text:
Cotylorhynchus é um gênero de sinapsídeo do Permiano da América do Norte. É considerada como representante da primeira onda de diversidade amniota. Foi o maior gênero entre os Caseidae e o maior tetrápode do seu tempo. Media cerca de 6 metros de comprimento e pesava aproximadamente 2 toneladas.

Anatomia
O gênero tinha uma cabeça desproporcionalmente pequena e um corpo em formato de barril de tamanho avantajado. Suas características osteológicas incluem um escapulocoracóide maciço, úmeros com terminações alargadas em forma de sino, ossos dos membros dianteiros robustos e dígitos largos e com garras. Certas características de suas mãos indicam habilidade para escavar, tais como a presença de grandes protuberâncias retratoras nas superfícies ventrais das falanges distais, que lhes permitiam fletir fortemente as garras. Por outro lado, as superfícies articulares das falanges eram oblíquas ao eixo do osso, o que fornecia uma maior área para a inserção dos músculos fletores.

Seu crânio é distinto pela presença de largas aberturas temporais e nasais, que podiam ter a utilidade de aumentar a capacidade respiratória, ou podiam abrigar algum tipo de órgão sensório ou de manutenção da umidade. Além disso, eles possuíam grandes aberturas pineais e um focinho, ou seja, uma maxila alongada que se projetava para lá da arcada dentária, formando um bico que podia igualmente ser usado para a escavação. Os dentes eram muito semelhantes aos das iguanas, com as margens posteriores providas de filas de cúspides. O Cotylorhynchus tinha dentes redondos parecidos com os das iguanas atuais, o que sugere de que seria herbívoro. Garras proeminentes e fortes músculos nas patas dianteiras, faziam dele um hábil escavador, conseguindo expor as raízes de que se alimentava.

Espécies

Três espécies são descritas para o gênero:
 Cotylorhynchus romeri Stovall, 1937 - encontrado na região central de Oklahoma, em partes do condado de Cleveland, pertence ao Permiano Inferior;
 Cotylorhynchus hancocki Olson e Beerbower, 1953 - encontrado no norte do Texas, nos condados de Hardman e Knox, pertence ao Permiano Médio;
 Cotylorhynchus bransoni Olson e Barghusen, 1962 - encontrado na região noroeste de Oklahoma, nos condados de Kingfisher e Blaine, pertence ao Permiano Médio.

Ligações externas

 Cotylorhynchus (fotos de crânios)
 paleolife.com Genus Cotylorhynchus

Caseidae
Espécies fósseis descritas em 1937


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text:
Autism: a mother's labour of love
Her daughter's diagnosis led psychiatrist Lorna Wing to dedicate her life to increasing our knowledge of autism
Lorna Wing ... 'When Susie was diagnosed there was no support for parents and children. We felt so suddenly different.' Photograph: David Levene
Giulia Rhodes
Lorna Wing can recall the exact moment she realised that her daughter, Susie, was different. They were on a train, sitting opposite another mother and baby, also around six months old. The other child pointed at things through the window, glancing back at his mother to check her attention. It was, explains Wing, something that Susie never did. "A cold chill settled over me and I became very worried," she says.
Despite years of medical training, Lorna and her husband John, both psychiatrists, knew nothing about autism when Susie was born in 1956. "It might have been mentioned once in a lecture, but as for facts or prevalence, no one knew anything." So Susie's diagnosis, at three, left them reeling.
Determined to change things for children like Susie, and their parents, Lorna switched her professional attention. More than 50 years later, she is one of the world's leading experts in the field, and in 1962 helped found the National Autistic Society. Her research has been instrumental in defining autism as a spectrum, ranging from those severely affected to the – previously ignored – very high functioning. In 1981 she coined the term Asperger's syndrome (after Hans Asperger, an Austrian doctor who first recorded autistic tendencies in children with high IQs), a sub-group of autism without learning disability, thought to include Albert Einstein.
Now 83 and semi-retired, Wing is delighted that the world of autism is unrecognisable from those dark days. "When Susie was diagnosed there was no support for parents and children," she recalls. "We felt so suddenly and unexpectedly different to everyone else. Now there is a lot out there, and there are lots of good books. The huge change that has happened is the general recognition that autism exists," she says.
In the 1950s the condition was thought to affect four or five children in 10,000. Today's greater awareness, and the work of Wing and her colleagues, places its prevalence at around one in 100: a ratio Wing considers accurate but it has led to claims of an autism epidemic. Wing says: "I can't see any evidence for an increase in numbers. There are more diagnoses because we now know about the brighter children as well. But who knows? It is conceivable that human beings are evolving to have more autistic traits because they are so useful."
Another change has been a focus on the positive elements of autism; a kind of autism pride. "I do believe you need autistic traits for real success in science and the arts, and I am fascinated by the behaviours and personalities of musicians and scientists," says Wing. She also believes that most of us have some autistic traits. "One of my favourite sayings is that nature never draws a line without smudging it. You cannot separate into those 'with' and 'without' traits as they are so scattered."
Yet while welcoming the growing acceptance that those with autism may have much to contribute to society, Wing worries that this may detract from the needs of those at the lower end of the spectrum. She says: "Youngsters with Asperger's syndrome are speaking up for themselves. Many see it as a difference not a disability, but that is a good and bad thing. For those with classic autism – like my Susie – it certainly is a disability."
This is one reason why Wing is supportive of proposed changes in diagnosis, to be implemented in 2013, which will assimilate Asperger's syndrome and several of the confusing autism sub-groups (childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, for example) into one definitive diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder.
Many with Asperger's syndrome are unhappy about the change, but Wing was a leading proponent of the move and feels it will improve understanding and support. "It is not possible to draw neat lines between sub-groups," she explains. "I feel it is safer using the autistic spectrum which is based on the one consistent thing – problems with the social instinct. We should keep the descriptions of different groups but be less rigid. We need to see each child as an individual; to help them we need to understand all their particular skills, difficulties, behaviours and emotions."
This is a lesson Wing learned through personal experience, she says. "Susie helped me in my work and it, in turn, helped me understand her better." Susie died in 2005, aged 49. The menopause had plunged her into a period of particularly difficult behaviour and she began to obsessively drink huge quantities of fluid. In the end she severely diluted her blood and died of a heart attack. "We were devastated. We were so close to her," says Wing. "She couldn't express her emotions but when you came home, her face would light up. That was absolutely wonderful."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


