text:
Adult, female crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus).This crocodile was kept in a local zoo for over 2 years and was listless and anorexic for 5 weeks.
All lung lobes contained multiple, 0.5-1.0 cm diameter, irregularly-shaped, well-defined, firm, homogenous white to yellow nodules. Several firm, large nodules, 2.0-2.5 cm in diameter, white to yellowish in color, surrounded by dark red foci, were found in some part of the lungs. Visceral surfaces in the lung and pleural surfaces appeared dull and rough with a yellowish fibrous appearance. The liver and spleen were enlarged and cut surfaces revealed several gray to pale nodules.
Microscopic examination of the lung consists of a hemorrhagic, necrotizing bronchopneumonia with massive aerial mycelial growth within the airways. These affected airways are filled with numerous degenerated heterophils admixed with macrophages, necrotic debris, and bacillary colonies. The fungal organisms contain 3-5 μm chains of conidia, 4-7 μm dichotomous-branching, septate fungal hyphae. Airways are markedly dilated and the mucosal epithelium is extensively ulcerative with hemorrhage, many heterophils and macrophages are invading into the adjacent lung parenchyma. In these pneumonic areas, inflammation is associated with the appearance of numerous birefringent crystals with radiating spokes; the morphology of these crystals is suggestive of calcium oxalate. Histochemistry reveals many PAS-positive fungal hyphae scattered throughout the necrotic foci of lungs, liver, and spleen, primarily along the margins of the necrotic lesion.
Lung: Bronchopneumonia, necrogranulomatous and hemorrhagic, severe, subacute to chronic, multiple, with intralesional fungal hyphae, oxalate crystals, necrotic vasculitis, and pleuritis, crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus), reptile.
Escherichia coli and Aeromonas sp. were isolated from the lungs and liver.
Aspergillus sp.
Clinically, oxalate is produced by a variety of fungi, including saprophytic (e.g. Aspergillus niger and A. flavus) and phytopathogenic species, and other sources including methoxyflurane, ethylene glycol, large doses of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), primary hyperoxaluria (humans, cats, and tibetan spaniels), pyridoxine (vitamin B6) deficiency, and plants (e.g. Halogeton glomeratus, Sarcobatus vermiculatus, Rheum rhaponticum, Oxalis cernua, Rumex sp., Russian vine, etc.). Several pathways have been described for oxalic acid production, but the mechanism of oxalate crystal production is not known. In Aspergillus niger, the organism apparently possesses oxaloacetate acetylhydrolase (OAH), one of the enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and degrades oxaloacetate to oxalate by this route (i.e. oxaloacetate + H2O → oxalate + acetate). In humans, similar morphological findings have been reported, with often localized deposition of calcium oxalate crystals around a pulmonary A. niger fungal ball.(1-3,5,6)
Aspergillus, a ubiquitous environmental organism, is an opportunistic pathogen in mammals and birds. Aspergillus fumigatus is the most commonly reported cause of aspergillosis in animals, whereas A. flavus, A. terreus, A. nidulans, and A. niger are incriminated less frequently. In animals, localized deposition of massive numbers of calcium oxalate crystals in tissues has been reported in association with Aspergillus infections.(5,7-9) This is the first report of pulmonary oxalosis in a crocodile.
Lung: Pneumonia, necrohemorrhagic, multifocal to coalescing, severe, with pleuritis, myriad fungal hyphae, and abundant anisotropic crystalline material (oxalate crystals).
The GMS method highlights the fungal conidia and is helpful in demonstrating the other hyphal characteristics described by the contributor; while these features, in combination with oxalate crystal formation, are certainly suggestive of aspergillosis, the results of confirmatory testing (e.g. fungal culture) would be particularly valuable for solidifying the specific etiologic diagnosis. Furthermore, while the morphology of the prismatic crystalline material is consistent with oxalate crystals, histochemical stains (e.g. Yasues sliver nitraterubeanic acid), though not performed, may be employed to definitively identify oxalate crystals.(5)
In domestic species, oxalate crystals are more commonly encountered in the renal tubules due to ethylene glycol toxicosis in cats and dogs, or intoxication with one of the oxalate-containing plants listed above in sheep and cattle. Interestingly, the rumen microflora have some capacity to degrade oxalate to bicarbonate and carbonates, conferring sheep and cattle with a degree, albeit limited, of resistance to oxalosis; yet, remarkably, horses are far more resistant to oxalate-induced nephrosis. Because oxalate chelates calcium, hypocalcemia is a characteristic finding in both ethylene glycol toxicosis and oxalate toxicosis.(4)
1. Blackmon JA: Aspergillus niger. Am J Clin Pathol 76:506, 1981
2. Kauffman CA, Wilson KH, Schwartz DB: Necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis with oxalosis. Mykosen 27:535-538, 1984
3. Kurrein F, Green GH, Rowles SL: Localized deposition of calcium oxalate around a pulmonary Aspergillus niger fungus ball. Am J Clin Pathol 64:556-563, 1975
4. Maxie MG, Newman SJ: Urinary system. In: Jubb, Kennedy, and Palmers Pathology of Domestic Animals, ed. Maxie MG, 5th ed., vol. 2, pp. 470-472. Elsevier Saunders, Philadelphia, PA, 2007
5. Muntz FH: Oxalate-producing pulmonary aspergillosis in an alpaca. Vet Pathol 36:631-632, 1999
6. Severo LC, Londero AT, Geyer GR, Picon PD: Oxalosis associated with an Aspergillus niger fungus ball: report of a case. Mycopathologia 73:29-31, 1981
7. Tham VL, Purcell DA: Fungal nephritis in a grey-headed albatross. J Wildl Dis 10:306-309, 1974
8. Wobeser G, Saunders JR: Pulmonary oxalosis in association with Aspergillus niger infection in a great horned owl (Bubo virginianus). Avian Dis 19:388-392, 1975
9. Wyand DS, Langheinrich K, Helmboldt CF: Aspergillosis and renal oxalosis in a white-tailed deer. J Wildl Dis 7:52-56, 1971


No matter how much weight you want to lose or how fit you want to become, you can only get there by setting and achieving small goals along the way...some of these smaller goals are just weeks away from accomplishment. What small goals can you set today that you know you can achieve in the next few weeks?
Feeling bad about being fat and trying to lose weight, or putting yourself in exercise situations you don't feel comfortable in are not going to really help until the underlying issues of using food to treat boredom or anxiety or depression.


Shrew and SirBenjys like this.
amqnda, I Am Super Smexy, Pufflin and 1 other person like this.
amqnda, I Am Super Smexy, Pufflin and 2 others like this.
I Am Super Smexy, Pufflin, vsolArALTACC and 4 others like this.
I Am Super Smexy, vsolArALTACC, Solar Panel and 4 others like this.
Pufflin, vsolArALTACC, Solar Panel and 3 others like this.
Pufflin, vsolArALTACC, Solar Panel and 2 others like this.
Solar Panel and Shrew like this.
Muy bueno bueno! Yo soy muy smexy!
Solar Panel and Pufflin like this.
Solar Panel, allymac123, Shrew and 1 other person like this.
That was one of my cousins secretly trying to kidnap you!
Solar Panel, Pufflin, Shive and 3 others like this.
Pufflin and Shrew like this.
SO GOOD 100 LIKES SHREW!
allymac123, vsolArr, Shrew and 1 other person like this.
Shive, allymac123, Lolooo and 2 others like this.
allymac123, Shrew and BearlordTheGr8 like this.
Solar Panel, Shive, allymac123 and 3 others like this.
allymac123 and Shrew like this.
Shive, allymac123, Lolooo and 1 other person like this.
Very bad shrew! No turning off forums!
Solar Panel, allymac123, Strel and 4 others like this.
Solar Panel, Pufflin, SOmEonE ranDoM and 4 others like this.
Welcome to forums ShReW!!! Hehehehe......have a follow!
Solar Panel, SOmEonE ranDoM, Shrew and 3 others like this.
Solar Panel, Shive, Lolooo and 3 others like this.
Solar Panel, allymac123, amqnda and 3 others like this.
I wil find every thread you made and post you made and like them all!
Solar Panel, Shive, BearlordTheGr8 and 5 others like this.
jk I am like spamming amqshrew Rn!
allymac123, amqnda, Lolooo and 3 others like this.
Shive, BearlordTheGr8, amqnda and 5 others like this.
Omg hi @amqnda 's twin!!!!
allymac123, amqnda, Pufflin and 2 others like this.
me and amq hav so much in common!
Shive, BearlordTheGr8, amqnda and 4 others like this.
allymac123, amqnda, SOmEonE ranDoM and 2 others like this.
Shrew, Lolooo, allymac123 and 1 other person like this.
Please Shrew, get me to 16666!!!!!
Shrew, Lolooo and Pufflin like this.
Shive, Lolooo, BearlordTheGr8 and 1 other person like this.


