text:
package retrofit;

import com.google.common.reflect.TypeToken;
import com.squareup.okhttp.MediaType;
import com.squareup.okhttp.RequestBody;
import com.squareup.okhttp.ResponseBody;
import com.squareup.okhttp.mockwebserver.MockResponse;
import com.squareup.okhttp.mockwebserver.MockWebServer;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.util.List;
import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Rule;
import org.junit.Test;
import retrofit.http.GET;
import rx.Observable;
import rx.Single;
import rx.observables.BlockingObservable;

import static com.squareup.okhttp.mockwebserver.SocketPolicy.DISCONNECT_AFTER_REQUEST;
import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
import static org.junit.Assert.fail;

public final class RxJavaCallAdapterFactoryTest {
  private static final Annotation[] NO_ANNOTATIONS = new Annotation[0];

  @Rule public final MockWebServer server = new MockWebServer();

  interface Service {
    @GET("/") Observable<String> observableBody();
    @GET("/") Observable<Response<String>> observableResponse();
    @GET("/") Observable<Result<String>> observableResult();
    @GET("/") Single<String> singleBody();
    @GET("/") Single<Response<String>> singleResponse();
    @GET("/") Single<Result<String>> singleResult();
  }

  private Service service;

  @Before public void setUp() {
    Retrofit retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
        .baseUrl(server.url("/"))
        .addConverterFactory(new StringConverterFactory())
        .addCallAdapterFactory(RxJavaCallAdapterFactory.create())
        .build();
    service = retrofit.create(Service.class);
  }

  @Test public void bodySuccess200() {
    server.enqueue(new MockResponse().setBody("Hi"));

    BlockingObservable<String> o = service.observableBody().toBlocking();
    assertThat(o.first()).isEqualTo("Hi");
  }

  @Test public void bodySuccess404() {
    server.enqueue(new MockResponse().setResponseCode(404));

    BlockingObservable<String> o = service.observableBody().toBlocking();
    try {
      o.first();
      fail();
    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
      Throwable cause = e.getCause();
      assertThat(cause).isInstanceOf(HttpException.class).hasMessage("HTTP 404 OK");
    }
  }

  @Test public void bodyFailure() {
    server.enqueue(new MockResponse().setSocketPolicy(DISCONNECT_AFTER_REQUEST));

    BlockingObservable<String> o = service.observableBody().toBlocking();
    try {
      o.first();
      fail();
    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
      assertThat(e.getCause()).isInstanceOf(IOException.class);
    }
  }

  @Test public void responseSuccess200() {
    server.enqueue(new MockResponse().setBody("Hi"));

    BlockingObservable<Response<String>> o = service.observableResponse().toBlocking();
    Response<String> response = o.first();
    assertThat(response.isSuccess()).isTrue();
    assertThat(response.body()).isEqualTo("Hi");
  }

  @Test public void responseSuccess404() throws IOException {
    server.enqueue(new MockResponse().setResponseCode(404).setBody("Hi"));

    BlockingObservable<Response<String>> o = service.observableResponse().toBlocking();
    Response<String> response = o.first();
    assertThat(response.isSuccess()).isFalse();
    assertThat(response.errorBody().string()).isEqualTo("Hi");
  }

  @Test public void responseFailure() {
    server.enqueue(new MockResponse().setSocketPolicy(DISCONNECT_AFTER_REQUEST));

    BlockingObservable<Response<String>> o = service.observableResponse().toBlocking();
    try {
      o.first();
      fail();
    } catch (RuntimeException t) {
      assertThat(t.getCause()).isInstanceOf(IOException.class);
    }
  }

  @Test public void resultSuccess200() {
    server.enqueue(new MockResponse().setBody("Hi"));

    BlockingObservable<Result<String>> o = service.observableResult().toBlocking();
    Result<String> result = o.first();
    assertThat(result.isError()).isFalse();
    Response<String> response = result.response();
    assertThat(response.isSuccess()).isTrue();
    assertThat(response.body()).isEqualTo("Hi");
  }

  @Test public void resultSuccess404() throws IOException {
    server.enqueue(new MockResponse().setResponseCode(404).setBody("Hi"));

    BlockingObservable<Result<String>> o = service.observableResult().toBlocking();
    Result<String> result = o.first();
    assertThat(result.isError()).isFalse();
    Response<String> response = result.response();
    assertThat(response.isSuccess()).isFalse();
    assertThat(response.errorBody().string()).isEqualTo("Hi");
  }

  @Test public void resultFailure() {
    server.enqueue(new MockResponse().setSocketPolicy(DISCONNECT_AFTER_REQUEST));

    BlockingObservable<Result<String>> o = service.observableResult().toBlocking();
    Result<String> result = o.first();
    assertThat(result.isError()).isTrue();
    assertThat(result.error()).isInstanceOf(IOException.class);
  }

  @Test public void responseType() {
    CallAdapter.Factory factory = RxJavaCallAdapterFactory.create();
    Type classType = new TypeToken<Observable<String>>() {}.getType();
    assertThat(factory.get(classType, NO_ANNOTATIONS).responseType()).isEqualTo(String.class);
    Type wilcardType = new TypeToken<Observable<? extends String>>() {}.getType();
    assertThat(factory.get(wilcardType, NO_ANNOTATIONS).responseType()).isEqualTo(String.class);
    Type genericType = new TypeToken<Observable<List<String>>>() {}.getType();
    assertThat(factory.get(genericType, NO_ANNOTATIONS).responseType()) //
        .isEqualTo(new TypeToken<List<String>>() {}.getType());
    Type responseType = new TypeToken<Observable<Response<String>>>() {}.getType();
    assertThat(factory.get(responseType, NO_ANNOTATIONS).responseType()).isEqualTo(String.class);
    Type resultType = new TypeToken<Observable<Response<String>>>() {}.getType();
    assertThat(factory.get(resultType, NO_ANNOTATIONS).responseType()).isEqualTo(String.class);
  }

  @Test public void nonObservableTypeReturnsNull() {
    CallAdapter.Factory factory = RxJavaCallAdapterFactory.create();
    CallAdapter<?> adapter = factory.get(String.class, NO_ANNOTATIONS);
    assertThat(adapter).isNull();
  }

  @Test public void rawTypeThrows() {
    CallAdapter.Factory factory = RxJavaCallAdapterFactory.create();
    Type observableType = new TypeToken<Observable>() {}.getType();
    try {
      factory.get(observableType, NO_ANNOTATIONS);
      fail();
    } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
      assertThat(e).hasMessage("Observable return type must be parameterized as Observable<Foo> or Observable<? extends Foo>");
    }
    Type singleType = new TypeToken<Single>() {}.getType();
    try {
      factory.get(singleType, NO_ANNOTATIONS);
      fail();
    } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
      assertThat(e).hasMessage("Single return type must be parameterized as Single<Foo> or Single<? extends Foo>");
    }
  }

  @Test public void rawObservableResponseTypeThrows() {
    CallAdapter.Factory factory = RxJavaCallAdapterFactory.create();
    Type observableType = new TypeToken<Observable<Response>>() {}.getType();
    try {
      factory.get(observableType, NO_ANNOTATIONS);
      fail();
    } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
      assertThat(e).hasMessage("Response must be parameterized as Response<Foo> or Response<? extends Foo>");
    }
    Type singleType = new TypeToken<Single<Response>>() {}.getType();
    try {
      factory.get(singleType, NO_ANNOTATIONS);
      fail();
    } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
      assertThat(e).hasMessage("Response must be parameterized as Response<Foo> or Response<? extends Foo>");
    }
  }

  @Test public void rawResultTypeThrows() {
    CallAdapter.Factory factory = RxJavaCallAdapterFactory.create();
    Type observableType = new TypeToken<Observable<Result>>() {}.getType();
    try {
      factory.get(observableType, NO_ANNOTATIONS);
      fail();
    } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
      assertThat(e).hasMessage("Result must be parameterized as Result<Foo> or Result<? extends Foo>");
    }
    Type singleType = new TypeToken<Single<Result>>() {}.getType();
    try {
      factory.get(singleType, NO_ANNOTATIONS);
      fail();
    } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
      assertThat(e).hasMessage("Result must be parameterized as Result<Foo> or Result<? extends Foo>");
    }
  }

  @Test public void single() {
    // TODO Better tests here. Why is there no toBlocking() on Single?
    assertNotNull(service.singleBody());
    assertNotNull(service.singleResponse());
    assertNotNull(service.singleResult());
  }

  static class StringConverterFactory extends Converter.Factory {
    @Override
    public Converter<ResponseBody, ?> fromResponseBody(Type type, Annotation[] annotations) {
      return new Converter<ResponseBody, String>() {
        @Override public String convert(ResponseBody value) throws IOException {
          return value.string();
        }
      };
    }

    @Override public Converter<?, RequestBody> toRequestBody(Type type, Annotation[] annotations) {
      return new Converter<String, RequestBody>() {
        @Override public RequestBody convert(String value) throws IOException {
          return RequestBody.create(MediaType.parse("text/plain"), value);
        }
      };
    }
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Google today acquired SageTV, a company that makes products with streaming and media center-type services. The acquisition was completed and declared by SageTV last Saturday itself. Google is said to use the SageTV technology for its DVR and Slingbox like capabilities for possible integration with Google TV.
SageTV's products are nothing but media extenders and for a couple of years have been allowing customers to serve media over LAN, stream Youtube videos and also stream PVRs running SageTV's DVR software to a home theater setup.
Now that Google has bought SageTV, it plans to implement a number of its features into Google TV. SnapStream Media speculates that Google bought SageTV in order to add native DVR capabilities to Google TV. Google is looking to focus more on Slingbox like abilities on the SageTV platform. What makes SageTV awesome is that it is friendly with other video file formats commonly used online opening it up to a wide range of audiences.
Previous Awesome – Move Applications Between PC and Phone by taking a Picture!
Next The Big Debate! Who invented the personal computer?


