For no logical reason, I bought some .
If you're not familiar with laminated denim, it was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it trend of the last season. Or maybe season before last? (Who can keep track any more?) Sewn up into skinny jeans, worn with the inevitable (and inevitably boring) drapey tee and fancy shoes and statement bag and jumble of necklaces. Every time I saw it, it was styled in a kind of leather-pants-lite way.
So since I am just about the furthest thing ever from a leather-pants person, I'm not sure why I bought it, other than that I thought "wow, I will probably never see this again, maybe I should get some" (this is how fabric hoarders are made, people). It showed up today and I kind of love it.
It's shiny, but not latexy or leathery — it's definitely denim with a layer of plastic on it. It's very future-mod. The juxtaposition of the plain denim and the laminate shine is pleasantly incongruous.
The obvious thing to do would be to make a very fitted bombshell dress out of it, but I almost want to do another , instead. The only problem would be gathering the fabric — it is REALLY heavy and thick. Maybe I should go back and do another ? Or something else I haven't thought of yet? would be really fun.
Suggestions? Has anyone sewn with this stuff before?


text:
Q: What is the correct way of passing proxy user and proxy password in python requests? I am using proxy in python requests and have followig question. The syntax
http://username:password@host:port
Does the usename and passowrd have to be encoded like quote(usrname) and quote(password) as the username and passowrd can have special chars like #, $ etc.
Does requests need encoding ?
Any github link would be helpful

A: you need to replace the special chars with HTML entities if you encounter a problem
according to here https://stackoverflow.com/a/6718568/12239849
import urllib.parse
username = 'dav#id@company.com'
password = 'dddd^ff'
proxy = 'http://'+urllib.parse.quote(username)+':'+urllib.parse.quote(password)+'@foo.com/path/'

will return
http://dav%23id%40company.com:dddd%5Eff@foo.com:8080

A: You just need to setup you proxy like:
# Import
import requests

# Proxy
proxies = {
    'http': 'http://username:password@host:port',
    'https': 'http://username:password@host:port'
}

# Main thread
if __name__ == "main":
    r = requests.get("www.google.com", proxies=proxies)

This works with utf-8 encoding

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The Semi-Rigid Concept car, designed by Emergent, is a whirlwind of design. Cartilage Car is Made From 3D Printed Polymers.
By Admin (from 02/11/2011 @ 14:00:38, in en - Science and Society, read 1213 times)
The concept solves quite a few of our current transportation issues by moving the world of biology into the vehicle construction process. Built with a 3D printing technique that creates an outer body that is similar in texture and form to cartilage -- and just as resiliant -- the car is able to withstand and bounce back after any external impact. Continuing with their outside of the box car-frame thinking, Emergent decided to take this bio-construction a bit further and place an independent fuel source right inside car - that's right, this curvy vehicle of the future makes its own biofuel!
The 3D printing technique used to create the outer body of this car constructs layers of a cartilage-like material through new molecular constructions of polymers, resins, rubbers and silicone, which are placed on the car's frame in alternating thicknesses. The result is a body that is rigid in the places needed to keep you safe and soft where impacts occur; instead of a conventional car which is designed to crumple in front and back upon impact. The Semi-Rigid Car by comparison bounces back, while the cabin's more structured frame keeps you safe from the impact. Unlike the construction of a conventional car, with its separation of glass, steel, sheet metal and bolts, the Semi-Rigid Car has a blended construction with composite materials that seem to meld together instead of fasten to each other.
Emergent decided that if the outside of their car is going to blend like nature, then why can't the inside be alive as well? The Semi-Rigid Car actually makes its own biofuel deep within the car's structure, where the semi-rigid cartilage of its exterior joins to form deep, thick-walled reservoirs. These reservoirs contain colonies of algae that produce biofuel as the car requires it. LED lights embedded within the algae reservoirs allow for 24-hour fuel production even when sunlight isn't available.
This car not only has the smooth exterior and aesthetic of the fastest sports cars around, but allows you the freedom of driving independent of gas pumps, or even EV charging stations needed to juice up.
Source: Inhabitat

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We're Fully Stocked With iPads!
We're fully stocked with iPads! We have the original iPad, iPad mini, iPad 2, iPad 4, iPad Air, and Air 2! Wifi only and Wifi + Cellular models in 16GB and 64GB are both available!
Let us know in the comment section below what you think about the Apple Pencil! Would you ever find yourself using one?


text:
NLPC's Anderson Scrutinizes Miami Football Story
Posted on September 2, 2011 October 11, 2016 by Peter Flaherty
Tom Anderson, director of NLPC's Government Integrity Project, has raised questions about the recent Yahoo Sports exposé of the University of Miami football program. The explosive July 16 story by Charles Robinson has already led to suspensions by the NCAA of eight current Miami players.
Anderson does not argue that the players are innocent of NCAA rules violations, but cites evidence that current and former players may been targeted by Ponzi-schemer Nevin Shapiro (in photo) in order to direct blame away from other parties, including coaches. Anderson became involved in the issue due the overlap of this sports scandal with political corruption in south Florida.
Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock has highlighted some of Anderson's criticisms of the original Yahoo/Robinson piece. For instance, one of Robinson sources is Shapiro's ex-girlfriend who is unidentified because she is allegedly "afraid of reprisals from Miami football players." Whitlock writes:
"Why didn't Yahoo! ask if she's afraid of Shapiro and that's why she's backing his story?" asked Tom Anderson, a Miami native who works for a conservative-leaning watchdog organization that polices government corruption. "The judge ordered him to get counseling for domestic violence for a reason."
Anderson, who works for the National Legal and Policy Center, has been researching the players in the Miami scandal since the Yahoo! story broke. Anderson discovered the financial ties between Shapiro and former Miami assistant coach Joe Pannunzio. Anderson regularly works with major media outlets on political corruption stories. He did much of the research that got representative Charlie Rangel in trouble. Anderson thinks very little of Robinson's reporting ethics in this instance.
"(Shapiro) is a convicted felon and a proven liar. Using a guy like that as your key witness, the standard, the bar, has to be set so high that anything less than documented solid proof has to be set aside," Anderson said. "If I put in a complaint to a government agency that I'm relying on a convicted liar and the people corroborating his story are mostly anonymous, they would laugh in our face. If I was to take this to The New York Times or even the New York Post, they would laugh me out of the room. What he put in that story wouldn't fly. No way. Not ever."
Anderson was interviewed yesterday for over an hour on Whitlock's national show on Fox Sports Radio. Click here for the podcast.
Oklahoma Sheet Metal Workers Business Manager Indicted
AFL-CIO Files Suit to Block New Financial Reporting Rule
Laborers Thugs in Niagara Falls Take a Fall, Plead Guilty
Ex-US Attny Goes from Prosecuting NYC Police Unions to Protecting them
Illinois Auto Workers Local Treasurer Pleads Guilty
Carpenters Office Manager in Oregon Charged with Embezzlement
Posted in Government Integrity Project
Michigan Local Paraeducational Treasurer Charged with Theft
Rep. Carson Stands By Tea Party/Lynching Remarks


text:
Stan niewolności – powieść amerykańskiej pisarki Lois McMaster Bujold, będąca częścią Sagi Vorkosiganów. Powieść zdobyła nagrodę Nebula w 1988 r.

Fabuła
Akcja powieści dzieje się ok. 200 lat przed wydarzeniami opisywanymi w Sadze Vorkosiganów. Wielka korporacja kosmiczna GalacTech, tworzy genetycznie zmodyfikowanych ludzi, stworzonych do prac w warunkach zerowej grawitacji. Modyfikacja polega głównie na zamianie nóg na drugą parę rąk. Umieszczono ich na stacji kosmicznej, gdzie przyuczano do przyszłych prac. Były ściśle kontrolowane, nadzorowany był przepływ informacji, edukacja, a nawet ich rozmnażanie. Było to możliwe dzięki pozbawieniu ich jakichkolwiek praw obywatelskich – w oficjalnej dokumentacji figurowały jako "post-eksperymentalne kultury tkankowe", w praktyce były niewolnikami korporacji.

Gdy w Kolonii Beta wynajduje się tanie urządzenie niwelujące grawitację, czworączki przestają być potrzebne. Bruce Van Atta, cyniczny administrator stacji kosmicznej, na której mieszkają istoty, zamierza przenieść je na powierzchnię planety, mimo iż oznacza to dla nich cierpienie, a w niedługiej przyszłości śmierć. Dla inżyniera Leo Grafa, który przez kilka miesięcy szkolenia polubił sympatyczne dzieciaki to zbyt wiele. Sam dziwiąc się swojej determinacji, obmyśla szaleńczy plan porwania całego habitatu.

Saga Vorkosiganów
Powieści fantastycznonaukowe z 1988 roku

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


This week's random question: What has been your most favorite book, so far, this year? Why?
The only book that I've rated 5 stars is Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling). Because it left on a major cliff hanger and I want more! More of the characters, more of the grittiness, more of the fantastic storytelling!
I have been considering those J. K. Rowling books written as Robert Galbraith....now you have piqued my interest.
I just read the first one a couple of months ago and loved it! It seems like she just started writing it and now it's book 3!!


text:
namespace MassTransit.Internals
{
    using System;

    public interface IWriteProperty<in T, in TProperty> :
        IWriteProperty<T>
        where T : class
    {
        void Set(T entity, TProperty value);
    }

    public interface IWriteProperty<in T>
        where T : class
    {
        Type TargetType { get; }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Where the garden ends the forest begins. A small forest but still a forest. I grew up here and my parents still live here. They are 75 years old. They collect stuff. Everything. The sofa is so full of pillows - where are the people supposed to sit ? Me and my daughter are always welcome though. There is still room for us. My father can make almost anything out of wood. My mother can sow almost anything. And build stuff out of wood too. There are a lot of cobwebs in the house. Dust in the corners. If the apocalypse hits us in the next few years, if the power disappears and diseases kill half the people in the world, I'm quite sure my mother and father would be able to survive a long time. They can get heat and cook on the wood stove. They have sheeps to eat and lots of vegetables in the garden. They would survive a long time because even now they would build, grow or make something by hand rather than buying it. They would probably miss television for a while. But they read a lot and own thousands of books. If the apocalypse hit, their life wouldn't be so much different than it is today.