As the chip giant slashes its PC R&D spending, it could be in its interests to lean on AMD for its integrated graphics needs.
Intel Corp. (INTC - Get Report) has been cutting its PC-related R&D spending as it directs more resources towards server, automotive and IoT opportunities. The company has also been a little less wedded lately to a "not invented here" mindset that made it reluctant to adopt chip technologies developed elsewhere, and -- like many others involved with the PC industry -- has made the high-end notebook market a priority for its ongoing PC efforts.
A combination of these factors seems to be responsible for a GPU partnership with Intel CPU archrival AMD Inc. (AMD - Get Report) . And they could pave the way for a deeper GPU alliance between the companies in time. Provided AMD is willing to play ball.
On Nov. 6, Intel unveiled a notebook CPU for its high-end H-series line (aimed at gaming and workstation notebooks) that will ship in a chip package that also contains a custom-designed AMD GPU and high-speed HBM2 graphics memory chips. Intel claims the solution, which relies on a proprietary, space-saving, chip interconnect technology called EMIB, allows thin-and-light notebooks just 11mm to 16mm thick to deliver the kind of "performance-tier graphics experiences" one could otherwise only get from much bulkier systems featuring discrete GPUs.
The Intel CPU found within the package is part of the company's recently-launched 8th-gen Core CPU lineup; to date, 8th-gen chips have been delivering healthy performance gains over comparable 7th-gen chips. Judging by recent reports, there's a good chance the CPU is also based on Intel's new Coffee Lake CPU architecture. The first systems featuring the chip package are due in Q1 2018.
AMD shares rose 7.3% to $11.93 on the news, recovering a chunk of the losses seen in late October after the company issued underwhelming Q4 guidance.
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA - Get Report) might quibble with some of Intel's claims. Though it's true that most H-series notebooks with high-end discrete GPUs (typically from Nvidia) are relatively thick and heavy, that doesn't hold for H-series systems rolled out this year that rely on Nvidia's Max-Q design framework. Nvidia claims Max-Q allows notebooks just 18mm thick to house its GeForce GTX 1080 GPU, currently the most powerful Nvidia chip available for notebooks.
Intel, of course, is promising the solution it developed with AMD, will enable notebooks thinner than 18mm. But then again, it isn't clear yet whether the custom AMD GPU's performance will match the 1080's -- or for that matter, high-end notebook GPUs based on Nvidia's next-gen Volta architecture, which are expected next year. In the desktop GPU market, high-end chips based on AMD's new Vega architecture are competitive with Nvidia's 1080 and 1070 GPUs, but aren't as fast as two other Nvidia parts (the 1080 Ti and Titan Xp) are also fairly power-hungry.
Intel joins forces with AMD.
Apple Inc. (AAPL - Get Report) is one potential client for the Intel/AMD solution. The company's latest 15-inch MacBook Pros are about 15mm thick and pair H-series Intel CPUs with discrete GPUs based on AMD's mid-range Polaris architecture. Judging by how it's described, there's a good chance the GPU in the Intel/AMD solution delivers better graphics performance.
Both Intel and Nvidia are trying to better cater to a high-end notebook market that -- thanks to demand for gaming systems, ultrabooks and tablet/notebook convertibles -- has been seeing healthy growth even as total PC sales remain sluggish. Intel's notebook-related sales grew an impressive 20% annually in Q2 with the help of higher average prices and inventory restocking, before growing a modest 2% in Q3. And the company's first 8th-gen processors were for its U-series line, which targets ultrabooks and convertibles requiring long battery lives and good (but not bleeding-edge) performance.
Strong MacBook Pro demand led Apple's September quarter Mac revenue to rise 25% on the back of 10% unit growth. And healthy notebook-related demand was among the reasons Nvidia's "Gaming" segment revenue grew 52% in its July quarter.
Yet though the high-end notebook market is a relative priority for Intel, it's clear that the company is trying to spend less on its PC operations overall in order to devote resources elsewhere. At its February analyst day, Intel forecast its PC CPU R&D would drop 5% from 2015 to 2017. And in Q3, the company's adjusted operating expenses fell 6% annually, something it partly attributed to "efforts to rationalize our sales and marketing programs."
R&D spending on the integrated GPUs that are often found on Intel CPUs appear to be one of the casualties of the spending cuts. The aforementioned 8th-gen U-series chips deliver major CPU performance gains relative to 7th-gen chips, but their GPUs are largely unchanged. Likewise, the first 8th-gen desktop CPUs (based on Coffee Lake) feature the same integrated GPU as the 7th-gen chips they replace.
Meanwhile, AMD just launched the first processors for its Ryzen Mobile family, which pair CPUs based on AMD's new Zen CPU core architecture with Vega GPUs. Integrated GPU performance has long been an AMD selling point, and judging by what the company's promising, Ryzen Mobile should extend that lead.
All of this raises the question of whether Intel and AMD would be open to a deeper GPU alliance in time. One in which -- in exchange for a per-chip royalty paid to AMD -- integrated AMD GPUs would be baked into Intel processors. The deal Intel just inked with AMD, together with the near-total lack of integrated GPU improvements for 8th-gen processors, makes the idea sound less far-fetched than it may have a little while ago.
In addition, though nothing ultimately came of them, there were previously reports that Intel would license AMD's graphics intellectual property after a licensing deal with Nvidia expired in March 2017. One big question here is whether AMD would be comfortable with a licensing deal, effectively giving up a selling point for its processors in exchange for royalties on a much larger number of chips.
While announcing the AMD deal, Intel called it "a great example of how [Intel and AMD] can compete and work together, ultimately delivering innovation that is good for consumers." Given how Intel's R&D priorities have changed, it might be a sign of things to come.
Apple and Nvidia are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL or NVDA? Learn more now.


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My client are a medical device organisation and are seeking to take on a Quality Assurance Engineer (level II) on a permanent basis. They're located in the heart of Galway, where their centre of excellence is.
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You're a quality professional with 4+ years' experience in the healthcare (medical device / diagnostics) industry, in a comparable quality role. You have strong working knowledge of current regulatory standards in a medical device / ISO 13485 industry.
Great company to have on your CV. Permanent contract, competitive salary, healthcare cover, pension contribution. Working hours: 8am-5pm Monday-Thursday and 8am-1pm Friday.
Perform Internal and supplier quality audits, support internal and external regulatory audits.
If you think the position in Galway is the step in the right direction for you and have experience in a similar role, don't hesitate in applying for Quality Assurance Engineer. *EU passport/Stamp 4 Visa needed for consideration.


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Quoted price for 7-piece with male lead vocals but available in line-ups from 3 to 8 pieces. 2½ hours playing time with recorded music in breaks.
What's got 14 eyes, 3 horns and loves to party? The answer is a uniquely entertaining band called One Jump Ahead. Playing the irresistible blend of jazz, blues and fun called jump/jive music, they have over 150 songs in their repertoire to get people dancing and enjoying themselves!
With a seven-piece line-up, One Jump Ahead is led by singer, saxophonist and songwriter, Kit Packham, who is joined by some of London's top jazz professionals on piano, guitar, bass, drums, trumpet and another saxophone. The band plays material ranging from the classic jive music of the 1940s of which the great Louis Jordan was the most famous exponent, through to rock'n'roll, rhythm'n'blues and soul. On the way, the band takes in some classic swing and jazz numbers recorded by artists such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Nat King Cole and Billie Holiday.
Kit Packham's One Jump Ahead is now accepted as probably the best jump/jive/jazz band in the country and Kit's three CDs have been widely acclaimed and played on BBC Radio 2, Jazz FM and local radio stations. Press comments include: "Class exponents of the jump-jive oeuvre" (Time Out); "Vigorous jump-jive and R & B" (Daily Express); "London's most consistent and entertaining jump-jive specialists" (TNT); "…tight jazzy arrangements … the band impresses with some stylish playing" (Highly Strung).
Not surprisingly, One Jump Ahead is an extremely popular band for weddings, parties, corporate events and receptions of all kinds. As Kit puts it: "We have wowed audiences from Islington to Israel, Clerkenwell to County Cork and from Docklands to Deustchland!" The infectious rhythms, humour and style of the band is great for breaking down barriers and getting audiences of all ages on the dance floor, and during quieter moments the band also has the flexibility to provide cool, jazzy background music. The band normally plays for two to three hours and brings its own professional PA system, through which they can also play CDs during their breaks. Our quoted price is for the seven-piece line-up, but a smaller or larger band can be put together by special request.
One Jump Ahead is based in London. See Pricing for details of travel costs, etc.
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I am planning to take my 15 year old daughter fishing the 19th and 20th and was wondering what lake would be the best bet or i should say "bite" would be?? I havent been out on the ice in about 5 years and am rusty to say the least. I havent been following any of the forum threads so i dont know what lakes are driveable if any, i would have to walk out if i cant drive. All hints would be appreciated!!
where are you located? probably not what you want to hear, but from what I had been hearing, right now it is slow all over. But things can change and maybe by that time they will have picked up. you can drive on fish, grand is open, but there are some bad spots, I believe they are driving on pike also.
I live in Duluth. thanks for the info. Does anyone have any info on a decent lake that i could walk into that may increase my odds instead of watching a bobber floating all day????
If small pike with a chance at a larger one will do, hit Grand.
Bears Den has been keeping a road open along with other guys with shacks out there. You'll see a couple strings of shacks, you'll find most are along the break. Park and get off the road a ways and go to it. Crappies are hit and miss on both sides of the break. Gills can be found in shallower among the weeds along with pike.
thanks surface.... sounds like a plan to me!


Forty-seven years of competition at "The World's Fastest Half-Mile" has spawned tons great racing under many catchy event monikers, seen many iconic trophy styles and privileged certain drivers with special bragging rights that never expire. A feature win at the DIRTcar Nationals is what each participating driver eyes at the beginning of every racing season.
The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Models have a special relationship with Volusia — it was the site of the very first race back after 13 years of dormancy. Steve Francis earned the victory that February night in 2004, opening the doors to a bright future of Outlaw stars making their mark on dirt Late Model racing history. Over the span of 40 completed Outlaw races at the track, 18 different drivers have tasted victory.
This year, in the 48th running of this illustrious event, the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series will hit the track once again for four consecutive nights of racing, Feb. 13-16 – only the third time in Series history the schedule boasts four straight races at the facility.
Come February, each of the full-time drivers on the Outlaw circuit will be aiming to start quick at the high-speed half-mile. Some have already gotten the jump on it with success two weeks ago in Arizona; namely 2019 Rookie of the Year contender Ricky Weiss, who picked up two victories at the Wild West Shootout.
Weiss, last year's North-South 100 winner at Florence Speedway, turned a lot of heads and spoke volumes to his talent on big half-miles. Weiss also has one start at Volusia, in Scott Bloomquist's ride, but the finish wasn't the way he planned. This year, he hopes to retain the same success he earned at Florence and transmit that into his own efforts on the high-speed ovals.
If anyone else on the track knows anything about momentum, look no further than 2017 Series Champion Brandon Sheppard. Since taking over the driving duties of the Rocket Chassis house car at the beginning of 2017, "The Rocket Shepp" has compiled an impressive 31 wins in 85 starts. With just one win at Volusia, he was the last Outlaw driver to hoist a gator, and the only Outlaw to taste victory at the track during Series competition last year.
After scoring the most victories on the tour last season for the second consecutive year, Sheppard ultimately came up just a bit short of winning the points championship for the second time, falling to Mike Marlar by just 28 points. This season, Marlar decided to scale back on his full-time competition schedule to make room for other ventures, ultimately turning the spotlight back on Sheppard and Series veterans Clanton and Chris Madden. In 2019, Sheppard will once again be back behind the wheel of the big-blue No. 1, backed by the craftsmanship and tutelage of car owner and chassis builder Mark Richards.
With all of the "silly season" switches and driver changes during the offseason, there's lots of new competition to look out for and lots of storylines to be unpacked. For Sheppard and the rest of his team, it all looks the same to them. Their only goal, much like everyone else's, is to park it in victory lane every night, no matter who's in what car.
Needless to say, both the rookies and veterans will be on their A-game in just a few weeks on Feb. 8-9 at Screven Motor Speedway and then at Volusia's DIRTcar Nationals.
Once all is said and done for Speedweeks, the Outlaws head to the mountains of Tennessee for two shows on March 8 and 9, before heading out to Farmer City for the Illini 100 in the first week of April. If you can't make it to the track, log on to DIRTVision to start your Late Model Fast Pass subscription today and watch your favorite Outlaws live, all season long!


