text:
Senior Software Engineer - Video Platform
What Twitch is looking for in applicants
Launched in 2011, Twitch is a global community that comes together each day to create multiplayer entertainment: unique, live, unpredictable experiences created by the interactions of millions. We bring the joy of co-op to everything, from casual gaming to world-class esports to anime marathons, music, and art streams. Twitch also hosts TwitchCon, where we bring everyone together to celebrate, learn, and grow their personal interests and passions. We're always live at Twitch. Stay up to date on all things Twitch on LinkedIn, Twitter and on our Blog.
The Video Ingest team, a part of the Video Platform organization, develops distributed systems and services as well as media formats and protocols that acquire live streams from the community of broadcasters, perform real-time processing (e.g. video trans-coding) on these streams, and provide a high throughput control plane for making them available for world-wide distribution at scale. We lead the worldwide expansion of Twitch using distributed systems and computer networking technologies to onboard content streams (that could originate anywhere on the planet) onto the Twitch network. Streamlined video trans-coding in our agile media processing pipeline enables a globally responsive and cost efficient system. The scalable playback edge system supports the worldwide delivery of trans-coded media segments and provides a nimble platform for content delivery and playback experimentation. Insights from these experiments are used by our machine learning system to guide product decisions.
The Video Ingest team is looking for a software developer to lead new programs for our media processing systems. We are building a new iteration of our video services that allow for great flexibility in managing our video transcoding resources. This includes efficient management of our transcoding capacity, dynamic load balancing of our global transcoding fleet, nimbleness in how we onboard transcoding recipes and perform transcodes, and validation flows for audio and video bitstreams that get on-boarded to Twitch.
Reporting to the Engineering Manager, Video Platform; you will use your experience with architectural and debugging skills, that cares about scalability, availability and quality to build the next generation of our new multi-tenant video services. As part of the processing team you will focus on discovering creative solutions at scale and reduce the cost of video data ingestion and encoding. We have a very unique opportunity to shape the future of the video industry and your goal to solve challenging problems will contribute to its success. You will get exposure to all this, while having a fun and supportive culture at your disposal.
Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of successful internet-scale systems and services to support the Twitch video infrastructure.
Contribute with code and system design to the ecosystem of our services, frameworks and libraries.
Develop maintainable services and libraries using Golang and AWS platform.
Work with other groups at Twitch and Amazon to build new components of the Twitch video infrastructure
Passion for software development and expertise in building large-scale distributed systems and services
Have a B.S. degree in Computer Science, Math, or an Engineering discipline or equivalent work experience.
Always improve engineering practices across the team including developing maintainable and evolvable software, meaningful testing, and operations
You understand media systems and formats including familiarity with some/all of ISO/IEC 13818-1 (MPEG transport streams), 14496-10 (H.264 slice layer and above), 14496-12 (ISO Base Media File Format), RFC 8216 (HTTP Live Streaming)
Experience working with AWS Services
Medical, Dental, Vision & Disability Insurance
401(k), Maternity & Parental Leave
Flexible PTO
Amazon Employee Discount
Monthly Contribution & Discounts for Wellness Related Activities & Programs (e.g., gym memberships, off-site massages, etc.),
Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Served Daily
Free Snacks & Beverages
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at Twitch. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
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text:
IAG strategic review could be a prelude to sell-off of UK business
The news that Insurance Australia Group (IAG) is to undertake a strategic review of its UK business has led to much speculation that a sale of part, or all, of the insurer's UK operations could soon be on the cards.
The pieces of the business that could potentially be put on the market include motor insurer Equity Red Star and brokers Barnett & Barnett and NBJ UK. Earlier in May in a separate development, Equity sold its 51% stake in Insurance Dialogue, a specialist broker for the over 50's

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


When someone says "salmonella" you most likely immediately think uncooked eggs or poultry, and you would be right (although it can be contracted from eating contaminated garden produce as well).
Salmonella IS most often contracted from un- or under-cooked poultry products, and in fact it is estimated that 1 in 20,000 eggs contain Salmonella. A chicken doesn't have to be sick with salmonella to pass the pathogens to you.
So should you be concerned about salmonella in your backyard flock? Well, let's take a look at what Salmonella is, how it is contracted and if it can be prevented.
Skipping all the technical mumbo-jumbo, Salmonella (or Salmonellosis) is a bacterial disease affecting the intestinal tract of humans, chickens and other birds and mammals.
Believe it or not, it's related to the bacteria that causes typhoid fever.
Symptoms of salmonella in humans include cramps, diarrhea, nausea, chills, fever and/or headaches. The symptoms generally appear within 6-72 hours of eating contaminated food and can last up to a week.
Generally not fatal in healthy adults who often recover without seeing a doctor, salmonella can result in death in the elderly, sick, those with compromised immune systems, pregnant women and children if it is not treated with antibiotics and if it moves through the blood stream and to other organs in the body.
Symptoms in chickens include weak and lethargic birds, loose yellow or green droppings, purplish combs and wattles, a drop in egg production, increased thirst, decreased feed consumption and weight loss. It can be deadly to the chicken if not treated in time.
Fortunately not an airborne disease, the salmonella bacteria is usually spread to chickens through rat or mouse droppings in water, feed, damp soil or bedding/litter. It is also passed down through the egg to chicks by mother hens who are infected.
The salmonella bacteria can then be transmitted to humans who eat improperly cooked meat or eggs from infected birds or by putting their hands in their mouth after touching chickens or eggs that have come in contact with contaminated rodent or chicken feces.
Children under five years old make up a large number of salmonella cases, most likely from hand to mouth transmission of the bacteria.
Good personal hygiene (washing hands is a MUST after handling your chickens!) as well as keeping a clean chicken coop and run are the best ways to prevent salmonella. Backyard biosecurity is critical. Cooking destroys the bacteria, so be sure to cook eggs properly before eating them, if you are concerned. It's interesting to note that freezing eggs does NOT kill salmonella, however.
Don't kiss your chickens! Hugs are fine, petting is fine. lap sitting is fine. Just no kissing.
What do I do if I think my flock is infected with Salmonella?
An avian lab or vet can test your flock for salmonella and then treatment with antibiotics is one course you can take.
But as an alternative (or if you don't have a poultry vet near you, you can give the herb sage a try. Recent studies have shown promising results using the culinary herb sage to combat salmonella.
Fresh chopped sage offered to your flock free-choice, dried sage added to their feed or sage essential oils in the water might help to beat down the bacteria.
Adding sage to your flock's regular diet is a good preventive in any case. Sage is often used in recipes for roast chicken and other chicken dishes. Coincidence? I think not. I think generations ago, through the years, someone figured out the correlation and the two foods began to be paired.
Preventive measures are important since chickens infected and who survive a salmonella overload will be carriers of the disease, and eggs laid by those hens can contain the bacteria.
Fortunately, the likelihood is that salmonella won't live inside an egg. It would be found in the egg white versus the yolk, which is an alkaline environment, and doesn't contain the proper nutrients for the bacteria to thrive.
However, the longer the egg sits out without being refrigerated or cooked, the greater chance the bacteria will move towards the yolk and eventually penetrate the yolk, who's nutrient-rich environment will allow the bacteria to grow. Salmonella can live for weeks or months surrounded by the egg proteins.
The good news is that your backyard eggs, as long as proper precautions are taken, are unlikely to contain or transmit salmonella to your family.
The threat of salmonella should NOT dissuade you from raising backyard chickens, handling them as often as possible OR cooking with your eggs.
I enjoy making Egg Nog, Mayonnaise, Pasta Carbonara and Tiramisu with our fresh eggs, all of which contain uncooked or partially cooked eggs. I don't worry because I know (and control) how our flock is housed, fed and raised as well as how our eggs are collected and stored.
©2013 by Fresh Eggs Daily, Inc. All rights reserved. Join me here Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube| Subscribe ©2018 by Fresh Eggs Daily, Inc. All rights reserved.
Good info! I love my chickens and enjoy learning more about them.
Very useful article...Eager to lear more..
Great article. The CDC reports unprecedented incidence of salmonellosis last year. Unfortunately most was linked to backyard chickens BUT most of the chickens in question were traced to one breeder in Ohio. You can "catch stuff" from your birds but you can catch stuff from your dog or cat too. You just have to be sensible! Wash your hands!
Exactly. And did you know in the UK feeding your chickens anything that has passed through your kitchen is against the law because studies have shown there is more salmonella in the average kitchen than the average chicken coop. How scary is that?
No meds, I do add probiotics to their feed.
I have Garden Sage, it has wider leaves, I am not sure if other properties of it are different though. Should this kind work the same? Do your chickens like it? Mine seemed to turn their beaks up to it but they were free ranging and had just gotten a lot of bread!
Sure I believe all sage varieties have similar benefits. I dry and crush lots of herbs and add them to their feed through the winter. You could try that.
I wanted to comment about what happened to a friend of mine. She was outside while her son was using the riding mower. He ran over a cow's hoof that her dog chew's on in the yard. It flew across the yard and hit her in the leg and hand. She had pretty bad open wounds. In the meantime, she is caring for baby ducks. All of a sudden she started to get sick. Diarrhea, fever, etc. Finally got better, then got the same symptoms back again. This went on and on for about 3 weeks. She finally went to the doctor and tested positive for salmonella poisoning. It was all because she didn't have her wounds covered!!
I've know more people who have gotten food poisoning from eating in restaurants than those getting Salmonella from their chickens. I personally do not worry....I just change my clothing, shoes and wash up well. We have a dog too and do the same. Our dog sleeps with us so I wash our bed quilt monthly too. The stark truth is dogs have parasites and humans do too. Life is too short to worry about the "it could happens!"