Etoka Records starts 2019 with one of the strongest addicting and genre defining stories through sound. The strong resonant melodies of resident Etoka Records scream late-night dub techno vibes, or at least that's what protocol tells us.
Dub Protocol is a true treat for intelligent dance-floor vibe lovers and an entryway point into a deeper meditative state with glitchy manipulated reflections.


text:
Home > News Articles
Getting A Grip On Slippery Cell Membranes
By News Staff | July 3rd 2016 04:52 AM | Print | E-mail
Worcester, Mass. - Within each of our cells is a distribution system that uses molecular motors and filaments to move proteins, organelles, and other tiny bits of cargo along its inner framework, or cytoskeleton. To achieve this feat, the motors and filaments must tug on flexible membranes that surround the cargo packages, but these membranes, made of fatty molecules called lipids, are extremely slippery. Scientists have long wondered how the molecular transport machinery is able to maintain its grip.
The work is important because knowledge of the basic science of molecular motors and membrane mechanics can translate into a better understanding of cell and tissue development, wound healing, and the responses of the immune system--and how cancer cells can spread from a single tumor to other areas of the body.
Thanks to a collaborative research project at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), the answer is beginning to emerge. Led by Erkan Tüzel, PhD, associate professor of physics at WPI, and Michael Ostap, PhD, professor of physiology at the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute and Penn's Perelman School of Medicine, the team is using laboratory experiments and computational modeling to study the interactions between the motors (made from a protein called myosin-1), the filaments (made from the protein actin), and the membranes. Their findings are reported in the paper "Force Generation by Membrane-Associated Myosin-1" published online by Nature Scientific Reports.
To study the forces generated by myosin-1 motors on oily membranes, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) strung a motor attached to an actin filament between two fluorescent beads, with the motor's tail resting on a sphere covered with lipids. The filament was moved side-to-side with the help of an optical trap. As the myosin-1 molecules stretched and slipped on the sphere, the researchers measured the forces applied to the sphere by the molecule. Credit: Worcester Polytechnic Institute and University of Pennsylvania
"To maintain a grip, these myosin-1 molecules need to generate sufficient force against oily membranes," Tüzel said. "How they do that has not been clear. Now we are able to say, 'yes, the numbers make sense and the physics does work.'"
In addition to transporting cargo, cells perform a number of essential functions--from secreting proteins to dividing into two daughter cells--that require the precise manipulation of cellular membranes. The work is done by myosin motors attached to actin filaments, which must grip the membranes and pull against them. This work provides novel insights into how motors keep their grip.
Getting to the bottom of this mystery required the combined skills of Tüzel, a theoretical biophysicist who develops algorithms and computational models that simulate the behavior of complex systems, including living cells, and Ostap, an experimental biophysicist who studies the molecular motors and other structures that power cells. They began collaborating after meeting in 2014 at the Muscle and Molecular Motors Gordon Research Conference.
For the current study, Serapion Pyrpassopoulos, PhD, a researcher in Ostap's lab, strung myosin-1 molecules attached to an actin filament between two fluorescent beads. The tail of the myosin was placed on a sphere covered with lipids using techniques developed by Pyrpassopoulos.
The actin filament was moved side-to-side with the help of an optical trap. As the myosin-1 molecules stretched and slipped on the sphere, the researchers measured the forces applied to the sphere by the molecule. Tüzel and WPI graduate student Göker Arpag? took the data from those single-molecule experiments and developed a computational model that could be used to determine what it would take for myosin-1 molecules to effectively manipulate a membrane.
The model showed that a single myosin-1 molecule gripping a single lipid molecule in the membrane is not able to generate the force required to successfully tug on the membrane. In fact, the model predicts, it would take between 69 and 124 myosin-1 molecules, all attached to one actin filament and all working together, to do the job. The model also predicts that myosin-1 molecules will slip on the membrane's lipid surface at different rates. When some find an area that is easier to grip, others migrate there and hold on collectively, much like a tug-of-war team that bunches up on the rope where it gains a good foothold.
"We also saw that the slower moving myosins seem to help the faster slipping ones by giving them time to move to the area where it was easier to grip," Tüzel noted.
Tüzel and Ostap are continuing their collaboration, planning new experiments based on the predictions of the computer model. "These basic experiments and models are exciting because they provide us with the framework to start asking more physiologically relevant questions," Ostap added, "like what happens to myosin's force-generating properties when it attaches to its cellular cargo."
source: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Muscle Contractions At The Atomic Scale
Myosin-I Molecular Motor Detects Minute Changes In Force
Molecular Motors Speed Nutrient Processing
Cortical Layer, Can We Get Some Support?
A Stepwise Retreat: How Immune Cells Catch Pathogens


Thanks to Lynn & David Peterson!
THANK YOU to our cousin Lynn Peterson, and her husband, David, of Humboldt, IA, for their generous donation to the 2016 Schmidt Family Reunion fund, through their family business, Humboldt Cleaners! Join Lynn & David and make history.
Lynn is the daughter of Dwaine Schmidt, granddaughter of Chris Schmidt, great granddaughter of Henry Schmidt Sr., 2xgreat granddaughter of Conrad Schmidt, 3xgreat granddaughter of Friedrich Schmidt, 4xgreat granddaughter of Johannes Schmidt Jr., 5xgreat granddaughter of Johannes Schmidt Sr., 6xgreat granddaughter of Hans Heinrich Schmidt, and 7xgreat granddaughter of Hans Schmidt.
Thanks to Pam & Ron Sande!


Both sales and retail are usually described jointly as retail, which is a process concerned with the sale of goods and services to final consumers for profit. Retail is the final step in merchandise chain of distribution and involves sales of merchandise in smaller quantities to end users. There are two main types of retailers, namely: store and non-store retailers. As the name indicates, store retailers sell their merchandise in fixed locations such as stores, while non-store retailers are mobile sellers with virtually no fixed points of sale.
There are many small and large retailers in the United States. Of the ten largest retailers in the world, five are from America. Large retail chains are publicly traded on the U.S. stock exchange. Wal-Mart tops the list of global retailers and is probably the world's biggest company of any kind. A good number of American retail chains also maintain international presence. Total annual retail sales in the U.S. rose by an average of 4.5 percent between 1993 and 2015, as reported by the Census Bureau. For May 2015, total monthly retail sales of about 3,300 retail chains was put at a little over $443 billion. About two-thirds of the American gross domestic product (GDP) is tied to retail consumption.
Diverse openings are available in sales and retail and a good number of these are available to first timers and young people looking to work on either part-time or full-time basis. Let's have a look at some of these jobs.
Sales assistant – Whenever you go to a retail store, you will notice people assisting at the place – these are called sales assistants. You get to assist with smooth operations of a store when offered this position. In addition to making sales, you may be required to perform certain administrative duties as well as do merchandise stocking and ordering.
Retail security – Cases of theft are not rare in retail outlets, particularly the large ones. Retail security helps to guard against these as much as possible by keeping watch over merchandise, customers and staff.
Customer service assistant – Large retail chains do have customer service department where customers' complaints are attended to. If you possess good customer interaction and communication skills, you might just be able to get a job as a customer service assistant.
Management trainee – You could be considered for the position of a retail manager provided you possess college qualification. But you are likely to start as a trainee to enable you acquire expertise needed for work as a retail manager.
There you have some of the jobs available in sales and retail. Perhaps, it is relevant to note that a good number of these jobs are offered on part basis.


Lily turned four months on Monday. She is "talking" more and has started laughing out loud. She holds her head up very well now and is learning how to put her pacifier in her mouth by herself. Enjoy the pictures!
Making the statement on her shirt true.
she likes to eat fingers, toys, burp clothes…the list goes on and on.


Behind every successful organisation is a backbone of professional support staff that are instrumental in the implementation and management of operational activities. Our focus as a division is the supply of either contract or permanent management personnel, qualified professionals or skilled tradesmen within Construction, Building Services, Local Authority and Housing Association.
We recognise that companies are continually looking for a competitive edge to keep them at the forefront of their specific discipline. As a supplier to the industry we understand that our clients therefore will be demanding a service that is nothing short of excellent.
Our competitive edge is our industry knowledge developed through our firm belief in market specialisation and the fact that a number of our consultants have previously worked within the construction or facilities management industry. This inhouse expertise enables us to source and screen the most complex of disciplines or skills sets.
Additionally, with our outstanding track record of retaining our own inhouse staff and recruitment professionals you can be confident in knowing that you will receive continuity of service and that you will always be able to communicate with the same contact time and time again.


text:
Trade, hotels, restaurants
This web publication was developed by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) in cooperation with Textcetera The Hague.
If you have a question or comment about this publication, please contact us
** Revised provisional figure (but not definite)
2016-2017 2016 to 2017 inclusive
2014/'15-2016/'17 Crop year, financial year, etc., 2014/'15 to 2016/'17 inclusive
The statutory task of Statistics Netherlands (CBS) is to compile official statistics and to make the resulting information available through publication. CBS publishes reliable and coherent statistical information, which is shared with other authorities, citizens, policymakers, scientists, the media and the business community. In other words, CBS enables people to have debates on social issues on the basis of reliable statistical information.
CBS provides insights into facts. The information published by CBS is on subjects which are affecting every citizen of the Netherlands, ranging from economic growth and consumer prices to crime and leisure.
Apart from being responsible for the national (official) statistics, CBS also has the duty to produce European (community) statistics. These form the bulk of CBS' work programme.


