Michael and Diandra Douglas have made an impassioned plea to their powerful friends to help them see their son, Cameron Douglas, who's in solitary confinement while serving time on drug charges.
"We have not seen our son for over a year, and the government is telling us we cannot see our son for TWO YEARS!" wrote Diandra in a letter e-mailed to friends including Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Yoko Ono, Charlie Rose and Diane von Furstenberg.
The plea is also addressed to Bob Pittman, Carolina Herrera, Deborah Norville, Ann Dexter-Jones, Frederic Fekkai, Bianca Jagger and Bo Derek.
It concludes, "Our son Cameron has been sentenced to 9 yrs., the longest sentence ever handed out by the Federal Government for a non violent crime of possession" and, "PLEASE help us by forwarding this petition after signature, to anyone you know who would like to help the cause." There is a link to a petition on change.org.
The couple's plea comes on the heels of Michael's comments about Cameron's sentence during his Emmy acceptance speech.
Cameron was sentenced in 2010 to five years behind bars for possessing heroin and dealing meth and cocaine, but that was nearly doubled in 2011 after he was caught with drugs inside prison. He was put in solitary after he tested positive for drugs again in January this year. He also had his leg broken by another inmate after there was reportedly a bounty to injure him.
Michael Douglas and the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Md., did not respond to a request for comment.


Hi loves! I'm so glad that Summer is FINALLY here. While for many it means lessening up on the layers, there are so many ways to keep it cool, covered and classy this season!
#1. Embroidery. I have always been a fan of embroidery and now we're starting to see it on cardigans, tunics and even bags (the trend reminds me of the souks in Syria from my childhood visits).
#2. Tassels! Along with the embroidered embellishments, tassels are super cute for adding an extra detail to a plain top or scarf. I especially think it's beautiful on spring scarves if you don't like to wear many prints. Here are some of my top tasseled picks.
#3. Strap sandals & espadrilles. I love how these add an effortless vibe to any outfit. They're also SUPER comfortable and versatile.
#4. Silver & turquoise jewelry. Quite charming to wear with plain tunics (you know me and my plain tunics).
#5. Co-ords. I'm loving these matching pant & blazer co-ords here. A-line skirts + matching crop tops with a bomber jacket are super trendy this season for a feminine yet street-style look.
#6. Flared denim. I'm actually really thrilled this trend is back. It's so comfortable to wear with a tunic or a blazer.
#7. A bright bag. I really love saving the extra POP for the accessories. I focus more on having mix-and-matchable clothing pieces, keeping the accessories as the statement pieces. I'm especially loving orange (don't know why!) but let me know what color you're into!
#8. Round sunnies. Oversized sunglasses add so much detail to a plain outfit.
#9. All white suit. Whether it be pairing wide leg pants & a vest, or crepe trousers and a blazer, an all white look is a classic.
#10. Jumpsuits. Talk about effortless. A jumpsuit requires minimal work to put together an easy outfit. Definitely pairable with an oversized cardigan or blazer.
Have a summer trend I missed? Let me know in the comments!


Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) is proud that its international conference is the longest running and one of the largest international conferences on dementia, attracting delegates from around the world. Featuring a range of international keynote speakers and a high standard of scientific and non-scientific content, the conference programme enables participants to learn about the latest advances in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and management of dementia. This unique, multi-disciplinary event brings together all those with an interest, including researchers, scientists, clinicians, allied healthcare professionals, people living with dementia, family members, care professionals, and staff and volunteers of Alzheimer associations.
In 2018, the 33rd International Conference of ADI was held in Chicago, United States, following the Alzheimer's Association International Conference.


We can assist with the final refinement and certification of the product or if your design is fully resolved concentrate purely on the efficient manufacture and delivery solution.
Built in 2012 and designed using modern manufacturing principles, our Cowley Road site is dedicated to the contract manufacture of customer products.
The flexibility of our cell-based manufacturing facilities allows us to configure production capacity to accommodate the varying requirements of our customers – rapidly scaling up or down as necessary, and offering the opportunity for customisation.
Design and engineering teams are co-located with manufacturing teams to ensure that knowledge is applied in real-time to evolve and continuously improve both the production process and the products we build.
It is in our own best interests from a manufacturing efficiency and a future business point of view to design the best possible products.
By combining strong processes with highly skilled, creative people, we succeed in balancing manufacturing discipline and control with a level of autonomy that encourages our teams to take ownership of the product they're working on.
Components, assemblies, including in-sourced metalwork and wiring, and finished product are manufactured in a controlled environment with full traceability and we apply lean, statistical process control and 5S principles to ensure rigorous quality standards.
Whether we're involved in the product development process or offering a 'build to print' service, customers benefit from functionality & durability test plans, Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT), product quality plans, supplier auditing and CE marking.
Like the sound of this, or want to know more? Click here to get in touch.


Not a lot going on here in the Johnson household. We're spending our week doing our best to stay warm and cozy. Hope y'all are doing the same!!
Your hair tricks worked!! I curled my hair this morning and it is still curled. Yay. Thanks so much.
Yay!! I'm so glad to hear that!


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Stepney Green Maths, Computing and Science College, Tower Hamlets, London, UK
In the final days of the BSF program and with a vastly reduced budget, this project brings transformational change to the school by delivering two new buildings and outdoor spaces, whilst renovating the existing library and classrooms.
A key requirement for the project was to create a new identity for the school transforming its image into a welcoming, dynamic learning environment, raising the school's profile within the borough and supporting the aspirations of pupils and staff. The new buildings improve the school's civic presence and inclusiveness with adult evening classes and community groups using the library and Saturday morning school for a wider population.
The existing school site is dominated by an eight-storey tower. Although this provides generous teaching spaces, it is isolated from its surroundings with the rest of the school arranged in poor quality single storey structures. The new masterplan for the school creates a robust 'campus' structure of buildings and different scaled outdoors spaces that integrates the retained and refurbished buildings with the new ones. The current areas of outdoor play are maintained but further expansion of the school facilities through densification can be accommodated.
One of the ambitions is to improve learning and community provision as well as enhancing the local streetscape. The two new buildings, a new teaching block and a sports hall, are at key locations on the school boundary. New entrances and generous glazing of the activity studios and classrooms brings much needed school activity to the surrounding streets, Trafalgar Gardens and the Ocean Estate. This also improves the safety of the surrounding streets by providing passive surveillance and brings new and accessible amenities to local people the first time.
The reception, art and technology building creates a new main school entrance and forms a sequence of spaces that open up school life to the community whilst reducing the impact of the tower. A triple height communal stair, a new sheltered courtyard, and IT pavilion are part of a diagonal sequence of spaces used to create strong visual connections across the school campus and to emphasis the extent of improvements and the school's ICT specialism to the wider community.
The sports hall has been designed to be accessible to the local community from Trafalgar Park. It supports the school's sporting success with Sports England compliant amenities; 4-court gym, activity studio, and multi-gym. In order to maintain the existing areas of outdoor play an additional rooftop multi-use games area has been provided, transforming the sports curriculum.
The broad open stair of the reception, art and technology building is complemented by break out spaces at each floor, for individual and small group work outside of the formal teaching spaces of the classroom. The structural solution avoids structure in partition walls between classrooms, enabling the maximum future flexibility and accommodating further variety in learning strategies. The structural solution also includes a rooftop beam that not only screens the plant room from view, but also frees up the lower levels from additional structure in the deep span of the building.
The sensitive setting with adjacent conservation area is complimented by a contemporary architectural approach that mediates between the surrounding context and reduces the negative impact of the existing austere school environment. The buildings open up with large openings capturing views of the adjacent farm, conservation area and vicarage, and the City of London. Their appearance is also a response to the need to cover large buildings within the very limited budget constraints by bringing a soft, textured surface of light and shadow, and a new consistency to the school campus.
The key challenge for Stepney Green was to maintain the delivery of the school curriculum with the BSF budget cuts and the tight construction sequencing. The cuts meant that there is no extraneous space in the new buildings yet they still meet the educational brief for transformational change. The compact form of the buildings meant that they could be erected whilst existing buildings were still in use.
As a result the project came in on budget and 20 weeks early. Innovation on site included using plywood protection to allow refurbishment to proceed before demolition was complete and using metal shuttering to build the concrete frame without scaffolding which made huge inroads on the tight programme.
London Borough of Tower Hamlets LEP, Stepney Green Maths & Computing College, Bouygues UK
New Build - 4500m2
Refurbishment - 2000m2
GBP 13,000,000


