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Trump blames mass uprising in Chile on "foreign efforts"
US President Donald Trump blamed the historic mass protests that have gripped Chile for the past two weeks on "foreign efforts" and declared his support for the right-wing government of Chilean President Sebastián Piñera's attempts to "restore order" in the South American country.
Mass protest in Santiago [Credit: Flickr user Rafael Edwards]
The White House press secretary reported that Trump made the statements in a phone conversation with Piñera on Wednesday after the right-wing Chilean president announced the cancelation of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit that had been scheduled for November 16-17. Piñera also called off the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP25, which was set for early December.
The cancellation of such summits because of an uncontrollable social upheaval is unprecedented. The principal reason for the Chilean government's decision was precisely its difficulties in "restoring order", despite the unleashing of savage repression, including the declaration of a state of emergency and curfew and the deployment of combat-equipped troops in the streets for the first time since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship.
While Trump praised the Chilean regime for attempting to "peacefully restore national order", at least 20 people have died, several hundred have been wounded, including by live fire, and there have been reports of "disappearances", rape and torture at the hands of the army, the paramilitary Carabineros and other elements of Chile's security forces. The repression has only swelled the ranks of the demonstrators.
Attempts by the Piñera government to appease the mass protests by rescinding the state of emergency and curfew, offering insignificant economic concessions and dismissing cabinet members have fallen on deaf ears, with strikes and mass demonstrations continuing.
As late as last Thursday, Chile's foreign minister, Teodoro Ribera, announced, "We're going ahead with the planning of both summits, logically adjusting ourselves to the circumstances, but there is nothing that could justify not having APEC."
The next day, however, the government's position shifted in the face of a protest that brought over one million people into the streets of Santiago, with hundreds of thousands more participating in demonstrations in cities across the country. The protests, the largest in the country's history, have been accompanied by a continuous wave of strikes by truckers, teachers, miners, dockworkers, public employees and virtually every section of the Chilean working class.
What began as spontaneous protests against a hike in public transit fares escalated into a generalized uprising against conditions of stark social inequality. This was combined with demands for a reckoning with the crimes carried out by the Chilean bourgeoisie, both under the blood-soaked dictatorship that ruled for 17 years after a CIA-backed coup in 1973, and in the systematic looting of the country by foreign and domestic capital ever since.
In addition to concerns that the government could not assure the security of the some 21 heads of state who were set to descend upon Santiago amid the popular upheavals, the Chilean government also feared that their presence—and particularly that of Trump—would only provoke further unrest. It was also reported that some of the participants were beginning to back out, including Japan and Russia. Chile's government feared that more would follow suit, having no desire to witness the masses in the streets in protest against the same conditions of social inequality that prevail in their countries.
The cancellation has disrupted Washington's plans for Trump and China's Xi Jinping to sign what the US administration had described as a "substantial phase one deal" on trade. While the deal was partial and very limited, the Trump White House had hoped to use its signing in Santiago to claim an economic victory and distract from the growing political crisis surrounding the impeachment inquiry.
US and Chinese officials were left scrambling to find another venue for a bilateral meeting between Trump and Xi for signing the deal. According to Reuters, US officials were suggesting either Alaska or Hawaii, while Beijing was proposing Macau.
The cancelation of the COP25 climate summit took the UN agency organizing it completely by surprise. Officials said they learned of the decision only when Piñera announced it Wednesday in his speech from the La Moneda presidential palace.
This will mark the second time that the climate gathering has been moved. In November of last year, the Brazilian government rescinded its hosting of the summit claiming financial reasons. That decision came one month before the inauguration of the fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro, whose foreign minister has dismissed climate change as a "cultural Marxist" conspiracy aimed at weakening the West.
Trump's attempt to attribute the mass movement of millions of Chilean workers and youth to "foreign efforts" reflects the absurd propaganda of the most fascistic layers of the Chilean and Latin American ruling classes, who have claimed that Cuban and Venezuelan "saboteurs" had been sent into Chile. It is also an indication of the police state response with which not only he, but the US ruling establishment and both its political parties, will respond to the inevitable outbreak of similar social explosions within the United States itself.
Chile paralyzed by third national strike amid mounting threats of dictatorship
Strike wave in Peru stokes ruling class fears of Chilean "contagion"
Protests in Chile continue in opposition to promises of new Constitution
Pabloites prepare new betrayal of the Chilean working class


As you know, our programs describe how life is a moment to moment endeavor. In other words, we are always at a (thinking) fork in the road. If we see it is thought, we can head toward curiosity, something new and unexpected. If we don't see it as thought, we may innocently stay in a reaction, and who knows how long our experience might last. Both experiences are totally normal, and we all forget that we're living in an illusion all the time.
Forgetting is what life is, but the more we know about the principles and the more we surround ourselves with people who know them, the more likely we will be regularly reminded.
This month's newsletter features a story by one of our recent program participants that illustrates this phenomenon perfectly. We hope it helps you remember the forks in the road more often.
For those of us in the central part of the United States, this winter was full of snowstorms. One of them occurred the same day I had a special surprise date planned for my wife to celebrate our Anniversary.
I reserved a room downtown for the evening, made dinner reservations at one of her favorite hotels, and planned all sorts of small surprises to make her feel special. I asked her to select an outfit for the evening, so she knew we were going out, but she had no other information. She was so excited to see what I planned!
The morning of our date, I had a blast running around town getting the last minute things on my list. Normally a trip to Wal-Mart does not bring a smile to my face, but today I was excited to be there. This change in perspective was definitely my thinking at work.
The light bulb went off in my head. I was with my beautiful wife. I could spend the evening grumpy over things I could not control (the snow and traffic), or I could enjoy her company and celebrate our special day at a slower pace as we plodded along toward our destination.
We had so much fun reminiscing about old times and planning new adventures during our slow, cautious drive. We also decided that the snow and the extra obstacle the weather provided made the day even more memorable and special.
Had my wife not pointed out my mood, I'm sure I would have stayed in my grumpy state of mind and my thinking would have ruined a very memorable date. Instead, my insight training helped me shift my thinking and we enjoyed the 2-hours it took to traverse 8 miles into the city, laughing most of the way!


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Amergin Glúingel ("white knees") (also spelled Amhairghin Glúngheal) or Glúnmar ("big knee") is a bard and judge for the Milesians in the Irish Mythological Cycle. He was appointed Chief Ollam of Ireland by his two brothers the kings of Ireland. A number of poems attributed to Amergin are part of the Milesian mythology.

One of the seven sons of Míl Espáine, he took part in the Milesian conquest of Ireland from the Tuatha Dé Danann, in revenge for their great-uncle Íth, who had been treacherously killed by the three kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht and Mac Gréine. They landed at the estuary of Inber Scéne, named after Amergin's wife Scéne, who had died at sea. The three queens of the Tuatha Dé Danann, (Banba, Ériu and Fódla), gave, in turn, permission for Amergin and his people to settle in Ireland. Each of the sisters required Amergin to name the island after each of them, which he did: Ériu is the origin of the modern name Éire, while Banba and Fódla are used as poetic names for Ireland, much as Albion is for Great Britain.

The Milesians had to win the island by engaging in battle with the three kings, their druids and warriors. Amergin acted as an impartial judge for the parties, setting the rules of engagement. The Milesians agreed to leave the island and retreat a short distance back into the ocean beyond the ninth wave, a magical boundary. Upon a signal, they moved toward the beach, but the druids of the Tuatha Dé Danann raised a magical storm to keep them from reaching land. However, Amergin sang an invocation calling upon the spirit of Ireland that has come to be known as The Song of Amergin, and he was able to part the storm and bring the ship safely to land. There were heavy losses on all sides, with more than one major battle, but the Milesians carried the day.  The three kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann were each killed in single combat by three of the surviving sons of Míl, Eber Finn, Érimón and Amergin.
In her Gods and Fighting Men (1904), Augusta, Lady Gregory translates The Song of Amergin as such:

Amergin then divided the land between his two brothers, Eber taking the southern half of Ireland, Eremon the north. Within the year Érimón defeated Éber in battle and gained the kingship of the whole island, and two years later killed Amergin in another battle. Local tradition in Drogheda locates his burial-place under Millmount.

Some of the early medieval Welsh poems on mythological themes attributed to the 6th century poet Taliesin in the Book of Taliesin have similarities to those attributed to Amergin.