August 2, 2018 at 1:35p.m.
The revised tariffs unveiled today are mostly lower than those originally imposed earlier this year but would still slap an anti-dumping border tax as high as 16.88 percent.
Congress is overwhelmingly opposed to the tariffs. House Speaker Paul Ryan contacted Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross directly to voice his concerns. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared in a newspaper column the tax "would do irreversible harm" to the newspaper industry.
August 29, 2018 8:30 p.m.
July 17, 2018 12:55 p.m.


text:
Lawmakers push Biden to offer recurring $2,000 stimulus checks
By Aimee Picchi
January 30, 2021 / 7:17 AM / MoneyWatch
Biden unveils $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan
Biden unveils $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan... 03:00
As Congress debates President Joe Biden's request for $1.9 trillion in coronavirus relief funding — including a third stimulus check pegged at $1,400 — some Democratic lawmakers are pushing for an even bigger response: $2,000 monthly payments until the pandemic is history.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, and more than 50 other House members are urging the Biden administration to back such a policy, according to a signed letter sent to Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Signers of the January 28 letter also include other leading House progressives such as Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
"One more check is not enough during this public health and economic crisis," they wrote. "Many families cannot afford to wait for eight months between payments. To truly build back better, families need stability and certainty through ongoing relief — they cannot be at the mercy of congressional gridlock."
A recurring stimulus check is a familiar proposal for Harris, who last year introduced a bill in the Senate that would have provided $2,000 a month for each adult and child in the U.S. until the pandemic ended, although the effort failed to gain traction.
Supporters of the idea note that financial hardship remains widespread around the U.S. 10 months after COVID-19 effectively shuttered the economy. A new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning think tank, found that one-third of adults are struggling to pay their bills. Many of those who are hurting are low-wage workers whose service jobs were impacted by the crisis, such as those in restaurant and retail jobs.
$2,000 monthly payments until the pandemic is over. https://t.co/6tuia6prFJ
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 28, 2021
While the letter didn't specify an amount for a recurring stimulus payment, Rep. Omar tweeted on Thursday that she would like to see payments of $2,000 per month until the global health crisis has ended. So far, the federal government's response efforts have included two direct payments to most low- and middle-class families: a $1,200 check for eligible adults last spring and a $600 per person check earlier this month.
The recurring payments should be directed to "those who need it most and will spend it the quickest," as well as include "all immigrant workers, refugees, and their families," Omar wrote. Older dependents and people over the age of 16 who are claimed as dependents — and who were excluded from the first two stimulus checks — should also be included, she added.
"Economic suffering"
The latest relief plan under debate in Congress would provide a third stimulus check of $1,400 to most U.S. households, with Wall Street analysts estimating that the payments could be approved by the end of March.
Given ongoing hardship and high unemployment rates, a bold stimulus plan is needed to both alleviate current suffering and plant the seeds for economic revival, said Gene Sperling, former director of the National Economic Council under President Clinton and President Obama, on a conference call with reporters on Thursday.
"We know there is still an enormous amount of economic suffering going on in our country," Sperling said on the call hosted by Invest in America Action, an advocacy group for public investment. "The top quartile might see unemployment around 5%, but for the bottom quartile, it's over 20%."
For people in the bottom fifth of income-earners, unemployment remains at "Depression-level" rates, he added.
U.S. unemployment claims fell last week 04:53
Asked about Omar's request for recurring stimulus payments, Sperling noted that Biden's $1.9 trillion proposal includes several recurring aid programs, including $400 in extra weekly jobless benefits and an increase in tax credits to $3,600 per child under 6-years-old. There's some discussion that such a child tax credit could be paid on a monthly basis, he added.
Some economists have argued that direct stimulus checks aren't as effective in boosting economic growth as other forms of aid, such as unemployment benefits and food stamps, which are provided to people in need and are spent relatively quickly. The effectiveness of the second round of checks has been mixed, with lower-income households spending the money quickly, while wealthier households socked away the cash, a recent study found.
Ongoing payments would provide stability to families struggling in the crisis, Omar wrote. "Recurring direct payments until the economy recovers will help ensure that people can meet their basic needs, provide racially equitable solutions and shorten the length of the recession," she said.
First published on January 28, 2021 / 3:28 PM

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


- Publication of the Society of Iconophiles, Series ix, no. 6.
- Engraved by Sidney Lawton Smith from a painting in the New York Historical Society. (Source: Catalogue of the Engravings Issued by the Society of Iconophiles of the City of New York, 1908, p. 64).
- Another copy of this print is in LOT 4383-M.
- On item: "Engraved for the Society of Iconophiles of New York, 1906."
- On banner on ship: "In t schip Lydia door Laurens Hermans Zn Block Ao 1650."
Publication of the Society of Iconophiles, Series ix, no. 6. Engraved by Sidney Lawton Smith from a painting in the New York Historical Society. (Source: Catalogue of the Engravings Issued by the Society of Iconophiles of the City of New York, 1908, p. 64). Another copy of this print is in LOT 4383-M. On item: "Engraved for the Society of Iconophiles of New York, 1906." On banner on ship: "In t schip Lydia door Laurens Hermans Zn Block Ao 1650."
Smith, Sidney Lawton, Engraver. New Amsterdam about . Manhattan New York, 1906. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003664773/.
Smith, S. L. (1906) New Amsterdam about . Manhattan New York, 1906. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2003664773/.
Smith, Sidney Lawton, Engraver. New Amsterdam about . Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2003664773/>.
Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges 1 photographic. print.
New York Skyline from Brooklyn 1 photographic print.
North Dutch Church erected 1769 demolished 1875 Print shows a bird's-eye view of the North Dutch Church in New York City, N.Y.
New or middle Dutch church Print shows a bird's-eye view of the New Dutch Church, New York City, N.Y. Includes descriptive information printed on the inside of the accompanying folder.


text:
Commodities Videos
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Evolution Mining vows to invest after US$375M Red Lake deal with Newmont Goldcorp
Newmont Goldcorp sells former crown jewel asset
RED LAKE, Ont. -- Evolution Mining Ltd. says it will invest US$150 million over the next three years in the "undercapitalized" Red Lake gold complex in western Ontario after striking a deal to buy it for US$375 million from Newmont Goldcorp Corp.
In a news release, the Australian company says it plans to spend US$50 million on exploration and invest US$100 million in existing operations at the underground mining complex if the acquisition closes as expected by the end of March.
Evolution says it has also agreed to boost the price by up to US$100 million payable upon new resource discovery.
Denver-based Newmont says it will receive US$20 million for each one million ounces of new gold resources added to the existing Red Lake resource base over a 15-year period, with payments ending after five million ounces of new resources.
Since production started in 1949, Red Lake has produced more than 25 million ounces of gold. In 2018, its mines produced 276,000 ounces of gold, but production is forecast to drop to 150,000 to 160,000 ounces this year.
Evolution executive chairman Jake Klein said the company is excited to add a high-grade, long-life asset in Canada.
"We have been actively looking at assets in Canada since 2017 as we believe it is a country with low geopolitical risk, high geological prospectivity and a strong mining culture," he said in a statement.
"Red Lake is an undercapitalized asset which, through a committed investment in development and exploration, is intended to become a cornerstone asset in the Evolution portfolio."
Newmont Goldcorp cuts 2019 output forecast on Mexican mine blockades
Newmont's incoming CEO says no 'fire sale' coming for assets


text:
America Toddler T-Shirts
Twilight Cactus Toddler T-Shirt
by Inge Johnsson
Default: Charcoal
Similar Designs More from Inge Johnsson
toddler t-shirts america american big bend inge johnsson nps national park north america prickly pear rio grande sierra del carmen texan texas usa united states west
photographs america american big bend inge johnsson nps national park north america prickly pear rio grande sierra del carmen texan texas usa united states west
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Big Bend National Park in the U.S. state of Texas has national significance as the largest protected area of Chihuahuan Desert topography and ecology in the United States. It contains more than 1,200 species of plants, more than 450 species of birds, 56 species of reptiles, and 75 species of mammals. The national park covers 801,163 acres. A variety of Cretaceous and Cenozoic fossil organisms exist in abundance, and the park has artifacts estimated to be 9,000 years old. Historic buildings and landscapes offer graphic illustration of life along the international border in the 19th century. For more than 1,000 miles, the Rio Grande/R�o Bravo forms the international boundary between Mexico and the United States, and Big Bend National Park administers approximately 118 miles along that boundary. The park was named after the area, which is bounded by a large bend in the river and Texas-Mexico border.
About Inge Johnsson
I have been photographing the beauty of America and many other places around the world for more than 25 years. My photographic work has won awards and has been published in several books, calendars and magazines such as Popular Photography, National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and Texas Highways. Originally from Sweden, I currently reside in North Texas. I enjoy many types of photographic subjects and styles, but really love landscape, nature and travel photography. I use Canon full frame DSLRs with a full range of L-series lenses, and touch up my digital captures in Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop to recreate what I felt and saw when the capture was made, and to make the images ready for online and printed media. Like me on...


