number of people in attendance is unknown. Fifty-six names appear on the attendance role, the minutes report that 62 people were there, and Volume I of The Canadian Geographer lists 65 names. What is known is that the general business meeting held on that day was devoted entirely to the formal creation of the Association and the election of its officers. The objectives were:
...to promote the use and development of geography in Canada by facilitating an exchange of ideas between geographers, by arranging meetings where geographers can discuss the several aspects of geography and its related fields and by publishing information and professional papers of interest to geographers in Canada. The Association will also assist in stimulating, guiding, influencing and encouraging geographical research, exploration and the teaching of geography in Canada and strive for the improvement of its status in Canadian education. It will provide direction for geography graduates to new fields of geographical employment.
The Executive Committee for the first year (1951-52) consisted of:
Honorary President: Griffith Taylor
President: Donald F. Putnam
1st Vice-President: Pierre Dagenais
2nd Vice-President: J. Lewis Robinson
Secretary-Treasurer: Pierre Camu
Councillors: Pierre Biays, Lloyd Reeds, F. Kenneth Hare, Thomas Weir, Edward G. Pleva
The second day of the meeting was devoted to the presentation of eight delightfully eclectic papers which were subsequently reprinted in Volume 1 of The Canadian Geographer. They were:
The Canadian Association of Geographers: A sketch of the preliminaries" by J.W. Watson
"Geography in Education" by J.W. Hamilton
"The Status of Military Geography in Canada" by P.E. Uren
"L'enseignement et la Recherche Géographique en France" par P. Biays et Y. Baticle
"A Survey of Single Country Atlases" by N.L. Nicholson
"Étude Comparative des Températures des Cantons de l'Est, de Québec et Montréal" par J. Hubert
"Les fonctions de Chicoutimi et son Évolution" par F. Ouellet
"Procedure in Studying Shore Erosion" by H.A. Wood.
Geography was still in its infancy in Canada in 1951, at least outside Quebec. Courses had been taught at the University of Montréal since the 1920's, and the first two native-born Canadian to receive geography degrees abroad (Benoit Brouillette and Pierre Dagenais) returned home to lecture in Montréal prior to 1940. By 1951 three departments of geography were thriving in Quebec, at Laval, the University of Montréal and McGill, and all have played important and distinguished roles in both the history of the Association, and the development of geography in Canada. McGill hosted the first meeting, of course, but it has had a much more enduring connection. Until 1963 the secretariat of the CAG was housed within the Branch. But in that year it moved to McGill, where it resides still. The good will of the Department in permitting this invasion of its space, and its success in protecting the Association's office from usurpation (something that all of us with administrative experience will realize must have been threatened more than once!) have always been greatly appreciated. The longevity of our relationship with McGill and the strength of the association is such that for many geographers, certainly those who have been members of the Association for any length of time, 'Burnside Hall' and the CAG are synonymous.
The Department at the University of Montreal has many claims to fame, but one of them that is particularly relevant to us today is the fact that by the time the CAG held its first meeting, it had awarded four Ph.D's in geography, to George Kimble, Ross MacKay, F. Kenneth Hare and Pierre Camu, all of whom went on to have illustrious and highly influential careers.
And then there is Laval, which hosted the first real 'national' meeting in 1952 as well as the 25th anniversary meeting in 1976. It is one of only six universities to play host to the CAG on three occasions (UBC, McGill, Western, Montreal, Ottawa and Memorial being the others), and it has provided the CAG with six of its Presidents, more than any other Canadian university except UBC.
In 1951 students intending to study geography had a choice among only ten university departments. Outside Quebec, departments existed at the University of Toronto (which had awarded four Ph.D's by 1951, two of them going to Don Kerr and William Wonders, both future Presidents of the CAG), McMaster University and the University of Western Ontario, and courses were being taught at the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and the University of British Columbia. Of course, not all Canadian geographers were to be found in those institutions. The Directory of Canadian Geographers compiled by the Geographical Branch in 1951 listed 217 names.
It is fitting to recall the important contributions made by veterans to the rapid post-war growth of geography in Canada. A few had received their training before enlistment; some interrupted their studies to enlist; but most obtained their degrees after discharge. We were fortunate that some foreign-born and -trained geographers immigrated to Canada after 1945.
In 1976, the same year that approximately 1,000 members of the Societé de géographie de Québec were celebrating their centennial, the 800 or so members of the CAG gathered at Université Laval to celebrate the first quarter-century of their Association. The occasion was marked by the publication of a 25 year retrospective (Hamelin and Beauregard, 1976) and the papers of this little volume make for very interesting reading in this year of the 50th anniversary. In his contribution to the volume, Hamelin said:
"Il est vrai qu'une partie seulement des activités des géographes professionnels se rattache directement ou indirectement au groupement national. Notre Association reste néanmoins l'un des principaux mirroirs de la vie des géographes. L'examen de ses 25 ans d'existence comporte aussi sa propre utilité et conduit naturellement au deuxième objectif de cette réunion, à savoir le dégagement de certaines lignes de conduite pour l'avenir. Le prochain quart de siècle pourra dès lors profiter des réflexions qui nous seront communiquées tout à l'heure."
"It is true that among the activities carried out by professional geographers, only a portion is directly or indirectly related to the national group. In spite of that, our Association plays an important part in reflecting the life of geographers. Reviewing its first 25 years is, in and of itself, a useful exercise and leads us naturally to this meeting's second objective, which is to develop some guidelines for the future. The next quarter century will indeed benefit from the considerations that will be presented to us shortly".