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Bob and Irwin Goodman came to Madison from Minnesota as young men in the 1930s, and across the next seven decades, made the city the beneficiary of their extraordinary good will and philanthropy. Former Madison mayor Dave Cieslewicz said the Goodmans, whose State Street jewelry store served generations of city residents, set a "gold standard" for philanthropy in Madison. Their gifts helped build the first community swimming pool, an east side community center, a Jewish community campus in Verona, and much more.
But while most everyone knew the Goodman name, few really knew Bob and Irwin, for the brothers were private people. This abundantly illustrated biography tells the story: their births in St. Paul; their arrival in Madison; their passion for sports, the jewelry business, healthy living, and, especially, philanthropy; and their lifelong devotion to their mother, and each other. Good Men is a tribute to two extraordinary individuals who adopted the city of Madison almost as family, and in doing so made it a much better place.
Doug Moe has been a journalist in Madison for nearly four decades. He has written a daily newspaper column about the city for the past 18 years, most recently for the Wisconsin State Journal. His previous books include The World of Mike Royko, a Chicago Tribune Choice Selection of the Year; and Lords of the Ring: The Triumph and Tragedy of College Boxing's Greatest Team, runner-up for the August Derleth Award for the best non-fiction book of the year by a Wisconsin author.


text:
The Dental Health of primary school children living in fluoridated, pre-fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities in New South Wales, Australia
Anthony S Blinkhorn1,
Roy Byun2,
George Johnson3,
Pathik Metha1,
Meredith Kay4 &
Peter Lewis5
BMC Oral Health volume 15, Article number: 9 (2015) Cite this article
The Local Government Area of Gosford implemented a water fluoridation scheme in 2008. Therefore the opportunity was taken to record the dental health of primary school children aged 5–7 years prior to the fluoridation and compare the results with other communities in NSW with different access to fluoridated water. The aim was to compare the oral health of New South Wales (Australia)s 5–7 year olds living in fluoridated, and non- fluoridated communities. One of the areas was due to implement water fluoridation and is termed the pre-fluoridation site.
Pupils in the first year of Public and Catholic Schools in three areas of NSW were recruited. Class lists were used to draw a sample of approximately 900 per area. This number allowed for a non-response rate of up to 30 per cent and would give a sample sufficient numbers to allow statistical inferences to be drawn. Children whose parents consented received a dental examination and the clinical data was collected on mark sense cards.
In the 3 areas the proportion of children who received a dental examination varied; 77.5% (n = 825) for the fluoridated area, 80.1% (n = 781) for the pre-fluoridated area and 55.3% (n = 523) for the non-fluoridated area. The mean dmft was 1.40 for the fluoridated area, 2.02 for the pre-fluoridated area and 2.09 for the non-fluoridated area. These differences were statistically significant (p < 0.01). Differences were also noted in the proportion of children who were caries free, 62.6% fluoridated area, 50.8% for the pre-fluoride area and 48.6% for the non-fluoride location.
The children living in the well-established fluoridated area had less dental caries and a higher proportion free from disease when compared with the other two areas which were not fluoridated. Fluoridation demonstrated a clear benefit in terms of better oral health for young children.
The State of New South Wales in Australia has a long history of water fluoridation in common with many other countries throughout the world[1, 2]. In the 1950's levels of dental caries in NSW children were amongst the highest in the world. The mean Decayed, Missing and Filled Teeth score (DMFT) for 12 year olds at that time was 9.0; a huge burden of disease and treatment need[3] In an effort to improve the oral health of people living in NSW fluoridation of public water supplies was given a high priority. The first water fluoridation scheme in NSW was opened in Yass in 1956 followed by Tamworth in 1963 and the City of Sydney. By June 2010 approximately ninety four per cent of the NSW population had access to fluoridated water[4, 5] and epidemiological surveys have charted a dramatic decline in the prevalence of dental caries in NSW over the last 50 years[6–8]. However the addition of new communities having fluoridated water has slowed. In an effort to offer all NSW residents access to fluoridated water the NSW Department of Health agreed in 2007 to fund 100 per cent of the capital costs of installing any new fluoridation plant. This investment is an economically sound policy[9] as the treatment of dental caries requires a substantial financial allocation from State and Federal funded health budgets, as well as considerable finance from individuals and private health insurance companies. The great advantage of water fluoridation over other forms of fluoride delivery is that it does not require any effort on the part of the target population, as water consumption is a universal behaviour. Therefore water fluoridation should be the preventative measure of choice, as it will decrease oral health inequalities, because compliance with water fluoridation is automatic, requiring no behavioural change[10].
It has been shown that children from NSW living in areas without water fluoridation have higher caries rates than their peers in fluoridated areas[11]. However these data were gathered from a sample of Public Dental Service patients, whereas the majority of child dental care in NSW is provided by private dental practitioners. Thus the results do not reflect a representative picture of oral health children living in NSW. The opportunity to undertake a more rigorous evaluation of fluoridation was presented when the Local Government Area (LGA) of Gosford voted to implement a fluoridation scheme in 2008. NSW Health (Centre for Oral Health Strategy) in collaboration with the Australian Dental Association (NSW Branch) funded a research program in Gosford LGA to record the dental health of children, pre fluoridation then assess the impact of fluoridation on children's dental health over the next five years. The first aim of the research was to compare the prevalence of dental caries of 5–7 year old children in Gosford LGA prior to fluoridation with a well-established fluoridation scheme and a location which currently has no plans to implement fluoridation.
The City of Gosford LGA on the Central Coast is the largest area in NSW to have agreed to implement a new fluoridation scheme in recent years, and had an estimated resident population of 162,017 in 2006. The study design included a comparator LGA, Wyong Shire, which has been fluoridated for over 40 years and it is also situated on the Central Coast of NSW with an estimated resident population of 142,724 in 2006. In 2006, the population of Wyong LGA was slightly younger than Gosford LGA (median age 39 vs 40), had a lower median household income (median $770 vs $944) and a lower Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage score (955 vs 1013).
A non-fluoridated comparison site is more difficult to identify, given the widespread coverage of water fluoridation schemes in NSW. The sample size calculation suggested a sample size of 500 per group to detect a difference in mean dmft in 5 year olds of 0.3 between the fluoridated and un-fluoridated groups with a power of 0.8 at a significance level of 0.05. Most of the un-fluoridated communities are smaller than Gosford and Wyong and more rural, so two control areas were required. Inevitably there will be some social differences. The non-fluoridated comparator sites were situated in the North Coast of NSW and were the coastal LGAs of Ballina and Byron Shires, which had estimated resident populations of 40,266 and 30,635, respectively, in 2006[12].
The sampling units were all the 27 State and Catholic Schools in Gosford LGA, 22 in Wyong LGA, and 39 in Ballina and Byron LGAs. The schools were drawn at random from master school lists until the individual school roles added up to approximately 900 per area. This number allowed for a response rate of approximately 70 per cent. A screening study on ocular health in the same geographical locations achieved an 80–85 per cent positive consent rate[13], however we were concerned that monitoring oral health to assess the potential benefits of fluoridation might not achieve similar high recruitment success. The children were examined at the school utilising portable equipment, including a dental light, a Mini compressor to provide air to dry the teeth and special dental chairs. Where possible, two calibrated Dental examiners visited each school to reduce the impact on children's lessons. The examination procedure and diagnostic system were the same as that used in the 2007 NSW Child Dental Health Survey[14] where individual tooth surfaces were classified as decayed, missing because of caries, or filled because of caries. One of the organisers of the 2007 Child Dental Health Survey undertook the examiner training, and was the designated Gold Standard.