text:
How to build an epic soccer stadium in Fortnite and conduct a real-life football Battle Royale
Since its release last year, Fortnite has rapidly become one of the most popular multi-player survival games in history, with popular YouTubers like KSI and Logan Paul regularly getting in on the action. With its Minecraft-like building ability, enterprising players have built some impressive edifices… including epic sports' venues.
SOCCER STADIUM IN FORTNITE
In the above Fortnite Battle Royale video, gamer SXVXN and a buddy construct the world's largest soccer stadium while providing both gameplay and building tips for others to try and replicate the feat.
Making their effort all the more impressive, is the fact they managed to win the battle even after spending the bulk of their efforts on the stadium build and scoring a few goals.
REAL-LIFE FOOTBALL BATTLE ROYALE
Football/soccer intersects with Fortnite again in real-life Battle Royale featuring YouTubers Kieran and Ewan. The pair skydive into a grassy area on a real-life map where they collect soccer shoes and attempt to eliminate opponents with targeted soccer ball kicks. Naturally, there's a victory dance at the end.
Mark Peters 2018-05-05T10:39:10+00:00 May 5th, 2018|


text:
Dan Jones VI
Pursuing Curiosity the World Over
Public Domain Self-Help Books for the Enlightened Mind
Etched In Stone: Cambodia's Khmer Empire
August 29, 2014 By Dan
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Cambodia. Not intentionally, I chose to go during Cambodia's dry season. Let's just say the heat was impressive (Phoenix, Arizona born and raised here…) It's not the ideal time to go if comfort is your aim, but there are fewer people and it's probably cheaper than the cooler rainy season. Dry season can be dusty, dry, cloudless, and just kind of ugly. During rainy season, I'm told it is absolutely lush and beautiful. Oh well, I didn't really come for the natural beauty anyway.
Cambodia's two main "attractions" are the sprawling multitude of 12th century temples in Siem Reap up north and the Killing Fields near Phnom Penh down south. More on the latter in another post.
Cambodia's former might etched in stone
If you aren't familiar with Angkor Wat, it is a massive temple made of sandstone that was originally Hindu, but later became Buddhist. Angkor Wat is just the most well-known of hundreds of temples spread out over untold miles that are known to exist in Cambodia. Many more likely existed at one time but were unable to survive the roughly 900 years (12th century) of degradation the way Angkor Wat has, or simply remain hidden deep inside Cambodia's dense jungle.
It's easy to forget when looking at the intricate designs of these ancient temples that they are made of stone. According to archaeologists, the stones that make up Angkor Wat came from a quarry 56 miles away by one possible route, or 21 miles by another. Either way, the labor required to carry millions of stones weighing up to 1.5 tons across such a distance and then make something beautiful out of them is astonishing.
You'll have to imagine what it looked like in its day, the sandstone has obviously been worn down over the years, creating a much more rounded appearance than the elegant sharpness of their original construction, but an amazing level of detail remains.
The lost history of the great Khmer Empire
By my judgment, there is very little known about Angkor Wat considering its religious importance to the Khmer Empire at the time and continued historical importance today. Most of what is known about the origin of the temple complex comes from the writings of a Chinese diplomat who visited in the 13th century. We know it was originally dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, and was later converted to a Buddhist temple as Khmer culture (and kings) shifted. Almost every inch of wall inside is covered with detailed carvings telling some ancient Hindu or Buddhist story.
A contrast of empires
Maps of the Mongolian Empire at its most expansive during the 13th century suggest that Ghengis Khan would've just missed Cambodia and Angkor Wat, but we can only imagine what might've taken place had he and his warriors on horseback come across it.
The Mongolian Empire, emanating from modern-day China, was another major world power existing at same time as the Khmer Empire. In stark contrast to the mystery of the Khmers, the history of the Mongolian Empire is still known today in remarkable detail, yet the Mongols left almost no physical trace.
The Mongolian Empire, originally led by Ghenghis Khan, covered more land than any empire that has ever existed. The details of their way of life, religion, and laws are all known, often down to the finest of details. Ghenghis Khan's life can be traced with relative precision all the way from his humble childhood to his death. Angkor Wat, though, despite its physical prominence, remains mostly a mystery, and no one is sure why that is. Perhaps the Khmer's either didn't write things down the way their more East Asian neighbors did, or the things that were written were somehow lost or destroyed.
Whatever the cause, Angkor Wat was mostly abandoned for several hundred years, and when a French explorer "discovered" it in the mid 1800s, he attributed its construction to the Romans, not believing modern Cambodians could've pulled off such a feat. He was wrong, but he wouldn't be the last to underestimate the spirit of the Khmer people.
Stay tuned for more on Cambodia, Phnom Penh, and the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge.
Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Khmer, Temples
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The 2015 Louise is a deep ruby red, with brilliance and depth. Aromatically, there is an evolving mix of spice, plum, rhubarb, smokiness and cassis, which are all present on the palate, too. There is a guiding impression of freshness, and a sense of energy comparable to the 2014 Louise. There is also an intriguing, subtle layer on the palate, and a very, very long finish. Youthful but structured, the 2015 Louise has a long life ahead. Enjoy over the next 10-12 years.


I've included some info about this in the Lefty Forum and the Unplugged Forum, but will offer a little more on quality/fit 'n' finish here.
I have been a Larrivee acoustic player (and lover!) for over 20 years (ordered/received my first, a lefty hog Larrivee OM in '92). I still love Larrivees, and always will, but I'd also been bitten years ago by the Martin D-35 bug - especially gassed for a Johnny Cash Signature D-35. But that wasn't going to happen at those prices (about double what a standard D-35 goes for).
I finally bit the bullet because this is the 50th year for the D-35, and every one made this year gets a special commemorative "D-35/50" sticker inside. Not a big deal, but just special to me.
...ordered May 11th, arrived May 27th ... 16 DAYS!!! The only problem was I had to scrape up enough money to pay off the balance!
Anyway, the guitar is gorgeous, very nice silking in the spruce top, no really odd grain, no bearclaw (which I didn't want). The 3-piece back has just the right amount of contrast between the side and center pieces. The fretboard is a solid black piece of ebony (which they include as a spec for this model - no variations in the ebony wood fingerboard).
Overall, the quality of the top spruce and rosewood back and sides are very high; construction is very solid with a very clean, neat interior. I'm not crazy about the "Crest-white" Boltaron binding that Martin has started using (who is?), but I'm assuming it will eventually age and change color with the finish.
My one question for Martin - what is the D-35 neck wood, really? The specs say "hardwood" not "mahogany", and they do specify another wood somewhere else used for D-18/28/etc. necks. So that might be my only gripe, that on a guitar of this price and "quality" it probably isn't a mahogany neck.
It sounds great right out of the box - and I'm comparing it to my Larrivees. The D-35 has incredible volume, punch, ring and sustain already - it will be fun to listen to it really open up and go! I am looking forward to putting a set of John Pearse strings on it.
The set-up needs some minor tweaking (which I could do, but since it's included in the purchase, I'll have it done at the shop where I bought it) - lower nut slots a little, and maybe the saddle a little, but that's it - otherwise set up very well.
So far I'm happy to finally be a Martin owner. Can't wait to hear what she sounds like in 10 or 20 years (Lord willing I'm still around that long!).
Beautiful guitar. My D-35 is eight years old now and really opened up. Make sure you use lighter strings on it - it has thinner bracing than say a D-28. That's one of the reasons I like it - you can play fingerstyle and get good volume from it. I got a second saddle for it from Maury's and sanded it lower for that purpose. I kept the original saddle unchanged and switch back and forth sometimes. If I'm going to hammer it with a pick I'll go with the original saddle.
Thanks for that word of advice Gene, I may have to do that as well when I have it set up.
Hadn't thought about using lighter strings with the lighter bracing, I'll give that a try as well.


hearsoundswrite - A music blog out of South Carolina: Indie Music MAYhem Review 3: "High Violet"
In 2007, I distinctly recall plucking Boxer from the new release bin at Papa Jazz Records in Columbia, SC. My knowledge of the National at that point could barely fill a Dixie Cup, and yet even I was swept up in the mass anticipation of the band's new release. And so Boxer completely delivered (was in our top 5 of the year) and three more years have passed. That means the anticipation for High Violet is like Boxer's on steroids. Can it possibly deliver?
Well, sure. It's the National, a band that's on a decade-long creative hot streak and showing no signs of fizzling out. While generally considered one of (good) music's powerhouses, some folks are put off by Matt Berninger's bassy mumble. As someone who spent car trips listening to his dad's Dire Straits albums, it agrees with me in a comforting way. After an album of dwelling in the shadowy depths vocally--forward in the mix, but always low low low--Berninger lets his voice stretch to its higher limits a bit. On "Afraid of Everyone" he sings in a higher register than we hear at any point on Boxer.
From the zero hour, it's evident that High Violet is going to be a more bombastic affair than its gloomy predecessor, with opener "Terrible Love" burbling anxiously before finally geysering into a hyper-emotional tsunami. This sort of upfront approach is a steady theme throughout the record. Think of it as Boxer without such a conservative approach to mixing. Where scant arrangements and minimalism prevailed on Boxer, broad atmospheres and live-conscious mixes win the day. Compare High Violet's "Little Faith" to Boxer's "Brainy"--two similar sounding songs--and you'll hear the difference.
Props to drummer Bryan Devendorf for his expressive drumwork--I always love a drummer who assumes a role beyond that of human metronome. It's those songs that he scales back his playing--"Anyone's Ghost", for example--where I find my interest flickering a bit. But for the most part, his abilities are allowed to shine, never more than on the instant classic "Bloodbuzz Ohio", already being anointed Song of the Year by many. The song is pretty incredible, a perfect alignment of all the National's greatest features: The aforementioned drumwork, Berninger's direct and relateable lyricism, creative counter-rhythmic melodies. It's the crown-jewel of High Violet, an album that not only underscores the National's time-tested aesthetic approach, but could establish them as bona fide influencers of tomorrow's young bands. I wouldn't deem it out of the question to see a movement borne out of their creative approach.
Pros: The songs, the drums, the lyrics, the overall aesthetic--the National has it down pat, yet they continue to both subtly expand and refine their music.
Cons: A few tracks that cheat towards the middle-of-the-road, although without fully reaching it. If nothing else, they serve to highlight High Violet's many strong tracks.


Cole Custer celebrates in Victory Lane after winning Friday night's NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Richmond Raceway.
Not only did Custer win for the fourth time in his career — and for the first time on a short track — but he also claimed the $100,000 Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus that goes to the highest finisher of four eligible contenders.
"We had a great car," Custer said. "(Crew chief Mike Shiplett) made great adjustments as it went… This one mean s a lot. We hadn't had a short-track win yet. We've struggled a lot at short tracks, but this helps.
"I think we're in a great place," Custer said. "We're going to get better and better. I think we've started to figure out our cars later in the race, and I think the second time we go back (to the same tracks), we're going to be even better — just me and Mike working together at these tracks for the first time.
30. (30) B.J. McLeod, Toyota, 245.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Cole Custer 3 times for 122 laps; Justin Allgaier 2 times for 86 laps; Christopher Bell 2 times for 32 laps; Austin Cindric 1 time for 7 laps; Michael Annett 1 time for 2 laps; Riley Herbst 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: 1. Tyler Reddick – 362; 2. Christopher Bell – 338 (2 Wins); 3. Cole Custer – 333 (2 Wins); 4. Austin Cindric – 299; 5. Justin Allgaier – 275; 6. John Hunter Nemechek – 263;7. Michael Annett – 262 (1 Win); 8. Chase Briscoe – 255; 9. Ryan Sieg – 253; 10. Noah Gragson – 246.