text:
Chris Haile
Making Plans for Better Urban Futures
A Myth of Urban Design: The 'Sense of Enclosure' Theory
One of the most widespread conventions of urban design is the belief in the importance of 'a sense of enclosure'. This term is defined by the City of Ottawa as
"when buildings physically define public spaces particularly through proportions between height and width in an area to create places that are comfortable to pedestrians."
This article contends that the 'sense of enclosure' generated by following certain ratios of street height to street width is based on a valuable perception of what makes a satisfying place, but that the ratio theory is the wrong interpretation of that valuable perception. Consequently, by following the ratio theory we risk making developments that focus on concerns that may be unimportant to street users, and thereby make mistakes. In its place I'll try to offer an interpretation of why some places that are said to 'offer a sense of enclosure' are satisfying that is both simpler and fits the data better, and which is constructed from two principles grounded firmly in known principles of how we perceive a place.
Conventionally, urban designers see the ratio between the height and width of a public space as one of the fundamental ideas of the profession. For example, the first specific advice given by urban design guidelines published by the Scottish Government involves height-width ratios of streets.
G2.4.3 The public realm is defined by height as well as width or, more accurately, the ratio of height to width. It is therefore recommended that the height of buildings (or mature trees where present in wider streets) is in proportion to the width of the intervening public space to achieve enclosure. The actual ratio depends on the type of street or open space being designed for. This is a fundamental urban design principle. (Emphasis mine) The height-to-width enclosure ratios shown in Table G2.1 and illustrated in Fig. G2.4 can serve as a guide.
Table G2.1 Height-to-width ratios
MAXIMUM MINIMUM
MINOR STREETS, E.G. MEWS 1:1.5 1:1
TYPICAL STREETS 1:3 1:1.5
SQUARES 1:6 1:4
It is rather striking that this 'fundamental principle of urban design' is presented without any argument or evidence for why these ratios work. The Scottish Government's report merely presents us with these illustrations:
This lack of supporting argumentation is important because there are innumerable examples of streets considered charming despite the height being rather greater than the width, in defiance of the prescribed ratio. Traditionally streets in hot climates were frequently built to be much narrower than their height in order to provide shaded streets, and many pleasant streets in cooler climates also display this characteristic. Take, for example, The Shambles in York, England, which was voted Britain's most picturesque street.
The Shambles, York. By Wayne Cappleman
This attraction is not confined to England. In China, for instance, Phoenix Town in Hunan is considered one of the very prettiest towns in the entire country, and it is also characterised by narrow, tall streets.
Even more strikingly, some urban spaces that are conventionally considered 'great' utterly flout the ratios. Take, for example, St. Peter's Square in the Vatican:
© Argenberg @ flickr.com
According to the cathedral website the enclosing colonnade structures are 21m tall, whilst the oval piazza at its widest is 240 m across. This is a height: width ratio of 1: 11.4, vastly in excess of the Scottish Government's prescribed maximum ratio for squares.
I submit that if our theory of what makes an urban space satisfying cannot explain St. Peter's Square then we should reconsider our theory. And if our theory of how to generate a 'sense of enclosure' cannot explain Bernini's adored square whose major objective was to provide a feeling of being embraced by, in Bernini's own words, "the motherly arms of the church" then I submit we should consider rejecting our theory completely.
However, let us be as charitable as possible to this theory and assume that it provides the standard against which to judge the dimensions of urban spaces. Let us assume that whatever falls well outside the ratios does indeed fail to provide a sense of enclosure and that therefore Bernini and the builders of The Shambles designed failed spaces. Let us assume that the theory is capable of standing up under all this weight we have placed on it.
Structural Flaws in the Ratio Theory
We do not have to look far to find serious problems with the ratios. Whilst the ratios sound impressively mathematical, naturally what they mean in practice is dependent upon what width of street is desirable: and this is what the Scottish Government guidelines admit that they cannot do.
G2.4.2 Width between buildings is a key dimension and needs to be considered in relation to function and aesthetics. Figure G2.3 shows typical widths for different types of street. The distance between frontages in residential streets typically ranges from 12 m to 18 m, although there are examples of widths less than this working well. There are no fixed rules but account should be taken of the variety of activities taking place in the street and of the scale of the buildings on either side. (Emphasis mine)
As we saw in the table, the proffered ratios give considerable leeway to building heights, allowing plenty of variance, which as a necessary by-product weakens the certainty of these ratios. Without guidelines on the desirable widths of streets the guidelines threaten to break down into meaninglessness, and can easily be pushed to absurdity since there are no limits to how large or small urban spaces may be. According to the ratio for minor streets an urban space one metre wide would give a sense of enclosure were it to be bordered by walls 67cm high. Or we might imagine some dictator building an enormous city square, 600m x 600m, in order to allow his military to parade, and fringing this square with buildings 100m high. It conforms to the ratios: does that fact alone allow us to say that the square has the basis for a satisfying place? And if not, why the stress on ratios?
Moreover, let us look again at these ratios, having reminded ourselves that in the diagram above the Scottish Government includes "squares and very wide streets" in the same category:
MINOR STREETS, E.G. MEWS
1:1.5 1:1
TYPICAL STREETS
1:3 1:1.5
If it is a ratio of width to height that generates the sense of enclosure then it is very curious why this ratio should vary so very greatly depending on the type of street. A street with a 1:1 ratio apparently generates a sense of enclosure as does one of 6:1. Can we really claim as one of the fundamental principles of our profession a ratio that has a margin of tolerance of fully 600%? And this, remember, is being as charitable as possible — were we to include The Shambles and St. Peter's Square the margin of tolerance would be simply immense.
Were the ratio theory not to conceal the astonishingly wide margin of tolerance through having different categories of streets each with their own, smaller margins of tolerance then the ratio theory would surely be obviously implausible: if a ratio can successfully be almost anything then it means almost nothing. And yet what is the justification for the division into different categories? What is the difference between a 'typical street' and a 'minor street' that enables the former to be twice as wide and still generate the same psychological effect of enclosure? At the very least we can say that the burden of proof is surely with the proponents of the ratio theory.
A Building's Eye View: The Basic Flaw of the 'Sense of Enclosure' Theory
Perhaps the most fundamental flaw of the ratio theory is that, although the theory is justified with reference to the proportions that pedestrians find satisfying, the width part of the ratio is measured from the building frontage rather than the predicted paths of pedestrians. It is what pedestrians see from the places in which they are likely to be that is important, not 'what the building sees'. (Obviously a fine view from a building's window is also desirable, but this has precious little to do with any sense of enclosure as the viewer will already be enclosed by the walls of the room.) As pedestrians cross a public space, quite obviously, the distance to the building frontage is constantly changing yet the height of the buildings remains the same. The observed ratio of width to height is thus constantly changing. For the sake of being charitable let us assume that the bulk of pedestrian activity takes place at the edges of the space, as is very common, and that therefore the distance across (although not, of course, along) the urban space is fixed. This does not help the theory much since it fundamentally depends on which way the pedestrian is looking. Naturally, if the pedestrian is at the edge of the space then the distance to at least one building line is minimal and yet the height remains the same. The relevant height: width ratio (and thus, by hypothesis, the perceived enjoyment of the urban space) will change wildly depending on which way the pedestrian is looking. In order for the theory to have any chance of working then ratios should be established for all predicted important fields of view at all points on all predicted important pedestrian fields. This mammoth task, even if it can be accomplished, would surely lead to a ludicrously rigid set of dictates for the planning of rooflines.
However, it's doubtful that it can be accomplished, as the human visual system is such that lines stretching into the distance converge on a single point. Provided that the height of the street's buildings is greater than its width, then as the street's width and height converge to a single vanishing point the apparent height of the street will diminish more dramatically than the width of the street will. (And of course vice versa).
Where the street width is not equal to its height, then, even if the ratio of height to width of a street is entirely consistent we will perceive it as constantly changing.Given this feature of how we perceive our environment, which point relative to our position should we select to calculate the ratio of height to width, and what possible justification could we use to select one visible point on a converging continuum of a line rather than another?
I suggest that the entire theory that certain width: height ratios create psychologically satisfying spaces is simply unworkable.
We should surely start looking for alternatives to the theory that so not depend on 'objective' qualities that are rarely experienced by the people that use the urban spaces but acknowledge that what people see is relative to their position in that space. Surely it's time to start putting the pedestrian's experience at the heart of any theory of what makes an urban space satisfying…
What People Are Talking About When They Talk About 'Enclosure'
There is so much else to critique about the theory, not least the curious epicycle to the theory that allows a line of trees to function precisely as a building line would in giving a sense of enclosure, as we also see above in the Scottish Government's diagrams. (Astonishingly enough for a theory of height:width proportions, neither the required height of the trees nor the degree of any overhang ever seems to be mentioned.)Yet as I wrote at the start there is something valuable in the perception that leads to the 'sense of enclosure' theory. The explanation relies on two features of our dominant sense, the human visual system.
When we survey a scene our eyes are not static but move in discontinuous jumps from one point to another, as is perfectly demonstrated by the practice of reading. These jumps the eyes make are called 'saccadic movements', and during these extremely high-speed movements our visual perception more-or-less shuts down in order to prevent motion blur turning our visual perception into an intolerable smear. The mind then 'fills in the gaps' to provide an apparently unbroken view of the world. When scanning a scene, as when scanning a page of a book, the eyes jump from point to point. Yet a scene such as an urban space is vastly more complicated than a page of a book, with many more objects. What, then, determines where the eyes jump to? In other words, what in such a scene will the eyes focus on?
The answer may be literally staring you in the face, in the shape of your computer's webcam. You may have wondered how your camera's autofocus seems to know exactly which of the many objects in a scene is the one you are looking at, and therefore which one to focus on. The answer that you may already have discovered is that the type of autofocus used in the vast majority of cameras — the most accurate type of focus — simply makes the assumption that you are looking at the most contrasty object in the scene. Since their outlines are blurred, out-of-focus areas tend to involve less contrast than those in-focus. The camera's lens moves in and out until it finds the focal distance that gives the resulting image maximum contrast. That, very basically, is it. Contrast-detect autofocus achieves its 90% accuracy rate through knowing that our eyes instinctively jump from point of high contrast to point of high contrast.
This is not surprising: being able to identify movement against a still background, edges, changes in level, transitions in light etc. as early as possible is critical for how capable to deal with the environment we are. It may even make the difference between life and death: if a predator is moving towards us, for example, then if we do not see his movement early enough then we are likely to be 'naturally selected out.' The importance of spotting contrast is especially so given that during saccadic movements the brain is providing continuity using slightly outdated information about our environment therefore causing some vulnerability. Any form of contrast may be of use in helping us navigate the objects in our environment and avoid threats whether they be a predator or a protruding edge. Yet our visual system's love of contrast is not only explained by our desire to avoid threats to our safety; it also greatly helps us understand other people in that it somewhat narcissistically draws our focus to what is both the most contrasty part of the typical human body and the most psychologically significant.
By Leticia Chamorro
Now, a quirk of most camera's autofocus systems is that – with good reason – their algorithms are biased towards a particular type of contrast. Indeed, early autofocus mechanisms only worked when they could detect this type of contrast. This was the contrast of a horizontal with a vertical. Where a vertical line interrupts or terminates a horizontal line is roughly where our attention will tend to go.
