You are here: Home / Lifestyle / My Digital Nomad Experiment: 3 Months In... Is It Really Worth It?
I've been living in Mexico City and running my online business from my apartment here for just over 3 months now... So what's the verdict?
https://www.digitalprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/the-digital-nomad-lifestyle-3-month-update-thumb-blog.jpg 980 980 James Francis https://www.digitalprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/digital-prosperity-logo.png James Francis2018-10-10 12:03:242018-10-10 15:21:59My Digital Nomad Experiment: 3 Months In... Is It Really Worth It?
at least you didn't get kidnapped...ive seen man on fire.
James this is simply cool , I just love it! Enjoy!!
Hi James, thanks for pointing out the positives of Mexico City - parks, restaurants, and people. Good perspective that I was not aware of before, makes me want to visit there too!
Glad you liked it Jim! It's an amazing place for sure.
James, I am from Mexico, I will recommend you visit el castillo de chapultepec, Tacos el Farolito, El Moro eat churros con chocolate, Test tortas, The City has all kind of world restaurants, Te best beaches of the world are in Mexico, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Acapulco, Playa del Carmen en Yucatan, Cancun etc.
NOTE.- If you want to visit different restaurant each day you will need 50 years of your life.
Now I am US person The people that visit any City of mexico will loved.
Thanks Aaron! I agree - I've been to pretty much all of Chapultepec, ate the churros at El Moro, tortas and more - they're amazing. But I need to explore more beaches other than Cancun (which was incredible, nonetheless) for sure!
Hey James, really glad that you've been enjoying CDMX my man!
As a Mexican myself, I can tell you I was laughing (with you) in a few parts of your video because I've lived almost my entire life in Mexico (the country, not Mexico City itself although I once lived there for two years when I was pursuing a professional career in music) and I still can't get used to those damn sellers on the streets (I mean the ones that have pre-recorded audios).
We have people who are looking for metal parts and selling tamales but in my place, there are also people selling coconuts (which are very good btw but also annoying as hell when you want some quiet time), vegetables, fruits, brooms, mops and what not.
About tacos, I think you are familiar with the mexican cuisine by now, I strongly recommend you look for tacos de lengua (which is cow's tongue) super tasty and well worth to try them out!
About the tap water, there are many people who have installed filters in their kitchens so they never need to use "garrafones" (my parents' place has that system) but these are normally somewhat expensive and is not the common thing to do. Most people get water from garrafones (we do lol).
And about purchasing stuff from Amazon, the thing you can try, is to create a new Amazon account at the mexican site (the one that ends with .mx) and also get the free 30 days prime account (it's all different from the UK or US site, think of this as a new website).
You won't find anywhere near the same things you can find on the American or UK sites but if you can find something you'd like to purchase at the mexican site, you can be rest assured, you'll get it delivered as quick as next day, two days, etc.
I have both US and MX accounts and even though I can buy from the US and have delivered to Mexico (not all of the time though) if I can find it on the MX site and the price is not much difference, I'd rather buy it from the MX site and get it delivered ASAP.
Anyway, just my two cents on that.
Are you going to keep traveling the world after your CDMX visit ends? I've heard fantastic stuff from Chiang Mai, Thailand but if you're talking about language barriers, I think it's going to be even worse in there, their language is bananas but probably they speak a bit more English by now (tons of english speaking digital nomads in there).
Btw, about the language barrier in CDMX, if you ask people in the mid-low classes, chances are they won't speak the language (although some may actually surprise you) for people in the middle class and above, chances are they do speak English at least, probably not at a high level but enough to have a somewhat fluid conversation.
I live in Culiacan (Sinaloa state) and if I really make an effort to remember who doesn't speaks/understands English from all the people I know, I'd count about 10-20 people but I know quite a few hundreds so it really depends on where you are located.
Anyway, hope you continue to enjoy CDMX man, I lived there for two years and I still don't know much of it, it's a huge city with so much to offer for sure, take care!
Thanks for the advice Sergio - much appreciated!
Plus yeah, I've found that to be true about the middle and upper classes speaking English more than the lower classes too. All the more reason for me to become fluent in Spanish, I guess!
I really appreciate your post!! It left me laughing and thinking about all the places I've been over the years. I'm glad for your adjustments and enjoyment. If you decide to visit the USA North West, please wait until late April to September. While I imagine you were quite use to the rain in past years, their is much to see in the Northwest, especially in the early summer. Again, it was a great story. Look forward to your next post.
Sounds good Joe - thanks for the tip!
Great video! Lot's of interesting information. I hope I get to visit Mexico someday. Would esp. love to try the food, the beautiful beaches and meet the wonderful people. Thank you for sharing!
Great to hear your perspectives on Mexico James, especially as a Brit. Often wondered what it's like living/ working there. Especially interested since I've done things the opposite way round; loads of travel (hence Route1Million) & now looking to move utilise much of that experience into online'. Hopefully I'll be able to work with you on some eliments in 2019, if you're still 'on the grid' long enough!
The Best Customer Service Software? Finding Profitable Niches LIVE!


TMP's mission is "Enriching lives through the art form of musical theater." Our vision is to provide the members of the Puget Sound region, a year-round opportunity to enjoy the uniquely American form of musical theater, the highest-attended art form in the United States. From traditional Broadway to contemporary productions, the opportunities for our patrons are versatile. The core values of TMP are to produce the highest quality in all musical theater aspects including: acting, singing, choreography, and technical/backstage.
TMP could not achieve these lofty goals without our patrons and communities support. Ticket sales only cover 75% of our operating budget. The other 25% must come from YOU! TMP relies on foundations, corporations, government funding, special events and individuals donors like YOU who care about TMP and its contribution to our vibrant community in the Puget Sound.
There are many ways you can support TMPs mission now and long into the future. Listed below are ways you can give and how your gifts have made TMP into the largest community theater in the four-state northwest region and among the top twelve in our nations.
The TMP Annual Fund maintains our various theater programs and you benefit greatly from your generous gifts.
The CampTMP youth scholarship program which helps develop a passion for the arts in our future performers as well as new arts advocates in our South Puget Sound region; giving them the opportunity to shine in our stage lights.
The free senior musical theater program, the Young at Heart Players; providing a professional instructor, music and dance instruction while performing a musical that will appeal to the young at heart but at no cost to the participant.
Supports the last 25% of the costs to do excellent musical theater.
Be part of TMP's fmaily and keep world class musical theater alive in your own backyard!
The youth scholarship program provides instruction to those families who would otherwise be unable to afford performing arts instruction for their children.Theater builds confidence, empathy and teamwork, and keeps our youth active and healthy. These are lifetime skills that will carry into their active adult lives.
By giving to the Youth scholarship fund, you provide an opportunity to put a smile on a child's face as they shine in the lights on TMP's stage.
In 2004, TMP established an Endowment to help further our mission and build a lasting foundation that will provide funds long into TMP's future. When you provide gifts to this permanent fund through a bequest in your will or estate planning, they are continually invested to ensure generations to come will have TMP in the South Puget Sound region.
Please contact the TMP Development Department to help you with these arrangements.
Tacoma Musical Playhouse began as a nomadic company roaming from venue to venue. Then in 1996 the opportunity to lease the Narrows Theater from the Pecchia family became available. During 2001, TMP was able to purchase our own facility. We have made a number of improvements from Phase I where we added new public restrooms, the upper lobby with concessions and an office and a new actor's greenroom and dressing rooms to the just completed Phase II which expanded the stage, added backstage and an actor's crossing hall and greatly improved the old movie theater's acoustics in the auditorium. There's still so much to do….