The diagnostic system was based on a visual examination of an air dried tooth. The diagnosis of dental caries was only assigned if there was a visual break in the enamel surface or marked shadowing. All examiners had been trained for the 2007 NSW Child Dental Health Survey, but revision sessions were arranged at a central site to maintain examiner consistency, using an experienced gold standard examiner (ASB). Differences in diagnosis were discussed and the need for consistency reinforced. Ten per cent of the children were re-examined to record intra-examiner consistency, and the gold standard examiner undertook five joint dental inspections with each of the six study examiners.
Data were collected on mark sense cards and scanned utilising Tele-Form Software[15], which uses optical character recognition to generate a useable data file.
Data was then exported to Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel for cleaning and checking. Caries experience was measured using the dmft index (deciduous dentition), which is the number of teeth that are decayed, missing or filled due to caries. In addition the proportions of children caries free and the significant caries index (SiC)[16] were also recorded. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression (adjusted odds ratios) and negative binomial regression analyses (incidence rate ratios) were used to identify significant independent associations between risk factors with caries experience and dmft counts. Significance was p-value of less than 0.05. Data were analysed using SAS version 9.2.
The study was approved by the State Education Research Process (SERAP) of the NSW Department of Education and Training. The Catholic Education Commission also gave permission to involve schools within their jurisdiction. (SERAP number 2008052) The South West Area Health Service (SWAHS) Human Research Ethics Committee granted ethical approval for the school based surveys; HEREC 2008 / 314.18 (2758); All RED 08 / WMEAD/ 57.
All the schools invited to participate in the research in the Wyong LGA (18 schools) and Gosford LGA (16 schools) gave a positive response, giving eligible populations of 1,065 and 932 respectively. The schools in Ballina and Byron LGAs are smaller and 27 schools were needed to give an overall population of around 900 children. Four school principals refused to join the study, expressing concerns that parents would be worried about water fluoridation research, as the use of fluoride had attracted considerable negative publicity. These were replaced by four other schools drawn at random from the school list for Ballina and Byron LGAs and a total of 945 consent forms were sent to the schools. In the fluoridated area (Wyong LGA), 825 (77.5%) received dental examinations, the figures for the pre-fluoridated area (Gosford LGA) were, 781 (80.1%) examined and for the non-fluoridated area (Ballina and Byron LGAs), 523 (55.3%) examined.
Six dental examiners were seconded to the study by the participating Area Health Services. Each examiner had a dental assistant to act as a scribe and liaise with the school office.
The number of examiners per school varied according to their Public Service clinical timetable. Four examiners undertook inspections in Wyong and Gosford whilst two examiners were available in North Coast. Each examiner completed five joint examinations with the gold examiner and reasonable intra- class correlations of 0.86 -0.97 for dmft scores were noted. When their own clinical data were compared there were acceptable levels of agreement for missing, decayed or filled teeth. Intra-class correlations (ICC) ranged from +0.79 to 0.91. ICC values range from a negative – 1.0 to a maximum of 1.0 with higher values representing greater agreement[17].
A description of the population by demographic characteristics is shown in Table 1. It can be seen that the three groups (Table 1) of participants were broadly similar in most aspects. However the fluoridated area had a slightly higher but significant (p = 0.04) proportion (43.9%) of individuals whose parents were concession card holders when compared to the pre-fluoridated area (38.0%) and non-fluoridated area (39.2%). In addition, the fluoridated area had a slightly higher proportion of Aboriginal children (7.1%) than in the pre-fluoridated area (5.0%) and non-fluoridated area (4.4%), although this was not significant (p = 0.07). None of the other differences between groups for any of the social characteristics recorded were statistically significant.
Table 1 Characteristics of survey participants
The mean dmft scores and the proportions caries free are detailed in Table 2. It can be seen that the un-fluoridated and the pre-fluoridated areas had similar mean dmft scores of 2.09 and 2.02, whilst the established fluoridated area had a significantly lower mean dmft score of 1.40 (p < 0.01). Of particular note is the considerable difference in the proportions of caries free children according to location, fluoridated area 62.6%, pre-fluoridated area 50.8% and 48.6% for the un-fluoridated area (Table 2). These differences were statistically significant (p < 0.01). There were marked differences with the dmft and proportions caries free according to Aboriginal status (Table 2). Significant differences were noted in the mean dmft of 1.70 among non-Aboriginal children compared with a mean dmft of 2.80 for Aboriginal children (p < 0.01). Likewise, the proportions free from caries were 56.8% for non-Aboriginal children and 37.5% for Aboriginal children (p < 0.01). The SiC records the dmft of the 30 per cent of children with high levels of caries. Table 2 shows that the mean SiC scores were higher for all areas, but the fluoridated area had a lower score of 4.42 when compared with pre-fluoridated (5.85) and non-fluoridated (5.97) areas. Table 3 indicates that the fluoridated area had mean score of 'd' = 0.92 whereas the other two areas had mean 'd' scores of 1.42 for the pre-fluoridated area and 1.45 for the non-fluoridated area. Table 4 presents multi-variate analysis of dmft and caries experience, and shows that after controlling for various factors, the positive impact of water fluoridation on oral health, with children in the pre-fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas experiencing on average 38.0% and 53.0% higher mean dmft scores than children in the fluoridated area. Aboriginality and cardholder status were associated with poorer oral health.
Table 2 Oral health indicators, dmft, caries free percent and significant caries index
Table 3 dmft components by fluoridation status
Table 4 Multivariate analysis of dmft and caries experience
In 2007 New South Wales Health established a program of regular population based epidemiological dental surveys which used random selection to investigate and report on the Oral Health of Children and Adolescents. The first survey was The Child Dental Health Survey undertaken in 2007[18] and this was followed in 2010 by the Teen Survey recording the oral health of 14–15 year olds[19]. A follow up Child Survey is currently underway. These scientifically designed surveys are comparable with those undertaken in the UK and US providing important information to inform planning, shape policy and help with the implementation of service delivery[20]. However none of these surveys were specifically designed to monitor the impact of water fluoridation on oral health. Inferences can be drawn but larger samples are required to provide robust data on the effectiveness of water fluoridation in NSW.