References

External links
 The Song of Amergin
 The Song of Amergin Film

Early Irish literature
Mythological cycle
Druids

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Caroline Stanbury: "Ladies of London" Costars "Ganged Up" on Me This Season
The British are coming ... and they're bringing the drama!
On Tuesday, Bravo's loyal subjects will travel across the pond to catch up with their favorite UK socialites and American expats for another season of extravagance, glamour and, of course, fireworks on "Ladies of London."
Ahead of tonight's Season 3 premiere, we caught up with our favorite star of the reality series, Caroline Stanbury, who spoke candidly about her relationships with the other cast members.
While Annabelle Neilson will not be returning for a third season, two of Caroline's longtime friends -- soon-to-be ex sister-in-law, Sophie Stanbury, and friend Adela King -- will join the ladies as permanent cast members.
And though the women join the show as Caroline's buddies, it doesn't mean things stay that way. In fact, Stanbury tells toofab's Sonali Lodhia she actually had a falling-out with both women, who she says she "really thought would have been my biggest champions."
Viewers first got to know the other Stanbury last season, when Sophie appeared on a few episodes as Caroline's sister-in-law. However, this season finds Sophie in the midst of a divorce from Caroline's brother, Alex Stanbury, leading to a strain on the two women's relationship.
"Sophie is going through some stuff at the moment," Stanbury tells toofab, adding that she's backed away from Sophie. "It's my brother and at the end of the day the lines are blurred."
As for the new blonde on the scene, the British beauty explains that she's "known Adela for years and years and years. Right now [our friendship] is not in the best place, but it's interesting; it blows hot and cold." She calls the fall-out between them "the hardest one."
When asked about a reconciliation, Caroline graciously states, "Never say never, I mean time always heals. I'm not around [she currently splits her time between London and Dubai], I'm not really interacting with them right now. I'm sure it will be fine; I just want my space."
"They're very clique-y," she adds of her costars. "These girls have just discovered each other and when the shows on or off they just want to live and breathe each other and that's just not what I want to do."
Caroline also discusses her ongoing tiff with cast member Julie Montagu, explaining, "Julie and I always get on better as soon as the cameras are gone. But this season was the hardest I've had with Julie, definitely. She grew that set of balls I wanted her to get!"
"She wants everybody's approval and I really felt this season that her ultimate goal was to just turn everybody against [me], she wanted everything I had down to Luke, which I found really, really, really difficult filming," she adds.
"I think that the girls forgot -- because I don't ask for their help and I'm not interested in getting cuddles from them all -- but I had just lost my business and I wasn't as strong as I normally am, and I was coping with legal stuff," Stanbury continues. "They are so absorbed in taking me down at this stage that I think they can't see what I'm going through. I think they all ganged up a lot on me this season and Julie was at the helm."
In the midst of this drama, there are still fun moments to come. Caroline speaks highly of her friendships with her other cast mates Caroline Fleming, Marissa Hermer and, especially, Juliet Angus.
"We just have fun together. I think that Juliet is so misunderstood on the show because as I've said many times it's not what she says but how she delivers it," Stanbury says of Angus. "But she's so much fun and such a good laugh to have around and so easy to travel with."
"A this stage in my life you've got so many problems and different things to go through that when you find someone who is easy and you just have a good time with, you hold onto that person," she adds. "And she is just brilliant fun."
See Stanbury and her costars in action when "Ladies of London" premieres tonight on Bravo!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


As a Pride 365 Friend you will help the LGBTQ+ community in the National Capital Region celebrate, educate, support, and inspire our multi-faceted communities to grow and preserve our history and protect our rights for current and future generations. Simply make a minimum donation of $5 p/month, or increase to $10 p/month and receive a complementary Pride themed t-shirt and discounts on select Pride events.
Join the Pride Legacy Circle by making an annual gift of $1000 or more.
Why Become Pride 365 Friend?
Keep the legacy of Capital Pride alive and relevant for future generations, as it was when we first came out and experienced the transforming impact of coming together as a community to celebrate Pride.
Elevate the voices of the LGBTQ+ community and our supporters.
Unify the LGBTQ+ community and our supporters in a common celebration of our history.
Increase awareness and educational opportunities, building a base for the future.
Various benefits are available based on your donation level.
Individual donors at this level benefit from unique experiences and additional event opportunities based on their funding commitment level.


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Q: ¿Como puedo construir un arreglo con los contenidos de multiples etiquetas HTML con la misma clase? La cuestion es la siguiente: en mi documento HTML tengo multiples etiquetas P  con la clase precio, ejemplo <p class="precio"> 400 </p>. Y quiero construir un arreglo que contenga los valores de todos esos parrafos.
la intención de crear este arreglo es para poder filtrarlos con javascript mediante filter() y hacer que los parrafos desaparezcan o aparezcan si cumplen con x condición

A: Lo primero sería utilizar el document.querySelectorAll el cual puedes seleccionar una clase y te devolverá un array.
A continuación recorres ese array y guardas en otro array el contenido de cada uno de los elementos
var contenidos=new Array();
//Aquí ya te devuelve un array
var seleccion=document.querySelectorAll(".precio");
//Aquí recorres el array
for(item of seleccion){
    //Aquí guardas el contenido del elemento en un array
    contenidos.push(item.innerHTML);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Women's rights NGOs including anti-violence centres (AVCs) and shelters are at the front line of supporting women to overcome violence and move on with their lives. 17 AVCs from 6 European countries took part in the EU-funded WeGO! project and piloted new tools focused on the economic empowerment of women who have been victims of IPV.
AVCs – many of which are NGOs – are key actors in the provision of support services to IPV survivors and are at the forefront of knowledge development in this field. AVCs have different levels of expertise and knowledge and benefit from EU support for projects like WeGO!
Provide an agreed definition of economic empowerment support services, ensuring the inclusion of this services in minimum standards of provision of services for survivors of gender-based violence, including IPV. Consultation with anti-violence centres and relevant civil society organisations should be ensured in this process.
Assure adequate EU funding for transnational projects combating violence against women should be secured in the framework of the current debate on the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework.
WeGO! also makes additional policy recommendations on data collection, childcare, secure housing, network-building and temporary income support in its brochure: "Women's economic independence: a way out of violence". Finally, WeGO! calls on the EU to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women.


You don't want to miss this upgraded end unit cul-de-sac home situated in arguably the best location in the complex. As you approach this exquisite home you immediately notice the privacy and well maintained exterior complete with private 2 car direct access garage. As you enter the front door the custom stone flooring leads you to the atrium-like entry showcasing the vaulted ceilings. Walking up the main staircase leads you to the single level home abound with natural light shining through the many windows with spectacular city views. The living room is wide open and features a built-in entertainment area, sunken conversation area with floor to ceiling fireplace, and the vaulted ceilings add to the spacious feeling of the home. In the front of the home is a full sized open dining room next to the breakfast nook with sliding glass doors leading to your private patio with even better views. The kitchen has ample storage space via the custom cabinets and includes newer appliances. The bedrooms are all very good sized - especially the master suite with a gorgeous en-suite bathroom. This home is unique in that it has a patio double the size of most other homes in the community with a stunning raised planter bed and multiple sitting areas to take in the lush surroundings and soaring trees providing shade and the natural aesthetic. Walking distance to shopping, schools, and hiking trails - this is a home you don't want to miss.


Nanuet Senior High School is located in Nanuet, New York. Scholarships for students attending Nanuet Senior High School can be found in our scholarship database. If you are searching for scholarships for students attending a different high school in Nanuet, visit the Nanuet directory.


The Cayuga County Office of Tourism has been recognized as a leader in New York State's tourism industry with the NYSTIA Tourism Excellence Award for Visitor Service in the public sector. NYSTIA Tourism Excellence Award winners are selected based on demonstrated commitment, leadership and accomplishment in travel and tourism. The Tourism Excellence Award for Visitor Service goes to the tourism promotion agency, community, or attraction that has worked strategically to welcome visitors more effectively. "The NYSTIA Tourism Excellence Awards celebrate and reward private and public-sector people and organizations that go above and beyond with their marketing campaigns and strategies, producing outstanding results that deserve to be recognized in a statewide forum and we are very proud to be included in this group of tourism leaders," said Meg Vanek, executive director of the Cayuga County Office of Tourism. The award will be presented at the NYSTIA Annual Meeting Awards brunch on October 19 at the Great Escape Lodge in Lake George.
Cayuga County Tourism's online training program was designed to educate anyone that interacts with visitors about Cayuga County's unique tourism assets as well as sales, customer service, and diversity training. To learn more about the program call the Cayuga County Office of Tourism at 315-255-1658.


2018 Topps On Demand Star Wars: Rebels Finale says good-bye to the animated series. It's a mini set that was available initially for two weeks on the Topps website.
Each comes with a full base set of 20 cards, a parallel and an autograph. The original cost for each package was $50.
The base set highlights key characters from the show. Parallels come in Blue, Purple (/10), Red (/5) and Gold (1/1).
Autographs have a similar checklist, although not everyone signed. There are also a couple, Ashley Eckstein and Tom Baker, whose characters aren't in the main set. Autograph parallels come in Purple (/10), Red (/5) and Gold (1/1). That said, it appears that not all signers are available at all levels.
The 2018 Topps On Demand Star Wars: Rebels Series Finale print run is limited to those that were ordered. In this case, 461 sets.
Not all autographs appear to be available at all levels.
Oh look, a picture of a card with an autograph on it. Who wants to bet that the ones sent out are stickers?