I Asked Karen Gross @KarenGrossEdu: Her Thoughts on the NFL National Anthem Policy?
Karen Gross, Esq.: Memorial Day is a good time to reflect on the NFL policy that prevents kneeling on the field during the National Anthem. Many military have fought for and lost their lives for our freedoms, including the freedom to speak. Kneeling is non-violent protest, which adds to its power.
When you are a national example for children everywhere as NFL players are (for better or worse), you do not have to park your voice and rights at the door. NFL players kneeling is not a disgrace; it is an expression of our need for equality and fundamental fairness in America -- something that is sorely lacking. What better spokespeople for that position? When we give up our right to speak, we give up our freedom. This Memorial Day, many military support the players and kneeling. They know what they are fighting for; would that the owners had similar values and beliefs and respected a fundamental freedom. Kneeling is, in a sense, standing for our most important right: the freedom to speak without being censured.


Toca Kitchen 2 content rating is Rated for 3+. This app is listed in Educational category of app store and has been developed by http://www.tocaboca.com. You could visit Toca Boca's website to know more about the company/developer who developed this. Toca Kitchen 2 can be downloaded and installed on android devices supporting 16 api and above.. Download the app using your favorite browser and click on install to install the app. Please note that we provide original and pure apk file and provide faster download speed than Toca Kitchen 2 apk mirrors. Versions of this app apk available with us: 1.2.3-play , 1.2.2-RC2-play , 1.0.0 . You could also download apk of Toca Kitchen 2 and run it using popular android emulators.
Toca Kitchen 2 1.2.3-play apk requires following permissions on your android device.


"Love Star Run" public welfare activities, co-sponsored and launched by SSCLF - Han Public Welfare Special Fund and BesTV was held at the city square under the Oriental Pearl TV Tower on April 2, 2018. SSCLF's acting secretary general Mr. Jia Yong and SSCLF – Han Public Welfare Fund founder Mr. Wang Yu and caring people from all walks of life lighted up the Oriental Pearl TV Tower blue lights for the World Autism Awareness Day. Blue is a symbol of the inner world the autistic people do not easily open to the outside world, but also as a symbol of their purity. On Autism Awareness Day every year, many landmark buildings in China and around the world light up blue lights, praying for "the children of the stars". The event won strong support from Shanghai Oriental Pearl Radio and Television Tower Co., Ltd., Anji Logistics and other caring enterprises.
In addition to running around the tower, the day's public activities also included the children of the stars graffiti, flash dance and other forms of activities, letting the public pay attention to autistic children's inner world. Archives of traditional Chinese medicine also provided advisory service on site that day. It not only provided a free clinic for autistic children, but also conducted free clinics and counseling for the parents who neglected their own health due to taking care of their autistic children.


text:
class Test {
    interface F<T extends Throwable> {
        void m(T t) throws T;
    }
    <K extends Throwable> void foo(F<K> f) throws K { }

    {
        foo((t)->{});
        <error descr="Unhandled exception: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException">foo</error>((ClassNotFoundException t)->{});
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Turquoise glazed jar creates a eye appealing color statement in your home or office. This rare temple jar is hand glazed in Chinese floral with fauna decoration in a yellow panels. A rich floral arabesque border adorn its base ,top and sides. Glazed in rich, thick to the touch Chinese painting that brings the Asian art of ceramics to life in this hand made jar. Turquoise with yellow panel and black line borders enhance its uniqueness. We recommend our carved wooden vase stand that measures 6.5 " for added elegance and display. Place in a grouping with other Imperial yellow Chinese porcelains on a table top for an eye catching grouping. Use for storage on a table top. Made in north China, in small ceramic shops .
Chinese Imperial Yellow Porcealin Dragon Jar .
Chinese Jar in Yellow Glaze with Floral Hand Painting.


Need a new car? Tired of all the hassle involved with purchasing a used car? Our financing here at TBK Wholesale is sure to be the easiest in town. No Credit? Bad Credit? NO PROBLEM! Nothing can stop us from getting you the car you deserve. Simply fill in some information about yourself in our short 2 minute credit application then let us do the rest. Once we have received your application you will receive a phone call from our representative putting you one step closer to driving away in your new vehicle. We accept most forms of payment including DMACC cards and H&R block card. ITS THAT SIMPLE!
Rebuild your credit with financing through TBK Wholesale!
TBK Wholesale is a family owned independent dealership that has been in business since 2001. At TBK we use a "Guaranteed Credit Approval" program that is quick and easy. This program provides our customers the opportunity to finance a reliable vehicle and improve their credit score at the same time. Whether you are a first time buyer, fresh out of bankruptcy, or just trying to get your credit on the right path, TBK can help you establish or re-establish your credit with our "Guaranteed Credit Approval" program.
To understand how the "Guaranteed Credit Approval" program works to improve your credit score and credit history, you must first understand what credit is and how good credit works to benefit you and how bad credit can hinder your opportunity to make purchases. Credit is the ability of a customer to obtain goods or services before payment, based on the trust that payment will be made in the future. Credit history is your reputation for paying debts and obligations in a timely manner. Your credit history is what determines your credit score.
A credit score is a numerical expression based on a level analysis of a person's credit files, which represents the creditworthiness of the person. A credit score is primarily based on credit report information typically sourced/obtained from credit bureaus. The credit report is a detailed report of an individual's credit history, and used by a lender to determine a loan applicant's creditworthiness. In summary, it is important to protect and rebuild your credit score for financial freedom. Financial freedom can change your life!
Here are a few ways that TBK's "Guaranteed Credit Approval" program can help you improve or establish your credit, credit history, credit report, and credit score.
Unlike the Buy Here, Pay Here lots, TBK Wholesale works with many lending institutions, which report your payments to the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion).
You are given the opportunity to build a positive credit score by making your payments on time. You have an option to set up an automatic debiting system that ensures on time payments.
You may experience more financial freedom. After paying off your contract with a history of on time payments, you may be able to purchase a newer vehicle and finance at a lower interest rate, obtain a major credit card, or purchase a home.
TBK Wholesale offers an Extended Warranty package that can protect you from unexpected expenses.
What things damage and destroy credit?
Ignoring debt obligations may cause you to be turned down for a job, apartment, opening a bank account, or applying for telephone services. It is important to pay your bills on time.
Bankruptcy can stay on your credit report for ten years from the date of filing for Chapter 7 filings, and seven years for Chapter 13 filings, and seven years for each record marked as "Included in BK".
Charge-offs can stay on your credit for seven years.
Closed accounts can stay on your credit seven years if the account was paid late, and no expiration date if the account was always paid on time.
Collection accounts can stay on your credit for seven years from the last late payment on the original account.
Inquiries can stay on your credit for two years.
Late payments can stay on your credit for seven years from the date of the late payment.
Judgments can stay on your credit report seven years from the filing date if paid; longer if unpaid.
Tax liens can stay on your credit report for fifteen or more years if left unpaid, seven years from the date the lien is paid.


Clearwater plan – see plan below. Priced at $295,000.
Brand new quality construction nearly complete! Must see this fantastic home, beautiful kitchen with white cabinetry, granite counter tops, island and backsplash. Hardwood flooring on main level except guest bedroom, 2 story great room, Master up with 2 additional bedrooms. 2 car garage and much more!


text:
from IPython.core.display import Image
Image('http://www-tc.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/media/photos/s2571-lg.jpg')

# <markdowncell>

# Above:Dust storm hits Hooker, OK, June 4, 1937.
#
# To find out how much rainfall was there during the dust bowl years, we can use the [USGS/CIDA GeoDataPortal (GDP)](http://cida.usgs.gov/climate/gdp/) which can compute statistics of a gridded field within specified shapes, such as county outlines.  Hooker is in Texas County, Oklahoma, so here we use the GDP to compute a historical time series of mean precipitation in Texas County using the PRISM dataset. We then compare to climate forecast projections to see if similar droughts are predicted to occur in the future, and what the impact of different climate scenarios might be.

# <codecell>

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.dates as mdates
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import urllib
import os
from IPython.core.display import HTML
import time
import pandas as pd

# <codecell>

cd /usgs/data2/notebook

# <codecell>

import pyGDP
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.dates as mdates

# <markdowncell>

# One way to interface with the GDP is with the interactive web interface, shown below.  In this interface, you can upload a shapefile or draw on the screen to define a polygon region, then you specify the statistics and datasets you want to use via dropdown menus.

# <codecell>

HTML('')

# <markdowncell>

# Here we use the python interface to the GDP, called PyGDP, which allows for scripting.  You can get the code and documentation at https://github.com/USGS-CIDA/pyGDP.