However it is useful to compare the Statewide Child Survey (2007) dmft scores with those of the three study areas to note if there are any major differences. The overall mean dmft score for five year olds in the NSW state survey was 1.62, whilst the three study areas had dmft scores of 1.40 for Wyong (fluoridated) 2.02 for Gosford (pre-fluoridated) and North Coast 2.09 (non-fluoridated). Given that most children in the NSW Survey have access to fluoridated water, it is more appropriate to split the Statewide data according to fluoridation status, with the caveat that only a small proportion (15.4%) of the sample live in non-fluoridated areas. The Child Survey (2007) dmft mean scores are then 1.40 (fluoridated) and 2.62 (non-fluoridated). Wyong has the same dmft score of 1.40, whilst Gosford (PF) 2.02 and North Coast (NF) 2.09 are somewhat lower than the state score of 2.62, although the 95% confidence intervals for the non-fluoridated sample from the NSW Survey are fairly wide ranging, from 1.89-3.36. Fortunately the Area Health Service which includes Wyong and Gosford LGAs within its administrative area did take the opportunity to undertake a local survey with a larger sample size at the same time as the State Wide epidemiological exercise. Their 2007 results[21] reported a mean dmft for five year olds of 1.51 for the fluoridated areas and 2.03 for the non-fluoridated areas. These's are close to the 2008 data presented in this paper and therefore on balance we consider the baseline dmft scores are an accurate reflection of the dental health of young children in the study areas. When Gosford City Council agreed to fluoridate, there was an opportunity to record the baseline levels of dental caries in 5-7year olds from both fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas of NSW. A survey of oral health with a sufficient sample size would enable future studies to monitor the oral health of children living in Gosford LGA over time, even though state based dental epidemiology is well developed. The three examination sites are all close to the NSW Coast, but the North Coast LGAs are smaller and more rural. Never the less they do offer useful comparison data to monitor the effect of fluoridation in Gosford LGA.
The lower recruitment rate of children into the study from Ballina and Byron LGAs was not unexpected as there has been considerable antagonism to water fluoridation, led in part by a group of local councilors. Hence some parents may have been reluctant to allow their children to join in the research project which was linked to water fluoridation. This may explain why four school principals refused to cooperate with the study.
NSW is a large state and the vast distances can impose logistical difficulties when undertaking research projects in a number of sites. The Public Dental Service is however a coherent organisation and this project was managed by senior dental therapists who had participated in a number of previous epidemiological surveys. The Gold examiner had to undertake considerable travelling to monitor progress, and undertake duplicate examinations, however the local public dental staff delivered the survey on time and within a limited budget. The data were collected on mark sense cards because the move to computer based direct entry was not sufficiently well developed to risk problems in geographically distant sites. Future surveys will be direct entry on to lap top computers which will reduce the time required for data collection and checking.
The results certainly show the impact of water fluoridation in Wyong and it will be interesting to see how the caries rates change in Gosford now that the new scheme has been implemented. The current survey should at least show the people of Gosford how the dental health of their children could improve over the next few years[22].
The levels of dental caries are significantly less in the fluoridated town of Wyong compared with Gosford which was about to fluoridate and the Shires of Ballina and Byron which at that time had not agreed to accept water fluoridation.
World Health Organisation: Global Consultation on Oral Health by using fluoride.Joint Communiqué Community Dental Health 2007, 24:65.
US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention: Ten great public health. Achievements – United States 1900–1999.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 1999, 48:241–3.
Barnard PD, Sivaneswavan S: Oral Health of Tamworth school children 24 years after fluoridation, Abstract 9.J Dent Res 1990, 69:934.
Sivaneswavan S: The revival of water fluoridation in the State of NSW, Australia in the 21st Century.Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2012, 40:65–70.
Neil A: The extent of water fluoridation coverage in Australia.ANZ J Public Health 2011, 35:392–3.
Mejia GC, Amarasena N, Ha DH, Thomson KF R –, Ellershaw AC: Child Dental Health Survey Australia 2007: 30 year trends in child oral health. Dental Statistics and Research Series No 60 CAT No DEN 217. Canberra: AIHW; 2012.
Armfield JM, Robert-Thomson KF, Spencer AJ: The Child Dental Health Survey, Australia 1999. Trends across the 1990's AIHW Cat No DEN 95. Adelaide: The University of Adelaide (AIWH Dental Statistics and Research Series No 27); 2003.
Evans RW, Hsiau ACY, Dennison PJ, Patterson A, Jalaludin B: Water fluoridation in the Blue Mountains reduces risk of tooth decay.Aust Dent J 2009, 54:368–73. 10.1111/j.1834-7819.2009.01164.x
Cobiac LJ, Vos T: Cost effectiveness of extending the coverage of water fluoridation for the prevention of dental caries in Australia.Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2012,40(4):369–76. 10.1111/j.1600-0528.2012.00684.x
Jones S, Burt BA, Peterson PE, Lennon MA: The effective use of fluoride in public health.Bull World Health Organ 2005, 83:670–6.
Armfield J: Public Water Fluoridation and Dental Health in NSW.ANZ J Public Health 2005, 5:477–83.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006, Population by Age and Sex, Australia, cat. no.3235.0, viewed 07/11/2014. http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/3235.0Main%20Features12006?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3235.0&issue=2006&num=&view
Ojaimi E: Roseka, Smith WT, Morgan IG, Martin FJ, Mitchell P. Methods for a population based study of myopia and other eye conditioning in school children. The Sydney Myopia Study.Ophthalmic Epidemiol 2005, 12:59–69. 10.1080/09286580490921296
Phelan C, Byun R, Skinner J, Blinkhorn A: Child Dental Health Survey: a snapshot of the oral health status of primary school aged children in NSW.NSW Public Health Bull 2009, 20:40–5. 10.1071/NB08069
Autonomy, Cardiff Teleform. [http://Cardiff.com/products/teleform/]
Bratthall D: Introducing the Significant Caries Index together with a proposal for a new oral health goal for 12-year-olds.Int Dent J 2000, 50:378–84. 10.1111/j.1875-595X.2000.tb00572.x
Shrout PE, Fleiss JL: Intraclass correlations: uses in assessing rater reliability.Psychol Bull 1979, 86:420–7.
Centre for Oral Health Strategy NSW: The New South Wales Child Dental Health Survey 2007. 2009. Website: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/cohs
Skinner J, Johnson G, Phelan C, Blinkhorn A: Dental Caries in14–15 year olds in New South Wales, Australia.BMC Public Health 2013, 13:1060. 10.1186/1471-2458-13-1060
Blinkhorn AS: Comparison of the Dental Health of Adults and Children living in NSW with their counterparts in the US and UK.NSW Public Health Bull 2009, 20:3–4.
Laurence A, Lewis P, Dixon A, Redmayne B, Blinkhorn AS: Dental Caries and dental fluorosis in children on the NSW Central Coast: a cross sectional study of fluoridated and non fluoridated areas.Aust N Z J Public Health 2012, 36:297–8. 10.1111/j.1753-6405.2012.00879.x
Coleman KA, Harvey CE, Weston AR: A systematic review of the efficacy and safety of fluoridation. Health Technology Analysts Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia, May: Conducted on behalf of NHMRC; 2007.
The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6831/15/9/prepub
The authors would like to acknowledge Mrs Cathy Davison for her assistance in organising the school dental inspections and Mrs Rachael Moir for assisting in the preparation of the manuscript for publication. This study was funded by the Centre for Oral Health Strategy (NSW Health), The Australian Dental Association (NSW Branch), and Northern Sydney & Central Coast Area Health Service.
Dr Pathik Mehta has a Research Scholarship from Colgate Palmolive, Australia.
The paper represents the views of the authors and is not related to the policies of any of the funding agencies.
Faculty of Dentistry, University of Sydney, 1 Mons Road, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia
Anthony S Blinkhorn
& Pathik Metha
South Western Sydney Local Health District, Liverpool, NSW, 2170, Australia
Roy Byun
Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia
Breast Screen NSW, North Sydney Local Health District, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, NSW, 2065, Australia
Meredith Kay
Central Coast Local Health District, Ourimbah, NSW, 2258, Australia
Search for Anthony S Blinkhorn in:
Search for Roy Byun in:
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Correspondence to Anthony S Blinkhorn.
Anthony Blinkhorn prepared the manuscript and made changes as appropriate. Roy Byun undertook statistical analysis and assisted with preparation of the manuscript. George Johnson collated, scanned and cleaned the data, and commented on the manuscript. Pathik Mehta assisted with the data collection and the organisation of the research findings. Meredith Kay commented on the manuscript and assisted with the analysis. Peter Lewis assisted with the sampling and was our research advisor.
Blinkhorn, A.S., Byun, R., Johnson, G. et al. The Dental Health of primary school children living in fluoridated, pre-fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities in New South Wales, Australia. BMC Oral Health 15, 9 (2015) doi:10.1186/1472-6831-15-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6831-15-9
Epidemiology of oral health