text:
Loren Steffy
A few thoughts on Christopher Hitchens
By Loren Steffy on December 16, 2011 at 8:53 AM
I only knew Christopher Hitchens, who died last night in Houston, through his writing, and for a long time I didn't even read much of what he wrote. I didn't know he was an atheist or a reformed socialist until much later. I stumbled across Hitchens' writing in the 1980s, soon after he wrote a book titled simply Cyprus. I found it, as I recall, in a public library somewhere, sometime after it was published in 1984. It was Hitchens' first book.
I was drawn to it because Hitchens was one of the few Western writers — in fact the only Western writer I'd found at the time — who paid attention to the 1974 war that divided Cyprus. I cared because my family and I had lived in what's now the Turkish-controlled part of northern Cyprus. We had moved back the U.S. in 1973, although my father had returned to Cyprus at the time war erupted, and we spent a harrowing 10 days or so trying to find out what had happened to him.
I was a child during all of that, and as young man, I still had a poor understanding of the politics that had led to the "Cyprus situation" or the lack of resolution that persists to this day. Here was a book that provided some insights. One particular quote from it, President Lyndon Johnson referring to Cyprus as "a flea" still makes me angry. (Ironically, Johnson also referred to the U.S. as "an elephant.") His point may have been politically logical, but that "flea" changed my life, and I still find such a callous disregard for its future and its people galling.
Hitchens' book not only shed insight on the conflict and how it came about, it laid bare the political machinations of the Cold War and the role that both the U.S. and Great Britain — as well as Greece and Turkey — played in the Cyprus conflict. It was many years later that I stumbled across his writing in, as I recall, The Atlantic. I must admit I've never read any of his other books, and only occasionally read his magazine essays, but I have a copy of his reissued book on Cyprus, later expanded and retitled: Hostage to History: Cyprus from the Ottomans to Kissinger, on my bookshelf.
Hitchens spent a good part of his early career writing about people and places that were overlooked by the rest of the world, and although he will be more remembered for controversial later years and writings, I will always be grateful that he took the time help me understand what happened in a place I once called home.
3. Ethanol law has become a mandate to nowhere
Drowning in Oil: BP and the Reckless Pursuit of Profit
The Man Who Thought Like a Ship
My business column
1. Tall tax bills loom for Houston office towers
2. Dell's legacy lost
4. Cyprus bailout a turning point for U.S. investors
5. Accountants warned: felonies are forever
LorenSteffy.com
Get Loren Steffy blog e-mail alerts

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


It's hard to believe that we're starting to round out another year. Feels like we blinked and Christmas is already here. But it's been a good one, even with everything that has happened. It's been a beautiful year. As we head into 2017 I'll be back over here sharing more sessions from 2016, more smiles, more belly laughs, and more hugs.


Just when you thought it was safe to go to the opera.
blood curdling screams with lots of comic relief.
such as Frankenstein and The Exorcist.
"Dark Show Makes Light of Dramatic Divas"
"O Happy Dagger: Fresco Mixes Frankenstein and Faust"


Here's a sickening fact: "The average woman shaves 7,718 times in her lifetime", and it's no picnic for men either—though if we're all being honest we probably wouldn't gasp at the sight of a man's hairy leg, armpit or worse…chin! Whether your female or male, we all tend to have certain parts of our body that we'd prefer to be hair-less.
You've probably already gone through the tried and tested methods of shaving, plucking, waxing, or perhaps the ghastly fumigation otherwise known as Nair; but no matter how hard you try that hair just seems to grow back, and with a vengeance! You've probably also heard of (or even tried) the miracle hair removal known as 'IPL' or 'laser hair removal', and depending on when you had that done, that experience could either be great, or little short of a horror story. The initial wave of laser hair removal got a bit of a reputation for being painful or very uncomfortable, but a lot has changed since then. In fact, the technology is so advanced that many people feel little to no pain at all, to which many clients are surprised after years of trying the previously mentioned old school techniques.
At Clinic Visjeune we have made it our mission to source and provide the highest quality hair removal treatments for you guys, and with that, allow us to introduce the 'Diode Laser'. Unlike IPL (which is a great alternative for some skin types), the Diode laser uses a highly effective laser—not a light—that blasts the unwanted hair follicles at the source. The intense beam kills the hair cells in approximately half the time of IPL, and is proven to have longer lasting results for all skin types.
Just imagine, in as little as 6-8 sessions (depending on the area being treated) you could be free of your unwanted hair for good! And to incentivise more people to come and try this amazing treatment, we are offering Diode Laser services for the same price as regular waxing.
Winter is really the best time to enjoy Diode Laser hair removal, as your skin will naturally be that tad more sensitive to direct sunlight post treatment—not to mention the fact that you would be silky smooth in time for summer.
So the real question is; are you ready to get rid of your unwanted hair for good?
SPECIAL OFFER: 50% OFF* Diode Laser Hair Removal, that's the same price as waxing!


The mayo war was over before it even began.
Unilever, the multinational food giant behind Best Foods and Hellman's mayonnaise, said Thursday that it was withdrawing a lawsuit against vegan start-up Hampton Creek.
The move comes less than six weeks after Unilever sued Hampton Creek for false advertising, alleging the San Francisco company's Just Mayo sandwich spread was not real mayonnaise because it didn't contain eggs.
The suit generated enormous media attention for the largely unknown Hampton Creek, which boasts high-powered financial backing from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest tycoon.
"It's been incredibly powerful to tell our story to millions of people," said Josh Tetrick, founder and chief executive of Hampton Creek.
"My instinct all along was that Unilever would step back and ask if this was the kind of company they wanted to be, and to their credit, they said 'no,' and that's a pretty awesome thing," he added.
Unilever released a brief press statement saying that it withdrew the lawsuit so that Hampton Creek could address its labeling directly with "industry groups and appropriate regulatory authorities."
A spokesperson for the company did not respond to a request to elaborate on the announcement.
Tetrick, who has no intention of changing his labeling, said he believed Unilever would no longer pursue a name change for Just Mayo. He cited discussions his company had with Unilever since the lawsuit was filed Oct. 31.
"We applaud Hampton Creek's commitment to innovation and its inspired corporate purpose," said Mike Faherty, Vice President for Foods, Unilever North America, in a written statement. "We share a vision with Hampton Creek of a more sustainable world. It is for these reasons that we believe Hampton Creek will take the appropriate steps in labeling its products going forward."
Tetrick founded Hampton Creek to create an alternative to industrialized foods that rely on animal byproducts. In addition to the vegan mayonnaise, the company makes a brand of cookie dough without eggs called Just Cookies.
Unilever's announcement comes on the same day Hampton Creek said it had secured $90 million in a new round of funding.
Unilever, a British-Dutch company that owns an array of consumer goods brands, rang up nearly $70 billion in sales last year.
Follow @dhpierson for food business news.


We've covered the .38 Spl. ammunition available from SIG Sauer Ammunition previously. SIG Ammo also has the bigger brother available, with a 125-grain, 1,450 fps practice/plinking round now available for the .357 Mag.
We're fans of practicing with ammunition similar to that which one carries in one's duty or CCW firearm, and having the same bullet weight and velocity goes a long way toward that goal. With quality practice fodder available, the more expensive JHP ammo can be reserved for occasional use.
Even with revolvers, though, it's a good idea to shoot "the good stuff" on a periodic basis, although not quite as critical as with a semi-auto. As a general rule, if the copper jacket is starting to tarnish, that's a great time to get it to the range and re-familiarize yourself with how the defensive rounds shoot.
MSRP: $19.32/box of 50 FMJ rounds.


Gifted Grub 2" Glow (12 Pack) – Smartbaits Inc.
From pan fish to bass to muskie, every angler alive knows that a grub is a 'fish catching fool'. The Gifted Grub with SpectraBurst® technology will enable you to have the 'lure of lures' with you all of the time.
Dazzlin' Pink to Blazin' Orange - This is one of the brightest glow baits that fish can't resist!
Electric Green to Blazin' Green - The best blow bait for pickerel, bass and pike. This amazing glowing color will reel 'em in!
White to Blazin' Blue - These glow baits will drive fish wild with an alluring blue glow!
Each package contains 12 pieces of the same color changing glowbait style. To order, select a color and then add it to your cart.