This tendency may not be surprising: we inhabit a world in which horizontal things like floors, tables, steps and shelves exist as the relatively insignificant background upon which tools, obstacles and items of interest stand, or upon which the most interesting things in our world — us — move upright. Vertical detail 'leaps out at us' as it offers an easy contrast for our horizontally-arranged eyes that evolved on flat African plains and are surrounded by horizontals that are so often dully convenient enablers to the main action of life.
Whatever we are focussing on, it will tend to have a significant amount of vertical detail. Yet it is important to reiterate that it is not verticality alone that is attractive but the contrast with horizontality. Our eyes are attracted to points where there is a strong vertical-horizontal contrast. However, where either the vertical or the horizontal line is so dominant that our eyes follow it to the point that we lose sight of the contrasting right-angle then we lose the contrast and thus our satisfaction.
By Christoph Kilger
Tiananmen Square. By Stefan Geens
A Theory of Contrast
I'd better set out the argument you've doubtless already grasped. The valuable insight that underlies the 'sense of enclosure' theory is the importance of verticality as a contrast to the horizontal street or square. When our eyes scan scenes they are looking for contrast; where they fail to find satisfactory contrast they get frustrated; if our vision — our overwhelmingly dominant sense — is frustrated by a place our perception of it is not likely to be positive. A lack of the vertical contrast our visual system is particularly interested in is likely to be especially frustrating given the likely predominance of horizontals in our immediate environment. Moreover, I suggest that the ratio theory is correct in asserting that a well-proportioned urban space will often be wider than it is high but that this is because we are accustomed to taking verticals as more significant than horizontals. The verticals therefore can be physically smaller than the horizontals and still appear to 'balance' psychologically.
However, to generate a particular ratio out of the greater significance of verticals relative to horizontals is a mistake, I contend. This is for several reasons. Firstly, the amount of verticality required for each space can vary dramatically depending upon what is required for that space. For example, walking along a street the frontages will tend to be in the peripheral vision. Whatever is in the peripheral vision will tend to be treated as less important than what is in front of us both because of the lack of sharpness (and therefore also contrast) and also because — well, there is a reason that they are in our peripheral vision rather than being selected as objects of attention. In order to compensate for this lack of importance it may benefit the psychological effect of the street if the buildings at the side are higher than buildings or other verticals that are directly in front of the pedestrians' path. A complication to this is that the more buildings are set back from the main pedestrian path the more they recede into the peripheries of our attention and the more compensation is required.There may, then, be a case for making verticals directly in front of pedestrians smaller than those to the side, but the degree of this will be affected by the distance between the main pedestrian path and the buildings. However the case for making verticals in front of us smaller has itself to be balanced against the effects of perspective making what is distantly in front of us appear smaller than what is adjacent to us: the length of the vista is of importance. Both the precise paths through the urban space and the length of the vistas in front of those paths are important in determining the psychological effect we have been discussing, then.
What's more, the psychological effect of various verticals can be exaggerated or diminished through various optical effects. A facade painted with contrasty colours will surely attract more attention than a grey (and therefore minimally contrasty) facade, and this will cause us to place more significance upon it than its physical size might otherwise merit.
There are other ways a facade can be attractively contrasty: through the contrast of wall and door, or the contrast of window and door, or the contrast of the stillness of the architecture with the movement of people in and out (in sum, what urban designers call an 'active frontage'). Climate also may play a role: in climates that frequently receive strong, direct sunlight, a tree may produce a dappled pattern of dark and bright patches upon the ground; in climates that predominantly have diffuse, overcast light this will not tend to happen. None of these factors, surely, can be captured through the ratio theory but all are important in determining the psychological effect of a place. The number of contrasts to balance out a too dominant horizontality or verticality is limited only by the ingenuity of the designers. Speaking of which, here are two of the most ingenious urban spaces that I know of. Both use carefully judged verticality to offset a horizontality that could be overwhelming, and I suggest this is one reason for their greatness.
Using the Contrast Theory to Explain Two of the World's Greatest Urban Spaces
The Spanish Steps
Let's examine the Spanish Steps in Rome. This is a prodigiously wide staircase, and therefore 'by default' we would assume that the space would be dominated by the horizontality of these many, very wide steps. Assuming that we view the Spanish Steps as a success this space would be a severe challenge to the 'contrast' theory that has just been advanced unless we find strong evidence of attempts to minimise the dramatically horizontal emphasis of the steps and to exaggerate the verticality of the space in compensation. I'll argue that we do indeed see evidence of this.
Spanish Steps, by CpaKmoi
Firstly, note how the steps towards the base of the steps are broken up by two balustrades, the start of which particularly attract the eye through their being topped by a sphere that strongly contrasts with the steps' straight lines. These balustrades lead the eye swiftly upwards (discouraging the eye from resting on any particular horizontal step) to the wall halfway up the steps. This effect is enhanced by the narrowing of the steps. Having thus encouraged the eye to focus on this wall in the centre of the space the steps suddenly reverse their previously converging direction and slink around the wall in relative obscurity; the contrast between the stairs' former spatial prominence and its subservience to the wall emphasise this shift from horizontality to verticality.
This wall to which our eyes have been led plays all kinds of optical tricks on us to emphasise the vertical. Firstly, the wall is coloured similarly to the church directly behind it as we view it. The similarity of colours encourages the eye to read the church and this wall as a single 'tonal mass' and therefore to some extent as one object. The height of the church is therefore visually exaggerated. In the same way the white stone at the centre of both levels of the wall is the same colour as the base of the obelisk, again exaggerating the height of the obelisk through similar tonal mass.
So much is done to promote verticality in the upper portion of the Steps that there could be a risk of overbalancing the composition into a too dominant verticality. To the rescue come our old friends the balustrades; just as they undermined the horizontality of the lower Steps the balustrades across the front of the two levels of the wall introduce a counter-balancing horizontality to the upper Steps. Brilliantly subtly they also help the effect of exaggerating the height of the obelisk that was just discussed. For the central slabs of white stone that appear to extend the height of the obelisk are not only at different heights but different distances from the viewer, in that each level of the wall steps back to provide a platform. The risk of this is that the line of stones will be perceived as discontinuous (whether through the shift of perspective or through people standing on top of each level) and therefore the illusion will be broken. The intervention of the balustrades that screen the base of each of the upper levels of the wall means that people cannot stand directly on top of each level and that discrepancies in how the white slabs line up are more likely to be unnoticed (since small contrasts between very similar objects are much more likely to be noticed when we have not focused on something very different in between, in comparison to which the similar objects are practically identical.)
Through these various measures the immense width of the stairs is harmoniously balanced out through a contrasting verticality. There is much more that could be said about these Steps, of course, but we'll pass on to St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.
St. Peter's Square, Vatican City
By Argenberg
Upon this vast horizontal space there is an astounding array of verticals. The colonnades, arranged in rows four deep and surmounted by statues, the enormous obelisk at the centre, the fountains, the facade of the great cathedral: not only is there this wealth of verticals to counterbalance the horizontals but the square is precisely organised partly just for this purpose. For example, the extra width of the bulging area along the horizontal axis would leave too dominant an empty horizontal space were it not for the perfectly-placed fountains that through their verticality, craftsmanship and active water attract an amount of attention that is disproportionate to their size. The design also leads the eye towards the verticality of the cathedral facade: the embracing curve of the oval leads us languidly in the direction of the facade before the sudden, contrasting shift into expansive straight lines pointing directly at the facade. The contrasty lines on the floor lead the eye towards that obelisk, emphasising that vertical and therefore diminishing the psychological importance of the horizontal space.
Wonderfully subtly, go to one of two particular spots (Centro del Colonnato) just outside the central circle and look at the colonnades – you'll see that the four rows of columns are so lined up to converge on this central point that you can only see one row: at every other point in the square the contrast of the white columns and the shadowed space beside is undermined by the partial visibility of rows of shadowed columns behind. The partial visibility of the rear columns effectively make the columns seem much wider (and thus more horizontal) and ill-defined (and thus less contrasty) than each really is.
By Twyxx, from Centro del Colonnato
Yet at pretty much the point at which you are both furthest from the colonnades and with your back turned to the obelisk — i.e. where the colonnades look smallest, the horizontal space looks most enormous and you can no longer rely on the sight of the obelisk to help correct the unbalanced dominance of the horizontal over the vertical — the columns suddenly stand out most against the background. For the columns are perfectly in line so that the rear ones are invisible; rather than seeing four overlapping pillars we see just one. The strength of this contrast is magnified by the contrast between this and every other view of the columns as the viewer walked across the square. Right when strong vertical contrast is most needed the design delivers.
Key to both the Spanish Steps and Saint Peter's Square, then, is the attempt to balance a horizontality that threatens to be overwhelming through a judicious use of verticals. Often these verticals are near the centre of the space, and this is worth stressing since the ratio theory puts such vast importance on the perimeter of an urban space and so little on its middle. To repeat, St. Peter's Square is 240m wide. Were a street to have a similar width then (using the standard British motorway lane width and providing 5m of pavement on each side) it could accommodate sixty-three lanes of traffic. Could we possibly imagine standing on the edge of sixty-three lanes of traffic and thinking 'what a satisfying urban space', irrespective of how tall the walls are? If not then we should not ignore the middle of spaces. In successful square after successful square we find vertical monuments, vertical statues, vertical fountains set amid a lot of empty horizontal space. Very frequently these monuments of various types have been the produce of long deliberation and massive fundraising drives amongst an impoverished population to employ the very best artists the towns could possibly hire. Are we to somehow ignore this because we cannot see how an obelisk or a staue of a local worthy contributes to a 'sense of enclosure'?
I submit that the contrast theory explains the success of urban spaces such as St. Peter's Square much better than the 'sense of enclosure' ratio theory, and invite you to make arguments to the contrary.
There is much more that could be said; however, I hope to have made a case that the ratio theory is unworkable, that the motivation for the theory can better be explained through an analysis of contrast, and that this theory can be used to analyse some of the most remarkable urban spaces we have.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized by Chris. Bookmark the permalink.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to install Tibco Spotfire with Apache Brooklyn? I am looking for an entity or a yaml file to install a Tibco Spotfire in a Windows OS via Apache Brooklyn.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers the installation of this service:
https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B00PB74KYY
This is my yaml file which install successfully in AWS a windows Server:
name: Windows_OS_Example
location:
  jclouds:aws-ec2:
    region: eu-central-1
    identity: <identity>
    credential: <credential>
    imageNameRegex: Windows_Server-2012-R2_RTM-English-64Bit-Base
    hardwareId: m3.medium
    useJcloudsSshInit: false
    templateOptions: {mapNewVolumeToDeviceName: ["/dev/sda1", 100, true]}
services:
- type: brooklyn.entity.basic.VanillaWindowsProcess
  brooklyn.config:
    install.command: echo true
    customize.command: echo true
    launch.command: echo true
    stop.command: echo true
    checkRunning.command: echo true