# <codecell>

# Create a pyGDP object
myGDP = pyGDP.pyGDPwebProcessing()

# <codecell>

# Let's see what shapefiles are already available on the GDP server
# this changes with time, since uploaded shapefiles are kept for a few days
shapefiles = myGDP.getShapefiles()
print 'Available Shapefiles:'
for s in shapefiles:
    print s

# <codecell>

# Is our shapefile there already?
# If not, upload it.
OKshapeFile = 'upload:OKCNTYD'
if not OKshapeFile in shapefiles:
    shpfile = myGDP.uploadShapeFile('OKCNTYD.zip')

# <codecell>

# Let's check the attributes of the shapefile
attributes = myGDP.getAttributes(OKshapeFile)
print "Shapefile attributes:"
for a in attributes:
    print a

# <codecell>

# In this particular example, we are interested in attribute = 'DESCRIP',
# which provides the County names for Oklahoma
user_attribute = 'DESCRIP'
values = myGDP.getValues(OKshapeFile, user_attribute)
print "Shapefile attribute values:"
for v in values:
    print v

# <codecell>

# we want Texas County, Oklahoma, which is where Hooker is located
user_value = 'Texas'

# <codecell>

# Let's see what gridded datasets are available for the GDP to operate on
dataSets = myGDP.getDataSetURI()
print "Available gridded datasets:"
for d in dataSets:
    print d[0]

# <codecell>

dataSets[0][0]

# <codecell>

df = pd.DataFrame(dataSets[1:],columns=['title','abstract','urls'])

# <codecell>

df.head()

# <codecell>

print df['title']

# <codecell>

df.ix[20].urls

# <codecell>

# If you choose a DAP URL, use the "dods:" prefix, even
# if the list above has a "http:" prefix.
# For example:  dods://cida.usgs.gov/qa/thredds/dodsC/prism
# Let's see what data variables are in our dataset
dataSetURI = 'dods://cida.usgs.gov/thredds/dodsC/prism'
dataTypes = myGDP.getDataType(dataSetURI)
print "Available variables:"
for d in dataTypes:
    print d

# <codecell>

# Let's see what the available time range is for our data variable
user_dataType = 'ppt'  # precip
timeRange = myGDP.getTimeRange(dataSetURI, user_dataType)
for t in timeRange:
    print t

# <codecell>

timeBegin = '1900-01-01T00:00:00Z'
timeEnd   = '2012-08-01T00:00:00Z'

# <codecell>

# Once we have our shapefile, attribute, value, dataset, datatype, and timerange as inputs, we can go ahead
# and submit our request.
name1='gdp_texas_county_prism.csv'
if not os.path.exists(name1):
    url_csv = myGDP.submitFeatureWeightedGridStatistics(OKshapeFile, dataSetURI, user_dataType,
          timeBegin, timeEnd, user_attribute, user_value, delim='COMMA', stat='MEAN' )
    f = urllib.urlretrieve(url_csv,name1)

# <codecell>

# load historical PRISM precip
jd,precip=np.loadtxt(name1,unpack=True,skiprows=3,delimiter=',',
                     converters={0: mdates.strpdate2num('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ')})

# <codecell>

def boxfilt(data,boxwidth):
    from scipy import signal
    import numpy as np
    weights=signal.get_window('boxcar',boxwidth)
    dataf=np.convolve(data,weights/boxwidth,mode='same')
    dataf=np.ma.array(dataf)
    dataf[:boxwidth/2]=np.nan
    dataf[-boxwidth/2:]=np.nan
    dataf=np.ma.masked_where(dataf==np.nan,dataf)
    return dataf

# <codecell>

# PRISM data is monthly:  filter over 36 months
plp=boxfilt(precip,36)

fig=plt.figure(figsize=(12,2), dpi=80)
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(111)
g1=ax1.plot_date(jd,plp,fmt='b-')
g2=ax1.plot_date(jd,0*jd+np.mean(precip),fmt='k-')
fig.autofmt_xdate()
plt.title('Average Precip for Texas County, Oklahoma, calculated via GDP using PRISM data ')
plt.grid()

# <codecell>

HTML('')

# <codecell>

#hayhoe_URI ='dods://cida-eros-thredds1.er.usgs.gov:8082/thredds/dodsC/dcp/conus_grid.w_meta.ncml'
hayhoe_URI ='dods://cida.usgs.gov/thredds/dodsC/dcp/conus'
timeRange = myGDP.getTimeRange(hayhoe_URI, dataType)

# <codecell>

timeRange

# <codecell>

# retrieve the CCSM3 model A1FI "Business-as-Usual" scenario:
name2='gdp_texas_county_ccsm_a1fi.csv'
if not os.path.exists(name2):
    dataType = 'ccsm-a1fi-pr-NAm-grid'
    result2 = myGDP.submitFeatureWeightedGridStatistics(OKshapeFile, hayhoe_URI, dataType,
            timeRange[0],timeRange[1],user_attribute,user_value, delim='COMMA', stat='MEAN' )
    f = urllib.urlretrieve(result2,name2)

# <codecell>

# now retrieve the CCSM3 model B1 "Eco-Friendly" scenario:
time0=time.time();
name3='gdp_texas_county_ccsm_b1.csv'
if not os.path.exists(name3):
    dataType = 'ccsm-b1-pr-NAm-grid'
    result3 = myGDP.submitFeatureWeightedGridStatistics(OKshapeFile, hayhoe_URI, dataType,
            timeRange[0],timeRange[1],user_attribute,user_value, delim='COMMA', stat='MEAN' )
    f = urllib.urlretrieve(result3,name3)
    print('elapsed time=%d s' % (time.time()-time0))

# <codecell>

# Load the GDP result for: CCSM A1FI "Business-as-Usual" scenario:
jd_a1f1,precip_a1f1 = np.loadtxt(name2,unpack=True,skiprows=3,
    delimiter=',',converters={0: mdates.strpdate2num('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ')})

# Load the GDP result for:  CCSM B1 "Eco-Friendly" scenario:
jd_b1,precip_b1     = np.loadtxt(name3,unpack=True,skiprows=3,
    delimiter=',',converters={0: mdates.strpdate2num('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ')})

# <codecell>

# Hayhoe climate downscaling is hourly: filter over 1080 days (36 months)
plp_a1f1=boxfilt(precip_a1f1,1080)
plp_b1=boxfilt(precip_b1,1080)
#plp_a1b_c=boxfilt(precip_a1b_c,36)

# <codecell>

fig=plt.figure(figsize=(15,3), dpi=80)
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(111)
fac=30. # convert from mm/day to mm/month (approx)
# plot A1FI scenario
g1=ax1.plot_date(jd_a1f1,plp_a1f1*fac,fmt='b-')
# plot B1 scenario
g2=ax1.plot_date(jd_b1,plp_b1*fac,fmt='g-')
# plot PRISM data
g3=ax1.plot_date(jd,plp,fmt='r-')  # for some reason when I add this the labels get borked
ax1.xaxis.set_major_locator(mdates.YearLocator(10,month=1,day=1))
ylabel('mm/month')
plt.title('Average Precip for Texas County, Oklahoma, calculated via GDP using Hayhoe Downscaled GCM ')
grid()
legend(('A1FI','B1','PRISM Data'),loc='upper left')

# <markdowncell>

# As we can see from the above plot, the CCSM model is not doing very well simulating the precipitation in Texas County, OK during the period when the simulation and data overlap (1960-present). This makes us less confident about the future precipitation simulations, and suggests we might need to try some different climate models and learn a bit more about climate simulations.  When we do learn more, we find out that models have known biases in certain regions.

# <markdowncell>

# Now just to show that we can access more than climate model time series, let's extract precipitation data from a dry winter (1936-1937) and a normal winter (2009-2010) for Texas County and look at the spatial patterns.
#
# We'll use the netCDF4-Python library, which allows us to open OPeNDAP datasets just as if they were local NetCDF files.

# <codecell>

import netCDF4
url='http://cida.usgs.gov/thredds/dodsC/prism'
box = [-102,36.5,-100.95,37]  # Bounding box for Texas County, Oklahoma
#box = [-104,36.,-100,39.0]  # Bounding box for larger dust bowl region

# <codecell>

# define a mean precipitation function, here hard-wired for the PRISM data
def mean_precip(nc,bbox=None,start=None,stop=None):
    lon=nc.variables['lon'][:]
    lat=nc.variables['lat'][:]
    tindex0=netCDF4.date2index(start,nc.variables['time'],select='nearest')
    tindex1=netCDF4.date2index(stop,nc.variables['time'],select='nearest')
    bi=(lon>=box[0])&(lon<=box[2])
    bj=(lat>=box[1])&(lat<=box[3])
    p=nc.variables['ppt'][tindex0:tindex1,bj,bi]
    latmin=np.min(lat[bj])
    p=np.mean(p,axis=0)
    lon=lon[bi]
    lat=lat[bj]
    return p,lon,lat

# <codecell>

nc = netCDF4.Dataset(url)
p,lon,lat = mean_precip(nc,bbox=box,start=datetime.datetime(1936,11,1,0,0),
                        stop=datetime.datetime(1937,4,1,0,0))
p2,lon,lat = mean_precip(nc,bbox=box,start=datetime.datetime(2009,11,1,0,0),
                       stop=datetime.datetime(2010,4,1,0,0))
latmin = np.min(lat)

# <codecell>

# look at March 1935, just before black sunday on April 14, 1935
nc = netCDF4.Dataset(url)
p,lon,lat = mean_precip(nc,bbox=box,start=datetime.datetime(1935,3,1,0,0),
                        stop=datetime.datetime(1935,4,1,0,0))
p2,lon,lat = mean_precip(nc,bbox=box,start=datetime.datetime(2009,3,1,0,0),
                       stop=datetime.datetime(2009,4,1,0,0))
latmin = np.min(lat)