text:
GMO Bacteria May Save Honey Bees From CCD
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a novel method of combating one of the suspected causes behind colony collapse disorder (CCD) that has been affecting beehives around the world: genetically-modify the bacteria that live in the insects' guts. Although there has been a number of proposedread more
The Ocean Cleanup's Plastic-Gathering Prototype Is Working
An effort to rid the oceans of plastic waste that was launched seven years ago has finally borne fruit: the nonprofit organization The Ocean Cleanup reports that one of their ships was able to successfully gather plastic pollution from their proof-of-concept prototype operating in the Pacific Ocean—including tires, microplastics, ghostread more
New Substance Can Store Valuable Solar Energy for Decades
Researchers in Sweden have developed an affordable and effective way of gathering, storing, and releasing energy from the Sun, through a new process that could conceivably store the trapped solar energy in chemical form for decades, which can later be released on demand when needed. The new process was developedread more
MIT Researchers Develop New CO2 Capture Technology
Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new, energy efficient electrochemical-based device that can capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the chief ingredient in anthropogenic-caused global warming. This new device operates much like a battery, in that it can absorb carbon dioxide from air that is pumpedread more


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Join the PTA & MemberHub Today!!
This year we are introducing new ways in which you can communicate with the ACES PTA and help us to stay as environmentally conscious as possible. Our new and improved website has a calendar of events, links to our Facebook, Twitter and Blog sites, plus information on volunteering and ways to help with fundraising. Please note that we will no longer be using Remind.
Additionally, we will be using MemberHub for regular communication to PTA members, allowing for online membership payment, PTA sign ups and tracking our membership.
When you become a member of the ACES PTA you have a voice on how your fundraising dollars are allocated towards our amazing events, school improvements and student/faculty support and advocacy. Joining the PTA is easy and can be done from our website or in person during Open House.
Pay your $10 (per person) dues and Join Now! Once you join the PTA, we encourage you to also create a MemberHub account so we can communication with you throughout the year. This option will be presented to you after you have paid online.
You may also join MemberHub without paying membership dues.
When you're ready to create your own login, Join MemberHub Now!
Follow the instructions to create a password and verify your email address (for your security). Then, please complete your full profile upon joining the system.
So what does this mean? You will be invited to private online groups called hubs for your students' classroom(s) and you will be able to receive email and text message correspondence from the PTA and your teachers.
Once you create your account you will be able to login and access your own profile, files, photos, signups and school directory. You can also adjust your personal notification preferences.
You can download the FREE MemberHub app from the App Store or the Google Play Store.


Executive Garden Rooms were asked by their clients in Crawley to design and build a bespoke garden room that could be used for several purposes. To ensure that the room was as flexible as possible in its use, a shower room was also created. This opens up future possibilities for the room too, such as use as an extra bedroom.
The building sits on a footprint of 5.4 meters wide by 3.3 meters deep. Because of the inclusion of the shower room that was connected to the mains drainage and water supplies the garden room needed Building Control approval. Executive Garden Rooms handled this process for their client. The team are fully au fait with these requirements with many of their buildings being built to Building Control standards.
The exterior of the garden room has been designed to be low maintenance. White Cedral weatherboarding has been used to clad the external walls. These boards don't require painting to keep their fresh colour. The roof of the building is a multi layer hot torch build-up. The double glazed uPVC doors and windows are also maintenance free.
Practical laminate flooring has been used in the main room while the shower room has a tiled floor. As you can see from these photos, although compact the shower room has everything you need.
Before work started on the groundworks and actual garden room building, the Executive Garden Rooms team removed an old garage from the site. They then saw the project through to the connection of the electrics to the mains supply, as part of their turnkey project management service. This project took the team three weeks on-site to complete.
To learn more about this multi purpose garden room talk to the Executive Garden Rooms team on 01202 874 766 or see more of their work on their website.


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Q: Authentification with just a password I currently built a small WebApp for personal use. I want to push it online but not everyone should have access to it. I want to send the password to people which I will allow to access the site but I only want one password which can everyone use. I build the App with just Nuxt.js and firestore because I'm not familiar with backend technology.
I'm aware of the firebase authentication, but it only supports authentication with e-mail address.
Does someone know a simple Method how I can do this? Security is in this case not very import, I just want that not everyone can go on the site yet.
Thank you very much for your help.

A: As you mentioned, you're aware of firebase authentication, create a single account with email and password. For now, on login screen you can pass email hardcoded in input[type='hidden'] field.

A: You can use basic authentication for that. Not the most secure way of securing a site since the credentials are sent over with each request but If your site is under https you should be fine.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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France Mobilizes Emergency Fuel Stocks
FRANCOIS LO PRESTI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES Riot police watch as a wall of flame separates them from refinery workers blockading the oil depot of Douchy-les-Mines, via Huffington Post
Now things are getting interesting.
We're on the eighth day of "industrial action" here to protest changes to France's cherished, preposterous labor laws. This morning dock workers stormed the port city at Le Havre. Striking workers have cut off roads and bridges and blockaded a nuclear submarine base. Today, workers at nuclear power plants joined the strike. The almighty CGT — a trade union that descends directly from communists — has been blocking oil refineries, causing fuel shortages and endless lines at gas stations. France has mobilized its strategic oil reserves for the first time since 2010.
President François Hollande says there are supplies sufficient to last 115 days. Keep that number in mind.
The situation is particularly fraught because Prime Minister Manuel Valls pushed the so-called El-Khomri law (named after Labor Minister Myriam El Khomri) through the National Assembly without a vote. This is, technically, permitted under the constitution of the Fifth Republic, and the power has been used about 50 times since 1958. But it's obviously problematic to have a constitution that permits this. Just as it's obviously problematic to have an unelected, radical labor union violently holding the country hostage.
Hollande and Valls probably went the Article 49-3 route — neo-Louis XIV style — because they didn't think they had the numbers to get the law through parliament. And if so, they were probably right. MPs from their own party are now trying to pass motions of censure against the government; yesterday, they failed — by just two votes — to initiate a vote of no-confidence. This is their own party. Libération described the scenes in the parliament as "grotesque," which sounds about right.
The CGT would appear to be betting that the party is divided, that it can readily make life a misery for everyone in France, and that this will force Hollande and Valls to back down. They know Hollande's not a brawler. He's never had the stomach for an all-out fight with the unions, and nor has any French president, for that matter. Traditionally, the government caves or compromises in the face of this kind of pressure. Strikes like this usually aren't viewed as unacceptable, anarchic, and undemocratic, as they would be in the US. They're seen as a vehicle for democratic expression and even a normal prelude to negotiation.
But this time might be different. For one thing, a psychological barrier, or several of them, really, have been crossed. France is already under emergency rule. The EU is on the verge of a crack-up. France's inability to get its house in order is a part of the problem and everyone knows it. If the government can't make even these sensible, modest changes to its absurd labor laws, France's future is grim. If France's future is grim, so is Europe's.
I'm not sure how these circumstances will affect public opinion or Hollande's psychology. It seems to me it might stiffen his resolve. It certainly should. The CGT only represents three percent of France's workforce, and it has its own vulnerability: It's in a power struggle with the other unions. Its main rival, the CFDT, backs the new labor law. Union elections are ahead next year. The CFDT is betting Hollande will stick it out, and if he does, it will give them credibility to campaign against the CGT as the antediluvian, job-killing, radical dinosaur it is. That could mean the end of the CGT as a major force in French politics.
The CGT is putting pressure on the country's strategic nodes — petrochemicals, ports, and railways — which is illegal under French law. Philippe Martinez, the head of the CGT, is justifying this by saying the passage of the law itself is so obviously anti-democratic as to warrant uproar, given that first, it contravenes the Socialist Party's manifesto; second, it hasn't been approved by parliament; and third, polls show that public opinion is against it.
Hollande and Valls seem to be betting that the CGT doesn't have the support to expand the strikes to the level of a genuine strategic threat, and that public opinion will swing against them if the fuel shortages and the violence continue. I don't know if they're right, and they probably don't, either.
The European football championship starts on June 10. Valls has made a huge point of stressing that the championship will go on despite terrorist threats. The unions are betting that he'll do anything to avoid the embarrassment of disruptions to the event and will cave to them before facing that humiliation.
Hollande and Valls seem to me to be in the right in every way except one: They truly don't have a democratic mandate. As Sylvain Attal puts it,
Hollande is not just facing opposition to the labour bill, he is also confronting a fundamental, systemic opposition held by a growing fringe of the parliamentary majority. He has broken promises made on the campaign trail and does not have public opinion on his side. What's more, he has barely a year more in office. Therefore, he must face the hard fact that to break the current impasse, he needs to go back to the voters.
He can do this in two ways: either the French leader calls for a referendum, thereby putting his job on the line; or he dissolves parliament. This is the spirit of our democratic institutions.
If Hollande decides to do neither it'll be because he knows the results would be fatal in both cases and he'll then instead be hoping for some sort of miracle before the 2017 presidential election. …
We're going to be stuck in this climate of confrontation and violence in the weeks, and perhaps months, to come. Between the two sides sticking to their guns (the government with Article 49-3, the police brutally suppressing protesters), and the CGT trying to take the country hostage by attacking public transportation and refineries – and behind them, the anarchists and thugs they no longer control – France is in a mess. This is distressing because France will be lagging behind and the world will not wait for the country to play catch-up.
Hollande and Valls have vowed to stand firm, but we'll see.
I can't help but be put in mind of the miner's strike. Arthur Scargill's fatal mistake was to call a coal strike in the spring. It's springtime in Paris, and if the government really has supplies to last 115 days, and if they have the willpower, they might — finally — be able to break the CGT and enforce this law. There really is no alternative.
But Thatcher had her party on her side, and Hollande doesn't. Thatcher faced a weak, divided political opposition, the Labour Party having suffered one of its worst-ever defeats in the 1983 election. Hollande's party is itself weak and divided, and Hollande is the one who's apt to face crushing defeat in 2017.
So who knows. It's a nail-biter.
Meanwhile, France's kung-fu cop has gone viral on Twitter:
Interesting times. I wish I could tell you how this book will end. All I can say for now is that the plot is getting more dramatic:


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OBVERSE AND OBSERVATION
There are two sides to it. How often does one hear this observation. However, it is normally rather misleading. Someone is sacked, and we hear that there are two sides to it, and that the new industrial legislation in Australia will be challenged in terms of justice.
We are told, perhaps, that there was no notice given, no ground provided for this action, that it was a wanton and tyrannical act; and perhaps, just possibly, the sacked party would rather like one hundred thousand dollars for pacification. At least, that is how some employers have felt about things, in the past.
The reaction sets in. What a shocking and wanton dismissal/attempt to hide the frank negligence of the one dismissed.
There are, according to this or that party, two sides to it. HOW can one employ anyone if he is to be given ludicrous sums because his lawyer plus the cultural twist, combine to provide much for nothing ? On the other side, HOW can anyone feel safe from opportunistic exploitation on the part of an employer, who cynically uses an employe as a mere device for complicated business strategies.
Two sides! cry the lawyers, before both sides, as in Aesop's Fables, lose the 'cheese' which the lawyers constantly pare, in an effort to give to each an equal amount, succeeding only in paying themselves ALL, from the many legal processes.
In fact, it may be, just possibly, that the employe was both an activist, an opportunist and a reasonable worker, whose efforts to stir up trouble in the interests of gain were considerable; thus causing a somewhat quizzical and eventually disenchanted and negative attitude on the part of the employer, who is keen for those who want to co-operate in a vision into which he has possibly sunk all or part of his funds.
It may also be possible that the employe has tended to penalise this worker for his preoccupations, not in an effort to 'fix' him, or discipline him, but because a man naturally will look for someone who can put his heart into a project, and who does not constantly have a heavily intrusive private equation which diminishes co-operation and efficiency.
In that case, there are two sides; but they are not equal.
Sometimes there is a trap, and one party or the other has practised what is called entrapment, deliberately doing something in the hope that the other party will react in an envisaged way, and thus come to be at a disadvantage, allowing gain of some kind by the schemer. Few like schemers, who merely use a situation of one kind, which it ostensibly is, to create a situation of another kind, exploiting patience or organisation to this end.
In this case, there may be only one side: economic gluttony and moral baseness.
There are however regions in which two sides are not questions of fair play and justice, but of functional reality.
Thus in the case of predestination and human will, there are assuredly two sides, not as in a dispute, but as in the two sides if you want to put it that way, of our earth, about its axis, largely North and South. They work together by the nature of the case, without disharmony.
You find this fact and facet gloriously clear and fascinatingly embedded in the texts of Isaiah 6, Matthew 13 and John 12.
In Isaiah 6, we learn that the LORD is going to make the people hearts gross, that they may not see, and that a sovereign divine action will place them under virtual judgment.
In Matthew 13:13-14, at the lips of Christ, we have this put in such a way that it is the PEOPLE who close their own eyes: they are not now said to have them closed FOR them.
In John 12, again, at verse 46, we find that
"He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them."
This is exactly and directly attributed to Isaiah.
How then does Matthew in its reference to this Isaianic text, refer to the people wilfully shutting their own eyes ? some may ask.
Naturally, any author can interpret his own work, and does not need to keep to the exact lines in a given place, his thought carrying a burden and a depth which is exposed or expressed in a reference. In fact, in Isaiah, Chapter 6 had been preceded by enormous appeals (as in Ch. 1),
"They have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken any more!"
comes the lament, the exhortation and the appeal. Again,
"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean.
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil. Learn to do good.
Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor.
Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow."
By verse 18 of Ch. 1, it increases in tenderness and entreaty:
"Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD.
Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
Again, we find this:
"If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land;
but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword."
A time is even envisaged at a future epoch, when
"Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her penitents with righteousness."
Chapter 2 exposes the wonder of this scene of judgment, near the finale of the history of an Age to come, when many nations will come to Jerusalem for spiritual reasons, when many will hide under rocks in the mounting tide of judgment, when the Lord alone will be exalted. Isaiah 3 dwells on the contemporary sins in detail and with disgust. Isaiah 4 looks via symbolic figure in 4:6, to the reality of the Messiah as in 32:1-4, or 11:1-10. Here is the final cure for all the symptoms of sin, all judgment and the entire provider of spiritual joy at its zenith (as in Isaiah 51:11), through His own vicarious sorrows and sacrifice (Isaiah 49-55), making peace free and salvation for no price (except to Himself!).
Chapter 5 of Isaiah brings out a startling parable. Israel is a wonderfully prepared and equipped vineyard, where the care and nurture has been so neglected by the tenders of the property, that only judgment can come. What tenderness, care and concern went into its construction. How carefully was the vineyard made and established!
Moving to the point of the parable, the LORD declares that when He "looked for justice", what did He find ?
"Behold the oppressor."
He looked for "righteousness, but behold a cry."
Whatever the proud or greedy exploiters of the property may have intended, the LORD heard the cry of those who were exploited. He was not lulled by the words of the 'wise' who misused the land.
By the time we reach the relevant chapter for our present purpose, Isaiah 6, we find a vision of the glory of God, in which angels appear, and from the fires burning on the altar, one messenger takes live coals, and touches the lips of Isaiah. In this way, there is symbolised the removal of sin from his lips, from dominating his life, so that he becomes ready to be a prophet for the Lord.
The message then comes, and it includes, as in John's citation of it, in John 12, the point that in a final judgment on the land, which has been so entreated, so provided for, so watched over, so exhorted, so drawn to tender mercies and utter renewal, cleansing and justice, beauty of holiness and restoration, as we have seen: there is to come a strange result. At least, so it may seem at first. The eyes of the people are to be CLOSED, their hearts are to be made fat or full, lest they should hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.
It is more than apparent that this is a consequential judgment, following hundreds of years of neglected appeal, disused exhortation, the initial gift of the 'vineyard', the constant care and attention of God, and the utter refusal of the people to respond to multiplied divine caresses, entreaties and offers.
SINCE they have so obstructively, obstinately and pertinaciously, indeed so contumaciously rejected the divine grace and pity, now their time is past for this, and only judgment comes. Their ears, misused like those of some today who repeatedly listen to music far too loud, will become deafened. Clinton, former US President apparently has ear trouble from such a cause. It is not so uncommon. Hard sounds can be detrimental at length to the very instrument of hearing!
If, then, to return to the point at issue, you abuse liberty, mock love, reject even justice, oppress and wilfully betray all love and kindness, all provision and pity, then a time comes when your spirit as in Isaiah 57:15 would fail before the Lord. There is only so much that the human soul can stand, only so much wear, only so much traffic. Harden your heart to a certain point and it becomes like a cancer, with only death in tow.
This then is that result. When therefore Christ refers to this area of Isaiah, He takes out the preliminary contexts, and sees it whole and clear, making MOST APPARENT the CONSEQUENTIAL side of things, but placing in sight the actual CLOSING of their OWN eyes by their OWN wilfulness, which led on to the judgment in Isaiah.
That then, it is the OTHER SIDE!
It is not, however, that there is so much room for divine sovereignty, which will 'kick in' at a certain point, and so much for human freedom, which in strongly pathological cases, may be stretched too far and ... break. That would be a merely superficial approach to the symptoms and the divine diagnosis in Isaiah, Matthew and John (for God is providing in the New Testament, nothing less than a commentary on this passage in the Old Testament, a fascinating opportunity for us to see the divine mind at work in such a field! on His own work).
Rather the case is this. The Lord, like man, is personal. He is patient, longsuffering and gracious and shows and says so (cf. Micah 7:19ff., where mercy is maximised, Exodus 33, where sovereignty is insisted on, and Exodus 34:8, where the divine panorama of peace and grace comes into view acutely). Yet He is no fool, is not able to be gulled, does not become miffed, that is, does not respond in intemperate rage because of some sore point. He is just and He is gracious, delighted in mercy, but not remitting sin for the impenitent.
When therefore a certain situation, as in Isaiah 6, arrives, then He WILL bring in judgment at His own discretion. The decision of the judge is final. However, how often as in Jeremiah, He seeks yet further, even when it is hard to see how more mercy could be compressed into the vile and rebellious scenario provided by the Israel of the day. You see that in Jeremiah 17, with this staggering new offer about the day of rest. You see the same attitude which so riled Jonah, at the end of that prophetic work. Jonah knew there would be some way of getting mercy through: for God is like that...even to Nineveh, of all places. And He did! It was not till hundreds of years later that the axe fell, and if ever a nation was warned, this was it! It did not make judgment more palatable, but more understandable. When it came, as Nahum describes it, there is little left to the imagination.
As to God, none will tell HIM, when and whom to judge, or how. Yet He pleads as we have seen, with passion to avoid it. In Amos 4, you see just this: and here is a sequence of mercies, reminders, minor disciplines and obstinate ignorings of them on the part of Israel. AN END then comes: Prepare to meet your God! He declares.
All this is not in the least difficult to understand, since we also are persons, and this is personal conduct, in this case, of the infinite God who made us persons, and who has marvellous self-control, patience, tenderness of heart and no ability to be taken for a ride in the countryside or pleasantness, by those who merely pretend. HE KNOWS (Psalm 11).
Thus, as for the divine sovereignty, it is absolute, whether in Exodus 34 or Romans 9. As for the mercy, it is passionately intrusive, as in Micah 7:19ff., Ezekiel 33:11, Luke 19:42ff., Matthew 23:37ff., Jeremiah 13:23, 51:8-9, and so on. As to Babylon, as in the last verse just noted, God declares that intensive solicitude to the end:
"we would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed."
Indeed, in the preceding verse, you see the
"Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed. Wail for her! Take balm for her pain, perhaps she may be healed."
The side of man, in sin, it is this. He has NO merits, NO grounds for pride, NO store of merit, since perfection is the pass score, and whatever is less, does not sit well in the heaven of profound peace, or before the scorching fires of eternal truth and justice (Isaiah 33:14ff.).
That may seem harsh, but it is realistic FOR THE REALM in view.
On the other 'side', God in mercy seeks by all right mans (cf. Hosea 12:10,II Chronicles 36, II Kings 17), to bring mercy to those whose follies make it hard, like trying to introduce molten elastic into a box of powder, in order to improve the texture...
The sovereignty is indeed His own; the awareness of who is receiving and deceiving, whose heart seen before all time, is open for air-lift to heaven, and whose is not (in a pre-fall condition where no sin is present, so that no merit is differential). Discerned in His foreknowledge (Romans 8:29ff.), this too is His own. He chooses His own. He does it with the revealed principles in view, as stated and shown by Christ, as seen in some of the texts above, and in the Old Testament alike. The Christ of history, in character and attitudes, was present always (John 8:58) in all phases of divine action, and so in the foreknowledge and predestination, the very One from whom came the words now recorded in Luke 19:42ff.. With His Father, He wills one will (John 5:19-23, 10:30, Matthew 11:27, John 6:65).
No one is to advise or counsel Him on this point. He KNOWS what He is doing and is plighted to keep His own principles. Therefore if you do not TRUST Him, you find nothing. If, however, in terms of the mercy and truth model provided, you do, then there is nothing at all to be concerned about, if truth is your quest, love is your domain, mercy is your target and the glory of God is your aim. If not, then you go to your own place, as Christ said of Judas.
OUR side is that we are sinners; HIS side is that He would like to bring us to His own most blessed peace, truth and love. His is to give; ours is to receive. His is to provide, ours is to accept. His is the largesse, ours is the meanness, the littleness, the exposure.
Two sides ? You COULD say this, but as far as credit, goodness and mercy is concerned, in the relationship between us sinners and the divine Lord, there is only one GOOD side!