Who Made the Church Chair? Obviously somebody has to make the chairs you happen to be considering for your church. Try to find out who that really is. There are numerous domestic chair dealers and distributors who have nothing to do with actually producing/manufacturing of worship seating. Rather, industrial facilities in China and somewhere else contact them and ask them to sell their chairs. The factories are trying to move their very own chairs so they allow the chair dealers and distributors to private label those chairs in any way they would like. The domestic dealers and distributors will then market those cathedral chairs in such a way as to give the impression they are actually generating the chairs when in most cases they are just purchasing them and reselling them. So how does your church discover if they happen to be working with an actual domestic-based supplier of church chairs or a reseller for an independent international factory? Our recommendation is always to ask questions such as these: Who in fact owns the tooling that made these church chair? Who do the molds are part of? Can you provide a copy in the quality control process? How long have you been making this same seat? Can you provide the names of some church customers who have purchased this same chair during those times? If answers to these questions and others seem evasive and forced, chances are the church chairs you are considering are actually produced by a great intentionally hidden entity.
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Susan Fowler Rigetti became a whistleblower Sunday when she published a blog post describing the sexist work culture and oppressive management style she experienced while at Uber.
Since then, other women stepped forward with similar stories and the company's investors are now demanding action. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick held an all-hands meeting Tuesday, in which he promised change throughout the company, and announced that he'd enlisted former US Attorney General Eric Holder with conducting an investigation into the matter.
This tweet is the first time Fowler has tweeted since she thanked people for their support shortly after posting her original story.
I am so humbled by and thankful for the overwhelming support I've received today. Wow. So many thanks to you all.
My twitter and gmail apps are longer working thanks to all the messages! It will take me a while to reply to everyone but I will try!
Fowler's original tweet about her story received 22,000 retweets, and set off a furious news cycle about her claims.
Over the last week, her name's become synonymous not just with alleged company-wide gender discrimination at Uber, but within startup culture at-large.
Uber itself has even named Fowler in emails to users, in response to customers who specifically referenced the latest allegations when cancelling their accounts. The number of account-deletion requests following the publication of Fowler's blog post have been low, according to an Uber spokesperson.
Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment when asked whether they have been in touch with Fowler directly. If they do, we'll update the story here.


Fill me in about the Rosenberg site, I smell a hoax (finishing off birthday wine here).
The Rosenbergs are not so much a hoax, more of a parallel universe, a much better universe run by violin virtuosi. Some of the Rosenbergs' exploits bear an uncanny resemblance to the real-world activities of the violinist Jon Rose.


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Q: Show the sequence ${n^m + 1}\over {n^{m+1} + 1}$ with $m \in \mathbb{R}$ is decreasing Consider the sequence $\{a_n\}_1^\infty$ such that $ a_n = $  ${n^m + 1}\over {n^{m+1} + 1}$ and $m \in \mathbb{R}$
EDIT: This is incorrect for $m < -1$, Then add the condition $m \geq -1$
I want to show this sequence is monotonically decreasing.
This is not homework, I've seen many specific examples of this however and graphed many cases, and I'd like to show this for the general case.
I've tried considering the continuous case and taking the derivative, using the quotient rule I get a square in the denominator, and since I'm only interested in the sign of the derivative I can throw away the denominator in the quotient rule, I then have:
$mx^{m-1}(x^{m+1} + 1) - (m+1)x^m(x^m + 1)$
Plugging in $x = 1$ gives a negative result for the derivative showing the continuous function is decreasing at that point, so I get a feeling my "conjecture" is correct.
Not sure where I can go from here, and if there's a simpler way without going to the continuous case.
Expanding the brackets didn't help much either

A: $$\frac{n^m + 1}{n^{m+1} + 1} \geq \frac{(n+1)^m + 1}{(n+1)^{m+1} + 1} \Leftrightarrow \\
(n^m + 1)((n+1)^{m+1} + 1) \geq ((n+1)^m + 1)(n^{m+1} + 1)\Leftrightarrow \\
n^m (n+1)^{m+1} + n^m +(n+1)^{m+1} + 1\geq (n+1)^m n^{m+1} + (n+1)^m + n^{m+1} + 1 \Leftrightarrow \\
n^m (n+1)^{m}  +n(n+1)^{m} \geq n^m (n-1) \Leftrightarrow \\
 (n+1)^{m}  +n(1+\frac{1}{n})^{m} \geq  (n-1)$$
As $m \geq -1$ and the exponentials $(n+1)^x$ and $(1+\frac{1}{n})^{x}$ are increasing, we have
$$(n+1)^{m}  +n(1+\frac{1}{n})^{m} \geq (n+1)^{-1}  +n(1+\frac{1}{n})^{-1} = \frac{1}{n+1}+\frac{n^2}{n+1}> \frac{n^2-1}{n+1}=n-1 $$

A: Take
$$
f(x) = \frac{x^m + 1}{x^{m+1} + 1}
$$
When you differentiate, your numerator should be
$$
(x^{m+1} +1)mx^{m-1} - (x^m+1)(m+1)x^m = -x^{m-1}(x^{m+1} + (m+1)x - m)
$$
Now, $x^m + (m+1)x - m > 0$ for large values of $x$, so $a_n$ is eventually decreasing. However, a little checking with small values of $x$ should tell you that it is decreasing everywhere.


On September 17, Christie's New York present The Art of Nandalal Bose, Abanindranath Tagore, and Rabindranath Tagore: The Collection of Supratik Bose, a single-owner sale of 81 exceptional modern Indian works of art. These works are coming to the auction market for the very first time from the collection of Supratik Bose, Nandalal Bose's grandson. As a retired architect and officer of Harvard University, Mr. Bose's collection also includes works by Rabindranath Tagore, the father of arts education in India, and Abanindranath Tagore, his nephew and fellow artist. The depth of his collection reflects Supratik Bose's heritage and passion for early Indian modernism.
Born in Bihar, Nandalal was one of many artists who wanted to revive Indian art after centuries of British influence. Over the next few decades, Bose experimented with a variety of Indian, Japanese and Chinese techniques and his works intersected with many of the cultural and political movements of his time such as Pan-Asianism and the Swadeshi movement led by Mohandas K. Gandhi. It was his portrayal of rural India that captured Gandhi's attention. Although Bose's art was not overtly political, Gandhi saw in the images a traditional India that reflected his nonviolent movement. To mark the 1930 occasion of Gandhi's arrest for protesting the British tax on salt, Bose created a black on white linocut of Gandhi walking with a staff. It became the most iconic image of India's nationalist movement. Gandhi later commissioned Bose to create posters for the 1938 Indian National Congress meeting in Haripura. Four of these posters will be offered, including the Bull Handler, which is the sale's cover lot.
Bose studied under Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951) and was deeply influenced by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), with whom he travelled to China and Japan in 1924. Through art and education, Bose made a unique contribution to the cultural regeneration and independence of India and received many awards including the Padma Vibhushan in 1954 and was honored with the title of Deshikottama. In 2008, the San Diego Museum of Art in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art, New Delhi organized the first major retrospective exhibition for Nandalal Bose outside of Asia, bringing his works to an American audience for the first time.
Together these three artistic geniuses sought freedom and independence not just for their art, but for their country. Their life and work embodies the universal spirit of liberation – of the mind, the body, and the brush – and is a testament to the boundless power of art in uniting humanity. Among the sale's highlights is a handwritten poem by Rabindranath Tagore which was published in Gitanjali, for which Tagore became the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1913. There is also a lovely collection of postcards shared between Abanindranath Tagore and Bose that speaks of their friendship, the intimacy and admiration they had for each other. Works by Abanindranath Tagore, such as his captivating Siva- Simantini demonstrate the seamless existence of the past and present in modern Indian art.