That the CAG represents the primary loyalty of only a proportion, and perhaps a small one at that, of the trained geographers in this country is as much a matter of concern now as it was in 1976. This is not the place to revisit the arguments that have been made over the years about what the mandate of the Association should be, nor of the extent to which it might reasonably be assumed that geographers would want to be members of it. But there is only small consolation to be gained by the knowledge that these arguments are not new ones. And knowing this does not make it any easier to accept the fact that the 50th anniversary will not be marked by the publication of a companion volume to the one produced by Hamelin and Beauregard. The absence of such a commemoration can be interpreted in several different ways, but the most honest would be simply to recognize that for too many people the Association is of less relevance today than it was a quarter century ago. We have, perhaps, not responded very well to the competition provided by the 'intervening opportunities' which have arisen in the form of more specialized interest groups.
With that thought in mind it is worth reconsidering the painfully honest appraisal of the CAG's first 25 years J. Keith Fraser has earned the right to criticize the Association by his years of dedicated service to both the Association (serving as President in 1981), and the profession. He wrote that there were several areas where the Association has been ineffective or uncertain. It did not follow through on a proposal to produce a good wall map of Canada for teaching purposes; a program of geographic excursions designed to make Canada better known to foreign colleagues was never undertaken; it was unsuccessful in its attempts to get the Government to reconsider its decision to close the Geographical Branch in 1967; it did not take on the responsibility of producing and updating a comprehensive bibliography of Canadian geography; and it has never been able to elaborate a policy setting down a position on emergent issues of Canadian economic and social development.
Some of the 'failures' enunciated by Fraser were specifically characteristic of the time, and are no longer relevant. But others have been addressed, in one way or another, although not always by the CAG. In 1999 the Royal Canadian Geographical Society produced a magnificent new wall map of Canada, and provided a copy to every school in the country. The CAG listserver has provided a useful venue for dissemination of information and, more importantly, some animated debate about current issues. It does not provide the forum for public education that Dr. Fraser might have preferred to see, but it does provide an welcome opportunity for sharing of ideas and alerting members to issues of potential interest and relevance.
The great publishing success of the first 25 years was the John Warkentin-edited book entitled Canada: A Geographical Interpretation which represented the Association's contribution to the celebration of Canada's Centennial. A french-language version of this Canadian classic was edited and translated by Ludger Beauregard, and published in 1970. This success has been at least equalled during the second quarter-century by the magnificent four-volume Canadian Association of Geographers Series in Canadian Geography under the general editorship of Cole Harris. Discussions about the possibility of creating such a series began in the mid-eighties, but it was not until 1993 that the first one appeared. The series consists of the following volumes:
Canada's Cold Environments (1993) Edited by Hugh M. French and Olav Slaymaker.
The Changing Social Geography of Canadian Cities (1993) Edited by Larry S. Bourneand David Ley.
Canada and the Global Economy: The geography of structural and technological change (1996) Edited by John N.H. Britton.
The Surface Climates of Canada (1997) Edited by W.G. Bailey, Timothy R. Oke and Wayne R. Rouse.
They will serve for a long time as outstanding indicators of the breadth and excellence of current geographical research. It is no surprise at all that several of these authors have been the recipient of the CAG awards for scholarly excellence which have been available annually, but not always awarded, since 1972.
So, the CAG has survived to see its 50th birthday, and it continues to prosper, as has the geographical community in Canada as a whole. The CAG Directory for 2000 lists 47 Departments of Geography in the country, and indicates that approximately 11,000 undergraduate students are pursuing either Honours (approximately 3,000) or general degrees. There are, in addition, just over 900 Master's students, and about 500 Doctoral candidates.
Membership continues to be a problem, however. The number of members topped 1,000 in 1970, and the by the time of the 25th anniversary in 1976 there were more than 1,300. By 1991 membership had risen to what may be an all-time high of 1,448, but it has dropped precipitously since then. In 1991 there were only 771 members, fewer than there had been in 1967, although there was a slight rebound to 841 the next year. What is perhaps most distressing about the membership profile is that at present the Association has only 192 student members. Given the number of students enrolled in geography programs, this is a serious problem. The future health and vitality of the Association will depend on the commitment of our students. But students will emulate their professors, and if the latter are not members, there is no role model to follow. But people will only join, and remain members if they perceive that value will be added to their professional and personal lives by doing so. Those of us who have been members for a long time know this to be true. Our challenge is to demonstrate this truth to others.
At the end of his summary of the first 25 years of the CAG's existence Lew Robinson said:
And so the CAG was born. It certainly was not "national" in those early years; it was really an association of geographers in a few universities of Quebec and Ontario, plus a government group in Ottawa. But its formation was a major step in the evolution of geography in Canada. Its future growth paralleled the areal expansion of geography and geographers across Canada during the 1950's. I think we had a strong beginning in the five years between 1946 and 1951, and we created a strong, and more importantly perhaps, a friendly Association. In the 25 years that followed, Canadian geography and the CAG have grown into thriving and energetic young adulthood.