# <codecell>

import cartopy.crs as ccrs
import cartopy.feature as cfeature
states_provinces = cfeature.NaturalEarthFeature(
        category='cultural',
        name='admin_1_states_provinces_lines',
        scale='50m',
        facecolor='none')
ax = plt.axes(projection=ccrs.PlateCarree())
pc = ax.pcolormesh(lon, lat, p, cmap=plt.cm.jet_r)
ax.add_feature(states_provinces,edgecolor='gray')
ax.text(-101,36.86,'Hooker',align='left')
ax.plot(-101,36.86,'o')
cb = plt.colorbar(pc, cax=cbax,  orientation='vertical')
cb.set_label('Precip (mm/month)')

# <codecell>

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(12,5), dpi=80)
ax = fig.add_axes([0.1, 0.15, 0.3, 0.8])
pc = ax.pcolormesh(lon, lat, p, cmap=plt.cm.jet_r)
ax.set_aspect(1.0/np.cos(latmin * np.pi / 180.0))
plt.title('Precip in Texas County, Oklahoma: Winter 1936-1937')

cbax = fig.add_axes([0.45, 0.3, 0.03, 0.4])
cb = plt.colorbar(pc, cax=cbax,  orientation='vertical')
cb.set_label('Precip (mm/month)')

ax2 = fig.add_axes([0.6, 0.15, 0.3, 0.8])
pc2 = ax2.pcolormesh(lon, lat, p2, cmap=plt.cm.jet_r)
ax2.set_aspect(1.0/np.cos(latmin * np.pi / 180.0))
plt.title('Precip in Texas County, Oklahoma: Winter 2009-2010')

cbax2 = fig.add_axes([0.95, 0.3, 0.03, 0.4])
cb2 = plt.colorbar(pc2, cax=cbax2,  orientation='vertical')
cb2.set_label('Precip (mm/month)')

plt.show()

# <markdowncell>

# From the above patterns, we can see that it's significantly drier in the northwestern part of the county in both years.  We can also see that the *maximum* precip in 1936-1937 is less than the *minimum* precipitation in 2009-2010.  We can see just how much each part of the county was drier by doing the different plot below.

# <codecell>

fig=plt.figure(figsize=(12,5), dpi=80)
ax3 = fig.add_axes([0.1, 0.15, 0.3, 0.8])
pc3 = ax3.pcolormesh(lon, lat, p2-p, cmap=plt.cm.jet_r)
ax3.set_aspect(1.0/np.cos(latmin * np.pi / 180.0))
plt.title('Precip in Texas County, Oklahoma: Difference 2010-1937')

cbax3 = fig.add_axes([0.45, 0.3, 0.03, 0.4])
cb3 = plt.colorbar(pc3, cax=cbax3,  orientation='vertical')
cb3.set_label('Precip (mm/month)')

# <markdowncell>

# The above plot shows that relative to 2010, the drought during 1937 had the biggest different in precip in the northeastern part of the county.

# <markdowncell>

# Hopefully this demo inspires other investigation of historical and projected climate data using the GDP and Python.


The Vagabond is a fast, comfortable off-shore commercial fishing boat. Vagabond is Coast Guard certified with a head and is well equipped. Although we cannot guarantee fish or lobsters, we make maximum effort to assure our success rate is high.
Advance reservations may be made online or by phone. If changes or cancellations are needed, they must be made at least 24 hours before departure to avoid a charge for the full fare of the reservation being applied at the time of the cruise. Reservations are strongly suggested and may be made as far in advance as desired. These are family oriented trips, so no large coolers of alcoholic beverages are allowed. Moderate consumption of beer or wine coolers is OK, but NO HARD LIQUOR.
We are closed on Sundays, and in July and August we are closed on Friday afternoons.
Space is limited – make your Fishing Reservations today!


[Bf-funboard] Food for thought: lower subsurf subdiv value during transform?
Next message: [Bf-funboard] Food for thought: lower subsurf subdiv value during transform?
subdiv value of subsurfs doing transformations.
isn't enough but anything higher then that will lag during transformations.
1) The user enables Lower Subdivide in the global info settings.


text:
Tidewater glacier change in West Greenland
West Greenland field photos
Iceberg calving and submarine melt at Yahtse Glacier
Yahtse field photos
Glacier hydrology and motion at Kennicott Glacier
Archive: Greenland Calving Validation
Field photographs
Bartholomaus C.V.
Glaciers and parts of ice sheets that end in the ocean are the most rapidly shrinking glaciers on earth, but are so poorly understood that they are also a dominant source of uncertainty in sea level rise projections. My research identifies the factors that control the rate at which these glaciers calve icebergs, melt, and flow into the ocean.
Representative icequakes produced by calving events observed at Yahtse Glacier, AK. (Bartholomaus et al., 2012)
My research is focused on understanding glacier dynamics, such as the controls on flow speed and terminus position. Changes in speed and terminus position have a major influence on glacier and ice sheet mass balance, and therefore the contribution of glaciers and ice sheets to sea level rise. I have addressed these topics at Alaskan glaciers as well as the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets. Within this framework, iceberg calving, subglacial processes, and glacier-generated seismicity are particular focuses of my recent studies.
More information on my most significant projects to date can be found through the links below the "Research" menu item, above. These include:
Ice-ocean interactions and glacier variability in Greenland, in which I identify the short-term processes governing iceberg calving, and the glacier response to calving.
Iceberg calving and submarine melt at Yahtse Glacier, in which I identify the seismogenic processes during iceberg calving, controls on the variability of iceberg calving, and the importance of submarine ice melting.
Glacier hydrology and basal motion at Kennicott Glacier, in which I demonstrate that changes in water storage, and the evolving nature of the subglacial hydrologic system govern the rates of glacier basal motion.
Our lab group's internal, working manual is hosted here, and includes sections on supporting one another, life and work at UIdaho, our hardware resources, and computing best practices. Our goal is that the lab manual will be communally updated and serve as a living reference for group members.
Two, new, funded Ph.D. opportunities for 2021! October 30, 2020
Field work at Turner Glacier hugely successful October 18, 2020
Group assembles for outdoor, socially-distanced conference October 17, 2020
Glacier moss balls captivate public imagination September 2, 2020
Timothy Bartholomaus
Department of Geological Sciences
875 Perimeter Drive, MS 3022
email: tbartholomaus@uidaho.edu
twitter: @TimBartholomaus
office/cell: 1-208-885-6217
University of Idaho, in Moscow, is in the Pacific time zone.


Game of Thrones meets the Grimm's fairy tales in this twisted, fast-paced romantic fantasy-adventure about Sleeping Beauty's daughter, a warrior princess who must fight to reclaim her throne.
Alright, alright. Game of Thrones meets the Grimm's fairy tales? Let's simmer down. There was nothing Game of Thrones-y about it, except for the fact that there was royalty. Grimm's? Yes. In fact, I would say it was kind of like Shrek meets Mulan. Let's carry on.
I am always a little bit leery of gift given heroines. I'm personally a fan of a heroine who has to work for her success. When I read in the summary that Aurora had fairy gifts, I groaned inwardly. However, they turned out to be more like curses, save for the strength. I appreciated this.
Kept in a dungeon by the ogre queen, Aurora's mother, Sleeping Beauty, committed suicide in captivity to pass on her fairy gifts to her briar-born daughter, Aurora. Aurora and Jor, her little brother, then slipped out of the dungeon with the help of a guard. The story then flashes forward. The Ogre Queen has the prince in her clutches, but needs Aurora to fulfill a dark prophecy.
Aurora dresses like a boy to pass as a soldier. When Prince Niklaas saves her from a bunch of headhunters, she introduces herself as Prince Jor (her brother's name), but says she would rather be called Ror. At this point, I was convinced Prince Niklaas was an imbecile. AuRORa? Come on, man!
The worldbuilding was fabulous. The story was intricately woven, and it really did feel like a tale from Grimm's fairy tales. I loved Jay's writing style, too.
The romance was subtle, which worked well for the characters and story.
All that aside—I wasn't wowed by this story. I wasn't pulled in and held there, turning page after page until I finished. It was a great read, which I appreciated, but it just didn't captivate me as much as I had hoped. I'm not quite sure what was so "meh" to me. I think this book would really captivate most fantasy fans, but it just didn't do it for me.
I gave Princess of Thorns a 3.5/5 on Goodreads.


text:
Old Alumni Site
Saint Eunan's Alumni
St. Eunan's College launches new Alumni Association
This year St. Eunan's College celebrates 115 years of education in Donegal. The College was formally opened in July 1906 and the first students, along with their teachers and President, Dr Edward Maguire, took up residence in September 1906. Over the years the school grew with a mixture of boarders and 'day boys' attending. As a result, it was necessary to build a new extension to the school in the 1930s. Later, the recreation hall was built in 1958 and a new science block in 1968. A new wing known as the 'new building' was added in 1979. Today, the College has a student population of over 900 with almost 100 staff.
Currently, exciting plans are at an advanced stage for the construction of a new school on the existing site along with the refurbishment of the castle building as the school's curriculum is constantly changing to meet the evolving needs of the modern era.
The long history and tradition created by the thousands of young men and staff who have entered the walls of St. Eunans down through the years is an important part of life on Sentry Hill. It is this heritage that the Alumni Association hopes to preserve as it aims to create linkages with its former pupils and staff, many of whom are now scattered throughout the world. The Alumni Committee is appealing for all former students and staff members to join our new Alumni Association. This can be done through the this registration form, by emailing alumni@sainteunans.com or by sending your details to us by post. We require your name, the year you finished in St. Eunans, a contact email address and phone number.
St. Eunan's College Alumni Committee is also making an appeal for any memorabilia relating to the school. These can be emailed to alumni@sainteunans.com, dropped into reception or posted to the school addressed to the Alumni Committee. (Please note if you wish items returned).
As the school looks forward to an exciting future, it is hoped that those who call St. Eunan's College, their alma mater, will be with us on that journey.