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text:
7 Places to Visit in Karimnagar
Once upon a time, there was a city which was the hub of Vedic learning. With time, the city evolved and its branding changed a little. Now, there are remnants of the city left. This city takes us back to the era of Old Stone Age to 148000 BC. Many tools of the ancient era have been found from this place. It's evident that the culture of the city is as old as that of the Old Stone Age. The excavations here prove that the district was once ruled by dynasties such as Mauryas, Satvahanas and Asafzalu kings.
The city hosts different classes of tourists such as history buffs, archaeologists, engineers etc. Although Karimnagar has many attractions for tourists, here are the seven best attractions which should never be missed out when you are very much in the city:
1. Lower Manair Dam
Photo (Cropped) by ShashiBellamkonda, CC BY 2.0
This is a beautiful attraction of the city with mesmerizing ambience. It is built on Manai River which is Godavari River's tributary. The construction of dam which started in 1974 concluded in 1985. With a height of 27 meter, the catchment area of river is around 6475 sq.km. In monsoon, the reservoir water starts rising to new heights presenting a marvelous scene for tourists.
2. Vemulawada
Located on the shores of Mulavagu Rivulet, Vemulawada is 35-km from the city.
Earlier, that is, between AD 750-973, it used to be a capital city of Vemulawada Chalukyas. You can see one among the oldest temples in the city. The excellent architecture under Chalukyas could be seen here in the form of existing temples and statues. There are several inscriptions written on the temples.
A renowned pond known with the name of Koneru has many healing properties and hence is thronged by large number of people. A long queue of devotees could be seen on Mahashivratri here.
3. Elgandal Fort
Teen Minar, Photo (Cropped) by Naveen Gujje, CC BY-SA 2.0
Do you want to see a mosque with shaking minaret? If yes, then you should visit the Elgandal Fort which is located on Manair River's banks. This fort has witnessed coming and going of many dynasties. Rulers such as Kakatiya, Qutub Shahis, Bahmanies, mughals etc had ruled this fort for years.
Located 10 kilometers from Karimnagar at Kamareddy Road, it is also called as Teen Minar which symbolizes Three Towers. Along with fort, there are other attractions as well which are Brindavan tank situated outside the eastern gateway of the fort, which has minaretes oscillating after being shaken.
It was built in 1754 AD by Zafar-ud-Doula. Dho Minar has tall pillars with the height equal to Hyderabad Charminar. There are palm groves around.
4. Kondagattu Anjaneya Swamy Temple
As per the local beliefs, this shrine was made by a cowherd some 300 years back. Situated at a distance of 37 km from Karimnagar, the present temple complex was constructed around 160 years back by Karishna Rao Deshmukh.
The temple is dedicated to Lord Anjaneya Swamy.
The idols of Lord Venkateswara, Goddess Alwaarula and Lakshmi also find place in the temple. There is such a firm belief among devotees that those who don't have kids will have have their own children if they pray here for 40 days.
5. Ujjwala Park
This comprises a renowned picnic spot which was opened to guests in 2001. Situated near Manair River, it presents a ravishing view. There is a recreation Park nearby which is a heaven for kids. One can relax and rejuvenate here.
6. Kaleswaram
Kaleswaram Temple Entrance, Photo (Cropped) by Tallamma, Public Domain
A pretty little old village has everything in store for tourists. There is nature, greenery, temples, etc. to feast your eyes. Located at the confluence of two rivers, namely, Godavari and Pranahitha, the village has the Mukteswara Swamy temple which is known for its two Shivalingams.
7. Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy temple
Also known with the name of Dakshana Kashi, it is dedicated to Raja Rajeswara, which is an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Many consider it as a Banaras of Southern India due to the presence of this holy temple in the city.
It stands at a distance of 34-km from Karimnagar. A Dargah of a Muslim saint inside the temple complex makes this place all the more interesting and devotees offer prayers here, no matter what their caste creed is.
Hence overall, this city has enormous significance in terms of history, archaeology and pilgrimage.
Those who want to dig out the historical facts should definitely visit this city. Also those who want the answers to their prayers and take holy dip in water with medicinal properties should make an itinerary keeping in mind Karimnagar and its attractions.


Photo: globallookpress.com the Government of Mozambique has signed contracts with Rosneft and the American company ExxonMobil for development of oil fields in the country, the Reuters agency reports. As specifies the agency, the signed agreements can provide investments into Mozambique at the level of $700 million. As it is supposed, the companies will drill at least ten wells – eight on the deep water and two on the continent. The National oil Institute of Mozambique (the regulator of the oil and gas sphere of Mozambique) has reported that the government is also going to conclude similar contracts with the South African company Sasol and the Italian Eni. As it was reported earlier, in 2015 Rosneft and ExxonMobil have created consortium for participation in the 5th license round of Mozambique. By results of submission of the joint application in October, 2015 the consortium has been declared the winner on three blocks (A5-B, Z5-C and Z5-D) located on the shelf of the country. As reported to RNS, at the beginning of July of the current year it became known that Rosneft has created three subsidiaries for work in Mozambique. RN Zambezi North Pte companies. Ltd, RN Zambezi South Pte. Ltd and RN Angoche Pte. Ltd are registered in Singapore. The companies have been created at the beginning of May, 2018.


This is what we have been waiting for. This is the night that all those wannabe tv stars in Iowa go to their chosen precinct meeting houses and talk about all the Presidential candidates. The Republicans have a straight forward method such there is a spokesperson for each candidate to do the selling to the others in the room. The Democrats have a different system in that they will glumly stand around waiting for something to happen. If one standing group is smaller than fifteen percent of the total, the smallest group is broken up and forced to take their dunce hats to another group.
The Democrats have a system known in certain circles as the * "Least Dis-Satisficing" election. If your candidate does not make the fifteen percent cut, they are out. In other words the Democrats do not use a positive system at all, it is like one of those reality shows where people are voted OFF the island.
I can see it now in a Democrat caucus. There will be a bunch of people milling around playing musical chairs, all the while not seeing any difference between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, both avowed socialists. Bernie just wants to give away more stuff. When the music stops, the supporters of Governor Edward O'Malley, the political genius responsible for much of the corruption in Baltimore, will find their chairs missing. Sayonara, Ed.
The Republicans have in my opinion a more rational system. In the Repubilcan Iowa caucus, the members listen to the various spokespersons make their cases for their respective candidates. They will then vote for the candidate they like. This approach, attitude wise, is light years different from the negative Democrat approach. The Republicans just choose up sides based on positives, where the Democrats demote based on a negative approach.
My prediction for the Democrat Iowa caucuses is: Who Cares? OK, It looks like Bernie may be in the lead, and we will just have to see if Hillary is going to do another crash and burn. Maybe Hillary should confess her national secrets crimes, and serve her jail time. That would be a great excuse for her losing. She will need one.
*Note : The term "least dis-satisficing" is one used in business schools when describing how many corporate meetings function. Many times, the alternative passed for action is the one that is the least satisfying alternative, but one that will suffice for the whole group. In life we often vote for the least onerous alternative.


As we move into Fall and the temps start to drop, cozying up in a cashmere sweater topped with a trendy puffer jacket is the easiest way to look chic while staying warm. Combine that with a designer handbag, trendy jewelry, and eye-catching boots, and you're bound to turn heads.
Since monochromatic neutrals are a great color choice for Fall, to make an otherwise bland outfit more fun and fashionable, today's style guide shares 5 style tips to elevate your every day look this season.
Instead of wearing a basic everyday sweater, when you want to dress up your look, opt for an embellished sweater (like this one from Fabiana Filippi). A little glitz goes a long way with a sumptuous cashmere sweater that's accented with sparkling sequins that catch the light. Paired with relaxed jeans that you can wear everywhere (like this straight-leg pair from MAC Jeans), this monochromatic look is anything but boring.
To be honest – most puffy jackets can make us feel more like the Michelin Man than anything. Finding a puffy jacket that's actually stylish can often pose a challenge. Puffy jackets are a great way to stay warm and toasty, but truth be told – most on the market aren't figure-flattering.
When you finally find that Unicorn of puffy jackets – one that's as chic as it is comfortable (like this short-sleeved quilter puffer jacket from Herno) – dressing for the cold becomes that much more fun.
To add a luxe touch to your look, a stunning designer handbag (like this ombre crocodile bag with chain-link strap by Nancy Gonzalez) makes a sophisticated statement.
Both practical and stylish, a handbag like this can also double as a clutch, making it a versatile accessory. Plus, a rich texture and artistically-designed black-and-gray ombre effect make it even more unique and interesting.
To elevate your casual everyday look, accent your outfit with glamorous jewelry.
All you need is a gorgeous pair of earrings (like these head-turning beaded tassel earrings from Oscar de la Renta) to instantly add drama and flair to any ensemble. Plus, since these ones are clip-on earrings, they won't pull on your earlobes, making them easier and more comfortable to wear.
Add a little edginess with a pair of rhinestone-studded boots (like these custom-designed boots by Giuseppe Zanotti). Not only are boots comfortable for walking in (making them practical for everyday wear), a studded pair makes you look and feel like a rockstar (and who wouldn't want that?!).
With the glam accents and fun embellishments, monochromatic neutrals are instantly transformed. For more style tips and inspiration, check out the Fashion & Style section on Inspirations & Celebrations.
Location: The Trident House c/o Peter Butler (Carmel Realty Company) & Ben Zoller (Monterey Coast Realty).
About the property: This exquisite, custom contemporary home is located in the prestigious Golden Triangle of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California and boasts breathtaking views of Carmel Bay. This modern take on casual coastal California living ups the ante with its airy, open living quarters that are surrounded by dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows, a landscaped outdoor entertaining space, and meticulously-crafted commercial-grade finishes.