Henry David Thoreau explained his famous sojourn at Walden Pond with the words, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately … and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." The word "deliberately" means not only intentionally or on purpose; it also means with care and attention, and without hurry.
As Friends, we attempt to live by testimonies that require such deliberation from us. In accordance with Simplicity, we try to choose our material possessions and our activities with care, avoiding excess and waste. In accordance with Integrity, we reach toward wholeness and consistency, toward a deliberate harmony of intention and action. In accordance with Peace, we seek a gentle, patient, and respectful approach to others and to ourselves; we try to be attentive, not rushing to judgement, not being driven by our fears or frustrations.
Through all of our actions in the world we express our understanding of the meaning of our lives. Yet when we come to a point where we are no longer able to be doing as much—when we get sick, or exhausted, or very old—we may need to discover how to live our testimonies less through doing than through being. The challenges we face inwardly are just as powerful as those that we gave our efforts to when we were more active outwardly. Instead of working for social and political justice and peace in the face of great human suffering, we are seeking equanimity and generosity of spirit while encountering, perhaps, other forms of suffering and struggle within ourselves. "Living deliberately," both outwardly and inwardly, is essential to the well‐being of this world, and to the wholeness of each individual over a lifetime.
When we find ourselves "in the woods" of a life‐changing illness, we certainly have not gone there intentionally in the same sense that Henry David Thoreau went to the woods at Walden Pond. But our lives then may be more deliberate than they have ever been before. Our day‐to‐day experience of living must be slower, and it may require all of the care and attention that we have to give. There is some benefit to this deliberation, some essential meaning like that which Henry David Thoreau found, although it may come to us against our will or intent, through suffering and loss.
During times of illness, especially progressive illness that may eventually be fatal, many things that we have previously considered essential to our very identity may be called into question. Much of what we have been and known may no longer be available to us. Our ability to be of use in externally measurable ways may be diminished to the point where we no longer know who we are, or no longer believe we have anything to offer. When this occurs, we may feel that we are ready to die, and we may actually be ready to die, but in the time that remains, however long or short, we may also choose to seek new ways to live. A new way, now, amounts to a new self-definition—a new understanding of what is essential. Instead of offering the world our energy in action, we may now offer our simple presence, our attention, our deliberation.
In a sense, when we are ill, we find ourselves limited to a simple, bare cabin surrounded by forest. It is a cabin we have built for ourselves, out of the experiences, strengths, and knowledge we have accumulated—but it is unfurnished, or furnished with very little that is familiar to us. The comfortable armchairs of our material and professional successes will not fit here. We have no electricity for appliances, no extra energy to fuel our various commitments. The fat trunk full of our public costumes and our memories is too heavy to drag over the threshold. There is no space for the dining room table where our many friends and acquaintances would gather for meals.
Like Henry David Thoreau, we may have only one straight chair for ourselves, a second one "for company," a cot, a narrow desk, and a stove. A door and a window look out on the surrounding woods. We did not create this woodland, we did not bring it with us intentionally, but this is where we have come. And how will we live here? Deliberately, indeed.
In the years since my own illness, I've worked closely with others who are ill or grieving, as a hospice volunteer and bereavement counselor. Most recently, I've begun a project called "Compass Points," which offers spiritual direction and support to those with life‐threatening or life‐changing illnesses and their caregivers. In this work there are two premises: first, that it is possible to find meaning in the midst of even the worst illness; and second, that the hardships of such illnesses are not to be underestimated.
What does it mean "to live deliberately"? Perhaps the answer is ultimately the same for all of us, but I'll speak for myself. To me, living deliberately means looking directly at what is in front of me—at what is essential, unavoidable, evident. When I was sickest, I soon discovered that bitterness and longing for another life were a waste of the precious life that was present in this moment. I wanted to get well, wanted to heal—but healing did not mean always reaching toward a time when my symptoms might go away, or fearing (or wishing) that I might die. Healing meant seeking wholeness in each hour, and building my hope for any future health on the strong foundation of an immediate, moment‐to‐moment love and respect for the life I had.
Even in the moments when life seemed simply miserable, I found that my willingness to be present to the pain, to offer my care and attention even when I was afraid, could open up new meaning and a paradoxical joy. I found myself opening to others as I opened to the realities of my own experience. Compassion is a willingness to remain fully present in the face of suffering. When I do not flinch from experiencing my own pain, learning it, and knowing it, then I do not have to respond with "fight or flight" avoidance tactics when I encounter pain in others. I can stay; I can offer my whole attention and genuinely be of service.
Now that I am healthier, I continue to try to live deliberately, remembering, as much as possible, to attend to the life I have before me, within me, all around me. When I work with a client, my primary intention is to be present with that person as fully as possible. Can I listen with my whole attention and care? Can I wait through silences without withdrawing or intruding? Can I really be here with another human being, even when that human being is suffering? How can I allow whatever is happening to happen without judging, without trying to turn it into something else? When I'm with another person or only with myself, I ask questions. Not questions that require answers or blaze new trails, but questions that follow the path that is already there.
In times of illness, the possible directions may be reduced to a very few. The energy for pursuing any particular path is so limited that it is necessary to move slowly, taking small steps, conscious of every breath, noticing every change in the texture of the ground and the surroundings. The cabin of everyday experience is small and stark. The woods are close. But maybe there's a trail leading from the doorway, sloping very gently downward, toward the shining water of the pond. It is possible to walk this way, or, if not to walk, then at least to look and see the reflected light between the trees, not too far off. Deliberately, slowly, and with close attention, I try to turn in that direction.
When our lives are busy and distracting there's little time to live deliberately; to really listen; to take tiny, careful steps down a slow slope to the pond just for the sake of looking, breathing, being. Because we do have some control over most aspects of our daily lives when we are relatively young and healthy, we learn to depend on that control, learn to exercise it as if that will strengthen it. But, really, our control is limited, and finally, we do not make things happen, we only attend to their happening and give ourselves over to the situation or not. We can resist, and that resistance may be satisfying for a while, but when all resistance fails, as it ultimately will, where do we find our joy? What do we have to give? How do I live deliberately, so that when I come to die I will not "discover that I had not lived"?
For some kinds of pain there are solutions. For some kinds of problems, there are options. But for certain situations, certain pains and problems, nothing can be done. Finally, when we come to die, there is nothing to do, nothing to change. And yet, when there are no alternatives, when there is no control to be exercised, no resistance to be summoned up, then what is life? Just this.
It is possible to notice the pain, or the sadness, or the anger, or the exhaustion, and just let it be. Or to notice the joy, the smell of the air, the presence of another person, the beating of your heart. This is what life has been all along. The pain comes and goes; the joy comes and goes. The weather outside the window changes. And there is something to see, something to experience in itself, for itself, as long as it lasts. Then, if options appear again, if there are things to be done, we choose and we act as we can. Whether there is something that we can do or not, living deliberately means living fully.
As Henry David Thoreau was dying of tuberculosis at the age of 44, someone spoke to him about the nearness of his death and asked if he could see "the other shore." Thoreau replied, "One world at a time." Even in the midst of weakness and pain and grief, we may take each breath deliberately, experience this world simply as it comes to us, from the perspective of our limited lives. While we are here, this world is everything, and there is still time to inhabit it with all we have, with all we are.
Kirsten Backstrom is a member of Multnomah Meeting in Portland, Oreg. She is the author of a Pendle Hill Pamphlet, In Beauty: A Quaker Approach to End-of-Life Care.


Since 2011 Joanna has released three critically acclaimed albums, her fourth, "Blood and Bone" was released in 2017. "Gardens In My Mind", (her third album, released in 2016), features pianist Dan Tepfer and the award-winning Sacconi Quartet, showcasing Joanna's "crystalline delivery" (Downbeat) and lush string quartet writing. Downbeat gave this album four stars, calling it "an exquisite singer-songwriter album", while PopMatters called it "a truly beautiful listen from start to finish".


Cream with high-quality skin caring substances (phosphatidylcholine, shea butter, ceramide, squalane, natural moisturizers), without emulsifiers.
White, easily spreading and fast penetrating cream, revitalizing the skin without leaving oil shine.
When the skin care is just being adapted from preparations containing mineral oils and emulsifiers to DMS® products the skin may possibly feel dry at first which then is followed by a feeling of a pleasantly soft and fine-porous skin surface.


Have your child review the agenda each day to make sure he or she knows what homework assignments need to be completed. Related articles: Study smarter with the complete study toolkit Make homework and studying less stressful with study schedule templates, study session tips, and more. Be as specific as you can.
Getting the recommended amount of sleep will help make sure your child is ready to tackle another day of school and homework assignments.
If your child is struggling with homework, make a list of questions he or she can take to the teacher to get the help needed to understand the assignment. The tutor was able to guide me from there and break down the steps and I got the answer all on my own and the tutor double checked it Perhaps a tutor is needed. Don't Leave School Without Being how to relieve homework stress to talk to someone and have them walk you through the steps on how to solve a problem is a huge weight lifted off of my shoulder.
These adults do not have the time or the energy to help their children with homework.
Certification Requirements for U. Expand the segment time if your child is concentrating well. I was freaking out and stressed out about the entire assignment, but she really helped me to pull it together. Get The Toolkit Most parents know homework can become a regular struggle.
Review your agenda regularly Your child should have an agenda where he or she writes down all homework and assignments given by the teacher.
Get an On-Demand Tutor Feeling overwhelmed by your nightly homework grind? Recent Posts.
Designate a Homework Location Create a dedicated and consistent homework locationin a quiet spot with good lighting, for homework to be done each day. This gives kids the opportunity to better understand the material by teaching it to each other and working through any questions as a team. It can also lead to your child procrastinating on his or her homework or how to relieve homework stress not completing itcreating an ongoing cycle of stress.
Our tutors will help you break the pattern, and learn ways to study more efficiently: Many students come from homes where parents are working more than one job to support the family. It edna staebler personal essay contest like my eyes have opened up.
We help students succeed in high school and beyond by giving them resources for better grades, better test scores, and stronger college applications. If your child becomes distracted during a segment of work, tap him on the shoulder, comments on well he is doing, and re-alert the brain to the task at hand.
Discuss an after-school medication dose with your child's doctor. Once your child knows what to do, leave him to complete homework independently. Help your child establish a list of partner classmates or "study buddies" with whom he can check backpacks before leaving school, and call or text with questions about the assignments.
I have so much confidence for my midterms that Problem solving information and tips was so stressed out about. The Effects Of Homework Stress On Students The effects of too much homework can include higher levels of stress and frustration for students.
Experiment to determine whether your child concentrates best in silence or with white noise. Emphasize the daily routine of checking the assignment sheet before leaving class to make sure all the necessary materials are in the backpack.
Check for Understanding Explain the homework and have students repeat the directions back in their own words.
Assess it There are many different ways to assess this homework. I wasn't even with her maybe 30 minutes or so, and she helped me figure out what I have been stressing over for the past almost two days. Teaching Read now.
Sometimes as a teacher, I take things for granted. Homework anxiety can become a self-fulfilling prophecy: Make sure there is a valid reason for the students to be doing this assignment. Ask the teacher to review or sign your child's homework planner before class ends.
Speak to the teacher. Some teachers record daily assignments on their website, blog, or voicemail, as well.
Use a Timer Timers are great tools for daydreamers. Vary the time per subject to meet eric gill an essay on typography first edition child's needs. Rule out television, screen time, or music with words during homework time.
Children years old should get 9 to 11 hours of sleep each night, while teenagers need 8 to 10 hours of sleep. Have your child review the agenda each day to make sure he or she knows what homework assignments need to be completed. Parents will appreciate this too so they can see what answer the teacher is expecting.