#47: Do You Remember The '90s?
Following up our "best films of the '90s" feature this week, we gather A.V. Club film writers Scott Tobias, Keith Phipps, and Tasha Robinson to take a more macro look at the decade in film, from the rise of home video to the changing face of independent film. Also, there apparently was a VHS precursor to Netflix that didn't work out so well.


Medicare Private Fee-for-Service (PFFS) plans are private companies that the federal government pays to administer Medicare benefits. Like all Medicare Advantage Plans, PFFS plans must provide you with the same benefits, rights, and protections as Original Medicare, but they may do so with different rules, restrictions, and costs. Some PFFS plans offer additional benefits, such as vision and hearing care.
You must have both Parts A and B to join a Medicare PFFS plan, and generally you will continue paying your Medicare Part B premium. Your PFFS plan may also charge an additional premium, on top of the Part B premium. If you want Part D coverage, ask your PFFS plan if it offers Part D coverage. If your plan does not offer Part D coverage, you can enroll in a stand-alone Part D plan.
Typically, you cannot have a PFFS plan if you have End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), unless you were enrolled in one prior to developing ESRD and you chose to stay in that plan. Additionally, if you stayed in your PFFS plan after developing ESRD and the plan leaves your area, you have a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) to enroll in another PFFS plan in your area.
Once you have joined a PFFS plan, you should receive a benefit card from your plan. You will use your plan benefit card instead of your Medicare card when you go to the doctor or hospital.
Most PFFS plans have provider networks. You may pay less for your care when using in-network providers or facilities. All PFFS plans also must cover out-of-network care, but you may pay a higher cost.
If you plan to receive care from an out-of-network provider, you or your provider can request an advance organization determination (also called an advance coverage determination) from your plan. An advance organization determination is a request for your plan to confirm that a service is medically necessary and will be covered. If you plan to receive a costly service from an out-of-network provider, requesting an advance organization determination can help you avoid unexpected denials. Contact your plan for information about requesting an advance organization determination.
Medicare PFFS plans are not available everywhere. Call 1-800-MEDICARE or your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) to find out if there is a PFFS plan available in your area. To enroll in a PFFS plan, call Medicare or the plan directly. Be sure to make an informed decision by contacting a plan representative to ask questions before enrolling.


text:
Neutron Bytes
A time traveler from the age of steam
Advanced Nuclear Reactor Projects
Nuclear Energy Reading List for the Curious
Pro-Nuclear Groups
← South Africa inks 9.6 Gwe $50B reactor deal with Russia
Tri Cities seeks SMRs for post clean up future →
Nuclear news briefs for 23 Sept 2014
Posted on September 23, 2014 by djysrv
TVA opts for ESP for SMRs
Utah reactor project challenged over water rights
State of New York still contending over fish at Indian Point
Vietnam delays construction for 1st Russian 1000 MW VVER
UAE approves Units 3 & 4 at Barakah power station site on Persian gulf
TVA to develop Early Site Permit for a small modular reactor
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has notified the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) it will proceed to prepare an Early Site Permit (ESP() application for a small modular reactor (SMR) using the agency's combined construction and licensing process. Previously, the utility had planned to prepare separate applications for the license and for construction.
TVA does not have to specify a reactor vendor in the ESP process. The status of its relationship with Babcock & Wilcox over use of that firms mPower 180 MW SMR is unclear and the firm has stepped back from further development of the design citing the lack of the a customer. Also, according to the NRC, no SMR vendor has submitted a design for review by the agency.
On 2012 the Department of Energy awarded a multi-part $452 million cost-sharing grant to the TVA / B&W partnership. It called for construction of up to four of the 180 MW mPower SMRs at TVA's Clinch River site. Presumably, that site would be the focus of the newly announced ESP effort.
TVA said that the ESP would allow it to address numerous plant licensing and design issues. Two of them that have a high profile for the future of SMRs include the size of the security and emergency preparedness zones for a multi-reactor site and whether a single control room can be used manage multiple reactors.
The ESP application also evaluates the environmental characteristics of the site and whether they are suitable for a new reactor. Given that the Clinch River site is already used for this purpose, that shouldn't be a critical issue. Assuming the ESP is approved by the NRC, it is good for 20 years. That will give TVA time to wait for one of the contending SMR developers to bring a design for review to the NRC. If the TVA then selects a reactor's design, it can save time wit the combined construction and operating license application with the ESP already in place.
Challenge to water rights for Blue Castle nuclear site at Green River Utah
The anti-nuclear group HEAL has filed a brief with the Utah State Court of Appeals challenging a ruling by a Utah 7th District Judge that upheld the Utah State Engineer's decision granting 50,000 acre feet of water from the Green River to Blue Castle's proposed 3000MW nuclear power station.
The group also challenged the economic viability of the project, which if built, would replace planned coal fired projects and also supply electricity to power hungry cities in California.
Update 7/22/16: The Appellate Court upheld the lower court decision to grant the water rights to Blue Castle.
New York slaps Indian Point with fish issue – again
In an effort to make Entergy's two-reactor 2200 MW Indian Point power station economically unfeasible, and thus close it down, the State of New York is demanding that the utility construct $1 billion in cooling towers to save the lives of fish that are otherwise sucked from the Hudson River into the reactors' cooling systems. For its part, Energy has installed fish screens, and proposes to upgrade them with a "wedge shaped" design.
At issue is a water permit from the State of New York which Entergy needs to complete its application to the NRC to extend the reactors' licensees for the next 20 years.
The anti-nuclear Riverkeeper organization, which counts among it supporters green voters in elections, is pushing the fish issue. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has a close relationship with the environmental group, is running for re-election this year. He's made opposition to Indian Point a key stone of his administration.
Vietnam delays 1st Russian reactor construction start
Vietnam's deputy trade minister Cao Quoc Hung said September 18 that his country would delay the start of construction of the 1st of four 1000 MW nuclear power stations to be built by Rosatom. The start date has been pushed back to 2020 or 2022. He said the country needs more trained nuclear engineers to support its nuclear safety and regulatory program.
The Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission has plans to build eight reactors by 2030 to supply reliable power for manufacturing and mining industries. Currently, coal accounts for about half of the electric generation capacity and hydro another 25%. The delay announced this week will push back the completion of the other seven reactors well into the 2030s. The delay may put at risk the country's ability to expand its economy based on high value manufacturing which would need the electricity from the planned reactors.
Separately, Nuclear Power International reported that GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Hanoi University of Science and Technology in Vietnam to train nuclear engineers. The first internships are planned for 2015 when 10 Hanoi University students will spend the summer at GE Hitachi's headquarters in Wilmington, NC. The students will be trained in GEH's BWR type reactor technologies.
UAE gets green light for two more nuclear reactors
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation has approved plans to build two more South Korean APR1400 nuclear reactors at the remote Barakah site on the Persian Gulf. The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. (ENEC) is the developer for all four reactors.
Hamad Alkaabi, the UAE Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the approval represents a green light for ENEC to start the construction of reactors 3 and 4.
"The UAE nuclear program is well-recognized internationally for its transparency, fast-moving progress and strong safety framework. The project can now expand to the next phase."
The first two units are expected to enter revenue service in 2019 and 2020 respectively. they will provide electric power for general and industrial use and for desalinization of sea water.
The UAE has an accelerated program to train nuclear engineers and skilled trades to work on the plants. It will be administered by the Abu Dhabi Polytechnic Institute.
About djysrv
Dan Yurman ~ The Twitter feed is a hiatus due to the turmoil on that platform. The news feed of nuclear energy headlines can be found on Mastodon at: https://techhub.social/@neutronbytes ~ About this blog and disclaimers for NeutronBytes ~ ~ https://neutronbytes.com/2014/08/31/welcome-post/ Contact Me ~ neutronbytes [at] gmail [dot] com ~ Text via Signal 216-218-3823 ~ I am NOT active on Facebook, Reddit or Instagram. Attempt no landings there. ** Header Image Credit: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110904.html ~ ** Emails sent by readers about blog posts are considered to be comments for publication unless otherwise noted. ** The content of this blog is protected by copyright laws of the U.S. "Fair use" provisions apply. The RSS feed is for personal use only unless otherwise explicitly granted.
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This scene shows that even the Gods don't always take responsibility for their own actions. It shows that they are as fallible as the humans who created them.
"Believe me, you would have sought the Grail for all time. Be most assured of that. But the anger of a mortal at what you had done drew others into your punishment. You were not content with your august lot in life and felt the need to interfere in a destiny not your own. Because of this, fates were lost.
"As of the French incident you have found that you could not abide by the rules that we, the gods, had set. You chose to interfere in other lives once more. This time though you committed a crime far above anything that even we could forgive. You caused the death in body and spirit of a child of Le Fay. Those children are the most special.
"You are the one responsible for the creation of the Mortal Shepherds. It is your fault that the gods suffer such humiliation every generation when the two of you are reborn. Therefore redemption is not up to you.