text:
Leeds: Keenan Carole to fill left-back void Christophe Galtier comments on the winter transfer window RB Leipzig End Liverpool's Hopes of Early Naby Keita Move Rossi sees advantage for McLaren over rivals in unique F1-IndyCar team set-up · RaceFans Arsenal: Arteta must now unleash Trossard
Home Football Liga MX: Keylor Navas could be set for move to Mexico
Liga MX: Keylor Navas could be set for move to Mexico
Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Keylor Navas could be set to move to Club America in the Mexican league so that he can replace Guillermo Ochoa.
Ochoa recently signed for Serie A side Salernitana and went straight into the team for their match against AC Milan, which means Club America need a replacement.
According to Fox Sports Mexico, Costa Rican Navas is the man that they have set their eyes on. The 36-year-old has been a top goalkeeper in Europe for many years, even whilst not always being number one at his teams.
His contract with PSG runs until 2024 which means that the Liga MX side will need to fork out a transfer fee if they're going to take him away from the Ligue 1 side.
Navas was pushed into the number two spot when Gianluigi Donnarumma arrived at PSG and it has been a point of friction between him and the club, meaning that there could certainly be some interest from him in the move.
Despite the reports, the director of the club, Hector Gonzalez Inarritu said that he has no knowledge of such a deal being on the cards.
"I am on vacation with my family, I am very grateful for the call, but so far there is nothing. The truth is that I am unaware of the information, it is the first time I have heard of it," he said.
For his part, Fernando Ortiz, America's coach, added: "Oscar Jimenez and Luis Malagon are competing, they deserve a chance. We are going to play a preseason game and surely that will decide the starting goalkeeper".
The operation will not be simple, as Navas' main desire is to continue in Europe.
Leeds: Keenan Carole to fill left-back void
Christophe Galtier comments on the winter transfer window
Agency_SAM en/football/liga-mx Keylor Navas - English Liga MX - English PSG - English Transfer News
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A report in Science 2 years ago that linked a mouse retrovirus, XMRV, to chronic fatigue syndrome astonished scientists and patients alike. But the theory soon began to take hits, and now, to all but a few researchers, it has completely unraveled.
Done. Case closed. Finito, lights off, The End.
For the past 2 years, a controversy has roiled around the purported link between a mouse retrovirus, XMRV, and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a baffling, debilitating disease with no known origin. Many researchers who have followed this saga closely thought that a definitive study, published online this week by Science (http://scim.ag/xmrv-cfs) and conducted by nine labs—including the main proponents of the thesis—would finally bring a halt to the impassioned debate.
The uproar began with an October 2009 paper in Science that found XMRV in the blood of two-thirds of the CFS patients examined. A steady assault on the report soon began, with more than a dozen labs failing to replicate it to date and several asserting that contamination must have occurred. The leader of the team that conducted the study, Judy Mikovits of the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease (WPI) in Reno, Nevada, resolutely maintained that her lab had no evidence of contamination and that it could repeatedly find the virus with its techniques. Millions of dollars have gone into clarifying the question, which has had far-reaching consequences for people with CFS and, if the virus lurked in the blood supply, the public at large.
The study just published found that none of the nine labs could reproducibly detect XMRV or relatives of the virus in blood samples distributed under a blinded code. Pounding another nail into the coffin, Science is also running a partial retraction (http://scim.ag/R-H-S) of the original paper, as a contributing lab found that it in fact had a contamination.
In an unexpected twist to this operatic saga, Mikovits co-authored the Science Express paper and has no quarrel with the results. Her collaborator, Francis Ruscetti, a retrovirologist at the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Frederick, Maryland, who is a co-author of both the original Science report and the new one, concurs. "Where there is disagreement is in the interpretation," Ruscetti says.
By their lights, the new study—conducted by the Blood XMRV Scientific Research Working Group sponsored by the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute—does not rule out the possibility that mouse retroviruses infect people with CFS. "The conclusion of the Blood Working Group was that we don't have a reproducible assay to detect XMRVs in the blood—not that they weren't in the patients at all," Mikovits says. Ruscetti adds that the working group analyzed their original patients but used samples taken a few years later.
If this seems like wordsmithing and splitting hairs, welcome to the confusing, maddening world of XMRV. Mikovits and Ruscetti, who have become increasingly isolated from the broader scientific community, now say their original paper erred by focusing on a single XMRV isolate that turned out to be a contaminant. They say that isolate is but one of many XMRVs, which belong to a still larger family of gammaretroviruses. They also contend that the virus may lurk in tissues, only traveling to the blood occasionally. "We still stand by our data that we isolated gammaretroviruses from patients with CFS and also from healthy controls," says Mikovits, who has taken a more public role than Ruscetti in battling critics and reaching out to supporters.
Mikovits has become something of a savior in the community of people with CFS (also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME), who for decades have endured charges that the disease is psychosomatic. The 2009 Science paper shouted out that CFS may well have a clear biological cause, and, in turn, raised hopes of effective treatments and even a cure. The new findings give her "great pause," yet she suspects they're but a speed bump. "I haven't changed my thinking at all," she says. And she worries that the Blood Working Group conclusions will confuse people with CFS, some of whom got wind of the results early in the blogosphere and contacted her in a panic. "I had 15 suicidal patients call me last week," she says.
In scientific circles, Mikovits has developed a less flattering reputation. Critics have accused her and her backers of stubbornly wedding themselves to a thesis and moving the goalposts with each study that challenges their conclusions. Even disease advocates who welcome the attention XMRV has brought to CFS believe the time has come to put this line of research to rest. "It's hard to say that this has not received a fair appraisal," says Kimberly McCleary, president of the CFIDS Association of America, a patient group in Charlotte, North Carolina.
XMRV owes its discovery to a little-known enzyme called RNase L that helps the body battle viruses—and has ties to both prostate cancer and CFS.
In the early 1990s, a few CFS researchers reported that their patients had higher levels of RNase L than healthy people had, suggesting that this natural viricide signaled an undiagnosed infection causing the disease. RNase L levels, they contended, provided a long-sought "biomarker" for CFS, which has caused much confusion because clinicians use varying criteria to make a diagnosis. It also could potentially help researchers gauge the effectiveness of treatments, as a drop in the enzyme would mark a decrease in underlying, undetected infections. This idea became central to tests using Ampligen, an immune modulator made by Hemispherx Biopharma in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to treat CFS.
One of the clinicians testing Ampligen was Daniel Peterson of Incline Village, a town on the northern shore of Lake Tahoe, the popular tourist destination on Nevada's border with California. Peterson had investigated a mysterious outbreak of CFS that began in Incline Village in 1984 and had become one of the world's best-known CFS clinicians. His work drew the attention of Harvey Whittemore, a prominent Reno attorney who lobbied on behalf of the gaming industry and later became a major real estate developer, and his wife, Annette, a teacher of children with cognitive disorders. The Whittemores' daughter, Andrea, had developed CFS at age 12, and at Peterson's suggestion she began receiving Ampligen.
With the Whittemores' financial support, Kenny De Meirleir, a Belgian physician who had an RNase testing lab in his own country, helped them open RedLabs USA in Reno to monitor the enzyme in U.S. patients taking Ampligen. Vincent Lombardi, who would soon play a prominent role in the XMRV saga, co-founded the new lab and served as its director of operations.
Lombardi was a late bloomer in science. In 1990, while he worked as a securities trader in Lake Tahoe, he decided to pursue an undergraduate degree at a local school. As part of a biostatistics class, he worked with Peterson, analyzing immune parameters of CFS patients. After his graduation in 1995, he ran investment companies and also worked as a marketing director for a pawnbroker business. He went on to pursue a Ph.D., first studying RNase L but switching to peptides in the tobacco hornworm, which he completed at the University of Nevada, Reno, 2 years after starting RedLabs USA.
In 2002, meanwhile, a team of prostate cancer researchers had discovered that a mutation in the RNase L gene frequently occurs in families in which men are prone to the early-onset form of that disease. A few years later, one of those investigators, Robert Silverman of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, began probing for a viral link: If RNase L fights viruses, he reasoned, then perhaps having a crippled form of the enzyme opened the door for a cancer-causing infection.
Silverman teamed up with Joseph DeRisi and Don Ganem, two veteran virus hunters at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), who had developed a microarray called ViroChip that had proved its mettle in identifying new viruses. The assay confirmed Silverman's hunch: In the prostate cancer tumors, ViroChip found a novel retrovirus, apparently a cousin of a known mouse virus and therefore given the ungainly name of xenotropic murine leukemia virus–related virus (XMRV).
In March 2006, Silverman, DeRisi, Ganem, and colleagues published their report in PLoS Pathogens, a respected but decidedly low-key choice for the description of a new retrovirus that appeared to infect humans—the only three others are HIV and HTLV-I and -II—and had ties to a serious disease. Although they wrote that there was a "strong association" between XMRV and the RNase L mutation, the researchers still had misgivings about whether the virus contributed to prostate cancer.
Around the time Silverman first publicly described XMRV, Annette Whittemore took on one of the most ambitious pursuits of her career: using her family's wealth and powerful contacts to build a full-fledged research and clinical institute devoted to CFS. Peterson would head a medical research team to elucidate the causes of the disease and provide state-of-the-art care. Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn and the current U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D–NV)—both family friends of the Whittemores—helped arrange government funding, while the Whittemores' alma mater, the University of Nevada, Reno, offered about 1400 square meters of lab space within a new, gleaming $78 million Center for Molecular Medicine. It would take 4 years for that building to open, so the nascent Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) set up shop in borrowed space on campus in 2006. Annette, WPI's president, hired Mikovits to run the lab.
Mikovits had come into the CFS world by a circuitous route. She had spent more than 20 years at NCI, first as a technician studying HTLV-I and HIV with Ruscetti, who served as her Ph.D. adviser. In 2001, she married and moved to southern California, becoming chief scientific officer at EpiGenX Biosciences in Santa Barbara, which aimed to use a new epigenetic approach to develop drugs and diagnostics.