Semiotics works by identifying links between deep emotional consumer needs and the signals used in branding, advertising and other media to convey them. It looks from the outside-in, exploring the context in which consumers operate, looking at the culture which influences consumers. In this way it can access insights which are not directly available to consumers themselves.
If you get the symbolism right in your communications, you can achieve your desired impact on people's emotions – even if they are indifferent or hostile to the content of your message. For example, in the last US Presidential Election Barack Obama sold a reforming liberal agenda to a conservative US electorate by tapping into a personal transformative religious discourse that they recognised and understood. The result: an unlikely election victory.
But get the symbolism wrong and you'll fail to have the desired effect on people's emotions. Your communication could even have a counterproductive effect. Captain Bligh is a notorious example of this. Bligh was not the cruel ogre depicted in films about the Bounty. He was in fact very enlightened for a sea captain of his time. But his enlightened outlook meant that he failed to observe a whole series of traditional navy practices which he saw as superstitious and failed to take the appropriate paternalistic tone with crewmen when giving orders. The result: mutiny!
In marketing, semiotics provides an excellent way of looking at the visual aspects of marketing connected with brands, marketing communications and product design. It is a highly effective way of providing context in a shifting environment. It can be used for generating hypotheses for testing in qualitative research and can provide a rich source of branding and advertising symbols that can be used to brief and inspire creative development work.


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by	Ploonu - August 24, 2020
MIAMI — The Miami Dolphins will allow up to 13,000 socially distanced fans to attend their home opener against Buffalo on Sept. 20, a decision that divided political leaders and upset Bills coach Sean McDermott.
The same plan will be followed for the University of Miami's football home opener against UAB at the Dolphins' stadium on Sept. 10.
Crowd size will be about 20% of the stadium's 65,326-seat capacity, with the limitation imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Groups of spectators will be spaced 6 feet apart.
Fifteen of the NFL's 32 teams have ruled out spectators for the start of the season. The Dolphins are one of at least eight teams hoping to have a limited number of spectators, and many teams haven't announced plans.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez were scheduled to attend a news conference Monday at the Dolphins' stadium to discuss the team's plan, which they approved.
South Florida remains a hot spot for the virus, and not all reaction to the Dolphins' plan was favorable. U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala, who served as the secretary of health and human services during the Clinton administration, expressed concern about the safety of those attending games.
"It is very difficult to open anything when you have community spread," said Shalala, former president of the University of Miami. "We still have community spread in South Florida. So the kinds of precautions that need to be taken are extraordinary, and I think it's going to be very difficult to do. … There is no question that it's risky."
McDermott wasn't happy that some NFL teams will have fans and others won't. As of now, the Bills don't plan to allow spectators at their home games.
"I think it's honestly ridiculous that there will be on the surface what appears to be a playing field that's like that, inconsistently across the league with the different away stadiums," McDermott said.
According to the Dolphins' 46-page plan for crowds, fans and stadium employees will be required to wear masks when not eating or drinking. Tailgating will be prohibited.
There will be staggered gate entry, with fans encouraged to enter at a designated time listed on game tickets. The stadium will provide additional points of entry and exit to help avoid bottlenecks, and upgraded metal detectors will allow for faster processing. New bathroom faucets, toilets and soap and paper towel dispensers will require no contact.
Season-ticket holders will have first priority to purchase tickets based on their tenure.
"When we started the process back in March of exploring what a socially distanced stadium could look like, we made the health and safety of everyone the first priority, knowing that if we felt that we couldn't make it safe, we simply wouldn't have fans," Dolphins vice chairman and CEO Tom Garfinkel said in a statement.
"We're happy that our elected officials recognize the attention to detail and diligence that we've put into creating a safe environment and that they made the decision to move forward with a 13,000-capacity stadium at this time."
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29731328/dolphins-allow-13000-fans-home-opener
Weezy has penned another track for the Packers. Continue reading…
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Das Naturschutzgebiet Silberkuhle ist ein 37,27 ha großes Naturschutzgebiet (NSG) südwestlich vom Dorf Halbhusten im Stadtgebiet von Drolshagen im Kreis Olpe in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Es wurde 2008 vom Kreistag mit dem Landschaftsplan Nr. 4 Wenden – Drolshagen ausgewiesen. Das NSG grenzt direkt an die Stadt- und Kreisgrenze. Auf dem Gebiet des Oberbergischen Kreises in der Gemeinde Reichshof grenzt direkt das Naturschutzgebiet Puhlbruch/Silberkuhle an.

Gebietsbeschreibung
Bei dem NSG handelt es sich um einen Quellmoorkomplexe mit seltenen und gefährdeten Tier- und Pflanzenarten. Es finden sich moortypische Arten wie Torfmoose, Glockenheide, Moosbeeren und Moorlilie.

Siehe auch
 Liste der Naturschutzgebiete im Kreis Olpe

Literatur
 Kreis Olpe: Landschaftsplan Nr. 4 Wenden - Drolshagen. Olpe 2008 Naturschutzgebiet Silberkuhle S. 24–25.