Dave's style of jazz is modern/mainstream. He plays tenor and baritone sax as well as clarinet and bass clarinet.
Based in Chester, he is the leader of the "Dave Roberts Quartet" which can be heard at jazz venues in Cheshire, Lancashire and North Wales.
He is particularly well known for his baritone playing, having been influenced by the legendary Gerry Mulligan. On tenor saxophone Dave reveres the playing of Stanley Turrentine and on clarinet he is inspired by the great Buddy De Franco.
All website content is copyright Dave Roberts - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Website developed by Tantrumedia Ltd.


text:
Colossus Minerals Intersects High Grade Gold Values in Diamond Drilling at Elefante
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Jan. 10, 2013) - Colossus Minerals Inc.(TSX:CSI)(OTCQX:COLUF) reports assay results from the recent diamond drilling program on the Elefante area where earlier in the year auger drilling had returned values of gold, platinum and palladium. The Elefante area is located approximately two kilometres to the southeast of the Serra Pelada Gold-Platinum-Palladium Mine. The Serra Pelada Mine is a 75%/25% joint venture between Colossus and Cooperativa de Mineração dos Garimpeiros de Serra Pelada (COOMIGASP) located in the State of Pará,Brazil.
Precious metal values are near surface
Possible new exploration target model as the samples containing precious metals lack the strong carbon upgrading associated with the mineralization at the Serra Pelada Mine
Mineralization is currently open in all directions as preliminary four-hole program tested a small proportion of surface anomalies
Hole EL-12-001 contained the highest overall gold value and returned 5.70 metres grading 5.41 g/t gold, 0.04 g/t platinum and 0.29 g/tpalladium
Hole EL-12-002 contained the highest overall platinum and palladium values and returned 5.10 metres grading 0.45 g/t gold, 1.27 g/t platinum and 2.04 g/tpalladium
Claudio Mancuso , CEO of Colossus commented, "We conducted this limited drill program to explore the possibility that mineralization encountered in previous soil and auger sampling programs continue into the bedrock. While we remain focused on development of the Central Mineralized Zone ("CMZ") where we continue progressing well with bulk sample extraction, we are encouraged by these results and anticipate that further exploration could lead to development of a satellite deposit. The area has seen little diamond drilling by Colossus and will be further explored in 2013. We look forward to providing an update on the progression of the bulk sample and other development activities in the next few weeks."
The Elefante area is located approximately two kilometres to the southeast of the Serra Pelada Mine (click the following link to view the accompanying map:http://file.marketwire.com/release/CSIfig1.pdf). The bedrock in the Elefante Area consists of Archean aged (2.68 billion year old) sediments belonging to the Rio Fresco Formation which also hosts the Serra Pelada orebody.
This release reports assay results for four HQ caliber diamond drill holes totaling 365 metres that were drilled in November and December 2012. The drilling program was a follow-up on encouraging precious metal results that came from an auger drilling program carried out over the Elefante area between January and May 2012 (see press release dated August 20, 2012 for details).
The objective of the diamond drilling program was to verify if the results that were encountered in soil sampling and auger drill hole programs were bedrock sourced. The mechanical auger cannot penetrate bedrock and can only drill to resistance (which usually means it ends in saprolite or the deeply weathered portion of the bedrock which lies just above the fresh bedrock). Auger drilling campaigns that preceded the diamond drilling program managed to outline a low grade (greater than or equal to 1 g/t combined gold + platinum + palladium) anomalous area roughly 200 metres long in an almost east-west direction and approximately 100 metres wide in a north-south direction (see map inset). Within this broad envelope lies a well defined, higher grade isocontour that was the main target of the diamond drilling program which tested an area roughly 25 meters (east-west) by 50 metres (north-south).
All four diamond drill holes returned values of gold, platinum and palladium with hole EL-12-001 returning the highest grade gold values of 12.64 g/t and 6.34 g/t while hole EL-12-002 returned the best overall platinum and palladium results with 1.27 g/t and 2.04 g/trespectively including a 1.25 metre interval that returned 0.07 g/t gold, 3.67 g/t platinum and 5.89 g/tpalladium. These results confirm that mineralization encountered in the soil and auger sampling programs conducted prior to the diamond drilling program continue into bedrock. The Elefante area has seen little drilling by Colossus and will be followed up in 2013.
A complete listing of results can be found in Table 1 below.
TABLE 1: ASSAY RESULTS
Area Drill-hole ID From (m) To
(m) Interval* (m) Gold (g/t) Platinum (g/t) Palladium (g/t)
Elefante EL-12-001 8.10 12.70 4.60 0.08 0.29 1.03
and 17.10 22.80 5.70 5.41 0.04 0.29
Including** 17.10 18.80 1.70 12.64 0.07 0.47
including 18.80 19.80 1.00 6.34 0.02 0.32
Elefante EL-12-002 28.95 34.05 5.10 0.45 1.27 2.04
*Core lengths reported here. Intercepts determined on a 1 g/t (gold+platinum+palladium) cut-off grade for the purpose of this release.
** Less than 50% core recovery.
While minor amounts of carbon have been identified in outcrops during the mapping of the Elefante area and some minor carbon identified during core logging, no significant carbon upgrading similar to that identified with the CMZ at the Serra Pelada Mine could be reported in the Elefante drill holes even though they returned values of gold, platinum and palladium. This indicates that the classic "Burro Preto" zone which is associated to the CMZ at the Serra Pelada Mine may not be the only readily identifiable marker for mineralization in this type of sediment. Once the geology and the occurrence of precious metal mineralization at the Elefante area are better understood, a new exploration target for mineralization on the Serra Pelada property may develop.
The results are currently being interpreted and the immediate focus of the follow-up drilling will be to expand the known zone and define its limits.
Serra Pelada Geology
Gold-platinum-palladium mineralization at Serra Pelada overprints metasediments occupying the hinge of a large fold. The CMZ comprises mainly a steep dipping carbonaceous alteration zone in the fold hinge that also extends onto the upper and lower limbs of the fold for a limited distance. The Lower Limb represents shallow-dipping, gold-platinum-palladium mineralization predominantly associated with an iron oxide rich breccia as well as iron oxide rich argillic alteration and locally carbonaceous alteration on the lower limb of the main fold. The upper limb mineralization is characterized by an iron oxide rich breccia similar to that found in the Lower Limb. The lithologies containing mineralization at the Elefante area do not share the same characteristics or degree of alteration as the typical ore zone at the Serra Pelada Mine and may represent a new target for ore on the property.
Diamond drilling was HQ cored. Sampling of core by Colossus personnel and sample preparation by Intertek Limited, Parauapebas and/or SGS Geosol, Parauapebas, Brazilwere carried out under strict protocols recommended in the National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report dated January 31, 2010 on the Serra Pelada Project. After photographing and logging, core sample intervals were cut and/or split in half, yielding samples of various weights depending on the sample length. Where core recoveries were low, intervals were composited to yield approximately one kilogram minimum sample mass. Intertek and SGS Geosol pulverize one or two kilogram splits (>95% passing 106 microns) from the crushed (>95% passing 1.7 mm), dried samples. Duplicates, blanks and certified gold-PGE reference materials were inserted in the sample train by Colossus personnel prior to Intertek preparation work.
The labs insert additional blanks, duplicates and high grade gold/PGE reference materials in the assay stream and replicate or duplicate assays were performed routinely and on most medium- to high-grade materials. Fire assays for gold, platinum and palladium were on 25 gram subsamples utilizing a lead-rich collector material and AA finish.
The Intertek and SGS Geosol assay results for blanks, duplicates, replicates and also all reference materials were well within generally accepted QA/QC measures.
Graham Long , Vice President, Exploration of Colossus, is a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for this release and has verified the contents disclosed.
Colossus is a development-stage mining company focused on bringing its 75% ownedSerra Pelada Gold-Platinum-Palladium Mine to production. The Serra Pelada Mine is a joint venture between Colossus and Cooperativa de Mineração dos Garimpeiros de Serra Pelada (COOMIGASP) located in the State of Pará, Brazil. Serra Pelada, located in the mineral prolific Carajas region in the State of Pará, Brazil, is host to one of the highest grade gold and platinum group metals deposits in the world. Between 1980 and 1986 Serra Pelada was host to the largest precious metals rush in Latin American history.Colossus Minerals shares, warrants and notes trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange(TSX) under the symbols CSI, CSI.WT.A and CSI.NT respectively and in the United Statesits Common Shares trade on the OTCQX under the symbol COLUF. The Company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.