In 2006, Mikovits became a consultant to a CFS-related nonprofit foundation that Annette Whittemore co-founded, which explored the link between the disease and another virus, human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), that had been discovered in Gallo's lab. At a meeting in Barcelona, Spain, that year, Mikovits spoke to Whittemore for the first time and heard Peterson give a talk. Peterson focused on a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in some of his CFS patients, and Mikovits smelled a virus. She offered to work with him, and Whittemore helped set up a collaboration. Later that year, Mikovits joined WPI.
She soon enlisted Ruscetti, who had worked in Gallo's lab when it discovered HTLV-I, to screen blood samples from Peterson's patients for viruses. Intrigued by the RNase L link to XMRV, Mikovits and Lombardi—who by then had joined WPI as well—met Silverman in October 2007 at a prostate cancer conference in Lake Tahoe, where they discussed the possible role of XMRV in CFS. Silverman was happy to collaborate and sent WPI a clone of the virus, known as VP62. The institute could use it as a reference to start hunting for the virus in CFS patient blood samples that Peterson had stored.
A little over a year later, on 18 November 2008, Mikovits had the first evidence of XMRV in CFS patients. Working with Ruscetti and Silverman, the group amassed evidence that the virus occurred in 67% of 101 CFS patients and 3.7% of 218 healthy controls. If the latter number was representative of the general population, up to 10 million healthy people in the United States alone might be infected, and the virus might be spreading through blood donations and organ transplantation—a silent epidemic of frightening proportions. Mikovits, Ruscetti, Silverman, and their co-authors submitted a paper toScience in May 2009. The paper, of which Lombardi was first author, did not claim that XMRV caused CFS, noting that the disease might simply make patients more vulnerable to infection. Causality "is probable but not definitive at this time," Lombardi et al. stated.
But what they were asserting was stunning enough: WPI, NCI, and the Cleveland Clinic had all found evidence of XMRV in the same CFS patients. Some of these people had participated in a 2007 NCI drug study, too, and their blood samples, stored separately, also tested positive, "ruling out the possibility of lab contamination as a source," the authors wrote. When the team calculated the so-called p-value—which generally needs to be under 0.05 for a finding to be considered significant—they arrived at the astonishingly low number of 8.1 × 10−35.
Oddly, Peterson, who had supplied the patient samples, was not one of the authors. His name was left off—and he was kept out of the loop on the study's results—because of worries that he might prematurely tell his patients, Mikovits says.
The manuscript didn't convince Science. After reviews by three referees and members of the Board of Reviewing Editors (provided for this article by Mikovits), the editors rejected the paper. "Although the referees were intrigued by your findings, they had a number of serious reservations," read a 4 June letter, which included excerpts from reviewers.
The rejection letter noted that Science would re-review the paper if the authors could both retain the "novelty of its main message" and "address the referees' concerns with new data rather than with counter-arguments." But the criticisms were substantial. "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is full of false alarms," wrote one advisory board member, "and the detection of XMRV could be false positive PCR." An otherwise enthusiastic referee wrote that the "one major caveat I have is that the issue of potential contamination has not been completely dealt with." A second referee found it odd that the genetic sequence of XMRV derived from CFS patients and the virus earlier discovered in prostate cancer were 99% similar. This "seems very unlikely and may indicate contamination, despite the evidence presented to the contrary," the referee warned. One also wondered why they omitted Peterson as a co-author.
Coffin, who chaired the meeting, thought Mikovits and her colleagues had persuasive evidence, especially because XMRV formed its own branch on a genetic family tree of mouse retroviruses, strengthening the case that it was not a contaminant.
The next day, as Mikovits sat at Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport waiting for her flight back home, she received a phone call from Science, indicating for the first time serious interest in publishing the paper. Science accepted the Lombardi paper on 31 August and published it online on 8 October 2009, accompanied by a supportive commentary that Coffin co-authored. "There are several lines of evidence that transmission happened in the outside world and was not a laboratory contaminant," the commentary declared. The publication catapulted Mikovits into the spotlight, where she has remained ever since.
"Here we go again." That's what crossed Kimberly McCleary's mind when she read the first headlines about the paper that week in her office in Charlotte. In her 20-plus years at CFIDS, McCleary had seen many infectious agents fingered as a potential cause of CFS. HHV-6. Epstein-Barr virus. Mycoplasma. Adenovirus. Cytomegalovirus. HTLV-I and -II. And on and on. Each time, hopes were dashed as scientists closely evaluated the suspects.
The string of disappointments had made McCleary cautious, and CFIDS urged patients not to get carried away. "We tried to temper things early on, and we were criticized heavily for raining on the parade," she says. Still, many patients went wild with joy. "ME/CFS patients have never seen anything like this," wrote Cort Johnson in an item, "Game Changer," posted on his popular blog Phoenix Rising.
But many scientists were skeptical. Simon Wessely, a psychiatric researcher at King's College London who has long studied CFS, says the virology went over his head, but the fact that fully two-thirds of CFS patients harbored the virus was an alarm bell. CFS, whose definition has been the subject of years of debate, is far too heterogeneous a phenomenon for that, he says.
With a few U.K. colleagues, Wessely started penning a letter to Science to address what they saw as methodological flaws in the paper. One problem was the unclear patient selection, they wrote. If all patients came from Nevada and healthy controls were from elsewhere, then perhaps XMRV wasn't a CFS-related virus, Wessely says, but something that happened to be more prevalent in the gambling state.
Wessely also contacted Jonathan Weber, a retrovirologist at Imperial College London, to set up a study of British CFS patients. "Our reaction was, 'It's probably wrong, but if it's true, it's a pretty big advance. So it's worth testing,'" he says.
The first published critique appeared a few weeks later—and it would prove to be prophetic. On 18 November, Patrick Moore, a cancer virologist at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, and his postdoc Masahiro Shuda published a blistering commentary on Faculty of 1000, a Web site that evaluates reports in what it calls postpublication peer review.
The next month, a study co-authored by Silverman and published online by Virologyshowed that AZT, an anti-HIV drug, worked against XMRV in test tubes. Again, CFS patients were overjoyed. Not only had a likely culprit of their suffering been found, drugs already on the market might treat it.
Of course, no one had proved that the virus actually caused CFS. But by the start of 2010, three commercial labs, one of which was WPI's VIP Dx (formerly RedLabs USA), offered an XMRV test.
Peterson, sitting in one of his practice's waiting rooms in Incline Village in June, explained that his patients split into two groups. One had ridden the CFS roller coaster so many times that these patients wanted validation and replication before buying the XMRV story. "There's another group that, for whatever reason, has made this illness into a religion and becomes polarized into who believes and who doesn't believe," he said. Increasing numbers of believers began taking XMRV tests, which cost $500 or more, and, if they were positive, asking their physicians to prescribe anti-HIV drugs, says Peterson, who by then had severed ties with WPI over a contractual issue.
When a Science reporter visited WPI the same month, Annette Whittemore and Lombardi both strongly defended the decision to sell an XMRV test before evidence existed of a causal link. (The group has filed related patent applications, too.) "Every physician who requests patient testing is aware of contamination and the potential of false hope," Lombardi said. "We're not the doctors ordering these tests for our patients." Whittemore stressed that all profits would go back into the institute. "This wasn't set up to make money, and it never has," she said. Whittemore also dismissed critics—a group that included Peterson— who cringed at CFS patients taking antiretrovirals. "How many years does this patient population have to be impacted and their lives destroyed?" she asked.
Andrea Whittemore was one of the CFS patients who tested positive for XMRV.
The flood of negative data started in January 2010, when Wessely, Weber, and their colleagues reported in PLoS ONE that they couldn't find any trace of XMRV in 186 British CFS patients. By the end of February, two more negative reports were published, one of them by Jonathan Stoye, Coffin's co-author on the favorable Science commentary that accompanied the Lombardi paper.
The problem, as they saw it, was that nobody was following their recipe exactly. Many labs failed to find XMRV using PCR because the virus exists in scant amounts, they said—so much so that a patient can test positive on one bleed and negative on the next. Mikovits said they overcame this problem by first mixing patient blood samples with an uninfected cell line that is especially permissive to the virus and coculturing for 8 weeks. Other researchers, including XMRV discoverer Silverman, questioned the need for this step.
Seven months after Lombardi et al., Science published Wessely's critique and two others, which discussed patient selection problems and the growing list of negative studies, including three that failed to find XMRV in prostate cancer. None of the Technical Comments, however, mentioned the possibility of contamination.
Despite a vigorous defense by Mikovits and Ruscetti in the same issue of Science, the three comments further eroded confidence in the findings. But then, 2 weeks later, a research group unconnected to WPI would rekindle the fading hope that the link between XMRV and CFS was real. It would also spark a peculiar new controversy.
That study originated with Shyh-Ching Lo, an infectious-disease researcher at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who took a keen interest in CFS. In the early 1990s, Lo had tested a theory that a microbe called Mycoplasma was involved in CFS. For that study, he had received blood samples from Anthony Komaroff, a physician who had treated hundreds of CFS patients at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Like so many others, the lead had proved spurious.
After XMRV surfaced as a new candidate, Lo suggested to Komaroff they test the same patient samples, stored at −80°C and untouched for almost 2 decades. Komaroff was enthusiastic. Lo also contacted Harvey Alter, an infectious-disease specialist who works on transfusion medicine at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Alter—who won the prestigious Lasker Award for his role in the discovery of hepatitis C—provided Lo with blood samples from healthy people to serve as controls.
It was Alter who accidentally dropped the bombshell news. At a blood bank meeting in the Croatian capital Zagreb in late May 2010, he presented an overview of current blood safety issues, and his Power-Point presentation had one slide on what he called the "Agent du jour," XMRV. Although Alter didn't present any evidence, the slide was blunt: "The data in the Lombardi et al. Sciencemanuscript are extremely strong and likely true, despite the controversy," one bullet point said. "We (FDA & NIH) have independently confirmed the Lombardi group findings," read another.