At SVP, we can't help but celebrate the successes of our investees. Their progress and growth shows not only that we're supporting them well, but sheds light on the potential that lies ahead for a thriving and sustainable region. Spark Northwest, is no exception. Their recent win for Seattle residents is a vital first step to building access to renewable energy.
"When you own your own home, you can choose to go solar, but when you rent, you don't control your roof," says Mikaela Gonzales, project manager at Spark Northwest.
A recent study reported that 55 percent of low-income households face more than twice the energy burden than the typical Seattle household, based on energy costs as percentage of income.
That's why, in 2014, Spark Northwest launched Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) for All. Convening stakeholders around housing and energy, the group provides the best information on bringing solar energy to multifamily affordable housing in Seattle. And this fall, Spark Northwest took the work a step further by finding a housing property that could model these energy solutions.
Three Capitol Hill Housing properties, home to 147 low-income residents, will get rooftop solar power to generate their own electricity and reduce operating costs. Plus, residents will be involved in deciding how to use the savings.
The installations are the culmination of years of planning by Spark Northwest, Emerald Cities Seattle and Capitol Hill Housing.
"It's been a great team effort to bridge the green divide and bring solar energy to communities who struggle to cover basic needs such as electricity," says Spark Northwest Executive Director Jennifer Grove.
Emerald Cities Seattle offered a tested model, combining low-interest loans with energy efficiency retrofits. Spark Northwest brought solar energy expertise to the mix for a winning recipe. "It just makes sense to bundle solar energy with efficiency, so housing providers can save even more," said Steve Gelb, Director of Emerald Cities Seattle.
GRID alternatives, a nationally recognized non-profit solar installer, supported site evaluations with a remote computer-based assessment tool. Seattle City Light's Green Up grants program awarded a total of $225,000 to the three projects, paving the way for Capitol Hill Housing to move forward on an investment of over $518,000 that will yield energy savings for the next 30 years.
The savings generated by the solar projects will establish a building improvement fund that residents will be involved in deciding how to spend. Additionally, the installations will sustain family-wage solar installation jobs.
Spark Northwest and Emerald Cities Seattle have plans to drive even more installations throughout King County. Their partnership is in ongoing discussions with housing providers to scale up the demonstration projects by installing a megawatt of solar on multifamily rooftops by the end of June 2019.


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Stars turn on the power to earn a place in Knockout Cup semi-finals
Nigel Pearson
Published: 9:53 AM May 17, 2018 Updated: 3:10 PM October 10, 2020
Lewis Kerr and Robert Lambert, left, on their way to a 5-1 in heat four against Leicester. Picture: Ian Burt - Credit: Archant
King's Lynn clinched their spot in the Knockout Cup semi-finals with a dominant display against Leicester on home shale.
Ty Proctor on one wheel after a quality ride in heat nine against Leicester. Picture: Ian Burt - Credit: Archant
The Tru Plant Stars went into the fixture needing to make up a six-point deficit from the first leg.
They started slowly, though, as they failed to get a race win from the opening three heats of the night.
But that proved to be the wake-up call they needed as they reeled off five straight 5-1s which virtually took the meeting away from the Lions heading into the interval.
A 4-2 advantage in heat 13 secured the victory on aggregate to the delight of the Stars' management and supporters with the club now progressing to the last four of the competition.
Stars' boss Dale Allitt said: 'I am very pleased with that victory because it has been a very difficult week with riders pulling out and things like that.
'But these guys just rise above it and it's pleasing to work with because they don't know when they are beaten.
'Again, we had a tough start to the meeting which didn't go as perfectly as we had planned but we came back and owned the rest of the meeting.
'I have said all along from day one that we have key areas that are good and one of those areas is the engine room of the middle order.
'We got nine points from rider replacement which really showed how hard we worked to get the result.
'That said, though, it is never ideal to have to use guests and rider replacement in recent fixtures.
'We should have gone for a Monday and a Thursday race-night as a league, but we were outvoted at the AGM which leaves us where we are, and we have to make the best of it.'
King's Lynn 59: Robert Lambert 17, Ty Proctor 11+2, Lewis Kerr 11+2, Josh Auty 9+3, Thomas Jorgensen 8+1, Kasper Andersen 3+2, Niels-Kristian Iversen rider replacement.
Leicester 31: Rory Schlein 12, Ricky Wells 6, Kyle Howarth 4, Todd Kurtz 4, Kyle Newman 2+1, James Sarjeant 2, Krystian Pieszczek 1.
King's Lynn win 101-79 on aggregate.
The Stars are next in action on Monday when they face a trip north to take on Belle Vue in the Premiership.


This is another one of my recipes for preparing Carrot Pickle, Gajar Ka Achar in Hindi and Gajarache Lonche. This recipe Carrot Pickle is different from the one which had given earlier.
Clean and wash Carrots, cut into long pieces, boil for 5 minutes, take them out and put on a clean dry cloth and allow to dry in the Sun. Heat Mustard Oil, fry Ginger pieces add Methi, Asafoetida, Sauf and Turmeric. Put off the flame add Carrot pieces, Salt and Red Chili powder. Mix well and fill in a jar.


Tonight (Thursday, March 2) is the big night as seven schools take to the stage at Cambridge Corn Exchange to perform in front of an audience for the first time in Sing for your School.
Hundreds of people are expected to attend the event, the culmination of a region-wide programme that began in July 2016, in partnership with Cambridgeshire Music and the News.
Pupils from Bottisham Primary School will also be performing their song A Big Bottisham Welcome, which received the most online plays during the competition.
The final performers at the event will be singer-songwriters Dan Wilde and Ilarna Niche, who were two of the official reviewers for the competition, giving feedback on each of the songs entered.
For more pictures and news from the Sing for your School celebration visit the Cambridge News website and follow the event as it unfolds on Twitter, using the hashtag #SFYS17, and on our Facebook page. Check out tomorrow's edition of the News for more from the event.
Excerpts from the evening will also be featured all next week on The Jeremy Sallis Show on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.


Poetry, Flash Fiction and Short Stories – A place where you can escape into other worlds in another time.
Bruce Rowe was born in the Deep South of Louisiana where folklore and myths are as plentiful as fireflies in the Bluebonnet Swamp on a midsummer's night. He has integrated the supernatural elements from those myths in addition to others from around the world into his stories.
He has short stories published at Spillwords.com, Dastaanworld.com. and Cafelit.com. His story, 'The Rider', was nominated as Publication of the Month in October 2018 as well as 'Grandfather's Clock' as a featured piece at Spillwords. 'The Lonely Traveler' received a special mention at Cafelit.
He presently resides in Southern California.
A few Short Story descriptions: All free for your reading enjoyment.
Deliverance at the Crossroads – Is a new twist from the old tale of Robert Johnson who sold his soul at the Crossroads to become the best blues player of the Delta.
The Rider – Is a tale of a child turned hunter for a pack of wolves that killed his family when he was eight years old only to discovery the truth behind the wolves.
The Kraken and Captain Cutch – Is a pirate tale about a Pirate Captain whose ship was destroyed by a zombie kraken and his hunt for revenge.


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Videogame BANG!
The Filmlosophers
Me, Mikeself, and I
Lesson 102: Lady Bird – An Uncaged Spirit
Feb 28, 2018 | Chad Riley, Eddie Villanueva, Movies, Podcasts, Spencer Williams, The Filmlosophers
The Filmlosophers, Eddie Villanueva, Chad Riley and Spencer Williams, keep things in their hometown with this week's review of Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird (2017). Set in Sacramento, the film chronicles a high school senior's turbulent relationship with family and friends as she prepares to end her final year in private school and move on to a college of her own choosing. Filmed almost entirely in Sacramento, Lady Bird has received numerous critical and popular accolades since it first debuted on the film festival circuit in 2017.
The film stars Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Timothee Chalamet, Tracy Letts and more. As of the recording of this episode, Lady Bird is up for five Academy Awards on March 4th.
Lesson 199: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Spoiler)
The Filmlosophers spare no expense and bring back Travis and the gift of our unfiltered spoiler-filled thoughts on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The Glad Tiding Trio break out the joy of their opinions on the latest installment of the sci-fi franchise that's...
Lesson 198: The Star Wars Holiday Special
The Filmlosophers brave new and uncharted territory, and come out more confused than ever after a conversation over The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978). The Cinematic Kringles don their holiday thinking caps to decipher one of the Star Wars franchise best kept...
Lesson 197: Star Wars Crash Course (feat. Travis Cook)
The Filmlosophers are joined by Travis Cook to traverse the galaxy in the education of a galaxy far, far away, talking about the Star Wars franchise. In preparation of the upcoming film, the Twilekian Trio careen down the Kessel Run to present their Crash Course in...