text:
Q: ffmpeg adding subtitles with options Hi I'm having trouble adding options to subtitles: I can only add 1 attribute.
ffmpeg -i "video.mp4" -vf 'subtitles=subtitles.srt:force_style=Fontname=Z003,PrimaryColour=&HCCFF0000' -y "out.mp4"
Not working.
in https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#subtitles-1 is:
"ASS style format KEY=VALUE couples separated by ","."
but the sample script does not work. The script works only with 1 attribute, example:
ffmpeg -i "video.mp4" -vf 'subtitles=subtitles.srt:force_style=Fontname=Z003' -y "out.mp4"
Works.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Originally, I wanted to add white subtitles on a black background to the video.

A: Should be:
"subtitles=\'<srt_path>\':force_style='FontName=Z003,PrimaryColour=&HCCFF0000&'"

Note the double quote around the whole subtitles part, and the trailing ampersand of the PrimaryColour.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
\section{Introduction}

Regardless  of the controversial and widespread use of citation based  measures as a  quantitative proxy of a paper's importance \cite{Merton_1973,Price_1975,Radicchi_2008,Radicchi_2009,Uzzi_2013,Ioannidis_2014},   the study of citations seems to have acquired a life of its own \cite{Mingers_2015}.  In fact,  citation networks,  citation distributions and citation dynamics are topics that range over  most of the issues addressed by the  science of complexity. In addition,  the large citation datasets, which unfortunately are rarely freely accessible,  makes the subject very
attractive since, contrary to  most complex systems problems, the theories about citation patterns can  readily be  tested against empirical data \cite{Redner_1998,Redner_2005,Wallace_2009}.

A remarkable outcome of the quantitative study of the   citation patterns is the realization that starkly different citation histories,  such as
the rare `sleeping beauties' (i.e., papers that are not cited  for a long while and then suddenly become popular \cite{van2004sleeping,ke2015defining}) or the  more common  `shooting stars' (i.e., papers that are highly cited initially but die quickly), can be explained by tunning a few parameters of mechanistic models of the citation dynamics \cite{Mingers_2008,Min_2018,Wang_2013}.  A seemingly  natural mechanistic model  to describe the spread of ideas in the academia is the SIR epidemic model  \cite{Bettencourt_2006}, which, however, has not yet been applied  to the analysis of the citation histories of individual papers.

Accordingly, here we use  the SIR epidemic model to fit the  number of citations  received over a period of 15 years by 300 hit papers  published in 6 selected APS  journals. We define hit papers as the 50 most cited papers published  from 2000 to 2003 in each  of those journals. The data used in our analysis is from the American Physical Society Data Sets for Research (available upon request at \cite{APS_Dataset}), which  include only internal citations, i.e., citations to papers published in APS journals   from  papers  published  in APS  journals as well. In  Sec.\ \ref{sec:dataset}, we offer a brief overview of the APS Dataset.

The epidemiological parameters of the SIR epidemic  model have a direct interpretation in terms of the citation dynamics, as we explain in great detail in Sec.\ \ref{sec:model}. Following the maxim `citations beget citations'  we assume that the citations of a given paper are promoted   by  a certain number of influential papers whose bibliographies include that  paper and whose potential to influence yet-to-be-written papers  to cite it is determined by the transmission parameter $\beta$. Papers cease to be influential at a rate $\gamma$.   The ratio $R_0 = \beta/\gamma$ is very close to 1 for most of the hit papers considered here, so that the `shooting stars'  and the `sleeping beauties' citation patterns are obtained for large and small  values of $\beta$, respectively.   An  epidemiological parameter of particular interest is the  potential maximum  number of citations $S_0$ a hit paper can receive, which yields an estimate of the size of the community that could in principle cite that paper.   The
SIR model allows the ready estimate of the total number of  citations a paper ever acquires  $\Upsilon_\infty \leq  S_0$, which can be seen  as the ultimate impact of a paper \cite{Wang_2013}. The relative ultimate impact $\Upsilon_\infty/S_0$  happens to depend  on the basic reproductive number $R_0 $ only.

The distributions of the epidemiological parameters for each selected journal enables the ranking of the journals using  their medians, as we describe in Sec. \ref{sec:rank}. In particular,  the ranks produced by the medians of the distributions of the parameters $S_0$ and $\beta$  interchanges  the position of two journals  only in comparison with  the Impact Factor (IF) rank \cite{Garfield_2006}. In general, however, the higher the IF of a journal is, the less its relative ultimate impact.

\section{APS Dataset}\label{sec:dataset}

The APS Dataset comprises citing article pairs and article metadata of about $636000$  papers published in  $17$ journals of the American Physical Society from $1893$ to $2018$ \cite{APS_Dataset}.
The first  journal, \textit{Physical Review}, ceased publication  in $1969$, and the most recent  journal in the dataset, \textit{Physical Review Materials}, was launched  in $2017$.

With more than one century of existence, the APS journals lived through the World War I and the World War II. The total number of papers
published per year  in the APS journals shown in the upper panel of  Fig.\ \ref{fig1_APS} reveals the  distinct  impact these two major events had on the academic
productivity of the physicists.   Whereas WWI caused no discernible changes on the number of papers published in the \textit{Physical Review}, most likely because this journal was not yet the main publication choice of  the European physicists,    WWII caused a sharp drop on the number of published papers, which reflects the worldwide disruption this event  produced in all activities unrelated to warfare.   More importantly, this panel shows  that the number of published papers grows at an exponential rate \cite{Price_1975}, which probably prompted the splitting of the \textit{Physical Review Series II}
into \textit{Physical Review A}, \textit{B}, \textit{C}, and \textit{D} in 1970. Nevertheless, the exponential growth trend   continued for the offspring journals, leading to the current difficulty of physicists to keep pace with the advances of their own research subfields \cite{Larsen_2010,Landhuis_2016}.  The  lower panel of Fig.\ \ref{fig1_APS} shows the number of papers published in the APS journals we will consider in this paper. In addition to the journals already mentioned, the panel includes the  \textit{Physical Review Letters} that was introduced in 1958 and the
\textit{Physical Review E} that  was launched in 1993. For completeness, we also include in the panel  the  \textit{Physical Review, Series II} which replaced the \textit{Physical Review, Series I} and was active from $1913$ to $1969$.  Those are the $7$ APS journals with the largest number of papers published since $1913$.

\begin{figure}[t!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{fig1.pdf}
\caption{Number of papers published in all APS journals from $1893$ to $2018$  (upper panel). The dashed straight line is  the fitting function $f(x) = a \exp \left [ (x - 1900)/b \right ]$ with  $a = 63$ and $b = 18$.  The lower panel shows the number of papers published in
 \textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ Series II} ($\circ$),  \textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett. } ($\triangledown$), \textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ A} ($\triangle$), \textit{B} ($\triangleright$), \textit{C} ($\triangleleft$), \textit{ D} ($\Box$) and  \textit{E} ($\diamond$).
}
\label{fig1_APS}
\end{figure}

\begin{table} [h!]
\caption{Number of papers published from $2000$ to $2018$ in the  $6$ APS journals  used  in our citation dynamics analysis.}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{| l || c |}
\hline
APS Journal & number of papers  \\
\hline
\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ A}        &   5826        \\
\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ B}        &   18028        \\
\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ C}       &   3131         \\
\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ D}        &   7589         \\
\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ E}        &   8137         \\
\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett.}    &   12163        \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\label{table1}
\end{table}

  Here we  focus on the $54874$ papers published in  \textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett.}, \textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ A},  \textit{B}, \textit{ C}, \textit{D}, and  \textit{E} from $2000$ to $2018$. Table \ref{table1}  shows the number of papers published in each of these journals in that time window.
For each journal we pick  the $50$  papers  published from $2000$ to $2003$ that received the highest number of citations up to $15$ years (180 months) after their publication dates. Those papers are named hit papers and next we will show how to model their citation patterns using an epidemiological model.  We refer the reader to Ref.\ \cite{Redner_2005} for the analysis of the citation statistics of Physical Review from 1893 through 2003.