The intellectual growth of Canadian geography has continued now for a half-century, although the goals have shifted as the discipline has matured, as they have in all academic disciplines. The nature of the shift is outlined in an admirable summary of our First Fifty by the Anniversary Year President, Audrey Kobayashi. With respect to the changing foci of the discipline she says (2001: 5):
...the quest for a body of knowledge truly our own has continued to preoccupy Canadian geographers. The quest has been marked equally by a sincere, and often thoughtful, attempt to link the concerns of geographers with those of national public policy, and by the equally sincere concern to establish geographical knowledge of Canada distinct from that of both the United States, with its threat of cultural imperialism and, to a much lesser extent, Britain, with its continuing though diminishing colonial patronage. 'Our own' geography has often been expressed in terms of Canada's overwhelming size, and attendant challenges for transportation, communication, resource extraction, cultural diversity and population distribution.
In describing the current state of Canadian geography she says:
...over the past fifty years Canada has undergone profound changes in virtually every aspect of its geography (and) the discipline has gone through a series of transformations that have influenced strongly how we geographers imagine our nation. ... (The writers in this colume) no longer aspire to complete the regional survey of Canada and I suspect that most of them have little sense of a disciplinary territory that is truly our own. (There has been ) an epistemological shift in recent years from the hope that we could discover what is to be known about the geography of Canada, to the recognition that such knowledge is a social construction.
The special issue of The Canadian Geographer to which these remarks serve as part of the introduction contains essays by 34 outstanding Canadian geographers addressing some of the major issues that comprise, or confront, the geography of Canada at the turn of the millennium. And it, like the Warkentin, and Hamelin and Beauregard volumes will serve as a long-lasting touchstone for those who come along behind those of us who grew to maturity in the Association's First Fifty.
The author has made liberal use of the essays collected in Hamelin, L-E., and L. Beauregard (1979) Rétrospective 1951-1976. The Canadian Association of Geographers Directory 2000 compiled and edited by Harun Rasid was also a useful source. And Volume 45, Number 1 (Apring 2001) of The Canadian Geographer should not be missed, especially the introduction by guest-editor and Association President Audrey Kobayashi, "Truly our own: Canadian geography 50 years after/Un symbole national: le Géographe canadien après 50 ans".
The individual papers in this now-scarce volume are:
"Objectifs de la réunion" par Louis-Edmond Hamelin
"The development of the Canadian Association of Geographers 1951-1976" by J. Keith Fraser
"Geography in Canada 25 years ago" by J. Lewis Robinson
"On neoclassicism in economic geography theory" by Leslie J. King
"Épistémologie de la géographie au Canada français" par Ludger Beauregard
"Le géographe dans la société" par Pierre Camu
"Geographers and Canadian society" by William Wonders
"The CAG as seen by its members" by Herbert A. Whitney and Luc Bureau
"Comments on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the CAG" by Trevor Lloyd
"Tableau de la géographie québécoise" par Louis Trotier
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text:
Blood Rites (Dresden Files #6) (Paperback)
This is book number 6 in the Dresden Files series.
#17: Battle Ground (Dresden Files #17) (Paperback): $9.99
In this novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files, Chicago's only professional wizard takes on a case for a vampire and becomes the prime suspect in a series of ghastly murders.
Harry Dresden has had worse assignments than going undercover on the set of an adult film. Like fleeing a burning building full of enraged demon-monkeys, for instance. Or going toe-to-leaf with a walking plant monster. Still, there's something more troubling than usual about his newest case. The film's producer believes he's the target of a sinister curse—but it's the women around him who are dying, in increasingly spectacular ways.
Harry's doubly frustrated because he only got involved with this bizarre mystery as a favor to Thomas—his flirtatious, self-absorbed vampire acquaintance of dubious integrity. Thomas has a personal stake in the case Harry can't quite figure out, until his investigation leads him straight to the vampire's oversexed, bite-happy family. Now, Harry's about to discover that Thomas' family tree has been hiding a shocking secret: a revelation that will change Harry's life forever.
A martial arts enthusiast whose résumé includes a long list of skills rendered obsolete at least two hundred years ago, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher turned to writing as a career because anything else probably would have driven him insane. He lives mostly inside his own head so that he can write down the conversation of his imaginary friends, but his head can generally be found in Independence, Missouri. Jim is the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera novels, and the Cinder Spires series, which began with The Aeronaut's Windlass.
Praise for the Dresden Files
"Fans of Laurell K. Hamilton and Tanya Huff will love this series."—Midwest Book Review
"Superlative."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Butcher...spins an excellent noirish detective yarn in a well-crafted, supernaturally-charged setting. The supporting cast is again fantastic, and Harry's wit continues to fly in the face of a peril-fraught plot."—Booklist (starred review)
"What's not to like about this series?...It takes the best elements of urban fantasy, mixes it with some good old-fashioned noir mystery, tosses in a dash of romance and a lot of high-octane action, shakes, stirs, and serves."—SF Site
"A tricky plot complete with against-the-clock pacing, firefights, explosions, and plenty of magic. Longtime series fans as well as newcomers drawn by the SciFi Channel's TV series based on the novels should find this supernatural mystery a real winner."—Library Journal
"What would you get if you crossed Spenser with Merlin? Probably you would come up with someone very like Harry Dresden, wizard, tough guy and star of [the Dresden Files]."—The Washington Times
Publisher: Roc
Publication Date: August 3rd, 2004
Fiction / Fantasy / Paranormal