The Constant Heart explores a woman's relationship to the men she partners with, as she learns to be more truly herself. Throughout her life she's a pioneer, seeking adventure and testing herself again and again in the wild, paddling the Allagash, capturing wild goats on an island in the Aegean, fasting in the New Mexico desert, wandering the streets of Istanbul alone, and connecting with Spirit through nature and the elements. For twenty years she homesteads on a small farm in rural Massachusetts, drops out of the consumer culture and lives close to the land. She moves from devaluing herself toward steadily celebrating all of herself, until now in her sixties, she feels whole and alive.
A former English teacher, librarian, writing coach and founder of the Bear Mountain Writers, she's published in Cobblestone, Calliope, and Faces magazines, as well as in School Library Journal. Fourteen of her poems are featured in Bone Cages, a collection of the work of five Massachusetts poets.


King of Kings (KOK) is an international K-1 style kickboxing and Mixed Martial Arts promotion that showcases some of the world's most talented fighters.
Every year KOK runs an international Grand Prix tournament were a single fighter represents his or her country in an 8-fighter tournament to become the KOK Grand Prix Champion. Fighters from all over Europe and North & South America have competed to become the King of Kings K-1 Style Champion.
KOK is a promotion that is owned by the International Bushido Federation, which has a very long pedigree in combat sports and is in partnership/association with the Japanese Rings promotion, Heroes, ADCC, Shoot, Pancrase, and K-1.
The founder/owner of KOK and Bushido International Federation is Donatas Simanaitis, a very experienced international promoter who has been hugely influential in European combat sports for almost two decades. KOK has been showcased on international sports channels such as Eurosport and Fight-Sport HD and is one of Europe's most recognised combat sport promotions.
KOK Team Ireland is delighted to announce that KOK will be bringing its Grand Prix event to Dublin on September 12th, where the National Boxing Stadium will play host to a night of K-1 and MMA action. A winning fighter on that show will move into the Grand Prix tournament to represent Ireland and fight to become the KOK World Champion.
The show will feature some of the best Irish fighters, such as Mark Casserly, Paul Lawrence, Keith Levins, Aaron Browne, Craig Coakley and Pinta Quigley, with more big names to be announced soon, and will feature international fighters from gyms such as the world- renowned Mike's Gym, based in Holland.


text:
Home » Programs » U.S.-China Track II Dialogue on Healthcare
2018 U.S.-China Track II Dialogue on Healthcare (U.S.)
November 5, 2018 to November 7, 2018
Warrenton, VA
The third healthcare dialogue was held at Airlie, a conference center in Warrenton, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C. The dialogue brought together eight American participants and eight Chinese participants, consisting of experts in the field and representatives of major healthcare companies, as well as three observers from both countries. Past dialogues have developed a common understanding and foundation for addressing key shared challenges between both countries. The third dialogue built on these themes, recognizing that achieving progress will require more ongoing collaboration between the United States and China, and that such healthcare collaborations can help address the growing tensions related to trade between the two nations. The two sides discussed a wide range of topics, including medical technology development; health insurance reform and the role of the private sector; advancing value-based care models; public health; and areas of possible cooperation in healthcare between the United States and China. On the third day, Chinese participants attended the Chinese Hospital Association's forum in downtown Washington, D.C., and met with the Kaiser J. Family Foundation. Each dialogue session concludes with a consensus agreement, setting out key points of discussion among the participants, and suggestions for policy changes. This document is circulated to relevant departments in both governments for their consideration.
U.S.-China Track II Dialogue on Healthcare
This ongoing bi-annual dialogue, established in 2017, examines the effectiveness of the healthcare systems in China and the United States and recommends ways to better measure and manage the delivery and efficiency of healthcare in the two countries.
Click photo thumbnail to expand:
Consensus Agreement
2018 Track II Dialogue on Healthcare Consensus Agreement (PDF)
The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the National School of Development at Peking University convened the third Track II Dialogue on Healthcare at Airlie House in Virginia on November 6 and 7, 2018. The dialogue brought together American and Chinese experts (attendee list attached) from academia, think tanks, and industry for off-the-record discussions on healthcare issues pertaining to both countries.
Dialogue participants noted the difficulties in current relations between the two countries. However, they also noted that both countries are facing increasingly similar problems in health, including finding better ways to accelerate innovation to develop treatments for unmet needs, managing rising healthcare costs and a growing burden of chronic disease and health inequality, redirecting healthcare to be more prevention- oriented, efficient, and community-based, and making progress on key public health challenges like smoking and emerging threats. Participants identified a range of collaboration opportunities to address these challenges, with mutual benefits for both countries and potentially the rest of the world.
POINTS DISCUSSED
Medical Technology Development. As the United States and China are the world's two largest markets for medical products, both countries have a shared interest in advancing effective and consistent regulatory standards and transparency that reflect the latest scientific developments. China continues to make substantial progress in enhancing its regulatory capabilities. The National Medical Products Administration (NMPA, formerly China's Food and Drug Administration) has taken major steps to streamline and improve its innovative drug approval process, including working to implement best practices recommended by the International Committee on Harmonization (ICH). China is also implementing more intellectual property protections for innovative biomedical companies. Both countries are undertaking initiatives to reduce the time and cost of demonstrating that new medical products are safe and effective, and developing more evidence using "real-world" data sources about medical product performance once they are on the market. Areas to build on this progress include the following:
Further alignment of the two nations' regulatory approaches would reduce the costs of product development and time to approval, enabling investment in research and development to have more impact on bringing better medical treatments to patients. As such alignment continues, the United States and China could take steps to update ICH standards to reflect progress in regulatory science and product development.
Building on regulatory alignment, both countries can learn from each other and benefit from co- developing innovative approaches for medical product development and approval – such as "platform trials," studies that integrate digital data more effectively, and practical clinical trials. Together, China and the United States can generate post-market data to ensure safety and effectiveness in actual practice.Both countries should be leaders in advancing the use of real world evidence (RWE), investing in infrastructure and workforce that can enable learning from data generated in clinical care and health- related activities and rapid feedback into the system to better inform decision-making and propel advances. Further steps can be taken to develop more explicit policy frameworks for a better use of digital data taking place in health systems. Common standards across both countries will enable better opportunities for collaboration and mutual learning.
Both governments need to emphasize the importance of scientific and regulatory transparency in healthcare. This includes greater clarity in data protection for innovative products in development, and clearer approaches governing the sharing of data and results while protecting patient confidentiality. (Enhanced data protection is critical for exchanging sensitive data and therefore especially important for addressing emerging global public health threats, but can also help advance many other areas such as more personalized medicine.)
Both countries should continue to encourage collaboration in biomedical research and should avoid the imposition of tariffs or other trade restrictions on healthcare products, which can impede scientific collaboration between the two countries, as well as adversely affect each country's ability to provide high-quality care.
Insurance Reform and the Role of the Private Sector. In recent years, both countries have implemented significant reforms to expand insurance coverage, involving a combination of government subsidies and regulation, public- and private-sector insurers, and national and state roles. In China, 95 percent of the population has "basic" health insurance coverage through national plans. This is often supplemented, in part, by private health insurance. In the United States, health insurance is often private (provided through employer plans), but there are substantial government programs (Medicare and Medicaid) that use both private insurance and publicly-administered reimbursement systems to provide access to care. In both countries, growing healthcare costs and other factors, such as aging populations and increasing incidence of non- communicable diseases (NCDs), are putting pressure on government insurance systems. In China, the range of services and treatment covered by "basic" medical insurance is not clearly defined and may be changing, particularly with budgetary concerns. This uncertainty makes further investment by private healthcare insurance providers difficult. Out-of-pocket (OOP) costs are still relatively high in China. OOP costs also pose a significant burden on many Americans with serious illnesses which may have the effect of restricting access to care, although the Affordable Care Act limited OOP maximal payments and patient co- pay support programs exist for many costly drugs.
To help address these issues, the focus in both countries should continue to shift from acute, hospital-based treatment for illnesses to health promotion through primary care and prevention strategies as well as treatments that can cure diseases or reduce or halt their progression. Health insurance in both countries must do more to support integrated, prevention-oriented care, in both clinical and non-clinical settings. Both nations should implement further healthcare payment and insurance benefit reforms to support more efficient care systems (e.g., move beyond high-deductible plans to insurance coverage that enables people with high expected healthcare costs to choose more efficient systems of care, and share in the savings through low OOP payments). One challenge in China is that the definition of basic medical insurance coverage, and the essential services that must be covered, is not yet clear, which may potentially complicate efforts to deliver such benefits in more "value-based" care models.
Advancing Value-Based Care Models. Healthcare constitutes a very large and growing part of national spending in China and the United States, yet many people in both countries do not have access to needed care. Both nations are confronting the challenge of providing better care to their populations in a more cost-effective way. Current care models and payment approaches do not do enough to promote access to valuable treatments and do too little to discourage and eliminate the use of treatments that have low or no value. As China increases its healthcare spending, and as the United States takes further steps to limit its health care spending growth, both countries should move away from traditional fee for service (FFS) payment models to more value-based payment models, with safeguards to be sure patients have access to effective services and products. Both countries should continue to develop and use health technology assessments (HTA) in more formal and transparent ways to assess the value of particular preventions, treatments and cures, and to encourage better development of evidence related to value. Implementing these reforms will require a greater capacity in both countries to use electronic data to coordinate and improve care, and to give individuals the ability to integrate and use their own data to improve their health and reduce their medical spending. Better, secure systems for developing and analyzing such data on care and outcomes at the population level will provide better evidence about the cost-effectiveness of new treatments and approaches to delivering care.
Public Health. The major public health concerns that both countries face—aging populations, increasing incidence of NCDs, unhealthy behaviors such as tobacco use and excessive consumption of alcohol, as well as pollution and climate change—present enormous challenges, as well as growing opportunities for collaboration in addressing them. Both countries should continue to build fundamental public health capacity and sustained commitment to support population health programs. Additionally, as in biomedical innovation and healthcare redesign, improving the use of electronic data to identify opportunities and evaluate the impact of policy reforms could enable progress in both countries. For example, such data and evidence systems at the community or regional level could be used to support programs to address poorly controlled cardiovascular risk factors and other sources of rising NCD burdens in both countries. Smoking is a leading cause of premature death in both countries, and e-cigarettes and other alternative nicotine delivery systems are helping to reduce smoking rates in the United States – but policymakers are also taking steps to limit use of both tobacco and alternative products by youth, to help avoid nicotine addiction in the first place. Finally, as noted above, better systems and protocols are needed for sharing data and information related to emerging public health threats.
There are numerous areas where China and the United States can collaborate to address their increasingly similar healthcare concerns together. To further such joint efforts, the Dialogue participants support advancing specific projects that can be undertaken in the near term. These include the following:
Collaboration to develop better evidence on clinical care, medical technologies, health care reform models, and public health challenges using increasingly rich "real world" electronic data. In our digital age, increasing access to relevant real world data on a near real-time basis provides an opportunity to develop truly innovative solutions to practical problems. To turn such data into useful decision support and better evidence, both countries must make progress on interoperable terminology and definitions, protection of patient privacy and confidential access, secure platforms, and better analytic methods. The participants encourage both nations to develop even further collaborations that offer better evidence and support more effective models of biomedical innovation and care. One example is a coordinated analysis of the impact of a medical technology on patient outcomes, healthcare utilization, and costs using emerging electronic data and research platforms in both countries, with the goal of accelerating the development of evidence needed for product approval or label changes.
Insurance and Payment. To help develop a more efficient global insurance system that supports integrated, prevention-oriented care, China and the United States should share experience with innovative coverage and payment models in both countries. Such collaborations could inform pilot programs to test reforms in both countries – for example, to guide reforms to improve the care for low- income populations in the United States, and to determine how private insurers and health care organizations can play an expanded role in delivering basic healthcare coverage in China. Redesigning coverage and payment to better engage consumers and support new care models is challenging. Joint projects and a bilateral "learning network" could provide relevant evidence not just for the United States and China, but also leading models for innovative coverage that would be relevant globally.
Care Delivery and Population Health. As we have noted, China and the United States need to implement care redesigns that improve primary care, support team-based and technology-enabled care, shift care from the hospital into the community, and enhance care coordination. In conjunction with collaborative efforts to pilot new value-based coverage and payment models, both countries should undertake research collaborations to learn more quickly and effectively about how to reform existing hospital- based care systems and implement successful integrated care strategies – in order to speed progress and enhance success in the new coverage models. Collaborations could also support testing of community-based interventions to address public health challenges like smoking or other risky behaviors, and care and payment reforms involving priority issues for both countries like cardiovascular risk factor management and care, and cancer prevention and care. Finally, a collaborative research strategy could develop more efficient ways to test specific, focused interventions, like the use of digital medical devices to encourage lifestyle modifications, prevent diseases and improve care.
The Dialogue participants will work toward identifying and supporting projects to address these areas at their next Dialogue, scheduled to take place in China in the Summer of 2019.
CHINESE PARTICIPANTS
CHEN Xi, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Public Health, School of Public Health, Yale University
FENG Zijian, M.D., MPH Deputy Director General, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
LEI Xiaoyan, Ph.D. Professor of Economics, National School of Development, Peking University;
Director, The Center for Healthy Aging and Development, Peking University
Gordon G. Liu, Ph.D. Yangtze River Scholar Professor of Economics, National School of Development, Peking University (Dialogue Co-Organizer)
LIU Qian, M.D. Former Vice Minister, Ministry of Health; Vice Chairman, the Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee of the 13th National People's Congress; President, China Hospital Association (Leader of the Chinese Participants)
MAO Li, M.D. Senior VP & CMO, Betta Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.
ZHANG Ligang Chairman and CEO, iKang Healthcare Group, Inc.
ZHAO Kun, M.D. Director, Health Policy Evaluation and Technology Assessment, China National Health Development Research, Ministry of Health
AMERICAN PARTICIPANTS
Gregg Alton, J.D. Chief Patient Officer, Gilead Sciences, Inc.
Olivier Brandicourt, M.D. CEO, Sanofi
Margaret Hamburg, M.D. Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Medicine
Harlan Krumholz M.S., S.M. Professor of Medicine, Yale University
Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. Director and Robert J. Margolis, M.D., Professor of Business, Medicine and Health Policy, Margolis Center for Health Policy, Duke University (Leader of the U.S. Participants)
Samuel R. Nussbaum, M.D. Strategic Consultant, EBG Advisors; Senior Fellow, University of Southern California Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics
Stephen A. Orlins, J.D. President, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (Dialogue Co-Organizer)
Winnie Yip, Ph.D. Professor of the Practice of International Health Policy and Economics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University