\section{Epidemiological model}\label{sec:model}

We  characterize the citation histories of the hit papers  by their cumulative number of citations received in the  period of 180 months from their  publication dates.  Figure \ref{fig:epi1} illustrates this quantity for three representative  citation histories in the time window considered. In particular, the number of citations of the paper  shown in the upper panel \cite{PhysRevD.66.010001}  exhibits a very rapid increase  followed by stabilization  within about 30 months after its publication.  This is the editors' dream paper  for it has the perfect timing to boost the IF of a journal. The citation record of the paper  shown in the middle panel  \cite{PhysRevA.65.032323} exhibits a steady and consistent growth of little less than one citation per month. Perhaps the most interesting citation pattern is that of the paper  exhibited in the lower panel \cite{PhysRevB.65.035109},  which displays
 a latent period  followed by a steady speed up  of the number of citations. This panel  illustrates the   `sleeping beauties' citation pattern  that makes the prediction of the impact of a research using short-time  information (say, a 24 months window) a somewhat shortsighted enterprise \cite{van2004sleeping,ke2015defining}.

\begin{figure}[!ht]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{fig2.pdf}
\caption{Cumulative   number of citations $\Upsilon$ of three representative hit papers as function of the time $t$, measured in  months,  after their publication dates.  The symbols are the citation data extracted from the APS dataset  and  the solid curves are the fittings with the SIR model. The epidemiological parameters $[S_0, \beta, \gamma]$ are   $[42000, 9.36, 9.25]$ (upper panel), $[3150, 0.48, 0.47]$ (middle panel) and  $[1050, 0.13, 0.10]$ (lower panel).
 }
\label{fig:epi1}
\end{figure}

The  main  assumption behind our approach to model the citation histories illustrated in Fig.\  \ref{fig:epi1} is that citations beget more citations,  so that the citation dynamics could be modeled as the spread of an infectious disease. This means that a  particular hit  paper comes to  the knowledge of prospective citing authors through the reading of   papers that cite the hit paper.   Here we model the citation dynamics of a hit paper using the popular SIR model  \cite{kermack1927contribution,Murray1993} where the susceptible (S), infected (I) and removed  (R) classes must be properly reinterpreted within  the citation dynamics context.

In particular, once a  hit paper   is published we assume that there is a   maximum  number of citations it can receive, which we denote by $S_0$. This is the number of papers in an abstract population of  papers not yet written that are susceptible to cite the hit paper.  This number can only decrease with time and we denote by  $S(t) \leq S_0$ the  number of  citations  the hit paper can still receive after time $t$  from its publication date. Of course,
\begin{equation}\label{Y0}
\Upsilon(t) = S_0 - S(t)
\end{equation}
 is the  measurable total number of citations the hit paper received until time $t$, which is shown in Fig.\ \ref{fig:epi1} for three selected hit papers.
 In principle, $S_0$ could be estimated if we knew the size of the community that works on the subject addressed by the hit paper, the mean number of papers published per month by  researchers in that community and  the average number of references those papers contain.

A simple way to model the  decrease of the number of susceptible papers with time is  through the contact process
\begin{equation}\label{S}
\frac{dS}{dt}  =   - \beta S \frac{I}{N} ,
\end{equation}
where $I=I(t)$ is the number of papers that have cited the hit paper  before or at  time $t$ and that  can still influence susceptible papers  to cite that paper. In other words, $I(t)$ is the number of influential (or infective) papers.   Although the hit paper does not cite itself, we will assume that it contributes to $I(0) = I_0$.  We note that  the hit paper may not contribute to  $I(t)$, i.e., it may not be  influential any more at time $t>0$ so that its new citations are prompted by third-party papers.  (Just think of the many papers citing classic books whose authors never read those books.)   The  coefficient $\beta$ in Eq.\ (\ref{S})  is  a measure of the persuasion power of the influential papers, i.e., it is a measure of   the  likelihood an author will cite the hit paper because that author read a paper that cites the hit paper. Because $\beta$  is a per capita transmission rate we have  introduced the constant  factor $N=S_0 + I_0$ in Eq.\ (\ref{S}) to guarantee that its value  is on the order of 1 regardless of the value of $S_0$,  and that  this equation is dimensionally correct. (The unit of $S$ and  $I$ is papers.)

The equation for the number of influential papers
\begin{equation}\label{I}
\frac{dI}{dt}  =   \beta S \frac{I}{N}  - \gamma I
\end{equation}
makes plain the fair assumption  that influential papers cease to be influential at a rate  $\gamma$ and  move into the removed class. Papers in the removed class play  no role in the citation dynamics  and their number is given by
\begin{equation}\label{R}
\frac{dR}{dt}  =    \gamma I .
\end{equation}
Since $d(S+I+R)/dt = 0$ we have  $S(t) + I(t) + R(t)= S_0 + I_0 = N$,  because the removed class is empty at $t=0$. Moreover,  since the number of citations are  reported on a monthly basis, we use the month as our  time unit  so that $\beta$ and $\gamma$ have unit 1/month.

We note that our epidemiological approach builds  on an   assumption different from the vastly popular cumulative advantage or preferential attachment assumption,  in which the probability
that a publication is cited is an increasing function of its
current total number of citations \cite{Redner_2005, Merton_1973}. In our case, this probability is a function of  a (variable) fraction of the total number of citations, namely, it is a function of the number of influential papers.

 Perhaps the  most interesting quantity in the citation dynamics context is   $ \Upsilon_\infty = \lim_{t \to \infty} \left [ S_0 - S(t) \right ]  = S_0 - S_\infty$, which gives the total number of citations a hit  paper acquires during
its lifetime, i.e., its ultimate impact. Of course, $ \Upsilon_\infty$ cannot be measured but can be easily inferred  using our epidemiological approach. In fact, it is given by the positive root of the transcendental equation \cite{Murray1993}
 %
\begin{equation}\label{Y1}
\Upsilon_\infty = S_0 \left [ 1 - \exp ( -  \frac{ \Upsilon_\infty +I_0}{N \rho} ) \right ]
\end{equation}
where $\rho = \gamma/\beta$. Hence $\Upsilon_\infty = S_0$ only in the limit $\rho \to 0$. For finite $\rho$,  a hit paper will receive only the fraction $\upsilon = \Upsilon_\infty/S_0$ of the  potential citations it could receive.  For instance, for the papers analyzed in Fig.\  \ref{fig:epi1}, the estimated total  number of citations they  will receive is $\Upsilon_\infty = 1060$ (upper panel), $166$ (middle panel) and $446$ (lower panel).

Assuming that $I_0 \ll N \approx S_0$ we rewrite Eq.\ (\ref{Y1}) as
\begin{equation}\label{Y2}
\upsilon = 1 - \exp ( -  \frac{ \upsilon}{\rho} ),
\end{equation}
which has a nonzero solution provided that $R_0 = 1/\rho > 1$. Here $R_0$ is the basic reproductive  number that ultimately determines the overall  impact of a hit paper on the abstract population of susceptible papers. Since our focus are on  hit papers only, we have $R_0 > 1$ necessarily. In fact, with very few exceptions, the values of $R_0$ of the hit papers were all very close to 1.

The SIR model has only three adjustable parameters, namely, $S_0$, $\beta$ and $\gamma$ and our goal is to estimate these parameters  by fitting   Eq.\ (\ref{Y0}) to the cumulative number of citations extracted from the APS dataset.
The quality of the  fitting  can be appreciated in Fig.\  \ref{fig:epi1}. Incidentally, the paper considered in the upper panel  of this figure has the largest value of $\beta$
among the 300 hit papers considered in our study.

\begin{figure}[t]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{fig3.pdf}
\caption{Epidemiological parameters $S_0$, $\beta$ and $\gamma$  that best fit the theoretical estimate of  $\Upsilon (t)$  to the empirical cumulative citation numbers. Each symbol  corresponds to a particular hit paper  published in the indicated APS journal.  The unit of $\beta$ and $\gamma$ is 1/month and the unit of $S_0$ is papers.
  }
\label{fig:SIR}
\end{figure}