text:
Nation:

Gustaf Malmström, född den 4 juli 1884 i Malmö, död där den 24 december 1970, var en svensk brottare. Han blev olympisk silvermedaljör i grekisk-romersk stil -67,5 kg i Stockholm 1912.

Källor

Svenska brottare
Svenska olympiska silvermedaljörer
Olympiska silvermedaljörer 1912
Tävlande vid olympiska sommarspelen 1908 från Sverige
Tävlande vid olympiska sommarspelen 1912 från Sverige
Tävlande i brottning vid olympiska sommarspelen 1908
Tävlande i brottning vid olympiska sommarspelen 1912

Födda 1884
Avlidna 1970
Män
Idrottare från Malmö

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I see we are from different countries. I'm from the US. I've seen mention of Canada, the UK, and now Finland. Please share with us where you are from?
From Scotland. Was born in England though.
Rain, more rain… did I mention the Rain?
I am this person who has been in 35 different nations and 35 different US states and I am in Finland.
I am from Mexico. I live in north of the city.
Wow, this is incredible, very exciting actually.
I cannot find another Sz in my town to talk to, or at least anyone who admits it. It would be nice to sit and chat and get another perspective.
I truly dislike the view that we're all crazy idiots sitting around either masturbating, addicted to drugs, or babbling nonsense refusing to take our meds wrecking our families' lives.
Wave I didn't realize you were from New Jersey…that's where I am in Cape May. Where are you? I'm originally from Philly though.
southwest lower peninsula of Michigan.
The bay area of Michigan.
I'm from Richmond, VA, USA.


text:
Gârde este un sat în comuna Bistra din județul Alba, Transilvania, România.