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Anambra Commissioner resigns, says Obiano not in charge
Emedeboi
A commissioner with the Anambra State government, Dr Christian Madubuko has resigned his appointment, alleging threat to life and sabotage.
Madubuko who last worked as the Commissioner for Art, Culture and Tourism turned in his resignation letter, saying that the sabotage he has seen while working as Commissioner in Anambra is the reason it is difficult for Nigeria to develop.
Madubuko, a Canadian trained Nigerian was first appointed as Commissioner for Industry, Trade and Commerce, the Commissioner for Road, Rail and Water Transportation and finally as Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs, Indigenous Artworks, Culture and Tourism.
He was known to have had a running battle with a fellow Commissioner, Mr Uche Okafor of the transport ministry, a battle which many believed he was bound to lose as Okafor was related to the wife of the governor, who is believed to be in charge of the state.
In his resignation letter, Madubuko charged Governor Obiano to quickly wake up and take charge of the government.
FULL TEXT OF RESIGNATION NOTICE
My dear colleagues, l wish to officially notify you of my resignation. I have on the 11th of December 2020 resigned my position as Commissioner. It is my pleasure to thank all of you for the time we spent together in the service of our state. Indeed, it was a three years of action-packed lessons both positive and negative.
I must sincerely thank the Governor for the opportunity to serve. When l was appointed Commissioner in 2018, the Governor directed me to block all revenue leakages.
That l did without looking at faces. In the cause of fighting corrupt individuals holding the State revenue on the throat, all manners of frivolous petitions against me were written to the Governor accusing me of several misdeeds particularly distablising our party, APGA and advising the Governor to remove me before l do more harm to the party.
In several occasions, agents of darkness tried bribing me with milions of the naira. I arrested these criminals which was also applauded by the Governor at the exco meetings. Within this three years, l have been redeployed to three key ministries in the State as Commissioner. First, was as Commissioner for Industry, Trade and Commerce.
Second, was as Commissioner for Road, Rail and Water Transportation and finally as Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs, Indigenous Artworks, Culture and Tourism. In those Ministries, l performed above average. With all these hapenings, it became clear that when you fight corruption, corruption fights back in several forms.
I now understands clearly why Nigeria (nay Africa) can never develop like Europe. I came down from Australia to help in developing our state just like some of you were invited from different parts of the globe. True to my believe, l worked tirelessly to actualize that dream. In working to meet the target, we set – up Mobile Courts and jailed several revenue thieves and significantly raised the State revenue which were applauded by the Governor at various EXCO Meetings. I fought various parasitic interests and jailed many of them. I stepped on toes risking my own life for the survival of the State.
Those toes l stepped on are now in the prowl for my life. I am no longer safe as l speak. In three different occasions, l received baptism of fire by unknown gunmen/assassins. I was equally attacked severally at the Onitsha Main Market by the agents of the revenue criminals. All these attempts were to stop me from exposing the people involved in siphoning the State revenues into their private pockets to the detriments of the Anambra citizens.
I am particularly happy that the Governor acknowledged my positive and selfless contributions to the point of putting my on life on the line in the process of executing my assignments. During the COVID – 19 PANDEMIC, I and my team transvassed and crisscrossed around the state day and night to ensure we protect our people from the dangerous virus.
I recalled the Governor phoning me together with his wife around 3am during the pandemic drama requesting me to have a rest. The Covid Saga provides an example of how bad our system has become.
All our efforts to help the Governor from all angles were unfortunately hijacked and framed in the bad light by forces of inordinate ambitions and insatiable greeds. I watched my State being destroyed by a tiny cabals of renegades. I advice His Excellency the Governor, to rise up to the challanges of leadership and take charge of his Government.
This is because, at the end of it all, the Governor alone takes all the glory for things done right and blames for things done wrong. In summary, l have balanced all and brought all to mind and decided to leave, effective 11:59pm 31st December 2020.
Once again, thank you all and remain blessed. We shall meet again in higher echelon. HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of us.
Christian C. Madubuko, PhD.
Obiano