Einzelnachweise

Weblinks

Geographie (Drolshagen)
Silberkuhle
Silberkuhle


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Contenus associés au mot-clé "memorial"
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France > Brittany
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Jianwei Lu, Laurent Itti; Perceptual consequences of feature-based attention. Journal of Vision 2005;5(7):2. doi: 10.1167/5.7.2.
Attention modulates visual processing along at least two dimensions: a spatial dimension, which enhances the representation of stimuli within the focus of attention, and a feature dimension, which is thought to enhance attended visual features (e.g., upward motion) throughout the visual field. We investigate the consequences of feature-based attention onto visual perception, using dual-task human psychophysics and two distant drifting Gabor stimuli to systematically explore 64 combinations of visual features (orientations and drift speeds) and tasks (discriminating orientation or drift speed). The resulting single, consistent data set suggests a functional model, which predicts a maximum rule by which only the dominant product of feature enhancement and feature benefit by feature relevance may benefit perception.
It has recently become clear that early visual processing is not purely bottom-up and dependent on stimulus properties alone, but can be substantially modulated top-down by expectations and tasks. A first, widely observed, top-down modulatory effect of attention onto early vision is to locally enhance the cortical representation of stimuli within the focus of attention (Brefczynski & DeYoe, 1999; Chawla, Rees, & Friston, 1999; Lee, Itti, Koch, & Braun, 1999; Motter, 1994; Treue & Maunsell, 1996). This observation is well in line with the shiftable spotlight metaphor of attention (Posner, Snyder, & Davidson, 1980), not only serving to select a subregion of the visual input for further processing, but also highlighting the neural representation of its contents (see, e.g., Itti & Koch, 2001; Treue, 2001, for reviews).
Previous reports have demonstrated a critical role of task onto this localized attentional modulation within the focus of attention (Corbetta, Miezin, Dobmeyer, Shulman, & Petersen, 1991; Huk & Heeger, 2000). For example, Watanabe et al. (1998) showed, using one stimulus with superimposed translating and expanding fields of dots, differential attentional modulation of fMRI signal, depending on whether the task was to attend to the translating or the expanding feature of the stimulus. Thus, attentional modulation and some forms of perceptual learning appear to be specific not only for location, but also for a subset of stimulus features that are relevant to the task engaging attention.
More recently, a nonspatial, feature-based form of attentional enhancement has been reported, wherein the activity of neurons tuned to some visual feature of a stimulus (e.g., a given color or direction of motion) is increased throughout the visual field when attention is engaged onto the stimulus. This so-called feature-based attentional modulation has been demonstrated in human functional neuroimaging (Beauchamp, Cox, & DeYoe, 1997; Saenz, Buracas, & Boynton, 2002), monkey electrophysiology (McAdams & Maunsell, 2000; Treue & Martinez-Trujillo, 1999), and human psychophysics (Duncan & Nimmo-Smith, 1996; Saenz, Buracas, & Boynton, 2003; Shih & Sperling, 1996). For example, in a single-unit macaque physiology study, Treue and Martinez-Trujillo (1999) showed how attending to an upward-moving field of dots on one side of the visual field increased activity in area MT, selectively for neurons tuned to upward motion, although they could have receptive fields in the opposite hemifield from the attended stimulus; however, attending to a downward-moving field of dots did not. In a human psychophysics study, Saenz et al. (2003) showed how performance on a dual-task was significantly better when human observers divided attention across two spatially separate stimuli and attended to a same feature on both sides (same direction of motion or same color) compared with opposing features. Of particular interest here, Vidnyánszky et al. (2003) recently suggested that motion after-effect, induced by an ignored field of dots whose dominant motion was carried by dots of a given color, appeared stronger if subjects attended, in a distant aperture of the display, to dots of that color moving in random directions. Hence, feature-based attention seems to affect even task-irrelevant features, in this case, motion, whereas the task-relevant feature was color. Whether the enhancement of task-irrelevant features was comparable to that of task-relevant features, however, was not elucidated.
In sum, previous reports suggest a critical interaction between task and stimulus in shaping attentional modulation and perceptual learning for many isolated pairings of tasks and stimuli at same or different visual locations. However, a complete quantitative understanding of how task-relevant and task-irrelevant features are comparatively enhanced by attentional modulation remains elusive. Here, we operate a systematic dissociation between tasks and stimulus features to elucidate their interplay in shaping feature-based attentional modulation. We employ dual-task human psychophysics and two distant drifting Gabor stimuli to systematically explore 64 combinations of visual features (orientation and drift speed) and tasks (discriminating orientation or drift speed). Our systematic study thus aims at casting previous and future findings on isolated task and feature combinations into a single conceptual and computational framework.
Three normal volunteer human subjects simultaneously performed two pattern discriminations (Lee et al., 1999; Sperling & Melchner, 1978) on two drifting Gabor stimuli presented bilaterally to fixation (Figure 1). In each block of 100 trials, subjects divided attention between both stimuli: one engaged their primary task (first response and behavioral priority and dominance), presumably triggering a first set of feature-based attention effects, and the other was their secondary task (second response), presumably triggering a second set of effects. Here we investigate how performance at the primary and secondary tasks might have benefited from each other through possible feature-based attentional enhancement triggered at the other site.
Experimental paradigm. Stimuli were two drifting Gabor patches (parameters are given in the Methods section) presented bilaterally to the central fixation cross. Dashed circle (not in actual stimuli) indicates the primary stimulus (given behavioral priority and first response). Arrows indicate drift direction and speed. Here, the primary task is a two-interval forced-choice orientation discrimination (subjects responded whether the stimulus was vertical then tilted or tilted then vertical). The secondary task is drift speed discrimination (faster then slower or slower then faster). Using the notations of the text, the condition shown is OVS–DHS.
Stimuli were generated in Matlab (Mathworks, Natick, Massachusetts) using the Psychophysics Toolbox (Brainard, 1997). Subjects were seated at a viewing distance of 80 cm from a 22" color monitor (LaCie, Inc., Hillsboro, OR; 28° × 21° usable field-of-view, 72 Hz) and rested on a chin-rest. Mean screen luminance was 30 cd/m2; room, 4 cd/m2. Drifting Gabor stimuli (spatial frequency 3.6 cpd, envelope FWHM 0.55°, contrast 0.4) were horizontal or vertical (H or V orientation feature), drifting slowly (3.33 cps; S drift speed feature) or faster (5.00 cps; F drift speed feature), and were displayed at 4° eccentricity from fixation. The timing of each trial is shown in Figure 1.
Tasks were orientation (O) or drift speed (D) discriminations, using a dual two-interval forced-choice (2IFC) paradigm. On any given trial, only one parameter differed between the two successive Gabor patch presentations, independently on each side of the display. In the orientation discrimination tasks, stimuli could be oriented vertically (condition V) or horizontally (condition H) versus slightly tilted off that orientation. Subjects then reported whether the slightly tilted patch had appeared first. In the drift speed discrimination task, stimuli drifted at the slower (condition S) or faster (condition F) speed versus slightly increased speed. Subjects then reported whether the patch with slightly increased speed had appeared first. Subjects reported the order of the alternative targets for both the left and the right sides of the display, by pressing two keys, and received auditory feedback (two brief tones were emitted for incorrect answers, and three tones for correct answers).
Given 128 possible task and stimulus combinations (primary side, left or right; tasks, either O or D on each side; stimuli, each among HS, VS, HF, or VF), we measured dual-task discrimination thresholds for 64 combinations (secondary stimulus speed always S).
Subjects trained on every task and stimulus combination until threshold stabilization was reached to factor out perceptual and other learning. After training, between 10 and 30 blocks of 100 trials were acquired for each data point plotted in Figures 2 and 3 (depending on difficulty of task combinations). Thresholds (75% correct performance) were determined with an adaptive dual staircase procedure, adjusting the difference in patch orientation or drift speed between the two successive alternatives for each stimulus in each trial, according to success or failure of previous trials (Lee et al., 1999). Each threshold was computed from a maximum-fit of a Weibull function with two degrees of freedom to the staircase data (Itti, Koch, & Braun, 2000). To provide a baseline for the dual-task thresholds reported in this study, single-task thresholds were also measured by instructing subjects to only perform one task at one site while keeping the stimuli at both sites identical to the dual-task stimuli.
Orientation secondary task performance. An example task and stimuli combination is listed below the figure to show the eight conditions. In this example, the secondary task is always OVS, and the primary tasks are OVS, OVF, OHS, OHF, DVS, DVF, DHS, and DHF corresponding to the eight conditions. Each data point represents threshold elevations (ratio of secondary thresholds to corresponding single-task thresholds) averaged over left-primary, right-primary, and corresponding horizontal-secondary and vertical-secondary conditions. Error bars represent standard error on the mean. Statistical t test shows p < .05 for most comparisons, p < .075 at worst for the significant difference between thresholds described in the results.
Drift speed secondary task performance. An example task and stimulus combination is listed below the figure to show the eight conditions. In this example, the secondary task is always DVS and the primary tasks are DVS, DHS, DVF, DHF, OVS, OHS, OVF, and OHF corresponding to the eight conditions. Format is as in Figure 2.
). Table 1 shows all the task combinations and corresponding relevant properties to the secondary task. Note that stimuli always shared some task-irrelevant features, such as luminance contrast; because these were invariant, we assume no differential effect on observations. To focus our analysis on differential threshold modulation by stimuli and tasks at the other site, all thresholds are reported as threshold elevations (i.e., normalized by the corresponding single-task thresholds). In addition, all 64 thresholds were collapsed into 16 compound data points by averaging to reduce bias across left- and right-primary and across vertical and horizontal orientations.
All possible task and stimulus combinations. Here, if the left side is primary, then the right side is secondary, and conversely. The upper half of the table shows all the task combinations when the secondary tasks are orientation discrimination tasks; the lower half of the table shows the secondary tasks are drift discrimination tasks. Here, TRI and the other top row labels represent features relevant or irrelevant to the secondary tasks.
), although often more weakly than sharing a task-relevant feature. Together, our results under same-task conditions hence suggest a maximum rule (at the basis of our model below), by which perception improves according to the maximal product of feature enhancement and feature benefit.
not significantly different from each other). Under different-task conditions, our notations here denote as task-relevant a feature that is relevant to the secondary tasks. Different-task thresholds were often higher than the corresponding same-task thresholds (less so for drift secondary), indicating an additional cost of performing our two different tasks (indeed, subjects reported these conditions to be harder than the same-task conditions). Some of this cost may not be considered purely attentional and could be attributed to other processing limitations, including decision processes, short-term memory, overall combined task load (Lee et al., 1999; Sperling & Melchner, 1978), or the ability of switching from primary to secondary in different tasks.
Our secondary thresholds results suggest a complex pattern of interactions between tasks and stimulus features in determining the perceptual consequences of feature-based attentional modulation. Overall, these results are highly consistent with previous reports for individual pairwise comparisons (Huk & Heeger, 2000; Saenz et al., 2003; Saffell & Matthews, 2003; Watanabe et al., 1998). Most of the primary thresholds also exhibit similar trends with secondary thresholds (primary thresholds are reported together with the model). Our data set of 64 conditions under consistent viewing conditions, stimuli, tasks, and observers, allows us to derive a simple functional model for the observed effects. This simple model will accommodate both the primary thresholds and the secondary thresholds, which assume that primary thresholds are also somewhat modulated by feature-based attention triggered at the secondary tasks.
Qualitatively, our data suggest that the interaction among attention, stimulus, and task obeys three governing principles: First, engaging attention onto a stimulus through a pattern discrimination task enhances task-relevant features strongly and task-irrelevant features weakly, throughout the visual field. Second, performance at a pattern discrimination task benefits strongly if task-relevant features are enhanced and weakly if task-irrelevant features are enhanced. Third, feature enhancement and feature benefit combine multiplicatively, with the final benefit to perception and task performance dictated by the largest of these products.
where Th0(t′) is the single-task threshold for t′. Here when t is the primary task, t′ is the secondary task, and conversely.
), the attentional allocations A(t) and A(t′) to both sides may differ. The fitting procedure employed a two-dimensional Newton–Gauss optimization, with the root-mean-square difference (in units of measurement standard error) between the 16 model predictions (eight primary thresholds, eight secondary thresholds) and the measured thresholds as the objective function. We assume a relevance of 1 for task-relevant features (e.g., r(V,OVS) = 1), 0.2 for task-irrelevant features (e.g., r(V,OVS) = 0.2), and 0 for features antagonistic to either task-relevant or task-irrelevant features (e.g., r(V,OVS) = r(V,OVS) = 0). These values were invariant across all conditions. Making the value for task-irrelevant features an additional optimization parameter instead of 0.2 yielded the average values equal to 0.2 with small variance, hence the value used here. Thus, the model has 10 free parameters (A(t) or A(t′) for all eight conditions and two gain values for same and different tasks) for each set of 16 data points (8 primary and 8 secondary thresholds averaged from the 64 total task conditions). Overall, this many parameter model suggests a good agreement with our empirical data (R2 = .981). The model fitting is done independently for each subject. The fitting parameters are shown Table 2.
All parameters of the model fits with 10 free parameters for orientation and drift tasks for all three subjects. A represents the fraction of attentional resources denoted to primary task in that condition. The corresponding attentional resource to the secondary side in that condition is 1A. αs is gain to orientation or drift thresholds for a certain task combination in the same-task conditions and αd is gain to orientation or drift thresholds for a certain task combination in the different-task conditions. Note that in each condition, αs is always less than αd, indicating that splitting attention across different tasks yields higher gain value and higher additional cost. The parameters suggest that in all the eight conditions, subjects divided attentional resources between both sides similarly (similar A values across conditions), suggesting a model fit with fewer parameters as described in Table 3.
The parameters from the many-parameter fitting suggest that the different A(t) (also A(t′)) obtained from the eight different conditions are similar, which means that subjects divided attentional resources into primary and secondary tasks similarly in each condition. This motivates us to collapse these eight A(t) parameters into one single parameter. Further reduction of the number of free parameters assumes that subjects divided attention into two sides with the same ratio in all conditions. This few-parameter model fitting with only three free parameters still results a good fitness of the model with the data (R2 = .956). Table 3 lists the fitting parameters for the three subjects.
All parameters of the model fits using three free parameters, for orientation and drift tasks for all three subjects. Notations are as in Table 2.
Figure 4 shows model predictions when only these three free parameters were fit to each set of 16 observations from each observer. Overall model prediction accuracy was close to measurement error. The values obtained for A(t)suggest that, as instructed, subjects devoted more attentional resources to the primary task (average A(t) = 64%, range 57–71%, compared with average A(t′)= 36%, range 29–43%). Because the gain parameter in same-task conditions is always smaller than the corresponding different-task conditions, it indicates that there is an additional impairment for performing two different tasks. We assumed the same relevance of 0.2 for task-irrelevant features. Thus, the model has three parameters for each set of 16 data points plus one global parameter for all thresholds. Each model prediction was, on average, 2.01 measurement standard error from the corresponding data point (range 0.008–9.06), and of 96 model predictions (3 subjects and 32 predictions each), the model overestimated the data in 43 and underestimated in 53 cases.
All the primary and secondary performance for both orientation (left) and drift (right) tasks and their model predictions. Cyan wide bars represent the threshold elevation performance and the inside narrow bars represent the corresponding model prediction. The model was fitted with three free parameters, namely, A(t), which is the attentional resource to primary task, so that the corresponding attentional resources to the secondary task in that condition are A(t′) = 1 − A(t); αs, which is the gain to orientation or drift thresholds for a certain task combinations in same-task conditions; αd, which is the gain to orientation or drift thresholds for certain task combinations with different-task conditions and different-task thresholds (see Table 3 for each of the 16 data points, with 8 primary thresholds and eight 8 thresholds) independent of subjects. Overall model prediction accuracy was close to measurement error and suggested a good fit (R2 = .956). Note that for primary thresholds, the TRI related labels represent features relevant or irrelevant to the primary tasks.
Our systematic dissociation between tasks and stimulus features in a single data set unraveled a seemingly complex pattern of interactions between behavioral demands and visual inputs. Our data and model, however, suggest that the interaction among attention, stimulus, and task is well captured by a simple descriptive model. The model predicts a maximum rule by which only the dominant product of feature enhancement and feature benefit by feature relevance may benefit perception. Previous studies, using isolated pairs of tasks and stimuli, illustrated how both task-relevant and task-irrelevant features may be enhanced by attention. Our results not only confirm this fact, but also show that task-relevant and task-irrelevant features are enhanced with different gains and that discrimination performance benefits differently from possibly enhanced task-relevant and task-irrelevant features.
, has higher thresholds than the previous three conditions). This is possibly because they used a central versus peripheral dual task paradigm whereas we employed two symmetrical peripheral tasks. Another reason could be the nature of the stimuli. In their experiment, the central task is to discriminate form of stimuli or contrast of form stimuli while the peripheral task uses sinusoidal gratings. It is possible that engaging attention onto a form or contrast discrimination yields a different pattern of enhancement than the orientation and speed discrimination tasks used in our study.
Several studies have shown that human observers performed better when concurrently discriminating two features of the same object compared with two features of different objects (Blaser, Pylyshyn, & Holcombe, 2000; Duncan, 1984). In our experiment, because two moving Gabor patch stimuli could be perceived as part of a common object viewed through two apertures, our findings could also be attributed to an object-based attention effect. However, in many visual objects, the object often is defined by sharing of common features. However, we have no enough evidence that in our study subjects perceived left and right stimuli as part of a common object or not.
Our results contrast with those of Saenz et al. (2003) in that effects were observed although, we did not require that competing stimuli be present and overlapping with the attended stimuli. It is possible that this difference is in part due to a different choice of tasks used to engage attention onto specific features of stimuli. Saenz et al. (2003) use a speed discrimination task to engage attention. However, it could be argued that this task may not necessarily enhance the cortical representation of stimulus features such as direction of motion or color, which seem irrelevant to the task. This could explain why no feature-based enhancement was observed in this simple situation when both stimuli shared the same direction of motion or color. Adding competing stimuli (moving in the opposite direction or having a different color), then, modified the task by adding a requirement on the observers to separate between the component of the stimuli onto which they performed the task (e.g., upward moving dots or red dots), and the competing components that they should ignore (e.g., downward moving dots or green dots). This separation task required active discrimination of direction of motion and color, which were the features tested for when evaluating possible feature-based attention effects.
Task-relevant and task-irrelevant features in our study are defined by whether the shared feature in the two stimuli is relevant or irrelevant to one of the dual tasks. As subjects performed two tasks at the same time, feature-based attention would predict strongest effects when a feature at one site that is relevant to the specific feature attended at the other site. In our study, features always were enhanced (attended) at one site, resulting to feature-based attention at the other site. However, in another fMRI study, the fMRI response to the unchanging ignored stimulus in the opposite visual hemifield was increased when observers attended the same features (direction of motion, color, etc.) compared with the opposing features (Saenz et al., 2002). These results suggested that the relevant or irrelevant features could also be defined based on a single task. Another concern is the long exposure of the stimuli. To prevent eye movements across the two tasks, we asked the subjects to focus on the central cross while they performed the tasks. Because we do dual tasks, with both tasks being difficult, the resulting thresholds with shorter presentation of the stimuli were very poor both in primary and secondary tasks. Indeed, subjects reported they had difficulties to perform the two tasks simultaneously when the presentation of the stimuli was shorter. In principle, we want to keep the primary performance as good as possible, which required that we both elongate the exposure of the stimuli and of the blank period between the two presentation periods. Despite this relatively long exposure and interperiod blank of the stimuli, subjects still reported that the task was very demanding, which limited the possibility for eye movement. It should, however, be noted that our rather long stimulus presentation times may slightly blur the distinction between feature-based attention effects during stimulus encoding and comparison with possibly other effects occur during stimulus maintenance. These issues will be addressed in future experiments.
Computationally, our observations and model are compatible and extend the recent study of Huk and Heeger (2000), which suggested that increasing the gain of neurons encoding task-relevant features might improve their signal-to-noise ratio and hence help improve task performance. Our results are also consistent with a recent study of perceptual learning (Saffell & Matthews, 2003) in which subjects trained to discriminate stimulus direction showed significant improvement in direction discrimination, but their speed or luminance discrimination performance did not improve; conversely, subjects trained to discriminate speed improved in speed but not in direction or luminance discriminations (also see Shiu & Pashler, 1992). In addition, our systematic dissociation between task and features exacerbates the double role of task relevance, not only in determining the strength at which a feature may be enhanced by engaging attention onto a stimulus and task, but also in determining how much a task may benefit and performance may improve from an enhanced feature.
Thus, our results suggest a neuronal mechanism by which attention enhances the activity of cortical neurons that encode behaviorally relevant stimulus properties. This is highly reminiscent of the biased competition model (Desimone & Duncan, 1995; Reynolds, Chelazzi, & Desimone, 1999), which proposed that multiple stimuli activate competing populations of neurons (at one visual location) and attention biases the competition in favor of neurons that prefer task-relevant features. This was further demonstrated in that engaging attention onto a neuron's preferred stimulus increased the neuron's firing rate, whereas attending to a nonpreferred stimulus decreased firing rate (Luck, Chelazzi, Hillyard, & Desimone, 1997; Treue & Maunsell, 1996). Therefore, the effect of attention on a neuron's response (enhancement or suppression) depends on how the features of the attended stimulus match the feature selectivity and preference of the neuron. Our results extend these findings beyond localized competing stimuli within one neuron's receptive field to distant stimuli across the visual field.
In that sense, our model is consistent with and extends the "feature similarity gain model" for feature-based attentional modulation (Treue & Martinez-Trujillo, 1999), and exacerbates the critical role of task-relevance, not only in determining feature-based attentional modulation strength [through r(f,t)], but also in determining possible benefits of a modulation onto visual perception [through r(f,t′)]. Although task may have previously often been chosen arbitrarily for the sole purpose of engaging attention onto or away from a stimulus, our study suggests that it has very strong consequences onto both triggering and benefiting from attentional modulation. For example, our model predicts that performing a luminance increment detection task on a stimulus of given color only yields weak feature-based attentional enhancement of the cortical representation of that color, because color is irrelevant to the task; a stronger modulation would be expected if attention was engaged through a color (hue) discrimination task; conversely, our model predicts that enhancing the representation of a given color only weakly improves performance at a luminance increment detection task on a stimulus of that color, but would yield greater improvement on a hue discrimination task.
We have previously (Lee et al., 1999) proposed that spatial (not feature-based) attention activates a winner-take-all competition among neurons with overlapping receptive fields. The maximum rule found here for feature-based attention is compatible with this mechanism. The neuronal mechanism of the maximum rule proposed here for feature-based attention may be that the multiplicative effect of feature enhancement and feature benefit across features also activates some winner-take-all competition among features. This competition could take place either at the level of early sensory coding or at a higher level, by which all the relevant and irrelevant feature enhancement and feature benefit may take place but only the largest multiplicative effect wins the competition and eventually affects behavior.
In sum, our systematic dissociation between tasks and stimulus features in a single data set unraveled a seemingly complex pattern of interactions between behavioral demands and visual inputs. Our data and model, however, suggest that the interaction among attention, stimulus, and task follows three simple functional principles: engaging attention onto a stimulus by a task enhances task-relevant features of the stimulus strongly but its task-irrelevant features weakly throughout the visual field; performance at a (possibly different, distant, and concurrent) pattern discrimination task benefits strongly if visual features relevant to that task are enhanced, but only weakly if task-irrelevant features are enhanced; finally, feature enhancement and feature benefit combine multiplicatively, with the final benefit to perception and task performance dictated by the largest of these products. This model allows us to recast a significant body of recent studies of attentional modulation within a simple unifying computational framework. This framework may be used to guide future electrophysiology, imaging, and behavioral studies of the perceptual consequences of attention.
This research was supported by NIH/NEI (grant EY13791-03), NSF (grant IIS-0112991), NIMA (grant 1042502), the USC Zumberge Fund, and the Powell Foundation.
Address: Hedco Neuroscience Building, Room 30A, 3641 Watt Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089.
Vidnyánszky, Z. Sohn, W. Kováks, G. (2003). Perception 32. [.