Localitatea actuală nu apare pe Harta Iosefină a Transilvaniei din 1769-1773 (Sectio 122).

Note

Gârde, Bistra


Mum of Five Staying Sane: The staying sane house has been taken over by Activision's Skylanders trap team & an FGeeTV & SkylanderBoy AndGirl Youtube obsession!.
The staying sane house has been taken over by Activision's Skylanders trap team & an FGeeTV & SkylanderBoy AndGirl Youtube obsession!.
A few months ago we decided to buy our first ever Skylanders starter kit. Having never seen or played the game before we were unsure of what we were letting ourselves in for, maybe we should have researched first!
It was a big hit with Thing 4, aged 6 years old, as soon as he started playing Skylanders trap team and it has been ever since. Even Thing 5 at age 3 years loves playing the game (game sold as not suitable for under 7s and for use under adult supervision) and loves playing in single player and multiplayer mode with his brother. Multiplayer mode consists of both Skylanders being on the same screen rather than going into split screen mode like some games do. The Skylanders can only be a certain distance apart though and the Things do sometimes get a little frustrated if they both want to go somewhere different but it's great that they have to work together and sometimes come to a compromise when playing and working together.
Things 4 and 5 playing Skylanders together aka SkylanderBoyz!
Skylanders trap team is just one in a long line of Skylanders games and the starter kit includes the traptanium portal, two Skylanders figures and 2 traps. Once in game play the different Skylanders can be placed on the traptanium portal to be used as a character by the player. You can swap between different Skylanders throughout game play for different strengths, powers and elements.
As you progress through the game you can defeat various villians which are then trapped within the corresponding elemental trap that is placed in the traptanium portal and then you can also play as those characters once you have trapped them. You can only trap one villain per elemental trap so you can either purchase lots of them so you can trap all of your villains so they are at hand ready to use in game play or there is the villain vault within the game which allows you to store your villains and swap between them.
Skylanders has been a big hit in our house. We started out not knowing anything about the game and it was very easy to set up, use and understand even for the younger players. Game play can be expanded by purchasing all of the different Skylander figures and trap master figures can be used to unlock corresponding elemental gates throughout the game.
We have collected a vast array of figures since our first purchase. Figures from the older Skylanders can be used in this game too but figures from the newest Skylanders Superchargers game can not be used. There are so many Skylanders figures to collect and use all with different elemental powers and strengths. As you go through the game you are told that some Skylanders are stronger in some zones than others, it's easy to swap between Skylanders during gameplay.
Thing 4 concentrating on the game!
Following on from our purchase the children love watching Youtube videos of people playing Skylanders. It is fun for them and can also help if they get stuck on a particular part and need to know how to do something. Their favourite is FGeeTV aka SkylanderDad and SkylanderBoy AndGirl! We have spent many hours watching them play Skylanders as well as many other videos that they put on Youtube. I am now called Skylander Mum every time the children talk to me! Both YouTube channels are great for gameplay videos, walkthroughs, looking at new Skylanders etc.... I think the children also like to watch SkylanderBoy AndGirl as it's easy to follow gameplay, they can relate to the children, it's not all serious and boring just telling you how to do something so it's fun and holds their attention so they can see what they need to do, what Skylanders they need etc... As well as lots of fun videos to watch too.
Skylanders trap team starter kit starts at around £24.99 and is available across many of the games consoles including Playstation 3 and 4, Xbox 360, Wii and more. It has a PEGI rating of 7, we have allowed Thing 4 (aged 6) and Thing 5 (aged 3) to play under our supervision and for limited time periods. We found it very easy to master for the younger ones and a fab game.


Gebotex was founded in 1978 and is currently the oldest sorting operation within the Boer Groep Holland.
We are situated at the Kilkade in Dordrecht and our core activities consist of buying, sorting, packing and exporting used textiles worldwide.
The complete sorting process provides 350 to 400 items or products which are available in 3-5 different qualities.
The sorted products can be set out in the following main categories.