I think that maybe,

*

*there is another image (imageNameRegex) which has the Windows Server
and the Spotfire together

*or one Service or something similar which it could be added to jclouds spec in the yaml file to install a Spotfire after the Windows Server installation

*or an example/workaround of a Java Entity to install the Spotfire

If somebody knows some of these solutions or another one, I really appreciate it.

A: The most common Brooklyn way is to write a Brooklyn entity that installs Spotfire. This could make use of Powershell scripts, or Chef recipes etc (e.g. over WinRM). I don't know of any such pre-existing entity in the Brooklyn community yet, and not sure how complex it is to automate the installation of Spotfire.
The simplest approach for you would be to use the AMI from the amazon marketplace, which is provided by TIBCO. You can replace imageNameRegex with the imageId (ensuring that the region of the AMI matches that of the location). Note you will first need to click "accept terms" under the manual launch of the marketplace VM (otherwise you will get a 401 unauthorized).
The example blueprint below opens the required ports (creating a new security group to do so). If you already have a security group that you want to use, then you can use securityGroups: nameOfMySecurityGroup.
Note that it is sneakily (!) using EmptySoftwareProcess. This expects an ssh'able location, but then is configured to do nothing with it (so giving it a Windows VM is fine). Unfortunately there isn't an equivalent "no-op entity" for Windows. The VanillaWindowsProcess expects to be able to use WinRM - see https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BROOKLYN-160.
name: Spotfire @ AWS
location:
  jclouds:aws-ec2:
    region: eu-central-1
    imageId: eu-central-1/ami-08330d15
    hardwareId: m3.medium
    templateOptions: {mapNewVolumeToDeviceName: ["/dev/sda1", 100, true]}
    useJcloudsSshInit: false
    waitForWinRmAvailable: false
    waitForSshable: false
    osFamilyOverride: linux
services:
- type: brooklyn.entity.basic.EmptySoftwareProcess
  brooklyn.config:
    requiredOpenLoginPorts: [3389, 80, 8080]
    onbox.base.dir.skipResolution: true

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


It is not known where Godfrey Nims was born nor his birth date. It has been speculated that he may have been a Hugenot (French Protestant) and arrived in America at a young age and that his name may possibly have been Godefroi de Nismes, changed to Godrey Nims. The first official recorded mention of Godfrey Nims is in a Springfield Massachusetts court record dated September 24, 1667 and referred to below. He died in 1705.
Godfrey Nims settled in Deerfield, Massachusetts around 1670, was married twice, had 11 children and 4 stepchildren.
Godfrey Nims was the father of Abigail Nims. Abigail was a survivor of the 1704 Deerfield Massacre where at age 4 she was captured and taken to Quebec, Canada where she remained for the rest of her life. She was renamed Elisabeth Nims in 1713 by the Catholic Mission, Quebec, Canada, which name she used for the remainder of her life. At the age of 15 she married Josiah Rising (renamed Ignace Raizenne in 1713 by the Catholic Mission, Quebec, Canada), also a survivor of the Deerfield Massacre.
Abigail and Josiah were both adopted and raised by the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) in Kahwawake, Quebec from 1704 until 1713 when they were released and placed in the Catholic Mission. Abigail was given the name T'atog'ach and Josiah was given the name Shoentak'ani by the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) during the years they lived with them from 1704-1713. When they married they chose to live in Oka, Quebec close to their adoptive family. They built a home on land which the Sulpician priests provided to them.
Abigail 's granddaughter, Elizabeth Sequin married Antoine Quesnel, Arthur Quesnel's great grandfather.
Eunice and Abigail were 2 of the 7 girls who were captured from Deerfield during the 1704 massacre, taken to Quebec, adopted and raised by the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk).
The following information is copy/pasted from The Nims Family Association website. Check their site out for much more!
Regardless of his birthplace, the first official record of Godfrey Nims appears on September 24, 1667, in a Springfield, Massachusetts court record.
"James Bennet, Godfrey Nims & Benoni Stebbins, young lads of Northampton being by Northampton Commissionrs bound ouer to this Corte to answer for diverse crimes & misdemeanrs comitted by them, were brought to this Corte by ye Constable of yt Towne wch 3 lads are accused by Robert Bartlett for that they gott into his house two Sabbath dayes when all the family were at the Publike Meeting: On ye first of wch tymes, they vizt. 24 shillings in silver & 7s in Wampum with the intention to run away to the ffrench: Al which is by them confessed, wch wickedness of theires hath also been accompanyd with frequent lying to excuse & justify themselves especially on Nims his pt, who it seemes hath been a ringleader in their vilainys: ffor all wch their crimes and misdemeanors this Corte doth Judge yt the said 3 lads shalbe well whipt on their naked bodys vizt, Nims & Bennet with 15 lashes apeece & Bononi Stebbins with 11 lashes. And the said Nims & Stebbins are to pay Robert Bartlett the summe of 4L being counted treble according to law for what goods he hath lost by their meanes. "
Archival records of Massachusetts list Godfrey Nims as one of many from Northampton who signed a petition in 1668 requesting relief from taxation on goods brought into the colony's ports. He also appears with others when taking the Oath of Fidelity to the government on March 25, 1672/3, at the County Court at Northampton. Again, family tradition tells us that Godfrey soon came to Deerfield, Massachusetts around 1670, perhaps as early as the third settler. A deed dated 1679 gives the first written indication that Godfrey settled at Deerfield, where he later shared in the holding of public offices, including constable, tax collector, selectman, and later, as a member of the school committee. The present White Church, town office, town hall, and Memorial Hall all stand on land formerly owned by Godfrey. J. R. Trumbull's History of Northampton, Massachusetts describes Godfrey as "the owner of considerable property and...an honored and respected citizen."
In 1677, Godfrey married Mary Miller Williams, widow of Zebediah Williams who had been killed earlier by Indians. Following the death of Mary in 1688, Godfrey married Mehitable Smead Hull in 1692, widow of Jeremiah Hull. He had six children with Mary and five with Mehitable, in addition to caring for two stepchildren each that the widows brought to the marriages. As the records demonstrate, Godfrey Nims joined the Puritan society in the Connecticut Valley, learned to make his living as a cordwainer (shoemaker) as well as a farmer, and raised a large family. Like other settlers, he shared the work and faced tragedies and dangers common to the area. The greatest blow came on February 29, 1704, when about 2 hours before day "ye French & Indian enemy made an attaque upon Derefield, entering ye Fort with Little discovery though it is sd ye watch shot of a gun & cryed Arm, weth verry few heard." The attackers burned most buildings and killed or took captive most of the settlers. Godfrey died within a year, and it is from the four surviving children, John, Ebenezer, Thankful and Abigail, that members of the Nims family are descended.
Mary Williams, b. December 24, 1673. Godfrey's stepdaughter later married Nathanial Brooks in 1695 at Deerfield. Nathanial, Mary, and two young children were all captured in the 1704 raid. Nathanial later was redeemed; the fate of the two children is unknown. Mary Williams Brooks, on the 8th day of the forced march, relayed that she had been "disabled by a fall on the ice, causing a miscarriage during the night. I will not be able to travel far, and I know they will kill me today." Speaking with her minister, also one of the captives, she asked, "Pray for me that God would take me to himself." They parted and she went calmly to certain death, March 7, 1704.
Zebediah Williams, b. 1675; captured by Indians with stepbrother John Nims on October 8, 1703. Died a captive in Canada on April 12, 1706.
Rebecca Nims, b. August 12, 1678; died August 30, 1678.
John Nims, b. August 14, 1679; captured by Indians October 8, 1703, and escaped from Canada in 1705. Married his step-sister Elizabeth Hull on December 19, 1707. He died December 29, 1762.
Rebecca Nims, b. August 14, 1679, a twin of John. Married Philip Mattoon January 15, 1702/3. She was killed in the 1704 raid on Deerfield, age 24. Philip was captured and died on the forced march to Canada.
Henry Nims, b. April 29, 1682; killed in 1704 at Deerfield, age 22.
Thankful Nims, b. August 29, 1684; married Benjamin Munn January 15, 1702/3; d. July 11, 1746.
Ebenezer Nims, b. March 14, 1686/7; captured and taken to Canada in the 1704 raid; redeemed in 1714; returned to Deerfield with fellow captive and wife Sarah Hoyt.
Elizabeth Hull, b. December 23, 1688; married step-brother John Nims as noted above; d. September 21, 1754.
Jeremiah Hull, b. January 15, 1690; burned to death in the house of his father Nims, when that home was destroyed by fire, January 4, 1693/4.
Thomas Nims, b. November 6, 1693; d. at the age of three, September 10, 1697.
Mehitable Nims, b. May 16, 1696; killed in 1704 at Deerfield, age 7.
Mary Nims, b. February 28, 1698/9; killed in 1704 at Deerfield, age 5.
Mercy Nims, b. February 28, 1698/9; a twin of Mary, also killed in 1704 at Deerfield, age 5.
Note the toll of Godfrey's family members killed or taken captive in the 1704 raid on Deerfield: his second wife captured, dying on the forced march to Canada. One son killed, and one captured, to be redeemed ten years later; four daughters killed that day; one daughter captured and taken to Canada, never to return. A step-daughter, Mary Williams Brooks, and a son-in-law, Phillip Mattoon, captured and killed on the march; a grandchild, infant Mattoon, killed in the attack. Earlier in 1703, a son and stepson captured and taken to Canada, where one escaped and the other died captive. One might well imagine the burden of these tragedies contributing to Godfrey's death sometime early in 1705.
Godfrey Nims boulder in front of Memorial Hall, formerly a Deerfield Academy building.