text:
The Network of Partners established by the Institute of Vegetative Physiology
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin has a global network of partners. The health care-related challenges facing us today require intensive efforts to establish both national and international collaborations involving both treatment centers and research and teaching establishments. Cross-border co-operations with top-level partners will ensure Charité maintains its leading position as one of Europe's largest university hospitals.
This page provides an overview of the growing Network of Partners established by the Institute of Vegetative Physiology, which includes
Charité-based institutions,
other universities and university-based research institutions,
governmental and non-governmental organizations and
industrial R&D Partners.
Institute for Neurophysiology Institute for Neurophysiology –
Cellular and Electrophysiology of the Central Nervous System
FU Freie Universität Berlin
BMBF Federal Ministry of Education and Research
HU Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin


Thread: Change of season or some server side update ?
Today when I logged in, everything was green, nice vegetation, nice green grass where there was only sticks and twigs before.
This the change of seasons or some server side update?
Re: Change of season or some server side update ?
Re:Change of season or some server side update ?
Surprised me too, I thought we were heading towards winter with the ocasional snow storm but no snow on the ground yet. Has the ground snow been removed then?
Yeah I thought we were heading into winter, not away from it.
It was a season change, yup.


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Ted Grant was born in South Africa in 1913. Travelling to Britain in search of broader horizons, he stopped off in Paris to talk with Leon Sedov, Trotsky's son. With Ralph Lee he formed the Workers' International League (WIL), which subsequently fused with the Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL) to became the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) in 1944.
After the war he defended Trotsky's analysis of the Soviet Union in that it was a deformed workers' state - one in which private property and capitalism had been abolished, yet where the workers did not hold political power. He argued that the so-called "communist" countries of Eastern Europe were in fact run on the same lines as the Soviet Union, and he used the term Proletarian Bonapartism to describe them.
During the 1960s he extended the analysis to the colonial countries that had become "communist". He argued that the intelligensia of these countries looked towards Stalinism as a way to develop their economies and alleviate the desperate conditions; but since the masses had not been roused on a socialist programme, the bureaucratic nature of these regimes was inevitable.
Ted Grant was most famously the political editor of Militant and was expelled from the Labour Party in 1983. Throughout the 1990s he continued to contribute to Socialist Appeal and In Defence of Marxism. He died in 2006, after being an active Marxist for over 75 years.
Stalinist Land Programme Wins Peasants—Chiang's Conscripts Roped to Prevent Escape (January 1949). Known from The Unbroken Thread as "The Chinese Revolution".


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UN chief warns COVID-19 threatens global peace and security
GUTERRES: The crisis has -hindered international, regional and national conflict resolution efforts, exactly when they are needed most". AFP picture.
SECRETARY-General Antonio Guterres warned the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that the coronavirus pandemic is threatening international peace and security — "potentially leading to an increase in social unrest and violence that would greatly undermine our ability to fight the disease."
The U.N.'s most powerful body, which has been silent on COVID-19 since it started circling the globe sickening and killing tens of thousands, issued its first brief press statement after the closed meeting.
It expressed "support for all efforts of the secretary-general concerning the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to conflict-affected countries and recalled the need for unity and solidarity with all those affected."
Guterres, who called for a cease-fire for all global conflicts on March 23, said the crisis has "hindered international, regional and national conflict resolution efforts, exactly when they are needed most."
He cited other pressing risks to global security from the pandemic: terrorists seeing an opportunity to strike, groups seeing how a biological terrorist attack might unfold, the erosion of trust in public institutions, economic instability, political tensions from postponing elections or referenda, uncertainty sparking further division and turmoil in some countries, and COVID-19 "triggering or exacerbating various human rights challenges."
The secretary-general reiterated that the United Nations faces "its gravest test" since the organization was founded 75 years ago from the pandemic and concluded saying: "This is the fight of a generation — and the raison d'être of (the reason for) the United Nations itself."
Guterres spoke by video conference at a closed council meeting on COVID-19's impact on the council's mandate, which is the preservation of international peace and security. It was the first discussion by its 15 ambassadors on the pandemic.
While the meeting was closed, the U.N. spokesman released Guterres' briefing and a number of ambassadors released their remarks to the media.
The U.N. chief said the engagement of the Security Council will be "critical to mitigate the peace and security implications of the COVID-19 pandemic." He added that "a signal of unity and resolve from the Council would count for a lot at this anxious time." — AP
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Audit: Company behind Texas "clean coal" project used federal funds for liquor, limousines and lobbying
The U.S. Department of Energy's inspector general says that a now-bankrupt company behind a defunct West Texas "clean coal" power plant spent more than $1.3 million in federal stimulus funds on things like spa service, alcohol, first-class travel and limousine services.
by Kiah Collier Feb. 15, 2018 2 PM
U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry joins the Petra Nova carbon capture and enhanced oil recovery system partners — NRG Energy, JX Nippon Oil and Gas and Hilcorp Energy — for a ribbon cutting ceremony at the NRG/Petra Nova Power Plant in Thompsons on April 13, 2017. Spike Johnson for The Texas Tribune
A now-bankrupt company that received a major federal stimulus grant to build a "clean coal" power plant in West Texas spent millions of taxpayer dollars on alcohol, lobbying, spa services and other questionable — or clearly unauthorized — expenses.
That's according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General, which found that under the Obama administration the department's Office of Fossil Energy demonstrated blatantly lax oversight of a $450 million grant awarded in 2010 to Seattle-based Summit Power Group for the "Texas Clean Energy Project."
The coal-fired carbon-capture power plant — slated for a 600-acre plot near Odessa — was never built. It was championed by former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, who went to work for Summit after leaving office in 2007. She left the company in mid-2016 after the Energy Department froze grant funding as the project struggled to get off the ground; it was nearly $2 billion over budget, years behind schedule and unable to find financing.
The Energy Department spent about $116 million on the project before pulling the plug.
The audit released Tuesday found that the Office of Fossil Energy reimbursed Summit for more than $38 million in expenditures without requiring or reviewing documentation to show the charges were allowable and necessary for the project.
That included more than $1.3 million in charges for "questionable or prohibited travel-related expenses." Half of those expenses were charged by a lone consulting firm "for items such as a spa service, alcohol, first-class travel, limousine services, receipts in foreign currency, and business meals that were prohibited or not fully substantiated."
In a statement Tuesday that highlighted the company's seven-year relationship with the Energy Department, Summit said it disagreed with the report's findings and noted that independent audits never found any issues.
"We are disappointed that the report was issued without any advance opportunity to review," the statement said. "As a condition of receiving the award, Summit put in place rigorous financial oversight controls and as the report notes, the project underwent annual independent audits that found no significant findings or questionable costs."
Asked about the status of the project, Summit's Chief Financial Officer Rick Burkhardt said via email: "As the report noted, the project company filed for bankruptcy in October of 2017."
Miller, the former Dallas mayor, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Her support of the project was seen as an extension of one of her major initiatives in Dallas, where in the mid-2000s she spearheaded a successful statewide campaign against a power conglomerate's plans to build 11 coal-fired power plants that then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry had championed.
In 2005, Perry issued an executive order to help rapidly approve permits for the facilities — a move environmentalists and watchdog groups decried as a backroom deal to help political donors. TXU Energy, now known as Energy Future Holdings, ultimately scrapped plans for eight of the carbon dioxide-spewing plants.
Energy Future Holdings has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
Read related Tribune coverage
Texas sues feds — including Rick Perry — for failing to license nuclear waste facility
At confirmation hearing, Rick Perry vows to pursue "sound science" on climate change
During Texas visit, Rick Perry touts Houston-area carbon capture system
Rick Perry's energy legacy is more complicated than you think