\section{Epidemiological journal ranking}\label{sec:rank}

The results of our fitting procedure are summarized  in Fig.\ \ref{fig:SIR}, which shows the epidemiological parameters $S_0$,  $\beta$  and $\gamma$ that best fit the theoretical estimate of $\Upsilon (t)$  to the empirical cumulative number of citations.
Each symbol in a panel corresponds to the estimated epidemiological parameter of a particular hit paper.  Because of the considerable spread of the values of the estimates,  which is particularly pronounced for $S_0$, it is convenient to summarize  the parameter distributions by their medians, $\tilde{S_0}$, $\tilde{\beta}$ and $\tilde{\gamma}$, which are shown in Table \ref{table2} together with the medians of the basic reproductive number $\tilde{R}_0$ and of the ultimate fraction of the potential  citations received $\tilde{\upsilon}$.  The order of the journals listed  in this table is determined by the value of  $\tilde{S_0}$.

\begin{table} [h!]
\caption{Medians of the potential number of citations  ($\tilde{S}_0$),  the per capita  transmission rate ($\tilde{\beta}$), the removal rate  ($\tilde{\gamma}$),  the basic reproductive number ($\tilde{R}_0$) and the fraction of the potential  citations received ($\tilde{\upsilon}$) for the selected  APS journals. }
\centering
\begin{tabular}{| l || c | c | c | c | c |c |}
\hline
APS Journal & $\tilde{S}_0$  & $\tilde{\beta}$ &  $\tilde{\gamma}$ & $\tilde{R}_0$ &  $\tilde{\upsilon}$  \\
\hline
\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett.} & 19350 & 1.400 & 1.385 & 1.008 & 0.021 \\
\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ D} & 9325 & 0.915 & 0.910 & 1.012 & 0.031 \\
\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ B} & 4750 & 0.730 & 0.715 & 1.026 & 0.059 \\
\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ A} & 2900 & 0.570 & 0.550 & 1.031 & 0.072 \\
\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ E} & 1900 & 0.455 & 0.445 & 1.028 & 0.070 \\
\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ C} & 1600 & 0.355 & 0.340 & 1.037 & 0.084 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\label{table2}
\end{table}

Remarkably, Table \ref{table2} shows that $\tilde{S_0}$, $\tilde{\beta}$  and $\tilde{\gamma}$ are good predictors of the rank of  the selected APS journals according to the IF metric \cite{Garfield_2006}.  In fact, if we consider that the hit papers were published between 2000 and 2003, the epidemiological rank  offered in this table interchanges the positions of \textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ C} and  \textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ E} only as compared with  the IF rank (see Fig.\ \ref{fig:IF}).  The good agreement between these ranks is not very surprising in the sense that it is well known that the size of the community, which in  our approach is measured by $S_0$, correlates well with the IF
\cite{Althouse_09}. It is important to note, however,  that $S_0$ does not correlate well with the number of papers published in a journal during the period of analysis shown in Table \ref{table1}.
 In addition and perhaps more importantly, because the IF is measured in  a 24 months window, it correlates well with the transmission rate $\beta$, since large values of this parameter result in  many  citations  in a short time provided there are plenty of  susceptible papers  (see upper panel of Fig. \ref{fig:epi1}). These  findings validate our theoretical approach to model the citation dynamics  as well as the procedure we used to estimate the epidemiological parameters.

 The positive correlation between the IF metric and  $\tilde{\gamma}$ is more intriguing and, perhaps, illuminating.  We recall that a high value of $\gamma$ implies a quick obsolescence of the influential papers, i.e.,  those papers are influential for a short  period of time only. This means that the epidemiological approach predicts that papers that cite hit papers published in high impact factor journals are not likely to be  very impactful themselves.  This scenario is evocative of the  many application papers that use a novel analysis method presented in a hit paper.

\begin{figure}[t]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{fig4.pdf}
\caption{Evolution of the Impact Factor  from 2000 to 2019 of the  journals  \textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett. } ($\triangledown$), \textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ A} ($\triangle$), \textit{B} ($\triangleright$), \textit{C} ($\triangleleft$), \textit{ D} ($\Box$) and  \textit{E} ($\diamond$). The hit papers considered in this paper were published between 2000 and 2003.  }
\label{fig:IF}
\end{figure}

The surprising finding revealed in Table \ref{table2} is the negative correlation between    $\tilde{\beta}$ (and hence the IF metric) and $\tilde{R}_0$ or $\tilde{\upsilon}$. We recall that  $R_0$ and $\upsilon$  are related through  Eq.\ (\ref{Y2}). Actually the true relevance of $R_0$  can be appreciated only through  its link to $\upsilon$,  which reveals that $R_0 > 1$ does not imply that an infective agent (a hit paper in our case) will take over the entire susceptible population. Interestingly,  our epidemiological analysis indicates that, when the size of the susceptible community $S_0$ is taken into account,  hit papers published in high impact journals   actually have a smaller (relative) number of citations than hit papers published in   low impact journals.
We note that  $\tilde{R}_0$ and  $\tilde{\upsilon}$ are not related by  Eq.\ (\ref{Y2}): these quantities are estimated from the distributions of $R_0$ and $\upsilon$ of the hit papers for each journal.

\section{Conclusion}\label{sec:conc}

The  literature   already offers several  mechanistic models for the citation dynamics of individual papers. Some  of them build on the similarity between the S-shaped curves of the cumulative number of  citations  and the curves that describe the  diffusion of innovations  to argue that the same mechanisms that drive the adoption  of a new product, viz.,  innovation and imitation  \cite{Rogers_2010,Bass_1969}, may explain the citation process as well \cite{Mingers_2008,Min_2018}.
However, the likely most  successful mechanistic model of citation dynamics builds on assumptions proper to this dynamics, viz., preferential attachment,  fitness and  aging   \cite{Wang_2013}.  As already pointed out, preferential attachment or  cumulative advantage means that the probability
that a publication is cited is an increasing function of its current number of citations \cite{Price_1975,Merton_1973,Redner_2005}. Fitness expresses the notion that papers differ with respect to the perceived novelty and importance of their contents \cite{Foster_2015,Li_2019} and aging captures the fact  that the perceived novelty and importance of a paper  eventually  fade out \cite{Eom_2011}. There are, of course, many intangible factors behind an author's decision to cite a paper, such as the  reputation of its authors and the  journal where it was published, that can be identified in a citation network  analysis
but cannot be implemented in a mechanistic model  \cite{Dong_2016}.

Here we take a different approach that  is inspired by the attempt to describe the spread  of Feynman diagrams through the theoretical physics communities of different countries using models of epidemics \cite{Bettencourt_2006}. In particular,  we fit the citation history of 300 hit papers from 6 selected APS journals using a SIR epidemic  model. The advantage of this approach is that the epidemiological parameters have a direct interpretation in terms of the citation dynamics. For instance, a paper's relative long term impact   (i.e.,  the total number of citations a paper will ever acquire) is easily derived within the epidemiological framework  (see Eq.\ (\ref{Y2}))  and it is a function of the basic   reproductive number $R_0 = \beta/\gamma$ only.  This result is similar to the  ultimate impact of a paper derived in Ref.\  \cite{Wang_2013}, which happens to depend only on the relative fitness of the paper.  In fact, recalling that in the  infectious disease context $R_0$ is the average number of people infected from one person and that in the evolutionary context the fitness of an organism is measured by the number of offspring per generation it produces,  it is fair to think of $R_0$ as the fitness of the paper,  so the two distinct approaches reach similar conclusions.  However, the epidemiological approach does not make the preferential attachment assumption, since it assumes  that  the probability  that a publication is cited at a certain time is a function of the number of influential papers  at that time, which is a time-dependent fraction of  the current number of citations.

The distributions of the values  of the epidemiological parameters  that describe the citation histories of the 50 hit papers   for each one of the 6 APS journals considered  allow us to characterize  those journals   and  define an epidemiological rank. It turns out  that there is a  good,  though not perfect, correlation between the rank obtained using the transmission rate $\beta$ or the potential maximum number of citations $S_0$ a paper acquires  and the IF rank. Surprisingly, this rank correlates negatively with  the rank obtained using  the basic   reproductive number $R_0$, which implies that hit papers published in high impact factor journals have less relative long-term impact ($\upsilon = \Upsilon_\infty/S_0$)  than hit papers published in low impact factor journals, although their absolute  long-term impact  ($\Upsilon_\infty$) is much greater. The fact that the IF rank is obtained using citations from papers published  in all journals indexed at the Web of Science
may explain the discrepancies  with the epidemiological ranks that use data of  APS journals only, particularly in research areas such as Nuclear Physics where there are many traditional journals owned by other publishers.

In summary,  the SIR epidemic model  proved  very valuable to fit  the citation histories of hit papers and, in addition,  offered unexpected  insights on the citation dynamics.  The good correlation between the IF rank and the epidemiological ranks
suggests that this simple epidemic model succeeded in picking out  the essential elements behind  the citation dynamics.