The American College of Cardiology has released new guidance on novel therapies for reduction of cardiovascular (CV) risk in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes (T2D).
The guidance, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, recommends the use of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) in patients with T2D and established a clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, for lowering their CV risk.
Clinicians should provide guideline-directed medical therapy (e.g., lipid-lowering treatment, antiplatelet therapy) and glucose-lowering treatment like metformin. At the same time, they should consider adding an SGLT2 inhibitor (empagliflozin is the preferred agent) or a GLP-1RA (liraglutide is preferred) with proven CV benefit following a discussion with the patient.
As per the recent evidence, SGLT2 inhibitors have been associated with a 14% reduced risk for major adverse CV events relative to placebo. GLP-1RAs have been associated with up to a 26% risk reduction, but in some studies, there was no significant benefit.
This is the latest Expert Consensus Pathway document, part of ACC's ongoing Clinical Pathway efforts to provide cardiovascular professional practical guidance, particularly in areas of emerging science where evidence is limited.
SGLT2 inhibitors increase the risk for genital mycotic infections. GLP-1RAs are associated with transient nausea and vomiting.
Cardiologists should consider adding a glucose-lowering drug proven to have cardiovascular benefits for patients with type 2 diabetes and established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) to reduce risk in these patients. They should be aware of the evidence supporting the use of SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1RAs in this regard.
"Previously, cardiovascular care in patients with diabetes was centred around risk factor optimization, and the medications used for glycemic control were not expected to demonstrate direct [cardiovascular] benefit. The recent development of two novel classes of therapies – SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1RAs – has, for the first time, demonstrated that treatments developed for glucose lowering can directly improve cardiovascular outcomes," write the authors.
The pathway provides practical guidance on when and how to incorporate the use of SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1Ras in the treatment of patients with T2D and ASCVD with the express goal of reducing cardiovascular risk and optimizing outcomes.
The pathway also strongly encourages patient discussions that review of risks, potential benefits, and different treatment options.


New OEM Genuine Nissan water outlet housing, This housing will fit Datsun 240Z 1970-1973. This housing bolts to the block and the thermostat sets in it. This thermostat housing has provisions for 2 threaded fittings.


text:
Radnor Beat
Radnorite
Report: 78% of RHS Students Are Addicted To Heroin
Andrew Rosin, The Radish Editor
Based on the results from the recent PAYS survey on drugs and alcohol, school administrators have concluded that approximately 78% of the student body is addicted to heroin. "The results are certainly troubling," commented Vice Principal Brett Thomas. "I mean, what are the remaining 22% of students addicted to? Crack? We all know that people who take methamphetamines are losers." Other officials are slower to accept the findings. "When I read the results, I had just finished smoking my third joint of the night. When I got to that question, I could have just misread "Are You Familiar With Heroin Addiction" for "Are You A Heroin Addict," reported one of the survey's analysts, who asked to remain anonymous due to his use of non-medical marijuana.
"Questions 200 to 205 on the survey asked students 'What Is Your Name?' 'Is That Your Real Name?' 'How Old Are You?' 'Why Are You Really Here?' 'Do You Work for the Government?' and finally 'Are You A Narc?' to which 350 students responded 'Yes,'" added Mrs. Kevgas. "It reflects badly on Radnor that none of these trained narcotic officers were able to catch even one of the schools 936 heroin addicts."
Inaccurate answers are always a concern with surveys like the PAYS. Just last month, a poll of Trump supporters found that 98% of Republicans have had at least 3 family members killed by an illegal immigrant in the past year. In the follow up question asking where these aliens were from, approximately 50% of respondents said that aliens don't exist while the other 50% gave nonexistent planets. Nadine Carol, Radnor's drug rehabilitation representative, agreed that the numbers did seem steep: "While I can't say for sure what a heroin addict looks like, I don't think that there are 936 here at Radnor. Maybe if you include teachers that number would be more accurate, but in reality the true number is probably closer to 50%." PAYS also included a special statement at the top of this year's survey, which read "If you give false answers then you are a liar,'" emphasizing moral principles that would be difficult for any student to ignore. Additionally, the organization throws away at least half of the surveys–"outliers"– and asks each question at least 15 times to eventually guilt students into answering truthfully.
Students raised concerns about the length of the survey, claiming that they were only on question 115 when community period was almost over and thus were pressured into answering questions quickly and likely incorrectly. While most experts agree that shorter surveys are more effective, PAYS is part of the new "Distract From Drugs" initiative, following the encouraging results of the 35,000 question survey about students' exposure to aluminum alloys. Released by the government the previous school year, researchers found that it took students approximately 8 weeks to complete this survey and then an additional 2 weeks to go back and check that they spelled their names correctly in questions 1-1000. "As we like to say here in Radnor, every 3 seconds a new student becomes a heroin addict, so as far as I'm concerned, that's 10 weeks where no students returned home one evening as a converted drug addict," explained RTSD superintendent Ken Bachelor. Researchers were also able to record student's general dissatisfaction with the low melting point of aluminum alloys and their resulting low tensile strength.
The results of this survey will certainly create new challenges for the school district. "I no longer know who to trust. Is everybody a heroin addict? Are students vaping heroin now? If so, where do I get some? How do we stop this?" said the Teachers Union in a recent statement. Despite all of the uncertainties, however, one thing is for sure: Rocket is stepping down from his position as Radnor's Interquest Drug Detection Dog. Radnor first disclosed this information last night, going on to call the dog an "incompetent fool and a disgrace to the district." "Rocket presented himself as an intelligent, charming dog during his interview, but I have now come to realize that he probably faked his credentials and cheated on his literacy test. There is no way that dog could sniff heroin out of a crowd of 936 potential and logical suspects," remarked Mr. Thomas in an interview with the Radish, "I doubt he even graduated from puppy kindergarten."
Radnor is currently attempting to identify all of the heroin users, declaring that each student could be part of a Mexican drug cartel. "We don't know who the Kingpins are as of now. But we'll go all the way to the mountains of Sinaloa to find him or her and take them down if we have to," wrote Mrs. Kevgas. The school also developed plans to crack down on punishment. "Whereas in the past months if we caught you with a little opium poppy in your lunch box you might have been subjected to a light scolding, now you're going right to a B Detention, no questions asked," Mr. Thomas confirmed.
The school plans to introduce Juan José Esparragoza Moreno as the new drug detection agent, claiming that his "familiarity with heroin will aid his ability to identify such products." Additionally, they hope that his presence will send a message to students that "if you get seriously involved with heroin, you will grow up to be a glorified drug detection dog at a Main Line public high school."
One Response to "Report: 78% of RHS Students Are Addicted To Heroin"
Charles Entertainment Cheese on November 12th, 2019 4:21 pm
I was Rocket's kindergarten teacher, and now serve as his mentor. Rocket passed all of his exams with flying colors and continues to do so. In regard to the heroine cartel, I can confirm that Rocket is the leader. Him stepping down was a moral and righteous act, and although he doesn't deserve the position, he shouldn't be penalized. Rocket couldn't admit to the detection of heroine within the schools premises because he relies on the salary of the cartel to put shoes on his paws and food in his bowl. The Radnor Police department pays him an inadequate salary, he was unable to support his family and was constantly relying on welfare checks and was forced to burn his dog house down in order to secure insurance money. Due to Rockets financial situation, he recently applied for a job within the cartel. They provide him and his family with shelter, food, clothes and a handsome salary. Although there is a cartel, it isn't in Mexico. Phil Arh, disgraced former Radnor commissioner is the kingpin. He runs these operations throughout Radnor in an attempt to get back at the town he once loved.
Charles E. Cheese
The Radnorite seeks to promote community engagement on our posts. However, in the interest of encouraging meaningful, civil, discussion, all comments will be screened by our editorial staff. If the comment uses profanity; personally attacks the author, another commenter, or member of the Radnor Community; is an exact copy of a previous comment from the same commenter; or does not include the commenter's first and last name and a valid email address, it will not be approved, and will not appear in the comment section of an article.
Trump Seeks Emotional Damages
Radnorite's Word of the Year 2019: 'Vibe'
Harry Styles: Dismantling Toxic Masculinity One Dress at a Time
Santa Announces He Won't Be Visiting the US on Christmas
Radnor in Phase 2.999999
Tweets by realRadnorite
Pennsylvania Department of Education Reports that Keystone Exams Are "More Valuable than the SATs"
I'm Fine Now
The Most Desired Gift of 2020
Strike for Snow Days
Amy Coney Barrett Steals the Election
Without LM Week, Instagram Likes of Female Students at Radnor High School Plummet
The Student News Site of Radnor High School


text:
This website requires JavaScript for some features to work properly. Please enable JavaScript for a better experience.
Companies Contact
71DB408C-F187-45D2-953C-DFBE34B69F13 Created with sketchtool.
77890D2D-9040-4976-BDE3-195B7F8DF0C8 Created with sketchtool.
Technical advisory services
Leadership/
Executive Leadership/
Gillian McColgan
John Veschi
Afzal Dean
Learn how we can help you understand & maximize the value of your assets.
gmccolgan@hilcoglobal.com
Gillian McColgan is the CTO of Hilco IP Merchant Banking. Previously, Ms. McColgan was CTO of Marquis Technologies. Prior to Marquis, Ms. McColgan was the CTO of the Rockstar Consortium, where she led the reverse engineering and technical functions, generating assertion packages in support of roughly 100 licensing engagements across four distinct market areas. Ms. McColgan also led Rockstar's Market Analysis function. Prior to joining Rockstar, Ms. McColgan was with Nortel Networks for 25 years in a variety of roles in Europe and North America, the last of which was as CTO of the IP business where her responsibilities included supporting the bankruptcy auction process. Ms. McColgan, in the course of her career, has held senior R&D, Business Analysis, and Product Management positions across wireless, optical, and data networking businesses.
© Hilco. All rights reserved.