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We Were Always Here by Rick Bartow
Music, Visual Arts & Film Studies
The art by Rick Bartow was unveiled in 2012 at the national Museum of the American Indian. We were always Here is a sculpture made up of two red cedar poles that are carved by the artist from old cedar poles. The art is perfectly captured in the name given as it articulates the persecution that the Native Americans suffered at their own home. The age of the cedar tree, thought to be 500 years old is symbolic for the long duration in which the Indians have been living in America. At the top of the two cedar trees are carvings from planks thought to be well over 1000 years thus emphasizing the duration further. In the 17th Century, immigrants, largely Europeans, invaded America and started driving the Indians from their land. The initial displacement was forceful and involved violence because the Europeans wanted the fertile land on which the Indians had lived for many years. Sensing rejection, the government, largely consisting of Europeans passed laws to drive away the Indians thereby leaving the land for the whites to plough. These sufferings are well captured in the art by Rick Bartow.
The choice of the medium of a sculpture towing above the human height is well in order and represents the resilience of the Native Americans. It is meant to proclaim that the people are still there even after the persecutions. The location of the art is also perfectly chosen because the museum details the history of the Native Americans. The intentions of the artist are therefore well articulated by the sculpture as everyone can see it. In addition, the towing figures in the sculptures are symbolic to mean that people are looking up to the figure for both remembrance and hope.
The influences that led the artist to carve out the sculptures can be traced to his Native American heritage and the desire to associate with his traditions. The artist is of Native American decency and has read a lot of history on the persecution that his ancestors went through under the hands of the white Americans. In addition, the artist's educational background is also a source of influence that is evident in the art. Rick Bartow graduated with a degree in secondary arts education from Western Oregon University in 1969 (Dobkins, 20012). In addition, the many years that he served in the Vietnam War could be an influence from the persecution that he saw. It could be that his work is to express what many people did not witness.
The art by Rick Bartow is effective in portraying the message that it was intended to. The towing nature of the artwork is a national heritage that will be remembered for many years to come. Children from future generations will have a lot of history to learn from the art. In addition, the art maintains the history of the Native Americans in the form of a sculpture


Size: 5.4" x 3.1" x 1.4"
How could engineers of Canon manage this unbelievable calculator ?
The printed circuit board (PCB) of the FC-80 makes use of the Hitachi HD3650 processing chip (CPU), an additional Read Only Memory (ROM) HD3656, and two display drivers. We know this powerful calculator architecture already from the Palmtronic F-7 and Canola F-11 scientific calculators.
Even the housing looks familiar to us, it was borrowed form the F-5.
The FC-80 started a long tradition of metric conversion calculators but it took 8 years until we got with the Texas Instruments Converter a product with similar performance. Most other metric conversion calculators like the Canon FC-43, FC-82, Toshiba LC-838, and the TI-1889 use a tiny single-chip calculator circuit borrowed form socalled four-bangers.