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So, what is the Alternative?
I would love to think that we will shortly discover some form of limitless energy, and thereby get around all our problems of globe warming CO2 emissions, security of fuel supply - of cheap fuel at that, to preserve our economic advantage, and the whole caboodle. I would also like to think that "Peak Oil" is at best a myth, or at least that it is a long way off, as the Oil Industry would have us believe. I neither think nor believe any of these things, but even those that do might ponder for a moment the question "what would be the alternative" if we were suddenly to find ourselves in the U.K. without (cheap) oil and gas, purely as an intellectual exercise.
"Nuclear Power", I can imagine some of you saying. Well, yes, there is some argument for it, but as I have pointed out in previous articles, nuclear could only provide 18% of our total "energy", even if it were to provide 100% of our "electricity", and there are issues of availability and supply, ignoring all the nasty nuclear waste that nobody has any idea what to do with yet, and what a horrible mess it would be if any of the uranium fuel ended up in a "dirty bomb" etc. etc. "Coal", others will argue, and it's a fair point. We do have plenty of coal. It's a bit rough on The Environment, and some viewers' quality of life would be impacted upon by the vista of dirty collieries and slag heaps - although the latter can be greened-over, mindful of the Aberfan Disaster - but you can't have it both ways. If we want more coal, the landscape will inevitably be scarred by its extraction. Indeed, we could probably dig up enough coal to supply practically all of our electricity and to heat most of our premises both commercial and domestic, if we re-tooled our systems for that purpose. However, even allowing this potentially reassuring solution, clearly coal is not generally a mobile source, and the remaining issue is transportation. Agreed, we could re-introduce steam trains and transport a goodly amount on their backs, but what about road transport - cars, vans and lorries, which carry more freight, in terms of both human and commercial cargo, than anything else does. Even trains run on diesel now.
I guess we could, in principle at least, adapt all these vehicles to run on gas, but gas supply is potentially a problem as we are running out of North Sea gas, and the U.K. is now a net energy importer, and we will need to import our gas increasingly from more politically maverick regions of the world such as Russia, which contains by far the world's greatest deposits of natural gas, mainly in the gas fields of Western Siberia. As I posed at the outset, it is both gas and oil that we are seeking to find an alternative for. "Run them all on hydrogen", others will propose. But, as I have also shown in this series of articles, hydrogen is totally impractical, since it is actually made from natural gas, and we could not realistically generate the phenomenal quantities of it required to substitute for oil if the current numbers of vehicles are to be maintained, by electrolysis - and the car industry would like even more of them.
In reality, there is no means to substitute for all the oil currently consumed. I won't say "which 'we' consume" since I deliberately don't own a car - I walk if my journey is anywhere within three miles, otherwise I use public transport, or if it's raining, say. And that seems to be the key. We can simply get around most of our problems of fuel supply by reducing or eliminating where possible the demands we place upon it. If we base those demands upon the requirements of a local economy and community, 90% of any actual"shortage" can be immediately avoided. However, any move toward such localisation beyond seductive lip-service will be deftly resisted by the oil companies and their sisters in the car industry, who will bend the ear of government to serve their will.
The Dahli Lhama thinks that all the problems of the world could be resolved through peace and understanding between people. I suspect he's right, but then he's not out to make a buck!
We Can't Live Without Fossil Fuels - CO2 or not!
In a utopian world, all our energy needs might be met by renewables. It is the green dream of a world in which wind/wave/solar/ hydroelectric/geothermal are the primary energy sources, and are used to turn turbines to make plentiful electricity for all, while leaving "The Environment" untainted. Even if we could find utopia in the U.K.'s pleasant land, currently the green dream would only supply 18% of the energy that the nation uses overall. Placed in context, the most favourable rallying cry, that 40% of the U.K.'s energy might be provided from renewables by 2050, appears a little limp, since it may be seen that even this most favourable scenario would only provide 40% of 18% = 7.2% of our total energy requirements, once the significance is appreciated that by the word "energy" it is "electricity" that is actually meant, but it sounds far more progressive to call it energy.
The current proportion of electricity generated from renewables is miniscule, at around 1%, i.e. perhaps 0.2% of total energy. The figure of 9% often quoted as being the proportion of electricity produced as "primary electricity" is highly misleading, since it includes electricity generated using nuclear power - rather, "uranium" should be listed separately as a primary fuel, reserving the term "primary electricity" for that produced from hydroelectric/wind/wave/solar/geothermal sources, i.e. those which are truly primary, and are renewable. Nuclear, as I have commented in previous articles in this series, is unsustainable (because it uses up uranium, of which there is only a limited supply), potentially dangerous and of limited benefit at best, neither securing security of supply nor significantly eliminating the U.K.'s own burden upon world CO2 greenhouse gas emissions.
If we "do the math" as they say across the pond, i.e. work a book keeping exercise, the figures find that 22% of total electricity is provided from nuclear sources, ignoring the Sun whose contribution to artificial energy production is negligible, standing trivially apart from the miracle of photosynthesis. As I have noted, even generating 40% of electricity from renewables by 2050 would only represent 7.2% of the energy we use in total, while oil and gas will still furnish the lion's share, together providing 78% of the total. As I stated at the outset, we are considering a perfect world where electricity is in limitless supply, and is provided from renewable sources. In such a world, why wouldn't we simply provide practically all our energy requirements by electrical means? Wind energy is more complex than at first appears. It is not simply a case of inaugurating 1 GW of wind capacity to replace 1 GW of fossil fuel or nuclear (ground based) power. The reason for this boils down to the fact that the amount of energy that may be extracted depends on the dimensions of the turbine blade and on the speed of the wind. Thus a blade that is too small might extract very little energy until the wind speed had reached, say 40 mph, and since the wind speed varies and is often significantly less than this, the turbine would not accumulate sufficient time at high power output to achieve a reasonable annual energy output.
A larger blade might begin to harvest wind energy at only a few mph, drawing a maximum power at, say 15 mph, but would need to be geared down, perhaps by the time the wind speed reached 25 mph to limit mechanical stress upon the turbine.
Experience in both Germany and Denmark - a country which produces 20% of its electricity from wind power (i.e. about the same as the U.K. does from nuclear) - is that 20% or less of full capacity is expected over a period of a year. This "capacity factor" as it is known, is simply the wind turbine's actual energy output over the year divided by the energy that would be obtained if it were run at full capacity over the same period (i.e. an upper limit of 0.2, which we now assume). A crude calculation indicates that if we were to try and replace around 62 GW of current energy demand by wind power, this would require 62/0.2 = 310 GW of full wind turbine capacity. But this large number still only refers to the 18% of total "energy" that comes from electricity. If we take the calculation to the limit of supplying all energy in the form of electricity, in order to eliminate the use of coal/oil/gas/nuclear generated energy, we would need about another 80% of the total which comes to 276 GW as derived from these greenhouse gas generating source (and building nuclear power plants, mining and milling their uranium fuel etc. also produces CO2, despite the rhetoric of the pro-nuclear lobby, the government and it's Chief Scientific Advisor), this steps up to a massive 310 + (276/0.2) = 1690 GW to be generated from wind energy.
The technology improves as turbines get bigger, but even using turbines rated at 0.5 MW full capacity, we would need to produce 3,380,000 of them, which would be a staggering endeavour. In addition, a vast network of hydrogen - an energy storage medium, which requires primary fuels to produce it, including electricity as in the present utopian scenario - storage devices, fuel cells for vehicles as we are going the whole hog of 100% reduction in carbon emissions here, would be necessary. Graham Sinden at the Oxford University Environmental Change Institute has estimated that a mix of 43% wind, 52% wave and 5 % tidal stream power could reliably produce the equivalent of 8 GW worth of coal, oil or gas power (out of about 344 GW worth of these total fuels burned), which is not a lot. If drastic reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases, in the range of 80 - 90% (still requiring 3 million or so wind turbines) of the current level is required by 2023, we really are in trouble, as there is no real means to replace the huge qauntities of fossil fuels that we currently use.
The only scenario which could succeed in making any significant impact is to focus on energy saving strategies, e.g. buildings designed perhaps along the lines of the "40% House" being researched by Dr Brenda Boardman's group in the Oxford University Environmental Change Institute, and further advances of it where heat from appliances, body heat etc. would fulfil most of its space heating requirements. The "Zed Bed" and "Passivhaus" concepts are also most interesting, and there are web pages available for them which are worth purusing for more detail. The Passivhaus is a continuously ventilated unit, which draws warm air into it via pipes that are heated geothermally by being buried in the soil, thus avoiding the veltilation problems that might arise from an "ultra"- insulated building and since the incoming air is to some extent warmed (to 5 degrees C, even in winter), along with efficient insulation, relatively modest additional heating is needed. However, the construction and engineering efforts required to substitute sufficient such buildings on time (i.e. before the climatic effect of CO2 is expected by some experts to be irreparable, 2030 perhaps) are truly daunting, and would meanwhile be producing CO2 until their final fabrications were complete. This point was reinforced by Professor James Wouduysen recently, in his statement: "It will take 1,000 years at current rates for our current housing stock to be replaced". He then suggested that houses could be constructed as part built kit homes, exported from China, which could be assembled in the U.K. and transported to their final site of location. This might require relocating some people to other parts of the country, but he argues that 280,000 computer designed, insulated units a year could be provided for the U.K. market by this means, which in many ways resembles car mass production.
However, the aspect of having more energy efficient buildings does not tackle the issues/problems of transportation, and its fuel requirements which remain enormous even allowing for improved efficiency methods - i.e. more miles per tank of fuel, using fuel cells etc. ultimately, and meanwhile using more efficient combustion engines, while the hydrogen powered utopia was being implemented. This leads to my final point, that we also need to reduce our dependence on transportation by living in "local" communities based on local economies, which supply smaller populations from local farms, and therefore cut down generally on more global transportation necessities. In our localised communities, we would also want fewer cars, and less foreign holidays too, once the general concept had been assimilated that we can't continue as we are. I'm afraid this is the best I can offer, which gives me no comfort either, but I can see no quick fix to our greenhouse gas emissions, as implementing all of this will take decades, if it happens at all. Meanwhile we will continue to pump out CO2 into the atmosphere.
Die Off.
The ownership of the largest deposits of oil, notably in the former U.S.S.R., e.g. Siberia and Kazakhstan and the Caspian region generally, in addition to the fields in the Middle East, will likely determine the future balance of world power. "The New World Order" as it is sometimes referred to. It is interesting that it is scientists from the former U.S.S.R. who throng highly among the ranks of "Hubbert detractors" - those who do not believe in an imminent "peak oil" scenario. There appears to be a conflict of opinion, and probably of interest too, between Western and Soviet oil experts, which revolves around different viewpoints as to the origin of petroleum. The western belief is, as we were all taught at school, that petroleum is a result of "cooking" plant and animal remains over millennia, and proof of its origin thus is taken to be the presence of the same type of organic molecules (porphyrins etc.) as are found in living plants and animals.
Soviet thinking, which goes back at least as far as the great Russian chemist Medeleyev (who invented the Periodic Table of the chemical Elements), is that petroleum is formed in the deep earth by geochemical processes - Mendeleyev thought by the action of water on iron carbides. The explanation for the presence of porphyrins etc. is that they are simply dissolved from higher strata by petroleum moving upward from the depths, and acting as an organic solvent. The essential difference between these schools of thinking is that, if the Russians are right, oil can be considered a limitless resource, while the western view readily accords with an imminent peak oil; i.e. a finite supply of oil. The Russians, however, are sufficiently convinced after more than 50 years of intensive research that their theory is correct and they have made enormous investments in developing "deep drilling" techniques (2 km and more down) with which to reach the petroleum deposits formed deep underground.
Either the Russians will secure their position more strongly in the new world order, or affordable oil will eventually run out - for everybody. This is particularly alarming in the context of world population. In 1900, there were less than 2 billion people on the planet (up from about 1 billion in 1800); now the figure is 6.4 billion, and the exponential curve in population growth that these numbers can be plotted upon is an exact parallel with that for oil production. Without the vast quantities of chemical fertilizers, which are made from oil and gas, we could not grow enough food to feed the rising population, nor even the current number, nor far less than that. Some predict that a "die off" will follow peak oil production, and that the world population will fall from 6.4 billion to perhaps as few as 500 million (the death of almost 5 billion people, or about 92% of the number now alive).
An analogy can be drawn with the growth of bacteria, which, so long as there is sufficient food available, follows a "sigmoid curve". There is an initial growth in population which multiplies rapidly (the rising upper of the sigmoid), and then levels off abruptly when the food supply becomes restricted relative to the new, far larger population. Then they begin to eat each other instead, and the number of bacteria remaining alive plummets.
It is hardly a comforting prospect.
Peak Oil.
The end of cheap oil is nigh. Although there is plenty left untapped, oil will become progressively more expensive to extract, with irrevocable consequences that impact profoundly on each and every aspect of human life. Even an increase in overall costs by 10% in transportation, imports and exports, processing and manufacture could jeopardise the world economy, and it is worse than that. There is almost no modern commodity that does not rely at some stage on oil or gas, and that includes food!, and it is thought in some quarters that a peak in oil production "peak oil" is either upon us already or at least by 2010.
If we try to save oil by using natural gas instead, "peak gas" will arrive sooner than by 2100 as is currently predicted. These dates refer to "world production" of oil and gas, and are misleading because the "peak" in production will vary from one gas or oil field to another. Precise dates are difficult to divine since no one knows for sure exactly how much of these fuels lie in reserve. Shell Oil got itself into trouble recently for somewhat overestimating the residual quantities of oil in the fields under their banner of exploration and extraction. Perhaps it was a simple mistake. I attended a conference in October on the provision of "U.K. Energy to 2050" (http://www.geolsoc.org/uk/template.cfm?name=PR60") where a spokesman for B.P. tried to convince the assembled delegation that there was plenty of oil left, and that for each additional one trillion barrels remaining, the "peak" in production would be shifted forward by about 33 years. Accordingly, if peak oil will strike in 2010, according to currently accepted reserves, another trillion barrels means the inevitable will not hit until 2043, and so on to 2076 and 2109. There is, however, no hard evidence for such additional aliquots of oil, and peak oil remains incontrovertible at some point. It is only a matter of "when?" not "if". Hence it makes sense to prepare for the eventuality by reducing demand on the resource; and yet demand increases inexorably, particularly in the developing world (notably China and India) who's citizens aspire toward a western lifestyle, which even the west can no longer afford.
The concept of "Peak Oil" originated in the mind of Dr M. King Hubbert, who published the fundaments of his ideas in a seminal paper in 1956. He arrived at the conclusion that there will be a lag of about 40 years between the peak in oil discovery and the peak in oil production: "peak oil". Hubbert's prediction was almost spot on for U.S. peak oil. The peak in oil discovery occurred in 1929 and peak oil in 1968; it's slightly premature arrival (by one year) being explained by more efficient extraction methods which were introduced during the latter part of that period. In the Middle East, peak discovery occurred in the early 1970's, so according to Hubbert, we might expect peak oil to occur there within a few years of 2010.