After the editor of a Dutch newsletter discovered the slide on the meeting's Web site and sent out a press release, the CFS world exploded, again. "Is this it, then, the big one???? Holy ****!!!!!" one blogger wrote on the Phoenix Rising forum.
Some researchers had doubts. True, Alter had a stellar reputation, but he wasn't a retrovirologist. And Lo in the 1990s had pushed the widely discredited theory that a Mycoplasma infection played an important role in HIV causing AIDS.
Yet news of the impending confirmation had a big impact on a special XMRV panel at the AABB, an international association focused on transfusion medicine. The panel, which had heard about the Lo-Alter study before the news broke, recommended on 18 June that AABB members discourage CFS patients from donating blood.
Patients and scientists alike were eager to see the data. Lo and Alter had written a paper accepted byPNAS, but they ran headfirst into an institutional roadblock: Retrovirologists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had their own paper in preparation that showed no evidence of XMRV antibodies, proteins, or DNA in well-characterized CFS patients. Faced with contradictory results from two teams of researchers under its purview, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ordered the groups to delay publishing until each could review the other's data.
Patients cried foul. Many had long distrusted the federal government, and especially CDC, for not taking CFS seriously and suppressing research results. Now, they said, CDC was trying to bury another theory it didn't like. The author of a blog, CFS Central, called for aggressive, ACT UP-style protests at blood banks to demand publication: "I believe we need to act quickly, before the FDA/NIH paper is killed." Some scientists thought the federally ordered delay impinged on scientific freedom. Why not publish the competing papers and let other researchers scrutinize them? "It was very strange business," Coffin says. Alter says nothing sinister was afoot and that the papers were never in peril. Retrovirologypublished the CDC study on 1 July 2010, and the Lo-Alter study ran in PNAS on 23 August.
Once they saw it, many researchers concluded that the Lo-Alter data didn't confirm the Lombardi paper at all. They had found that 86.5% of samples from CFS patients harbored DNA from mouse retroviruses as did 6.8% of healthy controls, but it was not XMRV; the sequences were more closely related to a different, well-known group, the murine leukemia viruses (MLVs). It was as if a new suspect suddenly had been nabbed. Miller says the findings actually argued against Lombardi et al. "If XMRV is everywhere and these guys are doing the same experiment, why didn't they find XMRV?" he asks. Alter now says he regrets asserting that the paper confirmed the XMRV results and that it was "naïve" to show the slide in Zagreb. "That is something I shouldn't have said because we really hadn't found it," he says. "I somehow got to be the spokesperson for this. I had no idea what it would mean." Lo agrees that the team didn't find the virus that Mikovits and Lombardi had reported.
As more negative data poured in, Mikovits and Lombardi became ever more ardent. Improved techniques now found the virus in almost every CFS patient, they said.
Mikovits further lost credibility with her contribution to an early study organized by the Blood XMRV Scientific Research Working Group, formed by HHS 1 month after the publication of Lombardi et al. It included safety experts such as Susan Stramer of the American Red Cross, as well as Mikovits, Alter, Coffin, and other players in the XMRV saga. The group had devised a four-stage program that included sending blinded samples to various labs to see whether they could detect XMRV. At a meeting on 14 December 2010, the working group discussed the results of the second stage of its study, which again did not support Mikovits's findings. Her lab had found XMRV in a sample from a healthy person who all labs agreed beforehand was negative for the virus.
Mikovits had an explanation. The false positive was caused by a postdoc who mistakenly used the same needle twice to lyse cells and shear DNA, contaminating the sample. She dismisses the error as trivial, the result of working late at night on a weekend because of repeated power failures in a new building, coupled with intense pressure from the working group to get results quickly. "People make mistakes, and we reported it as a mistake," she says.
But many researchers threw up their hands: How could WPI botch a study essential to the survival of its theory? The University of Washington's Miller was astonished that Mikovits didn't do the critical tests herself and that they were rushed.
Ruscetti is not bothered that most of his peers think he's wrong. "I've been there before," he says. But he thinks Mikovits has been treated unfairly. "I've been in science for 35 years, and she's as honest a scientist as I've ever met," he says.
More setbacks followed. A week after the working group meeting, Retrovirology published four devastating papers online that together made a compelling case that a contaminant marred both the Lombardi et al. and Lo-Alter studies. Two reports co-authored by Coffin looked for XMRV and MLV in both CFS and prostate cancer patients; every positive sample they found also harbored mouse DNA, suggesting that a reagent had become contaminated. Another report put a finer point on it: Researchers discovered MLV—at least 97% similar to the Lo-Alter viruses—in a commercially available enzyme used in a PCR kit. Some speculated that perhaps the patient samples were handled more than the controls.
The fourth study, led by Greg Towers at University College London, was even more damning. It was a follow-up to an earlier report, published in the April 2009 issue of the Journal of Virology by Miller's group, that described the discovery of XMRV in a cell line called 22Rv1, which was derived from a human prostate cancer patient. At the time, Miller thought the finding supported the theory that the virus infects humans, as he assumed the original prostate tumor used to make the cell line harbored XMRV. Now Towers's team had compared the genetic sequence of XMRV from different 22Rv1 lines with reported sequences from patients.
The cell line viruses proved ancestral to those in patients. There was also more genetic diversity in viruses from different 22Rv1 lines than different patients, precisely the opposite of what should happen if the virus infected humans: Immune system pressure typically forces a virus to diversify as a means of escaping attack. Towers concluded that XMRV never infected humans and that the cell line virus had somehow contaminated the patient samples.
In March 2011, Coffin and NCI virologist Vinay Pathak delivered what many thought was the final blow to XMRV at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston. Working with Oya Cingöz in Coffin's lab, Pathak had analyzed the 22Rv1 cell line all the way back to its origins, a prostate cancer patient at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. To create the cell line, researchers had used a common technique called passaging in which human tumor cells are grown repeatedly in mice and then harvested. Early versions of the cell line, still stored in university freezers, had no XMRV. But two different strains of mice used in the later experiments each harbored DNA that matched half of the virus. This suggested XMRV was created in the 1990s when two viruses combined in a lab culture, and the widely used cell line spread the virus in many labs, infecting other cell lines, too. The finding furthered doubts that XMRV had ever infected a human being—let alone had a role in either CFS or prostate cancer.
The accidental-origin evidence hasn't convinced Mikovits. "Yes, that can be an origin of an XMRV," she says. "But it could have arisen multiple times. It's not one sequence." Pathak contended the chances that the exact same virus would arise twice were the same as dropping a quarter from a helicopter flying over the Grand Canyon and having it land on a quarter on the ground.
"It's all contamination," Coffin concluded, which outraged Mikovits. "How can John Coffin shut down research like that?" Mikovits shouted during one interview, her blue-gray eyes shooting fire. "He's not God!" She speculates that perhaps the U.S. government, afraid of the huge consequences of a widespread XMRV outbreak, was trying to discredit her work. "We can't afford another public health crisis," she said.
Eventually, two studies that looked for XMRV in fresh blood samples taken from patients in the Lombardi paper failed to find it. Ila Singh, a virologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, consulted with Mikovits and Lombardi to copy their protocols precisely, and among 100 CFS patients in her study, 14 had tested XMRV-positive by WPI. Singh and co-workers found 5% of both patients and controls to be XMRV-positive—a finding they traced back to a contaminated enzyme used in a PCR reaction.
With help from Peterson, UCSF virologist Jay Levy examined 43 patients who tested XMRV-positive at WPI. Peterson says he wanted to help his former colleagues at the institute. "I went to Jay Levy to prove them right," he says. All samples tested negative. Again, Mikovits said the study was flawed.
"They didn't do one thing we did," Mikovits says.
"We did it exactly the way they did it," Levy says.
On 31 May, Science published the Levy report and the Coffin-Pathak origins study online, along with a so-called Editorial Expression of Concern by Science Editor-in-Chief Bruce Alberts. "The study by Lombardi et al. attracted considerable attention, and its publication in Science has had a far-reaching impact on the community of CFS patients and beyond," he wrote, before stating that "the validity of the study … is now seriously in question." "What Science giveth, Science taketh away," Johnson blogged on Phoenix Rising.
The growing rift between XMRV believers and doubters became painfully obvious at a June retrovirology meeting in Leuven, Belgium, where the two camps literally kept their distance. In the scientific sessions, questions were mostly polite and informative. During coffee breaks and a poster session with Belgian beer and cheese, Mikovits, her old friend Ruscetti, and De Meirleir, who helped open RedLabs USA, stuck together and barely talked to their scientific opponents. The scientific debate was grinding to a halt.
It wasn't just that scientists were growing tired of the debate, Wessely says. Some were put off by the "appalling, unforgivable attacks" by some patient advocates on those who criticized WPI's findings. Wessely says he has received death threats in recent years. "People will rather go over the Niagara in a barrel than ever getting involved in CFS again," he says.
In late August, the Blood Working Group completed its roughly $500,000 study, which conclusively determined that no one need worry about XMRV or MLVs in the blood supply. The nine labs—which included WPI, Ruscetti, and Lo at FDA—each had received blinded samples from 15 negative controls and 15 others who had tested positive for a gammaretrovirus in Lombardi et al. or Lo-Alter. Different teams cultured the virus, looked for antibodies to it, and used PCR to fish for DNA. All labs could use whatever assays they chose.
Only WPI and Ruscetti found intermittent evidence of viruses or antibodies in patients, but they also reported similar numbers of positive responses in the negative controls. What's more, there was no agreement between the two labs on which patient samples tested positive. "What this says, at the very minimum, is that we can't find it reliably in the blood of patients we found it in before," Ruscetti says.
Ruscetti understands why many of his peers think Lombardi et al. and Lo-Alter have now run their scientific course. "It is quite legitimate for those people to say maybe these two papers were wrong," he says. But he emphasizes that many scientific unknowns remain about XMRV. He points to a study in theJournal of Virology in May that intentionally infected macaques with XMRV. It shows that XMRV moved out of the blood of the monkeys but stayed in tissue reservoirs and that antibodies disappeared. "We know nothing about the viral life cycle," he says.