text:
Coronavirus liveCoronavirus
Dutch ministers ask court to suspend its verdict until an appeal is heard – as it happened
Coronavirus news – live
Clea Skopeliti (now), Rachel Hall, Mattha Busby ,Martin Belam, Helen Sullivan (earlier)
First published on Mon 15 Feb 2021 18.45 EST
A woman wears a mask to protect against coronavirus as she passes a mural depicting a syringe in Cape Town. Photograph: Nardus Engelbrecht/AP
16 Febuary 2021 Summary
16 Febuary 2021 Dominican Republic starts vaccinating medical staff
16 Febuary 2021 South Africa to vaccinate healthcare workers with unapproved Johnson & Johnson vaccine
16 Febuary 2021 Norway local authorities get greenlight to relax restrictions
16 Febuary 2021 Scottish schools to begin phased reopening
16 Febuary 2021 Dutch government to appeal against ruling to scrap curfew
16 Febuary 2021 Aung San Suu Kyi charged for breaking Covid restrictions, her lawyer says
NewestNewest
OldestOldest
Palestinians have accused Israel of blocking a vital first shipment of 2,0000 Covid-19 vaccines intended for frontline health workers from entering Gaza, Oliver Holmes reports.
The Palestinian Authority said a planned transfer of Russian Sputnik V vaccine doses to the coastal enclave, which is geographically disconnected from the West Bank where the authority is headquartered, was blocked on Monday at an Israeli checkpoint.
"[T]he occupation authorities prevented their entry," the authority's health minister, Mai al-Kaila, said in a statement. "These doses were intended for medical staff working in intensive care rooms designated for Covid-19 patients, and for staff working in emergency departments."
An Israeli security source told the Guardian the authority had previously made a request to the national security council, a body that belongs to the Israeli prime minister's office, to send vaccines to Gaza, but that it had not made a decision.
Israel blocked Covid vaccines from entering Gaza, say Palestinians
The Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is meeting in emergency session with civil protection officials as media outlets report that the heavy snowstorm sweeping the county, which has halted its vaccination drive, has now resulted in the death of a man on Crete.
With widespread power cuts in Athens the leader called the meeting to coordinate efforts to deal with snowfall described as unprecedented. People have been "strongly advised" to avoid leaving their homes with all Covid-19 vaccination centres closed until the bad weather passes. Two mega facilities capable of vaccinating 20,000 people a day were opened in the capital and the northern city of Thessaloniki only on Monday.
The 56 –year- old man was found dead outside an animal pen, on the southern island of Crete after suffering what is believed to have been a heart attack.
Calls have mounted this morning for refugees living in tents in Elaionas, a camp in central Athens, to be relocated because of the snowfall forecast to last through Wednesday.
On Monday, the migration minister Notis Mitarachis said the estimated 100,000 refugees in Greece would receive the Covid-19 jab when it is rolled out. To date, the centre-right government has focused inoculating those in care homes, the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.
Heavy snowfall in Athens. Photograph: Helena Smith
Updated at 05.22 EST
A Catholic priest in Ireland is providing takeaway ashes in plastic sauce containers so parishioners can honour Ash Wednesday despite coronavirus restrictions.
A Centra shop in Clonmany, county Donegal, has helped Fr Brian Brady to pack and distribute ashes in 200 containers usually used for dips and sauces.
Parishioners have snapped up the containers so they can administer their own ashes by placing them in the form of a cross on their foreheads tomorrow. The ritual signifies repentance and marks the first day of Lent, a six-week period of penitence before Easter.
"A lot of our parishioners would come every year for their ashes and it's so important that we honour those traditions - even at these most difficult times," Fr Brady told the BBC. "We really did have to stretch the old imagination on this one though."
The ashes are from burnt palms. Containers also include a prayer and are limited to one per household.
Hong Kong to ease strict coronavirus restrictions
Hong Kong will reopen sports and entertainment facilities and extend dining hours from 18 February as daily cases in the city have dropped into single digits, Reuters reports.
The city's health secretary Sophia Chan said catering businesses would be able to extend opening hours by 4 hours until 10 pm. Beauty salons, theme parks, cinemas and sports facilities would be allowed to resume, with conditions in place. The ban on gatherings of more than two people in public places and opening swimming pools, nightclubs and mahjong parlours will continue.
The city has recorded around 10,700 infections and 193 deaths since January last year. Daily reported cases have fallen to low single-digit numbers over the past two weeks, from more than 80 at the end of January.
Slovenia's right-wing prime minister has survived a no-confidence motion tabled by the opposition, who accused him of using the coronavirus pandemic as a pretext to curb democratic freedoms, Associated Press reports.
Prime Minister Janez Jansa survived the vote held by parliament late Monday, when the opposition only mustered 40 votes in the 90-member assembly, leaving it six votes short of the needed majority to oust the government.
Jansa, a nationalist politician with close links to hardline Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has described the opposition attempt as a "destructive farce" and a waste of public money.
The center-left parties that filed the motion said the vote was necessary to try and avert Jansa's bid to undermine democracy in the traditionally moderate European Union nation.
Dutch curfew should be lifted, court ruls
The Dutch government has been ordered to scrap the night-time curfew imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus following a court ruling, Reuters reports.
The court ruled that the 9pm until 4.30am curfew, the first in the Netherlands since World War Two, lacks any proper legal basis and should be lifted before the scheduled end on 3 March. It sparked several days of riots by anti-lockdown protesters when it was introduced on 23 January.
The government said it would examine the court ruling before taking any action.
North Korean hackers tried to break into Pfizer's computer systems looking for information on the coronavirus vaccine, despite the country's leader claiming it has no coronavirus cases, AFP reports.
The impoverished, nuclear-armed North has been under self-imposed isolation since closing its borders in January last year to try to protect itself from the virus that first emerged in neighbouring China and has gone on to sweep the world, killing more than two million people.
Leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly insisted that the country has had no coronavirus cases, although outside experts doubt those assertions.
And the closure has added to the pressure on its tottering economy from international sanctions imposed over its banned weapons systems, increasing the urgency for Pyongyang to find a way to deal with the disease.
Seoul's National Intelligence Service "briefed us that North Korea tried to obtain technology involving the Covid vaccine and treatment by using cyberwarfare to hack into Pfizer", MP Ha Tae-keung told reporters after a hearing behind closed doors.
Rachel Hall here taking over from Martin Belam for the morning. Do send over any thoughts or tips to rachel.hall@theguardian.com.
It's fast-moving in South Africa today. Reuters have just snapped that the country is not planning to return 1m doses of the AstraZeneca to the Serum Institute of India, as earlier reported.
Health ministry deputy director-general Anban Pillay has said that the plan is instead to share the 1m doses with other countries via the African Union.
South Africa's roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine was paused following a small clinical trial that showed it offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 coronavirus variant dominant in the country.
Snow in Athens causes Greek authorities to cancel vaccinations
An unusually heavy snowfall has paralysed Athens in Greece, and led authorities to cancel planned vaccinations.
Associated Press report that authorities have been warning residents – particularly in the Greek capital's northern and eastern suburbs – to avoid leaving their homes this morning.
It has had a knock-on effect for the nation's vaccination plans. Health authorities announced they were postponing all coronavirus vaccinations across the greater Athens region of Attica for today.
The Parthenon temple is seen atop the Acropolis hill during a heavy snowfall in Athens, Greece. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters
One line of the Athens subway that runs partially above ground to the northern suburbs was halted, while most buses were withdrawn from the capital's streets for safety reasons. Snow is common in Greece's mountains and in the north of the country, but much rarer in the capital. Parts of Athens experienced electricity cuts from downed power lines
More than a quarter of Australians 'unsure' about getting a Covid-19 vaccine – survey
Just 64% of Australians will "definitely" get a Covid-19 vaccine while more than one quarter (27%) are unsure, according to government research.
Some 9% of Australians aged over 16 said they will "definitely not" get the vaccine, according to the poll of 4,001 people commissioned by the health department.
The research was released by the government on Tuesday after the arrival of Pfizer vaccines and approval of AstraZeneca for a rollout to begin on Monday.
The government is confident that achieving full approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration for both vaccines will help support the rollout, and public confidence will improve as vaccines are administered.
But other data sources point to an uptick in vaccine hesitancy. Between August and January the Guardian Essential poll found the proportion of people who said they would "never" be vaccinated rose from 8% to 11%.
In September, the Australian National University found that 5.5% of Australians would definitely not get the vaccine and a further 7.2% would "probably not" – results that are expected to deteriorate when it releases the next phase of its longitudinal research later this week.
According to the health department research, 48% of Australians would choose to get the vaccine as soon as it is available. A total of 71% would choose to do so by October.
The top three motivators for taking the vaccine were to protect oneself from catching Covid, to keep Australia safe from Covid, and to protect the elderly and most vulnerable.
The top three barriers were that long-term side effects are still unknown, that "vaccines have been developed too quickly" and concerns about having an allergic reaction.
Read more of Paul Karp's report here: Two-thirds of Australians 'definitely' want Covid vaccine, while 27% are unsure
Two-thirds of Australians 'definitely' want Covid vaccine, while 27% are unsure


Every year I like to post my new year's resolution(s), and peak experiences from the previous year. (I also post a picture of where I was on New Years Eve.) It's fun to go back and look at last year 2018. It's been an excellent way of keeping myself accountable and as a reminder that change is constant.
Get better at making music.
Get proficient at playing vinyl.
Started projects one, and two.
Played a livestream DJ set on Fault Radio!
Threw an underground event for NYE 2018.


See the landscape from an artists point of view in this beginner-friendly watercolor workshop. Dale Laitinen teaches a sequential approach to thinking and painting that helps you discover where to start and what to include in your paintings.
From composition to brush work, you'll learn everything you need to paint your favorite places on earth. You learn to control water and pigment as Dale leads a quick tour of basic washes and brush strokes. Once you're comfortable with your tools, he helps you discover the most important elements in your photo. You capture basic shapes in a reference sketch, and you learn when to make the critical adjustments that create a strong design. Dark and light shapes form the basis for a successful composition, and Dale helps you master them with a black-and-white value painting.
You create deep, convincing shadows and paint realistic objects without getting bogged down in detail. You apply what you've learned in the value painting to a full-color demo that captures the majesty of the California coast. You learn when and where to use specific pigments and how to create interesting transitions by blending colors on your paper. By the time you add your last layer of detail, you'll never look at landscape the same way. See nature from a new vantage point in Landscape Essentials in Watercolor with Dale Laitinen.