\section*{Acknowledgments}
We thank the American Physical Society for letting us use their citation database.
The research of JFF was  supported in part
 by Grant No.\  2020/03041-3, Fun\-da\-\c{c}\~ao de Amparo \`a Pesquisa do Estado de S\~ao Paulo
(FAPESP) and  by Grant No.\ 305058/2017-7, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
Cient\'{\i}\-fi\-co e Tecnol\'ogico (CNPq).
SMR was supported by the Coordena\c{c}\~ao de Aperfei\c{c}oamento de Pessoal de
N\'{\i}vel Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


That was beautiful! I posted it up on my FB page. This was from 2008--do you know if the coffee table book was ever produced?
Wow! That was beautiful! Thanks for sharing it. By the way your kids are getting so big and are so adorable. I can't wait to see you guys again and meet sweet Nika.


text:
El Grootslang o Grote Slang (en afrikáans y neerlandés 'serpiente grande') es un criptido legendario que se dice habita en lo profundo de una cueva en Richtersveld, Sudáfrica.

Leyenda
Según la leyenda, el Grootslang es una criatura primordial y tan antigua como el mismo mundo. Los cuentos dicen que los dioses (que eran novatos creando cosas) cometieron un error terrible cuando crearon al Grootslang porque le dieron una fuerza, astucia e intelecto enormes. Dándose cuenta su error, los dioses partieron al Grootslang en criaturas separadas y así se crearon los primeros elefantes y las primeras serpientes. Pero uno de los Grootslangs originales escapó, y de este primer Grootslang nacieron todos los otros. Se dice que devora elefantes atrayéndolos a su cueva, que es conocida como el "Agujero Maravilloso" o la "Fosa sin fondo". Supuestamente dicha cueva conecta con el mar, que está a unas 40 millas de distancia. Según la leyenda local, la cueva está llena de diamantes. También se dice vive en lagos y ríos cálidos.

En Benín,  se habla de una enorme criatura parecida a un elefante con la cola de una serpiente. También según el relato, Grootslangs codicia gemas, particularmente diamantes, y pese al impulso de crueldad que mueve a esta criatura, a menudo las víctimas pueden regatear su libertad ofreciéndole bastantes gemas. Mientras buscaba tesoros en el richtersveld de Sudáfrica en 1917, el empresario inglés Peter Grayson desapareció después de que los miembros de su grupo fuesen atacados y heridos por leones, las leyendas dicen que lo mató el Grootslang.

Cultura popular
 Un Grootslang apareció en el episodio de Los sábados secretos "Algo en el agua". Se representó como un elefante de piel verde con cuatro colmillos cuernos estilo carnero y una cola de serpiente. Los sábados tuvieron que reubicar el Grootslang lejos de los poblados atrayéndolo con carne de cerdo.
 En la historieta "Lumberjanes", aparece un "Grootslang" como criatura antagonista en uno de los arcos de la historieta.

Referencias

 Rose, Carol (2001). Recuperó .

Serpientes mitológicas
Criptozoología
Animales mitológicos
Elefantes en la cultura

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Queen Creek community park to be named iconic resident
Oct 11th, 2017 · by Wendy Miller · Comments:
Opting to choose unique over generic, the Queen Creek Town Council voted 6-0 to name the town's new community park Mansel Carter Oasis Park.
The late Mansel Carter is pictured as many who knew him remember him — a lover of nature who could feed the birds from his hands. The town of Queen Creek's newest park will be named Mansel Carter Oasis Park in his honor. During its planning and design stages, the outdoor site was referred to as West Park due to its location on the west side of the town. (Special to the Independent/Town of Queen Creek)
The decision was made during the council's regular meeting Oct. 4 in the Queen Creek Community Chambers, 20727 E. Civic Parkway. Voting in favor of the name were Mayor Gail Barney, Vice Mayor Jeff Brown and council members Robin Benning, Dawn Oliphant, Emilena Turley and Julia Wheatley (by phone).
Councilman Jake Hoffman was absent due to a family obligation, Mayor Barney said at the meeting.
Up until then, the working title for the 30-acre outdoor site was West Park. It reflected the site's location on the west side of Queen Creek, at 19535 E. Appleby Road, near Ocotillo and Sossaman roads.
The park will include baseball/softball fields, multi-purpose fields, a playground, splash pad, wheel park, walking trail and lake. The town held a groundbreaking ceremony Aug. 1; the park is expected to open fall 2018, according to the town's website: queencreek.org.
(Read related story)
The name was voted on after Adam Robinson, the town's recreation superintendent, explained to the council the names submitted by the public. Eighty submissions met the qualifications set forth in the town's naming process.
Names for the park had to adhere to town-designated criteria, such as including a geographical location of the park or facility, or natural or geological features proximate to the park or facility. They also could reflect a cultural or historical significance to the town or a surrounding neighborhood, or include the family name of an individual or a family that has made a significant contribution to the community, country, state or the field of parks and recreation.
Residents were notified of the park-naming campaign on the town's website, via social media and in a press release.
The names were reviewed by the town Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee members during their Sept. 12 meeting.
The purpose of the committee is to assist and advise Queen Creek Parks and Recreation staff, according to the town's website. The PRAC also acts in an advisory capacity to the town council in the development and continuing review of goals and objectives for Queen Creek's parks, trails and open spaces as well as recreational programs and events.
Committee members selected three names from the public suggestions to recommend to the council. They were: Queen Creek Adventure Park, Queen Creek Lakeview Park and Queen Creek Community Park.
Mr. Robinson said the committee also liked suggestions that included the names representing Queen Creek's pioneering residents or unique history. They included Mr. Carter and Dave Croxell as well as Doodle Bug Park.
This statue of the late Mansel Carter feeding birds is in front of the Justice girls clothing store, near Target, in the Queen Creek Marketplace. The town of Queen Creek named its newest community park after its iconic resident, who was also known as the Old Man of the Mountain. (Special to the Independent/Nikki Bunnell)
Mr. Carter (1902-87) is known as the Man of the Mountain to many who research the town's history. He made his home on Goldmine Mountain, where he had filed mining claims for 40 years.
In 1948, he and a Cherokee Indian from Oklahoma named Marion Kennedy moved to the San Tan Mountains to try their hand at mining, according to the town's website.
They worked their claims for silver and copper until Mr. Kennedy died in 1960. Mr. Mansel then started making his "cactus curios" — small carvings from cactus and wood. Over the years, he became a genuine celebrity, welcoming visitors from all over the world.
He had a way with small birds and a respect and understanding that can only come from the heart, according to the website.
A reporter once wrote, "Carter, who wears thick eye-glasses and has a long white beard, placed a bit of food on his fingertips and called out, 'come on.' A woodpecker poked its head around a pole, landed on Carter's fingers and snatched the piece of food."
His guest book, cactus curios and many of his personal items are on display at the San Tan Historical Society's museum. And the gravesites of Mr. Mansel and Mr. Kennedy are in San Tan Mountain Regional Park.
Queen Creek resident April Holland Wiltbank submitted the name Mansel Carter, Mr. Robinson said during a phone interview. Mrs. Wiltbank said during an interview she didn't know Mr. Carter, but was looking back as far back as she could in the town's history to pay tribute to its roots.
"I just like studying about the history of the area where we live and educating my kids about it," Mrs. Wiltbank said. "When I saw the contest, it just struck me that we needed to name it after someone who was influential in the area. I thought of him and his love of animals, especially birds. Birds, nature, parks and the idea of the park being named after him seemed like a natural fit."
She said she is proud the name was chosen because of its history.
Mr. Croxell was a senior building inspector for the town from 2001 until his passing in 2015. During his tenure, he held a supervisor position, was interim building official and performed fire construction inspections after the fire marshal position was eliminated during the Great Recession, according to Mr. Robinson's presentation. He touched every commercial project and a large percentage of the residential houses that were constructed from 2001 to 2015.
Doodle Bug Park was a suggestion made for the original "commuter" train in Queen Creek, according to Mr. Robinson's presentation. "I always remember growing up and even now. I don't know how many times I was late to school because of that Doodle Bug," wrote the person who suggested the name. Mr. Robinson did not include the nominator's name in his presentation.
"Doodle Bug is historically significant," wrote the nominator. "The Doodle Bug switch was located just blocks away from this park site. The train was known as 'The Doodle Bug' since it consisted of just an engine and a coach. Area residents could hop aboard for a ride into Mesa, Tempe, Phoenix or Tucson. The railroad car was the preferred mode of transportation nearly 80 years ago. This early version of the commuter train was once part of the daily life for Queen Creek residents. Also, the name is just plain fun."
The Queen Creek Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee meets at 6 p.m. in the San Tan Conference Room of the Queen Creek Municipal Services Building, 22358 S. Ellsworth Road. Regularly scheduled committee meetings occur quarterly (March, June, September and December), or as needed. The next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 14.
Tags:Featured · Mansel Carter · Queen Creek · West Park
Subscribe to the Queen Creek Independent weekly email newsletter