Such "Hubbert's Peak" analyses have not found universal favour. I mentioned that oil companies tend toward an optimistic view of how much oil actually remains in reserve to be extracted. Almost certainly, more advanced drilling methods have depleted the deposits more quickly than would have been the case using older technology. Accepting these and many other uncertainties, it is probably sensible to believe that peak oil is not so far away that we can ignore it. A Hubbert's peak is a "bell-shaped" curve: a plot of oil production versus time. There is a steady rise in production that follows discovery, which then peaks, and subsequently falls away. It is the letter portion of the curve that is dangerous, since it represents the failing of the oil jamboree, when the raw resource becomes progressively more expensive to obtain - this occurs once about half the original reserve is left. Since everything depends on oil, either as a raw manufacturing material, or as a production fuel, or both, the impact of peak oil on the world economy will be both profound and unpredictable.
"Energy" - not just "Electricity".
Implementing nuclear power on a grand scale will not secure an energy supply for the U.K., nor will it significantly reduce our CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. The reason is simple, but is seldom rendered explicitly, that only 18% of the total final energy consumption is provided by electricity. 78% (IEEE 430% more) of the U.K.'s energy is produced by burning natural gas and oil directly, and this burden would not be influenced at all by any amount of nuclear development. The maximum change that might be made - at least in principle - is the substitution of all fossil fuel (mostly coal and gas) fired power stations by nuclear. Exactly how monumental an undertaking this would be may be gauged from the fact that the current 22% of total electricity produced by nuclear is generated from 31 reactors, which are housed in 13 separate power stations. On this basis, to substitute for the 73% of electricity currently produced from coal and gas, using nuclear, would require building around 100 or so new reactors, and that is on top of the 30 new reactors that will be required in any case, to replace those existing reactors that will come to the end of their working lifetimes by the year 2025.
This clearly is a colossal undertaking which does not solve the major issues of "security of supply" or CO2 emissions in any significant degree. We will still need to import oil and gas from politically maverick regions, mainly Russia and the Middle east, and is the uranium fuel required for nuclear to be found on our doorstep? Hardly. Most of it comes over from Canada. What about renewables? It is thought that in the longer run (say, by 2050) around 40% of the U.K.'s electricity might be provided using wind/wave/hydroelectric/ solar power. A significant proportion of this would be produced by "microgeneration" devices, rather than a large scale "grid", though any excess electricity generated beyond the local demands of each "micro" community, could be fed into the central network. This still only addresses "electricity" as a final fuel, and the question of providing the greater bulk of "energy" persists.
In simple economic terms, on the level of an individual or a country, the degree of security depends on the gap between income and expenditure. More can be earned or less spent. As far as the U.K.'s energy earnings are concerned, the limit is in sight. We cannot realistically "earn" more fuel, and we may well have to endure a pay-cut. It is thus a matter of economy, and of economising. That we spend the precious resources of oil and gas only where it is essential to do so. This will involve schemes of energy efficiency, for example the "40% House" being researched by Dr Brenda Boardman's group in the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University. Such advances in building design could make huge savings in energy use for "space heating" across both the domestic and commercial sectors (each of which accounts for around 30% of the national total energy demand). Transport, which uses another 26%, mainly in the form of oil, is another area where savings could be made, both through more efficient combustion engines (or fuel cells, if the costs can ever be made realistic), and simply by eliminating all unnecessary use of cars (especially the military style "road wagons" - 4x4's, SUV's, depending on which side of the Atlantic you are - that have more to do with symbolising status than any practical transportation issue) .
To a reasonable mind it all seems straightforward, but I suspect there are too many people making too much money to allow any attention more than lip-service to be paid, until it is too late and there is no longer any choice.
Feasible Fusion Power? - I doubt it!
When I was about 10, I recall hearing that nuclear fusion power would become a reality "in about thirty years". The estimate has increased steadily since then, and now, thirty odd years on, we hear that fusion power will come on-stream "in about fifty years". So, what is the real likelihood of fusion based power stations coming to our aid in averting the imminent energy crisis? Getting two nuclei to fuse is not easy, since both carry a positive charge and hence their natural propensity is to repel one another. Therefore, a lot of energy is required to force them together so that they can fuse. To achieve this, suitable conditions of extremely high temperature, comparable to those found in stars, must be met. A specific temperature must be reached in order for particular nuclei to fuse with one another. This is termed the "critical ignition temperature", and is around 400 million degrees centigrade for two deuterium nuclei to fuse, while a more modest 45 million degrees is sufficient for a deuterium nucleus to fuse with a tritium nucleus. For this reason, it is deuterium-tritium fusion that is most sought after, since it should be most easily achieved and sustained.
One disadvantage of tritium is that it is radioactive and decays with a half-life of about 12 years; consequently, it exists naturally in any negligible amounts. However, tritium may be "bred" from lithium using neutrons produced in an initial deuterium-tritium fusion. Ideally, the process would become self-sustaining, with lithium fuel being burned via conversion to tritium, which then fuses with deuterium, releasing more neutrons. While not unlimited, there are sufficient known resources of lithium to fire a global fusion programme for about a thousand years. The supply would be effectively limitless if lithium could be extracted from the oceans.
In a working scenario, some of the energy produced by fusion would be required to maintain the high temperature of the fuel such that the fusion process becomes continuous. At the temperature of around 100 - 300 million degrees, the deuterium/lithium/tritium mixture will exist in the form of a plasma, in which are nuclei are naked (having lost their initial atomic electron clouds) and are hence exposed to fuse with one another. The neutron flux produced by the plasma is very high, and the overall breeding efficiency of lithium to tritium would be enhanced by surrounding the reactor with a blanket of lithium about three feet thick. The intense neutron flux will render the material used to construct the reactor highly radioactive, to the extent that it would not be feasible for operators to enter its vicinity for routine maintenance. The radioactive material will need to be disposed of similarly to the requirements for nuclear waste generated by nuclear fission, and hence fusion is not as "clean" as is often claimed. There is also the possibility that the lithium blanket around the reactor might be replaced by uranium, so effecting the option of breeding plutonium for use in nuclear weapons.
The main difficulty which bedevils maintaining a working fusion reactor which might be used to fire a power station is containing the plasma, a process usually referred to as "confinement". Essentially, the plasma is confined in a magnetic bottle, since its component charged nuclei and electrons tend to follow the field of magnetic force, which can be so arranged that the lines of force occupy a proscribed region and are thus centralised to a particular volume. However, the plasma is a "complex" system that readily becomes unstable and leaks away. Unlike a star, the plasma is highly rarefied (a low pressure gas), so that the proton-proton cycle that powers the sun could not be thus achieved on earth, as it is only the intensely high density of nuclei in the sun's core that allows the process to occur sustainably, and that the plasma is contained within its own gravitational mass, and isolated within the cold vacuum of space.
In June 2005, the EU, France, Japan, South Korea, China and the U.S. agreed to spend $12 billion to build an experimental fusion apparatus (called ITER) by 2014. It is planned that ITER will function as a research instrument for the following 20 years, and the knowledge gained will provide the basis for building a more advanced research machine. After another 30 years, if all goes well, the first commercial fusion powered electricity might come on-stream. The engineering requirements will be formidable, however, most likely confronting problems no one has thought of yet, and even according to the most favourable predictions of the experts, fusion power is still 60 years away, if it will arrive at all. Given that the energy crisis will hit hard long before then, I suggest we look to more immediate solutions, mainly in terms of energy efficiency, for which there is ample scope.
A Nuclear Future?
Nuclear power, now usually dubbed "nuclear" looks set to return to the fold, having been the black sheep of the family for a good three decades. Its protagonists claim that during the lifetime of a nuclear power plant (NPP), only around 20 - 40% of the CO2 generated by an equivalent typical gas fired plant is released, and so nuclear is a more environmentally benign supply of energy. This figure should be taken as representing the CO2 output during the whole lifetime of an NPP, which might be somewhere up to 100 years. The initial carbon debt incurred in constructing and fuelling an NPP takes about 10 years to be paid off. The aspect of fuel requires further consideration. Most NPP's use uranium as their fuel. As mined, uranium comes mainly in two kinds, uranium-235 and uranium-238. Only uranium-235 is "fissile", i.e. can be "burned" in a fission nuclear reactor. "Fissile" means that the atomic nucleus can split into two on absorbing a neutron with the release of a huge amount of energy. To envisage just how much energy is released, a million-fold factor is sometimes quoted, meaning that one gram of uranium-235 releases as much energy as burning one million grams, i.e. one tonne, of coal or oil - roughly, since their energy output is not exactly the same.
In most NPP's it is necessary to enrich the uranium fuel in uranium-235. This is done by depleting it in uranium-238 (which is non-fissile and hence useless as a fuel), which then provides "depleted uranium" on a large scale for use in armaments and explosive shells. It is not widely recognised that uranium is a finite resource just as oil and gas are. Estimates vary, but there are probably reserves containing about 3 million tonnes of uranium available to supply a current demand of around 68,000 tonnes annually. This suggests that the present number of NPP's could be run for another 40 years or so. But what then? Sir David King (the Government's Chief Scientific Advisor) is quoted as saying that since "global warming [is a] greater threat than terrorism", the use of nuclear should be expanded to supplant fossil fuel fired power stations and hence reduce the overall CO2 emissions attendant to power production. This is a view also recently espoused by no less than Professor James Lovelock, of Gaia fame, though Lovelock has never been entirely anti-nuclear. However, since the world generates around one sixth of its electricity from nuclear, if we could replace all the fossil fuelled plants by NPP's overnight, the forty year fuel enforced limit on fission powered NPP's would be reduced to about 7 years, and I have seen estimates as low as 3 - 4 years for this scenario. So, why are we still even talking about it?
There is one alternative, which still uses fission, but can burn the majority (99%) uranium-238, rather than the conventional reactor which is highly wasteful since it uses only <1% of natural uranium, in the form of uranium-235. A special reactor is needed to do this, which is called a "Fast Breeder". In a fast breeder, natural uranium is irradiated with neutrons, some of which are absorbed by uranium-238 nuclei and convert them to plutonium-239. Plutonium-239 is fissile and so can be used as a nuclear fuel. As the reactor runs, producing energy by the fission of plutonium-239, the uranium-238 present as an initial 80:20 mix of uranium:plutonium is conveted to more plutonium-239, hence the term "breeder" because the reactor "breeds" more fuel than it consumes. A blanket of uranium encases the reactor to absorb more of the available neutrons, and can be reprocessed to extract more plutonium fuel, making the overall breeding more efficient still. It is a "fast" breeder, because it is mostly highly energetic ("fast") neutrons that are absorbed by uranium-238.
Overall, the breeder technology is around 60 times more efficient in its use of uranium than a standard fission reactor is, and such an approach could extend the viable lifetime of nuclear to several hundred years, even allowing for the proliferation that King and Lovelock and others are promulgating. However, we would surely be replacing one form of pollution by another. If we cut back on CO2 emissions, which may be a good thing, although there are still some who remain unconvinced as to the link between anthopogenic CO2 production and global warming, further pressure is impressed upon our already heady dilemma of what to do with the existing burden of nuclear waste.
Unmentioned explicitly too in arguments favouring nuclear is the "P-word", "Plutonium", which would be manufactured on an unprecedented scale, presumably in politically dodgy regions of the planet, if it is a global effort that will be made, and ther is every reason to believe that terrorists or megalomaniacal governments could take advantage of the situation, either by getting hold of the material directly and fashioning it into dirty bombs, or by blowing-up the breeder reactor in-situ. Surely, more could be done in terms of energy efficiency and sustainable energy production, unless there is another agenda that requires plutonium for other purposes, such as a revamping of the nuclear weapons programme.
How to plug the Energy Gap to 2050.
It has been concluded that providing the U.K. with energy up to 2050 will require a suite of energy sources, including nuclear power. This inference is the outcome of a two day conference held in London in October 2005, which I attended. A subsequent report was written by John Loughead (Executive Director of the UK Energy Research Centre), of which an overview was presented to the Royal Society on November 10th. I will now give mention and some thoughts to the following points arising.
Fossil fuels will provide the primary energy source for the next 50 years.
(1) Coal. It is thought that coal will likely remain fairly cheap, and so finding improved ways for using it as a clean fuel source is a priority. Nonetheless, there is no getting around the fact that burning coal produces CO2. Carbon capture and sequestration (pumping it underground or onto the ocean floor) might play some part in ameliorating the impact of coal use, but the technology has yet to be demonstrated on the full scale, and concerns remain about its long term safety (i.e. how confident can we be that the CO2 will stay put; or might it suddenly erupt, causing chaos to the climate), which will certainly delay its actual implementation.
In principle, coal might be "gasified", especially in seams which are not feasible to mine, to produce e.g. methane and hydrogen as fuels, but questions arise over issues of practicality and safety (e.g. a large emission of methane, with an instantaneous radiative forcing potential around 100x that of CO2, would not be good!).
(2) Oil. This is of prime importance to transportation. Hydrogen is sometimes spoken of as an "alternative fuel" but it is not a primary source rather an energy carrier, and has to be made using a primary fuel, often natural gas, or by the electrolysis of water which requires electricity generated using a primary source. Debate remains over just how much oil is available for exploitation, but it is expected that a peak in oil production "peak oil" will occur between now and 2050, and some believe that it will occur any time between now (2005, so we might be there already) and 2010 (which is not far off).
(3) Gas. Supplies of natural gas are extensive, and "peak gas" is not expected before 2050. There are concerns, however, that the U.K. is no longer a net exporter of gas, but will rely increasingly on imports of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from potentially politically complex and unpredictable regions such as Russia, hence security of supply is an issue.
(4) Nuclear. The matter of nuclear power has never been more contentious than it is now. It is argued that nuclear fission is a "mature technology", so we know what is involved, but the costs, in terms of new construction and the decommissioning of nuclear power plants (NPP) at the end of their working lifetimes, and of the disposal and long term storage of nuclear waste, are likely to be enormous. It is clear that all but one of the currently operating U.K. NPP's will need to be decommissioned by 2025, and probably replaced by new, since an alternative which provides 22% of the total U.K. electricity would be hard to implement in the short term (e.g. renewables). There are problems of supply of essential component parts, however, e.g. there are only two suppliers to be found worldwide who can supply the complex pressure vessels required by modern fission reactors.
(5) Renewables. Under the most favourable circumstances, it is thought that renewables might provide up to 40% of the U.K.'s electricity by 2050. Nonetheless, substantial investment and clear government policy is required to achieve the improved technology and its manufacture to bring, e.g. solar, wind, tidal, into economic parity with existing energy sources.
(6) Demand. This is a feature oft overlooked during discussions about energy provision, and yet it is surely key to addressing the considerable problems that face us. A simple rationing policy would prove instantly unpopular (a real vote-loser) since most of us wish to preserve our current (no pun intended) standard of living. We are, therefore, talking about "energy efficiency", of making the best use of what we have. The Oxford Environmental Change Institute are working on Ultra Insulated Houses (e.g. "The 40% House" project), which they think will ultimately evolve to the level where artificial heating is not required. Background and e.g. body heat, contained within improved building design, would be sufficient to provide a comfortable living environment. There are presumably issues of ventilation etc. to be addressed.
Even before this ideal is achieved, buildings generally could be so constructed to render huge reductions in the amount of energy required to heat them to the standards we expect. The same institute have concluded that the U.K. could provide up to 60% of its electricity through renewables, which does make me think that a judicious combination of efficiency and renewables could go a long way to "plug(ing) the energy gap to 2050", the title of this article. However, there is a vested infrastructure built around fossil fuels, both political and economic, which might put up some resistance to change. Clear government policies are mandatory on all these issues: we need guidance from our elected leadership as to which path we should follow as a collective nation.