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Marcus Gilbert Coming Back With Chip On His Shoulder
I'm not sure what Pittsburgh Steelers right tackle Marcus Gilbert is more fired up about: returning after sitting out the past three games with a hamstring injury, or getting the opportunity to right the wrongs of the past three weeks, which has seen the team go 1-2 in his absence.
"We have a demeanor about ourselves. The games that we're supposed to win, we didn't do so, and I think a lot of guys are a little on edge", the seventh-year veteran told reporters yesterday in a locker room interview.
"And then me coming back, I feel a little urgency", he added. "I missed a lot of time, and I feel like I have really fresh legs. I'm just ready to be back out there with my guys". Gilbert also missed three games last season due to a foot injury, and, honestly, has a history of injuries, though often relatively minor.
While he didn't really seem to address it directly, I do think he understands the importance of the line getting him back in advance of Sunday's game against the Chiefs, as Kansas City boasts easily one of the best edge rushers off the right side in the NFL in Justin Houston. He had his issues with Houston in the past, but has played him well lately.
"They're undefeated, we're not", he said generally about facing the 5-0 Chiefs. "We've been struggling a little bit. But the thing about our team is, we have a lot of vets. We've been here before. We know how to handle adversity. We have great leadership".
Many, of course, would be inclined to disagree with that at the moment, instead seeing signs of fraying at the seams. It goes without saying that, outside of a rogue incident, though, a player is not going to come out and say that they lack leadership and can't handle adversity.
He also certainly wasn't quick to badmouth Chris Hubbard, who has started in his stead six times over the course of the past 17 regular season games. "He's done a great job", Gilbert said of the fourth-year lineman, "but just moving him around, even at the tight end position, helps us big time. Just to move those big bodies out there, it's critical", a comment that suggests the tackle-eligible remains in the cards.
And when it comes to questioning his quarterback, he wasn't having any of it. "He looks at this and he laughs at it, I call it a little mind game", he said of Ben Roethlisberger's post-game comments. "You guys can believe whatever y'all want to believe, I just know he's going to be ready whenever this Sunday comes, you better believe that".
"He's not frustrated at all", he said. "He's proven himself, there's not much to be said". He also pointed out that the team as a whole shared a lot of blame for the interceptions. He was hit on at least one of them, while another came off a tipped pass and a third saw a receiver trip on a route.
Check out our friend Six Rings Of Steel over on Youtube. He's as big a Steelers' fan as they come and makes awesome videos. You can also follow him on Twitter here.
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Watching the Sacha Baron Cohen movie The Dictator I could not help being reminded that I too once lived in the land of Wadiya (SES) under those egotistical and ruthless dictators MacLaren and Mavro. It seems laughable now but at the time it was a simple case of survival. The leaders were always right and the use of the intellect was actively discouraged. MacLaren being a Renaissance man the equal of Leonardo Da Vinci and "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il, love and service to the leader was the only requirements made to live in the land of Wadiya. As for the movie the first twenty minutes is funny the rest is not. Just like the SES the first 2 years is fun the rest is not.