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Brackenridge campers urged to recycle
Recycling bags handed out as families flock to their annual gatherings.
April 22, 2011 Updated: April 23, 2011 12:18 a.m.
A recycling bag hangs from a tree on April 22 at Brackenridge Park as people camp for the Easter weekend.
For about a quarter-century now, Roy Ramirez has set up camp at Brackenridge Park every Easter weekend, joining hundreds of other residents and their extended families for egg hunts, piñatas and barbecues.
This year, there's a small but important addition to his campsite: a recycling bag.
"I think it's great," he said Friday of the receptacle, tied to a tree near his tent and already starting to fill with cans.
He's not alone.
The San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department and the Brackenridge Park Conservancy are pushing recycling and trash cleanup more than ever, conservancy executive director Leilah Powell said.
About 150 volunteers have signed up to walk through the park during the three-day weekend and talk to campers about the effort. Some campers get T-shirts that read, "Preserve. Protect. Enjoy." Everybody gets recycling and trash bags.
"This year, we're really getting out early to get out the message about recycling," Powell said. "The goal is to tell people to think about the park, and here are the tools to do it."
What to recycle
Clean cardboard and food containers, emptied bottles and cans. Organizer's advice is, "If you're in doubt, throw it out." One nonrecyclable item results in the entire recycling bag being deemed trash, she said.
The city and the Brackenridge Park Conservancy still are looking for post-weekend cleanup volunteers from 8 a.m. to noon Monday. Check in at the Joske Pavilion between 7:30 and 9 a.m. The first 50 receive free T-shirts.
Editorial: Don't trash the park this Easter
After the parties, time for park cleanup
Last year, city staff and volunteers picked up about 20 tons of trash over the holiday weekend, according to city officials.
It was the first time there was a recycling initiative, but it was more reactive than pro-active, Powell said, explaining that volunteers the following Monday sorted out recyclables during the trash cleanup.
This also will be the first Easter campout at Brackenridge since the city installed 80 permanent recycling receptacles throughout the park, said Krystal Strong, acting operations manager for Parks and Recreation.
The permanent bins are part of a larger recycling program, she said, and by the end of summer the city should have more bins at eight parks and along the linear creek greenway.
By Friday afternoon, dozens of families were starting to pour into the park after nearly a week of jockeying for the best spots — undeterred by the closure of East Mulberry Avenue, one of the park's main entrances.
Rozie Benavidez, who has been camping there for the past five years, sat in the shade near the San Antonio River with relatives from Austin and Alice. Although respecting the park is nothing new to them, it never hurts to have a reminder, she said.
"You clean up after yourself and you've got it made in the shade," she said. "That way, hopefully, it's less work for the city workers and we can come back here again without them thinking twice."