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Review: Carolyn Wonderland: Miss Understood
BJ Jones Aug 19, 2015
Take a little Bonnie Raitt, throw in a heaping handful of Janis Joplin along with a dash of Wynonna Judd and you've got Carolyn Wonderland, the amazingly talented Austin, Texas-based singer who has created a country, rock, soul and blues masterpiece with "Miss Understood."
Carolyn Wonderland is a musical genius. The powerful intensity of her vocal performance is without equal in the music business today, and her confident proficiency on the guitar is a revelation of musical bliss. To top it all off, Carolyn Wonderland has another unique talent - she can whistle with perfect pitch. Yes, Carolyn Wonderland aims to use every ounce of the musical talent God bestowed on her.
The best song on "Miss Understood" is the passionate country ballad "Bad Girl Blues." It is here that Wonderland allows listeners to glimpse the deep feelings from her soul. Her vocal performance is flawless, and this song deserves to be a major country music chart hit. Moreover, the album's producer, Asleep At The Wheel's Ray Benson, ensures that the production quality on Carolyn Wonderland's "Miss Undersood" is flawless.
Other standouts on the album include the radio single "Misunderstood" and the love song "I Don't Want To Fall For You." What is most amazing about the album "Miss Understood" is that Carolyn Wonderland's talent remains at the same level no matter in which genre she performs. This is one of the most unique albums of the last 12 months, and it is one of the best, too.
With "Miss Understood," Carolyn Wonderland has put the music industry on notice. After years of touring and honing her musical skills, this album loudly announces the birth of a new musical superstar - the unforgettable Carolyn Wonderland. CountryChart.com
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CHELMER HOUSE & STUDIO
The Chelmer House and Studio is located on a small lot (400sqm) in Brisbane's western suburbs, abundant with greenery and close to the river. It sits unassumingly between a heritage-listed home and several protected trees. The house was designed as a simple rectangular box with a gable roof, as a means to be efficiently built by the owner builder.
The north-facing house is long and thin, designed to achieve passive solar and ventilation strategies with minimal complexity. The ground floor living areas open up to a landscaped courtyard, while the upper floor bedrooms and studio look out onto mature tree canopies. An external staircase provides access to the studio without having to enter through the house. A unique feature of the project is exposed structural steelwork and timber joinery upcycled from flooring from the old 'Milton Bowl' bowling alleys.
For more information on this project please see this Green Magazine Article
"…The simplicity of the architectural language, distilled through the rigorous design and construction process is infused with humble delight and serene modesty. There in lies the beauty."
Michelle Bailey, Green Magazine Issue 46 , '100m2'
Chelmer, Brisbane
Kai Norman (Structural Engineer)
Planning Solutions (Town Planner)
Bonafide Building Approvals (Building Certifier)
Arbologic (Project Arborist)
Fresh Habitat Pty Ltd (Carpentry & Advice)
Scott Burrows Photographer
© 2020 Levesque & Derrick Architects Pty Ltd | Privacy Policy | Site Map


text:
Dorian Gray steht für:

 Hauptfigur in Oscar Wildes Roman Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray (1890)
 Dorian Gray (Schauspielerin) (1931–2011), italienische Schauspielerin
 Dorian Gray (Diskothek), ehemalige Diskothek in Frankfurt am Main
 Dorian Gray (Diele), schwul-lesbisches Café und Tanzlokal im Berlin der 1920er Jahre
 Dorian Gray (1917), österreich-ungarischer Stummfilm von Alfréd Deésy
 Dorian Gray (Oper), Oper von Robert Hanell

Siehe auch:
 Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray (Begriffsklärung)
 Dorian-Gray-Syndrom, eine psychische Störung


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Q: How to create csv file using service account in google colab(Python) tool I want to create CSV file from pandas data frame in a google storage bucket using colab tool.
Right now we use our gmail authentication to load csv file in storage bucket using below command
df.to_csv("gs://Jobs/data.csv")

I have checked below google links
https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/production#linux-or-macos
Currently, we used the below code to get credentials from service account
 def getCredentialsFromServiceAccount(path: str) -> service_account.Credentials:
    return service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_info(
        path
    )

Kindly suggest

A: There are two main approaches you can use to upload a csv to Cloud Storage within Colab. Both store the csv locally first and then upload it.

*

*Use gsutil from within Colab.

*Use Cloud Storage Python Client Library

The first approach is easiest but authenticates with the user signed into Colab and not a service account.
from google.colab import auth

auth.authenticate_user()

bucket_name = 'my-bucket'
df.to_csv('data.csv', index = False)
!gsutil cp 'data.csv' 'gs://{bucket_name}/'

The next approach uses the client library and authenticates with a service account.
from google.cloud import storage

bucket_name = 'my-bucket'

# store csv locally
df.to_csv('data.csv', index = False)
# start storage client
client = storage.Client.from_service_account_json("path/to/key.json")
# get bucket
bucket = client.bucket(bucket_name)
# create blob (where you want to store csv within bucket)
blob = bucket.blob("jobs/data.csv")
# upload blob to bucket
blob.upload_from_filename("data.csv")

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Biss Calls on Candidates for Governor to Release Tax Returns
by Biss for Illinois April 17th, 2017 January 26th, 2021
Democratic candidate for governor Daniel Biss and his wife Karin have released their personal federal income tax returns for the years 2012-2016. Biss, a sponsor of a bill that would require presidential candidates to release their tax returns in order to qualify for the Illinois ballot, released both his 1040 and full returns for each year for public scrutiny.
Saying that restoring trust with voters is critical to taking our state back from the forces of money and the machine, Biss sent the letter below to his fellow Democratic candidates for governor, calling on them to do the same.
My fellow Democrats,
As you know, Donald Trump has repeatedly refused to release his tax returns for public scrutiny. The practice of candidates and executives releasing their returns isn't simply a time honored tradition, but a necessary check to ensure elected officials don't allow their responsibilities to the public to be compromised by potential personal gain.
Serious and consequential questions have been raised about Mr. Trump's finances and potential conflicts of interest. And voters deserve answers to these questions.
Indeed, voters have the right to be confident that their elected officials are doing things for the right reasons, and that they are putting the interest of the people first. In short, they need to have trust in their elected officials — something that is in short supply today.
That's why I introduced SB 982 in the Illinois legislature, which would require any candidate for President requesting the vote of Illinois citizens to afford them the respect of releasing their tax returns. We've seen the value of releasing tax returns in our state recently: when Governor Rauner released his returns, the public was made aware of potential conflicts of interest between Rauner family holdings and the allocation of public funds.
In a state that has been controlled by money and the machine for so long, the transparency provided in releasing tax returns is an important signal to voters that elected officials in Springfield are ready to be held accountable to the people, and only the people.
Accordingly, today, my wife and I are releasing our tax returns for the last five years. We also pledge to release next year's returns before the primary election, and we are calling on all other Democratic candidates for governor to do the same. If we are calling upon President Trump and Governor Rauner to do so, Illinois voters should expect nothing less from any Democratic candidate for governor.
Transparency of this kind is not a new idea in our state. In his own campaign for governor in 1971, Paul Simon volunteered his sources of income saying that without disclosure, "all of us who hold office will continue to suffer in the eyes of the public."
Senator Simon added personal financial transparency is "the only way to meet the complex problem of conflict of interest. Put matters on the table in public view and then the citizenry can make reasoned judgments, whether we are serving ourselves, or serving the public."
I agree. All Democrats should.
Let's hold this field of progressives to a standard that Paul Simon would be proud of. Together, we can send voters a message that we are serious about getting the levers of power out the hands of the well connected, restoring trust in government, and putting our state on a new course.
I hope you will join me.
Sincerely, Daniel Biss