Sofitel New York hosts a special exhibit of thirty photographs curated by Pablo Picasso's grandson, Olivier Widmaier Picasso.
Last week in Manhattan, Sofitel Luxury Hotelshosted a special exhibit of thirty photographs curated by Pablo Picasso's grandson, Olivier Widmaier Picasso. The exhibit, aptly named "Revealed," presents a compelling, behind-the-scenes look at the world's greatest modern artists at work in their studios as they "reveal" themselves to the photographer.
Olivier curated the exhibit by hand, selecting the 30 photographs from the prestigious archives of Paris Match, the famous French weekly magazine. Having never been displayed to the public, these photographs, according to Olivier who spoke passionately at the event (and celebrated his birthday that night with a cake, candles, and serenade by all of us in the crowd!), are meant to "create moments of intimacy" of the artists in their studios. As a photographer myself, my hope is to always tell a story with an image and I felt truly inspired by what I saw on display. Each of the photos tells its own rare story and gives a small glimpse into what life must have been like as these artists created some of their most famous works.
The beautiful, telling photos include a black-and-white image of Pablo Picasso eyeing a Dalmatian that was hoping to climb upon his lap, Salvador Dalí painting an enormous rhinoceros, and Jeff Koons styling a BMW for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Other images depict Fernando Botero, Joan Miró, Jean Cocteau, Francis Bacon, and other iconic artists.
My personal favorite was a photo of Marc Chagall painting the canvases that were eventually installed inside the Paris Opera and a photo of Picasso himself eating fish off a bone while his dog peeked through hoping he would share.
The "Revealed" photography exhibit opened on June 4th in New York and will be on display for two months inside the Sofitel lobby before going on a five-city tour at other Sofitel locations across the U.S. and into Canada.
Monica Shulman is a photographer and the author of Ciao, Chessa! – a photography and lifestyle blog. She lives in New York City with her husband, toddler daughter and infant son.


what different cultures have to offer.
and Play Therapy at Texas State University.
I have served on State and Local Boards in my field and have presented on a variety of topics at conferences including the Association for Play therapy, American Counseling Association, and the American Psychological Association. I am currently a professional member of the American Counseling Association, American Society for Reproductive Medicine and their Mental Health Professional Group, and the American Play Therapy Association. I am certified in Sports Hypnosis and Peak Performance through the Hypnosis Motivation Institute and the American Hypnosis Association. I have also received training in Yoga through the Living Yoga Program at Barsana Dham in Austin, Texas and from Sydney Solis on her amazing StoryTime Yoga for Kids in Boulder, Colorado. I have applied the wonderful elements of Yoga, Hypnosis, and Relaxation through Mind Body Groups and a program I developed, YogaJourneys for kids, In which children learn life skills they can use for life.
practice and through my yoga practice. I hold a special passion for working with individuals facing the challenges of infertility from, both, a personal and professional perspective. I feel very blessed to have the opportunity, with every new client and group, to continue in the wonderful Journey of Counseling and Development.