Even looking at something as small as an ant it is pretty clear we live in a world brimming with intelligence. We take it for granted but that's amazing and studying machine learning was a way to try to understand the underlying principles of this surprising fact.
During my undergraduate I was training neural nets in my off time but after a while I realized it became more interesting than my courses. I decided to pursue this full time and in 2015 I completed my PhD with Yoshua Bengio at the University of Montreal. Some of my interests are improving how models learn without explicit supervision and also understanding the fundamentals of learning.
We will cover the inspiring history of deep learning and explain its basic tools, e.g., neural networks as nonlinear function approximators, representing inputs, model architectures (FF, RNN, Conv, Recursive), layers, loss functions, training deep models (backprop, initialisation, minibatches, momentum, batch-norm, sgd, etc). Students can expect to gain an overall view while also learning enough practical knowledge to get started training networks.
What advice would you give to those getting started in machine/deep learning?
If you have an idea, just code it! The beauty of machine learning is that you can try things without asking for permission or money.


text:
title: First Steps with Nitrogen
---

## First Steps

This guide will walk you through everything you need to get up and running your first Nitrogen device. We'll start with the simplest possible device, one that only emits telemetry messages: a thermometer.

### Installation

Nitrogen uses node.js for its client SDK. If you don't have node.js already installed, install it from [http://nodejs.org](http://nodejs.org).

Then use npm to install Nitrogen's command line tool:

`> npm install -g nitrogen-cli`

nitrogen-cli is no fun to type, so the command line tool uses the alias `n2` (short for the most common molecule of Nitrogen in our atmosphere).  Let's make sure it all is installed correctly:

`> n2 help`

This will display the top level set of commands that are available from the command line.

### Checking the service

Before we create a user, let's confirm that we are connected to the correct server with the command line tool.

`> n2 service show`

This will show you to which service you are currently connected. By default this is "host: api.nitrogen.io". If you want to change it, use the n2 command to 'set' individual properties or 'use' a separate service profile all together.

`> n2 service help` for more details

We'd recommend that as a starting user that your use the hosted sandbox service to get started.

### Account Creation

Now, let's create a user account with the hosted Nitrogen service:

`> n2 user create`

This will create an account and store away your credentials with the command line tool. Let's run one more command just to make sure it is all up and working correctly by asking for all of the security principals you have view access to from your account:

`> n2 principal ls`

A [security principal in Nitrogen](/docs/concepts/principals.html) is a unit of authenticates with a Nitrogen service and has a set of permissions associated with it. A principal could be a device, user, application, or even the service itself.

You will likely see just one principal at this point, the user you just created, since you haven't added any devices to the service.

Creating devices and other principals in Nitrogen requires an API key to the Nitrogen service you are connecting that device to. You can get your api key using:

`> n2 apikeys ls`

Setting the environmental variable API_KEY is the usual mechanism for passing this API key through to device applications. Do this now before moving on to [create your first Nitrogen device](thermometer.html).


A workplace that contains a lot of machinery and equipment can pose plenty of threats to personnel. And it's not only during these machines' operation but also when they are being serviced since a lot of them holds energy that can be harmful to humans if accidentally released. For this reason, companies need to employ necessary security protocols at all times.
This is where the safety procedure known as lockout-tagout comes into play. Done especially when machines are being serviced and therefore should not be used, the lockout phase starts with a lock that keeps the energy isolation device in a safe position to keep the machine from accidentally starting up. Tagout means a tag is attached to the machine and informs everyone that it must not be used until the tag remains there.
However, a lot of companies tend to overlook this security need, getting employees unnecessarily exposed to a harmful energy source that could cause severe or even fatal injuries. There are some steps to follow to make sure that safety is applied at all times. Some companies who have adopted an effective lockout-tagout process adopt it to fit their needs, taking into consideration the type of machinery and the risk it carries.
Above anything else, it would be best to determine where the energy source originates. There is usually the standard procedure of starting and stopping it, a basic that the company and designated operators need to be aware of.
After identifying the origin of the energy source and briefing people on how to properly operate it, the next ideal thing will be to assign locks and tags to the controls of the source.
That's the energy that may be residing in the internal parts of the machinery (i.e. springs, hydraulics, or capacitor banks).
It would be best to make sure that it is in an isolated and secure area for proper containment, to prevent hazardous energy from getting accidentally released into the surroundings.
Equipment can bog down and malfunction at a certain point. This can be prevented or minimized with regular maintenance to keep the machines in tiptop condition.
These steps are pretty basic. For other supporting security protocols, it may be best for concerned staff to get proper training so that they will know how to start and shut down machinery. Training is a requirement, and the appropriate certification is needed to make sure that individuals who have taken it is indeed knowledgeable and skilled to handle the task.
Finally, standard protocols on lockout-tagout procedures need to be reviewed at least once a year. This is to ensure adequate employee protection and to prevent accidents that can lead to injury or even loss of life.


Japan must be the only country in the world where museums dedicated to menrui - noodles reach into double figures. The phrase menrui wa amari suki ja nai - "I'm not too keen on noodles" - is heard about as often as a crooked Nagata-cho politician's admission of guilt. Everyone has their favorite restaurant (preferably unknown to anyone else), a favorite dish, a favorite dashi stock or soup or tsuyu dipping sauce, even a favorite convenience store variety.
Back in 2002 I wrote, "Endless discussion fuels a huge media industry. Noodle TV? Only a matter of time". I hadn't envisaged Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, but I wasn't far wrong. For once, however, the hype is justified. Japan's noodles may not match Italy's in variety and scale, but in quality, subtlety, presentation, and sheer style, they know no equal. Here we introduce the most 'Japanese-y' of the genre: buckwheat.
The aristocratic star in the Japanese noodle firmament, soba (buckwheat, or buckwheat noodles) was long thought to be relative newcomer to the archipelago. But the buckwheat plant has recently been discovered in spore form, in burial tombs dating back to the Jomon period.
Oblivious to academe, the general populace slurps on, equating soba with Nagano in general, and Togakushi village in particular, both famed nationally for Shinshu soba. Other major soba-making areas include Iwate Prefecture, with its all-you-can-eat, rather unfortunately named, wanko soba, where noodles are served in small bowls with tsuyu dipping sauce and accompaniments, and Hyogo Prefecture's picturesque castle town Izushi, renowned for sara soba, which is served on many individual plates. Jinbe is the locals' favorite. The tiny village of Tokose, also in rural Hyogo, has just a handful of restaurants producing lovely soba.
Buckwheat's popularity arose not with its delicate aroma or distinctive, subtle, elegant-but-earthy taste, but with its ability to deter starvation. It grows in thin mountain soils where nothing else will, and, with its rapid 75day passage from seed to grain, it made an excellent backup whenever the rice crop failed. It is also packed with nutrients, protein, and heaps of vitamins such as C, B and E.
Soba noodles are traditionally sliced by hand, to make teuchi soba, but as the dough breaks easily when stretched after kneading, a binding agent, usually wheat, is added, or the soba is sliced by machine. A ratio of 20% wheat flour to 80% buckwheat - hachiwari - is said to produce the finest results, though some purists swear by the dark 100 % buckwheat known as juwari soba.
Buckwheat noodles can be eaten hot or cold. Seasonal preferences apply, but cold soba always carries a slightly snooty air. If you first order tennuki which consists of just cold zarusoba, without tempura, which you then order as a separate item, it implies you are a soba snob of the highest order. A rather more humble method is to order dashimaki egg roll and ohiya cold sake first, then the soba of your choice.
Hot soba is served as-is in the bowl. Cold soba comes on a bamboo grid to be dipped in separate cold, strong tsuyu. You add ingredients such as grated daikon giant white radish, kizaminegi sliced spring onion, yamaimo pounded yam, bonito flakes, yuzu the wonderfully fragrant Japanese citron, and, ubiquitously, wasabi. The best establishments will either grate the wasabi in front of you, or allow you to do it yourself.
Popular cold buckwheat soba dishes include zarusoba and morisoba (like zarusoba but without dried nori. Hot favourites are tempura soba, and kamo nanban and tori nanban, featuring duck and chicken respectively, with sliced spring onion. Another is the exquisite sansai soba, whose mountain vegetables perfectly complement a delicate broth and the subtle buckwheat flavour.
Adding a final touch to the proceedings are condiments, generally sansho the gorgeously aromatic Japanese pepper, and also shichimi togarashi seven spice mix. Buckwheat noodle shops, known as sobaya, can be humble mom and pop places, local lunch joints, regional specialists or refined establishments with centuries of pedigree. Half the fun lies in exploring for the ones you like best.