Hotel Cassoumay Resort is a small familiarly hotel located right on the beach outside the village of Kafountine in southern Senegal, some 40 kilometres from the Gambian border. Here you find two bungalows and three double rooms with forteen beds total. In the main house there is a restaurant and bar with free wifi. A large veranda runs around the house where you can enjoy the sunset over the sea. The beach is a mile long and the sun flowing. Lovely swimming in shallow water.
Take a trip with a difference and meet the real Africa in Casamance, where green Africa begins. The climate is ideal and the hospitality found here is talked about far and wide.
Just meeting everyday life in Senegal is an adventure. You're welcome.


text:
var Guacamole = Guacamole || {};

/**
 * Maintains a singleton instance of the Web Audio API AudioContext class,
 * instantiating the AudioContext only in response to the first call to
 * getAudioContext(), and only if no existing AudioContext instance has been
 * provided via the singleton property. Subsequent calls to getAudioContext()
 * will return the same instance.
 *
 * @namespace
 */
Guacamole.AudioContextFactory = {

    /**
     * A singleton instance of a Web Audio API AudioContext object, or null if
     * no instance has yes been created. This property may be manually set if
     * you wish to supply your own AudioContext instance, but care must be
     * taken to do so as early as possible. Assignments to this property will
     * not retroactively affect the value returned by previous calls to
     * getAudioContext().
     *
     * @type {AudioContext}
     */
    'singleton' : null,

    /**
     * Returns a singleton instance of a Web Audio API AudioContext object.
     *
     * @return {AudioContext}
     *     A singleton instance of a Web Audio API AudioContext object, or null
     *     if the Web Audio API is not supported.
     */
    'getAudioContext' : function getAudioContext() {

        // Fallback to Webkit-specific AudioContext implementation
        var AudioContext = window.AudioContext || window.webkitAudioContext;

        // Get new AudioContext instance if Web Audio API is supported
        if (AudioContext) {
            try {

                // Create new instance if none yet exists
                if (!Guacamole.AudioContextFactory.singleton)
                    Guacamole.AudioContextFactory.singleton = new AudioContext();

                // Return singleton instance
                return Guacamole.AudioContextFactory.singleton;

            }
            catch (e) {
                // Do not use Web Audio API if not allowed by browser
            }
        }

        // Web Audio API not supported
        return null;

    }

};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Navegação Livros - Capítulos por autor "VERMA, ABHISHEK"
Navegação Livros - Capítulos por autor
SACHDEVA, MAHIMA; SMITH, RICARDO B. ; SACHDEVA, ASTHA. Moving ahead towards sustainable development-AHWR, an amicable approach for nuclear reactors. In: JAIN, VINOD K. (Ed.); RATTAN, SUNITA (Ed.); VERMA, ABHISHEK (Ed.). Recent Trends in Materials and Devices. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, 2020. p. 203-210, cap. 21. (Springer Proceedings in Physics, 256). DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-8625-5_21
Abstract: With a constant urge of digging the unraveled, India has come far ahead in taking an evolutionary step in the field of nuclear science. There has been a recent breakthrough in nuclear reactor advancements. India is using advanced heavy water reactors which function on thorium as one of its fuel components. It can be used in conjunction with plutonium or low enriched uranium. This has been a massive lead as it produces energy at commercial levels and leaves lesser residual actinides having long half-life and inert thorium oxide. This has optimized the energy production rate up to 50% with respect to its production of burnt fuels. This research focuses on bringing an insight on recent advancements in terms of researches and scientific projects that are being conducted in India and how its result would ascent with the current sustainability models such as "Green Chemistry", a program developed two decades ago in United States and England which defines its requirement for efficient transformation of reagents in obtaining desired results. This revolutionary uplift in nuclear science must reach global acceptance and execution. Considering the ample resources nature earth has bestowed us with, Brazil has remained away from the thorium fueled reactor project studied 50 years ago and there is no light put towards any future research prospects either. Being the second largest reserve of thorium on the entire planet, AHWR can become a mass advantage if explored and taken into deeper accounts.
SACHDEVA, MAHIMA; SMITH, RICARDO B.; SACHDEVA, ASTHA. Moving ahead towards sustainable development-AHWR, an amicable approach for nuclear reactors. In: JAIN, VINOD K. (ed.); RATTAN, SUNITA (ed.); VERMA, ABHISHEK (ed.). Recent Trends in Materials and Devices. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, 2020. cap. 21. p. 203-210. (Springer Proceedings in Physics, 256). DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-8625-5_21. Disponível em: http://repositorio.ipen.br/handle/123456789/31908. Acesso em: $DATA.


Simple girl who has an awesome boyfriend but at the same time has frustrations in life. Also tends to get so lazy but has so much stuff to do in life. Other than that I'm also enjoying life to the fullest and I also believe that there's no one else who can help you but yourself.
There's first for everything, such as this.


text:
write your memoir in six months
an exclusive author mentorship program
6-MONTH COURSE
YOUR MENTORS
FEMINIST FOUNDATIONS '22
BEST-SELLER SERIES
INHERITANCE, Dani Shapiro
EDUCATED, Tara Westover
THE TENDER BAR, J.R. Moehringer
WILD, Cheryl Strayed
EAT, PRAY, LOVE, Elizabeth Gilbert
RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, Augusten Burroughs
THE GLASS CASTLE, Jeannette Walls
THE LIARS' CLUB, Mary Karr
H IS FOR HAWK, Helen MacDonald
5 Secrets of Memoir Writing
MEMOIR PODS
You are here: Home / Skillsets / Your Memoir as a Movie
Your Memoir as a Movie
June 28, 2015 By Linda Joy Myers 1 Comment
Do you love movies? To me, there's nothing so satisfying as sitting down to immerse myself in a new story. The first few moments need to capture my attention so I can't look away. I make sure my tea is nearby, and that my kitties are ready to settle down on my lap. Once the kitties are there, I won't be getting up for at least an hour or more as the story weaves its magic around me. It grabs me with a scene, in a moment where I'm drawn into a world not my own. I'm inside the scene, inside the beginning moments of a delicious new story. Whether it's the first moments of Downton Abbey or Star Wars, you know that you are being taken on a journey to another world.
Brooke and I use the "write your story as a movie" metaphor frequently in our teaching to make our point about how important scenes are in writing a compelling story. We have the writers we coach do a "scene check" to see if they are including the important elements necessary to weave the magic a good story needs.
Necessary element #1
A scene is set in a particular moment in time presented by the narrator-protagonist—you.
A scene exists to immerse the reader in a significant moment where something important happens that creates change—a moment of dramatic significance that includes conflict or a challenge.
The scene is connected to the theme(s) in the book.
More necessary elements:
Sensual Details
To create a powerful scene you need to paint a picture and offer sensual details that trigger a response in the reader's brain. Include smell, sound, texture, colors, body language.
Dialogue—dialogue helps to create distinctive characters and advances the plot.
Vivid descriptions create the movie in the mind of the reader, in Technicolor.
More about Scenes
A scene is a building block of your memoir. At the beginning of your story, you'll be introducing people, including yourself, as characters. You need to include action-there's movement in a scene that propels the story forward. Sensual details such as smell, sound, taste, and colors create a picture in the reader's mind and stimulate an emotional response. Include a kinesthetic sense, such as the difference between the way snow feels and the way a hot, humid day feels.
You can have a full scene that is narrated and without dialogue or interaction, but you know it's a scene because it occurs in a particular moment in time and something important is happening. Cheryl Strayed uses this technique in Wild. The "now" narrative takes place when she's mostly alone on a trail, but it's full of scenes. In some scenes, she moves in and out of time and in others she's still in the wilderness. She's not interacting with anyone, but something meaningful is happening.
Weaving Narration and Reflection in your story
In a reflection, you're musing about the situation just presented in your scene. Narration includes reflection, and it may also include action. Narration reveals something about the scene or the characters that show us how to experience or understand the scene. The narrative voice guides the reader into and out of specific scenes, and includes reflection.
There are two "I" points of view in a memoir. In one, the specific scene, let's say you are five years old—you're the character in the scene and see the unfolding moments through the eyes of who you were then.
And in a memoir, you're also the narrator, reflecting on what happened and guiding the reader through time. "I remember, I thought that I would recover somehow…" There's always the "I" character and the "I" narrator moving through time.
Reflection includes moments between scenes where the memoirist reflects upon what just happened and tries to make sense of it, or freaks out, or gets a new insight. These are internal moments where you tell the reader how you feel or what you wish had happened differently. Be sure to notice if your reflection is taking place in the point of view of your "I" character or you as the narrator reflecting now.
A reflection offers what's called a "takeaway" for the reader—a universal connection that reaches beyond your individual story and connects with your reader. The takeaway a nugget for the reader of self-understanding. Takeaways are smaller moments within the narrative when you tap into something bigger than yourself, you reveal a universal human truth. In a takeaway, you're and trying to connect to your reader in a way that's bigger than your book.
from Wild by Cheryl Strayed—a takeaway:
"I was three weeks into my hike, but everything in me felt altered. I lay in the water as long as I could without breathing, alone in a strange new land, while the actual world around me hummed on."
That's a universal connection, how she's changed. She's already being changed by something and many of us have had that experience. We've all been alone in a strange new land, so we can identify with what she's saying.
A flashback is a full scene—a new time and place where something is happening that takes you away from the time and place moment in the scene where you were. Be clear about: why and where you are going to pick up this other moments in time. The purpose of a flashback is to illuminate the present so the reader better understands the situation and/or the characters in the present narrative thread. Use transitions to cue the reader that you are time traveling.
Transitions into a flashback, for instance, offer an image or a theme that connects with that past moment. End your "now" moment with a transitional sentence or two, and create a line break—double spaces that indicate a shift of time and scene. Pick up your flashback by being clear where you are in the new scene, when it occurs, who is there, and indicate why you are in the past. After you complete the flashback, transition back to the present with another line back to indicate a new scene and time frame.
Creating your Movie
When you use these powerful techniques to create a movie in the reader's mind about you and your story, you will discover happy and satisfied readers who are unable to put down your book. The secret is learning how to paint a scene so you can hook readers and keep them reading. Once they have joined you in your early scenes, they will stay with you all the way through your book.
Filed Under: Skillsets Tagged With: memoir, memoir writing skills, scenes in memoir
Dorit Sasson says
This is a very informative post, Linda. I especially like the comparison of writing your memoir as a movie. It makes the process easier to understand. Thanks for including samples from Cheryl Strayed to reinforce each of the writing aspects.
SIGN UP FOR OUR TOP 10 MEMOIR-WRITING TIPS!
Brooke in conversation with Mary Karr
Watch Brooke's interview with Mary Karr on her seminal book about memoir, The Art of Memoir. Watch the interview (itty-bitty) here, or better yet on a full screen on YouTube:
Write Your Memoir in Six Months in the News
Write Your Memoir in Six Months in the New York Times, along with five tips from Brooke about memoir writing:
1. FIND A WRITING PARTNER.
2. JOT DOWN ALL YOUR EXCUSES.
3. PAY YOURSELF FOR SHOWING UP.
4. KEEP A DAILY JOURNAL.
5. TURN OFF YOUR INTERNET.
Read the full article, "Appeal of Writing Memoirs Grows, as Do Publishing Options."
Read Brooke's 2021 interview, "Writing Your Story: The Healing Power of Memoir-Writing," in the San Jose Mercury News.
Linda Joy and our Write Your Memoir in Six Months course were previously covered by the Mercury News in 2015.
"I tell people that the more they learn to create a real scene, the more they learn to taste, feel and see what happened, the more they will tell a better story for other people. ... and the more they are going to heal themselves from the experience they're writing about."
—Linda Joy Myers.
Read the full article, "Writing Your Story: The Healing Power of Memoir-Writing"