In an era when huge amounts of data are created in short spaces of time, analytics engines need to keep up. Responding to this demand, Microsoft Research has developed a new streaming analytics engine, Trill.
According to a Microsoft blog post, Trill is capable of processing data at between two and four orders of magnitude faster than modern streaming engines. This makes it ideal for applications including social media analytics and processing data from live sensors.
Currently, Trill is being used to handle data from Bing Web Search advertising campaigns. Thanks to this innovative new engine, advertisers can see the results of their campaigns in just one hour – a fourth of the time it used to take for results to appear.


Arabian Ranches is a beautiful family orientated gated development, situated just off the Mohammed Bin Zayed Road. The on-site facilities combined with the tranquil, picturesque surroundings really do give this development its deserved status in the Dubai market. The amenities range from the exceptional Jumeirah English Speaking School, through to a world-class 18-hole golf course with a superb clubhouse and restaurant an equestrian center and the Dubai Polo Club perfect for horse-lovers. Other facilities comprise of a community center consisting of a supermarket, restaurants, cafes and a wide range of retail stores.


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Black Box is an Italian house music group popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The group is currently made up of DJ Daniele Davoli, classically trained clarinet teacher Valerio Semplici, keyboardist and electronic musician Mirko Limoni, and vocalist Celestine Walcott-Gordon. French fashion model Katrin Quinol joined the act in 1989 and became the official face of Black Box, appearing on the cover of their single and album releases as well as in music videos, including the hit "Ride on Time", which was the highest-selling single of 1989 in the UK. The following year, it was revealed that Quinol was lip-syncing and had not performed on the recording. American singer Martha Wash performed the majority of the songs on the group's debut album, Dreamland, while being uncredited.

History

1988–1989: Early beginnings
Daniele Davoli, Valerio Semplici, and Mirko Limoni formed a production team called Starlight (often credited as Starlight Invention Group). The group's first single was a dance single called "Numero Uno", released in 1988. The song was often credited by their other alias, Groove Groove Melody. "Numero Uno" peaked at number nine on the UK Singles chart. In early 1989, they produced a single called "Vocalizado" for Italian singer Robby Magno. In mid-1989, the group released the maxi-single "Airport 89" under the name Wood Allen. The single peaked at number 99 on the UK Singles chart.

1989–1992: Dreamland

In 1989, the group changed their name to Black Box and began working on their first album. They added French Caribbean model Katrin Quinol to the lineup as the group's "frontwoman". Quinol's contribution was to lip sync songs in music videos and during televised performances. In July 1989, Black Box released their single "Ride on Time". The song became an international hit, peaking at number one in three countries, including the UK, where it became the UK's best-selling single of 1989, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In November 1989, they released the single "Grand Piano" under the alias Mixmaster. The song peaked at number nine on the UK Singles chart. In December 1989, they released the follow-up single "I Don't Know Anybody Else". The song became an international top-ten hit and gave the group their first number-one song on Billboard's Dance chart. In March 1990, they released their fourth single, "Everybody Everybody". Like its predecessors, the song also became an international hit and earned the group their second number one on the Dance chart.

In May 1990, they released their debut album Dreamland. Despite its moderate performance on the charts, the album became certified gold in the United Kingdom and United States  and peaked at number one in the Australian chart.
In late 1990, the album's fourth single, "Fantasy", a cover of the 1978 hit by Earth, Wind & Fire, peaked at number five on the UK Singles chart and became certified silver in the United Kingdom.

In February 1991, "Strike It Up" was released as the album's fifth single. The song became another international top-ten hit for the group and earned them their third number-one single on the Dance chart. The album's final singles "Open Your Eyes" and "Hold On" performed moderately well on the charts. In the same year, Black Box released a re-issue of "Ride on Time" called "Bright on Time". Quinol, who did not contribute vocally or musically to the group's music, left Black Box in late 1991 after the band became the subject of a media backlash involving lip-syncing scandals and lawsuits.

1993–1999: Positive Vibration  and lineup changes
In 1993, Black Box added American singer Charvoni Woodson to the lineup. They released the single "Rockin' to the Music", which performed poorly on the charts. In 1995, Black Box released their second album, Positive Vibration, which failed to chart or rise to the same level of success as their previous record. The album spawned the singles "Not Anyone" and "A Positive Vibration", both of which fared well on the charts. In 1997, the album was re-issued with three additional singles: "I Got the Vibration", "Native New Yorker", and "Fall into My Love".

In April 1998, Black Box released a compilation album, Strike It Up: The Best of Black Box. In June 1998, they released another compilation, Hits & Mixes. In 1999, a maxi single of remixes for "Bright on Time" was exclusively released in France.

2003–present
Woodson continued touring and performing as the lead vocalist of the group periodically until 2015. That year, Celestine Walcott-Gordon began performing live as the new lead vocalist. In 2018, the group released the single "Everyone Will Follow", featuring vocals by Walcott-Gordon.

Lip-syncing scandals and lawsuits
In 1990, American singer Loleatta Holloway and American producer Dan Hartman sued Black Box for copyright infringement and unauthorized sampling. "Ride on Time" sampled Holloway's song "Love Sensation", which was produced and written by Hartman. Neither Holloway nor Hartman were consulted for permission to sample the song, and Black Box failed to credit Holloway's vocals in the song. Additionally, Black Box had used Quinol to lip-sync Holloway's vocals in the music video for "Ride on Time", which led the public to believe Quinol was the actual singer. Holloway and Hartman eventually received an undisclosed out-of-court settlement. As a result, Black Box re-issued "Ride on Time", removing Holloway's vocals and featuring newly recorded vocals by English singer Heather Small. The group still retained the original version on their re-issued album Dreamland and added Holloway's name as the featured vocalist on "Ride on Time" as well as giving Hartman songwriting credits. Black Box would later issue another new version of the song called "Bright on Time" in 1991.

In September 1990, American singer Martha Wash sued Black Box and RCA Records for commercial appropriation after she became aware of the lip-sync scandal perpetrated by the group. During the recording session of their album Dreamland in 1989, Wash was recruited as a session singer to simply demo songs produced by Black Box. Unbeknownst to her, Black Box retained Wash's vocals on a total of six songs, including "Everybody Everybody", "Open Your Eyes", "Hold On", "I Don't Know Anybody Else", "Strike It Up", and "Fantasy" on the album Dreamland. Despite Wash's contributions to the songs, Black Box never credited her for her vocals and instead used Quinol to lip-sync Wash's vocals during music videos, televised performances, and concert performances. RCA settled the case out of court in December 1990, agreeing to pay Wash a "substantial" fee. The company also signed her to an eight-album recording contract and financed her national tour. Wash's lawsuit also resulted in federal legislation in the United States, making vocal credit mandatory for all albums and music videos.

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Remix albums

Singles

See also
 List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart

Notes

References

External links

 Official Facebook page
  YouTube channel

1988 establishments in Italy
Entertainment scandals
Hoaxes in Italy
Italian dance music groups
Italian dance musicians
Italian Eurodance groups
Italian house music groups
Music controversies
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical hoaxes
RCA Records artists


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Europe's rich tighten grip on wealth
Source: Agencies | December 24, 2016, Saturday | Print Edition
THE concentration of wealth among the eurozone's richest has increased since the bloc's debt crisis began, with poor families suffering the biggest drop in asset values, a survey released by the European Central Bank showed on yesterday.
The eurozone's top 5 percent of households owned 37.8 percent of net wealth in 2014, up from 37.2 percent in 2010 while the bottom 5 percent owned only debt, the ECB said, based on a survey of 84,000 households.
Hit by waves of recession, the bloc's protracted debt problem has worsened inequalities as states on the periphery such as Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece struggled, while those in the core, such as Germany, were quicker to recover.
The median wealth of a eurozone household dropped around 10 percent to 104,100 euros (US$108,800) in the four years to 2014, mostly as property prices fell, especially for the poorest fifth of the population, the ECB said.
"The shift was particularly substantial in Greece and Cyprus, where the median fell by roughly 40 percent ... but it is also large in Italy, Portugal and Spain, where it declined by more than 15 percent," the ECB said.
Bucking the trend, median wealth in Germany, the bloc's economic powerhouse, increased 10 percent over the same period. It also edged up in Austria, Finland and Luxembourg.
To reach the top 10 percent, households needed to hold net wealth of 496,000 euros or more, while the lowest 10 percent had 1,000 euros or less.
"The fall in net wealth was mainly driven by a reduction in the value of assets, in particular real estate," the ECB said. "The decline in net wealth was higher for leveraged households, especially homeowners with a mortgage, compared with outright homeowners and renters."
The property price fall hurt the poorest most. Real estate wealth was down a fifth for the poorest 40 percent, twice the drop for the top 20 percent.
Families in Luxembourg, where the financial sector dominates the economy, were the richest, with a median net wealth of 437,500 euros. In Latvia, it was just 14,200 euros.