On March 9, 2015, at the University of Cape Town, the student and activist Chumani Maxwele walked over to a bronze statue of the nineteenth-century British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes and flung a bucket of human excrement at the monument. It was the first in a series of rebellious acts that became known as the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, which would later inspire the student-led protest movement Fees Must Fall on campuses all across South Africa. The incidents helped trigger a nationwide debate about the glorification of white supremacy and the legacy of apartheid, and about the country's need for fuller, more authentic representations of black life.
The controversy around these protests has had lasting effects not only among educators and students but also among artists. One of them is the photographer Mohau Modisakeng. This year, Modisakeng is representing South Africa, along with the artist Candice Breitz, at the fifty-seventh edition of the Venice Biennale. The thirty-year-old Modisakeng, who graduated from University of Cape Town's Michaelis School of Fine Art, in 2009, uses haunting and meditative self-portraiture to create striking images of a country that is in the midst of reëvaluating itself. Born in 1986, Modisakeng grew up in an informal settlement in Soweto, in a makeshift home without electricity. His mother was Zulu and his father was Motswana, and they were part of the influx of migrant workers that, in the early nineteen-eighties, flowed into Johannesburg's sprawling southwestern townships, where most of the city's black population was forced to live during apartheid. "In my art, the significance of growing up in Soweto is dealt with from a biographical standpoint. I am referring to memories from my childhood that somehow highlight what was happening in South Africa," Modisakeng told me recently.
Modisakeng's Soweto childhood has fuelled a research-based photography practice in which he creates layered scenes, littered with iconic symbols that explore the nation's history by "trying to understand how it affects the black body," he said. His photography and video work also follows the character-driven overtures of African self-portraitists such as Samuel Fosso and Iké Udé. In the photograph "Frame XV," we see Modisakeng pictured holding a long sjambok whip, a visceral symbol of state-sanctioned violence that he remembers the police using to maintain order during the final years of apartheid. In the series "Lefa," which is a Setswana word for "inheritance," he captures himself, from above, lying in a bed of coal. The image evokes the industrialization of his home town of Johannesburg. The performative series "Metamorphosis" features images of Modisakeng in closeup and against a black backdrop, wearing his signature black-brimmed trilby hat, shaking white powder from his face and chest. It appears as if his body were physically changing form, in a state of transformation that alludes to South Africa's long democratic struggle to define itself.
At Venice, in the South African Pavilion, Modisakeng has mounted "Passages," a three-channel video projection that, like his photography, reveals the beauty and trauma of black bodies in motion. The nearly eighteen-minute work follows the individual journeys of three South African voyagers, each carrying a single possession, wading through waters, trying to get ashore. In Setswana, Modisakeng says, life is referred to as botshelo, or a passage, and human beings are called bafeti, or voyagers. It's a view of existence that suggests that all experiences are transient.


text:
Home/Others/Latest developments/EXCLUSIVE: Hezbollah Starts 1st Phase of Military Operations against ISIL in Qalamoun
EXCLUSIVE: Hezbollah Starts 1st Phase of Military Operations against ISIL in Qalamoun
syriatr June 22, 2015
The Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement started its first phase of military operations against the ISIL Takfiri terrorists in Al-Qalamoun after purging Al-Nusra Front terrorists from the mountainous region along the Syria-Lebanon border.
The Hezbollah operations covers areas from al-Qasir region to the hilltops of al-Aqua, Ras Ba'albak and al-Jreijeer in Al-Qalamoun.
The Hezbollah fighters are using new tactics in their operations against the ISIL in Al-Qalamoun, including use of reconnaissance and missile-launching drones.
Hezbollah's drones are due to find the precise location of ISIL hideouts in the region and then target them.
Last Tuesday, Hezbollah alongside the Syrian Army stormed the positions of al-Nusra terrorists in the nearby areas of Jreijeer and took control over this strategic spot.
The military sources said that the terrorists' concentration center in Jreijeer was their last stronghold in al-Qalamoun.
Earlier this month, Hezbollah Deputy Leader Sheikh Naeem Qassem underlined that the Lebanese resistance movement will continue fighting against the Takfiri terrorists in Arsal border region.
"We will continue our battle in Arsal hilltops until uprooting the last terrorist in that region, but (protecting) the security of the city of Arsal is the duty of the Lebanese government that needs to be fulfilled," the Lebanese Elnashra news website quoted Sheikh Qassem as saying.
The Lebanese deputy chief, meantime, pointed to the regional crises created by the West, and said, "The western countries are good at creating crises, but they are unsuccessful when it comes to ending them."
Syrian Army's operations moving closer to US base in southern Syria: report
Hundreds of Tahrir Al-Sham Terrorists Defect in Northern Syria
FSA Commander Responsible For Massacring Druze Was Killed In Daraa
BREAKING- Syrian Fighter Jets destroyed tens of armory loaded vehicles entering from Turkey on way to Syria's Darkosh, killed all terrorists in the convoy.
Syrian Army surrounds Manbij to block Turkish-backed terrorists


text:
Shoppers hunt for post-holiday bargains
Gary Boyer, chief stores officer for Boscov's, said the company hasn't decided whether its stores will be open Thanksgiving Day. A Bon-Ton spokeswoman said the retailer hasn't released its plans for the day.
Sears stores have been open on Thanksgiving since 2012. The retailer hasn't announced its holiday schedule for 2016, spokesman Brian Hanover said.
As for York Town Center, the open-air shopping center CBL owns, which is across Route 30 from the Galleria, all tenants there will have the option to open Thanksgiving Day because each has its own exterior entrance, Keating said.
And, for those shoppers who prefer staying home on Thanksgiving rather than going to the mall, they can always shop online, Davidowitz said.


This is a block party for our neighborhood. Kids age preschool to 6th grade will be majority of the audience. Parents will be near.
Let us guess... you want to treat those kiddos in your life to some special entertainment, but you also want them to learn something valuable from it, too. Well, if this is the case, you've come to the perfect place! These educational entertainers know just how to spark your kids' interest with exciting entertainment along with creative, interactive, and valuable lessons taught in each performance. For your upcoming school event, birthday party, or any other special event, these educational entertainers will pack a punch with their seamless blend of fun and learning. Search for Educational Entertainment in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania above.
Please note that these Educational Entertainment may also travel to Millvale, Sharpsburg, Aspinwall, Fox Chapel, Glenshaw, Mount Washington, Wilkinsburg, Edgewood, Blawnox, Swissvale, Bellevue, Braddock Hills, Homestead, Churchill, Whitaker, Verona, Munhall, Avalon, Forest Hills, Green Tree, Braddock, Allison Park, Oakmont, Brentwood, McKees Rocks, Dormont, Ben Avon, East Pittsburgh, Indianola, and Turtle Creek.


Establishing a trusted identity is at the foundation of any security system. Historically, physical credentials (i.e. a badge, driver's license, ID card, passport, etc.) have been relied upon to build this chain of trust, but increasingly the most secure credentials are moving towards relying on the data its electronic storage with cryptographic authentication mechanisms. For increased security, multi-factor authentication mechanisms are becoming increasingly common where combinations of the following are required to authenticate yourself to a security system: something you have (e.g., a card), something you know (e.g., a password or PIN), and/or something unique to who you are (e.g. biometric such as fingerprint, facial or voice recognition.) These multi-faceted means of identity verification require sophisticated digital identity documents that can store and process information. Exponent offers a wide range of services to help clients improve the security, capability and reliability of advanced physical and electronic identification systems. Our multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers serve industries such as government, health care, finance, and transportation.