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Students intern at web firm
By Benjamin Madueme | Sep 12, 2011
Gus Ireland reflected on his recent internship at Rackspace, a web-hosting firm in San Antonio, Texas. He and his classmate, Gabe Garcia, worked with a team of software engineers that developed various internal productivity tools and implemented quality assurance tests. (credit: Nicole Hamilton/Comics Editor)
In the midst of morning gulps of coffee, rushing off to class, taking quizzes and exams, group meetings, all-nighters, and seemingly endless amounts of rain, many students at Carnegie Mellon may lose sight of the ultimate goal: obtaining a degree that will help them do what they love in the future.
Many students find that a great way to "taste-test" a prospective career is to intern. Two Carnegie Mellon juniors got an opportunity to do just that this past summer as software development interns at Rackspace. Rackspace is a web hosting firm based in San Antonio, Texas, with a focus on server stability and customer service. With about 3,000 employees and new offices emerging all over the globe, the company took the next step and started an internship program last year. After a successful cycle last summer, Rackspace looked to Carnegie Mellon for this year's batch of interns.
Gabe Garcia, an electrical and computer engineering major from San Antonio, and Gus Ireland, a Boston native studying cognitive science and computer science, seemed to fit the bill perfectly. They had worked on coding projects before, and they were knowledgeable about general programming methodologies. The pair, along with other interns in Texas, got a chance to work on some big software projects for the company.
Such software projects included designing a Foundation Service Driver (FSD). What exactly is an FSD? Garcia explained:
"[It's] a one-size-fits-all user interface for any future application developed by Rackspace," he said. "It was primarily done in Java, a fairly easy-to-use language.... We made a verifier ... to make sure we were getting valid [results]."
In addition, the two plowed through other types of technologies, including Git, Maven, Ruby, CSS, JSP, WADLs, XSDs, and numerous other computing- and programming-centric technologies and languages. In spite of all of this, they never felt overwhelmed. Both juniors indicated that their coworkers at Rackspace provided the instruction necessary to help them along the way.
"That was one thing they were really good about," Garcia said. "We were all at different levels of programming expertise ... they gave us different resources and things so that we could all get up to speed."
While interns at other large companies may often be delegated "grunt work," Ireland pointed out that Rackspace made them feel like part of the team.
"At Rackspace, they said 'Oh, hey, here's a project that's a little out there,'" Ireland said. "'We can't really put a full-time person on it, but because you're an intern, spend five hours a day working on this.' It's a different way of looking at internships ... innovation was the big thing thrown at us."
So what did the two think of their "taste-test" of life as Rackspace software developers? Garcia still had a few unanswered questions.
"I'm still trying to decide between [a] hardware or software [career]," he said. "I was initially leaning toward hardware. I was kind of hoping that [this internship] would help me decide between the two, and it didn't really. I still want to do either hardware or software, just not sure which one."
Ireland had a different outlook. "For me, it was a chance to see the business world," he said. "As opposed to this abstract concept of getting a job, it suddenly gives me a concrete idea of what I can do after I graduate."
But Ireland also had a few reservations, specifically regarding the prospects of another internship at Rackspace. "I want to keep on exploring, and try to find different places," he stated. "But ... I had a really good time [there], and learned a lot about how software is designed in the real world. It was a fun experience."


Transportation's role in the event of inclement weather is to gather as much information from other surrounding districts, weather reports and driving the roads to be able to make a recommendation to the superintendent if school should be delayed or closed. The decision to close school should be made as close to 5:00AM as possible so families know what is happening.
To find out if there is a change in the daily schedule due to weather, go to www.flashalert.net then select South Sound Private/Charter Schools, then select Chief Leschi Schools to get current information on school delays or closures. If there is no information, it means school will run on normal schedule. If school is running 2 hours late, the bus will pick up at your normal bus stop 2 hours later than the normal pick up time.
You can also listen to the local radio stations or watch the local television channels for information on delays or closures of school. Once we notify School Report of a change in schedule, the radio stations and TV channels will start reporting the information right away. Be sure to have a battery operated radio in case the power goes out.
If the weather worsens during the day or after students have been dropped off at school, be sure to check the radio or TV after 10:30AM to see if there is an early dismissal due to weather. A robo call will go out to all families if school will be dismissed early.
Each family needs to have a plan in place for weather related emergencies so students know where to go and transportation knows to drop them if a different location is needed. Be sure there is a parent or an adult to meet the bus if they need to be dropped at an alternate location.
Your patience and understanding is needed during adverse conditions as buses may be delayed by road conditions. Your child's safety is the driver's number one priority.


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Creating a globally competitive environment for the chemical industry in Texas in a manner that is positive for the state and its people.
About TCC
Careers in Industry
TCC Safety Awards
TCC Caring for Texas Awards
ACIT Awards
The Texas Chemical Council (TCC) recognizes its members for demonstrated commitment and exemplary results toward safe operations, community awareness, emergency response, and security and pollution prevention. TCC promotes and celebrates advances and successful programs in the chemical industry through a number of different platforms. Chief among these is our Safety Awards which also include Caring for Texas Awards, and Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Award. Awards are presented in June every year. For details, access to the various awards applications (if applicable), click on one of the specific tabs under 'Industry Recognition'.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF OUR 2020 AWARD RECIPIENTS! Click HERE to see the complete list of our award winners!
Below are pictures from previous years winners!
Click here to view pictures from the 2017 TCC Awards Banquet
©2021 Texas Chemical Council. All rights reserved.


Last week, I took a phone call from a customer looking for Grapefruit Seed Extract. She wanted to use the Grapefruit Seed Extract as a preservative in her lotion. I've done some research in the past about Grapefruit Seed Extract and I have discovered that it has little preservative abilities. After I explained to the caller that a preservative is different than an antioxidant, I thought it might be a good idea to share information on the differences between preservatives and antioxidants.
An antioxidant helps slow down the oxidation of any substance that will be damaged by exposure to oxygen.
A preservative acts by preventing the growth of yeast, bacteria and mold. Preservatives are desirable to keep our creams and lotions from becoming walking Petri dishes.
I have a question about some of the sugar and salt scrub recipes found on the website. How come none of them contain preservatives? if I were to use a preservative in a scrub which product should I use?
As with most sugar scrubs, I would recommend using Liquid Germall Plus as the preservative. A preservative is not required for a sugar scrub since usually there is not any water in the scrub. If you are expecting lots of water to be added to the scrub when it is used, then we would recommend a preservative, especially if you are going to sell the scrub. I hope this helps.
Hey Andee, I wanted to know, do I need a preservative for a pumice scrub recipe that is made with only oils? And if so, which type of preservative for a pumice scrub? Thanks.
There is one preservative that is able to be used in this anhydrous (no water) product, it is LiquaPar Oil. It works well for things like this.


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New Documents Show Administration Officials Trying to Use $250 Million Taken from CDC on an Ad Campaign to Help Re-Election
Washington, D.C. (Oct. 29, 2020)
On Wednesday, Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney, Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Chairman James E. Clyburn, and Oversight and Reform's Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee Chairman Raja Krishnamoorthi sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar releasing new documents obtained from contractors regarding a $250 million contract awarded by the Trump Administration to launch a massive advertising campaign just weeks before the election to "defeat despair and inspire hope" amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"It is critical that HHS provide accurate, nonpolitical public health information to the American people that encourages mask-wearing, social distancing, and other science-backed public health recommendations," wrote the Chairs. "Yet, the documents we have obtained indicate that HHS political appointees sought to use taxpayer dollars to advance a partisan political agenda and direct taxpayer money to their friends and allies."
On September 10, 2020, the Chairs wrote to HHS seeking documents about this massive contract. HHS has produced no documents to date in response to this request.
In the meantime, the Chairs sought and obtained documents from contractors implementing this contract. These documents show:
Trump Administration official Michael Caputo inserted partisan political interests into the ad campaign;
Contractor employees and career staff at the Food and Drug Administration pushed back on these inappropriate efforts; and
The Trump Administration and its contractors vetted celebrities for the ad campaign based on whether they support gay rights and same-sex marriage or have ever disagreed with President Trump in the past.
Documents obtained from the contractors also show that, as of October 1, 2020, all celebrities who had agreed to participate in the ad campaign have withdrawn their consent to do so.
"Your failure to provide the documents we requested—especially in light of the information we have learned from the contractors—appears to be part of a cover-up to conceal the Trump Administration's misuse of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for partisan political purposes ahead of the upcoming election, and to direct taxpayer funds to friends and allies of Trump Administration officials," added the Chairs.
On October 2, 2020, Secretary Azar testified before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis that HHS had begun a "strategic review" of this advertising campaign to "determine whether the campaign serves important public health purposes."
Click here to read today's letter, or see embedded below.
NOVEL SCIENCE
Misleading presentation of Biden gaffe likely boosted by a bot-like network
Russia-linked Twitter account posted 'StoptheSteal' 102 times starting in April 2016
Gosar says AOC video was an attempt to reach younger generation. Here's why that matters.


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History of Modern India (in Hindi)
Lesson 2 of 22 • 356 upvotes • 13:30 mins
Navneet Goel
In this chapter overview of course has been discussed.
(Hindi) History of Modern India for SSC CGL
22 lessons • 5h 7m
How to Score 35+ in SSC CGL Tier 1 - GS (in Hindi)
Advent of Europeans (in Hindi)
British Conflict with Other Powers - Part 1 (in Hindi)
Socio - Religious Reforms in Late 18th and Early 19th Century - Part 1 (in Hindi)
Economic Policy of British India (in Hindi)
Revolts and Rebellions (in Hindi)
Moderates and Era of Early Nationalists (1885 -1905) (in Hindi)
Extremist Phase (1905 -1918) (in Hindi)
Revolutionary Terrorism (in Hindi)
Role of Gandhi in Indian National Movement - Part 1 (in Hindi)
Socialists and Communists
Indian National Movement (1935 - 1947) Part-1
Indian National Movement (1935 - 1947) Part 2
History of Modern Education in India
History of Press in India
Governor General and Viceroys of India - Part 1