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Issue: 2015-10-01
"Get Bowled Over!"
Living With Wildlife: John Birmingham
By Reader / 30 September 2015 14 February 2021 / 1 minute of reading
Hello Everybody, We invite you to share your photos of Yukon wildlife. Email your high-resolution images with a description of what's going on and what camera equipment you used to [email protected] Golfing at Annie Lake I thought I could shave a few strokes off of my scorecard but, this Yukon sentinel was keeping me honest. Camera: Samsung Galaxy …
Living With Wildlife: John Birmingham Read More »
Bowling is back
By What's Up Yukon / 30 September 2015 14 February 2021 / 3 minutes of reading
In the popular bowling movie Kingpin the term "munsoned" is coined by the film's writers Peter and Bobby Farrelly to describe being up a creek without a paddle, essentially being left for dead. For the Mad Trapper Alleys in Riverdale that seemed to be its fate after closing its doors in May. But now the …
Bowling is back Read More »
Lists, Colour Coding and Labels
By Larry Leigh / 30 September 2015 14 February 2021 / 3 minutes of reading
People new to outdoor activity such as hunting, hiking and camping are likely a bit more organized on the second or third trip than they were on the first one. At first the newbie often just stuffs the pack and gear boxes in no particular order and, unless they are lucky, has to go through …
Lists, Colour Coding and Labels Read More »
Building Intuition
By What's Up Yukon / 30 September 2015 19 April 2022 / 3 minutes of reading
"I don't really believe in that stuff," a coworker says, when I ask if he's ever had his tarot read. A year ago I might have said something similar. I wouldn't have been telling the whole truth, though, because at that point I had neither figured out how to be truthful about my spiritual beliefs, …
Building Intuition Read More »
Double knots on a thread
My sister Marion Dale and I share many wonderful childhood memories. One of our favourites is the summers we spent with our Great Auntie Kate. In her 70's when we visited she raised sheep on a family farm near Renfrew, Ontario. No inside plumbing, no electricity, our days were spent exploring the sheep pasture and …
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Tastes of Home
By Anelle Angeles / 30 September 2015 1 September 2022 / 2 minutes of reading
Conquering exotic culinary worlds is exhilarating, but the dispiriting lack of some foods can make home feel very far away, indeed. For some people, a curious thing may happen once they relocate. They may develop a taste for things they wouldn't have considered before. The local food will open myriad sensations. But for others, it's …
Tastes of Home Read More »
What Not to Eat: Water Hemlock
By Kim Melton / 30 September 2015 14 February 2021 / 3 minutes of reading
When I first began eating wild mushrooms, I was studying squirrels. I watched which mushrooms they picked to stash in trees, and figured that whichever ones they ate were probably not (or not very) poisonous. These days I know a little more and am glad I didn't base my entire wild diet on this type …
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Three Books for Adventurous Souls
By Lori Fox / 30 September 2015 15 June 2022 / 1 minute of reading
It's the fall season, which means two things: the slow-creep of cold weather and a near-existential dread of the aforementioned. It also means, for thousands of Yukoners, a frantic dash to enjoy those last, fleeting moments of liveable outdoor weather in the form of fishing, hunting, hiking, mountain biking, kayaking or whatever your outdoor poison …
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By What's Up Yukon / 30 September 2015 14 February 2021 / 1 minute of reading
Proud Yukoners want to shop Yukon – but sometimes it feels hard to do that. With so many of our goods and services being provided by companies on the Outside, it often feels like we've got no choice but to shell out to the big boys. For those who prefer to shop in their own backyard, however, …
Homegrown Business Read More »
Swordplay and Flaming Arrows
By Marianne Darragh / 30 September 2015 10 August 2021 / 3 minutes of reading
Winter is coming. You might say that's our motto above the 60th parallel, but they're also words to live by in Winterfell, the northernmost kingdom of imaginary Westeros. The Game of Thrones saga has unexpectedly surpassed cult status, but its mythology may have special appeal for northerners and not just for its keen sense of …
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Didee & Didoo: Good Samaritan
By Allan Benjamin / 30 September 2015 8 August 2022 / 1 minute of reading
GOOD SAMARITANS ALWAYS CARE AND THEY ALWAYS LIKE TO SHARE. THEY WORK FOR GOD ABOVE GIVING IS HOW THEY SHOW THEIR LOVE. THEY'LL GIVE YOU THEIR SHIRT AN' THEY'LL PROVIDE COMFORT. THEY ALWAYS DO A GOOD DEED AN' HELP THOSE IN NEED. THEY'LL OPEN THEIR DOOR AN' THEY'LL FEED THE POOR. THEY'LL DO A GOOD …
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Fun fiction from the Klondike
By Dan Davidson / 30 September 2015 14 February 2021 / 3 minutes of reading
As the crew who came here to film an episode of the Canadian television series Murdoch Mysteries a few years ago told me, Dawson is a place that's just a perfect backdrop for storytelling. The particular episode was a lot of fun to watch them film and then see it on TV later on. It …
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Ready to Rock the North
By Barry "Jack" Jenkins / 30 September 2015 20 August 2021 / 3 minutes of reading
The Midnight Sons Band is fresh off a tour and ready to rock. On Saturday, October 3, the band is presenting – and performing at – Rock the North, which is an all-ages dance at the Yukon Convention Centre featuring the rockabilly/psychobilly band Ryan McNally and his Red Hot Ramblers, and Victoria bluesman Jesse Roper. …
Ready to Rock the North Read More »


A few passing clouds. Low near 50F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..
A few passing clouds. Low near 50F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Monday.


The orientation of the device. The Zappar platform does not automatically modify the coordinate systems or display of a zap as a result of changes in orientation. Thus it is necessary to use Accelerometer states to modify a zap's user interface to better suit the device's current orientation when it changes.
LANDSCAPE The default orientation, for devices that have a dominant portrait orientation (such as the iPhone) landscape is defined such that the bottom of the device is on the right hand side.
PORTRAIT Rotated 90 degrees clockwise from landscape.
LANDSCAPEINVERTED Rotated 180 degrees from landscape.
PORTRAITINVERTED Rotated 180 degrees from portrait.


Interviewer: So how did you become involved in the Development Corporation in Stevenage?
Denington: Well, I had a letter inviting me to go and see the Minister who was Lewis Silkin, who is commemorated in the, if you look, in the lettering around the pool in the Town Centre. Lewis Silkin invited, asked me by letter to go and see him and I remember plainly, he said "you know why I've asked you to come and see me?" and I said, these are the actual words," I haven't a clue" and he said "I want to invite you to become a member of the Stevenage Development Corporation" and like a little child I clapped my hands and said "how lovely!". Can you imagine anything more challenging or more wonderful?
Denington: in 1950, right at the beginning in January.
Interviewer: When did you first visit Stevenage as a board member?
Denington: Oh I'd known Stevenage before because my mother and father in law lived in Letchworth all through the war, I knew Stevenage. Oh I suppose when I was in the corporation I first, you know, went out. It was hardly, I think one tiny little row of cottages been built and that was all but it was so exciting.
Interviewer: Do you feel the other board members shared your enthusiasm? Were there any who didn't?
Denington: I don't think so but in different measures of course. Because we were members of the Labour Party and the Chairman when I joined, Monica Felton, she was a member of the Labour Party of course. You know after the war we all thought we were building a great Brave New World. You know we were all dedicated really to build a Brave New World and the Brave New World was very much to be the New Towns. So no it was, we were all filled with enthusiasm. Dedication if you like.


Nice to have you on my website. I'm an independant app developer creating useful tools for Android devices. On this website you can check out my Android apps and some more information about Crunchy ByteBox.
Follow the links to Google Play Store to download the apps and see more information and screenshots of Crunchy ByteBox apps.
My apps are developed to assist and give pleasure to the users.
Most of my apps are free of charge, but therefore they display one fixed ad banner. Some apps are available for purchase, thus they are completely ad free and come with some special features. The new Level Camera allows in-app purchases to remove the ads or to buy some more settings.
New update for 'Level Camera' app!
The Level Camera app now has a new feature that supports creating picture series.
You can save location and position data of your picture - or better said your device's position data. You can even display a semi-tranparent overlay image of an already taken photo from your picture series.