tex-fonts-hebrew-0.1-29.fc29 has been pushed to the Fedora 29 testing repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
tex-fonts-hebrew-0.1-29.fc28 has been pushed to the Fedora 28 testing repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
tex-fonts-hebrew-0.1-29.fc29 has been pushed to the Fedora 29 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
tex-fonts-hebrew-0.1-29.fc28 has been pushed to the Fedora 28 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.


The product contains a complex of the active cannabinoids including CBD, valuable substance with anti-inflammatory and relaxing properties .
The product can be consumed both as a herbal tea that as a raw material to be vaporized. Hemp leaves have a positive effect on the immune and nervous system. You can prepare an herbal tea that: Relaxes and calms. It helps against sleep disorders, migraine and helps digestion. It can help regulate cholesterol and blood pressure.
Preparation: 1 to 2 tablespoons per cup, pour the boiling water and allow to act for ca. 6 min. Ingredients: 100% dried leaves of hemp, certified organic.
Keep tightly closed and kept cool.


text:
Does Jerky Make You Manic?
by Kathryn Drury Wagner
rez-art/Thinkstock
There's a strange link between meat and your mind.
My goodness, has there been some strange news floating around about meat this summer. You've probably heard about how tick bites can trigger an allergy to beef, lamb, pork and venison, to such an extent that a former burger lover can go into anaphylactic shock if he or she eats meat. Well, the meat report just got even more convoluted. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that beef jerky and other meat snacks may cause mania, both in people with and without psychiatric disorders. The culprit is thought to be the nitrates, used as a preservative and to keep meats an appealing pinkish color; they can be found in foods such as hot dogs, salami, beef jerky and other processed meat treats.
The John Hopkins research was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. An analysis of 1,000 people showed that people who had been treated at a hospital for an episode of mania had more than three times the odds of ever having eaten nitrate-cured meats than people without a history of the disorder. Mania is an abnormal mood state that has symptoms such as insomnia, hyperactivity, euphoria, grandiose beliefs and inappropriate behavior. It can last weeks or even months and is most often associated with bipolar disorder.
The same researchers experimented on rats; they found that after a few weeks of being fed rat chow and store-bought jerky with added nitrates, the rats exhibited signs of mania—that is, hyperactivity. Rats who received chow and a nitrate-free dried beef behaved similarly to a control group who had received chow and no jerky at all.
The research team cautioned that it was too early to jump to conclusions, and that the occasional snack of jerky or hot dog is unlikely to cause a manic episode in most people. But the study does add to the growing body of evidence that the way bacteria in the gut and the brain interact. Lead author Robert Yolken, M.D., of Johns Hopkins, wrote, "Future work on this association could lead to dietary interventions to help reduce the risk of manic episodes in those who have bipolar disorder or who are otherwise vulnerable to mania."
Spirituality & Health's Wellbeing Editor, Kathryn Drury Wagner, is based in Savannah. She's been a contributor to the magazine for many years, and she loves sharing ways to build a healthy, mindful, and sustainable lifestyle.
Study • Diet • Mental Health
The Spiritual Side of S'mores
by Sarah Bowen
Book Review: In Search of Wisdom
by Matthieu Ricard, Christophe André, and Alexandre Jollien


text:
/**
 * @file
 * The controller listens for server commands and uses them to change
 * the model.
 *
 * long description, many sentences.
 *
 */

#ifndef __CONTROLLER_H
#define __CONTROLLER_H

#include "server.h"
#include "model.h"

#include <ctype.h>

class Controller;
typedef void (Controller::*CTRMETHOD)(int argc,char *argv[]);

class Controller : public ServerListener {

    /// send the currently iterated component type
    void sendCurCT();

    virtual void connect(){
        printf("***** CONNECT\n");
    }
    virtual void disconnect(){
        printf("***** DISCONNECT\n");
    }

    /*************************************************************************************
     *
     * Commands
     *
     ************************************************************************************/
#define DECMETHOD(xx) void method##xx (int argc,char *argv[])

    DECMETHOD(Test);
    DECMETHOD(Die);
    DECMETHOD(Clear);
    DECMETHOD(NewPatch);
    DECMETHOD(ConType);
    DECMETHOD(DelPatch);
    DECMETHOD(NewComponent);
    DECMETHOD(DeleteComponent);
    DECMETHOD(LinkComponent);
    DECMETHOD(UnlinkComponentInput);
    DECMETHOD(UnlinkComponentOutput);
    DECMETHOD(SetRunAlways);
    DECMETHOD(ParamSet);
    DECMETHOD(ParamSetStoredString);
    DECMETHOD(RunPatch);
    DECMETHOD(DebugComp);

    DECMETHOD(StartComps);
    DECMETHOD(NextComp);
    DECMETHOD(CompInName);
    DECMETHOD(CompOutName);
    DECMETHOD(CompParam);
    DECMETHOD(CompEnum);

    /// stored strings for commands which need them
    char storedStrings[10][1024];

    /// output to server if there is one

    void output(const char *s,...);

    /// useful structure storing name -> method mappings
    struct {
        const char *name;
        int argc;
        CTRMETHOD method;
    } commands[32];
    int commandct;

    void regCommand(const char *name,int argc,CTRMETHOD method){
        printf("Command registered: %s\n",name);
        commands[commandct].name = name;
        commands[commandct].argc = argc;
        commands[commandct++].method=method;
    }

    /// split the input into tokens - a command, and up to 16 arguments

    void process(char *q){
        char *argv[16];
        int argc=0;

        if(*q == ':'){
            q++;
            if(*q>='9' || *q<'0')
                server->fail(SE_BADSTRING);
            // a string parameter for a subsequent command. Stash it.
            // This breaks statelessness, but as the server is all about
            // state (i.e. updating a model) it's not a problem
            int stringNumber = (*q++)-'0';
            strncpy(storedStrings[stringNumber],q,1024);
            server->success();
        } else {
            char *command = strtok(q," \t");
            if(!command)
                printf("empty command\n");
            else {
                while(char *s = strtok(NULL," \t")){
                    if(argc==16)
                        throw new Exception("too many args in command",command);
                    argv[argc++]=s;
                }

                // look up the command
                int i;
                for(i=0;i<commandct;i++){
                    if(!strcmp(commands[i].name,command)){
                        if(argc!=commands[i].argc){
                            server->fail(SE_BADARGC);
                        } else {
                            try{
                                (this->*(commands[i].method))(argc,argv);
                            } catch(int n) {
                                // catch numeric exceptions
                                server->fail(n);
                            }
                        }
                        break;
                    }
                }
                if(i==commandct){
                    printf("UNKNOWN COMMAND %s\n",command);
                    server->fail(SE_UNKNOWNCOMMAND);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    PatchLibrary *library; //!< the library I'm controlling
    Responder *server; //!< the server I answer to

public:

    virtual void message(const char *s,int size){
        char *q = (char *)s; // so we can block the final char
        char *k = q;

        // trim unprintables off the end
        while(*k && *k!=10 && *k!=13)k++;
        *k=0;

        printf("***** MSG: %s\n",s);

        process(q);
    }

    /// will register commands and set up model pointers, etc.
    Controller(PatchLibrary *l,Responder *s);
};

#endif /* __CONTROLLER_H */


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