text:
Welcome To SPD UK
What is Cork?
Custom Cutting Service
Cork Blog
1 Meter Width - Wall Cork Rolls
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Small Adhesive 255mm x 195mm
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1 meter x 1.22 meter - various thickness
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Why Cork Is Vital To Wildlife Conservation Efforts
China's Wine Drinkers Are Embracing Traditional Cork Stoppers
19 Brilliant DIY Cork Craft Christmas Ideas
Cork: The Perfect Material For A Kids Playroom
Large Cork Roll - 1 Metre x 10 Metre - 6mm Thick
WAKOL D3540 Cork Adhesive Tub - 2.5 Kilos
Non Adhesive Cork Sheet - 915mm x 610mm - 10mm Thick - 2 Pack
The cork oak forests of Portugal, Spain and North Africa boast one of the most diverse ecosystems found outside of the Rainforest and are home to a wide variety of animals. In fact, 60% of Portugal's mammals make their home in cork forests. The cork oak forests provide safety, nesting and feeding grounds for many species of wildlife, including several endangered species such as the Spanish Imperial Eagle or the Iberian lynx.
Unfortunately, due to poor forest management and a change in the cork market we are seeing a loss of these unique forests. Thankfully, efforts are being made by many organisations, such as the WWF, and governments, like Portugal and Spain, to preserve these areas and the endangered species that call them home.
Why Is Cork So Biodiverse?
The cork oak forests of the Iberian Peninsula are known locally in Spanish as dehesa, or in Portuguese as montado, which means they are human-managed landscapes that serve a multifunctional purpose which includes an agrosilvopastoral system. This effectively means that the landscapes are used to utilise diverse resources, such as the cork, fruit, agriculture and animal pastures all in the same area.
Cork forests, or montados, are also characterized by high levels of endemism, which means that many species are uniquely defined to a particular location. This includes many endemic species like the Iberian Lynx or Spanish Imperial Eagle that only live in the cork oak forests of Iberia.
The biodiversity of the cork oak forests has evolved from the close co-dependency of both biological and cultural process of the montados. The continued use and management of these cork oak forests by humans will help to support and encourage the biodiversity and aid in wildlife conservation.
Which Vulnerable & Endangered Animals Make Their Home In The Cork Oak Forests?
With such a great level of biodiversity, it is unsurprising that so many different animals make their home in the cork oak forests. In fact, in Portugal, you can find 24 species of reptiles and amphibians, over 160 species of birds and 37 different species of mammals nesting, feeding and mating in the montados.
Here are 5 of the worlds endangered or vulnerable species that rely on the cork oak forests of Spain, Portugal and North Africa for survival.
1. Iberian Lynx
The Cork Oak forests of Portugal and Spain are the prefered habitats of the Iberian Lynx, the most endangered feline species in the world and the most endangered carnivore in Europe. Studies in the early 2000s found that the number of Lynx adults had severely declined, leaving only 100 surviving Iberian lynx.
A joint conservation effort from both Portugal and Spain has seen the preservation of the Iberian lynx and a steady increase in the number of mature adults. Several organisations are working to preserve the Iberian Lynx and to regain some of the lynx's lost territory in Spain and Portugal.
The Iberian Lynx is split into two breeding groups located at Doñana and the eastern end of the Sierra Morena mountain range. Female lynxes normally only give birth to 3 kittens, with rarely more than 2 surviving long enough to leave the den. Threats to the Iberian lynx include a loss and fragmentation of habitat, poaching and illegal hunting, road accidents and the decline of their main prey, rabbits.
The lynx Program, launched in 2004 by the League for the Protection of Nature, is working to ensure the conservation and long-term management of the habitat of the Iberian lynx, which includes cork oak forests. One of the main objectives of the program was to demonstrate how the local economic activities of growing and harvesting cork can actually be compatible and aid the conservation of habitats and endangered species like the Iberian lynx.
2. Iberian Wolf
The Iberian Wolf is a subspecies of grey wolf that can be found in northern Portugal and northwestern Spain. Wolf populations across Europe have seriously declined due to human involvement, leading to their eradication across Central Europe and most of Northern Europe.
Since the 1960s, isolated populations of wolfs in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Finland have begun to recover naturally despite still facing threats such as loss of habitat, illegal hunting and loss of prey. There is now an estimated 2,000 Iberian Wolves located in Spain and Portugal distributed over 350 packs across 140,000km.
There is one isolated population that was located in the Sierra Morena mountain range in southern Spain. The Sierra Morena is one of the last habitats of the Iberian lynx and the Spanish Imperial Eagle thanks to the presence of cork oak forests.
Unfortunately, due to this populations isolation and lack of breeding opportunities the population of wolves in this area has declined, leading to inbreeding and hybridization with dogs and ultimately ending in the regional extinction of Iberian Wolves in the Sierra Morena in 2019.
3. Atlas Deer
Not all of the endangered animals that make their home in the cork oak forests live on the Iberian Peninsula. The Atlas deer, or Barbary Stag as it is also known, is the only member of the deer family that is native to Africa. The deer thrived in the forested areas of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco before it was nearly hunted to extinction.
The Atlas deer was re-introduced to Morroco from Tunisia in the 1990s and can be found in the Tazekka National Palk. The Atlas deer are smaller than typical European red deer and have a dark brown body with white spots on its back and sides.
The Atlas deer lacks any predators, apart from poachers, and is mainly threatened by the continuing loss of habitat and isolation of populations. Urbanization, agricultural activities and fires have resulted in the destruction and fragmentation of the cork oak forests of North Africa which has a negative impact on the Atlas deer population.
It is unknown how many mature adults exist in the wild but it is estimated that the population of the Atlas deer is decreasing due to habitat loss and poaching. The IUCN gives the Atlas deer a Vulnerable rating.
4. Spanish Imperial Eagle
It's not only mammals that thrive in the cork oak montados and the cork oak forests of the Iberian Peninsula are the ideal habitat for millions of birds such as kestrels, owls, herons and smaller birds such as robins and thrushes. In fact, the beautiful Spanish Imperial Eagle is endemic to the cork oak forests of Iberia.
The Spanish Imperial Eagle, or Iberian Imperial Eagle, is considered Vulnerable by the IUCN and is a focus of the WWF. Threats include a loss of habitat, collisions with pylons, and declining numbers in the eagle's main prey, rabbits.
By the 1960s the Spanish Imperial Eagle had become critically endangered with only 30 breeding pairs remaining. Thankfully, conservations efforts have allowed the population to recover and there is now an estimated 485 breeding pairs of Spanish Imperial Eagles.
The species has also recolonised Portugal after being absent for over 20 years with populations in both Spain and Portugal increasing. With continued conservation efforts, the Spanish Imperial Eagle should continue to see its population grow.
5. Barbary Macaque
The Barbary macaque is a species of macaque that is unique for being the only macaque to be found outside of Asia. The Barbary macaque makes its home in the cork oak forests of the Atlas Mountains of Algeria and Morocco, as well as a small population that was introduced to Gibraltar.
The Barbary macaque is listed as endangered by the IUCN and its population is under increasing threat from logging, overgrazing and poaching and the illegal trading of these animals as pets. The remaining populations in Africa are also extremely fragmented and isolated.
The Barbary macaque makes their home in the cedar and cork oak forests of the Atlas mountains in Morroco and Algeria. However, due to increasing human presence these forests are suffering from over-exploitation from logging and overgrazing from livestock, leaving the forests fragmented and dwindling.
The Barbary macaque is also poached for live specimens to be sold as pets in an illegal pet trade and the use in tourism. Local farmers also see the species as a pest and often engage in their extermination. The preservation of the Barbary macaque depends on the continued preservation of their forest habitat in Morroco and Algeria as well as the continued effort to stop illegal poaching and use in tourism.
Why Cork is Helpful to Wildlife Conservation
The common threat to each of these vulnerable or endangered species is the continued loss of habitat. With so many endangered species making their home in the cork oak forests of Spain, Portugal and North Africa it is clearly necessary to preserve, if not increase, these cork forests to prevent the continued loss of habitat.
The cork oak forests are one of the best examples of the balance between wildlife conservation and the development of land for the benefit of humans. Not only do they support a rich biodiversity, but they also provide locals with a traditional means of earning a livelihood. In addition, cork oak forests also play a fundamental role in water retention, soil conservation, preventing forest fires and carbon sequestration.
It is essential that we continue to encourage the growth of cork oak forests across Iberia and North Africa buy choosing sustainable cork products when we have the choice. Cork is a completely natural and sustainable material and can be used to create a wide range of products from wine corks to handbags. If you are interested in learning more about how cork is harvested, visit our What Is Cork page.
January 13, 2020 By Kieran Streams
Kieran Streams
Unit 68, Edison Road,
Rabans Lane Industrial Estate,
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire,
HP19 8TE,
sales@spduk.co.uk
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