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Exclusive Interview: Ford Shelby GT350's Engine Program Lead
by Aaron Birch
— Jul 29, 2015
Yesterday, Ford held a special event for the media, inviting us out to Grattan Raceway just outside of Belding, Michigan, to experience the all-new 2016 Ford Shelby GT350 and GT350R Mustangs. Trackside, we had the occasion to speak with Ford's Eric Ladner, who served as Engineering Program Lead on the Shelby GT350's monumental centerpiece: the 5.2-liter flat-plane crank V8.
Engine Type normally-aspirated, flat-plane crankshaft V8
Displacement 5.2 liters
Peak Output 526 horsepower @ 7,500 RPM
Peak Torque 429 lb-ft @ 4,750 RPM
Max. Engine Speed 8,250 RPM
(The following interview has been slightly edited for both clarity and brevity. -Ed.)
Why a flat-plane crank, as opposed to a cross-plane?
Eric: As we go from one engine vehicle to the next, we're looking for different technologies – different things – to put us to the next level, right? It's one of those things where you look at the overall package: we're looking at building a track car, where we want something that has a broad torque curve, revs high, produces a lot of performance. This was kind of a natural fit for what we were doing.
So why wait until now, then? Why weren't there any flat-plane cranks in any previous Shelbys?
Eric: Good question. I guess I can't answer for why we hadn't done it before now… But I don't know that we've ever made a track car – in modern history, anyway – a track car anything like this. So I think it's part of, again, whatever takes that next step.
It's something that, you know, it's a pretty big departure from what we normally do, and it brings a lot of things with it, so it's one of those things that may be on the list of things we considered [in the past], but didn't make it into a program. Well, now we're kind of all-out for a track car, so it made sense to put it in.
We assume it's not a clean-sheet design? That you started with the 5.0-liter Coyote?
Eric: I don't want to say "we started with." It shares some common features and architecture with the 5.0-liter, but it is really an all-new engine. I mean, when you look through the list of parts, from the bottom to the top internals, it's really all new stuff.
What kind of lightweighting of internal components was necessary to achieve that 8,250 RPM redline?
Eric: So, of course the crankshaft is lighter weight; flat-plane cranks are inherently a bit lighter weight. And to reduce some additional weight, we gun-drilled the center. That's not really necessary for the speed; it's kind of unnecessary mass there. That's just to lightweight the whole thing. But you look at the pistons; we have very small skirts on the pistons… So for the speed, really the piston and rod assemblies.
Some of the valvetrain: you know, we have hollow intake valves, sodium-filled exhaust, things like that for the speed. We went after light weight for other reasons, right, for track performance. But for the speed, it's a couple of different things.
Is it just the inherently lighter crankshaft that really contributes to the high possible RPM for a flat-plane crank? Or is it, you know, things like the firing order, too?
Eric: I mean, actually, it's hard to say that we wouldn't be able to achieve this engine speed without a flat-plane crank, quite frankly. It's not necessarily one of the key enablers. One of the things you have to think about is its ability to rev quickly as opposed to rev high. A lot of people associate [the flat-plane crank] with revving high, but quite honestly, I wouldn't say we couldn't have gotten that with a cross-plane crank.
It certainly helps to have less mass – less rotational inertia. But I wouldn't say that it's essential for what we did. It's more about the performance and the revability than the high engine speed.
So, you probably can't really tell us, but any indicators what's next for this engine?
Eric: [laughs] You're right, I can't – we don't talk about future products. Can't blame you for asking, though.
— Aaron Birch
Aaron Birch is an automotive enthusiast and writer/filmmaker from Detroit, MI. As a rule, he only buys cars older than himself.
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Today we're talking about how to tune into your alter ego while staying authentic in your personal brand.
So guys, when you think about your alter ego, often - especially when we use that term in business - we think about having to create a whole personality and a brand new personal brand.
You might feel inclined, or tempted, to think about trying on a personality of someone who you've seen as being really successful, or perhaps you might be tempted or inspired to try on different pieces of other people's personality and alter ego traits of other people that you admire in business or in your world who you see as being successful.
But,when we take pieces of personality, of humour, of language they aren't really aligned with us, it feels really wrong, and your audience, your organisation, people sense that.
People know when you're aren't being authentic.
Sure, we can be inspired by people.
Sure, we can see how someone has done something and admire that and take learnings from it.
But that is really, really different from creating an alter ego and try and squishing your personality into that, and the way that you operate into that.
You are so much more awesome than that.
You have your own brilliance. You can create your own power from being you.
So, here's what I would like you to do.
Think about a moment where you have felt so confident.
You could've dropped a mic (or maybe you did).
Maybe you were walking across the stage as you picked up your degree or an award.
Maybe you had a brilliant meeting at work and you knew you nailed it.
Maybe you just felt awesome and on fire as you're recording a podcast.
Maybe you just had a fabulous meeting and you knew that you had just shown as your very very best.
Think about moment and really turn up that feeling.
Think about the best version of you.
When you are operating at your best, what do you wear? How do you talk?
And it sounds odd, but we often have different ways of kind of operating when we want to show up as our best, right?
So, I wouldn't record this video for you necessarily just in my onesie.
Although, I'm open to doing that. But, I'd like to rock up for you guys in a way that feels good to me.
OK, so think about how you roll when you're operating at your best., and tune into that 'cause that version of you, that part of you, is the alter ego that we can impart with authenticity in your personal brand.
It's so inauthentic to try and be someone who you're not and you don't need to be because you're already brilliant.
I'm just telling you that today.
So when can really tap into a moment or a series of event where you felt so in your flow, so amazing, that is the alter ego for you to tap into when your creating copy. When you're are showing as language online or off. Where you're thinking about who you are as strong and personal brand.
So, I would love to hear which of those moments really stand out for you.
Can you think of a situation where you have felt really on fire, where you nailed it?
Where you felt awesome and in your flow? And let us know in the comments below. Let's have a chat about it.
So, to hear from me, you can sign up for my Monday Mic Drop newsletter to hear a roundup of other personal branding and brilliance tips from me plus other stuff that I only share on email so I can't wait to hear from you guys and let me know below how you get on with your alter ego.


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Q: Converting html entities into their values in python I use this regex on some input,
[^a-zA-Z0-9@#]

However this ends up removing lots of html special characters within the input, such as
#227;, #1606;, #1588; (i had to remove the & prefix so that it wouldn't
show up as the actual value..)

is there a way that I can convert them to their values so that it will satisfy the regexp expression? I also have no idea why the text decided to be so big.

A: Given that your text appears to have numeric-coded, not named, entities, you can first convert your byte string that includes xml entity defs (ampersand, hash, digits, semicolon) to unicode:
import re
xed_re = re.compile(r'&#(\d+);')
def usub(m): return unichr(int(m.group(1)))

s = 'ã, ن, ش'
u = xed_re.sub(usub, s)

if your terminal emulator can display arbitrary unicode glyphs, a print u will then show
ã, ن, ش

In any case, you can now, if you wish, use your original RE and you won't accidentally "catch" the entities, only ascii letters, digits, and the couple of punctuation characters you listed.  (I'm not sure that's what you really want -- why not accented letters but just ascii ones, for example? -- but, if it is what you want, it will work).
If you do have named entities in addition to the numeric-coded ones, you can also apply the htmlentitydefs standard library module recommended in another answer (it only deals with named entities which map to Latin-1 code points, however).

A: You can adapt the following script:
import htmlentitydefs
import re

def substitute_entity (match):
    name = match.group (1)
    if name in htmlentitydefs.name2codepoint:
        return unichr (htmlentitydefs.name2codepoint[name])
    elif name.startswith ('#'):
        try:
            return unichr (int (name[1:]))
        except:
            pass

    return '?'

print re.sub ('&(#?\\w+);', substitute_entity, 'x « y &wat; z {')

Produces the following answer here:
x « y ? z {

EDIT: I understood the question as "how to get rid of HTML entities before further processing", hope I haven't wasted time on answering a wrong question ;)

A: Without knowing what the expression is being used for I can't tell exactly what you need.
This will match special characters or strings of characters excluding letters, digits, @, and #:
[^a-zA-Z0-9@#]*|#[0-9A-Za-z]+;


In an ever-increasing digital world, homes are full of smart gadgets and technology, while deliveries from online sites are an almost daily occurrence. On top of that, our busy lives often require us to have cleaners, gardeners and other workers. With so many people constantly entering your home, it's often difficult to keep track of who is where, especially if your property is often left unattended.
Most of the systems we configure can be incorporated into a home automation system and include facial recognition, plus full video tracking with analytics. This gives you ultimate control and peace of mind to see and record who enters your property and when.
Even if you're a frequent traveller, you can activate and monitor your CCTV wherever you are, with movement and intruder alerts sent via email or to your smart device to help you proactively deter unwanted visitors.
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Nursing students' initiative supports parents on campus
The Child Friendly Campus Initiative aims to make parenting easier for students
Sarina Grewal
Lorne Beswick, VP Campaigns and Community Affairs for the SGPS, in one of the Parenting Rooms on campus with his daughter.
Stephanie Nijhuis
Over the course of two years, Queen's University Child Friendly Campus has expanded their three breastfeeding rooms on campus into a broader initiative to make Queen's a parent-friendly enivronment.
This past January, Alina Leffler, Laura Kuikman and Andrew Ma, NSc '17 from the Faculty of Nursing ran the Queen's University Child Friendly Campus (QUCFC) Initiative — a student-led project driven by a practicum course (N405) that aims to support parents with children on campus.
Started in 2016 by Kyrinne Lockhart and Rachel Hannigan, NSc '16, this initiative created three breastfeeding rooms on campus. The rooms are located in Ban Righ, the School of Nursing building and the Society of Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS) Family Room in the JDUC.
This year, the three students expanded on the efforts of their predecessors by increasing the accessibility and quality of resources for parents on campus.
To do this, the trio walked around campus and took note of washrooms with change tables in them. These locations, along with the new breastfeeding rooms, are marked on a map specifically targeted to parents on campus. This information and additional resources are hosted on a website they've launched.
According to Kuikman, "Parents on campus are currently invisible. There's no entity that identifies them, so there was no actual way for us to get a number of how many parents there really were on campus, and what were their needs."
With this lack of information, a priority for the initiative was to send out a survey in order to receive tangible and applicable information.
Sent out in June 2017 to parents on campus – the results will identify key areas of focus for the initiative going forward. Prominent concerns include a lack of accessible childcare, access to parking, and baby change tables.
Kuikman credits Queen's Nursing professors Katie Goldie and Alicia Papanicolaou as being the backbone of the initiative. In the inaugural year of QUCFC, the two were the supervisors over the breastfeeding room project and this year supervised Leffler, Kuikman and Ma as they launched the initiative.
"They want to continue [the intiative] on, and keep bringing students on who will be committed to this initiative," Kuikman said. "They've given students the freedom to take the lead on these initiatives, but without their commitment to back it, none of this would have been possible at all."
Professor Goldie told The Journal via email that both she and Professor Papanicolaou struggled to balance a campus life while raising children and became increasingly aware of the university's lack of services for parents. They'd also encountered students who had faced many challenges due to a lack of support for on-campus parents.
"We witnessed delicate newborn babies having their diapers changed on dirty bathroom floors (within radius of a door opening and hitting them) and in stairwells, parents breastfeeding and pumping milk in toilet stalls, students expressing their distress about delaying or discontinuing their studies (and breastfeeding)," Goldie wrote.
Goldie had recommendations for what can be done to further support parents, including lactation accommodation, incorporating 'parenting spaces' in new campus buildings and inviting parents with children to identify themselves and voice their needs.
Parents can also visit the QUCFC website for information, and fill out their survey to provide valuable information to the project.
QUCFC
parent friendly campus