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text:
Blogs Rabbi's Blog
On Horses and Meat
Friday, 22 February, 2013 - 1:00 pm
Posted by Rabbi Mendel Lifshitz
A colleague of mine penned this article about the recent horsemeat scandal in the UK. I thought it was worthy of sharing.
by Rabbi Michoel Green, Chabad of Westborough, MA
A horse is a horse, of course, of course.
But what's in your hamburger? Or should I say, "horse-burger?"
No, I'm not horsing around. Google "UK horsemeat scandal" for a plethora of
recent news items.
Horsemeat has somehow entered the European food supply chain and has been
fraudulently labeled as beef. From the British Isles to Poland, Spain to
Scandinavia, Europe is reeling from shock and disgust over widespread
equine consumption. Horsemeat has been found in a variety of food products,
including lasagna and TV dinners. In fact, many products sold in
supermarkets and restaurants throughout Europe claiming to be 100% cowmeat
-- such as Angus hamburgers and meatballs -- were in fact entirely horse.
Where's the beef, you ask? That's a good question. No one's sure what
happened to it, and how it got replaced with horsemeat. Interestingly, lots
of pork was found illegally marked as beef too, but for some strange
reason, no outcry was heard. Europeans must have a soft spot for swine.
(Donkey meat has allegedly been found too, and the list may be growing.)
And now, the widening scandal is spreading to Asia and the Wild Middle
East. Will it soon be "Giddeyup Morsi?"
It's not just about mislabeling and deceiving consumers. It's also a public
health concern. Apparently, a drug called phenylbutazone, also known as
"bute," has been found in numerous horses slaughtered in the UK, and is
thought to have entered to human food chain. Used as an anti-inflammatory
painkiller for sporting horses, bute has been banned for animals intended
for eventual human consumption, as it is may be harmful in large
concentrations.
Do you think your meat is safer here in the US? I remember back in the
seventies when a variety of non-bovine meat was allegedly found in "beef"
dishes in fastfood chains across the US. Just last year, US consumers awoke
to news reports of so-called "pink slime" in our food chain, labeled as
"beef." Although pink slime, officially known as "lean finely textured
beef," does come from cow, it does not necessarily come from muscle tissue,
what one would normally call "meat," but from cartilage, connective tissue
and sinew. Sounds kind of slimy to me.
As far as the current horsemeat scare is concerned, no horsey surprises
have been found in the US food supply just yet, but that might just be
because there are no horse abattoirs in the US. Americans aren't
particularly fond of horses for eating, but just for riding, according to a
recent "Gallop" poll (just kidding).
But all horse jokes aside, how can you be sure what you're eating, anyway?
Can you trust the USDA (or what ever the British version is) to ensure that
you're actually getting what you think you're buying? Well, some folks
think that government quality control is infallible, but I say they're
backing the wrong horse. And thanks to relying on Euro-govt "quality
control," the wrong horse has ended up on their very own dinner plates.
Society has always told us not to put the proverbial cart before the horse.
But for crying out loud, don't put the horse into your shopping cart.
I know for some, fast food and frozen dinners are an excuse to "eat like a
horse." But for goodness steak, don't eat the horse!!
Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to beat a dead horse or anything. Nor am I
anti-government. I certinaly appreciate the USDA's efforts to keep us safe,
and far be it from me to look the gift horse in the mouth. But all I'm
saying is, we cannot rely on government agencies alone to certify what we
put into our bellies. Trusting government to keep us healthy might just be
a modern Trojan Horse. And health isn't just bodily. There's spiritual
health too. If you're Jewish, to ensure maximal spiritual and bodily
health, there's only one way to go: kosher.
Several years ago, I had a discussion with a friend about why to only buy
strictly kosher meat. After explaining the criteria of kosher animals, the
rules of *shechita* (ritual slaughter) and koshering process, and the
spiritual benefit of keeping kosher, I also explained that kosher meat
requires constant supervision of a *mashgiach *(a reliable, Torah-observant
Jewish individual who serves as kosher supervisor) until it is packaged,
sealed and labeled. We then discussed other foods like dairy and fish that
require *hashgacha t'midit*, constant supervision, in order for the
consumer to be ensured that they are indeed kosher.
My friend was sceptical. "What are the chances of pig or horse milk
entering the human food supply?" he scoffed.
Quite frankly, after last week's news, nothing would surprise me.
From a kosher perspective, however, no one should be alarmed about the
horsemeat scandal. You see, non-kosher beef is every bit as *treif *(unkosher)
as horse, ham or donkey.
If you buy kosher, the *hechsher* (Rabbinic seal of approval) vouches for
the authenticity and kashrut of the beef you're buying. And if you don't
buy kosher, well, then you may just as well be eating horsemeat anyway,
from a kosher perspective, at least. So quit beefing about it.
We have a giant supermarket here in Northborough that claims to sells
kosher meat in its deli. The only problem is that there is no kosher
butcher, and the kosher meat is removed from its original packaging, cut up
and put on display. The supermarket's butcher does have seperate knives and
cutting boards that he claims only to use for the kosher products. But
alas, according to the strict laws of kashrut, due to its lack of *
hashgacha *supervision, the so-called "kosher" deli meat is 100% *NOT *
kosher.
I've discussed this with numerous local Jews. Many people have argued that
while it may not be authentically kosher, it's (sic) "close enough for me."
Well, to this I say: "close" only counts in horseshoes.
Bottom line: if you really want to avoid horse for your main course, you
just gotta just adhere to a higher source -- the Torah, perforce.
It's time to beef up our kosher observance, folks.
Ok, some of you might be thinking: "Hey come on, rabbi! Get off your high
horse. You can buy kosher meat galore in Jewishly-saturated neighborhoods
like Brookline or Newton, but we live out here in horse country. No kosher
butcher here for of miles."
To you I say, whoa! Hold your horses. How do you know there's nothing
kosher nearby? Have you checked in your local supermarkets? You may be
pleasantly surprised. If they don't stock it, maybe if you apply pressure,
they might agree to carry it. I have recently found kosher poultry and beef
in the most unlikely of places, like Walmart, Trader Joes and Stop 'n Shop.
If there's a will, there's a way. Throughout our long history, Jews have
managed to keep kosher in the most remote and exotic of locations, from the
Wild West to the Far East, in the best of times and the worst of times.
Certainly in twenty-first century suburban USA with an all-time high
percentage of food items sold in average supermarkets being kosher, one can
put forth the effort and manage to keep kosher.
No one ever said being Jewish is easy. So stop kvetching and experience the
joys of kosher living!
It doesn't have to be "all or nothing." One can begin keeping kosher
observances gradually, "yiddle by yiddle," as they say.
A Jewish family struggling to find their comfort level in Jewish observance
once confided to their rabbi: "We keep a strictly kosher kitchen, but we
sometimes eat out..."
Replied the rabbi: "Then you have kosher pots and a *treife boich!" *(an
un-kosher belly).
When told the same comment by a congregant, Rabbi H. Fogelman of Worcester,
MA, once responded : "Then I guess you're dishes will go to heaven."
Sigh. I guess you can lead a horse to the water...
But in all seriousness, Jewish observance doesn't have to be 100% or zero.
It's not just "Yea or Neigh."
Take baby steps. Start by cutting pork, seafood, and shall I say,
horsemeat. Then begin to seperate between dairy and meat. Then eliminate *
treife *chickens and beef altogether. In short time, you'll be champing at
the bit to "go kosher" entirely.
Don't feel you're too set in your ways to make a change. In Judaism, it's
never too late to change horses midstream.
Not surprisingly, in the wake of the horsemeat scandal, kosher meat sales
are surging in the UK (according to an
article<http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/02/19/kosher-meat-sales-surge-in-uk-in-wake-of-horse-meat-scandal/>
Algemeiner.com I read today). Here in the US, kosher consumption has been
on the rise for years. According to a recent statistic I read, a whopping
85% percent of kosher consumers in the US aren't even Jewish! Everyone's
catching on.
So whether you're pedestrian or quedestrian or equestrian, trot over to
your local kosher food store and buy Kosher.
If you're a novice, gallop over to a reliable website to learn the rules of
kosher, like this
one<http://www.chabadhebrewschool.us/generic_cdo/aid/113424/jewish/Kosher.htm>
Better yet, visit your local rabbi for kosher instruction. It's always
better to hear it straight from the horse's -- I mean rabbi's -- mouth.
And while you're at it, why not prance over to shul and attend a crash
course on the laws of kosher (but please don't crash on the way, specially
if you're horseback).
As for me, I'll continue to whinny until I'm hoarse, "Keep Kosher!"
PS: all this horse talk reminds us to get ready for the two upcoming Jewish
holidays: Purim and Passover. Purim -- Mordechai led on king's royal
stallion. Passover -- don't forget the horseradish.
Comments on: On Horses and Meat
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Rabbi Mendel Lifshitz was born in Brooklyn and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition to living in the Midwest, the East Coast, the West Coast, and Florida, he has spent several years living abroad in France, South Africa and Israel. He has traveled extensively to over 35 countries, often on assignment for Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters.
Rabbi Lifshitz moved to Boise with his wife Esther in 2004. They count raising their eight children as one of the great joys of life.
Their appreciation for wonderful quality of life, friendly environment and great outdoors make Idaho a natural fit.
With a great passion for teaching, sharing and learning - coupled with their dedication to the individual - they have become a critical asset for the Idaho Jewish community.
Be Within, Stay Above
Double Miracle?
Outnumbered?
Defining Ourselves
A Mamma's Marching Orders
Kindness to Strangers
Does it All Boil Down to Motive?
Are You an Influencer?
Road Win
Tough Beginnings
Write it Down!