Aaron Drue Johnson, a native of Oklahoma City and a graduate of Northeast Academy, centers his practice around civil litigation and trial work. Much of his work involves commercial contract drafting and litigation, real estate transactions and litigation, and appellate work in state and federal courts. He is a graduate of the University of Central Oklahoma and of the University of Oklahoma College of Law where he was a Comfort Scholar and consistently listed on the Dean's Honor Roll. He is published in the American Indian Law Review where he served as the Article Development Advisor.
Although Aaron has valuable expertise in several areas of the law, his practice focuses primarily on commercial contract drafting and litigation, appeals of lower court decisions, insurance litigation and real estate transactions.
Aaron Johnson is licensed to practice in all Oklahoma District Courts, the Oklahoma Supreme Court, and federally in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Oklahoma and the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.


text:
Title: About
Slug: about

Amazing blog.


The purpose of this research is to reduce the number of defective denim fabrics caused by warp yarn rupture in the weaving process by using an experimental design technique. The weaving parameters were found to be major causes of defects. The influence of warp yarn tension, horizontal distance between backrest roller and warp beam, height of backrest roller, and height of harness frames were studied. A 24 factorial design with two replications was performed. The analysis of variance for the designed experiment showed the great influence of warp yarn tension and height of harness frames. From this study, an optimized combination of weaving parameters was determined and was proved to be superior to the original one. The experimental verification results showed that the number of warp yarn rupture defects decreased by 4.85%. Keywords— Defect Reduction; Design Of Experiments; Denim Fabric; Textile Manufacturing; Warp Yarn Rupture.


text:
Statements/
Statement by Dr. Rajiv. J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation on the Announcement of Lucira Health's At-Home Test and Moderna's Vaccine Candidate
This week, the world received some additional good news about advances in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Moderna announced its vaccine candidate has proven effective thus far in a continuing trial. Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization for the first at-home test for Covid-19, as developed by Lucira Health.
Both of these developments will further accelerate the fight against Covid-19 in the United States and around the world. But at a moment when infections and deaths are surging, everyone must remain vigilant and committed to doing everything it takes to end the pandemic: widespread testing, tracing, supported isolation, mask wearing and social distancing.
Until the pandemic is over for everyone, The Rockefeller Foundation will continue to work to ensure there's equity in access to advances in testing, tracing, and – when they're available – vaccine solutions.


To have safe footwear at work is essential to avoid unpleasant surprises. That's why NUBE was designed in a way to reassure with its excellent anti-slip performance, provided by the evergrip rubber sole design, allowing you to use them on all kind of surfaces. The innovative plug that is able to close the upper ventilation holes, adds extra protection when needed against fluid spillage over the clog. Nube, everything you need to reach further, and more comfortably.
Care Instructions: Machine washable up to a maximum temperature of 90 degree Celsius. Can be steam sterilized in autoclave up to 134 degree Celsius.


text:
Home›Spezial›English›Earthship Pioneers in Europe
Earthship Pioneers in Europe
English, Umwelt
Earthships are buildings made of recyclable materials and are able to provide itself with electricity. They are aesthetic to look at and attract an alternative, sustainable and independent lifestyle. In times of climate change, increasing rents and housing crisis, Earthships become increasingly popular. These buildings point the way against wasting resources and reducing one's cintribution to climate change by using recycled materials and living off the power-grid. How does an Earthshio work and are they a true alternative to conventional structure? // By Sebastian Nußbaum
In front of a grassy hill, a wooden infobox sticks out. "Earthship" is written in bold letters. Following a path around the hill, it becomes clear that the hill is more than soil and grass. It looks like the ground has formed a giant bubble – a bubble with windows and doors, like a hobbit house with a sun-room. The Earthship is located on the site of Doepark Nooterhof in Zwolle, a town in the Netherlands and is used as a public teahouse. It is early in the morning, customers has not yet arrived and the smell of Falafel is in the air. The visual appearance of the Earthship is similar to its unconventional bubble structure. Specially round and curved proprieties are predominant in its architecture. Characteristically, the Earthship's interior architecture includes 700 glass bottles that serve as a substitute for clinker bricks within the walls. When sunlight shines upon the coloured glasses, a play of colours dances across the wall, like a church window. Much of the glass forms mosaics that crest the walls artfully. The builders were inspired by architects like Antoni Gaudi and Friedensreich Hundertwasser.
The matter with the tyres
Scrap tires are the heart of an Earthship. They are both a wall and a heater in one. The rear walls is, like a clinker-containing wall, structured of layered and offset tyres. Layer by layer, the tyres are filled with compressed soil. Another important component of this heating concept are the wide front windows. The structure of an Earthship is aligned such that its windows face south, collecting the maximum daylight and infusing the tyres with thermal energy. If the outside temperature is sinking, the collected thermal energy flows into the room. This principle of thermal energy transfer is called convection. Noticeable for Zwolle's Earthhouse is the indoor climate, bearing in mind that the teahouse in not actively heated. Outdoors a cold wind is breezing around bare trees, the heaven is drab and covered. In contrast, the indoors is a balanced warmth, with a temperature that harmonizes the radiating thermal and cold autumn weather. Altogether 1000 tyres were used in the building's construction. In the finished Earthship, the tyres lay unseen, with clay plastered over them. The wide windows give a panorama view.
A cutout of the wall without clay, Zwolle, 05.12.2017, Foto: Sebastian Nußbaum
Power and water supply
How selfsufficient is an Earthship with regards to its power supply and technology? For example, are the solar cells on the roof enough, or is an additional mounted wind turbine needed? How much wattage is needed? The Earthship in Zwolle is an teahouse, and for them a professional kitchen with an appropriate amount of wattage is required. In this particular case it is necessary to be able to draw on a electricity grid. This Earthship has two water tanks with a capacity of 2000 liters each. Therein filtered rainwater will be collected and used to flush the toilettes. But its not for drinking, since European drinking water ordinance considers, rainwater impotable.
Kitchen, Zwolle, 05.12.2017, Foto: Sebastian Nußbaum
Gift to the community
The Earthship was started in 2008 as a gift to the Zwolle community by a buiding society. For the occasion of the SWZ society's centenary, it wanted to provide it as an example for a sustainable building. The goal is not for promoting it as a new solution to an existing problem, but to provide a beacon of light that point in the right direction. In looking for a suitable ground, the society's cooperation with Doepark Nooterhof started. After a ten month constructing phase, it was finished on June 2009 and marks the first Earthship in the Benelux countries.
Crucial point construction permit
There are lots of Earthship-projects that look like that the one in Zwolle – idea for a joint project and supported thruogh a solidarity of interests. The problem is that glass bottles and tyres are not licensed construction materials, an absolutely necessity for legal construction. Certainly there are exceptions that, can be approved via an explanatory statement. For example, through a scientific aspiration or a special public interests. "If such exceptions wouldn't be allowed, innovation wouldn't rise and that's closely the reason why Earthships have character of experiment, and as a concept for classic town houses unsuitable," says architect Ralf Müller.
Aid workers
Earthship projects will be implemented by international aid workers with special know-how and enthusiasm for such projects. Officially educated and qualified experts, as well as specialist companies who are specialised in Earthships, are non-existent. And for compressing the 1000 tyres by hand and with a sledgehammer, one must rely upon the help of friends. As an architect, Ralf Müller has accompanied the construction of Germany's first Earthship in Tempelhof. For him especially, the social compatibility as a characteristic of sustainability gets realized. "I have never experienced a construction site where so many enthusiastic people were working," says the Earthship expert. In comparison to similar concepts – for example, passive houses – it is this special enthusiasm that makes the difference. To build a sustainable house by using recycled materials in all manners of its construction, that would be the point where Earthships go one step further in the direction of sustainability, says Ralf Müller.
TagsEarthshipself-sufficientSustainabilityTempelhofZwolle
Der Podcast-Boom
Gin - Manufaktur oder Masse?
Autorenteam Technikjournal
Does WLTP create car-chaos?
English, Mobilität
Artensterben auf der Spur
Kernkraft in der Nachbarschaft
Mit Absenden des Formulars erkären Sie sich mit der Speicherung und Verarbeitung der darin eingegebenen personenbezogenen Daten einverstanden. Weitere Hinweise dazu finden Sie in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
DLR testet Messfahrzeug für ultrafeine Partikel
Schreib-Maschinen: voll im Trend
Digital, Robotik
E-Sport: Die Branche hinter dem Bildschirm


CORE™ X-POCKET™ CUP RETENTION SYSTEM Positions the lower third of the cup in a more natural postion between the legs for a close, more comfortable fit.
ANTI-MICROBIAL MOISTURE WICKING STRETCH FABRIC Wicks moisture away from the skin to keep you dry and cool.
COMFORT FIT WAISTBAND VENTED MESH CUP POCKET Allows for maximum airflow to keep you cool and dry.
Includes the Shock Doctor 201 BioFlex Cup, a vented bio-shape cup designed to shield areas where protection is most crucial. The body of this core protective cup will form flawlessly to your athletic frame to provide unrestricted movement, airflow and comfort. The BioFlex Cup is an ideal fit for all ages.
VENTED BIO-SHAPE BODY Allows for airflow as it protects vital areas.