Ben Bridge Jeweler Reviews - Low Quality, High Prices.
As you will see below, our experiences at Ben Bridge have been mixed. I would prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the service and assume (hope?) that our second experience, which was fantastic, is the more common experience at Ben Bridge.
What was consistent between both secret shoppings was the value. Simply put, all of the diamonds we saw at Ben Bridge were poor value for the consumer. You can read more below, but you get way better bang for your buck shopping from Blue Nile or James Allen.
Ben Bridge is one of the oldest and established diamond jewelry mall chains in America. Their history began almost one hundred years ago with a shop in Seattle and they positioned themselves as a pioneer in the mall retail experience with their first shop in Seattle's Southcenter Mall in 1968.
Ben Bridge expanded out of state in 1980, and has since rapidly grown. In 2000, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway invested in Ben Bridge. They currently have 86 locations in the United States and Canada, primarily on the West Coast.
We are going to work backwards, as our most recent secret shopping is more pertinent for you, the reader. Annie and I visited Ben Bridge in San Diego while secret shopping in California. The experience was a vast improvement over my first visit. Not only was the store giving off a much more luxurious vibe, the saleswoman was simply fantastic.
The first ring we looked at in San Diego was a 0.50ct H color, I1 clarity diamond in a simple pave setting for $2,999. For an I1 clarity diamond, the diamond was pretty nice. We could definitely see the inclusion, but it was not harsh and the diamond was very bright.
The second diamond we saw was a fantastic 0.76ct I color SI1 clarity round diamond. This one was AGS certified and ideal cut. The diamond was eye-clean, and incredibly brilliant. This diamond was loose. They told us they can add it to the setting from the first diamond (which was $1,000).
So lets take a look at the first diamond (the 0.50ct H, I1). Here is a similar diamond from James Allen. It is a 0.50ct H color, I1 clarity round diamond with a GIA certificate for $800. You can add this diamond to this understated pave setting for a total cost of $2,000.
The second diamond we looked at was a 0.76ct I color, SI1 clarity round diamond that was fantastic. Here is an equally fantastic 0.76 I color, VS2 clarity round diamond for $2,700.
While in Seattle on business, Ira and I had an opportunity to visit Ben Bridge's location at the Alderwood Mall in Lynwood, WA. I don't think we need to explain much about the ambiance and setting, as this is a mall store; there is absolutely no sense of luxury or uniqueness to the experience.
We were approached by a saleswoman as we were looking at the display cases. She was very kind and not pushy at all. While that is a plus, the "education" she offered us was abysmal.
First she went on and on about being a member of the American Gem Society, as if that is unique (it's not) and meaningful (again, not). She then proceeded to go on and on about how important cut is when buying a diamond and that everything else is secondary.
The saleswoman's mantra was good for us to hear but, as you'll see below, the rhetoric did not match the product.
The first item we looked at was on the lower end. It was this ring, with a 0.38 K I1 (she claimed that all their diamonds are certified by AGS, but I didn't see a certificate). The price was $2,599 plus tax for a total of $2,845. We asked the salesperson for a breakdown of the price and she said that the ring itself is about $800-1,000 (as we were discussing getting a larger diamond).
First let's talk about the quality before getting on to the very high price.
The ring itself was decent quality. The craftsmanship was fine and the pave diamonds were nice looking. It is a very minimalist halo (only 1/7th of a carat worth of diamonds), which is why the setting cost is so low. For the price and expectations, the setting is fine.
The diamond was not a bad K I1. The inclusion was a noticeable black spot under the table, but it was not bad for an I1 (at least not one of this size).
The color was noticeable in the setting (which is why we recommend higher color for halo settings as we explain in our color article), but I don't think it was lower than K. The cut on the diamond was about average (I'd say it was on the low end of excellent cut).
But what about that exorbitant price? A 0.38ct K I1 valued at $1,500? That diamond is worth a third of that. Here is a diamond that is 10% larger for about 1/3rd of the price. Personally, I wouldn't buy a setting like that with a K color diamond.
But even if I picked out superior quality to what they offered, you'd still save quite a bit. I would recommend a ring like this, paired with a diamond like this. You end up with a far superior ring in every way possible (better color, better clarity, more diamond weight on setting) for $1,820. That is a whopping 36% cheaper for a far superior product. Not to mention, if you don't have it shipped to New York or Maryland, you wouldn't pay sales tax.
The salesperson really got on our nerves when she showed us a larger diamond to accompany that setting.
It took all the willpower we can muster to bite our tongues. After hearing all about Ben Bridge's focus on cut and how that is their highest priority, we were shown this terrible diamond; a horribly cut 1.006 I SI2 for $6,130 (including tax).
There is just no excuse for a company with a shred of respect to have this diamond, and its flat out embarrassing to have them show it to us after giving us their salesman BS lines about how important cut is.
If you take a look at a round diamond search on James Allen (or any other respectable site), you will see that about 90% of all diamonds listed receive an Excellent or Very Good cut grade from GIA (or a 0 or 1 cut grade from AGS). This diamond falls far below any of those.
It is scraping the bottom of the barrel. While you need to make sure the diamond is proportionate, the most important cut characteristic to focus on is depth. Not only will a deep diamond be less brilliant (an area the saleswoman claimed was the most important), but it will look smaller (as we explain in this article). This particular diamond is "off the charts" deep.
Now let's compare it this diamond with one I found online. Here is a beautiful 1.02 I SI2 I found on James Allen for 25% cheaper. The cut is head and shoulders above the diamond we saw in Ben Bridge. If you compare their diameters (their noticeable size), you will see that this diamond looks 5% larger AND it will be far more brilliant. They aren't in the same league.
I can't imagine any honest jeweler trying to sell the diamond that Ben Bridge was pushing. I certainly can't think of any justification for them selling such a terrible diamond at such an outrageous price.
We know that brick and mortar retailers just can't compete on price with a good online retailer. Their business model has way too much overhead built in to their system that the price has to be higher.
From there I like to break down brick and mortar companies into three categories. You have the elite luxury brands that are adding a level of "prestige" and packaging. You are paying a huge premium to say you bought the ring at Tiffany & Co or that you are wearing a Cartier ring.
Ben Bridge doesn't qualify on this account. The premiums they charge are just way too high. Their pricing seems to be on par with some of the elite luxury brands. Even during our better experience at Ben Bridge however, the level of service and luxury did not match the level of those luxury brands.


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text:
Professors spell h-e-l-p-i-n-g - RED - Relevant. Essential. Denver.
Professors spell h-e-l-p-i-n-g
MSU Denver continues contributing judges to Colorado bee.
By Doug McPherson
There's no doubting some MSU Denver professors' devotion to the annual Denver Post Colorado State Spelling Bee, where hundreds of elementary- and middle-schoolers strut their spelling skills.
And the latest bee, held March 10, was a good example – three of the four judges were MSU Denver professors. In fact, MSU Denver has had bee judges for decades.
"I think it's fantastic that MSU Denver takes part in them," says Andrew Pantos, J.D., Ph.D., associate professor in MSU Denver's Department of English. "It's great to be able to serve the Denver community and represent MSU Denver at the same time."
This year was Pantos' fourth time at the judges' table. "I was asked to help out by a fellow judge, and I enjoyed it," he says.
That judge was Pam Troyer, fellow MSU Denver English professor, who has judged Colorado's bee for 10 years. This year, she served as the head judge – the one who talks with the spellers if they ask for a word's language of origin, for example. The other judges are termed "dictionary judges" and research words to be used in the competition.
"I love doing it, and I have tremendous respect for students who come to spell and honor the rules," Troyer says. "We try to help them be their best selves. They take it seriously, so we want it to be as helpful as possible."
Another MSU Denver judge this year was David Mitchell, a scholar of Sanskrit and African American vernacular English.
Before those three professors, there was emeritus professor Ed Low, who's been with the bee for more than 25 years. He eventually became a judge for the Scripps National Bee held near Washington, D.C.
Another emeritus professor, Robin Quizar from MSU Denver's linguistics program, has judged the bee several times.
And Charlie Samson, a former instructor in MSU Denver's Music Department, has served as the word reader and master of ceremonies.
Plus, MSU Denver has sponsored several state bees, put on by the Denver Post Foundation.
Nearly 300 students took part in this year's contest. Angelina Holm, 11, claimed the crown of Colorado's top young speller and will advance to compete for a $40,000 cash prize in the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee in May. The winning word was "helminthiasis," which is an infestation of parasitic worms.
Over the 78-year history of Colorado students competing in the National Bee, a Colorado student has won the national title seven times: 1957, 1959, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1989 and 2002.